I finally have an ancient piece of software up and running on the laptop, which is very good news. My second machine is still infested with a rootkit worm, and that will be the next step.

This program started as a mailing list on a Kaypro CP/M at the dawn of microcomputers, running on one of the first popular wordprocessing programs, WordStar. It them progressed through dBASE II, dBASE III, dBASE III+, and finally its current compiled version with Clipper.

Most of the program was last changed in 1998 in anticipation of Y2K, but there are annual updates to certain of the printing modules. It is a custom accounting system for a very niche market, and produces output to run on several specialized devices.

For years I have been looking for ways of converting it to the Windows platform, but there is no current program that will enable a programmer to re-create all of the features. It is very frustrating because accounting was once the raison d’être for computers, and now it is relegated to a miniscule segment in the microcomputer world. People adapt their business to a couple of popular programs, rather than creating something that works the way they do.

C’est la vie …

Update: I forget to mention the minor hurdle imposed by the power company. They made a ‘courtesy call’ [a robocall by any other name is just as annoying] informing me that at an unspecified time probably in the next 7 days they would be swapping electric meters in the area, which means if I have to leave for a few minutes, I have to shut everything down.

They are installing ‘new, more efficient meters’, which translates as the auto-reporting type that will allow them to fire even more people and reduce their ‘costs’, but have no effect on mine, as the savings will go to higher profits, not lower bills.