Before WordPerfect, the most popular work processor was WordStar. Now, the last ever DOS version has been bundled and set free by one of its biggest fans.
WordStar 7.0d was the last-ever DOS release of the classic word processor, and it still has admirers today. A notable enthusiast is Canadian SF writer Robert J Sawyer, who wrote the book that became the TV series Flashforward.
Thanks to his efforts you can now try out this pinnacle of pre-Windows PC programs for professional prose-smiths. Sawyer has taken the final release, packaged it up along with some useful tools — including DOS emulators for modern Windows – and shared the result. Now you, too, can revel in the sheer unbridled power of this powerful app.
Sawyer says:
The download is 680MB, but as well as the app itself, full documentation, and some tools to help translate WordStar documents to more modern formats, it also includes copies of two FOSS tools that will let you run this MS-DOS application on modern Windows: DOSbox-X and vDosPlus. Regular Register readers may recognize both from our story on how to run DOS on a 64-bit OS from last year. Sawyer also offers a handy command reference [PDF].
WordStar has a long and exceptionally involved history, as the Wordstar.org fan site used to chronicle. It started out on CP/M, was ported to DOS, multiple incompatible programs of the same name launched, and later still ported to Windows. The last ever release was part of an obscure office suite. Sawyer is correct: the final DOS version really is the true classic.
MicroPro, the company behind WordStar, was repeatedly acquired. At one point it was part of SoftKey, which was acquired and became the Learning Company, which was bought by Mattel in what BusinessWeek called “the worst acquisition of all time.” As a result, the software business was spun off again and bought by Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep. Sawyer says:
While it certainly has been abandoned since the end of the 20th century, the term “abandonware” isn’t a legal one. It’s not clear to us who owns the intellectual property. We doubt it’s one of the surviving offshoots, today’s Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, but it could be another offshoot, Software MacKiev. Either way, it’s very unlikely that the owners will care.
If the many changes of ownership weren’t enough, the program itself had many offshoots. A rewrite in C became the incompatible Wordstar 2000, that abandoned the keyboard-centric UI which was WordStar’s hallmark. MicroPro also acquired a student’s Modula-2 project and rebadged it WordStar Express, which Amstrad PC 1512 owners may remember: Amstrad got a licence cheaply and bundled it as “WordStar 1512”. Even WordStar 7 isn’t based on the original code: MicroPro bought a rival clone of the program called NewWord, and made it the official WordStar 4 – as still used by George R R Martin.
While many folks in the Unix world have Vi keystrokes engraved in their muscle memory, those for WordStar are the equivalent for CP/M and MS-DOS users of a certain age. Ctrl+S/ E/D/X for navigation, Ctrl+K, B to mark the start of a block, Ctrl+K, K to mark the end, then Ctrl+K, C to copy it or Ctrl+K, V to move it; and Ctrl+K+S to Save. The modern Joe text editor still uses them, for instance. It hasn’t got all the functionality, but if you don’t want to struggle with an emulator to run a DOS app, the FOSS clone WordTsar comes close, and has versions for Windows, Linux and macOS.
By modern standards, WordStar doesn’t do much, but it does everything many writers want. The Reg FOSS desk is rather fond of Robert Sawyer’s novels, as well as George R R Martin’s come to that, but those less given to genre fiction may recognize William F Buckley Jr and Ralph Ellison, both keen users. ®