🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 18 Mar 2018 06:50:12 GMT, Dave Garland
<dave.g...@wizinfo.com> wrote: 

> On 3/17/2018 4:13 PM, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
>> On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 12:56:32 -0700 (PDT), hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com
>> wrote: 
>>>
>>> I think almost every programmer prepared some documentation on
>>> punched cards and printed it out.
>> 
>> This you can do with any text editor. I do not use LibreOffice here
>> when when coding (using vi or Emacs).
>> 
>>>> 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? 
>>>
>>> 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.
> 
> WP existed with hard-copy IO. There were people who did WP using 
> teletypes. Yes, CRTs were much nicer, but that's a later development.
> 
> And with an MC/ST you could in fact move paragraphs around, by saving 
> them separately (the magnetic cards could hold units of text smaller 
> than a page. But note that such gear was not normally used by writers,
> but by secretaries or typists. Authors didn't type their own stuff. 
> And even if they were capable of it (believe me, most weren't), the 
> gear was far too expensive to give them their own, and they wouldn't 
> want to devote the time to training in on it.
> 
> 
>> The Selectric did not (for my knowledge) had a display. 
> 
> Correct.
> 
> 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.
> 
> Sorta. But the Correcting Selectric had a lift-off tape so you could 
> backspace an error out. If you're a typist, you probably know without 
> looking (you're looking at the copy stand, not the typewriter) as soon
> as you press the wrong key. So many mistakes could be immediately 
> corrected without even losing much rhythm.
> 
>   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? 
> 
> The IBM Displaywriter was IBM's CRT word processor, and came out in 
> 1982. According to an IBM website, "A system of three displays sharing
> a single higher speed printer and a paper handler sold for $26,185 and
> leased for $845 a month." (That's $67,555 and $2180 in 2018 dollars. 
> Granted, it's for 3 workstations sharing a printer.)
> 
> 

At a PPOE the secretaries had to use PC's with DisplayWrite (I,II, 3, 4 )
It was 'oribble to a simple programmer like me, used to a program editor. 
Text saved in EBCDIC. The only feature that appealed was "cursor-draw".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_DisplayWrite


-- 
Bah, and indeed, Humbug.