Favourite text based word processing software

[Joseph Lenox]

Obviously you just need to go whole-hog and implement TeX and let the user
just write with vi or emacs :D

--Joseph Lenox

On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 12:20 PM, B Degnan <billdeg at buzz1.com> wrote:

>
> > Hello group
>
> > I'm toying with the idea of writing a simple word processing package
> along
> the lines of Wordstar for my Retrochallenge 2015/01 entry.
>
> <snip> > So a little more than a text-editor but only enough to support
> simple
> formatting and styles (bold, italic, underline for example).
> >
> > Ideally I'd like to implement a clean, logical design without many
> 'bells
> and whistles' concentrating on the core functionality.
>
> Mark,
>
> As a programmer I used to use QEDIT most of the time because it made it
> easy to edit by column as well as row, mark/move text, easy keystroke
> commands.  The copy I have is saved as q.exe.  It was better than notepad
> and I continued to use it well past it's era.  Still hard to edit by column
> when your parsing text without being forced to use a spreadsheet program.
>
> Sounds like you're talking more of a word processor though. So, I'd put in
> my vote for something like IBM Personal Editor (PEDIT) which gave a person
> a lot of functionality with little RAM overhead.  I never really liked
> WordStar or Word Perfect myself, but I used what I had available.
>
> As far as formatting to the printer goes, I suggest you include the
> capacity to enter printer codes manually so that you can use most any type
> of printer that accepts them.  I remember inserting codes into programs
> that were used for a specific printer that way.  If you have the manual and
> given you're talking simple print capabilities you would not need to supply
> drivers.
>
> Bill
>