[Originally reported as http://bugs.debian.org/616152]

Date: Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:09:09 -0500                                           
From: Stanley Pinchak <stanley.pinchak@gmail.com>                               
Subject: Bug#616152: gnumeric: Data Interchange Format DIF Export Does not      
        Conform to Specification

Package: gnumeric
Version: 1.10.13-1
Severity: normal
Tags: upstream

Gnumeric does not export Data Interchange Format files in a standard
compliant manner. There are two ways in which it is non-compliant.

First, the values stored in the header records for VECTORS (think
columns) and TUPLES (think rows) are swapped. This makes programs which
conform to the specification fail, or issue a warning when an N x M
array of data is specified in the header, but the following Data record
structure is actually an M x N array (The data in the gnumeric
spreadsheet is M x N on screen).

Second, Gnumeric includes an extra blank row in exported DIF files.
According to the specification, BOT records are used to indicate the
beginning of a table (think a row). Insted of terminating the last row
of data with the EOD data record, gnumeric inserts a BOT followed
immediately by an EOD. This again plays havoc with standard conforming
programs. It essentially turns an M x N array into an M+1 x N array.

Below is an example gnumeric output next to expected output for
1 x 4 array

gnumeric:     expected:

TABLE         TABLE
0,1           0,1
"GNUMERIC"    "GNUMERIC"
VECTORS       VECTORS
0,1           0,4
""            ""
TUPLES        TUPLES
0,4           0,1
""            ""
DATA          DATA
0,0           0,0
""            ""
-1,0          -1,0
BOT           BOT
0,3.4         0,3.4
V             V
0,4           0,4
V             V
1,0           1,0
"red"         "red"
0,1           0,1
TRUE          TRUE
-1,0          -1,0
BOT           EOD
-1,0            
EOD           


More info on the DIF specification can be found:
http://www.fileformat.info/format/dif/egff.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Interchange_Format

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (901, 'unstable'), (550, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.37-2-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages gnumeric depends on:
ii  debconf [de 1.5.38                       Debian configuration management sy
ii  gconf2      2.28.1-6                     GNOME configuration database syste
ii  gnumeric-co 1.10.13-1                    spreadsheet application for GNOME 
ii  gsfonts     1:8.11+urwcyr1.0.7~pre44-4.2 Fonts for the Ghostscript interpre
ii  libatk1.0-0 1.30.0-1                     The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libc6       2.11.2-11                    Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libcairo2   1.10.2-2                     The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libglib2.0- 2.28.1-1+b1                  The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgoffice- 0.8.13-1                     Document centric objects library -
ii  libgsf-1-11 1.14.19-3                    Structured File Library - runtime 
ii  libgtk2.0-0 2.20.1-2                     The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libpango1.0 1.28.3-1+squeeze1            Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libxml2     2.7.8.dfsg-2                 GNOME XML library
ii  procps      1:3.2.8-10                   /proc file system utilities
ii  zlib1g      1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3             compression library - runtime

Versions of packages gnumeric recommends:
ii  evince                        2.30.3-3   Document (PostScript, PDF) viewer
ii  lp-solve                      5.5.0.13-7 Solve (mixed integer) linear progr

Versions of packages gnumeric suggests:
pn  epiphany-browser       <none>            (no description available)
pn  gnumeric-doc           <none>            (no description available)
pn  gnumeric-plugins-extra <none>            (no description available)
ii  ttf-liberation         1.06.0.20100721-1 Fonts with the same metrics as Tim
ii  ttf-mscorefonts-instal 3.3               Installer for Microsoft TrueType c

-- debconf information:
* gnumeric/existing-process: true
  gnumeric/existing-process-title: