Re: [office] YEARFRAC, etc.

[Patrick Durusau <patrick@durusau.net>]

Andreas,

Two replies in one. ;-)

On my interpretation, sure, guesses for grabs as to whether it is 
correct or not. I do think it is possible to state the rule without 
enumerating what happens in every case. It really depends on what the 
rule really is and my suggestion may be far too simple or naive.

On the power of the formula subcommittee, sure, it has no power to force 
the acceptance of its work by others.

But, realize that standards are not developed in vacuums or at least 
they shouldn't be. Particularly when other standards are addressing the 
same issues. One of the purposes of standards and document format 
standards in particular is to promote interoperability. That goal is not 
limited simply to any one standard, since interoperability with 
documents that follow it should be a given. Interoperability, to the 
extent possible, with other standards on the same subject is also a goal.

Perhaps it would help to realize that a "my" standard versus "their" 
standard attitude is not helpful. OpenDocument does not benefit from 
another standard being wrong, having insufficient definitions, or simply 
being inconsistent with OpenDocument. That sort of attitude is why we 
have suffered for years from a lack of interoperability between various 
applications.

Hope you are at the start of a great day!

Patrick

Andreas J Guelzow wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-04-14 at 20:26 -0400, Patrick Durusau wrote:
>   
>>  If our formula subcommittee or others can derive a 
>> technically sufficient definition for YEARFRAC that is accepted for use 
>> by other standards,
>>     
>
> Clearly this is not something in the power of the formula subcommittee:
> the committee can possibly come up with a definition but how can it
> ensure that it "is accepted by other standards". It seems to be clear
> that if the definition doesn't match the secret calculations in MS Excel
> it won't do for some.
>
>   
>>  such that it promotes more interoperability, that is 
>> the one I will support over a technically sufficient definition that is 
>> different from that used by others.
>>
>>     
>
> Andreas
>   

-- 
Patrick Durusau
patrick@durusau.net
Chair, V1 - US TAG to JTC 1/SC 34
Convener, JTC 1/SC 34/WG 3 (Topic Maps)
Editor, OpenDocument Format TC (OASIS), Project Editor ISO/IEC 26300
Co-Editor, ISO/IEC 13250-1, 13250-5 (Topic Maps)