ebay writer's tool, insane price

[qix_maniac]

Anyone see last night writer's tool go for over $120? why is it so rare and what does it do?

 

must be holiday shopping!

[flashjazzcat]

I was watching that one, along with the other OSS stuff (more out of morbid curiosity than any hope of bidding on any of it), and I'll attribute the high sale price to its rarity. It's a word processor by OSS, and there wasn't so much as a cartridge dump of it anywhere on the net until this topic.

[itzmike]

and to think, I've got an original Writer's Tool (orange cart along with 9" yellow notebook manual); if I didn't have such good memories of using it I might almost be tempted ... It's no 'Last Word' killer, but it was fun to use in it's day. I've a memory of saying something to Ronnie Riche about WT and getting that look of, "Dude, you're letting the team down here". In the end, gave Ronnie my 256k MIO to produce the last versions of TP.

[qix_maniac]

and to think, I've got an original Writer's Tool (orange cart along with 9" yellow notebook manual); if I didn't have such good memories of using it I might almost be tempted ... It's no 'Last Word' killer, but it was fun to use in it's day. I've a memory of saying something to Ronnie Riche about WT and getting that look of, "Dude, you're letting the team down here". In the end, gave Ronnie my 256k MIO to produce the last versions of TP.

 

I have the orange cartridge myself but from what I understand it does not work without the disk? is this correct? I got it on ebay a while ago...

[+wood_jl]

It's no 'Last Word' killer, but it was fun to use in it's day.

 

I was following that one, closely. I couldn't - for the life of me - become very interested, in a world with "The Last Word" so I don't understand the value, either.

 

Now if flashjazzcat will only create a MAC/65 killer.....

[flashjazzcat]

and to think, I've got an original Writer's Tool (orange cart along with 9" yellow notebook manual); if I didn't have such good memories of using it I might almost be tempted ... It's no 'Last Word' killer, but it was fun to use in it's day. I've a memory of saying something to Ronnie Riche about WT and getting that look of, "Dude, you're letting the team down here". In the end, gave Ronnie my 256k MIO to produce the last versions of TP.

That's an interesting story. Ronnie sent me an email out of the blue a year or so back saying that The Last Word was kind of a realization of what he and Mike had wanted to achieve with TextPro. Since TP was so rooted in SpeedScript's code base, however, it would have required a serious re-write to accomplish their goals. TextPro was probably my favourite program after SDX back in the day. The fact TP was written using great OSS/ICD tools really showed.

 

I was following that one, closely. I couldn't - for the life of me - become very interested, in a world with "The Last Word" so I don't understand the value, either.

 

Now if flashjazzcat will only create a MAC/65 killer.....

I must say I was disappointed. I expected LW to be blown away by an OSS word processor. But it's a collector's item at the end of the day. Rarity is a virtue in itself, it would seem.

 

Speaking of MAC/65: there's one OSS cart I would like to own. But for a great integrated assembler, try MAE.

Edited November 16, 2010 by flashjazzcat

[itzmike]

That's an interesting story. Ronnie sent me an email out of the blue a year or so back saying that The Last Word was kind of a realization of what he and Mike had wanted to achieve with TextPro. Since TP was so rooted in SpeedScript's code base, however, it would have required a serious re-write to accomplish their goals. TextPro was probably my favourite program after SDX back in the day. The fact TP was written using great OSS/ICD tools really showed.

 

Ronnie's next project, or at least the project he was working on when I got the MIO to him was a TextPRO like word processor for the PC. I've no idea how far it ever go beyond the example program he showed myself and another 8bit'er at the time. If I recall correctly, Ronnie released a few more upgrades to TP before he quit development.

 

Had to go and pull out the old Writer's Tool and fire it up for old time sake, long time since I've seen that Madison Micro name flash on the screen ... though I've only got version 2.2; and yes, you do need the boot disk with it's cfg's and printer drivers for the system to work.

[flashjazzcat]

Ronnie's next project, or at least the project he was working on when I got the MIO to him was a TextPRO like word processor for the PC. I've no idea how far it ever go beyond the example program he showed myself and another 8bit'er at the time. If I recall correctly, Ronnie released a few more upgrades to TP before he quit development.

I remember being drip-fed the updates via the Page 6 PD library, and being fascinated by the tech notes in the ReadMe files. TextPro culminated in version 5.20X. Best thing about it was the SpartaDOS (X) integration right from the earliest versions. Ronnie seemed to appreciate the importance of being able to manage your files from inside the application. Of course the macro feature was also a killer: as far as I can tell, it was the fullest realization of that facility at the time. Ronnie says the project started out simply as a desire to create a text editor which would edit any file and return to DOS. "Seven years later, I was finished," he writes. Well - I appreciate that kind of project time frame.

Edited November 23, 2010 by flashjazzcat