“What you see is what you get” used to be a snide comment someone made about themselves indicating they had nothing to hide. In other words, they were the same on the inside as on the outside. Last week I traveled back in time on perhaps one of the worst dates I’ve had in a long time.
About the only interesting thing she said all night was “what you see is what you get.” I zoned out on the rest of the conversation; and instead, software titles from the early 90’s flashed in my head. I spent the rest of the night trying to remember the first WYSIWYG word processor I owned until she snapped me out of my coma by asking if I heard her.
While driving her home I remembered the title was Ami Pro. By today’s standards it was pretty basic and would always refresh the screen as formatting changed. However, compared to other software titles of its day, Ami Pro was very advanced and for the most part would print what was on the screen.
Before WYSIWYG became the norm, users were forced to hope the document would turn out as expected. Formatting was nearly impossible and documents with fancy layouts, like a resume, were nearly impossible to get right. I remember tossing huge amounts of paper trying to make a match.
Before the days of WYSIWYG users were forced to know control characters and how to use them. There was a special character for paragraph start, another for margins, and another for page end. Each document contained these hidden characters that were only seen while editing. I always found it easier to use my old Smith-Corona rather than remember the codes.
WYSIWYG technology was developed for super computers in the 1970’s and wasn’t adopted for home use until the 1980’s. Apple was really the first to make WYSIWYG truly functional by making the screen resolution match the printer. As long as nothing was updated, the printed output would match the screen.
A mismatch in the Apple printer-screen system would cause all sorts of issues with final output. Modern WYSIWYG systems of the day, like my 1991 copy of Ami Pro, took into account the printer and other variables to insure output was similar. If I changed my printer settings the screen would flash and refresh forcing me to edit my document.
One can’t fully appreciate WYSIWYG without a paragraph or two about printer technologies. Impact printers used to be the only option for consumers before low cost laser and inkjet emerged. Impact printers relied on mechanical means to apply the character to the paper.
Very common impact printers used either a print head formed with letters, or a dot matrix which laid a line of dots. The printer’s job was to interpret signals from the computer and line up the corresponding letter. Final output was predefined by the mechanical limitations of the printer.
It wasn’t until inkjet and laser became widely available that WYSIWYG software emerged. I guess it simply wasn’t possible. Newer print technology allowed flexibility to insert graphs and pictures into documents as well as adapt to computer formatting on the fly.
Truly modern WYSIWYG editors work together with modern printers making everyday stuff like changing page layout much simpler. Software editors take into account basics about the printer, but it’s also up to the printer to adjust to the software. WYSIWYG editing and printing as we know it wouldn’t be possible without the technologies we have. I’m thankful we have WYSIWYG technology because it gave me something to think about Thursday evening.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can text him directly at (978) 413-2840 or visit www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)