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Is having seen something used some way a leading indicator of it being a good idea to have used that thing that way? Because I've seen Excel used as database w
by im_down_w_otp 10y ago
Is having seen something used some way a leading indicator of it being a good idea to have used that thing that way?
Because I've seen Excel used as database with all kinds of macros and VBA scripts bolted-on/embedded to provide the workbook various shapes of stored-procedure and query capability... but, while sorta impressive in a "Holy crap, lol wut?" kind of way, I'm not sure any instance I observed of uses like that were actually good ideas. Full of epic cleverness and ingenuity? Definitely. A good idea? Probably not.
- jdavis703 10y agoDid they make the company a lot more money than they cost? If so they were probably a good idea. Not all code needs to be "pretty" to serve a purpose. I've seen some pretty epic hacks that I know generated hundreds of thousands of dollars of new revenue.
- im_down_w_otp 10y agoThey often had a significant "bus factor" problem as a result of this in the best cases, and in the worst cases these mountains of hacks were a massive impediment to growth and/or evolution to meet changing marketplace demands... despite being a central pillar of data management and revenue as it existed in the status quo.
- rhizome 10y agoIn my experience in market research, advanced spreadsheet programming with macros and pivot tables and whatnot are more a contemporary incarnation of Reporting than raw database querying and operations.