ABSTRACT
Spreadsheets are used by everyone these days; however, not many realize that their underlying programming model is quite powerful, and a great example of the dataflow family of programming styles. The style is inherently declarative and reactive, meaning that it is a good fit for data-intensive applications that need a live update loop over changing data. This style is a good example of dataflow programming, where changes in certain points of the data space “flow” to another part of that space. Spreadsheets were one of the first targets of computer applications, and, like so many other programming concepts, were invented by several people independently. The first spreadsheet programs were batch programs on mainframes, where the user would enter the data, press a button and wait for the rest of the data to update.
