Ditching Excel for Python in a legacy industry

Post by maxerickson » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 12:22 AM UTC

yold__ wrote: post #26

I'm a research actuary working in reinsurance. Here is why I think Python creates more problems than it solves from the standpoint of most insurance business users: 1.) Environment management. There are many solutions for managing python dependencies, my favorite is Docker + pip. Good luck getting actuaries and underwriters to write Dockerfiles etc, and good luck getting I.T. to support Docker on Windows desktops. Li…

Post by Closi » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 12:23 AM UTC

formercoder wrote: post #22

ogre_codes wrote: post #20

The big problem I've always had with "programming" in a spreadsheet is by nature everything is obfuscated and difficult to trace. Yes, you can inspect a cell and see what the source for that cell is, but that might be 10 other cells and you can only really review one cell at a time. It's like a programming language where you only see one line of code at a time. Worse, those references usually aren't named. What does…

I think there could be a middle ground with an excel like tool with some kind of typing. For example I often get confused about what currencies particular cells are, and mixing this up causes a lot of pain. Not sure why the hard coded number can’t just have a “$” and every time it gets multiplied by EUR/USD changes to a euro, and is displayed as such. This little thing would save me so much time.

Post by ogre_codes » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 12:24 AM UTC

quietbritishjim wrote: post #25

ogre_codes wrote: post #20

The big problem I've always had with "programming" in a spreadsheet is by nature everything is obfuscated and difficult to trace. Yes, you can inspect a cell and see what the source for that cell is, but that might be 10 other cells and you can only really review one cell at a time. It's like a programming language where you only see one line of code at a time. Worse, those references usually aren't named. What does…

In Excel there's a toolbar button to toggle showing formulae rather than their results. I realise this doesn't counter your overall objection, but it does mean chasing down logic isn't quite as bad as having to select individual cells one at a time.

Post by davidu » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 12:33 AM UTC

yold__ wrote: post #26

I'm a research actuary working in reinsurance. Here is why I think Python creates more problems than it solves from the standpoint of most insurance business users: 1.) Environment management. There are many solutions for managing python dependencies, my favorite is Docker + pip. Good luck getting actuaries and underwriters to write Dockerfiles etc, and good luck getting I.T. to support Docker on Windows desktops. Li…

Post by konjin » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 12:36 AM UTC

Closi wrote: post #33

formercoder wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there could be a middle ground with an excel like tool with some kind of typing. For example I often get confused about what currencies particular cells are, and mixing this up causes a lot of pain. Not sure why the hard coded number can’t just have a “$” and every time it gets multiplied by EUR/USD changes to a euro, and is displayed as such. This little thing would save me so much time.

How would the conversion rate between EUR and USD be determined?