[Lazarus] New version of Excel Interface unit available

[Thierry Coq]

Yes, there are several alternatives now to read/write spreadsheets:
a) - using CSV files,
b) - using XML files,
c) - using FPSpreadsheet,
d) - now using ExcelInterface.

Unlike a) and b) ExcelInterface controls Excel directly using the COM 
interface, so the interaction with the Excel program is immediate: 
formulas can be written and and evaluated automatically by the Excel 
solver, the user can input data with Excel filled-in spreadsheets, the 
format itself is rendered immediately, moving shapes also move 
connectors automatically. It also requires less manual work from the 
end-user.

Unlike c) ExcelInterface provides many additional facilities in addition 
to the cells and values: formulas, formats, comments, shapes, diagrams, 
etc. and works on many Excel versions.

ExcelInterface brings the power of Excel to FPC and Lazarus as a sort of 
additional external component.

In the future, I hope to add a similar interface to link to OpenOffice, 
so as:
- to have the same interface to generate either OpenOffice or Excel 
spreadsheets,
- to be able to run the interface on Linux.

Enjoy!
Thierry

Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 6:55 AM, Leslie
> Kaye<les.kaye at couchmansfarm.plus.com> wrote:
>   
>> Tip for a basic and simple solution (Windows but presumably similar on other
>> platforms?) you can just write your data to a Comma Separated Variable (csv)
>> text file and do a ShellExecute 'open' on it.
>>     
>
> Or you can generate a spreadsheet with the fpspreadsheet library:
>
> http://wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/FPSpreadsheet
>
>