And now his watch is ended...

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Chris Withers

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Jun 9, 2016, 1:54:55 AM6/9/16
to python...@googlegroups.com, John Machin
Hi All,

So, I wanted to be somewhat more official about this...

With the recent work I've done sprinting at Pycon 2016 in Portland, and
the week following, I believe all three of the packages I've maintained,
two of them along with John Machin, are now in a sensible state; they
have docs on Read The Docs, they are all Python 3 compatible and they
all have continuous integration running under Travis CI, including
releasing to PyPI when tags are pushed.

The packages in question are xlrd, xlwt and xlutils. I will be upfront
and say you should no longer be using these unless you have a particular
need to work with .xls files. If you only work with .xlsx files, and
that's the only Excel format you should look to create nowadays, then
you should be using openpyxl instead.

This is open source, so none of xlrd, xlwt or xlutils are going away,
just be aware that if you have problems, you'll likely need to be the
one to do the work, read the specs, read the code, and propose fixes.
Until someone better comes forward, I'll still be gatekeeper for merging
pull requests along with John Machin, and I'll be looking for tests and
descriptive code changes before doing so. Stability is of utmost
importance in these now mature packages.

If you have a passion to maintain any of these libraries, please make
yourself known, and prove you're serious about it.

In the meantime, I'd like to take the time to thank John Machin. He's
been the brains behind the three packages and knows more about Excel
files than I will ever want to or be capable of! I'd also like to wish
Charlie Clark the best of luck with openpyxl; you're a braver man than I ;-)

cheers, and thanks for all the fish,

Chris

Charlie Clark

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Jun 9, 2016, 2:06:19 AM6/9/16
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Am .06.2016, 07:55 Uhr, schrieb Chris Withers <ch...@simplistix.co.uk>:

> also like to wish Charlie Clark the best of luck with openpyxl; you're a
> braver man than I

For a given definition of brave… Don't forget to mention xlsxwriter if you
only want to create Excel files.

Thanks Chris for sticking with the xl* packages. I suspect nearly every
Python programmer has had to deal with Excel at least one in their career
and found the libraries to be invaluable.

Charlie
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Skip Montanaro

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Jun 9, 2016, 6:14:44 AM6/9/16
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Chris & John,

Thanks for making these packages available. I've really only ever used xlrd, and only in the most basic way to convert sheets to CSV form), but it's been a lifesaver in that one niche. I use it routinely. I'd have been up a creek without a paddle if not for this module.

Thx,

Skip

python...@raf.org

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Jun 9, 2016, 7:58:33 PM6/9/16
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Charlie Clark wrote:

> Am .06.2016, 07:55 Uhr, schrieb Chris Withers <ch...@simplistix.co.uk>:
>
> Thanks Chris for sticking with the xl* packages. I suspect nearly every
> Python programmer has had to deal with Excel at least one in their career
> and found the libraries to be invaluable.
>
> Charlie

indeed. the business i work for relies on them every day.
they've made it possible to automate so much.
thanks for all the fish indeed!

cheers,
raf

derek

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Jun 10, 2016, 3:21:30 AM6/10/16
to python-excel, sjma...@lexicon.net
Two of the "unsung heroes" of the software world.  So many of us have come to depend on this library and (perhaps) take its stability and usability for granted.  They have been a massive help to me across many projects.  Muchas gracias!

Jon Clements

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Jun 10, 2016, 8:13:06 AM6/10/16
to python-excel, John Machin
Hi Guys,

I'd like to say the same.

xlrd has been a life-saver for me on more than one occasion. 

So definitely a big thank you to John Machin for all his work (and no doubt the nightmares caused trying to grok compdocs and all the nuisances involved that no "normal" person should really have to deal with :p). I'm not quite sure I'd like my "Mastermind" specialist subject to be "The XLS document format" :)

And of course, well deserved thanks to Chris for maintaining the projects as time's gone on.

Cheers,

Jon.







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hemanth kumar

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Nov 15, 2017, 11:20:19 AM11/15/17
to python-excel
Chris and John,

Thanks a lot for the package.
Thanks a lot.

Regards
Hemanth

TJ Simmons

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Dec 13, 2017, 10:18:58 AM12/13/17
to python-excel
Thanks, Chris and John.

All your hard work has been appreciated by anyone who ever has to handle Excel in Python.
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