Re:The Tyranny of Spreadsheets
by kfk on Friday July 23, 2021 @01:43AM
(#27927600)
It is very clear that they are useful but it is also very clear that they can be problematic. In Finance people check each number - multiple times per day - because there is no way to write tests in Excel. Sounds good? Until you can trust the people crunching the numbers, of course. Would you build a bridge like that? Or a building? I think it is worth to talk about this problem and, at the very minimum, inform people there are alternative ways to crunch numbers that are more reliable than Excel.
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Lots of engineering calculations are indeed done in Excel, it's very common.
Re:The Tyranny of Spreadsheets
by benhurmarcel on Friday July 23, 2021 @10:09AM
(#27930803)
> Would you build a bridge like that? Or a building?
That's exactly what's being done. I work in mechanical engineering and Excel is the primary calculation tool all over the industry.