Re: Apple ///?

[bede0005@gold.tc.umn.edu (Rob Bedeaux)]

In article
<NOSPAM***bjbear-ya023680002803971624130001@news-s01.ca.us.ibm.net>,
NOSPAM***bjbear@ibm.net (B.J. Major & Dennis J. Gorin) wrote:

> 
> I think the main thing that killed the /// was its exhorbitant high price. 
> I've heard of plenty of business places that used the ///; especially
> accounting places.  Appleworks would not exist on the // if it were not for
> the ///--the original program was called "3 EZ Pieces" and was eventually
> converted to the // line as Appleworks integrated software.


Actually the origin of Appleworks is a little different.  This is quoted
from a chapter of David T. Craig's(71533.606@computserve.com) extensive
history of Apple's various machines (esp. the Lisa):

  After seeing the Office System on the Lisa computer, [Rupert] Lissner
conceived the idea of a single program that would put word processing,
database, and spreadsheet capabilities together, and run on an Apple ][. 
It was originally called �Apple Pie�, and he began work on it in 1982. 
Lissner took two years to complete his program, and did it entirely in
assembly language to achieve better speed.  He wrote versions of the
program to work on both the Apple ][ and Apple /// computers, making use
of the same filetypes and data structures.  Apple Pie files created on an
Apple ][ could be used on an Apple ///, and vice-versa.

Apple decided to market the Apple ][ version themselves, and called it
�AppleWorks�.  Lissner was left with the rights to the Apple /// version.
He sold those rights to Haba Systems, who brought it out under the name,
�/// E-Z Pieces�.  That program continued to be compatible with the Apple
][ version up until Claris (the software company formed by Apple in 1987)
upgraded AppleWorks to version 3.0 in 1989.


As you can see, it was not the Apple /// version which inspired the Apple
II, rather they were written concurently and apple just bought the rights
for the Apple II version.


Rob