XPost: comp.arch.embedded   
   From: jl@glen--canyon.com   
      
   On Sat, 31 Jan 2026 23:21:28 -0000 (UTC), John Levine   
    wrote:   
      
   >According to Bill Sloman  :   
   >>> It's OK if you are an accountant, I guess.   
   >>   
   >>Accountants have to explain what they are doing to other accountants,   
   >>and Excel won't let you do anything that is hard to explain. ...   
   >   
   >It's hard to belive that anyone who has used Excel would say that.  In my   
   >experience, any Excel spreadsheet large enough to be interesting has bugs.   
   >   
   >Back in the 1980s I worked on a financial modeling package called Javelin.   
   >You could use it for a lot of the financial stuff people do in spreadsheets   
   >(Lotus 1-2-3 at the time.) The models were a lot more structured and it   
   >was far easier to audit them and check that they did what you expected.   
   >   
   >Users didn't care, they loved their spreadsheets.  Best quote: "It's up to my   
   >boss to check if my speadsheets are right."   
      
   Forbes estimates that 88% of spreadsheets contain errors.   
      
      
      
      
   John Larkin   
   Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center   
   Lunatic Fringe Electronics   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)