Wordprocessing is the process of preparing and producing letters, reports, and other documents. It can also include, as it does in Multics, the compilation of records that can be reproduced in various forms in documents. On Multics, the list processing facilities enable you to assemble information in records and then rearrange and even reconstruct the records when they are included in documents such as letters and reports. The first step in wordprocessing is creating a "segment" that contains the information you wish to appear in the final document. This is done with one of the Multics "text editors," and the process is made easier by speedtyping, a facility which lets you devise a typing shorthand. When creating a segment, you also specify how the finished product is to be formatted. Then you can use a dictionary to search out spelling mistakes and to hyphenate words at the end of lines. When the document is fully prepared, it can be produced in a final, usually printed, form with one or two easy commands. ----------------------------------------------------------- Historical Background This edition of the Multics software materials and documentation is provided and donated to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Group BULL including BULL HN Information Systems Inc. as a contribution to computer science knowledge. This donation is made also to give evidence of the common contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Honeywell Information Systems Inc., Honeywell BULL Inc., Groupe BULL and BULL HN Information Systems Inc. to the development of this operating system. Multics development was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project MAC (1963-1970), renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1970s, under the leadership of Professor Fernando Jose Corbato. Users consider that Multics provided the best software architecture for managing computer hardware properly and for executing programs. Many subsequent operating systems incorporated Multics principles. Multics was distributed in 1975 to 2000 by Group Bull in Europe , and in the U.S. by Bull HN Information Systems Inc., as successor in interest by change in name only to Honeywell Bull Inc. and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. . ----------------------------------------------------------- Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute these programs and their documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,provided that the below copyright notice and historical background appear in all copies and that both the copyright notice and historical background and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that the names of MIT, HIS, BULL or BULL HN not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the programs without specific prior written permission. Copyright 1972 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. Copyright 2006 by BULL HN Information Systems Inc. Copyright 2006 by Bull SAS All Rights Reserved