Some of the best ST software came from Germany, where the it had a high market share driven by DTP applications. IIRC at one point the ST had a bigger installed DTP base in Germany than the Mac.
There was an annual fair in Düsseldorf, the Atari ST Messe, which was impressive in its size. I went for several years in a row until the ST sadly started losing its relevance.
Those were the glory days of word processors, I used to have something similar on the Amiga. I'd still rather write on something like this than Word, Pages or Google Docs.
Same, don't remember the name though. But it was WYSIWIG and I'd use it to create character sheets for our D&D games. And then I'd print them on a dot-matrix printer on continuous paper. Oh the memories!
"Tempus-Word NG uses a generally different data structure than other text processing applications. Because of this, Tempus-Word NG can handle documents with more than 1000 pages with almost the same speed that it does with one with ten pages. The number of pages and speed are only limited by the available memory and processor speed. To achieve good results, you should use an ATARI with minimum 8 MB memory and 16 MHz, PC with 300 MHz and 64 MB, or comparable Mac. If you want to use huge dictionaries or many images, more memory is always useful."
Does anyone know what data structure? Why not use it in modern word processors?
The other features are impressive too:
* Tempus-Word NG is based on a frame orientated layout similar to DTP programs. But contrasted to the usual method of “draw frame - connect frames - flow text” you create a general frame layout that is used automatically during text input. The positions of all layed-out frames is repeated automatically on all pages with this layout. You can create as many layouts as you want.
* Integrated Database
* Document manager
* Page numbering of Contents and Index listings are always up to date.
The ST had some awesome productivity programs. Tempus Word, Papyrus, Calamus...
All running on a 8 Mhz computer with 1 or 2 MB, but with feature sets that do not need to hide from today's software.
I used Application System Heidelberg's Script II on an Atari 1040STFM with 72 Hz SM 124 black/white monitor and an Epson LQ 550 24 pin printer. That was some superb publishing system for the time (1991), for a low budget.
The software used a special driver to get better than standard quality from the then most common 24 pin printers (laser printers where much expensive) by kind of double-printing, I forgot the details. It looked really good though.
I used ST Writer which came bundled with my ST. I still have all my ST Writer files (last modified in 1993!), and quite impressively they open just fine in LibreOffice with formatting and everything preserved (unlike some later .doc files I have).
Ah. You will also like another story that popped up here some time back.
A Canadian science-fiction writer, Robert J. Sawyer, made an Archive available complete with extensive resources on how to use it. In addition, fully text-searchable PDFs of the original manuals, totaling over 1,000 pages, were also available. He is a dedicated WordStar user.
And my USB-DOS project includes it, for a complete environment you can boot and run direct from USB, without installation, on any PC which supports legacy boot.
I wish WriteNow was similarly available/supported --- it was probably one of the last major applications written in assembly language (~100,000 lines).
XyWrite is supported in a similar fashion: https://mendelson.org/xywin.html (but I just helped folks use that, never actually found it comfortable myself).
I kind of wish all these small/tight/efficient programs could be gathered up and ported to an optimized OS for the Raspberry Pi....
I still have the printed documentation and floppy for Tempus, the editor which I think is the predecessor to the linked word processor. It was blazing fast because it had been written in 68000 assembly IIRC. Even then it would handle giant documents with ease.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 54.9 ms ] threadThere was an annual fair in Düsseldorf, the Atari ST Messe, which was impressive in its size. I went for several years in a row until the ST sadly started losing its relevance.
https://tempus-word.de/en/info/index
Same, don't remember the name though. But it was WYSIWIG and I'd use it to create character sheets for our D&D games. And then I'd print them on a dot-matrix printer on continuous paper. Oh the memories!
Does anyone know what data structure? Why not use it in modern word processors?
The other features are impressive too:
* Tempus-Word NG is based on a frame orientated layout similar to DTP programs. But contrasted to the usual method of “draw frame - connect frames - flow text” you create a general frame layout that is used automatically during text input. The positions of all layed-out frames is repeated automatically on all pages with this layout. You can create as many layouts as you want.
* Integrated Database
* Document manager
* Page numbering of Contents and Index listings are always up to date.
https://tempus-word.de/en/impress/policy#the-website
1 MB RAM, 1.44 MB floppy drive
SM 124: 640x400 pixels, monochrome
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST https://www.atarimuseum.de/1040st.htm
The software used a special driver to get better than standard quality from the then most common 24 pin printers (laser printers where much expensive) by kind of double-printing, I forgot the details. It looked really good though.
https://www.planetemu.net/screenshots/Atari%20ST%20-%20Appli...
https://stcarchiv.de/tos/1990/11/script-2 (German)
"Script" was the cheap version of their better product "Signum".
https://www.application-systems.de/signum/screenshots.html
https://www.atariuptodate.de/img/signum.png
I don't use it. But i tried an old version and it was fast as f...
It is written now in C++
A Canadian science-fiction writer, Robert J. Sawyer, made an Archive available complete with extensive resources on how to use it. In addition, fully text-searchable PDFs of the original manuals, totaling over 1,000 pages, were also available. He is a dedicated WordStar user.
https://sfwriter.com/ws7.htm
https://github.com/lproven/usb-dos
XyWrite is supported in a similar fashion: https://mendelson.org/xywin.html (but I just helped folks use that, never actually found it comfortable myself).
I kind of wish all these small/tight/efficient programs could be gathered up and ported to an optimized OS for the Raspberry Pi....