[mdlug] What Intel Giveth, Microsoft Taketh Away

[Clinton V. Weiss]

On Nov 17, 2007 8:34 PM, Michael Corral <micorral at comcast.net> wrote:
> 2007-11-17, Monsieur Clinton V. Weiss a ecrit:
> So let me get this right. You're complaining that OpenOffice was not
> as robust as Excel in opening a complex *Excel* spreadsheet with tons
> of embedded *Excel* formulas, and this for a spreadsheet that was
> created with a library (JExcelApi) that was designed to "read, write
> and modify Excel spreadsheets" (<http://jexcelapi.sourceforge.net/>)?
> All I can say is: wow.

I'm complaining that an open source alternative that claims to support
Excel and it's formulas shouldn't need to be so inefficient.  None of
the formulas used were custom, they were all standard Excel formulas
such as vlookup, sum, etc. etc.

>
> > I'm a huge fan of open source, however, I'm also a huge fan of using
> > the right tool for the right job.
>    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Then why didn't you use a library that creates *OpenOffice* spreadsheets
> instead of one that creates *Excel* spreadsheets?? That would have been
> the proper way to use OpenOffice. Your complaint would be like someone
> complaining that Excel doesn't open QuattroPro spreadsheets as fast as
> QuattroPro does.

Because the spec asked for Excel spreadsheets that could also be
opened in OpenOffice.  Therefore .xls files are the answer.

>
> > OpenOffice, as much as they'd like
> > to claim, is not yet the right tool for heavy spreadsheet usage.
>
> Sure it is. And many people use it for that every day. You just weren't
> using it properly. That's your fault, not OpenOffice's.

OpenOffice was being used with one of the intentions it was designed
for: to open, read, and manipulate Excel spreadsheets.  My only
complaint is that it was so damn slow and inefficient.

> > OpenOffice is *NOT* Excel.
>
> Exactly. :) And that's a good thing. I sure wouldn't want OpenOffice
> to calculate 65535 as 100000, as Excel 2007 does:
> <http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/09/24/2339203.shtml>
> Better hope your Excel formulas don't calculate that. :p

If they do and a client points it out to us, well, I've already
collated all the documentation necessary to say "we can't do anything
about it." :)

I'm not looking to cause a religious war or flame thread here, I was
just backing up Brian Hurley's link with real life experience. (
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=480 )

Clinton

-- 
Clinton V. Weiss
cvweiss at gmail.com