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From: knutsen@aramis.rutgers.edu (Mark Knutsen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Looking for PD word processors
Message-ID: <1058@aramis.rutgers.edu>
Date: Thu, 16-Jul-87 10:13:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: aramis.1058
Posted: Thu Jul 16 10:13:24 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Jul-87 06:49:18 EDT
References: <870715133721.2.JRD@GRACKLE.SCRC.Symbolics.COM>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 32

> Does anyone out there know of any public domain word processor programs
> for our favorite 8-bitter?  Any pointers, or info pro or con will be
> appreciated.

     One of the most famous PD WPs is SpeedScript, published in
Compute! magazine a while back.  While I've never used it, I
understand it has a good number of features.
     For small text editing jobs (like batch files for SpartaDOS and
the little READ.ME files we all like to put on the disks we mail to
friends), I recommend T:EDIT, published in a recent Analog.  It's
small, so it loads from DOS very quickly, and returns to DOS
gracefully.
     For everyday word processing, however, I recommend you shell out
$40 or so and buy a copy of PaperClip from Batteries Included (now
owned by Electronic Arts).  In fact, I also recommend you shell out
another $50 and get some local guru to upgrade your XL or XE to a
Rambo-compatible 256K.  PaperClip 2.0 and a 256K Atari is an
unbeatable combination for the price.
     If PaperClip loads on a 256K machine, it sees the extra memory
and allocates 112K for text, and 90K for the spelling dictionary.
That is, you have over 2400 40-column lines (or 1200 80-column lines,
etc.) for your text file.  The first time you ask for a spelling
check, the entire dictionary is read into memory (takes about 2
mins.).  Subsequent spelling checks are lightning-fast, because
there's no disk access.
  
  
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