4 ms·

If you haven't used it, Google Sheets is worth looking at closely. It's good for collaboration (within the boundaries of a "normal" spreadsheet interface), and

by monch1962 7y ago

If you haven't used it, Google Sheets is worth looking at closely. It's good for collaboration (within the boundaries of a "normal" spreadsheet interface), and has a lot of options for integrating with external systems

wpietri 7y ago
I have used it, and it's definitely a step in the right direction. But it lacks a lot for me, in that the meaning of the system somebody builds is implicit and contingent. E.g., in an OO language, I can be very clear about what a MailingAddress is. I can say what makes it well-formed. I can give rules about how it can be changed, and what happens when it does change. But in a spreadsheet, that concept is mostly implicit. A human can look at it and say, "Oh, the mailing address is columns C-G, starting at row 2 and down to just before the first blank line." Until somebody edits the spreadsheet and inserts a phone number column, anyhow. That means a Google Sheet can't really serve as a reliable microservice that knows about all the customer addresses, letting one's colleague's sheets read and update things. Sheet authors have all the necessary domain knowledge, but not enough of the technical knowledge, so at some point they have to bring in a professional programmer to re-express the domain knowledge in a language inaccessible to the people who formerly had control over their data and business processes.
reportgunner 7y ago
For me, Google Sheets don't have the signature features of Excel, it's like Excel lite. No VBA, no keyboard shortcuts, (no cross-workbook references). Imho two people working inside the same worksheet at the same time was never an Excel's missing feature.
- gkfasdfasdf 7y ago
  > No VBA FWIW Google Sheets does have the ability to write macros in JavaScript. They even have an npm tool [0] that will let you edit offline via your preferred IDE and then push to your sheet. [0] https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/clasp https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/clasp
  - reportgunner 7y ago
    I'm not saying JS is better or VBA, but JS is definitely not VBA.
    - twojacobtwo 7y ago
      Gsuite uses 'Apps Script'[1], not pure JS, so it is quite similar in function to VBA. [1]https://developers.google.com/apps-script https://developers.google.com/apps-script

wpietri 7y ago

I have used it, and it's definitely a step in the right direction. But it lacks a lot for me, in that the meaning of the system somebody builds is implicit and contingent. E.g., in an OO language, I can be very clear about what a MailingAddress is. I can say what makes it well-formed. I can give rules about how it can be changed, and what happens when it does change. But in a spreadsheet, that concept is mostly implicit. A human can look at it and say, "Oh, the mailing address is columns C-G, starting at row 2 and down to just before the first blank line." Until somebody edits the spreadsheet and inserts a phone number column, anyhow. That means a Google Sheet can't really serve as a reliable microservice that knows about all the customer addresses, letting one's colleague's sheets read and update things. Sheet authors have all the necessary domain knowledge, but not enough of the technical knowledge, so at some point they have to bring in a professional programmer to re-express the domain knowledge in a language inaccessible to the people who formerly had control over their data and business processes.

reportgunner 7y ago

For me, Google Sheets don't have the signature features of Excel, it's like Excel lite. No VBA, no keyboard shortcuts, (no cross-workbook references). Imho two people working inside the same worksheet at the same time was never an Excel's missing feature.

gkfasdfasdf 7y ago
> No VBA FWIW Google Sheets does have the ability to write macros in JavaScript. They even have an npm tool [0] that will let you edit offline via your preferred IDE and then push to your sheet. [0] https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/clasp https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/clasp
- reportgunner 7y ago
  I'm not saying JS is better or VBA, but JS is definitely not VBA.
  - twojacobtwo 7y ago
    Gsuite uses 'Apps Script'[1], not pure JS, so it is quite similar in function to VBA. [1]https://developers.google.com/apps-script https://developers.google.com/apps-script