Date   : Tue, 13 Nov 1990 09:23:50 GMT
From   : pacbell.com!pacbell!sactoh0!ijpc!ianj@ucsd.edu (Ian Justman)
Subject: Osborne 1 Status

jerry@truevision.com (Jerry Thompson) writes:

{ stuff deleted }

I'm not head-up on Osborne stuff, but I can tell you about stuff
in the CP/M world in general.

> - Is there anything new in the way of WP or spreadsheets?  

Nothing really.  I haven't seen anything new in WP or SS in the
commercial or the public domain sector.  The only newest WP stuff
I know about is WordStar Release 4.

> - I have Oterm and I think I have ZCPR (minor enhancements to CP/M?).

Are you talking about the original ZCPR?  If so, I know little or
nothing about the original.

>   What does ZCPR3 have in it?  

Now, on that subject, I can tell you PLENTY.  I have ZCPR33 (the
latest version of Z3 you can get for free; there is a ZCPR34, but
it's commercial, but I like ZCPR33 anyway) on my main CP/M
sysems, and it is nice.  It has named directory areas (not just
drive a, user 4 or such like that, you can name it ASM, DOWNLOAD,
GAMES, WHATEVER (pun intended).  And if you run a machine where
you could have several different types of terminals online like a
UNIX-type system can like I do, you can pop in a termcap for your
specific terminal.  But since the Ozzie probably is the type of
computer which has only ADM-3A type emulation (correct me if I'm
wrong), this will be of no worry.  But there are just too many
neat things to describe here.  If you're the type who likes to
get down and dirty for dirt cheap (like I am), then get ZCPR33,
which comes complete with source code which you can hack to death
if you want to (just kidding, Jay).  Or if you wish, you can get
NZ-COM which will automatically install itself.  I can't tell you
a thing about NZ-COM because I've never used it and don't own a
copy, but most people here say it's a great product.

> - What is in QTerm and what are the overlays?

Qterm is a nice little terminal program with all flavors of
Xmodem, including 1k-Xmodem, Modem7 batch with 128- or 1024-byte
packets, Ymodem (the true implementation to Forsberg's
specifications), and Kermit (haven't used this one much, but it
works just fine with the UNIX system I call from time to time).
Plus it has VT100 emulation and a VERY powerful scripting system.
All this in a program that resides in almost 16k of memory.  It
is written by David Goodenough, who is currently moving to the
west coast from the east coast.  He specializes in writing
CP/M utilities which are based on stuff you would find in UNIX.
His UUCP software is a good example.  I run a site with it, and I
am a beta site for his UUCP software, and have written drivers
for his UUCP/Qterm software.  You should check his stuff out.
Ranks up there with the likes of Irv Hoff, Ron Fowler, Jay Sage,
and others.

> Thanks.

Anytime.