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Comment on Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1a, Native X64 Port

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This project is a fully working native Windows x64 port of Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1a, whose historical codename was Opus.

Not to be confused with the Anthropic LLM model Opus - what was once an old codename is as good as new once again!

It’s a common word amongst people with even a bit of erudition. In truth, using it for any kind of software is overusing it.

For erudites Word is a much better name. We seldom use that verbum.

Would be ironic if Claude Opus was used in making this port. IMHO the README does have a bit of LLM smell to it.

I came here to say that. Though not in a bad way; the economics of what is possible but practical/impractical changes greatly with LLMs, and I suspect and hope we will be figuring out the ramifications for a while.

Agreed... I suspect we're not too far off from being able to say "port this Win16 application to Win64" if we're not there already... and most of it will be harness improvements!

Check in the github src directory.

What should one check for?

My first guess (and probably the first guess of many of the old school nerds) was that the MS Word codename is from Opus the penguin from Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County comic strip and that seems to be correct.

High five for anyone who still remembers the brief Bill the Gates arc in the comic or the Banana Computer parody ad of Apple starring Gene Simmons (https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-banana-junior-6000-comp... , about halfway down the page).

“Opus” is/was a lot of things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opus#Computing

And not to be confused with its plural form "opera".

Indeed the name of the art form is just Italian for "work".

Also, a direct cognate with "operate", "operation", etc.

The Oracle corporation would like to speak to you about the name of their property management system.

(Also some Norwegians and a Web browser?)

the Romans, btw, knew two kinds of labour: labor, -is the laborious one (see ?), and opus, the achievement

Wow, TIL.

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