🚀 go-pugleaf

On 2018-03-23, Andreas Kohlbach <a...@spamfence.net> wrote:
> 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.;

That caught me recently. Worddprocessors sometimes store data that you
do not really want.



>
>>> 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.
>
> [...]


-- 
greymaus.ireland.ie
Just_Another_Grumpy_Old_Man