On Tue, 6 Jun 2000, Thomas Lisa wrote:
> The first place where I was hired as a Dir. of MIS, considered Computer Word
> Processing to be IBM Selectrics with memory!
Actually, the term "Word Processing" was coined by IBM. My father's
office had a number of "Mag Card Selectric Typewriters" which were
at the time very high-tech and expensive. A Selectric typewriter
was connected via an umbilical to a deskside unit about the height and
depth but half the width of a two-drawer file cabinet.
This device had a slot which accepted a magnetic coated card the same
size and shape as a Hollerith punch card. The typist would bang out a
rough draft in "record" mode, backspacing and typing over errors, onto
cheap paper. Then after proofreading and correction a piece of nice
letterhead was inserted and the machine was set to "playback", typing
a nice perfect copy. Each card held about a page of text. You could
have cards of "canned" boilerplate and have the machine stop to have
you switch cards.
I even got to use it on weekends and evenings for high school term
papers. At the time it was considered real space-age stuff. One of
my teachers always wanted an original and a copy of papers. Anyone
remember carbon paper? I just turned in two identical originals.
The teacher knew something very strange was going on, especailly in
cases where she would mark corrections and get back two fixed six-page
originals the next day. Truly great fun.
Probably used some of the same protocols at least as far as the Selectric
interface.
--
Jay Hennigan - Network Administration - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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