The development secret story of the original Excel was released by members of the development team at the time

Microsoft,IOSYaAndroidWe develop and provide Office applications such as Word and Excel for use, but it is not what we began with now for Microsoft to develop software for the OS of the competing company. First Excel made as software for Macintosh in 1985 "Excel 1.0In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the birth of the development team, the members of the development team are talking about the situation at the time.

'Recalc or Die': 30 years later, Microsoft Excel 1.0 vets recount a project that defied the odds - GeekWire
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/recalc-or-die-30-years-later-microsoft-excel-1-0-vets-recount-a-project-that-defied-the-odds/

Doug Klunder, chief developer of Microsoft Excel 1.0 said, "Microsoft was betting the future on two programs, Excel and Windows, if both failed, Microsoft never survived until today So thanks to the success of both, Microsoft was able to solidify the ground. "

Mr. Klunder said Microsoft executives took Excel's development platform on their ownMS-DOSFrom AppleMacintoshI'm away from the development team when I decided to move to the final, but eventually I returned to Microsoft and led the completion of the Excel development plan. However, Mr. Klunder still has doubts about developing the original Excel for the Macintosh. "The development of Excel 1.0 worked well in one way, but when we completed the Excel 1.0 for Mac and shipped software, the marketLotusThe product had a large market share, "Mr. Klunder tells about the situation at the time.

After the appearance of Excel 1.0 for Macintosh, spreadsheet softwareLotus 1-2-3YaVisiCalcJabe Blumenthal, who served as a program manager, said, "While developing Excel, I steal excellent ideas from off-the-shelf spreadsheet software while stepping over to later generations of Excel gradually. It was important. " Also, according to Klunder, Excel has succeeded by adding a new idea that is not in addition to the functions of existing spreadsheet software. For example, in Excel 1.0, the function of "recalculating only relevant cells rather than recalculating every cell when changing the value of a cell" was installed, but at the time PC Because the memory capacity was limited, Excel seems to be very light in operation, compared to counter software.

Software developer Mr. Mike Koss, when gathering GeekWireMacintosh 512KBrought in and actually demonstrated how Excel 1.0 is running.


The screen of Excel 1.0 is as follows and it is a simple configuration that only the menu bar and sheet are displayed.


Also, development of Excel 1.0 seems to have been a place for all the team to learn, for example Blumenthal thinks that "print preview" is displayed before printing an Excel sheet Although it is understood that it is possible to notice the mistake of the table before printing, it said that the print preview function was implemented in the product version.

Jon DeVaan, who was the executive officer of Windows and Office until 2013, said, "A superior program manager keeps talking and executing all of its teams working passionately and improving their own When you want to announce your opinion, you should set up a place to share your remarks and bring a good decision to the team. " DeVaan also said, "Everywhere people in the world visit anywhere in the world knows Excel and tells us what they can do with Excel, a table called Excel Thanks to the birth of computing software, I am feeling very happy as a member of the development team. "

The following is the advertisement at the time of release in 1985. Before the name of the software is decided as "Excel", it is called in the development team by "development name" Odyssey (Odyssey), and as a candidate for the product name "Master Plan" or "Mr. Spreadsheet" It seems that his name was also raised.

ByMicrosoft Sweden

4 members of the development team, Koss, Blumenthal, Klunder, DeVaan photographed the package at the time. Many of the members are still working on the front line, while Mr. Koss is working as a software developer for Google, he is also involved in the establishment of a startup company. Mr. DeVaan was an executive officer of Microsoft's engineering department and was involved in the development of Office and Windows until 2013. Mr. Blumenthal is still engaged in Clean Energy related business and still has Bill · Gates. Excel 1.0 boss chief developer Klunder left Microsoft,The American Free Human Rights Association(ACLU)He seems to work as a lawyer.


The 30th anniversary party which collected the Excel development team of those days will be coming soon.