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Spreadsheet choices in Linux

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#1 of 13 Posted Oct-29 7:07 AM

From Tim Bourne Posts 101 Last Nov-24
To Ben Cobb [Msg # 129654.1 ]

is anybody interested in this?

I'd not heard of gnumeric until you mentioned it here. I use OpenOffice.org spreadsheet; what's the advantage of gnumeric or kspread?

Best wishes,
Tim Bourne.

#2 of 13 Posted Oct-29 7:59 AM

From Ben Cobb Posts 847 Last Nov-24
To Tim Bourne [Msg # 129654.2 129654.1 ] (Unread)

the advantage of gnumeric is that's what I am use to, I know my way around in it. Was fairly easy to learn - may have to explore the other two if I can't tame gnumeric. All the linux programs I have worked with seem quite backwards compatible. Here I am going the other way around and trying to read a 1.9 sheet with 1.8. Can't get 1.9 to work either - must be the way the gnome stuff is setup.

.
"Ubuntu" - an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".

#3 of 13 Posted Oct-29 9:12 AM

From Frank B. (Forum Janitor) Posts 4689 Last 9:03 AM
To Tim Bourne [Msg # 129654.3 129654.1 ]

Tim:

I did a quick google using "comparison gnumeric calc kspread" and came up with a surprising amount of information. At the top of the list was this article as well as a Wikipedia entry here.

There is actually a fair bit comparing them. You may want to repeat the search for more info.

I've never used Gnumeric or Kspread as OOo Calc has always done all I need, so I've never looked any further. At present I use Calc for doing my profit/loss business calculations and payroll for my small business. I use array formulas for 'picking out' all the work done by a particular contractor from the master sheet that contains all the invoices for a month. From that I calculate commission, bonus (if any), taxes I have to pay my contractors, and so on. It took me a while to set the sheet up, but I've been using it for two years now to address the specific needs of my business. It works well for me.

Frank.

-----------------------
Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

#4 of 13 Posted Oct-29 10:12 AM

From Frank B. (Forum Janitor) Posts 4689 Last 9:03 AM
To Ben Cobb [Msg # 129654.4 129654.3 ]

Ben:

>so with converting spreadsheet - found when I export the gnumeric spreadsheet to an .xls format openoffice opens it and the formulas are there (with some of the other ways the formulas didn't go thru). think I will like openoffice as that's what I use for formal documents (otherwise I will use jstar).<

Do I understand correctly that you are taking spreadsheets in a new version of Gnumeric and trying to open them with an older version of Gnumeric? If so, then I can see that being a problem, as most people will be going the other way. Exporting to a 'common' format like xls or ods may indeed be a way around that. The times that I have converted from ods to xls and back to ods again, however, I have seen some minor formatting issues crop up. I wouldn't want to have to do it wholesale.

I have found Calc to be complete enough for my needs, and it works well with MS file formats in both directions (though not perfect, as noted above). I've just never felt a need to look at anything else. The ONLY thing I miss in Open Office that I had in WordPerfect is a proper macro language. Open Office's macro abilities boil down to exposing the internal API in Open Office to the end user, and while powerful, it is certainly NOT user friendly. Adding to the pain is that most of the 'macro language' is totally undocumented. Even a book I bought on the subject by an expert covers only the essentials, and even that expert admits that even HE does not understand it all. That is a woeful situation.

However, other than the lousy macro language support, OOo is an excellent product.

Frank.

-----------------------
Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

#5 of 13 Posted Oct-29 10:45 AM

From Tim Bourne Posts 101 Last Nov-24
To Frank B. (Forum Janitor) [Msg # 129654.5 129654.3 ]

Thanks, Frank. That was a useful article. I camne to Linux from Windows, and was already a OOo user, so naturally I just carried on with it; it does all I need. I'd previously used SuperCalc (!), Quattro Pro and Excel, but never needed to become an expert. I've always shied away from Office macros; if I want to write a program, I'll use a programming language!

Best wishes,
Tim Bourne.

#6 of 13 Posted Oct-29 2:51 PM

From Frank B. (Forum Janitor) Posts 4689 Last 9:03 AM
To Tim Bourne [Msg # 129654.6 129654.5 ]

Tim:

>I camne to Linux from Windows, and was already a OOo user<

I think most of us were ex-Windows users. However, I came to Linux because of WordPerfect for Linux. As is the case for most users, the OS is really not as important as the applications, and I had some 20 years of experience with WordPerfect, including its excellent macro language. I started using WordPerfect for Linux, but it was SO old that I soon began running WP8Win on Win4Lin, which worked well. I realized that I could not really have a foot in both worlds, and that I needed to switch to native Linux products, so began to force myself to use OOo. I've come to like it.

>I've always shied away from Office macros; if I want to write a program, I'll use a programming language!<

While I understand that to some extent, applications these days are so multi-featured that programming them eliminates a lot of the need to create an interface for your opus. I wrote one 8K line Turbo-Pascal program that I used for many years. Most of the coding involved the interface, error checking, and printing. I could do a better job with a good spreadsheet these days, and with much less work. That is why I bemoan the sad state of the macro language in OOo.

Frank.

-----------------------
Single booting Linux all day, every day, at home and at work.

#7 of 13 Posted Oct-29 4:08 PM

From HM Murdock Posts 174 Last Nov-10
To Frank B. (Forum Janitor) [Msg # 129654.7 129654.3 ]

Those links are badly out dated.

IMO, OOO Calc is superior to the other 2 because of greater functionality.

gnumeric is smaller, faster and very easy to use.

kspread's biggest plus is Python is its native scripting language. Unfortunately it is less capable than gnumeric and still buggy.

This is a rare case where the gnome program (gnumeric) is superior to its kde counterpart.

HM
TANSTAAFL

#8 of 13 Posted Oct-29 4:24 PM

From HM Murdock Posts 174 Last Nov-10
To Ben Cobb [Msg # 129654.8 129654.2 ]

I have gnumeric 1.9.1 installed on Slackware 13.0. Haven't used it much but seems OK. I just tried a spreadsheet created with gnumeric 1.8.1 (native file format) and it works fine, formulas and all.

It's only dependency is goffice. Since Slackware no longer supports gnome, gnome applications can be problematic. I built both from source using the slackbuilds at Slackbuild.org (goffice 0.7, gnumeric 1.9.1).

I can upload my slackware pkgs if you want to try them. (goffice is 1.7MB gnumeric is 12.3MB)

HM
TANSTAAFL

#9 of 13 Posted Oct-29 4:47 PM

From Ben Cobb Posts 847 Last Nov-24
To HM Murdock [Msg # 129654.9 129654.8 ]

thanks! my version of goffice is 6.6-i486-5gsb.
(and that sounds like the solution)

might be a good excuse for me to browse slackbuild.org and figure out how to get stuff from there.

.
"Ubuntu" - an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".

#10 of 13 Posted Oct-29 5:19 PM

From HM Murdock Posts 174 Last Nov-10
To Ben Cobb [Msg # 129654.10 129654.9 ]

It's very simple.

http://slackbuilds.org/howto/

HM
TANSTAAFL

#11 of 13 Posted Oct-29 9:30 PM

From Ben Cobb Posts 847 Last Nov-24
To HM Murdock [Msg # 129654.11 129654.10 ]

yes I tried it - quite easy and super fast connection.

upgraded goffice gnumeric works a bit better - will try reinstalling gnumeric from them, or maybe removing then installing goffice rather then upgrading it. (got distracted before I finished (what else is new))

.
"Ubuntu" - an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".

#12 of 13 Posted Oct-30 8:49 AM

From Ben Cobb Posts 847 Last Nov-24
To All [Msg # 129654.12 129654.11 ]

after a morning reboot found gnumeric working. this was on my second
(testing) slackware 13.0 install. Redid the steps on the 13.0 which I have
done more customizing and adding stuff. Didn't work there - think I may have
made some errors with my gnome install as not only does gnumeric not work
there the system has crashed a couple of times - a new experience for me -
can't remember ever crashing requiring a reboot before (or almost never).
Nice to use the ext3 journaling file system so the system comes right back
up.

will set up the second 13.0 for my network and use that - shouldn't take
to long as I took good notes.

"Ubuntu" - an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".

#13 of 13 Posted Nov-1 8:23 AM

From Ben Cobb Posts 847 Last Nov-24
To All [Msg # 129654.13 129654.12 ]

so when do you stop fussing (exploring)? Have upgraded, downgraded, compiled, moved libraries for the past week. still get error messages and sometimes it works then doesn't.

found if I reboot to slackware 12.1 have gnumeric save my spreadsheets to .xls format. OpenOffice reads everything (including formulas) fine.

think I will switch and find something else to do.

.
"Ubuntu" - an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me".

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