Claris Resolve was a
spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...
computer program
A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to Execution (computing), execute. It is one component of software, which also includes software documentation, documentation and other intangibl ...
for the
Apple Macintosh
Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...
. It was released by
Claris
Claris International Inc., formerly FileMaker Inc., is a computer software development company formed as a subsidiary company of Apple Inc., Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) in 1987. It was given the source code and copyrights to several program ...
in 1991 and sold until 1994.
In an effort to flesh out their software suite, in the early 1990s Claris wanted to introduce a spreadsheet application, and decided to buy an existing one. This was not particularly difficult, as
Informix
Informix is a product family within IBM's Information Management division that is centered on several relational database management system (RDBMS) and multi-model database offerings. The Informix products were originally developed by Inform ...
had essentially abandoned the Mac version of
WingZ, and Claris was able to purchase the non-exclusive rights to the
codebase
In software development, a codebase (or code base) is a collection of source code used to build a particular software system, application, or software component. Typically, a codebase includes only human-written source code system files; thu ...
. After changing the interface to conform to their new "Pro" line of product's
GUI, they released it at the
MacWorld Expo Boston on June 6, 1991, as Resolve.
Resolve supports a worksheet size of more than one billion cells and includes 149 built-in functions that allow users to create financial, statistical and mathematical models. Resolve also contains
object-oriented
Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of '' objects''. Objects can contain data (called fields, attributes or properties) and have actions they can perform (called procedures or methods and impleme ...
,
MacDraw-like drawing tools for combining illustrations, clip art, text, charts and numbers in reports. Resolve also included WingZ scripting language,
renamed Resolve Script. Resolve also offered 3D charting that Wingz was the first to bring on Macintosh.
Resolve failed to gain significant market share due to
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet editor developed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows, Windows, macOS, Android (operating system), Android, iOS and iPadOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a ...
, which also stopped
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles ...
becoming popular on the Macintosh. This led to disappointing sales, and in 1993 development was stopped. On 31 March 1994 Claris stopped selling Resolve, the program was supported up until 31 March 1995. Claris suggested existing Resolve users to upgrade to the spreadsheet module of
ClarisWorks.
Reception
Resolve 1.0v3 got mice (out of 5) in June 1992 issue of
MacUser, praising the familiar interface and the scripting.
References
External links
TidBITS#76/12-Aug-91 Claris Resolve introduction information
{{Spreadsheets
Macintosh-only software
Spreadsheet software