Excel
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Our talk was supposed to be a shootout and I used strong [[wikipedia:Trash_talk|trash talk]] while preparing with Rich, but during the talk we treated each other with mutual respect. I somehow started to believe that Rich's ''[[excel]] argument'' is true. [[Apex]] was the language for [[Excel]] audience and it deserved its right to be a [[DSL]], not a library (as the [[TheAPIBook]] would advocate). We ended up our talk in complete reunion. | Our talk was supposed to be a shootout and I used strong [[wikipedia:Trash_talk|trash talk]] while preparing with Rich, but during the talk we treated each other with mutual respect. I somehow started to believe that Rich's ''[[excel]] argument'' is true. [[Apex]] was the language for [[Excel]] audience and it deserved its right to be a [[DSL]], not a library (as the [[TheAPIBook]] would advocate). We ended up our talk in complete reunion. | ||
| - | However later, when we were celebrating our successful presentation at ''The Chieftains'' irish pub we got to the topic of testing. We touched [[Apex]] again and I mentioned that I can't imagine someone writing unit tests in [[Apex]]. Rich replied that it is not true, people do write unit tests in [[Apex]]. I was shocked. I could not have imagined someone used [[Excel]] to write unit tests and [[Apex]] was supposed to be the language for [[Excel]] people, was not it Rich? | + | However later, when we were celebrating our successful presentation at ''The Chieftains'' irish pub we got to the topic of testing. We touched [[Apex]] again and I mentioned that I can't imagine someone writing unit tests in [[Apex]]. Rich replied that it is not true, people do write unit tests in [[Apex]]. I was shocked. I could not have imagined someone used [[Excel]] to write unit tests and [[Apex]] was supposed to be the language for [[Excel]] people, was not it [[Rich]]? |
| - | + | It turned out that in fact, if you want to use [[Apex]] and deploy your application, the system measures the percentage of unit tests written by you and it rejects any changes until you reach 75% of test coverage. That indeed implies that [[Apex]] is a language suitable for writing unit tests. But that also means that [[Apex]] is not a language for [[Excel]] people. That is at most a marketing goal, but in reality? Just show me a regular [[excel]] user that can write unit tests! Those guys don't even know what a test it! | |
| - | + | ||
Revision as of 19:18, 24 October 2010
Excel is almost a synonymum for any spreadsheet program. An example where a product name became de-facto name for the whole technology. I have never learned how to use Excel (or rather OpenOffice Calc) effectively, but I know that non-programmers can do quite amazing things with it.
Cluelessness is always a goal for any technology vendor. Everyone wants to provide a good technology which is easy to use and easy to get productive with. Everyone seeks such holy grail. Excel got quite close. It managed to allow non-programmers to be productive with computers without learning what are the if or while or for statements.
Rich Unger mentioned Excel few times during our DSL presentation at JavaOne2010. Rich said that his company had to design Apex in order to attract people that are familiar with Excel, but are intimidated with Java. Actually when we (and also our audience) tried to summarize when to use DSLs (Rich's side of the shootout) and when to writelibraries (mine point), we agree that it basically depends on whether you are targeting (Java) programmers or not. For people with Excel knowledge the Apex was said to be a better fit.
Our talk was supposed to be a shootout and I used strong trash talk while preparing with Rich, but during the talk we treated each other with mutual respect. I somehow started to believe that Rich's excel argument is true. Apex was the language for Excel audience and it deserved its right to be a DSL, not a library (as the TheAPIBook would advocate). We ended up our talk in complete reunion.
However later, when we were celebrating our successful presentation at The Chieftains irish pub we got to the topic of testing. We touched Apex again and I mentioned that I can't imagine someone writing unit tests in Apex. Rich replied that it is not true, people do write unit tests in Apex. I was shocked. I could not have imagined someone used Excel to write unit tests and Apex was supposed to be the language for Excel people, was not it Rich?
It turned out that in fact, if you want to use Apex and deploy your application, the system measures the percentage of unit tests written by you and it rejects any changes until you reach 75% of test coverage. That indeed implies that Apex is a language suitable for writing unit tests. But that also means that Apex is not a language for Excel people. That is at most a marketing goal, but in reality? Just show me a regular excel user that can write unit tests! Those guys don't even know what a test it!
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