31–40 of 108 posts
As a result I'm using Python and Jupyter notebooks now, not as friendly as Excel but at least its modern and there are lots of libraries out there to make the platform super powerful.
> Office developers have been wanting to write JavaScript custom functions for many reasons, such as: > • Calculate math operations, like whether a number is prime. It saddens me that this is a thing we want Javascript for. So anyway, now we have XLL, COM, VBA, and Javascript. All of them different but overlapping ways to extend what Excel can do. Am I missing any?
VBA wasn’t bad enough, now millions of analysts will have to contend with spreadsheet spaghetti and JavaScript.
Microsoft has been doing great work in opening up their software the past couple years. For anyone interested in this, I suggest taking some time to read through Microsoft's Office Platform docs [0]. Quite a lot is possible. The plugin API is really clean and you can create javascript plugins for any office product, where you basically run a "website" in a frame within the office product, and the code in the "website…
VBA is well obsolete by now. I was really hoping they'd add C# or python to Excel. Yes you can use VSTO to write modules but that isn't the same - you can't send a spreadsheet with C# embedded like you can with VBA. As a result I'm using Python and Jupyter notebooks now, not as friendly as Excel but at least its modern and there are lots of libraries out there to make the platform super powerful.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And if that works for the business... then where's the problem?
Well, on the one hand, it's not a problem. It's pure elitism to insist that laypeople learn Real Programming and make their spreadsheets the Right Way. Excel + JS is going to be an empowering tool. But on the other hand, it's going to be a nightmare to maintain when you layer it on top of VBA macros, and some poor soul is going to end up responsible for making it continue to limp along. Nobody will understand how it…
VBA wasn’t bad enough, now millions of analysts will have to contend with spreadsheet spaghetti and JavaScript.
I'm thinking of all the places where I've seen Excel used in operations. Often it's the only software the company uses. Now we're going to get people who've done a little javascript in college using it to elaborate the Spreadsheet That Runs Our Business. In all likelihood, the resulting chimera will make an impenetrable tangle of VBA and Javascript.
(I guess that's one way to drive new hardware sales, though.)
VBA wasn’t bad enough, now millions of analysts will have to contend with spreadsheet spaghetti and JavaScript.
I'm thinking of all the places where I've seen Excel used in operations. Often it's the only software the company uses. Now we're going to get people who've done a little javascript in college using it to elaborate the Spreadsheet That Runs Our Business. In all likelihood, the resulting chimera will make an impenetrable tangle of VBA and Javascript.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And if that works for the business... then where's the problem?
Well, on the one hand, it's not a problem. It's pure elitism to insist that laypeople learn Real Programming and make their spreadsheets the Right Way. Excel + JS is going to be an empowering tool. But on the other hand, it's going to be a nightmare to maintain when you layer it on top of VBA macros, and some poor soul is going to end up responsible for making it continue to limp along. Nobody will understand how it…
VBA is well obsolete by now. I was really hoping they'd add C# or python to Excel. Yes you can use VSTO to write modules but that isn't the same - you can't send a spreadsheet with C# embedded like you can with VBA. As a result I'm using Python and Jupyter notebooks now, not as friendly as Excel but at least its modern and there are lots of libraries out there to make the platform super powerful.
I'd suggest ExcelDNA rather than VSTO. But that doesn't help with your main point (nothing to install or support, you can extend the spreadsheet without having to compile or install anything) which I completely agree with.