I don't have time now, but David has given me some great ideas on how
he uses macros. Anyone interested should ask for details.
It's nice to see an intelligent end user making detailed suggestions.
Again, I won't work on this now due to it's size, but I would like
oocalc to have a simpler macro language modeled on older ones which
makes macros easy for the savvy, but non-programmer user.
Sincerely,
Fred
On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 12:29 PM, Rob Weir robw...@apache.org wrote:
On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 1:40 PM, David A Yablonsky Sr
truetax2...@gmail.com wrote:
I am, if not a spreadsheet power user, at least a spreadsheet developer,
since 1982. Having experienced Visicalc, Multiplan, Lotus and Lotus clones,
Quattro and Excel and others, I have come to the sad conclusion that
spreadsheet applications have become overdeveloped due to the influence of
Microsoft's programming philosophies.
Specifically, Microsoft has demanded that Basic must be used to develop
macros in spreadsheets. For this reason, I use Quattro, which is apparently
the only spreadsheet to still use Lotus-style spreadsheet macros.
I remember reading in Computer Languages magazine (now defunct)
around 1992 or so, the results of a survey of the most-common
programming languages use in businesses. It was not COBOL, C or
BASIC. The winner was the 1-2-3 macro language. That language
enabled end-user programming (or scripting, or whatever you want to
call it). You are right that today's apps concentrate more on
capabilities for the professional programmer.
I don't think this is because we're chasing after Excel. Personally,
I think it is because these interfaces tend to be developed by
professional programmers. So they tend to meet the needs of
professional programmers. Of course if we had always thought like
that we wouldn't even have spreadsheets, since the spreadsheet itself,
even without macros, is the tool that brought power to the masses, in
the form of spreadsheet formulas.
In any case, thanks for the reminder that end-user/power-user
capabilities short of programming are important.
Regards,
-Rob
The linear style and modular storage of Basic-based macros limit the ability
of those users who are NOT programmers to develop useful complex macro
routines not only because of the requirement to become a Basic programmer,
but because there are actions available in Lotus-style macros that make
Basic programming of the same actions a complicated nightmare.
In addition, I deplore the loss of database construction and query in
contemporary spreadsheet applications. This is another reason I use Quattro.
I can create a relatively small database and then query it without knowing
SQL or using another application to query the database. What ever happened
to keep it simple? If one wants to only manage a database, Access or other
database applications are great, but if one wants to integrate a small
database with spreadsheet functions, you're out of luck.
Spreadsheet applications all seem to want to compete with Excel, on the
assumption that they can garner a share of the market that Microsoft has
pretty much monopolized. As for me, this is wrong-headed, because if you
want to grab some market-share, your product should offer something
different than Excel; mainly, simplicity. Don't get me wrong, I use Excel
for many business applications. It's just that I find that for some of the
processes I perform on a daily basis, Excel simply can't perform due its
requirement that macros must be developed in Basic and the lack of ability
to query a limited internal database. I have downloaded Open Office and find
it to be on the path to Excel's blind alley. Too bad. What are needed are
some new views of what is really useful to the user, instead of chasing
Microsoft's arrogant my way or the highway philosophies.
D. A. Yablonsky Sr.
mailto:truera...@sbcglobal.net truetax2...@gmail.com
Phone: 951-279-7026
Cell: 951-520-5187
