5 ms·

Does make one wonder just which features he's talking about here. It's been probably 30 years since I used WP for DOS, so I don't quite remember how it all work

Does make one wonder just which features he's talking about here. It's been probably 30 years since I used WP for DOS, so I don't quite remember how it all worked, but I have trouble believing there's anything all that great about it.

llarsson 6y ago
If you have decades worth of muscle memory invested in it, you bet it is one of the best programs out there... for you. This is how I feel about vim, at any rate.
snomad 6y ago
Reveal codes. They had a box below main editor that everyone used to go in and edit codes for outlines, indentation, page breaks, etc. Super simple. https://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/125257-2406p075-2b.gif https://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/125257-2406p075-...
- magicalhippo 6y ago
  It's a feature I miss every time I use Word. It's so simple, yet so effective.
- nothis 6y ago
  Word literally has this. Certainly InDesign.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    Word Perfect as I recall actually let you directly manipulate those codes though. Think of it a bit like toggling between an edit view and raw HTML. Personally, I never liked WordPerfect, nor did I use it much. I used a lot of different word processors but mostly ended up standardizing on Microsoft Word (well pre-Windows) for personal use.
  - EricE 6y ago
    Word has nothing like it. Word has a filtered view of codes. WP laid it all bare. Every code and nuance was presented. Nothing was filtered or interpreted. I recovered many a screwed up document that you would just have to redo in Word if it ever got into such a state. I still miss a real reveal codes in Word. There was a public outcry for it back in the day and a snotty response from a Microsoft PM - wish I could remember enough details to see if I could find it but I'm convinced MS never really delivered a true reveal codes purely out of spite.
- boudewijnrempt 6y ago
  Reveal codes was a crutch. There was nothing great about it, no matter how much it's wrapped in a nostalgic haze now. It's basically telling people "we cannot make this wordprocessor work reliably, please code up your text yourself once things go wrong". And yes, I've used WordPerfect from 4.0 to 7.something on Dos, Windows, various unices and Linux.
  - nocman 6y ago
    > Reveal codes was a crutch. So do you think the inspector in modern browsers, or "view source" are a crutch then? I wholeheartedly disagree with this assertion, and there is absolutely no "nostalgic haze" clouding my vision. While I do agree that sometimes pulling up "reveal codes" could have revealed formatting problems caused by a bug in Wordperfect, the difference between WP and MS Word, was that you could actually DO something quick to fix the problem, rather than in Word, where the answer was often "something is royally screwed up -- you get to start over now".
Tomte 6y ago
The usual suspects are: * reveal codes (a second mode, where you can see typographic and layout commands interspersed with the text itself, a bit like HTML tags) * templates for judicial submissions (many US courts enforce strict layout and typographic rules, and WP is said to cater to that)
- jagged-chisel 6y ago
  > * reveal codes MS Word used to do this. Does it not now? (I don't use Word...) > ... many US courts enforce strict layout and typographic rules, and WP is said to cater to that Now this is a good reason. No one wants to redo that work for another word processor every time a new version changes formatting rules.
  - maxerickson 6y ago
    Word will show formatting marks and the contents of fields. I don't know WordPerfect so I can't make a comparison.
    - __s 6y ago
      It doesn't compare: https://www.howtogeek.com/104940/reveal-formatting-in-word-2010 https://www.howtogeek.com/104940/reveal-formatting-in-word-2... https://www.wordperfect.com/en/pages/items/1500650.html https://www.wordperfect.com/en/pages/items/1500650.html
  - unilynx 6y ago
    > MS Word used to do this. Does it not now? (I don't use Word...) Are you sure about that? At least since Word 95, it used what you could call a two-dimensional markup system - paragraphs and character formatting was separated, and character formatting could span over paragraph starts and ends. for example, the formatting codes could say "from character position 5 in paragraph one to character position 2 in paragraph two, set bold to opposite setting of whatever was in the stylesheet of the paragraph". that would be very hard to present in a WP-like 'reveal codes' view (or in HTML, for that matter)

llarsson 6y ago

If you have decades worth of muscle memory invested in it, you bet it is one of the best programs out there... for you. This is how I feel about vim, at any rate.

snomad 6y ago

Reveal codes. They had a box below main editor that everyone used to go in and edit codes for outlines, indentation, page breaks, etc. Super simple. https://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/125257-2406p075-2b.gif https://images.pcworld.com/reviews/graphics/125257-2406p075-...

magicalhippo 6y ago
It's a feature I miss every time I use Word. It's so simple, yet so effective.
nothis 6y ago
Word literally has this. Certainly InDesign.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Word Perfect as I recall actually let you directly manipulate those codes though. Think of it a bit like toggling between an edit view and raw HTML. Personally, I never liked WordPerfect, nor did I use it much. I used a lot of different word processors but mostly ended up standardizing on Microsoft Word (well pre-Windows) for personal use.
- EricE 6y ago
  Word has nothing like it. Word has a filtered view of codes. WP laid it all bare. Every code and nuance was presented. Nothing was filtered or interpreted. I recovered many a screwed up document that you would just have to redo in Word if it ever got into such a state. I still miss a real reveal codes in Word. There was a public outcry for it back in the day and a snotty response from a Microsoft PM - wish I could remember enough details to see if I could find it but I'm convinced MS never really delivered a true reveal codes purely out of spite.
boudewijnrempt 6y ago
Reveal codes was a crutch. There was nothing great about it, no matter how much it's wrapped in a nostalgic haze now. It's basically telling people "we cannot make this wordprocessor work reliably, please code up your text yourself once things go wrong". And yes, I've used WordPerfect from 4.0 to 7.something on Dos, Windows, various unices and Linux.
- nocman 6y ago
  > Reveal codes was a crutch. So do you think the inspector in modern browsers, or "view source" are a crutch then? I wholeheartedly disagree with this assertion, and there is absolutely no "nostalgic haze" clouding my vision. While I do agree that sometimes pulling up "reveal codes" could have revealed formatting problems caused by a bug in Wordperfect, the difference between WP and MS Word, was that you could actually DO something quick to fix the problem, rather than in Word, where the answer was often "something is royally screwed up -- you get to start over now".

Tomte 6y ago

The usual suspects are: * reveal codes (a second mode, where you can see typographic and layout commands interspersed with the text itself, a bit like HTML tags) * templates for judicial submissions (many US courts enforce strict layout and typographic rules, and WP is said to cater to that)

jagged-chisel 6y ago
> * reveal codes MS Word used to do this. Does it not now? (I don't use Word...) > ... many US courts enforce strict layout and typographic rules, and WP is said to cater to that Now this is a good reason. No one wants to redo that work for another word processor every time a new version changes formatting rules.
- maxerickson 6y ago
  Word will show formatting marks and the contents of fields. I don't know WordPerfect so I can't make a comparison.
  - __s 6y ago
    It doesn't compare: https://www.howtogeek.com/104940/reveal-formatting-in-word-2010 https://www.howtogeek.com/104940/reveal-formatting-in-word-2... https://www.wordperfect.com/en/pages/items/1500650.html https://www.wordperfect.com/en/pages/items/1500650.html
- unilynx 6y ago
  > MS Word used to do this. Does it not now? (I don't use Word...) Are you sure about that? At least since Word 95, it used what you could call a two-dimensional markup system - paragraphs and character formatting was separated, and character formatting could span over paragraph starts and ends. for example, the formatting codes could say "from character position 5 in paragraph one to character position 2 in paragraph two, set bold to opposite setting of whatever was in the stylesheet of the paragraph". that would be very hard to present in a WP-like 'reveal codes' view (or in HTML, for that matter)