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I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)

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Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)

#371

Post by kyberias »

hprotagonist wrote: post #166
kyberias wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What in spreadsheets is not testable? It's trivial to write a test that opens the spreadsheet in excel and tests any formula calculations via Excel Automation API.

and where do i store my tests? how do i version them, and the data? can i put it in travis? how many people ever even try?

You store them in the same place where you place other tests. It's just code. You version the data as you version any other test data. Never used travis myself, I guess it's some kind of CI.

Many people do this. It's perfectly normal.

Of course if you don't even use Excel in the first place, I don't know why you're asking.

Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)

#372

Post by tbabb »

dvdsgl wrote: post #78
tbabb wrote: post #22

This is what I am currently working on: Making programming fluid and easy like spreadsheets (or alternately, elevating the niche occupied by spreadsheets into something that can be called "real programming"). (If this is your jam, hit me up.)

Me too! What are you working on?

It's a node-based programming language— think boxes and wires, or circuit diagrams. and you?

Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)

#373

Post by gasa7 »

(This might be a different take on the topic, but just a thought) I have just dipped my toes in the corporate world and to be honest, i have not heard the term 'Excel' in the workspace or otherwise. Actually I did but that was also when its major pain point was discussed: Online capability. A customer needed an on-the-go Daily Sales Report app. (what I learnt and is obvious as well is that the dependency on the office/Excel expert to send the report is not ideal)

My point is, the shift to "the cloud" has already begun right? Freshers today will be up the hierarchy tomorrow and are they really going to use Excel?

Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)

#375

Post by c0vfefe »

beatgammit wrote: post #366
halfeatenpie wrote: post #26

I work in critical infrastructure planning. My organization builds software in R, Python, and other programming languages customized for these major organizations. So many critical infrastructures, billions of dollars in planning, and just systems are built out of Excel. It's amazing. You'd assume something that services millions of people a day would have some more sophisticated and customized solution, but you're w…

A friend of mine works converting spreadsheets to Python/Java programs. Basically people at the company solve the problem with Excel, and when that gets to slow, he codes it up to read from a CSV and they're off to the races. It's amazing how far these business types can get before needing a programmer to optimize things. As a programmer, I tend to think in terms of logic, and then I tried to build a complicated budg…

> I can't think of a single software tool that has enabled more productivity than a spreadsheet.

I submit to you: a clock, and a calculator. :)

Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)

#377

Post by _raoulcousins »

Excel is everywhere where I work. it frustrates me to see how it's used and how much it's used, and it's totally unfair. I could rant about how it's unmaintainble, error-prone, time consuming, and cause costly mistakes, but I wonder if the company would be as large as it was without Excel.

I dislike a lot about Excel, but it's so easy to be immediately productive with it.

Re: I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)

#378

Post by qrybam »

kgwgk wrote: post #334
qrybam wrote: post #135

Excel is powerful. It does so many things really well. Sharing data between sheets in real-time isn’t one of them though (maybe I just haven’t found the right tool, so we went ahead and built one). I worked at a large fintech company a few years ago. During my interview Excel popped up as a topic, the interviewer quipped “Excel is terrible!”, he was referencing the heavy reliance of his customers on spreadsheets rath…

> Sharing data between sheets in real-time Do you mean between sheets in two Excel files which are open in different computers? Or did you encounter performance issues in a single computer?

Two (or more) excel sheets running on different computers. Afaik it’s impossible to link cells in real-time between different PCs natively.
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