Re:Ask HN: Excel experts – Formula IDE in Excel (MVP screens...
by damian_r on Wednesday July 29, 2015 @10:35AM
(#9968876)
Thanks for this perspective.
As a programmer I haven't actually thought much about how important this link between a cell in a grid and its formula may be.
I have seen huge (i mean HUGE) Excel files full of complex formulas being built by non-programmers. Some even took whole night to recalculate. There was a programmers mindset emerging from those files - extracting common formulas to separate cells (DRY), writing 'unit' tests by using formatting (if result for sample input is less than 0 then make the cell red - which means someone broke the formula).
The question arises - is there a point where a non-programmer starts thinking like a programmer, on a different level of abstraction? Is it possible to teach non-programmers some basic programming practices to make their work easier?
As a programmer I haven't actually thought much about how important this link between a cell in a grid and its formula may be.
I have seen huge (i mean HUGE) Excel files full of complex formulas being built by non-programmers. Some even took whole night to recalculate. There was a programmers mindset emerging from those files - extracting common formulas to separate cells (DRY), writing 'unit' tests by using formatting (if result for sample input is less than 0 then make the cell red - which means someone broke the formula).
The question arises - is there a point where a non-programmer starts thinking like a programmer, on a different level of abstraction? Is it possible to teach non-programmers some basic programming practices to make their work easier?