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Funnily enough, excel is a programming language. I don't mean VB Script or macros. I mean with the equations, ranges, and constraints - that's a programming lan

by chewxy 7y ago

Funnily enough, excel is a programming language. I don't mean VB Script or macros. I mean with the equations, ranges, and constraints - that's a programming languages there. A cell is simply a computational variable (as opposed to the notion of variables in lambda calculus). A named range is a data structure (a struct). The rest are term rewriting

matt-attack 7y ago
Isn’t the most relevant distinction when comparing a spreadsheet to programming is that it’s non-procedural? Writing spreadsheets reminds of writing Makefiles. There’s no start or end. Just a bunch of declarations about relationships. And it’s just...happens.
- chewxy 7y ago
  There's a term that's gaining popularity in the last 15 years: reactive paradigm of programming.
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    Is what we're talking about any different from declarative programming? That term has been in use for several decades
    - chewxy 7y ago
      The portion of comment I was replying to was "no start or end" . This is reactive programming. Having said that, other than Excel and some cute UI things, I've not seen much utility in reactive paradigms. Hence I am bearish on reactive programming. Someone please correct me.
    - dymk 7y ago
      Reactive programs don't have to be declarative. You can express a reactive program imperatively. The defining feature of a reactive program is that relationships between inputs and outputs are automatically tracked, and changing an input will automatically update the dependent outputs. Facebook had a whole experimental language (now abandoned) for writing reactive programs with imperative code: http://skiplang.com/ http://skiplang.com/
dmitriid 7y ago
It’s the world’s most successful reactive programming platform.
- mathh 7y ago
  Yes, GUI assisted reactive programming. And that's why when you start to use use VBA or js in Excel, it's a fail. Excel power users (I am not one of them) know how to solve almost every problem they are presented to, using only Excel. Like SQL with relational data. With orders of magnitude better performance. Main issue yet is scalability, when the dataset gets too big.

by chewxy 7y ago

matt-attack 7y ago

Isn’t the most relevant distinction when comparing a spreadsheet to programming is that it’s non-procedural? Writing spreadsheets reminds of writing Makefiles. There’s no start or end. Just a bunch of declarations about relationships. And it’s just...happens.

chewxy 7y ago
There's a term that's gaining popularity in the last 15 years: reactive paradigm of programming.
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  Is what we're talking about any different from declarative programming? That term has been in use for several decades
  - chewxy 7y ago
    The portion of comment I was replying to was "no start or end" . This is reactive programming. Having said that, other than Excel and some cute UI things, I've not seen much utility in reactive paradigms. Hence I am bearish on reactive programming. Someone please correct me.
  - dymk 7y ago
    Reactive programs don't have to be declarative. You can express a reactive program imperatively. The defining feature of a reactive program is that relationships between inputs and outputs are automatically tracked, and changing an input will automatically update the dependent outputs. Facebook had a whole experimental language (now abandoned) for writing reactive programs with imperative code: http://skiplang.com/ http://skiplang.com/

dmitriid 7y ago

It’s the world’s most successful reactive programming platform.

mathh 7y ago
Yes, GUI assisted reactive programming. And that's why when you start to use use VBA or js in Excel, it's a fail. Excel power users (I am not one of them) know how to solve almost every problem they are presented to, using only Excel. Like SQL with relational data. With orders of magnitude better performance. Main issue yet is scalability, when the dataset gets too big.