spreadsheet

application, tool (Or rarely "worksheet") A type of

application program which manipulates numerical and string

data in rows and columns of cells. The value in a cell can be

calculated from a formula which can involve other cells. A

value is recalculated automatically whenever a value on which

it depends changes. Different cells may be displayed with

different formats.

Some spreadsheet support three-dimensional matrices and cyclic

references which lead to iterative calculation.

An essential feature of a spreadsheet is the copy function

(often using drag-and-drop). A rectangular area may be

copied to another which is a multiple of its size. References

between cells may be either absolute or relative in either

their horizontal or vertical index. All copies of an absolute

reference will refer to the same row, column or cell whereas a

relative reference refers to a cell with a given offset from

the current cell.

Many spreadsheets have a "What-if" feature. The user gives

desired end conditions and assigns several input cells to be

automatically varied. An area of the spreadsheet is assigned

to show the result of various combinations of input values.

Spreadsheets usually incorporate a macro language, which

enables third-party writing of worksheet applications for

commercial purposes.

In the 1970s, a screen editor based calculation program

called Visi-Calc was introduced. It was probably the first

commercial spreadsheet program. Soon Lotus DevelopmentCorporation released the more sophisticated Lotus 1-2-3.

Clones appeared, (for example VP-Planner from PaperbackSoftware with CGA graphics, Quattro from Borland) but

Lotus maintained its position with world-wide marketing and

support - and lawyers! For example, Borland was forced to

abandon its Lotus-like pop-up menu.

While still developing 1-2-3, Lotus introduced Symphony,

which had simultaneously active windows for the spreadsheet,

graphs and a word processor.

Microsoft produced MultiPlan for the Macintosh, which

was followed by Excel for Macintosh, long before MicrosoftWindows was developed.

When Microsoft Windows arrived Lotus was still producing the

text-based 1-2-3 and Symphony. Meanwhile, Microsoft

launched its Excel spreadsheet with interactive graphics,

graphic charcters, mouse support and cut-and-paste to and

from other Windows applications. To compete with Windows

spreadsheets, Lotus launched its Allways add-on for 1-2-3 -

a post-processor that produced Windows-quality graphic

characters on screen and printer. The release of Lotus 1-2-3

for Windows was late, slow and buggy.

Today, Microsoft, Lotus, Borland and many other companies offer

Windows-based spreadsheet programs.

The main end-users of spreadsheets are business and science.

Spreadsheets are an example of a non-algorithmic programming

language.

[Dates?]

(1995-03-28)