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Text-Console Based Word Processing?
chipperdog asks: "I am looking for an activly maintained console based word processor, similar to what one could find with Appleworks, from the Apple // era (Prodos 8 version, pre-//gs), or even one comparable to DOS versions of WP and Microsoft Word. An open-source one that compiles and runs in Linux would be best, although it would be nice to find one that could run on a 486DX2 50MHz with 8MB. A Google and Freshmeat search only turned up editors that seem to lack some of the necessary word processing features I am seeking.
Although I mostly use VI (and *TEX when necessary), some no-so-geeky end users need the quasi-WSIWYG interface."
As I recall, the Linux version of WordPerfect that was available as a free download a few years ago, had a console mode as well as a GUI mode. I can't say for sure, since I never could get it to install :)
I was remembering back in the day of Wordstar, lo and behold it is a add-on for Word 97/2000! We are talking functionality of those classic keystrokes!
Another interesting page.
Using linux, I prefer joe over vi. Any idiot (that would be me) can use joe.
Joe, Pico, and Jed have major shortcomings, I found. Vi and Vim and Emacs have commands that were designed in the days of 9600 baud terminals.
There is a big misunderstanding about "Word Processing". It is two separate processes: 1) Keystroke capture and initial formatting, and 2) Final WYSIWYG formatting. I use Ventura Publisher version 5 for number 2 because Corel made mistakes in the later versions of Ventura Publisher that made Ventura useless to me.
Microsoft Turd ^H^H^H^H^H Word is useless to me because it is so quirky. Also, it doesn't have on-screen kerning (after all the many versions!).
It's amazing. There are hundreds of editors available, but none that finish the job. I wish that all of that work had gone into just a few editors, or only one. It seems that many programmers make an editor or a compiler as part of their self-training. (I wrote a compiler for HP data acquisition equipment.) Very few of those efforts are ever finished.
I really need open source. That way I'm protected from events outside my control. MicroStar International, makers of WordStar, stopped being a competitor when Mr. Rubenstein, the CEO and biggest stockholder, died of a heart attack.
Open source software and world standards are the only answers. Suppose Bill Gates becomes unavailable for some reason? Would anyone else have an interest in the Visual Basic programming language (which is itself programmed in C++)? If not, all those who chose that language would suffer.