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You definitely don't want to be using Excel for heavy data analysis or statistical analysis, and unfortunately some companies refuse to acknowledge that. Perfor

by Bsharp 13y ago

You definitely don't want to be using Excel for heavy data analysis or statistical analysis, and unfortunately some companies refuse to acknowledge that. Performance is very often sacrificed for familiarity and ease-of-use in business.

desas 13y ago
> Performance is very often sacrificed for familiarity and ease-of-use in business. And practically everywhere else, that's why we're not writing web apps in assembler.
- collyw 13y ago
  Actually I think developer time (and cost) is probably the main reason we aren't writing them in assembler.
  - desas 13y ago
    Q. Why would assembler require more developer time? A. Because most developers aren't anywhere near familiar enough with assembler to do so and because ruby/python/php/etc are much much easier to use for developing a web app.
einhverfr 13y ago
Even as spreadsheets go, I wouldn't use Excel for statistical analysis (I wouldn't use any spreadsheet unless it was a function coded as a macro). It's not just a performance thing, but also a confidence in results thing. Spreadsheets admit to oversimplifying the processing and then having issues as the assumptions in the data change. This does not mean that a spreadsheet couldn't be an important piece of the pipeline though. Database to Spreadsheet is actually a very powerful combination, particularly with views.
- Bsharp 13y ago
  Absolutely agree with you. Database-to-spreadsheet is the best way to analyze data then summarize the results in a business setting. Unfortunately, the people seeing the results occasionally want to see how you got to your numbers, and since they frequently have non-technical backgrounds the database step is often where they can no longer follow. I worked at a company where our data was in SQL Server but we basically had to import the entire data set into Excel because none of the higher-ups knew SQL and wouldn't be able to peer review. Those spreadsheets were slooooooow.
  - einhverfr 13y ago
    Wow, that sucks. It's funny, the other co-founder of Efficito is a financial analyst who writes tools to do his analysis for him in Lisp. He also maintains a Common Lisp implementation. Fortunately I bet your former employer would not be interested in his services.
    - malandrew 13y ago
      I'd love to see the source for what he's doing. Sounds neat.
      - einhverfr 13y ago
        I am not aware of any ones he has released source for sadly. For a general idea though see http://weitz.de/eclm2013/abcl.pdf http://weitz.de/eclm2013/abcl.pdf It includes some code snippets and screen shots of hybrid Java/Lisp programs. He is also a maintainer of Armed Bear Common Lisp.

by Bsharp 13y ago

desas 13y ago

> Performance is very often sacrificed for familiarity and ease-of-use in business. And practically everywhere else, that's why we're not writing web apps in assembler.

collyw 13y ago
Actually I think developer time (and cost) is probably the main reason we aren't writing them in assembler.
- desas 13y ago
  Q. Why would assembler require more developer time? A. Because most developers aren't anywhere near familiar enough with assembler to do so and because ruby/python/php/etc are much much easier to use for developing a web app.

einhverfr 13y ago

Even as spreadsheets go, I wouldn't use Excel for statistical analysis (I wouldn't use any spreadsheet unless it was a function coded as a macro). It's not just a performance thing, but also a confidence in results thing. Spreadsheets admit to oversimplifying the processing and then having issues as the assumptions in the data change. This does not mean that a spreadsheet couldn't be an important piece of the pipeline though. Database to Spreadsheet is actually a very powerful combination, particularly with views.

Bsharp 13y ago
Absolutely agree with you. Database-to-spreadsheet is the best way to analyze data then summarize the results in a business setting. Unfortunately, the people seeing the results occasionally want to see how you got to your numbers, and since they frequently have non-technical backgrounds the database step is often where they can no longer follow. I worked at a company where our data was in SQL Server but we basically had to import the entire data set into Excel because none of the higher-ups knew SQL and wouldn't be able to peer review. Those spreadsheets were slooooooow.
- einhverfr 13y ago
  Wow, that sucks. It's funny, the other co-founder of Efficito is a financial analyst who writes tools to do his analysis for him in Lisp. He also maintains a Common Lisp implementation. Fortunately I bet your former employer would not be interested in his services.
  - malandrew 13y ago
    I'd love to see the source for what he's doing. Sounds neat.
    - einhverfr 13y ago
      I am not aware of any ones he has released source for sadly. For a general idea though see http://weitz.de/eclm2013/abcl.pdf http://weitz.de/eclm2013/abcl.pdf It includes some code snippets and screen shots of hybrid Java/Lisp programs. He is also a maintainer of Armed Bear Common Lisp.