Lotus's graphical spreadsheet. (Lotus 1-2-3 3.0)

We recently wrote a magazine column admonishing Lotus for not moving faster on developing a true graphical spreadsheet. Jack McGrath, our favorite 1-2-3 guru, called a few days later to say we missed something obvious. "Lotus already has a graphical spreadsheet," McGrath told us. "How do you think Release 3 can display a graph on the same screen as a worksheet?"

McGrath is right, of course. The Lotus publicity machine has been mysteriously silent on this point, but Release 3 does in fact generate a full bit-mapped screen at all times; the program's old-fashioned

character-based look is a kind of software trompe l'oeil simulation.

Why go to all the trouble of faking a character-based interface? Dave Reed, the principle architect of...

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