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vDos allows using WordStar under Windows 7 and 8

Started by RJSawyer, September 30, 2014, 09:13:06 AM

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RJSawyer

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 19, 2014:  I now have a page devoted to using WordStar for DOS under vDos on my website.  See here first:  http://sfwriter.com/ws-vdos.htm

THE ORIGINAL POST:

Although all my Windows computers still run 32-bit XP, I'm preparing for the eventuality of migrating to more-modern 64-bit versions of Windows.

I recently stumbled across a very good DOS emulator for running business software, such as WordStar:  vDos.  Although derived from DOSBox, vDos dispenses with the gaming support (joystick, etc.), and adds proper file-locking and other features.

I'm working with the developer Jos Schaars on getting specific support for WordStar (such as showing onscreen italics).  So far, it's working really, really well, with beautiful full-screen displays.  Advanced Page Preview works (VGA mode only), InSet works, and I've got copying to and from the Windows clipboard working via macros.

  To get at the Windows clipboard, add these lines to vDos's CONFIG.TXT file:

COM8 = clip < #COM8.asc

Then to send a block of text to the Windows clipboard write, it to an ASCII file (in WordStar 7, check the "Copy in ASCII Format" box in the ^KW dialog), and simply shell to DOS (^KF) and copy to COM8

COPY ASCII.TXT COM8

All of that can be automated on a macro, of course.

Printer support is great:  if you print with either a PostScript or PCL5 WordStar printer driver, vDos automatically grabs the output and coverts it to PDF, which you can then print from your PDF application to any printer.

It'd be great if a few other die-hards got involved in the discussion at this point.  There's

vDos is over on SourceForge:
https://sourceforge.net/p/vdos/discussion/general/

The discussion page for it is here:
https://sourceforge.net/p/vdos/discussion/general/

And there's fabulous support already for WordPerfect, thanks to the involvement of Edward Mendelson, as you can see here:
http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/vdoswp.html

Check it out!  Jos is being very responsive.  This could be the modern-Windows solution we've been looking for.

All best wishes.

Rob


====

ROBERT J. SAWYER, Science Fiction writer
Author of Red Planet Blues, Wake, and FlashForward
http://sfwriter.com

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