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That is maybe doable if you don't care about importing existing files. You'll spend years just getting that right. A grid of cells is the easy part. Compatibil

That is maybe doable if you don't care about importing existing files. You'll spend years just getting that right. A grid of cells is the easy part. Compatibility is hard.

osrec 8y ago
Compatibility is actually the least of my worries. I think it's a losing battle that's not worth fighting. Better to create an open ecosystem that people adopt for that very reason - that it is open. In the early days, Excel would actually obfuscate its output, making it extremely difficult to parse. Now things are a bit better, but you're still trying to hit a moving target. If we have an open format, and a corresponding high-quality, open application ecosystem, I can see many corporates making the switch. Not easy, but I can see a future without total dependence on Excel.
- slededit 8y ago
  In the early days Excel focused heavily on compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3 which was dominant. Excel never obfuscated their save code. I've seen it in person. They did just memcpy their data structures, which was the most efficient way to save on tiny machines of the day. Lotus did that too. I've also seen and helped implement the Open Document spec. This is not a simple problem and you are doing yourself a disservice by blinding yourself to the scale of the task. If you want to make an impact and don't have Google level budgets then leveraging OpenOffice is the only sane approach.
  - osrec 8y ago
    I was under the impression they did attempt to obfuscate their files. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_POI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_POI We don't have Google level budgets, but I think we can do something worthwhile with what we have. Might take a while, but I'm confident we will manage something good in the budget we are hoping to allocate to the task.
    - slededit 8y ago
      FUD goes both ways and the OpenDocument battle was particularly vicious on both sides. However the code is literally a memcpy of a struct that is used internally. Not being designed for others to easily read isn't obfuscation. FWIW the XML formats designed for that purpose still fail horribly on that front. Anyways I've worked on spreadsheets for 10 years. File compatibility is the hard part and the rest is easy by comparison (but still pretty hard).

That is maybe doable if you don't care about importing existing files. You'll spend years just getting that right. A grid of cells is the easy part. Compatibility is hard.

osrec 8y ago

Compatibility is actually the least of my worries. I think it's a losing battle that's not worth fighting. Better to create an open ecosystem that people adopt for that very reason - that it is open. In the early days, Excel would actually obfuscate its output, making it extremely difficult to parse. Now things are a bit better, but you're still trying to hit a moving target. If we have an open format, and a corresponding high-quality, open application ecosystem, I can see many corporates making the switch. Not easy, but I can see a future without total dependence on Excel.

slededit 8y ago
In the early days Excel focused heavily on compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3 which was dominant. Excel never obfuscated their save code. I've seen it in person. They did just memcpy their data structures, which was the most efficient way to save on tiny machines of the day. Lotus did that too. I've also seen and helped implement the Open Document spec. This is not a simple problem and you are doing yourself a disservice by blinding yourself to the scale of the task. If you want to make an impact and don't have Google level budgets then leveraging OpenOffice is the only sane approach.
- osrec 8y ago
  I was under the impression they did attempt to obfuscate their files. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_POI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_POI We don't have Google level budgets, but I think we can do something worthwhile with what we have. Might take a while, but I'm confident we will manage something good in the budget we are hoping to allocate to the task.
  - slededit 8y ago
    FUD goes both ways and the OpenDocument battle was particularly vicious on both sides. However the code is literally a memcpy of a struct that is used internally. Not being designed for others to easily read isn't obfuscation. FWIW the XML formats designed for that purpose still fail horribly on that front. Anyways I've worked on spreadsheets for 10 years. File compatibility is the hard part and the rest is easy by comparison (but still pretty hard).