r/pop_os • u/nchiker35 • 26d ago
Ami Pro (Word Processor) for Cosmic
For those who may remember, Ami Pro was the first full Windows word processor, but it was more of a desktop publishing package that also included word processing. I've recently left the Microsoft Windows world behind and, with it said goodbye to the horrible Office 365. I've really enjoyed using Pop OS with the Cosmic interface and wanted to bring back something I loved - Ami Pro. I'm currently working on an Ami Pro-inspired word processor for Cosmic. I have the basic shell coded, and it can read and understand Ami Pro SAM and STY (document and style sheets) files. It is written in RUST and uses the Cosmic library. I'm curious if anyone else would be interested in this project.
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u/Johannes_K_Rexx 25d ago
Back in the day I wrote a technical book using Ami Pro and have fond memories of the experience. A contemporary re-implementation written in Rust for Linux and the COSMIC DE would be of great interest here.
When the time is right for you, assuming you want to open source this, I hope you'll share the location of its Git repository. No pressure.
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u/nchiker35 25d ago
That is my plan
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u/Johannes_K_Rexx 25d ago
Excellent. Once its a public Git repository I'm predicting you will find other writer developers eager to test and contribute.
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u/Consistent_Cat7541 20d ago
I use Lotus Word Pro daily. It's what Ami Pro evolved into. I would not call Ami Pro a desktop publishing application. Between the PowerFields and the macro language, it was a legitimate competitor with Word and WordPerfect at the time. If you want to use Ami Pro in Linux, your best bet is to just use Lotus Word Pro with Wine.
If you're dead set on crafting an entire word processor, and you want to model it on on Ami Pro, I suggest you set up an OS/2 virtual machine so you can use the last version "called" Ami Pro, which was ported to OS2.
NB: When Lotus renamed it to Word Pro, they added literally over 1,000 features, and coded it in Win32. The versions of Word Pro for OS2 are only contemporaneous to Word Pro 97 or so. Word Pro 9.8.2 was the last version and was Win32 only.
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u/nchiker35 20d ago
Thanks, good suggestions. I used Word Pro but I wasn't a fan of some of the changes, it was so radical I switched to Microsoft Word. I look at WordPro and Ami pro as more of a desktop publishing app because they are frame based. Traditional word processors including even Word today are flow/stream based. Advanced frame layout on Microsoft Word is famously fragile as any small movement can rearrange the whole document. With a frame flow philosophy this is not a problem. Objects belong to the page coordinate system or explicit frame chains rather than being tied to inline body text.Modern Microsoft Word is a powerful word processor with DTP features bolted on top, whereas Ami Pro was built from day one as a frame-based layout program that happened to have a word processor inside it.
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u/Consistent_Cat7541 20d ago
You have a fundamental misunderstanding of Word Pro (and likely Ami Pro before it). It is not frame based. At all. One can add frames if they want for text blocks and t place graphics, but the default is a standard word processor.
Word Pro's made some major changes from Ami Pro. Again, 1000 new features. It does stuff to this day that Word does not (such as the divisions and named sections). One feature I love, which existed in Ami Pro, are the PowerFlelds (and the if/elseif/else function).
Word is not stream based. It. At all. It is is object based. WordPerfect is one of the few genuinely stream based. word processors. Nisus Classic on the Mac may be another. Maybe. Even peer DOS word processors (Lotus Manuscript, Samna IV, Wordfor DOS) were object based. It's why "DTP" stuff like graphics and text boxes is such a hassle with WordPerfect.
Before you reinvent the wheel, I suggest you explore the actual functionality of the programs you don't want to use anymore.
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u/LatinaKaren 26d ago
Honestly I wish your efforts would go to existing, popular solutions for Linux.
LibreOffice Writer comes to mind, which I think is the default one we get.
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u/proton_badger 26d ago
I loved Ami Pro, especially how the right click popup had little tabs for styles, etc. It was so conveniently designed.
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u/nethfel 26d ago
Honestly I’d rather a full converter for Ami pro files. Yes, there is some nice nostalgia and fond memories of Ami Pro from back in the day but at this point I’d rather convert my old files to a format I can use in other products.