Coming of age [history of word processing]

Coming of age tales are not merely stories about growing older. They speak of renewing a community, conquering fear, and pushing back the darkness. We tend to tell them in a heroic mode, which places the leading character at the center of the action. But such stories are best understood as telling a universal tale about an experience that an entire community shared, illustrating how that community itself grew and progressed. This article-coming of age tale-involves not a machine but an application: word processing.