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Anybody familiar with the Improv / Quantrix spreadsheets that he claims is 5X - 10X more productive than Excel? What's so special about them? Has that functiona

Anybody familiar with the Improv / Quantrix spreadsheets that he claims is 5X - 10X more productive than Excel? What's so special about them? Has that functionality found its way into Excel at this point?

antidnan 4y ago
https://instadeq.com/blog/posts/no-code-history-lotus-improv-spreadsheets-done-right-1991/ https://instadeq.com/blog/posts/no-code-history-lotus-improv...
- gcanyon 4y ago
  "Within a few months, Pito had come up with the fundamental idea at the core of Improv: that the raw data in a spreadsheet, the way that the user views the data, and the formulas used to perform calculations can all be separated from each other." This is exactly what FileMaker Pro does. You have the underlying data structure that is independent of calculations and presentation. It is sparse by definition, and can store far more data than any spreadsheet in existence. It can include defined relationships between the different kinds of data. You have the calculations, that are stored with the data structure, but are functionally independent from it. They can transform, combine, and summarize the data in just about any way you like. They can store their results, increasing speed at the cost of storage, or they can be on demand. You have the presentation, which depends on the data but is defined separately -- you can have as many different presentation forms as you like, hundreds or even thousands. And you have actual code that can run on the data and validate it, modify it, organize it etc. I think only momentum and lack of vision has prevented FM from eating spreadsheets' lunch.
AlanYx 4y ago
Quantrix is still popular today for large financial modelling. The main advantage of Improv/Quantrix was that everything is named, and formulas are expressed as logical formulas, not references to spreadsheet columns, which makes the spreadsheets themselves more interpretable and readily auditable. If you're disciplined with named ranges, you can do a similar thing in Excel these days, but it doesn't really feel as natural as it did in Improv, and on a multi-person team with varying Excel skill levels it can be a challenge to maintain that discipline.
spfzero 4y ago
IIRC Improv natively had what later became known as "pivot tables" in Excel. Improv didn't call it anything special, it was just an inherent part of using it. Long time ago and my memory could be iffy.

antidnan 4y ago

https://instadeq.com/blog/posts/no-code-history-lotus-improv-spreadsheets-done-right-1991/ https://instadeq.com/blog/posts/no-code-history-lotus-improv...

gcanyon 4y ago
"Within a few months, Pito had come up with the fundamental idea at the core of Improv: that the raw data in a spreadsheet, the way that the user views the data, and the formulas used to perform calculations can all be separated from each other." This is exactly what FileMaker Pro does. You have the underlying data structure that is independent of calculations and presentation. It is sparse by definition, and can store far more data than any spreadsheet in existence. It can include defined relationships between the different kinds of data. You have the calculations, that are stored with the data structure, but are functionally independent from it. They can transform, combine, and summarize the data in just about any way you like. They can store their results, increasing speed at the cost of storage, or they can be on demand. You have the presentation, which depends on the data but is defined separately -- you can have as many different presentation forms as you like, hundreds or even thousands. And you have actual code that can run on the data and validate it, modify it, organize it etc. I think only momentum and lack of vision has prevented FM from eating spreadsheets' lunch.

AlanYx 4y ago

Quantrix is still popular today for large financial modelling. The main advantage of Improv/Quantrix was that everything is named, and formulas are expressed as logical formulas, not references to spreadsheet columns, which makes the spreadsheets themselves more interpretable and readily auditable. If you're disciplined with named ranges, you can do a similar thing in Excel these days, but it doesn't really feel as natural as it did in Improv, and on a multi-person team with varying Excel skill levels it can be a challenge to maintain that discipline.

spfzero 4y ago

IIRC Improv natively had what later became known as "pivot tables" in Excel. Improv didn't call it anything special, it was just an inherent part of using it. Long time ago and my memory could be iffy.