table calculations

[Jan Schenkel]

--- Graham Samuel <livfoss at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> I followed the very recent conversation between
> Klaus Major and Jan 
> Schenkel, and it certainly looks tough to use tables
> for anything 
> very much. I have gradually understood that a table
> is not really an 
> object in its own right but rather a 'doctored'
> field, and 
> furthermore the 'doctoring' has removed some of the
> normal messages 
> that one would expect to use to find out what data
> entry has been 
> done and to handle multi-cell operations.
> 
> I'm not sure if this feature is really only half
> implemented in RR2.0 
> or if instead the intended purpose of tables is
> different from what 
> Klaus (and me and I guess a good many more listers)
> would like, i.e. 
> a way of setting up spreadsheet-like functionality.
> I would really 
> like to hear a comment from the team, when they've
> got time.
> 
> Meanwhile I am experimenting with a primitive
> spreadsheet where every 
> cell is a field and absolutely all the functionality
> arises from my 
> own scripting. I'm just not sure if this is the way
> to go.
> 
> Just my two Euro-cents
> 
> Graham
> 

Hi Graham,

As Yves already suggestted, you can use a field per
column, and that ought to suffice for most purposes,
as you can then align per column, etc.
And grouping them and adding some setProp and getProp
handlers to the group script can get you surprisingly
far.

But when I think table, I go so far as to want a cell
to be a control in itself. I want multiple,
non-contiguous selections. I want to set alignment and
do my own formatting for the whole table, for a row, a
column, an individual cell. I want messages and
properties, fetch entire rows or columns of data and
stuff other bits into them.
That's a pretty long and demanding list, isn't it? A
true table control is a lot more than a beefed-up
field -- no matter how good a job they have done, they
can't cater for all of our needs.

And if you look at it, they've provided us with quite
a few things : auto-formatting of cells, hooking
tables up to queries, tracking cell selection with
automatic appearance of a field for data entry.
This is not peanuts, given that they had to start with
a field that could display a grid, and only since the
latest MetaCard upgrade (or the one before, not sure)
would clip the text if that grid is shown. (*)

Is it all we would ever want and dream of? No, and
when I think up a wishlist for MetaCard 3, I hope for
script inheritance, a native table control with all
the bells and whistles, the ability to setProp and
getProp built-in properties, and while I'm at it, a
built-in VCS.
Well, I can dream, can't I? At the same time, I
realise that there are only so many hours a day, and
if we wouldn't release software before it had every
single bit everyone might ever want, we'd be starving
because we'd never finish.

When I look at the things that interest me most
(database access and table fields), I say that I wish
it had this or that, but at the same time, I'm sure
they have a huge list of ideas, requests and
(unfortunately) bugs to work on, each with their own
priority label ; but that these latest additions are
just in their infancy and there's a lot more to
follow.

Back to work now -- I've rambled long enough,

Jan Schenkel.


(*) Years ago, I programmed my Mac using Think Pascal
and the accompanying Think Class Library. Given the
size and complexity of the code for their table
object, and the intricate code weaving to accomplish
some bits like column and row headers, I'd say it's a
big job.

=====
"As we grow older, we grow both wiser and more foolish at the same time."  (La Rochefoucauld)

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