https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=172799
--- Comment #11 from ady <[email protected]> --- (In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #10) > While I mostly agree with comment 4, showing error codes is not good UX. ... Except that every spreadsheet tool does exactly that on the status bar, and Calc already has multiple different error codes for different kinds of errors, offering more hints that the generic error codes that are used on other spreadsheet tools (that is, when Calc's devs care to use an adequate error code). > It's probably a consequence that we use tooltip-like comments (hovering > cells with comments shows the annotation). We could to some extend follow > the example of Excel and show a different kind of annotation (Excel does via > floating collapsed context menu) where the tooltip could be attached and an > interaction to load the respective online help. ... That is not strictly related to the error codes and the status bar info. The error help that Excel shows is related to the function and the result on the (active) cell, and that's where you see those tips (not on the satus bar, related to the error code). You could have a variety of different functions showing the same resulting error code and its related satus bar info; you cannot use one help tip that is specific for one function to try to "explain" the error code, as that will only confuse users. > > Bottom line: yes to error codes are odd, no to ordinary tooltips. And I > agree that whatever we do, it's not the magic wand that substitutes reading > the manual. Once you know that the "formula" section of the statusbar is > overloaded with the description of the error code this is working okay-ish. > > PS: F1 on the grid / SC_HID_SC_WIN_GRIDWIN could be enhanced too; it is > currently not assigned to any help page. Currently there are enough functions in Calc with enough problems (not working as they should, or that do not match ODF standard). Any developer with the necessary skills to analyze function's error codes should rather use those skills to improve the current behavior of failing functions, instead of using them to introduce some kind of heuristic to error codes (that have been used for decades as-is in multiple spreadsheet tools). Error codes are a minimal hint for users that already understand general logic; no amount of tooltips can close the knowledge gap between an error code and the comprehensive understanding of how a specific function works. Users will certainly appreciate functions working correctly. Resources should be dedicated to that much important issue. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are the assignee for the bug.
