Using Ruby to drive Excel calculations

[Wes Gamble]

I have a Rails application that mimics some arithmetic calculations done
in an Excel spreadsheet. The Excel spreadsheet generates outputs in two
cells based on changes in one cell. There are on the order of at least
200 combinations of input data.

In order to verify that the Ruby calculations match the Excel
spreadsheet calculations, I'd like to automate the calculations in both
the Ruby program and the Excel spreadsheet and verify them against each
other.

I'm aware of parseexcel, but what I really need is to be able to
interact with an Excel spreadsheet to modify input and read output in
real time. I believe that there is a module that will let me run an
instance of Excel in Ruby (using OLE stuff I think).

Am I right about this module and, if so, can it be used to do what I
describe (drive the Excel spreadsheet from Ruby)?

Thanks,
Wes