15 Mar
1998
15 Mar
'98
4:28 p.m.
----Original Message-----
From: Allison J Parent <allisonp(a)world.std.com>
I would say that 8kbasic was the first decent software
product from MS
though it was soon to change in the early 80s.
FYI the Extended BASIC interpreter for CP/M-80 and the BASCOM Compiler
for CP/M-80 were excellent products. Neither were bloatware by any
standard.
Quite right. Early MS products were extremely good quality software,
particularly compared to their competitors at the time. Tight, largely
bug-free and with well thought-out interfaces (exclude Multiplan, but
highlight MS Decathlon). Pity they couldn't (or wouldn't) keep up the good
work. Does the demise of quality stem from the departure of Paul Allen? I
don't know when he left MS.
David
"I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me."
A. A. Milne Winnie-the-Pooh, Ch. 4
15 Mar
15 Mar
5:20 p.m.
On Mon, 16 Mar 1998 11:28:35 +0800, you said:
Early MS products were extremely good quality
software,
particularly compared to their competitors at the time. Tight, largely
bug-free and with well thought-out interfaces (exclude Multiplan, but
highlight MS Decathlon).
I have a copy of Microsoft Word for DOS 4.0; looks a lot like
Multiplan. (A pity!)
_______________
Barry Peterson bmpete(a)swbell.net
Husband to Diane, Father to Doug,
Grandfather to Zoe and Tegan.
6:43 p.m.
Barry Peterson wrote:
On Mon, 16 Mar 1998 11:28:35 +0800, you said:
Matters of taste. I always liked MultiPlan on everything from the
TRS-80 Model II (and 4) to the Unix version. Never had a problem
with the user interface, which I prefer to the slash menus used by
VisiCalc, SuperCalc, Lotus etc. But putting that same interface on
Word for DOS made that my least favorite word processor to that
point, and I've known some bad ones over the years. I _still_
prefer MultiPlan to the monster that Redmond replaced it with.
--
Ward Griffiths
Dylan: How many years must some people exist,
before they're allowed to be free?
WDG3rd: If they "must" exist until they're "allowed",
they'll never be free.
Early MS products were extremely good quality
software,
particularly compared to their competitors at the time. Tight, largely
bug-free and with well thought-out interfaces (exclude Multiplan, but
highlight MS Decathlon).
I have a copy of Microsoft Word for DOS 4.0; looks a lot like
Multiplan. (A pity!) 
8:38 p.m.
At 00:43 3/16/98 -0500, Ward wrote:
I always liked MultiPlan....But putting that same
interface on
Word for DOS made that my least favorite word processor to that
point, and I've known some bad ones over the years....
Matters of taste, again. Microsoft Word for DOS 4.0, even with its buggy
file handling, was the version that finally pulled me away from WordStar; I
liked having so many more formatting options, and at about that same time I
got my Laserjet Plus, for which MicroPro's drivers were impossible.
The Word menu was much better after it lost the Alpha command. I upgraded
to Word for DOS 5.0 -- best DOS version IMHO, -- to 5.5, skipped 6.0
because it was weird, and then WinWord 1.0 was so bizarre (mostly the
mailmerge) that it almost drove me into the arms of the competition. (MS
actually sent me a little certificate for being a Word for Windows early
adopter, they knew how odd it was.) Newer versions are off-charter, but 2.0
was okay and I've been an MS-Word user ever since.
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
16 Mar
16 Mar
9:50 a.m.
On Mon, 16 Mar 1998 00:43:09 -0500, you said:
Matters of taste. I always liked MultiPlan on
everything from the
TRS-80 Model II (and 4) to the Unix version. Never had a problem
with the user interface, which I prefer to the slash menus used by
VisiCalc, SuperCalc, Lotus etc. But putting that same interface on
Word for DOS made that my least favorite word processor to that
point, and I've known some bad ones over the years. I _still_
prefer MultiPlan to the monster that Redmond replaced it with.
I use Multiplan on the TI-99, I use Quattro Pro on my PC's.
_______________
Barry Peterson bmpete(a)swbell.net
Husband to Diane, Father to Doug,
Grandfather to Zoe and Tegan.
5:46 p.m.
Barry Peterson wrote:
On Mon, 16 Mar 1998 00:43:09 -0500, you said:
I always save everything as .SLK so that everything goes from one
machine to another (memory permitting) (with Unix, virtual memory
permitting) without loss of data. Formatting? That's for Ecxel
folks who think if the spreadsheet is pretty it doesn't matter if
the numbers say the company is going down the toilet.
Quattro Pro is a fine product in its own right, BTW. It beat
(legally) the look-and-feel Lotus copyright bullshit even after
Lotus bought (and buried) VisiCalc where the look-and-feel
originally derived.
--
Ward Griffiths
Dylan: How many years must some people exist,
before they're allowed to be free?
WDG3rd: If they "must" exist until they're "allowed",
they'll never be free.
Matters of taste. I always liked MultiPlan on
everything from the
TRS-80 Model II (and 4) to the Unix version. Never had a problem
with the user interface, which I prefer to the slash menus used by
VisiCalc, SuperCalc, Lotus etc. But putting that same interface on
Word for DOS made that my least favorite word processor to that
point, and I've known some bad ones over the years. I _still_
prefer MultiPlan to the monster that Redmond replaced it with.
I use Multiplan on the TI-99, I use Quattro Pro on my PC's.
9626
days inactive
9627
days old
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