Author Topic: What was a great program that's now been forgotten? (Read 40940 times)

ibay770 · « **Reply #50 on:** May 26, 2022, 11:37 AM »

The one that comes to mind for me is WordStar, a ground breaking word processor from back in the character-mode CP/M & DOS days. It didn't successfully make the jump to graphical environments. They got killed by WordPerfect and MS Word.

Pioneered the use of the ESDX 'diamond' for cursor movement (when the Ctrl key was held down). Way back then keyboards didn't always have dedicated arrow keys. Made far more sense to me than Vi's HLJK scheme.

I just threw out an old manual/floppy box from the 80's that I had kept around for nostalgia reasons.
-mwb1100 (January 24, 2020, 12:29 PM)

"ESDX 'diamond' for cursor movement (when the Ctrl key was held down" can you clarify what this means? Also whats stopping someone from writing an addon for wordperfect to do the same?

ibay770 · « **Reply #51 on:** May 26, 2022, 01:45 PM »

For me it was WinXP. I'm still using it (among all later versions of Win) since I am using programs I need for work that have never been upgraded for later Win Versions. WinXP is actually the master sys to network all computers running later systems. WinXP still proves to be the most stable system. Win7,8, and even 10 are crashing (not often of course!) WinXP doesn't. The system runs 12 hours 7 days at average. The only problem is now to not get good graphic cards anymore that would run with XP. So far I failed to find an nvdia for my system. The old graphic card gets weaker and weaker, it won't supply any more dual screen, and when it fails completely, that would be the end of my XPeriance. Very sad!
-Wuffke (March 24, 2020, 10:42 PM)

Sounds like you would enjoy this: https://archive.org/...tegralEdition-211221

It's a team effort to keep xp running on modern hardware.

ibay770 · « **Reply #52 on:** May 26, 2022, 01:48 PM »

I know what web page I miss: Zaine's Great Software List.

In 2005 it was the bee's knees, and somewhat of an inspiration for donationcoder..
https://www.donation...index.php?topic=8988

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-mouser (January 24, 2020, 06:48 PM)

A more modern version here: https://github.com/A...some-Windows/Awesome

40hz · « **Reply #53 on:** May 27, 2022, 09:38 AM »

Two of my old favorites were FoxPro and Rbase. Rbase (my fav) actually could reasonably claim to be fully relational. Rbase had the better built-in query language and programmability of the two. I mostly used the BCD edition of Turbo Pascal when I needed to do any real FoxPro programming. But FoxPro was the absolute performance leader due to its indexing optimization technology FoxPro called:Rushmore.

From what I could gather, it was somehow “indexing the indexes” in the database as those more knowledgeable than me claimed. Sort and lookup speeds were utterly phenomenal for the era and PC platforms available. Instantaneous compared to the competition. But both were exceptional database frameworks.

My big “thing” back in those days was inventory management and MRP II, which has since been replaced by ERP. (PC type CPUs technology and software of that era lacked the horsepower and resources needed to run a genuine ERP program.) Something I had a fair degree of expertise in back then. I did a lot of development and programming for SMB clients with those two databases back in the days when I was still mostly a programmer - or “coder” in today’s vernacular.

I also very much miss Microsoft Money. Superior in every way to Quicken AFAIC.

ibay770 · « **Reply #54 on:** May 27, 2022, 01:44 PM »

HiJaak Pro was a great screen capture and graphic converter that was included with corel trace as of the last version i had used
-ShadowMaster (January 30, 2020, 08:23 PM)

What could it do that today's programs can't? You have Sharex for screenshots and Sagethumbs for thumbnails.

irkregent · « **Reply #55 on:** May 27, 2022, 04:11 PM »

Two of my old favorites were FoxPro and Rbase.
<snip>
But FoxPro was the absolute performance leader due to its indexing optimization technology FoxPro called:Rushmore.
-40hz (May 27, 2022, 09:38 AM)

Wow, is that a "blast from the past"! I haven't heard that term "Rushmore" in this context since about 1994-5. In my job at the time we were doing a lot of mailing list work and we found FoxPro to be a far better tool for manipulating that data than the antiquated database tool we were already using for in-house applications.

irkregent · « **Reply #56 on:** May 27, 2022, 06:21 PM »

A more modern version here: https://github.com/A...some-Windows/Awesome
-ibay770 (May 26, 2022, 01:48 PM)

This is a great list. There are a number of goodies there that I have never heard of. Thanks for the point.

irkregent · « **Reply #57 on:** May 27, 2022, 07:20 PM »

PC-Write was, I think, the first software I personally paid for. I used that character-mode word processor for years before finally succumbing to the seduction of Windows GUI writing. I still have the PC-Write packet here somewhere. I'm too sentimental to throw it out.

ibay770 · « **Reply #58 on:** May 29, 2022, 12:40 PM »

A more modern version here: https://github.com/A...some-Windows/Awesome
-ibay770 (May 26, 2022, 01:48 PM)

This is a great list. There are a number of goodies there that I have never heard of. Thanks for the point.
-irkregent (May 27, 2022, 06:21 PM)

My pleasure. I made a list with the stuff I use personally.

brahman · « **Reply #59 on:** May 31, 2022, 08:53 PM »

Daytimer Organizer - my favorite PIM of all times. Never found a PIM so perfect ever again. It seems all PIMs become dumber and less customizable every year.

AMI Pro Word processor, the most easy to use word processor I ever worked with

Quattro Pro spreadsheet - the first spreadsheet that was actually fun to work with.

Synchronize It! and Compare It! - superb GUI design, I still use them to this day for small simple jobs - one can still buy them, they still work, but unfortunately not upgraded for many many years. Synchronize It! can even copy sparse files, which is extremely rare.

irkregent · « **Reply #60 on:** June 01, 2022, 09:16 AM »

Synchronize It! and Compare It! - superb GUI design, I still use them to this day for small simple jobs - one can still buy them, they still work, but unfortunately not upgraded for many many years. Synchronize It! can even copy sparse files, which is extremely rare.
-brahman (May 31, 2022, 08:53 PM)

I still use "Compare It!" for source code comparisons. For me, the killer feature is the ability to recognize the syntax of a rather obscure programming language (Progress' OpenEdge ABL) by downloading a syntax definition file written for some other text editor (I forget which one now).

wraith808 · « **Reply #61 on:** June 01, 2022, 10:31 AM »

Synchronize It! and Compare It! - superb GUI design, I still use them to this day for small simple jobs - one can still buy them, they still work, but unfortunately not upgraded for many many years. Synchronize It! can even copy sparse files, which is extremely rare.
-brahman (May 31, 2022, 08:53 PM)

Have they been forgotten? I thought they were still being sold? I use them all the time.

https://www.grigsoft.com/wincmp3.htm

irkregent · « **Reply #62 on:** June 01, 2022, 12:29 PM »

Synchronize It! and Compare It! - superb GUI design, I still use them to this day for small simple jobs - one can still buy them, they still work, but unfortunately not upgraded for many many years. Synchronize It! can even copy sparse files, which is extremely rare.
-brahman (May 31, 2022, 08:53 PM)

Have they been forgotten? I thought they were still being sold? I use them all the time.

https://www.grigsoft.com/wincmp3.htm
-wraith808 (June 01, 2022, 10:31 AM)

Maybe it is more like not getting the love they deserve!

Ath · « **Reply #63 on:** June 01, 2022, 12:35 PM »

Synchronize It! and Compare It! - superb GUI design, I still use them to this day for small simple jobs - one can still buy them, they still work, but unfortunately not upgraded for many many years. Synchronize It! can even copy sparse files, which is extremely rare.
-brahman (May 31, 2022, 08:53 PM)

I've been a licensed used for, AFAIR, over 20 year, and still use it at least a couple times a month, and sometimes even on a daily basis. Best compare tools ever

Joe Hone · « **Reply #64 on:** June 04, 2022, 09:39 AM »

Cool Edit Pro. It was the leading audio production software up until Adobe bought it from Syntrillium in 2003 and renamed it Audition 1.0. Then Adobe tampered with it and released Audition 1.5 which was plagued with problems. CEP is so stable that I visited a radio station in New Market Virginia in 2019 and that was still using it for radio production. I assume that was on a PC running Windows XP but I didn't ask about that.

sphere · « **Reply #65 on:** July 11, 2022, 11:37 PM »

A more modern version here: https://github.com/A...some-Windows/Awesome
-ibay770 (May 26, 2022, 01:48 PM)

This is a great list. There are a number of goodies there that I have never heard of. Thanks for the point.
-irkregent (May 27, 2022, 06:21 PM)

My pleasure. I made a list with the stuff I use personally.
-ibay770 (May 29, 2022, 12:40 PM)

@ibay770 Have you used WinToUSB successfully?

ibay770 · « **Reply #66 on:** July 14, 2022, 02:12 PM »

I haven't tried the W2G yet, but I may try it out sometime.

A more modern version here: https://github.com/A...some-Windows/Awesome
-ibay770 (May 26, 2022, 01:48 PM)

This is a great list. There are a number of goodies there that I have never heard of. Thanks for the point.
-irkregent (May 27, 2022, 06:21 PM)

My pleasure. I made a list with the stuff I use personally.
-ibay770 (May 29, 2022, 12:40 PM)
@ibay770 Have you used WinToUSB successfully?
-sphere (July 11, 2022, 11:37 PM)

ibay770 · « **Reply #67 on:** July 14, 2022, 02:13 PM »

Cool Edit Pro. It was the leading audio production software up until Adobe bought it from Syntrillium in 2003 and renamed it Audition 1.0. Then Adobe tampered with it and released Audition 1.5 which was plagued with problems. CEP is so stable that I visited a radio station in New Market Virginia in 2019 and that was still using it for radio production. I assume that was on a PC running Windows XP but I didn't ask about that.
-Joe Hone (June 04, 2022, 09:39 AM)

Interesting. Personally I like the UI of audition better, but here you go.

ibay770 · « **Reply #68 on:** July 14, 2022, 02:15 PM »

Well perhaps you will like UltraCompare then

Synchronize It! and Compare It! - superb GUI design, I still use them to this day for small simple jobs - one can still buy them, they still work, but unfortunately not upgraded for many many years. Synchronize It! can even copy sparse files, which is extremely rare.
-brahman (May 31, 2022, 08:53 PM)

Have they been forgotten? I thought they were still being sold? I use them all the time.

https://www.grigsoft.com/wincmp3.htm
-wraith808 (June 01, 2022, 10:31 AM)

Maybe it is more like not getting the love they deserve!
-irkregent (June 01, 2022, 12:29 PM)

ibay770 · « **Reply #69 on:** July 14, 2022, 02:25 PM »

You can run 16bit stuff on win10 with this
Win11 doesn't work with it as yet, though

Claris EZ Business Cards
-app103 (February 01, 2020, 12:41 AM)