It is a grey area, spreadsheets are great but at some point you are building a mammoth with it. I also find Excel, and Google Sheets outdated on its own "form-factor".
It would be great to hear from the HN community about ways to improve spreadsheets. For example, adding new types and easier integrations with other systems. Also having views/forms. Lotus Notes was revolutionary in this aspect. Excel is the measure because they have a good engine. Probably we need to create a great DAG engine and put the spreadsheet over it.
It would be great to hear from the HN community about ways to improve spreadsheets.
I’m working on this! Very early days so far, and I have nothing much to show for it yet, but I do have some ideas on integrating static type inference and proper data structures into spreadsheets. My initial prototype is at [0]: it’s horrifically buggy in just about every way (don’t even try to get it working!), but the screenshot should give some idea of what I’m thinking should be possible.
The tables are sqlite tables, so the schema has to be rigid, while I think they also offer views that allow you to make more user-friendly views. They also let you run Python inside the formula
Probably we need to create a great DAG engine and put the spreadsheet over it.
Why a DAG? You might want recursion. We have pretty great computational models already, I think that what you're talking about is an interface into such a model (a statically typed language) through a spreadsheet like interface, which isn't totally revolutionary.
The problem is making something that can unseat a behemoth like Excel. The only things that seem to have made a dent are Sheets (on price) and services that unbundle Excel into no-code/low-code products where you make your money by not being as powerful.
Comments
It is a grey area, spreadsheets are great but at some point you are building a mammoth with it. I also find Excel, and Google Sheets outdated on its own "form-factor".
It would be great to hear from the HN community about ways to improve spreadsheets. For example, adding new types and easier integrations with other systems. Also having views/forms. Lotus Notes was revolutionary in this aspect. Excel is the measure because they have a good engine. Probably we need to create a great DAG engine and put the spreadsheet over it.
I’m working on this! Very early days so far, and I have nothing much to show for it yet, but I do have some ideas on integrating static type inference and proper data structures into spreadsheets. My initial prototype is at [0]: it’s horrifically buggy in just about every way (don’t even try to get it working!), but the screenshot should give some idea of what I’m thinking should be possible.
[0] https://github.com/bradrn/nexo
There's https://pyspread.gitlab.io/, which uses python. On the more programmable side you've got Jupyter with https://github.com/ipyflow/ipyflow and https://github.com/fonsp/Pluto.jl.
Grist looks similar, and also interesting: https://www.getgrist.com/
The tables are sqlite tables, so the schema has to be rigid, while I think they also offer views that allow you to make more user-friendly views. They also let you run Python inside the formula
Why a DAG? You might want recursion. We have pretty great computational models already, I think that what you're talking about is an interface into such a model (a statically typed language) through a spreadsheet like interface, which isn't totally revolutionary.
The problem is making something that can unseat a behemoth like Excel. The only things that seem to have made a dent are Sheets (on price) and services that unbundle Excel into no-code/low-code products where you make your money by not being as powerful.
I thought a general purpose spreadsheet language would exist. Would be cool to see programs 'operate', visually