10/15/87 -- WORDSTAR 4.0 -- after working with it for a few weeks! My first impressions were mixed -- the editor had more nice features; but, the printer drivers didn't! WS4 refused to default to ".LQ OFF" and printer redirection appeared to be a 128 byte patch area with scanty documentation. I got a call from MicroPro a couple of days ago to inform me that WSCHANGE had a "bug" in it and that the ".LQ" and ".BP" flags had switched places. A little further checking showed me that WSCHANGE program and the PATCH.LST file both agreed but WS4 was looking in the wrong place! (Or maybe WS4 knew what it was looking for, but nobody else did) Anyhow; in the WS.COM file the ".LQ" toggle really lives at 0812H and ".BP" at 0813H (switch those addresses in your PATCH.LST file). And, when using WSCHANGE, ".BP" is really ".LQ" and vice versa. I still haven't figured out why the auto page numbers at the bottom of the page sometimes are it the opposite .LQ mode than the body of the text! My second problem was that I have an Olivetti PRAXIS serial input typewriter that I use as my daisy wheel printer. I am using an MSC-ICO C/PM+ computer board, and with WS 3.3 I would exit WS and use DEVICE to redirect the LST: output to a serial port and then go back into WS and print. WS4 suggested that printer output redirection could be done from within WS4. For my C/PM+, at least, that means here's a 128 byte patch area -- go for it! So I did. I spent an hour or so using SID to find the SCB byte in high memory that redirected the LST: output and the values for the devices my system supports. Following is my assembly language solution: ;-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ;ULPORT.MAC .Z80 ;"ULPORT" SUBROUTINE COMPARES WS4 PRINTER DRIVER TO "PRAXIS,0" DRIVER NAME, ;IF A MATCH IS FOUND THEN LOAD "RS2" (08H) USING "OUTRS2" TO SCB AND RETURN, ;ELSE THEN LOAD "CEN" (40H) USING "OUTCEN" TO SCB AND RETURN, ;IF "PRAXIS" IS USED TO PRINT THEN USE "RETCEN" TO LOAD "CEN" TO ;REINITIALIZE SYSTEM "LST:" OUTPUT ; ;THIS OUTPUT REDIRECTION IS FOR USE ON AN MSC-ICO Z-80 COMPUTER BOARD ;FOR WHICH THE SECOND SERIAL PORT (RS2) HAS BEEN INITIALIZED TO 300 BAUD, ;8 BIT WORD, 2 BIT STOP AND NO PARITY FOR MY OLIVETTI PRAXIX P-41 TYPEWRITER ;BY REWRITING "CPM3.SYS" (CPM3.SYS HAS ALSO BEEN CHANGED TO DEFAULT TO ;1200 BAUD FOR THE FIRST SERIAL PORT -- SO THERE IS NO NEED TO RUN "DEVICE" ;IN "PROFILE.SUB" TO SET UP THE SYSTEM) SCBLST EQU 0F5C7H ;SYSTEM CONTROL BLOCK LST: REDIRECTION VECTOR ADDRESS ;THIS JRDII'S CP/M+ --- SO DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH!! CEN EQU 40H ;LST: VALUE FOR SCB CENTRONICS REDIRECTION RS2 EQU 08H ;LST: VALUE FOR SCB 2ND SERIAL PORT REDIRECTION ASEG ;ABSOLUTE TO GET THE ADDRESSES ULPORT: ORG 063BH ;WS4 "PRNPAT" BEGINNING ULPORT:: CALLS THIS PUSH AF PUSH BC PUSH DE START: LD DE,DRIVER NEXT: LD A,(DE) CP (HL) JR NZ,OUTCEN CP 0 JR Z,OUTRS2 INC DE INC HL JR NEXT OUTRS2: LD A,RS2 LD (SCBLST),A POP DE POP BC POP AF RET RETCEN: PUSH AF ;ULUNPT:: CALLS THIS PUSH BC PUSH DE OUTCEN: LD A,CEN LD (SCBLST),A POP DE POP BC POP AF RET DRIVER: DEFM 'PRAXIS',00 END ;-------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ULPORT:: patch address should "CALL 06B3H" (PRNPAT::) and ULUNPT:: should "CALL" the address that RETCEN: assembles to on your system. I have learned to routinely use many of the "new" features, although I have not had a chance to use them all, and have usually been sucessful. Print time formatting (.PF) looks like it could be a super tool. My wife writes a lot of documets that will be printed single spaced, but she likes to proof then on a double spaced draft print. Simple, just put ".PF" and ".LS 2" at the top of the document before it is printed (comment out the ".LS 2" while editing). This idea sort of works, the document prints double spaced; BUT, WS4 will not recognize the ".LM x" commands she has put in the text to indent paragraphs and phrases. WS4 blithly prints using the page setup defaults and everything comes out printed flush left -- I don't know whether the problem is mine or WORDSTAR's! The new dictionary supplied with THE WORD PLUS is larger; however, its vocabulary for "real writers" has diminished while its knowledge of words used by "computer review writers" has been enhanced. No thanks, I'll stick to my old KAYPRO version! Except for the few problems that I have run into, I've been pretty happy with WS4. Some of the features that are on the IBM-PC version (such as selective page printing) would be nice, but probably make it even more of a memory hog and slower yet. There are still some serious "bugs" to be worked out yet, and I hope the solutions will be coming from MicroPro.