XML File Format...

[David Gilbert <david gilbert ntlworld com>]

Hi All,

I've been studying the Gnumeric XML file format because I want to generate 
spreadsheet files from Java.  I've got some code working, if you are 
interested you can take a look:

http://www.jrefinery.com/jworkbook

In the process of writing this code, I also put together some documentation 
for the Gnumeric file format (by studying version 0.70) - same link as above. 
 Sorry if this duplicated effort, I should have asked first!

Anyway, I have some questions now:

(1)  I read somewhere that there is now a DTD for the XML format, but I 
couldn't find it in the version 0.74 download...any pointers?

(2)  Is there any other info on the XML format that might be useful?  I know 
the source code is there, but I'm not a C programmer so that's a slow option 
for me.

(3)  I want my Java code to be able to write spreadsheet files that can be 
read in Excel.  I can either write to the native format OR develop an Excel 
add-in that can read the Gnumeric format directly.  Is anyone aware of any 
work that has been done on the latter option?

(4)  So far, Gnumeric has seemed pretty resilient when reading my Java 
generated XML files which are potentially not in the correct format.  Any 
"gotchas" that I should particularly watch out for?

Thanks for your help...no doubt I'll have other questions later.

Regards,

Dave Gilbert.