[Tutor] Python as Application (OT now)

[Alan Gauld]

> >useful and I support it 100%.  That he thinks what he is learning is
> >Excel is absolutely unforgivable, in terms of my understanding of
> >ethical norms that once prevailed in an institute of higher education.
> >
>
> I've never worked in any workplace where anything else other
> than Excel was used.

Certainly true for the majority case. However many smaller
businesses (especially outside the USA) use other office packages
for the simple reason that they are cheaper. For example in the UK,
MS Office costs around £350 here whereas Lotus SmartSuite and
Corel Office both cost less than £100. Ability Office although less
known is also much less than £100. And of course OpenOffice is
free and a lot of high street system builders are now shipping that.
And finally there is MS Works which is also common in very small
businesses.

At the other end of the scale many high end financial organisations
use more sophisticated spreadsheets than Excel - Improv was very
popular until lotus withdrew it! 20/20 is another comon contender.
There are a couple of other high power Unix spreadsheets that I've
seen in financial clients offices.

But I agree with Liam that 99% of businesses use EXcel just because
everyone else does. And because MS Office is the standard suite on
high volume system builders PCs - Dell, HP, IBM, Gateway, etc.

Alan G.
FWIW I use Excel at work and Quattro Pro at home...