CFOG's PIP, February 1988, Volume 7 No. 1, Whole No. 63, page 8
DOS Doings
by Steve Lucius
The upgrade to PROCOM called PROCOM PLUS which was supposed to be out in December now has an expected delivery date of February 1, 1988 according to the PROCOM support bulletin board. (The number is 314-474-8477)
According to "Computer Shopper" there is a new upgrade out for Borland Turbo Basic (1.1) which costs $15 and a call to Borland (800-255-8008). The same article said the shipping dates for Borlands' Data Base Toolbox and Communications Toolbox were fourth quarter. I called Borland and was told that they were taking orders now for the upgrade and the Communications Toolbox is due out first quarter 1988. Not bad for something nationally advertised in early 1987.
There is a new upgrade out for Twin (the Lotus 1-2-3 clone) that is available now for $19.95 plus $5 shipping. You get three disks with DOC files on the changes and no manuals. The upgrade is supposed to improve speed (I couldn't measure any change in loading or recalculating spreadsheets) and allow reading of Lotus 1-2-3 Version 2 spreadsheets. It does this, however it is still a Lotus 1-2-3 Version 1A clone and does not handle commands unique to Lotus 1-2-3 Version 2. When you consider that Twin lists at $100 and can be found discounted to about $40 it is quite a bargain. PC Magazine in their review of high powered spreadsheets in 1987 listed Twin among them. Also in their recent review of low powered ones they mentioned Twin saying that you can get a high powered spreadsheet like Twin for less than the price of the ones they were reviewing. It's just the right package to have if you use Lotus 1-2-3 at work and want a legal copy of a program that can use Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets.
I uploaded to CFOG II a program called THRASHER.ARC. Thrasher tests your computer and hard drive to see what the optimal setting for buffers is. The default (3) is not nearly enough and I have heard anywhere from 20 to 50 being right. Using this program on my XT clone and an AT clone at the office I ended up with 6 buffers being the fastest. Excess buffers waste memory and slow access. Try it and see.
I plan to load the PC Magazine test program for IBM compatibles that test everything including processor speed, hard drive speed and printer. I used the disk access test on them to double check the numbers that THRASHER gave out and they were right.
For those of you who only occasionally read Computer Shopper, one of its larger advertisers, BCE, went out of business. I have heard several complaints about them was dissatisfied the one time I called about a possible order, however I didn't know they were close to bankruptcy.
[Some of the merchandise offered by BCE, notably the Xerox 8/16 system, showed up in the February issue of Computer Shopper offered under another dealer in a different location. The copy is the same: there's even a mention of something available from BCE! -- bhc]
For those who never visit the computer shows in town, here's my mini-review of the Computer Central show January 24 at the Woodfield Hilton (Route 53 and Euclid Ave). There are a couple of shows that visit the Chicago area regularly and it is one of the better ones.
As you walk in the front door of the Hilton the first thing you see is the sign for the show. This is handy but the sign doesn't say where the show is. The last 2 times it has been the room to the right of the sign. The cost is $5 per person or $4 with a coupon. The room contains several tables of both hardware and software for PC clones, Apple and Commodore computers.
There were 5 vendors of PC compatible public domain software and at least 3 vendors of 5 inch disks for around a quarter apiece. Other vendors have hardware and one handles varieties of paper and labels. Looking for specific hardware or software can be frustrating in that many vendors handle several lines, and there is no order to the products, finding an Apple vendor surrounded by IBM compatible vendors is not unusual.
One buy spotted was Bell 4800 baud data modem for $50. I'm not a real expert on them but they looked like they required a dedicated 4 wire line. It is an interesting place to shop, but you must know the prices of things before shopping there.
It beats the other main computer show that tends to be at the Itasca Holiday Inn. The one in Itasca tends to have more dealers of used and abused equipment, while the one at the Hilton tends to have new equipment vendors. Check the Tribune classifieds under computers or Computer Shopper to find the dates for the next one.