Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, no computer is an actual TM since memory is finite.
It can pause and ask you to temporarily attach another hard disk. Could be infinite as long as one can afford buying disks.
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Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
21–30 of 112 posts
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#22This is great, there were a few network functions I used a lot (validate IP format, find network address, find broadcast address, check if address is in subnet, etc) and would always just stick a "scratch" sheet in a workbook duplicated for each time I needed to perform an operation and nobody was ever going to be able to decode after I hit "send" on the email. The additions they've added make this so simple and ubiquitously available I wouldn't even call it ugly for that use case anymore.
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#23Am I the only one who read the title and was immediately reminded of http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/ ? (Is the title a deliberate call to that site, or something even older?)
The common parent is "Lambda: The Ultimate Imperative" (1976) https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/5790/AIM-353....
And more generally, the Lambda Papers by Guy Steele and Gerald Sussman, which also include "Lambda: The Ultimate Declarative", "Lambda: The Ultimate GOTO", and "Lambda: The Ultimate Opcode".
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be fair, no computer is an actual TM since memory is finite.
It can pause and ask you to temporarily attach another hard disk. Could be infinite as long as one can afford buying disks.
But the amount of raw material on the planet needed for manufacturing more disks is finite.
The amount of raw material in the universe is finite at a given point in time (it could be infinite over time, we don't know if time is infinite either).
I think we've already established (especially over the past year) that fiat money is infinite.
The Turing machine is a mathematical model. Infinity only exists in the world of mathematics. The physical world is by definition finite.
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#25Now we have a legitimate use case for the Y combinator. What's next? A full implementation of scheme? Common lisp?
Check out this paper from my friend Ronen, and Prof. Fateman, putting Lisp into Excel:
"A paper written with Ronen Gradwohl on Lisp and Symbolic Functionality in an Excel Spreadsheet: Development of an OLE Scientific Computing Environment, August, 2002. (code available on request) "
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#26The Calc Intelligence project at Microsoft Research Cambridge has a long-standing partnership with the Excel team to transform spreadsheet formulas into a full-fledged programming language. Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#27I don't understand the point of this function, when Excel already has Power Query. It doesn't seem like anyone who is literate in functional programming would want to use this, and anyone who isn't up to it wouldn't either.
One of the most annoying things about Excel is it has so many parts apparently designed by people or groups that didn't talk to each other and didn't have a grasp of all the rest of it, let alone the world of the (various groups of) users.
Who ordered another Turing-complete system in Excel? One that is, like all the others, a pain and a half to debug or analyze? Has anyone figured out how to turn this into a security vulnerability yet?
Saying "yay people are making videos" only makes me think of all the horrific tutorials on Power Automate. And this: https://xkcd.com/763/
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#28If you want to stay on top of what is going on in Excel, the team's Excel Blog is worth checking out now and then.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/bg-p/Excel...
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#29Now we have a legitimate use case for the Y combinator. What's next? A full implementation of scheme? Common lisp?
Implement Emacs Lisp and throw in evil-mode. Now you can run the world's most extensible editor with Vim bindings INSIDE EXCEL!!
Also, Emacs's org-mode implements some basic spread-sheet utilities, so...
Re: Lambda: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
#30I really like what these guys are doing https://numbrz.com/ You can build data stores that can be published to other numbrz users. They can augment your data and republish. As the source data changes, everyone's stores are updated.