> If there is a use case for spreadsheets that is not better served by some real code, I'm interested to hear what it is.
Think of spreadsheets as a convention-over-configuration low-code environment with a tightly coupled GUI for spinning up run-almost-anywhere apps that non-coders can modify. One of the few low-code environments that I actually like.
I'm a solopreneur whose SaaS product I coded from scratch. I love GPPLs, but I also create spreadsheets all the time.
Sometimes that's because of the stage of an idea: There's a new process you've discovered you need, but you don't have time to invest in building/buying/learning a tailor-made solution.
A case in point is a business overview dashboard I built to keep an eye on the metrics I care about. It pulls data from disparate sources using Power Query, which is built into Excel and can pull from databases, APIs, CSVs, etc. There's no hosting infra and no new monthly fee as I already had the Excel license.
Another nice thing about spreadsheets is that today, they're multi-user and real-time collaborative. You can send someone a link and both edit an Excel or Google Docs spreadsheet in the browser with very low ceremony. And if they're on a power user, they can modify the formulas themselves. That's a bad thing for some use cases but a truly great thing for others.
The ubiquity, the local-first option, the tightly coupled GUI, the widely known syntax...those things make spreadsheets very attractive for certain types of projects.
For others, building an app is the right answer. They both have a place.
Think of spreadsheets as a convention-over-configuration low-code environment with a tightly coupled GUI for spinning up run-almost-anywhere apps that non-coders can modify. One of the few low-code environments that I actually like.
I'm a solopreneur whose SaaS product I coded from scratch. I love GPPLs, but I also create spreadsheets all the time.
Sometimes that's because of the stage of an idea: There's a new process you've discovered you need, but you don't have time to invest in building/buying/learning a tailor-made solution.
A case in point is a business overview dashboard I built to keep an eye on the metrics I care about. It pulls data from disparate sources using Power Query, which is built into Excel and can pull from databases, APIs, CSVs, etc. There's no hosting infra and no new monthly fee as I already had the Excel license.
Another nice thing about spreadsheets is that today, they're multi-user and real-time collaborative. You can send someone a link and both edit an Excel or Google Docs spreadsheet in the browser with very low ceremony. And if they're on a power user, they can modify the formulas themselves. That's a bad thing for some use cases but a truly great thing for others.
The ubiquity, the local-first option, the tightly coupled GUI, the widely known syntax...those things make spreadsheets very attractive for certain types of projects.
For others, building an app is the right answer. They both have a place.