01659@AECLCR.BITNET (Greg Csullog) (09/26/89)
At last, I have a Portfolio in my hands; this is not vapourware! I posted the
following notice on my company CYBER and VAX system to describe what I know
about the little marvel so far.
The Portfolio arrived
Yesterday I received an Atari Portfolio, the first DOS/IBM-PC
<< hand-held>> computer. It is about the size of a VHS video
cassette. It has an 8 line by 40 character LCD display (screen
contrast control is through the keyboard).
The keyboard has 10 function keys, ctl and alt keys, home, pg up,
pg dn and end keys, keys that double as a numeric pad, arrow keys,
caps lock (with on screen status), tab and esc keys.
The "Atari" key is used to call up the resident, menu driven
applications manager. Resident applications can also be invoked
directly (e.g. "Atari" key + W invokes the spreadsheet program).
The following is a quick overview of some of Portfolio's features:
1. DOS extensions
- APP (parameters = /A /C /D /E /S /W)
a=address book
c=calculator
d=diary (full calendar with alarms)
e=text editor
s=setup (e.g. the RS232 port)
w=worksheet
- HELP (what every DOS should have had)
this lists DOS commands
- OFF (turns the Portfolio off)
- I/O redirection
e.g dir > dir.txt routes a directory listing to file
2. menu driven resident applications
- layered menus
- dialog boxes
- common f-key defs across apps
f1=command menu
f2=help
f3=clipboard
f4=undo
f5=toggle screen frame (shows time/date/status)
f6=reserved
f7 -> f10 app specific
common ctl/alt key functions
3. address book has a telephone dialer
- hold Portfolio up to a pulse dial phone and the tones
from Portfolio's speaker will dial the phone
4. diary has a full calendar for noting appointments each day
and for ringing alarms
5. spreadsheet that reads/writes 123 files (see fn list below)
- since the sheet has a subset of 123 fn, not all 123
sheets can be read in as-is. The 123 fn supported are:
ABS, ACOS, ASIN, ATAN, ATAN2, AVG, CHOOSE, COS, COUNT, DATE
DAY, ERR, EXP, FALSE, HLOOKUP, IF, INT, IRR, ISERR, ISNA
LOG, MAX, MIN, MOD, MONTH, NA, NPV, PI, PMT, PV, RAND
ROUND, SIN, SQRT, STD, SUM, TAN, TODAY, TRUE, VAR
VLOOKUP, YEAR
Anyone who crabs that NOT ALL 123 FN are supported should try
and use 20/20 on the VAX mainframe - it also lacks full 123
compatibility.
6. THE BATTERIES ARE INCLUDED !!!!!!!!!!!
There will be an informal Atari Users' Group meeting in Building
600 at 12:30 to 13:00 Fri Sept 29th to view the Portfolio. See you there!davodd@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Davodd Speakman) (09/27/89)
In article <8909261549.AA25844@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, 01659@AECLCR.BITNET (Greg Csullog) writes: > At last, I have a Portfolio in my hands; this is not vapourware! I posted the > following notice on my company CYBER and VAX system to describe what I know > about the little marvel so far. > So, what is a practical use for it??? > > 6. THE BATTERIES ARE INCLUDED !!!!!!!!!!! Ha, i liked that one. 8-) Davodd -- ---\ Davodd IS>>> David Alan Speakman ******\ \******** "Faster than ----\ 802 W Charles, Muncie IN 47305 ********\ \******** a speeding ----/\ *****************************************/ \******** lambda..." ---/ \ ****************davodd@bsu-cs***********/ /\ \********