Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Thought for the day: spreadsheets have done more computing related to how business (and government and non-profits and schools) run, than any other programming language, including heavy lifters like COBOL or Java. Can I back that up with data? Of course not. But, having worked as a contractor in manufacturing (three different industries), university, advertising, magazine, real estate, gene sequencing, finance, and edutech, I have little doubt.

My preferred tool is python, I use javascript and/or SQL when I need to, I have dabbled in R, I have programmed in legacy applications on mainframes. Spreadsheets are more widely used than any of these, for doing computing that impacts how organizations actually run.



Something I think about all the time: “what is the spreadsheet equivalent for this domain?”


Would it be wrong to say that the language which the spreadsheet software is implemented in is also doing computing related to business?


Hey, it's all Assembler if you go down far enough.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: