
Implementing Function Spreadsheets (2008) [pdf] - luu
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ab87/31cd70495b715acd33ba683c94c47e88ea14.pdf
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davidpolberger
I'm the co-founder of Calcapp, an app designer for the spreadsheet crowd which
uses Excel-like formulas. I've had hundreds of conversations with potential
users and I have a radically different view of what people find problematic
with spreadsheets than I did at the outset. I thought that people would be
clamoring for version control, unit tests, the ability to define custom
functions and to prevent users from tampering with the formulas and data.
Instead, people are mostly looking to craft better user interfaces with great
usability on mobile and to get into app stores.

I've spent years building calculator apps for healthcare use, where the
certification process essentially requires apps to come with unit tests, so
I'm definitely biased by my past experience. I'm still somewhat surprised that
more people aren't frustrated that spreadsheets make it so hard to build
robust software.

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chha
I see their point, but this is exactly what I'm trying every day to prevent at
work (at least to a certain degree). Way too many people use complex
spreadsheets for business critical tasks where other tools are better suited.

If the concept of shareable libraries of function sheets become a reality,
we're likely to end up in a scenario where corporate IT maintains one software
suite, while the end-users supposed to use that suite ends up using a bunch of
spreadsheets instead, but with no quality control and a backup/VCS resembling
<filename>.backup.xlsx, <filename>.working.xlsx, <filename> (copy).xlsx,
etc....

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cm2187
And I have seen even more often IT systems that take years to build, are
narrowy designed for a very specific purpose, and if anything changes, users
end up reverting to spreadsheets to make up for the shortcomings of a system
that would take many months, lobbying to management (who will always say it's
not the right time to spend money on IT), inexplicably high budgets, etc.

Even very large corporations would grind to a halt if users had to solely rely
on corporate IT.

I have yet to see a system that gives the power and fexibility to the users
like Excel does, but allows for safe and efficient automation.

