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Google Docs gets an API for task automation

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Re: Google Docs gets an API for task automation

#161

Post by taude »

coldtea wrote: post #51
legitster wrote: post #21

They will have a lot of catchup to do to get where Office is now. I'm frankly amazed by how good Microsoft Flow has been. So many dumb business processes rely on an Excel doc somewhere, or a stupid manual email somewhere else. But with Flow I've seen just a single smarty-pants able to fully streamline an entire department one rule at a time. They don't need to get permission to bring in a new logo - it's part of Offi…

> They don't need to get permission to bring in a new logo - it's part of Office, they can just do it. And no one has to get dragged into it kicking and screaming - you want to work off of an Excel file? Fine! It's still there! Plus it wont be randomly cancelled when Google decides they got bored with it after several years of neglecting it first.

It seems like Google Documents has enough momentum that it's not going to just randomly get shot down. And it doesn't seem to be in the phase of getting neglected.

Re: Google Docs gets an API for task automation

#162

Post by nuclx »

legitster wrote: post #21

They will have a lot of catchup to do to get where Office is now. I'm frankly amazed by how good Microsoft Flow has been. So many dumb business processes rely on an Excel doc somewhere, or a stupid manual email somewhere else. But with Flow I've seen just a single smarty-pants able to fully streamline an entire department one rule at a time. They don't need to get permission to bring in a new logo - it's part of Offi…

Serious question: What exactly is the advantage of Microsoft Flow compared to a scripted solution (using python or - to stay within the Microsoft ecosystem - PowerShell)?

What particular use-cases can it solve? E.g. is it easy to template Word/Excel document generation with it?

Is it just that you don't have to write any code to use Flow?

Re: Google Docs gets an API for task automation

#163

Post by taude »

bad_user wrote: post #131
pkaye wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does Office 365 yet allow multiple users to edit the same document simultaneously. I really like they way it is done in Google Docs.

Office 365 is horrible for multi-user editing. When I last experienced it, we’ve lost edits, it’s that bad. And actually I’ve lost edits with just plain synchronization on an iPad. I was on a plane, I edited a document I had, putting a lot of effort into it, then when my plane landed and the Internet came back, my changes vanished with no history recorded.

I've had similar problems with editing photos on an iPad using iPhoto and loosing all the edits when it tried syncing back up when I got connectivity again. I wonder if it's more of a quirk in the iPad APIs or something?

Re: Google Docs gets an API for task automation

#164

Post by skybrian »

afandian wrote: post #102

It terrifies me how entrenched the Google suite is becoming, and more 'open' APIs will surely further that position. It's the default for most community / cross org collaboration and note-taking in my line of work. A huge amount of stuff gets done in Google docs. And then Google ban your account for some random reason and you're suddenly barred from participating, your voice can no longer be heard, and who knows what…

A business running GSuite getting banned would indeed be a disaster, but has this ever happened?

For personal accounts, what happens if you create another account? It's also a big disruption, but "your voice can no longer be heard" seems exaggerated?

Re: Google Docs gets an API for task automation

#165

Post by hbarka »

xiphias2 wrote: post #123
nevir wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's promotion process biases very heavily towards "impact". The problem is that maintaining existing projects generally isn't considered to be a demonstration of impact (or at least, it's a MUCH harder case to make). It's much easier to make the case that greenfield projects demonstrate impact. Additionally, engineers have a good amount of power over what they get to work on: managers generally have to convince…

Engineers lost a lot of their power from the Eric Schmidt days. It's the PMs that are fighting for controlling engineers now, and killing projects that the engineers are working on (thereby stopping engineers from getting the promotion they work for). The promotion process is how you described though, PMs don't get promoted for maintaining projects, or even improvement on some metrics (that engineers are very good at…

The old Google Finance site was one of the better finance and stocks portal you could go to. Now it’s shite.

Re: Google Docs gets an API for task automation

#166

Post by auiya »

nevir wrote: post #89
irrational wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>they got bored with it I've always wondered why Google is so bad at keeping various services going. Your comment caused me to reflect that Google hires a lot of smart people. Smart people tend to get bored with working on the same thing and want to work on new shiny things. Could it be that the smart people at Google do a bang up job of creating new services, but then get bored and move on to something new, leaving…

Google's promotion process biases very heavily towards "impact". The problem is that maintaining existing projects generally isn't considered to be a demonstration of impact (or at least, it's a MUCH harder case to make). It's much easier to make the case that greenfield projects demonstrate impact. Additionally, engineers have a good amount of power over what they get to work on: managers generally have to convince…

Can vouch. When you see an organization behaving a specific way, you can usually assume it's due to how they structure their employee incentives. Conversely, watch how the organization deploys its lymphocytes if you want to know what it considers harmful.

Re: Google Docs gets an API for task automation

#167

Post by treis »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #134
treis wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to this, they can't even properly display screen saver photos on Chromecast from Google photos. My 4:3 photos get the top and bottom cut off instead of being letterboxed.

Who's to say that your idea is proper? Letterboxing causes burn-in on OLEDs, not exactly ideal for a screen saver.

>Who's to say that your idea is proper

I will fight to death anyone who says different.

>Letterboxing causes burn-in on OLEDs, not exactly ideal for a screen saver.

They letterbox the portrait photos correctly. Well, sort of. They have a small gap between the top/bottom of the TV and the top/bottom of the photo. The letterbox area uses part of the photo so there's no additional risk of burn in. Even if they did just use black, I don't think black can be burned in.

Re: Google Docs gets an API for task automation

#168

Post by auiya »

treis wrote: post #93
northwest65 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I've always wondered why Google is so bad at keeping various services going I'm starting to believe that it might be simply because low quality software is hard to maintain. They have some very complex software, but nothing of great quality. They might hire a lot of smart people, but not very many that are actually good at developing quality software. It appears that being smart doesn't make you diligent in your wor…

To add to this, they can't even properly display screen saver photos on Chromecast from Google photos. My 4:3 photos get the top and bottom cut off instead of being letterboxed.

Properly displaying screen saver photos is the absolute least of the bugs affecting Chromecast. Ever try casting a 'watch later' queue of long-form YouTube videos from an iPhone? It loses audio sync constantly, drops frames excessively, loses connection to the chromecast device periodically, plays videos out of order; it's a complete disaster. I don't see how it ever left QA and went to market tbh. Google support exhausted all possibilities with me and left me with a "Sorry, nothing else we can do. #YOLO". They know it's busted, they don't care.

Re: Google Docs gets an API for task automation

#169

Post by rkangel »

oblio wrote: post #157
jacquesm wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That one should be #1 on that list of 'assumptions programmers make', with #2 being that a byte is 8 bits.

For all intents and purposes, a byte should be 8 bits. Standardization is good. All those ancient systems should just die, at this point.

Then add a dollar to every microwave, washing machine, fridge, doorbell or other device with a hint of processing that uses a small embedded processor. Optimising transistor gate count for simplistic application is absolutely worth doing, even if you end up with an architecture that doesn't happen to be the same as expected by people who have only ever programmed for x86.

Re: Google Docs gets an API for task automation

#170

Post by nirav72 »

edelans wrote: post #154
lbatx wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until IT departments get infinite resources (that is, never) there will always be a need for these JFDI solutions. Some group will always go starved for attention and have to cobble together their own solutions. IT backlogs are always longer than the resources to do the work.

JFDI = Just Fucking do It (in case other ppl wonder what it means... =) )

Or what we call 'Shadow IT' in my department.
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