Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005, Sheldon Isaac wrote:

> On 19 Aug 2005 at 2:43, sindi keesan wrote:
> > I am checking out some free DOS wordprocessors under dosemu
> > http://short.stop.home.att.net/freesoft/txtedit1.htm#wordproc
>
> http://short.stop.home.att.net/vde/vde.htm

I just checked it out.

It works fine under plain dosemu on VGA and TTL monitors.

It does underline, bold and centering and if you run it with switch /F it 
will import and export WP51, where the bold and centering look correct. 
Underline shows up as inverse, bold as bold, in WP.  In VDE they show up 
as red S, etc.  There is a preview mode where they both show up as inverse 
on VGA and as plain test on TTL.

I don't know if the 'WP5' output would be correctly read by WORD - I can 
send a sample file to a friend.

Unlike WP, there are no Alt, Shift, or Ctrl plus F key combinations to 
cause problems.

It correctly centers and right aligns, by adding spaces.  These do NOT 
convert to WP code as far as I can tell, so someone importing my WP file 
and changing fonts from 10 pitch mono would no longer have centered text.

Wordwrap works perfectly (unlike in freedos edit), but unlike Breeze, 
there seems to be no way to save the file with a choice of the line soft 
returns as hard returns.  I think it is saving them as soft returns.

This is the only DOS 'wordprocessor' or text editor other than my 
partner's to behave properly in plain dosemu (no wrong characters, 
no leaving out characters like in WP51).

It also has Wordstar and WORD modes (specify /W or /M when you are 
starting the editor and it imports and saves files in that format).


Someone else's program vde2rtf also works under dosemu.  There is an 
rtf2vde too.

Unlike MS WORD's conversion utility, it does not fill pages with garbage. 
(I got a large file once with pages and pages of info about it not being 
in Arabic or Vietnamese!) though it does list three possible fonts. I 
looked at the result with a small text editor, and bold and underline and 
hard line return are correct, but centering is just a lot of spaces on 
both sides of the text (same for right justify).

It seems to correctly handle wrapping lines.

There are macros, copy/cut/paste, and many other features which I did not 
yet test.  Sub and superscripts, choice of pitches (10 and 12 mono? - good 
enough for 99% of the time), overstrike line or char, 50 lines 132 col, 
search and replace, a place to insert printer codes, etc.

This is probably as close to perfection as I can get for a CLI 'linux'wp 
usable (except in preview mode) with mdacon.  It will import 
and output WP51 and WORD files (I have not tested it on anything very 
demanding yet) and also convert to and from rtf.  If people can put up 
with pseudo-centering and right justification I have something usable.
If nothing else, I can make small changes to WP51 files with it.

Only 194K latest version and there are two older versions, smaller, one 
for XT.

Thanks for pointing it out.


keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org