VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program available for personal computers. It is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool.[1] VisiCalc sold over 700,000 copies in six years.[2]
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Origins
Conceived by Dan Bricklin, refined by Bob Frankston, developed by their company Software Arts[1], and distributed by Personal Software in 1979 (later named VisiCorp) for the Apple II computer, it propelled the Apple from being a hobbyist's toy to being a much-desired, useful financial tool for business[1]. At the time, most microcomputers suffered from lack of storage space and display limitations that made them poor competitors in the word processing and database markets.[citation needed] The spreadsheet, however, did not depend on powerful displays or storage media, and so was an ideal fit for microcomputer technology available at the time.[citation needed] This likely motivated IBM to enter the PC market which they had been ignoring until then. After the Apple II version, VisiCalc was also released for the Atari 8-bit family, the Commodore PET, TRS-80, and the IBM PC[1].
According to Bricklin, he was watching his university professor at Harvard Business School create a financial model on a blackboard. When the professor found an error or wanted to change a parameter, he had to tediously erase and rewrite a number of sequential entries in the table, triggering Bricklin to realize that he could replicate the process on a computer using an "electronic spreadsheet" to view results of underlying formulae[3].
Successors
Charles Babcock of InformationWeek argues that in retrospect, “VisiCalc was flawed and clunky, and couldn't do many things users wanted it to do.”[4] Soon, more powerful clones of VisiCalc were released, including SuperCalc (1980), Microsoft's MultiPlan (1982), Lotus 1-2-3 (1983), and the spreadsheet module in AppleWorks (1984). With Microsoft Excel (introduced for the Macintosh in 1985 and for Windows 2.0 in 1987), a new generation of spreadsheets was born. Due to the lack of a patent (which until then had never been issued for a computer program), none of the developers of the VisiCalc clones had to pay any royalties to VisiCorp.
The idea was prominent enough that a spreadsheet program was shipped as C source code as a programming example of Borland's Turbo C compiler: the TurboCalc.
References
- ^ a b c d Hormby, Thomas (2006-09-22). "VisiCalc and the rise of the Apple II". Low End Mac. http://lowendmac.com/orchard/06/0922.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
- ^ Secrets of Software Success: Management Insights from 100 Software Firms Around the World, ISBN 1578511054 (1999)
- ^ Coventry, Joshua (2006-11-02). "Interview with Dan Bricklin, Inventor of the Electronic Spreadsheet". Low End Mac. http://lowendmac.com/coventry/06/1107.html. Retrieved on 2007-03-02.
- ^ What's The Greatest Software Ever Written? - Technology News by TechWeb
See also
- Triumph of the Nerds, A documentary hosted by Robert X. Cringely that featured the creators of VisiCalc and their contribution as the first killer app for the personal computer.
- Timeline of computing 1950–1979
External links
- Dan Bricklin's Own VisiCalc Website – With history information as well as downloadable PC version
- Implementing VisiCalc – By Bob Frankston, on his website
- Three Minutes: Godfathers Of The Spreadsheet – PC World interview with the creators of VisiCalc
- Techdirt: What If VisiCalc Had Been Patented?
Categories: Spreadsheet software | Microcomputer software | Apple II software | Atari 8-bit family software
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e-linux.it, Italy
You could recreate some visicalc screens and old stuff like that, whatever keeps you ticking. Now Jason Kress thought that it might be cool to display random Linux kernel source files using the phosphor screensaver and I like that. ...
Alvin
2008-11-13 08:00:00
It a precursor like . Visicalc. was to true distributed computing. The dotcom era is littered with the carcasses of companies that thought that the old rules did not apply. Ajax, Social Computing, Software as a Service, etc are all false . ...
