🚀 go-pugleaf

On 3/16/2018 3:27 PM, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
> I was writing a blog article about early word processors and spreadsheets
> <https://news-commentaries.blogspot.com/2018/03/history-of-wordprocessors-and-spread.html>
> but only covered early 8-Bit micros. Assuming Electric Pencil was the
> first while WordStar or SuperCalc (spreadsheet) only really became famous
> in the early days of the late 70s to early 80s.

The IBM MT/ST (Mag Tape) was introduced in 1964. Electric Pencil may 
have been one of the first that used a CRT, but it didn't appear until 
1976. By then, the IBM had been through several generations (Mag Card, 
Mag Card II) and similar machines were being manufactured by Wang, 
CPT, Lanier, and probably others.

> I know that in offices before that era type writers were used, even if an
> IBM Selectric could ease the work. But they were hardware. They hadn't a
> display (monitor) to edit text and only when done print it out.
> 
> Still I wonder if big machines like some IBM 360/370 did not have word
> processors... By word processor I do not mean any text editor. A word
> processor should at least be able to wrap a word into the next line if it
> didn't fit into the current line. And had some markup for defining a bold
> or italic character and sub- and superscript.

That really depended on hardware. A formed-character printer (ball or 
daisywheel) couldn't change font without the ball/wheel being manually 
changed by the operator. You could, of course, program a halt to 
permit for that, but it was a PITA and really balked workflow. Some 
type balls had a superscript 2 and 3 , but anything else had to be 
done by manually rolling the platen, Dot matrix printers weren't used 
for WP in business, because the print quality was too poor (the 
standard was pretty much, it ought to look like it was done on a 
Selectric with a film ribbon).

> Apparently the IBM MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter) from 1964
> would match that description which was used only with an IBM
> Selectric. But there should had been applications which would not depend
> on an external type writer rather than using a dedicated printer, no?
> 
Pretty much all the printing was done by dedicated printers, in that 
an "ordinary" typewriter (including an ordinary Selectric) wasn't 
heavy duty enough, or have a suitable interface.