seep@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu (luke catania) (12/20/89)
Actually, the word processor belongs to a friend. The story is this: My friend, an 80 year old Episcopal monk, was writing a book on an old DEC WP87 (not sure of that name), a DEC word processor with an operating system similar to the DECMATE, but with 8in drives. My friend, who is new to modern (!) word processors, committed the cardinal sin--he didn't keep a hardcopy backup of his work. The only hardcopy of the book was sent to his publisher and lost in the mails. The only disk copy, on an 8in disk, cannot be read because the machine has finally given up the ghost. So, what I need is to transfer his book from 8in drives to something that can be read on a more modern machine. The monestary has an IBM micro, and I have access to DECMATEs. What I need is either the name of a copying service that can make the transfer, or if the WP78 is compatable with the DECMATE, some way to read his 8in disks on a smaller drive (I don't know the hardware very well, but if I remember right, both the WP78 and the DECMATE are pretty modular. If the 8in drives on the 78 still work, would it be possible to mount them on a newer DECMATE? The answer shouldn't be too technical--as I say, I don't know the hardware very well.). Can anyone out there help me? Thanks, David King 914-358-1814 or 914-358-1158