The landscape changed very quickly with the introduction of WYSIWYG graphical interfaces, that of Microsoft Word for Windows.

The first one that I used was actually WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS (which I might have a “flashback” about in the future) followed by Microsoft Works for DOS (which Sparcie covered very well in his post). The word processing market goes back all the way to purpose built Wang machines, through WordStar on CP/M machines and so on. It’s important to remember that Microsoft Word wasn’t always the dominant word processor. Its file formats and ubiquity have led to a large number of semi-compatible attempts at producing compatible office programs and frustration due to lack of file format documentation. Whether it was to type up an assignment, a letter, a thesis or something else entirely, the dominant word processor for at least the past decade has undoubtedly been Microsoft Word. But, I adapted.Most people who use a computer have undoubtedly used a word processor before. (I admit the WP choice made it something of a PITA when WordPerfect was taken over by Novell and then Corel and slowly became unusable. My fingers rejected WordStar but accepted WordPerfect and a myriad other programs that failed to follow WordStar's lead. Let's face it, it's what you program into your fingers that counts.

Several other plain text editors had minimal interfaces too. Even WordPerfect for DOS had what, a single menu line at the top and a single status line at the bottom and happily supported 50 line mode.

(Of course, that feature could be handy again now with compact portable keyboards, so it's not necessarily a bad thing either - but is putting up with that limitation for decades really worth it?)Īs for minimal screen interface, WordStar was not alone here. I was having a dig at the fact that the navigation keystrokes were designed to support old keyboards without navigation keys - as if living with outdated limitations was a good recommendation. A text screen (without GUI elements) makes it easier for me to concentrate on writing.

Download wordperfect dos