Javelin? financial outliner
Posted by pwolff
on 5/7/2000
pwolff
5/7/2000 4:42 pm
Does anyone remember a financial modeling program called Javelin? Around 1985-1986. Went up against Multiplan and SuperCalc. Brilliant and based on outlining.
The premise: a spreadsheet is really just one form of a simulation or model of economic activity. Another, possibly superior way, of doing this was to actually name your variables and diagram the relationships among them. It presented multiple views of the model and let you manipulate the model through them.
There was a box and arrow view we'd now call an entity-relationship view.
There was a spreadsheet view as a sop to all those Multiplan and SuperCalc, Lotus 1-2-3 users.
And there was an outliner.
The multiple views let you navigate incredibly complex models the way you wanted to. Some parts were clearly hierarchical and globular (outlining), others were tabular and linear (spreadsheet), and some were maze-like, arcane, tangential (the network view).
So... It's called Javelin. If anyone knows what happened to it please pass the word.
- phil
The premise: a spreadsheet is really just one form of a simulation or model of economic activity. Another, possibly superior way, of doing this was to actually name your variables and diagram the relationships among them. It presented multiple views of the model and let you manipulate the model through them.
There was a box and arrow view we'd now call an entity-relationship view.
There was a spreadsheet view as a sop to all those Multiplan and SuperCalc, Lotus 1-2-3 users.
And there was an outliner.
The multiple views let you navigate incredibly complex models the way you wanted to. Some parts were clearly hierarchical and globular (outlining), others were tabular and linear (spreadsheet), and some were maze-like, arcane, tangential (the network view).
So... It's called Javelin. If anyone knows what happened to it please pass the word.
- phil
aaces
5/7/2000 8:39 pm
Javelin was purchased by another company, but I don't remember its name at the moment.
However, Javelin was NOT based on outlining, although it WAS a briliant program. One could use it like a standard spreadsheet or the way a mathematician would like to...namely, set up a list of equations. If there is the interest, I'll go back and look up more info including descriptions of the many different, USEFUL views one could create of the data and variables.
-Steve C.
However, Javelin was NOT based on outlining, although it WAS a briliant program. One could use it like a standard spreadsheet or the way a mathematician would like to...namely, set up a list of equations. If there is the interest, I'll go back and look up more info including descriptions of the many different, USEFUL views one could create of the data and variables.
-Steve C.