81–90 of 101 posts
Can you make this in your spreadsheet software: http://www.quertime.com/article/arn-2012-08-22-1-25-drawings...
Hey, Stencila developer here. Thanks to the original poster for sharing the link and for all the interest. Unfortunately, the site is not handling all that interest too well (R session hosting instances filling up, timeouts,...). I'm working on it but please bear with me while I try to stabilize things.
What do you think about fixing R notation to not describe cells, but the named array? i.e. instead of Average(A2:B2) it's Average(this_array) where this_array is the name for the row/column data and when the Average cell is clicked, highlight cells A2:B2?
There are many cases around detecting the proper array name or the user not inputing column or row names, but due to the ability to quickly read and understand the code as it relates to the sheet may make certain trade-offs more acceptable (i.e. forcing he user to enter array names).
This article reminded me of an interesting video by Chris Granger, co-author of the Light Table code editor, titled "In Search of Tomorrow: What does programming look like in 10 years?" He's designing a visual/code block hybrid editor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZQoAKJPbh8
This looks very sexy, and I don't say that often about technology. This is something I've wanted to see for a long time - the ability to seamlessly move from a spreadsheet to an application Edit: Quick feedback Cell names appear to be case sensitive. While this makes sense from a programming standpoint, if I can't have a cell named "a1" the application should convert that to "A1" for me. Not being able to tab between…
@debacle, thanks for the nice feedback. Regarding cell names. Currently every cell has an "id" e.g. A1 which is represented in the background R session as the variable A1. If you enter a formula like "pi = 3.14" into cell A1 then that cell has an id of A1 as well as a "name" (like an alias) of "pi". You can name a cell "a1" e.g. enter "a1 = 42" into cell A1 - but that could be confusing. Yes, not being able to tab be…
You'll really want to appeal to less technical folk, and they have trouble with case-sensitive things.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article itself is much more positive on spreadsheets than the headline -- it suggests improvements to the underlying data / computational model while preserving the interface. And it's about time somebody said something nice about spreadsheets. Go to your average (non-software) engineer and ask to see an engineering model. Chances are, it's in Excel. It's less buggy than you expect, because your average engineer…
Thanks for the comments. Actually, I was just working on importing Excel spreadsheets into Stencila sheets last night. Some interesting aspects involved in translating Excel formulas into R expressions e.g. `AVERAGE(A1:A5)` to `mean(A1:A5)`. To do it properly looks like we'll need to build an Excel formula parser. But do-able - and could be fun!
Hey, Stencila developer here. Thanks to the original poster for sharing the link and for all the interest. Unfortunately, the site is not handling all that interest too well (R session hosting instances filling up, timeouts,...). I'm working on it but please bear with me while I try to stabilize things.
Hey great work. I like that people are re-thinking spreadsheets as users get more technically inclined to use more sophisticated tools. What do you think about fixing R notation to not describe cells, but the named array? i.e. instead of Average(A2:B2) it's Average(this_array) where this_array is the name for the row/column data and when the Average cell is clicked, highlight cells A2:B2? There are many cases around…
Your suggestion about named arrays is important and relates the discussion here around the approach taken in the OSX Numbers app and the now dead Lotus Improv. Its connected to a planned feature in Stecnila sheets that I call cell "mapping" - effectively projecting an R/Python object onto grid cells. There is some more about that here: https://github.com/stencila/stencila/issues/118.
Also related is an proposed improvement in how sheet expressions are translated into R code for arrays: https://github.com/stencila/stencila/issues/157
But spreadsheets are terrible at everything except their original use case (small bore financial modelling).
Right now I'm transitioning a lot of my workflow to MSFT's Power BI tools, but I'd love to have a justification for using more R at work. Stencila could be that.
Off-topic: how do people make those animated gifs like the one in the blog post ( https://stenci.la/stencila/blog/introducing-sheets/screencas... )?
