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by
Frederick Noronha (FN)
Who
hasn't heard of WordStar? (You probably wouldn't
if you are on the
younger side of thirty.) Who hasn't heard of Roy
Mathew? (Again, you
wouldn't if you are a journo in India who doesn't
take this tool of the Net
very seriously.)
Not
too long back, Thiruvananthapuram-based journalist
Roy Mathew sent in a copy of his 1997-published
book 'A Handbook for Journalists on Computers
and WordStar' (Press Club, Tvm). The provocation
was just that one had exchanged with him another
book on media laws.
Mathew's
book was written in times when few in India had
the luxury of an
email address, and most were still struggling
to come to terms with how that
idiosyncratic tool called a computer actually
works.
 One
recalls that unglamorous software program called
WordStar being terribly popular then. It was the
de-facto word-processor for much of India. We
used it in newspaper offices. Others used it in
crowded and dusty offices, in government offices...
just about any place where computers were then
used.
But
those were times before Microsoft, Word, Outlook,
and Internet Explorer
became ubiquitous. Those were the days before
one changed our operating
system from DOS to Windows95 (a digital camera
needed a 32 bit operating
system ... and we didn't quite know what we were
headed for!)
So
Mathew's book focuses six of its nine chapters
on WordStar. Windows 95
— the then hyped version of proprietorial
software — gets dismissed in one
chapter. Advanced DOS and the disk-operating system
get one chapter each.
Said
he then: "Despite (the) emergence of new
powerful programs, WordStar
remains an ideal program for freelancers and reporters
working on
independent systems. It is suited for small publications
using desk top
systems. Copy written using WordStar can easily
be *imported* to Desktop
Publishing Systems."
Today,
the younger generation of journos might not know
what is being spoken about... But it does make
sense. Maybe this reviewer is so old fashioned,
that he's an exception in terms of clinging on
to good old products that simply work. Without
a fuss.
After
a longish honeymoon with WordStar, one got hitched
onto the Free
Software bandwagon. Today, the bulk (if not all)
of one's writing, including
this review, is done with JStar. It's a WordStar
clone from the Free Software world. Even the commands
are the same. (Hang on, let's press a
'Control KS' here just to save.) Done. Best of
all, you have both your hands
on the keyboard, not one caught behind a mouse
— so you don't feel like a
boxer fighting a battle with one hand behind one's
back!
Talking
about software, there's a whole world out there,
waiting to be
discovered. More so, in terms of how software
could help a journo's work.
The world of Free Software ('free as in freedom')
is particularly promising.
Just the other day, we ran into Lyx, an extremely
useful product that can
convert your already-edited text into e-books
literally in a matter of
minutes. If you need help on this, get in touch....
Talking
about the writer, one has known Roy Mathew for
long, though from a
distance. He has been a special correspondent
of The Hindu in the Kerala
capital. More than that, he's one of the journos
with a passionate interest
in sharing knowledge and information, as his initiatives
on the Net also
indicate. Here's wishing him all the best.
This
may by now be an outdated book. The review too
might be coming many
years too late. But the attitudes involved --
of sharing information, and
convincing journos to take IT more seriously --
are definitely still very
relevant. That's the point...
----
A
Handbook for Journalists on Computers & WordStar
Roy Mathew
Pp 132 + 18
Rs. 150
Press Club, Thiruvananthapuram, 1997
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