[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoin...
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Ask HN: What are your most common tasks and painpoints in
spreadsheet software?
Through a hobby project I've ended up implementing a spreadsheet
app with support for lots of file formats (csv, tsv, json, ndjson,
sqlite). The formula engine uses JS (e.g. the formula
`max($('A1:A9'))` equals to excel formula `MAX(A1:A9)`. I also have
a CLI which is capable of executing those JS formulas on files
without the GUI. It has been fun to code but I don't know where to
take this project (if anywhere). Turning it into a polished app
requires a significant time investment still. Therefore I was
wondering if there's some specific painpoints in the spreadsheet
world that I could fix and provide a solution to the world via this
app, since I have a solid starting point with it.
Author : marttilaine
Score : 6 points
Date : 2024-01-15 13:20 UTC (9 hours ago)
| zero-sharp wrote:
| Getting Excel to interact directly with MySQL is ugly. Querying
| freezes up Excel because it's single threaded? I don't know how
| to overcome that problem.
|
| Also I wish there was a spreadsheet software that was more
| closely connected with something modern like Python. I want to be
| able to lean on Python to perform calculation while I have a
| particular spreadsheet open. Maybe even insert Python code into
| cells. That's difficult to do with Excel. I have experimented
| with LibreOffice Calc, and it may be possible there.
|
| VBA is okay for writing simple functions & macros. But I don't
| like using VBA for anything more complicated than that. Maybe I
| haven't taken enough time to learn it. But at the same time I
| feel like I'm creating hacks for a language which should already
| have the features I want. Somewhat related: you'll see people
| online recommending that you set your objects to Nothing in order
| for the garbage collection to work. I have no way of knowing if I
| actually have to do that and I don't like doing things for no
| reason.
| daneel951 wrote:
| Have you tried PYXLL (https://www.pyxll.com/)?
|
| Is a commercial product to use Python inside Excel.
| zero-sharp wrote:
| I think you have to pay for it and I work for a small
| business.
| apothegm wrote:
| My biggest pain point is inability (as in refusal, not failure)
| to open files with more than N rows even if plenty of memory is
| available. (I forget what the exact value of N is.) Especially
| annoyingly, this limitation didn't seem to exist 20 years ago.
| daneel951 wrote:
| Power Pivot Excel add-inshould be able to manage million of
| rows.
|
| See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/data-model-
| specif... and https://support.microsoft.com/en-
| us/office/create-a-memory-e...
| apothegm wrote:
| First off, that article seems to be specific to web versions
| and pivot tables. Secondly, yeah, a few million rows isn't
| that much for some use cases. I have at times needed support
| for mid 9 figures.
| brudgers wrote:
| _Turning it into a polished app requires a significant time
| investment still._
|
| Excel is the standard for a "polished" spreadsheet. It has been
| in development for about 40 years (since it was released in 1985)
| and has had the resources the most valuable company in the world
| can put into a flagship cash cow application.
|
| It's-not-Excel is the primary pain point for all spreadsheet
| applications.
|
| Documentation, training, third-party how-to's, etc. are one of
| the important ways that It's-not-Excel spreadsheets cause pain.
|
| OK, sure the price of Excel is also a pain point and proprietary
| licenses are also one. But there might be very reasonable reasons
| for not focusing on users who prioritize those. Or not.
|
| And Google Sheets and the Apple office suite already cost zero
| dollars, so there's that too.
|
| Good luck.
| edlinfan wrote:
| > Javascript
|
| A quick note: your spreadsheet had better support arbitrary-
| precision currency math, if it doesn't already. That's table
| stakes for a spreadsheet.
|
| To answer your real question, I'd suggest doubling down on the
| sqlite side and taking things in a relational direction.
| Spreadsheets are good at tracking 1:1 or 1:many relationships,
| but my spreadsheets inevitably grow in a many:many direction and
| I find myself wishing for queries and junction tables.
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