Ah, I checked out the software archive and Immediately saw things I haven't seen in years.
I have Visicalc (which still works on my Windows 7 Home Premium system - which says a lot, good and bad, about Microsoft backwards combatability). WordStar always reminded me of Mass 11 and Wang word processing, all of which I found cumbersome and irritating. My first home computer, a Columbia (as in Maryland) 96% IBM PC clone, had the PerfectOffice collection (long before Microsoft Office). PerfectWriter, PerfectCalc, and a couple of other Perfects (DB and mail, I seem to remember). One evening in 1984 I called from my home in Omaha to the support number and was told by a nice lady to call back later as they were eating dinner. When I did call back she asked me to please wait a second. In the background, I heard her yell a male name with the instructions to come up from the basement. A few minutes later, a young voice proceeded to help me with my technical question. The nerd in the basement meme had not been created at that point, but when it came along later I knew exactly what it was about. BTW, PerfectWriter was like Emacs in TeX mode and PerfectCalc solved the sparse matrix problem by storing the spreadsheet as the ASCII keystrokes necessary to recreate it. I first played Adventure on a Data General computer. I took a class at their development center in Westboro, Mass, where the motorcycle gang developed the RDOS and AOS/VS Command LIne Interpreter (CLI) that would answer the command "xyzzy" with "Nothing happens". You have to have played Colossal Cave Adventure to understand the reference. I think that was the first Easter egg I discovered in software. Ray Parks Consilient Heuristician/IDART Program Manager V: 505-844-4024 M: 505-238-9359 P: 505-951-6084 NIPR: [email protected] SIPR: [email protected] (send NIPR reminder) JWICS: [email protected] (send NIPR reminder) On Oct 29, 2013, at 11:27 AM, glen e. p. ropella wrote: > > For many of the same reasons, I also found this site interesting: > > http://www.compileonline.com/index.php > > "Compile and Execute your favorite programming languages online, click any of > the following to proceed!" > > I honestly had never heard of Malbolge, Factor, and Fantom. > > > Gary Schiltz wrote at 10/29/2013 09:43 AM: >> Wow, that�s cool. It�s a shame that so much software will never see the >> light of day. Many billions of dollars were spent developing software in the >> 80s for the DOD as well as Soviet agencies. I�ve heard it argued that the >> USSR lost the cold war mainly because the USA made them spend so much on >> defense, and quite a sizable chunk of that was for software. >> >> Gary >> >> On Oct 29, 2013, at 11:31 AM, glen e. p. ropella <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> >>> https://archive.org/details/historicalsoftware >>> >>> "This collection contains selected historically important software packages >>> from the Internet Archive's software archives. Through the use of >>> in-browser emulators, it is possible to try out these items and experiment >>> with using them, without the additional burdens of installing emulator >>> software or tracking down the programs. Many of these software products >>> were the first of their kind, or utilized features and approaches that have >>> been copied or recreated on many programs since. (historic software, >>> vintage software, antique software)" > > -- > glen e. p. ropella, 971-255-2847, http://tempusdictum.com > If you disclose the solution to the mystery you are simply depriving the > other seekers of an important source of energy. -- Conchis, "The Magus" by > John Fowles > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
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