jrd@STONY-BROOK.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (John R. Dunning) (07/15/87)
Does anyone out there know of any public domain word processor programs for our favorite 8-bitter? Any pointers, or info pro or con will be appreciated.
knutsen@aramis.rutgers.edu (Mark Knutsen) (07/16/87)
> Does anyone out there know of any public domain word processor programs > for our favorite 8-bitter? Any pointers, or info pro or con will be > appreciated. One of the most famous PD WPs is SpeedScript, published in Compute! magazine a while back. While I've never used it, I understand it has a good number of features. For small text editing jobs (like batch files for SpartaDOS and the little READ.ME files we all like to put on the disks we mail to friends), I recommend T:EDIT, published in a recent Analog. It's small, so it loads from DOS very quickly, and returns to DOS gracefully. For everyday word processing, however, I recommend you shell out $40 or so and buy a copy of PaperClip from Batteries Included (now owned by Electronic Arts). In fact, I also recommend you shell out another $50 and get some local guru to upgrade your XL or XE to a Rambo-compatible 256K. PaperClip 2.0 and a 256K Atari is an unbeatable combination for the price. If PaperClip loads on a 256K machine, it sees the extra memory and allocates 112K for text, and 90K for the spelling dictionary. That is, you have over 2400 40-column lines (or 1200 80-column lines, etc.) for your text file. The first time you ask for a spelling check, the entire dictionary is read into memory (takes about 2 mins.). Subsequent spelling checks are lightning-fast, because there's no disk access. -- _________________________________ Jersey\\\\\\\\ _____________________________ ARPA: knutsen@rutgers.edu | \\\Atari\\\\\\ | GEnie GE Mail: M.KNUTSEN UUCP: {...}!rutgers.edu!knutsen | \\\\\\Computer | The JACG BBS: (201)298-0161 --------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\Group -----------------------------
appelbau@topaz.rutgers.edu (Marc L. Appelbaum) (07/16/87)
> From: knutsen@aramis.rutgers.edu (Mark Knutsen) > Subject: Re: Looking for PD word processors > Date: 16 Jul 87 14:13:24 GMT > > One of the most famous PD WPs is SpeedScript, published in > Compute! magazine a while back. While I've never used it, I > understand it has a good number of features. SpeedScript is NOT Public DOMAIN! As a mater of fact nothing from Compute! is PD. A while ago I wrote to Compute! asking permission to place programs from their magazine in the Rutgers Univ. CCIS Microlab and we were turned down. Compute! claims that all the programs published in their magazine are not PD. Most user groups, info services (GEnie, CIS) has also been denied permission to distribute Compute! programs. As Mark said, T:EDIT from ANALOG is an excellent program. I use it mostly for reading doc files, and for writing some C programs. But if you want a real program I would suggest either AtariWriter Plus or Paperclip. -- -Marc L. Appelbaum Arpa:appelbau@topaz.rutgers.edu Uucp:{ames, cbosgd, harvard, moss, seismo}!rutgers!topaz.rutgers.edu!appelbau Bitnet:appelbaum@zodiac.bitnet GEnie:M.APPELBAUM
knutsen@aramis.rutgers.edu (Mark Knutsen) (07/19/87)
> SpeedScript is NOT Public DOMAIN! As a mater of fact nothing from > Compute! is PD. Sorry, didn't realize. I thought we only had this kind of problem with Antic magazine. A shame that these two publications don't realize what good publicity having their programs on public BBSs would be. Better to spend your money on a good commercial word processor than to waste your time finding a back-issue Compute! and typing in SpeedScript, I say. -- _________________________________ Jersey\\\\\\\\ _____________________________ ARPA: knutsen@rutgers.edu | \\\Atari\\\\\\ | GEnie GE Mail: M.KNUTSEN UUCP: {...}!rutgers.edu!knutsen | \\\\\\Computer | The JACG BBS: (201)298-0161 --------------------------------- \\\\\\\\\Group -----------------------------