[nokome]

Yes, you're right this doesn't solve all the issues with spreadsheets as a programming environment. The "averaging over the right data" is a big one, and yes, being able to diff a text file won't help that.

Thanks a lot for the suggested syntax - it's really good to get some feedback. I need more time to think it through and work out exactly how this would work.

In the meantime, one solution to the problem, that I would like to implement soon, is cell mapping - in effect projecting native data structures onto grid cells. That way you can still display and modify your data in the spreadsheet but use a sensible formula like `mean(data$height)` instead of `mean(A2:A5)`. Would love comments on that idea - there's an issue on it https://github.com/stencila/stencila/issues/118

[glenjamin]

An interesting extension would be to use the now easily parsable text-based format, and apply static analysis checks to it.

eg.

Warning: C10 has a range from A1:A9 but C9 only has B1:B8