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Comment by hadlock | Hacker News Reader

I have the original install disks for BoeingCalc, the precusor to the more famous VisiCalc (Excel) but they're unreadable using consumer grade tech. Probably the only public copy of the software that I'm aware of.

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> BoeingCalc, the precusor to the more famous VisiCalc

No way:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc

VisiCalc: Initial release 1979

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperCalc

SuperCalc: Initial release 1980

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplan

Multiplan: Initial release 1982

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3

Lotus 1 2 3: Initial release 1983

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Calc

Boeing Calc: Initial release 1985 (6 years after VisiCalc).

As it was released, it could read "standard" VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3 documents, according to Computerworld:

https://books.google.at/books?id=97eagSKygYsC&pg=PA48&redir_...

What's interesting about Boeing Calc is that it allowed storage of its documents "online". But it was surely only for specific local setup, so it was probably "on the local server."

Ah, I think what I was remembering was that you could have multiple worksheets/"tabs" and run calcs between them, like modern excel. I don't think visicalc supported that level of complexity until later.

If you contact the Internet Archive, they might be interested in the disks and might have the necessary hardware to copy them. Try Jason Scott, maybe.

Yeah, a single iso can be recovered from multiple disks with different damaged sections using software like ddrescue[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ddrescue

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