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That’s because corporate policy usually precludes running actual code. I made plenty of huge ass spreadsheets when I worked at one place because there was no wa
by ok_dad 2y ago
That’s because corporate policy usually precludes running actual code. I made plenty of huge ass spreadsheets when I worked at one place because there was no way for me to do my job otherwise, unless we wanted to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to specific developers to build and validate it. The spreadsheets were okay because of reasons beyond my comprehension. The key factor was, I think, that no one else was allowed to write to the spreadsheets, they could just read them and integrate that information into their decision making. I was the only person who could modify and input data.
- shagie 2y agoHow much difference is there between =IF(A1 > A2, (B2 + B3), (C2 - C3)) and (if (> aye-one aye-two) (+ bee-two bee-three) (- cee-two cee-three)) Infix vs prefix, coordinates vs variable names. It is syntax on top of the essence of a functional programming language. And it has the same things. One liner of perl, python, or powershell - anyone can write it and it doesn't take too much to manage its complexity. However, once you get into more complex relationships between data and structures, it takes discipline to manage it. Spreadsheets often are poor at giving you the tools to manage it and so it takes more effort to make sure that you're not making a mess. A complex spreadsheet is a complex program that needs to have someone who has the discipline and abstractions necessary to manage it.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- maxerickson 2y agoWith the Excel Lambda, you can add a layer of indirection and do something like that by passing the values into your function rather than building your function strictly out of cell references.
- shagie 2y agoYep - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/lambda-the-ultimatae-excel-worksheet-function/ https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/lambda-the-ult... The point was more one of "Excel is an IDE for a functional language." Doing large projects in Excel should take as much care / design / thought as large projects in Lisp (or any other language). That Excel is everywhere and people often do simple things that grow large without having the discipline of managing the complexity that excel can become - that's where there's problems. Rather if you say to someone with enough skill to get started "here's python, good luck" you'll get similar results as "here's Excel, good luck." Just that you'll have an easier time persuading cooperate IT to install Excel on your machine compared to Python.