Electic Pencil
Russell Schulz
Moose <mo...@rocknet.net.au> writes:
> I am trying to track down the first ever Word Processor,
the first ever on a micro, you mean?
> which according to Cringley's superb book "Accidental Empires",
> was called Electric Pencil and it was a program for the Apple ][.
I thought Electric Pencil (never used it) was for CP/M machines.
--
Russell...@locutus.ofB.ORG Shad 86c
Eric Fischer
Russell Schulz <Russell...@locutus.ofB.ORG> wrote:
> Moose <mo...@rocknet.net.au> writes:
>
> > which according to Cringley's superb book "Accidental Empires",
> > was called Electric Pencil and it was a program for the Apple ][.
>
> I thought Electric Pencil (never used it) was for CP/M machines.
I don't think it was for CP/M in particular -- I believe there were
ports to just about every Z80 or 8080 machine that had memory mapped
video, with or without CP/M. If I'm remembering right, Michael Shrayer
said in an interview some time in the mid-1980s that he did one port to
a 6502 and hated the chip enough that he never did another one. I
don't know if that one was to the Apple.
Maybe you're thinking of EasyWriter?
eric
deke.sp...@generous.net
On Thu, 4 Jun 1998 11:12:16 +0100, Russell Schulz
<Russell...@locutus.ofB.ORG> wrote:
>Moose <mo...@rocknet.net.au> writes:
>> I am trying to track down the first ever Word Processor,
>the first ever on a micro, you mean?
>> which according to Cringley's superb book "Accidental Empires",
>> was called Electric Pencil and it was a program for the Apple ][.
>I thought Electric Pencil (never used it) was for CP/M machines.
The Apple ][ eventually ran CP/M, but Electric Pencil was around before that.
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David Carey
I used Electric Pencil on a TRS-80 under TRSDOS, I don't recall hearing if
it was a port from some other system or original to TRS.
DC
Russell Schulz wrote in message
<19980604.11121...@locutus.ofB.ORG>...
>Moose <mo...@rocknet.net.au> writes:
>
>> I am trying to track down the first ever Word Processor,
>> which according to Cringley's superb book "Accidental Empires",
>> was called Electric Pencil and it was a program for the Apple ][.
>
>I thought Electric Pencil (never used it) was for CP/M machines.
>--
>Russell...@locutus.ofB.ORG Shad 86c
SHo...@221b.com
On Thu, 4 Jun 1998 11:12:16 +0100, Russell Schulz
<Russell...@locutus.ofB.ORG> wrote:
>Moose <mo...@rocknet.net.au> writes:
>
>> I am trying to track down the first ever Word Processor,
>
>the first ever on a micro, you mean?
>
>> which according to Cringley's superb book "Accidental Empires",
>> was called Electric Pencil and it was a program for the Apple ][.
>
>I thought Electric Pencil (never used it) was for CP/M machines.
Back around '78 or '79 Michael Shrayer, a Hollywood screenwriter (I
think) couldn't find a decent editor / word processor to use on his
home computer. It was either a Processor Technology SOL or an S-100
machine which used ProcTech's VDM board (video display module -
designed by the home-brew computer club's Lee Felsenstein - also the
designer of the Osborne I). Because the SOL's VDM was a memory mapped
(64 x 16 line) display, it was an ideal "window" into the memory where
you could see the text being edited. Shrayer then either wrote or
commissioned the program to be written to his specifications. As I
recall it was indeed the first word processor - years before WordStar
(the first release that I saw of WordStar was version 0.87). I believe
the first disk system it was adapted for was NorthStar DOS. Later on
he adapted it for the TRS-80 Model I and then CP/M.
Dan Strychalski
* From SHo...@221b.com, with signature bob...@ix.netcom.com, came --
> Back around '78 or '79 [...]
Hold it right there. WordStar came out under the name WordMaster in
'78, and as much as I hate to admit it, Electric Pencil is generally
agreed to have appeared before that, so "'78 or '79" seems unlikely.
> Michael Shrayer [...] either wrote or
> commissioned the program to be written to his specifications. As I
> recall it was indeed the first word processor - years before WordStar
Before, yes. Years, I don't know. Word processor, yes. The first, I
doubt it. Perhaps the first to run on a general-purpose microcomputer,
or on CP/M. But not simply "the first word processor." See --
TJ-2: A Very Early Word Processor
http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/tj2.html
Just ignore the disgraceful lumping of WordStar with runoff and troff
(FINE programs, but of a completely different ilk than WordStar).
Dan Strychalski dski at cameonet, cameo, com, tw (no _x_)
Jorn Barger
Dan Strychalski <ds...@cameonet.cameo.com.twx> wrote:
> > Back around '78 or '79 [...]
>
> Hold it right there. WordStar came out under the name WordMaster in
> '78, and as much as I hate to admit it, Electric Pencil is generally
> agreed to have appeared before that, so "'78 or '79" seems unlikely.
Here's my incomplete reverse-timeline of wp development:
See <URL:http://www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/net/etextfaq.html> for many
sources.
====
?: Sam and Wily for Unix?
1996: Corel purchases WordPerfect (etc) from Novell
1996: Corel releases WordPerfect Suite 7, and Corel Office Professional
Suite
1995: Lotus Development renames Ami Pro to Word Pro.
1995: Lotus Development ships SmartSuite 4.0 for Windows 3.1, for
US$400.
1995: Microsoft introduces Microsoft Office 95.
1995: Apple Computer ships the Newton 2.0 operating system.
1994: Novell buys WordPerfect Corporation
1994: Aldus and Adobe Systems announce plans to merge the two companies.
1994: Microsoft ships Microsoft Word for Power Macintosh.
1994: Microsoft ships Microsoft Word 6.0 for the Macintosh.
1994: Novell ships PerfectOffice 3.0 for Windows.
1994: WordStar International merges, becoming SoftKey International.
1994: Aldus releases Aldus PageMaker 5.0a for Power Macintosh
1994: Carl Edman's Emacs for NextStep
1993: Amstrad begins shipping the Amstrad Pen Pad PDA600 PDA
1993: Lotus Development ships Lotus Notes 3.0.
1993: Quark ships QuarkXPress 3.2 for Windows
1993: Apple Computer introduces the Newton MessagePad 100 PDA
1993: WordPerfect releases WordPerfect for Macintosh 3.0
1993: Pearl Software's Win-Emacs for IBM
1993?: Geoff Voelker's NTEmacs for NT-PCs
1993: Julie Melbin's NotGNU for DOS, Windows 3/NT, X11/OSF
1992: IBM introduces ThinkPad laptop with new pointer device
1992: Quark ships QuarkXPress 3.1 for Windows
1992?: Ralph Betza's Z80EMACS for CP/M
1992: Lucid GNU Emacs (lemacs) for UNIX, VMS
1992?: Higashida and Satoshi's Demacs for 386/MS-DOS
1992: Anthony Howe's ae (Anthony's Editor) for Unix, IBM PC, Atari ST;
requires curses
1991: WordPerfect ships WordPerfect 2.0 for the Macintosh.
1991: Microsoft announces Multimedia Edition of Works 2.0 for Windows
1991: Microsoft announces BallPoint Mouse for laptops
1991: Nisus v3? for Mac
1991: Craig Finseth's Freyja for IBM PC, UNIX, HP95LX, HP100LX
1989: Microsoft releases Microsoft Word 4.0 for the Macintosh.
1989: Microsoft releases Microsoft Word 5.0 for DOS.
1989: IBM introduces the Office Vision system (integrated sw?)
1989: Claris releases AppleWorks 3.0.
1989: NeXT ships the first NeXT Computer systems (w/bundled wp?)
1989: WordPerfect ships WordPerfect 5.1 for US$500.
1989: Lotus Development ships Lotus Notes.
1989: Microsoft ships Word for Windows 1.0.
1989: MicroPro International changes its name to WordStar International.
?: Stringwriter v4.4 for HP 48g/gx (also 'yonpy'?)
?: Ez for Linux
1988: WordPerfect ships WordPerfect 5.0 for US$500.
1988: Claris releases AppleWorks 2.1.
1988: Ami word processor for Windows is released
1988?: Jerzy Lewak and Victor Romano's Nisus for Mac from Paragon
1988: Bo Thide's evi vi->emacs modifications
1987: Microsoft begins shipping Microsoft Word 3.0 for the Macintosh.
1987: WordPerfect ships WordPerfect for the Amiga for US$400
1987: Apple Computer introduces HyperCard for the Mac
1987: Microsoft ships Microsoft Works for DOS.
1987: WordPerfect ships WordPerfect for the Atari ST for US$400
1987: Microsoft releases Microsoft Word 4.0 for the PC.
1987: Microsoft releases Microsoft Word 3.0 for the Macintosh.
1987: Linus introduces the WriteTop, a 9-lb pen-based laptop
?: Epson QX16 w/VALDOCS (VALuable DOCumentS) suite
1986: SSI ships Student WordPerfect for US$75.
1986: Microsoft releases Microsoft Word 3.0 for DOS.
1986: SSI changes its name to WordPerfect Corporation
1986: Apple Computer releases AppleWorks 2.0.
1986: WordPerfect ships WordPerfect 4.2 for US$500
1986: Aldus PageMaker is released for the PC
1986: WordPerfect ships WordPerfect for the Apple IIgs for US$180
1986: Mike Meyer's MG (aka MicroGNU Emacs) for UNIX, VMS, AmigaDOS,
Atari ST, OS/9-68K, Primos
1986: Craig Durland's ME2 (Mutt Editor II) for UNIX, IBMPC, Atari
1985: McCarthy freezes evolution of TeX
1985: Microsoft releases Microsoft Word 1.0 for the Macintosh.
1985: SSI ships WordPerfect Jr. for US$200 for the IBM PCjr
1985: Microsoft releases Microsoft Word 2.0 for DOS.
1985: Aldus releases Aldus PageMaker for the Apple Macintosh, for
US$495.
1985: SSI ships WordPerfect 4.1 for US$500.
1985: Don P. Bennett, Jr. ports Emacs to IBM PC and clones
1985?: Borland's Sprint (aka Esprit) for IBM PC
1985: Charles Brannon's SpeedScript 3.0 freeware wp from Compute!
magazine for Apple2, Atari 8-bit, Vic-20, C64 (small, fast, well-loved)
?: Wordmarc Composer, Xerox MemoryWriter
CBM Amiga wps:
TextCraft 1.0 (Plus)
FinalWriter (2, 3, 4, 4.1 lite)
Final Copy (II)
WordWorth (2, 3.1, 5)
TextEngine 5.01
ProPage V4.1 (DTP, memoryhog)
GoldEd (shareware)
WordPerfect 5.0
ProWrite
Atari ST wps:
Atari Works
Word Writer
First Word (Plus v3.20)
Papyrus
1984: Apple bundles MacWrite w/Macintosh
1984: Ashton-Tate announces the integrated software package, Framework.
1984: Microsoft releases Microsoft Word 1.1 for DOS.
1984: Microsoft releases Microsoft Word 1.15 for DOS.
1984: SSI ships WordPerfect 4.0 for US$500.
1984: Apple releases AppleWorks, integrated sw by Rupert Lissner for
Apple ][
1984: Kwik-Write (Datamost, C64)
IBM wps:
Ami Pro
AI-Typist, by Arius Technology -> Write Now?
Claris Works?
DG CEOWrite 3.0
DisplayWrite 5
Enable
FrameMaker
FrameWork II, IV
GeoWrite
IBM Writing Assistant
HP AdvanceWrite Plus
Interleaf (Publisher)
Lotus Freelance?
Lotus Manuscript 2.0, 2.1
Legacy 1.x, 2.0?
Locoscript PC (Professional)
MS Windows Write
MS Works
MultiMate (Advantage, II)
OfficePower
Office Writer
PFS: First Choice
PFS: Write
Peachtext
Professional Write (Plus)
Q&A Write
Rapid File (memos)
Samna Word IV (Plus)
Spellbinder
SuperWriter
Total Word
Volkswriter (Deluxe)
VDE?
Wang PC v3
WiziWord
WordStar (2000)
WordStar for Windows
WriteNow?
XyWrite III (Plus, IV, for Windows)
Letter Perfect
Uniplex?
PC Write
Nota Bene
Context MBA (integrated)
Heath H-89: Autoscribe
CBM 128 wps:
Vizawrite 128
Word Writer 128
Spinnaker's Better Working: WordPro 128
BBWriter 128
Charles Brannon's SpeedScript 128
Eric Lee's The Write Stuff 128 (very strong)
The Write Stuff Illustrator II?
GeoWrite 128
Digital Solution's Pocket Writer 3
CBM Plus/4 wps: Script Plus
Apple 3: III EZ Pieces integrated sw by Rupert Lissner
1983: Apple's bundled Lisa wp
1983: VisiCorp's VisiOn, integrated software for PCs, US$1765
1983: Perfect Writer part of integrated sw
1983: Coleco's Adam w/bundled wp?
1983: SSI ships WordPerfect 3.0 for US$500.
1983: SSI ships Personal WordPerfect for US$200
1983: Microsoft ships Word 1.0 for US$375, $475 w/mouse (original name
'Multi-Tool Word')
1983?: Guy Harris et al's OfficePower integrated sw from Computer
Consoles for CCI's 68K-based UNIX boxes and Tahoes, and VAXes running
4BSD
1983: Steven Zimmerman's emacs for HLH Orion
1983: Business Software's The Incredible Jack integrated sw for Apple 2
?: Jef Raskin's SwyftCard for Apple2, integrated wp environment on card
1982: Story Writer for CBM Pet
1982: SSI ships WordPerfect 2.0 for DOS, for US$500 (v2.2 in October)
1982: An insurance company contracts with programmer Wilton Jones to
create
a PC wp that mimics Wang word processing -> MultiMate
?: Tandem's TEDIT, improves EDIT, eg multiple buffers.
?: Charles Brannon's SpeedScript (1, 2) freeware wp from Compute!
magazine for Apple2, Atari 8-bit, Vic-20, C64 (small, fast, well-loved)
early IBM wps: DisplayWrite, XyWrite (based on Atex editor),
PerfectWriter, Volkswriter, WordStar
C64 wps:
Prentice Hall's SkiWriter (II)
HES's HES Writer 64
Batteries Included's PaperClip (II, III, Publisher, Elite?)
Word Writer 3?
Sierra Online's Homeword
CBM's Easy Script w/Easy Spell
Font Master II
Personal Choice Collection (incl wp)
C64 Power Pack (incl wp)
Creative Writer
SuperScript
Eric Lee's The Write Stuff
Triomicro's The Printed Word
CBM's The Word Machine?
Spinnaker's Easy Working: The Writer
Laing Marketinbg's Word Processor 64
Broderbund's Bank Street Writer
Load N Go's Master Word?
Digital Solutions' Pocket Writer 2, 3
Value Ware's PowerWord
Celery Software's Professional Word Processor
Celery Software's Swift Desktop Publishing
Codewriter's Speedwriter
Advantage's Textmaster
Springboard's The Newsroom
GeoWrite
EasyScript (40 col w/scrolling for 80)
TasMan's TasWord (slow)
Mirage
Cardco's Write Now!
ViziWrite 64
Word Machine
WordWriter
Kwik-Write! (Datamost, 1984)
BBC micro wps: WordWise
1981?: EasyWriter by Capt Crunch/ John Draper for IBM
1981?: Applewriter 2
1981?: Screenwriter II for Apple2
1981?: Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie move from Xerox Parc to
Microsoft
1981: Yost leaves Rand, rewrites ned as the Grand Editor
1980: Wang's Wangwriter ($18k, 8" floppies, noisy?)
1980: Sony's Typecorder
1980: EDLIN created by Seattle Computer Products
1980: Alan Ashton and Bruce Bastian found Satellite Software Int'l (SSI)
1980: IBM's Displaywriter system includes spellchecking.
1980?: Convergent Tech. wp (CTOS now BTOS OS), 8086 written for Savin
and
general sale
1980?: Mike Kazar's FINE for PDP-10 (1967)
1980: Mark of the Unicorn's Mince/PerfectWriter/FinalWord/FinalWord II
for IBM PC and CP/M
1980?: EasyWriter for Apple?
1980?: Interactive's INed screen editor (descendant of Rand editor) for
INtext terminals (Perkin-Elmer terminal with custom ROM and keycaps)
?: TXED (RML380Z's lobotomised TECO)
1980: Scribe at CMU?
1979: MicroPro's WordStar for CP/M, by Rob Barnaby
1979: Apple's AppleWriter 1.0 by Paul Lutus for Apple2 (40 col,
uppercase)
1979?: Screenwriter for Apple2
1979: WordPerfect for the Data General
1979: TV-Edit on Intel MDS-230 system
1979: Xerox Parc 'opens kimono' for Apple -> windows & mouse for Lisa
1979: Dave Yost at Rand rewrites ned
1979: Brian Kernighan generalizes troff
1979: awk and sed in Unix 7
1979: Douglas Hofstadter uses Kanerva's TV-Edit to write "Godel Escher
Bach", one of the first manuscripts delivered/typeset on floppy disk?
Atari 8-bit wps: Atari Word Processor, AtariWriter
TRS-80 Model II wp: Scripsit
CP/M: Magic Wand, Locoscript, Spellbinder, PerfectWriter
1978? Word Pro 1.1 for CBM Pet (1977)
1978?: Spellbinder for CP/M
1978: MicroPro introduces WordMaster (CP/M?) by Rob Barnaby
1978: Qyx, IBM, and Olivetti introduce all-electronic daisywheel
typewriters
1978: Bernard Greenberg's Multics Emacs for Honeywell Multics
1978: Wang word processor offers WYSIWYG?
1978: Tandem's TGAL, RUNOFF-clone
1978?: Tandem's EDIT for Guardian system uses EDL-like indexed
sequential editing w/block-mode called VS, run by the 16 function keys
and their shifts
1978: ex in BSD Unix
1978: John McCarthy begins work on TeX
1978? Atex typesetter has auto-word-wrap w/proportional fonts, WYSIWYG?
1977: Textbook "Word Processing" by Rosen and Fielden
1977: Craig Finseth's VINE for VMS
1977: Owen Anderson's tv (aka otv, SINE) for MagicSix on Perkin-Elmer
3200
1977: Rand Editor extended by Bilofsky as 'ned'?, defines screen as 2-d
plane (cf ascii art)
CBM Pet wps: WordCraft
Apple wps:
AppleWriter 1, 2, 2e
Franklin ACEWriter (II)
Broderbund's Bank Street Writer (2c)
Teach
MECC Writer
Term Paper Writer
Flex Text
Lane Roathe's Write Away!
Timeout ReportWrite?
Super MacroWorks?
Springboard Publisher
ReportWorks
Multiscribe (GS)
BeagleWrite (GS)
GeoWrite 2.1
Seven Hills' GraphicWriter III (2GS only)
Publish It! 4
Plus works II?
Newsroom
Print Master (Plus)
AE Typeset
Easy Working Writer
Writer's Choice Elite GS
Sensible Speller
Webster's New World Spellchecker
Printing Press Express
Print Power
Benchmark
Spellbinder
PIEwriter (no scroll)
ScreenWriter (1981?)
Artisi's Magic Writer?
Sierra's HomeWrod (print preview)
Multiscribe
1976: Michael Shrayer's Electric Pencil for Altair (1975)
?: Dan Bricklin develops nice editing terminal for PDP-11/34 (1975)
1975: Richard Stallman's Emacs (in TECO) for PDP10/ITS (1967?) or
DEC-20/TOPS-20 (1976?)
1975: Bravo prints to laser printer
1973-5 PARC: Bravo wp for Alto (-> MS Word) by Butler Lampson, Charles
Simonyi et al. 'WYSIWYG' slogan borrowed from Laugh-In
1974: Paul Hardy and Paul McClellan's PPPP (Paul's Pretty Pagination
Program) for IBM 370/176 (later for Modular 1 mini) uppercase input from
punchcards, output to a band printer
1974: Walt Bilofsky's 're' (from Rand Editor) in C on UNIX v5
?: DEC's TYPESET-10 and TYPESET-11 w/video display editing and powerful
macro abilities, letterspacing, kerning, etc.
?: TSO and ROSCOE
1973: Don Lancaster describes "TV Typewriter" for hobbyists
?: GECOS ROFF improved to make UNIX NROFF and TROFF (New ROFF and
Typeset ROFF?)
1973: UNIX troff (J. F. Ossanna)
1972: Murray Hill Computing Honeywell GCOS Roff Text Formatter
1972: TYPESET-8 system for PDP-8 in use by a dozen newspapers (text/c
for center, text/r for right quad, text/l for left quad) for Linotypes,
etc.
?: Pentii Kanerva rewrites TVEDIT for KI-10 (1972)
1971-2 PARC: Gary Starkweather invents first workable laser printer
1972 PARC: First font editor (Ben Laws and Alan Kay)
?: WYLBUR/ORVYL for IBM/360 at Stanford
1971: M. D. McIlroy writes ROFF for the GE 600/H 6000 under G[E]COS
1971: Wang 1200 word processor system with a 133k tape.
1971: Michael Hart starts Project Gutenberg
1971: Ned Irons' Yale screen-editor for PDP-10
1970: IBM 360Hasp RJE system?
?: QED ported(?) to Unix as ed (later giving rise to vi, ex)
1970: Ritchie and Thompson reimplement QED on Bell Labs GCOS
1969: IBM Selectric typewriter w/magnetic cards
1969: Multics PL/I qedx by Bob Daley
1969: IBM's ATS/360 -> ATMS, ATMS/370, ATMS/CICS
?: Fred Wright's E (TVEDIT in DEC-10 assembly language)
1968: Multics BCPL version of qed by McIlroy
1968: Engelbart demos SRI wp: NLS (oN-Line System) -> Augment
1968: Multics BCPL runoff by Canaday, Ritchie, Ossanna
?: Multics edm in PL/I (version of EDL), editor for novices, switch
between input and edit via "."
1967-69: RAND shows GRAIL, penbased system w/modeless editing.
1967-8: CTSS BCPL runoff by Rudd Canaday, Dennis Ritchie used for
Multics documentation
1967-8?: ?tv-typewriters w/16 lines * 40 chars, w/cursor keys, delete,
etc running off IBM 360 under URSA w/graphics mode to preview output via
CalComp plot. also "Space War"
?: Dan Swinehart's version of TVEDIT written in SAIL language
1965-7?: Ken Thompson ports QED to CTSS (mode-change via \f)
1967: Ned Irons' Rand screen-editor for CDC 6600
1967: CMS SCRIPT by Stuart E. Madnick
?: Steve Savitzky's Son of Stopgap (SOS)
1965-6?: QED for Berkeley TSS (Lampson?)
1964-66: John McCarthy's Zeus for PDP-1 runs TVEDIT on 8 Philco CRTs,
uses 'Control-2' key (ie, Meta)
1966: Bill Weiher's STOPGAP line editor for PDP-6
?: CTSS EDL by Jerry Saltzer, 'BCD version' of TYPSET for "line marked"
files (variable-length records)
?: Auto Secretary, part of Project Genie for the SDS-940 (-> RUNOFF???)
1964-5: CTSS TYPSET by Jerry Saltzer, line editor like ED w/lower case,
1st editor written in high level language (MAD)
1964-5: CTSS RUNOFF by Jerry Saltzer drove IBM 1050 Selectric typewriter
via dot-commands
1964: IBM Selectric typewriter w/magnetic tape
1964: Wang typesetter
1964?: ED had input and edit modes and a change command, very like
today's UNIX line editors, upper case only (g/re/p?)
1964?: upper-case-only text formatter for Burroughs' B5500, used for
software release notes, etc
1963: TVEDIT by Brian Tolliver?
1963: TJ-2 word processor (?) for PDP-1 (1960)
1963?: CTEST9 for CTSS by Art Samuel let you see what you were editing
1963?: MEMO, MODIFY, and DITTO on CTSS, equal INPUT-EDIT-PRINT
w/lowercase
1962?: PDP-1 Expensive Typewriter by Peter Sampson
1962: Murphy & Greenblatt's TECO Tape Editor and Corrector on PDP1 at
MIT
1962: Teletype ships its Model 33 keyboard and punched-tape terminal,
used for input and output on many early microcomputers.
1962?: Dartmouth's input-the-line-with-a-line-number, output with the
LIST command
1961?: CTSS's INPUT, EDIT, and PRINT (upper case only, line-number
based)
1961: DDT DEC Debugging Tape descendant of FLIT
1960-1: DEC gives PDP-1 to MIT, adopted by TMRC
?: IBM 026 and 029 cardpunches 'programmable' for card numbering, repeat
fields, and skipped fields. also card verifiers for proofreading via
retyping?
post-1957: FLIT Flexowriter Interrogation Tape debugging utility for
TX-0 at MIT's Lincoln Lab
?: early CRT experiments w/ Whirlwind, IBM 701?
1947: Friden Flexowriter, upper/lower case, IBM electric typewriter
mechanism, paper tape (editing by splicing?)
1930s: 405 alpha tabulator allows wp via punchcards (uppercase only)
1930s: punchcards with printed textline at top
===========
j
--
I EDIT THE NET: <URL:http://www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/weblogs/weblog.html>
"In human stupidity, when it is not malicious, there is something very
touching, even beautiful... There always is." --Leo Tolstoy
Matthew T. Russotto
In article <1da5eho.yga...@jorn.pr.mcs.net>,
Jorn Barger <jo...@mcs.com> wrote:
}Here's my incomplete reverse-timeline of wp development:
}See <URL:http://www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/net/etextfaq.html> for many
}sources.
}
Somewhere along the line was a real piece of garbage for the Apple ][
called "Executive Secretary". A Wordstar-lookalike IIRC.
--
Matthew T. Russotto russ...@pond.com
"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice, and moderation in pursuit
of justice is no virtue."
ni...@idt.net
In alt.folklore.computers Jorn Barger <jo...@mcs.com> wrote:
: Dan Strychalski <ds...@cameonet.cameo.com.twx> wrote:
: > > Back around '78 or '79 [...]
: >
: > Hold it right there. WordStar came out under the name WordMaster in
: > '78, and as much as I hate to admit it, Electric Pencil is generally
: > agreed to have appeared before that, so "'78 or '79" seems unlikely.
: Here's my incomplete reverse-timeline of wp development:
: See <URL:http://www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/net/etextfaq.html> for many
: sources.
Where does EDT fit into this time line? (i.e. when was it introduced?)
This was and is the standard editor on RSX-11* systems on PDP-11 and
compatible machines. Not only was it used on these minis, but from around
1982-1990 DEC made non- and semi- IBM-compatible micros and this was one
editor used on them, with customizable keys, choice of full-screen or line
editing, its own command language for macros and such, and more...the Vax
EVE editor is similar. I got one of these micros in 1983, a Pro 350 with
512K RAM (max. address space 4MB) and bitmapped graphics (Some
applications supported a mouse but it was not used by the OS itself). The
EDT on this computer was more or less a port from RSX, on which it had
been a standard editor for some time. I first heard of it in 1981, but
back then I was using TECO on a "real" PDP 11-23 running RT-11 and TSX+...
In 1986, Boston Business Systems came out with a port of EDT to the PC
(version 3, so the original was probably much older). It acts much like
the original, plus allows shelling to DOS or other commands/programs and
an alternate way of learning macros. EDT on both platforms included such
things as an arbitarily high number of buffers; each could be a window
into a different file or text segment. It obviously is much better than
EDLIN, and more powerful than MS EDIT (I even renamed MS's EDIT so it
would no longer be the default editor from the EDIT command - I didn't
like it at all).
BTW, anyone remember AEDIT, a DOS-based text editor with macro capability
from the mid 1980's? Also a good text editor, except for it automatically
converting tabs to spaces and not displaying 8-bit characters properly.
This was only for PC's AFAIK, not for PDP's.
--
Nick
ni...@tribeca.ios.com IC XC + NI KA
jmf...@aol.com
In article <6ld9d7$4...@nnrp3.farm.idt.net>, <ni...@IDT.NET> wrote:
<much snipped>
>.... It obviously is much better than
>EDLIN, and more powerful than MS EDIT (I even renamed MS's EDIT so it
>would no longer be the default editor from the EDIT command - I didn't
>like it at all).
Just a note...My first encounter with a PDP-10 running TOPS-10 was
in 1970. There were two editors available on that system, TECO and
LINED. The commands to LINED also work for EDLIN. I was amused.
Of all the editors in the world to pick, LINED was the worst :-).
/BAH
Roberto Waltman
On 7 Jun 1998 05:45:11 GMT, <ni...@IDT.NET> wrote:
>: > Hold it right there. WordStar came out under the name WordMaster in
>: > '78, and as much as I hate to admit it, Electric Pencil is generally
>: > agreed to have appeared before that, so "'78 or '79" seems unlikely.
WordStar was a word processor. WordMaster was a text editor.
They shared the same key mappings for common functions, etc, (may
be some of the code) but WordMaster would not justify, paginate,
etc. It was a good editor for writing source code, with much
smaller disk(ette) and memory footprints than WordStar, in
addition to being full-screen and automatically swap file
segments in and out of memory. ED could not compete...
Although WordMaster was my favorite editor while working on CP/M
systems, it had a 'feature' that would win it the first place in
any competition of poor, useless, malicious, or user-hostile
help messages:
You could insert non-printable/control characters (or characters
that were used as commands) in a file by pressing CTRL-V followed
by the character to be inserted. The later could be, of course,
CTRL-Z, which was used in the CP/M system as an End-Of-File
marker. Having done that, you could still see and edit all of
your file, but anything beyond the CTRL-Z will be lost when
exiting the editor and saving the file to disk. (Possibly
WordMaster would save the whole file, but any standard CP/M text
utility, WordMaster included, would not read beyond the EOF mark,
effectively deleting the rest of the text)
The program recognized this dangerous situation. Pressing CTRL-V
CTRL-Z would produce a warning message for a second or so.
A single word message: TURKEY !!
And no, I'm not kidding.
>Where does EDT fit into this time line? (i.e. when was it introduced?)
> <...snip...> its own command language for macros and such, and more...the Vax
>EVE editor is similar.
Yes and no. EVE (Extensible Vax Editor) was an implementation of
an EDT like editor in VAX TPU (Text Processing Utility), that
still gave you access to the TPU language to customize the
editor. EDT macros did not have conditional or flow control
capabilities. EVE could be extended using the full TPU feature
set. (That's Digital's wording: you do not compile or install a
macro, you "extend" your editor...)
>BTW, anyone remember AEDIT, a DOS-based text editor with macro capability
>from the mid 1980's? Also a good text editor, except for it automatically
>converting tabs to spaces and not displaying 8-bit characters properly.
>This was only for PC's AFAIK, not for PDP's.
As far as I remember, AEDIT was an Intel product supplied with
Intel's development tools (PLM-51/96, RMX, etc.)
I had it available at a couple of jobs, but after looking at it
briefly, I stayed with Brief, of course ....
RW.
Roberto Waltman
On 7 Jun 1998 05:45:11 GMT, <ni...@IDT.NET> wrote:
>: > Hold it right there. WordStar came out under the name WordMaster in
>: > '78, and as much as I hate to admit it, Electric Pencil is generally
>: > agreed to have appeared before that, so "'78 or '79" seems unlikely.
WordStar was a word processor. WordMaster was a text editor.
jmf...@aol.com
In article <357cf08f...@news5.bellatlantic.net>,
rwal...@bellatlantic.net (Roberto Waltman) wrote:
>On 7 Jun 1998 05:45:11 GMT, <ni...@IDT.NET> wrote:
>The program recognized this dangerous situation. Pressing CTRL-V
>CTRL-Z would produce a warning message for a second or so.
>A single word message: TURKEY !!
<snip>
I love it :-))). Many's the time I wanted to do a similar thing.
/BAH
Dan Strychalski
Roberto Waltman (rwal...@bellatlantic.net) wrote --
> [WordMaster] recognized this dangerous situation. Pressing CTRL-V
> CTRL-Z would produce a warning message for a second or so.
> A single word message: TURKEY !!
Alas, I came late to the scene, and the best I can offer is a message
that epitomizes the feelings of many old CP/M hands in the early days of
the IBM Personal Computer. In the first port of WordStar to MS/PC DOS, if
you issued the command to "run a program" and tried to run, say, DIR, you
got:
DIR.EXE NOT FOUND. EVEN PLAIN OLD .COM VERSION NOT FOUND!
WJapinga
I used to have a word processing package put out by a company called Mark of
the Unicorn. I don't remember the name of the software, but I recall it being a
pretty sopisticated word processor: edit multiple documents, etc.
bob...@ix.netcom.com
I believe it may have been MINCE (which was a recursive acronym for
"MINCE Is Not Completely EMACS"
Pete Fenelon
WJapinga <wjap...@aol.com> wrote:
> I used to have a word processing package put out by a company called Mark of
> the Unicorn. I don't remember the name of the software, but I recall it being a
> pretty sopisticated word processor: edit multiple documents, etc.
Final word -- consisted of mince (the editor) and scribble (the formatter).
if I recall correctly, mince was an emacs variant and scribble was based on
Scribe.
pete
--
Pete Fenelon, 3 Beckside Gardens, York, YO10 3TX, UK (pete.f...@zetnet.co.uk)
``there's no room for enigmas in built-up areas''
William...@nashville.com
On 1998-06-13 pe...@fenelon.zetnet.co.uk said:
>Final word -- consisted of mince (the editor) and scribble (the
>formatter). if I recall correctly, mince was an emacs variant and
>scribble was based on Scribe.
Yep. Mince is a self referring acronym meaning Mince Is Not Complete Emacs.
Considering it had to fit in the TPA of a CP/M system it certainly couldn't
have been complete. You used to get the BDS C compiler with it, too.
You might still if Lifeboat or Eliam is still in the business of selling
CP/M software.
lis...@zetnet.co.uk
On 1998-06-13 pe...@fenelon.zetnet.co.uk said:
:Final word -- consisted of mince (the editor) and scribble (the
:formatter). if I recall correctly, mince was an emacs variant and
:scribble was based on Scribe.
Is there a version of Scribe around for the IBM PC? (Well, aside from
the one that came with Sprint, which was Final Word until Borland bought
it.)
--
Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling
you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...
Pete Fenelon
lis...@zetnet.co.uk wrote:
> Is there a version of Scribe around for the IBM PC? (Well, aside from
> the one that came with Sprint, which was Final Word until Borland bought
> it.)
Don't know -- I only used Final Word very briefly. Certainly made learning
emacs, not to mention troff, RUNOFF and TeX a lot easier later on though :)
By the time Sprint came out, I'd been bodging MicroEmacs very heavily on
my Atari ST to conform to what I thought an editor should look like -
mine was (just) recognisable as an emacs! Actually, the weirdest emacs
I've ever seen was one hacked by a former colleague - I think it was
MicroGnuEmacs that had been modified so much that it ended up looking
and behaving pretty much like WordStar.
(Incidentally, for any code archaeologists out there -- if you look at the
pine mailer and pico editor, (assuming you're bored, or you have to
support users with small numbers of brain cells!) look at the editor sources -
all VERY OLD microemacs in disguise!)
Aside II -- isn't it a pity that Lout, by far the nicest batch formatter
out there, came too late to challenge the appalling TeX? :)