Star power: Mastering WordStar, MailMerge, SpellStar, DataStar, SuperSort, CalcStar, InfoStar, StarIndex, CorrectStar, StarBurst, ReportStar & PlanStar
Paul Garrison
1985
Anyone remember these wonderful programs? I am not sure, but I think that Wordstar was the first program for word processing that I learned. I could add a long discussion of how we booted the machine, went for coffee, talked on the phone, and then started to work on the computer. Ah…the good old days!
Mary
17 responses so far ↓
Triple L // June 27, 2009 at 10:40 am |
I have never heard of these, but maybe that is because they were from before I was born. Definately shouldn’t be in a library’s collection.
WeedingGirl // June 29, 2009 at 8:14 am |
Yes, I remember WordStar! The great thing about learning it was that many of its commands turned out to be useful later when learning HTML. And no pesky mouse-clicks…come to think of it, no mouse at all! Good ol’ “F” keys!
Catherine // June 29, 2009 at 9:40 am |
I definitely remember WordStar, though I have thankfully purges most of those keystroke commands from my memory. Wasn’t there one about “.b” that started a new paragraph?
Anyway, that book certainly doesn’t belong in any collection except a historical one!
Stevew // June 30, 2009 at 11:41 pm |
Actually I still have a working editor we wrote in a C programming class that can mimic the original Wordstar keystrokes. Those multi-key combinations makes my hand hurt just thinking about them. That book belongs in the recycle bin.
Chris // July 1, 2009 at 10:29 am |
While I think that just about any librarian would be able to recognize that this book shouldn’t be on the shelf, I think some (particularly larger) libraries should ask for programmer and engineer volunteers to evaluate their entire computer book collections (and maybe suggest some more “timeless” recommendations for computer books). We have a great library system, but things that I think should be in the library, such as basic computer science texts on algorithms or numerical methods, are not in the libraries, but I can easily find books on Wordstar or setting up your IBM-PC Jr.
Actually my biggest peeve is that the libraries seem to weed their fiction shelves more often than their non-fiction – often removing older books in mystery and SF series leaving them incomplete.
Andi // July 1, 2009 at 11:56 am |
It DOES belong in a “museum of old technology” which might exist. Certainly there’s a computer museum in Boston that might love it.
But oh, i too learned word processing using WordStar. I seem to recall using MailMerge as well and finding that it worked. but OH, the clunky nature of early data processing. And it was SO cool at the time.
Mostly.
Marc Bruno // July 3, 2009 at 6:56 pm |
Not only do I remember the whole Star Package I still have all of the books in the series in addition to which I still have the KayPro Computer I learn them on. From time to time I hook up the KayPro, one of the first advertised portable computers – 35 – 40 pounds of weigh , and try to remember how the programs work. That goes back about 28 years when I first fingured the keyboard.
Torsten Adair // July 6, 2009 at 12:46 pm |
Don’t libraries use circulation data when culling collections?
WordStar was used on KayPro. My dorm in 1988 had one, and I remember typing a few papers on it. A nice little 7-inch screen, no graphics, built-in five-inch floppy disk drive.
Ah…. dot-matrix printers…which used ribbon cartridges. I remember we had to had a choice between “draft” and “letter quality” settings. (The latter took two passes of the ribbon to produce a more legible document.)
Crimson Wife // July 7, 2009 at 7:50 am |
MailMerge was the very first email program I used and it was *AWFUL*. Shuddering at the memory…
Dan // July 7, 2009 at 9:12 am |
I cringe remembering WordStar. And DisplayWrite and the original Apple word processing programs. Which is why I always laugh when I hear how librarians now are supposed to be about “the new technology.” This WAS the new technology! It doesn’t last forever. Or even for a few years.
JSleeper // July 7, 2009 at 3:07 pm |
The library where I work has similar problems with books like these. Three copies of a dbaseII guide from 1984? Check. Even in areas that don’t need to be kept current we still had a half dozen copies on speechwriting from thirty years ago. I dumped all but one copy.
Moon // July 13, 2009 at 5:23 pm |
Even the BEST libraries still have huge collections of completely obsolete computer books.
The last time I checked, the Harold Washington Library in Chicago had tons of these. Which is not a bad thing, because some of these programs hang on forever.
/I’m holding on to my two copies of Lotus 1-2-3 v. 2.o1! Still in shrinkwrap. They will be worth a FORTUNE some day, I tells ya! A FORTUNE!
Mushroom // July 22, 2009 at 2:28 pm |
Wordstar was the ONLY word processor they taught at my college (on 40mb HDD 286’s), and somehow I managed in my five years never to take it. AppleWorks on the //e’s next to those 286’s worked much better and prettier.
Curiously I’m only familiar with MailMerge. Guess my school, not only being too cheap to get 386’s or WordPefect (or for more than the professor’s machine, that’s the one I used for its PostScript laser printer), also didn’t get any of the other packages.
Morraeon // July 24, 2009 at 12:00 pm |
Boy, those program names bring back memories…
My first computer was a Kaypro 2, probably one of the first home computers ever (I think it’s the one that Matthew Broderick’s character uses in “WarGames”). Black screen with green type, no harddrive, just two floppy drives; you put the program disk in one and your work disk (ie. the one that stored your files) in the other. And if I remember correctly, these pr0grams came with it.
Syl // July 25, 2009 at 10:40 am |
Mail merge is the only familiar one to me.
Cathy // July 25, 2009 at 1:31 pm |
Wow I have never heard of any of those programs. Then again this book was published the year I was born. I’d be interested to look through a book like this, but I agree it shouldn’t be in a library.
Tan // November 25, 2009 at 4:17 pm |
Wordstar, that old chestnut! Wasn’t it about the same time as putting that tape into a cassette palyer and listening to all that hiss and wondering if it would load?