Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)

sfwriter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 94 posts

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

#41

Post by dessimus »

visarga wrote: post #18
terminalgravity wrote: post #12

I believe George R. R. Martin uses wordstar to write his books. I still hold a little hope that he will finish A Song of Ice and Fire series.

I think he is busy making sure AI doesn't finish it first. Can't have AIs trample in his fantasy land.

He could have finished the series long before the Game of Thrones adaptation was in full swing, much less the general availability of LLMs. I think the HBO money made him care a lot less about ASoIaF mainline and went back to editing Wild Cards and other projects.

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

#42

Post by bigfatkitten »

amarant wrote: post #40
ErroneousBosh wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK at least it crops up a lot in legal circles. Quite often solicitors have stuff on 3.5" or even 5.25" floppies that need read, converted from WordPerfect into something modern, and delivered as maybe a PDF or Word Doc. Fortunately, solicitors tend not to be short of money (that they bill their client for) so they can often find "a guy who knows a guy" who can get that precious floppy onto a USB stick. Occasi…

Out of curiosity, what kind of documents are those typically? Surely UK businesses don't need to keep financial records for 40+ years (or however long it's been since floppies were common)?

Legal matters often have decades long histories. Especially things like deceased estates.

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

#43

Post by otherme123 »

taffydavid wrote: post #20
wodenokoto wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A large fantasy adventure could easily have supporting documents with cities stats, characters, races, maps etc.

It could have, but George R R Martin famously uses Word Star and he surely has all that. Then again he's also about a decade late with the next book

GRRM could use clay tablet and it wouldn't make any difference on his output.

If you want output, Stephen King has used many processors, he doesn't care aparently as long as he can focus. Brandon Sanderson uses Word. The tool doesn't seem to matter.

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

#44

Post by bigfatkitten »

paradoxyl wrote: post #7

These programs are great for sitting down and writing with no distractions, but if you have a setup with directories full of word docs, text files, various graphics, even excel sheets all related to what you are working on that you need to refer to and cross-reference, they are less useful than an older version of Word or OpenOffice/LibreOffice. And they are difficult to export, share... there's a reason we don't use…

Back then we were far less shy about printing things.

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

#45

Post by tonyedgecombe »

epihelix wrote: post #28

I grew up using WordStar on the Apple ][. It was great when all you had was an 80 column card, a green phosphor screen and a keyboard, but I was never sad to leave it behind when GUIs were invented. I have nostalgia for the time, sure, but not for that interface and the multi-key-stroke commands you had to learn by rote. Each to their own, and of course finding an optimal writing environment is a very subjective thin…

I remember being quite excited at moving from a DOS based word processor (Word Perfect) to a GUI based one (Word). It looked like a step up.

In retrospect the quality, quantity and look and feel of the documents I created remained exactly the same.

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

#46

Post by somat »

bigfatkitten wrote: post #44
paradoxyl wrote: post #7

These programs are great for sitting down and writing with no distractions, but if you have a setup with directories full of word docs, text files, various graphics, even excel sheets all related to what you are working on that you need to refer to and cross-reference, they are less useful than an older version of Word or OpenOffice/LibreOffice. And they are difficult to export, share... there's a reason we don't use…

Back then we were far less shy about printing things.

After reviewing a few options I think "Just print it out" is still the best choice for long term archival. The density is not high however the hardware requirements being just one mark 1 eyeball(hardware that self replicates and has been stable for millions of years) makes it the clear winner in almost every case.

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

#47

Post by anthk »

jszymborski wrote: post #4

I've long considered getting a netbook, slapping freedos on it and running WordStar or WordPerfect as a writing deck. I'm not sure how I would get my files I create off the device since USB support isn't really a thing.

Hyperbola GNU/Linux and Wordgrinder or jstar (from the Joe package) and Markdown, or even Groff as the basic syntax can be easy enough. Then you run

     groff file.troff -step -k  > file.pdf
And you can now enjoy a formated book in the spot.

If any, check Groff with Mom macros, with does what you need with ease:

https://www.schaffter.ca/mom/

Online manual:

https://www.schaffter.ca/mom/momdoc/toc.html

For a quick command:

     pdfmom -step -k yourfile.troff > output.pdf
In order to get the last version:

- Install groff in Hyperbola GNU/Linux (or any other) if is not installed. It's mandatory in a 99% of distros but not Hyperbola.

- get https://www.schaffter.ca/mom/mom-2.6_d.tar.gz

- uncompress it

- copy om.tmac to /usr/share/groff/current/tmac/om.tmac

- cd to examples/ directory and do some tests:

             pdfmom -step -k mom-pdf.mom  > mom-pdf.pdf
WIth jstar+groff+mom you can get something basically perfect. "-step -k" it's just "-s -t -e -p -k", a bunch of options to enforce UTF-8, some proper handing and whatnot.

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

#49

Post by mkovach »

I still like to start the first draft of anything substantial by moving to a single screen, opening FreeDOS, maximizing the window, and typing in Wordstar as if it were 1987. Hell, sometimes I'll even put on a nylon windbreaker.

I always preferred WordStar to WordPerfect, largely because WordStar's keybindings were easy to learn and remember. WordPerfect, by contrast, seemed to require keyboard templates, a manual, a cheat sheet, and a certain amount of divine intervention.

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

#50

Post by nottorp »

paradoxyl wrote: post #36
wodenokoto wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A large fantasy adventure could easily have supporting documents with cities stats, characters, races, maps etc.

My point exactly; sci-fi you even more need to refer to accurate statistics whatever they may be.

Unless the fleet travels at the speed of plot.
Post reply on HN