The last stop on Tang's East Coast trip was to return to Harvard University to give a lecture. It has to be said that students are the most receptive group to new things, and the concept of personal computers is generally recognized by them, which can be seen from the variety of questions.

During the speech activity, Tang Huan found that a person's question content was the most professional, and after asking, he learned that he was greatly affected by his rebirth, the original developer of the world's first spreadsheet software, the father of spreadsheets, Dan Bricklin.

Obviously, now Bricklin has been completely saddened, and the title of the father of spreadsheets has been owned by Tang Huan.

In 1977, a year after leaving DEC, Bricklin was admitted to Harvard Business School to pursue an MBA.

During his time at the school, Bricklin's tutors would often give homework assignments – mechanically filling out slips, accounts, and statistical forms repeatedly, which was not only no fun but also prone to mistakes.

Bricklin, who can play with computers, plans to leave these repetitive tasks to the school's minicomputer, but he finds that different financial problems require different calculation methods and often need to be reprogrammed, so Brickering, who hates duplication of work, has the idea of writing a general program.

At the beginning of 1978, Bricklin, who had just learned BASIC, decided to start his own programming, this time starting with a microcomputer. At that time, the popular microcomputers mainly included Kemodo's PET, Tangdi's TRS-80, and Apple's APPLE-II.

IN THE END, BRICKERIN CHOSE APPLE-II, NOT THAT THE APPLE-II PERFORMANCE WAS MUCH BETTER AT THAT TIME, BUT THAT BRICKERING COULD ONLY BORROW AN APPLE-II AT THAT TIME.

After the computer arrived, Bricklin's programming work began in earnest. Because it was developed in BASIC, the software was slow enough to make coffee during calculations, but in any case, the program already had the basic characteristics of a spreadsheet.

In order not to waste good ideas, and because of his limited ability to do it alone, Brickering enlisted his friend Frankston to cooperate.

In early 1979, the two formed a small company called SoftwareArts (SA) and began working together to improve the program in Bricklin's hands.

In order to improve the usefulness of the software, it is necessary to increase its computational speed, so it can only be rewritten in assembly language. The two worked hard for more than two months to finally launch their first commercial software.

The software was named "VisiCalc", "Visible" means "visible" and "Calculate" means "calculate", and the two words are cut off and added to become the so-called "VisiCalc", which means "visible calculation".

Soon, Bricklin's small software was taken by a company called PersonalSoftware (PS for short), and the two parties soon signed a contract to entrust all sales of VisiCalc to PS.

At that time, the owner of PS was called Festra, who had only graduated from Harvard Business School for a year or two, and made a living by selling chess programs for microcomputers.

At that time, the way to sell software was to deal directly with hardware manufacturers, as Microsoft did. There is no similar precedent to follow for the specialized agent sales method, and there are no ready-made rules for making money. So after getting permission to sell VisiCalc, Festra consulted a number of Harvard case study books to find something similar.

As a result, he found that the closest example he could find was book publishing: the author was responsible for conceiving and completing the work, and the publisher was responsible for production, channels, marketing, and sales.

Switching to software legalization meant that Brickerin & Frankston's SA was responsible for developing VisiCalc and beyond, while Festra's PS was responsible for copying floppy disks, printing manuals, advertising, and selling products to distributors and users, creating a new model of cooperation between development and marketing, and became the first successful example of an ISV.

As for the share, it was agreed that SA would receive 37.5 per cent of VisiCalc's retail sales and 50 per cent of its wholesale sales. As software became more and more popular in the market, this ratio became the trigger for future conflicts between the two companies.

In October 1979, VisiCalc was officially launched on the commercial market for $100.

At first, VisiCalc didn't make much of a splash, but because it was developed for the Apple II, Apple embraced the gadget, and the Apple II and VisiCalc together began to gain popularity, and in less than a year, it became the first best-selling application in PC history.

In the era of VisiCalc's big sell, the concept of software patents did not appear in the United States, and software companies successively launched their own spreadsheet software, such as: SuperCalc in 1980, Multiplan in 1982, Lotus1-2-3 in 1983, AppleWorks in 1984, and Excel in 1985. also caused infighting because of the distribution of interests, and gradually faded out of the market.

At the beginning of the presentation event, Bricklin was stunned when he saw the various powerful and mature features that CGrid displayed on Apple computers.

He never imagined that he and his friends had worked hard for so long to develop the program, and it turned out that the same product had been launched in Silicon Valley on the West Coast, and compared with other people's products, his program was weak.

But soon, unconvinced and curiosity drove Brickerin, who persistently pursued Tang Huan and explored the various details of CGrid.

In this regard, Tang Huan couldn't cry or laugh a little, could it be that people found out that they had robbed him of his golden job and came to collect debts.

"The questions you asked are very pertinent, could it be that you have developed such programs?" Tang Huan tentatively.

"Yes, I made a Mac version with my friends, but our program isn't competitive compared to CGrid. ”

Looking at Bricklin's bitter expression, Tang Huan couldn't help but feel compassion, "In this way, you have a lot of experience in the application of spreadsheets, so why don't you join my technical team, Zerone is very thirsty for talents." ”

Brickerin thought for a moment, and finally shook his head firmly, "I feel that my creativity and design have been relatively mature, and I am really unwilling to give up, since there is no chance on the Mac, let's try it on another platform." ”

I rubbed it, this little brother didn't succeed in recruiting, and he was going to become another competitor in the near future, Tang Huan sighed silently, and secretly sighed, he was really going to suffer from the enemy.

It's okay, since you're not afraid of the embarrassment of going bankrupt and losing, then just come over.

……

Zhuang Menghua adapted to the environment of Harvard University very quickly, and Tang Huan was relieved after asking in detail, and set off directly back to Los Angeles on the West Coast.

Through the relationship of an Apple director, Tang Huan got the Madonna affair done with just one phone call, the future queen of gold is about to start her road to superstardom, and the celebrities of Lao Mei are about to suffer, it is a great pleasure to think about it.

In the mansion in Beverly Hills, Deng Lijun, who was slightly plump, was smiling and admiring some souvenirs that Tang Huan brought back from the East Coast, and the servants served her very attentively.

Seeing that Deng Lijun looked good, Tang Huan was also happy, and remembered that she was going to college, so he asked.

"I've started taking classes at UCLA, majoring in English, Japanese, biology, math, and a few other courses."

Deng Lijun said with great interest, while taking a photo album and handing it to Tang Huan, "This is the photo I took on campus." ”

Tang Huan took a look, Deng Lijun's smile on the photo was very sweet, and it seemed that her mental state was really good.

"Are you adapting to the university curriculum?" Tang Huan asked casually.

"What's going on?" Deng Lijun showed a twisted look on her face, "Math must be struggling, but when I was in Japanese class, I pretended not to understand anything, but when the teacher asked questions, I answered all the questions correctly, and the teacher was so surprised that I praised me for being a genius." ”

Tang Huan was amused and laughed, "You're about to become a mother, and you're still so naughty." ”

Deng Lijun showed a happy look on her face, and glanced at Tang Huan, "It is precisely because of this that you have to maintain a happy mood." ”

Tang Huan looked at the Rolex watch given by Deng Lijun on his wrist, "I have to go to catch the flight time, the headhunter sent me a batch of materials, I have to screen the available talents." ”

"I'll send you." Deng Lijun nodded, "By the way, I bought you a gift, let's go to the garage to have a look before leaving." ”

"Go to the garage and look at the gifts, you probably didn't buy me a car." Tang Huan opened his mouth to guess.

"Just take a look." Deng Lijun said coquettishly.

Tang Huan came to the garage to take a look, sure enough, Deng Lijun really prepared a luxury car for himself, Mercedes-Benz 450SEL6.9 listed in May 1975, which belongs to the top model in the series, because it is the first in the world to be equipped with ABS anti-lock braking system, so while enjoying the speed, the safety is also reliably guaranteed.

After walking around the car, Tang Huan exclaimed, "When I come to Los Angeles in the future, I will drive this car, but my wife, this time you will break the bank." ”

Deng Lijun pursed her lips and smiled, "No, I heard from the company that my records are still selling well, and I still have a record of "Tales of a Small Town" to be recorded, so this cost is not a problem." ”

Tang Huan nodded and gave a thumbs up, "You're really popular." ”