On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 11:39 PM, Andrew Douglas Pitonyak <and...@pitonyak.org> wrote: > > On 02/10/2013 10:04 AM, Rory O'Farrell wrote: >> >> My thinking is the Calc should return the mathematically correct answer. > > ODF standard defines what can be returned. If there is a single > mathematically correct answer, I would expect the standard to define it. If > the standard is wrong (like defining 1+1=3), then the standard should be > changed. > > At the end of the day, it amuses me that the standard allows for three > different values. I suppose that if the people writing the standard could > not agree on a single answer, I doubt if you will receive a decent consensus > here. >
The goal when writing the ODF 1.2 OpenFormula specification was to describe current spreadsheet behavior. It was not our goal to define a new spreadsheet formula language that was cleaner, better-designed, more consistent than what was already out there. It would have been legitimate to define an entirely new language and open up all past design decisions. But that is not what we aimed to do. If you recall MS Office 2007 was not interoperable with OpenOffice spreadsheets. Every single formula was incompatible. Even basic functions like SUM() and AVERAGE() were lost when Office opened an ODF document. By having a new ODF 1.2 formula specification that encompasses the range of behaviors in real-world spreadsheets today, we now have an MS Office Excel that is compatible with the vast majority of OpenOffice spreadsheets, even though there may be differences in edge cases like 0^0. So from the standardization perspective I think this is a success, both technically and politically. It vastly improved interoperability. -Rob > I would find it a bit offensive if 0/0 returned 0 or 1 (not that it might > not be occasionally useful). I can probably claim the same for 0^0. > > The fact that the standard does not take a stand leaves me a bit bewildered, > but I can guess as to why. > > -- > Andrew Pitonyak > My Macro Document: http://www.pitonyak.org/AndrewMacro.odt > Info: http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php >
