Lexicon and pirates
Legend has it that the Lexicon prototype - the multi-window editor E-9 - was conceived by a young employee of the USSR Academy of Sciences Academy Zhenya Veselov on vacation days before 84 on the Crimean beach, and in order to speed up the testing, the author at one time exposed a bottle of beer to users who discovered errors. Although the method justified itself and the program quickly became operational, we regret to note that the marketing policy of subsequent rightholders is not so fresh - they no longer give beer. Soon, Lexicon, printing in Russian and understandable without studying in special courses, widely spread throughout the country, becoming a “Russian text editor”. Technical revolutions in the field of computers have passed and are coming again, the USSR has disappeared, and with the Lexicon, which has exchanged the second decade for DOS, in the Russian and neighboring cities and villages, thousands of people are still working today.So says Gregory Schmerling, who joined the development of the Lexicon a little later, and at the end the former "Lexicon Project Leader".
Without a doubt, Lexicon is a legendary software product. But he was not so immediately; and becoming, he did not stay too long.
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In 1990, the Lexicon was mentioned as one of the “well-known application systems” along with Lettrix , the resident driver of the American design, which intercepted text output to a printer, and replaced it with a graphic output using custom fonts. The name LEXICON in that article is typed in Latin, and it is not clear whether the author realized that the Lexicon was created by his compatriots, and not “expropriated from the bourgeois” along with most of the software of that time. Lexicon did not have any organized “distribution model” at that time — everyone wrote it off from a neighbor along with a bunch of other “useful programs”, without thinking for a minute where these programs came from and whether the developer was not expecting them to use them.
Which developer? Where? Somewhere over the ocean? Wow, the capitalists snickering! (shakes fist)
The article “ How to sell programs in Russia, or Yagodka, Commercial Director, ” Olga Uskova from Cognitive Technologies (next time I want to post her article entirely) refers to 1995, but begins in a similar spirit: “A year and a half ago, there was a view in Russia that the program is such a thing that scientists eccentrics or naive foreign firms provide to resourceful Russian users for free. Having a licensed copy was considered as embarrassing as buying a ticket on public transport or complying with the rules of the road. A discussion of the psychological aspects of this problem would have had to start from the time of Ivan the Terrible ... ”
Meanwhile, Veselov's team with Lexicon wandered in search of funding from one optimistic cooperative to another, and eventually they formed an alliance with the Soviet-Hungarian joint venture MicroInform, which until then was engaged in trading computer equipment and conducting computer courses. Fruitful cooperation of programmers and businessmen was crowned with the release in 1992 of elegant boxes with Lexicon version 8.96, which was renamed Lexicon 1.0 on this occasion. Only from this moment on, the development of Lexicon became a commercial enterprise, and illegal copying began to bother the developers (or rather, their sponsors in Microinform). Initially, Veselov's motives were much simpler - “I wanted to write something better just to make it easier to enter and edit my own programs and articles. The editor, E-9, was so named because it had nine windows, and it later turned into a “Lexicon” by adding a tenth window and a menu in the Lotus 1-2-3 style. ”
News note in ComputerPress 9'92:
Registration of illegal text editor users Lexicon
MICROINFORM decided to legalize unregistered users of Lexicon. This decision is justified by the fact that the firm recognizes that in terms of legal uncertainty. copyright infringement that existed to date has been unintentional.
All registered users are provided with a range of services to support the product and discounts when purchasing new versions.
In April 1992, at the COMTEK 92 exhibition, MICROINFORM presented a new - industrial - version of the text editor LEXICON. She was named LEKSIKON 1.0.
Unlike previous versions, LEXICON 1.0 has a complete presentation (packaging, documentation) and in its functionality in many ways surpasses them. In particular, LEXICON 1.0 includes enhanced support for dot-matrix and laser printers, capabilities to use index, math and Greek fonts, a set of converters for converting files prepared in LEKSIKON to Xerox Ventura Publisher and Microsoft Word. LEKSIKON 1.0 uses advanced font formats and printer drivers, so it’s impossible to use these drivers and fonts for previous versions (6.67 and 8.92).
Focusing mainly on the domestic market, MICROINFORM prepared national versions of LEXICON 1.0 with the possibility of simultaneous processing of at least 3 different languages ​​in one document. At the moment MICROINFORM supplies the Armenian, Belarusian, Georgian, Kazakh, Uzbek, Ukrainian versions.
By the end of 1992, it is planned to release a new version of LEKSIKON 2.0 in the framework of the new window technology.
The phone number of the user registration group is (095) 233-00-06.
It is not even surprising that the only recollection of Shmerling, who brought to us the legend of Veselov on the Crimean beach, is in the FIDO7 archive; it dates back to 1996 - and then in the "Hit Parade" in the SU.HUMOR Echo. The second place in this charts was taken by the following sentimental story:
(RU.BBSNEWS) Silver bummer of the current issue belongs to Cherlite BBS sysop Jan Chernyak (/ 6). Chernyak's name was mentioned on the pages of the PC-WEEK newspaper, but - alas - it did not bring any joy to him, since the article, in which Ian appeared, was devoted to piracy. Someone Gregory Schmerling, an employee of the firm "Microinform" investigated several Moscow BBS-ok to find there stolen "Lexicon". The results of the test, he told the general public. Among the pirate "boards" was Cherlite. Jan decided to close the BBS "in connection with the denunciation to PC-WEEK." I will not comment on this bummer, since the attitude to piracy is different for everyone and depends on the thickness of the wallet. And I do not want to talk about your wallet.
In addition to stigmatization of pirates, G. Shmerling and Olga Dergunova (now the Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation , and then the Director of Sales and Marketing at MicroInform) gave media interviews on behalf of the developers of the Lexicon, sincerely respected by all the foremost of the domestic software industry:
(ComputerPress 8'92)
H avero, everyone in our country, if not working with him, then at least heard of Lexicon, a text editor. Probably, many are aware of the existence of an integrated master package. From this issue we begin to print a series of articles about the above products, as well as their developers.
Joint venture "Microinform". Right way, gentlemen, comrades!
Start
On June 23, 1988, the Ministry of Finance of the USSR registered the 60th joint venture. The founder of the joint venture from the Soviet side was the Central Interdepartmental Institute for Advanced Training of Executives and Construction Specialists (51% of a million authorized capital), from the foreign side - the Hungarian enterprise Telefondar. The new enterprise was named “Microinform“. There were 10 people in the staff at the time, but they were also hardly accommodated in several rooms of the old house number 3 on Kozhevnicheskaya Street.
Three years later, Mikroinform held a housewarming party, investing 3 million foreign currency rubles in the repair and restoration of a dilapidated building. Now the company is located in a beautiful four-story mansion on Ostrovsky Street, 44. Obviously, the marriage concluded in the summer of the 88th was a success!
Computers
Question: What could earn such money for 3 years?
Answer: Of course, on computers! But ... not everything is so simple (otherwise there would be nothing to write about). Listen to what Boris Mikhailovich Fridman, General Director of Microinform, says about his company: “We set ourselves the goal of providing the country with products that are on a par with foreign competitors. For the production of computers, there is an initial base, components, and technology - all that is needed is a mechanism, a structure for the realization of the existing possibilities. We are not ready yet for the organization in the country, even assembly production. Today it is more profitable to invest in the rational sharing of free capacities of high-tech industries available in the West. The components of our IBM computers that are fully compatible with IBM are purchased from leading Western firms, and for the assembly of machines we rent a processing line from the German firm Soft-tronik, which is our partner. Everyone benefits from such an organization of production, and above all - our customers. ”
And you can order a lot of good and different in “Microinform”. Having established contacts with foreign partners, Mikroinform can acquire and deliver to the customer the necessary products from other companies - for example, full-page monitors of vertical format and other special equipment for modern computer publishing systems, network equipment.
It is also important that the “Microinform” has a technical center for installation, maintenance, warranty and post-warranty repair of equipment. In case of technical troubles, clients of the company do not need to look for whom to ask for help.
Software
As a rule, "Microinform" is not limited to the supply of "bare" machines - customers are offered ready-to-work hardware and software systems. Microinform is the official distributor of Computer Associates and Rank Xerox products, supplying and supporting a number of programs in the USSR. Xerox is famous not only as the founder of copy machines, which made the name of the company a household name, but also the development of the publishing system Xerox Ventura Publisher. The version of Ventura Publisher offered in our market is completely Russified and supplied with firm documentation in Russian.
Of course. Computer Associates products are also noteworthy: the project management system Super Project Expert (a tool for the head of a large organization) and the well-known spreadsheet processor SuperCalc.
Numerous SuperCalc users are well aware of both its wide capabilities and its main drawback: it is not possible to make signatures and designations in Russian on charts and graphs. This is so, unless ... you purchase the SuperCalc 5 package in “Microinform”, for which the company provides software Russification (HELP, screen and printer graphic fonts), as well as a set of proprietary documentation translated into Russian. Those interested in the capabilities of SuperCalc 5 will refer to the article by OFLitvin published in ComputerPress number 4'91.
Master and Lexicon
Perhaps the most interesting aspects of the “Microinform” activity are our own software development. The combination of the supply of computers and the creation of software under the roof of one small firm would hardly have justified itself in the conditions of a developed market for software and hardware. However, in our conditions, it is safer for the customer to receive equipment and software (as well as training and service) from one source, so this kind of complete service became the main principle of the “Microinform” work.
The main works of “Microinformat” go in line with the technology of the Master software system - a completely original, licensed and clean integrated system. A part of this system and at the same time a self-developing product is almost all Soviet users of IBM-compatible machines known to all - text editor Lexicon.
The Master and Lexicon are the brainchild of E.N. Veselov, who became this year the technical director of “Microinform”.
What is remarkable Lexicon? After all, there are word processors much more powerful, with rich possibilities of paperwork, including graphic illustrations in the text, automated work with the internal structure of the text (chapters and sections, footnotes, links), built-in card files, calculators, etc.
Nevertheless, the majority of users willingly work with Lexicon - a copy of one or another of its versions can be found in our country, probably, on every second computer. This is explained by:
- It is easy to master the lexicon, you can start work with little or no training, gradually accumulating experience and skills;
- with the external simplicity of work, he has all the necessary functions of word processing;
- to work you do not need to know a word in English; on the other hand, it is possible to work with English and mixed texts;
- almost any printer is suitable for printing: both matrix and laser.
Look at one of the software departments that have finally appeared in our large bookstores. A typical picture: luxurious boxes of Western firms are crammed on the shelves, and below, under the glass of the counter, there is a scattering of diskettes produced by “Platons of their own and fast-minded Newtons”, equipped with sheets of advertising and explanations that came out from under 9 needles.
Thanks to the cooperation with the Kazan software complex, it was finally possible to create not just the next version of the program, but the real Software Product with all its attributes - user manual, passport and registration card, labels, bright packaging. It is pleasant to take the box with the Lexicon and the Master who came out after him and it is not a shame to put it on the display case.
The master's high glossy bricks became an important and quite risky step “Microinform” to the civilized market: the Master began to be supplied without copy protection. Since the complete set of the instrumental system is mainly focused on developers, there is hope that colleagues will prefer the thorny legal path promising the support of the company to the beaten track of DISKCOPY.
Unfortunately, the Lexicon is still produced only in a protected form - it is too simple to learn and its range of users is too wide for business or ethical considerations to impede piracy. But how many inconveniences and headaches bring both “program disks” and “installations” to programmers and users ...
But our land has not yet become scanty with talent! For any protection, there are craftsmen who are able to hack it and trade excursions into other people's programs (pockets, apartments - according to their abilities). Unfortunately, the legislation still favors computer pickpockets, and homeless copies of software with a damaged security system roam the country. The authors, instead of improving the programs, are forced to take care of more and more ingenious constipation - otherwise they would soon have to retrain as janitors.
Removing protection does not always pass without a trace. If one day while working with such a copy while writing the typed text to a disk, the machine “freezes” and the results of many hours of work go to ashes - do not blame the viruses, the program or the equipment, only your hindsight is to blame. So, if the computer has an old or illegal version of the Lexicon and you like working with this program - gather your spirit and destroy it! Use only legal copies of the program!
Even for the most incomplete story about the integrated system, the Master framework for a small article is cramped; it will be described in more detail in the next issues of ComputerPress, just like a Lexicon, but now only a brief introduction.
The wizard provides the user with the capabilities of a multi-window text processor similar to Lexicon, a system of interrelated spreadsheets, visualization tools and creating a window-type user interface, and, finally, powerful tools for working with databases and a high-level programming language Master. Programming on the Master, with the DBMS and the information environment, you can do literally anything, but already the number of Master's functions is about 200! - says that mastering the system at the language level will take time and effort. However, there is no need to postpone the start of practical work with the system until the language is completed. The Lotsman program, which is part of the system, allows you to do all the work of creating a database (using the structure of the database, descriptions of sets and fields, various indexing options) without using procedural programming. Relational Relationship Required). In case of difficulty, you can always refer to the “Help” saving item in the menu and get a context-sensitive help.
If there are no programmers in your organization at all, and there is a need for a complex specialized software system, it’s better to turn to professional “craftsmen” to develop a custom application system.
A number of ready-made systems are also supplied that work in the Wizard environment and are addressed to the end user - the economist, engineer, accountant, editor.
Learn, learn and learn, as the Great bequeathed ...
And now we will return to the old communal apartment at Kozhevnicheskaya to talk about the third whale “Microinform” - its training center. Here it was, to put it mildly, cramped. The full software and technical department was placed in one room separated by billboards and screens, and in order to get to the computer, sometimes it was necessary to solve a chess-like task with a “horse” moves between the tables and several castling with colleagues. The next room, the largest, was reserved for a computer class. This class worked with full load from the moment of the birth of “Microinform” until the day when new spacious halls replaced it.
What can be said today about training in “Microinform”? Even an inexperienced neophyte gets a good starting push here. He overcomes the first psychological barrier in working with a computer - after all, a “live” machine stands on every table and even in a hotel, where “Microinform” accommodates non-resident listeners. After the end of 8-hour classes with a lunch break in a neighboring restaurant, it is not forbidden to stay in the classroom until the last programmer has gone home, and this moment at the end of the official working day at 6:00 pm often drags on until midnight.
The skills of confident work with Lexicon and SuperCalc will allow the listener, returning to his native enterprise, to immediately please the authorities with a quick preparation of business calculations and documents instead of endlessly laying Tetris cubes or traveling through villainous dungeons and star wars. Having also received some knowledge of the beginning of all beginnings - the MS-DOS operating system and database management systems and integrated environments (using the examples of the classic dBASEIII + and the Master), the listener will be able to consciously choose the software for solving more complex problems and cope with their mastering.
As for specialists, experienced users and programmers, for them the head of the educational center O.Litvin has the following menu:
- system maintenance, operation and repair of PC,
- LAN installation and administration, Novell software, network application systems;
- development of C data processing programs;
- development of interactive information systems in the DBMS, Clipper DBMS environment, in the Master instrumental system;
- desktop editorial and publishing system Ventura Publisher.
Special mention should be made of cooperation with the firm Novell: in the educational center “Microinforma” a red banner proudly flutters with the inscription “Novell Education“, dimming the company's authorized class. Here graduates of computer networks are trained in the same way as in any Novell class in any country of the world.
For sweets, individual and group training is offered for specific targeted programs. The groups of specialists from the Ministries of Energy and Civil Aviation, oil workers and employees of the Moscow office of Rank Xerox took part in the training in “Microinform”.
What awaits us ahead?
And in front of us the same thing awaits us, the company is not going to turn off the road that has been moving for the fifth year already. The future plans of Mikroinform include expanding the network of existing branches, concluding new contracts for supplying state-of-the-art personal computers to enterprises and households of the country, and new products such as creating national versions of products supporting simultaneous work in three languages. The Ukrainian, Kazakh and Georgian versions of the Lexicon have already been prepared, and work is under way on others. A group of system programmers led by Veselov is developing the Master-2 project, which, unlike the previous Master, should not be a closed-loop software system, but an open technology that can be transferred to various window platforms. Things ahead are no end, but the main thing is that Microinform has found its way to the computer temple and goes along it, not stumbling onto other paths.
O. Dergunova, G. Shmerling
It is curious that in the boxes with the Lexicon 1.x there were five-inch floppy disks, already then disused, the more bizarre the Lexicon ad looks, raising this technological gap to its banner: (December 1992)
They write that by 1994, Microinform had released 40,000 boxes, accompanying it with intensive advertising on all channels; but only 25,000 boxes were sold. Not depressed by the modest success of sales - in fact, after all, Lexicon was used on almost every domestic computer! - Microinform releases Lexicon 2.0 for Windows in 1995, finally on three-inch floppy disks:
But then success was even more modest - along with trophy-free Windows, MS Office came to Russia, supporting Cyrillic is no worse than Lexicon. If there is no difference, why pay?
Microinform curtailed the development of the Lexicon as a loss-making and unpromising product; then it was bought by the firm Arsenal within the framework of the Russian Office project.
News article in Computerra, August 1997:
"Lexicon" everywhere
Kirill Rozhkovsky
On August 1, Arsenal, a well-known Russian manufacturer of office applications, announced the release of a toolkit for developers called Lexicon — Viewer Toolkit, with which a window for viewing and printing text documents can be created in any application. A package is a set of dynamic libraries for Windows OS 3.1 / 95 / NT.
“Lexicon” —Viewer Toolkit allows you to create programs that can open and save text files in the formats doc (Word 6.0 / 7.0), rtf, txt, as well as in the formats “Lexicon 97” and “Lexicon for DOS”. In programs created using the Viewer Toolkit, you can select text and copy it to the Clipboard, search for words and phrases in the text, resize the display of the document, print the document or part of it.
The package contains 16-bit and 32-bit libraries (DLL, LIB) for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 and NT, respectively.
In September, Arsenal intends to launch another product, Lexicon - Editor Toolkit, with which software manufacturers can build a full-featured text editor into their applications. The estimated cost of the package is $ 500. (At the same time, pay attention to how the price was set in dollars even for a completely domestic product. Well, on an advertisement: “Availability of analog and digital lines with access speeds up to 56 Kb / s. Enter our world for only $ 42 a month without accounting of traffic and time. "No less symbolic that the symbol of the Internet was the Netscape window - IE captured minds only later.)
Subsequently, Arsenal released a few more releases of the Lexicon and near-lexicon utilities - but it was never able to find a niche not occupied by “shareware” foreign products, primarily MS Office. The irony is that Shmerling led the development of new versions of the legendary editor at Arsenal, and Dergunova went over to the side of the “Lexicon killers”, leading Microsoft in Russia and the CIS.
In September 2001, Lexicon 5.1 was released. This version is the last. Soon, in 2004, Arsenal itself was gone.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/176915/
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