WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996) • Hacker News Board

Re: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

#11

Post by mhd » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:09 PM UTC

I don't have a deep personal affectation for WordStar, although I do appreciate it's keyboard layout, but what I do miss is writers having opinions about these things.

These days it seems that it's mostly "whatever version of Word that came with my Laptop/Times New Roman 12".

We programmers still have our "holy wars" (although I see a decrease of passion here, too, with safe choices like VSC or IntelliJ being more and more the default.) But back in the days, even writers with non-CS backgrounds could wax poetic about XyWrite vs. WordStar vs. Word (DOS/Win/Mac) vs WordPerfect. (Heck, WordPerfect even made lawyers have an opinion of their own)

Re: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

#12

Post by _gqhf » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:15 PM UTC

Not long ago I stumbled upon this modern WordStar clone called WordTsar http://wordtsar.ca/

Re: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

#13

Post by hguant » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:17 PM UTC

anonymousiam wrote: post #8

I began using WordStar in 1980 for development (in "non-document mode") on CP/M. It was the best thing ever available for that platform, and it had some features that I've never seen duplicated elsewhere (such as "column mode" cut and paste). Back when I was using it, the standard computer keyboard had the "control" key directly to the left of the "A" key (where the "Caps Lock" key is now). I was never happy that IBM…

> Back when I was using it, the standard computer keyboard had the "control" key directly to the left of the "A" key (where the "Caps Lock" key is now).

One of the first things I do is rebind caps to control - I've never understood the need for a caps lock key

Re: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

#14

Post by shimonabi » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:17 PM UTC

I remember using it as a child at the start of the 90's on a PC, when I was just learning to read.

It was the prefered editor of William F. Buckley and famously GRRM still uses it. I tried it recently on a retro computer after decades and it is nothing to write home about.

Does anyone know of a proper file converter to Word, that supports non-ANSI characters?

Re: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

#15

Post by bronlund » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:26 PM UTC

He says he has tried a lot of editors, but I wonder if he has tried Vim. I'm thinking that Vim would be the perfect solution for folks like that. They would get a highly flexible and keyboard focused editor which respect the flow of thought, and at the same time, a modern interface in regards to color themes and font preferences and such.

Re: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

#16

Post by hilbert42 » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:28 PM UTC

anonymousiam wrote: post #8

I began using WordStar in 1980 for development (in "non-document mode") on CP/M. It was the best thing ever available for that platform, and it had some features that I've never seen duplicated elsewhere (such as "column mode" cut and paste). Back when I was using it, the standard computer keyboard had the "control" key directly to the left of the "A" key (where the "Caps Lock" key is now). I was never happy that IBM…

" I was never happy that IBM moved the control key, and I was even less happy when Sun Microsystems followed suit (but for a while you could still order the Sun keyboards with the control key in the right place)"

You weren't alone, that was contentious because of WordStar's keystrokes and other earlier terminals. Incidentally, I first entered text into WordStar using a VT100 terminal connected to a Godbout S100 dual-CPU (8085/8086) computer.

"By 1996 (when this article was written) WordStar had already committed suicide by pushing "WordStar 2000" on everybody, which completely broke the old user interface."

Note my earlier post re my conversation with Seymour Rubinstein. Many took him to task over the 'suicidal' change.

Re: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

#17

Post by reiichiroh » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:32 PM UTC

glitchc wrote: post #4

I guess I’m too young for WordStar. WordPerfect 6.2 is immediate enough for me and the Alt-based menubar feels very familiar. To each his own.

For whatever reason, v5.1 of WordPerfect remains my favorite.

Re: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

#18

Post by bolangi » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:34 PM UTC

XyWrite, faster and more customizable.

Re: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

#19

Post by wombatmobile » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:39 PM UTC

hilbert42 wrote: post #9

I've used many wordprocessors but WordStar still is my favorite, I first used it under CP/M and later on the IBM PC. Anyone who has used it knows that once you got the feel for the WordStar keystroke diamond it was magic to use. I still have hundreds of files in WordStar format and I can either import them into a GUI WYSIWYG WP or I can still use them in WordStar 7 running under an emulated environment in Windows. Wo…

> I've used many wordprocessors but X still is my favorite

The best X is the X you know.

Re: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

#20

Post by Klwohu » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:40 PM UTC

For me? It's Org Mode for writing. But it's easy to understand how people can become productive in an environment which they spent time learning how to use. And of course there's a modern, Free clone called WordTsar as mentioned elsewhere in this thread if people want to try it out.