Dear Sir, Many thanks for your reply and useful information. I will try to get in touch them. In fact I have also referenced several of their papers in my work. By the way, I received your email while I was reading a printed copy of your paper entitled "What is Programming". What a coincidence!
Once again, many thanks for your guidance. Kind Regards, Bennett On 19/09/2007, Alan Blackwell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Dear Bennett, > > This is an interesting area of work, and I encourage you in your > research. > > You will certainly find the work of Martin Erwig, Robin Abraham, > and Margaret Burnett, along with other colleagues of theirs at > Oregon State University, relevant to your ideas. I would hope > that some of them read this list and will respond, otherwise I > recommend that you get in touch with them directly. > > Alan > > > Dear All, > > > > I am Bennett Kankuzi, an MSc in Computer Science student at the > > University of Botswana. I am new to this list. > > > > I am working on some research topic in spreadsheets. One of the basic > > questions in this research is on the idea of goals in spreadsheets. > > Since a spreadsheet is a program, it has to have high-level goals > > which are implemented by plans as in procedural programming. Another > > question that comes to mind is: how can one identify high-level goals > > in a created spreadsheet? In attempting to answer this question, I am > > proposing that sink cells (output cells) are representing high-level > > goals of the spreadsheet program. (A sink cell can be defined as a > > formula cell without any dependent cells yet it has precedent cells. > > An input cell will only have dependent cells. Computational cells have > > precedent and dependent cells since they are intermediary > > computations) > > > > Why can sink cells represent goals ? Goals are what the user wants to > > achieve. In other words, these are the primary results the user wants > > to see. Output cells or sink cells contain these results otherwise > > they could be used as part another formula (intermediary computation) > > and therefore they could have dependent cells. > > > > Is my proposal alright? Or do you know of any research papers on goals > > and plans in spreadsheets that could help answer my question? > > > > Many thanks in advance for your time. > > > > Regards, > > > > Bennett > > -- > > Blog: http://bkankuzi.blogspot.com > > Photo Collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/page2/ > > Google Talk: bfkankuzi > > VoipCheap: bkankuzi > > Skype: bfkankuzi > > Mobile: +267 72 938 886 > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > PPIG Discuss List (discuss@ppig.org) > > Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce > > PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/ > > > > -- > Alan Blackwell Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge > http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/afb21/ Phone: +44 (0) 1223 334418 > > > -- Photo Collection: http://www.flickr.com/photos/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/page2/ Google Talk: bfkankuzi VoipCheap: bkankuzi Skype: bfkankuzi Mobile: +267 72 938 886 Blog: http://bkankuzi.blogspot.com