[ExI] mit's answer to the stanford ai class

[Kelly Anderson]

On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 8:47 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
>
>>... On Behalf Of Kelly Anderson
>
> Ja.  Excel is really good for what excel is designed to do, like a golf
> cart.  You can't convert it to a race car, it isn't a good highway cruiser.
> But it has its uses, and in that narrow scope it is better than a race car
> or a Lincoln Towncar.  Yes we know there are people who have no drivers'
> license, who can operate a golf cart and get the job done with it, even if
> not as well as the alternatives.
>
> Excel interfaces well with the mind, or rather some minds.  I hope we
> eventually figure out a way to create something analogous to a
> spreadsheet/macro programming environment with some kind of software
> meta-tool that somehow reads one's spreadsheet and macro code, then figures
> out what the silly prole wanted to do, then generates the code to do it.

The one thing that Excel REALLY needs is the ability to reference live
data from the Internet. I worked for three years on a project that did
just that, but then things fell apart, and the project seems to be
dead. Nevertheless, hyper references in spread sheet cells would do
for spreadsheets what hyperlinks did for documents. Some day, someone
will implement it right and not give up on the idea!

-Kelly