One annoyance I find with current spreadsheet notation is formulas, in general, are not aware of the range of cells over which they operate. So, if I'm summing a column of numbers and append more numbers to the bottom of the column (I usually write my summary information at the top of a sheet as this is more convenient), it's easy to get it wrong if I forget to adjust the formula or adjust it incorrectly.
Also, to do something as trivial as reversing the rows of a table, you need to resort to nonsense like this (from http://excel.tips.net/Pages/T002653_Flipping_Data.html): Sub FlipRows() Dim vTop As Variant Dim vEnd As Variant Dim iStart As Integer Dim iEnd As Integer Application.ScreenUpdating = False iStart = 1 iEnd = Selection.Rows.Count Do While iStart < iEnd vTop = Selection.Rows(iStart) vEnd = Selection.Rows(iEnd) Selection.Rows(iEnd) = vTop Selection.Rows(iStart) = vEnd iStart = iStart + 1 iEnd = iEnd - 1 Loop Application.ScreenUpdating = True End Sub I imagine there is potential for good use of J with a spreadsheet to combine the advantages of both - but I'm not sure how to approach it. On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 10:38 AM, Raul Miller <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, May 20, 2010 at 8:58 AM, Brian Schott <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Your comment about spreadsheets being scalar seems > > to off the mark a little to me, because there are plenty of > > spreadsheet formulae that refer to cell ranges, such as > > Excel's SUM(A1:E4). > > In that case, you are producing a scalar result. Granted, > you are using a range expression but when you go examine > that range, it is composed of 20 independent scalars which > you have selected from a larger batch of scalars. > > ... > -- > Raul > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Devon McCormick, CFA ^me^ at acm. org is my preferred e-mail ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
