Big Blue Disk 18/bbd18new.zip/DESK.TXT

Text File | 1988-02-02 | 8KB | 122 lines

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

   This is the column in which I give news and reviews of products and industry
developments that have managed to make it onto my desk.  Actually, my desk is
so crowded with computer equipment that there's not much room for other stuff
on it, so these things are starting to spill off, behind, and under the desk.
But none of these other prepositions sounds right in the column title, so "On"
will have to stay.

   Here's a warning:  In keeping with the April Fool spirit, a few of the
products in this column don't really exist.  See if you can figure out which
ones are the "hoaxes":  answers are at the end of the column.  (This is similar
in spirit to Games Magazine's monthly "fake ad.")

   This one is definitely real, though:  We finally obtained a review copy of
Microsoft's ^1Windows^0 presentation manager, which everyone has been talking
about lately.  This system forms the basis of the user interface for OS/2, the
operating system that is lately being touted as the wave of the future.  OS/2
only runs on the new high-power 286 and 386 machines.  Windows is more
"democratic" than that, being available to users of any PC compatible with at
least 512K of memory, a graphics card, and DOS 3.0 or higher.  It's a pretty
massive package, coming with nine disks.  It claims to be runnable on floppy-
based systems (if one of the drives is a 1.2 Megabyte AT-style drive), but for
all practical purposes a hard disk is essential; even with a 1.2-Meg drive, I
would imagine an immense amount of disk swapping is needed to run any practical
application under Windows.

   Windows is a program to manage multiple application programs in memory at
once, using a pull-down menu interface of the sort originally developed by Xerox
in the 1970's, but popularized in the 1980's by Apple's Macintosh computer.  It
is designed for use with a mouse (a device which you can slide around your
desktop to "point" at things), but will work (somewhat clumsily) with keyboard
commands.  These interfaces are designed for novice users who are intimidated by
the cryptic commands most computer operating systems make you type.  Expert
users, on the other hand, generally don't much care for menu systems that
straitjacket you to a limited range of options and require the user to wade
through lengthy menus to do something that could be done with a short command
line.  Well, anyway, if you like mouse-menu command interfaces, you'll probably
like Windows; if not, you won't.  This seems to be a pretty decent
implementation of this interface for standard PC's.  Though it leaves plain
monochrome users out in the cold, Windows supports just about all display
adapters with graphics capabilities, such as CGA, EGA, VGA, and Hercules.  On my
system, with an EGA, the graphic appearance is colorful and attractive; it
doesn't look quite so nice on CGA systems with their lesser graphic capability.
But it's nice that the system can adjust itself to the different graphic
systems, as we try to do on many programs here on BIG BLUE DISK.

   Whether you like the Windows interface or not, the deciding factor of
whether you use it or not will probably be decided for you by whether or not
your favorite applications programs use it.  While non-Windows programs can be
run from the menu of Windows, programs have to be written particularly for
Windows to take full advantage of its features and its portability of data
between applications.  If you purchase applications programs written under
Windows, you'll have to get Windows to use them; if not, then Windows probably
will not be of much use to you, unless you are satisfied just using the
included Write and Paint applications, pop-up clock, and Reversi game.  Writing
your own programs under Windows is out of the question for all but the few
dedicated professional developers who pay Microsoft's hefty fee to obtain the
thick documentation and attend seminars to learn the intricacies of the beast
from a programmer's standpoint.  That's the way things are moving: to operating
systems that are simple for the "user" but horrendously complex for the
"hacker", a far cry from the "hobbyist era" of the 70's when the "user" and
"hacker" environments were identical (identically cryptic, that is), and many
amateur personal computer users were writing programs of their own that were
similar in quality to the commercial stuff of the time.

   Giving Windows a run for the money, MegaSoft (Itwont, Wash.) has just
announced ^1Doors^0, the "Presentation Muddler."  Its basic concept is to open
up new avenues of inter-application communication by opening up "back doors" at
random between different programs in memory.  For instance, you might be
running a spreadsheet and a Pac-Man game, when, suddenly, a door opens between
them, allowing the Pac-Man to run through it and start eating up your numbers.
Or you might be running a personal finance program and a telecommunications
program when a door pops up to begin transmitting all your credit card numbers
onto public bulletin board systems.  Since MS-DOS itself is run as an
application under Doors, all the data on your hard disk might choose to make an
exit into another program as well.  You can see the hours of fun this program
will give you.  We highly recommend it.

   We just received a review copy of the Clan Practical Accountant, from Sir-
Tech Software.  This company is best known for its game programs (such as
Wizardry), but they seem to have done a good job on this accounting program.
The name "Clan" in this case seems to derive from Scottish tradition; the
packaging has plaid patterns and stylized thistles.  I recognize these motifs
readily enough since they abound at my alma mater, Carnegie-Mellon University,
which was founded by Scotsman Andrew Carnegie.  One trouble with the name is
that, when said out loud, it sounds just like "Klan" (as in Ku Klux), a rather
unpleasant association.  The abbreviation of the program's name is CPA, an
obvious play on "Certified Public Accountant."  Anyway, the program seems well-
thought-out, and includes extensive documentation in several different
booklets: a beginner's guide, a tutorial, a reference guide, a question and
answer guide, and some additional reference cards and charts.  The program
itself can be installed on a hard or floppy disk system, and is user-
configurable to set the screen colors you want; this is a valuable feature
since some colors that look good on one kind of monitor may be completely
invisible on another.  Several sample charts of accounts for both personal and
business use are included, and you can edit them or create a new one of your
own.  The documentation assumes no prior knowledge of accounting, and teaches
you what the principles are and what the terms mean.  The program is generally
friendly and menu-driven.  In general, a very well-done product, particularly
for beginners who are just entering the mysterious world of double-entry
bookkeeping.

   Just when we thought that BIG BLUE DISK was the ultimate in disk-based
magazines, Striking Technologies (Noplace, RI) has just come up with a new
wrinkle:  ^1SupTime^0, the first edible diskmagazine.  Once you're done reading the
articles and running the programs, you can eat the disk.  It comes in different
flavors every month.  They're all low in calories and cholesterol, but rich in
iron and magnesium.  One possible problem: you can't have your disk and eat it
too, which makes it difficult to keep SupTime's programs in your library.  The
programs on the sample issue I saw, however, seemed hardly worth saving.

   Well, that's all for this month.  In case you haven't guessed, the phony
products were Doors and SupTime.  The other products mentioned in this text
were entirely real, I assure you.  See you next time.