[mdlug] What Intel Giveth, Microsoft Taketh Away

[Dave Arbogast]

Clinton V. Weiss wrote:

>On Nov 17, 2007 3:27 PM, Brian Hurley <brian at detroitindustrial.org> wrote:
>  
>
>>While software bloat is arguably bad* its definitely not restricted to MS
>>alone. I've read more than one benchmark showing that OO is much worse at
>>both speed and memory use than even the currently uber bloated MS Office.
>>Here's one example: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=480
>>
>>    
>>
>
>I have to agree with this 100%.  Last May I wrote a complex
>spreadsheet generated in JExcelAPI (Java) that was pure formulas -
>hundreds to thousands of them required per sheet.  There would be a
>display sheet that would present the data in a user friendly format
>(all formulas), a hidden sheet with the raw data (no formulas), and
>another hidden sheet that processed the data into groups (all
>formulas).  One of the generated sheets consisted of 1500 rows and 12
>columns with about 30,000 complex formulas to present that data.
>
>Keep in mind JExcelAPI does not pre-calculate formulas.  Therefore
>whenever the spreadsheet is opened for the first time all formulas are
>calculated.
>
>Excel would open the spreadsheet and calculate all formulas in just
>shy of 10 seconds, meanwhile displaying a progress meter such that it
>was obvious to the user that it was "working."  OpenOffice, however,
>would open with a solid white screen.  After several seconds a
>progress meter would somewhat display near the bottom and the user
>could see OO crawling through the formulas.  Finally, after about 60
>seconds, OO would finish and the rest of the screen would catch up.
>
>I'm a huge fan of open source, however, I'm also a huge fan of using
>the right tool for the right job.  OpenOffice, as much as they'd like
>to claim, is not yet the right tool for heavy spreadsheet usage.
>OpenOffice is *NOT* Excel.
>
>Clinton
>
>  
>
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