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24-524: Prior to the advent of the Bank Street Writer, most word processors ran on networked minicomputers. The most popular word processor for the personal computer was Apple Writer , which (prior to the version II release) operated in Apple's text mode where all text consisted of uppercase letters. Apple Writer used a black-on-white character to represent an actual capital letter. Microcomputer word processors of

48-534: A macro -like resource that allows certain tasks to be automated. Apple Writer II files save as standard text files rather than binary files. This program was released in 1982 for the Apple /// , and uses that computer's enhanced capabilities. Released in 1983, Apple Writer IIe supports the Apple IIe 's 80-column display and full keyboard, and has the ability to create larger files, print files to disk, and directly connect

72-502: A good proportion of BSW users are adults. Designing a program for children, the Bank Street team inadvertently responded to a challenge the entire software industry faces: making computers accessible to people who do not understand machines and do not want to read manuals." ANALOG Computing stated that Bank Street Writer was suited for home users wanting to write letters and school reports, albeit lacking footnotes. The author criticized

96-513: A mixture of experienced technology journalists and working technology practitioners. The site averages 4.6 million monthly page views and 1.1 million monthly unique visitors. The magazine was founded by Jim Warren in 1978 as The Intelligent Machines Journal ( IMJ ). It was sold to IDG in late 1979. On 18 February 1980, the magazine name was changed to InfoWorld . In 1986, the Robert X. Cringely column began; for many, that pseudonymous column

120-462: A modern-day reference to the Bank Street Readers, a widely respected early learning book series created in the 1960s by Bank Street College. The school version of the Bank Street Writer was published by Scholastic Inc. and included a series of workbooks and other teacher and student materials. The Bank Street Writer became the leading word processor used in elementary schools throughout most of

144-436: A new contract with royalties because, he said, "no one at Apple was able to make the improvements that were needed for the next version". He reportedly began receiving more royalties daily than the $ 7500 one-time fee Apple paid for the first version. Released in 1980, Apple Writer 1.1 supports Apple DOS 3.3 's newer 16-sector format. It also features a spell checker known as Goodspell and some minor bug fixes. Apple Writer II

168-409: A perfect word processor ... but Bank Street Writer Plus brings us a little closer to the unattainable." InfoWorld praised the software's ease of use, stating that they used their review copy for 2 hours before opening the manual. PC Magazine criticized BSW's user friendly approach of only offering one way to access functionality as limiting for more experienced users, saying there should be

192-466: A way to bypass the menus. Apple Writer Apple Writer is a discontinued word processor for the Apple II family of personal computers. It was created by Paul Lutus and published in 1979 by Apple Computer . Paul Lutus wrote Apple Writer, a word processor for the Apple II series of personal computers, alone in a small cottage he built himself atop a hill in the woods of Oregon , connected to

216-617: Is an American information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group , and its sister publications include Macworld and PC World . InfoWorld is based in San Francisco , with contributors and supporting staff based across the U.S. Since its founding, InfoWorld ' s readership has largely consisted of IT and business professionals. InfoWorld focuses on how-to, analysis, and editorial content from

240-410: Is specified with escape-commands, which varies depending on the printer. Common commands include Esc-X to begin underlining, and Esc-Y to end underlining. Apple Writer was very successful, with sales by Apple Computer of $ 1.5 million in the 16 months through May 1982. Lutus's royalties reached "six figures" in 1981 and were estimated to reach $ 250,000 in 1982. II Computing listed Apple Writer third on

264-588: The electricity grid via 1,200 feet (370 m) of cable strung in trees . Published in 1979 by Apple Computer after the company purchased the rights for $ 7500, the original version of Apple Writer runs from a 13- sector DOS 3.2 diskette and supports 40-column text display. It displays text entirely in uppercase, but case can be toggled by pressing the ESC key; characters that the user signified as uppercase appear in inverse (black-on-white) capitals, while characters in lowercase appear as standard capitals. The names of

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288-512: The 1980s. During this period, Bank Street College, led by its president, Richard Ruopp, did pioneering work in the use of technology in elementary schools. Among the results were the Bank Street Writer and The Voyage of the Mimi , a groundbreaking science-based TV series. The interface contains menus listing the operations the word processor can perform, such as "cut" and "paste", and brief directions for how to perform each function. The design addressed

312-423: The binary files Apple Writer 1.0 produces begin with the prefix "TEXT". The program's ability to print to printers using a game paddle port as a serial interface is an undocumented feature . Apple did not publicize the information due to the risk of damage to the computer or printer, but Lutus described how to build the serial cable in a letter to BYTE . After Apple Writer became very popular, Lutus signed

336-597: The computer keyboard to a printer for typewriter-like operation. Apple Writer 2.0 was released in September 1984 and is the first version of the series to run under ProDOS . It allows users to set screen margins and to connect the computer's keyboard to a modem as a rudimentary terminal program . Published in late 1985, this version corrects a problem with parallel printer cards present in 2.0 and changes printed characters from low- ASCII to high-ASCII, correcting an issue with certain interface cards and printers. Following

360-400: The early 1980s typically had no menus; so to perform basic functions such as copying and pasting, a writer had to type a series of keystrokes. The Bank Street Writer operated in graphics mode , where characters were displayed normally with lower and upper case letters, and it provided helpful prompts during editing. The Bank Street Writer was initially designed for use in schools. The name was

384-480: The family, and for those whose writing needs are on a small scale. This is a really good first word processor - for someone new to the Atari." Byte said that it was "a good word processor, but it has limited uses". While approving of its ease of use, the magazine criticized its 38x18 screen as "simply too small to display any but the simplest documents". Compute! said of an updated version, "There will probably never be

408-514: The magazine's list of top Apple II software as of late 1985, based on sales and market-share data. David Thornburg of Compute! wrote in 1980 "I have looked at other text editors for the Apple, some of which were overloaded with features. Given the hardware limitations of the Apple II, I feel that Apple Writer is a very useful document creation tool", and stated that he wrote the review with Apple Writer. InfoWorld InfoWorld ( IW )

432-477: The need for a word processor that would enable elementary school children to use a computer to write stories and essays. Bank Street Writer is a modal editor - pressing the Esc key toggled between editing mode and menu mode. Broderbund published a successful home version of the Bank Street Writer, which did not contain the additional school materials and was published as a retail software product. The Bank Street Writer

456-454: The program was the subject of a laudatory story in Time about how the Bank Street Writer ("BSW") was introducing word processing into the classroom. From the article: "Children who once struggled to write two-page stories are churning out five pages or more." and "Most important, the children cheerfully tackle the messy business of revision." The article concluded: "Judging from recent sales, however,

480-428: The slow speed of the word processor for documents of three or more pages, reporting that he gave up on using it to write the review, but concluded that "in spite of its shortcomings, BSW is the easiest word processor program" for Atari 8-bit computers and that it "has almost everything going for it—it is up to the user to decide if it goes far enough". Antic wrote, "The Bank Street Writer was designed for use at home by

504-521: The success of AppleWorks , Apple discontinued the Apple Writer series. Lutus agreed in 1992 to make his program available on a freeware basis; it can be copied freely and given away, but cannot be sold for a profit. Apple Writer uses inline commands, so formatting does not appear on-screen; it appears when the document is printed. Paragraph formatting is specified with dot-commands, each of which requires its own line. For example: Character formatting

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528-483: Was for several years the best-selling product in the "home software" category on what was then the most respected sales chart in the industry - the Softsel Hot List , from Softsel Distributing of Inglewood, California . II Computing listed Bank Street Writer eighth on the magazine's list of top Apple II non-game, non-educational software as of late 1985, based on sales and market-share data. At its introduction,

552-481: Was released in 1981 and, like its predecessor, runs on DOS 3.3 on an Apple II Plus . Unlike the original, Apple Writer II can display both upper and lower case characters and, with a Sup'R'Terminal card in slot 3, supports both 40- and 80-column text. It also wraps text too long to appear on the current line rather than breaking it mid-word, and includes a glossary and the Word Processing Language (WPL),

576-442: Was the face of InfoWorld and its close ties to Silicon Valley in particular. Up to and including the 15 June 1987 issue 24, volume 9, InfoWorld was published by Popular Computing, Inc. , a subsidiary of CW Communications, Inc. Since then it has been published by InfoWorld Publishing, Inc., a subsidiary of IDG Communications, Inc. Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe was CEO and publisher from 1991 to 1996, and contributed

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