Science Fiction Writer Robert J. Sawyer: WordStar: A Writer’s Word Processor
Posted by jpluimers on 2020/07/24
20+ years old and still relevant: [WayBack] Science Fiction Writer Robert J. Sawyer: WordStar: A Writer’s Word Processor.
Besides doing a very quick and thorough introduction in the what and how of the WordStar keyboard shortcuts, he also explains a lot about the why.
Recommended reading, especially because of a user-experience perspective.
Markdown, Atom and Visual Studio code are not that different from WordStar.
Via:
- [Archive.is 1, Archive.is 2] WordStar: A Writer’s Word Processor (1996) | Hacker News.
- [WayBack] WordStar: A Writer’s Word Processor by Robert J. Sawyer (1996)… – Adrian Marius Popa – Google+
A great article describing the appeal of WordStar and the logic behind its key bindings, as well as the editing metaphors that made this word processor a true craftman’s tool.
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
David Blue said
What a gift! Thank you so much for exposing me to this… I have found myself really getting into software history (especially word processors) in the past few years, but somehow I never encountered this in my research. It makes me wonder: would you happen to know of any blogs/publications/folks generally who discuss old word processors with any regularity? (I’m starting to think I should just take the time to make an aggregation page specifically for the topic, myself.)
jpluimers said
I just follow quite a few people on Twitter and happen to have used both WordStar and AppleWorks at High School as my first two word processors.
Wordstar felt more natural as I was used to the key combinations that Turbo Pascal had.
A lot of WordStar concepts could be found in WordPerfect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleWorks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordStar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPerfect