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andmarti1424
sc-im
C2016–2026
andmarti1424 / sc-im

sc-im

sc-im - Spreadsheet Calculator Improvised -- An ncurses spreadsheet program for terminal

35Distinct people
41Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
5.7KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

sc-im - Spreadsheet Calculator Improvised -- An ncurses spreadsheet program for terminal

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

I tried this out when it was mentioned a few weeks ago[1]. It's pretty neat but does have a number of bugs. The packaged version also doesn't have xls support compiled in (at…

freedomben used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

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Also in these discussions

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This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year41 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2016-09-24 09:06:46 UTC to 2026-04-27 21:22:59 UTC.

02468102016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments20162017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 7 mentions; 1 submissions, 6 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 6 mentions; 2 submissions, 4 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 1 submissions, 2 comments20212022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 0 submissions, 2 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 1 submissions, 3 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 1 submissions, 3 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 10 mentions; 1 submissions, 9 comments. Incomplete calendar period.2026*

* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC716
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC624
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC312
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC202
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC413
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC413
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
2026 (partial)2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC1019

From the project README

An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.

Read the project’s introduction
NOTE 05/21/2025: New release v0.8.5 - This project needs your help! This is a one person project and have very little sponsoring. I want to still maintain and develop sc-im, but I am the only income in my family and its becoming difficult to work as much as I would want. If you can make a donation (see at the bottom), please do. Your help would be really appreciated!! Thanks. sc-im Spreadsheet Calculator Improvised, aka sc-im, is an ncurses based, vim-like spreadsheet calculator. sc-im is based on sc, whose original authors are James Gosling and Mark Weiser, and mods were later added by Chuck Martin. Some of the features of sc-im Vim movements commands for editing cell content. UNDO / REDO. 65.536 rows and 702 columns supported. (The number of rows can be expanded to 1.048.576 if wished). CSV / TAB delimited / XLSX file import and export. ODS import. Markdown export. Key-mappings. Autobackup. Direct color support - specifing the RGB values, screen colors can be customized by user, even at runtime. Colorize cells or give them format such as bold, italic or underline. Wide character support. The following alphabets are supported: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Greek, Turkish, Czech, Japanese, Chinese. Sort of rows. Filter of rows. Subtotals. Cell shifting. Clipboard support. GNUPlot interaction. Scripting support with LUA. Also with triggers and c dynamic linked modules. Implement external functions in the language you prefer and use them in SC-IM. Use SC-IM as a non-interactive calculator, reading its input from an external script. Quick start Key Purpose = Insert a numeric value \ Insert a text value e Edit a numeric value E Edit a string value x Delete current cell content :q Quit the app :h See help :w filename.sc Save current spreadsheet in sc format j Move down k Move up h Move left l Move right goab12 go to cell AB12 u undo last change C-r redo last change undone yy Copy current cell v select a range using cursor/hjkl keys p paste a previously yanked cell or range ir insert row ic insert column dr delete row dc delete column Screenshots Installation Dependencies Requirements: ncurses (best if compiled with wide chars support) bison or yacc gcc make pkg-config and which (for make to do its job) Optionals: tmux / xclip / pbpaste (for clipboard copy/paste) gnuplot (for plots) libxlsxreader (for xls support) xlsxwriter (for xlsx export support) libxml-2.0 and libzip (for xlsx/ods import support) lua (for Lua scripting) threads support (in case you want to test this in Minix, just disable autobackup and HAVE_PTHREAD) Manual Edit src/Makefile according to your system and needs: vim src/Makefile Run make: make -C src Optional: You can install the binary sc-im in your system by typing with a privileged user: make -C src install Building on OS X You can follow the instructions as above, but if you would like Lua scripting support, you will need to install Lua 5.1, which you can do with, brew install lua@5.1 And then follow the instructions as above. Homebrew for OSX users brew install sc-im Ubuntu with XLSX import & export See this wiki page. Other distros / OS Please check wiki pages Configuration The scimrc file can be used to configure sc-im. The file should be placed in the ~/.config/sc-im directory. Here is an example ~/.config/sc-im/scimrc : set autocalc set numeric set numeric_decimal=0 set overlap set xlsx_readformulas To keep command and insert-mode history only for the current session, add set nohistory_file at the start of scimrc. This disables loading and saving sc-iminfo without deleting an existing history file. History persistence is enabled by default. Other configuration variables are listed in the help file. Issues and questions Please open an issue if you find a bug. If you are now sure if its a bug, please take a look at the discussions and/or ask there. If you have a question please check out current discussions and if you still are in doubt, open a discussion as well. If you want to ask for a feature request, the same, check out current discussions. Thank you! Tutorial sc-im tutorial Related projects vim-scimark - Vim plugin, edit embedded markdown tables with sc-im in vim terminal. Helping us Want to help? You can help us with one or more of the following: giving sc-im a star on GitHub taking screenshots / creating screencasts showing sc-im making a donation (see below). telling if you use it / like it. I really don't have a clue if this app is used by someone. Donations If you like sc-im please support its development by making a DONATION with Patreon or PayPal. It would really help a lot. If you wish to make a donation, please click the above button or just send money to scim.spreadsheet@gmail.com via PayPal, choosing "Goods and Services". or with Patreon. Thank you!
Read the full README on GitHub

What Hacker News says

41 sources
freedomben·Apr 6, 2026Recommendation phrase
I tried this out when it was mentioned a few weeks ago[1]. It's pretty neat but does have a number of bugs. The packaged version also doesn't have xls support compiled in (at least on Fedora) which is unfortunate, though building is fairly easy[2]. I love the idea of it though, so I'm really hoping these issues get ironed out! I'm happy to help contribute if maintainers are willing. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47457009 [2] https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc-im/wiki/Building-sc%E2%80...
In Sc-im: Spreadsheets in your terminal
While not built around CSV, two terminal spreadsheet tools I have successfully used in the past are sc-im and the (neo)vim plugin vim-table-mode: https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc-im/ https://github.com/dhruvasagar/vim-table-mode Back then I stopped using sc-im because it could not import/export XLSX, if I remember correctly. Apparently it can today! vim-table-mode always felt a little fragile and I don't want to be bound to vim anymore. That said, it still feels like a small miracle to me to have functional spreadsheet formulas inside markdown documents – calculation and typesetting all in one place.
In Csvlens: Command line CSV file viewer. Like less but made for CSV
"From Memex to Hypercard"[0][1] might be insiteful digression related to 'spreadsheet architecture'. Just keep in mind how libraries worked before the advent of the computer. Decker[2][3] current modern take on hypercard. various types of spreadheets with user interface (vs. use editor with a plain tabular text file): teapot : https://www.syntax-k.de/projekte/teapot/ visicalc : https://www.visidata.org/ sc-m : https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc-im or mix files & manipulating 'spreadsheet' text files, gawk[4], webawk[5], python awk[6]. not as compact as excel, but diy gui for awk[7] with screen[8]/menu[9] or gui design courses[10] informal discussion about moving beyond 'text' files: https://twitter.com/llama_index/status/1733653470987825452 -------- [0] : https://elearningindustry.com/memex-hypercard [1] : https://en.wikipedia
Read the rest
In Ask HN: Does anyone teach spreadsheet architecture?

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