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IronCalc – Open-Source Spreadsheet Engine

ironcalc.com

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Re: IronCalc – Open-Source Spreadsheet Engine

#201

Post by wslh »

antasvara wrote: post #166
wslh wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an expert in Excel, don’t you think Google Sheets has chipped away at Excel's dominance in a very smart way? I’m not saying that Google Sheets is a complete competitor to Excel, but it has been highly user-oriented. And, if we add Apple Numbers to this discussion, I feel it’s still at a kindergarten level by comparison. I think this is where IronCalc like software could thrive: finding a non-complete competition t…

What Google Sheets did that was super innovative IMO was make a spreadsheet that integrates with the entire Google ecosystem. I am partially joking (they put it on the cloud in a way that's super useful and made collaboration remotely easier, along with other scripting inprovements), but I think it highlights that the main "benefit" to Sheets is that it's a fully featured product created by a mega-corporation that co…

> It feels like spreadsheet software is a particularly hard arena to compete in, given the quality of the major ones you mentioned.

It’s not just a feeling. A basic Porter’s analysis, especially with a 6th force, reveals how nearly impossible it is to compete effectively (now) in the spreadsheet software market given the dominance of the major players.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter%27s_five_forces_analysi...

Re: IronCalc – Open-Source Spreadsheet Engine

#202

Post by [deleted] »

anyfactor wrote: post #129

I was an excel enthusiast and studied accounting mainly for Excel. Although I have moved to programming unlike most I still do think Excel is awesome. I sincerely commend the enthusiasm, but working in the industry as the "excel expert", I think most outsider does not understand the "cult" aspect of Excel. Excel works. That is it. Trying to replace excel with anything will be percieved as replacing a calculator with…

[deleted]

Re: IronCalc – Open-Source Spreadsheet Engine

#203

Post by phonon »

nhatcher wrote: post #157
phonon wrote: post #111

Have you looked at these other somewhat similar Rust projects? https://github.com/logisky/LogiSheets https://github.com/natefduncan/excel-emulator https://github.com/jiradaherbst/XLFormula-Engine https://github.com/omid/formula https://crates.io/crates/df-web/0.1.28

I _think_ I saw the XLFormula-Engine. At least the name rings a bell. I guess I have some reading to do! What is the last one?

I'm not exactly sure...it seems to handle Excel files in some fashion. It came up when I looked through this https://crates.io/keywords/excel

Re: IronCalc – Open-Source Spreadsheet Engine

#204

Post by [deleted] »

mmooss wrote: post #199
anyfactor wrote: post #129

I was an excel enthusiast and studied accounting mainly for Excel. Although I have moved to programming unlike most I still do think Excel is awesome. I sincerely commend the enthusiasm, but working in the industry as the "excel expert", I think most outsider does not understand the "cult" aspect of Excel. Excel works. That is it. Trying to replace excel with anything will be percieved as replacing a calculator with…

> I have had my fair share backlash when trying to introduce replacement and complimentary tools. To replace excel, you not only need to advocate for it's usefulness and you need to be also be liable to the complaints from excel users. If anything goes wrong no how minor with the new tool, you are the one who introduced all these mess. That is a universal issue of IT management: Any change implemented in IT systems (…

[deleted]

Re: IronCalc – Open-Source Spreadsheet Engine

#205

Post by no_wizard »

proamdev123 wrote: post #197
no_wizard wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much of Excels dominance is due to its legacy pervasiveness in certain industries/ roles (notably finance or financial related but there’s strong bureaucratic use of it as well asan ad-hoc tracking tool for instance) and the fact that two generations of people grew up using it. I’ve noticed over the years that younger generations are far more used to using Google Sheets since schools and universities have strong adop…

What do you mean by “run business logic rules over the calculations”? Genuine question. Don’t most people embed business logic into their spreadsheet formulas? Or is there something else you’re referring to?

It’s not uncommon for the sums of the spreadsheet to get fed into other systems or even spreadsheets.

There being validation around that can significantly reduce errors, such as checking totals against system values etc.

Re: IronCalc – Open-Source Spreadsheet Engine

#206

Post by stackskipton »

no_wizard wrote: post #170
atoav wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excel is powerful, but it is also important to consider its limitations. Things will get real when your orgs problems/needs grow from something that was totally cool to do with spreadsheets to something requiring higher complexity, performance, resilience, testability, coordination, ... — and the point at which you cross over into the latter is not always clearly marked. It would for example not be advisable to use E…

What would be nice though is if you could export logic from excel to examine it and port it. One can dream

You easily could. Format is available.

What I found is such tools barely work because what makes Excel so sticky is ability for end user to change that logic. X + Y = Z. Well, Click Clack and Z -Y = F

That's just so difficult to handle in a way that isn't "Just use Excel"

Re: IronCalc – Open-Source Spreadsheet Engine

#207

Post by skissane »

respondo2134 wrote: post #173
skissane wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outside of specific domains such as finance and accounting, most people don’t really need Excel, and will be served perfectly well by Google Sheets or whatever. Indeed, I have hardly used Excel in years. I do use Google Sheets at work, where they are used for adhoc tracking by engineering, product management, project managers, etc. Our son who is 11, he uses Google Sheets - and I know he has used Apple Numbers in the…

I think people conflate Excel the product with workflows that can be solved with Excel. Lots of tools like sheets and even numbers can do the latter, but nothing since Lotus competed with the former. So if you've never used Excel, you can probably get away with an alternative. But if you already know Excel, why would you add another product for some subset of use cases?

> But if you already know Excel, why would you add another product for some subset of use cases?

I know Excel – I've been using Excel since before Sheets existed. First spreadsheet I ever used was Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS (I was just a kid at the time, so I was just mucking around with it, not using it in anger – but I remember watching my father use it in anger.)

At my work everyone gets Sheets, whereas you only get an Excel license if you specifically request one – and most people don't. So why would I use the product which most of my colleagues don't have, instead of the product everybody has?

Likewise on my personal laptop, I have an Excel license... and still I use Sheets for most things. Habit maybe? I've never used the web-based Excel, and I don't like having to deal with open another app.

The only time I ever use Excel nowadays is if I need to open some complex Excel spreadsheet that Sheets can't handle properly, or if I need to work on some Excel spreadsheet import/export function at work – both of which are "once in a blue moon" activities for me.

Re: IronCalc – Open-Source Spreadsheet Engine

#208

Post by magusor »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #186
magusor wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried collabora office and/or onlyoffice ? These could match your need.

Yes and it is atrocious compared to Google Spreadsheets, unfortunately.

Yes, they are indeed not as streamlined unfortunately. Maybe ethercalc if you need something lightweight, but that's also not a real alternative https://ethercalc.net/

Re: IronCalc – Open-Source Spreadsheet Engine

#209

Post by analog31 »

anyfactor wrote: post #129

I was an excel enthusiast and studied accounting mainly for Excel. Although I have moved to programming unlike most I still do think Excel is awesome. I sincerely commend the enthusiasm, but working in the industry as the "excel expert", I think most outsider does not understand the "cult" aspect of Excel. Excel works. That is it. Trying to replace excel with anything will be percieved as replacing a calculator with…

I think that experienced Excel users and managers don't expect Excel to be perfect, but have figured out how to cost the inevitable bugs and changes into their expectations, to a good enough level of accuracy.

Nobody knows how long a software project will take, if it will deliver something that works or not, and if responsive support will materialize. Many if not most developers agree with this, even if they disagree as to the root causes.

One way to think of it is that it's a difference between a person and a process. A spreadsheet can be created and maintained by a person -- often the end user themselves. But since most people don't program, getting software written and maintained requires a process.

The same is true of driving a car versus flying in an airplane. When you drive, you feel like you're the person who's in control of getting yourself to your destination. When you fly, you're placing yourself at the mercy of processes that you don't control and that are not all aligned with your interests.

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