On Sun, 10 Sep 2017, couryho...@aol.com wrote:
then..... who was..... the TRUE first?
Michael Shrayer's girlfriend?
And what motivated him to write "Electric Pencil"?
Jerry started using it early on, but he was NOT the first user of it.
Before Electric Pencil, what microcomputer word-processor programs
preceded that? I seriously doubt that Michael Shrayer was the only one
to write one.
What word-processor programs existed prior to micros?
If I were to have had lower case capability with punch cards (I only had
access to common models of 026 and 029), I would have used punchcards for
word processing! I did use them for such trivia as the single page list
of names and phone numbers that I needed.
In 1968, I did word-processing on a time-sharing system, while I was
working at Goddard Space Flight Center. THAT, of course, was not
PUBLISHED work. My first PUBLISHED book was my Honda book, for which I
used TRS-80.
Microcomputers were NOT the first computers capable of word-processing.
The word processing capability of late 1960s time sharing systems WAS
being used for manuscripts, often on the sly to keep the boss from
freaking out over the bills for use!
You are not likely to find the "TRUE first", only "A first", or "some of
the first".
Maybe even the "FIRST to be a major best-seller". THEN you have a
researchable claim, without all of the unpublished manuscripts in attics.
Jerry's [disputable] claim was to have been the first author to write a
PUBLISHED BOOK on computer.
And, there were authors using computers, for whom using the computer was
NOT an important aspect to them. Some published books prior to his may
have been written on computer, without having made a big deal out of that!
Just like Osborne was NOT "THE FIRST" portable microcomputer. We had the
Elcompco earlier (a few different single board machines with 5" monitor
in a Halliburton attache case), and I know that we were not the first.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
