ROSSID@Wharton-10@sri-unix (06/21/82)
Wharton has been off the net for a while, so I have not yet
caught up with what's been said, but I thought I might mention
a few WorkS related points of interest:
1. The Olivetti M-20 personal computer is another example of
reasonable (not great) hardware and NO software. The "high"
resolution graphics is about IBM PC level, the operating system
is PCOS (proprietary Olivetti), the primary working language is
CBASIC, and the word processing software (WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE,
not now) is a (slightly) modified WordStar. Yeeeeech. The
CPU is a Z8000, which might have had potential (sigh).
2. The Fortune is a bit cuter in terms of software (it sure seems
like full Unix when I fiddled with it), communications (3274/8
is announced for availablility this summer), and word processing
(Wang lookalike). They said they are reverse engineering
a Chromatics color graphics package, which I will see when it
is available.
3. The new Star software does speed up processing to the point that
it is now usable, but I still think (you listening Xerox guys?)
that there is NO need for things like sending mail to be done it
foreground, where it ties up the terminal for several minutes!
-Dave
p.s. if anything here is old hat, please delete it Mr. Moderator