MacWrite - Revision history

Sembiance: /* Sample files */

2023-12-29T02:45:38Z

‎Sample files

Sembiance: Added sample files

2021-07-28T20:12:04Z

Added sample files

Thorsted: Added Wikidata identifier

2021-01-10T07:48:42Z

Added Wikidata identifier

Thorsted: /* File identification */

2019-05-01T15:36:10Z

‎File identification

Thorsted at 15:08, 30 April 2019

2019-04-30T15:08:39Z

Thorsted: Added version history and screenshot

2019-04-30T14:45:38Z

Added version history and screenshot

Dan Tobias at 23:33, 23 April 2018

2018-04-23T23:33:41Z

Dan Tobias: Created page with "{{FormatInfo |formattype=electronic |subcat=Document |released=1984 }} '''MacWrite''' was the word processor on early Macintosh computers. It originally was released by Apple ..."

2014-07-27T12:42:34Z

Created page with "{{FormatInfo |formattype=electronic |subcat=Document |released=1984 }} '''MacWrite''' was the word processor on early Macintosh computers. It originally was released by Apple ..."

New page

{{FormatInfo
|formattype=electronic
|subcat=Document
|released=1984
}}
'''MacWrite''' was the word processor on early Macintosh computers. It originally was released by Apple as one of the programs that came with a Macintosh, but was later spun off to Claris as a separate software product; this did not succeed in competition with other word processors, so it was eventually discontinued by the mid-1990s.

== File identification ==

The first two bytes of a MacWrite file are a [[Endianness|big-endian]] integer distinguishing MacWrite versions. MacWrite 2.2 used version 00 03 in this field.

== Format details ==

MacWrite 2.2 stored text in a compression scheme where the (language-specific) most common characters (for English, " etnroaisdlhcfp" in that order, with the space character first) were stored as one nybble each (half a byte), where the values 0 through E corresponded to the characters in the most-common list. The nybble value F signaled that a different character followed, meaning that characters not on the list took three nybbles (a byte and a half) to store. This usually averaged out to a savings, since the most common characters typically make up a high portion of the text.

MacWrite 3.x and up used a different compression system, and were designed so files could be edited directly on disk without loading the entire file into memory.

== Programming libraries ==
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/libmwaw/ libmwaw: reads old MacWrite and ClarisWorks documents]

== Links ==
* [[Wikipedia:MacWrite|Wikipedia article]]
* [http://web.mit.edu/~jik/sipbsrc/src/mcread/mwformat MacWrite 2.2 format description]
* [http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1131479 Discussion of converting old MacWrite documents]
* [http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6902 Another discussion]

[[Category:Apple]]
[[Category:Macintosh]]

@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 == Sample files ==
-* https://telparia.com/fileFormatSamples/document/macWrite/
+* {{DexvertSamples|document/macWrite}}
 == Links ==

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 ==Version History==
 {| class="wikitable"
-|Version 1.0||1984.01.24||Encore Systems
+|Version 1.0||1984.01.24||Encore Systems||WORD/MACA
 |-
-|Version 2.2||1984.05||Encore Systems
+|Version 2.2||1984.05||Encore Systems||WORD/MACA
 |-
-|Version 4.5||1985.04||Encore Systems
+|Version 4.5||1985.04||Encore Systems||WORD/MACA
 |-
-|Version 4.6||1987.07||Encore Systems
+|Version 4.6||1987.07||Encore Systems||WORD/MACA
 |-
-|Version 5.0||1988.03||Claris
+|Version 5.0||1988.03||Claris||WORD/MACA
 |-
-|Version II||1989.01||Claris
+|Version II||1989.01||Claris||MW2D/MWII
 |-
-|Pro 1.0||1993.03||Claris
+|Pro 1.0||1993.03||Claris||MWPd/MWPR
 |-
-|Pro 1.5||1994||Claris
+|Pro 1.5||1994||Claris||MWPd/MWPR
 |}
@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 * [http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1131479 Discussion of converting old MacWrite documents]
 * [http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6902 Another discussion]
 [[Category:Apple]]
 [[Category:Macintosh]]

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 == File identification ==
 The first two bytes of a MacWrite file are a [[Endianness|big-endian]] integer distinguishing MacWrite versions.
@@ Line 22: / Line 21: @@
 == Format details ==
 MacWrite 2.2 stored text in a compression scheme where the (language-specific) most common characters (for English, " etnroaisdlhcfp" in that order, with the space character first) were stored as one nybble each (half a byte), where the values 0 through E corresponded to the characters in the most-common list. The nybble value F signaled that a different character followed, meaning that characters not on the list took three nybbles (a byte and a half) to store. This usually averaged out to a savings, since the most common characters typically make up a high portion of the text.
@@ Line 51: / Line 49: @@
 ==ScreenShots==
 [[Image:MacWrite1.0-About.png|350px]]
 == Links ==

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 |released=1984
 |subcat2=Word Processor
 }}
 '''MacWrite''' was the word processor on early Macintosh computers. It originally was released by Apple as one of the programs that came with a Macintosh, but was later spun off to Claris as a separate software product; this did not succeed in competition with other word processors, so it was eventually discontinued by the mid-1990s.

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 MacWrite 3.x and up used a different compression system, and were designed so files could be edited directly on disk without loading the entire file into memory.
 == Programming libraries ==
 * [http://sourceforge.net/projects/libmwaw/ libmwaw: reads old MacWrite and ClarisWorks documents]
 == Links ==