Big Blue Disk 16/bbd16.zip/DESK.TXT

Text File | 1987-11-18 | 9KB | 132 lines

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|D║ |5From the Editor's Desk |D║══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
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^C^1From the Editor's Desk
^Cby
^CDaniel Tobias

   ... Or maybe it should be "From the Editor's Disk"?  Anyway, this is a new
column which gives a quick overview of new products and developments in the
computer industry that have reached my desk.

   ^1Microlawyer^0, from Progressive Peripherals (464 Kalamath St., Denver, CO
80204; [phone]), won't replace your lawyer, but it might help you
generate the legal forms you need for personal or business use.  It consists of
a disk full of form templates ready to pop into your word processor to customize
for your own use.  A 218-page manual is included which explains what situations
the forms are intended to cover.  You are advised, however, to show any
resulting forms to your lawyer for approval; as written, they might not
necessarily comply with all state and local laws for your area.  For instance,
our own state of Louisiana has the strangest legal system in the country, the
only one based upon the Napoleonic Code, so that most such computerized legal
packages aren't applicable here without extensive modification.  However, this
package is still a good starting point to let you get an idea of what you need
to do before you start racking up legal fees.

   But maybe, rather than wishing to generate forms, you're simply fed up with
forms and all the other manifestations of bureaucrats.  In that case, Infocom's
new game, ^1Bureaucracy^0, is for you.  It's written by Douglas Adams, the master of
satirical fiction who wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the radio
show, TV show, book, and Infocom game).  Anyone familiar with the past work of
both Adams and Infocom can expect something special from this new game, and they
won't be disappointed.  I haven't quite solved it yet, but I've gotten through
the first few scenes (up to the part where you're aboard an airplane), and it's
really funny and challenging.  It's rather weird, but there is some internal
logic to it.  As usual for Infocom games, it comes with a bunch of clever props,
including a very humorous credit card application (be sure to read all the
carbon copies), and an ad for "Popular Paranoia" magazine. Like everything
Infocom has released before, it's great:  buy it!

   One person who has always been a consistent foe of bureaucracy, particularly
the concept of people being forced to do things in a particularly cumbersome way
because "the computer requires it," is Ted Nelson.  This industry maverick has
been working since 1960 on a visionary system he calls ^1Xanadu^0, which would
contain the entire expanding literary output of mankind in a vast network of
interlinked documents instantly accessible to anyone in the world, to which all
users would be free to add their own publicly-readable commentaries, linkages,
and cross-indices.  He maintains that computers will replace paper as our
primary means of storing and viewing information, once computer systems are
designed to meet the needs of the user, rather than the user being forced to
learn the ways of the computer as it is at present.  This system, which finally
exists in a prototype version (after 27 years of research and development) is
described in Nelson's book, ^1Literary Machines^0, a new edition of which has
just been released.  Write to Project Xanadu, 8480 Fredericksburg #138, San
Antonio, TX 78229 for more information.  If you enclose a donation of $2 or
more, you'll be placed on their mailing list.  Xanadu is also described in
Nelson's wider-ranging book, ^1Computer Lib^0.  The first edition of this was
self-published in 1974, but a new edition has just been released by Microsoft
Press.  (I haven't seen it yet, but will review it once I do.)  All of
Nelson's writings make fascinating reading, though his unconventional style
may take a bit of getting used to.  The concept of "hypertext" (non-sequential
text) which Nelson invented back in the 1960's is becoming a common buzzword
nowadays; perhaps some of his other far-out ideas will also come true now that
technology has finally caught up to him.

   It's "hacker" time:  Due to the special program of this issue being a
programming language, I'd like to bring up the subject of programming languages
here, with capsule reviews of those that I've been using, and announcements of
what's coming out in this area.

   Borland's Turbo line of languages deserves special mention.  I use ^1Turbo
^1Pascal^0 (version 3.0) extensively, and find it excellent.  (Our menu presenter,
and many other programs in past issues, are written in Turbo Pascal.)  Turbo
Pascal implements all of standard Pascal, but adds numerous extensions to get
around the sometimes infuriating limitations other Pascals usually have.  For
instance, you have full access to the machine through DOS interrupt calls,
inline machine language, peeks, pokes, ports, hexadecimal numbers, and pointer
arithmetic; this lets you do all kinds of hackerish stuff that is usually
forbidden by the overly paternalistic structure imposed by Pascal.  Turbo Pascal
has a very fast compiler, and a built-in editor with customizable commands.
Programs can be compiled as "standalone" executable files, or as "chain" files
that are runnable from another Turbo module.  All in all, it's a good package.
A new version (4.0) has just been released; we'll give you a review as soon as
we can get it.

   ^1Turbo BASIC^0 is a BASIC compiler with many of the same features and advantages
of Turbo Pascal.  It will work with standard BASICA programs, but if you write
programs in Turbo BASIC you can use lots of extra commands and structures, and
line numbers are optional.  However, we've found that programs compiled in Turbo
BASIC don't work on a PCjr.  The system locks up when keyboard input is
requested.  Perhaps Borland didn't think this orphan machine worth supporting.
At any rate, this one blemish is what forced us not to use Turbo BASIC for
compiling BIG BLUE DISK programs, since we still support the PCjr.  However, if
you don't use a PCjr, and don't care if your programs work on one, Turbo BASIC
may be the best choice for a BASIC compiler for your own personal use.

   ^1Turbo Prolog^0 has the same features as the other Turbo languages, plus some
new ones like windowing.  You can set up windows to have the source code up on
the screen while you run the program.  This is a very good environment to learn
the Prolog language, a powerful language suited for Artificial Intellegence
applications.  However, for actually writing serious applications it leaves
something to be desired, since programs of any complexity very rapidly fill all
memory and disk space.  A few years down the road, when everyone has computers
with megabytes of RAM and gigabytes of hard disk space, this may not be a
concern, but for now, this is still too wasteful.  A more compact, efficient
implementation of Prolog would be desirable for anyone wishing to implement
programs for serious use on present-day machines.

   We just received a review copy of ^1Turbo C^0.  I haven't really got a chance
to do an extensive test of it, but what I've seen so far looks pretty good.  It
has all the good features of the other Turbo languages, plus some more; each
successive Turbo language release seems to have a few more bells and whistles.
C has traditionally been the choice of "hackers" due to its facilities to get
down to machine level.  However, the other Turbo languages also do much of this.
Meanwhile, Turbo C adds some structure elements, so Borland is helping make
Pascal and C meet in the middle, with structure and hackerisms at once.  Turbo C
programs appear to run well on a PCjr, so you may be seeing some programs in
this language on future issues of BIG BLUE DISK.

   I hear a new version (4.0) of Microsoft ^1QuickBASIC^0 is about to be released;
I'll review it as soon as we get it.  It sounds pretty good.  We use QuickBASIC
3.0 for our compiled BASIC programs here.  It has generally worked well, though
a few bugs have turned up.  One thing I don't like is that QuickBASIC generally
requires that COMMAND.COM be reloaded when a program exits, which can be a pain
on single-drive systems.  This is what necessitates the "RETURN30.EXE" file on
BIG BLUE DISK, so that it can prompt you in a friendly manner for your master
disk if necessary.  The Turbo languages usually don't require the reloading of
COMMAND.COM.  QuickBASIC 4.0 is supposed to be a complete rewrite, so I'm
waiting to see if it's different from 3.0 in areas such as this.

   Well, that's all I've got room for this month; see you later.