Date   : Mon, 17 Dec 1990 01:11:42 PST
From   : cwr@pnet01.cts.com (Will Rose)
Subject: Wordstar and the high bit

Generally the first thing you need on a cpm/m machine is a comms program,
to dig around BBSs for old software - and the second thing is a filter to
strip the junk out of the capture buffers.  You can write it in any
language you like, but you will surely need it; quite often pip..[Z]
makes an acceptable substitute.

Wordstar obviously had this question come up too often, because they put
a 'print to ASCII file' output into CP/M 4.0, and into all subsequent
(MSDOS) versions.  If you are editing, not telecommunicating, and don't
want the stuff there in the first place, you can set a flag in Wordstar
so it comes up in the N mode as a default; then you can only do D editing
from the main menu.  Or use vde, which doesn't put junk in the file until
you tell it to.

I've never had Wordstar (3.0 or 3.3) set a bit in an N-edited file at the
cursor position; which version were you running?

The real problem is a file with a premature ^Z, so that nothing beyond that
point can be seen by an editor.  DDT is then the only cure.

Good luck, anyway - Will
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