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Microsoft's OOXML Formulas Could Be Dangerous
hill101 writes "According to Rob Weir's blog, Microsoft's 325-page OOXML specification for spreadsheet formulas is deeply flawed. From basic trigonometric functions that forget to specify units, to statistical functions, to critical financial functions — the specification does not contain correct formulas that could possibly be implemented in an interoperable way. Quoting Mr. Weir: 'It has incorrect formulas that, if implemented according to the standard, may cause loss of life, property, and capital... Shame on all those who praised and continue to praise the OOXML formula specification without actually reading it.'"
The trouble is that the politicians standardizing on this spec will look only at its length and declare it to be good. Maybe Microsoft made the specification long with that intent in mind.
A user NOT trusting his tools is a very strange thing. If it were some sort of software engineer doubting software tools, that's one thing and it's somewhat expected. But in general:
* We trust all hand tools like wrenches and sockets to be exactly the size on the label
* We trust all of our doctor's opinions whether or not a second opinion is recommended
* We trust our math applications to do math properly
* We trust our spell checkers to check properly
In general, we trust the things we by to work as expected... as advertised. (No, I haven't seen Excel advertised to be accurate, but in a math application, it's implied by its very existence) So to say that you should re-check the results by hand is not just ridiculous, it would never happen.
I remember when the Pentium processor first came out and there was this math error in there somewhere. It was a BIG deal.
But before passing too much judgment on this too quickly, a little verification of the bugs might be helpful and let's mark our calendars to see how fast Microsoft fixes the problem... oh wait, the problem is said to be in the file specification? What does that mean if they update the format specification with regards to their ISO certification?
ODF will define spreadsheet formulas, in the next version. And come on, the "IBM conspiracy" take from MS is really lame since OOXML is the one with proprietary patented extensions. I'll take any open standards company I can get, personally.
"Shame on all those who praised and continue to praise the OOXML formula specification without actually reading it."
Reminds me of something I once heard a congressman rationalize in reference to a bill he just voted for containing several lame provisions (many with which he did not even agree): "Do you have any idea what reading a bill like that would entail?" I do. It would entail you doing your fucking job.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
It got off to a bad start. Technically that may be correct, but in reality, it is very common and practical to express angles in degrees. So, sin(30) = 0.5 and tan(90) = 1. Memorising the values of sin, cos and tan for 0, 30, 45, 60 and 90 degrees is a de-facto requirement to solve trig. problems in high school. Does Microsoft expect students to relearn all these convenient derievd units in radians, and go mad?
A document standard is a practical necessity to express everyday ideas in a readable format. Not to be technically accurate and practically useless. Try typing HCl + NaOH --> NaCl + H2O in Office, and watch yourself breaking the monitor.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....