[school-discuss] Excel functions in Linux spreadsheets

[Gunnar Stefansson <gunnar@hekla.rhi.hi.is>]

Hello, all

I want to try to migrate an international course which I am in
charge of onto Linux computers.  This is quite heavily oriented
towards computing but not programming so I have relied on using
Excel.  Whatever one can say about Excel (lots), it does provide a
very nice environment for teaching computing without requiring too
much programming.

Having looked a bit at gnumeric, kspread and StarOffice, there seem
to be quite a few issues which come up, but the main problem is that
I have been unable to find any equivalent or substitute for solver
and table.

Now, solver in Excel does nonlinear minimisation (gnumeric's only
does linear programming) and this is an essential for my course.
Similarly, I also use the table facility, which allows me to
tabulate values of a function.

We are looking into the possibility of using R instead, but that
might change the course into a programming course which isn't really
what is needed for my audience.

If anyone knows of solver or table for any Linux spreadsheet, then I
would really like to hear about it.

We are also having trouble finding out how to do pivot-table in
gnumeric...but this is not as crucial as solver.

Thanks in advance

Gunnar