I was disappointed. I expected the guy to tweak the columns's width and rows's height to make an array of "pixels" and then fill each one with a color (thus making an image).
Instead, he merely uses the drawing tools of Excel to make his art. Still pretty cool though :)
On the contrary, I was quite interested to see that this wasn't yet another excel-as-pixel-art project and that he was leveraging the better drawing tools in excel to achieve his goal.
Quote from article:
"[...] Excel is already pre-installed in most computers and is easier to use than Paint. He tried using Word but was limited to the paper sizing and he could draw more freely in Excel."
Similarly, I've starting using Google Docs Drawings to do early whiteboarding with clients, because it is so simple and makes collaboration easier than mailing files back and forth.
I immediately thought of origami as the traditional Japanese art. So Excel formulas and calculations would define the folds, and the results could be rendered using that Excel 3D engine that crops up here occasionally.
Since this isn't that... who here wants to start up some computational origami in Excel?
I remember a few years ago a guy wrote a 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound application that used Excel. I wish I could find it. Supposedly excel has very good uses other than spreadsheets.
Excel is very powerful as a general-purpose tool. In addition to all the calculation systems built-in and easy-to-use, the "UI" (the grids and cells and chart/drawing tools) is extremely customizable, and VBA lets you do basically anything. It's the non-techie's IDE.
This is what makes it so useful for business users, so hard for any other spreadsheet app to unseat, and so notorious among hackers (who often have to troubleshoot or replace complicated mega-workbooks)!
I used to think that knowing HTML was the modern version of changing your own oil, but now I think it's knowing Excel. Of all the attempts to make a programming language or DSL for non-programmers (COBOL, SQL, AppleScript, Cucumber, ...), none has been successful like Excel.
Let me say it, lately I have been working more with SAP and I have to take back a lot of the hate for Excel. SAP is much worst. Very reliable, but hell it makes you waste a lot of time.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 36.4 ms ] threadInstead, he merely uses the drawing tools of Excel to make his art. Still pretty cool though :)
Since this isn't that... who here wants to start up some computational origami in Excel?
This is what makes it so useful for business users, so hard for any other spreadsheet app to unseat, and so notorious among hackers (who often have to troubleshoot or replace complicated mega-workbooks)!
But in all seriousness, the artwork is fantastic.