[Info-vax] WEENDOZE question

[VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG]

In article <p5faho$msg$1 at panix2.panix.com>, kludge at panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes:
> <VAXman-  @SendSpamHere.ORG> wrote:
>>>
>>>Was your job to write out an Excel Spreadsheet or a
>>>Numbers|LibreOffice|Gnumeric|Shheets Spreadsheet?
>>>You originally said "an Excel Spreadsheet".  The
>>>customer is a Windows customer so we can assume they
>>>wanted an Excel Spreadsheet.  If the spreadsheet
>>>you created doesn't work with Excel how is it that
>>>Excel got it wrong?
>>
>>http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/c071691_ISO_IEC_29500-1_2016.zip#en
>>
>>Download it and read it.  Then, unzip an Excel .XLSX and look at its contents.
>
>The problem is that the .XLSX format is very very touchy.  It looks like
>an XML file inside, but really it isn't.  You can write code to generate it
>to the standard but that doesn't mean Excel will read it.  And if Excel does,
>it might not in the next release.
>
>It's safer to generate an old-style .XLS file.  It's even safer to generate
>a .CSV file.
>
>If your goal is to generate a file that Excel can read, you have a lot of
>different options.  .CSV is almost always acceptable and is very easy to
>write.  Sometimes it's not, and .XLS is needed.  I have never seen anyone
>who really needed to create an .XLSX file but I have seen some who thought
>they did.

I love the font and background colors, font faces, font styling and the image
options of CSV files too. ;)

-- 
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker    VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.