Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston, and the First Spreadsheet

Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston, and the First Spreadsheet Any product that pays for itself in two weeks is a surefire winner. That’s what Dan Bricklin, one of the inventors of the first computer spreadsheet. VisiCalc was released to the public in 1979. It ran on an Apple II computer. Most early microprocessor computers had been  supported by BASIC and a few games, but VisiCalc introduced a new level in application software. It was considered a fourth generation software program. Before this,  companies were investing time and money creating financial projections with manually calculated spreadsheets. Changing a single number meant recalculating every single cell on the sheet. VisiCalc allowed them to change any cell and the entire sheet would be automatically recalculated. VisiCalc took 20 hours of work for some people and turned it out in 15 minutes and let them become much more creative,† Bricklin said. The History of VisiCalc Bricklin and Bob Frankston invented VisiCalc. Bricklin was studying for his Master of Business Administration degree at Harvard Business School when he joined up with Frankston to help him write the programming for his new electronic spreadsheet. The two started their own company, Software Arts Inc., to develop their product. I dont know how to answer what it was like because early Apple machines had so few tools,† Frankston said about programming VisiCalc for the Apple II. â€Å"We just had to keep debugging by isolating a problem, looking at memory in the limited debugging – which was weaker than the DOS DEBUG and had no symbols – then patch and retry and then re-program, download and try again and  again...   An Apple II version was ready by the fall of 1979. The team started writing versions for the Tandy TRS-80, the Commodore PET and the Atari 800. By October, VisiCalc was a fast seller on the shelves of computer stores at $100.   In November 1981, Bricklin received the Grace Murray Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery in honor of his innovation. VisiCalc was soon sold to Lotus Development Corporation where it was developed into the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet for the PC by 1983.  Bricklin never received a patent for VisiCalc because software programs were not eligible for patents by the Supreme Court until after 1981. Im not rich because I invented VisiCalc,† Bricklin said, â€Å"but I feel that Ive made a change in the world. Thats a satisfaction money cant buy.   Patents? Disappointed? Dont think of it that way, Bob Frankston said. Software patents werent feasible then so we chose not to risk $10,000.   More on Spreadsheets The DIF format was developed in 1980, allowing spreadsheet data to be shared and imported into other programs such as word processors. This made spreadsheet data more portable.   SuperCalc was introduced in 1980, the first spreadsheet for the popular micro OS called CP/M. The popular Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet was introduced in 1983. Mitch Kapor founded Lotus and used his previous programming experience with VisiCalc to create 1-2-3.   Excel and Quattro Pro spreadsheets were introduced in 1987, offering a more graphical interface.

Definition of Gerrymander

Definition of Gerrymander To gerrymander is to draw the boundaries of electoral districts in an irregular way so as to create an unfair advantage for a particular political party or faction. The origin of the term gerrymander dates back to the early 1800s in Massachusetts. The word is a combination of the words Gerry, for the states governor, Elbridge Gerry, and salamander, as a particular electoral district was jokingly said to be shaped like a lizard. The practice of creating oddly shaped electoral districts to create advantages has endured for two centuries. Criticisms of the practice can be found in newspapers and books going back to the time of the incident in Massachusetts that inspired the term. And while it has always been viewed as something done wrongfully, nearly all political parties and factions have practiced gerrymandering when given the opportunity. The Drawing of Congressional Districts The United States Constitution specifies that seats in Congress are apportioned according to the U.S. Census (indeed, thats the original reason why the federal government has conducted a census every ten years). And the individual states must create congressional districts which will then elect members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The situation in Massachusetts in 1811 was that the Democrats (who were political followers of Thomas Jefferson, not the later Democratic Party which still exists) held the majority of seats in the state legislature, and could therefore draw the required Congressional districts. The Democrats wanted to thwart the power of their opponents, the Federalists, the party in the tradition of John Adams. A plan was devised to create Congressional districts that would divide any concentrations of Federalists. With the map drawn in an irregular way, small pockets of Federalists would then be residing within districts where they would be heavily outnumbered. The plans to draw these peculiarly shaped districts were, of course, highly controversial. And the lively New England newspapers engaged in quite a battle of words, and, eventually, even pictures. The Coining of the Term Gerrymander There has been dispute over the years of who exactly coined the term gerrymander. An early book on the history of American newspapers stated that the word arose from a meeting of the Boston newspaper editor Benjamin Russell and the famed American painter Gilbert Stuart. In Anecdotes, Personal Memoirs, and Biographies of Literary Men Connected With Newspaper Literature, published in 1852, Joseph T. Buckingham presented the following story: In 1811, when Mr. Gerry was governor of the commonwealth, the legislature made a new division of the districts for the election of representatives to Congress. Both branches then had a Democratic majority. For the purpose of securing a Democratic representative, an absurd and singular arrangement of towns in the county of Essex was made to compose a district. Russell took a map of the county, and designated by a particular coloring the towns thus selected. He then hung the map on the wall of his editorial closet. One day, Gilbert Stuart, the celebrated painter, looked at the map, and said the towns, which Russell had thus distinguished, formed a picture resembling some monstrous animal. He took a pencil, and, with a few touches, added what might be supposed to represent claws. There, said Stuart, that will do for a salamander.Russell, who was busy with his pen, looked up at the hideous figure, and exclaimed, Salamander! Call it Gerrymander!The word became a proverb, and, for many years, was in popular use among the Federalists as a term of reproach to the Democratic legislature, which had distinguished itself by this act of political turpitude. An engraving of the Gerrymander  was made, and hawked about the state, which had some effect in annoying the Democratic Party. The word gerrymander, often rendered in hyphenated form as gerry-mander, began to appear in New England newspapers in March 1812. For instance, the Boston Repertory, on March 27, 1812, published an illustration representing the oddly shaped Congressional district as a lizard with claws, teeth, and even the wings of a mythical dragon. A headline described it as A New Species of Monster. In the text below the illustration an editorial said: The district may be exhibited as a Monster. It is the offspring of moral and political depravity. It was created to drown the real voice of the majority of the citizens in the country of Essex, where it is well known there is a large federal majority. Outrage Over the Gerry-Mander Monster Faded Though New England newspapers blasted the newly drawn district and the politicians who created it, other newspapers in 1812 reported the same phenomenon had occurred elsewhere. And the practice had been given a lasting name. Incidentally, Elbridge Gerry, the Massachusetts governor whose name wound up being the basis for the term, was the leader of the Jeffersonian Democrats in the state at the time. But there is some dispute whether he even approved of the scheme to draw the oddly shaped district. Gerry had been a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and had a long career of political service. Having his name dragged into the conflict over the Congressional districts seemed not to harm him, and was a successful vice-presidential candidate in the election of 1812. Gerry died in 1814 while serving as vice president in the administration of President James Madison. Gratitude is expressed to the New York Public Library Digital Collections for the use of the early 19th century illustration of The Gerry-Mander.