Sci-fi writer and WordStar lover re-releases the cult DOS app for free
WordStar, the MS-DOS word processing app predating WordPerfect and MS Word, is the word processing application on which George R.R. Martin is still not finishing A Song of Ice and Fire. Ars Technica posts:
But many writers loved and still love WordStar, a word processor notably good for actual writing. As computers moved on from DOS to Windows, and word programs grew to encompass features that strayed far from organizing words on a page, WordStar hung back, whether in DOS emulation or in the hearts of its die-hard fans.
One of those fans is Robert J. Sawyer, an award-winning science fiction author still using the program last updated in 1992.
Deciding that the app is now “abandonware,” Sawyer recently put together as complete a version of WordStar 7 as might exist. He bundled together over 1,000 pages of scanned manuals that came with WordStar, related utilities, his own README guidance, ready-to-run versions of DOSBox-X and VDosPlus, and WordStar 7 Rev. D and posted them on his website as the “Complete WordStar 7.0 Archive.”
As noted by The Register, Sawyer is also taking on the calculated risk of publicly declaring WordStar 7 abandoned. The program’s path from a CP/M app by MicroPro onward is winding, being shoved into a half-baked office suite, acquired by SoftKey, which became the Learning Company, acquired by Mattel, spun off to Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep, and is now the archival property of—well, nobody’s quite sure.
Read more in the article here. Go to the WS 7 archive here.
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