Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!usc-isid.arpa!DYOUNG From: DYOUNG@USC-ISID.ARPA (C. David Young) Newsgroups: net.micro.atari Subject: Re: word processing Message-ID: <8509201222.AA14015@UCB-VAX.ARPA> Date: Fri, 20-Sep-85 08:19:47 EDT Article-I.D.: UCB-VAX.8509201222.AA14015 Posted: Fri Sep 20 08:19:47 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 22-Sep-85 05:27:58 EDT References: <850917-130143-205@Xerox> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.ARPA Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 33 bf, Of the word processors you mentioned, only one works 80 columns (with the addition of either the Bit-3, Austin-Franklin, or OMNIVIEW), namely Letter Perfect. Letter Perfect has the added advantage of being able to merge with the data base program Data Perfect, recognized as the most powerful (albeit complex to learn) data base for the ATARI 8 bitters. It has the disadvantage of being a memory hog; putting a single return at the beginning of a line takes up 80 bytes of text buffer! I have also found the program SpeedScript, published by Compute in May, to be more popular than any of those that you mentioned except Letter Perfect and ATARIWRITER. Its main advantages are that it is very easy to use and uses ATARI DOS format for its file storage. (The biggest gripe about Letter Perfect is that it has its own DOS, incompatible with everything else.) I found it to be such a nifty program that I rewrote it to work 80 columns with OMNIVIEW and greatly enhanced its operation in the process. It is provided free of charge with every OMNIVIEW. And how could you forget that old dog, the original Atari Word Processor? It is notable for its dozens of menus, proving just how user unfriendly a menu driven program can be, its support of only ATARI printers, and the original drop back mode (probably its only redeeming feature) for previewing the output using high resolution graphics to depict its structure. There are others that have not been mentioned; Text Wizard and Wordman both come to mind. I even used the combination of MEDIT (the ATARI program text editor) and FORMS (output formatter) for a while, which, while powerful, was slow and cumbersome. I shudder to think what we had to put up with back in the old days to create decent documents! David Young -------