Re: Create Excel spreadsheet (including formulas, color, comments, etc) on iSeries unattended in batch mode

On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 4:33 PM, Vernon Hamberg
<vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Details of the underlying technology of Excel don't interest me enough
to worry about it - I guess I'm a high-level, here's what it looks like,
kind of guy. Sure it's kind of interesting to know that Excel updating
is basically a rewrite - and it doesn't help me much in doing my work.
And getting something out to a user.

Well, certain things do matter, even at a pretty high level. For
example, solutions that delegate tasks to an actual running instance
of Excel obviously need some machine other than the i (typically
Windows, but conceivably there would be ways to get a Mac to work, as
there is Excel for Mac).

And what the users want dictates to some extent what you can use. If
a user tells you "give me anything I can open in Excel, as long as
things come formatted the way I like", then CSV is completely out of
the picture. Some shops absolutely NEED everything to live COMPLETELY
on the i (so no delegating to Windows). Etc.

It's true that the difference between updating and completely
rewriting is mostly academic, but I mention it because I am wondering
about things like: Did the S/36 that Rob was talking about somehow
communicate with a Windows machine to do the Excel processing? Or did
the S/36 do everything by itself?

John