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Date:	Sun, 29 Apr 2001 07:28:03 PDT
From:	"Lynn H. Maxson" <lmaxson@pacbell.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-sundialsig@scoug.com
To:	< "scoug-sundialsig@scoug.com" > scoug-sundialsig@scoug.com >
Subject:	SCOUG-SundialSIG: I looked around.

Content Type: text/plain

Steven Levine wears the mantle of Mr. KIA quite well. I did in
fact ignore the first rule of "know your audience" when the
respondee made his request for "equations in MESA". I neglected
to drill this one down to what "he" meant.

I normally follow the concept of "Give a man a fish and satisfy
his hunger for a day. Teach a man to fish and satisfy his hunger
for a lifetime". To me that often means, as Steven has correctly
alluded, to adopt a top-down systems approach, beginning with
first principles to derive second then third and so on. Perhaps I
ought to first give him a fish to show him I know how and then
teach him to fish if he wants to catch some on his own.

I agree with Mark Henigan (driven zen) that the MESA terminology
ought not to have more names (references) than they have things
(referents). I thought the first might be to refer in MESA talk
to "formulas" instead of "equations".

Now I will accept the generic ability to open a file (or files) in
MESA is the same as opening a workbook (or workbooks). To me this
means that a file name with a .m2 extension is a workbook name.
Therefore I tend not to get upset when the generic ability to
close a file is replaced by that to close a workbook.

I'm disinclined to view a workbook as a spreadsheet. I'm more
inclined to view a layer in a workbook as a spreadsheet and a
workbook as a collection, possibly interconnected, of one or more
spreadsheets. Thus I do not understand the thinking behind the
file=workbook=spreadsheet references.

I will accept the need to name a layer, to name a column, and to
name a row. This implies that their combination qualified as
[layer]columnrow permits up to three dimensions of addressing:
cell (columnrow), cross-section (columnrow:columnrow), and layer
([layer]columnrow). I'm not smart enough at the moment to know if
[layer]columnrow:columnrow, i.e. referencing a cross-section in a
different layer, is possible. If it is, perhaps someone in the
know can provide an example.

Having stepped away from MESA talk with cross-section, let's
return by calling it a "range". We know we can reference a range
within a layer and possibly one outside a layer, i.e. in a
different layer, but can we a range spanning (contiguous) layers,
i.e. in the third dimension?

I would think it a form of "smartfill" to copy a formula from a
single cell across a range with either "columnvarying" or
"rowvarying" options. Particularly if as Mark states you can do
it in other spreadsheet products like 1-2-3 or Excel (or maybe
even StarOffice).

Maybe in this we can intercept the various flows, developing a set
of points from which we can maintain a continuous flow of interest
and the continuity it supports.

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