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On 01/02/2018 11:06 AM, Virgil Arrington wrote:

On 01/02/2018 10:32 AM, James Knott wrote:
My first hard drive was 30 MB.  I also used PC-Write at home.  I used
Wordstar 2000 & Word Perfect at work.  I also maintained mini-computer
systems, including DEC VAX 11/780.

When my father ordered his first computer, he ordered a 10 mg. hard
drive. When he received it, it had a 20 mg. hard drive. They explained
that the 10 mg. had become obsolete since he ordered it and gave him a
20 mg. at no additional cost. He thought he had died and gone to PC heaven.

I also used PC-Write, both at home and at work. I worked as a lawyer and
wrote all of my legal documents and court briefs using that wonderful
little shareware program.

Obviously, LO can do much, much more than PC-Write ever could, but I
think it a shame that, after nearly a quarter century of development, my
quad-core laptop running LO on Linux is no faster than my old Toshiba
286 laptop running PC-Write and DOS. Admittedly, I'm comparing text
processing with text processing. I realize that, with graphical
interfaces, networks and Internet, more is required of today's
technology, but I often wonder. In terms of actual productivity -- i.e.,
getting work done, which for me meant word processing and an occasional
spreadsheet -- I was more proficient 25 years ago than I am now.

I recall back in those days reading an article that claimed that DOS
users made better writers than Mac users. The argument was that DOS
users focused on content (that was all they had), whereas Mac users
focused on appearance (since they could). I can relate for, these days,
I spend a lot of time tinkering with fonts, styles, etc., instead of
actually writing.

Virgil
My first PC was a PC - not XT, or any other letters after the "PC". It had dual floppies for its nearly $1000 cost. Took a few years to get the first hard drive.  PC-DOS, PC-Write, dBase III, and a lot of shareware packages was what I used back then. Took a few years to get a system that did color. Then to get a B&W HP inkjet printer. Then a color inkjet a few years later. I was slow to have money to fund all the upgraded tech I wanted/needed.  Still that way now.

I have a 14 GB collection of fonts. That was how much I was into fonts.

Styles? Well I never really used the "style" options with LO.  It was easier for me to get the "right" look without them.

I still "hand code" using a text editor instead of a GUI package that does a lot of the work for me.  That is how I learned.  That is how I document the code like I was taught to do. Now you get code packets that is hard to understand and almost never documented.  I never learned to create GUI based programs, since the information on what to do and how to do it was not really documented for people who never used it.  So, I no longer try to code for anything that cannot run outside the "Terminal" command window.  That is not to say I do not code HTML, but it uses the browser to do all of the GUI "stuff" for me.

As for writing, well I have not written more than a 10 page document for a while not.  Use to have to do 100+ pages a week for a number of years.  I am glad I no longer need to do that anymore, but not what caused me to stop working, i.e. forced retirement due to medical needs.





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