Bloated code does not an application make... it just makes for a lot of loading loading loading. Visicalc - then Lotus 123 ran in DOS on 32K of RAM space and did magical things. Computers has 64 to 128 k of RAM - but an amazing amount of work was done. I had a word processor that ran on a PRE - PC S100 based computer - in a DOS like environment it was astounding in what it could do ... Today’s BLOATED WORD still cannot do what this little Word Processor could do ... Mountains of available RAM and Hard Drive Space just makes for bloated unresponsive applications with a thousand features that are used by the average user one time a year. I use the Editor in Thunderbird for all my document drafting - then dress it up in Word if I have to ... most of the time I don’t.
Damn, someone else who's used to the same things as me. I've been dealing with this kind of crap since DOS 1.0 (I also have exp in Unix and Apple before I start getting 'advice' from those guys :-)) and could do a 'kludge' work around when I had CONTROL. When I started working with the likes of WIN 3.1 I used to get pissed that the hard drive was spinning when I DIDN'T TELL IT TO! In the old days (old man talking, so what) the freakin' hard drive didn't just spin up at random and do "WHO KNOWS WHAT". That used to really get me. I'd kill processes and what not trying to get control of my system as it were and eventually just gave up, especially when the bloatware wants to do your thinking for you.
Most lazy Americans like that kind of thing anyway. And computers are now appliances like a toaster, any idiot can own one. /rant good today but off
“I had a word processor that ran on a PRE - PC S100 based computer - in a DOS like environment it was astounding in what it could do ... Today’s BLOATED WORD still cannot do what this little Word Processor could do ... “
Was it Emacs, Vi or Vim?
Emacs was released in 1976.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacs
Vi was released in 1976.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi
Vim was released in 1991, based off of Vi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vim_%28text_editor%29
Most Vi users now use Vim, and beginners often use an easy-to-get-started version called Cream for Vim:
http://cream.sourceforge.net/
Emacs and Vim are the two most powerful editors on the planet. No modern editor can come close to what they can do. They can run either in a modern GUI or in a terminal, just like the old DOS days.
I use Emacs and LOVE it. It takes getting used to and the default keystrokes are a little weird, but the power of Emacs is that *everything* can be customized. All settings are held in a file named “.emacs”. You can tweak everything — colors, sidebars, add abilities, shortcuts, have it auto-load often used files at the touch of a key... anything.
I’ve been using Emacs for several months and I’ve got it so customized it fits like a glove. It’s amazing.
Here’s a few sites to get you started:
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
http://www.emacswiki.org/
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsNewbie
If you’re into personal organization, look into the well-loved Org-Mode module. I don’t use it — I have my own system set up —but many Emacsers rave over it.
http://orgmode.org/
PS. If you find you like a text editor over Word but find you have to go back to Word when you want a document formatted with bold headers, etc., you don’t have to. Look into using LaTeX. LaTeX is FAR more capable than Word and produces letters and documents that look more professional. Many books have been published using LaTeX.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX
You can use LaTeX right in Emacs or Vim, both have LaTeX plugins available.
If you try either Emacs or Vim you’ll never go back to Word. Enjoy!