Instead of referring to cells as B2, a user could label an entire row or column, allowing cell names like JUNESALES. Instead, Bricklin, who did the research and design of the product, decided what most users would want in a spreadsheet.Īn example is labeling, which was included in the original demo. They were not making a program exclusively for themselves.
#Lotus 123 hoja de calculo software
The approach Bricklin and Frankston took to software development was very different from other hobbyists’ projects. Software Arts moved into an attic of a building in Boston where Bricklin had an apartment and set to work. Frankston briefly considered buying time on a timeshare computer but decided it wouldn’t be practical, so the small company bought its own minicomputer – a huge investment for a small company.
The software ran on a minicomputer equipped with the Multics operating system that Frankston had worked with extensively. Developed by John Doty from ECD, a company producing a custom 6502 microcomputer, the language was different from Apple’s assembly language in that it used macros to call previous parts of the program, instead of GOTOs (avoiding “spaghetti” code). A special version of the assembly programming language was selected. The three agreed to 37.5% of all the spreadsheet’s revenues as royalties and a one time advance to cover development costs.įrankston and Bricklin formally incorporated Software Arts, Inc., and began development.ĭevelopment of the shipping product began in earnest in mid-1978.
A2).ĭan Fylstra was so impressed with the demo program that he reached an agreement with Bricklin and Frankston to distribute the final product. The program had a set of rows (labeled with numbers) and columns (labeled with letters), and users could enter data or formulas into each cell, and could even address other cells using their names (i.e. The VisiCalc demo was rudimentary (a user could not scroll beyond the columns and rows visible on the screen), but it strongly resembled the final product and impressed Fylstra. Fylstra selected the Apple II not only because of its technical merits (it had superior graphics to the CP/M microcomputers and many minicomputers) but also because he got a steep discount from Steve Jobs after promising that the popular KIM-1 program, MicroChess, would be ported to the Apple.
He managed to convince Bricklin to write VisiCalc for the Apple II instead of the DEC minicomputer Bricklin preferred.īricklin implemented a primitive demo program in Integer BASIC on an Apple II loaned to him by Personal Software. Bricklin imagined his pocket calculator (a TI Business Analyst) outfitted with a small trackball, like the mouse demonstrated by Douglas Engelbert several days before at Harvard, and a simple interface that would allow him to create spreadsheets that could be corrected and redone on the fly.īricklin decided to pursue the idea further and recruited a veteran programmer, Bob Frankston, to turn his fantasy into a real program.ĭan Fylstra, head of Personal Software, a pioneering software publisher, took an early interest in the concept. As a professor was giving a lecture, he found an error in a single cell and was forced to change the value in every other cell. Dan Bricklin was studying for his MBA and was struck by the limitations of a common (paper) spreadsheet. VisiCalc began at Harvard Business School in 1978. VisiCalc was first released for the Apple II, which quickly became an invaluable tool for businesspeople – at least until IBM moved into the “personal computing” market in 1981. Before the release of this groundbreaking software, microcomputers were thought of as toys VisiCalc changed that. VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet, was one of the key products that helped bring the microcomputer from the hobbyist’s desk into the office.
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