psuvm%cjs@psuvax.UUCP (06/23/83)
Re: Compaq Query A friend of mine has a Compaq and is very pleased with it. I've used it a couple of times. The BIOS is a little defferent than the IBM PC, and I don't think there is any BASIC in ROM. Almost all software works. I have a BASIC program that looks for both monochrome and color adapter boards, and switches between them if you have both. It crashes the Compaq, which has one board for both high- resolution text and graphics. That's what you get for poking your bytes where they don't belong. Another program I have sets the size of the cursor by doing some BIOS interrupt calls. It works sporadically on the Compaq. They don't have a manual with their BIOS listing yet, but one is supposed to be available soon. Other programs with graphics, sound, etc., work fine. We've put an IBM async board in it and have run some communications programs without any problems. Interestingly, the Compaq boards are quite a bit taller than IBM boards. Since their video board does text equivalent to IBM's monochrome AND graphics equivalent to IBM's color adapter, I wanted to try it in a PC, but you would never get the cover back on the PC. By the way, the video board has RGB and composite video outs, and we find the Compaq handier for connecting to extra monitors at meetings than the PC. It seems constructed well. The 7 inch screen is quite usable -- as good as IBM's monochrome, but smaller. If I needed a transportable PC, I wouldn't hesitate getting the Compaq. We are hoping a local vendor will get some to sell at discount prices. The only negative points are: 1) it is not EXACTLY a PC, and there are a few things that don't work the same; and 2) Compaq seems a little slow to deliver some things, like a technical reference manual and DOS 2.0. (I booted PC-DOS 2.0 on it, and it seems to work fine.) My friend is running mostly CP/M-86 on it, but then there is no accounting for taste. There have been several reviews of the Compaq in recent PC magazines; these seemed to be fair appraisals. -- CJS@PSUVM on BITNET