Review (InfoWorld, Sep 1982)
Contents
1. By Ned Heite CP M is an artifact from the early days of microcomputing it became a de facto operating system standard by default While newer more advanced operating systems are on the market CP M is the industry s 300 pound go rilla Love it or hate it it sleeps wher ever it wants With near simultaneous introduction of two add on units for Commodore machines the last major non CP M microcomputer now ac cepts this standard software envi ronment SoftBox from Small Systems Engi neering SSE is a 60K Z80 microcom puter that uses a Commodore PET or CBM as a terminal and communicates with Commodore peripherals on the IEEE 488 bus It runs CP M 2 2 On 8050 drives it can store 496K bytes per diskette with 64 directory entries Although SoftBox allows you to run CP M on existing Commodore ma chines you won t need it for the re cently announced P B and BX models These have Z80 coprocessors and can run both Commodore BASIC 4 0 and CP M without help Whether the dif ferent implementations of CP M will be compatible remains to be seen FEATURES SoftBox is an external unit in a metal cabinet about the size of a modem color matched to Com The source for the latest in video equipment Adolph Gasser Inc has become a leader in the video industry by delivering service with the sale and by being aware of new technological developments Let our professional sales staff give you2. Unfortunately the manual has no section for PET See SofiBox page 62 ord cage and guides d fuse power 8 Floppy Moin Frome 80 8 Floppy Mointrame a Phose 80 Desk Maintrame Write or call for our brochure which includes our application note Building Computers A Recipe INTEGRAND 8420 Roosevelt Ave Visalia CA 93294 209 733 9288 We occept BankAmericord Viso ond MasterCharge September 6 1982 Apple users THE SOURCE and TRANSEND To the first time for only 89 Buy our 89 Transend state of the art data communications software and membership in THE SOURCE AMERICA S INFORMATION UTILITY is included This combination allows you to easily access one of the world s largest information services for up to the minute news and sports stock prices travel cy ae ee more An optional tf ty Source User s Manual is available for 19 95 Your dealer has Call 800 227 2400 ext 912 in Calif 800 772 2666 ext 912 for the name of your local Transend dealer Offer expires Oct 1 1982 Apple is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc THE SOURCE end AMERICA S iy ect a AN UTILITY are service marks of Source Telesempeting Carp complete details e subsidiary of NOW A COMPLETE CP M PASCAL FOR ONLY 29 95 gether for Ff SSM Microcomputer Products Inc aragon vec Ban Joon CA 96131 BASIC PL 1 COBOL hello PASCAL Now
3. SHUGART 8 DRIVES 1M 1 535 00 e REGISTERED TRADEMAAK OF DIGITAL RESEARCH Nef 919 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE BLVD 419 456 7787 Hardware Sottware Review reclaims programs ONLY 149 so program puts YOU in control of CP M NG How to work with the news media How to measure the effectiveness of your publicity Dozens of ways to secure nddiional Panny at nominal bd Over 600 outlets for free sera and reference to thousands of additional sources In this comprehensive publicity guide Harry Barber eliminates the mystique of free publicity shows you in detailed step by step procedures how and where to get it all the free publicity youll ever want for yourself or your organization How To Steal A Million In Free Public ity is the ideal reference guide for business owners corporate executives political groups non profit organizations and individuals in all walks of life About the author Nationally prominent advertising and public relations executive Harry Barber gives it to you straight in his latest book The author has developed hundreds of publicity campaigns in conjunction with screen and television personalities US Astronauts USAC Racing major corpo rations and private individuals Only 14 95 postpaid SATISFACTION GUARANTEED Irvine CA 92713 Please rush me a copy of Harry Barber s book HOW TO STEAL A MILLION IN FREE PUBLICITY enclose 14 95 60 InfoWorld Soft
4. a hands on demonstration of these products and more HE 495 3852 TICAL DIFFERENCE LISTING MODES September 6 1982 WE KNOW YOUR TIME S VALUABLE WE VE TAKEN THE HEADACHES OUT OF FILE COMPARISON FOR YOU COMPARE CREATE FILE OF THE DIFFERENCES sg 500 AND GO ON TO MORE IMPORTANT THINGS FOR ONLY SOLUTION TECHNOLOGY INC Suite 218 1499 Palmetto Park Rd Boca Raton FL 33432 305 368 6228 Check out these features that you need Y DESIGNED COMPARES ANY TWO SOURCE FILES COM LENGTH RESTRICTIONS OUR UNIQUE SIDE BY SIDE OR STANDARD VER We told you there was no comparison Order your copy now above NV 8500 Editing System The first profess lonal 2 VHS system _ WV 777 Video Camera Three tube ENG EFP prism optics design ehGayver 181 ehG St San Francisco Hardwate Softwatre Review SoftBox adds CP M capability to Commodore micros modore machines A standard PET IEEE cable con nects the box to the bus There is also a serial port for RS 232 devices and a socket for Corvus hard disks The only control on the box is the on off switch To use CP M SoftBox must capture and reconfigure the Commodore com puter and the task couldn t be sim pler You tum on the units and load a CP M diskette with a standard Com modore shifted run stop quick load command When the cursor returns the Commodore computer is a termi nal and SoftBox is
5. a complete CP M computer but no ap plications or languages except as sembler are included Veteran PET users will be taken aback by the complexity of CP M op tions Because the system is portable and modular it expects us to make configuration decisions that we cus tomarily have left to Commodore The Soft Box is a well designed ma chine that fills a perceived gap in the Commodore product line Its de signers and authors appear to have touched all bases I suspect most users will buy it as an accessory notas a primary programming medium W SPECIAL 59 50 s0x MG vise CA CASHIER S CHECK SHIPPING CHARGES ADDE chine code Options THESE OPTIONAL time saving routines available in source code 1 B tree subroutines 2 Universal console and photo drivers 3 MP M time and date functions 4 Formatted input functions 5 MP M 2 file and record lock unlock SBL Will Compile And Run On Any CP M Hardware STRUCTURED BUSINESS LANGUAGE YA Business Systems Inc Distributed By Dealer inquiries invited Dr Herpes fg hora Inc SBAS i a Rogictered Trodon of MICROSOFT Ine Se 0 Tredener Concord California 94519 Of Topaz Programming Telephone 415 680 0215 UAURUAGAGAGCRASACAUAURGAUAGAURUAY September 6 1982 one step compiler linker operation Powerful SBL is more powerful than M BASIC or C BASIC because it supports byte word fixed BCD single and double precision floating point as wel
6. did not line up to the little hole in the box Software support is a different issue On page 3 of the manual the authors wax eloquent about the vast libraries of languages and applications availa ble for CP M but nowhere do they tell you how to specify the format to order The product s advertising mentions a software catalog which was not in cluded with my copy of the manual I learned subsequently that the catalog does not yet exist To use CP M software you must ei ther buy it from SSE or buy it on 8 inch single density disks and send it to SSE for conversion at a 25 charge Pro grams supplied by other vendors on standard mini floppies will not run on the SoftBox IN STOCK IMMEDIATE DELIVERY FACTORY FRESH SPECIAL 475 av TM 100 1 SSDD 48TPI 225 aT 1 TM 100 2 DSDD 48TPI 315 ary 1 M00 4 DSDD 96TPI 305 QTY 4 DT DISKETTES 5 DSDD 96TPI The Language for Authors of Serious Business Programs Easier SBL supports basic like statements SBL has built in functions and statements to make out Com 4444 Scotts Valley Dr Cop Scotts Valley CA 95066 plete SBL supports begin end case of while do and other conditional statements Faster SBL supports direct disk access and DMA control SBL also compiles to a true native ma SETUP I detected no setup prob lems You just find a plug anywhere among the PET cables and plug it in SUMMARY Asit comes SoftBox is
7. in control Now you can read the CP M directory from the same diskette AS v oN and handling CPYM 86 Digital Research THE FIELD COMPANION Created for the needs of the businessman sales execu ae or service agent Provides expense accounting with itemized and summary journals for budgeting and tax purposes O ts memos and appointments Customer list keeps relevant information on accounts including shipping and billing addresses year to date sales and person to contact for follow up Professional time log allows user to keep track of time spent for or with clients Invoice feature plucks required data from customer and products files and all invoice copies The Field Companion reports may be output to printer or sent via modem to the home office Data com pacting and selective purging permitted Full password protection Can interface with any CP M word processor Requires 56K RAM and CP M or CP M 86 Call or write for available formats The price is 295 plus 7 shipping Trademarks The Field Companion Lorang Andahazy CPIM and 2670 CHERRY LANE WALNUT CREEK CALIFORNIA 94596 415 938 288C telex 17 1852 DIGMKTIG WNCK CP M has six built in commands Four have direct Commodore equiva lents DIR Directory SAVE Print or Dsave REN Rename ERA Scratch For two CP M commands there is no PET syntax equivalent USER makes certain disk files available to different users of the
8. to make this most advanced language available to more micro users we ve cut our price to an amazing 29 95 This astonishing price includes the complete JRT Pascal system on diskette and the comprehensive new user manual Not a subset it s a complete Pascal for CP M Check the features Separate compilation of external procedures Auto loading 14 digit FLOATING POINT arithmetic True dynamic storage Verbal error messages Fast one step compiler no link needed Graphing procedures Statistic procedures Activity analyzer prints program use histogram Advanced assembler interface THIS IS THE SAME SYSTEM WE SOLD FOR 295 So how can we make this offer why the unbelievable deal Very simply we think all software is overpriced We want to build volume with the booming CP M market and our overhead is low so we re passing the savings on to you AND AT NO RISK When you receive JAT Pascal look it over check it out We invite you to compare it with other systems costing ten times as much If you re not completely satisfied return the system with the sealed diskette unopened within 30 days and your money will be refunded in full THAT S RIGHT COMPLETE SATISFACTION GUARANTEED OR YOUR MONEY BACK In addition if you want to copy the diskette or manual so long as it s not for resale it s o k with us Pass it on to your friends BUT ACT TODAY DON T DELAY ENJOYING PASCAL S ADVANTAGES AT 29 95 THERE S NO R
9. Box continued from preceding page which are not available on PET STAT Displays directory space re maining on the disk and logical device assignments PIP Copies files this command works like the PET copy routine but it is a separate program that you must call from disk ED Text editor program ASM 8080 assembler program LOAD Hex format loader DUMP Displays a file in hexadeci mal format DDT Debugging program for the assembler SUBMIT Allows users to chain commands together for execution FORMAT Like the header or new disk commands in the PET it formats a new disk NEWSYS Allows users to change and copy the CP M system to a new disk that will receive an application program MEMTEST This command is much like the PET disk utility memory test but it checks the SoftBox memory SET Shift locks the screen to up percase or lowercase or to graphics mode also can assign device number on the IEEE 488 bus XFER Transfers files written for PET systems to be used on CP M BACKUP Similiar to PET backup TIME Reads or sets the PET clock COLD Returns the PET to cold start READ Transfers files via the SoftBox RS 232 port Where PET and CP M commands can be compared directly PET syntax is simpler and faster CP M has a long backlog of available software however Features of Unit Tested 60K RAM CBM disk system compati
10. EASON TO WAIT To JRT SYSTEMS 1891 23rd Avenue San Francisco CA 94122 phone 415 566 4240 O K You ve sold me Send me JAT Pascal by return mail understand that if I m not completely satisfied can return it within 30 days with the sealed diskette unopened for a full refund SOSHHSSS SESS ESESHSESS ES ESESESESEESS I need O 8 SSSD diskette O 5 diskette for O Northstar O Osborne Apple CP M D Heath O Superbrain Name Address City State Zip __ JCheck O C O D O Mastercharge O VISA CA residents add sales tax Add 6 for shipping outside North America Card Exp ture CP M is a Digital Re Reserach TM A 56K CP M system is required SSSSSSHSSSSSSSSSSSSESSSESESESSSSESEESSEEEESESEEEEEESE SSHSHSHSESHSESESEOESESESO TEESE EEES InfoWorld 61 Hardwatre Sottwatre Review CP M is a trademark of Digital Research PIP copying pains it easier and more ONLY 149 50 COMMAND program puts YOU In control of CP M KEY MICRO offers you The Best of Both Worlds MP M 8 16 Compupro s Proprietary Implementation of MP M 86 MP M 8 16 is a Multi User operating system that allows you to run 8 and 16 bit software at the same time Hardware amp Software Available for Immediate Delivery Software Products from KEY RM COBOL Ansi 74 Cobol for CP M COGEN R M Cobol Program Generator Demo Disk Available EASYKEY Wordstar Made Easy for Televideo 950 amp 800 se
11. bility Corvus hard disk compatibility CP M Price 895 Small Systems Engineering Corporation 222B View Street Mountain View CA 94041 STONEWARE S AMAZING NEW GRAPHICS eee SYSTEM Professional quality graphics for the Apple II Plus After two years of develop ment Graphics Processing System is the ultimate in fast low cost easy to use graphics sts _ programs Graphics Processing r System creates and edits images in the same manner word pro s5 cessors work with text A Graphics Processing System features Grid Maker for work ing with scale and proportion Colors can be mixed and used to color lines objects and back grounds Two Zoom powers for greater detail resolution 2 D Rotation to full 360 Duplication on screen to disk and from disk Text Capabilities in upper case A Z 0 9 and all characters on the Apple keyboard Modify or Erase a portion of an image without having to So cD TO Reweewe Jueni San Ratan CA papo Larsi he 6500 WEN Wb See dene STON waa Gare Daran start from the beginning Enlarge or Reduce images E Change Proportions verti cally and or horizontally Print Overlays separately and in different colors Accesses 16K RAM card Compatible with other Apple HiRes graphics Uses Apple compatible game paddles j and joystick Speaks directly 3 to the Apple Silentype printer and accommodates graphic dump programs for othe
12. hen ordering Add 1 00 per book to cover postage and handing Prepayment required ORDER TOLL FREE 800 258 5420 VK e BYTE Books 70 Main St i Peterborough N H 03458 September 6 1982 In spite of its shortcomings its rep ertoire makes it attractive as a second software source No Commodore computer features survive the conversion the PET is now a copy of a Lear Seigler ADM3A Tele Video 912C or Hazeltine 1500 The reverse video key is now control and run stop is now escape All keys have a repeat function Drives 0 and 1 are now named A and B While SoftBox won t run PET BASIC it has a utility to convert PET programs to Microsoft Extended BASIC ASCII format or to convert Commodore se quential files to CP M format Softbox can peek and poke PET memory loca tions Commodore DOS features con tained in the drives ROM memories remain but under SoftBox control SoftBox supports multiple Corvus hard disks with the Mirror videocas sette backup PERFORMANCE My unit arrived damaged The board is attached to its cabinet by four press in plastic mount ing feet which succumbed to ship ping abuse The board apparently crossed the continent rattling around inside the case but it worked when I plugged it in I therefore decided that further abuse testing would be cruel and unusual To test endurance left the unit plugged in all day for a week The transformer became almost too hot to touch but everyt
13. hing worked Since SoftBox is on the bus even when it s not active it can send signals when you turn on the switch the printer ex Hardware Software Review ecules a carriage return without a line feed EASE OF USE The system is simple to plug in and run The power switch is on the back an inconvenience Commodore users have come to ex pect on peripherals Generically CP M is not as easy or as fast as Commodore disk BASIC Com mands that are ROM resident in Com modore 4 0 BASIC are disk command files in CP M and must be called from the disk Moreover the whole system is in RAM which makes it difficult to compare the capacity of a 60K SoftBox against a 32K CBM computer with in telligent peripherals a ROM operating system and a resident language Without a language loaded the 60K SoftBox has about 54K bytes free of RAM some of which a language must consume I did not have a language for review Since conventional ASCII pro grams are larger than CBM BASIC pro grams the net work space probably is about the same on a SoftBox as on a 32K PET DOCUMENTATION SoftBox comes with a 72 page indexed loose leaf man ual Generally the manual is well or ganized and clearly written which is a welcome novelty However itis not de signed to be an introduction to CP M for PET owners In a section for CP M users the authors state correctly You need not be familiar with the PET or PET BASIC to use the SoftBox
14. l as strings DLILIZILICILZI CoecoIecococIcIcIc
15. me time providing sophisticated users with a powerful and expressive general programming system This book presents the reader with a complete guide to the exciting applications of this unique procedural language The author introduces programming techniques through Turtle Geometry a series of fascinating exercises involving both Logo programming and geometric concepts Later chapters illustrate more advanced projects that utilize Logo s sophisticated list processing capabili tles these include the conversational DOCTOR program with its simulated psychotherapist and an INSTANT pro gram with which parents and teachers can create a programming environment for preschool children The book also contains reference material of enduring value to sophisticated users Get in on the ground floor of the burgeoning Logo movement with this comprehensive detailed guide to the up and coming computer language of the Eighties This book is published in two versions Logo is for users of Apple Logo software distributed by Apple Computer Company and contains an appendix for users of TI Logo Logo for the Apple Ii is specifically for users of Logo software at MIT for the Apple I computer distributed by Krell Software and Terrapin Inc Logo for the Appie Ii also contains a ap pendices that enable users of Apple Logo and Ti Logo to carry out the projects in the book Be sure to specily Apple Logo or Logo for the Apple Ii w
16. r printers Professional Ver sion is also compatible with Apple Graphics Tablet Symtec Light Pen Houston Instruments HiPlot DMP 3 4 6 and 7 HP7470A Plotter Strobe 100 Plotter IDS 460 and 560 Graphics Printers Epson MX80 Printer with Graphtrix Only 179 for Professional Version and 69 for Standard Version Requires 45K Appie II Pius one or two Appie hsh dives BAW or color screen game paddies or oyst Optional 16K KAM Card or Language Card Apple Silemtype or other B amp W or color printer GPS n avadable Hough leading software Geertutors and Apple Dealers Or send check money onder Visa or tex hude experaten date to Stoneware lncorporsted Caltorma resdemts add 6 sales tar Beg Teisines Appi Apie Computes in Semin SY MTEC fe PAPC Hanmer iinuman De of Reet amp Lom NPIN Hrein Packard Co Sirni Ham Sirs be IDS 680 amp She binal Duta Sewers i Eyma MIRO Epes Amores ber Logo Language of the 80 s Apple Logo and Logo for the Apple H introduce you to a dynamic new com puter language that not only enables educators to make full and innovative use of the teaching potential of modern computers but also offers programmers an easy to use system of considerable T Readers of this book will see that the designers vision of Logo as a virtu ally unlimited educational tool has now become a reality Logo enables even young children to use the computer in rewarding self directed projects while at the sa
17. ries Your Authorized ompuPro SYSTEMS CENTER KE MICRO SYSTEMS INC 978 Tiogue Avenue Coventry RI 02816 401 828 7270 And Now In the Boston area 822 Boylston Street Suite 201 Chestnut Hill MA 02167 617 738 7305 MP M amp MP M 86 are wademarks of Ogptal Research Compupro s a trademark of Godbout Electronics R M COBOL is a trademark of Ryan Mactariand Corp COGEN s a rademark of bytek Wordstar 6 a trademark of Micropro internatonal Televideo s a tradernark of Televideo Systems inc 62 InfoWorld SoftBox continued from preceding page users who will after all be the pri mary market for a PET add on box SERVICEABILITY Four screws se cure the top cover of the SoftBox once it is removed the entire component side is revealed I needed to open the case to check shipping damage which some sort of temporary tie down de vice could have avoided In case your unit should suffer it has a 90 day war ranty The manual makes no mention of servicing arrangements although you can return the unit to the distributor and gives no schematics The board s circuits are all in sock ets for easy replacement if necessary I had to realign the power on indicator QUME FOR put routines faster and easier Speeds System TANDON 9 DISK DRIVES IBM PERSONAL ZENITH HEATH NORTHSTAR DYSAN 204 2D 408 438 5454 apdpdpdndpdpuR RcRuRSReRdAdRURRER SBL has a simple LED which
18. system TYPE displays an ASCII text file on the screen TYPE is something like WordPro s recall or the PET list Separate command files on the CP M disk perform tasks some of See SofiBox page 60 SF MAE SOFTWARE AL GA LOS CROMEMCO EXPAND YOUR SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE POSSIBILITIES FOR CROMEMCO COMPUTERS CP M MP M WITH CDOS EMULATOR HARD DISKS SELECT WORD PROCESSOR AND 8 DISK DRIVES ENABLES YOU TO RUN YOUR CHOICE OF OVER 2 000 CP M MP M COMPATIBLE SOFTWARE P YOUR CROMEMCO USE MPM FOR MULTIUSER EXTENSION OF CPAg OR CDOS OPERATING SYSTEM RUN CROMEMCO SOFTWARE IN A CP M MP M ENVIRONMENT WITH OUR CDOS EMULATOR SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ON HARD DISK OR 8 FLOPPY DISK DRIVES SOFTWARE PRICES FLOPPY DISK SOFTWARE 6 or 514 SUPER BIOS CP M 2 2 with tast 275 00 SUPER DIOS CP M with COOS E 400 00 SUPER 100S MP M II 730 00 SUPER XIOS MP M wath COOS EMULATOR 875 00 WARD DISK SOFTWARE FOR MORROW DESIGNS OR KONAN CONTROLLER SUPER BIOS CP M with tast al 490 00 SUPER BIOS CP MP oe 525 00 SUPER XIOS MP Me 900 00 XUPER XIOS MP M Wi COOS EMULATOR 1 025 00 SELECT WORD PROCESSOR with SUPERSPELL 595 00 TEACH ANO MERGE PRING WITH PURCHASE OF SUPER 8105 395 00 FREE SUPER BOS CP M 2 2 W PURCHASE OF MORROW DESIGNS HARDWARE HARDWARE PRICES FLOPPY DISK SYSTEMS P S cables cabinet MORROW DESIGNS SHUGART 8 DISK ORIVE SOOK 815 00 MORROW DESIGNS two
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