Yea like what?
jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
There are things that could be done to improve Excel. For instance, fully integrate python and allow it to be used to create custom functions. Then, maybe one day, VBA can ride off into the sunset where it belongs.
Adding Copilot to Excel is not an improvement because Copilot and all other LLM based platforms frequently barfs out totally incorrect information about how to do something in Excel.
“You do that using <X> formula.”
No, I can’t, you worthless pile of shit because THAT FORMULA DOESNT EXIST.
Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Increase in workflow? Like there are more steps to perform the same task? Because workflow isn’t work volume or units if output. It’s the process that gets the work done.
Did the increase in “workflow” get you more money or more work for the same money?
Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Like I spend less time trying to build formulas and I can create formulas and tools I normally wouldn’t with it because I can have a conversations about what I want to do and it provides suggestions.
tja@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I mean… they responded in agreement to a comment that said it’s not an improvement. So it seems to me that it also would not increase the money they get out of it.
theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Lol you shared your personal experience and got downvoted… lmao even
Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Lemmy is propaganda against AI at this point. Not sure what paid for it but it has all the markers. Feels like being in the comment section of ny post articles
echodot@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
There isn’t propaganda against AI, it’s totally grassroots because companies are overselling it.
CameronDev@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Integrated python scripts in excel sounds like a malware developers dream.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And a nightmare for an application developer told to make some app with a spreadsheet for a database scale
CameronDev@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Could result in some very cursed codebases.
“We dont use git, we just update the excel spreadsheet”
Gork@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
I’ve worked at places where they did that anyway lol
frongt@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
That’s just called Access
Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Is that creepy thing still alive?
turkalino@lemmy.yachts 3 weeks ago
Surely there’s some sort of sandboxing that could be done? Like just disallow sys calls entirely
CameronDev@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Definitely, but sandboxes can be escaped, and you can’t protect everything via sandbox. Apparently its all cloud anyway, but if it were local and sandboxed, there are still exploits like rowhammer and spectre that may cause further risks.
Its taken years to get browser sandboxes to where they are, and even they get broken every so often.
rollerbang@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I mean… Yeah, but the same can be said for VB?
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Especially since VBA can make calls to the Windows API directly and through that avenue do all kinds of funky things to your system.
CameronDev@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Yeah, but lots more tooling and libraries for Python. Its just one more attack surface 🤷
jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Fair point. If course that’s already a problem with Excel. It would probably have to be disabled by default just like VBA macros.
elvith@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
They foresaw that. That’s because python on Excel doesn’t run locally, but in the cloud and then returns the result to you: …microsoft.com/…/introduction-to-python-in-excel-…
CameronDev@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Still sounds like you’d be shipping your data to the cloud, where it can be exfilled from there.
Would potentially be a great phishing tool, just need to trick someone into putting sensitive data into a precooked excel file, and it gets exfilled.
elvith@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Currently only for business customers which probably use OneDrive or SharePoint anyways, so it’s not that they need that to exfiltrate data. But for a phishing/hacking attempt? There are probably some nice possibilities.
magikmw@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
That's even worse!
echodot@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
That’s the worst possible solution to that problem. Why can’t they just develop their own script that’s Turing complete but doesn’t have any system calls?
chillhelm@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Or just use Lua compiled without the system calls. This is done by many video games. İt’s 2025, there is no need to create new domain specific languages.
Godort@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Yeah, no doubt.
Having access to visual basic is dangerous enough, let alone Python