🚀 go-pugleaf

On Fri, 23 Mar 2018 12:13:01 -0700 (PDT), hanc...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
>
> On Saturday, March 17, 2018 at 5:13:30 PM UTC-4, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
> I think of a word processor as something that _stores_ text so
> that it does not have to be retyped.  Everything is icing on the cake.

That is already provided by any simple text editor.;

>> 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?
>
> First, word processing machines were very expensive, far more so
> than a typewriter.  Back in the early 1970s, I made $2.15/hour as
> a typist--it was cheaper having people like me bang out reports,
> even with multiple drafts, than getting something like an MT/ST
> (which they did have.)

Thus they ran on mainframes, with the typists logging in from a cheap
dumb terminal.

> Second, typists prepare many different kinds of documents.  Some
> do lend themselves readily to word processing due to the repetitive
> nature of the text.  But other typewritten material does not lend
> itself to word processing.  This would include custom letters,
> documents prepared from computer output (before consolidated
> merged processing), forms, envelopes, postcards, and index 
> cards and file tabs.

That is where "mail merge" steps in. Already WordStar has this function.

[...]
-- 
Andreas

My random toughts and comments
https://news-commentaries.blogspot.com/