Editing Spreadsheet (section)

=== 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.