🚀 go-pugleaf

On Friday, March 23, 2018 at 5:50:34 PM UTC-4, Andreas Kohlbach wrote:

[snip]
> >> 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.

Back then "dumb terminals" were rather expensive, and too expensive
to replace a typewriter.  

In 1983, a generic 3270-type terminal was about $900, a true
3270 was several hundred dollars more.  But in addition to the
terminal, you would need a remote communications controller,
local coaxial wiring, a good phone line to the mainframe, a
communications controller on the mainframe, and enough horsepower
(CPU, core memory, and disk memory) to support online terminals.
In the early 1980s, all that stuff was not cheap and required
a solid system to justify the investment.  As hardware costs
dropped in that decade, online systems became more common.

I don't believe word processing software was available on the
mainframe back then, and if so, I don't think it got much
use (if wrong, please correct me).  Programmers used their
_existing_ tools, like TSO or ROSCOE editors because they
were already available, and, they knew how to use them.  They
were not well suited for a secretary to do stuff in a 
text editor.

In those days, a company having sufficient volume to justify
word processing would get a standalone machine.


> > 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.

A lot of early word processors and PC word processing software had
fancy functions, but they required the data to be available.  It
took time for companies to transition from either paper files or
mainframe files to storing stuff on the PC.  We take that all for
granted today, but in the 1980s, we were still in the early stages.

To this day, some companies maintain some classic applications still
on the mainframe in the traditional style; converting over to 
PC-based server systems has proven to be more of a challenge than
anticipated.