Recent submissions

Comment · 5 days ago
"classic Spreadsheet functionality" is just familiar Excel functions with uppercase names implemented in Python, right here: https://github.com/gristlabs/grist-core/tree/main/sandbox/gr...

E.g. UPPER($A) is just a function that calls $A.upper(). And $A is just syntactic sugar over rec.A.

PREVIOUS() is only special in that it automatically creates an index, which is important for efficiency. But generally you can look up a set of records and write multi-line Python code to do whatever you want with it and return a value. And it all runs in a sandbox with no access to anything except this document's data.

Comment · 10 months ago
I'd say if you know React or Vue or another framework and it fits your project well, then no. If you are learning though, there is arguably much less to learn (in particular, not having to juggle 3 languages). And if you are building something very serious, it's suitable: nearly all of Grist frontend is GrainJS, and it's a very big performant real-time collaborative long-lived single-page app.
Comment · 10 months ago
It enables much of what a large framework like React enables, but with a much simpler implementation, less tooling need to use it, and (some may argue) more convenient usage.
Comment · 2 years ago
That should make it the format of choice for Chief Security Officers.
Comment · 3 years ago
It makes sense for a successful product that’s being hurt by competitors packaging it up and selling as a paid service. My advice: for a younger product, keep it actually open-source (FOSS).

With either Sentry’s FSL license or FOSS, you as a user can run your own. If you want a paid managed service, you can pay Sentry. With FOSS, there can be competitors who offer such service using the same exact up-to-date version, and undercut Sentry on price (since they aren't paying developers). With FSL, they’d have to run a 2-year old version. That’s a disincentive to competitors.

BUT: even with FOSS, a similar disincentive exists, because the maker of the FOSS software could decide to change license, forcing competitors to run a stale version or invest into their own development, or pay up for licensing.

Seems if you are small enough, pure FOSS is better for this reason (the option to release future changes under a different license is always there). But if you are big enough to have competitors, and you can’t convince enough competitors to pay or revenue share (e.g. through support agreements), then FSL can be a way to twist their arms without hurting most other users too much. (It does hurt to some extent, as the many arguments in this discussion point out.)

Comment · 3 years ago
[Grist founder here] On separating formulas from data, that's always been an important part of Grist.

In Grist, check out the "Code View" page in the left-side panel -- it shows all the logic (i.e. formulas) of the document along with the Python data model (i.e. all the column names and types).

Also, you can save or download a copy of the document without the data, but keeping all the formulas. So you can get all the logic (and formatting, layouts, etc), and use it for different data.

(No support for solving circular references though.)

Comment · 3 years ago
Big differentiators in Grist, in terms of features, are layouts, access rules, and formulas.
Comment · 3 years ago
Comment · 3 years ago
Shhh, don't tell them about SQLite! It's the secret sauce behind Grist (I am a founder), and we are sort of competitors. Wouldn't want Monday.com knowing about our competitive advantage!
Comment · 3 years ago
Founder of Grist here (https://www.getgrist.com/):

- focus on small teams and individuals

- open source (with community contributing!)

- can be run self-managed

- portable data (lossless export in SQLite format)

- full of great features (granular access rules, formulas with python, conditional formatting, webhooks, etc etc)

If it's little-known, it's because we spend too much time building, not enough time selling.

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