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1st Word
1st Word is a word processor program for the Atari ST developed by GST Computer Systems and published in 1985. It was given away with all ST systems from December 1985 for the next two years. Although it was relatively well received, it was a very simple program, lacking most power features and was very slow when working in large documents. Despite these limitations, its wide availability made the program's .DOC file format become a de facto standard for the platform and it was widely supported by other programs like desktop publishing systems.
1st Word Plus was a greatly improved version released by GST when the bundling deal ended in 1987. This addressed performance issues and added dozens of features that made it one of the faster and most feature-packed word processors on the platform. Among its more notable additions were a spell checker, mail merge, and support for footnotes and similar long-document editing features. This became one of the best-selling programs on the ST and saw a number of revisions over its lifetime. Plus was later ported to the Acorn Archimedes and IBM PC under GEM as First Word Plus.
In 1990, an entirely unrelated program known as 1st Word Plus 4.0 was released by Compo Software. This used a new file format, and while it could load files from the original 1st Word, the older versions could not read the newer files.
Atari released the ST in the summer of 1985, and to ensure there was some useful software at release, they bundled it with the ST Writer word processor. This was a purely text-mode program that had been ported from the best-selling Atari 8-bit program, AtariWriter. The company made it clear ST Writer was being offered only as a stop-gap solution while a graphical user interface (GUI) program was being developed, known as GEMwrite.
For reasons unknown, the company contracted GST Computer Systems of Cambridge, UK to port their Sinclair QL products to the ST. In December 1985, Atari began bundling their 1st Word with the ST. At the time Atari suggested this would be a short-term arrangement while GEMwrite was completed, but from this point on any mention of GEMwrite disappears and it was never released.
The bundling deal with GST would last for two years. When the deal concluded in late 1987, GST released 1st Word Plus, a major update. This became a best-seller for the rest of the platform's history. 1st Word Plus version 2.0 credits Mike Bees, Howard Chalkley, Phil Champ, Martin Dickens, Chris Scheybeler, and Alun Gladman. GST continued updating the program on the ST, releasing 3.0 in late 1998. A series of 3.x releases followed, finishing with 3.20TT in January or February 1991. This version had been updated to work on the Atari TT030 series machines, along with a number of other fixes.
Acorn Computers commissioned GST to make a version known as First Word Plus available for the Archimedes range of computers. It was released on the Arthur operating system in 1988, priced at £92. After the release of RISC OS, a new version of the software was released to take advantage of the multi-tasking environment. This version did not make use of the system's own printing architecture and accompanying drivers, retaining its own drivers to take advantage of printer features such as "near-letter quality" modes. Also priced at £92, with an upgrade from the earlier version costing £45, the software was regarded as not providing any "giant leap forward in capability" from similar products on Acorn's 8-bit computers, but nevertheless made the activities of such a "simple system" easier to accomplish on the more capable hardware, lending itself to efficient use of dot-matrix or daisy wheel printers. It was also considered a useful companion to Acorn Desktop Publisher - a derivative of GST's Timeworks software - making a "neat system" for users with 2 MB of RAM. Other vendors of Document Processors, for RISC OS, offered support for the 1st Word file format, with the likes of EasiWriter / TechWriter offering the ability to convert 1st Word documents to its own, text, RTF, HTML, Microsoft Word, Open Doc, Postscript, or TeX files.
A PC version was produced that ran using Digital Research's GEM interface. Other versions were produced for the Torch XXX and for Digital Research's CP/M and FlexOS.
Hub AI
1st Word AI simulator
(@1st Word_simulator)
1st Word
1st Word is a word processor program for the Atari ST developed by GST Computer Systems and published in 1985. It was given away with all ST systems from December 1985 for the next two years. Although it was relatively well received, it was a very simple program, lacking most power features and was very slow when working in large documents. Despite these limitations, its wide availability made the program's .DOC file format become a de facto standard for the platform and it was widely supported by other programs like desktop publishing systems.
1st Word Plus was a greatly improved version released by GST when the bundling deal ended in 1987. This addressed performance issues and added dozens of features that made it one of the faster and most feature-packed word processors on the platform. Among its more notable additions were a spell checker, mail merge, and support for footnotes and similar long-document editing features. This became one of the best-selling programs on the ST and saw a number of revisions over its lifetime. Plus was later ported to the Acorn Archimedes and IBM PC under GEM as First Word Plus.
In 1990, an entirely unrelated program known as 1st Word Plus 4.0 was released by Compo Software. This used a new file format, and while it could load files from the original 1st Word, the older versions could not read the newer files.
Atari released the ST in the summer of 1985, and to ensure there was some useful software at release, they bundled it with the ST Writer word processor. This was a purely text-mode program that had been ported from the best-selling Atari 8-bit program, AtariWriter. The company made it clear ST Writer was being offered only as a stop-gap solution while a graphical user interface (GUI) program was being developed, known as GEMwrite.
For reasons unknown, the company contracted GST Computer Systems of Cambridge, UK to port their Sinclair QL products to the ST. In December 1985, Atari began bundling their 1st Word with the ST. At the time Atari suggested this would be a short-term arrangement while GEMwrite was completed, but from this point on any mention of GEMwrite disappears and it was never released.
The bundling deal with GST would last for two years. When the deal concluded in late 1987, GST released 1st Word Plus, a major update. This became a best-seller for the rest of the platform's history. 1st Word Plus version 2.0 credits Mike Bees, Howard Chalkley, Phil Champ, Martin Dickens, Chris Scheybeler, and Alun Gladman. GST continued updating the program on the ST, releasing 3.0 in late 1998. A series of 3.x releases followed, finishing with 3.20TT in January or February 1991. This version had been updated to work on the Atari TT030 series machines, along with a number of other fixes.
Acorn Computers commissioned GST to make a version known as First Word Plus available for the Archimedes range of computers. It was released on the Arthur operating system in 1988, priced at £92. After the release of RISC OS, a new version of the software was released to take advantage of the multi-tasking environment. This version did not make use of the system's own printing architecture and accompanying drivers, retaining its own drivers to take advantage of printer features such as "near-letter quality" modes. Also priced at £92, with an upgrade from the earlier version costing £45, the software was regarded as not providing any "giant leap forward in capability" from similar products on Acorn's 8-bit computers, but nevertheless made the activities of such a "simple system" easier to accomplish on the more capable hardware, lending itself to efficient use of dot-matrix or daisy wheel printers. It was also considered a useful companion to Acorn Desktop Publisher - a derivative of GST's Timeworks software - making a "neat system" for users with 2 MB of RAM. Other vendors of Document Processors, for RISC OS, offered support for the 1st Word file format, with the likes of EasiWriter / TechWriter offering the ability to convert 1st Word documents to its own, text, RTF, HTML, Microsoft Word, Open Doc, Postscript, or TeX files.
A PC version was produced that ran using Digital Research's GEM interface. Other versions were produced for the Torch XXX and for Digital Research's CP/M and FlexOS.