Shortly after first learning how to use spreadsheets ( only 17 years ago ) I had a conversation with a friend along these lines:
Me - Creating spreadsheets is a little bit like programming. In fact, you could say that it is a sort of programming.
Friend - Programming? Spreadsheets? They don’t look like programming to me.
Me - I admit the ‘programming language’ is unusual and very high level, maybe like a 4GL, but look at what’s happening: You start with a blank sheet, you give the computer a set of rules and some input data and it generates outputs. Conceptually that’s a program, isn’t it?
Friend - [with a sceptical look] Hmmm.
I’d forgotten that converstion until today when I read Writing formulas is computer programming.
Of course it makes no difference whether or not you call using a spreadsheet programming. The fact that you could call it programming, though, is interesting because it indicates that programming needn’t be scary or nerdy. If you can accept that then you’re more likely to make more effective use of your PC.
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