Re: Looking for a text mode word processor

["Sam Stern" <samstern@samstern.net>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-ports@openbsd.org 
> [mailto:owner-ports@openbsd.org] On Behalf Of Horacio
> Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 03:28 PM
> To: Sam Stern
> Cc: 'Gordon Grieder'; ports@openbsd.org
> Subject: Re: Looking for a text mode word processor
> 
> 
> On Thu, Apr 04, 2002 at 10:27:04AM -0500, Sam Stern wrote:
> > 
> > Hi Horacio,
> > 
> > I'll give Jed/Joe a look. BTW, there are BSDI versions of
> > Both WordPerfect and WordStar (for older versions of BSDI)
> > so I was hoping that someone had managed to get this going
> > on OpenBSD's emulation of BSDI -- guess it's no dice there.
> > The reason for the question is that ispell and friends
> > really do not cope well with Dyslexia based phonetic
> > miss-spellings nor do the current crop of front ends cope
> > well with the "multiple tries to get a word miss spelled
> > but close enough to figure out what word you wanted"
> > approach.
> 
> Hold it.. there is a misunderstanding here.  You said
> WordStar, which led us to believe you refered to ancient,
> vanished WordStar word processor (see www.wordstar.org), and
> which both jed & joe simulate its keystrokes.
> But I think you meant StarWord from StarOffice
> (www.sun.com/../staroffice).
> 

I mentioned these two systems as WordStar has the BEST spell checker
I've ever seen and WordPerfect's spell checker was not bad. I would love
to Run Star Office BUT it's not text mode. Even with various compressors
X and VNC are too slow over a 28.8 modem connection where a text mode
system would work well. I had been hoping that someone had coded a real
Word processor for text mode users. While pico will do in a pinch (it
has a spell checker), I was hoping the functionality of the older
systems so I could do a nice mail merge or such. I think the answer will
be to look into dosemu and and grab my copy of WordStar 6 or WP 5.2 and
see if that will run :>

> Anyway, WordPerfect used to work on OpenBSD under Linux
> emulation, installed through a ports script by Dug Song.
> I recall there was some linux file that I had to manually
> add, but can't remember which one.  Now WP8 for linux is no
> longer available for d/load from the corel pages, so you will
> have to get it from other sources.
> 
> 

On my project list is to get WP 2000 Deluxe running on OpenBSD -- The
last OS that this ran on well was RH 6.2. But that will take time :> I
have the CDs but not the time ...


> p.s. I checked and yes, there was a version of WordStar for
> AT&T Unix sometime in the 80's.  The version was WordStar
> 2000, and I'd love to get my hands on it but I haven't seen
> anything but a small reference to it.
> 
> 

Set up a repeating search on eBay. WordStar and WordPerfect for *NIX
show up about once every few months. The last time I saw one (WP 5.2 for
some *NIX) it went for around US$50. I did grab a nice copy of PGP 5 at
the time over the WP *NIX.

Thanks!


Sam S.