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A look back: WordPerfect on DOS (2023)

(technicallywewrite.com)
32 points TMWNN | 1 comments | 01 Apr 25 21:08 UTC | HN request time: 0.235s | source
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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 #
1. 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.