We chose Permanent because it means long-lasting or durable, but it has a hidden geeky meaning we liked: computing the permanent of a matrix is a #P-complete problem.
I hate being this guy...but the first definition on Miriam Webster, and the one that I'm familiar with is:
'continuing or enduring without fundamental or marked change'
google gives a similar
'lasting or intended to last or remain unchanged indefinitely.'
Both sites list a bunch of synonyms that are closer to long-lasting and durable, but english is subtle. One can't usually swap in a 'synonym' without changing meaning.
Numbers is now free on iOS 7 and can read/write XLS and XLSX out of the box. The iOS7 version is definitely a step-up from previous versions. Why would someone make the $10 purchase for the IAP (required for export) rather than use Numbers?
The old link referenced pointed to a different page, the release page for the previous version.
Perhaps the biggest difference between Permanent and Numbers is the interface. It's easy to suggest that tablet spreadsheets might all work the same, but if you try a few you'll find they are widely different experiences.
Permanent has cloud support for Box and Dropbox. Numbers supports only iCloud.
Permanent is free, and most people do fine with the free version, so a pro upgrade is generally not required to use the app.
FYI Numbers supports both box and dropbox (via "open in another app"). For example, to upload to box:
- hit the share button (the box with the up arrow)
- "Open in Another App"
- Choose format (e.g. Excel or CSV)
- Hit "Choose App"
- Hit "Open in Box"
[now the box app opens]
- Hit "Upload"
Small tip: Numbers is also free on Mavericks, even if it was just an upgrade installation. You just install the iWork '09 trial, reboot the mac and then use app store to update it to the latest version.
However it doesn't read or write ODF/ODS files which is a pain for me at least.
Whilst I like the concept of this and Numbers (which incidentally appears to be remarkably similar bar infinite scroll), I really couldn't work on a tablet with a spreadsheet. I need a real filesystem and keyboard to be productive. The latter is partially solved with the iPad with a keyboard but why bother.
I tried many times to do it on a Windows Phone with Excel and an iPad with Numbers and it's terribly error prone which is something you don't want to hang yourself with on a spreadsheet of critical data.
One of the reviews of v1 mentions that it could be scripted in Lua which would be an awesome feature, however there seems to be no mention of it on this page.
Additionally the review was unrelentingly negative about things that /seem/ to be fixed in permanent 2. On the whole, it looks interesting but I'll wait for the next round of reviews.
Lua scripting was cool. It was in v1 but hasn't made it into v2 yet. Before you get to the group of users that want scripting/macros on their tablet, there is an enormous group of users that want things like resizing columns and changing colors to work effortlessly. This second group absolutely dwarfs the first. On a tablet this is fairly cutting-edge stuff. So most of our attention has been there.
