Electric Pencil
 |
IBM PC | |
|---|---|
| Type | Word processor |
Electric Pencil, released in December 1976 by Michael Shrayer, was the first word processor for home computers.
History
In 1975, Michael Shrayer had moved to California after 20 years as a New York filmmaker. Enjoying assembling
Having never heard of a "
Electric Pencil was the first program for microcomputers to implement a basic feature of word processors: word wrap, in which lines are adjusted as words are inserted and deleted.[citation needed]
Electric Pencil's market dominance might have continued had Shrayer continued to update it. Many imitators appeared, however, including
Notable use
Jerry Pournelle is recognized as the first author to have written a published portion of a book using a word processor on a personal computer, using Electric Pencil for that purpose. In 1977, Pournelle was shown the program and decided it would help his productivity by making it easier to produce a final manuscript without requiring a complete retyping of edited pages.[9]
References
- ^ Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2014.
- ^ a b c Freiberger, Paul (1982-05-10). "Electric Pencil, first micro word processor". InfoWorld. p. 12. Retrieved March 5, 2011.
- ^ ISBN 0-07-135892-7.
- ^ S2CID 18895790.
- ^ a b Shrayer, Michael (November 1984). "Confessions of a naked programmer". Creative Computing. p. 130. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
- ^ a b Reed, Matthew. "Electric Pencil". trs-80.org. Retrieved March 5, 2011.
- ^ Freiberger, Paul (1983-10-03). "A new release of Electric Pencil uses all IBM PC's function keys". InfoWorld. p. 7. Retrieved March 5, 2011.
- ^ Fallows, James (July 1982). "Living With a Computer". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
- ^ Liptak, Andrew (September 9, 2017). "RIP Jerry Pournelle, the first author to write a novel on a computer". The Verge. Retrieved December 28, 2017.