https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50299
--- Comment #29 from [email protected] --- If making sure software doesn't return random wrong answers isn't a compelling reason to fix it, I don't know what is. The 1900 leap year bug is a good example of why I want to get away from Excel (new versions cost as much as the old ones, have the same bugs, no meaningful improvements, and now are getting worse). At least the 1900 leap year bug gives the wrong answer for every date earlier than 1 March 1900, in a small range of dates. Since it doesn't accept dates <= 0 it's potential damage and utility are predictable and relatively easy to account for should someone need those few dates. Neither is the case with problems caused by how precision is handled. If Calc developers currently do not see consistently correct answers as a primary goal of software intended as a generic tool for numerical computation, then they do not understand the requirements of jobs that require calculations. The law, customers of accountants, engineers and medical people, and the laws of physics are not tolerant of wrong answers. Word Processors, Presentation, Publication and Graphics software that don't do exactly what they're supposed to do won't generally lead to loss of life or property. Wrong answers to calculations can easily lead to both. I'm not sure Calc developers are aware of the extent to which their lives are dependent every day on calculations being correct...ceilings overhead, bridges and floors below, poisons in prescriptions, accurate bank statements. I have no idea how the different views of programmers and users can be reconciled on the open source side. A software developer's CEO would be stupid to risk a court battle over a loss caused by a bug like this; he'd get it fixed ASAP. However, with open source, there is no contract between user and developer, and no CEO to order it fixed, so the only incentive for the developer to fix something is the developer's level of professionalism. It is obvious from how some of the "features" in LO Calc's Paste Special operation are implemented that the people making the development decisions are not serious users of spreadsheets. But business users don't have time to try to explain to someone who is not a serious user why something is a problem, so they either learn to work around the quirk, or give up on the software. I can't help improve software if the developers don't use their own software enough to recognize something that's wrong when it's pointed out to them; and if they did use it enough, they'd notice the problems themselves. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are the assignee for the bug.
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