I think spreadsheets are an absolutely great idea. The problem is the current implementations. I have to deal with Excel files a lot in my work, and it's a nightmare.
I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)
231–240 of 378 posts
Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)
#232Excel is a first order optimal strategy [1]. It is good for casual players, but not good enough for pro players.
[1] http://www.realityrefracted.com/2011/03/first-order-optimal-...
Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I haven't encountered localized names, localized formats make Excel an absolute pain for me. My language uses the "European" number format of a comma for decimals and periods for thousands separators. Excel tries to adjust to that by using semicolons for argument separators (i.e. ADD(1.5, 3.5) -> ADD(1,5; 3,5)). The problem is that their locale detection is wildly inconsistent and there isn't a good way to over…
Excel goes one step further, and assumes that users in some locales (e.g., Dutch) want semicolons as separators in every CSV file you open in Excel . I don't care (I just use LibreOffice Calc, which accepts any delimited values file just fine, and just asks which separator to assume), but it means that when you develop an option for users to download some statistical data as comma-separated values file (which is easy…
I advise people to use the Import Data From Text/CSV feature rather than opening CSV files directly. It spares everyone a headache.
Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)
#234I work in critical infrastructure planning. My organization builds software in R, Python, and other programming languages customized for these major organizations. So many critical infrastructures, billions of dollars in planning, and just systems are built out of Excel. It's amazing. You'd assume something that services millions of people a day would have some more sophisticated and customized solution, but you're w…
I love working with spreadsheets! In a past life, I was all about taking data from various sources, processing it, and spitting out CSV's that I would then work on with a data analytics person using Excel. Curious if y'all use a similar approach of generating CSV's or do you go even deeper and actually create excel sheets with excel native stuff in it (like formulas).
Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it does not seem a lot more different that starting with a prototype People underestimate this point. Spreadsheets are one of the best possible approaches for prototyping data-driven applications, thanks to its dual data/code nature and the ease to build and extend data types (just add more columns to a table); it's like building the application inside a debugger. Non-developers don't have anything else that resemb…
> Spreadsheets are one of the best possible approaches for prototyping data-driven applications, Bingo. Back when I worked in big corp Excel was the prototyping tool for the masses. If someone in a remote office built something in Excel that solved a problem that was useful to other offices my team would come in and use that work to build a real system. It was great because a lot of the requirements discovery work ha…
> It was great because a lot of the requirements discovery work happened organically before we would even hear about the process/Excel.
How I wish there existed software designed specifically for that organic discovery, instead of having one which was grown from a tool for accountants.
Spreadsheets is the best end-user development model we know, but it is limited by not having a concept of instantiating new objects.
Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)
#236I feel this is a bit like comparing apples to oranges.
If every coder paid £100 for a programming language/compiler, I'm sure it would also have a great UI and UX.
Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
The monthly fee for Photoshop is around 1/100th of the old retail price. That works out at about 8 years of use before you have to 'buy' the software again. Seems fair to me. And for those who don't like paying for Photoshop - which, given it's an astonishingly powerful piece of software, probably means "people who don't actually need Photoshop" - there's always cheap or free alternatives that provide about half the…
> The monthly fee for Photoshop is around 1/100th of the old retail price. That works out at about 8 years of use before you have to 'buy' the software again. Seems fair to me. That's because you only think of yourself. Creatives are one of the most struggling professions, and can have widely different returns per year, and salaries in different parts of the world can be much lower. People who could afford to buy Pho…
You pay per year. $120 gets you access to the photo bundle for one year. That's 30x cups of Starbucks drip coffee a year. Creative people who are 'struggling' blow more than that a month on weed, beer, coffee or Tinder. We all make choices that show what we prioritize.
Anyway, the subscription model for this kind of software works really well. Software keeps becoming better and so far Photoshop has been running circles around the limpy thing known as Gimp
P.S. I just got hit with the next year charge. I was annoyed so I tried installing CS 6. It's OK. It still beats Gimp but I would rather not drink coffee or smoke weed for a month to have money to pay for the yearly subscription for the photo bundle.
P.P.S. And if you are really really really struggling "creative" you are probably young and either go to school or have a friend that goes to school which can get you it under the EDU discount, which is peanuts.
Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)
#238I saw my housemate finish his degree in engineering (fluid-dynamics) using ONLY excel. I have always respected spreadsheets since then.
Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)
#239Anyone have any advice on how to learn to use excel well? I've only ever down simple column operations before, but I've seen spreadsheets that do crazy complicated things.
Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)
#240Our had sophisticated mathematical models written for our industry. These were developed in the late 90's/early 2000's. When they tried to port these models to "a more modern format" to programming language code, they realised that it was far more complex than they had anticipated, and even small mistakes would be disastrous for the company.
Their solution? Dozens of virtual servers around the world, each one hosting a copy of Excel with a 20-30MB workbook, communicating with the outside world via TCP/IP and COM interface code.