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HOME TOPICS ABOUT ME Personal word processors can only do one thing. They're not tools the way computers are. Computers can do anything they are programmed to do. |
technofile Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983 Does a personal word processor make sense?By Al Fasoldt Copyright © 1988, The Syracuse Newspapers Doesn't it make sense to buy an all-in-one word processing system instead of the kind that works on a personal computer? That was the question a colleague posed to me a few weeks ago. He knew enough about ordinary PCs to be able to write with one, but he had no interest in computers as such. All he wanted was a better typewriter -- one with a memory and a disc drive to store what he wrote. He showed me an ad in the paper. A store was offering a deal on an all-in-one "personal word processor." It looked like a small PC. It had a tiny, built-in screen and a built-in printer, and used palm-sized floppy discs to store letters and reports. It was selling for about $700, and a smart buyer probably could get it for quite a bit less by shopping around. A good deal, right? He seemed surprised when I told him that these things are a waste of money. I gave him three reasons: 1.Personal word processors do only one thing. Since they are actually computers under the skin, this is a terrible waste of the computer's ability and the buyer's money. A computer should be able to do many more things than process words. 2.Personal word processors are much less powerful than computer word processors. Even if "all you wanted to do was word processing," as my colleague stated, you'd be far better off with a computer running word-processing software. 3.The peripherals that add mass storage to computer word processors are not available for personal word processors. In other words, you can't add a hard drive or a tape backup. To be sure, the first reason is the one that is most important. The central processing chips (CPUs) inside personal word processors are cousins of the ones inside personal computers, and they work the same way. The only way to design a personal word processor is, in fact, to make a computer, using the same type of components used in every PC. But the personal word-processor computer is then hog-tied, left to do only one task. To give just one example, it cannot run telecommunications software, and that means it forces the user to buy a real PC to communicate with the outside world. The second reason goes to the heart of personal computing. It is software, not hardware, that matters in home computing. The programs that a computer runs are far more important than the wires and chips and display screens. In personal word processors, the software is encoded in a permanent area of the unit's memory. What you see is what you get -- forever. If a better software program comes along, someone else will use it, not you. (Unless, of course, you buy an improved personal word processor for another $700. Get the point?) In computer word processors, software is always improving. The biggest-selling programs, such as WordPerfect and Microsoft Write, offer upgrades to current software owners for a small charge, or sometimes for free. Because competition fuels the software market, other companies are constantly challenging the leaders in word processing, and these programs can often be tried for free (in incomplete "demo" versions) if you download them from bulletin boards or commercial networks. And storing the stuff that you write is simple these days. It's cheap, too. A hard-disc drive for a personal computer costs as little as $300 for 20 megabytes of storage. That's the same capacity as dozens of floppy discs, and everything is easy to get at all at once. Except, of course, if you have a personal word processor, which uses floppy discs only. I checked back with my colleague a few days ago and asked if he had decided to buy the personal word processor he saw on sale. No, he said; he's saving for a good PC. |