Yes, word processing is one area that never impressed me on the C-64 or Amiga. I can remember using a program called Scribble! extensively in school (this would have been in the early 1990s), and tinkered with one named "Final Copy," but neither were anywhere close to Microsoft Word. Then again, I was never impressed with the early versions of Word Perfect, simply because I found the need to learn function keys annoying. That kind of thing definitely benefited from WYSIWYG and WIMP interfaces.
Yep, there were early versions of WordPerfect on the ST and Amiga, as well, but the company chose to stop supporting both with new versions fairly early on. C-64 word processing (I used "Quick Brown Fox" on cartridge for a while and a few others, then mostly stuck with GeoWrite) was primitive and limited for obvious reasons (40-column screen, slow disk drives, etc.), but the Amiga didn't have as much of an excuse. Over the years, even with the major publishers pulling their productivity stuff from the Amiga, word processing software did advance feature-wise, but never really stability-wise. Probably a good portion of that had to do again with eventual memory limitations and being restricted to using a disk drive, all while trying to maintain a high-level GUI/WYSIWYG environment, with multi-tasking.
My first project-based job out of college used Word under Windows 3.1. My first real job after that, I had to use the non-GUI version of WordPerfect 5.1 on Unix. Obviously that was a huge shock to the system. While WordPerfect (it was the same as the DOS version) was quick, you had to master the function key and other key combinations in order to survive. It got the job done and you could see how people could appreciate it since it was a bit like coding in HTML by hand is today, but once GUI's evolved in productivity applications and to a usable and stable state, particularly under Windows, there was no real need to go back unless you were on a clunker of a system where performance would have been an issue. And I NEVER got into DOS Lotus 1-2-3, even though I tried. Spreadsheets scream for GUI interfaces and to me, that's where Microsoft probably made its smartest move to get everyone onto their productivity applications - Excel.
Again, there are some things that vintage computers did and still do just fine, but when it comes to certain productivity applications, particularly word processing and spreadsheets, today's stuff is simply better (not perfect by any means, but definitely better).
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
*************************** Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Yes, word processing is one area that never impressed me on the C-64 or Amiga. I can remember using a program called Scribble! extensively in school (this would have been in the early 1990s), and tinkered with one named "Final Copy," but neither were anywhere close to Microsoft Word. Then again, I was never impressed with the early versions of Word Perfect, simply because I found the need to learn function keys annoying. That kind of thing definitely benefited from WYSIWYG and WIMP interfaces.
Yep, there were early versions of WordPerfect on the ST and Amiga, as well, but the company chose to stop supporting both with new versions fairly early on. C-64 word processing (I used "Quick Brown Fox" on cartridge for a while and a few others, then mostly stuck with GeoWrite) was primitive and limited for obvious reasons (40-column screen, slow disk drives, etc.), but the Amiga didn't have as much of an excuse. Over the years, even with the major publishers pulling their productivity stuff from the Amiga, word processing software did advance feature-wise, but never really stability-wise. Probably a good portion of that had to do again with eventual memory limitations and being restricted to using a disk drive, all while trying to maintain a high-level GUI/WYSIWYG environment, with multi-tasking.
My first project-based job out of college used Word under Windows 3.1. My first real job after that, I had to use the non-GUI version of WordPerfect 5.1 on Unix. Obviously that was a huge shock to the system. While WordPerfect (it was the same as the DOS version) was quick, you had to master the function key and other key combinations in order to survive. It got the job done and you could see how people could appreciate it since it was a bit like coding in HTML by hand is today, but once GUI's evolved in productivity applications and to a usable and stable state, particularly under Windows, there was no real need to go back unless you were on a clunker of a system where performance would have been an issue. And I NEVER got into DOS Lotus 1-2-3, even though I tried. Spreadsheets scream for GUI interfaces and to me, that's where Microsoft probably made its smartest move to get everyone onto their productivity applications - Excel.
Again, there are some things that vintage computers did and still do just fine, but when it comes to certain productivity applications, particularly word processing and spreadsheets, today's stuff is simply better (not perfect by any means, but definitely better).
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
***************************
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.