On Mon, 12 Apr 1999, Zane H. Healy wrote:
> >> Well, I don't know. However, MS Word/Windows and /Macintosh has a strange
> >> option: to have large white letters on a blue background instead of black
> >> on white. This has nothing to do with any color settings, and no other
> >> colors can be used in a similar way. This may have classic reasons. Anyone
> >> know?
> >Don't know the exact reason but that was the default color
> >combination of the DOS version of MS Word (and every day I use
> >the current version, I long for the old one).
> I think this has something to do with a request for an enhancement made by
> Jerry Pornelle <sp> believe it or not. I read something recenty where he
> wrote about having gotten MS to add some special colour combination for him.
White on blue wasn't the original for (DOS) Word, it was indeed an
option in Word for DOS configuration, and yes, it came from a request
by Jerry Pournelle to one of the developers. Jerry learned to like
that color scheme from Q&A Write which he used for a while when he
first started using MSDOS -- he'd been using Xywrite for some years
with CP/M.
He did mention it in last week's bit on byte.com -- I remember it
from the original Byte columns and from talking to him at the weekly
LASFS meetings when we could avoid arguments about politics. (He
favors the existence of government, I don't). Damn, but I miss those
arguments. Mostly because I remember California before the socialists
took over -- and I can't return home to Los Angeles unless Sacramento
is bulldozed under the swamp upon which it was built.
--
Ward Griffiths
"the timid die just like the daring; and if you don't take the plunge then
you'll just take the fall" Michael Longcor
Received on Mon Apr 12 1999 - 22:10:20 BST