Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!think!ames!pasteur!agate!violet.berkeley.edu!willis
From: willis@violet.berkeley.edu (Willis Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Word Processor Document Conversion
Message-ID: <10442@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 1 Jun 88 06:01:18 GMT
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: willis@violet.berkeley.edu (Willis Johnson)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 23
In-Reply-To: <943@rlgvax.UUCP>

I tried to respond directly to you but somewhere along the 
path your message got returned to me.

I wrote to Word Perfect and they gave me a complete description of 
their file format.  Just tell them that you need the information for 
conversion purposes, and that you won't make the information public.  
They were prompt and helpful when I called for info, as well.  
You'll need to decide whether you want to convert WP 4.2 or the 
new WP 5.0.  They are QUITE different.  You can expect a lot of 
people to use 4.2 until 1990, when it becomes officially obsolete 
(and support stops from WP Corp.).  5.0 requires a hard disk and 
most of its new features require AT LEAST hercules graphics.  

Microsoft is a whole other can of worms.  In my experience they've
been secretive and sometimes hostile to reasonable requests for 
information.  Everything is a "proprietary trade secret."  Like many
others I know, I have decided not to offer any support for their
products in my software (other than DOS, of course).

Good luck!

Willis Johnson
  willis@violet.BERKELEY.EDU