S2 Spreadsheet was a

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 ...

compatible spreadsheet developed by IBM in 1984. It had all the features of Lotus 1-2-3, plus it had an ability to connect to IBM mainframes via

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suit ...

and pull data from IBM databases such as

IBM DB2 Db2 is a family of data management products, including database servers, developed by IBM. It initially supported the relational model, but was extended to support object–relational features and non-relational structures like JSON a ...

and

IBM SQL/DS SQL/DS (Structured Query Language/Data System), released in 1981, was IBM's first commercial relational-database management system. It implemented the SQL database-query language. SQL/DS ran on the DOS/VSE and VM/CMS operating systems. A littl ...

. It also had features that allowed for easy visual connection between formulas and their dependencies - those features were later adopted by Lotus 1-2-3 and

Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows, Windows, macOS, Android (operating system), Android and iOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro (comp ...

. S2 was developed almost concurrently with Lotus development of 1-2-3, and matched 1-2-3 feature for feature. The S2 program was used throughout IBM in 1980s and 1990s. In 1986 it caused a legal controversy within IBM because of then current look-and-feel lawsuits between Lotus and other companies, and most importantly because IBM was negotiating a high-profile deal with Lotus to market Lotus 1-2-3. According to a PC WEEK article of 1986 and a subsequent one in 2009,25 years of PC Week
/ref> the sole author of this program was a developer in Thomas Watson Research Center, Oleg Vishnepolsky. Vishnepolsky developed this program unaware of the brewing deal between IBM and Lotus, and distributed it within IBM community to close to 50,000 users by the time of the controversy. A copy of his program ended up with a reporter of PC Week, who published an article speculating that IBM and Lotus' deal may be coming apart. That article caused a consternation within IBM executive quarters and attorneys. IBM attorneys and executives in the end decided that the program does not violate the Lotus copyright. Given S2's wide adoption within IBM they decided not to withdraw it from use, and let Vishnepolsky to continue its development. Vishnepolsky however lost interest in further development of S2, moved to another project and later authored TCP/IP for

OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 ...

and IBM POS terminals. S2 spreadsheet got ported to OS/2 and

AIX Aix or AIX may refer to: Computing * AIX, a line of IBM computer operating systems *An Alternate Index, for a Virtual Storage Access Method Key Sequenced Data Set * Athens Internet Exchange, a European Internet exchange point Places Belgi ...

by other developers and remained in use through the 90s. Vishnepolsky reportedly said that instead of getting fired from IBM he received an outstanding technical achievement award from IBM CEO

John Fellows Akers John Fellows Akers (December 28, 1934 – August 22, 2014) was an American businessman. He was president (1983-1989), chief executive officer (1985-1993) and chairman (1986-1993) of IBM. Education Akers attended Yale, and while there became a bro ...

in 1992.

References

{{Lotus Software DOS software Spreadsheet software for Windows Spreadsheet software IBM software

See also

References