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PicoCalc: A fully-functional clone of VisiCalc for the PICO-8
- ilaksh 3y agoSomewhat random, but spreadsheets continued to evolve after VisiCalc (obviously). Here is one by the inventor of VisiCalc, Dan Bricklin, on github: https://github.com/DanBricklin/socialcalc https://github.com/DanBricklin/socialcalc Audrey Tang (who happens to currently serve as the Minister of Digital Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan)) created the Node.js port of SocialCalc, EtherCalc: https://github.com/audreyt/ethercalc https://github.com/audreyt/ethercalc Audrey made a fascinating write up of SocialCalc for The Architecture of Open Source Applications https://aosabook.org/en/v1/socialcalc.html https://aosabook.org/en/v1/socialcalc.html
- karmakaze 3y agoCool that Dan Bricklin still writes software, open source no less. The other name's familiar too. (Looked it up) Audrey Tang also started Pugs which prototyped Perl6 in Haskell while it was being designed.
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoGiven by just the github account, his last activity was 13 years ago; his personal website last had a post in 2018 though (http://www.bricklin.com/default.htm http://www.bricklin.com/default.htm). He / his company made some iOS apps as well.
- snvzz 3y ago>open source no less. Dual license CPAL + Artistic. They are both OSI approved, but uncommon.
- rahimnathwani 3y agoAudrey Tang also wrote a simpler spreadsheet for another AOSA book: https://aosabook.org/en/500L/web-spreadsheet.html https://aosabook.org/en/500L/web-spreadsheet.html
- kqr 3y agoThese books are such a gold mine yet I constantly feel like it's hard to motivate myself to buy one and properly read it through. Suggestions?
- rahimnathwani 3y agoStart with the 500 lines one, and read the first half of one chapter.
- adamrezich 3y agoI've never used it, Lotus Improv seems like it was awesome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgGmKD87U3M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgGmKD87U3M (plus the 80s–90s vibes of this video are simply incredible) I think there's still a ton of room for spreadsheet tech to evolve, but nobody seems to really be trying anymore, because Excel is the Gold Standard that everyone seems comfortable with. for example: why do neither of the mainstream spreadsheet apps (Excel, Google Sheets) have first-class support for row and column headers? seems like an absolute no-brainer to me, and everyone who has worked in spreadsheets for more than thirty minutes.
- pjmlp 3y agoAn improv video, thanks for the link. I only have the contemporary magazines with analysis of it.
- layer8 3y ago> first-class support for row and column headers Excel provides Tables for that. Outside tables, you can define named row or column ranges, and reference them by name, including their intersections. The names are just not displayed in the headers (use Tables if you want that).
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- airstrike 3y agoSadly their license is terrible.
- antidnan 3y agovery cool!
- codezero 3y agoI worked on something similar and I am so happy to see someone take it to the next level :) https://twitter.com/radiofreejohn/status/780664363631935488 https://twitter.com/radiofreejohn/status/780664363631935488 and https://twitter.com/radiofreejohn/status/784050276198080513 https://twitter.com/radiofreejohn/status/784050276198080513
- rahimnathwani 3y agoSlightly OT: For those who have used TIC-80 or PICO-8 to introduce their young (e.g 7yo) kid to programming by modifying games, what games did you start with? And any other tips?
- antirez 3y agoI had quite some success applying my own LOAD81 to a few children. https://github.com/antirez/load81 https://github.com/antirez/load81
- throwaway71271 3y agoThat looks seriously cool. Just the colors give me goosebumps :) completely offtopic: My dream is to build a super cheap child friendly computer, that the kids can build themselves, has a software keyboard that directly polls the gpio pins so that kids can modify their keyboard instead of having a keyboard controller (just so there is less mistery in what happens when a key is pressed). And the OS is something inspired from LEAP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_TlE_U_X3c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_TlE_U_X3c that allowing you to evaluate code and apply it to your current file. A bit like your LOAD81 but with text. I have a prototype now: https://github.com/jackdoe/programming-for-kids/blob/master/projects/back-to-the-future/prototype-back.jpg https://github.com/jackdoe/programming-for-kids/blob/master/... but it has a long way to go.
- rahimnathwani 3y agoThis looks seriously cool. May I ask how old your daughter was when you started working with her on this?
- rahimnathwani 3y agoWow. I opened the triangle demo and I felt like I was transported back in time to when I had an Acorn Electron and would type in BASIC programs from listings in magazines. I was about 10 then. I hope my son (7yo) starts to find this stuff interesting soon.
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- thedudeabides5 3y agoBefore Steve Jobs was selling iPods and iPhones he was selling the ability to run your VisiCalc spreadsheet on an Apple II
- rbanffy 3y agoWhen I first got my very first Palm Pilot I recognised one thing: what the minimum computer needed would be and how much that little gadget could do that, otherwise, would tie me to my desk (or force me to carry my laptop. In the end, most of the time, our day to day needs can be covered by very simple software - text editors, spreadsheets, messaging (including email), threaded discussions, and not that much else.
- fallat 3y agoHappy to see a comment like this. One thing I'd add to the list is spaced repetition software for memory strengthening. When you have a moment, you can go over things and strengthen your own memory. Is a spreadsheet even necessary on the go? Might be better to just have a calculator and store values in a text file? Also, music? Or is this really a luxury? Truthfully I think yes. But maybe there are some "sound programs" which are "necessary" (like white noise generation)? I'm sure a lot of us have had this line of thinking many times, but it'd be nice to have a discussion around it :)
- rbanffy 3y ago> Also, music? I'd say music is fair. The notion of using a desktop computer to listen to music was always a bit strange to me. Also, a phone, because it's very useful to remain connected (I instruct everyone who works with me that, if they want synchronous responses, they should phone me. All other are asynchronous with low QoS.
- mbork_pl 3y ago> Is a spreadsheet even necessary on the go? Might be better to just have a calculator and store values in a text file? You might be right technically, but one of the features of a spreadsheet is that it stores formulae. (Like a programmable calculator.) Even better, it does it spatially (which fits the way many people remember things), so after a while you can train yourself to put "kilometers driven here, amount of liters of gas there, and your gas usage per 100km is over there" etc. You can do this in a text file, too, of course (see e.g. https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/calc/Embedded-Mode.html https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/calc/Emb...), but a text file is essentially 1-dimensional, which may be a drawback here.
- kqr 3y agoThis section early on in the linked VisiCalc manual was actually helpful to me: > The VisiCalc program was born out of the observation that many problems are commonly solved with a calculator, a pencil, and a sheet of paper — three nearly universal tools. Calculating sales projections, income taxes, financial ratios, your personal budget, engineering changes, cost estimates, and balancing your checkbook are done with these tools. I've never thought of the spreadsheet as the computer equivalent of paper, pencil, and calculator. That might sound odd, but coming from a programming background, I've always viewed it as some sort of limited-database-with-limited-scripting-abilities. I've even felt bad about using spreadsheets sloppily – not structuring data properly, applying formulae systematically, etc. But "electronic paper, pencil, and calculator" does explain exactly how I often end up using spreadsheets, and now I know I shouldn't feel bad about it anymore!
- bluGill 3y agoMost of what people in the real world are doing with spreadsheets would be better done with a database, but spreadsheets are more approachable so they use them instead. Making SQL a requirement for MBA programs would make business much better in the long run. (there are more things a MBA program could teach than there is time so I'm not advocating that they actually do this)
- evolve2k 3y agoI’ve often wondered if just being able to change the “type” that applies to rows within a spreadsheet would be useful. A general use string type being the current default, there’d be lots of benefited use cases to locking down rows (heading rows aside) as having to be safe format, or a number etc.
- snvzz 3y agoI wish the community focused on an open source platform like TIC-80[0]. 0. https://tic80.com/ https://tic80.com/