
Show HN: Alphasheets – Write Python, R, and SQL in your spreadsheets - nancyhua
http://www.alphasheets.com
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ystvn
For Python use, what would be the case for using this over something like
xlwings -- what are the main benefits over xlwings?

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alexzhu
xlwings doesn't let you write Python code straight in the cells and have it
immediately Just Work. It requires you to install a plugin and write commands
in a separate file to execute Python. The UX difference is key here.

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asafira
I am friends with one of the cofounders --- these guys have been working hard
on this for a while. It looks great!

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caseyf7
Awesome demo. I've seen a few others with Python but I'm looking forward to
using R with this.

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robocaptain
The demos all look really great!

I got really excited at first, wondering if this all took place inside Excel.
Realizing now that's not quite what is going on here but probably aiming for a
similar experience.

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fiatjaf
You can click on the examples and see and edit the actual sheets behind.

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robocaptain
Thanks. I edited my comment - wasn't able to get through to the spreadsheets
before, but I see what's going on now, I think.

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fiatjaf
That's amazing. How do you do it?

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ESRogs
They'd probably answer, "With Haskell."

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fiatjaf
In fact it is probably all Javascript. The formula editor at the top is an Ace
editor, the spreadsheet itself is based on [https://github.com/openfin/fin-
hypergrid](https://github.com/openfin/fin-hypergrid), which is an incredibly
enourmous piece of software I had never heard of and which I don't understand
at all what it is trying to accomplish, but I can see it renders to canvas.

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zgao
CEO of AlphaSheets here! Javascript is our frontend, but the backend is
Haskell :)

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m_mueller
So the computations are server-side? Or are you doing some Haskell-to-JS-
transpiling?

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alexzhu
Yes, the computations are all done server-side, which lets us parallelize big
computations. It also keeps our thorny evaluation logic crisp and
maintainable, because Haskell. =)

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sandGorgon
what's your opinion on various spreadsheet like JS frameworks like
Handsontable, Crossfilter, NxSheet and fin-hypergrid ?

As someone who has built an internal dashboard using Handsontable, I am yet to
find a truly reactive JS framework for spreadsheets.

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fiatjaf
What do you mean by "truly reactive" in this case?

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sandGorgon
Formulas that get recomputed if the cells are relevant. A spreadsheet is
inherently reactive.

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narayan2016
Very cool. Looks elegant and professional. Good luck to you guys.

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narayan2016
Does this support sharing and collaboration ?

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alexzhu
Yes, it does. Live updating already works (i.e. if A and B have a sheet open
and A updates it, B sees the updates at the same time as A). And you can share
links with others. These features are disabled for the demo, though.

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edimaudo
Looks pretty good. Great job!

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egastfriend
Wow this is awesome!

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dang
You can't put "Show HN" on something that isn't ready for people play with.
Signup pages are explicitly excluded:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html).

When it's ready for people to try out, by all means do a Show HN then. In the
meantime we've taken that out of the title.

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alexzhu
Hey! I'm Alex, a cofounder of AlphaSheets. The three gifs on the page link to
spreadsheets that you can play around with, with a majority of features
already functional. Is that not fair game for Show HN? (I will admit that this
isn't immediately obvious, so I apologize for any resultant confusion.)

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dang
Ah, I missed those. Ok, we've put 'Show HN' back in the title.

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alexzhu
Thanks. :)

