Potential Header Rows/Columns Advisory

["Dennis E. Hamilton" <dennis.hamilton@acm.org>]

I think the note on schema precedence means what it says. In cases where there is contradiction between the text and the schema, the schema is considered authoritative.  It has to do with a determination required in the case that there are separated files in the way ODF has the schema separate from the text.

Let's assume that the text has precedence over the schema.

Then it strikes me as odd that the schema is so complicated and convoluted when a rule is that any specified header rows/columns must be contiguous, however they are contained in groups, is easy to specify in the schema.

It is also probably important to specify that any headers must be for the first rows/columns of the table, something that is not said in either the schema or the specification, if that is intended.  This makes the schema even simpler to specify.

It should be possible to specify the schema quite precisely, if that is indeed the intention of the specification.

It should also need to be said, if that is also the intention, that the headers become the headers on all pages independent of their contribution from within groups.  

In that case, row groups do not introduce subheadings the way it would be in a text document where subheadings change depending on the subgroup that the top non-heading row on a page belongs to.  Column groups are to be treated similarly, even though it would be meaningful to vary the column headings on a row depending on the column-group membership of the first non-heading cell in that row on a particular given page.

It would seem that the ODF TC should fix this to the extent that the behavior is not to be implementation-dependent.  An advisory (not 00007) could well express those considerations.

 - Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: oic@lists.oasis-open.org [mailto:oic@lists.oasis-open.org] On Behalf Of Andreas J. Guelzow
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2011 00:16
To: dennis.hamilton@acm.org
Cc: oic@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [oic] Advisory 00007 - Table Rows / Table Columns

On Fri, 2011-10-07 at 18:24 -0600, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:

> Did you look at the final statement about which has precedence when
> there is a conflict between the text and the schema for ODF 1.2?
> 
>     > IMPORTANT NOTE: The ODF 1.2 Schema is no different.  For ODF 1.2, it
>     > is the schema that is authoritative, not the text.  How grand.
> 
> I also don't see any reason why the schema can't be completely precise about this.

I am not sure what that NOTE really means. Clearly there is more to ODF
1.2 than just the schema. So there has to be something to the text.
> 
> So consider the following abbreviated element structure:
> 
> <table:table>
>    <table:table-column> element
>     ...
>    <table:table-column> element
>    <table:table-header-rows> 
>        <table:table-row> element 1
>        <table:table-row> element 2
>    </table:table-header-rows>
>    <table:table-row-group>
>        <table:table-header-rows>
>           <table:table-row> element 3
>        </table:table-header-rows>
>        <table:table-row> elements
>         ...
>    </table:table-row-group>
>    <table:table-row-group>
>        <table:table-header-rows>
>           <table:table-row> element 4
>        </table:table-header-rows>
>        <table:table-row> elements
>         ...
>    </table:table-row-group>
> </table:table>
> 
> which appears to be completely legal 

legal in the schema sense but it clearly violates ODF 1.2 section 9.1.7:

A table shall not contain more than one <table:table-header-rows>
element, except that the table contains grouped rows defined by one or
more <table:table-row-group> 9.1.9 elements. In this case, the table and
each distinct group may contain one <table:table-header-rows> element,
if and only if the table rows contained in the <table:table-header-rows>
elements are adjacent.

In your example the table rows contained in the
<table:table-header-rows> elements are not adjacent.

If there is no meaning to that paragraph, then why is it in ODF 1.2!?

Andreas


-- 
Andreas J. Guelzow, PhD, FTICA
Concordia University College of Alberta