Updated Conformance Language Requires Substantive Change Review

1. The added conformance material has the consequence that there is no Conforming OpenDocument Document or Conforming OpenDocument Extended Document with <office:body> child element <office:spreadsheet> that allows table:formula to use anything but OpenFormula and a prefix (or default) bound to the OpenFormula Namespace. Whether or not this consequence reflects the will of the ODF TC, it is also inconsistent that this condition is not extended to other attributes that provide formulas nor to occurrences of <table:table-cell> table:formula attributes in non-spreadsheet documents.

2. The added conformance material has the consequence that there is no Conforming OpenDocument Document or Conforming OpenDocument Extended Document that can be anything but one of the specialized Conforming OpenDocument Text Document, Conforming OpenDocument Spreadsheet Document, OpenDocument Presentation Document, etc.

This may well be the desired state. It is substantially narrower than the conformance provisions that were approved on last full-committee approval of the conformance clauses.

There are also improvements with regard to the association of mimetype values and the corresponding document structure. Any avoidance of the consequences of the currrent approach should arrange to preserve those improvements.

DETAILS

1. Formula namespace determination:

New clause (D1.4.3) establishes that the default syntax and semantics of formula-valued attributes is in accordance with the OpenFormula specification. In the absence of an explicit Namespace Prefix at the beginning of the attribute value, the OpenFormula Namespace shall be the default. Note that OpenFormula is not required, it is the default in the absence of a prefix that is bound via namespace declaration to something other than the OpenFormula Namespace. (There are some other defects in this clause. What matters here is what it proposes to establish for all formula-valued attributes, wherever they occur.)

2. Conforming OpenDocument Document

Previously, Conforming OpenDocument Text Document, Conforming OpenDocument Spreadsheet Document, and so on were additional conformance targets that did not restrict Conforming OpenDocument (and Conforming OpenDocument Extended Document) itself. In addition, the Conforming OpenDocument Text Document, Conforming OpenDocument Spreadsheet Document, etc., were not encompassed as OpenDocument Extended Documents.

The clause (D1.5) changes this by asserting that, for a Conforming OpenDocument Document,

"(D1.5) It shall conform to one of (D3) OpenDocument Text Document, (D4) OpenDocument Spreadsheet Document, ..., (D10) OpenDocument Database Front End Document.

That is, those specialized documents are the only Conforming OpenDocument Document.

3. Conforming OpenDocument Extended Documents

Conforming OpenDocument Extended Documents were previously defined as Conforming OpenDocument Documents for which clauses (D1.2.3) and (D1.3.3) on strict schema conformance are relaxed.

In the new text, that is still the case. However, the new (D1.5) still applies, so a Conforming OpenDocument Extended Document can apparently be extended or, perhaps, there is no way to have a Conforming OpenDocument Extended Document in light of (D1.5). Choose your poison.

4. Peculiar Limitation on OpenFormula

It was the original intention that one difference between a Conforming OpenDocument Spreadsheet Document (and a spreadsheet document that is not so restricted) is that OpenFormula and only OpenFormula be used, as opposed to being the ODF 1.2 default (as clause D1.4.3 accomplishes).

However, now that Conforming OpenDocument Spreadsheet Document is the only Spreadsheet Document that can be constructed as a Conforming OpenDocument Document, the following limitations are problematic:

(D4.4) All table:formula attribute values shall be namdspace prefixed and the namespace prefix shall correspond to the [OpenFormula Namespace].

(D4.5) All table:formula attribute values shall conform to the syntax defined by OpenFormula.

Note that this provision applies to table:formula attributes alone and not others covered by (D1.4.3) although one would presumably want to require the same exclusivity for OpenFormula there.