BC Before Computers

Before computers I used a word processor. It had no mouse. Your commands were done using the control button.

The commands using the control button work on computers. Here are just a few. Control C, copy, Control V, paste, Control X, cut.

I recently discovered control H, will display your history. That comes in handy if you can't find a site you want to return to.

How many of you still use BC commands?

What's your favorite control function?
geo

Those functions were created by Apple (Mac and Lisa) in the 80s. I still use them often.

my favorite control function is to plant corn and beans this time of year....on tractor talk

George,
I frequently use the following:

Ctrl A - select all
Ctrl C - copy
Ctrl X - cut
Ctrl V - paste
Ctrl S - save
Ctrl P - opens print window
Ctrl Z - undo
Ctrl-Alt-Delete - opens task manager

Ctrl c and v I use the most

Ctrl enter I used to use a lot in the address bar on browsers.....type in ytmag in the address bar, then ctrl enter, takes me right there

I run Ubuntu Linux on my shop puter. Have to use a bit more command line stuff with it at times when trying to get a piece of software installed, but it's not that big a deal....especially for a guy that remembers when punch cards were cutting edge technology

Fred

"<font color="#6699ff">[b:654c4848f0][i:654c4848f0]How many of you still use BC commands?[/i:654c4848f0][/b:654c4848f0]</font>"

The DOS applications were very dependent on the ALT, CTRL, and SHIFT combination keystrokes.

WordPerfect was probably the most dependent of them all with combination keystrokes.



"<font color="#6699ff">[b:654c4848f0][i:654c4848f0]What's your favorite control function?[/i:654c4848f0][/b:654c4848f0]</font>"

I use the CTRL-V combination more than any other.

Use it to help compose every message here on YT.

Used it five times in this message.

before computers i used a typewriter (lots of whiteout) and had a mechanical computer--was that thing noisy!!

This is the first typewriter I learned to use in the mid-60s..

James, nice doorstop. *lol*

Let's not forget the Alt Symbols feature either. Anybody still use them? For example, Hold the ALT key while pressing 0-1-7-6 gives you the ° symbol; useful for talking temps. ALT + 0-1-6-2 gives you ¢, a very 'practical' thing (IMO) when you want to mention cents, but don't wanna go through the trouble of adding a $, a 0, and a . in front!! 25¢ is MUCH easier than $0.25, wouldn't you say? Or maybe in the instance of me getting my 2¢ in.

BEFORE Computers?

George, your word processor WAS a computer, albeit a dedicated one. And the popular control-key combinations are Johnny-Come-Latelies to the computing world. My first experiences with entering text into a computer was with a keypunch machine. One line per Hollerith card; if you make a mistake you throw that card away and start over. You could duplicate the bad card up to your mistake and resume typing from there, but that's the closest you had to "copy and paste" functionality.

These days, I use the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi">"vi" text editor</a> on a daily basis. Vi dates back to the seventies, when computer keyboards did not have cursor keys, so the h, j, k, and l keys are your cursor arrows. After thirty years working in UNIX/Linux, using vi is very natural. The UNIX Korn shell has vi built into it, so you can edit your command-line in the same way you edit text files.

Of course, switching back and forth between modern Windows or Linux applications and vi, I sometimes get tripped up. The control key functions are different in the two worlds, and for some reason modern editors don't think h, j, k and l are cursor keys. Use Ctrl-C in Linux and you'll kill your running program!

OFF

(quoted from post at 11:17:47 05/19/17) BEFORE Computers?

George, your word processor WAS a computer, albeit a dedicated one. And the popular control-key combinations are Johnny-Come-Latelies to the computing world. My first experiences with entering text into a computer was with a keypunch machine. One line per Hollerith card; if you make a mistake you throw that card away and start over. You could duplicate the bad card up to your mistake and resume typing from there, but that's the closest you had to "copy and paste" functionality.

These days, I use the &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi"&gt;"vi" text editor&lt;/a&gt; on a daily basis. Vi dates back to the seventies, when computer keyboards did not have cursor keys, so the h, j, k, and l keys are your cursor arrows. After thirty years working in UNIX/Linux, using vi is very natural. The UNIX Korn shell has vi built into it, so you can edit your command-line in the same way you edit text files.

Of course, switching back and forth between modern Windows or Linux applications and vi, I sometimes get tripped up. The control key functions are different in the two worlds, and for some reason modern editors don't think h, j, k and l are cursor keys. Use Ctrl-C in Linux and you'll kill your running program!

Click to expand...

I remember going to Fort Meade on Saturday morning when I was a Kid. He was with the 98th Data Processing Unit. They talked to the IBM EAM (Electronic Analysis Machines) by plugging anywhere from dozens to hundreds of cords into programming board. This was late 50's.

My word processor was an electric typewriter, small LCD screen, printer and 3.5 disk, 7k memory. ASKI was a computer language that PC couldn't open.

Hemingway used a #5 Underwood. Boy wanted one for Christmas. I got lucky and found one for $75. Turns out it's a 1909 valued in the thousands because of it's near mint condition.

He thinks it's priceless. Even got a new ribbon for it.

Odd he would want a manual Underwood when he's head of IT security for hospitals and university.

Mark,
Back in the day I bought it was called a word processor. Computers were commandor 64, toys.

To my recollection, the first word processors I saw was IBM, which were nothing more than an electric typewriter with a built in memory. Mine had a big 7k memory.
geo

Remember Wordstar?

Heaps of "control +" in that

Including one that let you switch from line to column mode

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordStar

I remember accounting classes in college when all work was done in pencil on a tan ledger sheet. And it was an automatic "F" if you got caught using any kind of calculator or adding machine, even adding 20 or more rows.

I too started with Hollerith cards. FWIW, I still have a stick of them. They are ideal to burnish the light corrosion from contact sets.

I've also written code using punched paper tape and a teletype.

The dot based text editor that I used with the paper tape operating system on the DEC PDP-11 was a major improvement for writing source code.

Dean

ASKI?? Never heard of that one. Maybe ASCII character set?

> Back in the day I bought it was called a word processor. Computers were commandor 64, toys.

> To my recollection, the first word processors I saw was IBM, which were nothing more than an electric typewriter with a built in memory. Mine had a big 7k memory. geo

George, if your word processor had a Ctrl key, as you say it did, it was a computer. A computer dedicated to word processing, to be sure, but a computer nonetheless running some sort of program. The memory typewriters, on the other hand, were neither computers nor word processors since they didn't run a program and weren't capable of being programmed. (A control key would serve no purpose on a memory typewriter; it is an artifact from early computer terminals and teletypewriters which needed to create special "control" characters, hence the name.)

The earliest true word processors were mainframe or minicomputer-based systems and quite expensive. When minicomputers with word processing programs arrived (such as the IBM PC with Wordstar), the older systems were quickly supplanted.

BTW, I don't know why you want to denigrate early personal computers like the Commodore 64. Yes, they were mostly used as toys, but they were quite capable computers for their day, and stand up well when you consider their features with those of modern PCs.