jhs@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA (05/23/87)
The only 80-column upgrade I have had personal experience with is CDY's OMNIVIEW on the 800XL. That has worked very well for me, both for word processing (using CDY's OmniWriter, which is provided at no charge with OMNIVIEW) and for terminal emulation using CDY's OmniCom, for which I believe there is a small charge. I use these programs with a Magnavox amber "Computer Monitor 80", but formerly I used OMNIVIEW with an old Sylvania B&W TV set, and it was quite useable (though it's noticeably better on the monitor). I have not seen it on a color monitor, but I understand that you'd better use one which has a separate chroma signal input. The Commodore 1702 and 1802 monitors are, I believe, suitable. A color TV set would be out of the question unless you modified it and went directly into the NTSC demoduator with separate luminance and chroma signals, not exactly a beginner's project. I believe OMNIVIEW is available for the 800, and as I recall from a conversation with David Young many months ago, it comes on a board which also includes CDY's OMNIMON thrown in free just because that's the easiest way to install it in an 800. If that's correct, then you would be getting a pretty nifty resident debugger/disassembler along with your OMNIVIEW!!! For terminal emulation only, there is also the VT10SQ, which is a disk-based, Public Domain vt100 emulator. I used it for awhile before I got OmniCom, and it also gives a quite useable 80-column screen. In fact, it is based on the same software principle as OMNIVIEW, so you could get a very good idea of what OMNIVIEW would look like on your machine by obtaining a copy of VT10SQ. The OMNIVIEW rendition of the 80-column font is in my opinion, better designed so that the characters (especially the numerals) are "prettier" to look at and more legible than VT10SQ's font, but the basic resolution is the same. Either one looks best on a monochrome monitor, and with dark characters on a light background. (VT10SQ doesn't give you a choice on this, by the way.) OMNIVIEW of course costs a bit more, as it is a commercial product, but then again you get a word processor with it, which is, as far as I know, the ONLY 80-column word processor available for the Atari. Finally, OmniCom as a terminal emulator has a much more complete vt100 emulation than the VT10SQ -- it handles all the tricky graphics commands in a very satisfactory way, whereas VT10SQ prints things like "x" and "q" where there are supposed to be vertical and horizontal lines. Also, OmniCom has kermit and xmodem file transfer protocols as well as ASCII data capture and a Print Screen function. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention it, but the very annoying "ESC-this" and "ESC-that" which you have to use in VT10SQ to indicate keypad characters on the vt100 has been replaced in OmniCom with holding down the SELECT key with one hand while typing the keypad characters. I find this MUCH easier and faster, and it's very important to me because my favorite screen editor uses the keypad for just about everything, including cursor movements. Having used both OmniCom and VT10SQ, I'd say it is well worth it to buy OMNIVIEW and OmniCom (and get OmniWriter thrown in). Incidentally, if you are addicted to AtariWriter or Letter Perfect, I believe CDY will assist you in converting your version of those word processors to use OMNIVIEW's 80-column display capabilities. Patches for other word processors may also be available, but you will have to ask CDY for the latest details. I haven't seen the Atari 80-column product, but some who have seen an engineering prototype say it looks considerably better than the software-generated 80-column screens of the VT10SQ or OMNIVIEW. Then again, it is not yet available, despite being anounced nearly a year ago. If there were some assurance that it would become available within a few months, it might be worth waiting to take a look, but if you want to get "on the air" now, OMNIVIEW's the way to go. Besides, it costs quite a bit less, especially if you count the price of buying a new word processor. Speaking of which, does anyone know if there even IS an 80-column word processor to go with the Atari 80-column adaptor, and if so, what it will cost? -John Sangster / jhs@mitre-bedford.arpa