Anyone remember what Lotus 1A was?

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palmermethod

palmermethod

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Long time ago when Lotus 1-2-3 came out the first version 1 didn't calculate correctly so version 1A was one of the first spreadsheet programs. As I recall I bought two computers (640k RAM) small hard drive, Lotus software and two 9 pin Epson printers. Cost was $15,000. It changed the business world though. Geez. I am feeling old.
 
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Heck, that ain't old. Lotus wasn't introduced untill mid-80's I believe. By that time I had already been working on computers for almost a decade. Now if you wanna re-hash about magnetic core memory and all those little donuts... :)
 
We had a spreadsheet program, along with a word processor complete with a mail merge on a Digital Dummy terminal before Lotus came out with 1 2 3. How many here used Lotus Ami Pro?
 
I don't remember Lotus 1A, I do remember Lotus 1-2-3...actually preferred Lotus to the Excel that's so popular now...
I started on computers when the monitors were Green letters on a black back ground.. Raytheon was the mfgr...
and in college, I actually studied computers on punch cards.. they've come a long way in 30 years.
When I worked for TWA, we actually had to sign in 5 different times to enter a full airwaybill... I think we were using a version of Alitalia's program until they finally got it re-written and simiplified.
 
I had to learn Hollerith code in my first college computer class (it was in '82 - the old Community College was behind the times.)

In high school ('77-'78) we would sneak into the college mainframe lab and play Star Trek "You have entered sector 0-0-1 there are two enemies present." Saving a game on paper tape took forever, and it never loaded correctly.

Chris
 
I remember the first computers I ever saw. I was 11. We got to tour a newspaper company and they had all the AP stories coming in on a computer. They showed us how easy it was to edit the story to fit there space, and that was all it would do. Word processing. the computer took up nearly half a city block with all it's reel to reel stuff. The next computer I saw was at an insurance companies claims processing center. rooms full of people typed in info to a machine that punched cards. the cards where taken to another floor where they where fed into another machine that typed out claims checks. I remember thinking..."why didn't they just type the check in the first place". For about 20 years I thought computers where pretty much useless, expensive, more complicated ways of getting things done. My first interest in a computer was CAD, so that I could draw blue prints. I have still never learned CAD as I can Draft drawings easier than spend the time to learn the program. But the computer has become great for information and I have gotten pretty good at using it for that. I have not been to a library in years. One of my first uses of a computer on a daily basis was in making advancements in the breeding, and survival rate of fry in the Scolari tropical fish. Next would be using the computer to communicate with others. like here. finally would be to make seeing my pens more accessible to people. My web site. I took a course in electronics when computers still used 5" floppy disks and MSDOS. strange but I had never used one up to that point. still did not use one for nearly 8 years after that. had it not been for home schooling my children I probably would not be using one today. Now I very seldom go to stores to buy anything, never mail a letter, and sell my pens to people around the world. I'm starting to think that maybe these computer things will be useful someday. So I'm a hard sell!
 
Originally posted by alamocdc

Heh... I started on an Atari 1200 w/a cassette drive.:D
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Blech! cassette drives... I remember back in school with the cassette drive on out TI. It was an 'external' cassette player and if someone messed with the tone or volume knobs, then it was a BEAR to get it to read your tape back...
 
Nothing like the good old 8088 [^] I had a 5.25 drive and it look for ever to boot. It had RGB graphics and lotus 123 which I did a number of reports on, even went to college for education in it. OK now for the true question[}:)] who remembers windows ver 1 I loaded it on my computor and decided that dos 3.2 had it beat hands down took it off the next day.[xx(]
 
Originally posted by kent4Him

Originally posted by ozmandus

I do remember Lotus 1-2-3...actually preferred Lotus to the Excel that's so popular now...
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Amen to that brother. I loved Lotus. Much better than Excel.
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I'll second that motion. I wish Louts had won the war. At the time we were planning software purchase to go with installing 1200 pc's. Almost went with Word Perfect, Lotus and Fox Pro. Whew, that was close.
I had a 3D spreadsheet at one time, can't remember the name. I got it for free with $4.95 shipping when I purchased my first home computer. It would confuse the heck out of you if you weren't careful.
 
Originally posted by kghinsr

Nothing like the good old 8088 [^] I had a 5.25 drive and it look for ever to boot. It had RGB graphics and lotus 123 which I did a number of reports on, even went to college for education in it. OK now for the true question[}:)] who remembers windows ver 1 I loaded it on my computor and decided that dos 3.2 had it beat hands down took it off the next day.[xx(]
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Yep, but I go back to PC-DOS on my first 8088. Was thrilled when MS-DOS 3.0 came out b/c it meant I could get legal. The big fear that most had back then was that the "clones" (8088 machines) were illegal. Nothing could have been more untrue. The only thing about them that made them questionable is that you couldn't "buy" and OS then so you had to pirate PC-DOS. Yes, it was illegal, but almost everyone did it. My first purchased system was a turbo 8088 w/20 MB HD and color monitor. I paid $2500 for it when I was in grad school. I got so mad that it didn't come with a "legal" OS that a friend and I started our own PC company. We parted ways after three years, but we each kept building systems. I quit in the mid 90's... couldn't compete w/Dell. My experience w/them had them #1 in my book back then. My how things change.

Oh, and does anyone remember Enable? For an integrated package I loved it. I think I still have ver 4.5 (or was it 5.4?) around here somewhere.:D
 
I was thinking about sidekick this morning and wondering if I still had the disk in storage. I do still have a 5.25 drive in the attic somewhere (just in case):D
 
But one of the best programs Lotus ever produced was Magellan. It was the greatest thing for a DOS-based system for file browsing and management.
 
You guys are spoiling my retirement :(

I turn stuff on the lathe to help me forget about all the ones and zeros I fooled with from 1961 to 2002. The first mainframe I messed with was a USAF system called SAGE. It had several thousand vacuum tubes (valves to our friends across the pond.) The last 15 years I looked for software bugs. Never did find 'em all ;)
 
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