New bloggage - in 2014 I tried to read some old #QuattroPro for #DOS #spreadsheets in modern software, and concluded the format was effectively obsolete.
More than ten years onward, things are looking much better now, thanks to @libreoffice. But my latest tests also highlight some gnarly issues.
https://bitsgalore.org/2025/05/28/quattro-pro-for-dos-revisited-an-obsolete-format-no-more
Attention #digipres hive mind - I came across quite an intriguing compatibility issue between an old #QuattroPro for #DOS file that uses the VLOOKUP function and #LibreOffice #Calc.
Details + a demo file here:
https://github.com/openpreserve/format-corpus/tree/master/office/spreadsheet/wq2/vlookup-compat-demo
I'm using a fairly old version of LibreOffice (6.4.7.2), so I was wondering if anyone can reproduce this in a more recent version? If so, please let me know, so I can report this as an issue with the LibreOffice devs.
(Also paging @euanc)
Funnily enough this immediately gave me inspiration for a new (yet to be written) follow-up to my 2014 post about #QuattroPro for #DOS spreadsheets.
Back then I declared those obsolete because no modern application was able to read them.
Fast-forward 11 years, and @libreoffice calc appears to read them without any problems at all!
Wtf, #QuattroPro is still a thing?
If you're a university student, it's the end of the semester!
I teach a few university classes, and I use a spreadsheet to calculate final grades.
Here's how to do the same grade lookup and conversion in #LibreOffice Calc, #QuattroPro and #AsEasyAs
Made a career of crunching data and loading spreadsheets. Pivot Tables were a godsend.
#EasyCalc
#SuperCalc
#Lotus123
#QuattroPro
#Excel
Even used a text based one on a MVS mainframe, but I forget the name of the program!
Johan van der Knijff
retrocompmx
courtguinness
Jan ☕🎼🎹☁️🏋️♂️
The FreeDOS Project
PC