Re: [opendocument-users] Re: How to interpret the default-cell-style-name attribute in spreadsheets

[Eike Rathke <erack@sun.com>]

Hi Stefan,

On Fri, May 12, 2006 at 11:13:23 +0200, Stefan Nikolaus wrote:

> > In both cases there are no empty cells.
> 
> There is an empty cell for the 1x1 doc, because a for a 2x2 spreadsheet app a
> default row would be of 2x1 dimension. So, the first row is incomplete in that 
> sense.

This is exactly the misunderstanding. There is no empty cell in the
table stored in the document, the row is not inclomplete. The
application renders more cells than there are in the document. The @dcsn
does not apply to those cells. Instead, those cells should be rendered
like cells in an empty sheet.

> As for the 'just like in an empty sheet' I have to go further into details.
> I cite the third paragraph of 8.1 here, so we have it all at once (I made some 
> pseudo paragraphs for better readability):
> 
> | Table rows may be empty, and different rows might contain a different number
> | of table cells. This is not an error, but applications might resolve this 
> | in different ways. 
> | 
> | Spreadsheet applications typically operate on large tables that have a fixed
> | application dependent row and column number, but may have an unused area.
> | Only the used area of the table is saved in files. 
> |
> | When loading a table with empty or incomplete rows into a spreadsheet
> | application, empty rows typically introduce a default row (just as in an
> | empty sheet), and incomplete rows are filled with empty cells (just like in
> | an empty sheet).   
> |
> | All other applications typically have fixed size tables.
> |
> | Incomplete rows are basically rendered as if they had the necessary number
> | of empty cells, and the same applies to empty rows. Empty cells typically
> | occupy the space of an empty paragraph.
> 
> I'm wondering wether the two last pseudo paragraphs belong together. Maybe - 
> if one regards the space hint (without structuring paragraphs this is 
> confusing; also the 'typically').

Since it says "all other applications" after spreadsheets were treated,
and talks about features a spreadsheet doesn't have (cells occupying the
space of an empty paragraph), I'd say the entire "basically rendered"
doesn't apply to spreadsheets at all. The wording should make that more
clear.

> If this is the case my two example documents would be rendered the same in 
> non-spreadsheet apps only. This implies for me that the @dcsn applies to the 
> whole row in those, but not in spreadsheet apps. Taking the first pseudo 
> paragraph into account this would not be an error. The spreadsheet app 
> loading paragraph stands on its own, the rendering is not described 
> explicitly for spreadsheet apps and Eike's interpretation would be right.

Thanks :)

> Me bothers, that with this interpretation different looking tables would be 
> created in different apps (think copy&paste). A worst example would be a 3x3 
> doc, which assigns @dcsn to each column. Let's say a black background. Further 
> all three cells in row three have content, the first two row remain empty. In 
> a spreadsheet app we got only row three as black.

Not if the first two rows contain <table:table-cell> elements. Or to be more
precise, for optimization they should be represented by something like

  <table:table-row table:number-rows-repeated="2">
    <table:table-cell table:number-columns-repeated="3"/>
  </table:table-row>

If the cell elements are not present or not repeated with the proper count then
yes, the background wouldn't be rendered for the remaining "empty cells like in
an empty sheet".

> If the two last pseudo paragraphs have to be considered separately, the things 
> makes more sense to me:
> The rendering pseudo paragraph would also hold true for spreadsheet apps.
> The term 'just as in an empty sheet' just refer to the amount of cells. These 
> cells are empty and have no assigned style. Even if they are empty, they 
> belong to a row and a column. So, they have to use the @dcsn as it is 
> specified.

This makes no sense. You would have to store artificial @dcsn for the unused
area then to represent the spreadsheet application's default empty sheet
rendering. And to which columns should they apply? There are no more
columns/rows in the document than the used area that is stored as table.

  Eike