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Wordperfect document viewer for mac7/28/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Package management for Linux is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a one-liner in a terminal, (or use a gui if you prefer), and then a verified version gets installed from a trusted source. I very much prefer to install applications the normal way via my package manager. ![]() The extra bloat is not such a problem (though slightly annoying), but apparently those libraries are often also not updated and can have old (and long since fixed) vulnerabilities. Those AppImages quite often get packed with their own versions of libraries. Then you have to go to that place and download it from some untrusted location and then verify whether it’s not packed with who knows what sort of malware along the way. To get it, you first have to know some exact url, or start a web browser and search for some website. How does putting software in an “appimage” make it easier to install on Linux? Selections should be a first-class reified object in any system, that can be saved and used again and added to at leisure. ![]() with ephemeral selections, Shift-click and Ctrl-Click to select a new block, this is a nightmare. This allow someone to go through the list and check the things that needs acted upon at leisure. this model with fixed selections has made a comeback in Web applications where you have a list with a set of checkmarks at the side. Wordstar/Joe and the Ctrl-K-b and Ctrl-K-K (and the copy commands Ctrl-K-C) anchors the selections and it stays there. If you do ANYTHING after that your selection is gone. I think the whole ephemeral selection model where you select a block of text by stroking over it with a text, or going to the beginning with the keyboard and Shift-Arrow down through your selection sucks. I have to see if I can still get that thing to compile. I loved this model so much that I used it in a DOS Text-mode spreadsheet I wrote many many many years ago, in 1989 as a freshman at University. First thing I do on a new Linux box is apt-get install joe. Still there in the Joe editor, still use it, every day. Posted in Retrocomputing, Software Hacks Tagged retrocomputing, wordstar Post navigation If you want some cheap CP/M hardware, that’s easy enough, too. Of course, some word processors were actual hardware. Of course, you can also fire up your best CP/M machine, replica, or emulation and run the real WordStar, but - honestly - WordTsar seems more practical if you wanted to go back to using this kind of wordprocessor or editor for everyday use. Installation on Linux is easy because it is packaged in an AppImage file. The software runs on multiple platforms and has some new features. Touch typists love the efficiency of easy control of things without resorting to cursor keys or a mouse - the same thing vi and emacs fans enjoy but in a different way. Being able to do your documentation without switching brain gears is useful, too. Programmers that write were especially fond of WordStar since it had a non-document mode and was often the best text editor you had available for writing code. This is a modern interpretation of our old friend. Thanks to an open-source clone, WordTsar, you may not have to. Martin, apparently are still refusing to give it up. At one time, it was ubiquitous, and many authors had a hard time giving it up. Wordstar was the word processor that helped sell the personal computer. ![]()
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