Do people really need an alternative to Excel? I would suggest that as soon as someone has gotten to the limits of Excel, then they would start looking at a programming language as an alternative, not at a "more better Excel".
Andrew, have you ever worked in a business environment? People get scared for some humble sql, how the hell are you going to convince them to learn programming (also vba is a problem)? Plus, what about cost/opportunity? Would you prefer to pay 10/20$ per month per person to improve their excel efficiency or either paying custom code or coding training?
Point is, there must be a market out there for some functionalities that Excel does not have, it also should not be that difficult to build such a solution (call it a hunch, but I think with nosql that should be really easy to do). But the whole thing requires stopping thinking logically (of course excel makes no sense) and start thinking business(ly) (how do I get people to understand and use my solution).
You're both right. Spreadsheets are already a (poor) programming paradigm called Functional Reactive. I say it's poor but it does something amazing: it doesn't require structure, planning, and forethought; and it can be used by anyone. The problem is that these constraints pull at each other: make it more powerful and you make it less useful.
I think it's only when you make a complete rewrite from the bottom up in another paradigm that you can extend the power while retaining the usefulness.
'I think it's only when you make a complete rewrite from the bottom up in another paradigm that you can extend the power while retaining the usefulness.'
True, but again, look at the users. People with very poor IT knowledge and very scared of change. Any new solution pointing at this market will have to:1) be as easy to use as excel; 2) much better than excel (why change otherwise?).
I think that being better than excel overall is impossible, but looking into specific businesses and uses it should be.
David, if you have something better than excel in mind, I'll be glad to hear that.
Personally, I have been giving it a lot of thought and I can't come up with a complete better solution. But other (Palo, Hyperion) seems to make money on solutions that do not change the excel paradigma.
The key question is what are the users trying to accomplish with Excel? There may be ways for them to continue to use Excel and gain the benefits of a more complex reporting environment.
The base of users with knowledge of Excel is very large. Most organizations have a built in base of knowledge of Excel. Why swim upstream and go against that. Try to make Excel work in that environment.
Take a look at www.excelcube.com. It may be helpful.
