Editing Spreadsheet (section)

== History ==

=== Paper spreadsheets ===

Humans have organized data into [[Table (information)|tables]], that is, grids of columns and rows, since ancient times.  The Babylonians used clay tablets to store data as far back as 1800 BCE.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Plimpton 322 |url=https://personal.math.ubc.ca/~cass/courses/m446-03/pl322/pl322.html |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=personal.math.ubc.ca}}</ref>  Other examples can be found in book-keeping [[ledgers]] and astronomical records.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Valla |first1=Giorgio |author-link=Giorgio Valla |title=Georgii Vallae Placentini viri clariss. De expetendis, et fugiendis rebus opus. 1 |date=1501 |publisher=Manutius |location=Venice |page=[https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10148187?page=452,453 452] |url=https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb10148187?page=452,453}}</ref>

Since at least 1906 the term "spread sheet" has been used in [[accounting]] to mean a grid of columns and rows in a ledger.<ref>{{cite book |title=Transactions of the American Hospital Association. Eighth Annual Conference. |date=1906 |page=[https://archive.org/details/proceedingsannua08ameruoft/page/148 148] |url=https://archive.org/details/proceedingsannua08ameruoft/page/148 |quote=[...] the expenditures of these institutions are carefully audited by an accounting staff at the Department. A spread sheet showing every item of expenditure is prepared each month so that the superintendent is kept posted, not only on the amounts expended, but is able to see at a glance what the same items are costing in similar institutions in the Province.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=N.A.C.A. Bulletin 1933-01-15: Vol 14 Iss 10 |date=1933 |publisher=Institute of Management Accountants |page=[https://archive.org/details/sim_strategic-finance_1933-01-15_14_10/page/762 762] |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_strategic-finance_1933-01-15_14_10/page/762 |language=English |quote=We maintain, in our general ledger, a so-called Spread Sheet which is a long sheet with the name of each individual plant in a particular column.}}</ref> And prior to the rise of computerized spreadsheets, "spread" referred to a newspaper or magazine item (text or graphics) that covers two facing pages, extending across the [[centerfold]] and treating the two pages as one large page.<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1968 |title=Towards a Common Goal School-public Library Cooperation: selected Articles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BxA9AAAAMAAJ&q=%22newspaper+gave+us+a+full+centerfold+spread%22 |publisher=[[University of the State of New York]] |page=81}}</ref> The compound word 'spread-sheet' came to mean the format used to present book-keeping ledgers—with columns for categories of expenditures across the top, invoices listed down the left margin, and the amount of each payment in the cell where its row and column intersect—which were, traditionally, a "spread" across facing pages of a bound ledger (book for keeping accounting records) or on oversized sheets of paper (termed 'analysis paper') ruled into rows and columns in that format and approximately twice as wide as ordinary paper.<ref name="sshistory">{{Cite web |url=http://dssresources.com/history/sshistory.html |last=Power |first=D. J. |title=A Brief History of Spreadsheets |website=DSSResources.COM |edition=3.6 |date=30 August 2004 |access-date=25 June 2014}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=April 2023}}

=== Electronic spreadsheets ===

==== Batch spreadsheet report generator BSRG ====
A [[batch processing|batch]] "spreadsheet" is indistinguishable from a batch compiler with added input data, producing an output report, ''i.e.'', a [[4GL]] or conventional, non-interactive, batch computer program. However, this concept of an electronic spreadsheet was outlined in the 1961 paper "Budgeting Models and System Simulation" by [[Richard Mattessich]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Budgeting Models and System Simulation |first=Richard |last=Mattessich |author-link=Richard Mattessich|journal=The Accounting Review |volume=36 |issue=3 |year=1961 |pages=384–397 |jstor=242869}}</ref> The subsequent work by Mattessich (1964a, Chpt. 9, ''Accounting and Analytical Methods'') and its companion volume, Mattessich (1964b, ''Simulation of the Firm through a Budget Computer Program'') applied computerized spreadsheets to accounting and budgeting systems (on [[mainframe computer]]s programmed in [[FORTRAN IV]]). These batch Spreadsheets dealt primarily with the addition or subtraction of entire columns or rows (of input variables), rather than individual ''cells''.

In 1962, this concept of the spreadsheet, called BCL for Business Computer Language, was implemented on an [[IBM 1130]]{{Dubious|Inconsistent date / implementation computer for BCL|date=October 2020}} and in 1963 was [[ported]] to an [[IBM 7040]] by R. Brian Walsh at [[Marquette University]], [[Wisconsin]]. This program was written in [[Fortran]]. Primitive [[timesharing]] was available on those machines. In 1968 BCL was ported by Walsh to the [[IBM 360]]/67 timesharing machine at [[Washington State University]]. It was used to assist in the teaching of [[finance]] to business students. Students were able to take information prepared by the [[professor]] and manipulate it to represent it and show ratios etc. In 1964, a book entitled ''Business Computer Language'' was written by Kimball, Stoffells and Walsh. Both the book and program were copyrighted in 1966 and years later that [[copyright]] was renewed.<ref>{{citation |title=Business Computer Language |author=Brian Walsh |year=1996 |work=IT-Directors.com}}</ref>

Applied Data Resources had a FORTRAN preprocessor called Empires.

In the late 1960s, Xerox used BCL to develop a more sophisticated version for their timesharing system.

==== LANPAR spreadsheet compiler ====
A key invention in the development of electronic spreadsheets was made by Rene K. Pardo and Remy Landau, who filed in 1970 {{US patent|4398249}} on a spreadsheet automatic natural order calculation [[algorithm]]. While the patent was initially rejected by the patent office as being a purely mathematical invention, following 12 years of appeals, Pardo and Landau won a landmark court case at the Predecessor Court of the Federal Circuit (CCPA), overturning the Patent Office in 1983&nbsp;— establishing that "something does not cease to become patentable merely because the point of novelty is in an algorithm." However, in 1995 a federal district court ruled the patent unenforceable due to inequitable conduct by the inventors during the application process.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Refac International, Ltd. v. Lotus Development Corp. |vol=887 |reporter=F. Supp. |opinion=539 |court=[[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|S.D.N.Y.]] |date=1995-04-18 |url=https://casetext.com/case/refac-international-ltd-v-lotus-development-corporation}}</ref> The [[United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit]] upheld that decision in 1996.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Refac International, Ltd. v. Lotus Development Corp. |vol=81 |reporter=F.3d |opinion=1576 |court=Fed. Cir. |date=1996-04-26 |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-federal-circuit/1339862.html}}</ref>

The actual software was called LANPAR&nbsp;— LANguage for Programming Arrays at Random.{{NoteTag|This may be a [[backronym]], as "LANPAR is also a [[portmanteau]] of the developers' surnames, "''Lan''dau" and "''Par''do".}} This was conceived and entirely developed in the summer of 1969, following Pardo and Landau's recent graduation from Harvard University. Co-inventor Rene Pardo recalls that he felt that one manager at Bell Canada should not have to depend on programmers to program and modify budgeting forms, and he thought of letting users type out forms in any order and having an electronic computer calculate results in the right order ("Forward Referencing/Natural Order Calculation"). Pardo and Landau developed and implemented the software in 1969.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.renepardo.com |title = Rene Pardo – Personal Web Page |website = renepardo.com }}</ref>

LANPAR was used by Bell Canada, AT&T, and the 18 operating telephone companies nationwide for their local and national budgeting operations. LANPAR was also used by General Motors. Its uniqueness was Pardo's co-invention incorporating forward referencing/natural order calculation (one of the first "non-procedural" computer languages)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.renepardo.com/articles/spreadsheet.pdf |title=The World's First Electronic Spreadsheet  |website=Rene Pardo |access-date=2007-11-03 |archive-date=2010-08-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100821102116/http://www.renepardo.com/articles/spreadsheet.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> as opposed to left-to-right, top to bottom sequence for calculating the results in each cell that was used by [[VisiCalc]], [[SuperCalc]], and the first version of [[MultiPlan]]. Without forward referencing/natural order calculation, the user had to refresh the spreadsheet until the values in all cells remained unchanged.  Once the cell values stayed constant, the user was assured that there were no remaining forward references within the spreadsheet.

==== Autoplan/Autotab spreadsheet programming language ====
In 1968, three former employees from the [[General Electric]] computer company headquartered in [[Phoenix, Arizona]] set out to start their own [[software development house]]. A. Leroy Ellison, Harry N. Cantrell, and Russell E. Edwards found themselves doing a large number of calculations when making tables for the business plans that they were presenting to venture capitalists. They decided to save themselves a lot of effort and wrote a computer program that produced their tables for them. This program, originally conceived as a simple utility for their personal use, would turn out to be the first software product offered by the company that would become known as [[Capex Corporation]]. "AutoPlan" ran on GE's [[Time-sharing]] service; afterward, a version that ran on [[IBM mainframe]]s was introduced under the name ''AutoTab''. ([[National CSS]] offered a similar product, CSSTAB, which had a moderate timesharing user base by the early 1970s. A major application was opinion research tabulation.)

AutoPlan/AutoTab was not a [[WYSIWYG]] [[interactive]] spreadsheet program, it was a simple scripting language for spreadsheets. The user defined the names and labels for the rows and columns, then the formulas that defined each row or column. In 1975, Autotab-II was advertised as extending the original to a maximum of "''1,500 rows and columns, combined in any proportion the user requires...''"<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=PPeM_JUhUqEC&dq=autotab-iI&pg=PA19 "'Autotab' Update Extends Former Matrix Size Limits"], 28 May 1975, p19, Computerworld</ref>

GE Information Services, which operated the time-sharing service, also launched its own spreadsheet system, Financial Analysis Language (FAL), circa 1974.  It was later supplemented by an additional spreadsheet language, TABOL,<ref>{{Cite journal|date=August 1983|title=COMPANY HIGHLIGHT: GENERAL ELECTRIC INFORMATION SERVICES COMPANY|url=https://archive.org/details/VAP-FtoGcompany|journal=INPUT Vendor Analysis Program|publisher=INPUT|quote=TABOL Database Manager (TDM), an enhancement to the TABOL financial analysis language, was also introduced in August 1982}}</ref><ref name="Enterprise1982">{{cite journal|date=30 August 1982|title=Package of Features Added to Mark III|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mlHBOATYlCcC&pg=PA46|journal=Computerworld|publisher=IDG Enterprise|pages=46}}</ref> which was developed by an independent author, Oliver Vellacott in the UK.  Both FAL and TABOL were integrated with GEIS's database system, DMS.

==== IBM Financial Planning and Control System ====
The IBM Financial Planning and Control System was developed in 1976, by Brian Ingham at [[IBM]] Canada. It was implemented by IBM in at least 30 countries. It ran on an [[IBM mainframe]] and was the first application for [[financial planning]] developed with [[APL (programming language)|APL]] that completely hid the programming language from the end-user. Through IBM's [[VM operating system]], it was among the first programs to auto-update each copy of the [[application software|application]] as new versions were released. Users could specify simple mathematical relationships between rows and between columns. Compared to any contemporary alternatives, it could support very large spreadsheets. It loaded actual [[financial planning]] [[data]] drawn from the legacy batch system into each user's spreadsheet monthly. It was designed to optimize the power of APL through object kernels, increasing program efficiency by as much as 50 fold over traditional programming approaches.

==== APLDOT modeling language ====
An example of an early "industrial weight" spreadsheet was APLDOT, developed in 1976 at the [[United States Railway Association]] on an IBM 360/91, running at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD.<ref>[http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=390005.801196 portal.acm.org] – APLDOT</ref> The application was used successfully for many years in developing such applications as financial and costing models for the US Congress and for [[Conrail]]. APLDOT was dubbed a "spreadsheet" because financial analysts and strategic planners used it to solve the same problems they addressed with paper spreadsheet pads.

=== VisiCalc for the Apple II===
[[File:Visicalc.png|thumb|VisiCalc running on an Apple II]]

The concept of spreadsheets became widely known due to [[VisiCalc]], developed for the [[Apple II]] in 1979 by VisiCorp staff [[Dan Bricklin]] and [[Bob Frankston]].
Significantly, it also turned the [[personal computer]] from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a business tool.

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet that combined many of the essential features of modern spreadsheet applications, such as a [[WYSIWYG]] interactive user interface, automatic recalculation, status and formula lines, range copying with relative and absolute references, and formula building by selecting referenced cells. Unaware of LANPAR at the time, ''[[PC World]]'' magazine called VisiCalc the first electronic spreadsheet.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,116166/article.html |title=PC World– Three Minutes: Godfathers of the Spreadsheet<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=2008-02-22 |archive-date=2008-07-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080726090701/http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,116166/article.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Bricklin has spoken of watching his university professor create a table of calculation results on a [[blackboard]]. When the professor found an error, he had to tediously erase and rewrite several sequential entries in the table, triggering Bricklin to think that he could replicate the process on a computer, using the blackboard as the model to view results of underlying formulas. His idea became VisiCalc.

VisiCalc for the [[Apple II]] went on to become the first [[killer application]],<ref>Power, D.J., ''[http://www.dssresources.com/history/sshistory.html A Brief History of Spreadsheets] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506205125/http://www.dssresources.com/history/sshistory.html |date=2021-05-06 }}'', DSSResources.COM, v3.6, 8 August 2004</ref><ref name="cacASU">"Killer Applications" (overview), Partha gawaargupta. [[Arizona State University]] in Tempe, Arizona, May 2002, Web page: [http://cactus.eas.asu.edu/partha/Columns/2002/07-01-killer-app.htm ASU-killer-app] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929024420/http://cactus.eas.asu.edu/partha/Columns/2002/07-01-killer-app.htm |date=2011-09-29 }}.</ref> a program so compelling, people would buy a particular computer just to use it. It was [[ported]] to other computers, including [[CP/M]] machines, [[Atari 8-bit computers]], and the [[Commodore PET]], but VisiCalc remains best known as an Apple II program.

=== SuperCalc for CP/M ===

[[SuperCalc]] was a spreadsheet application published by Sorcim in 1980, and originally bundled (along with WordStar) as part of the CP/M software package included with the Osborne 1 portable computer. It quickly became the de facto standard spreadsheet for CP/M.

=== Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet for IBM PC DOS ===
The introduction of [[Lotus 1-2-3]] in November 1982 accelerated the acceptance of the [[IBM Personal Computer]]. It was written especially for [[IBM PC DOS]] and had improvements in speed and graphics compared to VisiCalc on the Apple II, this helped it grow in popularity.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/Whole_Earth_Software_Catalog_for_1986_1985_Point/Whole_Earth_Software_Catalog_for_1986_1985_Point_djvu.txt|title=Whole Earth Software Catalog|year=1989|isbn=9780385233019|quote=Some say that half of all IBM PCs, in their hundreds of thousands, are running just 1-2-3. Numbers— clever, quick, knowledgeable— boiling the stupidity out of countless business decisions. Interesting how essential the quickness is. It's 1-2-3's speed that put it on top.|last1=Brand|first1=Stewart|publisher=Quantum Press/Doubleday }}</ref> Lotus 1-2-3 was the leading spreadsheet for several years.

=== Microsoft Excel for Apple Macintosh and Windows===
{{Main article|Microsoft Excel}}
[[Microsoft]] released the first version of [[Microsoft Excel|Excel]] for the [[Mac (computer)|Apple Macintosh]] on September 30, 1985, and then ported<ref>{{cite book |last1=Liebowitz |first1=Stan |last2=Margolis |first2=Stephen |year=2001 |chapter=6 |editor1-last=Ellig |editor1-first=Jerome |title=Dynamic Competition and Public Policy: Technology, Innovation, and Antitrust Issues |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ynmOndJFoeQC&q=microsoft+ported+excel+windows+1987&pg=PA171 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=171 |isbn=978-0-521-78250-0 }}</ref> it to Windows, with the first version being numbered 2.05 (to synchronize with the Macintosh version 2.2) and released in November 1987. Microsoft's Windows 3.x platforms of the early 1990s made it possible for their Excel spreadsheet application to take market share from Lotus. By the time Lotus responded with usable Windows products, Microsoft had begun to assemble their [[Microsoft Office|Office]] suite. By 1995, Excel was the market leader, edging out Lotus 1-2-3,<ref name="sshistory" /> and in 2013, IBM discontinued Lotus 1-2-3 altogether.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/goodbye-lotus-1-2-3/ |title=Goodbye, Lotus 1-2-3 |last1=Vaughan-Nichols |first1=Steven J. |date=15 May 2013 |website=[[ZDNet]] |publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] |access-date=24 July 2014}}</ref>

=== Google Sheets, Online, Web-based spreadsheets ===
{{See also|List of online spreadsheets}}
In 2006 Google launched their beta release [[Google Sheets]], a web based spreadsheet application that can be accessed by multiple users from any device type using a compatible web browser, it can be used [[online and offline]] (with or without internet connectivity). Google Sheets originated from a web-based spreadsheet application XL2Web developed by [[2Web Technologies]], combined with DocVerse which enabled multiple-user online collaboration of Office documents.

In 2016 [[Collabora Online|Collabora Online Calc]] was launched, notable in that the web based spreadsheet could be hosted and integrated into any environment without dependency on a 3rd party for authentication or maintenance. Collabora Online runs [[LibreOffice]] kit at its core, which grew from [[StarOffice]] that was launched {{Years or months ago|1985}} in 1985.

=== Mainframe spreadsheets ===
*''The Works Records System'' at ICI developed in 1974 on IBM 370/145<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/articles/38.htm|title = Computing History - Computing History Members}}</ref>
*ExecuCalc, from Parallax Systems, Inc.: Released in late 1982,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mhoE9lO6DpMC&dq=execucalc&pg=PA39|title=IBM 3270 Terminals Get Spreadsheet Package|work=[[Computerworld]]|date=November 22, 1982}}</ref> ExecuCalc was the first mainframe "visi-clone" which duplicated the features of VisiCalc on IBM mainframes with 3270 display terminals. Over 150 copies were licensed (35 to Fortune 500 companies). DP managers were attracted to compatibility and avoiding then-expensive PC purchases (see 1983 ''[[Computerworld]]'' magazine front page article<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_computerworld_1982-12-06_16_49|title=Do Spreadsheets Mean Micros|work=[[Computerworld]]|date=December 6, 1982}}</ref> and advertisement.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=urtHiZ0Bk0AC&dq=execucalc&pg=PA60|title=Advertisement|work=[[Computerworld]]|date=June 20, 1983}}</ref>)

=== Other spreadsheets ===
Notable current spreadsheet software:
*[[Apache OpenOffice|Apache OpenOffice Calc]] is free and open-source.
*[[Calligra Sheets]] (formerly KCalc)
*[[Collabora Online|Collabora Online Calc]] for mobile and desktop apps are [[Free software|free]], [[Open-source software|open-source]], [[cross-platform]] enterprise-ready editions of LibreOffice.
*[[Corel]] [[Quattro Pro]] ([[WordPerfect Office]])
*[[Gnumeric]] is free and cross-platform, it is part of the [[GNOME]] Free Software Desktop Project. 
*[[Kingsoft Spreadsheets]]
*[[LibreOffice Calc]] is free, open-source and cross platform.
*[[Numbers (software)|Numbers]] is [[Apple Inc.]]'s spreadsheet software, part of [[iWork]].
*[[OnlyOffice]] Docs Spreadsheet editor is free and open source.
*[[PlanMaker]] ([[SoftMaker Office]])
*[[Pyspread]]
*Sourcetable<ref>[https://sourcetable.com AI Spreadsheet.] Sourcetable Inc., 2024. Retrieved 2024-09-27.</ref>
Discontinued spreadsheet software:
*[[20/20 (spreadsheet software)|20/20]]
*[[3D-Calc]] for [[Atari ST]] computers
*[[As-Easy-As|As Easy As]]
*[[Framework (office suite)|Framework]] by [[Forefront Corporation]]/[[Ashton-Tate]] (1983–84)
*[[GNU Oleo]]&nbsp;– A traditional terminal mode spreadsheet for UNIX/UNIX-like systems
*[[IBM Lotus Symphony]] (2007)
*[[Javelin Software]]
*[[KCells]]
*[[Lucid 3-D]]
*[[Lotus Improv]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://simson.net/clips/91.MIPS.ImprovPowerStep.html |title=Improv and PowerStep |access-date=2010-08-20 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20020606140158/http://simson.net/clips/91.MIPS.ImprovPowerStep.html |archive-date= 2002-06-06}}</ref>
*[[Lotus Jazz]] for Macintosh
*[[Lotus Symphony for DOS|Lotus Symphony]] (1984)
*[[MultiPlan]]
*Claris' [[Claris Resolve|Resolve]] (Macintosh)
*[[NeoOffice]]
*[[Resolver One]]
*Borland's [[Quattro Pro]]
*[[Sc (spreadsheet calculator)|SC IM (formerly SC - Spreadsheet Calculator)]]
*[[Siag Office|SIAG]]
*[[SuperCalc]]
*[[T/Maker]]
*Target Planner Calc for CP/M and TRS-DOS<ref>{{cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4DF1138F930A25750C0A96E948260|title=THE EXECUTIVE COMPUTER – Lotus 1-2-3 Faces Up to the Upstarts – NYTimes.com|date=13 March 1988|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://vip.hex.net/~cbbrowne/spreadsheets.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020806213619/http://vip.hex.net/~cbbrowne/spreadsheets.html|title=Linux Spreadsheets|archive-date=6 August 2002|work=hex.net|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*Trapeze for Macintosh<ref name="Trapeze" />
*[[Informix Wingz|Wingz]] for Macintosh

=== Other products ===
Several companies have attempted to break into the spreadsheet market with programs based on very different paradigms. Lotus introduced what is likely the most successful example, [[Lotus Improv]], which saw some commercial success, notably in the financial world where its powerful [[data mining]] capabilities remain well respected to this day.

[[Spreadsheet 2000]] attempted to dramatically simplify formula construction, but was generally not successful.