QuoteOriginally posted by: IdeaGuyI'd like to describe a killer app that unfortunately no longer exists. Although this particular product was spreadsheet oriented, its essential features are, I think, generalizable. The product was called 3-2-1 GoSub, and it was an add-in to Lotus 1-2-3. Once installed, this product allowed the user to create a spreadsheet, to select and designate certain cells as input cells and others as output cells, and then name that spreadsheet as a function that could be used in other spreadsheets. A spreadsheet that calculates taxes, for example, can be quite complex. But 3-2-1 GoSub allowed one to create a complex spreadsheet that would make these calculations, and create a function from that spreadsheet.The important principle here is that this product eliminated the necessity of learning how to create a spreadsheet and then having to learn yet another programming language (e.g., VBA) to perform more complex calculations or create new functions. Moreover, the spreadsheets created by 3-2-1 GoSub could be compiled, and so execute very quickly. The result was a tool far superior to Lotus' scripting language, which is similar to VBA in many respects. In effect, function spreadsheets created in 3-2-1 GoSub were like subroutines in a procedural programming language, and constituted building blocks for creating extremely sophisticated working models. The essential principle here, which may prove useful once again, is taking tools that already exist and enormously leveraging their usefulness by making them generalizable.Check out www.turboexcel.com

QuoteOriginally posted by: DCFCSo what you're saying is that it takes formulae, and converts them to imperative code iin (say) VB or C++ ?ie a1:: =a2 * a3a2:: =7a3:: =8b1:: =a1+1is mapped to the vbaa3=8a2=7a1= a2+a3b1=a1+1This is bog standard compiler stuff, any decent CompSci grad should be able to this.Ever heard of Turbo Excel? http://www.turboexcel.com/QuoteDevelop C++ subroutines 10 times faster. No debugging. No testing.Have you ever written a program that worked on the first try? Neither have we. As any programmer knows, 90% of the time spent writing code is not writing the algorithm, it's debugging and testing. And debugging again. And testing again.TurboExcel breaks this cycle once and for all, giving you the ability to write perfect C++ programs instantly, on the first try. What's the secret? TurboExcel lets you use Excel to code in C++. Simply design your algorithm in an Excel spreadsheet, push a button, and TurboExcel will instantly convert your spreadsheet into a C++ subroutine that's error free and immediately usable. No more debugging. No more testing. No more screaming at the computer.

If you are tired of Excel and its cryptic formula writing system (C2 = A1+B2) then you want to take a look at the Quantrix Modeler:QuantrixQuantrix uses the the same paradigm like Lotus Improv. This approach allows the user to write the formulas in natural language like 'Profit = Sales - Cost'. It can be compared to the Pivot Tables in Excel but is more powerful and user friendly.The formula system in Quantrix is very sophisticated and less programming is necessary. You can add new functionality and functions as plugins with Eclipse/Java. Quantrix is fully developed in Java and available for Windows (including Vista) and Mac. Short and incomplete feature list:- Built-in financial, mathematical and statistical functions- Charting - Printing (including notes and formulas of a model)- Exporting to Excel, HTML and csv- Database connections (Pro version only)- Web Services (Pro version only)- Import (XML, csv, Lotus Improv files)- Extending the application by using the Quantrix API (Pro version only)- Audit Trail (Pro version only)The current version is 2.4 and v3.0 will be released soon (within the next two months).I am a power user of Quantrix Professional and not affiliated with this company. Dominik

QuoteOriginally posted by: DCFCIn my opionion the solution is to have an internal whorehouse that will rent you bodies by the hour. You can specialists in to do their thing, and concentrate on what you're good at. They pass on good engineering practice and tips.They also have a chance to spot that several teams have need of a common solution.Interestingly, my current employer tried this out, the 'crack-team' of coders. It failed, mainly because the senior engineers knew it was a load of shit and sothey only got new hires who knew very little. They ended up fixing bugs for a few years.

QuoteOriginally posted by: semanticumQuantrix uses the the same paradigm like Lotus Improv. This approach allows the user to write the formulas in natural language like 'Profit = Sales - Cost'. It can be compared to the Pivot Tables in Excel but is more powerful and user friendly.As a user of Lotus Notes, I wouldn't try to use this a selling point.

QuoteOriginally posted by: dirtydroogQuoteOriginally posted by: semanticumQuantrix uses the the same paradigm like Lotus Improv. This approach allows the user to write the formulas in natural language like 'Profit = Sales - Cost'. It can be compared to the Pivot Tables in Excel but is more powerful and user friendly.As a user of Lotus Notes, I wouldn't try to use this a selling point.I wrote 'Lotus Improv' not 'Lotus Notes'. You can't compare these two products. Run 'Lotus Improv' on Google to get more information.For a quick start: Lotus Improv on WikipediaDominik

QuoteOriginally posted by: semanticumIf you are tired of Excel and its cryptic formula writing system (C2 = A1+B2) then you want to take a look at the Quantrix Modeler:QuantrixQuantrix uses the the same paradigm like Lotus Improv. This approach allows the user to write the formulas in natural language like 'Profit = Sales - Cost'. It can be compared to the Pivot Tables in Excel but is more powerful and user friendly.Excel does let you say "Sales - Cost" though it won't let you type the word "profit" before the equals, since it knows based on where you are when you type it. Admittedly, you do need to define which locations sales and cost refer to, if you're writing the formulas in a sheet as opposed to VBA.The notion of location that is inherent in Excel may seeem unnatural on paper compared to the Quantrix approach, though in practice being able to click on a cell to reference it in a formula is pretty convenient too. I don't know of any programmer's editors which allow you to click on a variable name and have it be copied into the current line being edited, without doing a manual copy and paste, and somehow returning to your original spot in the editor for the paste. I suspect this feature doesn't exist because it wouldn't be considered too useful.I think the biggest drawback of Excel formulas compared to higher level languages is the difficulty in specifying a loop of indeterminate iteration size. An example of this would be taking a weighted average of N numbers, where N is different each time the calculation is done. In the spreadsheet you'd have a range of a fixed size, with "if" statements to make sure the calculations aren't affected when not all the cells need to be used, while C, Java or VBA wold just have a loop with an upper bound that is an input to the function.This may be offset by the debugging advantage Excel provides at showing you a large data window with a small code window (including seeing all the iterations of an unrolled loop at once), as opposed to high level languages which do it the other way around. For example, in a code debugger you have to manually put a watch on each variable to see how they change as execution proceeds, and if there's a loop you have to step through it one iteration at a time to watch the variables change. This is very slow and cumbersome. In Excel (assuming you're not doing iterations with circular references), each variable has a single value, and loops are unrolled as ranges (element 1 in row i, element 2 in row i+1, etc.). So if there's a bug you look over the cell values until you find the ones that are incorrect, and look at the values that drive that formula to see if they are incorrect, and so on. It's like you have a snapshot of the entire calculation, and the bad cells often pop right out at you. We've found this to lead to much more efficient debugging. This advantage is greatest when the spreadsheet is relatively small, and makes it worthwhile to build spreadsheets from small reusable components like addins.Also, our product Calc4Web (formerly TurboExcel) can in some instances like the weighted average example allow you to easily create a loop of indeterminate iteration size in a spreadsheet, as well, mitigating some of the advantages of high level languages.

Does Calc4web do multi threading like modern Excel ?