IBM PC Text
DisplayWrite , in German-speaking countries PC Text , is a family of word processing programs from the manufacturer IBM, first published in 1980 .
For word processing systems, mini and mainframes
DisplayWrite initially ran on the IBM 6580 DisplayWriter (in German-speaking countries: writing system ) - a word processing system that was sold from 1980 to 1986 and that was to succeed the electric typewriter. In the late 1980s a program version called continued display / 36 for the IBM minicomputer type System / 36 available. Today the program is only supported in the form of the WYSIWYG text processing DisplayWrite / 370 (in German-speaking countries / 370Text ) on System / 370 mainframes.
In order to be able to offer the DisplayWrite text editor family on all operating systems sold by IBM, the latter version had already been developed in the 1980s. It had numerous modern functions that seem natural for today's word processing, for example automatic line breaks, different fonts, page formatting, headers and footers, spell check, automatic word separation at the end of a line, etc. A special feature and restriction, however, is the only input device it supports, the IBM 3270 terminal , which does not allow the software to control which keys are pressed.
For personal computers
DisplayWrite or PC Text , as it is called on the German market, is the version for PC DOS and OS / 2 . While version 2 from 1984 only had rudimentary functions (including a spell correction program), version 4 from 1987 , which can be operated with the mouse, contained functions for form letters or extended text display options, but still without WYSIWYG . The documents created with the program used the abbreviation "DOC" as the file name extension (not to be confused with the Microsoft Word format). For mainframes, texts can be exported in RFT ( Revisable Form Text ) or in DCA ( Document Content Architecture ) format , both of which are standard formats on IBM mainframes.
After DisplayWrite 4 or IBM PC Text 4, the first version of this program for the new PS / 2 computers with the OS / 2 operating system, came onto the market in 1987, the last edition for classic was published in December 1990 with version 5 DOS .
literature
- Eva Schleicher, Norbert Reithmann: The IBM PC Text 3 word processing system . Markt & Technik, Haar b. Munich 1987, ISBN 3-89090-432-7
- Klaus Fietzek: Guide to word processing with IBM PC Text 4 and 5 , Markt & Technik, Haar b. Munich 1990, ISBN 3-89090-781-4