Welcome to the 84th issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, about Spreadsheets. In this edition: We declare spreadsheets the most popular software programming environment of all time. In the Library section, we learn how to use Lotus 1-2-3 for science reading “Spreadsheet Physics” by Charles Misner and Patrick Cooney. In our Vidéothèque section, we discover that Excel is a Turing-complete, functional programming language through the eyes of Dr.| De Programmatica Ipsum
Spreadsheets are the de facto most popular programming environment ever created. Purchase decisions for entire families of personal computers have been made solely on the availability (or lack thereof) of a particular spreadsheet application. There is arguably more structured data stored in spreadsheets than in any other support ever invented by mankind.| De Programmatica Ipsum
Today we are going to talk about a person in a quest to let everyone know that the most popular functional programming language in the world is none other than Microsoft Excel. Yes, the claim sounds outlandish, debatable, laughable, even ridiculous, but she has both data and anecdotal experience backing her point, and this month’s Vidéothèque movie is a brilliant presentation of it.| De Programmatica Ipsum
Given the pervasiveness and versatility of computers in our world of 2025 it is easy to ignore that 80 years ago they were initially conceived as what we would call today a calculator, specifically created to solve tedious mathematical problems. Of course, users of TikTok, Call of Duty, YouTube, Visual Studio Code, or even readers of this website through some web browser like Firefox are usually (and blissfully) unaware of the gazillion computations per second that it takes to produce everyth...| De Programmatica Ipsum
Welcome to the 83rd issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, about PHP. In this edition: We solemnly declare that PHP deserves a second chance. In the Library section, we review “PHP: The Right Way” by Josh Lockhart & Phil Sturgeon. In our Vidéothèque section, we watch Kévin Dunglas tell us everything we need to know about FrankenPHP.| De Programmatica Ipsum
PHP is the effective lingua franca of cheap web hosting. You know, that thing costing 5 bucks a month, where your uncle hosts a WordPress blog about fishing and his personal email. You know, that crappy service that comes with some gigabytes on a shared server, a nice LAMP stack on top, a shitty cPanel and WHM combo to manage things… and SFTP access to upload pictures from Jamie and Larry’s wedding in Chattanooga.| De Programmatica Ipsum
The infinite flexibility of software is not without some major disadvantages. That is the main reason why we, software practitioners, crave so much any kind of information about "the best" or "the right" way to build, test, deploy, and maintain our systems. Yes, our craft is already complicated enough, and we are not even talking about the human complexities like office layouts, employment shenanigans, dress codes, and whatnot. In this occasion we are going to talk about a resource that fight...| De Programmatica Ipsum
In 1995, an otherwise unknown software developer released the first version of a new scripting language whose explicit aim was to make applications for this new platform called "The World Wide Web". After starting as a small project, and thanks to the crazy dot-com years, it grew dramatically to become one of the most widely used programming languages of all time. After some stumbling first steps, it eventually got some sort of standardization in 1997, even reluctantly including some OOP feat...| De Programmatica Ipsum
Welcome to the 82nd issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, about Futurism. In this edition: We look at hits and misses (mostly misses, let us be honest) in our long tradition of predicting the future. In the Library section, we review “The Dream Machine” by M. Mitchell Waldrop and famous papers authored by J.| De Programmatica Ipsum
In a scene of the vastly underrated 2003 sequel film “The Matrix Reloaded”, Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, meets “The Oracle”, a sentient program interpreted by the late Gloria Foster. In that fragment, The Oracle offers Neo a piece of candy, and Neo asks whether she knows if he is going to accept it or not.| De Programmatica Ipsum
As in any human group, there are certain pilgrimages, certain rites of passage that all software developers apparently must go through. They are various and equally anecdotical: to compile and boot their own Linux kernel; to read "The Art of Computer Programming" in its entirety (and then send their CV to Bill Gates); to give a presentation in a conference; and finally, to sit through the whole duration of "The Mother of All Demos", the recording of the unavoidable presentation made by Dougla...| De Programmatica Ipsum
The writings of Jorge Luis Borges twist our perception of time and space. In between articles about Shaw, Chesterton, Wilde, and Coleridge, his 1952 book "Otras Inquisiciones" included an unexpected gem: a short story called "El Tiempo y J. W. Dunne". The question is, who was this John William Dunne and what does he have to do with time? Well, his name might be forgotten by contemporary audiences, but Dunne was the author of one of the biggest bestsellers of the first half of the twentieth ce...| De Programmatica Ipsum
In a previous edition of this magazine, we argued that English was so pervasive in our industry, nobody even questioned its use anymore. The same can be said of Git. It is difficult to imagine that merely twenty years ago, the landscape of source control tools was more diverse, and the choice of one such tool was much more complicated than today. Actually, Git was not even on the map yet. Before debating whether the hegemony of Git is good or bad, let us go back in time for a little while.| De Programmatica Ipsum
