What is Supercalc?

Supercalc was an early spreadsheet program first released by Sorcim in 1980 for the CP/M operating system used on many early personal computers. It competed with other early spreadsheets like VisiCalc.

Supercalc introduced a number of innovative features for its time. It allowed visual formatting like bold, italics, and varying font sizes to be displayed directly on the screen, unlike text-based competitors. It also allowed using the cursor keys to navigate the spreadsheet, which later became standard.

In its time, Supercalc was very popular and seen as a top competitor to VisiCalc. It was later ported to other platforms like Apple DOS. However, as GUI operating systems became standard in the late 1980s, text-based programs like Supercalc declined in popularity compared to newer WYSIWYG spreadsheet programs.

Still, Supercalc pioneered many spreadsheet features we now take for granted. It showed the potential for screen-based visual formatting and cursor-key navigation years before GUI spreadsheets. For its innovations and popularity in the early personal computer market, Supercalc holds an important place in early spreadsheet software history.

Official Links