PC-Write was a computer

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word ...

and was one of the first three widely popular

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

products sold via the

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

method that became known as

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

. It was originally written by Bob Wallace in early 1983.

Overview

PC-Write is a

modeless In user interface design, a mode is a distinct setting within a computer program or any physical machine interface, in which the same user input will produce perceived results different from those that it would in other settings. Modal interfac ...

editor, using

control character In computing and telecommunications, a control character or non-printing character (NPC) is a code point in a character encoding, character set that does not represent a written Character (computing), character or symbol. They are used as in-ba ...

s and special

function key A function key is a key on a computer or computer terminal, terminal computer keyboard, keyboard that can be programmed to cause the operating system or an application program to perform certain actions, a form of soft key. On some keyboards/com ...

s to perform various editing operations. By default it aaccepts many of the same control key commands as

WordStar WordStar is a discontinued word processor application for microcomputers. It was published by MicroPro International and originally written for the CP/M-80 operating system (OS), with later editions added for MS-DOS and other 16-bit computing, ...

while adding many of its own features. It can produce plain

ASCII text ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...

files, but there are also features that embedded control characters in a document to support automatic section renumbering, bold and italic fonts, and other such. A feature that is useful in

list processing In computer science, a list or sequence is a collection of items that are finite in number and in a particular order. An instance of a list is a computer representation of the mathematical concept of a tuple or finite sequence. A list may conta ...

(as used in Auto LISP) is its ability to find matching open and closed

parenthesis A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

"( )"; this matching operation also worked for the other paired characters: , and < >. Lines beginning with particular control characters n and/or a period (.) contain commands that are evaluated when the document was printed, e.g. to specify margin sizes, select elite or pica type, or to specify the number of lines of text that would fit on a page, such as in

escape sequences In computer science, an escape sequence is a combination of characters that has a meaning other than the literal characters contained therein; it is marked by one or more preceding (and possibly terminating) characters. Examples * In C and ma ...

. PC-Write's implementation of free form editing can

copy and paste Cut, copy, and paste are essential Command (computing), commands of modern human–computer interaction and user interface design. They offer an interprocess communication technique for transferring data (computing), data through a computer's us ...

a block of text anywhere. For instance, if one has a block of information, one per line, in the format Name (spaces) Address, one can highlight only the addresses section and paste that into the right-hand part of a page. Today,

Emacs Emacs (), originally named EMACS (an acronym for "Editor Macros"), is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, s ...

and jEdit are also capable of performing this function. While Quicksoft distributed copies of PC-Write for $10, the company encouraged users to make copies of the program for others in an early example of

. Quicksoft asked those who liked PC-Write to send it $75. The sum provided a printed manual (notable for its many pictures of cats, drawn by Megan Dana-Wallace), telephone

technical support Technical support, commonly shortened as tech support, is a customer service provided to customers to resolve issues, commonly with consumer electronics. This is commonly provided via call centers, online chat and email. Many companies provid ...

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

, and a registration number that the user entered into his copy of the program. If anyone else paid the company $75 to purchase an already-registered copy of the software, the company paid a $25 commission back to the original registrant, and then issued a new number to the new buyer, thereby giving a financial incentive for buyers to distribute and promote the software. A configuration file allows customizing PC-Write, including remapping the keyboard. Later versions of the registered (paid for) version of the program include a

thesaurus A thesaurus (: thesauri or thesauruses), sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms, is a reference work which arranges words by their meanings (or in simpler terms, a book where one can find different words with similar me ...

(which was not shareware) along with the editor. In addition, there is vocabulary available in other languages, such as in German. Utilities are provided to convert PC-Write files to and from other contemporary file formats. One limitation of the software is its inability to print directly from memory; because the print function was a separate subprogram, a document must be saved to a file before it can be printed. PC-Write was reportedly still selling well in 1988. Bob Wallace found that running Quicksoft used so much of his time he could not improve the PC-Write software. In early 1991, he sold the firm to another

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

alumnus, Leo Nikora, the original product manager for Windows 1.0 (1983–1985). Leo Nikora purchases Quicksoft, Bob Wallace stays as lead programmer. Wallace returned to full programming and an updated version of PC-Write was released in June 1991. When the market changed to multi-program software (

office suite Productivity software (also called personal productivity software or office productivity software) is application software used for producing information (such as documents, presentations, worksheets, databases, charts, graphs, digital paintin ...

s combining

word processing A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicate ...

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in c ...

, and

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

programs), Quicksoft went out of business in 1993. The first

Trojan horse In Greek mythology, the Trojan Horse () was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer, Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending ...

(appearing in 1986), PC-Write Trojan, masqueraded as "version 2.72" of the shareware word processor PC-Write. Quicksoft did not release a version 2.72. PC-Write had one of the first "as you type", in "real-time mode"

spell checker In software, a spell checker (or spelling checker or spell check) is a software feature that checks for misspellings in a text. Spell-checking features are often embedded in software or services, such as a word processor, email client, electronic ...

; earlier spell checkers only work in "batch mode". Charles Spezzano. "Professional Word Processing Packages". Sectio
"PC-Write Version 2.71"
InfoWorld. 1987 April 13. p. 42. The Brown Bag Word Processor is based on PC-Write's source code, licensed by Brown Bag Software, with some minor modifications.

Reception

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and continues . Overview ''PC Mag ...

'' in 1984 stated that version 1.3 of "''PC-Write'' rates extremely well and compares favorably with many word processors costing much more". It cited very fast performance, good use of color, and availability of source code as advantages, while lack of built-in support for printing bold or underline and keyboard macros was a disadvantage. In a 1987 review of low-cost word processors, the magazine approved of version 2.7 power and speed, stating that its features "compare well against even some of the best professional word processors". While another program with

WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for what you see is what you get, refers to software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web ...

and context-sensitive help might be better for a novice, ''PC'' said, PC-Write "may be the only word processor you'll ever need". The same article said of Brown Bag Word Processor that those who wanted a

DOS shell DOS Shell is a file manager that debuted in MS-DOS and PC DOS version 4.0, released in June 1988. It was no longer included in MS-DOS version 6, but remained part of the Supplemental Disk. The Supplemental Disk could be ordered or could b ...

outliner An outliner (or outline processor) is a specialized type of text editor (word processor) used to create and edit Outline (list), outlines, which are text files which have a tree structure or a tree view, for organization. Textual information is co ...

, and other utilities should choose it over PC-Write, while those who did not should buy the otherwise-identical latter and save $40. ''

Compute! ''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', is an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET. ...

'' complimented PC-Write's "clean implementation of standard editing features", cited its "truly staggering" level of customization, and after mentioning a few flaws stated that they should be "viewed in context of the program's overall excellence".

References

External links

PC-WRITE: Quality Word Processing at a Price That's Hard to Beat
Review of PC-Write in ''COMPUTERS and COMPOSITION'' 2(4), August 1985, page 78. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pc-Write 1983 software Shareware Word processors DOS text editors

Overview

Reception

See also

References

External links