XeLda can detect at least three types of errors
- Computation Errors. These result from formulas whose inputs have
inconsistent units. For example, a formula that added a
dimensionless value to one with a unit would suffer this type of
error, and XeLda would color its cell green.
- Propagation Errors. These result when one cell references
another cell that was found to be in error. XeLda colors
propagation error cells purple.
- Mismatch Errors. These are the sorts of errors described above
that occur in those cells whose annotated formulas specify units
that do not agree with what XeLda determines to be the correct
units based on the inputs. These cells are blue.
This sounds cool, but I wasn't able to find more information (or a download). More information would be welcome.
It seems like there's a trend in programming language work these days to concentrate on Excel. I think this actually a good idea.
The obvious next step is to produce a framework for easy building of such tools. After that, someone should really work on supporting the implementation of this sort of tool in the spreadsheet itself. This shouldn't be to hard to do.
Posted to Software-Eng by Ehud Lamm on 5/4/03; 5:02:58 AM
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XeLda: Enforcing Dimensional Consistency in Spreadsheets
