![spreadsheet lotus 123 spreadsheet lotus 123](https://excelspreadhseet.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/slide411.jpg)
This design decision had two outcomes: first, it made the screen update faster (making the program respond faster to user actions like scrolling) second, it meant that the app was locked into the IBM PC hardware. In addition to its assembly roots, 1-2-3 used special graphics routines that wrote directly to the IBM PC's video memory, rather than passing each character through the operating system to paint onto the screen. In other words, let the programmers suffer the pain of coding in a language that was Greek to them - the users would reap the rewards when their program ran quickly. Writing in that computerese assembly language was more difficult for programmers than using a high-level language like C, but the resulting programs ran much faster on the plodding computers of the day. 1-2-3 was written in assembly language, "close to the metal" as computer nerds like to say.
![spreadsheet lotus 123 spreadsheet lotus 123](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/C13MBF/1983-portable-computer-the-hewlett-packard-110-memomaker-weighed-9-C13MBF.jpg)
Kapor succeeded, and Lotus went public in October of 1983. Mitch Kapor, a friend of the developers of VisiCalc, founded Lotus Development Corporation and set out to own the IBM PC market for spreadsheets. When IBM introduced its PC in 1981, users wanted to see its killer app - where was its VisiCalc? (VisiCalc was actually ported to DOS, though it had some limitations.) The "where's my killer app" answer soon came when Lotus 1-2-3 arrived in early 1983. It's hard to imagine now what a revolution this was, but if your job was running the budget every few days, it was sheer magic to change some number and hit Return, then see the updated numbers ripple through automagically. Computer spreadsheets also allowed easy forecasting - "What if we sold 10% more this year, or got this part for 5% off?" - with instant results.
Spreadsheet lotus 123 series#
Simply having a computer re-run the same series of computations saved office workers tons of time, and eliminated some of the worst drudgery associated with finance. In the late 70s this was a huge deal - prior to computerized spreadsheet programs, "spreadsheets" were literally big pieces of paper, and you had to do the math yourself every time any value changed. In 1979, the Apple II series found its killer app for small business in VisiCalc, a spreadsheet that automated basic calculations like managing a budget, balancing a checkbook, or keeping track of a (relatively small) supply chain. In the early years of personal computing, each computer system had a "killer app" that made the entire machine worth buying just for that piece of software. Facing a horde of competitors including VisiCalc (the original Apple II "killer app"), Multiplan (from Microsoft), Supercalc (running on CP/M) and Context MBA, 1-2-3 was an upstart, but it had an edge: it was fast.īefore we dig in deeper, here's a clip from Triumph of the Nerds showing Lotus 1-2-3 as the IBM PC's first killer app:
![spreadsheet lotus 123 spreadsheet lotus 123](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/eJMAAOSwx8pfsz49/s-l300.jpg)
On January 26, 1983, a spreadsheet program called Lotus 1-2-3 burst onto the personal computing scene.