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Show HN: Script Excel with Python

ironspread.com

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Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#41

Post by jlarocco »

ZoFreX wrote: post #31
jlarocco wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I use this when I can already connect to Excel using COM for free?

That's the most perfectly ambiguous sentence I've ever seen on here, I actually can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not. Are you?

It was a real question.

COM isn't hot new technology, but it works, costs $0 above and beyond Excel, and can access as much (or more) of Excel.

The reason I ask is that after a quick look, the IronSpread examples don't look too much different than accessing Excel via plain old COM. [1]

And there's even a chapter in a book [2] for accessing Excel from Python through COM.

And example code [3] for wrapping Excel COM in a Python class.

I guess put another way, my question would be what does IronSpread offer above and beyond the regular access from COM?

[1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/441758/driving-excel-from... (the second answer)

[2] http://my.safaribooksonline.com/1565926218/ch09-84996

[3] http://dzone.com/snippets/script-excel-python

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#44

Post by jodoherty »

josteink wrote: post #14
jaxn wrote: post #6

REALLY wish this was available for Mac.

Ask Apple for something equivalent of Windows COM+ and convince them they have a good reason for doing so once they stop laughing, and then you might have it.

I realize this isn't the same thing, but a lot of Mac apps are scriptable through Apple's Open Scripting Architecture [1], so it's more than possible to use Python [2] or Ruby [3] or any other language with an OSA bridge to access and reuse application functionality or to automate tasks. According to Wikipedia, Microsoft Office 2008 supports OSA, so it's worth investigating with Microsoft Office 2011. You can use the ASDictionary app from the appscript page [4] to see what scriptable functionality, if any, various Microsoft Office for Mac applications support.

References:

[1] https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/apple...

[2] http://appscript.sourceforge.net/py-appscript/index.html

[3] http://rubyosa.rubyforge.org/

[4] http://appscript.sourceforge.net/tools.html#asdictionary

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#45

Post by glimcat »

karamazov wrote: post #29
steve8918 wrote: post #28

What is the licensing for this? I couldn't tell whether this was free, if I had to pay, if it was open source, GPL, etc.

It's a free beta. We'll be charging for it down the line, but you can use this however you like for now. (It's not open source, though.)

> We'll be charging for it down the line

Implement billing. Now. No excuses.

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#46

Post by sandGorgon »

jlarocco wrote: post #30
karamazov wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a free beta. We'll be charging for it down the line, but you can use this however you like for now. (It's not open source, though.)

Why would I use this when I can already connect to Excel using COM for free?

Why would I use this when I can already connect to Excel using PyWin32+COM and be able to interact with Excel in Python for free?

FTFY

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#47

Post by sandGorgon »

yangyang wrote: post #13

Nice. Also see PyXLL ( http://pyxll.com/ ), which lets you write Excel plugins in Python (CPython).

Thanks for this - it indeed looks much more powerful (being able to interact with Excel using Python as well as making python functions available to Excel).

Just saw this example - http://dpinte.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/interactive-python-gr...

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#48

Post by roryokane »

smortaz wrote: post #2

This is great guys! We cooked up a similar thing called Pyvot (pivot). It's OSS/Apache - feel free to take/contribute. Cheers, smortaz@microsoft. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi3QKuFugWk&hd=1 edit - link to project: http://pytools.codeplex.com

More specific link to Pyvot project: http://pytools.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Pyvot.

My understanding of the difference between the links: Pytools in general lets you run Python programs in Visual Studio. Pyvot is a part of Pytools that lets any Python code on Windows (including code run in Visual Studio) connect to Excel.

Re: Show HN: Script Excel with Python

#50

Post by dbecker »

mwexler wrote: post #15

That's very clever. However, the ultimate integration of spreadsheet and Python has got to be ResolverOne ( http://www.resolversystems.com/products/resolver-one/ ) It's a really amazing experience.

I don't doubt that ResolverOne is a great experience... but so many businesses are wedded to Excel (and VBA).

I expect IronSpread will see much more use than ResolverOne because it will integrate into these offices more easily.

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