LocoScript

The word processing software package LocoScript by Locomotive Software was bundled with Amstrad PCW series Z80-based microcomputers, which were sold from 1985 onwards. A PC version was later made available, being primarily of interest to those who had learned the software on the PCW before purchasing a PC.

In its "heyday" in the mid-80s LocoScript had a reputation with its users as being relatively easy to learn, particularly in comparison to its best-selling contemporaries WordPerfect and WordStar. It also, especially from the release of LocoScript 2, had comprehensive coverage of special characters for almost every European language; these could all be printed correctly on the PCW's bundled printer (especially the dot-matrix printers supplied with PCW8000s, the PcW9256 and the PcW10 –- the PCW9512 and PcW9512+ used daisywheel printers, which were limited to printing the characters on the printwheel installed at the time. Printwheels could be changed, but changing the printwheel in the middle of a document could be fiddly), but not all worked with third-party hardware.

Some of this ease of use was due to its running on purpose-designed hardware. The PCW offered special keys for "cut", "copy" and "paste", as well as "formatting on" and "formatting off" keys (bearing a boxed plus and minus sign, respectively). In some other respects, LocoScript borrowed from prevailing mainstream PC software design - for example, as opposed to WordStar and WordPerfect's myriad control keys, most of the program's (by modern standards, modest) functionality was accessed by drop-down menus located in a menu bar at the top of the screen, with accelerator keys for individual commands. However, these did not conform to the Common User Access standard, as that was not published until 1987. Instead, each menu was opened by pressing one of the function keys. The PCW, like the Commodore 64, overloaded the function keys; the even-numbered functions were accessed by pressing Shift + the odd-numbered key.

The program booted directly from a floppy disc, having no separate underlying operating system, but it used the same on-disc structures as the PCW's CP/M operating system. Like WordStar, the program's opening screen was a file manager; a document had to be selected before being opened for editing, or a filename provided for a new document. In these days of GUI-based software, this may seem strange, but in the 1980s there was an ongoing battle in wordprocessing software design between one school, which favoured starting with a file-management screen (e.g. WordStar), and the rival camp, which went straight into a blank document (e.g. WordPerfect).

Eight-bit CP/M did not support hierarchical subdirectories, but in a nod to multiuser support, each disc could have up to 16 numbered "user areas", 0 through to 15. These were essentially 16 fixed directories with 0 being the common "root". Locoscript allowed the user to give meaningful names to areas 0-7, making them useful for sorting and categorizing files, and used areas 8-15 for deleted files, termed "limbo" files. Deleting a file from area 0 to 7 moved it to the area 8 places along, giving the equivalent of a simple trashcan and the ability to "undelete" files.

As the sole manager of disc storage, there was no need for file extensions on LocoScript files, so all 11 letters of the filename were available for use. (The "eight-dot-three" letter file-naming convention of MS-DOS and later OS/2 and Microsoft Windows were inherited from CP/M.)

Today, there are still some companies catering to the LocoScript user community, offering updated LocoScript programs, add-on packages, and utilities for the original PCW hardware as well as MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. Conversion software exists to read/write and transfer LocoScript documents between PCWs and PCs/Macs.

External links

* [http://www.locoscript.com/ LocoScript Software] – LocoScript official homepage
* [http://members.aol.com/sdmicro/loconews.htm The LocoScript Software News Page] – Home page of the newsletter "Classic PCW and LocoScript Computing"
* [http://www.luxsoft.demon.co.uk/lux/lconv.html Amstrad PCW LocoScript Disc Conversions to PC or Mac] – By LuxSoft of Luxulyan, Cornwall, UK
* [http://www.ansible.co.uk/ai/ailink.html Ailink] – Conversion software for Windows by Ansible Information.
* [http://www.timwarriner.com/software/locoscript.html Locoscript conversion program] – Simple converter for Windows by Tim Warriner.
* [http://www.pcwking1.netfirms.com/disc-conversions.html All Amstrad PCW discs converted for reading on a PC or AppleMac] – By the PCW King of Rainham, Essex, G.B.