Hi Eike, hello list-members,
Eike Rathke wrote:
Hi Leonard,
On Tuesday, 2008-04-29 22:54:02 +0300, Leonard Mada wrote:
1.) AUTOMATIC DATE RECOGNITION
I strongly support modifying this behaviour in a short timeframe and
implementing a date input-mask, where every user can accurately direct OOo
as to what input is a date (e.g. only dd.mm.yy, and not xx.xx)
"short timeframe" and "implementing a date input-mask" are contradicting
in itself. [...]
In a medium time frame [...]
Implementing some date recognition mask would need a configuration item,
[...]
Unfortunately, this time is not available anymore. There was time in
2005, there was less time in 2006, there is non left in 2008. MS Office
- and I was never a big fan of MS Office - did make big jumps forward
with Office 2007. And they are not alone.
The real problem is, OOo lags behind MS Office. The more daunting task
is not just to catch up with the current MS Office, but to catch up with
the next release of MS Office.
I have a *very strong gut feeling* that MS will release a much improved
version (implementing some new concepts as well) in 2009, and all the
informations I have point in the same direction.
During the past 2-3 months I was faced with using MS Office 2007 at my
2nd work (I do not have a working copy at home), but I must confess, MS
did a lot of work over the last few years. [It is far from perfect and I
surely can find dozens of things to critique, but it definitely got a
more professional look].
Added to this, iWorks introduced some new concepts in their spreadsheet
program, too:
http://www.apple.com/iwork/numbers/
There is NOT much time left, both companies work already on new
features, NOT the thing of "I add this feature, you add that one" that
happened e.g. during the browser war. These are really user-centric
features with global implications on how users perform their daily-work.
I feel OOo moves too slowly to catch up. Evolution teaches us: those who
can adapt can survive. (NO, the fittest survive is not the correct
interpretation; it might apply on a very short time frame, but on a
longer time-frame, only those who can adapt will survive.) And MS did
show over and over again that it can adapt, and Office 2007 supports
this even more than ever.
We are talking here about breathtaking new features, but I can't see any
innovation during the past years.
=================
2.) TEXT-vs-NUMERIC
1.) convert text-to-numbers automatically
I don't know why you come up with this again, I thought I lined out in
issue 5658 why that is not a good idea because results would be locale
dependent.
Simply put, because the distinction between numerical values and textual
numbers is a very artificial one created by programmers, not by
spreadsheet users.
Let's ask a simple question:
===================
When does a spreadsheet user insert a number as text?
How are these string-numbers generated?
What is their purpose inside a spreadsheet?
I invite everyone to think about these questions. I will detail my
experience in the next post. As these are not trivial questions - but
with very far reaching consequences - it might help to analyse real
users and how they behave/interact with the spreadsheet.
Sincerely,
Leonard
===============
[...]
Btw, cross-copying to more than one mailing list quite assures that the
discussion will be scattered over the lists.
Well, the announcement was made both on the SC list, as well as the
UX-list, and the subject seemed relevant enough and touching both fields
for posting this comment on both lists.
I agree that it is more difficult to follow the discussion on both
lists, so I invite everyone to post only on the UX-list. Apologies if
it creates any inconveniences.
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