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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Concept for: an advanced spreadsheet "Information Cube"

The spreadsheet programs of today are still based on the principles of the first one ( Visicalc from Apple). But this concept could be much more powerful, if it would be thought through from the basics and if all possibilities of newer software would be integrated:

A modern spreadsheet program should have following features, which could be classified for usage to beginners, advanced and professional; so that nobody gets overwhelmed with the available features. That means also, that excellent new kinds of tutorials will have to be developed:

  • use of several dimensions, using ordered tuples of numbers, not combinations of letters and numbers. ( as is has been developed in mathematics for matrix calculus for instance.
  • use mathematical formulas, as written in mathematics
  • present the spreadsheet of several dimensions, in some standard forms, but also allow the customer, to define the presentation himself. Cuts through the information cube; different sequences of cells. ( look at  http://www.thebrain.com/    to see,  how an elegant and intuitive navgigation in large amounts of information can be realized nowadays )
  • indexing all cells, so that each piece of information can be found easily. The information cube can contain all kinds of information, like numbers, words, texts, pictures etc.
  • expand the number of cells, so that a spreadsheet can have as many cells, as the computer of the user can store or the network of computers, to which he has access.
  • use better, much more detailed colour schemes, so that cells can be better differentiated.
  • supply add ons like:

  •      Statistics and distribution functions; Monte Carlo Simulation
  •     simulation of industries, social systems and economies, according to the      method of industrial dynamics, as  developed by  Forrester
  •  differential equations or any other kind of equations
  •  memorising methods, according to the flashcard principles

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