Paul Lutus wrote Apple Writer,[2] a word processor for the Apple II series of personal computers, alone in a small cottage he built himself atop a hill in the woods of Oregon, connected to the electricity grid via 1,200 feet (370 m) of cable strung in trees.
The program's ability to print to printers using a game paddle port as a serial interface is an undocumented feature.
Apple did not publicize the information due to the risk of damage to the computer or printer, but Lutus described how to build the serial cable in a letter to BYTE.
Unlike the original, Apple Writer II can display both upper and lower case characters and, with a Sup'R'Terminal card in slot 3, supports both 40- and 80-column text.
It also wraps text too long to appear on the current line rather than breaking it mid-word, and includes a glossary and the Word Processing Language (WPL), a macro-like resource that allows certain tasks to be automated.
It allows users to set screen margins and to connect the computer's keyboard to a modem as a rudimentary terminal program.