SuperCalc is a CP/M -80 spreadsheet application published by Sorcim in 1980.
41-651: VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program but its release for the CP/M operating system ran only on the HP-125, Sharp MZ80, and the Sony SMC-70 . SuperCalc was created to fill that void and market opportunity. Alongside WordStar , it was one of the CP/M applications bundled with the Osborne 1 portable computer . It quickly became popular and was ported to MS-DOS in 1982. An improvement over VisiCalc (though using much
82-627: A "magic sheet of paper that can perform calculations and recalculations [which] allows the user to just solve the problem using familiar tools and concepts". The Personal Software company began selling VisiCalc in mid-1979 for under US$ 100 (equivalent to $ 420 in 2023), after a demonstration at the fourth West Coast Computer Faire and an official launch on June 4 at the National Computer Conference . It requires an Apple II with 32K of random-access memory (RAM), and supports saving files to magnetic tape cassette or to
123-656: A best-seller on this platform, though severely limited to be compatible with the versions for the 8-bit platforms. It is estimated that 300,000 copies were sold on the PC, bringing total sales to about 1 million copies. By 1982, VisiCalc's price had risen from $ 100 to $ 250 (equivalent to $ 790 in 2023). Several competitors appeared in the market, such as SuperCalc and Multiplan , each of which have more features and corrected deficiencies in VisiCalc, but could not overcome its market dominance. A more dramatic change occurred with
164-735: A founding trustee of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and has served on the boards of the Software Publishers Association and the Boston Computer Society . He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2003 for the invention and creation of the electronic spreadsheet. In 1981, Bricklin was given a Grace Murray Hopper Award for VisiCalc. In 1996, Bricklin
205-405: A new idea of a way to use a computer and a new way of thinking about the world. Where conventional programming was thought of as a sequence of steps, this new thing was no longer sequential in effect: When you made a change in one place, all other things changed instantly and automatically. Dan Bricklin conceived of VisiCalc while watching a presentation at Harvard Business School . The professor
246-476: A student at Harvard Business School, Bricklin co-developed VisiCalc in 1979, making it the first electronic spreadsheet readily available for home and office use. It ran on an Apple II computer, and was considered a fourth generation software program. VisiCalc is widely credited for fueling the rapid growth of the personal computer industry. Instead of doing financial projections with manually calculated spreadsheets, and having to recalculate with every single cell in
287-716: Is [...] reason enough to purchase a small computer system in the first place". Compute! reported, "Every Visicalc user knows of someone who purchased an Apple just to be able to use Visicalc". Antic wrote in 1984, "VisiCalc isn't as easy to use as prepackaged home accounting programs, because you're required to design both the layout and the formulas used by the program. Because it is not pre-packaged, however, it's infinitely more powerful and flexible than such programs. You can use VisiCalc to balance your checkbook, keep track of credit card purchases, calculate your net worth, do your taxes—the possibilities are practically limitless." The Addison-Wesley Book of Atari Software 1984 gave
328-482: Is an American businessman and engineer who is the co-creator, with Bob Frankston , of VisiCalc , the first spreadsheet program. He also founded Software Garden, Inc., of which he is currently president, and Trellix , which he left in 2004. He currently serves as the chief technology officer of Alpha Software. His book, Bricklin on Technology , was published by Wiley in May 2009. For his work with VisiCalc , Bricklin
369-665: Is often referred to as " the father of the Spreadsheet ". He was one of six people spotlighted when the Computer was denoted "Machine of the Year" by Time magazine in 1982. Bricklin was born in Philadelphia , where he attended Akiba Hebrew Academy . He began his college as a mathematics major, but soon switched to computer science. He earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science from
410-521: The Apple Disk II floppy disk system. VisiCalc was unusually easy to use and came with excellent documentation. Apple's developer documentation cited the software as an example of one with a simple user interface. Observers immediately noticed its power. Ben Rosen speculated in July 1979, that "VisiCalc could someday become the software tail that wags (and sells) the personal computer dog". For
451-563: The Apple II by VisiCorp on October 17, 1979. It is considered the killer application for the Apple II, turning the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool, and then prompting IBM to introduce the IBM PC two years later. More than 700,000 copies were sold in six years, and up to 1 million copies over its history. Initially developed for
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#1732790295714492-518: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973, where he was a resident of Bexley Hall . Upon graduating from MIT, Bricklin worked for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) where he was part of the team that worked on WPS-8 until 1976, when he began working for FasFax, a cash register manufacturer. In 1977, he returned to education, and was awarded a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University in 1979. While
533-522: The 1983 launch of Lotus Development Corporation 's Lotus 1-2-3 , created by former Personal Software/VisiCorp employee Mitch Kapor , who had written VisiTrend and VisiPlot. Unlike the IBM PC version of VisiCalc, 1-2-3 was written to take full advantage of the PC's increased memory, screen, and performance. Yet it was designed to be as compatible as possible with VisiCalc, including the menu structure, to allow VisiCalc users to easily migrate to 1-2-3. 1-2-3
574-620: The Apple iPad tablet. He is also developing wikiCalc , a collaborative, basic spreadsheet running on the Web. He is currently the chief technology officer of Alpha Software in Burlington, Massachusetts, a company that creates tools to easily develop cross-platform mobile business applications. In 1994, Bricklin was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery . He is
615-459: The Apple II computer using a 6502 assembler running on the Multics time-sharing system, VisiCalc was ported to numerous platforms , both 8-bit and some of the early 16-bit systems. To do this, the company developed porting platforms that produced bug compatible versions. The company took the same approach when the IBM PC was launched, producing a product that was essentially identical to
656-461: The SuperCalc product manager, iterative calculations were added when Sorcim changed from binary-coded decimal to binary math. Since the precision of the two math packages was different, some IF statements resolved differently, and iterative calculations helped solve this problem. Versions of SuperCalc were later released for the Apple II , IBM PC compatibles running MS-DOS , and, after Sorcim
697-672: The Tandy TRS-80, Commodore PET and the Atari 800. Soon after its launch, VisiCalc became a fast seller at $ 100. Software Arts also published TK/Solver and Spotlight, a desktop organizer for the IBM Personal Computer." Bricklin was awarded the Grace Murray Hopper Award in 1981 for VisiCalc. Bricklin could not patent VisiCalc, since software inventions were not eligible for patent protection at
738-511: The application an overall A+ rating, praising its documentation and calling it "indispensable ... a straight 'A' classic". In 1999, Harvard Business School put up a plaque commemorating Dan Bricklin in the room where he had studied, saying, "Forever changed how people use computers in business." In 2006, Charles Babcock of InformationWeek wrote that, in retrospect, "VisiCalc was flawed and clunky, and couldn't do many things users wanted it to do", but also, "It's great because it demonstrated
779-547: The early 1990s, after which Microsoft Excel dominated the spreadsheet market. In 1993, the Ministry of Railway of Russia signed an agreement with CA Technologies after a Russian employee illegally used SuperCalc for government purposes. This business software article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . VisiCalc VisiCalc ("visible calculator") is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers , originally released for
820-429: The first 12 months, it was only available for Apple II, and became its killer app . John Markoff wrote that the computer was sold as a "VisiCalc accessory", and many bought $ 2,000 (equivalent to $ 8,400 in 2023) Apple computers to run the $ 100 software — more than 25% of those sold in 1979 were reportedly for VisiCalc — even if they already owned other computers. Steve Wozniak said that small businesses, not
861-569: The hobbyists he and Steve Jobs had expected, purchased 90% of Apple IIs. Apple's rival Tandy Corporation used VisiCalc on Apple IIs at their headquarters. Other software supports its Data Interchange Format (DIF) to share data. One example is the Microsoft BASIC interpreter supplied with most microcomputers that ran VisiCalc. This allowed skilled BASIC programmers to write features, such as trigonometric functions, that VisiCalc lacked. Bricklin and Frankston originally intended to fit
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#1732790295714902-524: The magazine's list of top Apple II software as of late 1985, based on sales and market-share data. In its 1980 review, BYTE wrote "The most exciting and influential piece of software that has been written for any microcomputer application is VisiCalc [...] VisiCalc is the first program available on a microcomputer that has been responsible for sales of entire systems". Creative Computing ' s review that year similarly concluded, "for almost anyone in business, education, or any science-related field it
943-495: The only versions of VisiCalc without copy protection . The HP 125 and Sony SMC-70 ports are the only CP/M version. Most versions are disk-based, but the PET VisiCalc came with a ROM chip that the user must install in one of the motherboard's expansion ROM sockets. The most important port is for the IBM PC , and VisiCalc became one of the first commercial packages available when the IBM PC shipped in 1981. It quickly became
984-485: The original 8-bit Apple II version. Sales were initially brisk, with about 300,000 copies sold. VisiCalc uses the A1 notation in formulas. When Lotus 1-2-3 was launched in 1983, taking full advantage of the expanded memory and screen of the IBM PC, VisiCalc sales declined so rapidly that the company was soon insolvent. In 1985, Lotus Development purchased the company and ended sales of VisiCalc. VISICALC represented
1025-473: The pair formed the Software Arts company, and developed the VisiCalc program in two months during the winter of 1978–79. Bricklin wrote: with the years of experience we had at the time we created VisiCalc, we were familiar with many row/column financial programs. In fact, Bob had worked since the 1960s at Interactive Data Corporation , a major timesharing utility that was used for some of them and I
1066-544: The point where "personal computers crossed the line from a hobbyist obsession to a compelling tool". Compared to paper spreadsheets, VisiCalc freed users to change numbers without having to recalculate the whole spreadsheet by hand, which, according to Steven Levy , "changed the perception of a spreadsheet from a document of hard costs into a modeling tool by which one tested business scenarios". Dan Bricklin Daniel Singer Bricklin (born July 16, 1951)
1107-511: The power of personal computing." Since 2010, the anniversary of the October 17, 1979, launch of VisiCalc has been celebrated as Spreadsheet Day. VisiCalc is one of the earliest examples of metaphor-driven user interface design , due to its resemblance with paper spreadsheets. This metaphor made the program comprehensible and familiar to accountants, economists, and bookkeepers who were not used to using computers, and VisiCalc's release marked
1148-484: The program into 16k memory, but they later realized that the program needed at least 32k. Even 32k is too small to support some features that the creators wanted to include, such as a split screen for text and graphics. However, Apple eventually began shipping all Apple IIs with 48k memory following a drop in RAM prices, enabling the developers to include more features. The initial release supported tape cassette storage, but that
1189-552: The same command structure using the slash key), SuperCalc was one of the first spreadsheet programs capable of iteratively solving circular references (cells that depend on each other's results). It would be over 10 years after the introduction of SuperCalc before this feature was implemented in Microsoft Excel , although in Lotus 1-2-3 , manual programming of iterative logic could also be used to solve this issue. According to
1230-401: The sheet, VisiCalc allowed the user to change any cell, and have the entire sheet automatically recalculated. This could turn 20 hours of work into 15 minutes and allowed for more creativity. In 1979, Bricklin and Frankston founded Software Arts, Inc., and began selling VisiCalc, via a separate company named VisiCorp . Along with Frankston, Bricklin started writing versions of the program for
1271-447: The time. Bricklin was chairman of Software Arts until 1985, the year that Software Arts was acquired by Lotus . He left and founded Software Garden. Dan Bricklin founded Software Garden, a small consulting firm and developer of software applications, in 1985. The company's focus was to produce and market “Dan Bricklin's Demo Program”. The program allowed users to create demonstrations of their programs before they were even written, and
SuperCalc - Misplaced Pages Continue
1312-410: Was almost immediately successful, and in 1984, InfoWorld wrote that sales of VisiCalc were "rapidly declining", stating, that it was "the first successful software product to have gone through a complete life cycle , from conception in 1978 to introduction in 1979 to peak success in 1982 to decline in 1983 to a probable death according to industry insiders in 1984". The magazine added that the company
1353-604: Was also used to create tutorials for Windows-based programs. Other versions released soon after included demo-it! He remained the president of the company until he co-founded Slate Corporation in 1990. In 1992, he became the vice president of Phoenix -based Slate corporation, and developed At Hand , a pen-based spreadsheet. When Slate closed in 1994, Bricklin returned to Software Garden. His " Dan Bricklin's Overall Viewer " (described by The New York Times as "a visual way to display information in Windows-based software")
1394-770: Was awarded by the IEEE Computer Society with the Computer Entrepreneur Award for pioneering the development and commercialization of the spreadsheet and the profound changes it fostered in business and industry. In 2003, Bricklin was given the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for being a technology change leader. He was recognized for having used information technology in an industry-transforming way. He has received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Newbury College. He also became
1435-495: Was bought by CA Technologies in 1985, for Microsoft Windows (under the name CA-SuperCalc ). SuperCalc was CA Technologies' first personal computer product. The MS-DOS versions were more popular with many users than the market-leading Lotus 1-2-3, because it was distributed without copy protection, as well as being priced lower. By the release of version 3 in March 1987, a million users were claimed. New versions were published into
1476-554: Was creating a financial model on a blackboard that was ruled with vertical and horizontal lines (resembling accounting paper) to create a table, and he wrote formulas and data into the cells. When the professor found an error or wanted to change a parameter, he had to erase and rewrite several sequential entries in the table. Bricklin realized that he could replicate the process on a computer using an "electronic spreadsheet" to view results of underlying formulae. Bob Frankston joined Bricklin at 231 Broadway, Arlington, Massachusetts , and
1517-442: Was exposed to some at Harvard Business School in one of the classes. Bricklin was referring to the variety of report generators that were in use at that time, including Business Planning Language (BPL) from International Timesharing Corporation (ITS) and Foresight from Foresight Systems. However, these earlier timesharing programs were not completely interactive, and they pre-dated personal computers. Frankston described VisiCalc as
1558-525: Was quickly dropped. At VisiCalc's release, Personal Software promised to port the program to other computers, starting with those with the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, and versions appeared for Atari 8-bit computers and Commodore PET . Both of those were easy, because those computers have the same CPU as Apple II, and large portions of code were reused. The PET version, which contains two separate executables for 40 and 80-column models,
1599-582: Was released in November 1994. In 1995 Bricklin founded Trellix Corporation , named for Trellix Site Builder . Trellix was bought by Interland (now Web.com ) in 2003, and Bricklin became Interland's chief technology officer until early 2004. Bricklin continues to serve as president of Software Garden, a small company that develops and markets software tools he creates, as well as providing speaking and consulting services. He has released Note Taker HD , an application that integrates handwritten notes on
1640-455: Was slow to upgrade the software, only releasing an Advanced Version of VisiCalc for Apple II in 1983, and announcing one for the IBM PC in 1984. By 1985, VisiCorp was insolvent. Lotus Development acquired Software Arts, and ended sales of the application. In 1983, Softline readers named VisiCalc tenth overall and the highest non-game on the magazine's Top Thirty list of Atari 8-bit programs by popularity. II Computing listed it second on
1681-463: Was widely criticized for having a very small amount of worksheet space due to the developers' inclusion of their own custom DOS, which uses a large amount of memory. The PET only has 32k versus Apple II's available 48k. Other ports followed for Apple III , the Zilog Z80 -based Tandy TRS-80 Model I , Model II , Model III , Model 4 , and Sony SMC-70 . The TRS-80 Model I and Sony SMC-70 ports are