owl
Snit <usenet@gallopinginsanity.com>wrote:

Snit
On 4/2/17, 9:12 PM, in article z9b003gaew.hy@rooftop.invalid, "owl" <owl@rooftop.invalid>wrote:

...

owl
You don't have to turn it on at all. That's just to have the data in one table update automatically from changes in another table. If you don't need that, the just move your mouse to the target table and type "@" or enter some data into any cell. The external data will then be automatically calculated.

Snit
But you cannot have BOTH editing of tables and auto-updating.

owl
False. You *can* edit while auto-updating is goin on, but keystrokes get mixed with the "@" that is sent. You could get around that by throttling the update to a slower rate than the 1-second loop I have now.

Snit
And to go back and forth you have to change settings. This is what I am talking about when I note it is kludgy.

owl
You don't have to go back and forth.

And remember, this is something that you said is not even possible with Numbers -- updating a sheet with data from a completely separate file.

Snit
Well, this whole thing is a work around to try to emulate what Numbers does easily... have multiple tables all on one sheet

owl
And the question is why are you doing that anyway when you can just use different sections of one sheet for the work?

Snit
Think of it this way, if you were sent a file by someone and did not really know what it did, would YOU be willing to change its permissions and run it?

I suspect not... at least not anywhere other than in a safe environment where if it wiped out the machine (or VM) it would not matter to you.

owl
Would you use that same security protocol with a Numbers file?

At least this is open-source (even the spreadsheet files themselves are open-source) and you can examine exactly what it does. Who knows what a Numbers file is doing, or even what Numbers is doing, for that matter.

The user needn't notice that it's multiple files.

Snit
Even the user making it?

owl
Picture this as the application that the user runs to make the file. In this case it's just operating on one that's already built, but the principal is the same.

Snit
And if the user wants another table or to edit things?

owl
Then he creates one or edits things.

Snit
It again goes back to having a computer as a single-device tool or a general-purpose tool.

Do not get me wrong, with what you are doing for folks who are willing to focus a whole lot on the tool they can reasonably easily switch from what single task (or fairly limited set of tasks) the computer is doing to another. But do you see where this is not how most people work?

owl
No.

Snit
If so that is very different than what I am picturing. Even for the end user I think they likely would if you did not have embedded xterms in other windows and the like. Which, sure, you can do. Maybe we found a reason for it ... to get around limitations of sc. :)

owl
Let me know when Numbers can handle a similar task of linking separate files with automatic updates.

Snit
It has the tables in one file...

owl
So put them all on one sheet. You have 22 million cells on a sheet. Use some of those.