magic wand (software)

Magic Wand is the name of a piece of word-processing software for CP/M-based computers first released in 1979, written by Les Pinter, Mike Griffin and Bill Radding. It was marketed circa 1981 with such quotes as "the most powerful, most flexible, most reliable, most usable word processing software available for a CP/M-based computer," and "the best word-processing software ever written for a microcomputer." A contemporary ad for the product mentioned, in part,the following features:

Full screen text editing, featuring "single stroke control keys" including using the function keys available on the end-user's terminal.

Full text formatting commands, allowing the setting of page features such as text justification, line spacing, widow/orphan management, and margins. Other features mentioned in this category include bold and underline (broken and solid) capability. "You may change any of these commands at run-time /without reformatting the file/." (original emphasis)

Merging with external data files, "with either fixed length or sequential records," alowing the generation of reports or form letters.

User-defined Variables. The MAGIC WAND allowed a maximum of 128 variables of up to 55 characters per variable. There was a seven-character limit on variable names. According to the ad copy, the variables were stored as strings, but could be treated as integers- allowing comma or decimal notation (e.g., 1,000,000.00), as well as the ability to increment or decrement the value.

Conditional commands. It seems as though MAGIC WAND allowed certain portions of a file to be printed or not as determined by a "straight-forward IF statement."

At the time, the MAGIC WAND was available on both 8-inch and 5.25-inch floppy disks and supported a variety of terminals. The MAGIC WAND has later become Peachtext by Peachtree Software. Some reports indicate that Bill Gates purchaed the MAGIC WAND one year before the release of Microsoft Word version 1.

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