On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 6:38 AM, Kaplan <[email protected]> wrote:
> The only program I really miss from back then, besides Elite in the
> Commodore64, is DBase lll.
> The GUI has taken the fun , mystery, and the human component right out
> of the PC IMHO
Agreed, although I'd add to the list of programs I miss WordStar,
particularly its keyboard layout and the keyboard layout's integrated
Help system. It was an inspired combination for rapid learning of the
keyboard layout.
Sorry for suggesting that you might lack familiarity with WordPerfect.
My own involvement with word processing dates to the late 1960s, when
the technology's first commercially successful implementation came in
the North American newspaper industry. My first career was typography.
At the time I encountered word processing, I worked at the third U.S.
newspaper that adopted computerized hyphenation and justification of
text, the Tucson Star. All done with 6-bit Teletypetter ("TTS")
punched paper tape in those days, an open telegraphy standard adopted
in 1928 for use by The Associated Press and its member publications.
That was during the "embrace" phase. IBM and Compugraphic quickly
moved into the "extend" phase, adding a third code page to TTS to
translate a richer vocabulary of the handwritten "markup language"
that had evolved over the 500-year history of the printing trade into
machine processable code. (Proofreader's marks are a surviving remnant
of the original handwritten markup language.) Since then, I've never
again encountered competing but interoperable word processors based on
an open standard. That ended with the extension of TTS in the early
1970s.
Very nice online museum here of the state of electro-mechanical
newspaper typesetting technology just prior to the extension of TTS.
<http://gochipmunk.com/html/contents.html>. Includes more information
about TTS than any other site I've found on the Web.
Well, I've rambled enough. Back to work.
Best regards,
Paul
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