WordStar: The First Real Word Processor

"I am happy to greet the geniuses who made me a born-again writer, having announced my retirement in 1978, I now have six books in the works and two [probables], all through WordStar." Quote from Arthur C. Clarke on meeting Seymour Rubenstein and Rob Barnaby, the inventors of Wordstar.

WordStar was the first real word processor, built in assembly language back in the days of CP/M (and later ported to DOS). It was quick, it had a great interface, and it did just about everything that the computers of the day were capable of.

Released in 1979 by Micropro International, WordStar was the first commercially successful word processing software program produced for microcomputers and the best selling software program of the early eighties.

Seymour Rubenstein first started developing an early version of a word processor for the IMSAI 8080 computer when he was director of marketing for IMSAI. He left to start MicroPro International Inc. in 1978 with only $8,500 in cash.

Software programmer Rob Barnaby was convinced to leave IMSAI and tag along with Rubenstein to join MicroPro. Rob Barnaby wrote the 1979 version of WordStar for CP/M. Jim Fox, Barnaby's assistant, ported (meaning re-wrote for a different operating system) WordStar from the CP/M operating system to MS/PC DOS.

It was the most feature-rich and easy-to-use word processor available for this operating system, and became a de facto standard. In 1981 WordStar version 2.26 was bundled with the Osborne 1 portable computer. Notably, WordStar was the last commercial word processor supporting the CP/M operating system. Release 4, the final CP/M compatible version, was sold with 5¼" floppy disk as a default, and an 8" version as an option.

The 3.0 version of WordStar for DOS was released in April 1982. The DOS version was very similar to the original, and although the IBM PC featured arrow keys and separate function keys, the traditional "WordStar diamond" and other Ctrl-key functions were retained, leading to rapid adoption by former CP/M users. WordStar's ability to use a "non-document" mode to create text files without formatting made it popular among programmers for writing code.

The first DOS version was a direct port of the CP/M version, and therefore only used 64K of RAM even though DOS supported up to 640K. Users quickly learned they could make this version of WordStar run dramatically faster by using the ability of DOS to create a "RAM disk" in memory, and copy the WordStar program files into it. WordStar would still access the "disk" repeatedly, but the far faster access of the RAM drive compared to a floppy disk yielded a substantial speed improvement. However, edited versions of a document were "Saved" only to this RAM disk, and had to be copied to physical magnetic media before rebooting.

By the mid-1980s WordStar was the most popular word processing software in the world. But IBM dominated the "dedicated word processor" market with its "DisplayWrite" application, which ran on machines dedicated to writing and editing documents. There were many dedicated word processing machines at the time, but IBM's main competition was Wang Laboratories. Such machines were expensive and were generally accessed through terminals connected to central mainframe or midrange computers.

When IBM announced it was bringing to market a PC version called "DisplayWriter," MicroPro focused on creating a clone of it which they marketed as "WordStar 2000." Neither program was as successful as its developers had hoped, and the lack of attention MicroPro had paid to the original WordStar in the meantime, coupled with WordStar 2000's poor support for WordStar formats and keystrokes, had allowed competing products an opportunity to take over market share. WordPerfect, in particular, used the same key sequences as the popular Wang line of dedicated word processor computers, which made it popular with secretaries switching from those to PCs.

MicroPro International restructured as WordStar International and rehired many of the WordStar programmers who had left the company during the WordStar 2000 diversion, and in October 1986 acquired the code for NewWord, a WordStar clone with extended capabilities, written principally by Peter Mierau at his company NewStar. WordStar used the NewWord codebase to produce upgraded versions, adding such long-desired features at an unerase and distinctive on-screen colorization for bold, italics, and other print effects. The first version built on the NewWord codebase was dubbed WordStar (or WordStar Professional 4.0) and it was released for DOS and CP/M operating systems. Later versions -- 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, and 7.0 -- were only released for DOS; the new releases rebuilt some of the lost market share.

An internal struggle between the "old timer" developers of version 6.5 (aimed at Microsoft Word users), and the "young turks" working on version 7.0 (aimed at WordPerfect users), led to the former product being scrapped and the latter product released years ahead of its originally scheduled launch date; 7.0 Revision D, released in December 1992, was the final DOS version of the program.

Like many other producers of successful DOS applications, WordStar International delayed before deciding to make a version for the commercially successful Windows 3.0. The company purchased Legacy, an existing Windows-based word processor, which was altered and released as WordStar for Windows in 1991. It was a well-reviewed product and included many features normally only found in more expensive desktop publishing packages. However, its delayed launch meant that Microsoft Word had already firmly established itself as the corporate standard during the two previous years.

WordStar is no longer developed, maintained or sold by its owners; it is effectively abandonware. It is currently the property of Riverdeep, Inc., an education and consumer software company headquartered in San Francisco, California.

WordStar is still actively used by several hundred members of the WordStar Users Group Mailing List. They provide technical support for each other via the long-running mailing list which started in May 1996 and has continued to this day without interruption (but with one major move from Cuenet to WordStar2 in 2003). There are also free downloads of updated macros and scripts, printer and mouse drivers, and other utilities on the WordStar Users Group web pages.

"In the early days, the size of the market was more promise than reality... WordStar was a tremendous learning experience. I didn't know all that much about the world of big business. I thought I knew it" Quote from Seymour Rubenstein the inventor of WordStar.

WordStar is copyrighted and can not be freely distributed. Anyway you can download a free word-star clone software (available both for OS/2 and Windows) from http://www.writeandset.com

For more WordStar resources, visit http://www.wordstar.org

DOS (Disk Operating System)

Disk Operating System, most often abbreviated as DOS (not to be confused with the DOS family of disk operating systems for the IBM PC compatible platform), refer to operating system software used in most computers that provides the abstraction and management of secondary storage devices and the information on them (e.g., file systems for organizing files of all sorts). Such software is referred to as a disk operating system when the storage devices it manages are made of rotating platters (such as hard disks or floppy disks).

In the early days of microcomputing, memory space was often limited, so the disk operating system was an extension of the operating system. This component was only loaded if needed. Otherwise, disk-access would be limited to low-level operations such as reading and writing disks at the sector-level.

Sometimes, a disk operating system can refer to the entire operating system if it is loaded off a disk and supports the abstraction and management of disk devices. Examples include DOS/360 and FreeDOS. On the PC compatible platform, an entire family of operating systems was called DOS.

DOS History

DOS (pronounced Doss) has become the accepted name for the line of operating systems whose names have included QDOS, 86-DOS, IBM Personal Computer DOS, and MS-DOS. At its peak, DOS was by far the most widely used computer program in the world. While at one time "DOS" was a generic term for "Disk Operating System", this is no longer the case, at least within the personal computer industry. ("OS" is now the generic term.)

Although DOS became popular by tagging along with the success of the IBM Personal Computer, its origin actually goes back to an earlier generation of microcomputers. The first widely used microcomputers were built around a chassis called the S-100 Bus. This began with the introduction of the Altair 8800 by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems in 1975. The motherboard of the Altair had no active components on it - just a row of 100-pin connectors. The connectors would accept a 5" x 10" circuit board that added a specific function to the computer. The microprocessor itself would be on the CPU card; additional cards would have memory (RAM) and interfaces to a TeleType or keyboard and video display.

In 1978, Seattle Computer Products (SCP) of Tukwila, Washington, was a manufacturer of S-100 memory cards. One of their customers was the only computer store in Seattle at the time, The Retail Computer Store. The store's repair technician, Tim Paterson, was a full-time student at the University of Washington and user of an IMSAI 8080 microcomputer since 1976. When the owner of SCP, Rod Brock, came by the store to make deliveries and take orders, Paterson complained about some problems they were having with the product. After Paterson graduated that June, he went directly to work for SCP to fix those problems. Paterson was the only full-time engineer at SCP, and all design was turned over to him.

In July of 1978, Intel released their new 8086 microprocessor. Brock sent Paterson to an Intel seminar to find out what it was all about. Up until that time, almost all S-100 computers used the Intel 8080 microprocessor or the newer and faster Zilog Z80. Both were 8-bit microprocessors, and could run the same software. The 8086 was a 16-bit microprocessor with the potential to be much faster, although existing 8-bit software would not run on it.

Brock gave Paterson the go-ahead to begin designing an 8086 CPU card for the S-100 Bus, and the first prototypes were working in May, 1979. SCP contacted Microsoft to see about getting 16-bit software for their new computer. As it turned out, Microsoft was fully underway developing software for the 8086, and they were ready to test it on real hardware. Microsoft had moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Bellevue, Washington in early 1979, just a 30-minute drive from SCP's offices. Paterson packed up the prototype and set to work with Bob O'Rear at Microsoft to bring up Stand-Alone Disk BASIC on it.

SCP began shipping their 8086 computer system in November 1979 with Microsoft Stand-Alone Disk BASIC as the only software to run on it. Although BASIC was a suitable programming language for hobbyists to use on their own machines, very little commercial software was written with it. In order to get a software base for their machine that would make it truly useful, SCP needed a general-purpose operating system for it.

Among 8-bit computers, the CP/M operating system from Digital Research had become the standard. Digital Research was known to be working on a 16-bit version for the 8086 microprocessor, CP/M-86, and had expressed interest in using a prototype of the SCP 8086 CPU card to aid in their development (SCP declined). CP/M-86 was expected to be available by the end of 1979.

By April of 1980, CP/M-86 had not yet arrived and SCP was very concerned. Sales of the 8086 computer system were minimal, since only developers or hobbyists who wanted to be on the leading edge would be interested in computer with no real software.

Paterson proposed to Brock that SCP take control of the situation by writing their own operating system instead of relying on someone else. Paterson had graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Magna Cum Laude. Although he had gone directly to work for SCP after graduation, he also dabbled in graduate school. The coursework included a class in operating systems, and he wrote a multi-tasking operating system for the Z80 microprocessor as a term project. He felt qualified to write an operating system for the 8086, and thought he could make it better than CP/M. Paterson proposed a two-phase software development project: first, a quick and dirty operating system, to fill the immediate need for SCP's 8086 computer; second (and never realized), a much more refined operating system available in both a single-user and multi-user version. Again, Brock gave Paterson the go-ahead.

Paterson's primary objective in the design of DOS was to make it as easy as possible for software developers to write applications for it. To achieve this, Paterson sought to make the Application Program Interface (API) compatible with CP/M. While a given 8-bit program written for CP/M could not be directly run on the 16-bit 8086, it was possible for that program's author to translate it in a semi-automated process so that it would. CP/M compatibility of the API was key to making the translated program run correctly. Also, it was hoped that the familiarity of the CP/M-style API would make it easier for developers to learn to write programs for DOS.

The secondary objective in the design of DOS was to make it fast and efficient, so it was written entirely in 8086 assembly language. Paterson was particularly concerned about the way files were organized on disk; he felt that the format used by CP/M was a significant bottleneck. After evaluating techniques used by Unix, ISIS, UCSD P-System, and others, he settled on a variation of the system used by Microsoft Stand-Alone Disk BASIC. It used a File Allocation Table (FAT), which was extremely compact. To Paterson, it seemed quite suitable for the 1.2 MB floppy disks of the day, and could handle disks up to 64 MB, if microcomputers ever needed anything of that size!

Over the months from April through July, 1980, Paterson was able to spend about half his time working on QDOS, the Quick and Dirty Operating System. It began shipping with the 8086 computer system in August. SCP approached Microsoft about adapting their software to run under DOS, who said it was possible - for a price.

Shortly afterward, Microsoft came back to SCP with a different proposal. Microsoft offered to market DOS for SCP, and they already had the first customer lined up, although they couldn't reveal who it was. They made a deal: Microsoft would pay SCP $10,000 for the right to market DOS, and $15,000 for each OEM customer. The per-customer figure was half of what SCP figured was the going rate for a flat-fee license, which was a common arrangement at the time. So SCP came away with $25,000 in cash, and Microsoft had obtained an operating system for their secret customer, IBM.

Microsoft had been with working with IBM on their personal computer project since the outset. Microsoft originally sent IBM to Digital Research for the operating system, but IBM felt rebuffed when Digital Research would not sign a non-disclosure agreement. So Microsoft offered them an alternative by striking the deal with SCP for DOS.

In July of 1981, the month before the IBM Personal Computer was announced, Microsoft offered to buy DOS (now called 86-DOS) from SCP instead of continuing to pay a $15,000 per-customer royalty. This would give Microsoft flexibility in pricing, and return SCP back to its roots as a hardware company. Microsoft paid $50,000, plus a license for SCP to include DOS with their computer systems. Five years later, Microsoft and a struggling SCP fought a legal battle over the specifics of that DOS license; in the end, it was settled by Microsoft buying the license back for a reported $925,000. Thus Microsoft's payments to SCP for DOS ended up totaling an even $1,000,000.

In the early days of the IBM PC, DOS was viewed as IBM's proprietary operating system. Microsoft set out to change that in 1982 by trying to interest their OEM customers - who were primarily buying Microsoft's programming languages - to sign up for DOS as well (now called MS-DOS), in direct competition with CP/M-86. Although Microsoft had previously committed to developing CP/M-86 versions of their products, they were eventually able to convert every customer to DOS versions instead - in one case, by simply giving DOS away. That saved them considerable development effort, and at the same time made CP/M-86 less attractive since it didn't run any of Microsoft's software.

Microsoft's marketing combined with the success of the IBM PC and compatibles made DOS a runaway hit for 15 years. Microsoft kept improving and evolving it, often by including in DOS features that had been available in programs from third parties. The beginning of the end came in 1995 with Microsoft's release of Windows 95, which had the function of DOS built in. Microsoft stopped updating DOS after that, as part of a strategy to move from the 16-bit DOS world to a new 32-bit world of Windows 95 and Windows NT.

DOS Downloads

• Here is the image file of MS-DOS v6.22 Boot Disk (with core utilities and CD-ROM support), created with WinImage 6.x. The floppy disks can be created on any Win-32 PC.
  
• If you want to download free, updated PC-DOS-like disk operating system, you might want to try FreeDOS. It's open source, full featured DOS with advanced capabilities and wide-range of hardware support.