Re: Potential Header Rows/Columns Advisory

["Andreas J. Guelzow" <andreas.guelzow@concordia.ab.ca>]

On Sat, 2011-10-08 at 08:59 -0600, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote:
> 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.

Really? I don't know a lot about writing schemas but I would think that
this is anything but easy.
> 
> 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.

None of the existing spreadsheet applications requires the headers to be
at the beginning of a table, so that is surely not intended.
> 
> It should be possible to specify the schema quite precisely, if that
> is indeed the intention of the specification.

I do not see how that would work.

> 
> 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.

That is in fact said:
"If a table does not fit on a single page, table rows that are included
in a <table:table-header-rows> element are automatically repeated on
every page."
No conditions on where those <table:table-header-rows> elements are
given is included in this statement.

> 
> 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.

I believe that the use for column and row groups is suppose to be
independent from any header considerations. So header rows/columns are
allowed to be in those groups only because some rows/columns may have
multiple purpose.

> 
> 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.
> 

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