Sprint

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 MS-DOS text editor based on MOTU's Final Word

 Author:   Borland International
 Homepage: http://www.sci.wsu.edu/math/faculty/barnes/borland/sprint.htm (unofficial)
 Manual:   https://sites.google.com/site/texteditors/Home/files/Borland_Sprint_Users_Guide_1988.pdf  PDF
 Platform: MS-DOS
 Family:   MsDosEditors
 License:  Commercial

Sprint was a powerful text editor, formerly owned by Borland International.

Its history began in the MS-DOS days, and according to the Emacs FAQ file, the Sprint editor was somehow related to Emacs. I have a friend who used it to edit a CD-ROM disk file of 400megs (in one file), so I know that it could handle large files even in the "early days."

And from the 1991 archives of the "Amethyst Users" at http://www.retroarchive.org/cpm/cdrom/SIMTEL/ARCHIVES/AMETHYST/9101-1.TXT, I find this bit of history:

 From: mcdchg!heiby@rutgers.edu  (Ron Heiby)
 Organization: Motorola Computer Group, Schaumburg, IL
 Subject: Re: Define

 Way back in the "Golden Age" of personal computing, there was an
 operating system called CP/M, which later was renamed CP/M-80 (to
 avoid confusion with CP/M-86 and CP/M-68K).  On CP/M-80, were
 available three wonderful software packages.  One was a C compiler
 called "BDS C" (from BD Software).  One was a text editor called
 "MINCE" (MINCE Is Not Complete Emacs).  The third was a text formatter
 called "Scribble" (a subset of Scribe).  The latter two programs were
 from "Mark of the Unicorn".  All three were available seperately.  All
 three were available bundled (with much of the source for
 Mince/Scribble? in BDS-C) into package called "Amethyst".  As the
 "Golden Age" was ending, and IBM came out with their "PC",
 Mince/Scribble? were combined and enhanced into a package called
 "FinalWord".  An even more enhanced version called "FinalWord II" came
 out a while later.  A year or two after that, the rights to the
 program were sold to Borland, who turned it into their product called
 "Sprint".  Now, Borland has announced that they have no plans to
 continue to upgrade, enhance, or fix Sprint any further.  Some
 discussion has been taking place on CompuServe? about what should be
 done.  It would be truly sad to see such a fine and powerful package
 finally die for lack of interest.


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