VisiCalc

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program available for personal computers.
Indeed it was the "killer app" that turned the microcomputer from a hobby
for computer entusiasts into a business tool.

Conceived by Dan Bricklin, refined by Bob Frankston and distributed by
Personal Software Inc. in 1979 (later VisiCorp) for the Apple II computer,
it propelled the Apple from being a hobbyist's toy to being a much-desired,
useful financial tool for business. This likely motivated IBM to enter the
PC market which they had been ignoring until then.

Legend has it that Bricklin was watching his university professor at Harvard
Business School create a table of calculation results on a blackboard. When
the professor found an error, he had to tediously erase and rewrite a number
of sequential entries in the table, triggering Bricklin to think that he
could replicate the process on a computer, using a blackboard/spreadsheet
paradigm to view results of underlying formulas.

Later, more powerful clones of VisiCalc include SuperCalc, Borland Quattro
Pro, Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel.

Despite being such a revolutionary idea, Bricklin was advised (probably
incorrectly in the light of subsequent developments) that he would be
unlikely to be granted a patent for it, and so failed to profit
significantly from his invention.

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