Here's one thing I don't understand. Geeks love Smalltalk image-based persistence. Geeks hate Excel documents. [1] Don't they have the same problems? How is the program state in a Smalltalk image version-controlled? Is that even a sensible question?
> Here's one thing I don't understand. Geeks love Smalltalk image-based persistence. Geeks hate Excel documents. Don't they have the same problems?
They have neither the same benefits nor the same problems, though they have some overlap in each.
Also both the "Geeks love Smalltalk" and "Geeks hate Excel" generalizations are over-generalizations, and the set of geeks for whom the former is valid are not the same set of geeks for whom the latter is valid (though, again, there is some overlap.)
So, I don't think this even in the ballpark. There are a very high percentage of "geeks" that would have no idea what Smalltalk's image based persistence even is. Excel is like the lingua franca of the financial business world. It is used an abused. The Smalltalk persistence thing is ... it's an odd comparison, let's say. :)
[1] generalization, do not take too seriously.