A GitHub project called "wordstar", published by user nampara-ai, wraps a vintage MS-DOS copy of the WordStar word processor in DOSBox and ships it with ready-made scripts for Linux, macOS and Windows. A WebAssembly build lets the same program run inside a browser tab, no emulator install required.

wordstar.sh
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Run me to launch WordStar 4.0 on Linux:  ./wordstar.sh
DIR="$(realpath "$0")"
DIR="$(dirname $DIR)"
cd "$DIR"
DIR="$(pwd)"
#DIR="$(cd "$(realpath "$(dirname "$0"))" && pwd)"
"$DIR/native/lib/launch.sh"

On Linux, the entry point is a script called wordstar.sh. It reads the current working directory and hands it to launch.sh, which builds a DOSBox configuration file from a template before starting the emulator. Hackaday's Al Williams found one snag: the script fails to resolve symlinks correctly if you place it on your PATH. The fix is a short realpath and dirname sequence at the top of the script, which he includes as a working patch.

The browser version lives in a "web" subdirectory of the repository. Running python3 -m http.server 5309 there and pointing a browser at http://localhost:5309 brings up WordStar without any local installation.

Williams frames the project as a convenience rather than a necessity: WordStar has long run under RunCPM, or under a manually configured DOSBox setup, and a separate 2023 project already reconstructed a modern-feeling version of the editor. He also nods to novelist George R.R. Martin, a famously long-time WordStar user, and points readers to a walkthrough video by YouTuber TigerClawTV for a look at the software in action.