Any other program languages as simple as spreadsheets like excel?
- Thread starter Harry0
- Start date
Harry0
Member
All good pointed stated. So it seems excel is #1 in simplicity... but what would be #2 to make a simple game?
It's not like excel can make apps since it does not have an export option. If their was something as simple as excel and not as hard as C (as an example) that can make apps what would be it?
Thanks
It's not like excel can make apps since it does not have an export option. If their was something as simple as excel and not as hard as C (as an example) that can make apps what would be it?
Thanks
Peter Bartholomew
Well-Known Member
A feature of Excel as an example of End User Computing is that it allows inexperienced end users to generate very bad code exceptionally quickly. The major plus is that it [sometimes] gets their job done without even needing to recognise the solution they generate as code.
I would assess an Excel solution in exactly the same way as I would code and, left to itself, both macro recorder and spreadsheet formulas produce highly suspect code. How could it be otherwise; Excel is building a record of your actions, not your intentions. It has no knowledge of your intentions or of the business domain to which you will apply the solution, so normal coding criterial such as: 'Have the variables been declared?'; 'Is this reference in bounds?'; inevitably fail [unless the developer has adopted highly non-standard strategies such as declaring names and using multi-cell array formulas in place of 'fill-down'].
Both worksheet formula solution and macro-recorder solutions can be made more formal and structured (in the latter case including elements of OOP) but that does run counter to the original intention of spreadsheeting. Equally some scripting and even compiled languages allow the programmer to work intuitively with no pre-defined variables [the user could introduce variable names (A1, A2, A3 ,...) sequentially and on the fly]. Just as the spreadsheet supports just about any layout, it is possible to achieve much the same effect in code through the generous and liberal use of GOTO.
I contend that the issue of whether Excel is code [or whether it is Turin complete] is something of a moot point; the resulting workbooks need to be assessed and audited as code.
I would assess an Excel solution in exactly the same way as I would code and, left to itself, both macro recorder and spreadsheet formulas produce highly suspect code. How could it be otherwise; Excel is building a record of your actions, not your intentions. It has no knowledge of your intentions or of the business domain to which you will apply the solution, so normal coding criterial such as: 'Have the variables been declared?'; 'Is this reference in bounds?'; inevitably fail [unless the developer has adopted highly non-standard strategies such as declaring names and using multi-cell array formulas in place of 'fill-down'].
Both worksheet formula solution and macro-recorder solutions can be made more formal and structured (in the latter case including elements of OOP) but that does run counter to the original intention of spreadsheeting. Equally some scripting and even compiled languages allow the programmer to work intuitively with no pre-defined variables [the user could introduce variable names (A1, A2, A3 ,...) sequentially and on the fly]. Just as the spreadsheet supports just about any layout, it is possible to achieve much the same effect in code through the generous and liberal use of GOTO.
I contend that the issue of whether Excel is code [or whether it is Turin complete] is something of a moot point; the resulting workbooks need to be assessed and audited as code.
Peter Bartholomew
Well-Known Member
I am not so convinced. In some of the solutions I have written, it is not that obvious they are build on Excel.
https://www.spreadsheet1.com/2048-game-version-for-excel.html
https://www.spreadsheet1.com/fifa-world-cup-2018-russia-free-prediction-templates-for-excel.html
Reviewers at PerfectXL stated
https://www.perfectxl.com/best-excel-world-cup-pool-competition/results/
Take it with a pinch of salt but the idea is there.
Distribution of a solution built on Excel is usually through replication rather than cloud-based 'appification' but it achieves much the same goal. The world cup template was downloaded over 150,000 times.
My definition of 'complexity' is 'simplicity in excessive quantities'.
Many spreadsheets resemble haystacks in that regard.