The Eductive Implementation of a Three-dimensional Spreadsheet

This paper presents an implementation technique for a three-dimensional spreadsheet based on a dataflow computation model called eduction. In the evaluation of a spreadsheet, initiated by the user’s request, demands for values of various cells of the spreadsheet are sent out. The demands cause the operations computing the requested values to be performed if the values of their operands are available, otherwise new demands will in turn be sent out to other operations. Once all the demands are satisfied, the requested cell values are available. This technique shows potential not only for spreadsheet implementations but also for other software packages such as graphics and simulators.