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If you're up for a read about how WordPerfect got started and rose to fame, Almost Perfect isn't a bad read. They battle Microsoft, OS/2 is mentioned a lot, lot

If you're up for a read about how WordPerfect got started and rose to fame, Almost Perfect isn't a bad read. They battle Microsoft, OS/2 is mentioned a lot, lots of fun stuff. http://www.wordplace.com/ap/ http://www.wordplace.com/ap/

ExtremisAndy 4y ago
Second this recommendation. Fun read! I know a lot of HN folks won’t be as impressed as I was, but I had no idea they wrote the first several versions of WordPerfect for DOS in assembly. To me, at least, THAT is impressive. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to start a project like that in assembly.
- bombcar 4y ago
  You start with a macro assembler - MASM being an example - which lets you handle many things in a surprisingly high-level manner.
- linguae 4y ago
  There was a Macintosh word processor named WriteNow that was a major competitor to MacWrite back in the 1980s and was also written in assembly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WriteNow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WriteNow
  - jhbadger 4y ago
    I'd say most software on personal computers prior to the late 1980s was written in assembly. Compilers at the time were terrible at optimization and you could really tell the difference as a user between a compiled program and one written in hand-crafted assembly.
  - bigbizisverywyz 4y ago
    I have a vague recollection that there used to be a Word Processor for the Atari ST with the same name, but I could be wrong.
bolangi 4y ago
I still have a reference manual for XyWrite on my shelf. Cool people used XyWrite. WP won.
- chipotle_coyote 4y ago
  It did, although XyWrite is still around and actively developed! Sort of. Back in the day, there was a custom version of XyWrite called Nota Bene, which I think actually started out as a set of XyWrite macros but then ended up becoming a licensed fork. XyWrite went through a series of owners, ending up at “The Technology Group”, which ported it to Windows, then tried to develop a new vertical product based on its Windows engine and cratered. But Nota Bene kept their license with TTG, and that license covered the Windows engine…and they’ve kept developing it ever since. It isn’t exactly XyWrite, and it’s dreadfully expensive in the way vertical market applications are. But it is still around, which is in a weird way pretty cool. I used Nota Bene 4 for DOS for a few years. (Which turned out to be a good choice as far as proprietary word processors go; it uses what’s basically XyWrite’s file format, e.g., ASCII with embedded commands.) There was talk a few years ago of forking the current version of NB back to be more like XyWrite, but that doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere.
russellbeattie 4y ago
I actually thought it was a great read and, in my opinion, shows exactly why non-technologists should never be in charge of tech companies or products. Peterson was technically inept - by his own admission - and in the long run, this is what killed WP. Releasing a flagship DOS product in 1993?? It was mind boggling even back then when I first entered the tech industry.
jll29 4y ago
Thanks, I enjoyed every one of the 115 pages of it.

ExtremisAndy 4y ago

Second this recommendation. Fun read! I know a lot of HN folks won’t be as impressed as I was, but I had no idea they wrote the first several versions of WordPerfect for DOS in assembly. To me, at least, THAT is impressive. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to start a project like that in assembly.

bombcar 4y ago
You start with a macro assembler - MASM being an example - which lets you handle many things in a surprisingly high-level manner.
linguae 4y ago
There was a Macintosh word processor named WriteNow that was a major competitor to MacWrite back in the 1980s and was also written in assembly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WriteNow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WriteNow
- jhbadger 4y ago
  I'd say most software on personal computers prior to the late 1980s was written in assembly. Compilers at the time were terrible at optimization and you could really tell the difference as a user between a compiled program and one written in hand-crafted assembly.
- bigbizisverywyz 4y ago
  I have a vague recollection that there used to be a Word Processor for the Atari ST with the same name, but I could be wrong.

bolangi 4y ago

I still have a reference manual for XyWrite on my shelf. Cool people used XyWrite. WP won.

chipotle_coyote 4y ago
It did, although XyWrite is still around and actively developed! Sort of. Back in the day, there was a custom version of XyWrite called Nota Bene, which I think actually started out as a set of XyWrite macros but then ended up becoming a licensed fork. XyWrite went through a series of owners, ending up at “The Technology Group”, which ported it to Windows, then tried to develop a new vertical product based on its Windows engine and cratered. But Nota Bene kept their license with TTG, and that license covered the Windows engine…and they’ve kept developing it ever since. It isn’t exactly XyWrite, and it’s dreadfully expensive in the way vertical market applications are. But it is still around, which is in a weird way pretty cool. I used Nota Bene 4 for DOS for a few years. (Which turned out to be a good choice as far as proprietary word processors go; it uses what’s basically XyWrite’s file format, e.g., ASCII with embedded commands.) There was talk a few years ago of forking the current version of NB back to be more like XyWrite, but that doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere.

russellbeattie 4y ago

I actually thought it was a great read and, in my opinion, shows exactly why non-technologists should never be in charge of tech companies or products. Peterson was technically inept - by his own admission - and in the long run, this is what killed WP. Releasing a flagship DOS product in 1993?? It was mind boggling even back then when I first entered the tech industry.

jll29 4y ago

Thanks, I enjoyed every one of the 115 pages of it.