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Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python

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Re: Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python

#131

Post by dosinga »

jedberg wrote: post #125

Hey, this is awesome! As someone who primarily codes in Python, I love that it's first class with a REPL! Nothing frustrates me more then when I have to figure out Javascript for scripting in Google Sheets. I ran through your demo and I have some feedback: - Tab completion in the REPL would be great. - When I change code in the editor, it doesn't update the cell where that code is used until I click on the cell, clic…

Thanks, this is excellent feedback:

* The REPL is supposed to do autocomplete where it makes sense. If you enter A1. it should show you a list of things you can do there. That always feels better than asking for it explicitly. Let me know if that doesn't work.

* Yeah, code changes don't rerun the affected cells. It is something we've debated, and maybe we should? It feels like it could also cause unexpected things to happen. Hmm. Maybe we should though.

* This is tricky. Spilling from a function, doesn't fill the cells and then append does. Open for suggestions on how to make this better.

* We call the OpenAI API - they don't always answer these days :-(

* That's a good point. We should fix that!

Re: Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python

#132

Post by anigbrowl »

photochemsyn wrote: post #40

LibreOffice Calc combined with python's pandas and numpy modules meet all needs I have for spreadsheets, with matplotlib and seaborn for visualization. The Ipython shell is the optimal IDE for this approach IMO. My desktop reference is: "Python for Data Analysis 2nd ed" (Wes McKinney, 2018)

Somewhat same, but I'm not sure what you need Calc for, I can't remember the last time I deliberately opened a spreadsheet.

On the other hand, while Matplotlib and its ecosystem of add-ons and close imitators is fantastic, it's not friendly to most people, and making it interactive is a massive pain. If you want to wiggle sliders and watch your charts change in real time, you need to use pyplot or something instead.

Re: Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python

#134

Post by jedberg »

dosinga wrote: post #131
jedberg wrote: post #125

Hey, this is awesome! As someone who primarily codes in Python, I love that it's first class with a REPL! Nothing frustrates me more then when I have to figure out Javascript for scripting in Google Sheets. I ran through your demo and I have some feedback: - Tab completion in the REPL would be great. - When I change code in the editor, it doesn't update the cell where that code is used until I click on the cell, clic…

Thanks, this is excellent feedback: * The REPL is supposed to do autocomplete where it makes sense. If you enter A1. it should show you a list of things you can do there. That always feels better than asking for it explicitly. Let me know if that doesn't work. * Yeah, code changes don't rerun the affected cells. It is something we've debated, and maybe we should? It feels like it could also cause unexpected things to…

For the tab completion, I think I tried typing the beginning a function name (hello) and then hit tab and it didn't complete.

> Yeah, code changes don't rerun the affected cells. It is something we've debated, and maybe we should? It feels like it could also cause unexpected things to happen. Hmm. Maybe we should though.

You know your customers better than I do. :). But generally when I use spreadsheets I expect bidirectional connections and updates.

> This is tricky. Spilling from a function, doesn't fill the cells and then append does. Open for suggestions on how to make this better.

I honestly don't know. Depends on your user's use cases. Even just for me I can see cases where I would want the cell updated and others where I wouldn't. Heck maybe even just ask the user "Do you want to update the cell?"

> We call the OpenAI API - they don't always answer these days :-(

That's fine, just tell the user it failed. :)

Re: Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python

#135

Post by jackamadeo »

elforce002 wrote: post #64

How is this different from other solutions such as this one: https://equals.app ?

(cofounder of Neptyne here)

Equals is a great product -- I'm a fan!

The main technical difference between us and something like Equals is that we give you a full Python environment (in the form of a Jupyter kernel running in a Docker container) for maximum programmability and flexibility. This means that you, as a Neptyne user, can connect to virtually any data source by importing the appropriate package and setting credentials. And of course you can use Python in the actual functioning of your spreadsheet, not just as a one-way data import step.

Re: Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python

#136

Post by [deleted] »

pbreit wrote: post #80

Good opportunity to highlight Google "Apps Script" which is one of the most powerful but unknown tools in the web: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/sheets Includes easy fetching: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/url-fetc... I suppose python could be better for this use case but javascript seems to work fine. And it's all built righ in to Google Sheets.

[deleted]

Re: Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python

#137

Post by danuker »

> Drag the corner from F7 to F9 to compute the total cost for each unit.

I do that.

> Server connection error: failed to connect to server

I get that the system is overloaded, but if every small action requires a network, and I can't use it with intermittent network let alone offline, I'm not too thrilled.

Re: Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python

#138

Post by jackamadeo »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #114

Looks cool, but the get started --> skip signup to try now --> empty tyne flow is broken. When I click "empty tyne", it just reloads the page and blocks you with "empty tyne" again and again. Also, I'm curious if it supports live collaborative editing like google sheets/docs/etc do?

Hmm, sorry about that broken flow. We added some last-minute things today to get the skip-signup thing working that might have some bugs :)

If you go straight to https://neptyne.com/neptyne/tutorial that should work.

We do support live collaborative editing, though it isn't all built out yet. If two people are working on the same tyne, you'll see the presence of other collaborators and you'll see their changes reflected live, but the code panel updates with last-writer-wins at the moment. We're working on making that better.

Re: Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python

#139

Post by cameron_b »

Very Excited.

I'm likely very close to the ideal user. I don't program for work but make CSV-consuming tools from Python here and there to work on giant exports of data when they get outside of Excel's built-in magic.

Most recently the exact task was to consume a Zoom user export, filter with RegEx, and transform the table for upload to Zoom as a CSV again, but with different fields. This would translate very well to Neptyne if it supported 70k rows.

Re: Launch HN: Neptyne (YC W23) – A programmable spreadsheet that runs Python

#140

Post by dosinga »

hummus_bae wrote: post #124
jimmoores wrote: post #62

I've seen a bunch of companies do this. The problem is always that it isn't Excel. This means usually things like XLWings, Excel-DNA, etc. are actually more useful.

[flagged]

Hmm, Neptyne doesn't support XLWings and that link doesn't resolve. Where did this come from?
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