old Cano computer in japan
Posted by No-Succotash-9576@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 7 comments
no idea what it is, someone might find it interesting
Posted by No-Succotash-9576@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 7 comments
no idea what it is, someone might find it interesting
royalfarris@reddit
It is a japanese word processor. A purpose built digital typewriter.
Back in the 80's it was rather common in japanese homes to have these rather than a PC. Neither MS-DOS or Apple computers handeled japanese writing particularily well, so these computer/typewriter hybrids were used where a generic personal computer would be used in latin alphabet countries.
They went out of fashion as soon as personal computers started to be able to handle japanese typescript with DOS/V in 1992-94.
Unicode was published in its first version in 1991, and was implemented well enough in windows 95 that the japanese market started adopting general purpose computers for all things writing, in the same way latin alphabet language regions had been doing for 10-15 years by then.
Since 2019 both utf-16 and utf-8 has been fully incorporated in windows and there is no longer any real difference between a computer that displays japanese, chinese or latin charaters or uses them in file names and calls.
No-Succotash-9576@reddit (OP)
oh right, thanks for the history. I guess their language is probably why they didn't use the IBM pcs from the 80s at all and the NEC pc98 was used later too. that's interesting thank you.
tedomeguri@reddit
This is a dedicated Japanese word processor. A friend of mine used the same one.
It seems to be in good condition, but I think it's useless without the system disk.
MichalNemecek@reddit
Given the "CanoWord", I'm guessing it's actually a digital typewriter
JollyQuiscalus@reddit
Yup, it's a word processor, although the largest one I've ever seen. Must've cost a fortune.
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-canon-canoword-alpha-super-2060822929
No-Succotash-9576@reddit (OP)
I think it's something like that. I think the shop also had the nec pc98 but it was in terrible condition and they wanted over 100usd for it. didn't get a photo sadly.
darkelfbear@reddit
That's a nice little 5 Port Gigabit hub there too. I have that exact one, it was an import.