this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2024
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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.