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#1
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What is the purpose for a Spreadsheet?
This is a something i need to know for an IT Assignment and this is that only
thing i don't know. |
#2
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Trainboy85 wrote:
This is a something i need to know for an IT Assignment and this is that only thing i don't know. Spreadsheets started out life as electronic versions of analysis paper. (and if you don't know what THAT is go to your local stationers and ask to see some!). Their primary role was and is, the manipulation of financial data into user and management-friendly formats. The fact that some people now use them for fitness schedules(!) amongst other weird and wacky things, does not detract from the fact that they are first and foremost, financial tools. -- Interim Systems and Management Accounting Gordon Burgess-Parker Director www.gbpcomputing.co.uk |
#3
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Gordon,
If by "...first and foremost, financial tools...", you meant that they logically grew out of a desire to simplify financial reporting, I would agree. However, they are certainly used for a vast array of other applications that have little to do with financial information--engineering analysis and design, quality control management, scientific data gathering and analysis, and the presentation of ANY data set in meaningful textual and graphical formats. You may find me "weird and wacky"--but an exponential curve fit on turkey temperature data at Thanksgiving predicts the finish line WAY better than meaningless "rules of thumb". Haven't lost one yet! Sprinks "Gordon" wrote: Trainboy85 wrote: This is a something i need to know for an IT Assignment and this is that only thing i don't know. Spreadsheets started out life as electronic versions of analysis paper. (and if you don't know what THAT is go to your local stationers and ask to see some!). Their primary role was and is, the manipulation of financial data into user and management-friendly formats. The fact that some people now use them for fitness schedules(!) amongst other weird and wacky things, does not detract from the fact that they are first and foremost, financial tools. -- Interim Systems and Management Accounting Gordon Burgess-Parker Director www.gbpcomputing.co.uk |
#4
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Googling "History of spreadsheets" gives
http://dssresources.com/history/sshistory.html as its first hit. There may be useful information in other hits as well. Spreadsheets give a convenient interface for calculating and doing what-if scenarios. As noted in the link and by other responders, it was first contemplated in a financial setting, but the implications for all kinds of other calculations were grasped very rapidly. It is probably not an overstatement to say that spreadsheet applications almost single handedly carried PCs from an electronic hobbyist's toy into a business and subsequently household appliance. Jerry Trainboy85 wrote: This is a something i need to know for an IT Assignment and this is that only thing i don't know. |
#5
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Trainboy85 wrote: This is a something i need to know for an IT Assignment and this is that only thing i don't know. When I graduated from college in 1982, my first job was with a software company that made many products, but the one I worked with was a "financial modeling, statistical analysis, graphics, what-if analysis" tool. This was before the PC existed per se. The type of packages were classified as "Decision Support Systems". Packages such as FOCUS, SystemW, IFPS, EMPIRE, and SAS were the tools available. These were "english-like" procedural programming tools that would be compiled into Fortran, etc for execution. These tools ran on the "mainframe" and "midrange" hardware platforms being the predominate hardware platforms in the "old days"...Then the PC...Bill Gates, Lotus,...came on after...The DSS product I supported called EMPIRE had a cobol like structure, but had a place to define columns, rows, and constants...sounds like "spreadsheets"...they were the predecessors to it I guess...just to complete your history lesson... |
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