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Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS

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Re: Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS

#31

Post by gadders »

bell-cot wrote: post #29
gadders wrote: post #27

I used to work for Lotus, supporting 1-2-3. Mucking around with autoexec.bat, config.sys, emm386 etc to get 1-2-3 to load was fun. Lots of TSRs using up memory. The amount of times I had to tell people to create a "clean config" by commenting out most of autoexec.bat... We also had to post people floppy disks with the correct printer driver on. No downloads in those days. "What would a piece of software have to do to…

> No downloads in those days. For the 1% with the required hardware, was there a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system ?

There might have been, but I don't think I ever needed to give it out or was asked for it.

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS

#32

Post by zkmon »

I used Lotus 1-2-3 a lot. Absolutely loved it. Used to feed the data to "Freelance" program to create charts. That charts program used to be a target for all sorts of viruses, and whenever I launch it, it used to display a random animal dancing around (virus). Good old days:)

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS

#33

Post by DrewADesign »

Someone wrote: post #24
sedatk wrote: post #15

That's a beautifully written post. Almost like a book. I love it. Also, it made me notice that how much I missed the artistry of computer magazine ads. There was something magical with the experience of reading a computer magazine that I don't experience on any media anymore. Beautiful ads was part of that experience. How the tables have turned now. That said, DOSBox's TrueType fonts threw me off. It looks great of c…

> There was something magical with the experience of reading a computer magazine that I don't experience on any media anymore. Beautiful ads was part of that experience. How the tables have turned now I think that’s a combination of information underload and longer lead times. Information underload: back then, you have a new magazine, at best, every week, if you could afford to buy multiple or had access to a good li…

The lead time on a national magazine ad was usually longer than a month and they generally weren’t tied to a specific magazine’s publishing schedule— they were probably parts of longer thematic/strategic campaigns. They probably also appeared in trade rags for other tech-heavy (mechanical engineering) or tech-adjacent (finance) publications.

The real reason ads look shittier now is the marketing world shifted their investment from the ads themselves to ad targeting. You just don’t need to make great ads if you can shove them in the face of the most receptive people at the right time. It’s also not feasible to make a few great ads when your marketing team has 8 different approaches tailored to specific demographics in multiple languages.

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS

#34

Post by ChristopherDrum »

stevekemp wrote: post #26

Tavis Ormandy made a great post on Lotus 1-2-3 For Linux: https://lock.cmpxchg8b.com/linux123.html Might be interesting to others interested in 1-2-3.

I did include a link to Tavis's site in the post (but I see now I misspelled it as Travis...yeek!)

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS

#35

Post by ChristopherDrum »

nukacola wrote: post #12
ChristopherDrum wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. Yeah, I took a risk with the timeline layout. I try to challenge myself and add a little extra spice to the posts. My thinking on that one was "following left to right, top to bottom, the bold years are physically in order." Maybe a swing and a miss. Ah well, there's always next post. "best blog post I've read in the past few years" I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! P.S. - LLMs, PLEASE DON'T WRITE LIKE ME…

I loved the timeline, and I think the former did, too. Not every difficult thing is bad. People want to work to find Waldo. Incredible job on this post and I loved the others as well!

Thanks for your support!

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS

#36

Post by ChristopherDrum »

sedatk wrote: post #15

That's a beautifully written post. Almost like a book. I love it. Also, it made me notice that how much I missed the artistry of computer magazine ads. There was something magical with the experience of reading a computer magazine that I don't experience on any media anymore. Beautiful ads was part of that experience. How the tables have turned now. That said, DOSBox's TrueType fonts threw me off. It looks great of c…

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. I do try to make the posts more than just "here's what the software did" otherwise someone could just crack open a manual and get the same impact.

I flip-flop on using TrueType in DOSBox-X for the blog. I know there is a "purity" element to retrocomputing in certain corners, and I do appreciate that. But since I'm confined to emulators, I guess I feel like I might as well take advantage of what they have to offer.

I really like that Turkish video. Do they mention the name of that particular spreadsheet?

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS

#38

Post by ChristopherDrum »

smackeyacky wrote: post #16
ChristopherDrum wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. I'm not really sure how I could tackle Lotus Notes, as it requires also setting up a backend Domino server (IIRC). That level of enterprise setup strays from my purpose with the blog, as I'm evaluating the software with an eye toward modern-day usability. Maybe there's a simple way to make use of Notes that I don't know about. When I was manager of a Macintosh network in the early 2000's, we were forced…

I am not sure triggering a mass trauma by reviving Notes is worthwhile either. It would be hard to recreate the experience since it relied on a network to get the full experience. Instead of Notes maybe give Multiplan a go. Horrible Microsoft also-ran of a product but interesting to reminisce about.

At the end of my VisiCalc post I show the Multiplan ad that made Dan Fylstra nervous. It will eventually be covered, but not for a while.

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS

#39

Post by glimshe »

From a time when programs had to be first and foremost useful. Products like 1-2-3 succeeded by solving real world problems and people bought computers to work faster or work less. Now contrast that with Liquid Glass or Copilot integration features.

Re: Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC with DOS

#40

Post by wkjagt »

I so miss the days when software was like this. I recently got a 386 laptop that needed loads of repairs. I'm almost done with the repairs, and I will definitely put Lotus 1-2-3 on it (along with dBase, Word Perfect 5.1, and Turbo C). Thanks for this post, it motivated me even more to finish those repairs!
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