https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=114430

orcmid <[email protected]> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|RESOLVED                    |REOPENED
         Resolution|FIXED                       |---

--- Comment #29 from orcmid <[email protected]> ---
(In reply to comment #27)
> Pedro, I suggest that you bring this to the dev list. For an informed
> judgement we will need to examine:
> - ODF Formula conformance
> - Interoperability (especially with Microsoft Office)
> - Backwards compatibility
> - A proposed formulation for a sentence to put in the Release Notes for 4.0

I can attest, as others already have, that the OpenFormula specification
permits constrained implementation-defined values for POWER(0,0).  The current
implementation is admissible, although the definition of operation 0^0 is
worded in a more-restrictive manner.  Producing an Error value (e.g., #VALUE!)
for POWER(0,0) is already permitted.

Producing an Error value is what Microsoft Office Excel already does.  I
confirmed that with Excel 2013 (Preview) and I reported that here also.  I am
assuming that creating interoperability problems in this case is not in our
best interests.

It appears to me that the OpenFormula provision of "1" as an allowed
implementation-defined result was a concession to some existing implementation. 

It is necessary for there to be an explicit definition of whatever the choice
becomes in Calc documentation though.  It is a conformance requirement.  (I am
somewhat astonished that the Chair of the ODF TC deflects this issue pending
reconciliation with ODF 1.2 when this could be checked and confirmed by that
expert directly.)

There is no way to have both backward compatibility and interoperability. 
Someone concerned about the variability permitted by OpenFormula would be urged
to construct formulas in a manner that these cases are successfully avoided or
that an implementation-independent result is forced.  That is something that
would be helpful to provide in Calc documentation also.  That is required
beyond a release note on any change that is made.

Moving forward, I think it would be a good idea to demonstrate exactly how the
patched POWER(a,b) works for all of the cases covered in OpenFormula.  I
confirmed that the OpenOffice-lineage implementations and Excel already produce
error values when a <=0 and b is not an integer, so there is no
interoperability issue there. 

I am reopening this issue.  I think it is fine to point out that this issue on
both users@ OO.a.o and dev@ OO.a.o although I am not clear what question one
wants to put before those lists.

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