Lotus Improv

Lotus Improv was a spreadsheet program from Lotus Development that attempted to re-define the way a spreadsheet should work. Instead of treating the grid as the system for referencing data, Improv made all data exist in named ranges. Operations on the data then referred to these names, rather than the cells. Adding two columns of numbers in traditional spreadsheet might use a formula like =A1+B1 and then copy that into the cells in a new column, whereas in Improv the formula would be something like income = sales + tax and the results would automatically appear in columns that referenced the formula. Improv was designed to ease the building of new spreadsheets. In conventional programs, one had to arrange the sheets in order to leave room for outputs and intermediate values. In Improv, one simply entered data wherever you liked, at any time. Formulas could likewise be added or modified at any time, and as intermediate values were not stored in the cells, changing data or formulas did not require changes to the sheets. In practice, the true value of Improv was its ability to be modified at any time, sorting, displaying or collecting data with ease.