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Excel Adds JavaScript and Power BI Support

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Re: Excel Adds JavaScript and Power BI Support

#71

Post by polskibus »

Afaik powerbi uses old version of d3 (last 3.5 version). This move will likely make the world stuck on it forever. It is kind of sad considering that d3 is still growing in functionalities. I wonder if MS gave this dependency more thought and is planning to address it in some way in the future.

Re: Excel Adds JavaScript and Power BI Support

#72

Post by sp527 »

I've been using JS in Google Sheets, so this is a welcome addition. Honestly, assuming you're already a software engineer, JS functions basically enable you to be a wizard in Excel. Haven't even been at it that long and I've already managed to impress some of my friends in finance with what I was doing in Sheets.

This is a huge game-changer and it also introduces the opportunity for enterprising (pun?) software developers to be a lot more valuable to a business by moving core business logic out of VBA into git-managed JS and making it versioned, highly reusable, etc. Going a bit further, I see an avenue to offload heavy compute to servers and create a usable link between Excel and e.g. Cassandra/Spark/HDFS.

You have to appreciate just how fundamental Excel is to businesses to see the size of the opportunity Microsoft just gifted to developers.

Re: Excel Adds JavaScript and Power BI Support

#73

Post by walshemj »

blowski wrote: post #22
sevensor wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And if that works for the business... then where's the problem?

It works until it doesn't then your are in trouble - oh sorry Mr tax man our excel made a mistake and you say we own you HOW MUCH due by the end of the month.

Re: Excel Adds JavaScript and Power BI Support

#76

Post by andyjpb »

minton wrote: post #36
sevensor wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I thought this was part of the business model. Microsoft makes bank by rolling out an "empowering" tool (think Excel Macros, Access VBA, and LightSwitch) that allows the business folks to create their own solutions. Eventually they outgrow or simply can't maintain those solutions and hire developers, whom Microsoft made bank selling them "real" dev tools, to convert them into proper applications. Rinse and repeat.

It's not as cynical as that.

Microsoft provide the right tools at the right point in the business lifecycle.

Have you ever been in a company where That Spreadsheet is rebuilt "properly" at great expense by "people who know what they are doing" and then, the first time the business wants a change it takes more than an afternoon and everyone goes back to the spreadsheet again?

Some (most?) people aren't programmers and have no choice. Microsoft lets them be the masters of their own destiny.

Re: Excel Adds JavaScript and Power BI Support

#78

Post by [deleted] »

sevensor wrote: post #21
riskneutral wrote: post #8

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.

[deleted]
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