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A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts

tempus-word.de

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Re: A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts

#31

Post by billygoat »

nosianu wrote: post #13

I used Application System Heidelberg's Script II on an Atari 1040STFM with 72 Hz SM 124 black/white monitor and an Epson LQ 550 24 pin printer. That was some superb publishing system for the time (1991), for a low budget. 1 MB RAM, 1.44 MB floppy drive SM 124: 640x400 pixels, monochrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST https://www.atarimuseum.de/1040st.htm The software used a special driver to get better than s…

I'm curious: the "Script" screenshot looks like it's using standard GEM Desktop, while the "Signum" is some other desktop. Are these both for ST? Was Signum written using some other full-screen graphic environment?

Re: A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts

#32

Post by qsi »

nosianu wrote: post #13

I used Application System Heidelberg's Script II on an Atari 1040STFM with 72 Hz SM 124 black/white monitor and an Epson LQ 550 24 pin printer. That was some superb publishing system for the time (1991), for a low budget. 1 MB RAM, 1.44 MB floppy drive SM 124: 640x400 pixels, monochrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST https://www.atarimuseum.de/1040st.htm The software used a special driver to get better than s…

Signum! (don't forget the exclamation point!) was an amazing piece of software. The key to its incredible print quality: carefully hand-crafted pixel fonts with incredible attention to detail.

With a 24-pin printer the output beat vector fonts on a 300dpi laser printer at the time. The actual resolution was higher than a single pass of printing with the 24 pins. Signum! would advance the print head in minute amounts and overprint to achieve its remarkable quality.

Printing a single page at maximum quality took a while... Think minutes per page instead of pages per minute. But it was very impressive.

Fond memories!

Re: A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts

#33

Post by qsi »

billygoat wrote: post #31
nosianu wrote: post #13

I used Application System Heidelberg's Script II on an Atari 1040STFM with 72 Hz SM 124 black/white monitor and an Epson LQ 550 24 pin printer. That was some superb publishing system for the time (1991), for a low budget. 1 MB RAM, 1.44 MB floppy drive SM 124: 640x400 pixels, monochrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST https://www.atarimuseum.de/1040st.htm The software used a special driver to get better than s…

I'm curious: the "Script" screenshot looks like it's using standard GEM Desktop, while the "Signum" is some other desktop. Are these both for ST? Was Signum written using some other full-screen graphic environment?

Signum! was highly opinionated. It ran on the Atari ST but did its own thing for the user interface. You could access a lower layer of drawing primitives and obviate GEM. In those days multitasking did not exist.

There were a good number of these kinds of application back then. Steve was one, GFA Basic another.

Re: A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts

#34

Post by qsi »

I still have the printed documentation and floppy for Tempus, the editor which I think is the predecessor to the linked word processor. It was blazing fast because it had been written in 68000 assembly IIRC. Even then it would handle giant documents with ease.

Re: A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts

#35

Post by qsi »

qsi wrote: post #33
billygoat wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious: the "Script" screenshot looks like it's using standard GEM Desktop, while the "Signum" is some other desktop. Are these both for ST? Was Signum written using some other full-screen graphic environment?

Signum! was highly opinionated. It ran on the Atari ST but did its own thing for the user interface. You could access a lower layer of drawing primitives and obviate GEM. In those days multitasking did not exist. There were a good number of these kinds of application back then. Steve was one, GFA Basic another.

Ah, it was actually STeve:

https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/2024/03/steve.html

An application that was more a random selection of tools than a cohesive whole but some people swore by it.

Re: A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts

#37

Post by qsi »

NetMageSCW wrote: post #2

English not their first language?

Some of the best ST software came from Germany, where the it had a high market share driven by DTP applications. IIRC at one point the ST had a bigger installed DTP base in Germany than the Mac.

There was an annual fair in Düsseldorf, the Atari ST Messe, which was impressive in its size. I went for several years in a row until the ST sadly started losing its relevance.

Re: A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts

#38

Post by m-i-l »

klondike_klive wrote: post #23
m-i-l wrote: post #17

I used ST Writer which came bundled with my ST. I still have all my ST Writer files (last modified in 1993!), and quite impressively they open just fine in LibreOffice with formatting and everything preserved (unlike some later .doc files I have).

That is genuinely remarkable! Even indentation?

Yes. Just opened some files to check. There was one including a table which I thought at first was a little wonky, but then I realised the column that looked off had currency where I'd right aligned on the decimal point, so even that seems to have been preserved!

Re: A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts

#39

Post by m-i-l »

nosianu wrote: post #13

I used Application System Heidelberg's Script II on an Atari 1040STFM with 72 Hz SM 124 black/white monitor and an Epson LQ 550 24 pin printer. That was some superb publishing system for the time (1991), for a low budget. 1 MB RAM, 1.44 MB floppy drive SM 124: 640x400 pixels, monochrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST https://www.atarimuseum.de/1040st.htm The software used a special driver to get better than s…

> "The software used a special driver to get better than standard quality from the then most common 24 pin printers (laser printers where much expensive) by kind of double-printing, I forgot the details. It looked really good though."

In opening up a few ancient files to answer another question about formatting, I found some long forgotten notes on how to make my Epson LQ400 24 pin printer work at 360dpi rather 180dpi, which may have been the same for you: First you had to install it as a NEC 24-pin 360dpi printer rather than 180dpi printer. Then, because it used fonts of half the size, you needed to switch fonts. So I had two fonts disks, one with 180dpi installed fonts and one with 360dpi fonts, and used the ASSIGN.SYS file to switch between them. It also seems to have taken twice as long to print out at 360dpi, and used twice as much printer ribbon:-)

Re: A word processor from 1990s for Atari ST/TOS is still supported by enthusiasts

#40

Post by bombcar »

WillAdams wrote: post #30

I wish WriteNow was similarly available/supported --- it was probably one of the last major applications written in assembly language (~100,000 lines). XyWrite is supported in a similar fashion: https://mendelson.org/xywin.html (but I just helped folks use that, never actually found it comfortable myself). I kind of wish all these small/tight/efficient programs could be gathered up and ported to an optimized OS for t…

It's too bad the architecture is different, a Raspberry Pi compatible with peak Win98SE software would be an amazing low-power computer.

There were tons of amazingly well-made commercial software packages that have just been lost to time; in a large part due to open-source and other free options getting "good enough" - but many had features that simply don't exist anymore.

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