Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

simplethread.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 123 posts

Re: Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

#111

Post by easton »

davnicwil wrote: post #109

At Stacker (YC S20) we do something kind of in between, hoping to catch usecases where people need an actual app just as they are outgrowing the spreadsheet, by allowing you to build an app... from your spreadsheet! It should be interesting for anyone who's done a lot of thinking* about the relationship between spreadsheets, no code, and custom software. Check us out: https://stackerhq.com * if this is you, and you'r…

Do you guys have a roadmap on Excel support? I’m afraid I’ve never worked anywhere (or met anyone in real life outside of K-12) that used Google Sheets, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use Airtable in real life either. (This is most likely because I’m on the east coast and am mostly interacting with big company people where it’s extremely uncommon for GSuite to be the office tool of choice. That and I love Excel).

Re: Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

#112

Post by tanin »

Spreadsheet is incredibly powerful

However, if your use case is narrower (e.g. only use CSVs), there are more suitable tools.

As a person who knows how to code, using a real programming language or SQL is way way better.

To that end, I've built a Desktop app that enables you to work with CSV using SQL here: https://superintendent.app

Re: Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

#113

Post by watertom »

asdff wrote: post #69
laGrenouille wrote: post #16

I agree with a lot of the points raised here. I think many of the problems with spreadsheets are due to the software rather than the users. As mentioned in the article, its hard to slowly iterate from a small manageable spreadsheet to an larger software solution. For example, Excel would be a lot more usable and maintainable for me if there was a way to make a special "data sheet" in which data types are forced to be…

There is so much excel voodoo involved to do things with that software. I still believe that the learning curve of excel is no harder than the learning curve of doing the same exact thing in R or python, plus you'd end up having the data and the formulas in different places which brings loads of benefits (for instance, git). People are just familiar with excel because thats what they used to make a chart in science c…

Return on investment, essentially a zero barrier to entry, and immediate gratification, and it's wildly flexible.

It takes about 10 minutes to learn the basics a spreadsheet, and what you get back is immense.

You couldn't get python up in running in 10 minutes, then you need to learn the language, the syntax, and how to structure a program, frankly I'm tired just starting to type out what needs to happen even before you can do *ANYTHING*.

Some people can get YEARS of productivity from those first minutes with a spreadsheet. The return on that initial 10 minute investment justifies spending more time to learn the more esoterica aspects of a spreadsheet, but even then, most people don't want to be bothered with learning how to "program".

Why do so many people start playing guitar/piano/drums/etc, but so few finish? Because it requires a significant up front investment, no immediate gratification, and a long, slow return on that significant up front investment, learning music is somewhat flexible, but you need to be highly skilled in order to exploit the flexibility.

Re: Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

#114

Post by easton »

jodrellblank wrote: post #106
tomnipotent wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excel 2013 and later has a columnar database capable of handling millions of rows, but not through the standard sheets interface so it loses a lot of the utility people are used to.

How? Through what interface, or by what feature name to Google?

Excel refers to it as the “Data Model”. It allows joining tables/sheets and referencing them from other tables.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2012/08/2...

Re: Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

#115

Post by bnj »

asdff wrote: post #85
antipaul wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, any programming seems a different beast than a spreadsheet tool. For python, just think of installing it or setting up virtual environments. Like the original article says, “spreadsheets are the original low code”

Python is preinstalled on macs at least, that's a decent chunk of personal computers. You have to pay for excel. And you don't need to bother with virtual environments to fiddle with a flat file.

I think an important part of the battle for attention is that excel is visible as a GUI that inexperienced users can open from an icon and see and manipulate. A simple GUI utility with Python input in one pane and data input in the other might put them on more equal footing.

Re: Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

#116

Post by jodrellblank »

easton wrote: post #114
jodrellblank wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? Through what interface, or by what feature name to Google?

Excel refers to it as the “Data Model”. It allows joining tables/sheets and referencing them from other tables. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2012/08/2...

Thanks :)

Re: Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

#118

Post by edmundsauto »

andrewlgood wrote: post #43
AtlasBarfed wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article is dead on from an analysis/criticism/insight: devs are called in when it's a sinking ship and don't see all the cargo the ship has hauled. Why hasn't microsoft or someone taken the basic spreadsheet model to a shared-database scalable one? The UI is basically set at this point. A naive schema (filename, tab, x, y, value) is what an excel sheet is. It's not like we are dealing with "impedence mismatch" a…

How would you put guardrails on the spreadsheets to make sure spreadsheets do not accidently damage the database performance through bad calls? In the hierarchy of skills, SQL is significantly less prevalent that spreadsheets.

Excel data is usually on a scale that DBs have no problem with, even doing full table scans. I am assuming this for something that starts life as a spreadsheet, not a database first where the sheet is initialized via a query.

Re: Use Spreadsheets Everywhere

#119

Post by kinj28 »

Every CRM starts with a spreadsheet or every applicant tracking system starts with spreadsheet. Many organizations love to start with spreadsheet and then evolve to application (Ready or custom).

At https://www.dronahq.com we support 1. users to connect to their spreadsheets and build applications on top. or pull data from multiple datasources e.g. spreadsheets and support ticket system and build custom tool.

2. We understand people love columnar database like spreadsheet or airtable.com, hence we offer an built-in database called 'sheets'

3. We support most excel formula and functions for binding data or writing complex business logic i.e Logical Functions, Date and Time Functions, Text Functions, Math Functions, custom functions

Post reply on HN