FunSheet: a functional spreadsheet
W. de Hoon, L.M.W.J. Rutten, M.C.J.D. van Eekelen · 1994
It has been claimed that recent developments in the research on efficiency of code generation and on graphical input/output interfacing have made it possible to use a functional language to write efficient programs that can compete with industrial applications written in a traditional language. As one of the early steps to verify this claim, this paper describes a first go at the implementation of a spreadsheet in a pure lazy functional language. An interesting aspect of the design is that the language with which the user specifies the relations between the cells of the spreadsheet is set out to be a standard, pure lazy functional language and not a dedicated spreadsheet language. Furthermore, the design incorporates the possibility to ask the system to prove equality of symbolic cell expressions: a property which can greatly enhance the reliability of a particular user-defined spreadsheet. The resulting application is by no means a fully mature product. It is not intended as a competi...