W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA (Keith Petersen) (08/16/87)
The following is presented for informational value only. I do not have any connection with MicroPro or it's dealers. --Keith Petersen Arpa: W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA Uucp: {bellcore,decwrl,harvard,lll-crg,ucbvax,uw-beaver}!simtel20.arpa!w8sdz GEnie: W8SDZ RCP/M Royal Oak: 313-759-6569 - 300, 1200, 2400 (V.22bis) or 9600 (USR HST) --cut-here--WS4CPM.NEW--cut-here-- WORDSTAR, CP/M EDITION, RELEASE 4, HERE AT LAST!!! SPECIAL NOTICE -- JIM WELCH, THE NORTHEASTERN REPRESENTATIVE OF MICROPRO CORPORATION WILL INTRODUCE WORDSTAR, CP/M EDITION, RELEASE 4, AT THE SEPTEMBER MEETING OF THE BCS CP/M GROUP, FORSYTH DENTAL CENTER, 140 THE FENWAY, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 7:30 PM. All are welcome. Please come. Beginners' Clinic at 7:00 PM. On July 23, MicroPro Corporation announced release 4.0 of WordStar for CP/M. Shipment of upgrades to registered users is scheduled to begin on or about August 20. Upgrades can be ordered by calling MicroPro Customer Service at (800)227-5609 9:00 AM-9:00 PM EST. The cost of the upgrade is $89 plus state tax and shipping. A $10 discount on orders placed before the end of August is available to BCS members by asking for extension 6667. In addition to upgrades, new copies of Wordstar 4 can also be ordered from Customer Service. Note -- MicroPro has a unique upgrade policy. Any legitimate copy of WordStar (CP/M or MS/PCDOS, normal release or OEM release such as Kaypro or Osborne, etc.) can be upgraded to the current CP/M or MS/PCDOS version. We were not able to obtain a copy in time to write a review for this issue of the newsletter; however, a review will be forthcoming. The following details of the new release have been selected from the MicroPro brochure on the CP/M Edition. RAM REQUIREMENTS: 54K TPA with math, 51K TPA without. DISK REQUIREMENTS: At least two 5 1/4" double density drives. DISTRIBUTION FORMATS: CP/M Generic (8" ss/sd), Kaypro, Osborne. Apple due in October. Note: We can convert any of these formats to virtually any format that you require (with the exception of Vector Graphic hard sector). TERMINAL SUPPORT: 27 terminals supported by default, extensive patching options to allow other terminal installations. PRINTER SUPPORT: Much better support of laser printers and dot matrix printers. Support of two installed printers. Note: this version of WS will not support background printing (use a hardware printer buffer instead!). HIGHLIGHTS: UNDO KEYSTROKE MACROS FOUR-FUNCTION MATH CALCULATOR USER NUMBER and ZCPR NAMED DIRECTORY SUPPORT ONSCREEN BOLDFACING and UNDERLINING (if your terminal supports this) THE WORD PLUS SPELLING CHECKER MULTIPLE RULER LINES (which can be saved with your document) GO-TO-PAGE PRINT MULTIPLE COPIES and to ASCII MULTI-LINE HEADERS and FOOTERS FULL LIST OF ENHANCEMENTS: 1 Undo 2 Keystroke macros 3 Built-in four-function math calculator * 4 User number support 5 Onscreen bold and underline * 6 The WORD Plus spelling checker and expanded dictionary 7 Stored ruler lines active while editing 8 Go to page 9 Print multiple copies 10 Multi-line headers 11 Multi-line footers 12 Laser printing capability 13 Automatic paragraph indentation 14 Automatic hanging indent 15 Continuous/noncontinuous underline 16 Improved install program 17 New program modification processes (this means that all patch points are documented and a tool is provided to do the patches) 18 Proportional spacing (depending on printer capability, requires additional RAM) * 19 Improved documentation 20 Easier-to-use indexing 21 Index every word 22 Word count 23 Ctrl key with keypad moves cursor intuitively (hardware dependent) 24 User-programmable function keys 25 Function keys provide alternative interface * 26 Improved speed 27 Improved use of memory 28 Specify printer at print time 29 Access two printers from one computer 30 Print to ASCII 31 Print to shared printer 32 Print to disk including all escape sequences 33 Cleaner menus 34 Block math * 35 Improved, easier-to-use conditionals 36 Merge-print math capability 37 Column replace mode 38 Convert to uppercase from lowercase 39 Convert to lowercase from uppercase 40 Help for each command 41 Improved help contents 42 Removable help messages in separate (optional) file 43 Find and replace across page breaks and soft spaces 44 Find and replace from cursor to end/beginning of file 45 Improved find and replace of control characters 46 Improved use of wildcards in find and replace 47 Move to end of sentence 48 Move to end of paragraph 49 Move to any character 50 Move to previous sentence 51 Move to previous paragraph 52 Move to any previous character 53 Delete rest of sentence 54 Delete rest of paragraph 55 Delete up to any character 56 Restore default page numbering 57 Improved merge printing (.DF) allows user defined character to separate variables 58 File insert (.FI) now works while printing as well as merging 59 Print-time formatting (.PF) now works while printing and merging 60 Page number (.PN) now works while printing and merging 61 Line height (.LH) now active while editing and printing 62 Embed a copy of the ruler line into text (.RR) 63 Store left margin in document to be active during editing (.LM) 64 Store right margin in document to be active during editing (.RM) 65 Microspace justification on dot matrix printers (.UJ) 66 Variable character width on dot matrix printers (.CW) 67 Variable line height on dot matrix printers (.LH) 68 Alignment/word wrap may be changed while editing (.AW) 69 Line space changes may be stored within document (.LS) 70 Justification changes may be stored within document (.OJ) 71 Multi-user support 72 Installable tab stops 73 Can remove status line 74 Can read and write column blocks (Ctrl KR and CTRL KW) 75 Improved status line contents 76 Improved flag column contents 77 Toggle near-letter quality print mode within a document 78 Define print controls while editing 79 Define form feed character while editing 80 Print at fixed position when using different fonts 81 Italics (on some printers) 82 Auto indentation in nondocument mode 83 Set tab expansion in nondocument mode 84 User defined tabs based on file type in nondocument mode 85 Strip high order bits from file in nondocument mode 86 Convert hard carriage returns to soft carriage returns automatically 87 Predefined macro for result from last math (Esc =) 88 Predefined macro for last mathematical equation (Esc #) 89 Predefined macro for formatting numbers (Esc $) 90 Cursor placed where it was left after last "save-and-resume" editing 91 Maximum right margin increased to 255 92 Support for full page terminals 93 Backspace is destructive 94 Delete key deletes character 95 Visible soft spaces for increased spacing control 96 Create file to modify more than one copy of WordStar 97 Change what WordStar considers a word for word delete operations (Ctrl T) 98 Improved custom printer install 99 Delete files using wildcards 100 Limit directory displays using wildcards 101 Suppress file types from directory 102 Protect a file 103 Spell checker is user installable 104 Find and correct spelling errors 105 Automatic spelling correction 106 Find rhyming words 107 Help solve word puzzles 108 Locate anagrams 109 Automatic soft hyphenation in spelling checker 110 Look up correct spelling of a word 111 Check frequency (redundancy) of word use 112 Alphabetize and text file or word list 113 Homonym help 114 ZCPR named directory support 115 "Large file"indicator on status line 116 Print from command line 117 Print then exit from command line 118 Open document from command line 119 Open nondocument from command line 120 Print nondocuments and maintain onscreen formatting 121 Can format merge-print string variables 122 Can format merge-print numeric variables 123 Memory usage control This is not an advertisement; however, based on my experience with the DOS version of WordStar 4.0 (most, but not all new features are common to both CP/M and MS/PCDOS versions), you will want to consider upgrading. One of the most significant features is the extensive patching info provided. With earlier versions of WordStar, the user community compiled and maintained complete listings of user modifiable patch locations. MicroPro learned from this and with release 4.0, has provided this information as well as a program to facilitate user patching of WordStar. The configurable options and patch locations far exceed those found in earlier WordStar releases. 08/10/87 Jim Byram BCS CP/M Group