Why? Excel/VBA skills are in high demand for investment banking research jobs. A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
The journal Computational Statistics & Data Analysis has a whole special issue on the subject.
I am teaching a graduate course of ecologists and forestry students this year, where Xcel will be outlawed. I expect much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I won't have it in my lab. Plus, gnuplot produces better graphics. Better than R (ducks)
