ses

ses

[Sean Sieger]

Got a minute to explain an SES spreadsheet?

I'm reading the SES manual, but I think it presupposes a familiarity
with spreadsheets and spreadsheet manuals.  I've never successfully made
a spreadsheet in my life (Excel (ugh), Emacs Table, the Emacs Table in
Org, nothing ... I'd so like to keep track of expenses this way, in
SES.).

How do I,

  - name cell A `Date' and right align it?

  - name cell A1  `Expense' and left align it?
    (or can one do both of the above in two lines in cell A?)

  - enter today's date in cell B?

  - enter my first expense say `Subway' in A2?

  - make column A auto-fit and data right-aligned beneath the
    right-aligned column name?

  - (assuming I can then add subsequent dates by inserting new columns
    in the future,) name cell C `Subtotal' and enter a formula for that
    column that adds the amounts of the row?

  - name cell B3 `Total' and enter a formula in C3 that totals column C?


Please help me get started.

Re: ses

[Sean Sieger]

Sean Sieger <sean.sieger@gmail.com> writes:

      - make column A auto-fit and data right-aligned beneath the
        right-aligned column name?

        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Whoops, left-aligned.

Re: ses

[Stefan Monnier]

> Got a minute to explain an SES spreadsheet?

You may get a bit disappointed: SES is a very primitive spreadsheet, so
some of the features you're asking for simply don't exist.

>   - name cell A `Date' and right align it?

Not sure what you mean by "name".  You can set its value to "Date" (a
string) or to `Date' (a symbol), so that's what will be printed at
that spot.  Depending on whether you use a string or a symbol, it will
either be right aligned or left-aligned, so, the answer to your question
may be:

   ' D a t e RET

>   - name cell A1  `Expense' and left align it?

That would then be:

   " E x p e n s e RET

>     (or can one do both of the above in two lines in cell A?)

No, SES doesn't handle multi-line cells.

>   - enter today's date in cell B?

There's no such automatic facility in SES.  You'll have to define
a corresponding function for that.

>   - make column A auto-fit and data right-aligned beneath the
>     right-aligned column name?

There's no "auto-fit" feature.
Numbers are right-aligned, so the alignment might just work.  Note that
the alignment is fairly naive, e.g. it doesn't know how to align on the
decimal ".".

>   - (assuming I can then add subsequent dates by inserting new columns
>     in the future,) name cell C `Subtotal' and enter a formula for that
>     column that adds the amounts of the row?

Something like:

  = (apply 'ses+ (ses-range A2 A20)) RET


-- Stefan

Re: ses

[Enrico Indiogine]

Hi!

2010/1/4 Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>:
>> Got a minute to explain an SES spreadsheet?

Have a look at org-mode, http://www.orgmode.org


Enrico



-- 
Enrico Indiogine

Mathematics Education
Texas A&M University

Email: hindiogine@gmail.com
Skype: hindiogine
Website: http://www.coe.tamu.edu/~enrico

"Rien ne va de soi.  Rien n'est donné. Tous est construit."   Gaston
Bachelard, 1934

Re: ses

[Sean Sieger]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

    > Got a minute to explain an SES spreadsheet?

    You may get a bit disappointed: SES is a very primitive spreadsheet, so
    some of the features you're asking for simply don't exist.

And that is why I was attracted to it---firstness, low level
abstractions and so on appeal to me.  I'm gonna learn how to use it.
What tripped me up was the read-only business.

Stefan, thank you for trying to answer my question.  Bastien's two
tutorials on the subject of Org's spreadsheet enabled me to get an
expense spreadsheet up and running.

http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/index.php