Hi there, thanks!
Send your comments here https://forms.gle/A8Q8WAG8zj4sLvwQ7 and put your email in there, I will definitely reach out with updates.
If you're up to it we could even meet sometimes for a coffee!
Tables are something I want to tackle and I'd like to do them right because (as you point out) are crucial. I didn't get there yet...
I want to make it such that you can code on the left and then hide everything
and share that with non technical folks. That's why I did not use a Colab, creating something interactive with it (and I did that quite a lot in the past)
it's a bit of a PITA.
As a well seasoned web developer, when I'm doing front-end, there are always 2 big problems: Data tables and loading indicators (fun way of saying it's hard to tackle lazy loading without a request waterfall).
The second problem has had good attempts in the recent years, but no single web application can beat excel in terms of data tables (while not 100% relevant anymore, I really like the super light introduction here from Joel Spolsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxBg4sMusIg )
I think having to use a tool different than excel is hard because
people have been used to that type of UI for 40 years.
The problem I have is that once you go beyond a simple thing it becomes messy
and you never know what you are dealing with.
The way you present things graphically and they way you organize data
to perform computations are tangled, making hard to read IMO.
no, the real reason is the super wide range of things you can do in 3 clicks that other solution would require you to download external libraries and plugins and/or spend hours implementing it. People can be productive immediately and they never have to learn how to code or waste time configuring the interface and finding third party add-ons.
Simple stuff that you do everyday like sorting data and removing duplicates is probably not difficult to implement by an experienced programmer (eg. in python), but excel has it ready for you and it's a 2 click operation that a complete beginner can figure out on their own with no training, no coding skills and no documentation.
It's the same with Matlab, engineers don't pay for access to the m language, they pay for the toolboxes and the thousands of small QoL details in the UI like importing your data with a quick Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V.
I was hesitant to call it a variable because most people that only use excel are not going to be familiar with that concept. Suggestion for other names?
I feel like disabling editing on mobile entirely might be going too far.
It's obviously your project, so you're free to do whatever you want, but if you prefer focusing on read only mode on phones, maybe you could consider a full screen/toggle mode instead (not split whatsoever - neither vertical nor horizontal), that let's you select editing or viewing mode - and it defaults to off / viewing?
