Top all-time · #5758
Bob Frankston
Personal blog · rmf.vchistoryprogrammingsystems
Bob Frankston's personal blog at rmf.vc covers history, programming and systems. Since 2017, 14 different Hacker News readers have linked it 18 times, most often “Implementing VisiCalc (2015)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-06, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (8) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Bob Frankston's site for his firsthand account of writing VisiCalc, including its 6502 assembly code and decimal arithmetic, and for his writings on ambient connectivity.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 8 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Bob Frankston's personal website - writings, essays, and thoughts on technology, innovation, and digital infrastructure.
Most-linked posts?
- Implementing VisiCalc (2015)5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2017-10-31
- Implementing VisiCalc – Bob Frankston3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-03-27
What Hacker News says?
"At its heart, VisiCalc is about numbers. One of the early decisions we made was to use decimal arithmetic so that the errors would be the same one that an accountant would see using a decimal calculator. In retrospect this was a bad decision because people turn out to not care and it made calculations much slower than they would have been in binary." http://rmf.vc/implementingvisicalc
Comment linking /implementingvisicalc
on “I was wrong about spreadsheets (2017)”Submitted Implementing VisiCalc (2015) as a story · 90 points
HN discussionI wish! But no. It was written in 6502 assembly language: https://rmf.vc/implementingvisicalc Edit: Oh - the OP is talking about a later version of VisiCalc. Bricklin and Frankston were both MIT CS grads, so it would make sense. But at what point did VisiCalc get ported to Lisp? You're right—this is burying the lede!
Comment linking /implementingvisicalc
on “My journey into personal computer software development in 1983”Submitted Implementing VisiCalc – Bob Frankston as a story · 17 points
HN discussionThe actual source for which this appears to be a mirrored copy is actually still online. http://rmf.vc/implementingvisicalc Besides containing additional information, it doesn't have scattered formatting errors throughout. OP's mirrored version seems to have fallen through a can opener. I'm unsure if it preserves anything significant however.
Comment linking /implementingvisicalc
on “Implementing VisiCalc (2003)”Submitted Implementing VisiCalc [pdf] as a story · 12 points
HN discussionSource URL: http://rmf.vc/implementingvisicalc
Comment linking /implementingvisicalc
on “Implementing VisiCalc (2003)”Submitted Implementing VisiCalc (2003) as a story · 7 points
HN discussionThe upper left corner links to "Bob's other writings." So presumably it's by Bob. Click on it and you'll see the full name is "Bob Frankston". It's Bob's web site. Further click on "bio" and read http://rmf.vc/Bob_Frankston_Bio to confirm "1979-1985 Founded Software Arts in 1979 with Dan Bricklin to develop and sell VisiCalc."
Comment linking /Bob_Frankston_Bio
on “Implementing VisiCalc (2003)”Submitted Bob Frankston: Distributed Cooperation as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI imagine the answer is somewhere in here: http://rmf.vc/implementingvisicalc
Comment linking /implementingvisicalc
on “Apple's early success stemmed from a tiny 20kb computer program they didn't make”Submitted Refactoring Consumer Electronics as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> at the same time block mode allows for highly standardized and always latency free data entry and manipulation. ... block mode terminals could have exposed some kind of byte code to enable running some interactivity in the client. ... it helps to preserve the zero latency aspect (if done correctly), but at the same time opens up the door for shoddy implementation and non-standard UX. I've often had the same though…
Comment linking /implementingvisicalc
on “Domain/OS Design Principles (1989) [pdf]”Submitted Implementing VisiCalc (2003): Bob Frankston's design notes as a story · 2 points
HN discussionWhat we really need is Ambient Connectivity. Check out Bob Frankston's (inventor of the spreadsheet) writings. https://rmf.vc/ambientconnectivity
Comment linking /ambientconnectivity
on “Homes need to be built for better internet”Submitted Implementing VisiCalc as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Internet and Consumer Electronics (Bob Frankston, 1997) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The JavaScript Ecosystem as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
