Hello fellow vintage PC enthusiasts! I am pleased to announce the release of version 4.2 of my VE text editor, now available at www.inverary.net/ve. What is VE? VE (Visual Editor) is a full screen text editor for MS-DOS. Think vi power, but smaller, faster and friendlier to use.

Version 4.2 adds some key new features, notably CGA and EGA support, an 8088-specific build, extending VE’s support all the way back to the original PC and PC XT (but requires CGA, EGA or VGA graphics) and a complete rewrite in x86 assembly of VE’s core string movement and string setting primitives, resulting in a 20% increase in the speed of file operations plus a 1 KB+ reduction in VE executable size.

I am particularly interested in hearing feedback from anyone who tries VE 4.2 on a native CGA graphics environment. My test bed for CGA employs a video card that can be configured for any of VGA, EGA or CGA, and I have a lingering suspicion that its CGA mode may not be true CGA. If you have a “true CGA” environment and test VE 4.2 on it, I would be very, very interested in hearing your feedback. You can post it right here on Vogons or email me at support@inverary.net. Thanks!