ftp.whtech.com/ftp.whtech.com.tar/ftp.whtech.com/articles/Sughrue/jotting1.txt

Text File | 2006-10-19 | 14KB | 388 lines

 .IF DSK3.C3
        JACK'S JOTTINGS

     by Jack Sughrue
     Box 459
     East Douglas, MA 01516

     It's been a long time between
 Jottings.  Almost a year ago I was in
 a car accident that resulted in lots
 of metal plates in my head to hold it
 together, and I'm still in the throes
 of recovery.  But I'm extraordinarily
 lucky: the EMTs were fast, the
 doctors incredible, the support from
 so many people (including my
 wonderful TI Family Worldwide) just
 unbelievable.  I want to thank all
 the ASGARD NEWS readers and all the
 other 99ers everywhere for their
 caring and support. It certainly made
 me a lot better a lot quicker.
     But while I was sitting on the
 sidelines cursing the tree that
 leaped out in front of my new car, I
 had ample opportunity to think about
 my TI and what it means to me and, I
 assume, to a lot of other people.
     Like the vast majority of the
 2 1/2 million purchasers, I wanted a
 toy.  Now we can SAY we wanted this
 machine for our businesses or for our
 professions or for our kids'
 education or for something specific
 (like wordprocessing or database
 activities).  But I truly think the
 majority of us purchasers wanted to
 play.  I don't mean games,
 necessarily.  I mean PLAY! Have a
 computer just for the FUN of it; for
 no particular reason, though we had
 to justify it to our spouces or
 parents or friends or kids by giving
 all the practical reasons why home
 computing with our 99s was essential
 "in this Electronic Age."  My biggest
 argument almost a decade ago when I
 couldn't think of any legitimate
 reason for my early (expensive)
 purchases was, simply, "We are almost
 into the 21st Century, for crying out
 loud!  Don't you realize that?" As if
 that were an answer to everything.
 It certainly was an effective
 deterrent to further discussion on
 the matter.
     Fun is why I still keep my TI.
     At work (I teach fifth grade.) we
 have Apple and IBM and TS machines.
 I also have a couple TIs.  The kids
 inevitably choose the TIs for their
 free computer time.  Sometimes the
 Apple, if there is something software
 specific they'd like to do.  Never
 the IBM.  The TSes they use strictly
 for wordprocessing.
 Why the TIs?
     More options, for one thing.
 They can load something up from tape
 (like Turtle Tracks or Square Pairs
 or Tiny Logo or any of the Moonbeam
 Software or piles of Jim Peterson's
 great educational/fun stuff or Romeo
 [still one of my favorites] or any
 number of excellent TAPE programs,
 including the Tunnel of Doom and
 Adventure tapes.  Or they can throw
 in a cartridge.  The kids love the
 robotic talk of the Spelling series.
 They never tire of Yahtzee or Othello
 or Video Chess.  They play the arcade
 cartridges like Parsec and Munchman
 and the educational modules like
 Reading Rally and Stargazer and the
 math series.  Or perform LOGO II
 activities for hours.  All of the
 above options (still available) are
 on the basic machine with tape
 recorder.  No disk drive.  (I have
 speech and a 32K sidecar on one
 machine, the P-Box and works on the
 other. Speech and 32 are not
 necessary for 99% of the good stuff
 on tape, though Extended BASIC is.)
     Besides the options of tape and
 module on the basic setup are the
 options to learn how to program and
 how to create programs.  The TI with
 so many built-in subprograms (CALL
 SOUND, CALL COLOR, etc.) and a
 powerful resident BASIC is easy to
 learn, particularly as TI provided so
 many simple, direct text and tape
 materials for learning how to use the
 machine.  So simple even adults can
 do it.
     There are still lots of
 commercial textware and tape software
 available.  In the latest Triton
 catalog, for example, the following
 are offered for UNDER $3!: BEST OF
 99er (with over 80 articles and
 massive amounts of type-in programs,
 still the best way to learn
 programming techniques); PROGRAMMER'S
 REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE TI-99/4A by
 Regena, the book I really grew on;
 COMPUTE'S FIRST BOOK OF TI GAMES,
 over 200 pages of dynamic
 programming; COMPUTE'S GUIDE TO
 TI-99/4A SOUND AND GRAPHICS, besides
 being extremely good at what the
 title says, it is loaded with
 programs; SAM'S TI-99/4A GAMES,
 includes 13 games, programming
 techniques, and a TAPE of all the
 programs; COMPUTE'S CREATING ARCADE
 GAMES FOR THE 99/4A, which provide
 additional programming techniques for
 the learner; and many more.
     I have all these books in my
 classroom and at home.  The kids at
 school and I still use them, still
 refer to them, still type in
 programs.
     So there are a pile of options on
 the TI that Apple and IBM do not
 provide for computer buffs seeking
 fun and learning and hobby
 opportunities.  Remember, if you turn
 on an Apple or an IBM there is
 nothing there.  Literally.  There are
 no tapes, no modules.  You have to
 pop in a disk to even get BASIC. Once
 you have BASIC, you don't have the
 efficiency of the TI.  Nor do you
 have the powerful speaking, coloring,
 character-making tools.  Nor do you
 have automatic numbering.  Nor
 resequencing.  Nor...
     These things we 99ers take for
 granted.
     Oh, I also forgot the other
 option, the only one that those other
 machines have: disk drives.  The TI
 has all kinds of disk controllers,
 including hard drive.  There are all
 kinds of artificial drives, too:
 Ramdisks, Supercarts, Zenoboard chips
 that make operation instantaneous and
 a joy.  Supercarts, of course, are
 not part of those others, either.
     But, apart from 40 megabyte hard
 drives and all the high-tech wizardry
 that can be a part of any TI
 upgrading (including the very
 powerful GENEVE), what about the
 normal, non-techie, fun-loving 99er?
 Once he or she decides there is a
 necessity to get into disk drives
 (and I don't think there needs to be
 for all the applications mentioned
 above and many more not mentioned),
 of course, another whole, large world
 opens up.  People with modems tell me
 that other TI worlds are out there to
 explore, too.  I'm quite overwhelmed
 with the one I got.  My imagination
 doesn't extend to what else is out
 there for our little machine.
     Don't get me wrong about disks: I
 would never want to go back to my
 pre-disk computing for a few good
 reasons: FUNNELWEB, PLUS!, ARCHIVER,
 DISK UTILITIES, TI PRINT SHOP (TIPS),
 MUGLOADER, MAX-RLE, DM-1000, to name
 a few.  All of the above are Fairware
 or Public Domain.  FUNNELWEB is an
 environment that includes the best
 version out of TI-Writer (with so
 many options not on ANY other version
 that it would be impossible to list).
 It also includes an Editor-Assembler
 version I prefer to the cartridge and
 loaders for Forth and C and
 supercarts, among other things. PLUS!
 is an additional environment I put
 together that, primarily, enhances
 wordprocessing, but includes so many
 other programs that it has gone way
 beyond.  ARCHIVER lets me store
 MASSIVE amounts of information on
 disks.  It also unloads such disks
 and does a pile of other functions.
 DISK UTILITIES is just what it says
 and is the best of all the disk
 utility disks I have encountered.
 TIPS lets you make banners, greeting
 cards, posters, etc. (slowly), but
 has provided the largest collection
 of graphic images (thousands) that
 have ever been put together for the
 TI.  All of these images can be
 converted to PAGEPRO and TI-ARTIST
 formats (see below) for a humongous
 library.  These images include fonts
 and frames as well as an alphabetical
 listing that prints out a huge text
 of pictures 40 to a page.  MUGLOADER
 gives you some fabulous menu options.
 It loads a screen menu which lets you
 create and print directories, load
 more menus, read text files, load E/A
 and XB programs, and more.  MAX-RLE
 loads graphics, colors them, prints
 them out, converts them from one form
 to another (GRAPHX to TI-ARTIST, for
 example).  DM-1000 is a super
 all-purpose disk manager (1000 times
 more useful than the disk manager
 cartridge, which may be how it got
 its name) that lets you manipulate
 disks and files in all kinds of ways,
 such as copy, move, format, delete,
 rename, protect, and so on.
     All of the above can be gotten
 from user groups worldwide.  Joining
 a user group is the best advice I
 would give anyone.  I can't imagine
 how limited my TI opportunities would
 be without a user group.  These can
 be joined through the mail.  I belong
 to a few, including one in Australia,
 and my local MUNCH group in
 Worcester, Massachusetts.  But all of
 the above Fairware and PD programs
 came from the Lima, Ohio group. (c/o
 Dr.^Charles Good, Box 647, Venedocia,
 OH 45894).  Membership there of $15 a
 year is a best buy, newsletter is
 excellent, disk and TAPE libraries
 are extensive (and free to members).
 But any group, particularly a local
 with monthly meetings, is almost
 essential to anyone with an urge to
 find new ways to enjoy our computer.
    Options are what we're talking
 about, and, while on the topic, I do
 not want to neglect the commercial
 enterprises that have provided me
 with more options and with lots of
 that good old fun, which keeps TI my
 computer of choice in a world full of
 such seriousness and intensity and
 downright hostility.
     Over all the years of writing
 columns about the 99, I have always
 voiced two major complaints: no good
 cribbage game and no decent
 Printshop-type software.  I complain
 no more.
 First, Arcade Action (4122 Glenway,
 Wawatosa, WI 53222) provides the best
 cribbage game you can imagine for the
 TI.  For all you cribbage freaks (and
 there are many, according to the
 letters I've received) you can send
 AA $7 and get rewarded instantly.
     Second, the Printshop-type
 software.  Broderbund made PS the
 single most-popular piece of software
 for any computer because it was 1)
 easy 2) fast and 3) gave professional
 results.  It also had lots of
 utilities and fonts and images.  It
 made banners and greeting cards and
 posters and (not very effectively)
 single-page thingies.
     So, what kind of commercial
 software is easy, fast, and gives
 professional results?  For me,
 PAGEPRO.  I have only the original
 naked version, but it was the dream
 of a computer lifetime for me.  It is
 easy.  It is fast.  The results are
 professional.  And it's WYSIWYG
 (pronounced "wizzywig" and means What
 You See Is What You Get)!  I
 understand the newer versions and the
 PP companions allow all kinds of
 things, including rotations for easy
 greeting-card making and a catalog
 function.  Sounds good.  But the
 original I have is perfect for
 newsletters, school publications
 (including those done entirely by
 students because of the ease of use),
 dramatic graphic letters, signs,
 posters, etc.  The various fonts are
 easy to load and can be loaded into
 the page during creation to change
 the entire page's fonts in one swoop,
 making it very easy to test the right
 font for the right occasion.  The
 graphics (Remember the thousands from
 TIPS?  Well, there is also a
 converter in PP to use ARTIST
 graphics for thousands more.  Also,
 there are PP compansions.) can be
 placed anywhere on a full page, can
 be surrounded by text of two sizes,
 two different fonts, anywhere on that
 same page, including right across
 graphics, and so on.  Except for the
 word processor itself (FUNNELWEB), I
 have found nothing so valuable to me
 as PAGEPRO.  I use it even to write
 letters now.
     Add to PP the latest TI-ARTIST
 PLUS (for the creation and
 manipulation of art work) and you'll
 have a very effective publishing
 system.  I have to add CSGD to that
 package for banners and labels,
 though I'm sure some of the utilities
 for PP and ARTIST will eventually
 permit these to operate out of the
 same systems.
     I used to use GRAPHX forever, but
 the latest ARTIST is preferable.
 Some friends of mine have written to
 me about PICASSO, but I have never
 seen any version of it to date.  It
 has been highly praised by all users.
     I found The Printer's Apprentice
 to difficult to work with, and I have
 not seen the Comprodine stuff, which
 I understand is excellent, also.
     The only other essential
 commercial item necessary to my
 limited computing is TI-BASE, the
 best data base I have ever used on
 this machine.  BASE and ARTIST are
 sold by Texaments, PICASSO and
 PAGEPRO by Asgard.
     Now let's say you really didn't
 need a large data base.  Just
 something simple, for a class list.
 Let's say you only needed a word
 processor for screen work (or you had
 a sidecar printer). And you liked
 playing good games or want to teach
 your grandchild subtraction.   And,
 let's say you were perfectly happy
 with very simple block graphics or
 LOGO for art work.  Well, all these
 things are still available in tape
 form.  Let's say you just want this
 machine for the simple pleasures of
 life.  Tapes, books of programs to
 type, cartridges all can be purchased
 (at a tiny price) or borrowed from
 user groups.
     We're back to where we started.
 A TI with a TV set and a tape
 recorder and a book or two and some
 new, inexpensive cartridges (XB is
 under $30, LOGO II under $15,
 Personal Record Keeping under $10,
 TI Invaders, MUNCHMAN, Parsec for
 under $3, for examples) can still do
 a lot more for you and your desire
 for fun and learning than any number
 of IBMs, ATs, IIGSes, BLFSPKs, or any
 other very expensive non-option.

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