> Conventional spreadsheets used on-screen cells to store all data, formulas, and notes. Improv separated these concepts and used the cells only for input and output data. Formulas, macros and other objects existed outside the cells, to simplify editing and reduce errors. Improv used named ranges for all formulas, as opposed to cell addresses.
Quantrix modeler is actually the successor to Quantrix for nextstep. Quantrix was a contemporary of Improv. Not sure I remember which came first. But Quantrix was the better of the two.
I'm collecting a pile of "good ideas"... Someday I'll do something with it.
The author mentioned reading in files with x "number of lines". If they are then parsing the lines into some structured format, there are likely many opportunities to look for low cardinality aspects and to reduce object tenuring by pooling strings using either String.intern or a hashset.
They should also consider increasing the eden size.
I approached a couple of old fellows top-roping a route on the Niagara Escarpment. I asked if they would be long, as I wanted to do the route. They invited me to jump on their rope. I had a look. It was dirty and the sheath seemed to be detaching from the core. The end was kinked and frayed. How of ten do you change your ropes, I asked in horror.
Circular, "Penrose Stairs" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_stairs) might be a better extension to the student's staircase model.