Show HN: Alphasheets – Write Python, R, and SQL in your spreadsheets

ystvn 10 years ago |

For Python use, what would be the case for using this over something like xlwings -- what are the main benefits over xlwings?

alexzhu 10 years ago | |

xlwings doesn't let you write Python code straight in the cells and have it immediately Just Work. It requires you to install a plugin and write commands in a separate file to execute Python. The UX difference is key here.

zgao 10 years ago | |

Also if you want shared sheets.

asafira 10 years ago |

I am friends with one of the cofounders --- these guys have been working hard on this for a while. It looks great!

caseyf7 10 years ago |

Awesome demo. I've seen a few others with Python but I'm looking forward to using R with this.

robocaptain 10 years ago |

The demos all look really great!

I got really excited at first, wondering if this all took place inside Excel. Realizing now that's not quite what is going on here but probably aiming for a similar experience.

fiatjaf 10 years ago | |

It's impossible to do these things inside Excel, I guess. Things like xlwings or https://www.blockspring.com/ try to make Excel better, but there are way too much assumptions going down there.

The experience with "objects" with the Blockspring add-in, for example, is terrible terrible.

alexzhu 10 years ago | |

We're taking that as a compliment. From talking to users, a key piece of feedback we've gotten was that the experience of using AlphaSheets has to be really similar to that of using Excel.

fiatjaf 10 years ago | |

You can click on the examples and see and edit the actual sheets behind.

robocaptain 10 years ago | | |

Thanks. I edited my comment - wasn't able to get through to the spreadsheets before, but I see what's going on now, I think.

fiatjaf 10 years ago |

That's amazing. How do you do it?

ESRogs 10 years ago | |

They'd probably answer, "With Haskell."

fiatjaf 10 years ago | | |

I would be satisfied with that answer.

fiatjaf 10 years ago | | |

In fact it is probably all Javascript. The formula editor at the top is an Ace editor, the spreadsheet itself is based on https://github.com/openfin/fin-hypergrid, which is an incredibly enourmous piece of software I had never heard of and which I don't understand at all what it is trying to accomplish, but I can see it renders to canvas.

zgao 10 years ago | | |

CEO of AlphaSheets here! Javascript is our frontend, but the backend is Haskell :)

m_mueller 10 years ago | | |

So the computations are server-side? Or are you doing some Haskell-to-JS-transpiling?

alexzhu 10 years ago | | |

Yes, the computations are all done server-side, which lets us parallelize big computations. It also keeps our thorny evaluation logic crisp and maintainable, because Haskell. =)

narayan2016 10 years ago |

Very cool. Looks elegant and professional. Good luck to you guys.

narayan2016 10 years ago |

Does this support sharing and collaboration ?

alexzhu 10 years ago | |

Yes, it does. Live updating already works (i.e. if A and B have a sheet open and A updates it, B sees the updates at the same time as A). And you can share links with others. These features are disabled for the demo, though.

edimaudo 10 years ago |

Looks pretty good. Great job!

egastfriend 10 years ago |

Wow this is awesome!

dang 10 years ago |

You can't put "Show HN" on something that isn't ready for people play with. Signup pages are explicitly excluded: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html.

When it's ready for people to try out, by all means do a Show HN then. In the meantime we've taken that out of the title.

alexzhu 10 years ago | |

Hey! I'm Alex, a cofounder of AlphaSheets. The three gifs on the page link to spreadsheets that you can play around with, with a majority of features already functional. Is that not fair game for Show HN? (I will admit that this isn't immediately obvious, so I apologize for any resultant confusion.)

dang 10 years ago | | |

Ah, I missed those. Ok, we've put 'Show HN' back in the title.

alexzhu 10 years ago | | |

Thanks. :)