X-spreadsheet
Languages and libraries
javascript spreadsheet component
SHOW HN2019
347points
105comments
#81of 2,195 in 2019
Top 4%of 2019 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
10 positive, 28 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 26 critical, out of 66 comments about the project. Thread score -0.20.
Design: 3 for, 16 againstExecution: 1 for, 6 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 againstIdea: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Clean, slick UI resembling Google Sheets
From 2 comments
Very slick. Looks incredibly similar to google sheets.
nwsm on HNNice work! The UI is really good. In my one of the projects, I was looking for excel kind of functionality - and would like to give it a try. But the biggest value IMO excel…
crnote on HN
Extensible architecture with no dependencies
From 1 comment
Awesome job so far! This is obviously a monumental undertaking, especially since the quality of spreadsheet software seems mostly correlated with volume of features. This project…
chatmasta on HN
Objections
Text looks blurry on high-DPI screens because of canvas rendering
From 3 comments
The canvas fonts are fuzzy? Stock OSX and Chrome, 4k display @ 3200 scaled edit: https://github.com/myliang/x-spreadsheet/issues/5
dustingetz on HNBy nature of <canvas>, it uses grayscale antialiasing of text Here (MS Edge, Windows, High-DPI screen): http://cloud.sciter.com/index.php/s/fcTbout1oQqwIJg You see how different…
c-smile on HNFun concept, but the cell text is blurry to the point of being a distraction for me, unfortunately. Is this a side effect of rendering to a canvas?
barrowclift on HN
Browser-native features like find-in-page, copy/paste and context menu do not work
From 2 comments
AFAIK (and in evidence in this case) you can't use the normal "find in page" (control-f) when using canvas. Consistency in functions like find is one of the greatest things about…
davidy123 on HNThe speed of the rendering is amazing compared especially to e.g. google sheets. I just informally timed both and gsheets was rendered and editable in 4 seconds whereas this took…
ryanianian on HN
Crashes or bugs with formulas, such as circular references and cell rendering errors
From 2 comments
This is amazing and fast. I'm complaining about it actually being easily broken only because I really wished this worked well, so I could build on it. It crashed for me on…
williamstein on HNBreaks easily, to reproduce bug: Put =B1 in A1 and =A1 in B1.
tianshuo on HN
Only a few formulas are supported
From 2 comments
i was about to say the same thing... to anyone else wondering: you can browse the available function with the button to the right. ( SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX and CONCAT )
y4mi on HNNice work! The UI is really good. In my one of the projects, I was looking for excel kind of functionality - and would like to give it a try. But the biggest value IMO excel…
crnote on HN
Canvas is the wrong tool for text-heavy UI
From 2 comments
This strongly goes against the best practices for Canvas: https://www.w3.org/TR/2dcontext/#best-practices
eternalny1 on HNWell, <canvas> is not the best tool for doing such things. <canvas> by its definition is essentially an <img> with its content (pixmap) modifiable from script side. Better…
c-smile on HN
Requests
More Excel formulas
From 2 comments
Nice work! The UI is really good. In my one of the projects, I was looking for excel kind of functionality - and would like to give it a try. But the biggest value IMO excel…
crnote on HNWonder how much demand there will be for SUMPRODUCT
selimthegrim on HN
Excel keyboard shortcuts such as F2 and Ctrl+arrows
From 2 comments
It's neat and fast. I do think that you should consider implementing a few more common excel shortcuts, to make it really seamless to an advanced excel user. For instance: - CTRL…
cm2187 on HNI really like this and I can see the potential, but I certainly miss being able to type directly into the cell as opposed to double-clicking on it first. F2 should also enable…
airstrike on HN
Typing directly into cells without double-clicking
From 1 comment
I really like this and I can see the potential, but I certainly miss being able to type directly into the cell as opposed to double-clicking on it first. F2 should also enable…
airstrike on HN
Multi-line cell text with alt+enter
From 1 comment
Can this do multiple row per cell? I tried alt + enter and it didn't work.
PretzelFisch on HN
Questions
Why canvas was used instead of DOM
From 2 comments
I think a description of why canvas was used would be nice in the README. My (probably naive) view is that browsers are pretty good at table-ish layouts so it’d be great to know…
kevsim on HN> My (probably naive) view is that browsers are pretty good at table-ish layouts so it’d be great to know why canvas was chosen. The browser certainly makes this convenient...…
microcolonel on HN
How it compares to Handsontable and EtherCalc
From 1 comment
Nice! Would be interested in how this compares to e.g. handsontable[1]. What do you think of audreyt's ethercalc[2] myliang? [1] https://github.com/handsontable/handsontable [2]…
paulfitz on HN
Why the switch from TypeScript to JavaScript
From 1 comment
This looks really good - the speed of rendering of the default sheet was surprising and pleasant. Is there a reason you switched from the earlier version in TypeScript[1] to this…
sramam on HN
Alternatives named
Google Sheets
From 2 comments
The speed of the rendering is amazing compared especially to e.g. google sheets. I just informally timed both and gsheets was rendered and editable in 4 seconds whereas this took…
ryanianian on HNVery slick. Looks incredibly similar to google sheets.
nwsm on HN
Handsontable
From 1 comment
Nice! Would be interested in how this compares to e.g. handsontable[1]. What do you think of audreyt's ethercalc[2] myliang? [1] https://github.com/handsontable/handsontable [2]…
paulfitz on HN
EtherCalc
From 2 comments
Nice! Would be interested in how this compares to e.g. handsontable[1]. What do you think of audreyt's ethercalc[2] myliang? [1] https://github.com/handsontable/handsontable [2]…
paulfitz on HNalt: https://ethercalc.net/ https://github.com/audreyt/ethercalc https://github.com/audreyt/ethercalc/blob/master/LICENSE.txt cpal http://livescript.net/ ^CoffeeScript
based2 on HN
canvas-datagrid
From 1 comment
Here's a canvas datagrid that I've come across in case anyone is interested in the genre: https://tonygermaneri.github.io/canvas-datagrid/
kybernetikos on HN
react-spreadsheet
From 1 comment
If you're looking for a simple, light and highly customizable Spreadsheet for the web checkout React Spreadsheet (https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-spreadsheet).
iddan on HN