[wizzwizz4]

> PY cells are evaluated from left to right and top to bottom. This includes the sheets, so the first sheet gets calculated before the second sheet, etc.

Oh, no. This is MS Excel 4.0 Macro sheets (Ctrl+F11) all over again, except somehow with a worse execution order.

> It prevents you from referencing a cell with a Python object directly, as you’re always running the risk that someday, someone switches that cell to Values mode, which would break any formula that references this cell in object mode.

That's not a major concern. Excel already has a dozen footguns painted exactly this colour.

> So which output is my df1, and which one is my df2? I have no idea unless I look up the code that is sitting in cells L2 and K2

Excel still lets you name cells, does it not?

> In fact, I agree that the cloud is the best way to bring Python to Excel.

Heretic!

[airstrike]

> Excel still lets you name cells, does it not?

It does, but that too is a half assed feature so users struggle with it IRL

[tichiian]

Excel implementers struggle with it.

Half the features of Excel cannot deal with named cells. Try for example to use named cells in Conditional Formatting. Doesn't work at all, ranges cannot be named cells or tables, and condition formulas can only reference named cells with extremely ugly contortions.

There are lots and lots of additional examples of similar problems.

Excel is a loose agglomeration of unrelated features hidden under a pretty GUI.

[nhinck3]

I've always wondered why they've never done a basic pass of fixing stuff like this.

[keithalewis]

Worked with the Excel team on the 2007 beta. They want to do this too, but program managers give them a hard "No." If you touch even one thing there is a cascade of side effects that will drag you off the local maximum.

The PMs are right. It would be expensive to do this and it would piss off existing customers.