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Lotus Improv on the NeXT

It is spoken of in reverent tones, invoked like a magic spell, whispered about as one of the mythical “roads not taken” in computing history. Its proponents write glowing reports and fawning YouTube reviews, lamenting its failure in the historical marketplace, each offering some justification for it not having set the world ablaze. It is safe to say, the legend of Lotus Improv persists to this day.

人们以崇敬的口吻谈论它，像念咒语一样提及它，并将其私下传颂为计算机史上那些神话般的“未竟之路”之一。它的支持者们撰写着溢美之词的报告，在 YouTube 上发布着奉承的评论，哀叹它在历史市场上的失败，并各自为它未能风靡世界寻找理由。可以肯定地说，Lotus Improv 的传奇至今仍在延续。

If we put ourselves in Steve Jobs’s shoes circa 1988, it’s easy to see why he would have been smitten by an early preview of what we now call a “pivot table.” NeXT was struggling to find its market, and exclusives which justified a system purchase were sorely needed. “Maybe Improv can do for NeXT what VisiCalc did for the Apple II,” must surely have crossed Jobs’s mind. In making it a NeXT exclusive, Improv seemed to be a clear-eyed, forward-looking answer to the question dogging the company, posed by the inaugural issue of NeXTWORLD Magazine, “Why NeXT?”

如果我们设身处地站在 1988 年左右史蒂夫·乔布斯的角度，就不难理解为什么他会被我们现在所称的“数据透视表”的早期预览版所吸引。当时 NeXT 正在努力寻找市场，非常需要能够证明购买该系统合理性的独占软件。“也许 Improv 能为 NeXT 做到 VisiCalc 为 Apple II 所做的一切，”乔布斯脑海中一定闪过这样的念头。将 Improv 作为 NeXT 的独占软件，似乎是对困扰公司的问题——即《NeXTWORLD》杂志创刊号所提出的“为什么选择 NeXT？”——一个清醒且具有前瞻性的回答。

NeXTWORLD Magazine, Editor-in-Chief Michael Miley, for his first column “Black Box”. The TL;DR of the answer was that NeXT is a “new type of computer,” an “interpersonal computer,” the first to be built from the ground up for “collaborative computing.”

《NeXTWORLD》杂志主编迈克尔·迈利（Michael Miley）在他的首篇专栏“黑匣子”（Black Box）中给出了答案。简而言之，NeXT 是一种“新型计算机”，一种“人际交互计算机”，是首个从底层构建以实现“协作计算”的设备。

Both NeXT and Improv brought innovative solutions to their respective computing questions of the day. NeXT made UNIX palatable to those scared of the terminal, debuted Display Postscript on a mega-pixel display, and made development for the system a snap. Improv rethought multi-dimensional data modeling, offered English-like formulas, and made it easy to rearrange data views on a whim.

NeXT 和 Improv 都为各自时代的计算难题带来了创新的解决方案。NeXT 让那些害怕终端的用户能够轻松使用 UNIX，在百万像素显示器上首次展示了 Display Postscript，并使系统开发变得轻而易举。Improv 则重新思考了多维数据建模，提供了类似英语的公式，并使用户能够随心所欲地轻松重排数据视图。

The bones of both remain to this day. NeXT’s operating system, NeXTSTEP / OPENSTEP, morphed into macOS, and by extension iOS. Lotus abandoned Improv fairly quickly, but a quick survey of today’s spreadsheets shows a universal embrace of pivot tables.

两者的核心至今依然存在。NeXT 的操作系统 NeXTSTEP / OPENSTEP 演变成了 macOS，进而延伸到了 iOS。Lotus 虽然很快放弃了 Improv，但纵观当今的电子表格软件，数据透视表已成为普遍标配。

Even today, it feels like nothing else, and still does data tricks no other spreadsheet can do as elegantly. Given its mythos, I feel a kind of nerd obligation to love it. And yet…

即使在今天，它依然独树一帜，且能以其他电子表格无法企及的优雅方式处理数据。鉴于它的神话色彩，我感到有一种极客式的义务去喜爱它。然而……