larry1@slovax.WA.COM (larry1) (09/19/90)
I recently posted to the net with a question about software available for the Tandy 2000. Since then I have received many useful responses and combined with some extensive digging by me I have come up with an excellent group of software to work on the 2000. This is a general summary some the names have been left out (to protect the innocent of course) so if you want any particulars feel free to email me and I'll do my best. By the way, this is by no means a complete listing of what's available...only what I found. LDH ===================================================================== WORD PROCESSING Word Perfect 4.2 works nicely on the 2000 and is obviously not a shortcut when it comes to quality. I have not yet found a good down and dirty editor (besides EDLIN) to use but I am in the process of porting stevie (vi clone) to the 2000. If anyone knows if this has already been done let me know, PLEASE!!! SPREADSHEET I didn't look very long for a spreadsheet as I don't use one very often but Microsoft MultiPlan 3.0 works and in some peoples opinion is a very good program. Others might work but I stopped looking after I verified MultiPlan would work. COMMUNICATIONS This was the most important area to me and I have been looking for quite a while for a solution. I started by discovering the FOSSIL (F ido O pus S eadog S tandard I nterface L ayer) driver for the 2000 was available and thought that would solve my problems. The FOSSIL driver replaces BIOS int 14h functions with standardized routines for com I/O and is available for a variety of not-so- compatible-machines. I also had to find a comm package that supported the FOSSIL spec. I first tried GT PowerComm which apperars to be an incredible product but due to the fact that I only have 256k memory, the program was to big for my machine. If I ever find a memory upgrade kit I would like to try using it. I found that the generic version of MSKermit would, at the very least, work and give me a working com system but I wasn't satisfied. I then went through probably 15 or so comm packages that either didn't work with the fossil driver or used something other than BIOS to do screen I/O so it wouldn't appear on the screen or locked the machine up. I finally found a program called TinyTerm that had a source listing for writing FOSSIL compatible com programs and was small enough and friendly enough to work with the 2000. After a bit more looking I realized that with my memory limitations , I would have to modify the TinyTerm program to fit my needs, and along with MSKermit (for transfer) I now have the better part of a comm package that supports ansi and has 3 transfer protocols. If anyone is interested in this I will give you a copy for nothing, but the part that I didn't write might have limitations on it's distribution - I'm not sure. Its not completely polished yet so it will be a while before its available. I also found that the Opus BBS system works very well on the 2000 and I have been running it for a couple of days now and no problems yet... Of course one would expect Opus to be FOSSIL compatible since it's name is the 'O' in FOSSIL, but I was surprised to see it work in my limited memory. The manual does point out that some functions may not work if memory is running low but I haven't found them yet. It also states that some functions are not available under DOS 2.11 but again I haven't found those yet either. As soon as everything is in place I intend to reserve a section of the BBS for the Tandy 2000. GAMES I found a group of text based games that are written in basic and are not too bad. The are not compiled so the BASIC interpreter is needed to run them. I havn't had a chance to try yet but rouge should also work if there are any fans out there. A WORD ABOUT SUPPORT I am not always the greatest supporter of shareware products but I feel obligated to mention that alot of these programs are shareware products and I have this strange urge to pay the support cost because if it were not for a kind sole continuing support for the 2000 I would have been out of luck especially in the comm department. The FOSSIL driver in particular is a real beneficial product. I beleive that if this type of programming is not supported the programmers may just pack it up. Other programs that were suggested to me but I didn't test were: ---------------------------------------------------------------- Radio Shack Videotex LeScript for word processing SofTerm PC from Softronics pfs:file dBase II Smartcom framework mterm (com) MSword ========================================================================== Larry Hatfield | "Just cuz we're paranoid don't mean BDM International | they ain't after us" larry1@slovax.WA.COM | ==========================================================================
fzsitvay@techbook.com (Frank Zsitvay) (09/21/90)
In article <139@slovax.WA.COM> larry1@slovax.WA.COM (larry1) writes: > >WORD PROCESSING > >Word Perfect 4.2 works nicely on the 2000 and is obviously not >a shortcut when it comes to quality. I have not yet found a good >down and dirty editor (besides EDLIN) to use but I am in the process ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >of porting stevie (vi clone) to the 2000. If anyone knows if this has >already been done let me know, PLEASE!!! > a very good "down and dirty" editor is eric meyer's VDE. it's a sort-of wordstar emulator but has it's own host of features that, in my opinion, makes it much better than wordstar. i think he's up to version 1.54 in the ibm world. it runs on ibm clones and also can run on generic msdos machines that support ansi. >COMMUNICATIONS > >This was the most important area to me and I have been looking for >quite a while for a solution. I started by discovering the FOSSIL >(F ido O pus S eadog S tandard I nterface L ayer) driver for the >2000 was available and thought that would solve my problems. The >FOSSIL driver replaces BIOS int 14h functions with standardized >routines for com I/O and is available for a variety of not-so- >compatible-machines. I also had to find a comm package that >supported the FOSSIL spec. I first tried GT PowerComm which apperars >to be an incredible product but due to the fact that I only have 256k ^^^^ >memory, the program was to big for my machine. If I ever find a memory >upgrade kit I would like to try using it. I found that the generic you'll probably find that memory limit to be the biggest problem. you might be able to check the older computer centers in your area, see if they might have a 2000 memory sitting around. you could also check the classified ads in computer shopper. -- fzsitvay@techbook.COM - one of these days i'll get it right... Version 2 of anything is usually the version that works.