🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 09:41:24 -0500, Dave Garland
<dave.g...@wizinfo.com> wrote:

>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.

I think the system being sought in this discussion was the IBM 2680,
available in 1967 or 1968, which was a phototypesetting system driven
by a System/360 with associated software.  There were similar systems
from RCA, Harris, and Mergenthaler.