Tim Smith <reply_in_group@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> did eloquently scribble:
> I have saved a spreadsheet in ODF. Looking at the content.xml file, I
> see that the table:table-cell element for one of my cells contains this
> attribute:
> table:formula="oooc:=PMT([.B3]/12; 360; [.A3])"
> Looking at the ODF specification, available here:
> <http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/12572/OpenDocument-v1.
> 0-os.pdf>
> I don't see any documentation as to what exactly the PMT() function
> does. Could you point out where this is covered in that ODF
> specification?
Does a document FORMAT specification have to specify every single function
predefined in the spreadsheet? It's a DOCUMENT FORMAT SPEC, it's not a
spreadsheet SPEC. You know, document formats, those things that define how
things will save to disk in such a way as they can load back in the same
data next time? Functions in a spreadsheet don't affect the
actual format of a save-file and in fact, spreadsheet functions can be
expanded, added to, modified. Would you need to e-mail microsoft every time
you came up with a new macro to add a new spreadsheet function so they could
add it to OOXML?
> If I had asked a similar question about an OOXML spreadsheet, the answer
> would be easy, as PMT is covered in the 300+ pages the specify the
> functions available in spreadsheets, in useful detail. Consider, for
> example, the function ODDFPRICE. OpenOffice supports that function,
> but, like PMT, it is not defined in the ODF documentation. In the OOXML
> documentation, in comparison, there are *three* pages devoted to that
> single function. (Similar for ODDLPRICE, ODDFYIELD, ODDLYIELD).
Ahhh, so that's one of the reasons the OOXML "standard" is so fucking
useless. They defined every single thing no matter if it affects the format
or not, good way to make its 500000 pages totally unusable to outside bodies
that.
Of course, they also made it patent encumberable and don't cover everything
just to make it that leeeeeetle bit more useless too.
> Ironically, both of these, and most others that you might find in an ODF
> document, have similar names and arguments as the corresponding
> functions defined in OOXML, so if you had to implement ODF from scratch,
> you could use the OOXML specification to fill all those holes in ODF!
What holes?
Why do you need to know what the PMT() function in a spreadsheet does in
order to write a format in which to SAVE the spreadsheet?
The function occupies a cell. So, save the contents of the cell with the
correct cell address.
Simple. Effective. NO need to know the meaning of 4000 built in functions
for that.
--
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| Computer science | vacuum cleaners" - Ernst Jan Plugge |
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