Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

VisiCalc /vi'zi-calk/
     
         The first {spreadsheet}
        program, conceived in 1978 by {Dan Bricklin}, while he was an
        MBA student at Harvard Business School.  Inspired by a
        demonstration given by {Douglas Engelbart} of a
        {point-and-click} {user interface}, Bricklin set out to design
        an {application} that would combine the intuitiveness of
        pencil and paper calculations with the power of a
        {programmable pocket calculator}.
     
        Bricklin's design was based on the (paper) financial
        spreadsheet, a kind of document already used in business
        planning.  (Some of Bricklin's notes for VisiCalc were
        scribbled on the back of a spreadsheet pad.)  VisiCalc was
        probably not the first application to use a spreadsheet model,
        but it did have a number of original features, all of which
        continue to be fundamental to spreadsheet software.  These
        include {point-and-type} editing, {range} {replication}, and
        formulas that update automatically with changes to other
        {cells}.
     
        VisiCalc is widely credited with creating the sudden demand
        for desktop computers that helped fuel the {microcomputer}
        boom of the early 1980s.  Thousands of business people with
        little or no technical expertise found that they could use
        VisiCalc to create sophisticated financial programs.  This
        makes VisiCalc one of the first {killer apps}.
     
        {Dan Bricklin's Site (http://www.bricklin.com/visicalc.htm)}.
     
        (2003-07-05)