ScuzzBlog: Diaries January 2020
Entry 22nd January 2020: Post 01: Wordstar 1512 - Amstrad 1512.
Wordstar 1512 - Amstrad 1512.
The story of Wordstar is a fascinating read which if you have the
spare hour you may want to catch up on at the link here ..
Link to Wordstar history
What always interested me about software like Wordstar is how they
revolved around anything but Microsoft. The favoured OS was CP/M
though as with RPED we find even earlier issues with the text editor
ED of CP/M and the development of a stand alone NED.
Wordstar has its origins with IMS Associates developer of the MSAI
8080 microcomputers. The founder William Mallard was a famous tax
exile that went missing for twenty years. The IMSAI 8080 was a copy
of the 8-bit computer MITS Altair. Enter Rob Barnaby who worked on
developing the functionality of the CP/M OS. It was Barnaby that
didn't like ED and so replaced it with NED.
Barnaby joined a guy called Seymour Rubinstein at MicroPro, who both
had worked together at IMS and subsequently extended NED to become
WordMaster in 1976. WordMaster was enhanced further with the addition
of Tex and was shown at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco
in 1979 as 'Wordstar'.
And if you know the giant that Wordstar became then the rest is
history.
1986 and enter Alan M Sugar Trading. Wordstar 1512 was a version sold
in the UK for the Amstrad 1512. The Amstrad was most successful in
the UK and Europe and was instrumental in furthering the PC revolution
in Europe. Neither Wordstar Express or Wordstar 1512 would find their
way into the Amstrad standard package, whilst GEM by Digital Research
did. One point of note is that Alan Sugar was also disappointed with
the text editor of CP/M and Roland Perry's EDitor RPED was quickly
written to include with the software.
Anyhoo... as I am taken to say, Wordstar 1512 is featured here today
and man is that a thick binder. Amstrad had a habit of placing their
binders in custom boxes which are great for standing on shelves.
Wordstar 1512 - Amstrad 1512.
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