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Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

strlen.com

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Re: Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

#51

For me, nowadays, cross-platform should be runs-in-the-browser, use anywhere. Hence the success of Google Workspace.

This is an app I started in 2008, and at the time getting the speed of native was important to me. I work with very large "sheets"

I also wanted to get to something which could be useable for me as quickly as possible, which at the time for me meant a native app. I also wanted local file storage etc.

Agreed that in 2021 you could probably make this work as a webapp, though I think it would still be a challenging engineering exercise to make it fast.

Re: Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

#52
post #12
post #7

I like the part where you can do calculations like in classic spread sheet apps, but visualize what your are doing, instead of hiding it behind formula fields. (see this screenshot: http://strlen.com/treesheets/docs/images/screenshots/screens... ) But functionality and especially usability of this application is quite limited. It feels more like a proof of concept, than an application for daily use.

My understanding is it's written pretty much only for his own needs, so I'd imagine usability is fine for him. He's on here (username strlen) but doesn't comment much - maybe he'll chicken me in.

I always thought, this tool is best if used regularly, optimally daily. So you mentally stay inside the required workflow thinking and keep the shortcut memory fresh. Also to mention, it has a very good startup tutorial, which is good for first-time users, but also useful if you need a refresher on a certain topic.

But I never thought that "easy to get into" was a priority during development. Which is totally ok for me,

Re: Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

#53

Author of TreeSheets here, AMA.

I see an interesting spreadsheet that is actually a directed graph of some kind. Are there cell addresses hidden somewhere? Can this be used as a spreadsheet?

It's not a DAG though, it is purely a tree (no shared children). There are no cell addresses.

You can kinda sorta use it as a spreadsheet, but it is pretty limited currently, see example here http://strlen.com/treesheets/docs/images/screenshots/screens... or also in the tutorial.

Re: Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

#54
Heavy http://zim-wiki.org user here, but I do recall trying this out at some point and I can see a few use cases. Before I go digging, I seem to be seeing different opinions on how good of a "spreadsheet" type tool it is.

Specifically (right now), I'm curious as to what kind of math it's capable of? Right now I'm playing around with some cryptocurrency and I'm looking to play around with some custom views of prices and such, and I'm not quite sure how I want it to look; does this seem like a possible place to check it out?

Re: Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

#55

Author of TreeSheets here, AMA.

This is probably a stupid question, but how do you create the "trees" like you see in the screenshots? I can easily create hierarchical grids, which is great, but I can't figure out how to make a mind-map type graph.

Re: Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

#56
post #55

Author of TreeSheets here, AMA.

This is probably a stupid question, but how do you create the "trees" like you see in the screenshots? I can easily create hierarchical grids, which is great, but I can't figure out how to make a mind-map type graph.

Nevermind, I get it, you just change the rendering method. Very cool, I love that you can change the visualization method without changing the data structure!

Re: Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

#57
post #54

Heavy http://zim-wiki.org user here, but I do recall trying this out at some point and I can see a few use cases. Before I go digging, I seem to be seeing different opinions on how good of a "spreadsheet" type tool it is. Specifically (right now), I'm curious as to what kind of math it's capable of? Right now I'm playing around with some cryptocurrency and I'm looking to play around with some custom views of prices a…

I wouldn't expect to do anything much more complicated than http://strlen.com/treesheets/docs/images/screenshots/screens...

The tutorial has a live example, and also lists the implemented operators.

If you want to do complicated formulas, you're almost certainly better off with a traditional spreadsheet. Or create a PR to extend it with operations you need :)

Re: Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

#58

Not sure I want to download an EXE from a non-SSL site...

The bottom download link points you to GitHub, where you can get exes straight from CI, if you trust that more. I've looked into getting https from my site, but there's always a high cost associated, if you want a certificate that's widely accepted (which doesn't seem to hold for the free ones). And I think my host isn't even compatible with free ones. If the web wants HTTPS everywhere, this somehow needs to be made…

> If the web wants HTTPS everywhere, this somehow needs to be made simpler/cheaper for non-commercial entities.

Cheaper as in free? https://certbot.eff.org/about/

Re: Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bottom download link points you to GitHub, where you can get exes straight from CI, if you trust that more. I've looked into getting https from my site, but there's always a high cost associated, if you want a certificate that's widely accepted (which doesn't seem to hold for the free ones). And I think my host isn't even compatible with free ones. If the web wants HTTPS everywhere, this somehow needs to be made…

> If the web wants HTTPS everywhere, this somehow needs to be made simpler/cheaper for non-commercial entities. Cheaper as in free? https://certbot.eff.org/about/

Looks like I still would need to change hosts to use that.

Re: Treesheets: cross-platform, free-form data organizer app

#60

Not sure I want to download an EXE from a non-SSL site...

The bottom download link points you to GitHub, where you can get exes straight from CI, if you trust that more. I've looked into getting https from my site, but there's always a high cost associated, if you want a certificate that's widely accepted (which doesn't seem to hold for the free ones). And I think my host isn't even compatible with free ones. If the web wants HTTPS everywhere, this somehow needs to be made…

You must have looked into LetsEncrypt. I’m not aware that there is any serious problem with acceptance of their certificates, is there?
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