Tables vs. spreadsheets

<> wrote on 05/18/2012 08:09:55 AM:
>
From: Patrick Durusau <>
>
To: ,
>
Date: 05/18/2012 08:10 AM
>
Subject: [office-collab] Tables vs. spreadsheets
> Sent by: <>
>
> Greetings!  >
> I suppose because I don't want to have to do change tracking more than
> once or at least only have to extend what we develop, I am curious what
> is the perceived difference between tables and spreadsheets?  >
> I thought about it early this morning and reasoned that the cells in a
> table change one by one, whereas in a spreadsheet, I may have a formula,
> the changing of which changes values in many cells.  >
> OK, but then I thought, how is the spreadsheet example different from a
> global save and replace where I have lots of tables and cells in each
> table are changed in the save and replace?  >
> True, not a formula change but it is still a change that is performed by
> the application across a potentially large number of locations in a
> document.  >
> Or is the problem how do you capture changes to the formula? That is
> while I am changing "+" to "/" does that populate tracked changes in all
> the cells? Well, don't do dumb things while you have change tracking on.
> ;-) Or, make change tracking in calculated cell values the result of
> applying formulas.
>
This is a recurring question, not only with spreadsheet formulas, but with references, table of contents, indices, and a few other places.  The change to one element can trigger a change in another element.   Depending on your change tracking model, you could handle this a number of ways.  But I think that it is most natural to treat a contingent chain of changes that are reproducible from some root user action as being subsumed into a single change event.
> Surely we know which cells are the results of calculations. Data entry
> cells are treated as that. Capture changes in calculated cells by
> capturing the formulas applied to calculated cells.  >
> I am sure there are several very large holes in that analysis so would
> appreciate your comments/suggestions.  >
> Hope everyone is having a great day!  >
> Patrick  >
> --
> Patrick Durusau
> 
> Chair, V1 - US TAG to JTC 1/SC 34
> Convener, JTC 1/SC 34/WG 3 (Topic Maps)
> Editor, OpenDocument Format TC (OASIS), Project Editor ISO/IEC 26300
> Co-Editor, ISO/IEC 13250-1, 13250-5 (Topic Maps)
> OASIS Technical Advisory Board (TAB) - member  >
> Another Word For It (blog):
http://tm.durusau.net
> Homepage:
http://www.durusau.net
> Twitter: patrickDurusau  >
>
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: 
> For additional commands, e-mail:   >