Sprint (word processor)
| Company type | Software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Word processing software |
| Predecessor | The FinalWord |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Founder | Jason Linhart, Craig Finseth, Scott Layson Burson, Brian Hess, Bill Spitzak (at Mark of the Unicorn) |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, MA (originally at Mark of the Unicorn), later Scotts Valley, California (Borland development) , United States |
| Products | Sprint word processor |
| Owner | Borland |
Sprint is a text-based word processor designed for MS-DOS, initially released by Borland in 1987.
History
Originally called The FinalWord, Sprint was created by Jason Linhart, Craig Finseth, Scott Layson Burson, Brian Hess, and Bill Spitzak at Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU), a Cambridge, MA company better recognized for its music software. Prior to this, MOTU marketed MINCE and SCRIBBLE, an Emacs-inspired text editing package. As The FinalWord, the software gained some recognition; for instance, it was used to produce the manuals for the Lotus suite and Marvin Minsky's The Society of Mind.
Following Borland's acquisition of FinalWord II and its rebranding as Sprint, the company introduced a redesigned user interface, comprehensive documentation, and additional features. The editor was praised for its responsiveness, performing well even on hardware running at merely 8 MHz.
During this era, Borland’s European development efforts were substantial: products such as Sidekick and Turbo Pascal emerged from their Danish division, while Borland’s European management included former executives from Micropro France. At that time, Micropro dominated word processing with WordStar and had successfully launched WordStar 2000—the first word processor equipped with a French spelling dictionary.
Sprint’s development and promotion were primarily based in France, where it stood out as one of the rare major American software projects to release a French edition before the US version. The initial French launch of Sprint v1.0 achieved notable success by securing a 30% market share ahead of competitors. Meanwhile, MicroPro was losing ground with its aging WordStar versions and WordStar 2000; WordPerfect faced challenges in localization; and MS-Word remained less refined and also text-based.
To meet back-to-school schedules, Sprint 1.0 was released prematurely without extensive beta testing, resulting in minor bugs that were addressed in version 1.01 via updated diskettes distributed to registered users.
The US and international rollout of version 1.0 (equivalent to the French 1.01) garnered mixed reactions. While Borland’s dedicated user base appreciated the fast editor performance, corporate clients found the advanced formatting system overly complicated for routine memo creation. At the same time, word processing was transitioning toward WYSIWYG interfaces.
Version 1.5 brought enhanced features and improved reliability in France but did not see broad release elsewhere despite localized European editions. During this period, Borland Scandinavia went bankrupt and Borland France required substantial financial backing from the US headquarters. Consequently, European developers relocated to Borland’s Scotts Valley office in California. Version 1.5 maintained moderate success within France until Microsoft Word and Windows gained dominance.
In North America, Sprint struggled to compete with WordPerfect and Microsoft Word but retained a small yet loyal following among professional writers, researchers, academics, and programmers who valued its speed and efficiency handling large documents. Ultimately, Borland discontinued support due to limited commercial viability.
Features
Crash-recovery: Sprint implemented incremental backups via a swap file updated every three seconds, enabling complete restoration after crashes. Demonstrations at trade shows famously included unplugging the power cord mid-typing, with work resuming immediately upon reboot.
Spell-as-you-type: This functionality provided instant feedback by emitting a beep when spelling errors were detected during typing.
Multilingual editing: The program supported dynamic dictionary switching along with hyphenation and advanced spelling and thesaurus dictionaries that surpassed competing offerings.
Separate formatter and programmable editor: These capabilities facilitated corporate document standardization or creation of reusable "boilerplate" contracts. In France, customized applications were developed for Banques Populaires (loan agreements) and Conseil d'Etat, while local governments built tools for managing tenders and contracts.
Powerful programming language: Sprint included an internal language resembling C that allowed extensive customization and feature extension. Programs compiled into the interface executed at full speed.
Interface switching: Users could save custom modifications as distinct interfaces and switch between them rapidly—particularly useful for multilingual users by mapping keys to language-specific accents and characters.
File handling: Up to 24 files could be opened simultaneously. Files could be saved upon exit or left unsaved but always reopened exactly as left—including cursor location, clipboard contents, and spell-check status—providing an "instant-on" experience through the crash-recovery swap file.
Handling large documents: Sprint excelled at managing lengthy documents spanning hundreds of pages with consistent formatting along with automatic generation of tables of contents, indexes, figures, and authority lists. Borland itself utilized Sprint for producing its manuals over several years.
PostScript capabilities: The word processor supported inline EPS images with dimensioning controls and PostScript procedures favored in professional printing workflows—for example, precisely adjusting point size to fit a 200-page novel into 192 pages—a critical consideration where page counts must be multiples of 32.
Consistency with familiar environments: Default key bindings resembled subsets of EMACS commands while markup syntax was based on Scribe subsets—facilitating adoption by users already acquainted with those environments.
Reception
In 1984, BYTE commended FinalWord 1.16 for its efficient memory usage and robust capabilities, though it pointed out a significant learning curve and occasional instability issues, including a major bug that led to data loss. By 1989, BYTE recognized Sprint with a "Distinction," emphasizing its suitability for users willing to sacrifice WYSIWYG features.
See also
External references
Borland Sprint manuals and instructional materials can be found on the Internet Archive in various formats such as emobi, pdf, and djvu:
1. Borland Sprint Reference Guide 1988 2. Borland Sprint Users Guide 1988 3. Borland Sprint Advanced Users Guide 1988 4. Borland Sprint Alternative User Interfaces 1988
These resources offer comprehensive details on commands, formatting options, macros, and interface variations pertinent to Sprint's operation.