Best XL-Guru ever?

[Corticus]

I agree Nate,

The morefunc.dll addin is very useful (search: Aladin), but my beef with it is the fact that it is sealed up tight.

I can't ship a spreadsheet out with any of Longre's functions, because that would require me to send the user the add-in as well, and my spreadhsheets have to be one .xls file. If they were open-source, I could make UDF's out of them and attach them to the worksheets, but as it is... alas!

I agree though, Longre's work is very impressive, and in his defense, at least its free. Locked-up add-ins (of files, or anything) just **** me off. At least make it an .xla so I can crack it, I can't even decompile an .xll. Of course, I'm sure that's the idea!

 

[NateO]

Well, and it's not written in VB, so you need to speak the language to do anything with it, never mind if you could crack it:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...deovrcomaddinsvsapplicationspecificaddins.asp

Does this make any sense to you:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=38D6A0FB.E79AA3CF@free.fr

Turns out he's pretty good with Excel concepts other than xll add-ins as well. Examples:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=366730CB.1FB1@wanadoo.fr&rnum=5

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...lw86StV9GA.240@uppssnewspub04.moswest.msn.net

http://www.j-walk.com/ss/excel/eee/eee003.txt

http://longre.free.fr/pages/api/couleurs.htm

Etc....

 

[XL-Dennis]

I'd hate to pick one...

Don´t vote then

And it´s not what somebody have done for the last years but over the years, i e 10 - 15 years :wink:

BTW, Mr Pearson have been educated by the three big B:s. I wonder who they are

..and I think that reverse engineering is something that You shouldn´t be proud at all with and it also explain why developers are trying hard to protect their work, especially when they try to do it for a living.

Kind regards,
Dennis

 

[Juan Pablo González]

I agree Nate, but, well, if you're going that way, then the list would have to be extended A LOT MORE, I mean, Green, Bovey, Peltier, Ogilvy, Staff, Grove, etc., etc.... so, if you'd pick of the available list... it would be... ?

 

[NateO]

Don´t vote then

I didn't.

And it´s not what somebody have done for the last years but over the years, i e 10 - 15 years :wink:

I don't follow, some of the links I posted are from 1998. Are you talking about Laurent Longre? He's clearly been developing in Excel '97 and perhaps earlier versions...

BTW, Mr Pearson have been educated by the three big B:s. I wonder who they are

Looks like he was educated by Laurent in two of the threads I linked to. I'm curious, how do you know where Chip gained his knowledge regarding Excel? And even if you did, why would you share this information?

Juan, I'm not sure there's a right answer or that the list has all of the potentially correct responses on it... If I had to pick one, I'd probably say Laurent Longre, I've learned a lot from all of them, but that's my gut feel. Maybe change the question, e.g., Best from this list?

 

[Corticus]

Thanks for the info Nate (boy you're helpful today :D), I didn't know that .xll files were not necessarily VB, but could be C/C++ or whatever. Very interesting, and no, I most likely don't know enough C++ to understand what Longre's doing anyways.

In defense of cracking/decompiling
I'd say I've learned about 90% of what programming I know from picking apart other peopless work. I have no shame in that. If someone makes an add-in available for downloading, and I like it, you bet I'm going to do everything in my power to decompile/crack it. If you're that scared about people jacking your work, don't post it where millions of people can download it.
I only hope that my code will be good enough that others will try to hack it.

As a musician, I have a deep respect for the concept of intellectual property, but my beats are sitting out there, just waiting to be stolen, and I know this. That's why I don't post my favorite music online for millions to listen to.

Funny, nobody seemed to have a problem with me cracking Microsoft's Add-ins...

 

[XL Pro]

I agree Nate, but, well, if you're going that way, then the list would have to be extended A LOT MORE, I mean, Green, Bovey, Peltier, Ogilvy, Staff, Grove, etc., etc.... so, if you'd pick of the available list... it would be... ?

Just to throw one more in the mix (probably included in the Etcetras above):
Eric Wells


Didn't vote either...they're all equal in their own right!

 

[XL-Dennis]

...Maybe change the question, e.g., Best from this list?

You actually mean that the superadministrator at MrExcel should change the thread

It looks like You are total out of line here...(as usual when You disagree...)

It crazy to keep doing reverse engineering no matter what Your excuses are and especially when You view The Office Experts in Your avatar...

Have You ever tried a friendly e-mail to creators of an add-ins, especially the free ones? You would be surpriced too see how friendly they can be

And to get Your hands on the code in commercial add-ins make applications to be a beta-tester

So instead of sitting in Your chamber and decompile You will get some new friends, more knowledge and better understanding of the works.

 

[NateO]

You actually mean that the superadministrator at MrExcel should change the thread

No, I don't see a need for Juan to change your thread. But you asked for the board's opinion, and I gave you mine, 'tis the nature of the board. What's wrong with this? Because of my opinion, I can't vote based on the specific question asked, the response list does not allow me answer honestly.

It looks like You are total out of line here...(as usual when You disagree...)

It's not like I called you names or anything. I just probably wouldn't pin it on one individual, if I were to, I'd probably say Laurent. I guess I don't see why that's out of line. You did want an honest answer? I think it's fair for me to ask you a question regarding statements you make...

 

[Corticus]

I don't think anything I do is immoral, or illegitimate, and I'm sorry if anyone disagrees. I've probably given a false impression that I try to crack programs...I really have no idea how to do this, I throw around words like crack and hack and decompile a little losely, but I did try to look at the code in Morefunc and was not able to, and I did not pursue it. I had no real interest in it than a passing curiosity, so it died there.

In order to even realize that something is locked up, you have to try to look at it, and then I quit.

I really don't feel like getting into the whole Office Experts thing, that's a comlicated issue involving my right to say what I want and not get grief from someone I've never done anything to, to the fact that I represent TheOfficeExperts to some extent, and should behave in accordance. We could go on for days.