Let's be clear, this is a type conversion issue for seconds, Excel's not going to start adding up normal numbers strangely.
And the point of this article and the point he's trying to drive home is that it lets non-programmers actually use their computers for computing.
For most businesses a home-brewed excel spreadsheet vs a $50,000 custom program that any of us here wrote?
The harsh reality is that the Excel version written by Jane from accounting who's the Excel whizz or even the smart college temp will probably be better and cheaper than anything we could ever give them.
I do understand what you're saying though, there is a time, place, and trade offs for everything related to computing.
(imho) Most 'businessy' systems can and should start out as spreadsheets, it lets the business people solve the problems with process design, and prove its real-world value without bringing a costly developer in. The developers (like myself) should be there to take the codified mess that results, clean it up, improve usability, bring in more stability, and accountability. - Sadly, that is rarely how things go.
The problem is that by the time they've modified the spreadsheet app to solve issues with process design, workflow, edge cases, it's an unholy mess that nobody wants to touch.
"The harsh reality is that the Excel version written by Jane from accounting who's the Excel whizz or even the smart college temp will probably be better and cheaper than anything we could ever give them."
Too true, but I've always wondered if this is true because visual programming languages have never really been accepted as part of development or because visual programming languages were touted as a replacement for "normal" programming? Maybe it is the bad taste CASE tools left.
Let me restate my thesis because I sense I wasn't clear given your response.
I believe that programmers rejection of visual programming tools has lead to a situation where programmers haven't been able to easily integrate Excel into programmer's workflow in a meaningful way or evolve tools as easy to use as Excel that translate directly to code.
Actually, Excel does add up normal numbers strangely, in that like (that many computer programs) it takes user input in decimal format but stores and operates on it in binary floating point.
Its hardly as if systems that do arithmetic on exact arbitrary-precision decimal (or rational) values and only resort to approximating with binary floating point when an operation requires it haven't been around for decades.
And the point of this article and the point he's trying to drive home is that it lets non-programmers actually use their computers for computing.
For most businesses a home-brewed excel spreadsheet vs a $50,000 custom program that any of us here wrote?
The harsh reality is that the Excel version written by Jane from accounting who's the Excel whizz or even the smart college temp will probably be better and cheaper than anything we could ever give them.