Lesson Seven TEXT Word Processing In our information-centered civilizat
ion, a huge amount of effort is devoted to writing, typing, editing, st
oring and reproducing words. It has been known for a long time that mos
t information-handling tasks could be automated, but until recently thi
s was prevented by the high cost of computers. The microprocessor has c
hanged the picture completely:from now on, office procedures will be pr
ogressively mechanized. A typecal word processing system for a small of
fice might be assembled from the following components: (1) a microproce
ssor CPU with 16-32K bytes of RAM, (2) a 'floppy disk' store, where eac
h removable disk can hold some half-million characters, (3) a good-qual
ity printer, similar to an electric typewriter, (4) a terminal with a l
arge screen and a keyboard which has all conventional keys and a row of
 special 'function buttios' with appropriate labels. Each function butt
on activates a program permanently stored in the system. In use, the va
rious office procedures are made up from sequences of the appropriate f
unctions, much as a complex sum is worked out on a hand calculator. Som
e of the most frequently used functions are as folllows: (1) ENTER: Thi
s allows the typist to enter a new document (which may be a letter, a la
rge agreement, an exam paper, a poem or anything else) on the keyboard.
 As the document is typed it is displayed on the screen, and any correc
tions can be made by using the 'delete' key and other keys which allow 
existing material to be altered. This is much faster than using white p
aint on a conventional typewriter! The 'enter' function also permits ty
e typists to insert 'standard paragraphs' which have been previously ty
ped and stored on the floppy disk. (2) JUSTIFY: This function takes the
 document in system and re-arranges it so that both margins are straigh
t lines. Justification is done by inserting extra space between words a
nd sometimes bny hyphenation, and it makes the text look like printing 
rather than typing. (3) PRINT: The document in the system is sent to th
e printer, where it may appear at the rate of 60 characters per second 
(that is about 10 times as fast as a humaan typist at full speed). (4) 
FILE: The document is sent to the floppy disk, together with the curren
t data and a name chosen by the typist. This name serves to identify an
d retrivee the document if it is needed later. (5) RETRIEVE: Given a na
me (and possibly a date), this function will fetch the corresponding do
cument from the floppy disk and bring it into the system. The document 
will be displayed on the screen as if it had just been typed, and can b
e changed or edited as necessary.