Claris Resolve was a

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes documentation and other intangible components. A computer program ...

for the

Apple Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

. It was released by

Claris Claris International Inc., formerly FileMaker Inc., is a computer software development company formed as a subsidiary company of Apple Inc., Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) in 1987. It was given the source code and copyrights to several program ...

in 1991 and sold until 1994. In an effort to flesh out their software suite, in the early 1990s Claris wanted to introduce a spreadsheet application, and decided to buy an existing one. This was not particularly difficult, as

Informix IBM Informix is a product family within IBM's Information Management division that is centered on several relational database management system (RDBMS) offerings. The Informix products were originally developed by Informix Corporation, whose ...

had essentially abandoned the Mac version of WingZ, and Claris was able to purchase the non-exclusive rights to the

codebase In software development, a codebase (or code base) is a collection of source code used to build a particular software system, application, or software component. Typically, a codebase includes only human-written source code files; thus, a codeb ...

. After changing the interface to conform to their new "Pro" line of product's

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

, they released it at the MacWorld Expo Boston on June 6, 1991, as Resolve. Resolve supports a worksheet size of more than one billion cells and includes 149 built-in functions that allow users to create financial, statistical and mathematical models. Resolve also contains

object-oriented Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of " objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of p ...

MacDraw MacDraw is a discontinued vector graphics drawing application released along with the first Apple Macintosh systems in 1984. MacDraw was one of the first WYSIWYG drawing programs that could be used in collaboration with MacWrite. It was eventu ...

-like drawing tools for combining illustrations, clip art, text, charts and numbers in reports. Resolve also included WingZ scripting language, renamed Resolve Script. Resolve also offered 3D charting that Wingz was the first to bring on Macintosh. Resolve failed to gain significant market share due to

Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for App ...

, which also stopped

Lotus 1-2-3 Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles i ...

becoming popular on the Macintosh. This led to disappointing sales, and in 1993 development was stopped. On 31 March 1994 Claris stopped selling Resolve, the program was supported up until 31 March 1995. Claris suggested existing Resolve users to upgrade to the spreadsheet module of

ClarisWorks AppleWorks was an integrated office suite containing a word processor, database, and spreadsheet. It was developed by Rupert Lissner for Apple Computer, originally for the Apple II platform and launched in 1984, and was later reworked for the ...

Reception

Resolve 1.0v3 got mice (out of 5) in June 1992 issue of

MacUser ''MacUser'' was a monthly (formerly biweekly) computer magazine published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. and licensed by Felden in the UK. It ceased publication in 2015. In 1985 Felix Dennis’ Dennis Publishing, the creators of MacUser in the UK, l ...

, praising the familiar interface and the scripting.

References

External links

TidBITS#76/12-Aug-91 Claris Resolve introduction information

{{Spreadsheets Macintosh-only software Spreadsheet software