IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

VisiCalc Reconstructed

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Demand for terminal‑oriented, Vim‑style editors

Users are looking for spreadsheet programs they can run entirely from the shell with Vi keybindings.

“Are there good command‑line interfaces for spreadsheets? I … would prefer to stay in the terminal … especially if I can have Vi keybindings.” – bonsai_spool
“I actually created one for some time ago … It has Vi keybindings.” – rauli_

2. Historical interest in early spreadsheet implementations

There is a strong nostalgic pull toward the original tools (VisiCalc, Lotus 123) and curiosity about how they managed memory and spreadsheets.

“According to Bob Frankston … The basic approach was to allocate memory into fixed chunks …” – vidarh
“sc has been around for quite a while …” – 0x20cowboy

3. Desire for a modern cross‑platform TUI that handles XLSX/ODS

Community members want a contemporary terminal UI spreadsheet that can read/write modern formats and are ready to contribute.

“Neat, thank you! sc‑im looks amazing … Would love to hear if anyone knows of such a tool.” – freedomben
“I would be interested! Clixel.” – f1shy
“If others are interested in this, please let me know and I'll bang it out in the next couple of weeks.” – airstrike

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

NeoSheet

Summary- A terminal-native spreadsheet that reads/writes XLSX and ODS files, fully scriptable, and supports Vi keybindings.

  • Designed for quick data manipulation without leaving the shell.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Power users, data analysts, developers who prefer CLI tools.
Core Feature Full XLSX/ODS import/export with Vi mode navigation and formula evaluation.
Tech Stack Rust + tui-rs (Ratatui) + Rust-XLSX crate; uses libxls for ODS support.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • HN commenters explicitly asked for a CLI spreadsheet with Vi keybindings and modern format support.
  • Potential to integrate with existing shell pipelines (e.g., cat data.xlsx | neosheet calc "=SUM(A1:A10)").

CLI-Excel

Summary

  • A lightweight, headless spreadsheet engine exposing a REPL for automating spreadsheet tasks.
  • Handles formulas, dependency graphs, and CSV/TSV/Excel I/O in pure Python.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Automation engineers, data scientists needing scriptable spreadsheet logic.
Core Feature Interactive REPL + CLI commands to calculate, validate, and export formulas.
Tech Stack Python 3.11 + pandas (for Excel I/O) + Deducor for dependency graph.
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue-ready: SaaS add‑on for scheduled jobs (pay‑per‑run).

Notes

  • Users expressed interest in building a “flushed‑out text‑based spreadsheet” that can load/save multiple formats.
  • Could be packaged as a pip‑installable tool with a simple API for embedding in other scripts.

ViGrid

Summary

  • A VS Code/Neovim extension that embeds a TUI spreadsheet view inside the editor, offering Vi keybindings and XLSX editing.
  • Enables users to stay within their coding environment for quick data tweaks.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Developers and researchers who edit tabular data alongside code.
Core Feature Embedded spreadsheet buffer with formula evaluation, Vi navigation, and export to CSV/JSON.
Tech Stack TypeScript/VS Code Extension API + Rust + wasm for formula engine; integrates with vim‑TUI via edit‑shell.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Premium license for corporate teams (per‑user).

Notes- Discussion highlighted desire for “a TUI spreadsheet application that can edit ODF or XLSX format” and integration with editors.

  • Could monetize via a marketplace listing with a subscription for advanced functions (e.g., pivot tables).

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