4 ms·

Surely I'm not the only one that remembers someone doing this with Lotus 1-2-3 in the 80's...how far we've come. What's next, a database in a spreadsheet? Word

by sqlacid 11y ago

Surely I'm not the only one that remembers someone doing this with Lotus 1-2-3 in the 80's...how far we've come. What's next, a database in a spreadsheet? Word processor? Modem application?

Bjartr 11y ago
>What's next, a database in a spreadsheet? You seem to imply that's not already the case (though many wish it wasn't)
- liotier 11y ago
  vlookup pseudo-joins ahoy !
  - personalcompute 11y ago
    I'll point out that if you find yourself with a RDBMS-like situation in Excel I highly recommend using Excel 2013+ 'tables' feature which adds foreign keys and better pseudo-joins (in pivot tables) inside of Excel. Better than anything hacked together with VLOOKUP. (heck, I've even seen some people hack it together with only SUMIF)
    - function_seven 11y ago
      I use tables all the time in Excel 2010, haven't had much experience with 2013. Is this something that is truly new in 2013?
      - personalcompute 11y ago
        I don't know, I have no experience with 2010 so I went with the lower bound I can guarantee as opposed to potentially giving harmful wrong information. Can't edit my comment now.
amyjess 11y ago
At my last company, someone wrote a format to encode RDF data in spreadsheets. Google Sheets was our primary tool for configuration and content authoring for way too long. Eventually, he added support for OOXML sheets, too. At some point, a long time later, we started migrating to TTL, and thank goodness for that. The code was all open-sourced, by the way, but I'd rather not link it here because I don't really want this username associated with that company.
- morgante 11y ago
  > The code was all open-sourced, by the way, but I'd rather not link it here because I don't really want this username associated with that company. Any search clues? It sounds really interesting and I've been exploring the possibility of using spreadsheets as a widely understood authoring tool.
  - rch 11y ago
    I've no idea if it's related, but here is one I'm familiar with: https://code.google.com/p/owlpopulous/ https://code.google.com/p/owlpopulous/
realusername 11y ago
> What's next, a database in a spreadsheet? You have no idea, poor innocent soul... :(. I hope you won't touch excel-based databases, it's really awful...
- sqlacid 11y ago
  I've got the scars, 123, Symphony, Quattro, Paradox, Excel, Access, dBase II, III, IV, Lotus Notes.....OLE!
  - kinleyd 11y ago
    Add VisiCalc and TurboCalc to that list and I'll have to say "Yeah, me too!".
semicolondev 11y ago
You might not believe this but my boss builds web app mock-ups using Excel. I was surprised to find that out but it works.
- Intermernet 11y ago
  Excel is either brilliant or horrible (depending on your role in dealing with the output) at being re-purposed to do "the wrong thing". I've had form templates sent to me in Excel because of the easy-to-use table layout controls. I've had games sent to me in Excel because VBA was so damn easy to program simple ideas in. I've had PoCs of algorithms sent to me in Excel because the graphical chaining of each step is so illustrative. I've also seen the nightmare that haunts businesses who define their business logic through a bunch of interconnected Excel files. As an aside, this seems like an area ripe for "disruption" (remember when "disruption" was a bad word?), which is where tools like excel_to_code could probably make a large impact. If you could validate and test the entire business logic, as expressed in Excel files, you could reduce or eliminate the "Excel defined business rules" nightmare. If you can do this, there are thousands of SMEs that will be knocking at your door. I personally don't use Excel for much, and I used to deride people who used it for "the wrong task", but I've recently had to swallow my pride, and accept that it's a serious power tool for most non-programmer people. I'd even go so far to say that it's the most successful "visual programming" tool out there. And by a long way.
Intermernet 11y ago
Flight simulator? http://www.eeggs.com/items/29841.html http://www.eeggs.com/items/29841.html

by sqlacid 11y ago

Surely I'm not the only one that remembers someone doing this with Lotus 1-2-3 in the 80's...how far we've come. What's next, a database in a spreadsheet? Word processor? Modem application?

Bjartr 11y ago

>What's next, a database in a spreadsheet? You seem to imply that's not already the case (though many wish it wasn't)

liotier 11y ago
vlookup pseudo-joins ahoy !
- personalcompute 11y ago
  I'll point out that if you find yourself with a RDBMS-like situation in Excel I highly recommend using Excel 2013+ 'tables' feature which adds foreign keys and better pseudo-joins (in pivot tables) inside of Excel. Better than anything hacked together with VLOOKUP. (heck, I've even seen some people hack it together with only SUMIF)
  - function_seven 11y ago
    I use tables all the time in Excel 2010, haven't had much experience with 2013. Is this something that is truly new in 2013?
    - personalcompute 11y ago
      I don't know, I have no experience with 2010 so I went with the lower bound I can guarantee as opposed to potentially giving harmful wrong information. Can't edit my comment now.

amyjess 11y ago

At my last company, someone wrote a format to encode RDF data in spreadsheets. Google Sheets was our primary tool for configuration and content authoring for way too long. Eventually, he added support for OOXML sheets, too. At some point, a long time later, we started migrating to TTL, and thank goodness for that. The code was all open-sourced, by the way, but I'd rather not link it here because I don't really want this username associated with that company.

morgante 11y ago
> The code was all open-sourced, by the way, but I'd rather not link it here because I don't really want this username associated with that company. Any search clues? It sounds really interesting and I've been exploring the possibility of using spreadsheets as a widely understood authoring tool.
- rch 11y ago
  I've no idea if it's related, but here is one I'm familiar with: https://code.google.com/p/owlpopulous/ https://code.google.com/p/owlpopulous/

realusername 11y ago

> What's next, a database in a spreadsheet? You have no idea, poor innocent soul... :(. I hope you won't touch excel-based databases, it's really awful...

sqlacid 11y ago
I've got the scars, 123, Symphony, Quattro, Paradox, Excel, Access, dBase II, III, IV, Lotus Notes.....OLE!
- kinleyd 11y ago
  Add VisiCalc and TurboCalc to that list and I'll have to say "Yeah, me too!".

semicolondev 11y ago

You might not believe this but my boss builds web app mock-ups using Excel. I was surprised to find that out but it works.

Intermernet 11y ago
Excel is either brilliant or horrible (depending on your role in dealing with the output) at being re-purposed to do "the wrong thing". I've had form templates sent to me in Excel because of the easy-to-use table layout controls. I've had games sent to me in Excel because VBA was so damn easy to program simple ideas in. I've had PoCs of algorithms sent to me in Excel because the graphical chaining of each step is so illustrative. I've also seen the nightmare that haunts businesses who define their business logic through a bunch of interconnected Excel files. As an aside, this seems like an area ripe for "disruption" (remember when "disruption" was a bad word?), which is where tools like excel_to_code could probably make a large impact. If you could validate and test the entire business logic, as expressed in Excel files, you could reduce or eliminate the "Excel defined business rules" nightmare. If you can do this, there are thousands of SMEs that will be knocking at your door. I personally don't use Excel for much, and I used to deride people who used it for "the wrong task", but I've recently had to swallow my pride, and accept that it's a serious power tool for most non-programmer people. I'd even go so far to say that it's the most successful "visual programming" tool out there. And by a long way.

Intermernet 11y ago

Flight simulator? http://www.eeggs.com/items/29841.html http://www.eeggs.com/items/29841.html