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For more than a decade I used a Wordstar knock-off called VDE (video display editor) written in assembly language. It was written by Dr. Eric Meyer. There are actually 2 famous computer guys with that name. Here below is pasted text about it:
REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
"VDE is a word-processing program for people who like their programs lean, mean and simple... executes all the standard operations necessary for writing articles, books or screenplays... blazingly fast... Even the loading and storing of files is speedy."
- Paul Ciotti, Los Angeles Times Magazine (18 Mar 1990)
"This may be the finest piece of word processing code ever written. I have never been as impressed with anything as I have with VDE 1.5... writing software in 100 percent assembly language still pays off in performance and reduced code size. It's an astonishing product, believe me. It's more than the perfect laptop word processor... I cannot give a higher recommendation for any product that I have seen in ten years... Top recommendation."
- John Dvorak, PC Magazine (24 Apr 1990)
"What fascinated Dvorak was not just the astonishing functionality achieved with very little programming code, but also the attitude -- and implications -- of the author who circulated it freely asking only for a modest sum... VDE is an amazing word-processor, offering almost everything except the layout and document processing features found in far fatter programs... it supports the old WordStar command set... ergonomically the most efficient I've ever learned."
- Colin Brace, Language Technology/Electric Word (Jul/Aug 1990)
"I've used various versions of WordStar, WordPerfect, and Wang IWP. I wouldn't trade my copy of VDE for shrink-wrapped sets of the latest versions of all of these. I congratulate you both on the quality of your program and on your policy in making it available..."
- K.N., VDE user (Aug 1991)
"You've recognized a truth about writing, which every commercial word-processor vendor has forgotten. Writing is about words -- not fonts or bit-maps or graphical layout. Writers need the computer equivalent of a typewriter -- not a print-shop."
- J.W., VDE user (Aug 1995)
VDE has appeared in stores in "Dvorak's Top 30", a boxed software collection published by Interplay Productions; it was also included on-disk with the book "Dvorak's Inside Track to DOS and PC Performance" by John Dvorak and Nick Anis, published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill. VDE has received many good reviews, including a four star "****" rating for many years on ZDnet from Ziff-Davis, publishers of PC Magazine.
The author, Eric Meyer, has programmed in languages from APL to Z80; his other software for IBM PC compatibles includes the ZIP File Transfer program and numerous smaller utilities. He firmly believes that simple, effective software should remain easily available to users of all kinds of personal computers.
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