Word has been around for almost 30 years so there is no reason why
anyone should complain about its use, its also one of the easiest
programs to use (up to Word 97' then after that the interface got
annoyingly top heavy and insanely overpopulated, the latest revision is
so ridiculously complex - plus always wants to save its default to the
.docx type, it becomes garbage) but if you can use wordpad, you can use
Word... Quite frankly, why we are all using Word today is it was a
lot easier to use then Wordperfect which we're all talking about a
program that went back to CP/M days...
Outlook - eh, its got its plus' and minus' - I stop using it years ago
due to all of the security flaws in it, plus it was such a slow prog and
a resource hog - though now lately - Thunderbird is getting a bit
sluggish and sometimes goes outta control memory usage insane...
So what should we do? Go back to edlin or vi for wordprocessing?
Maybe Electric Pencil? as for email, hey lets go back to uucp mail
programs or maybe lets use SNDMSG, you don't like Outlook, lets go back
to MS Mail....
;-)
Tony Duell wrote:
Of late the
negativity in CCTALK has reached somewhat epic proportions - and
people are coming across in a rather poor light. Many posters seem to be
permanently stuck in the stone age and appear to hate anything produced in
the last 30 years.
Yep, and there's a darn good reason for that. Almsot nothing produced in
the last 30 yerars has improved my life one bit.
This post is a perfect example :
"Outhouse" and "Weird" - hate to tell you but both of those
particular
products have been the business standard for quite a few years now and a lot
I refucse to regard them as standards for one very good reason. They are
not fully documented. The 'stnadard metre' is a standard. It's
docuemtned, I can in principle recreate it at home. But just try getting
enough docuemntation to fully interpret a Word file.
of roles are advertised that require the
applicants to be proficient in
their uses.
I fail to see why. In the case of Outlook, surely any e-mail prgram can
send/receive mail that is compatible with it. Does it matter what I
choose to use? It's about as sensible as saying I _must_ use a tektronix
'scope.
In the case of Word, I can understnad that alas we've got in a situation
whete propriatry programs are used and where you van't correctly generate
or interpet the docuemtnes without using that progam. Why the world got
int othat state is beyond me, but... However, I would argue that for
somebody emplyed as a designer, vintage computer engineer, or whatreer,
learning Word is a trivial task for them, based on what they already
know. Unless said person has a religious objection to said program, it's
surely better to pick the candidate who is best at reapiring vintage
computers (a skill which can not be picked up in an afternoon) rather
than the one who knows Word (which can).
Nor should users of the products be denigrated as
useless or idiots because
they use them - claiming such only proves that YOU are the foolish one.
These are the tools of the trade now (and despite the haters who seem to
think they are "rubbish") are rather powerful ones - especially Outlook.
I am not conviced thet would be any better than the tools I already use
for the jovs I need to do now. If that changes I am nat averse to
considering them.
-tony