WriteNow
Encyclopedia
WriteNow was one of the two original word processor
applications
developed for the launch of the Apple Macintosh in 1984, and was the primary word processor for computers manufactured by NeXT
.
WriteNow was written for Apple Computer, Inc. by John Anderson and Bill Tschumy in Seattle, separate from the Macintosh computer and MacWrite
word processor development teams. Steve Jobs
was concerned that those programming MacWrite were not going to be ready for the 1984 release date of the Macintosh; he therefore commissioned a team of programmers to work independently on a similar project, which eventually became WriteNow. Members of the WriteNow team knew about MacWrite, but members of the MacWrite team did not know about WriteNow. Ultimately, MacWrite was completed on schedule and shipped with the Macintosh, while WriteNow was later made available as a commercial product after Steve Jobs left Apple to form NeXT
. WriteNow was originally owned by NeXT and published by the T/Maker
Company.
WriteNow improved on some of the limitations of MacWrite through the better handling of large documents and the adding of features such as spell check and footnotes. It was "lean and fast," being written entirely in assembly language
, and could fit with the Macintosh operating system
on a bootable 400 KB
floppy disk
. WriteNow went through several versions, culminating (in 1993) with version 4.0.2, which continued the "lean and fast" reputation while adding features such as tables and definable styles.
WriteNow represented what many saw as an ideal Macintosh application. It had a simple, intuitive graphical user interface (GUI
), no copy protection
, and it worked in practically every revision of the Macintosh operating system, including in the Mac 68k emulator
on PowerPC
Macs and in Mac OS Classic mode under Mac OS X
. Its biggest claim to fame, however, was its speed. It was written in assembly language
(Motorola 680x0) by a group of developers who had a reputation for producing extremely efficient code. The user interface
was unusual in that while the typical word processor had a ruler
embedded in the main document window, WriteNow used a separate, fixed window that could be sent into the background, freeing precious screen space on the compact Mac's nine inch screen for writing.
WriteNow was ported to the NeXT operating system and was subsequently bundled with NeXT stations until 1991. Due to concerns of third-party publishers such as WordPerfect
over the issue of competing with a free word processor, ownership of WriteNow for NeXT was transferred to T/Maker
and NeXT began including TextEdit
with its operating system.
Around 1993, rights to WriteNow (for both Macintosh and NeXT operating systems) were purchased by WordStar
. Shortly after that, WordStar was purchased by The Learning Company
, and WriteNow was discontinued. The lifecycle of computers using the 680x0 architecture was coming to an end, and the architecture-specific assembly language code that made WriteNow so much faster than its competitors also made it much more difficult to port to the new PowerPC
processor than competing word processors written in high level languages such as C
.
Word processor
A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
applications
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
developed for the launch of the Apple Macintosh in 1984, and was the primary word processor for computers manufactured by NeXT
NeXT
Next, Inc. was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets...
.
WriteNow was written for Apple Computer, Inc. by John Anderson and Bill Tschumy in Seattle, separate from the Macintosh computer and MacWrite
MacWrite
MacWrite was a word processor application released along with the first Apple Macintosh systems in 1984. It was the first such program that was widely available to the public to offer WYSIWYG operation, with multiple fonts and styles...
word processor development teams. Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
was concerned that those programming MacWrite were not going to be ready for the 1984 release date of the Macintosh; he therefore commissioned a team of programmers to work independently on a similar project, which eventually became WriteNow. Members of the WriteNow team knew about MacWrite, but members of the MacWrite team did not know about WriteNow. Ultimately, MacWrite was completed on schedule and shipped with the Macintosh, while WriteNow was later made available as a commercial product after Steve Jobs left Apple to form NeXT
NeXT
Next, Inc. was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets...
. WriteNow was originally owned by NeXT and published by the T/Maker
T/Maker
T/Maker Company was an early personal computer software company. Created in 1979 by software engineer Peter Roizen , the original product, "Table Maker," later shortened to "T/Maker," was one of the first spreadsheet programs designed for the personal computer user...
Company.
WriteNow improved on some of the limitations of MacWrite through the better handling of large documents and the adding of features such as spell check and footnotes. It was "lean and fast," being written entirely in assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
, and could fit with the Macintosh operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
on a bootable 400 KB
Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
floppy disk
Floppy disk
A floppy disk is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles...
. WriteNow went through several versions, culminating (in 1993) with version 4.0.2, which continued the "lean and fast" reputation while adding features such as tables and definable styles.
WriteNow represented what many saw as an ideal Macintosh application. It had a simple, intuitive graphical user interface (GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
), no copy protection
Copy protection
Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy obstruction, copy prevention and copy restriction, refer to techniques used for preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media, usually for copyright reasons.- Terminology :Media corporations have always used the term...
, and it worked in practically every revision of the Macintosh operating system, including in the Mac 68k emulator
Mac 68K emulator
The Mac 68K emulator was a software emulator built into all versions of the Mac OS for PowerPC. This emulator permitted the running of applications and system code that were originally written for the 680x0 based Macintosh models. The emulator was completely seamless for users, and reasonably...
on PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
Macs and in Mac OS Classic mode under Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. Its biggest claim to fame, however, was its speed. It was written in assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
(Motorola 680x0) by a group of developers who had a reputation for producing extremely efficient code. The user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
was unusual in that while the typical word processor had a ruler
Ruler
A ruler, sometimes called a rule or line gauge, is an instrument used in geometry, technical drawing, printing and engineering/building to measure distances and/or to rule straight lines...
embedded in the main document window, WriteNow used a separate, fixed window that could be sent into the background, freeing precious screen space on the compact Mac's nine inch screen for writing.
WriteNow was ported to the NeXT operating system and was subsequently bundled with NeXT stations until 1991. Due to concerns of third-party publishers such as WordPerfect
WordPerfect
WordPerfect is a word processing application, now owned by Corel.Bruce Bastian, a Brigham Young University graduate student, and BYU computer science professor Dr. Alan Ashton joined forces to design a word processing system for the city of Orem's Data General Corp. minicomputer system in 1979...
over the issue of competing with a free word processor, ownership of WriteNow for NeXT was transferred to T/Maker
T/Maker
T/Maker Company was an early personal computer software company. Created in 1979 by software engineer Peter Roizen , the original product, "Table Maker," later shortened to "T/Maker," was one of the first spreadsheet programs designed for the personal computer user...
and NeXT began including TextEdit
TextEdit
TextEdit is a simple, open source word processor and text editor, first featured in NeXT's NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP. It is now distributed with Mac OS X since Apple Inc.'s acquisition of NeXT, and available as a GNUstep application for other Unix-compatible operating systems such as Linux...
with its operating system.
Around 1993, rights to WriteNow (for both Macintosh and NeXT operating systems) were purchased by WordStar
WordStar
WordStar is a word processor application, published by MicroPro International, originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS, that enjoyed a dominant market share during the early to mid-1980s. Although Seymour I...
. Shortly after that, WordStar was purchased by The Learning Company
The Learning Company
The Learning Company is an American educational software company, founded in 1980. It produced a grade-based system similar to Knowledge Adventure's JumpStart series. The products for preschoolers through second graders feature Reader Rabbit, and software for more advanced students features The...
, and WriteNow was discontinued. The lifecycle of computers using the 680x0 architecture was coming to an end, and the architecture-specific assembly language code that made WriteNow so much faster than its competitors also made it much more difficult to port to the new PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
processor than competing word processors written in high level languages such as C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
.
External links
- Download WriteNow v1-4 at the Macintosh Garden
- WriteNow: Latest Info (Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
)