Word Processors
Programs that help one manage an extended piece of writing.
The definition is blurry. In my mind, what makes a word processor different from a text editor is its ability to manage the structure of multiple sections of a larger work of prose. Note that this definition doesn’t require a word processor to have any formatting capabilities at all.
Hardware
- The Canon Cat was a short-lived computer appliance designed by a team led by Jef Raskin, notable for the LEAP keys under its space bar that let you navigate a document by typing where you wanted to go.
- The Wang WPS was the first CRT-based word processor, and was popular in the United States in the early 1980s.
- AlphaSmart made a number of word processing machines that used a small LCD to show a few lines of what you were writing.
Software
There are the common, kitchen-sink word processing programs that everyone already knows about. They aren’t very interesting to my research, so they aren’t listed here.
CLI Programs
These run in a terminal or console. They’re often lightweight and excel at maximizing keyboard usage.
- WordStar is a beloved word processor for MS-DOS, notable for still being used by the author George R. R. Martin. There’s a clone of it called WordTsar.
- WordGrinder is a word processor for the terminal, designed to “…get the hell out of your way and let you get some work done.”
GUI Programs
These resemble what most people picture when they think of a word processor.
- iA Writer is a popular macOS application that uses Markdown as its document format.
- Scrivener focuses on book-length works, and on collecting research material alongside the prose.
- Bitters is a text editor heavily inspired by the Canon Cat, with its own implementation of the Cat’s LEAP keys for moving around a document.