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There have been a number of efforts to build a better spreadsheet. One that I was quite familiar with (I bought a license!) was Resolver One [1] that was trying

There have been a number of efforts to build a better spreadsheet. One that I was quite familiar with (I bought a license!) was Resolver One [1] that was trying to build a spreadsheet with support for Python at the cell-level. Unfortunately it didn't take off, and the team moved onto Python Anywhere [2]. Excel clearly has strong network effects! I loved this article [3] from 2008, that argues that Excel and VBA were responsible for the credit crunch, that later possibly lead to Reinhart/Rogoff's flawed research using Excel... its spreadsheets all the way down! [1] http://www.resolversystems.com/products/resolver-one/ http://www.resolversystems.com/products/resolver-one/ (but link appears to be dead [2] https://www.pythonanywhere.com https://www.pythonanywhere.com [3] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/21/vba_office_victory/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/21/vba_office_victory/

maxerickson 12y ago
I loved this article [3] from 2008, that argues that Excel and VBA were responsible for the credit crunch That's a rather aggressive phrasing of what the article says, that many of the calculations involved in the credit crunch were done in Excel/VBA.
- jimmcslim 12y ago
  Yes, I agree its a bit aggressive. Ultimately it was human nature... spreadsheets don't cause apocalyptic financial crises, overzealous capitalists with spreadsheets cause apocalyptic financial crises! The author was (is?) a recruiter for quants and financial developers so he certainly had a unique perspective.
  - collyw 12y ago
    Is it just me, or does the financial system seem to be designed in precisely the opposite way of how we try to design good software? One huge intertwined web, where one small thing indirectly affects thousands of other things. Its seems to be the equivalent of a "big ball of mud" type piece of software.
    - seabee 12y ago
      You are making the mistake of thinking the financial system was designed in any meaningful way!
patrickmclaren 12y ago
I stumbled across Pyspread the other day, a more recent attempt at a spreadsheet using Python at the cell-level. See http://manns.github.io/pyspread/ http://manns.github.io/pyspread/. Pyspread expects Python expressions in its grid cells, which makes a spreadsheet specific language obsolete. Each cell returns a Python object that can be accessed from other cells. These objects can represent anything including lists or matrices. I haven't used it yet, most of my personal spreadsheets are in Google Sheets and I'm not too keen to pull them out of Google Drive.
joe_the_user 12y ago
Ah, I can believe "flawed product" were constructed by spreadsheet but that seems a kind of shallow analysis. Clearly, the housing bubble involved a rush to buy whatever - spreadsheet might seem the "immediate cause" but "wishful thinking" would clearly be the larger cause with various inherent tendencies of the financial system behind that.

maxerickson 12y ago

I loved this article [3] from 2008, that argues that Excel and VBA were responsible for the credit crunch That's a rather aggressive phrasing of what the article says, that many of the calculations involved in the credit crunch were done in Excel/VBA.

jimmcslim 12y ago
Yes, I agree its a bit aggressive. Ultimately it was human nature... spreadsheets don't cause apocalyptic financial crises, overzealous capitalists with spreadsheets cause apocalyptic financial crises! The author was (is?) a recruiter for quants and financial developers so he certainly had a unique perspective.
- collyw 12y ago
  Is it just me, or does the financial system seem to be designed in precisely the opposite way of how we try to design good software? One huge intertwined web, where one small thing indirectly affects thousands of other things. Its seems to be the equivalent of a "big ball of mud" type piece of software.
  - seabee 12y ago
    You are making the mistake of thinking the financial system was designed in any meaningful way!

patrickmclaren 12y ago

I stumbled across Pyspread the other day, a more recent attempt at a spreadsheet using Python at the cell-level. See http://manns.github.io/pyspread/ http://manns.github.io/pyspread/. Pyspread expects Python expressions in its grid cells, which makes a spreadsheet specific language obsolete. Each cell returns a Python object that can be accessed from other cells. These objects can represent anything including lists or matrices. I haven't used it yet, most of my personal spreadsheets are in Google Sheets and I'm not too keen to pull them out of Google Drive.

joe_the_user 12y ago

Ah, I can believe "flawed product" were constructed by spreadsheet but that seems a kind of shallow analysis. Clearly, the housing bubble involved a rush to buy whatever - spreadsheet might seem the "immediate cause" but "wishful thinking" would clearly be the larger cause with various inherent tendencies of the financial system behind that.