4 ms·

Same as "dubugging". It's a typo. Should be "involved" ('c' is right next to 'v' on QWERTY layouts, it's weird, I know).

zabzonk 7y ago
There were not too many spell-checkers around in 1974.
- lrem 7y ago
  Also: even if you noticed your printout trip have a typo, you were more likely to go "ah feckitt" due to the hassle of getting a new one.
  - bdcravens 7y ago
    You could correct errors using correction tape: basically pressed dry white-out atop the letter, assuming you lined it up correctly and pressed the same letter - you then type the correct letter. Of course for an important document like a resume you may want to retype the whole thing. Also it wasn’t really a “printout” since you saw each letter as you typed it.
- rb808 7y ago
  Given the dents for punctuation I'm thinking it was done on a manual typewriter, which its very hard to integrate with a spellchecker. :)
  - falcor84 7y ago
    ;) Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to develop a "manual" typewriter that warns the user that they are about to make a spelling mistake, possibly keeping the whole word in a buffer until they handle the warning. The warning itself can be performed via any means, including but not limited to an electrical zap.
    - jarfil 7y ago
      At some point there used to be electric typewriters with a 1 or 2 line buffer that they'd show on a black and white LCD. I don't know whether they had a spellchecker, but it wouldn't be hard to add one.
      - tgsovlerkhgsel 7y ago
        It would if they didn't have sufficient compute, RAM, ROM. Something that can buffer and edit 2 lines (~160 byte, and not necessarily 8-bit ones either) does not necessarily want to add hundreds of kilobytes of dictionary and the code to look things up in it.
        blattimwind 7y ago
        There were electronic typewriters with spell and grammar checking.
      - codewiz 7y ago
        Except, you'd need ~50KB of ROM to store an English dictionary. This figure comes from the original UNIX spell program, which employed advanced compression techniques to fit into a 64KB memory footprint: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1095395 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1095395
      - kgwgk 7y ago
        They were definitely available in the early eighties: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/23/business/typewriters-of-electronic-era.html https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/23/business/typewriters-of-e...
- bdcravens 7y ago
  You were the spell checker, and had to get out the correction tape.

zabzonk 7y ago

There were not too many spell-checkers around in 1974.

lrem 7y ago
Also: even if you noticed your printout trip have a typo, you were more likely to go "ah feckitt" due to the hassle of getting a new one.
- bdcravens 7y ago
  You could correct errors using correction tape: basically pressed dry white-out atop the letter, assuming you lined it up correctly and pressed the same letter - you then type the correct letter. Of course for an important document like a resume you may want to retype the whole thing. Also it wasn’t really a “printout” since you saw each letter as you typed it.
rb808 7y ago
Given the dents for punctuation I'm thinking it was done on a manual typewriter, which its very hard to integrate with a spellchecker. :)
- falcor84 7y ago
  ;) Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to develop a "manual" typewriter that warns the user that they are about to make a spelling mistake, possibly keeping the whole word in a buffer until they handle the warning. The warning itself can be performed via any means, including but not limited to an electrical zap.
  - jarfil 7y ago
    At some point there used to be electric typewriters with a 1 or 2 line buffer that they'd show on a black and white LCD. I don't know whether they had a spellchecker, but it wouldn't be hard to add one.
    - tgsovlerkhgsel 7y ago
      It would if they didn't have sufficient compute, RAM, ROM. Something that can buffer and edit 2 lines (~160 byte, and not necessarily 8-bit ones either) does not necessarily want to add hundreds of kilobytes of dictionary and the code to look things up in it.
      - blattimwind 7y ago
        There were electronic typewriters with spell and grammar checking.
    - codewiz 7y ago
      Except, you'd need ~50KB of ROM to store an English dictionary. This figure comes from the original UNIX spell program, which employed advanced compression techniques to fit into a 64KB memory footprint: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1095395 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1095395
    - kgwgk 7y ago
      They were definitely available in the early eighties: https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/23/business/typewriters-of-electronic-era.html https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/23/business/typewriters-of-e...
bdcravens 7y ago
You were the spell checker, and had to get out the correction tape.