Outdated Computer Terms

[SeanB]

I still have the odd CP-M card for an old Apple ][ and 64k memory expansion for it.

[uwezi]

I still have the odd CP-M card for an old Apple ][ and 64k memory expansion for it.

That's the system I learned programming on: CP/M and TurboPascal v1 and 2!!! 

[AlfBaz]

Kodak Photo CD

Or simply just Kodak

[VK3DRB]

Hercules Graphics Card

Super VGA

Pointing Device (IBM would not lower themselves to calling it a mouse)

Edlin (The worlds most "popular" editor sold with every DOS)

Copy Con (The worlds' simplest "editor")  CTRL-Z

Data Migration Facility

[vk6zgo]

 Not quite a term,but sadly,outdated:-

Word Processor programs that let you simply change existing text from upper to lower case or vice versa
without retyping the whole sentence.
I used an old DOS one years back that did this,but new ones don't let you do it.(if there is a way,please tell me)

A term I'd LIKE to see outdated--------"Caps Lock"-----aaaaRRRRRRGgghh!

[Prime73]

Are you looking for something like this?
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/change-the-capitalization-of-text-HA010210665.aspx

Not quite a term,but sadly,outdated:-

Word Processor programs that let you simply change existing text from upper to lower case or vice versa
without retyping the whole sentence.
I used an old DOS one years back that did this,but new ones don't let you do it.(if there is a way,please tell me)

A term I'd LIKE to see outdated--------"Caps Lock"-----aaaaRRRRRRGgghh!

[vk6zgo]

Yeah --something like that!
I seem to remember it being a lot easier with the old program,though.

There would be little need for it if "caps lock " was removed from keyboards,though.
It is a relic of mechanical typewriter days.

[cybermaus]

NO CAPS LOCK? BUT THEN HOW WOULD I MAKE MY POSTS?

[cpuerror]

To start windows..

C:\> win

Some other terms:
Mouse driver
FM Synthesis
Doublespace
"Have you tried running memmaker?"

[tsmith35]

Forgot about a lot of that. DESQview, QEMM386, 4DOS, Helix Netroom...

[cybermaus]

Are those not more brands then terms? The relevant outdated terms would be memory managers or maybe INT27 or TSR

And anyway, in that list should definitely be HIMEM.SYS.
First thing to do on any PC: add himem and EMM368 to config.sys

And the first TSR I worked with: you could load a calculator utility, and on a keypress it would come up over the top corner of whatever program you were running. Running TWO programs at the same time. MINDBLOWING!

[VK3DRB]

And the first TSR I worked with: you could load a calculator utility, and on a keypress it would come up over the top corner of whatever program you were running. Running TWO programs at the same time. MINDBLOWING!

Sound like Sidekick!

Always power hungry, I was the first person in Australia to run OS/2 on a PC-AT loaded up with a whopping 2MB of RAM so I could  print to my IBM dot matrix printer in one shell whilst doing work in another shell. That pre-release OS/2 had no Presentation Manager (GUI). It was just like having multiple DOS sessions. I more than doubled the speed of that dot matrix printer by simply changing the 3.59 MHz XTAL to an 8.00 MHz one.

Hacking was so much fun and challenging back then. No internet to look things up, just experimentation and education from technical reference manuals. The result was a WOW factor. These days, young people lack the WOW factor that many of us older techos enjoyed.

Another couple of outdated terms just came to mind:

   Centronics printer cable
   S100 bus

[cybermaus]

   Centronics printer cable

What? I am still using that! To drive my Roland bed plotter. So not outdated at all !

[madires]

   Centronics printer cable

What? I am still using that! To drive my Roland bed plotter. So not outdated at all !

I fully agree! Got the special one with the high density connector (like SCSI) for my trusty HP LJ5P.

[SeanB]

SCSI pass through terminators. I have 2 around along with the D25 to SCSI cable for them as well. Still have the 8 way SCSI ribbon cable as well and the Adaptec AH2940 card. Even some of the HP Scanner cards that are SCSI but are notSCSI as they only worked with the scanners and not with any other SCSI device.

[tsmith35]

Are those not more brands then terms? The relevant outdated terms would be memory managers or maybe INT27 or TSR

Yes, they are brands more than terms, but I just happened to think of them while I was reading the thread. I guess I was just reminiscing. I've used computers for 37 years, and I've seen a lot of stuff come and go. It all blends together after a while...

PCMCIA, PC Card and CardBus are more recent outdated terms. MFM & RLL hard drives, "SET BLASTER=" in autoexec, ".com" as a file extension rather than part of a domain name, "type somefile.txt|more", turbo button, WORM drives, Ad Lib sound cards, CD caddy, Kermit, token ring network, S-100 power supply, BBS, and all the rest.

You know, I always wanted to get a genuine Hayes modem, but never did. Always "Hayes-compatible". I did eventually get a pair of U. S. Robotics Courier HST Dual Standard modems (16.8k with HST!) through the sysop program, but never got a Hayes.

Don't forget PR#7...

[cybermaus]

By cortesy of today's xkcd: webring

[AG6QR]

Word Processor programs that let you simply change existing text from upper to lower case or vice versa
without retyping the whole sentence.
I used an old DOS one years back that did this,but new ones don't let you do it.(if there is a way,please tell me)

Use emacs, vi, or any other real text editor.  For example, in emacs, select a region and use the upcase-region or downcase-region command.  Or if you prefer,  typing esc-u will make the current word all caps and send you to the next word.  Typing esc-l makes the current word lower case and moves to the next word.  You can also use the upcase-region, upcase-word, upcase-initials, or upcase-initials-region commands.  Both emacs and vi are free, powerful, and supported on just about every computer and OS available.

[Sigmoid]

Use emacs, vi, or any other real text editor.  For example, in emacs, select a region and use the upcase-region or downcase-region command.  Or if you prefer,  typing esc-u will make the current word all caps and send you to the next word.  Typing esc-l makes the current word lower case and moves to the next word.  You can also use the upcase-region, upcase-word, upcase-initials, or upcase-initials-region commands.  Both emacs and vi are free, powerful, and supported on just about every computer and OS available.

...though using vi for the first time has been compared to listening to Vogon poetry while hanging from a rusty hook by one's genitals.

[mrflibble]

Use emacs, vi, or any other real text editor.  For example, in emacs, select a region and use the upcase-region or downcase-region command.  Or if you prefer,  typing esc-u will make the current word all caps and send you to the next word.  Typing esc-l makes the current word lower case and moves to the next word.  You can also use the upcase-region, upcase-word, upcase-initials, or upcase-initials-region commands.  Both emacs and vi are free, powerful, and supported on just about every computer and OS available.

...though using vi for the first time has been compared to listening to Vogon poetry while hanging from a rusty hook by one's genitals.

:q!

[SeanB]

Could be worse, you could be writing code in Notepad. Or writing a novel.

[echen1024]

Could be worse, you could be writing code in Notepad. Or writing a novel.

I had someone once joke: Windows was wrote in notepad.

[david77]

"Have you tried running memmaker?"

Memmaker - bah!
I still know my perfect autoexec.bat/config.sys by heart. Gave me 623KB free memory, memmaker never managed that much on my systems.

Just last week I had to set up a Netware 3.12 server to run some legacy software. That was fun, spent a whole day cobbling together a system from scrap parts, Pentium 133, 32MB memory, SCSI.
I forgot what fun we used to have installing stuff from mountains of floppy disks. There really was no "I'll just quickly install this..." 20 years ago.

[baljemmett]

Just last week I had to set up a Netware 3.12 server to run some legacy software. That was fun, spent a whole day cobbling together a system from scrap parts, Pentium 133, 32MB memory, SCSI.

Wow, 32MB -- I hope you remembered that such a huge amount would need a REGISTER MEMORY in 3.12   I miss NetWare; haven't had any clients that use it in years now.

[david77]

Yeah, I think Netware was great. At a previous employer we had a Netware server running from the early 90ies till the end of 2012. That thing was on 24/7, I can only remember two or three times we had to shut it down because of power cuts that outlasted the UPS. It always made me nervous to power it down - you never knew if it'd come back up again and it was absolutely mission critical to the end.
Granted, Netware couldn't do very much but what it was designed to do it did to perfection.

Ah, thinking about that made me think about the dbase databases our ERP system (written in Clipper 5) used. I spent many an hour digging through them to usually correct user errors that the ERP software didn't allow to change. Always made the boss happy when I came up with a corrected invoice or something like that.

Now I'm burdened with SAP, luckily only as a user. Not everything gets better.

Anybody remember what a PITA 10Base2 networks could be? That was also in operation until September 2012.