Linear regression in a DOS spreadsheet

Someone asked me recently about the apps I used under DOS. My favorite DOS app when I was an undergraduate in the early 1990s was a spreadsheet called As Easy As. It was a great spreadsheet, basically the same as Lotus 1-2-3, but geared for engineers and scientists. And it was "As Easy As 1-2-3" .. so that's a great dad joke.
Since I was a physics student, I used As Easy As all the time. One thing that was super useful was linear regression, which provided the analysis and statistics I needed for my physics labs.
Here's how that worked.
Thanks to TRIUS for releasing As Easy As for DOS as free (gratis) software! You can download it legally from the link in the TRIUS forums:
www.triusinc.com/forums/viewto...
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Standard comment rules apply.

[@anon_y_mousse]

I hardly ever use a spreadsheet program, but suddenly I find myself wanting to have a vim-style spreadsheet program. I found one incomplete spreadsheet plugin for vim, so I'd probably be better off writing something from scratch, whether a plugin or a full program, but I'm definitely adding that to the project list, #1057.

[@mlongval]

Thanks Jim that was a clear, quick and useful tour of a great app that I used back in the day! You are a great teacher! Cheers from Canada!

[@freedosproject]

You're very welcome! It is one of my favorite DOS applications.

[@CaribouDataScience]

I had VisiCalc for in Atari 800. It screen was 256x256. It makes bar plots with "*".

[@JohnnieMartynov]

I remember SuperCalc (provided by Computer Associates), but it has not special functions for regression, I think. There was no possibility for custom colors of cells, I think.

[@freedosproject]

That linear regression (linefit) feature was a lifesaver for me. Our undergrad physics program had a big emphasis on lab, and we were always doing some form of data analysis. Linear regression was most common (it's often the easiest way to see the relationship between two variables).

[@MotownBatman]

Keep the Videos Rockin Sir!
Awesome Work as Always!
Hidin' in Dryden, MI

[@freedosproject]

Thanks! 😎 Will do!

[@beest_]

I honestly loved it, your demo was impressive 👍

[@freedosproject]

Glad you enjoyed it! This feature helped me out a *ton* in my undergrad physics classes. And 'As Easy As' is my favorite DOS spreadsheet - probably still my favorite spreadsheet on any platform.

[@Glutnix]

This was fun to watch - I miss doing stuff in DOS :)

[@freedosproject]

Thanks! 👍 I'm planning some Patreon-only bonus content about how to use As Easy As to do a bunch of spreadsheet stuff that we do all the time on Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice Calc. It's pretty cool that As Easy As was that advanced - it even supports "3D" spreadsheets (what we call "tabs" or "worksheets") although it looked different then.

[@kenhaze5230]

Nice

[@ahmad-murery]

It's always good to start my day with a tech from the past so I can relax my 2 brain cells from the unnecessary complexity of today's tech.
No doubt I want to see more.
Thanks Jim!

[@freedosproject]

You are welcome! 😎 I'm already planning another one with As Easy As that I might do in a few weeks.

[@ahmad-murery]

@@freedosproject May our life be As Easy As it used to be

[@CaribouDataScience]

What other old dos apps are still around? db4 or Wordstar?

[@freedosproject]

There are a lot of DOS apps and games still around on DOS archive sites. Check out our "Links" page on the website to find some of them.

[@user-qu8bm5xm3d]

used to play with Lotus 123 as a teenager

[@freedosproject]

I used Lotus 1-2-3 during a summer job at the end of high school, doing data entry. Good spreadsheet.

[@harkonen1000000]

Gnumeric was the thing to use by the time I was in uni.

[@freedosproject]

Looks like Gnumeric started in 2001, so that was after my time at university. I did use it at the time though. I recall it had basic features, but I think it had enough that it could have done most of my lab work (IIRC, it lacked linear regression back then).
The only spreadsheet on Linux in the 1990s was a program called SC (spreadsheet calculator) originally written by James Gosling in the early 1980s. It also lacked linear regression, but it could do "basic" spreadsheet stuff just fine. (But I loved As Easy As, so I just booted back into DOS to run that.)

[@philtoa334]

Nice ,

[@freedosproject]

Thanks :)

[@mtalhakhalid1679]

i did use lotus123