I was compelled to explain in a large training session that Excel and MathCAD are not, Not, NOT acceptable tools for performing QL-1 nuclear safety calculations.

I absolutely hate that I have to keep explaining this to degreed engineers doing safety-critical work.

I am going to die on this hill whether I want to or not.

This just makes me want to cry.

Excel is suitable only for tasks less important than Girl Scout cookie sales tracking. Do not bet anything more valuable than a box of Thin Mints on Excel.

@arclight
Excel is not a spreadsheet. Excel is a full-featured virtual machine running a smalltalk-inspired REPL whose display layer happens to resemble a spreadsheet.

Something like a third of the world’s money goes through Excel every single day, and the reason you don’t think Excel is a Real Programming Language is because if we admitted that, we’d have to admit that most of the most important software in the world was written by underpaid women in pink collar jobs, and we can’t have that.

@mhoye @arclight I have long maintained that Excel is the gateway programming language. I had a friend who’d been an “analyst” for years claim that she couldn’t understand hard CS concepts. Until I explained them using the terms they were called in Excel.
@ContextSans This whole thread has been very interesting from where I started reading it. But @ContextSans it would be very interesting to see the Excel to CS comparison that you provided to your friend. You could probably write a book on that. (Note: I am not a developer or advanced Excel user.)
@tmichellemoore I think we talked about truthy variables, data structures (specifically how an array was basically another sheet and how you could refer to it in formulas), and then I think we got into database design and SQL -which are even more relevant but which I’m even less qualified to speak to.
@ContextSans I need to lookup truths variables, but that is understandable. Thank you!! 🙂