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Subject:Re: old computing From:"David Neeley" <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 8 Mar 2007 14:00:53 -0600
XyWrite...at the time, I thought it was MUCH beyond anything else out
there. It was a DOS-based clone of a minicomputer system much used by
newspapers at the time. Thus, it was designed for flexibility and
speed from the ground up.
One feature I remember fondly is that you could do a "dir" command
just like in DOS, only *much* faster. The resulting directory listing
could be saved as a file like any other word processing file. That
came in extremely handy from time to time--I wish the current word
processors could do it!
I used XyWrite on my first PC clone. I do not believe that the vast
majority of word processing is any faster or or particularly easier
today than it was with XyWrite "back in the day."
My first computer was a Zorba, a "luggable" CP/M machine. It was a
64KB 8086 box with dual floppies. Remember having to use a program
called "Uniform" to read and write the *many* proprietary floppy disk
formats?
I do remember still the first time I sat down at an Apple Mac Classic
to do a brochure, learning the Mac as I went along. That was in a
computer dealer's showroom, as he was trying to sell my company on the
productivity benefits the Mac could bring us. I agreed, but
unfortunately my boss at the time didn't.
David
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