The WordStar keyboard shortcuts influenced other programs. Turbo Pascal and other Borland apps used the WordStar layout, for example. The joe [1] editor still uses it, and that's probably why it's my go-to text editor when I'm in the shell.
In particular, Borland's IDEs supported both a clipboard and the WordStar "block" commands, which gave you selection superpowers. A block was a selection that persisted even if you moved the cursor around, and even if you copied or pasted stuff in/out of the clipboard. So you could copy something to clipboard (ctrl+ins), move/copy a block around (^KB to begin block, ^KK to end it, ^KC to copy current block to cursor, ^KV to move it), and then paste from the clipboard (shift+ins). It was very much like having two clipboards. I had colleagues watching over my shoulder trying to decipher how I was able to edit code the way I did.
Thanks for the link, I'm trying jupp now, and indeed it feels a bit newer. One thing that causes screen refresh problems for me with joe/jstar, is editing files with long lines, say 160 characters or more. I'll see if jupp fares better.
The WordStar keyboard shortcuts influenced other programs. Turbo Pascal and other Borland apps used the WordStar layout, for example. The joe [1] editor still uses it, and that's probably why it's my go-to text editor when I'm in the shell.
In particular, Borland's IDEs supported both a clipboard and the WordStar "block" commands, which gave you selection superpowers. A block was a selection that persisted even if you moved the cursor around, and even if you copied or pasted stuff in/out of the clipboard. So you could copy something to clipboard (ctrl+ins), move/copy a block around (^KB to begin block, ^KK to end it, ^KC to copy current block to cursor, ^KV to move it), and then paste from the clipboard (shift+ins). It was very much like having two clipboards. I had colleagues watching over my shoulder trying to decipher how I was able to edit code the way I did.
[1] http://joe-editor.sourceforge.net
There's a more modern version with some interesting features: https://www.mirbsd.org/jupp.htm
Thanks for the link, I'm trying jupp now, and indeed it feels a bit newer. One thing that causes screen refresh problems for me with joe/jstar, is editing files with long lines, say 160 characters or more. I'll see if jupp fares better.
Thanks, didn't know about that one.
Not just for a writer, for programmers too. Without my WordStar plugins for Xcode and QtCreator I work much slower.