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The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

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Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#161

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

dragonwriter wrote: post #117
zeteo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of sheer productivity for an uninterrupted, expert user it's hard to beat the pre-Windows office suites. Yes it would take you weeks if not months to master WordStar or Lotus 1-2-3 and it was quite expensive and not everyone in the company could have it on their machines. But those who did would leave today's Google Docs users in the dust for any data entry task longer than 15 minutes.

> In terms of sheer productivity for an uninterrupted, expert user it's hard to beat the pre-Windows office suites. There basically aren't pre-Windows office suites. There are pre-Windows standalone productivity software products, but agglomeration of this into office suites is mostly a post-Windows phenomenon.

AppleWorks would beg to differ. And if GUIs aren't prohibited then GEOS on 8-bit platforms had a suite too.

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#162

Post by causi »

CarelessExpert wrote: post #157
pxc wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's really no reason to sacrifice all those additional capabilities at the alter of focus or productivity. Just find ways to use modern technology more effectively. It could be that the screenwriter used to use that MS-DOS program back in the day, and already knew and liked it, had a well-developed workflow around it, etc. Then running it on DOSBox or an old machine you happen to have lying around makes perfect…

> It could be that the screenwriter used to use that MS-DOS program back in the day, and already knew and liked it, had a well-developed workflow around it, etc. Then running it on DOSBox or an old machine you happen to have lying around makes perfect sense imo. Absolutely! But I wasn't responding to the article. I was responding to the original comment, which stated: > There's something to be said for the focused na…

Depends on your "resources of personality". Maybe it's my ADHD or maybe just weakness of character, but I need to place an extra barrier between myself and distraction that I can't simply dismiss with a mouse click.

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#164

Post by h0l0cube »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #133
h0l0cube wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He could probably have used a modern PC with internet connectivity too. I'm guessing convenience wasn't the point. (If it's a machine from the 90s, it might not even have USB.)

Nah the USB drive is on the other end. To read his floppies.

Oh right, never contemplated such a thing to exist.. but there it is in Google. I wonder if worries about electronic media becoming unreadable over time are overstated

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#165

Post by CarelessExpert »

causi wrote: post #162
CarelessExpert wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It could be that the screenwriter used to use that MS-DOS program back in the day, and already knew and liked it, had a well-developed workflow around it, etc. Then running it on DOSBox or an old machine you happen to have lying around makes perfect sense imo. Absolutely! But I wasn't responding to the article. I was responding to the original comment, which stated: > There's something to be said for the focused na…

Depends on your "resources of personality". Maybe it's my ADHD or maybe just weakness of character, but I need to place an extra barrier between myself and distraction that I can't simply dismiss with a mouse click.

Ah, well, in that case what you're getting out of older technology is "externally imposed self-control". Douglas Adams' publisher famously locked him in a hotel room because he was such a chronic procrastinator. I can definitely relate!

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#166

Post by yankcrime »

pxc wrote: post #150
contingencies wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux console gives me the same feeling. It's partly the font, partly the focus (no interruptions), partly the lack of latency. OSX + iTerm2 is so damn laggy vs. Linux even on worse hardware. It just sux when you have to, you know, input Chinese or open a PDF. Gotta say though, Dune was a disappointment to me, having grown up with Dune 2 on MSDOS. The old Dune had, you know, deeper characters. There's nothing like ea…

> OSX + iTerm2 is so damn laggy vs. Linux even on worse hardware This is one of those things you notice in a jarring way as a Linux user coming to other platforms, but people kinda look at you sideways and don't believe you when you tell them. What I tend to notice, especially as someone who prefers to use a full screen terminal tiled with tmux, is (1) poor availability of Quake-style dropdown terminals on macOS and…

"(1) poor availability of Quake-style dropdown terminals on macOS and Windows"

This is a feature available in both iTerm [1] as well as Windows Terminal [2].

[1] https://blog.mestwin.net/drop-down-terminal-in-macos-with-it... [2] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/windows-terminal-...

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#167

Post by cogman10 »

anyfactor wrote: post #62

I often wonder this about old tech. What attracts some people to keep using it? Is it the comfort or familiarity or is it minimalism? I sometimes want to feel the experience of my Pentium 1 PC with that rubberdome keyboard and ball mouse. But I know it was a frustrating experience. The mouse didn't work exactly, we had to alt+ctrl+delete every 20-30 minutes. They keyboard felt like jello. The CRT monitor gave us head…

> is it the comfort or familiarity or is it minimalism?

Depends on the person I'd assume.

For older people, it's almost certainly familiarity.

For younger people, likely a combo of minimalism and hipsterism. It comes up when someone talks about listening to something on vinyl or using typewriters instead of laptops.

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#169

Post by avaldes »

omarhaneef wrote: post #84

There are lots of stories about writers who are very productive using an old method: --This dune story, --Game of thrones (asoif) written on wordstar --And of course dozens of writers who still use pen and paper This is what these environments have in common: no or minimal internet to distract you

Can you imagine what internet distraction would do to the release schedule of GRR Martin? Hmmm

Re: The ‘Dune’ Screenplay Was Written in Movie Master on MS-DOS

#170

Post by eddieh »

rudedogg wrote: post #168
jordanab wrote: post #24

George R.R. Martin also wrote his books on a DOS machine running WordStar 4.0

Here's a video of Stanley Kubrick talking about DOS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlsZoZLlwC8

Here he is talking about UNIX https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54hrLTpsO5g
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