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Ask HN: What old or deprecated software do you wish was still updated?

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Re: Ask HN: What old or deprecated software do you wish was still updated?

#61

Post by ottod »

shakna wrote: post #35

WordPerfect. Yes, technically it still exists in some form, but not really. The modern version shares little in common with the DOS port - apart from unicode incompatibility, and that's hardly desirable. Corel have even acknowledged how good the DOS version was by attempting to have a "Classic Mode" with a similar interface. But the macro system is completely incompatible, and all the menus are different. It's a skin…

For me, WordPerfect in Spanish. It was a very professional translation, and all the relevant associated tools worked too. Now, sometimes you get all the bells and whistles in English and a couple more languages, and then only core functionality in the rest.

Re: Ask HN: What old or deprecated software do you wish was still updated?

#62

Post by mezentius »

shakna wrote: post #35

WordPerfect. Yes, technically it still exists in some form, but not really. The modern version shares little in common with the DOS port - apart from unicode incompatibility, and that's hardly desirable. Corel have even acknowledged how good the DOS version was by attempting to have a "Classic Mode" with a similar interface. But the macro system is completely incompatible, and all the menus are different. It's a skin…

I still use WordPerfect 6.2 for DOS regularly, particularly during the beginning of a writing project when I'm most prone to being distracted. If you emulate through DOSBox-X, you can use TTF fonts for screen output, and even print directly from the application.

(Happy to share information on how to set this up with anyone who might be interested.)

Re: Ask HN: What old or deprecated software do you wish was still updated?

#63

Post by BizarroLand »

LarryMade2 wrote: post #46

Old OS Printer Drivers - I can deal with a lot of old programs, just run them on old computers, but being able to print when classic printers are either in short supply or hard to maintain is an issue. So I would advocate for having modern printers with some open or legacy OS driver support. Alternative would be having some printer server/emulator which interfaces and emulates as popular legacy printer(s) and serves…

If it's important enough, you might be able to get them working from network through a raspi and CUPS.

Re: Ask HN: What old or deprecated software do you wish was still updated?

#64

Post by BizarroLand »

AnonHP wrote: post #15
devoutsalsa wrote: post #13

Any cool DOS game.

You can still play those using Dosbox (an emulator) and downloading the games from various archives. There are also browser ports for several games. One of the recent ones I saw, which was also shared here, was Prince of Persia ( https://princejs.com/ ).

What would be ideal for me would be having everything set up and ready to go. It is a bit of a hassle to install dosbox, copy the files to the internal file structure of the dosbox, then install the software and configure.

I know I'm being picky but taking 25 minutes to set up a new game or an old program just isn't usually worth the hassle for me.

Re: Ask HN: What old or deprecated software do you wish was still updated?

#66

Post by LarryMade2 »

BizarroLand wrote: post #63
LarryMade2 wrote: post #46

Old OS Printer Drivers - I can deal with a lot of old programs, just run them on old computers, but being able to print when classic printers are either in short supply or hard to maintain is an issue. So I would advocate for having modern printers with some open or legacy OS driver support. Alternative would be having some printer server/emulator which interfaces and emulates as popular legacy printer(s) and serves…

If it's important enough, you might be able to get them working from network through a raspi and CUPS.

Looks like there are some people working on it - https://www.retroprinter.com/ This one is a raspberry pi one so far emulates text, ESCP, ESC/P2, PCL, PostScript, has a Centronics connector - which is a start (Mac serial would be nice)

Also see print capture devices which can intercept/log printer output (for data conversion/preservation) http://www.photologic.ca/cap.html

Going to have to look into this more :-D

Re: Ask HN: What old or deprecated software do you wish was still updated?

#67

Post by wheels75 »

Lotus Improv - the spreadsheet that allowed you to use formulas that could be defined like, "Profit = Income - Expenses," and didn't need to be specified in terms of cell references. You could also drag and drop rows and columns around easily. It was once described as "the first spreadsheet program good enough to be worth criticizing."
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