{"id":497,"date":"2017-01-04T14:55:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-04T19:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/?p=497"},"modified":"2019-10-18T15:31:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T19:31:26","slug":"visicalc-anniversary-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/04\/visicalc-anniversary-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"VisiCalc Anniversary 2017"},"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<p>On January 2nd, Mitch Kapor (Lotus) tweeted that VisiCalc&#8217;s company, Software Arts, had been incorporated on that day, 38 years ago. An interesting series of tweets followed. See the tweets below, and links to related background material.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>VisiCalc Anniversary Tweet<\/h3>\n<p>Here is the first tweet, from <a title=\"Mitch Kapor\" href=\"http:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/spreadsheet-people\/#Kapor\">Mitch Kapor<\/a>. He is the founder of Lotus, and certainly knows a thing or 1-2-3 about spreadsheets! He mentioned VisiCalc, and a couple of notable computer people.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Worth remembering the modern era of applications began 38 years ago with VisiCalc. As important as work by Doug Engelbart, Ted Nelson. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JD7Vli2PhP\">https:\/\/t.co\/JD7Vli2PhP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mitch Kapor (@mkapor) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mkapor\/status\/816039336277704704\">January 2, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>VisiCalc History<\/h3>\n<p>One of VisiCalc&#8217;s creators, Dan Bricklin, mentions the January 2, 1979 incorporation date for Software Arts on <a title=\"Dan Bricklin web site History page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bricklin.com\/history\/saiearly.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\">his web site&#8217;s History page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And, of course, the first copy of <a title=\"VisiCalc was shipped\" href=\"http:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/spreadsheet-history\/visicalc\/\">VisiCalc was shipped<\/a> on October 17, 1979, so that&#8217;s why Spreadsheet Day is celebrated on that date each year.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s more VisiCalc history on co-creator <a title=\"Bob Franckston's web site\" href=\"http:\/\/rmf.vc\/ImplementingVisiCalc\" rel=\"nofollow\">Bob Franckston&#8217;s web site<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Dan Bricklin Replied<\/h3>\n<p>In reply to Mitch Kapor&#8217;s tweet, Dan Bricklin graciously thanked him.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mkapor\">@mkapor<\/a> Thanks, Mitch! And thanks for helping the concept reach its potential when you advanced it as Lotus 1-2-3!<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dan Bricklin (@DanB) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanB\/status\/816370131114881024\">January 3, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Doug Englebart<\/h3>\n<p>In Kapor&#8217;s tweet, Doug Engelbart was mentioned \u2013 an Internet pioneer and inventor of the computer mouse. You can read more about him on his <a title=\"Doug Engelbart Institute website\" href=\"http:\/\/dougengelbart.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Doug Engelbart Institute website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Stanford University website has a video of the first public demonstration of the mouse. You can <a title=\"first public demo of computer mouse\" href=\"http:\/\/web.stanford.edu\/dept\/SUL\/library\/extra4\/sloan\/mousesite\/1968Demo.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">watch a few clips<\/a> or the complete demo, which runs 100 minutes. (The full demo video is at the bottom of the page)<\/p>\n<h3>Spreadsheets and the Mouse<\/h3>\n<p>There is a spreadsheet connection to the mouse too \u2013 the <a title=\"zoom wheel was inspired\" href=\"http:\/\/blog.contextures.com\/archives\/2008\/08\/08\/excel-users-inspired-the-mouse-scroll-wheel\/\">zoom wheel was inspired<\/a> by watching people use Excel.<\/p>\n<p>Inventor Eric Michelman, who was an Excel Program Manager at Microsoft, gives a full account of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ericmic.com\/history%20of%20the%20scroll%20wheel.htm\">development of the scroll wheel<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Ted Nelson<\/h3>\n<p>Mitch Kapor also mentioned Ted Nelson in his tweet \u2013 another computer pioneer. Nelson coined the terms Hypertext and Hypermedia in 1963, and was the first to use the term virtuality.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about his work on the <a title=\"Ted Nelson Homepage\" href=\"http:\/\/hyperland.com\/Tedpage-D285\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ted Nelson Homepage<\/a>. It has links to his book, films, articles and videos. There is a <a title=\"Ted Nelson YouTube channel\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/TheTedNelson\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ted Nelson YouTube channel<\/a> too, with many interviews and presentations.<\/p>\n<h3>VisiCalc Story 1984<\/h3>\n<p>Journalist Steven Levy replied to a related tweet from Mark Cuban, and shared a <a title=\"Steven Levy's VisiCalc article\" href=\"https:\/\/backchannel.com\/a-spreadsheet-way-of-knowledge-8de60af7146e\" rel=\"nofollow\">link to an article<\/a> that he wrote about VisiCalc in 1984.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mcuban\">@mcuban<\/a> If you want a good place to check out that history, here&#8217;s the piece I did for Harpers in 1984. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Pzys7iqlne\">https:\/\/t.co\/Pzys7iqlne<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Steven Levy (@StevenLevy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StevenLevy\/status\/816027209269997568\">January 2, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Interview With VisiCalc Creators<\/h3>\n<p>In this interview from 2015, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston talk about VisiCalc.<\/p>\n<p>Video \u2013 Before Excel there was VisiCalc: An interview with its creators<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2a5ex5QlocQ?rel=0\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>_______________________<\/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>On January 2nd, Mitch Kapor (Lotus) tweeted that VisiCalc&#8217;s company, Software Arts, had been incorporated on that day, 38 years ago. An interesting series of tweets followed. See the tweets below, and links to&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spreadsheets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"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=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":703,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spreadsheet-day.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}