Re: [patch] Sleeping cells, correction

[Eric Methorst <arnalon xs4all nl>]

b.t.w.... am I supposed to reply to the entire mailing list here?
On Saturday 13 July 2002 05:35, Jody Goldberg wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 12, 2002 at 12:41:08PM +0200, Floris Kraak wrote:
> > It seems I send out the wrong patch for sleeping cells so
> > I am sending you the correct one now.
>
> hmm, an interesting idea.
> Definitely not fodder for 1.0 though.
>
> > +   if (cell_is_sleeping (cell) ) {
> > +           if (cell->base.sheet->workbook->update_sleeping == FALSE) {
>
> minor style nit.
> Avoid comparing to literal TRUE/FALSE.  It can fail depending on how
> the flags are stored.
Usually I would write if ( ! expr), but I saw some other code where explicit 
checks were made against the boleans; hence... ;-)
(or did I look at the wrong piece of code as an example? )
> > +                   return TRUE;
> > +           }
> > +   }
> > +   else if (cell->base.sheet->workbook->update_only_sleeping == TRUE) {
> > +           return TRUE;
> > +   }
> >
> > +cell_is_sleeping(Cell const *cell)
> > +{
> > +   return mstyle_get_content_sleeping(cell_get_mstyle(cell));
> >  }
>
> ouch this gets expensive.  The quad tree makes style lookups fast,
> but still not something you want to do 1M times.
Can that be done via something like: 
cell->mstyle->is_sleeping
directly? Or is there some other means of doing it quickly? 
We did talk it over (as it was initially implemented as a property of cell in 
the struct in cell.h, but not only did we run into trouble upon saving anbd 
loading the file; it logically belongs with other protection properties in 
that tab. As they are part of the cell style, so should this one. 
At least, that was our opinion. I personally didn't look at the implications 
of using a get_style() function.
> The main question in my mind is why/how this would be useful.
> The notion of a spreadsheet with _partially_ incorrect values is a
> little scary.
It is not a _partially_ incorrect value; but a 'explicitly not calculated' 
value. Usage for example: to calculate primary keys and other values and use 
those as part of an insert statement (or update) in a database. You certainly 
donot want any insert untill you're completely done entering all fields. Not 
only would this result in database constraint errors, but it might also be 
killing for performance.

I might think of a few other reasons for people to want this feature, but I  
think that a feature like this might also require that it would be associated 
with some sort of default style (a colour perhaps?)  that would make it clear 
to the user at a glance that there's something special about the cell(s). A 
colour might do the trick.
Else you run the risk of having accidentally checked the sleeping box and not 
noticing in any way: bug nuisane if that happens to be your salary total...


Suggestions anyone?

-- 
Eric Methorst
arnalon xs4all nl
http://arnalon.dhs.org
MUD: telnet arnalon.dhs.org:5000