Abstract
This chapter begins our discussion of the visual presentation of the deductive spreadsheet with a careful review of the most important concepts of the user interface of the traditional spreadsheet. It isolates the points where we should anchor the deductive extensions to the existing display layout and methods for performing tasks which are relatively uniform among commercially available spreadsheets.
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Notes
- 1.
In this early study of how people use spreadsheets, the authors monitored nine experienced users building three predefined spreadsheets. They found that nearly half of the spreadsheets they wrote contained errors. They also found that very little time was dedicated to planning or to debugging.
- 2.
This website is about the ideas that led to the development of the first spreadsheet application, VisiCalc, and about the people who were involved. It is a fascinating collection of anecdotes, photographs, and early programs.
- 3.
This paper applies the cognitive dimensions of notation framework to the evaluation for visual programming environments, finding it particularly effective and a good complement for other techniques.
- 4.
In spite of the demeaning title, this is one of the most popular reference guide with users. It covers very well Excel from a user’s perspective and is therefore an ideal reference for this work. We ourselves learned quite a few “Excel tricks” while reading it. The same author has published guides in this series for Excel 2007 and 2010.
- 5.
This very influential article carried out a systematic study of the number and type of errors found in spreadsheets. At the outset, the results are surprisingly high, which should limit our confidence about decisions made on the basis of spreadsheet calculations. This research also finds that this type and number is similar to programming in general, except that software engineering has developed methods to curb this error rate, while spreadsheet users take a more informal approach.
Annotated Bibliography
Brown, P., & Gould, J. (1987). Experimental study of people creating spreadsheets. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, 5, 258–272. Footnote
In this early study of how people use spreadsheets, the authors monitored nine experienced users building three predefined spreadsheets. They found that nearly half of the spreadsheets they wrote contained errors. They also found that very little time was dedicated to planning or to debugging.
Bricklin, D. (2009). VisiCalc history. http://www.bricklin.com/history/intro.htm. Footnote
This website is about the ideas that led to the development of the first spreadsheet application, VisiCalc, and about the people who were involved. It is a fascinating collection of anecdotes, photographs, and early programs.
Green, T., & Petre, M. (1996). Usability analysis of visual programming environments: A “cognitive dimensions” framework. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, 7, 131–174. Footnote
This paper applies the cognitive dimensions of notation framework to the evaluation for visual programming environments, finding it particularly effective and a good complement for other techniques.
Harvey, G. (2003). Excel 2003 all-in-one desk reference for Dummies. Hoboken: Wiley. Footnote
In spite of the demeaning title, this is one of the most popular reference guide with users. It covers very well Excel from a user’s perspective and is therefore an ideal reference for this work. We ourselves learned quite a few “Excel tricks” while reading it. The same author has published guides in this series for Excel 2007 and 2010.
Panko, R. R. (1998). What we know about spreadsheet errors. Journal of End User Computing (Special issue on Scaling Up End User Development), 10(2), 15–21. Available at http://panko.shidler.hawaii.edu/ssr/Mypapers/whatknow.htm. Footnote
This very influential article carried out a systematic study of the number and type of errors found in spreadsheets. At the outset, the results are surprisingly high, which should limit our confidence about decisions made on the basis of spreadsheet calculations. This research also finds that this type and number is similar to programming in general, except that software engineering has developed methods to curb this error rate, while spreadsheet users take a more informal approach.
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Cervesato, I. (2013). The Traditional Interface. In: The Deductive Spreadsheet. Cognitive Technologies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37747-1_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37747-1_7
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