Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: The problem with not owning the software
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 2025 22:46:30 -0000 (UTC)
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On Mon, 6 Jan 2025 16:16:20 -0500, DFS wrote:

> I entered a gene named 'March 2' (no apostrophes) into LO Calc and it
> converted to a date.

I tried importing some of those potentially troublesome gene names from a 
CSV file with LO Calc’s default settings, and it read them in just fine.

You see, it has some smarts to tell what’s supposed to be a date, from 
something that’s not.

> That egregious data mangling issue would affect a whole lot of genetics
> research work... if anyone was crazy enough to use LibreOffice.

That is in fact the recommendation in that paper I cited -- if you don’t 
know how to use proper stats software, but only know spreadsheets, than LO 
Calc is a better (or rather, less bad) choice than Excel.

> You're literally blaming human error on Excel.

HAL: “Well, I don’t think there is any question about it. It can only be 
attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before, and 
it has always been due to human error.”

Poole: “Listen, HAL ... There’s never been any instance at all of a ... 
computer error occurring in the 9000 series, has there?”

HAL: “None whatsoever, Frank. The 9000 series has a perfect operational 
record.”

Poole: “Well, of course I know all the wonderful achievements of the 9000 
series, but ... uh ... Are you certain there’s never been any case of even 
the most insignificant computer error?”

HAL: “None whatsoever, Frank. Quite honestly, I wouldn’t worry myself 
about that.”