actually for MANY years most major pc mfgs bundled word/excel/ppt (and w/ Micron, bless their hearts, Access) in w/ the purchase price. It wasn't "the marketplace" if by that you mean the end user deciding. (fwiw..i do end up using ods/proc export to write out a lot of summary stats for end users into *.xls format..but looking at a table of ORatios at the end of analysis is rather different from attempts ...and they are legion...of using excel as a database mgt "tool."

Alan Churchill <SASL001@SAVIAN.NET> wrote: Ben,

How is it closed? Anyone can read the Excel spreadsheet format and there are loads of programs that do, including SAS. If someone wants to build a better spreadsheet, have at it. Last I looked, Office costs money yet people choose to buy it.

I never buy into the 'dumb consumer' argument. Products succeed because people assign a value to it. Joe Public has chosen Excel because it works and is worth the price.

Office 2007 uses XML as its file format. Microsoft, rather than making Excel really closed, has completely opened it up.

Alan

Alan Churchill Savian "Bridging SAS and Microsoft Technologies" www.savian.net

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of ben.powell@CLA.CO.UK Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 8:38 AM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: numbers "that look like" characters in Excel to SAS

Ironically in this example Microsoft Excel would be the BetaMax - closed/proprietary. Where is the open market for spreadsheets of a common technology that is comparable to the VHS (or DVD) marketplace?

errr there isn't one: its a monopoly.

Sure Excel is the best, but to 90% of Joe Public its also the "only", so its questionable whether this is due to "popularity" alone.

Hence: de facto.

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 07:47:41 -0700, Alan Churchill wrote:

>This reminds me of [...] VHS vs betaMax, etc.

>Alan Churchill >Savian "Bridging SAS and Microsoft Technologies" >www.savian.net > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of >ben.powell@CLA.CO.UK >Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 2:56 AM >To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU >Subject: Re: numbers "that look like" characters in Excel to SAS > >Or the defacto standard brought about by a monopoly? > >On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:21:16 -0700, Alan Churchill >wrote (in part): > >>Excel is THE most *popular* tool in the world for manipulating data. >[...] >> >>Alan >> >> >>Alan Churchill >>Savian "Bridging SAS and Microsoft Technologies" >>www.savian.net

Bob McConnaughey Westat/NIEHS | Pittsboro, NC

"There is a great homeland of intelligence and love from which no one can be expelled" Carlos Fuentes

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