Expensive Typewriter

Expensive Typewriter was a text editing program that ran on the DEC PDP-1 computer that had been recently delivered at MIT. Since it could drive a Friden Flexowriter (a letter-quality printer), it was arguably the first word processing program although it definitely was not WYSIWYG, having no CRT display. It was written and improved between 1961 and 1962 by Steve Piner and L. Peter Deutsch.

It was called "Expensive Typewriter" because at the time the PDP-1 cost a small fortune (approximately $100,000 USD) and as a joke on another earlier editor called "Colossal Typewriter".

See also

• PDP-1
• Expensive Desk Calculator
• Expensive Planetarium
• Expensive Tape Recorder
• Colossal Typewriter
• TECO
• RUNOFF
• TJ-2