2 ms·
> Personally i'd rather we bridge the gap between using excel and writing python with something that is between the two, rather than relying on LLMs. Maybe Lua
by lelanthran 2y ago
> Personally i'd rather we bridge the gap between using excel and writing python with something that is between the two, rather than relying on LLMs.
Maybe Lua[1] and Excel. Python's significant whitespace is unsuitable for doing the one-liners that spreadsheet experts do.
Writing code for the spreadsheet should not require putting that code in a separate file just so the significant whitespace can be maintained.
Whatever you write in a single cell should be the programming language. If you later want to move it to it's own file, module, package, CLI, etc, you should be able to.
[1] Visual Basic turned out to be very usable with spreadsheet experts.
- cxr 2y agoExcel's cramped formula bar that defaults to one line is, to borrow a turn of phrase from Raskin, not at all something that is necessary—it is merely customary. There's no (good) reason that when you start to type a formula or you click on a cell that has a formula already in it that Excel doesn't make an ephemeral sidebar overlay appear with an 80-column text editor in it. There's no good reason that it doesn't run a gofmt-style code prettifier on long, sprawling formulae. There's no good reason that clones like Google Docs don't do this, either. The best time would have been when we transitioned to widescreens. Spreadsheet programming is bad because neither Microsoft nor its competitors actually care about making it good.