Wordstar

users
#1

Urmas wrote:

That's bullshit. Ctrl+J is a shortcut for Justify and... a paragraph mark in
text controls.

Actually, WordStar had different Ctrl+key functions than Word. Yes, today, Ctrl+J is a shortcut for Justify, but back in the WordStar days, Ctrl+J did something different, as did most Ctrl+key combinations. Ctrl+A, for example, moved the cursor one word to the left; Ctrl+F, one word to the right. Ctrl+K opened up several file commands, such as Ctrl+K, P for Print. Today, these seem archaic, but in the day, it was lightning quick for a good typist. To make matters even better, the Ctrl key was positioned next to the “a” key, where the Caps Lock key is nowadays.

The WordStar keystrokes were copied by many other programs, such as my beloved PC-Write, and VDE, and even smaller, lighter editor.

We DOS users were slow to embrace Windows, one of the biggest reasons being the dreaded mouse. Touch typists hate taking their fingers off the keyboard to grab the mouse.

The DOS camp was so dedicated that I even recall an article that argued that DOS users made better writers than Windows users. The theory was that, while Windows users were busy trying to pick the right font and page margins, DOS users were focusing on the content of their writing. Now, today, I find myself spending more time configuring and modifying styles than I do actually writing.

And, remember the blazing speed of our old 286 PCs with 20 meg. hard drives? Despite today’s dual-core, multi-gigabyte monster computer, I have yet to find a word processor that loads, processes, and saves files as fast as PC-Write on a 1980s DOS computer. *Sigh*

Virgil

#2

And I wish I was still able to use wordstar :wink:

#3

Marc Grober wrote:

And I wish I was still able to use wordstar :wink:

I used to use Wordstar 2000 at work.

#4

"Virgil Arrington":

Actually, WordStar had different Ctrl+key functions than Word. Yes, today, Ctrl+J is a shortcut for Justify, but back in the WordStar days, Ctrl+J did something different...

If it worked in Microsoft Word, how the hell it was 'captured' and 'unavailable' for Wordstar, whatever function it had?

#5

Simple. The evil machinations of Microsoft.

They've done similar many times. Like making Windows 3.1 report false
errors on versions of DOS other than MS DOS.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code

#6

Simple. The evil machinations of Microsoft.

I will repeat. If any and all Windows application could use Ctrl+J for anything, why WordStad suddenly couldn't?

#7

Ok, let me spell it out for you. Microsoft, as the developers of the
OS, put code in their OS to capture the Ctrl+J key combination, and not
pass it on to the foreground application. However, they also put in
code to allow an application to request that the key combination be
passed on, code that most people, including the developers of WordStar,
didn't know about (at least until after it was too late). Then
Microsoft, as developers of Word, put in the necessary request to make
the OS pass on the Ctrl+J key combination to Word. They knew to do
this, because they were the same company.

Or, alternatively, Microsoft, as the developers of the OS, put code in
to detect a running copy of WordStar, and hide the Ctrl+J key
combination from it. They did this because they were also the
developers of Word, and wanted it to have a monopoly.

I'm not saying they did any of this, I have no personal experience with
the Ctrl+J key combination, nor have I any insights into exactly how
they did this if it actually is true. I just know that they have done
evil and rude things to get or maintain a monopoly in the past, more
than once, including something very, very similar, and I wouldn't put
it past them to have done this too. I'm merely suggesting ways in which
they could have done it. I'm sure there are more.

#8

"Paul":

Microsoft, as the developers of the
OS, put code in their OS to capture the Ctrl+J key combination, and not
pass it on to the foreground application. However, they also put in
code to allow an application to request that the key combination be
passed on, code that most people, including the developers of WordStar,

Or, alternatively, Microsoft, as the developers of the OS, put code in
to detect a running copy of WordStar, and hide the Ctrl+J key
combination from it.

I'm not saying they did any of this,

So you've just made that malarkey up? Wow.

#9

It may be true for Wordstar, and it may not be. MS lost a lot of court cases because of actions like this. Geoworks is one case I know of. Geoworks won the battle in court, but the war was over.

So, I never trust companies that I know have broken various policies, as Facebook and Google have done.

#10

Some of the things Microsoft has done are chronicled here in a report to the European Commission a number of years ago:
http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepaper.pdf

Don

#11

"Don Myers":

Some of the things Microsoft has done are chronicled here in a report
to the European Commission a number of years ago:

One cannot hold in a smile while reading that whine. In particular, the Wordstar case of 'shell namespace extensions', which a text processor (Even MS Office one) does not need was dismissed from the court as boloney. Also, a pay-for Netscape vs. free IE browser story is fascinating.

#12

Urmas wrote:

So you've just made that malarkey up? Wow.

He is correct in saying MS did a lot of things to cripple competition.
That AARD code was one. They also used hidden API as was revealed when
Borland sued them and more. They have a very long history of playing
dirty, up to and including extortion.

#13

"James Knott":

That AARD code was one. They also used hidden API as was revealed when
Borland sued them and more.

'AARD code' was not in any retail version of Windows. It is fake.

#14

Urmas wrote:

"James Knott":

That AARD code was one. They also used hidden API as was revealed when
Borland sued them and more.

'AARD code' was not in any retail version of Windows. It is fake.

Well, you 'd better thel that to the guys at DR-DOS and also those in
the antitrust case, as that was one of the things shown in it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code

#15

"James Knott":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARD_code

Quote:
Microsoft disabled the AARD code for the final release of Windows 3.1

It's a myth.

#16

But they didn't remove it and it could always be reenabled by changing a single byte of machine code.

#17

Hey, FUDmeister, what makes you such an authority?

#18

What is a myth, that Microsoft disabled the AARD code? :stuck_out_tongue:

The AARD code is indeed *not* a myth, it was very real, it was just
disabled for the final release, according to Wikipedia.

That said, I clearly recall some Microsoft program not running on our
old DR-DOS system back in the day, can't recall if it was Windows or
Word (I'm sure it must have been one of those two), but it definitely
complained about our DOS not being good enough, which was completely
bogus. In many respects DR-DOS was much better than MS DOS, and it was
fully capable of running the MS software, despite the bogus claim of
said software.

The AARD code may have been disabled, but it wasn't the only piece of
malicious code they used.

#19

Do you actually work for mickeyshaft seems that way you are backing them to the
hilt ..

MS troll per chance ..

Pete .

#20

If he's not being paid by MS, he should be...

But he's a well known troll around these parts, move along folks.
Unless there's useful info in the response, then it's worth spreading.