perfectstar2k 0.1.0

A modern TUI homage to WordStar & WordPerfect for DOS — a real writing tool built on WordStar's touch-typist command language and long-hand-page metaphor.
perfectstar2k-0.1.0 is not a library.

PerfectStar 2k

A modern TUI homage to WordStar for DOS and WordPerfect 5.1 — a real daily-driver writing tool, inspired by Robert J. Sawyer's essay A Writer's Word Processor.

Plain text and Markdown in, prose out. WordStar's touch-typist command language and "long-hand page" metaphor; WordPerfect's clean blue screen and Reveal Codes; a few of Emacs's best ideas (kill ring, incremental search, never-lose undo) folded in where they serve a writer.

cargo run --release -- draft.md

The philosophy

  • Hands never leave the home row. Every command is a Ctrl chord with a positional mnemonic. Arrow keys, PgUp/PgDn, Home/End also work — WordStar itself allowed the same.
  • The long-hand page. Mark a block now, decide what to do with it hours later. Ten bookmarks. A jump ring that remembers where you were. Notes to yourself (.. lines) that display dimmed and never export.
  • Least modal. Writing and editing are one continuum. No modes to enter, no menus to descend for common operations.
  • The tool adapts to the writer. Config for theme, menu delay, autosave, wrap margin, and help levels from hand-holding to a completely clean screen.

Keys

The diamond (with ^Q… prefix chords, press the second key plain or with Ctrl):
^E ^S ^D ^X cursor diamond ^A ^F word left / right
^W ^Z scroll line ^R ^C page up / down
^QS ^QD line start / end ^QE ^QX screen top / bottom
^QR ^QC document top / bottom ^Q, ^Q. sentence back / forward
^Q[ ^Q] paragraph back / forward ^QP previous position (walks the ring)

Editing:
^G / ^H delete char / left ^T delete word
^Y delete line ^QY delete to line end
^U undo (never loses a state; redo = undo an undo) ^N open line
^QT / ^QG transpose words / chars ^V insert / overtype
^QM record macro ^QJ play macro

Blocks, bookmarks, and the kill ring:
^KB ^KK mark block begin / end — whenever you like ^KC ^KV copy / move block to cursor
^KY delete block ^KH hide/show highlight
^KU toggle previous block ^KW ^KR write block / read file
^KP put a clipping; press again to cycle older ones ^QB ^QK ^QV jump to block begin / end / source
^K0–9 set bookmark ^Q0–9 jump to bookmark

Search, files, screen:
^QF incremental search ^L find next
^QA find & replace (g/n/w options) Esc / F1 command palette
^KD ^KS save (atomic, with one-time .bak) ^KX save & exit
^KQ quit ^KE export with .. notes stripped
^OD Reveal Codes ^OB cycle theme
^OW ^OR word wrap / wrap margin ^OH help level (0 clean · 1 menus · 2 hints)

Hold any prefix (^K ^Q ^O) briefly and its menu appears, WordStar style.

Sessions

Cursor position, bookmarks, block marks, the jump ring, and full undo history persist per file (under the user data dir — your manuscript's folder stays clean). Reopen a draft and your fingers are still in the pages.

Config

~/.config/perfectstar2k/config.toml:

theme = "wp-blue"        # wp-blue | wordstar | terminal
menu_delay_ms = 700
autosave_secs = 60       # 0 disables
wrap = true
wrap_margin = 0          # 0 = window width
help_level = 1           # 0 clean · 1 delayed menus · 2 menus + hint bar

Build

Rust 2024. cargo build --release produces the pstar binary. cargo test runs the buffer/undo/wrap/markdown unit suites.