Question

Where and within what context did Dan Bricklin come up with the idea for VisiCalc?

Answer 1

VisiCalc - "visible calculator"

VisiCalc, the first computer spreadsheet program for personal computers. It is originally released for the Apple II by VisiCorp. VisiCalc is considered the Apple II's killer app.

VISICALC represented a new idea of a way to use a computer and a new way of thinking about the world.

History

VisiCalc was created after Dan Bricklin watched a presentation while attending Harvard Business School. The professor was creating a financial model on a blackboard that was ruled with lines to create a table, and formulas and data were being written into the cells. When the professor found an error or wanted to change a parameter, he had to erase and rewrite a number of sequential entries in the table. Bricklin realized that he could replicate the process on a computer using an "electronic spreadsheet" to view results of underlying formula

Bricklin was joined by Bob Frankston and the pair worked on VisiCalc for two months during the winter of 1978–79, forming software arts. Bricklin wrote that with the years of experience we had at the time we created VisiCalc, we were familiar with many row/column financial programs. In fact, Bob had worked since the 1960s at Interactive Data Corporation, a major timesharing utility that was used for some of them and I was exposed to some at Harvard Business School in one of the classes.