Re: Some ideas for the future

[Leonard Mada <discoleo gmx net>]

Hi,

Jean Bréfort wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Some things I would like to see in gnumeric:
> ...
> * objects in cells. I'd like to extend the cells so that a cell can
> contain an object.
> * support for components...

Indeed, this is one issue that makes it in my Top 5 of major design 
flaws of existing spreadsheets. Currently, the design of spreadsheets 
badly mixes up content and display. I therefore strongly advocate the 
splitting of content from display. Especially  useful is the concept 
from R (S+ language, see http://cran.R-project.org), where different 
objects (called S-classes) have various methods embedded.

As an example, either the generic 'print' can be called for atomic 
variables, or there is a built in 'print'-method for any other class (I 
do not know of one that does not have it). This specific 'print' is 
declared explicitly inside the class. When one calls at the prompt, e.g.:
> 'name_of_some_object' [ENTER]
the general print method calls the specific  print.'name_of_some_object' 
and the results get displayed.

I envisage something similar for spreadsheets, where an object has 
various properties and methods:
- a 'data' property: stores the actual data
- a 'display' method (or 'print'-method): formats the output and 
displays it on the screen
- specific coercing methods: e.g. to transform the data to other 
formats (like strings, various other units)
- other specific methods, dependent on the object type, like 
mathematical operations (to allow strong data typing),  or the 
'object_property(A1,"mass")' mentioned in your post and numerous other 
possibilities

This concept is indeed important IF one wishes to build strong data 
typing in spreadsheets. This latter is another issue that makes it in my 
TOP 5 of major design flaws in existing spreadsheets. I have posted a 
feature request for this last issue on the OpenOffice.org bugzilla 
tracking system, see 
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=79924 for further 
details (it contains some interesting posts from a discussion on the 
OASIS mailing list).

Another issue in the TOP 5 series is 
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=80139. I still have to 
post the next 3 ones, but currently I am lacking the time. In brief:
3.) multidimensional spreadsheets including default formulas;
4.) restructuring the spreadsheet application (like implement headers - 
C/C++ have it -, namespaces, functional areas, aka separate the data, 
the formulas, and the results area (again MS Visual Studio and others 
have a separate debug windows)
and 5.) a more advanced object-model (described in this post), including 
strong vectorization support

Some issues are overlapping (and beyond this TOP 5, I have some other 
ideas, too; maybe later).

Sincerely,

Leonard Mada

> It would be nice to insert components (as
> supported in goffice) as a sheet, as a sheet object and as a cell
> content (this idea was suggested by another chemist who would like to
> embed a molecule formula inside a cell). It would be possible also to
> use the components in formulas, if we add an appropriate interface to
> the component API. I'll give a new chemical example: suppose I have a
> chemical formula in A1, in B1, I'd like to type
> =object_property(A1,"mass") and get the molar mass of the molecule.
>
> Best regards,
> Jean
>
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