for the brand new IBM XT

[Creaphis]

So, mostly as a favour, but partly because it amuses me, I'm sorting through and disposing of my parents' old computer equipment. Most of this stuff is middle-aged electronics that aren't quite new enough to be useful, and aren't quite old enough to ever interest a hobbyist. I've already brought one computer, two CRT monitors, one printer and a scattering of accessories to a recycling plant, with no remorse. However, one thing I've found may qualify as a bona fide collector's item...

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/7585/dscf3368n.jpg

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/2600/dscf3372.jpg

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/9311/dscf3378v.jpg

[GreyGhost]

Nice find, and it's still more wordprocessor than most people need or use.

[Technician]

That's not worth the paper it's written on.

[Super Jamie]

Technician said:

That's not worth the paper it's written on.

Sadly correct.

[Jello]

And yet I long for the days when companies actually provided documentation for their products instead of a URL or a ten page manual that's 3 pages English, 3 pages Spanish, 3 pages French, and a registration page.

[Technician]

Jello said:

And yet I long for the days when companies actually provided documentation for their products instead of a URL or a ten page manual that's 3 pages English, 3 pages Spanish, 3 pages French, and a registration page.

QFT

Adobe just pulled this shit with CS4. You have to have the Internet to consult their online manuals. Sadly searching said manuals proves very difficult in an airplane. And even if you have access to the net, your searches often turn up instructions for CS3.

They simply have to make updated PDFs and upload them to their server. That simple.

[Maes]

Jello said:

And yet I long for the days when companies actually provided documentation for their products instead of a URL or a ten page manual that's 3 pages English, 3 pages Spanish, 3 pages French, and a registration page.

For that matter, check out the documentation that came with e.g. the Amiga 500: I shit you not, it even included system diagrams of the fucking-custom-chips, let alone a fuckton of other booklets for the monitor, mouse etc. Not only that, but it also included Greek translations of the original English booklets, also in nice binded booklets. In 1986, no less.

My first 486 PC also had a lot of documentation for all of its subparts (even the mouse!), but that was because it was a domestic "big brand" PC (Info-Quest). Today you're only likely to find that sort of paper docs on a VERY big name PC (hi-end Dells and HPs, the occasional IBM workstation/server etc.) and even then, most of it will be 2-3 things in 80 languages and various "safety", "environmental compliance" and "before you operate this contraption" warnings, rather than actual instructions or documentation.

For the rest, the market is by now one big globalized "All your base is belong to us" chinese sweatshop, so long paper manuals are a thing of the past, just like 50s-60s gas station attendants in uniforms or soda jerks.

[Enjay]

I used to have a box of tissues just like that. Nice find. :P

Seriously, the company that I used to work for had WordPerfect for DOS and I'm pretty damn sure it was that same version (5.1). The box, the disks, the manual all look very familiar to me. It was also a damned comprehensive word processing package as I recall. However, I also remember my wife scoffing at its ugly text-format screen. Yes, she was used to those point-and-clicky Apple Macs at her work. You know, the all-in-one machines with a small black-or-white monitor set into the case. A GUI will never catch on. ;)

[fraggle]

My Dad has loads of old computer magazines, some of which contain hilarious things:



(Look carefully and you'll see it describe Word as "Emacs-like")

(More)

[Maes]

Heh. Incindentally I bought a bunch of old "Pixel" magazines from a used comics/records store recently, dating 1986 Pixel was a historical home computing magazine in Greece -credited for starting and developing momentum in DIY home computing. It survived all the way up to 1996, and was the last magazine in Greece to support the Amiga (although in the end it became more of a console magazine)

It's always hilarious to read the various news flashes about mega cool-and-whatnot upcoming products (with many of them faded to obscurity), or wonder in amazament at the type-in lists which promised that when run, they would do all sort of cool stuff like e.g. flashing the screen in sync with the datacorder input, or produce a full-fledged arcade game out of some hundred lines of BASIC (with a fuckton of POKEs, ofc). Or just look at the ads of the time (surprisingly rich, may I add, even for a little ass-backwards country like mine). Like the "Club Commodore" computer club that even had a fast food with "C64" burgers and "Joystick" hotdogs ;-)