Richard,
Yeah, I don't think that a spreadsheet package (SSP) should be part of the kernel, but I would be pleased if the AMS idea considers extreme cases like this. Some spreadsheets have permissions defined on a cell by cell basis (or by row).
The above spreadsheet model does not require cells to be referenced by x and y coordinates. Each cell could be referred to by it's name. Similarly, each row or column could be defined with a specific data type, essentially creating a "fuzzy" database. This is where the function of the spreadsheet package meets AMS. Both are capable of extending objects, just in a different way. This spreadsheet approach is going to be used to extend product data (beyond the custom fields features) in the ecommerce package. Each product type will share a spreadsheet of specifications for comparison purposes.
