It's pretty neat but does have a number of bugs. The packaged version also doesn't have xls support compiled in (at least on Fedora) which is unfortunate, though building is fairly easy[2].
I love the idea of it though, so I'm really hoping these issues get ironed out! I'm happy to help contribute if maintainers are willing.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47457009
[2] https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc-im/wiki/Building-sc%E2%80...
Visidata is the only terminal program I've found that handles large text fields in tabular data nicely the way you can drill down into a table row, then Ctrl+O to edit a field in your editor, but it's not a spreadsheet.
And it's not like the terminal can't be a greater data processing tool, but you have to use different paradigms.
Still from an esthetical perspective I love those simple TUI interfaces. They invoke a weird sense of comfort in me that I can't fully explain.
Related, see the insane success and excitement from the early GUI based operating systems.
I've been wondering about this too. I think a great TUI could get it done though, but it remains to be seen how it could really stack up. If I didn't have so many projects already, I'd give this a shot because I would really love a "vim" for spreadsheets
This feels like the kind of domain in particular where the advantages of a GUI provide a superior experience, and once it gets sophisticated enough you'll have basically built one anyway just in the terminal.
I used blocky spreadsheets a few decades ago... Tell me why I want to use them again today?
Legit question - I want to understand the needs I'm overlooking which this thing meets. (Please don't just reply "lack of ribbon/ads/bloat etc", none of that nonsense is required in either flavor).
- A spreadsheet that runs in a RISC-V+Core-V device is less susceptible to supply-chain issues and geopolitical stresses.
- Price. The hardware needed to run a text-only spreadsheet is worth about 10 bucks or less.
- Energy consumption. Now the server with your business data can run deep within energy-starved communist Cuba...probably.
- Better security. Plenty of people and armies get nervous about keeping tallies of dangerous toys in computers with lots of ICs and closed-source blobs made in enemy territory. Just enumerating all those ICs and blobs in a conventional laptop or tablet is difficult.
- Size. A smaller, cooler chip is easier to hide, which matters if you spent your trip to the motherland working on something you don't want customs to find out. In that case, you can use your laptop as a terminal to the sensitive data in your server running inside a button of your jacket...
Sheets: Terminal based spreadsheet tool - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47636456 - April 2026 (46 comments)
[1]: https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc-im/wiki/Building-sc%E2%80...
To be even remotely constructive, you're going to need to be a little more specific.