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I consult on spreadsheets, and will write you properly tested and documented spreadsheets in Excel (with Visual Basic, macros, or add-ins if needed) or Google Spreadsheets. Being on the committee of the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group, I know the risks inherent in spreadsheets and how to avoid them.
Do you need, quickly and reliably, to make different versions of a spreadsheet, say by resizing it or changing its layout? My Excelsior program may help. With it, you can write spreadsheets as programs in a language that uses meaningful identifiers rather than A1-style cell names, then compile them into Excel or Google Spreadsheets.
Excelsior separates layout from calculation, so you can arrange the same formulae in many different ways just by changing a few "layout" statements.
Because of the meaningful identifiers, Excelsior programs are easy to read; and with Literate Excelsior, you can list your programs as nicely formatted Web pages. Considering how badly documented spreadsheets are, this is important. Papers about Excelsior, plus demonstrations and example programs, are linked from my Excelsior page.
Excelsior is modular: you can store modules in different files, then include them in your program. I also have software for decompiling or reverse-engineering spreadsheets into Excelsior modules. Together, these let you share code between spreadsheets, something impossible in plain Excel. If interested, please contact me to discuss your needs.
Taking this idea further, I have set up a Spreadsheet Parts Repository from which you can download calculations you'd find hard to program yourself. Please see that page for more info. It links to the Repository contents list, and to demonstrations with Excel and Google Spreadsheets. You can run these on your own PC. I am happy to consult on setting up a Repository in your own company.
I consult on programming in a variety of languages, including Visual Basic, Fortran, Java, JavaScript, Lisp, and Prolog. Past and present customers include the BBC, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, London Economics, Spoton in Torquay, and the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal.
My special interests include Artificial Intelligence, which I used to teach at Oxford, and Web-based learning.
I have experience of scripting interactive Web pages in Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby. I did many of these projects with colleagues from Virtual Worlds. Projects included the Virtual Economy simulation of the British economy, the Virtual Learning Arcade, the BBC Budget Day models described here, and a model of the Russian Economy for the United Nations.
I can rearrange and reformat many kinds of file for you, including spreadsheets and questionnaire data. Experience includes: converting many years' Government Family Expenditure Survey for the Institute for Fiscal Studies; frequent SIMALTO conversions for Research for Today and JLA Associates; and spreadsheet-data extraction for the Oxford Pain Research Group, described in my Dr Dobbs blog posting Trials and tribulations: measuring drug efficacy in clinical trials, plotting graphs in Java with gnuplot, and reading Excel with JExcelAPI. I have a lot of experience in writing programs to check data for errors.
I've written manuals for London Economics, and I've reported on machine-learning in drug design for Pfizer and Oxford GlycoSystems. I wrote a regular AI Newsletter for Dr Dobbs and also blogged for them. I can also write for you.
14th December 2011