Re: SpreadsheetML

Christian, Christian Weiske wrote:

I'm not sure it is a good idea to include OpenDocument in there. Thing is : XLS and SpreadsheetML are both made in Redmond (read Microsoft labs..).

We're talking about spreadsheets? Data arranged in a table, sometimes spanning over several rows and formatted nicely (alignment, bold, italic, ...) and finally separated on multiple worksheets. Both OOo and Excel have this.

Spreadsheets might also embed rather complex formulas and macros.. Excel and OpenOffice Calc are more than simple grid widgets. But I quite agree you, since I usually only need to generate "passive" spreadsheet content. However, I think it is important not to underestimate the conflict that's behind those formats.

I had a peek into the manual and saw a Format class which even abstracts from the inner workings of those things. And since a format is obtained via

$format_bold =& $workbook->addFormat();

the OpenDocument workbook can easily return a different format class then the excel workbook. They just need to have the same interface.

I agree a unified interface sounds great. Forget my remark. The most important thing for me anyway is streaming. Recently one my customers asked me to generate Excel files for large data sets, and Spreasheet_Excel_Writer just ate to much memory for the job. I'm almost sure it is possible to stream both binary and XML formats. -- og