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Visicalc was a landmark application and landmarks have multiple implications. On the one hand, it advanced computer capacities forward. On the other hand, it created a language of spreadsheets and of any spread-sheet-like-use of a computer and this language has been used ever since. And the thing about language is that having one language forecloses the possibility of other languages.


Online spreadsheets existed before Visicalc (I know because I worked with them in 1977), the innovation was the visi thing.


That's very interesting! Can you link to a description of one of them?




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