Re: Software to read/write Excel to CD?

Matt Graham wrote: > Ashley Sheridan wrote: >> Paul M Foster wrote: >>> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 03:22:12PM -0500, Skip Evans wrote: >>>> One of the things the other company said was possible, and I'm >>>> not familiar with... if I understand correctly, is to create a >>>> CD with not just an Excel spreadsheet, but software on that CD >>>> that when placed in another computer will open the >>>> spreadsheet, allow it to be modified and rewritten back to the CD. > > It has to be a CD-RW, the CD-RW has to be in UDF format, and the host > machine has to be able to read and rewrite CD-RWs in UDF. This is > actually not that tough to arrange--it just has nothing to do with > PHP. 'DozeXP should be able to do this, and Linux will do this if the > right kernel options are on. Don't know about OS X. > >>> Second, include some other program which >>> would do the same thing. Good luck with that. > > OOO Calc, which should be just fine for basic tasks and is Free. > >>> And now the kicker-- write the spreadsheet back to CD. Okay, maybe, if >>> it's a CD-RW. But who's going to pay attention to that little detail? >>> And as far as I know, writing to a CD is far more complicated than >>> writing to a hard drive. You can't overwrite data on a CD-RW. > > UDF, which has been a standard for quite some time, allows this. The > main thing you lose is some space on the CD-RW. > >> I've never heard of anything like that, there are so many unknown >> variables that I would really feel for the poor team who had to take >> that project on! > > It sounds like whoever defined the requirements was trying to solve a > problem in the wrong way. Why drag physical media into this when you > have the Net available? And if the clients don't have the Net > available, *why not*? > It *is* possible to be offline, and so far from anywhere that the only com links are to satellites... (expensive). I suspect that a USB key is a better option (and more physically portable) than a UFB CD. But why write an Excel spreadsheet - why not save the data in something more portable like CSV that ExCel and read and write to once you are back at base? -- Peter Ford phone: 01580 893333 Developer fax: 01580 893399 Justcroft International Ltd., Staplehurst, Kent