nostalgia hour: old software you loved

[thomthowolf]

I got through college writing all my papers in a beautiful software called "Wordbench."  This was a wonderful tool for writers, which allowed you to collect notes on notecards, build an outline to which you connected them, and then generate a rough draft.  I also featured a couple of really great tools for getting unblocked.  It had a freewriting tool I still miss, which set a timer for 5 minutes, nagged you if you stopped pressing keys, and hid your typing behind x's until your time was up.  I have never found another software like it.

[urlwolf]

Sounds extremely interesting, thomtowolf!
What OS was Wordbech for?

No dice running it in dos mode (emmulation)?

[CWuestefeld]

I have to say, the best word processor for me in the DOS days was ENABLE. Anyone remember this one?

-Josh (March 03, 2007, 03:36 PM)

Remember it? I worked for the company! When I was in college, I worked part-time as a tester for their spreadsheet module. I once wrote a full-featured (insurance, double-down, you name it) blackjack game using spreadsheet macros, which inspired the rest of the department to write other games, until we had a whole spreadsheet casino. There's some interesting stories following that, like the random number generator bug that we found because of the craps game. I still think that the last version of Enable's spreadsheet is the best spreadsheet ever made.

The first shareware-type program I bought was long enough ago that I've forgotten the name. It was a terminal emulator for the Atari ST (remember the days of BBSes?). I expect that in the PC era, my first purchases were also a terminal emulator and a D&D-like RPG.

The oldest piece of shareware that I still use is probably Zoot (and we're still waiting for the 32-bit version, promised very soon now).

From the old DOS days, I also fondly remember Sidekick. The amount of creativity and hacking expertise (in the good sense) that went into that program is unsurpassed. Anybody remember the secret "Vogon Poetry"?

[MerleOne]

There is one software I am missing a lot nowadays, even if it was designed for low speed connections  : Laplink.

You could install the software from a PC where it was running to another PC just using a crossed serial cable and typing the right commands on the target PC.  A minimal client was then downloaded and you could install the whole software on the second PC, then have hi-speed transfers between the two PCs by running Laplink on both of them.

Also, it had a unique feature for transferring files from PC "A" to PC "B".  When transferring a file from "A", if another version already existed on "B", Laplink would only transfer the difference between the "A" and "B" versions and managed to reconstruct the desired file on "B".

Todays, even with high speed networks, this might still be useful with GB size files.

[Sara_Smiles]

MerleOne wrote: "There is one software I am missing a lot nowadays, even if it was designed for low speed connections  : Laplink."

Merle - I work for the modern-day Laplink, and we've just released a Vista-ready version of the software you're talking about. It's called Laplink PCsync. And the feature you're talking about - faster file transfers and synchronization by just moving the changed portion of documents - still exists as a feature of PCsync. It's called "Speedsync."

www.laplink.com/pcsync

[thomthowolf]

Sounds extremely interesting, thomtowolf!
What OS was Wordbech for?

No dice running it in dos mode (emmulation)?

-urlwolf (March 05, 2007, 01:34 PM)

Actually, it ran in dos 6.22, which I still have, and can emulate.  The trouble is that I was young and foolish, and ran from my original disks, which were fatally stricken with a virus The company stopped supporting it so I was never able to replace it.

[gri]

The programs that come to my mind are:

-Ruffnekk (March 05, 2007, 09:48 AM)

Please, can anybody put the forum PM reading on RuffNeck's mind ?
There is something about nostalgic vasilisa for him.

[NigelH]

PC-Outline (Dos) -Brown Bag software
Copy seen here http://www.umich.edu.../database/pcoutline/

List Plus (Dos) - from Vern Buerg

These days though, I use Less to view really large text files 
http://www.greenwood....com/less/index.html

[iphigenie]

you know, there are emulators that make it easy to preserve old games, good and bad, and even see them in action again, and preserve the name of the people who did them etc.

But there's very little to preserve even basic information about old non game software. Strange. I guess games can pretend to being borderline applied arts...

[rjbull]

But there's very little to preserve even basic information about old non game software.

-iphigenie (March 07, 2007, 03:52 AM)

Coming close:

Dan's 20th Century Abandonware

Free Software for DOS

[bassclarinetl2]

In the Game realm (software?)  All the Super Solvers games by TLC.  i.e. Gizmos and Gadgets...   Most still work.

[dcm]

Does anyone remember DOS PIP?

You couldn't get along without it!

[djkarmad]

What I miss:
I have to agree totally with mouser: XyWrite
And I will add Aldus Photoshop 1.0 because of the best feature ever written for a PC app... I call it the "grabbing hand" (a-la Depeche Mode)... Hold down the Alt key and your cursor because a hand which could move your document around. Why we're still stuck with stupid always-too-thin scrollbars, I'll never know.
Oh and dBase III Plus since I taught myself and wrote a complete networked app to deal with a radio station's snow closing system.

[danw]

well - I started on a Panasonic dos machine - had 3 of them - that is after having Commodores 64 & 128 - the software was Verse Search very expensive bible program - I still use it - the original programmer tells me he is retiring & there will be no more development - Pity its search function was (is) like greased lighting
Accounting packages kept in Dos & I sort of missed win 3.1
I spent money on utilities
Ramsgate - the first memory manager
Xfile Pro
A great backup program - I’ll have to look through my old 51/4 floppies for it
I always like to register - I'm fascinated by the thought of people working away to write code over which I'm completely baffled - I often send words of thanks but this is only since we could go on line - I used to have to reduce the packets to a very small size to get them over dirty phone lines & would send a print file ready to print cheques to an office 150 Ks away - I was fascinated that I could do a search in American universities by using satellites in the late 80's
WordStar was my best word processor - actually I have the macros to make word act like WordStar
my early "posts" were fun I actually had a tip printed in the WordStar users mag. My trouble is that I forget so much - I can still program a 4th generation relational database but use one now that ports to windows & Mac that only my daughter can use -
PCTools
splitty
norton
creative sound drivers - used to drive me nuts
cleansweep
boxer text editor - still use
windelet
coloradobackup
removeit
quickline banking
winpay
xtreegold
pctools pro
superevoice 2.2
arcada backup
maxtor max blast
th list goes on

[rjbull]

Hold down the Alt key and your cursor because a hand which could move your document around. Why we're still stuck with stupid always-too-thin scrollbars, I'll never know.

-djkarmad (March 12, 2007, 08:28 AM)

Try the Logitech TrackBall instead of a standard mouse...  press the middle mouse key and the cursor changes to a different shape; flick the ball up or down and the whole page heads that way.

[tomos]

And I will add Aldus Photoshop 1.0 because of the best feature ever written for a PC app... I call it the "grabbing hand" (a-la Depeche Mode)... Hold down the Alt key and your cursor because a hand which could move your document around. Why we're still stuck with stupid always-too-thin scrollbars, I'll never know.

-djkarmad (March 12, 2007, 08:28 AM)

that's still the case in:
 Photoshop, illustrator, Freehand & probably a bunch of other graphics programmes (except using the spacebar now)

I feel like my hands are tied if I have to use "stupid always-too-thin scrollbars"