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Microsoft announces Python formulas in Excel... which have to get sent to the cloud
(techcommunity.microsoft.com)
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this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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Firstly, there's no technological reason for this. It's all rent-seeking bullshit. But the thing is, there's no version of Office that this point that works without a subscription, which also assumes you're probably always online, so it's honestly moot anyway.
It's so tiresome. Big tech really doesn't want people to run, own, or operate their own systems independently.
Full disclosure, I work for MSFT, but I do not speak for them. I fucking hate python and am forced to write it a lot while working here, but I want to suggest there's a complementary technological reason for wanting to run it in the cloud. This isn't to say that MSFT will stand to make more money if you are using their cloud services, and I don't have any insight at all into the "gib us money plz" side of this business.
The reason: One of the biggest headaches for IT depts has been attack vectors through office productivity suites. Download a sketchy excel spreadsheet from someone, and suddenly custom macros are purposefully creating avenues for attack, or are attacks themselves. Ken and Debra in accounting aren't security people. They got a spreadsheet from an email that seems superficially plausible, so they pop it open. Suddenly, your entire org is ransomwared just because two people who are just doing their normal duties get tricked.
That's why the ol' VBA shit and all those fancy macro systems from the past got neutered. Sandboxed and isolated, removed entirely, whatever. But a good feature gets lost.
Enter The Cloud, or in other terms, "Someone Else's Computer". As in, someone else's computer out there, far from your corporate network, that has no ability to reach back through your security perimeter and have a rummage around your business guts. The worst thing that will happen is the attack-vector-spreadsheet, itself, might be compromised. Or Microsoft's cloud computers, which are, again, not your computers.
Anyway, that's honestly a great reason for it. And there's also the business cat reasons, which I don't like in principle; I always begrudge businesses their attempts at squeezing us for more and more every single fucking day. So anyway, it probably isn't worth it to the average home user, but IT departments are going to be thrilled, even if the tech budget is going to get even fatter paying for all these users using someone else's computer.
I have strong opinions about home users who can write Python already but choose to use excel, but I'll keep them to myself. They're elitist and basically just me being a little shit, so... you do you, boo.
Works for Microsoft and hates Python. Checks out at least.
IMHO opinions (read: “hard takes”) on popular and useful programming languages doesn’t have to be part of any disclosure, it just creates unnecessary drama.
At the end of the day programming languages are tools, and Python is a good tool. Part hammer, part Swiss Army knife.
Sure, you can grab your compressor, a hose and a nail gun, but the fact is that with Python I can process CSV documents that excel struggle to open in less time than it will take most people to setup a new project in Visual Studio.
I fully agree that running stuff in the cloud may be good for security, but it will probably also open the door for a number of security holes that may or may not be exploited before being patched.
Giving full access to random scripts on random people’s computers is begging for problems.
Sandboxing only works until there’s an escape. But IMO that should have been the target. Proper ground up sandboxing.
On the other hand - how on earth do you make sure that it’s escape proof? I certainly wouldn’t carry that responsibility.
If it’s Python or something else doesn’t matter, but Python certainly carries a lot of the “accessibility” that VB did way back when they made VBA.
Will be interesting to see what people make of it. And if they’ve managed to make the programming interfaces better than during the VBA era.
I feel like you think you're talking to a different person than I am. My work computer is a linux box, my work IDE is either Jetbrains CLion or Pycharm, and my 40-hour-a-week-job is writing open source software that I release on behalf of Microsoft. So, yanno, if you want python libraries for graph spectral embeddings or approximate nearest neighbor algorithms, that's me.
The only thing I know about Visual Studio is it is distinctly not built for me, and I don't use it. I wouldn't know the first thing about creating a project in Visual Studio, because in the last 7 years I haven't created a single one in it. Gradle and Kotlin or SBT and Scala, sure. Python and pip, sure.
My problem with Python has nothing to do with the language itself. It has to do with the packaging. Remember that bit about me releasing open source software for Microsoft? Yeah. I'm stuck doing a lot of the packaging.
Friends don't let friends use Python, because then they're complicit in the frankly inhumane conditions in the pypa pit of eternal despair. Hug your numpy packager today!
If I misunderstood it’s probably because of the way you represented yourself.
Python packaging sucks, definitely, but saying you hate Python because packaging sucks (and you do it a lot) is bit like saying you hate the US because US immigration sucks (and you travel through immigration a lot).
Sure, you could hold the opinion, but I think most people would differentiate between the two positions.
However, kudos for working on OS! I’d give you a hug if I could!
I've tried the EAP CLion before for a while. Are the suggestions as good as IDEA's? Last time I tried it was average and just on par with clangd.