Background The original spreadsheets were pieces of paper with vertical and horizontal lines on them, a customized worksheet intended for accounting uses. Users would enter data into rectangular areas on the sheets, known as cells, then apply formulas to the data to produce output values that were written down in other cells. A Berkeley professor, Richard Mattessich, was a proponent of using spreadsheets for financial modeling and "what if" calculations for businesses, but noted that it could take so long to recalculate it to run a different scenario that the inputs would be out of date by the time the calculation was finished. In 1964 he proposed using a computer to run all of the calculations from the point of the change on, thereby updating the sheet in seconds, rather than days.
Background The original spreadsheets were pieces of paper with vertical and horizontal lines on them, a customized worksheet intended for accounting uses. Users would enter data into rectangular areas on the sheets, known as cells, then apply formulas to the data to produce output values that were written down in other cells A Berkeley professor, Richard Mattessich, was a proponent of using spreadsheets for financial modeling and "what if" calculations for businesses, but noted that it could take so long to recalculate it to run a different scenario that the inputs would be out of date by the time the calculation was finished. In 1964 he proposed using a computer to run all of the calculations from the point of the change on, thereby updating the shee.t in seconds, rather than days.