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Robert J. Sawyer
Personal blog · sfwriter.comwritingculture
Robert J. Sawyer's personal blog at sfwriter.com covers writing and culture. Since 2010, 37 different Hacker News readers have linked it 48 times, most often “Robert J. Sawyer: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)”. The last post was in 2010, but the archive is still widely read.
Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning and Nebula Award-winning Science Fiction writer. Author of 24 SF novels. Sample chapters from each book, full-text short stories, how to write tips. Over ONE MILLION words and 800 documents.
Most-linked posts?
- Robert J. Sawyer: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)9 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2018-06-30
- Complete WordStar 7.0 Archive7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2024-07-31
- WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)4 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2014-09-05
- WordStar – A Writer's Word Processor (1990)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-06-01
- Heinlein's Rules4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2010-12-26
- WordStar for DOS 7.0 Archive3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-08-06
- Running Word Star on VDos2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-08-03
What Hacker News says?
If you're going to bring up Kerouac with his rolls of paper, you're better off talking about WordStar than Word. Word divides the document into discrete pages, while WordStar documents were long uninterrupted ribbons of text, just like Kerouac's rolls. Perhaps Kerouac "got it," but so do George R.R. Martin and Robert Sawyer, writers who continue to use WordStar decades after its demise (Sawyer even talks about the b…
Comment linking /wordstar.htm
on “Pandoc”Submitted WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996) as a story · 152 points
HN discussionSci-fi author Robert Sawyer (who has won Hugo and Nebula awards) is a big fan of Wordstar -- he uses it to write his books. I highly recommend reading this: https://www.sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm
Comment linking /wordstar.htm
on “IDEs we had 30 years ago and lost (2023)”Submitted WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996) as a story · 148 points
HN discussionOkay... Let's try a different approach here. "DISPFONT.EXE" and "DISPFONT.OVR" are key files you'll find in WordStar's archive [0]. I don't have a CP/M emulator on hand to fire up the original to show you an example, as WordStar pre-existed DOS. But this is a quote from v3, the first DOS version, from the manual: --- Screen Fonts for Preview At the Add or Remove a Feature screen, you can install three different type…
Comment linking /ws7.htm
on “Apple squandered the Holy Grail”Submitted WordStar – A Writer's Word Processor (1990) as a story · 142 points
HN discussionActually, that's one of Heinlein's characters commenting on writing. Occasionally Heinlein would have to remind people that his characters spoke for themselves, not for him. I can't remember a case where he spoke or wrote about writing in a similar fashion to what C.S. Lewis wrote in his letter, but his 5 rules of writing[1] have been influential for many writers. Once, in an Annapolis address, he explained that the…
Comment linking /ow05.htm
on “C.S. Lewis on Writing”Submitted Robert J. Sawyer: WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996) as a story · 48 points
HN discussionWordStar is popular with science fiction writers for more fundamental reasons. (Not because it doesn't have spell check or isn't connected to the internet.) Wordstar treats the text like a long-hand manuscript. You can add notes to yourself like "fix this!" and deal with the edits later. Or, you can block copy large sections of text and have the computer keep a reference to it without having to "copy and paste" it i…
Comment linking /wordstar.htm
on “What ever happened to Wordstar?”Submitted Complete WordStar 7.0 Archive as a story · 17 points
HN discussionThe WordStar mailing list at YahooGroups is still (occasionally) active, but shrinking, as many members are getting rather elderly... A recurrent topic is how to keep the software working on the latest versions of Windows. Science fiction author Robert Sawyer recently posted definitive instructions: http://sfwriter.com/ws-vdos.htm
Comment linking /ws-vdos.htm
on “What ever happened to Wordstar?”Submitted WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996) as a story · 14 points
HN discussionLots of professional authors use "advanced" text editors for their stuff. And sadly, that often means old editors, because they often tend to have features that modern word processors lack (or make it easier to accept then). And of course once you get used to something... There was a Salon article about people still using XyWrite[1]. As mentioned in the post, GRRM is one of the people[2] still using WordStar. I know…
Comment linking /wordstar.htm
on “Let's just use Emacs”Submitted WordStar for DOS 7.0 Archive as a story · 6 points
HN discussionWhat essay are you referring to? (Since the parent link is to a site rather than a specific essay).. I'm guessing it's this one? https://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm
Comment linking /wordstar.htm
on “WordTsar, a WordStar Clone”Submitted Heinlein's Rules (For Writers) as a story · 5 points
HN discussionRobert j. Sawyer is also a prominent wordstar diehard who ought to be interested in this project :) he wrote an interesting rationale for his use of wordstar. https://www.sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm I wonder if learning proper use of vim motions would cover most of these use cases today :)
Comment linking /wordstar.htm
on “WordTsar, a WordStar Clone”Submitted Running WordStar under Windows as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThere was a bit of a fuss over it a few years back. You can find mention of it in the Wikipedia article on Wordstar.[0] Robert J. Sawyer maintains a page on using Wordstar on modern computers.[1] Authors have been seeking ways to avoid distractions for decades, and it goes well beyond pervasive connectivity. Sometimes the very features that aid them in their work can also hinder them. For example: computers vastly s…
Comment linking /ws-vdos.htm
on “Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac”Submitted WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionMaybe "much better" when it comes to distraction-less writing, although I don't think a DOS computer offers more than that, and the portability only enables going to places where there's more going on… But a predilection towards WordStar isn't just about not having fancy icons and weird ribbons, as author Robert Sawyer[1] pointed out. The "long page" metaphor and a short-cut friendly environment should be somewhat u…
Comment linking /wordstar.htm
on “Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac”Submitted WordStar for DOS 7.0 Archive as a story · 4 points
HN discussionYes, the article lists some two potential owners of WordStar: > It's not clear to us who owns the intellectual property. We doubt it's one of the surviving offshoots, today's Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, but it could be another offshoot, Software MacKiev. Whereas this release is made by writer Robert J. Sawyer, who does not appear to be affiliated with any of the potential owners. Edit: Even though The Register calls…
Comment linking /blog/?p=5806
on “WordStar 7, the last ever DOS version, is re-released”Submitted Complete WordStar 7.0 Archive as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThe page with the download¹ has a long essay about the benefits of WordStar. An example: > WordPerfect requires that I decide whether I want to cut or copy a block, then immediately mark the beginning of the block, then immediately mark the end of the block, then immediately position the cursor at where I want the block to go, then immediately move the block, and then find my way back to the place where I was origin…
Comment linking /wordstar.htm
on “WordStar 7, the last ever DOS version, is re-released”Submitted Running Word Star on VDos as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThe science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer has written about WordStar extensively and has put together a complete collection of manuals and software for the latest DOS version here: https://sfwriter.com/ws7.htm Along with advice for running under emulation and how to print from it, under the subheading Printing.
Comment linking /ws7.htm
on “A gentle introduction to CP/M”Submitted Letter to Beginning Writers from Robert Sawyer as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI was part of a fairly large cult following of Wordstar that continued to use it after supposedly better GUI based word processors came along. The key bindings and traversal were very well thought out, and once you got into the groove, it was more efficient than anything I've used before or since. A write up on the subject that says it better than I can: http://sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm And, yes...I can't see why an…
Comment linking /wordstar.htm
on “How to Use Classic Amiga for Word Processing Today”Submitted Wordstar – a writer’s word processor as a story · 3 points
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