VisiCalc (Visual Calculator) from Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston ; Copyright (C) 1980- Software Arts, Personal Software Inc. (later named VisiCorp.), Paladin Software, Lotus Software, Lotus Development Corporation and finally IBM ; in order of license dissemination#

The main goal of this chapter is to provide the user with informations and templates regarding the killer application VisiCalc.#

Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston gave the AtariWiki the following info: How I got permission to post VisiCalc (1999) ; Thank you very much Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston for your outstanding application of all times. We really appreciate your help and support so much. :-)))

ATR Image#

Sadly, AtariWiki has no rights to publish VisiCalc legally, even after 37 years. :-( We just can hope, that some special day, a good soul from IBM has a great heart and give us the rights to publish it here for non commercial purposes.

Anyway, as an owner of an orignal copy of VisiCalc, we are free to publish our own spreadsheets, we have created with VisiCalc:

• VisiCalc_Data_with_DOS_2.5_SD_Color.atr ; typical spreadsheet from VisiCalc on a DOS 2.5 Color diskette. For loading please type in '/SL', the filename and press RETURN.

Pictures#

Visicalc - box cover from 1981

Typical spreadsheet from Visicalc with a lot of basic functions

Typical spreadsheet from Visicalc with the LOOKUP function

Typical spreadsheet from Visicalc with the NPV function

Typical spreadsheet from Visicalc with a linear function and split windows

Typical spreadsheet from Visicalc with a logarithmic function and split windows

Typical spreadsheet from Visicalc with an exponential function and split windows

Typical spreadsheet from Visicalc with a sine function and split windows 1

Typical spreadsheet from Visicalc with a sine function and split windows 2 ; please take into account that negative values from column B are not shown in column C

Typical spreadsheet from Visicalc with the forensics test - VisiCalc has passed all! :-))) ; Thank you so much Joerg from Datamath for your help in this case. Please go ahead with your outstanding work. We really appreciate your help. :-)))

Typical spreadsheet from Visicalc to test for a potential LN bug ; Up to row 11 all calculations are correct! We thank Joerg from Datamath for his help in this case. Please go ahead with your outstanding work. We really appreciate your help. :-)))

Typical spreadsheet from Visicalc for an approximation of the EXP function. Of course, the test must fail, due to the limits of VisiCalc ; a value of 1E11(!) is required for a first good approach ; Thank you so much Joerg from Datamath for your help in this case. Please go ahead with your outstanding work. We really appreciate your help. :-)))

References#

• DIF_Technical_Specification.pdf ; Data Interchange Format (DIF) specifications to exchange data from Visicalc with other programs. Highly recommended! Thank you Bill. :-)
• csv to dif ; converts csv files to dif files, which then can be imported to VisiCalc. Thank you so much Nezgar from AtariAge for this very helpful hint. Very much appreciated!
• dif to csv ; converts dif files to csv files, in case someone wants to go from Excel to Atari... ;-)

Printouts#

• Spreadsheet_Printout.txt ; typical printout of a normal Visicalc spreadsheet
• VISICALC-Printout_with_Formulas.txt ; printout of a normal Visicalc spreadsheet with formulas