Re: I'd rather edit my spreadsheet with a text editor

["Kevin Kelleher" <address@hidden>]

Bruce Lewis said:
>
> I don't use spreadsheets myself, but we on this list all know know that
> "first class functions" is a concept that ordinary users will not
> quickly grasp.  A popular spreadsheet could not possibly allow users to
> type in a function in the same place they might type in a number or a
> string.
>

Perhaps rather than call them "functions" we could call them
"things that do something" -- that way no one will be offended.
In Excel, is is possible to type various symbols that cause a particular
cell to display a sum of numbers or more complicated numerical
operations;  other symbols can be typed that make calls to retrieve
content from databases or other sources.

So, a user could type 1300, and the cell would contain that numeric
value; if the column were formatted as text, it would be treated
as nonnumeric characters; if the column were formatted as time,
it would be 1PM, and so on.

If instead -- to take the simplest example, the user types
"=SUM(E1:E23)" the cell would display the sum of the values
in column E, rows 1-23.

What other writers have indicated would be useful would be a
way of accessing this material in a text editor.

-- 
Kevin Kelleher <kkell@znet.com>