An odd request...

From: Fred Cisin <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
Date: Thu Dec 23 18:11:00 1999

> That is an easy one from here. Zardax was written by a company called
> Computer Solutions, located in Mt Gravatt, a suburb of Brisbane, Australia -
> about 15 minutes drive from where I live.
> I have the full manual and disks if anyone needs a copy. I have checked
> through the manual, and like most software of the time, there does not seem
> to be an "export" or equivalent function. I could check out the disk format
> over the Xmas break if you still need help on this.

A common feature in word processing programs in those days was "Print to a
file" (since printers were expensive, and not everybody had one). Use of
"Print to a file" permitted the user to go through the formatting
processes of printing, and produce a file that could be sneaker-net'd to
another machine for copying to a printer.

If you configure the program to think that it is going to print to a DUMB
printer (no f9onts, no graphics, etc.), then the resulting file is
typically very close to plain text.


Previous posts mentioned high bit being set on some characters. That is
the most obvious characteristic of a WordStar "document" file. Many word
processors that have the capability of importing a WordStar file can
handle that.
Received on Thu Dec 23 1999 - 18:11:00 GMT