xml-dev - Spreadsheet Markup Language?

[Bob Lyons <blyons@vgrowth.com>]

Has anyone invented a Spreadsheet Markup Language (SSML)?
I need such a language, and I don't want to develop it myself
if it's already been done.

An SSML document would be an XML document that contains a spreadsheet.

For example:

<spreadsheet>
    <row>
        <cell>1</cell>
        <cell>2</cell>
        <cell>3</cell>
    </row>
    <row>
        <cell>4</cell>
        <cell>5</cell>
        <cell>6</cell>
    </row>
</spreadsheet>

Ideally, the SSML language would support formulas, formatted text,
merged cells, wrapped text within a cell, borders, etc.

In theory, it would be easy to write a VB program that converts
an Excel spreadsheet into an SSML document (and vice versa).

With such a VB program, one could import an XML document into
Excel as follows:
- Convert the XML document into SSML using an XSLT stylesheet.
- Use the VB program to convert the SSML doc into an Excel spreadsheet file.

I've written an XSLT stylesheet that converts an XML document
into SYLK, which is an ASCII-based spreadsheet interchange format.
Unfortunately, SYLK does not support merged cells, wrapped text within
a cell, and other features. Also, SYLK is cryptic and poorly documented.

I'd much rather convert an XML document into an SSML document.

Thanks in advance.

Bob

------------
Bob Lyons
XML Consultant
blyons@vgrowth.com


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