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0 pointspid-12y ago0 comments

Yeah my day job involves deploying Python containers to K8s so I get where you are coming from. GB sized images are not uncommon. However:

1 - That could be an optional component, behind a "Install Python for Excel " button.

2 - You need to install Python to code in Python anyway, with or without Excel.

3 - Bloat is the norm nowadays and I'm not sure whether users care. A clean Visual Studio install takes 10 GB of disk or something. Office itself takes several GB as well.

4 - Not sure why Docker would be needed. Using Python in Windows is fine nowadays. There are caveats with libs that are very reliant on POSIX (Airflow comes to mind,) but, again, if you control your distro you can limit the libs users can install.

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WorldMaker2y ago

1) I agree, which is I why I did end my comment that I think it would be nice to see an optional install offered for offline usage.

4) I don't think they are using Docker, but they are using containers. (They mention running directly on top of Hyper-V so they might not even be considered by some developers as containers in the Docker sense but closer to "mini" VMs.) The container they are using for security/sandboxing reasons. The Excel team likely still has nightmares from the worst years of VBA macro malware and this Python system seems built specifically to sandbox all the running Python code to an execution environment (container/VM) that is easy to refresh/rebuild/recycle/tear-down. I agree that Python on Windows is usually great and most of the Python ecosystem is great at cross-platform support, but I also understand why Excel would want to sandbox any Python it runs to containers that are isolated from the host machine/user and it can easily reboot.

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