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THE POWER OF THE ELECTRONIC WORKSHEET: MODELING WITHOUT SPECIAL PROGRAMS
Author(s) -
Olsthoorn T. N.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
groundwater
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.84
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1745-6584
pISSN - 0017-467X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6584.1985.tb00784.x
Subject(s) - worksheet , computer science , task (project management) , software , simple (philosophy) , subroutine , transient (computer programming) , power (physics) , overhead (engineering) , software engineering , programming language , computational science , simulation , systems engineering , mathematics , engineering , philosophy , mathematics education , epistemology , physics , quantum mechanics
. So‐called spreadsheet programs are forerunners of new general software from which the ground‐water engineer is likely to benefit–no more special programs each capable of fulfilling just that single task it was explicitly designed for, but programs suitable to do almost any job, where only the fantasy of the user limits the possibilities. Moreover, this new software shows us what user friendliness looks like and proves that it is completely superfluous to be a computer specialist to use it. With a spreadsheet you can build a simple finite‐difference model from scratch within one or two minutes. With some extra time a wide versatility of problems can be solved as the multiaquifer, three‐dimensional, phreatic and transient ground‐water flow examples prove. This way any hydrologist should be able to solve diverging ground‐water models himself without depending on special numerical models. All he needs beyond a microcomputer and a spreadsheet program is a good knowledge of the water balance.