RE: [office] YEARFRAC, etc.

["Mason, James David (MXM)" <masonjd@y12.doe.gov>]

Well, you gave me an opening I couldn't pass up. I've been at this so
long (since 1981) that I'm able to look at the whole mess with some
amusement, while maintaining my post of standards curmudgeon. I'm
simultaneously pleased that some of our standards have been useful and
disappointed at the degree to which recent events have been politicized.
But I know that's how things go: I've been known to toss a clog in the
works from time to time myself to make sure a standard wasn't adopted
prematurely.

Jim 

-----Original Message-----
From: Andreas J. Guelzow [mailto:aguelzow@math.concordia.ab.ca] 
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 5:31 PM
To: office@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [office] YEARFRAC, etc.


On Mon, 2008-04-14 at 15:01 -0400, Mason, James David (MXM) wrote:
> >Nobody knows whether SC34 will ever come up with anything useful. 
> 
> When the committee now known as JTC1/SC34 was founded, Bill Gates was 
> just working on a BASIC interpreter for the MITS Altair. By the time 
> Microsoft had its IPO, SC18/WG8 (which became SC34), had already sent 
> SGML to DIS ballot.
> 
> Had SC34 and its predecessors not come up with anything useful, there 
> would be no XML, neither would OASIS and the present committee exist, 
> nor would we be worrying about whether YEARFRAC in ODF, OOXML, or any 
> other XML specirication is correct.
> 
> Both ODF and OOXML landed in SC34 because SC34 continues to do useful,

> if contentious, work.
> 
> Jim Mason
> Past Chairman, SC34
>  

My sincere apologies. I did not want to denigrate the valuable work the
SC34 has done and surely will do in the future. My comment was solely
intended with respect to their task of defining the OOXML functions. 

Andreas Guelzow
> 
--
Andreas J. Guelzow <aguelzow@math.concordia.ab.ca> Concordia University
College of Alberta


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