Looking for Wordstar 3.40 for DOS

[Malc]

Not sure if this is relative to your problem, From WordStar org History page, " By the mid-1980''s MS-DOS had gained directories and their attendant paths, but WordStar didn''t keep up. This meant that the files being edited still had to be in the same directory as the program."

I haven't used WS for many years but had an Amstrad version on my PC1512 and also used it on my XT 5160 years ago, Can't remember what version it was though.

 

[Haemogoblin]

Thanks Malc

My documents are being stored in the same folder. Even though the page does say that the problem doesn't occur in XP, it has occurring for me.

I'm wondering if a simpler method would be to format a floppy using an old version of dos, place wordstar on it and run wordstar from the floppy via dosbox.

 

[Malc]

Worth a try, Just a thought is your PC capable of booting from a USB flash drive, I have booted my XP box via a USB flash drive with Dos 6.22 installed and WFW and it works, I sometimes use it to run a couple of old dos programs, Don't know if WS would like it though.

 

[vwestlife]

What, no love for WordStar 2000 -- or, even better, WordStar "Easy"? I remember liquidator catalogs still trying to sell off copies of WordStar Easy in the mid-'90s -- I guess it was that much of a flop!

 

[njroadfan]

I ran into the whole File Control Blocks vs. File Handles problem running an old DOS database called Nutshell. My solution at the time was to run it in a VM that booted DOS 3.3 to prevent file corruption. This pre-dated DOSBox, so I don't know how it would have handled it. I have since found a later version of that program called UltraPlus that supports the modern File Handles API and it is much better behaved under modern OSes. I can confirm that UltraPlus appears to work in DOSBox, although I haven't thoroughly tested it.

Do note that the authors of DOSBox strongly discourage running non-gaming applications. They are not tested and data loss is possible, particularly with databases. Also the emulator may not support obscure DOS features that aren't used by any games. Reading online, I get conflicting information on whether or not FCBs are even supported by DOSBox. Your best bet is to use something like VirtualBox and a small HD image running DOS 3.3.

 

[krebizfan]

What, no love for WordStar 2000 -- or, even better, WordStar "Easy"? I remember liquidator catalogs still trying to sell off copies of WordStar Easy in the mid-'90s -- I guess it was that much of a flop!

In Search of Stupidity devotes a long section to the whole WS versus WS 2000 versus Easy timeframe describing a very dysfunctional development environment. I am not surprised Easy wasn't exactly selling; late 1984, WS 3.3 was being offered at half price which did not leave much room for a low end word processor.

 

[Trixter]

The one that got the most play in the US was the M-24 (AT&T 6300) which had DSDD (720kB) floppies with a format that different slightly from that used by MS-DOS.

Quick correction: The 6300 shipped with 5.25" drives that were capable of 40-track or 80-track operation. They were shipped with 40-track as the default for PC/DOS compatibility. You could flip a DIP switch to change them to 80-track, but this was never used in practice because in 80-track mode they couldn't read/write regular formatted DOS disks.

 

[Chuck(G)]

What, no love for WordStar 2000 -- or, even better, WordStar "Easy"? I remember liquidator catalogs still trying to sell off copies of WordStar Easy in the mid-'90s -- I guess it was that much of a flop!

We adopted WS2000 after WS and found it to be a fine package. The inclusion of STAR exchange was a very nice feature.

The problem with acceptance was two-fold: First, and probably most important, WS2000 was completely different in terms of operator interaction from WS--you literally had to re-learn all of your commands. Second, competition from other packages such as such as Word Perfect and Word was ramping up quickly--so there were more choices if you were willing to re-learn your WP.

But WS2000 turned out to be yet another casualty in the word processing battles--and the field is littered with corpses. It never came out in a Windows version, as far as I know, although WordStar did (I have WS7 for Windows somewhere).

 

[krebizfan]

Quick correction: The 6300 shipped with 5.25" drives that were capable of 40-track or 80-track operation. They were shipped with 40-track as the default for PC/DOS compatibility. You could flip a DIP switch to change them to 80-track, but this was never used in practice because in 80-track mode they couldn't read/write regular formatted DOS disks.

In 1986, AT&T offered 3.5" disk drives as an option. Wikipedia shows that. I am not sure if it used the same increased root directory that the 720kB 5.25" format used.

 

[vwestlife]

But WS2000 turned out to be yet another casualty in the word processing battles--and the field is littered with corpses. It never came out in a Windows version, as far as I know, although WordStar did (I have WS7 for Windows somewhere).

There was an OS/2 version of WordStar 2000, although it was probably a text-mode OS/2 application.

WordStar for Windows (based on a word processor called "Legacy") was a fine product, but came too late to compete with the giant might of MS Word for Windows. Lotus AmiPro (later called WordPro) also failed despite being a highly-rated program. WordPerfect was able to hang on due to its heavy use in the legal industry, but by now many law firms have switched over to all-Microsoft applications just to make training and document portability easier. (Plus there are aftermarket add-ons and toolbars for MS Word which give it the special features that used to only be available in WordPerfect.)

 

[krebizfan]

There was an OS/2 version of WordStar 2000, although it was probably a text-mode OS/2 application.

WordStar for Windows (based on a word processor called "Legacy") was a fine product, but came too late to compete with the giant might of MS Word for Windows. Lotus AmiPro (later called WordPro) also failed despite being a highly-rated program. WordPerfect was able to hang on due to its heavy use in the legal industry, but by now many law firms have switched over to all-Microsoft applications just to make training and document portability easier. (Plus there are aftermarket add-ons and toolbars for MS Word which give it the special features that used to only be available in WordPerfect.)

Did WS 2000 for OS/2 get shipped? I thought it got canceled despite having a number of very good beta releases similar to what happened with Word Perfect for OS/2 PM.

NBI Legacy was a good product though closer to slow desktop publisher than typical word processor. Over in WordStar's hands, it suffered the same unfortunate development that plagued WordStar's other releases. WordStar.org has a section devoted to methods to cobble together a somewhat stable system out of WordStar for Windows and the Xoom Word Pro rebranding because each release has different bugs.

WordPerfect had the rushed to market and therefore quite buggy and slow WordPerfect for Windows 5.1 and canceled plans for a DOS upgrade to keep DOS and Windows versions in sync. Lost out on DOS upgrades and encouraged people to look elsewhere for Windows software. Later versions got better but not enough to regain position.

AmiPro suffered through the acquisition by Lotus and then IBM taking over Lotus which led to a long stagnant period and basically conceded the market to MS.

XyWrite got destroyed by partnering with IBM. Describe finally got all its ducks in a row with good manuals and near feature parity while retaining great speed when the CEO went bonkers over stopping non-existent piracy threats and closed within the year.

Consolidation was going to happen in the Word Processor business but there sure were a lot of self-inflicted wounds along the way.

 

[vwestlife]

WordPerfect had the rushed to market and therefore quite buggy and slow WordPerfect for Windows 5.1 and canceled plans for a DOS upgrade to keep DOS and Windows versions in sync. Lost out on DOS upgrades and encouraged people to look elsewhere for Windows software. Later versions got better but not enough to regain position.

Novell and then later Corel did ship a fully graphical version of WordPerfect for DOS, 6.0 through 6.2. In fact, WP 6.2 was one of the last major applications released for DOS, in 1997. It also had the classic blue-screen text mode, but it was considerably bigger and slower than 5.1, so many die-hard users avoided it. There was also an update to the venerable WP 5.1 for DOS, called "5.1 Plus", in 1994, later re-released by Corel in 1996.

 

[krebizfan]

Novell and then later Corel did ship a fully graphical version of WordPerfect for DOS, 6.0 through 6.2. In fact, WP 6.2 was one of the last major applications released for DOS, in 1997. It also had the classic blue-screen text mode, but it was considerably bigger and slower than 5.1, so many die-hard users avoided it. There was also an update to the venerable WP 5.1 for DOS, called "5.1 Plus", in 1994, later re-released by Corel in 1996.

You are correct. I was unclear. I was referring to a planned 1992(?) WP 5.2 for DOS which was scrapped so that WP 5.1 for Windows would have feature parity with DOS WP 5.1. Sacrificing a large revenue stream in order to hold on to a marketing bullet point seems unwise.

 

[Ole Juul]

I'd like to have WordStar working on the XP machine I have, as that's the one I type on and run all my old DOS programs on.

Good idea. However, it might be just as easy to use a KVM and just have another little box for all your DOS stuff. That's what I do. FTP works well for exchanging docs across machines.

Would it be practical do you think for me to install a second smaller hard drive and make it's primary partition DOS? Or perhaps make a DOS boot disk and boot the machine up from floppy and run WS that way?

That's probably the simplest solution. Older DOS versions are easy to come by. I see Stone has something for you. Also, you can make a bootable diskette with WS on it.

I didn't see in the earlier posts that you had gotten a working copy of WS yet, so I put a copy of 3.31 for you here in case that version is of interest to you.

 

[Haemogoblin]

KVM?

I might give the HDD route and shot, I've also thought about using Virtualbox as one way of getting it to work.

Stone is indeed helping me out with DOS, so will see how that goes. I will be over at my GF's tomorrow and hopefully be posting up photo's of the box and disks then. If it is rare, I'll certainly be up for trying to recover the data off the floppies.

Thank you for posting up Wordstar, the manual I have says it's for 3.30 and 3.40

 

[Ole Juul]

KVM?

KVM = Keyboard, video, mouse, switch. Many people find this saves a lot of space and trouble. A two computer one is really cheap. I use this one, but there are $20 ones. Not needing to set up a separate monitor and keyboard for a computer makes it pretty simple to just add another box under your desk. They all allow you to switch with a keyboard shortcut so you don't even need to put the KVM on your desk. Pick between models that do PS/2, USB, or both. Some switch audio as well.

 

[Chuck(G)]

WS2000 doesn't work in a DOS window on XP? When did that happen?

Surprised that nobody has mentioned Jim Button's PC-Type--once, a very popular word processor for the IBM PC.

 

[krebizfan]

Regarding VirtualBox, I have a MS-DOS 3.3 install running on VirtualBox. I have not installed early WordStar on it though.
There are a lot of very good instructions on the Web to install MS-DOS 6.22 on VirtualBox. Remember that DOS 3.3 and earlier require smaller hard disks, won't need as much RAM (no DOS extenders with WordStar), and the network and CD-ROM sections can be skipped.

Chuck(G): See http://forum.wordstar.org/index.php/topic,127.0.html for examples of problems with WS2000 with XP. Simple fix but definitely not obvious.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Nah, that fix doesn't work. I just tried it on XP. I wonder if it's a large disk issue. Fails the same way on a DOSEMU session, which is more or less FreeDOS. One of these days I'll get around to looking at it--or not.

For those of you who like old WordStar, the Joe editor is pretty darned close and offers versions for *nix, 32-bit Windows and DOS. Most of the important keystrokes are the same. The *nix versions have syntax highlighting for "c" code and that sort of eye candy.

 

[Unknown_K]

WS2000 doesn't work in a DOS window on XP? When did that happen?

Surprised that nobody has mentioned Jim Button's PC-Type--once, a very popular word processor for the IBM PC.

Around here Professional Write was used quite a bit as a DOS word processor (cheap too).

I bet people used DOS WP's in OS/2 then legit OS/2 ones. My collection has XyWrite for OS/2 and maybe Lotus Suite (forget if I just have it for Win3 or both).

Funny how badly Wordperfect took a dump when you could even find it for the Amiga and mac.