WordPerfect sits in the middle between LaTeX and Word when it comes to its document model.

It's a stream processor like LaTeX that just has a raw stream of text with tags applied to the text for formatting control.

It's a word processor like Word that shows you how that raw stream of text with tags looks on the document without having to recompile the document each time to see the results.

Anyone who wants to do a new FOSS document processor, please blatantly steal this model.

#WordPerfect

RE: https://mastodon.world/@anttipeltola/116169203304658997

Looking back at the history of #WordPerfect—looks like I must have started using it in 1990, maybe even 1991, not 1989 as I had thought. I began with v. 5.1 (though I had played with v. 5) and given the timing, it must have crossed over in the 1990s. Before then it would have been Wordstar on the IBM PC-compatible and SuperScript on the Commodore 64.

If you're looking for a full version history of all WordPerfect releases between 1979 and 1997, here it is.

I'm personally using WordPerfect 6.2 for DOS and WordPerfect 3.5e for Macintosh as my main word processors.

https://mendelson.org/wpdos/chronology.html

#WordPerfect #RetroComputing #DOS #Macintosh

In my #blog
Where #WordPerfect continues to hold its own against Word and other upstarts

https://jackyan.com/blog/2026/02/where-wordperfect-continues-to-hold-its-own-against-word-and-other-upstarts/ #software #design

My #MSOffice installation threw one of those fits when you won’t let it connect to the mothership, so it will not function without fishing out the disks and reinstalling. It does this every year or three.

So far, I have had a few instances with either word or spreadsheet documents needing editing. While I love using #Corel #WordPerfect #QuattroPro suite, it doesn’t always handle things as well.

I remembered a stale copy of #LibreOffice was installed, so I tried that. It managed all I have needed of it so far, and I suspect I will not reconsider the Office reinstall unless I need to use PivotTables, and that isn’t very often lately.

Yes, the Office is an old version, and owned, not leased. I have more than had my money’s worth out of it, and no, there is no way I will be upgrading it. No, I don’t let it near the www.

Now that #Microsoft Office is facing another cycle of #Enshittification let us remember how they won in the first place in early 1990s from a person who still uses #WordPerfect for #DOS.

Word basically had very little market share and was deemed an inferior product to WordPerfect. Then marketing goons at Microsoft came up with a brilliant idea of bundling Word, Excel, and PowerPoint together and calling it Microsoft Office with retail price of 500 USD.

WordPerfect alone cost 500 USD back then.

Again, happy that I use #WordPerfect … and that the only copy of Word I ever licensed was 97.

https://dialup.space/@TechTangents/115828185655930670