Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 54976
Syntax change destroys compatiblity
Last modified: 2013-08-07 14:54:45 UTC
The syntax of formulas seems to be different from StarOffice 7/OpenOffice 1.1.5. Entering the formula a^2b^2 in SO7 results in a well formed formula. Entering the same in OOO 2.0 Beta2 shows the question marks, showing that there is a syntax error in the formula. This bugs destroys compatbility to SO7. A Workaround is to insert some spaces into the formula, e.g. a^2 b^2. Steps to reproduce the bug: Open StarOffice Writer Insert new formula Enter a^2b^2 Open OOO 2.0 Beta 2 Insert new formula Enter a^2b^2 Expectation: The formula is the same as in SO7
I can confirm the different handling in "1.1.4 (German) WIN XP: [645m52 (Build 8824)]" and "2.0.2 German version WIN XP: [680m5(Build9011)]" I do not believe that it's a good idea to enter a Formula "a^2b^2", because it's not clear what that should mean: * a^2*b^2 ? * (a^2b)^2 ? * a^(2*b^2) ? I believe that most users will avoid those interpretation entering by entering "a^2*b^2", and because of that the problem might not occur very often. -> P4 Changed OS to WIN XP because no information concerning "maihacke's" OS for test available.
argh
comments from rainerbielefeld Mon Sep 11 20:41:32 -0700 2006
Created attachment 39089 [details] screenshots showing different formula interpretation
Actually the current behavior only restored the original behavior of StarOffice 5.2. The difference to StarOffice 7 (OOo 1.0) occurred because of a required change of the parser being used. That difference remained undetected until OOo 2.0 and was "fixed" then. The problem now is that there are formulas existing for both variants. And the trouble is that either way if we leave the implementation as it is (and was in SO 5.2) or changing it back to the way it was in OOo 1.0 there will always a larger number of documents/users for which it will be the wrong decision. And we have no acceptable solution for this. All solution one can think of (even the introduction of a switch in the UI for this) would require manual editing of at least one existing set of the above mentioned formulas in order to work in all circumstances (namely formulas/documents being exchanged between users with different settings). Thus setting target to OOo later as discussed with QA.