6 ms·

I'd never heard of Word Writer before. I found the manual on archive.org [1]. I love how the algorithm for how the spell checker works is described by the manua

I'd never heard of Word Writer before. I found the manual on archive.org [1]. I love how the algorithm for how the spell checker works is described by the manual! Also that's one fancy manual for the 1980s - they even have icons that represent the keystrokes in the manual. [1] https://archive.org/details/Word_Writer_6_Users_Manual_1991_Timeworks_Inc/page/n17/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/Word_Writer_6_Users_Manual_1991_...

pvg 4y ago
An Apple manual from the end of the 70s: https://archive.org/details/The_Applesoft_Tutorial_HQ_color/page/n19/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/The_Applesoft_Tutorial_HQ_color/... And they only got fancier from there. If anything, current manuals and books are a lot less frilly than your typical early personal computer manual.
layer8 4y ago
The manual is also in the GitHub repo: https://github.com/jefflomax/word-writer-6-commodore-64/blob/master/docs/Word_Writer_6_Users_Manual_1991_Timeworks_Inc.pdf https://github.com/jefflomax/word-writer-6-commodore-64/blob...
selcuka 4y ago
> Also that's one fancy manual for the 1980s Note that this version of the manual was published in 1991.
jandrese 4y ago
Getting a spell checker working on a machine with 64kB of RAM and a very slow disk with only 170kB of storage is black magic. Start thinking about how you would do it and check the size of the dictionary and it seems like a miracle to get it working at all.
- localhost 4y ago
  I wrote the spell checker for WordPro 64. I had to invent a data compression algorithm based on something that I read in an Encyclopedia Brown story to fit the 70k word dictionary onto that 170k floppy. I also wrote one of the original Fastload cartridges (the GT4, also sold by Pro Line software) which was bundled with WordPro 64. So I’m pretty familiar with this problem domain :)

6 ms·

I'd never heard of Word Writer before. I found the manual on archive.org [1]. I love how the algorithm for how the spell checker works is described by the manua

by localhost 4y ago

pvg 4y ago
An Apple manual from the end of the 70s: https://archive.org/details/The_Applesoft_Tutorial_HQ_color/page/n19/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/The_Applesoft_Tutorial_HQ_color/... And they only got fancier from there. If anything, current manuals and books are a lot less frilly than your typical early personal computer manual.
layer8 4y ago
The manual is also in the GitHub repo: https://github.com/jefflomax/word-writer-6-commodore-64/blob/master/docs/Word_Writer_6_Users_Manual_1991_Timeworks_Inc.pdf https://github.com/jefflomax/word-writer-6-commodore-64/blob...
selcuka 4y ago
> Also that's one fancy manual for the 1980s Note that this version of the manual was published in 1991.
jandrese 4y ago
Getting a spell checker working on a machine with 64kB of RAM and a very slow disk with only 170kB of storage is black magic. Start thinking about how you would do it and check the size of the dictionary and it seems like a miracle to get it working at all.
- localhost 4y ago
  I wrote the spell checker for WordPro 64. I had to invent a data compression algorithm based on something that I read in an Encyclopedia Brown story to fit the 70k word dictionary onto that 170k floppy. I also wrote one of the original Fastload cartridges (the GT4, also sold by Pro Line software) which was bundled with WordPro 64. So I’m pretty familiar with this problem domain :)