home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
ftp.barnyard.co.uk
/
2015.02.ftp.barnyard.co.uk.tar
/
ftp.barnyard.co.uk
/
cpm
/
walnut-creek-CDROM
/
CPM
/
PROGRAMS
/
WSTAR
/
WS4REVUE.TXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
2000-06-30
|
3KB
|
51 lines
Well folks, WORDSTAR 4.0 is here for us CP/M users --- sort of!!
After updating to WS4 on my IBM AT at work and using it for a while, I
really wanted to update my WORDSTAR 3.3 CP/M version at home. As soon
as the new release was announced on GENIE, I called MicroPro and spent
$94.00 for an upgrade.
The first thing that I noticed when my CP/M WS4 upgrade arrived (the
day before the Labor Day weekend), was that instead of a nice three-
ring binder supplied with the IBM upgrade, the CP/M manual was spiral-
bound and didn't really work in the light-weight cardboard cover
provided!
Installation on my MSC-ICO CP/M+ computer with an Okidata 193 printer
took only a few minutes using WINSTALL to do the basic set-up and
WSCHANGE to set up the special screen display ESC sequences. The
function keys on my keyboard (which have key codes above 7F Hex and
were easy to patch on WS 3.3) appear to be useless with WS4, so I had
to rewrite the operating system to translate the key codes to the
usual ^K, ^J, etc. needed for WS4.
At this point the keyboard and display seemed to work pretty well,
especially after changing most of the DELAY variables. Then I tried
to print the PRINT.TST file --- what a disaster. WS4 would not
recognize the 12 CPI or the DP modes that were set as defaults. All
of the print came out in 10 CPI and NLQ mode except for the lines that
were in italics or 17.1 CPI (which is an Okidata default), so I tried
to BOLD these particular lines and as a result WS4 completely forgot
that it could print in the "Data Processing" mode.
As a result, I tried to define the "CUSTOM" printer driver to be all
things that the Okidata 193 could do --- that didn't work either,
since the "CUSTOM" driver didn't cover all of the options. Next I
tried to install my Olivetti typewriter as an option (to a serial port
with hardware handshaking), forget it --- no software support and no
documentation (as is possible as suggested in the WS4 documentation).
Now on to "THE WORD", the patches from PROFILES magazine a few years
back allowing THE WORD to be used from the opening menu of WORDSTAR
3.3 are MUCH more user friendly than the current WS4 implementation.
The new "THE WORD" does not seem to be as smart as the older, smaller
version. I checked the spelling of files that MicroPro provided with
WS4 and found that the new "THE WORD" does not recognize some very
simple words that the older version does!
At home I use WORDSTAR to do programming, so I will probably stick
with WORDSTAR 3.3. My wife is a writer, so she will probably move to
WORDSTAR 4.0 --- when someone gets the bugs worked out of it.
PS: as a matter of fact, the new "THE WORD" had problems finding
common words in this document!