haar%gmr.csnet@brl-tgr.ARPA (12/17/84)
There was message on INFO-CPM last week from Chuck (last name?) suggesting and ideal CP/M environment. His selection did not agree with my own preferences so I thought a counter-suggestion might be useful. How about a general discussion of pros & cons of particular choices? 1) I use CP/M Plus in preference over CP/M 2.2 or ZCPR. It is a big improvement in speed over 2.2 in a floppy-only environment and should run like a bandit with a RAM disk. The RSX capability of CP/M Plus provides expansion possibilities that have not been touched yet. The only advantage I see in ZCPR is the named directories. TURBODOS is a good alternative in a multi-processor system. 2) For my money, the MAC/RMAC/LINK/SID(or ZSID) combination is hard to beat for assemby language development. I haven't used the SLR Systems package so I cannot comment about it. Anyone care to enlighten me? 3) PASCAL and Modula 2 - I don't use them so don't have a choice. 4) The BDS C compiler is one of the best around - close to UNIX C as well as being fast and cheap. It doesn't have FLOATs built in but an optional library package does provide this if you want it. 5) I use VEDIT for program editting and like it quite well. I haven't used MINCE but if it is a reasonable subset of EMACS, it should be a good choice also. For word processing editting, I use WORDSTAR. The only improvement I would ask for would be a capability for displaying italics, proportional spacing, etc. (if your display system can handle it) without generating a print version. There were a couple of categories missing in the previous message: 6) a spelling checker - SPELLSTAR is a reasonable one to work with WORDSTAR 7) Database ? anything better than DBASE II ? 8) spreadsheet? CALCSTAR is no great shakes but is adequate. 9) For modem control, terminal emulation, and file transfer, I use MEX. I have used MODEM7, MDMxxx, TERM II, and some others, but MEX is by far the best - very reliable and it has a powerful command language. The new version (MEX 2.0) should be even better. The only other contender might be KERMIT, but I haven't tried it on a micro. 10) MicroShell was a neat product for the CP/M 2.2 environment but its capabilties have been for the most part included in CPM Plus. Is anyone working on a window-based replacement for the CCP ? 11) How about graphics utilities ? any suggestions ? DRI appears to have dropped GSX-80 as a product. One thing to notice in all this is the large amount of good software available in the public domain. This is what makes me think that CP/M is a fantastic environment. Bob Haar G.M. Research Labs [opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of G.M., etc.]