'''Lotus 1-2-3''' er et [[regneark]]sprogram fra [[Lotus Software]] (nu ejet af [[International Business Machines|IBM]]). Det var [[IBM PC]]'ens første "[[killer applikation]]"; its huge popularity in the mid-1980s contributed significantly to the success of the IBM PC in the corporate environment.[http://www.crn.com/it-channel/18818026 Acquired 2007-10-31]
==Beginnings==
{{ :dokumenter:lotus-123-3.0-dos.png?x200|Lotus 1-2-3 3.0 til DOS}}
The Lotus Development Corporation was founded by [[Mitch Kapor|Mitchell Kapor]], a friend of the developers of [[VisiCalc]]. 1-2-3 was originally written by [[Jonathan Sachs]], who had written two spreadsheet programs previously while working at Concentric Data Systems, Inc.[http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/ls-NDHistory/ 2007-10-31] To aid its growth, in the UK, and possibly elsewhere, Lotus 1-2-3 was the very first computer software to use television consumer advertising.{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}}
1-2-3 was released on January 26, 1983, started outselling then-most-popular [[VisiCalc]] the very same year, and for a number of years was the leading spreadsheet for the [[DOS]] [[operating system]]. Unlike Microsoft [[Multiplan]], it stayed very close to the model of VisiCalc, including the "A1" letter and number cell notation, and slash-menu structure. It was free of notable bugs, and was very fast because it was programmed entirely in [[x86 assembly language]] and bypassed the slower DOS screen input/output functions in favor of writing directly to memory-mapped video display hardware.
This reliance on the specific hardware of the IBM PC led to 1-2-3 being utilized as one of the two [[litmus test]] applications for true 100% compatibility when [[IBM PC compatible|PC clones]] started to appear in the early- to mid- 80s. 1-2-3 was used to test general application compatibility, with [[Microsoft Flight Simulator]] being used to test graphics compatibility. Because all of a spreadsheet needs to be resident in memory, it also drove the race to utilize more memory, and [[extended memory]] and [[expanded memory]] techniques were needed to overcome the DOS limit of 640KB to allow larger spreadsheets - this was so important that a memory used/remaining indicator was displayed on-screen.
==User features==
The name "1-2-3" stemmed from the product's integration of three main capabilities. Along with being a spreadsheet, it also offered integral charting/graphing and rudimentary database operations.
Data features included sorting data in any defined rectangle, by order of information in one or two columns in the rectangular area. Justifying text in a range into paragraphs allowed it to be used as a primitive word processor.
It had keyboard-driven pop-up menus as well as one-key commands, making it fast to operate. It was also user-friendly, introducing an early instance of [[context-sensitive help]] accessed by the F1 key.
{{ :dokumenter:lotus_1-2-3_9.8_windows.png?x200|Screenshot of Lotus 1-2-3 version 9.8, running on Windows XP}}
[[Macro (computer science)|Macros]] in version one and add-ins (introduced in version 2.0) contributed much to 1-2-3's popularity, allowing dozens of outside vendors to sell macro packages and add-ins ranging from dedicated financial worksheets like [[F9 Financial Reporting|F9]] to full-fledged [[word processor]]s. (In the single-tasking [[MS-DOS]], 1-2-3 was sometimes used as a complete environment.) Lotus 1-2-3 supported [[Enhanced Graphics Adapter|EGA]] graphics on the [[PC/AT]] and [[VGA]] graphics on the [[IBM Personal System/2|PS/2]]. Early versions used the [[filename extension]] "WKS".[[http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/wks WKS File Extension - Open .WKS files]] In version 2.0, the extension changed first to "WK1",[[http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/wk1 WK1 File Extension - Open .WK1 files]] then "WK2".[[http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/wk2 WK2 File Extension - Open .WK2 files]] This later became "WK3" for version 3.0[[http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/wk3 WK3 File Extension - Open .WK3 files]] and "WK4" for version 4.0.[[http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/wk4 WK4 File Extension - Open .WK4 files]]
{{ :dokumenter:mitchkapor.jpg?x200|Mitch Kapor}}
Version 2 introduced macros with syntax and commands similar in complexity to an advanced [[BASIC]] interpreter, as well as string variable expressions. Later versions supported multiple worksheets, and were written in [[C (programming language)|C]]. The charting/graphing routines were written in [[Forth (programming language)|FORTH]] by [[Jeremy Sagan]] (son of [[Carl Sagan]]) and the printing routines by Paul Funk (founder of [[Funk Software]]).{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}}
There is also a version of 1-2-3 for the [[HP 200LX]], a [[palmtop]] released by Hewlett-Packard, and a port for Tandy's [[Deskmate]].
==Rivals==
Lotus 1-2-3 inspired imitators, the first of which was Mosaic Software's "[[The Twin]]," written in the fall of 1985 largely in the C language, followed by [[VP-Planner]], which was backed by [[Adam Osborne]]. These were able to not only read 1-2-3 files, but also execute many or most macro programs by incorporating the same command structure. Copyright law had first been understood to only cover the source code of a program. After the success of lawsuits which claimed that the very "[[look and feel]]" of a program were covered, Lotus sought to ban any program which had a compatible command and menu structure. Program commands had not been considered to be covered before, but the commands of 1-2-3 were embedded in the words of the menu displayed on the screen. 1-2-3 won its case against Mosaic Software. However when they sued [[Borland]] over its [[Quattro Pro]] spreadsheet, the courts ruled that it was not a copyright violation to merely have a compatible command menu or language. In 1995, the First Circuit found that command menus are an uncopyrightable "method of operation" under section 102(b) of the [[Copyright Act]]. The 1-2-3 menu structure (example, slash File Erase) was itself an advanced version of single letter menus introduced in [[VisiCalc]].
==Decline==
The rise of [[Microsoft Windows]] in the personal computer market was accompanied by the rise in [[Microsoft]]'s competing spreadsheet, [[Microsoft Excel|Excel]], which gradually surpassed the position of 1-2-3. Lotus initially planned a complete rewrite of the product to overtake Excel, but this project failed to turn out a finished product. 1-2-3 for Windows is still simply a graphical wrapper around the original interface. Additionally, several versions of 1-2-3 were available concurrently, each with different functionality and a slightly different interface.
1-2-3's intended successor, [[Lotus Symphony for DOS|Lotus Symphony]], was Lotus's entry into the anticipated "[[integrated software]]" market. It intended to expand the rudimentary all-in-one 1-2-3 into a fully-fledged spreadsheet, graph, database and word processor for DOS, but none of the integrated packages ever really succeeded. 1-2-3 migrated to the Windows platform, where it remains available as part of [[Lotus SmartSuite]]. By release 9 of [[Lotus SmartSuite]], 1-2-3 had matched the capabilities of [[Microsoft Excel|Excel]].
==Freely available wk4, wk3 File viewer, converter and editors==
[[GNU]]'s spreadsheet program, [[gnumeric]] can open and edit wk* files, as well as save it to xls format. A command line program, ssconvert also comes with [[gnumeric]], by which you can perform batch conversion of wk* files into xls format.
==See also==
*[[Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Borland Int'l, Inc.|Lotus v. Borland]]
*[[As Easy As]]
*[[Comparison of office suites]]
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
==External links==
* [http://www.lotus.com/ Lotus website]
* [http://library.thinkquest.org/C0130462/main-1983_lotus.htm 1983 The PC Era--Lotus 1-2-3]
* [http://www.aresluna.org/attached/computerhistory/articles/spreadsheets/lotus123review Review of Lotus 123 version 1.0] from December 1982 [[Byte magazine]]
* [ftp://ftp.lotus.com/pub/lotusweb/product/smartsuite/Kvlotus.exe Free viewer for Lotus SmartSuite products (EXE)]
* [http://www.schnarff.com/file-formats/index.html#lotus File Format Documentation for Lotus 1-2-3]
* [http://www.cbi.umn.edu/oh/display.phtml?id=356 Oral history interview with Jonathan Sachs] discusses the development of Lotus 1-2-3, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota