1979: Will WORD PROCESSORS start a HOME WORKING revolution? | Past Predictions | BBC Archive
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN finds it a striking historical look at early text editors and remote work that feels very modern.
What it is
A 1979 BBC Nationwide report asking whether word processors and networked microprocessors could end office commuting. It shows early word processing and a woman working from home, with surprisingly prophetic predictions.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2022 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends aasasd · 2022-07 · on “Ed is the standard text editor (2014)”
Perhaps it's better to see for a minute how people used this kind of editors when they first appeared, than to keep reading about them for ages: [this video] (BBC from '79, mentioning how people start working from home with the aid of newfangled microcomputers and network connectivity). I'm reminded most of all of the fdisk util, where the workflow is pretty much the same: print, modify, print, save. But also I can see where Vi/Vim come from, as I regularly do the same thing as in the vid: %s/something/something else/g and then wq.
Cites daenz · 2022-06 · on “Will word processors start a home working revolution? (1979) [video]”
The example of a mother working from home[0] feels very modern. It's strange to know that we drifted away from that direction at some point. 0. [this video]
Cites newmana · 2024-03 · on “A woman named "Steve" – IT pioneer, entrepreneur, philanthropist (2019)”
Video from 1979 about F International (Dame Shirley's company) - working from home, as a computer a programmer, is the greatest revolution for working women since the pill. [this video]