3 New Standouts in an Outstanding Field
In a field such as microcomputing, which is blessed with more than its share of genius and wizardry, it’s a particular pleasure to find products that truly stand out from a standout crowd.
I have three in mind this week. One, GEOS, ranks as one of the most impressive pieces of software I’ve ever seen. Another, Q&A;, version 2.0, is a new rendition of a program that I’ve been happily using for 1 1/2 years.
The third, the EGA Wonder Card, fascinates me with how it packs so much versatility onto one small plug-in circuit card for the IBM PC and compatibles.
GEOS is an acronym for Graphic Environment Operating System, and it runs on the lowly Commodore 64 and its more powerful kin, the Commodore 128.
If GEOS had been here three years ago, it would have changed the history of personal computing. It transforms the Commodore 64 into a fast, elegant, easy-to-use computer suitable for home, student or light business use. The $500 Commodore 128, with its wider, 80-character screen, becomes a color Macintosh.
Priced at a mere $59.95, GEOS is the brainchild of Brian Dougherty and his colleagues at Berkeley Softworks. It replaces virtually all the original Commodore operating system, including the instructions built into the so-called smart disk drives used with the Commodores.
The result is a Macintosh-like approach to computing--a desktop on which information is displayed graphically, pull-down menus are reached with a joystick or Commodore’s new mouse, and multiple fonts can be displayed on the screen or printed.
The disk drives run as much as seven times faster under GEOS, and files are automatically sorted alphabetically or by size, type or date of last modification. Copying, deleting, formatting and other housekeeping chores are quickly accomplished.
Two applications come with the desktop, geoPaint and geoWrite, the latter equipped with five type fonts in a variety of sizes and styles such as bold and italic. Users can buy other disks with additional fonts.
Also included are a collection of desk accessories such as a calculator, alarm clock, note pad, and photo and text albums used to transfer images or words between applications.
Want more power? Spend another $49.95 for Writer’s Workshop, which adds text justification for smooth right margins, mail-list merging and super and subscripted text. It also lets you print on Apple’s LaserWriter printer for near-typeset quality. A desktop publishing program, geoPublish, is in the works.
Other $49.95 companion applications include a spreadsheet, a filing system and a slick three-dimensional electronic Rolodex that allows the computer to dial the phone for you if you’ve got a modem.
I share Dougherty’s hunch that many of the 6 million C-64s sold by Commodore ended up tucked away in closets because they just weren’t easy enough for many of us to operate. GEOS is an instant cure for that problem. You’ll think you bought a new computer.
Berkeley Softworks is at 2150 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, Calif. 94704, (415) 644-0883.
Q&A; is the name Symantec Corp. gave its integrated word processing and filing system. The name refers to a special feature of the $349, six-diskette package that allows you to ask for information from the database by typing queries in your language, not the computer’s language.
A sample query: “Show me which district had the best sales in January.”
Because of the complexity of that Intelligent Assistant mode of the program, it requires a minimum of 512K of RAM operating memory in an IBM PC or compatible computer.
What I like about Q&A; is the ease with which a new database can be designed and refined. Whereas many such programs--stand-alone or integrated--force the use of convoluted field names to allow the computer to keep track of the various kinds of data entered in the form, Q&A; has no such restrictions.
You can identify a field with a single word or a phrase and even use the same name twice, such as “address” for each line of a two-line address. Making changes, even after data has been entered, is a snap.
Equally easy to use is the word processing and spelling-checker module. It’s fine for business correspondence and was given added power in the new upgrade.
The changes in version 2.0 of Q&A; have made a good program better. They include tighter integration with Lotus 1-2-3 and Symphony files and a fourfold speed increase for the Intelligent Assistant.
Write, the word processing module, now does math calculations on rows or columns of numbers. It also inserts graphs from Lotus and other programs during printing, prints up to eight columns across and prints mailing labels up to eight across.
The File module now prevents duplicate entries, automatically numbers records and requires important data fields to be entered. Other enhancements include database recovery after power loss, expanded programming functions, better management of data viewing and tracking the number of records in the database. Faster sorting of large databases has also been provided.
And there are provisions for using printers with multibin, cut-sheet feeders and for protecting files so that two users on a network of PCs can’t get into the same file at the same time.
Symantec Corp. is at 10201 Torre Ave., Cupertino, Calif. 95014, (408) 253-9600.
No. 3 on my list this week is the EGA Wonder Card, a $399 video circuit board for IBM PC and compatible computers that combines five monochrome and color modes in a single package.
What sets it apart is its ability to display the higher-resolution Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) color images on a standard color monitor. Until ATI Technologies came along with the EGA Wonder Card, you had to replace both the video card and the monitor with more expensive units if you wanted to upgrade your PC’s standard color graphics to the higher-resolution enhanced graphics.
To be honest, running EGA images on a standard color graphics monitor is not very satisfying. You get noticeable flicker, especially if there is a lot of white in the image. ATI recommends use of an anti-glare screen to reduce flicker.
But you’ve got to expect a compromise or two in return for the flexibility of having all the IBM video modes on one card. You’ll also notice a performance gap between the operating speed of the EGA Wonder Card’s Hercules monochrome graphics mode and that of the real Hercules card. The cursor is smaller and harder to see on the EGA Wonder Card as well.
One more unique feature of the card is a $99 expansion module that allows it to run all of its video modes on the built-in monitor of Compaq portables.
ATI Technologies is at 450 Esna Park Drive, Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 1H5, (416) 477-8804.
