Microsoft continues to ignore the Muslim world
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started by: zoobabzoobab
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Some of the Microsoft comments have just been leaked out of the ECMA fortress. Microsoft continues to ignore the Muslim world, and they don't want to correct its WORKDAY function in order to 'do not break backward compatibility': "Weekend days (Saturday and Sunday) are not considered as working days."
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Microsoft continues to ignore the Muslim world
zoobabzoobab 1196693028|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This comment has been tabled by several delegations such as GR-113, CO-203, CL-173, GB-436, US-232:

Part 4, Section 3.17.7.344 WORKDAY
Problem: This function is defined to skip over weekends in its calculations, but weekend is not defined and has different definitions in different parts of the world.
Solution: Define this function unambiguously and preferably in a way which provides for cultural adaptability in the definition of a weekend.

The DIS29500 website has an indication on how ECMA/Microsoft is ignoring the Muslim world, as they refuse to correct the WORKDAY function for the Muslim world:

We agree that the implementation of WORKDAY makes assumptions as to which days of the week are weekdays versus weekends. In order to maintain backwards compatibility with the corpus of existing documents, no semantic change will be made to the function. A spreadsheet application could create a new function which would allow for specification of which days of the week are workdays.

The following change will be made to Part 4, §3.17.7.344, page 2,821, line 21.

3.17.7.344 WORKDAY

Description: Computes the serial value of the date that is day-offset working days offset from start-date. Weekend days (Saturday and Sunday) and any holidays specified by holidays are not considered as working days.

Microsoft/ECMA rolls over cultural diversity. Does someone wants to call Al Jazeera?

last edited on 1196960830|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by zoobab + show more
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unfold Microsoft continues to ignore the Muslim world by zoobabzoobab, 1196693028|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
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Re: Microsoft continues to ignore the Muslim world
stegustegu 1196717097|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

any holidays specified by holidays

I love this sentence. It's a meaningless definition, an infinite recursive loop on itself. What holidays? If this means US holidays, DIS29500 is ignoring not only Muslims, but every single country in the world except USA. Their continued failure to specify what holiday calendar is used, and their failure to read their own writing to catch the obviously meaningless sentence above, is very revealing of the low quality of the rushed editing process. They are just as sloppy with their updates as they were with the original specification. Are they even trying? If so, how can they be so utterly bad at it? They must be in one heck of a hurry to let such things out the door.

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unfold Re: Microsoft continues to ignore the Muslim world by stegustegu, 1196717097|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
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Re: Microsoft continues to ignore the Muslim world
zoobabzoobab 1196960758|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

See also:

http://lodahl.blogspot.com/2007/12/ooxml-is-defective-we-have-to-live-with.html

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unfold Re: Microsoft continues to ignore the Muslim world by zoobabzoobab, 1196960758|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
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