Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Can you version/diff it though? Basically can you have a semi-sane software engineering process when it becomes big?


You can track changes within Excel and with Office 2016, there is a comparison and merge tool included (that's been long overdue). But since the files are binary encoded, there is no external way to track changes unless someone wants to write up a parser for the XLSX format that can keep up with all the new features that MS adds every release.


For what it's worth, XLSX files aren't binary. They're just XML in a ZIP. They're not particularly nasty to diff once they're extracted - actually, I think they might do pretty well in Git.


The diff is actually not really straightforward - a sheet is two-dimensional and you have to work out column/row inserts/deletes (which themselves are intertwined) before you can even start looking at cell changes. So it's quite non-standard stuff.


Ever tried editing the xml and rezipping? Also on examination you might notice the odd binary blob in the xml..


.docx and .xlsx are zipped xml, there are git plugins that produce reasonable diffs




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2026 batch! Applications are open till July 27.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: