Perfect Writer

{{Short description|Word processor computer program}}

{{Infobox software

| name = Perfect Writer

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| author = Perfect Software

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| released = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1982}}

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| programming language = C

| operating system = CP/M, MS-DOS

| replaces = MINCE

| genre = Word processor

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Perfect Writer is a word processor computer program published by Perfect Software for CP/M.{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerWorld1985-03/page/156/mode/2up | title=Perfect Power | magazine=Personal Computer World | date=March 1985 | accessdate=4 November 2020 | last1=Vogler | first1=John | pages=156–159 |volume=8 |issue=3 }} In 1984, Thorn EMI Computer Software acquired an exclusive marketing and distribution licence for Perfect Software's products,{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1984-08-rescan/page/n38/mode/1up | title=Fixes and Updates | magazine=Byte | date=August 1984 | access-date=25 May 2023 | pages=33–34 |volume=9 |issue=8}} and the program was rewritten and released as Perfect II for IBM PC compatible computers.{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerWorld1985-05/page/196/mode/2up | title=Perfect II | magazine=Personal Computer World | date=May 1985 | accessdate=4 November 2020 | last1=Lang | first1=Kathy | pages=196–199 |volume=8 |number=5}} Written in C and famous for its stability, it was an enhanced version of MINCE, which itself was a version of Emacs for microcomputer platforms. Emacs itself was too heavyweight to fit within the 64 KB RAM limit of most microcomputers.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/Whole_Earth_Software_Catalog_1984_Point/|title=Whole Earth Software Catalog |publisher=Quantum Press/Doubleday |date=1984 |isbn=0-385-19166-9 |lccn=84-15096}} Like MINCE, it included a floppy disk based virtual memory system.

Along with its companion spreadsheet (Perfect Calc), and database (Perfect Filer), Perfect Writer was bundled with early Columbia Data Products, Kaypro II and Morrow computers, as well as with the Torch Computers Z80 Disk Pack add-on for the BBC Micro{{cite web|url=http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/8bit_Upgrades/Torch_Z802ndproc.html|title=Z80 Communicator}} and had a list price of {{USD|349}}. In the UK, it was bundled with the short lived Advance 86B PC (a near IBM compatible). It supported up to 7 buffers, had a character transpose command, undo, footnotes, and indexing. Its capabilities were very close to that of the dedicated word processors of the day.{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YDAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA97|magazine=InfoWorld |title=The Perfect Writer, a new word-processing system |date=14 June 1982 |page=97 |volume=4 |issue=23 |first=John |last=Ford}} Perfect Writer's ability to cut and paste between documents open in multiple buffers was an advantage over WordStar.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/The_Official_Book_for_the_Commodore_128/page/n111/mode/1up |title=The Official Book for the Commodore 128| isbn=0-672-22456-9 | lccn=85-50977 |publisher=The Waite Group, Inc. |first1=Mitchell |last1=Waite |first2=Robert |last2=Lafore |first3=Jerry |last3=Volpe |year=1985 |page=100 |quote=Another reason that split windows are important is that you can cut and paste between two documents while both are on the screen. In WordStar, you have to save the text to be pasted in a file, quit the current document, reload the new document, and read in the file of text. }} {{asof|1983|02}} half of Perfect Software's revenue came from OEM sales.{{Cite news |date=1983-02-22 |title=Appendix II; Distribution strategies of selected software vendors |url=https://cdn.oreillystatic.com/radar/r1/02-83.pdf |access-date=2025-06-05 |work=The Rosen Electronics Letter |pages=21-24}}

Perfect Writer supported a number of add-on programs, Perfect Speller and Perfect Thesaurus, also published by Perfect Software, along with third party software such as Plu*Perfect published by Plu*Perfect Systems. Plu*Perfect included "D", a dired-like file browser that was deemed "the best of all directory displayers" by Stewart Brand.

Perfect Writer was originally published by Perfect Software. Later versions of the product were developed and maintained by Knowledge Engineering in Austin, Texas. The thesaurus was designed written and maintained by George O. Jenkins, Jr.