WordTsar Update 2

UPDATE:  GO HERE

Previous Posts here and here

An update has been a LONG time coming.

I’ve been using WordTsar in all of my work for the last year.  It hasn’t lost data, and it hasn’t crashed.  It’s also not complete, and has a couple of bugs.  It does exactly what I need to get my work done, and when I need something else, I code it.  And although that method works for me, it doesn’t work for getting something out the door.

So here is what I plan to do.  I’ll finish the next feature set and make an Alpha Release available to a limited number of registered testers.  The release will be for Windows, Linux, and OSX (see below).  It’s called Alpha because it is not feature complete, and it’s only been tested by one person.  What I’m looking for from my testers, is continual feedback and feature requests.  I’ll try to get a voting system in place to rank the features, and work on them in order.  Features will be limited to items that are available in Wordstar 7.0d only.  Once WordTsar gets a bit more feature complete, I’ll allow feature requests for items not in Wordstar.

I’m looking for active testers, people that want to use WordTsar and make it better.  If you just want to play to see what it’s like, please don’t register as a tester at this time… there will be an opportunity later on in WordTsars development cycle.

To register as a tester, send an email to register@wordtsar.ca with the following items:

1. First and Last Name
2. EMail Address
3. Why you want to test
4. What you bring to the table as a tester (Wordstar experience, nostalgia, etc)
5. Operating Systems you’d like to test on.

You’ll receive an email in return specifying whether you have been accepted as a tester or not.  At this point, I don’t see anyone being turned down, but you never know.  Your email address will be added to a distribution list I can use to send announcements.

For my part in this tester/developer relationship, I’ll do my best to get new releases out on a regular basis, and get a working Wordstar clone out the door for you.

Let me state again, WordTsar is not feature complete.  It has a fair amount of the command keys, below are screen  shots of the control menus.  Anything in italics is not done.

For DOT commands, the following are implemented: .ls, .lm, .rm, .mt, .mb, .oj*. , .pa Any other dot commands can be entered, of course, but are not acted upon.  Bringing the file into Wordstar will work.

Styles are not implemented.  They are very high on my todo list though.

Printing is not implemented.

Spell check is implemented under Linux only.

Very basic RTF import and export are implemented.  Import sometimes has issues.

So, as you can see, very basic indeed.  Essentially, I haven’t worked on WordTsar in a year, since as I said, it does what I want/need.

A Word on Fonts

Wordstar fonts are whacked.  Wordstar knows a little over 200 fonts.  The fonts are only available based on the printer you have.  Modern computers have laser or inkjet printers capable of many fonts.  Mapping fonts between Wordstar and WordTsar is a pain.  In order to facilitate font mappings, this is what WordTsar currently does.

1. Try to map the Wordstar fontname to a system font name, using a Levenshtein distance algorithm.  
   1. If a good match is found, that font is used for the display.
   2. If no match is found, use a system selected font based on the font characteristics
2. When a Wordstar file is loaded, the selected font is remembered, so when the file is saved, the same font is put back.
3. When you select a font in WordTsar
   1. The font displays as selected.
   2. When the file is save, the fonts characteristics are saved in the Wordstar file, and Wordstar can select a matching font.
   3. When the file is loaded, it’s possible for the system to select a different font, based on font characteristics.

Basically, font handling sucks.  That being said, Wordstar 7.0d handles its file format elegantly.  I can create a new ‘sequence’ that properly stores WordTsar fonts, and have WordTsar read them back.  Wordstar will ignore the sequence when the file is loaded.  I’m not sure what it does on file save yet.  In order for WordTsar to be able to handle modern font selection properly, the Wordstar file format needs to be changed, but it can be done in a backwards compatible format.

1 –  All three versions are at the same feature level, except for the following:
OSX: Slow screen updates and somewhat flakey cursor (carat).
OSX and Windows: No spell check.

2 – All test software will be binaries, no install files, and some possible hand creation of files.  It should be straight forward, but don’t expect anything fancy yet.