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Every single spreadsheet software has been able to do this for years, but using Javascript makes it better amirite? What makes this better than Excel (VBA, Pyt

by pikzen 11y ago

Every single spreadsheet software has been able to do this for years, but using Javascript makes it better amirite? What makes this better than Excel (VBA, Python, probably half of the languages on the planet.), Libre Office, Google Spreadsheets, etc., aside from Javascript ? The only point I could see would be integrating this into a page, which is of dubious utility.

dang 11y ago
Please don't be mean and dismissive in response to new work. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
- pikzen 11y ago
  I'm having trouble finding anything useful in a new, nonstandard spreadsheet software whose only interest is that you can use Javascript. But it's branded as a "new kind" of software, so it must be good :^)
  - dang 11y ago
    As the Show HN guidelines say: "When something isn't good, you needn't pretend that it is." But you also needn't trample over someone's freshly planted garden. Helpful criticism is fine. Asking a question is fine (a real question, not a gotcha one designed to make someone look bad); for example, one could ask "what do you mean when you say this is a new kind of spreadsheet?" Pointing out similarities to other work is fine. All we want to avoid is being dismissive. Since the line isn't obvious (especially to a million readers), simply err on the side of not being. On HN, new work doesn't need to be useful, just alive. One can't always predict what will turn out to be useful anyhow. Everybody showing new work deserves a minimal baseline of respect here. If you know more and have done more than someone else has, that's great. That's an opportunity to teach and to share, not put them down. Edit: since "new kind of spreadsheet" is arguably a bit baity we've changed to the HTML doc title.
    - Myrmornis 11y ago
      I am uncomfortable with the line you're taking here. The sentence "javascript makes it better amirite" was a bit juvenile, but otherwise the comment was perfectly valid. We do not want to be forced to be positive about things which have serious flaws; this sort of kumbaya HN thought police makes this seem more like some sort of Christian summer camp than an environment for rational discussion.
      - tptacek 11y ago
        The Kumbaya Thought Police are deployed specifically in "Show HN" threads; they have their own rules.
      - dang 11y ago
        Nobody wants to be "forced to be positive", including us. If you try to find a different interpretation of what I wrote, I don't think you'll find it very hard.
      - Robin_Message 11y ago
        Being similar to other things that already exist is usually a benefit, not a "serious flaw".
pbhjpbhj 11y ago
I might be wrong but I think you can use JS in LibreOffice already? Either way calling it a "new kind" seems a stretch unless it's not as well described as it appears to be.
Zikes 11y ago
In a typical office environment, everybody knows how to work with spreadsheets. They're a common interface and a great way to present and explore tabular data. But as soon as you put that data into an Excel document and hit Save, it's outdated. Somewhere, somebody in the office has a .xlsx file on their C: drive with the data you need, but that doesn't help you much, does it? Or somebody puts the data into a spreadsheet and emails it to everybody in the office, then a few people make some changes and email again, and now you've got 15 different versions of the same spreadsheet floating around and nobody knows which one is the latest and most truthful. Or you put that interface on a web page connected to a shared data source and all of those problems disappear.
- pikzen 11y ago
  But those people could be using Google Spreadsheet already for example, which would have already solved the problem. And people in the office are not going to be writing Javascript in their spreadsheet. It literally solves nothing.
  - Zikes 11y ago
    Storing proprietary data in Google may not be viable. I know it isn't in my office, for instance. Plus, you lose the flexibility to integrate it into a more comprehensive application interface which runs on your own hardware/software stack, which the Javascript in this case provides. I can already imagine several good uses for this software in my workplace, so saying it "literally solves nothing" is "literally false".
    - rspeer 11y ago
      Indeed, anyone who thinks Google Spreadsheets is the end of all spreadsheets and nobody would ever need anything else, has never tried to embed Google Spreadsheets into a larger application.
- abduhl 11y ago
  I'm sorry, what? What does this product have that fixes the problem you're talking about here? How does working in a spreadsheet with javascript net you any better benefit than working with Excel with respect to obsolete sheets?

by pikzen 11y ago

dang 11y ago

Please don't be mean and dismissive in response to new work. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

pikzen 11y ago
I'm having trouble finding anything useful in a new, nonstandard spreadsheet software whose only interest is that you can use Javascript. But it's branded as a "new kind" of software, so it must be good :^)
- dang 11y ago
  As the Show HN guidelines say: "When something isn't good, you needn't pretend that it is." But you also needn't trample over someone's freshly planted garden. Helpful criticism is fine. Asking a question is fine (a real question, not a gotcha one designed to make someone look bad); for example, one could ask "what do you mean when you say this is a new kind of spreadsheet?" Pointing out similarities to other work is fine. All we want to avoid is being dismissive. Since the line isn't obvious (especially to a million readers), simply err on the side of not being. On HN, new work doesn't need to be useful, just alive. One can't always predict what will turn out to be useful anyhow. Everybody showing new work deserves a minimal baseline of respect here. If you know more and have done more than someone else has, that's great. That's an opportunity to teach and to share, not put them down. Edit: since "new kind of spreadsheet" is arguably a bit baity we've changed to the HTML doc title.
  - Myrmornis 11y ago
    I am uncomfortable with the line you're taking here. The sentence "javascript makes it better amirite" was a bit juvenile, but otherwise the comment was perfectly valid. We do not want to be forced to be positive about things which have serious flaws; this sort of kumbaya HN thought police makes this seem more like some sort of Christian summer camp than an environment for rational discussion.
    - tptacek 11y ago
      The Kumbaya Thought Police are deployed specifically in "Show HN" threads; they have their own rules.
    - dang 11y ago
      Nobody wants to be "forced to be positive", including us. If you try to find a different interpretation of what I wrote, I don't think you'll find it very hard.
    - Robin_Message 11y ago
      Being similar to other things that already exist is usually a benefit, not a "serious flaw".

pbhjpbhj 11y ago

I might be wrong but I think you can use JS in LibreOffice already? Either way calling it a "new kind" seems a stretch unless it's not as well described as it appears to be.

Zikes 11y ago

In a typical office environment, everybody knows how to work with spreadsheets. They're a common interface and a great way to present and explore tabular data. But as soon as you put that data into an Excel document and hit Save, it's outdated. Somewhere, somebody in the office has a .xlsx file on their C: drive with the data you need, but that doesn't help you much, does it? Or somebody puts the data into a spreadsheet and emails it to everybody in the office, then a few people make some changes and email again, and now you've got 15 different versions of the same spreadsheet floating around and nobody knows which one is the latest and most truthful. Or you put that interface on a web page connected to a shared data source and all of those problems disappear.

pikzen 11y ago
But those people could be using Google Spreadsheet already for example, which would have already solved the problem. And people in the office are not going to be writing Javascript in their spreadsheet. It literally solves nothing.
- Zikes 11y ago
  Storing proprietary data in Google may not be viable. I know it isn't in my office, for instance. Plus, you lose the flexibility to integrate it into a more comprehensive application interface which runs on your own hardware/software stack, which the Javascript in this case provides. I can already imagine several good uses for this software in my workplace, so saying it "literally solves nothing" is "literally false".
  - rspeer 11y ago
    Indeed, anyone who thinks Google Spreadsheets is the end of all spreadsheets and nobody would ever need anything else, has never tried to embed Google Spreadsheets into a larger application.
abduhl 11y ago
I'm sorry, what? What does this product have that fixes the problem you're talking about here? How does working in a spreadsheet with javascript net you any better benefit than working with Excel with respect to obsolete sheets?