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Open Office Spreadsheet Idea

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Anna

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Aug 25, 2008, 4:26:27 PM8/25/08
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How about an option on "preferences" that allows the spreadsheet to
calculate in different number systems besides base-10. Especially one
that does base-12.

I don't mean a formula to convert although that would be important as
well, but an option to do all other calculations using that base
system.

Christopher Browne

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Aug 26, 2008, 12:37:47 PM8/26/08
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Terrible idea.

The RIGHT idea is to allow numbers to be *DISPLAYED* in different
number systems.

Compare to date handling: The Right Way is to handle dates using some
consistent time representation system. Using UTC or UT1 as the
'standard visible representation' tends to be preferable. Once you're
handling dates appropriately, translating them to some particular time
zone, perhaps with particular peculiarities, is a much easier matter.
Just set TZ to indicate your favorite locality, and dates will be
displayed with respect to that.

So the right idea is to leave calculations alone, and have a
NUMBER_BASE environment value (of some form) that can be set to
*display* results in some other base. Having that be part of cell
format seems entirely apropos.
--
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All generalizations are false, including this one.

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