Samna
Encyclopedia
Samna was an Atlanta, Georgia
, USA based computer
software company
that was bought by Lotus Development Corporation in November 1990 for $65 million USD.
Samna Word was a competitor in the DOS market for word processors in the late 80s. Based in large part on the look and feel of the Wang VS enterprise word processing system's software, it was targeted at businesses who had used the Wang
system but were interested in moving to lower-cost PC-based word processing in the 1980s.
It had many strengths, but was regularly criticized in reviews over speed issues. Even before GUI environments like Windows, it pioneered treating the empty editing screen as a 'scratchpad', that is, a space that you could cursor into, placing a character or other entry anywhere at will on a printable page. In WordPerfect and Word, and virtually all other editors of that period, territory beyond the last character entered did not exist. When the Hercules graphics card began becoming popular, Samna Word supported a Print Preview view that was not editable, but showed font and format treatments in a kind of anticipation of full WYSIWYG. When Windows was released, Samna beat Microsoft in introducing Ami, a graphics-based word processor, in 1988, which was the first major Windows-based word processor on the market (Word for Windows 1.0 did not debut until early 1989). Windows
3.0 versions were being shipped when Lotus acquired the company, and Ami Pro was folded into Lotus's product line, first becoming Lotus Ami Pro, and then later evolving into Lotus Word Pro
. The signature extension of Ami Pro files, .sam, is all that remains of Samna Corp.s' originality in developing WYSIWYG editing.
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, USA based computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
software company
Company
A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...
that was bought by Lotus Development Corporation in November 1990 for $65 million USD.
Samna Word was a competitor in the DOS market for word processors in the late 80s. Based in large part on the look and feel of the Wang VS enterprise word processing system's software, it was targeted at businesses who had used the Wang
Wang
Wang may refer to:Name:* Wang , one of two surnames with distinct Chinese characters.* Titles in Chinese nobility* A title in Korean nobility* A title in Mongolian nobilityPlaces:* Wang River in Thailand...
system but were interested in moving to lower-cost PC-based word processing in the 1980s.
It had many strengths, but was regularly criticized in reviews over speed issues. Even before GUI environments like Windows, it pioneered treating the empty editing screen as a 'scratchpad', that is, a space that you could cursor into, placing a character or other entry anywhere at will on a printable page. In WordPerfect and Word, and virtually all other editors of that period, territory beyond the last character entered did not exist. When the Hercules graphics card began becoming popular, Samna Word supported a Print Preview view that was not editable, but showed font and format treatments in a kind of anticipation of full WYSIWYG. When Windows was released, Samna beat Microsoft in introducing Ami, a graphics-based word processor, in 1988, which was the first major Windows-based word processor on the market (Word for Windows 1.0 did not debut until early 1989). Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
3.0 versions were being shipped when Lotus acquired the company, and Ami Pro was folded into Lotus's product line, first becoming Lotus Ami Pro, and then later evolving into Lotus Word Pro
Lotus Word Pro
Lotus Word Pro is word processor software produced by IBM's Lotus Software group for use on Microsoft Windows-compatible computers and on IBM OS/2 Warp. Word Pro can be obtained as part of the Lotus SmartSuite office suite....
. The signature extension of Ami Pro files, .sam, is all that remains of Samna Corp.s' originality in developing WYSIWYG editing.