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Comment by asimjalis | Hacker News Reader

Here are some features that would be nice in Excel:

  1. Programmability in something other than VBA (Python?).
  2. Online spreadsheets like Google.
  3. Better search and replace.
  4. Ability to reference tables through URLs so they could show up in blogs and in HTML.
     Something like this: http://ycspreadsheets.com/joe/doc1.ss?s=1&block=a1:c10. This
     should produce HTML that some javascript can replace in my blog with the table pulled
     out of the spreadsheet.
  5. Ability to pull and reference data dynamically from online sources. For example,
     imagine a spreadsheet cell that pulled the current stock price of GOOG every time it
     was viewed. And the rest of the spreadsheet would naturally update automatically.

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1. Already doable to a significant extent http://www.google.com/search?q=excel+python

2. Well, Google does this :)

3. Follows from 1.

4. Good idea, but why not just use this: http://www.google.com/search?q=spreadsheet+widget

Or http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=55244...

5. Already easily doable in Excel http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6115870.h...

In Google Spreadsheet, just use: =GoogleFinance("GOOG"; "price")

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And I hope Google is working on a REPL for Google Docs where you can interactively run any language on your spreadsheet. :-)

Can't you accomplish #2 via Sharepoint or Office Online? I know there are some options if you click Windows Logo > Publish in Excel 2007.

I think so. But I don't think the published spreadsheet can be edited online.

Actually a repl might be just the thing in a spreadsheet.

I just learned that this sort of exists: http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/doc/sect-extending-python...

[ credit : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=430129 ]

2. The next version of Excel will be online. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_14)

I thought number 5 was already possible in excel :/

It is already possible in Excel, but it is very poorly documented.

I have a few sheets that I use which pull from a non-ODBC URL using http. It populates a range of cells with new data automatically each time the spreadsheet is opened. (on a Mac too).

"Programmability in something other than VBA (Python?)."

Resolver One is a spreadsheet that has that: http://www.resolversystems.com/products/programmability.php

OpenOffice Calc has some kind of Python programmability too, though I don't know how good it is.

"Ability to pull and reference data dynamically from online sources. For example, imagine a spreadsheet cell that pulled the current stock price of GOOG every time it was viewed. And the rest of the spreadsheet would naturally update automatically."

Yes. This feature implemented well would create a really cool app. What would be even more interesting would a situation where several different sheets could pull data from each using a clever protocol to avoid the churning of values. Imagine different enterprises which each had online sheets describing their current production abilities and current supply needs. With a clever protocol, their production processes be semi-automatically coordinated (and remember, semi-automatic, some throttling is necessary to prevent self-referential cells from feeding back in an unhelpful way).

Could the "clever protocol" simply be: refresh the numbers when the user refreshes a page?

The issue with this is that Excel refreshes the active workbook by default after every change. Any quant or someone dealing with huge sheets of formulas learn that you can change this behavior to default to refresh via shift+F9 (I think)

That's for local changes. I think what we're talking about here is a sheet (at one URL) referencing a completely different sheet (at some other URL). The equivalent in Excel, I suppose, would be one .xls file referencing another.

#1 is possible using COM automation. You can write an app that interfaces with Excel via COM, or integrate your own functionality into Excel by developing a COM add-in.

#5 can be done in Excel by implementing an RTD server (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP030662371033.aspx). An interesting example is here: http://fransking.blogspot.com/2007/03/yfquotertd-real-time-d...

#1 is really important - VBA is an awful language.

My two cents: add support for arbitrary precision math. Sometimes you need it, and when you do, you really need it.

(1) can be done with Visual Studio Tools for Office: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Studio_Tools_for_Office

what about being able to specify linear algebraic manipulations of part of the spread sheets, that would go a long way to make many things easier (sort of a mini matlab, but done right)

There is an equation tool in Excel for this purpose.

Gnumeric is programmable in Python

Awesome! Thanks.

http://projects.gnome.org/gnumeric/doc/sect-extending-python...

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