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0 pointsnhatcher17d ago0 comments

Well, I just jumped full time on IronCalc[1] a fully open source, light and fast spreadsheet engine designed and build from the ground up.

I have been working on it as side project for over two years and now, with funding from the EU for the next 2.5 years, I hope I can make of it a real product for everyone to use that can compete with the likes of Excel and Googl;e Sheets.

I can oly say, I am overly, off the Moon excited

[1]: https://www.ironcalc.com

0 comments

arnorhs17d ago

Which EU grant did you receive? Ie. from which fund?

edit: nm, rtfm, it was on the landing page: Horizon Europe programme

nhatcherOP17d ago

Answered to a sibling comment. NLnet and HORIZON.

NLnet is just amazing and can keep you going if you are a student or have some extra sources of income

HORIZON is a huge grant but fairly hard to obtain. Generally related to reasearch grants in academia

yvely16d ago

Looking at it and very excited. In unsupported features, charting is mentioned. Could there be any value in not directly implementing the drawing of charts, but tie in to other open source library? Just curious of your thinking.

nhatcherOP15d ago

I think charts is one of those few things I won't implement from scratch, as there are already fantastic libraries out there:

https://github.com/ironcalc/IronCalc/issues/348

We will start working on it by July according to the plan. (This will add a lot if value to the project BTW)

hju22_-316d ago

Oh, neat. Didn't expect to see IronCalc here for some reason, have been considering it for a side-project. Thanks for the hard work. :)

FattiMei17d ago

Interesting, how was the EU funding process?

nhatcherOP17d ago

First we got a grant from the NLnet[1], which I highly recommend as a first step of any project. Single best thing I could have done. That wasn't enough money for me to quit my job. Also I didn't have any _evidence_ that IronCalc was a good idea or that there was a market for it. Then evidence started pouring and I kept working. I started talking to different folks, lots of people many of those were contacts through the NLnet. Then the folks from NextGraph[2] approached us and asked, "Hey do you want to be part of this consortium [3]?". Eventually we got a HORIZON grant after a lot of sweat and paperwork, but NextGraph took the brunt of it.

As you see there is a huge component of sheer luck

[1]: https://nlnet.nl/project/IronCalc/ [2]: https://nextgraph.org/ [3]: https://elfaconsortium.eu/

bambax17d ago

Congrats! But what is a spreadsheet "engine" as opposed to a spreadsheet program?

nhatcherOP16d ago

The "engine" is the computational part of it. And it is completely separted from the UI. You can use it from Rust, Python, nodejs or from the browser and eventually from a destop app.

The important thing is that is all those cases the engine is the same. I

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

arnorhs17d ago

Which EU grant did you receive? Ie. from which fund?

edit: nm, rtfm, it was on the landing page: Horizon Europe programme

nhatcherOP17d ago

Answered to a sibling comment. NLnet and HORIZON.

NLnet is just amazing and can keep you going if you are a student or have some extra sources of income

HORIZON is a huge grant but fairly hard to obtain. Generally related to reasearch grants in academia

yvely16d ago

nhatcherOP15d ago

I think charts is one of those few things I won't implement from scratch, as there are already fantastic libraries out there:

https://github.com/ironcalc/IronCalc/issues/348

We will start working on it by July according to the plan. (This will add a lot if value to the project BTW)

hju22_-316d ago

Oh, neat. Didn't expect to see IronCalc here for some reason, have been considering it for a side-project. Thanks for the hard work. :)

FattiMei17d ago

Interesting, how was the EU funding process?

nhatcherOP17d ago

As you see there is a huge component of sheer luck

[1]: https://nlnet.nl/project/IronCalc/ [2]: https://nextgraph.org/ [3]: https://elfaconsortium.eu/

bambax17d ago

Congrats! But what is a spreadsheet "engine" as opposed to a spreadsheet program?

nhatcherOP16d ago

The "engine" is the computational part of it. And it is completely separted from the UI. You can use it from Rust, Python, nodejs or from the browser and eventually from a destop app.

The important thing is that is all those cases the engine is the same. I

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse