- first of all, I'd like to point out that the categories you require bug 
reporters to put their bug reports in don't make any sense. How do I know what 
the priority should be? Frankly, given the horrible numerics Java provides, I 
think this should be one of the highest priorities ever!
- second, it's entirely possible that the bug reporter doens't know if it only 
affects a particular platform or all, and which subcomponent it is. I had to 
choose "code", but someone less familiar with the details may 
choose "formatting", because it actually shows as a formatting bug)
- third, it's really not cool that I cannot submit an attachment with this. I 
could make my issue much clearer if I could attach a spreadsheet, I cannot 
believe you want people to submit bugs for Calc but don't allow them to attach 
Calc spreadsheets.

Here is the actual bug report. Forgive me for being very verbal, but your 
system is too bad to allow me to attach a ss.
Take an empty sheet, put the number 0.7 in a cell in the top row. In the cell 
below type =a1*11-7. You should get 0.7 again. Then copy this cell and paste it 
down some 25 cells. Although 11 x - 7 is what mathematicians call a "fixed 
point mapping" for the number 0.7, the number 0.7 is no longer 0.7 very 
quickly. Increase the number of decimals to something like 15 or 20, and you 
see the unfolding disaster.

In plain Java this matches Excel more or less identically: (differences are 
only in the very last nonzero decimal:)


public class pst {

	public static void main(String[] args)
	{
		double var=0.7;
		for (int j = 1; j < 25; j++) {
			System.out.println(j+" "+var);
			var=var*11-7;
		}
		;}
}

I should note that this is in the Java 6 Update 3 SDK, b05, and I am running 
this on a 64 bit AMD Turion 64, that is the only SDK you have for 64 bit 
Windows computer on your SDK download page. So even with 64 bit you get these 
horrible numeric results.

Excel is already bad, but I didn't think that OOo would be worse than Excel.I 
had expected OOo to be better or the same, but not worse. We all know where the 
error comes from, but how come OOo is worse than Java or Excel?

In closing, I'd like to point out that if Sun keeps defending the JVM rather 
than improving it, then Java will continue to be a horrible numerics platform 
that will be inferior to .Net and C++ and others for ever. I really understand 
numerics, and Sun should fess up and improve, instead of "defend" (because you 
don't really defend by trying to "fight through" something that you know you 
will lose).

Thanks,
Andreas