Programming communication with the user in multiplatform spreadsheet applications

Abstract

It is quite common that the same person uses many different devices, depending on the situation: smartphones and tablets in the field, laptops in the office, switching between operating systems and Web-based applications. A spreadsheet user in this situation needs amultiplatform spreadsheet, one which will work equally well on all types of devices. The alternative of having many spreadsheets and copying data between them is clearly inferior, because it is a well-known source of errors. The topic we want to address in the present paper is programming the interaction with the user in a multiplatform spreadsheet, using only the core spreadsheet functionalities, which are implemented in the majority of spreadsheet systems. We report here on our experiences with creating the user interface of a multiplatform spreadsheet application for archaeologists working in the field.