🚀 go-pugleaf

On 2018-03-18 21:43, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
> On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 23:16:45 +0100, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>>
>> On 2018-03-17 22:13, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
>>> On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 12:56:32 -0700 (PDT), hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Not sure of your question.  The IBM MT/ST and MC/ST was integrated
>>>> with a Selectric typewriter which provided the keyboard and 'printer'.
>>>> As others mentioned, they were word processors.
>>>
>>> I think I understand a word processor is something you edit a text. It
>>> assists you by wrapping text and allow modification of characters, like
>>> bold. Only *after* you are done editing you would print it out or save it
>>> to a file. You could move paragraphs around and often do mail
>>> merge. Things a Selectric could not do.
>>>
>>> The Selectric did not (for my knowledge) had a display. Even if it might
>>> had "write ahead" you could not see what you wrote until it was printed
>>> on paper. If you made a mistake it was too late. Because of that
>>> typewriters soon vanished after word processors were available in the
>>> late 70s to early 80s.
>>>
>>> Which again raises the question: if word processors were around before
>>> the 70s, why didn't they supersede typewriters in offices already?
>>
>> Cost.
>>
>> You needed a good printer plus a computer, so not cheap at that time.
>> And also you needed to train the typist on using a computer and the
>> software.
> 
> Of course before the 80s word processors would only exist in large
> enterprises. They had one mainframe and a few printers, while the typists
> would sit on dumb and relatively cheap terminals. Should not take long to
> train a typist for the new technology.
> 
> The advantages of editing on a CRT over a "direct printout" like with
> typewriters should have been clear since the 60s already.

Yes, obvious to many; but I knew typists than even on the mid nineties
balked at using a computer.

What happened instead, I think, is that companies stopped hiring typists
and had normal people typing their own letters.

-- 
Cheers, Carlos.