Adding structure, à la "multidimensional spreadshee ts"

[Jonathan DePeri <jonathan deperi gmail com>]

Gnumeric, most of its competitors, is based on the deeply-flawed
approach of a structureless expanse of cells. Now, there have been
"multidimensional spreadsheets" whose paradigm was to operate on
different objects -- time series, data tables, etc. -- using formulas
to relate the objects to one another without even bothering with the
expanse of cells that at any rate often results only in duplication
and errors. Thus data, formulas, and presentation were decoupled, and
great gains in productivity were possible. A number of these issues is
discussed at http://cbbrowne.com/info/spreadsheets.html -- but of
course, we're all familiar with them.

A particularly good product was produced by Javelin Software
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javelin_Software), but it died out.
Lotus Improv (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Improv) tried the
same approach, but also failed apparently due to lack of popularity.
The only similar product in existence today appears to be Quantrix
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantrix); cf. the demo and tutorial at
http://www.quantrix.com/Quantrix_Video_Demos.htm?url_text=Product_Tours.

Anybody thought about this? We could add the whole structured,
data/model/presentation-decoupled paradigm to Gnumeric. Who said it
has to be just a traditional spreadsheet?

Jonathan