jafischer@watrose.UUCP (04/11/87)
ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1987.
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION.
CEBIT '87 ST REPORT: PART 3
WORD PROCESSORS, TOOLS &
MODEM SOFTWARE --ANTIC ONLINE EXCLUSIVE --
BY CHRISTIAN SCHMITZ-MOORMANN
APRIL 4, 1987
CEBIT '87 had plenty of Atari word processors to offer. DATA-Becker (their
products are sold by ABACUS in the US) presented their new BECKER-text, the new
version of TEXTOMAT ST (TEXTPRO). There are no more control-codes in the text
(WYSIWYG) and it features an indexing function as well as an automatic table of
contents. Graphics can be included and computation and tables are incorporated.
Most functions can be reached by either the mouse or a key combination. It
still has the C-Source option and now offers different fonts.
As usual DATA-Becker has produced several books, some of them are new
versions of old titles, and I found several addressing the 'professional'
programmer, who still can learn a lot from these books. Of course they have a
lot of books for beginners as well, but I don't know which books ABACUS will
publish and which are just for the German market.
Again, ATARI offered an alternative to the just described program. I'm
talking about the finally released '1st Word Plus'. This program cures most of
the errors and oddities of the original 1st Word and adds some nice new features
as well. It is going to be really difficult to make a choice between 1st Word
Plus and BECKER-text since both have nice features the competitor does not have
and as well there are still wishes I have for both.
A third text-editor which was not on the show, but has caused a lot of
noise is SIGNUM! which is retailed by Application Systems in Heidelberg.
SIGNUM! stands somewhere between a word-processor and a Desktop Publishing
system. It allows up to seven fonts of 128 characters each at the same time. A
character can be just about everything and an editor to create new
character-sets is included. SIGNUM! offers macros and very powerful placing
utilities. A reviewer called it a calligraphy-system. (Calligraphy is the art
of embellishing writing).
TOOLS
G-DATA, based in Dusseldorf, has been known over here for its quality
utility software. They have improved some of their old programs and added new
ones including a program to make a Hard disk capable of auto-booting and several
programs to make backups of a hard disk which has some nice features including
data-compression, and file size of more than disk size.
The most powerful tool for disk-repair and editing is T.L.D.U. by FOCUS.
This firm has made disk-monitors for years. T.L.D.U is fully programmable and
the disk comes with some example-macros which offer a good way to learn the
necessary commands. The programming language is veryC-like. The current
release does not read or write some copy-protected disks, but an update has been
promised for June. T.L.D.U. also includes a disassembler and an extensive
manual.
KUMA presented its late releases of K- SWITCH and K-RESOURCE.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Finally there is some movement in the German mailbox and telecommunication
community. Some good programs were at the show. DELUXE-Term supports GEM and
is somewhat equal in comfort to FLASH, but it is possible to use 1200/75 baud
which is necessary for BILDSCHIRMTEXT, the German version of VIDEO-TEXT
services.
Another program, again offered by ATARI themselves, is 1st Terminal, that
is completely GEM-based in conjunction with PROFIBOX, an excellent mailbox
program. It is even possible to select from the PROFIBOX menues using your
mouse when utilizing 1st Terminal.
Both programs, the box and the terminal program have been written by
Brain-Works from Rosenheim in Bavaria.
END OF CEBIT '87 ST REPORT - PART 3
--
- Jonathan Fischer (jafischer@watrose.UUCP)
or ...watmath!watrose!jafischer