# Anybody remember (and used) Visicalc? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 17, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762 "2011-04-17T22:02:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/1 "2011-04-17T22:02:22Z")
I was fascinated with it, and also the story of the way it was developed. It was really clunky. complicated and a PITA to use, but boy, how the “what if” stuff worked so fast. Spreadsheets really have gotten a whole lot easier to use, but anybody who could figure out Visicalc had to be dogged. Actually, I was quite happy when Lotus 1-2-3 came along, as it was far easier (relative term) to use. Actually, I still use v. 9.7 although, as I recall I started with v2. I think v1 was just for mainframes. Anybody remember that? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/2 "2011-04-17T22:09:26Z")
used it on the Apple II. later used AppleWorks for the Apple II. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/3 "2011-04-17T22:10:47Z")
I remember it, and used it once or twice, but Lotus kind of took over by the time I was doing much computing. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/4 "2011-04-17T23:32:51Z")
I owned a copy for the Apple ][ back in the day, along with _Word Perfect_ and all my Beagle Bros. software. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/5 "2011-04-18T00:01:40Z")
I remember hearing about VisiCalc but I had to go look up [Commodore 64 software - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64_software) to remember that my pre-Lotus spreadsheet experience came from MultiPlan. I never got into any of the 64’s software to rival Lotus, but I got to be a whiz with Lotus. I hated it when our company jumped to Excel. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/6 "2011-04-18T02:04:52Z")
My first job out of law school was at Arthur Andersen’s world headquarters in Chicago, where the managers had just been given PCs with VisiCalc and the pressure was on to show that they were making good use of them. So one of my bosses began typing up her weekly status reports in VisiCalc, which you may remember had fixed-length eight-character cells. Whenever she wanted anything revised, she would have me do it, because it required retyping every character after the alteration. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/7 "2011-04-18T03:54:51Z")
I had it on my Atari 800XL and I thought that it was easy to use to add up columns and such. I bought the computer for the word processor, but I saw the value of the spreadsheet program immediately. ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Xenos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Marc\_Xenos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marc_Xenos)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/8 "2011-04-18T04:13:58Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > Spreadsheets really have gotten a whole lot easier to use, but anybody who could figure out Visicalc had to be dogged. Never did. I got involved in such stuff after Lotus 1-2-3 dominated the market. Loved the macro capability. As companies switched to MS Office, I really didn’t like Excel’s Visual Basic format. ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/9 "2011-04-18T12:02:43Z")
I didn’t get my first computer until the IBM PC was available (i did buy one of IBM’s first ones, though). I definitely remember the good old days when the accountants would ask for Visicalc “and something to run it on”. Then 1-2-3 was released and just took over the world. Does anyone else remember VP-Planner (the 1-2-3 knockoff that Lotus successfully sued out of business with their “look and feel” lawsuit)? I happily used VP-Planner for years. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/10 "2011-04-18T18:24:28Z")
I used Visicalc in high school to track football stats for the team. Ah - the green glow of the old IBM PC monitor. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/11 "2011-04-18T18:28:48Z")
I remember the name, but the first spreadsheet that I used was Lotus 1-2-3. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/12 "2011-04-18T18:38:58Z")
I tried it a few times, but didn’t do any significant work on it. Have you used Wordstar (pretty sure that’s what it was called)? How about a dedicated word processor like a Micom? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/13 "2011-04-18T18:39:54Z")
I used PFS First Choice software suite. included pfs write, pfs plan (the spreadsheet). > **[pfs:Write](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfs:Write)** > > pfs:Write was a word processor created by Software Publishing Corporation (SPC) and published in 1983. It was released for IBM PC compatibles and the Apple II. It includes the features common to most word processors of the day, including word wrapping, spell checking, copy and paste, underlining, and boldfacing; and it also a few advanced features, such as mail merge and few others. The product was considerably easier to both learn and use than its more fully featured and expensive competitor pf... It was on my already pc when I started a new job. It wasn’t bad at all for DOS software. There was even a database with it. Later we went to Lotus and then Excel. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Woo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Woo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Woo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/14 "2011-04-18T19:01:01Z")
Yes, I used it when I worked at Atari in the early 80’s. It’s weird to think that I was _taught_ to use it, instead of just getting in there and figuring it out like I do with new apps these days. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/15 "2011-04-18T19:28:02Z")
I got a demo of it on a Apple ][. Never did anything with it though. I didn’t really need to use a spreadsheet until Multiplan came along. Did quite a bit of scientific analysis and charting with Multiplan/Chart until Excel came out. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/16 "2011-04-18T19:44:00Z")
I never used Visicalc. My first spreadsheet program was Quattro. I didn’t use Excel until I was out of grad school. These days I mostly use the Google Doc spreadsheet. I was never a big fan of spreadsheets. Any number crunching I did while in school or for a job was with self-coded programs on data stored as raw files. Lately, I have been doing my taxes with spreadsheets; that’s works fairly well. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/17 "2011-04-18T22:52:39Z")
No love for Quattro Pro? That thing was da bomb. Never did use VisiCalc, though. ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Xenos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Marc\_Xenos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marc_Xenos)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/18 "2011-04-18T23:25:22Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > No love for Quattro Pro? That thing was da bomb. Never did use VisiCalc, though. Quattro, that was part of the office suite when WordPerfect jumped on the suite bandwagon, wasn’t it? After having already bought Lotus for spreadsheets, and WordPerfect for documents (and Alpha IV for database management), who needed to spend MORE money for some “integrated” suite? Which is why it made NO sense for companies to spend even more money for an office suite that was “integrated” with the OS, and everyone had to learn ALL over again about the differences and idiosyncrasies of new software. But I have to admit, Powerpoint was innovative and other publishers tried to play catchup and failed. WordStar, now THERE was an abortion. But it was there when nothing else was, and it worked, primitive though it was. ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/19 "2011-04-19T01:07:26Z")
> [@Marc\_Xenos](#): > > WordStar, now THERE was an abortion. You’re clearly not a Jerry Pournelle fan. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762/20 "2011-04-19T01:35:15Z")
One of the co-authors of Visicalc is pretty active. He has lots of info here: [VisiCalc: Information from its creators, Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston](http://www.bricklin.com/visicalc.htm) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anybody-remember-and-used-visicalc/578762.md?page=2)