WordStar

WordStar was a word processor, included in the Osborne 1 computers. Notably, WordStar was the last commercial word processor for the CP/M operating system and was released in September 1978. Module 4, the last CP/M compatible, was sold on 5¼-inch floppy disks and optionally also on 8-inch floppy disks. Its first version was shown in April 1979 at the West Coast Computer Faire at Brooks Hall in San Francisco.

&# 34;Game of Thrones" George R. R. Martin uses WordStar 4.0 as a word processor to write his books, on which the famous HBO television series is based.

History

Version 3.0 of WordStar for DOS was released in April 1982. The DOS version was very similar to the original, and although the IBM PC offered support for cursor and function keys, the traditional WordStar diamond and other Ctrl+key type functions, leading to its rapid adoption by former CP/M users. WordStar's ability to use a non-document mode to create plain text files made it very popular with programmers.

The first DOS version was a direct port of the CP/M version and therefore only used 64 kilobytes of RAM, although DOS supported up to 640 kilobytes. Users quickly learned that they could run this version of WordStar much faster by using DOS's ability to create a RAM disk in memory, and copying program files to it. WordStar still had to access the disk repeatedly, but the much faster access from RAM memory compared to the speed of access to a floppy disk produced a substantial speed improvement. However, edited versions of a document were saved only to this RAM disk, and had to be copied to magnetic media before rebooting.

In the mid-1980s, WordStar was the world's most popular word processing software. But IBM dominated the "dedicated word processor" with its DisplayWrite application, which ran on machines dedicated to creating and editing documents. At that time, there were many other word processing machines, but IBM's main competition was Wang Laboratories. Such machines were expensive and were generally accessed through terminals connected to a server.

When IBM announced that it would release a PC version called "DisplayWriter", MicroPro focused its efforts on creating a clone of it to be marketed as "WordStar 2000". None of the programs were as successful as their developers had hoped, and MicroPro's lack of attention to the original WordStar, coupled with WordStar 2000's poor support of WordStar formats and keyboard combinations, allowed the products of the competition had a chance to gain market share. In particular, WordPerfect used the same keyboard combinations as Wang's popular line of dedicated word-processing computers, making it popular with secretariats who were trading these machines for PCs.

MicroPro International restructured as WordStar International and rehired many of the WordStar programmers who left the company during the development of WordStar 2000, and in October 1986 acquired the code for NewWord, an improved clone of WordStar, written mainly by Peter Mierau in his company NewStar. WordStar used the NewWord code base to produce enhanced versions, adding long-awaited features such as on-screen highlighting for bold, italics, and other printing effects. The first version based on the NewWord code was called WordStar (or WordStar Professional 4.0) and was released for the DOS and CP/M operating systems. Later versions – 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, and 7.0 – were only released for DOS. These new versions recovered some of the market share losses.

An infighting between the old developers of version 6.5 (intended for Microsoft Word users), and the new developers who were working on version 7.0 (intended for WordPerfect users), caused the former to be scrapped and that version 7.0 was released years before its originally scheduled release date. Version 7.0 revision D, the last DOS version of the program, was released in December 1992.

Like many other developers of DOS applications, WordStar International was slow to make up its mind to make a version for the commercially successful Windows 3.0. The company purchased Legacy, an existing Windows-based word processor, which was modified and released as WordStar for Windows in 1991. It was a well-reviewed product that included many features normally found only in more expensive desktop editions.. However, the delay in its release meant that Microsoft Word had already been firmly established as a standard over the previous two years.

WordStar is no longer developed, maintained, or sold by its owners, but is now abandonware. It is currently owned by Riverdeep, Inc, a consumer and educational software company based in San Francisco, California.

WordStar is still actively used by several hundred members of the WordStar Users Group Mailing List, who provide each other with technical support through the mailing list started in May 1996, and which has continued to the day of without interruption today. There are also free downloads of updated macros and scripts, mouse and printer drivers, and other utilities on the WordStar Users Group web pages.

Using WordStar 3.x today

WordStar version 3.x used the MS-DOS FCB interface, a data structure for file input/output based on the file input/output functions of CP/M. This use of the FCB framework was intended to port (assembly language) programs from CP/M to (the then new) MS-DOS in a simple way. When MS-DOS adopted a Xenix-like file system, FCB became an interface supported by MS-DOS solely for backwards compatibility. Because this compatibility has not been maintained, WordStar 3.x does not work correctly on modern versions of Windows. In particular, the WordStar 3.x program cannot save files. A workaround for users wishing to run this version of the program is to use the DOSEMU emulator for Linux, which correctly implements the FCB interface. (The DOSBox emulator doesn't, even on Linux.) Version 4.0, which is almost identical to 3.x, does not have this problem and uses the new MS-DOS input/output interfaces.

WordStar emulation

Although there is currently no version of WordStar available for modern operating systems, some of its longtime users still prefer the WordStar interface, especially the diamond cursor commands described earlier in this article. These users claim less movement of the hands to issue orders and, therefore, that writing under this interface is more efficient. The user accesses the nearby Ctrl key and then a letter or combination of letters, therefore keeping their hands in or near the natural typing position rather than having to move to get to a special key or to the mouse.

To keep these users happy, WordStar emulators were created. One such program is Yoji Hagiya's CtrlPlus, which remaps the standard PC keyboard, making many WordStar commands available in most Windows programs. The CtrlPlus program swaps the Control key and Caps-Lock so that the "Ctrl" is back where it was originally on older keyboards, next to the A key. It also provides functionality to the main diamond cursor commands mentioned in this article.

The other WordStar emulation utility created was the WordStar Command Emulator for Microsoft Word, also known as "WordStar for Word", by Mike Petrie. Designed to work together with CtrlPlus, the WordStar Command adds many more WordStar commands to MS Word than CtrlPlus alone, as well as changes to Word's menus to be more like WordStar 7.0 for DOS, the latest version for MS DOS. by WordStar. For example, Ctrl + K? was the word count command and Ctrl + QL was the spell checker command. Pressing these commands runs their equivalent in Word. WordStar for Word also adds the WordStar block commands, ie Ctrl + KB to mark the beginning of a block, Ctrl + KK to mark the end, and Ctrl + KV to move it. Alternatively, Ctrl + KC can be used to copy the block.

WordStar Command Emulator is written in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, a Visual Basic-based macro programming language embedded in Microsoft Word to allow a high level of customization. Most Word add-ins are written in this language, also known as VBA.

Interface

WordStar is still considered by many to be one of the best examples of a "writing program". Because it was designed for textual display devices, with a single font, the main focus was on text, not WYSIWYG formatting. Since composition and layout were secondary functions left to be accomplished after the writing, editing, and proofreading of the document, the writer was not distracted by the many formatting possibilities presented by later word processors.

In text-mode versions of WordStar, about a third of the top of the screen is a command menu, with the top line indicating the position of the cursor within the file, while the text of the document occupies the lower two-thirds of the screen. The user has the option to release this command menu to use the entire screen on the text. The help system can be configured to display help shortly after the first key of a script is typed. As users become more familiar with the script, the help system can be configured to offer less and less assistance until eventually all on-screen menus and status information are disabled.

The original terminals and microcomputers for which WordStar was developed did not have function keys or keys for cursor control (for example, the arrow keys, Page Up/Down), so WordStar used sequences of alphabetic keys combined with the "Control" key.

For example, the "diamond" Ctrl-S/E/D/X moved the cursor one character or line to the left, up, right, or down. Ctrl + A / F (the outer part of the 'diamond') moved the cursor one word to the left or right, and Ctrl + R / C moved a whole page up or down. Preceding key combinations with Ctrl + Q generally expanded their action, moving the cursor to the end or beginning of the line, the end/beginning of the document, etc. recoil | Ctrl + H would go back and delete. Commands to enable bold/italic, print, lock text to copy/delete, save/retrieve files from disk, etc., were usually a short key sequence, such as Ctrl - PB for bold, or Ctrl - KS to save a file. Formatting codes appeared on the screen, for example, “^B” for bold, “^Y” for italics, and “^S” for underline.

Although many of these key sequences are far from obvious, they were quickly learned by users through muscle memory, allowing them to quickly navigate through documents, rather than having to memorize sequences like "Ctrl + S = Cursor left".

Some users believe that moving the Ctrl key from the position just to the left of the A key on the PC XT-era keyboard (where the A key is now found on modern keyboards) Caps-Lock), at the bottom left, interferes with this tactile approach, unless the keyboard is remapped in software to swap these keys. Other users prefer to have two control keys on either side of the space bar, which makes eight-finger typing easier. In fact, WordStar can be considered as a third keyboard interface:

1. the letters in lowercases and numbers,
2. letters in capital letters and symbols accessed by the Caps key, and
3. edition and format possible thanks to the Ctrl keys.

WordStar had certain weaknesses, such as the inability to change justification while writing or deleting text. Thus, the paragraphs had to be restructured by means of commands after having been modified. But you could run a command to reformat the entire document after it had been edited.

Many of these weaknesses were fixed by a new interface in WordStar 2000. Paragraph reformatting became automatic. Most of the mnemonics were simplified so that ^RW would be “Remove a Word”, ^RR would be “Remove the Right side” of a line (to the right of the cursor), ^RS would be “Remove a Sentence”, and so on.. WordStar 2000 was also unusual among word processing programs in that it allowed the user to mark (underline) a block of text (with ^BB Block Begin and ^BE Block End), leave it marked, and then go to a different section and copy it (with ^BC of Copy Block). Many users find it much easier to manipulate the blocks this way rather than the mouse pointing system used by Microsoft Word. The main problem with these improvements is that users of the old WordStar (not WordStar 2000) were quite satisfied with the interface and did not want to switch to the new one.

WordStar's interface has left a great legacy. This includes modern cross-platform word processors such as TextMaker and many text editors running under MS-DOS, Linux, and other UNIX variants that emulate WordStar's Ctrl+key commands. The popular Turbo Pascal compiler uses WordStar commands in its IDE editor. Modern word processing programs like Write & Set not only use the WordStar interface, but are based on the WordStar DOS file formats, allowing WordStar users who no longer have a copy of the application to easily open and edit their files. There are WordStar command emulators and keymappings, both freeware and shareware, for current versions of Microsoft Word. Modern word processing programs such as WordPerfect, StarOffice and Microsoft Word (with the appropriate filters) can open and save WordStar documents.

Features

MailMerge was a plug-in (which became an integral part of the product with WordStar 4), which allowed a "print merge" for mass mailings. Pertinent data, such as name, address, city, state, zip code, etc., was stored in data files. Documents such as business letters could be serially printed by inserting data fields into a 'master document'. These master documents contained data fields instead of the relevant information. With print "x" number of versions of the master document, for example, personalized letters to various recipients could be printed serially by taking the information from the data files, and inserting it into the fields.

Another of the plugins was SpellStar, a spell checker later incorporated as part of the WordStar program; and DataStar, a program whose goal was specifically to speed up the creation of data files used for mail merge. These were revolutionary features for personal computer users of the early to mid 1980s. A spreadsheet, CalcStar, was also implemented using a WordStar-like interface. The WordStar (word processor), DataStar (databases), and CalcStar (spreadsheet) set integrated a personal office suite for the first time.

WordStar identified files as "documents" or "no documents", which led to some confusion among users. "Document" refers to WordStar format files, while "non-document" they were pure ASCII text files. Using WordStar in "Non-Document Mode" it was essentially the same as using a traditional text editor, but with more advanced editing features.

File Extensions

• Files from WordStar for DOS have no default extension; some users have adopted their own conventions, such as the WS letters followed by the version number (e.g. WS3) or simply WS. Backup files are automatically saved with the BAK extension.
• Files WordStar for Windows use the WSD extension
• The templates WordStar for Windows use the WST extension
• Macros WordStar for Windows use the WMC extension
• Temporary files WordStar for Windows use the extension !WS
• WordStar 2000 for DOS and UNIX does not have a fixed extension, but DOC and WS2 were the most common.

Note:

• There is no WordStar 2000 for Windows.
• “WordStar for Windows” was published under the name of “WordStar Personal Writer”, and is a WordStar Legacy’s own development from a program called Legacy. XOOM also released a version of “WordStar for Windows 2.0” called Xoom Word Pro.