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sc is a SuperCalc clone. SuperCalc was a CP/M-based spreadsheet app that pre-dated Lotus 1-2-3.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperCalc




Yep. I remember CA SuperCalc for DOS. It seemed to be more advanced.


SuperCalc was even older, but it got developed further.

Lotus twice dropped the ball with 1-2-3. It is the killer app that made the IBM PC a hit, meaning hand-coded assembler.

The company rewrote v3 in C. Bigger, slower, needed more RAM. So, they used one of the 1st ever DOS extenders that allowed a DOS app to be bigger than 640 kB.

Sadly they picked one incompatible with the hot new thing, Windows 3.0.

2nd screw up: they missed the GUI boat, because they guessed where to jump too early and got it wrong: they ported it to OS/2, which flopped, instead of to Windows 3...

The double Lotus screwup allowed the competition chances.

SuperCalc evolved into the first true 3D spreadsheet for the PC. CA bought the company and sold it for a bargain $50 or something, a tenth of the rivals' prices, so it became a very late DOS hit.

Borland developed Quattro, a graphical spreadsheet app for DOS. That is where Excel's stretch-a-box-to-autofill feature came from: stolen from Quattro.

It's still sold as part of WordPerfect Office today.




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