Talk:EasyWriter

Untitled

EasyWriter was the first textprocessor for Apple II according to John Draper. Draper ported it to IBM PC. --195.14.198.199 18:49, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

Easy Rider

John Draper (aka Cap'n Crunch) wrote an word processor program called "TextWriter" after being sentenced for "Title 18, Section 1343: Fraud by wire" (phone phreaking). Woz gave him Apple II with printer to work with. Later this software was renamed "EasyWriter" after the movie "Easy Rider". [1] Talamus 20:15, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Significance

It would be nice if an old-timer can expand this article to assert the notability of this software, eg. by providing sales figures, or influences from and on other word processors, or quotes from some important bloke. ~ Jafet (spam) 14:14, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, notability is a concern as the article stood. "First word processor for the Apple II" and released by IBM with the release of the IBM PC are both pretty strong claims to notability, though, and I've made both statements clear (or I'm trying to at least! ;) --Joe Decker (talk) 03:43, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I removed this section for verifiability....

But I do think it potentially could be salvaged, so I'm saving a copy here for future cleanup and reinstatement.

It seems this version of events was promulgated by the Wall Street Journal. In fact, Draper describes the development of EasyWriter on his own webpage as follows :

Draper was in prison, in California, at the time, but under a work furlough program. This meant that whilst he had to spend every night in prison, he spent each day working a regular job, outside prison.

This job was at Receiving Studios, a small band practice studio, and whilst there he had access to a computer, where he coded EasyWriter. He did take copies of the code 'home' to prison overnight to work on it.

The implication by 'The Wall Street Journal' that he wrote the code in prison, only to enter it into a computer after completion is clearly a misleading exaggeration. --Joe Decker (talk) 03:41, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

What I had thought (and I think the previous author had thought) was a contradiction in where EW was authored (Alameda vs. Lompoc) is not in fact a contradiction. Lompoc isn't in the bay area, the furlough program placed him in (presumably Alameda) the Bay Area at the end of his sentence. This is consistent with the text of both references. --Joe Decker (talk) 07:33, 3 March 2010 (UTC)