Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache • Hacker News Board

Re: Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache

#41

Post by masklinn » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

NullPrefix wrote: post #14

planet-and-halo wrote: post #11

Serious question, is this a viable area for a startup product? Obviously nothing will easily displace Excel for general spreadsheet work, but I could see room for a domain-specific spreadsheet that has core features and supports just a basic set of functions relevant to genomics, + a "we won't fuck up your data" feature.

>a "we won't fuck up your data" feature That's a hard to implement feature. Hand waving and buzzword lingo will not be enough for people to believe it.

> That's a hard to implement feature.

It really isn't: just remove the data autodetection anything and you're done.

Re: Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache

#42

Post by jjk166 » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

eitland wrote: post #30

codetrotter wrote: post #28

That’s the price we pay. A reasonable alternative would be for example statically typing each column or row in the sheet. So in one sheet column A contains only floats, col B contains only text, col C contains only dates etc. And in another sheet col A may be date type, col B date type also, col C and D text, and col E monetary amounts. But this would come at the cost of not being able to mix types in column, and a l…

Nah, much of this is the same as the dumbness of many autocorrecting keyboards: automatically "correcting" something that was correct based on a dumb hunch It is really simple to remove the most embarrassing autocomplete errors on phones: - just disable autocorrect, - or preferably use another keyboard that just proposes fixes but leaves it to you to select the suggestion (I use SwiftKey and it does this, others prob…

Right click on top left corner

Select format cells

Select "Text"

This will disable excel's autoformatting. Given the rarity that someone types "SEPT4" into excel and isn't typing a date, putting the option one level deep in a menu seems more appropriate than a top level button.

Re: Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache

#43

Post by breakfastduck » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:35 PM UTC

PedroBatista wrote: post #38

I generally am very critical of my own gang ( programmers ) for being so into their own bubble they completely lose perspective of the real World, and with that ignorance comes the usual arrogance. But this time I feel we should give the business to the geneticists. The Excel "problem" is known and has been known for a long time, finance guys and policy makers were maybe the first big ones to "discover" this for slig…

Yeah. They use poor/ unsuitable tooling known for unusual data quirks with absolutely no effort to look at alternatives or pay for an expert.

No sympathy from me. Embarrassing. I certainly wouldn't get away with such negligence at my workplace.

Re: Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache

#44

Post by breakfastduck » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:37 PM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #21

OptionX wrote: post #2

Can anyone with first hand experience on this tell shed some light on why stick with Excel versus using python, R or what have you to treat the data?

When you have done programming for a while and it is mostly muscle memory, it is easy to forget how much it is an impenetrable black box to someone who has never done it. Try to tell someone who just needs to get a task done that he needs to spend the next 3 months learning programming from scratch vs using excel.

Tough shit, though. Thats what they're being paid for.

"A bad workman always blames his tools" has never been truer than this situation.

Re: Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache

#45

Post by breakfastduck » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:39 PM UTC

So we blame the software instead of blaming the downright lazy people who can't be fucked learning an appropriate tool even though that's their entire career.

Honestly these kind of things really wind me up.

Re: Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache

#46

Post by HPsquared » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

They might move to a relational database, but then the gene named '; DROP TABLE genes; will start causing problems.

Re: Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache

#47

Post by ironmagma » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:41 PM UTC

breakfastduck wrote: post #45

So we blame the software instead of blaming the downright lazy people who can't be fucked learning an appropriate tool even though that's their entire career. Honestly these kind of things really wind me up.

If a problem is re-occurring and between lots of people, it's probably the fault of the system that powers it. The system in this case is the software, so blaming the software is appropriate.

Re: Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache

#48

Post by ironmagma » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

jjk166 wrote: post #42

eitland wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, much of this is the same as the dumbness of many autocorrecting keyboards: automatically "correcting" something that was correct based on a dumb hunch It is really simple to remove the most embarrassing autocomplete errors on phones: - just disable autocorrect, - or preferably use another keyboard that just proposes fixes but leaves it to you to select the suggestion (I use SwiftKey and it does this, others prob…

Right click on top left corner Select format cells Select "Text" This will disable excel's autoformatting. Given the rarity that someone types "SEPT4" into excel and isn't typing a date, putting the option one level deep in a menu seems more appropriate than a top level button.

Note how nowhere in those instructions is the phrase "autocorrect."

Re: Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache

#49

Post by jjk166 » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:46 PM UTC

ironmagma wrote: post #48

jjk166 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right click on top left corner Select format cells Select "Text" This will disable excel's autoformatting. Given the rarity that someone types "SEPT4" into excel and isn't typing a date, putting the option one level deep in a menu seems more appropriate than a top level button.

Note how nowhere in those instructions is the phrase "autocorrect."

Why would it? Excel doesn't have autocorrect, it has autoformat - a feature controlled in its formatting menu.

Re: Autocorrect errors in Excel still creating genomics headache

#50

Post by breakfastduck » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:48 PM UTC

ironmagma wrote: post #47

breakfastduck wrote: post #45

So we blame the software instead of blaming the downright lazy people who can't be fucked learning an appropriate tool even though that's their entire career. Honestly these kind of things really wind me up.

If a problem is re-occurring and between lots of people, it's probably the fault of the system that powers it. The system in this case is the software, so blaming the software is appropriate.

No it isn't. This isn't a gotcha. This is probably one of the most well known software behaviors on the planet.

You KNOW the problem exists, yet you STILL choose to use the software, THEN expect it to change its behaviors because its inconvenient for your very specific use case. Microsoft aren't going to fix this behavior because there are likely millions if not billions of spreadsheets that rely on it.

That is not a software problem.