A Brief History of Spreadsheets [2004]

There a little space between relational data modeling, live update, user friendliness (ala webos spirit friendly). Something akin to what Improv accomplished in his era.

Wow, from this link I learned that Adam Bosworth was one of the original programmers of Quattro Pro. Bosworth's talk on simplicity and sloppiness (http://adambosworth.wordpress.com/2004/11/18/iscoc04-talk/) is one of my favorite things in the field:

It is an ironic truth that those who seek to create systems which most assume the perfectibility of humans end up building the systems which are most soul destroying and most rigid, systems that rot from within until like great creaking rotten oak trees they collapse on top of themselves leaving a sour smell and decay. [...] Conversely, those systems which best take into account the complex, frail, brilliance of human nature and build in flexibility, checks and balances, and tolerance tend to survive beyond all hopes.

So it goes with software. That software which is flexible, simple, sloppy, tolerant, and altogether forgiving of human foibles and weaknesses turns out to be actually the most steel cored, able to survive and grow while that software which is demanding, abstract, rich but systematized, turns out to collapse in on itself in a slow and grim implosion.

He features spreadsheets as an example:

Consider the spreadsheet. It is a protean, sloppy, plastic, flexible medium that is, ironically, the despair of all accountants and auditors because it is virtually impossible to reliably understand a truly complex and rich spreadsheet.

...but I had no idea he'd worked on one. He worked on MS Access too.