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79-686: VisiCalc ("visible calculator") is the first spreadsheet computer program for personal computers , originally released for 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

158-668: A database management system. Programs within a suite use similar commands for similar functions. Usually, sharing data between the components is easier than with a non-integrated collection of functionally equivalent programs. This was particularly an advantage at a time when many personal computer systems used text-mode displays and commands instead of a graphical user interface . Humans have organized data into tables , that is, grids of columns and rows, since ancient times. The Babylonians used clay tablets to store data as far back as 1800 BCE. Other examples can be found in book-keeping ledgers and astronomical records. Since at least 1906

237-526: A workbook . A workbook is physically represented by a file containing all the data for the book, the sheets, and the cells with the sheets. Worksheets are normally represented by tabs that flip between pages, each one containing one of the sheets, although Numbers changes this model significantly. Cells in a multi-sheet book add the sheet name to their reference, for instance, "Sheet 1!C10". Some systems extend this syntax to allow cell references to different workbooks. Users interact with sheets primarily through

316-627: 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

395-403: A 3rd party for authentication or maintenance. Collabora Online runs LibreOffice kit at its core, which grew from StarOffice that was launched 39 years ago in 1985. Notable current spreadsheet software: Discontinued spreadsheet software: Several companies have attempted to break into the spreadsheet market with programs based on very different paradigms. Lotus introduced what is likely

474-652: 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

553-466: A compatible web browser, it can be used online and offline (with or without internet connectivity). Google Sheets originated from a web-based spreadsheet application XL2Web developed by 2Web Technologies , combined with DocVerse which enabled multiple-user online collaboration of Office documents. In 2016 Collabora Online Calc was launched, notable in that the web based spreadsheet could be hosted and integrated into any environment without dependency on

632-433: A financier, Rosen backed high tech startup companies including Electronic Arts , Lotus Development , Ansa Software and Silicon Graphics . In 1985, at age 52, he was described as "a late bloomer who has had five careers" and "chairman and general partner" of the fund. Rosen Electronic Letter was distributed via a separate entity named Rosen Research. In 1982, Esther Dyson began working there and, in 1983 she bought

711-436: A manual request to recalculate since the recalculation of large or complex spreadsheets often reduced data entry speed. Many modern spreadsheets still retain this option. Recalculation generally requires that there are no circular dependencies in a spreadsheet. A dependency graph is a graph that has a vertex for each object to be updated, and an edge connecting two objects whenever one of them needs to be updated earlier than

790-405: 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

869-474: A pre-programmed function in a formula. Spreadsheet programs also provide conditional expressions, functions to convert between text and numbers, and functions that operate on strings of text. Spreadsheets have replaced paper-based systems throughout the business world. Although they were first developed for accounting or bookkeeping tasks, they now are used extensively in any context where tabular lists are built, sorted, and shared. LANPAR, available in 1969,

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948-525: A variant used in VisiCalc and known as "A1 notation". Additionally, spreadsheets have the concept of a range , a group of cells, normally contiguous. For instance, one can refer to the first ten cells in the first column with the range "A1:A10". LANPAR innovated forward referencing/natural order calculation which didn't re-appear until Lotus 123 and Microsoft's MultiPlan Version 2. In modern spreadsheet applications, several spreadsheets, often known as worksheets or simply sheets , are gathered together to form

1027-416: A version that ran on IBM mainframes was introduced under the name AutoTab . ( National CSS offered a similar product, CSSTAB, which had a moderate timesharing user base by the early 1970s. A major application was opinion research tabulation.) AutoPlan/AutoTab was not a WYSIWYG interactive spreadsheet program, it was a simple scripting language for spreadsheets. The user defined the names and labels for

1106-713: 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

1185-464: Is indistinguishable from a batch compiler with added input data, producing an output report, i.e. , a 4GL or conventional, non-interactive, batch computer program. However, this concept of an electronic spreadsheet was outlined in the 1961 paper "Budgeting Models and System Simulation" by Richard Mattessich . The subsequent work by Mattessich (1964a, Chpt. 9, Accounting and Analytical Methods ) and its companion volume, Mattessich (1964b, Simulation of

1264-518: Is the former chairman and former acting chief executive officer of Compaq and a co-founder of Sevin Rosen Funds . Rosen was born to a Jewish family in New Orleans , Louisiana , on March 11, 1933, to Isadore and Anna Rosen. Rosen's father was a dentist and his mother was a secretary. "Benji" as he was called, was the youngest of his parents' three children. He received a B.S. from

1343-511: Is usually referenced by its column and row (C2 would represent the cell containing the value 30 in the example table below). Usually rows, representing the dependent variables , are referenced in decimal notation starting from 1, while columns representing the independent variables use 26-adic bijective numeration using the letters A-Z as numerals. Its physical size can usually be tailored to its content by dragging its height or width at box intersections (or for entire columns or rows by dragging

1422-516: 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

1501-713: The California Institute of Technology in 1954, and M.S. from Stanford University in 1955, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in 1961. He worked on Wall Street for 15 years, ending his career as a Senior Technology Analyst and Vice President at Morgan Stanley . Rosen co-founded the venture capital company Sevin Rosen Funds in 1981 with L. J. Sevin . In this capacity, Rosen invested in Compaq Computer Corporation in 1981, eventually serving as Chairman for 18 years. For four months in 1999, Rosen also served as Acting CEO. As

1580-426: The personal computer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a business tool. VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet that combined many of the essential features of modern spreadsheet applications, such as a WYSIWYG interactive user interface, automatic recalculation, status and formula lines, range copying with relative and absolute references, and formula building by selecting referenced cells. Unaware of LANPAR at

1659-462: The professor and manipulate it to represent it and show ratios etc. In 1964, a book entitled Business Computer Language was written by Kimball, Stoffells and Walsh. Both the book and program were copyrighted in 1966 and years later that copyright was renewed. Applied Data Resources had a FORTRAN preprocessor called Empires. In the late 1960s, Xerox used BCL to develop a more sophisticated version for their timesharing system. A key invention in

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1738-400: The relational structure of a database. Spreadsheets and databases are interoperable—sheets can be imported into databases to become tables within them, and database queries can be exported into spreadsheets for further analysis. A spreadsheet program is one of the main components of an office productivity suite , which usually also contains a word processor , a presentation program , and

1817-521: 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

1896-456: 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

1975-577: The Apple II, this helped it grow in popularity. Lotus 1-2-3 was the leading spreadsheet for several years. Microsoft released the first version of Excel for the Apple Macintosh on September 30, 1985, and then ported it to Windows, with the first version being numbered 2.05 (to synchronize with the Macintosh version 2.2) and released in November 1987. Microsoft's Windows 3.x platforms of

2054-586: The Federal Circuit (CCPA), overturning the Patent Office in 1983 — establishing that "something does not cease to become patentable merely because the point of novelty is in an algorithm." However, in 1995 a federal district court ruled the patent unenforceable due to inequitable conduct by the inventors during the application process. The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld that decision in 1996. The actual software

2133-519: The Firm through a Budget Computer Program ) applied computerized spreadsheets to accounting and budgeting systems (on mainframe computers programmed in FORTRAN IV ). These batch Spreadsheets dealt primarily with the addition or subtraction of entire columns or rows (of input variables), rather than individual cells . In 1962, this concept of the spreadsheet, called BCL for Business Computer Language,

2212-461: The X and Y locations. X locations, the columns, are normally represented by letters, "A," "B," "C," etc., while rows are normally represented by numbers, 1, 2, 3, etc. A single cell can be referred to by addressing its row and column, "C10". This electronic concept of cell references was first introduced in LANPAR (Language for Programming Arrays at Random) (co-invented by Rene Pardo and Remy Landau) and

2291-509: 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

2370-438: The business plans that they were presenting to venture capitalists. They decided to save themselves a lot of effort and wrote a computer program that produced their tables for them. This program, originally conceived as a simple utility for their personal use, would turn out to be the first software product offered by the company that would become known as Capex Corporation . "AutoPlan" ran on GE's Time-sharing service; afterward,

2449-416: The cell itself. Alternatively, a value can be based on a formula (see below), which might perform a calculation, display the current date or time, or retrieve external data such as a stock quote or a database value. The Spreadsheet Value Rule Computer scientist Alan Kay used the term value rule to summarize a spreadsheet's operation: a cell's value relies solely on the formula the user has typed into

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2528-404: The cell. The formula may rely on the value of other cells, but those cells are likewise restricted to user-entered data or formulas. There are no 'side effects' to calculating a formula: the only output is to display the calculated result inside its occupying cell. There is no natural mechanism for permanently modifying the contents of a cell unless the user manually modifies the cell's contents. In

2607-420: The cells. A given cell can hold data by simply entering it in, or a formula, which is normally created by preceding the text with an equals sign. Data might include the string of text hello world , the number 5 or the date 10-Sep-97 . A formula would begin with the equals sign, =5*3 , but this would normally be invisible because the display shows the result of the calculation, 15 in this case, not

2686-436: The cells. Formulas say how to mechanically compute new values from existing values. Values are general numbers, but can also be pure text, dates, months, etc. Extensions of these concepts include logical spreadsheets. Various tools for programming sheets, visualizing data, remotely connecting sheets, displaying cells' dependencies, etc. are commonly provided. A "cell" can be thought of as a box for holding data . A single cell

2765-418: The column- or row-headers). An array of cells is called a sheet or worksheet . It is analogous to an array of variables in a conventional computer program (although certain unchanging values, once entered, could be considered, by the same analogy, constants ). In most implementations, many worksheets may be located within a single spreadsheet. A worksheet is simply a subset of the spreadsheet divided for

2844-681: The company from her employer, renaming the company EDventure Holdings and the Rosen Electronic Letter newsletter Release 1.0 . In 1999, Rosen was awarded the Founders Medal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He was named a recipient of Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. In 2018, he received Caltech's highest honor, the Robert A. Millikan Medal. He and his first wife Alexandra are

2923-426: The context of programming languages, this yields a limited form of first-order functional programming . A standard of spreadsheets since the 1980s, this optional feature eliminates the need to manually request the spreadsheet program to recalculate values (nowadays typically the default option unless specifically 'switched off' for large spreadsheets, usually to improve performance). Some earlier spreadsheets required

3002-470: The development of electronic spreadsheets was made by Rene K. Pardo and Remy Landau, who filed in 1970 U.S. patent 4,398,249 on a spreadsheet automatic natural order calculation algorithm . While the patent was initially rejected by the patent office as being a purely mathematical invention, following 12 years of appeals, Pardo and Landau won a landmark court case at the Predecessor Court of

3081-499: The early 1990s made it possible for their Excel spreadsheet application to take market share from Lotus. By the time Lotus responded with usable Windows products, Microsoft had begun to assemble their Office suite. By 1995, Excel was the market leader, edging out Lotus 1-2-3, and in 2013, IBM discontinued Lotus 1-2-3 altogether. In 2006 Google launched their beta release Google Sheets , a web based spreadsheet application that can be accessed by multiple users from any device type using

3160-583: The effects on calculated values. This makes the spreadsheet useful for "what-if" analysis since many cases can be rapidly investigated without manual recalculation. Modern spreadsheet software can have multiple interacting sheets and can display data either as text and numerals or in graphical form. Besides performing basic arithmetic and mathematical functions , modern spreadsheets provide built-in functions for common financial accountancy and statistical operations. Such calculations as net present value or standard deviation can be applied to tabular data with

3239-486: The entire spreadsheet) can optionally be "locked" to prevent accidental overwriting. Typically this would apply to cells containing formulas but might apply to cells containing "constants" such as a kilogram/pounds conversion factor (2.20462262 to eight decimal places). Even though individual cells are marked as locked, the spreadsheet data are not protected until the feature is activated in the file preferences. Ben Rosen Benjamin "Ben" M. Rosen (born March 11, 1933)

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3318-404: The first "non-procedural" computer languages) as opposed to left-to-right, top to bottom sequence for calculating the results in each cell that was used by VisiCalc , SuperCalc , and the first version of MultiPlan . Without forward referencing/natural order calculation, the user had to refresh the spreadsheet until the values in all cells remained unchanged. Once the cell values stayed constant,

3397-422: 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

3476-411: The formula itself. This may lead to confusion in some cases. The key feature of spreadsheets is the ability for a formula to refer to the contents of other cells, which may, in turn, be the result of a formula. To make such a formula, one replaces a number with a cell reference. For instance, the formula =5*C10 would produce the result of multiplying the value in cell C10 by the number 5. If C10 holds

3555-565: 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

3634-532: The largest market share on the Windows and Macintosh platforms. A spreadsheet program is a standard feature of an office productivity suite . In 2006 Google launched a beta release spreadsheet web application , this is currently known as Google Sheets and one of the applications provided in Google Drive . A spreadsheet consists of a table of cells arranged into rows and columns and referred to by

3713-611: The legacy batch system into each user's spreadsheet monthly. It was designed to optimize the power of APL through object kernels, increasing program efficiency by as much as 50 fold over traditional programming approaches. An example of an early "industrial weight" spreadsheet was APLDOT, developed in 1976 at the United States Railway Association on an IBM 360/91, running at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD. The application

3792-522: 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

3871-481: The model to view results of underlying formulas. His idea became VisiCalc. VisiCalc for the Apple II went on to become the first killer application , a program so compelling, people would buy a particular computer just to use it. It was ported to other computers, including CP/M machines, Atari 8-bit computers , and the Commodore PET , but VisiCalc remains best known as an Apple II program. SuperCalc

3950-423: The most successful example, Lotus Improv , which saw some commercial success, notably in the financial world where its powerful data mining capabilities remain well respected to this day. Spreadsheet 2000 attempted to dramatically simplify formula construction, but was generally not successful. The main concepts are those of a grid of cells , called a sheet, with either raw data, called values, or formulas in

4029-438: The numbers within a range. Spreadsheets share many principles and traits of databases , but spreadsheets and databases are not the same things. A spreadsheet is essentially just one table, whereas a database is a collection of many tables with machine-readable semantic relationships. While it is true that a workbook that contains three sheets is indeed a file containing multiple tables that can interact with each other, it lacks

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4108-494: 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

4187-479: 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

4266-542: The other. Dependency graphs without circular dependencies form directed acyclic graphs , representations of partial orderings (in this case, across a spreadsheet) that can be relied upon to give a definite result. This feature refers to updating a cell's contents periodically with a value from an external source—such as a cell in a "remote" spreadsheet. For shared, Web-based spreadsheets, it applies to "immediately" updating cells another user has updated. All dependent cells must be updated also. Once entered, selected cells (or

4345-473: 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

4424-483: 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". Spreadsheet Spreadsheet users can adjust any stored value and observe

4503-508: 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

4582-484: 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

4661-418: The programming language from the end-user. Through IBM's VM operating system , it was among the first programs to auto-update each copy of the application as new versions were released. Users could specify simple mathematical relationships between rows and between columns. Compared to any contemporary alternatives, it could support very large spreadsheets. It loaded actual financial planning data drawn from

4740-427: The right order ("Forward Referencing/Natural Order Calculation"). Pardo and Landau developed and implemented the software in 1969. LANPAR was used by Bell Canada, AT&T, and the 18 operating telephone companies nationwide for their local and national budgeting operations. LANPAR was also used by General Motors. Its uniqueness was Pardo's co-invention incorporating forward referencing/natural order calculation (one of

4819-464: The rows and columns, then the formulas that defined each row or column. In 1975, Autotab-II was advertised as extending the original to a maximum of " 1,500 rows and columns, combined in any proportion the user requires... " GE Information Services, which operated the time-sharing service, also launched its own spreadsheet system, Financial Analysis Language (FAL), circa 1974. It was later supplemented by an additional spreadsheet language, TABOL, which

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4898-415: The sake of clarity. Functionally, the spreadsheet operates as a whole and all cells operate as global variables within the spreadsheet (each variable having 'read' access only except its containing cell). A cell may contain a value or a formula , or it may simply be left empty. By convention, formulas usually begin with = sign. A value can be entered from the computer keyboard by directly typing into

4977-480: The term "spread sheet" has been used in accounting to mean a grid of columns and rows in a ledger. And prior to the rise of computerized spreadsheets, "spread" referred to a newspaper or magazine item (text or graphics) that covers two facing pages, extending across the centerfold and treating the two pages as one large page. The compound word 'spread-sheet' came to mean the format used to present book-keeping ledgers—with columns for categories of expenditures across

5056-416: The time, PC World magazine called VisiCalc the first electronic spreadsheet. Bricklin has spoken of watching his university professor create a table of calculation results on a blackboard . When the professor found an error, he had to tediously erase and rewrite several sequential entries in the table, triggering Bricklin to think that he could replicate the process on a computer, using the blackboard as

5135-418: The top, invoices listed down the left margin, and the amount of each payment in the cell where its row and column intersect—which were, traditionally, a "spread" across facing pages of a bound ledger (book for keeping accounting records) or on oversized sheets of paper (termed 'analysis paper') ruled into rows and columns in that format and approximately twice as wide as ordinary paper. A batch "spreadsheet"

5214-521: The user was assured that there were no remaining forward references within the spreadsheet. In 1968, three former employees from the General Electric computer company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona set out to start their own software development house . A. Leroy Ellison, Harry N. Cantrell, and Russell E. Edwards found themselves doing a large number of calculations when making tables for

5293-476: The value 3 the result will be 15 . But C10 might also hold its formula referring to other cells, and so on. The ability to chain formulas together is what gives a spreadsheet its power. Many problems can be broken down into a series of individual mathematical steps, and these can be assigned to individual formulas in cells. Some of these formulas can apply to ranges as well, like the SUM function that adds up all

5372-649: Was a spreadsheet application published by Sorcim in 1980, and originally bundled (along with WordStar) as part of the CP/M software package included with the Osborne 1 portable computer. It quickly became the de facto standard spreadsheet for CP/M. The introduction of Lotus 1-2-3 in November 1982 accelerated the acceptance of the IBM Personal Computer . It was written especially for IBM PC DOS and had improvements in speed and graphics compared to VisiCalc on

5451-410: 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

5530-476: Was called LANPAR — LANguage for Programming Arrays at Random. This was conceived and entirely developed in the summer of 1969, following Pardo and Landau's recent graduation from Harvard University. Co-inventor Rene Pardo recalls that he felt that one manager at Bell Canada should not have to depend on programmers to program and modify budgeting forms, and he thought of letting users type out forms in any order and having an electronic computer calculate results in

5609-553: 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

5688-466: Was developed by an independent author, Oliver Vellacott in the UK. Both FAL and TABOL were integrated with GEIS's database system, DMS. The IBM Financial Planning and Control System was developed in 1976, by Brian Ingham at IBM Canada. It was implemented by IBM in at least 30 countries. It ran on an IBM mainframe and was the first application for financial planning developed with APL that completely hid

5767-442: 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

5846-561: Was implemented on an IBM 1130 and in 1963 was ported to an IBM 7040 by R. Brian Walsh at Marquette University , Wisconsin . This program was written in Fortran . Primitive timesharing was available on those machines. In 1968 BCL was ported by Walsh to the IBM 360 /67 timesharing machine at Washington State University . It was used to assist in the teaching of finance to business students. Students were able to take information prepared by

5925-523: 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,

6004-452: 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

6083-419: Was the first electronic spreadsheet on mainframe and time sharing computers. LANPAR was an acronym: LANguage for Programming Arrays at Random. VisiCalc (1979) was the first electronic spreadsheet on a microcomputer, and it helped turn the Apple II into a popular and widely used personal computer. Lotus 1-2-3 was the leading spreadsheet when DOS was the dominant operating system. Microsoft Excel now has

6162-552: Was used successfully for many years in developing such applications as financial and costing models for the US Congress and for Conrail . APLDOT was dubbed a "spreadsheet" because financial analysts and strategic planners used it to solve the same problems they addressed with paper spreadsheet pads. The concept of spreadsheets became widely known due to VisiCalc , developed for the Apple II in 1979 by VisiCorp staff Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston . Significantly, it also turned

6241-462: 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

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