desmond@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM (Ned Desmond) (02/22/90)
After reviewing a couple of integrated software comparison articles in recent PC Trades (Inforword 2/5 & PC Week 1/22), I'm condidering MS Works for PC 2.0 for use on my T1000SE. It seems to have everything I would need (Spreadsheet that can transfer to/from 1-2-3, good WP with preview, OK DB, Graphics, xmodem file xfr, VT100 emulation, spell check, and thesaurus). It is all on two 720K disks or one? T1000SE 1.4M disk. All for under $100, sounds too good to be true. Anyone ever tried it? Was there any room to actually do anything? with or without 1 or 2M RAM Disk? Experiences, ideas, ... post or e-mail, Thanx, Ned Desmond desmond@gvl.unisys.com
domeshek@crown.ils.nwu.edu (Eric Domeshek) (02/23/90)
> After reviewing a couple of integrated software comparison articles in recent > PC Trades (Inforword 2/5 & PC Week 1/22), I'm condidering MS Works for PC 2.0 > for use on my T1000SE. It seems to have everything I would need (Spreadsheet > that can transfer to/from 1-2-3, good WP with preview, OK DB, Graphics, > xmodem file xfr, VT100 emulation, spell check, and thesaurus). It is all on > two 720K disks or one? T1000SE 1.4M disk. All for under $100, sounds too > good to be true. I have recently been using MS-Works 2.0 on a Toshiba 1000 (not SE) with a 768K hard ram-disk. In that space, I can fit the Works program and it's extensive Help files (but not its tutorial lessons). I was not able to load the spell dictionary and thesaurus. I'm pretty sure that a single 1.4Meg floppy would hold the whole thing. Throwing away the help files, I can fit a general file-utility program, a version of Emacs and have lots of room for files too. The program itself is pretty nice, though I really haven't made extensive use of all its facilities. I wish my machine ran a bit faster (but of course the SE does). One complaint so far: I believe the COMM section offers vt52 and ANSI terminal support; ANSI is supposed to be like vt100, but GNU-EMACS on my office machine frequently munges the screen. Another glitch: saving just TEXT from the word processor and then sending that file as TEXT to my office machine hangs up; I believe this is because WORKS turns each paragraph into one long line and then something (a buffer somewhere in UNIX or its CAT command?) chokes on it. Still, all in all, a fun toy and a great buy. It should work very well on a 1000SE with 2 meg ram-disk. -Eric
phoenix@ms.uky.edu (R'ykandar Korra'ti) (02/23/90)
In article <4193@accuvax.nwu.edu> domeshek@crown.ils.nwu.edu (Eric Domeshek) writes: >The program itself is pretty nice, though I really haven't made extensive use >of all its facilities. I wish my machine ran a bit faster (but of course the >SE does). One complaint so far: I believe the COMM section offers vt52 and >ANSI terminal support; ANSI is supposed to be like vt100 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >-Eric Eric - Actually, yes and no. ANSI and the VT100 set are very similar, but have certain very important differences. VT100 has some commands that ANSI does not, and vice versa. Their common commands are plentiful enough so that you can >OFTEN< use one for the other (VT100 for ANSI is a better attempt than ANSI for VT100) but not always. For example; VT100 has no colour control commands, as the VT100 was a monochrome terminal. (Generally, however, the VT100 emulator will be kind enough to "eat" the colour codes for you so they don't show up on the screen. This does NOT apply to extended colour commands.) More importantly (and, I'd bet, causing the problems in your case: the VT100 had a command to delete a line anywhere on the screen, and move all lines below (if any) up one line. ANSI (in terms of the type of MS-DOS ANSI you mean - I think FULL ANSI might have such a command) does NOT support this. If you were on an ANSI terminal and the system sent this command, as it ould in EMACS, you would certainly get some strange results. Anyway, I suspect this is causing your problem. Try coming up with an ANSI termcap and see if things don't improve. - R'ykandar. -- | R'ykandar Korra'ti | Editor, LOW ORBIT | PLink: Skywise | CIS 72406,370 | | Elfinkind, Unite! | phoenix@ms.uky.edu | phoenix%ms.uky.edu@ukcc.bitnet |
markm@tekgen.BV.TEK.COM (Mark McPherson) (02/23/90)
Just picked up a T1000SE, looked around for an integrated SW package, and came to the same conclusion you did; so I'm typing this on the T1000 using the ANSI emulator in Works with VI. The thing works well enough as a VT100 emulator to let you read news, and that's the important thing. :-} Most all of it seems to fit on a single 1.4Mb floppy, including volumnious help files, spellcheck db and thesaurus. I'm pretty pleased (especially for the price) but haven't really exercised it yet, so your mileage may vary. Yeah, there's a communications package, a data base, a spreadsheet, and an alarm clock, plus some graphing capability for business. You can open multiple windows and re-enter DOS, but you won't have a lot of memory to play with on a stock T1000SE like I have. I like this machine. It's my first laptop, so I'm no doubt easily impressed. But it's a great toy. Cheers, Mark
billc%sextant@Sun.COM (Bill Courington) (02/25/90)
In article <564@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM> desmond@gvlv2.GVL.Unisys.COM (Ned Desmond) writes: >After reviewing a couple of integrated software comparison articles in recent >PC Trades (Inforword 2/5 & PC Week 1/22), I'm condidering MS Works for PC 2.0 >for use on my T1000SE. It seems to have everything I would need (Spreadsheet >that can transfer to/from 1-2-3, good WP with preview, OK DB, Graphics, >xmodem file xfr, VT100 emulation, spell check, and thesaurus). It is all on >two 720K disks or one? T1000SE 1.4M disk. I'm a happy T1000SE/Works user. The software comes on a bunch of disks with an install utility. It will all install on one 1.44mb floppy, but that doesn't leave you room for much else. I removed the thesaurus and dictionary and freed up ~400K. The T1000SE comes with a disk caching utility and it really speeds up Works operations like displaying menus. But a 128K cache doesn't leave you much of the memory above 640K to use as hard drive d:. Consequently, it's difficult to copy files... you don't have much space on drive d: to hold something copied from a friend's floppy. I end up reconfiguring out the disk cache for these operations, creating a bigger drive d:. Another meg of memory would be nice.... On the whole, the T1000SE with Works is a very nice arrangement for doing what 80% of people do 80% of the time. I think of it as the poor man's Portable Mac--except that it is a lot lighter.