copypaster VS public_images

If you are not using Tree Notation for your forms yet, you are doing it wrong: https://github.com/breck7/copypaster

I figured out how to do this years ago, even before I worked at Microsoft (and pitched it while there a number of times).

It wasn't easy, and there was a lot to figure out, but the end result is starting to look pretty simple:

https://youtu.be/vn2aJA5ANUc?t=145

https://github.com/publicdomaincompany/copypaster

People are all talking about how it's useful for quick stuff with datasets, but it goes far beyond that. It's useful for quick anything you might want a database for. Imagination is the limit.

For example, if any of you play D&D online, you might be familiar with dndbeyond's character sheets. They're a fantastic way to onboard new players who might not have the inclination to spend hours with the rule books before they even start playing. It does all the calculations for you and gives you some buttons for like "roll athletics" and doesn't let you add more spells than your character can have with their stats.

I recently persuaded some friends to give FATE a try and built analogous push-button character sheets with google sheets [0]. It was quick and simple. With conditional formatting, you highlight bad states (rules say you can't have more of X than Y!). With the script editor, you can add full on buttons for dice rolls and other state changes with whatever logic you want (anything you can code up!). Checkboxes are obvious but super useful. And the transparency of the calculations is helpful for teaching people the system (this stat is "min(A4, B1+C5)").

To build a stateful, database backed, live collaborative GUI that can be added to and customized without google sheets would have been a serious endeavor. With it, it was a quick fun afternoon hack. Excel/google sheets is an amazing piece of technology.

[0] Screenshot of the "app": https://github.com/imh/public_images/blob/main/Screen%20Shot...