When 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.
Somewhat 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
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
Audrey made a fascinating write up of SocialCalc for The Architecture of Open Source Applications https://aosabook.org/en/v1/socialcalc.html
I worked on something similar and I am so happy to see someone take it to the next level :)
https://twitter.com/radiofreejohn/status/780664363631935488
and
Slightly 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?
I wish the community focused on an open source platform like TIC-80[0].
Before Steve Jobs was selling iPods and iPhones he was selling the ability to run your VisiCalc spreadsheet on an Apple II
very cool!
This 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!