The Origins of Word Processing Software for Personal Computers: 1976-1985

Author

Bergin, T.J.

Author_Institution

American Univ., Washington, DC

Volume

28

Issue

4

fYear

2006

Firstpage

32

Lastpage

47

Abstract

Since Electric Pencil first debuted in 1976, more than 400 other word processing packages have emerged, most fading into oblivion. This article recounts the history of microcomputer word processing software - focuses on three of the earliest word processing software packages, Electric Pencil, EasyWriter, and WordStar, which was the mid-1980s leader in the CP/M, PC-DOS, and MS-DOS operating system environments

Keywords

history; software packages; word processing; CP/M operating system environment; EasyWriter; Electric Pencil; MS-DOS operating system environment; PC-DOS operating system environment; WordStar; microcomputer word processing software package history; personal computer; word processing software origin; Application software; Computer aided manufacturing; Electrostatic precipitators; Home computing; Microcomputers; Packaging; Pervasive computing; Programming profession; Software packages; Text processing; Easy Writer; Electric Pencil; John Draper; Michael Shrayer; Microsoft Windows; Microsoft Word; Seymour Rubinstein; Word Perfect; WordStar; word processing software;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1058-6180

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MAHC.2006.76

Filename

4042484