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Re: [OT] Re: using xlswrite csvwrite


From: Philip Nienhuis
Subject: Re: [OT] Re: using xlswrite csvwrite
Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2011 16:17:04 -0700 (PDT)

forkandwait wrote:
> 
> Philip Nienhuis  hccnet.nl> writes:
>> > 
>> > Let me rephrase: while xls is (sort of) widely supported, there are
>> lots
>> > of
>> > better, more open, and likely more sustainable options... ;)
>> > 
>> 
>> ...Like... ? And why: "better"?
> 
> Ok, I can't help myself ;) ...
> 
> I prefer either plain text data files in a well thought out directory
> hierarchy
> or an SQL database.  These are far simpler to write code against, they
> don't mix
> formatting and data, they are open, they dont have upgrade hell, they dont
> have
> viruses, text files play nice with version control, and they are human
> readable
> (for SQL, you can almost always get an SQL dump or play around in a
> terminal).
> 

All true. 
I especially like the "human readable" (= "human editable" = "human
repairable").
But then again, some of my colleagues feed GB-sized text data files to ML.
IMO "human readable" becomes moot in such cases, let alone "tractable" or
even "editable" (which I brought in).
(In case you wonder: they get those files -usually containing multivariate
time series- from other agencies who can only export such data volumes from
their dedicated databases as text files. Luckily, text files are often
amenable to efficient compression.)

And yes, it would be great if Octave would have a viable database toolbox
like ML has. 

Time to end this enlightening discussion. Thank you for that.

P.

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