Witchpen

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Witchpen was an early word processing program for MS-DOS by Hannes Keller ( Hannes Keller Witch Systems Inc. ), a Swiss computer pioneer. Witchpen was available from February 1983 and the further development Witchpen times 5 from 1988. The programs were among the first with automatic spelling correction and WYSIWYG . Many modern word programs have taken over functions from Witchpen.

Technical

Witchpen times 5 ran from 256 kByte RAM (at a time when computers like the IBM PC XT were widespread), the instructions said: "At present there are still 6 characters free in the memory space! We would like to have some more functions in WITCHPEN, e.g. . E.g. the cursor jump to the end of the line, etc. - but unfortunately there is no more space. " It required 2 MB of memory on the hard disk, which was considered a huge amount for the time. But the system could also be operated on computers without a hard disk, but with floppy disk drives (5.25 ″ floppy disks), but when changing the program module, the memory content or the floppy disk had to be changed.

Depending on the configuration, the program could be used with a floppy disk drive (word processing program in RAM and a reduced dictionary in the drive and a possible disk change), with two floppy disk drives (drive A: with the word processor, drive B: with the dictionary) or with installation on a hard drive .

scope

The program was delivered on 13 floppy disks and contained the following modules, some of which were revolutionary at the time:

  • Word processing with quick dictionary, text design on the screen
  • Programming language HK
  • Address file and database
  • Witchpad, a graphics program
  • Job automation and WITCH-DOS
  • Additional programs (translation with dictionary, index and index, style analysis, formatting program, conversion for light typesetting and file types)

Additional modules, e.g. B. Special encyclopedias or dictionaries were optionally available at prices from 100 to 450 DM.

successor

When the word processing programs of large software houses such. B. Wordstar , Microsoft Word for Windows, IBM Writing Assistant, Q&A and others, became more and more widespread, the module Flash Dictionary was offered as an independent program under the name Ways for Windows for use with them. The program fit on a 3.5 ″ floppy disk and took up few resources.

Over 3 million copies were sold through Vobis alone , a German PC retail chain (some of them as basic equipment for Vobis computers) - a success for a small software company at the time.

Specialist literature

Web links