Second Class Mail Registration Pending The INDEPENDENT Commodore Users' Magazine No. 18 Mar.-Apr. 1983 How Your Computer r:J~ ~f).. VIC, PET and C-64 Can Help with School VVord Processors or Business Homework How to get Hundreds of Free Programs for the VIC·20 and Commodore 64 HAVE A PICNIC WITH THE VIC-NIC The Word Processor designed especially for your VIC-20_ Output Files compatible with: Word Pro Superscript Silicon Office Word Craft Paperc lip Final Word .... and many others wordwrap­ two story areas all expected commands such as insert, delete, move text, save, recall, etc. files created on the VIC-NIC maybe processed on many other word processors works with either tape or disk Unbelievable! But for $19.50 there will be sent to you a tape or 4040 format disk (designate which you 50 want or tape will be sent) that includes both the ONLY '19- standard tape version and the expanded tape/ disk Cash, Cheque or Money Order to: version and instructions (both on the tape or disk and in printed form). The system is designed so that you can use many of the popular existing word processors for output, or you can use the written in BASIC (so you can modify it SHELBURNE, ONTARIO if you have a special printer) printing/ output program that will be included on your tape or disk. CANADA LON ISO CONTENTS PAGE 2 VIC-20 Voted Computer of the Year . 2 New Regular Contributors. 2 New Editorial Board . 3 A Word of Warning . The Editor 4 What is a Word Processor. ...... Bruce Beach 5· Checklist for Choosing a Word Processor . Ed Mansfield 7 The Best Word Processor. ........ Ed Mansfield 9 Why You Should NOT Get A Word Processor Ed Mansfield 15 The Limitations of Tape W.P. ........... Gary Greenberg 15 A Second Opinion on Tape. ............... The Editor 16 The VIC-NIC Word Processor ............. Bruce Beach 18 A VIC Tip. .................... Dennis McCormack 19 VIC RS232 Printer . Garry Kiziak 20 VICScript . : . Mark Simpson 21 Bulletin Board Update ................ Richard Bradley 22 TPUG Conference ................... Gord Campbell 27 TPUG Central Meeting . I.A. Wright 29 TPUG West Meeting . John Easton 30 Autodial on the PET. David Williams 33 Enter the Z8000. .................... P.J. Rovero 34 The Agro-Electronlc Show. ..................... 34 Computerfest 83 ........................... 39 Script 64 .....•.................. Mark Swanson 40 RAPIDWRITER ...................... Mark Caplan 41 SuperScript ........................ Terry Taller 43 Storywrlter . I.A. Wright 44 Paperclip . .. ... I.A. Wright 46 Classified . .. 47 Butterfield Box . .. .......... J. Butterfield The TOAPET published by The Publisher Horning's Mills. Ontario Canada LON 1JO (519) 925-5376 Bruce M. Beach. Editor Published monthly Single subscription rate - $18.00 per year Special bulk rates to clubs Printed In Canada Cover Credits Our cover model this month was Sue Our Cover Photo this month is trom Simone. a Grade 8 student at Our Lady Graham Bailey. We anticipate that he will be Help of Christians. separate school In the source of our covers for the next Richmond Hill. Ontario. several months. TORPET March/April 83 page 1 EDITORIAL VIC-20 VOTED TidBytes by Glenn Anderson COMPUTER OF THE YEAR VANCOUVER -- An international competi­ tion run by seven personal computer magazines has recently voted the Comm­ odore VIC-20 "Home Computer of the Year. Judging was held in London. England. The magazines sponsoring the competi­ tion were 'Databus'(Holland>. 'Microsystems' (France>. 'Bit' <Italy>. 'Practical Computing' (England), 'Chip' (Spain>. 'Personal Comp­ uting' (U.S.A.) and 'Chip' (Germany). Computers had to meet basic criteria they had to be fully developed machines, not pre-production prototypes. and available ·So. tell me. has being voted 'Man of the to the market place with software and ser­ Year' by TIME had any affect on you? vice back-up. Second and third places went to the Sinclair ZX81 and Spectrum. with the Atari 400 and Tandy Colour Computer com­ New Editorial Committee Ing In as runners-up. The Torpet is most happy to announce that it has a new. and very distinguished in New Regular PETdom. honorary editorial committee. Contributers to the TORPET Jim Butterfield Toronto In addition to the regularly appearing Associate Editor Butterfield Box we are most happy to an­ of Compute nounce some additional new regular features. Dave Williams The Houston Hardware Hacker will soon Toronto be appearing, thanks to Hank Mroczkowski. Contributing Editor at Info Age Bytes, which first appears in this issue. comes from Patrick Corrigan of The Toronto Elizabeth Deal Star. Malvern. Pa. Well known contributer TidBytes. also appearing for the first to Commodore Magazines. time is from a sixteen year old TPUG mem­ ber Glenn Anderson of Islington. On. Jane Campbell San Diego. Ca. Mike Richardson is a Grade 12 TPUG Go-ordinator for member from Orangeville and his first con­ Sphinx tributions are found on several pages throughout this issue. It will be a few months before the commit­ tee's new policies (whatever they may be) Our new punster is John Ylimaki from can be reflected in the publication. but Nipigon, Ontario please continue to bear with us during our growing pains. TORPET MarchiApril 83 page 2 EDITORIAL A Word of Warning The Torpet is not the Good House­ keeping of computers. Neither are we a Consumers Guide. We neither give a seal of approval nor do we rate the products. The · products reviewed in our columns have not . been independently tested or independently revlewea oy us. As many manufacturers and distributors of word processors. for the Commodore products: uS we could find were invited to · submit reviews. Not ail of them arrived in time for this Issue and more reviews wiil be printed in subsequent issues. We try to print balanced reviews when they are available but often the reviews are by either the manufacturer themselves or someone commissioned by them. The reviewer may. or may not. be independently critical. or for that matter. mayor may not be qualified to be doing the review. Photo: Graham Bailey rhe very fact that a review says some Ye olde edItor, Bruce Beach, with ye olde word processor. negative things · about a product does not We gotta be kidding. And believe me, we are. We would mean that the review is ail that indepen­ never get the TOR PET out without a word processor. But dent. Some commissioned reviewers are we still use Susie Bell there to do a quick label or some pretty sl1rewd. other useful task. We don't want you to think we don't love our reviewers. because we do. We The LONE RANGER would be a natural greatly appreciate the person whO takes the for TORPET's -Man of the Year-! time to send us a review. pro or con. And. - His Indian companion Is named TORONTO by the w.ay. we pay $20 per page for - His PROGRAM is still in reRUNs reviews. just like anything else. So. if you - He upholds the CODE of the west..by disagree with a review. whip out your word capturing BAUD guys processor (or quill. if that is ail you have) He has silver BULLETINS on his and send us yours. BULLETIN BOARD system? - He Is very good at GARBAGE collec­ The whole point is. take anything you tion. As RlpTaylor puts It. he is always read here (or elsewhere) with a grain of riding DATA way salt. In fact we take two. To the DUMP. to the dump. to the dump.dump.dump - 110 SILVER a Yllmakl TORPET March/April 83 page 3 FEATURE What Is A Word Proc'essor by Bruce Beach Word processing is the ability to function. Some word processors divide the electronically manipulate text without having functions into two distinct and separate programs. to retype the entire document. This is one of the most popular uses for microcomputers. Good questions to ask when considering the text editing or input function are: You may do your editing of the text right on the screen of the computer or the I'> Is there word wrap? This means that word processor may allow you to print out a the word is automatically moved to the next draft copy of a document. After examining line when a word will not fit on the line the printout for errors you can enter your where it is being typed. It makes the text corrections and have the corrected oocu­ muCh easier to read and speeds up the ment retyped or typeset with all the correc­ use. However, some word processors do not tions In place. Include It because it also uses more of the text memory. fhis ability is very useful for documents that have to be repeatedly revised, such as 2.>How does one see the text displayed? catalogs, price lists, membership lists. club Is it formatted on the screen in the same by-laws. contracts, essays. theses and dis­ manner as it will be output? Narrow screens sertations. For things like catalogs it is pos­ do not usually allow this to be done very sible to retain the electronic files from year conveniently. This mayor may not be a to year and then just make the updates as real consideration. especially if the output necessary before each new reprinting. program is sufficiently sophisticated to automatically handle hyphenation and jus­ Corrections can include new margins. tification of the text. spelling, deletion of paragraphs. Insertion of paragraphs, or the movement of a paragraph 3,) Most important is the ability of the from one place to another. Text can be operator to easily enter the text. Therefore. manipulated in almost anyway conceivable. are commands to copy. erase. or move text easily given.