Here's some tech nostalgia for you: "... comprehensive documentation of the original #VisiCalc source code for the Apple II, focusing on creating a fully annotated version of the 6502 assembly code."
#visicalc
:apple: Spreadsheets Apple II Style.
It is hard to remember a time when no one had a spreadsheet. Sure, you had big paper ledgers if you were an accountant. But most people just scribbled their math on note paper or, maybe, an engineering pad. [Christopher Drum] wanted to look at what the state of the art in 1978 spreadsheet technology could do. So he ran VisiCalc.
https://stonetools.ghost.io/visicalc-apple2/
#apple2 #visicalc #spreadsheet #apple #retro #computing #media #history #tech #news
![👾This is a great look into a very influential piece of software and its tutorials. If you have old VisiCalc files and you want to drag into the 21st century, [Christopher] explains the convoluted process to get mostly there.👾](https://files.mastodon.social/cache/media_attachments/files/115/865/620/259/946/335/original/6fe116c866e0e905.jpeg)
![[ImageSource: Christopher]
👾Surprisingly, VisiCalc got a lot of things right that we still use today. One thing we don’t see much of is the text-based menu. As [Christopher] puts it, when you press the slash key, “what first appears to be ‘the entire alphabet’ pops up at the top of the screen.”👾
In reality, it is a menu of letters that each correspond to some command. For example, C will clear the sheet [after prompting you, of course].
⁉️Interestingly, VisiCalc of the day didn’t do a natural order of evaluation. It would process by rows or by columns, your choice. So if cell A1 depended on cell B5, you’d probably get a wrong answer since A1 would always be computed before B5. Interestingly, the old Apple didn’t have up and down keys, so you had to toggle what the right and left keys did using the space bar. Different times!⁉️](https://files.mastodon.social/cache/media_attachments/files/115/865/620/292/321/460/original/5cdfa6cad53e0410.jpeg)
I'm using #Visicalc to plan a personal project. Some thoughts:
Getting a DOS emulator working on macOS is increasingly annoying.
Visicalc is great :).
Driving from the keyboard is _wonderful_.
Seems to only work in 80x25 mode even when i switch in DOS.
Annoying bug when saving where it fails to overwrite an existing file (in fact, deletes it).
The date and time in the emulated DOS seems to be wrong, probably not accounting for suspend/resume.
Lacks conventional cut-and-paste (it predates it).
RE: https://typo.social/@drj/115610281330535782
Babes, wake up, i just realised something cool about the file format of the first spreadsheet program from 1979. #visicalc
I just realised something cool about the Visicalc file format. The entire file is a series of Visicalc keyboard commands. In other words the save file is a (large) keyboard macro.
My file starts:
>B31:"B
>A31:"Soggy Goo
>C30:"FQZ&
«>» goes to the cell given by X and Y; «:» isn't a keyboard command, but appears where [Return] would be. «"B» is how you enter "B" as a label in that cell. And so on for all the cells of the sheet. It appears to start from the bottom-most row.
#Visicalc
1/2
VisiCalc, the first #spreadsheet, was the first program that every business not only needed, but instantly knew that it needed! I recall businesspeople in computer stores saying, “I want a #VisiCalc.”
The clerks explained that VisiCalc was a program, and you needed an Apple to run it on. (Bricklin and Frankston wrote VisiCalc on an #Apple because that’s what they happened to have.) “Yeah, yeah, fine, whatever it takes, but I gotta have a VisiCalc.” (j p)
VisiCalc on the Apple II
https://stonetools.ghost.io/visicalc-apple2/
#HackerNews #VisiCalc #AppleII #History #TechInnovation #SpreadsheetSoftware
🌘 VisiCalc 於 Apple II 上的傳奇：首款電子試算表的技術回顧與歷史意義
➤ 重返 1978：VisiCalc 如何在 Apple II 上改變試算表的格局
✤ https://stonetools.ghost.io/visicalc-apple2/
本文深入探討了 VisiCalc 這款開創性的電子試算表軟體在 Apple II 上的應用及其歷史意義。作者透過實際操作 VisiCalc，並參考了軟體的教學文件與歷史資料，重現了當年使用者如何透過這款「殺手級應用」來進行財務規劃與商業決策。文章詳細闡述了 VisiCalc 的技術細節，包括其獨特的「斜線選單」、儲存格命名系統、計算方向設定、遊標控制以及記憶體管理方式，並對比了其與現代試算表的差異。同時，文章也提及了 VisiCalc 對 Apple II 銷售的巨大貢獻，以及它如何孕育了整個試算表產業。作者以一種懷舊且技術性的角度，展現了 VisiCalc 在個人電腦發展史上不可取代的地位。
+ 身為一個老派的電腦愛好者，看到這篇關於 Vi
#科技 #歷史 #軟體 #電子試算表 #Apple II #VisiCalc
🎓🤪 Welcome to Fantasy Island University, where you'll "unlearn" OOP and finally discover the mythical art of "functions"! 📚💡 Dive into the past with Classical Software Studies and reminisce over relics like #VisiCalc, because who needs modern tech anyway? 🕰️✨
https://prog21.dadgum.com/210.html #FantasyIslandUniversity #unlearnOOP #ClassicalSoftwareStudies #functions #HackerNews #ngated
🪨🛠️ New Post: "VisiCalc on the Apple 2"
Happy #SpreadsheetDay! This time I look at #visicalc, the first spreadsheet. Though I have a good deal of personal experience with it, I've never looked at it with a critical eye. How much of its DNA still exists in the software of today? I try to answer that by calculating protein levels of ration formulation for swine, as one does. Special guest appearance by your favorite grain: sorghum!
@restorante @mrmasterkeyboard @arnan no, but rather multiple #smol tools instead of "#StallmanOS" which is more bloated than the worst #disinfo re: #SystemD!
- OFC one could argue that using #NvChad could accomplish the same goals using #neovim as it's base with extensive #configuration…
But that's not it either…
Think closer to #LotusSoftware "office suite" with Manuscript, Agenda, Lotus 1-2-3
New Video "Strausss on Spreadsheets: Seeds of Greatness AND Destruction!"
El 16 de julio de 1951 nace Dan Bricklin, ingeniero estadounidense conocido por ser el cocreador, junto con Bob Frankston, de VisiCalc, la primera hoja de cálculo electrónica para computadoras personales.
Esta invención revolucionó la forma en que se realizaban cálculos y proyecciones financieras, y se le atribuye un papel importante en el auge de las computadoras personales
#retrocomputingmx #danbricklin #VisiCalc #computerhistory
Visi On — предтеча Windows, о которой забыли
Если спросить любого человека, хоть немного знакомого с компьютерами, как называлась первая операционная система с оконным графическим интерфейсом для IBM PC, он наверняка скажет — Microsoft Windows. И это будет неправильный ответ. Ещё за два года до Windows 1.0 пользователям PC была доступна ОС с полноценным графическим интерфейсом, меню и окнами, управляемая при помощи мыши. Но про эту систему благополучно забыли… Почему? Сейчас разберёмся, а заодно узнаем, почему Билл Гейтс, увидев Visi On на выставке COMDEX в 1982 году, не поверил в её реальность.
https://habr.com/ru/companies/ruvds/articles/921790/
#VisiOn #Windows #Personal_Software #apple_ii #VisiCalc #Smalltalk #TRS80 #Xerox_Star #Lisa #COMDEX #VisiWord #Lotus_123 #ruvds_статьи_выходного_дня
A profile of VisiCalc co-creator @danb Dan Bricklin.
¿Sabías que #VisiCalc, la primera hoja de cálculo, revolucionó la #computación personal? 🤯 Conoce a Robert Frankston #robertfrankston, el ingeniero clave detrás de esta app que impulsó la era PC. Lee su historia en #retrocomputingmx #historiadelsoftware
Un día como hoy, 10 junio pero de 1977, el Apple II hizo historia Con su MOS 6502, gráficos a color y 8 ranuras de expansión, inició una revolución de computación personal
#retrocomputingmx #AppleII #apple #stevewozniak #westcoastcomputerfaire #VisiCalc
@thomasareed it's quite interesting rabbit hole, if I understand things correctly the reason why it does what it does, is that back in VisiCalc there was no way to look up a "bracket"
And I guess back then people read the manual so they knew it had to be sorted and it won't be exact.
I have no idea why it has not been deprecated though. Sure, backwards compatibility is important but in this case I think it would have been a net good to fix it a long time ago.
@nina_kali_nina VisiCalc on my 80 column Commodore PET a week or so back. It still runs just fine.
#commodore #commodorepet #visicalc #visicorp #vintagecomputing
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