GOTO Berlin is a vendor independent international software development conference with more that 60 top speakers and 600 attendees. The conference covers topics such as Java, Open Source, Agile, Architecture, Design, Web, Cloud, New Languages and Processes.

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Felienne Hermans, Assistant Professor at Delft University of Technology

Felienne Hermans

Biography: Felienne Hermans

Felienne is assistant professor at Delft University of Technology, where she heads the Spreadsheet Lab, researching the application of software engineering methods to spreadsheets.

One of Felienne's biggest passions in life is to share enthusiasm for programming with others. She teaches a group of kids Lego Mindstorms programming every Saturday, serves on the board of Devnology, a Dutch developer community that organizes monthly meetings on all things software, and is one of the founders of the Joy of Coding conference, a one day developer conference in Rotterdam celebrating the joy and art of programming. If she is not coding, blogging and teaching, she is probably dancing Lindy Hop, out running, watching a movie or playing a (board)game.

Twitter: @Felienne

Presentation: Spreadsheets for Developers

Track: Programming Languages / Time: Thursday 13:20 - 14:10 / Location: Hall 6

Spreadsheets are often dismissed by developers for not being “proper programming” but that is not true. Since I have shown that spreadsheets are Turing complete, you have no excuse to diss them any longer. In this session, I will implement various algorithms in Excel to show you its power and elegance.

After all, spreadsheets are ‘live’ and functional, so they have everything going for them. Furthermore they are very fit for TDD and rapid prototyping.

Just as learning a second natural language is healthy for your brain, so is learning multiple programming languages. Thinking about familiar problems like sorting or shortest path in a strange environment like spreadsheet formulas is like a workout for your brain. Next time you are in need of a quick calculation or prototype, you do not have to waste time configuring a server and deploying your code. Surely not for everything, but for some problems, spreadsheets are really suited and this talk will teach you about how to handle those. Being emerged in the world that many of your colleagues and clients live and breath will make it easier to understand them.

Don't fight spreadsheets any longer, but learn to love them.