Mar 26, 2025
Stanley Trost, Electronic Arts Financial
Cookbook
Stanley R. Trost wrote several books about early
microcomputers, including Atari BASIC Programs in Minutes, Doing
Business with VisiCalc, Multiplan on the Commodore 64, Useful Basic
Programs the for IBM PC, VisiCalc for Science and Engineering, and
others. He was also the creator of Financial Cookbook, which was
published by Electronic Arts in 1984 (and one of only two "home
management" titles released by EA, the other being Cut and Paste,
"the Remarkably Simple Word Processor").
Financial Cookbook provided 32 financial calculators and
decision-making tools, including understanding your marginal tax
rate, living on your savings, how much life insurance you need,
variable rate mortgages, and so on. Versions of the program were
sold for Atari 8-bit and ST, Apple II, Commodore 64, Macintosh, and
perhaps other platforms.
This interview took place on March 24, 2025.