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***********/ /\ \********