Labels:text | screenshot | majorelle blue | electric blue OCR: Tempest v2.0 Desktop for DOS by Tony Curro Some readers complain about not being able to move files in DOS. Others like to use a menu program to tag files for copy or deletion. Many times I have come across readers who do the familiar, *.*, to delete. On quite a few occasions they have been in the root of their hard drive when they did this, with disastrouseresults, albeit one that could be recovered in most cases. I have been looking at a few Desktop programs for DOS. Norton Desktop for DOS, while nice, is large. It requires 8MB of hard disk space. It is, as Symantec states, "created for the DOS user to get a feel of Windows, and making the transition easier when they do move to the Windows environment." Some people just do not have the desire, need, or resources to make the switch. There is a small program out there called Tempest, which should fill your needs quite well. For starters, it comes with 2-5.25" and 1-3.5" disk. That's IT! Depending on your system, you would use either the 2 or the 1. The whole program installed requires under 1meg. of hard disk space. Yes, under ONE MEG! I have come across quite a few programs of late which do NOT have massive disk requirements. I believe in improvement, but sometimes, "bigger is not better." It just uses more valuable disk space. Installation of Tempest takes several seconds. Upon its opening you see a diretcory tree on the right, and the current directory with filenames in the center. For the size requirements of the program, you may think it will not do much, or it does not have features the "big boys" have. Well, you will be disappointed. Tempest, does have many of the features of the larger more powerful programs, aanda few different ways of doing things. Okay, I will admit that Tempest does NOT have the dozens of screen blankers of the others. It only has two; one with hearts, and the other with laser lines. How many of us actually sit there and watch the blanked screen? The key is screen blanking, and Tempest does that. It even allows you to insert a message, when using the hearts banaker, that will pop up every 15-30 seconds . Running , moving, copying, deleting all can be done very well with Tempest. The program allows you to place a file that you run right on the desktop. So if you always use QMODEM, you just switch to that directory, click the . EXE file, and drag it to the bottom of the screen. It will stay there after you quit. When you restart Tempest, it will be in place. A quick double-click on the icon, will sstartthe program, without having to wade through a menu or search the directory. Tempest has a column of icons on the right had side of the screen, which provide you with most of the aspects of the program. These buttons: Give Help, allow you to switch from copy/move mode, switch between icon/text view, File Info, Tree on/off, File Select, Trashcan, Windows arrangement. I will take you through these one at a time. The first needs not description. It gives you Help with the rogram . Copy Move select. This icon is two pages. Both are bright. When they are like that , ALL actions will be copy. If you click on the button, it dims the back page. Now everything you do will MOVE rather than copy. Icon/Text switch. If you prefer to see the files and directories in text view rather than the icon view, click on this button. Tree. This turns the directory tree on and off. When it is off you have more room for your drive windows. File Select. Here you would andile or group of files, to do with as you wish. The program recognizes the # wildcard, and also the ?, which is a single character replacement. Trashcan. Delete files and WHOLE directories. Just highlight the filename or directory you wish to remove, and double-click on the Trashcan icon. You will be asked to verify this action. Windows Arrange. You can have up to 4 drive windows open at one time. This allows to set them up to suit how you wish to see them. Tempest comes with a clock, and a bulit-in notepad, for jotting down quick notes. The program will remember where you last were, and the cursor will be at that location the next time you pop up notepad. There is also a file viewer, for viewing files in text or hexadecimal. You can cis ableusing the built-in text editor, or even using TED, which is provided. Tempest has the ability to start a program by association. So if all your . DOC files are created with WordPerfect, once you associated them, every time you click on a file with the .DOC extension, WordPerfect will run and open that file. Tempest comes with an Icon Editor, which allows to capture icons created with other programs. All icons can be changed for any program or file. Usithatis program you can create your own icon resource files. I came across two things which I did not like. One is, that while there are several different color palettes, you cal wnot preview them. You must select it and then return to the program to see what it looks like. Would like to see a little preview window with this. My other problem concerned my Bernoulli drives. If I have no disks in them, I get a readfine. Iffrom Tempest on each drive. Clicking on Abort, continues Tempest on its way, and it runs fine. If I have disks inserted in these drives, I do not have this problem. I also have this problem when using Norton Desktop for DOS. Abacus assures me they will look into this. I have omitted one item. Many, myself included, hate to wade through large manuals. Some do require advanced knowledge, or at the least a Ph.D. The hardbound manual, a tad larger than a 5.25" disk, is all there is. The manual is only 98 pages, and contains quite a few screen shots, which reduce the writing even more. You will want to glance through the manual for the advanced features like creating your own color palettes, and using the Icon Editor, and learning a few of the features of the Desktop. Most can be done easily by typing Tempest and letting your keys and/or mouse do the rest. Product Information Tempest v2.1 Desktop for DOS List Price $49.95 Abacus 5370 52nd Street SE Grand Rapids, MI 49512
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