WordPerfect for UNIX Character Terminals

This is a set of build scripts and patches to make WordPerfect for UNIX work on modern Linux.

WordPerfect is a powerful word processor for the terminal. There is more information and a quick introduction on the wiki, and a FAQ covering common questions and problems.

It features print previews, an equation editor, mouse support, drop down menus, spelling and grammar checking, builtin macro editor and more.

Building

Note: If you just want a deb or rpm to try out, check the Releases tab.

You need the following file to build this, available here.

$ md5sum COREL_WPUNIX_1.iso
036d10f279aecc61704b214e7bd58a6d COREL_WPUNIX_1.iso

Packages

The following packages are required to build the WordPerfect patches.

Ubuntu / Debian	Fedora
build-essential	glibc-devel.i686
gcc-multilib	libgcc.i686
bsdtar / libarchive-tools	bsdtar
patchelf	patchelf
rpm2cpio	glibc-static
	glibc-static.i686

Type make to produce a .deb file, or use the included .spec file to create an .rpm.

Manual Installation

If you don't want an rpm or deb file, you can try this instead:

$ make wordperfect8_i386

This should prepare the files, then you can install them manually like this:

$ sudo cp -r wordperfect8_i386/opt/wp80 /opt
$ sudo cp wordperfect8_i386/usr/bin/wp /usr/bin/

To uninstall, simply rm -rf /opt/wp80 /usr/bin/wp

Getting Started

Run wp to start WordPerfect. The default keybinding to open the menu is Esc,=.

There is a quick start guide on the wiki.

The complete user manual is available online here.

If you've never used WordPerfect before, you might prefer the cua Keyboard Layout. This enables the familiar Ctrl+C for Copy, Ctrl+V for Paste, and so on. Follow the instructions here to enable it.

Note: Print previews require a terminal with sixel support, such as XTerm.

Screenshots

The default look.

There are interactive equation and graphics editors, they can use sixels or ascii art.

There are built-in spelling and grammar checking tools, and a comprehensive interactive thesaurus.

Licensing

In theory, this is a demonstration copy, but I haven't noticed any limitations.