IronSpread
Dev tools
excel scripting plugin
SHOW HN2012
280points
61comments
#45of 1,677 in 2012
Top 3%of 2012 by points
How HN took it
DebatedReal support and real criticism
12 positive, 15 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 10 critical, out of 37 comments about the project. Thread score +0.07.
Idea: 7 for, 7 againstPricing: 1 for, 3 againstExecution: 2 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Makes routine scripting easier and offices benefit from Python over VBA
From 3 comments
I still have a soft spot for VBA, especially in Excel. I wrote a supply-chain management application in Excel+VBA that's still in production today. As comfortable as I am with…
bmccormack on HNSo many offices have lots of functionality written as VBA, you've made a lot of people very happy by giving us Python to play with!
ZoFreX on HNThis is awesome! I plan to use this 100%. Sent it to a few other excel power users in my org, thank you for this
iamdave on HN
Backwards compatible with existing VBA code
From 2 comments
Wow, backwards compatible?! That's awesome. That must have taken some serious COM magic.
cheez on HNGlad you like it! We're also backwards compatible - you can keep running old VBA code, and write new scripts in Python.
karamazov on HN
Objections
Existing COM access to Excel from Python is free
From 4 comments
Why would I use this when I can already connect to Excel using COM for free?
jlarocco on HNIt was a real question. COM isn't hot new technology, but it works, costs $0 above and beyond Excel, and can access as much (or more) of Excel. The reason I ask is that after a…
jlarocco on HNWhy would I use this when I can already connect to Excel using PyWin32+COM and be able to interact with Excel in Python for free? FTFY
sandGorgon on HNThis isn't necessary, you can have access to the full Excel COM API, with tab-completion, backwards-compatibility etc, for free with iPython and the makepy.py script.…
pneumatics on HN
Expensive per-seat pricing expected
From 2 comments
From a conversation with them, they are intending to charge around $2000/seat/month. This takes it out of the realm of possibility for me, but http://excel-dna.net/ looks like it…
bradleyy on HN> We'll be charging for it down the line Implement billing. Now. No excuses.
glimcat on HN
No Mac support
From 2 comments
Any plans for OS X support?
il on HNREALLY wish this was available for Mac.
jaxn on HN
Recipients of shared spreadsheets need the plugin
From 2 comments
Impressive. Would people I share a spreadsheet with need the plugin?
adorton on HNThis can be a deal breaker for long long time
gsivil on HN
Requests
Mac OS X support
From 2 comments
Any plans for OS X support?
il on HNREALLY wish this was available for Mac.
jaxn on HN
Pivot table support
From 1 comment
Any plans to support pivot tables?
moolcool on HN
Excel 2003 and 2007 compatibility
From 2 comments
This seems pretty great. Any plans for compatibility with Excel 2003 and 2007?
fonzie on HNAwesome. You may already know, but a huge proportion of the large finance firms are still stuck with 2003 and from speaking to a few people, they don't seem super ready to…
fonzie on HN
C# scripting of Excel
From 1 comment
This is great. I have to work with some very complex excel/VBA apps and this will be a breath of fresh air. Is there anything out there that allows using C# to script/control…
AlexDanger on HN
Questions
How does it differ from plain COM or IronPython access?
From 2 comments
Honest question; I havent tried to script xl or word for years. What is this doing that I couldn't do with IronPython or IronRuby?
willyt on HNIt was a real question. COM isn't hot new technology, but it works, costs $0 above and beyond Excel, and can access as much (or more) of Excel. The reason I ask is that after a…
jlarocco on HN
Is it open source or paid?
From 2 comments
Is this an open source project, or are you planning to sell it?
cschmidt on HNWhat is the licensing for this? I couldn't tell whether this was free, if I had to pay, if it was open source, GPL, etc.
steve8918 on HN
Alternatives named
Pyvot (Microsoft, Apache licensed)
From 1 comment
This is great guys! We cooked up a similar thing called Pyvot (pivot). It's OSS/Apache - feel free to take/contribute. Cheers, smortaz@microsoft. Video:…
smortaz on HN
ResolverOne
From 1 comment
That's very clever. However, the ultimate integration of spreadsheet and Python has got to be ResolverOne (http://www.resolversystems.com/products/resolver-one/) It's a really…
mwexler on HN
PyXLL
From 2 comments
Nice. Also see PyXLL (http://pyxll.com/), which lets you write Excel plugins in Python (CPython).
yangyang on HNIf you want to call Python functions from Excel in the form of user defined functions, macros or menu functions (including macros bound to UI widgets and application events) you…
pyxll on HN
PyWin32 COM access
From 2 comments
This isn't necessary, you can have access to the full Excel COM API, with tab-completion, backwards-compatibility etc, for free with iPython and the makepy.py script.…
pneumatics on HNWhy would I use this when I can already connect to Excel using PyWin32+COM and be able to interact with Excel in Python for free? FTFY
sandGorgon on HN
Excel-DNA
From 1 comment
From a conversation with them, they are intending to charge around $2000/seat/month. This takes it out of the realm of possibility for me, but http://excel-dna.net/ looks like it…
bradleyy on HN