Re: Seattle STC Conference -- 1984!

[Sabahat Iqbal Ashraf <ashrafs -at- RPI -dot- EDU>]

On May 23, 11:20am, Walt Tucker wrote:
> Subject: Seattle STC Conference -- 1984!
> After attending the most recent Seattle STC conference, the proceedings
> for the last STC conference to be held in Seattle (1984) happened to catch
my
> eye.  Those proceedings have been sitting on my shelf for years!

> For those of us old farts who were fortunate to be technical writing at
> that time, we tend to forget how archaic things really were until we browse
> though topics that were considered "state of the art" at the time.
> (Note that, for the 1984 conference, most papers were submitted and based
> on work done in later 1982 and 1983).  For you young pups, let this be a
> lesson to you how hard life was back then.

> Harken back then, to a time when:

>   -- Many technical writers, especially at large companies with
>      the dollars to spend on computer equipment had, in the last few years
>      made the transition to "writing electronically".
>      But, writers at smaller companies who couldn't affort the $3000
>      for the newly-released IBM PC or additional dollars for a more
>      sophisticated system, were still doing work on typewriters.
>      Typesetting and pasteup were a traditional part of the production
>      process.

>      For older writers, the the world and the profession was changing
>      rapidly and the big question was "Could they learn how to use
>      the new computer equipment and learn enough computer skills to
>      stay employable in the rapidly changing market?"

>   -- Virtually all computer equipment we had was based on an 80 character
>      screen.  ASCII terminals connecting to a mainframe were common, but
>      the "personal computer", especially as a result of the introduction
>      of the IBM PC in 1982, was starting to make big in-roads.   Most
>      people had yet to see a windowed display; the
>      the Apple MacIntosh had just been released (after most papers
>      were written) and it was the big buzz, but most writers had
>      yet to see one.  And, who had yet heard of a mouse (except,
>      perhaps for a few Autocad users that had used them to digitize
>      schematics)?

>   -- Comparisons of state-of-the art word processing systems, such
>      as WordStar, Perfect Writer, ScriptSit were big STC topics.  Should
>      I use a word processing system?  If so, which one should I convince
>      my company to buy?  Could they afford a sophisticated and
>      expensive word processing system such as a WANG (the title of
>      one paper was "Planning and Implementing the Right Word Processing
>      System")?  Virtually no one had yet seen a WYSIWYG editor, and "Desk
Top
>      Publishing" was still a catch phrase about two years in the future.

>      Some papers based comparisons of word processing programs on how
>      many keystrokes it took to do specific functions, and one paper
>      offered a method to write your own word processing program (in BASIC,
>      no less).

>      Another paper promoted the advantages of a computer networks for
>      writers.  Yet another discussed how to move the editing function
>      online (items such as annotations and so on).  Radical stuff!

>   -- Some forward-thinkers were talking about moving documentation online,
>      and there were even papers about online help!  Most of these systems

>      the time).  Future STC officers Elizibeth Babcock and William
>      Grice also presented.

Was William Grice or Roger Grice? I ask because I just took a course with
Roger.

Sabahat.

--
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