Re: Apple and the Holy War

[Roy and/or Janet Miller <millers@inetnebr.com>]

Supertimer wrote:

>  But the fact of
> the matter is the majority of PC users did not plug a
> math coprocessor into the socket even though their
> PC had one.

On true blue IBM PCs, you not only had to add a mathco, you had to replace
the 8088, because the one that came did not work with the 8087 - at least
that's what the IBM math co upgrade pages in the IBM Guide to Operations
manual say

>  I
> typed on a friend's PC with Wordstar and my IIe with
> AppleWorks was just more efficient.  Interestingly, so
> was the IIe version of WordPerfect.  When my friend
> switched from Wordstar to the DOS version of
> Wordperfect, performance slowed down.

WordStar was infamous for slow screen display. However, WordPerfect, in part,
replaced WordStar because it was so fast, esp on screen display. The writers
of WP programed the metal, WS used BIOS and DOS routines. BTW, WS on a PCPI
card in an Apple ][ would probably have been faster than WS on an IBM. I've
used WS on my Kaypro 2X (4 mhz Z-80) and my Kaypro 16 (4.77 mhz 8088) side by
side, and noticed no real difference. Since the PCPI card has it's own
memory, and a 6 mhz Z-80, if you liked WS (shudder) it would have been
faster.