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Digibarn Stories:
Rob Barnaby and WordStar and much more
(June 2008)

In June 2008 Rob Barnaby visited the Digibarn, first to get the grand tour and the second time to be interviewed on video by Al Lundell and Bruce Damer and to donate and demonstrate his original IMSAI PCS 80/30, the machine that WordStar was written on. Rob, thank you for giving the Digibarn a tremendous piece of the history of microcomputing. Watch Al Lundells video, listen to Rob's interviews in audio and see photos of the visit below.

Al Lundell's Video Interview with Rob Barnaby
Running WordStar on the original IMSAI it was written on

Audio interviews with Rob Barnaby


Rob Barnaby gives us the full story
Interview by Bruce Damer & Al Lundell covering his life and works including WordStar and much more, 61MB MP3

Rob Barnaby tells us more while demonstrating the IMSAI PCS 80/30 and WordStar
(16MB MP3)

Rob Barnaby gives his running commentary during Bruce Damer's tour of the Digibarn
(61MB MP3)

A preliminary interview of Rob Barnaby by Bruce Damer
(covers a lot of interesting ground, 38MB MP3)

Bruce Damer and Rob Barnaby talk about users and uses of WordStar
(including Bruce's own experience, 5MB MP3 )
 

Photos of Rob Barnaby's Visit

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Al Lundell starts the interview
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Looking at what Rob has brought
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Setting it all up

See more photos here

Live Demo!

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Rob setting up the IMSAI
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Up it comes!
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The whole setup, sans printer
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WordStar staring up
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View of menus and document
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Rob demonstrates word wrap!
(or what distinguishes a word processor
from a text editor)
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Rob's resume, in WordStar!
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Al getting Rob on tape, in High Def
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Rob with WordStar manual
(which he wrote of course)

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Keyboard layout for WordStar
universal layout for many systems

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See Also

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The IMSAI PCS 80/30 at the Digibarn

A Potted History of WordStar by Michael Petrie

Wikipedia's entry for WordStar

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