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Atari Word Processor
Atari Word Processor is a word processor program for the Atari 8-bit computers, announced by Atari, Inc. in January 1981 and shipped that summer. The program was powerful for its era, including numerous features like superscripts and two-column layouts. It was also quite complex, with a long list of control keys for basic operations and text-based menus for more complex ones. It left little memory free after loading, so longer documents had to be stored as separate files of about a page each and printing demanded a long re-formatting process as they were stitched together.
Technical requirements were demanding; it required 48 kB of RAM, required at least one floppy disk drive, and required an external parallel port adaptor to connect to a dot-matrix printer. The limited machine support and demanding requirements led Atari to release AtariWriter the next year with the launch of the XL series machines. AtariWriter offered most of the features of Word Processor but was much easier to use and shipped on a single 16 kB ROM cartridge that ran across the entire lineup.
The first Atari 8-bit computers, the 400 and 800, began shipping in November 1979. The original idea for having two members of the family was to sell the 800 into the professional market, then dominated by CP/M machines and the Apple II, while the 400 was aimed at children, education and gaming. Very little business software was available at launch, and the machines garnered a reputation, in keeping with Atari's history, as glorified games consoles.
After a year, the company decided that professional software was going to be required if they hoped to sell the 800 into the business market. Among the many programs being used on CP/M, word processing had emerged as a significant force and WordStar had become a major market unto itself. With no comparable system available on their platform, at the Winter CES on 8 January 1981, Atari announced they would be releasing their own. It was first mentioned in print in the March/April 1981 edition of ANALOG Computing. The program shipped that summer. Normally $149, between September 1 and October 31 it was offered free to anyone that purchased an 800 and 810 disk drive.
The program ran only on the Atari 800 with 48 kB of RAM and operating system "B" ROMs, which was the vast majority of 800 production. It would run on a 400 if expanded to 48 kB, but this was not officially supported and voided the computer's warranty. It also needed at least one disk drive, and to print, the 850 Interface Module along with a suitable Centronics-port based printer like the Atari 825.
With the introduction of the 1200XL in 1983, Atari needed a new word processor that ran in the expanded operating system and memory. Instead of upgrading Atari Word Processor, they hired the author of a well-received 3rd party product and introduced the entirely new AtariWriter. This was in the form of a 16 kB ROM cartridge that ran on all of the Atari lineup even with as little as 16 kB RAM.
The program shipped on two floppy disks, a copy protected one containing the program itself, and another unprotected disk with various document examples for training. It also included a cassette tape that included a lengthy audio recording used as training aid. The manual set was in three parts, an alphabetical reference, a training guide, and a one-sheet quick reference. The resulting set was packaged in a three-ring binder designed to stand up on a desk for easy reference. If the original program disk stopped working, there was no recourse, as Atari did not offer low-cost replacements.
Movement and basic editing were handled using an extensive list of control keys. Basic cursor movement did not use the cursor keys, nor did they follow the WordStar pattern in spite of those being the de facto standard of the era. More complex editing and other commands were accessed through multi-level menus, entered by pressing Escape and returning to the editor with the Edit command.
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Atari Word Processor
Atari Word Processor is a word processor program for the Atari 8-bit computers, announced by Atari, Inc. in January 1981 and shipped that summer. The program was powerful for its era, including numerous features like superscripts and two-column layouts. It was also quite complex, with a long list of control keys for basic operations and text-based menus for more complex ones. It left little memory free after loading, so longer documents had to be stored as separate files of about a page each and printing demanded a long re-formatting process as they were stitched together.
Technical requirements were demanding; it required 48 kB of RAM, required at least one floppy disk drive, and required an external parallel port adaptor to connect to a dot-matrix printer. The limited machine support and demanding requirements led Atari to release AtariWriter the next year with the launch of the XL series machines. AtariWriter offered most of the features of Word Processor but was much easier to use and shipped on a single 16 kB ROM cartridge that ran across the entire lineup.
The first Atari 8-bit computers, the 400 and 800, began shipping in November 1979. The original idea for having two members of the family was to sell the 800 into the professional market, then dominated by CP/M machines and the Apple II, while the 400 was aimed at children, education and gaming. Very little business software was available at launch, and the machines garnered a reputation, in keeping with Atari's history, as glorified games consoles.
After a year, the company decided that professional software was going to be required if they hoped to sell the 800 into the business market. Among the many programs being used on CP/M, word processing had emerged as a significant force and WordStar had become a major market unto itself. With no comparable system available on their platform, at the Winter CES on 8 January 1981, Atari announced they would be releasing their own. It was first mentioned in print in the March/April 1981 edition of ANALOG Computing. The program shipped that summer. Normally $149, between September 1 and October 31 it was offered free to anyone that purchased an 800 and 810 disk drive.
The program ran only on the Atari 800 with 48 kB of RAM and operating system "B" ROMs, which was the vast majority of 800 production. It would run on a 400 if expanded to 48 kB, but this was not officially supported and voided the computer's warranty. It also needed at least one disk drive, and to print, the 850 Interface Module along with a suitable Centronics-port based printer like the Atari 825.
With the introduction of the 1200XL in 1983, Atari needed a new word processor that ran in the expanded operating system and memory. Instead of upgrading Atari Word Processor, they hired the author of a well-received 3rd party product and introduced the entirely new AtariWriter. This was in the form of a 16 kB ROM cartridge that ran on all of the Atari lineup even with as little as 16 kB RAM.
The program shipped on two floppy disks, a copy protected one containing the program itself, and another unprotected disk with various document examples for training. It also included a cassette tape that included a lengthy audio recording used as training aid. The manual set was in three parts, an alphabetical reference, a training guide, and a one-sheet quick reference. The resulting set was packaged in a three-ring binder designed to stand up on a desk for easy reference. If the original program disk stopped working, there was no recourse, as Atari did not offer low-cost replacements.
Movement and basic editing were handled using an extensive list of control keys. Basic cursor movement did not use the cursor keys, nor did they follow the WordStar pattern in spite of those being the de facto standard of the era. More complex editing and other commands were accessed through multi-level menus, entered by pressing Escape and returning to the editor with the Edit command.