It’s packaged with two DOS emulators and a large amount of scanned documentation, that’s why the file is so big.
I’m not sure what features it has that makes anyone want to still use it instead of a modern program. I certainly wouldn’t want to be limited to an 80x24 character screen when editing a large text file.
Ok I looked at a few video clips. It’s an on-screen editor with a bunch of pop-up help. Not sure if it also formats on the screen. I’ve always been ok with using markup-style formatters (ROFF back in the old days, more recently TeX, Org-mode, and that sort of thing) instead of wysiwig formatting. So it was just a matter of having some kind of text formatter, plus a formatting program. Both of those could be very simple. Wordstar looks complicated compared with a simple but functional MSDOS-era setup.
Still, if it’s what you’re used to, then might as well use it. GRRM says he likes it because it’s distraction free. But, I think the freedom from distraction comes mostly from his running it on an actual, single function MSDOS machine that’s off the internet and separate from his main computer.
It’s packaged with two DOS emulators and a large amount of scanned documentation, that’s why the file is so big.
I’m not sure what features it has that makes anyone want to still use it instead of a modern program. I certainly wouldn’t want to be limited to an 80x24 character screen when editing a large text file.
Ok I looked at a few video clips. It’s an on-screen editor with a bunch of pop-up help. Not sure if it also formats on the screen. I’ve always been ok with using markup-style formatters (ROFF back in the old days, more recently TeX, Org-mode, and that sort of thing) instead of wysiwig formatting. So it was just a matter of having some kind of text formatter, plus a formatting program. Both of those could be very simple. Wordstar looks complicated compared with a simple but functional MSDOS-era setup.
Still, if it’s what you’re used to, then might as well use it. GRRM says he likes it because it’s distraction free. But, I think the freedom from distraction comes mostly from his running it on an actual, single function MSDOS machine that’s off the internet and separate from his main computer.