1. A computer-implemented method of cell-based data processing that facilitates the execution of computer programming code by a computer system, the method comprising: receiving as input computer code a data processing specification comprising a plurality of cells, wherein each cell comprises a formula specifying an action or computation to perform when the cell is executed, and one or more attributes referencing other cells, wherein the formula of a first cell may reference a value of a second cell; wherein each cell is delineated by a beginning and ending tag, and one of the cells is reserved as an output cell for outputting a result of the processing; parsing the specification to determine an interdependency of the plurality of cells and generating and storing a directed graph of the interdependency as an execution flow; and executing the computer code of the specification in accordance with the execution flow, wherein the executing comprises evaluating the formula of each cell in the execution flow and generating an output result; wherein each cell is interlocked with at least one other cell through the formula or attribute of each cell.