Technology moving backwards?

If you've been working with computers for more than ten years or so, you've probably noticed that features once standard have seemed to disappear since the web came along.

For instance, the lack of "undo" in the Blogger posting area, and most other web writing tools as well. Fancy dancy new Mac with OSX, all sorts of fancy dancy blogging tools, but it can't do something that was basic twenty years ago.

From the perspective of a web designer, I'd also note the disappearance of dialog boxes, menus, and a number of other useful innovations that were once a standard part of software. Panes, a subset of windows introduced in the original Mac Toolbox, have practically disappeared since they were labeled frames on the web. Heck, I once had round windows in my Mac software. Too much for the squares tho, I guess. Too bad, I miss the round windows. They were cool.

But hey, we have lots of discussions and pontifications about what a weblog is, and how they're changing the nature of software.

One possible definition: a method of word processing and epublishing that doesn't have undo or other basic text editing features, doesn't allow you to incorporate standard programming functions such as if-then-else statements and loops, and which normally doesn't allow the user to read the text in the many different fonts that they paid for when they bought their new fancy dancy computer. :)

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