Re: WordCheck app, circa 1980

From: Bill Degnan <billdegnan_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2019 19:21:16 -0500
Message-ID: <CABGJBucOLrOzSvQ6J_9OE8df4mcxGeZOjnTv_ok7-K-fyjCiig@mail.gmail.com>
On Fri, Jan 4, 2019, 3:38 PM saipan59 <saipan59@q.com wrote:

> BTW, I have always "believed" that WordCheck was the first spell-checker
> (sold commercially) for microcomputers.
> If anyone knows of something earlier, please let me know. It would be good
> to know if my 'bragging rights' are valid ;-) . I don't know an exact
> release date for WordCheck, but it was before December 1980.
>
> A quick online search shows "SpellMaster" in 1982. It seems quite similar
> to
> WordCheck, but does not use my "root word" method (it seems to just store
> complete words in its dictionary).
> By 1984, ...
>


Wikipedia says 1980, so the question is which ones what months, etc.  You
may have the case that yours was a first if not the first, same year.

Bill
The first spell checkers for personal computers appeared for CP/M
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M> and TRS-80
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80> computers in 1980, followed by
packages for the IBM PC <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC> after it
was introduced in 1981. Developers such as Maria Mariani,[7]
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spell_checker#cite_note-cled.georgetown.edu-7>
 Random House <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_House>,[8]
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spell_checker#cite_note-pc198211-8> Soft-Art,
Microlytics, Proximity, Circle Noetics, and Reference Software[*citation
needed <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed>*] rushed
OEM <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_equipment_manufacturer> packages
or end-user products into the rapidly expanding software market, primarily
for the PC but also for Apple Macintosh
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Macintosh>, VAX
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/VAX>, and Unix
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix>. On the PCs, these spell checkers
were standalone programs, many of which could be run in TSR
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminate_and_Stay_Resident> mode from
within word-processing packages on PCs with sufficient memory.

>
Received on 2019-01-05 02:00:03

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