1.5.3 File System Redux: Modern End-User Productivity Tools
The users’ desire for direct, hands-on access to the data helped to fuel the adoption of personal computers for business
use. Although not directly related to file system evolution, the ubiquitous use of personal productivity tools can
introduce the same problems as the old file systems.
Personal computer spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel are widely used by business users, and allow the user
to enter data in a series of rows and columns so that the data can be manipulated using a wide range of functions. The
popularity of spreadsheet applications has enabled users to conduct sophisticated analysis of data that has greatly
enhanced their ability to understand the data and make better decisions. Unfortunately, as in the old adage “When the
only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail,” users have become so adept at working with
spreadsheets, they tend to use them to complete tasks for which spreadsheets are not appropriate.
One of the common misuses of spreadsheets is as a substitute for a database. Interestingly, end users often take the
limited data to which they have direct access and place it in a spreadsheet in a format similar to that of the traditional,
manual data storage systems—which is precisely what the early DP specialists did when creating computerized data
files. Due to the large number of users with spreadsheets, each making separate copies of the data, the resulting “file
system” of spreadsheets suffers from the same problems as the file systems created by the early DP specialists, which
are outlined in the next section.