CFOG's PIP, April 1990, Volume 9 No. 2, Whole No. 74, page 15

A Little History from InfoWorld

by Benjamin H. Cohen

I recently decided, reluctantly, that some of the old computer magazines just had to go. I put some notices up on the Antelope Freeway RCPM and CBBS. Someone responded that he wanted the issues of InfoWorld with CP/M items of interest, and off they went. That included three "Report Card" issues that were issued by the magazine back in 1982-83 which contained copies of reviews published during the year and many of the "slick magazine" issues of InfoWorld, 10-31-83 through 8-26-85. By 1985 any CP/M references were few and far between. I copied a number of articles, which are listed below, and sent the copies of the magazines off. [The balance of the "old" InfoWorld issues, almost complete through December 1986, have been discarded: for reasons which may be apparent from reading the article "Law Office Technology Review" in this issue I am keeping the more recent ones for reference.]

In the list the name of a piece of software or hardware without more indicates a review. Except for the first five items the listings are alphabetical by product name.

The date is in YYMMDD order, except that YY--RC refers to one of the report card issues for the year question. The collection of articles and reviews gives a small glimpse at the history of CP/M at the height of its popularity. Some of the names are unfamiliar, and that's as it should be. Does anyone who didn't actually have one remember the Epic Episode or Pied Piper? At any rate, I have put these together in a little binder, as a nostalgic reminder of the way things used to be.

Just reading over the list will no doubt have an effect on many of our members, not necessarily the same to all!

840611	CP/M Eludes home Market
831107	Lee Felsenstein: Populist Engineer
840514	Seymour Rubenstein, Q&A
840514	Software for Defunct Machines
840409	Actrix
??????	Assistant CPe
82--RC	Badlim
82--RC	Cardbox
82--RC	Computer Chef
840611	CP/M Gold Card
831205	CP/M 2.2 from Montezuma
82--RC	CP/M 86
82--RC	Electric Webster
83--RC	Epic Episode
841126	Epson PX-8 Geneva
83--RC	Epson QX-10
83--RC	Formula, The
83--RC	Fortran 80
83--RC	HP-125
83--RC	IBM PC
83--RC	MicroGANTT
831226	[JRT Systems] files bankruptcy
841008	KAMAS
831226	Kaypro confident
83--RC	Kaypro II
841112	Kaypro 2X
831031	Kaypro 10
83--RC	Manual Maker
831226	Morrow unveils portable
83--RC	Multiplan (IBM)
840319	NEC PC-8201
83--RC	North Star Advantage
841126	[Osborne] Vixen Maker Goes Public
841112	Osborne Shows New Computer
840709	Why Osborne Wrote the Book
83--RC	Otrona Attache
83--RC	Personal Pearl
83--RC	Pied Piper
83--RC	Planner Calc
831205	Prolog adapted for Z80s
83--RC	Select WP 2.01
83--RC	SuperCalc2
83--RC	T-Maker III
840430	Televideo TPC-1
840130	Transtar 130S
83--RC	TRS-80 Model 12
83--RC	VEDIT
841119	New WordStar on the way
831207	Zenith Z-100
83--RC	Zorba

If you'd like to take a look at this exercise in nostalgica, let me know and I'll bring it along to a meeting.

CFOG's PIP, April 1990, Volume 9 No. 2, Whole No. 74, page 15

Tea Leaves are Right. WordStar 6 is Here!

If you want to accuse the Editor of having a dirty crystal ball, go ahead, but I think that my prediction of WordStar 6's release in January was close enough: the announcement was in the March 15 issue of InfoWorld which arrived on March 8th. I couldn't glean much from the article -- which seemed more concerned about WordStar's competitive position than about telling what's new. A first impression report on MicroBytes indicates that the two biggest new items are scalable fonts (from the invisible 0.25 points to the bigger-than-a-page 999.75 points) and LaserJet III. There are improvements in the page preview, which if I remember correctly, now works on landscape format pages as well. I believe the built-in graphics editor is a new feature, too. WS6 is $89 plus shipping.