On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 4:33 PM, Jim Lemon <jim@bitwrit.com.au> wrote:

> On 04/17/2013 03:25 AM, Sarah Goslee wrote:

The final point does relate to Excel and any application that hides what is
> going on to the casual observer. I will treasure this URL to give to anyone
> who chastises my moaning when I have to perform some task in Excel. It is
> not an error in the application (although these certainly exist) but a
> salutory caution to those who think that if a reasonable looking number
> appears in a cell, it must be the correct answer. I have found not one, but
> two such errors in the simple calculation of a "birthday age" from the date
> of birth and date of death.
>
> Jim
>

So there (maybe) was a bug in Excel.  Maybe hidden from the "casual
observer".  And since Excel is not R, and we are R snobs, Excel is evil,
right?  But, wait.  Is it easier for a "casual observer" to detect a flaw
in the formula in Excel, or to find an incorrect array index in an R
script?  All ye who want to cast stones upon the interface of Excel should
ask yourselves if you have ever had a bug in R code.

Kevin (no fan of Excel either)



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-- 
Kevin Wright

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