I am, if not a spreadsheet power user, at least a spreadsheet developer, since 1982. Having experienced Visicalc, Multiplan, Lotus and Lotus clones, Quattro and Excel and others, I have come to the sad conclusion that spreadsheet applications have become overdeveloped due to the influence of Microsoft's programming philosophies.
Specifically, Microsoft has demanded that Basic must be used to develop macros in spreadsheets. For this reason, I use Quattro, which is apparently the only spreadsheet to still use Lotus-style spreadsheet macros. The linear style and modular storage of Basic-based macros limit the ability of those users who are NOT programmers to develop useful complex macro routines not only because of the requirement to become a Basic programmer, but because there are actions available in Lotus-style macros that make Basic programming of the same actions a complicated nightmare. In addition, I deplore the loss of database construction and query in contemporary spreadsheet applications. This is another reason I use Quattro. I can create a relatively small database and then query it without knowing SQL or using another application to query the database. What ever happened to "keep it simple"? If one wants to only manage a database, Access or other database applications are great, but if one wants to integrate a small database with spreadsheet functions, you're out of luck. Spreadsheet applications all seem to want to compete with Excel, on the assumption that they can garner a share of the market that Microsoft has pretty much monopolized. As for me, this is wrong-headed, because if you want to grab some market-share, your product should offer something different than Excel; mainly, simplicity. Don't get me wrong, I use Excel for many business applications. It's just that I find that for some of the processes I perform on a daily basis, Excel simply can't perform due its requirement that macros must be developed in Basic and the lack of ability to query a limited internal database. I have downloaded Open Office and find it to be on the path to Excel's blind alley. Too bad. What are needed are some new views of what is really useful to the user, instead of chasing Microsoft's arrogant "my way or the highway" philosophies. D. A. Yablonsky Sr. <mailto:truera...@sbcglobal.net> truetax2...@gmail.com Phone: 951-279-7026 Cell: 951-520-5187
