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Ethersheet – An open-source collaborative spreadsheet

ethersheet.org

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Re: Ethersheet – An open-source collaborative spreadsheet

#21

Post by fiatjaf »

I was looking for a spreadsheet which I could use to implement custom formulas that would interact with a client-side app, and embed the sheets in the app also, so I started building this: https://github.com/fiatjaf/react-microspreadsheet

Here's a hosted version for test: http://sheets.alhur.es/test

It has a lot of features (try the edge cases if you feel like and report your experience to me, please), but it also has some bugs with, for example, the click-at-a-cell-to-add-it-as-input-to-the-currently-being-edited-cell. I'm seeking to make this work.

There are some bugs with the formula parsing too, but they are easy to solve, I'm just being lazy. I was using a very nasty raw regex parsing, but I switched to a Jison implementation that is more reliable, I guess. I've never done this before, though.

Re: Ethersheet – An open-source collaborative spreadsheet

#22

Post by newscracker »

I gave it a quick spin and it seems like it needs more work to behave like a spreadsheet.

Even simple circular references are not detected right now. For example, I put some numbers from A1 through A5 and then put a SUM(A1:A6) into A6. It added everything up (including the sum itself) and keeps updating A6 with the sum of A1:A5 every time I move from one cell to another using Enter or Tab. You can see this at https://ethersheet.org/s/IsThisAwesomeNow

And also, as @binarymax stated, arrow keys to navigate (along with F2 to edit a cell instead of the default of putting a cell in edit mode), usage of arrow keys within formulas to get cell references (instead of typing the cell reference), easy ways to format cells, easy way to extend the width or height of columns/rows...I presume there's a large backlog of features to implement. :)

Right now, this is far behind EtherCalc in terms of features and usability.

Re: Ethersheet – An open-source collaborative spreadsheet

#23

Post by beefman »

cooperq wrote: post #19
beefman wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sure seems lighter/faster. Other differences: * It doesn't support drag to enter ranges in formulas * Arrow keys don't move the selection * It doesn't have nifty pie menus for dragging a selection * It doesn't support ctrl+z undo Does EtherCalc have multiple worksheets? Ethersheet does. EtherCalc's tabs-and-forms UI is clunky.

The undo functionality is actually almost there, I think we just don't have an interface for it. The arrow keys thing should be easy to implement. I will add it to github, and of course accept a pull request! We definitely need to accept ranges for formulas or some up with some easy way to do that. The project as a whole is definitely unfinished but we have been working on it for so long and lost some motivation. I w…

Please note, I don't think all the features I listed are desirable. (Pie menus for dragging gestures? Pretty hokey.)

Ethersheet allows typing ranges in formulas and that is possibly enough. Dragging to choose a range can be nice but it has to be implemented carefully. When to stop acquiring cells for the range and return focus to the formula editor? Some versions of Excel do this badly. For example, after dragging to enter a range you use arrow keys to balance parens. Excel thinks you are still selecting cells and inserts multiple ranges into your formula.

Re: Ethersheet – An open-source collaborative spreadsheet

#24

Post by audreyt »

beefman wrote: post #15
ilaksh wrote: post #12

How is this better than ethercalc?

It sure seems lighter/faster. Other differences: * It doesn't support drag to enter ranges in formulas * Arrow keys don't move the selection * It doesn't have nifty pie menus for dragging a selection * It doesn't support ctrl+z undo Does EtherCalc have multiple worksheets? Ethersheet does. EtherCalc's tabs-and-forms UI is clunky.

EtherSheet's UI for worksheets and column/row label context menus are both nice ideas — I'll work on integrating them into EtherCalc. :-)

Re: Ethersheet – An open-source collaborative spreadsheet

#25

Post by antman »

beefman wrote: post #15
ilaksh wrote: post #12

How is this better than ethercalc?

It sure seems lighter/faster. Other differences: * It doesn't support drag to enter ranges in formulas * Arrow keys don't move the selection * It doesn't have nifty pie menus for dragging a selection * It doesn't support ctrl+z undo Does EtherCalc have multiple worksheets? Ethersheet does. EtherCalc's tabs-and-forms UI is clunky.

Dragging the selected region works only for the last selected cell, not for all your selection. If you put 1 2 3 , select them all together and drag it becomes 1 1 1 1 1 not 1 2 3 4 5

Re: Ethersheet – An open-source collaborative spreadsheet

#27

Post by eddyparkinson »

I wish I had your design skills.

My spreadsheet sideproject: www.cellmaster.com.au

Small business wants to automate. At the moment they use spreadsheets, email and web forms to interact with customers, but want these to work together. I have seen 20 requests a week, on a single forum, for small bits of code. Code to do very simple automation tasks. I am making it so they can automate with only basic spreadsheet skills.

Happy to chat with you eddyparkinson after the at add gmail dot com

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