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Oldies But Goodies Some of My Favorite Programs by Bob Thomson, When our Computer Group was started in 1982, the operating system we were using was CP/M. IBM had introduced its PC running the operating system cobbled up by Microsoft from "Seattle DOS" and which later became MS-DOS. But the IBM machine had been out for only about six months and CP/M was already operating in machines like the Osborne 1 and Morrow. The Osborne 1 came with the following "bundled" software: WordStar 2.26 word processor, Supercalc spreadsheet, MBasic programming languge, (the M stands for - you guessed it - microsoft), CBasic a compiled BASIC language and, later, the database manager dBASE II. WordStarWhat you are reading right now was composed in WordStar 4, which runs in DOS. If you are a newcomer to computing perhaps you have never heard of it but WordStar was probably the most widely used personal computer word processor of the early 1980's. It was challenged by Word Perfect in the mid to late '80s and then by Microsoft WORD with the advent of Windows 3.0 and up. And although it is still around it is no longer dominant. I also use an early version of PageMaker to compose the newsletter and it recognizes WordStar-prepared text as an importable without change. That is all the editing and formatting, such as bold faced and underlined type, that was done in WordStar is retained in the PageMaker document. I don't think later versions of PageMaker will import early WordStar files. Many of the keyboard commands used in WordStar are common to some other early programs, such as dBASE. For example ^E,^S,^D,^X move the cursor one row or space up, right, left and down where the caret sybol, ^, means hold own the CTRL key while striking the designated letter key. Having used WordStar for over twenty years I have no inclination to shift to WORD or any other word processor to compose the newsletter. I am familiar with WordStar's commands and as long as it does what I want done it is sufficient to my needs. SuperCalcSuperCalc was developed as a VisiCalc spreadsheet look-alike but to run under the CP/M operating system. Over the years (1980s) it was improved to include, among other things, MACROs which were called XQT files and which are script programs designed to run SuperCalc and manipulate several different spreadsheets, so that the partial contents of each can be made to interact with each other to produce a desired result. Two examples of this capability that I have programmed and use ALL the time are calculation of my NET WORTH and computation of my INCOME TAX each year. Of course I have to make the minor changes in each form, which inevitably are made each year, as well as modofications to the tax tables. But once those are done I can do my taxes several times trying several "what-if" scenarios looking for an advantage. dBASE II and Subsequent VersionsWhen we were still using CP/M as our operating system dBASE II was introduced as a fairly comprehensive relational database manager. Being relational it was much more comprehensive than most of us needed. All most of us needed was a simple single name, address, phone number lister, preferably with sorting capability. But dBASE was cheap, in some cases free, so we used it anyway, even for tasks which could be performed with less comprehensive software. We still use a later version for Windows to manage and manipulate our Computer Group membership mailing list. Some peripheral software, such as my mailing label maker, can import dBASE files directly without further manipulation. |