[taneq]

Good question! Smartass answer: No, because spreadsheets in programs like Excel are Turing-complete, which means any program you could write in a Lispy spreadsheet, you can write in Excel.

Useful answer: In practical terms, probably, for a very small subset of users. The kinds of users who are into programming and also Lisp, and also use spreadsheets a lot. For these four users, adding their favourite programming paradigm would help them to implement cooler things than they would otherwise do.

[Scarbutt]

As someone who is into programming and lisps, I would prefer a declarative language (a la SQL and the relational model) which is just simply superior at manipulating data over some FP language (OOP langs are much worse of course). But then, many already use SQL instead of spreadsheets.

[default-kramer]

If the native language is Lisp, you could use it to build a declarative DSL pretty easily. If the native language is something like SQL, your options are much more limited.

[tobmlt]

Right on! I was thinking of suggesting something like minikanren. My likes can get a bit niche at this point so I’ll leave it at that.

[thomastjeffery]

> Excel's functions are turing-complete, and therefore equivalent to lisp

That is a smartass answer. Technically correct as long as you ignore the human factor.

[acchow]

> Smartass answer: No, because spreadsheets in programs like Excel are Turing-complete

There is a difference in expressivity between programming languages despite the fact that they may both be Turing-complete. Just look at how languages add more language features over time...

[echelon]

looks at C++

[eyelidlessness]

As far as I know, Excel functions have never had side effects, they’re pure functions. It's already lisp, just with the open paren in a different position, and commas that could be less meaningful.