Lotus Magellan was a groundbreaking piece of software in the late 1980s from the company that popularized the "1-2-3" spreadsheet on the PC (following initial success by Dan Bricklin's VisiCalc on the Apple II). VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program available for personal computers. ... The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ...
Running under DOS, Magellan would scan the directories and files on your drive or floppies and create a master index. It was aware of all the various current formats and provided the ability to view files without launching the original applications that created them. Its most powerful feature was fuzzy searching, that connected files by relative frequency of keywords, allowing you to organize related data no matter where or in what format it existed on your computer. (Current "desktop search" tools from Google and MSN as well as built into new versions of Windows and MacOS are providing similar functions, a couple decades later.) Given this "semantic view" of your file system, Magellan not only exposed "hidden meaning" from disparate data, but also facilitated the actual movement of files and directories into a better physical organization. Cute advertisements that ran for Magellan at the time promised to "Get all your ducks in a row" and showed a picture of a line of obedient rubber ducks.
Magellan was one of several significant developments from Lotus Software (i.e. "1-2-3", "Notes" and elegant office software for the Apple Macintosh) that, despite significant usefulness and market share, failed to keep the company from becoming another brilliant also-ran. Lotus was acquired by IBM in 1995. Apple iMac G5 desktop computer The Macintosh, or Mac for short, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured and marketed by Apple Computer, Inc. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) NYSE: IBM (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, NY, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services. ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Lotus was founded in 1982 by partners Mitch Kapor and Jonathan Sachs.
Lotus' first product was presentation software for the Apple II known as Lotus Executive Briefing System, but the company is more broadly known for its groundbreaking Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet application released in January 1983.
Lotus, which employs over 4,000 employees worldwide, was acquired by IBM in July 1995 for 3.5 billion dollars.
Lotus claims there are 15 million copies of 1-2-3 in use; most of them are in the Release 2.x series.
Lotus 1-2-3 2.3 is a proven performer, respectably fast, compatible with entry-level and older hardware, and, most of all, standard.
Lotus provides over 60 individual icons for commonly used processes that usually involve a series of menu choices, such as creating a sum of a column or row.
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