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WordTsar, a WordStar Clone

wordtsar.ca

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Re: WordTsar, a WordStar Clone

#61

Post by rhabarba »

alpaca128 wrote: post #32
eddieh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many authors use WordStar. Here is George R. R. Martin taking about WordStar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5REM-3nWHg I think, and I believe it has been suggested to Robert J. Sawyer, that Emacs keys are very similar to WordStar in the use of cords (or prefixed keystrokes). WordStar has ^Q as a prefix whereas Emacs has ^x, ^c, and ^h, etc. [edit] Add bit about Emacs

Both Vim and Emacs can bind almost any(1) kind of input with the right configuration. Emacs has a lot of them in the default configuration, Vim just a bit using e.g. the leader key and Ctrl-W for window/split navigation. But in the end it's about efficient keyboard-focused controls and it seems for many WordStar was the first one that fit the bill. (1) except inputs consisting of multiple keys at once; terminals don'…

Emacs mostly uses key chords, not unlike WordStar, but its document setting capabilities are limited out of the box.

Re: WordTsar, a WordStar Clone

#62

Post by nottorp »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #9

Robert j. Sawyer is also a prominent wordstar diehard who ought to be interested in this project :) he wrote an interesting rationale for his use of wordstar. https://www.sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm I wonder if learning proper use of vim motions would cover most of these use cases today :)

> Most North American users will have their system codepage set to 437, which displays the original IBM PC "PC-8" character set. If you use a different codepage, you might see accented alphabetic characters on screen where you'd expect to see some or all of the line- and box-drawing characters.

I remember WordPerfect won because it could actually use accented characters in Eastern Europe.

Re: WordTsar, a WordStar Clone

#64

Post by Torwald »

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #9

Robert j. Sawyer is also a prominent wordstar diehard who ought to be interested in this project :) he wrote an interesting rationale for his use of wordstar. https://www.sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm I wonder if learning proper use of vim motions would cover most of these use cases today :)

His explanation of why WordStar is so good (I guess I agree with him, never used WS), reads as if you say to a programmer at gunpoint: Drink these five bottles of whisky first and then re-implement Emacs Org-Mode on a CP/M machine.

The ctrl key and block commands are almost Emacs and the duble periods are the Org-Mode markup.

Re: WordTsar, a WordStar Clone

#65

Post by geraldbrandt »

DrTung wrote: post #58

Long live WordStar and it's many brethren! I got addicted to it when coding Z80 assembler on CP/M in the late 70's and my life since then has been on a constant lookout for an equally good program in other OS's. In Linux and MacOS terminals there's Joe, a godsend. But since I use Qt a lot, of course the first thing I wrote was a Wordstar clone plugin for Qt Creator. Not possible to survive otherwise :-)

Where can I get that plugin?

Re: WordTsar, a WordStar Clone

#66

Post by xbar »

zabzonk wrote: post #55
tssva wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To give an opposite opinion form the same time period. I found WordStar much more difficult to come to grips with than WordPerfect. WordPerfect 4.2 with a XT layout keyboard is by far my favorite word processor experience to date.

I could never get to grips with WP's use of function keys. In fact, I hate all software that uses function keys.

F7 to save.

Seriously, if I could still use WordPerfect 4.2 today, I would. I would put up with 5.1 if necessary.

Re: WordTsar, a WordStar Clone

#68

Post by user-the-name »

geraldbrandt wrote: post #46
skyfaller wrote: post #28

Why host the project on SourceForge? Just force of habit? Other code forges don't look better enough to justify the effort of moving? Or are there actively good things about SourceForge these days?

Sourceforge is one of the few left that support Mercurial, which I use.

Heptapod is pretty great for mercurial hosting these days.

Re: WordTsar, a WordStar Clone

#69

Post by user-the-name »

tssva wrote: post #44
29athrowaway wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was not SourceForge bundling malware with open source project releases? That was the moment when I decided to drop SourceForge forever.

SourceForge was sold to a new owner a few years ago. All of that type of thing ended with the new ownership.

You don't come back from that kind of thing that easily.

Even if the current owner doesn't do that, who's to say who the owner will be tomorrow?

Re: WordTsar, a WordStar Clone

#70

Post by eddieh »

slowmovintarget wrote: post #59
loloquwowndueo wrote: post #9

Robert j. Sawyer is also a prominent wordstar diehard who ought to be interested in this project :) he wrote an interesting rationale for his use of wordstar. https://www.sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm I wonder if learning proper use of vim motions would cover most of these use cases today :)

Should include a 1996 tag. I go read this every few years thinking maybe I should learn WordStar... Just like I should learn Emacs for Org Mode. Then I slouch back off to Sublime Text, Scrivener, and Word. I still write drafts in fountain pen, though.

If you are not already invested in WordStar and have an old DOS machine on hand, then I'd strongly suggest Emacs & Org Mode.

The Emacs learning curve is pretty terrible, but once you are comfortable with Org you can do all your writing there. There's a huge benefit to having the same configuration for text editing (Sublime) and document preparation (Srivener, Word).

Can't help with the fountain pen though. :)

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