I used VisiCalc back in the late 70's on my Apple IIe. Then also in early 80's on the Wang series of computers! Moved over to Excel around '85. VisiCalc truly changed the world!
It really did. I do a conference presentation about the history of spreadsheets, and it's cool to see how spreadsheets haven't changed a ton since VisiCalc. The same basic concepts from VC in 1979 (Apple II) to Excel and LibreOffice Calc and Google Sheets (2022) are basically the same.
Wow, VisiCalc is better than I thought it could be for its age. I had no idea it's freeware now. Thanks for all the details you went through, it was a very nice demo.
Thanks! I'm really enjoying these videos. I'll probably do one on a word processor sometime, maybe a shareware word processor like GalaxyWrite. Or the venerable WordStar. Sometime later, I'll do a video on Lotus 123, and another on AsEasyAs - because I do love a good spreadsheet. :-)
I used SC when I first ran Linux, in 1993. It was a functional spreadsheet - but as a physics undergraduate student, I needed more functionality. That's one reason why I kept booting back into DOS in 1993 and 1994, so I could run my DOS spreadsheet (I liked As Easy As) to do physics lab analysis.
Hello Jim, I think you maybe should use a keylogger to show on screen which touch you are pressing. This could be particulary useful concerning Freedos, as we don't see any mouse to help understand what you are doing.
There's no mouse being used in these demos. Everything is done via the keyboard. I try to talk about what keys I'm pressing as I do them. But I'll see if I can add some kind of "show key" feature in OBS when I record the videos.
I'm so glad MS didn't replicate @ character to indicate formulas in Excel, that would be so annoying to type in and might cause problems since on most keyboards @ shares a space with a number (2). Plus = is also more intuitive as it reminds you of equations which formulas basically are.
"@" functions were pretty natural at the time, because they'd been in use since 1979 with VisiCalc .. then Lotus 1-2-3 replaced VisiCalc, and still used "@" functions .. then Quattro Pro eventually displaced Lotus 1-2-3, still with the "@" functions .. although Quattro Pro was pushed aside with Windows and Excel, which used "=" to start calculations. I agree using "=" to start a calculation makes a lot of sense today. But for those 15 years from VC to 1-2-3 to QP, your fingers didn't mind typing the "@" all the time, and it was clear what was meant to be a function and what was not. Actually, I still like to use As Easy As spreadsheet on DOS, which uses the "@" functions. Surprisingly, spreadsheets haven't changed *that* much since then. And to me, As Easy As is still quite modern, but faster to use because it's all via the keyboard. :-)
I can't imagine myself dropping to DOS to do any sort of work with documents. I would love to see something about development tools for DOS (under DOS & other OS). Something that would explain how to develop a good DOS app. I mean something that goes much deeper than just a basic 'hello world'. It could be beneficial for FreeDOS more than nostalgic recordings of old DOS apps.
I had been thinking of doing some "how to" videos on coding in FreeDOS - but wasn't sure people would watch that. Maybe I'll give it a try? Might start with how to write a program that supports multiple languages, using Cats/Kitten.
@@freedosproject It doesn't necessary has to be you but I think that would be valuable to see s DOS app development from start to finish. On a side note, DOS Navigator also has spreadsheet.
@@freedosproject It would be great if you had the time for that. Programming for DOS is quite alien and uncommon nowadays, so it would definitely be worth watching how it's done - as close as possible to what a professional programmer would do it. But the selling point would have to revolve around "Is it still worth it? Is there still a need for DOS software?" :D
FWIW I find the idea for a video on programming in FreeDOS fascinating, speaking as someone with only a little bit of engineering experience at least, and only on more recent systems. Thank you for these videos!
@@emem666 I created a new video for you! It's a 30-minute programming "how-to" video that shows how to create a simple version of FreeDOS ECHO and TYPE. I thought that made a good introduction to FreeDOS programming. Currently available to Early Access patrons on Patreon - will go public this weekend. Over time, I'll add more programming "how-to" videos that walk through creating larger and more interesting DOS applications.
I used VisiCalc back in the late 70's on my Apple IIe. Then also in early 80's on the Wang series of computers! Moved over to Excel around '85. VisiCalc truly changed the world!
It really did. I do a conference presentation about the history of spreadsheets, and it's cool to see how spreadsheets haven't changed a ton since VisiCalc. The same basic concepts from VC in 1979 (Apple II) to Excel and LibreOffice Calc and Google Sheets (2022) are basically the same.
@@freedosproject I tell people it really is so simple...it's a number, a label, or a relationship in any cell.
Wow, VisiCalc is better than I thought it could be for its age. I had no idea it's freeware now. Thanks for all the details you went through, it was a very nice demo.
Thanks! I'm really enjoying these videos. I'll probably do one on a word processor sometime, maybe a shareware word processor like GalaxyWrite. Or the venerable WordStar. Sometime later, I'll do a video on Lotus 123, and another on AsEasyAs - because I do love a good spreadsheet. :-)
Milestone app. Now I'm playing with SC in Linux terminal, which is very similar to VisiCalc. There are also Windows and MacOS versions.
I used SC when I first ran Linux, in 1993. It was a functional spreadsheet - but as a physics undergraduate student, I needed more functionality. That's one reason why I kept booting back into DOS in 1993 and 1994, so I could run my DOS spreadsheet (I liked As Easy As) to do physics lab analysis.
어린시절에 컴퓨터학원에서 lotus 123 를 배우던게 생각나네요
좋은 영상 감사합니다
^^
Glad you liked it!
Hello Jim, I think you maybe should use a keylogger to show on screen which touch you are pressing. This could be particulary useful concerning Freedos, as we don't see any mouse to help understand what you are doing.
There's no mouse being used in these demos. Everything is done via the keyboard.
I try to talk about what keys I'm pressing as I do them. But I'll see if I can add some kind of "show key" feature in OBS when I record the videos.
I don't see an option in OBS to do this. If anyone can point me to how to set this up in OBS for Linux, please comment!
I'm so glad MS didn't replicate @ character to indicate formulas in Excel, that would be so annoying to type in and might cause problems since on most keyboards @ shares a space with a number (2). Plus = is also more intuitive as it reminds you of equations which formulas basically are.
"@" functions were pretty natural at the time, because they'd been in use since 1979 with VisiCalc .. then Lotus 1-2-3 replaced VisiCalc, and still used "@" functions .. then Quattro Pro eventually displaced Lotus 1-2-3, still with the "@" functions .. although Quattro Pro was pushed aside with Windows and Excel, which used "=" to start calculations.
I agree using "=" to start a calculation makes a lot of sense today. But for those 15 years from VC to 1-2-3 to QP, your fingers didn't mind typing the "@" all the time, and it was clear what was meant to be a function and what was not.
Actually, I still like to use As Easy As spreadsheet on DOS, which uses the "@" functions. Surprisingly, spreadsheets haven't changed *that* much since then. And to me, As Easy As is still quite modern, but faster to use because it's all via the keyboard. :-)
I can't imagine myself dropping to DOS to do any sort of work with documents. I would love to see something about development tools for DOS (under DOS & other OS). Something that would explain how to develop a good DOS app. I mean something that goes much deeper than just a basic 'hello world'. It could be beneficial for FreeDOS more than nostalgic recordings of old DOS apps.
I had been thinking of doing some "how to" videos on coding in FreeDOS - but wasn't sure people would watch that. Maybe I'll give it a try? Might start with how to write a program that supports multiple languages, using Cats/Kitten.
@@freedosproject It doesn't necessary has to be you but I think that would be valuable to see s DOS app development from start to finish. On a side note, DOS Navigator also has spreadsheet.
@@freedosproject It would be great if you had the time for that. Programming for DOS is quite alien and uncommon nowadays, so it would definitely be worth watching how it's done - as close as possible to what a professional programmer would do it. But the selling point would have to revolve around "Is it still worth it? Is there still a need for DOS software?" :D
FWIW I find the idea for a video on programming in FreeDOS fascinating, speaking as someone with only a little bit of engineering experience at least, and only on more recent systems. Thank you for these videos!
@@emem666 I created a new video for you! It's a 30-minute programming "how-to" video that shows how to create a simple version of FreeDOS ECHO and TYPE. I thought that made a good introduction to FreeDOS programming. Currently available to Early Access patrons on Patreon - will go public this weekend.
Over time, I'll add more programming "how-to" videos that walk through creating larger and more interesting DOS applications.
Excellent! Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
i don't have it in my folder
Did you download it from the website (see video description for URL) and copy it to FreeDOS?
Cool