Mitchell Kepor and the Lotus 1-2-3 program
On January 26, 1983, in addition to the first IBM PC, a new work tool was released that outpaced the success of personal computers. An innovative program called Lotus 1-2-3. The figures reveal the purpose of the development, they symbolized the functions: tables, graphs and basic database features. The software developer was young American Mitchell David Kapor. Very quickly, Lotus 1-2-3 gained universal acceptance because it combined the best qualities of the VisiCalc system with graphic capabilities and information retrieval tools.
Mitchell Kapor was born on November 1, 1950 in New York. He spent his childhood and youth on Long Island. In school, young Mitch showed a penchant for mathematics and got a secondary education with an excellent certificate. In 1971, he entered Yale College (now Yale University), where he studied psychology, linguistics and computer science, while at the same time heading the music department of a university radio station.
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Before getting into the field of personal computers and software, Kapor tried his hand at various activities. After completing the University, he worked as a disc jockey for a couple of years. Then he moved to Cambridge (Massachusetts), where he continued his career as a programmer. It is noteworthy that at that time he called this work "terribly boring." After 5 years, Mitch resigned, deciding to devote himself to teaching transcendental meditation. He even traveled to the mountains of Switzerland, where he took an accelerated semi-annual meditation course. But after that he returned to Cambridge, where he seriously engaged in psychotherapy.
Mitchell Kapor
And only in 1978, the road led Capora to the amazing and actively developing PC world. Then he was really interested in programming and developed two promising programs for business operations. Mitchell began working as a product manager for Personal Software. This company has developed a table VisiCalc, intended for Apple II. But VisiCalc turned out to be too slow and could not be optimized for working with IBM personal computers. Significant functional improvements were required. For this reason, Kapor sold his rights to two software products created by him, complementing VisiCalc, and together with Jonathan Sachs in 1982 founded his own company, Lotus Development.
After its founding, the company launched its product, which conquered the market and became a real discovery. The program turned out to be much easier to work than VisiCalc, and besides it had integrated features for creating diagrams, charts and databases.
On advertising the product took about a million dollars. The development of Lotus was advertised in The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Fortune, focused on entrepreneurs, not computer professionals. And the costs are more than paid off - the Lotus 1-2-3 system became the first in the list of the most popular programs. Only in the first year of sales, the company received over 53 million dollars.
Lotus 1-2-3 Rock Advertising
As Kapor recalls:
Thanks to Lotus 1-2-3, personal computers very quickly gained the status of desktop systems for organizing business activity.
Lotus 1-2-3 interface example
During the development of Lotus 1-2-3, Kepor took the direction vector to an IBM 16-bit processor, assuming that in the near future, 16-bit processors would be a recognized standard.
The first version of Lotus 1-2-3 coped with sorting data by a variety of parameters, had a pop-up menu and hot keys, was able to format the text, and also add macros that greatly expand the capabilities of the system. It was a universal tool that allows data entry and storage in the form of tables of numbers, texts, graphs, programs, databases, etc. In such integrated packages, a text editor, a spreadsheet processor, a database management system, a graphic display package and data exchange tools with remote subscribers were combined.
When starting the table processor, a dialog box with the text “Welcome to 1-2-3!” Appeared on the screen. It was suggested to create a new table, open an existing one or launch a tutorial.
Mitch with his design
The Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet comes bundled with a large set of expert software that allows you to use pre-designed standard spreadsheet templates for the most commonly used targets. While working with Lotus 1-2-3, you could get information about the functions of the control panel button and menu commands. This was done with the help of the usual hovering of the mouse cursor to the desired button - and a brief information about the purpose of the selected control panel button appeared in another window.
Lotus 1-2-3 version 5
The program successfully used the capabilities of the x86 architecture and in the 80s it tested many IBM PC clones. Lotus 1-2-3 was compatible with all graphics standards for PCs: CGA, Hercules, and then EGA, AT & T, VGA. A feature of the program was its exclusivity. It is because of Lotus 1-2-3 that users preferred IBM machines with DOS, rather than the more stylish, modern Macintosh and Amiga 1000.
By the mid-80s, an unprecedented growth in software development reached its peak and began to gradually stabilize. Companies that had recently started their activities with only a few hundred dollars turned into large and leading corporations. Pre-market research prior to software development has become commonplace for owners.
Bill Gates and Mitchell Kapor
The Applications Division of Microsoft also gained momentum. In the year of release of Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft launched the production of Microsoft Word word processor, having advertised this event as brightly (the company sent out about 450 thousand free demo disks). In addition, Microsoft has already released its own spreadsheet MultiPlan. But neither they nor Word could make the same rapid breakthrough as Lotus 1-2-3. By the way, Microsoft used Lotus 1-2-3 for creating Excel.
Steve Jobs, Mitchell Kapor and Bill Gates
Thus, Lotus remained the leader in program production until 1987. After that, the championship nevertheless gradually passed on to Microsoft, distributing its MS DOS. In addition, Lotus experienced technical difficulties as a result of which the release of the 3rd version was delayed. The program had to be rewritten under the more portable language C. And since the early 90s, Microsoft has firmly established itself as the leading software development company, displacing Lotus 1-2-3.
In 1995, IBM acquired Lotus. After that, the program developed as part of the Lotus Smart Suite office suite. But on June 11, 2013, IBM made announced the termination of the Lotus project. The statement said that from September 30, 2014, IBM Lotus 123 Millennium Edition V9.x, IBM Lotus SmartSuite 9.x V9.8.0, and Organizer V6.1.0 applications. The company is no longer supported. And no replacement programs will also be provided.
In 1986, Kapor left the presidency of Lotus, leaving Jim Manzi in his stead. But he did not leave the IT sector and did a lot of things over the years. Mitchell contributed not only to the development of software, but also to the development of the modern Internet.
Mitchell Kepor with his "star on the Entrepreneurs Walk of Fame
Kapor is a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, founded in 1991. And until 1994, he was its chairman. The Foundation supports, develops and develops new bills to protect the civil rights of users and IT communities. This organization has written many practical guides for Internet users to ensure security, anonymity, encryption of communications and data on a computer, existing problems with cell phones, secure data deletion, etc.
Mitchell and Frida Kapor
Today, 66-year-old Mitchell Kapor with his wife Frida (Freada Kapor Klein) is focused on information technology management. The couple founded the Center for Social Impact, which is engaged in the technical development of society, as well as social security. One of the missions of the Center is to provide equal opportunities for all to receive technical education and decent work.
Autobiography
Mitchell Kapor was born on November 1, 1950 in New York. He spent his childhood and youth on Long Island. In school, young Mitch showed a penchant for mathematics and got a secondary education with an excellent certificate. In 1971, he entered Yale College (now Yale University), where he studied psychology, linguistics and computer science, while at the same time heading the music department of a university radio station.
')
Before getting into the field of personal computers and software, Kapor tried his hand at various activities. After completing the University, he worked as a disc jockey for a couple of years. Then he moved to Cambridge (Massachusetts), where he continued his career as a programmer. It is noteworthy that at that time he called this work "terribly boring." After 5 years, Mitch resigned, deciding to devote himself to teaching transcendental meditation. He even traveled to the mountains of Switzerland, where he took an accelerated semi-annual meditation course. But after that he returned to Cambridge, where he seriously engaged in psychotherapy.
Mitchell Kapor
And only in 1978, the road led Capora to the amazing and actively developing PC world. Then he was really interested in programming and developed two promising programs for business operations. Mitchell began working as a product manager for Personal Software. This company has developed a table VisiCalc, intended for Apple II. But VisiCalc turned out to be too slow and could not be optimized for working with IBM personal computers. Significant functional improvements were required. For this reason, Kapor sold his rights to two software products created by him, complementing VisiCalc, and together with Jonathan Sachs in 1982 founded his own company, Lotus Development.
Lotus 1-2-3 history
After its founding, the company launched its product, which conquered the market and became a real discovery. The program turned out to be much easier to work than VisiCalc, and besides it had integrated features for creating diagrams, charts and databases.
On advertising the product took about a million dollars. The development of Lotus was advertised in The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Fortune, focused on entrepreneurs, not computer professionals. And the costs are more than paid off - the Lotus 1-2-3 system became the first in the list of the most popular programs. Only in the first year of sales, the company received over 53 million dollars.
Lotus 1-2-3 Rock Advertising
As Kapor recalls:
I wondered what business users needed. It was completely obvious that it was possible to simplify the study of a new product as much as possible with good guidance and context-sensitive help. Lotus 1-2-3 was a benchmark for a successful PC product in terms of user interface, level of support capabilities, and professionalism in servicing business users.
Thanks to Lotus 1-2-3, personal computers very quickly gained the status of desktop systems for organizing business activity.
Lotus 1-2-3 interface example
During the development of Lotus 1-2-3, Kepor took the direction vector to an IBM 16-bit processor, assuming that in the near future, 16-bit processors would be a recognized standard.
The first version of Lotus 1-2-3 coped with sorting data by a variety of parameters, had a pop-up menu and hot keys, was able to format the text, and also add macros that greatly expand the capabilities of the system. It was a universal tool that allows data entry and storage in the form of tables of numbers, texts, graphs, programs, databases, etc. In such integrated packages, a text editor, a spreadsheet processor, a database management system, a graphic display package and data exchange tools with remote subscribers were combined.
When starting the table processor, a dialog box with the text “Welcome to 1-2-3!” Appeared on the screen. It was suggested to create a new table, open an existing one or launch a tutorial.
Mitch with his design
The Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet comes bundled with a large set of expert software that allows you to use pre-designed standard spreadsheet templates for the most commonly used targets. While working with Lotus 1-2-3, you could get information about the functions of the control panel button and menu commands. This was done with the help of the usual hovering of the mouse cursor to the desired button - and a brief information about the purpose of the selected control panel button appeared in another window.
Lotus 1-2-3 version 5
The program successfully used the capabilities of the x86 architecture and in the 80s it tested many IBM PC clones. Lotus 1-2-3 was compatible with all graphics standards for PCs: CGA, Hercules, and then EGA, AT & T, VGA. A feature of the program was its exclusivity. It is because of Lotus 1-2-3 that users preferred IBM machines with DOS, rather than the more stylish, modern Macintosh and Amiga 1000.
By the mid-80s, an unprecedented growth in software development reached its peak and began to gradually stabilize. Companies that had recently started their activities with only a few hundred dollars turned into large and leading corporations. Pre-market research prior to software development has become commonplace for owners.
Bill Gates and Mitchell Kapor
The Applications Division of Microsoft also gained momentum. In the year of release of Lotus 1-2-3, Microsoft launched the production of Microsoft Word word processor, having advertised this event as brightly (the company sent out about 450 thousand free demo disks). In addition, Microsoft has already released its own spreadsheet MultiPlan. But neither they nor Word could make the same rapid breakthrough as Lotus 1-2-3. By the way, Microsoft used Lotus 1-2-3 for creating Excel.
Steve Jobs, Mitchell Kapor and Bill Gates
Thus, Lotus remained the leader in program production until 1987. After that, the championship nevertheless gradually passed on to Microsoft, distributing its MS DOS. In addition, Lotus experienced technical difficulties as a result of which the release of the 3rd version was delayed. The program had to be rewritten under the more portable language C. And since the early 90s, Microsoft has firmly established itself as the leading software development company, displacing Lotus 1-2-3.
In 1995, IBM acquired Lotus. After that, the program developed as part of the Lotus Smart Suite office suite. But on June 11, 2013, IBM made announced the termination of the Lotus project. The statement said that from September 30, 2014, IBM Lotus 123 Millennium Edition V9.x, IBM Lotus SmartSuite 9.x V9.8.0, and Organizer V6.1.0 applications. The company is no longer supported. And no replacement programs will also be provided.
Modern life of Mitchell Kapor
In 1986, Kapor left the presidency of Lotus, leaving Jim Manzi in his stead. But he did not leave the IT sector and did a lot of things over the years. Mitchell contributed not only to the development of software, but also to the development of the modern Internet.
Mitchell Kepor with his "star on the Entrepreneurs Walk of Fame
Kapor is a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, founded in 1991. And until 1994, he was its chairman. The Foundation supports, develops and develops new bills to protect the civil rights of users and IT communities. This organization has written many practical guides for Internet users to ensure security, anonymity, encryption of communications and data on a computer, existing problems with cell phones, secure data deletion, etc.
Mitchell and Frida Kapor
Today, 66-year-old Mitchell Kapor with his wife Frida (Freada Kapor Klein) is focused on information technology management. The couple founded the Center for Social Impact, which is engaged in the technical development of society, as well as social security. One of the missions of the Center is to provide equal opportunities for all to receive technical education and decent work.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/394631/
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