The Lost Apps of the 80s • Hacker News Board

Re: The Lost Apps of the 80s

#121

Post by mpweiher » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 4:09 AM UTC

gecko wrote: post #15

Whenever this comes up, I always ask, even though I can anticipate the answer: has anyone cloned Lotus Improv, either literally or ideologically? The closest thing I've used recently that was close was probably Airtable, but that's more an iterative improvement on FileMaker/Access, with a web focus, than really a competitor to Improv. There also used to be a Java desktop app, but it wasn't targeted for casual desktop…

Improv was protected by patents, which was a complicating factor. That said, there were a bunch of implementations (already mentioned), and the capability was added to Excel and other spreadsheets.

Re: The Lost Apps of the 80s

#122

Post by realaether » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 3:16 PM UTC

reitanqild wrote: post #5

I'm actually missing working OLE (Object Linking and Embedding). I used to like it in MS Works in the 90ies: I could insert an area from a Works spreadsheet into a Works document and have it auto-update (you could choose if it should link the data or copy it.)

Google Docs does this.

Re: The Lost Apps of the 80s

#123

Post by the_only_law » Thu, Apr 15, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

zokier wrote: post #86

gecko wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aha! Yeah, that's the Java GUI client I mentioned. But yes, $2500 a seat is a bit more than I would like to pay for my use case. :) (I'm not saying it's Not Worth That, but I definitely would not get back my investment for what I use spreadsheets for.)

> $2500 a seat is a bit more than I would like to pay for my use case. This is big part of why the application market place consolidated and dried up. I peeked at the PC mag word processor roundup that was posted in this thread, and one thing that struck my eye was that Word and WP cost like $450-$495 in 80s dollars, which is about $1000 in todays dollars. Its pretty hard to imagine anyone paying $1k for a word proce…

I’m always completed shocked when I come across software still being sold this way, especially if it’s kinda niche or something not really used anymore. How are these business staying afloat?