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A look back: WordPerfect on DOS (2023)

(technicallywewrite.com)
32 points TMWNN | 4 comments | 01 Apr 25 21:08 UTC | HN request time: 0.254s | source
1. kjellsbells ◴[01 Apr 25 21:59 UTC] No.43551771[source]▶
WordPerfect was like vi: forbidding entry point, difficult key bindings, and a joy to use once you got it.

Word for Windows even had a mode that replicated the plain blue screen and behavior of WP5.1 for a few years, which I still miss.

WP also ran on the UNIX of the day, with look and feel very much like the DOS version. Tavis Ormandy got it working on Linux[0].

[0] https://github.com/taviso/wpunix?tab=readme-ov-file

replies(3): >>43552064 #>>43553192 #>>43556354 #
2. mmooss ◴[01 Apr 25 22:45 UTC] No.43552064[source]▶
> WordPerfect was like vi: forbidding entry point, difficult key bindings, and a joy to use once you got it.

Maybe in that way, but I think it's misleading to say a every keyboard-based non-GUI editor is essentially similar. Vi's appeal is the muscle memory of complex commands, because of the moded keyboard - one mode being character insert, the other being commands.

Didn't WP use function keys + accelerator keys? That's almost the opposite of Vi's efficiency and muscle-memory.

3. wenc ◴[02 Apr 25 02:31 UTC] No.43553192[source]▶
XyWrite: hold my beer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XyWrite

XyWrite was hardcore.

4. compsciphd ◴[02 Apr 25 13:17 UTC] No.43556354[source]▶
I believe there was a GUI version of Word Perfect for X11 before Word Perfect for Windows existed and Word Perfect was an early user of Wine for Corel's port of Word Perfect for Windows to Linux in their abortive effort to go all in on linux on the desktop (also being an early proponent of arm on the desktop)