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This was in a category of good software that doesn’t exist much today, and you just know it when you experience it. Apps like this were filled with features th

This was in a category of good software that doesn’t exist much today, and you just know it when you experience it. Apps like this were filled with features that don’t fit into regular marketing bullet points but were evidence of care and attention. I used the graphics module all the time and it had some great ones. Example: I would select an object, copy it, paste it, then immediately move the pasted object; then, when I pasted the object a second time, ClarisWorks moved the new one for me by the same relative amount. That turned a tedious layout task into exactly what I wanted, in seconds. And of course “any kind of document frame anywhere” was unbelievable at the time. Today, when I think of just the time I spend with something like the fiddly and frustrating text selection mechanism on iOS (that I used to write this comment), we have lost something as an industry. Software can be a craft, not just something you slap together.

blacksmith_tb 6y ago
My instinct is that this is partly due to how hard it was to get upgrades as a user. Devs would have taken the release cycle very seriously when people couldn't just get the next microversion pushed to them. I remember bringing home updates on 3.5in floppies, or having to download them on slow dialup connections, all very much about pull not push.
wott 6y ago
> And of course “any kind of document frame anywhere” was unbelievable at the time. Couldn't Ashton-Tate's Framework do that kind of things too? I can't remember.
EricE 6y ago
Ugh - text selection is what drove me back to a MacBook Air from my iPad Pro. Now that they have tablet support I should really give it a try, but on the other hand I just can't be bothered. Multitasking/app switching is so much easier on macOS for me too. Maybe of Apple finally figures out how they want multitasking to work on iPad OS and stops changing it, it would be worth giving it another solid try - but I'm not yet convinced it's worth it.

blacksmith_tb 6y ago

My instinct is that this is partly due to how hard it was to get upgrades as a user. Devs would have taken the release cycle very seriously when people couldn't just get the next microversion pushed to them. I remember bringing home updates on 3.5in floppies, or having to download them on slow dialup connections, all very much about pull not push.

wott 6y ago

> And of course “any kind of document frame anywhere” was unbelievable at the time. Couldn't Ashton-Tate's Framework do that kind of things too? I can't remember.

EricE 6y ago

Ugh - text selection is what drove me back to a MacBook Air from my iPad Pro. Now that they have tablet support I should really give it a try, but on the other hand I just can't be bothered. Multitasking/app switching is so much easier on macOS for me too. Maybe of Apple finally figures out how they want multitasking to work on iPad OS and stops changing it, it would be worth giving it another solid try - but I'm not yet convinced it's worth it.