Computable Innovations First VisiCalc prototype
The first spreadsheet software on computers was called VisiCalc. It was made available to the general public in 1979 and used an Apple II computer. While BASIC and a few games had swiftly supported the majority of early microprocessor computers, VisiCalc brought a new level of application software.
It was regarded as a piece of software from the fourth generation. Companies spent time and money on manually calculated spreadsheets to make financial projections because altering one figure required recalculating every cell in the sheet. In VisiCalc, all cell changes result in an immediate recalculation of the whole sheet.
For some people, VisiCalc reduced the 20 hours of labour they typically put in each week to only 15 minutes, allowing them to be much more creative. Daniel Bricklin
VisiCalc was created by Bob Frankston and Dan Bricklin. While pursuing his MBA at Harvard Business School, Dan Bricklin teamed up with Bob Frankston to assist him in writing the code for his brand-new electronic spreadsheet. In order to create their product, the two formed their own business, Software Arts Inc.
I’m unsure how to describe early Apple devices because there were so few tools available. It was only necessary to maintain debugging by isolating issues, examining memory in the DOS DEBUG patch’s constrained debugging mode (which is weaker and lacks symbols), retrying, and then downloading and trying again. Once more… -Bob Frankston on writing the VisiCalc Apple II software
The VisiCalc team began creating versions for the Tandy TRS-80, Commodore PET, and Atari 800 after the Apple II version of VisiCalc was completed by the fall of 1979. By October, VisiCalc, which cost US $100, was moving quickly off the shelves of computer shops.
Bricklin was honoured for his innovation by the Association for Computing Machinery with the Grace Murray Hopper Award in November of 1981. The Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet for the PC was created in 1983 when VisiCalc was quickly sold to Lotus Development Corporation. For VisiCalc, Bricklin was never granted a patent. Software programmes were not deemed eligible for patents by the Supreme Court until after 1981.
