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This 2.0
edition has
three levels
of updating • . .
I • The whole book is
revised and updated.
2. It includes a 1 6-page
Last-Minute Supplement.
There*s an ongoing update
every three months in our magazi
Whole Earth REvrEW.
2 How to Use This Book
4 Shopping
7 How Computer Professionals Buy Software
10 Computer Magazines
14 Hardware
22 Buying
23 Discount Mail Order
25 How to Get Free Software
28 PLAYING
Not running games on your computer is lil(e refusing
to tal(e your Ferrari out of first gear.
46 WRITING
Word processing programs are doing to writing wtiat
pocl(et calculators did to figuring.
,06 MANAGING
122
158
175
One way to increase your productivity is to connect it
more efficiently
DRAWING
We can now express ourselves graphically as easily as
we drive a car or use a telepfione.
138 TELECOMMUNICATING
A computer is a communications device first, second,
and ttiird.
The process of preparing programs is especially
attractive, not only because it can be economically and
scientifically rewarding, but because it can be an
aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or
music.
LEARNING
Good educational programs do the best possible thing
for learners — they reward mistakes.
64
78
94
ANALYZING
192
Why were computers invented in the first place? To
manipulate and analyze large amounts of data in a
short time .
ORGANIZING
Information bombards us. We might want to look at
1 % of it again. How do we find that 1 % ?
ACCOUNTING
Accounting is so much of the essence, we pretend it
isn't by making fun of accountants.
Quantum Press/Doubleday 1985
Garden City, Mew York
Copyright * 1984, 1985 by Point.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Whole Earth Software Catalog for 1986.
Includes indexes.
1. Microcomputers— catalogs. 2. Computer software-
catalogs. I. Brand, Stewart. II. Point (Foundation)
QA76.5.W495 1985 004.16'029'4 85-15989
ISBN 0-385-23301-9 (pbk.)
202
205
210
Miscellaneous, unclassifiable, new, dubious,
subversive, titillating.
200 Point Foundation
'NDEX
202 Magazine Index
202 Book Index
202 Public Domain Index
202 Apple II Index
203 Atari Index
203 Commodore 64 Index
203 CP/M Index
203 Tandy Radio Shack Index
204 IBM PC and Compatible Index
204 Macintosh Index
71 IN INDEX
LAST-MINUTE
SUPPLEMENT
■dc.:^' &^:>m^^m^^^m^^ ^smt^&^- ^s^^&m£^^ msms-^i!^mm^
STEWART BRAND: In all our years doing Whole Earth Catalogs
(18 years and counting) we've never dealt with a subject so
ephemeral and expensive, so in need of subsequent editions and
all the apparatus of routine updating. Happily, updating also
means refining, and that's not the only reason for increased
confidence in this book's recommendations.
® Where the first edition reflected 11/2 years of research, this one
reflects 2V2 years.
® The judgements of the first edition have been massively public
for a year. Howlers have been howled at, solid recommendations
quietly affirmed, updates updated, and everything in this edition
adjusted accordingly. The book itself got the kind of
encouragement immodestly quoted on the back cover.
® The computer marketplace has settled down considerably
since 1984. There are fewer new products per season and fewer
technological "new generations" being promised every minute.
It's still a volatile industry, but less punishingly so for the
customer. For the computer biz it's a "shakeout"; for the rest of
us it is dramatically increasing value at decreasing price.
• Standards have become more entrenched— machine
standards, operating system standards, popular program
standards. Most of our recommendations cluster conservatively
around those standards.
® Computer and software shoppers are far more savvy than they
used to be, and that experience is reflected here.
® Perhaps because of its conspicuous hysterias of boom and
bust, the personal computer marketplace has developed a core
cautiousness that keeps popular machines and programs at the
top of the best seller lists for years. We challenge that
cautiousness only when we dispute its judgement on
particulars.
This year, as last, the impossible (and unachieved) task of the
Whole Earth Software Catalog is to identify and comparatively
describe all of the best personal computer products— especially
software, where the most confusion reigns. Part of the
impossibility is that those who know a program well don't have
sufficient comparative experience; at the same time, the
professional wide-comparers don't have the deeper use
experience. The only relief from the paradox is sustained
discussion, gossip, and argument among the enraptured deeps
and the cynical wides, and that's what this book is made of. It
came to greater convergence of opinion than we expected, and
the convergence grew during the second year's research.
Personal computers are skill machines. We took that as the
organizing principle of the research and the book. Playing,
Writing, Analyzing, Organizing, Accounting, Managing,
Drawing, Telecommunicating, Learning, and that profoundest of
skills. Etcetera. For each. Editor and Research Director Barbara
Robertson found and directed a Domain Editor to be responsible
for all that appeared and failed to appear in that section, and to
collaborate fully with the other Domain Editors.
Everything recommended has been at least tried and usually
lived with by its recommender(s). Many of the reviews are
"multi-voiced" to reflect the variety of opinion on a given
product (liking and disliking software is intensely personal, i.e.
variable) and to convey the passionate advocacy that clusters
around good stuff. Since shoppers are by necessity comparison
shoppers, we are much as possible comparison reviewers,
asserting which is better than which for what and for whom.
A feature that is new this year, and still unique in the field so far
as we know, is our showing of "street price" as well as list price
with most of the items recommended. Because EVERYTHING in
the computer business is available at discount, usually 30 to 50
percent, and the savings are measured in hundreds and
thousands of dollars, we realized it would be a disservice if we
didn't research and proclaim the discount prices. They'll shift,
of course, but almost always to your advantage with the passage
of time. (I'll be interested to see if computer magazines adopt
the practice of showing discount prices in their articles and
reviews; it's somewhat at odds with the interests of advertisers.)
Next to every review of an item that is new to the 2.0 edition
you'll find a O. Two reasons for that. One is to show off how
radically New and Improved this edition is (of the 473 items
recommended, 207 are new). The other reason is to indicate
which products (the unstarred veterans) have held their own at
the top of their area. Golden oldies stay golden either because
they are too pure to tarnish or because they are constantly
repolished with new versions. Each product that appears again
was re-evaluated, re-accessed (new price, version number,
machines it runs on, etc.) and frequently re-reviewed. Then
re-cross-referenced, re-indexed, sometimes re-illustrated,
oh the joy.
Many computer books age quickly. That's one reason, heh, heh,
heh, there's fewer of them this year. We've taken a number of
steps to help keep this one fresh. One is the rapid six-week
turnaround with Doubleday's printer, so there's only a couple of
months between research and reader. The main body of the
Software Catalog for 1986 was completed in May and June,
1985. Still that cut us off from some major hardware news in
Summer '85, so we arranged for a 16-page "Last-Minute
Supplement" (p. 209) to be added.
Ai^ we have a magazine. Every three months Whole Earth
Review, which is about everything but also about computers,
takes a number of pages to update the Whole Earth Software
Catalog. That's where many of the new reviews in this edition
first appeared. If you want to get it, ordering information is by
the photograph.
If you want to contact us editorially, PLEASE DO. We use (and
pay for) reviews and suggestions from readers and in any case
would like to hear from you.
Our EDITORIAL address: Whole Earth Review
27 Gate Five Rd.
Sausalito, CA 94965
Phone: 415/332-4335
Electronic access: We have a conference on CompuServe (go
WEC at any prompt); a conference on EIES (Public Conference
1031); and our own regional teleconferencing system (which
may be national by the time you read this) called The WELL
(stands for Whole Earth Lectronic Link, more info. on p. 148)—
have your computer call The WELL at 415/332-6106. WELL
membership costs only $8/month, $2/hour. In due course we
hope to have a constantly updated Whole Earth Software
Catalog available online on the WELL and elsewhere.
3
The quarterly \NhQ\e Earth Review is subtitled "Tools and Ideas for
the Computer Age. " One of its functions is to update this Whole
Earth Software Catalog every three months— along with its
evaluation of the rest of the tools civilization offers, along with wide
coverage of "unorthodox cultural news. " That phrase covers
everything from how digital retouching of photographs by mass
media has changed the meaning of photography to a detailed story
on the "pro" side of clubbing seal pups in Canada. Each issue is
about 144 pages. There's no advertising. Single issues are $4.50 on
newsstands or from us.
3 ti^^sitfmit^mm^ mAmm^^^s W^s^ims^i^^^^^^^^
A subscription costs
$18/year (4 issues) from:
Whole Earth Review
27 Gate Five Road, Dept. SC
Sausalito, CA 94965
Phone orders with VISA or
IVIasterCard: 415/332-4335
Even does surface plots in 3-D . . .
Neil Polhemus. Version 1.0. Not copy-protected.
$695 (street $475). IBM PC/XT/AT and
compatibles (384K; 2 disk drives or hard disk
required). STSC, Inc., 2115 East Jefferson St.,
Rockville, MD 20852; 301/984-5123.
STEWART BRAND: The dense clump of information under the
title of each program contains critical information you should
scan first, like what machines the product runs on, what other
hardware needs it has (joystick, two disk drives, color monitor,
etc.), the price!, and whether it's copy-protected. Vast labor
went into getting all this accurate (typically, three phone calls per
product), so take advantage. The version number tells what
stage in the program's evolution was available when we went to
press in June '85. Since new versions are usually an
improvement, don't buy an earlier number, do buy a later
number if you find one.
fifi
iff (giffl[piTiSi mmm,'^
95
You'll find that phrase in the "access" part of book reviews. It
serves as backup in case your local bookstore doesn't have the
book you're looking for. All the books recommended in the
Catalog are available by mail order from COMPUTER LITERACY
BOOKSHOP, 520 Lawrence Expressway, Suite 310, Sunnyvale,
CA 94086--the first and largest (with over 9000 computer
book titles) all-computer-book bookstore in the land. See p.
201 for details. Point has no financial connection to Computer
Literacy.
:)
'■\
Editor in Chief
Editor and Research Director
IVlanaging Editor
Design and Production
Production Assistants
Research Librarian
Research Staff
Research Assistants
Domain Editors
Contributing Editors
Production Liaison
Line Editors
Proofreading
Cover Design
Logo and Calligraphy
Camera
Office Manager
General Purpose Clerk
Doubleday Editors
Literary Agent
Printing
Stewart Brand
Barbara Robertson
Matthew McClure
2.0: Lyn Gray
Dustin Kahn, San Francisco
KarlaFung, Barbara Gildea,
Walter Lynam
2.0: Paula McKenzie,
Joani Spadaro, Nancy Yee
Kathryn Parks
Clifford Figallo
James Stockford
Lyn Gray
Karen Hamilton
Anita Figallo
Hank Roberts
Cindy Craig
Levi Thomas
Tony and Robbie Fanning
Rik Jadrnicek
Art Kleiner
Steven Levy
Aaron S. (Woody) Liswood
Marsha Mather-Thrift
Sharon Rufener
Robert Scarola
Gerald M. Weinberg
Richard Dalton
Charles Spezzano
Dr. Dobb's Journal
Elisabeth Folsom
2.0: Clifford Figallo
Suzanne Lipsett
2.0: Hank Roberts, Ted Schultz
Hank Roberts
Charles Sweet
Susan Erkel Ryan
Rebecca Wilson
John Prestianni
Don Ryan
Lyn Gray
Dick Fugett
Philip Pochoda, Patrick Filley,
Paul Aron
John Brockman Associates
Typesetting: Mackenzie-Harris
Corporation, San Francisco
Color Separations: Concept Color,
Inc., Salt Lake City
Film Production: Lithographic
Consultants, San Francisco
\J MEANS- NEW TO 2,0 EDITION
TECHNIQUES OF SEAiCH, EWALUATION, USE
STEWART BRAND: Software is a new enough kind of thing in the
world that humans are still figuring out how to deal with it.
Though it can be bought and sold, you can't see, hear, touch,
taste, smell, eat, or burn it. On an unlovely flat artifact called a
disk may be hidden the concentrated intelligence of thousands of
hours of design, for which you are expected to pay hundreds of
dollars, and which you can reproduce on your own computer
with perfect fidelity in less than a minute, free.
Personal computers have an inherent outlaw element. This
makes them enjoyable and creative and morally interesting.
More on that in a moment.
All software does is manage symbols. Unlike letters and
numbers on paper, the symbols reside in a marvelously fluid
zero gravity noplace, where they dance with impeccable
precision to your tune. Software articulates your intentions
faithfully, but it eludes understanding. We treat the stuff (it isn't
stuff) as if programs were just like the how-to books our Whole
Earth Catalogs have been dealing in for years. They provide
technique. They can transform lives. They sell cheap or dear
Some are better than others. This entire book is about finding
the better ones.
Is shopping really worth the trouble? There are some 40,000
commercial programs for personal computers on the market,
and they all work. Why not just grab the handiest and proceed?
Because software, when it is used at all intensely, comes to feel
like an extension of your nervous system. Its habits become
your habits. The reason the term "personal" got stuck to these
machines is, they become part of your person. Buyer beware.
Acquire as little software as you can get by with, and stick
with it. That's hardware critic Richard Dalton's advice. It's easy
to get so caught up in the constant onrush of improvements and
"next generations" in the software market that you wind up
forever getting ready to work instead of working. You can buy
last year's computer cheap, get last year's software, which runs
beautifully on it by now, take the month to get fully running with
it, and then turn your back on the market for a couple years.
Your system will pay for itself shortly the rest is pure profit, and
you're spared a world of distraction and itchiness.
Buy the best. That's Analyzing domain editor Woody Liswood's
advice. "Get the top-of-the-line program in whatever area you
are going to do work. If you don't, you will always wish you had
and will eventually spend the extra money to get it anyway. If you
are trying to solve a problem, buy the solution. Period." Take a
look at Gerald Weinberg's analysis on p. 7. The price of a
program, even if it's many hundreds of dollars, may be the least
of your costs. A poor program for your purposes, which may or
may not be cheap, will escalate the secondary costs, entangle
you in its deficiencies, and can easily put you out of business.
By contrast, the pleasure of driving a top program is as rich as
driving a hot new car, at a fraction the price, and to greater
effect.
Use what your cohorts use. If you have colleagues and they
already have computers, you'd best blend into their system. It
may well be, groan, WORDSTAR (p. 56) and DBASE II (p. 85),
but the fact is, you'll be using each other's programs and files,
and if you have an odd system you'll either be constantly
translating or simply failing to communicate. The advantage of a
group standard is the abundance of lore and sagacity about it
that will have accumulated, saving you no end of lone
bafflement.
Base your hardware decision on your software decisions.
That's the conventional wisdom, but it's wise anyway. When
users hear about a new computer, they ask, "What runs on it?"
When they hear about a new program, they ask, "What's it run
on?" No machine runs everything or even a majority of what's
available. Check our Hardware section, p. 14, for the basic
ultimate decision you'll have to make; then peruse the rest of the
book for the programs that best meet your needs and budget,
see what machines they run on, and return to p. 14 and your
fate. That loop may be one of the best uses of this book.
Good software does an important job well. The fundamental
consideration when you're putting out this kind of money.
Good software is transparent. The term and idea emerged
during our research on word processing programs, but it applies
to all. Arthur Naiman, author of Introduction to WordStar
(p. 56), said it best: "The writing tool I always dreamed of was
one which would take my thoughts right out of my skull and put
them on paper The better a word processing system is, the
closer it comes to this ideal . Thus the quality I look for most is
transparency. By that I mean that the word processing program
(and hardware) intrude as little as possible between you and
your thoughts.
If I had to make a formula for transparency, I suppose it would
look something like this:
power X ease of use - fatal errors
time required to get comfortable
"transparency.
In Naiman's formula "power" means the range of the program's
capabilities— often called "features." "Fatal errors" don't hurt
you or the machine; they may eat all or part of a document
you're working on, which leads to swearing, repeated work, and
distrust.
Good software is structured like an onion. Richard Dalton:
"The ideal program is layered— simple and self-evident on the
outside, with all the features anyone needs, but you can also dig
into the program for progressively more complex layers." Most
complex programs are horrors to learn— DBASE II (p. 85) is a
classic. Most simple programs have no depth— PES: WRITE
(p. 54) comes to mind. The great programs have both simplicity
and complexity— MICROSOFT WORD (p. 60), 1-2-3 (p. 68), and
MACPAINT (p. 127) are examples in that direction. Programs
should be like those Russian imperial Easter eggs by Faberge,
with the exquisite jeweled landscapes you peek into— attractive
on the outside, magnificent within.
r*
3
Good software blends well with other software. You can't invite
most software to the same party. If they speal< to each other at
all, they fight. Ideally, all of your "applications" software-
writing, analyzing, organizing, accounting, managing, drawing,
telecommunicating, and programming— would speak the same
language and welcome interaction. They would be "command
compatible" and "file compatible"— they would respond to the
same instructions from you, and they could work comfortably
with each other's documents. This is the great attraction of the
"integrateds" like SYMPHONY (p. 111) and FRAMEWORK
(p. 110), where a handful of applications are all in one program,
but beware what Organizing domain editor Tony Fanning calls
"the Decathlon effect"— "one function is done very well, and the
others, usually including the data management function, are just
fair." The Whole Earth Software Catalog gives extra points to
programs whose files are in industry-standard formats so
they're companionable with other companies' programs.
Good software is well supported. "Support " refers to the cloud
of information and other products around a program that give it
a rich working context in the world. Some comes from the
company's conscientiousness, some from the program's
popularity. Good support: lots of machines run the program; lots
of other programs will work with it; there are whole books on
special applications; the program is routinely upgraded; and the
company responds helpfully to users with problems. Atypical
spectrum of company support: users who call the makers of
WORD PERFECT (p. 60) for help with a problem get thorough,
friendly treatment; from the makers of MICROSOF WORD
(p. 60) and WORDSTAR (p. 56) they get indifferent treatment.
Good software is not copy-protected. That's a somewhat
controversial position on a highly controversial subject. Many
manufacturers try to discourage "piracy" (wholesale copying) of
their software by various protective devices. Fine. The problem
is, if the users can't copy all or parts of the program easily within
their own working environments, the tool is much less
adaptable, and inconveniences and incompatibilities,
sometimes major ones, are introduced by the protection
schemes. Therefore we recommend the following: 1) Do not
buy or sell illegally copied software; 2) the showing and
sharing of copies of software among friends is mostly okay, IF,
once you decide to use a copied program in your work, you go
out and buy a regular commercial copy and take advantage of
its nice manual, company support, and so on; 3) shop
preferentially for un-copy-protected software— SUPERCALC3
(p. 67) over 1-2-3 (p. 68), for example, or ENABLE (p. 109)
over FRAMEWORK (p. 110) ; 4) go ahead and use programs
like COPY II (p. 172) to defeat the copy protection on software
you use. RICHARD DALTON: "I have no compunction
whatsoever, ethical or otherwise, to fitting software to my
system in a way that makes it reasonable to run and to protect
my investment. Protected software is like having a copyright
restriction on a book that only allows you to read it with a
flashlight." The issue of copy protection is treated, with
considerable heat on both sides, as if it were some
monumental new problem. It's not; it's like what was worked
out with photocopying— you can copy for convenience, but if
you sell what you copy, you're in serious legal trouble.
Good software is reasonably priced. Most isn't. Most spelling
checkers cost upwards of $125. The best one— WORD PROOF
(p. 62)— costs $60. Most word processors cost $300-600. One
of the best— PC WRITE (p. 59)— costs $10. Because the prices
are kept up by confusion in the marketplace, prices of software
will come down only when careful shoppers drive them down-
it's already under way. Meantime, check out discount mail order,
p. 23, and public domain (free) software, p. 25 and in the index.
Send in the warranty card. If it's a machine, you may well need
the service. If it's software, the manufacturer will keep you
informed of updates and offer very good exchange deals
($10-200) for new versions, which you should get. You already
know the program, and it knows you; new versions won't violate
that, they'll reward your loyalty.
Never fight a problem in the system for more than an hour
without making a phone call. First call the friend who has a
system like yours. Then call the dealer who sold you the thing
that isn't working. Then call the software company. Then call the
hardware company. New systems don't work— especially if
there's a printer or modem involved. It's not your fault. It's
theirs; your responsibilty is to hold their nose to the fire until
they fix your problem. Be of good cheer— systems work
beautifully eventually, and you'll leam a lot that's useful getting
there.
The secret to succeeding with computers is to futz with them.
BART EISENBERG: Push buttons, move text, insert lines, hit
control characters, add dot commands, bring up menus, invoke
commands and invoke more of them. Try it backwards, try it
sideways, try it upside down. The method, if you can call it that,
is vaguely scientific— in that you perform some action and
observe the results. A playful attitude will get you further with
these machines than weeks of serious endeavor.
Join a user group for your machine. KEVIN KELLY: One of the
most unreported grassroot phenomena in America must be
computer user groups. I estimate there are at least 2,000 groups
meeting right now. Each one serves a small regional area,
composed of members in love with all microcomputers or only
one brand. Despite the absence of a national association or
newsletter, the groups have arisen independently in a similar
form all across the country. There is a remarkable agreement of
intent, purpose and style. Using our user group in Atlanta as an
example, we meet once a month to discuss technical problems,
flag new products, swap software, gossip, and co-op buy items
like disks. We put out a monthly newsletter. Being more
organized than many, we may ask experts or vendors to speak at
the meetings. The chief purpose really is to fill the vacuum of
information left by the rocketing advance of microcomputers-
machines and software arriving light-years ahead of their
instructions. User groups are the guiding hands across this
stellar gap. The user groups also stepped into another vacuum-
software review. OIlie asks if anyone has tried out any new
software lately, and Andy gets up and says he's tried
SCREENWRITER and it stinks. Well, SCREENWRITER has just
lost 126 buyers right off the bat in northeast Georgia. More if you
count the trickle effect. If the same number of people showed up
for, say, peace or politics, with as much regularity, devotion,
interest, and influence as they bring to user groups, they'd be
running the country.
^^*^g^^^»^^^^«*«»^^^^^^M^^^^^ ^ ^i^ ^^«fta^^^^fe %te« »^-!^^
U LruLral
m
m
m
Through the MicroMaze: A Visual Guide
to Getting Organized; Wayne Creekmore
and Stephanie Behasa; 1984; 64 pp.;
$9.95; Asliton-Tate Publishing Group,
8901 La Cienega Blvd., Inglewood, CA
90301; 800/437-4329 or, in CA,
303/799-4900; or COMPUTER LITERACY.
TIk-
The Personal Computer Book; Peter McWilliams
rev. ed., 1984; 299 pp.; $9.95; Quantum Press/
Doubleday & Co., Inc., 501 Franklin Avenue.
Garden City, NY 11530; 516/294-4400; or
COMPUTER LITERACY
'%
■>vii'-
\v
, Uiiii'"
¥®1
How to Buy Software; Alfred Glossbrenner; 1984;
648 pp.; $14.95; St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth
Avenue, New York, NY 10010; 212/674-5151 ; or
COMPUTER LITERACY
STEWART BRAND: These stand head, shoulders, and torso
above the competition as introductory computer books. The
MicroMaze book because it is so graphically inviting and
sophisticated about the utter basics. Peter McWilliams'
Personal Computer Book because it is irreverent, accessible,
and full of clear explanations and frequent sharp advice. Alfred
Glossbrenner's How to Buy Software because it is the definitive
text— the book we most strongly recommend as supplement to
the Whole Earth Software Catalog.
Through the MicroMaze is the introductory computer book I've
been waiting for. Its subject is the setting up of your personal
computer scene— that two week obstacle that keeps the
almost-ready-to-jump from jumping. How to lay out your work
area, how to hook everything up, how to get fluent in the
fundamentals of your computer's operating system. With color
pictures and good clear diagrams and, most important, really
sensible advice, the book is a comfort and a blessing. The
operating systems covered are MS-DOS (IBM PCs, Compaqs,
etc.) and CP/M (Kaypros, Morrows, Apples with CP/M card).
That leaves out the Apple lie and lie, Macintosh, Commodore
64, and laptop portables.
The McWilliams Personal Computer Book is a publishing
success story. Self-published until this October '84 edition
from Doubleday, it was frequently updated and far more
personal, funny, and judgmental of products than is the New
York norm, and it sold like crazy. This edition, Peter's last, is
completely revised with a full 100 pages more than before. For
McWilliams' word on word processing, see p. 48.
Glossbrenner's amazing book has the best explanation I've
seen anywhere of how personal computers work, put strictly in
terms of a shopper's perspective. Dense with good
information, the book is big and comprehensive but never
heavy. Its rich sprinkling of tidbits and tips keep you turning
the pages looking for more. The book is divided, like ours, into
chapters on each kind of software. The shopping advice is
sound enough and general enough that it's surprisingly up to
date for an early 1984 book. For Glossbrenner on public
domain software, see p. 25, on telecommunicating, p. 139.
The Book Company annually does The Book of IBM Software,
The Book of Apple Software, The Book of Commodore 64
Software ($19.95, IBM and Commodore versions; $24.95,
Apple version; Arrays, Inc./The Book Division, 11223 So.
Hindry Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045; 213/410-9466; or
COMPUTER LITERACY) which have good evaluative comments
on a fair range of programs.
Digital Deli, edited by Steve Ditlea, has computer gossip,
much of it great computer gossip. A couple days with this well-
edited book can save you two years of perusing 15 computer
magazines to acquire the anecdotal ambience it takes to feel
comfortable around computer fanatics. The scores of
contributors, a who's-who of computerdom, cover a multitude
of inside perspectives and fringe ravings. They directly convey
the excitement and bemusement these machines keep
reinspiring. (Digital Deli; 1984, 398 pp., $9.95 from Workman
Publishing, 1 West 39th St., New York, NY 10018;
800/722-7202; or COMPUTER LITERACY.)
The purchase price of the program
is probabiy the smallest expense
ii¥ liFf mil
ii[
GERALD M. WEINBERG: Once upon a time, I wanted to be a
high school track star Fortunately, only one other kid in the
school was willing to run as far as a mile, so I was assured a
place on the team even though I couldn't run very fast. All the
same, I often earned a medal in dual meets because the other
schools were in the same situation— they had one good miler,
like my teammate, and one turkey. My strategy was to let their
turkey trot himself out trying to keep up with the two leaders. At
the three-quarter mark, I would usually pass him as he lay
puking on the inside lane.
Track has come a long way in 35 years. In my day, girls weren't
allowed to run a mile. Today, Eagle Junior High School has at
least ten girls who can beat my lifetime personal best. In today's
improved environment, my method of making the team simply
doesn't work. And it's the same in software. When Apples first
fell off the tree in the Garden of Eden, any software that could
run a mile could make the team. Today, there may be a hundred
packages that can go the distance, so we need more
sophisticated selection methods.
Perhaps we can use the packaging as a criterion: Does he look
like a miler? Does it look like a slick spreadsheet? Well , my
running shirt says "Sub-4,"—underfourminutes-but that's my
time for the half-mWe, so you know you can't believe what it says
on the package. Perhaps we can use a trial run at the computer
store? We haven't room to let him run, but look how well he lifts
weights! No, we've all fallen for that one, too. There's really no
alternative: To pick winners with any consistency, buyers have to
learn sophisticated evaluation methods.
In my work consulting with large data processing organizations,
I recommend a multistep selection method based largely on the
work of Tom Gilb and Ken Orr. I use exactly the same method
when selecting software for our little office, so I believe just
about anyone can use it. The method resembles the way you'd
produce a winning miler, and has four major steps:
PREPARATION, MEASURING HEALTH, MEASURING FITNESS,
and TRAINING.
The preparation step encompasses all the work you do before
you even look at the candidates. Preparation itself has three
substeps: define objectives, estimate investment, and budget for
the decision.
Objectives-what you expect the software to accomplish-have
to come first. If you don't know what you want, how can you
hope to get it?
Of course, you might be lucky. The people who produced the
package surely know your needs, don't they? They don't, but
you still have another out, something psychologists call
"cognitive dissonance." You may fall in love with your stupid
purchase in order not to feel stupid. Cognitive dissonance lets
you love anything you buy. If the product causes you
immeasurable pain, you'll probably boast, "No pain, no gain."
If you're not into pain, though, try defining your problem before
you start shopping for software solutions. Start with a general
list of objectives, which you will later refine into more
quantitative form.
The next step is to estimate your investment. A list of investment
factors should look like this:
Training
Lifetime
Usage
Maintenance
The package
In-conversion
Out-conversion
Real Cost $
On this list, training is the cost of preparing people in your firm
to use the new software, and you must not forget those people
who aren't yet around. To estimate complete training costs,
then, you must estimate the next iactor- lifetime, or how long
you will use the package before replacing it. You'll also need to
know the lifetime to estimate usage and maintenance
investments. Usage is the cost of labor, space and supplies
needed to operate the system. l\/laintenance is the cost of
keeping it running-fixing bugs or working around them,
installing new versions, or supplying enhancements to get
exactly what you want.
Like the cost of the package, in-conversion is a one-time cost,
independent of lifetime. In-conversion is the cost of changing
over from your present system- reformatting your existing data
files, for example, or modifying your operating system. Out-
conversion is the cost of getting rid of the package when you go
on to something bigger and better. Out-conversion can cost 100
times the initial package cost, as when you replace one
programming language with a different version, or when you
have accumulated hundreds of files that have to be translated.
When my office recently changed its word-processing software,
these costs broke down roughly as follows:
The package
$50-500 X 4 copies
Lifetime
2 years
Training
40 hours per person x 4 people
Usage
20 hours per week per person
(no difference in supplies)
Maintenance
2 hours per week for one person
In-conversion
From $0 to cost of rekeying all files
Out-conversion
From $0 to cost of rekeying all files
A hobbyist might set the labor cost at zero, making the package
cost the only factor, but we're in business and have to put a price
on our labor Even at $10 per hour, the usage cost over a two-
year lifetime would dominate all others; ultimately, according to
the estimate, we'd wind up investing close to $100,000 in this
word processor The point of making such an estimate up front
is not to be exact, but to gain a sense of what we're deciding and
what alternatives we have. Given the above figures, a more
efficient package that would save one hour per week per person
would be worth at least $7,000. Therefore, our estimate tells
us we can afford to consider rather "expensive" software that a
hobbyist might not be able to justify.
The estimate also indicates the size of the decision we face. As a
rule of thumb, I always budget 2 per cent of the estimated total
cost for the decision process, and thus would be willing to invest
several thousand dollars in making this choice. Without the
estimate as a guide, this might seem an unreasonable amount to
spend in deciding on one package. The hobbyist might allocate
an equivalent amount of personal labor, but almost nothing in
terms of out-of-pocket cost.
On the other hand, without the estimate as a guide, we might
waste too much time on a decision. In certain circumstances-
for example, when we needed a package that would be used
sparingly by only one person for a limited time-it would be
cheaper to buy the first satisfactory product that came to our
attention. The estimate itself can usually be made with sufficient
accuracy in fifteen minutes.
If only a few people can run a mile, each can be considered in
some detail, but if many can, efficiency demands some initial
qualifying heats. The same is true for packages. Where there are
many candidates, I allocate about half the decision budget for
eliminating the unhealthy, leaving half for picking the fittest from
among the few remaining.
(continued on p. 8)
HOPPING
(continued from p. 7)
By "unhealthy" I mean "doesn't meet my objectives." For
example, if I need a database manager that can handle multiple-
disk files, I can immediately eliminate those that cannot. I won't
be swayed by a sales pitch claiming "three times the speed"-
what good is fast access if it can't handle my whole file? To avoid
this kind of trouble at the point of purchase, potential buyers
need to distinguish between functions and attributes. Functions
are things the software musr have; the question to ask here is
"Yes or no?" (Is it there or isn't it?) Attributes are things it
would be niceto have; the relevant question here is "How much
does it cost?" It's obvious from this distinction why we look first
at functions, then at attributes. If we're looking for triathletes
(swim, bike and run), then we're not impressed by the marathon
times of nonswimmers. As John von Neumann once put it,
"There's no sense being precise about something if you don't
even know what you're talking about."
In your search for office automation software, you might need
such functions as: /Wa/nfa/V? manuscript files; Produce printed
manuscripts; and fra/ysm/f electronic manuscripts. So when you
examine particular packages, you need to determine whether
these functions are present or absent. Go down your list of
specifications and ask "Yes or no?" for each one. If you need to,
you can break down each of your specifications into necessary
subfunctions. For instance, you might break down Produce
printed manuscripts into: Number pages; Extracttable of
contents; Print Mer quality; and Provide math symbols.
Someone else might require line drawings but not math
symbols. Only by successively and explicitly refining your own
objectives will you avoid buying a package that perfectly fits
someone else's needs.
Here are three universal standards that should head your list of
objectives:
1. It must work.
2. It must work in your environment.
3. It must work in your environment tomorrow.
If you can't get "yes" answers to these three questions, asking
about specific functions won't make much difference.
This may seem ridiculous, but I assure you it is not. I recently
spent $25 for a financial application to work on my Commodore
8096. At that price, I couldn't afford too much investigation. The
program was advertised to work with disk systems, but it came
on a cassette. When I wrote to complain, the company replied
that "all you have to do is transfer it from cassette to disk."
When I wrote again to say that I didn't have a cassette drive,
they wrote to say that I should "get someone in the
neighborhood with a cassette drive to do it." My only neighbors
are cows, and the nearest cassette-equipped 8096 is 60 miles
away.
Cheap Tests for Trouble
Nevertheless, I eventually did get the cassette transcribed (my
in-conversion cost now exceeded the purchase price). The
program never worked on disk, however, and an examination of
the source code showed that it never could have worked with a
disk system. In retrospect, of course, I should have dropped it
the minute I learned what "works with disk systems" meant to
the producer. Even if I had written off my $25 at that point and
thrown the program away, I would have been way ahead of
where I finally wound up after transcribing the tape.
If you're looking for a miler, you don't want someone who can't
climb a flight of stairs without pausing for breath. Until there are
enforced industry standards for software, you need to look out
for quick signs of serious trouble. To start with, when a package
doesn't install as advertised, send it back immediately for a
refund— there are bound to be other faults.
Next, inspect all available written material for poor quality-a
sure sign of danger Errors in a product are like cockroaches in a
kitchen-there's never just one, and they're never all in the
same drawer I recently received a mail advertisement for a
spelling corrector The ad contained two spelling errors. Three
months later, the company folded. A friend of mine bought a
statistical package. The manual contained an example giving the
population distribution of various counties by sex and income.
In one of the counties the distribution was 75 per cent males and
88 per cent females. The program was of the same quality.
Put prospective dealers to the test. If they can't refer you to
actual users, look for another package— unless your objective is
to be a software pioneer, complete with arrows in your back. If
you get referrals from a dealer and discover that these buyers
don't use the package, back off! But if they're using it and say
they don't ///re it, don't be overly disturbed. At least they're using
it. Ask them what specifically they don't like. You might not even
be interested in those features.
Remember, too, that the software must continueto work in your
environment, which is largely a function of the quality of the
dealer. If your dealer doesn't answer calls, find another dealer
Dealers who won't respond to a sales prospect will never
respond to a request for service. You can test dealers further by
calling and pretending that you have already purchased the
package but are having some difficulty. If they aren't helpful and
courteous, look elsewhere. Also look for another dealer if you
can't try out the system in the store, or if they don't seem to
have a manual around for you to read. Finally, avoid any dealer
who answers your questions by slapping you on the back and
saying, "No problem!"
Once you have eliminated the candidates that can't run the
distance, or are likely to have a stroke trying, you might find
yourself with one or zero remaining packages. In that case, the
decision-making process is essentially oven If you still have two
or more packages to choose from, you can then begin to
measure fitness by checking attributes. Generally, you can
assess attributes with respect to three distinct variables:
resources, satisfaction and lifetime. Resources are what the
attribute will cost you— in money time, people, space and
supplies. Satisfaction is what you will get out of it-ease of use,
performance, security, pleasure, inspiration, pride. Lifetime is '
how long the attribute will continue to yield the satisfaction your
resources have bought-correctability, modifiability, portability
scope of application.
When you have written down the various attributes, you can
use Tom Gilb's Mecca Method to measure the fitness of each
candidate. First you attach a metricto each attribute. The figure
shows a simplified example of three metrics you might assign to
the attributes of an accounts receivable system. Each attribute is
reduced here to specific quantitative measures. If you can't
9
produce such a measure, then you don't have an attribute.
Sometimes assigning a number value is difficult, but in those
cases you'll always learn something important from the effort.
For instance, "reliability" sounds nice in any system, but unless
you translate it into something measurable, you'll be a sucker
for the first smooth sales pitch.
ATTRlBUfE
COST
ftRfORlAkHCt
MEFRIC
ERRORS
TO aiENT
H/fti<Jo{iiS
RtfiPC^E
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.475
overall arable = „ ». --.
Once you have the metrics, you must set a goal and assign a
weight to each attribute to show what will be satisfactory and
how important it is to you. Again, trying to assign these goals
and weights will tend to expose your unstated— and thus
dangerous— assumptions.
Once you're finished, you are ready to examine the actual
candidates, making a score sheet for each. Take the grade sheet
with you when you talk to a salesperson or to your friends and
use it as a checklist. The sheet will keep you from being swayed
by others' enthusiasm and from forgetting something important.
Translating everything into numbers tends to bring blue-sky
talkers down to earth. If you can't get the information to fill in
your grade sheet, don't buy the package.
Each grade sheet will yield an overall score for its package. Use
good sense in interpreting these scores. The difference between
.745 and .750 cannot truly be significant in light of the rough
nature of the calculations. If the packages are this close, you can
flip a coin, or choose the one in the shiny box. But where the
scores are, say, .49 and .75, the package with .49 will probably
be much less satisfactory than the other. Still, never go against
your instincts. If you're still inclined to buy the .49, even after
you've compared the scores, it would be a good idea to
reexamine your application of the Mecca Method. The package
you favor might have an important attribute that you haven't
identified explicitly, or perhaps one of its attributes is more
important to you than you realized. Repeat the method as many
times as necessary to get a good feeling about your decision,
dropping out obvious losers each time. At the very least, each
repetition will give you a better understanding of yourself, which
is always worth the time invested.
Once you've chosen your potential champion, you've begun
your relationship with the package. Choosing is not the same as
purchasing, and you can often make up deficiencies in the
package by negotiating with the vendor. In such a situation, the
grade sheet can guide the negotiation by showing correctable
weak spots. A friend of mine wanted a word processor whose
spelling corrector graded low on speed. After seeing the grade
sheet, the dealer tossed in a free stand-alone corrector. Another
friend narrowed down her choice to two accounting packages
that graded dead even. Using the grade sheets, she showed
each dealer what he would have to do to raise his product's
grade. In the end, she got a smart keyboard at half price to
overcome one package's problems with keyed control
sequences.
Even after making the purchase, you're still far from finished.
Using a new package is very much like taking up running.
Champions are made, not born, and the road to championship
goes through four clearly identifiable stages: pain, stumbling,
romance and realism.
In the pain stage, the package will seem impossible to use. You
might need a lot of help from the vendor, who could suddenly be
hard to find. Remember that only 2 per cent of your estimated
cost was dedicated to the choice. Before long, your investment
in the vendor's system will be a hundred times greater than the
vendor's investment in yot/r system. You can avoid a great deal
of pain if you negotiate a 30-day money-back guarantee, giving
the vendor an incentive to help you reach the stumbling stage.
In the stumbling stage, usage will be clumsy and inefficient, but
you will probably have surpassed your vendor's knowledge.
Now is the time to get in touch with other users. One good user
group is worth fifty poor manuals. Other users can teach you
about those obscure features you skipped when reading the
manual— or that aren't even in the manual. A few minutes of
discussion can save you many hours of work. Even so, you
should now read the manual a second time, and a third. You
may even begin to appreciate it, which is a sure sign you're
falling in love with the package.
In the romance stage, you'll believe the package is the Olympic
Games, and you are the gold medalist. Prospective buyers
looking for information should steer clear of users in the
romance stage. They can be identified by their inability to give
any rational reply to the question, "What won't it do?" Most
package users never graduate from the romance stage, because
they are unable to overcome the power of cognitive dissonance.
Who cares what it costs, as long as you feel like a champion?
To realize the full payoff on your investment, you must be able to
identify specific shortcomings of the package for specific jobs.
When you've reached this stage, that of realism, you've become
the ideal referral for prospective buyers. You can help fill out
f/7e/rgrade sheets, to find a package that meets frte/r objectives.
In fact, you'll be ready then to retire from racing and start
coaching . Or to start looking for a replacement package of your
own.
10
wmm
im
Mithridatism— Tolerance for a poison acquired by taldng
graduaily larger doses of it— mithridatic.
The American Heritage Dictionary
Computer magazines are mitfiridatic. You always start with one,
build up to doses which would kill a beginner, and probably end
up immune to all of them. —Tony Fanning
STEWART BRAND: Welcome to a field where the magazines are
more important than the books. (Check p. 202 for indexes of
each.) Books serve well for whole overviews (like this one,
hopefully, and the ones on p. 6) and for specialized use, but
books by themselves, including this one, are simply too out of
date, and books don't teach as well as magazines do. Magazines
give you the seething marketplace (some publications too heavy
to read in bed because of their weight of advertising) and the
voices of confusion and reassurance of users and reviewers and
ware designers soft and hard. You can study a book; you wade
into magazines.
Since computer magazines are notoriously ephemeral (no other
section of this book has changed as much since last year), you
might think twice before getting long subscriptions. I would not
be surprised if this list were fifty percent different again next
year, and we're recommending the stabler magazines. Computer
mags live by the volatility of the computer business, and they die
by it. And they still haven't caught on that it's safer to serve
readers than advertisers.
All of the Domain Editors studied software reviews collected for
them from dozens of periodicals and immersed themselves in
the detailed market-watching that goes with trying to anticipate
your situation and opportunities in the winter of '85-'86. The
magazines reviewed here are ones that served us best and
should do the same for you. Many of us have worked for and will
work for various of these publications, so bear in mind that our
judgement may be too intimate. We're reviewing our relatives,
with relish.
The industry, with glee . . .
$31/yr (weekly); InfoWorld, P.O. Box 1018,
Southeastern, PA 19398-9982; 800/544-3712 or, in
PA, 215/768-0388.
STEWART BRAND: Our favorite, the source of
the most conversation that begins, "Didja see
in . . . ?"
ALFRED LEE: Two years ago I took a break
from an accumulating burden of personal
paperwork to drive across the continent with
my family I had already begun to suppose
that a personal computer might help me fight
my way out of the paper, and the long trip
included trance-like stretches (e.g., Kansas)
when I thought about all the wonderful things
a computer at home might do for me. When
we got back to New Jersey, my first trip to a
computer store taught me in five minutes that
I had no business out on the street with a
credit card in my state of ignorance.
That same day I saw the tabloid InfoWorld
perched between Rolling Stone and
Penthouse at the local tobacconist. It
changed my life.
At my level of experience, then and now, the
breezy daily-newspaper style trivializes the
subject matter, which is what I need. Makes
me feel like I can hack it. At first I'd buy it at
the tobacconist's whenever the cover
motivated me, then every week just to read
John C. Dvorak's column, then I subscribed.
What I like best about Dvorak is that he walks
over cliches as if over water, keeping his feet
dry by boldfacing the cliches.
O MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
The news notes are compressed enough that I
can get a feeling for microcomputer trends by
osmosis. The weekly "theme" was more
instructive when I was greenhorn than now.
The reviews aren't more timely descriptive,
or reliable than in the monthlies, but four
issues cover more new products than any
four monthlies.
Few if any issues are "exciting," in the way a
single issue of Byte or PC Magazine can hit
several different topics that interest me. It's
more lovable than great; I crawl into bed with
it for two or three hours every week, then
count the days until it comes round again.
Reading InfoWorld was the first step I took
toward mechanizing my professional life, and
it's still an instructive hobby, still a serial
guidebook to the industry
DARRELL ICENOGLE: Even those who hate it
read it. It captures the spirit of the fast-
moving industry better than any other mag.
TONY FANNING: InfoWorld and PC Week are
great! It's wonderful not being tied to the
normal 3-4 month lead time which monthlies
can't avoid. I like the sense of
ACCE L E R A T I N a weekly
gives.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: The reviews in
InfoWorld are too inaccurate too often for me
to know when to take them seriously
STEWART BRAND: The problem with the
reviews, as with nearly all computer
magazines, is that they're not comparative
enough. Something will get blasted or praised
strictly in its own terms; you can't tell if the
reviewer has any experience with competing
products. InfoWorld reviews are long and
searching and cover hardware as well as soft,
but you have to read carefully between the
lines to get full value.
>»o^*^
White water rafting on your
IBtVI PC compatible .. .
Free to qualified subscribers; $120/yr (52 issues);
PC Week, 15 Crawford Street, Needham, MA
02194; 617/449-6520.
RICHARD DALTON: More comprehensive and
better written (surprisingly) than either PC or
PC WORLD who both seem to be trying for
the statesman position in the PC/MS-DOS
segment. PC Week is closer to InfoWorld; the
others looking to out-Byte each other Not
unimportantly it's free to "qualified
subscribers," which seems to be people with
an interest in the subject and residual
eyesight great enough to at least scan the
pictures.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Once you get past
the first couple of pages the magazine often
reads like a rehash of press releases, but if
you're determined to know about the latest
products that work with (or instead of) your
IBM PC or compatible, you'll find the news
here.
n
Mmm mml Bmm§k
Binding tlie generations . . .
$19.97/yr (12 issues); Family Computing, P.O. Box
2886, Boulder, CO 80322; 800/525-0643 or, in CO,
303/447-9330.
STEWART BRAND: For me the tiredest
question in tlie business is, "Wliat use do
computers have in the home?" Every month
this magazine comes up with 100 pages or so
of answers —stuff for the l(ids, stuff for home
business, and home application goodies from
party planning to cooking to home finance, it
has brief but useful product reviews. If your
family is unsure about whether getting a
computer is worth the cost and nuisance,
watch this magazine for a couple months and
see if you're enticed. My hunch is that TVs
divide the family somewhat, while computers
connect it somewhat, since both l<id and
grownup may be equal beginners. But beware
the resentment of anyone left out (many a ^
wife, many a daughter, I am told).
Moving up
o
$25/yr (12 issues); Business Software, P.O. Box
27975, San Diego, CA 92128; 415/424-0600.
STEWART BRAND: Important subject, good
magazine. There are innumerable computer
magazines aimed at business, but nearly all
of them lust after the Fortune 500 and their
megacorporate needs for Big Glitter. This
modest publication just minds the store,
thank you very much, and does so in a
businesslike way. A business never stops
shopping for software and never, if it's
smart, makes a rash decision about what set
of programs to stake its life on. Business
Software does nicely as an ongoing guide.
Everytlting for everybody in business . . .
$11.97/yr (12 issues); Popular Computing, P.O.
Box 307, Martinsville, NJ 08836; 800/258-5485 or,
in NH, 603/924-9281.
STEWART BRAND: In the shoot-out for top
general computer magazine we prefer
Popular Computing over the equally popular
Personal Computing. The range, the
carefulness, the writing quality, the general
usefulness look consistently better to us, but
a newcomer to the field may want both for a
while, just to get up to speed.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Popular's range
changed in the last year. They're now aiming
editorial content directly at business users
and, for the most part, ignoring home
computer users. Personal, so far, continues
to cut a wide swath between the two, trying to
sati&fy both. Personal is fatter. Popular is
meatier
$18/yr (4 Issues); Whole Earth Review, 27 Gate
Five Rd., Dept. SC, Sausalito, CA 94965;
415/332-4335.
STEWART BRAND: Since there's no chance
of objectivity reviewing our own magazine,
I'll try only to describe where we fit in the
computer magazine spectrum. The definitive
elements are: no advertising, nonprofit,
computers-in-context. That makes our
reviews more comparative and judgemental
than most others'— as you can see (many of
the reviews in this 2.0 edition of the Whole
Eartli Software Catalog first appeared in the
Wliole Eartii Review). In a field driven by
marketing, the Review works at bypassing
the hype, connecting users and designers
directly. In a field that acts as if it were the
entire universe, the Review works at
connecting computers to the rest of life.
About 20-25 pages of each 144-page issue is
about computers— serving as a quarterly
update to the book you're holding. More info
on page 3.
Good old . . .
o
$24.97/yr (12 issues); Creative Computing, P.O.
Box 2886, Boulder, CO 80322; 800/525-0643 or, in
CO, 303/447-9330.
STEWART BRAND: Now up to Volume 11
(1985), this quiet, competent magazine
predates the computing marketing frenzy of
the mid-'80s, so it has managed to maintain
a rare unhysterical perspective. It's like
having a great uncle who is pleased you've
become interested in a field he's been
hacking in since the early '60s. Without
condescension Creative Computing educates
and encourages, turning outsiders into
insiders. It covers the whole field, from
home computers to office net machines like
the IBM PC AT
$15/yr (12 issues); Patch Publishing Co., Inc., 407
S. Washington Ave., RO. Box F, Titusville, FL
32781-9990; 800/327-9926 or. In FL,
305/269-3211.
ART KLEINER: The heart of this newsprint
tabloid is classifieds — used computers, mail-
order software— and listings— user's groups,
bulletin boards, and meetings. Range,
nationwide. Features are uneven, but they
cover each major type of micro and pick up
on low-cost and public domain news that
most other magazines miss. I've come to feel
affection for it in a gritty technical kind of
way.
RICHARD DALTON: Readers in Northern
California will be better off with Computer
Currents (free at computer stores,
newsstands, libraries, colleges and
universities. Home delivery: S18/yr(25
issues); Center Productions, 2550 9th St.,
Berkeley, CA 94710; 415/848-6860)— better
industry coverage and better prices than
Computer Shopper, and it's free.
17
Valuable reviews
©fiCTMiAfae n
^LETTER O
$185/yr (10 issues; includes 10 free back issues);
Software Digest, 1 Winding Dr., Philadelpliia, PA
19131; 800/223-7093 or, in PA, 800/222- 3315.
STEWART BRAND: The closest thing to
Consumer Reports that exists for software.
If you buy software at all professionally, it's
certain to be worth the substantial price.
Nobody does as thorough a job of
comparing programs feature by feature,
virtue by virtue, in painstaking fashion. Each
major application program for MS-DOS
(only) machines is tested by new users,
bench-tested (for speed primarily),
compared to its competition, and rated.
While we do not always agree with Software
Digest's summary ratings (they often weight
ease-of-learning much too heavily over
other more important qualities that only
show up over time), we make considerable
use of their research, often drawing on their
detailed findings to come to a quite different
conclusion about a program.
The publication comes out ten times a year,
each time on a different kind of program-
Word Processors; File Managers; Relational
Databases; Spreadsheets;
Integrateds; Graphics;
Project Management,
etc. — 60 pages or
so of invaluable
evaluations.
Flashy original; homely, loveable
newcomer . . .
$30/year (13 issues); Macworld, R 0. Box 20300,
Bergenfield, NY 07621; 415/861-3861.
O
$18/year (12 issues); Icon Concepts Corp, RO.
Box 1936, Athens, TX 75751; 214/677-2793.
JAY KINNEY: When the Macintosh was first
unveiled, Macworld was the magazine to get
if you wanted to stay informed about the
latest peripherals, software, and other news
related to this ground-breaking machine. In
fact, the early issues of Macworld rivaled—
and in some cases surpassed— the user
handbooks that come with the Mac: since ad
pages were still relatively scarce, Macworld
fleshed out the magazine with thorough
introductions to all aspects of the machine
and the initial software releases. Now, with
the trickle of Mac software grown into a
steady stream, Macworld has come to
resemble most other machine-specific
publications, with briefer articles drowning
in a sea of ads.
i find it worthwhile to supplement my
scanning of Macworld with the regular
perusal of a second publication, the
Macazine. Formerly a Mac newsletter called
Concepts, the Macazine is now a monthly
slick-paper, multi-color publication featuring
a higher percentage of critical, down-to-
earth reviews of Mac programs than you'll
find anywhere else. In distinct contrast to
Macworld, there's a strong dose of
amateurism at work in the Macazine, which
means that articles tend to be unpolished
reports from nonwriter types including user-
group leaders, cottage-level software
developers, and just plain average Mac
owners. The Macazine is simultaneously
homely and loveable, and nigh impossible to
find on newsstands.
Indispensable Apple II mag . . .
k+ o
$24.97/yr (12 issues); A+ , RO. Box 2965,
Boulder, CO 80322; 800/525-0643 or, in CO,
303/447-9330.
STEVEN LEVY: With the premature demise of
Softalk, my favorite Apple II magazine is
k+ . Though the tone of the magazine is
stiffer than was Softalk's, and doesn't quite
reflect the freewheeling spirit of the Apple
world, A+ has a cleaner, easy-to-read look
and plenty of helpful articles. Products for
the Apple II family are usually reviewed in
roundup articles (one month you'll see
music-making software, another month a
comparison of modems). This is not as
useful as a continual barrage of new-product
reviews. But if nothing else, A-i- is
indispensable for its ad pages, which
represent a virtual catalog of what's new for
my machine.
Problem-solving for Commodore users
$24/yr (12 issues); COMPUTE!, Circulation Dept.,
RO. Box 961, Farmingdale, NY 11737; 800/334-
0868 or, in NC, 919/275-9809.
JUDITH LUCERO TURCHIN: Though its
parent magazine, COMPUTE!, also devotes
quite a bit of space to the Commodore 64,
the Gazette is more useful, as it addresses
strictly Commodore issues. As with any
publication dependent on advertising,
reviews are rarely sharply critical— but the
Gazette does not hesitate to report bugs and
suggest alternatives in its in-depth columns
and tutorials. The "Feedback" column is
particularly helpful, consisting of readers'
comments, questions, and surprisingly
elegant solutions to problems. --'^
Everything for the IBM PC-compatible . . .
PC (The Independent Guide to IBM Personal
Computers); $34.97/yr (26 issues); PC Magazine,
RO. Box 2886, Boulder, CO 80322; 800/525-0643
or, in CO, 303/447-9330.
STEWART BRAND: A year or so after the
introduction of the IBM PC computer, PC
Magazine split in two over a management/
ownership beef, and the aggrieved "good
guys" went away and started PC World. After
two years of head-to-head competition,
they're both alive and well— PC the more so,
in our opinion. PC World does good things,
but PC has more goods more often (biweekly
instead of monthly) more translatable into
direct use. You'll need a sturdy shelf for back
issues— the magazine is fat and frequent-
but there's no better way to keep up with the
huge volume of good stuff that continues to
pour out for MS-DOS machines.
W\^
O
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
15
Pm Mm fegwfflMi
Technical authority . .
$21/yr (12 issues); Byte, P.O. Box 590,
Martinsville, NJ 08836; 800/258-5485 or. In NH,
603/924-9281.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: It covers the
microcomputer field— particularly
innovations— in depth. Technically accurate
and objective, it's part of the history and well
aware of the responsibility this implies.
STEWART BRAND: Barbara was a West Coast
Editor of Byte before she came to Whole
Earth. The magazine is for the profession, by
the profession; many of the contributors are
in the industry No computer magazine has
better covers or better cover stories behind
them on the major trends in the business.
Nobody has more immediate and thorough
coverage of new machines. Byte's long
interview with the design team of the
Macintosh was the best thing I saw anywhere
on that machine, when everybody was
covering it. Software coverage is techie —
interesting but less useful to the buyer than
others, and often late in the game.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Byte probably has
more ads and more advertising revenue than
any other computer magazine, yet I know
from personal experience, as an editor at
both Byte and Popular Computing, that
publisher McGraw-Hill adamantly, rigidly, and
actively protects the editorial staff from any
possible pressure from advertising sales-
people—so the salespeople don't even try.
Byte's editorial plans include a new
teleconferencing system called BIX, offered to
subscribers at very low rates compared to the
Source and CompuServe (p. 140). You're
more lil<ely to find Byte editors and other
techie types running conferences on
microprocessor architecture and plasma
displays than, say, gardening or how to
choose a computer, but if that strikes your
fancy, there'd be no better place online for
that kind of interactive information.
Delicious gossip from old pros . . .
$15 (10 issues); DTACK Grounded, 1415 E.
iVIcFadden, Suite F, Santa Ana, CA 92705;
714/835-4884.
ALAN KALKER: Microcomputer drag racers
hang out here. Over a six-pack of Heineken's
dark they swap tales, dreams, and news of
the latest high-speed gear: math chip
turbochargers and 68000 hot rods with the
DaTa ACKnowledged pin grounded (like
welding the throttle full open). Your genial
host makes even novices feel welcome with
plainspeak explanations and a spicy fricassee
of computer industry bloopers and quaint
customs. Quite palatable if you have a strong
stomach for droll parable and irreverent
parody.
The setting is the back of a Santa Ana speed
shop. Off in the corner, the mighty ONE
MEGAFLOP is beginning to take shape. You
can eavesdrop as an old pro (a relic of the
days of bamboo slide rules) debates options
for his newest creations with a peanut
gallery of top university and industry
hackers. Hang in there when the talk turns
technical. Even if you have to skip parts
requiring assembly language, you'll learn
lots of fascinating stuff that will shape the
future of micros and gain you an
appreciation of true engineering elegance.
The hacker's voice
Dr. Dobb's Journal (Software Tools for Advanced
Programmers); S25/yr (12 issues); P.O. Box 27809,
San Diego, CA 92128; 415/424-0600.
THOMAS SPENCE: Where InfoWorld is my
meat and potatoes, I find Dr. Dobb's Journal
is my monthly visit to a trade show
"hospitality suite." Some months it is chips
and dip and a Coke while other months it is
cracked crab, caviar, and champagne.
Dr. Dobb's is very much a "hacker's"
magazine and makes no bones about it. Until
recently contributors were not paid for their
efforts. Even now submitted articles and
programs are placed into the public domain.
Dr. Dobb's seems to have its finger on the
pulse of the proletariat of the computer
world. This steady-handed approach in a
computer magazine is a welcome relief from
the blowin'-in-the-wind feeling I get from
most other mags every time a new computer
comes onto the market.
I will probably never trash-can my Dr. Dobb's
back issues, because they make excellent
reference materials. Being that I am a
programmer (software engineer?) by trade, I
find back issues invaluable for finding tricks-
of-the-trade subroutines.
STEWART BRAND: Dr. Dobb himself, itself,
reviews utility programs on our p. 173.
From the Brits . .
\3nu3 ^
UK £15, Overseas £40 (12 issues); Stuart
Cruickshank, 53 Frith St., London W1A 2HG,
England; 01-439-4242.
STEWART BRAND: British computer
journalism is significantly better than the
American kind. Better writing, often better
researching, more invidious comparison of
products, greater passion. Since the U.K.
computer market is about two years behind
the U.S., a lot of that better journalism is
directed at American products. There are
dozens of good British computer mags, but
the acknowledged best of the lot is Personal
Computer World. As many people read
London's The Economist to get perspective
on the world of finance, you might read this
magazine to get perspective on the computer
world, particularly since it is increasingly a
world phenomenon.
1'^
mmwmt, mm mmm$
STEWART BRAND: Which machine you buy is the most
irrevocable and consequential decision you make around
personal computers. 1) Whatever you get, you're eliminating
utterly all the software that doesn't run on your machine.
2) You're making the biggest single expenditure of your
system. And usually it's the first expenditure you make, when
you know the least.
So: buy conservative. Buy from a large, proven manufacturer.
Buy a middle-of-the-road, popular machine with a wealth of
software available for it— not too old, not too new. That
preserves your options. There's always news going on in the
hardware department— check our Last Minute Supplement on
p. 209 for some— but don't buy into it unless you relish being
a test pilot.
At present you're offered five major choices:
® Commodore 64 — cheapest
® Apple lie or He— most home software, and some business
® IBM PC and compatibles (Compaq, etc.)— most business
software, and some home
® Macintosh— graphic, innovative software for home and
business
® AT&T UNIX PC— heavy duty business software
Whichever road you choose eliminates the other four.
Before detailed shopping, there are some technical generalities
to address. Not many. If you know a little about Memory,
Storage, and Operating Systems, you know enough to shop
intelligently.
Memory. Expressed in K, as in "You need 192K of memory in
order to run 1-2-3 on that machine" or "CP/M machines like
the Kaypro are forever limited to 64K." More K is better K, and
costs more. Memory is sort of like the machine's
consciousness— the amount of material it can hold in mind at
once to think about and act instantly upon. Machines with
larger memories can work with more complex programs and
work conspicuously faster. Another term for memory in this
sense is RAM— Random Access Memory. With some machines
you can add more memory as you go (in the form of
"cards" — circuit boards you can easily install yourself in
"slots" in the machine), a handy way to keep up with growing
ambitions.
Storage. "Old-timers will tell you. If users will maim for main
memory, they'll kill for disk storage."
— John Gantz, InfoWorld.
Also expressed in K. "How does the Macintosh get 400K on
those 372 inch disks when the Hewlett-Packard 150 only gets
270K?" The disk is where your information lives when it's not
in active use. A "bigger" disk (more K) means bigger
programs will run comfortably, and there's more room for your
data files. One kilobyte (IK) equals about 150 words of text, so
at 250 words per double-spaced page, a standard disk of 360K
will hold 216 pages.
There are only three consequential kinds of disk these days—
the 51/4" "floppy" (Commodore, Apple, IBM, 160 to 1200K);
the 3V2" "floppy" (more of a hardshell actually, some laptops,
Macintosh, Amiga, 270 to 800K); and hard disk (Apple, IBM,
Macintosh, 5 to 200-plus MB). Hard disk is what one aspires
to. It measures storage in megabytes (MB), each megabyte a
million bytes (1000K). Woody Liswood: "I cannot live without a
hard disk. I really do not remember how I existed before.
With 2.5 megabytes available for WORDSTAR and related
spelling and grammar, and others, I am completely spoiled.
The additional storage and quickness of response will save you
hours of frustration in working with large files."
Operating systems. This is the troublous realm of
"compatibility." A program written for one operating system
won't operate on another one unless it's translated, which is
either a nuisance, expensive, or impossible, depending. "The
IBM PC is a clunky machine, but everything runs on it," said
editor Barbara Robertson, on her way to buying one. The
IBM's operating system, PC DOS (generically, MS-DOS, hence
the term "MS-DOS machines"), is the closest thing we have to
a standard these days, so software writers flock to it, and so
do hardware manufacturers in the 16-bit generation. Ah.
There are three generations of personal computer hardware
alive in the market just now. The oldest is 8-bit, with three
different standard operating systems— Commodore 64, Apple
II, and CP/M-80 (on machines like Kaypro and Morrow). The
current dominant generation is 16-bit, with one standard
(hence its attraction)— the MS-DOS operating system that runs
the IBM PC family and hordes of compatibles and sort-of
compatibles. The cutting edge is 32-bit, with three standards
and probably more to come— Macintosh, AT&T UNIX PC, and
Amiga. Every now and then I understand the difference
between 8 and 16 and 32 bit, but it doesn't matter to
understand it, so I forget again.
Now then. Hardware shopping advice from an expert. Richard
Dalton has been in the computer field for 18 years. He's a
hardware buying consultant and editor of the office technology
newsletter Open Systems. A founder of this Catalog project,
his bemused voice appears throughout the book.
RICHARD DALTON: We think there's more value in digging out
the best in personal computing, not the newest. New products,
especially hardware, are going to have problems. This was true
of the vaunted IBM PC right after its announcement and
frustrates our office today as we try to get the interesting and
ambitious new AT&T UNIX PC to turn itself on properly. That
doesn't invalidate the UNIX PC— they're just having predictable
early production glitches.
FIRST RULE: Don't buy serial number "1" of any system (or
anything close to it).
Second reason: a new computer system that is revolutionary
(the ST from Atari is a good example) will not have enough
software immediately available to satisfy the average buyer. It
generally takes one or two years for the software producers to
catch up with a new machine.
SECOND RULE: Buy a computer that offers a number of
choices in each software category (writing, organizing,
drawing, etc.) that interests you.
Since personal computers (and, of course, the programs that
make the beasts work) are becoming more capable each year, a
natural tendency is to hold back and await next year's
developments. That's a valid approach /f you don't have
15
anything currently important to do that a personal computer
would substantially improve. If you do have, waiting won't help
much.
THIRD RULE: Think about what you can gain from a personal
computer If it's a lot, crash ahead. If you're uncertain, either
wait or buy cheap and do some exploring.
FINAL RULE: So that you know the machine and know that the
one you're buying works, don't buy any computer unless you
have: Typed on the keyboard for at least 15 minutes ®
Started a program, ended it and started another • Created a
file and printed it ® Looked at the display and tested the
system (not a demo) yourself for at least a half hour If a
dealer won't let you do the above, sheath your MasterCard
and move on.
STEWART BRAND: Keyboards and monitors are of the
essence. They're the parts of the computer that wear on your
body day in and day out. Don't get a machine your fingers
aren't happy with. One way to objectively test keyboards— in
the store or with friends' machines— is with TYPING TUTOR III
(p. 48), which tells you your words-per-minute rate as you
mess with it. I likeXhe Apple lie keyboard better than the IBM,
but TYPING TUTOR proved I'm a lot faster and make fewer
errors on the IBM.
Monitors. It's an almost theological choice between high-
resolution monochrome, lower-resolution color, and expensive
high-resolution color. If your computer life is strictly numbers
and characters, monochrome will lessen the eyestrain. If you
use graphics at all, color carries its own bonus of information.
An RGB (red, green, blue) monitor— Taxans are our favorite-
is so much better than a TV screen that it's worth paying the
extra couple hundred bucks, even with the cheapest systems.
Screens smaller than 9 inches diagonal are too hard to read,
larger than 12 inches a waste of space and money.
Given all these considerations, what are my top computer
recommendations? Really only three— Apple, Compaq, and
Macintosh. We recommend a good many more in the next few
pages, but these I regard as the safest of the safe. The Apple is
for any situation that involves kids; all the best learning and
playing software runs on it, but it also has good application
programs for adult use. Apple lie if you want a tidy system,
ready-to-use-out-of-the-box; Apple lie if you want-
expandability. Compaq is the reliable workhorse computer, the
best of the IBM PC clones. If you're doing serious computing,
don't mess around, get one with a hard disk, the Compaq Plus
or a DeskPro. The Macintosh is a fine sports car, snazzy and
fun so long as you don't expect it to do truck duty. I drive a
Compaq Plus.
That's the crude recommendation. Taking it a degree finer, a
little more richness emerges . . .
Disposable computer . . .
$150; disk drive, $200; Commodore Business
Machines, Inc., 1200 Wilson Dr., West Chester,
PA 19380; 215/431-9100.
JOHN SEWARD: The Commodore 64 is the
Bic lighter of computers. It works great, but
it's not destined to become a family
heirloom. I've been writing software for the
64 ever since it was introduced and am
familiar with its strengths and weaknesses.
Compared to the Apple lie, the 64 has the
same memory, an augmented version of the
same processor, better color graphics yet
costs one-fourth as much. The Apple looks
more substantial and has a well-deserved
reputation for reliability, which Commodore
lacks.
STEVEN LEVY: Looking at ads I see the
street price is somewhere around $320
($140 for the computer, $160-180 for the
disk drive.) Since you can get a color
monitor for $200 or so (or use the TV) this
is one cheap system. You could add a fast-
load cartridge, word processor, draw
program, Multiplan, a few games, the whole
package for well under $800.
JUDITH LUCERO TURCHIN: The best
Commodore 64 book (Commodore 64 Home
Companion; George Beekman; 1984, 360
pp., $19.95; Datamost, Inc., 19821 Nordhoff
St., Chatsworth, CA 91324; 818/709-1202;
or COMPUTER LITERACY) costs one-seventh
the price of the computer, but it's worth it. It
has everything— basic programming,
telecommunications, software shopping,
accessory hardware, books, magazines,
users' groups, and bulletin board systems.
In England the Commodore 64 is a serious
business macliine, and good application software
exists for it. It'll display on your TV (as liere), but
you're better off getting a cheap color monitor— if
you move "up" later, you can use the monitor
with the next computer The Commodore 64 is a
good machine to mess around with while you're
deciding whether to mess with computers at ali,
or while you're waiting for something ideal to
come along. If you got more time and patience
than money, it's bargain computing. If you have
destructive Icids, you'll grieve less at the peanut
butter in a Commodore keyboard.
There Is one true statement about
microcomputers: NO MATTER WHAT YOU
BUY, THE FIRST PERSON YOU MEET AFTER
YOUR PURCHASE WILL TELL YOU THAT
YOU SHOULD HAVE PURCHASED
SOMETHING DIFFERENT
— Woody Liswood
The CP/M transportable bargain .
$1595; Kaypro Corporation, P.O. Box N, Del Mar,
CA 92014; 800/452-9776 or, in CA, 800/952-9776.
RICHARD DALTON: Basically, Kaypro offers a
pile of quality software (WORDSTAR, THE
WORD PLUS, INFOSTAR, CALCSTAR,
MICROPLAN, MITE, MBASIC-80, CP/M-80
version 2.2) at a substantial discount and
throws in their computer for free. You
unpack, plug in the power cord and start
writing, organizing, calculating,
telecommunicating, or programming.
STEWART BRAND: With its high resolution
screen, two 392K disk drives, built-in 300
baud modem, built-in clock/calendar, and
transportability, the Kaypro 2X is a neat
package. But its CP/M operating system
imposes three major limitations: 1) almost
no new software is being written tor CP/M;
2) you're forever limited to 64K memory;
3) there's no graphics worth mentioning, or
games.
The Kaypro 2X is complete, a bargain, and
somewhat outdated.
16
For home and school and tiny office . .
Apple lie: S895 (street price $650); disk drive,
$329; monitor, $229; Apple lie: $1195 (street
price $750); monitor and stand, $238; Apple
Computer, 20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, CA
95014; 800/538-9696.
PAUL FREIBERGER: The Apple He and He are
the most recent descendants of the
legendary Apple designed by Steve Wozniak
and Steve Jobs in a Silicon Valley garage in
1976. Since the latest machines still use
practically the same processor as the
previous two million, buyers can count on an
enormous and diverse library of programs.
Choosing between the two models requires
careful thought. The basic lie ($895) is an
open and expandable system, not unlike a
starter kit. There is a plethora of products
from independent firms that offer such
features as: more memory, speech
synthesis, graphics tablets, drawing with a
light pen, and the capacity to build your own
home security system.
The lie requires a willingness to tinker with a
computer, to pull off the lid and to insert
add-on boards. Since many buyers only
want to use their computer, Apple altered its
"open-architecture" approach with the
compact, closed-system He. Built into the
very portable He are all the most commonly
used features of any Apple II— one disk
drive, 128K of memory, a keyboard that
allows you to choose between standard
QWERTY and Dvorak layout, 40- and 80-
column text mode, and ports for a mouse or
joystick, a modem, a flat-panel or RGB (red,
green, blue) monitor, a monochrome
monitor, a headphone, and a second disk
drive. By packing these features into the
system, Apple has saved you from making
numerous additional buying decisions. The
idea is to make the computer as easy to set
up as a stereo. First-time computer owners
will also appreciate the six interactive
tutorials that come with the He. Besides
offering hands-on training to learn computer
basics, the tutorials introduce APPLEWORKS
(p. 108), an integrated word processing,
spreadsheet and filing program.
The He includes "double-high resolution"
graphics (560 by 192 pixels), available only
as an option on the He, and Apple also built
"Mousetext" into the computer's ROM to
encourage programmers to develop software
that works with a mouse and appears similar
Apple lie (left) and lie
(right), open
architecture versus
closed, same machine
otherwise, offering the
largest library of
software in the
business. The lie is
more adaptable, but
many of the things you
might add are already
included in the lie.
to programs designed for the Macintosh.
Thus the Apple II software library should
continue to improve.
STEWART BRAND: Because all the great
learning and playing software runs on the
Apple, this is the premium choice for a
house with kids (or school, where it's the
standard machine). At the same time there is
excellent grown-up application software —
APPLEWORKS, WORD JUGGLER (p. 55),
MULTIPLAN (p. 70), etc.
STEVEN LEVY: With The Endless Apple
(Charles Rubin; 1985; 258 pp.; S15.95;
Microsoft Press, 10700 Northup Way,
Bellevue, WA 98009; 206/828-8080; or
COMPUTER LITERACY) you have a how-to
book with a controversial thesis. For most
applications, Rubin insists, you can find
good-as-MS-DOS software or you can make
hardware modifications so your Apple II or
He performs as dazzlingly as the IBM PC or
newer machines.
Still the most popular laptop . . .
$499 (24K); $399 (8K); 8K RAM expansion
modules, $120 per kit; capacity to 32K; Tandy
Corporation/Radio Shack Division, 1700 One
Tandy Center, Ft. Wortli, TX 76102; 817/390-
3700.
The Radio Shack Model 100 at $499 is a bargain,
and its easy portability is a whole different way to
think about computers.
Incompatible operating systems have tal<en
over wtiere reiigious differences left off.
— Catfiy Guisewite
STEWART BRAND: The original laptop
computer, which changed the industry when
it came out two and half years ago, is still
the one we recommend most confidently (for
other laptops, see the Last Minute
Supplement, p. 209). The Model 100
became popular because it was cheap, good,
and more useful than anyone expected. Its
popularity then built a whole world of
support around it, and so its value continues
to grow.
In one handful you get: a keyboard (faster
for some typists than regular desktop
computers), a liquid crystal screen of 8 lines
by 40 columns, a neat word processor, a
shockingly easy telecommunicator (the first
to have one built in), an address file, a
scheduler, and BASIC, all in 24K run by
batteries, all for under $500. For several
professional computerists we know, it is
their entire system. All manner of programs
and add-ons have emerged to enhance the
little guy— check the Model 100 index.
One of the advantages is the utter ubiquity
of Radio Shack stores for sales and
service, though if you want even better
prices (by 20% usually) try Nocona
Electronics, RO. Box 593, Nocona, TX
76255; 817/825-4027.
JIM STOCKFORD: Portable 100/200 ($3.95
single issues; $29.97/ year [12 issues];
Camden Communications, PO. Box 250,
Highland Mill, Camden, ME 04843;
207/236-4365) is the magazine for keeping
up with latest products for the Radio Shack
Modenoo.
The TRS-80 User's Encyclopedia (Model
100) (Gary Phillips, Jacquelyn Smith, Julia
Menapace; 1984; 239 pp.; $14.95; Arrays,
Inc./ The Book Division, 11223 South Hindry
Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90045;
213/410-9466; or COMPUTER LITERACY)
supplements the very clear Model 100
manual with a lot of extra information,
including a memory map and good
explanations of specific Model 100 functions
and general computer terms. This is the
book I turn to when I'm stuck; I've thrown
the rest away.
RAM + ($425; Portable Computer Support
Group, 11035 Harry Hines Blvd., #207,
Dallas, TX 75229; 214/351-0564) is a
hardware/software combo that adds an extra
64K of RAM to your Model 100, It has
enough memory to free me completely from
my cassette recorder and desk top
computer.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
/7
Setting ttie MS-DOS standard
$2295 (street price $1700); includes 2 disk drives
and 256K; IBI\A Entry Systems Division, P.O. Box
1328, Boca Raton, FL 33432; 800/447-4700.
STEWART BRAND: Thanks to its marketing
clout IBIVI lias done the personal computer
market, somewhat inadvertently, an
enormous favor; there is one standard
operating system for the whole 16-bit middle
of the biz— good old MS-DOS. As a result,
some 75% of all software being written
these days is targeted at IBM and "IBM-
compatible" machines. Most of it is
"business" software, and it has become
very capable indeed.
In general the crowd of IBM PC "clones"
(imitators) offer better performance at often
far better price, sometimes at the cost of
decreased compatibility with the full range of
software developed to the IBM standard. The
trick is knowing which clones are most
compatible and which clone manufacturers
will survive to support their machines next
year. These three are our pick for 1985-86.
Clone 1: ctieapest . . .
imm 1000 o
$999.95. Tandy Corporation/Radio Shack
Division, One Tandy Center, Ft. Worth, TX 76113;
817/390-3700.
RICHARD DALTON: The newish Tandy 1000,
at under $1 ,000 with 128K memory, one
360K disk drive (second addable), no
monitor, and reasonably good IBM PC
compatibility, is a good buy, especially
backed by the resurgent Radio Shack chain
of 6000-plus stores. The machine comes
equipped with a set of programs called
DESKMATE that is surprisingly useful for
giveaway software.
STEWART BRAND: Unlike the IBM PC, the
Tandy 1000 comes with graphics adapter,
MS-DOS, and parallel printer interface
included. Apparently to appeal to the home
market, it also has connectors for two
joysticks and a light pen, along with
enhanced sound and music capabilities. It
takes up far less space than the IBM whale,
but that has a price— the three slots for add-
on boards are three inches shorter than the
standard 13-inch long board IBM slots,
a shopping nuisance. At its price the Tandy
1000 is competing directly with the Apple He
and lie as well as the Kaypro 2X. For my
uses (mostly business, some fun), I confess
the Tandy 1000 looks like the better buy.
Tandy makes it a bit hard to attach things not
marketed by them to their computers. One
way around that is to get Tandy stuff alright,
only from the discounter (20% and more)
Nocona Electronics, P.O. Box 593, Nocona,
TX 76255; 817/825-4027.
Clone 2: faster, more graphic . . .
AT&T §300 O
$2810 (2 disk drives); $4485 (hard disk); AT&T
information Systems, 1 Speedwell Ave.,
Morristown, NJ 07960; 201/898-2000.
STEWART BRAND: The advantages of the
AT&T 6300 are: 1) with the 8086 chip at its
heart instead of IBM's 8088, its processing
speed is twice as fast; 2) graphics adaptation
is included, in quite tasty high resolution
(640 X 400 pixels, twice as good as straight
IBM); 3) a large and serious company
evidently committed to ongoing support of
the machine. The disadvantages: 1) possible
incompatibility with some programs due to
that improved speed and graphics ("But
FLIGHT SIMULATOR not only works, you get
to O'Hare Airport twice as fast," comments
Ken Milburn); 2) the price break is only
medium good. The package does include
MS-DOS and parallel and serial ports, so
you can hook a printer and modem right up,
along with a good seven empty slots for
additional boards.
With the AT&T 6300 you get giant support from a
different giant than IBM.
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The Tandy 1000 is a tidy pacloge with a lot of
range for a modest price.
The Compaq and Compaq Plus (hard disli) are an
armload of computer. The Compaq Deskpro is the
compleat one-machine office.
Clone 3: best . . .
Compaq: $2495 (street price $2000); Compaq
Plus: $3999 (street price $3200); Compaq
Deskpro Model 4: $5799 (street price $5000);
Compaq Computer Corp., 20555 FM 149,
Houston, TX 77070; 800/231-0900 or, in TX,
713/370-0670.
STEWART BRAND: Compaq is always half a
step behind IBM in time, half a step ahead in
quality. The company has the most
successful line of computers in the
business— zero fumbles so far; no other
major company can claim that. The
reputation comes from good reliability of
product and service and marketing, and
outstanding IBM-compatibility, greater even
than IBM's at times (IBM tends to lose
compatibility between its own generations
for a time; Compaq, half a step behind,
doesn't).
The two machines that made Compaq's
reputation are "transportable"— they have a
handle and they close up into a plausible 26-
pound suitcase; not something you'd want to
run for a plane with, but easily luggable out
to the car from home or office. Interestingly,
this makes them more useful in a busy
office; people easily cart a Compaq from
desk to desk, whereas big desktop
computers are turf~-no trespassing. Both
the Compaq and Compaq Pius include MS-
DOS and graphics and parallel port and a
built-in 9-inch monochrome monitor; the
Plus adds a built-in 10 megabyte hard disk
that travels surprisingly well.
The proven prize of the Compaq line is the
Deskpro Model 4, a desktop computer with a
wealth of speed, memory, and storage.
Speed comes from the 8086 chip, but that
doesn't reduce compatibility— if you happen
to be running a program that requires the
slower clock speed of the IBM PC, there's a
toggle to halve the speed so it feels at home.
Memory on the Model 4 is 640K, the
maximum usable for most applications. And
storage is unique— Deskpro was the first
desktop to have built-in tape cartridge
backup for its 10-megabyte hard disk. This is
a prodigious convenience and safety feature.
Since it only takes 20 minutes to back up the
entire hard disk in one automatic sequence,
you're more likely to do it, and you avert the
catastrophe of losing your whole datafile to a
hard disk crash one black day.
18
"If you're spending
your own money on a
computer, shop around
for ttie best value. If
you're spending your
company's money, buy
IBM. "
—George Morrow
What follows is not
the corporate
approach, it's the
intensely personal
approach. The IBM PC
is by now a humble
beast, but with the
right accoutrements it
can be truly
formidable. (With the
wrong accoutrements,
it is merely
expensive.)
More power, less cost...
RICHARD DALTON and CHARLES SPEZZANO: IBM keeps
announcing new personal computers and it's never going to
end, folks. It's a lot like the horsepower race Detroit pushed
during the fifties— constant increases in "power" without
regard for utility or cost. Still, there's a lot to gain from
enhancing a standard PC. It all costs money, though, so it's
best to spend -some time thinking about what will benefit you
most. Otherwise it's just junk food for your MasterCard.
First, a look at the ways to enhance your PC hardware. These
include:
1 . Expanding the PC's memory and/or the ports that allow you
to hook up devices like modems, plotters, and printers;
2. Adding a "hard" disk for more storage and faster access to
data;
3. Exchanging the PC's clunky keyboard;
4. Improving the quality of the monitor (and support
electronics) you have to stare at all day;
5. Cranking up the internal speed with a processor
replacement; and
6. Swapping the PC's weak-kneed power supply to handle this
added stuff.
Eipaniling memory and ports
It used to be that 256K was a lot of memory, but programs
keep getting bigger and users more ambitious. A number of PC
owners have boosted their computer memory to the 640K
maximum that the PC DOS operating system allows.
Part of this upgrading is due to the rapidly declining price of
boards and memory chips. Building to 256K you can do with
chips; beyond 256K you have to buy a memory expansion
board. Most brands are much the same, so you should look
for a lengthy warranty (at least a year), a vendor you trust, and
good documentation— one of the real differentiating features
with memory boards.
A relatively better value comes from memory boards with
added capabilities; so-called "multi-function" boards. These
add a chronograph (clock) to show the current time and date,
and one or more "ports." At this point, you have to think
about what you're liable to add to the PC before committing to
a purchase. Many display boards— the ones that feed
information to your screen— include a parallel port, normally
used to attach a printer. The serial port usually connects to a
modem for telecommunications. A game port is a way to hang
a joystick on a PC. If you don't play games or plan to
communicate or if you already have a printer connection, the
seemingly better value of a multi-function board may not offer
anything more than a lower priced, memory-only board.
How much memory is enough? Memory chips have gotten so
cheap, this is a less critical question. A basic memory board
will cost $175-300; a multi-function board about $100 more.
Each 64K you add to the memory board can cost as little as
$10-15 if you insert the chips yourself. If you buy the board
with the chips already in it, you'll pay an extra $20-40 per 64K.
This equals a range of about $250-550 to get your PC up to
640K, depending on whether you want other ports and if
you're willing to become a computer do-it-yourselfer.
Adding a hard disk
Nothing will make your system speed up as much as a hard
disk that can store at least 10 megabytes. Period. Hard disks
run much faster than floppies as you switch from program to
program, access files, or sort a data base, and you also
escape the time-consuming process of locating and shuffling
floppy disks.
We've seen 10MB disks advertised for as little as $500 from
mail order houses, and while you can get stung, most hard
disks on the market are made by a small number of vendors
with fairly similar characteristics. That's not to say that there
aren't differences in speed and reliability, just that the average
PC owner won't notice them.
Imprwing tte PC's kef board
The slowest component in your system is you. PCs spend
most of their time waiting for you to hit the next key. Anything
that speeds up the process will dramatically increase the work
you and your PC can accomplish.
The standard IBM keyboard has an overly firm, metallic feel to
it and many of the keys seem oddly placed to the average user.
There are many alternative keyboards available in the $100-200
price range, but the $400 WICO SmartBoard is a true standout.
Before you choke on that price, consider what it can do. It's
about the same size as IBM's original and has a better "feel,"
especially for touch typists. The most prominent addition,
though, is a trackball on the right-hand side, which works just
like the cursor control "arrow" keys only much faster and
more smoothly. Editing text or changing numbers on a
spreadsheet is a breeze as the cursor flies around the screen,
moved by the direction of your fingertips on the trackball.
19
SmartBoard has its own memory that can be used to store
keyboard "macros" (strings of text or commands up to 126
characters long that are attached to the 10 function keys) and
you can re-assign the positions of any two keys. Add to that a
BASIC programmer's or Dvorak keyboard configuration that are
invoked by single keystrokes, and you've got a productive new
companion for your digits that's worth the seemingly high
cost.
Monitors and display boards
What your eyes work with is a display board (generating text
and graphics) and a monitor screen. What you get may include
headaches and chronic eyestrain if you make the wrong choice.
There are dozens of display boards on the market and an even
larger herd of monitors. If your primary aim is graphics, check
out the suggestions on pages 123-124. For the rest of us, who
need a comfortable way to view numbers and text, these are
the recommendations:
® If money is the prime concern, get a Hercules Graphics Card
and a monochrome monitor— a "TTL" type rather than a
composite, if you can afford the $50-100 price difference.
Monochrome will provide you with grey-scale graphics and
sharp looking text. Most monitor makers offer amber or
green screens, further easing the eyestrain problem. The
color choice is up to your own preference. There's no real
evidence that one is "better" than the other.
® If you want the advantages of full color, the choice gets
tougher. Standard color graphics on the PC are punishing for
anyone who has to do a lot of work with characters. A
superior and admittedly expensive answer is a Taxan 440
monitor coupled to the BoB board made by Emulex/Persyst.
BoB stands for "best of both," providing text slightly
sharper than even monochrome (and in any of 16 color
combinations) and full compatibility with standard color
graphics. The list price for this combination is a non-trivial
$1395, but some of the sting can be removed buying
through discounters who will sell you both for as little as
$900— still a large chunk of cash.
Cranking up tlie PC's internal processing power
This appears as the last option because for most people, it's
the least cost-effective way to improve a PC. PCs and their XT
cousins use an Intel 8088 processor to shovel data around
inside. PC users who are plugged in a couple of hours a day
will notice programs are moving along faster, but they won't
save more than a few seconds daily by replacing the 8088
processor with a faster model. However, those who spend
most of their time grinding out information may find the
$700-2500 added costs worthwhile.
That's the fallacy built into the IBM PC AT and all the other
"faster" computers coming on the market: the internal
processing rate of a computer is the smallest factor in what
actually gets done. A secondary disadvantage is found in
software. The AT's 80286 is from the same processor "family"
as the 8088, but there are enough differences to make it
compatible with only about 75% of the software written for the
standard PC.
Of the many "speed-up" boards on the market, the Orchid
PCturbo is the best choice. It adds an Intel 80186 processor
that will improve processing speeds 2-3 times vs. the 8088,
yet remains compatible with almost all software since you can
switch back to the humble old 8088 whenever it's needed.
Most speed-up boards require instead that you remove and
replace your 8088. Basic cost is $895, and you'll get up to
around $1200 if you add a full load of memory chips. You can
cut about $200 off those figures by shopping around.
IBM underestimated the need for electric power when they built
the PC. Its 63.5 watt power supply isn't sufficient if you start
adding a bunch of goodies. Fortunately, replacement power
supplies in the 130-135 watt range cost only $100 to $175
($100 more if you walk into your local computer retail store
and ask them to boost the power). You should look for a power
supply that is an exact replacement for the original— that
means the same size with screw holes in the same places.
Beyond that, it's an easy session with a screwdriver to double
the PC's power source.
It's a recommended step if you decide to add a hard disk or
use up all your available slots with add-on boards. Cheap
insurance against fading power that can cause either
intermittent or wholesale loss of data.
Most of these recommendations apply to IBM PC "clones" as
well. Space doesn't permit us to say which ones work with
each type of computer. Check with your dealer if you want to
try any of these enhancements on your IBM-compatible.
Overall, we're impressed by the enhancement strategy vs. the
"buy the newest and fastest" approach. You're familiar with
the PC, so why go through the steep learning curve a new
machine generally requires? The issue of software
compatibility is another nagging consideration. You already
own a substantial piece of computing gear which you can make
more productive as the need arises, usually at much lower cost
than with a new system.
WICO Smartboard: WICO Corporation, 6400 West Gross Point Rd., Niles, IL
60648; 312/647-7500 • Hercules Graphics Card: S499; Hercules Computer
Technology, 2550 Ninth St., Suite 210, Berkeley, GA 94710; 415/540-6000 e
Taxan 440 monitor: $800; Taxan Corp., 18005 Cortney Ct., City of Industry, CA
91748; 818/810-2490 • BoB board: S595; Emulex/Persyst, 3545 Harbor Blvd.,
P.O. Box 6725, Costa Mesa, CA 92626; 800/368-5393 • PCturbo board: $895;
Orchid Technology, Inc., 47790 Westinghouse Dr., Fremont, CA 94539;
415/490-8586.
For fiddling witli your hardware, get
tiie cheerfully excellentlhe Plain
English Repair and Maintenance
Guide for Home Computers (Henry F.
Beechhold; 1984; 265 pp.; $14.45;
Simon & Schuster, Attn: Mail Order,
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New
York, NY 10020; 800/223-2348; or
COMPUTER LITERACY} Detecting a
problem in your mysterious computer
and fixing it is a comlng-of-age, a
departure from helplessness.
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20
still dazzling .
$2795 (street price S2395), 512K; external disk
drive, S495 (street price $325); Apple Computer,
20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014;
800/538- 9696.
STEWART BRAND: As sports cars and racing
cars have frequently led the way in auto
design, Apple's Macintosh has been the
trend setter for two years on how a
computer and its software should interact
with the user. Thanks to its ingenuity and
market success, most Mac innovations— a
"mouse" for driving the cursor around on
the screen, "windows" for displaying
various applications at once, "icons" for
indicating a tool or function with a picture
instead of words-- all are now standard tools
of the trade.
The Macintosh is a picture box; that's why
it's so easy to understand and so dramatic to
work with. Everything is handled graphically
on the "bit-mapped" high-resolution black-
on-white screen. The Mac's problem is that
it's underpowered and undersized for its
task, because driving a bit-mapped screen
takes quantities of memory and storage.
Therefore we recommend at minimum the
512K ("Fat") Mac, and a second disk drive.
Better still, get a 10-megabyte hard disk
HyperDrive built in ($2195 [for 51 2K Mac];
General Computer Co., 215 First St.,
Cambridge, MA 02142; 800/422-0101 or, in
MA, 617/492-5500). Also get utilities such
as SWITCHER (p. 115) that help speed
access between programs.
Hang out iot a while with a Mac before
buying. Get past the dazzle and see if the
limited keyboard (no function keys, no
cursor keys) delights or frustrates you,
watch the screen and see if its size suits you
and whether the bright screen has a tiring
flicker. Steven Levy: "The Mac screen you
complain about is one of the joys of my
working life. Having talked to lots of people
about it, I conclude that the sensitivity to
Mac flicker is an individual trait aggravated
by lighting conditions."
If those matters seem manageable, and
you're not primarily after heavy duty word
and number crunching, the Macintosh is a
sweet package with elegant design at every
step, from the crystal-clear manuals to the
clever cable attachments.
The next generation for business . . .
AT&T UilX PC O
$6095 (ufith 20-megabyte liard disk); $5495 (with
10-megabyte hard disk); AT&T Information
Systems, 1 Speedwfell Ave., l\florristown, NJ
07960; 201/898-2000.
STEWART BRAND: The UNIX PC this year is
in the position the Macintosh was last year—
a complete computing package with a whole
new impressive operating system, new kinds
of uses promised, and not much software
available yet but supposedly a lot coming.
Our favorable judgment is more a guess and
hope, as with the Mac last year, because the
UNIX PC world of experience is still only half
arrived, and it'll take a year to arrive fully.
Where the Mac is a picture box, the UNIX PC
is a communication box.
The UNIX PC uses pictures— three-button
mouse, bit mapped high resolution
monochrome screen (720 x 348 pixels)— but
that's primarily to ease the managing of the
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UNIX operating system, which is known to
be a tangle of arcana when you try to
manage it directly by commands. Included
with the system is an internal 300/1200 baud
modem, serial and parallel ports, clock/
calendar, its own electronic mail software,
and three phone jacks, encouraging
simultaneous voice and data transmission.
Elaborate, nicely designed software
automates, connects, and records
telecommunicating and regular phone
calling. You can have work interrupted by a
phone call, handle the call in a window
(taking notes, logging time, etc.), then
return to the interrupted work; next time you
call that person, notes from the previous
conversation will automatically be displayed.
This machine is a phone junky's wet dream.
UNIX specializes in connecting— in handling
"multi-user, multi-tasking." That means
your machine can be doing a number of
functions at once, and if you hook up with
colleagues, UNIX will manage all that
adroitly. UNIX also specializes in not
specializing; once software is written for
UNIX, it's easy to port around to other
manufacturer's machines; this should help it
become a standard rapidly, and it's greatly
encouraging to softv/are developers The
cost of all this IS that UNIX is bulky— it
v/ants large quantities of memory and
storage. The 512K memory and lO-mcgabyie
hard disk of the 'basic" UNIX PC .s too
little.
AT&T's UNIX PC brings minicomputer software
and power to ttie desktop.
TIte most lovable computer on the market, the
Macintosh also requires a certain amount of
forgiveness.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Hard disks and printers and tlie pain of periplierais . . .
STEWART BRAND: It's only a matter of time before you get a hard disk
if you're computing at all regularly. Your files accumulate, the
programs you're using accumulate, your floppy storage gets confused,
the price of discount hard disks comes down another increment, your
brother-in-law who got a hard disk won't shut up about its wonders.
Soon the question is not whether, but which one.
RICHARD DALTON: Overall there are mostly good units on the market;
some slightly slower or faster but no big deal. Go for price (some are
as low as $500), warranty, and most of all someone who'll stand
behind the product if it crumps out. Once it's installed, commit only
non-critical stuff (or back-up religiously) for the first couple months. If
it's going to fail in a major way, it probably will in that time frame.
Also, buy a two-disk-drive system (half-heights) and either put the hard
disk in the other slot or get an external unit. That way, if your hard disk
fails, you get to continue operating in a graceful way until repairs are
over.
21
Hard disk buyers soon discover that 10 megabytes of storage (or 20 or
30) fills up at an alarming rate. For Macintosh and MS-DOS machines,
enter the Bernoulli Box from Iomega ($3695 [street price $3140], two
disk drives; $2695 [street price $2290], one disk drive; Iomega Corp.,
1821 West 4000 South, Roy, UT 84067; 801/778-1000.) It houses two
10-megabyte cartridges that can be removed and replaced to store
endless quantities of programs and files. Even better, you solve the
ever-present back-up problem simply, by writing the contents of one
cartridge to the other in less than five minutes. The unlimited capacity
of floppies with the speed and size of hard disks. And dead reliable. It's
expensive and bulky, otherwise it's the best way to store information
I've seen. The cartridges can cost as little as $50 by mail order, and
that's cheap if you consider each one stores almost 30 floppies. If I
had to choose between my Golden Retriever and my Bernoulli Box, it
would be a toss-up.
STEWART BRAND: A great book on this topic is More Than You Ever
Wanted to Know About Hard Disks for Your IBM PC (Robert E. Brown;
1985; 84 pp.; $27 (CA residents add 6.5% sales tax); Landmark
Software, 1142 Pomegranate Court, Sunnyvale, CA 94087;
408/733-4032; or COMPUTER LITERACY). A great hard disk utility
program for MS-DOS machines is 1DIR (p. 172).
Selecting and then living with printers are two of the great agonies of
personal computing. There are too many printers, all different, all
finicky. There are almost no professional evaluators of printers, but we
found one in Charles Stevenson, head programmer and chief of printer
configuration at MicroPro, makers of WORDSTAR.
CHARLES STEVENSON: Among dot matrix printers the recently
announced IBM Proprinter is now the one to beat, with its near letter-
quality print, front feed for letterhead and envelopes, downloadable
fonts, and $549 list price. It's relatively fast and it's made in the U.S.
(IBM, Information Systems Group, 900 King St., Rye Brook, NY
10573; 800/447-4700). The street price for many small dot matrix
printers is in the $300 range now. They're almost disposable— cheaper
to replace than fix. Always test the exact model of the printer with the
software you're going to use it with before buying.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: The $495 ThinkJet from Hewlett-Packard is a
delightful printer— fast, quiet, and portable (8" x 11 Va" x 31/2", 6
pounds). Instead of mechanical printheads and ribbons, it uses a small
disposable ink-filled cartridge ($10) that slides into a tray at the front of
the machine. It paints characters on the paper by spraying ink through
several tiny holes in the printhead. It's fast: 150 cps (characters per
second), 12 pitch. Bold and underlining don't slow it down. Print
quality is excellent. Not perfect letter quality, but the lines are much
finer than dot matrix— and they're always the same. You'll never see
faint characters from tired ribbons. I think it's worth every penny for
the peace and quiet alone. Clean thumbs and portability are bonuses.
(ThinkJet; $495; Hewlett-Packard, 1020 N.E. Circle Blvd., Corvallis, OR
97330; 800/367-4772.)
RICHARD DALTON: The new Brother 2024L dot matrix has a 24-wire
print head that can produce draft text at 160 cps and very near letter-
quality at a flying 80 cps. The letter quality is good enough even for my
fussy publisher, and I get options for 10 or 12 pitch and a really elegant
proportional font. The ribbon re-inks itself continuously, giving it a life
many times as long as most printer ribbons. ($1295; Brother
International Corp., 8 Corporate Place, Piscataway, NJ 08854;
201/981-0300).
CHARLES STEVENSON: In the lower speed, letter- quality printer range
it's a toss-up. I'd go with the Brother HR-15 or the Silver Reed
EXP-500. Speeds are 12 to 23 characters per second. Both can handle
Diablo escape sequences, which means that if "Diablo" is a printer
choice in your word processor, you simply select it; no further
configuration is necessary. (Brother HR-15; $599 [street price $360];
Brother International Corp., 8 Corporate Place, Piscataway, NJ 08854;
201/981-0300 ® Silver-Reed EXP-500; $599; Silver-Reed America, Inc.,
19600 S. Vermont Ave., Torrance, CA 90502; 800/874-4885 or, in CA,
213/516-7008.)
STEWART BRAND: I think the notion of "letter-quality" printers is
about as deep as "wood-quality" station wagons. Most letter-quality
printers are expensive, thudding monsters, and they can't even do
graphics, where all the action is with computers. Charles Stevenson
advises not paying more than $500 for any letter quality printer,
because laser printers are on the way to replacing them. Between the
Hewlett-Packard LaserJet and the Apple LaserWriter he greatly prefers
the Apple.
PAUL FREIBERGER: Compare the LaserWriter's resolution of 300 dots
per inch to the 80 dots per inch of Apple's standard Macintosh printer,
the ImageWriter. At first glance LaserWriter documents appear to be
typeset, though the resolution of professional typesetting machines is
around 2000 dots per inch. The advantage of a laser printer over a
typesetter is that you can use it in your office. In addition, it will print
graphs and charts beautifully.
The LaserWriter contains 1 .5 megabytes of RAM, 20 times as much as
Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet and enough to print a full page of graphics
in its high resolution. The enormous memory also accounts for its
speed— up to eight pages of text a minute. Built into the LaserWriter
are 13 different font styles, including common ones such as Times
Roman and Helvetica. With AppleTalk ($650), Apple's answer to office
networking, it is possible to connect 30 computers to one LaserWriter.
That puts the $6995 price tag (plus $99 to replace the toner cartridge
after 2000-3000 pages) in a different light. (LaserWriter: $6995 [street
price $6300] ® ImageWriter: $595 [street price $500]; Apple Computer,
20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014; 800/538-9696).
STEWART BRAND: Watch out for the cables that link printers and other
pieces of your hardware; they vary invisibly and critically. Don't leave
the store with equipment that isn't operationally cabled to each other. If
your office deals with much variety, invest in a Smart Cable, which
adapts to whatever it's connecting. It costs the equivalent of three
stupid cables. (Smart Cable 817 RM [male] or 817 RF [female]; $90;
Smart Cable 821 [includes both male and female connectors on both
ends]; $175; 10 Technologies, 11811 N.E. First St., Suite 308,
Bellevue, WA 98005; 800/232-8324 or, in WA, 206/451-0232).
S P E ClftL PRINTING CAPABIL
boldface: Double Eitrike
SPECIAL PF
Boldface,
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and any combination
Dot-addressable graphics
96 X 96 dots/inch
96 vertical x 192 ho
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printers. 1) iBM
Proprinter, dot matrix;
2) Brottter HR25,
letter quality, slow; 3}
Hewlett-Packard
ThinkJet, better than
most dot matrix, but
requires special
coated paper for best
results; 4) Apple
ImageWriter, rich
graphics, fine dot
matrix.
77
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STEWART BRAND: It comes down to how you value your time.
If you take the time to search out primo suppliers, you'll save
certainly hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars. If life crowds
you already and you have the dough, buy what you want over the
closest counter and get all the service you can with it.
The strategies of buying in the next few pages (retail stores,
discount mail order, public domain) go from expensive easiest to
cheap hardest, and from least educational to most educational.
Once you know the computer(s) you're interested in, the most
effective single move you can make is to go to a User's Group for
that machine in your area (computer stores can guide you to
them), and listen and inquire. Along with the good information,
you get relief— the group knows more than you could find out in
weeks. And they'll be there when you get the machine home and
find that your problems haven't gone away yet.
By and large you'll buy hardware at hardware places (thousands
of dollars), software (and magazines) at software places
(hundreds of dollars), and books at regular book stores— or mail
order from COMPUTER LITERACY (p. 201). It's a fragmented,
volatile market; that's part of the fun of shopping in it.
If you're using the computer for business, even if you don't
succeed financially, it's a significant tax write-off. In 1985 the tax
break became more restrictive and complicated. Consult your
tax adviser. While you're at it, check out software like TAX
PREPARER (p. 104), PERSONAL TAX PLANNNER (p. 104), and
MANAGING YOUR MONEY (p. 96).
Thieves love computers. Insurance costs on the order of $50-75
for $5,000 of stuff, with $100 deductible— worth it. Organizing
Domain Editor Tony Fanning, who had two computers stolen,
has this advice. "You add an attachment to your homeowner's
policy; if you do work at home, it's cheaper to get it as a
business attachment. The AAA also apparently insures
computers. Get insurance for 'replacement value.' Take
photographs of the equipment and make copies of the receipts
and give all that to the company. Be sure to inform them when
you add to the system— send the receipts, etc. When you're
robbed or burned or whatever, press hard on the company, but
don't pad your loss estimates (surprise them). You have to get
written replacement value estimates from stores, and the
company will check them. They'll take out the deductible and
10% per year for depreciation, and you're back in business.
Three times and they cancel. I'm getting one of those lock-down
devices."
Fits! you shois for the store . . ,
STEVEN LEVY: The first and often the best place to look for
software is in a retail store, either one specializing in software or
your plain old neighborhood computer store. With a nearby
store, not only can you switch faulty disks within minutes after
you get home and find them not working, but you can use your
phone to pester the clerk who so kindly served you . No long
distance charges.
Too many stores, though, give inadequate service. The definitive
example for me is the salesclerk who refused to leave his
MISSILE COMMAND game when my mate and I tried to get his
attention so we could spend $10,000 at his store buying two
computers. With that kind of attention to big-ticket buyers, is it
any wonder that people who merely want software are doomed
to nonperson status at many computer stores?
Yet you should persist in finding a store that will listen to your
needs, open packages of software for you, run the software on
its machines, let you play with the software. Such a place more
likely specializes in software than hardware, but if the place you
bought your computer does not give you that kind of service,
you probably bought your computer at the wrong place.
Is the c/erA- a /erfr? Establishing a relationship with someone in
the store can be a satisfying, fruitful experience. Some stores, of
course, are not geared to this type of contact. Big-volume
outlets, like New York City's well-known 47th Street Photo, trade
off service for discounts that compete with the cheapest mail-
order outlets. Yet even salespeople at 47th Street Photo, once
you finish waiting in line to talk to them, will offer quick,
knowledgeable advice. Stores like these are easily found by the
O MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
large ads they buy in the local paper, with prices in the range of
those offered in mail-order ads.
By perusing newspaper ads you might also find one for a store
near you that seems to emphasize not only price, but desirable
choices of machines or software applications. Another giveaway
of a service-oriented store is mention of classes in using
computers and popular programs. Often, fellow users will point
you to a store where fair price meets conscientious customer
support; some clever store owners have managed to be the
default choice for software purchase by entire users' groups,
just by paying attention to what people need and being around to
answer questions and deal with problems. This is the kind of
store where you might find your computer Godfather, and I
suggest you persist until you find one or rule out all the
possibilities in your area.
The guy you most want to cultivate is the store owner— he is the
one most likely to be around when you drop in next week. The
turnover at those places is incredible. If not the owner, settle for
a manager. Don't give up on clerks, but it seems that once clerks
reach an acceptable level of competence, they find a better job at
a higher (better paying) rung in the computer field. Your best
alternative might be a high school kid working in the store-
freshmen especially, since they're not going anywhere for a
while. Most often these kids got the job by hanging around the
place and making it clear they knew more than anyone working
there. They seem to have an endless curiosity about any
problems you might encounter, and will devote marathon
lengths of time to see something through to its solution. This is
especially helpful in those seemingly trivial, ultimately baffling
tasks like choosing the proper cable to connect your computer
and your printer— a task which has the potential for disaster if
you aren't in contact with a person who's done it before.
Make sure your store contact listens to you. Make sure you see
software run—on your particular configuration— before you take
it home. (If you have a very weird configuration, you might see
the software run on something else and leave with a promise to
immediately exchange it if it doesn't work— or perhaps make a
phone appointment for your Godfather to talk you through the
steps necessary to get the software running.) Make sure that the
store can come up with several alternative packages to choose
from and can explain the relative advantages of each. A good
test would be an application that you already know: Can they
explain why the three-hundred dollar word processor is worth
three times the hundred-dollar program— for the needs you have
described? If the program you're shopping for is a complicated
one, find out how much help they're willing to give. Again, the
store might give classes. If not, make damn sure the guy who
sells you the program at least knows how to work it. At the very
least, he should be willing to spend some time to understand
how you might install the program on your system.
The price you pay. The prices of software that we cite in this
catalog are list prices, which only rarely are the cheapest
available. You can often get sizable discounts by comparison
pricing. It goes without saying that you should do this with
hardware as well as software (almost everything I'm saying
about software applies to computer buying at stores). A guide to
the current discount prices on popular machines is the "Street
Price Guide" found in the magazine Creative Computing. To find
the rock-bottom levels in software, check out the prices in big
mail-order houses like 800-SOFTWARE or PC Network (below).
(You can find their ads in magazines like Byte and PC World.)
Then go to the store and see the software, feel it, get it explained
to you— and find out what the store charges for it. Almost
always it will be somewhat more than the mail-order house. Ten,
even twenty percent discount isn't a big deal, but it can be up to
fifty percent— i.e., hundreds of dollars. In that case, see
"Discount Mail Order," below.
The differential lies in the store overhead and support, some of
which you've already consumed by taking up space and time by
your browsing . Once you've spent time at the store going
through programs and have made your choice, are you morally
committed to buy at that store? Maybe, maybe not— your wallet
and your conscience should decide. But you can also look at it
this way— what kind of morons would spend an hour with you
looking at spreadsheets, bid you goodbye when you say you'll
"think about it," and two weeks (and no purchase) later, spend
ano^er hour with you looking at database programs?
If you want the support, you gotta support the store.
If you know what you want.
STEWART BRAND: They say 40% of software buying is done
with mail-order outfits. I'm surprised it isn't more. For a mass
market these goods are costleee. Is fingering the stuff in a store
worth thousands of dollars?
You almost always wind up shopping by phone anyway, to see
who has what you're looking for, to see who has the best
prices— might as well try some of these 800 numbers. Often
they'll have what the retail stores don't. Jim Stockford has been
collecting experience, reports, and gossip on the subject for two
years. It looks to me like the only advantage of buying retail
locally is for the savvy and support of the dealer, right Jim?
JAMES STOCKFORD: Wrong. Mail order suppliers are in as good
a position to provide support as your local retailers. They sell to
a regional or national customer base and typically have a much
broader selection of merchandise than any retailer could hope to
stock in a storefront. Margins are low, but volume provides
enough surplus to pay for a good staff. In fact, every good mail-
order house has one or more technicians on the payroll who
thoroughly understand the products the supplier stocks.
You can often get better information and advice over the phone
from a qualified technician at a mail-order house than you can
from a salesperson at a retail store. And if you take their advice
and buy a product that is wrong for you, a good supplier
exchanges it or refunds your money. The trick is to find a good
supplier.
We have tried to give you a good start with recommendations
culled from the networks, from reader response to our first
edition of the Whole Earth Software Catalog, and from our
experiences. The painful part of this job is that there are so many
good suppliers we couldn't list them all.
Highly praised; IBM PC compatible
computers, MS-DOS and
CP/M software . . .
14 West Third Street, Suite 4, Santa Rosa, CA
95401; 707/575-9472.
JAMES STOCKFORD: Best source for IBM PC
compatible computers, peripheral devices,
software for MS-DOS, CP/M, and Apple with
Z-80 card. No other mail-order supplier has
been praised so highly by so many people,
including retailers. They have been known to
refuse a sale when they thought the customer
would have trouble. As a general hardware
and software supplier there is none better
IBM, MS-DOS, and most CP/M software ... Low prices on a membership plan
940 Dwiglit Way, Berkeley, CA 94710;
800/227-4587 or, in CA, 415/644-3611.
JAMES STOCKFORD: I lightly panned their
service in the first issue of the Whole Earth
Software Review, but the mail brought
strong support. I checked them out again,
and I agree— their ser^^ice is very good . Their
newsletter is of high quality, and they are
willing to research your needs pretty well for
a big company. I give them high marks. Their
National Accounts program offers special
discounts and assistance in software
selection to large institutions. (Suggested by
Betty Corbin.)
320 West Ohio, Chicago, IL 60610; 800/621-SAVE
or, in Illinois, 312/280-0002.
JAMES STOCKFORD: PC Network offers
several membership plans, from an $8 per
year "basic" to a $45 per year "VIP." Their
catalog is huge, and all members get terrific
prices on hardware and software, including
the IBM PC, the Apple II, and the Macintosh.
They allow returns and offer advice and
technical support. Higher cost memberships
let you rent software to try before buying
and offer occasional special discounts not
available to basic members.
Commodore 64 . .
252 Bethlehem Pike, Colmar, PA 18915;
215/822-7727.
JAMES STOCKFORD: Hardware and software
for C-64, some Apple II and MS-DOS.
Excellent technical support, low repair
charges. If you have a problem with a
product, they will exchange it or return your
money. (Suggested by Milton Sandy)
Peripheral hardware and software for
TRS-80 and CP/H/I machines, emphasis
on CAD, good for neophytes and
special needs . . .
TOML ACCESS O
P.O. Box 790276, Dallas, TX 75379; 800/527-3582
or. In TX, 214/337-4346.
JAMES STOCKFORD: This small shop mainly
sells hardware peripherals and accessories
such as printers, disk drives, cables,
monitors, and so forth. Specialists in TRS-80
equipment, they also supply standard
software products for all TRS-80 and many
CP/M machines. Good telephone help before
and after you order. Check with them if you
have unusual needs.
Hacker fodder .
380 Swift Avenue, Unit 21, South San Francisco,
CA 94080; 415/873-3055.
JAMES STOCKFORD: Lots of chips at great
prices. RAM in all sizes, logic and linear
chips, PROM and EPROM chips, disk
drives — these guys are Japanese-parts
specialists with real good stuff, cheap. A great
source for repair shops, consultants, and
hackers.
Market value of used micros . .
S70/yr (4 issues); RO. Box 3395, Reno, NV 89501;
702/322-8811.
JAMES STOCKFORD: What's a used
computer worth? This 130-page quarterly
combs the want ads across the nation and
compiles the results. Listings are given for
the common configuration of each of 500
different micros and 300 different printers.
No advertising.
Software for social scientists and
others . . .
mm O
$24/yr individuals; $40/yr libraries (4 issues);
Social Science Microcomputer Review, P.O. Box
8101, Raleigh, NC 27695; 919/737-3607 or
919/737-2488.
JAMES STOCKFORD: The folks at North
Carolina State University offer mail order
software and a quarterly magazine. Software
is imaginative (play the role of a journalist in a
Watergate Simulation), useful (statistics,
database. Management Style Assessment)
and never exceeds $30. The price includes
technical phone support from 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Eastern time. The Social Science
(Microcomputer Review is a helpful guide to
hardware and social-science-related
software: poll sci, sociology, government,
public policy, etc.
Great deals on Apple hardware/software
for members. . .
290 SW 43rd St., Ronton, WA 98055;
206/251-5222.
MARK COHEN: The Apple Pugetsound
Program Library Exchange (A.PPL.E.) user's
group has become a major hardware and
software supplier to Apple II owners all over
the world. To take advantage of the
substantial discounts, you must become a
member— dues are $26 per year with a $23
one-time initiation fee— but you get a monthly
magazine, product catalog, and access to
hotlines throughout the U.S., in Europe, and
on The Source for free programming help
from experienced, competent programmers.
A.PPL.E. has been tireless in their support
of the Apple II; pledges to the contrary
notwithstanding, they have given sparse
coverage to the Mac.
All ads, lots of ads. . .
THE COIPUTER HOT LINE O
S59/yr 1st class or S28/yr 3rd class (weekly);
S18/yr3rd class (monthly); Hot Line, Inc., RO. Box
1373, Fort Dodge, lA 50501; 800/247-2000; in
Iowa, 800/362-2171; in Canada 518/955-1500.
JAMES STOCKFORD: The ads are the news.
Big ads, little ads, microcomputers,
mainframes, everything in between— ads for
obsolete computers, electronic scrap, printed
circuit board repair, used Apples, used
VAXs— it's a trip through a techno-bazaar.
(No charge for basic, small classified ads, $5
for longer ones.)
List Sale
Hercules®
Graphics Card
1499 $319
Color Card
$245 $169
Microsoft®
Mouse
S195 $139
Word
1375 $239
Multiplan
$195 $129
Pascal Compiler
8300 $199
Fortran
S350 $229
C Compiler
$395 $249
Software Publishing®
pfs Report
$125 $ 75
pfs File
$140 $ 85
pfs Graph
$140 $ 85
pfs Write
$140 $ 85
pfs Plan
$140 $ 85
Typical price breaks from a mail-order supplier,
in this case Diamond Software, advertising in the
May 28, 1985, PC. On p. 61 of this book we
suggest using the top word processor
IVIICROSOFT WORD and its indispensable mouse
with the Hercules Graphics Card to get a high
resolution screen with 43 lines of text instead of
the usual 25 on the IBM PC. List prices for the
software, mouse and card total $1069, plus sales
tax if you buy locally From this mail-order
supplier you could get the same stuff for $697,
saving $372, and no sales tax. Much larger
discounts, to more than 50%, are common.
TRS-80 hardware and software . . .
704 North Pennsylvania Avenue, Lansing,
48906; 517/482-8270.
JAMES STOCKFORD: Low prices on
commercially available software for most of
the Radio Shack TRS-DOS machines, some
peripheral equipment (disk drives, printers,
cables, interface cards, and CRT tubes), and a
healthy sampling of their own software. They
publish a newsletter and will develop software
on a custom basis. Customer support and
return policy is excellent.
Their line includes hardware and software for
CP/M and MS-DOS machines. For users of
the "less-compatible" MS-DOS machines,
such as Sanyo or Leading Edge, they will try
to find answers to questions— very valuable.
New and used . .
o
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Free, monthly; 12 West 21st St., New York, NY
10010; 212/681-8215. To place an ad: 80 Second
Street Pike, Southhampton, PA 18866;
215/355-2886.
JAMES STOCKFORD: New and used hardware
and liveware— telephones, interface boards,
computers for sale; jobs wanted or
available— for telecommunicating
technicians, engineers, sales reps.
25
W-Amk-'wW&'Xi
Dysan diskettes, add-on boards for Apples,
technical expertise . . .
CAOFOB^in oieimL
P.O. Box 3097B, Torrance, CA 90503; 800/421-5041
or, in CA, 213/217-0500.
JONATHAN SACHS: California Digital is one of
the few mail-order connpanies offering Dysan
diskettes. Their prices are below list and they
ship immediately.
JAMES STOCKFORD: In addition to having
good disk prices, this hardware supplier
(printers, disk drives, memory chips, add-on
boards for Apple II machines, and diskettes)
does such a thorough evaluation of hardware
they have become a supply source and
reference for equipment manufacturers
themselves. Their support and return policies
are excellent. They will adjust most ass-
backward customer installations at no charge
and will always repair or replace any defects
at no charge. Most warranties are for 90
days.
Macintosh, Apple II, IBM software . . .
P.O. 80X338, Granville, OH 43023; 614/587-2938.
JAMES STOCKFORD: Low prices, excellent
advice (you're invited to call their technicians
and ask questions) and service. They accept
returns on most packages within 30 days.
(Suggested by John Bryon.)
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Check old magazines to see that an advertising supplier has been around for long
enough to be stable. Call them up and ask questions: How long have they been In
business, what do they carry, how do they handle returns, can they provide
technical help? Place a few Inexpensive orders at first. The process takes a while,
but, as with anyone, you have to get to know them to develop a relationship. Use
your credit card, so if calamity strikes you can ask the bank to reverse the charge
made to your card. With a little search, you will find wonderful people running
excellent supply services. When you find them, tell us about them, and we'll help
spread the word. Consider subscribing to Computerwhat? Well informed and
easy to read, this four to six page newsletter reviews and recommends new
products and mail order sources; often includes helpful software tips. When my
copy gets to my desk, I stop everything and read it. —James Stockford
Computerwhat?, $12/year. Corbin Consultants, inc., 1111 Richmond Ave., Suite 150,
Houston, TX 77082; 713/781-7070.
Kaypro only .
THE COl
Village Center, P.O. Box 617, Great Falls, VA
22066; 703/759-6800.
PHIL GAREY: They publish a small catalog
filled mainly with software titles and some
hardware for Kaypro owners. They don't
accept credit cards, but will ship C.O.D. If
you have problems, they will exchange the
product or refund your money.
Computer supplies .
1050 E. Maple Rd., Troy, Ml 48083; 313/589-3440.
MICHAEL GILIBERTO: Lyben is terrific for
supplies: disks, paper, printer stands, and so
on. Disks are competitively priced and there
are frequent specials. They have a broad line
of cables, switch boxes, and connectors.
Shipping costs $2.50/order except for large
cartons of paper. My orders come fast.
Beat the system . . .
lira ¥i ii¥ FUE^ ^^. . Jiil
ALFRED GLOSSBRENNER: What's the best kept secret in the
microworld? It's hard to say, but the existence of vast reservoirs
of free, "public domain" software has to rank right up there with
the unannounced products currently being developed in the
backrooms at Apple and IBM. Most people aren't aware of it, but
there are literally thousands of public domain (or "PD")
programs available for virtually every brand of personal
computer.
There are games, graphics, and music programs . . . word
processing, database management, and personal finance . . .
inventory, accounting, and educational software . . . VISICALC
"templates" and dBASE II command files . . . plus scores of
handy utility programs. All of them free — if you know where to
look. You'll find some of the best sources described below. But
first, some quick answers to some quick questions.
Though not yet widely recognized as such, there can be no
doubt that the disk drive is the new printing press and the floppy
disk the new medium. For an investment of as little as $500,
anyone cm write and "publish" a computer program. And from
the beginning of the micro era in the mid 1970s, that's exactly
what computer owners have been doing. Typically, a person will
write a program and contribute it to his or her local computer
users' group, along with a signed statement that officially places
the work in the public domain. That means that it can be copied
and distributed freely.
Yes. Some free programs are on a par with the very best
commercial software. PC-WRITE (p. 59), a word processing
program for the IBM PC, PCjr, and compatibles, is a case in
point. Written by Bob Wallace, the architect of Microsoft Pascal,
PC-WRITE can execute a search and replace up to five times
faster than a leading program listing at $500, and I personally
find it much easier to use. There is a 70-page manual (with
index) on the disk for you to print out.
You can obtain a copy from one of the sources cited below. Or
you can simply send $10 to Quicksoft, Mr Wallace's firm, at 219
First N. #224, Seattle, WA 98109. If you like, you can place a
telephone order and charge it to your Visa or MasterCard. Call
206/282-0452. , ,. ^
(continued on p. 26)
1£
(continued from p. 25)
Naturally, not every public domain program is outstanding. With
thousands— and in some cases tens of thousands— oi
programs, how could it be otherwise? You may not find all the
whistles and bells you would like, and error-trapping can be a
problem. But often you can add these features yourself. In fact,
there is no better way to learn BASIC, assembler, FORTH, or
Pascal than to start with the raw material of a public domain
program.
In addition, almost all the public domain collections associated
with each brand of computer contain utility programs that often
have no commercial counterpart. Yet they can make using your
micro so much easier that you won't be able to live without
them. For example, a program called WASH presents a disk
directory one file at a time. As each filename appears, you have
the option of deleting, re-naming, or copying the file to another
drive. WASH can be found in both the CP/M and IBM public
domain, but similar utilities are available for most other
computers (see pp. 172-174).
Users' Srmps
Computer clubs and users' groups have traditionally been the
primary collection and distribution points for public domain
software. That's still true today, but many other sources have
recently begun to appear
If you belong to a local users' group, the "Software Librarian" is
the person to see about getting copies of the programs in the
group's free software library. If you've yet to join a group,
contact your computer dealer for information about groups in
your area. But don't worry if there isn't a group where you live.
Many users' groups accept remote members and make their free
software collections available by mail. The cost of membership
ranges from $10 to $25 a year and usually includes a
subscription to a monthly newsletter or magazine. Disks packed
with free software are usually available for about $6, including
the disk, disk mailer, and postage.
If you have an extra $28, 1 strongly advise using it to pay the
annual membership dues for The Boston Computer Society
(BCS). BCS is the world's premier computer users' group. There
is simply nothing else like it, and with more than 12,000
members worldwide, it offers an excellent way to plug into the
users' group network. More to the point, BCS serves as an
umbrella for more than 35 special interest groups (SIGs)
focusing on everything from Apples to Artificial Intelligence to
Kaypros, Osbornes, IBMs, and UNIX. Virtually all of these SIGs
maintain free software collections. For more information
contact: The Boston Computer Society, One Center Plaza,
Boston, MA 02108, or phone 617/367-8080 between 9:30 a.m.
and 5:30 p.m. , Eastern Time.
Nm-Users'-Gmup Smrees
There are also a growing number of non-users'-group sources.
Though it isn't always the case, these companies often offer
public domain software on a "value added" basis. The "value"
may consist of testing and debugging or adding additional
features to the software. Or it may consist of preparing
"collections" of PD programs designed for a particular
application. Disks containing nothing but games or nothing but
financial programs may be offered, for example. The cost per
disk is usually slightly more than you would pay when ordering
from a users' group. But since few users' groups classify their
software by application, you might have to order several users'
group disks to obtain all of the programs you want.
The American Software Publishing Company (ASPC) is a good
example of non-users'-group source. Sheryl Nutting, the firm's
president, estimates that ASPC has more than 10,000 public
domain programs for Apple, Atari, Commodore, IBM, Texas
Instruments, Timex, and TRS-80 computers. The software is
available on tape or disk and the average cost is between 20
and 95 cents per program. For more information, contact the
firm at: RO. Box 57221. Washington, D.C. 20037
or phone 202/887-5834.
The Apple Avocation Alliance (1803 Warren Avenue, Cheyenne,
WY 82001) offers over 185 disks of Apple software, including
Apple CP/M and Pascal, at a cost of $3 per disk ($2.55 if you
order ten or more) plus $2 shipping and handling. This mail-
order firm offers very good deals on hardware, commercial
software, and supplies. The PD programs are listed at the back
of the 150-page catalog. To obtain a copy, send $2 ($3 for
shipment overseas) or phone 307/632-8561 between 8 a.m. and
5 p.m., Mountain Time, for more information. MasterCard and
Visa accepted.
You'll find inventory, checkbook balancing, and personal
investment programs on Disk 044, a database management
program on Disk 047, and communications and related
programs on Disk 075. But if you're going to order only two or
three disks, I suggest Disk 020 (SPARKEE), Disk 229 (ONE-KEY
DOS), and Eamon Master 01 . SPARKEE is a color graphics
program that produces a different dynamic design each time you
hit a key on your keyboard. ONE-KEY DOS makes Apple DOS 3.3
much easier to use. And the Eamon disk (there are over 40 of
them in all) will intrigue any fan of ADVENTURE (see p. 40).
Commodore owners should consider contacting Public Domain,
Inc. , at 5025 S. Rangeline Road, West Milton, OH 45383, for a
free catalog of free programs for the C-64, VIC-20, PET and
SX-64. Run by Bill Munch and George Ewing, this company
specializes in "best of" PD collections. Programs are available
on both tape and disk. The cost is $10, postage included,
regardless of medium. Phone 513/698-5638; Visa and
MasterCard.
There are many excellent programs in these collections, but one
is so outstanding that it deserves special mention. It's called
MONOPLE 64, and you'll find it on Disk C2. The program creates
the Monopoly game board on your color TV, rolls the on-screen
dice, moves your token, serves as the "banker," and keeps track
of all your buy/sell transactions. I guarantee that if you have a
C-64, you and a friend will spend hours playing this game. The
same disk contains POKER (five-card stud), OTHELLO (like the
board game), a logic game, a temperature conversion program,
a bar graph generating program, and 20 other programs.
If you own an IBM or compatible, I suggest contacting the PC
Software Interest Group (PC/SIG) at 1030 East Duane, Suite J,
Sunnyvale, CA 94086. This firm offers a 110-page catalog of
over 135 disks of free IBM software. The catalog is $5.95,
postage included, and disks sell for $6 each. (California
residents, add 6.5% sales tax.) Visa and MasterCard are
accepted, so you can order by phone if you like. Call
408/730-9291.
n
How to Get Free
Software; Alfred
Glossbrenner;1984;
$14.95; St. Martin's
Press, 175 Fifth
Avenue, New York, NY
10010; 212/674-5151; or
COMPUTER LITERACY
;^«^a^^^^jaga3hJS-MAjgfe^fe^:;^^^i^^
STEWART BRAND: No one we know has a
more comprehensive knowledge of software
than Alfred Glossbrenner. His How to Buy
Software (p. 6) and The Complete Handbook
of Personal Computer Communications
(p. 139) are the best of their kind. If you find
what he's written here useful, you will want
his new book, How to Get Free Software,
which truly has chapter and verse on the
subject. The major problem with public
domain programs is finding out about them
and finding where to get them. He takes care
of both. (The minor problems are dealing with
the sheer volume of choices and working
without manuals.)
From How li Get Free Software:
The most important thing to remember is
that a large percentage of free software
sources are volunteer organizations.
Although many of them will surprise you
with how quickly they fill your request, you
cannot necessarily expect the same rapid
response a commercial firm may provide.
Headed by Richard Petersen, this is one of the best-organized,
nnost professionally run sources of free software in the entire
public domain. In the not too distant future, it may very well
become the source of free IBM software. There are simply too
many excellent free programs to mention. Send for the catalog.
You'll think you've died and gone to free software heaven.
CP/M users should consider contacting Elliam Associates at
24000 Bessemer Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367. Phone:
213/348-4278 (evenings from 7:00 on; weekends anytime.) Bill
Roch, the firm's president, offers virtually all the programs
found in the huge libraries of CP/M users' groups. But unlike
most users' groups, he can supply them in over 40 different
floppy disk formats (excluding Apple and Commodore). Prices
range from about $12 to $20 per collection, depending on the
capacity of your disk format and the number of floppies
required. Sending for the free catalog is an excellent way to get
started.
Free CP/M programs of special note include BIZMASTER, a
complete business software package occupying six single-sided
eight-inch disks that formerly sold for $160 but is now in the
public domain; DIMS — "Dan's Information Management
System" — a file manager by Dan Dugan (at least one major
magazine has used DIMS to keep track of its authors, articles,
and other information); ED (a full-screen word processor);
READ (displays 24 lines of a file at a time and prompts you
to hit ENTER for more); RECOVER or UNERA ("unerases"
erased files); and XDIR (an "extended directory" utility that
alphabetizes and presents disk files in three columns). The most
famous free CP/M program of all is M0DEM7 (p. 150), a
communications program by Ward Christensen that has had a
major influence on commercial communications software.
Speaking of communications, you should know that it is
possible to obtain a large percentage of the free software
available for your machine over the telephone. If your computer
is equipped for online communications you can dial a free BBS
(Bulletin Board System) or RCPM (Remote CP/M) system and
"download" programs directly into your machine. The only
other thing you need is a list of phone numbers, and you can
obtain them from many computer magazines. Or you can
subscribe to the "On Line Computer Telephone Directory"
($9.95/year; $15.95 for overseas shipment). The 400 to 500
phone numbers in this publication are tested and updated
quarterly. Contact: OLCTD, PO. Box 10005, Kansas City, MO
64111-9990. You might also consider Plumb, a "best bets" BBS
newsletter published by Ric Manning (STQ007; 72715, 210).
The cost is $26.50 (8 issues). Back issues are available at $5
each, or eight for $24. Contact Plumb, Riverside Data, Inc., PO.
Box 300, Harrods Creek, KY 40027. Voice line: (502) 228-3820.
Note that both the OLCTD and Plumb are available electronically
onNewsNet(p. 145).
You will also find huge collections of free software on the
CompuServe Information Service (CIS), and on The Source (see
p. 140 for rates).
If you subscribe to The Source, you'll find a host of Apple
programs (including Macintosh software)— follow the menus to
User Publishing. The free software on CompuServe can be
found in the database sections of the more than 60 SIGs on the
system. Many of these Special Interest Groups are devoted to a
particular brand of computer. Because the documentation you
receive may not explain how to use a CIS SIG, you may never
know about all the free software unless you do the following:
1. Type GO PCS1 at any CIS exclamation prompt. This will take you
to the Personal Computing Section.
2. Follow the menus until you get to "Groups and Clubs," then
choose the SIG you want.
3. At your first opportunity upon entering the SIG, type xao at
the prompt, or enter the menu item for "Data Libraries."
4. That will take you to the XAO database within the SIG. Once
there, enter xa at the next prompt to produce a list of all available
databases.
5. Choose a database and enter s/des/key: followed by the
keyword you would like to search for when scanning ("s") a
program's description ("des"). You might try BASIC for starters.
6. When you see a description that looks interesting, you can
download the program itself by entering typ followed by the
filename at the next prompt. For machine language files, key in
DOW and follow the resulting instructions for using XMODEM or
some other error-checking protocol.
There are also many other excellent users' group and non-
users'-group sources, but the information provided here will get
you off to a good start. Once you enter the world of free
software, you may never look back. Indeed, there may be no
reason to, since the chances are you'll find that nearly
everything you need is available for free.
28
r~>,ri n'?./7n!^,ri^
Steven Levy, Domain Editor
STEVEN LEVY: There are by and large two kinds of computer
owners: those who bought computers to play games and those
who lie about it. The fact is that computers are almost by nature
game machines. Even business applications, done correctly,
become gamelike in their execution and manipulation, and it is
the rarest of computerists who doesn't sneak a shoot-'em-up or
an adventure onto the machine when the boss (or the superego)
isn't watching. Not running games on your computer is like
refusing to take your Ferrari out of first gear
Literally thousands of games are available for computers, and
most of them are mindless diversions. I don't object to mindless
diversions now and then, and I include a few of the most
relentlessly stupefying ones in my selection. But many computer
games are much more: challenging brain-puzzlers that extend
your problem-solving abilities, elaborate simulations that make
you master of tiny universes, imaginative flights of fantasy that
encourage you to create a persona within the machine, and tests
of your own creative powers that secretly give you lessons on
how the world works. All in the guise of play.
I make no claim that the games reviewed here are the definitive
best of all those available. Games are not like word processors,
where you choose the best you can find and use it. They're more
like books, where you get involved for a while— sometimes to
Proustian lengths — and then read another. Every game treated
here, however, is great in its way. I found out about each one by
asking people what games they really love to play. Sometimes I
followed up by asking the suggestors to write about those
games. Other times I liked the game so much I wrote about it
myself. (You'll notice this happened a lot.)
The ideal game is fairly easy to get started on, but "deep"
enough to give you new rewards as you keep playing. (The term
"deep" here is borrowed from Trip Hawkins of Electronic Arts, a
company that publishes some deep games.) The ideal game
uses the computer fully but unobtrusively, and never feels like a
chore. It makes you want to quit your job and play it all day, at
least until you get sick of it. You don't get sick of great games
quickly.
I categorize computer games under five loose headings.
Strategy games— there are two kinds of these. The first are
simulations, notably those that re-create conflicts (the computer
has modified the board-based war game). Then there are the
pure game games — not translated-to-code chess but creations
that owe their existence to the computer. I'm particularly inclined
to this genre, since it is not only the most innovative, but also
the one that promises the most mind-bending future
developments.
Sports and noncomputer games take advantage of the abilities
of the machine to make familiar games into something entirely
new, either by providing electronic playmates or by making
things so easy you wonder why you put up with the original
game before the computer came along. The sports games in this
category beat the old board games all to hell when it comes to
sports simulations.
In action games han6/eye coordination and quick reflexes are
more important than the knowledge gained from a lifetime of
study. Sometimes the action—and, yes, the violence— can be
therapeutic. Often, though, action games are derivative, and
their shallowness makes their $30 pricetags outrageous. I tried
for a selection of the most absorbing, the ones with some
elements of thought, the most graphically stunning, and the
most slyly seductive of the bunch, including a couple of
programs that give you a turn at designing games yourself.
Adventure games exist only on the computer. They employ the
logical branching patterns of the computer to pose elaborate
puzzles. Almost all adventures, whether they are limited to text
or are illustrated with colorful pictures, involve some sort of
quest, with you giving instructions to the machine, usually in the
m
i[Pfpt^
ir\n (7:i(
STEWART BRAND: In our lives play precedes work. Play is a
kind of pretend working where mistakes count but don't
count. You lose points, maybe, and pride, but not livelihood,
so you freely make mistakes, and you freely learn. For a
growing majority of personal computer users— kids
naturally, adults if they're smart— the first use of these
machines is to play with them.
You're starting at the top. No programs push the limits of
technique and design ingenuity of personal computers as
thoroughly as games. No programs are as clever, as kind, as
blatant, in reaching out to the user and compelling
involvement. In the world of software development,
computer games are invariably invoked as the ideal in "self-
evident" program design. Elements that you will find in
business application programs years from now are evolving
in bright colors before your eyes in software like PINBALL
CONSTRUCTION SET (p. 36)
and CHOPLIFTER! (p. 35).
Steven Levy loves playing
computer games. His
research for his book Hackers
(reviewed on p. 174) gives
him perspective on the place
of games at the cutting edge
of computer artistry. His
writing for Rolling Stone
and Popular Computing
gives him perspective on their
place in Current Events.
Steven Levy
Computer games are treated in the press these days like
popular films or TV or music, but something deeper is going
on. Those aren't sports; this is. Those are for spectators; this
isn't.
form of two-word commands ("Go east" or "Enter
transporter"). This allows you to move through dozens of
"rooms" on the way to slaying the dragon or finding the
murderer Frequently, you'll get stuck at a seeming impasse and
find yourself making a long-distance call to an adventure
publisher's hot line.
Role-playing games are not just variations on adventure games:
They are the closest thing we have to truly interactive novels.
Role-playing games, to quote documentation from one
publisher, are those "in which the player assumes the identity of
a character within the fantasy world of the game itself. Such a
character is usually formed by assigning random values to
special characteristics such as strength, intelligence, luck, or
charisma. These characteristics in turn determine the capability
of the character in combat, negotiation, and encounters with
other beings." As you proceed, the value of the traits grows,
making the characters more powerful. The games sometimes
take hundreds of hours to play, and players develop intensely
personal relationships with the characters they have developed.
It's weird, but people have reported deep grief when some Ore of
the Ninth Level wipes out a character after months of dungeon
combat and questing. These are less games than ways of life for
devoted addicts, yet the proliferation of computers has made
this addiction far from uncommon.
Shopping
When looking for games, try to see the program actually running
in the store. Check out reviews in such magazines as Family
Computing (p. 11) and Creative Computing, or in periodicals
and books dedicated to your machine. (The Book Company's
series called The Book of Apple [Commodore 64, IBM]
Software is excellent. Arrays, Inc./The Book Company, 11223
South HindryAve., Los Angeles, CA 90045; 213/410-9466; or
COMPUTER LITERACY.) Usually the games on the bestseller list
compiled by Billboard magazine or the Softsel distributor (some
stores post the lists) will give you value.
Hardware
I concentrate on five machines. The Apple II family because it
is the Apple. The Atari computer because with its exceptional
graphics and sound it is the quintessential game machine, with
the biggest selection. The Commodore 64 because of its
popularity and power. And the IBM PC because a lot of you
have one, and the game publishers have not neglected it (as
they have the ill-fated PCjr). Those of you with IBM clones may
or may not find that these games run on your machines; test
them first. The fifth computer, new this year, is the Macintosh,
a wonderful game machine despite its lack of color display. For
those of you who own Kaypros, Morrows, and Gsbornes and
are kicking yourselves because you didn't know that
Broderbund did not publish a CP/M CHOPLIFTER!, I've tried to
do the best I can, but you have only yourselves to blame for
the meager selection. Only a few games for the Tandy TRS
series appear, because (1) it's not a good game computer and
(2) Tandy's restrictive attitude towards third-party software
developers has limited the selection. I've generally ignored the
(already obsolete) machines which do little more than play
games, like the VIC-20 and TI-99.
Almost all the games reviewed are easily available from their
publishers, but for games that are not (as in the case of public
domain games and games available only on online services), the
access section tells you where to find them. Often a game will
come in versions for more than one machine; if play varies
considerably from one version to the next, we mention it. The
exception is when games run on the less powerful VIC 20 and Tl
machines; in those cases you can assume inferior play, unless
we specify otherwise.
One final word: Wherever possible I've included the names of
the game designers. The people who devise these delicious and
edifying entertainments are artists and deserve recognition.
Though I curse them when their creations draw my computer
personae into dire and fatal fantasy catastrophe, I salute them
here.
Game Magazines
STEVEN LEVY: The great computer game shakeout in the past
two years has shaken out some great computer game
magazines, including two we recommended last year.
Fortunately, a new incarnation of one we didn't mention has
taken up some of the slack: Computer Entertainment (formerly
Electronic Games) is a slick, four-color magazine that
combines behind-the-scene profiles of the gaming world and
savvy previews of new hardware with a slew of reviews from
knowledgeable people, largely the best survivors from the out-
of-business magazines of the past few years.
One magazine that did survive, and quite handsomely, is the
relatively staid Computer Gaming World. This highly literate
publication eschews flash for substance, and is at its best at
long analyses of complex games, including detailed strategies
for mastering them. For serious fans of strategy games, the
subscription price of CGW is an investment in getting more out
of some of those monster $50 simulation games they've been
hacking away at.
Computer Gaming World: $13.50/yr (6 issues); Computer
Gaming World, PO. Box 4566, Anaheim, CA 92803-4566
©Computer Entertainment: $18/yr (12 issues); Computer
Entertainment, P.O. Box 1128, Dover, NJ 07891.
Some of the participants in tlie recent "Hackersf Conference" join in a multi-
player session ofBALLBLAZER (p. 34). Using special hookups, up to 40 people
can team-play this extraterrestrial soccer-style game. Cooperation is essential.
At home, BALLBIAZER emphasizes individual joystick skills, pitting you against
a friend or the computer.
Two post-computer chess games .
Westfall, Freeman & Reiche; Apple II family; 48K
® IBM PC compatibles; 64K; $34.95 ® Atari
400/800/XL series; 48K ® Commodore 64; $22.95;
joystick; copy-protected? YES;
o
Westfall, Freeman & Reiche; Apple II family; 48K;
$39.95 • Atari 400/800/XL series; 48K «
Commodore 64; $32.95; joystick; copy-protected?
YES;
both from Electronic Arts, 2755 Campus Dr., San
Mateo, CA 94403; 415/571-7171.
Steve Capps; Apple Macintosh; copy-protected?
YES; $39.95; Apple Computer, 20525 Marlani
Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014; 800/538-9696.
STEWART BRAND: Dungeons and Dragons
meets chess, and I'm addicted. So far the
computer is more subtle and violent than I
am, but I'm gaining.
It's a chess-size board, the characters line up
like chess people, and they move and
capture, and that's the end of the
Moving the yellow square at left will pinpoint your
next move against the forces of darliness in
ARCHON. if you land on a square occupied by a
blue piece, you'll be thrust into a fierce, arcade-
like battle.
Click the Macintosh mouse over the smile of the
Cheshire Cat in THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
and the playing board appears (as here) upside
down. Oddly enough, some players get better
scores this way
resemblance. The two sides— representing
the forces of Light and Darkness— have well-
matched but quite different pieces. (About
half are female, evenly distributed; this game
mines a more chthonic vein of myth than
chess does.) The mage on one side is a
wizard, on the other a sorceress, each with
equivalent but different talents of spell
making, mobility, toughness, and weaponry.
So it goes, through banshees, Valkyries,
unicorns, basilisks, goblins, knights,
archers, golems, trolls, and so on.
In similar fashion, ARCHON II (ADEPT) pits
the forces of Chaos against the forces of
Order. By the same authors and publisher as
ARCHON, the sequel has different creatures,
different battlegrounds, different strategies,
same compelling quality of play.
STEVEN LEVY: THROUGH THE LOOKING
GLASS, the first great Macintosh game, is a
closer cousin to chess than ARCHON. With
stunning 3-D animated graphics (you see
chess pieces, even the cross-shaped cursor,
get larger as they approach), a chessboard
appears with pieces styled like Tenniel's
looking-glass illustrations in Lewis Carroll.
You pick a chess piece and your blond-haired
Alice moves like that piece. You'd better move
her quickly, because everyone on the board
is after her and will jump her whenever
possible. You, as Alice, can capture the other
pieces, but since they move so fast, you gotta
fake them out. Also, avoid a moving trap-
door—or trick the others into falling into it.
The mouse movements are easily mastered—
send the cursor to your next move and click
(Alice ignores illegal moves). The action is
so fast here, you don't stop to enjoy the
delightful albeit Mac-black-and-white
graphics— you get involved, and get the best
training ever for those five-second-limit chess
games that some masters play. I think the
Mac is going to be a great game machine, and
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS is the first
proof.
Sliooting space ships via modem . . .
All machines with modem & CompuServe
Information Service hookup; available at regular
CompuServe rates (see table, p. 140);
CompuServe Information Service, 5000 Arlington
Centre, P.O. Box 20212, Columbus, OH 43220;
800/848-8199 or, in OH, 614/457-0802.
STEVEN LEVY: No single event in computer
gaming has given me a bigger rush than my
first MEGAWARS kill. I was sitting at a
computer in Palo Alto connected by modem
to the CompuServe host computer in
Columbus, piloting a spaceship called Wolf,
I was in the service of the Empire, locked in
eternal battle with the Colonists (the usual
epic scenario — I think computer games are
single-handedly restoring myth to a central
place in the hearts of young America). To put
it bluntly, I destroyed the Colonist ship
Levant. Who the pilot was, I'll never know. A
twelve-year-old in Georgia? A grandmother in
Walla Walla? But that's interactive
telegaming, and I think it's a wave of the
future.
MEGAWARS is a variant of the old Star Trek
computer game, where you moved across
various sectors of a galaxy seeking to blow up
unfriendly enemies while annexing the
universe. This multiplayer CompuServe
incarnation is complicated, and I didn't even
attempt it until I had sent for the 38-page
manual. (Like most CompuServe manuals
that should have been sent to you in the first
place, this is available at an extra cost via
CompuServe's "Feedback" service.) After
studying how to scan, move around, and
confront my enemy, I logged on, ready to join
the cosmic struggle, individual battles of
which had been continuing for more than a
year
Since MEGAWARS requires you to join one of
two sides eternally at odds, you automatically
have partners, and they can communicate to
you through "radio." It's a thrill to hear from
real-life allies. Though the modem-received
graphics are limited, I felt I was soaring. And
when, after a few sessions, I could finally
control the commands well enough to shoot
down an enemy, I was ecstatic, though later I
got wistful, wondering if I'd made some
stranger feel really bad. There was obviously
no way to take him or her out for a drink later
to prove it was all in good fun.
Still, late at night when your friends are
asleep, you can count on some MEGAWARS
action on CompuServe (though at normal
online rates it can get costly). Since you get
"promoted" and get more powerful ships as
you accumulate points, you have incentive to
keep going. But even without that, the
MEGAWARS lure is strong.
MEANS- NEW TO 2,0 EDITION
:^s^agy;--:'^
W File Edit
Deceptively simple, infinitely deep
John Conway; Apple II family ® IBM PC
compatibles ® CP/M (SVV); $10 per disk; copy-
protected? NO; Public Domain Software Copying
Co., 33 Gold Street, #13, New York, NY 10038;
212/732-2565; IBM version ($6/disk plus $4/order
for shipping) also available from PC Software
Interest Group, 1030 East Duane, Suite J,
Sunnyvale, CA 94086; 408/730-9291; Also
available on SOFTWARE GOLDEN OLDIES, VOL. 1
(including ADVENTURE, ELIZA, and PONG); IBM
PC and compatibles; PCjr; 64K ® Apple II family;
64K o Commodore 64; $29.95; copy-protected?
YES; Software Country; 270 N. Canon Dr., #1297,
Beverly Hills, CA 90210; 800/245-2057 or, in CA,
800/245-2056.
STEVEN LEVY: In the November 1970
Scientific American, Martin Gardner
introduced LIFE, a simulation conceived by
British philosopher John Conway. It fired the
imaginations of logicians, gamesters, and
poetic mathematicians all over the world, but
none were so excited as the first computer
hackers, who could fully explore the
mysteries suggested by what I consider the
deepest of all computer games.
The rules to LIFE are elementary. Picture a
grid. Each square is a "cell." Each turn of the
game— called a "generation"— determines a
cell's fate: A living cell bordering on two or
three living neighbors survives. With fewer
neighbors, a cell dies of isolation. With more,
it's fatally stifled by overpopulation. A dead
cell bordering on exactly three living cells is
"born" and becomes a live cell.
LIFE works on many levels. On the simplest,
it is fun to set up a pattern— a "colony" of
LIFE cells— and move along generation by
generation to see what happens. The patterns
are often hypnotically beautiful until the
almost inevitable end: a stable "still life," a
loop where a colony "pulses" between two
patterns, or a blank dead screen. The
exceptions to extinction are the rare self-
replicating patterns.
One of the most fascinating hours of my life
was spent before the computer screen of LIFE
master and canonical hacker R. William
Gosper, discoverer of the notorious "Glider
Gun" (a deathless LIFE colony that snakes
through the universe spitting off offspring).
We raced through billions of generations of
intricate patterns. Gosper says he "hacks
LIFE" because it's one of the few remaining
places where mathematical discoveries can
be made. For those of us who are not world-
class mathematicians, LIFE is still edifying,
putting us viscerally in contact with the
hauntingly beautiful nexus of logic and vision.
Gosper uses an intricate LIFE program fixed
to run on the $60,000 Symbolics LISP
machine, but versions of LIFE run on virtually
every microcomputer You can find a BASIC
program for LIFE in many books. Among the
fastest and most widely available of
microcomputer LIFEs is the slick Macintosh
version written by Bill "MacPaint" Atkinson;
almost every Mac users' group has it, and
it's also downloadable from CompuServe (p.
144) for free (in the MAUG special interest
group).
Fully-formed Glider Gun shooting gliders off to
lower right. The "eater" at lower left consumes
gliders as they re-enter the screen to prevent
them from corrupting the gun. From Software
Country's adaptation of William Poundstone's
LIFE program.
This life colony has reached a stable state where
neither degeneration nor regeneration is
occuring. On the computer screen, parts of this
population are actually oscillating between two
different shapes.
Battle of tlie micro sliips . . .
Richard Hefter & Jack Rice; Apple II family; 48K;
paddles or keyboard; one disk drive; color
recommended; $39.95; copy-protected? YES;
Weekly Reader Family Software, Xerox Education
Publications, 245 Long Hill Rd., Middletown, CT
06457; 800/852-5000 or, in NJ, 203/347-7251.
Wayne Garris; Apple II family; 48K • Apple III •
Atari (all machines); 48K; paddle recommended;
$39.95; copy-protected? YES; Strategic
Simulations, Inc., 883 Stierlin Road, BIdg. A-200,
Mountain View, CA 94043; 415/964-1353.
STEWART BRAND: Qualifications to review
these games, sir: I have read the entire
Horatio Hornblower series of novels twice; I
own a sailing vessel (sadly under-equipped
with cannon); I know enough not to spit to
windward, sir. I take great glee in these
games.
Both of them reek of the salt, gunpowder, and
blood of naval warfare of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries— single-ship encounters
of historic British, American, and French
vessels. The BROADSIDES manual goes on to
instruct you in how to design your own ships
and capabilities, and the program will fight
them accordingly. Electronic ship in a bottle.
Unlike many simulation games, these two
play happily as action games. They pass the
shout test: the aarrgghls and oh nols are
more often within than at the game.
The two make a nice sequence. OLD
IRONSIDES is the easier, faster, more
engaging one, and it also sucks you into the
fantasy quicker with its poster painting of
battle, its "logbook" manual, its salty
graphics and lettering on the screen. It is
strictly for two players and works better with
paddles than keyboard (so does
BROADSIDES). Play involves a plausible,
manageable, but challenging array of
considerations— wind direction, powder
availability, cannon damage, sail damage,
ramming versus broadside attack, and so on.
You can— unrealistically but interestingly—
sail off the screen "into the fog" and cleverly
navigate by compass to fire from there.
BROADSIDES goes far deeper. You have more
commands, including speed, aiming (at sails
or hull, at various ranges), kinds of shot, etc.
There is a richer blur of play considerations
viewed onscreen— wind speed (in knots) and
wind direction, hull damage, crew losses,
current speed, maximum speed available,
distance to enemy, etc. And there are many
more options of play— solitaire or two-player,
level of complexity, and ship-design options.
Also, a second phase of battle takes place
when you grind your ships together and
board the enemy. The screen switches to the
two decks, and success becomes a matter of
swordplay and sniper fire. It's more abstract
and less satisfying than the cannon stuff; still,
a fair amount of action is available, including
cutting the grappling lines that hold the ships
together
OLD IRONSIDES you can try in a store to see
if you like it; BROADSIDES takes longer to set
up. OLD IRONSIDES is easier for younger
players, visitors, or quick games.
BROADSIDES tends to longer games and will
probably have a longer play life in the house.
Jollytars will want both.
The gladiator arena ofROBOTWAR, where your
personal creation does battle, either with a
computer opponent or a robot programmed by a
friend or (more likely) enemy Once the battle
starts, you helplessly watch your progeny's
travail— it's the first computer game to make you
feel like a trainer at a cockfight.
Teaching your computer to fight .
Silas Warner; Apple II family; 48K; $39.95; copy-
protected? YES; MUSE Software, 347 H. Charles
St., Baltimore, MD 21201; 301/659-7212.
Patty Denbrook & Jim Templeman; Apple II family;
48K • Atari 400/800/XL series; 40K • Commodore
64; $34.95; copy-protected? YES; Strategic
Simulations, Inc., 883 Stierlin Road, BIdg. A-200,
Mountain View, CA 94043; 415/964-1353.
RUSSELL SIPE: For years many fans of board
war games and other detailed strategy games
suffered a major obstacle to playing their
beloved games: a lack of opponents. Then
came the microcomputer— someone who
plays when you want to play, where you want
to play, and doesn't blow smoke in your face!
But a computer makes a lousy opponent.
Since it is not human, victory and defeat leave
you with a distinctly antiseptic feeling.
But ROBOTWAR and FORTRESS have the best
of both worlds. They permit human versus
computer or human versus human
competition at the keyboard, and they also
permit humans geographically separated to
fight it out tooth and nail.
In both, you can design a "player" that can
be sent, on disk, to other gamers who can pit
their creations against yours. In both cases
the procedure involves "programming" a
"player" who performs in the game
according to the wisdom and insights you put
in. In other words, these games allow you to
train your army, fighter, team, and the rest.
ROBOTWAR players program "robots" to
fight on a hi-res battlefield against other
programmed "robots." The programming
language looks familiar to anyone with even a
rudimentary understanding of computer
programming. Since the robot's "onboard
computer" contains 34 registers to control
location, direction, speed, damage checking,
tracking, and so on, developing a true
"contender" can take weeks.
The magazine I edit. Computer Gaining
World (p. 29), sponsors an annual
ROBOTWAR tournament. Contestants submit
their robot creations on disks and show up for
the computer slugfest. Grown men turn into
raving maniacs or bowls of Jello in response
to the fate of their creations.
FORTRESS is a game in the classic tradition
of Go. The object is to build castles in order to
control more territory than your opponent at
the end of the game. Like many classic
games, FORTRESS is easy to learn but
requires much study to master The
interesting twist is that you can train a
number of computer players to play against
you— or other game players. Strategic
Simulations, publisher of the game, runs
FORTRESS tournaments, and I'm sure other
play-by-mail tournaments will pop up in time.
Uforehouse tUorkshop Enuironments Options
Chipwit Greedy in the environment Greedville.
Each oil can he eats gets him 50 points and he
gets fuel by eating coffee and pie. The Debug
Panel shows each chip as the robot carries out its
command.
o
Build a software robot . . .
ijfUriWIld ^^
Doug Sharp and Mike Johnson. Copy-protected.
Apple II family (64K; mouse, joystick or Koalapad
required); $39.95. Macintosh; $49.95.
Brainpower, Inc., 24009 Ventura Blvd., Suite 250,
Calabasas, CA 91302; 818/884-6911; Commodore
64 version ($27) available from Epyx, Inc., 1043
Kiel Ct., Sunnyvale, CA 94089; 408/745-0700.
STEVEN LEVY: If you want to build your own
software robots even more quickly than
possible with ROBOTWARS, you might try
CHIPWITS, a package which manages to
blend frivolity with an "educational"
message (as does the excellent ROBOT
ODYSSEY, p. 191 .) Your robot is a charming
fellow with spectacles, sneakers, and a voice
that rivals R2D2 in terms of sonic
personality; you program him by assembling
graphic representations of functions, pasted
together so it all makes structural sense.
Not terribly flexible, but it allows for plenty
of possibilities. The best part, of course,
is loosing your creation into the world,
which in this case can be any of eight
environments, some of which favor
destructive robots while others favor
cautious robots who sniff for trouble before
they spring into action.
li
sup
MEANS- NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Itself seemingly perfect, the computer
evokes anxiety about one's own
perfectibility There is pressure from a
machine that leaves no one and no other
things to blame. It is hard to walk away from
the perfect mirror from the perfect test. It is
hard to walk away from a video game on
which you could do better next time.
—Sherry Turkic, The Second Self,
Computers and the Human Spirit
PLAYING 53
Stimulating simulation . . .
GATO O
Paul Arlton & Ed Dawson. Version 1.2. Copy-
protected. IBM PC compatibles (128K; graphics
card required, RGB monitor recommended) •
Appie lie (126K)/lic; $39.95; IVEacintosh; S49.95.
Spectrum HoloByte. inc., lOSO Walnut. Suite 323,
Boulder, CO 803 QZ; QOO/621-8385, ext. 262.
RICHARD DALTON: The best simulations take
you into situations you would never have
access to except via a computer GATO does
all that and more, unless you happen,
coincidentally, to have been a "GATO"-Gfass
submarine commander in WWII. Yes. war-
toy haters, GATO puts you in the role of a
sub captain prowling the Pacific, and your
missions involve the rapacious destruction of
the Japanese Imperial Fleet, circa 1943.
Like the famous FLIGHT SIMULATOR
program. GATO puts you in controi of all
your vehicle's resources: fuel, speed, up,
down and a few new twists— torpedoes,
oxygen and battery power (while
submerged), and periscopes.
Your mission assignments, by the way,
reach you through Morse code, For the non-
Morse crowd, you can get to the seventh of
ten levels before the program cuts off your
text description of the assignments from
" Corns ub pack." After that it's aii dits and
dahs.
The experience fs adrenaiin-stimulating, but
in an abstract way. You get more kicks out of
the swelling Captain's Log of sinkings than
from the actual denouement of a clunky
freighter, even if its twisty evasions end in a
colorful explosion.
GATO plays extremely well. As you move up
the scale of difficuity, the "enemy's"
response becomes more sophisticated^able
to withstand more than one torpedo before
sinking: capable of clever maneuvers they
couldn't make beforei moving at higher
speed requiring a more subtle approach on
your part (clue: destroyers are suckers for a
head-on approach; difficult any other way),
I heartily endorse GATO for every corporate
computer drone. It will wipe out morning
malaise if you kick it up on your screen, first
shot each a.m. Then trundle on to the
accounts receivable or whatever, with energy
derived from a truly taxing simulation of the
unfortunately real world.
GATO is a truly taxing submarine simulation
game for Apple and IBM PC computers. As
commarjder of a "Gato "-class sub, circa 1943,
you must master your vessel's realistic resources
as well as ttie nuances of navigation and tactics
to take your toll of ttie Japanese Imperial Fleet.
The pilot's point of view . . .
FLIGHT SIMULATOR
Bruce Artwick; IBM PC compatibles; 64K* IBM
PCjr; 128K; one disk drive; color graphics adapter;
S50; copy-protected? NO; Microsoft Corp., 10700
Northup Way, Beltevue. WA 98004; 800/426-9400
or, in WA, 206/028-8060.
FLIGHT SIMULATOR II
Sruce Artwick; Apple il family; 48K (64K
recommended) • Atari; 48K • Commodore 64;
joystick recommended; S50 (limited feature
version on cassette lor Commodore; S39.95);
copy-protected? YES; SubLOGIC Corp., 713
Edgebrook Dr, Champaign, tL 61820;
217/359-8482.
DICK FUGETT: As the only instrument-rated
pilot on the premises, I was chosen to check
out FUGHT SIMULATOR, but despite my
ratings I wound up bending more aluminum
(simulated) than any ten student pilots ever
did . Being new to the IBM PC was part of the
problem — success is based on keyboard
skills as well as flying ability. But after a few
sessions I could get in the air more often than
into Lake Michigan. 1 discovered that hitting p
(pause) freezes the action, letting me grab the
manual and plan a proper response before
returning to the drama. I'm quite sure that
such a feature made standard on airplanes
would be highly popular with pilots.
A split screen shows an instrument panel
below and a view out the cockpit window
above. The cockpit view can be in any
direction, a nice feature but considerably
limited by poor screen resolution, Don't
expect anything more than a vague
resemblance to passing scenery. If you have a
monochrome monitor, don't expect
a/7yfrt/ng— color display is mandatory here.
Of course, the most basic aspect of
instrument flying is the "scan," that
unnatural habit of continually shifting both the
eyeballs and attention to cover all the
instruments, Narrowing your focus to the
artificial horizon and keeping the wings level
is quite satisfying, but if you neglect air speed
until you've passed rediine, as the wings peel
off the fuselage in the last dive you^ll ever
make, you'll be wishing youd scanned better.
This program is by no means just a "game";
it could definitely aid in pilot training. From
the navigational challenges of cross-country
flight to IFR approaches, all with a choice of
difficulty levels, there's plenty of juice here.
Call it a S50 Link trainer and capitalize on the
learning potential available.
STEVEN LEVY: I tried FLIGHT SIMULATOR II
(by the same author) on the Apple, and was
pleased by the same things Fugett liked, but
as someone who is not flight rated, for
Here, In ttie Appie version from SubLOGIC, you'll
soon be worrying about how to land this thing.
instruments or anything else, it took me an
intolerably long time to figure out what in hell
to do. Still, the program's obviously a super
value, as its huge popularity indicates.
'I
34 PLAYING
The Seven Cities Of Gold
Be £KP€&i7 ion iS on tan^.
c^oe.^
.1B^6^5#'.T.
Ninety-nine men set out, with four weel(s worttt of
food, to explore this hunk ot Hew World here and
villages to the southwest. When they get to the
villages, they will have to use caution and savvy to
deal with the residents^and then again, they
might initiate a massacre. Ail to find those S£VEN
CITIES OF GOLD. The liest way to learn about
Columbus is to be Columbus.
Colonizing new worlds, past and future . . .
M.U.LE.
Ozark Softscape Designs; Atari 40D, 800/XL series;
48K • Cominoilare 64: joystick; color monitor;
S22.95; copy-protectfid? YES; Etectronic Arts,
2755 Campus Dr. , San IVIateo, CA 94403;
415/571-7171.
SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD
Ozark Softscape Designs: App^e 11 family; 48K
• IBM PC/PCjr; IZQK; 539.95 • Atari 400. 800. XL
series; 46K • Commodore 64; 332.95; joystick
(optionai on IBM); coior monitor; copy-protected?
YES; Eiectronic Arts. 2755 Campus Dr., San
Mateo, CA 94403; 415/571-7171.
BRADLEY MCKEE: In M.U.L.E,. you and jp
to ttiree other players choose the kind of alien
you are [all very creative) and try to colonize a
planet. The goal is to develop land and start
your ov^n business, producing either food,
energy, Smithore, or valuable Crystite.
Trouble is, you have to buy stubborn
M.U.L.E.s (Multiple Use Labor Elements,
natch) and pul! them to your property to
develop it.
The planet's currency is dollars: you can get
'em by gambling in the pub. buying or selling
land, trading products in an auction (action-
packed, as your opponents bid), and a few
other things. Eactiturn, windfalls and
calamities occur, appropriate to the
interstellar-colonist scenario, This nnultiplayer
game (playing it alone is a relative bore) is the
first computer stab at the cutthroat, good-
time madness of f^onopoly. and I think it's
the best game since SPACE INVADERS,
STEVEN LEVY: Ozark Softscape's sequel to
M.UL.E. is called THE SEVEN CITIES OF
GOLD, but it might better be called
"Conquistador Simulation." This is the best
blend of computer role playing, fun, and real
history I've seen — its fascinating
documentation contains a bibliography listing
twelve history books. (Why isn't this review
in the Learning section? Because J saw
SEVEN CITIES first, and its ability to go either
way shows that great software, thank God,
makes taxonomies ridiculous.) Anyway,
you're Columbus, Magellan, whoever, and
you set off in your ships to explore the New
World, or, if you like, an imaginary but
realistically generated Western Hemispere,
Cross the ocean (watch out tor storms), and
get your first big rush when you spot land. A
new world!
The heart of the game is how you colonize —
when you find a village on this uncharted
continent or island, the screen picture
changes from a map to a soldier representing
your party. Natives surround you, and the
way you behave (you control your party with
intuitive joystick movements) determines
their response — are these friendly folk who
want to trade? Will movement set them to
attack? The dynamic is only more absorbing
because it's a consciously accurate
replication of what the Spanish explorers
really fettWke going in there.
The same combination of fantasy and pulp-
inspired action that George Lucas brought to his
Star Wars trilogy is embodied in BALLBLAZER,
conceived and well-executed by Lucas film
programmers.
O
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Buzz-bfasting in force fields . . .
BALLBLAZER Q
Lucasfilm Games Division. Copy-protected.
$2g-$39. Atari. Joystick required. Epyx, Inc.,
1043 Kfel Ct., Sunnyvale, CA 94089; 40B/745<
0700.
STEVEN LEVY: What we have here is some
sort of interstellar two-player soccer, played
at a high speed and higher adrenaline
output. Best way to do it is against a
friend— strategy gets psychological, and
someone else is there to acknowledge your
best tricks. In absence of that, the computer
provides ample competition, from sluggish
Droid One to just-about-unbeatable Droid
Nine.
1 earned my stripes against Droid One, who
was a tough opponent until I learned the
intuitive movements necessary to master the
skills of "dribbling" with a force-field,
discerning when a "roto-snap" turned me
toward my goal, and most important of all,
monitoring both my point of view (on the top
of the colorful split-screen display) and that
of my nemesis (on the bottom half of the
screen). Using the regulation three-minute
game, I occasionally had to stop to wipe the
sweat off my joystick. Beginning with Droid
Three, I couldn't afford to take my hand off
the stick for a second — that bugger would
steal the ball from me and be racing down
the scrolling field towards my goal like one
of those Scyllica venom hunters described in
the rather offbeat documentation.
Speaking of which. I must say that the
instruction booklet, every bit as cleverly
written as any you might find, did not
neglect to give copious tips on the very
things that concerned me as I tried to move
up a notch or two in skill— things like pulling
off angle shots, "buzz-blasting" the ball
from my opponent, and, most satisfying of
all, pulling back when the goal is in sight in
order to shoot a long-range goal good for
three points (like the three-point shot in
basketball).
Something that the Lucasfilm people have
worked out with BALLBLAZER is not
available in this implementation, but worth
mentioning. Using a system that averages
the inputs from as many as forty joysticks,
the game can be played by large numbers of
warriors. As many of us learned during a
long session at the Hackers' Conference (see
photo on p. 29), teamwork was essential.
When I got the game home, though, it was
strictly in-your-face (or in this instance, in-
your-Rotofoil) pyrotechnics, and just as
much fun.
PLAYING 35
The classic helicopter hostage rescue . . .
CHOPUFTER!
Dan Gorlin; Apple II family; 48K • Atari: 48K
• Commodore 64; cartridge or disk; joystick
required; S34.95 (disk versiOf^); S45 (Atari
cartridge); S39.95 (Commodore 64 cartridge);
copyprotected? YES; Broderbund Software, lnc<,
17 Paul Dr.. San Ralael. CA 94903; 415/479-1170.
STEVEN LEVY: The rarest o1 computer-game
creatures — an action -packed hand/eye
coordination extravaganza witti a plot
organically tied to the process of play. The
seductive demo mode tells the story: you
command a helicopter crossing enemy
borders to rescue hostages. Obviously you
have to land to pick up the little fellows, who
plaintively wave to you as you hover above
them; just as obviously you have to avoid or
shoot down the assortment of tanks, jet
fighters, and killer satellites defending enemy
territory.
Since you gam points only for hostages
saved, your priorities are clear— lose as few
hostages as possible. Don't engage in
bioodlust, Just get those innocent people out
of there! True, there is no "negotiation mode"
to obviate the need for violence , but
CHOPLIFER! provides a much less vile
scenario than 90 percent of its competitors
Although CHOPLIFTER! is hard to beat, it is
simple to learn. Your first "sortie" across the
border ts easy, with subsequent ones growing
progressively harder. The graphics are sharp
and full of neat detail (though I'm not sure
why the ground is pink). I've heard
complaints that this hugely popular game is
not much of a challenge to the extremely
skilled arcader, and it /s austere compared
with some pyrotechnic wonders. But because
the game constantly reinforces the life-saving
role you're placed in, it's never boring.
The rescuing helicopter in CHOPUFTER! must no!
only take out that tank, but make sure your bombs
or its rockets don 't kit! one of ttjose cute It'i
hostages. The burning fire in front of the barracks
is indicative of the mind blowing detail in this
Broderbund classic.
An addicting, quiet massacre . . ,
CROSSFIRE
Jay Sullivan; Apple II family: 48K • Atari: 4dK •
Commodore 64 • IBM PC compatibles: 64K • IBM
PCjr • VIC 2D; S29.95: copy-protected? YES;
Sierra On-Line, Inc., PO. Box 485, Coarsegold. CA
93614: 209683-6858.
STEVEN LEVY: The archetypal author of a
shoot-'em-up computer game is a wild-eyed
eighteen-year-old who machine-guns lines of
code like some kamikaze bomber
CROSSFIRE was written by a quiet,
contemplative man in his forties, and it
shows. What makes CROSSFIRE different is
its seductive ability to immerse you in
concentration, without the loud explosions or
screaming sound effects that a more callow
programmer might have inserted. Indeed,
this is the quietest massacre you will ever
indulge in.
As the defender of an abandoned city
consisting of a gridlike layout of streets, you
must be on the lookout from all four
directions for aliens who can kill you by
shooting little pellets or running into you. You
must also move around the grid yourself, to
avoid those aliens and get more bullets. Like
some people 1 know, you might be tempted to
splurge in long CROSSFIRE sessions How
these people do it, I don't know— the game is
hard, and I'd estimate at least an hour's work
at It was needed before you could last even s
minute in the subtle yet deadly alien attack.
But some folks get hooked and make
CROSSFIRE a hobby.
CROSSFIRE doesn 7 look like much ? Try moving
around the guy on the bottom row — while those
other guys are coming at you from ail four
directions.
DDQcyDnn
DHDD
B □ H n D*"""*
annnnan
5d n ncD D D
#hip«
Faster than PAC-MAN . . .
OIL'S WELL
Ttiomas MitctieJI: Apple II family: 48K: S29.95 •
Atari: 48K • Commodore 64: $1 9.95 • IBM PC
compatibles: 64K • IBM PCir; S29.95 (S34.95 for
cartridge); copy-protected? YES; Sierra On-Line,
Inc.. PO. QoK 485, Coarsegold. CA 93614:
209 683-6858.
RANDI HACKER and GEORGE KOPP: OILS
WELL IS a highly addictive game combining
PAC-MAN action with the features of an
automatically retractable vacuum cleaner
cord Obiect to slice out an underground
maze with this Roto-Rooter-type device
without letting the odd creatures who inhabit
the maze drive over you, Only way to avoid
them IS to retract like a strand of spaghetti
eaten by an unmannerly person (you do this
by pressing the joystick button). Eight mazes,
each tougher than the one before. You need
joystick dexterity and nerves of steel.
Ttje pipeline is far down in this OIL 'S WELL game,
but if the player doesn 't watch it, that blue "oozie "
on the ttiird row down will hit the pipe and ruin
everything. Solution? Press that joystick button,
and fastf
56 PLAYING
In PINBALL CONSTRUCWN SET that hWe hand
moves things around and gets things done hy
joystick. Mouse- nice. After you build a pinbaif
machine like the one on the left, you can exercise
more power by changing gravity Use it, as we re
about to do here.
A universe of bumpers, flippers,
and rollovers . , .
PINBALL CONSTRUCTION SET
Bill Budge: Apple M family • ISM PC compatibles;
PCjr; 64K; $34.95 • Macintosh: S39.95 • Atari
40O.8OD XL series; 48K • Commodore 64; S22.95;
joystick (optional on IBM); color mortitor; copy-
protected? YES; Electronic Arts, 2755 Campus Dr.,
San Mateo. CA 94403: 415/571-7171.
STEVEN LEVY: I've asked a lot of people who
are crazy about computers just why it is they
are so crazy about computers. They will hem
and they will haw, but eventually it gets down
to this: A computer makes you God. The only
catch is that you have to learn to program
before you can take command of the
universe, and it takes more than seven days
to learn to program.
PINBALL CONSTRUCTION SET makes you
God in a few minutes. True, your universe is
restricted to making pinball machines. But
there is much to learn about pinball
machines. There are series of targets to
connect for creating bonuses. There are
decoration schemes to consider, There are
tactical variations that make subtle
differences in play. You find this out as you
build a pinball machine, try it out, debug it,
make changes, and i/nprove it. This trial-and-
error process is something you might want to
apply later on, when you learn programming
or anything else.
The method by which you build your machine
is ridiculously simple — a little "hand" icon,
controlled by your joystick, pulls bumpers,
flippers, and targets to the pinball field, By
pointing to other icons like a paintbrush, a
screwdriver or a little globe, you can add
decorations, change the scoring or sound,
create new shapes, and actually play your
game. Since you are God in this universe, you
can even change the pull of gravity to make
the ball drop faster.
Everything works, (Well, sometimes a ball
will go through a flipper— but who said Bill
Budge was God?) Electronic Arts supplies a
clear and detailed manual. If you hate pinball
machines, you might not like this game. But,
then, this program might make you like
pinball machines for the first time.
Your ace, on ttie left, must now choose between
bombing ttie boat (too fate for that, probably),
going after the plane on the right, or bombing that
factory. I'd go for ttie plane and WO points.
The definitive WW-I ace game . . .
BLUE MAX
Bob Polin: Atari 400 800 XL series • Commodore
64; joystick: color recommended; S34.95; copy-
protected? YES; Synapse Software, 5221 Central
Ave.. Suite 200, Richmond, CA 94804;
415/527-7751.
STEVEN LEVY; During the time I was working
at the Wliole Eartti Software Catalog
headquarters puttingtogether this section, I
was surrounded by hundreds of games for
various computers. The game I played for
pleasure during that time was BLUE MAX on
the Atari. One afternoon Stewart Brand and I
spent three hours taking turns at the throttle
ot a World War I biplane, shown onscreen
from an overhead view with some 3-D
perspective (provided by a shadow
underneath that gets closer as you get lower).
We could have gone longer
There's a lot going on in this bombing
game — much more than in its apparent
inspirations, the ultimately boring space
Roger is a fifty-year-old businessman who
seeks out video games to achieve the state
of mind tfiat he gets into wfien he slds. He
plays a game until that point where "tfie
strategies are part of you. " where he feels
like an extension of the game or the game is
an extension of him. Roger compares the
feeling to being in touch with an
shootout ZAXXON (movement and
perspective similar) and the repetitive dive-
bombing orgy of RIVER RAID. Besides
bombing bridges and factories (worried about
the theoretical people inside? Don't buy this
game. And don't pay your taxes), you have to
monitor your fuel, altitude, and damage level;
watch out for enemy pfanes and try to shoot
them down; avoid anti-aircraft fire; stay alert
for and bomb "primary targets"; find friendly
airfields to land on (not easy!), refuel, and get
repairs.
BLUE MAX is the type of game you master
incrementally. Tfiere's so much happening in
your foray into enemy territory that a perfectly
simple error usually trips you up — the kind of
error that makes you say "I can avoid that
next time," thus ensuring a next time even if
it's dinner time.
Blessedly, when you opt for replay. BLUE
MAX does not force you to endure a drawn-
out starting segment with anim^ated titles and
peppy theme music, Push the start button
and you're off again.
unconscious self "When f play the games I
don 't think. My fingers think. . . . They say
it 's mindless, but for me it 's liberating. I am
in control of the game, but my mind is free.
The way I see it, I m not wasting my
quarters. It's cheaper than psychoanalysis. "
—Sherry Turkie. The Second Self,
Computers and the Human Spirit
PLAYING 57
Freeing the butterflies on 16 levels . . .
BOULDER DASH
Peter Liepa & Chris Gray; Atari; 32K • Commodore
64 « IBM PC and PCjr; joystick required; S29.95
(disk), S39.95 (cartridge); copy-protacted? YES;
First Star Software, Inc., 18 East 41st Street, New
Yorl(, NY 10017; 800,223-1545 or, in NY,
212/532-4666.
SAM HILT: As Rockford. the subterranean
hero of BOULDER DASH, you dig your way
down through the dirt and rocks to the place
where butterflies are trapped beneath a wall of
boulders. When you finally find the way to
release them (without killing yourself in the
process), you must lure them back to the
surface into the bubbling green slime. where
they explode on contact and turn into jewels.
These you must gather quickly in sufficient
quantities to move on to the next level before
your time has elapsed.
Thai's only one of sixteen scenarios, each so
different from the others that the word "level"
is insufficient to describe them. The
documentation calls them "caves. ' Each one
has its own logic and design, and each
demands a unique solution to the basic
challenge of acquiring gems before your time
runs out. Game elements such as boulders,
butterflies, amoebas, and explosions recur in
various combinations, but the relationships
Finally— a game you can chant to . . .
MOONDUST
Jarron Lanier; Commodore 64; joystick, color;
$19.95; copy-protected? NQ; Creative Software,
960 Hamilton Ct., Sunnyvale, CA 940S9;
800/331-7990 or, in CA, 8QD/443-10Q1.
ART KLEINER: If this were Still the
psychedelic era. every game would be like
MOOMDUST. The points you score are
somehow less important than the patterns
and (especially) the music produced by the
way you play the game. With the joystick, you
manipulate a little white "spacewalker" with a
bobbling head. His movement in turn affects,
in obscure ways, the flight paths of six
colored spaceships, By pressing the joystick
button, you drop a little square colored
"seed" on the playing field; then you try like
hell to influence the spaceships to spread the
seed's progeny the "moondust." out across
a shifting, mandala-ish target. The process
feels like finger painting with somebody else's
fingers. If you inadvertently bump your ship
into your spaceman, you get knocked out and
have to start over. My only complaint: the
individual games end too soon, Restarting
disturbs MOONDUST's hypnotic wavelike
effect. Unlike other games, MOONDUST
doesn't engage your adrenaline: it engages
the part of your psyche that seeks to feel at
among them change constantly and keep you
guessing. Solutions may require speed and
agility, careful observation of the movement
patterns of fireflies, or deliberate plans for
luring butterflies to their doom under an
avalanche of boulders (BOULDER DASH is a
disaster for lepidopterists), After an evening
of play, you'll find yourself getting out of bed
to try that one final strategy that occurred to
you just before you drifted oft to sleep.
Rock ford has just released those butterflies
(making ifieir way up the left side of the screen
toward the butibfing green slime above them} by
tunneling under the boulders that were restricting
their movement. He's trying to complete this
BOULDER DASH maneuver without getting made
into a pancake in the process.
150 craaa^zzzy screens . . .
LODE RUNNER
Doug Smitti; Apple II family; 48K • Atari; 48K •
Commodore 64 (disk or cartridge); ioysticic
(optional on Commodore) • JBM PC compatibles;
64K; color grapfiics card; S34.95 (S39.95 for
Commodore 64 cartridge) • Macintosf): S39.95;
copy-protected? YES: Broderbjnd Software, Inc.,
17 Paul Drive, San Rafael, CA 94903;
415/479-1170.
STEVEN LEVY: I'm crazy about LODE
RUNNER. It's a game I could play from the
first five minutes and still have a great time
with after wearing the disk to a frazzle by
overuse. It's a "climbing" game, with its
ladders, ropes, and leaps, but some of the
maneuvers you need to make your stick-
figurey little man advance to the next of LODE
RUNNER'S 150 (you read it right — one
hundred and fifty) screens actually require
. . . brace yourself . , , thought. So, in a
sense, each screen is a puzzle thai you must
solve on the run. Literally on the run, because
while your guy is dashing about digging holes
with his laser drill, collecting treasures, and
dropping from the ceiling, with the computer
making weird beee-yooooo sounds, a cadre
of enemy stick figures in constant Keystone
Kop mode are in hot pursuit. If they catch
you, you've had it. You can drill holes in the
floor for them to fall into and eventually get
buried in, but more figures will drop from the
sky to replace them. There's hardly a
moment's peace here.
Some of the screens are tough to solve.
Others you can solve mentally but often screw
up on execution. Playing sequentially there is
no way in hell I am going to see the 60th
screen, let alone the 150th. (It takes me 20
minutes just to get to Screen 9.) But the game
accommodates that complaint. For the weak
of resolve and reflex, one command advances
the level, another gives you as many men as
Our LODE RUNNER surrogate is outlined in white,
in virtual flight from those other fellows. He 11
have to climb ail over to get the little bundles of
gold, then climb on to the next screen. There are
150 screens, and if you get bored with those,
design your own.
you want. Using these commands is surely a
victimless crime, and they make LODE
RUNNER constantly fresh and interesting;
there's always a screen you won't have seen
yet.
1 also have only scratched the surface of the
sequel, CHAMPIONSHIP LODE RUNNER
(Apple II family • Commodore 64; $34,95).
As the name implies, this version is for
people with diplomas in solving the puzzles
in its predecessor. Though there are only(!)
50 screens, some are so tough that you
might consider buying the optional hint book
(sold for £5). Otherwise you might wind up
on the doorstep of the Broderbund company,
begging for hints to solve Screen 36.
38 PLAYING
Sports and
Noncomputer Games
Slam-dunkin ' realism,
• playground pyrotechnics . . .
JULIUS ERVING & LARRY BIRD
GOONE-QN-ONE
Bird. Erving and Hammond; Apple II family; 48K •
IBM PC compatibles; 64K; S39.95 • Atari 400. 800
XL series; 48K • Commodore 64: S32.95; joystick;
color monitor: copy-protected? YES; Electronic
Arts, 2755 Campus Dr., San Mateo, CA 94403;
800/448-8822 or, in CA, 415/571-7171.
Dr. y aftrf Isrry Bird go up for a ONEOH-QHE
rebound. Looks like J's got this one, but generally.
Bird (on the left) will outrebound him. just like in
real lite. On the other hand, fs faster inside.
Those ''fatigue " lines in the foreground show that
both have worked up a good sweat here and should
call a time-out to rejuvenate.
A ptayer takes a dive in the spectacular SUf^MER
GAMES program. Between the time he leaves the
board and hits the water, you can use your
joystick to create body pyrotechnics that would
impress even Greg Louganis.
STEVEN LEVY: My friend Basketball Joe is
Sixers all the way and computers none of the
way, "Come over" I said, 'DoctorJ'sina
computer game." Say whaf? He came over, I
booted, and the graphics were so good t
didn't have to hem and haw and tell him the
limits of the Apple. Sure, Doctor J and his
opponent Larry Bird (white guy from Indiana,
can play) look cartoony, but when they
perform on the halfcourt, you can believe that
they spent some days in the gym with the
programmer making sure he got all the right
moves, J in particular "Wo!" said Basketball
Joe.
I had been playing an hour a day for about a
week, getting good enough to take on the
computer on the "varsity" level (second of
four) and picky enough to be complaining
about the only flaw in the otherwise intuitive
joystick control (hit the button to shoot but hit
the button quickly \o turn around —
sometimes it doesn't work and you shoot
when you don't want to). All in all, I was
highly taken with Electronic Arts' conceptual
leap: To do the best basketball game on a
Gold medals, no injuries . . .
SUMMER GAMES Q
Copy-protected. S39.95 (street $25). Commodore
64; Atari 400. 800/1 2Q0/XL; Apple II family.
Joystick required. Epyx, Inc., 1043 Kiel Ct.,
Sunnyvale, CA 94089; 408 745-0700.
STEVEN LEVY: !t took me a while to
approach SUMMER GAMES. I was sick of
Olympiana. But consistent reports that this
game was addictively wonderful kept
reaching me. especially from the Silicon
Valley offices of Byte and Popular
Computing where this program seems to be
an obsession among the editorialites. I found
the hype justified,
The format is much like a previous computer
trailblazer, Microsoffs four-year-old
OLYMPIC DECATHLON, in that you are tested
in several events. But you see immediately
how far software artistry has come in the
opening screen of SLIMMER GAMES: unlike
DECATHLON'S stick-figure man, you have a
flesh-and-blood, full-color runner setting a
torch ablaze in a full arena; a billowing cloud
turns into a flock of doves. It sets the scene
for the competition, in which up to eight
players may choose to represent any of 18
countries in the quest for gold. (After each
event, the game plays the national anthem of
the winner.) The events are the pole vault,
diving, 100-meter run, 400-meter relay,
gymnastics, freestyle swim relay, lOQ-meter
swim, and skeet shooting. Complexity
varies, but quality of graphics and animation
are consistent.
The best is the gymnastic competition. Using
the joystick for control, you become a
female competitor on a pommel horse. After
computer you don't do a whole basketball
game^you take it to an elemental level of
one-on-one, in-yo'-face play: With real
characteristics of the two best hoopsters
around (the computer Bird rebounds and
shoots from outside better; the Doc does sky
ballet), ONE-ON-ONE is on a level by itself as
far as computer sports games go.
As one of maybe ten people in the country
with a two-joystick Apple set-up (only in
theory can you play two-player with stick and
keyboard), I took on Basketball Joe,
grudgingly accepting Bird (problem with the
two-player game is. someone's got to be
Bird). Joe hates computers so much he's
usually awful at electronic games, but this
time that madman beat me, I believe the
reason is that he is a basketball player and I
am not — the ultimate endorsement for ONE-
ON-ONE.
STEWART BRAND: Levy is too modest to
mention that he took on Electronic Arts"
president Trip Hawkins in a semipublic bout of
ONE-ON-ONE and beat him.
a while, you will learn to twist, turn, and
straighten up to — if you're good — a firm
landing, The little set-step and the
calamitous fall resulting from an overly risky
or poorly planned jump are astoundingly
reminiscent of the scene in Los Angeles
when Mary Lou Retton pulled through. Then
you hold your breath as the judges hold their
cards. It's enough to cancel out ten of Mary
Lou's Wheaties commercials.
Rediscovering chess with the computer . . .
SARGON III
Don & Kathe Sprackfen: Apple II family; 48K •
Commodore 64 • IBM PC compatibles • IBM PCjr
• Macintosti: S49.95; copy-protected? YES;
Hayden Software Co,, Inc.. 600 Suffolk St.,
Lowell. MA 01854; 800 343-1218, or in Mass.,
617937-0200.
PHILIP ELMER'DEWin: After I got the
(Broderbund) SERPENTINE monkey off my
back and before I got hooked on LODE
RUNNER (p. 37). I spent a couple of weeks
compulsively playing chess with SARGON
the latest version of Hayden Software's
perennial bestseller.
I used to play a lot of chess with an old
college chum. He married and moved to
Paris. I inherited his chess books but dropped
the game. Until I bought this program. It
plays at ten levels, from five seconds to hours
per move. Also includes chess prot]lems and
famous games from the past. It put me right
back into that barbaric place, acting out a
collective fantasy left intact from the
fourteenth century.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
PLAYING 59
With a twist, SARGON lets you open up its
head and peek at its systematic move
generator as it tries every possible move at
the rate of several dozen per second.
Uncanny. Disturbing. Gruesome,
And ultimately it's a real spoiler, 'cause you
soon discover that you can get the computer
to suggest your best move. It it's better than
what you had in mind, it's darned hard to
ignore, Let that happen a few times and yoj
find yourself watching a machine play with
itself in an orgy of digital masturbation.
Whew.
One other thing: My wife didn't say anything
at the time, but while I was hooked on
SARGON, she seemed to warm up to my
Apple— or at least she seemed a bit less cool .
When I switched back to LODE RUNNER, we
were back to square one. Apparently the
chess game had the same effect on her that a
pipe and tweed jacket have on some
impressionable coeds.
Oh, yes. I did manage to beat that dumb
computer a couple of times. The program's a
sucker for a double pin.
Word maniac's delight . . ,
MONTY PLAYS SCRABBLE
Apple II family; 48K; S39.95 • IBM PC
compatibles; 64K; $39.95 • TR$-80 Model III; 48K;
$34.95; copy-protected? YES; Ritam Corporation,
RO. Box 921, Fairfield, lA 52556; 515/472-8262.
DOUG GARR: One of my favorite Apple
programs is MONTY PLAYS SCRABBLE, the
computer version of the popular board game
by Selchow & Righter. One reason I like it so
much is because it is absolutely playable
without the (oh, do I hate this word)
documentation. I've watched kids who are far
too impatient to read directions spend hours
at it. They love the fact that they can cheat. If
you insist a word is a word, there is nothing
the computer can do about it.
You can challenge, but only with a hard-copy
dictionary and an arbitrator. I have been
challenged many times by MONTY: His image
appears on screen; he looks left and right,
almost embarrassed to bring up this nasty
matter, and suggests that we "check that
word." His suspicions have always been
confirmed. I've never successfully challenged
MONTY, though he supposedly bluffs.
MONTY will play up to three people, and he
keeps score, quite honestly, for everyone.
The screen display is comprehensive— the
board, a tile-point count, and the player's
letters on a rack with "rearrange^' mode.
It's real Scrabble, and you don't have to swirl
the tiles around after every turn.
Strategy and a quick-reflex
basebail simulation . . .
COMPUTER BASEBALL
Charles Merrow & Jack Avery; Apple II family; 48K
• Apple III • Atari (all machines); 40K with BASIC
cartridge • Cornmodore 64; 539.95; copy-
protected? YES; Strategic Simulations, Inc., 883
Stierlin Rd. BIdg. A-200, Mountain View, CA
94043; 415/964-1353.
STAR LEAGUE BASEBALL
Apple II family; $31.95 • Atari; $29.95
• Commodore 64; 529,95; joystick • Macintosh;
S34.95; copy-protected? YES; Gamsstar. Inc..
1302 State St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101;
805/963-348^.
STEVEN LEVY: I always figured that one of
the easier translations of games to computers
would be one of those replay-the-major-
leagues-in-your-own-home systems that I
played as a kid. Sure enough, in COMPUTER
BASEBALL, the dice and stacks of charts are
all on a single floppy disk, a much more
pleasurable way to handle things. The
graphics aren't much, but I'm happier
knowing that the disk space is instead used
for strategy features like hit-and-run,
warming up a relief pitcher, and even the
occasional ejection of a player by the
connputer umpire.
Like its pre-micfochip predecessors,
COMPUTER BASEBALL takes into account
each ballplayer's batting stats, speed, earned
run average, fielding prowess, and other
data, so you can be sure when Mike Schmidt
comes to bat you've got a good chance to go
downtown (unless he's facing Juan
Marichal— one of the infinite possibilities
here). You can "manage" any of 26 World
Series teams, order a disk of last season's
real-life teams, or even construct your own,
using the formula provided inside.
COMPUTER BASEBALL works just as well in
either one- or two-player variations (the
computer is a fairly good manager), and I had
enough strategy decisions (put the infield in?
pitch around that slugger?} to keep me
interested in all but the most absurd
blowouts.
It's a much harder task to replicate the action
of baseball than to merge strategy with actual
game play. The best of the many games
attempting this is STAR LEAGUE BASEBALL.
The first time I booted it, I got the same
delight 1 feel when first peering at the
deliciously green infield of a major league
stadium. The graphic representation is thai
good . as is the music that plays the national
anthem and a catchy original number between
innings. I think STAR LEAGUE is best as a
two-player game — the computer simply
doesn't make many mistakes, and I do,
especially when fielding. The sparse manual
promises that "throwing from base to base
will soon be second nature to you," one of
the biggest lies of the twentieth century.
in this replay of the 1980 World Series, the Phillies
had second and third, one out, in the third inning
of a scoreless battle. The COMPUTER BASEBALL
manager "Casey" decided to walk Bake Mc Bride
and pitch to (gulp) Mike Schmidt (the reai-lite
MVP in ttiat series). Hotice that ttie first and third
basemen are playing "in" to cut off the run at the
plate, while the shortstop and second baseman
are deep enough tor a passible doutjte play. Did
the strategy work? Yep— Schmidt bounced to short
and started a DP.
The STAR LEAGUE BASEBALL stands are
perpetually packed with noisemaking fans as the
pitcher tries to hurl the ball past you. It'll take you
a while to develop your rellsxes to the point where
you can hit it.
Score after my first game: Computer 73, Levy
1 But I stuck with it, and eventually I could
make it competitive, inning by inning if not for
a whole game.
The graphics and frills make this one
worthwhile, but STAR LEAGUE BASEBALLS
right fielder will consistently throw runners
out at first on line drives over the infield— a
faux pas that COMPUTER BASEBALL would
never commit.
40 PLAYING
Down and dirty . . .
RACING DESTRUCTION SET O
Rick Koenig & Connie Goldman. Copy-protected.
$32,95 (street S25). Commodore 64. Joystick
required. Electronic Arts, 2755 Campus Drive,
San Mateo, CA 94403; 415/571-7171.
■
FAYE ZUCKERMAN; About half of this two-
pfayer smash-'em-up racing game centers
on true down-and-dirty car racing. The pace
is blazing and, depending on how you set
things up, you get hair-raising jumps, ice-
slick pavement, narrow racetrack sections,
and the ability to thwart your opponent
(human or computer) with intense
smashing, crashing, taiigating, and even
mine-laying. Fast-paced arcade stuff.
You see a split-screen aerial view of the
playing field and can track each car's
movement along the treacherous racecourse.
The joystick control mimics a slot-racing
controller. But control only begins there: You
can wind down or crank up action by altering
gravity — lowest gravity is the moon, one
sixth of Earth's, and highest is Jupiter, two
and a half times Earth's. You choose any of
fifty racetracks (including Monza, Indy.
Riverside, Supercross, and my favorite,
Variety)— or build your own, Same goes for
cars: choose any of five cars, from Formula
One to funky dirt bike, or build your own.
Consider a destruction car with a 5000-cc
engine, the ability to unload oil slicks, and a
stockpile ot land mines. (Just remember
where you planted the mines on earlier laps)
All of this is nicely explained in a readable
ten-page instructional, I'm certainly no
racing aficionado, but I had no problem with
this game — except stopping.
Adventure
mClNG OeSTRUCWN BETreaWy becomes fun
when you build your own racecourse. That's its
other, creative halt in a method simiiar to that
used in PINBALL CONSTRUCTION SET (p. 36), you
use the joystick to pull sections of traci( to a
makeshift roadway board, insert and adjust jump
height, modify track widths, and add tiazardous
conditions — and make a mega-track with killer
jumps, iced'down curves, and narrow, dirt-
riddled sections.
The first Adventure lives! . . .
ADVENTURE
Don Woods & Will Crowttier: S CP'M • Apple
CP M • DEC Rainbow • Epson QX-10 • Heath
Zenith • IBM PC compatibles • IBM PCjr • Kaypro
2, IV, 10 • MS-DOS compatibles • Osborfie • Xerox
BZO; S19.95; copy-protected? YES; The Software
Toolworks, 15233 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 1118.
Sherman Oaks. CA, 91403: 818 986-4885 • IBM PC
compatibles and PCjr: 64K; color adaptor: copy-
protected? NO; S24.95; Norell Data Systems, P.O.
Box 7Q127, 340Q Wilshire Blvd.. Los Angeles, CA
90010; 81 8. 502 -11 03 • Also available on
SOFTWARE GOLDEN OLDIES, VOL. 1 [including
LIFE. ELIZA, and PONG); IBM PC and compatibles;
PCjr; 64K • Apple II family; 64K • Commodore 64:
529,95; copy-protected? YES: Software Country;
270 N. Canon Dr., #1297, Beverly Hills, CA 90210;
800 245-2057 or, in CA, 800 245-2056 • any
computer with 3001200 baud modem on The
Source at normal rates {see table, p. 140}.
STEVEN LEVY: The first time is always
magical, At least it is for me. It was,
classically, on a mainframe computer, and
when I saw the now just-about-immortal
words, "You are standing at the end of a
road ..." and typed my first command. GO
EAST, I was hooked, At that time, the game
Ihe first microcomputer epic . . .
TIME ZONE
Roberta Williams; Apple II family: 48K: incluffes
six disks; S100; copy-protected? YES; Sierra On-
line, Inc.. PO. Box 485, Coarsegold. CA 93614;
209/683-6858.
KING^S QUEST O
Ken & Roberta Williams. Copy-protected. S49.95
(street S35). Apple He (128K)1lc; IBM PC and
compatibles (12eK}. Sierra On-Line, PO. Box 485,
Coarsegold. CA 93614; IBM PCjr version <S50)
availabie Irom IBM, Entry Systems Division. RD.
Box 1328, Boca Raton, FL 33432; 800 447-4700;
Tandy 1000 version ($49.95} available from your
local Radio Shack dealer.
ROE ADAMS: TIME ZONE is the greatest
adventure game ever written , Its breadth and
scope are unsurpassed. We're talking about
39 interlocking scenarios (each one as
complex as a complete adventure), and 1500
high-resolution "rooms." filling both sides of
six disks. Each scenario takes place in a given
place and time, and thousands of years of
human history — past, present, and future —
are spanned by this labyrinthine quest.
TIME ZONE is for expert-level adventurers
only. Sierra On-Line estimates that a skilled
player will complete it in about a year. The
biggest problem in cracking it is
perspective — since the scenarios interlock,
everything has to be done in the right order,
as with a Chinese ball puzzle, where an
erroneous move means failure is guaranteed
was simply called ADVENTURE, because it
had not yet become a genre. The act of using
a computer was strange to me then, but
ADVENTURE was not strange at a!!. By
encouraging me deeper into the Colossal
Cavern, by requiring me to light lamps, drive
away snakes, avoid murderous dwarves, and
get past the troll . ADVENTURE in essence
invited me into the computer itself. The
further I got, the more I felt I was master of
the keyboard attached to the billions of bits in
that DEC-20, And the frustrating puzzles were
much like some of the dilemmas that awaited
me in the world of computing.
The consumer news is that the ORIGINAL
ADVENTURE has lost none of its charm in
microcomputer translation, even though its
complexity and sophistication have been
surpassed by some of its hundreds of
children (a few of which we talk about on
these pages). Knowing that this is the
granddaddy of them all gives the concise yet
unerringly significant descriptions of its more
than 170 "rooms" almost biblical overtones.
Playing adventure games without tackling this
one is like being an English major who's
never glanced at Shakespeare.
(though you might not notice it for thousands
of moves). In TIME ZONE, for instance,
creating an anachronism — taking an object to
a time period that preceded its actual
invention — means you lose the object
permanently. (You can take a hand mirror
back to Cleopatra's time, but not a rifle.)
I solve adventures for a living, but TIME ZONE
was my greatest challenge. I started on a
Monday and, working for 20 to 22 hours a
day (my wife Nan put food in front of me
every so often), I finished it in a week. My pile
of maps was two Inches high. I was so taken
with the game that I began Vault of Ages," a
PUBLIC conference on The Source (see
PUBLIC review on p. 141) specifically
intended as a hint exchange for people
tackling this epic among adventures. So far
more than 9000 people have accessed the
conference.
STEVEN LEVY: While TIME ZONE is Roberta
Williams' masterpiece, her latest effort,
KING'S QUEST, is not only easier to master
but features a real advance — instead of
typing in directions, you move the character
(a knight named Sir Grahame) by joystick
and watch him respond like an animated
cartoon figure. The animation is especially
effective when you move him into water and
he instantly starts swimming. The "world"
of this game is smaller than most and some
of the puzzles are dippy, but the visual
pyrotechnics make it worthwhile, especially
for younger adventurers. And the PCjr
version is one of the few games maximized
for that machine.
41
Adventuring in tlie public domain . . .
Donald Brown; Apple II family; $10/disk; special
two-sided flippy disk, $12; copy-protected? NO;
Public Domain Software Copying Co., 33 Gold
Street #13, New York, NY 10038; 212/732-2565.
LYNN J. ALFORD: EAMON, a public domain
fantasy, is an excellent role-playing system.
Like many fantasy games, you give your
name (or your favorite alias; mine is Lady
Lynn) and the game will give you values for
your charisma, hardiness, and agility. Then
you're on your own.
There is no winning and losing in EAMON
(except for losing your life). Sometimes you
have to accomplish some specific task to
leave the adventure, but that is rare. EAMON
has lots of treasure, loads of monsters, and
even an occasional damsel in distress. Don't
attack every monster you meet until you've
tried making friends— you might need a
friend to help you survive the adventure.
EAMON itself is more friendly than many
other games of its ilk, because if you give it a
command it doesn't know, it will tell you the
commands it does know— wonderful to
someone who once spent fifteen minutes
trying to tell another game to put a raft in the
river.
The EAMON system has a master disk, a
dungeon-designer disk, and more than forty
adventures, each with its own story, some
quite different from the others. I've
completed some in a few hours; others take
as much as twenty hours. Maybe the
toughness varies according to how mean the
author felt that day. The dungeon-designer
disk contains a complete set of instructions
for the beginning adventurer and a program
that allows you to examine other dungeons
and create new dungeons of your own.
I found EAMON in the library of the Carolina
Apple club, copied it, and now make copies
for friends. By doing this, I am following the
instructions on the opening screen, which
urges users to distribute this public domain
program as freely as they wish.
Roclcin' & rollin' adventure
Pinsky, Hales & Mataga. Not copy-protected.
$40-$45 (street $28-$31). IBM PC (128K); Apple II
family; Macintosh; Commodore 64; Atari;
Synapse and Broderbund, 17 Paul Dr., San
Rafael, CA 94903; 415/479-1170.
STEVEN LEVY: The opening scene of
MINDWHEEL is positively mindblowing.
There you are, thrust into the consciousness
of a dead rock & roil singer, with a frenzied
crowd about to engulf you— and you have to
piece together information to solve the
problem that might lead to world
destruction. Okay, that's standard practice
for adventure games, but this one is written
by a celebrated poet, Robert Pinsky, who
obviously had a great time concocting an
outlandish sci-fi plot which, with the aid of
the long-awaited Synapse parser, really
draws you in. It's especially strong in
encouraging interaction with the characters,
who really are a vivid and varied lot.
Now, as parsers go, there are problems. For
instance, it often tells you to "PRESS ANY
KEY" to get more text, and if you press a
letter key (like an a or an s), it'll mess up
your next input. And since the rules aren't
clear on what the program recognizes and
what it doesn't, you'll forever be coming up
across cleverly worded messages which
translate to "I DON'T UNDERSTAND."
MINDWHEEL has an interesting copy-
protection scheme, too. Before you start,
it'll ask you to type a "password"— a certain
word on a certain line on a certain page of
the hardback-book documentation. So if you
don't have the documentation, don't bother
spinning the MINDWHEEL. If you do, you'll
find there are exhilarating moments to be
had in MINDWHEEL.
mi iiOK OF iDWEMTUi
Kim Schuette; 1984; 350 pp.; $19.95; Arrays, Inc./
The Book Division, 11223 So. Hindry Ave., Los
Angeles, CA 90045; 800/421-3931 or, in CA,
213/410-9466.
STEVEN LEVY: Some people think that '
there's something unsavory about seeking
help in finishing adventure games. I don't.
If you are trapped in a windowless room
on the Planet Asparagus without a hint of
your means to escape, and weeks of
contemplation don't provide any solution,
that $40 adventure game becomes less and
less charming. You begin plotting vile
revenge against its authors. What you need
is a hint.
The Book of Adventure Games gives hints
for over 70 of the most popular programs
and does it cheaper, and generally more
wisely than the other "cheat books" which
have preceded it. Best of all are the maps,
included for each adventure. Saves a lot of
stupid busywork. The maps are kept
separate from the hard stuff— the solutions
to the dilemmas. Only if you are miserably
stuck should you go to the back of this book
to see the hints, which are not as cryptic as
the author implies, but are coldly effective.
"Move Rock. Get Rock (Need Wagon), Lock
Box and Get Key." Best to have someone
read you the hint for your particular
dilemma, so you won't see the solutions to
other puzzles in the game— unfortunately on
the same page.
Not only adventure games here, but maps
and hints for role-playing games, too. The
WIZARDRY (p. 44) and ULTIMA (p. 45) stuff
will be worth the price of the book for
novices of those quests. And there's a
discriminating buyer's guide to help you
choose your next Infocom or Sierra or
Penguin epic. (Besides solving games,
author Kim Schuette rates them.) Schuette
dedicates the book to his "computer
widow," and I believe that appellation, since
only a person chronically addicted to
computer adventures could have written this
valuable tome. Unfortunately for his
"computer widow," a Volume II is
promised.
LEGACY OF LLYLCAMYN
i J. — I — r
L_r T 1 1 T ,|| j^ III'
s
(Level 1)
THK BKASTS:
Ql r I — , — , — r .
I — Ih J £ — ' — I Jh(-
t^ £ ' - "i H 1
r I I I I . I I . 1 . J
Id II 12 i:) 14 15 l(i 17 1« 19
This map of LLYLGmYN would take hours to
compile yourself, but since it's printed in THE
BOOK OF ADVENTURE GAMES, you can save
yourself a lot of stupid busywork and get on with
playing LEGACY OF LLYLGAMYN.
O
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
42
The classiest adventures around .
Marc Blank and Dave Lebling; ZORK I; Atari &
Commodore versions, $34.95; all other versions,
$39.95. ZORK II; Atari & Commodore versions,
$39.95; all other versions, $44.95.
Steven Meretsky; Atari & Commodore versions,
$34.95; all other versions, $39.95.
Marc Blank; Atari & Commodore versions,
$44.95; all other versions, $49.95.
O
Dave Lebling; Atari & Commodore versions,
$39.95; all other versions, $44.95.
THE eiLiXY O
Douglas Adams and Steven Meretsky; Atari &
Commodore versions, $34.95; all other versions,
$39.95.
All copy-protected. Available for the Apple II
family • Macintosh • Apricot • Atari •
Commodore 64 • CP/M (8" disk) • DEC/Rainbow
• Epson QX-10 • IBM PC/PCjr • Kaypro II • MS-
DOS 2.0 machines • Tl 99/4A • Tl Professional •
TRS-80 Model III; all 48K; Infocom, Inc., 125
Cambridge Park Dr., Cambridge, MA 02140;
800/262-6868; Commodore versions ($39.95)
also available for all (with the exception of
PLANETFALL and on the Commodore +4 only for
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE) from Commodore Business
Machines, 1200 Wilson Dr., West Chester, PA
19380; 215/431-9100; ZORK I ($39.95) for the
TRS-80 Models III & 4 available at your local
Radio Shack dealer.
'.'ill raon, Mith exits wst and nopthwst, is filled Mithroliot'liktitwictj
c:' every conceivaile description, all in various states of disisserOdy,
I'l'i one robot, atout four feet Msh, looks even MMtela close to keinj ir.
.irfiins order. ■
/txiMine the robot
■JU ie-aotivated robot is leaniny against the mU, its head lollinj to th*
side. It is short, and seew to be equipfed for seneral-jpuripose wrx. It
hi; apparentl!) been, turned off .
■)tui?n it'On ^'''^ • ■ '.^'■■'\:''' '■'"./■■■■■ ^•^V-^,; ' -^^ '•:-" -
;No thing. happens. ; ^' ::'\-C]\"^ y':
■:)«alt^^■^■■ ^^. /^-^■^^!,/ ,/;.• V -:-.■ ■'■^:::: .^/:^';'^^^-"' -..;■'•- • ^^\:^'<-,^k'.
"line^ passes..; ' :■:■• '^^'. '^'V--^ -■>"■>:-■■,■''■ ;,.,
Suddenly/ the robot cows to lift aaj its teai starts snvfllirv alwt. It
notices sou and bounds owp. 'Hi! I'm l-iW|¥ kt t« e«f isickm I' r ealled
?Jcit SOU a«Minj thtWrlfit's pi»!l ««
k magic moment in PLANETFALL: your nebbisliy
character, after a couple hours of wandering
around a deserted planet, finds a friend: a frisky
robot named Floyd. The warm relationship you
develop with this robotic fellow is indicative olthe
depth of all the Infocom games.
STEVEN LEVY: The Infocom company was
started by people who saw the original
ADVENTURE on an MIT computer and
respectfully tried to top it with ZORK. Now
solely microcomputer-based, Infocom is
known as f/;e text-adventure company, and
deservedly so. All its games accept full-
sentence answers, and the prose is written by
writers, or people who write like writers
(same thing). Infocom seems to be aiming at
a literate interactive fiction. Each of its
products is top quality, with the most colorful
documentation in the business, and each
runs on a wide variety of machines.
ROE ADAMS: ZORK II is my favorite, because
the quality of the puzzles is superior. Anyone
can make a puzzle too contorted to solve —
these are puzzles that seem incredibly
complicated but in retrospect, after you figure
them out, seem ridiculously simple. Once I
got stuck at two different places in the
game— an impassable ice cavern and a
dangerous dragon. Eventually I noticed that
when I hit the dragon one time, he ignored
me. If I hit him three times, he fried me to
death. But if I hit him only twice in a row, he
got mad and followed me into the next room.
Since I know that the Infocom people do
things for a reason, I asked myself, "Where
would I have a dragon follow me?" To the ice
cavern! Sure enough, when we got there, the
dragon saw his reflection in the ice— you
know how territorial dragons are— attacked,
and melted the ice. The resulting flood
drowned him and I'd solved both problems.
RICHARD DALTON: Novice-to-intermediate-
level PLANETFALL stars an inept junior officer
in the Stellar Patrol who later gets an obtuse
robot named Floyd as a sidekick— Floyd
doesn't just show up; you have to find and
activate him. This game is a good deal more
human than the ZORKs, but since you wind
up going through the same areas repetitively,
the gags can get a bit stale. Balancing this,
PLANETFALLs 600-word vocabulary allows
you to give some fairly bizarre instructions
and still escape the dreaded "I don't
understand that word" response. Packaging
coup: you get three postcards from the
planets you visit to send your friends— for
example, the one from Accardi-3 that cites
"the exotic anatomical charms of the Gabrillic
Hyphenated Woman."
STEVEN LEVY: I'm lousy at reading detective
novels; I invariably wind up peeking at the
end to see whodunit. Both DEADLINE and
SUSPECT are fine antidotes to that. Players
have the same limitations and powers as real
crime-solvers: armed with limited
information and hampered by limited time,
they must question suspects, confront them
with evidence, and gradually strip off the
layers of deceit and scandal until the real
culprit is brought to justice. Despite the
posh settings of these scenarios, you'll find
both as steamy as Chinatown. In DEADLINE,
at least, you're only the Detective— in
SUSPECT you have the added incentive of
being the prime candidate for Murder One.
Other programs leave me sighing for powers
the computer doesn't have. These two leave
me dumbstruck at how much power the
programmers have exploited.
JUDITH LUCERO TURCHIN: HITCHHIKER'S
was co-written by real-life author Douglas
Adams and Steven "PLANETFALL"
Meretzky— a partnership that produces a
funny, fascinating game. While the setting is
familiar to fans of Adams' books, the
solutions must be original, and the game is
more challenging than the "Standard Level"
designation might imply. Cause-and-effect is
not as immediately obvious, and the game
even liesXo you at one point. Be assured,
Adams' skewed universe is internally
consistent; it's just, well . . . skewed.
Liji
STEVEN LEVY: No one in the world is better at
solving adventure or role-playing games than
Roe Adams. Companies hire him to play-test
games, and on occasion he's embarrassed
them by finding the solution to their months-
in-creation double-disk monsters in as little
as twenty minutes. Here's how he goes about
starting an adventure.
ROE ADAMS: Start with novice-level games.
After you've solved four or five of those,
you'll be ready for the intermediate and
eventually the expert levels.
You have to learn how to "balloon-map." This
looks something like an organizational chart,
with a circle for each place your character can
go, and a line leading up to each place he
could go from there.
The first time through the game, don't do
anything. Just go from each direction in each
room and mark down what's there. Make sure
you don't miss a direction. While it's
tempting to try things out, hold back until
you've mapped everything out. Then you can
go back and open doors— probably with keys
you know the location of already.
Keep trying options, save the game on disk
often, and exhaust all possibilities. Sooner or
later, the solution will become clear.
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Bright graphics, punchy parser . . .
Snell, Toler & Rea; Apple II family ® Atari
® Commodore 64 ® IBM PC compatibles; $34.95
® Macintosh; $39.95; copy-protected? YES;
Penguin Software, 830 4tii Ave., P.O. Box 311,
Geneva, IL 60134; 312/232-1984.
Antonio Antiochia. Copy-protected. Apple II
family; IBM PC and compatibles/PCjr; Atari;
Commodore 64; $34.95. Macintosh, $39.95.
Penguin Software, 830 4th Ave., P.O. Box 311,
Geneva, IL 60134; 312/232-1984.
SHAY ADDAMS: Lots of adventures
incorporate the word "quest" in their titles,
but none can match the sprawling expanse of
this "days of yore" scenario, which
challenges you to track and slay an elusive
dragon. You'll travel down vividly colored
country lanes, discover ancient civilizations,
combat lizard men, and ogle a scantily clad
redhead while solving some clever puzzles.
The twist in this game is that your character is
accompanied throughout by a tight-lipped
knight-in-arms named Gorn. He has a mind of
his own, and sometimes you have to con-
vince him to do things he's not inclined to do.
ti4;A-^JMmr^!^»'-»i^'f-sfi^^
I usually prefer Infocom's all-text adventures
(p. 42) to the picture variety, but Penguin
Software's atypically intelligent parser (the
part of the program that interprets your
typed-in commands) won me over. It accepts
complete, even multiple, sentences— most
graphic adventures are hampered by two-
word parsers that force you to depend on
actions like LOOK ROCK. The high-res
graphics are equally impressive, some of the
most detailed you'll see in such a game.
(Apple lie owners with an extended 80-
column card will be enthralled by a double
hi-res version offering 560 X 192 resolution
graphics.) Access time is brisk, so the 200
various scenes (twice as many as in most
similar games I've tried) are quickly splashed
across the screen.
Most unusual moment: when you encounter
the aforementioned redhead, she drags Gorn
into a back room. You see the door slam
shut. After a while they reappear. No
explanation offered.
STEVEN LEVY: I agree about Penguin's
excellent parser and graphics. My favorite
Penguin is TRANSYLVANIA, kind of a horror
story in which you're chased by goblins and
werewolves. The Macintosh version is easiest
to play, since it keeps your most recent
commands in view and fills in the screen fast.
fife FIf jjllf
Capitalists from outer space . . .
UlPlJo W*
Bruce Webster and Wayne Holder. Version 2.0.
Copy-protected. $39.95 (street $27). Apple II
family. FTL Games, Inc., 7907 Ostrow St., Suite
F, San Diego, CA 92111; 619/279-5711.
STEVEN LEVY: Theme: an interplanetary
adventure which requires the player to reach
his or her quest by going into business.
Fortunately, the game is not in the least
oppressive about the process, and is utterly
fascinating in creating a little world in and of
itself.
SUNDOG is a role-playing game— one in
which you create your own character—with
a twist. It's totally controlled by joystick. For
each choice you make, you open little
windows— a la the Macintosh computer—
which give you options for, for example,
defining your character's attributes. And
you'd better choose wisely, because as the
inheritor of your uncle's aging trader
spaceship you will be going from planet to
planet in order to buy goods at auctions and
sell them in some other galaxy at a profit.
Winning the game requires paying off the
debts you're saddled with in the beginning
and vindicating the family name. It not only
sounds like a movie, it plays like one. At all
times, you actually see your character (or a
dot that represents him) moving through the
spaceship, or the towns he visits on various
planets, or through space itself (navigated
through cleverly conceived star-map
windows). In one case, you leave the
spaceship, guide your character through a
town, enter a bar, and ask the bartender
where someone can buy a gun. The barkeep
directs you to a booth and while you're
waiting, you see one of the customers drift
over to the booth. Then the customer asks
you what you might want to pay for this gun.
Fascinating.
SUNDOG is one of those hours-and-hours
games that can make your nights late ones
for weeks.
While setting out on THE QUEST, you visit tlie
King, who's enjoying comfort you won't
experience for quite a while. Meanwhile, your
companion, Gorn, hooks up with a hot redhead.
I piloted my SUNDOG spaceship to the planet
Glory I and wandered through its spaceport.
Eventually I came to a bar that sold "food, drink,
or information. " SUN DOG'S universe contains
dozens of other planets; you'll need to visit many
of them to fullill your quest and vindicate the
family name.
There is nothing mindless about mastering a
video game. The games demand skills that
are complex and differentiated. Some of
them begin to constitute a socialization into
the computer culture: you interact with a
program, you learn how to learn what it can
do, you get used to assimilating large
amounts of information about structure and
strategy by interacting with a dynamic screen
display. And when one game is mastered,
there is thinking about how to generalize
strategies to other games. There is learning
how to learn.
— Sherry Turkic, The Secend
Self, Computers and the Human Spirit
44 PLAYING
&K8a..37asgjsa'--.g-
«?fcH^iftefER^;WAN|j::'llS^3'iillli2
mmmmsim
Dungeons and Dragons
brillianily realized . .
The third and most advanced WIZARDRY scenario,
the LEGACY OF LLYLGAMYN, featuring a window-
ing, Lisa-like display. Here you see the options
available to your party before encountering
that fierce looking fellow with the sabre.
What Do You Do When You're at Witt's End?
Mike Nichols; 1984; 100 pp.; Apple version, $15;
IBM or Macintosh version, $10; also maps, $5/
scenario; Nichols Services, 6901 Buckeye Way,
Columbus, GA 31904; 404/323-9227; or
COMPUTER LITERACY.
STEVEN LEVY: Role-playing programs like
WIZARDRY or ULTIMA are frlghtenlngly
complicated, forcing hours of play before you
develop a character strong or smart enough
to advance to higher levels. The challenge is
so tough that a cottage industry has
developed to lend support. Most commonly
the vendors in this "cheat" industry work out
of their homes, selling maps, hint sheets, or
floppy disks with programs to "resurrect"
slain characters (or, much to the dismay of
purists, creating new supercharacters without
"earning" the powerful characteristics). I've
used some of the programs to create
characters, and though they work well I can't
recommend them, because the power
corrupts— it's not as much fun to build your
character when you know you can create a
more devastating one in five minutes.
On the other hand, I found one service
helpful and fascinating in its own right:
Nichols' Services, which publishes aids for
those lost in the worlds of WIZARDRY and
ULTIMA. Mike Nichols' Wizisystem is a
passionate rebuttal to the part of the
WIZARDRY manual that states the less said
about rules and parameters the better.
Wizisystem says plenty: Nichols has
pondered the lessons of his hundreds of
hours within the dungeons of the Mad
Overlord, and he offers himself as your
Andrew Greenberg & Robert Woodhead; Apple II
family ® Apple III; $50 ® IBM PC compatibles
® IBM PCjr; 64K; $60; copy-protected? YES; Sir-
Tech Software, Inc., 6 Main St., Ogdensburg, NY
13669; 315/393-6633.
Andrew Greenberg & Robert Woodhead; Apple II
family ® Apple III; $34.95; copy-protected? YES;
Sir-Tech Software, Inc., 6 Main St., Ogdensburg,
NY 13669; 315/393-6633.
Andrew Greenberg & Robert Woodhead; Apple II
family ® Apple III; $39.95 copy-protected? YES;
Sir-Tech Software, Inc., 6 Main St., Ogdensburg,
NY 13669; 315/393-6633.
guide in this opinionated, chatty, 100-plus
page opus devoted to the three WIZARDRY
scenarios. (For MS-DOS and Macintosh
users, who so far are limited to the first
scenario, Nichols publishes an abbreviated,
slightly cheaper version.) It illuminates
WIZARDRY without taking any of the fun
away.
The same can be said about his more
recent ULTISYSTEM ($15; 83 pages), a
compendium of strategy hints and maps for
ULTIMA II and III. The most fanatic buffs will
want to look at the occasionally published
Wizinews newsletter ($10/yr; 4 issues)
covering ULTIMA, WIZARDRY, and other
fantasy thrillers as well.
From Nichols's Wizisystem:
Notes on Character Classes
MAGE (minimum IQ 11, available to new
characters). Mages are poor fighters but leam
the spells that are most effective in combat.
They are very limited as to equipment and can
use only those magical items suited to their
class and alignment.
From Ultisystem:
"Good planning is essential to a successful
heist. The following deals specifically with
the food caper, but it can be applied to other
fiendish plots as well ... (1) the Guards are
ever watchful and come running at the first
hint of something fishy; (2) they can run
almost twice as fast as you can unless you
have a horse; (3) you have to be pretty
strong to defeat them; and (4) they are
stupid and won't remember you when you
next enter their precinct."
WILLIAM MICHAEL BROWN: 7/76 classic.
Sure, this trilogy is adolescent and gory and
violent and weird. Just like the Iliad. It's also
the most enduringly intelligent, even wry.
Dungeons and Dragons-style role-playing
game around, informed by a deep and sincere
love of the fantastic. Like classic literature,
the game has something to say about Good
and Evil and the Meaning of Life— and since
when have you booted a disk that addressed
those human topics?
The three distinct games of the trilogy share
basic D&D play mechanics: Create a few
characters, equip them, and then send them
into a multilevel dungeon— there to find
better weapons and armor, gold, and other
treasures; do battle with monsters; and
discover a magic solution to various dangers
threatening the kingdom of Uylgamyn.
All three games are linked: you create brand-
new characters in PROVING GROUNDS; only
survivors can go on to the quests in KNIGHT
and LLYLGAMYN. The mechanics of creating
and equipping characters are very simple,
handled by clear menus. The core of the
game is dungeon exploration: As your party
moves around the maze, you see it as though
you were inside it. Since you can rarely see
more than a few steps ahead of the party,
making maps is imperative (I usually do this
on quadrille paper). Without a map you can
get lost in only a few steps and are easy prey
to monsters. While you're exploring,
subsidiary menus at the side of the 3-D
screen keep you posted on your progress.
LLYLGAMYN, the most advanced of the
trilogy, has a dazzling LISA-like windowing
text-and-graphics display.
The dungeons are //eno'/sWy designed: pits,
traps, teleporting doors, and dark areas that
make mapping incredibly hard; witty riddles
and puzzles that appear as inscriptions on
random walls or glowing in the air; odd
statuary and furniture; enchanted swords and
cursed rings; even entire individual
structures, such as demon barracks and
castles, tucked away in various corners.
You're totally on your own in figuring out
what any of it is for. Meanwhile, you've got to
cope with more or less constant attacks from
hundreds of varieties of marauding monsters.
It's best to dip in a little way at first, try to
grab some gold and not meet too many
monsters; then dash up and rest before
beginning again.
Like Dune or Lord of the Rings, WIZARDRY
is a completely imagined, self-contained
world. Anybody who buys PROVING
GROUNDS may be on the way to a lifelong
addiction.
PlAYmC 45
Role-playing quest marked by
challenge and whimsy . . .
The dungeons of ULTIMA III are much more
interesting than those of the ULTIMAs that
preceded it, and III has better graphics too,
but its main strength is that it is even tougher
to crack. (That's saying a lot— I know an
accountant who's been trying to solve
ULTIMA II for two years.) Penetrate Ill's inner
sanctum without the proper exotic weapons,
and you are but smoldering ash before the
great dragons. Pay too little attention to tidal
forces, and you'll never find the disappearing
city of Dawn. There are many ways to fail, and
only one way to win and discover the awfu"
secret of EXODUS. That's why ULTIMA
players are so fanatic— they have to be in
order to finish the damn games. But even
those who never finish seem to come back for
more when the next ULTIMA hits the streets.
Richard "Lord British" Gariott; Apple II family; 48K
® Atari (disk); 48K ® Commodore 64 (disk) ® IBM
PC compatibles; 64K; \\m PCjr ® Macintosh; $60;
color recommended; copy-protected? YES; Sierra
On-line, Inc., RO. Box 485, Coarsegold, CA
93614; 209/683-6858.
STEVEN LEVY: I admit to long sessions with
ULTIMA II. In contrast to WIZARDRY'S first-
person perspective, here you get a bird's-eye
view of the single character you create to do
battle with evil Wizard Minax. But since
dungeons are only a small part of your
travels— you pass through towns, castles,
seas, and outer space— the maplike graphics
are just fine (though I would like to be able to
turn off the shrill sounds, especially when
monsters attack). Don't plan on finishing
quickly, and count on lots of surprises and
some tough challenges. This is second in a
trilogy (ULTIMA I, the sluggish opener, is best
left on the shelf) and as the following review
implies, author Richard "Lord British"
Garriott just gets better.
Richard "Lord British" Garriott; Apple II family;
48K; Mockingboard optional a Atari; 48K ®
Commodore 64 » IBM PC compatibles; PCjr; 64K;
color graphics card; $60; copy-protected? YES;
Origin Systems, Inc., 340 Harvey Rd.,
Manchester, NH 03103; 603/644-3360.
KEVIN STREHLO: EXODUS: ULTIMA III, the
latest in Lord British's dense, almost rococo
graphic fantasy adventures, expands on the
considerable ULTIMA mythology While your
opponents in the first two ULTIMAs were
clearly defined, EXODUS remains a mystery
until the very end. So much the better. As you
begin forming your characters (a party of
characters, a la WIZARDRY whereas previous
ULTIMAs allowed you but a solitary gladiator),
only one thing is certain: You're in for a long
adventure.
EXODUS: ULTIMA III is quite a challenge:
Lord British can put you through hell for a
single lousy clue. But don't worry: it will
begin to make sense eventually— if your
characters survive. The game comes with
three separate manuals and an unfinished
map of Sosario, the fantasy world. The sheer
bulk of the information makes it difficult to
remember, as the clock of battle ticks away,
exactly which command sends, say, a potent
ball of lightning down the throats of your
enemy. Was it the incantation of Mittar, or one
of the supplications from the Liturgy of Truth?
Make notes in the player-reference card, so
you don't have to thumb through the
documentation's medieval-flavored prose
while your intrepid band gets pounded by a
gaggle of giants.
ULTIMA III gives a colorful graphic display of
your party, the surrounding geography, and the
assortment of creatures that threaten your
continued existence. Here you face off, a la the
rumble scene in West Side Story, against a band of
murderous Ores.
A CP/M gem captured by modem
IBM PC compatibles; $6/disk plus $4/orderfor
shipping; copy-protected? NO; PC Software
Interest Group, 1030 East Duane, Suite J,
Sunnyvale, CA 94086; 408/730-9291 ® CP/M,
MS-DOS versions; $10 per disk; Public Domain
Software Copying Company, 33 Gold St., New
York, NY 10038; 212/732-2565 ® Public domain:
available on various CP/M BBS by telecomputing;
runs on CP/M, requires no extra graphics.
RANDALL ROTHENBERG: When I purchased
my Osborne I told friends and family I had but
one purpose: mulching words. But in truth, I
wanted to play games. Little did I know that
CP/M would stand in the way of me and my
secret desire. So few games! Nothing much
stood between me and my wordsrnithing.
Until I discovered telecomputing. Bulletin
board systems (see Telecommunicating, pp.
148-149) opened up the game-playing world
I'd missed. They also introduced me to a
whole new set of frustrations. I'd spend 45
minutes downloading a massive game file,
unsqueeze the damn thing, and load it, only
to find that the version of BASIC in which it
was written was incompatible with Ozzie's
MBASIC.
Hence my joy over WIZARD'S CASTLE. I
located it on the Technical BBS in Dearborn,
Michigan. Although my version was written
for the Heath, it runs flawlessly on the
Osborne I. In the months I've owned
CASTLE, it has provided so many hours of
intrigue that I'm embarrassed to give an exact
number.
In contrast with those in adventure games,
CASTLE'S maze is coherent, a cube-shaped
three-dimensional fortress. Each time you
play, the castle is randomly stocked with
several hundred monsters (twelve kinds,
from kobold to ore to gargoyle), treasures
(eight varieties, each with the power to ward
off a different spell), vendors, warps,
sinkholes, books, and chests (the latter two
items to be opened at the player's peril).
The goal of the game is, first, to locate the
Runestaff— in the possession of an unknown
beast, which unfortunately must be
slaughtered before it will relinquish it— and
then to use the Runestaff's power to teleport
into the (also unknown) room that hides the
mysterious Orb of Zot. Oh, yeah: You've also
got to get out of the castle alive.
Easier said than done. I won my first game
after God knows how many attempts. It took
me 1000 moves over three hours of playing
time. The chief problem is the constantly
shifting attributes of the player's character,
which determine whether a player can attack a
monster, cast a spell . . . indeed, stay alive.
Slip below one point in any of the attributes,
and be prepared to cross the Stygian gulf, my
friends. In order to increase attribute points,
gold must be found, treasures sold, and
monsters— each of which guards a cache of
some sort— slain. Additional points can be
purchased from the sleazy vendors who infest
the castle.
CASTLE has one additional attraction: On
Technical BBS, it was accompanied by a
separate superb documentation file, a rarity
for CP/M public domain games. CASTLE's
rules explain everything without spoiling the
excitement of the unknown. I keep coming
back for more. And now I love my Osborne.
46
in/ifo)
Stewart Brand, Domain Editor
STEWART BRAND: Said to account for more than 60% of
personal computer use, word processing programs are doing to
writing what pocket calculators did to figuring. Cue the
testimonials:
JUSTIN KAPLAN (biographer): It's sexy, exhilarating, and
addictive, as different from a typewriter as flying is from dog
paddling. (From Boston Review)
CHARLES SPEZZANO: A good word processing program can
change your whole attitude toward writing, while pens and paper
keep you stuck in your old compulsive habits.
ANONYMOUS: Though not the first priority when businesses buy
a computer, word processing becomes the justification for the
whole system. (From Boardroom Reports and Hillei Segal's
MARGE PIERCY (novelist and poet): If I had to give up writing on
my computer, I would feel I had returned to scraping letters in
cuneiform on clay tablets .... The writing itself is far more
serious than on the typewriter. There is no punishment for
revising and revising again .... Writing on the screen has a
fluidity that makes compromise with what you envision silly.
(From ioston Rewlew)
RICHARD WANDERMAN: Word processing is wonderful, period.
It's hard to separate out the wonders of word processing in
general from the wonders of a good program.
STEWART BRAND: That last one is our function here. General
wonders first, specifics in a minute. There's a hidden greater
advantage with writing on computers: you don't just write more
fluidly, you connect more fluidly. With telecommunications
(p. 138), text can flow into and out of your computer in torrents
if you let it. The fact that you always have a copy of what you've
written lurking on disk leads to all sorts of broadcast behavior,
like sending mildly adapted copies of the same letter or article to
many audiences instead of just one— either "personalized"
informally by hand or in automated profusion with one of the
"Merge" features.
Spellers are a blessing. The typos you can't see because you
made them and the misspellings you can't see because you think
they're right are fish in a barrel for the implacable software
dictionaries. One of my favorites, WORD PROOF (p. 62), will
offer synonyms when you're stuck for a better word— and even
insert it for you. More subtle are the style checkers like
PUNCTUATION + STYLE (p. 62) that will flag your
awkwardnesses and cliches and suggest an improved usage.
Outline programs, like THINKTANK (p. 92) and FRAMEWORK
(p. 110), can accelerate the organization of your thoughts.
If there is a problem with writing programs, it is that we become
too absorbed . . .
ALFRED LEE: I really do believe I go into something like a trance.
When my wife intrudes to ask my opinion about buying a lamp, I
just can't handle the weight of her other world unless I get up
and turn my back on the screen.
ROBERT COWAN: I would not have been able to finish my
750-page book in 5.5 months without my word processing
hardware, but the quality "seems" lower I just can't put my
finger on it. I know with my word processing I'm working
"smarter, not harder" But what is it I have lost? What is it I have
gained? The answer is right at the tip of my fingers ... Did I
almost state it earlier? I can't remember ... The words have
scrolled off the top of the screen and are being held deep within
the crystal memory of a device I cannot understand.
STEWART BRAND: Writing is so extremely personal that people
become identified with their word processing program and will
brook no objectivity about it. Most people are still using the first
writing program they learned. It's the native language of their
fingers and all their files have sworn allegiance to its format.
STEVEN LEVY: I compare using a word processor to living with
somebody. You go into it with all kinds of enthusiasms, and
things are wonderful. Then, you see other word processors
promising more. More features, friendlier style. The question is,
is it worth tossing over a relationship in which you've invested
months for a word-transpose toggle, an indexing function you'll
use maybe twice, and a split-screen capability? A choice of a
word processor is a major life-decision, and no one can afford
(in terms of time, money, or emotional capital) to play the field.
STEWART BRAND: The bad news is, there's some 300 word
processing programs out there; the good news is, with that
many competing ferociously, the best are pretty good. We've
been winnowing for a year. As usual, winnowing is done in
part with biases. We're biased against programs that make
writing and editing take place in different "modes," because
it's too easy to lose track of what mode you're in, do the
wrong thing, and then have to backtrack— that eliminated
SELECT and moved BANK STREET WRITER (p. 184) to
Learning. We're biased against programs that make formatting
(preparing for printing) be a big, separate deal— that eliminated
EDIX/WORDIX and PERFECT WRITER and hurt PC-WRITE
(p. 59). We're biased toward "what-you-see-is-what-you-get"
programs, where bold is bold on the screen, justified is
justified, there's not a lot of command or format clutter, and
page breaks are shown dramatically.
We're biased against slowness in all its forms— that eliminated
VALDOCS and THE LEADING EDGE (if you can destructively
backspace or overtype faster than the machine, you're bound to
lose stuff and have to replace it) as well as SAMNA III (stops and
goes to disk for even petty errands) and IBM's PC WRITER and
DISPLAYWRITE2 (laborious menu sequences for everything). All
of the programs recommended here are fast.
^7
Our major criterion is that a program n/earwell. Tliat the
constant stuff goes easy— starting up, going in and out of files,
printing, moving blocks of text, deleting words and sentences,
knowing where you are in the document, being reminded of a
rarely used command. Popular programs like MULTIMATE and
EASYWRITER II lost out by being just a bit less smooth or
reliable or potent than the competition we're recommending.
In a few cases now, good word processing capabilities are
fuming up inside other programs. The most exemplary is the
integrated program ENABLE (pp. 50 and 109).
Though this section, like the others, has been updated with a
fine-gauge sieve, there's few major changes from last year. I'd
love to think that's just because our judgment held up so well.
It did, but the stronger reason has to do with the market.
Popular writing programs each become a virtual dialect of
English; they hang on and on, adapting quickly or slowly to
new machine capabilities, new popular features, new fads. We
favor the ones that do that. A new version number every few
months is a sign the makers are serious, and it means your
writing program will continue to improve for years. (However,
lots of version numbers at the beginning means the original
release was infested with bugs, a sign the maker was careless
or greedy.)
Machines come and go. Good software lingers. The word
processor market has settled down. You can shop with
confidence.
Hardware. So what do you look for in hardware for writing?
Three things: longevity, feel, and power. Is the manufacturer
going to be around next year? How does the keyboard feel to
your typing fingers, how does the screen feel to your midnight
eyes? Does your machine have plenty of memory and storage
and machine speed, or can they be improved later?
All the best word processors are in the IBM family. Macintosh
after two years still hasn't challenged that (for good reason: it's
a picture processor, words treated as pictures gain glamor but
lose efficiency). But if feel outweighs power for you, and the
Mac's high-resolution black-on-white screen and severely
simple keyboard appeal to your bod, or you have use for
wonderfully decorative writing, then get it. But get all the
extras— 51 2K memory, second disk drive or hard disk,
SWITCHER (p. 115), and anything else that adds oomph.
The Kaypro and Morrow are great bargains, but the top
CP/M-80 writing program, WORDSTAR, is pretty clumsy,
though powerful. Word processors on the Apple He and lie like
WORD JUGGLER and APPLEWORKS are newer and more
adroit than anything on CP/M. On the Commodore 64 you get
speed (SKIWRITER II) or power (OMNIWRITER), not both.
That's why it's cheap.
Suit your software to your hardware. HOMEWORD, a good
program for the occasional writer, is wasted on an MS-DOS
machine; you're better off with VOLKSWRITER DELUXE.
Behemoth writing programs like WORDSTAR 2000 and
MICROSOF WORD flourish better with hard disks and better
still with the greater machine velocity of an IBM AT or clone, or
add-on boards that supercharge the PC-equivalent machine.
Telecommunicating. The use of word processing programs in
conjunction with telecommunicating is bound to increase for
the next few years, which will make the present situation worse
(then hopefully better): most writing programs don't
telecommunicate very well. It's awkward to "upload" files to
the network, awkward to "download" to your word processor.
Of the programs we recommend, only PC-WRITE and
VOLKSWRITER DELUXE are gifted telecommunicators. The
rest need fiddling. Charlie Spezzano did the research on this
one. Here's what he found . . .
On most programs the way to prepare a document for
telecommunicating is "print to file"— the document is sent to
disk as if it were being sent to the printer. This cleans it of
formatting peculiarities but retains the line length you want.
Then with your terminal program (CROSSTALK, MITE,
SMARTCOM II, etc.) you upload that file to the network.
Downloading a file is a different nuisance. Here you must strip
the line ends of the carriage-return-and-line-feeds that come
with the file, but without collapsing all the paragraph breaks. A
way to do that is with the search-and-replace function. Have
the program replace all the double-carriage-returns (the
paragraph breaks) with *. Then replace all the single carriage
retums with nothing. Then replace all those *s with double-
carriage returns. Now your writing program has taken control
of line length.
uirdyyyij yiryi
"M
STEWART BRAND: Forgive the self-introduction. My perspective on the tools
reviewed here is primarily that of an editor (16 years), secondarily a hack writer,
thirdly an office- sharer. I don't have secretarial experience at all— the day-long
dealing with other people's words in rigorously standard formats— and the
section needs it. What is well represented is the experience of running small
professional offices, thanks to psychiatrist Charles Spezzano who has spent
more time than I, weeks to months often, immersed in each of the leading word
processors, sifting and sifting toward this section. On an EIES teleconference
(p. 147) a good forty voices have been debating fiercely about these programs
for over two years, 1200 comments last I noticed, some of them reproduced
here. The evaluating of word processors is an eternal debate; please join it.
Sfewarf Brand
"TO
So to telecommunicate files to and from your word processor
you need either PC-WRITE or VOLKSWRITER DELUXE, or a
program that can search-and-replace carriage-retums and can
print to file, or a program that has its own telecommunicating
sibling (PFS:WRITE has PFS:ACCESS, WORD JUGGLER has
TERMINUS), such as they are. They are so-so.
Apparently automatic reformatting and easy telecommunicating
don't mix. (PC-WRITE and VOLKSWRITER DELUXE don't auto-
reformat, don't reshape their paragraphs around changes you
make until you ask them to; all the others we recommend do
Except WORDSTAR 3.3, which uploads handily, downloads
messily. Now you know why we call this whole subject "The
Shame of Word Processing".)
•■«1I!T;:\
SPED IN m
851
Fixing tlie major source of word
processing errors and slowness . . .
Kriya Systems, Inc.; Apple II family « IBM PC and
compatibles; 128K; $49.95 « Macintosh; $59.95 e
Commodore 64; $39.95; copyprotected? NO;
Simon & Schuster, Electronic Publishing Group,
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY
10020; 212/245-6400.
STEWART BRAND: This most miraculous of
programs enables the machine to train you to
use the machine at your optimum capability.
There's no more fundamental computer skill
than keyboard dexterity With it, you can
operate at program speed; without it, you're
always fighting your way through your fingers
to the work.
TYPING TUTOR III does fortypers what the
aerobics books did for runners — quantify the
process, take it one part at a time, and
constantly reward the budding athlete with
distinct progress. Better still, this program
Esc -> m\ RESULTS
NILLIAII SHUKESFEAKE
WS:ss^s^^m:m:w¥m'^mmv&^mmw^m
t FSCOpd FHJJRSS Bid projTM
Record progress and add this lesson to pur Ms tow file.
The graph in TYPING TUTOR III shows every detail
of how you're doing on the various characters
(bottom row) in Words Per Minute, including
improvement in performance since the last
chart— it's usually dramatic.
analyzes your performance in microscopic
detail (thousandths of a second) and lets you
know instantly how you're doing, so you
adjust and improve without even thinking
about it— Skinnerian reinforcement at its
best.
Starting with the "home row" keys the
program gives you a quick drill, reports your
speed in words-per-minute (WPM) and
number of errors, and on to the next lesson.
It begins with a 20 WPM threshold; as soon
as you master a letter at that speed, it gives
you different letters; letters you're not fast
with are repeated until you master them. You
can stop any time, and the program will
remember where you left off and what your
skills are till next time (it will do that for a
number of students simultaneously). You can
get a graph any time that shows your
proficiency with the various characters and
also your detailed improvement (or decay)
since last time you checked the chart.
Whenever drill gets old you can go play Letter
Invaders and zap incoming letters and letter
combinations— the game picks up on your
skill level and constantly challenges it. That's
amazing. Why don't more games do that?
Training choices within TYPING TUTOR III
include Alphabet Keys, Number Keys, Words
Test, Numbers Test, Full Keyboard Test,
Standard Speed Test (handy for employers),
and a customization utility The manual is
simple and inviting. Since the program runs
on nearly everything, it could be used in a
computer store to help decide which machine
and keyboard best suit you.
Of the dozens of typing programs available,
this is still the top. The closest market
competitor is MASTERTYPE , which is
more gaudy more fun, less instructive, and
copy protected (TYPING TUTOR III isn't). On
the TRS-80 Model 100 there's a neat typing
program, with game, called TUTOR + (copy-
protected? NO; cassette; $50; Portable
Computer Support Group, 11035 Harry Mines
Blvd., Suite 207, Dallas TX 75229, 214/351-
0564).
Cheery, solid .
\M>«'"^'"'\_j
The Word Processing Book (A Short Course in
Computer Literacy)-, Peter McWilliams; revised
edition, 1984; 299 pp.; $12.95; Quantum Press,
Doubleday & Co., Inc., 501 Franklin Avenue,
Garden City, NY 11530; 516/294-4400; or
COMPUTER LITERACY
STEWART BRAND: The most congenial of
introductions to the wonders as well as
intricacies of word processing is Peter
McWilliams' classic, updated and expanded
in Fall '84. He's entertaining, instructive, and
quite usefully judgmental about products.
Though we're collaborators and friends with
Peter, his shopping perspective is enough
different from ours to be worth checking. If
someone you know is considering word
processing, this book can be an invaluable
guide and encouragement.
49
f^:»s-a'ammKXfMm^^m^^mmmA'Mi'm^^^&^^Ml.
m
STEWART BRAND: Matrix diagrams like on the next two pages
are common in computer magazines— it's one of the few ways
they can compare software products without offending
advertisers. This one aims to be more useful. It leaves out the
common stuff that all our recommended programs do-
wordwrap, justification, search & replace, hard disk compatible,
etc.— and concentrates on their differences. The differences are
selected to be the most important ones— "important" meaning
that the absence of a certain feature may make the program
useless to certain users (footnotes, decimal aligning) or may
greatly reduce the ease-of-use for certain intensities of word
processing (split screen, "undo" command, macros). Beware of
buying a program with more features than you need; they'll only
hinder and distract you. On the other hand, it's interesting to
have a program that still invites exploration months after you've
begun using it.
I threw in three all-in-ones— APPLEWORKS (p. 108), ENABLE
(p. 109), FRAMEWORK (p. 110)— to compare their integrated
word processors to the specialized ones in this section.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: I divide the field of word processors into:
• Lightweight—stmWy correspondence and memos;
• Middleweight— irequenX writing of letters and reports or
articles, but no need for advanced features like automatic
footnotes or split-screens, no very long documents (over
twenty-five pages);
• Heavyweiglit—a full complement of advanced features that
will take you through articles and complex (varying formats)
reports all the way up to books.
STEWART BRAND: Roughly from light to heavyweight,
certainly from left to right . . . Recommended to run on . . .
The machines that make the program worthy. Not copy
protected For the user, copy protection is a nuisance, reducing
adaptability of the program in your working situation.
Minimum memory required/maximum memory useable The
minimum tells if it'll run on your machine; the maximum tells if
it'll take full advantage of your expensive acres of RAM.
Useable lines on screen A critical matter for many; tunnel
vision is the major restriction of computer writing; few
available lines for writing makes it worse. Maximum file size
(double-spaced pages) Estimated at 250 words per page
(about 1 .6K); if you do long documents and the program has
short files, it better link files for printing. Spellchecks easily
with . . . Some have their own proprietary spellers; some are
comfortable with good generic ones (see p. 62).
Telecommunicates easily with . . . Same deal; if you
telecommunicate much it is a major consideration, making PC-
WRITE and VOLKSWRITER DELUXE and XYWRITE II + stand
out (see pp. 138-157). Useable for programming A surprising
number of people use their word processor for writing code as
well as text. Supports hard disk directories ... A word
processor without this sub-filing capability is wasted on a hard
disk.
"Undo" command available It means you can replace text
you've deleted either inadvertently or because you wanted to see
what the copy looked like without it; a boon. Automatic
reformatting The text adjusts immediately around any changes
you make instead of requiring you to request the adjustment;
another boon. On-screen page breaks/page numbers If you're
at all oriented to the printed document this becomes quite
important; also an easy way to find your place in the text. Split
screen Permits simultaneous viewing and editing of two or
more documents or parts of documents; critical if you're
blending texts; irrelevant otherwise. Can print direct from
memory Handy for short-document people like me who don't
want to have to save to disk (there goes speed and disk space)
just to print out something ephemeral. Continuously saves
text/automatically backs up files Disaster insurance; I thought
both were a mild nuisance until both saved hours of otherwise
lost work; "continuously saves" periodically sips your text
onto disk (with a tiny work pause, on some you can set the
periodicity); "automatically backs up" keeps the previous draft
on disk just in case— halves the available disk storage. Macros
available Keyboard enhancers like PROKEY and SMARTKEY
(p. 174) within the program that enable you to take shortcuts
by putting routine text or routine command sequences under
keys that you assign. Mouse compatible If you drive your
cursor around the screen a lot, especially for editing, a mouse
is fast, but it takes half your fingers off the keyboard.
Links files for printing Long files can get unwieldy, so it's better
(and safer) to break them up; linking means a sequence of files
can be printed out as one long document, with page numbers
printed appropriately. Merge capability Personalized form
letters usually; a monumental convenience; "conditional merge"
permits automatic selectivity like "send to everybody in this list
except the Californians"; at some point of volume you're better
off with a full-scale file manager program like PFS:FILE (p. 80).
Page width possible Especially if you're working with
spreadsheets this can be crucial; otherwise irrelevant. Decimal
alignment/math capability If you're doing columns of dollar
figures, this'll make them line up; math is pocket-calculator
level, usually less convenient than one. Footnote capability
A major chore made easier; some offer the choice of end-of-text
or same-page for placement. Multicolumn formatting/whole
columns may be moved Handy for newsletters, reports and
such; moving a column can be like Rubik's cube if the program
doesn't help. Can edit while printing/proportional printing
Lets you forge ahead writing while you're printing; proportional
printing spaces /'s more narrowly than m's, so the result looks
typeset; pretty.
Bolding, t
to use: j
key, type
iS the bold,
ill be bolded.
ight, and centering
underlined ,
are all simple
right or center
flush right
This is an example of true proportional spacing. In proportional spacing the capital
W is wider than the small i. Each print thimble or wheel has a slightly different
character width and placement (a character might be a bit to the left or right when
compared with other characters).
Ordinary versus proportional printing.
50
m
Product
Recommended
On
NOT
Copy-
Protected
Minimum
Memory
Required
Maximum
Memory
Useable
Useable
Lines On
Screen
Max. File
Size
(Double
Spaced
Pages)
Spellchecks
Easily With...
Telecom-
municates
Easily
With . . .
Useable
for Pro-
gram-
ming
Supports
Hard Disk
Subdirec-
tories
j^ (Apple
& IBM)
Auto-
"Undo" matic
Command Refor-
Available matting
HOMEWORD
2.4: Apple,
Commodore
1.0: Atari
2.0: IBM
$50-$70, p. 52
1—
X
o
Commodore 64,
Atari 800, Apple II
family. IBM PC,
PC]r ■
ConKTiodore 64
Macintosh
\^
48K
Apple,
Atari;
128K IBM
64K
128K
48K Atari,
128K
Apple
(w/ex-
tended
memory),
virtual
memory
IBM
15; can be
24 on IBM
12-35
Apple,
3 Atari, 5
Commo-
dore,
IBM-disk
is limit
HOMEWORD
SPELLER. 28.000
to 45.000
words-S35-S50:
SENSIBLE
SPELLER, 80,000
words-Si 25
requires
adding
carriage
returns
)^-"Undo"
buffer, 2K
maximum 3K
on lie
j^'
uf SKIWRITERII
^ $50
^ p. 52
64K
24
Any Commodore
spellchecker
;^-Built-in
V
«^
O MACWRITE
-3 4.5, $195
p. 54
51 2K
22 maxi-
mum
(depend-
ent on font
size)
240
HAYDEN SPELLER,
20,000 words-S80;
MAC-SPELL-
RIGHT, 40.000
words-S89*
MAC-
TERMINAL
$100 MAC-
TEP (Public
Domain)
»^-can
flick back
and forth
%/>
PFS:WRITE
A: Apple; B: IBM
p. 54
Apple lie, IIC-S125
IBM PC.Pqr-SI'lO
eiK Apple
128K IBM
64K Apple
128KIBM
22
32 Apple
60 IBM
PFS:PROOF,
100,000 words-S95
With "Print
to Disk"
Function
i^
!>'
ATARIWRITER
$40
p. 53
Atari 800XL, 1200
16-64K
64K
24
20
ATARI
PROOFREADER,
36.000 words-S50
]/*
W
OMNIWRITER
$35. p. 52
Commodore 64
Apple II, He
IBM PC, PCjr
i^
64K
64K lie
128K lie
128K
64K
23
23
1^-30,000 words
1^
WORD JUGGLER
2.8, $189
p. 55
128K
192K
23
disk is
limit
j^-LEXICHECK.
50,000 words
j^-Terminus
M*
j^
I/'
PC-WRITE
2.5, $10;
$75 full reg.
p. 59
24
40
WORD PROOF,
125,000 words-S40
Anything
j^
)/>
VOLKSWRITER
DELUXE
2.2, $295
p. 58
IBM PC
\^
128K
640K
24; 43
w/IBM
Enhanced
Graphics
Card
disk is
limit
WORD PROOF
125.000 words-S40
THE WORD PLUS.
45,000 words-S150
Anything
1^
i^
WORDSTAR
^ 3.3, $350
^ p. 56
Ui
CP/M-80
CP/M-86
MS-DOS
i/-
56K
CP/M-80,
128K
CP/M-86,
128K
MS-DOS
256K
14-22
disk is
limit
CORRECTSTAR,
65,000 words (MS-
DOS only)-S1 45;
THE WORD PLUS.
45,000 words-S150
requires
reformatting
incoming
text
i^
S NEWWORD
S 2.14: MS-DOS,
Z $249
2.16: CP/M, $10C
p. 56
CP/M
MS-DOS
1
Macintosh
56K CP/M
96K MS-
DOS
128K
256K
17-25
disk is
limit
THE WORD PLUS.
45,000 words-Si 50
requires
reformating
incoming
text
]/>
*^
«^-Limit100
characters;
can be modiL
by user
MICROSOR
WORD
(Macintosh)
1.05, $195
p. 58
512K
22
maximum
(depend-
ent on font
size)
disk is
limit
HAYDEN SPELLER,
20,000 worris-S80:
THE-RIGHT-WORD.
40,000
words-S89'
any Mac
telecommu-
nications
program
w
(^
J^
APPLEWORKS
1.2, $250
p. 113
128K
20
56
SCiSiiJLI:
SPELLER. iiO.OOO
v,'ords-Si25;
'■^i:.i.;C(i v,-n!rif;-e.i';:)
APPLE AC-
CESS II-S75
or other Ap-
ple terminal
programs
y>
{^
EHABLE
1.0, $595
p. 109
ii>i.: i-c;
l[;iv, i-C
i^
;k^;;;
Depends
on
ffiatures
640K
23
disk is
limit
disk is
limit
"^'M-;'S;; .■"^-''"
j^-Buiit-in
^
/^
FRAMEWORK
1.1, S695
p. 110
21 IBM;
29 AT&T
6300
i^
I--
i^
i/'-
\^
WORDSTAR
2000 PLUS
1.01, $595
p. 57
IBM PC
IBM PC
256K PC;
320K PC Al
192K
320K
23
disk is
limit
^^-65,000 words
;^-Built-in
\/'
i^
'^
]/"
l_ XYWRITEII +
3= $300
p. 61
LU
640K
22
disk is
limit
WORD PROOF,
125.000 words-S40
requires re-
formatting
of incoming
text
]/>
)^
(^
^ WORDPERFECT
^ 4.0, $495
^ p. 60
LU
IBM PC
1^
192K
256K
24
disk is
limit
;^-100,000 words
requires re-
formatting
of incoming
text
v
\^
^ MICROSOFT IBM PC
WORD (MS-DOS)
2.0, $475 '
p. 60
256K
320K
19; 39
with
Hercules
Card
disk is
limit
;^-80,000 words
requires re-
formatting
of incoming
text
v*
i^
1^
]/>
^Includes $50 rebate towards purchase of Microsoft Mouse.
Hgrf indicstes iiitegrateif program.
MAC-SPELL-RIGHT and THE-RIGHT-WORD: Assimilation, Inc., 485 Alberto
Way, Los Gatos, GA 95030; 800/622-5464 or, in CA, 800/421-0243.
5/
On-
screen Auto-
Page Can Print Con- mati- Links Decimal
Breal<s/ Direct tinually caliy iVIouse Files Alignment/ Footnote
Page Split from Saves Baclcs Macros Compati- For Merge Capa- PageWidtti Math Capabil-
Numbers Screen Memory Text Up Files Available ble Printing bility Possible Capability ity
Whole
Muiti- Columns Can Edit Propor-
Column May Be While tional
Formatting Moved Printing Printing
t^/i/*
(^ HOMEWORD 132 columns
FILER
{IBM-$100,
Apple-S70)
132 columns
^li/>
Both in
"Preview
Mode"
only
(''-requires MEGA- 116 columns *^/»^ built-in
mouse MERGE- max. (de- calculator
S125* pendent on
font size &
style)
PFSflLE- 78 columns
Apple-$125
IBM-$140
»^/
132 columns
U'l)/'
240 columns
»^/i>'
;^-condi- 254 columns
tional merge
v'/v'
»^op- *^-op- \^ *^-MOUSE f^
tional tional SYSTEMS;
MICRO-
SOFT
MOUSE
255 columns i^l
v^-sup-
pressible
250 columns
DOS 2.0
u'lv'
»^-Sup-
presslble
i^-MOUSE Only MAIL- 999 columns ^1 FOOTNOTE
SYSTEMS; with MERGE-$99 $99
MICRO- MAIL- if purchased Digital Marketing,
SOFT MERGE- separately 2363 Boulevard
MOUSE $99 Circle #8,
Walnut Creek,
CA 94595
(415) 947-1000
»^-sup- «^-0n
pressible IBM
p'-condi- 254 columns
tional merge
wi
FOOTNOTE
(^■Awk-
wardly
only
when you
ask for
them
(^-op-
tional
(-'-op-
tional
(^ 116 columns
max. (de-
pendent on
font size &
style)
I/"!
MEGA- 192 columns viv-m
W0RKS-$125; spreadsheet
APPLEWORKS
MAILING
PRO-
GRAM-$30 +
i^li^
160 columns (^/(^
(^ (-^
(^/(^
(/* (-'-MOUSE
SYSTEMS;
MICRO-
SOFT
MOUSE
c" 255 columns (^/(-'-in
spreadsheet
256 columns o'./C
"Review
Mode"
Only/(^
(^
c
(^-op-
tional
\^
Mouse
patch avail-
able upon
request
(>'
(> 255 columns
Wll^
I-'/*'
c
(^-op-
tional
]/>
c*
f -sorter ex- 132 columns
tra $95
V*IV
(^/(^ (^- c* e" (^ Format & p'-de- c' c'-condi- 250 columns f/
horizon- Text, Yes, signed for tional merge
tal& Com- mouse
vertical mand, No
^MEGAMERGE: Megahaus, 5703 Oberlin Dr., San Diego, CA 92121;
619/450-1230.
+ APPLEWORKS MAILING PROGRAM: Intl. Apple Core, 908 George St., Santa
Clara, CA 95054; 408/727-7652.
571_" 'dsi„i''f.^^^^^^-!^^^^^';;^^»f':ry^-^.
■d'e d I cia't e d ^^ ca n ''ro n.g 'Se'ri d u% e"; ^
'■^a.;;t ::: /■■ . ":-:\ -''::-■ y;-c,y-„, ^f::::::;;^::^;;•?■;;:.;;:
w:e : a r e - m et ■ h e r e;:;-oflS;i rrg r - - •'
f I ha 1 ■ w aj - We /have : c p i
"a ' p r tv.o n o I ,\ it ;' a's '^at' ''f vn;aj ": r-es I i^n g -^
p 1 ac e f o r t h o s eV w h o ^^;g'a'v e' / :t h e if;; ;■:'•:; 'S
lives t ha 1 t hat n:a 1 1 o n m.ig h,,t /I (,v e i; 1 1
Press ESC to go to the
HOMEWORD's graphics make the program unique.
When you're writing, images on the bottom of the
screen show the amount of worldng memory ieft,
the amount of disl( storage left, and a "sicetch " of
each whole page as it will appear when it's
printed— like a living miniature of your work. I
found myself fascinated with it; no other program
has such a thing.
Icons make it easy to learn, easy to
remember. . .
Tom Kain; version 2.4; Apple II family » version
2.0; IBM PC and compatibles; IBM PCjr; 128K;
$69.95 ® version 2.4; Commodore 64 • Atari
800/800XL; $49.95; copy-protected? YES; Sierra
On-Line, Inc., P.O. Box 485, Coarsegold, CA
93614; 209/683-6858 ® IBM PC, PCjr; DOS 2.1;
128K; copy-protected? YES; $75; IBM Entry
Systems Division, P.O. Box 1328, Boca Raton, FL
33432; 800/447-4700.
STEWART BRAND: The most volatile part of
the word processing market is the so-called
"low end" — low-cost programs on low-cost
machines for kids and beginners.
Broderbund's BANK STREET WRITER ruled
the roost in 1983 and is still loved by some.
(Scarola defends it on p. 184 in Learning,
where it may be defensible. The program was
written for teaching writing— first you write,
then you change modes and you edit. Being
forced to work in two modes I find perpetually
confusing.) In 1984 HOMEWORD took over.
It costs the same, does more, does it easier,
and, thanks to its use of graphics, it's
easier to catch on to and to pick up again
when you've been away from it for awhile.
The low-end programs may be cheap, but
they're far from weak. HOMEWORD, like the
others here, does wordwrap (you don't need
to hit CARRIAGE RETURN at the end of a line,
or even notice where the ends of lines are),
does bold, underlined, and centered text,
permits easy moves of blocks of text (as well
as block delete and block copy), numbers
your pages in sequence if you want, and
automatically reformats your text around any
changes you make (which is more than
VOLKSWRITER DELUXE or WORDSTAR can
manage). In addition it has an "Undo"
command for bringing back deleted text,
automatically backs up files (so you always
\
X
\
k
Erase text
Insert erased text
Best on the Commodore .
Kevin Lacy; Commodore 64; copy-protected? YES;
$34.95; Hesware, 390 Swift Ave., #14, South
San Francisco, CA 94080; 415/871-0570, ext. 100.
;Effii"j'iKi2:i'l.-.i:L'.. '.LIZ:'
?g;#J^a-|^^'; :an'/i;riainf ||t^|y^ii^
!_ !.""Z3rJ*''''3?r.'"S!l-l"..'.:r.!ri^'.'j
STEWART BRAND: At present this is the dean
of Commodore 64 word-processing
programs, one you can do serious writing
with. Why EASY SCRIPT from Commodore
and PAPER CLIP from Batteries Included
continue to sell for the Commodore 64 baffles
me. They can't even manage to end lines on
the screen without breaking words in the
middle. At a similar price OMNIWRITER
outclasses them both and includes a merge
capability and a decent 30,000-word spelling
checker (bless it, it'll tell you the number of
words in your document).
In addition to its basic good sense
OMNIWRITER is full of politenesses and
clevernesses. Polite: a cue card which fits
around your function keys; a good command
reference card; choice of colors on the screen
for text and background, easily changed to
match your mood or the room's light; the file
directory viewable even while you're writing.
Clever: you can toggle quickly between 40-
column width and 80-column (both have
large letters — with the 80 you scroll sideways
along the long lines) and you can write in
both; tap "home," cursor goes to top of the
screen, tap it again, goes to top of document;
page breaks and page numbers are shown on
the screen, and you can go to any page by its
number. The up-to-23-page files can be linked
for printing long documents. The program
will blend in material from MICROSOFT
MULTIPLAN (p. 70) and can go to 240
columns wide.
Fast, easy, and telecommunicates on the
Commodore . . .
o
Ken Skier; Commodore 64; $49.95; Prentice-Hall,
General Publishing Division, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
07632; 800/624-0023 or, in NJ, 800/624-0024.
ART KLEINER: Since SKIWRITER comes on
a cartridge you plug into the back of your
computer, it's fast and roomy. You can fit
more than 20 double-spaced pages of text
into a single document. It's designed for
easy telecommunicating. It handles with
aplomb the normally arduous task of saving
files to the Commodore disk drive.
No comparable package on any computer
writes and telecommunicates for as low a
price, except maybe the Radio Shack Model
100 (p. 16), and you can't play games or
make music with the Model 100 when your
work is done. OMNIWRITER has a speller
and merge capability, but SKIWRITER has a
better manual and is much easier to start
with and use. I'd choose SKIWRITER.
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
:.;^-^"-*^'j^''8-'#'i:ji:jft''»tkWit;a^Btj-?ii:^
^^meS-:
have the previous version of a document if,
God forbid, you lose the current one), and
linl<s files for printing (which is fortunate,
since files are limited in size depending on
your computer. For checking spelling there's
HOMEWORD SPELLER (30,000 words,
S35-$50, depending upon machine) or
SENSIBLE SPELLER (80,000 words, $125,
p. 63).
HOMEWORD's major drawback is that only 15
lines of text are displayed at a time, because
of all the screen space given to the icons, and
because each format command in the text
takes up an additional line. That is partly
compensated by the page-sketch (see photo),
and also by ready access to a screen-width
full-80-column display of text as it will appear
when printed (may or may not be legible in
detail, depending on your system; you do all
your writing in 40-column width, nice for
those whose minds are young or whose eyes
are old).
Another apparent drawback is that once you
know your way around the icon commands,
they get cumbersome. It takes nine
keystrokes to move a block of text, for
example. Fortunately HOMEWORD has a set
of control-key commands (and a good
reference card) that short-cut most
functions — a block move takes five
keystrokes that way. On the IBMs you can
suppress the icons entirely and get a full 24
useable writing lines on the screen.
Invitingly simple to enter, HOMEWORD
becomes more sophisticated as you do,
which is one of our measures of an
outstanding program. The manual is good,
and there's an audio cassette to talk you
through your first session (always a delicate
time).
When you're messing with what you've written on
HOMEWORD, a different set of images— called
icons— are on the bottom of the screen. They
become commands when you point the cursor at
them. The basic menu includes "print, " "edit, "
"file, " "layout, " "customize, " and "disk
utilities. " Those lead to 28 other icon commands,
each labeled with a word indicating its function. A
good beginner's program should provide constant
and easy rewards for using it, and it should always
leave you certain about how to back out of a corner
you wander into. HOMEWORD does both.
coimands ^ The cursor is now oh " IF tie" .
Xf I Kit: ?'retupn*^> Ifll get detaileai
iflle;: citolces.'^"'
Get document
Save document
Best on Atari.
All Atari home computers; copy-protected? YES;
$39.95; Atari Corporation, P.O. Box 3427,
Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3427; 408/745-4851.
STEWART BRAND: Like OMNIWRITER,
ATARIWRITER is the kind of program that
amazes old word-processing hands with the
range of its abilities on a humble machine. It
has no significant competition on the Atari.
While not as fully capable as OMNIWRITER
on the Commodore 64, it has some features
that OMNIWRITER doesn't—an excellent
manual, an "undo" command, and easy
capability for proportional printing and
double-wide printing. Notable limitations are
the absence of bold lettering and the absence
of overtyping as a way to change text (delete
and insert is the only choice — my preference
anyway), in "preview mode" 80 columns of
text can be scanned across, but you can't edit
without returning to 40 columns.
Educator Edna Mitchell runs an office at
Mills College, Oakland, California, with
ATARIWRITER.
EDNA MITCHELL: I had been struggling alone
for many months to master WORDSTAR and
had not yet become confident enough to trust
any important or hurried writing to that
program. Of course I knew how powerful it
was, but it couldn't do it for me with the time
pressures I live under daily. With
ATARIWRITER I was delighted with the ease
of producing material with different print
types, justified margins, sub- or
superscripts, underlining, and columns. I
quickly learned to chain files, to reformat for
printing, to move text and merge files and
search for strings. I learned the hard way to
watch for the limits of free memory in the
Atari.
ATARIWRITER gets the user into the program
instantly with a mini-overview— learn a little
bit immediately and add the complex features
later. It is this feature which enabled me to
teach the process to my students and to
others on my staff very quickly. I haven't yet
given it to my secretary because I don't want
to give up the computer and printer to her
full-time use. Once one successfully begins to
use a word processor it is inconceivable to be
without it. It does not reduce the amount of
paperwork I do; instead it increases it by
making the production of words so easy and
attractive.
■;:c-<ind ^j.: ;'as ^•; y 011^: ni giit%i:i:Ke; tb:- rtry :-t h:e;:f»"j
■thlhg^'^yoursel^f >;'vsoMe:?wiriter;:\day^;,^^^
:=wi.Il ■:•telI'^/y^u•■\how^^.the■■:^■Dodo:■■:Wanagells€/■^:,
C3 F i rs t ,^ it Marked::0ut ''ia vra ce- cour se^^^i: j:
in a sort of circle^ Cthe exact }?
shape doesn't Matter,, ■' it said^J
and then all the party were placed
along the course^ here and there; ;
There was no one/ tWo^i three^ alridi
away! ' ■ but they began running when
they 1 iked^ and left of f when they u
llked^\^'-so/'that-^it?^was/^not:-easy"'tovg:ju:;W
knbw^ when: the vrace':: was>-bMer^.^ ,:^-
However ^ When they had been funniinig
^ haIf-;an-hour:.'or ^so^ -and/- were '.:qu,i-t:e«j:
.^dry : again ^:f;:the-'l>odo^/'suddeni'yi^ caii:e:d3;y
•buty.v.The' raee:i''is/-b,Mer !■';■■ %and\/;theys3*;
:PRE5S'[BaTd:;RETURK^T,0^HENU/v/. :::/::':;/.;s'iS|§>:p
54
m-Mm
: (On IBM PC)
One of the nicest things about PrS:HliITE is the unj it shoi.
paqe breaks like this transition fron page 1 to 2. Bolii is
PFS FILE
\
PFSiRbfUKi 1
\
PFSiGRAPH
S
PFSiWRITE
PFS:ACCESS
PFS:PROOF
An advantage of PFS:WRITE is that it blends with
a family of equally simple and effective
programs— PFS:FILE (p. 80), PFSMPOHT (p. 81),
PFS:GRAPH, PFSMCESS (p. 151), and its own
100,000 word speller, PFS:PROOR
Apple lle/llc; $125 ® PC/MS-DOS machines; 128K;
$140; 80-column screen required; copy-
protected? YES;
IBM PC/XT » MS-DOS machines; 128K; 2 disk
drives; copy-protected? YES; $95;
both from Software Publishing Corp., 1901
Landings Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043;
415/962-0191.
STEWART BRAND: The enormous popularity
of this program is well earned. It is living
proof that for many of us, having lots of
options in a program is not a feature, it's a
bug. Keep it simple, right in the middle of
what's most needed, and let the rest go by. I
wish PFS:WRITE ran on my Kaypro— nearly
all of my writing is short reviews and letters
and is much better suited for PFS:WRITE than
NEWWORD or PERFECT WRITER.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: PFS:WRITE is the
obvious lightweight choice for someone who
writes letters and nothing else. It is even
more self-evident and easier to learn than
VOLKSWRITER, has all the standard features
plus automatic reformatting, and even takes
the address out of a letter and automatically
centers it on an envelope.
It is not, however, a flexible program. I once
spoke to one of the men who wrote the
ggr^?-tss^j;'^^;?aa^i;^ ^jiai^'^i'!^j^^j^^^aas;»^
program and he basically said that the design
and the popularity of the program revolve
around the fact that it offers few choices,
therefore requires few decisions. For
example, although it is mostly a "what you
see is what will print" program, if you force a
page break, the screen no longer accurately
reflects the page and line you are on. In fact,
no real changes can be made within a
document to deviate from the overall format
you have chosen for that document. You
cannot even temporarily change the left
margin to indent a paragraph. The right
margin cannot be pushed beyond column 80.
If you create a header or footer, you get it on
every page, including page one, whether you
want it there or not, and the headers and
footers all are centered. They cannot be flush
left or right.
STEWART BRAND: That's fine with me. I'm
much more concerned with words than
format. I'd rather have a fiddle-free program
that gets politely out of my way. An example
of this program's built-in courtesy: I tried to
save a document to a disk that had not been
formatted for PFS files; halfway into the save
the program stopped, told me the problem,
and asked if it should format the data disk for
me; when I said yes, it quickly formatted the
disk, went ahead and saved the file on it, and
returned me to the document, swift and
pretty. Most programs would stop and ruin
your day with a problem like that. There's
even a feature in the Search function that tells
you the number of words in your document-
no other word processor that I know of does
that within the program.
MACWRITE
A typical working screen
on MACWRITE, This is 1 4 point
"New York" type
•Pihln TeHt 38P
Bold XB
Italic ^1
Underline 3eu
IDartffllDB 360
EKiMitexm %s
BPoaDQ
DflipattDa
SOlPOlDQli!
This 9 point -G«»va-, 1 2 poinl "Toronlo".
12 poinl -nonaco^, 12 point "Chicago
«2 pouit -Venice- , 12 JMfW 1i.«U«n",
iz peiat -aiMia-. li ^nt 'aa^ FrancitM'
The amount of range on MACWRITE makes it useful for design of display
text ol all kinds The subUUe on the cover of the Whole Earth Software
Catalog was designed on our Macintosh, with customary Mac glee
This MACWRITE screen was printed out on the
Image Writer printer using the Macintosh print-
screen facility
Q MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
A revolution in word processing
graphics . . .
Encore Systems; Macintosh; 128K; currently
bundled with computer; copy-protected? NO;
Apple Computer, 20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino,
CA 95014; 800/538-9696.
STEWART BRAND: MACWRITE came bundled
with the original Macintoshes to showcase
the machine's astonishing graphic talents.
In our office it was put to immediate work
generating all posted memos, often combined
with droll images from MACPAINT (p. 127). A
typical MACWRITE letter is one I got from a
reader of our magazine CoEvolufion:
whenever he mentioned the magazine, he
wrote it large type, italic, bold, outlined and
shadowed— a fair approximation of our logo;
we were so charmed he got extra-attentive
service.
Later incarnations of MACWRITE have added
a disk-using capability that permits long
documents along with a nice page indicator.
It's still a good basic word processor and
memo maker for the machine, but for
serious power you'll want MICROSOFT
WORD (p. 60). HAYDEN SPELLER (p. 63)
supports both.
Typical office use of
MACWRITE. The map
was done with
MACPAINT The
drawing by James
Donnelly was not.
FT"
33
Best on the Apple lie and lie .
Tim Gill; Version 2.8; Apple Me; ProDOS; 64K;
$189 o Apple III; SOS; 128K; $229 o Apple lie;
ProDOS; 128K; $189; copy-protected? YES;
Tim Gill; Apple lie; ProDOS; 128K; 80-column
screen ® Apple III; SOS; 128K ® Apple lie;
ProDOS; 128K; copy-protected? NO; Included with
WORD JUGGLER;
both from Quark, Inc., 2525 W. Evans, Suite 220,
Denver, CO 80219; 800/543-7711.
STEWART BRAND: One of the handiest
programs I've seen, WORD JUGGLER, well
translated from its origins on the bigger Apple
III, has beat out APPLE WRITER lie as the
leading word processor on the He and He. It's
probably at its best at either enhancing or
replacing a secretary, since it specializes in
handling correspondence adroitly— it has a
full "conditional merge" capability for
tailoring form letters, and its envelope
addressing dexterity is second only to
PFS:WRITE's.
Unlike many older programs on the Apples,
WORD JUGGLER is quick— it was the very
first product to take advantage of Apple's new
operating system, ProDOS. Getting to and
from disk, printer, current working document,
and preview mode is always intuitively easy
and fast. There is even a single command that
converts your Apple to an expensive
typewriter, where you type directly on the
printer. And a single command prints a
document direct from memory. With the
program come 19 command-marked keys to
unobtrusively replace ones on your Apple
keyboard— a great help. I give WORD
JUGGLER high points for transparency—
you see the work, not it.
The included speller LEXICHECK deserves
separate comment. Version 2.0 is a major
improvement over previous incarnations. You
can now look up words wtiile you're writingio
see if they're right. The dictionary will
highlight the questionable word, suggest
correct alternatives, and install any one you
like for you. When checking a whole
document (which can be done without having
to store on disk first) LEXICHECK also tells
you the number of words in the document.
Among the 50,000 words, I was bemused to
find "fuck," which is still missing from
many printed dictionaries. The words seem to
be assembled as word parts, so you can get
some anomalies. When I asked the speller to
look up "wifing," it said it was a valid word
and offered as valid alternatives "wiling,"
"wiping," "wiring," and "wising." Oh well.
y'nmi'M^dmMm i-col® scrp teirt yiti.: lis las m nm
.:EM me^ f;!' tot ¥1 ffetta easij.
Kmm mm. lo ei f wj m m.%mi.
That LEXICHECK is included helps make
WORD JUGGLER an exceptional bargain.
Also compatibly from Quark come
TERMINUS ($89), a telecommunicator, and
CATALYST He ($149), which makes the Apple
He and He work happily with a hard disk.
WORD JUGGLER is supposed to be
comfortable with files from PFS:FILE (p. 80).
Write anywhere, even print .
$399 (8K model); $499 (24K model); 8K RAM
expansion modules, $120 per kit (capacity to
32K); Radio Shack, 1700 One Tandy Center, Ft.
Worth, TX 76102; 817/390-3700; or contact your
local Radio Shack dealer.
o
Version 1.0; TRS-80 Model 100; $149.95; Portable
Computer Support Group, 11035 Harry Nines Blvd,
#207, Dallas, TX 75229; 214/351-0564.
STEWART BRAND: The truly portable
computers, called lap computers or
notebook computers, usually have simple
word processors wired into them— good
introductory programs that are completely
sufficient for many uses. The first to
dominate and still the low-rent leader is
Radio Shack's 100, with a fine word
processor on board. (See p. 16 for more
information on the machine.) For telecom-
municating, for notetaking, for first-draft
writing it's outstanding. Beyond that . . .
JIM STOCKFORD: Radio Shack's built-in
word processor is a terrific communicating
tool except that it doesn't print worth a
damn, beyond the crudest memo quality.
WRITEROM has all the features of every text
formatter I've seen, with functions I've never
seen before. It formats pages using
WORDSTAR dot commands or function
keys. It lets you center vertically as well as
horizontally, indent or "undent" (print the
first line of a paragraph out into the left
margin). It's got a mail merge feature, you
can substitute keystrokes for character
strings, telecommunicate from within the
program, store TELEX log-on sequences,
and invoke a picture of your printed file, with
character, word, and page count. You can
interrupt printing, type directly, then resume
printing. It introduces a line feed with
carriage return if you wish. Since it comes
as a ROM chip it uses no additional RAM
memory.
LIPSTiR O
Randy Moore; TRS-80 Model 100; 16K or greater;
not copy-protected; $74.95; CISS Corp., P.O. Box
27855, St. Louis, MO 63146; 314/432-1361.
WOODY LISWOOD: Well, Bunky, have you
wished that WORDSTAR were ported to the
Model 100? You say that the WORDSTAR
control key sequences have been burned into
your psyche over years of use? Has the
Model 100 and its 40 column width screen
been causing you to invert your eyeballs
trying to envision how your masterpiece will
appear as 55 character columns on your
printer? Well, your headaches are over. First,
LAPSTAR converts the 40 column by 8 line
Model 100 screen into a 60 column by 10
line screen. Second, LAPSTAR contains all
but one of those control code sequences you
grew to love using WORDSTAR. (What's
missing? LAPSTAR does not have a
coNTROL-s to back up one character. Instead,
a coNTROL-H or a backspace will do the trick.)
There are 320 characters normally displayed
on the Model 100 screen. LAPSTAR, by
using smaller characters, displays up to 600
characters. That is a 87.5% improvement in
the number of characters shown, quite
adequate for my eyesight.
LAPSTAR takes about 4K of memory. It is
not good in the printing department. A print
order allows you to set the width of the
column and the length of the page and that's
it. If you need fancy formatting, you will
need to use something like WRITEROM to
add those codes to your file.
It's a fantastic program. I wish I'd had it
from the minute I purchased my Model 100.
If you do mostly text work, then LAPSTAR
and the MODEL 100 are a better buy than the
Model 200. Why spend $500 to get only 40
more characters on the screen?
56
The old standard, now controversial .
Version 3.3; CP/M-80 machines; 56K « CP/M-86
macliines; 128K ® version 3.31; PC/MS-DOS
macliines; 128K; $350 ® IBM PCjr; $195; copy-
protected? NO; IMicroPro International Corp., 33
San Pablo Ave., San Rafael, CA 94903;
415/499-1200.
Better, cheaper . . .
Newstar Softvfare, Inc.; version 2.16; CP/M-80
machines; 56K; $100; ® version 2.16; PC/MS-DOS
machines; 96K; $249; copy-protected? NO; Rocky
Mountain Software Systems, 1280-C Newell Ave.,
Suite 147, Walnut Creek, CA 94596; 800/832-2244
or, in CA, 800/732-2311.
STEWART BRAND: You go into a computer
or software store and ask about word-
processing software. The clerk asks what
you plan to use it for, listens closely to your
description of your needs, and then
— —- iii-' ty«i Ulle^oii! tlie?Fiii*cti6i-;lt»jiT-f^:|dt^ ■ v;-^
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SiMt:S;viol»lioir?of4:cop«i'ight''toiprilte:<:cw^
Above, WORDSTAR 3.3; below, NEWWORDIhe
clone. "The illegitimate child is better than its
parent. "
:TESf.v....: : /. . : :. .FBI. L23.C36. Insert. .:.:.-,. .i:. ;>..;,. :^;
; II oc I riie I :8(iu I N6 niiu
r:':.:.S(WIIte;.:::.>:. ::,^
i'S. save; 4-Tesu«.e' edit
'l-save.iii]cii»ent.,' .
I Bark. start . :C: copy
■:|. mark end , ; ,U nove
iX:save S 'exit He«word .H hidfehow : Y-delete
l| quit without saving M .store, to .disk;,.; '
.0 copy ,;i.:'vi'4.' '";;&■ :;:
. J,.erase^, ^:\^
V change logged driye;
I insert a docujient : •;
■\ froei'/disk"^;
■On the 1 HI PC HEWHORI) off ersthe'f unction kei/s. to the user for
: easy prograining as "i«acros";;tthat ;can . perf ora any .sequence of
' inds desired, find the';kottd«: Tine :is;jeft clear. Underlined
appears 'Sunderlined ^S: hold/is- *I^U'B..;;;';;,;iv .''
:HH*i01ID is even better than yORDSTftR with its help:screens. When
i go to pull another file into this one, 1 would begin Ctrl-K,
and then "8". If I paused, not sure of the "R", the above help
screen would appear to rewind «e of options with Ctrl-K. Then
when 1 hit "B", the progra* (unlike HOMSTfiR) would next bring up
here on the bottoa of the screen a directory of the files
available— that is really useful, fill this at Help Cevel 2 (of
4 levels). The illegitinate child HEHHORD is better than its parei
recommends WORDSTAR. Most of the time
that's the wrong answer.
Compared to other writing programs
WORDSTAR is expensive, limited, slow, and
difficult. Its major attraction is that there's so
much of it out there — over a million copies
sold, they say, millions more copied. Indeed
it runs on nearly everything, even portables
like the Hewlett-Packard 110 (p. 71), and a
fair number of other programs try to blend
with its peculiarities. Its minor attraction is
that it's a friendly program, well co-evolved
with its users over these many years (six or
so).
Two years ago a couple of renegades from
MicroPro made a WORDSTAR clone called
NEWWORD that removes many of the
objections while keeping the same
commands and file format. It's not
expensive, less limited, even more friendly,
and blends everywhere that WORDSTAR
blends, but it is still as slow to use and
difficult to learn as the original. It runs only
on CP/M and IBM compatibles. What are
NEWWORD's improvements over
WORDSTAR? NEWWORD includes a
conditional merge capability, whereas it
costs $99 extra to get MAiLMERGE with
WORDSTAR. NEWWORD has an "undo" key
(a major advantage, to my mind), document
protection, search by page number, access
to all user areas on hard disk, more helpful
help messages, better printer support, nice
micro justification, and a handier installation
and tailoring procedure. On computers with
graphics, like IBM and the new Kaypros,
bold is bold on the screen and underline is
underlined instead of "Sunderlined'S.
What does WORDSTAR have over
NEWWORD? Not much— it can edit while
printing (spooling), and it works a trifle more
easily with columns, including moving whole
columns. MicroPro's worthy new speller
CORRECTSTAR (65,000 words, IBM
compatible only, $145) doesn't work with
NEWWORD.
One of the kindest attentions to detail in
WORDSTAR (and NEWWORD) is the help
screens. Many of them show up only when
you start a command and pause in
uncertainty. They can be set to four different
levels of helpfulness (or lack of interference).
Likewise, anytime you want to do something
with files, the program automatically shows
you the current directory of what's already
on the data disk.
There is a potent remedy for the slowness of
WORDSTAR and NEWWORD, which is
caused by the programs constantly "going
to disk" to get one thing or another. Install a
"RAM disk" and load the program on it.
Since it is an electronic circuit board
emulating a disk, everything happens at
electronic speed, faster even than with a
hard disk. ("The improvement in response
time is so dramatic that many people will not
use WORDSTAR any other way."— Alfred
Glossbrenner.) Costs a couple hundred
dollars. Worth it.
In some reaches of the WORDSTAR empire
it's still the best word processor available.
I'd recommend WORDSTAR on Apple II and
11+ (with CP/M card, $139-$345) and on the
Radio Shack TRS-80. That's a lot of
machines.
If you've got one of those, get WORDSTAR.
If you're moving among many different kinds
of machines, learn WORDSTAR. If your
close colleagues have WORDSTAR on IBM or
CP/M (that's my situation), get NEWWORD,
so you can share advice and files. If you're
word-processing to your own standard on
IBM, get one of the programs on the next
four pages. They'll work better for you.
ARTHUR NAIMAN: In my estimation,
WORDSTAR is one of the most poorly
designed word-processing programs ever
written— a huge, elaborate farrago of klugy
patches, sort of like a Rube Goldberg
machine gone berserk. All kinds of basic
functions require disk access, thereby
making the program fantastically slow
(which it is even where disk access isn't
involved; for example, its method of sending
text to the printer is so clumsy that
sometimes the printer has to wait for the
computer!).
PETER McWILLIAMS: Do the readers of
Introdietlon to WordStar know how its
author feels about that program? My, my,
my. It's like seeing Jerry Falwell marching in
a gay liberation parade: refreshing, but
surprising nonetheless.
By the way, your book is my favorite.
Everyone in my office learned from it.
ARTHUR NAIMAN: Thanks for your kind
words. My editor at SYBEX does indeed
know how I feel about WORDSTAR; in fact,
one of my requirements before signing the
contract was that I wouldn't have to use
WORDSTAR to write the book.
o
MEANS; NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
WORDSTAR is complicated enough to need a
book to get you into it comfortably. Naiman's
Introduction to WordStar is the best. (2nd edition,
1983; 208 pp.; $16.95; SYBEX Computer Books,
2344 Sixth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710;
415/848-8233; or COMPUTER LITERACY.)
/
^F'~«a'i?a»A 2:;'^ ' a•L^la ^ ^ ^»^agg^^^^
Huge, wise, sloooow . . .
o
Version 1.01; IBM PC/XT and compatibles; 256K;
IBM PC AT; 320K; hard disk recommended; copy-
protected? NO; $595 ($350 to update from
WORDSTAR); street price, $325; MicroPro
International Corp., 33 San Pablo Ave., San
Rafael, CA 94903; 415/499-1200.
STEWART BRAND: This tremendously
ambitious word processing program is
MicroPro's attempt to improve on
WORDSTAR. As an improvement, it's first
rate. Excellent manuals this time. Happily it
is not copy-protected, so using it with hard
disk is convenient.
It's a big car with all the options. Luxurious,
but expensive; safe, but ponderous. This is
not a program worth going half hog on, so
we're skipping the 5-disk version
(WORDSTAR 2000, $495 list; $295 street)
and mixed-mindedly recommending the 6-
disk WORDSTAR 2000 PLUS. On that
"Advanced Features" 6th disk is a not-very-
good telecommunications feature called
TelMerge, an impressive mailing list handler
called MailList, and Starlndex, which does
elaborate indexes and contents.
WOODY LISWOOD: If you use floppy disks,
you will never be happy with WORDSTAR
2000 PLUS. A monster program, with its
integrated features it requires close to two
megabytes on a ten-megabyte hard disk just
to exist. It seems to have every feature
which everyone complained was lacking in
WORDSTAR. It operates through a set of
menus and submenus which are not quite as
confusing as the old WORDSTAR. The same
friendly cursor control commands but that is
about it for continuity.
Significant improvements are: better printer
controls; spelling check from within the
document for a word, page, paragraph or
whole document; undelete last deletion; work
with any subdirectory; delete word,
sentence, paragraph, or to either line end;
mathematics within defined blocks; sorts
within defined blocks; proportional printing;
on-screen highlighting of special features like
boldface and underline (no italic); macros
both for text and commands; and continuous
reformatting of the screen.
But it's slow. Try loading a 20-page file and
send the cursor to the end of the file. Go out
and have some coffee.
Because of my wife's experience getting out
four letters easily with no previous word
processing experience and nothing but on-
screen help I want to recommend it for
everyone. I don't like the speed, but it does
everything I need. For example, one thing I
do is load a database into WORDSTAR 2000
in the unformatted mode and then use
CORRECTSTAR to check for spelling
problems. That, for me, is fantastic, since I
generate 100K databases from sources
which always, always, contain typos. This
way I can correct in one pass, rather than
list, edit, then go record by record to find
the problems. Has saved me literally hours
and days of time.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: I looked in vain for a
way to delete backwards word by word. How
could that have slipped by the designers? It
is one of the most common editing
maneuvers. And why does MicroPro dictate
a right margin of 65 or less when preparing
messages for electronic mail services? MCI
and the others work best when fed close to
80 characters per line.
On the positive side, it is easy to grasp the
command structure and move around the
menus, much easier than getting started
with MICROSOFT WORD. The problem with
that logic, however, is that WORDSTAR 2000
is clearly a heavyweight word processor that
requires some study time if you intend to
use all the features you would bother paying
that kind of money for in the first place. I
would rather struggle with MICROSOFT
WORD or live with WORDPERFECT'S semi-
automatic reformatting rather than doom
myself to the endless frustration of waiting
for GODOT 2000.
STEWART BRAND: WORDSTAR 2000
supports 108 printers! It has one of the
sharpest of spellers in CORRECTSTAR
(included)— -65,000 words, the ability to
suggest correct words that sound like what
you've misspelled, and the enormous
convenience of doing the correcting while
you're writing. But it's slowness is an
aggravation that accumulates. (Reportedly
the speed problem is greatly improved on
the IBM AT and clones.) We recommend
WORDSTAR 2000 PLUS only if its
considerable features outweigh speed for
you and you're working with a hard disk.
This page exercises every talent of ttie
WORDSTAR 2000— quite a show which includes
different type faces, overstruck letters, and
calculations on the fly.
Bold ( PB) or Emphasis ( PE) Center ( OC)
j.MTXMn-WMM.wmcr ^mimr SHOg
It's time once again for stocking up on business cards, memo
pads, printed stationery, and other custom-labeled business
supplies. This year we are offering a 102 discount on all
orders of $25. 00 or more.
Here are some samples of typefaces you can request:
Our service is fast, reliable, and accurate.
OUR SERVICE IS FAST. RELIABLE. AND ACCURATE
Our service is fast, reliable, and accurate.
4 Header (OH)
Underline (PU)
You can select paper in any of these colors :
Antique white.^-
Lemon yellow
Pale blue
Rosei -^
LIMITED OFFER, WHILE SUPPLY LASTS . .
Justify on (OJ)
Single-space
(Format and " PH)
Change font (PF)
Sort('BS)
Footnote reference (ON)
Change left margin
( TL) or Indent (Tl)
Bond paper in pale blue ep yellew.-.a
1^ per sheet with letterhead !
4 Overstrike ( PO) Strikeout ( PS)
HURRY AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS SPECIAL OFFER!
1000 business cards $19.95
2 dozen memo pads $11.95
2000 sheets, letterhead paper $19.95
2000 envelopes.
' Change right margin (TR)
t(PS)
Double underline (" PN)
$39,95
Tab stop (TS)
Total $91.80-
(plus 6% tax)
NOTICE OF POLICY CHANGE
Beginning June 1, we will change
our payment terms from net 60 days -«-
to net 30 days.
Decimal tab stop (~TD)
Arithmetic (BA)
Double-space (' PH)
Justify off (Format and " O J)
Sale ends August 1, 1985 •
Footer (OF)
Page numbers (Format, OF, and " OA)
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The most elegant middleweight on IBM .
Camilo Wilson; version 2.2; PC/MS-DOS; 128K; 2
(<isk drives required; copy-protected? NO; $295;
Lifetree Software, Inc., 411 Pacific St., Monterey,
Cft 93940; 408/373-4718.
mat characterizes VOLKSWRITER DELUXE is its
maximal use of the IBM PC's ten function keys.
Ming them straight and combined with "Ctrl, "
"Shift, " and "Alt, " you 've got 40 commands that
do nearly everything, and one of them (F1) calls up
a help screen with the full roster anytime. IVIakes
for adept left little and ring lingers.
STEWART BRAND: For quick learning and
easy remembering, witii strength enougli for
occasional professional use, nothing beats
VOLKSWRITER DELUXE. It's more capable
than PFS:WRITE (p. 54), faster than
WORDSTAR/NEWWORD (p. 56). Its clean
ASCII files let you use the best of the spellers
and synonym finders— IBM's WORD PROOF
(p. 62)— and it telecommunicates like a
breeze.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: Small business
owners and professionals who do their own
correspondence will love VW DELUXE's
ability to have you up and running in an hour,
as well as the built-in and easy-to-use text
merge feature. They will also appreciate the
most self-evident editing, formatting, and
printing procedures on the market. Students
cannot go wrong with VW DELUXE. Anybody
who needs foreign-language characters in
their text doesn't have many other choices
(WORDPERFECT is one, p. 60). A secretary
File Edit Search Character Paragraph Decument
i S-l list I
9000 16Ui Ave
400 S.W 2nd St
O.W Foote
Alice Brew
Page I 101 Ij
666-1010
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This classic home is lo^raled in Wind -in -the -Willows With (our spa<
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11950 l6UiAve E
SealUe, WA 96112
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This"lassic'home"is"located in Wmd -in -the -Willows With lour spac
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Page I lOr
lops on the Mac . . .
(laelntosh wersiosi) ©
Version 1.05; Macintosti; 2nd disk drive
recommended; copy-protected? YES; $195;
Microsoft Corporation, 10700 Nortliup Way, Box
97200, Bellevue, WA 98009; 206/828-8080.
STEVEN LEVY: Macintoshing is fun, but a
severe test of patience. For a year, I waited
for a heavier-duty word processor than
MACWRITE. I finally got it— WORD. It gives
me what I need: unlimited document size (a
couple hundred pages on floppy, more on
hard disk), multiple document handling, easy
centering, wide margins, cursor control
from keyboard, and lots of specialty features
like quick footnoting and mail merging.
Contrary to advance reputation, it's fast
enough to satisfy a quick typist (though not
speedy enough to delight— lightning typists
still will watch some passages appear in
spurts). You can write a book with WORD,
and I intend to.
Now, WORD has its problems. The copy
protection scheme, requiring you to provide
the original disk each time you boot, is
onerous. It lacks some features, like the new
MACWRITE's page-number-lnside-scroll-bar
(which I love), and has a wholly
unsatisfactory "repagi nation" scheme that
requires a long wait to find the answer to the
very reasonable question: "What page am I
on?" Its cursor control commands are rather
On the Macintosh, WORD takes advantage olthe
machine's Clipboard to move material between
documents, and it can show up to four documents
in separate windows on the screen. You may
move text very efficiently within a document
using the mouse, but not between documents
(you can mouse text between windows with the
MS-DOS version of WORD; see p. 60). This illus-
tration is from WORD'S pretty-good manual.
arcane, but I guess I will learn them once I
break myself of this odd habit I got from
MACWRITE of using the mouse all the time.
It has none of the famous "style sheets"
that give so much power to WORD on the
MS-DOS machines (p. 60).
But consider: I needed no documentation to
instantly get almost all of WORD'S
considerable power. Knowing Macintosh and
using the generous online help was enough.
When I finally got to the manual, I learned a
few shortcuts, like how to select text from
the keyboard, and that progression seems to
me to the the ideal way to go deeper into a
program. (A week after I got the program, I
deleted the 37K "help" file from the disk.)
Also, since WORD is so well integrated into
the Mac world, it is a snap to use it in
conjunction with almost any other Mac
program, be it graphic, spreadsheet, or
terminal. (Using the "TEXT" option, WORD
telecommunicates handily; and WORD
translates your old MACWRITE files into
WORD files.)
I found WORD more than usable with the
128K machine and external disk drive,
though a Fat Mac (51 2K) and RAMdisk gives
you more speed, as well as SWITCHER (p.
115) capability. The bottom line is that
WORD'S release means that I can now get
the things I love from Macintosh— fonts,
screen resolution, amiable interface,
integration, etc.— without making a painful
sacrifice in word-processing power. And the
street price of around $120 is a hell of a
bargain.
0^
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
50
^^^M^^^El^^i^^g^^^^^^^a^^^^^^^^M^^^
'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^MS^i
will be disappointed with it (too limited). An
academic will prefer the footnoting capability
of WORDPERFECT, XYWRITE II + , or
MiCROSOFWORD(p. 60).
STEWART BRAND: VOLKSWRITER DELUXE
doesn't link files for printing, presumably
because it doesn't need to— it can handle files
up to a million bytes (1000K) "in case anyone
wanted to write a sequel to War and Peace
without any chapter breaks" (Spezzano). That
doesn't affect the snap with which it flicks
from screen to screen, but it does slow down
the cursor a bit and makes loading and saving
files a little slower. Another uncommon
feature is the "notepad," which lets you
quickly store thoughts, phone numbers,
notes in a separate file that accumulates while
you write.
Limitations. Reformatting of text you've
messed with is by command rather than
automatic; no split screen; no "undo"
command; no macros. For many this may be
part of the program's attraction. It is straight
ahead, straight tasty vanilla.
With version 2.2 the program acquired even
more speed and the ability to display 43
lines on the screen instead of the customary
24, if used with an enhanced graphics
adapter card. (You can also get an extremely
graphic version called VOLKSWRITER
SCIENTIFIC— $495; street $325— which
gives all manner of special symbols for math
and science writing. You get Roman and
Greek alphabets, two type sizes, sundry
math symbols, chemical bond symbols, etc.
in high resolution on screen and on printer in
both draft and high quality mode.)
VOLKSWRITER DELUXE wins with its ability
to fit in— on nearly any IBM-style machine,
with nearly any user, with nearly any
program. Also check out PC-WRITE (this
page) for similar qualities.
STANDARD VOLKSWRITER KEYBOARD
ARRANGEMENT
When you use the ALT key in
combination with
each of the following keys, you get:
1 2
3
4
5
6 7 8 9
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Bom free .
Bob Wallace; version 2.5; IBM PC compatibles;
PCjr; 128K; copy- protected? NO; $10—
shareware, $75— full registration, ($25 —
commission to registered users who have had
others register from their shareware); Quicksoft,
219 First Ave. North #224, Seattle, WA 98109;
206/282-0452.
STEWART BRAND: This is one of the
greatest bargains and one of the most
interesting programs in the Catalog. Its
outstanding abilities as a text editor have
been less reported than its marvelous
distribution system, so we'll do the
newsworthy access first and then get to the
meat. You can pick up PC-WRITE free at
your local user group or get it direct from
the author for ten bucks. The manual is on
the disk— print it out and you're in business.
If you like the program enough to register
with the author and pay a grateful $75, you
really are in business. Copy your PC-WRITE
freely to your friends; if any of them decide
to register the copy and pay $75 to the
author, you get a $25 commission back from
him for each one. Besides the down-home
business opportunity that goes with
registration, you also get a bound copy of
the manual, the next updated version (a
significant value), and telephone support.
By cutting out all the middle people Bob,
Wallace is doing well by doing good. It's a
bargain to you, a healthy income to him, and
the program is the most rapidly evolving I've
seen in the marketplace. He doesn't have to
worry about competing with his inventory,
because there isn't any, and there's no
marketing and distributing people to cut him
off from the satisfactions and
dissatisfactions of his customers. The
version 2.5 I'm looking at has come a great
distance from what I saw a year ago. In that
year the program has acquired good on-
screen page breaks, footnoting, decimal
tabbing, the ability to reformat a whole file at
once, and merge capability.
PC-WRITE is chock with good features like
word- delete-left (with an intuitively correct
CTRL- backspace), move by paragraph
forward and back, character transpose,
change capitals, a "bookmark" place
marker, and the niftiest split screen alive.
Bold and underline look that way on the
screen, and if you've got color it's brightly
tailorable. There's "undo" and macros and
truly useful help screens. But its greatest
strength is its blazing speed. It can load and
save files, scroll, and search and replace
faster than anybody.
The only major drawback with PC-WRITE is
that you can't print direct from memory,
because you have to go to a different part of
the program to print a file. This makes the
program less desirable for short document
use, though I notice that many of us at
Whole Earth use the program in preference
to the hundreds of others we have around,
and we do mostly short documents. Here's
why I use it so much.
PC-WRITE has the purest ASCII files
anywhere, so it blends sweetly with almost
anything— speller (WORD PROOF would be
my choice), telecommunicator, whatever.
Combine it with other public domain
programs like Jim Button's PC-FILE (p. 82)
and Andrew Fluegelman's PC-TALK (p. 152),
and you can travel a high-quality lowroad for
practically nothing on the PC compatibles.
Radical.
Giving software away is a lot of fun. You get
great letters and great phone calls, people
are very appreciative, and they give you
some great ideas. At the same time, with
PC-WRITE we'll gross about $225,000 this
year
—Bob Wallace
60
um
■ \p „,^n r
CHARLES SPEZZANO: WORDPERFECT
for heavyweight word processing in the
executive suite or professional office.
XYWRITE 1! + for professional writers
or professionals who write every day
and will not mind a few days' break-in
period in return for blinding speed.
IViiCROSOFT WORD if you want the
mouse or like a menu-driven rather than
a command-driven program.
STEWART BRAND: I would put it:
MICROSOFT WORD if you want
industrial-strength editing, formatting,
and merging capability along with
exceptional ease of learning.
Clean and powerful . . .
Ashton & Bastian; Version 3.0; IBM PC/XT
compatibles ® IBM PCjr m MS-DOS machines;
128K ® Tandy 2000; 256K; copy-protected? NO,
except Tandy 2000; $495; Satellite Software
International, 288 West Center St., Orem, UT
84057; 800/321-4566.
MIN S. YEE: WORDPERFECT was designed
for the serious writer/editor/secretary/
wordsmith who wants it all— and then some.
Its features include extraordinary cursor
control, macro definition, footnoting, mall
merge (no additional cost), document
assembly, hyphenation, end-of-page
demarcation, extended Greek, math, and
foreign character set, true proportional
spacing, control of orphans and widows
(bits of text left lonely at the tops or bottoms
of pages), password security, user-definable
defaults, dual document editing, a 100,000
word spelling checker (no extra cost) and a
basic math package.
Editing functions are command-driven while
formatting and file management commands
are driven by menu. The "help" mode is so
useful and clearly written that it can only be
compared with the help screens in 1- 2-3
(p. 68). Not only that, but when you want
to call the folks at Satellite Software
International for personal help, you can rest
assured they will be there, cheery and
willing. They'll even call you back.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: This program has the
personality I find most interesting and
pleasant. WORDPERFECT does everything
WORDSTAR 3.3 (p. 56) or MULTIMATE can
do and functions much more smoothly than
either one of them. Short letters can be
centered vertically on a page. At the other
end of the spectrum there is no limit on the
size of document that WORDPERFECT
handles easily. Reports with math and
columns in them are created without any
difficulty (they are almost impossible to work
with using VOLKSWRITER DELUXE [p. 58]
or WORDSTAR). The built-in speller and
sorter makes WORDPERFECT a complete
package for a one-person office with needs
for record keeping and word processing, and
a powerful component in a small business
office with more demanding needs.
STEWART BRAND: With all that it's capable
of, I'm impressed by WORDPERFECT'S look
of spareness. Sometimes it feels crippled to
me, but crippled smart. Its major limitations
are lack of an "undo" command, not quite
automatic reformatting, and absence of split-
screen capability. It partly makes up for that
by offering two buffers you can jog between.
The most recent version (4.0) offers
intriguing improvements — phonetic speller,
automatic backup while writing, better
manual, date insertion, outline numbering.
It's easier to learn than PC-WRITE or
XYWRITE II + , harder than VOLKSWRITER
or MICROSOFT WORD.
A new standard . . .
mtm%mi WBi
Version 2.0; IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles; PCjr;
256K; two disk drives or hard disk required; $375
(includes $50 rebate coupon for either of
Microsoft's mice); works better with Hercules
Graphics Card; copy-protected? YES; Microsoft
Corp., 10700 Northup Way, Box 97200, Bellevue,
WA 98009; 206/828-8080.
STEWART BRAND: What WORD has going
for it: the greatest supermarket of word-
processing features on personal computers,
design from the ground up for fullest use of
its mouse, easy-to-use menu-command
structure (still good without the mouse),
ahead-of-the-art support of printer
hardware, direct linkage to the next
generations of computers, the most
formidable of publishers (who developed the
very operating system the IBM PC family
runs on), and a bargain, especially with the
mouse.
WORD has all the features of
WORDPERFECT and XYWRITE 11+ except
math, indexing and password security, but
adds: an "undo" command of particular
cleverness (you can see what it's holding),
up to eight windows, the enormous
acceleration of editing that goes with an
adept mouse, "Style Sheets" that preserve
arrays of formatting commands as
ornamental as you like, a juicier macro
facility (called "Glossary"— for text, not
commands), elaborate conditional merge,
continuous saving of text (Spezzano scorned
that one because of the slight pause when it
happens — until he turned off his machine
without saving, one hurried evening, and the
pauses paid off), automatic backup of files,
support of 64 fonts on printers (my God),
and on-screen display of bold, underline,
double underline, italic, super- and
subscript, strikethrough (for contracts), and
my favorite, small caps.
Typically, programs with a lot of muscle are
muscle-bound (SAMNA III and WORDMARC
come to mind) — cumbersome, crowded,
self-hindering. WORD is surprisingly light on
its feet, quick and inviting to dance with. The
complexities are kept relatively out of your
way until you want them. Things you use all
Harsh, fast . . .
IBM PC/XT compatibles • Tl Professional; 96K;
copy-protected? NO; $300; XyQuest, Inc., P.O. Box
372, Bedford, MA 01730; 617/275-4439.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: XYWRITE II + traces
its roots to ATEX, a company whose word-
processing systems can be found in many
high pressure newsrooms, and that's the
flavor of the program. It babies you about as
much as Perry White babies Clark Kent. There
are no menus, the manual is mediocre, and
the help screens are really just lists of the 150
commands.
XYWRITE II + is the most purely command-
oriented PC writing tool on the market. That
means once you get the hang of it, which
really doesn't take long, you can fly. No mode
changes are required to delete or move a
sentence or a paragraph, just a quick series of
commands. Most such editing commands are
implemented with the function keys, in
combination with the ctrl, alt, and shift
keys. Many of the non-function key
commands are mnemonics, like "AU" for
Automatic Uppercasing of the character that
immediately follows a period, question mark,
or exclamation point. [SB: I find "AU" a
slightly terrifying convenience, like
wordwrap— leads to addiction and atrophy.]
Like Dorothy Parker, who once said she
changed seven words for every five she
wrote, I erase a lot when I write. With
XYWRITE II + I have the fastest, most
comprehensive deleting system I have seen
anywhere, allowing immediate removal of a
character, the word the cursor is under, the
previous word, all text to the end of the line,
:;<t"aJ-:^>iast'-l!^3.:"j>«*-;ii
all the text on the line, a sentence, or a
paragraph. After any of these deletions, it
instantly reformats your text.
XYWRITE II + also executes block moves
as fast as or faster than any other word
processor I have seen. There are a variety of
ways to quickly mark a block, after which you
can do almost anything imaginable to it,
including storing it as a macro. Columns are
handled just as easily. You can search forward
or backward from the cursor, recognizing
capitals or not, as you wish, and wildcards
are allowed in a search string. Files are in
pure ASCII.
The format of a document can be changed as
often as you like by entering margin, line-
spacing, or justification commands. You have
to use a review command to see your text
with footnotes (XYWRITE II + numbers these
automatically and places them at the bottom
of the right page or at the end of the
document) and full justification on screen.
The program offers three different kinds of
screen splits— horizontal, vertical, and
alternating.
XYWRITE II + 's extra features include a four-
function math program, as well as the ability
to generate an index or a table of contents —
these may require some editing before final
printing to avoid duplicated entries. You can
remap the keyboard with PROKEY-like(p. 174)
precision, and there appears to be a ready-
made Dvorak keyboard available on the
master disk. The program runs "around"
DOS. You can jump from your current
document to a DOS prompt instantaneously,
run the word-count program from THE WORD
PLUS package (p. 62), then exit back to where
rTgErasa.^iSEar.a.^I-^'SiJ'A^VJii- ■:
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;to driveihis diie"'you;practicaHy have;io p to driver-trri^
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.a tnUictt, lit XWIITE 11+ 4oet— k8«./ for ex-ijU, it ieH«f « ertlrt
MittlMHltk t ti»|lB Cipuii.l That-sentencercould iio«ie deleted (and ;: . ,
restored^itli "undo") OP; Mqved'.or copied, i;-^ ..■•''',
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: ^■;,/; ^, ,.., ^ icentered. .:.<-,■ ■
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requisite week learning thi^progra»...
you were in the document in a flash. There
will be plenty of room on your working disk
for your favorite spell checker, since
XYWRITE II + 's files only take up about 75K,
with no overlays to slow things down.
At $300 XYWRITE II + is a great buy. If there
was a contest between equally experienced
users with different word processors, I
wouldn't want to bet money against the
person on XYWRITE II + being the first to
finish writing, editing, and printing a
document of any kind. That must be some
sort of a bottom-line endorsement.
the time are simple and accessible. The 2.0
version has an included spelling checker of
80,000 words (accessible while you're
writing), an excellent manual and online
tutorial finally, and if the 3-line command
menu hinders the bottom of your screen,
there's an option to hide it till needed. I've
tried 'em all; I use WORD (with mouse, with
hard disk). It's the extreme mouse
capability— greater even than on the Mac—
that decides it for me.
Drawbacks. WORD is copy-protected, groan,
a nuisance, though it does function on hard
disk without requiring the tedium of using a
key disk. On-screen page breaks and
numbers are muddy (you have to update
them).
WORD in a straight floppy disk environment
can be slow, but a number of hardware
enhancements will supercharge it for you.
The mouse, of course. A RAM disk ($230
and up), 192K minimum, can accelerate the
speed of the program, same as with
WORDSTAR/NEWWORD.
A hard disk does almost as well. Spezzano:
"Using a PCturbo board from Orchid
Technology ($895, 128K; $985, 256K;
Orchid Technology, Inc., 47790
Westinghouse Dr., Fremont, CA 94539;
415/490-8586) transforms WORD from a
casual jogger to a world class sprinter."
With the Hercules Graphics Card you can get
90 columns by 43 lines (39 writeable) on the
screen (see illustration). With an Apple
LaserWriter (p. 21) or a Hewlett-Packard
LaserJet Printer ($3495), you get
spectacular, publication-quality typesetting.
WORD also supports the Enhanced Graphics
Adaptor and monitors, yielding lovely high
resolution color.
As WORDSTAR was the link between the 8-
bit world of CP/M, Apple II, and Radio Shack
TRS-80 and the 16-bit world of IBM and MS-
DOS, now WORD is the link between the
MS-DOS 16-bitters and the oncoming 32-bit
realm of Macintosh and AT&T's UNIX PC.
WORD on the Macintosh (p. 58) is slower
and more limited (no Style Sheets, no
included speller) than on MS-DOS.
With Microsoft Word, you can change
page layouts as often as every page. You
CAN MIX typefaces, even with right and
left justification, as frequently as you
want.
With MICROSOFT WORD and a laser printer such
as Apple's LaserWriter or Hewlett-Packard's
LaserJet, you can do your own high-quality
typesetting. It could revolutionize the business,
because the savings ol time, money, errors and
aggravation can be enormous lor the self-
publisher.
liSESS
Writer's helpers
STEWART BRAND: Nothing eases the
central labor of writing. "Tria digit
scribit, totus corpul laborat,"
complained a medieval scribe ("three
fingers write but the whole body
labors.") But the mind-numbing
janitorial periphery of writing can be
eased considerably by the cheery
robots of the craft—spelling checkers,
style checkers, word counters,
outliners, keyboard enhancers, and text
databases.
Best for spelling and synonyms on IBM .
William Modlin and David Glickman; IBM PC/XT/
AT/Portable; PCjr; 128K; second disk drive
required for synonym finder function; copy-
protected? NO; $39.95; IBM, Entry Systems
Division, P.O. Box 1328, Boca Raton, FL 33432;
800/447-4700.
STEWART BRAND: Interesting that this best
of spelling checkers also has the best price,
and from an unexpected publisher, IBM itself.
The attractions are many. In a field where
number of words in the dictionary is critical,
WORD PROOF has a whopping 125,000. It's
exceptionally easy to use. The bonus of
synonym-checking is worth twice the price of
the program. And WORD PROOF does its own
rudimentary word processing, so you can
finish doctoring a document with the program
and print right out.
You pull up a text file (created with your
regular word processor) and ask WORD
PROOF to spell-check it— all done with simple
menu commands. Your text is displayed, and
if there's any word the program has doubts
about, it stops and highlights the word. You
can ask for a windowed list of possible correct
spellings, cursor to one you like, and it'll
instantly replace the incorrect one in the text,
while the program goes on to the next word it
doesn't recognize. You can get the same
service by placing the cursor on any word in
your text and asking (fs) about it. Likewise,
put in the Synonyms disk, cursor to a word,
punch F4, and you get a list of closely related
words; indicate the one you like, it's instantly
inserted, and on you go; I find this
miraculous (supernatural, fabulous). No other
spellers do it.
Most misspellings are actually typos. Spelling
checkers catch both. What they can't catch is
words disguised as other words— "than" or
"the" instead of "then," for example.
WORD PROOF doesn't work with all word
processors. Of the ones we recommend on
the IBM, WORD PROOF works beautifully
with HOMEWORD, PC-WRITE,
VOLKSWRITER DELUXE, and XYWRITE II + ;
it works only in ASCII or DOS file mode with
WORDSTAR/NEWWORD, WORD PERFECT
and MICROSOFT WORD; and it works not at
all with PFS:WRITE.
Ubiquitous . . .
Wayne Holder; version 1.21; CP/M-80 and CP/M-86
machines « PC/MS-DOS machines; 64K; copy-
protected? NO; $150;
Wayne Holder; version 1.21; CP/M-80 and CP/M-86
machines « PC/MS-DOS machines; 64K; 2 disk
drives recommended; copy-protected? NO; $125;
both from Oasis Systems, 7907 Ostrow St., San
Diego, CA 92111; 619/279-5711.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: THE WORD PLUS is a
thing of beauty: simple, fast, accurate. The
"Plus" part refers to a smorgasbord of
writing aid programs that come with the
spelling checker, including a tool for
automatically hyphenating words, programs
that help you solve crossword puzzles and
jumbled word games, a general purpose
word-counting utility, a program that locates
and marks homonyms ("there," "their,"
"they're") in your text so you can decide if
you used the write (rite, right) one, and a tool
that keeps track of how many times each
word appears in your document. Word count
is indispensable.
The spell check program is a masterpiece. It
is small enough to fit on the same disk with
my WORDSTAR or VOLKSWRITER
programs, so I do not have to change disks to
use it. Despite this, it has a 45,000 word
dictionary, and it's faster than most— 11/2
minutes to check a 1500-word file.
STEWART BRAND: THE WORD PLUS works
much like WORD PROOF, except it's slower
and feels a little more laborious. You have to
ask it to show context of a questioned word,
and it only shows a line, which often isn't
enough for comfort. Of the word processing
programs we've recommended, THE WORD
PLUS works with WORDSTAR/NEWWORD
(CP/M or IBM), PERFECT WRITER, PC-
WRITE, VOLKSWRITER DELUXE, XYWRITE
II + , and MICROSOFT WORD.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: PUNCTUATION +
STYLE is by the same author The
PUNCTUATION part catches errors in
punctuation and other inaccuracies, such as
incorrect abbreviations, missing capitals at
the beginning of sentences, repeated words
(Paris in the the Spring), mixed upper and
lower case letters (THe— it has a hell of a time
with software names like WordStar and
DesQ), unclosed parentheses, and misused
numbers. The STYLE part has a list of
phrases that are commonly misused in
writing— cliches and phrases which are
"awkward, erroneous, folksy muddy
pompous, redundant, or wordy" Wayne
Holder understands good writing and helps
you achieve it.
STEWART BRAND: I have a feeling that word
processing is encouraging sloppy writing,
because it is so damned easy This program is
an antidote, embarrassing sometimes, but
bracing. I don't think I've generated a single
document over 200 words that didn't benefit
from Holder's attention. If I now said
something [necessitated] something. Holder
would put brackets around it and suggest
"required."
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
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:>ii^^:^S)^A ra!/'^-ii;-4e-'Aij5JA.U*-^'.-:^.-;7Vjj; ;
;'o:t--X'iii-:it.^
STEWART BRAND: Other spellers. WORD-
STAR has a companion, CORREGTSTAR,
65,000 words, $195 (from MicroPro, p. 56),
only on 16-bit machines like IBM, not 8-bit
CP/M, doesn't work with NEWWORD. Its
special talent is finding words by sound.
Woody Liswood: "That means you can type
in the word as it sounds while you are typing
and let CORREGTSTAR find the correct
spelling for you later. It also reformats the
file for you as it goes along, so you don't
have to go back and do it later."
On Apple II + , lie, lie the popular speller is
SENSIBLE SPELLER, 80,000 words, $125
(Sensible Software, Inc., 210 S. Woodward,
Suite 229, Birmingham, Ml 48011;
313/258-5566). It's good, but of our
recommended word processors on the
Apple, it only works with APPLEWORKS and
HOMEWORD, not with PFS: WRITE or
WORD JUGGLER.
On the Macintosh the speller for both
MAGWRITE and MIGROSOFT WORD is
HAYDEN SPELLER, only 20,000 words
($79.95; Hayden Software Go., 600 Suffolk
St., Lowell, MA 01853; 800/343-1218 or, in
MA, 617/937-0200).
And now for something completely different
(that revels in differences) . . .
JONATHAN SAGHS: People who work with
large, frequently revised documents often
must keep track of the changes they make.
For example, a writer may have to prepare a
Customize your writing tool . . .
Improve Your Writing with Word Processing,
David F. and Virginia Noble; 1984; 416 pp.;
$12.95; Que Corporation, 7999 Knue Rd.,
Indianapolis, IN 46250; 800/428-5331 or, in IN,
317/842-7162; or COMPUTER LITERACY.
GHARLES SPEZZANO: Many of us approach
word processing as spectators. The
programmers have set up the editing
procedures. We press the buttons and watch
the magic. Most word processors, however,
can be customized into more of a glove fit
with each writer's style through the use of
keyboard macros, a series of frequently used
keystrokes that are entered once and then
executed when needed by pressing one or
two keys.
The Nobles take this little time-saving trick,
popularized by such keyboard changing
programs as PROKEY and SMARTKEY
(p. 174), and extend it into an art form. They
supply detailed instructions for creating
summary of all the significant changes in a
new edition of a manual. Or an editor may
want to know what a writer has changed
between two drafts of a manuscript. For
these tasks GOMPARE II can be a major time
saver. Many features add to its usefulness. It
can write the summary of changes to a file.
It can display the changed parts of the two
files one after the other or side by side, or it
can reproduce one file with "change bars" in
the left margin to indicate where the other
file differs. Available for GP/M-80, GP/M-86,
PC DOS and MS-DOS, $145 (Solution
Technology, Inc., 1900 N.W. Corporate
Blvd., Suite 400, Boca Raton, FL 33431;
305/997-7226).
STEWART BRAND: If you like shortcuts you
will love keyboard enhancers like PROKEY
3.0 and SMARTKEY (both p. 174). Nothing
so tailors your machine and your software to
your own work habits. Anything repetitive in
your routine— sets of words, sequences of
commands, or both— can be tucked under a
single key and gleefully evoked by just
touching it. Feels like money in the bank
every time.
Creative use of outlining, for many of us only
a grim memory from 7th Grade, is making a
big comeback on computers, thanks to
THINKTANK (p. 92). An all-in-one has been
built around the outline idea, with a capable
word processor as well as database and
spreadsheet included— FRAMEWORK
(p. 110). For general mucking about in your
text files in supremely organized fashion,
check out the databases that Tony Fanning
calls "garbage bags"— DATAFAX (p. 91) and
SUPERFILE (p. 91).
macros to move the cursor by sentences;
mark and highlight a sentence as a block;
semi-automatically reform a paragraph or the
whole file; break a paragraph into sentences
for easier analysis and revision, and then
rebuild the paragraph; transpose two
characters or words or sentences; globally
remove carriage returns (a great help for
telecommunicating files); and more.
In addition to specific instructions for
WORDSTAR-PROKEY users, they also
devote a chapter to implementing similar
systems of macros with PEACHTEXT 5000,
SUPER-TEXT MULTIMATE, SPELLBINDER,
SUPERWRITER, ELECTRIC PENCIL,
WORDPERFECT and XYWRITE II + .
Sufficiently motivated users of other
programs could adapt the procedures to
their own word processor since the macros
are as much conceptual as technical
creatures and can, therefore, move easily
from realm to realm.
Like Pirsig with his Zen motorcycle, I am
convinced that each word processor has a
personality which is not fixed by its creator,
but rather can be defined as "the intuitive
Finding the better word . . .
WORD FliDER O
Most PC/MS-DOS macliines ® Most CP/M
machines; 30K; copy-protected? NO; $79.95
(special introductory offer); Writing Consultants,
300 Main St., East Rochester, NY 14445;
800/828-6293 or, in NY, 716/377-0130.
STEWART BRAND: Here's an improvement
on the synonym-finder in WORD PROOF;
you can use it while you're writing. You load
WORD FINDER before you load your regular
word processor (PFS:WRITE, MULTIMATE,
WORDSTAR 3.3, WORDSTAR 2000, WORD
PERFECT or MICROSOFT WORD— and
perhaps others; phone them). Commence
writing. When your eyes start searching the
ceiling for a better word, hit the proper
command and a window will appear with a
list of synonyms for the word the cursor is
on. Pick the alternate word you prefer, hit
RETURN, and the new one goes in, even with
correct capitalization intact. A boon for those
of us with word tics ("spiffy" used to
describe everything from a wallet to a
philosophy). It might help thought— what are
you getting at with that sentence? Soon we'll
have word randomizers to further stimulate
thought.
sum total" of everything the user knows
about it, feels about it, and can do with it.
This book lets you redefine a word
processor's personality and may, therefore,
save a marriage between user and program
that is threatened by all the fancy newer
packages. In fact, this book starts a genre of
its own, the guides to creative (rather than
just efficient) word processing. Most writers
who have sunk two to five grand in a word
processing system will milk their investment
more thoroughly with the Nobles' advice at
hand.
o4
Woody Liswood, Domain Editor
WOODY LISWOOD: Analyzing is probably what most of us think
of when we think of computers. Why were computers
"invented" in the first place? Answer: To manipulate and analyze
large amounts of data in short periods of time.
Sprssrisheets
The spreadsheet, or "calc" program, has been credited with
creating the microcomputer marketplace. Prior to the
introduction of VISICALC on the Apple computer in 1979 by Dan
Bricklin, Bob Frankston, and Dan Fylstra, most microcomputers
were thought of simply as game machines or machines only
computer programmers owned and understood. Many folks
credit the rise of Apple Computer to its predominant position in
the micro world to the fact that VISICALC, when first released,
was available only on Apples.
Spreadsheets can help you analyze any data that can be
displayed in a row and column format. In addition to using the
accountants' tools such as balance sheets, income statements,
and profit-and-loss statements, with a calc program you can do
regression analysis, correlation, and other statistical functions.
You can derive and predict salary costs and merit budgets for
home and business. If you think of a single file in a calc program
as identical to a single page in a multiple-page report from a
database, your micro can duplicate many complicated
mainframe computer database reports as a series of identical
spreadsheet applications.
The bottom line is this: The uses of spreadsheets keep growing
as "limits" are stretched by new programs and new versions of
old programs.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Making the jump from budget charts on
paper to, most likely, the same form on a microcomputer takes
little imagination, learning, or adjustment, and the advantages
are obvious. Typists no longer need a gallon of White-Out to
correct a 30-page financial report because a change in one
column affected rows of results. Analysts, managers, small-
business owners, salespeople, and household budgeters can
wonder "What if": ... I reduced my expenses in July by $2000?
... the loan rate were 12.3% amortized over 18 years rather
than 13.4% amortized for 12? . . . it takes 56 people 35 hours a
week to do the job in 43 working days and I have only 31
available? Plug in the numbers and get instant answers. Playing
"What if?" is more fascinating and lively than a lot of computer
games.
WOODY LISWOOD: When we started looking for spreadsheets
to review and analyze, we came up with more than 35 products
during the first go-through, including some public domain
programs (pp. 25-27). One fact emerged. Even though they all
work and do about the same thing, even though there are more
similarities among them than differences, and even though they
all generate fierce loyalties in their users, they also differ
significantly in style, memory capacity, speed of operation, and
data management capabilities. Our recommendations are based
on these differences.
Statisties Progrsms
Looking for statistics programs is not as complicated as looking
for spreadsheets. There are fewer of them and they are so
specialized that I doubt anyone would want one who did not
already have some idea of what to do with them. These
programs take data that you enter either directly or from a
database or spreadsheet, and then perform various statistical
tests to help you answer questions about the data and the
relationships within the data. Before you buy a statistics
program, read the documentation and sales literature carefully
to be sure the program has exactly the capabilities you need.
Stmk Market Prog tarns
MATTHEW MCCLURE: Although no one really knows whether
any kind of analysis is consistently effective at predicting stock
performance, more than a dozen "systems" have one feature or
another to recommend them, making them useful to
professional investors and occasional dabblers. Most let you use
data downloaded from networks (pp. 142-145), which saves lots
of data-entry time. And most use only one or two methods of
analysis. WINNING ON WALL STREET (p. 77) employs most of
the popular methods. Be cautious— none of the methods is
foolproof, and although these programs may help you rise above
the novice level, they won't turn you into a pro.
WOODY LISWOOD: Any time you're working primarily with
numbers, you should have a keyboard with a numeric keypad as
well as four arrow keys. That means the worst keyboards for
calc programs are the ones that come with the IBM PC, the
Apple II family, and the Macintosh. On the IBM PC keyboard, the
arrow keys are on the number keypad, so you can't use both at
once. You have to toggle a separate key to activate either the
numbers or the arrows. The Apple II has only left-right, not up-
down arrows, and it has no keypad. The Apple He and lie have
arrow keys but no keypad. The Macintosh has no arrow keys or
keypad (I'm not sure that for real number crunching the mouse
is better than arrow keys). A keypad can be purchased
separately ($99) for all the Apples. For the IBM PC, the Key
Tronic keyboard ($255) with separate number pad and arrows
would be appropriate.
The amount of RAM memory in your computer determines the
maximum size of your spreadsheet (the number of rows,
columns, and formulas). How big is your application? If you are
contemplating no more than, say, 60 rows by 250 columns, you
might like CP/M-based programs on 8-bit (Z-80) computers like
the Kaypro 2, 4 or 10, and the Morrow Micro-Decision. However,
to me, after a few weeks a spreadsheet of this size seems more
like a scratchpad than a full-size calc program. Apple and IBM
PC computers both allow larger memories and spreadsheets,
but here you run into a different limitation. What good is a 512K
spreadsheet in RAM when you can only store 360K on your
floppy disk? If you have an Apple III with 256K, you can easily
create a spreadsheet that exceeds the 160K available on the disk.
When you get to these large-size applications, you need a hard
disk drive. You want your storage capability to exceed the
maximum size of your model and to hold, together on one
logical drive, all the spreadsheets that make up your application.
' 7¥J';M4:'smM4S^MM?M:»J=^^*Mmi'^MMmmBmm^&mmmms \
STEWART BRAND: Spreadsheet programs have given me
this peculiar vision of civilization. What I find new and
wonderful about computerized spreadsheets is that you can
have a vast array of meaningful numbers, and all the
numbers know about each other. Change any one of them,
and they all adjust immediately. They're positively ecological
in that. The same goes for economies. Increasingly, all the
numbers in the world know about each other. The value of
your stock knows about the amount of change in my pocket
as well as the turns of war in the Sudan and the quality of
growing seasons in Colombia. The change in my pocket is
ever alert to what you're deciding not to buy this week.
Computers are in the thick of that. A study I keep waiting for
is a productivity analysis of what personal computers have
done for the national economy in the last couple years—
without any government intervention or even policy (except
the decades of military research that invented the field in the
first place— and the defending of patent rights). Some say
that half of all IBM PCs, in their hundreds of thousands,
are running just 1-2-3. Numbers— clever, quick,
knowledgeable— boiling the stupidity out of countless
business decisions. Interesting how essential the quickness
is. It's 1-2-3's speed that put it on top.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Woody Liswood has been using
spreadsheet programs since the first month VISICALC
appeared on the market and he's used nearly every
wm fflEEii mm mm
WOODY LISWOOD: I've picked SUPERCALC3, Release 2, as
the current winner of the spreadsheet wars in part because it
allows 9999 possible rows of data per worksheet.
Most folks think of spreadsheets only in accounting terms, but
there are many more uses for spreadsheets than the typical
ones like balance sheets, expense reports, and income
statements; and some applications require a large number of
rows rather than a large number of columns. Mine do.
Multitudes of rows are also necessary for tracking stocks,
inventory control— anytime you have a long list of items or
many lookup tables.
I use spreadsheet programs to do all the analysis for job
evaluation installations. The matrix I use contains several
lookup tables, job evaluation information, and often 1000 rows
of information relating to 1000 job titles. With a large
spreadsheet program, I can have all this information on one
worksheet. The worksheet becomes a miniature database
system which shows all of the data on the screen as I enter
and manipulate it; and the file-management capabilities
included with 1-2-3 and SUPERCALC3 let me sort through,
find, and rearrange the data even on immense worksheets.
spreadsheet program that's shown up since. He needs them
for his business— a senior consultant with A.S. Hansen, Inc.
(Larkspur, CA), he's one of the few "Certified Compensation
Professionals" in the country, his specialty being "pay
delivery systems" for corporations.
With spreadsheet and
statistics programs he sets up
complicated models for job
evaluations, salary planning
surveys, regression
analysis— and anything else
he can think of. Since he
recommends different
computers and spreadsheet
programs for different clients'
needs, he has to learn and
teach them all. He was a
contributing editor for Apple
Orchard magazine, where his
reviews of a wide range of
Apple software appeared
monthly, has his own product review magazine on The
Source (key in public direct ii6) (p. 141), writes for Portable
100, has written a book, Human Resources Information
Systems, A Micro Computer Approach, published by
Potentials Group, Inc., in Cupertino, California, and teaches
a graduate compensation course at Golden Gate University
where he's Adjunct Professor.
Woody Liswood
'■/■•'P
One of the best features of the spreadsheet market is the
multitude of books containing instructions and sample
worksheet models. There are books about 1-2-3, VISICALC,
SUPERCALC, and MULTIPLAN, as well as others. But you
really don't need to purchase a book written specifically for
your program to get good use from its worksheet models.
For example, all the recommended spreadsheet programs
use some type of code to indicate a range of cells— say, A1 ,
A2, A3, A4, and A5. In VISICALC you use three dots to
simplify the entry (A1 . . . A5); in SUPERCALC, a colon
(A1:A5); in 1-2-3, two dots (A1 . . A5). Since the logic is
similar, you can take examples from a book written for
VISICALC and simply substitute the correct codes for the
spreadsheet program you're using.
If a book has a model you find interesting, try it. You'll find
it better using the tools, techniques, and tips mentioned in
these books than spending hours with the program trying to
self-discover those same devices.
— Woody Liswood
66
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Comparing the Bl§ flwm
WOODY LISWOOD: With some nostalgic regret, we have
dropped VISICALC, the first microcomputer spreadsheet, from
the Catalog. VISICALC has been outdistanced and outclassed
by the second and third generation spreadsheets. It is still
workable, but for serious spreadsheeting there are now better
and more flexible products.
When you need big features— a gigantic number of rows,
sophisticated math, the ability to use the same program on a
variety of machines, integrated graphics, or data management
capabilities— you'll want to consider 1-2-3 (p. 68),
SUPERCALC3 (p. 67), and MULTIPLAN (p. 70). Many people
use more than one spreadsheet program.
Gl§mile number of mws, s§phistieated math
As far as spreadsheets go, I continue to be impressed with
SUPERCALC3. Release 2 now allows 9999 rows per
worksheet. SYMPHONY (p. 111), the 1-2-3 "all-in-one"
upgrade, has as many, but it's a memory hog— you need
about 240K more RAM to run the same size worksheet; 1-2-3
is easier on memory but it's limited to 2080 rows per
worksheet. In addition, SUPERCALC3 doesn't store blank cells,
which means more RAM memory is available for data-
something neither Lotus product can lay claim to. For these
reasons and because it isn't copy-protected (unlike 1-2-3), I
think it's the best spreadsheet buy for the PC/MS-DOS worlds.
1-2-3 has replaced VISICALC as the spreadsheet standard. It is
the most talked-about program today and has the most
support in terms of books written about it, and templates that
work with it, and even has a magazine devoted to it. I think it's
the best spreadsheet program, with the exception of
SYMPHONY'S spreadsheet, and will recommend it over
SUPERCALC3 when 1-2-3 does a better job of memory
management— assuming that by then SUPERCALC3 hasn't
come up with better features. The race goes on.
Ifitef ratetf graphiss aiirf Ma management
1-2-3 was the first program to integrate graphics and
spreadsheet data; SUPERCALC soon added graphics with a
version called SUPERCALC3. Many folks feel that the graphics
in SUPERCALC3 are far better than those produced by 1-2-3,
and unlike 1-2-3, SUPERCALC3 does not require a graphics
board on an IBM PC. The Drawing section (pp. 122-137) has
reviews of programs that produce graphics— often better than
the graphics integrated within spreadsheet programs— using
data from almost any spreadsheet program.
Both SUPERCALC3 and 1-2-3 have some data-management
capabilities. This translates into "they can sort and find a
specified range of data." If you need data-management
capabilities, you should look at an all-in-one or integrated
package (see the Managing section, pp. 106-121), or plan to
transfer data from a database program to a spreadsheet
program (see p. 72).
Ease §f use
1-2-3 and MULTIPLAN have a good menu-tree structure, so
you don't have to memorize a large number of commands.
SUPERCALC runs from a command line (called up by typing a
slash), which allows you to get to its functions without paging
through a menu. MULTIPLAN on the Mac is as easy as all other
Mac software.
If you are using a computer other than an IBM PC (or MS-DOS),
you'll be limited to 255 rows in your spreadsheet. However,
some programs let you link worksheets, so in effect you can
work with more data than the size of one spreadsheet allows.
MULTIPLAN (p. 70) shines in its ability to consolidate
worksheets.
Using the same program on many machines
If you use more than one machine now, or if you have a low-
priced machine and want a spreadsheet that will be available on
a higher-priced machine you might buy later, consider
SUPERCALC, VISICALC, or MULTIPLAN.
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A number of integrated, all-in-one packages have
appeared on the market, most of which include
spreadsheet programs. If the spreadsheet portion of an
all-in-one is the most important part of the package for
you, and you're in the IBM PC world, you should
consider ENABLE (p. 109) or SYMPHONY (p. Ill), the
"all-in-one" upgrade of 1-2-3. In the Apple II world, the
best "all-in-one" is APPLEWORKS (p. 108). If you're
looking for a spreadsheet program that's part of a family
of products that work nicely with one another, consider
the SMART (p. 112) series.
VISICALC should stand with the printing
press, the steam engine, the harnessing of
electricity, the developnnent of immunizing
agents for virulent diseases, and with
computers in general and the microcomputer
specifically as a milestone along the path of
progress.
—Al Tommervik, Softall
VISICALC represented a new idea of a way to
use a computer and a new way of thinking
about the world. Where conventional
programming was thought of as a sequence
of steps, this new thing was no longer
sequential in effect: When you made a change
in one place, all other things changed
instantly and automatically.
— Ted Nelson
A program should be self-evident. You look at
it and you know what to do. Spreadsheets like
VISICALC are the classic example. All you
need is a crib sheet for commands and you
can fumble around nicely
— Richard Dalton
Q MEANS: NEW TO 2 EDITION
Now better ttian ever . . .
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Version 2.0; IBM PC/XT compatibles; 96K
required, 128K recommended ® Tl Professional;
128K; copy-protected? NO; $395;
Version 1.0; all CP/M machines; CP/M-80; 48K
required, 64K recommended s CP/M-86, PC DOS
and MS-DOS machines; 64K required, 128K
recommended; copy-protected? NO; $295;
Version 1.12; all CP/M machines; CP/M-80; 48K
required, 64K recommended » CP/M-86, PC DOS
and MS-DOS machines; 64K required, 128K
recommended; copy-protected? NO; $195;
all from Sorcim/IUS Corp., 2195 Fortune Dr., San
Jose, CA 95131; 408/942-1727.
SALLY GOHLJEB: SUPERCALC users will feel
right at home with SUPERCALC3, Sorcim's
latest addition to the bewildering array of
spreadsheets on the market. It has the same
straightforward simplicity as SUPERCALC,
plus integrated graphics that make it a worthy
competitor of 1-2-3 (p. 68). Spreadsheets
created by SUPERCALC, SUPERCALC2, or
SUPERCALC3 load and operate with no
changes from one version to the other.
The graphics are delightfully easy to use. One
keystroke switches from spreadsheet to
graph on the screen, so you can see your
graph as you build it. Unlike 1-2-3,
SUPERCALC3 does not require a graphics
board to have this capability on an IBM PC.
The user manual, which contains ten lessons
for the beginner, is remarkably good. In
general, the program is straightforward and
easy to use. Sophisticated users {i.e.,
programmers-at-heart) will prefer the
complexity and elegance of 1-2-3.
WOODY LISWOOO: I have switched my
spreadsheet work from 1-2-3 (p. 68) to
SUPERCALC3, Release 2, rather than move
up to SYMPHONY (p. 111), because of the
extra rows (9999) and the way in which
SUPERCALC manages memory. Because
SUPERCALC3 doesn't store space for
unused cells on the worksheet, I can design
my worksheets to suit my personality
without constraint. Before, always concerned
about getting maximum usage from large
models, I had to worry about the size of the
rectangle and whether the extra memory
required for a blank line of unused cells was
worth the gain in visual clarity.
Release 2 of SUPERCALC3 has quite good
graphics, supports the 8087 math chip
(which speeds up calculations) and, like the
other versions of SUPERCALC, is not copy-
protected. 1-2-3 and SYMPHONY on the
other hand, are copy-protected and require a
key disk in drive A to start up the programs.
A definite, daily hassle if you frequently use
more than one software program
particularly if you are using a hani (II'.k
In addition, SUPERCALC3, ReleaM; :' corm:..
with two programs that will make V(uii liti-
much easier. SIDEWAYS (p. 69) prints ynur
worksheet lengthwise across a miilntuni; ol
sheets of paper. Since it comes conlKiudMi
for SUPERCALC3, you don't havn :ii timl
around trying to find the correct variables lo
use when printing your file to disk. The
second program is called SUPER DATA
EXCHANGE (SDI). SDI converts files from
almost any other database into SUPERCALC3
files, and vice versa; and it translates
formulas and data from other spreadsheets
into SUPERCALC3 files so you can switch
from other spreadsheets and bring your old
worksheets along.
If you need a very good spreadsheet and
don't want the clutter and nonsense of
SYMPHONY try SUPERCALC3, Release 2.
The newly released SUPERCALC3a for the
Apple lie and Enhanced lie ($195) has fewer
rows than its MS-DOS cousin, but is
otherwise quite similar and a very good
spreadsheet.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: SUPERCALC's
features include ones typically found in
spreadsheet programs: automatic
recalculation, replication (copies formulas),
cell protection, formatting for dollar amounts,
whole numbers and scientific notation, and
the ability to have two parts of the
spreadsheet onscreen at the same time (in
windows). Formulas include arithmetic (add,
multiply, divide, subtract), exponentiation
(raise to a power), and relational operators
(equal to, not equal to, less than, greater
than, and so on). Also, it lets you combine
formulas with conditional expressions (or,
and, not, and if). Among the built-in functions
are ones that let you calculate absolute value,
net present value, averages, counts,
exponential value, logarithms, maximum,
minimum, sine, cosine, tangents,
arctangents, square roots, and pi. It gives
you a maximum of 63 columns and 254 rows
per worksheet.
SUPERCALC2 has all the features and
functions of SUPERCALC plus formatting
options for a floating dollar sign, imbedded
commas, macro capability, bracketed
negative numbers, and zero amounts
expressed as blank cells. SUPERCALC2 can
sort by column or row, can consolidate total
spreadsheets or parts of spreadsheets, and
has date and calendar functions.
SUPERCALC3 has all the features of
SUPERCALC2 plus graphics and data
management.
The data management, like that of 1-2-3,
means, as Woody says, that it can sort data
and find data.
Data entered into a SUPERCALC2 spreadslieet
(middle screen) can be easily transferred to
SUPERCALC3 when you upgrade. SC3's graphics
capabilities allow you to graph one row's
performance month by month.
mmBis^m^im^!3m!smmssi^ieims&:igaxes?S!imiss)<
Change one or two numbers, and calculate an
entire set of salary ranges for your company Data
is entered in the MidPoint column. Then you select
the starting percentage for your range spread as
well as the percentage difference between
adjacent spreads. SUPEHCALC3 does all the rest.
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68
Lots of rows, the premium multifunction
package . . .
Version 1A; IBM PC/XT/AT compatibles ® IBM PCjr
® IBM 3270 PC ® MS-DOS machines; 192K;
graphics board required for graphics; 2 disk drives
or hard disk; $495; copy-protected? YES; Lotus
Development Corp., 55 Cambridge Pkwy.,
Cambridge, MA 02142; 617/253-9150.
SALLY GOHLIEB: This program hit the top of
the best-selling software list shortly after its
introduction in late 1982, and stayed there
throughout most of 1983 and 1984, with good
reason. It was the first spreadsheet program
to include graphics capabilities along with
many powerful features such as large
spreadsheet size, consolidation of spread-
sheets, many built-in math functions. It also
had a macro feature (so you can type in a
series of commands, save them, and then do
the whole command sequence again at any
time by pressing one key on the keyboard).
It's also one of the fastest spreadsheet
programs on the market.
The ads bill this program as an "integrated
spreadsheet, database and graphics
package." Buyer beware! Although 1-2-3's
database allows simple sorting and selection,
it has no true report generator, data entry or
data validation functions. It's a stretch to call
this a database. (See the Organizing section
for recommended database managers
[pp. 85-89].) Likewise, the graphics are
crude compared to those of most graphics
packages on the market and require a
graphics board in the IBM PC.
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1-2-3 has a versatile spreadsheet with variable
column widths. A printout of this cash-llow
analysis is on the lollowing page.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: For number people,
standard IBM PC monochrome monitors have
better character resolution than color
monitors— but this configuration rarely
includes a graphics board. IBM PCs with
color monitors do have a graphics board.
Compaqs have graphics capability as
standard equipment.
SALLY GOHLIEB: 1-2-3 has a very good
online tutorial, which helps ease a beginner
into its many features. Although menu-
driven, 1-2-3 is a complex program. If you
have a secret hankering to be a programmer,
you will love the tricks you can play with the
macro feature. If you don't, you probably
won't find much use for them.
WOODY LISWOOD: I feel that 1-2-3 has one
funny anomaly. When moving rows or
columns of data, the program writes the new
data on top of any found in the new column or
row, and the old data is lost. Other programs,
when moving data, push aside the old to
make room for the new, and preserve both.
When you first use 1-2-3, you will make the
mistake of moving data without first creating
a space. After overwriting some data once,
however, you will probably never do it again.
CHRIS WOLF: I have complaints about design
features that work against the natural feel.
The command menus in 1-2-3 exhibit
inconsistent behavior. Sometimes when you
complete a command sequence you wind up
back in "ready" mode; other times you drop
back one, two or three menu levels; still other
times you stay exactly where you are and
must quit explicitly to complete the sequence.
Some menus have no "quit" option, so you
have to press the escape key to go back one
level. This is especially confusing for
beginners.
Any error that occurs in "command" mode
drops you back to "ready" mode, and you
have to go back through the menu tree to
where you were to complete what you wanted
to do— especially annoying if you simply
make a typo in a cell, range, or file name
where any decent program would tell you it
was an error and let you try again. This is
really rude behavior from a $500 package.
The graphing feature in 1-2-3 is quite nice,
but it just makes me wish it were better The
biggest problem is the program's inability to
draw dotted or dashed lines.
DICK YORK: The thing that's missing from
most financial statements is cash flow
projections. With 1-2-3, 1 can do cash flow
projections of the type usually only affordable
by large corporations. These projections tell
me what to expect; they also inspire
confidence in potential lenders concerned
with "ability to repay." This is particularly
important when sources of income are
complicated.
I use graphs a great deal to look at
relationships. I often don't even print them,
but find the ability to simplify information
valuable. Putting our consolidated cash
receipts in the form of a pie chart shows
sources of income and how the total is
derived more clearly than a page full of
numbers— lenders can see relationships and
interrelationships easily.
I also use 1-2-3 to keep track of cash flow for
a portfolio of selected properties, since none
of the property-analysis programs I've found
will deal with more than one piece of property
at a time. I take basic information from our
tax returns (my CPA is about to get a modem,
so soon, I hope, I won't have to re-enter all
the data), then enter debt totals. The
spreadsheet model shows rental income,
expenses, debt service, and various rates of
return evaluations; it produces a cash flow for
the entire portfolio. When we're considering
buying or selling a piece of property, I add it
to (or subtract it from) the spreadsheet and
immediately see how the proposed
transaction affects the entire portfolio.
The application pictured calculates how much
rent I expect to receive from a business that
leases a building from me and how much I'll
owe on the land I lease from someone else.
Since the amount of rent is based on gross
receipts, my income and expenses vary from
month to month. Using 1-2-3, 1 discovered
what seems to be a very accurate way to
predict my cash flow. When I entered monthly .
receipts over a period of several years,
divided each year's totals by each month in
the year and looked at the results in a pie
chart, I found to my surprise the pie charts
for each year looked identical— it turned out
that each month's percentage of the annual
gross varied by less than a tenth of a percent
each year May 1981 was 9.1%; so were May
1982 and May 1983. With this information I
can predict monthly and annual receipts with
a fair degree of accuracy.
Of course, as we get further into the year,
these projections become more accurate.
Meanwhile, I have an ongoing picture of how
much rent I'll owe and how much they'll owe
me, and I can compare this year's projections
to last year's figures to find the percentage of
increase or decrease. With this information, I
can compare sales per year to the inflation
rate and chart the comparisons with a line
graph. I also look at how the business is
doing compared to the cost-of-living index
and gross national product.
WOODY LISWOOD: Lotus has promised an
upgrade to 1-2-3 this fall. The upgrade, they
promise, will manage memory more
efficiently, support 8087 and 80287
coprocessors and the Intel Above Board's
extra memory, give access to DOS from
within a program, and be more compatible
with SYMPHONY.
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MEANS; NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
69
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D/a YOm: I use SIDEWAYS to print tlie
spreadslteet, and it does exactly what its name
implies: prints the spreadsheet sideways on
continuous form paper, so the spreadsheet can
have as many columns as you want. The database
for this property has five years of information so
far. It's a 20-year lease and I expect to keep adding
information for the next 15 years, and keep
printing the added columns with no problems.
SIDEWAYS doesn't print the graph, but I rotate it
270 degrees in 1-2-3 to match the printout.
Easy rider . . .
Version 1.5. Copy-protected. $39.95. IBM PC/XT/
AT and compatibles; IBM PCjr; Tl Professional.
Nostradamus, 5320 South 900 East, Suite 110,
Salt Lake City, UT 84117; 801/261-0769.
WOODY LISWOOO: Copy-protected
programs like 1-2-3 that let you load their
software onto your hard disk but require that
you put a program (or key) disk in Drive A to
run the program are a hassle.
HARDRUNNER to the rescue! Put the
HARDRUNNER disk in drive A, log on to the
root directory on the hard disk, and type
HARDRUN. A few seconds later there is a
small 384-byte ".COM" file on your hard
disk. Now re-boot and you'll find that your
1-2-3 or SYMPHONY files boot without a
disk in Drive A.
HARDRUNNER works fine on my COMPAQ
equipped with 640K of memory and an AST
board with the Super Driver RAM disk
program. And it works with my STB board,
but not with the accompanying PCA
program. So, if you think you need this
program, call the company to be sure it will
work with your particular equipment
configuration before buying it.
Columns unlimited . . .
Version 2.01; IBM PC compatibles; 64K o Apple II
family; 48K e Toshiba o Tl Professional and others
• IBM, Epson, Okidata, Prism, ProWriter, and
most popular dot matrix graphics printers; copy-
protected? NO; $60; Funk Software, Inc., P.O. Box
1290, Cambridge, MA 02238; 617/497-6339.
WOODY LISWOOD: SIDEWAYS allows a dot
matrix printer to print your spreadsheet or
other ASCII text file sideways down multiple
sheets of paper. It works quickly and easily
and is a must if you are continually trying to
print worksheets that are wider than your
paper. SIDEWAYS eliminates having to do
lots of cutting and pasting—and it helps to
know as you begin designing a worksheet
that you'll be able to print it all in one piece,
no matter how many columns wide it is.
(You'll be back to cutting and pasting,
however, if your worksheet has an enormous
number of rows as well. I use it with my
Okidata 93 dot matrix printer and am able to
print worksheets 100 rows deep.)
Monthly support . . .
LOTUS ©
$18/yr (12 issues) or 6 month free trial
subscription to registered owners of Lotus
software. Subscriber Services Manager, LOTUS
Magazine, 55 Cambridge Pkwy., Cambridge, MA
02142; 617/253-9150.
WOODY LISWOOD: LOTUS, a magazine for
1-2-3 and SYMPHONY (p. Ill) users, is on
the market. Published by Lotus itself, it
contains good information, lots of
advertising for 1-2-3 and SYMPHONY add-
ons, and appears to be straight information
rather than puff press pablum. If you use
1-2-3 or SYMPHONY, this will be a welcome
addition to your reading habits.
II.:-
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Learning . . .
Be liR)^ PC 3BIQ1=2=3
The IBM PC and 1-2-3; James E. Kelley, Jr.; 1983;
306 pp.; $39.95; Banbury Books, 353 West
Lancaster Ave., Wayne, PA 19087; 215/964-9101;
or COMPUTER LITERACY
WOODY LISWOOD: I found more tips and
lucid explanations about 1-2-3 in this book
than I ever expected I could find anywhere. If
1-2-3 drives you crazy with its multitude of
commands and its vast potential, this book
presents the features, along with samples on
a disk of the functions, that are somewhat
arcanely explained in the 1-2-3 documen-
tation. The disk contains, among other
things, a project-scheduling template, which
shows you how to do critical-path scheduling
without having to purchase that type of
program. That alone makes this book
extremely valuable for the business user. (For
other scheduling programs and project-
management programs, see Managing,
pp. 106-121.)
WOODY LISWOOD: There are
multitudes of templates— programs
written with 1-2-3 commands for
particular applications— available for
people who don't have the time to do
the programming themselves.
Option Ware Incorporated (Bloomfield,
CT) makes the best— and probably the
most, with more than 50 applications
available. I've used and like their
Consolidated Manpower and Expenses,
Department Budgets, Department
Budgets History and Department
Budget Projections applications.
They're all menu-driven and run in
1-2-3.
70
s
Best at consolidating worlcsheets . . .
Apple II family; 64K; $95 ® Apple III ® CP/M-80
(with SoftCard System); 128K; other CP/M-80
machines; 56K ® IBM PC compatibles and MS-
DOS machines; 64K ® Macintosh; 1 disk drive;
copy-protected? YES; $195; Microsoft Corporation,
10700 Northup Way, Box 97200, Bellevue, WA
98009; 206/828-8080.
SilaryPlin /
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k salary plan determines the appropriate
percentage merit budget for a coming year. Not a
lot of work after you have things setup. After you
enter the regulred data, you change the market
movement assumption and this MULTIPLAN
spreadsheet will tell you the appropriate merit
budget needed for that set of employees.
Cindy Craig used MULTIPLAN on the Mac to create
a readable draft of the chart on pp. 50-51. She had
never used a spreadsheet before.
WOODY LISWOOD: MULTIPLAN is also a
close runner-up to 1-2-3 (p. 68). It advertises
Itself as a second-generation spreadsheet. It
is available on almost all machines in almost
all operating environments. Like 1-2-3,
MULTIPLAN has a well thought-out menu
structure, so you don't have to memorize
slash commands as in VISICALC or
SUPERCALC.
There's one "feature" of MULTIPLAN,
however, that I find abominable— the way it
refers to cell locations. Most other programs
designate rows and columns as numbers and
letters, so you know when you are in cell A1
(the junction of column A and row 1). So
when you are in CI and want to reference A1 ,
you type A1. In MULTIPLAN, however, you
keep track oi rows and ceils that way, but
enter and keep all cell references in relative
notation. This means that when you are in CI
and want to refer to A1 , you must type C-2
R— translation: "go back two columns and
stay in the same row." Such expressions
make it very difficult to read logic flows, so
you always end up pointing with the cursor
rather than typing in the relative location.
MULTIPLAN shines, however, in its ability to
consolidate worksheets.
MULTIPLAN allows you to use alphabetic
names for groups of data. So you might label
the "results" column in a worksheet as
RESULTS and then build a consolidated
worksheet using the RESULTS from ten other
worksheets. To do this, you would design the
original ten worksheets, then design a
consolidated worksheet that instructs
MULTIPLAN to place the RESULTS column
from each of those other worksheets in the
correct column in the consolidated
worksheet. What happens if you make
changes in, say, three of the original
worksheets? Load the consolidated
worksheet and it automatically adjusts,
using the new data.
For the Apple II family . . .
William Graves; Version 2.165; Apple II family;
48K; copyprotected? YES; $99.95; ARTSCI, Inc.,
5547 Satsuma Ave., North Hollywood, CA 91601;
818/985-2922.
William Graves; Apple II family; 48K « Apple III in
emulation mode; copy-protected? NO; $65 to
members only ($49 membership: $26/1st year
dues, $23 initiation fee); A.P.RL.E., 290 S.W. 43rd
St., Ronton, WA 98055; 206/251-5222.
William Graves; Apple II family; 48K ® Apple III in
emulation mode; copy-protected? NO; $39.95 for
members (membership fee: $30), $49.95 for non-
members; International Apple Core, 908 George
St., Santa Clara, CA 95050; 408/727-7652.
DON SCELLATO: MAGICALC is currently
available from three different sources under
three different names. The product is the
same in all cases, but the price varies
significantly. A.RRL.E. and International
Apple Core have lower prices for paid
members of their organizations.
MAGICALC is very similar to the Apple DOS
3.3 version of VISICALC and the original
version of VISICALC for the IBM PC.
MAGICALC can use VISICALC models and
data files, which means the experienced
VISICALC user can easily move from one
program to the other without retyping entire
models, although a few changes are
sometimes required to move formulas from
MAGICALC into VISICALC.
MAGICALC's menu offers Calculate (the
spreadsheet program itself). File, Format, and
Configuration subsystems, and the option of
"Booting the next program." A spreadsheet
can hold 16,002 cells (63 columns, 254
rows), although unless you have 512K RAM
memory, you can't access all the cells at
once.
MAGICALC has thirteen built-in math
functions and seven built-in logic functions. It
provides "Lookup," minimum and maximum
value selection, and the use of "not, or, true,
and not available" criteria for displaying
values in particular cells. It has two built-in
financial functions— Internal Rate of Return
and Net Present Value— and no built-in date
functions.
In addition to working well with VISICALC,
MAGICALC's DIF files can be used by other
Apple II programs, such as Apple II business
graphics, DB MASTER (p. 83), and
PFS:GRAPH, which saves keying data into
other programs.
It's an excellent spreadsheet program,
offering the user more file handling and
formatting options than the basic versions of
VISICALC. However, MAGICALC has no built-
in trigonometric functions; it can't display 70
columns of characters without a video
expansion card; nor can it be configured for
80-column display on a number of video
expansion cards.
WOODY LISWOOD: MAGICALC, available in a
number of incarnations, is the recommended
program in the Apple DOS environment. It
lacks some of the trigonometric functions of
the original VISICALC program. However, for
normal use it has most of what you will need
as well as the advanced features found in the
second-generation programs (variable
column widths being the most important).
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
71
Free for Model 100 owners ,
vj^^msi^gs^^m^^^^^^^^^S^^^^.-
Comes on a chip . . .
Li if^i w 0%^
III, III fc^
Version 1.5. Copy-protected. $149.95. TRS-80
Model 100. Portable Computer Support Group,
11035 Harry Hines Blvd., Suite 207, Dallas, TX
75229; 214/351-0564.
WOODY LISWOOO: Loaded with LUCID, the
Model 100 (p. 16) Is a serious, portable
spreadsheet tool. LUCID Is as powerful as
any spreadsheet for any microcomputer on
the market. The worksheet can be very
large— 254 rows by 126 columns. LUCIO's
features include the ability to cut and paste
data from one area of the worksheet to
another, variable column widths, customized
input forms, and bug-free formula
manipulation. A utility menu branches to
specialized extra programs including ones
that sort data and draw graphs. LUCID
comes as a chip you install in the bottom of
the Model 100, which means it takes up no
memory space and is fast.
JAMES STOCKFORD: LUCID ranks right up
there with SUPERCALC (p. 67) and 1-2-3
(p. 68). That it can work with text as well as
The higher-cost spread . . .
$2995. Hewlett-Packard, 1020 N.E. Circle Blvd.,
Corvallis, OR 97330; 800/367-4772.
WOODY LISWOOD: 1-2-3 comes on the HP
110's ROM chip and contains almost all the
features 1-2-3 (p. 68) has on the bigger
machines. It makes the over-engineered and
pricey HP110 a useful spreadsheet machine.
RICHARD DALTON: Think of HP's 9-pound
powerhouse as a quantum jump up from the
TRS-80 Model 100 (p. 16)— in both price and
performance. Cost is $2,995 and you get a lot
more: 16 line x 80 column screen; 272K RAM
and 392K ROM memory; built-in modem;
sophisticated software and five extra pounds
to lug.
That's all fine, but you should have use for the
integrated software if the price difference is to
make sense. The 110 comes equipped with
1-2-3, MEMO MAKER (a limited writing tool),
and TERMINAL, a simple, powerful
telecommunications program.
The LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen is
controversial. Characters are shaded for
readability but the screen must be straight in
front of you and tilted just right or glare is a
problem. Contrast is adjustable over a wide
range. At its best viewing point, I still
wouldn't want to look at the screen for
periods beyond an hour or two.
numbers Is terrific. You can use "if-then"
statements to find figures for particular
situations. Create a table for your Nirvana Oil
Company Punch with bottle size and weight
of emollients, and LUCID will come back
with the number of bottles you have to sell
to make your costs, and warn you if your
combination exceeds toxicity levels of boola-
boola juice.
WOODY LISWOOD: The Tandy Radio Shack
Model 200 lap-size computer comes with
MULTIPLAN (p. 70) on the machine's ROM
("Read Only Memory") chip, rather than on
a plug-in ROM chip like LUCID for the Model
100. Although this version of MULTIPLAN
works about the same on the Model 200 as
on the larger micros, the Model 200
MULTIPLAN allows only 99 rows. LUCID has
more capacity and features than the Model
200 MULTIPLAN, and is limited in
comparison only by two Model 100
limitations: the Model 100 has an 8-line
screen versus the 200's 16 lines, and the
Model 100 can have a maximum memory of
32K RAM versus the 200's 96K. You get a
better spreadsheet using LUCID in the Model
100 and the combined price is lower.
The HP110, "The Portable, " is a classy, solidly
constructed spreadsheet machine; however, the
price is prohibitive unless you can get a tax break
for using the 110 in business.
TRS-80 Model 100; 24K; free to members of
CompuServe's (p. 140) Model 100 SIG (PCS-154);
membership in the SIG free to CompuServe
members.
WOODY LISWOOD: There are a number of
calc programs available for the TRS-80 Model
100 (p. 16). When you compare price to
features, however, the winner is the MINIVC
program, available as a free public domain
program on the TRS-80 Model 100 Special
Interest Group (SIG) on the CompuServe
Information Service (CIS) network (p. 140). If
you are on CIS, you'll find the SIG by typing
GO PCS 154 at the main prompt.
The cost is right: $000.00.
MINIVC has the right features. It is modular in
approach, and you do not need to add the
code (and can delete the code) for any
features you do not need. This is important,
for with less code you have more memory
available for your spreadsheet.
MINIVC can ABS (absolute value), INT
(integer), SORT (square root), ROUND (round
off), SUM (add all or part of a row or column),
and AVG (find an average). A second module
adds MIN (find the minimum value in a list),
MAX (find the maximum value), MOD, FIX,
PI, EXP (exponentiate), COS (cosine), LN
(natural logarithm), TAN (tangent), SIN (sine),
ATAN (arctangent), as well as Boolean
operators. You can also replicate both
absolute and relative numbers, insert and
delete, transfer and edit your data. In other
words, MINIVC can do the same sort of
things as many of the other calc programs
that cost you your hard-earned dollars.
Well, if it is free, what is the problem with
it? This is a BASIC program, not a machine-
language program, and therefore slower.
Also, I would like to have adjustable column
widths. Other than that, no problems. It has
all the features you might want, considering
the limited (32K) memory on the machine. By
the time you read this, author Woods Martin
(CIS number 70235,232) will probably have
added more features.
What we need is to develop a way of
discussing computers, and all technologies,
from what we might call a "holistic"
perspective. The question must not be
confined to whether a computer serves your
organization well, or whether it spits out
perfectly-edited copy We need to view the
computer for the totality of its effects upon
society and life on Earth, and to ask
questions which will bring forth that picture.
How do computers affect concentrations of
wealth and power? Who gains and who loses
because of their existence? Do computers
have environmental effects? What are they?
What about diversity of culture and thought?
The way we work, and who gets to work?
What are the effects on what we know and
are capable of knowing? What is gained and
what is lost?
— Jerry Mander
77
Costs less than $60 . . .
¥€-mw ©
Jim Button. Version 2.0. Not copy-protected.
Shareware; $48 registration fee for disk and
manual; updates extra. Buttonware, P.O. Box
5786, Believue, WA 98006; 800/528-8866 or, in
WA, 206/746-4296.
WOODY LISWOOD: Spreadsheets have
arrived at last in the shareware domain.
What's shareware? A method of distribution
that encourages people to try programs,
copy them, give them to friends. If you
decide you like the program, then you pay
for it, register it, get the printed user's
guide, and away you go. PC-CALC is a full-
featured spreadsheet with many of the
functions you will want to use. The price is
right. However, the program is written in
BASIC (therefore slow) and has limited size
(255 rows). If these limitations don't bother
you, if you rarely have need for a
spreadsheet, or if you always wondered
whether you really wanted to use a
spreadsheet, this is a good way to go. I
recommend it over PFS:PLAN, another
relatively limited but inexpensive spreadsheet
from the folks who also sell the popular
PFS:FILE (p. 80), because PC-CALC is more
fully featured, less expensive and you don't
have to pay for it unless you like it.
I[mmsllilji]mt WMMm
^ K^p^^P^^^^^^^l^mf^^^^
Consolidating worksheets .
Laurence Ctiapman; version 3.0; IBM PC/XT
compatiiiles, Wang, Tl Professional; 192K; copy-
protected; $125; Micro Decision Systems, Box
1392, Pittsburgh, PA 15230; 412/854-4070.
DON SCELLATO: This utility program
operates on VISICALC, SUPERCALC (all
versions), 1-2-3, SYMPHONY, and
MULTIPLAN worksheet or template files,
allowing the user to add them together,
subtract one from another, divide or multiply
them by a selected number, and add or
subtract a number from them. You can add
together all the segments of an activity to
provide an overall analysis or generate
variance-analysis reports along with percent-
and time-change reports. Since a worksheet
in one file can be divided by a worksheet in
another, you can also, for example, get a
"percent of total company" analysis report
for one segment of a company, or a "percent
of total market" analysis for a company.
To use MERGECALC, however, the layouts of
all the worksheets and models to be
manipulated as a set must be identical. You
are working with different versions of
identical templates, so the only difference
between the templates will be the input data,
not the formulas or grid locations of your
data.
WOODY LISWOOD: The spreadsheet is a visual environnnent where you can
perform mathematical, algebraic, and logical operations and see the results of
those operations immediately. With a database, you normally work with (and
see) one record at a time. To change the relationships between data in a
database, to look at all the data, or to edit it requires considerable effort.
However, the error-checking capabilities built into many databases (and missing
from spreadsheet programs) can be an advantage when you want to ensure
accurate data entry.
The best databases give you many options for fancy, formatted, printed reports
impossible to produce with a spreadsheet. For example, I use a spreadsheet
program to analyze and process salary surveys. Entering the data into a
worksheet makes it easy to see each row as it goes by, edit, and look for
anomalies. The problem comes when I want to print a report that shows all the
information for each job on a page by itself. To do this with a spreadsheet
program, I would need a worksheet 2750 rows deep with 50 duplicate sets of
headings and formulas. By printing the report with a database 1 can set up a
Preformatted page with all the headings on it, and print all the reports quickly
with one pass through the data.
Moving data to a spreadsheet for analysis and what-if possibilities, then moving
the data from a spreadsheet to the database for reports, gives me the best of
^°^h ^°^'^s- -Woody Liswood
Spreadsheet to spreadsheet .
Laurence Chapman; version 1.47; IBM PC/XT
compatibles, Wang, Tl Professional; 256K; copy-
protected; $245; Micro Decision Systems, Box
1392, Pittsburgh, PA 15230; 412/854-4070.
Auditing a spreadsheet model . . .
DOCUCILC O
Laurence Chapman; version 5.0; IBM PC/XT
compatibles, Wang, Tl Professional; 192K; copy-
protected; $95; Micro Decision Systems, Box
1392, Pittsburgh, PA 15230; 412/854-4070.
WOODY LISWOOD: When you create
complicated spreadsheets, you need to
document your methodology for your own
benefit in case you want to change
something, and for the benefit of someone
who wants to understand the model you
created. For documentation purposes, the
built-in cell-formula printer routines in the
major spreadsheets leave much to be
desired. DOCUCALC prints formulas out in
row order, in column order, or in a matrix
identical to where the formulas are in your
worksheet. It also prints reports showing
circular references, ranges, and blank cells.
Works great. A must-have program for
VISICALC, SUPERCALC (any version), 1-2-3,
SYMPHONY or MULTIPLAN users who need
to keep track of what is happening.
For more utilities: SIDEWAYS (p. 69)
and Programming (pp. 158 to 174).
WOODY LISWOOD: CONVERTACALC
converts models from one spreadsheet into
models used by another, converts formulas
and labels, and moves the data, too.
Whichever way you want. It works with
VISICALC, all versions of SUPERCALC,
1-2-3, SYMPHONY and MULTIPLAN.
Spreadsheet to database to
spreadsheet to . . .
Laurence Chapman; version 5.14; IBM PC/XT
compatibles, Wang, Tl Professional; 192K; copy-
protected; $175; Micro Decision Systems, Box
1392, Pittsburgh, PA 15230; 412/854-4070.
Need to get data into and out of a
spreadsheet program and a variety of other
formats? LOADCALC converts ASCII text files
(no command codes imbedded in the files)
into spreadsheet formats; converts
spreadsheet files into files that can be used
by DBASE II (p. 85), DBASE III (p. 86), and
other major databases; and converts
spreadsheet files into DIF files that can be
used by 6RAPHWRITER (p. 129) and CHART
MASTER (p. 129). LOADCALC is primarily
used to change columnar reports
downloaded from mainframes (for example,
online databases) into spreadsheet files.
However, it can convert any file with
delimited values (for example, a line of data
with commas between each separate item)
into spreadsheet format, and it allows you to
enter delimiters. It works with VISICALC, all
versions of SUPERCALC, 1-2-3, SYMPHONY
and MULTIPLAN.
7^
When a spreadsheet isn't enough . . .
EniiiiTc ^^
uumt %J
Alan Reeder and George Olding. Version 1.1. Not
copy-protected. $195 (street $140). IBM PC/XT/AT
and compatibles (128K). Equate Research Group,
5632 East Third St., Tucson, AZ 85711;
602/745-8086.
WOODY LISWOOD: One of the problems
with life in the digital world is that solutions
to some mathematical problems require
formulas that won't work in the slick and
easy spreadsheet environments. EQUATE
has many of the same functions as a
spreadsheet and, in addition, its
programming language lets you design
formulas and build equations that
spreadsheet programs would just burp at.
EQUATE helps you create and solve
formulas: You get a few preformatted
worksheets and one worksheet that contains
most of the constants you might need but
can't find or remember. Once you've built an
equation, EQUATE will prompt you for
missing variables. Solutions are actually
printed in a table format that looks
indistinguishable from a typical spreadsheet.
It's the only program of its kind on the
market.
Survey analysis . . .
Version 3.11. Copy-protected. $495 (street $275).
IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles (192K). Hard disk
required for full program capabilities. Personnel
Software, Inc., 317 Barton Ct., Danville, CA
94526:415/831-1697.
WOODY LISWOOD: SOLOMON does only
one thing—paired comparisons with multiple
criteria— and does it very well. You can have
up to 20 raters (survey respondents) and 50
items. In addition you can specify partial
subsets. And each rater does not have to
evaluate each item for the program to work.
Say you have decided to upgrade your
employee benefit program, but you have no
idea how your employees would respond to
new benefits or changes. So you develop a
list of current and future benefits. Then you
have SOLOMON develop a set of survey
questions that you have each of your
employees complete.
SOLOMON takes all of the results and ranks
the entire set of items according to their
importance to employees. You also receive a
relative value order, which gives you the
magnitude of difference between each item.
It's the only program of its kind.
Although SOLOMON was designed as a
management tool for rating employees, its
criteria- ranking capabilities could just as well be
used for evaluating products such as software.
Program-generated forms such as this one are
filled out by up to twenty appraisers, and the data
is entered into the program. The result is a
ranked list of spreadsheet programs for the
criterion "ease of use."
SOLOMON
Standard Appraisal Form
ursanizi.ti
on:
Personnel Software Inc.
Page 1
pr
oject: SPREADSHEET EVALUATION
ppralser
,
- EASE OF USE
,
SUPERCALC3
HULTIPLAN
2
HULTIPLAN
i-a-3
3
1-2-3
SMARTSPREAD
4
SUPERCALC3
1-2-3
5
MUl TlPl.AN
SMARTSPREAD
6
SUPERCALC3
SMARTSPREAD
Complex problem solving .
Apple II family; 64K m IBM PC/XT compatibles
® MS-DOS machines; 128K; copy-protected? YES;
$399;
Mechanical Engineering, Financial Management,
Introductory Science, and Building Design &
Construction; runs on same systems as
TKISQLVER; copy-protected? YES; $100 each;
both from Software Arts, 27 Mica Lane, Wellesley,
MA 02181; 617/237-4000.
DON SCELLATO: TKISQLVER is a useful tool
for people who must frequently solve
complex mathematical equations, have no
desire to write complicated programs in
BASIC or another language, and do not want
to work within the constraints of electronic
spreadsheet programs.
If you are an engineer, architect, statistician,
chemist, physicist, navigator, astronomer, or
financial or statistical analyst whose job
involves the solution of complex formulas and
the frequent use of mathematics, TKISQLVER
is a program you should examine. It's
extremely easy to learn and use. I would even
recommend that high school students
studying science and advanced math look at
the program. College math students would
find it a useful tool.
It solves complex mathematical problems,
creates tables of various parts and results of a
formula, and makes rudimentary plots of the
data generated. Although the graphics output
of the program is adequate for someone
working with math, it is not presentation
quality.
TKISQLVER uses a very logical and simple
approach to solving problems. You begin by
setting up a Rule Sheet— a list of equations or
formulas to be solved. As you enter rules,
each variable in an equation is automatically
transferred to a Variable Sheet. The Variable
Sheet is particularly important, since it is
used to enter known values in the equations
on the Rule Sheet. Equations can be
supported by a table of conversion factors or
further defined by use of a Unit Sheet (which
interlocks with the Rule and Variable Sheets).
A Global Sheet can be used to set printing
defaults and turn the automatic transfer of
variables on or off.
Once you have entered rules and known
variables, you can solve for unknown
variables in the equations. The "Direct
Solver" produces a series of guesses that
lead to a solution by trial and error You
provide the problem to be solved and the first
guess at the correct answer Press the ! key,
and the program solves the equation based
on the first guess. It then replaces the first
guess with the first solution. Press the ! key
again, and the process is repeated until the
proper solution is reached.
By setting up a List Sheet for repetitive
solutions to the same problem, you can make
the process happen automatically. The List
Sheet describes each list of data required for
the solution of a problem, with further
subsheets used to define the known elements
of each list. The problem can then be solved
for each item in the list. If the problem must
go further than required on the Rule Sheet, a
User Function sheet can be used to define
specific functions or numeric relationships.
TKISQLVER is produced by the same folks
who invented VISICALC and uses a similar
command structure. The manuals are clear
and complete. Optional TKISOLVERPACKs
have equations for solving common problems
in particular fields such as introductory
science, mechanical engineering, and
financial management.
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
1^
Plot of horsepower
vs weight and mpg
»elght
One unique feature of STATGRAPHICS is its
ability to display data in three dimensions as
seen above in this floating 3-dimensional plot
showing gas economy of a selection of cars with
differing weights and horsepower.
Even does surface plots in 3-D . . .
STMGRIPHieS O
Neil Polhemus. Version 1.0. Not copy-protected.
$695 (street $475). IBM PC/XT/AT and
compatibles (384K; 2 disk drives or hard disk
required). STSC, Inc., 2115 East Jenerson St.,
Rockville, MD 20852; 301/984-5123.
WOODY LiSWOOD: STATGRAPHICS has
made my day. Finally a complete statistics
program with built-in graphics, and it's
unprotected at that. STATGRAPHICS is the
best statistics package I've found. The
graphics and plotting capability can be seen
onscreen, printed or plotted.
STATGRAPHICS does the following:
smoothing (simple moving average,
weighted moving average, polynomial,
q-splines, closed q-splines, rate function
estimate from counts, and rate function
estimates from intervals), time series
(horizontal time sequence, vertical time
sequence, seasonal subseries,
autocorrelation, partial autocorrelation,
cross-correlation, simple or seasonal
differencing, mean or trend removal, Box-
Cox transformation, periodogram, integrated
periodogram, data tapering, plotting vs.
Fourier frequencies, Box-Jenkins ARIMA
modeling, and cross-correlation matrix
plotting), categorical analysis (contingency
tables, Chi-square, crosstabs, numeric
coding of classification factors), multivariate
(matrix creation, variable standardization,
correlation matrix, covariance matrix,
principal components, factor analysis, factor
rotations, cluster analysis, discriminant
analysis, canonical correlations, expansion
of compressed matrix, star-symbol plots,
sun-ray plots, draftsman plots, and
casement plots), nonparametric (basic runs
test, runs test up and down, runs test above
and below median, basic sign test, sign test
for location, sign test for paired samples,
Wilcoxon signed rank tests, Mann-Whitney-
Wilcoxon test, Kendall rank correlation,
Spearman rank correlation, Kolmogorov-
Smirnov one-sample test, Kolmogorov-
Smirnov two-sample test), and there are
experimental design sections, sampling
sections, quality-control sections,
forecasting sections, data-management
sections, exploratory data-analysis sections,
and distribution-function sections.
STATGRAPHICS is a relatively new program,
so I haven't had a chance to work with it as
much as the other statistics packages I'm
recommending, but so far I've found
STATGRAPHICS to be one of the most
complete and easy-to-use statistics
programs that I have come across. My big
complaint about the program is that it's
slow. However, the plotting capabilities are
superb! They include 3-dimensional graphic
and bar charts as well as 3-D surface plots
which makes the display and interpretation
of statistical data almost easy.
Best value for Apple II owners . . .
Apple II family; DOS 3.3; 48K @ Apple III in
emulation mode; copy-protected? NO; $199.95;
Rainbow Computing, Inc., 8811 Amigo Ave.,
Northridge, CA 91324; 818/349-0300.
WOODY LISWOOD: Funny name, you think,
for a statistics program. Well, DAISY stands
for "Data Analysis and Interactive Statistics."
For the money, it's a best-buy among
statistics programs.
DAISY'S two data-entry routines are among
the best I have used with a statistics program.
The first is standard with BASIC programs:
You define your Xand /variable names, then
the program asks you to enter your data one
entry at a time. The second option is a calc
type of entry model, in which you can enter
data in a row-and-column format and use
arrow keys to move around— a very, very
good feature. In addition, DAISY has full
editing capabilities within the matrix of data.
All the features of the program are accessed
with four-character codes for more than 100
commands. If you are familiar with statistics,
I would rate DAISY as user friendly.
Otherwise, you might have to look up a
command or data request in the
documentation — or even a statistics
textbook— before you are certain that you are
responding correctly. Documentation is
complete and explains each of the commands
in a reasonably lucid style. DAISY'S help
command gives you a list of available
commands grouped according to function;
INFO gives you a full description. If you enter a
command that cannot possibly work, given
where you are in the program, DAISY
reminds you that if you are unsure of your
next move, you can use the help and info
commands to get more information.
DAISY makes use of the extra memory in the
Apple He and will use various 80-column
cards including the Videx Videoterm and
Ultraterm boards.
DAISY also does graphics: sequence plots,
histograms, scatter plots, semilog on both X
and Yaxes, and log-log scatter plots. You can
save the plots to print with your favorite
graphics program (see Drawing, p. 122-137).
What statistical wonders does DAISY
perform? Transforms on a column basis:
mean, standard deviation, variance, standard
error, minimum, maximum, range, sums,
frequency tables, histograms, covariances,
correlation, partial correlation, auto-
correlation. Spearman rank correlation,
Kendall rank correlation, Kendall partial rank
correlation, and Kendall coefficient of
concordance. It runs tests about mean and
about a given value, performs analysis of
variance one-way or two-way, analysis of
variance for regression, Chi-square, Mest,
Cochran Q-test, Mann-Whitney U-test,
Friedman two-way analysis of variance,
summary statistics, regression coefficients,
Durbin-Watson statistics, beta weights, fitted
and residual values, and simple or multiple
regression. DAISY uses all subsets of
possible independent variables, uses all
subsets of a given size, goes forward or
backward in a stepwise regression, and
sweeps a variable in or out of a regression.
Also . . . handles exponents, integers,
inverse, natural logs, logs, base 10, absolute
values; adds, multiplies, divides, raises to
powers, calculates cumulative totals and
differences, and can lead or lag the data.
DAISY creates new columns of data for the
fitted and/or residual values of the regression.
O MEANS; NEW TO 2,0 EDITION
IS
Coping with sl(ewness . . .
spsso
Version 1.1. Copy-protected. $795 (street $550).
IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles with DOS 2.0 or
higher (320K and 10MB hard disk required). 8087
coprocessor recommended. SPSS, Inc., 444 N.
Michigan Ave., Suite 3000, Chicago, IL 60611;
312/329-3500.
WOODY LISWOOD: If you need a powerful
statistics program, then this is it. This
microcomputer clone of the mainframe
version worl(s well, but, fair warning, SPSS
is not for those uninitiated to the statistics
priesthood. It assumes you l<now what you
are doing and why. For instance, in the
section on multiple regression there are
numerous subheadings such as "Coaxing a
Nonlinear Relationship to Linearity" or
"Coping with Skewness" or "Stabilizing the
Variance." If you feel comfortable with those
terms, then the documentation is complete,
helpful, and actually fun to read. It's full of
sample problems and suggests different
approaches to take when working with your
data. And it supports KERIVIIT (p. 156)
protocol to talk to a mainframe.
On the other hand, it is copy-protected (you
must have a key disk in drive A when you
start the program), it doesn't have a curve-
fitting routine, and it comes on nine disks
that must be loaded and available before you
can run the program. The publishers
recommend that you dedicate an IBM PC/XT
to do nothing but run this program.
WOODY LISWOOD: Most of the charting
programs designed for on-screen
graphics or to drive digital plotters come
with built-in statistical functions. These
are normally regression functions that
will calculate and plot a regression line
when you enter in a scattergram. While
they're fine programs, we are not
reviewing them here because their
primary function is graphics, not
statistics. CHART MASTER (p. 129) is an
example of this type of program.
Accepts data from many sources . . .
Version 4.08; IBM PC/XT/AT compatibles or MS-
DOS machines; 196K ® Version 3.04; CP/M-80
(64K) and CP/M-86 (128K); 2 disk drives or hard
disk required; copy-protected? NO; $395;
Anderson Bell Co., P.O. Box 191, Canon City, CO
81212; 303/275-1661.
WOODY LISWOOD: Although this program
does not have all of DAISY'S features, it has
an impressive number, and unlike current
versions of DAISY it runs in the PC/MS-DOS
environment as well as in CP/M.
ABSTAT doesn't have curve fitting (see
CURVE FITTER, p. 76); you have to determine
in advance the maximum number of variables
you'll need; you must always use upper-case
letters; and the editing capabilities are very
weak. But the program works rather well, it's
reasonably well designed and easy to use,
has enough statistics to solve many
problems, and you can transfer your data to it
from a multitude of sources. This means you
do not have to re-key data already entered
into other programs when you want to
perform statistical analysis on it.
You select commands via a menu, or, if you
know what you want to do, you can avoid the
menu by giving direct commands. You can
type ? for help at any time; adding a
command name gives you information about
that command.
With ABSTAT's command file (macro) option,
you can use a word processor to create files
of commands, name them, and then (if they
are all valid ABSTAT commands in the proper
order), once you bring your data into ABSTAT
and give the program your command file
name, the system will run by itself. The
command file can turn on your printer and
perform all the analysis you might need while
you are out drinking coffee with your friends.
What does ABSTAT do? Functions include
Create a new file. Fetch an existing file. Edit,
Save, Transform the current data set, Add
variables from another file. Transform a
variable from another file. Append data from
another file. Print, Generate random
numbers, Sort, Read an ASCII data file, and
Read and Write a DBASE II (p. 85) data file.
Statistical commands include one-way and
two-way analyses of variance, Chi-square
goodness of fit and Chi-square two-way
contingency table, correlation coefficients (r)
matrix, means, standard deviation, modes,
values, frequencies, percent and z-scores,
Mann-Whitney U-test, variable pair mean
test, population mean test, f test for paired
observations, probability commands, simple
and multiple linear regressions, Spearman
rank correlation matrix, and cross-tabulation.
ABSTAT really worked well on this rank order
correlation. ABSTAT finished the entire affair in
just under 5 minutes with 45 elements in each set.
COMMAND: SRANK
SPEARMAN RANK
*** CORRELATION MATRIX
***
VARIABLES:
1 K
1.00000
2 P
0.965180
1.00000
3 R
0.964069
0.958539
). 00000
4 PT
0.994018
0.978825
0.981867
1.00000
5 GD
0.989396
0.977747
0.983244
0.996776
1.00000
1 K
2 P
3 R
4 PT
5 GD
For lap computers . .
NEC PC-8201A a TRS-80 Model 100; 24K; $65;
copy-protected? NO; McDonald Micro Products,
Inc., 17734 Preston Rd., Suite 204, Dallas, TX
75252; 214/380-8100.
WOODY LISWOOD: The best statistical
package for these two popular lap computers
is STATISTICAL CURVE FITTING. Not only
does this program have many of the statistics
from the full size microcomputers, it displays
a graphic curve that fits on the small screens
in a most professional manner.
COH
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10 15
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00.0
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10.0000
1 1.0000
12.0000
11.0000
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6 1.5
Ik
1 5.0000
18.0000
19.0000
20.0000
22.0000
8 2.0
1 2.8
8 4.5
9 7.3
3 8.3
IXXXXXXXXXXX
IXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
IXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
IXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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IXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
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7.5
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26.0000
27.0000
28.0000
29.0000
1 2.8
1 2.8
3 0.8
5 1.3
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32.0000
33.0000
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2 0.5
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TOTAL
399 10
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10 15
ABSTAT constructs bar graphs (above) and plots of
the data— not the fancy hi-res plots you might be
used to, but they get the point across, and they
print with any printer
Id
Professional, technical .
hi
CURVE FITTER and SCIENTIFIC PLOTTER are two
Apple-based programs tliat work In tandem. Some
consider the curves produced by Scientllic Plotter
to be some of the best available. In addition, you
can print these graphics on your dot matrix
graphic-capable printer or on selected digital
plotters.
Apple II family; 48K; $35 • IBM PC/XT/AT/
Enhanced PCjr and compatibles; 128K; color/
graphics adaptor board; $95; optional Interface
Sensor board; $495, Apple; $595, IBM; copy-
protected? NO;
Apple II family; 48K; disk drive; $25 ® IBM PC/XT/
AT/PCjr; 128K; color/graphics adaptor board; $95;
optional Interface Sensor board; $495, Apple;
$595, IBM; copy-protected? NO;
both from Interactive Microware, Inc., P.O. Box
139, State College, PA 16804; 814/238-8294.
WOODY LISWOOD: If you do curve fitting and
also need to generate high-resolution plots of
your data, then you must— repeat, musP—
have CURVE FIHER and SCIENTIFIC
PLOTTER as part of your program library.
These programs are designed by technical
folks to be used by technical folks. Some
engineers we talked with felt that these
programs were the only "professional"
plotting programs on the market.
WM
The price is right, too. . .
Apple II family; 48K; shareware; for availability
contact San Francisco Apple Core, 1515 Sloat
Blvd., Suite 2, San Francisco, CA 94132;
415/566-2342.
WOODY LISWOOD: If all you need to do is
curve fitting (determining which type of
curve— linear, exponential, logarithmic, or
polynomial— best fits a particular data set),
the best program is free. That is, if you have
an Apple. A program called REGRESSION
ANALYSIS is (or should be) in the user library
of your local Apple User Group. This program
takes data sets and produces regression
curve fits for linear, exponential, logarithmic,
and power curves; graphs those curves singly
or together on a screen; and then prints out
those screens on a printer
REGRESSION ANALYSIS, a free public domain
program available from most APPLE USER
GROUPS, calculates the best fit line for Power,
Linear, Exponential, and Log curves. It also graphs
your data for you and, if you have the correct dot
matrix printer, it will print those graphs for you as
well.
Once you figure out how to use CURVE
FITTER, the ease of operation and error
trapping are superb. I tried to get the program
to bomb and couldn't. You can enter data by
keyboard, disk, or other means. You can then
manipulate the data, transform it, or do
almost anything else to it before you generate
the curve fit. Along the way you can generate
high-resolution plots.
A curve-fitting procedure can contain between
25 and 1000 data points. The program first
generates a scatter diagram of the data you
entered. Then, after you fit your curve
through the data, it lays a dotted line through
the scatter diagram. You can save any of the
pictures as you go along or use another
graphics program to print them on a graphics
printer (I use a Grappler Board with an Epson
MX-80 printer.)
Because the program code is not protected,
you can modify it to your heart's content. In
fact, specific areas of the program are left
open so you can put in the data-manipulation
techniques you need. I added my own printer-
initialization routines so I could print graphics
as part of a normal work session without
having to save the graphics as pictures first.
SCIENTIFIC PLOHER accepts data from
CURVE FITTER with no problems whatsoever,
though it's somewhat difficult to use because
of its flexibility. You can address any
individual pixel on the screen and put
anything you want there — special symbols,
numbers, lines, dots, and so on. However,
once you've learned SCIENTIFIC PLOHER,
you'll find you can do quick-and-dirty
graphics very quickly You can even identify
end points of the X and Y graphs using game
paddles or a joystick. It works and it speeds
things up. In fact, command sequences go as
fast as or faster than many of the available
graphic programs that require almost the
same number of responses to give you
someone else's version of what you need for
your graphic display (and still require you to
enter your data into the other programs).
SCIENTIFIC PLOTTER lets you add five lines
(255 characters each) of fancy labels to each
graph.
I tested the program by generating 38
separate graphics for related data and then
printing and converting them to overhead
projector slides that would overlay each other
with perfect registration during presentation.
It worked fine. The program works better than
any graphics program in my library It only
does curves, but it does them well. At the
price, I think it is a best buy— if you go in for
this sort of thing.
SCIENTIFIC PLOnER, too, is unprotected,
and the authors encourage you to modify it to
meet your specific needs. As in CURVE
FIHER, you have easy entry to BASIC, DOS,
and other sections of the program via built-in
control sequences. New versions support
various digital plotters. You can purchase the
special printer disks separately
Regression analysis.
11
Jif IfMif fe itmk MmM
MATTHEW MCCLURE: When I was a securities analyst fifteen
years ago, I helped build a regression model to predict the stock
market. I was working with some economists at Stanford who
explained the Random Walk theory of stock prices— which says
essentially that stock prices can't be predicted mathematically—
and then proceeded to develop a model that worked. Once we
knew what the market as a whole was going to do, we could pick
industries that were likely to accelerate rapidly in a bull market,
or ones that would be resistant to the weakness of a bear
market.
We picked our industries according to "fundamental"
considerations, as opposed to "technical" ones. Fundamentals
are things like price/earnings ratio, market share, annual sales,
dividend yield, debt capital, financial strength, percent return on
net worth, and projected growth rates. Technical analysis is
based on the axiom that a trend will continue until it changes; it
is concerned with how prices fluctuate in a market, essentially
independent of the kind of company or industry being evaluated.
Having chosen industries that looked attractive for the kind of
market we expected in the next six or nine months, we would
pick companies that looked fundamentally sound. Then we
would do some technical analysis— to determine which ones
seemed to have the most market potential. We made our money
on service charges based on performance, and we consistently
outperformed the market.
Now there are tools for personal computers that make this whole
process comparatively painless. Anyone who is considering
playing the market should consider investing in these programs.
They won't give you the edge that the pros on Wall Street have,
but they will give you good , valuable methods for making
investment decisions.
Fundamentals, for investors . . .
Ill
Version 2.1; Apple II family; 64K; 2 disk
drives; 80-column card recommended; printer
recommended ® IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles;
64K; 2 disk drives; parallel printer recommended;
monthly plan: $443/yr (1st year, $398/yr
thereafter); quarterly plan: $211/yr (1st year,
$162/yr thereafter); both plans refundable; 2-
month trial, $39 (non-refundable); Value Line,
Inc., 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017;
212/687-3965, ext. 3496.
MAHHEW MCCLURE: For automating
analysis of securities fundamentals, VALUE/
SCREEN is excellent. Enter your criteria for
selection from the 32 available variables-
computer stocks with price/earnings ratios
less than 10 and dividend yields greater than
8%, for example— and you'll get a list of
stocks that meet them. If the list is too long,
refine your criteria further, eliminating those
with a low percent return on net worth, for
example, and ordering the resulting list by
financial strength rating.
VALUE/SCREEN'S data is updated monthly on
disk; it's not as current as what you could get
from Dow Jones News/Retrieval, but it's got a
lot more information.
Teclinical, for traders . .
Version 2.0. Apple ll+/lle/llc and III (emulation
mode); 64K; Grappler board and compatible
printer; 2 disk drives; Hayes micromodem; copy-
protected? NO ® IBM PC/n compatibles; 192K;
color/graphics board; 2 disk drives or hard disk;
copy-protected? YES; complete package: Apple,
$595; IBM, $695; separately: Trader's Data
Manager: Apple, $199; IBM, $249; Trader's
Forecaster: Apple, $249; IBM, $299; Trader's
Accountant: Apple, $199; IBM, $249; Summa
Technologies, Inc., P.O. Box 2046, Beaverton, OR
97075; 503/644-3212.
MAHHEW MCCLURE: This is the program I
would get if I were only getting one.
TRADER'S DATA MANAGER lets you
automatically download securities
information from Dow Jones News/Retrieval
(p. 142). Then it will produce a graph of the
stock's behavior— the traditional high, low,
close, and volume chart (H/L/C/V) or a
special chart of an indicator graphed against
volume or against another indicator
It is TRADER'S FORECASTER that makes the
package worthwhile, though. In addition to
the staid H/L/CA/ graph, it also uses such
reliable methods as moving average,
weighted moving average, exponential
smoothing, and least square fit to produce
informative graphs. Technical analysis tools
include speed resistance lines, trading bands,
Newsletter for the Money SIG .
$48/year (6 issues), $24/yr to members;
American Association of Individual Investors, 612
North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611;
312/280-0170.
MAHHEW MCCLURE: Using a
microcomputer to improve your investing
skills is a new trick. Computerized Investing
is a newsletter for those who can afford to
keep up with the latest software for investors,
traders and speculators— or can't afford not
to. Its reviews are knowledgeable and
newslettery. But even better, the Member
Software Services let you download software,
and point you to good public-domain
investment software. Nine subgroups around
the country meet to exchange ideas about
investment theory and computers.
on-balance volume, relative strength, and
point-and-figure analysis. The Proprietary
Matrix Projection Formula uses sophisticated
analytical techniques to predict the "next
high" and "next low" prices— sell and buy
signals, respectively
With all these tools, the best technique is to
try as many as possible. If one gives you a
buy or sell signal, get confirmation from
another before you act.
WINNING ON WALL STREET draws moving
averages and mid-channel support/resistance
lines like Uiese for IBM, wtiose price broke
through the support lines (a sell signal). The
stock's price went down $20 after this signal.
Commodity traders will be interested in
obtaining price data via modem from
Commodity Systems, Inc. (CSI, 200 W.
Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton, FL 33432;
800/327-0175 or, in FL, 305/392-8663) and
update data files. Participating brokers will
pay the CSI fee for their clients. For more on
online services for investors, see p. 142.
^^^^^^m^mm^M^m^^ms^m^s^FM^^^M^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^K^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ .
Tony and Robbie Fanning, Domain Editors
TONY AND ROBBIE FANNING: Information bombards us— much
more than we care to, or can, sift through and remember. Only
ten percent of every ton of paper going by carries interesting
information. Five percent of that is useful, and we might want to
look at one percent of it again. How do we find that one percent?
We organize. We make lists, alphabetize and prioritize them,
group similar kinds of information into piles, and throw out the
garbage.
To do this, we use mundane organizing tools— pencil and paper,
paper clips, forms and questionnaires, little pads of stickum-
backed yellow notepaper, 3" by 5" cards, file folders, fluorescent
highlighting pens, Rolodex files, notebook section separators,
and file cabinets. And we use tricks like outlining, patterning,
and shuffling. We grow used to the limitations of our tools and
tricks— we know we can't easily store a particular item under
several references, or automatically reshuffle a filing system, or
quickly make a list of what's in a cabinet drawer.
Organizing programs can help sift information more flexibly.
They exchange the familiar paper activities for new formats:
lists, files, fields, records, databases, and even "computer
environments." If you find the terms confusing— computer
mavens might call your address book a "database" — don't
worry. These programs do only a few simple, dumb things. They
store away information. They sort it for you. They let you pick
out what specifics you want to look up or print out.
You probably already know what you want to do — manipulate a
mailing list, organize your research notes, manage a small
business — but you don't know which program fits your needs.
To help you choose, we divided organizing programs into two
rough categories— Me boxes and garbage bags.
Little boxes {ca\\e6 "file managers" if they're simple, "database
management systems" [DBMS] if they're complex) are designed
to organize structured information that can be arranged so it all
looks alike — ^for example, rows in a table of figures or entries in
a phone book.
Within this category we included two "flagship" programs—
PFS:FILE and DBASE II— the standards against which we
compared the rest of the candidates. If you're unfamiliar with the
computer terms used to describe organizing tools, be sure to
read these reviews first. Then look at the other reviews to pick a
program appropriate to your particular needs.
When you shop for this type of organizing program, play the
numbers game. Find out the limits of a data-management
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STEWART BRAND: My theory of old age is that people decay
and eventually die from having too much stuff to remember
Nephew's wife's mother's name. The percent the IRS is
interested in of your rental property depreciation. Dozens of
potentially guilt-producing birthdays. When you go to have a
new thought, there's no place to put it.
I can't tell yet if personal computers are helping or hindering
our beleaguered lifework of Keeping Track. They certainly
offer help; they even deliver it. But it may be one of those
the-more-you-do-the-more-you-do things. The more the
computer is remembering for you, the more you have to
remember what it's remembering. Like the illusion of the
Paperless Office a couple years ago— electrons were going to
replace ink in the workplace. Ha. The busy little electrons
helped generate more paper than ever To good effect?
Maybe. Maybe even probably. But people are not, I notice,
working less, or agonizing less.
I'll bet next year we'll be reviewing a kind of program that
scarcely exists yet— the dedicated database for home and
office. MICRO COOKBOOK (p. 196) is headed in that
direction. Bird books and tree books and flower books
should soon be on software, with fulsome illustrations
(videodisc please), the perfect way to "key" down the very
subspecies of Mitigated Flycatcher that inhabits your part of
the county. Meanwhile all we have is general purpose
databases of increasing muscle.
Tony and Robbie Fanning
Tony Fanning has been watching them come on for decades.
Now involved in Research & Development planning at
Hewlett-Packard (who makes the "Touch Screen" 150
computer and portable 110 [p. 71]), he started with
computers 23 years ago programming an insurance
company's first plunge into Data Processing. He's been in
Silicon Valley since 1969, spent a couple years at SRI
International before going to HP Robbie Fanning edits and
publishes a quarterly newsletter for thread-benders called
Open Chain, on stitchery and such— she uses DBASE II and
WORDSTAR to keep it organized. Together they've written
eight books on quilting, running, and personal time
management.
You may ask what program they used to organize Organizing.
They used manila envelopes and 3" by 5" cards in little stacks
on the floor Personal computers can look deep and snaky
into your information, but they still have tunnel vision.
program: its maximum number of files per database, records
per file, fields per record, characters per field. (We list those
statistics for every program recommended here.) Ask yourself,
"How long will I keep my computer? How long will I use this
program?" If the answer shows that you'll outgrow the program
soon, consider alternatives.
We call the second category of organizing programs garbage
bags. Sometimes called "text organizers," they handle
unstructured information of varying sizes, shapes, or types-
such as quotations from books or research notes.
More than any other type of program, organizing tools require
powerful or expandable computer equipment. A good rule of
thumb: if the computer system requires you to use your home
TV for display, stick to 3" x 5" cards. It'll be less frustrating. For
business use, a mainstream computer— IBM PC/compatible,
CP/M, Apple— and two disk drives are musts. Expect soon to
find yourself considering a hard disk and extra RAM (memory),
especially if you depend on fast look-up capability. If you
manage a lot of information, budget a lot of time to learn how to
do it right.
[PmM& Bmm§
BARBARA ROBERTSON: On the
Macintosh, all the invisible, abstract
little boxes suddenly came alive. You
can see them on Mac's screen, stretch
them, shrink them, and look at the data
inside(OVERVUEp. 81,HELIXp. 88).
You can draw arrows between boxes to
show relationships (HELIX), put
pictures inside them (MICROSOF
FILE), and you can even, for the first
time ever on a personal computer,
make the little boxes be pictures
(FILEVISION).
Pictures are the database
0^
Metcalf, Jacobs and Murray; Version 1.0; $195
(street price $99); Macintosh 128K (512K
recommended); Copy-protected; Telos Software
Products, 3420 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica,
CA 90405; 800/554-2469 or, in CA, 800/368-3813.
Number of files permitted per database: 299
(128K); 899 (512K)
Records per file: varies with complexity of
graphics
Fields per record: up to 30
Characters per field: 2000
Pictures in a database
o
Version 1.0; $195 (street price $115), Macintosh
128K (512K recommended); Copy-protected;
Microsoft Corporation, 10700 Northup Way, Box
97200, Bellevue, WA 98009; 800/426-9400 or, in
WA, 206/828-8088.
Number of files permitted per database:
maximum 64K, limited by disk size.
Records per file: limited by disk size.
Fields per record: 1024
Characters per field: 32,767
TOM ZITO: The other day, the chief mate of
this freighter walked into my stateroom with
a problem: we were going to linger in Cadiz,
Spain, longer than expected because some
containers had been stowed in the wrong
positions and needed to be reorganized— or
overstowed, as they say in the container ship
business. He had a pile of photocopied
papers with containers' positions written on
them, and I decided to introduce him to
FILEVISION. I sketched a rough
approximation of the ship on the screen,
drew in the container positions, and then
created a blank file form with all the
information from his sheets: destination,
weight, contents, container number. With a
click of the mouse I linked each visual image
of a container to its corresponding data file.
After that, all the chief mate needed to do
was point to a specific container and zap, the
information he needed to relocate it appeared
on the screen. The program could even do
simple equations to show, for instance, all
the containers not going to Istanbul that
weighed less than 40 tons.
MARK COHEN: One of the truly unique
programs for the Macintosh, FILEVISION is a
graphically-organized file manager. You start
creating a file by drawing pictures of the
elements. Each element may have text
associated with it and be linked to other files
of pictures (and associated text). You may
have many elements of one "type" and you
can graphically highlight all elements of any
given type. Considering what it has to do to
organize data in this manner, FILEVISION is
reasonably fast. It's particularly well-suited
for mapping— with FILEVISION, you can
zoom in on a portion of a map and get
detailed information. Or use the same
techniques for teaching and training— you
can easily design templates to teach
anatomy, chemical structures, or auto
mechanics, for example.
JAY KINNEY: FILEVISION is elegantly
designed, fun to use, and a plausible though
limited database, not just a program to
create graphics with extended footnotes. Its
limitations are that it allows only 20 custom
symbols per picture file; several lines with
attached information are often required to
draw an outline of an object with any
complexity; and it can't incorporate
MACPAINT'S (p. 127) more sophisticated
pictures. Still, there is no equivalent
program on the Macintosh or any other
personal computer. Hopefully, the long-
awaited FILEVISION II will correct these
problems.
MARK COHEN: MICROSOFT FILE is
recommended for people who want to
include pictures in a database organized
around words and numbers— something
OVERVUE (p. 81) and PFS:FILE (p. 80) can't
do. You can, for example, cut and paste
floor plan sketches (via Mac's clipboard)
from MACPAINT into a database of real
estate listings. (Unlike FILEVISION, there are
no drawing tools.) FILE is laden with other
file managing features— too laden, however.
Even on a 51 2K Mac, the program runs too
slow to recommend unless you need the
picture-pasting capabilities.
FILEVISION organizes information witti pictures.
Jay Kinney used it to render ttie Tree of Lite whicli
is a primary diagram of tlie Jewisli mystical
teaching called Kabbalah. The Tree of Life's
spheres, called Sephiroth, represent various
levels of emanation from God and qualities of the
divine.
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MEANS; NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
80
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TONY AND ROBBIE FANNING: Some
simple organizing programs stand out as
remarkable values. You may not wish to
organize your whole business using
them, and you may outgrow them
quickly But they'll introduce you to
ideas that will let you master more
flexible industrial-strength programs
later. Or they might be exactly what you
need in themselves. We call the first
group of file managers "beginner's
luck," because they're easy to use and
understand.
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Our flagship program: good for beginners,
maybe all you need . . .
Apple II family; $125 ® Apple III; $175 ® Apple
Macintosh; $175 (bundled with PFS: Report) ®
Commodore 64; $80 @ DEC Rainbow ® HP 150
® IBM PC/XT compatibles @ IBM PCjr ® Tl
Professional; $140 ® TRS-80 Models III & 4; $125
® TRS-80 1000, 1200HD, 2000; $140 (TRS-80
versions distributed only by Radio Shack); copy-
protected? YES; Software Publishing Corp., 1901
Landings Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043;
415/962-8910.
Number of files permitted per database: 1
Records per file: 1000 max (Apple); 2200 max
(PC/MS-DOS)
Fields per record: 50-100/page; up to 32 pages/
record
Characters per field: 840 (Apple II); 1680 (others)
PETE WENDELL: It does everything I need it
to do easily and relatively quickly. And it's so
simple that even my boss can use it.
PHILIP ELMER-DEWin: Give my vote for
PFS:FILE. It makes the kind of list-keeping
most people do palpably easier. Still sells like
hotcakes today after years on the market. I
did my wedding on it (chapel seats, lunch
plates, gifts, thank you notes— the perfect
use for a home database) — and even my wife
learned to love the printouts.
TONY AND ROBBIE FANNING: PFS:FILE is
one of the simplest organizing programs to
learn because bells and whistles were
designed out of instead of into it. It's an ideal
starter for learning about data management,
and in itself it's good for just about anything
you could do with paper forms, as long as the
job isn't too big. (In fact, its vocabulary is
that of familiar paper forms rather than the
more common, mind-deadening vocabulary
of data processing.) Like forms, PFS:FILE
works well when the information being
organized is all of the same type: names and
addresses, order information for customers,
etc. You can make the blanks in its forms any
size and fill them with any type of information
(numbers, letters, or a combination); thus it
can keep track of good-sized but discrete
chunks of text, like comments, quotations, or
recipes.
The information you type into these forms
(one form after another) is stored in a data file
that might cover employee information for
your little company gardening books in the
university library customers of your custom
sewing business, or (if you were a fat New
York detective) a bedding history for your
orchids.
Setting up forms in PFS:FILE is so easy that
you must remind yourself to design the form
carefully, because the blank form controls all
the other PFS:FILE functions, such as printing
or making changes. For instance, to look up a
piece of information on the screen, or print it
on paper, you simply fill in the specifications
on the same blank form. To ask for all
employees earning more than $1000 a month,
type ">1000" in the item "Salary" You can
combine conditions to select exactly the
records you want. You can look at the in-
formation on the screen, print it, or delete it.
PFS:FILE is fairly powerful, but it achieves its
simplicity by limiting its capabilities— a
standard tradeoff with organizing programs.
When searching for forms to update, print, or
delete, PFS:FILE has two speeds. The normal
speed is sufficient for a small number of
forms in your data file, but it slows down
when the number gets large. If you will
usually search by one item, make it the first
item on your form, and the search will go
faster because PFS: FILE uses that item as an
index to narrow down the range of data it
searches through.
PFS:FILE can't use more than one index at a
time. Also, it can't use more than one disk for
a data file, so the number of forms you can
track at once on a floppy-disk system is
limited to about a thousand. But you can use
the program on a hard disk, which relieves
both the speed and capacity problems
somewhat.
MARK COHEN: When PFS:FILE and
PFS: REPORT moved to the Macintosh, they
remained essentially similar to versions for
other machines, taking little advantage of
Mac's unique capabilities. PFS:FILE on the
Macintosh has a larger record size than
OVERVUE (p. 81), MICROSOFT FILE (p. 79)
or FILEVISION (p. 79), making it good for
files with lots of text notes.
Tlien you can use it to control iooliup, printing, and
other functions.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: The IBM
ASSISTANT SERIES is based on the
PFS:SERIES— PFS:FILE is called IBM
FILING ASSISTANT and sells for
$149; PFS:REPORT is called IBM
REPORTING ASSISTANT and sells for
$129. Why pay the higher prices?
(PFS:FILE street price $89,
PFS:REPORT street price $79) No
reason I can think of— unless you
want the templates, PFS:SOLUTIONS
(no longer available from Software
Publishing Corp.): IBM ASSISTANT
HOME SOLUTIONS ($60),
ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE SOLUTIONS
($60), and ACCOUNTING SOLUTIONS
($80). They all run on the IBM PC/
XT/AT and IBM PORTABLE; and
require 128K. (IBM Entry Systems
Division, Box 1328, Boca Raton, FL
33432; 800/447-4700.)
O
MEANS: NEW TO 2,0 EDITION
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For convenience and calculations .
Apple II family e Apple III ® Apple Macintosh
© DEC Rainbow ® HP 150 ® IBM PC/XT
compatibles • IBM PCjr ® Tl Professional; $125
• Commodore 64; $70 • TRS-80 Models III & 4;
$100 ® TRS-80 1000, 1200HD, 2000; $140 (TRS-80
versions distributed only by Radio Shack); copy-
protected? YES; Software Publishing Corp., 1901
Landings Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043;
415/962-8910.
If you outgrow PFS:FILE, you have to
learn a new vocabulary to move on to
more powerful programs, which
usually use data-processing talk.
NAMES FOR OBJECTS
PFS:FILE Talk
Form design
Data file
Form
Page
Item
Index
Report
DATA PROCESSING Talk
Database structure
Database
Record
Screen (of data)
Field
Key field
Output, reports
TONY FANNING: If PFS:FILE fits your needs,
you'll probably need the separately sold
PFS:REPORT, which increases the kinds of
reports (printouts) your data files can
produce. PFS:FILE keeps its printout
capabilities simple, requiring you to design
your form with items in the order you want
them printed; if the first item on the form is a
zip code and the name is next, that's the
order it has to print. It also makes you type in
the printout specifications each time, even if
they're always the same.
PFS:REPORT can rearrange the items in a
printout and save your printing formats for
later use. It can also perform calculations like
totals, subtotals, averages, and subaverages
in a printout— to print a monthly summary of
customer activity that averages the dollars
spent per customer, for instance. It can group
items by a particular characteristic—first the
customers who bought your X-widget, then
the Y-widget buyers.
EMPLOYEE INFORMATION
SALARY
NAME
ADDRESS
DEPT
SALES
1 400
J STRIBLING
IBOl LAWNDALE
LOMAS CA 91075
1 625
JM STONE
33 SPARKS AVE
TACOMA CA 92071
MANUFACTURING
1700
1 JONES
-15 ELM
TIOGA CA 96832
FINANCE
1 650
M K TALENT
202 S ALMA
HALLEN CA 91001
MARKETING
MONTHLY
SALES STATUS
TERRITORY
REP
BROWN
JONES A
TAYLOR
QUOTA
200
175
SOLD
TO DATE
% OUOTA
EAST
135
132
68
75
AVERAGE
TOTAL
575
139
72
WEST
JONES, J
PARDEE
225
200
175
110
78
55
AVERAGE
TOTAL
212
425
142
66
AVERAGE
TOTAL
COUNT
2
200
140
702
70
PFS.REPORT can create more complicated
printouts titan PFS:FILE.
Faster than a speeding cursor . . .
WtllVlJt o
Version 1.0; Macintosh 128K or 512K; Not copy-
protected; $295; ProVUE Development Corp., 222
22nd St., Huntington Beach, CA, 92648;
714/969-2431.
Number of files permitted per database: limited
by disk size.
Records per file: limited by RAM.
Fields per record: 64
Characters per field: 62
CLIFFORD FIGALLO: OVERVUE is simple,
clean, and fast— easy data entry, super fast
reports. It has its limits— file size can't
exceed available memory— but OVERVUE
can hold more data on a Mac disk than many
if not all other Macintosh data managers.
MARK COHEN: OVERVUE is better suited for
list making and number manipulating than
for text storage (see PFS:FILE p. 80), but for
these functions, it would be difficult for me
to recommend OVERVUE too highly.
OVERVUE contains an unusually powerful
and interesting meld of database,
mathematical, and report generating
functions. Data files are stored entirely in
memory while they are in use, making data
retrieval and sorting functions much faster
with this program than with FILEVISION (p.
79), MICROSOFT FILE (p. 79) or PFS:FILE,
and OVERVUE is the only one in this group
that can generate reports that include more
than simple tabulations of data.
CLIFFORD FIGALLO: You create a file by
filling in a form that looks like a spreadsheet.
Each row becomes a record whose
"columns" are fields for data. For example,
a person's first and last names might go in
the first two columns, a title in the third,
company name in the fourth, etc., on across
the row. Column names and widths can be
changed (maximum width is 62 characters),
added, or deleted at any time. You can use
the data in any column as the basis for
sorting the file. Simply move the cursor to
the zip code column, for example, select the
sorting function, and zap, all the rows in the
file are lined up in zip code order. Equally
fast is the SELECT command. Use it to find
all the rows with Des Moines in the city
column for example, or all the rows with
area codes of 408 and 415.
Columns can be totalled, averaged, and you
can have the program calculate running
column totals— useful for tracking
checkbooks and inventories. OVERVUE even
lets you create "macros" that contain a
series of commands. Press a button and the
macro carries out all the commands
automatically.
You can easily move data from OVERVUE to
Microsoft CHART (p. 128) or MULTIPLAN (p.
70) and segments of data sheets can be
pasted into MACWRITE (p. 54). With Version
2.0, you can move data into OVERVUE from
many programs whose files are stored in
common spreadsheet and database formats.
Thus you can use OVERVUE as a front end
for fast manipulation of otherwise ponderous
databases.
MARK COHEN: Version 2.0 promises to be
an even better program than 1.0, and an
inexpensive ($20) upgrade for owners of
1.0.
i File Print Edit Find Rnalyze Math
They're just your basic rows and columns, but,
boy, can you do a lot with them— and fast. The
wide choice ollield attributes adds to the
flexibility and convenience of lite setup In
OVERVUE.
82
Little files on a little computer .
lAilGERS O
KEVIN KELLY: When I got a computer
several years ago 1 had a very specific use in
mind: I wanted to run a small mail-order
business with it. Its main use would be to
track thousands of names and print mailing
labels. A complete software virgin, I called
up a discount place and ordered the best file
manager they had, a $64 program called
F.C.M. My first program! It did the job . . .
we eventually managed 10,000 names, far
beyond what the software designers had in
mind, by clumsily switching disks and
swapping files, a constant reminder of the
limitations of F.C.M. The program is a mildly
mediocre tool that made a fairly hopeless job
possible, a little fun, and most importantly,
profitable for a team of two. It was so far
superior to 10,000 index cards that most of
the time I didn't care that it was mediocre.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Although we would
never recommend that anyone wanting to
keep a database on a computer buy a
Commodore 64, those of you already owning
C-64S might want to keep a file or two on
your computer, and— although handwriting
or typing index cards might be just as fast-
be willing to put up with the C-64 for the
lists and mailing labels you can select and
print. So, for those of you with C-64s, here
are our recommendations.
JOHN SEWARD: If you're going to print a lot
of mailing labels and want an inexpensive
filer, try F.C.M. if you can live with its
limitations: 24 characters per field, 10 fields
per record and no more than 132 characters
per record. However, it's written in C-64
BASIC, and you can change it if you know
BASIC.
PAUL HULSE: THE INDEX FILE is a computer
version of 3 x 5 index cards— -you can store
200 cards on a disk and sort through them
quickly and easily using up to 800 key
words. DATABASE MANAGER with REPORT
GENERATOR is heftier, allows some
arithmetic, and has an excellent manual. It's
more flexible than INDEX FILE: you can
design larger data entry forms, and print
lists or mailing labels that include only the
data you select. (A report on your coin
collection might list only silver dimes or
buffalo nickels.) And you can save the
selection criteria to easily print the report
again. It's one of the original file managers
for the C-64 and still one of the best.
JOHN SEWARD: DATABASE MANAGER has
very good label printing features. It doesn't,
however, let you sort in reverse order.
PAUL HULSE: SUPERBASE 64 is the most
powerful and flexible file manager for the
C-64. Records can have text, numbers,
calculated results, and date fields, and fields
can be linked. With this program you could,
for example, keep track of your vacation
slides— noting where the pictures were
taken, when, which you had reprinted at
what cost. It has built-in help screens,
sophisticated multiple sorting, matching,
and report generation and you can even
write a program to run your application or
print complex reports.
F.C.M.: Version 1.0. Not copy-protected. ($50;
street $35); Arrays, Inc./Continental Software,
11223 South Hindry Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045;
213/410-3977 ® THE INDEX FILE: public domain;
Jeff Bean, 322 Eureka Street, San Francisco, CA
94114; 415/648-7140 ® DATABASE MANAGER with
REPORT GENERATOR: Copy-protected. ($100;
street $68); Mirage Concepts, 4055 West Shaw,
No. 108, Fresno, CA 93711; 800/641-1441 or, in
CA, 800/641-1442 ® SUPERBASE: Copy-protected;
($100, street 365); Precision Software, Inc., 3003
Summer St., 4th Floor, Stamford, CT 06905;
203/326-8649.
Count the features and divide by the cost . . .
Version 3; IBM PC compatibles; 128K; copy-
protected? NO; $49 contribution for disic and
updates; ButtonWare, P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA
98006; 800/528-8866 or, in WA, 206/746-4296.
Number of files permitted per database: 1
Records per file: 10,000
Fields per record: 41
Characters per field: 65
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JIM CELONI, S.J.: When I first wanted to
catalog my diskettes, I used my text editor,
creating a file with a one-line record for each
disk. To look up a program, I used the
editor's search command; to update the
catalog, I edited the file.
When I read about PC-FILE III, I wrote to Jim
Button for my free copy; a week later I was so
happy with it I sent a contribution. With PC-
FILE I could update my file, sort it by any
collection of fields, find records matching any
specification, and format and print a report
about any diskettes. A computer-novice friend
of mine, using PC-FILE III, created a name
and address file and printed three-across
mailing labels the same day.
PC-FILE III is easy. You give commands by
pressing a function key or typing the first few
characters. Report formatting directions are
cryptic but well-documented. The manual,
included as a file on the diskette, is excellent:
explains everything, defines terms, and gives
examples without being condescending.
The program prompts you for new data
clearly, though it flags input errors with only a
"beep." It can fill in some fields such as date
and time automatically. You can retrieve the
most recently changed entry or the one just
before it. Passwords can keep a file secure.
Ten "smart" keys (ALT~o through ALT-9) can
PC-FILE III has features not found on more
expensive tile managers. This mailing list record
was "Imported" to PC-FILE III from a MAILMERGE
file, putting it In the database without rekeying.
represent up to 75 characters each for speedy
data entry or single-keystroke command
sequences.
Reports can include totals, other
calculations, and text. You can sort fields by
more than one characteristic (for example,
employee names in alphabetical order within
each salary level). You can send reports to a
file and save report formats for continual use.
PC-FILE Ill's data limits are reasonable,
since the file must be on one disk drive.
If I approached the limits, I'd buy R:BASE
(p. 87). PC-FILE III is fast enough; for big
files I use a RAM disk. I run it with 128K, a
double-sided drive, and an 80-column color
display (you can specify foreground and
background colors). You can move data
between PC-FILE and VISICALC, 1-2-3
(p. 68), MAILMERGE (p. 56), and other
programs. It's also compatible with the other
two major "shareware" programs— PC-
WRITE (p. 59) and PC-TALK (p. 152). When
you count the features and divide by the cost
you get a very big number.
Programmer Jim Button answered my
questions promptly and incorporated
suggestions into new versions. I look forward
to his planned PC-CALC (p. 72) and PC-
GRAPH.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: People using this
program tell us that without the complete
documentation, for which you must pay $49,
commands to carry out many of the features
listed in the manual-on-disk remain elusive at
best.
83
Mmff Fat liw»f ri
TONY FANNING: With controls less
complicated than a 747 jetliner, you can
organize information, select from it, sort
it, and print it. Each program in this
section is powerful enough for "mid-
range" organizing but conceptually
simple enough to learn quickly.
Remember that what is simple enough
to learn quickly may be as quickly
outgrown.
For files spread over several disks .
Version 4 Plus; Apple II family; 64K; 2-4 disk
drives; copy-protected? NO; $350; Stoneware, 50
Belvedere St., San Rafael, CA 94901;
415/454-6500.
Number of files permitted per database: 1
Records per file: 5-10 megabytes (50-100 disks)
Fields per record: 100 (1020 characters)
Characters per field: 100
TONY FANNING: This upgrade of a file
manager popular in the Apple computer world
for years has many convenience features and
copious documentation. Like most file
managers, DB MASTER allows you only one
data file; unlike most, it lets you spread that
file across many diskettes. With such a large
file, you'll want three or four drives or a hard
disk unless you don't mind swapping
diskettes constantly (A hard disk requires a
special edition of the program).
You define the data structure with a form that
you build on the screen. Later you construct
similar forms, called Master Reports, for
searching, printing, and updating. Searching
is not particularly fast except with the primary
index key which can be a combination of
fields. It offers three levels of password
protection and it can pull bite-size chunks out
of long data entry forms so you can update a
few fields without having to press hundreds
of carriage returns. This makes DB MASTER
4.0 useful in office situations where one
person designs a system and other people
use subsets of it.
We recommend DB MASTER on the Apple
(see MAGICALC, p. 70). The IBM PC version,
called ADVANCED DBMASTER, is much more
complex, fulsomely documented, and slow,
though it is competently implemented. You
can probably do better with R:BASE or
another database manager (pp. 85-89).
MARK COHEN: DB MASTER for the
Macintosh supports a wide variety of type
fonts onscreen (not printed), and is good with
financial data. Unfortunately, it can print
reports only with each record laid out in rows
of one record each.
Slip into a spreadstieet . . .
REFLE][ ©
Version 1.0; IBM PC/XT/AT compatibles; 384K;
IBM color graphics or Hercules card; Copy-
protected. $495; Analytica Corporation, 3155
Kearney St., Fremont, CA 94538; 415/490-3670.
Number of files permitted per database: 1
Records per file: 65,000 max; limited by RAM
Fields per record: 128
Characters per field: 254
RUSEL DEMARIA: REFLEX is a file manager
the makers of 1-2-3 (p. 68) might have
invented. If you want an easy-to-use method
of storing data and quickly analyzing,
manipulating and viewing that data using
pre-programmed spreadsheet and database
financial, statistical, and logical functions,
consider this unusual program.
Using pull-down menus (no other choice),
you can quickly view, analyze and fine tune
data in ways that even with complex
spreadsheet macros it would take much
effort to accomplish. REFLEX also includes
sophisticated reporting and classy graphics.
You can move the cursor from point to point
in an onscreen graph and the associated
record will be displayed in a window.
If you are looking for a database that handles
huge quantities of data or text, then REFLEX
is not what you want, nor can it perform
Unique convenience . . .
Release 5.1; IBM PC/XT/AT/compatibles; 256K
(51 2K recommended); 2 disk drives or hard disk
(recommended); Copy-protected; $495; Infocom,
Inc., 125 Cambridge Park Dr., Cambridge, MA
02140; 617/492-6000.
Number of files permitted per database: 120
Records per file: 32,700
Fields per record: 160
Characters per field: 255
CLIFFORD FIGALLO: From the creators of
many popular adventure games comes this
unique bigger-than-a-file-manager for the
"non-programmer." With capacity for large-
scale business applications, CORNERSTONE
includes two features not easily implemented
on large-scale micro programs such as
R:BASE (p. 87) or DBASE (p. 85): an easy-
to-use relational data lookup function and the
ability to have multiple entries in a single
field within a record.
Say you have a customer name and address
file, a file with part numbers and prices, and
an order entry file that needs to have some
of the same customer and parts data entered
into it. Call up the order entry file, type
enough of the customer's name for
CORNERSTONE to find it in the customer
file, and the program automatically fills in
massive number crunching on the level of
1-2-3 and other spreadsheets. But REFLEX
gives you ways to view data that are unique.
Take a look.
--'??■fe':^rJV^•' .VM^it■^iii ' l ^ j^£? ?tg g^i^ ^gl:aF a^ ^^ ^
With REFLEX, you use simple Mac-like menus to
select a graph— scatter, line, cumulative bar, pie
or bar (shown). Switching from one to another is
quick and easy; scaling options give "zoomed"
views. The database (the list in the other window)
can be closed for full-screen graphs.
the complete name and the address for you.
Same with parts. Fill in the part number and
price is automatically entered. Other
organizers let you create this capability by
writing little programs; CORNERSTONE gives
it to you.
Its other outstanding feature, the ability to
have multiple entries within one field, makes
data entry, searching for data, and reporting
much easier. I've been using SMART (p. 89)
for our software library database and have
many records for Infocom— each listing
information about individual Infocom
programs (one record for ZORK, another for
SUSPECT etc.). With CORNERSTONE (only
recently available), I could have a more
efficient design: each record would have one
field for publisher (Infocom in this case), and
one field for programs. The program field
could hold an entire list— I'd simply add new
programs to the same record. Then, when I
looked up the Infocom record, I'd find all the
programs— ZORK, SUSPECT
CORNERSTONE, etc.— listed. With SMART
(and most other organizing programs) you
have to design and run a report to get this
information.
CORNERSTONE'S documentation is good, its
tutorial very effective. Its two big problems
are that its menu structure can be quite
confusing until you get used to it, and it
takes up a lot of room on a hard disk.
If your business depends on forms for information
collection, VERSAFORM will be the quickest way
to automate the process. Somewhat clunky and
rigid compared to other database managers, but
light years faster than manual paper shuffling.
VERSAFORM XL is much more flexible— giving
you access to multiple files using its built-in
programming language. It's a bit more difficult to
use than VERSAFORM— you have to understand
something about the logic of databases— but still
easier than many database programs. Both
VERSAFORM and VERSAFORM XL give you
columnar fields so that any one field on a record
can have lists of items stored within it, as does
CORNERSTONE (p. 83).
An organized form
of record keeping and billing
Version 2.1; Apple II family; 64K; copy-protected;
$69 « Version 2.3; Apple II family; 64K; not copy-
protected; $149; supports Corvus, Cider and
Profile hard disks ® Version 2.7; IBM PC/XT/AT/
compatibles; Tl Professional; Wang; DEC
Rainbow; 128K; not copy-protected; $69.
o
Version 3.21; IBM PC/n/AT/compatibles; not
copy-protected; $99.
All from Applied Software Technology, 170
Knowles Drive, Los Gates, CA 95030;
408/370-2662.
Number of files permitted per database: 1
(VERSAFORM); memory dependent, but 10
maximum recommended (VERSAFORM XL)
Records per file: 30,000
Fields per record: 75 (Columnar fields may have
up to 99 occurrences)
Characters per field: 78
TONY FANNING: Don't throw away your old
paper forms— with VERSAFORM you
duplicate them as input screens and report
formats. Once set up, people familiar with the
paper versions can easily use the electronic
versions with little training.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Both programs let
you export data to 1-2-3, WORDSTAR
(p. 56), and other programs. VERSAFORM
XL, a somewhat faster program, can also
import data that's in ASCII format (no
unusual characters or control codes).
THOMAS R. PIPER: If followed literally
without too much thinking or conceptualizing,
VERSAFORM can help a variety of businesses
do their workaday tasks. For example, a local
coal company runs more than $20 million of
its transport tickets each year on forms
designed and implemented by a low-paid
secretary. They track 45 drivers and 30 trucks
going to 25 major vendors.
They weigh each load of coal and store
customer names, billing and receiving
addresses, truck numbers, driver numbers,
gross weights, road taxes, reclamation taxes,
sales taxes, discounts, and other shipping
information, as well as variable prices of
different coal grades. They continue to be
amazed and delighted with what they can
accomplish.
VERSAFORM 's look-up tables and business-
form "calculators" work superbly for the coal
company's invoicing. Later, the firm uses the
reports from the same data files to manage its
operations. For example, a "hauled tonnage
between repairs" report is a prime indicator
for each truck (sort of like reporting on mean
time between repairs for computers); a
driver's work-history report can be calculated
for payroll (since drivers are paid by the load
and mileage, not by time or on salary). I wish
VERSAFORM'S fields were bigger, but its
report generating is nice.
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Doing on-site inventory updating is a natural for
the Model 100 and DATA + . In this case, bringing
the computer to the application beats bringing the
application to the computer.
Q MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Put a filing system
on your lap-sized computer . . .
TRS-80 Model 100; 16K minimum, 32K
recommended; also available for Olivetti M-10 as
DATA10; copy-protected? NO; $60;
S0RT2 +
TRS-80 Model 100; 15K minimum, 32K
recommended; also available for Olivetti M-10 as
SORT10; copy-protected? NO; $29.95;
both from Portable Computer Support Group, Inc.,
11035 Harry Mines Blvd. Suite #207, Dallas, TX
75229; 214/351-0564; combined version (DATA/
SORT Plus, $49.95) available at your local Radio
Shack dealer.
number of files permitted per database: 1
Records per file: 60 with 10K; more with more
memory or if records are smaller than maximum
Fields per record: 16 max
Characters per field: 249 max
JIM STOCKFORD: A word on the great
convenience of filing systems on lap-sized
computers: the computer itself can be carried
down rows of shelves for the tax-time
countdown, or taken to the field or library for
data collection. At the worksite you can enter
data into fields presented by the screen, and
from there on the program does the work.
Isn't that better than walking around with a
notebook and returning to the office to key
everything in?
So far, these two programs from the Portable
Computer Support Group are the best we've
seen for the Radio Shack Model 100. DATA +
is a standalone filing system that allows you
to print labels, listings, and forms; sort
records on any of the sixteen fields by
alphabetical or numerical order; and
incorporate fields into text files. It also has an
Add: feature that creates files and reports
from unrelated records. With the built-in
search features of the Model 100, DATA+ is
as good as many of the filing programs that
run on desktop computers.
If you use DATA+ for your work, you should
get S0RT2 + as well. It sorts DATA + files by
any field. It can sort alphabetically
(recognizing upper-case letters ahead of
lower-case letters if you wish) or by number,
and it has an astonishingly low IK memory
requirement.
The manuals are beautifully simple. The
factory support is friendly and immediate.
Together, DATA+ and S0RT2+ provide an
excellent filing, sorting, and printing tool at
an awfully good price.
TONY FANNING: Database management systems (DBMS)
perform all the functions of the file managers and more. But
they're not easy. What distinguishes them from file managers?
They simultaneously process information from more than one
file, and they're often programmable, letting you query them
about that information in a variety of ways.
With a database manager, you can store information in several
data files and still have access to all the data in all the files,
creating new files (or reports) that combine items selected here
and there from any of the data files (which are often called
"databases" for these more complex programs). The word used
(and often misused) to describe this data handling ability is
"relational"; it refers to the ability to combine (or "relate")
information from different files that are set up in the form of
tables. For example, you can combine address information from
one file and sales information from another to create an invoice,
if customer names are common to both.
Database management systems are direct descendants of the
monster data-processing programs that once lived only on
corporate mainframes. They usually require something
uncomfortably similar to programming to do their tricks-
including getting the information back out of the database. This
makes them extremely flexible and adaptable, but often
frustrating for nontechnical users. They may exact a long
apprenticeship, but if you need flexibility and industrial-strength
information management, you'll be glad you have a DBMS.
There are only three choices for beginners when it comes to
these serious programs. (1) Decide right now that your
organizing job is big and that you ought to devote a large amount
of effort (and maybe a large amount of money) to mastering a
powerful program. Then go do it. (2) Maybe you aren't cut out
to be a computer programmer. Get someone else to set it up for
you, and be happy that you can use it. (3) Forget it. You don't
need the difficulty that accompanies this kind of complexity
We're beginning to see new approaches, such as "natural
language" add-ons that let you ask for information in English
instead of programmer talk. They'll probably make personal
computer DBMSs easily useable. We're also beginning to see
good database managers included in all-in-one packages. But
we're not there yet.
^^^^^:MiLi?^^^^^^^s^^^^^^^^^^^yA
The flagship, against which all others must
be measured (batteries not included) . .
Version 2.4; Apple II family ® Apple III ® IBM PC/
XT/AT compatibles ® most CP/M machines ® most
MS-DOS machines; (contact dealer or Ashton-Tate
for specific machine compatibility); copy-
protected? NO; $495; Ashton-Tate, 10150 W.
Jefferson Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230;
800/437-4329, ext. 2341 or, in CO, 303/799-4900,
ext. 2341.
Number of files permitted per database: 2
Records per file: 65,535
Fields per record: 32
Characters per field: 254
TONY FANNING: You can't even talk about
personal computer databases without
mentioning DBASE II. Even satisfied users
will tell why it's the most frustrating program
in the world: it's so damn useful — but it's
slow; it's so hard to figure out how to do what
you want— but you can ... eventually Despite
its limitations, just as with the IBM PC,
DBASE became the standard against which
we must measure all others, because of the
widespread, consistent support that exists
for it— it's a marketing success. There's
love/hate from everyone who's used it.
Many people who think that "DBASE" is the
generic name for any database management
system buy it only to find they can't
understand it because so much of it is a
programming language. Their next step is to
take a course; DBASE II courses form a minor
industry There are also about a dozen books
on it so far And there are outboard ptoniam'.
("batteries not included") to make it t-i'-'-r
where it's slow and easier where it's h-uu i-.i-i-
"the DBASE family" this page). DBASE II i^ :i-
database programs as WORDSTAR is Eu
word-processing programs.
Unlike such "free-form" programs a;
PFS:FILE, DBASE II requires a rigid d.ii.i
structure. You must tell it the name ol .i li-ilc
what kind of data will go into it (text, ■iNiin-tii
or logical), and how many characters '"ii: tuiln
will occupy Data entry is reasonably •■ !■■•;
(WORDSTAR users will recognize the -diff.n
commands), but how do you find the
information once it's in? Simpler file
managers prompt you or give you a funn in
fill in. DBASE II gives you a dot. Periou mu
must type in DBASE II commands juM ■!'■ .'n.!
would in BASIC. Just as with BASIC, ,'ui i .in
string together a series of commands, -i .i tii>
and feed the file to DBASE. But isn't that
programming? Right. Flexible if you
understand it, frustrating if you don't. Many
who have shelled out full dollar for the
program never do understand it.
Though DBASE II is a relational database
management system, in practice you can only
use two files at once. It requires little
memory but sorting is slow, report
capabilities are fairly rudimentary and it
requires programming for practically all but
the most simple reports. Think long and hard
about how you want to interact with DBASE
before you buy it. If you don't want "custom"
processing, you might want a simpler file
manager, or one of the other DBMSs reviewed
in this section.
^ssssE^ai^ss^SSS^^^
You must define tlie structure of your database
rigidly before DBASE II can accept data.
(continued on p. 86)
(continued from p. 85)
LOUIS JAFFE: PFS:FILE and its REPORT
cousin are easy to learn and use (great for
teaching beginners) but very limited in total
capabilities compared with DBASE. DBASE is
a full-fledged, high-level programming
language for data manipulation. DBASE
programs can be quite cranky to set up and
debug, but they make possible all sorts of
customized applications. Despite misleading
ad campaigns that label it "user friendly,"
however, DBASE is really best employed by a
trained programmer. It's very dependable,
having been debugged through several
revisions, and there is a large and growing
library of DBASE programs, many in the
DBASE ll's programming language makes it
extremely flexible, but many people will find it
difficult to learn.
public domain, which are useable without
modification by any computer running
DBASE.
JIM WHITESCARVER: It is the only package
I've found that does just about every data-
conversion task you're likely to need on a
micro. Any report you can print to a file can
be loaded into DBASE. If your data outgrows
your spreadsheet, you can load it into
DBASE. You can capture a report on your
micro from a remote host and load it easily
into a DBASE file. You can reformat it, and
use the data with CBASIG, MBASIG, and 1-2-3
if desired. I'd sure like to find a low-cost
DBMS that can do even some of the tricks
that DBASE does, but I haven't found one yet.
TONY FANNING: Now that DBASE III is with
us, the remaining DBASE II bugs may never
be fixed.
Movin' onup . . .
DiiSE III O
Version 1.1; Copy-protected; $695; IBM PC/XT/AT
and compatibles; AT&T 6300, 7300; DG/ONE;
Tandy 1200; Tl Pro-Lite; Tl Professional; 256K;
Astiton-Tate, 10150 W. Jefferson Blvd., Culver
City, CA 90230; 800/437-4329, ext. 2341 or, in CO,
303/799-4900, ext. 2341.
Number of fields permitted per database: limited
only by disk space
Records per file: limited by available disk space
Fields per record: 128
Characters per field: up to 4K bytes per entry
TONY AND ROBBIE FANNING: The Big Noise
is DBASE III. It's big and faster'n'hell at
doing all the stuff that DBASE II did
slower'n'hell, like sorting and indexing.
DBASE III outdoes DBASE II in the numbers
game (128 fields to 32, 4000 characters/
record to 1000, a billion records to 64K, 10
data files can be open instead of 2, etc.), so
that it can manage bigger and more complex
databases. It also has a decent online help
system that includes prompting as well as
quick lookup of all commands.
The main reason for getting DBASE III, just
as it was for getting DBASE II, is to develop
customized database management
applications via its programming language.
If you have developed or used DBASE II
applications, you can (more or less)
automatically convert them to DBASE III and
they'll really wail. DBASE III also includes a
QUIGKGODE-like screen generator, which
makes life a lot simpler for beginners. Some
DBASE II commands have been retired and a
lot of new ones put in place, but old DBASE
II users will find the new kid familiar. And
the old annoying DBASE II bugs are gone!— -
probably to be replaced by new ones . . .
WAYNE GHIN: You can almost forgive
DBASE III for being merely what DBASE II
should have been when it was converted to
16-bit machines a couple of years ago. But
the Ashton-Tate practice of forcing you to
use the system diskette (even with a hard-
disk system) as a key disk to start DBASE III
is almost unbearable for developers.
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QUICKCODE lets you "paint" an entry screen and
automatically creates DBASE II programs for
entering, searching, printing, and modifying data.
This main menu gives you some idea of the
program's flexibility.
QUICKCODE II: Version 2.1C; most CP/M
machines; 64K © version 2.2; IBM PC/MS-DOS
machines; 180K; copy-protected? NO
© QUICKCODE III: IBM PC and compatibles only;
copy-protected? YES; $295; Fox & Geller, Inc., 604
Market St., Elmwood Park, NJ 07407;
201/794-8883.
PRilER
mimt-
Everyman's Database Primer, Robert Byers; 1982;
295 pp.; $19.95; Ashton-Tate, 10150 W. Jefferson
Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230; 213/204-5570; or
COMPUTER LITERACY
TONY FANNING: DBASE II is a strange
mixture of flexibility and incompleteness. You
can program it to do damn near anything,
including creating input menus and very
complex report programs. But you may not
want to take the time or effort to do it. An
army of add-on packages now do this for you.
QUICKCODE allows you to "paint" menus
and formats on the screen; it then generates
DBASE programs that you can use for data
input and report output. As with most
program generators, the result is slower
operation. And it doesn't really remove the
need to understand the DBASE language. The
cost can be high, too. I know one sad person
who paid about $1000 for DBASE and
QUICKCODE so she could generate a menu-
driven application that PFS:FILE could easily
have handled for $150.
Books explaining personal computer
programs are an industry in themselves; a
large subindustry is books explaining DBASE
II. The clearest is Everyman's Database
Primer. It uses DBASE as an extended
example while it teaches the basics of data
management with simplicity and humor.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
O/
A faster, more helpful contender . . .
Version 1.15; IBM PC/H/AT compatibles ® HP 150;
256K; $495 ® Burroughs computer; CTOS ® NCR
computer; BTOS; $795; copy-protected? YES;
mXmfm, 3380 146th PL, S.E., Bellevue, WA
98004; 206/641-6619.
Number of files permitted per database: 40
Records per file: 2.5 billion (limited by file size of
operating system)
Fields per database: 400
Characters per field: 1500
WAYNE CHIN: R:BASE is far easier to use
than DBASE II. Its lielp and prompting
facilities make life easier for the new user.
Querying facilities match those of DBASE II;
basic report-generation capabilities and
relational operations are better. R:BASE
removes the severe limitations that DBASE II
puts on the size of a database and the number
of records in it, so the user doesn't have to
worry about such details.
But DBASE II has one significantly better
feature: The user can define command files
that can save lots of keystrokes or build fairly
sophisticated applications. R:BASE has a
command-file capability, but these
commands are limited to what can be typed in
from the keyboard. DBASE II provides
additional constructs such as IF-ELSE, DO-
WHILE, and DO-CASE, that allow for flexible
programs that respond automatically to some
situations.
TONY FANNING: R:BASE selects at about the
same speed as DBASE II and sorts better than
twelve times faster on unindexed files.
R:BASE has a good help facility, a moderately
good demo and tutorial, consistent report
generation and input screen building (though
a little puzzling the first time through), and a
very good set of relational operations.
R:BASE can prompt you for most commands;
it takes some getting used to, but once you
grasp the syntax it becomes quite simple
and does not get in the way. Although the
writers apparently hoped to reach a less
sophisticated audience, the documentation is
written in language for programmers. For
practical use, you'd better have a serious,
"industrial strength" job to do, and you'll
need a hard disk.
R:BASE interfaces to RIM (a mainframe
relational database manager), MULTIPLAN,
VISICALC, 1-2-3, WORDSTAR, MAILMERGE,
and packages with ASCII files (including
DBASE II).
Anyttiing you can do . .
o
Version 1.0; $700; IBM PC/XT/AT/compatibles;
256K; Not copy-protected; Microrim, Inc., 3380
146th PI. SE, Bellevue, WA 98004; 206/641-6619.
Number of files permitted per database: 40
Records per file: Maximum DOS file size
Fields per record: up to 400
Characters per field: 1500
CLIFFORD FIGALLO: The high-end database
leapfrog between Ashton-Tate and Microrim
continues with the appearance of R:BASE
5000. R:BASE 4000 was an improvement
over DBASE II with a few exceptions;
R:BASE 5000 took care of those exceptions
and moved a bit ahead of DBASE III by
adding strength in both the power and ease-
of-use ends.
On the power end, they have added a
procedural language with logical functions
such as If, Then, Else, and Goto (included in
DBASE II, but missing in R:BASE 4000).
These plus a built-in compiler (not available
in DBASE II or III) make the program
especially attractive to turnkey application
developers and erode one of DBASE's former
advantages over the Microrim product.
R:BASE 5000 comes with a custom macro
creator and pre-programmed macros
including one for posting transactions. Also,
the report writer includes many of the
EXTENDED REPORT WRITER ($150)
features.
People who don't want to write programs
can use the menu-driven Application Express
(Apex) which leads you through the steps
necessary to create a custom application. Of
course Apex isn't as flexible as entering
straight commands, but it does give you
quick database setup and easy
modification—particularly if you're using a
trial-and-error method of database
construction.
R:BASE 5000 probably won't have as wide a
user base as DBASE III which is the easiest
upgrade for the enormous number of DBASE
II programmers and their applications. But at
the same price it includes all the power (plus
a compiler) and more convenience. With
good marketing and support, it could well
take a big bite out of the DBASE market.
R-MM
Version 1.2; IBM PC/XT compatibles « HP 150;
256K; ® Burroughs computer; CTOS ® NCR
computer; BTOS; copy-protected? NO; $150;
Microrim, 3380146th PI., S.E., Bellevue, WA
98004; 206/641-6619.
WAYNE CHIN: R:BASE XRW adds report-
writing capabilities far beyond those provided
in the standard package. XRW's user interface
is consistent with R:BASE's-— menus are
used and online help facilities are available
upon request. Users do not have to write
a program to generate reports, as they
must with DBASE II, although some
"programming" may be necessary. The body
of a report can refer to more than one
database; subsets and sorting are allowed;
and limited arithmetical computations can be
made. The report can be directed to the
printer or to the screen.
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R:BASE help screens are always just a few
keystrokes away. If you aren't sure exactly how an
R:BASE command works, it will prompt you
through it.
STATEMENT
02/01/84
RIM FUEL COMPANY
1234 GASOLINE ALLEY
BELLEVUE, WA 98001
PAGEl
FOR:
Norris Aviation Service
1432 Airport Way
Renton, WA 98026
DESCRIPTION
DATE QUANTITY
PRICE
AMOUNT
Aviation Fuel 01/13/84 15000 GAL
Lubricant, 10w-30 M/Oil 01/14/84 180 CASE
Lubricant, 30W HP 01/17/83 -04 CASE
2.159
24.0
18.00
$32,385.00
$4,320.00
-$72.00
Total:
Tax:
Previous Balance
$36,633.00
$2,564.31
$1,085.22
Amount Due:
$40,282.53
Complex tabular reports are XRW's forte.
oo
Picture a relational database
o
Version 1.13; $395; Macintosh (512K); one
external disk drive or hard disk; Not copy-
protected; Odesta Corp.; 3186 Doolittle Dr.;
Northbrook, IL 60062; 800/323-5423 or, in IL,
312/498-5615.
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Querying the database, HEUX-style. Translation:
Shaeler only orders quills that are queen-size and
are either green or brown. The graphic approach
taken here using calculation Tiles makes all the
ditlerence between the time-consuming learning
curve that would have been necessary to program
these myriad lunctions and an afternoon of
eMperimentation during which most of a user's
applications could be mastered.
CLIFFORD FIGALLO: HELIX is not only a
relational database manager (and a good
one), it offers tools for loading and
extracting information that I only dreamed of
up until now— partly because of the
program's ingenious implementation of the
Macintosh graphics capabilities.
A typical HELIX screen contains a palette
area (with icons identifying choices) and a
window (onto which you drag chosen items).
You create a data entry form (template) by
moving boxes from the palette onto the
screen. You create a record by typing data
into the boxes. The boxes (fields) can stretch
to any size and be expanded or shrunk at any
time— in HELIX, there are no "field lengths"
or "record lengths" or "maximum fields per
record."
Data in HELIX is organized by "collections."
Collections are made of "relations"—
groups of selected (related) fields, forms
and indexes. (In one relation you might
include names, addresses, phone numbers,
social security numbers; a second one would
have names, job titles, and current projects;
a third might have job title, salary, and social
security number). How do you tell HELIX
two fields are related? Simply move the
boxes onto the relation window.
Collections are created in much the same
way. You can load up the window with icons
representing relations, templates, selections,
and Abacuses and keep on loading while the
window auto-scrolls. (Be prepared for a
slowdown in icon selection as the window
fills up, however.)
The Abacus is HELIX'S most unique and
powerful feature. By dragging this icon onto
the screen, you can query the database,
compare values in fields, cause the program
to display messages according to field or
calculated values, and put data from one
relation into another. In addition, the Abacus
gives you 52 calculation icons called Tiles for
functions ranging from basic arithmetic to
Boolean operators to trigonometric functions
to compound interest and annuity rates.
Tiles can be chained together (you draw
arrows between them on the screen) under
one Abacus function and other Abacus
functions can be plugged into Calculation
Tiles to form nested commands. With
HELIX'S graphics, you can actually see the
nests.
At the moment, HELIX can't include pictures
in its database nor exchange data with other
programs. (Perhaps in future versions.)
Still, HELIX is powerful, fun and easy to use,
with error protection that borders on the
prescient and user help facilities at every
turn. (If you try to carry out inconsistent
commands, the program refuses— and
politely tells you why.) HELIX even
automatically saves data at intervals you
select. Since the maximum size of a HELIX
collection is limited only by disk space, a
hard disk is recommended for most business
uses.
^M Display Special
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Creating and deleting indexes in MRCLION is
easy Point to the fields you want to use as key
lields and click your mouse. The total length
cannot exceed 27 characters. The more records
you have on the database, the longer MACLION
takes to create the index.
Traditional database management . . .
IM ^ 1^ i I CI M ^^
IfillliLIUIl ^J
Version 3.1; $379; Macintosh 128K or 512; Copy-
protected; Computer Software Designs, Inc., 1904
Wright Circle, Anaheim, CA, 92806;
714/634-9012.
Number of files permitted per database: unlimited
Records per file: unlimited
Fields per record: unlimited
Characters per field: 255
CLIFFORD FIGALLO: MACLION is a full-
featured relational database program worthy
of hard-disk-sized applications. Unlike HELIX
with its visual tools, in MACLION the most
noticeable advance over the top-of-the-line
MS-DOS-based programs is in the use of
pull-down menus and other Macintosh user
interface conventions— which contribute to
ease of use, but don't strike out in new
directions.
Why choose MACLION over HELIX? Two
reasons: experienced database program
users will find HELIX'S visual tools
cumbersome, and people who wish to
develop their own applications can take
advantage of LEO, MACLION's programming
development language.
MACLION is a more traditional database
manager than HELIX— more like SMART (p.
89), for example — but with several deluxe
features. Relations can be "protected" from
alteration and MACLION will prevent
duplicate entries with a simple menu choice
instead of a complex programming
command. MACLION can create screen
forms that enter data into two relations at the
same time. Good data validation and error
messages prevent data entry mistakes and a
data dictionary maintains data in one place
so that a change in a record in one file will
also change the data in all associated files.
Browsing through records is easy, reports
can be created including data from many
relations, and query commands can pull data
out in many configurations and formats.
Fields can be totalled in query or report
modes and you can create macro files of
commands. MACLION's two biggest
problems are that key fields are limited to 27
characters and alphanumeric fields are
sorted with all capitals first (ASCII-based
sorting) which means you'd get ALPHA
before Abacus.
Compared to HELIX, MACLION is a straight
but highly competent program.
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
89
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Automatic starter,
automatic transmission . . .
IBM PC/XT compatibles; 192K; copy-protected?
YES; $395; ASAP Systems, Inc., 2425 Porter St.,
Soquel, CA 95073; 408/476-3935.
Numtier of files permitted per database: no limit
Records per file: 65,534
Fields per record: no limit
Characters per field: 80
CHARLES SPEZZANO: ASAP SIX is the
database to choose if you love menus and
function keys as a way to drive a program.
SIX hardly uses anything else.
If there is an easier user interface in the
relational DBMS marketplace, I have not
seen it. There are no commands to learn
even if you like memorizing things. The
program asks you questions when
something you try to do is not clear to it,
and more often than not, prompts you with a
list of possible answers before you have to
commit yourself.
There is a menu at the bottom of the screen
at all times (similar to MICROSOFT WORD,
p. 60) that lists your options at that location
within the program. If you get confused, the
F1 key displays context sensitive help
messages throughout the program.
SIX will automatically create a data entry
form using fields you designate, or you can
custom design the data entry screen. You
can order a number in one field to be posted
Facile browsing
0^
Version 1.0; $495, street $336; IBM PC/XT/AT/
compatibles; 256K; 2 disk drives or hard disk; Not
copy-protected; Innovative Software, Inc., 9300
West 110th St., Suite 380, Overland Park, KS
66210; 913/383-1089.
Number of files permitted per database: unlimited
Records per file: 1 million
Fields per record: 255
Characters per field: 1000
CLIFFORD FIGALLO: I switched from R:BASE
4000 (p. 87) to this program for keeping
track of the Whole Earth software library. I
like it because it saves me from having to
think too much about the program. It feeds
me menu screens which I've come to know
almost by heart, and through which I flip
and scan, chaining the command sequences
with single keystrokes and assembling
frequently-used sequences into Projects
which can automatically be set in motion
with the Execute command. A User Menu
can be written for untrained database
operators using the Projects you set up.
The SMART DATA MANAGER is also a very
informative program. It can present your
automatically to another field— sell two
widgets to Mr. Myrtle and two widgets get
subtracted from the total number of widgets
in inventory. At the same time the total
amount of the invoice gets added to Mr.
Myrtle's total balance due in a third file.
Features like edit masking, range checking,
and automatic incrementing of numbers
make data entry smooth and accurate.
Once records have been stored, an easy
relational query system is available to select,
modify, or delete a subset of records
through a series of menu options and
prompts. Multiple file updates are routine
and even spreadsheet-like "what-if" changes
can be experimented with.
ASAP SIX is really more geared toward
written reports of stored data than it is
toward on-screen browsing through, and
editing of, data. Reports easily handle totals,
counts, and averages and can be up to 232
characters wide. You can sort or select on
any field, and the built-in word processor,
although rudimentary, is better than those in
many relational DBMS packages.
A field is limited to 80 characters, so SIX
isn't good for note-taking. But because all
the items on any two data entry screens can
be married to each other by placing the same
indexed field at the top of each, there is
really no limit to how many fields you can
create per record. The number of files and
the number of records and characters per file
are also limited only by the amount of space
in your system. Practically speaking,
though, about 10 to 12 files will be the
working limit even in a 640K PC.
files as row and column tables, let you
browse forward and backward through the
file, scroll across the screen and browse
down any column you wish, jump to given
records, zoom in on a chosen record and
modify it, and then resume browsing. You
can split the screen in two and watch two
files interact as you query one and see its
associated record appear in the other.
SMART handles such relations between files
easily. Lookups from one file to another,
while not simple to implement, are easy to
set up as macros where variables can be
entered manually. The Relate command lets
you form new files from the relations of two
others, and Transactions can be used to post
from one file to another for accounting
applications.
The SMART DATA MANAGER can operate as
a standalone or as part of the SMART
SYSTEM (p. 112) including a word processor
and a very powerful spreadsheet. I use it
alone, and it does the job well.
The SMART DATA MANAGER can load two tiles at
once (in this case, Programs and their Vendors)
and automatically look up a program's vendor
inlormation. The pop-up window across the
bottom of the screen gives you a choice of fields
for entering search criteria.
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With one function icey (F9M0DiFY FIELD),
ASAP SIX lets you expand any Held length on this
data entry screen.
This string of commands in edit mode is called a
Project. You build a Project in the SMART DATA
MANAGER by entering Remember and then
entering the series of menu choices to set up
your desired screen or function.
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end/exit: -B=end entry .*H=next record . .'?=prev record E.exit .ode
228 Orange County ,
Model by fl. S. Hinsen, Inc.:
'(415) 461:- 617rv : ;;
Job Code 1868_ Co.p»n« Code _7BB1
: Mitch _= Bonus Percent .•
Number of Incu.bents __1 Average Si lary. 13288
Paid LoM .13288 Paid Higb .13288 f
Min .11588 Mid .14528 Max .17528 •
SIC Code ^9988 Geographic locationVCode,
Form design and data editing are two strong
points of INFOSTAR + . Here is a custom-
designed data entry screen witii its Wordstar- iike
editing menu.
If WORDSTAR is your idea of wonderful,
you might like this . . .
IMFOSTIR +
IBM PC/XT compatibles; 96K ® MS-DOS
computers including TRS-80 2000, DEC Rainbow,
Tl Professional; 96K; hard disk recommended;
copy-protected? NO; $295; MicroPro International
Corp., 33 San Pablo Ave., San Rafael, CA 94903;
415/499-1200.
Number of files permitted per database: 255
Records per file: 65,535
Fields per record: 245
Characters per field: 120
TONY FANNING: INFOSTAR comes from
MicroPro, the WORDSTAR (p. 56) people. It
can easily move reports to WORDSTAR for
editing, and its control-commands are similar
to WORDSTAR'S (though confusingly not
identical). If you have other packages in the
-STAR family (like CALCSTAR), you
might want it, since data can be transferred
among them. Or you might want something
cheaper and easier to use.
INFOSTAR's large records, fast sorting,
extensive reporting, and data-entry controls
may make it attractive to some, particularly in
production environments. But its confusing
complexity may turn others away. The
creation of databases and sophisticated
reports is definitely not for beginners, though
once it's set up, novices can use INFOSTAR.
BILL GUNS: My first impression is that any
database manager that requires three
manuals is daunting. That is also my second,
third, and fourth impression.
WOODY LISWOOD: INFOSTAR + has the
best report writer available in the micro
computer database market. It takes multiple
file input and gives multiple file output as well
as being able to produce the most
complicated reports with ease. The data entry
and edit section of the program shows its
mini and main-frame design origins with its
extreme flexibility and ease of use. It does all
this from a menu structure which means a
non-programmer like me can produce
complicated reports without needing to
understand "do whiles" and "end ifs." What
is really great is that the entire program runs
from a menu structure so all I have to do is
respond to questions to get my work done. I
would like to have square roots and logs as
mathematical functions within the processing
module, but so far, I have not yet found a
database application which I could not do
with INFOSTAR + .
to academic scholarship, and probably won't satisfy a more
general need.
TONY FANNING: Much of what we really need to organize—
words, notes, ideas — can't be categorized precisely enough to
fit into tables or other rigid structures. Nor can we organize them
easily with word processors, which are really tools for
formatting our words on paper, not for cataloging, saving,
searching, and combining them in idea blocks.
But there are programs that manage text in many of the ways
that a file manager handles structured data, and there will be
many more in the future. These new programs for helping us
corral what we really love— our thoughts and ideas— are much
more fun to use than the cut-and-dried file managers and
DBMSs we might need to organize our businesses.
There are three types of "garbage bags." First are programs like
SUPERFILE and DATAFAX, which we might call indexers—
they're electronic highlighting pens. They allow you to organize
blocks of unstructured information— like long text passages—
by marking key words and phrases within them. You can quickly
retrieve a whole text item later by knowing only one of the key
words or phrases you marked it with. They're especially suited
Then there are file managers that can handle blocks of text
easily, allowing you to create (almost) free-form screens for
entering information. PFS:FILE (p. 80) can do so within its
limitation, but freer-form text-file managers let us lay out an
entry-screen form and later search for any word or phrase we
entered in it.
A few database management systems, like NUTSHELL (p. 93),
are designed for organizing text as well as structured data.
Because text can be of any length, such a DBMS must permit
fields of any (variable) length, and dealing with this complication
can slow performance down considerably.
Finally, there are outlining tools, like the remarkable THINKTANK
(p. 92) and FRAMEWORK (p. 110). They let you arrange
headlines and chunks of text in an outline form , with subordinate
headline/text chunks visually "indented" under others. You can
then move text easily by moving the headline associated with
it— great for brainstorming and rearranging presentations,
articles, manuals, and general documents.
91
Free-form notes, bibliographies . . .
Runs on most MS-DOS (128K) and CP/M (64K)
machines; copy-protected? NO; Software
Marketing Associates, 4615 W. Bee Caves Rd.,
Austin, TX 78746; 512/327-2882.
Number of files permitted per database: 100/disl(
Entries per database: 65,000
Characters per entry: 512,000
Unique keys per database: 3,000
TONY FANNING: SUPERFILE (and its more
expensive big sister, FYI 3000, $395) lets you
index free-form blocks of text created with
your word processing program, rather than
requiring data that's organized into fields and
records. One regrettable limitation is its need
to re-index whenever you modify a text block.
However, it can index over more than one
diskette, so a group of references can growt
a fair size and still be searchable.
PAUL DECHOW: SUPERFILE is good for
managing notes and making bibliographic
records. Its biggest improvement in its new
version is the automatic re-indexing feature,
allowing data from a new file on the data disl-
to be indexed into an existing database by a
quick and easy menu-driven procedure. Othr
recent improvements include an automatic
check of dictionary and index files whenever
you start it to make sure these files are intaC
and in good working order; a utility that
appends parts of files to the ends of other
files without writing over them; and the abilil ,
to keep up to 100 datafiles on single disk (of
course, databases can be made up of many
disks), which takes advantage of higher-
capacity disk systems.
SUPERFILE scans text created by a word-processor
for key words and phrases, then sorts and indexes
them— as here, in excerpts from books reviewed
f'nWhole Earth Catalog.
Like a highlighter pen . . .
IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles (MS-DOS); 128K;
$299 ® IBM PC/XT/AT (Pascal); 128K; $299
• Apple II family and Apple III; 64K; $249 ® Corvus
Concept; $299; copy-protected? NO; All Easy
Corporation, Vertical Software Division, RO. Box
10459, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292; 800/255-3279
or, in CA, 213/827-8500.
Number of files permitted per database: 3000
Records per file: 255
Fields per record: limited by screen
Characters per field: limited by screen
GIL SYSWERDA: DATAFAX (version 2.4a) is
one of the most useful programs I have. It
absorbs all the little facts I want to remember
but don't know how to file. It allows very easy
updating, retrieval, format-free data entry,
and error recovery. It also comes with a built-
in text editor DATAFAX will not allow a
database to span volumes, and volumes
cannot span diskettes, but volumes can be as
large as 16 megabytes, so if you have a hard
disk ....
The logical organization within DATAFAX is
that of a folder. There can be as many folders
per database as will fit. Each folder contains
pages, of which, again, there can be any
number
Each page contains exactly as much
information as will fit on one physical screen.
You enter data into pages with a text editor.
There are absolutely no format restrictions
except those you invent yourself. When you
save folders, you save them with associated
key words. These key words either come
from the text (you point them out to the
system) or are arbitrarily entered.
You find folders by specifying key words in
logical combinations, and can display, print,
or edit them. If the system is used as
intended, most folders contain only one page,
and that page contains only a few lines. The
key words hold things together.
If I read a magazine article (I read a lot) that I
think I might want as a reference later, I enter
onto one DATAFAX page the source of the
article, the topic, and a very brief summary. I
then key word it in every possible way. If in
the future I want to know what articles
(books) I have read about topics X and Y, I
can find out in seconds from DATAFAX.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: Record retrieval in
DATAFAX is very sophisticated. You create
intricate strings of key words connected by
"ands" and "ors." You can use ranges and
wild cards and nested parentheses for
sorting. If you know the key word, you can
find a record in two seconds. Key words do
not have to be added in a separate step after
you create a record. Any word in your text can
be easily tagged as soon as you have typed it.
All these key words go into a list into which
you can also add words not in the record
itself.
JAMES V. MCGEE: Using DATAFAX is like
writing a note to yourself and highlighting all
the words you might use later to retrieve the
note. You can start a new database without
any prior planning; just load in a disk and
start entering and filing data. You can let the
structure evolve as your information does.
System performance is generally good, but
setting up a new disk (which you must do
before entering any data) is frustratingly slow.
When I timed it, it took well over five minutes.
If you are sufficiently impatient you may never
wait to use the program itself. Also, because
it runs under the UGSD p-system, DATAFAX
uses the disks much more heavily than PC
DOS programs, resulting in slower operation.
The manuals are extensive and well written in
a refreshingly human and personal style.
They describe other users' experiences and
suggest a variety of clever ways to take
advantage of DATAFAX's unusual design
philosophy— in enough depth to trigger your
own thinking on potential uses.
You can enter text into DATAFAX randomly (without
fields) and go back later to search for key words-
all recipes with "1 cup cream" in this database,
for instance. Though it's not shown here, you
could highlight individual words for easier sorting
later.
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J'«L''''-t^ ■/■.■' ^i't'l::iirr:i'!y ■-■i'-V--^ -r. ..-f.- '■■... i;.- ; ^!^
Outlining witti botii sides oftlie brain .
•■: .■.;;..-. i- -■- ..-...'.•spjjrL;;ri-'0'u;!..:u
iV..- . : .1! '.'.I ,i\ I
Vbif can expand your THINKTANK outline easily by
pressing the + key, or . . .
' '"■/JJT "'■' ':'■ ■I'-'-M-
■ • ..t '.hi .!', ■,i'
. . . collapse your outline so you can see tlie big
picture.
i Fiki Edit Presentation lUM)ns!*ni?p Cuuor P!«1«!«rHPs
Seatt le flariners
San Francisco Giants
Using the Macintosh Scrapbook, images can be
imported Into THINKTANK, organized and
presented as an automatic or manually-advanced
slide show.
WL^
Version 2.0; Apple 11 family; 64K; $150 o IBM PC/
XT/AT compatibles; 256K; $195 © Version 1.001;
Apple Macintosh (THINKTANK 128); $145
® Version 1.00; Macintosh (MAC 512 THINKTANK);
$245; copy-protected? NO (Apple II); YES (others);
Living Videotext, Inc., 2432 Charleston Rd.,
Mountain View, CA 94043; 415/964-6300.
TONY FANNING: Shortly after I started using
full-screen editors (nowadays called "word
processors"), I discovered that the way to
write with them was to start typing one-liners
to prime the pump, then indent some and
move them under others. Sort of like making
an outline. Then I typed in between the one-
liners until I said what I needed to say. Then I
agonized and rearranged, using fairly clumsy
block moves. Then I edited.
Later I was introduced to "patterning" by
Tony Buzan (Use Both Sides of Your Brain,
E.P. Dutton, 1976). This kind of organizing is
topologically equivalent to outlining, and
visual to boot. It generated lots of beginnings
for me, but I can't write much on a pattern,
and recopying the pattern into outline form is
a nuisance.
THINKTANK on my IBM PC combines the best
of both methods. When I use it, I start with a
blank screen with the word HOME at the top. I
furiously type one-liners ("headlines") at the
screen. These are the basic ideas of the
outline I will create, if I already have a good
idea of the structure of my ideas. If I don't,
and this is where TT really helps, it's stream-
of-consciousness outpouring. I think of this
as my brainstorming phase.
After a while I notice that some ideas in the
headlines are contained in others, and I
simply move them under the main ideas using
the cursor-control keys. It's as easy as
shuffling little bits of paper, but gives me a far
greater feeling of a growing structure. Soon I
have subordinate ideas neatly indented under
other ideas, perhaps to many levels of
subordination. It begins to look like an
outline.
Every headline followed by subordinate ideas
has a + (plus sign) in front of it, and every
headline with none has a - (minus sign). If I
position the "bar cursor" over one of the
plussed headlines and press the minus key,
all subordinate material disappears (I can
bring it back with a plus). This neatly lines up
all my main topics. If one seems out of order I
can easily move it. If something's missing I
can add it, or drop down a level and promote
what was a subordinate idea to mainhood.
At any point I can enter text as "paragraphs"
attached to any headline. In fact, I can import
whole files of text from outside my "outline."
I can move big chunks of ideas around, and I
do. When I'm done I can printout, or view, or
file the outline to any depth of detail, or the
entire document with all text. Neat.
What's it good for? Starting to write. Writer's
block. Refining expositions or presentations.
Keeping notes that you can use later.
Brainstorming. Revenge on your seventh-
grade English teacher, who taught you what
an outline is, but never taught you how flat-
out useful it can be.
PHILIP ELMER-DEWITT: Best use I've found
so far: to lay out the stories I write for Time
magazine. Time pieces tend to be highly
structured, so it helps to know where you're
going before you start. My thoughts, alas,
tend to issue forth helter-skelter, bearing
little resemblance either to normal human
discourse or to the shape of a typical Time
feature.
So the night before I'm scheduled to write a
story, I type my ideas into THINKTANK as
they arise. Then I use the program's outlining
features to rearrange them, putting the A's
with the A's and the B's with the B's. The key
ideas tend to bubble to the highest levels of
the outline while the supporting details fall to
lower levels.
When I'm done, what I've got is a list of key
or topic ideas buttressed with my best quotes
and anecdotes. Then I write, using the outline
as a guide. Even when I forget to refer to the
outline, it seems to shape the story. On
occasion I've gone back to look at a
THINKTANK file I'd forgotten about and found
the resemblance between topic ideas and
finished Time paragraphs uncanny.
Once I used the program to outline a speech.
I found I didn't even have to flesh it out on a
word processor; simply spoke ex tempore
from the THINKTANK printout.
I don't think I ever got the hang of outlining
back in high school. I tended to lose my
structure in the flood of illustrative detail.
Now that this program has made outlining
something of a game, I'm much more likely
to do it. Perhaps that's the key.
CLIFFORD FIGALLO: Well, I thought
THINKTANK on the Apple lie was a clever little
program, and I thought THINKTANK on the
IBM PC was a great help to the terminally
disorganized like myself, but THINKTANK 512
on the Fat Mac is such a fluid method of
entering and rearranging thoughts— without
even having to think about letting your fingers
do the talking— that I'm not sure what the
next step can be in hooking up your mind,
your hand, your eye and words. You do have
to type in your ideas. But, once on the
screen, with mouse in hand and eye on
screen, you can chop, dice, stir, grate, and
spread your ideas effortlessly until your word
salad looks the way you want it.
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
95
Finds anything . . .
Version 1.29; $150; IBM PC/XT and compatibles;
Not copy-protected; Leading Edge Software
Products, Inc., 21 Highland Circle, Needham, MA
02194; 800/343-3436 or, in MA, 617/449-4655.
Number of files permitted per database: limited
by disk space
Records per file: limited by disk space
Fields per record: 60,000
Characters per field: 16 million, subject to disk
space limitations.
KEN MILBURN: If you do research, keep
notes on scraps of paper or 3 x 5 cards, or
fiave to matcfi a product to a client's
requirements, you will find NUTSHELL a
godsend. Employment agents, real estate
salespeople, and librarians should find it
indispensable.
In fact, I can't think of anyone who couldn't
find several uses (ranging from client-
tracking to recipe-keeping) for a package like
this. Using the program is almost intuitive
so chances are excellent that if you own it
you will use it.
KEN MILBURN: You can learn to use
NUTSHELL productively in a few minutes,
it's so flexible you can stick all kinds of
random notes and files into it. Once the
information is in there, you can get it back
out quickly and easily in any arrangement
you desire.
You create a form (used for entry, reports,
or both) by typing prompts and field lengths
on the screen in any arrangement. If you
don't like the results when you've finished,
you can move any part of the form to any
other place where there's room for it.
Now, suppose you've entered a few hundred
records and you want to find only the
records that contain specific sets of
information. Just move the cursor to the
appropriate field, type in as many key words
(or selection criteria) as you want, press a
couple of buttons and NUTSHELL will find
the records.
NUTSHELL indexes every single word in the
database!
You can have as many entry/report screens
as you like for a single database. You can
have as many records as your disk will hold,
as many fields in the database as you like.
Ditto the number of characters in a field. You
can do calculated and derived fields using
the standard four math functions. Logical
operators work on mathematical fields as
well as in sorting and finding data. And,
NUTSHELL can easily transfer files to and
from other programs, so long as they use
some form of ASCII text file.
Few things are perfect. NUTSHELL is not
designed to handle automatic relationships
between multiple data files. The program is
not compatible with some "IBM-
compatibles" and behaves oddly in a
networked environment (PC-Net was tested).
If you have an external hard disk that is not
strictly IBM PC/XT compatible, test the
program before you buy it. NUTSHELL is
unforgiving of modifications to the operating
system.
RICHARD DALTON: NUTSHELL is probably
the easiest, most self-evident way to create
a database I've seen. Not the most feature-
laden on the market, but no one I've seen
makes it easier to fool around with the
structure of a database.
Laying out data entry forms with NUTSHELL
begins witit a list of data fields from your file.
Highlight a field and move the cursor where you
want it, then hit RETURN. A file can have an
unlimited number of forms with different
combinations of fields in each one.
Now iiere's a good finder .
Rudi Diezmann; Version 1.0; Copy-protected;
Macintosh 128K/512K; $150; Forethought, Inc.,
1973 Landings Dr., Mountain View, CA 94943;
415/961-4720.
CLIFFORD FIGALLO: If you keep free-form
records on separate documents in file
folders, and your file folders have become
many, and your searches for related
documents are becoming a drag because
records can only be located according to one
search criterion-— that being the labels on the
file folders themselves —FACTFINDER may
be the solution to your problem.
What FACTFINDER does is let you enter data
that doesn't lend itself to insertion into a
form, and create records that are not easy to
categorize. Each record or document is
entered as a Factsheet and each Factsheet
may be assigned any number of Keywords.
A collection of related Factsheets makes up a
Stack. Keywords and combinations of
Keywords can be used to locate a Factsheet
or group of Factsheets. Iterative searches
can then be performed on groups of Found
Factsheets.
Creating a document as a Factsheet can be
done using FACTFINDER'S MACWRITE-like
editor, or already-created MACWRITE
documents can be loaded directly as new
Factsheets. Likewise, Factsheets can be
unloaded as MACWRITE or MACPAINT
documents. Factsheet size and Stack size are
memory-related. The maximum length of a
Factsheet on a 51 2K Mac is about 30K. A
Stack can be as large as 400K on a Mac
disk; 1 megabyte on a hard disk.
FACTFINDER is such a flexible program that
its uses may vary widely, from keeping track
of phone messages to keeping case files for
a law office. A "labels" command prints only
the first inch of each selected Factsheet, and
the print options are many.
Because of its effective use of the Desktop
metaphor and the Macintosh conventions,
FACTFINDER is quite a comfortable and
natural-feeling program to use. The manual
is complete and easy to follow, and I would
follow the FACTFINDER suggestion to free up
disk space by removing the Help Stack since
I never once needed to refer to it.
^ File Edit Stncic Factsheet Keys Utility Help
Company Profile
Galaxy Enterprises, Inc.
1478E.Drydock Avenue
East Keokuk, Iowa
Galaxy is a manufacturer and
marketer of stress-tested,
reinforced mine tunnel support
clamps. They currently control 75%
of the market for support clamps.
Revenue for 1986 is expected to
grow by 33^ although the entire
market size is shrinking by 21% per
year due to new innovations in
optically inspected support clamps.
The CEO, James Smythe, was
r.ii<>lii with Inicr-r-i
Find in Gallery
Names Found
12 Factsheets in Stack
pni Keys for Company Profile
Created on 8/16/84
Modified on 10/11/84
EAST KEOKUK
GALAXY ENTERPRISES
6R0WTH=33g
INTERCOtiP
IOWA
JAtlES SnVTHE
MARKET=27S
MINE TUNNEL
ii¥t?) [Clear Keys]
A FACTFINDER Factsheet and its accompanying
windows: Keys, Names Found ("all" or by key
combinations), and Find, where search criteria
are entered. The Factsheet window can be
enlarged to cover the entire screen if needed.
94
^^^^^^WM^^^g^^^^s^^m^^^ms^^^^m^t^^^^m^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^s^^^^^s^ms^^^^s^x^
mmmmm
Marsha iather-Thrift, Domain Editor
MARSHA MATHER-THRIF: Lots of us have fantasies about
gentle-hearted computers that work patiently all night at
quarter's end and tax time, efficiently organizing stacks of
calculations scribbled down during the course of the year.
Although it's true that computers were designed to save
enormous amounts of drudgery, it's easy to be taken in by
visions of instant invoices and automatically paid bills. The
truth, as every computer initiate knows, is not so rosy.
But fantasy has elements of truth, and what's true here is the
idea that computers keep things in place for you. Busy offices
have a way of swallowing important papers— especially client
charges and billings that need to get out on time to keep a small
business solvent. Good accounting software not only keeps
things in place, it saves time in repetitive entry and calculations
as well as in locating errors and running calculator tapes. Being
able to track expenses, materials, and labor hours is probably
more vital for my small firm than it is for a vast corporation like
Bechtel. And it's more vital still for the company that maintains
an inventory and depends on stocking the goods in greatest
demand. Accounting software can save you money, let you
know quickly if you're losing money, and help you plan better
ways to save in the future.
Yet businesses are as unique as people, so the problem is to
choose an accounting system flexible enough to fit individual
requirements. A retail farm-equipment business isn't likely to
have the same accounting needs as a nonprofit organization or a
law office. Even the fellow who builds cabinets to sell at
wholesale prices probably won't share accounting needs with
his neighbor who builds half a dozen custom-paneled interiors a
year.
Take note: computer-store salespeople, who often present
themselves as consultants, are really creatures of the sales
trade. Most of them don't understand quite what it is that makes
your business unique, and most are unwilling to recommend
software they don't happen to sell— a basic flaw in their
consulting role.
In this section, we've set out to give you a useful range of
accounting packages to mull over. We've left out software that
merely duplicates your checkbook or tracks expenses and taxes
in a limited way. And we've ignored spreadsheet programs that
many people will tell you are complete enough to fill small-
business needs. (They aren't. We've covered these in Analyzing,
pages 64-77, where use value catches up with cost.)
At the most basic level — personal finance — we've included
programs (MANAGING YOUR MONEY p. 96, and DOLLARS
AND SENSE, p. 97) that offer order-loving creatures a chance
to organize their financial existence from birth to retirement.
For the more complex needs of small business bookkeeping,
we've included some inexpensive accounting packages
(BOOKS!, p. 100, BPI, p. 100, and THE ACCOUNTING
PARTNER, p. 99) which provide most standard functions and
reports. We've isolated good tax preparation and planning
programs for home and business. Then, for those who require
interactive accounting and a variety of special reports, we've
taken a look at more sophisticated packages (PEACHTREE
BUSINESS ACCOUNTING, p. 101, and EASYBUSINESS, p. 102)
that are well worth the investment for retailers (and others)
who depend on inventory control and discount buying to beef
up profit margin.
^g^^^^^^^^^B^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^m^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^m
STEWART BRAND: Accounting is so much of the essence,
we pretend it isn't by making fun of accountants. To get a
realistic sense of how important the matter is to your
business or home, imagine that you've had a set of
accounting programs working for about six months and you
decide it's the wrong set. The extended agony of transition to
new accounting software— what Jerry Weinberg calls "out-
conversion" on p. 6— is a measure of your dependence. The
same is true, of course, of your accounting people.
I rank accountants with librarians— unsung heroes and
heroines of civilization, worth far more to us all than lawyers,
architects, doctors, and others in the glory trades.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Marsha Mather-Thrift is particularly
well-suited to oversee this section. She's currently juggling
two careers: researcher and office manager for an
international consulting firm, and writer of fiction— short
stories and a novel. Occasionally, when she has time, she
does free-lance work (like this section of the [nonfiction]
Catalog or book reviews for the San Francisco Chronicle)
while managing the finances of her enterprise along with
those of her family. With no time for false promises, she
brings a critical and cautious eye to programs claiming to
whisk accounting problems away.
Marsha realized early that computers would be necessary at
the pharmaceutical consulting firm where she works. There a
small number of people process tons of information for U.S.
and European clients trying to win FDA approval for their
formulas. She began automating their office with
CompuCorp's dedicated word-processing system and had
just begun evaluating accounting programs for the office
when I asked hertotakeon our Accounting domain. (She
settled on BOOKS!, p. 100.)
I was astonished when she
said she'd give up her fiction-
writing hours for a few
months and, with six-month-
old Caitlin in backpack, take
on the project. And delighted
... she had exactly the
perspective I wanted for the
section, and lord, can she
research and write— impor-
tant qualities for a domain
whose copy deadlines fell
in the middle of income
tax season.
Marsha Mather-Thrift
95
Buyer Beware
Treat your search for good business software the way you would
an exciting but dangerous safari. Listen to advice from local
experts, but keep your mind on your own crucial needs. Here
are a few ideas.
English
Every accounting program worth a second glance should have a
manual in plain English that doesn't send you searching through
volumes for set-up instructions. If you have employees, this is
especially crucial, or you'll end up as an unwilling participant in
the computer-support business.
Flexibility
Look for flexibility in the areas where you need it most. If your
business requires tracking interest on overdue debts, for
example, make sure accounts receivable can "age" balances at
several different rates. (Most in the upper price range age at
30-60-90 and over 90 days.) If you have extensive accounts
payable and can save money by making early payments, make
sure your accounting system can provide you with reports that
summarize stock on hand, discount payment dates, and vendor
paymenthistory. (REALWORLD, p. 103,willdothis.)lfyoubill
clients each month for services rendered, check to see that your
invoicing will let you tailor a description of services for each
individual client job. (BACK TO BASICS, p. 99, does this.) It's
also a good idea to go over your needs with your accountant and
decide where you stand to gain the most from improved
management.
Support
Retail software dealers seldom have the staff to provide helpful
follow-up. Make sure before buying any program that you look it
over several times, get some references from people who are
using it, and find out what back-up you can expect from the
manufacturer. (A direct phone call to the company can tell you a
lot about what to expect in the way of future support.) Some
programs, like CHAMPION (p. 102), are sold in a demo version
that will allow you hands-on testing before you buy the whole
program. And systems houses (consultants who sell software
and hardware) can often provide sales contracts that include
staff training, help when you've got a problem, and equipment
repair.
Safeguards
Safeguards against loss of data are crucial in accounting,
especially in multi-user situations where a single file must be
simultaneously shared by two operators. You can run a crude
safety test by having two people attempt to access the same file
at once.
Some safety features can create complications if your
accounting needs are simple. Programs that follow standard
accounting practice won't allow you to delete or edit entries.
Instead, you must enter reversing entries to correct errors (it's
the standard embezzlement-discourager). This is no problem if
you are an accountant and can juggle figures in the general
ledger, but it can be a serious drawback for less agile users.
Once you've isolated your software candidates, eat, sleep, and
work with them until you know exactly what they will and won't
do. The highest cost of automating your accounting system lies
in the time it takes to set up your reports and chart of accounts
and enter your data. You don't want to do that work twice.
Hardware
A really workable accounting system requires a lot of disk
space— in most cases, a hard disk (Corvus is one of the better
ones— Profile for the Apple). Putting your accounts on fifteen or
sixteen floppies might be an interesting challenge at first, but
you can be sure it will be a headache later. For relaxed small
businesses, though, floppies may be entirely practical.
PEACHTREE BUSINESS ACCOUNTING, p. 101 , for example, is
designed with this in mind. If you don't yet own a computer
system, plan on buying one with as much memory as you can
afford. Don't plan on doing anything but the simplest home
accounting with less than 128K. Screen resolution and keyboard
set-up are also important considerations when working with
figures. And nearly every accounting program requires a 132-
column printer. Some home finance programs produce
acceptable reports on an 80-column printer, but only if it has a
compressed print mode.
Remember: Once you've isolated your software candidates, eat,
sleep, and live with them until you know exactly what they will
and won't do. Focus on areas where you need increased control
in your business. If you don't already own a personal computer,
find the right software first. Plot out the time good accounting
software can actually save you in tracking down figures and
producing invoices and checks. Then choose the program that
covers those major needs. Make sure you won't have to make
radical changes in your accounting system to use it, but be
ready to bend a little.
Think about how much you may have to pay your CPA to double
check your figures. Make sure the audit trails are good enough
so that you can easily follow each item in its travels from entry to
postings to reports. It's not a bad idea to keep dual books for the
first few months— until you know that your program works the
way you hoped it would. The highest cost of automating your
accounting system lies in the time it takes to set up your reports,
your chart of accounts, and to enter your data. You don't want
to do that work twice.
Books and magazines
Books and magazines are still the most useful resources for
finding what you want in software.
If you're a beginner, start with The Personal Computer in
Business Book, by Peter McWilliams (1984; 299 pp.; $9.95;
Quantum Press, Doubleday&Co., Inc., 501 Franklin Avenue,
Garden City, NY 11530; 212/953-4490), a good general-purpose
introduction. A slightly dated but helpful guide is Nicholas and
Sharon Rosa's Small Computers for the Small Businessman
(1980; 344 pages; $16.95; dilithium Press, PO. Box 606,
Beaverton, OR 97005-0606; 800/547-1842). Less entertaining,
but useful as a detailed how-to manual, is Micro Accounting:
Setting Up Your Books on the Computer, by Steven E. Yoder
and Sherry D. Knight (1984; 240 pp.; $15.95; Prentice-Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632; 201/592-2640). How to Buy
Software (p. 6) is the best for mapping the software search
territory as a whole. Two other useful compendiums are the
Datapro/McGraw-Hill Guide to Microcomputer Accounting
Software (1985; 142 pp.; $17.50; McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1221
Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020; 212/512-2000)
and Amanda Hixson's A Buyer's Guide to Microcomputer
Business Software (1984; 292 pp.; $19.95; Addison-Wesley,
96
One Jacob Way, Reading, MA 01867; 617/944-3700). And for
accountants who are ready to plunge into the PC world, three
good books are available: Microcomputers for Accountants by
Theodore Needleman (1983; 186 pages; $14.95; Prentice-Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632; 201/592-2640), Computers in
Accountants' Offices by Gordon E. Louvau and Marjorie E.
Jackson (1983; 132 pages; $25; Van Nostrand Rheinhold,
Order Processing, 7625 Empire Dr., Florence, KY 41042;
606/525-6600) and Computer Applications Guide for
Accountants by Steven S. Weis (1984; 330 pp.; $17.95; Reston
Publishing, 11480 Sunset Hills Rd.,Reston,VA 22090;
800/336-0338).
All of these books are available by mail order from COMPUTER
LITERACY. For ordering information, see p. 201.
Among magazines, the Journal of Financial Software and
Hardware gives a concise easy-to-read look at new financial
software for the business-minded. Business Computer Systems
is one of the best sources for articles on real estate software,
general-ledger software, and tax-preparation programs.
Computing for Business regularly runs reviews written by a
CPA. Also, be sure to check local user groups and professional
organizations for special seminars and demonstrations.
Business Computer Systems: $40/yr (1 2 issues) or free to
qualified business people; Cahners Publishing Co., Cahners
BIdg., 275 Washington St., Newton, MA 02158; 617/964-3030.
® Computing for Business: $24.95/yr (12 issues); MWJ
Publishing Group, P.O. Box 1234, Cerritos, CA 90701;
213/408-0999. •Journal of Financial Software and Hardware:
$20/yr (6 issues); Microthought Publications, 2811 Wilshire
Blvd., Suite 640, Santa Monica, CA 90403.
i/7 ^p.r.
T iTT^ r-1 /ra /
'm
Like a monthly financial checkup
Version 1.5; IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles; 128K;
color monitor recommended; IBM PCjr (cartridge,
128K; disk, 256K); $199.95; copy-protected? YES;
M.E.C.A., 285 Riverside Ave., Westport, CT
06880; 203/222-1000.
$15,900
$14,310
I12;720
$11,130
$9,540
$7,950
$6,360
$4,770
$3,180
$1,590
/
\
/
\
^
'■
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/
\
y
/
Oct Mom Dec Jot Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Ausf Sejp
KEN USTON: MANAGING YOUR MONEY is the
most comprehensive and easy-to-use home-
finance package I've run across. In addition
to performing conventional checkbook and
budgeting functions, MANAGING YOUR
MONEY forecasts cash flow, estimates
income taxes, tracks net worth, and
calculates gains and losses on investments.
But that's not all. MANAGING YOUR MONEY
evaluates family life insurance needs,
suggests income tax strategies, prints
checks, and calculates rates of return on tax
shelters and rental properties.
The programs are designed to be learned
without the user's manual. Although other
software manufacturers have made this
claim , MYM is one of the few packages that
totally succeeds.
Better yet, MYM programs are completely
integrated. A check you write to the doctor is
not only deducted from your checking
account balance but is also reflected in your
budget, income tax deductions, and net
worth.
For insurance planning, MYM calculates your
mortality No armchair advisor, it tells you
how much insurance to carry and makes
suggestions about where to purchase it. The
tax section estimates income taxes at any
time of the year and allows you to do tax
planning. The retirement programs factor in
such variables as taxable savings, pension
plans, IRA and Keogh portfolios, rates of
inflation, and your income tax bracket.
There's an equally good investment program.
If you, like me, have been thinking, "One of
these days I'm going to get my finances in
order," MYM might be the program to finally
get you going.
STEWART BRAND: I get asked, "What's your
favorite program?" Answer: Andrew Tobias's
MANAGING YOUR MONEY printouts of Stewart
Brand's bottom line lor 1984— all income versus
all expenses, with reality (through August)
compared to budget, Mowed by his predicted
cash situation for the following months.
MANAGING YOUR MONEY, by a mile. No
other program is so utterly useful, so well
designed, so well written (not the code,
which seems fine, but the words on the
screen), so humorous, so easy, so exploitive
of what a computer does best.
It's a life-brightener, a marriage-saven
Money, as they say, matters. Most of us can
keep up with the checkbook, but investments,
tax stuff, loans, insurance, all seem to inhabit
worlds of their own, from which come a
steady supply of bad surprises. This program
eliminates all that. All of those "chapters" in
the program, in your life, keep track of each
other and keep a steady summary of their
overall effect on your financial health. For the
first time I not only know what's going on, I
relish my monthly session with the program,
when the actuals take on the imagineds (the
budget), and I come out ahead or behind in
the computer game of life.
Ken Uston gives the program a rave review,
but I don't think it's clear how much better it
is than DOLLARS & SENSE, or HOME
ACCOUNTANT or any other program for
home application. For the monthly user like
me to the daily stock market adept,
MANAGING YOUR MONEY combines
awesome completeness with ingenious
simplicity.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIFT: MANAGING
YOUR MONEY is still in a category all by
itself. It's a financial consultant that won't
leave you with a handful of flaky investments.
In keeping with Andy Tobias's philosophy of
giving low-key, long-term advice, MECAnow
offers four customer update plans that
include, at the lowest level (free), an 800
HELP number and three-month guaranteed
disk replacement, and at the highest ($49), a
yearly update on software and a user
newsletter full of Tobias's practical financial
advice. The thing that impresses me most
about MYM is that the authors publicly admit
mistakes when they make them and actually
use the program to find out what needs
improvement.
The pity is, MANAGING YOUR MONEY is still
only available for IBM, but Apple and
Macintosh versions are on the horizon.
Speed, flexibility, and a great capacity .
Apple II, lie ; 48K; $100 ® Apple lie; 128K;
$120 « Macintosh; $150 ® IBM PC compatibles;
128K; 2 disk drives; $180; copy-protected? YES;
Monogram, 8295 S. La Cienega Blvd., Inglewood,
CA 90301; 213/215-0355.
FRED SALAND (Shoreline Software, San
Rafael, CA): After a long and frustrating
search for a good home-money manager, I
finally found DOLLARS AND SENSE. It isn't
good . . . it's great.
This program lets you categorize transactions
into 120 different accounts and enter monthly
budgets for each one. You can add and
rename accounts or delete unused accounts
at any time. Transactions can be flagged for
tax returns, and a new forecasting module
(available as a standalone for the Macintosh
and Apple II, but included in the IBM
versions) allows for four-year projections
useful in tax planning. Even after five months,
I had used only 92 accounts, and I'm
compulsive about detailing my financial
affairs.
Speed and capacity are the greatest selling
points. DOLLARS AND SENSE is written in
Pascal and operates at lightning speed
compared with the competition. Moving from
menu to menu is fast. Data entry is done by
the screenful instead of line by line. Up to
2000 entries per disk can be stored on an
Apple. You can also correct or add
transactions from previous months at any
time. (THE HOME ACCOUNTANT won't let you
add transactions after you've closed out a
month.) D&S's editing function, which works
like that of a word processor, is the best I've
seen.
The program was designed to be easy to use,
and it's a success. It always displays your
options so you can back out of any process
gracefully.
A few shortcomings: In printing checks, the
payee isn't saved, and repeat payments have
to be re-entered. Some users have mentioned
that disk drives must be perfectly adjusted in
order for transactions to be saved. This might
be a result of the operating system or of
Monogram's copy-protection scheme.
For personal finances, though, the package is
nearly ideal. I haven't said DOLLARS AND
SENSE is the simplest program to use, but
it's worth the extra effort. For the investment,
you get speed, flexibility, and results.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIF: In the personal
finance world, DOLLARS AND SENSE is a
star. I don't like doing my books or my taxes,
but D&S and the Macintosh made me fall in
love with my finances. D&S takes care of
averaging my fluctuating writer's income so I
can actually make use of a budget, and
funnels all the information I choose into one
of the best tax planners I've seen. Thanks to
the Mac's windows, the screens are super
and learning the program is sheer pleasure.
D&S isn't as complete as MANAGING YOUR
MONEY but it's better designed than HOME
ACCOUNTANT faster, and the documentation
looks like a million bucks.
ACTUALS AS PERCENT OF BUDGET
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
40
201
iy-|A
Liglitning fast and tliorouglily useful, DOLLARS
AND SENSE surpasses HOm ACCOUNTANT in
everytliing but forecasting and range ofwacliines
on wliicli it runs. For tiome budgeting, ciioose
exotic colors for bar graphs that sliow at a glance
what you spend on household items or your
automobile. You may discover, as I did, that those
harmless little trips to used-hook stores add up
Versatile, easy to use, and expandable . . .
Version 2.10; DEC Rainbow ® IBM PC/XT
compatibles ® Tl Professional ® MS-DOS 2.0; 192K
RAM ® Wang; 256K; 2 disk drives or hard disk;
copy-protected? NO; $195; Financial Software,
Inc., 3 Kane Industrial Dr., Hudson, MA 01749;
617/568-0374.
FRED SALAND (Shoreline Software, San
Rafael, CA): FINANCIER II is a personal and
small-business software system for accrual
or cash-based double-entry accounting. That
means it will work for both lazy and ambitious
users who want sophisticated fiscal
management. So far, this sounds pretty much
like HOME ACCOUNTANT or DOLLARS AND
SENSE. But the folks at Financier, Inc., have
spent a lot of time designing a program that is
versatile, relatively easy to use, and
expandable. While HOME ACCOUNTANT
limits you to 100 categories and D&S to 120,
this program can support any number of
categories. It goes one step further and
permits you to classify each category into
current and fixed assets, long- and short-
term liabilities, and so on. That's a definite
plus in a business setting.
Where does this very sophisticated package
fit in? It's more complete than HOME
ACCOUNTANT It's slower than DOLLARS
AND SENSE, but does have enhanced tax
coding, memo fields, and easy payables and
check writing. FINANCIER II probably falls
slightly above D&S for usefulness and a few
steps below a general-accounting package
like PEACHTREE BUSINESS or BPI, since
they can be upgraded to full accounting
systems as your business grows.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIFT: FINANCIER II has
less flash, but a few more refinements than
programs like HOME ACCOUNTANT and
DOLLARS AND SENSE, including the ability
to produce true business-quality reports. It's
more expensive than D&S and HA, definitely
not easy to use (but there will soon be an 800
number for help), and not terribly fast. Still,
it's a good buy if, like doctor and software
consultant Fred Saland, you have terrifically
complicated personal business. Also of value:
it runs on the Wang PC, which has too few
good programs designed for it.
ANDREA SHARP: FINANCIER seems too
difficult for non-accountants. I found the
manual ridiculously confusing to use. I didn't
like the data-entry format (there is no
verification of data before it is written to file).
Although there is flexibility if you can
overcome the manual and entry format, and
you can format the printing to your own
checks, it is too complex, I feel, for personal
business.
Currenl Asjcts
CniBJNK-CHtCKING
BANK Of bostSn-checi;
BANK OF BOSTON-SAVGS
POCKei CASH
STOCKS « BONOS
CITI NATIONAL CD
ToUl Current Asset
fixed Assets
PROPERTlf VALUE
AUTOS
Other Assets
nORTQAGE-TAX
PAYROLL WITHHOLDINGS
LANCE SHEET
JANUARY
r Beqin P
597
29
R YEAB-TO-OATE
DECEHBER
35000
15000
35100
12900
100
-2100
51334
50669
-644
-644
120000
16000
120000
16000
138000
138000
2300
15199
2300
15199
2300
15000
-0
199
17499
17499
17300
199
169334
206188
16854
17300
-446
-606
-110
-280
-222
325
-112
-715
-502
213
: ..
213
-eoooo
-10000
-79000
-6666
1000
3334
1000
3333
A double-entry booklceeping system is a must for
producing business balance sheets your bank will
accept FINANCIER II is the one personal finance
program that offers low price, a complete
accounting package, and business quality reports.
98
A home-finance manager
with reports for every occasion
Apple II family; 48K (Expanded version for lie &
lie; ProDOS; 128K) ® Macintosh ® Atari 800/XL;
48K ® Commodore 64 ® IBM PC/XT/AT
compatibles; 128K; IBM PCjr; copy-protected?
Varies with computer; $75-$100; Arrays, Inc./
Continental Software, 11223 S. Hindry Ave., Los
Angeles, CA 90045; 213/410- 3977.
•* THE HOME ACCOUNTANT **
V. X.XX
MAIN MENU
1. TRANSACTIONS
2. GRAPHS
3. PRINTED REPORTS
4. PRINT CHECKS/ACTIVITY REPORT
5. BUDGET
6. EXTEND DATA DISK
7. START NEW YEAR
8. HARDWARE/START NEW SYSTEM
9. EXIT
ENTER SELECTION (1-9)
HOME ACCOUNTANT Is a iiousehold word— at
least in tite electronic cottage. It runs on more
machines than any finance program in its price
range and offers a no- frills set Digraphs and
reports. HOME ACCOUNTANT PLUS, the IBM
version, has a forecast module that teaches the
tricky art of future budget planning. If you do
nothing more than predict returns on a savings
account, you'll still find HOME ACCOUNTANT'S
orderly thinking a godsend.
ROBERT D. KOLB (Micro Support, Sausalito,
CA): My accounting needs are rather simple,
because I have only one checking and one
savings account. But having spent hours
sorting through boxes of receipts and past
banl< statements, I was delighted to find a
software product to help organize my
financial mess. Oh sure, I always know my
current balance or whether I've paid my
electric bill, but whenever I have to review
past payments, I have to do a couple of hours
of tedious work.
It took me about 60 minutes to set up HOME
ACCOUNTANT, from formatting disks to
entering checkbook records. This included
reading through the documentation, which is
not quite as easy as it should be for novices.
Since I had never really taken the time to set
up a budget, I decided to try it. Then I got so
ambitious that I created two credit card
accounts and an expense account.
HA can handle up to five accounts with a
maximum of 100 categories each. Searching
for transactions is simple and painless. You
can search by date, check number, payee,
amount, budget category, memo, or any
combination for any period.
There are plenty of reports, including budget
and net worth. Also, you can print
comparative income and balance sheets and
choose specific areas for reporting (ie. all
checks to the landlord). Graphs allow limited
forecasting— for example, the future value of
an investment after assumed rates of return
and inflation have been calculated.
If I keep using HOME ACCOUNTANT who
knows? Those valuable investments might
even be mine.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIF: HOME
ACCOUNTANT has finally entered the jet age
with new versions written in (faster) compiled
BASIC (in ProDOS for Apple). HA isn't as
comprehensive as MANAGING YOUR MONEY
but it's a lot less exclusive, since it runs on
nearly every computer ever made. New Apple
lie and lie versions are out plus a Macintosh
version complete with financial planner and
double the mailing-list storage capacity of the
standard HA (100 names and addresses
instead of the old 50). The IBM version has a
reasonably complete forecasting module, and
all versions have the invaluable ability to
funnel information to Continental's low-priced
TAX ADVANTAGE. That gives you an onscreen
version of a completed tax form you can then
transfer to the official IRS papers, and saves
you a heck of a lot of calculating in the
process.
GEORGE BEEKMAN: I struggled with
DOLLARS AND SENSE on the Mac for three
months and I never felt very comfortable with
it. It took an hour with the HOME
ACCOUNTANT to convince me to retype all my
old D&S data into this new program. HA may
have problems on other systems, but the Mac
version is a joy to use. It's so intuitive and
Maclike that my wife (who's always hated the
idea of computerizing our finances) is
hooked. It's not perfect— it could stand to be
more flexible and it would be nice if you could
move data to and from other applications—
but it's miles ahead of the competition.
.r}:=;>;;;: . ; DIFFEREHCr:(ffllYSIS\::v;/'
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aiid/br-stpo iiariy deposits iarki!* as cleared
and/orS-^incprrect dollar, aaounts on me iteis
to helffindjstiie difference coipare the bank s^^
the siMiary-bf your register shown heliw;:V:
; ; : : JHfll' YOU' UE (IflBKED IN YOUR llEGISTW: v
;i ^\Hu«her V; rJoiUrrTotal
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'DepbS'jis'^Mrked'clearedy",,:-'/- 'i ;■ " ■:-,^'l:yK-:%.W-
PwBss F9 to exaiine ftjie ' Check Segister.-
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QUICKEN makes banking at home a reality. An
ingenious help screen that you call up when your
statement fails to balance can prevent one more
tedious trip to the bank. Since you already have
the inlormation you need in hand, the problem is
doing the necessary sleuthwork without having to
recheck all your entries. QUICKEN helps you track
the differences at home in a last and efficient
way
Check-writing and tracking . . .
QyiCKEi O
Thomas Proulx, David Drews and Anthony Tyson.
Copy-protected. $79 - $99 (street $50 - $70). IBM
PC family and compatibles (192K); Apple He
(extended 80 column card required)/llc. Intuit,
540 University Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301;
415/322-0590.
ANDREA SHARP: Ten minutes with QUICKEN
and I changed my mind about using
computers to manage a personal checkbook.
I had thought it wouldn't be worth the effort,
but this program makes the process fun and
is extremely easy to use. You can sit down
and run it in just a few minutes.
The program will memorize repeat payees'
names and addresses (as well as memos for
tax categories and amounts if you want) and
print out computer-style checks. As you
"write" your checks, the program makes a
check register for you and keeps your
transactions in date order. (Note: the checks
cost 830.95 for 500 and take two to three
weeks to arrive.)
RUSEL DE MARIA: QUICKEN is simplicity
itself. You write the checks on a screen that
looks just like a paper check and you work in
a check register that looks just like a paper
register. If you use the memo space for
budget categories, you can print a report
that lists each transaction according to date
and totals all the transactions at the bottom.
If you need to list your medical costs in a
hurry, this is an easy way to do it.
MARSHA MATHER THRIFT: QUICKEN was
designed to be foolproof for people with
phobias about computers, and it is. A former
writer for the well-known Sunset "how-to"
books designed the manual and the program
shares the same commonsense approach.
With it you can set up your checkbook to
yield year-end tax information or an
accounting for the costs of any particular
job. And when you balance your bank
statement and see a heart-stopping deficit in
the little box at the bottom, QUICKEN offers
the kind of help you need in finding the
gremlins that have mucked up your
calculations.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2 EDITION
99
m§i
f\i
Tightly controlled .
Sentient Software. Version 1.01. Copy-protected.
$180 - $575 (depending on machine); street price
$125 - $300; individual modules (GENERAL
LEDGER, ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE, ACCOUNTS
PAYABLE) $60 - $175 each; street prices $40 -
$120 each. Atari 800; Commodore 64; Apple II
family; Macintosh (512K); IBM PC/XT/AT and
compatibles (available only as three pack); IBM
PCjr. Requires 80-column printer. Peachtree
Software, 3445 Peachtree Rd. NE, 8th Floor,
Atlanta, GA 30326; 800/554-8900 or, in GA,
404/239-2000.
JAN PEHRSON: For years, Peachtree
accounting packages have set a de facto
standard, but those early programs had a lot
of problems associated with their use, partly
because they offered a lot of flexibility. There
were many options, but they weren't always
clearly documented.
BACK TO BASICS is a clearer, cleaner
version of Peachtree's early programs with
many of the hidden options now appearing
as menu selections. There's a little loss of
flexibility, but the gain in clarity is worth it.
In operation, this is a much safer program
than Peachtree's earlier accounting
packages. BACK TO BASICS tests data
entered and account number validity (against
the account numbers set up in the general
ledger). You can add expense accounts to
the payable module, for example, but only if
they have been previously set up. The
program flow is so tightly controlled, there
is little chance of making a fatal error.
HOWARD DYER: BACK TO BASICS gives you
30 standard reports to choose from and
deals with accounting reports in an efficient,
simplified way. The rat race of having to
customize report forms every time your
business shifts direction is gone. (()ther
programs, such as the EASYBUSINESS
series, make you learn a minor
programming language to create custom
reports.) In addition, BACK TO BASICS
allows variable terms for billing customers,
variable discounts, and the ability to pre-
define a palette of vendor terms.
The bad news: This is a floppy disk only
system; there is no online help although
screen prompts are exceptionally clear; and
the manual wasn't as much help as we
wished. Also, there's no payroll or inventory
module, as yet.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIFT: For do-it-
yourselfers stepping onto the shaky
tightrope of a small business start-up, this
program is definitely a safety net. It's
designed for the absolute novice and the
safeguards are excellent. The manual
includes a short course in basic accounting.
There are also helpful sketches of sample
business situations to give you some tips on
setting up your books. Some cautions: the
program prints statements, but not invoices,
so it's not much good to anyone interested
in manufacturing or high-inventory sales.
And unlike the old PEACHPAK 4, you can't
use it with the PEACHTEXT word-processing
program. But for anyone doing the kind of
small-scale labor-intensive business we do
around our house — writing and
cabinetmaking— BACK TO BASICS would be
my first choice.
A sensible double-entry
small-business system . . .
Version 1 .22; IBM PC/XT compatibles; 128K RAM ®
CP/M-80 and CP/M-86 machines; 64K RAM; 2 disk
drives or hard disk,132 column printing capability;
copy-protected? NO; $395; Star Software Systems,
367 Van Ness Way, Torrance, CA 90501;
213/533-1190; modules available: G/L, A/R, A/P,
Payroll, Inventory.
JAN PEHRSON, M.B.A., C.D.R (Datalink,
Novato, CA): Most small-business
bookkeeping systems are a combination of
spit and baling wire. A lot of businesses don't
even produce quarterly statements. In fact,
plenty of owners run "successful"
companies by frequently asking, "Just how
much do we have in the bank, anyway?"
Then the accountant (if there's a good one)
picks up the pieces at the end of the year.
THE ACCOUNTING PARTNER is one of those
sensible accounting systems that can change
all that. It's a double-entry system complete
enough for businesses that don't require
elaborate inventory control. For retailers,
there are plenty of options for vendor
payment and purchasing— enough, at least,
to give you an extra inflation hedge through
discount buying. THE ACCOUNTING
PARTNER also includes accounts receivable
and an invoicing module. And you can do a
sales analysis on products by item file,
invoicing your items at five different prices.
There are also some features you can't get
elsewhere. First, it interfaces with the STAR
LEGAL TIME AND BILLING PROGRAM, which
makes it a good candidate for attorneys and
consultants. THE ACCOUNTING PARTNER'S
journals are divided into three simple
categories: cash disbursements, cash
receipts, and a general journal. And one of its
most far-sighted features is a function that
permits small companies to print checks
straight from the general ledger check-
disbursements journal.
Still, victorv doesn't go uncontested to the
ACCOUNTING PARTNER. A/R allows only
balance-forward accounting, so you can't
check detail on invoices for previous months.
This might be fine for a five-and-dime, but not
for most inventory-maintaining businesses.
And despite Star's good documentation and
freely offered 800 number, there is no index
to help you through the rough spots. Worse
yet, it costs $50 per quarter for the benefit of
the company's direct advice. From Star's
point of view, this is probably a good way to
get rid of malingerers, but it's not terribly
practical for customers.
You don't have to be an accountant to use this
program, but you'll have to act like one if you
want to make any corrections. Reverse
entries are your only way out of errors. Also,
THE ACCOUNTING PARTNER is not entirely
interactive, so you'll have to post transactions
in a separate maneuver, but at least you can
rely on the accuracy of your figures this way.
Still, despite all this, THE ACCOUNTING
PARTNER is a cinch to give you a better idea
of how your books are being kept. And you
won't be likely to discover, as someone who
recently hired us did, that you've been
invisibly losing money for the last six months.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIFT: If you've got a
growing small business and limited cash
flow, then THE ACCOUNTING PARTNER can
offer low price now and an easy move up to
more sophisticated accounting software from
the same manufacturer later.
.,..„.
"
.„♦
En
The Accounting Partner
c) 1983 by Star Software Sys
ter/Sort/Post Transactions S
terns
ub-Menu
.....
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....,..,,
.....
Code
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Ch
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3)
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5)
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....
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...........................
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En
ter
Cod
e Number of Choice (or to
return):
1
ACCOUNTING PARTNER has three simple entry
screens (cash receipts, cash disbursements and
general journal}. These help to separate financial
transactions and cut down chances for error
ACCOUNTING PARTNER is a good buy if you have a
small business and limited cash flow. A better buy
may be Star's new ACCOUNTING PARTNER 2 (a
four-module program for $995) if you need a
completely interactive updating of reports and the
option of either balance forward or open item
accounting.
100
Systama Plus, Inc.
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BOOKS! is a novice businessperson's dream. A
bool(l(eeping tutorial and ten simple charts ol
accounts streamline initial setup. A report (such
as the one above) provides a tidy summary ol
outstanding debts with balances aged at lour
different rates. Overdue bills can quickly sink busy
or inexperienced entrepreneurs, but with BOOKS!
you can instantly monitor cash and receivables.
CORNER HOME IMPROVEMENT CENTER
TRIAL BRLONCE
JUNE 3i2i, 1985
PAGE 1
CURRENT fiSSETS
ll?li? REGISTER COSH
1£8. 99
10£-0 COSH ON DEPOSIT
.00
1*£-1 CITY NflTIONOL
8
£55. 67
10££' COMMERCIOL USO
£5£. £9
11 10 fiCCDUNTS RECEIVPBLE
5
065. 33
11£0 PREPOID INSURANCE
56. 3£
1130 EMPLOYEE RDVONCES
449.50
1140 RETftlNOGE ON CONTRACTS
.00
1150 INVENTORY
£5
674. 1 1
1160 CONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS
.00
1180 LOBOR CONTROL
. 00
FIXED OSSETS
1510 FURNITURE & FIXTURES
10
£74. £6
15£0 MOCHINERY « EQUIPMENT
48
179. S6
1550 OCCUMULOTED DEPRECIATION
4
316.04-
OTHER ASSETS
1800 DEPOSITS
7
466.58
1830 PREPOID INTEREST
1 1
585. 40
CURRENT LIABILITIES
£005 DEPOSITS ON CONSTRUCTION
.00
£010 ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
13
061. £5-
£030 SALES TAX PAYABLE
1
59£. 80-
£040 FICO PAYABLE
£15.35-
£050 FEDERAL INCOME TAX W/H
£69. 87-
£060 EARNED INCOME CREDIT
.00
£070 STATE INCOME TAX W/H
101. 1£-
£080 NEW YORK CITY TAX W/H
£3. 34-
LONG TERM LIABILITIES
£6£0 NOTES POYOBLE-EOUIP
66
£37. 3£-
CAPITAL
3010 CAPITAL STOCK
£4
500. 00-
3050 RETAINED EARNINGS
7
07 1 . ££-
INCOME
4011 SALES
. 00
The workhorse of small business accounting, BPI
requires month-end closings and audit reports.
Trial balance (above) gives you a quick summary
of all your general ledger accounts— a handy tool
for quickly assessing cash and excessive
spending.
For the old-fashioned bookkeeper . . .
BOOiS! THE ELECTRIC LEDGER
Version 1.2; IBM PC/XT compatibles; 128K RAM;
2 disk drives or hard disk ® most CP/M-80 & -86
machines; 64K minimum RAM; copy-protected?
NO; $745 for complete package or $395 for basic
module plus $75-$150 for additional modules;
Systems Plus, Inc., 1120 San Antonio Rd., Palo
Alto, CA 94303; 415/969-7047.
DENNIS JOW: BOOKS! is a program with a
revolutionary approach. The screen is a
graphic simulation of the familiar journal
worksheet (with columns for debits and
credits) designed to make the changeover
from paper to machine an easy task.
BOOKS! is closer to textbook accounting
than any other system on the market. The
reference manual has a section explaining
the theory of double-entry accrual
accounting and there is a tutorial. There are
G/L, A/P, and A/R functions in the main
package and options (at separate cost) for
invoicing, check writing, recurring entries,
and budgeting (including job cost). The
accounts receivable part of the program
includes selections for open-item aging
reports and detailed aged or balance-forward
customer statements. It will also handle any
number of customers you wish.
One of the nicest features is the chart of
accounts. There are predesigned charts for
A workhorse for small businesses,
flexible and expandable . . .
Version 1.8; Apple II family; Lisa « IBM PC/XT
compatibles; PC DOS • most MS-DOS machines
® most CP/M machines; copy-protected? NO
(except Apple II); $595-$795; BPI Systems, 3001
Bee Cave Road, Austin, TX 78746; 512/328-5400;
modules available: A/R, A/P, Payroll, Inventory
Control, Job Costs, Time Accounting. Call BPI for
specific machine compatibility and requirements.
PAUL WALHUS, business systems
consultant: BPI was started by the owner of a
chain of grocery stores in Austin, Texas, who
needed accounting systems to run his stores.
He teamed up with a programmer and created
a product that Apple, Commodore, and IBM
fell in love with. The product caught on and
sold more than 100,000 copies in two years.
It doesn't take knowledge or expertise in
computers to use BPI. This is truly a program
for the small business. Besides a general
ledger module, BPI offers accounts receivable
and payable, inventory control, payroll, job
cost, church management, association
management, and time accounting for
lawyers.
The programs are easy to use, well-
supported, well-documented, relatively bug-
ten different types of businesses-
wholesale, manufacturing, construction and
others. You can modify any of these to your
own specifications.
HOWARD DYER: In an effort to be flexible
and innovative, the BOOKS! designers
loosened standard accounting controls. For
example, the program doesn't close out the
month, which makes later revisions easy but
displaces the customary audit trail. Also,
account descriptions are used instead of
accounting numbers, and since there are no
predefined account ranges, finding errors
later could be a bit tricky.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIF: The biggest
drawback of BOOKS! is a freewheeling
approach to entry that increases ease of use
but sacrifices safeguards. ONE-WRITE
PLUS, a new program by Evergreen
Software, which includes check writing and
sells for $295, offers the same journal
worksheet approach as BOOKS! and more
controls. Unfortunately, there is only one G/
L module available thus far and no invoicing,
so it's only worth considering for the
smallest of businesses until the next
modules hit the shelves in the stores. (ONE-
WRITE PLUS. Melanson and Johnson. Copy-
protected. $295; street $190. IBM PC/XT/AT/
compatibles; 128K. 2 disk drives required.
Evergreen Software, Inc., The Meeting
Place, Amherst, NH 03031; 800/528- 5015
or, in NH, 603/673-0830).
free, and the menus are always consistent.
You can stack up commands in the BPI
"queue" menu and enter data in several
journals without going back to the main
menu. And you can do the same with the
reports. This shorthand data entry saves a
lot of keystrokes.
The program will let you keep a whole year's
transactions on a hard disk. But there is one
drawback: BPI is a month-to-month
accounting system, which means your access
to data for use in spreadsheet projections and
similar analyses is nil, unless you buy a file-
transfer program. But more important: BPI is
an expandable system. The general ledger
can provide the heart of a small business
financial system and then hook up with more
powerful receivable and payable modules
later. The newest version (C13) for the IBM
also links to a universe of BPI products
(the Aura line), including information
managers and word processors.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIFT: BPI has outsold
other accounting programs in this price
range. It's dependable and offers a lot of
options (such as legal time and billing and job
cost) that you won't find in similarly priced
programs. And the best news is that the IBM
version is now written in compiled BASIC and
finally fast enough to satisfy even the most
hardened computer program reviewer.
101
Full-featured and carefully designed .
ACCOUiTliG SYSTEl
John Burns and Sally Craig; Version1.31; IBM PC
compatibles and other MS-OOS machines; 128K*
most CP/M and MP/M machines; 64K; 2 disk drives
or hard disk; copy protected? NO; $1595; Balcones
Computer Corporation, 3435 Greystone, Suite 106,
Austin, n 78731; 800/531-5483 or, in TX,
800/252-8184; system includes G/L, A/R, A/P
($579 each purchased separately); also available:
Inventory Accounting ($1095), Payroll ($795),
Time Billing ($795), Invoicer ($295), Multiple
Terminal Entry ($295), Spreadsheet Interface for
1-2-3 and MULTIPLAN ($195 each).
JOHN R. SOWDEN, JR.: Unlike most
software packages, THE BOSS'S manual lists
its program writers right up front. So it was
my first impression that if somebody was
taking responsibility for it, the whole program
must be well put together. I wasn't wrong.
When I called Balcones (via an 800 number),
the first person I talked to fully understood
the program— and also had a strong
knowledge of accounting.
The manual is well-written and the system
offers a number of features for easy use. You
can create your own function keys, for
example, so if you want you can easily design
your command keys to resemble those of
MicroPro's WORDSTAR, which is helpful if
your staff is already familiar with WORDSTAR
commands.
Another help is the preset chart of accounts.
You can delete the accounts that don't match
your operations and add ones that do.
Ordinarily, setting up a chart of accounts is
one of the most time-consuming and
complicated tasks in computer accounting.
There are lots of flexible features, too. THE
BOSS allows you up to ten transaction
categories per entry. If ten isn't enough,
Balcones performs an accounting sleight-of-
hand by allowing one of these entries to refer
to a temporary account that makes another
ten entries available.
The system has three levels of password
security, and there are excellent error-
detection features to warn you if your disk is
bad or your hardware malfunctioning.
Balcones also gives you a chance to test what
they're selling. You purchase the demo disks
and manual. If you buy the package within 30
days, the demo charge is credited and the
company sends you unrestricted disks along
with a new reference manual that covers the
program in even greater detail.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIFT: THE BOSS is a
leader in outstanding system safeguards. It's
a good multi-user program, and it's the only
one recommended in this price range that
offers a general time-and-billing package as
well as an interface with 1-2-3 (p. 68).
A fine, market-tested integrated system ,
Version 2.3; Apple III with Profile hard disk ® DEC
Rainbow 100 • IBM PC/XT compatibles ® Tl
Professional; 128K ® Standard 8" CP/M machines;
all require 2 disk drives or hard disk; copy
protected? NO; $595 per module; Peachtree
Software, 3445 Peachtree Road NE, 8th Floor,
Atlanta, GA 30326; 800/554-8900; modules
available: G/L, A/R, A/P, Sales Invoicing, Inventory
Control, Payroll, Job Cost, Fixed Assets.
JAN PEHRSON, M.B.A., CD. P. (Datalink,
Novato, CA): If you don't care much for frills
and want a good easy-to-use accounting
system, PEACHTREE BUSINESS
ACCOUNTING SYSTEM is one of the best
buys on the market. My firm installs business
software and trains people to use it, so we've
spent lots of time looking for programs that
give small businesses the power and
flexibility they need. We found PEACHTREE
several years ago and still think it's dynamite.
Recently, we converted a small pest-control
business from its old manual system and
found that set-up and training on PEACHTREE
took only four and a half hours of our time.
That's the kind of miracle small, understaffed
companies are looking for.
PEACHTREE is similar to BACK TO BASICS
(p. 99) but a lot more powerful. Available
components include job cost, payroll, order
entry, and a general ledger for Cf'As. The
system is truly modular and written in
compiled BASIC, which means it's fast, and
you can be sure it's well-tested. Peachtree is
the third largest software manufacturer in the
country, and the company has a solid
reputation for both user and dealer support.
PEACHTREE is a less complicated accounting
system than REALWORLD (p. 103) and more
flexible than EASYBUSINESS (p. 102). A
systems file lets you choose the way you want
to handle editing and control reports. If
you're very security conscious, this may not
be the system you want, but in most
businesses with 20 or fewer employees,
people know each other well enough to make
a locked-up program unnecessary. The series
has two levels of password security, and I
really think that's sufficient.
PEACHTREE offers all the standard
accounting features, such as balance sheets
and income statements. You can do custom
invoicing by using PEACHTEXT 5000. All
modules feed directly to the general ledger,
and trial balances can be run. Accounts
payable allows open invoices and aging on
balances due (with a 30/60/90-day format); it
also provides an unusual and extremely
useful cash-requirements forecast. Payroll
includes a subscription service for updated
tax tables, so you never have to key in new
information as the laws change.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIFT: The best thing
about Peachtree is the company's interest in
constantly improving the basic program. The
newest version has greatly eased initial set-up
through clear-cut menu options and includes
dozens of craftsmanlike touches that make
the programs easier than ever to use.
stuck witli expanding business and a floppy disk
computer system you can't afford to trade?
PEACHTREE BUSINESS ACCOUNTING was
designed to ease your dilemma. Although any
accounting system performs best with a hard disk,
PEACHTREE keeps disk-swapping to a minimum.
You get plenty of standard business reports,
nonetheless, including a departmental income
statement (above). A vital aid in comparing
departmental prolit margins for combined sales
and service operations.
ACHE CORPORATION
SHORT FORM CHART
OF ACCOUNTS NAMES
Printing Date:05-02-8I
452
LT Note Payable-Leander
811 Legal S Professional Fees
ASSEIS •
454
Secured L.T. Note Pay
812 Bad Debt Expense
100 Checking Account
103 Savings Acct-Hound Roci(
813 Franchise Tax Expense
150 Cash on Hand
50C
Owner 1 - Net Worth
151 Petty Cash Funds
510
Owner 1 - Contribute
••••••• MON-OPERATING •••••••
153 Certificate of Deposit
520 Owner 1 - Ulthdraaal
900 Non-Operating Income
156 Stocli
530
Owner I - Other
925 Non-Operating Expense
159 Bond
54C
Owner 1 - Special
950 Federal Income Taxes
200 Accounts Receivable-Sales
550
CoiTTOon Stock - Par
955 State Income Taxes
201 Accounts Beceivable-Emply
551
Common Stock - Surplus
956 Other Income Taxes
202 Accounts Receivable-Other
580
Retained Earnings
960 County Income Taxes
210 Note Receivable
585
Dividends Paid
965 City Income Taxes
250 Inventory
590
Fiscal Year Earnings
970 Foreign Income Taxes
290 Prepaid Expenses
291 Accrued Revenue
292 Security Deposits
600 Cash Sales-Hardware
300 Furniture i Fixtures
601
Cash Sales -Paint
301 Machinery S Equipment
670
Credit Sales-Hardware
302 Cars S Trucks
621
Credit Sales-Paint
303 Leasehold Improvements
640
Interest Income
304 Organliational Expenses
650
Cash Return I Allow-Hardw
305 Patents
651
Cash Return S AUow-Palnt
306 Copyrights
670
Credit Rets S Allow-Hardw
310 Building
671
Credit Rets S Al low-Paint
330 Storage land
690
Earned Discounts
350 Depreciation-furn i FIxtu
351 Depreciation-Hach s Equip
352 Depreciation-Cars S Truck
700
Cost of (kjods-Hardware
353 Depreciation-Leasehold Im
701
Cost of Goods-Paint
354 Depreciation-Organliatlon
750
Advertising Expense
355 Depreciation-Patents
751
Vehicle Repairs Expense
356 Depreciation-Copyrights
752
Vehicle Fuel Expense
360 Depreciation-Building
753
Salesmen Expense
380 Goodalll
754
Salesmen Salary Expense
381 Trademarks
755
Store Salary Expense
399 Inter-Account Transfers
756
Store Payroll Tax Expense
/57
Store Insurance Expense
LIABILITIES
758
Store Rent/Lease Expense
400 Accounts Payable
759
Store Utilities Expense
405 ST Note Payabte-Leander
760
Store Telephone Expense
425 Fed Withholding Payable
761
Store Supplies Expense
THE BOSS accounting system is well-designed lor
safety and ease of use. Error messages warn it
disks or programs tunction improperly A short
form chart of accounts report helps in coding
items to the proper account belore entry. Balcones
clearly dreams up its programs with ordinary
users in mind.
fm^mi»m^^^,i^m^^^>^ a^ ^^^^^^^m^^^^^^^^ mm^^^i^i mmM&^^^^^^ ^m^^^^^^^m^^^^
Extreme ease of use . . .
Version 4.01; PC DOS, MS-DOS, CP/IW-86, most
IBM compatibles; 128K; $595 per module ® CP/M
80 machines; 64K; $495 per module; copy-
protected? NO; Champion Software Corporation,
17301 West Colfax Ave., #250, Golden, CO 80401;
800/243-2626 or, in CO, 303/278-8666; call
Champion for specific machine specifications and
compatibility; over 75 configurations; modules
available: GL, A/R with order entry & point of sale,
A/P with purchase order. Inventory, Payroll.
IiAlA BftSE RESEflRUH LUKI'UKAi I
ilftlLMtNI or riNANClAl- UjNUl l
-JUNE 30. 1982
PAGE 1
CURRENT flSSEH-i;
I CITY CASH
HASH IN BANK - CHtLK lii;,
CASH IN BANK - SAVlNbS
TOTAI CASH
TDTAI ACCOUNTS RCCEIVAH.L
lOTAI CURRENT ASSETS
FIXED assets:
rONPllIfRH
rURNITUI;E .K ( IXTURES
TOTAI FIXED ASSI.tS
ACCUMULATEli UEtRLClAlinN
r IXFIi AHSEIS (LESS ICRI; . >
ISO. 0(1
332,444. 1'j
269.000.00
601.614.15
101.400.00
17.300.00
118.700.00
0.00
879.060.15
LIABILlTltS
CURRENT liabilities:
ACCOUNTS PAYABLE - TRADE
TOTAL ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
FEDERAL UITHHOLDING PAYABLE
PICA UITHHOLDING PAYABLE
r.TATF UITHHOLDING PAYABLE
HISC PAYROLL DEDUCTIONS
TOTAI TAXES PAYABLF
.OTKOICt
o.re
^
DESCAniO.
««»«.
■.«j««
«FE«..a
cooc
AMCXIHI
•
,;;:;;
:;;;:;::
'^
l!!l^rlsl
'IM
'''''•"
,11':,',
'I'll
COO" s ass r ssK' ■ ssss ' 'sss
TOTAL 1 [ ; ) . 6 i
_
1.I1K7
1
„. 1 ,.»
.-..
Invoices in many programs require you to use
quantity and unit cost categories witetlieryou
manufacture, sell retail goods, or service clients.
This can make an excellent accounting system
useless if your business requires a more flexible
invoicing format. EASYBUSINESS invoicing is
more flexibly designed than most, and slated for
further improvements.
O MEANS: NEW TO 2,0 EDITION
ANDREA SHARP (Whole Earth bookkeeper):
Bookkeeping must have been one of the tasks
for which computers were conceived. And
Champion has put together a five-module
accounting package that makes bookkeeping
a bearable activity. You can use the modules
—general ledger, payroll, accounts payable,
accounts receivable, and inventory-together
or as stand-alone functions. The amount of
disk storage you have will determine what you
can run together and how many months you
can run concurrently. These programs are not
suitable for small computers. On a Kaypro 2
(190K disk drives) I could only run the general
ledger module for one month at a time.
The program will automatically produce
financial reports-just like the ones your
accountant gives you (although you cannot
create a customized hutigeX or financial report
directly). But herein lies the one complication
of using such software. You need to think like
an accountant to set up your chart of
accounts and general ledger unless you want
to use the standard one CHAMPION provides.
I sure got an instant education going through
the set-up procedure on my own. Once that
// you rely on your accountant, you normally wait
until year's end for a statement of financial
condition. With CHAMPION, you can produce on-
the-spot reports any time during the year Not only
that, but because it's written in DBASE II (p. 85),
CHAMPION is the fastest and most expandable
system in the upper price range (that is, if you're a
programmer or a wizard with DBASE conversions}.
Security conscious accounting with
excellent support . . .
Version 4.0; IBM PC/XT/AT/3270 compatibles ® Tl
Professional; 64K; 2 disk drives; $595 per module
except Payroll ($795); copy protected? NO;
SORCIM/IUS Micro Software, 2195 Fortune Dr.,
San Jose, CA 95131; 408/942-1727; modules
available: G/L, A/R, A/P, Inventory Control and
Analysis, Order Entry, Payroll, Time Billing &
Client Receivables.
JAN PEHRSON, M.B.A., C.D.R (Datalink,
Novato, CA): SORCIM/IUS puts out one of the
most useable small-business accounting
programs in the currently available herd. It's
a kind of maiden aunt among accounting
software, decidedly trustworthy and
predictable even though its design is a little
behind the times. Modeled on the old
minibatch design, it is extremely safe, but
for my tastes a little cumbersome to use.
Still, all this caution does have its benefits.
EASYBUSINESS SYSTEMS has excellent
error-detection capabilities, enhanced by
easily understood messages and a
"catastrophic error" warning to stop you
dead in your tracks when hardware or
software malfunctions occur.
Set-up goes quickly, despite the fact that this
is a complicated accounting system. There
are good instructions for allocating file space
was done it was easy street. A program like
this does such niceties as post all your payroll
deductions to the proper accounts in your
general ledger while you are printing out your
payroll checks. When all modules are used,
this is a true order-entry system that updates
inventory.
CHAMPION is designed to be extremely easy
to use, with a compact manual that's
coordinated with the menu-driven program.
Both the nianual and the help screens for the
4.0 version have been completely rewritten,
so there are onscreen help functions available
at all times, as well as a recovery procedure
should the program unexpectedly crash.
Once your system is set up, even a temporary
employee could come in and do your
bookkeeping for you. This is one of
CHAMPION'S major advantages. There are
audit trails for all activities, and any
accountant could make sense of the system—
which rescues you from the potential tyranny
of an idiosyncratic bookkeeper.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIF: CHAMPION'S
biggest limitation has been its report-
producing flexibility. A new spreadsheet
interface and report generator called
FREEWAY is in the works, which would solve
this problem. But if your business needs are
fairly standard, CHAMPION can supply all the
reports and features you need. If you want a
purchase-order module, for example,
CHAMPION is the program that has it.
on disks and setting up your chart of
accounts. The manuals are small enough to
fit on a desktop or shelf (a plus if you've ever
tried to wrestle one of the damned things put
out by most software companies), and
readable.
Despite its accessibility, EASYBUSINESS
offers plenty of flexibility and power. It can
handle multiple departments and divisions
using a twelve-digit account number (but
can't consolidate multiple companies).
Available reports are strongly management-
oriented, offering such niceties as cash-flow
monitoring and reports from the Inventory
module that track order progress. The
financial reporter, included in the general
ledger module, makes report generation
an art.
The EASYPLUS windowing system ($149;
hard disk required) also adds a touch of new
vigor by allowing EASYBUSINESS to interface
quite easily with 1-2-3 (p. 68), DBASE
(p. 85), SUPERPROJECT (p. 117), and
others. It's a little like putting a miniskirt on
the maiden aunt: fashionable yes, but not
likely to change the old girl's fundamental
approach.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIFT: Consider
EASYBUSINESS if you're looking for an
accountant's dream of a program that will
give you excellent safeguards against errors
in data entry.
103
Minicomputer ancestry and volume . . .
Version 3.1; PC DOS; MS-DOS; CP/IVI-86 machines;
128K (256K recommended); CP/IVI, TURBODOS,
IVImmOST, UNIX, XENIX; 64K; hard disic
recommended; 132-column printing capabilities;
$695/module except Sales Analysis ($348); call
for specific machine requirements and
configurations; copy-protected? NO; RealWorld
Corporation, Dover Road, Chichester, NH 03263;
800/255-1115 or, NH, 603/798-5700; modules
available: G/L, A/R, A/P, payroll, order entry,
inventory control, sales analysis.
LEROY TAVARES: REALWORLD GENERAL
ACCOUNTING is not the accounting software
for someone who wants to do household
accounting or keep the books of a cottage
business, but it is ideal for wholesalers and
distributors who do volume sales, have a
large inventory, and deal with numerous
customers and vendors. In addition to the
Basic Four~G/L, A/R, A/P, and payroll,
modules are available for sales analysis,
inventory control, and order processing. The
program is derived from a minicomputer
accounting system and has been on the
market for eleven years, so it is well-tested
and predictable.
This is a double-entry system, but
transactions can be easily edited in order to
balance entries prior to posting, unlike some
systems that require data from each entry
session to be in balance.
All reports, except the customized G/L
financial statements, are pre-designed and
ready to run. They require a printer capable of
printing 132 columns. The 3.0 version of
REALWORLD provides a way to install control
codes in order to use the compressed print
feature of most popular dot matrix printers.
It's mighty handy being able to compress
these wide reports onto a standard 8I/2" page
without fooling around.
The program is written in COBOL, a widely-
applicable computer language. A multi-user
version has been introduced for a number of
local area networks. Because of the number
of programs and data files for each module, I
highly recommend a hard disk.
REALWORD has improved installation
procedures, but layout of financial statements
and set-up of payroll tax computations
require some real work. It's a good idea to
discuss set-up options thoroughly with your
accountant before wading in.
REALWORLD is available only through dealers
and, because it is complicated to set up, a
good dealer is invaluable for proper
installation. Certain dealers are licensed to
take the original COBOL source code and
rewrite it to fit unique business requirements.
Such flexibility makes REALWORLD an
inexpensive route for acquiring custom
accounting software without the risk of hiring
someone to develop your accounting system
from scratch.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIFT: REALWORLD is a
complicated but excellent system for
wholesalers and retailers. It also gets high
marks as a good general ledger for use by
scrupulous Certified Public Accountants.
A new small-business package called 4-IN-
ONE BASIC ACCOUNTING ($995) has just
been released by the same company. If
REALWORLD seems like overkill, you might
take a look at the new program, which
promises the same high quality as the higher-
priced software.
Good payroll soltware is expensive but invaluable
if you have numerous employees whose hours and
job rates vary from month to month and year to
year RealWorld puts out well-tested software with
excellent safety features. A data integrity program
helps detect hardware-caused errors before you
store any faulty information. You won't have to
worry about undetected errors that can bring IRS
wrath upon your company's head.
Multi-user accounting . . .
SYSTEl O
Version 2.0 (CP/M 80). Version 3.0 (MS-DOS). Not
copy-protected. 128K required (exceptions noted).
Modules available: Ledger (includes Q*Link);
v.2.0, $595; v.3.0 (requires 256K), $795 «
Receivables, Payables and Inventory; v.2.0, $595
ea; v.3.0, $795 each » Payroll; v.2.0, $595 «
Materials and Sales (hard disk recommended);
v.3.0, $795 each • Assets; v.3.0, $595 • Q^Word
and Q* Label (one package); v.3.0, $395 • Q*
Net; v.3.0, $795 per 4 users ® Q*Link; v.3.0,
$150. Available from TCS Software, Inc., 6100
Hillcroft, Suite 600, Houston, TX 77081;
800/231-6454 or, in TX, 800/392-5973.
JAN PEHRSON: TCS looks like a clone of the
PEACHTREE BUSINESS ACCOUNTING
SYSTEM, so similar is it in design and
features. In fact, the originators of TCS and
PEACHTREE once worked together
developing software, so it's not surprising
that both programs seem grown from the
same root.
Few accounting programs are designed with
the kind of database power and the loads of
useful options that you get with TCS. You
can extract data from your basic set of books
and then add or subtract items to get a
realistic view of the way any single element
of your business may be functioning—
particularly helpful for any small businesses
that must absorb costs and income from a
number of different sources. TCS modules
all let you design queries for the database
using simple English-language commands
and print the results at any time as custom
reports.
One of the first companies to recognize that
planning goes hand- in-hand with
accounting, TCS includes a spreadsheet-
linking program called Q*LINK that easily
transfers data from the G/L to 1-2-3 (p. 68),
SYMPHONY (p. 111), and MULTIPLAN (p.
70) so you can trot out figures from your
accounts receivables and project the effect of
adding service charges to all the accounts. Q
*LINK lets you pick and choose the data you
want to transfer, then "map" it into
worksheet cells.
Unlike PEACHTREE, TCS is a multi-user
system. Q*NET allows you to chain up to
sixteen computers together in groupings of
four.
When it comes to ease of application, TCS
does lag slightly behind in its race with
PEACHTREE, but in ease of learning, it runs
well ahead. The manuals contain tutorials
that really give you a feel for the entire flow
of work. This makes it easy to use for
teaching our small business clients how to
manage their books. The documentation
from Peachtree and Sorcim/IUS isn't as easy
to grasp.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIFT: TCS is the most
flexible of all the accounting programs
reviewed here and you won't have to hire a
consultant to get it up and running. It's the
one program that can give you multi-user
capability, spreadsheet and word- processor
interfaces (0* LINK and Q*WORD), a
mailing-label program (Q* LABEL), and the
database power to create mailings to both
present and prospective customers. It's also
the only one we recommend that has a
materials-inventory program for
manufacturers. You can't think of much that
TCS hasn't thought of first.
104
Hard disk on the Apple III .
Version 3.0; IBM PC and XT (128K) /AT (256K;
single user only) e Apple lie; 128K; hard disk ®
Apple III; Profile hard disk » Macintosh; hard disk
« Tandy 2000; 256K « Tl Professional; 256K @
Wang PC; 256K; Apricot; 256K « copy-protected?
NO; $695/module, single user; $795/module,
multi-user; Great Plains Software, P.O. Box 9739,
Fargo, ND 58109; 701/281-0550; Modules
available: General Ledger with Financial
Reporting and Budgeting; A/R; A/P; Inventory
Management with Point of Sale Invoicing; Payroll;
Rapid Transfer; Job Cost with Estimating, Costing
and Pre-Billing; Multi-User with Report Maker.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIFT: When you call
Great Plains, instead of blank Muzak while
you wait you get Rosanne Cash, a good
indication that the company is up-to-date in
every way. And it is. As Eugene Kramer
makes clear, the company's programs are
flexible and well- supported. Great Plains
now offers true multi-user programs (up to
16 workstations), RAPID TRANSFER (a
spreadsheet interface to 1-2-3 (p. 68),
SYMPHONY (p. 111), VISICALG, and
MULTIPLAN (p. 70), a new report maker that
will let you design your own reports, and a
brand new Macintosh version of the Great
Plains accounting system.
EUGENE KRAMER, C.PA.: GREAT PLAINS
allows flexible formatting of financial
statements and prints these at any time
during the month or year. It allows four,
seven, or ten digit account numbers and
account descriptions up to 30 characters
long. (Unfortunately, GREAT PLAINS permits
only twelve accounting periods per year, not
thirteen.) The system also provides data
security through password protection, and
all other security features are superb. The
documentation is excellent and so is the
telephone support, which is handled by
people who specialize in each of the various
applications.
GREAT PLAINS accounting programs are
written in Pascal, which requires its own
operating system. They run easily on the
Apple III. To adapt these programs to IBM's
PC DOS, GREAT PLAINS supplies an
intermediary system called BUBBLE DOS.
This is an excellent accounting system at a
reasonable price.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIF; We've heard
nothing but good reports on GREAT PLAINS
for both IBM and Apple. Andrea Sharp
doesn't recommend it for the Macintosh
because of Mac's problems with speed and
its lack of a number pad. But if all you own
is a Macintosh, it's certainly worth a try.
Prepare Returns (On-screen)
1) New Name (Active FUename) 1 2) Schd W (Married Cpl Ddn)
2) Form 1040 (Main Form) 13) Form 2 106 (Employee Expns)
3) Schd A atemized Deducn) 14) Form 21 19 (Residence Sale)
4)SctidB Onterest & Divs) 15) Form 22 10 (Tax Underpymnt)
5) Schd C (Business Prolil) 16) Form 2441 (Child Care)
6) Schd D (Capital Gains) 17) Form 3468 (Invstmt Credit)
7) Schd E (Supplmnt Income) 18) Form 4562 (Depreciation)
8) Schd F (Farm Income) 19) Form 4797 (Supplmt Gains)
9) Schd G (Income Averaging) 20) Form 5695 (Energy Credit)
10)SchdR&RP (Elderly Credit) 21) Form 6251 (AltMinTax)
i 1 ) Schd SE (Sell-emplmt Tax)
Which do you choose (Esc = exit)? 1
No more late-night scrambles to the Post Office for
overloolced forms and schedules. TAX PREPARER
supplies 90% of the paperwork most people need
lor returns. It's a preparer, a planner, and all-
around April 15th wizard. A personal tax preparer
that's good enough for professionals to use.
ENTER, CHflNSE, OR REVIE« HORKSHEET
ALTERMftTIVE 1- "2 -3-" f"; ""^ZZ
1983 1983 I9B3 1983 1983
1 Filing Status . . . . •
2 Exeaptions
3 Hages I Salaries -T
-S
4 Tito-Earner Ear.'d Incoae-T
-S
5 Interest -T
-S
4 Dividends -T
-S
7 Int k Div Exclusions -T
BORKSHEET; ,
JluBp, OalcuUtor, T)ax plan, Rlesults,
Blroa, SI ingle entry, Blorksheet layout,
HIeadings, ESC, ?
THE PERSONAL TAX PLANNER is a tool for making
investment decisions, solving real estate rent-or-
purchase dilemmas, deciding job changes, and
even restructuring settlements from lawsuits.
O MEANS: NEW TO 2,0 EDITION
faies
Two things are certain .
Version 85; Apple II family; 64K; $250; ® IBM PC/
XT compatibles; 128K • IBM PCjr ® Tl Professional;
128 K; $295; copy-protected? NO; HowardSoft,
8008 Girard Avenue, Suite 310, La Jolla, CA
92037; 619/454-0121.
WOODY LISWOOD: Death and taxes are
inevitable here in the U.S. But TAX
PREPARER almost makes tax preparation
fun. It helps you look at your taxes in a logical
manner, helps you prepare the proper
documentation for your return, and also
allows you to "what if" your return to see
how various options, deductions, and
whatnot might affect the taxes you pay.
I've used the TAX PREPARER in various
versions for the past three years. It generates
schedules and data that are accepted by the
IRS. There is also a provision for batch data
entry, if you are a business using TAX
PREPARER for a number of clients.
The documentation is complete and to the
point. I find that the program is very easy to
use and mostly self-explanatory.
Remember how many times you had to
transfer data from form to form when you did
your taxes by hand? No longer TAX
PREPARER automatically moves data into
other areas and forms that use it. This means
that if you make a change or a correction, all
else is corrected automatically.
The program's best feature is the itemized
lists that you can prepare as detail for each
appropriate line item in each form. If your
household is like mine, having some income
property, a self-employed income, two kids in
daycare, and so on, you will appreciate sitting
down with the computer, going through your
bags of receipts, entering them, and printing
out the entire form at one sitting .
MARSHA MATHER-THRIF: The HowardSoft
TAX PREPARER is expensive, but it hasn't
increased its price since last year, so it's
getting to be less so. The new version is also
full of improvements in help screens and
automatic calculations. It's simply the best
personal tax preparer around, in fact, it's so
good that professionals can use it. So why
hire them if you can do it yourself?
Schemer's helper . .
Version 1.0; Apple II family; DOS 3.3; 64K ® IBM
PC/XT compatibles; PC DOS; 128K; $99; copy-
protected? Apple: NO; IBM PC: YES; Aardvark/
McGraw-Hill, 1020 N. Broadway, Milwaukee, Wl
53202; 414/225-7500.
JOHN OVERTON, attorney: Sooner or later,
most of us have the odd thought that if we
refuse to spend most of our time thinking
about the tax consequences of our daily lives,
we will inevitably be penalized every April.
Enter PERSONAL TAX PLANNER-a cheap,
easy-to-use, effective means of modeling tax
105
liability, and a tool for making investment
decisions, solving real estate rent-or-
purchase dilemmas, deciding job changes,
and even structuring settlements from
lawsuits. PERSONAL TAX PLANNER does not
do your taxes for you or help you keep track
of your income and deductions, but simply
answers that powerful query, "What if?"
The program is essentially two programs of
similar format: "alternative mode" and
"projection mode." Alternative mode enables
the user to compare the present-year tax
consequences of up to five different courses
of action, employing any of 48 different
variables. For instance, is it preferable to
realize a short-term capital gain of $5000 or a
long-term capital gain of $4000? Projection
mode allows the user to project tax
consequences into the future as far as five
years, thus making it possible to calculate
balloon payments, pay raises, inflation, and
other time-dependent situations.
Although my law practice is primarily
copyright and intellectual property,
complicated tax issues often arise. A client
may need to know whether it's preferable to
negotiate for a large advance or for a larger
royalty payable in future years.
An accountant's time for this costs
(conservatively) about $50. If the TAX
PLANNER can answer these questions for
you, the program pays for itself.
MARSHA MATf€R-THRIFT: Other tax-
planning programs, like Sunrise Software's
TAX MINI-MISER, offer more sophisticated
calculating features but cost three times as
much. If you don't like to part with your
money, TAX PLANNER is a secure bet.
A significant time-saver for tfte
professional tax preparer . .
Version 2.0; • most CP/M machines; 56K • IBM PC
compatibles; 96K; 2 disk drives or hard disk;
Bronze (Individual Package), $295; Silver
(Professional Package), $995; Gold (Professional
Package with Laser Print Option), $1,195;
Partnership and Corporate Packages, $995 each;
Expatriate (Overseas Tax Package), $2,195; copy-
protected? NO; Microcomputer Taxsystems, inc.,
2395 Midway Rd., Carrollton, TX 75006;
800/642-7689 or, in TX, 214/250-7800.
J. WILLIAM PEZICK: MICRO-TAX cuts my
work time by 20-30 percent, and that's
absolutely critical during tax season. The
biggest single time-saver is the carry-over to
state tax forms. MICRO-TAX repeats the
federal data on the state form, and then
allows quick review. You need only enter the
figures that have to be changed.
A good tax-preparation program should give
you flexibility in entry, a wide range of
schedules, good carry-forward features, and,
most important, reliable updating and
support. MICRO-TAX scores well on all
points. It provides 35 federal and numerous
state forms, including Foreign Tax Credit,
Alternative Minimum Tax, and Limitation on
Investment Interest Expense. It also has a
very serviceable depreciation module.
The program is fully integrated and clearly
designed with the professional in mind. Level
I contains fourteen of the most commonly
used schedules, Level II covers at least 95
percent of the professional tax preparer's
needs. The company also supplies up-to-the-
minute information via an electronic mailbox
on Taxnet through The Source.
INDEX FOR APPENDIX D.O
FORMS AND SCHEDULES
LEVEL
I II
FORM
NAME
PAGE
10140
U.S. INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX RETURN
D-3
X X
1010
PAGE I'WO
D-1?
X X
lOHOA
U.S. INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX RETURN
D-16
X X
fl
ITEMIZED DEDUCTIONS
D-23
X X
B
INTEREST AND DIVIDEND INCOME
D-28
X X
r
PROFIT OR LOSS FROM BUSINESS
D-31
X X
D
CAPITAL GAINS AND LOSSES
D-38
X X
E
SUPPLEMENTAL INCOME SCHEDULE
D-11
X X
ES
DECLARATION OF ESTIMATED TAX
D-53
X X
F
PROFIT OR LOSS FROM FARMING
D-55
X X
G
INCOME AVERAGING
D-61
X
R
CREDIT FOR -^HE ELDERLY
D-66
X
RP
CREDIT FOR THE ELDERLY
D-67
X X
SE
SOCIAL SECURITY SELF- EMPLOYMENT TAX
D-70
X X
W
MARRIED COUPLE WHEN BOTH WORK
D-7?
X
1115
FOREIGN I'AX CREDIT
D-73
X X
?106
EMPLOYEE BUSINESS EXPENSE
D-77
X
?1 19
GAIN FROM THE SALE OF RESIDENCE
D-8?
X
??10
UNDERPAYMENT OF ESTIMATED TAX
D-B5
X
2UU0
DISABILITY INCOME EXCLUSION
D-89
X X
?HH1
CREDIT FOR CHILD CARE EXPENSES
D-91
X
3168
INVESTMENT TAX CREDIT
D-91
X
3903
MOVING EXPENSE ADJUSTMENT
D-96
X
HI 37
SO^:iAL SECURITY TAX ON TIP INCOME
D-9B
X
156?
DEPRECIATION
D-99
X
16?5
MINIMUM TAX
D-1 09
X
1681
CASUALTIES AND THEFTS
D-1 10
'■
1797
SUPP. SCHEDULE OF GAINS & LOSSES
D-1 13
MICRO-TAX provides 85-90% of the tax forms
necessary for prolessional preparation ot federal
and state tax returns. The company ships updated
sottware that incorporates the most recent tax law
changes regularly in January each year. Tax
preparers can save loads of time entering
repeated data and use those free hours to take on
new clients.
I've prepared tax returns for ten years and
used MICRO-TAX for three. In addition to all
the preparation-time benefits, MICRO-TAX
has also given me another deduction— after
April 15 every year I'm now in business as a
computer consultant.
Heroic planner and preparer . . .
PC/TMCUT O
1984 version. Copy-protected. $195 (street $150).
IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles (128K). Best
Programs, 5134 Leesburg Pike, Alexandria, VA
22302; 800/368-2405 or, in VA, 703/931- 1300.
JAMES STOCKFORD: PC/TAXCUT is the
fastest-selling tax preparation software on
the charts. Two programs come in the same
box— one is a tax planner that helps you
choose where and how much to invest to
minimize your tax bite; the other is the tax-
form preparer.
MICHAEL SEIBEL: I bought PC/TAXCUT on
April 14, 1984. I entered my tax data,
deductions, and so on in response to
program prompts and menus, and got my
return into the mail on time the next day. Not
only would I have overlooked tax deductions
without it, but with such little advance
planning I would no doubt have messed up
the math as well.
The tax planning program uses your basic
tax data to calculate coming taxes based on
the next year's tax rates/brackets and
changes in the rules. I used the planner to
figure whether it was better taxwise to buy a
house or rent when I moved to D.C. You can
use the planner without using the
preparation program, but once you've
entered your data it sure is nice not to have
to enter it again for the next year's planning.
ANDREA AND DANIEL SHARP: This type of
tax prep/planner is a great aid, if not a total
replacement for your accountant. It does not
advise, but it does everything else. If you
need to refer to past years (for income
averaging or credits) it directs you to the
exact line of your old returns. The program
is a pleasure to work with. You can succeed
at even complex tax returns on your own, or
take a printout with you to your tax
appointment to greatly streamline the
procedure.
THE BEST CONNECTION ($20) links Best's
PERSONAL FINANCE PROGRAM II ($245) to
PC/TAXCUT If you take time to organize your
personal recordkeeping around the
categories required for a tax return, and you
religiously enter all your checks and other
expenditures into PFP II, the CONNECTION
will load that data into your tax file for use
there.
MARSHA MATHER-THRIF: The Best series
of programs offers one of the most complete
home-finance packages available. With it you
get a professional-quality home finance
program (the reports, however, aren't up to
business standards) that includes both tax
planner and preparer. No other program
reviewed here will give you exactly this
combination. The others either let you
prepare tax forms but not plan, or plan but
not prepare the final paperwork for the IRS.
106
Sharon Rufener, Domain Editor
This section means business. We'll tall< about software that
can relieve the paperwork clog and make things possible that
couldn't get done before the personal computer came into your
office.
We'll cover the "integrated" all-in-one packages— those
versatile, multi-talented tools containing a word processor, a
spreadsheet, a database, and maybe more. The right
"integrated" package might well be all the software you'll
need.
If you want to make your own integrated system out of old
favorites in your software library, take a look at our reviews of
"integrated environment" software. These products can put
unrelated programs on speaking terms with each other.
There are a number of interesting "desk accessories"— handy
software gadgets that replace your calculator, appointment
book, rotary card file, and notepad, among other things.
Maybe you need help keeping your projects under control and
managing your activities better. We've found the three best
"project management" packages to keep you on top of it all.
Need to make your decisions more intelligently? There's a
program (LIGHTYEAR, p. 116) that helps you weigh all the
variables and come to a clear-headed conclusion. The first of
many decision support packages to come.
Finally, we have what is called "vertical market software"—
packages designed to handle some or all of the paperwork
activities for particular businesses or professions. Their
number is vast, and still growing. Specialized vertical packages
tend to be more expensive than the integrated packages,
raising the question: why not get a general-purpose all-in-one
package instead of one tailored to your type of business?
Several reasons. It's a major undertaking to design a complete
business system yourself, and it's expensive to hire a
consultant to do it for you. Also, integrated packages are
generally less capable than the ready-mades.
Since there are way too many of these specialized programs for
us to attempt to cover, we are including reviews of a few
favorites from happy users in some of the more common
occupations. Beekeepers and dulcimer-makers will have to look
to their favorite trade journals for help. Sorry.
Wlif if Mat iSWf
STEWART BRAND: Of course you want it all now. That's why
you bought a computer. To increase your productivity by
making your work faster, easier, and more connected to
itself. You do not wish to spend your day helping machines
translate code, endlessly manipulating a file received over the
phone so you can edit it with the WORDSTAR you're stuck
with, remembering which of your programs speak to each
other and which don't, remembering the different command
incantations you must make here and there, searching
manuals for the fragment of arcana that will break the data
logjam between your spreadsheet and your database.
The promise of relief from all that is what makes this domain
one of the fastest moving in the marketplace. The integrateds
promise (and mostly deliver) the ability to have most of your
computer operations all in one program. The integrators
promise (and mostly don't deliver) the ability to have a facile
over-program connecting all your existing application
programs. The verticals promise (and charge royally for) a
package suited precisely to your business.
BARBARA ROBERTSON:
Domain Editor Sharon Rufener
has been involved on all sides
of information management.
As an office manager
equipped with typewriter and
adding machine (for a branch
of the Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation, the architecture
firm that carries on Mr.
Wright's work), she struggled
with manual paperwork
systems. As a COBOL
programmer and system
designer for banks and clothing manufacturers, she
mastered the intricacies of big mainframe systems, while
getting a law degree and passing the California State Bar.
Now, as a consultant to small businesses, including County
Fair organizations, securities marketing firms, and software
dealers, she relishes the creativity of the micro world, where,
she says, "hardware, software, and users are closer
together." Deeply concerned about the quality and
usefulness of software from the user's point of view, Sharon
is an appropriate seamstress for this crazy-quilt section.
Sharon Rufener
n
SHARON RUFENER: One message keeps coming through from
our reviewers: "If I had seen this integrated package first, I
would never have bought my word processor, spreadsheet, and
database. This is all the software a person needs!"
So why did they buy their standalone software? Because before
Spring 1984, almost no all-in-one packages on the market
integrated all three main functions into one smooth and easy
system. Now a lot of products do it.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: Some critics argue that all integrated
packages (those combining word processing, database,
spreadsheet, and maybe more) are collections of mediocre
programs and urge people to buy the best word processor,
spreadsheet, and data manager right from the start to avert
later regrets.
That's good advice if integrated packages clearly don't have the
power you need. But what about a psychologist, a consultant,
or an attorney who wants to write a few letters and reports,
maintain a simple client database, and maybe put the office
expenses in a spreadsheet? If an all-in-one integrated package
has a good--maybe not the best— word processor and throws
in a file manager and spreadsheet without adding new sets of
commands to memorize, all for the price of one or two stand-
alones, then it doesn't make sense for these professionals to
buy, learn, and try to do-it-yourself-integrate over a thousand
dollars' worth of individual, unrelated programs.
What Are Integrated Packages Good For?
SHARON RUFENER: With an integrated package, you can
produce more varied documents than with a word processor
alone. It allows you to include lists, calculations, and in many
cases, graphs, all on one printout. That can be useful for bills,
estimates, proposals, business plans, analyses, research
reports — any communication involving numbers or lists.
Also, integrated software handles form letters more elegantly
than do word processing programs with mail-merge
capabilities. A database module handles a name/address file in
a friendlier, more versatile fashion than, say, WORDSTAR
(p. 56) with MAILMERGE. You enter your addresses and other
data into a form on the screen. You can then select and sort
records from that file before merging them into the form letter.
In an integrated program, you can automatically select activities
and transfer data between them. You could, say, store trans-
actions (such as sales) on your database, send the numerical
data to the spreadsheet, and use totals from the spreadsheet to
generate graphs or charts, illustrating, for instance, how this
month's sales compare in detail to last month's.
Reasons for Not Integrating
Integrated packages are not good for setting up complete single-
entry accounting systems to run a business. Transactions will
not automatically post to more than one file. Further, "pass-
word" file security and data validation for error-trapping, which
every good accounting system should have, generally are non-
existent on the integrateds.
EZRA SHAPIRO: Okay, I confess. I'm a segregationist. I still
use a lot of the same old programs I used in my CP/M days,
though I've upgraded to 16-bit (IBM PC/compatible) versions. I
prefer to stick with the programs I've mastered, particularly for
word processing and spreadsheeting.
When I've got something bizarre to do, I crank out one of
those integrating utilities (see pp. 114-115) so I can play games
with my data without losing the ease of using software that's
as comfortable as well-worn jeans. These integrated
newcomers may be slick, but I prefer the down-home comfort
of not having to learn anything new, particularly when I've got
a tight deadline.
The moral here is simple: if it works, stick with it. If your
current tools do the job, plunking down the money on a big
new all-in-one integrated package just to use "state-of-the-art"
technology is a dumb idea.
Which One Should You Buy?
SHARON RUFENER: Which one? It depends— first on your
hardware, then on your needs. If you have a CP/M system,
you're out of luck here. The integrated programs were invented
after the IBM PC captured the marketplace and simply don't
run on the CP/M machines with their tiny (64K) memories.
You'll have your revenge, however, if you're looking for vertical
market software.
Apple II owners, on the other hand, have one lucky choice:
APPLEWORKS (p. 108), the only program to outsell 1-2-3 last
year, is wonderful.
Shoppers with IBM PCs have the most decision-making to do.
RUSEL DeMARIA: Having sampled just about all of the
integrated smorgasbords in the IBM PC realm, I've come up
with a recipe for the ideal (though mythical) integrated
program, one that uses my favorite ingredients from three of
the best. Here it is: I'd start with FRAMEWORK'S (p. 110) ease
of use; stir in ENABLE's (p. 109) database, word processing,
and graphics; spice it up with SYMPHONY'S (p. Ill)
spreadsheet and speed; then blend it all together with
SYMPHONY'S seamless integration. Well, that's it. Bon appetit!
SHARON RUFENER: Rusel left ABILITY (p. 111), INTUIT (p.
108), and the SMART (p. 112) series out of his list. We're
including ABILITY for those who want the seamless integration
of SYMPHONY (data is always current in every part of the
program), don't care very much about word processing, and
want a good database program. The SMART series is a
collection of powerful stand-alone applications with beautifully
crafted bridges between them. We recommend them for people
designing tailored applications (systems that others will use)
and for the individual power of each program. INTUIT is the
only integrated program priced under $100, requires the least
memory, and would be recommendable at double the price.
Macintosh owners have reason to look smug. The Mac sets
you up with a type of integrated environment from the start-
it's part of the package. Take a look at p. 113.
108 MAmCING
state-of-the-art integration lor tlie Apple . . .
APPLEWORKS
Rupert Lissner; Version 1.2; Apple lie He;
ProOOS; 64K; 2 disk drives; CQpy-protected? NO;
S25D; Apple Computer. 20525 Marianf Ave.,
Cupertino, CA 95Q14; 800^538-9696: also
published as III E-Z PIECES: Rupert Lissner;
Apple 111; 256K: hard disk recommended; copy-
protected? YES: S295; Haba Systems, Inc., 15154
Stagg St., Van Nuys, CA 91405; 818.901-6826.
CHARLIE CLEMENTS: At last, a program that
makes my he seem indispensable.
In this integrated package, everything is
menu driven. The user works on an electronic
desktop, a wonderful metaphor that allows
even the least experienced user to learn
intuitively to "move" with the program.
Makes my lie feel like a Macintosh, kind of.
The word processor is not as muscular as
APPLEWRITER but more than compensates
by its elegance of use (see the table on
p. 50). The cursor is easier to move than in
any other word-processing program I've
worked with.
The database is reminiscent of PFS:F1LE (p.
80) In the way it lets you design your own
files. One of the most remarkable features is
the Zoom command, which allows you to get
all the information in the database for the
selected record.
PAUL WALHUS: APPLEWORKS has an almost
gamelike appeal^you glide effortlessly from
one function to another. The manual is written
in warm and cuddly Apple style. The screen
menus are clearly labeled , with pictures of file
folders stacked on top of each other Help
screens are readily available. It gets files from
its "desktop" and goes from application to
application with lightning speed. You can
have twelve files of any description on your
desktop at the same time.
With cut-and-paste you can highlight a block
of text, move the cursorto where you want it
inserted, hit return, and your words leap into
their landing place, no matter which
application you target. Easy, obvious, and
admirable!
APPLEWORKS does the big three: word
processing, spreadsheet, and fife management, ft
has an easy, gameliice appeal — options take the
form of a desktop tilted with files to choose from.
You can zoom in on ail the data you have filed on a
particular subject.
Had APPLEWORKS been available when I got
VISICALC and APPLEWRITER. those two
programs would never have made it home
with me.
DOM SCELLATO: It's possible to import
outside files into the system, but it may take
some work unless they're VISICALC files.
Fortunately— since there's a possibility that
you might want to use VISICALC along with
APPLEWORKS. APPLEWORKS' spreadsheet
offers standard features such as variable
cotumn width, the expected mathematical
functions, plus a way to zoom into the logic
and look at a formula lurking behind a cell
with the press of a key— but its less
powerful than VISICALC. APPLEWORKS runs
into memory limits at about 6000 cells on a
128K machine.
APPLEWORKS keeps everything that you are
working on in memory, making it very
speedy, so you should give it 128K worth of
elbow room (it will run in 64K, but not
handily), and a second disk drive is
recommended.
APPLEWORKS convinced me that I had a
power tool that would do all the jobs that
formerly required an assortment of
programs. This may be the most powerful
Apple program of all time.
DON SCELLATO; APPLEWORKS outsold
1-2-3 (p, 68) on the bestseller lists in early
1985 and as a result, frills and add-ons from
outside vendors are beginning to appear
GRAPHWORKS provides a powerful business
graphics extension, and HABAMERGE
supplies a spelling checker and a mailmerge
option for churning out form letters. The
APPLEWORKS victory is well-deserved; it
manages to put a lot of capability into the
basic Apple. (GRAPHWORKS: Walter Horat.
Version 1.2. Not copy-protected. S79.95.
Apple lle/llc. APPLEWORKS required. PBI
Software, 1155-B Chess Dr., Suite 14, Foster
City, CA 94404; 415/349-8765 •
MEGAWORKS; Version 1.0. Copy-protected.
$125. Apple II family: 128K, APPLEWORKS
required. Megahaus Corporation, 5703
Oberlln Dr.. San Diego, CA 92121;
619/450-1230.)
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MEANS: NEW TO 2 EDIT
A steal of a deaf . . .
INTUIT
Martel Firing: S90 (street price S8D); IBM PC'XT/
compatibles [Z56K]: Tandy Models 1000 and 1200
(256K) Model 2000 (384K): 2 disk drives or hard
disk recommended; copy-protected; Noumenon
Corp.. 512 Westline Dr., Atameda, CA 94501;
415521-2145.
SHARON RUFENER: What do most of ttie
integrated packages have in common? They
need lots of memory— RAM for processing,
hard disks for storage, Give them too little
and they don't run so much as lurch. And
they cost several hundred dollars. There is,
however, a nice little product which happily
INWIT's super- easy spreadsheet can be
automatically generated from database records,
including the titles for the rows and columns. The
spreadsheet understands English. Teli it to "ADD
SALARIES THROUGH MISC. EXPEf^SES GIVING
TOTAL EXPENSES. " It will automatically add atl
the applicable blocks of cells and create the TOTAL
line.
fits into a 256K floppy disk system and can
be had for a rock-bottom $90!
INTUIT is an unpretentious system with a
word processor oriented toward structured
reports; good form-letter capability; a no-
frills fite manager; and an easy and
programmable spreadsheet that does goal-
seeking and can print out an audit trail. An
extra $20 gets you a checkbook application
for the spreadsheet, and you might have
everything you need for the business you
run out of your spare bedroom. Tve been
using INTUIT since summer of '84 and it
takes care of my integrated requirements just
fine.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: INTUIT has one
major drawback — the program is its own
operating system with a unique disk format.
Though the program can transfer files to and
from DOS disks, you aren't going to be able
to run any other software without a few
minutes of fussing. If you're fond of a
particular spelling checker, communications
program, or a utility like SIDEKICK (p. 114),
you're sunk,
MANAGING 109
Probably the best . . .
ENABLE O
Version 1.1; S695; IBM PC/XT/AT and
compatibles: 256K; hard disk recommended;
copy-protected? HO: The Software Group,
Northway Ten Executive Park. Ballston Lake. NY
1Z019; 800 932-0233 or, in NY, 800 338-4646.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: After evaluating just
about every integrated package in the IBM
PC universe, my ctioice is ENABLE. It has
smooth GUt-and-paste windowing. Great
word processing. A very-close-to-fuily-
relational database. A spreadsheet that's
easy to use, with adequate size and speed
for most people, A fast and easy
telecom municatfons package. It has menus
to get beginners up and running, plus a full
set of keyboard commands to replace the
menus, once you get the hang of it.
I think that most wrfters, professionals, and
managers will be delighted with it. The word
processor is unquestionably the best in the
integrated area, both in terms of speed and
versatility. The telecommunications module
integrates word processing better than any
other package and is a delight. You can write
something, hop into the telecommunications
module from the word processing document
and shoot it off. or do the reverse and edit
incoming data. ENABLE has a versatile built-
in utility for converting to and from ASCII
(plain vanilla text) format {with optional
stripping of those pain-in-the-neck carriage
returns and line feeds on the way in) that
allows me to use the WORD PROOF (p. 62)
spelling checker almost as if it were part of
the package. It works just fine with MCI Mail
(p, 145) and The Source (p. 141), But with
EIES(p. 147), ENABLE'sVersionl.Ol
squishes my paragraphs into one. so Tm
using SMARTCOM II (p. 150) while I wait for
1.1 to arrive.
The spreadsheet holds 65,000 cells in your
choice of configurations, and is speedier
than everything I've used except 1-2-3 (p.
68) and SYMPHONY (p. 111).
The database is a fast and efficient blend of
commands, menus, and a procedural
language that doesnl require a semester at
MIT, Forms are painted onscreen in a handy
manner, and offer a full array of data
checking features. Fields in different files can
be related so that you can have ENABLE
copy a client's address from one file into
another or you can put information from
more than one source into a report.
Data moves around in a cut-and-paste
fashion — easy, but there's no interaction
between modules. That's different from
programs like ABILITY (p. 111) where a
worksheet copied into a report is updated
whenever a change is made in the original. A
second annoying shortcoming (soon to be
remedied, the company claims) is ENABLE's
inability to move data from the word
processor to elsewhere. This is important
because it's the word processor that
captures telecommunicated data, and if that
information is meant to go to your database
or spreadsheet, you're out of luck.
More than any software package I have used
so far though, ENABLE is, for me, a total
information management system under one
SHARON RUFENER: Charles Spezzano is so
enamored of ENABLE that he abandoned his
beloved FRAMEWORK, even though he paid
good money for it.
WOODY LISWOOD; ENABLE's spreadsheet is
a 1-2-3 clone with an integrated database
that has many more options than the
database in 1-2-3 or SYMPHONY The
wonderful thing about having the database
integrated with the spreadsheet Is that you
can use any of the spreadsheet functions
(except range) within the database, which
means you can do things like square roots —
impossible even in powerful stand-alone
databases like R:BASE 4000 (p, 87). I have
two quibbles: it's somewhat slow when you
fill a worksheet with data, and the size is
limited; however, you can juggle the
arrangement of rows and columns within the
65,000 cell limitation. If you wanted to buy
only one software package today that does
most of what you need, ENABLE is my
recommendation.
LION GOODMAN: As a new computer user
who needed a powerful integrated package
but did not want to become a programmer
or get a program I couldn't master, 1 was
afraid I might have to make some painful
compromises. Fortunately, I discovered
ENABLE. It has all the power i need to run
my executive search business and handle my
personal business as well.
The word processor does everything but
proportional spacing. The format
instructions are saved with the document
(handy for structured forms and reports),
and you can put "rulers*' (for margin
settings) anywhere in the document.
The graphics can use data from the
spreadsheet or from a database file, but
generating the graphs can be cumbersome
and the graphs aren't that special.
The documentation is clear and well-indexed,
although I found the system easy and logical
enough that 1 could learn it with minimal
reading. There are context-sensitive help
messages, and 1 got great customer support
from the publisher (they even have an 800
number for users). ENABLE comes with a
tutorial which is also good and helpful.
Drawing data from the Spreadsheet module,
ENABLE can create oolorfuf though simple bar
graphs as part of its very competent but
unspectacular toolkit. Graphs can be pasted
directly into a word processing file.
Windowing with ENABLE lets you create s pie chart
with data from the spreadsheet while writing a
description on the word processor.
'—' -L- -
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entries with flexible form construction.
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FRAMEWORK uses an outfine format to group and
display files relating to a particular job. ft will
display several of its integrated functions (word
processing, spreadsheet, database, and graphics}
in windows — you can shuffle the windows around
and work on the contents in the top one.
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^ 3 My afterthoughts and eqiii vocations
4 Now: a windciw for m critics to respond in <E)
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FRAMEWORK'S best feature is its overall
organization, shown here in a printoufof the
screen. The cursor is now on the "A" drive: if you
bit the return key, a window appears with all the
"A " drive files listed in it. That's shockingly easy
compared to most software programs, where
calling up a new file usually requires mental
contortions.
An all-lrt-one geared to text work , , ,
FRAMEWORK
Robert Carr; Version 1.1; IBM PC/XT AT and
compatibles • OG/ONE • Tl Proressional; Tl Pro-
Lite • Tandy 2000: 384K: 2 dislc drives or iiigh
density (728K) disk drive; copy-protected? YES;
$695; Ashton-Tate, 10150 Jefterson Blvd., Culver
City. CA 90230; 800/437-4329. ext. 2240 or. in
CO, 303/799-4900, ext. 2240.
PATRICIA H. TAYLOR: For my financial
management business, I typically need to
write something, then pull up a spreadsheet
so I can deal with figures, and then slide
back into writing. It's impossible to do that
sort of graceful juggling act with separate
programs.
I picked FRAMEWORK because my major
clients use DBASE III (p. 86) and 1-2-3 (p.
68) and I needed a program that could
interact with them. FRAMEWORK has made
me look like a genius— I can electronically
communicate with my clients' programs in a
slick, hassle-free computerized way.
The word processor's outlining capability is
a wonderful thinking tool. It lets me juggle
concepts around, then flesh out my
"framework" with words or plug-in notes or
data from another file — it's easy to pull in
stuff from all directions and move things
around. Frameworking has enhanced my
writing productivity considerably — I rarely
write anything without using it in some
way— although I do wish their spelling
checker were in my package instead of still
on their drawing boards.
I even prefer FRAMEWORK to 1-2-3 for
spreadsheeting. 1-2-3's macros are very
primitive by comparison, and can't perform
the kind of looping and decision-branching
logic I need. 1-2-3 is also more fragile — hit
the wrong key and your spreadsheet may
collapse like a house of cards. FRAMEWORK
also has the 'not available" feature, critical
for statistical analyses based on time-series
data (if no data is available for a particular
time slot, it will not distort the results).
The MITE (p. 151) telecommunications
module also does what I need, ! use its auto-
answer function extensively: I leave my
computer ready to receive and the other
party can add or extract information at his or
her convenience. The MITE documentation
could be better, however.
It's easy to get into this system — I went
through the tutorial in about six hours and
was off and running. And Ashton-Tate's
support has been excellent^l never have to
wait on hold more than five minutes, they
always call me back when they say they will,
and they're friendly and helpful.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: FRAMEWORK is the
sleekest of the integrated packages. When
searching and sorting, the database module
is a screamer. Everything is in memory and
things happen in seconds, but there is a
trade-off in size. You need lots of RAM if you
want to have giant database files.
I think the spreadsheet is terrific. It was the
first one I used seriously, and it let me enter
that unfamiliar territory with minimal anxiety.
The word processor is slick and fast, but it
lacks features serious writers want like page
counting, page breaks, and protection
against widowed or orphaned lines. You
can't print selected pages from a document
because when you do, you awaken a
resident bug which screws up the margins.
Ail the files in all the directories and
subdirectories on a hard disk are available at
anytime, onscreen in alphabetical order. You
can bring reports and databases and
spreadsheets onto the "desktop" and leave
them neatly piled on top of one another in
the corner of the screen, to be opened or
closed selectively and in a flash. Or open
them all and go to work,
BARBARA ROBERTSON: FRAMEWORK is a
visual whizbang of a program; its rapid-fire
windowing can dazzle onlookers who find
SYMPHOMYto be appallingly businesslike.
However, a good bit of similar work has to
be done to get both programs running full
bore. Both depend on macro programming
languages for serious data manipulations.
Just because FRAMEWORK is easier to
grasp at first glance, don't be lulled into
thinking it's a snap to use. Data frames must
be connected by using the FRAMEWORK
language, and formatting for fancy output
requires major gyrations.
o
MEANS: I^EW TO 2,0 EDITION
MANAGING 111
The spreadsheet thai communicates . . .
SYMPHONY
Version 1.1; IBM family and compatibles; 384K;
Version 1.Q; DEC Rainbow • Tandy 2000; 320K; 2
disk drives; color graphics board required for
graphics; copy-protected? YES; 5695 (street price
S400); Lotus Development Corp.. 55 Cambridge
Pl(wv., Cambridge, tVlA 02142; 617/577-B500.
TED NELSON: SYMPHONY is Lotus's
generalization of the idea of spreadsheets— a
virtual machine based upon a checkerboard
of text and numbers, the way FORTH (p.
166) IS a virtual machine based upon a
stack. You can swap data between disk files
and sections of a workstieet; but all the data
you're working on has to fit into
SYMPHONY'S one big worksheet sonnehow.
It's real estate to be planned and cordoned
off for your different purposes, and looked at
through different types of windows—
especially worksheet and document
windows.
The problem witfi one big spreadsheet is that
changes can have undesirable effects
downstate; if you add a column In one place
it could mess things up in otfier parts of ttie
worksheet. SYMPHONY localizes these
effects by letting you fence in rectangles o1
the grid— "restrict ranges" — which you
must keep track of.
SYMPHONY will do unattended dial-up, log-
in, query, and sign-off, without boxing you
into a particular data format. You can have
an unattended home-base machine with
password security.
SYMPHONY is not easy at the start. It's
harder to get into than FRAMEWORK, but
more powerful if some complex hazy
application beckons you from the horizon.
The sel-up complications are fierce, and
there is real clumsiness; for almost every
serious operation you have to do a lot of set-
ups and prearrangements — to dig a garden,
in effect, before you plant anything, But one
of the beauties of spreadsheet programming
is that you can create applications
incrementally. Get a basic set-up working
quickly, then use the partially-built system to
find out how you want to change it,
A SYMPHONY program can be written
simply by turning on the LEARN toggle and
getting down to work. This stores the steps
for later replay! This "programming by
example" represents a new kind of
programming, because you have to think
about where to set up the rectangles of data.
You have to think a lot about the origami of
the big sheet.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: SYMPHONY is an
integrated package with document and
database capability, yet Lotus can't seem to
make the world see the product as anything
other than a super-duper spreadsheet, even
by selling "add-ins" that give it, for
example, outlining capacity to aid in the
battle with FRAMEWORK, So why pay to
upgrade from 1-2-3 (p. 68)? 1-2-3 can be
made to jump through hoops, too, using the
proliferation of third-party templates like the
DSS Optionware series (p. 69). If your
primary task is spreadsheet work, and you
need an enormous number of rows as well
as programmability (and don't mind copy
protection that makes you keep a disk in
drive A) SYMPHONY is your best choice-
plus you get telecommunications and an
arcane word prcessor thrown in. However,
to really make SYMPHONY sing, you'll want
to consider adding a board like the Intel
Above Board to your IBM PC to give this
behemoth some breathing room.
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Using windows to display tite different
environments is tfie only way to reaily integrate
SYf^PHOSY's functions. When you create a
window, what you put in it must be restricted to a
certain areaoftfie contained environment's
worlfsheet.
TBCHTT
Delightful database . . .
ABILITY O
Version 1,0; IBM PC,/XT/AT and compatibles:
320K; 2 disk drives or hard disk; copy-protected?
NO; Xanaro Technologies, Inc., 321 BIodt St.
East, Suite 815, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1G9;
416/927-8369 or. in U.S., 702/322-0144.
CHARLES SPEZZANO: ABILITY is a tight,
self-evident, completely menu-driven
program that makes some complicated
computing tasks very easy and some simple
tasks very difficult.
On the tight side, ABILITY is as seamlessly
integrated as any package Tve tried^the
only all-in-one program that integrates data
as well as SYMPHONY.
Most of the integration takes place through
the word processor. When you place a
spreadsheet into a document with ABILITY
it's the same spreadsheet in both places —
not a copy. Change either incarnation and
you are changing the original. It's
convenient, but also potentially dangerous-
easy to forget when you're editing a
document that you're also changing the
spreadsheet.
Unfortunately, the word processor is the
weakest part of the group. Inserting text into
pre-existing files is tedious and clumsy,
deleting is awkward, there is no simple
command to highlight blocks for copying,
and reformatting is painfully slow. I found it
exasperating just to write this review using
ABILITY as my word processor.
However, ABILITY'S database is a delight.
Searching, sorting, generating reports, and
modifying data entry forms after data is
entered are self-evident and flawless. The
database is not relational, but two files can
be easily joined so that a report can pull
information from both.
The spreadsheet is almost as large as
SYMPHONY'S, but not as fast. On the other
hand, ABILITY can be mastered in a working
day, while SYMPHONY can be mastered in
one of the biblical days God took to create
the world -
Almost everything proceeds through such
easy-to-master menus and submenus that
you rarely have to look at the (excellent)
manual or call up a context-sensitive help
screen. You can create macro commands,
but there is no "learn" function like
SYMPHONY'S nor enough keyboard
command shortcuts that bypass the menus
as in ENABLE (p, 109), You have to love
menus to like ABILITY because you'll be
weaving your way through them again and
again.
SHARON RUFENER: We recommend
ABILITY to people who want an easy to learn
all-in-one that has strong, interrelating
database and spreadsheet modules. Change
the data in one module and it's changed in
all — saves data entry time. It's a good
program for businesses where there's lots of
fast action and interrelations.
m
Megamodeling for big applications . . .
THE SlIRT INTEGRATED
SOFTWARE SYSTEi O
Version 2.0; IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles;
256K; 2 disk drives or hard disk; copy-protected?
NO; complete package, $895; separate packages:
SPREADSHEET, $395; WORD PROCESSOR, $295;
DATA MANAGER, $495; Innovative Software, Inc.,
9300 West 110th St., Suite 380, Overland Park,
KS 66210; 913/383-1089.
RIK JADRNICEK: This is a great series of
programs and with each new version I
The SI\1ART SYSTEM'S opening screen is lilce We
lobby leading to separate similarly decorated
workspaces. Whichever way you go, the menu
structure remains familiar and comfortable, and
files can be ported from one module to another
become more and more impressed with the
company's attention to the needs of end-
users. I use the SMART SYSTEM to develop
what I call megamodels. For example, in one
application I've been working on, I've drawn
the floor plans of a shopping center in
AUTOCAD (p. 135), then moved data
(dimensions, etc.) from AUTOCAD into the
SMART SYSTEM and can now generate
database reports that (among other things)
show lease areas with price per square foot,
and spreadsheets that do complex lease roll-
over analyses. Megamodels like this one take
microcomputing into another dimension-
one with minimum data entry and maximum
analysis. I started megamodeling using
1-2-3 (p. 68) and SYMPHONY (p. Ill), but
found I was running up against their
limitations — primarily with copy-protection
schemes that make it difficult to move
between these programs and others.
Fortunately, I could load my 1-2-3 models
straight into SMART, and with no problem at
all still use them. The SMART spreadsheet is
even faster than 1-2-3 because the program
manages memory so effectively.
You can buy and use the SMART modules
separately or as an integrated package. They
all use the same commands and macro
commands pull them together by automating
the transfer of data. You enter the
commands, SMART remembers the path you
took and creates a macro— an optimized,
compiled macro (when you use it later, it
runs very fast). Since one macro can invoke
another, I can create complex, multilevel
operations that move from one program to
another and from one function inside a
program to another.
SMART is easier to use than SYMPHONY or
DBASE (pp. 85, 86), yet you can develop the
same kind of applications. You can import
and export just about any kind of data files
into any module. There is a time manager
and a communications program included
with each module. And each program has its
own text editor so you don't have to bounce
into the word processor when you need to
write something.
The SMART SYSTEM provides a very
convenient method of creating an entire
system, one that carries out routine tasks
automatically, one through which data can
flow easily from one application to another,
and one that's easily modified.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: You needn't create
the kind of megamodels Rik creates to find
good uses for any program in this set.
Clifford Figallo uses the database program
alone to manage the Whole Earth Software
Catalog library (see p. 89). However, having
the kind of flexibility and depth in these
programs that Rik describes means that you
won't outgrow them, nor will your data be
stuck in an isolated world of its own. SMART
is particularly good for creating systems
other people will use. If you are the only one
working with the data and your applications
are not particularly complex, you'd find
ENABLE (p. 109) easier to use and less
expensive.
SHARON RUFENER: Setting up an
interrelated system is not a snap with any
program. You'll need lots of patience and
maybe even a computer consultant.
SHARON RUFENER: Last year the hot products were all-in-one
integrated software packages; this year the big news is
"integrators"— programs that let you mix and match your
favorite software. You can have all the speed — and most of the
convenience — of the "integrated all-in-one" packages without
having to give up the familiarity and power of stand-alone, one-
function applications. With the tools we present on the next
few pages, you can tailor your own home-built integrated
system.
EZRA SHAPIRO: Programs that provide software integration-
easy switching from one sort of task to another— make use of
two very simple computer secrets. The first secret is that
programs designed for modern 16-bit machines like the IBM
PC and the Macintosh rarely use all of the computer's available
internal memory. Unless you're working with a gigantic
spreadsheet or an enormous database, chances are very good
that a lot of your computer's capacity is sitting idle. The
second secret is that computers are so much faster than you
are that they spend most of their time merely waiting for you to
do something. While you're typing a memo, all the time
between your keystrokes (nothing to you, but forever to your
computer) is wasted.
You can stuff other programs into that unused memory, which
can then pop up like lightning because you don't have to wait
for the computer to read them from a disk drive. And you can
take those centuries between your keystrokes and let the
computer do something productive with them; why let the
machine take a nap while you're working?
That, in a nutshel
integration.
is the theoretical basis of software
BARBARA ROBERTSON: IBM PC "integrated environments"
like TOPVIEW, GEM (p. 168), and Microsoft's not yet released
WINDOWS all let you run application programs within their
windows as does Mac (GEM even looks like the Mac), but you
can't cut and paste between applications unless the programs
were written with the "environment" in mind. Thus, the three
giants (IBM, Digital Research, and Microsoft) are vying for
support from software developers. The recommendation of any
one of the three must be based, therefore, on the quantity and
quality of software that runs within a particular
"environment." As of yet, there's simply not much support for
any of them. Before you consider buying any of the three, find
out whether the software you want to use in the environment
has been adapted to run in the environment— otherwise, all
you get is a shell that, albeit quite clever and cute, simply
%j IIJ
masks the operating system, and is worth considering only if
you absolutely hate seeing the A> and don't want to learn DOS
commands. You might have more fun instead with a program
that doesn't insist on having the world conform to it— one of
the "desk accessories," a "context-switcher," or try a
"concurrency" program, until it's clear who wins this game.
"Desk accessories" are useful little programs that let you
perform tiny but essential tasks like jotting down an
appointment or dredging up a phone number, without having to
shut down your application program. Usually only a keystroke
or two is needed to pull one of these tools onto a corner of
your screen.
"Context-switching" products allow you to load several
programs into your computer and casually flip among them
without having to get back to the operating system.
"Concurrency" programs can be used the same way as
context-switchers, but they add an important feature-
programs not shown on the screen can continue to process
data.
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JOHN LEININGER: In the old days, when you wanted to add information or
pictures to your documents, you had to use pen, ink, scissors, and glue. Now
you can do it on the Macintosh (p. 20) with the click of a mouse.
The Macintosh operating system facilitates the movement of data from one
program or document to another. You can Copy, Cut, Paste, and put things into
a temporary storage slot (the Clipboard). Let's say you have a word processing
document and you want to move some of it into another one. You locate the
part you want and highlight it by clicking the mouse at the top and bottom of
the section. You then pull down the menu for Edit, and select Copy or Cut. The
Macintosh makes a copy or moves the original to Clipboard. You display your
second document and Paste the stuff stashed in the Clipboard into place. The
information stays in the Clipboard so you can plop it to as many places as you
like. If you need to copy more than one block of data into temporary storage,
you can use a "desktop accessory" called the Scrapbook (sort of a larger
Clipboard) that holds items for future use.
Since the Cut, Paste, and Clipboard functions are always available, the
Macintosh allows you to choose the applications you want. In effect, you can
tailor your own "integrated application" and expand and modify it as you
desire.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Using the Mac's cut-and-paste functions, you can
scissor together data (numbers, pictures, or text) from many programs so that
the graphic result looks seamless— but the data from one program is totally
unaware of the data from another. Transferring data between programs so that,
for example, a database program actually uses data from a spreadsheet
program is nearly as easy but the programs themselves must agree to
cooperate.
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Clipboard
Heading north on 101. cross the Golden Gate Bridge and take the first
ixit after the bridge (Alexander Rvenue) Stay to the right and proceed a
little mays down the hill Take the first left, and you will come to a
g tunnel Proceed through the tunnel and stay on Ihat rood ''Bunker
5oad> out towards Fort Ci-onkhite Beach Ju5t before you .jet to thie t«ach,
jou will see on your right-hand side a sign marked Headlands Caapus at
the Voseniite Insiilule " Go right up the drioeway and park
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BARBARA ROBERTSON: Desktop
accessories (p. 114), or "pop-up"
programs that remain resident in
memory, give you ready access to a set
of quick little tools no matter what
application you're using. They really
encourage you to think of software as
part of an environment.
SHARON RUFENER: The ones we like
for the IBM PC realm are DESK
ORGANIZER (full-powered desktop
integration), SIDEKICK (amazing
bargain), HIGGINS (a personal butler on
a diskette), and POP-UPs (handy little
tools). Which desktopper is for you?
HIGGINS has its own relational
database, for organizing major
activities. If you need a heavy-duty
appointment calendar/daybook,
complete with alarm clock and phone
dialing, get DESK ORGANIZER. If you
want to cut'n'paste almost as though
you had a big ticket integrated system,
POP-UP DESKSET is your best bet,
although the others can shove data
around also. With lots of notes to
stash, you will like DESK ORGANIZER'S
handy indexing better than SIDEKICK'S
file IDs. For almost-serious word-
processing both SIDEKICK and DESK
ORGANIZER are ahead of the POP-UP
product. If a multi-talented alarm clock
is needed, grab the POP-UP $5.00
wonder, or settle for the less versatile
one provided by DESK ORGANIZER.
Programmers will appreciate
SIDEKICK'S ASCII table and the
calculator which can do hexadecimal
math as well as the normal kind.
Many of these programs owe their
inspiration to the Macintosh.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
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o
IBM PC/XT/AT/3270 and compatibles; PCjr; uses
up to 110K (depending on the features chosen);
not copy-protected; $69.95; Bellsoft, Inc., 2820
Northup Way, Bellevue, WA 98004; 800/44P-OPUP
or, in WA, 206/828-7282; DESKSET PLUS includes
TELECOMM; $129.95.
For note-taking and organizing .
Collopy, Hesman & Milner; IBM PC/XT/AT and
compatibles; 128K • Macintosh; copy-protected?
NO; $99; Warner Software, Inc., 666 Fifth Ave.,
9th Floor, New York, NY 10103; 212/484-3070.
DAVE SMITH: Now that I've used DESK
ORGANIZER on a daily basis for months to
A dastiboard fuil of utilities for tlie
IBM PC...
Version 1.5; IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles; IBM
PCjr; copy-protected version, $54.95; non copy-
protected version, $84.95; Borland International,
4585 Scotts Valley Dr., Scotts Valley, CA 95066;
408/438-8400.
JAMES STOCKFORD: This new windowing
utility promises to be as indispensable as
socks and underpants. No matter what
program you're using, push a button and
SIDEKICK'S calendar, notepad, calculator,
phone dialer, or ASCII conversion chart will
immediately pop up on the screen.
SIDEKICK let us put ttiis review, a calendar, an
appointment log from tlie calendar, and a
calculator all onscreen at once. Handy for anyone
who spends a lot of time in front of a screen.
SHARON RUFENER: A tidy bundle of
software tools at a very tidy price. All these
mini-programs (formerly called POP-UPs)
retain their pop-up character— sitting quietly
in the background, then popping up to
perform a handy task when you call.
DESKSET contains all our recommended
POP-UPs: CALCULATORS, CALENDAR,
ALARM CLOCK, and POPDOS (quick DOS
access), plus three new ones that didn't
arrive in time for review: POPWORD, which
replaces NOTEPAD and absorbs CLIPBOARD;
POP-UP ANYTHING, runs two programs at
once; and POP-UP VOICE to dial your phone
in the middle of other tasks.
With POP-UP ANYTHING keeping two
programs open at the same time, and
POPWORD (nee CLIPBOARD) sending
screens full of data back and forth between
them, you get a bit of software integration at
a very low price.
Like a Swiss Army knife of desk accessories, the
POP-UP DESKSET covers all of the incidental
chores a desk-bound computer professional might
encounter through a typical day at work.
organize what I once jotted down
haphazardly on yellow pads, dirty napkins,
and outdated maps, it has become like an
old friend, waiting faithfully at my desk to
assist me whenever called upon.
Disappointingly, it does not nag me to keep
it updated. If I neglect it for a while, it gets
stale and useless, just like my messy desk
used to. But if I keep on top of it, it
responds admirably.
Here's how it works. When you start your
machine, boot up SIDEKICK right after you
boot up your operating system. Then load any
program you want to use and begin working.
SIDEKICK sits invisibly in the computer's
RAM memory. When you call SIDEKICK, the
program you're working on stops dead in its
tracks, leaving whatever you were doing on
the screen. The SIDEKICK utilities you choose
appear in windows on top (in various colors,
if you have a color monitor). The perpetual
calendar includes a daily appointment
scheduler; the notepad is a simple word-
processing program that uses WORDSTAR
commands; the dialer is not a
communications program but can (if you
have a modem) dial any number stored in a
phone list; the calculator includes basic
arithmetic (binary and hexadecimal) plus nine
nested levels of parentheses and logic
operators. You can slide the windows around
to peek at work underneath and run the
cursor all over the screen as a pointer. When
you've finished with SIDEKICK, you push a
button and the main program begins again
exactly where you stopped. Text and data
entered into SIDEKICK can be moved into the
program you're using, or saved in a file to be
moved into another program later.
it's ail related . . .
Version 1.0; IBM PC/XT and compatibles; 256K;
hard disk required; copy- protected? YES; $395
(street price $270); Conetic Systems, Inc., 1470
Doolittle Dr., San Leandro, CA 94577; 415/430-
8875.
RICHARD DALTON: I think I've gotten lucky
with a sneaky-fast program named HIGGINS.
HIGGINS takes on the Herculean task of
providing access to all appointments, "to-
do" items, people you need to contact,
expenses you incur, notes you make, and
correlates these with various projects or
categories.
HIGGINS offers more than other "desktop
organizer" software. It is built on a fully
relational database manager, but you never
have to do anything to make use of its
sophisticated features! You merely tell
HIGGINS to relate an appointment to X
project and Y person and it's there.
What are the drawbacks? It's slow (but
much faster than juggling paper). It isn't
very flexible (expenses have to be
accumulated in fixed categories). It will
schedule conflicting appointments without
notifying you. It requires a hard disk and it
costs a lot (but then so does
disorganization). Still, it's the best I've seen
in the embryonic "people and event
management" software category.
O MEANS: NEV\/ TO 2.0 EDITION
115
Switch between programs on ttie IBM PC . . .
Jonathan More; Version 3.0; MS-DOS/PC DOS
machines; 128K; copy-protected? YES; $99 (non-
copy-protected version, $125); DESK/SHIFT; $169
($100 to upgrade from MEMORY/SHIFT); North
American Business Systems, 3840 Lindell
Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63108; 314/534-7404.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: MEMORY/SHIF is
the spiritual parent of all the context-
switchers on the market. It's a generic MS-
DOS program, which means it runs on Tandy
and Tl machines as well as IBMs and
compatibles. A simple installation program
lets you divide your computer's memory into
as many partitions as you want for separate
applications. However, you can load more
than one program into each partition (you
can run a "desk accessory" along with an
application), and you can also load "global"
memory-resident programs (RAM disks and
"desk accessories"), so you can get to them
from any partition. Gut-and-paste data
transfer from one partition to another is easy
and smooth. It's been around a long time
and Jonathon More, its author, has learned
how to make it nearly crash-proof. You can
buy it by itself, or as part of a larger
collection called DESK/SHIF, that also
includes the POP-UP DESKSET (p. 114) and
BATON, a communications program.
Switciiing programs on a Macintosh . . .
WlllirlEli V
For availability, contact your local authorized
Apple dealer or Apple Computer, 20525 Mariani
Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014; 800/538-9696.
JAY KINNEY: SWITCHER is a utility program
which enables the owner of a 51 2K MAC to
switch back and forth, nearly instantly,
between different programs without having
to go through the tedious formalities of
terminating one program and loading
another. This is good news indeed for those
MAC owners who already have separate
spreadsheet, word processing, and business
graphics programs and would like to be able
to bounce between them.
It doesn't turn your MAC into a multi-tasking
computer with different programs running
concurrently. Rather, it simply halts one
program in its tracks when you move over to
use another, enabling you to take up where
you left off when you switch back again.
STEVEN LEVY: SWITCHER enables
Macintosh to make good the previously
broken promise of painless integration
between programs, and it's fun to watch— it
uses an animation routine where one
program slides out while the other slides in.
To really fulfill the power of SWITCHER, you
should use it with a hard disk drive (or a
double-sided floppy drive) so you can
quickly load up all your programs without
swapping disks. Although it can handle
several programs at once, I find that more
than three on a 51 2K Mac is pushing it. I am
happy as a clam when balancing a humble
two programs, because previously moving
stuff between, say, communications and
word processing programs meant staring at
that despicable watch icon until fossilization
occurred.
For quick switching between NIacintosli
programs, there's nothing lilce SWITCHER.
Cmmrmmf
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Although "context-switching"
software, like MEMORY/SHIFT and SWITCHER that allows you
to jump from program to program without reloading, seems to
be relatively solid stuff, when you add "concurrency" (the
ability to run more than one active program at the same time),
things get sticky. All the concurrency utilities we looked at in
the IBM PC world were both complex and frighteningly fragile;
they had a tendency to crash repeatedly and unexpectedly.
While the lure of running one program in background while you
work on another in the foreground may be hard to resist,
programs that offer this kind of concurrency are not for the
naive, nor the faint-hearted.
Remember, too, that concurrent processing creates some new
problems. If two programs try to access the same file at the
same time, which one wins? What about the printer? Finally,
concurrent processing implies splitting up the
microprocessor's activity. If a program on the screen is doing
something simple, like waiting for input into a document or
spreadsheet, and a program off-screen is doing heavy
computational work, you're probably going to experience some
slight delays in the foreground. If both foreground and
background programs demand serious computing power, they
will run at half-speed, and sometimes even more slowly.
Easy, but .
Version 1.2; IBM PC/XT and compatibles; Version
2.0; IBM AT; 256K; Hammer Computer Systems,
900 Larkspur Landing Circle, Suite 250, Larkspur,
CA 94939; 800/228-9602 or, in CA, 800/423-5592.
KEN MILBURN: Its cute name belies its
purpose. E-Z-DOS-IT is a utility that allows
the simultaneous execution of as many as
eight programs on a PC DOS/compatible
computer.
E-Z-DOS-IT runs in as little as 256K of RAM.
It requires only 5 to 15K of memory
overhead, plus whatever memory is required
of the application programs you want to run.
So it is practical to use on a floppy system
with a couple of business programs whose
applications complement one another. A
word-processor and a communications
package, for instance.
Windowing systems like TOPVIEW severely
limit the choice of available applications and
can take hours to set up. Because E-Z-DOS-
IT can make allowances for some programs'
input/output idiosyncracies, you can run a
wider range of applications than any of the
windowing packages will allow.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Running two
programs at the same time is a charming
idea; you can, for example, be downloading
one file while you're editing another.
However, E-Z-DOS-IT does complicated
things to computer memory, and it may not
be the panacea it seems at first glance. Fair
warning: it's hard to predict how a set of
application programs will interact in this
concurrent environment (and impossible to
test all the combinations), and crashes are
not uncommon.
Cover-your-ass software . . .
I IRHTYFIR ^
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Version 1.0; IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles;
192K; copy-protected? YES; $495 (street price
$335); Lightyear, Inc., 1333 Lawrence Expressway,
BIdg. 2, Santa Clara, CA 95051; 408/985-8811.
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SHARON RUFENER: Psychologists tell us
that the human brain can hold only about
seven items in its "short-term memory."
Many of us, when pressed for a decision,
will mull over only those seven or so factors
which land on the tops of our heads,
regardless of their weight or relevance, and
then lurch into action. What's needed is a
methodology for dealing with the variables.
Here's how the elegant and expensive
LIGHTYEAR could help . . .
Say you're shopping around for a car and
your head is swimming with information. No
problem. Pop LIGHTYEAR into your PC,
enter the car names, type in all the
important criteria (price, mileage, comfort,
etc.) and specify how important each item is
(very, somewhat, etc.). Then, give each car
a score for each of the criteria (rate the
FlashMobile excellent for beauty) and add
rules if you like ("If the car costs more than
$10,000, then mileage must be more than
40 mpg"). You make lots of little decisions,
LIGHTYEAR adds everything up and makes
A LIGHTYEAR Graphic Value screen. Beginning at
the top with Special Effects, use the right and left
arrow keys to move the xtoa position between
"least desirable" and "most desirable. "
the big decision: a competitive ranking of the
contenders displayed in bar chart form.
WOODY LISWOOD: I like LIGHTYEAR. A
blast to use, even if you could do the same
thing with almost any spreadsheet. Presents
data in an informative manner and the
graphics make seeing the results of your
decisions rather frightening. I suspect that
with a little practice you could prove
anything to anybody with LIGHTYEAR. It is
too bad that you supply all the weighting
because you know, then, what the answer
will be before you start. Even if it is
unconscious.
STEVEN LEVY: I agree with Woody on
LIGHTYEAR. The idea, though, is that
someone will eventually generate templates
(third-party? or LIGHTYEAR? Both, sez
LIGHTYEAR) with the weighting built in. So
you can get the T Boone Pickens template
which picks out an oil company to take over,
after you give simple data on various
companies. I guess those templates (which
have yet to appear, and probably won't
unless lotsa people buy LIGHTYEAR) owe it
to the user to provide the formulas for
weighting. In any case, it's not a decision-
maker but an ass-coverer.
see what's going on (or should be going on) at any given
moment.
SHARON RUFENER: Suppose you need to whip up a time or
cost estimate for the job. Or do a feasibility study. Or track the
progress and reschedule when things don't come through as
expected. That's where project management software comes
in.
The Critical Path Method (CPM) shows which tasks can happen
concurrently and which must be sequential, identify the
"critical" sequence, and show how changes or slippages affect
the completion date of a project— and can appear alone or in
combination with Gantt or PERT charts.
PERT charts (Program Evaluation Review Technique) illustrate
relationships and dependencies among tasks using boxes and
connecting lines. They're good for a first pass at an upcoming
project or when you want the big picture of how things fit.
Gantt charts show tasks as horizontal bars on a time grid. You
The beauty of computerized management is that you can
automate the tedious process of designing, drawing, and
calculating the various interacting elements and putting them
all together in presentable form. You can try out changes
without having to redraw an entire chart. And, you can store
records of prior projects and have a handy knowledge-base to
assist in future projections.
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> > Slack time for a normal
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Project management in the CP/M world
Organic Software; Version 1.14; CP/M-80; 64K ®
CP/M-86; 128K ® IBM PC and MS-DOS
compatibles; 128K; copy-protected? NO; $295;
Digital Marketing, 2363 Boulevard Circle, Suite
8, Walnut Creek, CA 94595; 415/947-1000.
STEWART BRAND: Someone loaned me a
copy of MILESTONE, a critical-path method
scheduling program. I nibbled at it tentatively,
A project such as laying a new length of water
main can be studied, analyzed, scheduled and
budgeted using a project manager like
MILESTONE. Even the levels of expertise and
wage levels of workers can be considered as
seen in this critical-path report.
like a cat. It's pretty inviting. Soon I was
inventing tasks and durations and
prerequisites and pay levels, and the thing
lined them up neatly, and correlated them,
and prominently displayed the critical path of
tasks that hadto be done in sequence and the
minimum time that would take. "Wanna print
out?" it offered. "Sure." The printer snarled
for a full minute, and I had a four-way
analysis of the whole operation.
Instant scheduler. I'd messed around the
subject of critical-path method for years, read
and reviewed the books, spoken well of the
technique. Now I was doing it. Power Not
just to me: to anybody in the shop who
wanted to use the clarity and flexibility of a
mutually made and understood schedule.
11
Visible training wheels . . .
Version 1.0; Macintosh; copy-protected? NO; $125
(street price $81); Apple Computer, 20525
IMarianI Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014;
800/538-9696.
SHARON RUFENER: You start by drawing a
"Schedule Chart"— dragging boxes from a
menu onto a window area, typing names
(tasl<s) into each box, specifying which tasl<s
are milestones, then connecting them with
lines to show the order in which things must
be done (dependencies).
Next, you bring up a form to enter duration
(minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months)
and resources (people or equipment,
usually) for each task. The result is a PERT
chart that shows starting and ending dates
for each task and highlights the critical path.
Or, switch to Gantt charts and view the same
project from other perspectives—a Task
Timeline arranges activities chronologically;
a Resource Timeline groups tasks by
resource. You can have six resources per
task, 50 resources per project, 200 tasks if
you have 128K RAM, 2000 tasks if you've
got 51 2K.
You can enter fixed costs and income for
each task and costs per resource to generate
two tables: a Cash Flow Table for a running
"balance sheet" by time interval; a Project
Table shows price per task. Change any part
of the underlying information and the
program automatically recalculates
everything.
You couldn't send a rocket to Saturn with
this program, but you could plan a wedding
or build a cottage. It's unsuitable for
complex projects because it's single-layered;
you can't have sub-projects. However, being
able to see a project take shape on the
screen is probably the most sensible way to
visualize and work through any problem
involving entities and relationships.
Two views of Whole Earth's budding WELL project
(p. 148) drawn by MACPROJECT. The Gantt chart
(top) lets us see what should be going on at any
given time. The PERT chart (bottom) shows how
each task relates to the overall project (critical
tasks are highlighted by bold boxes). One of the
great things about project management software
is that you can convince yourself that wildly
improbable things are likely to happen.
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IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles; 256K; 80-column
display; copy-protected? NO; $395 (street price
$200); Sorcim/IUS Microsoftware, 2195 Fortune
Dr., San Jose, CA 95131; 408/942-1727.
SHARON RUFENER: SUPERPROJECT is the
software to get if you are more interested in
defining a project before the work starts than
in tracking and tweaking the ongoing
activities.
WOODY LISWOOD: This program is a
winner. I was able to start it up and use it
without ever looking at the documentation
and I cannot say that about any other project
manager I have used. One feature usually
lacking in these programs is proportional
use of resources— a way to include people
who work on a project over ten days, but
only for two hours a day. SUPERPROJECT is
fantastic in this area. You can assign a
resource to work all available time, a
percentage of the time, or specify exactly
how many hours will be worked at what rate.
You control the program. Since changes can
be recalculated continuously or when you've
finished, you can "what-if" project costs.
You can arrange data in a variety of ways: by
date, alphabetically, or by node number.
SUPERPROJECT prints out nice PERT and
Critical Path charts; Resource Allocation and
other reports are printed in SUPERCALC (p.
67) spreadsheet format. To get maximum
use you will want to transfer data to a
spreadsheet— directly to SUPERCALC2 (or
greater) or a spreadsheet that uses DIF
format; via a file transfer program (see pp.
72, 156) to another type of spreadsheet.
My only complaint is that I found the format
for the Critical Path/Gantt chart confusing
and hard to read because it uses letters to
specify paths instead of arrows and
symbols.
SHARON RUFENER: SUPERPROJECT is the
best conceptual tool on the IBM PC for
project definition. There's no better way to
get an overview of a project than by
brainstorming with PERT charts.
:^!^li^^i
SUPERPROJECT lets you look at all the details of
a task at once; any changes made here will be
rellected in the overall project. On a color screen,
project paths are differentiated very effectively by
color
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
\'^x^^MWMS'7^''^^^^-i^^A '' -^'"T
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This TIME LINE Gantt Chart lists the project tasks
that match the two specified criteria: projects
assigned to Jo and CM.
Gantt charts and project control . . .
IWt LINE ©
Version 2.0; IBM PC/XT/AT/3270 and compatibles;
256K; 2 disk drives or hard disk; copy-protected?
NO; $495 (street price S300); Breakthrough
Software Corp., 505 San Marin Dr., Novato, CA
94947; 415/898-1919.
SHARON RUFENER: This heavy-duty
manager is the best one to get for
monitoring large projects and keeping
complex activities under control. It permits
gaps and overlaps between dependencies;
allows task splitting and priorities;
reschedules backwards from deadlines; sorts
on user-defined criteria; and can "filter"
(extract) the critical path as a separate file. It
can store unlimited tasks per schedule with
each one having unlimited dependencies.
TIME LINE uses the Gantt chart as its main
tool and can generate PERT charts as a
secondary view of the situation. The charts
can be multi-level— you can break large jobs
into sub-projects.
TIME LINE allows partial allocation of
resources, resource pooling, and resource
histograms. Reports show what's happening
during a particular time frame, point out
conflicts, and can serve as assignment
sheets. You can also get summary reports,
and planned vs. actual reports to see
manpower and costing variances.
The costing capabilities are more powerful
than competing programs. Cost reports can
be generated by resources, tasks, week or
month. You assign hourly, daily or weekly
rates to people resources; fixed, variable or
miscellaneous costs to other resources; and
up to eight costs per task. Costs for each
task can be accrued at the beginning of the
task, prorated, or calculated at the end.
TIME LINE offers menus similar to those in
1-2-3 (p. 68), context-sensitive help, data-
entry forms, and exemplary documentation.
It handles data transfer easily to and from
1-2-3, SUPERCALC3 (p. 67), MULTIPLAN (p.
70), DBASE II (p. 85), and (soon) DBASE III
(p. 86).
fl,
wuSmm® mi
SHARON RUFENER: Thousands of software packages have
been created to serve specific business needs . . . almost
every one created in-house by a lawyer, a wholesaler, a farmer,
a booking agent, or some other computer purchaser/user/
pioneer who forged his or her own solution to the problems of
paperwork and information management.
Some people wrote programs from scratch (or hired
programmers to do it for them). Others used an existing
"productivity tooi"--usually a database program such as
DBASE II (p. 85), or a spreadsheet package like 1-2-3 (p. 68),
and created a "template" or an "application." This type of
cottage-Industry software seems to share some common traits:
It Is inelegantly packaged; not well marketed; the
documentation Is amateurish; most of it runs on out-of-date
CP/M machines, often slowly. On the other hand, each
program was created to serve a real-life need by someone who
understood that business.
A second type of program comes from small software firms
who have taken their generic accounting packages and adapted
them to various types of business needs. Since these products
are designed for everyone and no one, they tend to be less
than Ideal.
Finally, we are starting to see more software professionally
produced and tailored to specific types of businesses.
How do you find out what's available for you? Computer
publications targeted at the mass market rarely devote precious
space to software targeted for particular niches. Trade
journals, however, are starting to carry ads for a few of the
products and an occasional article describing a particular
program. There are new magazines emerging which focus
entirely on industry-specific uses of computers and software.
These publications are caught In a journalistic dilemma— they
depend on the products they are covering for much of their
advertising revenue. Objective and hard-hitting coverage is not
a practical course for them, so their articles tend to resemble
publicity releases rather than critical reviews.
Finally, for the modem-equipped, there are national database
services, bulletin boards, and online conferences for gossip-
collecting. The databases have hardware and software
Information, news stories, market and technical Information,
and, often, online programs you can use from your computer.
The bulletin boards and conferences let you send and receive
messages and make personal contacts across the continent.
Check the Telecommunlcatng section's recommended online
databases (Tapping into Databanks, pp. 143 to 145), and
services like ONE-POINT and .MENU (p. 141) for more
Information.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
w
Online data for doctors . .
o
Free to participating physicians only; 24-liour
service; PDR updated daily; Fisher-Stevens, Inc.,
Campus Rd., Totowa, NJ 07512; 800/922-0352 or,
in NJ, 800/221-4225.
O
//I
Available at normal Dow Jones rates (see table,
p. 140); Dow Jones/News Retrieval, P.O. Box 300,
Princeton, NJ 08540; 800/257-5114 or, in NJ,
609/452-1511.
$50 registration; plus $15/monthly minimum; plus
$32/hour (6 a.m. - 6 p.m., local time) or $20/hour
(after 6 p.m., weekends and holidays); BRS/
Saunders, Colleague, 1290 Avenue of the
Americas, New York, NY 10019; 800/468-0908 or,
in PA and outside continental U.S. (call collect),
215/527-4155.
RUSEL DeMARIA: There are several
telecommunications databases available to
doctors, including BRS (p. 143), DIALOG (p.
143), and PHYCOM— a free bulletin board
system provided by the pharmaceutical
industry for information about drugs.
SHARON RUFENER: Doctors can also get
medical and drug information on more than
a thousand illnesses from the same service
which helps them (<eep track of their
investments— Dow Jones News Service (p.
142). This informational database is called
//MEDX, and although it does not diagnose
illnesses, it provides supplemental
background data.
Another online medical library, called
COLLEAGUE, supplies medical literature in
the form of books, journals, indexes and
abstracts.
Newsletter for computerized law offices
O
S120/yr (12 issues); $95/yr new charter
subscribers; LOGIC, 3315 Sacramento, Suite 407,
San Francisco, CA 94118; 415/923-1747.
SHARON RUFENER: So far, we haven't seen
a computer magazine for lawyers, but here's
a monthly newsletter which covers the
territory. It's called LOGIC (Law Office Guide
in Computers), and it's published by the
computer consulting firm of Remer, Remer
& Dunaway. Since it carries no advertising,
it's in a position to give tough reviews to
software products.
Meeting tiouse for non-city folk
S15.50/hour; U.S. Soil, Inc., RO. Box 926,
Salida, CO 81201; Voice: 303/539-3535, data:
800/325-0476.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: This inexpensive
bulletin board system started out as a public
service to farmers and has now expanded to
include information from, for, and about
several professions. Although not entirely
free now, there are no sign-up or monthly
charges. Since it was designed to serve the
rural community, the service works with an
800 number rather than using Telenet,
Usenet, or other services which usually
involve toll-charges once you leave urban
areas. It has approximately 4000 programs
available for downloading and offers time
credits to those that upload farm-oriented
programs. Special interest group
conferences range from computer oriented
topics, to law, to dairy farming.
Online data for farmers and rancliers .,. .
A6iET O
$50 annual membership (including monthly
newsletter); charges based on usage (average
$25-$35/hr); AGNET, University of Nebraska at
Lincoln, Lincoln, NB 68583-0713; 402/472-1892.
SHARON RUFENER: AGNET is to farmers
what the Dow Jones News/Retrieval (p. 142)
database is to investors, and more. It
provides daily quotes on commodities and
futures contracts, and you can have them
chart selected price information for you if
you wish. Also available on their database
are USDA reports, trade information, and
news releases. They have a library of online
programs available for members to use for
financial and production management
analysis.
AGNET also offers online conferences around
general and specific topics and electronic
mail. Talk to participants who share your
interest in soybeans or llama breeding; send
messages back and forth to individuals,
groups, or everyone. Wish someone happy
birthday, or start a political movement.
Two bi-monthly agricultural magazines . . .
Farm Computer News; $20/yr (6 issues);
Meredith Corp., RO. Box 10231, Des Moines, lA
50336; 800/247-2504 or, in lA, 515/284-2349.
$8.50/yr (6 issues); AgAccess, 615 Merchant St.
Vacaville, CA 95688; 707/448-8287.
SHARON RUFENER: Articles in Farm
Computer News are aimed at the farmer with
a microcomputer and cover hardware,
software, and various types of farming
applications. It also includes industry news,
first- person interviews with computerized
farmers, and lots of software ads, making
this magazine a good marketplace forum for
shoppers.
The AgAccess magazine/catalog features
reviews of books and software for
horticulturalists and farmers along with
listings of related computer resources and
services. The publication is an adjunct of a
mail-order business, so you can buy many
of the things mentioned from them.
120
Heavy duty construction tool .
Version 4.0; IBM PC/XT compatibles; 192K
e TRS-80 Models III and 4; 48K; modem and 5MB
hard disk recommended; copy-protected? NO;
$5995; Small System Design, Inc., 1120 Oakdale
Place, Boulder, CO 80302; 303/442-9454.
JOE TROISE: What's this? More than $5900
for software?
Well, as the tired old adage goes, you get
what you pay for, and what you're getting is a
package that can control just about every
facet of the construction business.
I have used the CONSTRUCTION
MANAGEMENT package for a year It was put
together in conjunction with builders, and the
software reflects its "on-the-job" origins,
being developed in part by people who know
how to swing a hammer
The system is divided into three major
components— job control programs, payroll
programs, and accounting programs— which
work together to keep track of your business,
from comparing bids with actual costs to
handling your checking accounts. The net
effect of all this interconnection is that every
cost you incur, every penny you spend, is
accounted for and incorporated into records
and reports that not only store the data but
Total Bid (or Job
Construction Cost Estimate?
DAY 9 May 1904 Paqe 1
Haterials
Labor
Base
Sub
Equip
BUILDIN6 PERHIT
69.00
0.00
fi.OO
EXCflVflTION BY HA
575.00
0.00
0.00
PERIHFTER DRAINA
421.13
377.53
0.00
CONCRETE
3,875.50
2.874.54
143.75
RATIOS
262.20
27B.37
0.00
HALL COATINGS AN
155.25
0.00
0,00
FLOOR FRfiHING
2,503.00
2,269.29
23.00
SUB-FLOOR
632.50
415.83
0.00
~~~— ir*"'^~~~~~-~-
2.976.20
2,773.11
0.00
NAIL?TbTHrtt~--___
~~"-yA,25___
__K6B2Ji__
___aiii-i^
LANDSCAPING
"~~~-~---.___^
11. Ml
5,914.16
1.433.50
0.00
2,300.00
0.00
o.no
10,350.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
5,983.16
2.058.50
'98.66
9.193.79
540.57
155.25
4,795.29
HaterialE Labor Base Sub Equip
69,514.76 38,072.50 895.85 76,549.46
0.00 185,032.5^
logically interpret it for you . This gives you an
accurate assessment of your business's
financial health. By making one entry into the
payroll program, you print a check for an
employee, calculate all the deductions,
compute the tax records, create accounting
records, add the payroll costs to the
appropriate jobs, and update your billing file.
Included is a word processor (LAZYWRITER,
which is a good one). Upcoming additions to
the package include critical path scheduling
and a materials take-off function, both of
which are tasks generally found only in very
expensive systems.
This package is a bit intimidating, but it
comes with excellent documentation. The
writers assume that you know how to run a
computer, that you know accounting, and that
you can competently provide the large
amount of cost information that you must
tediously enter (but just once) from whatever
bid books or life experience you have. So plan
to spend a few days plugging that information
in.
True, you will have spent upwards of $10,000
by the time you buy all you need in software
and hardware. But this package is not merely
an "aid" to your business. It literally runs the
whole show, with you in the director's chair
Make damn sure you're ready for that. If you
are, no building package I am aware of even
comes close in terms of price, power, and
reliability.
When "architractor" Tom Lyon built a house for
himself, he estimated the retail costs as if he
were his own client, using the CONSTRUCTION
MANAGEMENT programs. This spreadsheet
section covers expenses; on other jobs similar
spreadsheets help him put together bids.
Software for real estate offices .
Version 3.14; $395 (street price $275).
Version 2.0; $395.
! E TOOL IIT O
Version 2.0; $245.
for all: IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles ® Apple II
family; Apple III (in emulation mode; not
available for REAL ESTATE TOOL KIT); 2 disk
drives; copy-protected? YES; Yardi Systems, 3324
State St., Suite 0, Santa Barbara, CA 93105;
805/687-4245.
DICK YORK: You can computerize your real
estate office for a modest investment in both
cost and learning. Yardi Systems' three
related packages have similar screens and
logic.
Before committing our office to a
computerized property management system
a few months ago, I looked at about ten
different systems. Yardi's looked too good to
be true— it claimed to do too many things
too cheaply— so I called them up. Al Yardi,
the author, answered the phone and my
questions were answered. Al is a property
manager who wrote this program to fill his
own needs. I like applications that are user-
written— professional programmers usually
have no idea what users really need.
Yardi Systems would not be adequate for a
large professional property management
company, but is more than ample for a
smaller company or individual owner. It
expands easily and can accommodate as
many accounts as you wish. It writes
checks, including recurring payables. It will
produce a customized message on tenant
statements. We use it to track payments on
notes, mortgages, and land leases as well.
Yardi didn't design it for this, but the system
is flexible enough to alter for your own
accounts.
There are "advanced" and "deluxe" models
of PROPERTY MANAGEMENT available. Our
office upgraded to the "advanced" version,
and we would not go back to the "regular"
strength version, nor would we recommend
it, now that the better version is here.
"Advanced" includes Tenant History (a
must), General Ledger, and a sort function
for 1099s, including the ability to interface
with word processing. This system was
already a winner— now it's an Olympic Gold.
OFFICE MANAGEMENT is a general
accounting package, plus salespersons'
individual histories and escrow control.
Control over the office and, more
importantly, the salespeople, is at your
fingertips.
The TOOL KIT is the rest of what a real
estate office needs: Investment Analysis, Buy
vs. Rent, Tax Analysis, etc. Easy to use, fast
to learn. The Buy vs. Rent program is the
best I've seen so far. The bottom line "cost
of owning vs. renting" is by far easier and
clearer to understand than any other similar
program to date.
m
Software for builders . . .
Smith and Omeara; Version I: Apple II + /lie; 64K;
$800; Version II: Apple lle/llc; IBM PC and
compatibles; 256K; $1250; Version III: MS-DOS
(hard disk version); 256K; $2000; 2 disk drives;
80-column printer; copy-protected? YES;
Omware, 140 High St., Sebastopol, CA 95472;
707/823-7783.
KIRBY ODAWA: There is an irony to tlie
notion ttiat a software program for
contractors might be perpetually "under
construction." Yet THE MASTER BUILDER,
like a summer cottage that grows with the
family, has expanded from a simple
bookkeeping package into a comprehensive,
integrated accounting system. The program
evolved through the authors' willingness to
accomodate the requirements of contractors
from a wide variety of building professions.
If you're having difficulty finding a system
that is flexible enough to manage your
business, this program may be the tool you
need.
THE MASTER BUILDER provides a complete
financial management system. It will
maintain and balance your books, produce
job estimates, track job costs, generate
financial statements, track your payables and
receivables, and handle the payroll.
It is available in three progressively capable
versions, offering different levels of detail
and sophistication to builders, from the
handyman to the corporation. For example.
Version I tracks balances on up to 40
accounts receivable, while Version III
provides for the aging and retention of up to
500 accounts.
Just as a customized home is often strikingly
interesting, so MASTER BUILDER is unique
in a number of ways. For example, you may
simply record your transactions as checks or
deposits (in single-entry form), and MASTER
BUILDER will automatically create records in
double entry format. The program checks
your math on account spreads, insuring that
your books will always be balanced. The
payroll module is certified, and will account
for piece-work in addition to salary and
hourly rates. A report generator gives you
the ability to customize your payroll reports,
invoices, and statements, increasing your
control over the reports that represent your
business.
There is a demo package, a "crippled"
version of the real thing, available for
$35.00, so you can try it on to see if it fits
before you buy.
Real estate analysis . . .
o
Wayne Pratt; most MS-DOS machines; 128K »
Apple ll+/lle/llc; 48K; copy-protected? NO; Pratt
Softvitare, 822 North Sheppard, Kennewick, WA
99336; 509/783-5653; Modules available: Volume
1: INCOME PROPERTY ANALYSIS, $250; Volume
2: MORTGAGES, DEPRECIATION, AND FINANCIAL
COMPUTATIONS, $100; Volume 3: UNDEVELOPED
LAND ANALYSIS, $150; Volume 4: LEASE/
PURCHASE ANALYSIS, $150; Volume 5: SMALL
BUSINESS VALUATIONS, $100; Demo Disk (Vols.
1-5), $10.
DICK YORK: The INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE
ANALYSIS programs take the tedium out of
financial projections. They are quicker and
more accurate than manual methods, and
you can get the results on one page.
Pratt's INCOME PROPERTY ANALYSIS
program, unlike many others, will give you
the results even if they are negative— a
useful feature for examining the situation and
seeing what needs to change.
Pratt's programs come in modules that can
be purchased separately. I use the
FINANCIAL COMPUTATIONS models a lot.
It's the easiest and best way to calculate
discounted values or yields on a wrap.
Software for salespeople . . .
IIBKETFM O
Version 2.21; IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles;
128K ® CP/M 80; 64K; 2nd disk drive; copy-
protected? NO; $695; Scientific Marketing, Inc.
3303 Harbor Blvd., Suite G-9, Costa Mesa, CA
92626; 714/957-0225.
KEN MILBURN: MARKETFAX is a special
database program for tracking sales leads,
prospects, and customers; a sophisticated
and comprehensive tool for managing the
sales process.
In one way, it behaves like an accounting
package — each step toward the sale is
recorded in an audit trail. You can look back
and see what it took to sell a given
customer— a big help in setting up sales
projections based on reality instead of
guesswork. In another way, it acts like a
sales manager, forcing the salespeople to
learn and follow all the critical steps of the
sales process.
Want to automate the process of
telemarketing? MARKETFAX will
automatically dial your leads from a call-date
list, and the appropriate "script" will appear
on the screen, alongside of their vital
statistics. When you get a promising
response, you can add it, along with your
notes, to your prospects list while you are
on the phone.
Form letters get generated automatically at
all the appropriate times. Eighty-three
prototypes are included for your
convenience, and they can be modified to
suit your general needs or to make them
more specific to a given client. You can use
your word processor to make original forms,
letters, and documents to incorporate into
your MARKETFAX system.
MARKETFAX files are written in standard
ASCII (straight text) format, and can be
copied into other software packages, such
as a relational database or accounting
system.
I reviewed Version 2.2. A speedier and more
sophisticated version is due to appear in the
Summer of 1985, as is a multi-user system.
The program is menu-driven. Novice users
should have no trouble using it. Warning: the
program will be useless to those who lack
the time or the discipline to enter data on a
regular and timely basis. The reward for the
effort is that added sales could easily pay for
both the computer and the program.
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MARKETFAX can create a log of all transactions
between tlie sales department and prospects.
Just as an accounting system captures an audit
trail of financial transactions, MARKETFAX
records this "communications audit trail. "
O
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
IZA
Rik Jadrnicek, Domain Editor
RIK JADRNICEK: Stick around if you like to doodle, draw
cartoons, illustrate books, draw block diagranns or flowcharts,
do space planning, develop advertising copy, design circuit
boards, design buildings, or create any other casual or
professional drawings. In this section you'll discover
microcomputer software and hardware useful for graphic art,
drafting, and design. Computer-aided design (CAD) is swiftly
coming of age on microcomputers ... at last, you really can
draw with equipment that's reasonably priced.
Why are graphics programs becoming such an important part
of a business software library? Ever catch yourself reading a
magazine backwards? I do, and I suspect I'm in the majority.
Perhaps it's simply the more natural, quicker path to the
"bottom line" in this age of information overdose. I look at the
pictures first, read the captions, look at any charts I find, and
then if I'm still interested I read the text. It's the same with
business reports. But before microcomputer graphics programs
were available, a business had to hire an artist to depict the
bottom line in full color. Today, bar charts and line graphs pop
out at the push of a button.
Like a good word processor, a good graphics processor will
soon be a mainstay of your software library. Microcomputers
have placed the masterful control of numbers and text at our
fingertips, and now they can give us that same degree of
control over pictures.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Word processors and spreadsheets
were a giant step up from typewriters and adding machines, as
typewriters and adding machines were a giant step up from
handwriting. But picture processing has never had a
mechanical middle-step equivalent to a typewriter or adding
machine. With picture processing, you leap straight from pen
on paper into the magical world of microcomputing: brush and
canvas with a brain. In picture processing, just as in word
processing or spreadsheet analysis, you can cut, copy, move,
erase, and save all or pieces of your creation to be used again
in a variety of forms. But you can also shade, texture, expand,
contract, zoom in to toy with what was once just a speck on
the screen; draw a straight line without a ruler; vary the size of
your pencil, pen, or brush; paint with a palette of colors—and
change anything in the blink of an eye.
RIK JADRNICEK: Drawing software falls neatly into three
categories: painting (for artists), two-dimensional drawing (for
architects, engineers, space planners and drafters) and tliree-
dimensionai solids modeling. You'll find all three in this
section, in that order.
STEWART BRAND: Every month personal computers have
more memory and more storage at less cost. All programs
benefit to some degree, but the ones that gain the most are
the graphic programs, because it's taking them over the
barrier between impossible and possible. And once possible,
these programs are going to take off, I believe. Personal
computer users are biased toward graphics, feel rewarded by
them, and reward them right back with enthusiastic market
support.
As a result, stuff in the Drawing section is probably neck-
and-neck with Managing (the integrated packages) as one of
the fastest-moving nags in the software horserace. Our
coverage, necessarily, lags behind. Fortunately, Rik
Jadrnicek covers the cutting edge of the field professionally,
so he is able to report in detail on microcomputer graphic
capabilities that may seem on the other side of the
impossible barrier to many of us now but are rapidly
coming within financial reach as we speak.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Rik waited, watched, impatiently,
yearly, for microcomputer graphics. Bought one of the first
Apples and VISICALC for the analytical capabilities (a
house designer and builder, he was immersed in the vagaries
of California's real estate market), but mostly because he
could create charts. He quickly discovered two things:
analysis that formerly took hours happened in five minutes
on the Apple; and he had a knack for fiddling with programs
and sharing his enthusiasm. A true entrepreneur, he turned
this sideline into a business, giving seminars on spreadsheet
modeling, reviewing software for magazines, putting
together systems for small businesses. Meanwhile, he kept
Rik Jadrnicek and family.
searching the marketplace for graphics packages he could
use to draw architectural plans, to paint. About a year and a
half ago it all clicked together— sophisticated drawing
software landed on microcomputers. And Rik was ready. His
clients are now artists, architects and designers. Is he
content? Nope. Now he's tapping his feet waiting for
software that lets him play with movies on the monitor— fully
three-dimensional animated pictures of the world moved
onscreen from a camera, created with the microcomputer, or
both— an altered reality. I think he'd even like to carry this bit
of magic in his briefcase. Who knows? Maybe he'll review it
in the next Catalog.
STEWART BRAND: Humans drew before they wrote. For
much of our brain, I suspect, drawing /s thinking. It may be
that computers will be releasing that brainpower in the next
few years, as we learn to express ourselves graphically as
easily as we use the car or telephone. I don't know that we'll
get back to the exquisite artistry of the beasts drawn on the
walls of the Lascaux Caves, but I wouldn't rule it out either
125
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nT'T;
RIK JADRNICEK: Whether you're shopping around or already
own a computer you can use for painting, graphic design,
drafting, or business graphics, understanding the tools that
make computer graphics possible can help you comprehend
the possibilities and potential of computer graphics software.
In addition to evaluating the usefulness of a software program
itself, look at how much attention the publisher is paying to
your hardware needs, as well. If a program runs on a wide
variety of computers and supports many boards, plotters,
printers, and input devices, you'll have a wider choice (quality
and price) of hardware tools. Also, if you want to share data
with other people, choose a program that runs on the same
type of computer (so far, you can't trade picture files between
a Macintosh and an IBM PC, for example).
In a nutshell, you begin to draw using a graphic input device
and/or the computer keyboard much as you would a brush or
pencil. The software provides a palette of colors and brush
types, T-square, triangle, compass, grid, framework, and a
variety of other drawing tools. A graphics card (also called
graphics board, graphics processor, and frame buffer)
translates your work into an image on a monochrome or color
graphics monitor. The computer saves your creation in a file on
a floppy or hard disk from which you retrieve and edit it later.
(We recommend a hard disk for professionals — pictures use up
a lot of storage space.) As for output, drawings can be printed,
plotted, photographed, or translated into video images.
The drawing instruments . . .
BARBARA ROBERTSON: So how do you draw on a computer
monitor? Although it's possible, using a gadget called a light
pen, to actually draw right on the surface of the monitor, we
don't recommend it— too imprecise and arm-wearying. Nor do
we recommend joysticks— they're better for games. Instead,
here are our favorite ways of putting drawings into a computer:
Keyboard— Least expensive (you need one anyway) and least
desirable for artists and drafters, but a possible choice for
engineers who want to type in exact data points, relative
distances, and commands. Artists would use the cursor arrow
keys, drawing lines as the cursor travels across the screen,
then function keys to fill in areas with colors or patterns.
Mouse— Roll the little critter around and the cursor follows,
drawing as it goes; click the mouse button(s) to enter
commands. Mice are particularly good for finding and selecting
commands (fill this area with color, cut and paste, etc.), take
little desk space, are reasonably priced ($199 and up), and can
often be used with other software applications (word
processing, spreadsheets, etc.). Recommended for business
graphics, drawing, and sketching— not for drafting since they
give only relative X, Y coordinates.
Digitizing Tablets— As close as you can get to pencil and
paper. Using a stylus (pencil-like) or puck (mouse-like with
cross-hairs), you "draw" on the tablet; and as you draw, the
cursor draws on the screen with a precision that bears a direct
relation to the price you pay for the tablet. The KOALAPAD (p.
131) is fun for sketching and pointing, but not recommended
for professional artists. Higher priced ($500 and up) tablets
have a higher resolution than mice, are more precise and have
absolute X, Y coordinates. Digitizing tablets are the best and
most expensive choice for artists and the only reasonable
choice for drafters.
The best buy by far is the Hitachi 11-by-11-inch Tiger Tablet,
which includes its own power supply and stylus ($995; Hitachi
America, Ltd., 950 Benicia Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94086;
408/773-8833).
Image Digitizers- Now here's a bit of magic. With these
devices, you can transport a photograph or drawing (or text for
that matter) or video image into your computer and have it
show up on the monitor. And you can actually retouch or
completely alter the photograph, create a parts library, or put a
picture into a document. There are two kinds of image
digitizers: optical scanners and video digitizers.
Optical scanners range from the inexpensive ($229)
Thunderscan, a cartridge that fits into an Apple ImageWriter
printer and reproduces (on a Macintosh screen) any picture flat
enough to roll through the printer; to the more expensive
($3950) Datacopy Model 700, a "flat-bed" scanner that looks
like a copy machine in miniature and lets you move pictures
from paper (8V2" x 11") to your IBM PC screen and insert them
into documents. Using CADCAMERA (p. 135), the Datacopy
700 can convert drawings into images that can be edited with
AUTOCAD (p. 135)— possibly useful for building a parts library.
Video digitizers work with video cameras. Point the camera,
push a button, and an image shows up on a computer
monitor— or use an image stored on videotape. They work in
combination with special software to translate video signals
into digital images. For the IBM PC and compatibles, we
recommend the PC Eye board; for the Macintosh, MACVISION.
You won't get resolution good enough for high-quality
publication with any of these digitizers, and they're not fast,
but they're good enough for newsletters, memos, and mock-
ups.
Thunderscan: Andy Hertzfeld. Version 1.3. Not copy-protected. $229; street
price $183. Macintosii. Requires ImageWriter printer. Thunderware, Inc., 21
Orinda Way, Orinda, CA 94563; 415/254-6581.
Datacopy Model 700: Version 1.2. $3950 (includes flat-tied scanner, board, and
software). IBM PC/XT/AT. Requires 640K, Hercules Graphics Card; hard disk
recommended. Output to QMS and Hewlett-Packard laser printers, Epson dot
matrix printers. Datacopy Corporation, 1215 Terra Bella Ave., Mountain View,
CA 94043; 800/556-1234 ext. 96 or, in CA, 800/441-2345 ext. 96.
MACVISION: Bill Atkinson. Version 1.1 Not copy-protected. $400; street price
$226. Macintosh. Requires video input source. Koala Technologies, 2065
Junction Ave., San Jose, CA 95131; 800/562-2327.
PC Eye and Imagit image editor: $750-$2000; IBM PC/XT/AT/compatibles.
Requires video input source. Chorus Data Systems, Inc., 6 Continental Blvd.,
P.O. Box 370, Merrimack, NH 03054; 800/624-6787.
The palette and the canvas .
Unless your computer is a closed box, you can choose the
resolution and number of colors you want to work with.
Generally, the higher the resolution and the more colors, the
higher the price of both graphics cards and monitors— the
two work in combination. They must v/ork in combination. You
have to carefully match band width and horizontal scan rates of
cards and monitors or, at best, you'll waste money; at worst,
124
you'll fry your monitor. You don't have to know what the words
mean, just read the specs for both and be sure the numbers
match.
The ideal combination for professionals is a system that gives
them high resolution— 600 by 400 pixels (picture elements)—
minimum, more than 16 colors onscreen at once and flicker-
free viewing (the board must produce a "non-interlaced
signal"). Board and monitor combinations that do this are now
available and expensive— too new and expensive so far to have
much software support.
Meanwhile, here are some alternatives: The Hercules graphics
board ($499, street price $319; Hercules Computer
Technology, Inc., 2550 Ninth St., Berkeley, CA 94710,
800/532-0600) gives you high resolution (720 x 348)
monochrome graphics (which may be fine if you're doing line
drawings), and it's very easy to install. The Tecmar Graphics
Master board provides 600 x 480 resolution, 16 onscreen
colors, and an interlaced signal ($695, street price $495;
Tecmar, Inc., 6225 Cochran Road, Solon, OH 44139;
216/349-1009). Installing it is not for the faint-hearted, but
since it emulates standard IBM color graphics it can be used by
a wide variety of software programs. To reduce flicker, you can
buy a special long-persistence phosphor monitor
($695-$1500). The IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter is a good,
well-supported card with 640 x 200 resolution and 16 onscreen
colors; 640 x 350 monochrome ($524). Also, see the
Hardware section (pp. 14 to 21) for more information on
graphics cards and monitors.
The artist's copy machine . . .
You have four choices: print drawings with dot matrix, ink jet
or laser printers; plot them with plotters; photograph the
screen; or transfer them to videotape.
We recommend pen plotters for drafters this year. Maybe by
next year the price of the new electrostatic plotters (like having
your own blueprint machine) will drop. The best pen plotter
value is the Calcomp 1043, an "E" size plotter with 8 pens for
$8495, plus $225/quarter for the warranty; a similar plotter
(also good) from Hewlett-Packard costs nearly twice that.
Another good buy is the Houston Instruments DMP 52 MP 14-
pen plotter for $5995— smaller paper, more colors. A plotter's
price depends on three factors: the maximum paper size it can
handle, the number of pens (and therefore, colors), and its
speed. Speed and paper size will be most important to drafters.
Calcomp, 2411 West La Palma Ave., Anaheim, CA 92801; 714/821-2857 •
Houston Instruments, P.O. Box 15720, Austin, TX 78761; 312/835-0900 •
Hewlett-Packard Marketing Communications, 16399 W. Bernardo Drive, San
Diego, CA 92127, 619/487-4100.
If you're using a computer for rough layouts and sketches you
might be satisfied with black and white images from
inexpensive dot matrix or ink jet printers. Laser printers are
more expensive and print in a higher resolution. Apple's
LaserWriter (p. 21) is the best— prints both graphics and text
in a resolution (300 dots per inch) that begins to approach
typeset-like print quality (2500 dots per inch) at a fraction of
the price. (See p. 126 for a sample.)
If you want to print business graphics in color, we recommend
color printers rather than plotters (lower price for comparable
quality): the Diablo C-150 ink jet ($1295; street price $980;
Xerox, 910 Page Ave., Fremont, CA 94537; 415/498-7769)
requires clay-coated paper, but it's the best (pictures on p. 130
and 132); or the Epson JX80 ($895, street price $550; Epson,
2780 Lomita Blvd., Torrance, CA 90505; 213/539-9140)—
lower quality color, but (unlike the Diablo) it can be used for
correspondence-quality text and it works with standard fan-fold
computer paper. Plotters are better, however, for line drawings,
flow diagrams, and organizational charts (see picture p. 129).
Often the best method of getting a drawing out of a computer
is to photograph the screen— perfect for business graphics
slideshows, and really the best option for artists or anyone
wanting publication-quality images. To photograph the screen,
use any camera on a tripod (you need careful lighting to avoid
glare and a long exposure time to avoid getting bars of light
across the image). Or try the "Screen Shooter," a $170
Polaroid camera with hood and 35mm adapter (NPC Photo
Division, Newton Plastics, 1238 Chestnut St., Upper Newton
Falls, MA, 02164; 617/969-3487) or the Kodak Instagraphic
CRT Slide Imager ($379; Eastman Kodak Company, Dept.
4121, Rochester, NY 14650; 800/445-6325) which comes with
hoods ($40-$50 each) that fit various sized screens and a
gizmo that makes instant slides or prints (included in camera
price). For more money, you can use various hardware devices
such as the Polaroid Palette. The Palette gives you pictures
sharper than your screen with some software (GRAPHWRITER,
SIGN MASTER, CHART MASTER and EXECUVISION, all on
p. 129).
Palette: $1800; street price $1299 (includes 35mm film unit, slide processor,
cables, software); IBM PC/XT/AT; DEC Rainbow/Pro; Apple lie, II + ; Polaroid
Industrial Marketing, 784 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139;
800/225-1618.
Video output— that is, putting computer images onto videotape
—isn't difficult, but don't expect broadcast quality. You need a
"video out" port on your computer (missing, unfortunately
from the Macintosh) so you can connect a VCR to it using an
RCA jack. The VCR records the image (a series of computer
drawings, bar charts, animation sequence, etc.) which can
then be played back on a TV set.
>■ ^^^
"tjv*";.
^m'~
After MACmiON autlior Bill Atkinson pointed the video camera at himself and
created a digitized self-portrait, Jay Kinney used his Macintosh and MACPAINT
to create an alien double. He selected Bill's left eye on the digitized photo,
then replicated it on his forehead, retouching with FATBITS. To finish the
transformation, he used the SPRAYCAN to add a beard.
25
aim f f f f if f if Mi p !PwMlmMm§
BARBARA ROBERTSON: One of the most exciting
developments in drawing software has been tools that let you
combine and print combinations of graphics and text. With
these tools, you can bypass traditional costly typesetting and
layout charges and create newsletters, proposals, price lists,
brochures— or simply use them to quickly create mock-ups.
ROBERT MORGAN: Programs that promise easy electronic
publishing are still "early" programs . . . analogous to the first
steam engines. Just as in those early races between steam
engines and horse drawn carriages sometimes the result was a
"dead heat," sometimes the horses won, sometimes the
steam engine won, and sometimes the steam engine blew
up— so it is with these programs. In many ways they still
simply mimic what you'd do by hand. Until the programs
include "electronic" features like automatically wrapping text
around pictures and from column to column or page to page,
they won't win any speed contests.
If you're a writer, ask yourself if you really want to take on the
extra work required to control the whole publishing process
(writing, editing, layout, typesetting). Designing a page and
selecting fonts, styles, and sizes to produce a professional
result is a craft. If you're a graphic artist, you'll find these
programs handy but not much faster than doing the same thing
by hand. However, if you had a race today between a modern
train and a horse-drawn buggy, it would be no contest. Given a
little time, these programs will mature, I trust, until they truly
automate the process to the point that they are the only way to
"fly."
BARBARA ROBERTSON: The bottom line for these programs is
the quality of the output. On this page and the next, you can
see for yourself how close to publication-quality you can get.
The reviews on these two pages were created and "typeset" by
Robert Morgan who picked three software packages:
READYSETGO and MAGPUBUSHER for the Macintosh, and
FONTRIX for the IBM PC family. READYSETGO and
MACPUBLISHER were printed on Apple's LaserWriter, courtesy
of Infomax Computers.
Created using FOHTRIK on a
I:OHpA£i and printed on an EPSOK Fn88 dot matrix printer
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ROBERT MORGAN: It is hard to categorize
FONTRIX. It has soMe features of a
painting program, but not enough. It
ha:3 some of the features of a word
processing pro^'^ram. Diif. ctoesii't. corae
close. You canprodoce some of the same
results as KE/IDYSETGO (pi26). but not
nearlv as auicRlv or easiiv. Let's fust
call it a "Font Producer Aid Then Some "
You can go directly into the Graphic
Writer and type the test in using
various fonts. Or yoo can create the
test in WORDST/tR (p.55) or another word
processor, then let FONTRIX translate it
into a graphic file, enhance it with the
drawing tools osln^ keyboard or moose,
and finally print it. Fonts can be
edited, italicized, bolded, squeezed
together or created, as long as you do
it beforehand,
O MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
FONTRIX is quite versatile, but also
quite tedious. To convert one page of
WORDSTAR text to a FONTRIX graphic file
takes 22 minutes if you are working with
rioppies. Make one'inistake that, can't
be fixed cosffletically, and you start all
over. If you use a R.4Ii disk or have a
hard disk you can cut that time down to
6 Minutes. 'The graphic files created by
FONTRIX are humongous! You need IBOK
for one 8-1/2 x 11 inch sheet. Here
again, a hard disk is desirable.
/llthough the program comes with iO fonts
and there are loO "more available in
packs of 10 for $25 each, you can NOT
alter the SIZE of the font When you
move between the Graph Writer and the
Graph Printer utilities, FONTRIX dumps
all the selected fonts out of memory and
forgets all the default settings for "
disk drive, etc. Give me a break!
ft
b
c
1^ B
126
This section was created using READYSETGO and printed on the LASERWRITER:
Versatile and slick.».
Restrictive but able...
Version 1.0. Copy-protected. $125;
street price $89. Macintosh (512K).
Manhattan Graphics Corp. 163
Varick Street. NY, NY 10013;
212/924-2778.
Versus
By
Robert Morgan
Version 1.25. Copy-protected. $99;
street price $78. Macintosh (128K).
Boston Software Publishers Inc., 19
Ledge Hill Road, Boston, MA
02132: 617/327-5775
Some folks label these two programs "Electronic Publishers." Both MACPUBLISHER and READYSETGO let
you do typesetting and layout... arrange and rearrange text and graphics on a dummy page. Both give a "bird's
eye view" of the layout. Both can be used with the new Apple LASERWRITER to produce "near typeset quality"
output. Both let you enter text directly or import text from MACWRITE (p.54). Both let you capture graphics from
MACPAINT (p. 127) via the Clipboard. Both help bridge the gap between word processors like MACWRITE (that
don't allow columns of text or graphics beside text) and drawing programs like MACPAINT (that lack basic text
editing features when laying out text). Here are some of the differences between the two...
READYSETGO O
1. Infinite column width sizing.
2. Vertical bars and framing in 4
shades of gray.
3. Full justification displayed on
screen.
4. Able to change Font, Size, or
Style of each individual character in
a line.
5. Pictures taken from Clipboard
can be resized and reshaped at
anytime.
6. No editing allowed on Show
Page.
Why not use ReadySetGo
insteaxj of Mac Publisher?
I will if you loan me
your512K'fai"Mac!
MACPUBLISHER ©
1. Limited to 4 preset column
widths.
2. No vertical bars nor framing.
3. Full justification is not shown on
screen.
4. When changing Font, Size, or
Style, the whole line must be
changed.
5. A portion of the Clipboard can be
"photographed" and "glued down,"
but not resized or reshaped.
6. Easy editing and moving on
Show Page.
This portion was created using MA C PTTRT.TSHER and printed on a LASERWRITER:
"So what program should you choose?" The choice may already be made for you if
you have a 128K "thin" MACINTOSH. In that case, you would have to go with
MACPUBLISHER. But if you have a "fat" MAC, you may have difficulty choosing.
READYSETGO excels in layouts such as restaurant menus, brochures, and
overhead transparencies. MACPUBLISHER excels in multipage newsletters, or any
other layout requiring a lot of text entry and editing, regimented column widths, and
items that you want to reuse in another issue. The finished results of READYSETGO
looked the most professional, thanks to frames and vertical bars. I personally would
like a program that combines the best features of both. I would also like to see new
features like "dynamic, automatic carry-over of text from one page to another." I
know, "picky, picky, picky."
ad Publisher
127
Painting in black and wliite . . .
RIK JADRNICEK: Apple's Macintosh is a
no muss, no fuss, pixel-based graphics
computer. It does other things as well,
of course, but it is in pixel-based
graphics generation that the MAC really
shines. In high-contrast black and
white. MAC'S screen is small (nine
inches diagonally), but its square pixels
make the images seem sharp.
Moving pictures in black and white
4 File Edit Goodies Font FontSize Style
Irresistible . . .
Bundled with Macintosh computers. Apple
Computer, 20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, CA
95014; 800/538- 9696.
LYN CELOTTI: MACPAINT has bit-by-bit
control for detail (Fat Bits), shades, and
tones. It's particularly good for graphic
designers; for freehand, aesthetically
pleasing drawings.
RIK JADRNICEK: MACPAINT is the perfect
example of the speed you can get out of a
pixel-based drawing system that does not
have to create a vector database or drive a
24 X 35 inch plotter. Its purpose is to paint
the screen and print the screen image and
this it does very fast and very well.
ROBERT MORGAN: Although MACPAINT is
viewed as the "premier" paint program, it
has its shortcomings. It lacks color support.
There are limited printer options. The Grid is
not adjustable. The Menu cannot be
removed, so you have less than a full screen
to draw on. And it would be nice if you could
size, shape, and position Ovals and
Rectangles before locking them into place.
In addition, many of the color painting
programs (p. 130) have features not
included in MACPAINT: multi-stage Fat Bits
and control over size and shape of the print-
out as in PC PAINTBRUSH; an underlay
paste like TELEPAINT offers; automatic text
scrolling and a local Undo as in PC PAINT; a
3-0 mode like DIGITAL PAINTBRUSH offers.
I'd also like to have Tilt, Distort, Infinite
Rotate, and Perspective without having to
buy and invoke a desk accessory like
CLICKART EFFECTS, and also the ability to
move individual objects around on the Show
Page.
Still, there are some unique things that only
MACPAINT and the Macintosh offer: the
Lasso function (for Cut/Paste of irregular
objects in close proximity), sheer speed,
square pixels, dual print modes (Final and
Draft), and an environment that allows easy
movement of pictures into other applications
like MACWRITE.
MM
o
Scott Wiener. Copy-protected. $49.95. Macintosh;
Lisa (emulation mode). Ann Arbor Softworks,
308V2 S. State St., Ann Arbor, Ml 48104;
313/996-3838.
1^^
V
MacroMind, Inc. Version 1.0. Copy-protected.
$99.95. Macintosh. Hayden Software Co., 600
Suffolk St., Lowell, MA 01853; 800/343-1218 or,
in MA, 617/937-0200.
DONNA COHEN: Animation traditionally has
been a labor-intensive project requiring a
large staff. Now anyone with a computer and
one of these two animation programs has
the ability to create and replay animations.
ANIMATION TOOLKIT a moving "Etch-a-
Sketch," is perfect for the kids;
VIDEOWORKS, a more sophisticated
program, takes some studying.
Both programs abide by the rules of
animation and are intuitive to use. You can
copy cells in perfect registration, alter each
cell, adjust the speed of playback, and a
whole lot more.
With ANIMATION TOOLKIT I created my first
animation within 15 minutes, but the images
were low resolution and looked a little
clunky. With VIDEOWORKS, you can transfer
pictures from MACPAINT MACVISION
(p. 123), or the samples provided on disk;
create 256 different characters; have multi-
plane animation, cell animation, or real time
animation; add a sound track; and matte
different objects.
The first full-color comic produced on a
Macintosh is Shatter ($15/yr (12 issues);
First Comics, Inc., 1014 Davis St., Evanston,
IL 60201; 312/864-5330). Set in a Blade-
Rynner-//fe future, it's a cops-and-robbers
story with dystopian overtones. The art is
interesting although a little grainy
-—George Mokray
Making a good thing better: T/Maker Company's
CLICKART EFFECTS provides four useful tools
missing from MacPaint. When loaded as a desk
accessory, CLICKART EFFECTS enables MacPaint
images to be rotated degree-by-degree, slanted,
distorted, and put Into perspective. ($49.95;
T/Maker Company, 2115 Landings Dr, Mountain
View, CA 94043; 415/962-0195) Q
This MACPAINT drawing was created by
cartoonist Jay Kinney, then printed on an Apple
ImageWrlter printer. The little Icons In menus
across the bottom and along the left side show
some of the painting options available with
MACPAINT
4t File Edit Options IVindoius Dniiii Font Style EfK SfK ^
draining & horseg Cast
Ml-^|^|^|^t^is[iig4^
Animation, the art of movement, is a new area for
computer artists to discover The VIDEOWORKS
pictures of a racing horse are sophisticated; the
program complex.
6 file Edit Boodtes forM fontSize Style
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
128
WuUui^^^ mum
"Gallery" on CHART on the Macintosh is a pull-
down menu of 42 ready made chart formats. Enter
your numbers, mouse-select a chart type, and—
blink— there It is. You can quickly try on the
various types to see which makes your point best.
The program also offers the ability to create your
own formats and tailor them extensively It does
not do curves, however.
Quick, efficient visuals . . .
Apple Macintosh; 128K; copy-protected? YES;
$125; Microsoft Corporation, 10700 Norttiup Way,
Bellevue, WA 98004; 206/828-8080.
STEWART BRAND: I agree with Andrew
Ruegelman, founding editor of Macworld,
that the Macintosh and software lil<e CHART
are going to gradually change the way we
communicate. Illustration such as graphs no
longer requires specialists, any more than
typing does. Andrew found himself arguing
points in his review of CHART with sparkling
little graphs, quickly conjured on CHART and
as quickly printed in publishable form on the
ImageWriter printer.
Graphs are astonishingly efficient tools. They
can convey broad understanding and great
precision at the same time, of a variety of
ideas at once, and in a tiny space. They help
the brain meet numbers in the brain's
terms— analog pictures rather than digital
numbers; they tell quantity directly rather
than through translation.
On the 128K Mac, CHART is potent but slow.
On the 51 2K Mac it is a lot faster. You can
enter data directly or pull it from
MICROSOFT MULTIPLAN (p. 70). The charts
can be fine-tuned with MACPAINT (p. 127),
and they can be blended with text via
MACWRITE (p. 54) or MICROSOFT WORD
(p. 60) and telecommunicated. I particularly
like some of the power available under the
command "Analyze," which can take your
chart and render a second overlay showing
Average, Cumulative Sum, Difference,
Growth, Percent, Statistics, or Trend.
This program on this machine is an
education.
JOHN LEININGER: CHART is one of those
programs which allow you to get basic
things done with relative ease. It has the
flexibility for you to become an expert user
and create some very complex charts. You
can even get to the point of tricking it into
doing things that perhaps it was not
designed to do. It's a good tool, and like all
good tools you must learn how to use it
properly and get to know its limitations.
WOODY LISWOOD: CHART is also available
for the IBM PC, however we prefer
GRAPH WRITER (p. 129) in this world.
Inexpensive charts and slideshows . . .
Version 1.1. $99. Not copy-protected. IBM PC/XT/
AT/compatibles (256K). IBM color graphics card
and compatibles. Output to Epson, IBM, Diablo,
Okidata and NEC printers; Houston Instruments,
Amdek, Hewlett-Packard and Sweet Pea plotters.
Practicorp International, The Silk Mill, 44 Oak
Street, Newton Upper Falls, MA 02164;
617/965-9870.
WOODY LISWOOD: The best buy.
PRACTIGRAPH produces a basic set of bar,
line, pie, and text charts that can be
photographed from the screen, printed or
plotted. Most business graphics programs
do that. A special PRACTIGRAPH feature,
however, is the program's ability to create
slideshows. You can link a series of graphs
together to run in sequence. (You simply
plug your personal computer into a wide-
screen monitor for group presentations.)
I've used this feature to illustrate the graphic
capabilities of computers and had a great
reaction from the audience. The program is
not as complete or flexible as
GRAPHWRITER (p. 129), but it's much less
expensive and works just fine.
Q MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Very expensive slide shows . . .
PICTURE-IT O
PICTURE-IT: Version 1.1. Copy-protected. $600.
IBM PC/compatibles (128K). Requires VideoShow
150 hardware display driver ($3500; connects to
any NTSC digital RGB monitor). Both from
General Parametrics, 1505 Solano Ave., Berkeley,
CA 94707; 415/524-3950.
DONNA COHEN: You don't have to draw to
use this software. The program includes
more than 20 different formats and color
styles you can select. Or you can design
your own styles and color schemes,
choosing from 1000 colors and 18 built-in
type fonts. You can use PICTURE-IT without
reading the manual.
Fancy overhead transparencies . . .
Version 1.11. $195; street price $139. IBM PC/XT/
AT/compatibles. Program disk is copy-protected,
font disk isn't. Supports IBM color graphics card,
Hercules card. Output to Apple Matrix, NEC PC
8023A-C, Okidata 84 Step 2 dot matrix printers;
IBM and Epson JX80 color printers. Business &
Professional Software, Inc., 143 Binney Street,
Cambridge, MA 02142; 617/491-3377.
WOODY LISWOOD: Need overhead
transparencies but don't have a digital
PICTURE-IT doesn't feel very creative to
draw on— the keyboard is the only input
device— but it produces a high-quality
product comparable to images produced on
$100,000-and-up dedicated business graphic
workstations— far superior to EXECUVISION
(p. 129). Using a new display technology
they call MacroVision, it increases the
standard IBM PC resolution from 640 x 200
pixels to 2048 x 484. MacroVision works
through a device called the VideoShow, a 16-
pound box with built-in disk drive. You don't
need a computer for presentations, just the
VideoShow box, a disk with images you've
created, a monitor, projection screen, or TV
set. The VideoShow lets you jump out of
order to any part of your presentation,
quickly cut to another image, do fancy
dissolves, even control a pointer. No other
business graphics system has worked out its
video interface so well.
plotter? Need to make transparencies with
giant letters, but tired of press-type, hand
lettering and "Orator" type faces?
OVERHEAD EXPRESS contains multiple fonts
and templates that will print on a variety of
dot matrix printers. You fill in supplied
templates or create your own slides using
the OVERHEAD EXPRESS command
language which is somewhat difficult to learn
and use. Once you've mastered it, though,
you can create good-looking slides using the
multitude of fonts and shadings that come
with the program.
DRAWING 129
Bar charts and linear regressions . . .
CHART MASTER O
Version 6.1. S375; street price S239; IBM PC/XT/
AT/compatibFes (256K).
SIGN MASTER O
Version 5.1. $245; street price S179; IBM PC/XT/
AT/compatibies (256K).
DIAGRAM MASTER O
Version S.O, $345; iBM PC XT AT/compatibtes
t320K).
Aii three are copy-protected (liut Itey disk not
required with hard disk) and support iBM coior
graphics, Enhanced Graphics Adapter (8 coiors
supported onscreen), and Professionai Graphics
cards; Hercuies; Output to Epson, IBM, Prism,
Olfidata, Tektronix, 11, Toshiba dot matrix
printers; Hewlett-Packard ThinkJet and LaserJet
printers; Hewlett-Packard. CalComp, Houston
Instruments, Sweet Pea, Hitachi and most other
plotters; Polaroid Palette and Matrix Recorders.
Decision Resources, Inc., 25 Sylvan Rtt., South
Westport, CT 06980; 203/222-1974.
WOODY LISWOOD: All three of these
graphics programs are menu driven, easy to
use, and support a wide variety of printers
and plotters. The latest versions include
"solid fill" for crisper, plotted bar charts and
new symbol fonts (cars, trucks, trains, oil
wells, etc.) you can use instead of solid bars
or lines to spice up plotted graphs,
I've used CHART MASTER since my Apple
computer days— and still use it. It has a
wide variety of graphics: cluster bars,
stacked bars, scatter diagrams, line charts,
pie charts, and area charts, You can also do
linear, exponential, logarithmic, power, and
travelling average regressions within the line
chart section, You can import print files
(ASCII files) from other programs, and
CHART MASTER has one unique feature I
especially like: you can specify that each
chart be contained within a plotted border.
Makes for nicely defined graphics. Less
expensive than GRAPHWRITER and more
limited; more expensive than PRACTIGRAPH
and does more.
use SIGN MASTER when I want
presentation graphics with words and
numbers rather than bar and pie charts.
With SIGN MASTER, you can read in a
spreadsheet, reproduce parts of it, and make
those parts bigger for overhead
transparencies. You can have tables, rows,
columns with or without boxes, box just
what you want, use different type fonts for
each box, and probably do whatever you
desire in the way of text charts.
With DIAGRAM MASTER, you can produce
organizational, Gantt, and text charts. It is
the easiest-to-use organizational chart
function I've found. You simply respond to a
series of prompts about what goes into each
box on each levei — or grab, move, grow,
shrink, and fill in objects selected from the
drawing board. And the chart is created
practically automatically,
The best by far . . .
GRAPHWRITER
Version 4.3. Basic $395; Extension $395, Combo
5595. Copy-protected, input forms not copy-
protected, IBM PC/MS-DOS families; ig2K RAM
|25GK RAM with image recorder and printer
plots); Color graphics adapter; Output to Epson,
Okidata and IBM printers; Hewlett-Packard, IBM,
Calcomp, and Mannesman Talley plotters;
Graphic Communications, Inc., 20Q Fifth Avenue,
Waltham, MA 02254, 617/890-8778.
WOODY LISWOOD: GRAPHWRITER is still
the best. It does (when you have both the
basic and extended sets, or the combo} one
to four pies; scatter plots with or without
regression lines; bar and line combination
charts; line, text, table, surface-line, range.
Gantt, vertical, and horizontal column
charts; organization diagrams; pie-bar
combinations; segmented, clustered,
double-stacked, grouped, and paired bars;
and horizontal bars with inset labels. The
only thing it doesn't do is 3-D bars and pies
PETER KIRKWOOD: The program
can read Data Interchange Files (DIP) from
both DOS and Pascal. Its weak points are
copy-protection that requires keeping a
program disk in the floppy drive, storage
requirements (the full set of programs
requires 2 megabytes of disk storage), the
preview display of graphs (of unacceptable
quality) and its lack of any free-hand or
sketch facility.
For presentation graphics . . .
EXECUVISION
IBM PC/XT. AT (256); copy- protected; S395 {street
price $259); IBM color card and Enhanced
Graptiics Adapter, Tecmar Graphics Master. Input:
keyboard only. Output to Epson and IBM graphics
dot matrix printers; Polaroid Palette: Lang
Videoslide. With E Z Capture Plus option (S125);
Output to most dot matrix printers; IBM color
printer; Diablo Inkjet C-150 and other color
printers: HP 7475A plotter. VCN. 238 Main SL,
Camtiridge, MA 02142; 617497-4000.
RtK JADRNICEK: EXECUVISION steps beyond
the world of basic business graphics with a
fantastic set of tools for preparing presenta-
tion graphics. You can freely edit the images
you create and include them in slideshows.
You can cut small sections out of an image,
save them in a library on disk and then paste
them into other images you create later.
The creators of EXECUVISION sell libraries
of graphic shapes you can use, including
decorative borders, initials and decorative
designs, faces and figures, and maps and
international symbols.
The documentation is very thorough and
extensively illustrated (even showing the IBM
and its keyboard every step of the way). Let
the pictures speak for themselves . . .
WOODY LISWOOD: GRAPHWRITER's
documentation is overwhelming and the
program's interna! menu structure is enough
to bring an unsuspecting person to his
knees, However, after you have created one
graph, you appreciate the multitude of
menus within menus within menus as well
as the extreme variation you can give your
plots. I have recommended the program to a
number of businesses and they have all
fallen in love with it.
If you need high quality presentation
graphics on selected plotters and graphics
printers, GRAPHWRITER is superb.
Job Evaluation
Normal Approach
f\pp} Is^otfon
Ra^paPialbil^fty
KnofllsdgB
SkUia
1 £ki]U
lorhlnj^ Condltlm
An 6xampie of the High-quality coior
presentations posslijie using GRAPHWRITER and
a coior plotter. Graptis such as Itiis used to
require ttie skilis of a grapiiic artist.
This graph tiidn 't pop up automaticaily from data,
it's entirely it and -drawn, with numbers typed
onscreen, using EXECUVISION. With the £ Z
Capture Pius option. EXECUVISION can use data
imported from 1-2-3 (p. 68), SYMPHONY (p 111),
FRAMEWORK (p. 110), or any screen in 320 x 200
resolution.
150 DRAWING
Painting witii Coior
Bobert Morgan created this cartoon with PC
PAINTBRUSH, using an IBM PC with a Tecmar
Graphics Master card (16 onscreen colors, 649 x
400 resolution}, then printed it with a Diabio
C-150 color inlciet printer (p. 124). PC
PAINTBRUSH is the most flexibie of the three PC
painting programs, it has a subprogram caiied
FRIEZE that, among other things, allows control
of the size and shape of drawings at print time,
ttte easiest pattern editing, and some nifty
features that let ^ou titt, grow, and shrinit
drawings.
Three New Painting Programs O
RIK JADRNICEK: Painting software is
often called "pixei-based" software
because the images are really made of
hundreds of little dots of light — pixeis,
or picture elements. With painting
software you can control each pixel on
a graphics monitor. Manipulating
groups of pixels "paints" an image on
the graphics monitor, and manipulating
groups of pixels creates animation over
time. Depending on the quality of the
software and hardware you are using,
you may only be able to turn the pixel
on or off, or you may be able to choose
a color for the pixels from a palette of
more than 16 million colors.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Most painting
programs (black-and-white or color)
give you the same basic tools: brush/
pen sizes and shapes, special effects
(like mirroring), erasers, undo,
windows for cutting and pasting, and a
variety of colors, patterns and
shapes — all selected by moving the
cursor to an icon.
ROBERT MORGAN: We've selected
three IBM PC painting programs, PC
PAINTBRUSH, PC PAINT and
TELEPAINT All three are colorful, fun
and quite good, but compared to
MACPAINT (p. 127), they seem crude.
TELEPAIHl the newest of the three, is much liife
PC PAINTBRUSH and PC PAINT with two
exceptions: it is the on iy one with an 8yi"x1V'
worksheet, a transparent underlay feature that
lets you slide one image beneath another, and a
whole library of "clip art" you can cut and paste
into drawings. This picture, supplied by the
publisher, shows what you can do with standard
IBM PC colors (4 onscreen at once) and
resolution (320 x 200}.
Although any ot the three let you bring
pictures in from programs like
spreadsheets, you can't take their
pictures out and paste them into a
document as you can with MACPAINT
and other Macintosh programs. But
then the IBM PC wasn't designed to be
a Macintosh.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: All work with
the standard IBM PC color graphics
card and monitor, giving you four
colors onscreen at once and a
maximum resolution of 320 x 200. By
adding graphics boards, you double the
resolution and add colors— to a
maximum of 16 colors onscreen from a
palette of 256 (PC PAINT with STB
board; PC PAINTBRUSH with IBM
Enhanced Graphics Adapter).
PC PAINT. Version 1.5. $99 alone, copy-protected;
$220 with Mouse Systems Mouse (street price
S135), not copy-protected. IBM PC family; IBM
coior graphics card and compatibles; STB
Graphics Plus II (16 colors onscreen); input also
from Microsoft Mouse. Output to color, biacii-and'
wtiite dot matrix printers, Polaroid Palette.
Mouse Systems Corp., 2336H Walsh Ave., Santa
Clara, CA 95051; 408/968-0211 • PC
PAINTBRUSH. Z^Sott. Version 2.8. $139; street
price $89; SI 89 with Logitech or Mouse Systems
Mouse; $495 with Summagraphics 6x9 digitizer;
$795 with Summagraphics 12 x 12 digitizer. Copy-
protected. IBM PC family (192K; 320K high res);
AT&T 6300; Tandy 1000. IBM color graphics or
enhanced graphics adapter boards, Persyst BOB,
Scion Display Adapter, Plantronics, Hercules, STB
Pius II, Tecmar, AT&T high res, Qua dram Quad
color and others. Input from GTCO Micro DigiPad
and Summagraphics digitizers. Output to wide
variety of color and black-and-white dot matrix
and \?k jet printers; HP747Q and 7475A plotters.
IMSI, 1299 4th Street, San Rafael, CA 94901;
415/454- 7101 •TELEPAINT. Version 2.0. $149.
Not copy-protected. IBM PC/XT/AT/compatibles
(256K). IBM color graphics card/compatibles;
Input from Microsoft Mouse or compatibles;
Output to Epson and IBM black-and-white dot
matrix printers, IBM color graphics printer;
Polaroid Palette. LCS/Telegraphics, 261 Vassar
St., Cambridge, MA 02139; 800/427-0036 or, in
MA, 617/547-4738.
GtHl^s Sales
Net Profit
dol lars
The picture on the left
Is a SUPERCALC3 (p.
67} bar chart; the
picture on the right is
the same picture
enhanced by Robert
Morgan using PC
PAINT PC PAINT 1$
fastest of the three,
most MACPAINT- like,
and you can use
FONTRIX (p. 125} font
packs with it. These
pictures were taken off
the screen of a TAXAN
monitor plugged into
an IBM PC equipped
with a Persyst BOB
board.
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l^Afia
ii»»o0
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O
MEANS NEW TO 2,0 EDITION
DRAWING 151
Drawing tool for a variety of
programs and mactiines . . .
KOALAPAD
Apple lle/lli; (48K); $125 • Commodore 64 {disk
or cartridge); $110 • IBM PC (128K); $150 (street
price $89); iBI\A PCjr (126K); S125; copy-
protected; Koala Technologies Corp., 2065
Junction Ave., San Jose, CA 95131;
408/946-4483.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Koala bundles a
painting program with each version of their
KoalaPad, an inexpensive digitizing tablet.
KOALAPAINTEfl lor the Apple !l, one of the
first microconnputer painting programs, has
many of the same features as the newer
MACPAINT (p. 127) and other painting
programs.
KATHLEEN O'NEILL: Tve been drawing ever
since I can remember, and any graphics
software that makes me use the keyboard
instead of a stylus leaves me quickly
frustrated. If you're interested in drawing
with your computer and don1 want to jump
into elaborate additions to your micro, the
KoalaPad is an easy, wonderful place to
start. The pad works with either your finger
or a stylus and is surprisingly sensitive and
accurate. I find it much quicker and easier to
use than a joystick.
The menus are full-screen, showing both
words and pictures, so you don't have to
remember any codes. A button on the pad
changes you to the drawing screen. Storage
and retrieval are very simple and quick, so
it's easy to save drawings or to rework ones
you've started.
KOALAPAINTER for the Apple II family will
draw in several pen shapes and do points,
lines, connected lines, rays, circles, disks,
erase, fill, frame, box, and magnify (control
each pixel).
The Commodore 64 version adds "oops*'
(undo), copy, mirror, swap (move pictures
between windows), and X-color (changes
one color to another). The PCjr version has
even more colors and functions.
A little animation . . .
MOVIE MAKER
Apple II family • Atari (48K) • Commodore 64;
copy protected; S50. Interactive Picture Systems,
42 East 23rd St., 4th Floor, New York, NY 10010;
212/475- 7053.
ERIKTIMMERMAN: Compared to doing
animation the traditional artwork-and-camera
way, MOVIE MAKER is an absolute joy, but it
is not for children. It's a complicated
program, the documentation is fuzzy, and
drawing in MOVIE MAKER is slow, difficult to
control, and frustrating. While the
limitations— low resolution (160 x 96) and
onty four of Atari's 128 colors can be used at
Incredible colors on an Apple II . , .
DAZZLEDRAW Q
David Snider. $60. Apple lie (128K)/llc. Copy-
protected. Requires mouse, joystick, KoalaPad or
Apple Grapliics Tatilet for input; Apple lie version
works with Microtech Dumpling, Apple Super
Serial, Apple II parallel, Orange Interface,
Grappler, Grappler Plus, Epson APL and Picasso
cards. Output to Apple Scribe, Epson JX80 color
printers, Epson, NEC 8D23A, C.ITOH 8510
ProWriter and Star Gemini dot matrix printers;
will not run with RGB monitors or cards.
Broderbund Software, 17 Paul Dr., San Rafael, CA
94903; 415/479- 1170.
KEN GOEHNER: DAZZLEDRAW is a
sophisticated double-hi-res program that
features 16 colors and 30 precreated
patterns that can be modified or totally
redesigned. It emulates and goes beyond
MACPAINT with 24 different brush options,
efficient shape options, and more point-to-
point line options. DAZZLEDRAW is easy to
use, the documentation actually makes
sense and the program is largely self-
explanatory. It's much better than
MOUSEPAINT. a clumsy painting program
that comes bundled with the Apple II mouse
(the best graphic input device short of a
graphics tablet). However, DAZZLEDRAW
needs 128K, MOUSEPAINT requires 64K.
DONNA COHEN; The wonderful color choices
and slightly different menu approach make
DAZZLEDRAW my personal favorite. You can
have soft, uncomputerish tones like pink,
olive green, and some nice earth colors. The
menus are structured slightly differently than
most other painting programs: after
choosing a particular graphic feature from
the first menu, a submenu appears at the
bottom of the screen giving you a larger
working picture area and offering deeper
choices tor each particular function.
DAZZLEDRA W has better color cfioices than any
Apple U painting program and a slideshow
capability tfiat makes ttie program a viable
presentation system as well as a source ot
constant amazement and amusement.
any one time — are challenging, I recently did
a title sequence that compares favorably with
Monday Night Football titles. If you can get
an Atari 800 with a good (read "non-Atari")
disk drive at a low street price, add a good
quality color monitorATV, a VCR, and an
audio tape recorder, you could open a
"movie studio" lor around S1500, and still
have money left over for a good lunch,
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Be aware, though,
that you won't get broadcast quality video
using an Atari 800. Macintosh animation
programs (p. 127) are light-years easier to
use, include more sophisticated drawing
tools, and take advantage of Mac's high
resolution.
Afl Koala 's programs are easy to use and fun,
KOAiAPAtNTEB (for the IBM PCjr} has the
most colors and functions— here demonstrated by
Kathleen O'NeilL
Create a sequence of drawings with MOVtE
n^AKBR on an Atari 880 and chain them together
tor a 45-second onscreen "movie. " Or, even
better, record them on video tape by plugging the
Atari into your TV set (with VCR) and create an
animated feature film.
152 DRAWING
After James Oowlen drew this landscape with
LUMENA software on a Mindset computer, he
printed it with a Diablo Inkjet printer ($1350),
This is the printout. Inkjet printers, like dot matrix
printers, print dots. The resolution matches what
you woutd see on the monitor with this
software— about 300 by 200 pixels.
Artist James Dow i en created this image using
LUMENA, and says, "If you have ever tried to draw
a checkerboard tile floor in proper perspective,
you know that even though it is simple
perspective, it can be quite a task. With LUMENA
you can iay out the tile pattern fiat on the screen
(as you would see it looking straight down),
choose a horizon fine and a vanishing point and
the floor will lie down in perfect perspective. "
It takes a pot of gold to buy a rainbow , , ,
Professional Painting Packages
BARBARA ROBERTSON; If you're a professional artist, you'll soon discover you
want nnore than 16 colors onscreen at once. You need the additional colors for
subtle shadings that add dinnension to your work and also for "anti-aliasing"—
a method of fixing "escalator" lines by adding color shades to the jaggy stair
steps until they blend into the background and appear straight. Software that
works with graphics cards to give you a palette of 16 million colors with 256
onscreen at any time is available for IBM PCs; however, the price of admission
to this colorful world is steep, and putting all the expensive pieces together
compatibly is very tricky. Software developers, keenly aware that artists have
low budgets, and faced with costly customer support necessary just to answer
hardware questions, are targeting small, manageable niches with deep, cost-
justifiable pockets (advertising agencies and video studios, primarily) rather
than fighting for survival in the mass market. Meanwhile, hardware
manufacturers and "system integrators" who sell dedicated graphics
workstations (S20,000 and up) are stepping into the fray, Computer Graphics
World ($30/yr [12 issues); PenWeil Publishing, 1714 Stockton St., San
Francisco, CA 94133; 800/331-5959) is the best source of information on this
topsy-turvy world. Although technical in tone, they frequently publish
informative surveys of painting packages, graphics boards, and monitors.
LUMENA, a wonderful painting package for professionals, provides a good
example of the changeable market. LUMENA has an enormous number of
features— MACPAINT (p. 127) carried to the nth power in 16 million colors,
year you could buy the software alone. This year you must buy a software/
hardware combination from the software publisher. Next year . . . ?
Last
RIK JADRNICEK: You can freely edit and manipulate images you create with
LUMEhJA — in some cases, even images transferred from video — using, to name
a few of the more unusual features; rotating, rescaling, temporary zoom,
tapering, shadowing, perspective mapping, grid overlays, gravity lines, and
masking.
JAMES DOWLEN: You have several pen and brush choices: a "-1" pen has the
feel of a fine-point detail pen; using a large brush feels like painting with thick
paint. The colors are beautiful and can be mixed at will, with very subtle
adjustments of tone or value, and the luminosity is exciting— has the same
emotional impact as stained glass lit from behind. Since you are dealing with
light, you may need to alter your thinking when mixing colors: primary colors
are now red, green, and blue rather than red. yellow, and blue. You'll catch on,
it's not difficult,
LUWENA SUBK1T: S7000. fBM PC/XT/AT/compatibles (256 to 512K): copy-protected. IncJudes 2
graphics boards (frame buffer and image memory module) and LUMENA software. LUMENA
PRODUCER: S9995. Includes IBM PC compatible computer (256K}. 10 MB hard disk, high resolution
RGB monitor, 1 floppy disk drive, digitizing tablet, and LUMENA SUBKIT. One-year warranty on
PRODUCER software and hardware; one free software update. Input: Mice, digitizing tablets (call
for latest list). Output to NTSC video. Diablo C-150 color inkiet printer. Matrix PCR and OCR,
Polaroid Video Printer, Kodak CRT Slide Imager and Calcomp Samurai film recorder. Time Arts,
Inc., 3436 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95401; 707 576-7722.
Great precision . . .
Two-D Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
RIK JADRNICEK: Two-D CAD software is best suited tor dratting
applications and is often referred to as vector-based software.
With pixel-based painting software, information on every dot of
light (pixel) is saved and used to describe an element such as a
line. Vector-based storage is more efficient, in that only the end
points of a line need to be stored; the rest of the points are filled
in automatically using a mathematical description of the line. A
circle can be described with center data point and a specific
radius.
The key diflerence between the two kinds of software is the
physical size and detail of the drawing each is capable of
producing. Painting software controls only the area appearing
on the monitor display surface. Good 2-D CAD software lets you
create a drawing larger than the monitor display surface — the
monitor acts as a window onto smaller areas of the drawing. For
example, you might define a 2-D Xand Kcoordinate system to
DRAWING 155
be a 24 X 36 inch piece of paper. As you enter an element into
the drawing on the screen, numbers (coordinates) and attributes
(e.g. , color, layer, line type) are recorded in a drawing database.
This lets you then freely manipulate (edit), mathematically
transform (move, copy rescale, rotate), store, and transmit the
drawing. You might zoom in so that one square inch fills the
entire monitor screen , permitting you to draw very precisely
You might then zoom out so that the entire 36 X 24 inch drawing
fills the monitor screen, giving an overview of what you have
drawn.
Good 2-D CAD software comes with ready-to-use drawing tools
called "primitives": line, arc, circle, fill, array, and text— the
more the better. These can be combined to produce curves,
polygons, fillets (rounding corners), etc. Dimensioning and
math calculations should also be included.
In addition, you ought to develop your own tools— for example,
building a library of shapes and drawings you can save on disi<
to use in future drawings and save time. Good documentation,
tutorials, ease-of-use, and user customization are also
important considerations, since CAD software tends to be
complex.
The more computers and supporting hardware devices (plotters,
digitizers, graphics boards) the software supports, the more
people you will be able to share your drawings with. This is,
after all, the spirit of microcomputers.
Two-D CAD programs are beginning to communicate with other
programs, such as spreadsheets and analysis programs. Some
software permits you to produce a parts list or bill of materials
along with a database of specific drawing elements.
Video scanners are being developed that will enter drawings
previously created manually into computerized parts libraries
without requiring that they be redrawn , Designing and drafting
functions are beginning to blend into one operation.
Low price, good for simple drawings . . .
PC-DRAW
Version 1.4. S395, street price S2S9, IBI^fl PC
family/compatibles (256K); IBM color card. Not
copy-protected. Input: MIcrographix light pens,
keyboard. Output to IBM color printer, Epson,
IBM, Okidata, C.ltoh and otlier dot matrix
printers; Hewlett-Packard and Houston
Instruments plotters. MicTografx. Inc., 17D1 North
Greenville, Suite 305, Richardson, 7X75801;
214/234-1769,
BOB SOHR: Applause to Micrografx for an
excellent, exceptionally easy-to-learn, well-
documented program at the lowest price
level, PC-DRAW has limited capabilities
compared with state-of-the-art CAD software,
but it's a quarter of tfie price. It has all you
need to do flowcharts, office layouts, forms,
circuit or graphic design, and business
graphics (pie and bar charts, etc.). This is the
way to start for the just curious." You can
use it as an educational tool or a toy (it's
simple and should be fascinating for a child),
The tutorial and documentation are
excellent— among the best I've seen and a
model for other software vendors. The
installation worked as advertised when I
followed It line by line, I made one phone
call to the company (concerning printer
support) and obtained immediate, friendly,
and competent help.
You can freehand-draw from the keyboard
using the cursor-control keys (limited to
vertical, horizontal, and diagonal moves);
draw lines point to point; create circles, arcs,
and ellipses; or select symbols from two
onscreen libraries, and you can create your
own symbols and menu. Once in your
drawing, you can move, expand, or reduce,
replicate or dimension any symbol, however
produced. Also, you can toggle on or off a
background grid (size adjustable) and add
text (provided or custom]. Four abutting
pages forming a square are in memory at any
time (allowing you to create a drawing four
times screen size). Symbols can be copied
from one screen page to any other.
All this is enough to produce an amazing
variety of drawings, although it would be nice
to have unlimited freehand drawing (curves
and angles). I didn't get to try a light pen,
which presumably would help, Medium-
resolution color is now supported with lots of
color combinations onscreen, but of course it
gives you less drawing on the same size
screen.
PC-DRAW is highly recommended as an
entry-level CAD package. For some
applications, it will be all you ever need, and
in any case it can serve as a tutorial and
introduction to the 2-D graphics world.
PC-DRAW'S onscreen menus take the guesswork
Qul of command and symbol selection. At $395 a
bargain program and a good one to start with tor
2-0 technical drawing.
introductory program,
good for isometrics . . ,
ROBO GRAPHICS CAD-1
Apple II family; 64K; includes joystick controller;
supports accelerator board; input: Apple graphics
tablet, Houston HI-PAD and lie mouse; output to
dot matrix printers with graphics dump; drives
most plotters, including Hewlett-Packard,
Houston Instruments, Holand, Amdek, Apple
Color Plotter; copy-protected? YES; CAD-1, S1095;
CAD-2, $1495: Chessell-Robocom Corporation,
Roho Systems, 111 Pheasant Run, Newtown, PA
1894Q; 215.068-4422.
RIK JADRNICEK; CAD-1 is for the Apple
owner who wants semi-professional CAD
capability. It is best used for small drawings
ranging from block diagrams to detailed
architectural and isometric drawings and as
an introduction to computer-aided design,
CAD-2 adds keyboard data entry, semi-
automatic auto-dimensioning, cross-
hatching and other advanced drafting
features, and reduces the amount of disk
swapping necessary with CAD-1- ROBOVIEW
(£195), a 3-D visualizer that works with
CAD-2 drawings, can generate wire frame
representations of structures you can then
view from any point in space— above, below,
all around, or from inside. ROBODATA
($125) works with either and generates
database information for a parts list or bill of
materials.
Both programs have onscreen menus, good
documentation, and file management utilities
to help you through the learning process.
While not as all-encompassing as CADAPPLE
(p. 134), both ROBOGRAPHICS programs
are written in fast assembly language and are
significantly faster. They overcome Apple's
memory limitations by developing and using
ibraries of shapes. If a drawing gets too
arge and occupies too much memory, you
can save a copy and re-insert it in the
drawing as a single entity which thus
requires less memory.
A few drawing niceties are missing, like the
ability to draw on different layers and the
support of high-resolution monitors, but
these programs are fast, powerful, and easy
to use<
154 DRAWING
With CADPLAN, you can print a bill of materials
liased on information in the drawing — in this case
a fist of office furniture with costs automaticaily
totaled for multiple items in the drawing.
Simple technical drawing . . .
MACDRAW O
Mark Cutter. Version 1.7. $195. Not copy-
protected. Macintosh. Appie Computer, inc.,
20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014;
B00/53e-9696.
THOMAS E. GRAVES: MACDRAW is aimed at
ttie technical draftsman. While MACPAiNT
(p, 127) treats objects as a series of pixeis,
MACDRAW treats objects as attributes
(circles, squares, lines), With MACDRAW,
you can slide objects over each ottier and
each retains its identity, With MACPAINT,
sliding one object over another causes ttie
two to merge,
DAN DUGAN: Screen ruiers let you change
scaie without changing ttie drawing.
iHowever, accuracy is limited and sometimes
Medium precision, and easy . . .
CADPLAN
Version 1.45. iBM PC/XT/AT/COmpatibies (320K).
S160Q. Copy-protected. iBM Coior Graphics,
Conograptiics, Scion, Sigma and Hercules Cards
Input: Mouse Systems Mouse, GTCO, Kurta or
Houston instruments digitizers. Output to IBM,
Caicomp, Houston instruments or Hewlett-
Packard piotters; Epson or iBM dot matrix
printers. Personai CAD Systems, Inc., 981
University, Los Gatos, CA 95030; 408/354-7193.
RIK JADRNiCEK: CADPLAN is good for
space planning, block diagrams, even
freehand si<etching, and it includes most of
the elements of a good CAD system: muitiple
(65) layers, grids, zooming and panning,
and symbol libraries, It works easily witti
incfies, but if you want to do detailed
architectural drawings and define points and
angles in decimal units, it may not be
precise enough, Also, very large drawings
require pre-planning since the capacity of a
drawing depends on the available memory,
CADPLAfJ Includes semi-automatic
dimensioning (the program tells you the
distance between any two points according
to the scale you set). With the optional
report generator (S400) you can, for
example, produce a bill of materials or parts
list from the drawing you just created,
CADPLAN supports a variety of input and
output devices and is very easy to use, but
make sure it will suit your needs, The more
basic version called CAODRAF ($495), or
PC-DRAW (p. 133). may be all you need if
you are interested primarily in space
planning or block diagrams.
Drafting by hand is faster than using a CAD
system when you're drawing an object in detail.
However once drawn, the object (a flange, bolt, 2
X 4, cabinet, etc.) can be inserted in a new
drawing in a matter of seconds. After you've
created severai object files, the speed gains over
drawing with pencil and paper become
enormous. VERS AC AD provides a library of
objects you can use right away
ambiguous. For example, a three-pixel-wide
line can be accurately centered using the
pixel in the middle, but the ruler must
center a two-pixel tine to the nearest pixel.
Therefore, some "tenths of an inch" might
be 7 pixels wide, and some 8. Also,
MACDRAW seems to have a subconscious
aversion to angled lines — maybe because it
can't make them look right, "angle" isn't
even in the index.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: MACDRAW is
comparable to PC-DRAW (p, 133} in
capability and application, but has some
severe limitations. I'm often amazed,
though, at what Mac owners will endure. For
example, although drawings can be quite
large, you must print them out on %V2" by
11" sheets and paste them together.
Reviewer Dan Dugan bought MACDRAW and
a paper cutter.
Professional drafting . . .
VERSACAD
IBM PC/XT/ AT/compatibies; Tl Professionaf;
Version 3.1 (384K); Version 4.0 (512K); SUOS;
copy-protected; supports iBM color card and
Enlianced Graphics Adapter, Conograptiics,
Hercules, Artist; input: Houston instruments,
Kurta or Summagrapliics digitizing tablets. HP
20Q, 82495; input: HP 9411A graphics tableL
Output to Houston instruments and Hewiett-
Packard plotters.
CADAPPLE
Version 3.0: S1495; Apple II family (64K); copy-
protected. Supports California Computer Systems
7T1D-Q1, Apple Super Serial, Asynchronous serial
interface and Grappier cards; input: joystick,
Houston Instruments DT11 digitizing tablet; output
to dot matrix printers.
Both from T&W Systems, Inc., 7372 Prince Drive,
Suite 106, Huntington Beach, CA 92G47;
714/B47-9960.
RIK JADRNICEK: VERSACAD and CADAPPLE
are two versions of a capable 2-D drafting
program developed in 1977, With either
program you can create very professional
drawings including full architectural plots. All
the basic editing and image-manipulation
functions of a good CAD system are present.
Unique features are: you can save
"snapshot" zoomed views of your work and,
with the library feature, develop groups of
100 symbols and plot them out on a 10" x
10" symbol grid for later use in drawings,
Professional CAD software using floating-
point math tends to be inherently slow in
zooming and panning and VERSACAD is no
exception, although speedy RAM-disk
configurations can be developed. Version
4,0, written in C, works under the PC DOS
operating system and Is faster than the
Pascal-based version 3.1 , New features in
4.0 include: geometric functions (such as
parallel lines), filleting, trimming of lines and
arcs at intersection points, object swap, a
paragraph style of text entry, unproportional
scaling of object groups (changing objects to
twice as high and three times wider),
windows for merging drawings, panning in
any direction, 250 layers, and options for
changing the direction of objects. In
addition, you can define any type of
measurement unit — fathoms, rods, inches,
metric, etc— and change your mind while
you're in a drawing. An optional Bill of
Materials program ($495) provides definable
formats for calculating unit costs and labor
rates.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: If you want to jump
right in and begin drafting, consider
VERSACAD— it's easier to learn than
AUTOCAD (p, 135). But AUTOCAD can be
customized to do many functions
automatically which, if you are wiliing to
invest the time initially, saves time later.
DRAWING 135
Professional 2-D drawing, precise through
unlimited layers . . .
AUTOCAD
Version 2.1, $1000; with ADE2; S2000 (street
price $1475); with ADE2 and ADE3: S25Q0; not
copy-protected. IBM PC/XT/AT/compatibies (51 2K;
liard disk; 8087 co-processor; IBM color card and
Enhanced Graphics Adapter, Hercules, Tecmar,
Scion PC640); Tl Professional. NEC APC & APC
til, DEC Rainbow. Fujitsu M16, Tandy 2000, Wang
PC/PIC, Zenith Z100, NCR DMV, OG ONE, Victor
9000, Apricot, HP150, IBM 3270. input: Houston
Instruments, Hitachi, Summagrsphics, Calcomp,
GTCO, Kurta digitizing tablets and others: Mouse
Systems, USI, Microsoft, Tl, Tandy and Wang
mice; joystick; KoalaPad. Output to Houston
Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, Strope, Sweet
Pea, Calcomp and other plotters; Oatacopy Model
100 and Wang PIC systems image digitizers
(requires CADCAMERA software - S3000|;
Autodesk, Inc., 2320 Marinship Way, Sausalito,
CA 94965; 415/331-0336.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: AUTOCAD is as
much the standard in the 2-D world as 1-2-3
(p. 68) is in the spreadsheet world, and for
much the same reasons. It's good, fast, and
can be customized, in fact, when Autodesk
pubiished their first catalog of appiications in
Spring 1985 they iisted more than 100
products that work with, connect to, or are
templates for AUTOCAD — products for
architecture, facilities planning, piping,
theatrical lighting, general drafting, and
engineering — chemical, electrical,
electronic, mechanical, structural, civil. One
of the few applications programs sold by
Autodesk is AE/CADD by ArchSoft, a S1000
template tor architects and engineers. The
template actually lies on top of a digitizing
tablet and has predefined parts— wall parts
and sizes, windows, doors, appliances,
stairs — all sorts of useful pieces that can be
popped, pre-drawn, into a drawing. The
template also has many predefined macro
commands so you can, without learning how
to "program" in AUTOCAD, do many
functions automatically.
RIK JADRNICEK: AUTOCAD is capable of
drawings ranging from simple flowcharts to
large and complex architectural
drawings. Your microcomputer becomes a
drafting table with pencil, paper, T-square,
compass, and more. For example, with
AUTOCAD you can simulate an unlimited
number of layers of 24 x 36 inch tracing
paper precisely registered one on top of the
other, and you can draw on each piece of
paper to an accuracy of less than one-
trillionth of an inch (floating-point math),
Since the program becomes slower as the
drawing grows larger, a numerical
coprocessor chip (8087: S260; 8287: $340)
is recommended to speed things up. All data
and commands can be entered from the
keyboard or (faster and easier) with a variety
of input devices supported by the program.
Multicolored plots ranging from letter to
architectural size can be printed.
A rich set of primitive commands enables
various constructions of lines, arcs, and
circles used for precision drawing. Editing
features include erasing, moving, copying,
scaling, and rotating of drawing elements.
ADE2 adds semi-automatic dimensioning,
object snap, filleting, cross-hatching,
attribute assignments, and extraction (so
that you can create a bill of materials), and
mirroring.
ADE3 adds 3-D viewing of objects created in
2-D, French curves, polylines (for curve
fitting) and a freeze and thaw feature that
speeds up the program because you can
prevent unaffected parts of the drawing from
being updated with every change you make.
User-definable menus, macros, and
command files allow facile customization by
users without programming knowledge (a
very powerful feature). You can create and
save libraries of shapes, then retrieve and
place in drawings by selecting them from an
onscreen menu or by touching pictures on the
digitizer surface-
Zooming and panning capabilities turn the
monitor into a window scrolling over the
surface of a large drawing. Zooming into a
small area enlarges that area and permits
detailed drawing.
you plan to do extensive work with the
program, a hard disk drive is recommended
to speed up disk input/output, Like a word
processor, AUTOCAD is a picture processor,
saving pages of drawings on disk as available
RAM fills up.
AUTOCAD is a very sophisticated,
mathematically precise program and an
excellent choice for professionals,
AUTOCAD'S complete macro language is a
subset of LISP which means you can now
pass variables within AUTOCAD. You can, for
example, define a scale as a variable and use
it in equations with "if/then" and "go to "
statements. It will be interesting to see what
new applications are developed with this
programming capability.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: The popularity of
AUTOCAD has even spawned a magazine:
CAOalyst, The Journal o1 the AutoCAD
Users' Group ($4.50 each; 282-810 W,
Broadway, Vancouver. B.C. Canada V5Z
4C9.) IVs chatty, full of advice and product
ads for AUTOCAD users and, although an
AUTOCAD cheerleader, spends some of its
pages making suggestions to Autodesk.
To insert a shape from this temp fate into a
drawing, simply touch it with a digitizer stylus or
puck, select the insertion point in your drawing,
and quick as a wink, you've added a pre-drawn
oblect. The AUTOCAD template shown here is
from AE CADD.
Both these drawings were created with AUTOCAD,
showing the program's versatility. Although it
looks as if the entire drawing is on one layer, in
both cases, various pieces are actually drawn on
separate iayers.
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736 DRAWING
This picture, rendered using CUBtCQMP software
on an IBM XT, is actuaUy composed of several 3-
D and 2-D images layered one on top of another.
Ttte bac leg round, the room, the furniture, and the
plants were alt drawn separately and combined to
make this realistic tableau.
The CUB I CO MP system is expensive, but the kind
of sophisticated surface and shading and
smoothing you see in this 3-D drawing are very
difficult mathematical feats.
Solids modeling . . .
3-D Computer-Aided Design (CAD)
BARBARA ROBERTSON; Three-D popped up everywhere this year— AUTOCAD
(p. 135) gives you 3-D views of 2-D drawings, so does ROBOGRAPHiCS (p.
133). The toiks who make ADVANCED SPACE GRAPHICS (p. 137) released
CADKEY — which lets you edit 3-D drawings in 2-D. 3-D is just beginning to
become useful. I expect that by next year, all the 2-D programs will have 3-D
capability, and some of it will be very sophisticated,
RIK JADRNICEK; Three-D computer-aided design software is often referred to
as solids-modeling software. The solid image is normally constructed by linking
a collection of polygons of various shapes and sizes. The more polygons used,
the smoother and more representative the shape will be. Advanced
software (see CUBICOMP. p. 136) will even smooth curved surfaces so that a
sphere (actually made up of polygons) really looks like a sphere.
As with 2-D CAD, data points are stored in a database. Since a database is kept
of each element used in creating an object, once created, the objects can be
rotated in space, scaled, edited, stored, and transmitted, More advanced
packages include hidden-line removal and surface shading, both of which
contribute to the illusion of reality. This simply means that lines normally out of
sight (tailing behind other lines and surfaces) are removed and that the surface
is shaded to mimic the way light would be reflected off a real object. With
advanced software like CUBICOMP a palette of more than 16 million colors can
be used to precisely shade an irregular shaped object while changing the light
source. So a doughnut really looks like a doughnut.
Loaded with features, priced
accordingly . . .
CUBICOMP
ModetMaker 100: S35Q0; ConograpNIcs card (4
colors onscreen from palette of 16). •
ModelMakef 300: S500Q, Revolution card (8 bits
pixel; 256 colors onscreen from palette of 4096).
• ModelMaker 500: S11 ,900: includes Cubicomp's
frame buffer (graphics card in external box) and
interlace card (12 to 16 bits pixel; 4096 colors
onscreen maximum from palette of 16,000,000):
requires high resolution RGB monitor (Mitsubishi
3919 for S2900 recommended). • PictureMaker:
S25.OO0; includes LUfVIENA (p. 132) adapted for
Cubicomp's frame buffer, the Cubicomp frame
buffer (with Genlock for video output) and
interface card; requires high resoiution RGB
monitor.
IBM PC XT AT: 640K; Intel 8087 math chip
recommended; hard disk recommended. Input:
most digitizing tablets. Output to Houston
Instruments. Hewlett-Packard plotters; Diablo
C-150, Tektronix 4965 color printers; film
recorders. Not copy-protected. CalComp
Corporation, 3165 Adeline St.. Berkeley, CA
94703; 415.540-5733.
RIK JADRNICEK: For the price of an IBM PC
plus hardware and software upgrades
totaling about $10,000 you can have a 3-D
system as good as many costing upwards to
$100,000,
Start with a "wire-frame" model. Remove the
fines that would be out of sight. Shade and smooth
the surface, and you have a 3-D image.
CUBiCQMP's software even lets you punch holes
and put objects inside.
You don't need to calculate coordinate
points, since you can enter data points by
using a digitizer. You can create wire frame
models of three-dimensional figures wtiile
scaling and rotating them in space. You can
design complicated and irregular shapes and
even punch holes m them using the
keyboard and digitizing tablet. Also, you can
remove the hidden lines, save the images on
disk, and recall them at will.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: All four packages
let you string together many commands and
automatically run the batch using macro
commands, and ail have the same basic
capability to draw objects in three
dimensions onscreen, display them with
perspective and view them from any angle.
However, the complexity varies with each
program.
ModelMaker 100 displays wire frame line
drawings using up to 1000 polygons and has
hidden line removal. ModelMaker 300 adds
simple shading to the drawings and anti-
aliasing. ModelMaker 500 adds solid
modeling, complex shading, and increases
the number ot polygons to 4000.
PictureMaker adds LUMENAs 2-D painting
capabilities, software for titling and true 3-D
animation.
The four programs are compatible— a
ModelMaker 100 picture can be moved into
PictureMaker and enhanced: a PictureMaker
drawing can be displayed in ModelMaker 100
(however, only as a wire frame line drawing).
137
stick modeling and 3D . . .
$1095; $1995 with Space Tablet Digitizer; IBIVI PC/
XT/AT/compatibles (192K); not copy-protected.
IBM color graphics card, Tecmar Graphics Master,
Conographics. Input: Space Tablet Digitizer.
Output to Houston Instruments, Hewlett-Packard
plotters; IBM and Epson dot matrix printers.
$1895 (includes card); IBM PC/XT/AT/compatibles
(512K); Requires Intel 8087 or 8287 math chip;
copy-protected. IBM color card or Enhanced
Graphics Adapter, Tecmar Graphics Master,
Conographics. Input: Summagraphics, GTCO,
Houston Instruments, Hitachi digitizers, Summa,
Mouse Systems and Torrenton mice. Output to HP
7400/7500 and Houston Instruments DMP
plotters; IBM and Epson dot matrix printers.
Both from Micro Control Systems, Inc., 143
Tunnel Rd., Vernon, CT 06066; 203/647-0220.
RIK JADRINICEK: ADVANCED SPACE
GRAPHICS comes with the only 3-D digitizer
I know of, a novel idea. You can place a bowl
on the digitizing tablet and enter its shape
into the connputer by touching a number of
points on the surface of the bowl. When the
data points are connected (automatically),
the result is an onscreen (monochrome)
"stick" representation of the surface.
Once the surface is defined, you can look
simultaneously at a top, side, and front view
Low price, requires matti knowledge . . .
Version 1.3; IBM PC compatibles; 128K; color
graphics board; RGB monitor; outputs to Epson
MX/FX, C. Itoh, Okidata 92/93, Mannesman Tally
160/180, NEC 8023, IDS Prism black-and-white
dot matrix printers; with $100 plotter option,
supports HP 7470A/7475, Houston Instruments
DMP 29, 40 and 41, CalComp 84, Strobe 260,
IBM 749/750/7371/7372, Sweet-Pea, Mannesman
Tally Pixie, Amplot II plotters; copy-protected?
NO; $350 (street price $259); Enertronics
Research, Inc., 150 North Meramec, Suite 207,
St. Louis, MO 63105; 800/325-0174.
RIK JADRNICEK: ENERGRAPHICS is a
surprisingly inexpensive package chock full of
graphics surprises. It will do everything from
business graphics to 3-D solids stick
modeling. If you want a tutorial and extensive
documentation on the state of 3-D graphics,
this would be the least expensive entry
package to get involved with. But prepare
yourself for a mathematical journey into the
third dimension. ENERGRAPHICS is more of
a tutorial or learning experience than a
software package for practical everyday use.
You get a lot for your money.
of the object on the monitor. You can expand
and shrink both the horizontal X- and vertical
Y-axis scales to manipulate the object, rotate
and move the shape, even look at it from
different perspectives, and zoom in to
enlarge parts of the shape for more detailed
drawing. You cannot (as with CUBICOMP, p.
136) remove hidden lines, but you can
accurately measure distances from point to
point— one of the best uses of the program.
With CADKEY you design objects in 3-D,
and then edit in either 2-D or 3-D. The
product is primarily useful for mechanical
engineers who want to draw a tool (a
hammer, hose nozzle, etc.), look at it if from
several perspectives (a change here changes
all the views at once), then finish the details
in 2-D. With AUTOCAD (p. 135), you do the
reverse: draft in 2-D, put each drawing in
layers, "tape" the drawings together, and
then view a 3-D representation.
With ttie ADVANCED SPACE GRAPHICS liardware/
software combination you can trace a pliysicai
object in 3-D on the screen by moving the "Space
Tablet" around the object's surface.
3-D links to 2-D programs .
3DESIGN3: $1000 (includes interfaces to
AUTOCAD, p. 135, VERSACAD, p.134 and
CADPLAN p. 134); $1200 (includes Tritek 2-D
software); SOLIDSHADE: $500; IBM PC/XT/AT/
compatibles (256K); copy-protected; IBM color
card, Tecmar Graphics Master, Conographics,
Hercules, Amdek, MAI, Revolution. Input: Mouse
Systems and Microsoft mice; GTCO, Hitachi,
Houston Instruments, Kurta and Summagraphics
digitizing tablets. Output to Hewlett-Packard,
Houston Instruments, Amdek and Calcomp
plotters. SOLIDSHADE output only to graphics
printers and Polaroid Palette film recorder. Tritek
Vision Systems, 4710 University Way N.E., Suite
512, Box C-56789, Seattle, WA 98105;
206/632-2125.
BOB SOHR: With 3DESIGN3, architects,
engineers, and designers can create images
of objects and then rotate, scale, translate,
and view these images from different
perspectives. It's like being able to walk
around the image on the screen. You can
compose new objects using copies of
images stored in libraries on disk. Or, using
a digitizing tablet, create vertical, horizontal,
and diagonal lines, circles, arcs, curves of
lines at arbitrary angles. Images tend to look
fairly crude, with noticeable aliasing
(diagonal lines look jagged).
BARBARA ROBERTSON: New features this
year include the ability to move drawings
from 2-D programs into 3DESIGN3, and the
SOLIDSHADE program that takes views of 3-
D objects to let you flood the polygons with
color, shade the image, reposition it, change
the light source and add text.
BOB SOHR: Some nice features are a
hidden-line removal routine (runs slow, as
do most 3-D programs), rubber-band lines
(get a starting point, then watch the line
follow the cursor anywhere on the screen), a
"Z-axis indicator" that shows you, with a
kind of depth gauge, how far in or out of the
screen the current point you're describing is,
and a hierarchical structure for objects (the
typewriter on the desk in your picture is
"attached" to the desk and moves with it).
With 3DESIGN3 you can remove hidden lines and
then take 3-D drawings one step past
ENERGRAPHICS by adding elementary surface
shading.
Q MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
158
Art Kleiner, Domain Editor
ART KLEINER: Someday everybody will communicate by
computer. Personal computer networking— exchanging words
and pictures between terminals, over phone or cable —
enhances communication so conveniently and powerfully it will
eventually become as widely used as the telephone is now. The
emerging army of dreamers who will make this happen
includes corporations— AT&T IBM, Sears, Citibank, CBS, and
the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain— but the systems planned
by those companies are greatly outnumbered by systems from
individuals and small companies. These are still pioneer days,
and personal computer owners are the pioneers.
People play games, order products, start small businesses that
span continents on national conferencing networks, retrieve
public-domain software from free bulletin boards, investigate
background material for new stories, seek romance, get stock
quotations, and work at home.
Most national computer networks, such as The Source,
CompuServe, and a dozen others reviewed in this section, give
you a password and charge by the amount of time you're
actually logged on (the "connect hour"). To reach them, you
simply dial a local phone number that ties into one of several
long-distance carriers which are cheaper than the regular
phone lines.
Less expensive than national networks are local computer
bulletin boards, which you can dial into to leave messages or
take part in discussions.
They're often free, but you must pay any long-distance charges
if you dial one far from home. We review guides to existing
bulletin boards on page 148, and software for starting your
own on page 149. Here's an example of the power of a local
bulletin board: In 1983, David Hughes of Colorado Springs
raif mi
w
iii m mi
"A computer is a communications device
first, second, and {h»6."-Alan Kay
STEWART BRAND: "Telecommunicating" is our founding
domain. Three ways, in fact.
For me it was a cold plunge into teleconferencing that swerved
my life toward personal computers and led directly to this book.
In January 1983 1 was invited by the Western Behavioral
Sciences Institute in La Jolla, California, to participate as faculty
in their School of Management and Strategic Studies. It was a
six-month stint, nearly all of it conducted from my office on a
Kaypro they loaned me to hook up to the 40 or so nationwide
"students" (corporate executives) via the marvelous EIES
network (p. 147). A success in its own right, the project also
revolutionized my writing, my thinking, my work network, and
my business.
People have been interested in this book's sizable advance, the
$1 .3 million from Doubleday, and in the fact that an eight-page
proposal inspired it. What's more interesting to me is that it took
only ten days for four coauthors to write that proposal and
wrestle it through four drafts, even though one of us was
traveling (Art Kleiner), one was on the East Coast (John
Brockman), and two were jittering around in California (myself
and Richard Dalton). The ectoplasmic bond was the EIES
network. Its immediacy and convenience served admirably the
need to make a single-voiced, enthusiastic, carefully proofed
document. I'm not sure we could have managed it without
telecommunications.
Art Kleiner is the living link between previous Wliole Eartli
Catalogs and this project. He was Research Editor of the two
editions of Tlie Next Whole Earth Catalog (1981, 1982) and
frequent Editor of our CoEvolution Quarterly. Building on his
early involvement with EIES- he's been a user consultant since
Art Kleiner
1979— he became Whole Earth's
computer specialist, convener of
the Personal Computer section in
The Next Whole Earth Catalog.
When this project came up, he
had just left on sabbatical to do a
book on the history of magazines
and the invention of marketing.
Returning to the rescue, he put
together the network of friends
and colleagues that initiated what
you see here.
The telecommunications section is long because it covers online
services as well as telecommunications software and hardware.
Also, it is long because the subject is the most difficult in the
book. Burdened by expertise, Art had the arduous task of triply
distilling an already hard liquor
Computer Conferencing
Bulletin Boards 148-149
Bulletin Board
Software 148-149
Local conferencing
systems 148
National networks 146-147
Electronic Mall 145
File Transfer Programs 156
Local Area Networks 157
Modems 154-155
Online Services
Costs 140
Databases 143
GeneraM41,143
Home banking 139
Investing 142
News 144
Terminal Programs 150-154
entered onto his board the text of a pernicious city council bill
outlawing professional work at home. Instead of tracking the
bill down at City Hall, residents could dial in at their
convenience and read the bill at home. Within a week, Hughes
had gathered enough angry readers to storm the next city
council meeting and influence council members to defeat the
measure.
Hughes' newest venture is an example of the next wave of
computer networks— local multi-user conferencing systems.
These charge less than national networks, and are more
reliable and (in many ways) more rewarding than local bulletin
boards. For our report, see page 148.
To begin telecommunicating, you need to buy a modem— an
electronic box that translates computer characters into sounds
that travel through phone lines. Another modem decodes them
at the other end. You also need a communications software
package (called a terminal program) to run on your personal
computer. This program controls the modem, shunting text
between it and your screen, disks, and printer. Modems don't
vary much— we recommend a small selection on page 155—
but terminal programs offer an increasingly large number of
options. You'll find our recommendations on pages 150-154.
If you send a lot of programs and other files from one
computer to another, you might want file-transfer software,
reviewed on page 156. "An acquaintance regularly sends me
spreadsheet files by phone," Louis Jaffe wrote us. "Loaded
into SUPERCALC (p. 67) they work just fine." Ultimate file
transfer— local networks that allow several computers in one
building to work with the same files simultaneously— is
described on page 157.
Although every computer network you use and file transfer you
try will, at first, take a bit of fiddling with the terminal program
before you get your connections right, don't be daunted: it's
becoming easier. Programs are finally emerging (like
SMARTCOM for the Macintosh, p. 153) that make
telecommunicating a human activity instead of a technical
obstacle course. Modems are getting much cheaper and more
reliable. And the networks themselves become more plentiful,
reliable, and innovative every week. The more people use these
tools, the better they'll get.
Still the best guide . .
The Complete
Handbook ol Personal
Computer
Communications;
Alfred Glossbrenner;
1985, 512 pp.; $14.95
postpaid from St.
Martin's Press, 175
Fiftti Avenue, New
York, NY 10010;
212/674-5151; or
COIVIPUTER LITERACY
«s*
^'
J" . ^
ART KLEINER: This book covers much of the
telecommunicating lore that nobody tells you
about unless you know what to ask: how to
compare networks, how to find the particular
conference you need, how to connect your
computer to someone else's typesetting
equipment or directly to another computer.
Glossbrenner's massively updated new
edition describes all sorts of networks and
innovations that weren't even conceived of
three years ago when the first edition came
out. There's also a new and wonderfully
comprehensible explanation of the technical
esoterica of networking. Like all of Alfred's
books, this one resounds with enthusiasm
and clarity. Telecommunicating is the best
way to get good, free, public-domain and
user-supported software hot off the
programmers' hands. A second Glossbrenner
book, How to Get Free Software (p. 27),
is the best guide around.
umm
ALFRED GLOSSBRENNER: With all of the hype and publicity you're likely to
hear, it's important to remember that home banking is barely in its infancy. It
has a long way to go before it becomes widespread, and there are sure to be
bugs and kinks along the way. Here are the most important questions to ask:
1 . How many creditors can I pay automatically? By far the most crucial
question. The only system so far capable of paying any and all creditors that
you specify is Direct Access from Citibank in New York. Despite home-banking
promoters' implications, with other banks, you can pay only those firms on the
bank's list of pre-approved payees. If your local dry cleaner isn't on the list, it's
back to the checkbook, stamp, and envelope routine.
2. What hours is the system available? New York's Chemical and Citibank are
online around the clock; HomeBanking from California's Bank of America is up
from 6 a.m. to midnight (Pacific Time) only.
3. What does the sign-on process involve? Security is an important concern,
of course, but most home-banking programs use a system of multi-level
passwords that appear to offer more than adequate protection. However, since
at least one of these passwords is typically imbedded in the program disk the
bank sends you when you open your account, you must use a system with a
disk drive, which rules out many lap-size computers. The HomeBanking and
Boston's Shawmut Bank (available via CompuServe) password schemes don't
force you to use a special password disk with a unique imbedded password.
4. What does it cost? Banks typically charge $8-$12 monthly for home banking
in addition to other account fees; required minimum balances vary. Usually
there is no per-check fee for electronic checks, but be sure to ask— some
systems charge for both paper checks and electronic "checks." Network and
phone costs depend on whether you call straight through using a local phone
number (as with Citibank)— that's free— or go through CompuServe (Shawmut
of Boston) or Tymnet (B of A and Chemical), and get charged by the hour.
5. How will you get cash? Most home-banking programs accept nonlocal home
banking customers, but it's preferable to "home bank" with a local bank. If
that's not possible, you'll have to either keep a separate account in a convenient
local bank to get cash, or request a supply of paper checks from your home-
banking bank and find a local merchant who'll cash your checks.
140
THE COST OF NETWORKING
Name of
Networic
Initial Charge
Monthly Charge
Connect Charge (Per Connected Hour)
Charge Per
Transaction
Other
Charges
Business Hours
Evenings & Weekends
300 BAUD
1200 BAUD
300 BAUD
1200 BAUD
CompuServe
pp.142, 144,
146
$39.95
(Includes five
free hours)
None
312.50*
315.00*
36.00*
$12.50*
None
3500-31,000 per month for
maintaining your own
conference-s^V
CONFER II
p. 147
$20.00
per group (2 or
more members)
$10.00
minimum per
group
$21.00
321.00
$17.00
$17.00
None
None
DELPHI
p. 146
$49.95
$3.50/month for
direct bill
customers
316.00
316.00
$6.00
$6.00
None
35/hr extra for
2400 baud
Dow Jones News/Retrieval pp.142, 144
(Any member can choose one of three plans:)
$72.00
$72.00
$12.00
$12.00
None
S48-372/hour extra
for free-text search
Standard
$75.00
None
Blue Chip
8175.00
(3100 annual)
None
$72.00
372.00
$7.80
$7.80
None
332.40-372/hour extra
for free-text search
Executive
None
$50.00
348.00
348.00
$7.80
$7.80
None
$32.40-$48/hour extra
for free-text search
EasyLink
p. 145
None
$25/year or
$25 monthly
minimum
321.00
$30.00
$12.60
318.00
20(J per address, $2-$5
per overseas
TELEX.*
2O0/min extra for
signing on from remote
locations via
WATS lines.
Electronic
Information
Exchange
System (EIES)
p. 147
None
$75.00
$7.00
$7.00
33.00
33.00
None
315/monthly (approx.) storage
fees for each extra conference
you create.
International
Electronic Mail
Service (lEMS)
p. 145
3100 ($50 per
account. lEMS
has a 2-account
minimum).
$5 per account
$3.00
33.00
$3.00
$3.00
250 per 1000 characters
(a 250-word message
costs 50C); $2-34 per
overseas TELEX.-A-
None
MCI Mail
p. 145
$18.00/yr
None
None
None
None
None
Per message: 45(J-31
as electronic mail, $2 as first
class mail, 38 and
up as overnight mail
or TELEX.
None
The Source
pp.141, 144,
145, 146
349.95
$10 ($1 fee plus
$9 minimum
connect
charge).
$20.75
325.75
$7.75
$10.75
None
310/monthly (approx). storage
fees for each conference you
create.
* $2/hour surcharge if you use a different transmission network than CompuServe's own (will affect people in some small cities).
■i^ Depends on whether the conference (SIG) includes extra text databases.
-k TELEX rate depends on destination.
ART KLEINER: This table shows relative costs for communication networks
reviewed in this book. Typical users spend 5-15 hours a month online. Only
services you would actually subscribe to are included here. Comp-U-Store, for
instance, is available through three networks here— CompuServe, Dow Janes
News/Retrieval, and The Source— plus its own. For addresses of the services,
see the individual reviews.
Inexpensive, interactive, grapliic,
online fun . . .
$40 initial subscription fee (includes 90 minutes
of connect time); $2/hr., $6/month; 6 p.m. to
7 a.m. locally weekdays, 24 hrs. weekends and
holidays. Commodore 64. 1541 disk drive and
300-tiaud compatible modem; color TV/monitor
recommended. PlayNET, Inc., 200 Jordan Rd.,
Troy, NY 12180; 800/752-9638.
ART KLEINER: A national computer network
with no pretense of Serious Purpose,
PLAYNET is unabashedly set up for casual
talk and game-playing with other people who
happen to be online at the moment. Some
games are full-scale versions of chess,
bridge, reversi (Othello), battleship, and the
like; PLAYNET provides disks that put the
image of, say, a chessboard onto your
computer. When your opponent makes a
move, you see the chess piece move on your
screen. Other games are all text, taking place
in impromptu message areas— there's an
ongoing informal version, for instance, of
Trivial Pursuit that's as much fun as the
original. Even while playing a game, you can
exchange taunts and congratulations in
another window on the screen ("Why did
you move your king THERE?").
PLAYNET's online/disk combination is
sometimes clunky (especially on the
Commodore, where it takes more than a
minute for the slow C-64 disk drive to
produce a chessboard screen). But it's the
least expensive national network yet.
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Online discount sliopping . . . Source, or Dow Jones for the time you spe i!
browsing online, plus an annual $25
COIiP=U-STORE membership fee.
$25/year membership; $18/hr (9-5 wkdays), $5/hr
(eves & wkends), Comp-U-Card International, Inc.,
777 Summer Street, Stanford, CT 06901;
203/324-9261.
ELIZABETH M. FERRARINI: If you know what
you want, don't need to touch the item
beforehand, and want to save time and a lot of
money, then let your micro shop at Comp-U-
Store for everything from hair dryers to
computer printers (mostly computer
equipment and the kinds of products sold in
mainstream discount houses). Most Comp-U-
Store goods are 20 to 40 percent below the
manufacturer's price; you also pay regular
connect charges to CompuServe, The
Publish online
and get paid for it .
You shop for one item at a time, proceeding
through a series of menus that usually offer
several selections and a "no preference."
Beware of "no preference": specific answers
help Comp-U-Store narrow the search to find
exactly what you want. When you're done,
Comp-U-Store lists all the products that meet
your specifications. You can then see any
product's list price, manufacturer's name,
delivered price (including shipping to your
area and all taxes), available colors, and
description. You can purchase any by credit
card or check. Most items come via United
Parcel Service, and you can only return
merchandise that arrives defective or broken.
For the moment, Comp-U-Store is the only
national electronic buying service. Since new
regional electronic buying services are
constantly expanding, that could change any
time.
Comp-U-Store takes you through a series of
questions that narrow down your desires, then
shows you a menu of choices— in this case, for a
cassette tape recorder/player
Available at normal Source rates (see table,
p. 140); Source Telecomputing Corporation, 1616
Anderson Road, McLean, VA 22102;
703/734-7500.
LEVI THOMAS: PUBLIC-a service within The
Source— is the only place in computer
networking where users publish their writing
and get paid each time it's read. What you
find there will vary in quality and intention; I
found helpful information for navigating
around the rest of The Source, plus
entertaining stories such as "Published From
a Bar-Stool: or. Saloon Journalism With the
Model 100." My Great-Form-But-Too-Bad-
About-the-Content award goes to a hillbilly-
style newspaper called the Par Mt.
Telegraph, containing cliche outhouse humor
in an ingeniously interactive format, complete
with comic strips. It takes very little time to
learn PUBLIC'S ins and outs and sample the
selections there. The table of contents for
each publication features the reading time of
each entry and the number of times it's been
read (for those interested in what's hot
among other Source users). But each
publication has different commands, which
confuses most readers, who see several
publications in one session. I don't know why
The Source doesn't require a common Help
command from its user-publishers.
PUBLIC is a great way to experiment with the
format of computer communications. If you
don't find anything that interests you there,
why not write something yourself? Anyone
can publish, but representatives of The
Source must approve PUBLIC files before
the author may collect a portion of readers'
connect-time charges.
ART KLEINER: There's some public-domain
software on PUBLIC, but not as much as
you'll find in CompuServe SIGs (pp. 27,
146).
Stalking the wild software publisher . . .
$250 subscription fee (currently being waived),
$40/hr.; available for any personal computer with
communications software and a modem; One
Point, 2835 Mitchell Dr., Walnut Creek, CA
94598; 800/222-2250 or, in CA, 415/947-0850.
BE iMI
jn^
V
$60/hr. (business hours) or $24/hr. (evenings and
weekends); plus $.15/full record printed offline;
for available evening and weekend hours refer to
DIALOG KNOWLEDGE INDEX (p. 143); DIALOG,
3460 Hillview Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304;
800/227-1927.
ART KLEINER: "I want to know which online
databases can help locate software that fills
a particular niche and find publishers of
particular products," said Barbara
Robertson. A legitimate reason to search
online; software is especially hard to track
down because printed catalogs date so
quickly. After some research, I found two
relatively good online databanks of
microcomputer products. Since their
contents overlap very little, I'd use both.
ONE POINT is far easier to learn; its menus
are designed to narrow down the desired
specs to help you find a particular package.
Unfortunately, the resulting listings are
inconsistent: sometimes they go on for
pages, even mentioning past reviews of the
product in magazines; other times they tell
little more than the publisher and price. ONE
POINT concentrates on IBM PCs and
compatibles, but I found products for CP/M,
Apple III, and Macintosh there. Once you
find a product, you can order it online. Since
our demo account didn't permit ordering, I
don't know how good their prices are.
.MENU, which runs on the venerable
DIALOG databank service and its much
cheaper nighttime daughter KNOWLEDGE
INDEX (p. 143), uses DIALOG'S relatively
difficult commands. After a couple of
concentrated hours, you can be proficient
enough to search effectively. The listings,
when you get them, are consistently
complete. The service seemed particularly
strong on Apple II software, but it covers all
types of microcomputers.
We were in Guaymas, Mexico, with a guy
from Chicago. He was busy denigrating the
area, "who could stand to live here, you
wouldn't know anything about the world, It
is so squalid, etc. " I was busy taking
pictures of houses perhaps 25 feet square
with a 1954 Chevy pickup In the driveway
and a satellite dish on the root An area of
perhaps 1,000 people, with about 50 satellite
dishes! He said, "What do those dishes do
anyway?" I said, "Well, these people can
get 130 TV channels In five languages, and
subcarrler FM stereo. They have Quebec,
Venezuela, Mexico City all of America, BBC,
and they get the Chicago Symphony as
clearly as you do. " He was stunned. And
silent for a while. And then he said, "What
do they think when they see all that, and
they look at this, where they live?" And i
was silent, and Nan was silent, and he was
silent. And I can't get rid of the notion that
Scarcity and Abundance will have to be dealt
with by the materialistic nations (today's
equivalent of the monarchies that went down
to democracy's force with the advent of the
cheap printed word). —Charles House
742
Best single source of financial news .
Most diverse services at least expense . . .
PATRICIA H. TAYLOR: Investors do
three things: gather information (news,
research, recommendations, and
prices) to help them come to a
decision; execute that decision (trade,
order, buy or sell); and track the
aftermath. Online services mesh
naturally with the need to manage detail
in all three of these tasks.
In addition to the services listed below,
investors might also look into
NEWSNET (p. 145),
Your phone is your computer .
Ill
o
DowPhone: $.50/minute plus toll phone charges
or, if using a WATS line, $1/minute; touch tone
phone required; Dow Jones and Company, P.O.
Box 300, Princeton, NJ 08540; 800/345-6397 ®
SchwabQuotes: $20 subscription/year; 15 minute
delay rates: $.05 ea/Rapid Quote; $.10 ea/
Expanded Quote; Dow Jones News, $.50/minute;
stock list, $.50/valuation; Real-time rates: $18.50
extra/month; touch tone phone required; local call
service only available in San Francisco,
Sunnyvale and Century City, CA; Chicago; New
York World Trade Center and New York Biltmore
Offices; Charles Schwab and Company, 101
Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA 94104;
800/334-4455.
PATRICIA H. TAYLOR: Now you can program
your telephone to get 15-minute delayed
stock quotes over the phone with
DowPhone. Any number of portfolios, each
containing up to 100 securities, can be
created; you can then get quotes for each
member of the portfolio, hear the latest
hour's headlines, and access the Dow Jones
News Service for the particular category of
your interest. SchwabQuotes, an expansion
of the basic DowPhone, has real-time quotes
and costs a little more.
Online investor's monthly bible
o
$39/year (12 issues); Dealer's Digest, 150
Broadway, New York, NY 10038; 212/227-1200.
PATRICIA H. TAYLOR: Essential reading for
anyone serious about online investing.
Reviews range from online databases to
software programs to latest industry
developments. The reviews are well done
and have saved me the time and tribulation
of finding out a lot of important information
on my own.
Available at normal Dow Jones rates (see table,
p. 140); Dow Jones News/Retrieval, P.O. Box 300,
Princeton, NJ 08540; 800/257-5114 or, in NJ,
609/452-1511.
PATRICIA H. TAYLOR and ELIZABETH M.
FERRARINI: The industry standard. Quotes
from DJNS news scroll across the screens of
investment brokers and managers all day
long. Within fifteen minutes of the latest
transaction, quotes on common and
preferred stocks, composite options, and
corporate and foreign bonds arrive from a
variety of exchanges; quotes from mutual
funds and selected U.S. Treasury Bonds are
updated several times a day. A database of
historical quotes goes back to 1978. Dow
Jones' tracking service lets you create five
investor profiles and track news and stock
quotes for as many as 25 companies within
each profile. The service is easy to use if you
keep a list handy of Dow Jones'
abbreviations for the particular stocks you
have in mind.
ART KLEINER: Other services available
through Dow Jones (often at extra cost)
include: Media General, which has statistics
on corporate earnings, dividends, and
comparative stock performance, and
Disclosure, which has balance sheets and
directors' names for more than 6000
corporations. Sometimes you can get lower
rates by directly accessing the parent
company (known in the trade as the
"information provider").
No static at all . . .
o
IBM PC and compatibles; 256K; not copy-
protected; $549.95 plus monthly subscription
charges: $50/month 1st exchange (non-
professional), $80/month 1st exchange
(professional); $10/additional exchange; $20/
stock option; plus exchange fees which range
from $7.50 to $50 (non-professional users) or
$12.50 to $68 (professional users); Dataspeed,
1900 South Norfolk, San Mateo, CA 94403;
800/762-7538.
PATRICIA H. TAYLOR: Modio is an FM-based
quote receiver system that transmits current
market quotes on securities, options, and
commodities via FM airwaves for display on
a computer screen. With this product, active
traders have market-monitoring devices
similar to those in brokerage firms, at
substantial savings. Data can be transferred
to other programs using special software.
Quotes are transmitted from one of eleven
stations covering the largest U.S.
metropolitian areas, so check to see that
you're within the broadcast zone.
Available at normal CompuServe rates (see table,
p. 140); CompuServe Information Service, 5000
Arlington Centre Blvd., Columbus, OH 43220;
800/848-8199 or, in OH, 614/457-0802.
PATRICIA H. TAYLOR: The Volkswagen of
investment services. You'll find: Market
News Service for interest-rate markets and
international news; Commodities News
Service, the industry standard; excellent
weekly reports from Money Market Services
(MMS) reflecting money managers' forecasts
for the economy, interest rates, and foreign
exchange; "Ask Mr. Fed," a "SIG"
(discussion forum) where investors ask
questions about the MMS reports or the
economy as a whole; and MicroQuote for
quotes on stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and
options at very cheap rates.
CompuServe also has an arrangement with
Max Ule and Company for online discount
brokerage. You get overnight computerized
order-entry, but no portfolio-tracking
capabilities. For additional fees CompuServe
provides portfolio evaluation, market
highlights, forecasts, and online programs
for financial modeling and planning.
Research, buy, analyze and gloat
— all in one package . . .
$199 (includes up to $168.50 in free services);
news and quotes, normal Dow Jones rates;
company reports, $3.50 each plus network use
charge; Standard & Poor's Marketscope, $36/
annual subscription plus $1.50/15 pages viewed,
plus network use charge; Charles Schwab and
Company, 101 Montgomery, San Francisco, CA
94104; 800/334-4455.
PATRICIA H. TAYLOR: This software/online
program provides easy access to Dow Jones
and to the (not otherwise recommended
here) Standard & Poor's Marketwatch
service. Quotes are on a 15-minute delayed
basis; real-time while making an order. You
enter orders by filling out a "ticket" which
zips through the Schwab computer to the
floor of the appropriate exchange. The
portfolio is updated each time a trade is
made through Schwab, either via computer
or telephone. The colorful, clean, menu-
based program and the comprehensive
package of online services are beautifully
designed. The Electronic Accountant part of
the program provides complete portfolio
management, generating full reports for
year-to-date gains/losses, transactions, and
income accounts. Portfolios can include
stocks, bonds, and options purchased
elsewhere.
The publications you'll need . . .
Answers Online; Barbara Newlin; 1984; 373 pp.,
$16.95; Osborne McGraw-Hill, 2600 Tenth St.,
Berkeley, CA 94710; 415/548-2805; or COMPUTER
LITERACY.
ii RECTO iY
Omni Online Database Directory; Mike Edelhart
and Owen Davies; 1985, 324 pp.; $14.95;
Macmillan Publishing Company, 866 Third
Avenue, New York, NY 10022; 800/257-5755 or, in
NJ, 609/461-6500; or COMPUTER LITERACY
O
$36/year (12 issues); Modem Notes, 2921 South
Brentwood Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63144;
314/962-1015.
ART KLEINER: You can use your modem to
find hitherto ungatherable information-
stored online citations on topics from the
location of toll bridges in Alaska to the
names of minor government officials in
Zanzibar. But you can't just log in and poke
around— databanks charge by the minute,
and you can hemorrhage your budget getting
your feet wet. These three publications will
help you narrow your search for the best
databank to use.
Answers Online is the best overall guide. It
describes 50 of the databanks you're most
likely to use, shows sample records for
each, and includes a very nice chapter on
searching techniques.
The Omni Online Database Directory is
more exhaustive, less hand-holding. It lists
more than 1100 databanks, including quite a
few compiled in foreign countries. The more
specific and esoteric your needs, the greater
chance you'll find this book valuable. It's
riddled with comments from users, most of
which describe surprisingly well what
purpose a given databank serves. (Caution:
a few minor factual errors are sprinkled
throughout.)
Finally, Modem Notes is a monthly magazine
aimed at businesspeople who do databank
searching. It's the best affordable source of
ongoing news about searching online. If you
spend a significant part of your work time
doing research, these three publications
could change your life.
Virtually every argument in every article
against computer technology applies equally
well, and often better, to the written word
and its supporting technologies.
—W. Scott Morris
Late-night,
low-cost data searching . .
Available Mon.-Fri. 6 p.m. (local)-4 a.m. (E.S.T);
Sat. 6 a.m.-4 a.m.. Sun. 6 a.m.-2 p.m. and
7 p.m.-4 a.m. (E.S.I); $75 initial charge; $12
monthly minimum; $6-$25/hour, depending on
which database is searched. Bibliographic
Retrieval Service, 1200 Route 7, Latham, NY
12110; 800/833-4707 or (in New York state)
800/553-5566.
Available Mon.-Thurs. 6 p.m.-5 a.m., Fri. 6 p.m.-
midnight. Sat. 8 a.m.-midnight. Sun. 3 p.m.-5
a.m., all caller's local time. $35 initial charge;
$24/hour. DIALOG, 3460 Hillview Ave., Palo Alto,
CA 94304; 800/528-6050, ext. 415 or, in AZ,
800/352-0458, ext. 415 or, in AK or HI, 800/528-
0470, ext. 415.
STEVEN LEVY: My first shock in
telecomputing came when I realized that the
Brave New World of getting information
through your home computer did not yet exist
for schlumps like me who aren't on some
corporate tab. Though dozens of online
databanks were available via modem— each
derived from a bibliographic reference book
like the Science Citation Index or Chemical
Abstracts-they typically cost $75 or more
per hour, and using them well requires
training. Then along came BBS After Dark-a
cheaper, evening-and-weekend version of its
parent, the Bibliographic Retrieval Service. I
hooked up, admittedly a little worried that it
would offer only abstracts, not the full text of
articles I'd need.
One of my first searches was for information
about the military-funded ARPAnet
communications network. I had found very
little in conventional libraries. Within five
minutes (50 cents connect time), using the
simple search function (BRS After Dark
lobotomized the sophisticated commands
used in its high-ticket day service), I
discovered a 100-page report on the history of
the ARPAnet. Its price wasn't listed, but the
address of the research firm that prepared it
was. I called them, and they sent it to me
gratis. Never would have found it otherwise.
The full story online . . .
o
$84/online connect hour plus $7/full record
printed offline or displayed online; DIALOG
Information Services, Inc., 3460 Hillview Ave.,
Palo Alto, CA 94304; 800/227-1927 • Complete
list of magazines available from Online Services,
Information Access Co., 11 Davis Dr., Belmont,
CA 94002; 800/227-8431.
later tried BRS's competitor, Knowledge
Index (child of DIALOG, the other main on-
line data bank vendor). It had a great manual
(clear without reverting to third-person-
stupid, with sample sessions for each
database) and more databases (hence more
topics) than BRS After Dark. But it cost more.
If you plan well, a typical search on either
service costs as little as one or two dollars,
especially if you hone the wording of your
request. Prices will drop when the masses
use these services, but if you need
information now, sign up.
Main complaint: neither allows you to search
through all its databanks in one sweep. You
have to hop in and out of menus, retyping
your search strategy each time. (The daytime
services let you store your search strategy
online and check in every week or so to see
what's new.) Even so, we're talking New Age
bargain here. Highly recommended. You may
never look at a card catalog again.
TOPIC: Find books on using personal computers in business.
(T) ?BEGIN BOOKl
^^ 5/16/83 14:31:46 EST
Now in BOOKS (BOOK) Section
Books in Print (1490-1983) (BOOKl) Database
(Copyright 1983 R. R. Bowker Co.)
(2) ?FIND PERSONAL AND COMPUTER?
^^ 5993 PERSONAL
7100 COMPUTER?
51 127 PERSONAL AND COMPUTER?
(3) ?FIND BUSINESS AND SI
^-^ 15703 BUSINESS
52 8 BUSINESS AND SI
(4) ?DISPLAY S2
^^ Display 2/L/l
1075211 n^mnt
Business Applications for the IBM Personal Computer
Zimnerman, Steven; Conrad, Leo
224p.
R J Brady 06/1983
Trade $16.95
ISBN: 0-89303-243-3
Status: Active entry
SUBJECT HEADINGS: MICROCOMPUTERS (00596668)
(5) ?LOGOFF
^^ 5/16/83 14:32:44 EST
Session Total: 0.021 Hours $ 0.50 User U400O3
Knowledge Index has a clear, comprehensive
manual; this excerpt shows how to reline your
search in its database of Books in Print, which
includes every available American published
book.
Q MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
ART KLEINER: If you need to find a
magazine story published in the last two
years, this database can send its full text
cascading down your screen— while other
databanks on, say, Knowledge Index will just
give you a citation and send you scrambling
to a library to look it up. MAGAZINE ASAP
is nowhere near as versatile and
comprehensive as NEXIS, but it doesn't
require its own special software package. It
does require learning the relatively arcane
commands used on DIALOG/Knowledge
Index. A typical search on this service costs
$25 to $50, even if you're careful (that price
is still cheaper than NEXIS). Measure the
cost against a day of your time in a research
library.
ENTER DEPftRTURE CITY NOME OR CODE
SRN FRANCISCO
ENTER DESTINATION CITY NAME OR CODE
BOSTON
ENTER DEPARTURE DATE
29 JUN
FARE MENU
FARES FOR FARES FOR
DIRECT FLIGHTS DIRECT FLIGHTS
AND CONNECTIONS ONLY
1 COACH CLASS AND EQUIVALENT FARES 6
e FIRST CLASS AND EQUIVALENT FARES 7
3 BOTH COACH AND FIRST CLASS FARES 8
4 ADVANCE-PURCH AND EXCURSION FARES 9
Finding tlie clieapest fare from San Francisco to
Boston with ttie OFFICIAL AIRLINE GUIDES
ELECTRONIC EDITION. First you enter tlie
departure city, target city and date; then choose
what type of ticket you want DAG shows you a list
of fares; and (not shown) lets you expand any
listing to find more information.
Superb weather and sports . .
Dial-Up Flight Information . .
$50 initial cliarge; $.10/minute and $.10/unit (fare
screen, 2 units; schedule screen, 3 units); Official
Airline Guides, Attn: Electronic Edition, 2000 Clear
Water Drive, Oak Brook, IL 60521; 800/323-3537.
ART KLEINER: This dial-up databanl< permits
you to browse among commercial airline
fares and schedules as easily as you'd
browse among shirts in a department store.
You choose your departing city, arriving city,
and date; see the available fares; check the
limitations on each fare; print out the
appropriate schedules; and make
reservations online. A diligent travel agent
might do more for free, but finding a good
fare online will make you feel as triumphant
as scoring well on a computer game. You can
sample this database through CompuServe or
Dow Jones News/Retrieval, but joining
directly is much cheaper.
History begins on Saturday . . .
Available at normal Source rates (see table,
p. 140); Source Telecomputing Corporation, 1616
Anderson Road, McLean, VA 22102;
703/734-7500.
ART KLEINER: The Source's service, based
on the UP! news wire, lets you tag a
particular topic and follow that day's stories
about it, often while they're coming off the
wire for the first time. You can look
backwards about a week. While the news
wire invites browsing, finding obscure topics
is tricky. On the other hand, when there's a
fast-breaking national or international news
story that's important to you, and you want
the news faster or in more detail than the
daily paper will provide it, the Source UP!
news wire is the place to turn.
Top of the line magazine,
newspaper and wire service data .
Available at normal CompuServe rates (see table,
p. 140); CompuServe Information Service, 5000
Arlington Centre Blvd., Columbus, OH 43220;
800/848-8199 or, in Ohio, 614/457-0802.
ART KLEINER: CompuServe's news wire
service only goes back one day, offering a few
stories in each of a dozen or so categories.
Though mediocre for news, it's the best place
to find weather (superb land and maritime
forecasts, keyed by locale, from the National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric
Administration) or sports results (Levy
checks baseball box scores here).
Four months of business news .
Available at normal Dow Jones rates (see table,
p. 140); Dow Jones News/Retrieval, P.O. Box 300,
Princeton, NJ 08540; 800/257-5114 or (in New
Jersey) 609/452-1511.
ART KLEINER: Type in the code for a
particular industry or corporation and scan a
list of appropriate stories adapted from the
Wall Street Journal going back four months.
Choose the stories you want to read and they
appear. You can make a search for particular
words embedded within the stories, but it will
cost extra and require a special manual.
Nonetheless, Dow Jones is a good place to
start research on any business-oriented
topic. When I wrote about AT&T's new
proposed computer network last fall, I
depended on it. It's a good thing the service
is so easy to use, because it offers almost no
online help.
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Software for searchers .
Version 1.03; IBM PC & compatibles ® Tl
Professional; 192K; 2 disk drives; Hayes 300, 1200
or 1200B Smartmodem or Novation 103, 212,
Smartcat modem, or an acoustic modem; copy-
protected? YES; $495; Menio Corporation, 4633
Old Ironsides Drive, No. 400, Santa Clara, CA
95050; 408/986-1200.
^
w
Software is free; subscription fees: $5/month or
$50/year; online charges based on rates of
databases accessed; Hayes SmartLink II modem
required; Business Computer Network, Inc., 1046
Central Parkway So., San Antonio, TX 78232;
800/446-6255.
ART KLEINER: INSEARCH translates
DIALOG'S arcane commands into reasonable
menus, helps you figure out which
databanks to search, and saves money by
letting you type in most of your request
before you sign online. It's one of the most
enjoyable telecommunications programs to
use.
With SUPERSCOUT instead of signing up
with 20 different online information services,
you sign up with the Business Computer
Network: their software will dial the networks
for you anytime, and bill you at the
network's regular rates plus a quarter (25
cents) for each call. The networks include
CompuServe, BRS, DIALOG, NewsNet, and
the Official Airline Guides; they're constantly
adding more. An excellent way to use
databanks occasionally without paying
membership fees for each.
$50/mo, $28/hour, $7-$21/each search request
(7:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m., local time, wkdays),
$3.50-$10.50/request (eves and wkends),
$1.50-$3/search modification; IBM PC; Apple III;
Wang PC; Macintosh; many MS-DOS machines;
64K; a variety of 1200-baud modems; and Mead
Data Central Interface ($245); copy-protected? NO;
Mead Data Central, 9333 Springboro Pike,
Miamisburg, OH 45342; or R 0. Box 933, Dayton,
OH 45401; 513/865-6800.
ART KLEINER: If you spend $2500 or more
worth of your time annually in library work,
NEXIS is the best single tool to invest in.
NEXIS keeps the full text of dozens of
newspapers, magazines, specialized
newsletters, and news wires, most going
back several years, some to the late sixties:
the New York Times and the Washington
Post; the AP, UPI and Reuters wires; news
services from Japan, Taiwan, and Britain;
Forbes, Computerworld, and the Almanac of
American Politics. (It has fewer newsletters
than NewsNet, and no computer-oriented
ones, but that will probably change.)
NEXIS is the smartest online information
service, and the easiest to learn and use.
Unlike the others, if you ask for "fortune
telling" It will also find "telling fortunes." You
can easily modify your request if it didn't hit
right the first time. You can search all
databanks simultaneously or move among
them, your search request moving
automatically with you. The best feature,
called KWIC, pulls up each story with your
search words highlighted within it, so you can
instantly judge the story's value.
NEXIS has some limitations: You can't save
incoming text on a disk, and can only print
one screenful at a time, which slows down
your sessions by a third. And even if you
share an account, it's expensive. But worth it.
145
Two to three years' worth
of expensive newsletters . . .
Rates vary depending on which newsletters are
read: $24-$120/hr (8 a.ni.-8 p.m., E.S.T.).
$18-$80/hr (eves and wkends); $15 monthly
subscription fee; average session: $40. NewsNet,
945 Haverford Road, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010;
800/345-1301 or (in Pennsylvania) 215/527-8030.
ART KLEINER: NewsNet outrages me, just as
many of its industry newsletters do: they're
all too damned expensive, and only add to the
cultish mystique of inside access. But these
publications do help track specialized news,
and they're cheaper and more current online
than in print. The selection includes Defense
Industry Report, Legislative Intelligence
Week, Fiber Optics News, Entrepreneurial
Manager's Newsletter, TRW Credit Reports
on Companies, and VuQuote. Many go back
two or three years. NewsNet's easy-to-use
commands let you find articles by scanning
titles or searching for key words. The best
feature, called Flash, flags everything that
comes in related to a particular topic and
delivers it daily to your account. Use their On-
line Computer Telephone Directory to find
someone's TELEX or SourceMail number.
Imtmm Mm
Pay by the minute .
Available at normal Source rates (see table,
p. 140); Source Telecomputing Corporation, 1616
Anderson Road, McLean, VA 22102;
703/734-7500.
ART KLEINER: The oldest electronic mail
system for personal computers is still the
most versatile. As with MCI Mail, with
SourceMail you can learn to send and receive
messages within minutes. You pay by the
minute, but there's no extra charge for
multiple copies. To cut costs, type messages
on your word processor and then send them
with your communications software.
SourceMail offers a wide range of alternatives
—you can reply to messages as you read
them, send copies to other people, keep lists
of groups who will all get one message, or
"express mail" your message so it goes to
the front of the receiver's incoming queue.
Low-cost access to TELEX. . .
See table on p. 140 for rates; EASYLINK, c/o
Western Union, 1 Lake Street, Upper Saddle River,
NJ 07458; 800/527-5184 or, in TX, 800/442-4803.
See table on p. 140 for rates; International
Electronic Mail Service, 21686 Stevens Creek
Blvd., Cupertino, CA 95014; 408/446-4367.
ART KLEINER: Some of your would-be
electronic mail correspondents may be
reachable only via corporate mail systems—
Tymshare's OnTyme, ITT's Dialcom, and the
three or four interwoven international TELEX
services. Corporations can afford the hefty
minimum fees, but the rest of us can now link
in through these two networks, which bundle
their members into one "corporate" account
on each service, like a group chartering an
airplane. Western Union's EASYLINK is also
the only way to send your computer text as a
MCI Mai
The nation s new postal system
Lyn Grey
Whole Earth Software Catalog
150 Gate Five Road
Sausalito, CA 94966
Dear Lya, You know there are 30 many ears listening
whenever we speak at Whole Earth, that I must resort to
this -- this — Electronic Mail Message! — to fully say
what I need to say to you .
I want you to know that this message you hold in your
hand is our test of the ability to send anyone a letter
via electronic mail If we were paying for this letter.
it would've cost us $2, Cheap, huh?
But we aren't paying for this letter. That's why, as a
part of this test, I'd very much like for you to let me know
when it arrives And if you do that I will proudly
display my pride
I dunno I've lost my head. This test message is almost ovej
Before it ends I will tell you the story of the
red fox who wanted a brown box for his birthday
At the end of the day, he opened the box, and out popped
Hell, gotta go
Please let me 31
how electronic mail Is
■n you get it. Yours, ArtK
From:
Art Kieiner/Hhole Earth
Whole Earth Software Catalog
150 Gate Five Road
Sausalito CA 94965
MCiyaii
To:
First Glass
Lyn Grey
Whole Earth Software (
150 Gate Five Road
Sausalito, CA 9<%6
A typical letter sent on MCI Mail: written and
telecommunicated on a personal computer,
printed out in MCl's offices in a remote city, and
delivered as a local letter through regular first
class mail. For an extra $10/month, you can store
your letterhead and signature with MCI, and, with
their laser printer, they'll print them on each letter
telegram, and the cheapest way to send or
receive TELEXes. At a reasonable cost to you,
lEMS links to as many corporate mail
networks as it can find.
EASYLINK has easy commands and one of
the best manuals in the business. It lets you
forward incoming messages to others with
your own comments attached, and tag your
sessions so that several users can share the
same account. Unfortunately, it won't let you
edit a mistake in a message before you send
it. lEMS permits editing, but uses (3nTyme's
arduous commands (for instructions, you
type EXE * * HELP instead of just ? or help).
Instant delivery, online or on paper . .
See table on p. 140 for rates; MCI Mail, 2000 M
Street, N.W., Third Floor, Washington, DC 20036;
800/MCI-2255.
ART KLEINER: Everyone with a computer
and modem should join MCI Mail, it costs
only SI 8 a year, and doesn't charge you for
time online. For 45 cents you can send a
message to anyone else with an MCI Mail
account; for $1 you can send a document
online; for $2, MCI will print your message
on paper and drop it off as regular first class
mail. (Warning: in my experience, this can
sometimes be slower than first class mail.)
Higher rates ensure hand-dfelivery; for a
short manuscript that must be across the
country tomorrow, MCI Mail is probably the
cheapest (S8) overnight delivery service.
MCI Mail made possible a business I know
of (Taramar, in Sausalito, CA) that sends
discarded U.S. industrial products to third-
world countries, coordinating scavengers,
industries, and freight airlines on four
continents.
I sent MCI Mail successfully two minutes
after signing on the first time. Now, I wish I
could shut off its clunky menus. It also
needs a better directory. As with other
electronic mail networks, you can send the
same message to twelve people as easily as
one, but be wary: MCI Mail will charge for
twelve letters! These caveats aside, MCl's
pricing scheme really does make this the
most likely place to find anyone by electronic
mail.
146
drive" type problems. That's fine, I guess if you heavily
enjoy rapping on computers endlessly, but it got quickly
boring. ...Richard
CB66 CC251 Richard Dal ton (wesc ed,334) 2/15/84 9:45
fih L : 6
C866 CC252 Anthony D. Fanning (TonyF,160B)
4:46 PM L:7
KEYS: /BBS/TEN-YEAR-OLDS/
2/15/84
BBS's can follow the WALKIE-TALKIE pattern. You know, with
the two ten-year — olds walking down opposite sides of the
street saying, "Can you hear me?" . . . "Yeah , can you hear
me?". . . . "Yeah, can you hear ME?" I see it a lot the day
after Christmas. On the other hand, you can find useful
information on BBS's (if you're interested in computers,
that is).
Ce66 CC252 Anthony D. Fanning (TonyF,160a> 2/15/84
4:46 PM L:7
C866 CC253 Larry Freeman (LarryF , 1218) 2/15/84 7:01 PM
L: 13
KEYS: /MAC VS. KAYPRO/
On Monday, I stopped in to my "friendly" local computer
store and sat down to play the piano, I mean I sat down in
A new kind of conwersalion .
ART KLEINER: Exchanging electronic mail among a group of
people is like holding a seminar in a corridor— there's no
centralized space where people know they should congregate. A
computerized conference, on the other hand, supplies a focus: it
maintains a transcript that keeps track of everybody's place and
shows them new material automatically. Use conferencing to
share research, to coordinate an ongoing project spread across
the country, or to investigate new interests.
To find a local conferencing system in your area, use The
Computer Phone Book (p. 148). Or set up your own system on a
microcomputer and leave it hooked to the phone all day (see
COMMUNITREE and MIST + , pp. 148-149). Or join established
conferences on dial-up national computer networks. We list four
national networks here, all somewhat complex but worth the
time and money to explore.
Wit and wisdom from EIES teleconference
discussions. Tire Builetin Board Systems remarl( is
by Organizing Domain editor Fanning in Viltiole
Eartlt's pubiic conference on telecommunicating.
The Lebanon comment, made just after the marine
barracks fiasco in '83, is from a private set of
conferences called the School of Management and
Strategic Studies, run by the Western Behavioral
Sciences institute in La Jolla, California. Harlan
Cleveland made this particular comment from
l^inneapolis, where he is director of the Hubert
Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the
University of Minnesota.
C349 CC872 Harlan Cleveland <4B1)
KEYS: /LESSONS FROM LEBANON. . ONE/
A: 871
10/27/83 11:50 PM Ls 44
In the 1960s those of us involved in fashioning
peacekeeping forces (mostly through the UN, at that time)
had one simple notion engraved on our minds: Superpower
forces had best not be used «is international peacekeepers,
and sparingly even as mediators.
If the mediator or peacekeeper shows up at the bargaining
sessions with a nuclear bomb sticking out of his r&Ar pocket,
the disputants are going to tune their antennae toward the
middleperson rather than toward dialogue with each other.
The U.S. as peacekeeper cannot be credibly neutral.
A giant information
department store
Available at normal CompuServe rates (see table,
p. 140); CompuServe Information Service, 5000
Arlington Centre Blvd., Columbus, OH 43220;
800/848-8199 or (in Ohio) 614/457-0802.
fSLEI
o
See table on p. 140 for rates; General Videotex
Corporation, 3 Blackstone St., Cambridge, MA
02139; 617/491-3393.
ART KLEINER: The best nationwide systems
for beginners. CompuServe's SIGs (user
forums) are easily its most rewarding
feature. The several-dozen SIGs on specific
topics are like benevolent fiefdoms, each
with a presiding duke (called a sysop, for
"system operator") who manages the flow.
Each SIG weaves up to eleven thematic
threads; members choose which to follow.
A beginner's menu makes the fairly complex
commands masterable after an hour or so.
Regular users should switch to the expert
menu and buy the SIG manual ($3.95 extra).
SIG topics include every type of computer
users' group imaginable plus environmental
issues, health, music, religion, animal care,
and working at home. Whole Earth manages
a SIG on CompuServe (type go wec), as do
several other magazines.
The main SIG drawback: CompuServe only
stores about 400 messages' worth of back
discussion, so on an active SIG like the
Apple Users' group, yesterday's discussion
may already have "scrolled away" when
you log in today. Sysops will often store
discussions in permanent data libraries
which are also used to house public-domain
software (p. 27). You can gather those free
programs with CompuServe's own VIDTEX
(p. 153) or any program running XMODEM
(p. 156).
DELPHI is just cranking up its conferencing
system (called "Newsletters") now, so it's
hard to evaluate; by the time you read this it
will probably be fairly lively. Commands are
much less flexible than CompuServe's, but
easier to learn. The system response feels
slow at times, but for people using 1200-
baud modems it's cheaper than
CompuServe.
Dozens of subjects
—or create your own . . .
Available at normal Source rates (see table,
p. 140); Source Telecomputing Corporation,
1616 Anderson Road, McLean, VA 22102;
800/336-3366 or, in VA, 703/734-7500.
LOUIS JAFFE: The most freewheeling of
computer conferencing services, PARTI
allows any user to start a public or private
conference on any topic at any time. Despite
frequent technical problems and a command
structure that baffles even old hands, PARTI
has become one of the most popular
branches of The Source.
Both the 1983 Korean Airliner attack and the
Grenada invasion spawned PARTI
conferences that attracted hundreds of
comments— some from well-informed
military and intelligence people. These
discussions subsided after a couple of weeks,
but other PARTI conferences have gone on for
months, on topics as diverse as UNIX,
interpersonal relationships, and the nature of
language.
Scanning PARTI is like watching TV
commercials— you find a jumble of briefly
presented, often unrelated topics. As new
conferences branch spontaneously from old
ones, you can get pulled into the flow and
lose track of time (which is how PARTI
generates revenue for The Source). It's as if
you were lost in the aisles of a giant
information department store. By the time
you find your way out, you're carrying a
shopping bag full of ideas, assertions, and
inanities.
ART KLEINER: Source PARTI is sometimes
used for "electures"— where knowledgeable
people share their cogency online and suffer
the heckling of the electronic crowd. Well
worth following.
For connoisseurs and companies .
See table on p. 140 for rates; Advertel
Communications Systems, Inc., 2067 Ascot,
Ann Arbor, Ml 48103; 313/665-2612.
See table on p. 140 for rates; New Jersey Institute
of Technology, 323 King Blvd., Newark, NJ 07102;
201/596-3437.
ART KLEINER: These are the best
conferencing systems for organizing projects
or bringing together working groups of
people. Both rooted in academia (the
University of Michigan and New Jersey,
Institute of Technology, respectively), they
have a wide range of complex capabilities.
Both offer a diverse, warm community of
people already in place who welcome new
members. CONFER II is somewhat easier to
learn and slightly more expensive; EIES is
somewhat more perplexing (no one, not even
designer Murray Turoff, knows all the EIES
commands).
Both systems have features that really help
people communicate. Detailed member
directories let you learn more about the
author of an intriguing comment before you
contact him for follow-up. Pseudonyms
permit anonymous comments (surprisingly
useful for honest criticism). Elaborate search
commands retrieve all items written by a
particular author, in a particular month, or on
a particular topic. Modifying commands let
you change your mind, even after entering
your words into public view.
CONFER II is available in customized versions
for large groups and corporations. If you join
as a small working group or individual, you
choose an existing CONFER II arena, either
First there's uncertainty: "Did my message go through all right? Did I send it to
the wrong person? Is it really private? How do i sign o/fthis thing?"
As you feel more secure, pleasure takes over. The flow of ideas is exciting and
flattering. "1 posted my query at ten and by noon there were seven replies
waiting!" You step into the rarefied atmosphere of a literary correspondence—
but one faster, more immediately engaging, and easier to keep up with than that
of the conventional world of letters. Mutual projects and opportunities blossom
quickly, without regard for geographical distances.
Some people move on to addiction: signing on a dozen times a day ("maybe
something is waiting"), cutting back offline relationships because they're less
convenient ("if they're not on the network I don't want to talk to them"),
running up unexpectedly large connect-time bills, merging work and home lives
so they can sign on at night, and even dreaming about the network.
Fortunately, addiction is short-lived. You get overwhelmed by overload and cut
back, learning to filter out material. You don't have to lose appreciation for the
physical world; you can become more sensual elsewhere to compensate for the
hours spent online. You use the telephone more sparingly, scheduling calls and
exchanging agendas in advance.
Networking is catnip for people who communicate best by the written word.
Good writers have charisma. Mediocre writers improve. Pushy or insensitive
writers get ignored. People learn to articulate their emotions more explicitly to
avoid being misunderstood. Race, gender, shyness, disabilities, age, and
physical presence all lose importance.
Since you don't need an appointment to reach someone via computer network,
you come to feel as if everyone is always accessible. But you also learn not to
pressure people— they'll just shrug and ignore your message. For most
participants, the increased contacts break down old hierarchies and make
unforeseen relationships possible— as with the corporation vice-president and
the college student who swap tips on playing ARCHON. The key impression is
one of civilization— or, more precisely, a new way of being civilized.
—Art Kleiner
public or private. Public conferences are
usually devoted to a broad subject like
Computers or Law; within that, people initiate
and respond to individual topics. You can join
in as many arenas as you like, but be careful;
CONFER II incites more give-and-take than
any other system, and you may feel like
you're drowning at first. With practice, you
can easily choose which topics to follow and
which to avoid.
As a nonprofit computer-based
teleconferencing laboratory, EIES feels to its
members like an online village, encouraging
them to mingle messages with as many
others as possible. One of ElES's main
attractions is its unusually creative and
knowledgeable membership.Though ElES's
commands often feel tacked-on, its basic
structure is simple enough. Both EIES and
CONFER II are roughly masterable within a
couple of hours.
The two systems charge differently but seem
to cost about the same over a year. ElES's
connect time rates are low, but accounts cost
$75 per month. CONFER II has no monthly
fee, but charges $15-25 per connect hour,
making it better for casual use. Ultimately,
your choice will depend on which system has
the people you want to reach. I'm
unabashedly biased towards EIES; we
organized the Software Catalog, met many of
our best contributors, and still share software
evaluations there. After experimenting with
CONFER II, I feel strongly drawn there, too.
Had I but modem enough and time . . .
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
148
M low-pticed alternatiwe to national networks
Public domain gateway to a bulietin board
network . . .
Good overall BBS directories . . .
The Computer Phone Book; Mike Cane; 1983; 466
pp.; $9.95 postpaid from The New American
Library, Inc., 1633 Broadway, New York, NY 10019;
212/397-8000; or COMPUTER LITERACY
o
Online Guide to the Commodore 64; Mike Cane;
1984; 384 pp., $9.95; New American Library, Inc.
1633 Broadway, New York, NY 10019;
212/397-8156; or COMPUTER LITERACY
ART KLEINER: These detailed directories are
the work of a madman named Mike Cane,
who actually called more than 2000
computer bulletin boards, of which he
describes hundreds. When they bore him, he
tells you ("There is nothing interesting on
DEffi Mm mmmm
here. If you call this system, try to leave an
interesting message"). When they enthrall
him, he shows it ("If you stare at the stars
and long to go into orbit, give this system a
call to meet some kindred spirits"). The
Computer Phone Book contains an excellent
guide to bulletin board commands, and to
CompuServe, The Source, Dow Jones, and
several fascinating-sounding regional
networks.
The Online Guide to the Commodore 64 is a
version of the same book, tailored to that
machine. Particularly valuable: directions for
signing onto Commodore-based bulletin
boards, where you can download software
and vent your frustra— er, share advice on
using your C-64. Both books need
updating — many of the most enticing-
sounding boards are long since gone. But
you can supplement this guide with PLUMB
and COMPUTER SHOPPER (p. 11).
ART KLEINER: Saving money and keeping in touch with your nearby
community — two reasons to dial local computer networks instead of national
ones like CompuServe and The Source. The best-known local sytems are
computer bulletin board systems (BBSs)— running on microcomputers, often
free or available for a small entry fee, linked loosely by a common heritage of
public-domain hacker anarchy. The first bulletin board, CBBS, was specifically
designed for distributing public-domain software. Though bulletin boards
sometimes have more sophisticated messaging features than their mainframe
cousins, they're limited by the small computer size to one user at a time —
which means that on popular bulletin boards, you often get shut out by a busy
signal— and since they're often managed by hobbyists, some bulletin boards
come and go unreliably.
This year an alternative is emerging— local multi-user conferencing networks,
able to handle eight or more people online at once, and much less expensive
than national networks (you don't have to pay cross-country transmission
costs). So far I know of four worth checking out: ArborNet in Ann Arbor,
Michigan (voice: 313/994-4030; data: 313/663-6400); Chariot in Colorado
Springs, Colorado (voice: 303/632-4848; data: 303/632-2906); The Connection,
in South Bend, Indiana (voice: 219/277-5306; data: 219/277-5743); and our
own Whole Earth Lectronic Link in the San Francisco Bay Area (voice:
415/332-4335; data: 415/332-6106). The costs range from $2 to $4 per hour,
sometimes with a small monthly or yearly charge. The range of conferences and
information online is impressive, and the overall tone is warm and welcoming.
Many more will bloom, and I suspect some will become true regional nerve
centers.
If you'd like to start one, you need a minicomputer or multi-user micro running
UNIX (see p. 168). Chariot manager Louis Jaffe investigated most of the
available software and ended up recommending PICOSPAN, which is available
from Network Technologies in Ann Arbor (it's a variation of CONFER, p. 147). If
thirty thousand dollars or more (that's the minimum investment) is beyond your
range, you can still dedicate a personal computer to your own electronic bulletin
board and, with FIDO, have something in between.
Tom Jennings; free (downloaded); $100 (by mail);
IBM PC and compatibles; Tom Jennings, 2269
Market St. #118, San Francisco, CA 94114.
EZRA SHAPIRO: FIDO is a collection of
public domain software programs that allow
a user to set up a full electronic bulletin
board system on any of several MS-DOS
computers. On the surface, FIDO looks a lot
like similar systems— callers can send and
receive messages, or upload and download
files. However, FIDO goes far beyond other
BBS software in one important aspect . . .
late at night, with no human intervention, the
FIDO systems send mail to each other. Thus
it's possible for a caller to enter a message
for a friend in New York on a FIDO in
California; in the early hours of the morning
the California FIDO will zap the message
across the country to a FIDO in New York
where it can be read by the addressee. A
typical message costs the sender about 25
cents. (Compare that to the prices charged
for overnight delivery by commercial
systems.) At present, there are around half a
dozen FIDO systems in the San Francisco
Bay Area and roughly 250 others in the U.S.,
Canada, England, Sweden, and Indonesia.
The list of systems, or "nodes," is growing
by about 12-15 a week. This whole thing is a
volunteer, grass-roots operation. There are
no membership fees or minimum charges;
all you have to do is work out some way of
paying the local system operators for any
long-distance charges you incur. (The FIDO
you're logged onto figures out the cost and
tells you immediately.) Or you can just call in
and use a FIDO as a standard BBS, without
using the mail feature, for free.
Choice software for groups . . .
Apple II family; 48K; 1-6 disk drives; Hayes
Micromodem II @ TRS-80 Model III, 48K, TRS-80
modem; $145 ® IBM PC with Hayes-compatible
modem and hard disk; $295; copy-protected? NO;
CommuniTree Group, 1150 Bryant Street, San
Francisco, CA 94103; 415/861-8733; distributed by
Synergetic Communication, P.O. Box 9964,
Berkeley, CA 94709; 415/548-8170.
RIC MANNING: Because CommuniTree's
system can pack a lot of messages into only
48K of memory and can handle a variety of
"branches" within one "tree" discussion, it's
ideal for organizations. A Minnesota medical
group, for example, divides their
COMMUNITREE bulletin board by specialities
such as surgery, radiology and immunology
Callers append new comments to existing
messages and thus build ongoing
computerized discussions for each topic. At
first the software is slightly intimidating, but
once you're familiar with the full-word
commands, it's easy to use.
149
Write your own communications
structures . . .
Ill
Peter & Trudy Johnson-Lenz; IBM PC; 256K;
Hayes-compatible 1200 baud modem; hard disk
recommended; $495 w/database • Kaypro or
Vector; CP/M; 64K; Hayes-compatible 1200 baud
modem; 2 disk drives or hard disk; $375 w/
database; copy-protected? NO; New Era
Technologies, 1252 Columbia Rd. N.W.,
Washington, DC 20009; 202/234-2117.
O
Version 1.2; copy-protected? NO; $624 (includes
MIST+); $129 (purchased separately as a
template for MIST+). Requirements: IVIIST +
version 1.3, 256K, Hayes compatible modem,
hard disk; New Era Technologies, 1252 Columbia
Rd., NW, Washington, D.C. 20009; 202/234-2117.
ART KLEINER: MIST contains a full
programming language with specifications
for telecommunicating; a database system
nearly as extensive as DBASE II; and a
complete (albeit line-oriented) text editor.
With l\^ISX you can build your own
conferencing system that has a built-in
databank anyone can dial into and search
through. You can also create an easy-to-use
"front end" for complicated network
structures and a "networking robot" that
boldly goes forth into online systems where
no personal computer has gone before.
The people who did MIST also did
CONEXUS, a bulletin board/databank
program written in MIST-t- . As bulletin
board programs go, it's extremely versatile,
very easy to set up and operate (more so
than FIDO), and very expensive (much more
so than FIDO). Modeled partly on the EIES
network (p. 147), CONEXUS can keep track
of where each member is in a particular
online discussion (so you can tell who has
and has not read your pearls of wisdom),
and it allows anonymous or pen-named
comments.
State ot the art . . .
TRS-80 (NewDOS 80, LOOS, DOS + ); IBM PC and
compatibles; Epson QX-10; Kaypro 2X, 10; $295;
copy-protected? NO; eSoft, 4100 South Parker Rd.
Box 305, Aurora, CO 80014; 303/699-6565.
LOUIS JAFFE: THE BREAD BOARD SYSTEM,
written by Phil Becker, is one of the few BBS
that a nonprogrammer can operate. It does
everything a BBS is expected to do and more,
with unusually fast response time. The sysop
can set up menus and submenus leading to
any number of public or private message
boards. There are four protocols for
uploading or downloading software,
including XMODEM (p. 156).
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
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C-64
A lot of Commodore 64 users' clubs use ELECTRIC MAGAZINE for their own
bulletin boards — it has messages and downloadable software. There's a public-
domain version available on CompuServe, but the mail-order version is easier to
get into shape. It uses the standard Commodore 1541 disk drive. However, my
source (James Meehan, Mendota, MN) says the RAVICS BBS, though more
expensive, is faster and easier to usethan ELECTRIC MAGAZINE. It's also more
versatile. It works with an IEEE disk drive or a Hayes modem, in addition to
stock Commodore hardware; supports multiple message bases and electronic
mail; and its downloaded software is ready to run when it arrives on your
computer.
Atari
The public-domain FORUM BBS is the best Atari board, with quicker response
and more sophisticated command structure than our previous recommendation,
AMIS. FORUM BBS is available on the CompuServe Atari SIG.
Apple II
NET-WORKS is the most popular of nearly a dozen Apple II bulletin board
programs. It's a good, general purpose, bargain-priced BBS program, easy for
both the system operator and callers to use. It's used by people with small
bulletin boards running on single-drive Apples as well as on larger, hard disk-
based systems like Pirate's Cove, which has more than 50 special interest
groups.
IBM PC
RBBS is the cheapest bulletin board on the IBM PC (S8), but it's a good
program, and you get a fair amount of documentation with it.
Co-€d
There are dozens of Radio Shack Color Computer BBS systems running on
COLOR-80. The program is reliable and includes a user log, handy for
compiling mailing lists.
Mao
MOUSE EXCHANGE runs on single-drive 128K MACs (but the author
recommends a second drive); requires a Hayes-compatible modem. It's a
straightforward bulletin board; supports XMODEM file transfer. No special Mac
features, but it's the first for the Mac.
— Ric Manning
ELECTRIC MAGAZINE: Robert Shannon; CP/M {5Vi") or any Commodore: S39.95; Coast BBS, 33175
Oceanview Dr., Fort Bragg, CA 95439; voice: 707/964-4440, data: 707/964-7114 o RAVICS BBS:
$99.95; Computer Era, 206 S. Emerald, Anaheim, CA 92804; voice: 714/778-4858, data:
714/533-3197 o NET-WORKS II: Nick Naimo; version 2.62; Apple II family; one disk drive; $99; High
Technology Software Products, P.O. 3o:( 50406, Oklahoma City, OK 73148; 405/848-0480 o R8BS:
$8; Capital PC Software Exchange, Box 5128, Silver Spring, MD 20906; data: 703/759-5049 (or
9659) o COLOR-80 BBS: 64K; 2 disk drives and auto-answer modem; copy-protected? NO; $150;
MegaSoft, 935 Marble Ct., San Jose, CA 95120; 408/268-9049 o MOUSE EXCHANGE: Michael
Connick; version 4.0; copy-protected? NO; S39.95; Macintosh; 2 disk drives or hard disk
recommended; Dreams of the Phoenix, Box 10273, Jacksonville, FL 32247; voice: 904/396-6952,
data: 904/725-8925.
mi'i -'^mms^vi^W
Monttily bulletin-board updates . . .
PLUiB
Ric Manning, Editor; $26.50/yr (8 issues); Box
300, Harrods Creek, KY 40027; voice:
502/228-3820; data Source: STQ007,
CompuServe: 72715,210.
STEVEN LEVY: Though many computer
bulletin boards are technically oriented, I've
come across a few that have little or nothing
to do with computers. One of the first I tried
was a New York City BBS devoted to
astronomy (no astrology, please). Then there
are lots of religious BBSs, plenty for dating,
and a well-known one in Kansas with movie
reviews. These and more are listed in this
monthly newsletter, along with boards
devoted to genealogy, rock and roll, ham
radio, stocks, medicine, space, writing,
jokes, and the occult.
150 T
Communications software
IMnmlml Pmijmm§
CP/M
Cheap software with a community of
public-domain hacl<ers: JVIODEIVl?
(p. 150)
The best: MITE (p. 151)
IBM PC/MS-DOS
Inexpensive, flexible, dozens of
versions and improvements: PC-
TALK.III and QMODEM (p. 152)
Spend lots of time conferencing?
Create automated sequences:
CROSSTALK.XVI (p. 151)
Run other programs while saving
text to disk: RELAY (p. 150)
The simplest: PFS:ACCESS (p. 151)
High-budget, good for electronic
mail: TRANSEND PC COMPLETE
(p. 154)
Good, general-purpose programs:
MITE {p. 151) and SMARTCOM II
(p. 150)
Apple II:
Works with Pro-DOS, Apple's Super
Serial card, and lie: APPLE ACCESS
II (p. 152)
The easiest: PFS:ACCESS (p. 151)
Nice, general-purpose programs
that use Apple DOS: PERSON-TO-
PERSON (p. 152) and TERM EXEC
(p. 152)
Full-featured but difficult program
that uses Apple DOS: ASCII
EXPRESS "THE PROFESSIONAL"
(p. 152)
Macintosh
The simplest and cheapest: PRETTY
GOOD TERMINAL (p. 153)
Lots of features, user support, and
evolving capabilities for $40: RED
RYDER (p. 153)
The best: SMARTCOM II (p. 153)
Other computers:
Atari 800: AMODEM (p. 154)
Commodore 64, PET: VIDTEX,
COMMODORE ULTRA-TERMINAL
(p. 153)
The hacker's free standard . .
Free • or $10/disk; The Public Domain Software
Copying Company, 33 Gold Street, C-13, New York,
NY 10038; 212/732-2565 • or $6/disk; SIG/M
User's Group of ACG-NJ, P.O. Box 97, Iselin, NJ
08830; voice 201/272-1793; or CBBS 215/398-3937
• or $4-$12 plus $24 membership fee; FOG, P.O.
Box 3474, Daly City, CA 94015-0474; voice:
415/755-4140.
ART KLEINER: Bargain-priced (sometimes
free), easy to use, hard to learn. Modifying
this public-domain family is a great CP/M
hacker tradition. The resulting hundreds of
variations fall into two main "families":
MDM7, designed around a menu; and MEX,
completely command-driven (and specially
adapted to CompuServe), with a built-in
programming language of its own.
Documentation ranges from meager to none;
onscreen help is usually a cryptic list of one-
key commands.
Installing these programs may require some
assembly-language hacking, so it's best to
find one already installed for your type of
computer— -through a friend or a users'
group. (See "How to Get Free Software,"
p. 27). With any version you can call a
local CP/M bulletin board (p. 148) or
CompuServe's CP/M SIG (p. 146) and pull in
newer versions— which might be only days
old.
rfte mam selection menu of SMARTCOM II along
with the directory of built-in macros for dialing up
many of the popular on-line services. To dial a
network not included in the directory, just fill in a
chart with prompts and replies.
Almost dropped, but back
by popular acclaim . .
DEC Rainbow 100 © IBM PC/XT • Kaypro 2 • Xerox
822; copy-protected? NO; $149; Hayes
Microcomputer Products, 5923 Peachtree
Industrial Blvd., Norcross, GA 30092;
404/441-1617.
ART KLEINER: SMARTCOM II offers many
technical choices, and the mamjal and
menus explain them so well that using the
program is an easy-to-swallow basic
telecommunications course in itself. The
macro commands are particularly easy to set
up. But there's a price: the menus make
SMARTCOM II somewhat cumbersome to
jump around in. SMARTCOM ll's best
feature: it lets you scroll back to see
something lost off the top of the screen.
MITE on the PC and SMARTCOM II could
profitably borrow features from each other
The difference between them is a matter of
personal taste.
MEANS; NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Pretty slick . . .
RELAY O
Version 2.3; copy-protected? NO; $149; IBM PC/
XT/AT and compatibles; Wang Professional; Data
General 1; 256K; VM Personal Computing, 6
Germantown Rd., Danbury, CT 06810;
800/222-8672 or, in CT, 203/798-6755.
RUSEL DEMARIA: With RELAY, you can
send and receive files at the same time . . .
and print one to your printer simultaneously
... and while all that is happening, chat
with the person at the other end, on a split
screen, both of you typing messages at
once. You can set up RELAY to call
automatically at a preset time (like when
phone rates are lowest), execute a complex
"script" of commands, and log off by itself.
It can even send a script to another
computer using RELAY that tells that
computer to call yet another computer and
execute another script and thus "relay" to
itself ad infinitum. And, you can receive
messages from a remote host while running
another program.
ART KLEINER: Relatively easy to leam.
Almost as versatile a command language as
CROSSTALK. Almost as intuitively clear a
structure as MITE. More limited than it
should be for uploading text. Unabashedly
aimed at corporate types who need terminal
emulation. Excels at file transfer (see p.
156).
None easier to use . . .
Version C; IBM PC/XT/jr, compatibles except
Hyperion (MS-DOS, modem, 128K); $140. Version
A; Apple lie, lie (modem, 128K); $70; copy-
protected, but can be installed on hard disk;
Software Publishing Corporation, 1901 Landings
Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043; 415/962-8910.
ART KLEINER: If you want as little bother as
possible, get PFS:ACCESS and be done with
it. Like other PFS products, there's every
essential feature and very little more. You
create log-in commands by going through
the motions once, and thereafter the
program remembers what you did
(TRANSEND PC COMPLETE, p. 154, does
this too). Major limitation: you can save only
eight log-on command sequences. Bulletin-
board hoppers will be frustrated; file
transferrers, who need an error-checking
protocol, won't find one here.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: It's a matter of
style. I choose PFS:ACCESS over
CROSSTALK because it's so easy— it's
entirely function key and menu driven—
nothing to learn, absolutely no commands to
remember. I log on automatically to
conferences in three networks and several
bulletin boards and send files without any
problem. Once in a conference, I can scroll
backward through what's just zoomed by at
1200 baud using the cursor arrow, PAGE UP
and PAGE DOWN keys; then, by simply
pressing a function key, print or save
selected portions (text that's being saved is
highlighted). With CROSSTALK'S macro
commands, you set up automated
sequences that save everything
indiscriminately (once the text has
disappeared from the screen, it's gone). You
don't have to tend the process, but you
often end up with a file full of garbage to be
edited later.
Our benchmark for CP/M and
MS-DOS . . .
8-bit CP/M or mm, $150; 16-bit CP/M,
CONCURRENT CP/M (MITE/86) or MS-DOS (MITE-
MS), $195; terminal emulation, $25 ® Macintosh,
$145 (no terminal emulation available); copy-
protected? NO; Mycroft Labs, RO. Box 6045,
Tallahassee, FL 32314; 904/385-1141.
ART KLEINER: Finding MITE was like sailing
into safe harbor after a violent storm. Before
I found it, I looked at a dozen other CP/M
terminal programs. Some didn't work.
Others took hours to install, or had no break
key, or no automatic log-in commands.
Some were just organized illogically, so it
took constant concentration to use them.
It's probably the most compatible terminal
program in existence. You can meddle with
(or ignore) a wide range of specs, filter out
unwanted characters that might confuse your
word processor, and customize the keys you
use to operate MITE itself. MITE is organized
so you can understand at a glance where to
go next in the program. MITE also has one
of the clearest manuals of any telecom
program. On CP/M computers, no other
terminal program I've seen comes close. On
MS-DOS machines it's slightly less elegant,
not taking complete advantage of the IBM PC
function keys.
miEs main menu. Each sutimenu in tlie bottom
tialf allows you to customize different
specifications. NIITE is more easily adaptable to
various computers, modems, and networks than
any other terminal program.
Keeping it simple, PFSMCESS gives you one set-
up screen with all the bare essentials. Automatic
sign-on enters your first responses to the online
service and logs you in.
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Wlien you know enougli to use ttie best . . .
Version 5; most CP/M and MS-DOS computers;
Bell-compatible modems; copy-protected? NO;
$195; Microstuf, Inc., 1000 Holcomb Woods Pkwy.,
Suite 440, Roswell, GA 30076; 404/998-3998.
ART KLEINER: For experts who want their
networking more fully automated than MITE
can offer now. With two keystrokes
CROSSTALK logs me on to CompuServe and
our Whole Earth conference there; it asks
whether I want to see new items or print out
old messages for our library files; if I request
old messages, it asks me which message I
want to start at, collects them, saves them on
disk, and logs off when it's done. It took
about three hours to program this sequence;
now it saves me hours every week.
CROSSTALK also lets you preset the screen
colors, so at a glance you can differentiate the
text you receive from the text you send and
from CROSSTALK'S own commands. (MITE
does this too, but not as elegantly.)
CROSSTALK versions 1 .0 and 2.0 are much
less capable, and I don't recommend them.
JOHN MARKOFF: CROSSTALK doesn't force
you to wade through vast levels of menus.
You can summon all the program's
commands from a single, unobtrusive
command line at the bottom of the screen,
while the rest of the screen shows what's
happening on the network you've dialed up.
The program can also function as a simple
host system (with password protection), so I
can dial my office and download files from my
PC while I'm away. It supports both XMODEM
and its own file-transfer protocols, and it
controls file-transfer and micro-to-malnframe
interaction as well as any program I've seen.
But I enjoy CROSSTALK most because it has
one of the cleanest user interfaces around: it
feels right.
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The CROSSTALK main menu includes choices for
all of the parameters necessary for setting up
communications as well as a directory of dial-up
macros.
d2
Almost free; bargains at any price
IBM PC & most compatibles; most autodial &
acoustic modems; 300-1200 baud; $35 suggested
donation; Freeware/Headlands Press, Box 862,
Tiburon, CA 94920.
o
Version 1.03-E; IBM PC/PCjr/XT/AT and
compatibles; 192K; most autodial and acoustic
modems; 300-9600 baud; $25 ($20 suggested
donation; $5 for disk, mailer, and postage); John
Friel, The Forbin Project, 715 Walnut St., Cedar
Falls, lA 50613; data: 319/266-8086 (300, 1200
and 2400 baud).
ART KLEINER: PC-TALK's designer Andrew
Fluegelman invented tlie "freeware" concept
(you send tlie requested $35 only if you like
the program and find it of value). Though
easy to learn and use, original PC-TALK
supports only Hayes Smartmodems, runs
relatively slowly (it's written in BASIC), and
doesn't log in to networks automatically.
ALFRED GLOSSBRENNER: Because Andrew
makes the BASIC source code available, it
has always been easy for users to add
improvements and additional features, and
this has encouraged the growth of an
enthusiastic PC-TALK community— now
more or less officially based in the
CompuServe IBM/PC SIG (p. 146). That's
where you'll find the latest and greatest
version— PC-TALK.IIIB— which uses 192K of
memory, and has automatic log-in
commands and an improved version of the
XMODEM protocol. This version and
distribution point have the official sanction of
Andrew Fluegelman and The Headlands
Press, holders of the copyright for PC-TALK.
SIG members have taken sole responsibility
for supporting the product.
John Friel's user-supported QMODEM has
commands and a program layout almost
identical to PC-TALK's, but QMODEM is
written in Turbo Pascal; thus it runs 30-40
times faster. You can even specify a "CPU
speed" if your machine runs faster than the
standard IBM PC. Menus and prompts
appear and disappear instantly in pop-up
windows and, slickest of all, you can tell
QMODEM to dial up to ten different phone
numbers.
ART KLEINER: There are dozens of other
homebrew PC-TALK mutations, with split-
screen, terminal emulation, and real-time
animated graphics and sound.
(Snarl) compatible with everything
Version 3.3 (DOS); Version 4.3 (ProDOS); Apple II
family; 48K, 1 drive; copy-protected? NO; $130;
United Software Industries, 1880 Century Park
East, Suite 311, Los Angeles, CA 90067;
213/556-2211.
ART KLEINER: Annoyed with its opaque and
confusing structure, I dropped this from the
Catalog and reinstated it after howls of
protest from satisfied users. There simply is
The best-designed, from Apple itself .
Version 1.0; Apple llc/lle (Super Serial Card;
64K); $75. Version 2.0; Apple llc/lle (extended 80
column card); ProDOS; mouse required; copy-
protected? NO; Apple Computer, 20525 Mariani
Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014; 408/996-1010.
ART KLEINER: Each APPLE ACCESS II menu
appears as a "filecard" on the screen, with
previous "filecards" stacked up behind it.
You can tell at a glance where you are in the
program. Dialing into remote networks is
easy, and you can save or send text without
backing through a series of menus. APPLE
ACCESS II can filter out control characters
from incoming text, and has a well-written
command language for running automatic
sequences of events. A class act with only
two limitations: you can only store ten phone
numbers on each disk, and it only runs on
the lie or the lie with Apple's Super Serial
card and ProDOS. If you use APPLEWORKS
(page 108) you'll particularly want this
program.
no other Apple terminal program with this
number of configuration options, or with this
sophisticated a command language (APPLE
ACCESS comes close).
LOUIS JAFFE: ASCII EXPRESS'S
achievement, and its Achilles' heel, is the
procedure for setting up routines to log on
to a remote system automatically. These
routines are more powerful than those of
most other programs, but to use them you
must learn a mini-programming language.
The manuals give this procedure only a brisk
once-over. If you're a novice, count on
finding outside help.
Switch between voice and data . . .
PEiSOi^TO=PERSOi ©
Version 1.1; Apple ll/lle (DOS 3.3, modem
suggested, 48K, II requires one disk drive);
$69.95; copy-protected? YES; Trutec Software,
1700 Solano Ave., Berkeley, CA 94707;
415/525-4901.
ART KLEINER: This program runs on the
Apple II, lie, and lie with a variety of serial
cards and modems. It's one step less
versatile than ASCII EXPRESS— no error-
checking (so you can't use it for file transfer)
and no break key— but twelve steps more
comprehensible. As a bonus, it.includes an
electronic rolodex. You can pull out a name,
dial the person's phone, talk to them, switch
both computers to data, send an electronic
message, and switch back to voice.
PERSON-TO-PERSON has a good, clear
method for customizing automatic log-in
sequences. The developers of this program
have thought about how human beings keep
in touch with each other, and it shows.
Patterned after APPLE DOS itself .
Q
Elizabeth O'Neill; version 2.0; copy-protected?
NO; $95; Apple II family; Quinsept, RO. Box 216,
Lexington, MA 02173; 617/641-2930.
RIC MANNING: TERM EXEC is friendly
without a lot of screen menus. Instead, it
uses a single prompt and many commands
patterned after Apple DOS. CATALOG reads
the disk files, LIST displays them on the
screen, and so on. TERM EXEC can do
automatic log-ons and will memorize a
sequence of keystrokes so you can use a
built-in clock routine to send files
unattended. The program uses DIVERSI-
DOS and is not copy-protected. Current
versions support the He 80-column
configurations, but not Videx or other third-
party boards for the II + . One interesting
version is TALKING TERM EXEC for speech
synthesizers. It will compress speech,
screen out punctuation, change intonation,
or repeat lines. And it's the same price.
/ recently joined the ranks of UNIX-users,
and started reading the collection of
electronic bulletin boards who are known
collectively (with their users) as "Usenet. "
. . . A bit of "nettiquette" that I found
amusing was the convention of using
"Smileys. " There are ;-) :-) B-) :*) 8-) etc.
If you turn your head 90 degrees, they look
like smiling faces. #1 is winking, #2 is the
"standard" smiley #3 is wearing glasses,
#4 has a fat nose, #5 is wearing granny
glasses. —Andrea Frankel
O
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Maefavorite . .
^
W
Version 2.1; copy-protected? NO; $149;
Macintosh; 128K (512K required for full graphics
capabilities); Hayes Microcomputer Products,
Inc., 5923 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Norcross,
GA 30092; 404/441-1617.
ART KLEINER: I have never been as
impressed by a terminal program.
SMARTCOM II is the first Mac terminal
program to use icons and mouse
intelligently. When you're online, icons help
you turn on or off the disk, printer, or file
transfer. When you write an automatic
command file, you need memorize no
special language— icons below the screen-
walk you through the process. As it dials
and logs in, little screen images light up to
show your progress and pinpoint any
problems.
I suspect a complete novice could, within an
hour's use of SMARTCOM II, happily log in,
upload, download, and set up the computer
to dial in while they're not around— without
any idea that these snags have flummoxed
terminal program users miserably in the
past. A sophisticated networker could go
years without exhausting the program's
capabilities.
SMARTCOM II saves its incoming text
automatically— you can easily cut, paste,
and copy parts of it to the Mac's clipboard
without losing your place online. A
"magnify" option doubles the size of those
eye-straining Macintosh letters. If all this is
not enough, SMARTCOM is the first program
to telecommunicate graphics— two Mac
owners running SMARTCOM can work
simultaneously on the same MACPAINT or
graphic file, each seeing the other's changes
shortly after they're made. A boon for long-
distance art or drafting collaborators.
One caveat: the program requires Hayes'
own Smartmodem. If you already bought an
Apple modem, you're out of luck. Hayes-
compatibles are chancy. Get the store owner
to test it before you buy the program.
User-supported software: two good
Mac options . . .
Scott Watson; version 5.0; Shareware; $40
registration fee; Macintosh; FreeSoft, 10828
Lacklink, St. Louis, MO 63114; 314/428-8057
(after 6 p.m. CST).
ETT¥ iOii Ti
o
Philip Zimmerman; version 6.93; Shareware; $15
if you supply disk; otherwise $25; Phil's Pretty
Good Software, 440 South 45th St., Boulder, CO
80303; 303/494-1305.
ART KLEINER: These two programs are the
first non-commercial Macintosh terminal
programs that don't require MICROSOFT
BASIC on the same disk to run; thus, they're
faster, better adapted to the mouse, and less
prone to crash.
PATRICIA NIEHOFF: RED RYDER has many
features that other programs do not:
programmable macro keys, user-defined
auto log-on procedures for any service,
three kinds of up/download protocols
(straight text, XMODEM, and KERMIT), and
an ability to transfer you directly into Apple's
simple text editor called EDIT You can even
use the Macintosh Desk Accessories during
the program's run. At $40, it costs less
than half of what MACTERMINAL or
SMARTCOM II cost.
ART KLEINER: RED RYD.ER is not made for
booting up and dialing; to use it effectively,
you must learn to write moderately complex
command files. Its many small conveniences
include a mouseclick window on the screen
for common control characters. The manual
is well-written, but limited.
An alternative, PRETTY GOOD TERMINAL,
dials the phone, logs you in, sends and
receives text, and doesn't do much more.
But it costs little, feels elegant to use, and
you have to admire the gentle sense of
humor of its creator.
Point and click the bottom icons of SMARTCOM II on
your Macintosh and you can print, capture, send
files, receive files or send drawings to another
Smartcom Mac. The pull-down menus offer many
choices and countless configurations for telecom-
municating, while making it all seem so simple.
ART KLEINER: Telecommunications is a necessity with a lap computer. You
can't take it all with you; you have to keep transmitting some of it away. All the
lap computers we recommend have either built-in modems or connections to
outside modems. The Radio Shack Model 100 (p. 16) is the least expensive way
to begin telecommunicating effectively if you don't already own a computer. Its
built-in terminal program is fully featured and snag-free. For file transfer, see
DISK-F (page 156).
Commodore 64 and Radio Shack
preference . . .
Apple II family ® Commodore 64, Pet ® CP/M ®
TRS-80 Models I, II, III ®TRS-80 Color Computer;
$40 ® IBM PC; $60; copy-protected? NO;
CompuServe, 5000 Arlington Center Blvd., P. 0.
Box 20212, Columbus, OH 43220; 800/848-8199.
Commodore 64 (1 600/1 650/Modem 300); $69.95;
Creative Equipment, 6864 W. Flagler St., Miami,
FL 33144; 305/261-7866.
CHRISTOPHER DUNN: VIDTEX has all the
major functions— it stores incoming or
outgoing text in a buffer, sends and receives
from networks, controls baud rate and other
transmission parameters, and has
CompuServe's special error-checking
protocol. You can even arrange it to boot up
automatically, dial and log you on, and take
you directly to any area on any system.
ART KLEINER: VIDTEX has versions for
more computer brands than any other type
of terminal program. If it had the XMODEM
protocol (see page 156) I'd recommend it
more enthusiastically for other computers.
As it is, it's an Inexpensive, full-featured
terminal program to poke around networks
with. CompuServe is always working on
improvements, which are usually offered for
downloading from the network itself.
GEORGE BEEKMAN: COMMANDER
ULTRA-TERMINAL displays an onscreen clock
that tells you how long you've been online,
and lets you choose the display's color
scheme and format. If you do have a disk
drive or printer, COMMANDER lets you save
or print your communications while they're
displayed on the screen.
i File Edit Connection Settings Autopilot Special
EIESTELE
can find one uiith low mileage. In Stewart's case, for instance,
that npprn qrhjiinijiri be go od , ff i nee it Kfteos the cost doain
(maybe 60il
Respond
Ok: bye
Thanks f
Enter phone number:
C4l(Tl(Tl Q Pause Q seconds
QQQ Q Ulait for dial tone
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Cute mailing system, but limited . . .
TRAiSEii PC COiPLETE
IBM PC/XT/AT & compatibles; Transend or Hayes-
compatible modem; copy-protected? NO; $189;
Transend Corporation, 1887 O'Toole Ave., Suite
C209, San Jose, CA 95131; 408/435-0701.
ART KLEINER: Say you have people with IBM
PCs spread over the country working on one
project.-They're not hackers; they can just
about handle 1-2-3. You'd like them to
exchange electronic mail— sometimes
through The Source, but mostly by having
each other's computers dial each other after
the people have gone to bed. You want it to
feel like walking down the hall and sticking a
letter in the mail chute, not like engaging in
"data communications." I recommend
TRANSEND PC for this need, partly because
First, you enter all the names and electronic mail
addresses of your correspondents into TRANSEND
PC. Ttien, wlien you address a letter, TRANSEND
sliows you everyone 's name. You select the people
who should receive this message. TRANSEND
automatically ligures out how to reach them—
through The Source, OnTyme, or by dialing their
computers directly
it's so damn cute. Its main screen looks like a
desktop filled with in- and out-baskets. You
pop in and out of the baskets like a mobile
jack-in-the-box, typing letters on TRANSEND
PC's facile word processor. Then, at your cue
or at a preselected time, TRANSEND PC dials
up a series of numbers, leaves messages
where you want them and collects any that
are waiting for you, tagging them separately.
Each incoming message waits in your "In-
box" until you read it and (if you wish)
discard it. Then it goes to my favorite
TRANSEND PC feature, a holding place called
the "waste basket"; to delete it permanently,
you must "shred" it. TRANSEND PC's iconic,
nontechnical facade shows the direction that
communication programs are taking; it also
proves that Marshall McLuhan was right
about new media imitating old.
You can only send TRANSEND PC mail to
another computer running TRANSEND PC, to
The Source, or to OnTyme (see lEMS, p. 145).
There's a limited regular terminal program
tacked on, but if you want to be compatible
with a lot of different computers, don't get
this program. Those who can use it, however,
will chortle all the way to the keyboard.
Take your modem anywhere . . .
$49.95; Microperipheral Corp., 2565 152nd Ave.,
NE, Redmond, WA 98052; 206/881-7544.
CHARLES RAISCH: So I was the electronic
journalist at the Hyatt, taking notes on the
Senator's drunken carousing with a woman
who was not his wife, when shots rang out
and the famous man slumped forward into
his mashed potatoes. After getting out from
under the table, I grabbed my portable
For Atari owners,
the best is free . . .
Versions 4.2 and higher. Atari 400/600/800,
800XL; 48K; 1 disk drive; 300/1200 baud modem;
send $10 and specify which type of Atari and
modem you have; Jim Steinbrecher, 33220 Tricia,
Sterling Heights, Ml 48077.
BERNIE BILDMAN: What a nice surprise is in
store for Atari owners: the very best, most
enjoyable terminal program is public domain
. . . free! AMODEM 4.2 (written by Jim
Steinbrecher) and its variations are the most
popular. (I use AMODEM 4.9.) This program
can capture incoming text and dump it to the
device of your choice (disk drive, cassette, or
printer). It will also transfer files with the
XMODEM protocol (see p. 156). It runs at
300 or 1200 baud, sends text from disk or
cassette, and toggles between phone and log-
on automatically. One hitch: you need another
public domain program, DISKLINK, to use
AMODEM with the Atari 1030 modem. You
can obtain AMODEM and DISKLINK by mail,
from the Atari SIG on CompuServe (p. 146),
or from most any Atari bulletin board or local
users' group. An updated version
(ETTMODEM) which runs on all Atari
modems is available for $15 from
Steinbrecher.
computer and rushed to my hotel suite to file
my story. I set my gear up, plugged the
cable into my modem, and—Holy Hell! It's
an old telephone— no modular plug!
The Black Jack hits this problem right on the
head. Simply unscrew the mouthpiece of the
telephone, drop the round microphone
lozenge out of the unit, and screw on the
Black Jack. The mouthpiece becomes a
modular jack connection for direct-connect
modems. A neat gadget that works with all
computers and modems. Now I always make
the evening editions.
Between telephone and computer . .
JIM STOCKFORD: Modems translate computer codes into sound
signals that travel across telephone lines to other modems,
allowing communication among computers of any brand. Some
modems dial the telephone themselves; others require you to
dial the telephone keypad. Many modems can also receive, or
answer, a call.
Modems connect to the phone lines in two ways: directly, by
cable to a jack, which is inexpensive and very reliable; or
indirectly, with an "acoustic coupler," a device whose two
suction cups fit on a telephone handset.
One important choice is the modem's baud rate— generally 300
or 1200 baud, figures that approximate the number of bits per
second sent or received. Three hundred baud is just slow
enough to read as it scrolls by; 1200 is four times faster but still
slow enough to skim. In areas where phone-line transmission is
poor, a slow baud rate may be necessary to ensure correct
reception (just as on a noisy phone line you speak more slowly
to be understood).
A standalone modem works with most computer/software
combinations, but it's on you to make sure they all work
together properly Standalone modems take up space on your
desk or on top of your computer, but can be adapted to any new
computer software you buy or be sold later.
An in-board modem fits in a slot for your particular computer,
and usually comes with software. However, it adds little to your
computer's resale value, it takes up a slot you may need for
something else, and you can't easily resell it. The several in-
board modems we've seen are overpriced and machine-specific,
so we don't recommend them. If you choose one, choose it
according to the software that comes with it.
§§§-[BmM] IMlmlmifm
JAMES STOCKFORD: We don't recommend
300-baud modems this year. For very little
more money you can get a modem that
works at both 300 and 1200 baud.
Telecommunicating at 1200 baud generally
saves you money in phone charges and
1200-baud modems are more convenient to
use. However, for those who absolutely can't
afford a 1200-baud modem, here's one very
inexpensive but good 300-baud modem.
A basic, no-frills 300-baud machine .
$79.95; Anchor Automation, Inc., 6624 Valjean
Avenue, Van Nuys, CA 91406; 818/997-6493.
JAMES STOCKFORD: The least expensive
general-purpose modem, the Volksmodem
VMI connects directly to standard modular
phone connectors. It allows both connecting
parties to transmit simultaneously (full-
duplex mode) or, alternately, one party to
transmit at a time (half-duplex mode). It
automatically switches between answer
mode and originate mode, and its built-in
speaker lets you hear if there's a busy
signal, no answer, or lost carrier tone. The
VMI is low-priced and reliable— the best
choice of the 300-baud modems.
FOR CI
iOiOBE 14
JAMES STOCKFORD: Because the
Commodore and Atari machines have non-
standard connectors, modem shopping for
them is a little peculiar.
We have found, though, that most serious
Commodore and Atari telecommunicaters
buy RS-232 interfaces and, because they can
then choose any modem that suits them,
they usually choose 1200-baud modems.
Nifty gizmo . .
o
$39.95; Control Industries, P.O. Box 6292, Bend,
OR 97708; 503/389-1969.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: If your modem is
connected to a phone with more than one
extension, buy a DATAGUARD. This little
thingamabob fits easily inside your telephone
(comes with clear instructions) and gives
your modem, in effect, a dedicated phone
line. If someone picks up an extension
phone while your modem is using the phone
line, they get a dead phone and you stay
online. Otherwise, the phones work the
same as before. It's worth every penny.
1i§§-§mml Mmkm§
JAMES STOCKFORD: A year ago, 1200-baud
modems were premium devices— expensive
and exotic. This year they are the
inexpensive standard — you can get a 1200-
baud smart modem for about $200. Why
pay more? Modems suffer from two
problems: heat (the more features a modem
has, the hotter it gets) and phone line noise
(which produces garbage on the screen and
sometimes even prevents the modem from
connecting). The more expensive modems
avoid these problems. All the 1200-baud
modems we recommend also allow 300-
baud telecommunicating.
A basic, low-frills machine . .
$299, street price $225; Anchor Automation, Inc.
6913 Valjean Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91406;
818/997-7758.
liRTLi
0^
$199; BCN, 2533 South Highway 101, Suite 210,
CardiH-by-the-Sea, CA 92007; 800/541-0199.
JAMES STOCKFORD: Anchor makes both
machines— a barely smart, but good, low-
cost 1200-baud modem. It senses a dial tone
and the carrier tone of another modem, and
it automatically adjusts to accommodate the
signal of an incoming modem call. Using
keyboard commands, you can change the
modem's parameters (parity, baud rate, stop
bit, echo, and duplex settings) and switch
between tone and pulse dialing.
BCN packaged the Anchor modem in a
different case, lowered the price, added
software, and named it the SMARTLINK II. It
may be this year's low-budget great deal.
Plenty of features and tough . . .
$499; Multi-Tech Systems, Inc., 82 Second
Avenue S.E., Nevif Brighton, MN 55112;
612/631-3550.
JAMES STOCKFORD: The MT212AH2 offers
many more features than the VMI 2. It also
stores phone numbers in its battery-
protected RAM memory, but with a single
keystroke you can instruct it to dial and re-
dial numbers a specified number of times
and dial another number if the first is busy
or unanswered. It features several test
modes— analog, digital, and remote digital
loopback, handy for isolating problems. It is
tough and works very well.
O MEANS: NEW TO 2 EDITION
Best for business
$495; Visionary Electronics, Inc., 141 Parker
Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94118; 415-751-8811.
JAMES STOCKFORD: The new Visionary
1200 is amazing. In addition to all the
features of all the other modems on this
page, the Visionary 1200 comes with two
micro-processors, RAM memory expandable
up to 48K, built-in communications
software, and an internal clock and calendar.
It stores phone numbers, log-on sequences,
incoming and outgoing messages in any
combination to the extent of its memory.
You can instruct it to call many numbers at
any time in the future, execute log-on
operations, download information, and leave
messages automatically, unconnected to
your computer. It will answer incoming
modem calls and store messages with a
date/time stamp. You can call in with a
password to get your messages or instruct it
to call you at a remote location. The
XMODEM (error checking) protocol is built
in. It has a printer port and three
programmable buttons you can set as you
please (switch from data to voice, dial a
TELEX or network address, whatever). It is
our top choice as a business tool.
JAMES STOCKFORD: In an age where the
differences between time and money are
blurring, modems that let you
telecommunicate faster would appear, on the
surface, to be automatic preferences. But as
yet, only a few of the major networks offer
2400-baud access; the rest are looking at
this issue carefully. In this case, faster is not
necessarily better— yet. Only if you spend a
lot of time telecommunicating should you
consider buying a 2400-baud modem.
Fast and reliable
o
$795; Multilech Systems, Inc., 82 Second Avenue
S.E., New Brighton, MN 55112; 612/631-3350.
JAMES STOCKFORD: The MULTIMODEM
224 has the same features as its 1200-baud
sibling, except that it allows 2400-baud
communications in addition to 1200- and
300-baud. We connected it between our new
VAX super-minicomputer and the Sausalito
phone lines to try it on our new conferencing
system. The WELL. Absolutely no
complaints, it passed with flying colors.
HUGH DANIEL: MultiTech has been making
good modems for years without a lot of
hoopla. This modem seems to be the latest
in a series of very good modems.
Mowing data from one computet to another . . .
ART KLEINER: Typical problem: you want to transfer a file
(words, numbers, or other data) from your Apple II to an IBM
PC. How do you do it?
1. If the computers are near each other you can connect them
using an RS-232 cable with a "null-modem." (Most computers
use reasonably standard cabling, but double-check with your
store to make sure.) If the computers are widely separated,
you'll need to connect each computer to a modem. If all other
factors are equal, choose a cable instead of telephones; it's
easier, faster, and more reliable.
2. A terminal program on each computer. To transfer files
without errors (helpful for text, essential for data), terminal
programs need an agreed-upon "protocol." Any protocol will
do, as long as you have the same one on both ends, but the
most commonly used is XMODEM, a public-domain protocol
written by Ward Christensen. With XMODEM, you'll be able to
swap files with 90 percent of the computers around you.
Terminal programs with XMODEM include: M0DEM7, PC-
TALK.III, QMODEM, AMODEM, RED RYDER, CROSSTALK XVI
SMARTCOM II, TRANSEND PC COMPLETE, ASCII EXPRESS,
and TERM EXEC. The two best are MITE (p. 151), which lets
you send several files at once, and RELAY (p. 150), which lets
you run other programs while you're sending a long file.
KERMIT is better suited for mainframes.
3. Finally, if you're moving files from one program to another
the data may need to be converted into another file format. If
the programs themselves don't handle the conversion, you
may need utilities. Many of these utilities are found in the
public domain (see p. 25). The Programming section (pp. 158
to 174) also includes utility programs as does the Analyzing
section on p. 72.
Stop! Before you transfer files, ciieck this
stiortcut . . .
Version 3.0; copy-protected? NO; $99.50; IBM PC/
XT and compatibles; Vertex Systems, 6022 W.
Pico Blvd. #3, Los Angeles, CA 90035; 213/938-
0857.
0^
Copy-protected? NO; $99; PC/MS-DOS machines;
64K; 2 disk drives; Selfware, Inc., 3545 Chain
Bridge Rd., Suite 3, Fairfax, VA 22030;
800/242-4355 or, in VA, 703/352-2977.
0^
Version 2.0L; copy-protected? YES; $99; IBM PC
and compatibles; 2 disk drives; Award Software,
Inc., 236 North Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gates, CA
95030; 408/395-2773.
ART KLEINER: Computer designer George
Morrow once said, "The best local area
network is walking down the hall with a
floppy disk." If the computers use the same
kind of disks, these programs will, while
you're using them, "trick" the disk drive on
one computer into believing it's a disk drive
for a second type of computer. They take,
say, a KAYPRO II file and make a copy of it
in, say, IBM PC format in the same
computer.
Matthew McClure used these three to put
together the Wfhole Earth Software Catalog.
All are limited to file transfers between MS-
DOS machines, CP/M machines, or from one
to the other, and all work fine. They keep
adding machines to their lists, so check the
documentation to see if they'll work for you.
naodel 100 to desktop
,+
Version 2.0; copy-protected? YES; $149.95;
TRS-80 Models I, II, III, 4, 4P, 12, 16; Models
1000, 1200HO, 2000; Portable Computer Support
Group, 11035 Harry Hines Blvd. #207, Dallas, TX
75229; 214/351-0564.
o
Version 1.12; copy-protected? YES; $180; IBM PC/
XT/AT and compatibles; 256K; 2 disk drives;
Kensington Microware, 251 Park Ave. So., New
York, NY 10010; 212/475-5200.
JAMES STOCKFORO: I have used DISK+ to
exchange files between the IBM PC and the
Model 100. The Model 100 controls the
whole process, including the disk drive and
the file-managing activity of the desktop
computer. You can use the PC to store
Model 100 files and thus avoid the much
more tedious cassette recorder. DISK+
comes as a plug-in chip, which saves
memory space.
ART KLEINER: OISK+ requires you to buy
your own "null-modem" cable. For IBM PC
owners, REMOTE CONTROL comes with
everything, including cable, in one box. It
puts a version of the Model 100 software on
the screen of your PC.
Like a wtiite flag between battling
armies . . .
o
o
MEANS; NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Copy-protected? NO; $150; IBM PC and
compatibles (128K); Macintosh; dilithium Press,
P.O. Box 606, Beaverton. OR 97075;
503/243-3313.
ART KLEINER: Because each machine has its
own unique advantages, many offices have
Free micro, mini, mainframe moves
Available for most mainframe, minicomputers,
and microcomputers; 1 disk drive and modem or
connecting cable; copy-protected? NO; free
through most local users' groups; for availability
to users' groups and other institutions contact
KERMIT Distribution, Columbia University Center
for Computing Activities, 612 West 115th Street,
New York, NY 10025; 212/280-3703.
MARK COHEN: KERMIT allows file transfer
between a wide variety of different
computers. While originally developed for
communication between mini and mainframe
computers, the many authors of KERMIT
now write new versions as fast as the
computer manufacturers can crank out
incompatible machines. The program is free
and usually includes enough documentation
for use. Complete and fancy documentation
is available but costs money. Finding a copy
of KERMIT is sometimes difficult. Most
university systems have a version of KERMIT
already set up that is yours for the taking
and, being in the public domain, for many
universities it is the preferred file transfer
protocol. KERMIT won't allow you to run
1-2-3 (p. 68) on your Atari, but it does allow
you to transfer both text and binary files
simply and efficiently. The process of
moving a copy of KERMIT to your own
computer, however, can be a bit complex
and/or poorly documented.
both an IBM PC and a Macintosh— -a
frustrating arrangement because the two
machines don't talk to each other very well.
Now all the programs and parts— including
the cable— for exchanging text, spreadsheet,
or database files come in one box called PC
TO MAC AND BACK! and you can get them
going in an hour and a half. The one utility
missing, though, is one that would convert
MACPAINT drawings to painting programs
that run on the IBM PC.
Mi%?yig^a- y'age-ak.;<.^';fe,-5a-.'raH&J!
ART KLEINER: Local computer networks may change how
offices work more than any other computer use. These networks
link small computers to share expensive hard disks and fast
printers, mutually used databases and spreadsheets, and
complex programs. I asked Richard Solomon, editor of
International Networks, a newsletter on world
telecommunications technology and policy ($225/yr; P.O. Box
187, Monson, MA 01057) and veteran networking consultant, to
tell how to bring a local network into your business.
RICHARD SOLOMON: Business people often come to me with
half-articulated local networking needs: Maybe they already have
three Apples and an IBM PC in the office, with three more PCs
and a Compaq on order, and they want them all to connect easily
together. Unfortunately, no off-the-shelf product can do that yet,
and I'd be skeptical of any manufacturer who said it could be
simply done.
When you extend a web among computers, new complexities
arise that you don't face when you try to interchange data
between, say, SUPERCALC and DBASE II or between two ASCII
word processors. First, there are no universal local network
standards. Cable connections, operating systems, disk- access
formats, and a host of other details are unpredictably
incompatible. I once spent four days transferring WORDSTAR
files from an Apple to an IBM PC. All sorts of problems arose
that MicroPro seemed unaware of. Apple CP/M and PC DOS do
different things with carriage return/linefeed. RS-232 serial-to-
serial was out of the question without some extensive
programming and resoldering of the Apple-Cat II. The modems
or the software were not compatible at 1200 baud, so we had to
settle for 300.
And the CP/M operating system stripped all the funny
WORDSTAR characters, so the files required extensive manual
manipulation. In the long run, rekeying would have been
cheaper and faster-cheaper even than buying some untested
software that promised the moon but, as usual, left out some
small important detail.
A local network isn't going to do much for you where everything
else is incompatible. But there are even more fundamental
questions: How much wire can fit in your ceiling? How well can
your office phone system carry computer signals? If it is an all-
digital PBX, can it interface with your PC at all? (Probably not.)
How well can your existing database software handle the tricky
problems of access by more than one user? How compatible will
your network be with the new equipment you'll want to buy next
year, or with another local network you'll want to link it to later?
Local networks can have critical reliability problems. What do
you do when your hard disk breaks? The smaller firms have neat
products, but support is often terrible; you call them up and
never get a straight answer. Their code is always proprietary, so
you can't clean things up even if you know what you're doing. If
all your data is on a hard disk and there was an error in their
directory table, that can be catastrophic in a pinch. Too many
companies have not graduated from the fun and games level of
the microcomputer business and don't realize that people are
using their toys for serious, money-making tasks. I dropped one
vendor real fast when its hotline was answered on a Friday with a
recorded message that said they only worked four days a week!
Well, we often work seven days a week. That's why we use
computers.
This year, you still need a consultant to set up a local network-
someone skilled in using them who knows about several
systems, who understands the economics involved, and who
starts by asking what you do, how you do it, and why you want
to change it. If a consultant starts off by saying, "I've got a
super-duper product for you," look for someone else fast. Be
wary of any scheme that costs more than 50 percent of the total
cost of your computers and terminals.
The simplest local network is two computers connected by cable
—for swapping files (see p. 155). Some programs will let both
computers share files simultaneously on the same hard disk (if
the operating systems are comparable). An alternative is
expanding one microcomputer into a multi-user system, with
other computers serving as terminals to the first. (They don't
even have to be similar machines, since the other micros could
emulate terminals when connected to the host machine.) Multi-
user operating systems like UNIX (p.168) are more versatile, "
but may be overkill (especially in price) for most small
businesses.
Most local networks use coaxial or fiberoptic cable, or ordinary
telephone wire pairs, to link 3 to 25 machines. The more useful
cable systems, like Ethernet, incorporate complex algorithms on
interface cards so that each computer can sense when to send or
receive a signal. Some office telephone systems are designed to
carry data as well as voice, but require some special device for
direct connection, since modems will not do. And next year
telephone companies in many cities may offer AT&T's Circuit
Switched Digital Capability, hopefully to be tariffed as a low-cost
service sending data at 56 kilobits/second over ordinary
telephone lines; this is fast enough to effectively extend your
local network across a city or a continent.
Speed is important, because you won't just be sending files,
you'll be interacting with a faraway program as quickly as if it
were on your own computer.
I recommend waiting for the new products, which we'll review
as good ones emerge. None of the popular PCs today were
designed with digital high-speed (local or whatever)
commmunications in mind. But some of the rumored offerings
from AT&T (of course), IBM, Digital, and others will radically
change the way software is written and micros are used. If you
really need communications, you can probably assume that
anything you buy now will be written off in less than three years,
as these novel items come onstream.
Citicorp in Manhattan sends its data locally by laser beams and
microwave, coaxial cables, and fiberoptic lines running down the
IRT subway line (which, as J.R Morgan's bank, it financed back
in 1904). Also, since 1918, the bank has had a pneumatic tube
system in the IRT still kept in very good shape. These are not
department store tubes-they're large cylinders that carry their
cargo between uptown and downtown at some 75 mph. Initially
they carried paper, punched cards, and money, but now they
transport floppy disks. When CitiCorp analyzed its various
systems, it found that nothing was sending as much data faster
than the pneumatic tubes.
158
Gerald M. Weinberg, Domain Editor
GERALD M. WEINBERG: In 1905, when you went motoring, you
took your mechanic. Twenty-five years later, mass production
revolutionized the role of the automobile, but buying a Ford
wouldn't have made sense if everyone still needed a mechanic
on board.
In 1955, when you used your computer, you took your
programmer. Twenty-five years later, mass production
revolutionized the role of the computer, but buying a micro
wouldn't have made sense if everyone still needed a
programmer.
It was important to get rid of the mechanic in every car, but even
after 80 years, we still need mechanics somewhere. Moreover,
drivers who understand the mechanisms involved get a whole lot
more satisfaction from their cars. Even if they don't make simple
repairs themselves, their knowledge of the mechanical
underpinnings makes them far more intelligent buyers of cars
and service.
It's the same with programming, the technology that underlies
all other software tools, the very instructions that drive the
computer. The three most common problems software users
face today are (1) selecting the right package, (2) understanding
the documentation, and (3) coping with errors and
shortcomings in the programs. If you use software— even
though you never intend to write a program — you should read a
few good books on programming. Why? A knowledge of
programming (1) makes you a better shopper, (2) clarifies
muddy manuals and foggy screens, and (3) suggests how to
circumvent errors and shortcomings.
Some addicts say that programming builds character If so, I
must have built a lot of character in 30 years, but not enough to
tolerate poor-quality software tools. Most of the tools available
to the personal computer programmer are two decades behind
the best that are available on mainframes. Fortunately, the
micros are catching up fast, and they would develop even faster
if the market were more sophisticated. Few personal computer
users would recognize fine programming if they saw it.
One example: An enthusiast sent me a review of a tool for
resequencing line numbers in BASIC. No doubt he finds it
useful, but it's unforgivable that this tool wasn't provided as part
of his BASIC interpreter. Even worse, why would a sensible
programming language use line numbers in the first place?
They're a throwback to the old days when the only terminals
programmers could use were printers rather than monitors
(BASIC and APL), or to the ancient days of punch cards
(FORTRAN). A tool for resequencing line numbers in BASIC is
like a blowtorch to light the pilot on your solar water heater
Though unacquainted with good programming, personal
computer users have been introduced to the consequences of
poor programming in the software they buy— errors,
incompatible interfaces, errors, clumsy designs, errors, poor
performance, errors, wipeouts, and errors. None of this garbage
is necessary, but the buyers think "that's just the way computers
are." That's why this section emphasizes some of the classic
books on programming— to accelerate the revolution of rising
expectations. And that's why it emphasizes the entire
programming process from conception to design to debugging,
not just hacking code on the screen.
We have restricted the reviews of programming tools to a few of
the best— partly owing to a lack of space, partly to a lack of more
good tools, but mostly because it's time we learned from good
examples. Unfortunately, some of the best programming tools
are being treated as trade secrets within the software
companies. Superior programming tools still have a small
marketing potential, so they're more profitably used— like
machine tools— to produce software products.
The market for software machine tools will always be smaller
than that for prebuilt packages: There are a lot more Chevys
than automatic milling machines. However, as hardware costs
drop and user sophistication grows, the market for
professional-quality programming tools will blossom. Some of
these high-quality tools, like UNIX (p. 168), and object-oriented
programming languages like SMALLTALK, are beginning to
reach the personal computer market. As they do, their
primitive imitations will be swept away. The sooner the better.
STEWART BRAND: Software is beyond soft, beyond liquid,
beyond even gas— it is utterly non-material. Yet it is completely
accessible. That makes it a standing invitation to meddle. The
stages are easy. First you install the commercial programs on
your computer, customizing to suit. Then you combine a
couple programs on one disk and blend them a bit. Then you
enhance the keyboard with the likes of PROKEY and
SMARTKEY (p. 174). Then you're messing with utilities
(pp. 172-174), further customizing your file and disk handling.
You're programming. Keep it up and you'll be a programmer.
We're honored to have as domain editor the distinguished
author of The Psychology of Computer Programming (p. 170)
Gerald M. Weinberg
and An Introduction to General
Systems Thinking along with 20
other books. Jerry Weinberg has
been working with computers for
29 years. At present he and his
anthropologist wife Dani do
consulting, training, and writing
on the interaction between
people and technology out of
their base near Lincoln,
Nebraska.
159
ataa^j&w-teaasagg^jW^&^g^^sagfeas^s^
PETER A. MCWILLIAMS: Teaching BASIC is a Jioldoverfrom
several years ago when there were no programs for personal
computers. That time is past, but the habit of teaching the
language of programming remains.
GERALD M. WEINBERG: Personally, I think everyone should
learn to program, but that's not a problem, because all computer
users do learn to program whether they want to or not. Any time
you arrange your procedure for using a word processor or
spreadsheet into a logical progression of steps, you are
programming. In fact, even when you arrange your procedure
into an /7/ofif/ca/ sequence of steps, you are programming. So the
question is not whether you should learn to program, but
whether you should learn to program well.
In short, the first reason to study programming is to improve
your ability to think in terms of logical, efficient procedures,
whether for using your computer or for using your own time
without a computer.
Let's face it. The state of the art in software is still a bit crude,
and most packages are more heavily influenced by their
programmers' concerns than by their intended audience. When
you run into trouble with such a package, even a slight
knowledge of programming may get you out of trouble by
allowing you to figure out what's going on behind the scenes—
the things the manual doesn't say explicitly.
GIRISH PARIKH: Learning a programming language, though
important for programming, is only half the story. Before
building a house, you first get a blueprint. To program
effectively, before writing code you must first have a design.
GERALD M. WEINBERG: For most personal computer users,
learning to design programs will probably be of much more
value than learning to write code in some programming
language. Those who understand design will make better
decisions when buying software, just as those who understand
architecture will make better decisions when buying a house.
Fortunately for the beginner, there are now some excellent books
on program design, which we review below.
GIRISH PARIKH: If you have leamed programming, you can
write short but important programs that you need but that are
not available on the software market. And who knows? You
might even get a software publisher interested, and make some
money.
GERALD M. WEINBERG: Getting rich through programming is a
common fantasy. If you intend to learn programming as a way of
getting rich, try the lottery instead. Your chances are better. On
the other hand, learning to program may help you get a job. But,
as Parikh says, we still haven't reached that Utopian state where
only professional programmers need to write programs. Most of
the programs you write will be trivial to everyone but yourself.
Twenty lines of BASIC that change the format of all your files so
you can use a new word processor may be worth thousands of
dollars to you but not a penny to someone else.
To me, the ultimate reason for learning to program was
perfectly expressed by Don Knuth as the first sentence of his
monumental work, The Art of Computer Programming (Donald
E. Knuth; Vol. 1, Fundamental Algorithms; 2nd ed., 1973; 634
pp.; Vol. 2, Seminumerical Algorithms; 2nd ed., 1981; 700
pp.; Vol. 3, Sorting and Searching; 1973; 722 pp.; $36.95/
volume; Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Jacob Way, Reading,
MA 01867; 617/944-3700; or COMPUTER LITERACY):
The process of preparing programs for a digital computer is
especially attractive, not only because it can be economically
and scientifically rewarding, but also because it can be an
aesthetic experience much like composing poetry or music.
GERALD M. WEINBERG: You don't need more reason than that.
mfii
'MMk iMii§w§§§i
GERALD M. WEINBERG: When Jean Sammett wrote
Programming Languages: History & Fundamentals in 1969,
there were hundreds of known languages. Though a few of them
have died, many more have been born, so now there may be
thousands. When you add the multiple dialects of each
language, and the multiple implementations of each dialect, the
beginner has a big problem: which language to learn first?
In my opinion, there are two important rules to follow in
choosing your first programming language:
1. It doesn't matter much, so choose something that's easily
available to you.
2. Don't learn just one, learn at least two at the same time.
I have always trained new programmers by having them write
every program in two languages as different from one another as
possible. At the very least, this practice prevents extreme
language chauvinism from developing. If you learn this way, you
learn that ei/ery language has some good features and every
language has some dreadful ones.
And since you're going to learn two, one of them might as well
help you get a job— quite likely some form of BASIC, COBOL,
Pascal , or some member of that family, like FORTRAN or PL/I .
But don't choose two from this family. To save money, you'll
probably choose the one that comes with your computer, which
is quite likely some form of BASIC. Don't let it bother you; you're
only learning.
MATTHEW MCCLURE: Most programming languages share
certain fundamental concepts, such as variables, subroutines,
arrays, loops, strings, conditional branching, input and output.
Learn how one language, such as BASIC, implements these
concepts, and it's usually not hard to learn how another
language handles the same ideas. It gets more interesting when
you have new concepts— structured/modular programming or
extensibility, for example; then you get exposed to a whole new
level of sophistication.
Teaching by bad example . . .
The Elements of Programming Style; Brian W.
Kernighan and P. J. Plauger; 2nd Edition, 1978;
160 pp.; $17.95; IVIcGraw-Hill, 1221 Avenue of the
Americas, New York, NY 10020; 212/512-2000; or
COMPUTER LITERACY
DENNIS GELLER: For programmers, this is
the one book to have if you're having only
one. Like its namesake, Strunk and White's
Elements of Style, the book concentrates on
the essential practical aspects of style by
example.
Collected into chapters under such names as
"Expression," "Control Structure,"
"Common Blunders," and "Efficiency and
Instrumentation" are real programs, not toys
made up to illustrate a point. These bad
examples serve as springboards for incisive
discussions of the best ways to write correct
and readable programs. Sad to say, these
programs come primarily from programming
textbooks, where our next generation of
programmers is turning for guidance. Each of
the examples gets rewritten, sometimes in
more than one way, to illustrate the
principles the authors espouse. The
examples are in FORTRAN or PL/I, but are
nonetheless valuable in BASIC, COBOL,
Pascal or any other common language. As
the authors prove, "The principles of style
are applicable in all languages, including
assembly codes."
Each example is followed by an aphorism that
captures the point: "Write clearly— don't be
too clever"; "Choose a data representation
that makes your program simple"; "Make it
right before you make it faster" The rules are
listed together at the end of the book. A
programmer could do worse than paste the
list on the wall.
This book could be used as a textbook for a
programming course, yet the examples are
sufficiently self-contained to allow you to
open the book at random , read a few pages,
and come away a better programmer. In fact,
that's not a bad way to work with the book on
your second or third reading.
One of the strongest messages in this book is
that programming is a holistic task. The error
in the sine function is not with the formula or
the numerical analysis— the first place many
programmers would look— but arises from
the simplest of all blunders, an uninitialized
variable. Time and again, using subtle or
surprising examples, Kernighan and Plauger
lead us to sharpen both our reading and
writing skills by discussing what is wrong in a
given instance, how to correct it, and, most
important, how to avoid it.
To whet your appetite, here's a single
example from Chapter 5. It's supposed to
read the sides of a triangle and compute the
area. Before you buy the book and find out
what the authors have to say, can you
determine what in the example is wrong
(and what's right)? (For assistance, see
p. 208.)
READ (5,23) A, B, C
23 FORMAT (3F10.0)
S = (A + B + C)/2.0
AREA = SQRT(S * (S-A) * (S-B) * (S-C))
WRITE(6,17)A, B, CAREA
17 FORMAT (1P4F16.7)
STOP
END
i
Structured, compact, powerful, portable...
The C Programming Language; Brian Kernighan
and Dennis Ritchie; 1978; 228 pp.; $22.50;
Prentice-Hall, P.O. Box 500, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
07632; 201/592-2000; or COMPUTER LITERACY
o
C Primer Plus; Waite, Prata & Martin; 1984; 448
pp.; $19.95; Howard W. Sams, 4300 W. 62nd St.,
Indianapolis, IN 46268; 800/428-7267; or
COMPUTER LITERACY
DENNIS GELLER: C is a structured language
in the same sense as Pascal, encouraging
the user to build large programs in small,
easy to understand pieces. C is a compact
language that uses single symbols where
others use whole words and that allows
many shorthand notations. For example,
+ + i is a complete statement that
increments i by one.
Unlike languages that try to hide the details
of the underlying computer, C aims to
expose the bit- and byte-level details, making
it ideal for writing systems software where
individual units of memory must be
manipulated efficiently. C compares
favorably with assembly languages in
efficiency and flexibility, yet has the feel of
higher-level languages, leading to lowered
costs for both programming and
maintenance. Costs are lowered even more
by C's transportability. In C, it is easy for the
programmer to isolate the machine-
dependent parts of the program so that
moving the software to new hardware takes
relatively little work.
Kernighan and Ritchie's book is the standard
reference for C, but the Waite Group's
careful introduction is a much better starting
place for neophytes.
JACK TRAINOR: C Primer Plus gives a deep,
thorough treatment of the language that's
emerging as the standard for serious
programming on personal computers— not
"software development" or "Meet Igor the
Computer" or how to convert hex to octal.
Its level of detail would probably not be fun
to read straight through, but when you get
hung up on some fine point of C — and it
happens all the time while learning— you can
look up the topic and get your questions
answered. It goes into the nitty-gritty of
everything and has lots of short code
examples.
C Primer Plus is the only book I have seen
that adequately explains the difference
between typedefanti #define. Plus, it has
lots of graphics— colored diagrams to
illustrate the text and cartoons for comic
relief. It even has a handy reference card for
the C language, which would be a good idea
for other language texts.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2,0 EDITION
Becoming a standard . . .
c O
AZTEC C: version 1.06F; Macintosh; 2 disk drives
required; version 3.20C; IBM PC and compatibles;
copy-protected? NO; $499; Manx Software
Systems, P.O. Box 55, Shrewsbury, NJ 07701;
800/221-0440 or, in NJ, 201/530-7997 ® DESMET
C: Mark DesMet; version 2.41; PC/MS-DOS
machines; CP/M-86 machines; copy-protected?
NO; $159 (with source level debugger, 192K);
$109 (without source level debugger; 128K);
C Ware Corporation, P.O. Box C, Sunnyvale, CA
94087; 408/720-9696 ® LATTICE C COMPILER:
Lynch, Hersee & Schmitt; version 2.15; PC/MS-
DOS machines; 128K; 2 disk drives; copy-
protected? NO; $500; Lifeboat Associates, 1651
3rd Ave., New York, NY 10128; 212/860-0300 «
MAC C COMPILER AND TOOLKIT: Bill Duvali;
version 2.0 (floating point); version 1.5 (non-
floating point); Macintosh (128K model requires
external disk drive); requires Macintosh
Development System ($195 from Apple
Computer); copy-protected? NO; $425 (version
2.0); $375 (version 1.5); Consulair Corporation,
140 Campo Dr., Portola Valley, CA 94025;
415/322-2757 ® MEGAMAX C LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM: version 2.1; Macintosh;
copy-protected? NO; $300; Megamax, Inc., 8620
Park Lane #403, P.O. Box 851521, Richardson,
TX 75085-1521; 214/987-4931 • OBJECTIVE-C
COMPILER: Cox, Watt & Breckenridge; Version
3.1; PC/MS-DOS machines; 64K • LISA; copy-
protected? YES; Productivity Products
International, 27 Glenn Rd., Sandy Hook, CT
06482; 203/426-1875 • PLINK-86: version 1.47;
any PC/MS-DOS machine with DOS 2.0 or higher;
CP/M-86; 128K; copy-protected? NO; $395; and
PFIX PLUS: version 1.07; IBM PC/XT/AT and
compatibles; Wang PC; Tl Business Professional;
Tandy 2000; 80K (192K recommended); DOS 2.0
or higher; copy-protected? NO; both from Phoenix
Products Corporation; 1420 Providence Highway,
Suite 115, Norwood, MA 02062; 617/762-5030.
JOHN SEWARD: Most successful computer
langages have had a powerful lobby pushing
them into widespread use. ADA has the
defense deparment, COBOL the federal
government, PL/1 has IBM, Pascal has the
universities, and BASIC was the only choice
on microcomputers for a while. C is an
exception to this rule. It is rapidly becoming
the dominant language of professionals
programming on microcomputers, for the
simple reason that programmers like it.
FORTH has the same kind of support, but
not nearly as much of it.
A major premise behind the development of
high level computer languages has been to
eventually eliminate the need for
programmers by making computers appear
to be human, thus the pseudo-English patina
of languages like COBOL. This effort has so
far been wildly unsuccessful and will probably
remain so for the foreseeable future. The C
language was not designed to bypass
programmers, but to help them. It's not
really any easier to program in C than in
assembly language. You still have to know
what you're doing.
So what do programmers like so much
about C? There are several things: 1) C
compilers tend to produce fast, efficient
code, because the structure of C conforms
to the way machines think instead of the way
normal people think. 2) C trusts the
programmer— there are few built-in
structures to force safety or clarity on a
programmer, so you can do anything you
want. 3) C is extensible. If you do a good job
of writing functions, the language will grow
with you. The more you use it the more
powerful it— and you— become. 4) C is
portable. There are C compilers for virtually
every machine, and if you are careful to
write standard C, programs can be ported
quite easily.
There are now somewhere around two dozen
C compilers on the market for the IBM PC
and its MS-DOS clones. Leader of the pack
is LATTICE C, one of the first solid, complete
compilers to come out for the PC. Also
popular is AZTEC C, which also has cross-
compilers available for the 6502 machines
(Apple II and Commodore 64). The AZTEC
compilers are all very similar and together
they make a great environment for porting
programs to all the different micros at once.
By far the cheapest compiler on the PC is
DESMET C, which nevertheless compares
quite favorably with its more expensive
brethren.
RICHARD FRIEDMAN: We use the DESMET
compiler on our PCs and agree about the
speed and price, but the small core is a
serious limitation and it seems to have some
compatibility problems if you try to compile
it under UNIX.
MORRIS JONES: During the Ivan project at
MicroPro one of our programmers spent
considerable time evaluating various C
compilers. LATTICE C still seems to come
out ahead in terms of code generation and
smooth, bug-free operation. LATTICE 2.15 is
(fortunately) capable of doing very large
projects without choking.
I would also recommend PLINK-86 linkage
editor and PFIX PLUS debugger. PFIX PLUS
is incredible — some of our people credit it
with getting WORDSTAR 2000 shipped when
we did instead of three months later.
JOHN DRAPER: On the Macintosh, two C
compilers stand out from what's becoming a
crowd. AZTEC C is a very UNIX-like product;
for those used to UNIX, it appears to be the
best. It also is the fastest, and has a Mac-
type interface. It compiles very quickly
because it doesn't have to run under the
Finder, and it produces remarkably compact
and efficient code. It has excellent examples
and comes with extensive documentation
and support. The only drawback is the price:
$500.
The compiler I use, MEGAMAX, comes very
close to AZTEC in speed of compilation. The
price is $200 cheaper than AZTEC, and the
performance is similar.
For further reading . . .
o
C Programmer's Library; Jack Purdum, Tim
Leslie & Alan Stegemoller; 1984; 366 pp.; $19.95;
Que Corporation, 7999 Knew Rd., Suite 202,
Indianapolis, IN 46250; 800/428-5331 or, in IN,
317/842-7162; or COMPUTER LITERACY
JOHN SEWARD: So you've read Kemighan
and Ritchie and you've written a few C
programs. Now you're ready to get serious.
I highly recommend C Programmer's
Library. This is an advanced text on C that
not only elucidates the fine points of the C
language but also provides a number of C
functions and complete, useful programs.
The first section of the book teaches, in a
quite formal manner, everything you've
always wanted to know about C data types
but were too ignorant to ask. Section two
presents a general methodology for library
development, something you had better get
disciplined at if you're planning to do a lot of
C programming. The third section is mostly
code, interspersed with explanation. You get
free: several sorting routines, a general
terminal library that will allow you to write
device independent code to do all your
screen handling, a complete set of ISAM
functions, and a book-cataloging program
that uses them. If you wish, you can also
send away for a disk that has everything
already typed in for you.
One of the best ways to learn programming
is to study other people's code. This book
will not only teach you a lot, but it will save
you a lot of sweat if you're writing
sophisticated C programs that display stuff
on screens and read and write data to disk
(hard to think of a program that doesn't do
both). C Programmer's Library is an
essential volume in every C programmer's
library.
162
Fun in a structured environment . . .
Macintosh; copy-protected? YES; $125; Apple
Computer, 20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, CA
95014; 800/538-9696.
DAVID TAYLOR: When you open the Pascal
disk from the Macintosh desktop, the three
default windows are: the Program window,
where the source code is maintained; the
Text window, which displays any text output
from your program or any text received from
the keyboard; and the Drawing window,
which holds your program's graphics
output. So you can type in or alter a
program and immediately run it to see the
results. That's all you need to know to start
programming. All other implementations of
Pascal require the programmer to know
operating system commands, text or
program editors, linkers, library managers,
and debuggers. MAC PASCAL automatically
"pretties" each line after the enter key is
pressed, and keywords like "begin,"
"enter," and "procedure" are highlighted,
so you are always looking at easy-to-read
code. If the interpreter finds a problem with
your code, a window appears with a picture
of a beetle-type bug and an explanation of
the problem. Point to the bug-picture and
click, and the insertion point lands in the
affected line. The error messages are usually
helpful.
The most powerful feature of this language is
its ability to use the famous Mac ROM
routines as part of your own code, to help
create graphics and use menus. There is
also a complete library of binary floating
point arithmetic routines called the Standard
Apple Numeric Environment (SANE).
Unfortunately, if you try to give it a file on a
clipboard longer than 32K, it vomits and
dies. And there is no way to link multiple
modules together. And worst, it's copy-
protected; no self-respecting programmer
will ever use a copy-protected program.
Top-notch toois teach good techniques . . .
SOFTIMBE TOOLS
Software Tools; B.W. Kernigttan and P.J. Plauger;
1976; 286 pp.; $18.95;
Software Tools in Pascal; B.W. Kerniglian and P. J.
Plauger; 1981; 366 pp.; $18.95;
both from Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Jacob
Way, Reading, MA 01867; 617/944-3700; or
COMPUTER LITERACY
MAHHEW MCCLURE: These two books are
very similar; the examples in Software Tools
were written in RATFOR, a language based on
FORTRAN, while those in Software Tools in
Pascal are in Pascal. Essentially the same
tools are developed and explained in both.
JIM FLEMING: The concept of software tools
as developed by Kernighan and Plauger is a
must for serious software developers. The
tools in question are helpful programs that
enable people to do things by machine
instead of manually, and to do them well
instead of badly The specific tools developed
in the books are useful in their own right, but
of equal or greater importance are the
underlying principles for developing suitable
software tools whenever you are embarking
on a significant development project.
Outstanding value .
Version 1.0; CP/M-80 ® CP/M-86 • Concurrent
CP/M-86 ® IBM PC compatibles ® MS-DOS; copy-
protected? NO; $50;
Tiinnfi TiiTfiH ^
lljitpij njiiJii ^y
Version 1.0; PC/MS-DOS machines; copy-
protected? NO; $34.95;
both from Borland International, 4585 Scotts
Valley Dr., Scotts Valley, CA 95066;
408/438-8400.
KEVIN BOWYER: I would recommend this
product for anyone interested in Pascal; it
has the best price/performance of anything
I've seen. Because I've written a book
(Pascal for the IBM-PC: IBM DOS Pascal
and UCSD p-System Pascal; Kevin Bowyer
and Sherryl Tomboulian; 1983; 320 pp.;
$18.95; book/diskette, $45; diskette, $30;
Robert J. Brady Co., Rts. 197 & 450, Bowie,
MD 20715; 301/262-6300; or COMPUTER
LITERACY) that uses as an example the DOS
Pascal marketed by IBM, I tend to compare
other Pascals to that one. TURBO PASCAL is
smaller, easier to use, comes with its own
full-screen editor, and is much cheaper— it's
almost too good to be true.
The authors recognize that no one learns
good programming simply by reading
abstract statements about program
constructs and data structures. They show
how such concepts as top-down design,
structured programming, and simple user
interfaces can be combined to produce
significant programs that are easy to write,
easy to read, and easy to maintain.
Each of the software tools is introduced by a
discussion of the class of problems it helps
solve, followed by a discussion of the
significant design considerations that went
into creating it. The resulting code is
exhibited along with a discussion of potential
extensions.
I have found that building a software toolbox
has saved me many months of work over the
life of several software-development projects.
GERALD M. WEINBERG: As their needs and
skills grow, serious users will eventually "hit
the wall" on any system— be it programming
language, word processor, spreadsheet, or
database manager. The ability to compose
complex tools from simple ones allows you to
get through the wall and continue working in
an ever more hospitable environment. This
ability is so essential to programming that I
wouldn't consider recommending any
programming environment lacking it.
TURBO PASCALS editor allows you to
reassign the editing commands to any keys
you wish, making this editor look like
whatever full-screen editor you already know.
Moreover, this is not a bare-bones
"standard" Pascal. It has all the normal
extensions that make Pascal a convenient
language for any task. At less than $50, even
people who already own one Pascal compiler
can afford to buy this tool.
MATTHEW McCLURE: TURBO TUTOR is an
excellent language introduction. It comes
with a disk that has actual code on it— just
put the disk in and no more painful typing a
line at a time. The code includes the nucleus
of a library that you can use as building
blocks for more advanced projects.
Examples are given for tasks like sorted
directories and modem control. "Frank
Borland" rides a mule named "Lotus" and is
obviously fictitious but intelligent.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
763
Complete toolkit .
Version 1.2; Apple II family; 48K; copy-protected?
NO; $250; Apple Computer, 20525 Mariani Ave.,
Cupertino, CA 95014; 408/996-1010.
THOMAS MAYER: I bought an Apple to learn
programming and for a long time experienced
nothing but disappointment and frustration.
Now I am fluent in Pascal and am paid big
bucks for programming. All it took was hard
work, a few good books, and APPLE
PASCAL, the most used piece of software I
own.
APPLE PASCAL has all the tools you need to
program in Pascal. One purchase buys you a
complete programming environment: an
editor, a Pascal compiler, a linker, an
assembler, and all the necessary file-
maintenance utilities.
Structured fundamentals . . .
Pascal From BASIC; Peter Brown; 1982; 182 pp.;
$12.95; Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Jacob
Way, Reading, MA 01867; 617/944-3700; or
COMPUTER LITERACY.
MATTHEW MCCLURE: Pascal is the language
most frequently taught in universities today.
Descended from Algol 60 and designed by
Niklaus Wirth, it Is a block-structured
language, so it Is well suited for large
programs — each block stands by itself and
can be separately analyzed and debugged.
Block-structured code is generally quite
readable, which Is nice when you come back
to the big program you wrote a year ago and
want to make some changes. Pascal is also
faster and more portable than BASIC— a
Pascal program written for one machine will
usually run on another with little alteration.
LINDA K. PHILLIPS: This book is for all
BASIC hackers who want to learn Pascal. It
assumes you are familiar with BASIC
programming and concepts, and explains
how to "think" in Pascal. The book does not
teach you how to "translate." Nor is it a
textbook in the usual sense. Pascal can differ
in different Implementations, and Brown often
refers the reader to specific implementation
manuals.
The two manuals are for the experienced
programmer; the beginner will need to
supplement them. A lucid guide to the
operating system is Introduction to the UCSD
p-System, by Charles W. Grant and Jon Butah
(1982; 300 pp.; $15.95); an excellent
description of the Pascal language that covers
the UCSD implementation is Introduction to
Pascal Including UCSD Pascal, by Rodnay
Zaks (2nd edition, 1981; 420 pp.; $17.95);
both from Sybex Computer Books, 2344
Sixth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710;
415/848-8233.
The Apple implementation lacks some
standard Pascal features, but it is more than
sufficient for training and for most applica-
tions. The system library contains several
useful routines, including a full set of
graphics primitives, and is readily supple-
mented. Isn't it nice to have a language that
grows with you?
The very next thing? .
o
-^o^ "■■''■
V.
I'm not sure you could write a good program
after reading this book alone, but that's not
the purpose. The book aims at introducing
the concepts of Pascal: the structured form,
string and file handling, memory
management, data types, and so on. It
succeeds admirably.
My own decision after reading this book was
that I am not yet ready to program in a new
language. However, the IBM PC
implementation of BASIC includes some of
the Pascal concepts and allows for some
structuring, so the structure that Pascal
forces can be imposed to some degree on
BASIC; I was surprised to find that reading
the book has made me a better BASIC
programmer.
Newton said he could see so far because he
was like a midget standing on the shoulders
of giants. Programmers, however, are like
midgets standing on the toes of other
midgets.
— Richard Hamming
It goes against the grain of modern education
to teach children to program. What fun is
there in making plans, acquiring discipline in
organizing thoughts, devoting attention to
detail, and learning to be self-critical?
—Alan J. Perils
Version 1.10; most MS-DOS machines reading
IBM PC formatted diskettes; 256K; copy-
protected? NO; $495 (Base Language System;
includes compiler, linker, symbolic post-mortem
debugger and module library); $700 (Professional
Package; includes Base Language System plus
Run-Time Debugger and Utilities Package);
Logitech, Inc., 805 Veterans Blvd., Redwood City,
CA 94063; 415/365-9852.
DAVID W. TAYLOR, Micropro: This is a
mature compiler that produces bug-free
machine code and is amazingly fast. Like all
Modula compilers it defaults to producing
code with built-in error checking for stack,
array bounds and heap errors. The complete
source is supplied with the product. The
library and compiler source are not
provided, but are available to developers at a
(high by comparison with the executables)
price.
The real joy of this system is the Run-Time
Debugger. Yes folks! Two debuggers and
both at source code level. With this system
even I have produced prodigious amounts of
verifiably bug-free code in a comparatively
short time.
The Run-Time System enables the full
implementation of concurrent processes, a
feature of the actual Modula language.
Concurrency is usually only provided by an
operating system; it allows for the
implementation of systems employing
multiple tasks all running simultaneously
even in a single-tasking operating system.
You shouldn't expect to learn Modula from
the documentation. Instead, spend about
$18 and buy Richard Cleaves' Modula-2 for
Pascal Programmers (1984; 145 pp.;
$17.95; Springer-Verlag, 175 Fifth Ave., New
York, NY 10010; 800/526-7254; or
COMPUTER LITERACY).
Whenever I have called Logitech they have
responded promptly and courteously to my
calls. Their support could only be described
as excellent. You know the feeling you get
when you are dealing with a good, happy
and competent shop. That is what these
people feel like.
As we progress through the different steps in
the logical construction of systems, it's just
good sense to review our products with a
peer group of interested, competent people
who may have a different perspective than we
have. Viewing a product from these different
perspectives will often find problems that the
originator cannot see and the problems can
be addressed and solved while it is still
relatively cheap to solve them.
—W. Clyde Woods
I
High-quality BASIC . . .
Interpreter; version 5.21; CP/M-80 machines
® version 5.28; IBM PC/compatibles and MS-DOS
machines; copy-protected? NO; $350; Microsoft
Corp., 10700 Northup Way, Box 97200, Bellevue,
WA 98009; 206/828-8080.
TRS-80 BASIC; Microsoft Corp.; TRS-80 Models
100, 200, 1000 and 2000 (comes with machine);
Model 1200, $89.95; copy-protected? NO; Radio
Shack, 1700 One Tandy Center, Ft. Worth, TX
76102; 817/338-2392 or contact your local Radio
Shack dealer.
Version 5.3; CP/M-80 ® version 5.36; MS-DOS;
copy-protected? NO; $395; Microsoft Corp., 10700
Northup Way, Box 97200, Bellevue, WA, 98009;
206/828-8080.
Concurrent DOS; CP/M-86; copy-protected? NO;
$200;
Concurrent DOS; PC DOS; CP/M-86; copy-
protected? NO; $600;
both from Digital Research, 60 Garden Court, PO.
Box DRI, Monterey, CA 93942; 408/549-3896.
DARRELL R. FICHTL: Let's set the record
straight. I've worked with FORTRAN and
own a C, a Pascal, and a BASIC connpiler. All
these work exceptionally well, but I like
BASIC— it's the Chevy of the computer
business. You'll also hear that BASIC is
sloppy. That depends on the person doing
the programming. The impression that
nothing "serious" can be written in BASIC is
totally erroneous. If you do a cross-section
of programs currently on the market, you'll
find that a good percentage of them are
written in BASIC. In BASIC, you can make an
efficient program that is a joy to work with.
It depends totally on you.
RICHARD L. MULLER: I chose MBASIC
(called MS BASIC by some people) for a
project because I wanted to develop a small
application for the TRS-80, but wanted to do
the development work on my Morrow
Designs micro, a Z-80-based system running
CP/M 2.2.
BASIC is a good language for beginners and
experts alike. It differs from most other
languages in that it is usually interpreted
rather than compiled. The plus for
interpreting is that one can arbitrarily stop an
executing program, see what it's doing to
variables of interest (even change them if
desired), and then resume execution without
waiting for a recompilation. The negative side
of the interpreter approach is that programs
execute far more slowly than with a compiler.
Microsoft's compiler gives one the advantage
of good development environment
(interpreted BASIC) complemented with a tool
to create an efficient final product (the
compiler).
I can strongly recommend Microsoft BASIC:
It is a high-quality product. It works well and
appears to be correct. Nevertheless, I would
urge any potential purchaser to look too at
CBASIC and CB80 from Digital Research, for I
have friends who rave about them.
Programming the C-64 . . .
David Hughes; Commodore 64/128 and Atari
400/800Xiy65XE/130XE (both on flippy disk);
copy-protected? YES; $59.95; Cimarron
Corporation, 1502 Brookhollow Dr., Santa Ana, CA
92705; 714/241-5600.
JOHN SEWARD: Is anyone out there still
developing software for the Commodore 64?
If you are, or if you're just writing programs
for your own use, it's still hard to find a
decent development system for the
Commodore. One of the best ways to get
something going on the 64 is to use the
INSTA-SPEED BASIC Compiler, distributed
by Cimarron (aka Micro-Sci). It turns
Commodore BASIC programs into real
machine code that is about half as big and a
lot faster than the source. It runs like a
charm and claims to be 100% compatible
with CBM 64 BASIC. So far I haven't come
across any BASIC code it couldn't handle.
INSTA-SPEED has a lot of neat features, like
a garbage collection routine that takes less
than a second, the ability to handle chaining,
shared variables, assembly language
subroutines, and even extensions to BASIC.
And the price is right. No royalties are
required to distribute INSTA-SPEED compiled
programs. It is necessary to include an 8K
run-time library on the disk with the
compiled programs. However if there are
several chained programs on the disk, the
run-time library is only loaded once. INSTA-
SPEED is copy-protected and requires that a
security key be plugged into one of the game
ports in order to compile a program. You
can make as many back-up copies of the
disk as you like, but they won't work without
the security key.
Quintessential simplicity
Beginner's BASIC; Peter Lear; 1984; 64 pp.;
$5.95; EDC Publishing, PO. Box 470663, Tulsa,
OK 74147; 800/331-4418 or, in OK, AK and HI,
918/622-4522; or COMPUTER LITERACY.
JAMES STOCKFORD: My new favorite
instruction book presents the concepts of
BASIC programming in only 64 pages. The
colors and pictures are comfortable and
friendly. Explanations are quick and easy to
grasp.
Written for children, great for adults, here is
simple material, simply presented, without
muddying the waters. An excellent book.
Beginners' BASIC explains all the lundamentals
ol BASIC programming, tram llowcharting to
subroutines, string handling to graphics, PEEKs
and POKES.
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Slip right in . . .
Ivar Wold, Charles Ehlin, and Bill Pittore. Version
1.1. $199; street price $175. IBM PC family/
compatibles (180K). Summit Software
Technology, Inc., 40 Grove St., Wellesley, MA
02181; 800/225-5800 or, in IWA, 617/235-0729.
JOHN SEWARD: BETTERBASIC is really a
different language from BASIC, more like C
disguised as BASIC. It supports recursion,
arrays of arrays, overlays, block structures,
and even windows. If you're used to BASIC,
you can slip right into coding in
BETTERBASIC with only a slight feeling of
dislocation. If you're used to switching
between different versions of BASIC, you'll
have no troul)le at all. If you're a BASIC
programmer and you'd like to extend
yourself into the power of a language like C
in a relatively painless way, this is for you.
However, BETTERBASIC is not a true
compiler— you don't wind up with a
machine-language program after the
compilation process. Instead, you have a
FORTH-like object code which is then
interpreted, running much faster than normal
interpreted BASIC. If you want to create
executable .EXE modules, you need to buy
the BETTERBASIC run-time system ($250).
The run-time system also permits overlays
and chaining from program to program.
BETTERBASIC is an unusual BASIC
compiler. It has no problem with double
precision, and lets you use as much memory
as you have in your machine, instead of
keeping you in 64K like PC BASIC. It has
local and global variables, and eight different
data types including structures and pointers.
In fact, it's hard to think of a feature of C or
Pascal that has not been included in
BETTERBASIC.
ssaj^aa
COBOL? On micros? .. .
Chuck Ellis; CP/M machines; 32K; copy-protected?
NO; $39.95;
John Starkweather; CP/M machines; 32K; copy-
protected? NO; $39.95;
both from Ellis Computing, Inc., 3917 Noriega St.
San Francisco, CA 94122; 415/753-0186.
SHARON RUFENER: COBOL is an archaic
mainframe computer language. So why
bother to put it on micros? Here are several
good reasons for implementing COBOL at the
micro level: COBOL is the native tongue of
most of the professional programmers in the
world; most existing applications programs
are written in COBOL; most of the
programmers' jobs listed in the want ads
require COBOL expertise. By knowing the
language, you could write COBOL programs
at home on your micro and then have them
installed on the mainframe at work (why use
the full might and heft of IBM to do a little job
like debugging source code?).
Microcomputer enthusiasts sneer at COBOL.
(They also display a snobbish attitude toward
any but the latest language they have
mastered.) They accuse COBOL of being
clumsy and cumbersome. Not sufficiently
oriented to the innards of any particular
machine. Not sexy, chic, or au courant. Let's
appreciate the fact that COBOL is a trusty old
friend if you know it well. The source
language is as portable as anything invented.
It begs to be fashioned into structured and
modular creations. And, when compiled, you
have a tidy little bundle of machine language
that will perform quite respectably.
NEVADA COBOL runs only on CP/M
machines. You use your word processor or,
better yet, NEVADA EDIT (also S39.95) to
create source code.
NEVADA COBOL is a decently documented
compiler for producing plain vanilla batch
programs in ANSI 74 COBOL. You can
compile fairly large programs— 2500-5000
lines of instruction, depending on available
RAM — and include almost limitless lines of
comments as well.
Now, for $39.95 you know you're not going to
get a lot of things. Approximately 20 percent
of the standard instruction set is missing.
NEVADA COBOL is set up to handle only data
files that are sequential or direct access-
nothing fancier You don't get the SORT verb
(that really hurts), which means you can't
make your own tag files for homebrew file
indexing, because you can't sort them!
And, strangest of all, NEVADA COBOL is not
designed to let you write programs oriented
toward a microcomputer's main input/output
device, the monitor! You can do some clumsy
interchanges of one data field at a time, using
DISPLAY and ACCEPT statements, but that is
inadequate for any serious data entry or
display on microcomputer screens.
So what is NEVADA COBOL good for? It's a
good tool for learning programming. It's
student-priced and student-sized. It's also
adequate for many small applications using
pre-existing files, such as reports and file
merges and extracts. It is mercifully free of
the ornate complexities surrounding IBM
mainframe programming. There is a certain
clean elegance to this bare-bones compiler. If
it can get you where you want to go, you
couldn't do better
Dartmouth duo does double duty . . .
Kemeny & Kurtz; version 1.0; IBM PC/XT/AT; PCjr;
192K; copy-protected? NO; $150; Addison-Wesley
Publishing Co., Inc., Attn: Order Dept., Reading,
MA 01867; 617/944-3700.
MATTHEW McCLURE: When Dartmouth
College decided to make computers easily
available to its students. Professors John
Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz designed the first
fully functional time-sharing system and a
new language to accompany it: BASIC, now
the most widely used computer language in
the world. It has also spawned more dialects
than any other language, and they are mostly
incompatible.
TRUE BASIC is an attempt to remedy this
state of affairs by implementing a standard
BASIC that is more advanced than "Street
BASIC" but is still easy to learn and very
powerful. It includes facilities for graphics
subroutines, trigonometric functions and
handy control structures like SELECT-CASE,
DO-WHILE, and DO-UNTIL. It makes
structured programming easier, and requires
no line numbers.
TRUE BASIC is compiled rather than
interpreted, so it produces compact, fast-
running code (and gives you error messages
before it begins to execute your program).
Its manual is very clear and understandable,
with lots of examples that show the power of
the language.
TRUE BASIC has a number of graphics primitives,
inciuding boxes, simple windows, and plotting of
points, lines, and areas.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2 EDITION
GERALD M. WEINBERG: If you follow
my recommendation and learn two
languages simultaneously, try
something a bit out of the mainstream
for your second— something like
FORTH, APL, SMALLTALK, Modula,
LISP, or assembly language. Their
approaches contrast sharply with those
of the more commercial languages, so
they will stretch your mind. One of my
students, who cut her teeth on PL/I and
APL, took a job as a COBOL programmer
on Friday, studied COBOL over the
weekend, and started work on Monday.
Four weeks later, her bosses were so
impressed with her work that they asked
her to teach their Advanced COBOL
course.
The editing screen from HfVP-FORTH. Surrounding
tlie code are tlie editoriai instructions; once you
learn ttiem, you can turn ttiem off and concentrate
on programming.
The fact is that we have so many changes to
do today because we didn 't control the
changes yesterday Changes are like rabbits.
They beget changes.
—W. Clyde Woods
Is it possible that software is not like anything
else, that it is meant to be discarded, that the
whole point is to always see it as soap
bubble?
—Alan J. Perils
I would rather write programs that write
programs than write programs.
—Anonymous graffitor at MIT
Compact, fast, extensible .
MACFORTH; Macintosh; copy-protected? NO;
Level 1,$149; Level 2, $249; Level 3, $499;
Creative Solutions, Inc., 4701 Randolph Rd.,
Suite 12, Rockville, MD 20852; 301/984-0262
e MASTERFORTH; Apple II family; 48K ® IBM PC
and compatibles • Commodore 64 ® Macintosh;
copy-protected? NO; $100; floating point $40
additional; hi-res graphics $40 additional;
MicroMotion, 12077 Wilshire Blvd., #506, Los
Angeles, CA 90025; 213/821-4340 ® MVP-FORTH
PROFESSIONAL APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
SYSTEM (PADS); Apple II family ® IBM PC/XT ®
IBM PCjr; copy-protected? NO; $500; Mountain
View Press, Inc., RO. Box 4656, Mountain View,
CA 94040; 415/961-4103 ® PC/FORTH; Version
3.0; IBM PC compatibles; 128K; copy-protected?
NO; $100; PC/FORTH +; Version 3.0; IBM PC
compatibles; 128K; copy-protected? NO; $200;
both from Laboratory Microsystems, Inc., 3007
Washington Blvd., Suite 230, Marina Del Rey, CA
90292; 213/306-7412. ® POLYFORTH II; IBM PC
compatibles; 64K; supports 8087 math
coprocessor; copy-protected? NO; $600-$3200;
FORTH, Inc., 2309 Pacific Coast Hwy., Hermosa
Beach, CA 90254; 213/372-8493.
MAHHEW MCCLURE: A program in FORTH is
like a tower made of building blocks. The
blocks are FORTH's "words," smaller
programs themselves made up of FORTH
words. Whereas most high-level languages
are somewhat abstract—dealing with
variables, relations, formulas— FORTH feels
very direct: you have a processor, some
memory and some storage space, and your
job is to prescribe the series of movements of
data from the computer's memory into the
central processing unit (CPU) and back into
memory when the CPU is through. Somehow,
I never acquired such a direct feel for the
machine using ALGOL, FORTRAN or BASIC.
FORTH generates very compact code, so it is
good for putting large programs in small
space. Because most implementations of
FORTH are nearly identical, programs can be
transported largely intact from one FORTH
system to another without receding, except
for machine-specific features like graphics,
which may need modification. FORTH also
Raise your IQ, artificially . . .
Bob Rorschach; version 1.7.1; IBM PC/XT/AT and
compatibles; PCjr; Tl Professional; 192K; copy-
protected? NO; $175; Integral Quality, Inc., P.O.
Box 31970, Seattle, WA 98103; 206/527-2918.
MATTHEW McCLURE: If you're interested in
hands-on experience with LISP and can't
afford a LISP machine, IQLISP is a fairly
complete version for the IBM PC. Its
performance may not match that of
machines designed specifically to run LISP,
but it'll give you a good feel for what it's like
to process lists in the quest for artificial
intelligence.
runs quite fast, which makes it a good
language for games and for real-time
applications involving control of other
machines for industrial processes. It is not
designed for simplicity of mathematical
expression; I'd probably use another
language if I were writing an accounting
package or a complicated physics simulation.
FORTH is both a compiled and an interpreted
language; you can give an instruction in
FORTH and have it execute immediately or
you can write a long, complicated program
and compile it for maximum speed and
efficiency
FORTH is also extensible. I've always wanted
to be able to write a tool and then have it
handy whenever I needed it. The freedom and
power that comes from being able to create
one's own language is common to all the
fourth-generation languages— C, LISP, LOGO,
and so on. Extensibility lets you have as much
uniformity of expression and internal
consistency as you please, since you define
the input and output for every function you
use. And since the programs tend to divide up
into chunks, each one a FORTH word, even a
large program can be reduced to a short
series of words, each of which may represent
a very complicated set of actions inside the
computer
FORTH gives you complete control over the
machine, which is nice: anything you want to
make the computer do, FORTH will let you.
On ttie other hand, it is so wide-open that it
also allows you to get away with poor
programming practices. I actually find that
well-chosen FORTH words create code that is
easier to follow than many other languages,
although, as in any language, it is possible to
write incomprehensibly
You too can have artificial intelligence . . .
LiSP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic
Computation; David S. Touretzky; 1984; 384 pp.;
$18.95; Harper & Row, 2350 Virginia Ave.,
Hagerstown, MD 21740; 800/638-3030; or
COMPUTER LITERACY
DAN DOERNBERG & RACHEL UNKEFER:
Artificial intelligence researchers' favorite
language for 20+ years, LISP attracts more
and more attention as the Al work done in
the universities receives more and more
scrutiny from commercial software
publishers. Touretzky's book is an excellent
introduction to LISP for those who are
curious to see what the language is all
about. Though intended as an introductory
text for non-programmers, the book has
been very popular with experienced
programmers as well. The book's semi-
conversational tone easily holds your
attention.
o/
Real artificial Intelligence on a micro
Version 3.1; CP/l\A-80 machines; 64K; $125 ® PC/
MS-DOS machines; 128K; $250; copy-protected?
NO; Programming Logic Systems, Inc., 31
Crescent Dr., Milford, CT 06460; 203/877-7988.
ERNIE TELLO: The programming language
PROLOG has become a buzzword since the
Japanese chose it to be the machine language
for the dedicated hardware in their celebrated
"Fifth Generation" project.
PROLOG, which stands for PROgramming in
LOGIC, is a specialized tool for artificial
intelligence programming that chooses a
first-order logic calculus and list processing
as its main approach to machine-intelligence
problems. MICRO-PROLOG is a very full
implementation of PROLOG and is suitable for
research into expert systems, intelligent
databases, and natural language processing.
This is a serious tool for accomplished and
aspiring computer scientists who know what
logic and logic programming are and what
they intend to do with them.
MICRO-PROLOG is primarily written in
assembler and as a result runs very fast,
considering all the very high level things it is
ready to do right out of the box. A nice plus is
that large programs can be broken up into
segments that are split between memory and
disk or RAM-disk.
MICRO-PROLOG is a very specialized tool. If
you want to develop an expert system that
does not involve heavy math processing, it
would be hard to find a package more ready
to work for you "as is." MICRO-PROLOG
implements a logic of relations that lets you
describe the relationships between objects
and define these relationships recursively.
However, there are no trig or other math
functions, and the input/output are as
minimal as you could ever find. The Z-80
version has an assembly-language interface
for custom extensions to the system, but at
this writing the one for the 8088 is not yet
available.
It is still a very open question what one can
do using a tool like MICRO-PROLOG on 16-bit
microcomputers with a megabyte of
addressable memory, such as the IBM PC. If
the ambitious work currently being attempted
with microcomputer implementations of LISP
in this environment is any indication, there
may be some surprises for the hard-core
skeptics.
Good starting place . . .
Machine Language for Beginners; Richard
Mansfield; 1983; 350 pp.; $14.95; COMPUTE!
Books, P.O. Box 5406, Greensboro, NC 27403;
800/334-0868 or, in NC, 919/275-9809; or
COMPUTER LITERACY.
MAHHEW MCCLURE: The instructions the
computer actually follows are a series of Os
and Is, binary code, called machine
language. An assembler translates assembly
language, which is much easier to write than
binary code, into machine language for the
computer's internal use.
GERRY WICK: If you know BASIC and want to
learn machine language, this is the place to
start. The book covers the popular computers
that use the 6502 chip for their central
processing unit— Atari, VIC-20, Apple II,
Commodore 64, and Pet. Building on your
experience as a BASIC programmer,
Mansfield very gently takes you through the
fundamentals of machine language.
The appendices include assembler and
disassembler programs for all the computers
Three books from Don Lancaster . . .
All About Applewriter lie; Don Lancaster; 1984;
102 pp.; $14.50 postpaid; sold to members only;
membership $51/first year; A.RP.L.E. Co-op, 290
Southwest 43rd St., Ronton, WA 98055;
206/251-5222.
0^
Enhancing Your Apple II, Volume One; Don
Lancaster; 1984; 256 pp.; $15.95.
l/liC ^
Assembly Cookbook for the Apple Wile; Don
Lancaster; 1984; 368 pp.; $21.95.
Both from Howard W. Sams and Company, 4300
West 62nd St., Indianapolis, IN 46268;
800/428-7267; or COMPUTER LITERACY.
JAMES STOCKFORD: Don Lancaster has
been called "The Father of the Personal
Computer," for it was his books that pioneer
designers such as Lee Felsenstein and Steve
Wozniak referred to in the days of the
Homebrew Computer Club. In a crusty, arm-
waving writing style Don presents
explanations that are clear, kind, patient, and
fun to read. His two-volume Micro Cookbook
is an excellent introduction to computer
fundamentals for programmers ($15.95 per
volume; available from Howard W. Sams,
address above).
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
listed above, as well as memory maps and
monitor programs, so you don't even need
to buy an assembler. The tables for the
individual instructions are well organized and
useful but incomplete. The best tables I have
found and use are in Top-Down Assembly
Language Programming for the 6502
Personal Computer (Ken Skier; 1983; 433
pp.; $19.95; McGraw-Hill Order Dept.,
Princeton Rd., Hightstown, NJ 08520;
609/426-5254; or COMPUTER LITERACY).
The reference and comparison to BASIC will
make this book easy for the beginner. But be
careful. There are some errors in the
programs.
Assembly Cookbook for the Apple ll/lle
exhorts you to learn machine code so you
can learn the Apple II system on a feeling
basis. The first half of the book explains
programming concepts, the second half
shows you techniques, complete with model
programs. Nowhere else is there such a
combination of depth and clarity in an
instruction book on this subject.
Enhancing Your Apple II is for the soldering
set, tinkerers willing to switch wires, add
transistors, and generally void the warranty
in order to tweak the machine to higher
performance. Here are instructions detailing
a mixture of hardware and software
modifications for your Apple II. Mix low-
resolution and high-resolution graphics
anywhere on the screen; create glitch-free
animation; control screen scroll; say good-
bye to occasional screen garbage and other
annoyances. Of course, you have to know
your machine code.
All About APPLEWRITER lie begins with the
claim that APPLEWRITER He outsells all
other Apple II word processors, then
proceeds to tear into the structure of the
machine, its Disk Operating System, and
especially APPLEWRITER lie. APPLEWRITER
lie is built out of program modules
collectively called "WPL"— essentially a
programming language optimized for word
processing. Don's intention is to teach you
how to use WPL to modify APPLEWRITER li
to fit like a glove, and in the process witness
the intimate details of a well-written
program. Absolutely perfect for the
precocious teenager.
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GERALD M. WEINBERG: Until recently, your choice of
hardware pretty much determined your choice of operating
systems— and vice versa. The situation is changing rapidly,
largely because of the influence of UNIX, which gave a new
meaning to the term "portability." For general use, there are
other good operating system choices. For instance, if you're
running a small business, the PICK operating system (PICK
SYSTEM FOR THE IBM PC/XT; Richard Pick; IBM PC/XT and
compatibles; 256K; copy-protected? YES; $495; Pick Systems,
1691 Browning, Irvine, CA 92714; 714/261-7425) deserves
careful consideration. But if you're serious about
programming, UNIX is head and shoulders above the rest-
even for developing software that will run in other
environments. You may not be able to afford the machine
resources, but those prices are coming down daily. Moreover,
other operating systems are growing closer to UNIX with every
new release, so whatever your programming environment is
called, it may eventually be UNIX.
TOM LOVE: UNIX has three major advantages to programmers:
portability, modularity— pipes, filters, etc.— and support for
multiple users to communicate and coordinate their activities.
UNIX has a philosophy of sharing files, programs, and utilities
among users— distributed data. Other environments have
a philosophy of security. This openness turns out to be very
important. What we're seeing now is a temporary phase of
computing; we're just beginning to discover the advantages of
distributed processing and communications, and this is where
UNIX is appropriate. What we haven't yet seen are the
disadvantages of distributed data.
JASON REBECK: UNIX was created by software developers for
software developers, to give themselves an environment they
could completely manipulate. In addition to being a completely
masterable environment, UNIX is totally addictive to certain
kinds of people. UNIX makes them feel like God: They can do
anything they damned well please. This, of course, is UNIX's
great strength and weakness.
Multi-user system made crystal clear . . .
UNIX Primer Plus; Waite, Martin & Praia; 1983;
416 pp.; $19.95; Howard W. Sams & Co., 4300 W.
62nd St., Indianapolis, IN 46268; 800/428-7267
or, in IN, 317/298-5400; or COMPUTER LITERACY.
The UNIX Programming Environment; Kernighan
and Pike; 1984; 357 pp.; Prentice-Hall, General
Publishing Division, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632;
201/767-5049; or COMPUTER LITERACY.
Turns a PC into a Macintosh
o
AUGUST MOHR: UNIX Primer Plus has a
nice texture, both in writing and design. Of
all the UNIX books I've seen, I'd hand you
this one first. After three years of using
UNIX, this book taught me things that I wish
I'd known when I started.
MATTHEW McCLURE: The UNIX
Programming Environment applies the same
dry wit to UNIX that Kernighan and his
coauthors bring to C, software tools, and
programming style. At the same time, of
course, it is the definitive work on UNIX,
written by some of the people most familiar
with the beast. I use it for its index, which
immediately points me to details I can't find
elsewhere.
The text is quite densely packed, designed to
show as much of the power of the
environment as possible in a very terse
presentation. Whereas UNIX Primer Plus
assumes no knowledge of programming, the
reader should have a rudimentary knowledge
of C to get the most benefit from The UNIX
Programming Environment.
O MEANS; NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Don Heiskell and Lee Lorenzen; PC/MS-DOS
machines; Concurrent DOS machines; Atari ST
(under GEM DOS); 256K; 2 disk drives; copy-
protected? NO; GEM DESKTOP, $49.95; GEM
DRAW, $249.95; GEM COLLECTION, $199
(includes GEM WRITE, GEM PAINT, and GEM
DESKTOP); Digital Research, 60 Garden Court,
Box DRI, Monterey, CA 93942; 408/649-3896.
JOHN SEWARD: GEM is the Graphics
Environment Manager; the DESKTOP, a GEM
application program, uses GEM graphics
capability to turn an IBM PC into a
Macintosh. Pop the DESKTOP into your IBM
PC and you have a color Mac: pull-down
menus; icons; moveable, sizeable, over-
lappable windows— the works, all mouse-
driven. GEM is an important step that takes
us out of the hermetically-sealed universe of
the Macintosh and into the open architecture
of the IBM PC.
Not that GEM is in any way tied to the PC.
It's being bundled with the Apricot, is
rumored to be in ROM on the new Atari ST
and can be ported to any machine that
proves popular, including the Macintosh. If
you want better resolution or more colors,
you can buy a graphics board that has what
you want and GEM will take advantage of it.
It even uses a different font and set of icons
when running on a higher resolution board.
The DESKTOP has a menu bar across the top
and a few icons: a trash can to toss deleted
files into, and little pictures of floppy
diskettes or hard disks, depending on the
machine's configuration. Open a disk with
your mouse button and get a window full of
file folders and other icons representing the
files, program, and directories on the disk.
You can then run programs, look at files.
and perform other useful functions. Any MS-
DOS program that fits in memory (GEM
takes up 100K or so) can be run from the
desktop and will be unchanged except that
when the program is through, the user is
retumed, not to an MS-DOS prompt like A),
but back to the DESiCTOP If you want to go
back to DOS for some reason, you can select
that option from one of the pull-down
menus. Typing EXIT at the MS-DOS prompt
will then return you to the desktop.
It's possible to criticize and disagree with the
whole mouse-icon-window theory of human-
computer interactions, but it is difficult to
fault GEM as an implementation of it. It takes
up less memory than TOPVIEW; it's fast,
and as a windowing system it is vastly
superior to TOPVIEW which doesn't do
graphics at all. How it will compare with MS-
WINDOWS remains to be seen, but DRI's
low prices and cooperation with software
developers could end the Windowing War
before it begins, or make it irrelevant.
Owning a copy of TOPVIEW does not, after
all, necessarily inhibit anyone from buying a
copy of GEM DESKTOP or GEM DRAW, or
some other application that bundles GEM
with it. Given sufficient memory, there's no
reason why the competing windowing
systems couldn't all be compatible, so that
you could have a GEM application running
inside a TOPVIEW window running inside a
Microsoft window, ad infinitum, like images
in a barbershop mirror.
Software developers need to buy the S500
TOOLKIT to develop GEM programs, and pay
a $1 ,000/product/year license fee. They can
then bundle GEM and the DESKTOP with
their application program—the customer
need not have already purchased GEM or the
DESKTOP and need not even know or care
about GEM.
Conceptual THINKTANK . . .
Designing Structured Programs; David Higgins;
1983; 240 pp.; $14.95; Prentice-Hall, General
Publishing Division, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632;
201/767-5049; or COMPUTER LITERACY.
GEORGE BEEKMAN: Designing Structured
Programs builds on Higgins' earlier book,
Program Design and Construction— in its
day, the clearest introduction to the art of
designing structured programs using the
techniques developed by Warnier and
imported by Orr— -to produce a book that is
at the same time more accessible for
beginners and more detailed for experienced
programmers. There are more examples
M Bml§{E limm^
DENNIS GELLER: Almost anyone can learn to write a program of
twenty lines, but a hundred-line program is not five times as
hard to write; it's more like twenty-five. Writing a large program
is a difficult intellectual task, and programmers need all the help
they can get.
The past decade has seen increasing attention to the problems
people have in developing programs. The study of programming
as a human activity was brought to public attention by Gerald M.
Weinberg in The Psychology of Computer Programming (see
p. 170).
A host of later books built upon the lessons of Weinberg and
others in proposing specific ways to avoid the problems which
he pointed out. Among these are books on design—the
process of figuring out what you want to do in a program
before you sit down to do it. Design carries a certain mystique,
and is sometimes used by programmers as it is by architects,
to encompass the whole problem of creating a piece of
software that will stand up, do the job, and blend harmoniously
with the work environment and the people who use it. It's no
wonder that an underground classic among program designers
is architect Christopher Alexander's Notes on the Synthesis of
Form (1964; 216 pp.; $6.95; Harvard University Press, 79
Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; 617/495-2480 or
COMPUTER LITERACY). Alexander shows the deep
correspondence between the form of a problem and the
process of designing a structure that solves it— a lesson that
applies at least as well to programming as to architecture.
Two simple concepts emerge from the literature on program
design. First, programs that are designed as single monoliths
tend to do mysterious and unpredictable things, like Arthur C.
Clarke's creation in 2001. To avoid this undesirable behavior,
programs should be designed in small, understandable pieces.
The second concept says to approach a problem slowly. Instead
of rushing into details, the wise designer begins with a general
statement of the program's function, then successively refines
the statement to add more and more detail— in the process
spinning off small, understandable pieces to perform well-
defined tasks.
with more substance, and more time is
spent dealing with tough "real world"
programming problems.
Warnier-Orr diagrams provide a powerful
tool for program design. Instead of simply
relying on indentation to show hierarchy,
Warnier diagrams use expansion brackets.
Visually, this makes program structures
almost jump out at you. But it also allows
the programmer to add layers of detail to
design iv/f/70uf starting over on a fresh sheet
of paper.
I teach my programming students to use
Warnier diagrams because they're the most
forgiving of the paper design tools. I wish I
could buy every one of them a Macintosh
and a copy of THINKTANK (p. 92) instead.
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A simple tasl< like getting bread has more steps
than one would expect, as shown in this Warnier-
Orr diagram Irom Program Design and
Construction (David Higgins; 1979; 189 pp.;
$21.95; Prentice-Hail, General Publishing
Division, Englewood Clitls, NJ 07632;
201/767-5049; or COMPUTER LITERACY).
DENNIS GELLER: More complex problems call for complex
approaches, such as that given in Structured Design, by Ed
Yourdon and Larry L. Constantine (2nd edition, 1978; 464 pp.;
$27.95; Yourdon Press, 1501 Broadway, New York, NY 10036;
212/391-2828; or COMPUTER LITERACY). They start by
looking at the structure of designs that have been developed
by refinement,
presenting a
series of informal
measures to
evaluate the clarity
and reliability of a
design. Then they
offer a unique
method of
developing a
design by
refinement.
Rather than
starting with the
function of the
program, they ask
how data is to be
transformed as it
flows through the
program. The
parts of the
program are then
revealed as the
transformations
that change one
form of the data
into another.
structured Design illustrates the structure of a large program after
modularization. Imagine the spaghetti that would result if it were less carefully
designed.
A careful exposition of program design techniques can be
found in Robert C. Tausworthe's Standardized Development of
Computer Software (Vol. 1, Methods; 1977; 379 pp.; $32.95;
Vol. 2, Standards; 1979; 548 pp.; $32.95; or both volumes in
one for $54; Prentice-Hall, General Publishing Division,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632; 201/767-5049; or COMPUTER
LITERACY), originally written for the engineers at the Jet
(continued on p. 170)
170
(continued from p. 169)
Propulsion Laboratory and for computer science students. For
people who don't want to study computer science before
writing programs, there is a simpler introduction, Sally
Campbell's Microcomputer Software Design: How to Develop
Complex Application Programs (1983; 208 pp.; $12.95;
Prentice-Hall, General Publishing Division, Englewood Cliffs,
m 07632; 201/767-5049; or COMPUTER LITERACY). While I'd
quarrel with some details in her material, Campbell's book is
easy to read. Besides, any design is better than no design at all.
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T-Sf-'I?-
DENNIS GELLER: Jerry Weinberg has all the technical
credentials you might need to believe that he understands
software, but since the publication of The Psychology of
Computer Programming he has been giving most of his
attention to the people side of software. Especially noteworthy
in this regard are his Rethinking Systems Analysis and Design
(1982; 208 pp.; $25); and Understanding the Professional
Programmer (1982; 288 pp.; $22.95); both from Little, Brown
& Co., 34 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02106; 617/227-0730; or
COMPUTER LITERACY. I usually recommend these deceptively
charming books as bedtime reading to people who want to get
a little distance from their work. Each is a collection of short
essays intermixed with little fables, like "The Natural History of
White Bread," "The Goat and the Hippo," or "The Railroad
Paradox." All in all, lots of fun.
But beneath the fun there is a deep, if not sinister, message: If
we don't start doing things a lot better than we are now, we're
not going to survive our own technology Take the Railroad
Paradox. When some suburbanites requested that a train
passing through their station daily at 2:30 stop so they could go
to the city, the railroad sent an observer to the platform every
day for a week. Since there never were any commuters waiting
for the train, the railroad declined to add the stop.
If you think the Railroad Paradox has nothing to do with
computers, then you've never been near one. One of Weinberg's
examples is the computer company that asked its engineers to
investigate the addition of a new instruction that would make it
easier for people to break their programs into subroutines. After
some study, the engineers reported that almost none of the
programs they examined ever used subroutines, so they saw no
point in the modification.
Speaking of systems, I can't close without mentioning On the
Design of Stable Systems (with Daniela Weinberg; 1980; 353
pp.; $39.95; John Wiley & Sons; 605 Third Avenue, New York,
NY 10158; 212/850-6000; or COMPUTER LITERACY), a book
so good I can't describe it properly. If you've read people like
Ross Ashby, Kenneth Boulding, or Gregory Bateson, you'll
know what I mean when I say that this is about systems. It
addresses the question, Why is it that some things— objects,
organizations, procedures— seem to persist for a long time,
while others don't? The answer is as much philosophy as
science, as much art as technology. When you read it— and
you must if you're regularly engaged in the design of
systems— you'll see that there is a small number of strategies
which every system, whether animate or not, uses to prolong
its own survival in the face of a hostile environment. (If you
don't think hardware and users make for a hostile
environment, you've had a very easy life as a programmer.)
I can summarize much of Jerry's work, and probably his self-
chosen life mission, with my favorite Weinbergism, which
should probably be called Weinberg's Zeroth Law: "If architects
built buildings the way programmers build programs, the first
woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization."
Tiie Psychology of Computer Programming;
Gerald M. Weinberg; 1971; 304 pp.; $16.95; Van
Nostrand Reinliold, 7625 Empire Dr., Florence,
KY 41042; 800/543-2681; or COMPUTER
LITERACY.
BEN SHNEIDERMAN: As a programmer,
you're bound to be attracted to a book that
lists a sense of humor as one of the "essential
personality traits for programming." Jerry
makes you laugh at the sometimes bizarre
behavior of programmers as they wrestle with
themselves, their colleagues, their managers,
and awkward software tools. But Jerry's goal
in the book is more than laughter— he wants
to make you a better programmer by helping
you to understand the social structure in
which programming is done.
In programming, independence has given
way to interdependence. Jerry shows you
why cooperation is a superior path, and
explains how to collaborate effectively in
"egoless" teams. When this form of
communal Utopia is attained, teamwork is a
joy productivity is high, and trusting
relationships flourish. Building an effective
team takes time, but many useful group
processes, such as inspections and
walkthroughs, can be accomplished in hours
or days.
Sometimes I see this book as a work of
anthropology: the precise reports about a
strange culture by a careful participant/
observer/scientist. I especially appreciated
the interdisciplinary style with the extensive
annotated references to work in psychology
genetics, economics, sociology feminism,
general systems theory mathematics,
linguistics, and so on. If you are a
programmer, work with programmers, or live
with a programmer, this book will give you
fresh insights.
(j 171
GERALD M. WEINBERG: Though
software is a relatively new
phenomenon, it is not exempt from the
great systems laws that govern our
universe, such as
Everything changes but change itself.
— Heraclitus
Growth produces bigness.— Boulding
Over time, well-structured little
programs inevitably become muddled
big systems. The mainframe users have
learned this lesson the expensive way;
micro users have the chance to learn
from those experiences, which are
summarized in the evolving set of
practices called software engineering.
If you want to see into your own future,
take a look at Barry Boehm's monu-
mental work. Software Engineering
Economics (1981; 768 pp.; $40;
Prentice-Hall, General Publishing
Division, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632;
201/767-5049; or COMPUTER
LITERACY).
The survivors in software development
will be those who adopt good software
engineering practices before their need
becomes painfully evident.
Applying Software Engineering Principles with
FORTRAN; David Marca; 1984; 270 pp.; $29.95;
Little, Brown & Co., 34 Beacon Street, Boston,
mk 02106; 617/890-0250; or COMPUTER
LITERACY.
DENNIS GELLER: This concise, well-written
book introduces the micro user to modern
principles of software engineering. Each
chapter contains a section called "For your
next project," containing the author's
suggestions for applying the chapter's
lessons to an ongoing software development
effort— either by adopting them on a small
scale or by using them to evaluate the work
being done. Too many books make the
assumption that once you've read the
material you'll be able to put it to work in toto.
By avoiding this assumption, Marca actually
increases the probability that his reader will
do something useful with his lessons.
Although the coding examples are based on
FORTRAN, Marca generally avoids clever
tricks, so the book will serve as a good model
no matter what language you happen to use.
Marca teaches his reader the process of
developing a program and its supporting
documentation— everything from basing a
design on stable building blocks to coping
with the restrictions of a compiler He also
teaches technique— such as how to move
program complexity out of the code and into
the data structures.
STEWART BRAND: Some people save money fixing their own
car Others extend their personality by customizing their
vehicles. You can do that with software.
GIRISH PARIKH: Microcomputer software packages, distributed
by the tens of thousands, create new maintenance problems not
previously experienced by the mainframers: distributing updates
or corrections, answering customer queries, training users to
make their own custom modifications. These problems have not
been solved, and the micro user would be well advised to take
self-protective steps, such as reading one of the small number of
books on maintenance:
A particular pleasure is the way Marca has
mixed technical and human considerations at
every level. He justifies his approach in terms
of the human limitations that affect the
programming task, and he also addresses the
needs of the program's consumer, as in his
chapter on "Building User Interfaces."
Overall, this is a well-done effort with
something to teach every programmer
Program Modification; Jean-Dominique Warnier; 1978; 152
pp.; $25; Academic Publishers, 190 Old Derby Street,
Hingham, MA 02043; 617/749-5262; or COMPUTER LITERACY
Software Maintenance (The Problem and Its Solutions);
James Martin and Carma McClure; 1983; 472 pp.; $45;
Prentice-Hall, General Publishing Division, Englewood Cliffs,
NJ 07632; 201/767-5049; or COMPUTER LITERACY
Techniques of Program and System Maintenance; Girish
Parikh, ed.; 1982; 300 pp.; $27.95; Little, Brown & Co.,
College Division, 34 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02106; 617/890-
0250; or COMPUTER LITERACY
Tutorial on Software Maintenance; Girish Parikh and Nicholas
Zvegintzov; 1983; 360 pp; $20/members (Computer Society
$34/yr; IEEE and Computer Society $90/yr), $32/non-
members, plus $5 shipping; IEEE Computer Society Press,
Order Department, RO. Box 80452, Worldway Postal Center,
Los Angeles, CA 90080; 714/821-8380; or COMPUTER
LITERACY
Another approach is to subscribe to Software Maintenance
News ($15/yr [monthly]; published for the Software
Maintenance Association, Inc., 141 St. Marks Place, #5F,
Staten Island, NY 10301; 718/981-7842). Nicholas Zvegintzov,
the newsletter's editor, says, "We have a single idea that unites
us— the enhancement, adaptation, and correction of existing
computer programs and systems. We have to find each other.
We have to learn each other's tools, techniques, tactics,
experiences, plans, and dreams." Zvegintzov makes interesting
reading out of a subject that has been highly unpopular, and
even hated by many programmers.
Janitorial services
JAMES STOCKFORD: Utilities are handy little programs that help us run our computer
better so that it can run our work better. For instance, they help organize our disk
files, bail us out of trouble when disks fail, speed up other programs, resurrect killed
files, and in general let us maneuver the way we had expected to before we bought the
damn computer in the first place. On most computers, utilities relieve the built-in
clumsiness of the operating system— the overall set of programs that takes care of the
machine's housekeeping such as operating disk drives and shunting files around.
Utilities are as useful, diverse, and as generally overlooked as kitchen utensils. Until
some time far in the future when systems run smoothly without them, even beginners
are better off learning to find and use these helping tools.
Disk doctor picks locks . . .
0%.
0^\
Apple II family • IBM PC compatibles ®
Macintosh ® Commodore 64; copy-protected? NO;
$39.95; Central Point Software, Inc., 9700 S.W.
Capitol Hwy., #100, Portland, OR 97219;
503/244-5782.
KATHY PARKS: One of my first acts as
librarian at the Whole Earth Software Catalog
was to accidentally destroy the nnaster disk
for the library's APPLE WRITER lie. COPY II
PLUS kindled hope and trepidation— it would
be great if it worked, but how do you use it?
The manual turned out to be a clearly written,
outlined guide which enabled me to salvage
the disk.
COPY II PLUS proved so simple to use that I
prefer its copy function to the one provided
on the Apple DOS 3.3 disk, and I usually
recommend it to people who ask me how to
format or back up a disk. The onscreen
instructions, user's guide, and frequently
updated supplements make it almost
foolproof, inexpensive insurance for anyone's
software collection. Versions are also available
for the IBM PC and Commodore 64.
GEORGE BEEKMAN: Central Point Software
now sells a low-priced antidote to the Mac
copy-protection blues called COPY li MAC.
The disk contains two disk utility programs:
MACTOOLS and COPY II MAC. MACTOOLS
is a multi-function disk utility that provides
many options not available through the
finder. It can display a directory of all the
files on a disk, including most "invisible"
and protected files, and modify (with a click)
the visibility and protection status of any of
those files. An "Undelete" option can, in
most cases, bring accidentally-murdered
files back to life. (A personal testimonial: the
night after I received the program I
destroyed two hours of MULTIPLAN work by
throwing away my new worksheet. Five
minutes of MACTOOLing put me back in
business.) Finally, MACTOOLS contains a
ViewEdit option for peering at the innards of
files without actually opening them; if you
have the technical background, you can use
ViewEdit to modify or repair damaged files.
Programming your text editor .
Version 1.38; CP/M and CP/M-86 machines; 64K;
® versions 1.39 or 1.17; IBM PC compatibles; 64K
« MS-DOS machines; 64K; copy-protected? NO;
$150; Gompuview Products, Inc., 1955 Pauline
Blvd., Suite 300, Ann Arbor, Ml 48103;
313/996-1299.
THOMAS MAYER: Life before VEDIT was like
the Dark Ages. In its visual mode, VEDIT is a
lightning-fast text editor with all the
commands of a slick word processor. In the
command mode, a text-oriented
programming language enables you to
perform tasks impossible with a standard
word processor.
VEDIT provides ten text registers that allow
you to save a phrase and insert it with two
keystrokes, or to work on several files at once
by moving text between the registers and the
main work area. Text registers can also store
command sequences, and since you can save
text registers on a disk, you can develop a
library of complicated commands. Some
examples of my use of VEDIT:
® With a few keystrokes, I can take a
directory listing and turn it into a batch
command for my operating system to transfer
a list of files from one machine to another
® When switching compilers, I had to
perform several nontrivial translations on
100K of source code in 30 files. I was able to
write a command to take a list of files to be
changed and make the changes in each file
without intervention.
® If I need to reformat a text file, it is easier to
use VEDIT than write a reformatting program.
I also use VEDIT for composing program
documentation. Since VEDIT works on
standard text files, it is easy to upload them to
another machine or read them from within a
program as help files. And, of course, I use
VEDIT for composing programs. This
function alone would earn it a place in my
programmer's toolbox. A fantastic product.
CP/M-80; CP/M-86; not copy-protected; $10;
Public Domain Software Copying Co., 33 Gold
St., New York, NY 10038; 212/732-2565.
MATTHEW McCLURE: SWEEP makes disk
management under CP/M almost fun. It lets
you scroll through the directory and copy,
delete, print, compress, rename, and view
files, all without remembering any PIP
syntax or even file names.
WISH©
CP/M-80; CP/M-86; not copy-protected; $10;
Public Domain Software Copying Co., 33 Gold
St., New York, NY 10038; 212/732-2565 • or for
IBM PC and compatibles: not copy-protected;
WASH (PC/SIG disk #9); W20 (PC/SIG disk
#141); $6 per disk + $4 shipping and handling
per any size order; IBM PC Software Interest
Group, 1030 East Duane, Suite J, Sunnyvale, CA
94086; 408/730-9291.
ALFRED GLOSSBRENNER: WASH (called
W20 for DOS 2.0 and 2.1) is close to the
ultimate disk file management utility. The
program presents you with each filename on
a disk, one at a time. You have the option of
deleting it, copying it to another disk,
displaying it on your screen, sending it to
modem or other device, renaming it, or
printing it out on your printer.
o
Greg Harley; version 3.5; PC/MS-DOS machines;
copy-protected? NO; $95; Bourbaki, Inc., P.O. Box
2867, Boise, ID 83701; 208/342-5849.
WOODY LISWOOD: 1D1R (pronounced
"wonder") is a disk manager, a custom
menu generator and operator, a DOS shell,
and a general information and utility
program. It makes reading and finding the
files on a hard disk much easier.
1DIR shows the statistics for each disk or
subdirectory— the total space devoted to the
disk or subdirectory as well as the file space
used so far and the remaining disk space. It
also gives you the date and time, help files,
current toggles, a display of various disk
drives, and an option to change the way you
wish the display sorted, use of the function
keys, and the ability to display the time and
date any file was created. You can mark up
to 15 files for bulk copy, backup or erase
functions. One of the best features is the
ability to create custom menus allowing you
to chain an unlimited number of secondary
menus.
O MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
173
From a real expert . . .
THE iORTOM UTILITIES
Peter Norton; most MS-DOS machines; 128K;
copy-protected? NO; $100; Peter Norton
Computing, Inc., 2210 Wilstiire Blvd., #186,
Santa Monica, CA 90403; 213/399-3948.
DR. DOBB: Peter Norton is being promoted
as a prograrnming superstar, with his face in
all his advertising. Nevertheless, he really
does know a lot about the IBM PC, and has
created a unique and useful package of
utilities for the PC. If you want to change
operating-system messages or recover from
a disk crash, THE NORTON UTILITIES is just
what you need.
Operating systems made easy . . .
CP/i machines • PC/MS-DOS machines; copy-
protected? NO; $169; Computing! 2519 Greenwich
Street, San Francisco, CA 94123; 415/567-1634.
DR. DOBB: POWER! is one of the "shell"
programs that hide the operating system from
the user. These programs are supposed to
relieve the user of tasks like decrypting
operating system language like
PIPPUB: = b:[EFG2UV]. '
POWER! supplies a handy bundle of operating
system facilities in a form that is comparative-
ly easy for a novice to use. You can format
and copy disks, examine the contents of
disks, and do the other things you expect an
operating system to allow. You can also
undelete files you have accidentally deleted,
isolate bad sectors on the disk, and arrange
files on the disk in logical groupings.
One of the decisive advantages of POWER!
over some of the alternatives is that POWER!
requires no installation. It is also available for
the IBM PC, but its PC version is less
powerful than the CP/M version.
Dr. Dobb's Journal (p. 13) was founded in
1976 by Bob Albrecht and Dennis Allison
(Dennis and Bob became Dobb) of People's
Computer Company, a non-profit organization
that sprang from the same Portola Institute
that gave us Whole Earth Catalog. The Dr.
Dobb who wrote here about utilities is another
many-headed beast. Contributors to this
section were Bob Blum, Dave Cortesi, Nancy
Groth, Gene Head, Thom Hogan, Ron Nicol,
John Prather, Steve Rosenthal, Mike Swaine,
Reynold Wiggins, and Steve Willoughby.
You think you know when you learn, are more
sure when you can write, even more when
you can teach, but certain when you can
program.
—Alan J. Perils
Perfect for hackers . . .
Ward Christensen; CP/M machines; public domain;
Book 5, SIG M No. 91; catalog & sample disk $12;
New York Amateur Computer Club, Inc. , RO. Box
106, Church Street Station, New York, NY 10008; or
local CP/M users' groups.
DR. DOBB: There is an ungodly number of
utilities for CP/M systems, some atrocious
but many excellent. One of the best is Ward
Christensen's DU (stands for Disk Utility). A
classic byte-level disk diddler, DU lets the
wise and the unwary alike blithely finger the
actual bytes of data stored on disk. With DU
you can recover lost files, reconstruct
scrambled disk directories, and read
"unreadable" files. You can also lose files,
scramble directories, and make readable files
unreadable— somewhat scary symmetry.
The dangers inherent in the careless use of
DU weigh heavily against recommending it to
novices; on the other hand, it is tremendously
useful. For example, you can use DU to
recover a file you accidentally erased. It will
run with little or no modification on virtually
any plain-vanilla CP/M system. Christensen
supplies the source code to the program, so
you (or a hacker friend) can see just how it
works, and modify it as you please.
DU is not easy to use if you are not a
programmer; its commands are cryptic and
abbreviated. You may not be willing to spend
time learning its logic and syntax. Get it
anyway, and when you delete your entire
electronic Rolodex, get your hacker friend to
run DUforyou. You can't beat the price.
^
For running ligtit . .
0^
Freeware file fix ,
John Seward; PC/MS-DOS machines; copy-
protected? NO; $25 (user-supported; $5
commission to registered users who make copies
that get registered); Lifesaver Systems; 1550
California St., Suite 275, San Francisco, CA
94109; 415/868-2603.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: If you're writing a
program, it's probably going to use data
from a file, write data to a file, or both.
DISKIT lets you see what data's on the disk
and where, so you can tell if your program's
doing its job properly. It's a simple program
that displays the contents of the disk on the
screen or the printer, in ASCII (readable by
people), hex (readable by computers) or
both, it'll also search for a character string
and optionally replace it with another. All this
by file name or by track and sector for
programs like MVP-FORTH which bypass the
MS-DOS file structure. Great for going into a
program file and changing all occurrences of
B: to C: when you acquire a hard disk.
Running MS-DOS; Van Wolverlon; 1984; 384 pp.;
$19.95; Microsoft Press, 10700 Northup Way, RO.
Box 97200, Bellevue, WA 98009; 206/828-8080;
or COMPUTER LITERACY
MATTHEW McCLURE: If your computing
needs are simple, you may be able to
accomplish much of what you want without
buying dozens of applications programs. In
any case, it's a good idea to know what you
get as standard equipment with PC/MS-DOS.
Running MS-DOS explains how to use pipes
and filters, create batch files and simple
databases, all using just DOS.
Suppose you want to find the customers in
your DOS-based Rolodex file who live in the
707 area code, sorted alphabetically. FIND
"OUST" PH I FIND "(707" 1 SORT ) PRN
will find them, sort them, and send the
output to the printer.
Running MS-DOS is written in tutorial form
("Type this. Now type that"), which I find
very helpful— examples showing solutions to
problems are inspiring.
Two to defeat publishers' paranoia .
IBM PC and compatibles; 128K; copy-protected?
NO; $50 (U.S. dollars); Quaid Software, Ltd., 45
Charles St. E., Third Floor, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M4Y 1S2; 416/961-8243.
WOODY LISWOOD: COPYWRITE copies
almost everything. It is revised monthly so
that as new protection schemes arrive on the
market, an owner can update to stay
current. Combined with ZERODISK, makes a
must combination for dealing with the
paranoia of today's software publisher who
is determined not to allow the business user
to use software the way it was meant to be
used.
IBM PC and compatibles; 128K; copy-protected?
NO; $75 (U.S. dollars); Quaid Software, Ltd., 45
Charles St. E., Third Floor, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M4Y 1S2; 416/961-8243.
WOODY LISWOOD: ZERODISK comes in two
forms, a DOS device intercept and as a
.COM program. ZERODISK fools the copy-
protection schemes which require that a key
disk be in the A drive to run, making them
think the disk is in the A drive when you
have actually copied the program disks to
your hard drive and are ready to run your
hard disk without having to deal with
floppies.
774
Organize your MS-DOS/CP/M computer
enyironment . . .
Version 4.0; IBM PC compatibles; copy-
protected? NO; $130; RoseSoft, 4710 University
Way N.E., No. 601, Seattle, WA 98105;
206/524-2350.
CP/M machines e CP/M-86 machines ® PC/MS-
DOS machines; copy- protected? NO; $49.95;
Software Research Technologies, Inc., 3757
Wilshire Blvd., Suite 211, Los Angeles, CA 90010;
213/384-5430.
ART KLEINER: "Key-changers" are
customizing tools. They'll organize
confusingly diverse programs into a single
syntax; they'll streamline strings of complex
commands (macros) into one keystroke;
they'll turn numeric keypads, like those on
the Kaypro, into usable function keys; they'll
toss in frequently-used bits of boilerplate text.
TONY FANNING: The simplest differences
between programs can be deadly. I use two
programs daily. In one, a control-y restores
deleted text; in the second, a control-y deletes
the line the cursor is in. How many times
have I deleted lines forever when I thought I
was bringing back text? Many. With PROKEY,
I redefined what control-y does so that now it
always does the same thing.
ART KLEINER: We recommend two
keychangers: PROKEY for PC/MS-DOS
computers and SMARTKEY for CP/M
systems. They're better documented and
more flexible than KEYNOTE, KEYSWAPPER
and SPEED KEY SMARTKEY runs on PC/MS-
DOS computers, but the following
comparison shows why we pick PROKEY
SMARTKEY does have two advantages: it's
not copy-protected, and its manual is the first
I've seen brilliant enough to make me want to
credit the author— Paul Golding.
RICHARD PLATT: PROKEY uses about 10K of
resident memory; SMARTKEY about 2.25K.
Additional memory (in 1K increments) must
be allotted as you add macros. Only if you
create an extensive library of boilerplate
paragraphs are you apt to run into trouble
storing PROKEY in your memory.
Most of your macros will be created on the fly
in the middle of a program; for boilerplate,
use a separate word processor and store the
text as a macro. SMARTKEY and PROKEY
both allow you to do this, but with
SMARTKEY if you make a mistake in a
particular string of commands, there's no
turning back— you must start over With
PROKEY you can at least backspace and
correct your error. And PROKEY lets you
combine previously defined macros within
your new one, another real time saver What's
more, you get instant feedback with PROKEY;
your commands are interpreted and executed
as you record your keystrokes. With
SMARTKEY you're never sure if you made a
mistake until you use your macro later
A unique feature of PROKEY is its "One Finger
OFF/ON" mode, which allows disabled people
with limited mobility (or just a mouth-stick)
to, for instance, type control characters by
pressing control, then (instead of
simultaneously) the following key
Speed freak's special . . .
FMTFIiiER O
IVIichael Lehman; version 2.8; Macintosh; 2 disk
drives or hard disk and one disk drive; copy-
protected? NO; $50; Tardis Software, 2817 Sloat
Rd., Pebble Beach, CA 93953; 408/372-1722.
PAUL FREIBERGER: This program is for
speed freaks and others who have been
frustrated by the sluggishness of the
Macintosh. FASTFINDER replaces the Mac's
user interface with a traditional text-based
operating system. With FASTFINDER I felt
catapulted back to the days of command line
entry, although each command is also
accessible from a menu bar across the top of
the screen. Programs load more quickly and
disks eject instantly. FASTFINDER supports
batch files, a feature intended for
programmers, but the rest of us can also
use it to save time. Write yourself a program
that will automatically load an application
and move it to a RAM disk. Now we're
talking speed. FASTFINDER isn't for
beginners. The documentation leaves a lot to
the imagination and to patience. However, if
you want to speed up your Mac, it's a nice
alternative. And maybe it will speed up
Apple's efforts to improve the original.
i: m^ms^ ^^>^mmdm-:^^^^^^^&^^^mm^m^^^^m^^i^^^^^^^mmmsm^^^^m^^^^mmm^m
Ttie lure of lore .
Fire in tlie Valley (The Making of the Personal
Computer); Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine;
1984; 288 pp.; $11.95; Osborne/McGraw-Hill,
2600 Tenth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710;
415/897-5298; or COMPUTER LITERACY.
Hackers (Heroes otthe Computer Revolution);
Steven Levy; 1984; 672 pp.; $17.95; Doubleday &
Co., 501 Franklin Avenue, Garden City, NY 11530;
516/294-4400; or COMPUTER LITERACY
STEWART BRAND: Fire in the Valley is the
most hilarious and thrilling book I've read in
years. The national economy winds up
pivoting on the misadventures, blind faith,
and blind luck of a bunch of techie hobbyists
and hippies with an obsession scorned by
corporate America.
In Hackers, Levy does for computers what
Tom Wolfe did for space with The Right
Stuff. Both are behind-the-scenes tales of
elite athletes pursuing potent new
technologies; both are vividly written; both
are inspiring.
Levy chronicles three generations of
hackers— the minicomputer all-night users at
MIT and Stanford in the '60s, the hardware
hackers around the Homebrew Computer
Club who made the first personal computers
in the mid-'70s, and the myriad home-grown
programmers on those computers as soon
as they hit the market, who gave us the
galaxy of consumer software from VISICALC
to CHOPLIFTER! In the succession of
generations Levy portrays a gradual
degrading, commercializing of the Hacker
Ethic, one of the noblest codes in history.
Since the personal computer revolution is
still in progress, it's not too late to join the
rebel cause.
Both books show how programmers wind up
programming the whole damn culture.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
175
Robert Scaroia, Domain Editor
ROBERT SCAROLA: This section examines learning software—
not all learning software, but a selection of the best that exists
within two fairly distinct boundaries.
The first boundary is the age of the learner. The majority of the
programs reviewed here are best suited for students up to
thirteen or fourteen years old. This limitation comes partly from
my own experience as an elementary school teacher for five
years and as a computer lab instructor for first- through eighth-
graders. It comes partly from the fact that in my opinion the
most creative learning software is being developed for the under-
fourteen age group, with a few exceptions in the area of
simulations for adults— for example, FLIGHT SIMULATOR
(p. 33). Learning software developed for teens and young adults
tends, at this point, to be oriented towards a specific learning
goal (an example is STOICHIOMETRY: MASS/MASS by
Microphys Programs, Inc., which explores mass/mass
relationships in chemical reactions). There may well be
applications for this kind of software for high school or college
students taking courses in a specific topic, but it tends to leave
most home computer owners at a loss (see the review of
CATLAB, p. 185, for an example of the best of this breed of
software). Adults, with or without children at their sides, will
enjoy WALL STREET ALGEBRA ARCADE, VOLCANOES, the
i'isj->srisafe«ie^tf^^ai^^^^^^&^^ae «^^^^^^
SEARCH series
many others.
CATLAB, M_SS_NG L_NKS, and probably
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STEWART BRAND: Learning, especially in kids, is greatly
hampered by pace problems. Students are impatient to get
something, but it takes repetition, and teachers become
impatient with the repetition that for them rapidly becomes
mindless. Matched frustrations. Add to that the variety of
individual student paces being brutally standardized into an
overall class pace, and you've got school-as-prison.
You can make computers pretend to be frustrated, but they
never really are. Their forte is precisely mindless repetition.
They don't drum their fingers or roll their eyes or breathe
audibly through their noses while you take a long slow time
coming up with the wrong answer to something. Fact is, they
do the best possible thing for learners— they reward
mistakes. Mistakes are trivial with a computer, who doesn't
care, so you go ahead and make them, and then steer by
them. Steering successfully is the reward. You're hooked.
We don't have a one-student-one-computer situation yet in
most grade schools, but we will soon. It's coming rapidly in
the colleges. Meantime the home, that traditional frontier of
education, is a fine place for superior programs to prove their
superiority, for sustained one-to-one between clever
instructors and self-paced students. The blur between home
and school can be blurred further by computers, and please
do.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Robert Scaroia stopped by our
offices one day last summer to ask if we needed a review of
The second boundary is subject matter. I believe the best
computer learning software doesn't waste its opportunity
duplicating on the computer screen standard presentations of
math, reading, science, social studies, or other academic
disciplines. The best software crosses and merges disciplines to
help individuals learn by (1) engaging in an accurate simulation,
(2) solving a problem, (3) practicing a skill in a new way, or (4)
creating an individualized tool. The Leaming section is therefore
organized around those four themes. A fifth legitimate learning
theme is challenges and adventures— see the Playing section of
the Catalog for programs that offer learning substance in an
adventure format.
Within those two overall boundaries I had further criteria for
selection. I avoided— and I strongly urge readers to avoid-
most programs characterized as "drill and practice," "skill
development," "skills reinforcement," and the like. They have
titles like LONG DIVISION (Basics & Beyond), or PHONICS 1-3
(SRA), or ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA: POLYNOMIALS (Control
Data), or COUNT AND ADD (Edu-Soft), or COUNT 'EM ( Micro-
ED), and on and on. They typically use beeps and blats, smiles
and frowns, laser shots and flashing signals on the screen to get
across a basic right-or-wrong-answer statement in a drill format.
(continued on page 176.)
ROOKY'S BOOTS (p. 188). That review appeared in the first
issue of the Whole Earth Software Review and began a
continuing relationship leading to this section of the Catalog.
For the past three years, Robert has been teaching LOGO (p.
178), word processing and computer literacy to children and
adults, and is currently working under a grant provided by
the Marin County Computer Education Consortium to
develop a science curriculum that uses computer software.
As a teacher (grades 1 through 6) in the alternative Pine
Gulch School in Bolinas, California, Robert has an
enthusiastic software testing lab readily available at school—
and a second one at home where he vies for time on an Apple
II with two sons ages 9 and 11 . In addition, his ties to the
Consortium gave him access
to information collected by all
the local educators interested
in Learning software. In
return, our library is now often
populated with teachers
looking for new software to
evaluate and recommend-
absolutely delightful to walk
by and see full-grown adults
watching frogs jump from one
lily pad to another, or trains
chugging around a track.
Almost makes me want to
learn algebra again.
Robert Scaroia
(continued from p. 175)
They are little more than workbook pages put on a computer
screen-— a waste of time, energy, and money. They not only
distort the value and potential of the computer and misplace its
power, they reinforce the idea of computers as routinizing
machines. And they make up 90 percent of all learning software
programs on the market today.
What I look for instead, and have recommended in this
section, are programs that make me glad I own a computer
and can do what it is I'm doing with it. I look for programs I
can use for my learning purposes rather than those that use
me for theirs. The best of these programs have clear
instructions, easy-to-use documentation, and helpful screen
menus that make it easy to understand and accomplish the
program's objectives. They are adaptable — easily modified to
suit each individual's needs and purposes. And they capture
attention by responding accurately and imaginatively.
The best learning programs enhance creativity because they
make the computer's powerful ability to control, calculate,
store, and retrieve information wonderfully accessible. They
can simulate— actively and accurately— events otherwise
impossible for most of us to experience. They can turn
otherwise dull drill-and-practice routines into enjoyable, lively,
and interactive occasions, sometimes by giving us models of
the real world that we can use to practice with (without fear of
failure) before we engage in the real thing. They can create new
worlds, microworlds, in which our problem-solving
experiences become part of a complex, changing reality that's
under our control.
The best learning programs permit things to happen in the
world that simply couldn't be done, or couldn't be done as
well, in any other medium.
Using this software will not and should not replace reading a
book, hiking in the woods, being close with a friend or lover, or
any of the tactile, emotional, imaginative, or spiritual
experiences we have. But using such software can add
significantly to those experiences by providing new ways to
learn about life in this postindustrial, prerobotic late twentieth
century.
1 . If you have the money, buy an Apple lie or He with a color
monitor and two disk drives ($1000-1200 total, depending on
where you shop). More quality learning software exists for the
Apple than for any other computer on the market. The Apple lie
is tremendously versatile and expandable, with literally hundreds
of devices and peripherals available to upgrade it as much as
your wallet can stand over the years. The Apple lie is easily
repaired— almost every chip on the mother board is socketed
for easy removal and replacement. (This contrasts with the
cheaper Commodore or Atari, for instance, in which nearly all
the chips are dip-soldered to the mother board; if something
goes wrong the computer must be either shipped back to the
manufacturer or serviced by a professional technician— a cost
that can go as high as half the original price of the computer)
2. A color monitor is a must for using most learning software.
You simply won't get as much out of using the programs in
black and white if they are simulations, graphics, or adventure
programs. With some programs you can't even tell what to do
unless the symbols or graphics appear in color on the screen.
Amdek and Commodore both make good color monitors at a
reasonable price ($300-400). Though home computers all work
with standard TV sets, monitors offer far better resolution-
more detail in the image. If you do intend to hook up to a color
television, you can buy a module for the Apple for about $40 that
will do the job. But I would not personally want my children (or
myself, for that matter) to sit twelve inches away from a regular
color TV set for hours at a time. (For occasional use, however, it
is a good cheap way to get access to a color screen.)
3. 1 suggest two disk drives for your Apple, since you will more
than make up for the cost of the second disk drive ($200-300)
quickly because of the ability to make back-up copies of
programs. You will also be able to conveniently run a wide range
of word-processing and other programs that require a data file
disk.
If you are buying the computer for children younger than twelve
years old and don't intend to use it yourself for business or
writing purposes, or if you can't spring for an Apple, I would
recommend next a Commodore 64 computer ($150-200). It is
basically a "getting started" computer you can use for a year or
two and let your kids explore on before you move up to the
greater capacity and performance quality of something more
expensive. Again, with the C-64 1 strongly recommend the
added expense of a color monitor and a disk drive.
The IBM PC, at around $1500, is swiftly making inroads in the
educational market. Although the IBM PCjr is no longer being
manufactured by IBM, its brief appearance caused many
software developers to write learning software for the IBM PC/
compatible (MS-DOS) market. Most, but not all, of the learning
software written for Jr will run on an IBM PC or compatible
that has graphics capability. If, however, the package is clearly
marked IBM PCjr, be sure you try it on a machine like the one
you own before buying.
A joystick and a printer for any of these computers are great
advantages for many learning programs. The joystick gives the
learner easy control over the software and saves a lot of excited
pounding on keys. Joysticks are inexpensive ($15-20 for
Commodore, $35-75 for Apple and IBM) compared with the
overall price of the computer or a service call for keyboard
repair. Dot matrix printers make possible both graphics and text
printouts. I recommend them for most learning uses, since they
are faster, cheaper, and more reliable than letter-quality printers
(which cannot print graphics), and most teachers will gladly
accept papers written in dot matrix typeface. For the Apple, C.
Itoh, Epson, and Okidata are my favorites (all in the $500-600
range with cable and printer card), but check compatability with
your software. Commodore makes its own brand-name printer,
which sells for $200-300 and plugs into a port on the computer,
thus eliminating the need for a printer card and cable.
For starting cheap, you can get a complete starter system with
Apple equipment including one disk drive and a color monitor
(but no printer) for around $1000. A comparable system for
Commodore would cost about $700. If you forget about the disk
drive on the Commodore and stick with cartridges, you can cut
the price of your system by $1 50-200. Skip the monitor and use
a TV, and you're under $200.
XJl
# #
Classroom Computer Learning [$15.95/yr (8 issues); Peter Li,
Inc., 2451 East River Rd., Dayton, OH 45439]. High-quality
articles and reports that have changed my views on learning
software.
Electronic Learning [$19.00/yr (8 issues); Scholastic, Inc.,
RO. Box 645, Lyndhurst, NJ 07071]. In-depth coverage of new
ideas, methods, and technologies; particularly useful for
keeping current.
CUE [($8.00/yr (6 issues); CUE, Inc., RO. Box 18547, San
Jose, CA 95158]. Computer Using Educators' Newsletter. Great
resource for finding out what is best from professional
educators' points of view.
Liiio i diiiiiii im IlliEoii iteiit IliiEdii
ROBERT SCAROLA: If Seymour Papert hadn't
invented LOGO somebody would have to go
out and do it now. For good reasons it has
become one of the primary mechanisms by
which novices learn how to program a
computer.
A lot has already been written about LOGO as
a computer learning tool. There have been
both outrageous claims of success and
outright cynicism. I suggest you ignore any
outrageous claims— learning still takes
effort, imagination, and attention, and
nothing, not even LOGO, will enable anyone to
attain overnight success. But I also suggest
you ignore the cynicism. For two years, I
have taught grades one through eight using
LOGO, and my tempered point of view is that
LOGO works.
The major reason is LOGO'S unique ability to
respond immediately to the programmer's
effort, thus encouraging thinking about the
very process of thinking and programming. In
almost any other programming language —
BASIC, Pascal, FORTH— -the response is
considerably delayed.
LOGO places on the screen before you an
upward pointing caret called a turtle. As you
write a program on the screen using
commands such as fd (meaning Forward) 20
(meaning 20 defined units of space on the
screen, 1 unit having the value of about 2
mm), the turtle moves forward. Tell it BKand a
number and the turtle moves backward that
far. RT or lt and a number get you right and
left turns, the number in this case indicating
the degrees of the turn. You thus draw a
square by typing in fd 20 (or any other
number) RToriT 90 (degrees), four times. As
you type in the program, the turtle draws a
line on the screen.
Simple enough, but just the beginning. Using
other commands you can instruct the turtle to
repeat something an endless number of
times; you can use variables to change your
number limits; you can write a program that
becomes a primitive procedure like fd or rt
and can then be used in other programs (a
building block or "modular" approach to
both programming and problem solving). You
can use an editor to modify your primitive
procedures and variables; and you can save
your programs on a disk. In short, you can
begin to get the feeling, very quickly of the
very powerful programming and graphics
capabilities of the computer.
This basic format holds for any of LOGO'S
variations, whether you use Apple, Atari,
Texas Instruments, Kaypro, Commodore 64,
TRS-80, or IBM PC packages. (It is also the
fundamental way in which Apple or Atari
PILOT work.)
To get the full capability of the language you
should spend the $100-140 to buy a version of
LOGO with the complete set of instruction
manuals. Learning to program in LOGO will
make you feel like you just learned how the
engine works in your car. And that's worth
knowing even if you have no intention of ever
becoming a mechanic.
(LOGO, by the way is not limited to graphics:
as with any powerful computer language you
can also use it to perform calculations and
devise entire systems of lists and variables.)
¥qt information on other languages, see
tlie Programming section, pages 158 to
174.
Books
Discovering Apple LOGO (An Invitation to
the Art and Pattern of Nature) [David
Thomburg; 1983; 145 pp.; $14.95; Addison-
Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, MA 01867;
617/944-3700; or COMPUTER LITERACY].
A wonderful exploration of the tie-in of LOGO
graphics programming with the patterns of
nature that underlie our existence.
Learning with LOGO [Daniel Watt; 1983;
365 pp.; $19.95; McGraw-Hill Book Co.,
Princeton Rd., Hightstown, NJ 08520;
609/426-5254; or COMPUTER LITERACY].
Presents many practical problems and
possibilities for using and playing with LOGO
in a tested, clear, usable format.
Apple LOGO [Harold Abelson; 1982; 240 pp.;
$18.95; McGraw-Hill Book Co., Princeton
Rd., Hightstown, NJ 08520; 609/426-5254;
or COMPUTER LITERACY]. A practical guide
to the intricacies of LOGO presented by one of
the masters.
Mindstorms (Children, Computers and
Powerful Ideas) [Seymour Papert; 1982; 230
pp. ; $6.95; Basic Books, Inc. , 1 East 53rd
Street, New York, NY 10022; 800/638-3030;
or COMPUTER LITERACY] . The bible of
LOGO, and, for that matter, the unmatched
visionary statement of the potential of
learning with computers. This is a
revolutionary manual on how to think
about thinking.
S15^'
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178
Thinking about thinking, and drawing .
For CP/M machines . . .
IBM PC LOGO
The only, but good, choice for each
Version 1.0. All Atari home computers (16K).
Optional peripherals: 810/1050 disk drive or
410/1010 cassette recorder; Atari printer. $99.95.
Copy-protected. Atari, 1265 Borregas Ave./P.O.
Box 427, Sunnyvale, CA 94086; 408/745-4851.
Commodore 64 (1541 disk drive). $69.95. Copy-
protected. Commodore, 1200 Wilson Dr., West
Chester, PA 19380; 800/247-9000 or, in PA,
215/431-9100.
JIM McCAULEY: If you are committed to
Atari or Commodore, you have but one
choice in each case. Fortunately, these are
both fine implementations, with the added
bounty of multiple-turtle control and
sophisticated music systems. ATARI is the
only LOGO available on cartridge; that makes
it the price bargain, since it does not
necessarily require the purchase of a disk
drive (except to store programs on).
Many people think oILOGO as a cute language lor
kids who want to draw llowers and squares on a
computer screen. This animated blackjack game
was written with DR. LOGO. Since It comes with
the DR. LOGO package, you can look at the
program listings and learn how to write
sophisticated LOGO programs like this one.
Salt crystals, grown in APPLE LOGO. "We started
with a crystal form (as in a cube), " said Robert
Scarola. "Then the kids each developed a growth
pattern of their own using LOGO. When the
children build their own turtle crystals, the
younger children create crazy quilts; the older
children methodically seek out the relationships
of figures. " See photo at right
Non-graphic version. All CP/M computers with
Z-80 cards. $100. Low resolution version. Kaypro
10, 2-84, 4-84. $100. High resolution version.
Epson QX-10, NCR Decision (color), Northstar
Advantage. $100. Not copy-protected. The LISP
Company, RO. Box 487, Redwood Estates, CA
95044; 408/354-3668.
Low resolution version. Kaypro 2-84, 4-84, 10,
2X, Robie. $99.95. Deluxe color version. Kaypro
2, 4, 10, 2-84, 4-84, 2X, Robie. External monitor
required. Includes color graphics board. $199.95.
Software alone: $129.95. Board alone: $145. Not
copy-protected. Microsphere, P.O. Box 1221,
Bend, OR 97709; 503/388-1194.
JIM McCAULEY: TLC-LOGO comes in myriad
versions. The non-graphics version has no
turtles. Not recommended. The low-
resolution version (100 by 160 pixels, or
graphic points, on the screen) comes for all
Kaypros except the original 2 and 4. The
high-resolution (600 by 400 pixels) works on
Epson and Northstar CP/M computers. NCR
Decision and Kaypro owners can get it in
color, but Kaypro owners will need the
Microsphere color board.
LOGO for standard Apples
Version 3.0. Apple II family; Commodore 64;
Franklin Ace 1000. 64K, disk drive. $99.95. Copy-
protected. Terrapin, Inc., 222 Third St.,
Cambridge, MA 02142; 617/492-8816.
Apple II family (64K; disk drive, color
recommended). $100. Not copy-protected. Apple
Computer, 20525 Mariani Ave., Cupertino, CA
95014; 408/996-1010.
Apple 11/11 + /lie. $12.95. Also available in Public
Domain. Not copy-protected. Apple LOGO
required. Logo Computer Systems, Inc., 555 West
57th St., Suite 1236, New York, NY 10019;
212/765-4780.
JIM McCAULEY: As usual, Apple owners
face an embarrassment of riches. The
differences in relative power between APPLE
LOGO (with the APPLE LOGO TOOLKIT disk)
and TERRAPIN LOGO are minuscule-
choosing between them is a matter of style.
My own preference is the APPLE LOGO
combination because I appreciate the more
consistent (hence less confusing) syntax. On
the other hand, TERRAPIN LOGO is slightly
less expensive and the documentation is
more complete. I'd look at manuals for both
and choose the more appealing. Both are
well supported by independently published
books.
Version 1.0. IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles
(192K; color graphics adaptor and graphics (RGB)
monitor or monochrome display and display
adaptor). $149.95. Copy-protected. Digital
Research, 60 Garden Ct., Monterey, CA 93942;
408/649-3896.
IBM PC/AT(DOS 3.0)/XT (128K) PCjr and Portable
(DOS 2.1, 128K); 1 diskette drive; color
recommended; $175. Not copy-protected. IBM
Entry Systems Division, P.O. Box 1328, Boca
Raton, FL 33432; 800/447-4700.
IBM PC/XT/AT/PCjr (color monitor), most
graphics-dependent compatibles. 128K, graphics
card. $149.95. Not copy-protected. Harvard
Associates, 260 Beacon St., Somerville, MA
02143; 617/492-0660.
JIM McCAULEY: There are three choices for
the IBM PC, all good. LOGO beginners who
are also new to computers will find that DR.
LOGO allows the quickest and easiest start.
It also has sophisticated windowing
capabilities for debugging programs, a
tremendous advantage.
PC LOGO has a better-organized manual than
DR. LOGO, but it's written for a more
sophisticated audience.
IBM LOGO is included because of its extra-
powerful math. The manual includes an
excellent introduction to programming with
turtle graphics, but unfortunately lacks any
tutorial on programming with words or lists.
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BOB ALBRECHT: When people sell LOGO for use by young children, they're
really selling turtle graphics— not LOGO'S list-processing features. But turtle
graphics can be implemented in any language, as it has in BASIC and Pascal.
I believe sprite graphics are the best way to introduce children eight years and
younger to computers. With sprites, multiple turtles, and a little bit of text, I
would gladly give up all of LOGO'S other features— the recursive power, the list
processing— which even most LOGO teachers don't understand.
Too many teachers start out teaching turtles because "they're good for you."
But most kids, given the choice, will opt for sprites instead, and will apply what
they learn about sprites to more formal turtle graphics later.
Unlike turtles, sprites are dynamic. The static turtle lives in the central
processing unit and waits for your command before it can move. Sprites live
outside, in their own separate chip. You select a sprite, then tell it what shape
to carry, what color that shape is, what direction to move, and how fast to
move. Thereafter, that sprite moves independently of anything else; you can sit
there and write programs while all the sprites are going crazy on the screen.
Sprites offer kids easy arcade-game action. In 15 minutes, I can teach a child
who has never touched a computer to make sprites dance.
For the Apple lie and enhanced
Apple lie . . .
Version 1. Apple lie, lie (128K; disk drive; color
monitor, printer and mouse recommended). $100.
Not copy-protected. Apple Computer, 20525
Mariani Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014;
408/996-1010.
JIM McCAULEY: If you own an Apple lie and
the extended 80-column card (which boosts
memory to 128K) or an Apple lie, you
should get APPLE LOGO II. It's beautifully
documented, has scads of workspace for
huge projects (nearly as much as IBM
LOGO), and includes a well-designed file
system.
More Apple lie fun . . .
SPRITE LOGO O
Apple II, II + , lie (DOS 3.3, 64K; color monitor
recommended). $199. (includes Sprite LOGO
board). Not copy-protected. U.S.A. and Bermuda:
Logo Computer Systems, Inc., 555 West 57tli St.,
Suite 1236, NevK York, NY 10019; 212/765-4780.
Elsewhere: 9960 Cote de Liesse, Lachine,
Quebec, Canada H8T1A1; 514/631-7081.
JIM McCAULEY: SPRITE LOGO is the most
expensive LOGO (because it comes with its
own sprite board) and the most feature-
laden. It can do anything APPLE LOGO can
do, and it has 30 turtles and more work
space. It is more darn fun than any LOGO
I've worked with yet. I recommend it for
people with a particular interest in computer
animation.
The visible program . . .
Scott Steketee; age level: 12 and up; Apple II
family; 48K e Atari; 32K « Commodore 64 e
TRS-80 models I, III, 4; 16K; 1 disk drive; copy-
protected? NO; $39.95; EduSoft, P. 0. Box 2560,
Berkeley, CA 94702; 800/338-7638 or, in CA, AK,
or HI, 415/548-2304.
JIM FRENCH: SIMULATED COMPUTER Is the
perfect introduction to the concepts involved
in the inner workings of a computer. This
program does not teach machine language or
hexadecimal notation (those esoteric terms
that refer to the on/off switching sequence by
which the computer sends electronic signals
that transfer information). Instead, it uses the
familiar decimal system to present graphically
the components of the central processing unit
(or CPU, the "brain" of the computer)— the
accumulator, program counter, and
instruction register. A limited number
(twenty) of memory locations, instruction
codes, and execution modes allow you to
type in and then run simple programs while
watching the whole process of fetching,
incrementing, executing, and outputting your
commands.
For the first time, using this program, I felt I
really understood how it all works!
Great graphics, scientifically correct . . .
KERON Productions; Apple II, II + , 48K » Apple
lie, 128K e Apple He, 64K ® Apple III (in emulation
mode) ® Commodore 64 « IBM PC; copy-
protected? YES; $50; CBS Software, 1 Fawcett
Place, Greenwich, CT 06936; 203/622-2525.
RICHARD DALTON: T REX is a new direction
for animated programs you maneuver with a
joystick. This new focus is on simulation of
natural science environments where you get
to live out the daily challenges of being a
dinosaur.
Dinosaurs had a tougher time than you
imagine. Tyrannosaurus rex had to wrestle
with: water supplies; where to find other
dinos to feed on (and conserve energy while
tracking 'em down); the ambient temperature;
and even whether the terrain he crossed could
support his bulky body If that doesn't sound
tough, then why did they disappear?
KERON Productions, Inc., developers of
T REX, leave that answer to you as you
maneuver the beast through environments
they have created with scrupulous scientific
accuracy That's what simulations are all
about and why personal computers are
becoming more interesting— they can provide
experiences that aren't possible any other
way
//ere's Tyrannosaurus rex in his prehistoric home
futilely pursuing dinner (he started the attack too
faraway). Players learn this costs energy without
increasing food intake— shown graphically at the
bottom of the screen.
When an idea gets overworked by concerned
educators, the excitement of the puzzle gets
lost. Educational software will have a tough
time of it if it is used as yet another vehicle
to beat kids over the head with "the one
way" of doing things. — Henry Olds
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PAT BUCK: PARIS EN METRO certainly beats the
way I learned French years ago in high school
with Hash cards and endless, repetitious drill-in-
unison days with bored classmates.
One ol those rare simulations that's accurate,
engaging and graphically excellent. You can start
your travels on any Old West route you choose.
Just remember, the higher the number, the harder
the route and the better you have to be at
managing time and money in TRAINS.
Arlene Krane and Jersey Cow Software. Version
2.0. Copy-protected. $81 (street $65). Apple II
family. Corvus version $325. D.C. Heath & Co.,
DCH Educational Software, 125 Spring St.,
Lexington, MA 02173; 800/428-8071 or, in MA,
617/860- 1860.
PAT BUCK: Ordinarily I'm not a booster of
drill-and-practice software because it is so
limited, and for the most part boring, but
this program is colorful and musical, fun to
use, and it teaches you several different
things about the language and also about
Paris.
The program uses the Paris Metro (their
subway/public transportation system) as the
"vehicle" to drill French articles (you
remember— those were impossible!) and the
Railroading in the Old West . .
Eric Podietz, Guy Nouri; age level: 8 and up; Atari
BOOXL, 48K • Commodore 64; $26.95 ® Apple
II + , lie, lie, 64K 9 IBM PC; PCjr, 64K; $29.95;
1 disk drive; joystick; color required; copy-
protected? YES; Spinnaker Software Corp.,
1 Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02139;
617/494-1200.
ROBERT SCAROLA: TRAINS presents a
simulation of railroading in the Old West,
complete with wonderful sound, graphics,
and miniature steam engines. It also teaches
basic principles of economics.
TRAINS has the catchiest musical/graphics
introduction of any piece of software on the
market— it immediately puts you in a mood to
ride a train. Only you're the one running the
railroad. You have to service industries in the
Old West with your trains, moving from the
easiest level to the hardest. On each of the
Scientific method .
Age level: 12-adult; Apple II family; 48K; 1 disk
drive; copy-protected? YES; $50; Earthware
Computer Services, P.O. Box 30039, Eugene, OR
97403; 503/344-3383.
JIM FRENCH: VOLCANOES is a classic
simulation that works best with groups but
can also work with the individual learner, in
VOLCANOES students study, conduct various
scientific investigations, and make
predictions of likely volcanic eruptions in a
mythical land called Wrangelia. Both the
software program and the support materials
promote an understanding of the scientific
verb "aller" (equally impossible while at the
same time being improbable!). Famous Paris
landmarks, such as the Louvre, Notre Dame,
and the Eiffel Tower become subway-system
destinations. There are several lessons and,
as a reward for your endeavors, a game. The
graphics are superb. And the music can be
turned off if you'd rather work quietly.
Although there is a good teachers' manual
and the manufacturer includes classroom
management suggestions, the only
disadvantages to the program are in
classroom situations: teachers can't add to
or vary the lessons and there is no way
within the program to keep track of a
student's progress. Still, though, the
program would be ideal in a beginning
French class or in a conversational French
class of travelers on the verge of going to
Paris.
eight levels you have a new track layout, new
scenery, and a larger territory, complete with
plains, mountains, deserts, cities, and
drifting clouds.
It is up to you to manage the railroad's
money: set priorities and meet deadlines in
order to get ore from the mine to the factory
or lumber from the forest to the sawmill. As
you use your resources to meet the needs of
the various industries, you can build new
sections of track for your railroad and
advance to the next level of the game. On the
other hand, you can lose money and track by
not fulfilling industry demands. And when
you're out of money and coal, you're out of
business and the game is over.
Plan your route, toot your whistle (sounds
just like a model train whistle), watch your
market update, keep your coal dry, stay on
the track and don't crash, and play TRAINS.
It's a great learning simulation for anyone
who likes steam engines and railroading.
method of inquiry and deduction, and both
develop skills in record keeping and priority
budgeting.
A player can gain a thorough understanding
of the types of volcanic activity and methods
of investigation with this well-thought-out
simulation. As in real life, unpredictable
events occur randomly that affect the playing
of the game, including foul weather and a
chance meeting with Bigfoot. I found
VOLCANOES fascinating; it increased my own
knowledge of what volcanists study and how
they study it. Interacting with the software is
easy, and the support materials include an
excellent bibliography along with pre- and
post-tests for students.
O MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
Group explorations .
Tom Snyder Productions; age level: 10 to adult;
Apple II family; 48K ® TRS-80 Models III, 4; 32K;
disk drive; copy-protected? YES; $240 each ($180
with school discount); McGraw-Hill Book Co.,
Webster Division, 1221 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10020; 800/223-4180; modules
available: Geology, Geography, Community,
Archaeology, Energy.
JIM FRENCH: In the SEARCH series for
geology, geography, community, archaeology,
or energy, while the subject matter is different
in each program, all share features that make
them unique and unparalleled in learning
software. Each simulation can be played by a
single learner, but they are vastly more
effective and fun in a group situation. I have
run several of the simulations with as many
as 40 adults at a time with great success and
much glee.
The five programs all have the same
organizational format. The group of learners
is first divided into subgroups of three to six
people. Each subgroup must accomplish a
task, such as navigate a ship in search of new
lands and riches (GEOGRAPHY SEARCH),
manage a power-producing utility (ENERGY
SEARCH), find a new homeland for the tribe
(COMMUNITY SEARCH), and so on.
The unique feature of all the programs is that
the information given on the computer is only
on the monitor screen for a short 30 seconds
or so, forcing a collective/cooperative effort
on the part of the participants to gather
quickly the information needed to make their
decisions. As the action proceeds, the
computer announces various random events,
such as attack by pirates, drought, or other
disasters. In some of the programs
interaction among subgroups is possible. If
poor decisions are made your team can miss
turns, lose money, fail in its task, or go bust
and be out of the game.
All of this creates an atmosphere of great
excitement and interest, in which an unusual
amount of learning takes place. Ideally, a
classroom teacher would use lots of
supplementary activities and information with
each program. The publishers of the SEARCH
series make this easy by supplying with each
package a set of workbooks that introduce the
situation and provide glossaries, record-
keeping forms, and reading material with
background information. A teaching manual
describing suggested activities to enrich the
presentation is also included. (However, I
recommend as little "teaching" intervention
as possible.)
The one drawback for this exciting
educational product is its price— $180 for
each program in the series. Even though each
comes with 20 workbooks and a teaching
manual, the cost will discourage many people
from acquiring a fine piece of learning
software.
/ wish I liad a
Joyce Hakansson Associates. Copy-protected.
$39.95 (street $30). Apple ll + /llc/lle;
Commodore 64 (joystick required). CBS Software,
1 Fawcett Place, Greenwich, CT 06838;
800/227-2754 or, in CT, 203/622-2525.
ROBERT SCAROLA: When you were a child
did you ever crawl inside one of those great
collapsible wooden playhouses with
miniature tables, chairs, people and animals,
and live out your fantasies of future
adulthood?
Joyce Hakansson must have. She and her
associates have once again trespassed in the
secret world of childhood imaginations and
created a program that reaches into the fine
heart of learning software. DREAM HOUSE is
non-violent, open-ended, easy-to-use and
magical.
DREAM HOUSE gives children four
wonderfully detailed imaginary houses to
play with onscreen: Colonial Farmhouse,
Manhattan Penthouse, San Francisco
Victorian and the Hideaway Cottage. The
child begins outside or inside the house,
moving through simple pictorial menus with
an easy flick of the joystick, to play . . .
landscape architect (creating different shapes
of trees and plants and placing them around
the house); master builder (remodeling with
new shingles, windows, shutters, walls,
etc.); or interior designer (painting trim,
walls, floors, ceilings; rearranging furniture,
clocks, lamps, tables, and pets). Pets? Yes,
the child can play a little God, choosing a
Knigiit in a shiny, white submarine
o
Joyce Hakansson and Christopher Cerf. Not copy-
protected. $39.95 (street $32). Commodore 64;
Apple II family. Simon & Schuster, Inc.,
Electronic Publishing Group, 1230 Avenue of the
Americas, New York, NY 10020; 201/592-2900.
ROBERT SCAROLA: Introducing, for those of
you under 10, the "Great Gonzo." Can he
save the fair Camilla, held captive in the
tower by the evil Swedish Chef? Depends.
On whether he gets bombed by falling eggs,
whether his boat is sunk by evil sharks, on
how well he reads his road map.
Nice thing about Gonzo is that he does
"eggsactly" what you tell him to do. But you
have to be build the correct vehicle with the
proper attachments for Gonzo to use to
Mom, a Pop and siblings, placing them in
various rooms and even animating them.
Masterpieces can be saved to disk and later
loaded back in for more work. And, if our
dreamer wants to, he or she can invite a
friend over to play "hide and seek," painting
over objects and people and then challenging
the other child to find them.
DREAM HOUSE encourages creativity and
problem-solving through a very rich simulation of
"real life. " Its strong, clear graphics, simple but
detailed Images, depth, and complexity
challenge children for hours with the act (and art)
of "dreaming up" their own fantasy living
situation.
overcome the hazards on the road to the
castle (past the guardian troll) so he will be
tearfully and joyfully reunited with Camilla,
and the Swedish Chef will be foiled again.
You can choose submarines, boats, cars and
planes with attachments like horn blowers,
light makers, water squirters, stoppers,
bumpers and catchers; moving them (and
Gonzo inside) by easy joystick manipulation.
THE GREAT GONZO IN WORDRIDER is full
of appealing graphics and interesting
encounters. Another imaginative saga
created by Joyce Hakansson Associates, it
encourages creativity without resorting to
gratuitous violence.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Maybe next year
they'll create THE GREAT CAMILLA IN
WORDRIDER who rescues the Fair Gonzo
from the evil "Japanese Mechanic."
BUD > ^e 1 1 fbbbs Hhqf
iiV"SrS^*?3S^Si2!!;!iKiSra^'=!Sai"5"i^
Give Tobbs an answer that won't work and he
shakes his head "No. " But give him the one right
answer and he does somersaults. This is the fifth
TEASERS BY TOBBS level of difficulty. Sixth is tops.
.[ "c /fiVJ5(iii]J=';»;jrt '^ L.--'. ■.'•-'■V- ;*:■:'■'■ "■,." :'.;*.'•.-■■ '
■'": ..5 ■:'^^i£2^Jil^^^^:.'^
As SNOOPER TROOPS Agent Number 2, you check
the Snoopnet terminal to find an old clue in this
cryptic phrase. Then, after a quick ride in the
Snoopmobile, you arrive at the suspect's house
and prepare to sneak in a downstairs window.
Use your flashlight if necessary, but don't get
caught.
Thinking about numbers . . .
Dr. Thomas C. O'Brien; age level: 8-adult; Apple II
family; 48K © Atari; 16K8 TRS-80 Color Computer;
32K; e TRS-80 Models I, III, 4; 16K ® Commodore
64 ® Acorn; 32K; copy-protected? YES; $49;
Sunburst Communications, Inc., 39 Washington
Ave., Pleasantville, NY 10570; 800/431-1934, or,
in NY and AK, call collect, 914/769-5030.
JIM FRENCH: This award-winning software
promotes the best use of the computer. In a
game format, with a character named Tobbs,
the program reinforces arithmetic skills of a
very high order in a way that is greatly
superior to textbooks.
The program begins by presenting the players
(as many as four) an arena for practicing
addition and multiplication problems with
sums and products of less than 100. This
takes place on a simple grid. However, the
students encounter six stepped-up levels of
complexity, so by level 4 they have to begin
working backwards to solve problems. This,
of course, introduces in a very intriguing way
the concepts of subtraction and division.
Learners must begin making distinctions
among what "must be, can be, and can't
be . . ." and construct quite complex chains
of thought to develop answers. The computer
provides the format, generates random
numbers, checks responses, and keeps
records of correct answers. Real thinking
skills are developed rather than mere rote
memory.
Civilization's basic skill . .
Jane Hartley; age level: 7-10; Apple II family; 48K;
disk drive; copy-protected? YES; $39.95; Hartley
Courseware, Inc., P.O. Box 419, Dimondale, Ml
48821; 800/247-1380, or, in Ml, 517/646-6458.
AL MANN: Easy to use, imaginative, and
effective, MONEY! MONEY! teaches a student
to become proficient with money in fifteen
lessons that move from recognizing and
adding coins to buying from a clerk and
counting change. The lessons begin with
vocabulary reviews, and all have diverse and
interesting scenarios. This package is ideal
for working with disabled individuals (such as
I am) because it contains a "mini-authoring"
system that gives access to the graphics and
enables a parent or teacher easily to design a
lesson that meets a specific need. A record of
each student's score is maintained for
planning purposes, and limits can be placed
on a program to reduce frustration or
boredom.
You, as SNOOPER TROOPS Agent Number 2, are
about to sneak through the window of a suspect's
house in search of clues. If you're lucky, nobody
will be home. Use your flashlight if you must, but
don't give yourself away
Socially approved gambling .
Age level: 10-adult; Apple II family; 48K ® Apple III
in emulation mode; copy-protected? YES; $24.95;
CE Software, 801 73rd Street, Des Moines, lA
50312; 515/224-1995.
PAT BUCK: If you like Monopoly and acquiring
fortunes you'll love WALL STREET From one
to nine players can play, though one to four is
the ideal number to avoid cumbersome
complications. Each player starts the game
with $10,000, using it to buy/sell 18 stocks in
utilities, communications, oil, or
manufacturing industries with real names-
Apple, General Motors, RCA, and so on. The
winner is the entrepreneur who accumulates
the first $1 ,000,000, has the most money at
the end of the game, or goes bankrupt last.
You control the action at all times. You buy,
sell, take out loans, and get tips about the
next day's market (for a price) while
performing calculations and making
investments. The program lacks explosive
graphic displays, but more than makes up for
it by accurately representing the up and down
challenges of real world stock market
investing.
Detective skills . . .
Tom Snyder Productions; age level: 10-adult;
Apple II + , lie, lie; 48K • IBM PC compatibles;
64K; $32.95 • Atari; 48K » Commodore 64;
$26.95; disk drive; color monitor recommended;
copy-protected? YES; Spinnaker Software,
1 Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02139;
617/494-1200.
ROBERT SCAROLA: Kids have a natural love
for solving mysteries, and the SNOOPER
TROOPS series by Spinnaker gives them the
opportunity to play detective and use
mapping skills to hunt down suspected
criminals. The series goes far beyond
duplicating a board game like Probe by
making special use of the animating and
interactive abilities of the computer.
CLAIRE ANN GOULD: In SNOOPER TROOPS
Case 2 you are assigned to crack the Case of
the Disappearing Dolphin. Someone has
stolen Lily right out of her pool and it is up to
you to find the culprit. You have a manual to
assist you with your record keeping of times,
dates, and places as you engage in your
search, questioning witnesses and suspects
in the sleepy town of Costa Villa. The
program uses the computer's capabilities for
excellent graphics, sound effects, and
information storage and retrieval to teach you
mapping, note-taking, classifying,
organizing, and reasoning skills while you
seek a confession from Lily's kidnapper.
185
Discovering patterns .
Marge Kosel & Mike Fish; age level: 7-adult;
Apple II family; 48K ® Atari (except 800XL); 32K;
color ® Commodore 64 ® IBM PC compatibles;
64K; color graphics card ® TRS-80 Color
Computer; copy-protected? YES; $55; Sunburst
Communications, Inc., 39 Washington Ave.,
Pleasantville, NY 10570; 800/431-1934, or, in NY,
914/769-5030.
GEORGE RADDUE: Kids tovethis program.
It's what I've been looking for: a concentrated
activity that aims at building and honing an
ability to detect and use pattern and
sequence— that is, discovering logical steps
in the solution of a problem.
In my primary school science classes much
of our work is the construction of gadgets
that exemplify concepts in the physical,
biological, and behavioral sciences. Although
these activities build critical thinking skills,
most of the children I teach have had no prior
experiences that help develop the concept of
"knowing what to do next," and this inability
poses one of my greatest challenges in
helping the children construct their projects.
In THE POND, the goal is to learn a chosen
pattern of lily pads well enough to program
the leaps of a friendly frog from pad to pad
without having him jump into the water (at
which point he swims back to the beginning,
and you have to start all over again). There is
a practice mode for very young users and a
more conceptual programming mode for
older users. In the advanced mode, after a
view of the presented pattern, the player must
remember the number of leaps and their
direction so the frog can make it to the final
lily pad.
Last week I used THE POND with 160 kids
from kindergarten through third grade. The
kindergarten children had no difficulty using
the program in the practice mode. The older
children loved using their greater ability to
decipher patterns in the programming mode.
In one or another mode or difficulty level, the
program was just right for all 160 little tigers.
There are two small problems: the player
selects numbers by moving a cursor over a
number on the screen rather than by pushing
a number key— confusing for all the kids—
and the instructions for how to leave the
program and return to the main menu are
hidden on the last page of the manual. But
those problems are easily corrected and
detract not at all from my strong feeling that
this is the kind of learning software I've been
waiting for
That grinning frog is waiting to see if you've
forgotten tlie pattern of lily pads and are going to
dump him in THE POND. With practice you can
get him all the way to that great pink lily pad in
the lake. II you make it, you just learned a lot
about predicting, sequence and logical ordering
(not to mention the rudiments of programming).
Practice starting a business
Wateriord School District, Waterford, Ml. Copy-
protected. $55 (street $45). Apple II family;
TRS-80 Models I, III, 4; TRS-80 Network (not
copy-protected). Sunburst Communications, 39
Washington St., Pleasantville, NY 10570;
800/431-1934 or, in NY, 914/769-5030.
JULIE ASKELAND: This challenging
simulation is designed to teach children
about business, but it's also an excellent
test-run for adults thinking of opening a
small business.
You begin the game with enough money to
purchase and operate a one-product
business for six months. During the six
months you must make weekly and monthly
decisions about inventory, advertising,
hiring and firing salespeople, setting prices,
borrowing money, paying principal, hiring
accountants and outside consultants. In
addition, you have to keep records, pay state
sales taxes, contend with product shortages
and late shipments.
Notes explaining the value of an economist
and accountant are included in the package
along with practice worksheets. A half-hour
run-through of THE WHATSIT
CORPORATION is enough to get a good
sense of what operating a small business is
like. If you take the time to study the
additional materials, however, you'll find it a
very complete introduction to the real world
of small business and its intricacies.
JULIE ASKELAND: Using THE WHATSIT
CORPORATION, I found out the hard way how
important all the lacets ota business are.
Despite the advice in the program's notes, I went
ahead and opened my "business" without
consulting an accountant and went bankrupt at
the end of the six-month period.
iREPORT FOR MONTH 1i
Current sales force: — 1 Total sales: 381
Missing/Damaged: ... 16
Total Revenue: $ 551 5.00
Salary Expense: $ 1 680.00
Whatsit Costs: $ 2700.00
Advertising: $ 0.00
Fixed Costs: $ 569.99
Unemployment: $ 0.00
Inventory Costs: $ 1 02.00
Interest on Loan: $ 32.50
i#^
O
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
/ was an early computer nut myself. Von
Neumann's grand, historic, and immediately
obsolete machine was built in a low,
windowless brick building at the foot of
Olden Lane, where I grew up in Princeton,
New Jersey Von Neumann— and his was a
true genius the likes of which this world has
rarely seen — had bought up a bunch of
scrap components that were stored in an old
barn at the edge of the Institute woods.
Myself and one or two other ten-year-old
"hackers" spent many, many days in there,
monkeying around among thousands of
microswitches, pigeons, and rats. There is
an imagery there, and a smell I will never
forget. And the joy in ttiose days of hard-
wired electromechanical logic, of being able
to sneak in there with our screwdrivers and
crescent wrenches and take this stuff apart.
Well, I gave up on computers, in favour of
canoes. My sister Esther, who kept clean of
the hardware side of things, approached the
computer business on a different track, and
now owns and writes the RELease 1 .0
iewsletter out of New York [recently sold to
Ziff-Davis Publishing].
—George B. Dyson
For 6 to 8-year-olds . . .
IliWRITER O
Jim and Jack Pejsa. Copy-protected. $27-$30
(street $25). Apple ll + /lle/llc; Commodore 64;
IBM PC PCjr. Spinnaker Software Corp., 1 Kendall
Sq., Cambridge, MA 02139; 617/494-1200.
ROBERT SCAROLA: KIDWRITER is based on
a concept as old as teaching: draw a picture
and write about what you draw. To "draw" a
picture, storytellers choose from eight
different background scenes (a theater stage,
for example) and 99 different objects. The
objects— stylized but fairly well-done graphic
images (girl, boy, animal, cloud, tree,
snowman, store, truck, bike, ship, jet,
robot, etc.)— can be moved around the
background screen; their colors and sizes
are easily changed.
KIDWRITER's menus all show sensitivity for
the capabilities of young children who need
press only the first letter of each function to
access it. d for done, for example, tells the
program the picture is created and it's time
to write the story. And this causes the
bottom half of the screen to become a
simple word processor with room for eight
lines of prose.
The program has some flaws that children
should be warned about: inadvertently
pressing the e key erases everything, and
pictures can't be changed once they're done,
nor can they be printed out. But the program
is fun, it stimulates creative writing, and
what we see as flaws are often not as
important to children. More than one child
has said to me, after accidentally hitting the
E key and losing everything, "Oh, it's okay.
I'll just start over again."
/n KIDWRITER, images and words have a direct
relationship. Young children make a small
picture, then write a very short story about it. As
you can see, the result feels like they've just
produced a play. The stage curtain was drawn by
a kid— it's not a stock part of the progam.
Q MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
For 9 to 12-year-olds witli Apples
ROCtSsOn \J
Suzanne L. Zemke, John A. Obershelt, and IOTA.
Version 1.0. Copy-protected. $69.95 (street $55).
Apple II family. Milliken Publishing Co., 1100
Research Blvd., P.O. Box 21579, St. Louis, MO
63132; 314/991-4220.
ROBERT SCAROLA: The MILLIKEN WORD
PROCESSOR sits in the middle ground. It
lies closer to full-featured word processors
like BANK STREET WRITER, with similar
command keys and menus, than to story-
tellers like KIDWRITER. MILLIKEN is easier
to understand than BANK STREET
WRITER— graphic icons are used alongside
clearly labeled function menus— but,
unfortunately, you must exit the actual
writing screen and go to a separate screen to
access the functions.
The writing screen is, at most, ten lines of
widely spaced type with an oversized cursor
that looks like a capital I. The limited viewing
area causes words to scroll off the screen
quickly, a problem for anyone older than
twelve. But for younger writers, the
expanded display is a plus, it minimizes the
writing area, helps young children focus,
and gives their writing an uncluttered feel.
You can print out what you write and easily
choose line length, spacing, and page
numbers.
From literary classics in four languages . . .
Chomsky & Schwartz; age level: 7-adult; Apple 11
family; 48K ® Atari 400/800; 48K • Commodore 64
(English Editor not available) ® IBM PC; 64K •
IBM PCjr; 128K ® TRS-80, Models I, III, 4; 48K;
disk drive required for all; choice of: Young
People's Literature, Classics Old & New,
MicroEncyclopedia, $55 each; English Editor, $65
each; Spanish, French, and German Editors, $65
(available only for the IBM PC and PCjr); copy-
protected? YES; Sunburst Communications, Inc.,
39 Washington Ave., Pleasantville, NY 10570;
800/431-1934 or, in NY, 914/769-5030.
JIM FRENCH: The title gives away the format
of this program. Separately purchasable disks
present encyclopedia information, foreign-
language entries, entries you can make up, or
passages from children's and adults' literary
classics. The passages are offered in up to
nine formats with various vowels, letters,
parts of words, or words missing. Players
make educated guesses about what is
missing and in the process draw on their
innate (and often surprising) knowledge
about word structure, spelling, grammar, and
meaning in context. They also get a sense of
the authors' styles and develop one of their
own as they practice reading skills and extend
their vocabularies. Without conscious effort
they therefore gain many language-related
/ use it. . .
Apple, Atari and Commodore versions by
Intentional Educations, Inc., The Bank Street
College of Education, and Franklin E. Smith; IBM
PC version by Bank Street College of Education,
Franklin E. Smith; age level: 8-adult; Apple II
family; 48K « Apple lie; 128K ® Atari; 48K; $69.95
• Commodore 64; $49.95 » IBM PC compatibles;
64K (PC DOS 2.0, 128K) ® IBM PCjr; PC DOS 2.1;
128K; $79.95; copy-protected? YES; Broderbund
Software, Inc., 17 Paul Drive, San Rafael, CA
94903; 415/479-1170.
ROBERT SCAROLA: BANK STREET WRITER
is not the most powerful word-processing
program, nor the most versatile, nor the
cheapest. But I believe it is one of the easiest
to use if you are just beginning to learn
about word processing. It smoothly
incorporates all the basic word-processing
functions, and the recently improved version
offers adjustable margins, print formatting
features, and a mouse option for the Apple lie.
BANK STREET WRITER is already the choice
of thousands of 10 to 15-year-old budding
writers, and quite a few adults as well.
skills while the computer keeps score and
records guessing accuracy.
The sources of the passages used in
M_SS,_N6 L_NKS cover a wide range: they
include the Bible, poetry, sports, animals,
world records, and great literature in English,
French, German, and Spanish. The software
can be used by individual learners as a puzzle
or exercise or by a group of students as a
competitive/cooperative game. Either way, it
achieves the author's purpose: "to help
convey . . . some of the excitement and fun of
Language."
/ think it is no small matter that people can
work through their dumbnesses — maybe
even treasure them as paths to growth when
they are using a computer as a tool. I think
the computer will likely help us all be more
patient with our learning selves.
—Henry Olds
Children have an easier time learning about
computers than adults because they're not
afraid to make mistakes. Children are used
to making mistakes all day long and getting
yelled at for it. So they're more willing to
experiment with something that might
intimidate them. Adults can't experiment
because they v</on 't risk mistakes.
— George Morrow,
Quotations from Chairman Morrow
i.'HJil.
LEARNING 185
Musical notes and fundamental math . . .
PIECE OF CAKE MATH
Age level: 7-11; Apple II family; 48K; disk drive •
Atari; 16K; disk • Commodore 64; disk • tBM PC
compatibles; 64K; color graphics card • IBM PCjr;
copy-protected? YES; 534.95;
FRACTION FACTORY
Age level: 8-12; Apple II family; 48K • Atari; 16K •
Commodors 64 • IBM PC compatibles; 64K; color
graphics card • IBM PCjr; copy-protected? YES;
S29.95; ■
MUSIC MAESTRO
Age level: 3-teen; Apple II family; 48K • Atari; 16K;
disk • Commodore 64 • IBM PC compatibles; 64K;
color graphics card • fBM PCjr; copy-protected?
YES; S34.95;
All from Springboard Software, Inc.. 7807
Creekridge Circle, Minneapolis, MN 55435;
800/328-1223.
JIM FRENCH: In PIECE OF CAKE MATH,
fundamental math drills take place in an
imaginative simulated situation: a bakery. In
the first level, the child's task Is to keep track
of how many cakes are baked and sold each
day over a week's time. Next, the child is
asked to predict the number of pieces there
will be if the bakers cut up the cakes in a
variety of ways, and the number of cuts
necessary to make to get a certain number of
pieces. If the child encounters problems, the
computer gently divides up the cakes until the
child can actually count the Individual pieces
to get the correct answer In so doing, he or
she catches on that multiplying and dividing
are actually meaningful labor-saving
operations— not an easy thing to convince
some children of. A second level contains
basic flashcarcJ sequences of the four
fundamental math operations. The final level
is a game for up to four players called
Catchacake, The faster the child's reactions,
the higher the points add up. If the player
Genetically valid kittens . . .
CATLAB
Judltfi Kinnear; age level: 14-adult; Apple It family;
48K; color monitor recommended: copy-
protected? NO: S75; CONDUIT University of Iowa,
Oakdale Campus, Iowa City, I A 52244; 319/353-
5789.
GARY PORTER; CATLAB is for students at
least high school age or older who have been
introduced to the basics of Mendelian
genetics.
The simulation portion of the program
visually represents the coat color and pattern
resulting from the mating of domestic cats by
producing on the screen a genetically valid
litter of kittens. However, to use the program
you must keep accurate written records of the
mating cycle and use a scienttfic methodology
to control your experiments carefully.
misses, another cake splats to the floor of
Fumbles Bakery (which itself is fun, but the
challenge of being the first to reach 1000
points overcomes the delight with splatted
cakes).
FRACTION FACTORY is a practice program
that sidesteps the familiar frustrations of
learning fractions (cutting up paper pies just
doesn't do it for some children). The program
has five games that reinforce the concepts of
fractions and sets, equivalency, finding
fractions of a number, and both adding and
subtracting unlike fractions. The child can
select the game of choice from a picture
menu, which means that even nonreaders can
use the program. The adding and subtracting
games are particularly well designed,
graphically leading the child to the correct
solution when wrong entries are made. It's a
great help for children having trouble with the
concept of fractions.
Finally, MUSIC MAESTRO is a program that
assists children in learning about and
generating music. For me, this is one of the
computer's most exciting potentials, I have
had even five-year-olds producing miniature
symphonies and self-created duets using this
program. MUSIC MAESTRO turns the
computer into a simple practice and
composing instrument. In the perform/
record/playback mode, the child can play
musical notes that appear on a piano
keyboard by pressing the number keys on the
computer After creating a piece, the child can
instruct the computer to play it back, edit it,
modify it, and save it on a disk, all without a
musical instrument or adult assistance. The
child can also practice already created
programs in a "Simon Says" format, learn
musical notation using 'Guido's Quiz/' and
even add a graphics display that fills the
screen with randomly generated designs as
he or she composes. Children won't learn
intricacies of tempo or go much beyond one
octave, but they will get a wonderful
introduction into the world of music.
HOIfOAT ffORNIIiG
Otherwise, as in life, the variables will quickly
get out of hand.
Used properly, CATLAB is an excellent tool for
developing skills in understanding genetic
ratios and recognizing the distinguishing
features of inheritance of monogenic traits —
dominant/recessive.'Codominant. autosomal.'
sex-linked. The program also develops skill in
planning strategies for analyzing linkage,
gene Interaction, and multiple allelic systems.
ROBERT SCAROLA: Whew, that^s a
mouthful — but I figured we should
recommend at least one excellent piece of
learning software for high school and college
students.
n% bakers had
and th«3i taked
Hou aany did theii!
Have w all ?
It's only Monday but you've got to keep track of a
wtiole weel('s war it! of baking. Wfien they start
cutting up cakes, you'll f}ave to use multlptiCBtion
and division to keep track of eacti PIECE OF
CAKE.
MUSIC MAESTRO presents the fundamentals of
music and then leads you into simple
composition. Guido 's Quiz, named after the
inventor of musical notation, leaches the notes of
the keyboard, treble clef and ttass ciei.
What are the chances of coming up with a titter
like this one? Which colors are dominant, which
recessive? CATUIB uses cat colors to teach the
principles of genetics.
186
Using hints and games. GET TO THE POINT
teaches the secrets and power of decimal point
placement.
fi^i^f
mm^
TOTRL
nouE
IMPOSSIBLE
EIIPTY
END
Given an unlimited supply of a substance but only
two PUZZLE TANKS containers for measuring, one
that holds 3 tons and one that holds 6 tons, how
do you measure out exactly 9 tons?
Intriguing drill and practice . . .
GET TO THE POINT O
WORD QUEST O
Education Development Center and Judati L.
Schwartz. Copy-protected, $55 each (street S45|.
Apple II lamily.
PUZZLE TANKS O
Thomas C. O'Brien. Copy-protected. S55 (street
S45). Apple II family; TRS Models I, III, 4; TRS-
Hetwork (not copyprotected).
*
all from Sunburst Communications. 39
Washington St., Pleasantville. NY 10570;
431-1934 or in NY, 914769-5030.
ROBERT SCAROLA: Sunburst has recently
produced a series of drill-and-practice
software programs for elementary school
children that achieves a delicate balance
between intellectual challenge and
enjoyment.
GET TO THE POINT offers practice in
decimal-point notation. It successfully
presents difficult concepts, like the idea that
a three-digit number can have a lower value
than a two-digit number, and sets up a
variety of game formats that individual
students can play. It can also be used by
partners for a "binary search'' method
(continually cutting the search in half to
logically reduce the choices) of finding
answers.
The same search strategy is used in WORD
QUEST, in which one student challenges
another to guess the word entered into the
computer. The program successively
narrows the search interval with each guess.
PUZZLE TANKS, the third program in the
series, adds a graphic representation of a
tanker being filled with liquid to assist
development of mathematical skills.
Students must determine the correct
proportions (from various storage
reservoirs) required to mix the amount of
punch or juice that exactly fills a tanker of
given capacity. The program spices up the
thinking process by including some
problems that cannot be solved; the correct
answer to these problems is "impossible."
A good antidote to television commercials in
which intricate problems are always solved
in one minute with the right bar of soap.
Match words to pictures by inserting ttie correct
letters: find the words with the same vowel
sounds, fill the boxcars, and watch the train chug
away The theme in READER RABBIT is teaching
reading skills with animated cartoons and loyi
as non-threatening as being in a sandbox.
THE LEARNING COMPANY
ADDITION MAGICIAN
Dale DIsharoon: age level: 6-10; Apple II familv;
48K • Commodore 64 • IBM PC compatibles; color
graphics card: IBM PCjr; 128K; disk drive; copy-
protected? YES: S34, 95;
NUMBER STUMPER
Dennis Sorenson: age level: 6-10: Apple II family;
48K; color recommended • IBM PC compatibles;
color graphics card; IBM PCjr; 128K; disk drive;
copy-protected? YES; S39.95;
READER RABBIT
Leslie Grimm; age level: 5-7: Apple II family; 48K
• Commodore 64 • IBM PC compatibles: color
graphics card; IBM PCjr; 1Z8K; copy-protected?
YES; $39.95;
WORD SPINNER
Dale Disharoon: age level: 6-10; Apple II family;
48K • Atari; 48K • Commodore 64 • IBM PC
compatibles; color graphics card: IBfVI PCjr: 128K;
color monitor recommended; copy-protected?
YES; S34.95;
all from Tlie Learning Company, 545 Middlefield
Road. Suite 170. Menio Park. CA 94025;
415 328^5410.
ROBERT SCAROLA: The Learning Company
has produced a series of software that goes
well beyond the simple practice routines of
most drill and practice products. As with its
stunning problem-solving programs, such as
ROOKY'S BOOTS (p, 188), The Learning
Company's practice programs always focus
on the learner's ultimate control over the
program. The Learning Company's programs
are characterized by marvelous use of
engaging graphics and are highly interactive.
My personal favorite is READER RABBIT
which I think gives children an excellent
opportunity to practice word patterns and
sounds by running machines like a labeler,
sorter, or train (see p. 189 for a discussion of
MAGIC SPELLS, The Learning Company s
magical spelling practice program). Another
favorite is WORD SPINNER, which has a very
effective fill-in-the-letter format, A- for The
Learning Company.
For me. one of the most disturbing aspects
of the microcomputer inundation is the term
"computer literacy, " By adorning a fuzzy
notion in academic garb, we have managed
to make milhons of parents feel negligent
unless they've at least bought their kid a
Commodore 64. Colleges who wouldn't
dream of making typmg— another useful
skill— compulsory are suddenly insisting on
a haif-a-year of 'computer" before
graduation, —Bart Eisenberg
o
MEANS- NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
LEARNING 187
For young computer artists, graphic
designers, and typesetters . . .
THE PRINT SHOP O
David Balsam and Martin Kahn. Copy-protected
S45-$50 (street S30-S35). Apple II family. Atari.
Commodore 64. Broderbund Software, 17 Paul
Dr., San Rafael, CA 94903; 415/479-1170.
ROBERT SCAROLA: THE PRINT SHOP is to
typing and computer keyboard skilfs what
calligraphy is to writing skills, Students can
use it to produce their own greeting cards,
signs, lettertieads, banners, and text wftti a
wide selection of fonts, icons, borders, and
graphics.
To learn mechanics you need to turn some
nuts and bolts, twist with a wrench, make
something run, To learn typing, why not set
type, work with letters, make something
print? The students I know much prefer to
make their own important product rather
than to practice for the sake of practice,
GARY ROSS: My wife, who has in the past
refused to discuss "MY" computer, has
done a complete turnaround. This resulted
from watching my son (nine) and daughter
(five) use their creative juices and THE
PRINT SHOP to grind out: farewell banners
for friends, birthday party invitation cards,
banners and posters for school proiects,
holiday banners, and all kinds of graphic/text
products just for the fun of it.
The program has also led to a general rebirth
in our kids' involvement with computers as
Controls drawing speed and direction . . .
PICTUREWRITER
George Brackett: age level: 5-aduit; Apple II
family; 64K; dtsk drive; joystick; color, grapliics
printer recommended; copy-protected? NO;
539.95: Scarborougti Systems, tnc>, 25 North
Broadway, Tarrytown, NY 10591; 914. 332-4545.
AL r^ANN: For these cerebral-palsied hands
of mine, which occasionally spasm and create
unwanted movements, PICTUREWRITER
allows much more control over my drawing
than the much-acclaimed KOALAPAD.
PICTUREWRITER has nearly every feature
that the KOALAPAD has plus four additional
features: First, PICTUREWRITER has a two-
cursor system — one cursor tells me where I
am while a second shows me where I am
going. I can change the distance between the
two cursors, thereby controlling my drawing
speed. Another feature, Backup, allows me to
erase my last steps. Edit lets me review my
efforts and make modifications. Finally, with
Redraw I can animate the picture. If you are a
disabled individual, I highly recommend
PICTUREWRITER for its abji;ty to respond to
your special needs.
tools. Our son, for example, has shown
renewed interest in using word processing to
complete homework assignments and to
write letters to his grandpa. It has also
resulted in the cry of "It's not fair!" when
my daughter doesn't receive equal access to
the computer and THE PRINT SHOP. She is
only five years old, but because of the
graphic menus that show what options are
available and what they will look like, she
was able to master the commands with little
trouble. Once she was taught to recognize
the words "Press RETURN," she had no
difficulty picking out the border, graphic,
print style, and format she wished to use in
her masterpiece.
The only problem with THE PRINT SHOP is
that it is so much fun to use that people tend
to get carried away. It's a good idea to keep
extra ribbons on hand for your printer,
especially for those inevitable long banners.
You'll find THE PRINT SHOP, with its
multifaceted graphics capabilities and built-in
editor, pre-defined fonts, and options for
layout of end products, one of those
productivity tools that survives well beyond
its initial fascination. Especially because
Broderbund has available a continuing library
of graphic designs and fonts on separate
disks.
THE PRINT SHOP'S menus give clear choices for
the budding typist and graphic artist. Menu
choices can be mixed and matched. Kids love it
for its simplicity.
Some of the many possitJie and useful results of
a session with THE PRINT SHOP Your creations,
from personal stationery to 30- foot- long banners,
can he printed on your dot matrix printer.
Learning the ABC's . . .
ELF ABC O
ELF COLORING BOOK O
Mike Culver. Not copy-protected, S17.50 each,
Apple II family. Elfware, P.O. Box 118. Pollock
Pines, CA 95726; 916 644-3300.
ROBERT SCAROLA: ELF ABC teaches the
alphabet by Illustrating letters with pictures
in outline form (press c for "Cat") that
children color in with a joystick-controlled
color palette. There are fewer picture choices
than in the Xerox STICKYBEAR series
recommended in the 1 .0 version of the
Whole Earth Software Catalog, but these
programs sell for less than half the price and
actively involve children in the creation of the
picture.
' f # #
Here's the ELF himself. Nice color graphics draw
the child into involvement with the learning
process.
188 LEARNING
IBertrude flew away and brought back this set of
shapes to play with. Move them around tiit they
are in the correct order (go to the "How to Play"
room if you need help). Subtfe Gertrude teaches
sorting, classifying and logical ordering with a
minimum of instruction and a maximum of
exploration.
ROCKY 'S BOOTS makes it easy to solve problems
and build all kinds of amazing machines that
would otherwise be out of reach for kids to mess
around with.
Patterns and puzzles . . .
GERTRUDE'S SECRETS
Teri Perl & Leslie Grimm; age tevef: 4-10; Apple II
family; 48K; color required • Commodore 64;
copy-protected? YES; S45; from the Learning
Company • IBM PC (color graphics card) and
IBM PCjr; 128K; color monitor required;
copy-protected? YES; S45; from IBM.
BUMBLE GAMES
Leslie Grimm; age level: 4-10; Apple II family; 48K
• Atari: 48K • Commodore 64; copy-protected?
YES; S39.95; from the Learning Company • IBM
PC (64K} and IBM PCif (128K; BASIC cartridge);
color recommended; copy-protected? YES; $40;
from IBM.
The Learning Company, 545 Mlddfefield Road,
Suite 170, Menlo Park, CA 94025; 415 328-5410,
IBM. Entry Systems Division, PO. Box 1328, Boca
Raton, FL 33432; 800/447-4700,
ROBERT SCAROLA: GERTRUDE'S SECRETS
offers the same format for problem solving as
ROCKY'S BOOTS, but instead of building
macfiines the child must figure out the
patterns of puzzles and then dupiicate them
by moving various shapes into a matrix of
empty squares. The child accomplishes this
with the aid of Gertrude, a friendly goose,
picking her up t]y means of the floating cursor
and moving her into the selected puzzle
section, which contains arrays, trains, or
loops. Gertrude then flies off to get a set of
shapes that the child will use to duplicate the
model pattern,
But that's not all. The child can also move
into a separate room with the floating cursor
and create new puzzles, or move into a third
room and use the shape editor box to
redesign the shapes used to make the puzzle
pattems. GERTRUDE'S SECRETS thus gives
the child the ability to control both the
configuration of the problem and the
selection of the tools used to solve the
problem.
BUMBLE GAMES offers a series of simple
thinking games in which the child finds a
number on a scale or grid or plays tic-tac-toe
using grid coordinates. What makes this
program worth the money is the carefully
designed musical and visual reinforcement
and graphics, standard for most Learning
Company programs. BUMBLE GAMES is the
best of the firm's learning programs in this
genre (much better than BUMBLE PLOT,
incidentally, which also teaches grid
coordinates but makes the unhappy error of
introducing confusing negative numbers on
the grid).
Rozky and one of his boots in the Game Room,
When you've learned about FLIPFLOPS and
LOGIC GATES, you're ready to play ROCKY'S
BOOTS and try for a perfect score of 24.
Rooms filled with wondrous tools . . .
ROCKY'S BOOTS
Warren Robinett; age level: 9-adult; Apple II
family; 4SK; disk drive; color monitor; S49.95 •
Commodore 64: S34.95; copy-protected? YES; Tfie
Learning Company, 545 Middleffeld Road, Suite
170, Menlo Park, CA 94025; 415/328-5410 •
IBM PC and PCjr versions (12BK: S49.95} available
from IBM, Entry Systems Division. P.O, Box 1326,
Boca Raton, FL 33432; 800.447-4700.
ROBERT SCAROLA: ROCKY'S BOOTS has no
stilted graphics, no"keybored" page turning
with a hidden agenda. It's not a program that
holds back the answers and puts the iearner
through the uninspiring exercise of finding
out what is already known.
Instead, ROCKY'S BOOTS creates an open,
moving, and changing environment fiiied with
color (the program works on a monochrome
monitor but color makes a wonderful
difference) and sound that encourages
exploration, The chiid moves a iarge floating
cursor "off the screen" from one
environment to another. Each environment is
a room entered through a magic doorway and
filled with tools, various parts, machines, and
other surprises. There are cutters, clackers,
electric arrows, sensors, and/not/or gates,
flip-flops, clocks, and delays. Any of them
can be "picked up" with the floating cursor
and then rearranged, linked together, hooked
to a power supply, turned on and off — used in
as many different ways as there are children
to think them up.
The instructions are clear, thorough, and
simple enough for any second grader — or, for
that matter, any self-conscious adult— to
grasp with a little practice. The variety of
combinations and the range of challenging
tasks and games offered by the menu leave
room for all kinds of expenmentation with
currents, switches, lights, and the rest-
experimentation that is based on basic
scientific principles. ROCKY'S BOOTS offers
the learner a chance to use the very problem-
solving skills we are trying so hard to teach
these days— intuition, logical thinking,
sequential ordering, rechecking, and
debugging,
Most children, including myself, do the
obvious first — build a machine that turns on
and works: moves, honks, clacks, lights up,
carries current, does somettiing interesting
that could not be done in the real world
without a lot of expense, safety precautions.
and time. Then we move from the concrete to
the abstract and from the simple to the
complex, all through the process of making
something actually work. The only other
times I have seen children learn similar skills
with computers is when they work on
programming m a language like LOGO or
BASIC.
ROCKY'S BOOTS moves into another
dimension, one reflective of the magical
world children live in.
LEARNING 189
Tailorable spefling . . .
MAGIC SPELLS
Leslie Grimm; age ievei: 6-10; Appie Ji Jamiiy; 48K
• Atari with BASiC; 48K • Commodore 64 • IBM PC
compatibles; color graptiics card • IBM PCjr; 1Z8K;
copy-protected? YES; S34.95; The Learning
Company, 545 Midtflefield Road. Suite 170, Menio
Park, CA 94025; 415.328-5410.
ROBERT SCAROLA; MAGIC SPELLS meets
my three criteria for good software in the
practice genre.
First, it's engaging and clear. The letters are
big. bold, and coiorful; the graphics are
simple but pleasing: instructions and
command sequences are simple, effective,
and accurate.
Second, it's friendly. The program gives
students options: they can unscramble
scrambled letters or use a simulated
"flashcard" to learn correct spelling.
Students are not rushed, and the program
gently helps them spell words correctly. If the
child misspells a word, the program shows
the correct letters in the proper sequence
below the misspelled word, leaving spaces for
missing correct letters to be filled in. Learners
win from or lose to a very happy looking
demon, who appears on the screen when he
wins points. When the student has worked
through the word list, he or she gets part or
all of a prize from the "treasure room" as a
reward.
Third, the program is adaptable to particular
needs. It allows the student or teacher to
create individual word lists. A separate data
file disk can be created containing a whole
semester's worth of words. These words can
be easy or difficult, making the program
applicable for grades from kindergarten
through sixth, seventh, and possibiy even
eighth grade (although it might look too
"childish" to the age-conscious pre-teen).
MAGIC SPELLS makes learning to spell
words correctly more enjoyable and
rewarding than it could be without the help of
a computer. How else could you play at
substituting letters in words until you found
the right combination? Impossible unless you
happen to have controlling interest in an
eraser company
Absolutely wonderful . . .
DELTA DRAWING
Computer Access Corporation; age level: 4-adult;
Apple II + /lle/llc; 48K; S39.95 • Atari; 16K;
cartridge: S24.95 • Commodore 64; cartridge:
SZ4.95 • IBM PC compatibles; 64K; color graphics
card; IBM PCir; 64K; 539.95; copy-protected? YES;
Spinnaker Software, 1 Kendall Square,
Cambridge. MA D2139; 617 494-1200.
ROBERT SCAROLA: Welcome, all you kids
(and grownups who still believe in fairies,
sprites, and kids) to Spinnaker's DELTA
DRAWING. Just boot It up and watch a letter
of the alphabet become a magician's wand
worked by you, an instant maestro playing in
a poweilul graphics world.
Hey. presto! Will a volunteer from the
audience please step up to the keyboard?
Thank you very much. Now, examine the keys
closely. Check for hidden wsres, invisible
erasers, secret passages. Okay? Ready? Type
D and watch the magic Delta draw a line. Type
R. Ah ha, you just made a 30-degree right
turn. Type m. Why, you moved without
drawing a line. Type u and, whoops, you
made a U-turn. Okay, try typing 4D,3M four
times. A square is born (not you, of course).
Now. press the i key. Hey. presto! The square
disappears. Press i again. Hey, presto! The
square reappears. Let's have a round of
applause, ladies and gentlemen, for this very
talented programmer from our audience.
(What? You say you've never written a
computer program before!!!?? Astonishing!!
Another round of applause please and give
the kid a silicon cigar!)
But don't stop now. Touch T and you can see
the text of the program you wrote displayed
on the screen. Type control-o and you can
edit it. Try it! Nice, a quadrisomethingorother!
Press the 2 and you just wrote another
program! (Applause, applause.) Look, folks,
he pressed 2 again on his own to make the
program reappear! (The kid's a fast study)
corjTROL-F fills it in with any one of seven
colors. (Purple? Yuk!) Ah. but never fear
CONTROL-E and hey presto! The screen is
blank, control-z and ZAP! so is everything
else.
Let's have another round of applause and a
second silicon cigar for , . . Oh, your mom
doesn't let you smoke? Hey, a consolation
prize for the kid. Give him a set of DELTA
DRAWING Fast Start Cards so he can have all
these magic tricks at his fingertips to impress
his friends, amaze his teachers, and drive his
parents nuts trying to figure out how their six-
year-old just outdid Matisse.
Eight-year-old Ben used one keysffoke at a time to
write tfie series of five programs ttiat made this
combination of arcs, circles and colors. (He
couldn 't duplicate it with paper and pen.) He can
save it. modify It and print it out as easily as he
wrote it. DELTA DRAINING is a simple but powerful
child's programming tool based 0/? LOGO (p. 177).
Kids who go into the basement to play with
the computer all summer are probably living
in a home where doing so is a good idea.
Such comments say more about the home
than about computers. —Henry Olds
Enter the Castle of Spells and spell your way to the
fabulous treasure by getting all the words correct
the first time. A deliberately uncluttered format
completely In the control of the child— MAGIC
SPELLS is a compassionate way to practice
spelling.
190 LEARNING
The Aigebroids are all in position, but watch out
for the Graph Gobbler He 'If gobble the snakiest
sine curve you can invent, ALGEBRA ARCADE is a
program that, at last, puts your equations in
action. Math drill and practice without the drill.
Soaring equations . . .
ALGEBRA ARCADE
Mick, Konemann, O'Farrell & Isaacs; age level:
12-adult; Apple II familv; 48K • Atari 80Q; 48K •
Commodore 64 • IBM PC compatibles; 64K; copy-
protected? YES: S50; SrooksCole Publishing. 555
Abrego St., Monterey, CA 93940; 800/354-9706,
or, in CA, 408. 373-0728.
JIM STOCKFORO: This excellent game
develops an intuitive understanding of
algebra. You are given vertical and horizontal
coordinates on your display monitor, and little
Aigebroids march out and arrange themselves
at random over the display.
TOM MACH: You need to wipe out these
electronic monsters by suggesting an
equation that results in a plotted line —
curved, straight, wavy— along which your
friend. Whirlwind, can move to destroy
Aigebroids and earn you points.
You also have to avoid the ghost who
turns into the Graph Gobbler and eats your
graph, leaving you scoreless and him
satisfied. Then the Committee can impose a
loss-of-turn penalty on you, and you've only
got ten turns to eliminate the Aigebroids, get
the ghost into hiding, and plot a curve to
destroy his hiding place and so win the game.
JIM STGCKFORD: You quickly develop a feel
for creating formulas that will let you hit the
Aigebroids. Each formula lets you discover
the graphic representation of a different
algebraic equation. The game gives you the
wonderful soaring sense of power felt by the
inventors of all mathematical equations.
Just one of many possible rubber FACEMAHER
faces for kids to play with. Press the spacebar to
program wiggles, winks, blats and Irowns — an
effective (and tun) way to teach elementary
programming to the youngest child.
"Come into my number parlor, " said the lurking
spider to the crafty fly Basic math facts suddenly
find themselves in aPAC-MAN world that kids
enjoy being in. Arcade game meets learning, and
maybe both can win in MATH MAZE.
Arithmetic on f/?e fly. . .
MATH MAZE
Age level: 8-12; Apple II family; 48K • Atari
400 800. XL series; 48 K • Commodore 64 • IBM PC
compatibles; 64K; color grajphics card; IBM PCjr;
copy-protected? YES; S39.95; DesignWare, Inc.
185 Berry Street, San Francisco. CA 94107;
800.572-7767, or, in CA, 415 546-1866.
JIM DERICH: The object of this enticing and
challenging game is mentally to solve the
math problems presented in the four basic
arithmetic operations and then to negotiate a
fly through a PAC-M AN-like maze. The fly's
job is to get the correct answer by retrieving
the necessary digits (0-9) randomly scattered
throughout the maze. The faster you solve the
problem and retrieve the digits, the higher
Animating Mr. Potatohead . . .
PACEMAKER
Designware; age level: 3-6: Apple II + lle.'llc; 48K;
S24.95 • Atari; 48K: disk, S20.95: cartridge.
S24.95 • Coleco Vision; 16K; cartridge; S24.95 •
Commodore 64; disk. S20.95: cartridge, S24.95 •
IBM PC; 64K: color graphics card: 820.95: IBM
PCjr; disk, S2Q.95; cartridge, S24.95; copy-
protected? YES; Spinnaker Software, 1 Kendall
Square. Cambridge, MA 02139; 617 494-1200.
ROBERT SCARGLA; FACEMAKER gives the
youngest children a chance to transform the
solid adult world of serious faces into a
crayon world they can control and change. In
the process it gives them a chance to learn
the computer keyboard, pickup a lew simple
commands, and achieve some sense of what
programming is all about.
i like FACEMAKER because that's all it does.
It's clean, simple, and easy, even for pre-
schoolers.
FACEMAKER puts a featureless outline of a
face on the screen and the child uses the
space bar to select a feature to paint on the
face — eyes, nose, ears, hair, mouth— each
one in a dozen or so comical variations. Once
the face is built,, the child can change any
features easily by going through the same
process again.
In addition, and this is a stroke of brilliance,
the child can then write a short program.
using single-letter commands, to animate the
face: make the eyes wink or cry: the mouth
frown, smile, or stick out its tongue [and
blat); and the ears wiggle. Once done
programming, the child can go on to play a
game in which the computer makes the face
perform several movements or sounds and
the child is asked to list the sequence in a
program— a good test not only of memory
but also of early programming
comprehension.
Someone at Spinnaker has, happily, spent
time with children as well as with computers.
your score. You can select one of 40 different
mazes provided on the disk or go to the maze
editor to modify the maze you are using or
create your own and save it on disk. Another
option is to increase the difficulty level by
Introducing a spider into the maze. It the
spider catches your fly, you return to the
starting position and lose 40 points. You can
further increase the difficulty by making the
walls of the maze invisible. You still see the
digits but can only detect a wall by bumping
into it (incidentally, this program is easiest to
play with a joystick).
MATH MAZE is a flexible, interactive,
expandable, well-constructed learning
program that has great potential to replace
the rote memorization of math facts.
LEARNING 191
Enter the inventive culture of
Robotrofjolis . . .
ROBOT ODYSSEY I O
Mike Wallace. Copy-protected. S45.95 (street
S35). Apple II family. Color monitor required. Ttie
Learning Company, 545 Middlefielct Rd., Suite
170. Menlo Park, CA 94025; 415/328-5410.
ROBERT SCAROLA: So you can't afford a
$2000-$5000 robot? This program is more
fun anyway and, besides, it won't fall down
the stairs and break.
You enter an imaginative microworld in
ROBOT ODYSSEY, one where you can
invent, buiid, and operate your own working,
adventuring "robots.
1 1
You begin by exploring tine "Robot Tutorials"
where you are Introduced to the basics of
Robot Anatomy, learn what's in your Toolkit,
and find the "Solutions to Robot Circuits." If
this sounds a bit like an adventure game to
you, you're on the right track— t]ut you've
only )ust begun.
Real whales, real programming . , .
VOYAGE OF THE MIMI O
Copy-protected. $988 (special discounted price
available until 10/1/85). Includes video cassettes,
25 student guides, ovenfiew teacher's guide and
four learning modules (eacti module includes 25
student guides) Apple II family (64K) Note:
WHALES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT (whicti
includes tlie BANK STREET LABORATORY) will not
run on ttie lie. Available only to schools and other
institutions. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 383
Madison Ave.. New York, NY 1QQ17;
212 872-2000.
ROBERT SCAROLA: The idea is simple and
unique. Send out a real sailing ship (the
MIMI) with a mixed crew of adults, teens,
and children on an expedition to track,
observe, and catalog humpback whales off
the Georges Bank in the Gulf of Maine,
Videotape their adventures and create a
series of 15-minute segments for broadcast
on public television during the school day.
Along with the physical drama of seeking out
the humpback whales, learning to sail,
encountering storms at sea. and learning to
navigate and maintain a sailing ship, add the
human drama of people learning to live with
each other on a small ship at sea. Spice that
with a grey-bearded captain and a deaf teen
who teaches everyone sign language and
you've got an engaging series for kids, Now,
partner the series with a software and
documentation package that has to rank as
one of the best produced m 1984.
Enter the Robot Odyssey. There you are, a
mere cartoon of yourself, dumped out of bed
into the City Sewer beneath Robotropolis.
You must get out. How? The robots, of
course. There are three of them at the
sewer's entrance. Use them. Evade sentries,
avoid the "ampire'bot," and scavenge for
parts as you and your robot helpers wend
through the labyrinth. Escape is via the
transport chamber which takes you through
five levels on your way to the City,
But it's more than just a tramp through a
maze. New challenges await you at each
level. You have to rewire a robot, design and
redesign chips, and solve mapping puzzles
along the way. Which means that the more
you learn in the tutorials, the better oft you'll
be. It also helps to be familiar with basic
electronic terms— "and-, or-, xor-, and not-
gates," "flipflops," "input'output leads,"
etc.— concepts introduced in this program's
precursor. ROCKY'S BOOTS (p. 188).
THE VOYAGE OF THE MIMI opens new
territory in learning software. It attempts to
merge two tools of the new technology,
video and computer software, into a whole
that is greater than the sum of its parts. I
think it succeeds admirably as a first
attempt, and is well worth the investment on
the part of any school that wants to involve
children in learning through both imagined
adventure and practiced skill.
The VOYAGE OF THE MtMl package includes
teaching toots from several media — software tttat
teaches navigation, books, nautical charts, a
whale identification poster, and video cassettes of
a real whale-tracking expedition — at I of which
add up to a realistic and engrossing learning
experience.
One of many obstacles in the "Subway, " level 2
of ROBOT 00 YSSEY. You must design and
redesign the circuitry of your three robots so they
carry you through a series of mazes. You and your
other two robots are secreted inside the robot
shown here, looking out through the periscope
atop its body. If you find the token in the labyrinth
and figure out how to carry it, you can ride the
transport system up to the next level.
Listen in to ten-year-old Russell as he navigates
ROBOT ODYSSEY'S City Sewer: "I wonder what
would happen if I hooked this thing up to that?
Look, each chip has eight hookups! . . . All I've
got to do is get inside a charged -up robot. Wait a
sec, I've got to check somettiing . . . I think I
have to use the keyboard, it's more accurate. OK,
robot . . . now t know where I'm going ..." .
People thini( computers will keep them from
making mistakes. They're mong. With
computers you make mistakes faster
— George Morrow,
Quotations from Chairman (Morrow
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
192 ETC.
ET CETERA
Barbara Robertson and Research
Department, Domain Editors
STEWART BRAr^D: This is the "everything else" category,
miscellaneous, unclassifiable, new, dubious, subversive,
titillating. Where else would you put a slideshow control
program, a genealogy chart maker, and a postage analyzer?
The edges of the personal computer dissolve here,
incorporating a home watcher, a bar code reader, interactive
videodiscs, and all manner of music-making. Last year this
section was sparse, this year it's crowded. Makes one wonder
about next year.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Without the research staff, the
Catalog would still be an impossible dream. If you marvel at
the quantity of information in this small book, remember that
for each program and book reviewed, we have half a dozen
more on our shelves in the library. Each one of those programs
and books got to us because someone made a phone call or
sent a letter. Each has been cataloged and shelved, checked
out for review — and in — and out again, has warranty cards and
invoices filed, disks and cassettes carefully removed, logged-in
and stored away, and a thank-you letter sent. Each has
information about it collected, distributed, and filed— from
reviewers, from magazines (thank you Hank Roberts)— and
perhaps the biggest task of all: each program and book that
made it into the Catalog has access information, That little
paragraph at the beginning of each review is the result of
(sometimes many) phone calls to verify the facts. All of this, all
of this, was done by the research staff. And more . . . they pay
reviewers and send tear sheets to companies with products
mentioned, take care of the hardware, answer the phones,
distribute the mail, and somehow stay cheerful, enthusiastic,
and interested. Why did they take on this section, too? For fun,
and because no individual had the requisite range of interest.
Cfockwise from front:
Kathy Parks, Barbara
Robertson, Matttiew
McCltire, James
Stockford. LynGray,
a iff Figallo; center:
Karef} Hamilton.
p
TZ
Onscreen warp and weft . . .
VIDEO LOOM II
Howard Harawitz; Apple II family; 48K: printer
and graphics software recommended; copy-
protected? NO: S6Q plus $4 tiandling; Howard
Harawitz, 1333 Soutti Park St.. Suite 1610.
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2K9; 902/429'3445.
A few keystrokes and the colors change irt tfjts
traditional colonial overshot weaving pattern:
threads can become thicker or the whole pattern
can shift. With VIDEO LOOfA II, the computer
becomes a weaver's sketchpad for exact pattern
drafting before struggling with loops and heddies.
KEVIN KELLY: This program weaves colored
textile patterns on a video monitor At the
same time, it sews a nifty circle in computer
history: One of the very first programmable
machines built was a loom run by sets of
punched cards. That was about 1800. Now,
with ttie touch of buttons, you can change
thread thickness, color, spacing, and
threading draft on a simulated loom with 32
harnesses and 64 treadles. Alter a choice and
a new fabric unrolls down the screen. The
color range is unnecessarily rudimentary,
hampering sustained use for serious textile
artists, but the program is fine as a tool for
weaving instruction,
Use your Apple to control a slideshow . .
APPLE/GEMINI LEISURE TIME
EXPANSION (LTE) PACKAGE
Thomas Wilson; Appte 11/11 ' 'lie: 48K: copy-
protected? NO; S449:
GEMINI 2000 PROGRAMMER/
DISSOLVER
Includes handbook, AC adaptor; $549;
both Imfn Pacific Micro Systems. 16D Gate Five
Rd.. Sausalito, CA 94955, 415/331-2525.
JAMES STOCKFORD: A slideshow set to
music with voice overdubs can be a dazzfin
way to present a story, sales presentation, or
travelog. But a mighty spectacle requires a
mighty lot of editing.
With this package you get a hardware device
(the Gemini 2000 P/D) that controls one or
two pfoiectors, a printed circuit board for the
Apple II, and software on a floppy disk, You
use the software to create the slideshow
instructions, which you save on a cassette
tape^in sync with a sound track if you want.
Put the tape in the tape player, plug the
Gemini 2000 P-D into the tape player and
slide projector/s, and you have an automatic
slideshow with music, The software can
control three Gemini devices for a total of six
possible projectors. You can switch from one
projector to the other; set up a sequence of
dissolves, cross-fades, and strobe effects;
load slides from anywhere in any carousel in
any order; control bulb intensity: cue timing
to match music or speech: and repeat any of
the sequence loops. Each instruction is called
a cue — you're allowed 1500. Online help is
available, as is an onscreen command page
for reference. Works with Kodak and other
projectors that have the same type of
connectors. Compares favorably in pnce to
LED-type single-purpose editing machines
(Arion 828 at $2795 , AVL Coyote at SI 695).
even when you add in the price of the Apple
II — and is much more convenient, flexible,
and powerful.
193
LUlG[W^l[l'^ ^■^^''>'(3(
FABRICE FLORIN: Interactive Video will give you good reason
to turn your TV back on. The same videodiscs that play popular
movies and, in compact size, rock and classical music, can be
browsed at random or be connected to a microcomputer.
Rather than watching passively, slumped in an armchair, you
drive this video software like a computer program. At the touch
of buttons you scan through a storehouse of images and
sounds much as you would flip through the pages of a book.
With a microcomputer you can rearrange the display or have it
branch in alternative paths for a teaching lesson or game. The
largest drawback so far is that you cannot record images or
sounds (without spending a fortune)— you can only play and
reorder the prerecorded component images.
I used an LD-700 videodisc player to review the programs
listed, courtesy of the folks at Pioneer. This, their state-of-the-
art consumer model, retails for around $800. Audiophiles may
be interested in Pioneer's latest gadget, the LD-900, which
plays both videodiscs and audio compact discs, giving you, at
a thousand bucks, two players for the price of one. If that's a
bit high for your pocketbook, you may want to look into bare-
bones models such as the LD-660 (no search features) at
$299, or older models like the Pioneer 8210, which, although
less fancy and somewhat slower, does the job for $499 or less.
You can also get a reconditioned industrial model (7820 Model
III), or new players at wholesale prices, from American
Technology Resources.
Pioneer Videodisc Players: catalog free from Pioneer Video, 200
West Grand Avenue, Montvale, NJ 07645; 201/573-1122. American
Technology Resources: catalog free; 1245 North Providence Road,
Media, PA 19063; 215/565-6434.
Really gorgeous pictures . . .
Space Archive Consumer Series: $39.95 each
(Space Shuttle Mission; Shuttle Downlink; Apollo
17; and Mars and Beyond); Space Educational
Series: $320-$400 (Voyager; Apollo; Shuttle; The
Sun; and Astronomy); Video Vision Associates,
Ltd., 7 Waverly PI., Madison, NH 07940; 201/377-
0302.
NASA's "home movies" from Apollo, Space
Shuttle, Voyager, and other space programs,
complemented with thousands of acquired
films and slides of stars and planets. The
Apollo series captures every major moment
of the historic moon program, from
astronaut training to final splashdowns. The
Shuttle discs cover the first 13 Space Shuttle
missions (test flights included), and are
loaded with tidbits of information about life
in orbit, as well as breathtaking space walks.
The Astronomy disc is less dramatic, but
contains a true wealth of high-res photos,
computer simulations, and other information
guaranteed to keep budding astronomers
glued to the screen. The Sun and Voyager
discs are more detailed versions of the
same.
These images are offered in two versions: a
condensed Space Archive series for
consumers and an educational Space Disc
series, higher-priced but more complete.
Whichever you choose, this is the most
universally appealing application of the
videodisc medium that I've seen so far.
Also available: VAI// interface to the Apple II
and He (S140) and LASERWRITE interactive
authoring program ($75); allows you to
create interactive computer lessons with
structured branching routines—captions,
questions— with or without a videodisc
player online.
Other videodisc programs of interest include:
The Creative Camera and The History
Disguiz ($29.95 each; Pioneer Video, Inc.,
200 W. Grand Avenue, Montvale, NJ 07645;
201/573-1122); and Gardening at Home
($29.95; XIRG, 206 Pine Creek Ave.,
Fairfield, CT 06430; 203/625-5680).
Experience the excitement of tlie Higli Frontier in
tlie privacy of your own living room. Here, a
NASA Stiuttle Report talces you for a walli at
17,000 miles per hour.
Software classics...
O
Not copy-protected. $29.95. IBM PC/XT/AT and
compatibles; PCjr. Apple II family. Commodore
64. Macintosh. Software Country, 270 N. Canon
Dr., #1297, Beverly Hills, CA 90210;
800/245-2057 or, in CA, 800/245-2056.
STEWART BRAND: The original
ADVENTURE, which established a new
literary and game genre. The original ELIZA,
psychiatrist-on-a-disk, which has inspired
endless debate over the proper uses of
computers. The original LIFE, which has set
in motion whole new branches of cosmology
and biology and math. The original PONG,
Adam to the whole world of video and
computer games.
With this bargain disk you can relive
computer history and catch creativity at the
flood. These programs had an original
excellence which does not age any more
than Homer does.
Serious Information . .
^
^&y
Interactive Video; Eric Parsloe; 1983; 290 pp.;
$16.95; The Videodisc Monitor, RO. Box 26, Falls
Church, VA 22016; 703/214-1799; or COMPUTER
LITERACY.
FABRICE FLORIN: If you want to leam more
about interactive video, this plain-vanilla
paperback is the best introduction I know to
the field. It is well organized and offers an
intelligent overview of how interactive
systems work, from consumer to industrial
applications.
o
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
194
Simple programs for astronomers
Celestial Basic (Astronomy on Your Computer);
Eric Burgess; 1982; 300 pp.; $16.95; Sybex, 2344
Sixth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710; 415/848-8233; or
COMPUTER LITERACY.
JAMES STOCKFORD: This book is a labor of
love. Its backbone is two dozen program
listings in BASIC divided into groups dealing
with planets, moon, calendars, conversions,
meteor showers, constellations, etc.
Accompanying text is informative and
graceful, with references to ancient
astronomical practices, fundamentals of
armchair astronomy, and careful suggestions
for programmers.
The beauty of the printed BASIC listings is
that they work for any computer with little or
no modification. Program lines are simple,
not condensed, to make modification easy for
the beginning programmer. Each program is
loaded with the expertise and data of an
expert astronomer and his friends: The
CELESTIAL BASIC users' group now has
about 100 active
members and
publishes a
newsletter, several
cassettes for the
Timex/Sinclair 1000,
and a disk full of
BASIC programs for
the Apple II. Contact
S & T Software
Service, 13361 Frati
Lane, Sebastopol,
CA 95472, for more
information.
Build a radio inside your software . . .
IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles; 51 2K and 8087
co-processor; $1050; copy-protected; Unit
Software and Consulting, Inc., 2437 South
Mulberry, Mesa, AZ 85202; 602/839-3496.
JAMES STOCKFORD: Now you can design a
computer, a shortwave radio, a calculator, a
hi-fi, anything that uses electronic circuitry,
right on your micro. This program simulates
the actual hardware so you can build,
analyze, and test your design to see how
well it works. Great for inventors, ham radio
operators, anyone really interested in
electronics.
PC-USPICE is not a toy. It is an unusual
integrated software program that combines
an equation solver with some database,
graphics, and text functions as a very low-
cost way to build, store, and link your circuit
designs on a microcomputer. It will even
work as a design tool for creating integrated
circuit chips. It is very complex, but there is
nothing else like it in the world.
Exploring outer space
GILMY O
Copy-protected; $35, street price, $25;
Commodore 64; supports joystick or keyboard
control; Commodore Business Machines, 1200
Wilson Drive, West Chester, PA 19380; 215/431-
9100.
O
Marilyn Davis; $52; copy-protected? NO;
IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles; PCjr; printer
recommended; Light Software, 369 Pine Street,
Mezzanine, San Francisco, CA 94104;
415/788-4578.
CHUCK ELLIS: It's January 1, 1986, and
you're in Washington, D.C., looking at the
Southern sky at 4:15 in the morning;
SKYTRAVEL displays the stars you see.
Prefer somewhere else? Go anywhere in the
world and to any time, plus or minus 10,000
years. Let the stars move from 1 to 64 times
natural speed, or hold everything still while
you ponder, for example, whether an
unusual conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn
might have made a signpost to Bethlehem.
But why be provincial? Open up "Deep Sky"
mode and consider the galaxies, nebulae,
clusters, clouds, and other globs of Way Out
There. Reduce the field of view and you'll
see certain stars that appeared single
revealed as double.
This program features comets, eclipses,
celestial coordinate overlays (good for
printing sky maps), onscreen tutorials, star-
finding, tracking, and more. For anyone at
all intrigued by the swing of the Pleiades,
eclipses of the sun, or the flickering
connections between the lights in the sky
and our quizzical race, it's a grabber. For
anyone involved with spherical trig,
astrology, or any form of navigation, it's a
must.
JAMES STOCKFORD: PC PLANETARIUM is
similar to SKYTRAVEL, but runs on the IBM
PC and compatibles. The skymap is
interactive: you can display one object or
constellation, or build a sky by adding
objects. It does not use a screen dump to
print but rather calculates the printing for an
accurate map.
Check on your house while you're away . . .
$250; Phonetics, Inc., 101 Slate Road, Media, PA
19063; 215/565-8520.
TOM ZITO: I live out in the country, far
enough away from the neighbors so that my
home is prime real estate for burglars, a few
of whom paid an uninvited visit ten years
ago. This resulted in the purchase of a
burglar alarm system for about five grand
and, more recently, a Sensaphone.
The Sensaphone is a dedicated little
computer that you connect to your phone
line. It monitors temperature, time, ambient
sound level, and, with the help of two
auxiliary sensors, the presence of water and
the status of your alarm system (if you have
one). If you call your phone number, the
Sensaphone will talk to you in English-
telling you whether the power is on, whether
the 18-hour back-up batteries are okay,
whether there's any water on the floor, and
whether there have been any loud noises in
your house (for instance, a smoke detector).
It also lets you monitor the sound in your
house for 15 seconds, in case you're
wondering whether Rover is howling at the
moon.
The thing can be programmed to call up to
four numbers and let them know that
something has gone awry. So if your
basement is flooding, it can call a neighbor
and say so, even though you happen to be
off in Tibet. Or it can call the police and say
that somebody has just knocked down the
back door. It's so smart that it holds off a bit
in certain circumstances before dialing; e.g.,
until the power has been off more than five
minutes. Then it keeps calling numbers until
it reaches one.
If you're like me, you'll find yourself
inexplicably calling this computer every few
hours just to hear it talk. It comes with an
instruction book that is a model of clarity,
and the Sensaphone itself prompts your
programming tasks with its built-in speech
synthesizer chip. How come my IBM PC
can't be this helpful?
Tlie smoke alarm goes off, but you're not home.
SENSAPHONE calls the phone numbers you
program it to call as soon as it hears the high
sound level of the alarm and, hopefully, saves
your home.
The SENSAPHONE 1000 laitt 10 the receiving paily and sales Ihe C«Otlle<n .n English "souna level hqh Emergency aclon can oe l
Connecting your coffee pot to your
computer . . .
The Apple
Connection; James
W. Coffron; 1982;
264 pp.; $7.95;
Quick answers to common ailments
^f^
^
Apple II family; 48K; Copy-protected? NO; Comp
Doc, Inc., 6538 South Jungfrau Way, Evergreen,
CO 80439; 303/674- 3726.
ELIZABETH MORGAN: Written by an M.D.,
this program provides general information
on commonly asked medical questions.
From colds and flu to cancer and heart
disease, HOME DOC discusses the situation
and gives basic advice, not to replace your
doctor but to give a non-medical person
some ideas about common ailments.
195
The first section provides all the health
information, over 200 question-answer
items, a "what to do" section, and
summaries of topics for quick reference. The
program will be updated periodically as
medical information changes.
The second section handles your personal
and family histories, records of examinations
and tests, listings of current medications,
names and addresses of doctors, dentists,
and other health professionals, and health
care expenses. It includes graphs, tables,
and animation.
Tlie IBM Connection;
James W. Coffron;
1984; 264 pp.;
$16.95;
both from Sybex Computer Books, 2344 Sixth St.,
Berkeley, CA 94710; 415/848-8233; or COMPUTER
LITERACY.
CLIFF FIGALLO: The computer is a digital
creature, and though it lives on electricity, it
cannot interact directly with the world of
electrical switches and gauges. You can't
plug an RS-232 cable into Mr. Coffee and
program "turn on at 10:00." What you need
is an interface between the computer's digital
world and the analog world, where electricity
is measured in volts instead of bits. A few
software/hardware systems claim to provide
home control, but I found none I could
recommend. So far, if you want your
computer to control the analog world, you'll
have to arrange it yourself.
These books do a great job of clarifying the
workings of digital systems and tell you how
to program them to control the analog objects
in your home. They are books for the
seriously curious, not for the casual reader.
And be forewarned that (1) the ability to write
simple programs in BASIC is a prerequisite to
making real use of these books and (2) the
purchase of hardware is going to be another
expense on the way to computer control in
your home.
Virtually any job involving electrical
switching, from turning on the lights at
9 o'clock, to designing a home-security
system, to monitoring and maintaining
critical environmental conditions in a
greenhouse, can be handled using the
fundamentals in these books.
Mail handling . .
Version 2.21 H; IBM PC and compatibles; 128K;
Copy-protected? NO; $100; $10 (refundable)
demo.
lifilllL %^
Version 1.10G; IBM PC and compatibles; 128K;
Copy-protected? NO; $50 (moneyback guarantee).
Both from Mom's Software, PO. Box 19418,
Portland, OR 97219; 503/244-9173.
LYN GRAY: POSTMAN helped me cut down
on valuable time spent poring over the nine
mail-service charts tacked to the mailing-
area wall trying to determine the cheapest
and/or timeliest way of sending letters,
packages, and boxes.
It displays the best method to ship— with
alternatives— in bar-graph form. When you
enter the destination zip code and package
weight, POSTMAN calculates cost, zone, and
number of days to deliver by United Parcel
Service, U.S. Postal Service, Federal
Express and Airborne. It lets you know if a
zip code is nonexistent or that certain
services are unavailable (then it tells you
what services are available thereabouts).
RACHEL UNKEFER: Anyone who regularly
sends packages internationally knows that
the charts for doing overseas mail are very
confusing. Figuring postage is a real
arithmetic challenge.
IMAIL eliminates the problem. The program
asks you what country you're sending to. If
you misspell, it shows you a list of possible
names. It asks you the weight of your
package and gives you a choice of methods
by which to send it. Pick one and it gives
you the rates, lets you know if insurance or
special delivery is available and how much,
and specifies the customs forms you'll need.
We have never had to look at the
documentation, the screen prompts are so
easy. It is really handy; we like it.
Keeping track of little things . . .
MAC-BARCODE: Macintosh; $395; SCANSTAR-
Mac: $600; both from Computer Identics
Corporation, 5 Shawmut Road, Canton, MA
02121; 800/622-2633 or, in MA, 617/821-0830.
KEVIN KELLY: This two-part device prints
out and reads bar codes in any of the six
common coding systems, including the
ubiquitous UPC code found on store
merchandise.
My sister, who helped this product get off
the ground, reports that it is being used for
ID cards, by health-care centers to track X-
rays and medicines, by libraries to track
books, and by small manufacturers who
must meet the Department of Defense
specification that all items be bar-coded.
The software prints bar code labels one at a
time or in batches from data you enter. The
Scanstar-Mac is a light pen with interface
box that plugs into the keyboard hole so the
Mac thinks you're typing in info each time
you scan a bar code. The information can be
manipulated by any Mac spreadsheet,
database, or inventory program. It'll read
any code style, and the labels the Mac prints
can be read by any other scanner— such
universality being the whole point.
0-35° Tilt from vertical
in any direction
\
Llghtpen
Bar Code Scanning Zone
Quiet Zone
o
Invented for big tiusiness users, MAC-BARCODE
makes this convenient technology available to the
small business user. Easy to set up; easy to use.
MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
196
s
We were all surprised when NUTRIPLAN showed
us that salmon was higher than veal cutlets in
cholesterol; if you are what you eat, you might as
well plan for it.
You are what you think you eat . . .
IBM PC/XT; PCjr; 128K ® Apple II family; $79.95 ®
Commodore 64; $49.95; Copy-protected; The
Scarborough Systems, Inc., 55 South Broadway,
Tarrytown, NY 10591; 914/332-4545.
ELIZABETH MORGAN: This is one of the best
nutrition-health education programs I have
seen. Its goal is to motivate you to lose
w/eight and then maintain the loss. Going far
beyond just recommending a diet, it explores
why you eat, what you eat, and when you
eat. It gives you a way to look at your eating
habits.
Easy to use, one-day nutritional analysis .
Apple II family; 48K ® IBM PC compatibles; 64K;
IBM PCjr; 128K; Copy-protected? YES; $75;
Micromedx, 15 Canton Street, East Northport, NY
11731; 516/735-8979.
ELIZABETH MORGAN: NUTRIPLAN
calculates the nutrient content of food for a
meal or for a day. It's easy to search, add
to, or change the 400-item food list. You can
enter any food, analyze what you've eaten
for 21 nutrients, and compare the results to
the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA).
You can compare two foods— say ice cream
with skim milk, or soybeans with chicken.
NUTRIPLAN lists nutrients for both choices
and highlights the higher amounts. This
program is clear, easy to use, and does a
great job.
You choose one of three "counselors" who
then acts as your personal guide, interacting
with questions and information. Medical
history, height, weight, and age act as your
baseline, and from there you choose the rate
of weight loss by selecting one of four diets.
After your first session, it takes only 15
minutes a day to update the information.
A small manual provides clear instructions
for running the program, adding to the 700-
food-item database, recording daily meals,
scoring nutrient values for several vitamins
and minerals. If you wish, you can bypass
the counselor and simply use the charts,
graphs, food records, and so on.
Sophisticated recipe searching . . .
Apple II family: 64K ® IBM PC/XT/AT and
compatibles; IBM PCjr; 128K ® Commodore 64;
Copy-protected? NO; $40. Virtual Combinatics,
Inc., P.O. Box 13323, Oakland, CA 94661;
415/530-1726; recipe disks available for wok
cooking, bread, low fat and low sodium,
microwave cooking, food processor and many
others ($12.95-$16.95).
PAUL SCHINDLER: Until I saw MICRO
COOKBOOK, I thought all cookbook programs
were silly. What could they do that I couldn't
do faster and better with a book? Well, the
way I cook is to determine first what is fresh
in the store or what spices I feel like having,
and then search for appropriate recipes.
MICRO COOKBOOK, really a database
management system for recipes, works the
same way. You enter a category, say Indian,
and a spice, say curry powder, and it offers
you a choice of all Indian recipes calling for
curry powder.
The program is so well-designed I could use it
immediately, without reference to the manual.
You can print any recipe and a shopping list
for selected recipes (and add items). Two
reservations: It readjusts quantities when you
change the number of servings, but doesn't
convert them into more reasonable measure-
ments (one teaspoon tripled is left at three
teaspoons, not converted to one tablespoon).
And it lets you add recipes more easily than
any similar program I have seen or heard of,
but limits you to 255 recipes per floppy. I
know I have more recipes than that in my clip
file.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: Paul uses MICRO
COOKBOOK on an Apple II; the IBM PC
version has a bit more power: There are 512
recipes on a double-sided disk, and the
program searches through eight recipe files
to find, for example, "all desserts that do not
use sugar" I like it, too—I make up my own
classifications, store my own recipes, and
don't care about the 156 recipes they supply
Inspired fortune-telling . . .
Les Crane and David Badley. Copy-protected.
$40. IBM PC and compatibles; most CP/M
machines. Software Country, 270 N. Canon Drive,
#1297, Beverly Hills, CA 90210; 213/278-8450.
STEWART BRAND: How appropriate that this
ancient (since 3,000 B.C.) Chinese oracle
and repository of Taoist wisdom has been
translated into a computer program. It's had
program qualities all this time— binary
notation (yin and yang versus and 1), tree
structure, use of random numbers, and
design as an applications tool.
I think Fu Hsi, King Wen, and the rest would
approve of this version of their work. It is
quietly elegant in the way it prompts you
through the process of consulting the oracle
and then studying the reading. Instead of
yarrow stalks or coins, you use six taps on
the space bar to build the hexagram,
changes, and subsequent hexagram that
constitute a reading. Screen by screen the
pages of the text (nicely translated) are
unfolded, and you're offered the choice of
filing and/or printing the result.
In the tradition of psychologist Carl Jung's
introduction to the famed 1950 Bollingen
edition of the I Ching, I asked the oracle
what it thought of being electronic. Reply:
THE CLINGING (Shining twice . . . depend
on establishing a support system . . .,"
etc.) changing to DARKENING OF THE LIGHT
("You must learn to understand the nature of
evil. Do not make peace with it . . . ," etc.)
Long in the tooth, the Ching still has its bite.
How many computer programs even
acknowledge evil? How many fewer have
intelligent advice on the subject?
It's an adroitly done, dignified program, with
a fine brief manual. You need no previous
knowledge or experience of the I Ching book
to get full value. As a bonus in the program
there's also "Decision Maker," a succinct
factor-weighing utility to help you sort your
thoughts for choosing between alternatives
of any kind. One banal, one profound— two
levels of helping you decide.
O MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
w
Emotional hoe
o
Girard and Roy Nierenberg. Version 1.0. Copy-
protected. $495. Apple III; IBM PC/XT and
compatibles; 256K; 2 disk drives or hard disk and
one disk drive. Experience in Software, Inc.,
2039 Shattuck Ave., Suite 401, Berkeley, CA
94704; 415/644-0694.
DAVID 6ARFINKLE: I look at everybody's life
as mainly a series of negotiations. You may
disagree, thinking, "that's true when it
comes to arms control or wage agreements,
but not in my own life." I'll come back with
a simple question: how do the dishes get
done in your home?
This program helps you think by allowing—
no, by forcing— you to untangle and isolate
How'm I doin', Coach?
Copy-protected. $80 (without backup); $100 (with
backup). IBM PC/XT/AT and compatibles (128K);
PCjr (256K). Requires 80-column display. MECA,
285 Riverside Avenue, Westport, CT 06880;
203/222-1000.
STEWART BRAND: Like a dedicated coach,
this program nags and encourages and
instructs, and first thing you know you're in
good shape and inclined to get even better.
I'm halfway through a 30-step schedule to
build to three miles a day running; no book
has managed that before. Something about
proudly recording my progress and then
having it analyzed and displayed from a half-
dozen different directions— in relation to my
diet, to the shape I was in when I started, to
previous weeks, and to the goal— keeps me
making progress to report.
The program is appropriate for anyone from
a confirmed couch potato to a professional
athlete. Answer its questions, and you'll find
out about your personal heart-attack risk,
your overall health, and the effect of your
lifestyle on it. You'll take some tests (two-
mile run. Harvard Step Test) that'll tell you
what condition you're starting in. Also the
program will analyze your diet, give you a
handy way to keep track of it, and advise
how to improve it. After two months of
steady use, I'm still finding corners of the
RUNNING PROGRAM that are new and
enlightening.
many issues with a merciless rigor. In its
methodical, calm way it pushes you to weed
out the emotion from issues and rename
them in ways that aren't emotionally
charged, so you can deal with them. If it's
your night to do the dishes and you have
other plans, you might not keep such a cool
head. When a large contract you're
negotiating is at stake, you most certainly
wouldn't.
The program is completely menu-driven and
easy to learn. It builds a knowledge base
from what you tell it, but makes few
inferences, although I did run across one
embarrassing feature: when I was attributing
more "negative climates" to my opponent
than to myself, the program asked, "Are you
projecting?"
Family trees .
o
Batting averages on a disk . .
O
Merle Wagner; Apple II family; DOS 3.3;
programs available: baseball/softball, basketball,
football, track and field, ice hockey, soccer, field
hockey, lacrosse and sports scheduling; $49.95
each; Copy-protected? YES; Cherrygarth Farms
Software, Inc., 101 S. Dewey St., Auburn, IN
46706; 219/925-1093.
GLYN E. REINDERS: After looking around for
statistical programs to use in the athletic
department of my high school, I decided to
purchase several programs from
Cherrygarth Farms.
The programs are menu driven and
exceptionally easy to use — they all use the
same commands and operate in the same
way. You can enter data to keep track of
many statistical categories in a very short
period of time, and once entered, you can
have the program sort and print the
information in any way you want to use it
(e.g., offensive and defensive game reports,
defensive player reports). I found that it
takes about ten minutes to enter all the data
for one basketball game. Our coaches and
players love the results.
Steven Vorenberg. Not copy-protected. $185.
Most CP/M machines (64K). Most MS-DOS
machines (96-256K); Commodore 64; Apple II
family. Quinsept, Inc., RO. Box 216, Lexington,
MA 02173; 617/641-2930.
KEVIN KELLY: If Harry is Tom's brother-in-
law, and Tom is Bob's father, and Bob is
Harry's uncle, then who is Harry? This kind
of headscratcher is commonplace when
you're trying to map out a family tree. If
there was ever a problem begging for a
personal computer, then this is it. In fact
computers are rejuvenating the field of
amateur genealogy, enabling anyone to keep
track of hundreds of relationships that make
up their family tree. Dog and horse breeders
also use the program to trace lines of genes.
An agreed standard called GEDCOM will
allow users of any genealogy software to
swap files with each other, so that if you (or
your dog) have an ancestor named
McDonnald you can tack on someone else's
McDonnald tree to your genealogy database.
FAMILY ROOTS organizes and stores
information about your ancestors, then
prints out pedigree charts. You can update,
correct, or regroup descendants without
having to erase and redraw your diagram.
You can take, say, your Uncle Joe, and have
a chart printed out with him in the center.
Now he's all inspired to take some time and
write down what he knows about his mom's
brothers. An independent FAMILY ROOTS
users newsletter offers wonderful support
(Quinsept Newsletter; $15/yr— 6 issues; 102
Broadfield Lane, Spotsylvania, VA 22553).
BARBARA ROBERTSON: So wity is the WO
POTATO CLOCK in ttie Whole Earth Software
Catalog ? Editor's privilege. It has a microchip (lor
the clock) and a liquid crystal display, so by
stretching the point a touch, it qualities for Etc.
just as much as the SENSAPHONE, the GEMINI
2000 PROGRAMMER DISSOLVER, and the CASIO
CZ101, except, of course, that this gizmo is
powered by potatoes. How does the clock work?
The potatoes (or cucumbers, bananas, cola, etc.)
act as batteries. When you insert a zinc and a
copper electrode into each potato a chemical
reaction occurs— electrons are liberated at the
zinc electrode and consumed at the copper
electrode— and the resulting How of electrons
forms the electric current which drives the clock.
(In one potato the zinc electrode connects to the
clock. The second set of electrodes are connected
to each other) The TWO POTATO CLOCK is from
San Francisco's Exploratorium, a hands-on
museum of science where I go when I want to
learn how image digitizing, holography, sound
synthesis, music, or anything works. Every city
should have one. (THE TWO POTATO CLOCK;
$18.50 postpaid; the Exploratorium Store, 3601
Lyon SL, San Francisco, CA 94123;
415/563-3456. Potatoes not included.)—
Suggested by Steven Dompier.
198
JAMES STOCKFORD: 1985 will be remembered as the year
musicians accepted microcomputers. Music stores now sell
more software than guitars, much of it for non-musicians and
hobbyists. You can create and record a composition, modify it,
add to it, change its sound, or print it as sheet music. Drums,
pianos, horns, choirs, and more are available on floppy disks.
You can make your own sounds or record live sounds into
RAM memory to analyze and modify them.
Because most new music products now accomodate the MIDI
communication standard, your micro can control many music
synthesizers, rhythm machines, lighting controllers, printers,
and even video equipment and they can all work together. This
means you can compose on a low-budget system and play
back on an expensive system elsewhere. You'll need a MIDI
interface card, a cable, and some software in order to use your
micro as a MIDI controller.
We would like to thank the members of the music conference
sponsored by the WELL (p. 148) for their evaluations: Daniel
Sharp, David Julian Gray, Joe West, Jay Logan, Steve
Cummings, Dana Pierce, and Chuck Fisher.
MIDI for serious musicians
DR. T's MIDI SEQUENCER PROGRAM helps
the C-64 control MIDI instruments the way
player piano rolls control player pianos, but
in this case, you're the one who punches the
tape, and DR. T's program makes
composing on the C-64 easy. You can play
your composition automatically through a
MIDI instrument. C-64 owners who also own
the Yamaha DX-7 can use DATA/7 to create
sounds for their difficult but versatile
instrument.
PERFORMANCE/7 lets you store your work
in a library so you can instantly invoke a
sound that might have taken you weeks to
create.
DR. T's MIDI SEQUENCER PROGRAM: Dr. T. $125.
Commodore 64. Copy-protected? NO. Dr. T, 24
Lexington St., Watertown, MA 02172;
617/926-3564 ® DATA/7 AND PERFORMANCE/7:
$125 each. Commodore 64; Apple 11 family; IBM
PC; requires Passport or Roland interface, MIDI
instrument, and audio amplifier. Copy-protected?
YES. Mimetics Corporation, RO. Box 60238,
Station A, Palo Alto, CA 94306; 408/741-0117.
MIDIMATE and MIDITRACK II is the only
music game in town for Atari owners. This
interface box and software let you compose
and rearrange music with complete control.
Play your composition on any MIDI
instrument.
MIDIMATE and MIDITRACK II: Bob Moore. $350.
Atari 800XL or 65XE; requires MIDI instrument
and audio amplifier. Hybrid Arts, Inc., RO. Box
480845, Los Angeles, CA 90048; 818/508-7443.
O MEANS: NEW TO 2.0 EDITION
rip p I S i J ■
Passport's three products, MIDI INTERFACE,
MIDI/8 PLUS, and LEADSHEETER, work
together reliably. You can compose,
rearrange, control a MIDI instrument, and
even print out melody lines and chords in
standard music notation.
For Apple II owners who also own a Casio
CZ type keyboard, CZ RIDER is special
software. Arrange and rearrange
compositions and customize the CZ
keyboard's sounds, a difficult trick using the
CZ alone.
DX HEAVEN is the best software we have
found to create sounds for the Yamaha DX-7
and store sound libraries for instant retrieval.
MIDI INTERFACE: $149.95; MIDI/8 PLUS: $149.95;
LEADSHEETER: $99.95. Apple II family; requires
MIDI instrument and audio amplifier. Commodore
64. Copy-protected? YES. Passport Designs, Inc.,
625 Miramonte Street, Suite 103, Half Moon Bay,
CA 94019; 415/726-0280 ® CZ RIDER: $149. Apple
II family, requires Passport or Roland interface,
MIDI instrument, and audio amplifier. DX
HEAVEN: $149. Apple II family; requires Roland
interface, MIDI instrument, and audio amplifier.
Both available from Cherry Lane Technologies,
110 Midland Avenue, RO. Box 431, Port Chester,
NY 10573; 914/937-8601 or 212/824-7711.
SEQUENCER PLUS is MIDI composing and
rearranging software that is a very logically
constructed imitation of a tape recorder with
64 recording tracks. If you're used to
thinking in terms of tape recording
techniques when you compose, this is for
you. IBM owners who are serious about
music and who want a composing software
tool that prints high resolution sheet music
will find nothing else that approaches the
power of PERSONAL COMPOSER.
SEQUENCER PLUS: $495. IBM PC and
compatibles; requires Roland MRU 401 interface,
MIDI instrument, and audio amplifier. Octave-
Plateau Electronic, Inc., 51 Main St., Yonkers, NY
10701; 914/964-0225 ® PERSONAL COMPOSER:
Jim Miller. $495. IBM PC and compatibles;
requires Roland MRU 401 interface, MIDI
instrument, and audio amplifier. Personal
Composer, 14000 Edgewater Lane NE, Seattle,
WA 98125; 206/364-0306.
Music contraptions . . .
Most decent synthesizers weigh a lot and
cost a thousand dollars or more; The SUPER
MUSIC SYNTHESIZER weighs about a pound
and is just as good. It fits in a slot of your
Apple II and comes with software so you can
make the squeals and sounds of the high-
cost units.
The DX-1 is an unusual and fun sound-
making toy that fits in an Apple II slot.
Connect a microphone to it and record any
short sound around, then use its software to
look at a picture of that sound, modify it,
and play the modified sound back. You can
connect a musical keyboard instrument to it
and play your recorded (and modified) sound
as one of the instrument's voices.
If you'd like to MIDI-fy your acoustic piano
get the FORTE MIDI MOD installed and
connect its cable to a MIDI instrument or to
a MIDI interface card in your computer so
you can have your MIDI instrument
automatically play along too, and store and
print out what you played on the acoustic
piano without having to write it all down-
kind of like magic.
SUPER MUSIC SYNTHESIZER: $159. Apple II
family. Copy-protected? YES. Applied
Engineering, RO. Box 470301, Dallas, TX 75247;
214/492-2027 ® DX-1: Dan Retzinger. $350. Apple
II family; requires microphone. Copy-protected?
NO. Decillionix, RO. Box 70985, Sunnyvale, CA
94086; 408/732-7758 ® FORTE MIDI MOD: $475 to
$1495, depending on your piano, requires MIDI
instrument or microcomputer with any MIDI
interface card and software. Forte Music, RO.
Box 6322, San Jose, CA 95150; 415/965-8880.
199
Three keyboard instruments . . .
Low priced and capable, the Casio CZ 101
and CZ 1000 make a lot of sounds for the
money. If you spend more, you'll get more
with the Yamaha DX-7 keyboard, good
enough for the hottest commercial recording
artists. Finally, the Mirage is a keyboard with
its own microcomputer, ZVz inch disk drive,
disks with software and various instrument
sounds ready to go, and a digital sampling
capability built in so you can record sounds
into its memory.
Casio CZ 101, $495; CZ 1000, $695; Casio, Inc.,
15 Gardner Road, Fairfield, NJ 07006;
201/575-7400 e DX-7, $1995; Yamaha
International Corporation, P.O. Box 6600, Buena
Park, CA 90622; 714/522-9262 « Mirage, $1695;
Ensoniq, 1 Great Valley Parkway East, Suite 10,
Malvern, PA 19355; 215/647-3930.
For C=i4:
MUSIC VIDEO KIT is the best C-64 toy we've
found. You can create fantasy landscapes,
spacescapes, and mindscapes, complete
with music and sound effects. It includes
8 track composing and recording.
Sight and Sound makes a lot of very good
programs that use the C-64 keys to make
music. THE INCREDIBLE MUSIC KEYBOARD
is a mechanical piano keyboard that fits over
the C-64 typewriter keyboard so you can
play the black-and-whites rather than the
QWERTY. Comes with composing software.
THE MUSIC SHOP turns your C-64 into a
composer's workbench with very good
music printing capabilities.
MUSIC VIDEO KIT: $39.95; INCREDIBLE MUSIC
KEYBOARD: $29.95. Both for Commodore 64.
Copy-protected? YES. Sight and Sound, 3200 S.
166th St., RO. Box 27, New Berlin, Wl 53151;
414/784-5850 ® MUSIC SHOP: Don Williams.
$44.95. Commodore 64. Copy-protected? YES.
Broderbund Software, 17 Paul Drive, San Rafael,
CA 94903; 415/479-1170.
For Apple 11:
MUSIC GAMES and MAGIC PIANO are
playing, composing, and drill games that
take you into the far reaches of music
theory, where things are fun rather than
tedious.
MUSIC GAMES. Lydia Bell. Apple II family; 48K.
Copy-protected? YES. $19.95. Howard W. Sams
and Co., Inc., 4300 West 62nd St., Indianapolis,
IN 46268; 800/428-7267 or, in IN, 317/298- 5400
® MAGIC PIANO. Alan Sagan. Apple II family.
Copy-protected? YES. $49.95. Edusoft, P.O. Box
2560, Berkeley, CA 94702; 800/338-7638 or, in
CA, 415/548-2304.
CONCERTWARE lets you compose and
arrange music by selecting notes with the
mouse, or experiment with sound by
drawing shapes or creating a bar graph.
CONCERTWARE: $49.95. Macintosh. Copy-
protected? NO. Great Wave Software, P.O. Box
5847, Stanford, CA 94305; 415/852-2280.
Lpf
wumm
^i
CHUCK FISHER: It's possible to modify the Apple II using
wiring diagrams from Computers for the Severely Disabled.
Diagrams include ones for locking keys with indicator lights for
one-hand or mouthstick operation (control, shift, repeat) for
Apple lie or II + ; a single key to perform Control-Apple-Reset,
normally a simultaneous three-key operation; and methods for
replacing keys, joystick buttons, and KoalaPad buttons with air
switches. You can also get a free password to the Santa Cruz
Handicapped Information Data Base through the same
organization. Please send a self-addressed stamped envelope
or a donation. By the way, you don't need a set of plans to free
Apple lie keyboards. Just buy a long ribbon cable (up to 10
feet).
JAMES STOCKFORD: Two magazines of interest: Aids and
Appliances Review treats a single class of assisting devices for
the blind, with product evaluations and ordering information. It
is helpful for professionals and also for tinkerers. Send in a 90-
minute cassette tape and they will send you a recording of an
issue at no charge. Communication Outlook has tools,
services, and advertisements for those with communication
handicaps due to neurological and neuromuscular disabilities.
Computers for the Severely Disabled, Easter Seal Society, P.O. Box
626, Santa Cruz, CA 95061 ® Aids and Appliances Review, free
(quarterly); The Carroll Center for the Blind, 770 Centre Street,
Newton, MA 02158-2597; 800/852-3131 or, in MA, 617/969-6200 ®
Communication Outlook; $12/yr (4 issues); Artificial Language
Laboratory, Michigan State University, 405 Computer Center, East
Lansing, Ml 48824-1042; 517/353-0870. (Communication Outlook
suggested by Oebra Sue Heaphy)
Excellent references . . .
o
Personal Computers and Special Needs; Frank
Bowe; 1984; 171 pp.; $9.95; SYBEX Computer
Books, 2344 Sixth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710;
415/848-8233; or COMPUTER LITERACY.
O
Personal Computers and the Disabled, Peter
McWilliams; 1984; 416 pp; $9.95; Doubleday and
Co., Direct Mail Order, 501 Franklin Avenue,
Garden City, NY 11530; 516/294-4400; or
COMPUTER LITERACY
MARK O'BRIEN: As Frank Bowe points out in
Personal Computers and Special Needs,
computers do more for more kinds of
disabled people that anything ever made.
Bowe, who is deaf, knows this in his gut. He
knows, for example, that voice-to-print
devices now being developed will improve
his life dramatically because they will allow
him to understand spoken conversation
without a sign-language interpreter. His book
conveys this sense of sharing exciting news.
Peter McWilliams' Personal Computers and
the Disabled has more technical infomation
than Bowe's book, including detailed
critiques of every personal computer, printer,
and electronic typewriter I've ever heard of
(and many I haven't heard of). Each book
contains information lacking in the other, so
I'd buy both if I could afford to, but Bowe if I
were on a one-book budget.
200
^^^^^^^^«
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pmm
STEWART BRAND: Just because Point is a nonprofit foundation
doesn't mean there aren't some potential conflicts of interest
you should know about. A goodly amount of our working
hardware was donated by the manufacturers-eight Kaypro 2s,
two Kaypro 10s, ten Hayes Smartmodem 1200s, three Atari
800s, four Koala Pads. Other equipment we have on extended
loan— a Hewlett-Packard 150 and HP ThinkJet printer and letter-
quality printer; an IBM PCjr; a Coleco Adam; an Apple lie and
printer; a Dynax printer; an Infoscribe printer. Taking advantage
of editorial discount (50%) we bought two Macintoshes and two
Imagewriter printers. Some of these machines we praise in
print, some we don't; all are put to good use and we're grateful
for them.
Other confessions. One of our Board members, Doug Carlston,
is president of a software company, Broderbund; he takes no
part in our selection process. I own some stock in Apple
Computer (worth $1,500 when I bought it in Jan. '84, based on
no inside information). My wife, Patricia Phelan, was a part-time
software agent working with John Brockman Associates, which
is also Whole Earth's literary agent. Some of Brockman's
software clients are reviewed here, some aren't. Though we are
opposed to copy- protected software, when our staff or software
reviewers work with programs from our library, they may neither
keep nor copy them.
In 1968 I started the original Whole Earth Catalog as one
activity of Richard Raymond's Portola Institute, a nonprofit
public education foundation in Menio Park, California. In 1971
Portola begat Point, which took responsibility for the over
$1 ,000,000 that came in from sales of The Last Whole Earth
Catalog. Most of the money was distributed in grants over the
next three years. What little remained was used to found
CoEvolution Quarterly (which continues as Whole Earth
Review, see p. 11) and to make two more major incarnations
of the Whole Earth Catalog in 1974 and 1980-81 , all from
Sausalito, California.
It's our custom to print—and try to explain— our finances in
each of our publications. That is exceptionally hard this time,
as you'll see.
What happens to the $17.50 you paid for the book (same price
as last year) is pretty straightforward. Roughly half, $9.62,
goes to the bookstore and its immediate supplier. Point gets
12.5%— about $2.19. And the publisher Doubleday gets the
rest, $5.69, for printing, promoting, distributing, and risking.
And for covering Point's costs of book production ($60,000
last year, $60,000 this year).
The project began financially in April 1983, with Doubleday's
advance to Point of $1 .3 million for the Whole Earth Software
Catalog, including subsequent editions. After agent's fees, that
meant $1 ,105,000 to Point in two installments, one on signing
of the contract, the second on delivery of film for the book.
That second payment came in July 1984, when Point was
several hundred thousand in debt, having borrowed against the
second payment to cover costs of the project. Point will see no
more income from Doubleday until the advance has been paid
off by sales. In 1984 and early 1985 Doubleday sold about
100,000 copies of the first edition, which translates to
$219,000 off the advance. Doubleday also sold $200,000
worth of the 1 .0 edition to book clubs, which is split 50-50, so
another $100,000 came off the advance. That still leaves about
a million bucks, or 450,000 copies yet to sell before we get
past the advance. Doubleday would come out ahead well
before that, as they should.
There was other income to Point from the project. For the
British edition, published by Corgi, there was a 40,000 pound
advance, which at the time translated to about $42,000 when
you took out agents' commissions. (The British edition sold
poorly, about 5,500 copies; it turned out that the U.K.
computer market is far leaner than the U.S. Apples and IBMs
are too expensive for average computer users there, so most
American software can't be used.) Point also got (and will get)
some income from direct mail order sales of the Catalog.
Between May 1984 and June 1985 we brought in $57,453 (and
spent $38,574 buying Catalogs and fulfilling the orders, with a
net income of $18,879). We earned about $26,000 of interest
on the cash advances. For our magazine, the Whole Earth
Software Review, we got $161,145 in subscriptions, $75,753
in distribution, and maybe $5,000 in mailing list rentals. There
was no money for advertising because we don't carry
advertising.
So total cash into Point for the Catalog project by September
1985 will have been about $1 ,535,000. Total cash out by then
is just about identical; that we can tell by our bank balances.
Assigning exactly where it went is difficult, because resources
and expenses frequently bridged several projects. (It didn't
collect in anybody's pockets; the largest salary Point paid at
the peak was $44,000/year, the largest now is $36,000/year.)
The major dubious expenses— always the most interesting,
always the least reported— would have to be the costs of
promoting ($152,000) and printing ($248,000) the three issues
of Whole Earth Software Review before we blended it into our
CoEvolution Quarterly to make Whole Earth Review last
winter. We were promoting the Software Review into a dying
market for computer magazines, and we printed a spiffy all-
color magazine— without ads that would have paid for the
color. I should have known better. The same desired effect of
helping accumulate research and pre-publication toward the
Catalog could have been accomplished with a modest
newsletter. It was accomplished on another medium entirely—
the EIES teleconferencing network (p. 147)— which cost us a
mere $16,600 over the entire two years from Spring '83 to
Spring '85.
The rest of the expenditures are unremarkable— salaries,
contributors, rent, equipment, research, phone (!), etc. They
add up to a million-dollar book. Final research and production
on this 2.0 edition will come to about $100,000. 1 doubt if we'll
break even on it, but the function of our non-profit business is
service, and on that I believe we come out ahead. A good book
got better.
POINT FOUNDATION
Business Manager
David Cohn (1984)
Andrea Sharp
Board of Directors
Paul Hawken, Finance Officer
Martin Rosen
Huey Johnson
Doug Carlston
Stewart Brand, President
201
MATTHEW MCCLURE: People always ask, "Well, what do you
use?" There's no short answer.
Hardware:l\]e most common computer was the Kaypro, both
the 2 and the 10, for word processing and telecommunicating.
We used IBM PCs for word processing and software testing, and
the Macintosh for quick writing— memos, notices, forms, and
previewing the chart on pages 50-51. Jim Stockford used his
TRS-80 Model 100 for writing, telecommunicating, and keeping
himself organized. Kathy Parks used the Apple lie both for
keeping track of the library (PFS:FILE) and for writing reviews
(APPLE WRITER lie). Line Editor Suzanne Lipsett used
WORDSTAR on her Morrow Micro-Decision to transcribe the
edited version of the Playing section. Cliff Figallo spent most of
Spring '84 in front of a Compaq and Datamac hard disk,
maintaining our research database with RBASE:4000. Jerry
Weinberg came to Sausalito and edited the Programming section
on a Commodore 64 with PAPERCLIP, the same word processor
he uses on his SUPERPET in Nebraska. Robert Scarola did the
Learning section with BANK STREET WRITER on his Apple II +
at home and brought the disk in for us to transform into typeset
copy.
We did a lot of printing— draft after draft after draft. The Okidata
Microline served me beautifully; so did Stewart's Gemini Star
("Not so beautifully" —SB) and the research department's
Infoscribe 1100. We also used an Epson MX-80, an HP ThinkJet,
an Apple Imagewriter, and the Dynax 15 made by Brother.
For telecommunicating, the Hayes Smartmodem 1200 was
central to our operation, with an occasional assist from the
Hayes Micromodem in the Apple He, the Visionary 100, and the
VICModem from Commodore. We used EIES extensively, along
with CompuServe and The Source. A Smartcable was
indispensable for linking our Apple to the PC for transferring the
Learning section to our standard format.
Software: mrd processors WORDSTAR and NEWWORD were
the mainstays, along with PERFECT WRITER (with
PLU*PERFECT), THE FINAL WORD, and BUSINESSPAK+ . For
spelling checker it was THE WORD PLUS mostly.
We used spreadsheets like MULTIPLAN, SUPERCALC2, and
SUPERCALC3 to predict layouts and to design tables.
Since much of our writing was done in teleconferences, we used
a lot of telecommunications programs; MITE, MIST
CROSSTALK XVI, and SUPERTERM were the main ones.
Virtually all our typesetting was done by telecommunication
from Sausalito to Mackenzie-Harris in San Francisco, using
CROSSTALK on our IBM PC. Transforming text for this was one
of the most interesting tasks in the production. For Jerry's
Programming section, I used VIDTEXfrom CompuServe,
uploading a file from the Commodore and downloading it to the
PC. For Robert's Learning section, THE APPLE/IBM
CONNECTION transferred the data, but slowly.
BARBARA ROBERTSON: This year found us relying on MS-DOS
machines (IBM PC, Compaq) rather than last year's Kaypros.
WORDSTAR, our mainstay word processing program last year,
continued to be our standard despite its awkwardness at
telecommunications (see p. 47). Clifford Figallo spent most of
this year in front of the same Compaq and Datamac hard disk
maintaining our research database and compiling the index (with
help from Nancy Rhine), but switched from R:BASE 4000 to THE
SMART DATA MANAGER (p. 89). Clifford also managed the
typesetting, done (as last year) by telecommunication from
Sausalito to Mackenzie-Harris in San Francisco— but also, vice
versa this year. In addition to sending new material, we retrieved
last year's files via telecommunications and updated them. (A
gigantic job since it turned out, somewhat to oursurprise, that
almost nothing in the book remained unchanged.) We continued
to gather reviews and recommendations from our domain
editors and others via national teleconferences on EIES (p. 147)
and, this year, our own new teleconferencing network. The
WELL (p. 148), which absorbed last year's managing editor,
Matthew McClure. Lyn Gray, who doesn't use computers unless
she has to, stepped into the breach and managed the flow of the
hundreds of bits and pieces (e.g., replace this paragraph on
page 93 with . . . ) that make up this year's Catalog.
STEWART BRAND: As you can guess, the hardware and
software tangle is a mild reflection of the complex information
labyrinth we've been navigating. In our first year Barbara
Robertson was the heroic intelligence in the middle of input
traffic, while Matthew McClure was the heroic intelligence in
the middle of output traffic. In the second year Barbara did it
all, with the expert assistance of Lyn Gray, Kathy Parks, Cliff
Figallo, and Hank Roberts. They made information that is
trying to fly apart, fly together.
Without personal computers the task would have been
approximately impossible.
If your local bookstore doesn't have the book you're looking for,
send your book orders to: Computer Literacy Bookshop
520 Lawrence Expressway
Suite 310
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
Attn: Whole Earth Order Desk
Shipping: Ml books are shipped UPS for quickest turnaround time.
Please add $3 shipping for the first one or two books. Add 25 cents for
each additional book.
Please give a street address— UPS cannot deliver to Post Office boxes.
Caiifornia: Add 6% state sales tax.
Foreign orders: Please specify exact shipping method. Our standard
method (same rates as UPS above) is AO Surface (least expensive,
cannot be insured). Insured packages and Air Mail shipping are more
expensive. If either insurance or Air Mail are desired, use a credit card
or contact us for exact charges.
VISA/P/lasterCard/American Express orders: Send card number,
expiration date, name as it appears on the card, and signature.
Teieptione orders: 408/730-9957 for credit card orders only.
No C.O.D.s. Hours: Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m. -8:00 p.m. Pacific
Standard Time; Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 a.m. -6:00 p.m.
Catalog: S5 for Silicon Valley Favorites, a compendium of professional
computer books.
202
4 + , 12
AgAccess, 119
Aids and Appliances Review, 199
Business Computer Systems, 96
Business Software, 11
Byte, 10, 13, 23
CADalyst, 135
Classroom Computer Learning, 177
Communication Outlook, 199
COMPUTEfs Gazette, 12.
Computer Classified Bluebook, 24
Computer Currents, 11
Computer Entertainment. 29
Computer Gaming World. 29
Computer Graphics World, 132
Computer Sliopper, 11
Computerized Investing, 77
Computing (or Business, 96
Creative Computing, 11, 23, 29
CU£, 177.
Dr. Dobb's Journal, 13
Dtack Grounded, 13
Electronic Learning, 177
Family Computing, 11, 29
fann Computer News, 119
Infoworld, 10, 13
Interactive Video, 193
International Networks, 157
Jot/ma/ 0/ Financial Software and Hardware, 96
tOfi/C, 119
iorws, 69
Macazine, The,^Z
Macworld. 12
Afotfem /Vofes, 143
/vest/, 24
On t/ne Computer Telephone Directory, 27
PC, 10, 12
PC Weefr, 10
PClVorW, 10, 12, 23
Personal Computer World, 13
P/um/>, 27, 149.
Popular Computing , 11, 13, 28
PortaWe MO/200, 16, 65
Software Digest Ratings Newsletter, 12.
Wa// S/ree/ Computer Review, 142
Whole Earth Review, 2, 3, 11, 200
For information on ordering books through COMPUTER
LITERACY Bookshop, see p. 201
A Buyer's Guide to IVIicrocomputer Business Software, 95
All About Applewriler lie, 167
/?n Introduction to General Systems Thinking, 158
Answers Online, 143
/Ipp/e Connection, The, 195
^pp/e 1060, 177
Applying Software Engineering Principles, 171
Art of Computer Programming, The, 159
Assembly Cookbook for the Apple llllle, 167
Beginner's BASIC, 164
fioo* of Adventure Games, The, 41
Boo* of Apple Software, The. 6
floo* of Commodore 64 Software, The, 6
Book of IBM Software, The, 6
C Primer Plus, 160
C Programmer's Library, 161
C Programming Language, The, 160
Ce/es«a/B>)S/C, 194
Complete Handbook ol Personal Computer
Communications, 27, 139
Computer Applications Guide lor Accountants, 96
Computer Phone Book, The, 148
Computers in Accountants' Offices, 96
Designing Structured Programs, 169
D/g/fa/ Oe//, 8
Discovering Apple LOGO, 177
Elements of Programming Style, 160
Endless Apple, The, 16
Enhancing Your Apple //, 167
Everyman's Database Primer, 86
f/re /n f/ie VaHey, 174
Gu/de /o l^icrocomputer Accounting Software, 95
Hac*ere, 28, 174
Mow to Buy Software, 6, 27, 95
How to Get Free Software, 27, 139, 150
IBM Connection. The, 195
IBM PC and 1-2-3, The, 69
Improve Your Writing with Word Processing, 63
Introduction to Pascal including UCSD Pascal, 163
Introduction to the UCSD p-System, 163
Introduction to WordStar, 56
Learning with LOGO, 177
USP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation, 166
Machine Language for Beginners, 167
Micro Accounting, 95
Micro Cookbook, 167
Microcomputer Software Design, 170
Microcomputers lor Accountants, 96
Mindstorms. 177
Modula-2 for Pascal Programmers, 163
More r/lan yioo Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Disks for
Your IBM PC, 2-i
Notes on the Synthesis of Form, 169
Omni Online Database Directory, 143
On the Design of Stable Systems, 171
Online Guide to the Commodore 64, 148
Pascal lor the IBM-PC, 162
Pascal from BAStC, 163
Personal Computer Book, The, 6
Personal Computer in Business Book, 95
Personal Computers and Special Needs, 199
Personal Computers and the Disabled. 199
Plain English Repair and Maintenance Guide for Home
Computers, The. 19
Program Design and Construction. 169
Program Modification. 171
Programming Languages: History & Fundamentals. 159
Psychology of Computer Programming, The, 170
Rethinking Systems Analysis and Design. 170
Running MS-DOS. 173
Small Computers for the Small Businessman, 95
Software Engineering Economics, 171
Software Maintenance News, 171
Software Toofs. 162
Software Toots in Pascal. 162
Standardized Development of Computer Software, 169
Structured Design, 169
Techniques of Program and System Maintenance, 171
Through the MicroMaze, 6
Top-Down Assembly Language Programming for the 6502
Personal Computer, 167
TRS-80 User's Encyctopedia (Model 100), 16
Tutorial on Software Maintenance, 171
Understanding the Professional Programmer, 170
U«/X Primer P/us, 168
UNIX Programming Environment, The, 168
Wizisystem Manual, 44
Word Processing Book, The, 48
(see also "public domain" in main index, and pp. 25-27)
ADVENTURE, 40
American Software Publishing Company, 26
AMODEM, 154
Apple Avocation Alliance, 26
Boston Computer Society, 26
DISKIT 173
DU, 173
EAMON, 41
Elliam Associates, 27
FIDO, 148
FORUM BBS, 149
How to Get Free Software, 27
LIFE, 31
M0DEM7, 150
PC Software Interest Group, 26
PC-CALC, 72
PC-FILE III, 82
PC-TALK,III, 152
PC-WRITE, 59
Plumb, 27
PRETTY GOOD TERMINAL, 153
Public Domain, Inc., 26
QMODEM, 152
RED RYDER, 153
REGRESSION ANALYSIS, 76
users' groups, 26
WIZARD'S CASTLE, 45
Much of the software written for the Apple He will run on the
Apple He, but not all The best way to tell is to try the
software in the store before you buy it
A + , 13
APPLE,, 24
ADDITIOn'mAGICIAN, 186
ADVENTURE, 40
ALGEBRA ARCADE, 190
All About Applewriler lie, 167
Apple He, 16
Apple He, 16
APPLE ACCESS II, 152
Apple Avocation Alliance, 26
Apple Connection. The. 195
Apple LOGO. 177
APPLE LOGO, 178
APPLE LOGO II, 179
APPLE LOGO TOOLKIT 178
APPLE PASCAL 163
APPLE/GEMINI LEISURE TIME EXPANSION (LTE)
PACKAGE, 192
APPLEWORKS, 108
ARCHON, 30
ARCHON II: ADEPT 30
ART OF NEGOTIATING, THE, 197
ASCII EXPRESS "THE PROFESSIONAL', 152
Assembly Cookbook for the Apple ll/lle, 167
BACK TO BASICS, 99
BANK STREET WRITER, 184
BASIC PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, 120
Book of Apple Software, The, 6
BPI GENERAL LEDGER, 100
BROADSIDES, 31
BUMBLE GAMES, 188
CADAPPLE, 134
California Digital, 25
CATLAB, 185
CHAMPIONSHIP LODE RUNNER, 37
CHERRYGARTH FARMS SPORTS STATISTICS, 197
CHIPWITS, 32
CHOPLIFER!, 35
COMMUNITREE, 148
COMPUTER BASEBALL, 39
COPY II PLUS, 172
CROSSFIRE, 35
CURVE FITTER, 76
CZ RIDER, 198
DAISY PROFESSIONAL, 74
DATAFAX, 91
DAZZLEDRAW, 131
DB MASTER, 83
DBASE II, 85
DEADLINE, 42
DELTA DRAWING, 189
Discovering Apple LOGO. 177
DOLLARS AND SENSE, 97
DREAM HOUSE, 181
DX HEAVEN, 198
DX-1,198
EAMON, 41
800-Software, 23
ELF ABC, 187
ELF COLORING BOOK, 187
Enhancing Your Apple II, 167
EXODUS: ULTIMA III, 45
FACEMAKER, 190
FAMILY ROOTS, 197
FLIGHT SIMULATOR II, 33
FONTRIX, 125
FORTRESS, 32
FRACTION FACTORY 185
GATO, 33
GEMINI 2000 PROGRAMMER/DISSOLVER, 192
GERTRUDE'S SECRETS, 188
GET TO THE POINT 186
GREAT GONZO IN WORDRIDER, THE, 181
GREAT PLAINS HARDISK ACCOUNTING, 104
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY 42
HOME ACCOUNTANT 98
HOME DOC, 195
HOMEWORD, 52
lACCALC, 70
INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE ANALYSIS SYSTEM, 121
JULIUS ERVING AND LARRY BIRD GO ONE-ON-ONE, 38
KIDWRITER, 184
KING'S QUEST 40
KNIGHT OF DIAMONDS, 44
KOALAPAD, 131
LEADSHEETER, 198
LEGACY OF LLYLGAMYN, 44
LEXICHECK, 55
LIFE, 31
LODE RUNNER, 37
MAGIC PIANO, 199
MAGIC SPELLS, 189
MAGICALC, 70
MASTER BUILDER, 121
MASTERFORTH, 166
MATH MAZE, 190
MICRO COOKBOOK, 196
MIDI INTERFACE, 198
MIDI/8 PLUS, 198
MILLIKEN WORD PROCESSOR, 184
MINDWHEEL, 41
MONEY! MONEY!, 182
MONTY PLAYS SCRABBLE, 39
MOVIE MAKER, 131
MULTIPLAN, 70
MUSIC GAMES, 199
MUSIC MAESTRO, 185
MVP-FORTH (PADS), 166
M— SS— NG L— NKS, 184
NET-WORKS, 149
NUMBER STUMPER, 186
NUTRIPLAN, 196
OIL'S WELL, 35
OLD IRONSIDES, 31
ORIGINAL BOSTON COMPUTER DIET THE, 196
PARIS EN METRO, 180
PC Network, 23
PEACHTREE BUSINESS ACCOUNTING SYSTEM, 101
PERSON-TO-PERSON, 152
PERSONALTAX PLANNER, 104
PFS:ACCESS, 151
PFS:FILE, 80
PFS:REPORT 81
PFS:WRITE, 54
PICTUREWRITER, 187
PIECE OF CAKE MATH, 185
PINBALL CONSTRUCTION SET 36
PLANETFALL, 42
Polaroid Palette, 124
POND, THE, 183
PRINT SHOP, THE, 187
PROVING GROUNDS OF THE MAD OVERLORD, 44
PUZZLE TANKS, 186
QUEST THE, 43
QUICKEN, 98
READER RABBIT 186
REAL ESTATE OFFICE MANAGEMENT, 120
REAL ESTATE TOOL KIT 120
REGRESSION ANALYSIS, 76
ROBO GRAPHICS CAD-1, 133
ROBO GRAPHICS CAD-2, 133
ROBOT ODYSSEY I, 191
ROBOTWAR, 32
ROOKY'S BOOTS, 188
SARGON III, 38
SCIENTIFIC PLOTTER, 76
SEARCH SERIES, 181
SENSIBLE SPELLER, 63
SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD, 34
SIDEWAYS, 69
SIMULATED COMPUTER, 179
SNOOPER TROOPS CASE #2: THE DISAPPEARING
DOLPHIN, 182
SOFTWARE GOLDEN OLDIES VOL, 1, 193
SPREADSHEET THE, 70
SPRITE LOGO, 179
STAR LEAGUE BASEBALL, 39
Strictly Software, 23
SUMMER GAMES, 38
SUNDOG, 43
SUPER MUSIC SYNTHESIZER, 198
SUSPECT 42
T REX, 179
TAX PREPARER, 104
TEASERS BY TOBBS, 182
TERM EXEC, 152
TERRAPIN LOGO, 178
THINKTANK, 92
TIME ZONE, 40
TKISOLVER, 73
TKISOLVERPACK, 73
TRAINS, 180
TRANSYLVANIA, 43
TYPING TUTOR III, 48
ULTIMA II, 45
VALUE/SCREEN, 77
VERSAFORM, 84
VIDEO LOOM II, 192
VIDTEX, 153
VOLCANOES, 180
VOYAGE OF THE MIMI, 191
W C B , 23
WALL STREET, 182
WHATSIT CORPORATION, THE, 183
WINNING ON WALL STREET, 77
WORD QUEST 186
WORD JUGGLER, 55
WORD SPINNER, 186
ZORKI, 11,42
ALGEBRA ARCADE, 190
AMODEM, 154
ARCHON, 30
ARCHON II: ADEPT 30
ATARI LOGO, 178
ATARIWRITER, 53
BACK TO BASICS, 99
BALLBLAZER, 34
BANK STREET WRITER, 184
BLUE MAX, 36
BOULDER DASH, 37
BROADSIDES, 31
BUMBLE GAMES, 188
CHOPLIFTER!, 35
COMPUTER BASEBALL, 39
CROSSFIRE, 35
DEADLINE, 42
DELTA DRAWING, 189
EXODUS: ULTIMA III, 45
FACEMAKER, 190
FLIGHT SIMULATOR II, 33
FORTRESS, 32
FORUM BBS, 149
FRACTION FACTORY, 185
GEM, 168
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, 42
HOME ACCOUNTANT 98
HOMEWORD, 52
INSTA-SPEED, 164
JULIUS ERVING & LARRY BIRD GO ONE-ON-ONE, 38
LODE RUNNER, 37
M.U L,E,, 34
MAGIC SPELLS, 189
MATH MAZE, 190
MIDIMATE, 198
MIDITRACK, 198
MINDWHEEL, 41
MOVIEMAKER, 131
MUSIC MAESTRO, 185
M— SS— NG L— NKS, 184
OILS WELL, 35
PIECE OF CAKE MATH, 185
PINBALL CONSTRUCTION SET 36
PLANETFALL, 42
POND, THE, 183
PRINT SHOP THE, 187
QUEST THE, 43
SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD, 34
SIMULATED COMPUTER, 179
SNOOPER TROOPS CASE #2' THE DISAPPEARING
DOLPHIN, 182
STAR LEAGUE BASEBALL, 39
SUMMER GAMES, 38
SUSPECT 42
TEASERS BY TOBBS, 182
TRAINS, 180
TRANSYLVANIA, 43
ULTIMA II, 45
WORD SPINNER, 186
ZORKI, 11,42
A B Computers, 24
ADDITION MAGICIAN, 186
ADVENTURE, 40
ALGEBRA ARCADE, 190
ARCHON, 30
ARCHON II: ADEPT 30
BACK TO BASICS, 99
BANK STREET WRITER, 184
BLUE MAX, 36
Book of Commodore 64 Software, The. 6
BOULDER DASH, 37
BUMBLE GAMES, 188
CHAMPIONSHIP LODE RUNNER, 37
CHIPWITS, 32
CHOPLIFTER!, 35
COMMANDER ULTRA-TERMINAL, 153
Commodore 64, 15
COMMODORE LOGO, 178
COMPUTE! 's Gazette. 12
COMPUTER BASEBALL, 39
COPY II 64, 172
CROSSFIRE, 35
DATA/7, 198
DATABASE MANAGER with REPORT GENERATOR, 82
DEADLINE, 42
DELTA DRAWING, 189
DR. T's MIDI SEQUENCER PROGRAM, 198
DREAM HOUSE, 181
ELECTRIC MAGAZINE, 149
EXODUS: ULTIMA III, 45
FCM., 82
FACEMAKER, 190
FAMILY ROOTS, 197
FLIGHT SIMULATOR II, 33
FORTRESS, 32
FRACTION FACTORY 185
GERTRUDE'S SECRETS, 188
GREAT GONZO IN WORDRIDER, THE, 181
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY 42
HOME ACCOUNTANT 98
HOMEWORD, 52
INCREDIBLE MUSIC KEYBOARD, 199
INDEX FILE, THE, 82
INSTA-SPEED, 164
JULIUS ERVING AND LARRY BIRD GO ONE-ON-ONE, 38
KIDWRITER, 184
KOALAPAD, 131
LIFE, 31
LODE RUNNER, 37
M,U.LE,, 34
MAGIC SPELLS, 189
MASTERFORTH, 166
MATH MAZE, 190
MICRO COOKBOOK, 196
MINDWHEEL, 41
MOONDUST 37
MOVIEMAKER, 131
MUSIC MAESTRO, 185
MUSIC SHOP 199
MUSIC VIDEO KIT 199
M— SS— NG L— NKS, 184
OIL'S WELL, 35
OMNIWRITER, 52
Online Guide to the Commodore 64. 148
ORIGINAL BOSTON COMPUTER DIET THE, 196
PERFORMANCE/7, 198
PFS:FILE, 80
PFS:REPORT 81
PIECE OF CAKE MATH, 185
PINBALL CONSTRUCTION SET 36
PLANETFALL, 42
PLAYNET 140
POND, THE, 183
PRINT SHOP THE, 187
Public Domain, Inc., 26
QUEST THE, 43
RACING DESTRUCTION SET 40
RAVICS BBS, 149
READER RABBIT 186
ROCKY'S BOOTS, 188
SARGON III, 38
SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD, THE, 34
SIMULATED COMPUTER, 179
SKIWRITER, 52
SKYTRAVEL: WINDOW ON OUR GALAXY 194
SNOOPER TROOPS CASE #2: THE DISAPPEARING
DOLPHIN, 182
SOFTWARE GOLDEN OLDIES VOL 1, 193
STAR LEAGUE BASEBALL, 39
SUMMER GAMES, 38
SUPERBASE, 82
SUSPECT 42
TREX, 179
TEASERS BY TOBBS, 182
TERRAPIN LOGO, 178
TRAINS, 180
TRANSYLVANIA, 43
TYPING TUTOR III, 48
ULTIMA II, 45
VIDTEX, 153
WORD SPINNER, 186
ZORKI, II, 42
3/i
ABSTAT 75
ACCOUNTING PARTNER, THE, 99
ADVENTURE, 40
BASIC COMPILER, 164
BOOK OF CHANGE: I CHING, 196
BOOKS! THE ELECTRIC LEDGER, 100
BOSS FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM, 101
BPI GENERAL LEDGER, 100
CBASIC, 164
CBASIC COMPILER, 164
CHAMPION, THE, 102
COMPARE II, 63
Computer Shoppe, The, 25
CONEXUS, 149
CROSSTALK XVI/CROSSTALK 3 0, 151
DBASE II, 85
DEADLINE, 42
DESMETC, 161
DU, 173
800-So(tware, 23
Elliam Associates, 27
FAMILY ROOTS, 197
HAYES SMARTCOM II, 150
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, 42
Kaypro 2X, 15
LIFE, 31
MARKETFAX, 121
MBASIC, 164
MICRO-PROLOG, 167
MICRO-TAX, 105
MILESTONE, 116
MIST/MIST -h, 149
MITE, 151
M00EM7, 150
MULTIPLAN, 70
NEVADA COBOL, 165
NEVADA EDIT 165
NEWWORD, 56
PEACHTREE BUSINESS ACCOUNTING SYSTEM, 101
PFIX PLUS, 161
PLANETFALL, 42
PLINK-86, 161
POWER!, 173
PUNCTUATION + STYLE, 62
QUICKCODE II, 86
REALWORLD ACCOUNTING, 103
SUPERCALC, 67
SUPERCALC2, 67
SUPERFILE, 91
SUSPECT 42
SWEEP 172
TBBS, 149
TCS TOTAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM, 103
TLC-LOGO, 178
Total Access, 24
TURBO PASCAL, 162
VEDIT 172
VIDTEX, 153
W C B, 23
WASH, 172
WIZARD'S CASTLE, 45
WORD FINDER, 63
WORD PLUS, 62
WORDSTAR, 56
ZORKI, II, 42
Alternate Source, The, 24
AUTOCAD, 135
COLOR-80 BBS, 149
COMMUNITREE, 148
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 120
DATA + , 84
DEADLINE, 42
DISK +. 156
FRAMEWORK, 110
GREAT PLAINS HARDISK ACCOUNTING, 104
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY 42
INFOSTAR + . 90
INTUIT 108
KING'S QUEST 40
LAPSTAR, 55
LUCID, 71
205
204
MINIVC, 71
MONTY PUYS SCRABBLE, 39
M_SS— NG L— NKS, 184
PC PAINTBRUSH, 130
PFIX PLUS, 161
PFSflLE, 80
PFS:REPORT, 81
PLANETFALL, 42
POND, THE, 183
PUZZLE TANKS, 186
RADIO SHACK MODEL 100, 16, 55
RAM + ,16
SEARCH SERIES, 181
SIMULATED COMPUTER, 179
S0RT2 + , 84
STATISTICAL CURVE FITTING, 75
SUSPECT, 42
SYMPHONY, 111
Tandy 1000, 17
TBBS, 149
TEASERS BY TOBBS, 182
Total Access, 24
TRS-80 BASIC, 164
VIDTEX, 153
WHATSIT CORPORATION, THE, 183
WORDPERFECT 60
WORDSTAR, 56
WRITEROM, 55
Z0RKI,II,42
1DIR, 172
ABILITY, 111
ABSTAT 75
ACCOUNTING PARTNER, THE, 99
ADDITION MAGICIAN, 186
ADVANCED SPACE GRAPHICS, 137
ADVENTURE, 40
ALGEBRA ARCADE, 190
ARCHON, 30
ART OF NEGOTIATING, THE, 197
ASAP SIX, 89
AUTOCAD, 135
AHEC C, 161
BACK TO BASICS, 99
BANK STREET WRITER, 184
BASIC COMPILER, 164
BASIC PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, 120
BETTERBASIC, 165
BoB Board, 19
BOOK OF CHANGE; I CHING, 196
Book o1 IBM Software. The, 6
BOOKS! THE ELECTRIC LEDGER, 100
BOSS FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM, THE, 101
BOULDER DASH, 37
BPI GENERAL LEDGER, 100
BUMBLE GAMES, 188
CADKEY 137
CADPLAN, 134
CBASIC COMPILER, 164
CHAMPION, THE, 102
CHART MASTER, 129
COMMUNITREE, 148
COMPARE II, 63
CONEXUS, 149
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT 120
CONVERT 156
CONVERTACALC, 72
COPY II PC, 172
COPYWRITE, 173
CORNERSTONE, 83
CROSSDATA, 156
CROSSFIRE, 35
CROSSTALK XVI/CROSSTALK 3 0, 151
CUBICOMP, 136
CURVE FITTER, 76
Datacopy Model 700, 123
DATAFAX, 91
DBASE II, 85
DBASE III, 86
DEADLINE, 42
DELTA DRAWING, 189
DESK ORGANIZER, 114
DESMETC, 161
DIAGRAM MASTER, 129
DISKIT 173
DOCUCALC, 72
DOLLARS AND SENSE, 97
DR LOGO, 178
E-Z-DOS-IT 115
EASYBUSINESS SYSTEMS, 102
800-Soltware, 23
ENABLE, 109
ENERGRAPHICS/PC, 137
EQUATE, 73
EXECADD, 137
EXECUVISION, 129
EXODUS, ULTIMA III, 45
PACEMAKER, 190
FAMILY ROOTS, 197
FIDO, 148
FINANCIER II, 97
FLIGHT SIMUUTOR, 33
FONTRIX, 125
FRACTION FACTORY 185
FRAMEWORK, 111
GATO, 33
GEM, 168
GERTRUDE'S SECRETS, 188
GRAPHWRITER, 129
GREAT PLAINS HARDISK ACCOUNTING, 104
HARDRUNNER, 69
HAYES SMARTCOM II, 150
Hercules Graphics Card, 19
HIGGINS, 114
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY 42
HOME ACCOUNTANT 98
HOMEWORD, 52
IBM ASSISTANT SERIES, 80
IBM Connection, The, 195
IBM LOGO, 178
IBM PC, 17
IBM PC and 1-2-3, 69
IMAIL, 195
INFOSTAR + , 90
INSEARCH,144
INTUIT 108
INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE ANALYSIS SYSTEM, 121
IQLISP, 166
JAMES F FIXX: THE RUNNING PROGRAM, 197
JULIUS ERVING AND LARRY BIRD GO ONE-ON-ONE, 38
KIDWRITER, 184
KING'S QUEST 40
KOALAPAD, 131
LATTICE C COMPILER, 161
LIFE, 31
LIGHTYEAR, 116
LOADCALC, 72
LODE RUNNER, 37
LUMENA, 132
MAGIC SPELLS, 189
MANAGING YOUR MONEY 96
MARKETFAX, 121
MASTER BUILDER, 121
MASTERFORTH, 166
MATH MAZE, 190
MBASIC, 164
MEMORY/SHIFT, 115
MERGECALC, 72
MICRO COOKBOOK, 196
MICRO-PROLOG, 167
MICRO-TAX, 105
MICROSOFT WORD, 60
MILESTONE, 116
MINDWHEEL, 41
MIST/MIST -h, 149
MITE, 151
MODIO, 142
MODULA-2 86, 163
MONTY PLAYS SCRABBLE, 39
MULTIPLAN, 71
MUSIC MAESTRO, 185
MVP-FORTH (PADS), 166
M— SS— NG L— NKS, 184
NEWWORD, 56
NORTON UTILITIES, 173
NUMBER STUMPER, 186
NUTRIPLAN, 196
NUTSHELL INFORMATION MANAGER, 93
OBJECTIVE-C COMPILER, 161
OIL'S WELL, 35
1-2-3, 68
ONE-WRITE PLUS, 100
ORIGINAL BOSTON COMPUTER DIET, THE, 196
OVERHEAD EXPRESS, 128
PC, 12
PC Eye and Imagit, 123
PC LOGO, 178
PC Network, 23
PC PAINT 130
PC PAINTBRUSH, 130
PC PLANETARIUM, 194
PC Software Interest Group (PC/SIG), 26
PC TO MAC AND BACK!, 156
PC Week. 10
PC-CALC, 72
PC-DRAW, 133
PC-FILE III, 82
PC-TALK III, 152
PC-USPICE, 194
PC-WRITE, 59
PC/FORTH, 166
PC/TAXCUT 105
PCturbo board, 19
PEACHTREE BUSINESS ACCOUNTING SYSTEM, 101
PERSONAL COMPOSER, 198
PERSONAL TAX PLANNER, 104
PFIX PLUS, 161
PFS:ACCESS, 151
PFS-.FILE, 80
PFS:PROOF, 54
PFS.REPORT 81
PFSWRITE, 54
PICTURE-IT 128
PIECE OF CAKE MATH, 185
PINBALL CONSTRUCTION SET 36
PLANETFALL, 42
PLINK-86, 161
Polaroid Palette, 124
POLYFORTH II, 166
POND, THE, 183
POP-UP DESKSET 114
POSTMAN, 195
POWER!, 173
PRACTIGRAPH, 128
PROKEY 174
PROVING GROUNDS OF THE MAD OVERLORD, 44
PUNCTUATION -h STYLE, 62
QMODEM, 152
QUEST THE, 43
QUICKCODE II and III, 86
QUICKEN, 98
R:BASE 4000, 87
R:BASE 5000, 87
R:BASE EXTENDED REPORT WRITER, 87
RBBS, 149
READER RABBIT 186
REAL ESTATE OFFICE MANAGEMENT 120
REAL ESTATE TOOL KIT 120
REALWORLD ACCOUNTING, 103
REFLEX, 83
RELAY 150
REMOTE CONTROL, 156
ROOKY'S BOOTS, 188
SARGON III, 38
SCIENTIFIC PLOTTER, 76
SEQUENCER PLUS, 198
SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD, 34
SIDEKICK, 114
SIDEWAYS, 69
SIGN MASTER, 129
SMART DATA MANAGER, 89
SMART INTEGRATED SOFTWARE SYSTEM, THE, 112
SMARTKEYII,174
SNOOPER TROOPS CASE #2: THE DISAPPEARING
DOLPHIN, 182
SOFTWARE GOLDEN OLDIES VOL. 1, 193
SOLIDSHADE, 137
SOLOMON, 73
SPSS 74
STATGRAPHICS, 74
Strictly Software, 25
SUPERCALC, 67
SUPERCALC2, 67
SUPERCALC3, RELEASE 2, 67
SUPERFILE, 91
SUPERPROJECT 117
SUSPECT 42
SYMPHONY 111
I REX, 179
TAX PREPARER, 104
TBBS, 149
TCS TOTAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM, 103
TELEPAINT 130
THINKTANK, 92
3DESIGN3, 137
TIME LINE, 118
TKISOLVER, 73
TKISOLVERPACK, 73
TRAINS, 180
TRANSEND PC COMPLETE, 154
TRANSYLVANIA, 43
TRUE BASIC, 165
TURBO PASCAL, 162
TURBO TUTOR, 162
TYPING TUTOR III, 48
ULTIMA II, 45
VALUE/SCREEN, 77
VEDIT 172
VERSACAD, 134
VERSAFORM, 84
VERSAFORM XL, 84
VIDEOSHOW, 128
VIDTEX, 153
VOLKSWRITER DELUXE, 58
W C B, 23
WASH, 172
WICO Smartboard, 19
WINNING ON WALL STREET 77
WIZARD'S CASTLE, 45
WORD FINDER, 63
WORD PLUS, 62
WORD PROOF 62
WORD SPINNER, 186
WORDPERFECT 60
WORDSTAR, 56
WORDSTAR 2000 PLUS, 57
XENOCOPY 156
XYWRITEII -i-,61
ZERODISK, 173
Z0RKI,II,42
ANIMATION TOOLKIT 1, 127
AHEC C, 161
BACK TO BASICS, 99
CHIPWITS, 32
CLICKART EFFECTS, 127
CONCERTWARE, 199
COPY II MAC, 172
DEADLINE, 42
DESK ORGANIZER, 114
DOLLARS AND SENSE, 97
FACTFINDER, 93
FASTFINDER, 174
FILEVISION, 79
GATO, 33
GREAT PLAINS HARDISK ACCOUNTING, 104
HAYDEN SPELLER, 63
HAYES SMARTCOM II (Macintosh version), 153
HFI !X 88
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY 42
HOME ACCOUNTANT, 98
LIFE, 31
LODE RUNNER, 37
MAC C COMPILER AND TOOLKIT 161
MAC-BARCODE, 195
Macazine, The, 12
MACDRAW, 134
MACFORTH , 166
Macintosh, 20
MACINTOSH PASCAL, 162
MACLION, 88
MACPAINT 127
MACPROJECT 117
MACPUBLISHER, 126
MACVISION, 123
Macworld, 12
MACWRITE, 54
MASTERFORTH, 166
MEGAMAX C LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM, 161
MICROSOFT CHART 128
MICROSOFT FILE, 79
MICROSOFT WORD {Macintosh version), 58
MINDWHEEL, 41
MOUSE EXCHANGE, 149
MULTIPLj\N, 70
OVERVUE, 81
PC Netw/ork, 23
PC TO MAC AND BACK!, 156
PFSflLE, 80
PFS:REPORT 81
PINBALL CONSTRUCTION SET 36
PLANETFALL 42
PRETTY GOOD TERMINAL, 153
QUEST THE, 43
READYSETGO, 126
RED RYDER, 153
SARGON III, 38
SOFTWARE GOLDEN OLDIES VOL. 1, 193
STAR LEAGUE BASEBALL, 39
Strictly Software, 25
SUSPECT 42
SWITCHER, 115
THINKTANK, 92
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, 30
Thunderscan, 123
TRANSYLVANIA, 43
TYPING TUTOR III, 48
ULTIMA II, 45
VIDEOWORKS, 127
Z0RKI,II,42
Recommended products In bold
A B Computers, 24
A Buyer's Guide to Microcomputer Business Software, 95,
A+,12
APPLE, ,24, 70, 167
Aardvark/McGraw-Hill, 104,
ABILITY,107, 109, 111
Above Board, 68,
ABSTAT, 75
Academic Publishers, 171,
ACCOUNTING PARTNER, THE, 94, 99
ACCOUNTING PARTNER 2, 99,
Addison-Wesley Publishing Co,, 95. 159, 162, 163, 165,
177,
ADDITION MAGICIAN, 186.
ADVANCED DBMASTER, 83
ADVANCED SPACE GRAPHICS, 136, 137
ADVENTURE, 26, 40, 193
Advertel Comnnunications Systems, Inc , 147
AgAccess. 119
AGNET, 119
agriculture, 119
Aids and Appliances Review, 199
ALGEBRA ARCADE, 175,190
Ail About AppieWriter lle.m
All Easy Corporation, 91
Alternate Source, The, 24
American Association of Individual Investors, 77
American Software Publishing Company, 26
American Technology Resources, 193,
AMODEM, 150, 154, 156
An Introduction to General Systems Thinking, 158
Analytica Corporation, 83,
Anchor Automation, Inc , 155,
Anderson Bell Co , 75
ANIMATION TOOLKIT I, 127
Ann Arbor Softworks, 127
Answers Online, 143
Apple lie and lie, 14, 16
APPLE ACCESS II, 150,152
Apple Avocation Alliance, The, 26
Apple Computer,16, 20, 21, 30, 54, 108, 115, 117, 127,
134, 152, 162, 163, 178, 179,
Apple Connection, The, 195
Apple LOGO, \n
APPLE LOGO, 178
APPLE LOGO II, 179
APPLE LOGO TOOLKIT, 178
APPLE PASCAL, 163.
Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exctiange, 24
APPLE/GEMINI LEISURE TIME EXPANSION (LTE) PACKAGE,
192
AppleTalk, 21,
APPLEWORKS, 16, 47, 48, 50, 63, 66, 107, 108,
APPLEWRITER, 55, 108,
Applied Engineering, 198
Applied Software Technology, 84,
Applying Software Engineering Principles, 171
ArborNet, 148.
ARCHON, 30
ARCHON II: ADEPT, 30
Arrays, Inc./Continental Software, 82, 98.
Arrays, Inc/The Book Division, 6, 16, 41.
Art of Computer Programming, The, 159,
ART OF NEGOTIATING, THE, 197
Artificial Language Lab, Michigan State U,, 199,
ARTSCI,lnc.,70,
ASAP SIX, 89
ASAP Systems, Inc , 89
ASCII EXPRESS "THE PROFESSIONAL", 150, 152, 156
ASCII files, 61, 69, 72, 87,
Ashton-Tate, 85, 86, 110.
Ashton-Tate Publishing Group, 6,
Assembly Cooi<book for the Apple li/iie, 1 67
astronomy, 194
AT&T Information Systems, 17, 20,
AT&T 6300, 17
AT&T UNIX PC, 14, 20, 61
Atari Corporation, 53, 178,
ATARI LOGO, 178
ATARIWRITER, 53
AUTOCAD, 112, 123, 134, 135, 136, 137
Autodesk, Inc., 135.
Award Software, Inc., 156.
AZTEC C, 161
BACKT0BASICS,95, 99, 101
Balcones Computer Corp , 101.
BALLBLAZER, 29, 34.
Banbury Books, 69
BANK STREET WRITER, 46, 52, 184
bar charts, 74, 129.
barcode reader/generator, 195,
BASIC, 158, 159,
Basic Books, Inc, 177,
BASIC COMPILER, 164
BASIC PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, 120
Bean, Jeff, 82
Beginners' BASIC. 164
Bellsoft, Inc ,114,
Bernoulli Box, 21
BEST CONNECTION, 105,
Best Programs, 105,
BETTERBASIC, 165
Bibliographic Retrieval Service, 143
BIX, 13
Black Jack, 154
BLUE MAX, 36
Bob board, 19, 130
Book of Adventure Games, The, 41
Book of Apple Software, The, 6, 29
BOOK OF CHANGE: I CHING, 196
Book of Commodore 64 Software, The, 6, 29
Book of IBIVI Software, The, 6, 29
BOOKS! THE ELECTRIC LEDGER, 94. 100
Borland International, 114, 162
BOSS FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM, 101
Boston Computer Society, The, 26,
Boston Software Publishers, Inc , 126
BOULDER DASH, 37
Bourbaki, Inc, 172
BPI GENERAL LEDGER, 97, 100
BPI Systems, 100
Brady Co , Robert J , 162
Breakthrough Software, 118,
BROADSIDES, 31
Broderbund Software, 35, 37, 131, 184, 187, 199
Brooks/Cole Publishing, 190
Brother 2024L printer, 21
Brother HR-15 printer, 21
Brother International Corp , 21,
BRSARERDARK, 119, 143
BRS/Saunders/Colleague, 119,
builders, software for, 121
bulletin board, 27,
bulletin board programs, 149,
bulletin boards, electronic, 148, 150
BUMBLE GAMES, 188
Business and Professional Software, Inc
business graphics, 128,
Business Computer Network, Inc, 144,
Business Computer Systems, 96
Business Software, 11
Buttonware, 72, 82,
buying, 22,
buying software, 6, 7, 8, 9,
Byte. 10, 13, 23
20
C Primer Pius, 160.
C Programmer's Library, 161
C Programming Language, The, 160
C language, 160, 161,
C Ware Corporation, 161
CAD, 122, 136
CADaiyst, the Journai of the AutoCAD Users' Group, 135
CADAPPLE, 133, 134
CADCAMERA, 123, 135
CADDRAFT, 134
CADKEY, 137
CADPUN, 134, 137
Cahners Publishing Co , 96,
Calcomp, 124,
CalComp Corporation, 136
Calcomp 1043, 124.
CALCSTAR, 15, 90,
California Digital, 25
Camden Communications, 16
Capital PC Software Exchange, 149,
Cardiff-by-the-Sea, 155
Carroll Center for the Blind, The, 199
CASIO CZ101, 199.
Casio, Inc, 199,
CATALYST lie, 55,
CATLAB, 175, 185
CBASiC. 164.
CBASIC COMPILER, 164
CBS Software, 179, 181
CE Software, 182
Celestial BASIC, 194
Central Point Software, Inc , 172
CHAMPION, THE, 95, 102
Champion Software Corporation, 102
CHAMPIONSHIP LODE RUNNER, 37.
Chariot, 148.
CHART MASTER, 72, 75, 124, 129
check-writing, 98.
Chemical Abstracts. 143
Cherry Lane Technologies, 198,
Cherrygarth Farms Software, Inc , 197,
CHERRYGARTH FARMS SPORTS STATISTICS, 197
CHIPWITS, 32
CHOPLIFTER! 34, 175
Chorus Data Systems, Inc , 123,
Cimarron Corporation, 164,
circuit design, 194,
CISSCorp, 55,
Classroom Computer Learning, 177
CLICKART EFFECTS, 127
Coast BBS, 149
COBOL, 103
Columbia U, Center for Computing Activities, 156
COLLEAGUE, 119
COLOR-80 BBS, 149.
COMMANDER ULTRA-TERMINAL, 150, 153
Commodore Business Machines, 15, 42, 178, 194
COMMODORE LOGO, 178
Commodore 64, 14, 15
Commodore 64 Home Companion, 15
Communication Outlook, 199
COMMUNITREE. 146, 148
Comp Doc, Inc , 195,
Comp-U-Card International, Inc , 141
COMP-U-STORE, 141
Compaq Computer Corp , 17
Compaq computers, 17.
COMPARE II, 63
Complete Handbook of Personal Computer
Communication, 27, 139
CompuServe Information Service, 2, 13, 27, 30, 31, 71,
140, 142, 144, 146, 153
CompuServe Special Interest Groups (SIGS), 141, 146,
150
COMPUTE! Books, 167
COMPUTEVs Gazette, 12.
Computer Applications Guide lor Accountants, 96,
COMPUTER BASEBALL, 39
Computer Classified Biuebook, 24
Computer Currents, 11
Computer Enleilainment, 29
206
Computer Era, 149.
Computer Gaming World. 29, 32
Computer Graphics World. 132
Computer Hot Line, The, 24
Computer Identics Corporation, 195
Computer Literacy, 3, 22, 201
Computer Phone Book, r/ie,146, 148
Computer Shoppe, The, 25
Computer Sltopper, 11
Computer Software Designs, Inc., 88
computer-aided design (CAD), 136.
Computerized Investing, 77.
Computers for the Severely Disabled, 199.
Computers in Accountants' Offices, 96.
Computerwhat?, 25.
Computing for Business, 96.
Computing!, 173.
Compuview Products, Inc., 172.
CONCERTWARE, 199
concurrency, 113, 115.
CONDUIT, 185.
Conetic Systems, Inc., 114.
CONEXUS, 149
CONFER II, 140, 147
conferencing, electronic, 146, 147
Connection, The, 148.
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT, 120
construction managing, 121.
Consulair Corporation, 161.
context-switching, 113, 115.
Control Industries, 155.
CONVERT, 156.
CONVERTACALC, 72
cookbook program, 196
COPY II MAC, 172
COPY II PC, 172.
COPY II PLUS, 5, 172.
COPY II 64, 5, 172.
copy-protection, 69.
copying programs, 172
COPYWRITE, 173
CORNERSTONE, 83, 84.
CORRECTSTAR. 56, 57, 63,
CP/M, 14, 15, 23, 24, 56,
Creative Computing. 11, 23, 29.
Creative Equipment, 153.
Creative Software, 37.
Creative Solutions, Inc., 166
critical path method, 69, 116.
CROSSDATA, 156
CROSSFIRE, 35
CROSSTALK XVI/CROSSTALK 3.0, 47, 150, 151, 156
CUBICOMP, 136, 137
CUE. 177
CUE, Inc., 177
CURVE FITTER, 75, 76.
curve fitting, 75
CZ 1000, 199.
CZ RIDER, 198
DAISY PROFESSIONAL, 74
data Source, 149.
data transfer, 72.
Data Transforms, 125.
DATA-h, 84
DATA/7, 198
DATABASE MANAGER with REPORT GENERATOR, 82
databases, 72, 78.
databases, online, 141, 144,
Datacopy Corporation, 123.
Datacopy Model 700, 123.
DATAFAX, 63, 90, 91
Dataguard, 155
Datamost, Inc., 15
Dataspeed, 142.
DAZZLEDRAW, 131
DB MASTER, 83
DBASE II, 4, 25, 72, 75, 78, 82, 85, 87, 102, 112, 118.
DBASE III, 72, 86, 87, 110, 112,
DBMS, 85
DCH Educational Software, 180.
DEADLINE, 42
Dealer's Digest, 142.
Decillionix, 198,
Decision Resources, Inc., 129.
decision support software, 116
DELPHI NEWSLEnERS,140, 146
DELTA DRAWING, 189
Designing Structured Programs, 169
DesignWare, Inc., 190.
desk accessories, 113, 114,
DESK ORGANIZER, 113, 114
DESK/SHIFT, 115.
DESMETC, 161
Diablo C-150 ink jet, 124.
DIAGRAM MASTER, 129
DIALOG Information Services, Inc, 143,
DIALOG KNOWLEDGE INDEX, 119, 141, 143, 144
Diamond Software, 24,
Digital Deli, 6
Digital Marketing, 116.
DIGITAL PAINTBRUSH, 127,
Digital Research, 164, 168, 178
digitizing tablets, 123,
dilithium Press, 95, 156,
disabled, software for the, 174, 187, 199.
Discovering Apple LOGO, 177
DISK+,153, 156
DISKIT, 173
DISPLAYWRITE2, 46,
DOCUCALC, 72
DOLURS AND SENSE, 94, 96, 97, 98
dot matrix printers, 21,
double entry, 99, 103
Doubleday & Co , 6, 48, 95, 174, 199.
DOW JONES NEWS SERVICE, 140, 142, 144
Dow Jones News/Retrieval, 119, 142, 144.
DOWPHONeSCHWABQUOTES, 142
Dr. Dobb's Journal, ^3,^^3
DR. LOGO, 178
Dr T, 198.
DR. Ts MIDI SEQUENCER PROGRAM, 198
drafting, professional, 134.
drawing, 122.
drawing, 2-D professional, 135,
drawing, technical, 134,
DREAMHOUSE, 181
Dreams of the Phoenix, 149
Dtacic Grounded, 13.
DU, 173.
Dune, 44
Dvorak keyboard, 16, 19.
DX HEAVEN, 198
DX-1,198
DX-7, 199.
B
E-Z-DOS-IT, 115
EAMON, 26, 41.
Earthware Computer Services, 180
Easter Seal Society, 199.
Eastman Kodak Company, 124,
EASYBUSINESS SYSTEMS, 94, 99, 101, 102
EASYLINK, 140, 145
EASYPLUS, 102.
EASYSCRIPT, 52.
EASYWRITER II, 47.
EDC Publishing, 164,
EDIX/WORDIX, 46.
EduSOFT, 179, 199,
BOO-Software, 23
8087 math chip, 67, 68, 135, 136
ELECTRIC MAGAZINE, 149,
ELECTRIC PENCIL, 63,
Electronic Arts, 30, 34, 36, 38, 40.
ELECTRONIC INFORMATION EXCHANGE SYSTEM (EIES),
2,47,140,147,149,200,201,
Electronic Learning, 177.
electronic mail, 145, 146.
electronic publishers, 126.
Elements of Programming Style, The, 160
ELF ABC, 187.
ELF COLORING BOOK, 187
Elfware, 187,
ELIZA, 193.
Elliam Associates, 27,
Ellis Computing, Inc., 165,
Emulex/Persyst, 19,
ENABLE, 5, 47, 48, 50, 66, 107, 109, 111, 112,
Endless Apple, The. 16
ENERGRAPHICS/PC, 137
Enertronics Research, Inc, 137,
Enhancing Your Apple II. 167
Ensoniq, 199,
Epson, 124,
Epson JX80, 124.
Epyx, Inc, 32, 34, 38.
EQUATE, 73
Equate Research Group, 73,
eSoft, 149-
Evergreen Software, Inc, 100
Everyman's Database Primer. 86
EXECADD, 137
EXECUVISION, 124, 128, 129
EXODUS: ULTIMA III, 45
Experience in Software, 197,
Exploratorium Store, 197
D
EC.M., 82
PACEMAKER, 190.
FACTFINDER, 93
Family Computing, 11, 29
FAMILY ROOTS, 197
Farm Computer News, 119
FASTFINDER, 174
FIDO, 148
filemanagers, 80, 81,82.
file transfer programs, 139, 150, 156.
FILEVISION, 79, 80, 81
Financial Software, Inc., 97.
FINANCIER II, 97
Fire in the Valley, 174
First Comics, Inc., 127.
FIRST NATIONAL 800 DATA BANK, 119
First Star Software, Inc., 37,
Fisher-Stevens, Inc, 119.
FLIGHT SIMULATOR, 33, 175
FLIGHT SIMULATOR II, 33
FOG, 150,
FONTRIX, 125, 130
Forbin Project, The, 152,
Forethought, Inc, 93.
FORTE MIDI-MOD, 198
Forte Music, 198.
FORTH, 111,166.
FORTH, Inc., 166
FORTRAN, 158.
FORTRESS, 32
47th Street Photo, 27.
FORUM BBS, 149
4-IN-ONE BASIC ACCOUNTING, 103.
Fox&Geller, Inc, 86.
FRACTION FACTORY, 185.
FRAMEWORK, 5, 46, 48, 50, 63, 90, 107, 109, 110, 111.
free software, 25.
Freesoft, 153,
Freeware/Headlands Press, 152.
FREEWAY, 102.
RL Games, Inc., 43.
Funk Software, Inc., 69.
games, 28-45.
Gamestar, Inc, 39.
Gantt charts, 116.
GATO, 33
GEM, 112, 168.
GEMINI 200 PROGRAMMER/DISSOLVER, 192.
genealogy program, 197.
General Computer, 20
General Parametrics, 128.
General Videotex Corporation, 146.
GERTRUDE'S SECRETS, 188.
GET TO THE POINT, 186.
Glossbrenner, Alfred, 6, 25-27, 139.
Graphic Communications, inc., 129.
graphics, 74, 75, 76, 79, 122.
graphics boards, 123, 124.
GRAPHWORKS, 108.
GRAPHWRITER, 72, 124, 128, 129
GREAT GONZO IN WORDRIDER, THE, 181
GREAT PUINS HARDISK ACCOUNTING, 104.
Great Plains Software, 104.
Great Wave Software, 199,
Guide to Microcomputer Accounting Software. 95,
Hackers. 28, 174
Hackers' Conference , 29.
Hammer Computer Systems, 115,
Harawitz, Howard, 192,
hard disks, 20.
HARDRUNNER, 69
Harper & Row, 166
Hartley Courseware, Inc , 182.
Harvard Associates, 178
Harvard University Press, 169
Hayden Software Co, 38, 63, 127
HAYDEN SPELLER, 54, 63.
Hayes Microcomputer Products, 150, 153.
HELIX, 79, 88
Hercules Computer Technology, Inc , 19, 61, 124
Hercules graphics board, 19, 61, 124
Hesware, 52,
Hewlett-Packard, 21,56, 71,124
Hewlett-Packard 110, 56,71
HI DMP52MP, 124,
HIGGINS, 113, 114
High Technology Software Products, 149,
Hitachi America, Ltd., 123,
HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GAUXY, 42
Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 191.
HOME ACCOUNTANT, 96, 97, 98.
HOME ACCOUNTANT PLUS, 98,
home banking, 139.
HOME DOC, 195
HOMEWORD, 47, 52, 62, 63.
HOMEWORD SPELLER, 53,
Houston Instruments, 124,
How to Buy Software. 6, 27, 95.
How to Get Free Software, 27, 139, 150
HowardSoft, 104
Hybrid Arts, Inc., 198,
HyperDrive, 20
I Ching, 96,
lACCALC, 70
IBM ASSISTANT SERIES, 80^
IBM Connection, The ,195
IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter, 124
IBM Entry Systems Division, 21, 40, 52, 62, 80, 178, 188.
IBM LOGO, 178
IBM PC, 14, 17
IBM PC AT, 19
IBM PC Software Interest Group, 172,
IBM PC and1-2-3, 69
IBM Proprinter, 21
IEEE Computer Society Press, 171 ,
Iliad. 44.
image digitizers, 123
ImageWrlter, 21.
■MAIL, 195
Improve Your Writing with Word Processing. 63
IMSI, 130.
INCREDIBLE MUSIC KEYBOARD, 199
INDEX FILE, THE, 82
indexers, 90,
Infocom, Inc., 42, 83.
information services, online, 144.
INFOSTAR, 15.
INFOSTAR + , 90.
InfoWorld. 10, 13
Innovative Softvtfare, Inc , 89, 112.
input devices, 123
INSEARCH, 144
INSTA-SPEED, 164.
insurance costs, 22.
Integral Quality, Inc., 166.
integrated programs, 107.
integrators, 112
Interactive Microware, Inc , 76.
Interactive Picture Systems, 131.
Interactive Video. 193
International Apple Core, 70.
INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC MAIL SERVICE, 140, 145
International Networks, 157.
Introduction to Pascal Including UCSD Pascal, 163.
Introduction to the UCSD p-System, 163.
Introduction to WordStar 4, 56
Intuit, 98.
INTUIT, 107, 108.
INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE ANALYSIS SYSTEM, 121.
investing, online services, 142.
Iomega Corp., 21.
IQ Technologies, 21
IQLISP, 166
JAMES F. FIXX: THE RUNNING PROGRAM, 197
Jennings, Tom, 148.
Journal ol Financial Software and Hardware, 96.
JULIUS ERVING AND LARRY BIRD GO ONE-ON-ONE, 38
Kaypro 2X, 15
Kaypro Corporation, 15.
Kensington Microware, 156,
KERMIT, 75, 153, 156
key disk, 67, 69.
key-changers, 174
keyboard enhancers, 174.
keyboards, 18,
KIDWRITER, 184.
KING'S QUEST, 40.
KNIGHT OF DIAMONDS, 44
Koala Technologies, 123, 131,
KOALAPAD, 123, 131
KOALAPAINTER, 131
Kodak Instagraphic CRT Slide Imager, 124
MpMBI
H
mm
Laboratory Microsystems, Inc., 166.
Lancaster, Don, 167,
Landmark Software, 21.
lap computers, 55, 75, 84, 153
UPSTAR,55
LaserJet, 21, 61.
LaserWriter, 21, 61, 124, 125, 126
UTTICE C COMPILER, 161
law offices, 119,
LAZYWRITER, 120
LCD screen, 71,
LCS/Telegraphics, 130,
Leading Edge Software Products, Inc., 93.
LEADING EDGE WORD PROCESSOR, 46.
LEADSHEETER, 198
Learning Company, The, 186, 188, 189, 191.
Learning with LOGO. 177
LEGACY0FLLYLGAMYN,41,44
letter-quality printers, 21.
Levy, Steven, 28, 174
LEXICHECK, 55
Li, Inc., Peter, 177.
LIFE, 31, 193.
Lifeboat Associates, 161,
Lifesaver Systems, 173
Lifetree Software, Inc , 58,
Light Software, 194,
LIGHTYEAR, 106, 116
Lightyear, Inc., 116.
linear regressions, 129
LISP Company, 178
LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation,
166
Little, Brown & Co., 170, 171.
Living Videotext, Inc., 92
LOADCALC, 72.
local area networks, 148, 157.
LODE RUNNER, 37, 38
LOGIC, 119.
LOGIC (Law Olfice Guide in Computers). 119
Logitech, Inc., 163,
LOGO, 175, 177.
LOGO Computer Systems, Inc, 178, 179,
Lord of the Rings, 44,
LOTUS, 69.
Lotus Development Corp., 68, 69, 111.
LUCID, 71.
LUMENA, 132, 136
LUMENA SUBKIT, 132
LYBEN COMPUTER SYSTEMS, 25
M.U.L.E., 34
MAC C COMPILER AND TOOLKIT, 161
MAC-BARCODE, 195.
Macazine, The, 12.
MACDRAW, 134
MACFORTH, 166.
Machine Language lor Beginners. 167
Macintosh, 14, 20.
Macintosh clipboard, 113.
Macintosh operating system, 113.
MACINTOSH PASCAL, 162.
MACLION, 88.
Macmillan Publishing Co., 143
MACPAINT, 4, 54, 79, 93, 124, 126, 127, 128, 131, 132,
134, 153.
MACPROJECT, 117
MACPUBLISHER, 125, 126
macro capabilities, 67, 68,
MACTERMINAL, 153,
MACVISION, 123, 124, 127.
Macworld, 12.
MACWRITE, 54, 58, 63, 81, 93, 126, 128.
MAGAZINE ASAP, 143.
MAGIC PIANO, 199
MAGIC SPELLS, 189
MAGICALC, 70, 83
mail order buying, 23-25,
mailing programs, 195,
MAILMERGE, 56, 82, 87, 107.
MANAGING YOUR MONEY, 22, 94, 96, 97, 98.
Manhattan Graphics Corp., 126.
Manx Software Systems, 161 .
MARKETFAX, 121
MASTER BUILDER, 121
MASTERFORTH, 166
MASTERTYPE, 48,
MATH MAZE, 190
mathematics, 73,
MBASIC, 164
MBASIC-80, 15,
McDonald Micro Products, 75
McGraw-Hill Book Co., 95, 160, 167, 177, 181,
MCI MAIL, 140, 145
McWilliams, Peter, 6, 48, 199,
MDM7, 150,
Mead Data Central, 144.
MECA, 96, 197.
medical, 195.
medical databases, online, 119
//MEDX, 119.
MEGAMAX C UNGUAGE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM, 161
Megamax, Inc., 161
MegaSoft, 149.
MEGAWARS, 30
MEGAWORKS, 108.
MEMOMAKER, 71.
memory, 14, 18.
MEMORY/SHIFT, 115
Menio Corporation, 144
.MENU— THE INTERNATIONAL SOFTW/ARE DATABASE,
118, 141.
Meredith Corp., 119.
MERGECALC, 72
MEX, 150.
Micro Accounting, 95
Micro Control Systems, Inc., 137.
MICRO COOKBOOK, 78, 196
Micro Cookbook, 167.
Micro Decision Systems, 72.
MICRO-PROLOG, 167
MICRO-TAX, 105
Microcomputer Software Design, 170
Microcomputer Taxsystems, Inc , 105.
Microcomputers for Accountants, 96,
Micrografx, Inc., 133.
Micromedx, 196,
MicroMotion, 166.
Microperipheral Corp., 154.
MICROPLAN, 15.
MicroPro International Corp., 56, 57, 90.
Microrim, 87,
Microsoft Corp., 33, 58, 60, 70, 79, 128, 164,
MICROSOFT CHART, 81,128.
MICROSOFT FILE, 79, 80, 81
Microsoft Press, 16, 173.
MICROSOFWINDOWS, 112, 168.
MICROSOFT WORD, 4, 5, 47, 57, 60, 62, 63, 89, 128
MICROSOFT WORD (Macintosh version), 54, 58, 59.
Microstuf, Inc., 151.
Microthought Publications, 96.
MIDI INTERFACE, 198
MIDI/8 PLUS, 198
MIDIMATE, 198
MIDITRACK II, 198
MILESTONE, 116.
Milliken Publishing Co., 184.
MiLLIKEN WORD PROCESSOR, 184.
Mimetics Corporation, 198.
Mindstorms (Children, Computers and Powerful ideas).
177
MINDWHEEL, 41.
MINIVC, 71
Mirage, 199
Mirage Concepts, 82.
MIST/MIST4-,146, 149, 156
MITE, 15,47,110,150,151.
Model 200, 71.
Modem Notes, 143
modems, 139, 154, 155.
M0DEM7,27, 150
MODIO, 142
MODUU-2 86, 163.
Modula-2 for Pascal Programmers. 163.
Mom's Software, 195.
Monarchy Engineering, 24.
MONEY! MONEY!, 182.
monitoring, home security, 194.
monitors, 19, 123.
MONTY PLAYS SCRABBLE, 39
MOONDUST, 37
More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Hard Dislcs for
Your IBM PC, ZA
Mountain View Press, Inc., 166.
mouse, 123.
MOUSE EXCHANGE, 149.
Mouse Systems Corp., 130.
MOUSEPAINT, 131.
MOVIEMAKER, 131.
MS-DOS, 14, 17, 23, 24.
MULTI-MODEM MT212AH2, 155.
multi-user, 104.
MultiTech Systems, Inc., 155
MULTIMATE, 47, 60, 63
MULTIMODEM 224, 155.
MULTIPUN, 16, 52, 65, 66, 70, 71, 72, 81, 87, 103, 104,
128,
Muse Software, 32.
MUSIC GAMES, 199.
MUSIC MAESTRO, 185
MUSIC SHOP, 199
MUSIC VIDEO KIT, 199
musical products, 198.
MVP-FORTH (PADS), 166
MWJ Publishing Group, 96.
Mycroft Labs, 151.
M— SS— NG L— NKS, 175, 184
20
NCSU, 24
NET-WORKS, 149.
networking, cost of (chart), 140.
networks, 148.
networks, local, 148, 157.
NEVADA COBOL, 165
NEVADA EDIT, 165.
New American Library, Inc., 148.
New Era Technologies, 149.
New Jersey Institute of Technology, 147,
New York Amateur Computer Club, Inc., 173.
newsservices, online, 144,
newsletters, online, 145.
NEWSNET, 27, 144, 145.
Nevrton Plastics, 124,
NEWWORD, 54, 56, 60, 62, 63
NEXIS, 144.
Nichols Services, 44.
Nocona Electronics, 16, 17.
208
Norell Data Systems, 40,,
North American Business Systems, 115.
Norton Computing, Peter, 173.
NORTON UTILITIES, 173
Nostradamus, 69,
Notes on the Synthesis of Form, 169.
NoumenonCorp., 108.
NUMBER STUMPER, 186
NUTRIPLAN, 196.
nutrition programs, 196.
NUTSHELL INFORMATION MANAGER, 90, 93
Oasis Systems, 62.
OBJECTIVE-C C0MPILER,161
Octave-Piateau Electronic, inc., 198
OdestaCorp., 88
Official Airline Guide, 144.
OFFICIAL AIRLINE GUIDES ELECTRONIC EDITION, 144
OIL'S WELL, 35
OLD IRONSIDES, 30.
Omni Oniine Database Directory, 143
OMNIWRITER, 47, 52, 53
Omware, 121.
On Line Computer Telephone Directory, 27
On tlie Design of Stable Systems, 170.
One Point, 141.
ONE POINT COMPUTER INFORMATION NETWORK, 118,
141
1DIR, 172
1-2-3, 5, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 84, 86, 87, 101,
102,103,109,110,111,112,118
ONE-WRITE PLUS, 100.
Online Guide to ttie Commodore 64, 148
operating environments, 168
operating systems, 14.
optical scanners, 123.
OptionWare, Inc., 69,
Orctiid Teciinology, Inc., 19.
Origin Systems, Inc., 45.
ORIGINAL BOSTON COMPUTER DIET, THE, 196
Osbome/McGraw-Hill, 143, 174,
outlining, 92, 110
outlining tools, 90.
output devices, graphics, 124
OVERHEAD EXPRESS, 128
OVERVUE, 79, 80, 81.
B
PAC-MAN, 35, 190.
Pacific Micro Systems, 192.
painting programs, 130.
painting, professional, 132,
PAPERCLIP 52
Par Mountain Telegrapti, 141
PARIS EN METRO, 180
PARTICIPATE ON THE SOURCE (PARTI), 146.
Pascal, 25, 162, 163,
Pascai for tlie iB!^-PC, 162.
Pascal from BASIC, 163.
Passport Designs, Inc., 198.
PC, 10, 12.
PC DOS, 14.
PC Eye and Imagit, 123
PC LOGO, 178
PC Network, 23
PC PAINT, 127,130
PC PAINTBRUSH, 127, 130
PC PLANETARIUM, 194
PC Software Interest Group, 26, 31, 45
PC TO MAC AND BACK!, 156
PC WRITER, 46.
PC Week, 10
PC World, 12,23
PC-CALC, 72, 82
PC-DRAW, 133, 134
PC-FILE III, 59, 82
PC-TALK.IIl, 59, 82, 150, 152, 156
PC-USPICE, 194
PC-WRITE, 5, 25, 46, 47, 48, 49, 59, 60, 62, 82
PC/FORTH, 166
PC/TAXCUT, 105
PCturlJO, 19, 61
PEACHPAK 4, 99.
PEACHTEXT5000, 63, 99, 101
PEACHTREE BUSINESS ACCOUNTING SYSTEM, 94, 95,
97, 101, 103
Peachtree Software, 99, 101
pen plotters, 124.
Penguin Software, 43.
PenWell Publishing, 132,
People's Computer Company, 173
PERFECTWRITER,46, 54, 62.
PERFORMANCE/?, 198
PERSON-TO-PERSON, 150, 152
Personal CAD Systems, Inc , 134
Personal Composer, 198
PERSONAL COMPOSER, 198
Personal Computer Book, The, 6
Personal Computer in Business Book, The, 95,
Personal Computer World, 13
Personal Computers and Special Needs, 199
Personal Computers and the Disabled, 199
Personal Computing, 11,
personal finance, 96-98.
PERSONAL FINANCE PROGRAM II, 105,
PERSONAL TAX PLANNER, 22, 104, 105
Personnel Software, Inc , 73.
PERT charts, 116.
PFIX PLUS, 161
PFS:ACCESS, 48, 54, 150, 151
PFS:FILE, 49, 54, 55, 72, 78, 79, 80, 81, 85, 87, 90,
PFS; GRAPH, 54,
PFS: PLAN, 72.
PFS:PROOF, 54.
PFSrREPORT, 54, 81,87.
PFS;SOLUTIONS, 80,
PFS:WRITE, 4, 48, 54, 55, 58, 62, 63
Phil's Pretty Good Software, 153,
Phoenix Products Corporation, 161
Phonetics, Inc , 194.
PHYCOM, 119
PICOSPAN, 148
PICTURE-IT, 128.
PICTUREWRITER, 187
PIECE OF CAKE MATH, 185
PINBALL CONSTRUCTION SET, 36
Pioneer Video, 193
Pioneer Videodisc Player, 193.
Plain English Repair and Maintenance Guide for Home
Computers, The, 19
PUNETFALL, 42
PUYNET, 140
PlayNET, Inc., 140.
PLiNK-86, 161.
plotters, 124
PLUMB, 27, 149
Polaroid Industrial Marketing, 124
Polaroid Palette, 124.
POLYFORTH II, 166
POND, THE, 183
PONG, 193.
POP-UPDESKSET, 114, 115
POP-UPs, 113.
Popular Computing, 11, 13, 28
Portable Computer Support Group, 17, 55, 71, 84, 156.
Portable 100/200, 16, 65
portable spreadsheet, 71,
POSTMAN, 195
POWER!, 173
Practicorp International, 128.
PRACTIGRAPH, 128
Pratt Software, 121.
Precision Software, Inc., 82
Prentice-Hall, 52, 95, 96, 160, 168, 169, 170, 171.
presentation graphics, 128-129.
PRETTY GOOD TERMINAL, 150, 153
printers, color, 124,
printers, laser, 121, 124
PRINTSHOP, THE, 187
Productivity Products International, 161,
program design, 169.
Program Design and Construction, 168.
Program Modification, 171.
programming languages, 159.
Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals. 159,
Programming Logic Systems, Inc., 167.
project management, 116-118,
PROKEY, 49, 61,63, 158, 174,
Proprinter, 21
PROVING GROUNDS OF THE MAD OVERLORD, 44
ProVUE Development Corp., 81,
Psychology of Computer Programming, 158, 170
public domain, 25, 26.
Public Domain Software Copying Co , 31, 41, 45, 150, 172
Public Domain, Inc., 26,
publishing, desktop, 125
PUNCTUATION + STYLE, 46, 62
PUZZLE TANKS, 186
II
Q*LABEL, 103,
Q*LINK, 103
Q*NET, 103.
Q-A-WORD, 103.
QMODEM, 150, 152, 156.
Quaid Software Ltd., 173.
Quark, Inc., 55,
Que Corporation, 63, 161.
QUEST, THE, 43
QUICKCODE II and III, 86
QUICKEN, 98
Quicksoft, 25, 59
Quinsept, 152, 197,
QWERTY, 16, 199
R:BASE4000, 83, 87, 109
R:BASE 5000, 87
R:BASE EXTENDED REPORT WRITER, 87
RACING DESTRUCTION SBT, 40.
RADIO SHACK MODEL 100, 16, 24, 48, 55, 71, 153, 156.
Rainbow Computing, Inc., 74,
RAM, 14, 24.
RAM + ,16.
RAVICS-BBS, 149
RBBS, 149
READER RABBIT, 186
READYSETGO, 125, 126
real estate management, 120, 121.
REAL ESTATE OFFICE MANAGEMENT, 120.
REAL ESTATE TOOL KIT, 120.
REALWORLD ACCOUNTING, 95, 101, 103
RealWorld Corporation, 103.
RED RYDER, 150, 153, 156
REFLEX, 83
REGRESSION ANALYSIS, 76
RELAY, 150, 156
REMOTE CONTROL, 156
Reston Publishing, 96
Rethinking Systems Analysis and Design, 170
RGB monitors, 15.
Ritam Corporation, 39
ROBO GRAPHICS CAD-1 and CAD-2, 133, 136.
Robo Systems, 133.
ROBOT ODYSSEY 1, 191
ROBOTWAR, 32
ROBOVIEW, 133.
Rocky Mountain Software Systems, 56.
ROCKY'S BOOTS, 188, 191
RoseSoft, 174,
RS-232, 195.
Running MS-DOS, 173
running program, 197
sales tracking, 121
SAMNAIIl, 46, 61.
Sams and Co, Howard W., 160, 167, 168, 199,
San Francisco Apple Core, 76,
SARGON III, 38
Satellite Software International, 60,
Scarborough Systems, Inc., 187, 196.
Scholastic, Inc., 177.
Schwab and Company, Charles, 142.
SCHWAB EQUALIZER, THE, 142
Science Citation Index. 143,
Scientific American, 31 .
Scientific Marketing, Inc., 121.
SCIENTIFIC PLOTTER, 76
screen photographers, 124.
Screen Shooter, 124
SCREENWRITER, 5.
SEARCH SERIES, 175, 181
Second Self, Computers and the Human Spirit, 32, 36, 43.
SELECT, 46,
Selfware, Inc., 156.
Sensible Software, Inc , 63.
SENSIBLE SPELLER, 53, 63,
SENSAPHONE, 194
SEQUENCER PLUS, 198,
SERPENTINE, 38.
SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD, 34
shareware, 72,
Shatter, 127,
shell programs, 173.
shopping, 4, 14
shopping, online discount, 141
SIDEKICK, 108, 113, 114.
SIDEWAYS, 67, 69
Sierra On-Line, Inc., 35, 40, 45, 52
SIG/M User's Group of ACG-NJ, 150
Sight and Sound, 199.
SIGNMASTER, 124, 129
Silver Reed America, Inc., 21,
Silver Reed EXP-500, 21
Simon & Schuster Electronic Publishing Group, 19, 48,
181.
SIMUUTED COMPUTER, 179
Sir-Tech Software, Inc , 44.
SOLUTION TO QUESTION ON P. 160:
The problem is in not checking the input: suppose
we try the "triangle" (3, 1, 1), or suppose A, B,
and C are all negative numbers: the program will
fail. Good programming involves envisioning the
kinds of problems the program will run into before
the fact.
SKIWRITER il, 47. 52
SKYTRAVEL: WINDOW ON OUR GALAXY, 194
slide show, 128, 192.
small business, 99, 100,
Small Computers for the Small Businessman, 95.
Small System Design, Inc., 120,
SMALLTALK, 158.
Smart Cable, 21
SMART DATA MANAGER, 89, 201
SMART INTEGRATED SOFTWARE SYSTEM, 66, 83, 89,
107, 112.
SMARTCOM II, 47, 109, 150, 156
SMARTCOM II MACINTOSH VERSION, 150, 153
SMARTKEY II, 49, 63, 158, 174.
SMARTLINK II, 155
SNOOPER TROOPS CASE #2 THE DISAPPEARING
DOLPHIN, 182
Social Science l\^icrocomputer Review, 24
Software Arts, 73,
Software Country, 31, 40, 193, 196.
Software Digest Ratings Newsletter, 12
Software Engineering Economics, 171.
SOFTWARE GOLDEN OLDIES VOL. 1, 193.
Software Group, Tfie, 109
Software l\/lalntenance, 171
software maintenance, 171
Software Maintenance Association, 171.
Software Maintenance News, 171
Software Marketing Associates, 91.
Software Publishing Corp., 54, 80, 81, 151.
Software Research Technologies, Inc., 174,
Software Tools, 162.
Software Tools In Pascal, 162.
Software Toolworks, 40.
solids modeling, 136.
SOLIDSHAPE, 137
SOLOMON, 73
Solution Technology, Inc., 63
Sorclm/IUS Microsoftware, 67, 102, 117.
S0RT2 + , 64
Source, The, 13, 24, 27, 40, 140.
SOURCE PUBLIC FILES, 141.
Source Telecomputing Corporation, 141, 144, 145, 146,
SOURCE UPI NEWSWIRE, 144
SOURCEMAIL, 145.
SPACE DISCS, 193.
SPACE INVADERS, 34,
Spectrum HoloByte, Inc, 33.
SPELLBINDER, 63.
spelling checkers, 62, 63,
Spinnaker Software, 180, 182, 184, 189, 190.
sports statistics program, 197.
SPREADSHEET, THE, 70
spreadsheet utility, 72,
spreadsheets, 64, 66.
Springboard Software, Inc., 185,
Springer-Verlag, 163.
sprite graphics, 179
SPRITE LOGO, 179
SPSS, 74.
SPSS, Inc., 74.
St. Martin's Press, 6, 139
Standardized Development of Computer Software. 169
STAR LEAGUE BASEBALL, 39
STAR LEGAL TIME AND BILLING PROGRAM, 99.
Star Software Systems, 99, ,p
STATGRAPHICS, 74
STATISTICAL CURVE FITTING, 75
statistics, 74, 75,
Steinbrecher, Jim, 154.
stock market analysis, 77
Stoneware, 83.
storage, 14.
Strategic Simulations, Inc., 31, 32, 39.
Street Price Guide, 23.
Strictly Software, 25
Structured Design, 169
STSC, Inc , 74.
SubLOGICCorp.,33
Summa Technologies, Inc., 77
SUMMER GAMES, 38
Summit Software Technology, Inc., 165
Sunburst Communications, 182, 183, 184, 186
SUNDOG, 43
SUPER DATA EXCHANGE, 67,
SUPER MUSIC SYNTHESIZER, 198
SUPER-TEXT, 63,
SUPERBASE, 82
SUPERCALC, 67,70,71,72,117
SUPERCALC2, 67
SUPERCALC3, RELEASE 2, 5, 65, 66, 67, 130
SUPERCALC3a, 67,
SUPERFILE, 63, 90, 91
SUPERPROJECT, 102, 117
SUPERSCOUT, 144
SUPERWRITER, 63,
survey analysis, 73,
SUSPECT, 42, 83
SWEEP, 172
SWITCHER, 20, 47, 58, 115
SYBEX Computer Books, 163, 194, 195, 199,
SYMPHONY, 5, 66, 67, 69, 72, 103, 104, 107, 109, 110,
111,112.
Synapse and Broderbund, 41.
Synapse Software, 36.
Synetgetic Communication, 148,
Systems Plus, Inc., 100,
T&W Systems, Inc., 134.
T. REX, 179.
T/Maker Company, 127.
Tandy 1000, 17
Tandy Corporation/Radio Shack Division, 16, 17, 55.
Tardis Software, 174.
TAX ADVANTAGE, 98
TAX MINI-MISER, 105.
TAX PREPARER, 22, 104
Texan 440 monitor, 19, 130
Taxan Corp., 19.
taxes, 104, 105.
TBBS, 149.
TCS Software, Inc., 103.
TCS TOTAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM, 103
TEASERS BY TOBBS, 182.
Techniques of Program and System Maintenance, 171 .
Tecmar Graphics Master, 124.
Tecmar, Inc., 124.
Telecom Jobs/Telecom Gear, 24
telecommunicating tools, 138
TELEPAINT, 127, 130.
Telos Software Products, 79.
templates, 69,
TERM EXEC, 150, 152, 156
TERMINAL, 71.
terminal programs, 150,
TERMINUS, 48, 55.
Terrapin, Inc., 178.
TERRAPIN LOGO, 178.
ThinkJet printer, 21
THINKTANK, 46, 63, 90, 92.
3DESIGN3, 137.
3-D CAD, 136.
3-D digitizer, 137.
3-D graphics, 137.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, 30
Through the MIcroMaze, 6.
Thunderscan, 123
Thunderware, Inc., 123.
TIGER TABLET, 123.
Time Arts, Inc., 132.
TIME LINE, 118.
TIME ZONE, 40.
TKISOLVER, 73.
TKISOLVERPACK, 73
TLC-LOGO, 178
Top-Down Assembly Language Programming for the 6502
Personal Computer, 167.
TOPVIEW, 112, 115, 168
Total Access, 24.
TRAINS, 180
Transend Corporation, 154
TRANSEND PC COMPLETE, 150, 154, 156
TRANSYLVANIA, 43
Tritek Vision Systems, 137.
Trutec Software, 152.
TRS-80 BASIC, 164
TRS-80 tJser's Encyclopedia (Model 100), 16
TRUE BASIC, 165
TURBO PASCAL, 162
TURBO TUTOR, 162
turtle graphics, 179.
TUTOR -h, 48.
Tutorial on Software Maintenance, 171
TWO POTATO CLOCK, 197.
2-D computer aided design, 132, 133.
TAPING TUTOR III, 15, 48
U.S. Soil, Inc., 119
ULTIMAII, 41,44, 45
Ultisystem, 44
Understanding the Professional Programmer, 170
Unit Software and Consulting, Inc., 194.
United Software Industries, 152.
UNIX, 158, 168
UNIX Primer Plus, im
UNIX Programming Environment, 168
users' groups, 26.
utilities, 72, 172-174,
utility programs, 26.
VALDOCS, 46.
Value Line, inc., 77
VALUBSCREEN, 77
Van Nostrand Reinhold, 96, 170.
VCN, 129.
VEDIT, 172
VERSACAD, 134, 137
VERSAFORM, 84
VERSAFORM XL, 84
Vertex Systems, 156.
vertical market programs, 118, 119
video digitizers, 123
VIDEO LOOM II, 192
video output to videotape, 124.
Video Vision Associates, 193.
video, Interactive, 193.
Videodisc Monitor, The, 193.
VIDEOSHOW, 128
VIOEOWORKS, 127
VIDTEX, 146, 150, 153.
Virtual Combinatics, Inc., 196.
VISICALC, 25, 64, 65, 66, 70, 72, 73, 82, 87, 104, 108,
174,
Visionary Electronics, Inc , 155.
VISIONARY 1200, 155.
VM Personal Computing, 150.
VOLCANOES, 175, 180
VOLKSMODEM VM12, 155
V0LKSM0DEMVMI,155
VOLKSWRITER DELUXE, 47, 48, 49, 52, 54, 58, 60, 62.
VOLKSWRITER SCIENTIFIC, 59.
VOYAGE OF THE MIMI, 191
209
WALL STREET, 175, 182.
Wall Street Computer Review, 142
Wall Street Journal, 144
Warner Software, Inc., 114,
WASH, 26, 172
weaving, 192.
Weinberg, Gerald, 6-9, 159, 170.
Western Union, 145.
WHATSIT CORPORATION, THE, 183.
Whole Earth Lectronic Link, 2, 117, 148, 198, 201.
Whole Earth Review, 2, 3, 11, 200.
WICO Corporation, 19,
WIC0Smartboard,19.
Wiley and Sons, John, 170.
Wilson's Computer Business (WCB), 23.
WINNING ON WALL STREET, 64, 77
WIZARD'S CASTLE, 45
WIZARDRY, 41,44.
Wizinews, 44.
WIzlsystem Manual, 44
WORD FINDER, 63
WORD JUGGLER, 16, 47, 48, 55, 63
WORD PLUS, 15,61,62
Word Processing Book, The, 48
word processing programs, features of, 49.
WORD PROOF, 5, 46, 58, 59, 62, 109.
WORD QUEST, 186.
WORD SPINNER, 186
WORDMARC, 60,
WORDPERFECT, 5, 57, 59, 60, 62, 63.
WORDSTAR, 4, 5, 15, 47, 48, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 60, 61,
62, 63, 78, 84, 85, 87, 90, 101, 106, 107, 115, 125.
WORDSTAR 2000 PLUS, 47, 57, 63
Workman Publishing, 6.
WRITEROM, 55.
Writing Consultants, 63.
mmm
Xanaro Technologies, 111.
XENOCOPY, 156
Xerox, 124.
Xerox Education Publications, 31.
XMODEM, 146, 149, 151, 153, 154, 155, 156
XyQuest, Inc., 61.
XYWRITEIl4-,49, 59, 60, 61,62, 63,
Yamaha DX-7, 198.
Yamaha International Corporation, 199.
Yardi Systems, 120.
Vourdon Press, 169.
ZERODISK, 173
ZORK I, II, 42, 83
STEWART BRAND: Most of this book had completed
its research by the beginning of June 1 985. The
following pages were finished around the middle of
July 1 985, with research going on up to the last
keystroke.
The major reason for this supplement is the continual
change in hardware. Some long-awaited machines
(like the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga — see page
21 7) are just arriving on the market promising, as
usual, the world and seeking to out-Mac the
Macintosh. For "power users" there are new IBM PC
AT compatibles. For transients, new laptop
computers are appearing regularly.
Even as you're reading this, it's too early to fully
evaluate the success of these machines. What we
can offer is some early information, a strategy for
gauging their worth as the market around them
develops, and some gambler's guidelines for when
and how to place a bet on a new system by hardware
critic and computer fortune-teller Richard Dalton. This
section also gives us a chance to include some late-
breaking news about software, choreographed by
Editor Barbara Robertson.
Looked at a year from now, this section Is likely to be
the most dated in the book — yesterday's news —
while the rest of the book holds its flavor. For the
present, it's essential to be as close to what's
happening as possible. It's that kind of market.
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING
You can shop for yourself at Christmas but don't buy
until after, when the prices have come down.
Computer companies sell as much as 40% of their
annual total in December. A sales slump (and cut-rate
prices) immediately follows the holidays.
Wait until some friends have bought or been given
new-new machines that will be aggressively
advertised this winter. Wait until some probing
reviews have come out in the computer press. Walt to
see if the stores decide to re-stock their Christmas
promotions and if decent software is available or still
being promised.
Then buy a nice elderly machine at a giveaway price
from an exhausted and semi-desperate supplier in
January or February.
You can't do that with kids, however, the holiday is too
big a deal. So put 'em to work. They know far better
than you what they want, what the other kids are using
(or getting) so they can share software, and what is in
good repute with kids.
If the major rationale for a home computer is its
"educational value," the following from Learning
Editor Robert Scarola may be helpful.
ROBERT SCAROLA: What I see happening is The
Great Shift— away from programming, simulations,
games, adventures, etc., as the major use of learning
with computers. Away from these areas and towards
application of the computer as a tool: word processing
programs, spreadsheets and database applications.
From the 7th grade on up there appears to be growing
consensus that computers should be used by
students the same way they are by adults: as practical
tools.
STEWART BRAND: Even with this kind of sage
advice, leave it up to the kids. Figure out what you're
willing to spend on their computer stuff, set the limit
publicly and leave it to them how the sum is divided —
so much for computer, so much for peripheral gear, so
much for software. If someone is giving YOU
computer stuff, you could do worse than mark up a
copy of this book and give it to your benefactor. Let
Santa decide if you deserve a Bernoulli Box (p. 21 ,
$2300) or a subscription toinf eWorld (p. 10, $31).
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BARBARA ROBERTSON: The remarkable thing
about this section of the Catalog is how quickly it
was produced by such a small group of people.
Witness:
Domain Editor:
Typesetting, Design,
Illustrations, Production:
Production Liaison:
Copy Editing,
Proofreading:
Camera:
Richard Dalton
Jay Kinney
Dustin Kahn
Ted Schultz
Hank Roberts
Lyn Gray
Don Ryan
RICHARD DALTON: Welcome to the back of the
book. To stretch a cliche to its breaking point, this
section's medium carries Its own message. We're
dealing with late-breaking news that can't wait for the
traditionally long-winded procedures used to prepare
books like this.
Instead, we used a Macintosh hooked up to Apple's
LaserWriter printer and some just-released software,
PAGEMAKER, to create the pages you see here.
The quality isn't as high as typesetting and manual
layout, but it's getting there rapidly. Jay Kinney, our
wizard behind this process, gives more details on the
joys and frustrations he encountered on page 224.
This section covers two main areas:
* brand new hardware and software (even some
widely anticipated stuff not quite here yet) that doesn't
fit comfortably in the rest of the book, since the
Whole Earth Software Catalog's emphasis is on
what has proved to be best, not just what's newest;
* a strategy based on standards that are beginning to
emerge from the still young microcomputer industry,
since, otherwise, all the dizzy changes in the
computer business make it tough to apply specific
recommendations to buying decisions.
standards are a way to financially survive the fast-
changing personal computer marketplace. They're a
mixed blessing to be sure, but they're the best hedge
there is against wasting money and time.
Standards develop for one primary reason: public
support. The personal computer industry tries to
establish standards with what they sell; you and I
decide firmly and finally what climbs to standard status
based on what we buy.
Think about music: standards (or "classics" or "golden
oldies," depending on your musical tastes) exist
because people buy, hum, and whistle Irving Berlin (or
Beethoven or Bob Dylan).
Composers wrote symphonies for a specific orchestra
until about the 1 600s. Then violin makers began to
generally agree on the size, shape and tone of the
various stringed instruments. As instrument
standards became widespread, a symphony could be
played by any orchestra. If you like the software
products Lotus puts out, you can have a SYMPHONY
if you own an IBM PC, but have to settle for less
substantial JAZZ on the Apple Macintosh.
Enough of strained analogies. Ask a wholesale grocer
what his inventory problems would be without the
standard Universal Product Code legends that appear
on every can, bottle or box at your market; how a
banker would stay sane if every bank had come up
with its own method for encoding checks instead of
agreeing on the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition
symbols that grace the bottom of your checks.
So far, most personal computer standards are
particular to specific machines (see the chart on page
21 3). The industry is growing and maturing at a robust
pace and we're still at the stage where software
"compositions" are written for specific orchestrations
of hardware. We might see the beginnings of
software written for a variety of systems soon, but not
yet. For the next one or two years, most programs will
still run on only one class of system. And that's the
scope of this section.
Anything beyond that time-frame gets into technology
assessment (a.k.a. "guesswork") that's best left to
Madame Olga's Palm Reading Parlor. If you have
trouble figuring the future of this business, take heart.
It tends to be just as confusing to "experts" who
predicted events like the sale of 500,000 PCjrs
(before the machine ever appeared on the market with
unconsidered deficiencies like its original "chiclet"
style keyboard).
To add another dimension to PC-watching, we've cast
the industry leaders as players In a neoclassical myth
(see page 21 6). This may not clarify anything, but it's
probably as useful as taking the industry seriously.
I'll predict that we are going to continue with a
multiplicity of equipment standards like the IBM PC,
the Macintosh, and the others shown on the chart,
plus the emergence of new ones —the Atari ST and
Commodore's Amiga, which may generate new
standards that complicate things; or operating
"environments" like GEM (pp. 1 68 and 21 8) and UNIX
(p. 1 68) that are attempts to get away from
dependency on specific hardware.
212
Where Does All This Leave You?
This organization (and most others in the computer
advice business) keep belaboring the point that a
computer isn't worth a damn without software. It's true.
We focus on standard machines that have collected a
wealth of software options. That means they continue
to be valuable even though they aren't the latest
technology, a theory proven by the Apple II and IBM
PC. Standard machines also serve as benchmarks —
to measure the Inevitable flood of new hardware
against. You can test whether a new machine offers
enough advantages to make it worth a year or two of
predictable software deprivation.
To make best use of these standards, think about
your primary use for a computer: to run a small
business, as an educational tool, to write with or draw
charts. Note the word "primary" and expect to make
some compromises, since nearly all of us wind up
using a personal computer for more things than we
Initially expect.
A few software products have become standards:
they have attracted large groups of buyers (meaning
help can be found if you run into problems) and a
wealth of supplementary products that expand their
standalone value. That doesn't make them better than
other programs (I hate WORDSTAR, p. 56, and don't
have much use for 1 -2-3, p. 68, or AUTOCAD, p.1 35)
but their widespread use gives them an added dimen-
sion and we've included these standards on the chart.
Standards, then, are yardsticks. Use them to measure
both the products on the market now and new ones
as they emerge. Even if you decide to buy a non-
standard system, you need to know what you may be
giving up. One of the most common laments in
computerdom is "I wish I knew that before I bought my
f--':S'iS?^^Stf&!
Pretenders to the Throne
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The IBM PC — Hard to Go Wrong
The Apple II was the first long-term success in
personal computers. IBM's PC founded the second
(and strongest) reign in the PC business when it
brought large organizations into the market. Things
have never been the same since.
It's easy to discount the importance of large-scale
buyers but they have an immense impact on what is
available for sale even at a neighborhood computer
store. Big companies and government agencies (big
by definition) have overwhelmingly selected IBM and
compatible machines as the choice for personal
computing. That riles a lot of people who view IBM as
a juggernaut out to crush the little guy. But it doesn't
change the facts.
Corporate America's affection for a PC built by the
same monolith that made their mainframe computers
has caused software developers to concentrate on
the PC/MS-DOS standard — see page 1 4 for an
explanation of this standard.
The result is critically important: the widest selection
of word processing, spreadsheeting, data managing
and other business-like software that has ever
accumulated for any other computer. If you use a
personal computer for business you need to explore
this universe of software.
PC/MS-DOS is an example of why some standards
endure while others fade. While IBM was developing a
hardware family (the original PC, the hard-disk XT, ill-
fated jr, and now the AT), the operating system was
evolving in step. PC-DOS (IBM's proprietary version
STANPARDS IM THE REAL WORJ-D;
One IVIan's Computer Family
RICHARD DALTON: My first personal computer was a
Kaypro II, bought in 1 982. At that time the Kaypro was
a market leader, aflag carrierforthe CP/M operating
system standard. The Kaypro functioned flawlessly
for a year, grinding out yards of text plus name and
address files and a spreadsheet or two.
I got itchy about the limits of my CP/M software
though, and started scratching around for
replacements. By then, 1 6-bit computers like the IBM
PC were rolling full-speed ahead. Software written for
this more accommodating equipment set-up was
clearly superior (quality and certainly quantity-wise)
than what was available forthe still-useful 8-bit Kaypro.
I've never been a big booster for IBM. They control
too large a part of the computer industry, which can
stifle creativity from smaller companies afraid to joust
with the Big Blue Monolith. So I bought a Leading
Edge PC: faster and cheaper than IBM's version and
adhering to the "IBM standard."
That was the theory. In practice, there were certain
kinds of IBM PC programs that wouldn't run right away
on the Leading Edge and some kinds of hardware add-
ons didnl work. That wouldn't bother everyone, but
since I do a lot of hardware and software evaluation,
my irritation level kept increasing.
That's the standards problem in a nutshell. You trade
off between innovative, often cheaper options and
the original, less valuable standard-bearer.
You've already guessed the latest chapter of this saga
— I swapped the Leading Edge for a pure vanilla IBM
PC. Perhaps not the most courageous of moves, but
how much excitement (or frustration) do you want to
inject in your day-to-day business operations?
TE 213
of the standard) has been through six major changes
from version 1 .0 to 3.1 . Version 4.0, with its own new
tricks including the ability to run a number of programs
at one time, should appear late this year.
The collection of PC/MS-DOS software has been
upgraded as hardware and operating systems
improved with relatively little effort. This kind of
"upward compatibility," while an imperfect process, is a
sound survival tactic in a changing technological world
and a key item shoppers should look for.
MICHAEL J. MILLER: Even the wildly successful IBM
PC class of machines looks like it's about to be
replaced by a new breed of machines that runs most
old programs but also does more (including the IBM
PC AT, Compaq 286 series, Kaypro 286i and the
Texas Instruments Business-Pro),
RICHARD DALTON: The AT appears to have
escaped its early production problems and is poised
to become the new force behind this standard.
Initially, a significant minority of programs written for
the PC wouldn't run on AT equipment, but software
publishers have quickly moved to adapt their offerings
to this more powerful machine.
Price is always a concern. At one time, PC-compatible
computers were fairly expensive, but as strong
competitors like Compaq, Tandy, and Zenith
emerged, and the standard expanded to include
newer machines like the AT, the almost-4-year-old PC
has become a commodity item.
Vendors like Apricot (with their new F1 system) and
Tandy (see page 17) have already slipped below the
$1 ,000 base price level. I don't think anyone will be
successfully selling a basic PC/MS-DOS computer for
more than $1 ,000 by the start of 1 986. That makes
this powerful, software-laden system price competitive
with the Apple II and considerably cheaper than the
Macintosh. Think about it.
When the long-anticipated PC II (probably a smaller
version of the AT) arrives, the bottom will drop out of
pricing for the original PCs, making them a spectacular
value.
These are such compelling advantages for the person
looking at a business microcomputer, I'm tempted to
blurt out "buy an IBM PC or a clone and forget all the
rest." Instead, I'll waffle with a rebuttable presumption:
prove to yourself that a PC/MS-DOS system isn't your
best choice before selecting another kind of machine.
PC INDUSTRY STANDARDS
Buying standard hardware can give you a greater selection of software; standard software offers a
greater degree of mutual support and supplementary programs; standard peripherals are the easiest kind
to connect to most systems. All of them together can ease the chore of shopping and the evaluation of
new equipment or programs as they come on the market.
^Staneiarci?
Large Business
Small Business
Multi-user
Home
Education
Portable
Operating Environment
Analyzing
Drawing
Managing
Telecommunicating
Writing
Organizing
Other
Modems
Ptotters
Printers
Floppy Disk
Hard Disk
Display - mono
Display - color
Printer Port
Serial Port
System
System
System
System
System
System
Software
Software
Software
Software
Software
Software
Software
Software
Peripheral
Peripheral
Peripheral
Peripheral
Peripheral
Peripheral
Peripheral
Peripheral
Peripheral
Standard Bearer
IBM PC
Apple 11
Unix
Commodore 64
Apple II
Tandy 100
Command-driven
1-2-3A/isiCalc
MacPaint/AutoCad
AppleWorks
XMODEM
WordStar
dBase ll/ill
None close
Hayes
HPGL
Epson
5-1/4"
5-1/4"
Hercules
IBM Color
Centronics Para
RS-232C
leijipejtitors"
IBM PC AT/Compaq
IBM PC/Macintosh/Kaypro
None close
Apple ll/AtarlXBMSX
Tandy/IBM PC
None close
Object-driven
None close
None close
None close
X.25/X.PC
AppleWriter/Word/
DisplayWrite
RBase
None close
None close
None close
Diablo 630/IBM Graphics
3-1/2"
3-1/2" /8"
IBM Mono
Plantronics/EGA/
80-column card (Apple)
RS-232C
None close
214 UPDATE
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CHARLES SPEZZANO, Ph.D.: As a student of
Freudian psychoanalysis, I've discovered that training
standards are the only way for any of us to have an
identity within the profession. But these standards
also become rigid criteria used by one group to control
the careers and identities of others and to create a
tight economic guild that keeps many good people
outside. This isn't peculiar to psychoanalysis.
Standards are a double-edged sword wherever they
exist, including the personal computer marketplace.
When I started looking around for my first computer
late In 1 981 , what struck me was the obvious battle
between Apple and IBM over which would set the
compatibility standard for the field. Apple eventually
lost. Maybe if they had won with the Apple II, we
wouldn't have the Macintosh now— winners don't
come out with many real innovations to improve on
what's already working for them.
IBM's contribution to the field was a system with
enough memory for programs like 1-2-3 (p. 68), a
keyboard that sits on your lap so you can nap during
writer's block and a standard that dominated things
enough so owners of compatible machines could
have their pick of the best software around. I don't
expect much more from them for a while.
Apple II Forever?
Apple has been on an even longer roll than the IBM
PC with their II series — moving through the "+" to the
"e" and "c" models. In computer terms, the II is a near-
antique with its 8-year-old, 8-bit processor, relatively
slow internal speeds and tiny disk drives.
So why do they continue to sell so well? The major
part of the answer Is, again, software — 8 years' worth.
Unless you've been living in a remote Aleut Indian
village, you've heard how VISICALC on the Apple II
(with a self-evident analogue of paper spreadsheets)
made computers comprehensible to hundreds of
thousands of small business operators. And there's
Apple ll's pre-eminence in the education field.
VINCENT STECKLINE: What keeps Apple anchored
In the elementary and high school is the weight of
software already purchased. Buying a newer, faster
system would mean making a lot of software obsolete.
Also, most teachers are now comfortable with the He.
ROBERT D. ARMS: If IBM PC prices become the
same as the Apple ll's, I would still recommend Apple.
It is easier to learn, especially for the non-programmer,
and there are many readily accessible programs
available for general-purpose family use. The PC is
much more of a programmer's and business person's
computer. Each has its purpose: home/family =
Apple; business/programming = IBM PC.
RICHARD DALTON: The II family boils down to either
the "c" or "enhanced e" models. My recommendation
is the lie, updated with MOUSE TEXT and double-
high-resolution graphics since our review {see page
1 6) was written. This makes both the lie and lie
functionally similar and the lie lets you add new
features more easily as they are announced. The He's
"closed architecture" is easier to set up and use
initially but you can't expand it.
This ability to enhance your original purchase is
important by itself, as you only discover a computer's
possibilities as you use it — often leading to more
memory, disks and other requirements. It's doubly
important with this system as Apple Is due to
announce memory expansion to as much as 1 .5
megabytes for the He which, in turn, will encourage
software developers to write more sophisticated and
useful programs.
Apple seems committed to its slogan "Apple II
forever." An on-going flow of products, including new
3-1/2" disk drives with 4 times the capacity of current
drives and software upgrades will help to preserve the
Apple ll's value. A much-discussed new processor
that provides both 8-bit and 1 6-bit capabilities may
finally make an appearance this year, as well.
Will the Real Macintosh Please Stand Up?
Macintosh — half a leap forward; half a step backward.
On one hand it's an admirable effort to open the
personal computer experience to people who have
no interest In technology, just results.
On the ever-present other hand are frustrations
resulting in part from the problems any new system
has (imperfect design concepts, inadequate software)
and partly from constitutional difficulties (slow opera-
tions, primarily) that may never completely resolve.
The most critical deficiency — available software — is
beginning to resolve. Mac's flashy operating environ-
ment that attracts so much consumer attention turned
out to be a major hazard for the first year or so of its
existence. Experienced software publishers like
Lotus and Microsoft found that it took much more time
than expected to learn how to deal with the Macintosh
internals. Almost two years down the road, however,
the software pipeline Is rapidly filling with a breadth of
applications.
Mac has largely escaped its initial Yuppie Toy desig-
nation with the appearance of solid business
programs. Microsoft has produced a spectrum of com-
petent programs topped by WORD (p. 60), Mac's first
full-featured writing tool, and EXCEL, a startlingly swift
and facile financial modeling program due for release
In September.
215
Lotus's JAZZ and Paladin's CRUNCH are already
available and should help convince the number-
intensive types that Mac is for real. Excellent data
management programs abound for the system,
utilizing Mac's elegant graphics and windowing
capabilities fully — see pages 78 to 93 for specific
recommendations.
Writing on a Mac remains painful as far as I'm
concerned. There are only two real word processors
available and the keyboard is (cough)... uh, lousy.
Playing Editor Steven Levy is a staunch Macintosh
advocate, a columnist for Popular Computing and
contributorto numerous publications. I admired the
objectivity in his respwDnse to my calling the Mac's
ability as writing tool into question. Steven's mes-
sage, sent electronically, was titled: "SIGH/ANOTHER
DEFENSE OF THE MAC."
STEVEN LEVY: I find the Mac's screen resolution not
only easy to read, but a constant delight. Phosphor
letters always bothered me. The Mac screen is one of
the best features of the computer. I think keyboards
are a matter of taste. Personally, I love the Mac
keyboard — better than the PC, the Apple 1 1 or any
typewriter keyboard I can think of.
Slowness is a problem. I sometimes use a RAMdisk,
but often don't bother. The hard disk alternative
speeds things considerably, but as of now, it's not
cost effective. The new ROM might also help.
Still, I find it a great writer's tool. I would appreciate it
even more if I used drawings in my text or merged
more text into databases. The real power of the Mac is
that it's so damned easy to move things from one
program to another, no matter who wrote the program.
Six months ago I wouldn't have recommended Mac to
another writer. Now I think every writer considering a
PC should play with the IBM (or some other good MS-
DOS 1 00% compatible) and then spend some time
with the Macintosh. A matter of personal choice.
RICHARD DALTON: A reasonable approach for the
Mac-interested would be to wait. Prices have drifted
down for Mac gear, but as Steven notes, things like
hard disks remain expensive. You can now tie a 1 0-
megabyte hard disk onto an IBM PC for less than
$500. Mac hard disks cost at least twice that much.
Market pressures should change that if Mac continues
to sell in volume.
There is much speculation about a new Mac version.
Generally, prognosticators view this SuperMac as
having a faster processor, capacity for more memory
(perhaps as much as 2 megabytes), a larger,
detachable screen and slots for expansion boards. If
this comes to pass, prices for the current Mac models
will drop. These enhancements and maybe some
new software (plus the potentialities of the new Atari
ST and Commodore Amiga) point toward patience.
Portability —
Do You Need to Take It With You?
Closest thing to a standard in portable computing is
the humble, utilitarian Radio Shack Model 1 00. It's dirt
cheap and lovable for its sturdy performance on the
road. I use one primarily as a lightweight terminal and
business trip note-taker.
Beyond the Model 1 00, there's only a sprinkling of
public support. Hewlett-Packard's powerful 1 1
portable has sold reasonably well and should do even
better as the machine has been upgraded recently to
a full size (80 character x 25 line) screen while the
base price was reduced $700.
Screens are a major issue — maybe the issue— with
portables. LCDs are favored by manufacturers
because of their low cost and power consumption and
they're devilishly hard to read in other than perfect
lighting conditions. Recently, there has been a
movement toward LCD screens that are back-lit,
providing much better viewing. Morrow Computer's
new Pivot portable is a standout in this emerging
category.
WOODY LISWOOD: Have found a winner in the PC
portable market, the Morrow Pivot. It works, has two
disk drives and a back-lit LCD screen you can read in
any and all lighting conditions. I have tested all my PC
business software and it runs fine.
RICHARD DALTON: Gas Plasma screens are now
appearing on Ericsson Information Systems' portable
and a new Grid Systems unit. These provide good
viewing characteristics and direct compatibility with
IBM graphics software but are still somewhat
expensive and draw too much power for battery
operation. If using a portable away from an electrical
plug and purchase price aren't major considerations,
give them a look.
Technology is moving fast In screen displays, low-
power memory systems and data storage devices.
The next two years will produce much better portable
systems than are now available. If you don't have a
screeching need for portability, I'd recommend you
get a solid, fast desktop computer, supplement that
with a cheap option like the Model 1 00 if necessary,
and await future developments.
216
MYTHS OF PEBSONfAL CO
If you get frustrated by the gyrations of the PC
industry and techno-babble that acxiompanies it,
perhaps an excursion into mythology will help. After
all. this business has its share of heroes, villains and
kingdoms, noble and base behavior.
The map shows the mythical world of Microtopia. Most
of the landscape is occupied by the powerful IBM
Empire called Intelandia, which is ruled by a
succession of leaders known as The Great Blue One,
an ancient tribal honorific. Proconsul Ethridge, a
recent ruler of PCDom, has been exiled to the Isle of
Son'ows with the twin pretenders to the throne:
Junioricusthe Deformed and his sister, Portabuliathe
Obese. Muscular AT-tica has become standard-
bearer for the region.
The Empire maintains its hegemony by weight of its
marketing legions stationed in Corporatium, the
Empire's spiritual and economic heartland. Merce-
naries deployed at the fringe of the empire spread fear
in the hearts of enemies while the obedient Subju-
gated Territories produce weapons for the never-
ending wars. In Communicalia, pioneering forces
push forward the frontiers. If all else fails, the Empire
will fall back to its impregnable Mainframe Bastions.
Applonia is Intelandia's strongest rival. Powerful Clan
Macintosh makes persistent forays across the Straits
of Icon seeking to penetrate the Empire's Corporatium
stronghold. After many unsuccessful encounters, an
uneasy taice exists.
Applonia's defensive strengths lie, however, in the
Land of the II Old Ones where learning, not brute
strength, is the ethic. It is a dangerous time for
Applonia. Newly crowned John the Skull has ordered
deposed Prince Stephen to meditate on his future at
Lisa's Grave, causing a rift with the subjects loyal to the
Prince.
The smaller kingdoms of Atarii and Commodoric have
for many years been content to sit in their homes.
Recently aroused, they constructed frightening new
weapons and the drums began to beat, lead by Atarii
Chieftain Jack the Boisterous. Attacks are surely
expected on Clan Macintosh. Perhaps ambition will
carry them to the shores of the Empire itself.
The Unlxim wait patiently on their small isle, ruled by
the Crone of Telephony. Theirs is a war of attrition,
relying on the others to wear each other down. The
Crone appears nearly ready to cross The Great Gulf
and assault the Empire through its thinly defended
Comunicalia frontiers. Rumors persist about an
alliance with Applonia. The Crone has great reserves
to draw on, yet seems addled by her years of isolation.
Minstrels pass freely among these kingdoms singing
"someday the Empire must fall." The minstrels have
been wrong before.
— Richard Dalton
1 1 1,1 1 , D ii g ii
The
Mythical
World
of
Microtopia
Bit-mapped by
Jay Kinney
from the original
by Richard Dalton
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7 /
COMMODORE AND ATARI
Home Systems May Never be the Same
Atari and Commodore have been locked in a struggle
to be kingpin of computing In the American home for
some time. Apples and IBM PCs find their ways into
many homes, to be sure, but Atari and Commodore
are the home specialists and have sold millions of
machines to prove it — perhaps as many as three
million Commodore 64s alone.
Now that the C-64 and the Atari 600/800/1 200
standards are waning (little new software; fewer new
peripherals), the death knell may be sounded by each
company's new generation system: the Commodore
Amiga and Atari ST.
ERICK WUJIK: The old Atari computers are entering
the "fire sale" point of economic life. Sears cleared
out a bunch of stuff this weekend. I picked up an Atari
800XL ($69.88), an 800 ($69.95), a beat-up floor
model 800XL ($29.95) and a couple of 1 050 disk
drives ($69.95 each).
RICHARD DALTON: Once again in tock-step, both
companies are bringing out their new efforts at the
same time with striking similarities. Excellent graphics,
smooth animation and sound are the hallmarks of both
the Amiga and ST. Either machine will (with any help
from the software community) make current computer
games look a bit silly. Amiga seems to have the early
edge in technical specifications; the ST In price.
It's far too soon to draw any conclusions about these
systems except a presumption that they will both
appeal more to the adventurer than the grizzled
business type for a while. If that sounds similar to the
Macintosh experience, it should. Like the Macintosh,
the Amiga and the ST have proprietary operating
systems. Quick translation: software written for any
other standard will have to be rewritten for either the
Amiga or the ST.
Keep an eye focused on these sparicling neophytes.
The trend is decidedly toward machines that commun-
icate graphically, and as the graphics bandwidth
widens, new types of applications become possible,
just like they have on the Macintosh. These machines
are in the vanguard of that movement. Pray for tots of
software — soon.
COMMODORE AMIGA
ATARI ST
ENVIRONMENTAL iMiAGTS-l
How Many things Can You
Most people's experiences with operating systems
are less than jolly, since they usually start with
command-driven types. ProDOS for the Apple II,
Radio Shack's TRSDOS, CP/M (the first "universal
standard" in op systems) and PC/MS-DOS are all
command-driven operating systems:
The computer displays a "prompt" that looks
something like:
A>
You respond with a command that tells the
computer to do a specific task:
A>DIR
In this example, the computer would list all the files
housed on the disk in drive A.
This doesn't seem all that difficult to experienced
microcomputer operators, but then, they tend to
forget how confusing those dozens of different
commands were when they were first exploring their
machines.
Command-driven operating systems, if you're willing
to invest the time mounting their steep learning curve,
are quick and efficient but they remain a significant
barrier to many people, especially those who like the
idea of a computer as a tool but aren't excited by the
technology itself — and these make up the majority of
the potential buyers.
Recognizing this, microcomputer makers have been
wori<ing toward operating systems (operating
"environment" is the current term) that show pictures
of the various objects you use and manipulate to get a
job done. For want of a better term, we'll call these
object-driven.
We now enter the raging conflict being contested by
the biggest names in micocomputer hardware and
218 upa
software: the fight to becx)me the operating
environment in the numerically most significant part of
the PC l3usiness. Since object-oriented environments
are based on pictures ("icons" if you insist), it's
appropriate that we show you two of the leading con-
tenders below. Digital Research's GEM (p. 1 68) and
Microsoft's long-awaited and still unreleased (to the
general public, anyway) WINDOWS.
The other leading contender is IBM's TOPVIEW.
looked at by many as a Trojan horse that will lead to
IBM announcing their own operating system, based
on the substantial resources contained (but not yet
Implemented) within the program.
These programs have the same goal (to make it easier
to live with a PC) but they differ in how they go about
this task. To check out how they compare, peruse the
folfowing table. Some definitions first:
Multi-Tasking -just like it sounds. The environment
allows you to have more than one program executing
at the same time.
Bit-mapped - if you've seen the Macintosh, this is
easy. Otherwise, you need to know that bit-mapped
displays are constructed one dot at a time, allowing
much greater flexibility in graphics and text fonts. The
IBM PC under current versions of DOS (3.1 and lower)
displays a single type of text character or graphics.
You can create variable characters in graphics mode,
but they tend to look funky.
Windows - the real point of all this stuff. Allows you
to can/e up your screen into a number of mini-displays
showing different informatbn ~ a disk directory in one,
WORDSTAR In another, a cfock showing the time of
day in athird. for example. MICROSOFT WINDOWS is
the first environment with "tiling." This means the
windows displayed butt up against each other instead
of overlapping. You dont obscure information with
the overlap but you may have to juggle windows more
to get an adequate-sized view of your data.
Memory - the amount required for the environment
Restope Erase Save
Hhite
Gray
pha Copy Delete Edit Fop»at Gallery Help
ppt JuHp Library Hawe Options Print Quit
i>lace Transfer Undo Uindou
Lt< *ay Kiristic reasoning is reasoning not
Stripes jgarded as final and strict kt as
IJstripesWvisional and plausiMe only, ytese
— iPtirpose is to discover the solution of tk
iPresent yroMen, He are often obliged to
■use heuristic reasoning, He shall attain
IcoHplete certainty when we shall have
iobtained the coNpIete solution, but before
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satisfied with a wore or less plausible
■guess, He Ray need the provisional before
• we attain the final.
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Feature:
GEM
WINDOWS TOPVIEW
Multi-Tasking? NO YES YES
Bit-mapped? YES YES NO
Windows Overlap Tiling Overlap
Memory (approx.) 1 1 0K 1 28K* 1 70K
Price $50 $99* $149
* Estimated values. MICROSOFT WINDOWS has not been
released as of this writing.
MICROSOFT WINDOWS
itself. Remember you have to consider the overhead
for your operating system as well. Any memory left
over can be used to run programs.
Some things become quickly clear. If you want multi-
tasking, forget GEM for now. If a bit-mapped display is
important, TOPVIEW can't qualify at present and isn't a
good choice if you're anxious to conserve either
memory or cash.
The bad news is that all three lack an essential
ingredient at present: software modified to take full
advantage of the features that make environments
worthwhile. These include the ability to cut and paste
from one file to another and, for MICROSOFT
WINDOWS and TOPVIEW, conformity to the
environment's internal requirements so that one
application can mn concurrently with another.
A major race is on to get software publishers to modify
their programs while each environment's vendor is
trying to convince the PC business that it will be the
king of the hill.
It's hard to recommend any of these environments
until that contest shakes out a bit. Also, each of them
is deficient in some way (generally, they operate
slowly and tend to freeze up at odd moments), a
situation that will improve as new versions and clone-
software reaches the consumer.
Dynamical Systems Inc. (Berkeley, CA) is developing
a TOPVIEW lookalike that will cost less and use only
about 64K memory. Quarterdeck Office Systems is
modifying their first generation environment, DESQ,
to be TOPVIEW-compatible while bwering its price. A
new oufit. Matrix Software Technology, has a package
called Synergy that runs alongside TOPVIEW, adds
bit-mapped graphics, and occupies only 12K of
memory.
SHARON RUFENER: What GEM and TOPVIEW and
WINDOWS are really saying is that a new generation of
operating systems is needed. Which means we'll be
seeing just that in a year or so.
2i O
GEM
PAUL E. SCHINDLER, JR: When I first began using a
computer, it was an 8-bit machine a friend sold me.
Since he was a bug on the OASIS operating system,
that was what I used. I was cut off from ail CP/M
software, but that was okay because all I needed was a
word processor and BASIC, since I liked to write my
own programs.
OASIS, to this day, is the world's finest microcomputer
operating system, and a better environment to dev-
elop software in than most minicomputers offer. Soft-
ware written under OASIS can be transferred to more
computers than with either GP/M or PC/MS-DOS.
But the two small companies that market OASIS don't
have the muscle to make it a standard. There are
about as many application programs written for OASIS
each year as there are written for PC/MS-DOS each
day and the latter are usually cheaper and more
flexible. I finally bought an MS-DOS computer
because I got tired of writing my own programs.
UNIX - A Means to Share PC Resources
RICHARD DALTON: UNIX Is a big, cumbersome
operating system, beloved by programmers because
of the wealth of utilities and features it offers. PC
users need to care about UNIX if they are interested in
having more than one person share a single
processor or have access to the same information.
UNIX is the only real standard in multi-user systems.
It's a bit of a curious standard however, as this com-
ment from the Yankee Group research organization
underscores: "Just as Bell Labs (home of UNIX) is
9.000 Ph.D.s connected by a parking lot, UNIX is al-
most 70 variations on a theme connected by a PR
firm."
That's overstated some, but there are numerous
options to complicate a UNIX quest. In micros, you can
get hold of AT&T's interesting new UNIX PC (p. 20)
which runs System V. Or you can outfit an IBM PC AT
with Xenix, a UNIX version from Microsoft that is sup-
posed to merge with System V in the future. Alterna-
tively, you can equip a PC with PC/IX, a form of UNIX III
Other UNIX mavens I know swear by Ber1<eley 4.2.
This complexity isn't the main problem. There is a
dearth of software that will run under UNIX and that
situation is likely to stay much the same until a volume
of UNIX machines is sold. Back to the chicken/egg
problem.
With all that said, UNIX still has a powerful pull.
Matthew McClure, the Whole Earth Software
Catalog's resident UNIX junkie and man in charge of
The WELL (p. 148), Point Foundation's electronic
network (UNIX-based), states his rationale:
MATTHEW MCCLURE: When work involves several
people's efforts, file-sharing becomes an important
facet of the computer tool. Local area networks are
one way to share files; multi-user operating systems
like UNIX are another.
I like the feeling of power over the machine UNIX gives
me. I can have several programs running at once, all
working towards one goal, or each a separate project.
I have electronic mail among project team members so
coordination can be faster and less cumbersome than
with paper and telephone.
At the Hackers' Conference we held last year, Brian
Howard made a strong case for providing kids with
what he called "adequate computational tools" — not
an Apple II or Commodore 64, but a full-blown UNIX
system. Brian had worked on a project that involved a
group of high school students who were given access
to a UNIX machine. They computerized the school's
record-keeping functions in the course of a school
year: attendance, grades, seating charts, etc. They
also came away with a firsthand appreciation of the
computer as a tool.
You need a lot of money and big disk storage capacity
to make effective use of UNIX. Fortunately, these
resources are getting cheaper by leaps and bounds.
My advice? If you need this kind of tool, spend the
money. If you can afford to wait until the prices come
down further and software choices improve — wait.
RICHARD DALTON: Additional incentives to wait:
future versions of PC/MS-DOS will almost surely in-
clude multi-tasking; many people are working to
bridge the UNIX/DOS gap with hardware and software
that allows UNIX to run PC/MS-DOS programs, yet
retain its ability to serve a number of people; even the
Macintosh is being talked about as a multi-user
machine if a more powerful processor is added to the
product line.
990
Finally, local area networ1<s are a realistic alternative to
a multi-user machine. Costs are dropping and they're
improving rapidly — both technically and in terms of
software support. LANs should get equal attention if
you're embarked on multi-user research.
::M<)i^|/!ililiiiiiiliii^
Each microprocessor used in a personal computer is
designed to address a finite number of bytes or
characters. The IBM PC's Intel 8088 processor, for
example, can address one million bytes. "Address" is
computerese for the maximum number of characters
the processor can directly look at before going to
other storage (like a disk) for more. When this
happens, the data in memory is replaced. You only
get to have so many bytes before you run out of room.
A vendor may restrict the maximum available memory
even further. Using the PC again, we find that IBM
has resen/ed 360K for its own use: to store part of the
BASIC language compiler, instructions that control the
writing of information to the display, and other internal
housekeeping routines.
Acting on IBM's specifications, Microsoft developed
the PC/MS-DOS operating system so it could address
a maximum of 640K. IBM's announcement came in an
era of 8-bit computers like the Apple II, TRS-80 and
various CP/M machines — all with 64K memory limits.
Few people understood what you could possibly do
with ail that open space.
Four years later IBM PC users are loading programs
each morning that remain memory resident, like
SIDEKICK (p. 1 14) and PROKEY (p. 174). PC DOS
itself has gotten more obese as it has evolved. Many
"power users" want RAM disks (a chunk of memory set
aside to avoid going to disk so often) or print spoolers
that let you move on to another job while printing
continues.
As we've just seen, the trend Is toward operating
environments, many of which will be able to execute
more than one program at a time. That's great and
potentially more productive, but only if you have
enough memory to house a number of programs and
datafiles— allatonce.
In the wings are programs that use elements of artificial
intelligence. These will help take the decision-making
burdens of personal computing off our backs, but
they will require even more memory than the simpler
kinds of programs currently on the market.
We're seeing the computer equivalent of the Blivet,
which we all recall is five pounds of something in a four-
pound bag.
Lotus and Intel got together recently and announced
a way out of this bind. They have come up with a
standard method to implement a technique called
"bank-switching" that swaps 64K pieces of programs
and files in and out of memory. This effectively fools
the computer into using up to 8 million bytes of
memory for programs and data. The impact of all this
swapping around on program execution speed is an
unknown quantity at this time.
As is often the case in the early stages of a standard,
however, everything is not rosy. To make use of the
Lotus/Intel bank-switching scheme, application
programs need to be modified to recognize what's
going on. Lotus, not surprisingly, has announced that
both its major products, 1-2-3 (p. 68) and SYMPHONY
(p. 1 1 1 ) will work with the scheme. Afew other
software vendors have made similar commitments.
Perhaps worse, a number of memory board
manufacturers like AST, Quadram and Thesys have
grumbled that the Lotus/Intel approach isn't the best
way to do bank-switching and have announced their
own "super-set" of the Lotus/Intel standard. Microsoft
has also been giving broad hints that PC/MS-DOS
version 4.0 will have a memory expansion technique
embedded in it— maybe compatible with Lotus/Intel,
maybe not.
One of the oldest computer gags is that you can
always tell the pioneers: they're the ones with arrows
in their backs. That's why I continually counsel caution
when dealing with a new development in this
business.
In this case, my cautionary goes something like this: if
you don't have a proven need to go beyond 640K.
wait at least until DOS 4.0 appears. Then you'll know
which direction the people behind your operating
system plan to go, and some reading should be
available about the number of programs that will be
adapted to bank-switching. Maybe IBM will have even
made \he\r commitment to a memory expansion
standard by then.
If your family name is Rockefeller, however, forget the
above, bad up your PC with pricey memory boards
and have some fun!
SOFWARE SlANDiRpf :
For reasons best left up to the psychologists,
numbers have done more for personal computers
than anything else. VISICALC was a minor social rage
when it was first released: a program that looked like
the columnar accounting pads most of us have
seen. VISICALC has been credited with selling more
than 100,000 Apple lis, all by its bnesome.
Then Lotus popped 1-2-3 forthe IBM PC. Omigod . . .
You not only had the familiar columns and rows, but
pie charts and graphs! Lotus has become a near-
$200 million company, largely on the strength of that
single concept.
In becoming the strongest current software standard,
1-2-3 has accumulated a wealth of support programs:
"templates" that enhance basic 1 -2-3 to handle
specific tasks like employee benefit calculations;
programs that improve the graphics; printing routines
that twist the spreadsheet sideways so you don't have
to glue separate sheets of 8-1/2 x 1 1 together to get
the complete picture.
You can hardly open your mailbox without being
assaulted by ads for yet another "1-2-3 Secrets
Seminar" or go to a PC users group that doesn't have
a subsection swapping arcane tricks for 1 -2-3
improvement.
The Achilles heel is Its popularity. Recently, Mosaic
Software announced TWIN, a 1 -2-3 actalike that is
purported (not in our hands at the time of this writing)
to do all the Lotus gyrations, read the same files,
produce better graphic output, and cost less ~ $1 45
vs. $495 for the original. That may sound like bad
bananas if you're a Lotus shareholder. It's positively
invigorating if you're a computer shopper with a need
for financial analysis. Other clones are sure to follow.
Ashton-Tate, another micro software pioneer, pulled
off a similar coup with their DBASE II {p. 85) data
management program. DBASE 11 was pre- emininent
but cranky; Ordinary Humans found It difficult to
understand. As other vendors (particularly Microrim,
parents of R:BASE, p. 87) began to encroach on
DBASE turf, Ashton-Tate wisely produced DBASE III
(p. 86), a simpler, yet just as powerful, data
manipulator. I have heard that the III version Is
currently accounting for 75 percent of organizing
software revenues. The standard continues.
Frankly, I don't understand the popularity of DBASE
ll/lll. Most people don't have anything more
complicated than their name and address book to
organize in the first place. So why go through the cost
($695) and tedium of learning fancy database
management? The organizing section of this book
has a number of simpler, more cost-effective answers
(pp. 78-93) for the casual user. And even simpler
solutions are appearing.
You can probably get Into a hairier argument about a
computer owner's favorite word processor than about
his or her alma mater. That theory applies doubly to
the more than one million people who use
WORDSTAR (p. 56). Avid WORDSTARites will
defend Its double- clutching, control-key commands,
and undeniable breadth of features to the near-death.
Doesn't matter: WORDSTAR remains the standard in
writing tools, although a number of newer (and some-
times simpler) programs are beginning to challenge its
status. WORDSTAR creates files like no one else's. If
you want to move these files to another program, you
generally need to translate it into a more commmon
format. It's a tribute to WORDSTAR'S popularity that
so many programs contain WORDSTAR-specific
translation routines.
Then there are hundreds of add-on programs to do
things like proportional spacing or juggle WORD-
STAR'S menus around, and clones like NEWWORD
(p. 56) that give you the original plus some new twists
for less money.
Apple II owners generally gravitate to APPLEWRITER,
a startlingly powerful word processor for a machine of
the H's dimensions, or they use the writing part of the
fine integrated system package APPLEWORKS
(p. 1 08), one of the hottest-selling programs on the
Apple or any other market. The WP part of APPLE-
WORKS isn't powerful, just simple and straight-
forward.
IliiifOMMUNliATING
ART KLEINER: The telecom standard is Hayes. I
suspect that a modem would have to be really good to
be recommendable if it Isn't Hayes-compatible, for
reasons of communications software compatibility.
Thus the success of Anchor's Volksmodem (p. 1 55),
the cheap Hayes-compatible.
XMODEM is sort of a file transmission default standard
(p. 156), but I don't see any candidates for replacing it
soon. It's slow and you can't see the text as you
transmit —so If it breaks off or snags, you don't see
where that took place in the file.
RICHARD DALTON: Modems are moving up from
1 200 to 2400 bits per second and the 300 bps
modem, so popular a couple of years ago, is being
somewhat squeezed by rapidly declining prices:
Cermetek recently announced a 1 200-bps, Hayes-
compatible unit for a hair below $200, the latest
example.
It'll take a while before 2400 bps Is all that useful,
however. Few commercial information services
support it yet and there are a number of different ways
to transmit at that higher speed. Manufacturers
haven't reached a consensus on which method to use
yet. You'll also encounter a greater number of
transmission errors at the higher speed.
222 UPDATE
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JACK POWERS: Standards are funny things. In the
electronics business, you'd think the ones carved in
stone and honed down to a gnat's eyelash would be
something you could take for granted, like getting
power when you plug in a toaster.
It turns out the reverse is often true. If your computer
has a connector for a modem or serial printer, it is
probably designated an "EIA RS-232." El A RS-232 is
a standard, published by the Electronic Industries
Association and very carefully written. Through no
fault of the EIA, claims of compatibility with this
standard should be taken with a grain of salt, a bit like
the term "high fidelity" . . . when you hear it, it's a clue
that the subject is somehow related to audio, but
that's about all.
There are so many ways that so-called RS-232
devices wind up incompatible with each other that a
whole industry has grown up to design and sell
matchmaker devices: from unisex connectors to
cables with logic that try to adapt to the devices on
either end. Equipment manufacturers have freely
adapted RS-232 to their whims and claims of
compatibility are almost meaningless.
RICHARD DALTON: Anyone who has tried to use an
RS-232 port to hook up a serial printer (as I did for an
entire week one time) will encourage, maybe plead
with you to buy a computer with a Centronics parallel
port and a matching printer. About the only standard
in serial devices is that they both have 25 paths to
carry signals or electrical current. What winds up on
each of those paths is wildly variable.
A Special Pr6bliiin|<^|ttirig Bigger
The entire field of computer-generated graphics is
presently in a state of upheaval. MACPAINT (p. 127),
the fovely concept that launched a hundred thousand
Macs, has become more of a classic than a standard.
Its use of a mouse to "pick up" paint cans, sprayers,
various sized brushes, and geometric shapes, flip
them around the screen and create Instant art is a
landmark in personal computing.
If you haven't tried MACPAINT or one of its copycats
(easy to do, since clones have been developed for
almost every computer), you haven't discovered an
Important dimension of the desktop computing
machine. Buy one of this genre even if you only use it
briefly as a concept-expanding device.
Graphics standards are hard to come by: the Apple II
has three graphics modes; the IBM PC started with
three, then added two recently (the Enhanced and
Professional Graphics Adapters) and a number of third
parties offer their own proprietary "standards"— most
prominently Hercules on the monochrome side of
things.
GEM and MICROSOFT WINDOWS have their own
standards and the Amiga offers another (the Atari ST
uses GEM). What's a software developer to do?
Follow his nose straight to the cash register, of
course, developing software for the standards that sell
best; adapting to other standards if there's time.
Even though standard color graphics on the IBM PC
are relatively wretched, hundreds of competent
graphics programs exist to exploit as much as
possible. I think the Enhanced Graphics Adapter
(p. 1 24), with its better-than-double improvement over
standard IBM color graphics, will finally take off. It's
slower than it should be and IBM will likely find a way to
correct that problem. The increase in the number of
programs announcing support of the Enhanced
Graphics Adapter has been striking in the last two
months.
If you want the output elegance a plotter can offer, the
decision's easy: get a plotter that Is 1 00 percent
compatible with Hewlett-Packard's Graphic Language
commands. HP has been a leader in the plotter field
for years and their HPGL is recognized by everyone.
Printers that spew out pie charts are a little trickier. We
cited two printer standards: the Epson and the Diablo
630 (p. 1 24). These are printers that show up more
frequently than any others on software menus used to
select printer options. The Diablo wont help much
with graphics as it is a typewriter-like device, but an
Epson or Epson-compatible should present no
problems to graphics programs.
Some items don't fit neatly in the standards categories
we established, leading to this unruly grab bag of likely
future events. One of the most exciting is optical
storage — reading and writing on a special disk
surface with a laser beam. The version that you only
read data from is called a Compact Disk - Read Only
Memory: CD-ROM to its friends.
223
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JAMES DEEN: As an aging draftsman in a world
increasingly populated with 15-year-olds who can do
amazing and productive things with computers, fear
set in. I had to have a computer-aided drafting system
to place myself in a position to compete with those
little job-robbers.
The IBM PC at home had plenty of potential, but
building it into a viable CAD system seemed a
prohibitive task. What hardware could I afford and was
it supported by the various CAD software programs? I
needed a software standard to build from, and after
much experimentation and many graphic trade shows,
settled on AUTOCAD (p. 1 35) .
It didn't end there. I still had to decide what graphics
card was affordable, had good graphic resolution, and
still provided software compatibility —other software
TOM HARGADON: A CD-ROM utilizes the same
technology as the popular audio compact disk,
providing up to 600 megabytes of read-only storage.
Like the audio CD, the information (digital, image or
voice) must be recorded and then recorded like a
phonograph record before It can be read.
The CD-ROM standard has been developed by
Philips and Sony. First uses are to store large
document files for businesses (a kind of super-
microfilm) and encyclopedias or atlases for home use.
Several legal and medical data bases will be available
on CD-ROM soon and next-generation computer
games are being developed by Spinnaker and others
for release early next year.
Prices for CD-ROMs are about $250-600 to
manufacturers; about double that at retail. Write-once
CD-ROMs should be available in 1 986 for about
$3,000. These are like tapes used for logging
transactions or large hard disk backup. Fully erasable
CD's, that work the same way hard disks do but not as
fast, should be out at a similar price the following year.
RICHARD DALTON: Atari has announced a $500, 540-
megabyte CD-ROM that may be available by the time
you read this. Plans are to also give it audio
capabilities, so you can listen to Mantovani when not
computing. IBM should have a CD-ROM on the
market by year-end with Apple not far behind.
|i||||i|G^Jrliiji|ij^i|2
Everyone wants to get past the training wheels stage
and start zipping down the hill with their electronic 1 0-
speed. Faster software is the cheapest, easiest way
to do it. If you've made solid software selections,
you're dealing with a company that regularly updates
their products — including their operating speed.
for word processing, databases, and accounting. And
I needed a matched monitor: it doesn't do much good
to buy a graphics card with 720 x 348 dot resolution
and hook it up to a monitor that can only reproduce
640 X 200. Standards and cross-standards.
There were many other decisions: which plotter (how
fast; how big a sheet of paper would I need); and
which digitizer; how to lace all the gear together with
the right cables. All this happened a piece at a time
with much trial and error and many forays into the
uncharted wilderness of the PC's insides. Tiny DIP
switches also had to be reset each time I added
something to the PC's gut or took something out.
In the end, I trust it was all worth the effort, although
I've yet to see dollar one come from all my labors. The
grim fact Is that drawing by computer is a lot slower
than drawing by hand, until you have built up a num-
ber of files from which you can pull repetitive drawings.
I wish someone had told me that to start with.
Some examples:
Writing programs seem unlikely candidates for speed-
up maneuvers as they largely sit around waiting forthe
next keystroke, yet they can have irritatingly slow
features. I use VOLKSWRITER DELUXE (p. 58)
regulariy. It's about as swift as word processing can
be, since text is all kept in memory. Still, it has slow
features, like loading and storing files.
The latest version (2.2) of VWD improves things
greatly. This article, for example, took only 15 sec-
onds to load vs. 29 seconds with version 2.1 . Similar
savings result when storing the file back on disk.
Other writing programs have similar speed improve-
ments: SAMNA WORD III, version 3.0 (400 percent
speed-up in some functions) and FREESTYLE, ver-
sion 1 .5 (claims 150 percent faster performance
overall.) None of these upgrades cost much, so the
time saved (or frustration avoided) pays dividends.
(Upgrades: SAMNA WORD III, $1 00; FREESTYLE,
$50.)
WOODY LISWOOD: If you have the 8087 co-proces-
sor on your PC and use 1 -2-3 for monster spread-
sheets and/or things like standard deviations, logs
and stuff, RECALC+ speeds things up zip-zip-zip.
The vendor claims it's 1 28 percent faster for standard
deviations and 3,689 percent faster for nested square
roots. A 400K spreadsheet of mine that uses took-
ups and simple math recalculated in 26 seconds and
took 48 seconds without RECALC+. (RECALC+: IBM
PC/XT/AT and compatibles; copy-protected? NO;
$95, 1-2-3 version; $149, SYMPHONY version; GNP
Development Corp., 1244 East Colorado Blvd.,
Pasadena, CA 91 1 06; 800/832-6467 or, in CA
800/633-8467.)
224 Ui
MATTHEW MC CLURE: I got a prerelease demo of
FRAMEWORK II today. Bigger spreadsheet; faster,
with all kinds of sorting. Overall, it looks like they took
Framework I {p. 110), made it quicker, and smoothed
the integration with the telecom package. Should be
available about October 1 .
RICHARD DALTON: Software Is at best, only half the
speed-up story. IBM's PC AT announcement caused
millions of users to question the speed of their PCs &
XTs. Enhanced processors (operating 2-3 times fas-
ter) have been available for some time on the Apple II.
Expect to see a fusion between processor
enhancement and the new memory expansion
standards over the next six months. This is being
pushed by even faster processors waiting in the
wings: a 80386 (note the "3") for the IBM PC series; a
16-bitterto hang on Apple lis; a faster, true 32-bit
processor for the Macintosh — plus Atari and
Commodore's fast, cheap machines.
cl:i'|iraiiiiilii|n|i|§
LOUIS JAFFE: Imagine creating a graphic on an IBM
PC and displaying it, without modification, on an Apple
II or a Macintosh. Software that permits this is based
on the NAPLPS standard — the acronym stands for
North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax, a
joint standard of the United States and Canada.
NAPLPS (pronounced "nap-lips") Is designed to
replace the aging ASCII standard used for text
communication. If you receive ASCII text on a
NAPLPS machine, it is directly readable and NAPLPS
allows new uses of the ASCI I character set. It adds
foreign language and scientific characters, font sizes,
block and high-resolution graphics and color, yet it
typically requires only 1/6 the disk space needed for a
"bit-mapped" file.
Support for NAPLPS is slowly growing in the
computer industry. Major companies like Boeing and
DEC have adopted the standard for their internal
communications. NAPLPS software exists for most
micros and soon, NAPLPS-on-a-chip will permit
building the standard into future equipment at low
cost. For the standard to really catch on will take
NAPLPS-based paint/chart programs, priced like and
as good as, MACPAINT (p. 127) and CHART MASTER
(P-129).
RICHARD DALTON: Some subtler, still-important
expectations: more use will be made of custom-
designed processors (like the ones that muscle
graphics and sound on the Commodore Amiga),
especially as computer-aided chip design improves;
the first of the RISC machines (Reduced Instruction
Set Computers) from the likes of IBM, HP and DEC,
will appear as hot engineering and scientific work-
stations; co-processors will become more evident,
allowing most any computer to utilize software written
for another; and 1 -megabit memory chips will open
new possibilities — like much improved portables.
The personal computer industry isn't through with in-
novation just because some standards have emerged -
they're building blocks that needn't be discarded as
the future unfolds. That's the standards lesson, and
It's a valuable one for each of us to remember as we try
to make sense of this significant new resource.
How This Update Was Produced
JAY KINNEY: The preceding 15 pages are the pro-
duct of a process that would have been impossible
even six months ago. The material was written and
compiled on an IBM PC (some reviews were down-
loaded from the EIES Network) and handed in on
disk. It was copy edited and uploaded with a Compaq
onto the WELL (p. 148). I downloaded it at home on
my 51 2K Macintosh, reformatted the copy with MAC-
WRITE, and "poured" It into PAGEMAKER, where I
typeset the text in 1 pt. Helvetica, embellished it with
boxes, hairlines, and screens, pasted in MACPAINT
drawings, and printed out the 1 5 pages on the Apple
LaserWriter at Krishna Copy In San Francisco. The
printouts were then pasted up on boards and photos
added. Considering all the steps along the way the
process went amazingly well, though not without
some surprises. (To list just two: what you see on
screen with PAGEMAKER —or with other Mac pro-
grams — is not always what the LaserWriter chooses
to print out. On charts, especially, the column tabs can
go astray between screen and print-out. Secondly,
the prerelease version of PAGEMAKER I used (v.993)
was still not quite bug-free and I had a close call when
my 15-page file crashed and trashed itself 20 minutes
before I was due to run off to print it out. Thank God I
had just made a backup copy shortly before.)
With 1 5 full pages (which took up over 1 35K of disk
space) PAGEMAKER was pretty well pushed to its
limits. One drawback of a file that size is that saves-to-
disk took over 5 minutes each time as the pages
mounted up. A file that size also required its own file
disk which meant that, even with two disk drives, I was
drawn into long bouts of disk swapping. On my last
night of work I wised up and split the file into two
smaller files which speeded things up nicely. Such
aspects aside, I found PAGEMAKER to be a generally
elegant, easy-to-use program with more capabilites
than other Mac desktop-publishing software such as
MACPUBLISHER and READY SET GO (p. 126). Its
arrival close to deadline both made this final Update
possible and prevented us from giving PAGEMAKER
even more review space. These pages are a quick
demo of its power. (PAGEMAKER: Version 1 .0;
Macintosh; 51 2K; external disk drive required; hard
disk recommended; copy-protected? YES; $495;
Aldus Corp., 61 6 First Ave., Suite 400, Seattle, WA
98104; 206/467-8165.)
Computers/reference
50
For new computer users these days the most daunting task is not learning how to
use the machine but shopping. Hence this book.
Stewart Brand, Editor in Chief
COMMENTS ON THE FIRST (1984-85) EDITION
OF THE WHOLE EARTH SOFTWARE CATALOG:
"If you own a computer or are thinking of owning a
computer, f cannot think of a better place to invest
$17.50 than in this book. "
—Peter Mc Williams, Author of The Personal
Computer Book; Syndicated column
. . . The same critical and comparative insight and
the same energetic mix of social iconoclasm and
philosophical hopefulness that distinguished [the
earlier Whole Earth Catalogs}. . . . The work remains
timely candid, explicit and informed Would-be
buyers will manifestly be repaid in full for using it. "
—Philip Morrison, Scientific American
reader who reads the '
Information. ...I
browsing that I found m
wanting a dozen programs. "
' will get rich in
so intoxicated by
my
Christopher Lehman-Haupt,
The New York Times
"For the sake of your sanity, buy this bookl It will
save you a lot of anxiety "
—Sheldon L Richman, Washington Times
"Unlike most people who write computer books
and magazines, Stewart Brand and his
collaborators haven't lost their command of that
great preprogramming language, English. They
write with grace and wit. "
—Adam Hochschild, Mother Jones
"The editorial team responsible for WESC reads like
a veritable Who's Who in computer journalism
The clarity and brio of the Whole Earth Software
Catalog are a source of endless joy . . . , but what
really makes WESC unique are two things that have
been in short supply since Calvin Coolidge left
office: candor and brevity "
—Larry McLain, Popuiar Computing
" The ultimate software guide, "
—Steven Levy, Roiling Stone
"The Whole Earth Software Catalog must be
considered the state of the art in the world of
software cataloguing. It is hard to Imagine that
another entry will combine the careful research, the
honest evaluation, the comparative depth, the
appealing visual design, and the welcome ease of
use. "
—Richard Dufour, Management Technoiogy
"Through anecdote and opinion WE^ intelligently
identifies the best of what's available."
—Robin Raskin, PC Magazine
"The Catalog is worth whatever it costs, not only for
the newcomer, but to anyone considering personal
computing changes or upgrading. "
—Data Processing Digest
"A gourmets guide to the electronic banquet"
—Bruce Shechter, Discover
uantum Press/Doubleday 1085
It
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30314 01750
2330 1
ISBN D-3fi5-E33Dl-=^
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