The article itself is much more positive on spreadsheets than the headline -- it suggests improvements to the underlying data / computational model while preserving the interface.
And it's about time somebody said something nice about spreadsheets. Go to your average (non-software) engineer and ask to see an engineering model. Chances are, it's in Excel. It's less buggy than you expect, because your average engineer is going to notice and fix nonsensical results. Unlike the scientists the author is talking about, your average engineer is looking at very similar data from day to day and is attuned to anomalous behavior.
I think there's a lot of room for a tool like the one described by the article that includes built-in validation and is git-friendly. However, given the overwhelming dominance of Excel, it's going to have to integrate with, rather than replace Excel.
Thanks for the comments. Actually, I was just working on importing Excel spreadsheets into Stencila sheets last night. Some interesting aspects involved in translating Excel formulas into R expressions e.g. `AVERAGE(A1:A5)` to `mean(A1:A5)`. To do it properly looks like we'll need to build an Excel formula parser. But do-able - and could be fun!
How many times have we heard over decades now "yada yada yda is dead" as a headline? Cobol, CD's, PC's, even vinyl records, nothing really dies and especially Excel which will probably still be used for decades to come.
And it's about time somebody said something nice about spreadsheets. Go to your average (non-software) engineer and ask to see an engineering model. Chances are, it's in Excel. It's less buggy than you expect, because your average engineer is going to notice and fix nonsensical results. Unlike the scientists the author is talking about, your average engineer is looking at very similar data from day to day and is attuned to anomalous behavior.
I think there's a lot of room for a tool like the one described by the article that includes built-in validation and is git-friendly. However, given the overwhelming dominance of Excel, it's going to have to integrate with, rather than replace Excel.