mckay@pur-ee.UUCP (Dwight D McKay) (12/04/85)
[This article appears in the December, 1985 issue of CURRENT NOTES
(Vol. 5, No.10). Permission to reprint is granted provided that
CURRENT NOTES and the author are cited.]
ST World
========
by Joe Waters
COMDEX '85
A lot of potential ST owners have chosen to sit on the sidelines
waiting for the appearance of appropriate software before actually
jumping on the ST bandwagon. Well, friends, it looks like you can
now jump safely. Atari devoted its floor space at the massive,
seventh annual COMDEX (COMputer Dealer EXpo) almost entirely to
dispelling the notion that there is no software available for the new
520ST computer. I counted about three dozen different companies
proudly displaying their newly released (or soon to be released) ST
products. When Santa Clause brings that new ST for Christmas, your
biggest problem is not going to be finding programs, it's going to be
deciding which software to buy!
I am writing this column while COMDEX is still in progress
(CURRENT NOTES is already late in getting to the printer) so the
whole story of this year's show isn't complete yet. In addition, I
simply don't have the space to cover in any detail all the companies
and programs that were on display. So let me just pass on some
general observations and a quick overview of some of the products I
was particularly impressed with.
The thrust of ST development work is centering on the ST as a
personal productivity machine. Although there were some delightful
new entertainment programs being shown, these were in the minority.
Programmers will find an abundance of computer languages and
programming aids. Business users will find many variants of their
standard tools (word processors, spreadsheets, and databases). Other
professional users, such as accounts, engineers, architects, etc,
will be delighted to see software coming out with their specific
needs in mind. The ST is simply too powerful to be used only for
entertainment.
Not all ST products are being released by bright young
programmers seeking to make their fortune. A very large number of
programs are being introduced by mature software companies that are
porting their programs over to the ST or developing whole new
programs to take advantage of the ST's unique features. You still
won't see some of the higher-priced companies from the IBM world
(Lotus, Ashton-Tate, Microsoft, etc.) rushing to put their programs
on the ST -- the lower prices required to sell in the ST market would
have a detrimental impact on the pricing structure employed in the
profitable MS-DOS market. But you can expect the firms that have
pioneered low prices in the IBM world, such as Borland International
and DAC Software, to release ST versions of their products and do
quite well.
So much for generalities. Just what was there? Here are some
highlights.
SPREADSHEETS. The long awaited VIP Professional had finally
shipped the week before COMDEX and was proudly on display with
finished packages ready to go. Dan Nelson, the product manager for
VIP, tried to show me the great manual provided with this LOTUS
look-a-like, but I wasn't particularly interested. The manual may,
indeed, be better than the one provided by Lotus but the fact that
VIP was code-compatible with 1-2-3 meant that I, like many other
users, simply won't need a manual. Just boot up the program, and
once in the familiar 1-2-3 setting, simply start working. IBM users
may find an additional bonus. It was the speed of execution which
helped propel 1-2-3 ahead of the competition in the IBM world. Dan
claimed that VIP on the ST was not only compatible with Lotus, but
faster!
VIP wasn't the only spreadsheet available. Kuma Computers
Limited was demonstrating A-CALC which will be marketed by Antic.
The Kuma rep claimed that only a final round of quality assurance
testing, was needed before the program was officially released.
Integrated Packages. Two other spreadsheet programs were
announced as part of integrated packages. Rising Star announced
seven modules for the ST: RSI Spreadsheet, RSI Graphs (business
graphics), RSI Draw (computer-aided design), RSI Paint, RSI
Scheduler, and RSI Music (single track MIDI sequence recorder). The
music program provided attendees with audio entertainment as they
surveyed RSI's products. RSI has been a major developer of software
for the Epson line of computers.
The other integrated package, called SoftPac, was introduced by
Softronics Computer Systems, a major producer and marketer of
vertical market software for the IBM PC and other computers. Besides
the spreadsheet program (SoftCalc), SoftPac includes a word processor
(SoftWrite), database management (SoftBase), communications
(SoftComm), and computer aided design (SoftDraw). Steve Hansen, the
president of Softronics, told me that, the day before the show
opened, a distributor purchased 60,000 copies of the package. At
least somebody expects a lot of STs to showup in the marketplace!
DATABASE PROGRAMS. AtariSoft and Stoneware jointly introduced a
new (as yet unnamed) filing system for the ST. Some readers may
recognize Stoneware as the company that produces DB Master, a
high-performance database management system in the MS-DOS market.
Stanley Crane, the author of DB Master, gave me a quick demo of the
Atari filer. He had a sample mailing list database of 1,000 names
indexed on the last name. Gee, that was getting close to the size of
the database CURRENT NOTES has to contend with. I asked him to sort
the database on the zip code field -- a task that would take SynFile
on the 800 about an hour (I'm guessing here since I long ago gave up
trying to maintain our mailing list in SynFile). On a COMPAQ with a
hard disk using dBASE III, the sort takes a little over two and a
half minutes. On the ST? I had to ask Stan to sort it twice since I
wasn't paying enough attention the first time -- it only took 2.5
seconds! Obviously, everything was done in RAM and so there is a
limit to the size of database the program can handle, but I was
impressed nonetheless.
Interested in a more powerful, but still user-friendly database
package? Paul Heckel, author of The Elements of Friendly Software
Design, and president of QuickView Systems was demonstrating a new
"software metaphor" called ZOOMRACKS. This product is really a
database management system in disguise. Picture a rack of cards,
such as at a time-clock when workers have to punch in and out. You
can only see the first line of each card, but if you pull the card
out, you will see much more information. That is the concept upon
which Zoomracks is built. Move your cursor down to a name and click.
Now you see the entire card. To give Paul a little test, I asked him
to reindex a sample mailing list database, where cards were listed by
last name, to a list based on the state code. The state code was on
the fourth line of the card mixed in an alphanumeric filed with a
city, i.e. "Las Vegas, NV". Guess what. Paul was able to build a
macro on the fly that split off the state abbreviation from the city,
moved it to a separate, newly created field, repeated this process on
the entire database, and then sorted on that field. Wow! This
simple rack concept has much more power in the product than a first
glance would reveal.
You say you have already spent two years becoming familiar with
dBASE II and aren't interested in learning another database program.
Lucky you. You have several options on the ST. Holmes & Duckworth
were showing the current version of H & D Base (to be released in
mid-December). H & D Base is command file compatible with dBASE II.
If you know dBASE, just boot up this program and start working; all
your dBASE commands will work just as they did on your CP/M or MS-DOS
system. (If your are a developer, you have an added bonus. Since H
& D Base is merely an extension of the H & D Forth language system
under which it was developed, the full range of unique Atari 520ST
capabilities, including windows, menus, dialog boxes, etc. is
available. Your dBASE programs can tap into the GEM environment!
Owners of the ATR-8000 will love another option. You may
already have dBASE II running under CP/M on your ATR8000. No
problem. Just boot up the CP/M Emulator Program on your ST and now
you can run your entire CP/M library! (Of course you'll have to
transfer the programs to the ST's 3.5 inch disk format.) Not only
can you use the commands you are familiar with, you can use the same
program. The CP/M Emulator was not officially demonstrated at
COMDEX, but Frank Nagle, head of the Bay Area Atari Users Group,
managed to get a sneak preview from one of the Atari reps. Frank
said the program had no trouble booting up WordStar and running it,
in fact, running it faster than on his own native CP/M system!
Besides the above programs, and the ones announced in the
integrated packages, Hippo had already shipped Hippo Simple, a
"powerful, flexible and easy-to-use database," BMB CompuScience was
demonstrating The Manager, "a full-featured database manager with
on-screen forms and report writer", Regent Software announced Regent
Base, "a full function relational database program" available by
February, and OXXI Inc announced dbONE, another database program
claimed to be 100 percent compatible with dBASE II files.
WORD PROCESSORS. Several word processors were already out for
the ST before COMDEX. STWriter (no where visible at COMDEX) had been
released "free" by Atari and HabaWriter, by Haba, and Final Word, by
Mark of the Unicorn, were already on store shelves. I was able to
see HabaWriter for the first time at COMDEX and also saw a
demonstration of the new Regent Word as well as Regent Spell
programs. For those of you who like the what-you-see-is-what-you-get
word processors, this one's for you. In previewing text, not only
are boldface and underline shown in the preview, but elongated text
is actually shown on the screen in double width and both super- and
subscript are displayed just as they would appear on your paper.
Regent Word, written by the developers of Atariwriter and Atariwriter
Plus, also supports elongated, underlined etc. in their print
preview. Poor spellers in the audience will certainly appreciate
Regent Spell. Not only does it find the errant spelling (and show it
to you in context), but it will give you 10 suggested correct
spellings. It comes with a dictionary of 30,000 words which you can
expand to 60,000 words. Both Regent Word and Spell are available
now. And, finally, if you can't type as well as you'd like, you can
always pick up Typing Tutor (including Word Invaders) by Academy
Software to get your typing speed up to snuff.
Other word processors announced (although not necessarily
demonstrated) were PaperClip and HomePak by Batteries Included, Hippo
Word, Hippo Concept, and Hippo Spell by Hippopotamus, Word Whiz by
Oxxi Inc., SoftWrite by Softronics, First Word by GST, and Word
Processor by Spinnaker. For those interested in typesetting,
Typesetter ST was demonstrated by Xlent and Andra/ST, a document
processor for laser printers and FX80 compatibles, was announced by
TDI Software.
LANGUAGES. If you have an inclination to do some programming,
there will be more than enough langugages to choose from. Right now,
you can use Atari's development package (C and assembler), ST BASIC
(only recently released), or ST LOGO. Haba has released Hippo C and
the Dragon Group has 4xForth. At COMDEX, TDI was selling their
Modula-2/ST package, H & D were showing their Forth package, ANTIC
had the META Macro Assembler and was also demonstrating A-SEKA, a
68000 ram-resident assembler from KUMA, and Philon was showing their
basic interpreter, Henry, with a compiled version on the way.
Further C compilers are coming from GST and Lattice. Prolog will be
available from OSS and Fortran from Philon while Pascal programmers
will be able to choose among products from META, OSS, Philon,
Prospero, and TDI.
PROGRAMMING AIDS, such as ram disks and disk utilities were in
abundance from a variety of producers. MichTron in particular now
has a full scope of programming utilities including M-Disk (a ram
disk), Soft Spool (a printer spooler), Michtron Utilities (examine &
repair disk files), MI-Dupe (backup disks), and M-Copy (speed up disk
duplication). If you really like to examine, in detail, your disk
files, you're certainly in luck; you can now choose from the Disk
Doctor from Antic, Toolbox (Vol. One) from H & D, Disk Utilities from
Hippo, and Personal Diskit from OSS.
OTHER SOFTWARE. I wish I could go on about the rich variety of
new entertainment and speciality software introduced at COMDEX, but I
fear that if I tried, this issue of CURRENT NOTES would never get
finished. In the months ahead, we will have ample opportunity to
acquaint you with the best of each category.
HARDWARE. This was primarily a software show. Atari announced
no new hardware products. However, there were several companies
using Atari hard disk drives in their demonstrations. I was told
that these 20-megabyte hard disks were being shipped to developers
who had them on order. Indeed, the backlog of orders was just about
filled. Retail channels will see these 20-meg drives by the end of
the year. There will be no 10-meg drives, but a 30-meg drive may
also be available.
Atari has decided not to produce a color printer for the ST.
Why? Because Okidata had a color printer on display made
specifically for the ST. And the quality of the color pictures?
Certainly among the best I've seen produced anywhere! I was sorry I
had to leave before getting to the Okidata booth to ask some more
about this marvelous printer.
How about TOS in ROM? Neil Harris, publisher of Atari Explorer,
told me the operating system was set and that the program was going
out on Monday (November 25) for mass production. Developers would
get the ROMs very soon and retail channels would begin seeing the
ROMs appear before the end of the year. Early user group purchasers
were promised free upgrades to the operating system. Dave Duberman,
Atari User Group Coordinator, confirmed this and said he would be
sending the ROMs out when they became available.
There was a hot rumor just before the show that Atari would
introduce a laser-type printer (i.e. laser-quality output but using a
different technology), at a price less than $1,000. It was a nice
rumor, but there was no such printer there nor would anyone confirm
(or deny) the rumor. And, as you'll notice in the Antic report,
there were no CD-ROM players available from Atari -- so far Atari has
not found a supplier willing to sell the drive at the price Atari
wants.
AI on the ST. Before I close, I must mention a delightful
little program from Hippo that I received shortly before going to
COMDEX. It's called COMPUTER ALMANAC and if you want to impress your
friends with just how clever your ST is, you'll have to get this
program. While they watch in amazement, you sit at the keyboard and
ask your ST questions. Here is what a typical session might look
like (my questions are shown in italics to help distinguish them from
the Almanac's answers):
What time is it in Moscow?
It is Sunday, 5:01 AM in Moscow, Soviet Union when it is Saturday,
9:01 PM in Washington, District of Columbia.
Who won the 1980 Superbowl?
I didn't understand that.
Who won the 1980 Super Bowl?
The Oakland Raiders won against the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1980
Super Bowl (Jan. 1981), with a score of 27 to 10.
How many calories in an Apple?
There are 325 calories in 1 cup of apple or brown betty.There are 33
calories in 1 tbsp of apple butter.There are 410 calories in 1 piece
of apple pie.There are 96 calories in 1 med raw apple.There are 234
calories in 1 cup of dried apple.There are 117 calories in 1 cup
unsweetened apple juice.
What picture won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1971?
The French Connection won the Academy Award for Best Picture in
1971.
How far is it to Las Vegas?
Las Vegas, Nevada is 2084 miles from Washington, District of
Columbia.
How do you say "Hello" in Swahili?
"Hello" in English is "hujambo" in Swahili.
What is the area code for Reno?
The area code for Reno, Nevada is 702.
Who won the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1982?
The 1982 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was won by Aaron Klug of U.K.
Well, I think you get the idea. Use free form English questions and
the Almanac uses its own intelligence to interpret your question and
give you an answer. The Almanac has over 35,000 useful facts. You
could go on for quite some time asking a wide variety of questions
and getting appropriate answers. But beware! Don't give the
keyboard to your friends. It isn't that hard to stump the Almanac.
It can only answer questions about things it knows and the first
question coming from the peanut gallery is likely to be about
something it doesn't know! But it certainly does know a lot and you
can have loads of fun amazing your friends with Computer Almanac.