Lotus 1-2-3 For Linux | Hacker News Reader

Lotus 1-2-3 For Linux

lock.cmpxchg8b.com

363 pointsrcarmo61 comments

> He had kept tape backups from old BBS systems, and was able to recover a warez copy of the SDK – unbelievable! It actually worked, I was able to build a few sample plugins!

Why History Needs Software Piracy[1]

[1] https://www.technologizer.com/2012/01/23/why-history-needs-s...

I was just thinking about trying to create an archive of all the manuals, firmware updates, drivers, and any software utilities for current synthesizers, eurorack and otherwise, since they’re actually hardware that will still be around in a few decades. I already keep copies of all this stuff for gear I own, organized by manufacturer in my personal cloud storage drive, but it seems like it would be a public benefit for the community to have something centralized and more importantly long-lived.

I was thinking about how to potentially have some kind of yearly distribution of such an archive, maybe have some type of archival blu-ray that people could pay for a physical copy of that would hopefully last 100 years, then the odds of /someone/ out there having a copy of that last esoteric firmware .bin that you need to save your corrupted firmware on your ARM-based DSP eurorack module should approach 1.

Uploading to archive.org should work.

While archive.org still exists.

My dad had a ton of 123 files on a secondary laptop with an ancient Windows version, just because these had important information that he still needed to look at from time to time. I was a bit worried about the resiliency of this setup, to put it mildly.

Recently I realized that LibreOffice could convert Lotus files to ODF/ODS files, even in the CLI, so I made a very simple bash script to convert them all, and bulk uploaded them on my Nextcloud with Collabora, and gave my dad a login and a crash course. So now he can look up his files online, and they get properly backed up as part of my normal routine on the server.

Big tip of the hat to data archeologists like OP and the LibreOffice contributors.

Now I'm pretty curious what kind of files they are, that they're so old yet still important?

I assume it's letters to friends and family, some work journals, investment spreadsheets, things like that.

Having flashbacks to being 7 years old and asking my dad for a Nintendo and instead getting a 286 with Lotus 123 and Indiana Jones text adventure.

At least you got a computer. :-D

You have obviously never used a Timex/Sinclair 1000.

LOL. I loved my ZX81.

Sounds like you made out much better

I got an apple 2gs with leisure suit larry that neither me nor my much older brother could reliably figure out the answers to the "age verification questions" at start-up

Interesting, apparently these are the questions http://allowe.com/games/larry/tips-manuals/lsl1-age-quiz.htm...

next step: figure out the jokes for the punchlines. :)

Same. Begged my dad for a NES. Got C64 instead "because its better, you will see..." Changed my life.

Changed your life for the better I hope? My kids asked for a Nintendo Switch, but instead got a Steam Deck, along with my 12-year old desktop that is on it's second GPU, second pair of RAM, and third disk drive but still chugging along well. Those systems aren't anywhere near hackable like when we were kids, but I'm hoping just the possibility being there is enough.

It did. Although him buying my little brother a NES 2 years later stung a bit.

Newer systems offer dramatically more opportunity for hacking. The problem is that you just don’t have to.

If you want to introduce hacking for necessity, try introducing an SBC into the mix. For $40, you can get a system younger you could be never dream of. Actually there is a Milk-V is $5 right now.

Yeah in retrospect it was very much the right call. Thanks Dad!

Hah I wanted a Megadrive and got an old (even for the time) BBC B.

I begged for a BBC Micro and got a ZX Spectrum. Turned out to be much better at getting me interested in programming, even if the Spectrum was on the way out.

The simpler hardware of the Spectrum was much more approachable. And the basic was so slow that you really had to learn some Z80 assembly!

> The simpler hardware of the Spectrum was much more approachable.

I'd contest that assertion. I was 15 when when my folks bought my BBC Model B. It was a far more interesting machine to hack around on than the Spectrum. The BBC was set up my future as a software developer.

Are you contesting that it was more approachable? I didn’t say the Spectrum was more interesting - it definitely wasn’t!

Apologies. I also meant to say that the BBC was just as approachable as the Spectrum then lost my train of thought after the phone rang :) I found the Spectrum super frustrating to use, especially with that dead-flesh membrane keyboard.

I asked for a LISP Machine. I didn't know what it was, but it looked really cool at the Computer Museum in Boston (this must have been late 80s).

Instead I got a Commodore 64, and thus my first language was BASIC, instead of LISP.

I will happily pin any and all failures in my life on this tragedy and accept no comments.

Asked for a computer and didn't get one so had to code friends ones or use parents ones / school computers.

I wasn't permitted to have a computer until I'd passed my 'O' levels, so instead typed out my code on a clonky 1960's office typewriter in the evenings and weekends. I did have rudimentary syntax highlighting because it used a black/red ribbon :)

Funnily enough I'm doing something similar, but with the extra step of turning parts of programs into object files first. That means I'm not limited to extant object files, but it requires some amount of reverse-engineering to make it work.

I have a proof-of-concept with aln [1], the Atari Jaguar linker. I start with a Linux x86 a.out executable, which I delink into an ELF object file and then relink as an ELF x86 executable, working around mismatched ABIs as needed.

[1] https://forums.atariage.com/topic/354341-porting-the-origina...

This intrigued me for a number of reasons:

1. It's cool AF how you made getting UNIX -> Linux binary seem to be, even without source code and without original compiler and language. This is HN :D

2. You reminded us all that people still use Usenet for something more than rars in 2023!

3. You reminded us all of the past BBS scene which definitely helped to bring enthusiasm (and great shareware distribution of software) to the masses long before the popular of the internet, thus opening up great memories of the past I imagine for many.

Thank you for the post, and looking forward to your progress.

The BBS ethos is returning, I think. Especially in light of the implosion of Twitter (and all 'social' media, eventually). The older Zoomers are so infatuated with '80's and '90's retro stuff that many are downloading modem negotiation sequences as ringtones! My 23 year-old niece just recently did so. American Horror Story, Stranger Things, and other shows of that ilk are feeding the nostalgia.

It just proves the old saying: 'If you wait long enough, everything comes back into fashion.'

That’s pretty awesome!

Some good discussion from last year (May 2022]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31455968

Linked from this excellent article is https://scenelist.org/, which is just the nostalgia bomb I needed this morning. Excellent trip down memory lane; highly recommended.

Lotus 1-2-3 for Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35807639 - May 2023 (73 comments)

Lotus 1-2-3 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35872758 - May 2023 (117 comments)

Lotus 1-2-3 For Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31455968 - May 2022 (83 comments)

Lotus 1-2-3 arbitrary resolution - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26316637 - March 2021 (123 comments)

In fact, I had forgotten all about 1-2-3 as I'd tried this out some time last year. I still have the 123 binary working happily under Linux. It's quite an achievement to have something that's been obsolete for many years "Just Work".

I always wanted this - a terminal-based spreadsheet (I don't use much fonts and pictures in spreadsheets anyway). Glad to know it's finally here! I hope it's going to get ported to Mac and Windows as well.

Yeah, cool idea. Same here, im very heavy terminal user, and simple spreadsheet in terminal sounds like a cool idea.

There's already sc: https://www.unix.com/man-page/linux/1/sc/

On the very same website, you also have a review of various terminal linux spreadsheet programs: https://lock.cmpxchg8b.com/spreadsheet.html

Emacs has had a spreadsheet mode (SimpleEmacsSpreadsheet) for a really long time. I've never used it, but it might be worth checking out.

But also, Org-Mode in Emacs (which itself is a bottomless pit of awesome I have never explored) also has a way of using org-mode table cells like a spreadsheet using the Emacs 'Calc' stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15aDIvb5LJs

That looks really powerful. And of course, can run in either terminal or in window like all of emacs.

> Emacs has had a spreadsheet mode

If course it has. :-)

If the GNU project had a marketing team, they should adopt the slogan "Emacs: There's a mode for that."

I'd also recommend "Guile goes with everything" for another GNU product.

I'd amend that to: "Emacs: There's 3 modes for that. And they're all broken--differently."

Honestly I am enjoying the Emacs 29 experience and package management improvements in emacs generally. Way less brittle. Stuff is just working.

Previous discussion (83 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31455968

My article about it from the time (18mth ago) in which I try to describe some of the history, relevance, technology etc.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/25/lotus_123_for_linux_a...

I really wish someone could resuscitate Javelin (it "Understands the Arrow of Time" to quote the old ads). Where you can create a variable and define its time period: is it a monthly value, a daily value, a quarterly value, and so on -- and then simply chart, compare, add or subtract values without having to jump through hoops or manually try and push values into groupings. Javelin was the 1984 PC Magazine product of the year but there doesn't seem to have been anything since that works that way.

Keep up the great work! I'm also proud to see that "90s BBS scene" lend a crucial hand here, too!

Sadly, Lotus 1-2-3/M (The mainframe version of it, for VM and MVS) seems to be lost forever.

That is sick. Was just watching an old Computer Chronicles on Lotus 1-2-3

and youtube suggested me a tiny video about the spreadsheet wars, visicalc/lotus/excel.. something in the air

“Something in the air” - that’s google watching everything you do.

sadly plausible

That is the worrisome thing. the uncertainty.

There is a very real phenomena where you learn something new. Then start seeing that thing every where, at a frequency you "know" was not present before. It is quite uncanny.

Now on top of that we have these massive engines of silicone designed with the sole purpose of identifying your patterns so they can infiltrate your thought processes and make you buy something you otherwise would not have.

When is it just learning something new and when is it a subversive engine?

Is there any curses based good spreadsheet?

sc-im - Spreadsheet Calculator Improvised -- An ncurses spreadsheet program for terminal:

https://github.com/andmarti1424/sc-im

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24318367#24318518

VisiData, Oleo, Teapot

Found visidata last week. I was blown away by how much it can do.

Emacs Org-Mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15aDIvb5LJs

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