The Peter Norton thread below go me thinking ...

[DaveArel]

dBase III+(Ashton-Tate) => SQL server Clipper(Nantucket Corp) => Visual Studio LANtastic => Windows 3.11 and now Active Directory Sad they're gone but a lot of programmers like me learned to develop database programs in a network environment with all the locks control that now is almost unnecessary. Good days... :-D

[atali]

Norton Commander was ok, now most of that functionality is in FAR Manager, I use it all the time.

[builderjohn]

I still use Visual SlickEdit - in Brief emulation mode. - Good macro handling, or at least one that my fingers still remember.

[Kirk 10389821]

DOS (now COMMAND). LOL. Progress has killed it, but you are confusing KILLER APP with SPECIFIC APP... BRIEF => most features available in most editors nowadays (port of emacs, LOL). Lots 123= Spreadsheet (Still have one) Oracle = Database = Still have 3..4 But the world has moved a LOT since these tools were created. They were valuable in their time. Currently I use ActionOutline a thousand times a day. It's windows based, and I am looking to create a web based alternative so I can access it from my phone and other devices. Does this decrease the Value of an indispensable tool, NO! will I stop using AA at some point. Yep. But I will replace it with a Cloud Based tool where my data is backed up and stored, and potentially secured in even better ways. Potentially making some aspects shareable with other people, which simply cannot happen the way it works today. So, of all of those tools you had, if you look back at the tool itself, not the BRAND... Did it just get absorbed into the life and times of other tools? I used to write batch files. I prefer Python now. I used to write quick and dirty EXE Files. I can do much in a Javascript window. We move on, our tools change... I also had corded drills, and 12V cordless drills. My dad has a crank (hand drill). Things have improved...

[sasadler]

Hm, that would be tough. My first computer with an OS (CP/M) was prePC. I eventually got WordStar on it and to this day, all my IDE's/editors/word processors all use WordStar control sequences for editing. I wrote an AutoHotKey script to translate the WordStar control sequences to the particular editors sequences.

[Peltier Cooler]

Notepad?

[vaderjm]

Zip Chunker Pro (ZCP) so files could fit on floppy disks, pkzip/pkunzip I actually still have a copy of all three for posterity's sake.

[Mark_Wallace]

Yup. Absolutely yup. The only relic I have is that the directory I keep all my personal files/documents/everything-else that ms-has created "libraries" for is still the directory that I used all those years ago, whose name is the name of a shareware word processor I used in prehistory. I've been very glad of that many times, because ms deletes library files, when it feels like it.

I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!

[F Margueirat]

I'm sorry to tell you that the best word processor ever, many years ahead of its time, was Word Perfect.

[markrlondon]

Yup, here for me too.

[B Alex Robinson]

The Semware Editor. Used since the late 80's. Based on the Wordstar diamond, the reason I still use it. There's an almost-finished Linux version, which I usually use for an editor.

[kmoorevs]

Slow Eddie wrote:

In the end however, it is all just syntax

:thumbsup: My thoughts exactly! I think you are mostly correct about the contempt 'real programmers' have for VB of any flavor. Haters will hate...I will laugh all the way to the bank! :laugh: :laugh:

"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse

[FormerBIOSGuy]

Yes! Quicken for DOS. Still one of the best programs ever written.

FormerBIOSGuy

[Behzad Sedighzadeh]

I bought a Creative sound card back in 90's and the drivers were on a CD. We had a guy in school which was much richer than us and he had a PC with CD-ROM. I beg him for copying the drivers to a 3.5" diskette :)

Behzad

[Retired2017]

Apparently I'm an exception, I was working with unix professionally before I bought my first home PC. Linux wasn't available yet, but I went over as soon as I heard of it and never looked at a MS OS again except at work. The thing is, to answer the question what applications of that period do I still use? well, practically ALL OF THEM. A linux user of 2019 (at least one who always prefers CLI) is an animal of almost the same species as a unix user of 1990. A lot of the commands have evolved and became more sophisticated, but basically it's still the same ls, cd, du and some dozens more as 30 years ago. You don't need to learn to drive again with every new car model.

[E Anderson]

Hello there, fellow Arc/Info user! Been a user since 4.x circa 1991 and still have a few AML scripts running in production that are just waiting for time allocation to be rewritten and retired. 😉