Files
improvise/docs/design-notes.md
Edward Langley 4751b800fd chore: remove stale SPEC.md, salvage vision into docs/design-notes.md
Audited SPEC.md against code — mostly accurate but redundant with
repo-map.md and design-principles.md. Minor drift in storage internals,
wizard step count, and mode representation. Salvaged product vision and
non-goals into docs/design-notes.md with staleness disclaimer.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-11 00:07:57 -07:00

1.1 KiB

Design Notes

Staleness warning: This document captures conceptual framing from the original specification. It is not kept in sync with the code. For current architecture and types, see context/repo-map.md and context/design-principles.md.

Product Vision

Traditional spreadsheets conflate data, formulas, and presentation into a single flat grid addressed by opaque cell references (A1, B7). This makes models fragile, hard to audit, and impossible to rearrange without rewriting formulas.

Improvise treats data as a multi-dimensional, semantically labeled structure -- separating data, computation, and views into independent layers. Formulas reference meaningful names, views can be rearranged instantly, and the same dataset can be explored from multiple perspectives simultaneously.

The application compiles to a single static binary and provides a rich TUI experience.

Non-Goals (v1)

  • Scripting/macro language beyond the formula system.
  • Collaborative/multi-user editing.
  • Live external data sources (databases, APIs).
  • Charts or graphical visualization.
  • Multi-level undo history.