Excel, Python, and the future of data science
By Matt Asay
Contributor, InfoWorld |
The world of data science is awash in open source: PyTorch, TensorFlow, Python, R, and much more. But the most widely used tool in data science isn’t open source, and it’s usually not even considered a data science tool at all.
Excel is “the most successful programming system in the history of homo sapiens,” says Anaconda CEO Peter Wang in an interview “because regular ‘muggles’ can take this tool...put their data in it...ask their questions…[and] model things.” In short, it’s easy to be productive with Excel.
Superior ease and productivity: This is the future Wang envisions for the popular Python programming language. Although Excel has succeeded without open source, Wang believes Python will succeed precisely because of open source.
