WordStar

[Maverick]

Anyone remember WordStar? I have emulated its key bindings using the Cocoa text system. They work for all OS X text applications that utilize the Cocoa text system, including Scrivener.

Hope someone finds it useful. To install it create a KeyBindings folder inside your Library folder. Unzip the file inside that folder and restart all relevant OS X text applications (i.e. Scrivener). Feel free to browse the file to see the keybindings or change anything.

Maverick
keys.zip (1.04 KB)

[Notjohn]

What a wonderful idea! WordStar has never been equaled for speed and versatility.

I don’t suppose there’s a Windows version?

The blog: notjohnkdp.blogspot.com/

[AmberV]

JOE (Joe’s Own Editor) is a modern open source text editor that very closely resembles WordStar, and if you launch it with ‘jstar’ from the command-line, it uses the diamond key pattern for shortcuts (which is made even better if you rebind Ctrl to CapsLock).

For a Windows shortcut rebind, see CtrlPlus

[andrewm]

Wow. Thanks for this. I’ve been combing the internet for a few days trying to figure out how to do this efficiently. I read an article by Robert J. Sawyer about how some writers (including George RR Martin) are still using Wordstar to write their novels. http://www.sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm I’m assuming they haven’t tried Scrivener yet!

I definitely don’t want to run Wordstar, but I was convinced that having the keyboard arrows on the home row would be a nice feature. Works great. Thanks!

[nom]

@andrewm

Wow. Thanks for this. I’ve been combing the internet for a few days trying to figure out how to do this efficiently. I read an article by Robert J. Sawyer about how some writers (including George RR Martin) are still using Wordstar to write their novels. http://www.sfwriter.com/wordstar.htm I’m assuming they haven’t tried Scrivener yet!

I definitely don’t want to run Wordstar, but I was convinced that having the keyboard arrows on the home row would be a nice feature. Works great. Thanks!

Interesting article! Given that it’s about 20 years old (copyright dates of 1990 & 1996) it’s surprising, and a little disappointing, to see how much still applies to day. I was particularly interested in what he had to say about “the long-hand page metaphor” and thought it describes very well the benefits of Scrivener.

@by Robert J. Sawyer

Let me speak generally for a moment. I’ve concluded that there are two basic metaphors for pre-computer writing. One is the long-hand manuscript page. The other is the typewritten page. Most word processors have decided to emulate the second — and, at first glance, that would seem to be the logical one to adopt. But, as a creative writer, I am convinced that the long-hand page is the better metaphor.

Consider: On a long-hand page, you can jump back and forth in your document with ease. You can put in bookmarks, either actual paper ones, or just fingers slipped into the middle of the manuscript stack. You can annotate the manuscript for yourself with comments like “Fix this!” or “Don’t forget to check these facts” without there being any possibility of you missing them when you next work on the document. And you can mark a block, either by circling it with your pen, or by physically cutting it out, without necessarily having to do anything with it right away. The entire document is your workspace.

On a typewritten page, on the other hand, you are forced to deal with the next sequential character. Your thoughts are focussed serially on the typing of the document. If you’re in the middle of a line halfway down page 7, your only easy option is to continue on that line. To go backwards to check something is difficult, to put in a comment that won’t show when your document is read by somebody else is impossible, and so on. Typing is a top-down, linear process, not at all conducive to the intuitive, leaping-here-and-there kind of thought human beings are good at.

I remember Wordstar fondly (even the appallingly poor attempt to port it to Windows 3.1 in the mid-90’s) but hadn’t ever considered these implications for it’s use. I no longer have the muscle memory for the keyboard shortcuts but do remember that, once learned, Wordstar was much easier and faster to use than any of the alternatives I subsequently tried and hence was more conducive to writing. Many of the things he talked about map to my experiences of Scrivener.

Shame that Robert J. Sawyer’s website looks like it hasn’t been revamped since 1996. Given the way it appears, I honestly thought it was abandoned until I realised that the most recent of his books on the site was released this year.