Forum: Author Hangout

WordStar

Grant 🚫

For those of us that are old enough, that one word needs no explanation.

It was THE word processor before MS Word eventually became popular as the various versions of Windows improved.

For those with Windows that feel nostalgic, you can now download a copy of WordStar 7.0 complete with a multitude of support files & a couple of DOS emulators that is pretty much ready to go.

There is even a custom version of Wordstar that the author (Robert J. Sawyer) who went to the effort of organising the ready to use download has set up for his own use when writing his own published novels.

https://sfwriter.com/ws7.htm

Replies: Switch Blayde Freyrs_stories Vonalt Vonalt zx10r Mushroom Vonalt rustyken Vonalt

Switch Blayde 🚫
Updated:

@Grant

For those of us that are old enough,

Guilty. I had Wordstar and VisiCalc on my first computer, a 2 floppy drive IBM PC with dot matrix printer.

Freyrs_stories 🚫

@Grant

Would I be saying too much if I said I remember Wordstar from well before 'Windows' and or 'DOS'From Microsoft or even x86 hardware. Oh dear now I feel really bloody old. See what you've done with your nostagia!

Vonalt 🚫

@Grant

Boy, you talk about bringing up old memories. I was in to computers before MS-DOS was even heard of. Back in the the I think the * Star family products came bundled with every microcomputer marketed back then. I got into the computer field circa 1981 and if I recall the bundle of software that came with the Osborne, NEC APC and the KayPro was the CP/M OS, along with WordStar, CalcStar, DataStar and a basic charting program whose name eludes me. After the switch to I think it was called PC-DOS back then the Star family of software products still minus CP/M. Maybe some of you old geezers like me can recall other systems that used Star family of products. I do remember the documentation came in three ring binders crammed full of poorly printed sheets loaded with typos. The good old days.

Vonalt 🚫

@Grant

I feel proud of myself. I even recall some of the basic system commands from CP/M. To copy files from disk to another it was PIP A:*.* B:

If you notice the structure is not too different from the similar MS-DOS.

Replies: Mushroom

Mushroom 🚫

@Vonalt

If you notice the structure is not too different from the similar MS-DOS.

Well, there is a reason.

CPM started largely as a clone of UNIX. And MS-DOS (originally QDOS) was largely a clone of CPM. And because MicroSoft was already an industry leader in operating systems (they created most of those in the "8 bit era"), most of them tended to be very close to each other.

zx10r 🚫

@Grant

I sent my first email on a PDP-11. I remember the first time I saw you could use a full-screen editor (before WordStar, there were line editors).

Replies: Vonalt Mushroom

Vonalt 🚫

@zx10r

We old guys are going to be trading war stories here soon. 1974, I helped set up a DEC PDP Lab 8 mini computer. It had I think 32K in memory and came with magnetic inch tape drives to load the OS into the system. Programs were punch on inch wide paper tape and later used to feed programs and data into the system. Input was via a TTY station with paper tape punch for producing our own programs and entry of data. Out put was via the TTY and an x,y plotter. I still remember the toggle key code to reset the mini, 7470. Of all the computer systems I worked with, I still believe DEC had the nicest looking computers. I was saddened when they went under. They were a good computer to work with.

Replies: zx10r

zx10r 🚫
Updated:

@Vonalt

Once upon a time, Ken Olsen's kid and I were hauled to the beach (Hampton Beach, NH) by our Moms (Mom worked for DEC) and we sang Beach Boys the whole way (in harmony. We worked it out fast.)

Mushroom 🚫

@zx10r

before WordStar, there were line editors

Back in the late 1980s, the Marine Corps had decided that they were going to standardize the applications that all of their PCs used.

Most of those had actually been acquired by piggybacking on an Air Force contract. Purchasing tens of thousands of Zenith 286 systems that came with DOS 3.3, WordStar, and Windows 1.02R. And many units bought their own systems, so there was a hodge-podge of different programs being used.

But in their brilliance, they decided to standardize on Enable. That is a long forgotten company, but they were one of the very first to offer an "Office Suite". A word processor, a spreadsheet, and a database. So from a cost perspective, it was a lot cheaper.

However, the quality of each of those programs was very inferior and a lot of units outright ignore the orders to change. WordStar units still used WordStar, MultiMate units still used MultiMate, WordPerfect units still used Word Perfect, etc.

And during that time, I told some of the guys I worked with that the Marine Corps had finally listened, and were dumping Enable and switching to a new Corps wide word processor.

Edlin.

For those that do not know, that was a line editor built into DOS. It was largely junk, and really only good for making or editing batch files or things like autoexec.bat and config.sys. There were 4 or 5 others there, and only my friend got the joke. The others were all confused as they had no idea what Edlin even was.

Replies: zx10r Grant

zx10r 🚫

@Mushroom

It was the lowest bidder.

Replies: Mushroom

Mushroom 🚫
Updated:

@zx10r

It was the lowest bidder.

This was very early in the "Office Suite" era. This was years before Microsoft Office came out, and those programs were expensive. A word processor, spreadsheet, and database in that era was easily almost $2,000 per machine. Enable was around $350 per machine.

And there really was no competition at that time, it really boiled down to Enable if you wanted a suite, or buying the others one program at a time. There was simply too much money to be made by selling the programs individually.

And the poor quality of the program is seen in that almost nobody today that was not in the military even seems to know it exists. It never sold very well outside of the military, and once they moved to Office it quickly vanished from the market.

Grant 🚫

@Mushroom

For those that do not know, that was a line editor built into DOS. It was largely junk, and really only good for making or editing batch files or things like autoexec.bat and config.sys.

It wasn't even good for that- it was an abomination to try to use. Luckily we managed to get a copy of XTree.
That was a brilliant little programme.

Replies: Freyrs_stories

Freyrs_stories 🚫

@Grant

It wasn't even good for that- it was an abomination to try to use. Luckily we managed to get a copy of XTree.

Xtree Gold was the bomb. file managment and a hex editor and probably half a dozen other features I've forgotten about

Mushroom 🚫

@Grant

It was THE word processor before MS Word eventually became popular as the various versions of Windows improved.

It was actually the only WP I used personally until 1996. I may have had other ones forced onto me over the years (Enable, Word Perfect), but that was the only one installed on my personal computer.

And even though I did not care much for Word, at least by Office 1995 it had advanced enough that it was at least be tolerable. Plus by then the issues with working with the limitations of a DOS program with 8.3 file names was too big to ignore.

And even though we had "Wordstar for Windows", it was not really Wordstar. They literally just bought up another program and slapped their name on it. Not unlike what MS did with FrontPage and Adobe did with CoolEdit (which was renamed to Adobe Audition).

But some people still use it. Especially those that learned as touch typists on typewriters. Older DOS programs like WordStar really are superior for touch typists. George R. R. Martin still writes on WordStar to this day.

Vonalt 🚫

@Grant

This discussion brings back so many memories. I worked for an IBM VAR back in that era and I remember those Zenith systems the military used. I think they were warranted until they were unboxed. Though there were some that did what they were intended to do. Back then, everyone thought they were a dBase III programmer and what they couldn't do in dBase the Turbo programming languages were the solve all solution. Turbo C, Turbo Pascal were the most popular packages. I bet I installed thousands of copies of Turbo C back then.

rustyken 🚫

@Grant

Well when it is all said and done, I still miss some aspects of WordPerfect that none of current offerings provide. If they do it is so buried you would need an atlas to find it.

Vonalt 🚫

@Grant

The systems integration VAR I worked for back in the 1980s, WordPerfect, was the standard word processing program that went with every system we delivered. For a while, WordPerfect and Multimate were equally popular. Visicalc all but disappeared when Lotus 123 appeared. When MS Office appeared on the scene, it created a vacuum behind it. All the other software programs got sucked into that void, and what were other good programs ceased to exist.

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Vonalt

WordPerfect

I don't know how popular it is, but it still exists as part of WordPerfect Office.

AJ

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WordStar

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