TITLE: Code as a Form of Expression, Even Spreadsheets
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: March 04, 2015  3:28 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Even formulas in spreadsheets, even back in the early 1980s:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Spreadsheet models have become a form of expression, and the
 very act of creating them seem to yield a pleasure unrelated
 to their utility.  Unusual models are duplicated and passed
 around; these templates are sometimes used by other modelers
 and sometimes only admired for their elegance.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

People love to make and share things.  Computation has given
us another medium in which to work, and the things people
make with it are often very cool.

The above passage comes from Stephen Levy's
<A HREF="https://medium.com/backchannel/a-spreadsheet-way-of-knowledge-8de60af7146e">
   A Spreadsheet Way of Knowledge</A>,
which appeared originally in <EM>Harper's</EM> magazine in
November 1984.  He re-published it on Medium this week in
belated honor of Spreadsheet Day last October 17, which was
the 35th anniversary of VisiCalc, "the Apple II program that
started it all".  It's a great read, both as history and as
a look at how new technologies create unexpected benefits
and dangers.
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