
An Ode to Excel: 34 Years of Magic - zdw
https://blog.stephsmith.io/history-of-excel/
======
garyclarke27
Excel is great, it is still Microsoft’s best product, (in contrast to Word
which is an abomination). However I am very disappointed with Microsoft’s lack
of investment in Excel, over the past 10 years it has hardly improved. eg the
VBA code editor is appalling, like a relic from the 1980’s (constrast VS
Code). I use tables extensively (they are quite nice) problem is they require
extensive use of Index/Match which becomes tedious to set up and is very slow,
so manual update soon becomes obligatory. MS should incorporate some of the
Power BI linking (think Foreign Keys) capability to overcome this big problem.
Would be nice if they added SQL,instead of always making up their own query
language language (eg M). Sumifs Countifs functions offer powerful and
essential capability that could also be better done with SQL syntax. Excel is
very error prone so Unique row constraints on tables or sheets would be handy.
The formula editor is also archaic and could be easily improved dramatically.
Yes - Excel is Fun - what an awesome YouTube channel, that guy’s enthusiasm
for Excel is extraordinary.

~~~
_eLRIC
It's not as poweful as SQL, but the new array functions bring some fresh air

[https://blog-insider.office.com/2019/06/13/dynamic-arrays-
an...](https://blog-insider.office.com/2019/06/13/dynamic-arrays-and-new-
functions-in-excel/)

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stephsmithio
I had so much fun writing this so it was super nice to run into it while
browsing HN.

I think there's a lot we can all learn from the history of Excel (arguably the
most bulletproof software of the past few decades), particularly in the age of
crazy valuations and unicorns.

Curious to know what more recent software people think will hold up to the
test of time, like Excel has?

~~~
unixhero
Good question!

I'd nominate: Postgres

~~~
IloveHN84
Postgres isn't recent at all.

I would say HashiCorp Terraform and Vault

~~~
unixhero
Fair enough. I didn't catch the recent requirement. Well Postgres keeps on
evolving with recent features, every major version brings something new and
great.

No disagreementa with nominating Terraform :).

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SanchoPanda
A lot of the backwards compatability is jaw-dropping. Some things that were
intended to be deprecated what feels like forever ago still work. [1] I also
regularly uncover brilliant bits of spreadsheet design looking at documents
made one or more decades ago. Even some old school tricks in those sheets
still help me do new things. For example the (internet explorer exclusive)
right click to export to excel is still among the most reliable ways to
extract data that otherwise won't play nice.

However I wish speed was higher on the priority list. For big sheets with lots
of calculations Excel 2016 was SLOW. Slower than 2013 by a fair margin, and
actually slower than binary based sheets on 2003 by A LOT. [2] [3] [4] Excel
was my default calculator on my computer for years. But it just starts too
slow now. Foreign language support is weird in that regard. [5]. And on a
personal note, I'm still bitter about the ribbon.

[1] Though some dissapear, you will be kinda missed, default Powerview

[2] [https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-
US/8b2a498c-a...](https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-
US/8b2a498c-ac63-40b1-937e-a9e5952ae5d9/massive-performance-decline-since-
excel-2003-any-suggestions?forum=excel)

[3]
[http://dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2015/04/07/excel-2013-v...](http://dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2015/04/07/excel-2013-vba-
unreasonably-slow/)

[4] My own experience, for what it's worth.

[5] [https://professor-excel.com/performance-excel-study/](https://professor-
excel.com/performance-excel-study/)

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listenallyall
Microsoft did 3 very smart things that elevated Excel from 0% to 100% market
share:

1) Early versions were (or felt) Windows-native. Due to the Mac roots, Excel
felt integrated with Windows 3 and GUI right when people and companies were
switching from MS-DOS to Windows. Lotus 123 never really got that feel right,
its early Windows versions just seemed inferior to the old DOS versions, it
just felt out of place on Windows.

2) 1-2-3 compatible keystrokes. Made it easy for people to switch.

3) Bundling with Office. In the 80s you bought WordPerfect, and 1-2-3, and
maybe FoxPro or something for simple databases. Office gave you everything in
one inexpensive box. In fact, Word vs WordPerfect was even a bigger contrast
than Excel vs 1-2-3, since Word had a WYSIWYG interface that simply blew
WordPerfect out of the water.

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qubex
I’ve always despised spreadsheets... the confusion between input data, methods
of calculation, and output is absolutely foul.

I hung on to Lotus Improv as long as I could, and then opted for Quantrix
Modeller, and now do most of my stuff in a combination of locally hosted SQL
and Mathematica.

What kind of broken paradigm allows for an errant keystroke to break the flow
of a calculation? Or allowing data to go stale, only to break the calculation
when you refresh and get back more rows than you previously had?

~~~
tryitnow
Right tool for the job.

Sometimes it absolutely makes sense to have input/calc/output on the same
"sheet" or set of "sheets."

Unfortunately, most people don't know how to set up a spreadsheet in a way
that makes this work (clearly delineating the input/calc/output sections with
data validation, formatting, protection etc).

Of course, if you were to make a solution that "forced" these choices on the
user they'll cry about losing their freedom.

So we are stuck with spreadsheets in many cases.

And then there are the cases where using a spreadsheet makes no sense. I'd say
it's about 50/50: Half the stuff currently done in spreadsheets makes sense,
half of it would be better done elsewhere.

I've managed to move more than half of our previous spreadsheet workload out
of spreadsheets and into more appropriate software systems.

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barbarbar
One question - wasn't Lotus-123 the first spreadsheet application or was it
made at same time?

Edit: I should the article more carefully.

~~~
stephsmithio
The chronological order was VisiCalc, then Lotus123, then Excel. Microsoft had
a spreadsheet tool called Multiplan during the era of Lotus123, but it didn't
get much traction.

~~~
barbarbar
An excellent article you wrote. Great with all the details.

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stephsmithio
Thank you!

