# What is the greatest (most influential, whatever) computer program ever written?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-most-influential-whatever-computer-program-ever-written/830575>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 5, 2019, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-most-influential-whatever-computer-program-ever-written/830575 "2019-03-05T15:53:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 46

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2019, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-most-influential-whatever-computer-program-ever-written/830575/46 "2019-03-05T21:40:54Z")

</div>

Appreciate the responses, everyone.

My nomination is spreadsheets - I can go with “Excel” or “Visicalc-Lotus-Excel” or whatever, but in terms of productivity, usefulness, variety of output, and more, it’s hard to beat Excel.

However, TCP/IP and the \*nix kernel are extremely strong contenders, as well as the C/COBOL/FORTRAN compilers mentioned.

Does HTML count? Wait! I’m the OP - of _course_ it counts! 😉

**Baron Greenback** , apparently I wasn’t |337 enough (or I forgot) - what did adding the semicolon do?

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-most-influential-whatever-computer-program-ever-written/830575)._