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The world needs a better spreadsheet

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Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet

#51

Post by spitfire »

bboreham wrote: post #29
ghaff wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I very vaguely recall the initial iteration(s) of the Windows version of Lotus 1-2-3 weren't great. The real killer though was probably Microsoft's bundling into Microsoft Office. That cemented the use of the entire suite of Microsoft products even when, at a given point in time, they may not have been best in category. As I recall, Lotus made some purchases to try to follow the same strategy but it was too late b…

Lotus went straight to OS/2, because Windows was a toy. Oops. Around 1991 they had an all-new cross-platform super-product under development, but it crashed and burned and they had to plough on with 123. I did a lot of the low-level GUI coding for the Open Look and Motif versions of 123. Fun times.

Would that be Lotus Improv? I used Improv and Quantrix on NeXTStep. Quantrix on OSX is still a secret weapon of mine.

Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet

#52

Post by blhack »

wheelerwj wrote: post #49

how do people get a "hey HN" welcome line up on their site so quickly? This was posted here less than 2 hours ago. Do people really monitor incoming referrals hourly?

I mean...yes? Back when I had a dedicated office, there was a screen that was tail -f on various logfiles watching website traffic.

My sites were all personal projects, so the traffic was low enough that I could notice an uptick in traffic visually.

Also things like google analytics etc.

Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet

#53

Post by spitfire »

i_don_t_know wrote: post #6
beachy wrote: post #3

Eons ago, I worked for Lotus Software (way before they belonged to IBM) on an exiting new product - their flagship Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet product, in those days the preeminent spreadsheet offering in the world, ported to the IBM mainframe. I travelled around Europe as we sold this to large corporations who wanted the power of the spreadsheet, but multipled by a gazillion times and made multi-user. Almost every custo…

Did you also get to work on Lotus Improv? What are your thoughts on that in comparison to traditional spreadsheets?

I used Improv and Quantrix on NeXTStep. Absolutely loved it. I still use Quantrix on OSX to this day.

Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet

#54

Post by jimnotgym »

markoutso wrote: post #12

I have been reading HN for more than 3 years. It is like an addiction. I have never felt smart enough to comment something but honestly, this is the worst piece of literature I have ever read. The writer is just rambling on irrelevant stuff while trying to be smart and promote himself and his company. It's not even good marketing.

Agreed this article is lacking a real thread.

Re spreadsheets, I am one of those dreaded 'advanced Excel' people and some of the comments i hear about spreadsheet limitations are a bit like saying 'this chisel is a rubbish hammer'. Our main use is to take small amounts of data from our ERP and browse/sum/subtotal it in some way for adhoc analysis or sharing, or keep the record of some minor detail over time. I have seen thousands of lower skilled users use spreadsheets in this way and there is no better tool. Indeed accountants often run much more complex stuff, but tend to be very dilligent with their inputs and versioning and have little trouble. As soon as you have concurrent users a spreadsheet becomes a bad database substitute.

Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet

#55

Post by Spooky23 »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #13
beachy wrote: post #3

Eons ago, I worked for Lotus Software (way before they belonged to IBM) on an exiting new product - their flagship Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet product, in those days the preeminent spreadsheet offering in the world, ported to the IBM mainframe. I travelled around Europe as we sold this to large corporations who wanted the power of the spreadsheet, but multipled by a gazillion times and made multi-user. Almost every custo…

I like that you're bringing up Lotus, but I was thinking of a different product: Notes. It's from another digital software age and from experience, hard not to think of the applications created with it as archaic monstrosities, yet there was something there. In many ways it was what the OP is talking about: a networked formbuilder that allowed for people with technical skills roughly equivalent to that of an Excel su…

Apps like Lotus and Access get a bad rap that is unjustly deserved. People did a lot of amazing things with those applications.

The presence of zombie Notes apps that spew out of control is more a statement about IT than the platform. My mom, not a power user, was a public health nurse. She put together with a sophomore intern what grew into a good sized disease outbreak tracker after IT failed to deliver. All in Notes.

The IT idiots discovered it and got all puffy. They siphoned off funding and stuck its "enterprise" replacement into some portfolio process. 5 years later and $5-6M spent they launched a replacement that didn't quite do what it needed to do. She retired almost 10 years ago, and that little app still lives for a few use cases.

Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet

#56

Post by agumonkey »

i_don_t_know wrote: post #6
beachy wrote: post #3

Eons ago, I worked for Lotus Software (way before they belonged to IBM) on an exiting new product - their flagship Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet product, in those days the preeminent spreadsheet offering in the world, ported to the IBM mainframe. I travelled around Europe as we sold this to large corporations who wanted the power of the spreadsheet, but multipled by a gazillion times and made multi-user. Almost every custo…

Did you also get to work on Lotus Improv? What are your thoughts on that in comparison to traditional spreadsheets?

I remind Jobs saying 'even half done your thing is so revolutionary you owe the people to sell' or close.

Improv is way above the pack... so much it's not a good thing.

Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet

#59

Post by bboreham »

spitfire wrote: post #51
bboreham wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lotus went straight to OS/2, because Windows was a toy. Oops. Around 1991 they had an all-new cross-platform super-product under development, but it crashed and burned and they had to plough on with 123. I did a lot of the low-level GUI coding for the Open Look and Motif versions of 123. Fun times.

Would that be Lotus Improv? I used Improv and Quantrix on NeXTStep. Quantrix on OSX is still a secret weapon of mine.

I don't think so. They all had code-names - 123 for Windows was Rockport; Improv was Back Bay and the one I'm talking about was another place, but the exact name escapes me.

I believe Improv was written in Objective-C while the one I mean was in C++.

Re: The world needs a better spreadsheet

#60

Post by dendory »

Being part of design meetings, it's amazing how many endless customizations and workflow adjustments people like project managers and consultants like to request for a new piece of software. But when it comes down to it, most users don't want a complex, hard to understand interface that has so many features it's supposed to improve everyone's productivity. Most people want to use their spreadsheet, their Outlook calendar and their IE browser. Not because it's best at the task, but because that's what they know and are used to.
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