{"id":16,"date":"2010-04-04T19:42:05","date_gmt":"2010-04-04T23:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/spreadsheet-history\/visicalc\/"},"modified":"2023-11-16T08:57:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T13:57:06","slug":"visicalc","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/spreadsheet-history\/visicalc\/","title":{"rendered":"VisiCalc"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"d942c2121bfbd137a3b44056a000f09c\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Responsive Top -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9531091850463532\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"6574318169\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Dan Bricklin &#8211; VisiCalc Co-Founder<\/h3>\n<p>You can find personal notes, photos and videos from Dan Bricklin, in the VisiCalc section of his personal website: <a title=\"http:\/\/www.bricklin.com\/visicalc.htm\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bricklin.com\/visicalc.htm\">http:\/\/www.bricklin.com\/visicalc.htm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the following video, Dan Bricklin reads from his book, &#8220;Bricklin on Technology&#8221;, about the first public announcement of VisiCalc, in June 1979.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bbWy1Rtapus?rel=0\" width=\"450\" height=\"283\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Bob Frankston<\/h3>\n<p>In the two videos below, Bob Frankston, co-creator of VisiCalc, reads and comments on the paper he delivered in June 1979 at its debut at the National Computer Conference.<br \/>\nPart 1<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mb30PCtOemY?rel=0\" width=\"450\" height=\"283\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nPart 2<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HIIV4fl7bbc?rel=0\" width=\"450\" height=\"283\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>VisiCalc Shipment and Sales<\/h3>\n<p>When was VisiCalc shipped out? When selecting a date for Spreadsheet Day, I found the following sources that showed October 17, 1979 as the date that the first fill copies were shipped out. These sources were key players in VisiCalc&#8217;s development and sales &#8211; Peter Jennings and Dan Bricklin.<\/p>\n<h4>Shipped October 17th<\/h4>\n<p>Peter Jennings, one of Dan Fylstra&#8217;s partners at Personal Software\/VisiCorp, was responsible for their MicroChess program that helped fund the early advance royalty payments for VisiCalc.<\/p>\n<p>You can find his VisiCalc notes on his personal website: <a title=\"http:\/\/www.benlo.com\/visicalc\/visicalc4.html\" href=\"http:\/\/www.benlo.com\/visicalc\/visicalc4.html\">http:\/\/www.benlo.com\/visicalc\/visicalc4.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On his VisiCalc page, Jennings has notes on the shipment and early sales of VisiCalc:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The first copy of VisiCalc for the Apple ][ (Version 1.37) went out the door on October 17, 1979. By the end of the month, we had shipped 1293 copies.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/shipdate_benlo01.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-680\" src=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/shipdate_benlo01.png\" alt=\"VisiCalc ship date\" width=\"420\" height=\"148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/shipdate_benlo01.png 420w, https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/shipdate_benlo01-300x106.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Byte Interview<\/h4>\n<p>In 1989, Byte magazine interviewed Dan Bricklin and Bob Franston, for the article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aresluna.org\/attached\/computerhistory\/articles\/spreadsheets\/tenyearsofrowsandcolumns\">\u201cTen Years of Rows and Columns\u201d<\/a> published in Byte, issue 13\/1989, pp. 326-328.<\/p>\n<p>In a sidebar to that article, Birthing the Visible Calculator, Bricklin mentioned October 17th as the date that VisiCalc came out:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;VisiCalc came out October 17, 1979, at $99, and people paid hundreds of dollars for the board just for the extra 10K bytes of memory.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4>October 19th Delivered<\/h4>\n<p>On Dan Bricklin&#8217;s Visicalc site, he shows <a href=\"http:\/\/danbricklin.com\/log\/2009_05_27.htm#vc30\">a note that Dan Fylstra received his copy<\/a> of VisiCalc on October 19th. Bricklin also noted that his copy arrived the following day, October 20th.<\/p>\n<p>On that page, Bricklin marked October 19th, 2009, as the 30th anniversary of VisiCalc.<\/p>\n<h3>Dan Bricklin Tweets &#8211; October 2021<\/h3>\n<p>On October 19, 2021, I had the following friendly exchange with Dan Bricklin on Twitter. He was marking that day as the anniversary of VisiCalc.<br \/>\nHere&#8217;s his first tweet, with a follow-up question from Hjalmar Gislason:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">So are we all celebrating <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/spreadsheetday?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#spreadsheetday<\/a> two days too early <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DanB<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Hjalmar Gislason (@hjalli) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hjalli\/status\/1450538944056135687?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 19, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nNext, I replied with the source for our Spreadsheet Day date.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Date based on quote from Dan Bricklin \u201cVisiCalc came out October 17, 1979, at $99\u201d 1\/2 way down this page. Worth celebrating on any date though! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/P0r9IWmDl5\">https:\/\/t.co\/P0r9IWmDl5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Debra Dalgleish (@ddalgleish) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ddalgleish\/status\/1450572643288158210?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 19, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nHere are the next two tweets from Dan Bricklin, and he&#8217;s okay with us celebrating on October 17th.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I don&#8217;t mind celebrating on the 17th. Something probably happened then. Any day is great for me. \ud83d\ude42 My notes have me meeting with a commercial insurance agent on the 17th but no mention of VisiCalc.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dan Bricklin (@DanB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanB\/status\/1450575716165246982?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 19, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nNext, I shared my other source for the October 17th date:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Alternate source was Peter Jennings \u201c <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vkDDPzD5bd\">https:\/\/t.co\/vkDDPzD5bd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Debra Dalgleish (@ddalgleish) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ddalgleish\/status\/1450578452315353094?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 19, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nDan Bricklin&#8217;s next two tweets are shown below<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Of course, Peter&#8217;s write-up was after the fact, so I don&#8217;t know what he based it on. It&#8217;s fine to use the 17th as the day. Maybe all shipping from manufacturing was on the 17th, and even they (the publisher) didn&#8217;t receive it until the 19th along with everybody else.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dan Bricklin (@DanB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanB\/status\/1450580074051350536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 19, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nSo, we&#8217;ll continue to celebrate Spreadsheet Day on October 17th, with the okay from Dan Bricklin.<br \/>\n_________________<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dan Bricklin &#8211; VisiCalc Co-Founder You can find personal notes, photos and videos from Dan Bricklin, in the VisiCalc section of his personal website: http:\/\/www.bricklin.com\/visicalc.htm In the following video, Dan Bricklin reads from his&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":11,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-16","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1154,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16\/revisions\/1154"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}