The world needs a better spreadsheet
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The world needs a better spreadsheet
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Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet
#2I agree, I automate generation of hundreds of spreadsheets a day.
I would like to see more scripting/automation features on email.
Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet
#3Eons ago, I worked for Lotus Software (way before they belonged to IBM) on an exiting new product - their flagship Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet product, in those days the preeminent spreadsheet offering in the world, ported to the IBM mainframe.
I travelled around Europe as we sold this to large corporations who wanted the power of the spreadsheet, but multipled by a gazillion times and made multi-user.
Almost every customer was so receptive and excited, it was a fun and job and easy sell.
But later, we learnt that those customers were in fact the early adopters, and Lotus never did manage to cross the chasm with that product. Later Microsoft produced Excel and..well the rest is history.
My conclusion: the world doesn't need a better spreadsheet. Existing spreadsheet technologies are good enough for the hokey, half-baked things that people like to build with them.
Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet
#4I agree, I automate generation of hundreds of spreadsheets a day. I would like to see more scripting/automation features on email.
OP. I was actually thinking something similar. Do you mean the ability to send out emails with app data rather than code and orchestrate them yourself?
Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet
#5Eons ago, I worked for Lotus Software (way before they belonged to IBM) on an exiting new product - their flagship Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet product, in those days the preeminent spreadsheet offering in the world, ported to the IBM mainframe. I travelled around Europe as we sold this to large corporations who wanted the power of the spreadsheet, but multipled by a gazillion times and made multi-user. Almost every custo…
As I very vaguely recall the initial iteration(s) of the Windows version of Lotus 1-2-3 weren't great. The real killer though was probably Microsoft's bundling into Microsoft Office. That cemented the use of the entire suite of Microsoft products even when, at a given point in time, they may not have been best in category.
As I recall, Lotus made some purchases to try to follow the same strategy but it was too late by then.
There were also the attempts at fully integrated products like Symphony and Framework (Ashton Tate) but the loose coupling really won the mass market.
Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet
#6Eons ago, I worked for Lotus Software (way before they belonged to IBM) on an exiting new product - their flagship Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet product, in those days the preeminent spreadsheet offering in the world, ported to the IBM mainframe. I travelled around Europe as we sold this to large corporations who wanted the power of the spreadsheet, but multipled by a gazillion times and made multi-user. Almost every custo…
Did you also get to work on Lotus Improv? What are your thoughts on that in comparison to traditional spreadsheets?
Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet
#7While I'm not entirely sure if "the world needs a better spreadsheet" is a stand in for "accessible prototyping tools" it's worth noting that things like Quantrix Modeler and DADiSP are the better spreadsheets it's just that no one uses them because Excel (and by extension Excel work-alikes) have path dependency on their side.
Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet
#8Perhaps, In the end, the best piece of software is the one you never had to build in the first place. -- The Article
Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble? -- SICP
I think the real uncanny valley here lies in maintaining software, not designing it. Business needs change over time and software must adapt.
I think the best option is to build your own software. Understand it top to bottom and make it do exactly what you need to do. Sadly this is not possible for most people.
The next best option, however, is not to spend $3,000 on something written over a weekend that won't be supported down the road. The best option is to go with the Salesforce solution.
My first programming gig (in high school) was automating a process that involved manipulating index cards and doing some basic math. I also trained them on how to operate, maintain and extend the system. The end result worked fine for a few years, until it was eventually replaced with some elaborate proprietary system that cost about as much every 3 months as the whole system I delivered. But that system came with ongoing support that obviated the need for any in-house expertise. So they felt the additional expense was worthwhile. And I was happy not to have to take the support calls.
Edit: And ultimately both systems were more accurate and saved time over the manual process.
Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet
#9Eons ago, I worked for Lotus Software (way before they belonged to IBM) on an exiting new product - their flagship Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet product, in those days the preeminent spreadsheet offering in the world, ported to the IBM mainframe. I travelled around Europe as we sold this to large corporations who wanted the power of the spreadsheet, but multipled by a gazillion times and made multi-user. Almost every custo…
I thing that good spreadsheet application with seamless integration with web and with collaboration tooling would be interesting. Decent scripting with something Julia and some kind of build in Jupyter notebook would be exciting to use. Integrated version control where each document lives in own repo that you can shared as just link shpreadsheet:://user.myNewspreadsheet
Excel is relict of old ages: slow, bug ridden, impractical. In my job whenever I need to work with excel I feel pure hate. I send hundreds of this shit to people that are non technical and they... they... send it back.
Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet
#10Eons ago, I worked for Lotus Software (way before they belonged to IBM) on an exiting new product - their flagship Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet product, in those days the preeminent spreadsheet offering in the world, ported to the IBM mainframe. I travelled around Europe as we sold this to large corporations who wanted the power of the spreadsheet, but multipled by a gazillion times and made multi-user. Almost every custo…
Did you also get to work on Lotus Improv? What are your thoughts on that in comparison to traditional spreadsheets?
Nope, I don't recall anything whatsoever about Improv. Lotus Notes was the new goodness a little later on.