Electric Pencil
| Electric Pencil | |
|---|---|
| Basic data
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| developer | Electric Software Co. |
| Publishing year | 1976 |
| Current version | 3.0 (DOS) (1987) |
| operating system | CP / M , DOS |
| category | Word processing |
| License | Proprietary |
The computer program Electric Pencil , released in 1976, was the first word processing program for home computers .
Development history
The program was developed from 1975 by the American programmer Michael Shrayer. The first version appeared for the MITS Altair 8800 . In the period that followed until 1980, 78 different versions were created for different computers and operating systems, including: a. for the Processor Technology Sol-20, the NorthStar Horizon and TRS-80 . In January 1981 IJG Computer Services took over the distribution of the product. Dale Buscaino and Scott Daniel from Progressive Software Design made a version for the IBM PC in 1982 . Electric Pencil was resold to Electric Software Corporation in 1986.
In Germany, the program was sold by the company Ing.W. Hofacker GmbH in Holzkirchen near Munich.
The program Electric Pencil was written in the 8080 machine language and could therefore also be used on all computers that had a Zilog Z80 processor.
The popularity decreased again after the release of the WordStar program .
Versions
- 1978: Electric Pencil II - for CP / M and TRSDOS
- 1982: Electric Pencil 2.0
- 1987: Electric Pencil 3.0 - IBM PC
literature
- Paul Freiberger, Michael Swaine: Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer . McGraw-Hill, January 1985, ISBN 0-88134-121-5 , pages 147-148.
- Michael Schrayer: Electric Pencil: Professional word processing for IBM-PC and compatibles , Hofacker 1986, ISBN 3-88963-225-4
