Ben Collver wrote to All <=-

My name is Robert J. Sawyer. I'm a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning
Canadian science-fiction writer. All twenty-five of my novels were
written with WordStar, the best word-processing program the world has
ever known.

<https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm>

Been playing around with home brew and terminal this week...
Have thought about a 'dos ish' word processor to help with
my writing - especially for my blog.

Putting a pin in this to check it out... Thanks!



... Ya know, some days life is just one non sequitur after catfish.
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Re: Re: Wordstar 7.0 Archive
By: Jimmy Anderson to Ben Collver on Sat May 03 2025 23:35:00

...my novels were written with WordStar...

Loved WS, at least the DOS version. Most of us at work
used it, but there were the WordPerfect devotees as well. I didn't care for WP. I guess I got spoiled with the on-screen cheat-sheet.
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Quoting Jimmy Anderson to Ben Collver <=-

Ben Collver wrote to All <=-

My name is Robert J. Sawyer. I'm a Hugo and Nebula Award-winning
Canadian science-fiction writer. All twenty-five of my novels were
written with WordStar, the best word-processing program the world has
ever known.

<https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm>

Been playing around with home brew and terminal this week...
Have thought about a 'dos ish' word processor to help with
my writing - especially for my blog.

Putting a pin in this to check it out... Thanks!

Still using WordStar on my new PC and my 386. Got WS 5.5 in 88 and then
moved up to 6 and then 7.0d in 91. It's a great word processor but
might take a day to get up to speed with it. I also have WP6 but I
started out with WS and it still works great for me.

WS 7 is nice as you can use the Windows clipboard to copy and paste
back and forth.

JM2C...

... If I only had one more teragigadactylbyte...

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
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Mortar M. wrote to Ben Collver <=-

...my novels were written with WordStar...

Loved WS, at least the DOS version. Most of us at work
used it, but there were the WordPerfect devotees as well.

I never used Wordstar, except for a short stint under CP/M.

When I started BBSing, I was taking computer science classes at the
time, and looked at a lot of text editors. Qedit was nice, fast, and
worked for text editing and code nicely. It came with a couple of key
bindings, but defaulted to Wordstar.

VDE was a more word-processor-like editor with on-screen help like
Wordstar and the same command set.

Between those two, the key bindings are burned into my mind. Fast
forward to present day, and I'm entering this message in TSE, a Windows
32-bit console text editor from the makers of Qedit. Same bindings,
plus a menu bar at the top.


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Quoting Mortar M. to Ben Collver <=-

Re: Re: Wordstar 7.0 Archive
By: Jimmy Anderson to Ben Collver on Sat May 03 2025 23:35:00

...my novels were written with WordStar...

Loved WS, at least the DOS version. Most of us at work
used it, but there were the WordPerfect devotees as well. I didn't
care for WP. I guess I got spoiled with the on-screen cheat-sheet. -!-

Once you learned the commands, you could turn that thing off and only
have the submenus pop up with the Ctrl keys. Or if you were really
good, turn off the menus altogether.

Started with 5.5, 6 and still use 7.0d.

RJS - Great writer!

... Go straight to the docs. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200!

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20
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Cougar428 wrote to JIMMY ANDERSON <=-

Putting a pin in this to check it out... Thanks!

Still using WordStar on my new PC and my 386. Got WS 5.5 in 88 and
then
moved up to 6 and then 7.0d in 91. It's a great word processor but
might take a day to get up to speed with it. I also have WP6 but I
started out with WS and it still works great for me.

WS 7 is nice as you can use the Windows clipboard to copy and paste
back and forth.

I'm enjoying the old style - but easy on the eyes. :-)



... Enter any 12 digit prime number to continue
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Loved WS, at least the DOS version. Most of us at work
used it, but there were the WordPerfect devotees as well. I didn't care for WP. I guess I got spoiled with the on-screen cheat-sheet.

I didn't use word processors back in those days (the editing I did was in
tools like Devpac to write assembler).

I recently set up the AO486 core on my Mister FPGA (from which I happen to br writing this very message) and I installed Word Perfect (the text-based
version on it).

I have to say, it's actually really good. I'd prefer to use that one than MS Word that I have to use at work. Every single feature I use in MS Word is better in this 30 year old software.

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Re: Re: Wordstar 7.0 Archive
By: loke to Mortar M. on Tue May 06 2025 03:33:19

Hi, loke.

I recently set up the AO486 core on my Mister FPGA (from which I happen to br writing this very message) and I installed Word Perfect (the text-based version on it).

I have to say, it's actually really good. I'd prefer to use that one than MS Word that I have to use at work. Every single feature I use in MS Word is better in this 30 year old software.

Even the spell checker?

I really must get an old copy of WordPerfect up and running, see if I can still remember *anything* about how to drive it. Then I'll try WordStar and see what all the fuss is about!

BobW
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Even the spell checker?

I have to admit that I'm not a huge user of spell checkers. I mean, plain spell checking is fine, but most modern ones go well beyond that, and I don't
really need a computer to tell me how to write.

I also don't want to make it seem as though WP was the pinnacle of writing tools. There are better ones today. It's just that MS Word is not included in that list. :-)

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Re: Re: Wordstar 7.0 Archive
By: loke to Bob Worm on Fri May 30 2025 05:20:50

Hi, loke.

I also don't want to make it seem as though WP was the pinnacle of writing tools. There are better ones today. It's just that MS Word is not included in that list. :-)

Out of interest, which ones do you like?

BobW
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Re: Re: Wordstar 7.0 Archive
By: loke to Mortar M. on Tue May 06 2025 03:33 am

Howdy,

I recently set up the AO486 core on my Mister FPGA (from which I happen to br writing this very message) and I installed Word Perfect (the text-based
version on it).

How is the Mister FPGA with running the AO486?

I nearly invested in one a while ago - at one point, I was planning to rebuild my BBS on one to relive what I did in the 90s.


...ëîåï
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