Accounts JAN 1996 Britain's favourite Personal Computer magazine 10 Packagessoftware compared 120 MHz Pentium group test Accounts software: 10 packages compared

January 1996 £2.95 Overseas Price £3.95 WIN an NEC notebook, Germany DM 20,00 Italy 18,000 Lire Spain 1,225 PTS Malta Lm 2.85c Nikon scanner, Holland HFL 17,95 Belgium 364.00 BFr Finland FIM 49.50 Canada CAN$12.95 Smartsuite 96 p262 VNU Business Publications ● Six-speed CD-ROM drives FROM £1,886 ●

Windows 95 utilities MHz ● Beer and wine guides on CD-ROM 120Pentiums 120HP’s OmniGo ●

HP’s Omnigo page 60 ● Pagemaker 6.0 Six-speed ●

Sound card add-ons CDs Faster and affordable Crystal ball gazers What 1996 holds Booze bonanza CD guides to beer IF YOUR CD-ROM AND 3.5" DISK and wine ARE MISSING ASK YOUR NEWSAGENT Pagemaker 6.0 Windows 95 utilities with HTML support ALL HARDWARE TESTED BY THE VNU LABS

VOL19 NO1 FREE Trial - Exclusive on CD-ROM DOUBLE DISK PACK GO COMPUSERVE! THE ONLINE TOUR January 1996 PCW January 1996 Contents First Impressions 55 Regulars Hands On 18 Newsprint 56 Gadgets Comdex special reports. Novell to sell 120MHz Pentiums 196 WordPerfect. AMD buys NextGen. Miro clones Office software. SoftRAM 60 HP OmniGo 199 As hardware prices fall and Pentium power increases, users offered a refund — so are HP’s new hybrid pen and keyboard-based palmtop. high-performance PCs are more affordable than ever before. Access users as Microsoft admits 61 Adobe PageMaker 6.0 12Mb requirement. Microsoft new PCW compares 16 120MHz Pentiums to find the one worthy of The latest version of the high-end DTP package, Euro-probe. False cache scandal. Hard our Editor’s Choice. now under the Adobe wing. disk and ROM prices set to fall. Vendors roll out Pentium Pro systems 62 HP & CD Revolution CD writing kits as Compaq claims the new chip has a PCW Cover Photography by David Whyte Two complete CD writing kits for under £1,000 bug. 3D card puts PowerMacs into from HP and CD Revolution. workstation class. UK firm readies 285 Introduction Group Quark beater. 286 Windows 95 64 The National Lottery™ Tests 290 Windows 3.1 The official National Lottery package could help Cover Disk 31 News Analysis 292 OS/2 NEW! you win your fortune. • Tim Bajarin on mainframes and 294 32-Bit dinosaurs 64 Panasonic vs Plextor quad-speed 297 DOS or CD-ROM 108 Accounting • Clive Akass reviews an eventful year CD-ROM drives • Simon Rockman on AMD and NexGen 298 Word Processing Software The world’s fastest quad from Plextor, and 302 Spreadsheets ● Still relatively shrouded Panasonic’s quad in a retail pack. 35 Computations NEW! 306 Databases Graphics & DTP in mystery, accountancy 66 Microsoft Publisher 3.0 Rowland Morgan has fun with statistics 314 Multimedia ● software is a serious Entry level, but highly competent, DTP under 39 Sounding Off by Michael Hewitt 318 Cover Disk 8 business for those who 322 Sound Windows 95. 41 Homefront by Tim Nott 3D Cyberpuck — excellent smooth scrolling use it. David Carter puts 326 Visual Programming 70 Orchid NuSound PNP 43 Straight Talking by Barry Fox 333 Numbers Count action. the big players head to The world’s first Win95 plug and play sound card 334 Networks head, and explains how 45 Business Matters by Nick Beard from Orchid. 340 Comms ● PCW Interactive CD-ROM 9 knowing the drill can 48 Letters 73 Quarterdeck Web Server 344 Macintosh 650Mb of programs, music and animation save time and money. 347 Computer Answers Set up your PC as a web server under Windows 3.1 357 PCW Marketplace The best including CompuServe’s WinCIM 2.0 with or Win95 — NT not required. place to compare hardware and 351 Beginners Internet access. (CD-ROM Notes continue 74 Adaptec AIRport 2000 software prices. on page 167.) Upgrade your PC to join the infra-red age with the 358 Buyer’s Charter AIRport. 663 ChipChat Features 74 Avery LabelPro Have the best-looking labels in town. Beer and wine Sound card 76 Scan-IT CUTTING EDGE guides 98 add-ons 156 All-in-one scanning, OCR, storage and retrieval 231 Introduction Screenplay: Phantasmagoria by PAUL BEGG by STEVEN HELSTRIP application. Get into the Christmas spirit as PCW If your old FM sound card is out of tune 80 Map ‘n’ Go PCW Online rounds up and reviews the latest PC wine, with your needs, a General MIDI A complete road map of the USA on a single CD. 232 Focus: On-line gaming beer and cocktail guides. As a cautionary daughterboard could be the answer. 83 Nikon Super CoolScan 236 Net.answers Screenplay: measure, we also look at some hangover Top music makers Roland, Yamaha, Creative Labs and A high-quality dedicated 35mm film scanner. 240 Net.news cures for the morning after. Orchid compete to upgrade your hardware. Magic 84 Xcad 3.1 (incorporating Net.surf) Carpet 2 Fully-featured, low-cost 3D design package. 245 Net.newbies 246 Focus: HTML part 1 Crystal gazing 144 SoftWindows 2.0 170 86 Canon multimedia speakers by THE PCW TEAM by GEORGE COLE Speakers to improve any PC sound system. If you want to use a Mac but need to run Windows programs, PCW Futures We take on Mystic Meg with our own 86 Opti LCD monitor Insignia’s SoftWindows is often the best solution. The new 253 Innovations predictions for the new year. And, we look A notebook-style flat display for your desktop PC. Horizons back at the news and events of 1995. PowerMac-only version 2.0 claims to deliver full 486 255 performance. 87 Logical Decisions 4.0 257 Bluesky Let your PC and Logical Decisions take the strain. 259 Retro Computing Six-speed CDs 150 Windows 95 utilities 174 90 Lorien TextHELP by GORDON LAING Have your PC read out text aloud — ideal for PCW Media by TIM PHILLIPS They just keep getting proof-reading or for those with reading disabilities. 260 Books Windows 95 is a great improvement on 3.1, but there’s still faster and cheaper. 268 CD-ROMs plenty of room for improvement. PCW checks out the first 93 Minitab 10 Xtra PCW takes the latest One of the most widely used statistical packages batch of utilities designed to fill the gaps. PCW Fun Focus: On-line gaming six-speed CD drives for receives an improved interface and a wealth of new 265 Kids’ Stuff a spin and looks at the features. 262 Competition: Win a notebook, monitor, CD-ROM first eight-speed model, Delphi Tutorial: Part 3 186 drive and laser printer, courtesy of NEC and Nikon which is almost as fast by TIM ANDERSON Long Term Tests Part three of our Delphi programming tutorial explains all about 273 Screenplay (with Leisure Lines, page 276) CD-ROMs: as a hard disk. 96 First Class menus and dialogs. Robert Mapplethorpe 97 Escom 486 DX40

6 7 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 PCW Cover Disk

This month we amaze you with Cyberpuck, a rollicking and ravishing 3D action game with a twist. David Price explains.

yberpuck is designed to challenge even IMPORTANT Installing and Cthe quickest reactions and is If you have problems with the Cover guaranteed to quicken your pulse rate. You Disk such as receiving a “Cannot read running the PCW find yourself in a futuristic games court from drive A”, error, please return the revving the engine on your sports buggy disk to the duplicator: TIB plc (PCW), Cover Disk when suddenly the puck drops into the TIB House, 11 Edward Street, Bradford court and all hell breaks loose. BD4 7BH (who may be contacted on You must out-pace your opponent who 01274 736990) together with a stamped o install the programs, insert tries to wrestle the puck from you before addressed envelope and two 25p the disk in drive A: or B:, and you get a chance to blast their goal... stamps. Where it is a duplication fault, Tfrom Windows run the file the postage will be returned along with a PCW.EXE in the root directory of that replacement disk. drive. All of the program will then be If your problem is not due to a faulty installed onto your PC and a disk, and a phone number is shown for Windows Program Manager icon will the publisher of the program in question, be created with which you can run the then it will probably be quicker for you to game. call them first as they will be able to pro- However, please remember that vide direct assistance on their own pro- not all Windows setups run DOS grams faster than might otherwise be games very well so if you have prob- possible. lems with Cyberpuck you are recom- Alternatively, ring our Cover Disk mended to exit to DOS and run it from hotline on weekdays between 10.30am there. In addition, the game requires and 4.30pm on 0891 715929. Calls are at least 570Kb of DOS memory to charged at 39p per minute cheap rate run. If you have less it will inform you, and 49p at all other times. and then exit. In which case you The PCW cover disk is virus checked could try running MEMMAKER (if you at every stage of production. However, have DOS 6) to increase your low PCW will not accept liability for any prob- DOS memory, or REM out some lems arising from the use of the disk. lesser-needed lines from your Installing or running any of the programs AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS on the disk indicates your agreement to files. Alternatively, you could create a this condition. boot disk by formatting a floppy disk You are advised not to install any allowing for system tracks and then software on a networked PC before typing: checking the disk. While PCW maintains SYS A: (or B: if your floppy is in a high standard of quality control, disks drive B:) may be damaged in transportation. You can then reboot your PC with Check the disk’s shutter before inserting this disk in the drive to obtain the it in the drive by sliding it to the left and maximum low DOS memory. See Try your puck against a worthy adversary, allowing it to spring back. your DOS manual for further details. in this futuristic action game with a twist

8 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 PCW INTERACTIVE: JANUARY 1996 Entire Contents List Interactive January 1996

AUDIO CD-ROM PCW See page 8 for details 1 61 Complementing the magazine sound board FEATURES :089 6444 WINDOWS on or e 23 NEW programs, on m ix a with 15 for Windows 95 i Exclusive N l add-ons review in this issue, listen in to n R i N GO COMPUSERVE! b AUDIO I THE ONLINE TOUR o X Hear the sound cards R O

l N incl. WinCIM v.2.0 l from our test

tracks 2-7. But don’t play track 1 unless you FREE 10 hours a @

c C

online and FREE t HANDS ON I r

X

o

membership* . Multimedia and Visual

p C

p

O Basic examples

want your PC or HI-FI to throw itself screaming u

M

Microsoft CD Expo s

P l

a

40 top Microsoft U UPDATES

c

L i

I n

demos including N Video for Windows h

K

c

. e

C

onto the floor! t

Word, Excel, O SVGA Drivers r

. o

U F Access and Money K MACINTOSH GAMES 26Mb of utilities, updates Action with Hexen, and Marathon 2 demo DOS PROGRAMS Alice in Wonderland, Virus and WinGenius WINDOWS and DOS with 26Mb MAC SOFTWARE Alice in Wonderland — Enthralling and *(see insert) educational Astrological database — Transform yourself XBOARD — Another handy Windows 3.1 program into Mystic Meg Visual Basic Hands On — More source code from Diskcopy — Multi-featured, useful utility the popular column Easybase — Superb DOS database application WINDOWS 95 PROGRAMS Easyword — Excellent DOS word processor Animation Edit — Create your own animations the Galaxy — One of the most powerful shareware easy way WPs available Bombsquad 2 — Fiendish brain basher of logic Hexen — The Doom creators bring you an and deduction excellent new game FLO’ — Warp and manipulate images to your You’re Hired — Job interview test simulator heart’s content Image Edit — Make your own icons and images EXTRAS Michael’s Disk Benchmark — Analyse your disk Super VGA Graphics Drivers (not for Win- drives dows 95) Micro Angelo — Ultimate Windows 95 icon Video for Windows Version 1.1e (Not for handling Windows 95) Print Screen — Stylish and instant screen grabber FEATURES Programmer’s File Editor — Top hole program MICROSOFT CD EXPO: 40 of Microsoft’s top file editor demos with many trial versions too

PCW Interactive CD-ROM FOLD

David Price introduces Solitary Confinement — Time flies with these new solitaire programs this month’s CD-ROM, COMPUSERVE INFORMATION MANAGER: Stopwatch — Tantalising timekeeping utility Get online to CompuServe and the Internet for crammed with useful Toilet — Customise your recycle bin in a water gratis, courtesy of CompuServe and entertaining closet style MACINTOSH Powertoys — Win95 add-ons that are highly features. The Microsoft Last month we saved up our Mac software to recommended CD Expo contains over get you off to a good start in ’96 with this cornu- Restart — Does all this and more, in accelerated copia of purest joy, including a demo of time 400Mb of Bill Gates’ Marathon 2; the Doom-basher for the Mac Tab 95 — Mac OS users will turn green with envy finest. And there’s a at this new pop-up folder system for PCs Taskview — Gives you new power with active CompuServe freebie tasking bonanza, plus utilities, WINDOWS 3.X PROGRAMS applications, drivers A&B — Award-winning personal information manager and a whole lot more! Auto CD — An unmissable autoplay program for your CDs [Minimum requirements: 4Mb free RAM Button Star 5 — A desktop manager that ensures (some can be in a permanent swapfile), you won’t miss business appointments 386SX/33 processor, Windows 3.1. Users Design a room — Puts expensive interior with less than this should be able to run all designers on the dole the DOS programs on the CD-ROM directly Disk Factory — One of the best shareware disk from DOS or Windows (rather than using the copiers front-end). For best performance we recom- MAGAZINE Time and Chaos — Personal info manager mend: 8Mb installed RAM, 486 DX/50 Multimedia Hands On — Great 3D animations Virus — Catch the bug with this addictive game processor, Windows 3.11 or Windows 95] Sounds — Stimulate your earholes Win Genius — Try and win through in this IFA301 — Makes using Windows 3.1 easier draughts challenge CORRECTION The demo of Anagram Genius on last o run PCW Interactive (PCWI) use drive and wait for the program to load! month’s CD was mistakenly categorised as either File Manager to select your Throughout PCW Interactive you’ll shareware. We would like to make it clear TCD-ROM drive and run the file have the opportunity to run or install that this product is not shareware but nor- PCWI.EXE in the root directory of the mal commercial software published by CD-ROM. Or, if you are using Windows CONTINUES Genius 2000 Software. Tel 0151 356 8000 95, just insert the CD into your CD-ROM ON PAGE 167

9 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 COVER DISK

programs, get further details on a particu- lar program, try out demonstrations of programs, play videos, listen to audio files and much more. When any of these options is available an icon will be displayed indicating the fact. All you need to do is click once on it to activate the choice.

About this month’s CD-ROM A new year cometh and a new look inter- face for PCWI stumbles out blinking into the light. We just can’t resist giving you the best CD-ROMs in the business; our new look has been inspired by the A new look front success of Windows 95. screen for PCWI Staying with a Microsoft theme we include this month, Microsoft’s CD Expo. This is so comprehensive that we have CONTINUED FROM 9 PAGE given you the opportunity to run it from take a CompuServe tour while you’re at should install this new version, as it contains within PCWI or to leap into it from the root it? For further details refer to the card the latest drivers which deliver higher qual- directory. Just run MICROSFT.EXE. Simi- which has been included in this month’s ity, a larger size and a faster playback rate. larly the CompuServe access software cover disc wallet. If you don’t install the new version, some and internet connection kit can be videos will display the message “Cannot dis- accessed directly by selecting Mac Software play this video”, or give similar warnings. CSERVE.EXE. We’ve pulled out all the stops for Mac afi- There are also some extra buttons on the cionados this month and crammed in Video for Windows page, which allow you to MAIN FEATURES games, demos and utilities that will leave fine-tune your PC’s performance without Microsoft CD Expo you breathless. Gorge yourself on our ver- having to leave PCW Interactive or restart Bill Gates’ boys and girls have led the itable banquet, including the Marathon 2 Windows. In particular, you can choose to market for years with the products you demo as the main course (it’s the Mac’s have digital movies played back on your PC just can’t afford to do without. Now we excellent answer to Doom): verily a big at full screen resolution! That’s right, without bring you Uncle Bill’s collection of his lat- Mac extra value meal. having recourse to hardware add-ons such est and greatest software demos and trial as MPEG cards, you can have full-screen versions. Video for Windows Enhanced digital videos when you run the PCW Inter- Setup active CD-ROM. CompuServe Goodies If you select the “New users start here” But please remember that when you exit Not a selection of Tim Brooke-Taylor style button, on the first page of PCW Interac- from PCW Interactive, if you leave the comedy sketches, but a demo of tive you’ll have the opportunity to install option for full-screen video selected, then CompuServe’s latest package, plus ten the latest version of the Video for video in other applications will also be full hours’ free online time! Become one of Windows runtime, so that you can view screen. If you don’t want this, re-run PCW CompuServe’s four million satisfied cus- the digital movies on the CD. If you Interactive, select the “Windowed” option tomers and gain complete internet access haven’t installed Video for Windows from and quit again. via the worldwide web — and why not a PCW Interactive CD before, then you Testing your CD-ROM If you suspect your CD-ROM may actually be faulty or damaged you can run the file CDTEST.EXE in the SYSTEM directory of the CD-ROM. The program will then exam- ine every byte of data in the PC partition of the disc to see if it can be correctly read. The process takes up to 35 minutes and generates a verification code if the disc passes the test. If the CD-ROM fails this test, try cleaning it with a light solution of washing up liquid and dry it with a lint free cloth and run the test again. If it still fails, return your CD-ROM to the magazine for a free replacement. You are free to copy the CDTEST.EXE

Demos and trial versions of Microsoft software products

167 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 CD-ROM

if they have an updated graphics driver. If Microsoft’s drivers don’t work you will need to contact your graphics card sup- plier anyway. • Video for Windows install fails If the Video for Windows installation fails and you receive an error such as “XXXXXXXX.YYY cannot be updated as it is a shared file”, the answer is to delete the file “XXXXXXXX.YYY” (or whatever it CONTINUED is called) and reinstall Video for Windows.

• PCWI is slow to load or runs slowly You need at least 4Mb of RAM free to use PCWI. If necessary you can obtain this by creating a permanent swap file of up to 4Mb. You are also advised to enable read cacheing of your CD-ROM by adding its name to the SMARTDRV line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You should also allow MSCDEX to set up its own buffers by adding a line such as /M:10 to the MSCDEX line, also in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Please refer to Above A new look your manuals for full details. interface for PCW Interactive • Windows NT and OS/2 Unfortunately Macromedia Director, the program used to create PCWI, is incom- patible with Windows NT. However, you should be able to run PCWI from OS/2 by simply calling up PCWI.EXE from the command line. Left PCWI brings you the World of Windows 95, CD-ROM Advice & Contacts with a whole host of software demos and trial The PCW CD-ROM is virus checked at versions of programmes every stage of production. However, PCW will not accept liability for any prob- lems arising from its use. You are program to your hard disk in order to test NOT if you are using Windows 95, as the advised not to install software on a net- other CD-ROMs, as long as it is not dis- drivers supplied with it are even newer worked PC before checking the disc. tributed in any way. If you are running than the ones on this disc): For technical support on the CD-ROM CDTEST from your hard drive you need 1) Run “Windows Setup” from File and the programs on it call the VNU 24-hour to specify the CD-ROM drive to test, as Manager, then select, “Options” followed Hotline on 0891 616 444. This is a comput- follows: by “Change System Settings”. erised touch-tone advice system providing CDTEST D: 2) Scroll through the list of displayed hints and tips on a wide range of topics. It graphic drivers until you get to the final also offers you the opportunity to speak to a Note: We offer this tool “As is” purely as entry “Other Display (Requires Disk from member of our technical support staff during an aid to diagnosing possible faults, OEM)”, and select it. office hours by pressing the “0” key on your some of which may occur because an 3) Insert this month’s CD-ROM into keypad. Calls cost 39p min off-peak and 49p older version of MSCDEX.EXE is in use the drive and replace the “A:\” prompt at all other times (tone phones only). and not because of a faulty CD-ROM, with “D:\SYSTEM\SVGA256” (changing Using the computerised system, you can and disclaim any responsibility for any the D: to the correct letter if your CD- access the information you need very quick- erroneous error reports that it may ROM is not in drive D:), then press ly. If you ask to speak to a member of our generate. Return. technical support staff and we cannot 4) Scroll through the new drivers until answer your question immediately, we will IMPORTANT — READ THIS! you find the ones beginning “Super offer to call you back at our expense. Out- • General Protection Faults VGA…” and select the one for the reso- side office hours you can leave us a mes- If you receive general protection faults lution you prefer to use. The driver will sage by pressing the “9” key. If you leave when running PCWI, or playing any digi- then be installed and Windows restarted. your phone number, we’ll call you back at tal videos it is probably because your PCWI and Video for Windows should the earliest opportunity during office hours. graphic display driver may not be entirely then have no further problems. If you prefer you can email 100 percent Microsoft compatible. The If this works (which it should in 95 per- [email protected], or answer is therefore to install one of cent of cases), you may wish to contact CompuServe: 70007,5547, or write to us at Microsoft’s own drivers, as follows, (but the supplier of your graphics card to see the magazine.

168 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 Editorial Advertising Editor Ben Tisdall Group Ad Manager Paula Devine 0171 316 9194 Associate Editor Simon Rockman Ad Manager Pranav J Oza 0171 316 9466 News Editor Clive Akass Assistant Ad Manager Kevin Elderfield 0171 316 9303 Cutting Edge Editor PJ Fisher Senior Sales Executives Features Editor Chris Cain Catherine J Russell 0171 316 9461 Reviews Editor Gordon Laing Jon Miles 0171 316 9302 Technical Writer Eleanor Turton-Hill PC Consumer Sales Staff Writers Adele Dyer Nick O’Connor 0171 316 9304 Dylan Armbrust Matt Rigney 0171 316 9306 Editorial Assistant Joanna Scott Beccy Carr 0171 316 9307 Fran Taylor 0171 316 9309 Columnists Nick Beard / Barry Fox Michael Hewitt / Tim Nott Micromart Sales Executives Ben Hedges 0171 316 9308 Robert Miskin 0171 316 9305 International Correspondent Tim Bajarin Sales Support Executive Susie Ross 0171 316 9465 Contributors Credit Control Manager Tosh Bruce-Morgan 0171 316 9667 Eric Adler ● Tim Anderson ● Anthony Barratt ● Nick Beard ● Paul Begg ● Chris Bidmead ● US Sales Representative Global Media Representatives, Inc 0101 415 306 0880 Stephen Caplin ● David Carter ● Noel Chidwick ● Taiwan Sales Representatives Grace Chu/Kent Lai 010 886 2717 7663 JJ Clessa ● Stephen Cobb ● Geoff Coggan ● George Cole ● Simon Collin ● Michael Eagleton ● Barry Fox ● Tim Frost ● Anthony George ● Production Panicos Georghiades ● Terence Green ● Sharon McGuill ● Steven Helstrip ● Michael Hewitt ● Production Controller Melanie Thomson 0171 316 9481 Marc Hindley ● Gabriel Jacobs ● Sarah Jones ● Production Manager Adrian Brown 0171 316 9484 Nicola Kingsley ● Frank Leonhardt ● Bruce Mackie ● Micromart Production Assistant Susie Ross 0171 316 9306 Johnny Millar ● Mike Mudge ● Tim Nott ● Tim Phillips ● David Price ● Matthew Reed ● Stephen Rodda ● Richard Vadim ● Stephen Wells ● Mark Whitehorn ● Circulation Nigel Whitfield ● David Whyte Subscriptions Manager Leisha Bulley 0171 316 9712 Editorial Phone 0171 316 9000 Subscriptions Supervisor Joanne Nicholls 0171 316 9713 Editorial Fax 0171 316 9313 Editorial Email Publishing first name-last [email protected] VNU Web Site url://www.vnu.co.uk/hc/pcw/ Founder Angelo Zgorelec Production Marketing Manager Juliet Parker 0171 316 9191 Marketing & Sales Co-ordinator Timothy Mickelborough 0171 316 9820 Production Editor Lauraine Lee Portfolio Administrator Janaya Warren 0171 316 9462 Sub-Editors Patrick Ramus Publisher Jon Ross 0171 316 9187 Jessica Hodgson Design Test Results are based wholly or in part on methodologies provided by National Software Art Editor Darrell Kingsley Testing Laboratories, a division of McGraw-Hill Inc, and licensed to Personal Computer Designer Jeanine Fox World. Neither NSTL nor the Publisher guarantees the accuracy or adequacy of its testing activities and makes no representations or warranties regarding tested products. Articles VNU Labs or portions of articles translated and reprinted (or adapted) in this issue from PC Digest or Software Digest Copyright (c) 1994, by National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL), a Labs Manager George MacDonald division of McGraw-Hill, Inc, 625 Ridge Pike, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania 19428, USA. Labs Technical Director Julian Evans Labs Editor Paul Philip Reproduction of the NSTL material in any manner or language in whole or in part without Operations Manager Alan Ryder permission of NSTL is prohibited. Lab Phone 0171 316 9067 Lab Fax 0171 316 9059 Enquiries or complaints regarding any advertiser in this magazine should, initially, be presented in writing to: VNU BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS Anthony George, ‘Customer Relations Department’, 154,482 VNU House, JAN-JUNE '95 32-34 Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG.

REPRINTS SUBSCRIPTIONS We offer a full reprint service for reproduction of all or part of any current or Annual subscription, £24.95. One year Europe only, £95. Rest of World, previous articles. Minimum order 1,000. For details contact Melanie Thomson £125. P&P included. (0171 316 9000). Call 0171 316 9700. Fax 0171 316 9699. Credit card orders welcome. USE OF EXTRACTS BACK ISSUES We are delighted for people to use quotations and segments of articles for We keep a stock of past issues and can provide individual copies at a charge of internal or promotional purposes. For clearance contact Juliet Parker £5. Call Tom Costin (0171 316 9714). (0171 316 9000).

VNU House, 32-34 Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG. Main Switchboard Tel 0171 316 9000. No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holder © VNU Business Publications 1995. Advertisement typesetting by Typematters, London N1. Origination by Latent Image, 6 Balmoral Grove, London N7. Printed and bound in the UK by St Ives plc, Plymouth. Distributed by Comag, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex (01895 444055).

12 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 Editorial Next ive years ago WordPerfect was the Fworld’s biggest selling word processor. It was unthinkable then that by 1995 the product would be finished, yet that is what is Month happening. Novell has decided to sell it and in the absence of a serious purchaser, it already looks likely that further development of the product will cease. At Comdex in Las Vegas in mid November, the Novell stand was Pentium dutifully demoing the latest version, in a scene reminiscent of the way chickens continue to twitch after their heads have been –– Intel’s next cut off. Pros Contrast WordPerfect’s plight with Microsoft’s. Microsoft appears to hold a generation processor brings brilliant hand. It dominates PC operating systems, and with Office has close to 90 the fastest PCs ever percent of the desktop applications market. Bill Gates’ keynote speech at Comdex outlined a glittering future for a future version of Office based around an object architecture, and with an integrated user interface that effectively insulates users from even knowing which application they are using. Yet Gates admits to feeling vulnerable. Access 95 Success, he says, is a poor teacher, and the Access 95 more successful Microsoft becomes, the Microsoft’s top database goes more companies set out to try and beat it at something. 32-bit Also at Comdex, Apple, IBM and Motorola finally announced the completed specifications for the PowerPC Platform, formally known as the Common Hardware Reference Platform. It promises a single- standard architecture for the next generation Group Tests of personal computers able to run a variety of operating systems including Mac OS, OS/2 and Windows NT. HIGH SPEED A lot of question marks still hang over the PowerPC Platform. When will components MODEMS for the new machines be available in volume? When will the high-end 620 PowerPC chip Get online with the fastest become available? Yet if the platform can maintain its committment to genuine modems yet openness, it has a chance of success. The prospect of millions of PowerPC machines running the Mac operating system is an enticing one. Ironically, though, the operating VISUAL system most likely to make a success of the PowerPC platform is Microsoft NT with the PROGRAMMING Windows 95 interface. Perhaps it’s Intel, not Microsoft, that needs to worry. PCW compares the top

● Novell sells WordPerfect, p18 programming tools ● PowerPC Common Hardware Reference Platform, p22 February 96 issue — On sale Thursday 4th January March 96 issue — On sale Thursday 1st February • High-powered notebooks Ben Tisdall • Personal information managers Editor 13 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 PCW Newsprint NEWS Highlights Close encounters 19 A new bundle from German firm WordPerfect is up for sale Miro includes close imitations of top software etworking giant Novell put networking — the reason Novell page 33). European blues 21 WordPerfect up for sale last shed its Unix interests in The anything-can-happen European Commission opens N month in what looked like a final October. atmosphere was illustrated by a new investigation into Microsoft discounts to major PC vendors capitulation to Microsoft in the Chief executive Bob joint launch by AMD and Reveal office applications market. The Frankenberg said that two of a cheap, high-quality sound Comdex Fall 95 22 move is the latest in a string of prospective buyers had already card at which news of the Nex- Special report from Las Vegas seismic shifts in the industry come forward. Rumour had it Gen deal emerged. Days later, Microsoft comes clean 24 caused by the launch of Win95 that one was Ray Noorda, who Reveal was bought by Yes, okay, the new Access does and the apparently unshakable was responsible for buying Creative Technologies. need 12Mb, says Microsoft. power of Bill Gates and Intel. WordPerfect and Quattro last Clive Akass Refund, anyone? WordPerfect was once by far year for £909m Pentium Pro problem 29 the world’s best-selling word and £94m Compaq claims to have found processor, but it began to slip respectively. networking bug in Intel’s new with the move to what-you-see- One estimate Pentium Pro chip is-what-you-get and it fell badly put the current Software bestsellers 30 behind when the first value of the Windows version proved flaky. division as low The product improved but its as £125m. prospects did not: it fell The shifting inexorably behind Microsoft of the great Word, which gained 85 percent software houses of the market as part of the was mirrored in Office suite which is bundled the hardware with a large proportion of new world with the PCs. merger of two of Lotus, the only other the companies contender with its SmartSuite, trying to chip Comdex Online was bought by IBM in July. away at Intel’s You can read more Comdex Novell is selling its business near monopoly. news and views at our Web applications division, which as AMD took over site, which maintained a daily well as WordPerfect includes NexGen, bulletin during the show. The the Quattro Pro spreadsheet hitherto its rival Berry good… wine merchant Berry Bros and address is that it bought from Borland last in making Rudd, established 1698, claims to be the htttp://www.vnu.co. year. But it will retain Groupwise emulations of oldest firm on the web. Its address is uk/ln/comdex products which fit in with its Intel chips (see www.berry-bros.co.uk. strategy of refocusing on News Analysis,

IBM chief upstages Bill Gates’ soap opera

he future of computing lies from the desktop to the network natural extension of the desktop; platform Java initiative, and Tin networking, the heads of and server, and away from a future in which people do busi- even staid, suited IBM. both IBM and Microsoft agreed monolithic suites to small down- ness via a Microsoft Office with Gates, noting his 40th birth- in Comdex keynote speeches loadable modules (see Tim multimedia knobs on. day, admitted that he was start- last month. But their views of Bajarin’s Analysis on page 31). It was a plausible extrapola- ing to feel out of touch. “People the emerging mega-connectivity Gates presented one of his tion, spiced with some wishful say I’m the Mick Jagger of the differed radically. skilful extravaganzas, in which thinking, but the exciting new computing industry,” he added. Lou Gerstner, giving voice he interacted with a screened ideas are coming from outside “I’m not sure what that means.” to a renewed confidence at mini soap opera depicting the Microsoft: companies like Sun ● Comdex special report, pages IBM, predicted a drift of power near future with the internet as a and Netscape, with their cross- 22 and 23.

18 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Enter the software clone, Short Stories with full sound effects

new bundle from German control a remote PC while 7.0, WinComm Pro 7.0 for gen- Amultimedia specialist, Miro, talking to the user. eral datacoms, and Cyberjack includes close imitations of Word Product manager, Hartmut 7.0, which integrates a complete ● 6.0 and Excel 4.0 — the Bauer, said that Microsoft had range of Internet facilities. All This heartfelt entry from a industry’s first software clones. seen the products and was support multitasking and multi- group at Inverkeithing Primary school in Scotland The emulations contain only happy about them: “They told us threading under Win95. It will be won the under-eight’s a limited set of the features we were unlikely to make any available this month at £129. category of the 1995 National offered by the Microsoft impact on their sales.” Delrina 01734 814230; Educational Multimedia versions, but the precedent There have been many law- Miro 01494 510250 Awards. The closing date for could be significant if software suits over soft- next year is 31st March. moves away from massive ware copyright NEMA 01203 416994 do-it-all suites towards small infringements in “components” which you buy the US, but the SoftRAM users and load only as needed. position is by no offered a refund It could open a can of worms means clear in ● Purchasers of SoftRAM, in the mobile market, too, which Europe, which claimed to effectively has a need for small, basic especially over double a PC’s memory, have programs and is not so tied to similarities in been offered their money the Wintel platform. “look and feel”. back or a free upgrade The clones are part of an following a devastating report interesting package called ● Delrina, newly by the US National Software miroCONNECT Office, which taken over by Testing Laboratories. The report, commissioned bundles LapLink 6.0 remote utilities specialist by rival RamDoubler control software, a full suite of Symantec, has publisher, Connectix, stated Chameleon internet modules, an launched a that SoftRAM offered no AutoRoute-like mapping mod- comprehensive Larry seems to be getting everywhere benefits to Windows 3.x or ule, with fax and datacoms soft- suite of 32-bit these days. This cartoon is one of several Win95 users. ware, plus a multi-purpose communications in a free booklet on email ettiquete from A second test, commiss- 28.8Kb/sec fax-modem/sound programs for AT&T Easylink (for further details, phone ioned by SoftRam developer, card — all for less than £250. Windows 95. 01527 514514) A £9.99 CD of his cartoons, Syncronys, was said to show LapLink has been tweaked to Delrina for newsletters and the like, is available benefits under Windows 3.11 but confirmed “a fault” under allow simultaneous voice and Commsuite from The Data Business. Win95. Syncronys says this data calls, allowing you to includes Winfax Telephone 01865 842224. fault has been cured. UK dis- tributor, Roderick Manhattan, has set up a special upgrade Digital’s Santa clause offers hotline on 0181 875 4434. Musical interlude ● Recorders are refined free support for Christmas musical instruments at stock- ing-filler prices and if you are thinking of getting your child C support is set to become big business during customers. Big vendors such as Compaq already one for Christmas, you might Pthe next five years as both software and use Digital to help provide support. also consider buying this little hardware vendors struggle to cope with a 400 Marketing director, David Allen, said users were utility to make sure they get the most from it. Recorder for percent growth in the number of users, according to fed up with having to hang on to support lines Windows shows both the Digital. waiting for someone to answer, only to be told that fingering and music for a The company is moving into support in a big they have to ring another number. number of popular tunes, and way with an 8a.m. to 10p.m. service targeted at “So many products go into a PC, the will also play the music if you small businesses and home users. It will support vendors can always blame someone else for a have a sound card. It costs all of the leading PC brands as well as software problem. Digital uses experts on all aspects of the £4.44 as shareware, or packages. PC, hardware or software so you only have to ring £16.95 registered. To help people get the message, Digital is one number,” he said. SpringSoft 01352 770049 offering the service free on Christmas Day and The new service will initially cost £117.50, Boxing Day to anyone having trouble with presents including VAT. The first five calls are free, after in the form of any make of PC or software. which you pay £20; so in effect signing on is free, The service is also expected to be used by Allen said. small dealers to ease the burden of supporting Digital 0345 440011

19 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Short Stories CD with a lot of horsepower Win95 security bug ‘fixed’ ● A security problem with file and printer sharing in Win95 he contraption has been fixed, claims shown here, for T Microsoft. getting coal out of a The problem, which mine, would be unlikely affects only those users who to pass a Health and have turned on the Enable Safety inspection these File and Printer sharing days, and must have option, means that others on looked old-fashioned the network gain read-only even when this drawing access to your files. was made, by William You can fix the problem by downloading new drivers Pyne (1769-1843) at from www.microsoft.com. the turn of the nineteenth century. horse power. It is taken from a new CD called He was depicting mechanisms that had been in Mechanisms (£49 for a single user or £99 for a site SoftWerk tracks use for centuries, but his picture shows, licence). It is available from Creative Curriculum heads, not hits ● incidentally, how the power of new-fangled steam Software, and is the first of a planned technology Market Focus is a Windows tool for analysing engines came naturally to be measured in terms of series for schools. web-site traffic. Developer, SoftWerk UK, claims that the £465 CD-based package Gates faces new Euro-probe differs in that it counts users rather than the number of over ‘unfair’ Office discounts “hits” they make. Graphs, bar charts and ritain has asked the made to Britain’s Office of Fair PCA executive director, Keith tables reveal trends, and BEuropean Commission to Trading by the Personal Com- Warburton, said a variation in sorted lists from log files to investigate Microsoft’s policy of puter Association, representing wholesale prices of up to 30 per- unlock valuable marketing information, can be easily granting big discounts to major dealers and other industry cent was to be expected. “If you created. PC vendors. The move may interests, which says that the lose to the competition in one Joanna Scott revive anti-monopoly discount enjoyed by Eire-based way, you can make it up in SoftWerk UK 01462 832244 investigations in Europe which US companies like Gateway another. That goes for anything, were shelved after a “unfairly discriminates against with the exception of Office Notebook users much-criticised deal with US UK companies” to the extent that where if you can enter a contract authorities last year. some could be put out of for a million, you can get it for, vote for H-P ● Hewlett-Packard ranks The complaint was originally business. say, 60 percent cheaper. If Gate- highest for customer way can get Office Pro at, say, satisfaction among notebook £50 when we have to pay over users, according to a new £200, we have a differential that survey. Facing up to the we cannot possibly set off.” It scored 117 for reliability, An OFT spokeswoman said: reputation, screen, portability security issue “We passed the complaint on to and keyboard. Dell followed the EC because it has wider with 112, leading on value requires you to memorise three international implications.” She and compatibility, in the JD Power 1995 Notebook faces, but not from your family; agreed that the OFT would not Computer End-User this would be equivalent to have done this if it did not think Satisfaction Study. using your spouse’s name as a the complaint had some password. Identification con- substance. sists of picking out the faces Gateway UK general manag- Root and branch ● A Deluxe Win95 version from a random selection. The er, John Shepheard, said he had 3.0 of Family Tree Maker is company quotes the govern- no sympathy with the PCA view: available on CD. It contains ment GCHQ listening centre, ”I would get upset if it was the more than 115 million, mainly describing it as “the biggest customer who was complaining. American names and allows single advance in security But this is good news for the you to view archive CDs. since the invention of the pass- customer. What Warburton is Access to the World Family word.” The system can be saying is that small vendors can’t Tree is included, a growing unique identification and used with Netware and Win- offer the same value as we can. I pool of CDs compiled by authentication security system dows, and further development can’t get too upset about that.” users. Price is £49.95; A upgrades from £25. relies on our ability to recognise is under way for more O/Ss. He said smaller companies S&N Genealogy Supplies 01252 378054 faces as an alternative to using Visage 01442 230471 could make money by “skilfully passwords or PINs. Visage Dylan Armbrust manipulating” specialist markets.

21 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Tim Bajarin in the US AST? Play it again, Samsung… ● Samsung must be scratching 4.7Gb super-CDs its head over its $850m investment in AST. It paid $22 a share last spring; the price is now hovering around $8 per on sale next year share. At the end of 1994, AST was one of the top five PC vendors; today, it is barely in the ext-generation CD drives between the rival SD and technical specification would be top ten. Ntaking disks with a MMCD standards. published in December. “This will Chairman and co-founder minimum capacity of 4.7Gb The compromise, allow manufacturers of drives, Safi Qureshey has not been (seven times that of the cur- announced in September, disks and silicon to get to work able to turn it around. So, news rent generation) will be adopts most of the SD specifi- on products while discussions that Ian Diery, former Apple VP available by the end of next cation backed by the likes of continue on outstanding issues,” of marketing, has been year, industry leaders pledged Time-Warner, Toshiba and he said. It would mean products appointed president has been at Comdex. Matsushita, but incorporates will be available, for late 1996. seen as positive. He replaces Heavyweights from con- the more rigorous error Double-sided versions of the James Schraith, who resigned a couple of months back after sumer electronics giants like correction proposed by MMCD new disk will hold 9.4Gb, and a being widely blamed for the Matsushita, Toshiba, Thomp- backers Philips and Sony. future version will hold up to decline. son, and Philips lined up at a Toshi Yajima, Toshiba’s 17Gb. Rewritable versions are in Diery is no visionary, but he press conference to quash deputy general manager, admit- the pipeline too, although initially is a solid marketing manager rumours that they had ted that both sides had still to they will have slightly less who will bring new enthusiasm reached a deadlock on the agree on matters such as royal- capacity. and focus. But his task is details of a compromise ties, but promised that a full Clive Akass gargantuan. He has to find products that customers really want, and regain the loyalty of corporates who have begun to Power PC Platform Compass points drift to Compaq and IBM. sets the scene for Take 24 Twinkies innovation ● A cookbook called Giga Bites, written by Jenz Johnson and BM, Apple and Motorola have published by Ten Speed Press, Iannounced the Power PC Platform, would make a great gift for a the specifications for a standard PC hacker — a breed well known architecture based around the Power PC for junk food addiction. It chip. Formally known as the features recipes to cater for that Microprocessor Common Hardware late-night pizza or doughnut Reference Platform (CHRP), they are craving. claimed to offer lots of room for My favourite is Twinkie innovation by PC designers. Casserole. This calls for 24 Twinkies (small sponge cakes), AIX, Netware, OS/2 Warp, Sun’s 24 Oreo biscuits, a large jar of Solaris and Windows NT are all caramel topping, a bag of expected to run on the new machines. Two novel new products could confirm Quarterdeck miniature marshmallows, a And Apple says work is progressing on as Netscape’s main rival for Internet software. large jar of hot fudge, a a ROM-less version of the Mac Internet Compass is a means of trawling the Net for tablespoon of cinnamon, and a operating system for the new platform. information, by querying several major search dash of brown sugar. Volume production of PowerPC- engines such as Infoseek and Yahoo. But it can also specific components is promised for the be set up to do regular searches to produce, say, a Scary Gates second half of ‘96. A number of chipset daily bulletin on chosen subjects. It includes ● Intel CEO, Andy Grove, got a and peripheral vendors are backing the facilities for organising your data. Compass will be lot of chuckles when he wore a standard, including VLSI and 3Com. on sale before Christmas for less than £70. Bill Gates mask at a Halloween IBM plans to move its RS6000 Web Talk (shown above) allows real-time telephone meeting of finance experts and wordstations to the spec later, in 1996, conversations over a Net link. It will cost less than asked them: “As a Halloween present, may I have his with the servers to follow. IBM denied $35 in the US, complete with a mike, Quarterdeck’s [Gates’s] price/earnings ratio?” press reports that the future of the Mosaic browser, and a month’s Net access. Microsoft’s rating is 39, Intel’s is high-end 64-bit 620 PowerPC process Quarterdeck has also upgraded Mosaic to support 20. Then, removing the mask, was in jeopardy. It claims early silicon is Netscape-specific HTML formats and Adobe’s Grove added: “It’s a scary sight, now being tested, with clockspeeds of Acrobat portable document format. isn’t it.” over 300MHz expected by 1997. Quarterdeck UK 01245 496699 Ben Tisdall

22 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Gerstner’s vision Short Stories Tiny Thinkpad sees red of the future ● A palm-sized IBM Thinkpad n his keynote speech on the first day of Comdex was on view in a side room at in Las Vegas, Louis Gerstner, president and CEO Comdex — but only to I demonstrate its infra-red port. of IBM, outlined his vision for the future of The tiny PC110 measures computing. Gerstner believes we are on the about 6ins x 4ins and threshold of the next phase of information technol- incorporates an ordinary plug- ogy — network-centric computing, and pledged in phone, and is available only that IBM is betting much of our future on it. in Japan. The qwerty He explained that client/server has proved keyboard is too cramped and more expensive and more complicated to stiff for comfortable typing. implement than anyone expected, and the cost of A slightly larger version supporting a PC with the processing power of a with a type 3 card slot was 1985 mainframe on every desk is high. also on view. Gerstner predicts that more power in terms of applications, processing, and memory will migrate Camera news ● back to servers, enabled by broadband high-speed Chinon America demonstrated the $499 fully networks, particularly ATM. This will free users automatic ES-1000 digital from having to upgrade their PCs every year; and camera capable of storing from feeling they’re constantly falling behind cur- eight 24-bit colour images, or rent technology; and from dealing with arcane industry, said Gerstner, have been spawned by the 128 with an optional 16Mb things like operating systems. PCs, said Gerstner, failure to deliver ease of use. The failure to deliver flash card. are the most brilliant examples of planned obsoles- open standards had resulted in a near death Epson offered the $499 cence he’s come across, in any industry. experience for IBM. PhotoPC providing 640 x 480 He went on to reveal that such a low-cost Finally, the social implementations of and 320 x 240 resolutions, networking appliance is now under development in technology must be considered: intellectual prop- with 1Mb of flash storing a IBM’s labs and will be released to some customers erty rights on the Internet, its misuse as a means of minimum of 16 images. next year. The Internet, he said, is the most distributing pornography, and the issue of universal powerful manifestation, so far, of what net-centric access. Gerstner cited a Time survey in which Wyse move ● computing will be like. But the IT industry faces nearly half of respondents stated that access to Wyse Technology’s Winterm terminals have three major challenges to achieving progress: technology was responsible for economic brought Louis Gerstner’s ease of use, open standards, and the social divisions. vision of net-centric implications of technology. Entire segments of our Ben Tisdall computing a step closer. They cost between 25 to 50 percent less than a PC, but when connected to a Fast data ports come onstream Windows NT application server will bring the full range USB is very consumer items like digital cam- of Microsoft applications to cheap and sim- corders as well as computers. the desktop, with the ple, using a Texas Instruments showed a advantages of easy adminis- four-wire cable PCI-based Firewire port, and the tration and high security. the size of light 1394 Association demonstrated The Winterm 2500 colour flex which can Firewire maintaining a full-screen terminal is expected to cost carry power as video picture at 30fps. around $750 when it ships in well as a data Infra-red has been given a late December. A greyscale rate of boost by Microsoft’s launch at version will cost $500. 12Mbits/sec. Comdex of an IRDA driver for he new Universal Serial Bus Two other connection technolo- Win95, enabling applications to Quick chips T(USB) will be on all Intel moth- gies, high-speed infra-red and use an IRDA port like a standard ● Virge 3D accelerator chips erboards, and thus on a large Firewire, are also coming serial port. This means vendors will cut the cost of a 3D accel- proportion of new PCs, by the end onstream. can no longer cite software devel- erator card to as little as of 1996, the company announced. Firewire (see above), also opment costs as an excuse for $200, says the manufacturer, Intel believes USB, demonstrated called 1394, is seen as a faster keeping prices of IRDA add-on S3. Seventeen add-in card in a side room here at Comdex, complement to USB. The cabling ports high — as much as $100 for manufacturers and fourteen will eventually replace the familiar looks similar, with either four or six a couple of dollars’ worth of silicon. games developers plan to COM1 and COM2 ports. strands: two twisted-pair data paths That price is for IRDA 1, which support the Virge and It’s designed to daisy-chain and an optional pair for power. passes data at 115Kbits/sec; Virge/VX. The chips take devices such as a mouse, key- Firewire presently carries up to Sharp gave a demonstration of advantage of the 3D support board and printer. Support 100Mbits/sec, but 400Mbits/sec is videoconferencing using a more built into Windows 95 and will chipsets are due to ship early on the horizon and 1Gbit/sec is expensive IRDA 2 link, which can drastically improve the next year. planned. It is designed for manage 4Mbits/sec. Clive Akass performance of 3D games such as Doom.

23 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Short Stories Post box Refund offer as Microsoft ● Digital Mail is offering an electronic postbox service which allows you to collect admits Access needs 12Mb faxes, email and voicemail for a basic £5 per month. The icrosoft PowerPoint and first 20 minutes is free, after Madmitted last Schedule. which each minute costs 10p. month that the new The packaging Digital Mail 0171 231 2929 version of Access specified 8Mb “to run needs 12Mb of RAM Access or two other Code decoder and offered a £99 programs on ● An updated version of STD refund to users who Windows 95”. But Code Decoder, which tells cannot, or do not Access was not you the geographical location want to, upgrade included. Customers of a phone number, is available for £20. accordingly. received a ROM con- Oakley Publishing 01508 538546 The admission taining Office Stan- came in a letter to dard and a voucher New batteries users who bought for “Access for Win- ● TeleAdapt has replace- Office Professional dows 95 software ment batteries for leading for Windows 95. when available”. notebooks such as Toshiba, Oliver Roll, product manager of “small change” but accepts that Roll’s letter, to people who Compaq, IBM and Dell. desktop applications, wrote on it “may be significant to some returned this voucher, contained Users can also upgrade to 1st November: customers, particularly if your another voucher. This asks lighter, longer-lasting, NiMH “After careful discussion with computer is currently Microsoft “not to ship me my batteries. Beta users, we have decided to configured for only 8Mb of copy of Access for Windows TeleAdapt 0181 421 4444 raise our memory recommenda- memory”. So Microsoft will give 95”. In return Microsoft will send tions for Microsoft Access for £99 to customers who have a cheque for £99, within 28 days. 120MHz Latitude Windows 95 from 8Mb, as bought Access and now cannot Otherwise, customers will ● Dell’s Latitude Xpi range of previously stated, to 12Mb.” use it. get Access for Windows 95 notebooks now includes a At current memory prices, an The Professional Edition of “when it is available”. No model using Intel’s new battery-friendly low-voltage extra 4Mb of RAM will cost Microsoft Office for Windows 95 timescale is given. Some users 120MHz Pentium chips. It around £150 (inc VAT) but many shipped with a picture of may now reasonably wish they also uses an 10.4in SVGA PCs will only allow an upgrade Access on the packet, along had not hurried to buy active-matrix colour display. jump to 16Mb. with the four Office Standard Windows 95. Dell 01344 720000 Microsoft regards this as a programs: Excel, Word, Barry Fox Mac con Brio ● EuroSource has produced Fake cache has users jogging their memory a native PowerMac version of its BrioQuery database query odgy dealers are reported to be selling as 30 percent; the benefit of EDO RAM is marginal tool. Details are at www.euro machines with fake cache RAM, or none at all. by comparison. source.com. D They rely on the fact that there is no simple way The reader’s complaint is being investigated by Eurosource 0181 561 1993 in which novices can check that the cache has local trading officials, who say that they have diffi- Charities on Web actually been fitted, although a tell-tale message culty finding expert witnesses to testify in such ● Free information on 5,000 may appear during boot-up — fake chips can fool cases. British charities is available at the BIOS into thinking that the cache is present. The issue is discussed in the Usenet group, www.hemscott.co.uk. A PCW reader, who was alerted by a BIOS comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips. message, was informed by his dealer that his A utility called CompTest, freely available from Basic training cache had been dropped in favour of fast EDO several web sites, can detect false cache but is ● The Visual Basic User RAM. Cache memory can speed a PC by as much thought not to be infallible. Group is holding briefings for VB 4.0 developers in London on 19th January, and in Manchester on 9th January. Web pollution blacklist attacks secrecy They cost £149, or £99 for members. new web site, naming which are technically in the Deputy campaign director, VBUG 01291 620720 A Britain’s worst polluters, has public domain but which, FoE Tony Juniper, said: “It’s up to all Fontastic! been launched by Friends of the claims, were only obtained after of us to make the Government Earth (FoE) as part of a right-to- a high level of persistence had and industry come clean and tell ● Walnut Creek offers a £24 CD called Font Garden with know campaign. been employed. us the whole truth about 500 fonts in TrueType and The information on the FoE claims that similar infor- environmental destruction.” Type 1 PostScript formats. country’s dirtiest factories was mation is published as a matter The address is: PDSLA 01892 663298 taken from official statistics of course by US authorities. http://www.foe.co.uk/cri.

24 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Short Stories Hard disk capacities to get bigger and cheaper QuickView upgrade ● UK file-translation special- ard disk capacities are set to ist, Software Compatibility Hdouble every six months, with the Centre, is offering a wysiwyg price per megabyte falling by half, version of the QuickView file according to Fujitsu. This means we viewer in Windows 95. could soon be seeing multi-gigabyte Microsoft bought in the technology for QuickView disks in entry-level machines. from SCC, publisher of the The advances are enabled by new Windows 3.x-generation magneto-resistive (MR) heads, and a Outside In file viewer. But the digital sampling technique called Partial version that ships with Win95 Response Maximum Likelihood does not format text. (PRML) which enables up to 50 QuickView Plus for Win95 percent more data to be stored on a overwrites the Microsoft ver- platter. sion. It provides fully- Last month, Fujitsu announced a formatted views of more than 2.5in two-platter 1Gb drive, a 4.4Gb 200 word processor, spread- sheet, database, graphics, five-platter, and an 8.8Gb ten-platter. It said a 1Gb March, priced at $265 and $395 respectively. Both and compressed file formats. single-platter will be available early next year. use MR and PRML. The single-user price is £49. Fujitsu claimed that only itself and IBM have Fujitsu technical marketing manager, Mike SCC 01344 885224 the technology, with which it expects to gain a 20 Nelson, said: “Everyone is going to have to bring percent share of the hard-drive market. out MR drives but they have a long way to catch Laser giveaway But both Quantum and Conner announced up. We are now on our third-generation product.” ● More than 1,500 laser MR/PRML drives. Quantum says it will ship a Fujitsu 0181 5734444; Quantum 01344 353500; printers have been given to 1.7Gb drive (pictured) and a 2.55Gb drive in Conner 01628 777277 schools via a scheme set up by Gestetner, which services and cleans old models NEC’s pocket video player donated by firms who are upgrading. The Clydesdale Bank gave highlights falling ROM prices 400 machines and Marks and Spencer donated 200. Phone he price of solid-state memory will plummet NEC says a 1Gbit flash EEPROM chip, which 0990 143157 if you have Tover the next four years, says NEC. And to cost $3,840 in 1993, will cost only $128 in 2000AD, equipment to donate. illustrate the possibilities it has produced a pocket and a non-rewriteable 1Gbit ROM chip will cost just video player drawing MPEG-1 data from a memory $2.70. Welsh on check card (see Gadgets, page 56). A 90-minute feature length film occupies about ● A £45 Welsh spelling and The Walkman-sized demonstration model used 900Mb, or about $20 worth of ROM at NEC’s grammar checker, compatible a 40Mb memory card with only four minutes of estimated prices. Clearly, cheap solid-state with leading word processors, film. But the falling price of ROM means the use of memory could also have a big impact on mobile is available in DOS and cards of a much larger capacity will become computers. Windows versions from the feasible. NEC 0181 993 8111 Welsh Language Board. WLB 01222 224744 Cheap CD recorder bundles on offer

lasmon has come up with a card (about £50) will suffice. to bow to the operating system. Plow-cost CD recorder Marketing director, Stewart But the H-P and Plasmon package to rival that of the Vane-Tempest, said he believed bundles both include a 1Mb Hewlett-Packard Surestore CD- most users would need the buffer, which Vane-Tempest Fast Mirage Writer 4020i. Both are based facilities provided by the claimed should be enough to ● Spea has launched the around a Philips 4020 drive and professional software, which maintain a smooth data flow if Mirage multimedia accelera- both are listed at £850. provides full support for PhotoCD you close other applications. tor for £260 with a TV tuner, H-P kept its price down by and multi-session recording. He said the CD recorder or £190 without. An MPEG bundling a cheap SCSI card with There have been reports that should not be regarded as a decoder costs £100 extra. no external connection, and a the H-P package has problems backup device, which requires a Spea 01844 261886 “Lite” version of Incat’s Easy-CD under Win95, stemming from the read-write drive (such as CheckIt ’95 software. The Plasmon fact that CD recording requires Plasmon’s $600 dual PD and CD CDR4220 has no SCSI card but an uninterrupted stream of data. drive). He added: “CD is an ideal ● Touchstone has launched WinCheckIt 4.0, a £39.95 a full, professional version of This is not a problem with distribution medium because Win95-compatible version of Easy-CD for Windows 3.1, Win- Windows 3.x, because the appli- there are so many CD drives out its troubleshooting package. dows 95, and the Mac. The com- cation can grab processor time there.” Touchstone 01442 862612 pany says a basic Adaptec SCSI as needed; under Win95, it has Plasmon 01763 262963

26 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Compaq bug claim as rivals Short Stories How many trees rush out new Pentium Pros fit on a CD? ● Question: How many trees provide the equivalent, in ompaq claimed to have found a high-speed data transfer. paper, of a standard CD- ROM? Answer: 11, with each networking problem with Intel’s Compaq has delayed shipping C taking 20 years to grow. This new Pentium Pro processor last its Pentium Pro models until corresponds to a 47ft stack of month, shortly after it was the problem is resolved. A4 paper. formally launched with Other PC manufac- The figures come from sample chips at speeds as turers have not encoun- Martine Tatman, of CD and fast as 200MHz. tered this problem and are audio cassette replicators The Pentium Pro differs from shipping according to schedule. Dell Ablex Audio Video. The com- the Pentium in having an on-chip announced the 150MHz Dimension XPS ing 4.7Gb high-density CD 256Kb level-2 cache operating at core Pro 150 (which will come preloaded with Win95 would save 78 trees — equiv- speed. This will increase to 512Kb early or NT), and 15 new Pentium systems. alent to 1,560 tree years. next year. Some PC makers say they expect Digital’s Celebris workstation is processor Joanna Scott speeds to be as high as 300MHz in 1996. independent, with a swappable daughterboard Intel is initially aiming its sales at the server and carrying a Pentium, Pentium Pro or Digital Alpha Amstrad image ● high-end workstation markets that use dedicated chip. Amstrad is second only to IBM and Apple among 32-bit applications. Firms involved in the financial, Gateway and Apricot say they will ship 200MHz Britain’s best-known animation, and scientific fields are the first targets. Pentium Pro machines next month, and Fujitsu/ICL computer firms, according to Carl Everett, senior desktop products VP, said offer a 166MHz model. the advertising agency that Pentium Pro systems “will bring PC econom- Digital 01734 202180; Dell 01344 72000; DMB&B. IBM is seen to lead ics into market segments that haven’t seen PC- Gateway 0800 552000; Apricot 0121 7177171 in terms of quality and style price/performance.” Dylan Armbrust standing, but Amstrad and Compaq claimed that Pentium Apple outstrip it for perceived Pro machines could, in certain value and innovation. circumstances, drop off a network Best practice, on the face of it... and fail to communicate with other Portable CD linked computers. Sixty percent of the effort put developed the online reference ● Opti is selling a quad- Intel states that this is a into creating an application system, GUI Guidelines. It is speed portable CD-ROM with Compaq-specific problem, related goes into the graphical aimed at small businesses and a PCMCIA-compatible to its use of “legacy” network interface, says the developer of corporates who want to interface. cards being unable to cope with a new design tool. standardise their screens. Opti 0181 507 1818 Good screen design is the Corporate Computing is now best way to ensure your owned by LBMS, a UK company Paradox 7.0 ● No life online for application is among the one in best known for the SSADM Borland says Paradox 7.0 Dictionary of six applications that are development methodology. GUI for Windows 95 and NT will go on sale this month for £99, considered a success, says Guidelines is offered at an Biography or £69 as an upgrade, or £79 Christine Comaford, president introductory price of £99.95. to users of an applications ll 32 volumes of the Dictio- of Corporate Computing which LBMS 0171 636 4213 suite. A nary of National Biography Borland 01734 320022 (DNB), documenting the lives of more than 40,000 people, have Win95 sales been published on a single CD. ● Microsoft claims seven The Oxford University Press million copies of Windows 95 (OUP) plans eventually to were sold worldwide in the extend the scope of this work by two months after its launch. including extra information such as birth certificates and wills, Britannica: rules the online waves Magic of money either directly or in the form of ● A Christmas stocking filler pointers to sources. (www.eb.com) with copies will be bought by libraries. for power-mongers might be This could be done even subscriptions starting at around As it is, many DNB contribu- the £34 Interactive Magic more efficiently with a Web £75 per year. tors will have a long wait before game which challenges play- ers to build financial empires. version, but there are no plans The OUP is a charity with a seeing their work in print. Interactive Magic 01276 62462 to set one up at present remit to spread knowledge; it Sir Alexander Cairncross, because the OUP believes there nevertheless makes money who rewrote the DNB entry on is, as yet, no satisfactory way of which it says is needed to the economist John Maynard Digital album ● TGL Multimedia’s £40 charging for usage. finance expensive works like the Keynes, said: “I am told that the Picture Album lets you organ- However, the Encyclopaedia DNB. The CD version, which next printed version won’t be out ise your photographs as an Britannica, now US-owned, can costs £395, will effectively be in until the next century.” interactive multimedia show. be accessed online the public domain as many OUP 01865 267979

29 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Short Stories New 3D accelerator card puts New Newton OS opens Windows PowerMacs into workstation class ● A new operating system for the Newton palmtop is pple has released a Quick- designed for easy integration Draw 3D accelerator card with Mac and Windows A which it claims provides PCI- systems. A new £59 module, based PowerMacs with called Newton Press, will allow a Word and ClarisWorks workstation class 3D graphics document to be displayed on performance. a Newton. Unveiled by Apple CEO The Newton 2.0 operating Michael Spindler at a system should be available Macromedia conference in San now for an upgrade price of Francisco, the hardware makes £80, or £424 with a Newton 3D applications run up to 12 MessagePad 120 machine. A times faster. £79 keyboard option is also Based on custom ASICs, available for the Newton. the new card provides Apple 0181 730 2480 hardware support for ‘Fastest yet’ QuickDraw 3D — Apple’s cross-platform application Mac compatible programming interface for 3D ● Power Computing has graphics. This early demonstration of Quickdraw 3D features texture produced what it claims is the It supports full texture map- mapping and complex shading. The image is updated in realtime fastest yet PowerPC machine running the MacOS. ping, Gourad shading, trans- as the camera moves smoothly along the rollercoaster track The new PowerWave is the parency and Z buffering. It can first to use the 150MHz 604 render 10 million tri-linearly PowerPC chip and is the first filtered, mip-mapped texture graphics, making them as easy animation with the quality and MacOS compatible to have a pixels per second and up to to use as text and 2D graphics,” speed they demand, and at a PCI bus. A custom chip also 120,000 triangles per second. said Spindler. price they can afford.” allows NuBus cards to be This level of performance “Today we take another The card will be aimed at the used. More details at has only previously been technological leap forward with graphics and entertainment www.powercc.com. available on high-end, high- a hardware accelerator card markets, and will retail in the US Power Computing 001 512 258 1350 (US) priced systems. that provides customers with at $399. “When Apple introduced the additional power necessary No UK price or delivery date New DTP pack QuickDraw 3D we to produce complex 3D has been set. takes on Quark revolutionised real time 3D illustrations, designs and Chris Cain ● A UK company is making a surprise bid for the DTP market. UniQuorn, unveiled at Top 10 Windows and DOS Last Top 20 Windows Last the Apple Expo by SoftPress Product Manufacturer month Product Manufacturer month Systems, boasts some unique 1 Windows 95 U/G Microsoft 1 1 Windows 95 U/G CD Microsoft 1 features including interactive 2 SoftRAM Memory Doubler RMG 2 2 Softram Memory Doubler RMG 2 preview of colour trapping and 3 MS Office Pro 95 U/G CD Microsoft 18 3 MS Office Pro 95 U/G CD Microsoft 18 automatic creation of style sheets. 4 First Aid 95 for Win95 RMG - 4 First Aid 95 for Win95 RMG - It uses XPress-style boxes 5 MS AutoRoute Exp UK & IRE Microsoft - 5 AutoRoute Exp UK & IRE Microsoft - for inserting text and 6 MS Plus for Win95 Microsoft 3 6 MS Plus for Win95 Microsoft 3 graphics.but, unlike XPress, 7 Lotus Smartsuite Lotus - 7 Lotus Smartsuite Lotus - the same boxes can be used 8 MS Office 4.2 U/G Microsoft 4 8 MS Office 4.2 U/G Microsoft 4 for both. Text can be flowed 9 RAM Doubler Connectix 11 9 RAM Doubler Connectix 11 around bezier curves, too. 10 Uninstaller v3.0 Microhelp 6 10 Uninstaller v3.0 Microhelp 6 Currently in beta, UniQuorn 11 MS Office Pro 4.3 Microsoft 7 will be available for Mac and Top 10 DOS 12 PlanIt Business Plan 2 RMG 12 Windows platforms. 1 PCDOS Version 7 IBM 1 13 MS Office 95 v7.0 U/G CD Microsoft 9 SoftPress 01993 882588 2 Flight Simulator v5.1 Microsoft 3 14 Sidekick 95 for Win95 Starfish 8 3 QEMM v7.5 Quarterdeck 2 15 Visio 4 Visio - Newsprint welcomes your 4 Turbo C ++ v3.0 Borland 5 16 Dr Sol Anti Virus Quarterly S&S Int 20 news, views, Web sites and 5 MSDOS v6.22 Microsoft - 17 MS Works Microsoft 5 graphics. Send them to cakassa 6 Pegasus Solo Payroll Pegasus 8 18 Quickbooks v3.0 Intuit - at CIX or 7 Turbo Pascal v7.0 Borland - 19 Passport Lan Licence Lotus - clive-akass@ pcw.ccmail 8 Easy to Learn Computing VCI 7 20 CorelDraw 5 to 6 U/G CD Corel 14 .compuserve.com or 9 MS Space Simulator Microsoft - Figures supplied by Software Warehouse and relate to [email protected] 10 Pegasus Solo Accounts Pegasus 9 bestsellers for October 1995.

30 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 NEWS ANALYSIS

Central station

hree years ago, I wrote Tim Bajarin on the prospect of a central information Tthat the mainframe was server ruling a world of low-end access terminals. not a dinosaur and would make a significant comeback. I saw mainframes and minis as critical for delivering multi- media content to PCs and TVs, both as a glorified server and to handle some of the operating system as well. set-top boxes now are truly processing tasks. The internet This argument will become dumb terminals (or have little was just starting to gain atten- more powerful once Sun and processing power), so the tion at the time, but mostly as its partners release their new interactive entertainment a tool for business and educa- computing model in a few model is likely to have most tional research. months’ time. They go as far processing carried out at the Diagrams that various as proposing that the industry server end. Low-cost dumb interactive TV vendors were immediately begin developing internet terminals may also working on tended to envis- low-end access terminals. end up in areas where data age processing being carried Sun co-founder Bill Joy access rather than productivity out at the server, because the spends most of his time cre- is the issue. home access device had to ating a reference model for a Within this new view, Intel be cheap. I was inclined to Sun internet access device and Microsoft could be threat- agree with this perspective. costing around $200. ened in the future. In a Little did I, or anyone else This is, of course, full circle dispersed global network, in the PC industry, know at back to the days when the where standards are driven by the time that this model would mainframe ruled a world of internet access, Intel x86 flourish on the internet, acting dumb terminals. However, chips and Windows could hit a as a global network providing most of this digital access will few roadblocks. Backwards access to content and appli- take place via a PC, which is compatibility will continue to cations. Now the battle is on anything but dumb and be an issue that they can to determine the standards indeed, will become more push over time, but within a that will be used in access powerful. Moreover, adding a global network its importance devices, and the roles Intel model of high-bandwidth con- is likely to diminish. and Microsoft will play. nectivity to this scenario, will Both Intel and Microsoft The likes of Oracle and provide access to vast remain winners in the short Sun Microsystems believe amounts of data, information term. But once the internet that the network is the com- and applications –– a “com- backbone carries applications puter, and should be indepen- puting nirvana” that few would as well as data, and allows dent of the chip and operating have predicted a year ago. platform-independent system used by the access The interactive TV access, they could face device. They propose that the scenario is less clear. Most serious challenges. standards should be inherent in the internet, or in the net- work itself. Hollowed ground This means that internet protocols like ftp, HTML, The house which billionaire Bill browsers, viewers, security Gates is building for his new bride and filters are what really nestles in a hollowed-out cliff on matter. Multiple digital access the shores of Lake Washington, a devices will be crucial in get- few miles from Microsoft’s Red- ting information, and they mond campus. should not be tied to a single It is not a normal house. The chip or operating system. entry hall will have a ceiling-high You could, for example, video wall displaying digital art. access the internet from the The dining room will seat 300 peo- office via either a PC or a TV ple. The garage will be able to in the living room, or a house up to 20 cars. portable dedicated terminal in A PR agency in Washington is the kitchen. Of course, the publishing, on its web page, a smart phone could reside weekly update on how the work is anywhere and have its own progressing: so point your browser at www.morsepr.com. ANALYSIS

31 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 NEWS ANALYSIS

and only the diversity of tele- coms law has prevented The year of Windows 95 modems from becoming a fix- ture on PC motherboards. Clive Akass takes a look back at an eventful 1995, the Bandwidth remains the big disappointment. Modems can good, the bad and the absurdity. deliver nothing like the true potential of the web, but most of us still struggle along with them. Even the 128Kb/sec he PC world of 1995 was them suitable for portables. digital ISDN service is inade- Tinevitably dominated by Intel still dominates, but its quate (and overpriced). Microsoft’s new operating position looks less secure High-bandwidth links are system. Windows 95 was the than Microsoft’s. PC vendors not inherently expensive, and biggest software event for five increasingly look to chip clon- the problems of providing years (since the launch of ers like Cyrix and AMD to them are less technical than Windows 3.0, the first reduce their dependence on political. At the party confer- successful version). It gener- Intel supplies. Microsoft itself ences, however, there were ated billions of dollars’ worth is loosening Intel’s grip by signs that this was at last of business and one way or encouraging the use of rival becoming an issue. This image by another affected, or will affect, hardware to run Windows A BT demonstration of Brian Cooke, tens of millions of users. NT. The PowerPC is not yet state-of the-art videoconfer- electronically But it was an event of a big threat, but its encing inadvertently showed manipulated scale rather than substance. importance may grow. the absurdity of the situation. by Leana Win95, which should have The high price of memory Even over an ISDN link, Newlyn at been Win94 or even Win93, chips provides perhaps the movement was jerky and Visualeyes, was old hat by the time it biggest brake on voices were clipped. Most of shows true came out, and contained little performance for most users, the technical sophistication photographic that could not be seen in rival especially with the advent of was in cramming information quality from a OS/2 Warp or Mac OS. Windows 95, which needs into the narrow bandwidth. It Fujix Pictro- What made it different was 16Mb to show its paces. But was like flying an exquisitely graphy 3000 the fact that when Microsoft hard disks have got bigger souped-up Sopwith Camel digital printer, moves, the world moves with and cheaper. rather than Concorde. which will set it. With Win95, the Iomega set the cat among Mobile computing entered you back mainstream computing world the storage pigeons with its a similar fairyland. Beautiful £13,000 changed gear from 16-bit to cheap Zip drive, which takes notebooks have appeared, 32-bit operation. 100Mb removables, costing powered by battery-friendly Win95 retains many 16-bit £15. Syquest countered with Pentiums, with all the multime- byways for backwards com- the 135Mb EZ-135; Iomega dia gizmos and fine colour patibility, and is dismissed as promptly announced a cheap TFT screens more than 11in a botch-up even by Microsoft 1Gb removable drive. across. But they are walking insiders. The operating sys- Prices of CD recorders fell desktops; too big for the road. tem of the future it isn’t; but by 50 percent, but with a True mobiles are evolving with its promise of much bet- starting price of around £800 from the palmtop, and with an ter to come, and its demon- they are still well above con- exciting move towards wire- stration of Microsoft’s near sumer level. Applications less communication. absolute domination of PC such as digital photography This was part of a general software, it epitomised com- and desktop video editing trend by which PCs, TVs, puting in 1995. have been marking time on telephones, cellphones and It was the year we began the specialist sidelines, wait- other appliances married and to take processor power for ing only for all this cheap began to breed exotic new granted. The humblest entry- mass storage to let them devices. Hence this year’s level 486 machine had more enter the mainstream. buzzword: “convergence”. than enough punch for routine Low-cost colour printing After three decades of applications. Processors nev- also improved over the year. breathtaking change, comput- ertheless continued to get Budget machines have yet to ing is changing faster than faster, with Intel’s Pentium reach photographic quality ever. We are seeing the clocking up to 133MHz and (though we are assured that future take shape before our the latest Pentium Pro coming will come) but they can out- eyes. As a Newsprint head- in at 150MHz. Just as impor- class, say, early Technicolor. line said in June: “Welcome to tant was the introduction of In January, Newsprint pre- the 21st century.” fast (up to 120MHz) Pentiums dicted that 1995 would be the operating internally at a bat- year of comms. The internet ● Review of the year, tery-friendly 2.9v, making boom has indeed continued, p144. ANALYSIS

32 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 NEWS ANALYSIS

Chipping away at the market

If there’s one thing that unites the factions in the chip war, it’s collective fear, says Simon Rockman.

veryone is scared of Intel AMD but K5 is running late. PowerPC. This has had Eat the moment. The chip The only company with a fewer production problems giant is on its way to making Pentium rival actually avail- than the Intel-compatible $100bn by the year 2000. able is NexGen. What is even chips, and with NT Intel can afford to build billion- more surprising is the fact that implemented, it only needs a dollar manufacturing plants the NexGen Nx586 is one of jolly good push by Microsoft and invest in the fabulously the most advanced chips on and IBM (who are now expensive test equipment the market. friends again) to stack up. necessary to develop proces- In some ways, it’s a great But IBM has chosen to rele- sors years into the future. fit. The K5 is a superscalar gate the PowerPC to the AMD’s purchase of Nex- chip design. The Pentium is workstation division, which is NexGen Gen in the form of a share like a V8 engine, made by pretty much terminal for the rival: swap, which effectively values bolting together two four-cylin- chip which has proved to be Cyrix’s the company at $800m, is a der engines. The K5 makes a so good in the PowerMac. 6x86 chip sensible response to this real- V16 by using four four-cylin- The IBM workstation peo- ity. AMD, NexGen and other der units — it’s a good Pen- ple licensed NeXTstep, the chipmakers like Acer and tium rival. The Nx586 is operating system which was Cyrix have made little impact altogether more clever; it con- years ahead of its rivals, and on the Intel market, and the verts the 8086 instruction set did nothing with it. chips they have all been into simpler RISC instructions A more valuable tool with promising have failed to and runs those. This is the which IBM can attack Intel is appear. The Cyrix M1 made technique used by the Cyrix’s M1. Under a deal with the first silicon over a year Pentium Pro. So, by buying Cyrix, IBM can make one ago and we’ve yet to see a NexGen, AMD already has its chip for itself for each one it real M1 machine, although the Pentium rival. makes for Cyrix; and with that M1-based Blue Lighting 5x86 There is, however, the special process the new M1rx seems to be bubbling along problem of IBM. While IBM is is cheap enough to make it a quite nicely. part of the club which wants real rival to Intel, so it seems The most successful (or to see the dominance of Intel likely that this is the weapon least unsuccessful) of the lot waver, it is one of the backers IBM will use. has been AMD which at least of NexGen. Curiously, the The deal has a problem, has an agreement with Com- original AMD press release though, because IBM seems paq for the Pentium-class K5. announcing the NexGen pur- to want to produce more Compaq wants to buy chase states that it has been chips than Cyrix wants. It elsewhere because it feels approved by the major back- could make them on the that Intel is stealing all the ers of NexGen including basis of buying the excess glory. If machines are bought Compaq and Olivetti; IBM chips back from Cyrix, or it on the basis that they display was not mentioned. And Nex- could buy Cyrix and save all an Intel Inside badge, there’s Gen needs IBM: the compli- the hassle. The lack of (non- little to distinguish between cated Nx586 can only be IBM) machines with Cyrix machine manufacturers. made using IBM’s five-layer chips seems to indicate that Compaq wants us to buy fabs. The three-layer system the company wouldn’t be too machines with –– and for –– used by AMD’s fab can’t cope expensive — at least, not in the Compaq badge. with the design. So now AMD IBM terms. There were PC manufacturers receive has a chip, it has to buy from rumours of an IBM (or Sam- considerable marketing sup- IBM. The only thing keeping sung) purchase of Cyrix a port, and a discount on chips this all cosy is the fear of Intel. while back, which might just if they stick the Intel Inside IBM has two other strate- have been Cyrix hyping the stickers on their boxes. So gies with which to take on share price. Or they might Compaq is keen to support Andy “Intel” Grove. The first is have been true. ANALYSIS

35 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 Computations

When will climate change force motorists to STATELLITE chop back their cars, adapt them as breakfast Britons have half as many computers nooks or fantasy double beds, and steer on a as Americans, and 134 times more VR screen? The juice from a typical car plant, than Indians. about 40 million watts, would drive more than Computers per 1,000 population in the 600,000 power-sipping PCs. USA: 265. In the UK: 134. In India: 1 Britain’s 18 main vehicle assembly plants ● Lester R Brown et al, State of the would power about 12 million energy-misers, World 1994, Worldwatch Institute, and easily light up the UK’s existing 4-5m Earthscan conventional screens. The 24-hour online driving channels should include a jammed- With the Smithsonian Institution reck- up-in-the-rain option for those who find oning that 75 percent of all US work- windscreen wipers sexy. ers will be computerised by the year ● Powergen advertisement (Toyota’s 2000, and the US labour force num- Burnaton plant)/Motor Industry Research STATELLITE bering 115 million, 86 million termi- Association/IDG Marketing Services One in every 33 CD-ROMs makes money, and nals can be expected in the US they cost an average £325,000 to publish, mean- workplace within a few years. That The trade balance on computers is so nega- ing you begin to cover the odds only after a scale of penetration for the expected tive that it means every Briton is sending £10.7 million investment 10 billion population in 2025 would about £33 to foreign infotech workers each ● Newsweek 5.29.95 mean more than 3.4 billion terminals year. The £1.74 billion-a-year cyber subsidy Even if you switch to a state-of-the-art energy- worldwide. Installation so far has run could pay for any one of the following: sipping PC configuration with a US “Blue Angel” at some 10 million PCs per year, at 1) The BBC stamp of environmental approval, your cred is which rate the US level of penetration 2) All Tesco sales still pulped by paper. A year’s business supply of could not spread globally for another 3) The rail subsidy A4 paper (put at 40 cases) runs 50 percent three and a half centuries. On the 4) 90 percent of the public science budget higher than the environmental burden of your other hand, if Intel chairman Andy 5) National lottery handouts machine (assuming 300 watts at ten hours per Grove is right in predicting that by 6) All UK consumer books day). American offices alone use a stack of paper 2000, PC sales will have surpassed 7) Eight new MI5 HQ’s more than 100,000 kilometres tall every year, 100 million units worldwide, more 8) Nine Olympic stadiums which it would take an Airbus jetliner nearly five than the sale of cars or TVs, Ameri- 9) 18 Arts Councils days to fly up. canisation would only take 40-odd 10) All computer games, twice over ● IEE 1994 Environmental Conference on years. The thing is, five-kilo plastic ● CSO Annual Abstract of Statistics tables Computers p.299/Buzzworm 1993 Earth casings alone would require 185 12.3/12.4 (office machines and automatic Journal/British Airways (cruising speed supertanker loads of ABS plastic, data processing equipment; œ416 trade 530mph). causing 74 million tonnes of anti- deficit per household/annum in 1992) climate gases. STATELLITE ● The Smithsonian Magazine, May Japan buries or incinerates enough plastic in a year 94; also SIGCHI Bulletin Vol 27 No 1 to load a nose-to-tail queue of semi-trailer trucks (Jan 95), which predicts 80 2,900 kilometres long. The same level of waste for percent/Information Please Almanac, the Chinese would mean a 26,000-km jam NY, Houghton Mifflin/Newsweek ● Canon Inc: Ecology, Towards Harmony between 2.21.94/IEE 1994 Environmental People and Nature, 1995/The Hutchinson Guide to the Conference on Computers p.299/IEE World, London 1995 (semi-trailer 23ft, 50ft) Spectrum, January 95.

STATELLITE Britain fought World War 2 with fewer telephones than are now registered on the cellular network. Cellular registrations 1994: 3.503 million. Telephone stations 1937-38: 3 million ● MarketLine/Whitaker’s Almanack for 1939

Now that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change has emissions are generated, plus an energy increment of 42 billion BTUs formally confirmed that the world is marinading in global-warming — less than half that of fridges and freezers, but still climactically gases, it is worth reflecting that computers worldwide consume uncool. 240,000 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, or all the juice ● The Independent on Sunday 9.15.95/Hutchinson Pocket Dictionary used in Brazil. The annual power-cost of 170 million standard PCs of the Environment, London 1994/DTI Brazil desk (Brazil’s gigawatt could be halved by a mass switch to power-miser PCs, saving some capacity: 56,666)/PC Magazine (Siemens-Nixdorf Green PC (50 per- 20 million tonnes of anti-climate gases. Unfortunately, the switch cent on 50 percent idle, 5.8-99.4w))/Compaq advertising campaign would cost, and it has been calculated that for every extra $1 million for DeskPro XL4/66 model /IEE 1994 Environmental Conference on spent producing electronic computers, nearly eight tonnes of polluting Computers p.275

PCW Illustration by Darrell Kingsley Smoke Chimney Illustration by Stephen Caplin 37 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 PCW ● COLUMNS Sounding Off

he sort of people you normally meet in garden centres at Tweekends, pushing trolleys overloaded with plastic gnomes and battery-operated, integral-jacuzzi bird baths, are now turning Michael Hewitt up in Dixons and PC World, buying “internet ready” computers.

This suggests that the democratisation have instead assigned this function to downmarket pub, declare “Port of the PC and, by extension, of the a couple of banks of very fiddly little Unavailable”. Nice one. “information superhighway”, is plastic switches — DIP Switches — Anyway, keep up the good work, complete. Myself, I blame the software usually hidden away in an extremely peripheral manufacturers. We’ll see off houses. inaccessible part of the printer. There- the bastards yet, and maintain the Just five years ago, everyday fore, not only does the oik have to take exclusivity of computer ownership. programs such as word processors and his printer apart to find them, he then I see that computers have been comms packages could reasonably be has to figure out what the hell to do featuring rather heavily in the cinema guaranteed to be completely unintelli- with them. And what if he makes a of late, what with Sandra Bullock’s gible. Configuring them necessitated mistake? We all know, for example, identity being scrambled by one in The answering cryptic questions like that inadvertently setting switch 8 of Net, and Steven Seagal using a Newton “Recvd BS is dest?” and “NumLock Bank B to “down” on an HP DeskJet = to help save the world in Under Siege toggle on?” The answer had to be a DTR & Xon/Xoff, but I’ll bet he doesn’t. 2. But in particular, a film called precise “Y” or “N”. Anything vaguely What a jerk. Assassins quite intrigued me. multiliteral — “Maybe”, or “Let me My favourite peripheral in this Starring Sylvester Stallone and think about it” — was totally unaccept- respect, however, has got to be the Antonio Banderas, Assassins is the able. As a result, only the anorak- internal modem with its jumper story of a couple of hitmen who keep afflicted really had any idea what they settings, IRQs, and all the rest. In the trying to knock each other, and others, were doing. buff, the thing looks intimidating off. They receive their instructions for Today, however, software manufac- enough, as if you are likely to need a each hit over a modem link. Both of turers have made their programs far degree in electrical engineering just to them are equipped with identical too easy. Consequently, just as Stork remove it from its static-proof bag. But Apple PowerBooks, which suggests Margarine spreads straight from the for the tyro, the fun really starts when that the 540 is the laptop of choice for fridge, so PCs now work straight from he plugs it in and then fires up the PC. discerning contract killers. the box. Which means that our hitherto (That’s assuming he can get the case Anyhow, the big mystery of the film exclusive hi-tech turf risks being off the computer in the first place.) revolves around who their employer invaded by the hoi polloi. Take my pleb-proof Zoltrix FM- actually is, given that all they ever see Fortunately, one group — computer 144ATI (and I’m sure the following is of him is typed instructions appearing peripherals manufacturers — is still equally true of others). By default, it’s on their screens. What’s the problem, doing its bit to stem the tide of the set to COM2. This means that, as is, though? The thing is, he isn’t an Great Unwashed. Their products, it’s guaranteed to conflict with the anonymous internet site or an including sound cards, modems and existing COM port in the PC. A good untraceable pseudonym on something printers, incorporate cunning design piece of design there, Zoltrix, which like CompuServe. The mystery would features guaranteed to stump the must fool many non-technical people. then be understandable. But Stallone technovirgin. I refer, of course, to DIP What happens, though, if techno- and Banderas’ comms software actu- switches and their siblings, jumper newbie eventually works out what’s ally dials him directly each time. So settings. gone wrong, takes the PC apart once why didn’t they just look him up in the Let’s assume, for instance, that your more, fiddles around with the jumpers phone book? Or was that too obvious? average oik wants to change the paper using a set of tweezers, and finally As I look out of my window, I see size on his printer from US Letter manages to set them to read as the sun beating down and a heat haze (which, helpfully for those of us in COM3? Fortunately, all is not lost. rising in the distance. The temperature Europe, is often the default setting) to When he puts everything together is probably in the mid-70s. All of European A4. Now, you could fix a again and restarts the PC, the IRQ set- which means that this column must simple knob on to the side of the ting of the mouse in COM1 will conflict be destined for the Christmas-cum- machine that would do the job. But, with the modem’s default IRQ at New Year issue of PCW. Season’s thankfully, alert to the risks of making COM3. So his comms package will just Greetings, therefore, to you all. things this easy, the manufacturers sit there and do nothing, or, like a Have a good one.

39 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 PCW ● COLUMNS Homefront

Tim Nott

hat to do with obsolete equipment? Those of us Wpre-occupied by this housekeeping dilemma don’t appreciate how lucky we really are, as my man in Accra points out.

Last September I wrote about the “For some of us feeling our way into details — again don’t send the items problems of what to do with hardware the computer world, freebies or low-cost themselves — and I’ll try my best to and software that was too old to be of second-hand computer hardware, software put you in touch with a suitable further use, but too good to throw and magazines (English or French) are our organisation. away, and speculated that I’d have to best bet yet. If you know of someone who And now for something completely continue finding shelf space for it until hoards obsolete (or otherwise) systems in different: a museum or burglar took it off my his attic, and would like to get rid of them, Here’s a tip for all you manufac- hands. In December’s issue (p229) a please kindly give him my address. I and turers who want to foster the idea that cartoon by Larry showed phased-out people around me will appreciate your computers are lovable, cuddly things computers being dumped at sea, by a generosity — I can already see myself that are just right to have in the home ship named the “Spirit of spending hours glued to a computer.” alongside — or even instead of — the Obsolescence”. Goodness me, it’s a Well, readers, how about it? Would telly: smarten up the back. Many peo- hard life at the forefront of technology, all that old kit be better off in the attic, ple are ready to be seduced by shop- but at least we’re all able to retain a at the bottom of the sea, or in the window displays of svelte multimedia sense of humour. hands of Romanou Macauley and desktop dream machines. It took a reader in Ghana to spoil people like him? Could that old 286 The only trouble is that the PCs both these rather weak jokes with a motherboard or 16-colour display they’ve actually seen in use — on the refreshing blast of reality. Romanou card come out of retirement to make a desks of insurance brokers, travel Macauley wrote from Accra a letter further contribution to computing agents and so on — are facing away that was charming, cheering and society? Could that copy of WordPer- from them and present the unaccept- chastening, and I make no apology for fect 3.0 flex its lexical muscles once able rear-end of technology. A mass of reproducing most of it here: again? And would the knowledge that slots, ports, plugs and sockets “I read with delight your article in the this was happening give you a sense of festooned with skeins of assorted September issue of PCW because I’ve at righteous satisfaction? cable belies the “You too” approach of last found the answer to my longings. You If so, please don’t send your old kit contemporary advertising. see, I’ve been reading PCW every month to me or to PCW. If you want to send it Sceptical technophobes might con- from the local library. And whenever I see to Romanou at P.O. Box 2014, Accra cede that plug and play sounds a great the glossy adverts in the magazine I always Central, I’m sure he’d be delighted and idea, but where exactly does one plug? wonder when and how I’ll get enough grateful, but I think we can afford to And with what? I don’t want to boast, money to own a computer and its be rather more ambitious about this. but I’ve got fourteen assorted connec- accessories. I think the day has come for I’ve no desire to re-invent the wheel, tors on the back of my PC. Four aren’t you to get rid of all that junk. You certainly so if anyone reading this is already even connected to anything, so good- don’t need a burglar. No, not at all! What involved in recycling redundant kit for ness knows what they do — maybe I’m you need is a kind friend and computer good causes — either in this country missing out on something. enthusiast who needs those obsolete items. I or abroad — please write to me at If manufacturers want to make PCs understand that you can’t bear to throw PCW or by email to more palatable, hide all this stuff. them away. You’ve taken the right decision. [email protected]. Infra-red connections wherever possi- I mean, will you bin something that could I’ll compile a list of charities for a ble, please, and the rest neatly hidden make someone else happy? Of course not! future column, but if you don’t want to behind a hinged panel with colour- So please faites-moi plaisir. Send them to wait, and have surplus items that you coded guides to keep the cables in me. I’ll pay the postage. want to pass on, write or email with order.

41 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 PCW ● COLUMNS

Straight Talking

Barry Fox f you own a Compaq Prolinea 386 or 486, or a Presario 600 Ior Minitower PC, you may want to cut out and keep this month’s column for future insurance. I have had to squeeze the system board was replaced free of out this story like blood from a stone, or getting US Robotics charge.” to admit that its 28,880 Sportster modems had faulty chips. A serial number check confirmed that our ProLinea was not one of the faulty batch. Other checks confirmed It all began when I discovered by The original battery had failed a that the board was not pumping signif- chance that Compaq had fitted faulty few days after the PC was bought and icant reverse charge into the alkaline CMOS backup batteries to its ProLinea the dealer sent an engineer to battery and that jumper leads for the 386 range. By a remarkable “replace” it. We now know that the first replacement were set correctly. coincidence, my wife had been one of faulty NiCad was left on the All this points to a common-sense the few people in the universe Compaq motherboard, with a new battery stuck conclusion — putting alkaline CMOS hadn’t contacted “proactively” to offer to the chassis alongside. batteries in a PC condemns it to immi- a free replacement. A little over a year later, I asked my nent failure. The instructions with the The signs are unmistakable. The PC dealer to order the replacement-for- alkaline batteries refer to a wide range develops Alzheimer’s –– losing date the-replacement under the promised of Compaq PCs (Prolinea 386/486, and time when it is switched off. An warranty, for DIY fitting. Presario 600 and Minitowers), so all error message appears on the screen The replacement arrived a month these models appear to be at risk. when it’s next switched on. This is your down the line but the dealer couldn’t On 11th September, I asked last warning of imminent catastrophe supply it to me unless I first gave him Compaq for reassurance for –– within a few weeks the CMOS loses the dud. During the wait for the spare customers. By 1st October, I was push- the system setup as well as date and battery to arrive, the fault had long ing for an attributable comment from time, so that the PC can’t find its own progressed to the terminal “refusal to Compaq’s Managing Director on my disk drives and refuses to boot up. bootup” stage. fear that “everything points to a ticking Optional Rescue — running the Fitting the replacement battery source of failure inside large numbers setup program stored in the ROM chips cured the problem, but uncovered of Compaq’s PCs”. Despite promises, I to rebuild lost settings — is easy when something very nasty. Although the had still received no comment after you know how, but like talking Martian original on-board faulties were four weeks. Draw your own if you’ve bought a PC for office use, as NiCads, the off-board replacements conclusions. Mine is that if Compaq most Compaq customers do. aren’t rechargables. They aren’t even and others are saving money by using As detailed in a previous column long life lithium cells but alkaline cells alkaline batteries instead of NiCads or (PCW October 95) Compaq admitted to (Rayovac 480, 4.5 volts), comparable lithiums for CMOS backup, customers me that the CMOS batteries used in the to Duracell torch batteries. So it will end up paying for this “economy”. ProLinea range between November seemed hardly surprising that a While all this was going on, I went to 1992 and March 1993 had been faulty. replacement for a faulty NiCad was Paris for IDG’s European Information David Moore, then Senior Product itself failing after a year or so. Technology Forum. Speakers relied on Manager at Compaq (now with Dell), Compaq is surprised. It expects the electronic “slides”, stored in a PC and claimed Compaq had extended the alkaline cells to last “three to five projected by a video system. But sev- warranty on these batteries from three years”. But — wait for it — the eral speakers had technical difficulties to four years to protect customers. company now admits there was — slides either refused to change, or Moore wanted me to believe that fail- another fault in some ProLineas. changed too early. ure to offer free warranty replacement James Griffiths, Product Manager When Andreas Barth, Senior Vice had been an “exception”. for Commercial Desktops, confirms President of Compaq, took the stand, Checking out the free warranty that: “In some instances the ProLinea he announced that in order to save promise exposed further the yawning system board continued to try and embarrassment he was going to use an gap between Compaq’s publicity charge this external battery and there- Apple Mac to show his slides. There promises and reality for the consumer. fore reduced its life...in these cases may be a moral here.

43 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 PCW ● COLUMNS

Business Matters

Nick Beard

e are now installing the “client/server” version of our all computing systems (at present), clinical workstation. This is the PC-based version of W whether massive monolithic PowerChart, a tool which enables doctors and other clinical mainframes, networked minis, micros staff to work with electronic medical records. or standalone laptops, require certain constants: computing engines (CPUs), The system, part of our hospital required to churn out graphics, even in storage, screens/keyboards, the wires application suite from Kansas City’s DOS mode, were unaffordable. On top which connect them, and the software Cerner Corporation (UK office in of the limitations of mainframe appli- they run. The Standard Interpretation Luton) was already client/server in one cation appearance, software develop- fails to take account of the cost of soft- sense; it is simply that the client and ment times were usually long. How ware development. most of the server ran on the VAX — could the expensive data centre com- As noted earlier, mainframe appli- the only distributed part of the client pete with the mass-market price struc- cation development times were usually software was the X-Windows piece tures of “garage” software; software far longer than the software built by which sat on the PC. This, however, which (supposedly) enabled the user users themselves. The problem with makes the transition to client code to do more themselves? home-grown software is that it may be which uses the PC much easier. The Standard Interpretation, the most constructed in an undisciplined fash- But is the client/server architecture popular view of recent computing his- ion. Every department, indulging in a simply a waystation on the route back tory, is a large part economics frenzy of “user empowerment”, did its to a more mainframe style of comput- flavoured with a dash of nonsense own thing. The cost of consolidation ing systems delivery? Many vendors about “user empowerment”. Like many soared. How do you create cross-cor- are spending a fortune re-engineering econocentric tales, it assumes that deci- porate reports when one department their product lines to produce sion makers are rational and in posses- has poured data into a database using “client/server” versions of their prod- sion of all the relevant facts. PCs, the months 1,2,3,4,5; another has organ- ucts. This might make sense, but it Standard Interpretation goes, ised its records by Q1, Q2, Q3; and the doesn’t necessarily follow that it will. prompted the restructuring of next by Jan, Feb, March? Of course, Many software customers are engaged corporate systems to enable lithe cor- these data-merging problems are not in the wholesale migration of their cor- porations to exploit the pace of devel- new, nor are they completely porate applications suite to a opment of silicon chips (one thing is insurmountable. They do, however, client/server model. What is the driving indisputable: in the cost of raw MIPS, represent the hidden cost of badly force behind these moves, and have expressed as $/MIP, PCs have organised “user empowerment”. Main- the motives always been properly outstripped mainframes for years). frame application development cycles thought through? The fall of networking costs just tended to be even longer than home- One view is that development of the helped things along (or if you like, the grown efforts because of the develop- computer, like every other industry, is need for networking in the aftermath ment disciplines that professional data driven by economics. First, the main- of indiscriminate PC buying, bulked up centres demand. frame. Expensive. Then, the PC. the market and engendered volume The jury is still out on whether Cheap––er. Since PCs became cheap, discounts). This is not to suggest that client/server computing protects com- and graphical user interfaces became these developments were necessarily a panies from these problems. mandatory, the costs of computing bad thing. However, there is another Client/server styles will continue to be power and of network bandwidth made view. In the Alternative Interpretation, developed and deployed, and if done it impossible to run many business the PC/networking response to corpo- for the right reasons will continue to applications on anything but PCs. rate computing is not always a rational bring benefits. However, companies When PCs were introduced, mainframes exploitation of cheap MIPS and the should be cautious about expecting were rendered incapable of economi- falling cost of bandwidth. What was cost reductions and rapid software cally providing services such as missed out? Consider the pieces from development times. The business case spreadsheets. The number of cycles which computers are built. In essence, must be built carefully.

45 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 LETTERS

Send your letters to: The Editor Personal Computer World is (or was until this year) Pentium as faulty? Cleve Moler’s test, I was them that if they are not VNU House available if one room in a flat A long time ago I tried completely unsatisfied with satisfied, they must insist that 32-34 Broadwick Street or house is designated as an Cleve Moler’s test (PCW this. I was told that the only Intel sends them the CPU London W1A 2HG “office”, and can be shown to February, p294) which con- thing I could do was to call identification utility. be used as such. This is irre- firmed that I had a faulty Pen- Intel’s UK office. They initially Hugh Nisbet or email spective of whether the tax- tium. In August, I contacted tried to fob me off, saying only Co. Down [email protected] payer normally works there or Intel on their “Pentium their test could be accepted or fax in a workplace provided by Processor Help Line” (0800 and that the fault was not sig- One for the ladies 0171 316 9313 his or her employer. 374838) about a replacement. nificant. I persisted, and in the In the course of writing my What better way of “prov- I was asked to carry out a dif- end they sent me their CPU book, How To Make Money ing” to the tax authorities that ferent “Intel Test”, and was identification utility disc. This From Your Personal the room is actually an office, told it was the only test Intel confirmed that my Pentium Computer, l was struck by the and not, say, a living room, would now accept. The test is was one of the faulty batch. number of self-employed than installing a PC? shown below: Things went smoothly after women who use computers to Letters Otherwise, full marks for that and I have since installed earn a living. the changes in magazine lay- 824633702441 my replacement Pentium. It seems to be taken as x = 1 x out and for continuing to pro- 824633702441 What is Intel up to? Clearly read that men are masters of Don’t believe the hype your comment that “nearly vide something worth reading their calculation test does not the computer world. Yet using Tim Nott’s statement (Home- seven out of ten of the every month. processor is OK if x = 1 always work: I wonder how computers at home is ideal for front, PCW December, p41) efficient Germans put their Norman D Griffiths often it does. Do they only women. Firstly, It enables that Dvorak “lifted” material PCs into a home office”. Neu-Isenburg, Germany The test failed to show that treat personal users in this them to adapt their working from Negro spirituals for his I rather think that the truth my Pentium was faulty. Unfor- way or do business customers hours to their children or New World symphony is com- has less to do with the (largely Intel test unreliable tunately, the “Help Line” team get the same treatment? Per- elderly relatives (and we pletely false. In a letter to his mythical) efficiency of our How many Intel Pentium would only arrange for the haps you could warn other should be asking why it is still publisher, Dvorak wrote that Teutonic cousins, than with users have tried the current replacement of faulty proces- users about the shortcomings women who take on the bulk the story that the work the fact that substantial “Intel Test” and found that it sors identified using the Intel of the Intel test through the of these tasks). Secondly, it contains Red Indian and income tax relief in Germany has failed to identify their test. Having already used columns of PCW, and tell gives them access to a world Negro music was an advertis- of people via the internet and ing stunt designed to promote email, and, with suitable train- ticket sales for his subscription Focus on Windows erly, runs on the machine it was of Win95, as well as becoming real benefits to be had from the ing, takes them away from the concerts. In 1890 he wrote to 95 developed for and does at least au fait with the various hardware upgrade, this might be accept- stereotype of home typing for the conductor Oscar Nedball, User-unfriendly? what it says on the box. The requirements of my students’ able. But on all counts version a living. I have spoken to who was preparing After reading Camille Mendler’s term “minimum requirements” is minimum spec machines. Still, 95 has nothing to offer over 4.3, women designing press hand- programme notes: “But the Windows 95 perspective (News particularly misleading, giving it’s all helping my business, so I except those features common outs, creating a biannual nonsense –– that I made use Analysis, November), I was hor- little impression of what the pro- can’t chastise the Bill Gateses of to Windows 95 itself, such as directory and editing and dis- of ‘Indian’ and American rified at the complacent attitude gram is like in real life and forc- this world too much, now can I? long filenames. seminating a financial bulletin, motives –– leave out, because of Richard Nuttall. ing users to abandon the new All this is really a shame, The only other feature of to name just a few. it is a lie…”. “Users expect too much,” he software or “invest” in new hard- because I’d plump for a Windows 95 that will be of bene- There is an under-appreci- After over a century of says. I’m sorry, but in my book, ware. The trouble (as well as the revamped Windows NT, espe- fit to the professional user is the ated world of women working massive, desperate efforts to that’s one hell of a cop-out to beauty) of PCs is that they can cially if it sported something sim- expansion of system resources, with computers in their own find any connection between level at the unwary beginner or be made up of so many different ilar to Win95’s rather nice allowing more than Word or homes –– teleworking does Dvorak’s work and even an experienced user. If I go components (such as graphics interface and was a good games Excel to be run at one time. not adequately describe it. I Negro/Indian material, the only into a garage to buy a car, I accelerators), that it is impossi- platform. But then I’d really have Multi-threading seems like a hope your magazine will be thing to have turned up is a expect the damn thing to work ble to recommend any one my work cut out. good idea, but on a Pentium 90 giving more coverage to fragment –– less than a dozen properly as soon as I get behind spec. If a user experiences Mykel Evangelista or higher, printing and similar woman-friendly articles, notes of a Red Indian melody the wheel. If it didn’t, I would go difficulty in running the new Lancashire tasks are done so quickly that explaining what the latest he asked his friend Kovarik to straight back to the garage and software or if it conflicts with there is no need for true multi- computers can do for them. note down, which bears a bugger any excuse that “the existing software, they have ...or the road to tasking. Meanwhile, software Polly Bird, Cheshire: slight resemblance to just two brakes don’t quite work as yet, every right to complain and upgrade hell such as RamDoubler has author of How to Earn bars of his E-flat quintet. but we're working on a fix for pester the “helplines” until the Many thanks to Tim Nott appeared, overcoming the sys- Money from Your The interesting point is that them”, or “of course, the brake problem is sorted out. (Homefront, November) for tem resource problem and mak- Personal Computer it shows that advertising hype lights only work when you're I don’t want Win95 on my stating the basic problem for the ing Windows 3.11 more stable. is so powerful, it is still stationary". Okay, so computer machine –– having seen it on serious user upgrading to Win- As a user of Office 4.3, Ram- Osborne offer believed a hundred years programs have millions of lines other PCs I think it's dreadful –– dows 95. He rightly pointed out Doubler and PC Tools for Win- Simon Rockman’s look back later. of code and of course mistakes but I guess I’ll end up installing that to get any benefit at all from dows, I’m afraid that I will not be at the Osborne 01, the world’s NRD Griffith, Kent are frequently made (that’s why sooner rather than later. I teach the new system, it is necessary adding to Bill Gates’ millions first portable computer, must revision releases are produced), IT, mainly to beginners who are to upgrade all existing software when the only tangible benefits have brought a tear of nostal- The PC as a tax dodge but that simply means that pro- particularly likely to be suckered to new 32-bit versions. of the new Windows 95 can be gia to many an eye. This age- I was amused to read the item grammers have to be more into buying and having problems Quite simply, Microsoft (and duplicated without the additional ing classic is great fun to play “The PC Goes Home” in the careful. Loading all the blame with this “indispensable” new others) will make a killing from expense of upgrading every with, especially for the retro- News Analysis section of onto the users just isn’t on. system. I’ll therefore need to charging more than £250 to software package I have. buff or computer historian, November's PCW. Users have every right to make sure that I’m up to date upgrade Office from version 4.3 Andy Hann and I have had many happy What is particularly droll is expect that software runs prop- enough about the ins and outs to Office 95. If there were any Milton Keynes hours tinkering with the one

48 49 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 LETTERS

that lurks in the corner of my hearing from notebook users the loading of a document, if people are wary of spending office. is that floppy disk drives are they have not been previously £1,500 plus on a machine Unfortunately, I now don’t being used less and less registered as a safe they’ve never seen and proba- have space to house the crea- often. Data is more likely to command. This would effec- bly haven’t read a review of, ture, so I would like to offer an be transferred using a modem tively lock out the virus for especially when you consider example of the world’s first or by hooking up to a good and stop it spreading. that everyone knows at least portable computer, free of company network. Dino Dini one person who can tell a mail charge, to any bona fide [email protected] order horror story. I would like museum or organisation that Money can’t buy me to see a specific group test on would value it. love Not HP machines available widely in Neil Harris I recently received a copy of Barry Fox (Straight Talking, retail outlets, brands such as Cardiff Microsoft Money for Windows December 1995) is not very Packard Bell, Apricot, Vanilla, fax 01222 258377 95. As a user of version 3.0 of impressed with HP's attitude Escom, Highscreen, or nharris@starfleet. the product, I was keen to towards customers. Neither Compaq. win-uk.net upgrade as I had assumed am I. I have a DeskJet 500, I read your review of that Microsoft would take the which used to work fine with PC/TVs in the December Note on Notino opportunity to close the fea- Windows 3.1 and Word 2.0a. issue and was disappointed to I found Ben Tisdall’s review of ture gap between Money and Then I “upgraded” to Windows see the number of inaccura- the Hi-Grade Notino and Quicken. However, the new 95 and found I couldn't print cies in some of the machine Gateway Solo multimedia version of Money has no new envelopes any more. reviews. A good example is notebooks unusual. Consider features and is merely version Microsoft say this is HP’s fault the Spectria review which the following: 3.0 with a tarted-up interface (because the Win95 driver starts by stating that it has an Design: Apparently, the (which is very un-Windows). isn't as good as the Windows integral 15in monitor when it is main things he liked about the Selling the new version for 3.1 driver) and that I should 14in, the CD-ROM is quad- Solo were its neatness and £12 seems to be a cynical contact HP for a fixed driver, speed, and I believe the origi- lightness. “Partly because it attempt to grab Intuit’s market but the chatter on nal price when released was has a CD or floppy drive, share by selling a vastly infe- CompuServe makes it quite around £1449+VAT but is now rather than both, the case is rior product at a rock-bottom clear that HP have no inten- £1149+VAT. I have found that more compact,” he wrote. The price. A message to any tion of ever producing a Win- people buying Packard Bell lack of a floppy disk drive is users of version 3.0 of Money dows 95 driver for the DeskJet computers find the colour- actually a serious disadvan- –– do yourself a favour and 5xx. And nobody, not even coded connectors very help- tage. It would, for example, be don’t bother wasting money Microsoft, can tell me how to ful, especially since PS2 difficult to install Windows 95 on an upgrade. From now on, back up to the Windows 3.1 mouse and keyboard connec- from a CD to a computer with- I'll be using Quicken. driver that worked fine. HP’s tors are practically identical. out having a floppy to boot Julian Warr BBS number was engaged All of this is irrelevant anyway, from. [email protected] four evenings on the trot, so I as the model is discontinued Value: Going by current have given up trying it. — the 95xx range has been advertising, the Gateway Solo PCW replies: While I might appear to HP replaced by the 9xx range. S120 Deluxe costs £3,999 Microsoft liked Quicken so as a worthless customer, as I The PC/TVs you reviewed plus VAT. You can buy the much, it attempted to buy only use an "ancient" DJ500 are/were available from a sin- Notino Mover with the same Intuit. Unfortunately for (less than three years old and gle shop, PC World, and the processor, with full multimedia Microsoft, the acquisition was still working fine) at home, I do others individually from capability, a TFT screen and a blocked. It will take them a specify which laser printers Tempo and such-like. In the 1.2Gb hard disk, for £3,150 while to close the gap on my department buys at work. run-up to Christmas and the plus VAT. Quicken, and frankly it’s a As we are about to buy a new, January sales, I believe the Maybe the reviewer finds it relief to most people to find large printer for the majority of PC buyers will be difficult to put himself in the one mainstream PC applica- department, should I buy HP, buying from retail outlets, and shoes of an ordinary customer tion area that Microsoft with the expectation that when I would like to see group tests who has to pay for their doesn’t own. a new version of an operating which reflect this. choice and make a long-term system (Cairo?) comes out I Joel Mansford, London decision, rather than move on Virus vanquishing am expected to throw it in the to the next review machine. I am not sure that these so- skip? Or do HP, as it seems, Board rigid? Ori Yiassoumis called “Macro Viruses” need really want me to buy from Ian Pluthero [of Gateway Sales Director to be such a threat. It has to someone else. 2000] sounds a little too com- Hi-Grade Computers plc be remembered that any Tim Ward, Cambridge placent in his reply to RV Geal command has to be executed (Letters, December). I recently Ben Tisdall replies: by the word processor appli- Retail, not mail wanted to add 4Mb to my 8Mb Although your point about cation. It must be a trivial mat- I regularly read your group P75. After interminable calls installing operating ter for the developer of the tests but am regularly disap- through to Gateway sales systems is a word processor to release an pointed to see the number of (with several repetitions of my good one, additional facility which disal- the machines reviewed which customer ID number), the what I’m lows the execution of are not available in retail out- salesman told that me the programs or commands on lets. It’s not surprising that memory for the P75 only

51 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 LETTERS

came on 8Mb boards. Naively, the PCs and on the servers. licensed software, and will they treat them [the users] I bit the bullet. Our current virus checker has therefore pay the extra £50 or with such undisguised Two weeks later, after versions for DOS, Windows so for each upgrade. But how contempt? many frustrating chase-up 3.11 and Windows NT, but can software companies Adrian Pope calls, two 4Mb boards arrived, the Windows 95 version is expect users to abide by [email protected]. taking my last available mem- being developed. licensing agreements when compuserve.com ory slots. Mr Pluthero won't We purchase PCs direct know about this as I am not from a manufacturer who will Hindsight prepared to spend the time preload either Windows 3.11 taking them out, returning or Windows 95 for us, but not them to Gateway and having both. In the period of a few Ten years ago: January 1986 to chase up the 8Mb board months, until the Windows 95 Report from Comdex, Las Vegas replacement. virus checker becomes avail- “If there was a Comdex trend in add-ons –– apart from the On a more positive note, able, we are forced to buy two obvious ones that all roads lead to the IBM PC –– it was disk it's been a great machine. licences for Microsoft cards. Plus Developments started the trend with the HardCard, Duncan Goldie-Scot Windows. Microsoft have very a 10Mb, 3.5in Winchester disk drive built onto a standard PC [email protected] sweetly told us they are differ- add-on board and announced some months back… All these ent products, and that we manufacturers were pushing ease of installation and easy Licence loophole cannot therefore use removal for data transfer from one machine to another.” In the company I work for, we Windows 3.11 under the have a corporate policy not to Windows 95 licence. Update: Comdex, at least, still happens in Las Vegas every use an operating system with- Our company tries hard to November. See Newsprint, pp18-30. out a virus checker based on be rigorous in using only Five years ago: January 1991 “A year ago, Lotus didn’t sell a word Honcho head-hunt processor and WordPerfect didn’t My compliments to your letters response. Now, having Mr. sell a spreadsheet. So they got page editor for bothering to get a Pluthero's name, I was able to together and said: ‘Microsoft sells reply to a reader's complaint write to him. Right away I got both, and claims they work together. about Gateway 2000 from their a phone call, a polite letter, and Let’s make ours work together’ –– and MD, Ian Pluthero. (Computer the disk delivered by carrier. Lotus 1-2-3/G and WordPerfect for Shopper recently published a It might make an interesting OS/2 Presentation manager began to similar complaint letter from little feature sometime to pub- be born…” another Gateway customer with lish (for sending bouquets as no response.) I had a minor well as brick-bats) the names of Update: Developing for OS/2 was a problem with my recent order to the head honcho in the UK for disastrous mistake for both companies. Both were late with Gateway. Some software that many leading hardware, soft- their Windows versions. Both companies were later bought, was supposed to come with it, ware and mail order and their respective spreadsheets and word processors now didn't. I phoned several times companies. have to content themselves with picking up the crumbs under and wrote a letter. After a Stephen Wells Microsoft’s table. month there was still no [email protected]

52 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 First Impressions

Contents

60 HP OMniGo 100 61 PageMaker 6.0 62 SureStore and CD Revolution 64 The National Lottery 64 Panasonic Quad Pro 66 Microsoft Publisher 3.0 70 Orchid NuSound PNP 73 Quarterdeck Web Server 74 Adaptec AIRport 2000 74 Avery Label Pro 76 Scan IT 80 Map’n’Go 83 Nikon Super Coolscan 84 Xcad 3.1 86 Canon Multimedia Speakers 86 Opti LCD Monitor First Impressions includes the irresistible “Gadgets” spread on page 56. 87 Logical Decisions 4.0 Highlights include a pair of bargain CD writing packages; each priced at 90 Lorien Texthelp under £1,000. And there’s HP’s hybrid palmtop. If you’re feeling frisky, load 93 Minitab 10 Xtra up The National Lottery, or get ready to Map’n’GO.

VNU European Labs

Labs tests cover every kind time in minutes and seconds to print a page in a comparative test VNUof hardware and software of printers. including PC hardware, printers, network products, modems and software applica- tions. The tests are continually developed and enhanced to reflect hardware and software developments. Our tests closely simulate real-world use. For example, the suite of PC hardware benchtests uses complete versions of industry-standard applications like Microsoft Excel and Word for Windows, WordPerfect 6.0 (DOS and Windows), Lotus 1-2-3 version 3.4 (DOS) and FoxPro (Windows and DOS). Application tests are the backbone of all the VNU Labs system evaluations but it’s nearly impossible to pin an appli- cation result to a specific machine component. Only system-level tests (also known as low-level tests) can reliably tell the difference. VNU Labs’ system-level test suite is called Euromark. The tests, which are mainly Windows-based, quickly size up a hard disk, sound card, motherboard, display adaptor and printer, and give individual and overall figures. ● To make them easy to read at a glance, all the graphs in PCW are now drawn so that the bigger the bar, the better the result. Normally we’ll also include the original data we worked from: for example, the

55 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS FIRST IMPRESSIONS

HARDWARE SOFTWARE Hewlett-Packard OmniGo 100 PageMaker 6.0

Despite the OmniGo 100’s clever hybrid pen and keyboard PhotoShop plug-ins get the thumbs-up but design, PJ Fisher doesn’t think it’s going to de-throne Psion. Pagemaker 6.0 is no radical overhaul. The real conundrum remains unsolved, observes PJ Fisher. he new Hewlett-Packard OmniGo determine whether you could get used to sensitive and responsive to even the T100 has a surprise in store. Before this keyboard. lightest of pen taps — something the ear- you open it up it looks like a normal palm- But the OmniGo 100 is likely to be liest Newtons were not very good at. ageMaker still has a lot of fans in the you receive a top. Then you discover the screen folds marketed on the back of its hybrid pen Whatever its pretensions, this is basi- PPC world, unlike the Mac arena number of right back on a double-jointed hinge to lie computing tools as much as anything cally an organiser and HP has packed it where it has all but lost the professional Gallery Effects flat on top of the keyboard unit. Lying in a else. Next question then: How well does it with everything that you would expect: publishing market to Quark XPress. It is and the package slot at the front there’s a little Newton- recognise handwriting? Very well, since diary, address and phone number data- perhaps a little odd then that the PC ver- should support after-market plug-ins, PageMaker 6.0 displays its new colours style pen. By now you are definitely the OmniGo has foregone any Newton- bases, to-do listing, spreadsheet and cal- sion of 6.0 should arrive two months after although I guess many PageMaker users aware that you are in possession of a style recognition pretence and gone for culator. And all the features can be edited its Mac cousin but I guess Adobe has a will be happy with the standard kit. very different palmtop, one that gives you the reliable Graffiti software instead. As using the pen or the keyboard. There is different set of priorities — it wants to re- The other excellent new plug-in is the a choice of interaction. long as you follow the rules every charac- also a useful Financial Tools package establish PageMaker as a serious pub- Guide Manager. This is an excellent tool major plus points. Another nice touch is So which method should you use — ter you scribble on screen will be recog- which includes HP-12 calculator emula- lishing tool and refuses to admit defeat. that gives you literally hundreds of the right click which zooms into a spot pen using Graffiti software nised instantly. HP tion and, unusually in a PDA, a Hence this roll-out. options for setting guides on the page. It and then out again. claim that the Graffiti stopwatch. But, as they say, therein lies the rub. is easily the best implementation of The really advanced stuff that Adobe language can be On the hardware side, 1Mb of RAM In the PC world the entry-level market for guides on any DTP package. has built-in refers to colour-management picked up in twenty comes as standard along with a single DTP is alive and well and PageMaker is On the whole most of the plug-ins are systems and colour trapping and mask- minutes and this PCMCIA slot and a serial port to talk to seen as a rival to low-end packages such the same Additions that featured in previ- ing. This is all very well, but I wonder how seems realistic based your printer or fax modem. HP will also as Microsoft Publisher, Serif Page Plus ous versions of PM. For example many of PageMaker’s PC fans really on my experience. shortly announce an add-on connectivity and GST Pressworks. All sell for consid- Balance Columns has never worked need or understand such˚ high-end repro I felt comfortable pack to link files between the OmniGo erably less than PageMaker; under £100. properly, and Expert Kerning just scripts tools. with Graffiti. But is and your desktop PC. We looked at a late beta build of a process far better done from the Con- Power users or not, PageMaker still single character OmniGo accepts the limitations of PageMaker 6.0 running on Windows 95. trol Palette. Incidentally, this is a far more needs a complete interface overhaul. entry the best way Graffiti (slow, unintuitive) but it remains It was mostly robust but was prone to a powerful facility than generally realised Successive upgrades have left it with a to take notes? I the most robust form of a still developing few jitters when implementing key com- and gives fine control over kerning, track- mix of duplicated functionality, with too would need more technology. Until it is perfected I will con- ponents such as the HTML tools, Photo- ing and font specs. Typographic controls many controls scattered in far-flung dia- time with the tinue to trust input from a palmtop Shop plug-ins and creating Acrobat PDF are as good as any. logue boxes involving several mouse OmniGo to be con- keyboard. Of course you don’t have to files. However, it could all be made to Elsewhere you’ll notice a new Poly- clicks to achieve results. vinced that it could take notes on a palmtop and the work with perseverance and will undoubt- gon tool in the toolbox. Again, this is Overall PageMaker finds itself in an beat fast keyboard OmniGo’s pen works just fine as a point- edly be smooth as butter in the final hardly a power-level tool but it provides a odd position. It is far superior to other PC- entry, something ing device in all its applications, so in release. simple method of creating polygons. only DTP packages but is still outshone the Psion excels effect you get the best (or worst!) of both So what do you see when you launch These can be turned into multi-pointed by XPress in the pro market. Unless the at. In pen mode worlds. PageMaker 6.0? Well you see star shapes but nothing more irregular publishing and design industries decide the OmniGo Using this pre-production unit for such PageMaker basically. There is no radical than that. But it’s neat and simple to use. to shift en masse to Windows high-end feels very like a short time does not represent a full test. new look to play with, which will appeal to Text wrapping has not been improved development on PageMaker for Windows the Newton Longer acquaintance would determine its traditionalists but might disappoint those and remains weaker than XPress, but is seems a waste of effort. but the suitability as a permanent digital compan- expecting something revolutionary. All good enough for the sort of less-than- The conundrum for Adobe is that PC OmniGo ion. Despite its clever integration, the familiar tools, menus and text- ambitious design work that most Page- users love PageMaker, but they are not also however, my gut feeling is that the handling procedures are unchanged. Maker users will do. pro users and don’t want power repro enables OmniGo 100 has nothing about it to really But Adobe has been at work. What Magnification has also been improved features. On the other hand Mac Page- click and best the Psion 3a. used to be called Aldus Additions are with the introduction of a drag/zoom facil- Maker users are ALL power users but drag of now called Plug-Ins, bringing PageMaker ity that has been sorely lacking until now. they all use XPress. Cute problem. items such as the PCW Details into line with Adobe’s standard nomen- Users at all levels will be delighted to Graffiti dialogue clature. What a shame then that the plug- see multiple master pages — up to 256 PCW Details Price £290 (plus VAT) box. One thing is ins are not quite those you have come to in a single document. This is very useful Price £515, upgrade from £100 (from any Contact Hewlett-Packard Customer Infor- certain. The screen expect, in PhotoShop for example. The if your publications have several different version) mation Centre 01344 369222 or the traditional keyboard? Choose the is too small and looks strange fitted into name may have changed but the plug-ins page master designs. Contact Adobe UK 0131 453 2211 latter and you’ll find it is, frankly, very HP. the OmniGo’s rectangular form. You do Good Points Compact in size, responsive are pretty much the same collection of Other useful new features include the Good Points Ease of use, Photoshop plug- pen. Clever hybrid design gives choice of The keys require a hefty push and lack find yourself peering into it more closely Aldus scripts. However, there are two extended grouping and hiding tools. You ins, smooth grouping and hiding tools. pen or keyboard input. the silkiness of, say, a Psion Series 3a than you would like. The display has honourable exceptions. can, for example, now send objects Bad Points No real fresh face, interface is Bad Points But both have their limitations. which the OmniGo 100 will be pitched some nice touches however. You can Photoshop Effects really does bring within layers rather than simply to the becoming messy. Plug-Ins need to be devel- Small display. against. The keys are well spaced, which rotate it if you prefer to use the OmniGo in the power of Photoshop directly into back or front. Objects can also be oped. Conclusion Built-in Graffiti software is accu- Conclusion Still a fine DTP package but a can be a good thing — you are less likely vertical hold and the eraser feature is par- rately robust but typing on a Psion is still PageMaker’s interface, so you can apply grouped and treated as single units and lot of power in this release will go to waste. to hit the wrong key. A longer test would ticularly satisfying. The screen is highly faster and sweeter. filters directly on the page. As standard lined up to a grid with ease. All these are

60 61 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

HARDWARE Two budget CD writers

Gordon Laing reviews two new packages, from Hewlett- Packard and CD Revolution, that offer complete CD writing capability for under £1,000.

D writing has always been consid- Advansys 5150 ISA SCSI-2 card, cable, mended blanks which it claims have a Cered expensive, and somewhat of a two blanks and a variety of software, 100-year life as opposed to the shorter black art. Fortunately, both perceptions including a database package, photo CD span of normal blanks, but it’s difficult to are a thing of the past with complete all- viewer and suitable writing software. CD prove. It’s worth remembering that CD- you-need bundles available at previously Revolution supplies the CDR-24 writer, ROM discs are more fragile than normal unheard-of prices. We’ve reviewed writ- Adaptec 1505 ISA SCSI card, cable, pressed CDs and should be treated with ers costing under £1,500 before, but here caddy, two blanks, and a choice of either care: keep them in their cases and out of are two writers which come in complete Corel CD Creator or CeQuadrat sunlight when not in use. bundles with SCSI card, software and WinOnCD ToGo. Both writers successfully wrote at dou- blank media for under £1,000. Installation of both drives is a doddle. ble-speed, although we did use a fast Both internal writers have not only the Set up the SCSI card, or connect to an Adaptec 2940 PCI SCSI card and a quick complete bundles in common, but addi- existing one, reboot and install the writing Quantum hard drive. For no-worries writ- tionally boast double-speed writing, and software. Both packages require you to ing at higher speeds, it really is beneficial quad-speed reading capabilities. They identify the writer and allow you to set up to use a large SCSI drive connected to are courtesy of newcomer to the field, performance factors, the most important the same SCSI chain as the writer. This Hewlett-Packard, and veteran distributor being writing speed. If your hard disk is one aspect where HP’s supplied card CD Revolution which, possibly inspired plods along, it’s wise to write at single falls down. Despite offering bus master- by HP, has created a retail bundle imagi- speed, or at least run the supplied speed ing, it does not have on-board bios and natively named the CD Recording Kit. CD checks, otherwise you could end up spoil- consequently will not support a booting Revolution is OEMing a writer from a ing your blank disc. Both suppliers SCSI drive. HP claims that having a card manufacturer it would prefer us not to recommend a transfer rate from your dedicated to the writer alone will ensure name, but suffice it to say that this manu- hard drive of at least 800Kb/sec. no interference, but in my opinion, CD facturer is Japanese, has already made Spoiling blanks is infuriating, but not Revolution bundles a far more useful many CD writers and is big in motorbikes. as big a deal as it used to be, with typical Adaptec card, although power users may Ease of use is a crucial media prices of between £5 and £10 find the ISA bus on both supplied cards a issue. Consequently both each — that’s 650Mb formatted informa- little limiting. kits come complete with tion, or over 70 minutes of CD digital The quad-speed reading claims are all you need to start audio — good value by anyone’s true for data transfer, but don’t expect too writing CDs from books, and of course best of all, com- much from access times. You can use scratch. HP offers patible with any existing CD-ROM both writers as plain CD-ROM drives, but the SureStore drive or player. they’re not particularly fast — much better 4020i writer, CD-ROM is a write-once medium, to have a dedicated reader. so there’s no going back once you’ve Both kits represent excellent value for started the writing process. Fortunately it money. If we had to choose one, CD is possible to add data at a later date Revolutions would probably have the until you’ve filled the disc, but not over edge thanks to a more useful SCSI card, areas already written. Each recording is Win95 ready software, and the fact that known as a session, and the capability to the writer manufacturer is not new to the write or read these multiple sessions as game. multisession. Be aware, however, that each session has a lead-in and out track PCW Details which occupies between 10 and 20Mb; Hewlett Packard SureStore 4020i effectively wasted space. Both these writ- Price £829 ers are multisession devices. Contact 01344 369222 Write-once could be considered incon- CD Revolution CD Recording Kit venient since you can’t re-record over Price £749 already written-to areas, but for backup Contact 01932 562000 and archiving it is ideal. No-one can Good points CD writing complete for less erase the data unless they physically than £1,000. damage the disc. Bad points They’re not sub-£500 yet! HP charges around £10 for its recom- Conclusion Both kits superb value.

62 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE The National Lottery™ The Brookside Close lottery syndicate would have avoided a lot of grief by using the Multiple Board facility says Michael Hewitt.

here are several lottery programs in the newsagent. Or you can ask the Tavailable, but this is the first product program’s inbuilt random number gener- The National Lottery Program has been to have been developed specifically for ator to choose them for you. It’s all very designed to look as much like the UK market. The screen interface is easy. Camelot’s genuine article as possible based on our own National Lottery graph- The next step is down to you. Having ics, including the by now depressingly made a note of your chosen numbers, lottery draws for those dumb enough to familiar crossed fingers. So what does it you have to actually go out and enter believe the selection is anything other do for you that choosing the numbers them in a real playslip, pay for your ticket, than random. There’s also a Multiple with a pin or praying to St Jude wouldn’t? and then wait for the balls to drop. As Board screen for people involved in a lot- The program (3.5in disk and CD- Anthea Turner reads them out, fire up the tery syndicate, keeping track of who’s ROM) installs in under a minute. This program again, go into the Results paid what. And, importantly, the software done, click on the Lottery icon and the Screen, and key in the winning numbers. will prompt you to go out and buy a ticket. graphic of a blank red playslip appears. If you’ve got three or more, the software Choose New, and you’re prompted for responds with progressively more enthu- your name and the playslip name. Enter siastic (but not overly so) sound effects. It PCW Details anything you like here. Winning Ticket, has to be said that its reaction to winning Price £12.99 for example. On the other hand, if it’s a the jackpot — a muted round of applause Contact GSP Software 01480 496 666 rollover week, you might choose — is decidedly blasé. The Hallelujah Good points Easy to use, good graphics Rollover. Next, using your mouse, fill in Chorus would have been better. and excellent value for money the playslip numbers, exactly as if you Other features include a statistical Bad points Decidedly tacky sound-effects. were choosing them with a ballpoint pen analysis of winning numbers from past Conclusion Good fun, at just £312.99.

HARDWARE

plug-and-play compatible with the new New Quad-speed CD-ROMs SCAM (SCSI Configured Auto-Magically) standard, allowing it and a SCAM compli- ant card to automatically select IDs to Gordon Laing reviews two new quads with a different twist. avoid conflicts. Plextor additionally supplies a good set anasonic has at last made its tray- to the fact that it’s a 4.5 speed drive. of drivers and utilities which, considering Ploading ATAPI quad available in a We’ve seen loads of quads, and sev- everything else, makes it an innovative retail pack named the QuadPro IDE, while eral 4.4 speeds, but I suppose Plextor high performance package, although not Plextor’s latest caddy-loading SCSI drive, has just squeezed into the lead with a 4.5 a cheap one. 4PlexPlus, claims to be the world’s fastest speed, effectively confirming the “fastest quad-speed. quad-speed“ claim. PCW Details Panasonic’s is interesting because it’s SCSI handles multi-tasking much bet- Panasonic QuadPro IDE 601 Kb/s effectively the replacement for what is ter than enhanced IDE and also supports Price £139 probably the world’s most widespread up to seven devices, both internal and Contact Panasonic Computer peripherals CD-ROM drive, the double-speed CR- external. This flexibility and high perfor- 01344 853913 562/563, Panasonic’s proprietary mance has seen it fitted to servers and Good points Cheap and capable quad. interface which was fitted as standard to high-end desktops, but don’t let that put Bad points Six speeds dropping in price. many sound cards. you off going for SCSI. You will need a Conclusion Good choice for the as yet un- The QuadPro IDE is an enhanced IDE SCSI card, and we quadded. drive, indeed it’s already fitted to many recommend any PCs off the assembly line, but is now from Adaptec. Plextor 4Plex Plus 682 Kb/s available off the retail shelf. You can use The 4Plex- Price £279 your existing IDE interface or the one sup- Plus is also Contact Tekdata 01782 577677 plied. Good points Fast, good software, plug and Plextor’s 4Plex Plus is interesting on play. several counts: the company believes the Bad points Double the price of your aver- quality market is SCSI and sticks to the age quad IDE. Conclusion Excellent quad, but close to six traditionally higher-end interface, while speed prices. the claim to be the “world’s fastest” is due

64 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE

ble, but it’s now possible to rotate Microsoft Publisher 3.0 anything on the page –– even a block of text –– to any angle. Grouping objects together so they can be moved around With online help and an excellent general manual, this version the page as one is now much easier, as of Publisher is perfect for entry-level DTP, says Tim Nott. a frame appears around the selected objects with an attached button to group or ungroup. The Design Assistants, as o run this latest incarna- before, add more page Wizardry, Ttion of Microsoft’s entry- creating things such as coupons, level DTP package, you’ll logos and calendars –– the last need at least a 386DX with a choice of eleven languages. running Windows 95 or NT Down at the bottom of the tool Workstation 3.51, with 6Mb palette is a large button for the new RAM for the former and 12Mb Design Gallery. This gives access for the latter. Disk space to a whole library of predesigned required is 6-32Mb, depend- features to which you can add. ing on the options installed. There are headlines, sidebars, pull Publisher has always con- quotes, clever page numbering centrated on ease of use, and effects and much more, all avail- this version is easier than able in a variety of styles, from ever. There are over 100 classic to modern with much in “PageWizards” to help you get between. started. Choose the Brochure Colour was always Publisher’s PageWizard, for example, and you’ll be weak point, and there has been some prompted through successive screens for improvement here. You can now use one information such as the style, number of or two “spot” colours, and Publisher will pages or company name you want. separate the output, but there’s no sup- When the Wizard has finished setting up port for spot colour libraries such as Pan- the document, it stays lurking in the tone. Facilities for sending output to a background ready to offer “help as you bureau are much improved, and with the go” — click on a dummy headline, for help of the checklist Publisher provides, example, and a bubble will pop up you should be able to discuss things such explaining how to replace this with your Above Exciting as halftones, process separations and own text. effects in Publisher 3 — WordArt, trapping with your printer with some The help doesn’t stop there, as you borders, fancy first letters and rotating degree of confidence. can opt to have a help panel and/or index both text and graphics With the online help and Wizards, you on-screen all the time, neatly slotted in Below Creating a newsletter — let the may never need to open the 285-page beside the document you’re working on. Wizard do the work book, the Publisher Companion. This The contents change to reflect what would be a pity, as it is not so much a you’re doing, and they can be hidden Previous versions introduced some technical reference to Microsoft away with a single click. In addition, “first very clever touches, such as automatic Publisher, as a guide to Desktop Publish- time” help panels appear when you first text wrap around shaped graphics –– a ing in general. It covers such topics as do something (probably unwittingly), such task some PageMaker users still have to the principles of page design, choosing as snap to a guide or place a “layered” do by hand. Fancy First Letters was fonts for headings and body text, illustra- object. Finally, you get regular prompting another elegant time-saver, which has tion and use of colour, choice of paper to save your work. More experienced now been enhanced to offer a choice and printing. Included in the box is a cata- users can, and will probably want to, turn from a gallery of ready-made or logue of special papers and other hard- these aids off. customised effects and the rather splen- to-find stationery. The interface has been slightly tidied did Border Art, offers plain or fancy bor- up since version 2. Publisher 3 is “Office ders “by the yard”, automatically resizing Compatible”, which means not only will to fit the frame. As in version 2, you’re not menus, buttons and keystrokes be famil- limited to office stationery sizes: Publisher PCW Details iar to Word or Excel users, it will share will create documents up to twenty feet Price Around £70 resources such as a spellchecker. Pub- square. Contact Microsoft 01734 270000 lisher doesn’t go all the way in Office A new rotation tool has appeared on compatibility –– it won’t use existing cus- the formatting ribbon. Previously, to set Good points Easy to use entry-level DTP, tom dictionaries and you can’t add a Pub- text at anything other than horizontal, you with some ingenious effects. Bad points Limited colour support. lisher document to an Office Binder, but had to use the WordArt OLE applet. Wor- Conclusion Will keep all but the highest there is a shortcut to edit a Publisher dArt is still included, and all sorts of fancy power users satisfied. story in Word. warping and shadowing effects are possi-

66 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

HARDWARE

joystick/MIDI port on the blanking plate, Orchid NuSound PNP offering stereo line input, output, ampli- fied speaker output and mono The first proper Windows 95 PNP sound card offers high qual- microphone input. On the card itself are ity sound samples with good compatibility. But, says Gordon two internal CD audio connections for the SoundBlaster and MPC-2 standards; a Laing, you may still have to get your hands dirty. cable is supplied with a microphone. Also on the surface of the card is an nce you’ve got past the enthusiastic interface for the Orchid NuPanel, and Osinger on the cover of the box the optional front panel for the NuSound first thing you notice are the words: audio controls. Expected to cost around Orchid NuSound, plug and play 3D £25, the panel occupies a 3.5in drive bay Sound card with Wavetable synthesis. and offers the four connections of the This says it all really: Orchid’s latest blanking plate, a volume dial, and sound card is fully featured but not buttons to mute the sound and remarkable, in that it boasts 16-bit digital activate the 3D spatialiser. recording and playback, hardware This enhances stereo wavetable synthesis and Panasonic and sounds like artificial IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM drive interfaces. It’s An surround sound. If compatible with SoundBlaster (and Pro), early you have the AdLib, Windows Sound System and Gen- version NuPanel eral MIDI. At £129 the price is alright, but of the and spa- again not outstanding with cheaper cards NuSound PNP tialiser offering similar sound capabilities from board. Current activated, the likes of Aztech. No, the special thing models have two front speakers can about the NuSound is that is claims to be CD-ROM interfaces for be connected to the the first plug and play (PNP) Windows 95 Panasonic and IDE blanking plate and rear sound card; it’s also compatible with Win- ones to the front panel for dows 3x. Sadly, the “easy, jumperless resources showed PNP had greater effect. The 3D option is installation” wasn’t quite that. fallen down, since it only had one activated from the supplied DOS and Plug and play does what it says. Just of four IRQ interrupts to choose from Windows software utilities, which include plug in your new piece of hardware and and all were taken. These IRQs were MIDI configuration, audio recording and away you go. Fingers crossed, playing occupied by old-fashioned non-PNP playback, and an enhanced CD player. should be the only thing you worry about, devices which wouldn’t budge until I Overall, the NuSound is a good sound with your computer doing all the technical physically rearranged some jumpers. card, offering all the compatibility you’d legwork, solving hardware conflicts and The NuSound was much happier hav- want and high quality General MIDI sam- automatically prompting for disks. ing found a spare location, but my trou- ples, considering all the sounds are com- I eagerly slotted the NuSound into a bles were still not over. The digital audio pressed into a 1Mb ROM. The NuPanel spare 16-bit slot in my PC. As soon as driver had PNP’d itself to IRQ 11, which is a nice touch which could prevent you Windows had started, the PNP was fine under Windows, but most DOS scrabbling behind your PC all the time to experience began with “New hardware games only support a limited number of find the right plugs. The plug and play detected”. The Orchid manual stated SoundBlaster IRQ options. Doom 2 only aspect works well so long as you under- Windows 95 would spot and ask to install offers 2, 5, or 7, so before I could hear the stand what it’s capable of doing, consid- drivers for Windows Sound System, plasma crackling, I had to manually ering other potentially stubborn non-PNP MPU-401 and GamePort Joystick, and change the digital audio IRQ to 5. devices. PNP is definitely the future, but that you should specify to read from the After this, everything worked perfectly. during this transitionary period you’ll have disk supplied by the manufacturer. Doom and Descent played excellent Gen- to occasionally give it a helping hand. What actually happened was a detec- eral MIDI music, accompanied by Sound- You’ll also be paying a slight premium for tion of a CS-4232 chip (Orchid’s chosen Blaster sound effects. Under Windows, PNP, so if it’s not important to you, look CODEC, compression decompression WAV files played and recorded, 16-bit elsewhere and save some money. chip), which triggered off a compulsory audio was clean, particularly at the maxi- search of the Windows 95 CD for a suit- mum sampling rate of 48KHz. Orchid has able driver. After this, I could install the software for DOS and Windows 3.1/95. previously mentioned familiar sound dri- The wavetable section offers up to 32 PCW Details vers as instructed. I called Orchid who simultaneous voices, including 190 instru- Price £129 explained that this was supposed to hap- ment sounds and 46 special effects com- Contact Orchid Europe 01256 479898 pen, but they neglected to mention this pressed onto a 1Mb ROM. The NuSound Good points PNP, good compatibility, front unexpected step in the otherwise detailed board has a port for a WaveBooster/ panel option. manual. One restart later and almost all WaveBlaster daughterboard card to Bad points PNP may need manual configu- was well. In the System control panel, upgrade the wavetable section: Orchid ration. one of the sound drivers was not working offers two (reviewed in this issue). Conclusion Slight premium for PNP, but good overall card. due to a hardware conflict. Checking the Four 3.5mm sockets accompany the

70 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE

favourite Web browser. To test QuarterDeck WebServer WebServer type in a URL of http://your- machine/ and the installed default home page should appear along with its images and hyperlinks. It worked first time across A DIY webserver sounds too good to be true. Impressive, the LAN too and was immediately acces- says PJ Fisher, but don’t expect it to be as easy as ABC. sible on the internet. Leaving WebServer on your desktop enables you to see when someone is accessing the site. ho says you have to be Obviously you won’t want to keep the “Wa programmer to set up Left Once QuarterDeck default home page for very shop on the internet?” asks the installed, long but don’t trash it just yet. To start blurb on QuarterDeck’s Web- WebServer building your own home page you will Server package. The answer: keeps you need some knowledge of HTML and a probably a lot of programmers. informed of decent web editor that will save to the But setting up your PC as a activity .htm format. When you design a new Web server using this package home page it MUST be named is relatively easy, and the Below It’s INDEX.HTM so WebBrowser can find it opportunity to do so cheaply simple to and send it out to the client browser will appeal to small businesses change whether on the LAN or further out on the and individuals keen to get onto configuration net. This is the default file a browser will the world wide web. display when the browser makes a There’s just two disks to request for http://yourhost/. I set install (about 2Mb hard disk WebServer up on a bog space is required), and this ver- standard Dell P60 with sion is Windows 95 friendly. 16Mb of memory and a You also get 90 days free sup- 540MB Hard drive and port and QuarterDeck have its own web TCP/IP the whole set up took site (www.qdeck.com) and BBS help sys- networking less than an hour. tems as back up. knowledge. There is a section in When installing WebServer you will be For exam- the manual about using asked whether you want to install LAN ple, you need CGI (Common Gateway Workplace. This is important as it to know the IP Interface) scripts to cre- contains the network support programs address of your ate clickable image that WebServer needs to run –– and it machine, its maps and a simple CGI should run with the majority of network domain name example is installed for stacks. If unsure, consult your network and the subnet you to explore. This is manager. If you are worried about secu- mask. That’s a second 4 byte value worth keeping if you have ambitions to rity, a log file records every hit to your site which specifies which bytes of the IP set up image maps on your own home and who makes them. If you wish to address are to be used as a network ID page. And believe me, you will,.CGI or remain absolutely secure, it may be worth and which are host (your machine) ID not, once set up WebServer runs unob- installing WebServer on a standalone values. Confused? you will be. On to trusively in the background and all you machine, but of course that would mean your network manager again. need worry about is keeping your pages that no-one on the LAN would be able to Meanwhile, the installation runs through up to date. You don’t need a degree in access the web pages. Further to this, all this and prompts you to fill in the cor- computer science to set up WebServer, you can use restrict users with rect details. Even if you are not sure what but you will need a basic knowledge of passwords and to users with certain IP all these settings mean, you can get TCP/IP and other networking protocols. addresses only. away with simply filling in the correct You may not have to be a programmer, When it comes to setting up, the man- details in the right places. but beginners may as well forget it. ual is not a great comfort. Much better is WebServer hides a lot of the file the online Help system, but of course you placement in Windows 95 and configures can only get that after you have installed. them to work together. All relevant HTML PCW Details The manual seems to be written back to and image files are placed into a folder Price £130 + VAT front, with Chapter 2 serving as an intro- called htdocs inside an Htttpd folder on Contact QuarterDeck 01245 496699; fax duction to web servers in general, while the hard drive. It is best to do this default 01245 491480; [email protected] there are two different installation install and this way you are unlikely to Good Points Online help, once set up will descriptions, one in Chapter 1 and have problems and continue to use these run without problem. another in the second chapter. folders when you create your own HTML Bad Points The confusing manual can Fortunately, it is possible to ignore the files. make set-up problematic. manual, whack in the floppies and follow After install, restart and you will see Conclusion An elegant piece of software to make your presence felt on the web, but it’s the on-screen installation requests. This the WebServer application sitting in the not for beginners. can get tricky and you will need some Start menu. Launch this along with your

73 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

HARDWARE

two devices Adaptec AIRport 2000 are too close together they will not The idea behind the Adaptec AIRport 2000 must be the way work and since getting the two ends to see one another forward. But not yet, says Simon Rockman. is hard enough in the first place you don’t really want to upset anything. hat lies behind infra-red data is the into the office with your notebook and The AIRport 2000 is supplied with the Wability to link computers. The exchange files between your desktop and Tranxit software. The idea is that this Infrared Data Association (IRDA) your portable computers as easily as if sees the remote devices as another drive standard consists of a serial link. Based you had connected a serial cable. But it from which you can drag and drop files. on the earlier 9600bps serial infra-red proved easier to find a lap-link cable than When an infra-red connection is made, a standard (SIR) the IRDA committee has to get the AIRport to work. new window lights up. In practice this produced a standard for faster serial The theory is great: there are two doesn’t happen unless you coax the sys- communications. This takes the line flavours of AIRport, the 1000 and the tem into life. We failed to get the Adapetc speed up to 115,200bps with a later 2000. The 1000 looks like a 9-pin to 25- system to work with a Hewlett-Packard specification, IRDA 2, allowing for pin serial adaptor except instead of the Omnibook, although this should have 1.5mbps. An increasing number of new 25-pins there is a shiny plastic lens with worked. There is a good future for Irda devices, Hewlett-Packard printers, most an indent. The 2000 has the same lens, but at £100, the AIRport is not a device note books and even a Nokia mobile but is housed in a free-standing device which is likely to take off. phone, have IRDA options. which takes four AA batteries. Three So what if you have an existing quids’ worth of Duracells mean that the machine and want to communicate using range is extended from one metre to two. PCW Details Irda? Well you could buy the Adaptec There is an option to take a 6v power Price £100 AIRport 2000, an Irda adaptor which supply but that rather detracts from the Contact Adaptec on 01252 811200 plugs into a serial port and allows you to portability of the whole thing. communicate with other Irda devices. To get the devices to work (in the Good Points An honourable attempt at an You could, but it would be a very, very, broadest possible sense) they have to be IRDA adaptor. Bad Points Falls short with several existing daft thing to do, because the AIRport around one metre apart. There is a cone IRDA devices. 2000 doesn’t work very well. of infra-red 30 degrees wide and each Conclusion Not likely to take off. In an ideal world you could wander device has to fall inside the cone. If the

SOFTWARE

screen preview”; and ‘“Postnet”, for USA Avery Label Pro for Windows addresses. LabelPro needs at least a 386 with Let your labels stand out from the crowd says Sharon McGuill. 2Mb of RAM, 4Mb of disk space and a VGA display, you must also be running at least Microsoft Windows 3.1. If using a argeted primarily at the SoHo and designs to your labels from Label Pro’s database with more than 50 records, it’s Tsmall business markets, Avery Label clip art or your custom graphics; and List best to print your labels with your Pro allows you to easily design your own Manager, which merges text and graph- Windows Print Manager switched off. specialised labels. Text can be typed in ics from a list function in Label Pro itself Label Pro will print on laser, inkjet or dot- direct, or accessed from existing files or from already established databases. matrix printers supported by Windows. and records. With over 150 label templates on The first 200 readers to call the Avery There are two main features of Label which you can create and save your Consumer centre mentioning this PCW Pro: Designer, which lets you add designs, you can merge from dBASE, review, will receive a free sample pack of Paradox, Word and ASCII comma sepa- labels. Try before you buy with the free Have professional-looking labels with rated (CSV) files. The merging function demo on this and last month’s PCW Avery Label Pro allows you to select the files you wish to cover discs. print but it is limited in a single search. Label Pro’s list manager is capable of PCW Details holding internal lists with up to 15 fields and is particularly useful for printing Price From £29.95 + VAT (Viking) video, cassette, disk and file labels. Contact Avery Dennison Consumer Centre 0800 805020. Fax 01628 764040 Label Pro has a few extra features that set it apart from label functions Good points Very easy to use and results within databases. These include “shrink- are effective. to-fit”, which ensures no text is run-off Bad Points Merge-select is a little limiting. Conclusion An easy way of producing pro- the page; “print first label at”, useful for fessional labels. those half-used sheets; an effective “on-

74 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE

Creating cabinets and folders again Scan-IT takes some getting used to. Not that the processes involved are complicated, sim- The idea of document scanning and filing in one software ply there are a great number of steps involved in what should be a very simple sounds like a dream come true, but Adele Dyer reckons this operation, making it cumbersome and application is much too cumbersome to warrant its price. demanding to use. It will need some seri- ous adaptation if it is to survive the ocument scanning and filing has desktop or in cabinets and folders. The onslaught of Windows 95. Why use a fil- Dbecome popular as the idea of the notepad is simply like a physical desktop - ing system which takes a dozen moves to electronic office finally takes off. At the somewhere to store your documents create a folder, when it takes two clicks of moment, the basic scanning and OCR while you do some initial work on them the mouse to create the same effect technology is all there and it is now a and before you file them in a cabinet. using Windows 95 folders? matter of finding the right filing software There are several problems with this. These are major problems which mar to go with this. Firstly, it is not always easy to see exactly the product. It’s not all bad, though. If you In the past few months PCW has seen where you are. There is only a go through the process of filing properly, quite a few document scanners, such as you are allowed to attach keywords to the Visioneer Paperport your documents to help you find them and the Umax more quickly. You can also file foreign Page Scan files such as sound, spreadsheets or text Device – packed in the same cabinets as you are using for with their own your scans. scanning, OCR The OCR engine is very good, and document filing although once again you do not get those software. We were nice little shortcuts as you do in other therefore a little sur- packages, such as a button which drops prised to see the your OCRed documents straight into the Scan-IT arrive as a wordprocessor. One improvement on standalone product other similar packages is the ability to sans scanner. How- manipulate colour photographs - the ever, it is compatible advantage of not being tied to a with over 40 different cheap scanner, although of course scanners, so we using this facility depends on your reviewed the applica- hardware. tion using the TWAIN The main use for this package compliant Umax Page is primarily as a means of stor- Scan Device. The ing documents of various for- package does not include mats so that they can be TWAIN drivers. easily viewed. Despite the The basic premise behind handiness of this, the Scan-IT is similar to other elec- mechanics of the package tronic office applications. There does not make the file viewing is a desktop for you to view your and manipulation as easy as it could be. scans and a means of filing them This package is very overpriced if in cabinets and folders, just as you what you want is a document scanning would a paper office. facility but do not own a scanner. The fil- However, unlike other filing ing facilities are suitable only for the vast systems we have seen, Scan-IT does Filing is tricky but as a pay-off, amounts of documents generated by an not give you as many pointers to where colour photo manipulation is avail- office. Home or small office users are you are in the application and where your able perhaps better off buying a bundled deal documents are. There is no bar to show with scanner and software included. what each of the icons means and the menus are skimpy, forcing you, horror of small “switch” which lets you flick PCW Details horrors, to go through the tutorial. Yet between the notepad and the cabinets, Price £170 even after this, the lack of prompts leads yet there is a marked difference in the Contact Grace Garret 0171 836 9486 to confusion and makes it, at least way things appear on your desktop - or Good Points Offers storage of multiple for- initially, quite hard to get to grips with — even if they appear there at all. Secondly, mats. something of a surprise when all the like most people’s desks, if you put your Bad Points Expensive and tricky to manipu- other similar packages we have seen work down on the notepad, forget it and late. have been so easy. go home it will disappear, especially as Conclusion SoHo users would be better off You file your documents either in the the package does not take abuse lightly buying a bundled package. notepad facility, that is straight onto the and will crash if even slightly provoked.

76 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE Map ’n’ Go

Take two route-planners into the motorhome? Dylan Armbrust just maps ‘n’ goes.

ave you ever thought about jumping Hon a Harley for that great USA road trip? Or maybe just take the family to the The multimedia USfly the family over the Atlantic and pile feature lets you be a in to a rented Ford Escort for two weeks. tourist even before Either way, Map ‘n’ Go could be for you. you arrive Map ‘n’ Go bills itself as “The COMPLETE Travel Planner for North miles. The only thing America” and I’d have to say that this isn’t it didn’t do was take too bold a statement. It’s a multimedia into account the wait road atlas/route planner that can plan at customs. I then your travel route, highlight points of inter- increased my speed est and give you detailed information on settings to reflect the hotels, restaurants and campsites along faster motorway the way. The package contains a CD- speeds in Canada ROM, 128-page road atlas and an easy expected. Map ‘n’ Go gives you several and it managed to shave off eight to read user’s guide. methods of laying out your journey. You minutes of travel time. Then I asked it to All you need is a 386 or higher, 4Mb can point and click on map sites to add find me the shortest route and it managed RAM, CD-ROM drive and sound card (or delete) way points. This is handy for to reduce the distance by four miles but (which isn’t a requirement, but it is neces- map exploring to make up journeys along increase the journey time by twenty-one sary to hear the audio presentations). I the way and see just how far you have to minutes over the preferred route. ran it on a P120 with quad-speed CD- go. Or you can utilise the Manage Route Whoops! I knew there had to be a down- ROM and 16Mb RAM. Installing Map ‘n’ box to enter your way points and destina- side somewhere in here. Go took me no more than five minutes tion if you already have a pre-planned Once all is said and done I have to say and it automatically detected whether or journey. Regardless of what route plan- that Map ‘n’ Go is a fairly sturdy program not I had a sound card and gave me the ning method used, you simply select the with enough depth to take you from the option of installing the drivers or bypass- type of route you want (Quickest, far reaches within the Arctic Circle to the ing sound altogether. I decided to try the Preferred or Shortest), and ask it to sunnier climes of South America. The list- tutorial first, and after a bit of engine calculate. ing of hotels, restaurants and campsites revving and tyre screeching I was guided Quickest and Shortest are self- appeared to be comprehensive enough, through the various features by a slightly explanatory but the Preferred option but is vulnerable to becoming out of date twangy American female voice. checks settings you’ve previously entered on prices. The only major drawback of When you start the main program you regarding speed and what type of motor- Map ‘n’ Go that I found was the time it are presented with a full map of the US, a way you want to travel on (i.e. major high- took to print out the selected route. Each floating toolbar and an overview map in way or forest road). Once all is calculated, page takes about ten minutes (depending the lower right of the screen. The toolbox just select Along the Way and Map ‘n’ Go on printer memory) to print out on a laser contains most of the features needed to lists Points of Interest. From here you can copier and this could mean waiting for a navigate Map ‘n’ Go. A large segmented select and play back your Points of Inter- while if you have a lot of pages. In compass allows you to move about freely est and attach them to your travel plan for fairness, they do mention this in the guide over the surface of the map. There are when you print out. and these waits are not uncommon for two zoom control buttons that increase or I decided to put Map ‘n’ Go through it’s route-planning apps. So get your motor decrease the magnification by factors of paces on some of my old territory to see running, head out on the highway. one and a quick zoom out button for get- just how well it holds up. I began with my ting an overall view. You can find any family’s old zippy USA shopping route place by performing a Place name starting in Toronto, Canada and finishing PCW Details search. Or, if you want to discover where in Buffalo, New York. I added two way Price £49 someone lives by their phone number or points along the route, one of them being Contact Now Distribution 0181 288 3512 zip code, you can do that too, all at the Niagara Falls, just for the hell of it. I then Good points Easy to use toolbox, lots of touch of a button and a few keystrokes. I asked it to calculate the shortest journey tourist info. tried the Phone search to see how accu- under the default settings and, presto, Bad points Lengthy print times. rate it was, and it came up right every four seconds later it had the route Conclusion Good value for the information time. Same with the Zip code function. selected. And whaddya know, it was right! given and it was the only CD-ROM route Getting down to the nitty gritty of route It gave me a journey time of one hour and planner for North America I could locate. planning was much easier than I forty-one minutes with a distance of 101

80 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

HARDWARE Nikon Super CoolScan LS-1000 The Nikon Super CoolScan LS-1000 35mm film scanner does the job and does it good, says Gordon Laing. At nearly £1,800 though, it’s strictly for the specialists.

ikon’s Super CoolScan LS-1000 is ing several inches on Ndedicated to scanning 35mm film each side or larger. But and nothing else. While it will do positives what if your originals and negatives, it will not take paper, card measure 36 by 24mm? or larger format film. It does just one Even a decent 600dpi thing, and as you’d expect from such a scanner could only reputable manufacturer, it does it rather muster a maximum 24-bit file well. of 1.38Mb, which could only be All scanners work on the same princi- reproduced in, say, this magazine pal of reflection or transmission. The at 72 x 48mm. image is placed before the scanning Not a particularly useful size, and head, consisting of a light source and that’s the problem with 35mm originals: sensor. The amount of light reflected by they’re too small for normal scanners. or transmitted through the image is Dedicated film scanners concentrate all picked up by the sensor, then converted their CCD elements onto a much smaller to a voltage proportional to the light inten- area, and in the case of the Nikon LS- An example 35mm scan from the sity –– the brighter the part of the image, 1000, to a width of 24mm. Nikon Coolscan the more light is reflected or transmitted, Nikon’s LED scanning head will pro- resulting in a higher voltage. This voltage duce a maximum resolution of 2592 x is finally converted by an analogue to dig- 3888, resulting in a top resolution of 2700 that’s all there is to set it up. ital converter into information the dpi over the 35mm frame. It’s a fast sin- I scanned several images and was computer can work with. gle pass device boasting 36-bit colour impressed, not only by the quality, but by The sensor on many scanners is a depth to adequately capture and resolve the speed. Nikon’s previous 35mm scan- charge-coupled device, CCD. A CCD the subtle tonal differences found on film. ner, the CoolScan, was notoriously slow, consists of many photo-sensitive The unit itself is an unremarkable often taking five or ten excruciating min- elements, arranged in a grid in the case small box from the outside, measuring utes per scan (it’s still available for of a video or digital camera, or in a long, 151 x 268 x 63mm. It’s a SCSI-2 device, around £995). The Super CoolScan thin line in the case of desktop scanners; connecting straight to a Macintosh, or speeds through the process, delivering the more photo-sensitive elements per requiring a SCSI card on a PC; we used 10Mb files in around a minute; the maxi- unit length, the higher its resolution. a fast Adaptec 2940 PCI SCSI-2 card mum file size for a full 35mm frame at Most A4 flatbed scanners boast true, costing around £200, but slower ones 2700 dpi is 28.8Mb. optical resolutions of between 300 and are available for around a quarter of that So it’s quick, and you can see the 600dpi, and are capable of scanning an price. quality for yourself on the 6.5Mb scan original image around eight inches wide. The front panel has a slot for the film. printed here. It’s expensive, but there’s That’s between 2400 and 4800 sensitive Mounted film can be inserted raw, or in little to compare it to –– that’s the price CCD elements along the width of the strips of up to six frames once clamped you pay for dedication. If you want the scanning head. The head of an A4 into the supplied holder. When scanning, flexibility of scanning variously-sized orig- flatbed could squeeze its elements into a the Super CoolScan pulls the frame inals, both reflective or on film, buy a line four inches wide, but uses mirrors inside quickly for analysis, back out, then flatbed with a transparency adaptor. But if and lenses to capture the wider real area. back in again more slowly for the final all you want is excellent 35mm film All A4 flatbeds scan paper-based orig- scan. scans, look no further than the Nikon inals by reflection, but by swapping the Even with six frames firmly clamped in Super CoolScan LS-1000 –– remember reflective light source with an alternative the film holder, all can be accessed by since it’s SCSI, you can always connect a source from above, it’s possible to sand- sliding an inner sleeve in and out, or by flatbed too. wich and scan film by transmission. Such turning the whole thing around. If you’ve add-ons are called transparency adaptors got loads to do, an optional add-on auto- PCW Details and are available for most flatbeds, so matically feeds mounted film. Price £1,795 why would you want a dedicated film The PC version comes with a TWAIN Contact Direktek 0181 845 5969 scanner? driver, while Macs use a traditional Pho- The point in real terms is that on an toshop plug-in; both have the usual scan- Good points Quick, and high quality. Bad points Only does 35mm. average flatbed you’ll have between 300 ner driver options, including one which Conclusion Perfect if you want pro 35mm and 600 dots per inch to play with, and reverses negative images into positive scans. that’s absolutely fine for originals measur- ones. Plug it in and install the driver ––

83 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE Xcad 3.1

Looking for a reasonably priced 3-D design package with all the latest features? Xcad is putty in your hands, says Tim Nott.

cad is a 32-bit Windows Computer cylinder, say, to “drill XAided Design package that runs through” other objects. under Windows 95, NT and, with the sup- More complex interac- plied 32-bit extensions, Windows 3.1. It’s tion includes blending – fully 3-D, but despite an impressive speci- combining, say, two fication needs just 15Mb of disk space, cylinders to form a bot- 4Mb of RAM and a 386SX processor. tle shape. 3-D surfaces The interface is deceptively simple – appear as meshes, but below the menu bar is a ribbon of buttons to get a more realistic for commands such as save, undo, grid view you can remove snap toggles and line style/colour. A free- lines that would be hid- floating palette contains the drawing den in a solid object, or tools, two more floating boxes can be “render” the view to cre- opened for co-ordinate input and object ate solid, shaded sur- snaps, and a small “overview” window faces with a variety of provides a quick way of zooming or pan- light sources. Though, ning a drawing. Although you can only as with other CAD software, you have one drawing open at a time you can can’t work in these modes, you have up to eight different views. can save a rendered view as a Each button in the toolbox expands bitmap image. Xcad will import into a “fly-out” offering, for example, eight and export AutoCad .DWG and ways of drawing a circle – from centre- .DXF drawings, up to release 12, radius to tangent-tangent-radius. For as well as Initial Graphics accurate input you can “snap” points to a Exchange Specification (IGES) grid or to points on other objects – the version 5.2. end of a line or centre of a circle, for There’s a simple but flexible example. You can also define points by macro recorder which is rather like entering them in the co-ordinate box, having an assistant to pass you specifying either co-ordinates absolute to the correct tools as you need the drawing sheet or relative to the last them. If you draw two concentric circles, Top A 3D tutorial exercise point. copy them in the Z-axis and create sur- Above Examples of Xcad’s NURB sur- Non-uniform rational b-splines, or faces between them, you get a flange. faces, with hidden lines removed NURBS, are to CAD what Bézier curves Extrude the inner circle through a 90 are to illustration, but NURBs extend to degree arc, and you get a tube. Copy the ity was also an issue: it managed to crash three dimensions. There are ten ways flange to the other end of the tube and in a variety of ways, and once left you can draw a surface, ranging from you get a pipe “elbow”. Record all of this, Windows with a persistent “Out of mem- plotting individual points (such as knots and on playback, once you’ve drawn the ory” error that could only be cured by on a 3-D net), through rotating a shape circles, the relevant copy and surface rebooting. If the release version cures around an axis or extruding it along a commands will be activated in turn until these problems, then Xcad will be a path, to creating a Coon’s surface defined the object is completed, but you’ll be able remarkable product – I’ve seen nothing at by four joined curves. Three-dimensional to alter the size and position of the com- a similar price coming anywhere near its drawing is never easy, but Xcad ponents as you go. More powerful 3-D capabilities. succeeds in making it as painless as pos- automation comes via XDL – the Xcad sible. A button on the co-ordinate box lets development language, which can be PCW Details you switch between drawing in three used to create customised add-ons. Price £495 planes, as on the surfaces of a cube, and The version we reviewed was still in Contact Digital Multimedia 0181 893 4000 if you want to work at an angle – say to Beta, and showed a few anomalies. Not Good points Fast, easy to use and offers draw on the side of a pyramid – you can all the native Windows 95 features – such astonishing 3-D features at the price. set up multiple “User Co-ordinate as the common File Open/Save dialogues Bad Points Beta version prone to crashes Systems”. – were implemented, though it did and didn't have full Windows 95 implementa- Having created 3-D surfaces, there support long file names. We didn’t have tion. are a number of ways they can interact – any documentation for XDL, and the sup- Conclusion Unbeatable 3D capabilities at at the simplest level, you could use a plied add-ins didn’t appear to work. Stabil- its low price.

84 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS FIRST IMPRESSIONS

HARDWARE SOFTWARE Canon SV-15A Multimedia speakers Logical Decisions for Windows 4.0 One giant leap for Gordon Laing along the road to perfect mul- Logical Decisions for Windows takes the pain out timedia. of logical decision making, says Michael

anon describes its new SV-15A’s as Magnetic shielding (if it works) blocks out Eagleton. C“active multimedia speakers”. Multi- the culprit fields, protecting your screen. media, in computer terms, means includ- Unfortunately many so-called multimedia he brain is very good at making deci- and high preference crite- ing sound capability, still and moving speakers don’t feature shielding, and become active speakers, boasting an Tsions based on a few items, but for ria and unacceptable cut- picture facilities and a CD-ROM drive in a were by no means hi-fi to start with. ample 40W total power; excellent for complexity and objectivity, decision sup- offs, or the possibility of hardware system. Fortunately for Canon, it chose to business presentations. Each bracket port software is required. Computers can- statistical and probabilistic For me, the word multimedia conjures break the typical rubbishy mould by mak- has two phono plugs, allowing internal not make decisions, but it’s very nice definitions. up cheap and nasty upgrade kits, ing its SV-15A’s shielded, sound good mixing of two sound sources. Normally when they remember everything you Beyond the Units, and cobbled together with poor components and even look good. The design is part of you’d just use one phono for each describe, involve you at every stage in discreetly hidden in the in time to cash in on hype. But today’s Canon’s wide dispersion technology, giv- speaker. The supplied power supply con- the process, and churn all of your small background are the Utility reality is fortunately much better with fast ing a larger listening area than nects to one speaker, and a second lead choices into a grand decision. Logical components, or Common CD-ROM drives, excellent sound and conventional speakers and eliminating powers the second from the first. Overall Decisions helps you do just that. Units. This is where the video cards available cheaply and often the old stereo hot spot; it works too. Each these are excellent and capable speak- Once installed, wandering into Logical power of preferences lies. Common Structuring decisions with Logical supplied as standard on new systems. speaker is 240mm high, has a base diam- ers, ideal for raising the profile of the mul- Decisions for Windows seems like wan- Units are described on sliding scales Decisions for Windows, is easy The only piece of the multimedia jig- eter of 162mm and weighs 1.75kg. timedia experience. dering into a dense jungle. The support- (which is neat) or numerically, as “the saw left with room for improvement is the Out of the box, each speaker has con- ing literature and the menu options at first usefulness of the unit for an alternative The result displays begin the process of means by which you hear the sound. ventional cable terminals for connection glance seem designed to get you entirely within a measure” (yes, these are the re-assessing your beliefs (or fiddling the Headphones aside, the obvious solution to a separate amplifier. There is also a PCW Details lost.But after the first few pages and quasi-meaningful numbers). Logical weightings), refining what you feel the is a pair of speakers. Computer speakers mounting bracket for each, with wires on Price £179 jumps to mind-boggling chapters, you Decisions for Windows uses these only measures, weights and base values should have magnetic shielding. Speaker the inside for the speaker terminals, and Contact Canon UK 0181 773 6000 realise that this is no jungle at all. This is to support the framework you have built to be. drivers contain large magnets which can tempting looking phono and power plugs Good points Look good, sound good. the Royal Botanical Gardens of decision so far, not as the key focus of it. This fea- Two examples of where the software turn your monitor into a sixties-style psy- on the outside. Bad points Not to everyone’s tastes. making software and every tool is here, ture again keeps you focused on the real has been used are politics (where chedelic experience if placed too closely. Yes, plug these in and the SV-15A’s Conclusion Superior multimedia speakers. neatly tended and perfectly appointed. world options, while providing enough explanatory rationale for decisions is Logical Decisions for Windows breaks support for the computer to work in the badly needed), and selecting the site of a the whole decision process down into currency it really understands. A very military base. It excels at large problems HARDWARE manageable sections. It forces you thorough approach. and you grow to appreciate it as a power lot of expensive duds to make through the structuring of a decision to After this, the Weighting of the contri- tool in the complex decision journey. You components is green then I’m Napoleon. allocate the Goals, Measures, bution of each of the measures to the won’t make use of it in an hour or be able Opti LCD monitor Looking good is a matter of taste. If Alternatives and Units. The Common goal is identified. Very powerful tools for to use it fully in a day, this is a tool for the you want to reduce clutter it’s good, but Units and Weights of each Measure con- weighting include the “Gold Standard” of detail researched, structured decision, With highly dubious claims to eco-friendliness, this monitor is that is not the same thing as looking tribute to a Goal. trade-offs between measures. The com- and its mathematical integrity, complexity a waste of money and desk space, says Simon Rockman. good. The Opti screen is hospital beige. The first section is a neat way of plexity or simplicity here, is of personal and solidness is impressive. It runs on a The radiation thing is a load of twad- graphically describing Goals and preference, each is handled superbly. 386 or better, with 4Mb of RAM, needing dle propounded by people who don’t like Measures. Measures are hung from At the end of the garden is a very about 5Mb of disk space. It recommends e are all used to flat LCD panels. ergonomic; they are good for the environ- working with computers and are egged Goals, building them into a decision hier- pretty display. Every decision criteria or a 486 with 8Mb and a maths WNotebooks use them, and over the ment because they are low power; they on by quack doctors selling screen filters. archy of limitless complexity, (the limit is weighting can be viewed, tested for sen- co-processor. years they’ve gone from being quite good look good and save space; and they are Within those limitations, the Opti does available memory). In the background to sitivity, scatter plotted, bar-charted or Logical Decisions for Windows comes to being exceptionally good. Notebook low radiation. its job. It installs easily with Windows 3.1 this is the Measures Matrix, a data table tabulated. It’s not often that, when com- as version 4.0 and shows the pedigree of screens are being produced in vast quan- Unfortunately, most of this is claptrap. drivers, is bright enough to use in a well- of the relevant units for each Alternative. ing into a mathematical process coming through those 4 revisions. It is for tities, so it is no surprise that they are The Opti screen isn’t ergonomic. It’s lit office and can be removed from its The best feature of Logical Decisions programme for functionality that you everyone who has to arrive at, and making a bid for the small, but a 10.4inch monitor is uncom- stand to be wall-mounted. The display is for Windows is its ability to use textual expect the view to be very good. I was explain, complex important decisions, desktop. The new LCD fortable to look at (big is beautiful when it crisp and the viewing angle almost as definitions of Units, in addition to numeri- pleasantly surprised. There is an and to enjoy doing so. monitor made for Opti comes to screens), and the 640x480 res- good as a CRT. The video card will sup- cal values. These are ranked in order of elegance in a programme that does all of by Compel – although olution isn’t the kind of thing you want to port a proper monitor at 1024 x 768. A priority, but the key is retaining the text its work in a large Times Roman. It looks like a lot of Opti prod- stare at all day. passive version is also available: and is connection to the world where the deci- good, it prints good, and it feels just a bit PCW Details ucts you’ll see it The screen may not consume a lot of bigger, cheaper (£839) and higher reso- sion needs to be made, and maintaining Bohemian. Price £399.00 (+ VAT plus P&P) wearing a number power but it uses a VESA slot (PCI also lution (800x600) but not as bright. your focus there. Putting a numeric value Logical Decisions for Windows Contact POW! Distribution 01202 716726 of different badges available) for its proprietary video card, on the choice between “a Blue one” and displays are used to provide insight into – is one of the which means using a desktop computer PCW Details “a Green one” takes your eye off the real the defining aspects of why one solution Good Points Its ability to use textual defini- tions of Units, in addition to numerical val- first. The market- with a power supply which is about as world decision, and you begin to deal in is better than another, or to present them Price £1,299 ues. Impressive mathematical integrity, ing departments green as Manchester United’s first strip. depth with quasi-meaningful numbers. from different viewpoints, invaluable Contact Opti International 0181 507 1818 complexity and solidity. will happily explain LCD screens also take much more power Text Descriptions are invaluable when when reasoning to agree consensus. Good Points Your friends won’t have one. Bad Points Not very quick when used on a the advantages of to make and have a very high failure rate the time comes to use the extensive The results display is not just a series of Bad Points Your friends won’t want one. 486DX 33 with 8Mb. flat screens: (often as many as nine faulty screens to graphics to describe your decision. For lookups, each is a window that can be Conclusion So why would you want one? Conclusion A serious tool for big decisions. They are make one good one). If throwing away a strictly numeric choices, it provides low saved as a Windows Meta-File (.WMF).

86 87 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE

The screen grab shows dialogue LORIEN TextHELP! for Windows boxes that would never appear simulta- neously in actual use. At top left, above the WordPerfect menu bar, is the small Not just a proofreading tool but an invaluable aid to those with TextHELP! button bar which is all that reading or other impairments, such as dyslexia, says Geoff normally displays. Top mid-screen is the Options panel, displayed on Voice Coggan. Options. Right of this is the Adjust Voice button which brings C stalwarts may recall Monologue, a up the Voice Control Pprogram which read back text using panel where speed, a speaker dongled into the parallel port, pitch, etc can be and which was especially helpful in proof- tested and set. The ing columns and rows of figures. It was Speller Box on the distributed here by IanSyst, a company left pops up as specialising particularly in voice programs needed. For exam- including children’s talking programs like ple, on a word-by- the Dinosaur Discovery Kit. word spell-check it IanSyst is now marketing Lorien Tex- will display tHELP! for Windows, which is at one level With the aid of a sound card, text help whenever an error is encountered, simul- a highly developed Monologue-style can read text to you out loud taneously beeping or saying that there is proofreader, but which also offers a great a possible error. To help a dyslexic typist deal more — e.g. as an aid to computer cal quality normally encountered. A ques- correctly choose the word he/she wants users with reading or other impairments. tion mark at the end of a sentence gives from the list of suggested replacements a Most of us using word processors have the voice a rising inflexion, and commas button on the Speller Box will speak any come to regard them as indispensable and brackets seem to be recognised in or all of the words listed. tools, forgetting that we used to manage the flow of a sentence. As a rather unfair Finding fault with the program is diffi- perfectly well before the advent of com- test I got it to read back Shakespeare cult as it does all it sets out to do. One puters. For most of us it is very much a sonnets from a CD. It made a great stab criticism concerns its manual. Seeing that self-created reliance — we can after all at this and did so in a voice like a cross one role for the program is to help still write and communicate without them. between Donald Sinden and Douglas dyslexic users the manual should be a For some people, however, no such Hurd, which some may see as a step-up model of clarity. It isn’t, though this short- options are available and the computer from that of a dalek. With mispronounced coming, which it shares with far too much has brought liberation. Lorien Systems (a words, usually exotic forenames or tech- software, is largely overcome by the software house based in Northern nical jargon, it is a simple matter of teach- excellent online Help. Even where this Ireland) has developed a range of appli- ing the program via its dictionary (or, duplicates the manual text, there is cations to enable those with even severe rather, dictionaries, as many can be something more logical about the way it physical impairments to not merely com- saved for different users or uses). is set out and compartmentalised, that municate but to use standard Windows Voice options include reading back as makes it far easier to use. software in doing so. The TextHELP! you type, word-by-word or sentence-by- Version 1.3 was introduced during the under review lies outside this highly spe- sentence; or reading sections of selected course of this review and appears to have cialised range and has mainstream func- text (up to 66,000 characters). The former got on top of the many variables which tionality, not only in proofreading but in options are intended for dyslexic users modern high-powered machines present the help it offers dyslexia sufferers and (as is word-by-word spell-checking). Tex- to software developers. It has been those with reading, typing and spelling tHELP! can assist those with learning dif- tested on a Pentium with Sound-FX difficulties — all far more common prob- ficulties by suggesting word endings after soundcard, PCI and ATI 64-bit video lems than was once recognised. the beginning of a word has been typed. accelerator, and on two 486s with Sound- The program installs with an uninstall Any suggested word can then be spoken. blaster 2 and Cirrus Logic or Western icon to clear itself from disk, though I The spell-checker can be set to strict, nor- Digital local bus video, working in exem- doubt if many trying it will want it off mal or custom when suggesting alterna- plary fashion on them all. again. It takes up 8Mb of disk space and tives, with a further phonetic button which minimum specification is a 386DX can find even more words. running at 33Mhz, with 4Mb RAM. Its own Getting users with slight to moderate PCW Details RAM usage amounts to 1Mb so this is degrees of dyslexia to test the program Price £75 for single user, special rates for only really sufficient when using basic has confirmed its usefulness to them, schools and universities text editors. The requirements of full- though only professionals in the field of Contact IanSyst 0500 141515; fax 01223 blown Windows word processors like language disabilities could evaluate the 426644 WordPerfect or Word make 8Mb a more help it offers those with more severe Good points Fun to use and very useful. realistic minimum. impairments. Clearly, used at extreme Bad points Slightly pricey for the casual Configurability is extensive, with the levels of disability the task of getting user. voice adjusting for speed, pitch and vol- words onto paper is slow, but it may be Conclusion Invaluable for those who want to vocalise text. ume. Speech largely avoids the mechani- near-impossible by other means.

90 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE MINITAB 10 Xtra for Apple and Windows With a new graphic user interface and a host of new features,Minitab is still set to be the world’s favourite statistical software, says Eric Adler.

initab is probably the world’s most way that a series of Mwidely used statistical software. commands can be More students are introduced to the basic saved as an concepts of statistical analysis through executable macro, Minitab than any other statistical making this version of package. Minitab a smart pack- Having been supplying statistical soft- age to work with. ware for over 20 years Minitab had let a From the point of certain degree of inertia set into their view of data analysis product development. However, with this as opposed to user long awaited 32-bit version Minitab have interface, the most arrived at a cross-platform standard user obvious improvement interface which is now virtually identical in is the new combined the MS Windows, Windows NT and data and graphics Apple operating environments with the screens. This same handbooks and documentation for produces report- all versions. ready output with a This documentation is on a grand single mouse click; formatted output Minitab 10 Xtra now offers combined scale; the Minitab 10 Xtra “Quick Refer- ready to be copied directly into a word data analysis and graphics output ence Card” runs to twenty eight pages, processing document. The descriptive the User’s Guide is now almost 300 statistics screen shows a well formatted functions for the identification of signifi- pages and the main reference manual is histogram with superimposed normal cant variables, Interaction Analysis, over 1,200 pages while the online help curve alongside essential data analysis Screening Designs, Factorial Designs, files total almost 5mb and there are a fur- in a single unit. Response Surface Designs and Contour ther two hundred example files in addition The distribution curve over plot is lim- Plots which now all come with new to a 14 lesson on line tutorial. ited to normal and I for one would like to improved 32-bit graphics editing capabili- Minitab 10 Xtra installs OK in see a choice of distribution function ties. These DOE features allow the great- Windows 95 but produced error curves as is offered by Unistat and Stat- est access and interpretations of the messages and on just one occasion shut graphics. However, having this simple data, with the least trial and error. They down suddenly with data loss. In one step analytical output routine is a also allow the user to determine the opti- Windows 3.11 Minitab 10 Extra runs great improvement, as is the residual mal settings with ease. Other major areas under a custom Win32S installation plotting function which presents the four of innovation include Time Series Analy- included on two extra distribution disks standard residual plots. Normal Plot, I sis with over 60 functions where time and in this environment it proved to be chart, Histogram and Residuals v Fits series graphics can be custom edited and stable. Minitab 10 Extra can now import are presented in a single editable brushed and Analysis of Variance with files in Excel 5 and Lotus 123 format and graphic. This has the added advantage improved residual charts. permits data to be pasted to and from that the plots may be brushed (individual The problems which arose with other spreadsheet based Windows pro- points identified by row number by being Minitab 10 Xtra in Windows 95 were grams. clicked on), although the rows identified mostly teething troubles, often encoun- Minitab also has DDE linkage with cannot be marked; neither can the brush- tered in a late beta release. But when the other Windows programs, and another ing results be saved from within the pro- bugs are fixed, Minitab 10 Extra will be a major area of improvement, OLE2 link- gram. reliable stable product in the Minitab age means that result screens and Other major areas of development tradition. graphics can be pasted via the clipboard include enhanced routines for Quality into MS Word and other word processors. Control, Process Capability and Charac- PCW Details 32-bit coding permits click-on graphics ter Control Charts. With the addition of a Price £695 (plus vat), Academic orders editing with dragging and dropping. Text wide range of charts including Zone, £395. and arrows can be inserted into graphics, Short Run and percentage XS Charts Contact Minitab 01203 695730. Fax; 01203 but unfortunately in the Windows version and XR Charts, Minitab now has one of 695731. Freephone 0500 586587 this proved to be slightly difficult to imple- the strongest applications available for Good Points Promises to be a reliable, sta- ment with some elements refusing to this specialist area. Like all Minitab ble product once the bugs are ironed out. respond to mouse clicks or to the “Bring graphics, the charts can now be custom Bad Points Some problems in Windows 95. to front/ send to back” command. edited. Conclusion A great improvement on earlier versions and will remain a strong contender Customised graphics layouts can be Minitab has long had a strong experi- amongst statistics software packages. saved as templates in much the same mental design capability (DOE) featuring

93 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Fortes VFX1

Fortes VFX1 is THE gadget extraordinaire for those who can lay out the dosh. Run down the corridors of Doom or Rocket and HP OmniGo 100 blast your way in Descent. Either way, you’re in the mid- dle of it. The VFX1 has its own ISA card that links up with your graphics adaptor to give you one of the Want the power of an HP palmtop plus the con- best virtual reality experiences around. venience of handwriting recognition? Look no Contact 5DT (Europe) on 0181 974 2044. further than the smart new OmniGo 100. Its RRP £789.00 plus VAT unique design turns an ordinary palmtop into a flat pen-driven device. The built-in Graffiti soft- ware means your scribbles are always recoginised. Turn to First Impressions for more details. Price £290. Contact Hewlett-Packard on 01344 369222

QuickCam Trafficmate

It’s more than just a sphere on a pyramid — the Connectix Tired of tailbacks and sucking fumes on the motorway? Now QuickCam allows you to capture greyscale movies or still you can avoid these lovelies with Trafficmate. This handy images at a resolution of 230x240 pixels. You can dashboard mounted sensor can verbally tell you what motor- use the pyramid as a stand, or remove the ball way routes and junctions to avoid within a range of ten miles or for a true mythological eye in your palm two junctions for all motorways. effect. At the time of writing, the Quick- Trafficmate enquiries on 0800 707070. Price £49.99 Cam was a Macintosh only product, with a Windows version on the way. Macintosh version £99.95. Contact Computers Unlimited on 0181 200 8282

NEC Silicon View Sony MD DATA Drive MDH-10 Why bother with pesky moving parts which break down and eat up batteries when you can have a Fully reviewed last month, the data solid state portable video gadget? Because today, version of Sony’s MiniDisc system is a the several hundred megabytes required to store a real darling. Not only can its magneto movie on a credit card will cost you a fortune. In the optical cartridges store 140 Mb, but it meantime, dream of the future with this prototype can also play back audio MiniDisc titles. from NEC, coming to a store near you in time for With an optional PCMCIA interface, Christmas 1999. Hopefully it will be sold in more than this is a truly all-in-one gadget for the just lurid pink. worker on the move. NEC Europe on 0171 353 4383 Sony Peripherals on 0181 860 0500. It’ll cost you £499 Photography by Bruce Mackie Gadget PCW Gadgets

56 57 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 YEAR TEST 2 5 users: £330 10 users: £499 Telecom email: £299 Internet connection available Eurosource 0181 561 1993 Verdict PCW FirstClass is a mighty piece of software which makes mincemeat of Microsoft Mail, thumbs its nose at Lotus Notes — and is still as cuddly as a bunny rabbit. Price Contact Administrators need to spend time Complexity is well hidden behind a The principal caveat is for the adminis- The Open University has recently planning the links between individual machines and conferences — that long coffee break with the manual is vital. But once the layout has been established, it is a matter of filling in forms on screen. user-friendly interface and SoftArc has managed to pull off an amazing feat by combining power with ease of use. Praise is also due for the policy of issuing free upgrades to registered users. trator, not the user. To maximise speed, SoftArc has written the software in such a way that thousands of files are created on the server. This makes backing up a tor- tuous process, which has to be performed while the system is offline. Having said that, not once in all this time has ETEL crashed –– because of the FirstClass software — and it runs 24 hours a day. adopted FirstClass for delivery and sup- port, which proves its value to those who work in education. It opens up huge possibilities –– we will be able to offer courses to remote or housebound students that would never have been possible in the past. spreads to the other First- spreads to the other in hours. Other Class boards on OneNet kinds of gateways are possible, and I set up an internet gateway as soon as funds allowed. This only permits email, but it does allow us to send and receive messages over the internet. , VNU House, 32-34 Broadwick Street, , VNU House, 32-34 Personal Computer World Personal Computer For a system administrator, FirstClass A further feature of FirstClass places it I installed the software on a humble Mac- intosh IIvx with 8Mb of memory. I plugged a Hurdler serial port card into a Nubus slot; this accommodated our three modems with one socket in reserve. The IIvx was already linked to a small network of Macs via Localtalk. Setting the whole thing up, from opening the boxes to first logon took a short afternoon (with a long coffee break for browsing the manual). provides excellent control; it is possible to configure a FirstClass system differently for different groups of users. For example, on our system (called ETEL) I have set up a range of desktops for staff in the college; public users; and other groups who have used ETEL for their own needs. FirstClass can be configured so that con- ferences can be fully accessible, read only, or completely invisible. Both the local branches of the Labour and Conservative parties could have their own conference areas on one FirstClass system, and neither would know the other was there. head and shoulders above anything else: gateways. It is a simple matter for the administrator to establish a gateway con- nection with any number of FirstClass boards. This has led to the growth of OneNet, a community of FirstClass boards across the world. It works like UseNet, in that conferences on a variety of subjects are “broadcast” over this net- work. A message sent to one conference hails How You Can Contribute To The Long Term Tests Section Term Tests To The Long Can Contribute How You PCW SOFTWARE FirstClass London W1A 2HG. Mark your envelope clearly “Long Term Tests”. We’ll pay for any contributions we Term Tests”. We’ll pay for any contributions Mark your envelope clearly “Long London W1A 2HG. use. We welcome contributions from readers for our Long Term Tests section. If you’ve been using a piece section. If you’ve Long Term Tests from readers for our contributions We welcome hardware) or a article (for time, just write a 450-word for some or software intensively of hardware or in MS Word (Mac send it on disk, — for software and — GIF format piece with screenshot 750-word to: The Editor, PC) or ASCII format, Noel Chidwick this email/bulletin board system which opens up vast possibilities for distance learning and educational makes administration run smoothly.

ust over two years ago, I managed to persuade the powers that be in

I needed to look no further than First- The FirstClass server is neither RAM- my college that we should take our first steps into the digital age. I was told to go ahead and investigate an email system for staff, particularly those with contacts in Europe, where we have many partners. We were not connected to the internet — the luxury of JANET being at the time the closed province of higher (as opposed to further) education, and the cost of connecting was prohibitive. I was also keen to investigate the possibility of operating online courses, where students study from home via computer and modem. It was essential that it should be easy to use. Class –– an email and electronic bulletin board system. The user has a private mailbox and access to any number of private or public conferences. Uploading and downloading files is straightforward, and there is a chat facility, allowing folk to type to each other while online. It has an elegant graphical interface of folders and icons and is simple to use: most users are sending and opening mail within a few minutes of first connection. The inter- face is exactly the same whether you log on with a Windows or a Macintosh client (distributed free, incidentally) and an FC server can be accessed over a LAN, via a modem, and recently over TCP/IP –– the internet. greedy nor processor demanding. PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 96 J LONG TERM TEST TERM LONG Long term tests LONG TERM TEST

HARDWARE YEAR Escom 486DX40

1TEST A cheap, nicely bundled 486 that runs glitch-free for a year? Sounds too good to be true. Marc Hindley reckons Escom is here to stay.

year ago, I Awas looking for a new computer to replace my ageing 386. Price was important, but I also wanted a reliable dealer with a good name. I had noticed Escom advertising quite regularly, but had not seen any reviews or heard of anyone using its machines. However, I had a feeling that it was going places. I travelled 245 miles to the Escom store in Aberdeen, and finally settled for a 486DX40 with 4Mb RAM, bundled with DOS 6.2, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Microsoft Works 3.0 for Windows, for an excellent price. I was intending to get a CD-ROM/CorelDraw bundle, but they screen now resolves at a comfortable From the moment it came out of the had sold out. Another good omen, 800 x 640 in high colour. box one year ago, the Escom has I thought. Expansion capabilities are adequate, worked perfectly Back home and out of the box, every- with 32-bit and 16-bit slots vacant, one thing worked perfectly and first time. I 3.5in and two 5.25in drive bays free on had enormous trouble trying to connect a the front, and memory is expandable to will become a recognised brand. A just laser printer through the serial port, but 128Mb with 30-pin SIMMs. My model had reward for offering such value for that was my fault, rather than the com- no 72-pin SIMM slots, although I suspect money to a critical public. puter’s. that more recent ones do. After a year of near-daily use, I have Only two complaints –– and very Operating systems and software bun- had no problems whatsoever. When I'm minor ones at that — no DOS mouse dles, though pre-installed, come with ready for a replacement or an additional driver was included and I was surprised complete manuals and disk sets. No computer, an Escom will be high on to find some months later the Trident manual as such for the hardware, but my list. video drivers had not been installed, and wiring diagrams and instructions for I was running under a standard VGA dri- setup and expansion are included. ver. The disk was included (presuming it It probably hasn't escaped anybody's PCW Verdict Low-priced, reliable PCs with high spec and was the backup, I filed it) and an easy notice that Escom have been in the news good bundles. Highly recommended. Windows installation made immediate this year, first for their buyout of Price £529 (DX/66 with 540Mb hard disk improvements over the 640x480 setup I Rumbelows and then their unexpected and 4Mb RAM) had been using, providing comprehen- takeover of Commodore. This was Contact Escom 0990 555888 sive power management facilities. So confirmation for me that I had made the with a healthy 1Mb video card, my right choice, and that the Escom name

97 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 BOOZE

“You must be careful about giving any drink whatsoever to a bore. A lit-up bore is the worst in the world.” — David Cecil tattleTipple

What cocktail should you give your guests as an aperitif? What wine should you have with Christmas dinner? And what about all those party drinks and punches? Paul Begg weaves his way through the electronic booze guides.

PCW Wine, Beer and Grape Photography by David Whyte

“If you drink enough wine, it doesn’t matter f you are interested in wine, spirits, ability to recognise the subtle differences how bad it is.” — Icocktails or beer, your computer can between wines is an important part of the Anonymous help you. There are software guides to enjoyment. But the act of discerning the dif- wine, cheap and cheerful cocktail recipe ferences shouldn’t be po-faced or snobbish. databases, and a couple of must-have It should be fun. As Oz Clarke says on the titles for the dedicated or novice Microsoft Wine Guide (see below): “I’ll drink homebrewer. You can also use your vintage champagne out of a tin mug if that’s computer to access bulletin boards, online all there is… It may not be correct, but wine services like CIX and Compuserve, and is supposed to be fun before it’s correct.” the internet to exchange information and advice about your favourite drinks and places to drink. With Microsoft’s Wine Guide Christmas rapidly approaching, we decided to Oz Clarke, wine writer and one of the presenters of investigate further. the BBC’s The Food Programme, also presents Microsoft’s Wine Guide and no matter how often you Wine use this CD-ROM, his enthusiasm is always Wine Guide’s opening screen gives you several The proliferation of books about wine and the wine options to explore your tipple courses in Sunday newspapers and on television shows how wine consumption and appreciation is growing in Britain. The trouble with books, though, is that it isn’t always easy to find the information you need and the courses can be superficial. Which is where CD-ROM steps in. You can find the informa- tion you want at a key stroke and learn at your own pace. And even if you are perfectly aware of the difference between a Château Mouton-Rothschild ’59 and a ’64, there’s still a lot you’ll find useful on these discs. The mystique that surrounds wine is due “I think a man ought to get to its infinite variety. The taste can change drunk at least twice a year according to the grape variety, the region just on principle, so he where the grape is grown, or the amount of won’t let himself get snotty sunshine or rain in a particular year. The about it.” — Raymond Chandler 98 99 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 BOOZE “A good general rule is to state that the bouquet is better than the taste, and vice versa.” — Stephen Potter

infectious. The Wine Guide includes almost 2,000 entries and is the most comprehensive a glossary of about 700 wine wine encyclopedia on CD- terms. ROM. It covers everything from the grape on the vine to Wines of the World the taste of the wine itself. This American CD is based on Everything you ever wanted the 1992 book, The Companion to to know is here — how to Wine, edited by Frank Prial with read a wine label, how to open a bottle, Rosemary George and Michael what sort of glass to use, how to judge Edwards. It is not as the colour, bouquet and taste. A category comprehensive as Microsoft’s called Wine Tasting covers every detail, Wine Guide, but the smashing from decanting, corks and corkscrews to photographs are a compensation. how to spot a bad wine. There’s also a You embark on video tasting tour in which Clarke your exploration of explains what to look for, smell for and wine from a mood-set- taste for in 18 wines, including ting main screen which champagne and port. has a photograph of Perhaps the most used section will be wet, glistening grapes All About Wine. Here information about hanging from the vine the vineyard and the winery, classic and relaxing classical grape varieties, reading a wine label and guitar music in the wine list is assisted by pictures, background. You can diagrams, video, and interactive charts. It explore wines in four is also the place where you can match ways: via the Wine the wine to your food. All you have to do Browser or by looking is locate the food from the extensive lists at Wine Quality, Wine provided and the Wine Guide produces a Appreciation or Wine list of suitable wines. If you wish, you can Regions. With the narrow your search by specifying the exception of the Wine country from which you want the wine to Browser, each section Top Wines of the World: a smashing come. leads you to others. opening screen In addition, there is an atlas of wine Wine Quality gives you three choices: Above Great photographs throughout showing the 12 major wine-producing The Vineyard, The Grape, and Making and a straightforward text areas, plus 57 interactive maps and Wine. Clicking on The Vineyard gives you extensive information about geography a detailed text and 16 photographs of and history, variety of grape grown and different types of soil, vineyards, grapes, Europe, and so on), including some small the way the country classifies the quality care of the vines and so on. Clicking on wine producing countries such as Greece of its wine. Finally, an A-Z of wines The Grape gives you a description of the and the UK. Coverage is fairly main grape varieties, each variety being comprehensive and includes a narrated PCW Verdict illustrated. Making Wine is an illustrated “grower’s viewpoint”. For Greece, the Microsoft’s Wine Guide step-by-step guide. grower is Mr Gerovassiliou of the This is an excellent introduction to wine, at a Wine Appreciation covers Wine and Domaine Carras and Gerovassiliou price not far off what you would pay for a good printed wine encyclopedia. In my opinion, it’s Food, Wine Colour, Wine Tasting, Estate, who explains Greek grape also one of the best CD-ROMs you can buy. Serving and Storage, and Wine Labels. varieties, growing conditions, wines, and The information is provided as text, future developments. accompanied by lots of great The Wine Browser allows you to photographs. Unlike the search for wines — you just type in a Wine Guide, the grape variety such as Cabernet program doesn’t select Sauvignon, select a producer, vintage, an appropriate wine to price, quality rating, and then Search. go with the food you There’s an excellent glossary of about specify, but it provides 2,000 wine terms, too. plenty of good, solid information. PCW Verdict Wine Regions covers Wines of the World 18 regions (some are While not as comprehensive as Microsoft’s broadly defined, such as Wine Guide, the coverage of wine regions is Far East, eastern more complete (the Wine Guide gives little more than nod in the direction of Greek Retsi- na, for instance) and the photographs are Just choose your food impressive. and let Wine Guide choose the appropriate wine

100 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 BOOZE BOOZE

“Water taken in Curious wine fact Cocktails The Interactive Wine moderation cannot Sir Kenelm Digby holds the distinction of being the Guide hurt anybody.” — temperature. There are various printing inventor of the sturdy modern wine bottle. He invented It’s not in the same league Mark Twain options and, of course, you can modify it in the 1630s — previously, wine bottles were very Cocktails as the other two guides, but existing recipes or add your own. The fragile and used mainly to take wine from the barrel to the Interactive Wine Guide foods to go with it. A cocktail is a drink consisting of two or program comes with over two hundred the table. costs a mere £14.95 mouse click on any green A more ingredients — usually a spirit, drink recipes from cocktails through to (inclusive of VAT). For this, highlighted text produces a liquor and fruit juice — combined by beers (a lethal concoction called Depth you get valuable wine tips pop-up box containing a definition. your impressions, as all the wine experts shaking or stirring. The Martini is said to Charge consists of beer and Schnapps), from wine expert Robert The tour of wine-growing countries — advise; and you can make notes of have been the first cocktail, but this is to soft drinks and punches. If you Mondavi and other noted connoisseurs, including Argentina, Australia, Chile, expert recommendations you come unproven. There are many stories as to register, which costs about $20, you get an A-Z guide of wine terms, an atlas of England, France, Germany, Hungary, across and print out a list for your next how the cocktail got its name. The most over 1,000 more drink recipes and full wine-producing regions and a descriptive Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and visit to your local wine merchant. The disc recent I’ve come across is that a French- printed documentation. guide to all manner of wines. the United States — is disappointing, also comes with details of 170 French man in Betsy’s Tavern near Yorktown PCW Rating The disc is somewhat American in consisting merely of a single screen of wines. during the American Revolution saw a flavour, using the term “blush” for what very broad general information. The dic- row of bottles decorated with cocks’ tails we call “rosé” and giving emphasis to tionary of wine terms is more full-bodied: Californian wines. It is far from the definitions are short, but fine as a PCW Verdict “If you drink, don’t drive. Don’t Professional Bartender for Win- comprehensive and fails to explore the beginner’s guide. Some are supported by even putt.” — Dean Martin dows Wine Cellar less common wine-growing regions. narrative or video. For real aficionados rather than amateur wine- Only slightly less sophisticated than However, the wine novice will almost The multimedia section includes four drinkers. and shouted “Vive le cocktail!” There are Professional Bartender, this lacks the certainly find that it has all you need for videos and 17 audio extracts. All this other explanations, but the origin of the comprehensive searching facility and the finding a good wine to accompany Sun- information can be searched by word, but word will probably remain lost in the mists line drawings of glasses. However, day lunch or to take to a dinner party. it isn’t comprehensive. You can’t type in of time forever. WinBar scores by including over 1,000 You can investigate wines by their “stew” for example, and get a list of every Given that there are thousands of food recipes and the ability to tag the drinks Booze Online colour, find out about wine regions, or wine suitable to accompany a plate of that recipe books on disk and CD-ROM, it’s you’ve tried. brush up on your wine terms. And there’s traditional winter warmer. Both CIX and CompuServe have wine odd that the commercial software PCW Rating a multimedia section that includes video forums — try Wine on CIX and companies seem to have avoided cock- and audio. PCW Verdict Bacchus on Compuserve — and there’s tail recipes. This is especially odd when From the main screen, a mouse click The Interactive Wine Guide enough going on the internet to keep you consider that there are thousands of on the appropriately coloured wine bottle As a budget-priced beginner’s introduction to even the most dedicated tippler happy. recipes, that the technical stuff (such as takes you to an alphabetical list of wines. wine, The Interactive Wine Guide has an Some sites to try are alt.food.wine, the correct glass and how the drinks Beers Each is accompanied by a broad acceptable nose, good colour and is satisfac- rec.food.drink, and rec.crafts.winemak- should be mixed) is sometimes more tory to the palate. description, some general information ing. The world wide web holds some complicated than with wine, and that he Beer Homebrewing Guide about temperature and ageing, the wine’s promise too. Try http://www.virtualvin. there’s loads of scope for audio, video T(reviewed below) describes beer as characteristics (subtle, fresh, clean tast- com, a virtual vineyard devoted to and still photography. Nevertheless, Top Complete Bartender’s Guide: “Nectar of the Gods. Juice of the sacred ing, and so on) and the most appropriate wines from small US vineyards. cocktails are served by shareware. Glitz basic, unexciting, but lots of recipes barley fruit”. This seems to say it all, Wine Cellar You can even order your wine via the and glamour may be in short supply, but Middle PC Bartender: just pick a drink except to add that the tremendous growth If you are a real wine aficionado web. Contact Sainsbury’s Wine Direct the content is solid. Each of the following from the list or add a recipe of your own. in popularity of real ale is the result of the then you must seriously consider on http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk, make programs are pretty much the same, the Bottom Professional Bartender: proba- most successful consumer campaign in this program. At first sight, it looks a choice from about forty wines on only significant difference being the way bly the most accomplished (note the history. It is therefore difficult to designed for anyone who has a offer, order a case of what you fancy, in which the information is presented. line-drawing of the appropriate glass) understand why the commercial wine cellar so big they can’t and sit back to wait for it to be computer companies haven’t jumped on remember where they left the delivered to your home. Complete Bartender’s Guide amount of ingredients used. This latter the beer bandwagon with a beer guide. claret. However, it has wider uses. For beer on CIX try Beer, Booze, The Complete Bartender’s Guide is a feature is very useful if you are planning All we have is a CD-ROM of beer First, you can keep a list of all the Drink, Drinkers, Food, Whiskey. On basic DOS-based database of cocktails a party and want to mix up enough drinks recipes for the home brewer — but don’t wine you buy, including where you Compuserve look for the Beer forum. and mixed drinks. Be warned, though, for a known number of guests. be too hasty to turn away! This is a seri- bought it; you can make a note of On the net, try alt.alcohol. some of the cocktail names are naughty PCW Rating ously serious disc that any beer drinker to the point of being offensive — even to would enjoy browsing through and which Hangover cures a Sergeant Major. Being DOS-based, it might even turn you into a homebrewer. looks a little long in the tooth, but is And why should you ever wish to brew “A good cure for a hangover is to drink 45ml (1.5 fl. oz) Pernod nevertheless worth taking a look at. Professional Bartender for your own? If you have ever sat in your black coffee the night before instead of mix in an old-fashioned glass with ice PCW Rating Windows garden on a hot summer’s afternoon and the morning after.” — Laurence J. Peter Prairie Oyster This is the most accomplished of the taken a mouthful of a crisp, clean and That debilitating hangover is caused Worcestershire sauce three programs. The main screen has a fresh beer, you wouldn’t need to ask. by the effects of ethyl alcohol in your two drops of Tabasco list of drinks and you can find out the There’s a huge variety of beers you can bloodstream and the best way to beat yolk of a fresh egg PC Bartender for Windows ingredients, the recipe, and general infor- brew, from light summer ales to warming the “morning after” misery is not to drink salt and pepper to taste PC Bartender for Windows is another mation such as the type of drink, temper- winter beers. to excess the night before. Once the sprinkle the Worcestershire sauce in a basic shareware program, but it does ature at which it should be drunk and the damage has been done, get some oxy- champagne glass, drop in the Tabasco, what it’s supposed to do and couldn’t be best season for drinking it. A neat feature The Beer Homebrewing Guide gen into your brain by deep breathing. add the unbeaten egg yolk and drink the simpler to use. that I really liked was a line drawing of Written and compiled by Fred Lloyd, Then dress comfortably, stagger down- whole lot straight down It has three uses: it provides you with the glass appropriate for each drink. Barry Lyon and Monty Nelson — two stairs and make yourself one of the fol- if this doesn’t work, return to bed and Top Interactive Wine Guide: a budget-priced a database of cocktail recipes, lets you Searching is particularly good. You enthusiastic homebrewers and one lowing: don’t expect sympathy from anyone — introduction to wine enter new recipes or modify existing can search by liquor, liqueur, ingredient enthusiastic homebrew drinker — this Fernet Branca not even your dog. Above Choose from a selection of multimedia; ones, and it has a neat feature that (such as drinks containing cream), by must surely be the ultimate homebrewing 45ml (1.5 fl. oz) Fernet Branca (a thick “For a bad hangover, take the juice of often quite long and informative enables you to convert and adjust the type of glass, season and drink guide. black bitters with quinine) two quarts of whiskey.” — Eddie Condon

102 103 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 BOOZE

“There is no bad beer: some kinds are better than others.” — German Proverb steam, smoked, sour-mash, stout and porter, barley wine such as the starting and finishing gravi- and doppelbock, herb and ties, category (Pale Ale, etc) and method spice, fruit, scotch, trappist, (i.e. Extract, Full Mash). Once you have a brown and other ales, mead, recipe, you can make log entries. The log cider and even a few of detail screen contains a number of fields historical interest (most pertaining to a particular batch of the acknowledged as undrinkable). selected recipe. These include: Date Digests is a collection of articles from Started, Date Bottled, Starting and Fin- the world famous Homebrew Digest ishing Gravities, and Hop IBUs. There’s Internet mailing list. If you are familiar with also an area where you can make notes. on-line Threads, you’ll have a rough idea The program has some shortcuts of what to expect here — enthusiasts built-in to make entering the information exchanging advice, recipes and much easier. The log screen gives you access else. to really useful tools such as the HOP Overall this disc is of greatest use to IBU spreadsheet to calculate hop IBUs UK users for the Cat’s Meow recipes, but for beer batches — IBU stands for enthusiasts generate excitement about International Bittering Units, a world-wide their hobby and somehow this comes standard of bitterness measurement Top If this disc doesn't inspire you to across from your computer screen to you. based on hop isomerisation (it says start homebrewing, nothing will PCW Rating here!) — and a basic beer label printer. Above A seasonal recipe SUDS for Windows comes with several recipes to get you started and there is a The only thing that lets it down is that it is glossary of terms in the Help files. heavily orientated towards the US. SUDS for Windows SUDS is a typical shareware product: There are four main sections. “Brew” SUDS is a comprehensive brewer’s cook- it was designed to satisfy the specific is an illustrated step-by-step tutorial to book and log program that’s grown from a needs of its author and has grown into a homebrewing. “Reference” is the home of simple effort by its author to bring some solid but basic utility that goes straight to lots of homebrewing reference material sense and order to his recipe and log the heart of the beer brewer. There’s no which, unfortunately, is American and of notes. Using SUDS for Windows couldn’t gloss or glamour here, no pretty pictures, little use elsewhere in the world. be easier. First enter a recipe, which you not even very many free recipes. It’s a However, the glossary is useful. can type in or import as an ASCII file, and simple tool to make the homebrewer’s life “Recipes” is the section most of us will it is the work of a moment to import easier. And it’s yours for a nominal head for first. The collection here is large recipes downloaded from an online registration fee of $15. and eclectic. There are two recipe collec- service such as Compuserve. PCW Rating tions, one called “The Cat’s Meow” and Once you’ve saved the recipe, a another called “Other” which consists dialogue box is opened in which you enter mainly of a collection of recipes supplied pertinent information about the recipe, by customers of California-based As I don’t have any homebrew, I’m off to the Suds for Windows: for the homebrewer William’s Brewing, and reprinted in a pub. Have a happy Christmas and New Year who means business newsletter. The Cat’s Meow is a collec- and, raising a glass — bottoms up! tion of beer recipes drawn from numer- ous sources, including almost every recipe posted to the Homebrew Digest on the internet from the first volume until 1992, but as the authors observe: “Caveat Brewer — we don’t guarantee that the recipes will taste good, or even that they won’t make you violently ill.” Nevertheless, just look at the range of beers covered: pale ale, lager, wheat,

Product Category Company Phone Fax CD/Floppy Price Guide The Beer Homebrewing Guide Beer Public Domain and Shareware Library 01892 663298 01892 667473 CD-ROM £24.00 (inc VAT) Complete Bartender’s Guide Cocktails Public Domain and Shareware Library 01892 663298 01892 667473 1 floppy about £6.00 The Interactive Wine Guide Wine World Library 01993 778077 01993 778246 CD-ROM £14.95 (inc. VAT) PC Bartender for Windows Cocktails Public Domain and Shareware Library 01892 663298 01892 667473 1 floppy about £6.00 Professional Bartender For Windows Cocktails Public Domain and Shareware Library 01892 663298 01892 667473 1 floppy about £6.00 Suds for Windows Beer Public Domain and Shareware Library 01892 663298 01892 667473 1 floppy about £6.00 Wine Cellar Wine GST 01480 496666 01480 460206 1 floppy £19.95 (inc. VAT) Wine Guide Wine Microsoft 01734 270001 01734 270002 CD-ROM and disk £29.99 (inc VAT) WinBar Cocktails Public Domain and Shareware Library 01892 663298 01892 667473 1 floppy about. £6.00 Wines of the World Wine Koch Media 01252 714340 01252 711121 CD-ROM £ 49.99

104 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE Driller thriller

“Drill Down” is the key feature of accountancy packages in the nineties, and one software firm has caused a furore by registering a trademark for the term. Treading carefully through the exploding invoices, David Carter assesses the field.

few months ago, a storm held live on file, in full detail, for as long broke out in the normally staid Accounting Software Contents as you like. Faster processors and better world of accounting software. file management programs like Btrieve A 111 Global 3000 Under the noses of their com- allow vast quantities of data to be quickly petitors Bournemouth-based vendor SBS 114 Dynamics accessed via multiple keys and cross-ref- Financial Systems registered a trademark 116 Lakeview LM3 erenced relationally to associated trans- 118 Opera for the name “Drill Down” to describe its actions. So the stage is set for a new type 123 Legend Exchequer accounts package. of accounts package which allows users 125 Exchequer Drill Down has long been recognised 126 Sovereign to roam around (i.e. Drill Down) their as the key characteristic that will distin- 129 Modulus Gold accounting database without hindrance guish accounts packages designed in the 130 TAS Books 2 and gain quick access to all that precious nineties from those of the eighties, so the 132 Navision management information that hitherto news that one vendor had grabbed exclu- has been locked away in impenetrable sive use of the term caused outrage in 120 Case Studies data files. But it’s a slow process and old the industry. The lawyers have been hard 135 How We Did the Tests habits die hard. As this review shows, at work ever since but because, as with 135 Windows Accounting Packages established vendors are still churning out 135 Editor’s Choice most industry buzz-words, each supplier new packages that are obsolete the day 136 Table of Features tailors the definition so they can claim they are released. that only their software qualifies, it’s diffi- cult to pin down what the argument is problem derives ultimately from lack of The three faces of Drill Down about. To help clear up some of the con- disk space, which until recently was lim- There are many definitions of Drill Down, fusion, PCW decided to test ten of the ited and expensive. Package designers but at the end of the day they all fall into major mid-range packages on the market had to economise on it, so they dropped one of three headings — Drill Down; Drill to see how they measured up in the Drill invoices off the ledger after they were Around; and Super Drill Down. We’ll take Down stakes. paid, or posted summary details of the a look at each in turn: originating transactions to the nominal ● Drill Down Accounting software — the big ledger, which were printed out as an You have a list of yesterday’s sales problem “audit trail”, then wiped off the disk. This invoices on-screen. The typical value of Why is Drill Down so important? made for fast processing and minimum your invoices is one or two thousand Basically, it’s important because it tackles storage requirements, but if users pounds, but this time you see that one of the most glaring defect of traditional wanted to go back and have another look them is for £255,041. You decide to accounting packages, which is that YOU at the original transaction they couldn’t, investigate. If you have a Drill Down sys- CAN’T GO BACK. While accounts pack- either because it wasn’t there any more tem, all you have to do is to highlight the ages may be fine at transaction process- or, if it was, it was now in a different form. suspect invoice, then press Enter (or click ing (printing invoices, processing orders, Larger disk storage capacities mean with the mouse) and the full detail of the producing accounts etc), as soon as that this constraint no longer applies. invoice, as it was originally entered, is users want to analyse or browse through Several years’ transactions can now be displayed onscreen. So in this case you the transactions they have put in, sooner might see that the operator had got the

or later they run into a brick wall. The PCW Coin Photography by David Whyte decimal point in the wrong place and the

108 109 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

Drill down invoice should have been £2,550.41. sense of all that precious data is a So you need to raise a credit note and hot topic in the industry at present. GLOBAL 3000 issue a fresh invoice. This is not the place to discuss data This is basic Drill Down — the ability warehousing, OLAP (online analyti- to select any transaction in a list of cal processing), MDA (multidimen- orders, payments, invoices, stock sional analysis), data-mining and IS Software is a subsidiary of the orders overnight, plac- movements etc. and explode it so as to suchlike, but suffice it to say that to TMisys Computer Services Group, one ing indexes on them to see the detail of the original document give managers the big picture you of the UK’s largest computer companies. allow analysis later. underneath. have to raise them above the individ- The name Global 3000 harks back to the Global 3000 Drill Down should also work in ual transaction level and give them package’s predecessor, Global 2000, but performed particularly reverse (a sort of Drill Up). For exam- summaries and totals. Whereas an in fact this latest version is a modern well in the interactive ple, if you are looking at a list of adver- accountant’s idea of a report is the package, having been completely rewrit- order processing test. tising expenses in the Nominal Ledger, “audit trail” (i.e. a listing of transac- ten and runs under both DOS/Novell and You can pre-set up to and one looks suspiciously high, it tions with the total at the end) man- Unix. nine partitions running should be possible to highlight the item agers need the exact opposite. At £9,930 for a seven-user system, different jobs simultane- and display in detail the original Information should be presented on- Global 3000 is one of the more expensive ously and jump instantly purchase invoice or nominal journal screen in the form of totals, with the packages in this survey, but all modules from one to another source document. Or if you are doing a facility to “zoom” down to look at indi- are multi-currency, multi-stock location rather like Alt-Tab in stocktake reconciliation and the stock vidual transactions only if an out of and multi-company as standard. Most Windows. So, if you are balance of one item is way out, you Top The Stationery & Printing account looks a line situation occurs. Global 3000 installations have between in the middle of entering should be able to list all the movements bit on the high side at £2221.57. Let’s take a This is called Super Drill Down. five and 50 terminals, with a large propor- an order and get a credit of the stock item in question and high- look: highlight the balance and press Enter To visualise how it works, suppose tion of them in specialist Distribution and warning, you can put the light any one to show the original detail Bottom The original invoice from Polished Month 10 of your financial year has Telesales. order on hold, jump of the delivery note, works order, stock Printers Ltd for new Letterhead appears in full just ended and you are looking at the TIS has recently added a GUI option straight to another parti- transfer, stock write-off etc. detail. You’ve moved down from the top to the Profit and Loss account. Advertising to Global. A screen painter sits on top of tion which is running the ● Drill Around bottom of the information period in just a few expenditure this month was £4,900 the system allowing senior management customer account Drill Down allows you to move within seconds and year-to-date £90,000 against a to access the data in Windows while enquiry program, take a the detail of a single transaction. But budget for the year of £50,000. How operational staff can continuing working look at this customer’s you need to be able to move sideways do you find out what went wrong? in character mode. The “Integrator” facil- details, then hop back to too. For example, while in the middle of concept is akin to to some of the hyper- With traditional systems you have to print ity allows you to transfer data from Global where you were entering a sales order from a customer text-based Help files in Windows. The out a listing of all the transactions for the into Excel or Access, then back again via originally in the sales over the telephone, you might want to Help screen displays a list of related top- year and start searching. However, with a OLE. For example, you can take your order. jump out of Sales Order Processing to ics: just click on any one of them and the Super Drill Down package you first make Nominal Ledger budget figures out of So, in a telesales look at the customer’s outstanding text is automatically found and displayed. a screen enquiry which displays, not a list Global 3000 into Excel, amend them, environment, you might invoices in Sales Ledger, or to go into In an accounts package the result of this of transactions, but the individual monthly then reload them into Global. set up the main partition Sales Analysis to see what price he paid relational linking is that you can hot-key at totals for each month of the advertising Global 3000 is reasonably good at Drill for sales order entry: Global 3000 was not really designed as a drill down for this item in the past, or to check on the lightning speed around the modules, account. This allows you to identify Down: you can list the transactions on a one for customer package but numerous indexed search and sorts allow forward availability of the item in Stock jumping via a single keystroke to the instantly the month when the variance customer’s account and explode down to account enquiry, one for quick and easy retrieval of data Control. Although the information might product or customer record you are cur- occurred. Suppose it was June. You can the original invoice (curiously, although product enquiry, and be held in these separate modules, it rently working on. now highlight the June balance, press you can choose to see All, Current or another for customer should be possible to “hot-key” instantly Processing a customer order may Enter and a list of all the advertising Archived invoices on this enquiry, you sales history enquiry. While entering the screen layouts are attractive, movement across them to access the information, involve many different documents, expenses for June appears. Scan the list cannot simply see Outstanding ones). customer’s order in the main partition, around the system is fast, via multi-parti- then return to entering the order. And perhaps spread over a lengthy period of to find the overspent item, then Down You can list a daybook of past invoices or you can jump instantly to other partitions tioning, and TIS have introduced numer- when you have jumped across to the time: quotation, customer’s order, your Arrow to highlight it and press Enter to sales orders on the screen and explode to see the customer’s outstanding ous indexed searches and sorts which other modules, you should be able to drill acknowledgement, the purchase order on display the original invoice in detail via any of them to see the original detail but invoices, future availability of a product, allow quick and easy retrieval of data. down to individual transaction detail. So, your own supplier, goods received notes, conventional Drill Down. In an instant, via you cannot drill down from a list of prod- what the customer paid for the product enquiring on work in progress may show batch certificates etc. You need to be able Enter and the Arrow keys, you have uct transactions. The Nominal Ledger last time, and so on. that further supplies of an item are due in to cross-reference them all in case there moved from the top of the data pyramid only allows drill down of a sort, in that it This all worked pretty well, the only tomorrow, but drilling down to the detail of is a query on the order, a batch proves right to the bottom. shows the nominal analysis of the origi- limitation being that when you jump to PCW Details the works order shows that they haven’t faulty etc. Traditional accounting Drill Down proper, is really a two-step nating journal but not the full detail. another partition Global doesn’t immedi- Global 3000 even taken the raw materials out of packages have been very poor at this, but process: Super Drill Down from monthly Global was good at providing plenty of ately take you to THAT customer or Price £9,930 stores yet. with a relational accounts package all totals to a list of transactions, then “ordi- monthly totals in the Nominal Ledger and THAT product and you have to do a Find Contact TIS Software 01628 532565 ☎ Speed is of the essence when taking transactions can be cross-referenced to nary” Drill Down from a transaction listing Stock modules. These were available at operation to retrieve it, but the fast move- Good Points Good Drill Around (jobs telephone orders, so when you jump into the originating order. This means that all to the details of the individual invoice. both group and individual account level. ment around the modules was impres- can run simultaneously in multiple parti- Sales Ledger to look at the customer’s relevant documents can be be retrieved Using only the mouse or Arrow keys, it’s Unfortunately, though, it was not possible sive nonetheless. In addition, TIS has tions). Fast data retrieval via indexes. account, you want to jump instantly to and displayed quickly in response to an so quick and easy that even senior man- to drill down to the underlying indexed many of the fields in transaction Bad Points No Super Drill Down from that account. If you want to jump into order enquiry. agement can do it. But of course, for transactions. Nor could we find any and master files, allowing immediate on- period balances to underlying transac- Stock Control to look at outstanding ● Super Drill Down Super Drill Down to be really quick, the enquiries showing monthly sales by cus- screen views of the data without having tions. Cannot create a new transaction orders for a stock item, you want to jump Useful as Drill Down and Drill Around are, monthly balances need to be sitting there tomer (the test results for Global and the to close down the screen and load by copying and editing a previous one. Conclusion Good solution for compa- instantly to that stock record on file. The the ability to zip upwards, downwards and “online” before you even start the enquiry. other packages in this survey are shown another menu option. nies requiring multi-user Distribution and advent of relational file managers such as sideways through thousands of transac- As a rule of thumb, the more online in the table on pages 136/137). However, To sum up, Global 3000 was not Stock Control; especially telesales oper- Btrieve makes this possible. Records can tions at the micro-level doesn’t necessar- monthly balances a package holds, the Global’s “Sales History” module should really designed originally as a drill down ations. be relationally linked so the operator ily make you any the wiser about the big better it will be at providing management be mentioned: this is a sort of mini data package, but one feels that TIS has doesn’t have to perform a search. The picture. The whole business of making information. warehouse which posts invoices and worked hard to make it seem so. The

110 111 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

Dynamics

ynamics, developed by US company and amending the DGreat Plains Software, is marketed original. You have to in the UK by Kewill Systems. Under key it in all over development since 1990, Dynamics was again. Nor can you one of the earliest Windows packages. auto-reverse an Five years and $30 million later, three invoice to automati- Ledgers, Stock and Sales Invoicing mod- cally produce a credit ules have been rolled out. Sales Order note. Processing was released in July 1995 Nonetheless, it and Purchase Order Processing is was clear that on Drill scheduled for early 1996. At £1,200 per Down and Drill module, Dynamics is aimed at the upper Around the basic mid-range of the market. There are 150 design of Dynamics users in the UK. was pretty good, and Dynamics acquitted itself well in our doubtless these defi- Sales Invoicing test. Drill down in particu- ciences will be made lar is excellent, with the ability to display good. As to speed, the original detail of virtually any source earlier releases of transaction. This is a particular strength Dynamics were slow, of many Windows packages. When it but a 486/66MHz came to super drill down from period with 12Mb of memory totals to the underlying transactions, is now ample. On things were more variable: the Nominal data entry, Great Ledger offered monthly totals with the Plains allows you to ability to explode down; the Product tailor the Enter and Sales history screen offered monthly other keys so you totals but no drill down; while the can work via the key- Customer Sales enquiry showed just one board rather than via month’s totals with no drill down. mouse, but odd Top The three-line order entry screen in Dynamics is not In Sales Order Processing things went things still happened. easy to read less well. The basic design looks impres- When I made a mis- Bottom Monthly totals from Dynamics are good; but it sive, with an interesting facility to prede- take on data entry, would help if you could drill down to the underlying fine different order types via templates the cursor had disap- transactions (Great Plains are very keen on templates, peared when the the idea being that it reduces the number screen cleared and it of errors and the amount of time spent was not clear where I was. When we tried entering new transactions). But when in to scroll via the Down arrow through a list the middle of the order the customer ran of nominal codes the highlight got left over his credit limit and we went out to behind and we couldn’t select the nominal the customer’s account to see outstand- code we wanted. The excellent Drill Down ing debt and orders, we found that there and Drill Around features can only be were no details held of outstanding operated via the mouse, not the PCW Details orders. keyboard. Similarly, when we ran out of stock on The overall look and feel of Dynamics Dynamics one of the items being ordered, and is attractive. Screen prompts have a light Price £12,295 Contact Kewill Systems 0193 248328 ☎ wanted to check availability in detail, it blue background to distinguish them from was possible to move to the product data entry fields — a small point, but one Good Points Very good Drill Down and record from within the order, but there which makes busy screens so much eas- Drill Around facilities. Screens can be was no record on the product file of the ier to read. The screen modifier allows customised to user requirements via Modifier. outstanding orders for this product. It you to “paint” the fields within a screen Bad Points Single transactions running seems that the recent release of Sales and customise it to your own needs. The over two or three lines of screen are dif- Order Processing is very much a first one serious defect we noted was that ficult to read. Very limited Order stab and Great Plains have not yet got each item line of a transaction seems to Processing at present. round to linking sales and purchase spill over onto two lines of screen display; Conclusion A mature Windows inter- orders to the customer and account in Sales Order Processing it needs three! face. A good, if relatively expensive, records. It was a little disappointing, too, Multiline displays are extremely difficult to choice for the corporate user who wants that while you can auto-reverse a trans- read. I’d prefer to see a single line per a Windows-based accounting system, action via the “Void” facility, you cannot item with a central pop-up window to but decent Order Processing and Stock then correct the transaction by copying accommodate the additional fields. Control look about 12 months away.

114 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

Lakeview LM3

ith offices in London and Birming- You can jump sideways Wham, Lakeview writes and markets instantly from the order its own software package, LM3. Being an entry screen to see the integrated package, LM3 is not priced by customer or stock module. Instead the entire order process- record ing, stock control and ledgers system is available for £8,750 (five to ten users). This price includes multicurrency, multi- stock location, works order processing and report layout maintenance as stan- dard. Lakeview is also strong in the man- ufacturing area, with modules for An example of production control and capacity planning. Lakeview's Most installations have between ten and 132-column thirty users. An optional Windows inter- report display to face is planned for early 1996. an SVGA screen During demonstrations, some accounts packages come over as very easy to use, others are hard work. First impressions of LM3 are very impressive. Perhaps it is the striking but warm colour combination of white on a red background, together with a royal blue background display. Or perhaps it is the elegance of being able to do so many tasks with so few keystrokes. Either way, it is undeniable that LM3 comes over as a class act, a real thoroughbred which any new user will be delighted with. Lakeview has made the screens clear and easy to read, with a common menu files and easy retrieval. forward availability based on delivery organisation and common keystroke In its latest release, LM3 scores 100 dates of future sales, purchase and functions throughout. If you go into the percent on our drill down tests (see the works orders. On periods where you are nominal ledger, you see a list of the last table on pages 136/137). From nominal, going to be short of stock, LM3 displays a 12 months’ actuals versus budget. Press stock or customer screen enquiries, you big red blob highlight so you get the mes- left arrow and there is an overlay window have the ability to explode a period bal- sage. If you want to dig deeper and check comparing the previous year’s actuals ance down to a transaction listing and whether that works order really is going to with budget. Press down arrow to see a then a transaction listing down to individ- be delivered on the due date, simply list of transactions on the account. The ual detail. Our only complaint: the “inter- highlight it, press the INS key and LM3 designers have made special efforts so active profit and loss” enquiry is displays the works order so you can see that by using a single arrow key, page up, presented in the wrong order, the YTD how far it has progressed. page down or insert key, you can hop all Totals are shown last when they should One exceptionally useful feature is over the system from the screen you are be first. You can copy an order or invoice that you can display any report in currently working on. There is no need to to make a new one. Faulty transactions condensed 132 column x 43 line mode close down the screen and select another can be automatically reversed and you on an SVGA screen, allowing you to see menu option. The result is a package that can automatically generate a credit note the full report without having to scroll seems instantly responsive, because from the original invoice. right. LM3 is a class act. everything is just a keystroke or two LM3 excelled at the order-processing away. test. While in the middle of taking an PCW Details Another very slick feature is the wealth order over the phone, you can jump direct Lakeview LM3 of FIND options. Go into the to the customer’s account to review his Price £8,750 “enter/change sales orders” option and credit situation via the outstanding order Contact Lakeview Computers you can set the key field to order number, summary and invoice payment history, 0181 303 3329 ☎ customer number, job number, client ref- then look at the “stats” option which Good Points Everything just a erence, even product, so that you can shows when he purchased this product keystroke away. display the orders file on screen sorted in before, and at what price. Should the Bad Points Minor faults only. any sequence you want. You can do product ordered be out of stock, you can Conclusion A very fine system; beauti- fully crafted with extensive functionality exactly the same with sales invoices. The jump direct to the product record and and very easy to use. result is fast movement around the data inspect the “profile” which calculates the

116 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

Opera

egasus, Sage and Tetra Pegasus Pare the three best-known companies providing accounts software in the UK. The Pegasus “Senior” package was for many years the top-selling modular accounts package in the country. In 1993, the company introduced its succes- sor; Opera, which is written in Foxpro, the development database now owned by Microsoft. Opera is available in both GUI and character-based versions, and users are able to work in either mode simulta- neously, on the same data. Above A The most obvious thing that strikes customer you about Opera is its attractive, modern account appearance, complete with menu options enquiry screen from a pull-down menu bar at the top of in Opera. The the screen. A key feature throughout is neat VIEW2 that the designers have tried to reduce option allows operator keying time by providing you to see templates containing standard informa- which payment tion. For example, you can set up a is related to series of Stock Item templates containing which invoice, default nominal codes, VAT rates, suppli- and to separate ers and so on. When setting up new out the unpaid products you can choose to base them items on a template. The result is less keying Above Customer account enquiry again — this time using the time and fewer errors in your product file. Zoom option to see the image of the invoice To save data entry time, instead of hav- ing to type in credit notes, you can recall the original invoice to the screen and invoice image, although there’s no ability do the job in just a couple of keystrokes. Opera will reverse it to automatically cre- to filter out paid transactions and show So, a few black marks then. But one ate the credit note for you. However, Outstanding invoices only. But this is all should not be too negative. The develop- there is no facility to copy a previous accounting information rather than sales ment environment of Opera is flexible transaction and amend it to create a new information. Opera doesn’t seem to offer and the data easily accessed. If Pegasus one. any screen enquiries for either customer were willing to invest a bit of time to sort I’ve always found Opera attractive and or product sales histories. out these limitations, Opera should be easy to use with one exception; printing The interactive order processing test able to match any of the competition. reports to screen. Since the reports are showed up further limitations. Opera has 132 columns wide and the screen only no facility to jump sideways to look at cus- PCW Details 80, you constantly have to scroll to the tomer or product details while you are in right to see the full detail. But the cursor the middle of an order. So if you are in Opera Price £6,400 keys under Opera are slow and jerky and this situation and the customer asks for a Contact Pegasus Software navigation is long winded. All these prob- product which is out of stock, and you 01536 410044 ☎ lems would disappear at a stroke if Pega- want to have a look at the current orders sus could take a leaf out of Lakeview’s and future availability, all you can do is to Good Points Attractive, easy-to-use design with basic drill-down features. book and come up with a condensed 43 x close down the order, then choose the Alternative DOS/Windows interface 132 character SVGA screen display. “Stock” option from the Sales Order Pro- under Foxpro. Opera offers limited Drill Down. In the cessing menu. Then, when you’ve found Bad Points One-thing-at-a-time design Nominal Ledger you can see the monthly the information you want you close down means weak Drill Around between mod- balances, then drill down from them to the Stock Enquiry, re-open the sales ules. Reports displayed to screen are see the underlying transactions, then order, return to where you were and so difficult to read. select a transaction and drill down to see on. There’s the same problem when Conclusion Opera is a competent, an “image” of the detail. But this doesn’t checking on the customer account, with attractive package that on this showing extend to the Product or Customer the added drawback that Opera credit is not in the first rank — yet. But the enquiries: these offer no monthly totals at checks only on the Sales Ledger balance underlying development environment is good and Pegasus is the only one of the all, although in Customer enquiry you can and ignores orders in the pipeline. It’s all “Big Three” established vendors to be display a list of transactions (i.e. invoices far too long-winded and not really accept- taking Drill Down seriously. and payments) and display the original able when other packages allow you to

118 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

Case Studies

Formac especially good for stock control, allowing have more time to do other tasks.” very carefully to ensure that nobody has good reporting,” said James Ward, com- hen David France joined us to use a perfect just-in-time system in Contacts: Ray O’Brien, Warehouse posted to an audited period in error. mercial manager at Alpha Dot. “We liked WFormac –– a distributor of the warehouse. We utilise pre-set reorder Controller, Avery Dennison, 00 353 1 623 3581, Travco also take groups of tourists Lakeview LM because you don’t have to PC and Apple Macintosh hardware stock levels and quantities, together with fax 00 353 1 626 6131 around Europe, so they find the costing move around between modules. It and peripherals –– as financial automatic re-ordering. We use “low Frank Morrison, Finance Manager, Avery Den- module is good for accumulating the seemed easy to use, because their controller, he immediately realised stock” and “product movement” reports, nison, 00 353 249 2301, fax 00 353 1 249 2864 costs of each tour. hotkeys allow you to switch, say, from that their accounting system had which are printed three or four times a “The whole system is transparent and sales order processing to stock or inadequate controls and stock week. By generating suggested orders, Travco gives us realtime information,” says procurement.” tracking. Needing to implement a the system cuts down our workload. It is ravco, a travel wholesaler selling McGraw. “We have three years data After training from Lakeview, Alpha new system, he found Modulus to very user-friendly and it doesn’t take new Thotel accommodation in Europe to available online and can drill down Dot ran the new system in parallel with be the best product available. staff long to pick up. travel agents, had been using a ledger straight to any individual transaction. The the old one until the end of its financial As the stock module was being “TAS Books 2 is very user-friendly with supplied with its UNIX reservation search facilities are also good. We partic- year. It has completed implementation rewritten, he Beta tested and its integrated menus and modules,” says software. “When I joined the company, I ularly appreciate the hotkeys if a and has been using Lakeview LM on its reviewed it, but waited to Frank Morrison, Avery’s finance soon realised that it was awful,” recalls customer telephones. They allow us to own for about four months. There are ten implement the full range of mod- manager. “The report generator is used Alasdair McGraw, Travco’s systems man- access one transaction to answer a users on a Novell local area network with ules until September 1994. “We frequently and is quite good. Once I had ager, “so I quickly decided to replace it. I query, while in the middle of entering Windows clients. had a lot of input into writing the got the feel for it, while producing the first looked at a number of packages and liked another transaction.” “It’s easy to move rapidly about the stock system,” says France. “We report, I found it very powerful. It is also the demonstration of Exchequer. It was “Exchequer’s multi currency handling system,” says Ward, “especially to look at ran the old system in parallel for helpful to be able to import our own sta- intelligent and thinks the way human is superb. We are also able to use the a situation at a particular time, and it has three months, which gave us prob- tionery designs to use our existing beings think. It also had the drill-down fields in Exchequer to match our sales a good report writer. Lakeview’s support lems because Modulus was much stationery stocks. The ability to edit a facilities which we needed.” invoice with the corresponding purchase service is invaluable in helping to us opti- more accurate than the old transaction speeds things up and elimi- McGraw had to recreate the first invoice from the hotel.” Travco uses the mise our use of the system. It‘s a power- system, so we had problems rec- nates a great many correcting journals. year’s accounts in Exchequer, but since stock codes during sales order process- ful adjunct to their training. onciling them.” David France of Formac “We are also using TAS Books in our then Travco has implemented all the ing, to provide analysis and utilise “The system now runs the whole busi- Formac is using the diary manager, Cork plant in the same way that it is used modules. Seven people have been using processing information. It is currently ness. The screen layout is excellent and stock control, sales order, purchase can dial into Modulus and control the in Dublin,” continues Morrisson. “It is suf- Exchequer all day every day for two building import routines to bring orders it is very user and key-friendly. Hotkeys order, sales ledger, purchase ledger, business when we are out of the office. ficient for small and medium-sized busi- years to enter data. “We have abused it from the reservation system into Exche- reduce data entry time enormously, nominal ledger, service control and data “With Modulus, I have total control of nesses and is more than adequate for us and made mistakes, but the trial balance quer, probably using Microsoft Access to allowing us to copy an order and modify manager modules. There are 15 users, the business and an encompassing view and our users are all quite happy. has always balanced, and in every case match transactions with the ledger it, or copy an invoice as a credit note. which is everybody in the whole build- of what the company and its staff are Megetech is good with back up and sup- we were able to find errors very quickly,” codes. Stock control is definitely a powerful fea- ing. Formac has been Beta testing new doing at any point in time. It is an all-see- port,” says O’Brien. “Because the new admits McGraw. “The Exchequer reports “We are very impressed with Exche- ture. We have multiple locations, so we software since it first installed the sys- ing, all-knowing in-house system.” system is so easy to use, all our staff are very good and we have been able to quer,” says McGraw. “SBS have been need tight control. Lakeview has allowed tem. spot errors and drill down to identify and very good at support, and we receive us to hold our stock levels constant while Contact: David France, Financial Controller, Diary manager is used by sales staff correct the offending transaction.” updated software almost monthly, as increasing our turnover. It allows us bet- Formac, 0181 533 4040, fax 0181 533 2495 to control their calls and service control Ray O’Brien, Avery’s warehouse McGraw finds that it is a great blessing improvements are made. Exchequer is ter control over stock items which are key is used by Formac’s technical support controller to have all his historical periods open, running well under Windows 95. On a to our manufacturing operation. department. “With high-tech products, Avery Dennison although he needs to check the audit trail human level, Exchequer is very intuitive, “Lakeview LM has flexible password we have to be able to account properly very Dennison (Ireland) is part of the although we are only using about half of protection, which is important because it for any returns,” says France, “but each AAvery Dennison Corporation; leading what it can offer. Use of a good account- gives each staff member the ability to stock item can be tracked by individual manufacturers of self-adhesive labels. It ing system, such as Exchequer, has work with and view the data they need. serial number across 40,000 stock is now in the second year of using TAS allowed us to cope with expanding Lakeview will customise the system to records. Books, a system it finds to be more than rapidly to a turnover of £8 million.” meet any specific needs we have, so it is “Modulus gives us better control of adequate. It was previously using System not a frozen design. With hindsight, good Contact: Alasdair McGraw, Financial Con- our business, because of the amount of 36, linking two warehouses on separate solid training was our best investment. troller, Travco, 0171 739 3333, fax 0171 739 detailed information available and the sites by a telephone line. When this 2233 After that, the system is easy to use when speed with which we can get at it. We proved to be too cumbersome, the firm you first get in, with clear screens and know where everything is and changed to TAS Books 2 on the advice of well-defined fields. Even procedures everything that is happening. We can its IT department in the UK. Alpha Dot which seemed difficult at first are easy view information in any shape or form, Personnel came from the UK to imple- lpha Dot is a manufacturer of large once you have learnt them. Lakeview at any point in time. For instance, we ment the system and train the users. The Acharacter inkjet printing machines for was a good choice because it allows us can see which customers we haven’t system currently has eleven users linked labelling cardboard cartons, which is cur- to maintain control of a growing business sold to this month and give a report to by a Novell network. All modules have rently turning over £2.5 million. It needed while increasing our overall administra- the sales force. been implemented and TAS Books is an accounting system which gave better tive productivity.” “We would recommend Modulus to used for everything; including purchasing, support to the firm’s manufacturing oper- Contact: James Ward, Commercial Manager, anybody. It is very simple, because stock control and sales. It is used by the ation, which involves metal fabrication, Alpha Dot 01264 781989, fax 01264 782017 there is only one integrated system. Life sales department, stores and accounts. integrated circuits and software. Its Rod Newing gets very complicated with more than “We find it an incredible system,” says needs covered everything from procure- one system. We wanted a system Ray O’Brien, Avery’s warehouse ment through stock control, manufactur- Rod Newing MBA FCA FInstD is a freelance where we can look in by modem and controller. “It does everything we want to ing, sales, management reports, financial journalist and a member of the IT Faculty at the see what is going on. Simon Warman- do and more. Reports are wonderful com- management and accounts. Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Freed –– the managing director –– and I pared to those from the old system. It is “We needed total integration and

120 121 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

Legend

egend is the latest offering from Tetra, Lperhaps the UK’s premier suppliers of PC-based distribution and accounting software to corporate and higher-range users. Tetra’s top-end product for corpo- rate users is Chameleon, running primar- ily under Unix. Legend was released last year as a slightly lower specification alter- native to Chameleon, running under Nov- ell. Recently, however, Tetra has ported it to run under SCO Unix and AIX. In a seven-user configuration, Legend costs Above Comprehen- £1,075 per module. sive sales and cus- Although one of the newest packages tomer information in this test, Legend distinguished itself by can be called up, having virtually no drill down features though access would whatsoever. Even in the Nominal be better if everything Ledger, usually the base point for incor- was linked in a drill porating drill down in a package, there is down design no facility to select a transaction from a list and explode it to see the original doc- Right Monthly totals ument in detail. Nor can you drill down from Dynamics are from period balances to the underlying good; but it would transactions: but since the only period help if you could drill balances you get are This Month and down to the underly- Year to Date, this facility wouldn’t be of ing transactions very much use anyway. It is a long time since I’ve seen such an inadequate Nom- inal Ledger and for a package released in late not from past sales, but past orders. charts etc), even automatically generat- 1994, at this sort of price, these After all, what if you were out of stock ing the analysis model from Legend’s limitations are inexcusable. This is very during the period? data records. But it does suffer from what much an eighties design. Drill Around was fair. When entering a is perhaps a fatal flaw — it only works on To be fair, Tetra’s reputation has sales order, it was not possible to access an extract of the data, rather than the always been in distribution and manufac- the customer’s account to credit-check in original data records, so it’s impossible to turing, rather than pure accounting. detail. However, Legend was good at drill down from a balance to the underly- Entering one or two products and creat- providing product information, e.g. via ing transactions because they aren’t ing an invoice showed the wealth of facili- the Predict Future Stock Availability there. In the long-term I’m not sure that ties offered by Legend — batch screen which helps the operator give the handing over all data analysis to a third- traceability, serial number tracking and customer accurate forward delivery party package is the right solution, but if quantity conversion are all offered on dates. At the end of the sales order test, you need good sales analysis here and well-designed, functional screens. as part of which we had part-delivered an now, Powerplay is a good bet. On-screen sales enquiries were basi- order and the customer had rung up, cally very good, with the ability to see lists quoting his order reference and asking of daily orders or invoices, full details of us to tell him the delivery note number, PCW Details past orders or invoices, and a line-by-line Legend rather fell apart. We couldn’t find Legend list of what each customer has bought the delivery note anywhere, emphasising Price £7,270 and at what price. Everything is here; but the lack of relational linking in Legend Contact Tetra 01628 770939 ☎ it is all accessed via separate menus. between all transactions relating to a sin- Good Points Sophisticated order Navigation would just be so much more gle order. processing facilities. slick and easy if everything was linked For management information Tetra Bad Points Mid-eighties design means together in a drill down design. offers a link to Powerplay, an EIS pack- that you can’t browse and navigate One screen enquiry of particular age from Cognos. Tetra has mapped its through the data as with a modern importance was the Product Period record layouts to Powerplay, allowing package. Usage screen, which shows for each simple, SQL-less, interrogations of the Conclusion Tetra’s reputation and period both the demand and the sales. data. The result is that you can pretty splendid functionality will carry Legend through for a year or two. But one This is a vital point, ignored by so many well use Powerplay out of the box and it morning Tetra’s management will wake vendors, who tend to offer sales figures is very simple to use. Most people will up to find that customers simply aren’t only. If you are forecasting ahead for re- buy Powerplay for sales analysis, at buying this sort of package any more. ordering purposes, you need to extrapo- which it is very good (cross-tabs, pie-

123 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

Exchequer

BS Financial Systems set the cat Samongst the pigeons earlier this year when it registered the trade mark for the name “Drill Down” in connection with its Exchequer accounts package. Poole- based SBS sells Exchequer via a small number of dealers and direct to end- users. The package, like the company, is still young: SBS introduced Sales and Purchase Order Processing modules in 1994 and Report Writer and Costing modules in 1995. There is basic Bill of Materials but no Works Order Process- ing, so while Exchequer will suit a com- pany that buys and resells things, it is not suitable for a manufacturer. Exchequer is available in different ver- sions. At entry-level you can buy a basic Stock, Invoicing and Ledgers system The original invoice from Polished Printers Ltd for new letterhead appears in full competing with Sage Financial Controller detail. You've moved down from the top to the bottom of the information period in just for £695 (this is for a single user). At the a few seconds heavyweight end of the scale, SBS has a client-server version of Exchequer whose largest installation is a motor parts distrib- individual accounts but unfortunately if tion stock is still not available and, with utor processing around 250 orders a day you want to query, for instance, the June only one type of stock movement record, on a 50-user system. The price of a total for Administrative Expenses, it is not the handling of returns, consignment seven-user, client-server, version of possible to drill down from this figure to goods, loans, stock transfers and the like Exchequer worked out at £5,980. A dual see the June totals for the individual becomes awkward. But when all is said interface DOS/Windows “Enterprise” ver- nominal accounts falling within the and done, in terms of overall design and sion is due for release in February 1996. Administrative Expenses group. ease of use this package is in a class of While most vendors in this survey Of all the packages tested, Exchequer its own, allowing astonishingly fast move- have bolted on Drill Down as a later addi- was the fastest at interactive order pro- ment throughout the data: sideways, tion to their original package, in Exche- cessing and scored 100 percent for fea- downwards, upwards, anywhere. I have quer it is inherent in the original design. tures. It required the minimum number of been installing Exchequer with my own Select ANY transaction in a listing on the keystrokes to accomplish complex tasks. customers for the past year and a half, screen, press Enter, and Exchequer will While in the middle of a sales order you and much of the genesis of this article display the originating document; not as can jump instantly to the customer’s was an effort to work out just why this some extract or image but in its original account using the F2 key and interrogate package is so good. Considering an form (as it was entered). If you enter a past invoices and orders. If a product is industry as over-hyped as our own one sales invoice for a product to a customer, short of stock, pressing Shift-F10 takes finds that, for once, the word is appropri- you can drill down to the original from all you instantly to that product record in the ate: “Exchequer” is a product of genius. directions — from the nominal Sales stock file and pressing Return will display account, from the Product record, or from a list of due sales and purchase orders. the Customer account. This ability, when Even though Exchequer does not calcu- looking at any transaction anywhere, to late forward stock availability, the speed PCW Details be able to highlight it and display full with which you can view outstanding Exchequer details of the original is immensely help- sales and purchase order quantities gen- Price £5,980 ful, especially if you have a query. erally compensates for this. Contact SBS Financial Systems Exchequer offers super drill down as Considering that so much work is car- 01202 298008 ☎ well, from period balances to the underly- ried out interactively on-screen, Reports Good Points Lightning fast movement ing transactions. Although this is good, it in Exchequer are actually a bit weak; around the data. Multiple online could be better. For instance, the more there are numerous audit trails on the balances with super drill down to sophisticated packages in this survey accounting side but little else. transaction level. show the true demand for a product in the Fortunately, the introduction last year of Bad Points Minor, due to product form of monthly quantities ordered, but an excellent relational Report Writer has immaturity. Exchequer shows only monthly quantities remedied this. Conclusion Third millenium accounting invoiced. It holds period balances for Exchequer is still raw in some areas; software which has arrived a few years nominal and product groups as well as notably Stock. For example, multi-loca- early. Study it and learn.

125 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

Sovereign

The Stock age is perhaps the best-known sup- Item/Customer Splier of accounting software in the Enquiry screen UK, with its Sterling range having long lets you see dominated the entry-level marketplace. what each Having decided to move upmarket, Sage customer is took over Sky Software in 1989 so as to ordering acquire Sky’s mid-range product, which was given the Sage treatment and re- launched onto the world as Sovereign. Pegasus Senior was top dog in the mid- range market at the time but, as Sover- eign was in many ways superior, it made deep inroads into Senior territory and a couple of years ago could justly be said Customer to be the premier mid-range package on account enquiry the market. in Sovereign However, that was two years ago and allows you to things have moved on a bit since then. In see details of 1993 Pegasus introduced the successor each invoice to Senior. Opera is written in the Foxpro database, which is a Microsoft-owned product, so Opera is very much in the mainstream and can be linked to third- party products. Sovereign uses its own proprietary database and remains rela- tively standalone, although a new Windows version is planned, written in Visual Basic, which should allow links to would give you three different “views” of cumbersome to set up than other pack- other packages via ODBC drivers. the one transaction. But in each module ages, but once set up, it will do the job First impressions of Sovereign were of Sovereign you can only view that mod- effectively enough. rather good, with clear, attractive screens ule’s own summary version of the trans- To sum up, Sovereign’s lack of a Drill in the customary Sage green and red liv- action; you can never get back to the Down facility made it rather impenetrable, ery. Entering a new customer, order or original. as you couldn’t go back and browse product is rather neatly done: Sovereign Sovereign also lacked a Super Drill through data. Although Opera also failed asks if you want to create the new record Down facility, that would allow you to on quite a few of these tests, its basic from scratch or by copying an existing explode a balance and display the under- design and the flexible development envi- one. Setting up a sample product record lying transactions. Perhaps this isn’t sur- ronment of Foxpro suggest that its showed a clear, well-designed screen prising, but it was disappointing to find defects can ultimately be put right. But in with multilocation stock control as stan- that multiple monthly balances are not Sovereign’s case we doubt whether its dard (although min/max stock levels for held on any of the nominal, customer or design will allow for any major re-ordering were held at company level product accounts. All you get are figures improvements. rather than by individual warehouse). for This Month and Year to Date, which However, these initial good impressions give no indication of trends. A complete soon turned to frustration as it proved blank then, on Super Drill Down, which is PCW Details extraordinarily hard work to get back and a pity because Sage have shown, with Sovereign enquire into the data. Sovereign appears the VAT analysis capability of Sterling for Price £6,500 to be an old-style “modular” design, example, that they are able to do this. Contact Sage Software 0191 201 3000 ☎ whereby each module has its own In the interactive order entry test, Sover- Good Points Attractive, well designed version of a transaction and the versions eign displayed no obvious means of data entry screens. are posted over in diminishing detail as jumping sideways into other modules Bad Points Modular design makes Drill the transaction progresses. So for exam- while entering an order. Down back to original transaction ple a purchase order will move through However, it is possible to set up the Alt impossible. Lack of multiple monthly on- three “modules” as it is converted from a key plus a keyboard letter to open up line balances. purchase order to a purchase invoice, another menu option to run concurrently. Conclusion Sovereign has an old-fash- which is then updated to the nominal This would have to be set up by a dealer, ioned “modular” design rather than a ledger. but it would allow a sales clerk to run modern “integrated” one. This is not a In an integrated, relationally designed order processing, customer enquiry and suitable platform upon which to build package, enquiries on purchase order, stock enquiry at the same time and to hot- Drill Down features and speedy move- ment around the database. purchase invoice or nominal account key between them. This may be more

126 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

Modulus Gold

odulus Gold, produced by West for you. Similarly, with MLondon-based Vector Software, is the database approach one of the premier accounting packages reports are freshly cal- for the Macintosh. Modulus is not a well- culated and cannot get known name in the PC world but if tradi- out of sync, but they tionalists doubt whether is could come up take time to calculate as with a serious accounting application, the machine trawls they can rest assured that Modulus Gold through thousands of is a heavyweight contender, with just as transaction records. detailed a feature set as any package in The online and this group test. Vector introduced Modu- database approach lus in 1993, after writing bespoke applica- each has its advantages tions for larger Mac users. Modules and disadvantages, but include Sales and Purchase Order Pro- in my view cessing, Ledgers and Job Costing, inte- management enquiries grated with Diary Manager and Word are made much easier Processing. Vector now has some 250 and quicker by having Macintosh users for Modulus including the period balances well-known names such as Mercury, online, already Body Shop, and AutoTrader. Most instal- calculated. lations average ten users per site. When it came to The Windows version of Modulus was interactive order introduced in October 1995. Vector says processing, Modulus a 486/66 with 8Mb of RAM is a reason- zipped through the test able hardware specification, particularly if with ease. It was easy you’re running the client/server version. to drill across to view The cost for a seven-user system worked the customer’s account. out at £7,000, with four days’ worth of (Although this showed Top Like Dynamics, Modulus has a three-line order entry installation and training thrown in. that credit-checking was display; but this one is a lot easier to read Drill down from transaction listings to faulty, taking regard Bottom Modulus Gold is one of the premier accounting original document was excellent, as Mod- only for the outstanding packages for the Macintosh ulus retains all transactions in their origi- sales ledger balance nal state. Windows makes this sort of and ignoring sales feature so easy to implement, so orders in the pipeline). Equally good was sophisticated, with individual “stock Windows packages seem invariably to the facility to drill across to the product types” indicating rental stock, excel at drill down. Modulus’ only defect record if an item was short of stock. This consignment stock, loan stock, returns to was that it is not possible to drill down was fortunate because when showing supplier etc. Overall, order processing from within a list of product movement stock availability Modulus does not give and stock control in Modulus was of a transactions. an “OnOrd” total and you cannot see very high standard, far superior to its Modulus was less good at drilling what is in the pipeline from suppliers — competitor Dynamics which lacks down from monthly balances to transac- you have to go and look at the individual Purchase Order Processing and whose tions. This is due to the basic design of purchase orders. Curiously, Modulus has Sales Order Processing is relatively Modulus, which is like a database. Trans- a three-line order entry screen just like incomplete. Modulus is also a lot action item lines are retained at the detail Dynamics, but unlike Dynamics this was cheaper. level and whenever you want to produce fairly easy to read (see visual), primarily a report or enquiry, it is generated there because Vector uses different fonts to and then from the transaction detail, distinguish screen prompts from data PCW Details rather than having been pre-calculated fields. Nonetheless, I’m not sure I would and held on-line. This sort of approach recommend this to a company that Modulus Gold gives enormous analytical power in mak- wanted to process lengthy, multi-line Price £7,000 ing enquiries but it does demand a fairly sales orders. Contact Vector Software literate management accountant-type Back-to-back ordering was also 0181 941 6600 ☎ user to understand and make use of it impressive with the ability both to gener- Good Points Excellent drill around in because the user must first know how to ate a one-to-one purchase order (e.g. for order processing. generate the enquiry in order to get any a PC precisely configured to the Bad Points Lack of online balances. figures. customer’s needs) or a many-to-one pur- Conclusion The clear choice for users With the online balances approach, chase order (where one purchase order who want a GUI-based system running you just make the enquiry and there the is generated from the total of the day’s order processing and stock control. monthly figures are, already calculated sales orders). Stock control was also

129 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

TAS Books 2

he original TAS Books was released Tin July 1991. It started life as a £399 package sold through dealers, but Megat- ech then changed its strategy, slashed the price to £99, and started to advertise heavily for direct sales in the PC press. Sales shot up and from nowhere TAS Books is now the UK’s second-biggest selling accounts package after Sage. Written under the Btrieve file manager, the original TAS Books offered basic accounts (ie sales, purchase and nominal Above Order entry in ledgers, cashbook), together with product TAS Books 2. Good, and service invoicing. TAS Books 2, clear screens but you released in 1994, added stock control, can't jump sideways together with sales and purchase order Right Of all the processing. packages reviewed, The problem for vendor Megatech is TAS Books 2 was best that in TAS Books 2 it has produced a at analysing salesmen's serious product quite capable of handling performance. But a major installation (Megatech itself is there's no super drill running a 26-user system with 400Mb of down to underlying data). If sold through dealers, TAS Books invoices 2 could retail quite honestly at £3,000- 4,000. But TAS Books’ name is in the high-volume, low priced, direct market so man sales is very good in TAS Books 2, you want a simple batch-oriented stock it is selling the product at just £999 per stock reporting is fairly basic. A monthly control and order processing system system, a fraction of the cost of the other summary of sales and margin by product without frills. packages in this review. similar to the salesman summary would The low price of TAS Books 2 is very TAS Books 2 is very much a traditional be welcome. The stock enquiry offers you attractive, but may cause problems. stock control and order processing pack- the option to see outstanding sales and Will users be willing to pay the £2,000 age, but offers a very decent clutch of purchase orders separately, but no to £3,000 consultancy necessary to get it features. Products can be regular, attempt is made to bring them together to properly installed when the product itself assembly or non-stock. As to pricing, project future stock balances. The low only costs £999? TAS Books 2 should there are quantity discounts with four stock report does not sort by supplier and offer a niche to larger companies with break points and three customer price there is no attempt to generate suggested experienced IT staff who are looking to bands. Bills of material and serial number purchase orders. install a cheap but effective order tracking are standard. Items can be The interactive sales order processing processing and stock control system in a marked as “commissionable” (Megatech test showed up TAS Books 2’s lack of drill department or subsidiary. is very keen on tracking salesmen’s sales around features. When entering an order and commissions) or flagged as discon- you are warned that the customer is tinued, so that they remain on file but exceeding his credit limit (orders in the don’t clutter up the system. Spicer file pipeline are ignored) but you cannot go import is standard. and look at the account in detail. PCW Details Recently Megatech has added drill Similarly, if you are short of stock you can TAS Books 2 down to the accounting ledgers of TAS only see the totals of stock available, on Price £699 Books. You can now highlight any nomi- back order and purchase order; there is Contact Megatech 0181 874 6511 ☎ nal, customer or supplier transaction and no opportunity to look at the individual Good Points Reasonably good drill display the detail of the original posting. orders and see the delivery dates. down. Strong analysis of salesman This is a great improvement, but like so However, if you want just to bang in performance. many other vendors in this review it has batches of sales orders from pre-written Bad Points At the price, none. Low not grasped the super drill down concept order sheets, and there is need to simul- price may result in a lack of skilled and so have done only half the job. Thus taneously jump around to check credit consultancy support to install TAS TAS Books 2 offers excellent monthly accounts or forward stock availability, Books 2 properly. summaries of nominal, customer and then TAS Books will suit you down to the Conclusion Solid, dependable, salesman histories, but you cannot high- ground. It has been carefully and traditional design at a ridiculously cheap price. Perfectly adequate for many light a month and drill down to display the thoroughly written, with plenty of good users who have paid five or ten times as underlying transactions. touches and is quite worthy to stand much. While analysis of customer and sales- against other packages in this review if

130 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

Navision

avision is a name that’s new to this interrogate both Ncountry, but is well known in Scandi- the customer’s navia and 13 other countries, where over account and the 24,000 copies have been sold. First product record in released in 1990, the product is full detail. Navision developed by PC & C A/S, a Danish com- jumped straight to pany with a 10-year history in writing the specific business and accounting software. Navi- customer record sion was introduced to the UK in May and specific prod- 1995 . uct record in both Standard modules available are the cases — a sign of three Ledgers, Stock Control, Bill of good quality. It Materials, Invoicing, Sales and Purchase also credit- Order Processing, Job Costing and checked on a line- Resource Control. The target market for by-line basis as Navision is mid-range and installations each order-line can vary from a single-screen standalone was added, rather application up to a large-scale network. than wait till the Navision is very competitively priced and order was a seven-user system worked out at complete. £4,700 in the DOS version. A Windows Super drill down version has just been introduced, which is provided by the costs about 40% more. “Trendscape” facil- Navision’s mainly light blue or black ity which is to be screens show the considerable influence found in all mod- Top A superb “Trendscape” screen showing future stock of DOS versions of Lotus 1-2-3, circa ules, and which availability by day, week, month, quarter or year 1989. It looks a bit boring, really, but once analyses transac- Bottom Navision's Design menu allows you to set up your you get into it you find out what a truly tions into user- own screen layouts, keyed fields etc., without any need for remarkable package Navision is. A key definable “time programming code feature is the ease with which it can be buckets”. For tailored to individual needs. Just dip into example, the the Design menu, and you can make “Availability” Trendscape in Stock Control Document” option to drill down still further extensive changes from data tables with- is a screen enquiry which takes the cur- into the originating transactions. Our only out the need for writing any programming rent balance of a stock item, then adds complaint is that, while Navison will cal- code. incoming quantities from purchase culate for you, say, a Group Sales figure Each Navision application consists of orders, and outgoing quantities from for June in the Nominal Ledger, drilling various types of objects which you sales orders, to give a closing anticipated down on the total will show you a long list design, such as reports, screen windows, balance at the end of each period. You of all the June transactions for every menus and tables. The objects are exe- can choose to display the results account within the group. But you don’t cuted by an “object interpreter” which is analysed by day, week, month, quarter or want this — you want to have the June built into the Navision Development Sys- year. totals of each individual account. tem and handles the interface with the Normally, one would fear that on a live Similarly, there is no serious attempt to computer’s operating system. All the system it might take too long to trawl consolidate sales at a Product Group application objects you create will auto- through all the transactions, but in order level and drill down to the products within matically run under DOS, Windows, Unix to analyse data across multiple that group. But nonetheless, this is a ter- or OS/2. While the creation of new dimensions the Navision database has its rific piece of software. objects would really be the province of own “SIFT” (Sum-Indexed Flow Technol- the professional, non-technical but com- ogy) specialised technology which is PCW Details puter-literate users can modify and adapt designed specifically for speedy analysis existing objects for themselves. Anyone and output of business information. The Navision who has mastered a Report Writer or Navision demonstrator told me, hand on Price Varies, according to module, from written a simple database program heart, that with 60,000 transaction £1,100, to £8,750 for complete core ver- should be more than capable within Navi- records the response would still be nearly sion; £300 per additional user. sion of painting their own screens, setting instantaneous. Contact Navision UK 0181 446 1458 ☎ keys to fields for sorts, and adding fields Navision has extremely powerful Good Points Very easily customised. to screen enquiries. analysis features. Once the Trendscape Top quality Drill Down features. Objects Navision scored very highly on the has been calculated you can highlight any work on any platform. interactive order processing test and Drill period total, and display the transactions Bad Points Nothing serious. Around functionality is exceptional. When that make it up, in any View you wish. It is Conclusion Functional appearance hides a state-of-the-art package. interactively entering an order you can then possible via the “Navigate

132 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

How we did the tests Editor’s choice

We tested each package Two packages in this review belong to an older generation. by running through a Tetra’s Legend, despite its fine functionality and a release date series of sales orders of 1994, is really a backward-looking package. Sovereign from and purchase orders. Sage looks very attractive but proved quite impenetrable. TAS The first test was to Books 2 holds its own with the rest and provides extraordinarily good value. It’s enter a straightforward very similar to Sovereign in terms of function, and if you order in batches rather batch sales order. Hav- than interactively and you don’t need multilocation stock and multicurrency, then ing posted and printed it’s a fine, cheap package. the final invoice, we The best of the established dealer-supplied products was Global 3000 from checked what information had been posted to the TIS Software. Its multiple partitions made it especially good at interactive order customer, product and nominal sales accounts and processing. At a lower price level, Pegasus OPERA is very attractive but Pega- what screen enquiries were available to show this sus need to take a leaf from TIS’s book and get the modules working concurrent- information. ly on the order processing side. Both products offer a combined DOS/Windows We then entered a purchase order and posted a interface. second sales order. This time we tried to check, For those who want a GUI-only solution, we preferred Modulus. Like so many while in the middle of entering the sales order, the Mac packages, it makes its Windows competitors look a bit unwieldy, but the customer’s outstanding invoices, past sales, and real problem with Dynamics is that its Order Processing and Stock Control capa- the current and future stock position of the item bilities remain incomplete. being ordered. Definitely the dark horse in the group was Navision from Denmark, which has Comparative results are shown in the table on just been released in the UK. Uniquely customisable, running on DOS, Windows pages 136/137. In addition, we checked on other or OS/2 and with its amazing Sift Trendscape facility, this is a terrific package. valuable features of a Drill Down package: the At the end of the day, though, the editor’s choice goes to two packages — ability to automatically reverse or void a faulty Lakeview LM3 and Exchequer from SBS Financial Systems. We found it impos- transaction (“auto-reverse”); the ability to auto- sible to choose one over the other. Exchequer is the more radical design, but reverse a sales invoice in order to create a credit Lakeview is generally more mature, especially in manufacturing. Both packages note; and the ability to create a new sales invoice are superlative and a delight to use, particularly for the experienced user. Once or order by copying and editing a previous one. you’ve mastered either of them any information you want seems just a keystroke away.

Do Windows accounting packages have a future?

The Windows development environment is ideal for Drill Escape it’s Ctrl-F4; and the Return key doesn’t enter a Down — it’s an area where Windows accounts packages field any more but saves the whole screen. put most of their DOS and Unix competitors to shame. With obscure or finger-wrenching key combinations Windows’ ability to run multiple sessions concurrently for common tasks, no type-ahead facility for the experi- makes it a natural at Drill Around as well. And the enced user, and a cursor that’s either pencil-thin or non- arrival of Windows 95 at last brings a robust operating existent so that often you lose track of where you are on system capable of running mission-critical accounting the screen, user productivity drops dramatically. The applications. So are traditional character-based training department of a major bank found that: “Under accounts packages about to go the same way as charac- the old text-based mainframe our Bought Ledger clerk ter-based word processors? It may seem so, but one used to enter around 200 purchase invoices a day. With major obstacle remains. Before you junk your existing the new Windows package she manages 120.” accounting system and sign up for that Windows pack- Whether or not this limitation is permanent, it is age, sit down at the keyboard and try entering half a incontrovertible that operators work more slowly under dozen transactions. Then the awful truth hits you — data GUIs. Realising the problem, most vendors are now entry under Windows is a disaster area. coming up with client/server solutions whereby the user Typically, an accounting screen displays a dozen or so interface is distinct from the underlying application, so fixed fields into which data has to be keyed. There’s no that both text and GUI interfaces are available. Operat- formatting, only the task of moving from one field to the ing staff whose primary task is data entry can work in next. Pick up the mouse, click on a field, put down the text mode keying in orders and payments, while analysts mouse, type in the data, pick up the mouse again, click and managers who need to use data extraction and on the next field, type in the data — you soon realise that analysis tools can work in GUI mode — both working this is impossibly slow and to get up any sort of speed simultaneously on the same data. you’ve got to forget the mouse and use the keyboard?The argument is that this gives you the best of both shortcuts. But all of those specialised keys on the PC worlds. While purists may complain with some justice keyboard — the double size Return key for entering data that it doesn’t really give you proper Windows, the com- into each field, the Arrow keys laid out in the inverted T, bined text/Windows interface does seem to offer the the Escape key at top left for exiting out of a screen — obvious solution — analysts and management get the Windows ignores them all. So instead of the Up arrow to benefits of the GUI, but operating staff are not go back a field, you have to use Shift-Tab; instead of penalised.

135 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE GROUP TEST: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE TABLE OF FEATURES ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE TABLE OF FEATURES

Global Dynamics LM3 Opera Legend Exchequer Sovereign Modulus TAS Books 2 Navision

Product GLOBAL 3000 DYNAMICS LM3 OPERA LEGEND Product EXCHEQUER SOVEREIGN MODULUS TAS BOOKS 2 NAVISION Vendor TIS Kewill Lakeview Pegasus Tetra Vendor SBS Sage Vector Megatech Navision Operating Platform DOS/Win Win DOS DOS/Win DOS Operating Platform DOS DOS Win/Mac DOS DOS/OS/2 /Win Price SPOP, Stock & Ledgers, 7 users £ 9,930 £ 12,295 £ 8,750 £ 6,400 £ 7,270 Price SPOP, Stock & Ledgers, 7 users £ 5,980 £ 6,500 £ 7,000 £ 699 £ 4,700 single location, single currency single location, single currency DRILL DOWN DRILL DOWN The facility, from a list of transactions The facility, from a list of transactions displayed on the screen, to select one and displayed on the screen, to select one and see the originating document in full detail. see the originating document in full detail.

Nominal Account Enquiry ❍●●●❍ Nominal Account Enquiry ●❍●●● Customer Account Enquiry ●●●●❍ Customer Account Enquiry ●●●●● Product Account Enquiry ❍●●❍❍ Product Account Enquiry ●❍❍❍● Invoice Daybook Enquiry ●●●❍❍ Invoice Daybook Enquiry ❍❍●●● Orders Daybook Enquiry ●●●●❍ Orders Daybook Enquiry ●●●❍● SUPER DRILL-DOWN SUPER DRILL-DOWN The facility to call up on screen the monthly The facility to call up on screen the monthly totals for an account, to highlight one totals for an account, to highlight one month and see the individual transactions month and see the individual transactions that make up the monthly total. that make up the monthly total.

Nominal Ledger Group - monthly values ●●●❍❍ Nominal Ledger Group - monthly values ●❍●❍● Drill down to individual N/L accounts? ❍❍●❍● Drill down to individual N/L accounts? ❍❍❍❍❍ Nominal Ledger Account - monthly values ●●●●❍ Nominal Ledger Account - monthly values ●❍●●● Drill down to transactions? ●●●●❍ Drill down to transactions? ●❍❍❍● Product Group Sales - monthly values ●❍●❍❍ Product Group Sales - monthly values ●❍❍❍❍ Drill down to individual products? ●❍●❍❍ Drill down to individual products? ❍❍❍❍❍ Product Sales - monthly values ●●●❍● Product Sales - monthly values ●❍❍❍● Drill down to individual invoices? ❍❍●❍❍ Drill down to individual invoices? ●❍❍❍● Product Demand - monthly order quantity ●❍●❍● Product Demand - monthly order quantity ❍❍❍❍❍ Drill down to individual orders? ❍❍●❍❍ Drill down to individual orders? ❍❍❍❍❍ Customer Sales - monthly values ❍❍●❍❍ Customer Sales - monthly values ●❍❍●● Drill down to individual invoices? ❍❍●❍❍ Drill down to individual invoices? ●❍❍❍● DRILL AROUND DRILL AROUND The facility, while reviewing or entering a The facility, while reviewing or entering a transaction, to move sideways and see transaction, to move sideways and see related transactions within other modules related transactions within other modules from within a sales order. from within a sales order

Access this customer’s account record ●●●❍❍ Access this customer’s account record ●●●❍● Access this customer’s account record ❍●●❍❍ Access this customer’s account record ●❍●❍● via a single keystroke via a single keystroke View individual transactions on this ● not ●❍❍ View individual transactions on this ●●●❍● customer’s account orders customer’s account Access this product’s account record ●●●❍● Access this product’s account record ●●●❍● Access this product’s account record ❍●●❍● Access this product’s account record ●❍●❍● via a single keystroke via a single keystroke View quantities delivered to date ●●●●● View quantities delivered to date ●●●●● and outstanding and outstanding View related sales and purchase orders ●❍●❍● View related sales and purchase orders ●❍●❍● View related delivery note(s) ●●●❍❍ View related delivery note(s) ●❍❍❍❍ View related sales invoice(s) ●●●❍❍ View related sales invoice(s) ●❍●❍❍ COPY/EDIT AND AUTO-REVERSE TRANSACTIONS COPY/EDIT AND AUTO-REVERSE TRANSACTIONS Auto-reverse transactions? ●●●❍❍ Auto-reverse transactions? ●❍●optional ● Auto-reverse invoice into a credit note? ❍❍●●❍ Auto-reverse invoice into a credit note? ●❍●●●

Copy an invoice and edit ❍❍●●❍ Copy an invoice and edit ●❍●●● Copy an order and edit? ❍❍●❍❍ Copy an order and edit? ●●●●●

KEY ● Yes ❍ No KEY ● Yes ❍ No

136 137 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 PREDICTIONS zing ga As 1996 looms, the PCW star-gazers l cast the bones to take a light-hearted glimpse at into the future. What will the new year hold? s Read on… y Lotus Notes”. US start-up, The Lite until Browser Bill forces himself on all r Fantastic, releases WordLite, a $19.95 three with a quite enormous extension. word processor which uses the Word file ● It’s April, and rumours are flying that C format. Microsoft sues, but in a matter of logging on to the Microsoft Network auto- weeks, millions of copies have been sold matically deletes any copies of any on the internet. Netscape, replacing them with Microsoft ● In the autumn, the CD-ROM market Explorer. To prevent re-installation of collapses. A senior industry analyst says: Netscape, MSN also downloads software “Books are better and cheaper. It costs that detects Netscape, and formats your hundreds of thousands to develop good hard disk if it does. CD-ROM products but consumers won’t ● It’s summertime and the British pay more than £15 per disk.” Intel Microsoft, BT, surprises everyone by releases the 200MHz Pentium. Prices for launching its own internet service with, Pentium 90MHz PCs dip below £800 and surprise, surprise, it’s own web browser Sainsbury’s and Tesco start selling PC and some exclusive new extensions. Still games. no sign of its Video On Demand service, Bewitched Ben Tisdall’s ● Just before Christmas, Microsoft sells however, as it says that future develop- prophecies for the industry its 60 millionth copy of Windows 95 and ment will concentrate on the web. ● Novell spends two or three months puts in a large bid to acquire Symantec. ● Silicon Graphics announces a new looking for someone to buy WordPer- The bid is referred to the FTC. Adobe web browser and easy-to-use program- fect, but strangely, the company which buys Macromedia. IBM buys The Lite ming language. It’s this year’s Java-type was worth $1.4 billion a year before is Fantastic and promises to bundle sensation and everyone says that Hot now worth absolutely nothing. Novell lays WordLite with both the copies of OS/2 Java is finished. In August, IBM launches off developers and buries hundreds of Warp it expects to sell in ‘97. a new browser for OS/2 Warp but nobody tons of unwanted copies of Novell Office notices. in a land-fill site. Residents of the houses ● By Autumn, Bill Gates, disturbed by that are later built on the site complain the number of formatted hard disks that the ground is “unstable” and it’s all around the world, tells a conference that too easy to “crash” through the surface. the internet is all junk and not worth log- ● The difficulties for UK PC manufac- ging on to anyway. “The only extension turers increase. They have to pay I’m interested in is the one to my house of through the nose for Microsoft Office the future,” he says. Apple is delighted to while the big US operations (without see four more people subscribe to mentioning Dell or Gateway) get it for eWorld. practically nothing. Microsoft’s share of ● It’s November, and Netscape the Suites market moves sharply into the announces Version 8.0. It has nineties and several UK-based PC Prophetic PJ Fisher’s prospects extensions that switch on the TV, take the assemblers go into receivership. There’s for the internet dog for a walk and spread peace and a glut of cheap, rather tatty, warehouse Next year is very definitely shaping up to love around the world. In desperation, the space in north London and the home be the year of the browser wars as the ISO HTML Standards Committee resign counties. world wide web takes over the world. The en masse and opt for something easier. ● A senior IBM executive admits that scene becomes just a little confused, ● By the end of the year, there’s real- OS/2 is finished. IBM issues a press however. time everything: real-time music, real- release to explain that he meant ● Everybody goes HTML extension time video, real-time confusion. Though “completed”, not “ended”. The same crazy and no-one’s browser extensions not, of course, any real-time profits. But, week, Microsoft announces it has sold 30 will work with anyone else’s. To make you know, it’s early days. The four new million copies of Windows 96. matters worse, all the players start jump- eWorld subscribers cancel their ● In the summer, IBM/Lotus pulls the ing into bed with each other at the same subscriptions. plug on Lotus Smartsuite and says its time just to hedge their bets. Sun, “strategic direction is to concentrate on Netscape and Adobe are all quite cosy PCW Mystic Photography by Tony Barratt

144 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 PREDICTIONSPREDICTIONS

soon. When it’s pointed out that this the Japanese company launches a key- was promised for the fourth quarter of board for the console. Microsoft ports 1995, Intel states there has been a slight Windows 95 to the MIPS4000 used in the slippage and they will now be available in Nintendo and the console takes over the 1995 — but in the fifth quarter. computer industry. Well, stranger things ● Microsoft ships Chinese language have happened. version of Windows 95 on the basis that the Chinese new year is in February. Someone in Seattle starts work on the Clairvoyant Chris Cain sees Hebrew version — he’s got until what’s in store for Apple September. Tonight’s winner is connected to the ● In the Spring, Intel struggles with number six, has a black cat, a gold lamé Moore’s Law. Having worked hard to per- shell suit and… Oops! Sorry, wrong suade people that the rule of chip power crystal ball. doubling every two years actually meant ● A typically headstrong Aries, Apple the price of a system halved every two sees mixed fortunes just as it did in years, the company finds that Pentium 1995. There’s no let-up in the demand for Pro machines are slower when PowerMacs and overall turnover figures measured using Intel’s own iCOMP increase. But profits crumble significantly benchmarks. Intel scraps iCOMP and Ethereal Eleanor Turton-Hill as prices are forced down to keep prod- goes back to using the FOR…NEXT loop predicts databases and ucts competitive. system pioneered by PCW in 1982. software development ● Software is the all important area for To hit the half-price target, Intel drops I see a 32-bit frenzy looming… Hold on a Apple in 1996. In much the same way as the processor price to less than that of minute, it’s disappearing… No, no wait, PC users embraced Windows 95, Power- Pentium but finds that as you need 32Mb it’s back again… Ah, I can see it more Mac owners take to Copland, the new 95 RAM and a fast cache, the machines are clearly now… It’s waving… No it’s not — percent PowerPC native version of still too expensive. it’s drowning. MacOS, like ducks to water. It arrives This leaves the way open for AMD to ● Windows 95 developers throughout late, has many new features and claims clean up with the Nx586, but AMD can’t the land rush, like lemmings, to inject to run in 8Mb, but you really need 16Mb get the chips out of the only factory that their applications with some 32-bit “good- and virtual memory to run more than one can make them, the IBM fab, because ness”, but like most software application. Apple apologises, saying its IBM is too busy making M1s for Cyrix. development projects, it turns out to be a calculations are performed on Pentium ● By the summer, Cyrix finds that it long, frustrating and painful process. processors following Microsoft guidelines. can’t sell any M1s and so can’t pay its Those companies who decide to take the Microsoft retaliates with a new, even bill to IBM. IBM buys Cyrix. Intel and IBM first step towards 32-bit happiness pro- slower version of PowerMac Office. lock horns over a patents issue and an vide plenty of entertainment for those ● Apple makes tremendous strides injuction is put on all chips. No new who don’t, and a surprising number of with cutting edge technologies, includ- computers are made, at all. businesses take the sensible option of ing interactive video and video- ● Nintendo launches the Ultra 64 doing nothing at all. conferencing. These have their thunder which has more graphics processing ● Those companies who go forward stolen by cheaper, less original solutions than any video card, and high-speed, with the Windows 95 plan begin to for WinTel PCs with better marketing and high-capacity, magnetic storage. An grasp the enormity of it all — it’s not smaller memory requirements. enterprising boffin in Cambridge builds going to be the party they had first imag- QuickDraw 3D has the edge for longest, an Ultra 64-to-PC interface, to allow the ined. They are tormented by hardware but Apple shoots itself in the foot by Nintendo to be used as a backup device incompatibilities, and increasingly every- producing a Windows version. and accelerator for Windows 95. Thou- one becomes aware of the tragic similar- ● The best-selling Apple product is sands of businesses buy Nintendos. ity between PCs and Cabbage Patch not a Mac but a Pentium version of the National productivity falls to a lower level dolls. Each one has a unique combina- DOS add-on card. A 200MHz 604+ than in Christmas ’93, when Doom was tion of hardware components as well as based Mac is launched towards the end first released, as businesses across the applications, drivers, and fonts, and all of of the year, and both PCI PowerMac land unplug their Nintendos and play the these are, as yet, untested under the new clones and Common Hardware Ultra 64 version of Super Mario. OS. The mere thought of transforming Reference Platform (CHRP) machines ● With no new computers and custom-built 16-bit apps to better, faster, arrive from famous manufacturers. millions of Nintendos in the country, 32-bit versions sends IT departments into MacOS then faces a strong challenge by a state of apoplexy. Windows NT for dominance of the latter. ● The advantages of 32-bit code on ● Relationships continue to be a Windows 95 continue to be thrashed problem thanks to that Aries out in the computer press, and independent streak. Nothing changes. businesses continue to analyse the bene- fits they might be missing, or those Soothsayer Simon Rockman they’re striving to achieve. In vain, they divines chips and systems repeat the words to themselves over and ● In the first quarter, Intel announces over again: “multithreading”, “flat that the Pentium Pro will be available addressing”, “improved stability”, but only

145 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 PREDICTIONS

a privileged few reach the final state of ● Seventeen million users sue 37,000 pieces of clip-art, and will arrive 32-bit nirvana. The rest become Microsoft for misrepresenting Windows late with approximately 50 percent of it hopelessly dependent on teams of hack 95 by not spelling out that they will have not working, to be followed by a seven- programmers who patch each other’s to upgrade their hardware and applica- CD bug fix four weeks later. patches, play with each other’s objects, tions software in order to reap its bene- ● At some point in the future, plug and and alter each other’s code in a million fits. Microsoft, ordered to pay billions in play will operate seamlessly, although and one entangled ways. compensation, collapses. Bill Gates perhaps only in a parallel universe. Visi- ● Someone roots through Microsoft’s gives up in despair and retires to Ulan tors to this alternative plane also find Win32 SDK and discovers a handy little Bator to grow tomatoes. high-definition televisions and PCs which tool, PORT.EXE, which scans their run well under 4Mb in every home — and source code and helpfully informs them that CorelDraw is the most popular and that their porting problems are greater best established graphics package on the than the total number of atoms in the uni- Macintosh. verse, but the essential solutions can be narrowed down to 14,534,567 instances of 16-bit keywords and 6,578,932,199 Highlights from the births, marriages and references to third-party DLLs. deaths columns of Personal Computer World in 1995 Births • To Microsoft, a new graphical operating system, Star-gazing Gordon Laing peers Win95, after a long and painful gestation. Dark out at graphics and DTP questions about whether the father was Apple’s Mac ● Early in the year, six and eight- operating system. speed CD-ROM drives are superseded • To Intel, a 150MHz Pentium Pro, the first of the by the first 16-speed drives — the world’s sixth-generation processors. Born into a more uncer- fastest yet. Within a month, the 16- tain world than its forbears, as software becomes speeds drop below £150 in time for the more platform independent. world’s fastest CD-ROM drive yet again, Marriages Crystal-gazing Clive Akass this time 32-speed, although early tests • Lotus and IBM. Wedding of the year. The bride looks into the destiny of indicate the processor grinding to a halt wore a yellow SmartSuite. Blushing ever-the-brides- notebooks under the strain, the PC case melting maid was Apple, whose name has long been linked ● Notebook vendors fight off several under the heat, and a near fatality when with IBM (though a bigamous marriage is still not law suits brought by users suffering a disc was accidentally ejected while still ruled out). • Aldous and Adobe. Marriage of leading graphics slipped disks and arm strain. spinning. specialist left problem of what to do with the squab- ● Meanwhile, a new breed of true ● The standard hard disk starts the bling children, Freehand and Illustrator. Freehand mobiles with wireless communications year at 1.5Gb, but doubles in capacity, eventually went to AltSys, its mother by an earlier (infra-red and cellular telephone) experi- while halving in price every three marriage, who sold it heartlessly to Macromedia. ment with novel forms of human-machine months. By the end of the year, most • AMD and NextGen. A marriage of convenience. communication such as redesigned PCs will still be unable to cope with a Major chip cloners unite in the face of the might of handwriting and speech recognition. complete installation of Microsoft Office Intel. First child, to be called K6, expected next year. The mobiles run for days on cheap AA and CorelDraw for Windows 96. • Symantec and Delrina. Utilities giant takes on the batteries, or rechargeables, and rely on ● As RAM prices fail to fall, they Canadian. easy desktop connections for storage. replace the gold bar as the universal Marriage that wasn’t This leads to a growing demand for a standard unit of currency. Paranoid • Engagement of Microsoft and Intuit called off after standard docking station and low-voltage users, worried about memory theft, force objections when the banns were read out. People DC power supply, allowing access to RAM manufacturers to replace the parity said they were only marrying for the online money facilities in any up-to-speed office or home. chip on a SIMM with a global positioning market. The new mobiles use cut-down clones system (GPS) device. Linked to a Psion Separation of desktop applications and so are not Series 3a running AutoRoute 96, victims • Novell announced that it planned a divorce from tied to the Wintel platform. This of theft will experience few difficulties in WordPerfect, only weeks after admitting publicly that represents a huge opportunity for small tracking down the culprit. it was ending its furtive romance with high-roller Unix, of which there had long been talk of a love third-party software developers. ● Quark, author of the XPress DTP child. Novell claimed it was renouncing all ties to The mobiles use the workstation- package, suddenly realises how concentrate on its self-proclaimed task of networking class StrongARM Risc chip developed appallingly rude it has been to the press the entire world. by Cambridge-based Advanced Risc and to its customers. To make amends, it Deaths Machines with Digital. Britain’s own provides reasonably-priced upgrades, • Photostyler. Strangled by stepmother Adobe, who mobile maker, Psion, is also forced to less buggy code and review copies for did not want it upsetting her daughter, Photoshop. innovate to maintain its world lead. journalists — just like every other • Commodore US. Looked like a case of adios Amiga, ● Novell struggles on looking for a software manufacturer in the world. until Escom bought the intellectual rights to the purpose in life until it joins with IBM in a ● Corel continues to remorselessly machine which will be sold in Eastern Europe. bid to corner the world networks; a task swallow up other developers’ Near-death experiences at which Microsoft has signally failed. products for inclusion in Draw version 7. • Modem pioneer, Hayes, under Chapter 11 protec- Happily, the networks are already too big It will ship on 14 CDs, consist of 27 tion, spoke repeatedly of saving angels coming into to corner. unique modules, include 4,000 fonts and sight down a long, bright tunnel.

Be your own oracle Do any readers have better predictions for what may happen in 1996? Just write between 300 and 500 words and send it in on 147 disk, or by email, to the addresses on the letters page. We’ll print the best submission and cross your palm with silver. PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 PREDICTIONS

1995 — What happened, and when

January told that the exercise is a trial run for the milleni- August ● Intel reels from the discovery by the improbable um, when a lot of PCs and software will refuse to ● On launch day, Win95 makes it to BBC radio’s Professor Tom Nicely that the new Pentium can recognise the 21st century. Woman’s Hour which is as close to blanket cover- get its sums wrong. Boss Andy Grove tactlessly ● Gates says the August launch of Win95 is “not age as a software launch can get. Hitchhiker’s points out that Intel has known about the bug for guaranteed” due to persistent buglets. Guide author Douglas Adams, in a Guardian front months, and that anyway, users should expect a page review, dismisses it as a poor imitation of the new chip to make mistakes. May Mac OS. Intel first says it will replace only “mission ● Compaq, stung by the introduction of cheap Seven million users who buy it over the next critical” chips — meaning those that might cause removable mass-storage devices from Syquest eight weeks discover that whatever else Win95 will air crashes, or world wars. European marketing and Iomega, announces a new super-floppy drive do (which is a lot), it will not run their existing manager, Tom Keating, says: “We want to talk to that will read both 100Mb disks and standard flop- applications faster than Win 3.11, nor will they get people who design aeroplanes.” pies. But not yet. Denying accusations of vapour- those nice long filenames without application There is global uproar. Intel agrees to replace ware, desktop marketing chief Kevin Bohren says: upgrades. all flawed chips. “We are shooting for the fourth quarter.” Watch ● Portly Philippe Kahn, last of the this space. September great spenders, resigns as presi- ● German vendor, Escom, ● The Microsoft Network arrives with a soft thud; a dent of Borland, the company he buys the Rumbelows chain big anti-climax. Access is slow, features don’t founded. No doubt taking a weight and starts to transform it into begin to match the likes of CompuServe, and inter- off their minds. 200-odd high street PC shops. net connection is only a promise. If Gates reckoned ● Microsoft’s new graphical oper- IBM is delighted because on signing the world up to his network on the back ating system, codenamed Escom’s PCs, targeted at first- of his $200 million Win95 hype, he’s blown it. Chicago, has already been time buyers, are preloaded ● VNU Labs’ tests on Win95 code confirm that renamed Windows 95 to help us with, guess what? Cue mysti- 16Mb of RAM is required to get a significant forget that it was promised for fied callers to PCW: “What’s performance boost under Windows 95. 1994. Launch date “before July”. all this about Warp? Is it Ger- ● A new form of virus, using self-replicating man? Is it safe to eat?” macros, is spread worldwide by a Microsoft tech- February ● IBM spokesman Brad nical CD. The payload consists only of the ● Windows 95 now set for launch “in August”. Chase says Win95 is set for a 24 August launch message: “That’s enough to prove my point.” And IBM gloats that sales of its rival OS/2 Warp oper- “barring a major problem.” a considerable point it is too: the macros bypass all ating system are booming as a result. Cynics say existing security, and can easily be altered to do the real reason is that sales are being encouraged June damage. by PC makers to persuade Microsoft from getting ● Lotus chief, Jim Manzi, is “devastated” to be too outrageous over Win95 pricing. told of a hostile takeover offer from IBM five min- October ● Meanwhile, thousands of printers are roughed utes before it is announced. Six days and $3.5 bil- ● Novell sells off its Unix interests (see July) to up by scrubbers as Hewlett-Packard becomes the lion dollars later, he welcomes the deal — and, concentrate on Netware. SCO and HP will continue latest company to be hit by a bug. The scrubber presumably, the fact that he is personally $35 mil- to develop Unix but integrate Netware hooks. pads are fixed to a contraption designed to fit on lion the richer for it. “We are excited about being Novell president, Frankenberg, unveils plans for a best-selling inkjets (DeskWriter 510 and 520, and able to work with IBM,” he says. Smart Global Network that will talk to all major Deskjet 550C and 580C) to re-texture paper-feed ● A group of PC vendors in the US file fraud suits operating systems. He adds: “This is anathema to rollers which have lost their grip. against Microsoft for claiming Microsoft.” that Win95 would run in 4Mb of ● But the talk is of Microsoft’s March RAM. But of course, Microsoft NT becoming increasingly plat- ● People queue to sue Microsoft as the Win95 didn’t say how fast it would form independent. Intel president, bandwagon gathers pace. Some complain of run… Andy Grove, when asked about monopoly abuse and there are fears that Bill ● The Department of Justice the opportunity this presents to Gates will use Win95 and his new Microsoft Net- ponders accusations of unfair other chip makers, says: “If we work to muscle in on global inter-networks. Apple competition in Gates’s plan to don’t keep ahead of the competi- accuses Microsoft of pirating QuickTime code. bundle a Microsoft Network tion, we don’t deserve to ● The Business Software Alliance reports that connection with Win95 (though survive.” 349 people have called a “Shop Your Boss” hotline both IBM and Apple offer simi- ● Jim Manzi, former Lotus boss, to report companies using unlicensed software. lar deals). walks out after just 99 days work- Only half were motivated by the £2,000 reward, ing for new owner IBM. “I don’t according to the BSA; the rest were worried that July think I am the right person to be Bill Gates was not getting all his dues. Not one ● IBM Global Network chief, leading a division inside a much malicious call — aren’t people nice? John Whiteside, admits: “We have lost the battle larger organisation,” he says. ● The original rubber ball, Phillipe Kahn, comes for the desktop interface.” And Win95 has not bouncing back with his Sidekick, the organiser even shipped yet. November software that made Borland’s name and is now Lots of people are still trying to stop it, with ● Novell, in yet another retrenchment under sold by Kahn’s new company, Starfish. Borland is anti-monopoly officials still sniffing at that network Microsoft’s barrage, puts WordPerfect up for sale doing rather well, too, launching Delphi, a Pascal- connection. barely a year after buying it in a $1.3 billion deal. A based visual programming environment. ● Microsoft promises to provide a list of products Win95 version of what was once the world’s lead- that will not work with Windows 95; instead, it ing word processor is not expected until next year. April produces a list of ones that will. No point in But the big question is whether someone (such as ● A survey reveals that one in five French men spelling out how many applications the punters IBM) will buy Novell. prefers to play with a PC than with a woman. It will need to upgrade. ● Microsoft, which once insisted that Win95 doesn’t say what they do with their PCs. Perhaps ● Novell, still market leader in corporate net-oper- would run in 4Mb, finally admits that its Access we’ve been mishearing all along: not Latin lover, ating software, is feeling the squeeze from for Win95 Professional Edition database needs but La Tin lover. Win95’s big brother, Windows NT. Novell presi- 12Mb — which on many machines means ● Phone Day, British Telecom’s conspiracy to dent, Bob Frankenberg, hopefully describes a installing 16Mb. Desktop product manager, Oliver confuse computers, has database users all over proposed blend of the best of Novell Netware and Roll, in a statement of apology, says: “We hope the country amending their records. Those who Unix as the “network computing platform our you continue to have rewarding experiences with protest that BT does not need new numbers are customers will rely on into the next century.” Microsoft Office.”

149 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 SIX SPEED CD-ROMS

Aztech SIX SPEED would employ digital sampling at a rate of but it’s worth bearing in mind before you bothered to notice that a CD-ROM drive CD-ROMS 44.1 KHz with a 16-bit resolution. While have a total speed frenzy. sharing the same IDE channel as a hard this would at first appear to be a lot of drive would slow it down, particularly in information, 650Mb for an entire disc, the Application Windows, where the precious 32-bit sustained data transfer was a modest Even though access times are poor access was lost. This happens because NEC 150Kb/sec; about the same as a floppy compared to hard drives, and there is the Microsoft’s driver looks for installed Six disk or a tenth of the average hard drive. potential for hard processor hits, fast CD- drives in the BIOS, only spots a drive C, It didn’t take long to realise the ROM drives make a big difference in... gets confused when it notices interrupts potential of a cheaply manufactured well, what exactly? The greatest speed from a mystery source and gives up. read-only disc with 650Mb of computer difference is in pure transfer of data: The most popular solution is of the information, and the Yellow Book CD- copying files from CD-ROM to hard drive, enhanced IDE (E-IDE) which offers two ROM was born. The first CD-ROM drives the installation of software or operating channels for a total of four drives. Pop Plextor read the information at the same speed systems, and accessing CD-based your hard drive(s) on one and your best as an audio player (150Kb/sec) later to databases are all significantly improved CD-ROM drive on the other and have the be known as single-speed. with a faster CD-ROM drive. best of both worlds. Or, go for SCSI, While audio discs must be read at Sadly, one application which appears which could always support seven single speed, there was no limit to CD- to have found a performance ceiling is devices, internal or external, without any Teac ROM. The faster you could get the data Photo CD. Kodak’s image storage format of these troubles. It also handles the job off, the better. Then the double-speed holds a single image at five different reso- of multitasking better. CD-ROM drive arrived, spinning the disc lutions, the top three being compressed, at twice the speed, and offering double the largest of which, uncompressed, can The technical bit the data transfer; typically 300Kb/sec. measure a little under 20Mb. Now there’s Once again, we’ve got six six-speeds: Improved transports, tracking and a system which would benefit from a three from the E-IDE camp, and three error correction saw the inevitable faster drive, and indeed we found double- representing the SCSI-2 side of things. introduction of the quad-speed CD-ROM speeds opening twice as fast as single- All were fitted individually to the same Toshiba drive delivering 600Kb/sec. With this speeds, and quads twice as fast again. IBM Pentium 90 with 16Mb memory; the improved performance, CD-ROM titles Then we tried the six-speeds, and E-IDE drives connected to a spare became easier to use, encouraging found to our dismay that they were no channel of the on-board PCI E-IDE developers to increase the sophistication. faster than the quads. It would appear interface, and the SCSI-2 drives to an As with the constantly speedier proces- that the decompression and decoding of Adaptec PCI 2940 SCSI-2 card. sor, this rendered older, slower, hardware Photo CD image packs is limited by more The standard CD-ROM benchmarking Faster is usually better in the computer world so obsolete or at best extremely frustrating. factors than just the drive of origin, and suite of the VNU Labs was run on all Wearnes Currently, quad-speeds are the even with a fast Pentium and plenty of drives, resulting in figures for sustained perhaps it’s no surprise that six and even standard, available for a little over £100 memory, there is no benefit in having data transfer, processor hit, and and fitted to most new PCs. If you take a anything faster than quad-speed. So if weighted overall performance (see the eight-speed CD-ROM drives are now on the market, look at the Pentium 120MHz group test you’re only interested in Photo CD, table on page 152). on page 196, you’ll see that all come with anything faster than quad would appear, Plextor is the only drive here to use a although quad-speeds only ceased to be a novelty a a fast CD-ROM drive. And although we for the moment, to be unnecessary. caddy loading system: the other five, and originally asked for quad-speeds, several the eight-speed too, use tray loaders. few months back. Gordon Laing reviews six manufacturers supplied the increasingly Installation Plextor has retained the older method of 900Kb/sec but only four of the six common six-speeds, most of which are If only it were as easy as just plugging in loading CDs, arguing that it allows the managed this. All three SCSI drives six-speeds and an eight-speed. tested here. a CD-ROM drive and getting on with life drives to be mounted vertically. It also topped the 900Kb/sec mark, the clear Six-speed, it almost goes without — well, it can be, but just what do you extols the virtues of having your most winner being the Toshiba, boasting saying, spins the disc at six times normal plug it into? frequently used discs ready to go, 968Kb/sec thanks to its slighter faster speed, theoretically delivering a In the old days there was only SCSI, pre-loaded in caddies, rather than suffer “6.7-speed”. The model we reviewed was t was only a few months ago that we fast again as the average quad, which sustained data transfer of 900Kb/sec, fast followed by the proprietary interfaces. all the inconvenience of opening jewel a pre-release version, but the final Inoticed quad-speed CD-ROM drives can be no bad thing, since in the approaching that of a typical hard drive. Three proprietary interfaces crossed the cases (i.e. normal CD cases). product, which should be shipping soon, had suddenly become the standard, but computer business, fast is good. Or is it? So is that all there is to it? Just spin faster boundary into standards, found Apart from this, all the drives look is not expected to be any different. even in this short time, quad-speed has In fact, there’s more to it than just the six- and faster and reap the benefits? subsequently on many sound cards, the much the same. They each require a Only one of the E-IDE drives cleared become old hat. So what now? First we speed aspect of these drives, so before Unfortunately, none of the CD-ROM idea being that a multimedia upgrade kit spare 5.25in drive bay, suitable power the 900Kb/sec mark: the Teac, which just had single-speed, then double, then making any recommendations we’ll drives tested here even approaches the would only require one card. The three and data connection, and that’s it. All the beat the NEC 6Xi SCSI drive. The Aztech quad, so presumably this month heralds review other performance issues and overall performance of a typical hard disk. interfaces, compatible primarily with dri- front panels have headphone jacks and and Wearnes turned in relatively disap- the arrival of eight-speed CD-ROM consider why, other than speed, you In sustained data transfer from sequential ves from that manufacturer, were Sony, volume controls for audio use; all CD- pointing sustained data transfer rates of drives. Right? Well, kind of. would want a six, or even eight-speed sectors perhaps, but as soon as random Misumi, and Panasonic/Matsushita. ROM drives have built-in digital-to- around 680Kb/sec. This ended up being I was planning to shock you with the CD-ROM drive. access comes into play, the CD-ROM SCSI matured into SCSI-2 and the analogue converters and automatically very close to the various 4.4 and 6news that the next step up is the drive can’t compete. This isn’t to say current alternative is the IDE interface. drop to single-speed for audio discs. 4.5-speed SCSI drives we have tested apparently intermediate one of six-speed. I’m too sixy for my drive they’re a big con; just be aware that even Every PC has a hard drive controller Some of the more interesting drives may from the likes of Pioneer, Toshiba, and That was until Diamond squeezed in with The first question is surely: “Six times with six or eight-speed you shouldn’t which with a little coercing, can also have basic CD audio transport controls Plextor (the latter is in First Impressions the very first eight-speed, just in time for what, exactly?” To answer this we must expect overall hard drive performance. support a CD-ROM drive. The original such as track skip, but otherwise, one on page 64). But putting this into inclusion in this round-up, so I’ve return to the birth of the compact disc, Then there’s the “processor hit” to IDE hard drive was designed for the AT CD-ROM drive looks pretty much like perspective, they were all comfortably considered the eight-speed separately for when it carried audio only. consider. As CD-ROM drives speed up bus. The IDE interface with its single any other. faster than a standard quad-speed drive. the purposes of this feature (see page Sony and Philips laid down the they place greater strain on the proces- channel could support two drives, and the There are many similarities in terms of 152). specification for compact disc digital sor, and in some cases could have a later ATAPI specification allowed one of performance and price. A six-speed drive Conclusion So here we have six six-speed internal audio in what is known as the “Red negative effect. Some manufacturers these to be an IDE CD-ROM drive. should theoretically be able to deliver a How do the prices measure up? As CD-ROM drives, all claiming to be half as Book”. It stated that the stereo system have developed drivers to reduce this, Unfortunately, in the excitement few sustained data transfer rate of around you’ve gathered, the CD-ROM drive

150 151 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 SIX SPEED CD-ROMS

Diamond Multimedia Kit 8000 market is in a continual state of flux: processor hit, which combined with its es, it’s true. one manufacturer drops its prices, second best transfer rate places it as YThe photo and then the others follow; making the highest overall performer. Taking may show a plain- simultaneous comparison difficult. its lower price into consideration, the looking internal All the SCSI drives are generally at Plextor 6Plex receives our Editor’s CD-ROM drive, least half as expensive again as their Choice award for SCSI drives. but the label gives E-IDE counterparts. On the other Teac’s CD-56e represents away the exciting hand, all the SCSI drives delivered particularly good value with excellent truth: that more than the expected 900Kb/sec. performance levels (being the only Diamond Multime- NEC’s quoted street price appears to E-IDE to top 900Kb/sec) and a low dia is first on the be a little optimistic, placing it and street price, and thus earns itself scene with an eight-speed CD-ROM drive. Plextor at level-pegging. NEC’s drive Editor’s Choice among the E-IDE Of course everybody else has them in their labs, boasts audio transport controls and drives. testing away, but Diamond felt confident enough to gains bonus points for front panel The real rock-bottom bargain send in not a beta version, but an entire retail multi- design, but Plextor has a superior hunters should look no further than media pack with sound card and speakers. driver and set of utilities. Both are Aztech which currently appears to The Multimedia Kit 8000 comes with a pair of excellent choices, but for a little extra have the edge on price, even beating Yamaha YST-M5 powered active speakers, a 16-bit, you should be able to get the Toshiba several IDE quads. Wearnes couldn’t 1Mb wavetable sound card, five CD titles consisting which had the highest transfer rate, quote a street price at the time of of Myst, Magic Carpet, Rebel Assault, Sim City 2000 but a larger, undesirable processor writing, but should be able to come and Comptons Interactive Encyclopedia 1996, and hit. The Plextor had a lesser close to Aztech and Teac. of course the eight-speed CD-ROM drive. The sound card has an IDE interface for the CD- Performance Results ROM drive, and you can also use an existing inter- face. Yes that’s right — the fastest CD-ROM drive Sustained data transfer rate (Kb/s) did not make its debut on the SCSI bus, but IDE CPU hit Manufacturer 0 500 1000 1500 instead. Model 0 50 100 150 Totals Most important of all is the performance of the FASTER 680 Aztech 6xSpeed 102.59 drive, and we are pleased to announce that it scored an impressive 1,217Kb/sec in our sustained data NEC 6Xi 903 104.31 transfer rate tests, making it the fastest drive yet and 913 Plextor 6Plex 105.99 confirming its eight-speed badge.

910 On the down side, its performance hit was harder Teac CD56-E 105.24 than any of the six-speeds, although not in major 969 Toshiba XM-3701B 96.89 way. The drive also runs quite hot so watch your fin- 686 gers when you remove discs from the tray. Wearnes CDD-620 97 On the plus side is the price, which at around 1217 Diamond 8 Speed 99.45 £500 on the street is a bit of a bargain when you 0Overall results 0.5 1.0 1.5 consider you get a wavetable sound card and a

Aztech 6xSpeed 1.03 decent pair of active loudspeakers. Then again, if you can wait a couple of months, everyone else will NEC 6Xi 1.11 have their eight-speeds out at nice, low prices, and Plextor 6Plex 1.24 we’ll be featuring the world’s first 16-speed — prob- Teac CD56-E 1.15 ably. 1.18 Toshiba XM-3701B Price Around £500 Wearnes CDD-620 0.81 Contact CHS Electronics 01483 723411 Diamond 8 Speed 1.10

SIX SPEED CD-ROM DRIVES

Aztech NEC Plextor Teac Toshiba Wearnes Manufacturer Aztech NEC Plextor Teac Toshiba Wearnes Model 6x Speed 6Xi 6PLEX CD56-E XM-3701B CDD-620 Connection E-IDE SCSI-2 SCSI-2 E-IDE SCSI-2 E-IDE RRP £149 £379 £359 £279 £395 £199 Street £149 £260 £300 £179 £325 n/a Supplier Aztech NEC Tekdata Teac Ideal Hardware Wearnes Telephone 01734 814121 0345 300103 01782 577677 01923 225235 0181 286 5000 01727 836330

152 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 SOUND CARD ADD-ONS

are close in frequency, a more complex get a 16-part, multi-timbral, General MIDI waveform is produced, resulting in a new synthesiser, a copy of Cubase Lite, and a sound. By altering the two patterns, Windows control panel which lets you different timbres or instruments can be change the card’s settings. produced. The WaveBooster 2 has 2Mb of sam- However, if you study the waveform ples onboard; that’s 159 melodic instru- produced by a piano, it would be far too ments and eight drum kits to play with. As complex for an FM generator to well as providing GM compatibility, it can reproduce accurately. The same is true be used in MT32 mode by selecting an Super for most other instruments and this is why option on its control panel. The card is FM cards don’t sound realistic. capable of playing 24 voices simultane- WaveTable technology works differ- ously, more than enough for current ently. Instead of generating waveforms, games. There are no on-board effects, it plays back pre-recorded samples of however. real instruments. A WaveTable chip, If you want to dabble with on-board therefore, is an electronic table of sounds, these can be accessed using a waveforms. synthesiser and is GS (an enhanced MIDI keyboard along with Cubase Lite (a Due to the size of audio samples, version of GM) compatible. Software is Windows sequencer). The control panel sound instruments are stored in a ROM chip provided which allows you to edit the also lets you play the sounds, enabling which in most cases is 2Mb or 4Mb in instruments by applying filters and you to select instruments and drum kit, size. Some professional synthesisers changing settings. Edits can be saved as and change basic parameters such as have up to 16Mb for their instrument sysex files (.syx) and further imported modulation. samples. In addition, whereas one FM into most MIDI sequencers. The sounds on this card don’t sound card will sound much the same as Cakewalk Apprentice, a 256 compete with Roland or Yamaha the next, WaveTable ROMs can differ sequencer, is bundled along with a MIDI products but they are a massive significantly. adaptor kit which enables you to connect improvement on FM. Although realistic, boost Two main factors determine the qual- any MIDI device. Cakewalk provides the samples are a little bland and the lack ity of a WaveTable ROM; the sampling score and piano role editing and has an of digital effects leaves them sounding rate at which the instruments were intuitive interface. “thin” and dry. Now that WaveTable daughterboards are more Digital effects recorded and the number of samples Although this card offers better audio which make up the instruments. Most performance than FM, the overall stan- PCW Details readily available, it’s easy to upgrade your FM With the exception of the Orchid samples on today’s cards are recorded at dard is disappointing. Many acoustic Orchid WaveBooster 2 WaveBooster 2, all the cards in this round- 44.1kHz, the same frequency at which instruments (pianos, basses and strings) Price £66 sound board with this simple add-on. up have digital effects. This means reverb, CDs are recorded. This is why some are weak and drum kits are uninspiring. Contact Orchid Europe 01256 479898 echo and chorus can be added to the cards are described as having CD-quality ☎ Steven Helstrip explains the advantages and the Good Points One hundred times better instruments to enhance the audio quality. audio. The higher the sample recording PCW Details than FM. technology, and puts five boards to the test. When reverb is applied, instruments can rate, the better the sound quality. Creative Labs WaveBlaster II Bad Points Samples are a little bland. sound as though they are being played in When a real piano is played, different Price £77.99 Conclusion The one to have if you’re on large concert halls, churches or even your timbres are produced depending on how Contact Creative Labs 01734 248590 a tight budget. bathroom. The Yamaha DB50XG even hard the keys are struck, and where on Good Points Great price. ☎ verybody is producing add-ons what the composer originally intended: allows separate effects to be applied to the keyboard (or pitch) the key was Bad Points Not the best sound. Orchid WaveBooster 4FX Ethese days that allow you to pianos sound like pianos, guitars are individual instruments, thus adding further pressed. By taking more samples from Conclusion A good bundle. This is the most expensive of the three upgrade your existing FM sound board to convincing, and a trombone sounds as realism. the piano, a more realistic sound can be cards available from Orchid. The 4FX WaveTable technology — or so it seems. though it belongs to the brass section. Chorus effects are numerous and vary reproduced. Orchid WaveBooster 2 contains 4Mb of samples — twice that of Last time we looked at sound cards (in With FM, not only do all the instruments from one card to the next. On the whole, This is the cheapest daughterboard in the WaveBooster 2 — to provide higher- April 1995), only a few manufacturers sound the same, but you rarely get to though, they “thicken” up the sounds and Creative Labs WaveBlaster II this review and probably the most realis- quality instruments and built-in effects. had started producing WaveTable daugh- hear them all because FM cards are lim- give the impression that more than one The Creative Labs WaveBlaster II is tic option for users wanting to upgrade These include six reverbs, two delays terboards. In many ways it’s like buying ited to playing 11 voices at any one time. instrument is playing. based on the EMU-8000 synthesiser chip their FM sound card. For your £66 you and four chorus settings. an overdrive chip, only different, because So if you want high-quality music to and has 2Mb of samples on board. That’s you can install one in around three min- complement your games and multimedia 128 General MIDI-compatible utes flat, turn on your computer and it titles, WaveTable is the way forward. The In this round-up we have tested, instruments, ten drum kits, and digital works. First time. good news is that you don’t always have listened to, and made CD recordings of effects that include Qsound, reverb and Because WaveTable cards use actual to buy a new sound card and it costs as five cards to uncover the best of all. You chorus. Qsound creates a 360-degree recordings of real instruments, you hear little as £66. can hear each card, by using our free stereo field, fooling the ear into thinking CD-ROM cover disc this month, and that the sound is coming from anywhere Installing the cards compare it to the FM equivalent. other than your speakers and comes into effect when playing compatible games. Any of these cards will connect to 16-bit sound cards that have a daughterboard feature How WaveTable works The same synthesiser chip is used on connector. These include most SoundBlaster, MediaVision and Aztech boards. The Before WaveTable technology was imple- the AWE-32 sound card and many of the connector looks similar to the CD-ROM version, only smaller. mented in sound cards, the accepted instruments are similar. Consequently, To install a daughterboard, just take out your sound card and “sit” the daughterboard in sound standard was FM, or Frequency little will be gained by adding this card if place. Each board comes with three plastic spacers which help to keep a safe distance Modulation. FM produces sound by first you already use an AWE. between the two cards. creating a sine wave and then mixing it In addition to General MIDI (GM), the with a second. When the two waveforms WBII is compatible with Roland’s MT32

156 157 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 SOUND CARD ADD-ONS

The card also offers compatibility with PCW Details important role in developing the Roland’s GS standard, enabling you to Orchid WaveBooster 4FX standards for General MIDI and GS. accurately modify instrument parameters Price £109 The SCD-150 is Roland’s most recent via a MIDI sequencer. Parameters Contact Orchid Europe 01256 479898 ☎ card based on its tried and tested Sound include the attack, decay and release Good Points Good sound. Canvas technology. There are 354 instru- times of its patches, and the pan position Bad Points Awkward sequencer; not as ments crammed into its 4Mb ROM, and and effects levels of the percussion good as similarly-priced products. digital effects which include eight reverb samples. Conclusion Difficult to recommend. types and eight choruses. There are 128 instruments within the The card is General MIDI, MT32 and ROMs conforming to the GM specifica- Roland SCD-150 GS standard compatible, making it tion, and a further 63 timbres which come Roland is largely responsible for where usable with just about every game, multi- into play when using GS and MT32 emu- music is at, on the PC today. It was the media title and MIDI file around. It offers lation. There are 118 percussion samples first company to manufacture a “serious” 16-part, 28-voice polyphony along with as well, laid out across the eight drum sound card, the LAPC-1, and played an ten drum kits that include special effects. kits. The quality of samples is consistently The control panel enables you to high, and covers the whole spectrum of select emulation modes and sets up the acoustic and electronic instruments. on-board effects. The sounds on this DoReMIX is bundled with the board are better than those on the WB2, package, enabling everyone to create and the effects make a huge difference. music; you simply drag icons into an But this card doesn’t stand up against Arrange window and the “musicians” play similarly-priced boards. the parts. It has over 600 four-bar music Recording Session, a notation-based sections which can be chained together sequencer, is bundled with the hardware — it’s easy and fun — and there are 130 but the package would be a better buy if MIDI files included, covering many styles Cubase Lite were included. Recording of music. Session doesn’t provide as much flexi- If you want high-quality samples, bility and is awkward to use. compatibility and lots of pre-recorded songs, you’ll get them all here.

Music software

WaveTable cards don’t just make games 16-bit sound card and enough hard disk and multimedia titles sound great — space for your recordings at roughly 5Mb per there’s heaps of software around that minute. Audio tracks can be recorded and enables you to compose, arrange and print manipulated in much the same way as MIDI your own music. If you’re new to music, and up to four parts can be played back simul- then there’s software to teach piano, while taneously. The audio version includes better others require no musical knowledge at all. editing facilities. Most cards in this round-up come with Price £250 music software. The best-featured, and Contact Harman Audio 0181 207 5050 easiest to use, is Cubase Lite which is bundled with the Orchid WaveBooster 2. ● Visual Arranger Lite is a cut-down version of the indus- Visual Arranger enables anyone to make Yamaha sent along a copy of Visual Arranger try standard music sequencing package, great music. It’s easy and great fun with the DB50XG. No musical knowledge is Cubase. It lets you record and edit your needed to use this package since all the parts performances using several editors, and have been recorded for you. includes a notation window. To use this The point is to arrange musical ideas by effectively, though, you will need some dragging icons into an Arrange window. Musi- musical knowledge and a MIDI input cal styles range from reggae through to jazz device, such as a keyboard. and dance. For each style there is a myriad of Once the parts have been recorded, variations, including introductions, guitar they can be copied and moved around via solos, verses and endings. the intuitive Arrange screen. There’s also a If you want to get more involved you can mixer that lets you set the volume, reverb play around with the chord progressions, and chorus levels. Up to 16 tracks can be record your own parts, change the tempo and recorded using as many MIDI channels. select different musicians to play the parts, or instruments. ● Cubasis Audio This package is lots of fun and is recom- If you want to record a vocal or other live Recording Session enables you to record mended for beginners and children. instrument, Cubasis Audio has additional and edit your music using traditional Price £39.99 tracks for doing just that. All you need is a notation Contact Yamaha Kemble 01908 369269

158 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 SOUND CARD ADD-ONS

PCW Details Editor’s Choice Roland SCD-150 Price £169 high-quality DSP Are these cards any good? The simple answer is yes. Each Contact Roland 01792 702701 ☎ (Digital Signal Proces- card reviewed here proved to be a massive improvement on sor) effects thanks to FM — some more than others. They are easy to install, work Good Points Excellent sound, compatibility. an increased number as soon as you turn on the computer, and add greater real- Bad Points Not many. of variants. ism to every game and multimedia title. Conclusion A tad expensive. While remaining Choosing which card is best is not easy, but after plenty of compatible with listening we decided the Editor’s Choice award should go to General MIDI, the the Yamaha. The DB50XG has stacks of sounds, fantastic DB50XG has more digital effects and a nice price to match. It also comes with a control over its sound, CD-ROM crammed with MIDI files and audio tracks. allowing individual Another card worthy of mention is the Orchid characteristics to be WaveBooster 2. It’s not particularly the best-sounding card, fine-tuned. For but if you’re on a tight budget, at £66 it’s a fantastic buy. You example, the EQ of a get a copy of Cubase Lite, too, which is the ideal software piano sound — how package to get started with MIDI sequencing. does this affect the You can hear how each sound card performs by listening soundtrack from to tracks two to seven on this month’s cover-mounted CD. Doom? It doesn’t. But Do not listen to track 1 as this is the CD-ROM partition which games written with XG may damage your speakers. soundtracks in future will have greater Track listings realism. Track 2 A typical FM sound card So is it any good? Track 3 Creative Labs WaveBlaster II Yamaha DB50XG It’s fantastic. The Track 4 Orchid WaveBooster 2 When the name Yamaha is mentioned quality of instruments Track 5 Orchid WaveBooster 4FX many people think of fast bikes. In fact, is consistent from the Track 6 Roland SCD-15 Yamaha has been making musical instru- pianos through to the Track 7 Yamaha DB50 XG ments for more than a century now and drums and everything was the company that developed FM — in between. Even bet- the technology used in sound cards ter are its built-in effects. Because it uses PCW Details before WaveTable came along. a sophisticated DSP, different effects can Yamaha DB50XG The DB50XG is the only card to imple- be assigned to separate instruments. So Price £129 Contact Yamaha Kemble 01908 369269 ☎ ment XG technology. In a nutshell, this instead of merely having reverb on every means that instead of just 128 sound, there can also be a chorus on the Good Points Great sound, amazing instruments (like General MIDI) you have guitar, echo on the flute... whatever you price. a total of 676 sounds, 21 drum kits and want. Bad Points None. Conclusion Go out and buy it.

WAVETABLE DAUGHTERBOARDS TABLE OF FEATURES

Creative Labs Orchid Orchid Roland Yamaha Manufacturer Creative Labs Orchid Orchid Roland Yamaha Product WaveBlaster II WaveBooster 2 WaveBooster 4FX SCD-15 DB50XG Telephone 01734 248590 01256 479898 01256 479898 01792 702701 01908 369269 Price £77.99 £66 £109 £169 £129 Chipset EMU8000 Dream Dream Sound Canvas MU50 ROM 2Mb 2Mb 4Mb 4Mb 4Mb No. Voices 28 24 24 28 32 No. Instruments 128 159 159 354 676 No. Drum Kits 10 8 8 10 21 Reverb ●❍●●● Chorus ●❍●●● Bundled Software Cakewalk Apprentice Cubase Lite Sound Impression DoReMIX None

KEY ● Yes ❍ No

160 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 SOFTWINDOWS 2.0 Taking the soft option? from the horrors of DOS. At the time, If you want to run PC applications on your Mac Apple resisted calls to launch Houdini in you’ll have to choose between software and Europe but, last year, it introduced a DOS-compatible card for the Power hardware-based emulation. George Cole assesses Macintosh 6100, and the Performa 630 DOS-compatible, which has a Motorola SoftWindows 2.0, the DOS card from Apple, and 68040 and 66MHz 486DX2 processor. The other route for running PC the OrangePC co-processor. programs on a Macintosh is software emulation — to do this, the British company Insignia Solutions has released ow do you like your emulation; worldwide last year, nearly 3,300 were SoftWindows 2.0 for the Power hard or soft? A growing number designed for the PC — almost three times Macintosh. Software emulation is of Apple Macintosh users are the number available for the Macintosh. cheaper, easier to upgrade and more Hrunning PC programs on their Apple users often have to wait weeks or cost-effective. You do not have to take machines with the aid of hardware or even months for the Macintosh version of the top off your computer and the system software-based emulation. The idea of new software to arrive — and there are is more integrated. It sounds impressive, anyone wanting to use PC software may far more games for the PC. but how well does the software emulation seem puzzling to some Apple Around two years ago, Apple launched work? enthusiasts, but there are many good a dual-processor machine in the US, reasons why you might want to do so. In which contained both a Motorola and PC Going soft many ways, Macintosh owners are in a processor, allowing users to run Software emulation has an image prob- similar position to those who bought Macintosh and PC applications. The lem. It’s often seen as a slow and rather Betamax VCRs rather than VHS machine was nicknamed Houdini, ungainly method of running “foreign” machines back in the early eighties. presumably because it offered an escape programs on a computer. But thanks to Macintosh users clearly have faster processors and the better technology (even improvements in when compared to PCs run- emulation design and ning Windows 95), but they coding, things are much are very much in the minority. improved. SoftWindows Around 85 percent of the works on any Power world’s computers run on Macintosh, whereas the Intel processors and Microsoft’s MS-DOS or SoftWindows’ Windows operating systems, performance can be compared with around 10 configured to suit percent for the Apple the power of your Macintosh. As a result the Mac. Assigning as first priority for most software much memory as companies is the PC. For you can spare to the example, of the 5,500 program is highly CD-ROM titles available recommended

170 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 SOFTWINDOWS 2.0

DOS-compatible card only works with the 6100’s non-standard NuBus slot. Another bonus is that SoftWindows can also be networked, which means that you don’t have to fit every computer with its own DOS card. SoftWindows version 1.0 was based on the Windows 286 standard mode, which meant that it only ran around 80 percent of Windows software, and then at a sluggish pace. SoftWindows 2.0 runs Windows in the 386 enhanced mode and emulates a 486DX processor. Booting Windows in the enhanced mode requires 35 million instructions per second, compared with 5 million for the standard mode. A 486 processor has 1.2 million transistors, whereas a 286 has fewer than 150,000. SoftWindows translates Intel 486 Above Insignia provides instructions into PowerPC instructions an Apple Guide help file and uses both static and dynamic to guide Mac users compilation. The former compiles through the weird and frequently-used Intel code into PowerPC wonderful world of DOS code and builds it into SoftWindows. This and Windows means that the code doesn’t have to be Right The Windows 3.1 translated or compiled when called into desktop in all its glory. action. Dynamic compilation identifies Everything acts just like frequently executed segments of Intel the real thing, and you code and compiles them into PowerPC can share data between code segments. These are cached and Mac and PC clipboards. can be run directly when required. Apple’s balloon help For our test machine, we used a also works here PowerMacintosh 6100, with 16Mb RAM, 500Mb hard drive, and connections to a Pioneer DR-U124X quad-speed SoftWindows. The program will run CD-ROM drive and 14in Apple monitor. on a PowerMac with a minimum of running System 7.5, there’s If you think Windows needs a lot of 16Mb, but Insignia recommends a an Apple-like balloon help system. memory, then you haven’t used machine with at least 24Mb. This is One disappointment, however, is that because SoftWindows requires a SoftWindows does not support the DOS minimum of 12Mb, so with 16Mb you sound system. Insignia considered OrangePC effectively have just 4Mb spare for emulating a Sound Blaster card, but the The OrangePC MS-DOS co-processor running Windows applications. As Paul required processing power for the sound for PCI or NuBus Macintosh machines Daniels would say: “Not a lot.” alone was equivalent to an entry-level comes in a range of configurations; there SoftWindows comes with MS-DOS PowerMacintosh! It means playing PC are three basic models. The 440 model 6.22 and Windows 3.1 pre-installed. It games without their sound effects. has a PCI interface, up to 64Mb RAM, offers extensive network support, too, However, now that PCI PowerMacs are SVGA graphics and 256K of L2 cache. and includes Novell NetWare and LAN here, it is likely that some users will install The 420 also has a PCI interface and up manager client software. Ethernet, Token a PC sound card. Insignia is looking at to 32Mb RAM. The 290 is designed for Ring and LocalTalk connections are all ways of getting sound from these when NuBus machines, has up to 32Mb RAM, catered for. SVGA graphics are running DOS programs under 128K of L2 cache, a PC Card (PCMCIA) supported and audio and video can be SoftWindows. expansion slot and serial and parallel played back from either QuickTime for Special mention should be made of ports. Windows or Video for Windows Insignia’s instruction book, which is one The cards support 486SX, DX, DX2 applications. SoftWindows also cleverly of the best I’ve seen. It’s clear, concise and DX4 processors, and the 400 series combines the Macintosh and Windows and packed with useful advice. It’s a offers a Pentium OverDrive chip too. An sound systems, and you can even make format that other companies might wish optional 16-bit Sound Blaster-compatible sound recordings with the Macintosh to, er, emulate. card is available for the 400 series. microphone when using Windows The installation of SoftWindows from Price Entry level prices start at applications with audio features (such as CD-ROM is quick and simple. However, £854+VAT for a 486DX2 50 with 4Mb Word and Lotus 1-2-3). AppleScript the first installation wasn’t successful RAM support is provided for programmers who because for some unknown reason, the Contact 01706 832662 may wish to write specific instructions for software decided that my machine only running PC programs. And if you’re had 10Mb of RAM available for

171 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 SOFTWINDOWS 2.0

Power Macintosh 6100 with DOS-compatible card

The PowerMac 6100 typically comes with a 66MHz PowerPC 601 container filling up, you can create a second one. processor, 8Mb RAM and a 350Mb drive. But add a DOS-compatible card Operating the 6100 as a PC is very easy. A PC setup control panel, and it turns into a different beast. You can buy the 6100 with the card built which is selected from the Apple menu, allows you to configure the in,and in this case the machine comes with MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows system to your own particular needs. For instance, you can instruct the 3.1 pre-installed. Or you can buy the card separately and install it your- 6100 to switch over to PC mode on booting up, or make the screen fade self. The card fits into the 6100’s single NuBus slot. The DOS card is well during the changeover from Macintosh to PC or vice-versa. If you want to specified: a 66MHz 486DX2 processor, 8Mb RAM (expandable to 32Mb) use a PC CD-ROM, you select a temporary drive from the Sharing panel Sound Blaster 16 card and SVGA graphics. It’s not exactly leading-edge on the PC control panel . PC technology, but it’s enough to run most PC programs comfortably. Switching between PC and Macintosh simply involves hitting a couple With the DOS card installed, the 6100 can run native PowerPC soft- of keys (Control, and Return). The screen fades and then magically ware, standard Macintosh 680x0-based programs, and DOS and displays the DOS screen, complete with flashing C: prompt. Type WIN Windows applications, all of which makes it a very versatile machine. So and you’re into Windows. The 6100 ran DOS and Windows 3.1 software much so that the 6100 won PCW’s 1995 award for the Best PC System well. The applications we tested included DOS games, Word for (see our June ’95 issue). Incidentally, although Apple has now replaced Windows, the children’s writing package Creative Writer, and multimedia its first-generation PowerMacs, it’s keeping the 6100 in its range. Our CD-ROM titles like Microsoft’s Dangerous Animals. It also coped with machine came with the card and software installed, although I soon hit a Windows 95 and the Office 95 suite, although its speed is nothing to write nasty problem — my PC was dumb. DOS and Windows programs were home about. Although Microsoft says that existing Windows programs silent, both through the monitor and the CD-ROM drive’s headphone should run at least as well under Windows 95, my subjective impression socket. Fortunately, the problem was soon solved. By going into the was that the 6100 was happier with the 3.1 version. Text and graphics sound control panel, clicking Options and then selecting Internal CD and can also be transferred between the two environments via DOS, Play Through, my PC-in-a-Mac beeped into life. Windows and Macintosh clipboards. However, you can’t transfer sounds The PC software and files are stored in a drive “container”, which acts from PC to Macintosh or vice-versa. as a PC hard drive on the 6100’s hard disk. The DOS-compatible All in all, the 6100 acquitted itself well and while it isn’t the raciest PC software uses up around 25Mb of disk space and Apple suggests setting in the world, the ability to run PC programs on a Macintosh more than a minimum of 40Mb for your drive container (if the DOS card is makes up for this. pre-installed, the drive container should already be set-up for you). Price £1,874.13 (inc VAT); DOS-compatible card £487.63 Windows eats up lots of hard disk space, so if you find your drive Contact Apple 0181 569 1199

SoftWindows. The results of trying to run SoftWindows allows both PC and Mac- Windows 95 programs may run, the Windows applications on this were intosh windows to be displayed together performance is unacceptable, says the abysmal, with the 6100 taking ages to on-screen, making it very easy to cut and company. But Insignia is developing a write each screen and most programs paste between the two environments. The version of SoftWindows which will be refusing to run and throwing up all sorts only caveats are that it works best on a optimised for Windows 95. of error messages. If this happens to you, large screen (preferably 16in or more), my advice is to re-install SoftWindows. and some PC applications won’t run in Conclusion When I contacted Insignia about the anything smaller than full screen, 640 x Neither hardware nor software emulation problem, the company was stumped for 480 VGA graphics. But even if you can’t will turn a Macintosh into a high-powered an answer as to why this had happened. display both windows simultaneously, PC. If you find you need to run lots of The second installation was more cutting and pasting between PC and Mac Windows programs, then buy a PC. But if successful, with 12Mb of RAM being is a simple procedure. For example, you have only occasional need to use PC allocated to SoftWindows. transferring text from a document in applications, then hardware and The next step is to decide how all this Creative Writer involved copying it into software-based emulation is a godsend. RAM is to be used. There are three the Windows clipboard, closing down If you’re using a low-end machine like the parameters to set: the size of the Windows, opening the Macintosh desktop 6100, then I would go for the DOS card, DeltaCache, the amount of PC Extended and then running Word. After locating the which will run your Windows programs Memory and the size of the Windows right file, the text was simply pasted using faster and has the extra bonus of offering desktop. The smaller you set these para- the Macintosh edit menu. sound with DOS programs. meters, the less memory you need, but Standard Windows programs like However, if you’ve got a high-end then the slower SoftWindows works. If Word also ran satisfactorily under PowerMac with lots of RAM, or you need you’ve got lots of RAM go for the highest SoftWindows, although the speed of the to run DOS or Windows programs on a DeltaCache and Memory Management 6100 was more that of a fast 386 than a network, then SoftWindows is the route to settings you can — SoftWindows tells 486 PC. But then, the idea behind take. Either way, you’ll be delighted with you how much RAM your settings need SoftWindows is not for people to throw the ability to turn your Mac into a PC. And and warns you if there isn’t enough. away their PCs and buy a Macintosh, you’ll be even more pleased to know that The extra 2Mb of RAM gained on the rather it is designed for those who use the you can switch your PC back into the second installation made a big difference latter for most of their work, but may need Mac with just a couple of keystrokes. and I could even use PC multimedia to use the odd piece of PC software — CD-ROMs such as film guide Cinemania even if it doesn’t fly off the screen. PCW Details 95. Arnie’s “I’ll be back” speech from the With only 4Mb of RAM available for film “The Terminator” boomed through Windows, I didn’t attempt to operate SoftWindows 2.0 Price £329 my speakers and the Video for Windows SoftWindows under Windows 95. Insignia Contact Insignia Solutions movie clips of “2001: A Space Odyssey” does not recommend SoftWindows users 01494 459426 ☎ and “The Godfather” ran fine. moving over to Windows 95: although

172 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 UTILITIES UTILITIES

Even within the more complete environment of Windows 95, there’s still some room for utility suppliers to step in with upgrades. Tim Phillips reviews the first batch. UtilityUtility VehicleVehicle

indows 95 isn’t the bunfight for Left Check your PC’s don’t be fooled. Norton has come up with Right Norton Disk utilities suppliers that you the real thing. It’s the tenth release of performance under Windows 95 Doctor, still going might imagine. Although it Norton Utilities, and although Windows ❦W before installing it, with WIN’95 strong, and with an gives them a good opportunity to upgrade 95 has tried to pull the rug from under it, Adviser animated sequence their software and sell us new versions of this is a complete and exhaustive set of to make it interest- old products, Windows 95 is a much disk functions. ing. Here comes the more complete environment than 3.11, Norton worked closely with Microsoft Below Running multimedia man in the white and takes care of many housekeeping during the development of Windows 95, benchmarks on the compo- coat jobs perfectly adequately. nents warns of any system and it shows. This is the slickest, best On the other hand, Windows 95 is bottlenecks. You can re-run organised set of utilities in this review. neither perfect nor complete. While some them after installing Windows You can start with the Norton Utilities utilities, especially File Manager replace- 95 to fine-tune the system before you upgrade to Windows 95 if you ments, are all but redundant, things like want — there’s a pre-installation tune-up virus protection, disk maintenance and under DOS. It’s not like the Windows 95 memory management should not be 95 and a one-word advisor software, also reviewed here –– it neglected, and this is where suppliers assessment, ranging from doesn’t attempt to provide a hardware Left Running Speed can step in. This month we review the “Wow!” to “Fail”. Big buttons upgrade checklist. What is does do is Disk can be done quite first batch of Windows 95 products to see and lots of help make this the tackle the most tedious jobs; deleting safely in background, what’s on offer and whether it’s worth sort of application that’s useful unwanted files, cleaning up the hard disk but you miss the upgrading. for professionals but unbreak- and checking for defects. If you are ner- colours in the display. able by idiots. vous about your PC’s ability to upgrade, The graphics represent ● WIN’95 Advisor 1.01 That said, it’s not all sweet- this is strongly recommended. individual blocks of TouchStone has a long track record in ness. Advisor was complimen- Norton Utilities for Windows 95 is data on the disk diagnostic tools, but often its products tary about a couple of PCs missing some of the Norton stalwarts, have been aimed more at the which were truly hopeless. such as Ncache, DupDisk, FileFind and professional end of the market. This utility Granted, it refers to having Control Centre, because Windows 95 is handy for users who don’t have Win- 4Mb of RAM as a “con” but it duplicates their functions. Instead, Norton dows 95 yet. If you’re thinking of upgrad- claims this is enough to run has slimmed down the package and tried fragment in future. The position of the PCW Details ing your software, and want to check Windows 95, whereas in fact any less before you install Windows 95, and use it to add value where it has something to swap file is also optimised, a much- Norton Utilities whether your hardware is up to the job, than 8Mb is a complete non-starter. The to make a hardware shopping list. offer that isn’t available under Windows. neglected speed-up for Windows users, Price £129 then at around £20 this utility might be analysis of disk space left me wondering There’s a whole new utility as well: the and the whole operation runs perfectly Contact Symantec 01628 592222 ☎ worth looking at. too — I was bemused when it concluded Norton System Doctor. This is so happily in the background, although PCW Details Good Points Excellent utilities. The premise is simple: install this soft- that although I would have minus 47Mb of complete it’s quite amusing — it has a obviously it does slow disk access. Bad Points None. ware under Windows 3.1 (it needs at hard disk left after installing Windows, WIN’95 Advisor 1.01 graphical display of every conceivable Symantec is quite pleased with itself, Conclusion The original and the best. least this to work) and it checks your this was still “enough”. Price £29.99 resource running under Windows 95, with having designed all its utilities as true 32- hardware, even doing some multimedia The product is probably best used in a Contact TouchStone Europe up to 80 different monitoring functions. bit applications so that they run on their benchmarks. It then comes back with a workplace, where it can be installed 01442 862612 ☎ Some are displayed as dials, others as own protected virtual machine. It claims ● Norton Anti-Virus set of recommendations and compiles a across a number of PCs prior to upgrad- Good Points Neat design. traffic lights, but this system doctor is this as an advantage over Microsoft, The Norton Anti-Virus package function- report for you. If you upgrade your hard- ing to Windows 95. By systematically Bad Points Marginal use for a single PC. easy to use and clear to read — some- which makes sense: if you’re going to ally appears similar to the 16-bit ware, simply rerun the software and it will testing a number of machines this way, Conclusion An inexpensive way to thing no-one else has managed under mess about with low-level file operations, Windows version. But that’s where the revise the report, giving you a new score. you can handle all your upgrade avoid upgrade headaches. Windows 95. You add and remove sen- you ought to do it properly. similarity ends. The design is good: for software like problems in one pass, eliminating a sors by dragging them. With animated displays, easy-to-use Because virus products work at a low this you need a coherent interface with a messy trial-and-error procedure. For this Other utilities are given a new lease of menu structures and a level of informa- level, existing Windows 3.x virus protec- clear message, which minimises the work reason too, I don’t recommend you buy life, notably the Speed Disk defragmenter tion that inspires confidence, this is an tion doesn’t work under Windows 95, so for you. This supplies the lot. The overall this with Windows 95, even though it ● Norton Utilities which not only defragments your disk, but impressive set of disaster recovery and Norton Anti-Virus has been completely score is represented as a big dial in the does a good job of preparing your exist- Although the Windows 95 Plus Pack tries does it “intelligently” –– files are placed in optimisation utilities. rewritten and retooled. It’s hard to say middle of the screen, with a rating out of ing software. Buy it a couple of weeks to supply a set of disk-based utilities, positions where they are less likely to which virus product is the best at finding

174 175 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 UTILITIES

viruses: even the developers admit that, from one month to another, a different Left First, schedule package is rated “best”. However, with free your automatic monthly updates to its virus list and the scans. The resources to keep up the depressing work scheduler can also of catching and curing viruses, Norton is a run other, non-virus strong contender. You can download the software monthly updates from the Symantec bul- letin board, from CompuServe or even its web site, free of charge. Once installed, the product is 6Mb, which is fat for a virus checker. As Windows 95 doesn’t carry any built-in virus checking, I would suggest that if you ever use risky floppies, this could be invaluable. Norton’s customary easy interface is well suited to the limited range of activi- ties that a virus checker does. Four big, Right Finally, the scan. fat buttons control the configuration and A neat animation shows the manual virus checking options. The files passing behind an only tiring part is configuring the system’s X-ray screen, putting a automatic operations. Symantec is noth- bit of fun into what’s ing if not exhaustive with its range of essentially a rather dull options, including a very useful option to operation partially check files in certain directories or of certain types. This comes in handy when you forget to empty the Recycle Bin after deleting files on the desktop — the files are stored in a directory called \recy- Left Zipping files using the cled, which doesn’t show up in the file Wizard is a quick way to tree but can quickly become huge. build archives and preserve Another useful feature is the “proac- disk space tive” virus checking that Norton provides. This monitors changes to critical files and sections of your disks, the sort of the standard configuration changes that a virus would make. While of menu tree on the left, file the method of providing fixes for each list on the right. It’s more category of viruses is the safest — hence flexible, because there are the list of viruses that you get with every tabs in the bottom corner anti-virus product — this is a way to which allow you to view the detect most new types of infection. menu tree in a variety of Symantec’s viruses make interesting ways, but I’d question whether this is reading. You can get clued up on each ● Norton Navigator really a bonus, as the default view gives individual virus, including what it does, One of the undeniable facts of life is that all the information you need. It does list how it works and how common it is. It as Windows improves, even if it does so deleted files from each directory, though may be some consolation to become an slowly and imperfectly, there are some — very useful if you want to recover instant virus expert. utilities it positively eats up. This is per- them. As well as allowing you to haps one of them. One quibble with the desktop, which automatically schedule your virus check- Navigator is an extension of the Nor- represents ftp sites on the internet as ing operations, the scheduler is flexible ton Desktop under Windows 95, and folders — a useful idea — is that it did not enough to schedule other software to run although it is an excellent product, I show the desktop folders in their appro- automatically as well. would only recommend it to the very priate position outside the directory tree, keen. That’s not to say it is poor; just that placing them instead in their “logical” PCW Details whereas Norton Desktop was a lot easier position as subdirectories of Windows. to use than the Windows File Manager, Along the top of the File Manager a Norton Anti-Virus this is only a bit easier. set of buttons perform some of the other Price £79 The Navigator is more than its name functions. The file searcher is ten times Contact Symantec 01628 592222 ☎ suggests. It’s a collection of file-related faster than a Windows search, Symantec Good Points Full 32-bit code, flexible. utilities that expand the Windows 95 claims, and a series of searches that I Bad Points Could be confusing for desktop and make it easier to use. made backed this up. There’s a neat fast beginners. The most obvious incarnation is Navi- zip utility which complements the more Conclusion An essential item, and one utility you can’t just fudge with a 16-bit gator’s File Manager, which, as the name extensive standalone version included in version. suggests, is like the Windows Explorer on this package, and one useful director steroids. It’s a neat-looking interface, with function which allows you to synchronise

177 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 UTILITIES UTILITIES

two folders. neat and almost complete, the icons in For power users, the ability to use a Left Sidekick: Earth Time each tabbed folder displayed in turn on variety of customised desktops, which shows the time across the the dashboard toolbar. are represented as icons on the task bar, world, plus which parts are At the top of the toolbar, the program will be extremely useful. It means that in daylight. It’s slick, but groups are listed — using both seemed to you can keep a different set of desktop not earthshatteringly be overdoing it a bit, so I snapped the top applications for different tasks without relevant to the majority of layer off, which cut down on the amount cluttering the single Windows desktop, people of space used and made the rather busy and this will undoubtedly be a huge boon Dashboard interface easier to follow. to 640x480 notebook users. System resource usage is a handy With the ability to enable long utility which might reasonably be filenames — although crucially not for expected on the Windows taskbar, but Above The System some Microsoft 16-bit applications — the Dashboard comes to the rescue with a Agent from the Navigator is a useful bunch of utilities. neat display of CPU utilisation, memory Windows 95 Plus Pack There’s not a killer among them, though. use and the number of current threads — scheduling your running. This is power user stuff, disk maintenance although low-end Windows 95 users PCW Details might find it useful –– with the resources Norton Navigator needed by some Office applications, Price £99 readouts provide an invaluable warning Right The Explorer Contact Symantec 01628 592222 ☎ that they aren’t going to be able to open browser — good, but no NetScape Good Points Desktops can be Right The Tips screen those graphics files after all. extensions customised, fast searches. gives you the nearest All in all, Dashboard is flexible and Bad Points That’s more or less it. thing Sidekick has to an easy to configure. It is hard to read Conclusion Nicely done, but not a online tutorial though, and for most users, using this on dramatic improvement over Win95. top of Windows 95 will create more prob- compressed a 250Mb hard disk, which lems than it solves. It is helpful, but the took a couple of hours and had a slightly Windows 95 desktop itself strikes a good adverse effect on performance, PCW Details balance between ease of use and flexibil- especially with high I/O applications such Windows 95 Plus Pack ● Sidekick ity. Unless you either need the system as video. Price £30-£40 The original contact manager comes use resources or are an upgrading Dash- Oddly, the Plus Pack does not use 32- Contact Microsoft 01734 270001 ☎ blasting back under Windows 95 with a board user, this is in danger of failing the bit disk-diagnosis and file-fixing utilities, Good Points A nice set of tools. good-looking interface and — even if it’s “so what?” test. but it will recompress, check and repair Bad Points No utilities really stand out. not the easiest product in the world to use your disk at prescheduled times using a PCW Details Conclusion Should have been standard — a breadth of features that will satisfy utility called the System Agent, which in Windows 95. most users. still useful, and the preformatted Dashboard 95 offers a positive horde Dashboard 95 Norton Utilities does not provide. This is Price £39 Sidekick was late to the Windows templates turn a contact-card into a form- of features and functions, but is an excellent idea, allowing you to sched- Contact Starfish Software environment, but it has compensated by letter quickly. It’s these short cuts that unlikely to have the same impact ule your disk maintenance for night time. 0181 875 4455 ☎ learning from other earlier entrants. Sidekick does so well, and which mean under Win95 as it had under Win3.1 It will also recompress your hard disk at ● WINProbe 4.0 Specifically it combines the contact man- it’s still an ideal utility for someone with Good Points Powerful. night too, speeding up daytime usage. WINProbe is another system agement power of ACT! with some of the complex time-management problems but Bad Points Can cause more problems Disk utilities are not the only extras — performance and evaluation tool, and if ease of use of Lotus Organiser (Lotus still no love of computers. ● Dashboard 95 than it solves. there’s Microsoft’s Internet Jumpstart kit. you are clued-up enough on the technical Conclusion Stick with the standard sets the standard for ease of use). Side- There’s still room for improvement: The old Windows desktop was ripe for The TCP/IP stack you need to connect to side to understand what it’s telling you, it interface. kick has a much grander design though many users will find the screen too busy, improvement, and Dashboard was one of the internet is part of Windows 95, but does a good job of reporting on your sys- — it isn’t a calendar, a scheduler, a con- with lots of options available at any time. the best utilities for enhancing ease of this adds two features: a web browser tem and telling you how to improve per- tact manager, a jotter, an address book Functions like the World Time map are a use. This version still improves on the ● Windows 95 Plus Pack called Explorer, licensed from Spyglass; formance. or a database. It’s all of these, plus some. minority consideration, when what Side- Windows 95 desktop, but is best suited to If you want to pay that little bit more for and an internet mail reader. Explorer WINProbe has been around for a long The heart of Sidekick 95 has to be the kick really needs is a top-class scheduling power users, as it’s a big, complex utility your Windows 95, Microsoft will sell you installs seamlessly on to the desktop, but time, and is targeted more at the support reminder page. On this one sheet you architecture so that users can which can be quite tricky to learn. the Plus Pack. For many users it’s just it is not as intuitive as the NetScape professional than the home user. So can see all your appointments, calls and synchronise appointments across a net- Dashboard, as the name suggests, is what it says –– a plus, but it certainly isn’t browser, which you can download free although it’s ideal if you are running a things to do — from this point you can work. Multiple address books make it a a central resource from which to launch a panacea for all utility problems. One and which is a better idea, especially as small network, the casual user might find start to access all your other features. good choice for a home office, and it’s still applications, monitor system use and find drawback is that the Plus Pack has no many sites are using NetScape’s HTML that WIN’95 Adviser or Norton Utilities are The other views look similar, so it can be the best organiser for notebook users. documents. With all its parts enabled, it central theme — it’s the bits that didn’t enhancements. easier to understand. disorientating to use at first, but they are takes up quite a portion of an 800x600 make it into the main part of Windows 95. The final part of the Plus Pack is The basic screen in WINProbe is a fast and intuitive, and with a number of screen, although you can snap off utilities First there are some Norton-like Disk called the desktop themes module, which catch-all diagnostic and reporting panel, buttons which allow you to switch PCW Details you don’t require. optimisation tools. One which will be use- allows you to customise your desktop to which on first view is so packed with data between views, Sidekick under Windows When you install the one-disk utility, it ful to users of older PCs is the disk com- a theme. The most bizarre is the 1960s that it is hard to understand. The data is Sidekick is as quick to use as ever. Price £39 automatically makes a first pass at organ- pression utility, a piece of software which America theme, which provides suitably divided into four columns: a hardware During the eighties, many DOS users ising your desktop, grouping the applica- you either love or hate. Disk compression hippyesque sounds and spinning CND report; Windows evaluation; analysis of Contact Starfish Software took advantage of Sidekick for all their tions that it recognises into functional is not immediately attractive with the fall symbols. Dangerous Creatures is in your critical resources like your GDI UK 0181 875 4455 ☎ office functions, for example using the groups. These include suites, like in price of hard disks, but if you have a there too, but most users we consulted heap; and a system monitoring panel. Good Points Lots of useful features. text editor to prepare letters. Although the Bad Points Screen gets a bit cluttered. Microsoft Office, email applications and 200Mb or smaller hard disk and you don’t found the Themes too intrusive, and This last panel is the most important, and text editor is hardly state-of-the-art for Conclusion Excellent value. games. These groups can be edited with- want to do a hardware upgrade, then Dri- tended to take them off the desktop after if you click on a thumbtack in the top right users familiar with Microsoft Office, it is out any problems, but mine were quite veSpace 3 is a must. We successfully a few days. of the screen this stays on top of any

178 179 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 UTILITIES

their greatest extent. At these times, not Left WINProbe is a having to keep swapping memory out to powerful product for disk is a huge asset — especially if your fine-tuning your PC’s system is already using disk performance, but is not compression, which slows down the recommended for the operation of the Windows swap file. casual user It’s impossible to say exactly how much benefit you get from MagnaRAM — its compression depends on the files you Below The statistics will have loaded, and the amount of physical tell you how your sys- RAM that you have. But a useful rule of tem is performing. The thumb, based on the machines we tested, important figure — the is that you will simulate the memory of a compression ratio — machine with twice as much RAM. improves the longer you There are utilities to reconfigure Mag- use the system naRAM, and to evaluate its performance, Windows you use subsequently. but most users will be happy to let it run It’s too big to be convenient , so in background. It’s not a great idea to buy it’s best used as a way to see less memory and MagnaRAM instead of how launching a new application a fully-configured system, but if since affects system resources. upgrading to Windows 95 you have found Along the bottom of the screen your system grinding to a halt under the are buttons that match every one effect of memory-hungry monsters like of the options on the six diagnos- Microsoft Office, this offers a cheap way tic menus. they’re very similar, so to get out of jail. thankfully WinProbe tells you what each one is. This is optional — many users will turn it off. The hardware and software PCW Details diagnostics are uncannily accu- MagnaRAM2 rate, and will pick up on most Price £39.95 hardware faults with few difficul- Contact Quarterdeck UK 01245 491190 ☎ ties. This will be secondary for most of us, ●MagnaRAM2 Good Points Installs easily, and it because we’ll dive straight to the Tune-Up If RAM is your problem when upgrading works. menu to try and optimise our settings. to Windows 95, MagnaRAM is one Bad Points No substitute for real RAM. Tune-Up is a disappointment –– it answer. It claims to simulate up to three Conclusion A cheap way to boost per- doesn’t do the job automatically but times the level of memory that you have formance. instead makes suggestions based on your in your system, and in our evaluation current configuration. It works like a gram- there was certainly a marked increase in mar-checker in a word processor, offering system performance. you suggestions based on what it has A disk compression utility like Stacker Editor’s Choice found. It makes optimising Windows a effectively doubles your hard disk size by tedious process however, and a little more compressing data so that more of it fits on Whether you want to upgrade to new active help in changing settings would the same piece of real estate; and mem- versions of popular utilities depends on how have been handy. ory compression operates in a similar demanding you are — and on what you feel comfortable with. Utilities fans are notoriously This is a value-conscious bundle: WIN- manner — but it is more complex. protective of their environment, and are much Probe works under Windows 3 as well as Windows is constantly swapping data on more productive when using these add-ons Windows 95, and Quarterdeck has thrown and off the hard disk, where it has what is than when forced to cope with a vanilla sys- in a CD-based CD-ROM drive known as a “swap file”. This enables you tem. It’s a question of familiarity as much as troubleshooter, a 16-bit version of its unin- to open several applications, but slows good design, and with the comparatively low staller (called Cleansweep) and a copy of the system down –– a hard disk is several prices of these utilities, there’s a lot to be said web browser Mosaic for good measure. times slower than memory. MagnaRAM for upgrading. For the rest of us, it’s worth gets round this by making a “RAM buffer” taking time to look at the breadth of features into which the data is swapped, and com- that Windows 95 already provides, and at the PCW Details pressing this data in the buffer. So Win- utilities like NetScape that you can get for free — you might find they offer more than WINProbe 4.0 dows accesses the hard disk less often. you think. Price £49.95 When you install MagnaRAM on your The standout package here was definitely Contact Quarterdeck UK 01245 491190 ☎ Windows system — again, this Quarter- Norton Utilities, a rewritten set of applications Good Points A powerful product if you deck product installs under either that are both powerful and usable. Symantec regularly support PCs. Windows 3 or 95 — you don’t find an took the brave step of ditching the utilities Bad Points Not really for the casual immediate difference in performance. which were duplicated in Windows, and con- user. This doesn’t mean that MagnaRAM isn’t centrated instead on adding value. The result Conclusion Good value. working, it is just that it is only effective is an excellent package which gets Editor’s when system resources are being used to Choice.

180 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 DELPHI TUTORIAL PART 3

Last month’s tutorial created the engine of a great Windows utility, but with little in the way of a user interface. Delphi makes Dialog it easy to add standard Windows features like with menus and dialogs with check-boxes and spin buttons. This month we use these tools to spice up the PCW space monitor, adding a fine degree of user control. SPICING IT UP A BIT Delphi By Tim Anderson.

Delphi and menus Delphi supports two kinds of menus, the traditional menu bar and a handy pop-up type that appears when you right-click the mouse. Both are easy to program. Start a new Delphi project and place a MainMenu component on the form. This component supports no events and just four properties. Think of it as a container for the menu itself. If you double-click the menu property in the object inspector, the menu designer opens. The menu designer is excellent — intuitive and flexible. As you build the menu, simply click where the next item should appear and Delphi creates it. Then you can set the caption and other properties. An ampersand before a letter in the caption sets a keyboard shortcut and causes that letter to be underlined in the menu. Attaching code to menu items is just as easy. Each item supports an onclick event. Double-click this event on the property (see panel) or by calling the Add Delphi’s menu designer opens the object inspector, and the event procedure method. For example, this adds a menu correct event procedure when you opens up for you to type in code. item to the bottom of the File menu: double-click a menu item You can add or delete menu items at var runtime, either by setting the Visible mnuNew: TMenuItem;

186 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 DELPHI TUTORIAL PART 3

begin mnuNew := TMenuItem.Create(Self); mnuNew.Caption := ‘My new menu’; mnuNew.Name := ‘NewItem’; File1.Add(mnuNew); end; If you need to create a nested menu item, call the Add method for an item already in a dropdown list. Or to create a new top-level menu, call the Add method for the Items property of a TMainMenu object: mainmenu1.Items.Add(mnuNew) Finally, to associate a procedure with the new menu, set its OnClick property to the procedure’s name.

Improving the space monitor Not all applications need menu bars. The PCW space monitor needs to be small, as it is designed to run alongside other programs. It’s an ideal candidate for a pop-up menu. This will give control over some settings, for example to toggle the bsDialog. The Help button is not needed, When you choose New Form, this “always on top” characteristic. It gives an so select it and press Delete. Then build template gallery appears. For the space opportunity to explore how dialogs work up the dialog. monitor project, choose one of the in Delphi. The example shown uses two labels, standard dialog-box templates Open the space monitor project and a SpinEdit control (from the samples tab) place a pop-up menu on the form. Dou- and a check box. Incidentally, the ble-click the Items property and add two SpinEdit control is a great example of entries, with captions “Settings..” and code re-use in Delphi. It combines two The other is the interval at which the “About”. Now click the form, and set its buttons and an edit control, together with space monitor refreshes its information. PopUpMenu property to “popupmenu1”. some common-sense properties like Min- By setting the MinValue, MaxValue and Run the application. If you right-click any- Value and MaxValue. Written in Delphi, Increment properties of the SpinEdit where on the form, the menu appears. the component is now available to all control, the adjustment is kept between Neat. through the component library. 0.25 seconds to 10 seconds, in quarter- To show that the menu works, you can There are two elements the user can second increments. First, set the Name implement the About item straight away. adjust. One is the “always on top” setting. property of the dialog form to Settings- Open the menu designer again, and dou- ble-click the OnClick event for About. In Menu designer tips the procedure editor, type: MessageDlg(‘Your helpful message goes • You can set the visible property of a menu item to false, so that it will not appear when the here’, mtInformation,[mbOk], 0); application runs. Your code can control when to show the item. The Settings item is a little more • Click the right mouse button in the menu designer to pop up a number of useful options, involved. First it’s back to the form such as inserting menus from menu templates or resource files. designer to create a dialog. • Create nested menus by clicking on a menu item and pressing CTRL->. • A nice touch is to create hints that appear in a status bar as the user traverses the menu. Creating a dialog box There are four steps involved: In Delphi, there is no hard distinction 1. Enter a help message in the hint property for a menu item. between dialogs and other forms. But 2. Place a panel on the form, with the Align property set to alBottom. there are customisable templates that 3. Write a procedure called ShowHint, like this: shorten the work of form design. In this Procedure TForm1.ShowHint(Sender: TObject); case, choose File - New Form, and select begin one of the standard dialogs for your tem- panel1.Caption := Application.hint; plate. Delphi adds a new unit and associ- end; ated form to the project, with pre-set It should be declared in the Public section of the TForm1 class definition. buttons and properties appropriate for 4. Double-click the form to open the FormCreate procedure, and add the line: dialogs. For example, the position prop- Application.OnHint := ShowHint; erty is poScreenCentre, ensuring that the Now run the application. When you run the mouse down the menu, the hint appears in dialog is drawn in the centre of the the panel. screen; and the border property is set to

187 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 DELPHI TUTORIAL PART 3

windows is that they easily get in the way. In this case, the ShowModal method opens the new dialog. But if the main form is always on top, the dialog will open underneath it. The workaround is to remove the on-top setting before opening the dialog, and put it back afterwards. You may have noticed the same problem with the About box, and you can use the same technique to fix it. It’s important that dialogs can be closed with Cancel, to ignore any changes. Delphi makes this easy to implement. The ShowModal method returns a value called ModalResult, which can be one of several constants. This is one of the properties of a Delphi command button. In this case, the buttons on the dialog form have Modal- Result properties set to mrOK and mrCancel respectively. You don’t need to write code to close the dialog: these but- tons work automatically once the Modal- At design time, this is how the settings unit’s public variables. Open the dialog Result has been set. dialog appears form and double-click the OK button. That’s it! With the space monitor Enter the following: developed into a handy utility, next month OnTop := Checkbox1.Checked; it’s time to look at database development. Interval := StrToInt(SpinEdit1.Text); Naturally, if the user clicks Cancel, the Delphi quirks and quibbles values do not change. One thing that may puzzle you is why we Dlg. Then save the project and call the Tip: If you run this code, you will find used the API call SetWindowPos as new dialog unit SPACDLG.PAS. the compiler stops on the second line with opposed to the much simpler FormStyle the Error3: Unknown identifier. Strange, property, which can have a value of Connecting the dialog you think, since StrToInt is in the helpfile. fsStayOnTop. In fact that was tried; but The dialog is no use until it is connected But the entry for StrToInt says Unit: changing the FormStyle property causes to the main part of the application. Here’s SysUtils — and SysUtils is not included the whole form to be refreshed, creating a possible approach: by default in the dialog unit. The solution an ugly flashing effect. The obvious solu- 1. Add SPACDLG.PAS to the Uses is manually to add SysUtils to the Uses tion to a problem is not always the best. clause of SPACMON.PAS (the unit for clause. Another issue is about form creation. the main form). 6. Finally, open the menu designer and When you add a form to a Delphi project, 2. Open SPACDLG.PAS and find the var double-click the Settings item. Enter the a line gets inserted into the project clause in the interface section at the top. code in Fig 1 (below). source. For example: Add two declarations so it looks like this: Why all the calls to SetWindowPos? Application.CreateForm(TSettingsDlg, var One of the snags with always-on-top SettingsDlg); SettingsDlg: TSettingsDlg; Interval: Word; Fig 1 Code for connecting the dialog OnTop: bool; These variables will contain the user’s selections. {remove on top setting to allow dialog to appear} 3. The OnTop and Interval variables must SetWindowPos(form1.handle,HWND_NOTOPMOST,0,0,0,0,SWP_NOSIZE or SWP_NOMOVE); be initialised when the application first runs. The following goes in the Form- {reset interval if dialog exit was OK} Create procedure for Form1: if Settingsdlg.showmodal = mrOK then spacdlg.OnTop := True; timer1.interval := spacdlg.interval; spacdlg.Interval := Timer1.Interval; 4. When the dialog opens, the controls {must restore on top status anyway} should contain the current values. To do if spacdlg.OnTop = True then this, place the following in the dialog’s SetWindowPos(form1.handle,HWND_TOPMOST,0,0,0,0,SWP_NOSIZE or SWP_NOMOVE) Activate event: else CheckBox1.Checked := OnTop; SetWindowPos(form1.handle,HWND_NOTOPMOST,0,0,0,0,SWP_NOSIZE or SpinEdit1.Text := inttostr(interval); SWP_NOMOVE); 5. As the user closes the dialog, the val- ues are read from the dialog into the

188 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 DELPHI TUTORIAL PART 3

Recommended reading: Delphi Starter Kit

Authors: Jeff Duntemann, Jim Mischel and Don Taylor ter is called “Way RAD!”. Part 3 is called Ace Breakpoint’s Data- Publisher: Coriolis Group Books base Adventure including lots of human interest. Then again, Pages: 656 with CD writing about programming in a lively manner is not easy, and Price: £38.99 inc VAT credit to Coriolis for trying a new approach. Contact: IDG 0181 579 2652 The real content is rather well balanced. There’s an introduc- tion to the Delphi interface, an explanation of Pascal When is a book not a book? The Delphi Starter Kit is a typical programming basics, and strenuous efforts to expound the ele- book/CD package but unusually comes in a box, enabling the ments of Delphi’s object model in a way that anyone can under- publishers to call it a kit instead. The book itself is called Dephi stand. The database material is skimpy, except that the Programming Explorer, and that is what you really pay for. The “database adventure” does explain how to put together a data- CD is mostly a showcase for Delphi add-ons and magazines, base application. The other main example is an object-orientated with invitations to register or subscribe. Articles are in the dread- mortgage application. While not as thorough as some ed Acrobat format. There is also sample code from the book. others, the Delphi Starter Kit doesn’t duck any issues and If you are sensitive to English style, you may not like this provides a good grounding, so long as you can cope with the writ- book. The authors promise “a wild good time” and the first chap- ing style.

Left The completed space monitor, showing the new dialog in use Below Open up the project source, and notice that Delphi creates all form objects immediately the application runs. It makes for good performance but heavy use of memory in large projects (see “Delphi quirks and quibbles”)

What this means is that the form object is created when the application first runs, even though the user may never choose to open it. This is good for performance, but bad for resource and memory usage. A good option is to remove this line from the project source, and instead create and destroy the form when you need it. Finally, a note about the Uses clause. In the example, the dialog sets public variables in its own unit, for reading by the main unit (in which Form1 is declared). But why not have it set public variables in the main unit itself? If you try this, you will find that the dialog unit can- not see any variables declared in the main unit. Further, if you add the main unit to the dialog’s Uses clause, the compiler chokes with Error 68: Circular unit reference. Generally this means you should rethink the structure of the application, and avoid these circular references. In extremis, you can place a Uses clause in the implementation section, where Delphi will compile a circular unit reference. PCW Details All the code for the Space Monitor project, together with an executable anyone can run, is included on the PCW cover disk/CD. Contact Tim Anderson with any com- ments or tips, at the usual address or email [email protected]

191 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES Pentium P120s

To bring out the best — or worst — of these P120 PCs, we adapted our tests to the whims of Windows 95. Adele Dyer takes you through a mixed bag of high-spec machines.

f nothing rises as fast as Pentium and gives a very good indication of how the clock speeds, then nothing drops as machine will perform for entertainment pur- rapidly as their prices. Back in May poses. 95 we reviewed the first P120s on the There are 16 machines here for you to market: a Gateway and a Viglen. They sample. We have done our best to sift the were high spec machines, but compa- wheat from the chaff and now the final rable to those in this test. The litmus test choice is yours. of price means it’s been worthwhile wait- ing until now to buy a P120. In May 95 the Viglen Genie PCI P5/120 with a 17in monitor cost £2,999. Now the same imachine will cost you only £2,549 — a drop of £450. For this test we decided on a fairly high spec, but if you choose a decent processor you will naturally want good, fast components to make the most of it. To that P120 Contents end we specified a 1Gb hard drive and 16Mb of RAM. The hardware spread on pages 198 Adams 586 Multimedia System 224/225 goes into more detail as to why you 198 Armari eXPS-120plus need both of these, but suffice it to say that if 199 Atlantic Pro95 you are going to be multitasking in Windows 199 Brother BCR 4586P 95 and intend to run anything more than MS 200 Carrera Panther P120AM 200 Dan Dantium 95/s 120MM Works, you need both of these. 203 Dell Dimension P120MT To complete the equation we went for 203 Gateway P5-120 Elite wavetable sound cards, a minimum of 2Mb 204 Hi-Grade Winputer P120-M of VRAM on the video card and a quad 204 HP Vectra XM Series 3 5/120 speed CD-ROM drive. None of these com- 208 Olympian Evolution 2000 ponents are out of the ordinary, and if you’re 208 Panrix Micron P120 serious about multimedia they’re all 210 Simply Computers P120 absolutely necessary if you want to get the 210 Vale Triton Platinum most out of your PC. 212 Viglen Ultimate M’Media 120PC Finally it was time to convert to Windows 212 Western Systems Power Pro 120 95 tests. Like it or loathe it, Windows 95 is 215 Editor’s Choice the way of the future. For more details on 215 Buyer’s Guide how we adapted our existing tests, see the 217 Performance Results panel “How we did the tests” on page 217. 217 How We Did The Tests 220/222/223 Table of Features One additional test we ran was a Doom 2 224 Motherboards demo. The advantage of this test is that it 224 Memory forces the PC to display every frame in a 225 CD-ROM Drives/Graphics Cards short, pre-set game demo. This really 225 Sound Cards pushes the processor and the graphics card

196 197 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

Adams 586 Multimedia Armari eXPS-120plus Atlantic Pro 95 Brother BCR 4586P

PC Of all the machines in the test, this stood out in terms of sheer size if PC PC PC not any other criteria. Standing over two foot tall, it dwarfed even the Brother is well known for its business machines, and this machine One of the nicer looking machines in the group test, this was at first Gateway and was too big to fit on the labs workbench. The room was aimed more at commercial users than for high-end home use. A good deal of thought has gone into the design and overall pack- one of the easy ones to set up and get going. inside is naturally in proportion to the size. It has four 5.25” front-fac- This was obvious from the moment we took off the top. age of this machine. The layout inside allows you to see clearly Armari had partitioned the hard disk, which optimises ing expansion bays and one 3.5” bay, as well as one internal bay for The sight that greeted us under the lid was not a pretty one. The where everything is and, more importantly, to get your hands on it. performance when Windows 95 is installed as an upgrade on top of an extra hard disk. first anomaly was the position of the parallel and serial ports. One of The Quantum Fireball hard disk lurks at the back with room for a DOS and Windows 3.1, rather than as a straight installation on a The components were partly very typical: a Diamond Stealth 64 the parallel ports and one serial port come off an I/O card in one of second underneath it. The one we were given to review was 1.1Gb clean hard disk. It overcomes Windows 95’s allocation of 32Kb to video card, a Creative Labs AWE 32 sound card, Western Digital the ISA slots. There is then a second parallel port at the far end of and ran at 10ns, although you can choose to have a 1.2 Conner the smallest cluster on the hard disk. Armari offers you the chance to hard disk and Triton chip set were found in many of the machines. the expansion slots, but no second serial port. The mouse takes one drive, which is slightly slower, for the same price. At the front there choose whether or not you want disk partitioning when you buy the However Atlantic offered two unusual components, a Vertos CD serial port, leaving you little room for an extra external peripheral is only room for one more 5.25in device and this is well below the machine. However think carefully about this, as once a hard disk drive and a SOYO motherboard, neither of which we had seen such as a modem. floppy drive and the CD-ROM drive. has been partitioned it is extremely tricky to unpartition again. before. The Connor hard drive sits under the floppy drive and under this The CD-ROM drive is well worth noting. The machine we had Once inside the machine, the high spec soon becomes apparent. On the downside it was a very noisy machine. Even if you is a rather inaccessible spare 3.5” bay. Next to this is the Goldstar was a six-speed TEAC. Adams will fit six-speeds as standard on The Quantum Fireball EIDE hard disk produced good results - switched off the monitor and covered up the HDD light you could CD-ROM drive on top of a spare 5.25” bay. Unfortunately the CD future machines, but these will be by Aztech or Optics Storage. maybe helped by the partition. The EDO-DRAM, pipeline burst easily monitor the hard disk activity by listening to the rattle and and floppy drives are so close together you have to take out the flop- The Micronics motherboard, with Intel Triton chipset, houses the cache and Pioneer CD-ROM all point to a well spec-ed machine. hum. py and hard disk bays and then take out the CD-ROM drive to put processor complete with Socket 5. The 16Mb of EDO-RAM came The other parts are fairly standard fare, including a Creative Labs The other negative point about this machine was the inclusion of extra equipment in the free 5.25” bay. The hard disk and CD-ROM with two 8Mb SIMMs running at 70ns and were easy to reach. AWE 32 and Matrox Millennium video card. There are four PCI and a trackball instead of a mouse. Admittedly, some may find it a more were strung together on the same IDE chain, which adversely There are four PCI and four ISA slots; one shared. One ISA slot four ISA slots, none of them shared, two free 5.25” front facing convenient way of working, but personally I found it cumbersome affects performance. The four 4Mb SIMMs were in a tight spot with is taken by the Creative Labs SoundBlaster AWE 32 and one PCI expansion bays and one internal 3.5” bay. and inaccurate. one end just under the power pack and the other jammed against slot by the Matrox Millennium video card. In tests they gave good results in the Windows sections, The performance offered was fair. It was one of the fastest finishers the Taxan video card. All in all there is nothing to fault on this machine, except perhaps although the machine stopped once on the WordPerfect for DOS in the Doom2 tests, but lagged a little on Windows. However the It’s not exactly Plug and Play, but this machine is not without its for the price. It has very good performance and is well-equipped — tests. However, this did not affect its overall performance. The results are quite good overall and if you want a machine with a lot of compensations. There is an IRDA connection on the front of the an excellent choice if you have that much money to spend. Doom2 tests gave a score of 50 fps. expansion room, you could do a lot worse. case. Monitor Monitor Monitor Monitor: The Iiyama Vision Master 17 supplied with this system comes as The 15” Iiyama monitor was quite happy to run at 1024 x 768 x 256 This Samsung monitor ran quite happily at 1024x786 x256, but it Brother BM 84L EPA/energy star monitor was happy enough to run standard with any machine with a wavetable soundcard. It non-interlaced. It was crisp and clear with no distortion. was flickery and in DOS it became clear that the red gun was misfir- non-interlaced at 1024x768, but the picture was a little distorted produced an excellent picture and was comfortable running at ing, giving the characters a spooky red rim. graphically on a trapezoid shape. 1280x1024.

PCW Details PCW Details PCW Details PCW Details

Adams Accura Professional Two more years on-site for £150 Armari eXPS-120plus - 30 Watts Atlantic Systems years return to base labour. Brother BCR 4586P Good Points IRDA connec- 586 Multimedia System Technical Support Free tele- Contact 0181 810 7441 Warranty Terms 1st year, Atlantic Pro95 Optional 2nd and 3rd year on- Price £1,999 tion on front of case Price £2,749 phone and fax support Fax 0181 810 5783 back to base. Options - £39 for Price £2,278 site. Contact 01279 416888 Bad Points Hard disk and Contact 0161 877 8822 one year on-site Contact 01792 700002 Technical Support Free Fax 01279 418130 CD-ROM drive on same IDE Good Points Six-speed CD- Web http:/www.stec.net/~arminfo Fax 0161 877 8684 Technical Support Free Fax 01792 792888 telephone and fax support chain ROM drive, nice monitor BBS: 0181 810 8633. For support, Software Bundle Windows 95 Web BBS - 0161 283 9921 telephone and fax support Conclusion Cheap, but has Bad Points Only one 5.25in BIOS and video card driver Software Bundle Windows 95, Good Points Good software Hardware Bundle SP-868 the lowest spec in the group test Software Bundle OS/2 v3.0 expansion bay upgrades. Free Good Points Good hard disk, Lotus Smartsuite, Grolier Multi- bundle, lots of room for expan- multimedia speakers with Lotus Smartsuite, or Conclusion A solid, well-con- Software Bundle Windows 95 pleasant machine to use media Encyclopedia, Supervoice sion Warranty Terms 1 year on-site Windows 95 with Novell Perfect structed machine as standard. Office 95 Pro - £209. Bad Points Disk partitioning comms/fax/phone software, Bad Points Excessive size, Technical Support Free tele- Office MS bundle including potentially a problem games and training bundle. noisy hard disk phone and fax support Hardware Bundle Dangerous Creatures, Encarta, Conclusion A good machine Hardware Bundle Trust multi- Conclusion A bit “different”, SoundBlaster microphone, Works, Works - £59 for a very good price media speakers - 15 Watts but a decent performer Yamaha M-10 speakers Hardware Bundle Warranty Terms 1st year on- Warranty Terms three years J888Av or Jazz Hipsters - options site parts and labour, further 4 parts and labour, first year on-site

198 199 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

Carrera Panther P120AM Dan Dantium 95/s 120MM

PC PC The door on the front of the case is the one distinctive mark of a This is a no fuss machine. The case is plain but not austere and Carrera. However, once inside the machine, it turned out to be quite takes a bit of a tug to get it off, but inside everything is clearly visible different to the P90 we looked at in September. and within easy reach. Once the case is off, this machine proved to be well constructed. The Quantum EIDE hard drive sits right at the top of the case and Almost everything was well placed, easy to reach and so to under this are two free 5.25”, front facing, accessible bays. Under upgrade. this is the Toshiba quad-speed CD-ROM drive, followed in descend- There were three free expansion bays: one 5.25” front-facing, ing order by the floppy drive and finally a free 3.5” bay. one 3.5” front-facing and an extra internal bay. Unfortunately the The motherboard was twinned with Intel Triton chipset and the amount of space this left in a small case did not allow the RAM to be processor fitted with Socket 7 and 256k of pipeline-burst cache. The put in a convenient place. If you wanted to get out of the RAM and two 8Mb EDO-RAM SIMMs were easy to reach. There were two upgrade it, you would have to poke under the floppy and hard disks more SIMMs sockets for further expansion. to get your fingers to the clip. To round off the spec, Dan had fitted a Creative Labs There were four PCI and four ISA slots, none of them shared. SoundBlaster AWE 32 sound card and a Diamond Stealth 64 Video VRM was included on the Super motherboard, as was Socket 7 and, VRAM video card. This left room for expansion in two free ISA slots of course, Triton. Other than the problem with the RAM, all the com- (one shared with a PCI slot) and two free PCI slots, one of which ponents were easy to reach and the motherboard was clean and was extended. clear. As was common in those machines with both a Diamond Stealth The benchmark tests confirmed that this was a very respectable 64 Video VRAM card and a Quantum hard drive, the Dan did well at machine. The Doom2 test gave a result of 50fps and the machine the Doom2 tests, finishing fifth. was one of the fastest finishers in the DOS tests. Like many of the Altogether the machine was well constructed and would be a speedier machines in this test, the Carrera was fitted with the very doddle to upgrade. It comes with an extensive software bundle and fast Quantum Fireball, which will have made a considerable contri- good speakers, which make the whole package very reasonable. bution to producing these results. Considered with the good software bundle, this is a good machine for the price. Monitor The Dan has a CTX monitor which ran quite happily at the test reso- Monitor lution of 1024x768 non-interlaced. It has all the standard controls, This Goldstar monitor has the standard controls, but no pin- including pincushion and barrel. cushion or barrel - a shame as the monitor has a tendency to warp. Otherwise though it run well at 1024 with no flicker or interlacing. PCW Details PCW Details

Carrera Panther P120AM Good Points Lots of room for Dan Dantium 95/s 120MM Technical Support Price £1,999 expansion in a small case Price £2,071 Free telephone and fax support Bad Points RAM hard to Contact 0171 830 0586 Contact 0181 830 1100 Good Points Well construct- reach Fax 0171 830 0286 Fax 0181 830 1122 ed, good software bundle Conclusion A nice little Software Bundle Windows 95, Software Bundle Windows 95, Bad Points Keyboard was runner MS Works, PC Check diagnostics Lotus Bundle, Works 95, Encarta slightly spongey software 95 Conclusion A very good Hardware Bundle Typhoon Hardware Bundle AT 75 - 80 machine for the price sound system speakers watt Warranty Terms 1 year parts Warranty Terms Lifetime (1st and 3 years labour back to base. year full back to base, parts and On-site available labour). Extended warranty 8% of Technical Support Free tele- PC value per year phone support - no fax support

200 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

Dell Dimension P120MT Gateway P5-120 Elite

PC PC Dell has a reputation for solid machines, backed up by excellent At first glance you could be forgiven for mistaking this machine for a support. This machine was no exception. It was the highest scorer in server, not a humble tower PC. It is vast. At about three times the the Doom2 tests and came with the most comprehensive trouble- size of the average mini-tower in this test the Gateway, not surpris- shooting manual. ingly, had three times the expansion room. As an OEM manufacturer Dell produces its Aown motherboards As could be expected in such a large case, the three front-facing and some components, including a huge 512kb cache card. It was expansion bays and two free bays at the rear have plenty of space notably the only manufacturer to include so many kb of cache. While around them, so you won’t have to reach for the crowbar if you want the argument rages about the diminishing returns of larger cache to fit new kit . sizes (the larger the cache, the longer the search time), Dell argues Similarly. elsewhere in the machine everything is well laid out it has tried to increase the overall speed of the machine by putting in and easily accessible. I was surprised there were not more expan- the fastest possible individual components. More cache does not sion slots -— a measly three ISA and four PCI slots, one of which is make that much difference to operating systems like Windows 3.1, shared. In these sit one of the more unusual sound cards: the but it does help when multitasking, so enhancing Windows 95 and Ensoniq Opus Wavetable. Ensoniq have a good reputation for their OS/2 performance. sound cards and this one is no exception. The other components, including the Intel Triton chipset and the Unfortunately we had problems with the graphics card and the Creative Labs AWE 32, were quite standard. Room for upgrading monitor. At base the proper drivers had not been installed, so was limited to two 5.25in free front-facing expansion bays and one although the graphics card was driving the monitor, it was impossi- internal 3.5in expansion bay. There were four PCI and four ISA ble to change the settings. So although you could set the monitor in slots, one shared, with three of each still free. Windows 95 to run 1024x768 in SVGA, nothing happened at the Interestingly, the results for Doom2 rated the Dell higher than the monitor end. benchmark tests. This may have been due to the fast Quantum Fire- The hard disk is worth a mention as it was by far the largest in the ball hard disk and the Number Nine Technology graphics card. test. We asked for a 1Gb disk and were sent a 1.6 Gb Western Digi- This machine was also nicely kitted out with extras. Office Pro tal, which obviously performed well in the tests. Likewise the graph- comes pre-loaded and on CD-ROM, while the Altec Lansing speak- ics card still performed well in the Doom2 tests, despite the monitor ers are powerful and give good reproduction. problems.

Monitor Monitor The Dell had its own proprietary monitor — a rebadged Lit-On. It ran A very good, flat 17in screen with programmable features to allow 1024x768 comfortably, without interlacing, and was pleasant to use. several modes of operation. This makes it easy to adjust by swap- It had all the standard controls including pincushion and barrel. ping between modes. PCW Details PCW Details

Dell Dimension P120MT Technical Support Gateway P5-120 Elite Technical Support Free Price £1,999 Free telephone and fax support Price £2,299 telephone and fax support Contact 01344 720000 Contact 0800 602000 Fax 01344 723695 Good Points Good initial Fax 00 353 1 848 2022 Good Points Excellent support, software bundle monitor, large hard disk, very Software Bundle Windows 95, Bad Points Limited expansion Software Bundle Windows 95, fast performer Office 95 Pro bays Office 95, Encarta 95 Bad Points Monitor not set up Hardware Bundle Altec Conclusion A very well- Hardware Bundle Altech properly at base Lansing ASC31 speakers specced machine Lansing speakers Conclusion A very good Warranty Terms One year Warranty Terms One year on- machine, competitively priced collect-and-return site, two years BTB. Extended Options Up to four years on-site warranty — second and third year or four years collect-and-return on-site

203 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

Hi-Grade Winputer P120-M HP Vectra XM Series 3 5/120

PC Someone at Hi-Grade did not want me to get into this machine. The screws had obviously been put in with a power screwdriver and PC were in so tight the paint flaked off when I went to take the back off Better known for their printers than for their desktops, Hewlett this mini-tower. Packard also manufacture their own PCs. That is, they make their Once inside, the Hi-Grade is quite logically made up. There is own motherboards rather than simply assemble other people’s bits. plenty of space amongst the drive bays to fit extra devices in the sin- Inside the layout of the HP is something of a surprise. The case gle 5.25in and two 3.5in free front-facing expansion bays. Unlike Hi- is split down the middle with all the drives on one side and the hard- Grades on other machines, the Seagate hard drive stays firmly in wired components on the other. The hard disk nestles at the back place on this model, as unfortunately no-one makes mode 4 remov- with a fair amount of space around it, but no free expansion bays. In able hard drives. front there is just the one 3.5” free front facing expansion bay. On the motherboard everything is easy to reach and so to On the other side lies the HP motherboard. To get to it you have upgrade. The Triton chip set is helped on its way by Socket 7 and to lift up the power pack which sits over the top like a protective arm. VRM. The RAM is standard RAM running at 60ns. Hi-Grade are You can move this out the way by slipping it out of its slot and mov- happy to supply you with EDO if you want it, but quite rightly reckon ing it over to one side. The motherboard has built-in ports, video and that with caching EDO RAM, which runs at 70ns, has only minimal non-standard keyboard and mouse ports. advantage over standard cache. Pipeline synchronous can be The three of the six SIMMs slots were taken by two 4Mb and one included for an extra £55. 8Mb SIMMs of EDO-DRAM. The processor is held in place with a Otherwise there are only three ISA, and four PCI, slots — one of Socket 7 ZIF socket and there is VRM. them shared. Nestling in here is the added bonus of a US Robotics At a 90 degree angle to the motherboard are three ISA and two 14.4 modem: a useful inclusion. PCI slots (one shared). Getting the screws out to put in a network Interestingly this machine did much better on the Doom2 tests was a bit of a fight. The screws used are not standard issue PC than on the Windows and DOS tests, demonstrating the benefit of a screws, but have an extra washer on them. Two of the four came good graphics card. out quite easily, but it took me 20 minutes to prize out just one of the Unfortunately only the basic operating system is included in the others. price. Monitor Monitor This 15” HP monitor ran flicker free at 1024x768 for the tests, but is Hi-Grade were one of the few to supply a 17in monitor. Unfortunate- capable of 1280x1024. It has a good flat screen and is easy on the ly the Panasonic monitor was flickery, had very few controls and eyes. winced visibly when switched on and off during the DOS tests.

PCW Details PCW Details Hewlett-Packard Hi-Grade Winputer P120-M Good Points Internal modem, Technical Support Free Vectra XM Series 3 5/120 Price £2,370 plenty of room for expansion telephone support. Fax support Price £2,740 Contact 0181 591 9040 Bad Points Disappointing in USA only Contact 01344 369222 Fax 0181 591 1586 monitor, only standard RAM Fax 0171 735 5565 Good Points Lots of SIMM and cache Software Bundle Windows 95 slots Conclusion A sound Software Bundle DOS 6.22, or DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 Bad Points Expansion slots machine, if not a speed devil Dashboard 2.01, Windows 95 or Hardware Bundle SV37 hard to get at and only one 3.5” Windows 3.11 (user chooses at SoundBlaster standard expansion bay boot) Warranty Terms One year Conclusion A business Hardware Bundle return to base. One year on-site machine, not a personal, multi- HP speakers — £25, subsequent years — 7% media machine, but quite pricey Warranty Terms 3 years of purchase price (1year on-site, 2nd and 3rd year Technical Support Free tele- BTB). 2nd and third year on-site phone support, no fax support with HP support pack

204 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

Olympian Evolution 2000 Panrix Micron P120

PC This company was new to PCW. They have been around for four PC years, but this is the first time we have reviewed one of their One should never judge a computer by its case and this is true of the machines. Despite the name they give to their PCs they are not to Panrix Micron P120. It is the same midi-tower case with which we be confused with Evolution. The Evolution badge instead refers to have been familiar over past models but this baby packs a greater Olympian’s lifetime labour guarantee, which includes free fitting of punch. The Micron P120 has the usual external accoutrements such any upgrades. as the two serial and one parallel port, PS/2 plugs for the Microsoft Sitting on the TMC motherboard are the Triton chip set, Socket 7 mouse and keyboard, and a Sony CDU 76E quad-speed CD-ROM. ZIF socket and VRM. Two of the four available SIMMs slots are Once you open the case you’ll find a spacious and clear interior. taken by 8Mb of EDO-RAM, and these are hidden under the ribbon No obstruction exists in getting to the three PCI and four ISA slots cables, but are otherwise quite easy to reach. (one of which is shared). There are two free 5.25in expansion bays There are two free expansion bays. The first, a 5.25” bay is and one internal 3.5in bay. wedged between the Mitsumi CD drive and the floppy and the 3.5” The Micronics motherboard holds an Intel P120, Triton chip set, bay is between the floppy drive and the hard disk. There are no and 256K Pipeline cache. The 1GB Quantum Fireball hard drive, internal expansion bays. with 10ms access, and the CD-ROM are supported by the primary We tested the machine with a Seagate hard disk, but Olympian and secondary EIDE on-board controller which helps add to the are replacing this with a Quantum Fireball - a disk that tested very speed of this machine. well and produces much faster results. Occupying three of the available seven slots are a Matrox Milleni- Although not one of the fastest machines in the test, it did turn um video card with 2Mb of RAM in the first PCI slot, and a Creative out to have several plus points. It was extremely easy to set up for Labs Vibra 16 sound card in the top ISA slot. The bonus card in the the tests and introduced no hitches along the way, suggesting the pack is the US Robotics Sportster 14,400 fax/modem card which sits machine had been well configured at base. It ran the Doom2 tests in the bottom ISA slot. If you’re looking for a speedy, although not well, although the benchmark test results were less earth-shattering. cheap, machine with a clean look this could be the one for you. This was a pleasant machine to use all round, and it hums along at a respectable pace. Monitor An Iiyama Vision Master 15, with a nice flat screen and the expected Monitor pincushioning/barrelling and degaussing controls. For another £280, The ADI monitor has an LCD to select the controls, including you can upgrade to a 17in monitor. pincushion, trapezoid and barrel. It is reasonably flat, ran 1024x768 without a hitch and is energy efficient.

PCW Details PCW Details

Olympian Evolution 2000 Good Points Pleasant to use, Panrix Micron P120 site. Option of three years on- Price £1,999 good guarantee offered Price £2,350 site at eight percent of system Contact 0181 880 4222 Bad Points Limited software Contacts 01132 444958 cost Fax 0181 880 4222 bundle Fax 01132 444962 Technical Support Free Conclusion A solid machine email phone and fax support Software Bundle Windows 95 [email protected] or DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 Good Points Fast and well Hardware Bundle None Software Bundle Windows 95, assembled Warranty Terms Lifetime Office 95, Bookshelf, and Delrina 4 Bad Points Tinpot keyboard labour and 1 year on-site parts in 1 Conclusion A very good and labour Hardware Bundle Mouse, key- machine all round Technical Support Free tele- board, Trust Multimedia Sound- phone and fax support wave 10 speakers, 15in Iiyama monitor Warranty Terms Two years on-

208 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

Simply Computers P120 Vale Triton Platinum

PC PC This machine gave us the most trouble of any machine in the test. It No need to tell you the chip set, as Vale draws your attention to it in refused to see three different network adaptors under Windows and the name of the machine. gave a hard disk controller error when we finally attempted to use a We initially had problems with this machine. It started well 3Com card. Simply Computers admitted they had had problems with enough, but the longer we had it running, the less it would do, includ- this card in the past and advised us to try something else. Eventually ing boot from a DOS diskette. An engineer came in from Evesham we used an SMC card installed under DOS. Micros, and it turned out that the problem had been a jammed fan on Inside the mini-tower case everything was a little squashed. the processor. The heat sink was too small to defuse the heat and There was one free 5.25in expansion bay and two more 3.5in free the whole machine seized up. bays — one internal and one external. Getting to the free 3.5in bays Another factor that counted against the Vale was the way the would be difficult as they are close up against the power supply. Creative Labs SoundBlaster AWE 32 overlapped the processor ZIF The bays reach right down onto the motherboard and make socket. These sound cards are admittedly very long, but its position everything here seem a little too close for comfort. There are four was at best unusual and at worst irresponsible. PCI and four ISA slots, none shared. The EIDE ribbon cables all There were only three ISA and four PCI slots, one of them come down to connect to the motherboard in the middle of the slots shared and again on the upgrade side there was only one 5.25in and so would have to be disconnected to put in a PCI card. Solidly expansion bay. buckled power cables snake across the inside of the machine, so Once we had overcome the initial difficulties, the Vale had no getting anything into the PCI slots requires very careful manoeuver- trouble running the Doom2 tests, coming out with an excellent score ing. There is no room for a full length card here. — worth noting as many people think running Doom is the most reli- When it came to the tests we had difficulties running the Word- able way of testing a PC. It did not do so well on the other tests — Perfect for DOS test and eventually had to run it from a DOS boot — perhaps because the Seagate hard disk and Toshiba CD were on it refused to run from a DOS prompt box within Windows 95 as not the same EIDE chain. enough memory had been allocated to run DOS applications. The software package included is comprehensive, however, including Windows 95, Works, and a multimedia bundle. Monitor All in all it ran quite well, but the hardware problems were enough This CTX monitor, a popular choice in this test, had no problems to make us think seriously about its overall reliability. running at 1024x768 in 286 colours. It has a nice, narrow surround and a good range of controls. Monitor A reduced number of controls on this monitor made it initially confus- ing to see how to set the screen size. Otherwise it was flickery at 1024x768. PCW Details PCW Details

Simply Computers P120 Good Points US Robotics Vale Triton Platinum Good Points Good hard disk Price £2,119 14.4 modem Price £2,124 and software bundle Contact 0181 523 4120 Bad Points Where do we Contact 01386 765500 Good Points Some very Fax 0181 523 4002 start? Fax 01386 765354 strange build decisions Conclusion Don’t buy it Software Bundle Windows 95, Conclusion A potentially Software Bundle Windows 95 Vale Media 95 good machine marred by Hardware Bundle Creative Hardware Bundle Zydec suspect build quality Labs ProDigital speakers multimedia speakers Warranty Terms First year Warranty Terms One year on- On-site, further 4 years back to site, second year £69; second and base. Options: 2nd and 3rd year third year £169 on-site Technical Support Free tele- Technical Support Free tele- phone and fax support phone and fax support

210 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

Viglen Ultimate MultiMedia 120 PC Western Systems Power Pro 120

PC When you open the box for this machine, the first thing you come PC across is a very useful sheet telling you exactly how to assemble the This little desktop was the cheapest machine in the test, perhaps various components. Included on this, helpfully, is the technical sup- because it does not go for flash components. It obviously opted for port line number. the Triton chip set and a Seagate hard drive, but there the similari- Having taken off the knobbly looking case, the internal compo- ties with parts chosen by other manufacturers come to an end. nents are easy to see. This is partly because the ribbon cables have The machine we had for review did not include EDO RAM or been kept to a minimum, so there isn’t an excessive amount of plas- pipeline burst cache. However both of these are available. To tic cluttering up the place. upgrade you pay an extra £10 per Mb for EDO RAM and £45 for At the front of the case there are two free front-facing 5.25in bays pipeline burst cache. This does of course affect the price consider- over the TEAC CD-ROM drive. Below this is the floppy drive and ably. For 16Mb of EDO RAM and the upgraded cache, the cost of then one free front-facing 3.5in bay before you reach the Quantum the whole unit goes up to £2,091. Fireball hard disk. The CD-ROM drive and sound card are both by Reveal and the The two 8Mb RAM SIMMs are right under the hard disk and video card is by VideoLogic. Reveal and Western Systems are would be tricky to replace without taking out the hard disk. The other names that are often linked, with the former best known for its two free SIMMs sockets are jammed up against the HDD and could upgrade kits. VideoLogic, meanwhile, makes some very good cards, also be difficult to get to, but fitting extra RAM in these slots would especially their Rapier range. The one tested here is an entry level not involve dismantling your machine. card, but still performed nicely. There are four PCI slots and three ISA slots, including one The layout is surprisingly clear for such a small machine. Every- shared slot. In these sit a Creative Labs SoundBlaster AWE 32 thing is logically placed and easy to reach. soundcard and a Diamond Stealth 64 Video VRAM videocard. While not one of the quickest machines in the test, it neverthe- The Viglen was one of the fastest machines on the Doom2 tests less did reasonably well, and on the Doom2 test it came out with a and ran the benchmarks well. The addition of a six-speed CD-ROM very respectable score. The DOS scores were not that good, but drive adds to the overall performance of the machine. were balanced out by better Windows results. By the time this review goes to press Viglen will be including a If you can live with the lack of EDO RAM, and the limited fax/modem as standard. software bundle, this machine offers a good price/performance compromise. Monitor Viglen supply their own monitors. This one was interlaced at Monitor 1024x768, but at lower resolutions it is not glare-ridden. For an extra The CTX monitor was capable of operating at 1024x768 at 80Hz, £240 you can upgrade to a 17in monitor. and was crisp, clear and flicker-free. The surround is narrow, allow- ing maximum viewing space for the area. PCW Details PCW Details

Viglen Ultimate MultiMedia details call 0181 758 7000 Western Systems Power Good Points Good video 120 PC Technical Support Free Pro 120 card, bargain price Price £2,704 telephone and fax support Price £1,886 Bad Points No software bun- dle included — operating sys- Contact 0181 758 7000 Good Points Six speed CD Contact 0181 842 0071 tem only Fax 0181 758 7080 as standard Fax 0181 841 3891 Conclusion Performs well for Software Bundle Windows 95, Bad Points RAM hard to Software Bundle Windows 95 such an inexpensive machine MS Works 95, Encarta, Musical reach Hardware Bundle Reveal instruments, Golf, Money, Conclusion A well kitted-out Computer speakers Publisher machine, but quite pricey for the Warranty Terms One year on- Hardware Bundle Speakers, performance it offers site, optional second and third microphone year on-site Warranty Terms One year Technical Support Free tele- return-to-base. Numerous options phone and fax support for extended warranty — for

212 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

Editor’s Choice

here is more to a good machine than the few to run seamlessly all that we Viglen wins the second Highly Com- Traw speed. In deciding which of this asked it to do. But the greatest factor in mended award for its very high spec bunch of P120s come away with awards, its favour is the lifetime labour guarantee. machine. This was one of only two we we looked at the overall picture. Many of This includes upgrades, so if in future saw with a six-speed CD-ROM drive. In the better machines were very close in you decide to install new peripherals you addition it had a fast Quantum Fireball relative performance and so we have only have to pay for the parts and hard drive, a more than adequate taken into consideration price, guarantee, Olympian will do all the hard work free of Diamond Stealth 64 Video VRAM and build quality, software bundles and all- charge. good software, all for a very reasonable round spec of each machine to come up £2,144. Add £240 to this for a 17in moni- with our list of winners. tor and you still have a real bargain. The first Highly Commended award After much deliberation, cogitation and goes to the Olympian. Although this is a debate, the Editor’s Choice goes to Dan. new company to PCW it has, in fact, The price/performance ratio of this been around for four years. The benefits machine was excellent. It was very well of this machine were many. While not the built with plenty of space for upgrading in fastest machine in the test, it was one of a neat case, and included a comprehen- sive software bundle. Dan itself seems a solid company and offers a lifetime guarantee on its machines.

Buyer’s Guide

By opting for a Pentium you’re already looking to the future. The guarantee. Other manufacturers, such as Dan and Olympian, offer old 486 chips are due to be phased out very shortly and, apart lifetime labour guarantees, with the latter covering the labour costs from the workstation Pentium Pro, Intel have not come up with a involved in upgrading your PC so that you only have to pay for the Pentium replacement. upgrade kit. Optional extra years may be worth considering, However, when you buy a PC there is more to the deal than a especially for PC beginners. machine you can boast about to your friends in the pub. As with Software bundles are a vexed question. Many smaller manufac- any piece of electronic equipment, the warranty is vital, and so is turers don’t offer bundles within their stated prices because they can’t the backup in the shape of technical support. Also, there is the negotiate the same kind of deals as the larger companies. However, software, which, if not bundled with the machine, can be costly to the price advantage gained by buying a non-bundled machine can be acquire. erased if you have to buy the large office packages separately. Think Warranty options vary wildly. Manufacturers offer either back- carefully about what you need. Some of the integrated packages are to-base or on-site repairs. Your decision as to which to opt for quite adequate for most people’s needs, while the multimedia bun- depends very much on how you use your PC. If you depend on it dles are often regarded as a tad unnecessary by others. for your livelihood it might be worth discussing guaranteed call- The cost of the machine is affected by all these considerations, out response times with the manufacturer. Armari, for example, and there is no one answer. What is important is to find a deal that offers an optional eight hour response on top of their standard suits your requirements.

215 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

Performance Results Overall

Manufacturer Totals 012 3

Gateway 2.24

Panrix 2.22

Simply Computers 2.20

Armari 2.19

Carrera 2.16 BETTER

Adams 2.13

Dell 2.12

Dan 2.08

Evesham Vale 1.97

Viglen 1.96

Atlantic Systems 1.87

Olympian 1.87

Hi-Grade 1.77

Western Systems 1.66

Hewlett-P ackard 1.45

Brother 1.34

RELATIVE: COMPAQ DESKPRO DX4/100, 16Mb RAM = 1.00

How we did the tests

Like the previous VNU Windows and DOS tests, Recycling bin. these Windows 95 performance figures are based This has highlighted speed variations across on the throughput of standard application relatively similar hardware platforms. Although the programs. While there are strong similarities with processors in all these machines are identical and the old tests, the results are not comparable for two all have 16Mb of RAM, there is an overall reasons. Firstly, the base platform (with a difference of almost one point between the fastest reference score of one) has shifted to a 486 DX4- and slowest. Careless software installation makes based Compaq Deskpro system. Secondly, the a dramatic difference in Windows 95: like a bad numbers are weighted and calculated differently. apple, one 16-bit driver loaded for a sound card or Although DOS programs are still tested, they now have a lower display adapter can cripple performance across the entire weighting. The DOS figures are merged into the overall score application suite. We also encountered several machines that rather than being presented are still using old DOS TSRs and these generally performed separately. Under Windows worse than the “cleaner” instal- 95 they run in a DOS box — lations on the top eight essentially a Windows- machines. based environment. Finally, we ran a Doom test Previous lab tests used for the first time. This consists of a normalised test platform a short demo run lasting about that included changes to two minutes, and is intended to the swap file and other sys- test the hard disk and the graph- tem settings. To better ics card — no frames are reflect how manufacturers dropped. The final score (of supply machines for realtics) is divided by a constant review, we now keep (gametics) and multiplied by 35 reconfiguration to a minu- to give a frames per second mum, specifically, installa- rate. For a consistent condition tion of PostScript printer we ran it at full screen and with- drivers and disabling of the out sound. undelete facility in the Julian Evans

217 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

PENTIUM 120MHZ TABLE OF FEATURES

Adams Armari Atlantic Brother Carrera

Manufacturer Adams Technology Armari Atlantic Brother Computers Carrera Model Name Professional 586 Multi Media System eXPS-120plus Atlantic Pro95 Professor P120 Carrera Panther P120AM Tel No 0161 877 8822 0181 810 7441 01792 700002 01279 416888 0171 830 0586 Fax No 0161 877 8684 0181 810 5783 01792 792888 01279 418130 0171 830 0286 Price (excl VAT) £2,749 £2,143 £2,278 £1,999 £1,999 Basics Processor Manufacturer and Model Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Expansion Bus Local bus Architecture PCI PCI PCI PCI PCI Free local bus only slots 33333 Free ISA only slots 33323 Free shared local Bus/ISA slots 10000 Motherboard Manufacturer Micronics Supermicro SOYO Brother Supermicros Chipset Triton Triton Triton SIS Triton No. of spare 3.5” bays 11101 No. of spare 5.25” bays 02421 Hard disk Manufacturer Quantum Quantum Western Digital Conner Quantum Size 1.1Gb 1Gb 1.2Gb 1.275Gb 1.1Gb Interface EIDE EIDE EIDE IDE EIDE Average access time (ms) 10 12 11 14 10 RAM and Secondary Cache Main RAM 16Mb 16Mb 16Mb 16Mb 16Mb Max RAM 128Mb 128Mb 128Mb 128Mb 128Mb RAM Type EDO EDO-DRAM EDO Standard EDO SIMM Type (pins) 72 72 72 72 72 Secondary cache (Kb) 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb Max secondary cache (Kb) 512Kb 512Kb 512Kb 256Kb 512Kb Cache type Synchronous SRAM Pipeline Burst Pipeline Burst Writeback Pipeline Burst Multimedia CD-ROM Manufacturer TEAC Pioneer Vertos Goldstar Mitsumi CD-ROM Model cd-56e UA124X-5 400 GS540B FX400 CD-ROM Speed 6X 4X 4X 4X 4X Sound Card Manufacturer Creative Labs Creative Labs Creative Labs Creative Labs Creative Labs Sound Card Model Sound Blaster AWE 32 Sound Blaster AWE 32 Sound Blaster AWE 32 Vibra 16 Sound Blaster AWE 32 Graphics Graphics Card Manufacturer Matrox Matrox Diamond Taxan Matrox Graphics Card Model Millennium WRAM Millennium WRAM Stealth 64 Video VRAM GTS 1280 Millennium WRAM Graphics Card RAM/Max RAM 2Mb/8Mb 2Mb/8Mb 2Mb/4Mb 2Mb 2Mb/8Mb Graphics Card Max non-interlaced resolution 1600x1200x256 @ Hz 1600x1200x256 @ 85Hz 1024x786x256 @ 70Hz 1280x1024x256 @ 74Hz 1600x1200x256 Monitor Manufacturer Iiyama Iiyama Samsung Brother Goldstar Monitor Model MF8617 8115 15GL BM84L 1520DM Monitor Size 17 15 15 15 15 Monitor Maximum Refresh Rate at 1024x768 (Hz) 100Hz 72Hz 72Hz 80Hz 75Hz Free tech support line ●●●●● Fax support ●●●●❍ Company turnover (most recent figures available) £3 million £ 950,000 £20 million $1.6 billion £9.6 million Number of staff 16 8 81 5000 52

KEY ● Yes ❍ No

220 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

PENTIUM 120MHZ TABLE OF FEATURES PENTIUM 120MHZ TABLE OF FEATURES

Dan Dell Evesham Micros Gateway Hewlett-Packard Hi-Grade Olympian Panrix Simply Computers Viglen Western Systems

Manufacturer Dan Technology Dell Evesham Micros Gateway 2000 Hewlett Packard Manufacturer Hi-Grade Computers PLC Olympian Computer Systems Panrix Simply Computers Viglen Western Systems Model Name Dantium 95/s120MM Dimension P120MT Vale Platinum Triton P5-120 Elite HP Vectra VL5/120 model 84 Model Name Winputer P120-M Olympian Evolution 2000 Panrix Micron P120 Simply Pentium 120 Multimedia Ultimate MultiMedia 120 PC Power Pro 120 Tel No 0181 830 1100 01344 720000 01386 765500 0800 602000 01344 369222 Tel No 0181 591 9040 0181 880 4222 0113 244 4958 0181 523 4120 0181 758 7000 0181 842 0071 Fax No 0181 830 1122 01344 723695 01386 765354 003531 848 2022 0171 735 5565 Fax No 0181 591 1586 0181 880 4222 0113 244 4962 0181 523 4002 0181 758 7080 0181 841 3891 Price (excl VAT) £2,071 £1,999 £2,124 £2299 £2,740 Price (excl VAT) 2,370 £1,999 £2,350 £2,119 £2,144 £1,886 Basics Basics Processor Manufacturer Processor Manufacturer and Model Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 and Model Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Intel Pentium 120 Expansion Bus Expansion Bus Local bus Architecture PCI PCI PCI PCI PCI Local bus Architecture PCI PCI PCI PCI PCI PCI Free local bus only slots 23 2 3 1 Free local bus only slots 2323 22 Free ISA only slots 13 1 2 2 Free ISA only slots 2233 33 Free shared local Bus/ISA slots 11 1 1 1 Free shared local bus/ISA slots 0110 11 Motherboard Manufacturers Dan By Intel to a Dell design Intel Intel HP Motherboard Manufacturers TMC TMC Micronics Super Micro Intel Elite Chipset Triton Triton Triton Triton VLSI 82C591/2 Chipset Triton Triton Triton Triton Triton Triton No. of spare 3.5” bays 21 2 3 1 No. of spare 3.5” bays 1101 31 No. of spare 5.25” bays 23 2 3 0 No. of spare 5.25” bays 1221 20 Hard disk Hard disk Manufacturer Quantum Quantum Seagate Western Digital Western Digital Manufacturer Seagate Quantum Quantum Quantum Quantum Seagate Size 1Gb 1Gb 1Gb 1.6Gb 840Mb Size 1Gb 1.2Gb 1Gb 1Gb 1Gb 1Gb Interface EIDE EIDE FAST ATAZ EIDE EIDE Interface EIDE EIDE EIDE EIDE EIDE EIDE Average access time (ms) 10 11 10.5 9 10 Average access time (ms) 10 11 10 12 10 10 RAM and Secondary Cache RAM and Secondary Cache Main RAM 16Mb 16Mb 16Mb 16Mb 16Mb Main RAM 16Mb 16Mb 16Mb 16Mb 16Mb 16Mb Max RAM 128Mb 128Mb 128Mb 128Mb 192Mb Max RAM 128Mb 128Mb 128Mb 128Mb 128Mb 128Mb RAM Type EDO EDO EDO EDO DRAM RAM Type Standard EDO EDO EDO EDO Standard SIMM Type (pins) 72 72 72 72 72 SIMM Type (pins) 72 72 72 72 72 72 Secondary cache (Kb) 256Kb 512Kb 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb Secondary cache (Kb) 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb Max secondary cache (Kb) 512Kb 512Kb 512Kb 256Kb 256Kb Max secondary cache (Kb) 512Kb 512Kb 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb 256Kb Cache type Pipeline Burst Pipeline Burst Pipeline Burst Pipeline Burst Direct mapped * Cache type Standard asynchronous Pipeline Burst Pipeline Sync Pipeline Burst Pipeline Burst Writethrough Multimedia Multimedia CD-ROM Manufacturer Toshiba Mitsumi Toshiba Mitsumi Sony CD-ROM Manufacturer Toshiba Mitsumi Sony Pioneer TEAC Reveal CD-ROM Model XM 5302B FX-400 XM 5302B FX-400 CDU76-E CD-ROM Model 5302B FX-400 CDU76-E DR-VA 124X CD-56E CDD4X CD-ROM Speed 4X 4X 4X 4X 4X CD-ROM Speed 4X 4X 4X 4X 6X 4X Sound Card Manufacturer Creative Labs Creative Labs Creative Labs SoundScape Creative Labs Sound Card Manufacturer Creative Labs Creative Labs Creative Labs Creative Labs Creative Labs Reveal Sound Card Model Sound Blaster AWE 32 Sound Blaster AWE 32 Sound Blaster AWE 32 Ensonx Wavetable Vibra 16 Sound Card Model SoundBlaster AWE32 SoundBlaster AWE32 Vibra 16 SoundBlaster 16 Pro ADSP SoundBlaster AWE32 SC500 Graphics Graphics Graphics Card Manufacturer Diamond No 9 Technology Diamond ATI Cirrus Logic Graphics Card Manufacturer Diamond Matrox Matrox Matrox Diamond VideoLogic Graphics Card Model Stealth 64 Video VRAM Motion 771 Stealth 64 Video VRAM MACH 64 VRAM CL-5434 on PCI local bus Graphics Card Model Stealth 64 Video VRAM Millennium WRAM Millennium WRAM Millennium WRAM Stealth 64 Video VRAM GraphixStar 300 Graphics Card RAM/Max RAM 2Mb/4Mb 2Mb 2Mb/4Mb 2Mb/2Mb 1Mb/2Mb Graphics Card RAM/Max RAM 2Mb/4Mb 2Mb/8Mb 2Mb/8Mb 2Mb/8Mb 2Mb/4Mb 2Mb Graphics Card 1024x768x256 @75Hz(1Mb) Graphics Card Max non-interlaced resolution 1600x1200 1600x1200 @76Hz 1024x768x256 @76HZ 1280x1024x256 @75Hz 1280x1024x256 @75Hz(2Mb) Max non-interlaced resolution 1280x1024x256 @ 72Hz 1600x1200x256 @ 72Hz 1024x786x256 @ 75Hz 1600x1200x256 @ 72Hz 1280x1024 @ 72Hz 1280x1024 Monitor Manufacturer CTX Lite-on Mitac Sony HP Monitor Manufacturer Panasonic ADI Iiyama CTX Viglen CTX Monitor Model CM1565GM D1528-LS AL5064 EDM Vivitron 1776 LE D2806A Monitor Model TX-1732B 4V MF-15 1565 CD Envy 15P 1565CD Monitor Size Monitor Size Monitor Maximum 15 15 15 17 15 Monitor Maximum 17 15 15 15 15 15 Refresh Rate at 1024x768 (Hz) 84Hz 80Hz 75Hz 80Hz 75Hz Refresh Rate at 1024x768 (Hz) 75Hz 70Hz 75Hz 75Hz 72Hz 80Hz Free tech support lines ●● ● ● ● Free tech support lines ●●●● ●● Fax support ●● ● ● Fax support ❍●●● ❍● Company turnover Company turnover (most recent figures available) £39.5 million $3.5 billion £41 million $2.7 billion $25 billion (most recent figures available) £13 million £1.5 million £2.2 million £34 million £185 million £30 million Number of staff 125 7,500 worldwide 210 800+ 99,900 Number of staff 55 14 14 140 240 160

● ❍ KEY ● Yes ❍ No * write-through with burst reads KEY Yes No

222 223 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES GROUP TEST: P120 MACHINES

Motherboards CD-ROM drives and graphics cards

Inside every PC is a large printed circuit board (PCB) called the RAM or disk drives. The most commonly used instructions are When Sony and Philips presented the found on the motherboard itself, is responsi- motherboard. All the main components of a PC plug into it and com- held here, allowing faster processing. The larger the cache, the original Red Book specification for digital ble for creating the picture your monitor dis- municate with each other through it. It is worth being familiar with a more can be stored here, but the longer the access time. Write- audio on a CD in the early eighties, few plays. few basic terms to help you suss out how everything works and through, asynchronous, synchronous and pipeline burst all refer to would have believed how flexible the five Windows describes the desktop with its what you are getting for your money. reading and writing instructions. Pipeline burst is the fastest of inch shiny disc would become as a carrier of graphical device interface, GDI, commands. CPU (central processing unit) these and is quickly becoming standard in high-spec PCs. information. The software video driver takes the GDI Also known as the processor, this is the main chip — in this case a VRM (voltage regulation module) A CD stores digital information which information and converts it into a coloured P120. It executes program instructions. Used to absorb the voltage difference between the processor and could be digitised audio, scanned bitmap image at the desired working resolu- Chipset the motherboard. photographs, digital video or plain computer tion and number of colours. A series of chips on the motherboard which handle the data going in ZIF (zero insertion force) data - files, applications and the like. Most This bitmap image is stored in dedicated and out of the CPU. All but one of the machines in this test used the A type of socket which allows the processor to be upgraded more CDs not containing pure audio or video are video memory. The higher the resolution or Triton chip set, which Intel developed to optimise the performance easily. Socket 5 and Socket 7 are common types of ZIF sockets. termed CD-ROMs (Read Only Memory) and the greater the number of colours, the more of PCI bus. PCI (peripheral component interconnect) is a means of you’ll need a CD ROM drive to read them. memory you’ll need. However, since it is a shared resource, reduc- moving instructions and data around the motherboard. It is The first CD-ROM drives spun the disc at the same speed as a ing one will allow an increase of the other. 1Mb of video memory is designed to improve the performance of peripherals, such as video conventional audio player, delivering a sustained data transfer rate capable of doing a resolution of 1024x768 pixels in 8-bit colour, cards, by putting them closer to the CPU. of around 150Kb/s, and known as single-speed. 150Kb/s is around offering 256 colours. Alternatively dropping to 800x600 pixel resolu- RAM (random access memory) the same speed as a floppy disk, and at least ten times slower tion will free up video memory to up to 16-bit colour, offering 65536 This is the PC’s primary storage area, used to write, store and than a typical hard drive; it wasn’t long before the industry yearned colours. All the PCs in this group test have 2Mb video memory, retrieve information and program instructions which are then for faster CD-ROM drives. capable of 1024x768 pixels in 16-bit colour, 1280x1024 at 8-bit or passed to the CPU for processing. For more on the operation of The first double-speed drive simply spun the disc at twice the 800x600 in 24-bit, just under 16.8 million colours. RAM, see the “Memory” section below. The type of RAM you have speed, doubling the data transfer to 300Kb/s. Inevitably quad Photographic images or smooth colour blends look best in 16 or affects performance as the information stored here has to be speed arrived which doubled again to 600Kb/s. Applications 24-bit colour, the latter being described as true colour, or enough for refreshed many times per second by the processor. installed faster, files opened quicker, video clips played more you not to notice the steps. DTP and CAD applications work best at D-RAM (dynamic RAM) smoothly and everyone was a lot happier. When an audio disc high resolutions, where fine details can be seen. Has to be refreshed more frequently than SRAM (static RAM). was inserted, the drives automatically dropped to single speed for Video performance is dependent on several factors. One is the Page-mode RAM is faster still, not needing to be refreshed so fre- compatibility. speed of the video memory. D-RAM is slower than the more expen- quently and managing data retrieval more efficiently. EDO RAM is CD-ROM drives have not only sped up, but dropped in price sive V-RAM. Speed of the bus is vital too, although the high perfor- page-mode. too. A-typical quad speed costs between £100 and £150 and is an mance of PCI featured on all these PCs at least eliminates this VRAM (video RAM) essential minimum starting speed for today’s buyer. As important worry. Is designed specifically for video cards and allows the display to be as speed is compatibility. All drives will play yellow book CD-ROM The video memory stores the desktop image as a digital bitmap, refreshed and updated on separate ports, making it quicker than and red book audio discs, but only those labelled white book com- which must be converted into an analogue RGB signal for a monitor DRAM. patible will play Video CDs. to display. A chip called a RAMDAC is responsible for the conver- Cache The future is speeding up, but not to eight speed quite yet. Six sion. The speed at which this operates limits the maximum combi- An intermediate storage capacity between the processor and the speed is already available, raising transfer rates to just under 1Mb nation of resolution, number of colours and refresh rate. per second. Six speeds will open conventional files very quickly, At the same time, it’s no good having an extremely high perfor- but early tests have shown that the decompression necessary to mance RAMDAC capable of ultra high resolutions at high flicker- Memory open a Photo CD image effectively slows down performance to free refresh rates if your monitor cannot lock onto the signal quad speed. frequency. Try to get the most out of your monitor, but don’t drive it There are two types of one is reading. too hard. All monitors in this group test should be able to display memory which you need to be As applications grow ever larger, Video cards 1024x768 pixels in a flicker free, non-interlaced mode. aware of when buying a PC. the need for a large hard disk becomes Video or graphics circuitry, usually fitted to a card but sometimes Gordon Laing The first is the hard disk and more pressing. If you hard disk the second is RAM. becomes overcrowded it takes longer The hard disk is the area to search and becomes increasingly Sound cards where all the information on fragmented, so will not operate at its your PC is stored, including optimum rate. By buying a large disk We asked each manufacturer to supply effects and Qsound. the system files your PC needs now, you are prolonging the life of your a WaveTable sound card with their sys- Qsound is similar to Surround Sound and to operate, your applications machine by ensuring it will continue to tems for this group test. Most arrived at fools the ear into thinking audio is coming and of course the data you operate well with future applications. the office with a Creative Labs AWE-32, from all around. Reverb can make the input. This is permanent mem- RAM is very different. It is an imper- although some came fitted with older, instruments sound as though they are being ory. When you close down the manent source of data, but is the main FM-based Vibra 16s. played in large concert halls, while Chorus machine this data is stored memory area accessed by the hard WaveTable sound cards differ from gives the impression that more than one and can be accessed next time disk. It acts, if you like, as a staging FM (Frequency Modulation) cards in that they store actual instrument is playing. you power up. post between the hard disk and the recordings, or a table of waveforms, of real instruments. Software bundled with the AWE-32 includes CakeWalk Appren- The larger the disk, the bet- processor. The more data contained in WaveTable cards store instrument samples in ROM. The AWE- tice, a 256-track MIDI sequencer, and several Windows applets ter the performance you can get out of it. This is due to the way it the RAM, the faster the processor can access that data and so the 32 has 1Mb of samples on board; that’s 128 melodic instruments enabling you to record, edit and playback MIDI and Wave files. is made. Hard disks are made of a series of magnetic platters faster you machine will run. and seven drum kits. So is the AWE-32 any good? In many respects, yes — it allows which spin. Heads read the data from the platters and transfer it to Operating systems such as Windows 95 are extremely memory Because WaveTable plays back real instruments, as user samples to be converted into MIDI instruments; it has lots of the RAM and so to the processor. The larger the hard disk, the hungry and gobble up RAM. To run Windows 95 successfully, you opposed to electronically generated sounds, they offer greater useful software; and the audio quality is more than good enough more platters you have and the more heads to access the data, will need a minimum of 8Mb, preferably 12Mb. To do justice to a realism. Sound is further enhanced on the AWE-32 thanks to its when used for games and multimedia applications. speeding up transfer rates as the other heads can search while processor as fast as a P120, you should really run with 16Mb. on-board effects. These include several reverb types, chorus Steven Helstrip

224 225 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 On the CUTTINGCUTTING EDGEEDGE PCW Online PCW Futures elcome to Cutting Edge, 232 Focus — Richard Vadon surveys 253 Innovations — Tim Frost W the online gaming scene here and on the turmoil surrounding the the section in Personal in the US. Is the virtual community CD recorder market. Computer World that of game players set to colonise the combines our regular internet? 255 Horizons — Simon Rockman on the innovation reviews of games, 236 net.answers — Finding your — or lack of it — in the world books and CD-ROMs way round the internet throws up of RAM. with features bringing all sorts of queries: Nigel you the latest news Whitfield has the solutions. 257 Bluesky — Nick Beard continues his exploration of about computing, and 240 net.news (incorporating fault-tolerant software. consumer technologies net.surf) — CIX gets caught in and online services. the net, and the DTI launches its 259 Retro Computing — Schools Online project: news Simon Rockman on why the We now have the round-up by PJ Fisher. Jupiter Ace missed the mark. most comprehensive coverage of these topics 245 net.newbies — A short and available in a general simple explanation of how to get online. PCW Media computing magazine. Stay with us and we’ll 246 Focus — In the first of a series of 260 Books — Start-Up, the ups take the pain out of three HTML features, Nigel and downs of the Go keeping on the cutting Whitfield makes it easy for you to Corporation, The History of create your own web pages. Computers, and Your Home edge. Office, reviewed by our panel. Kids’ Stuff: George Shrinks 268 CD-ROMs — Test your encyclopedic knowledge with new discs from Microsoft and Grolier, plus Mel Gibson’s Braveheart and the works of Robert Mapplethorpe. With Adele Dyer.

PCW Fun

Focus: 262 Competition — Win a Virtual Gaming bumper bundle that includes notebook, monitor and SmartSuite 96.

265 Kids’ Stuff — A manic Screenplay: magician tested Paul Begg’s reserve, plus there’s news Phantasmagoria from the Best Toy Awards.

273 Screenplay — The frightening Phantasmagoria, Magic Carpet 2, and CD-ROMs: Robert joysticks judged. Mapplethorpe 276 Leisure Lines — Puzzles with JJ Clessa.

231 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 232 O that makesonlinegames competition orinco-operation, with otherplayers,eitherin community. Itistheinteraction online gamesbecomeavirtual gaming enjoyable.Theplayersof only partofwhatmakesonline online, andthentrytokillthem. console tomakenewfriends can nowuseyourcomputeror by playingcomputergames,you having destroyedyoursociallife together toplaygames.So are nowbringingpeople other peopletoplaygameswith, released usfromhavingtofind Ironically, computers,whichfirst interaction withotherpeople. alone onahomePCcannot; something thatgamesplayed far better. against otherpeopleitwasfar, you playeditonanetwork against acomputerbutwhen addictive enoughwhenplayed about computergames.Itwas the waypeopleplayandthink from theInternetandchanged was aseminalevent.Itcame Undoubtedly thearrivalofDoom fully operationalbythesummer. 1996 andtheserviceshouldbe Beta testingstartsinJanuary service, showcasedatLive95. Wireplay, itsownonlinegaming US bytheyear2000. be a$1.3billionindustryinthe predicts thatonlinegamingwill sultant JupiterCommunications Internet. ResearchbyUScon-

The gamesthemselvesare Online gamingprovides What’s causedallthis? In theUK,BThasannounced CUTTING EDGE next bigthingtohitthe nline gamingcouldbethe lyn netgame a Playing lyn netgame a Playing scene intheUSandUK. impending senseofDoom, communityofgame playersIs avirtual Withan settocolonisetheInternet? FOCUS: ONLINEGAMING PCW different fromthosefor graphics foronlinegamersare social aspectisthatthedemo- watch otherpeopleplay. and chat.Peopleevenlogonto often justlogontohangaround networks reportthatplayers people. TheAmericangaming activity —youplaywithother that itisaninherentlysociable ordinary computergamingin so compelling. One consequenceofthis Online gamingdiffersfrom Richard Vadon players ofexistingmulti-player amounts toadatingservicefor route intothemarket. Simutronics) istakingadifferent (Catapult, VR1,ImagiNationand services. EachoftheUSservices how besttodelivertheir how themarketwilldevelopor a youngindustry,no-oneisclear However, asyoumightexpectin players arealreadyemerging. pipeline, butintheUSmajor considers theonline gaming Catapult isofferingwhat BT’s Wireplayisstillinthe than ordinarygamers. like Internetusers richer —muchmore be older,smarterand Online gamerstendto computer gamers. Left on theinternet Above Play ballontheAT&TImaginationNetwork 3D flightcombat.FighterWingisdistributed similar approachtoCatapult. the gamesconsolesaswell. Catapult nowsellskeyboardsfor chat servicesaresopopularthat time gaming.Thee-mailand Kb/sec butallowfullspeedreal- consoles. Theserunatonly2.4 modems ithasdesignedfor Catapult standoutisthe modem gaming.Whatmakes this withdirectmodem-to- users canalreadydomostof messages toeachother.PC them tosende-mailandchat track oftheirscoresandallows connects twoplayers,keeps Streetfighter. Catapult’sservice Doom, MortalKombatand console andPCgameslike BT’s Wireplaywilltakea splendid 3Dflightsimulation games. Itsfirstgameisarather online servicestodistributeits net ratherthancommercial Simutronics butusestheinter- average, $85permonth. others anditsplayersspendon times aspopularanyofthe role-playing game,isthree stone III,atextbased adventures. Surprisingly,Gem- shoot-em-ups totext-based graphics-based arcadestyle Simutronics gamesrangefrom GEnie todistributeitsgames. America Online,Prodigy,and uses USonlineservicessuchas them destroyedbyrobots.It online communitiesandhaving dedicated tobuildinghuge Simutronics Corporationis software withintheirgames. to includetheWireplayaccess ating withsoftwaredevelopers subscription fees.BTisnegoti- you-play basiswithno BT. Chargeswillbeonapay-as- against opponentsconnectedby they haveontheirownPCs opportunity toplaythegames Gamers willbeofferedthe mation: theplayernumberofopponentandtitlegame. er member.Thesyntaxofthecommandrequirestwopiecesinfor- out whoisthereandwhattheywanttoplay. enter theLobbybytypingGOMTMLOBBY.Oncethere,theywillfind MODEMGAMES), orbyjusthangingaroundtheLobby. Board (GOCHALLENGE)andModemGamesForum A gamecanbescheduledinadvanceusingCompuserve’sChallenge the CompuserveInformationService. can playalmostanymodem-to-modemgamewithothermembersof or theInternet.UsingCompuserve’sMTMGamingLobby,members can alsobeplayedasmodem-to-modemgamesusingCompuserve M VR1 hasasimilarstrategyto According toitspublicity, ulti-player games,likeDoom,whichareplayedoveranetwork, After thechallengehasbeenaccepted(/ACCEPT),bothplayers The /CHALLENGEcommandisusedtoinitiateagamewithanoth- To establishaconnectionformodemgameplay,playersneedto world. Traditionalgameslike sports simulationsinthearena games inthemedievalworldand there arefantasyrole-playing virtual worlds.Forinstance, games inanumberofdifferent to playavarietyofmulti-player log ontoImagiNationcomputers service overayearago.Users Network launcheditsdirectdial speed ofyourmodem. backbone is,ratherthanthe direct yourlinktotheInternet game runsatdependsonhow testing. However,thespeed Wing whichiscurrentlybeta- combat gamecalledFighter The AT&TImagiNation Modem-to-modem gaming grows isalsodependentonthe that SonicorDoomdid. ture theimaginationinway — thegamethatwillreallycap- waiting foritskillerapplication in somewaysthisistrue.It’s the internet18monthsago,and being inthesamepositionas industry likestothinkofitselfas with email. their timechattingordealing its customersspendathirdof network. ImagiNationfindsthat prepares fortournamentsonthe indeed theUSBridgeteam bridge arealsoavailable— How quicklyonlinegaming The USonlinegaming numbers andthedifficultyofsplittingcost.. drawbacks tousingtheInternetareneedswaptelephone American resourcebutthereareabout20UKplayerslisted.The (http://www.xmission.com/~morrison/IMPL/home.html) isamainly games. TheInternetModemPlayersListing CompuServe. settings shouldbesettothesameasthoseusedaccess with oneanother.Thegame’sbaudrateandcommunicationsport as adirectconnectionsincebothcomputersarealreadyconnected game communicationsparameters.Themustbeconfigured Compuserve. Atthispointthegameshouldberun. a “directconnection”isestablishedbetweenbothplayersthrough will receiveconfirmationmessages.Onceyouthismessage, The Internetcanalsobeusedtoarrangemodem-to-modem When thegameisloaded,eachplayerwillneedtoconfiguretheir FOCUS: ONLINEGAMING fantasy roleplay simulations to from sports varying situations; net inwidely imagination onthe Use your enough tomakearcade-style the UKneverseemsgood internet buttheconnectionin moment —VR1usesthe slow andunwieldyatthe internet. Buttheinternetistoo the globalmarketofferedby would aimeventuallytoaccess methods toreachthemarketbut growth ofonlineservices. likely toactasabarrierthe where inEurope,andthisis charged forintheUKandelse- the service.Localcallsare customers onlyhavetopayfor the USlocalcallsarefree,so costs ofaccessandservice.In ESNLCMUE WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL The networksallusedifferent JANUARY 1996 PCW 233 CUTTING EDGE JANUARY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 234 the WebMUDssuchasThe resources. lists MUDsandrelated Andrew.Wilson/MUDlist/) which arachnid.cm.cf.ac.uk/User/ Cardiff MUDpage(http:// descriptions anditems. and evencreateitsownrooms, infested areas,solvepuzzles, characters, explorecreature- around, chatwithother character whichcanwalk takes controlofacomputerised onto andexplore.Eachuser programs whichuserscanlog tradition. MUDsarecomputer text-based role-playinggame this becausetheycomefrom are perhapsthebestexampleof MUDs (MultiUserDungeons) activity andsenseofcommunity. best ofthegoodpoints;itsinter- disadvantages andmakethe net side-stepthese common 28.8modem. not worthitwithamore ing onahigh-speedlinearejust Many gamesthatareentertain- experienced whilepagesload. sound andlongdelaysare system: thereisnoanimationor limited bytheconstraintsof the internetatmomentare game playingpractical.

Beginners shouldtryoneof The bestplacetostartisthe The bestgamesontheinter- CUTTING EDGE The gamesthatdoexiston FOCUS: ONLINEGAMING PCW tortuous butDelphiislooking 14.4Kb/sec modemcanbe overloaded. Gameplayovera that theserverhasbeen success, whichinevitablymeans Netropolis time). for 96hours(fouryearsin opponents ordon’tparticipate many dirtytricksonyour bankrupt, getcaughtplayingtoo the waycompetitorscanaffect What reallymakesthegameis competing businesstycoons. monopoly, withplayersas graphics. It’slikecorporate player andhasSim-Citystyle most advancedgame.Itismulti- corporate strategygame. Clue) andNetropolis,a gramme I’mSorryIHaven’ta game derivedfromRadio4pro- ton Crescent(thenonsensical Frenzy, aracinggame;Morning- multi-player logicgame;Ferret contains fourgames:Phlong,a Delphi’s CamdenLockweb-site Murdoch’s mediaempire. these isDelphi,partofRupert developers. Foremostamong being producedbycorporate tion ofinternetMUDgamesare of academiabutthenewgenera- http://sensemedia.net/sprawl. Sprawl, forinstance,foundat each other.Youloseifyougo The gamehasbeenahuge Netropolis isthenewestand MUDs camefromtheworld out ofitsgames.Thomajan worked outhowtomakemoney lated, meansithasn’tquite models —which,roughlytrans- is currentlylookingatrevenue Vice President,saysthatDelphi Chris Thomajan,DelphiEurope’s to bedownloaded. end sothatgraphicsdonotneed giving ititsowngraphicalfront into makingitmoreefficientby ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● All Delphi’sgamesarefree. Mornington Crescent Phlong Ferret Frenzy Sprawl ChessWeb Caissa’s WebChess Virtual Vegas Lemonade Netropolis Zarf’s listofinteractivegamesontheweb http://www.delphi.co.uk/cgi-bin/delphi/interactive/mcg/mcgames.pl http://www.delphi.co.uk/delphi/interactive/phlong/Phlong_title.html http://www.delphi.co.uk/delphi/interactive/ferrets/intro.html http://sensemedia.net/sprawl =chess.cgi http://studwww.rug.ac.be/cgibin/cgiwrap?user=mjdbruyn&script http://caissa.com currently connected. http://www.virtualvegas.com/playground.html girls, slotmachinesandahotjavaversionofpoker. http://www.fn.net/~jmayans/lemonade/ http://www.delphi.co.uk/netropolis/ bandwidth. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/andrew/org/kgb/www/zarf/games.html A goodwebintroductiontoMUDs. Multi-player logicgamefromtheDelphistable. Probably themostadvancedgameonweb,needsalotof A simple,interactive,puzzlegamebutquiteaddictive. Games ontheinternet An openchessgame;anyonecanmakeamove. Delphi’s rodentracinggame. As thenamesuggestsavirtualcasinocompletewithshow Allows youtoplaychessagainstanyoneelsewhois More asurrealjokethangame—butinteresting. and onlineservices. advances inbrowsersoftware technology willbefollowedby innovation, progressinmodem chip sparksawaveofsoftware same waythateachnewIntel consumer cablemodem.Inthe hardware —thehigh-speed generation ofinternetaccess everyone iswaitingforthenext closely connected.IntheUS software andhardwareare widespread. Butasever, becomes increasingly and morewilldosoasit utilise HotJava’scapabilities, games. Alreadysomegames browsers advancesowillthe good aswebgaminggetsbut sites are“waytoobland”. projects ashefeelsmostweb spin ispartofallDelphi’sweb the net’sspirit.Hehopesthis “wicked spin”inkeepingwith the netbecausetheyhavea believes Delphi’sgamesworkon Delphi’s effortsareaboutas got to? Now, wherehasthatgiant A bestgameslist. JANUARY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 236 server. containing allthefilesontheir some sitespublishCD-ROMs ing yoursoftware,because to havebeengrantedbyupload- out whatrightyou’reassumed uploading. Youshouldalsofind not sharewareiswelcomebefore ber tocheckandseewhetheror sort ofprogramitis––remem- software towilldependonwhat demon.net. a descriptiontouploads@ net’s ftpserver,youshouldsend upload softwaretoDemonInter- description. Forinstance,ifyou uploaded yourfilewithabrief particular addresswhenyou’ve often havetosendemaila how tosubmituploads,asyou’ll a fileonthesitethattellsyou your files.Checktoseeifthere’s tory intowhichyoucanupload often havean“incoming”direc- ware andfreeware,they hold largequantitiesofshare- whenever theywant. other peoplecandownloadthem them availablebyftp,sothat ware. Thebestwayistomake ways ofdistributingyoursoft- A. to getawwwsiteforfree? ftp sitesfree?Isthereanyway then tellpeoplewhereitis.Are programs overthenet,and the bestwaytodistributemy newbie, Iwouldliketoknow month andahalf.Asrelative on theinternetforabouta programmer, andIhavebeen Q. Iamafreeware/shareware There aremanydifferent An alternativeto uploading The bestsitetouploadyour There aremanyftpsitesthat CUTTING EDGE net.answers ONLINE PCW home pagewithouthavingto number) whereyoucanhavea places (andit’sadecreasing loaded automatically. server, sothefilecanbedown- which canincludelinkstotheftp direct peopletoawebsite, information, it’sagoodideato If youwanttoprovidemore advert, ortopostinappropriately. not tomakeitintoablatant to yourprograms,butremember the bestwaystobringattention relevant newsgroupsisoneof a briefinformationalpostingin providers ––thoughnotmany. site, aserviceofferedbysome sites istopayforyourownftp files toaselectionofdifferent internet. you throughthe Nigel Whitfield Although therearesome When you’veuploadedfiles, tion betweentwocomputers method oftransferringinforma- suggests, itwasoriginallya Copy Protocol,andasthename A. connection willIget? is that,andwhatsortof something calledUUCP.What of softwarethatuses tion totheinternetviaapiece Q. I’vebeenofferedaconnec- shareware, itcouldpayforitself. easier forpeopletoregister well-designed pagemakesit few poundsamonth,andif host yourwebpageforonlya there arealotofpeoplewhowill commercial. Butremember be abletouseitforanything pay anything,youusuallywon’t UUCP standsforUnixto guides the truth. they’re beingeconomicalwith anyone tellsyouotherwise, viding fullinternetaccess,andif short, it’snotdesignedforpro- like webaccess,IRCortelnet.In won’t beabletouseitforthings fer mailandusenetnews,you use UUCPtofetchfiles,ortrans- internet. you couldaccessviaftponthe possible torequestanyfilethat special “ftp-mail”servers,it’s sending emailcommandsto Group’s WinNetsoftware.By using UUCPistheIBMPCUser ple ofasimpleemailservice vices thatitcontrols.Oneexam- electronic mail,andotherser- means it’sbestsuitedto to it.Inpracticalterms,this run aprogramtodosomething one placetoanother,andthen UUCP candoiscopyafilefrom for youontheothercomputer. ready toreceiveanyfileswaiting and thenbecomesthe“slave”, all thefilesthatyouhavewaiting program callsanother,itsends X byemail.” other computer,anddeliveritto could be“copythisfiletothe to thatcomputer,”whileanother request mightbe“copythisfile program. Forinstance,one are thenprocessedbytheUUCP create alistofrequestswhich which meansthatyouhaveto computers byremotecontrol. wide web,orcontactingother things likeaccessingtheworld connections whichareusedfor itself usesTCP/IP,interactive direct connection.Theinternet via UUCPisn’tasflexiblea types ofcomputer. are availableforseveraldifferent tem, thoughversionsofUUCP running theUnixoperatingsys- But whileyoumaybeableto In effect,theonlythingthat When yourcomputer’sUUCP UUCP isabatchsystem, A connectiontotheinternet to getyourownsite web. It’ssurprisinglycheap PCW ’s siteontheworldwide PCW ● ONLINE MICROMART CUTTING EDGE CLASSIFIED

If you don’t have enough serial ports for a modem and a mouse, KeyMouse could be the solution

Q. I use OS/2’s WebExplorer to surf but it UK, proposals for new groups are discussed doesn’t have hierarchical hot lists like in the group uk.net.news.config, and calls NetScape. Is there a way I can do some- for discussion are posted to thing similar? uk.net.news.announce. If there’s no opposi- A. Yes. In fact, you can arrange a type of hot tion, there probably won’t need to be a vote list in almost any way you like using OS/2 before your group can be created. Warp and versions of WebExplorer from Groups in the “alt” hierarchy have to be 1.02 upwards. discussed in the alt.config newsgroup, while Create folders on your desktop for stor- those in the “biz” hierarchy (for commercial ing your hotlist: for example, a “Warp links” postings) are discussed in biz.config. The folder or a “Fun stuff” folder. You can have main set of newsgroups (those with names folders nested, just like normal. To save the beginning comp, humanities, misc, news, reference to a page, click on it with the right rec, sci, soc, and talk) have a set procedure mouse button, anywhere that’s not an image that involves posting calls for discussion or a link, and drag the page into one of your and voting. Discussion takes place in news- URL folders. It will appear as a special URL groups and to have a new group created, icon, with a name matching the title of the you’ll need to win a two thirds majority in a current web page. vote, and have 100 more “yes” than “no” To view one of the saved URLs, drag it votes. back into the WebExplorer window, or drop In fact, it’s possible to create a group just it on to the icon. Double clicking on a URL by issuing the appropriate command, but icon allows you to edit it. If you don’t have most service providers won’t honour the the latest version of WebExplorer, you can commands unless the group was proposed download it from the internet, from the in the right place. It’s important to follow the pub/WebExplorer directory on ftp.ibm.net. rules, and you should begin by reading the appropriate discussion group for a while Q. I want to create a newsgroup. How do I before submitting your own proposal. do it? If you really want a newsgroup, there are A. The smart answer is that if you have to two important things that you need to put in ask, you don’t need one. While there might your proposal. The first is the name, and the have been a bit of truth in that adage in the second is the charter. The name should be past, it’s not so much the case now –– easy for people to work out, and should fit though in many cases there might already in with other names. For instance, if you be a newsgroup covering the subject that wanted to propose a group to discuss PCW, you want to talk about. just picking the name “uk.pcw” is a bad First of all you need to ask yourself what choice: there’s already a group called sort of newsgroup you want. If it’s a local “uk.media.mags.net” to discuss internet newsgroup, you should ask the people who magazines, so “uk.media.mags.pcw” would run your news server to create it. Within the be a better choice. Remember, no part of

237 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 Internet StarterKitforMacintosh the systemsoftwareorbuyabookcalled Macs caneitherupgradetothelatestversionof piece ofsoftware:MacTCP.Peoplewitholder tem 7.5,you’llalreadyhavethemostimportant much simplerthatusingaPC.IfyouhaveSys- provider isactuallyverystraightforward–– A. be designedforpeopleusingPCs. internet? Allthebooksandarticlesseemto Q. HowcanIconnectmyMacintoshtothe Macintosh free withtheInternetStarterKit for internet iseasywithMacPPP,and it’s Connecting yourMacintoshtothe US thatlooksafterthetopleveldomains, ent way. .co.uk, you’llhavetoregisterinadiffer- you’re American)oraUKname,endingin (though manypeoplewillassumethat want aninternationaldomainlike.com garine.com”. they makeasadomainname,like“mar- registered virtuallyeveryproductthat some bigUSfoodcompaniesthathave to register. distinctive name,itmightbeagoodidea A. ing up? register thenamenow,withoutconnect- the namefortheiremailaddress.Canwe want tomakesurethatnooneelsecanuse to theinternet,butnotforawhileyet.We Q. Mycompanyisthinkingaboutconnecting including theMacintoshconferenceonCix. be downloadedfromotheronlineservices, comes withAdamEngst’sbook,anditcanalso ware, MacPPPisincludedonthediskthat but it’sverysimilarforotherproviders. used foraconnectiontoTheDirectConnection, The screenshot(below)showsthesettings the detailsofyourinternetserviceprovider. is calledConfigPPPwhichusedtofillinall Network optionsonyourMac,andthesecond just likeselectingEthernetorLocaltalkinthe ver thatyouselectintheMacTCPcontrolpanel, a modem.Therearetwoparts:thefirstisdri- the linkbetweenyourMacandinternet,via you’ll neediscalledMacPPP,whichprovides able companionforMacusers. worth buyingthebookanywayasit’saninvalu- which includesMacTCPonthefreedisk––it’s Connecting yourMacuptoaservice The InterNICistheorganisationin Depending onwhetherornotyou Yes, youcan.Infact,ifhaveavery As wellasaselectionofotherusefulsoft- The otherimportantpieceofsoftwarethat Don’t follow theexampleof Making theconnection by AdamEngst, The telephone 01227266466. son BusinessPark,Whitstable,CT53QY,Kent, contacting EUnetGB,WilsonHouse,JohnWil- http://www.britain.eu.net/naming-co/ orby be foundontheworldwideweb,at all in. or peoplewillquicklybecometiredoftypingit don’t trytofititallintoyourinternetdomain, your companyisCelebrityWidgetsLimited, known, suchastheBBC.Andifnameof a shortnameifyourcompanyisuniversally longer thanthreeletters.You’llonlybeallowed shouldn’t betoogeneric,anditshould name thatseemsmostobvioustoyou. strict, andyoumightnotbeabletohavethe you doconnect,astherulesinUKarequite name youwanttogiveyourcompanywhen for you. EUnet chargesafeeof£200toregistername main databaseofUKdomaininformation. EUnet GBinstead,whoareinchargeofthe you’re notconnected,youshouldcontact to arrangeforregistrationofyourname.If ting one,youshouldaskyourserviceprovider nection totheinternet,orarethinkingofget- about yournetwork.Ifyoualreadyhaveacon- their nameserversuptodatewithinformation vice providertoregisterthenameandkeep expense thatyoushouldbearinmind. domain namethatyouregister;anadditional you nowhavetopayanannualfeeforeach and duetochangesinthewaythatit’sfunded, More detailsaboutthenamingprocesscan As ageneralruleofthumb,yourname You’ll alsohavetothinkhardaboutwhat In theUKyouwillusuallyhavetopayaser- ESNLCMUE WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL the goldenrule–– most importantly,don’tforget support yourproposal.And people whoarewillingtohelp a lotofeffort,orfindplenty topic ––youmightsaveyourself or mailingliststhatcoverthe to seeiftherearealreadygroups to doyourhomeworkandcheck for anewnewsgroup,remember and thiscanbealotofwork. decide whichwillbesentout, read allthemessagesand is onewheresomeonehasto moderated. Amoderatedgroup whether ornotthegroupwillbe sometimes whatcan’t)and topics canbediscussed(and say whatthegroupisfor, you needtoconsider.Itshould the mostimportantthingthat computer-world” isn’t. valid partofaname,“personal- while “pc-world”wouldbea more than14letterslong,so the nameofyourgroupcanbe demon.co.uk. net.answers@stonewall. answered, pleasesendthemto If youhavequestionsyou’dlike [email protected]; the address He welcomescommentsvia several internetmailinglists. writer andmaintainerof Nigel Whitfield one. create agroupbeforeproposing the guidelinestofindouthow Before youpostaproposal After thename,charteris PCW ONLINE JANUARY 1996 PCW Contacts is afreelance always 239 read CUTTING EDGE JANUARY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 240 HotJavaSunSoft tooffer development tools O CIX finally joinsthenet CIX finally to thefuturesothatwecanexpandeasily.With16,000existingCIXsubscribers,thiswasvery levels threetimesthoseofrivalservices. sure thatthesystemcouldwithstandfuturegrowthandextrademand.CIXisnowclaimingperformance early eighties. S this willbeacompletewebauthoring andpublishingenvironment. realtime videoandinteractivegraphics ontheweb.Sunsoftclaims of theHotJavaprogramminglanguage. HotJavapromisestooffer 1996. Thekitwillenableusersto create websitesthattakeadvantage

Matthew Sims,ofCIX,said:“Wehaveputalotmoneyintothesystematstartandarelooking The introductionoftheservicewasdelayedbyCIXduetoscaleabilityproblemsasitwantedbe CUTTING EDGE service. CIXisfamiliartomanyPCuserswhohavebeenusingitsconferencingsystemsincethe ne ofthemostpopularconferencingsystemsforPCcommunityhasannouncedafullinternet of developmenttoolsforSolarisorWindowsplatformsinearly unSoft, thesoftwarearmofSunMicrosystems,willofferasuite ONLINE PCW PJ Fisher net.news net.news rounds uptheonlineoccurrences. rounds important.” Simsclaimsthatthoseusers who havealreadysampledtheservice CIX saysthatitcachesalotofpopular noticed significantlyfasterconnections. The servernetworkhasbeencustom web pageslocallytohelpwithaccess. designed toallowfurtherserversbe upsetting thenetwork. slotted inasandwhenrequired,without £15 permonthwithaonetimesetup able tomixandmatchsubscriptiontime fee of£10.ExistingCIXuserswillbe between theCIXConferencingsystem the usualinternetservicessuchas and CIXinternet,givingaccesstoall world widewebandUsenet. of theUK.Supportlinesarecurrently to havelocalcallaccessfor80percent open from9.00amtomidnightandwill members cansignuptothenewser- be upgradedtoa24-hourservice.CIX pulink.co.uk/cix/cixip.html vice onthewebathttp://www.com- or byphoning01812969666. Pricing forthenewservicestartsat CIX uses28.8modemsandexpects The developers’kitisexpectedto becommerciallyavailablein1996. designs. Andtherewillbeakitfor distributingappletsontheinternet. grated withadynamicbrowser forinstantviewingofnewpage mini programsthatcallupHotJava routines.Theeditorwillbeinte- drag-and-drop editingofWebpagesusingHotJava-basedapplets; Of realinterestwillbetheWYSIWYGwebeditor.Thisenable D Anywhere. pliers ofNortonUtilitiesandPC by Symantec,bestknownassup- will beaddedinearly1996. faxes fromthePC.Avoicefacility WinFax PRO7.0forsending comms softwarepackageand Pro 7.0,ageneralpurpose an internetaccess,WinComm the suiteincludeCyberJack7.0, advanced users.Keyaspectsof offers powerfeaturesformore non-technical market,butalso messaging andinternetaccess. It includesafaxpackage,voice comms packageforWindows95. Delrina pack Delrina wasrecentlyacquired CommSuite 95isaimedatthe claims isthefirstintegrated elrina hasannouncedwhatit PCW ● ONLINE CUTTING EDGE

Novell’s net vision The immensely named Robert J Franken- Frankenberg believes that the Smart berg, chairman and CEO of Novell, is Global Network will be accessed not just determined that his company won’t miss from PCs but looks forward to a time when out on the networking revolution. Smart networks will be accessible from phones, Global Network is a raft of ideas, alliances cable TV, cars and even power lines. and new products which aims to enable any PC platform to work in a common network- ing environment, with NetWare forming a backbone. An alliance with AT&T will bring AT&T NetWare Connect Services, designed as a public data network based on NetWare. It’s claimed this will simplify connection to public networks and the internet within a secure environment. Novell will also launch the NetWare world wide web server package in the first quarter of 1996. A new API, Net2000, will be released to develop the goal of internet access from any device, desktop or server Robert J Frankenberg platform. Schools Online Perhaps stung by the Labour announcement at its annual conference, the DTI has launched its Schools Online project, aimed at encouraging schoolchildren to get net literate. A joint venture between the DTI and 18 sponsoring companies, (including IBM, BT and Apple), the scheme is now piloting in 60 schools. A web server has been set up at the Anglia Polytechnic University. Minister for Science and Technology, Ian Taylor, said that the scheme proved that the government was doing something about the internet. In response to the Labour announce- ment he said that “it was no good just putting a link into a school”. He added that all schools already had a link to the Internet –– “it’s called the phone line”. A spokesperson for the project said that it had been designed to encourage participation and interaction rather than just passive web browsing. Schools Online has been developed by the Ultralab at Anglia Polytechnic University. A dedicated server has been set up for the project which is connected to the SuperJanet back- bone. The schools are mostly connected to the internet by 28.8 modems using local ISPs such as Cityscape. Schoolkids using the project are reported to be enthusiastic — some were designing pages of their own. The default web pages contain tips on html, advice on how to set up image maps, and CGI programming. The Server site also contains a number of guidelines for the children about the dangers of replying to email from strangers, and the use of Netiquette. To keep schoolkids away from internet porn and other undesirable newsgroups teachers are encouraged to use one of the number of barrier software packages such as SurfWatch now available. The Schools Online home page can be accessed on http://sol.ultralab.anglia.ac.uk/pages/schools_online/.

241 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 PCW ● ONLINE CUTTING EDGE

CD-ROM uses www links

Two UK companies, Module Communications and Pow communications, have come up with an interactive CD-ROM with embedded links to the world wide web within the CD browser. The hybrid CD-Net contains communications software that links to the internet when the CD is inserted into the PC. This then searches for updated information direct from a dedicated web server. This presents a number of publishing opportunities. Potentially, it means CD-ROMs can potentially solve that eternal reference book problem –– becoming out of date. Other poten- tial users are retailers and shopping networks keen to offer a home shopping service based on the internet but worried about secure transactions. Users could browse continually updated product lists and prices and buy products via a subscription number or store card. As most of the graphics, sound and video files would be embedded on the master CD, the problems of slow downloads could be avoided. The web would simply be used to download up-to-date text information. These two firms are not the first in the field however. Another UK company, OmniMedia, recently demonstrated a CD-ROM music title that used sim- ilar web connections to download up-to-date tour information and trivia.

Shorts

Netscape takes on big boys That’s the view of industry watcher Forrester Research, which reckons that Netscape could outsmart Microsoft by turning the developer world upside down. The network will become the centre of the new world as programs will be “developed for, and deliv- ered by, the internet”. Forrester believes that kind of browser. Microsoft is on a new trend towards corporate webs is http://www.microsoft.com. developing (also known as the intranet) which could lead to “IT gurus reading the Server shenanigans manual on html, instead of the one on Visual According to a Netcraft Web Server Survey, BASIC.” The upshot of all this is that NCSA server software is the first choice of Netscape will be a threat to traditional cor- companies on the web. Of the 19,638 porate players such as Novell and Microsoft. respondents to the survey, over 50 percent were using NCSA. Netscape and Apache Bill’s browser however, were gaining sites with growth Microsoft has released a Beta of Microsoft rates of over 20 percent per month each. Explorer version 2.0, its proprietary web Surprisingly Mac-based servers outnum- browser designed for Windows 95, based bered NT servers. For more results go to around Spyglass Mosaic. It ships with its http://www.netcraft.co.uk/survey. own set of html extensions and can support realtime video and scrolling banners using Football shorts AVI and background audio. However, none ● Both the Electronic Telegraph and the of these extensions will work with any other Daily Mail have hitched onto the footy

243 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 244 T Still nosignofaNickHornby on http://www.telegraph.co.uk. until May1996andcanbefound of starplayers.Thegameruns strip andusehotlinkstoprofiles players gettochoosetheteams’ as thetraditionalversion,but Online. Therulesarethesame to promoteFantasyLeague hitched upwithitsprintedsister ● com. cernet ishttp://www.soccernet. from thePremierLeague.Soc- results, tablesandmatchreports to keepfansupdatewith The DailyMail’sSoccernetaims fans. new internetsitesforsoccer bandwagon withthelaunchof and thendismissthecase”,said a Prodigyspokesperson. agreement, thispavesthewayfor thejudgetoreversehisjudgment lead toareversalofthejudgesoriginal ruling.“Thetwosidesarein waves downtheonlineservicesindustry. liable forcommentsonitsbulletinboards.Therulingsentshock- ruled inStratton’sfavour,rulingthatProdigywasapublisherand by aProdigyuserononeofitsbulletinboards.InMaythejudge Oakmont suedforlibelafterseeingaderogatorycommentsposted Libel agreement Inside attheCafeInternet The ElectronicTelegraphhas Now anout-of-courtagreementbetween thetwolitigantscould

firm StrattonOakmontInc.hasseensomeprogress. he recentlibelcaseinvolvingProdigyandaNewYorkbroker CUTTING EDGE ONLINE PCW God home pagehowever.( 22/24 BuckinghamPalaceRoad. Indianas, CaféInternetisat food. EquippedwitharaftofICL function roomsandhotcold the Cafeoffersalicensedbar, PCs andverylittlerefreshment, be morethanjustaroomfullof named CaféInternet.Aimingto the openingofimaginatively total oftwointernetcaféswith London cannowboastagrand More coffee? ) Thank W ● users. BesuretotryoutthePen- computer usersandadvanced two onlinemagazinesforhome wealth ofinformationincludes Pentium processortechnology.A bly wanttoknowaboutInteland ers everythingyoucouldpossi- Intel’s excellentsitewhichcov- under construction. thea.html. Likeherbrain,itisstill http://www.dur.ac.uk/~dcl0drt/an cial homepageon may caretocheckoutherunoffi- fan ofthe“lovely”Anthea,you ● http://www.interlotto.li Roll yournumbersat chance ofseeingAntheaTurner. Best ofallthereisabsolutelyno the queueinnewsagents. the net)butatleastyou’llavoid need acreditcardtoenter(over You $1 million.Thedownside? web withaguaranteed Jackpot of runs itslotteryeveryweekonthe Based inLiechtenstein,Interlotto a fewvisitsfromwiredgamblers. the newInterLottositewillgrab gripped thenation,sonodoubt ● into http://www.atari.com. for Jaguarfans.Getyourclaws attractive websitecalledJagwire Jaguar. Nowithaslaunchedan some timeintheshapeof had aprettygoodplatformfor it’s easytoforgetthatAtarihas Playstation andtheSegaSaturn, Techies shouldcheckout Lottery feverhascertainly On theotherhandifyouarea surrounding Sony’s ith allthepublicity net.surf shoes aren’tavailableintheUK. just ashamethatmostofthe snowboarding videoclips.It’s company, aswellskateand range ofVans,ahistorythe an onlinecatalogueoftheentire net.com/Crash/Vans/. You’llfind site locatedathttp://www.direct- Vans shoesontheirnewweb can nowseetheentirerangeof time ofcoursebuteverybody real kind)haveknownforalong skateboarders andsurfers(the feet thesedays.Somethingthat coolest thingstowearonyour Show, skateshoesarethe ● VSL isonhttp://vsl.cnet.com/. and reviewsofpopularsoftware. contains itsownsearchengines designed andresearchedsite Library. Thisintelligently opened attheVirtualSoftware Mac andAmigasharewarehas ● //www.intel.com. on http://lanark.jf.intel.com/. tium Proonline3drenderer,too, entries toushereat small prize.Emailorpostyour phrase willberewardedwitha best alternativestothisawful from you.Theproposersofthe embarrassment, wewanttohear net” makesyouwrithewith If theexpression“surfing ● According totheClothes An excellentresourceforPC, Intel’s homepageisonhttp: Special Compo PCW . T things workismorelikelytobe internet, thespeedatwhich that. Whenyouareusingthe baud tomorethantentimes different speeds,from2400 municate withit.Theycomein puter withamodemandcom- puter todialinanothercom- (although ithelps). machine tolookaround be abletoviewgraphicsonyour modem. Youdon’tevenneedto long asyoucanplugitintoa connected totheinternetas A PCofalmostanyagecanbe What doIneedtogeton? access totheworldwideweb. people aroundtheworldhave of justtext.About15million pictures andmultimediainstead to pagesofinformationwith able free)togiveusersaccess special software(usuallyavail- vice ontheinternetwhichuses It isnottheinternet.aser- web? What istheworldwide doubling eachyear. million andthisappearstobe messages isestimatedtobe30 least exchangeelectronicmail those worldwidewhocanat users isdifficulttomeasure,but a globalnetwork.Thenumberof of computersinterconnectedin The internetconsistsofmillions What istheinternet? make themostofinternet. to thetoolswhichwillhelpyou Here’s aneasy-reference guide ened netters will callyou. novice —or“newbie”,ashard- guide totheinternetfor net.newbies Getting startedonthenet A modemallowsyourcom- be aneasy-to-usereference hese pagesaredesignedto providers andtelephonenum- at thesamerate.Alistof located: youarealwayscharged you areaccessingisphysically matter wheretheinformation connected, though,itdoesn’t long-distance phonerates.Once access, youmayhavetopay your homewhichoffersinternet a localnumber. country soyouonlyhavetodial presence) scatteredacrossthe bers youdial,PoPs(pointsof vice providerswillhavethenum- cable company.Thebiggerser- get freelocalcallsthrougha unless youareluckyenoughto costs ontopofanysubscription, will havetopayyourphone connection youhavesetup, to getonline.Whateverkindof to subscribeoneifyouwant provider” comesin—youhave to dial.Thisiswherea“service mation, ithastohaveanumber For amodemtobringyouinfor- Now what? Okay, I’vegotamodem. your phonebills. back theaddedcostbyreducing modem. Overtimeyou’llget go fora28,800baudV.34 as £100.Ifyouhavethemoney, few yearsandnowcostaslittle plummeted inpriceoverthepast vital. Fortunately,thesehave at least14,400baud“V32.bis”is modem whichrunsataspeedof services ontheinternet,a files, orusethemoreexciting sages, buttosendandreceive to exchangeelectronicmailmes- “V.22bis” modelisfastenough can afford.Anold2400baud computer. Buythefastestyou modem thanbythatofyour limited bythespeedofyour If there’snocompanynearto ter selectionofaccesssoftware. more personalserviceorabet- providers mayclaimtooffera although somehigher-priced offered islargelythesame, market. Thebasicservicebeing big enoughtodominatethe Internet access;noneofthem companies offeringthiskindof month. Therearedozensof between £8.50and£15per phone billcostsmore,currently only bythesizeofyourpotential for anyamountoftime,limited use emailandinternetservices net accesswhichallowsyouto Delphi offersthis.Butfullinter- costs around£5amonthand only provideselectronicmail issue ofPCW. supplement, bandedwiththis details, havealookatthe bers isavailablebelow.Formore Typically, asubscriptionthat a o –it’sprettyfoolproof. pay for–– providers, butyougetwhat expensive thantheotherinternet month. Compuserveismore set numberofhoursinthat you areonlineformorethana month, plusachargeperhourif cost between£6and£10per A monthlysubscriptiontendsto ness orconsumerinformation. libraries anddatabasesofbusi- games, vastindexedsoftware ware byelectronicmail,online support forhardwareandsoft- services includeofficialtechnical subscribers haveaccess.These own towhichonlytheir large numberofservicestheir Internet accessandalsohavea puserve orDelphinowoffer Major onlineserviceslikeCom- they offer? Online services:whatdo Demon Internetisthebest acquired online,freeofcharge. different, mostofitcanbe if youwanttochoosesomething software whenyousignup,and you withatleastsomeofthis service providershouldprovide written onlinesoftware.Any normally easiertousespecially- to accesstheseservices,itis Terminalcanbeused Windows services. to onlinemagazinesandother children tobrowse,plusaccess “censored” tomakeitsaferfor to theinternet,partially month itoffersunlimitedaccess service. For£8.50to£12.75per internet providerandanonline case, acrossbetweenan special or UKOnline.Onlineisa Pops inLondonandEdinburgh) Easynet (althoughitonlyhas better fortherawnewbieis absolute beginners.Perhaps doesn’t catertoowellfor standard internetoperatorsbut known andmostpopularofthe ESNLCMUE WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL Although programslike on page12. for thepost)toaddress “snailmail” (internet-speak compuserve.com [email protected]. us know.Contact any suggestions,pleaselet what’s writ If youdon’tunderstand Easynet email: [email protected] UK Online email: [email protected] email: [email protected] Demon email: [email protected] Delphi compuserve.com email:70006.101@csi. Compuserve PCW 0171 7577080 ONLINE 0181 3711000 0171 2090990 JANUARY 1996 ten here orhave 01749 333333 Contacts PCW 0800 289378 , or 245 ☎ ☎ ☎ ☎ ☎ CUTTING EDGE PCW ● FOCUS PCW ● FOCUS CUTTING EDGE CUTTING EDGE DIY Web pages madeeasy

If you’ve surfed the Web, chances are you’ve seen at least a few pages that Playing tag things that you might want on your page; it The “img” stands for image, and the next Let’s have a look at a really simple web would look pretty boring if that’s all you command, “src” says where the image is. If made you think: “I could do better than that.” Nigel Whitfield takes the pain out page, like the one shown in the screenshot. included. The first way of breaking up your it’s in a different directory, you can give the It’s got all the important things that you page is by putting in headings to divide all name inside the quotes as well, like of HyperTextMarkup Language. might want to put on your own page, like a the sections. For instance, the line “images/nigel.gif” — make sure that the picture and text with different headings.

All about Nigel

slashes point forwards, rather than You can write a web page using almost will create a heading in large bold backwards (like DOS or Windows). any program that lets you save text files. In type.The number after the “h” says how The last part of the command isn’t nec- or many people, the thought of anything the second screen, we’ve used Notepad, important the heading is;

is the most essary, but it’s good practice to put it in. Fto do with the internet seems technical which comes with Windows 3.1, and the important, and

the least, so by choos- “alt” stands for alternative, and the text and frightening — altogether much more text file is the HTML that produced the first ing the appropriate level you can make it inside the quotes will be displayed if your like computer programming than it should This is a screen. If you’re using a Macintosh, you can easy for people to find their way through page is read by a web browser that doesn’t be — but that needn’t be the case with Web simple use SimpleText instead. your document. display pictures. Many people turn off pic- pages. home There are two basic things to remember tures to save time when they’re web surfing, Over the next three months, we’ll be page, when you write an HTML document. The Picture this and they’ll also see the text. If you don’t use looking at all the important aspects of writ- using only first is that almost all the tags come in pairs. You can now put in text, with a title and “alt” people will either see a bare icon or the ing your own Web pages, and by the time a few For instance, if you want to give your page a headings. What about a picture? That’s word “IMAGE” which won’t give them much you’ve read this month’s article, you’ll be basic title, you would write: simple. Most web browsers let you include idea of what’s happening. able to create simple pages. commands images on the page, as long as they’re The final parts of our first page aren’t — you The second tag tells your web browser saved in GIF format. The line in the sample needed by some older web browsers, but Learning the lingo don’t need that it’s reached the end of the title section; page that displays a picture of me is this: you should always put them in, as newer Pages on the Web are written in a language to be an you can write the names of the tags in even display your page without them. guage. Don’t worry if the thought of a lan- wizard to doesn’t matter which. If you forget the end guage sounds intimidating; HTML isn’t get good tag, then everything else in your document really a programming language. If you’ve results will be taken to be the title — if the results ever used the “tags” facility in a DTP of your web page don’t look right, check to program like Quark or Ventura, you’ll be make sure that you’ve remembered the end You can able to understand HTML easily. ons for WordPerfect and Microsoft Word, so language” — it’s a “markup” language. parts of your tags. use a An HTML document just consists of the all you’ll have to do is point and click. So What this means is that, while a PostScript The second point to remember is that simple text with tags that tell a browser how the why spend three months learning how it document might contain commands to print when a web browser reads your document, editor like text should appear on the screen, or to do works? There are a couple of reasons. First, text in 24-point Times bold, you can’t do it automatically fits all the words to the Notepad specific things, like draw a horizontal line. not all the tools designed to help you write that in HTML. Instead you can say: “this is a width of the window, so if you want a new to write To make a Web page, all you need to do is Web pages can do all the things that you heading.” If the person reading it has told line in a particular place, you’ll have to say your web write the words and then add tags to say might want to and second, you’ll be able to their web browser to display headings in 24- so. There are special markers for things like pages. how you want them to appear — just like write much better web pages if you under- point Times bold, that’s what they’ll see, but new line and new paragraph, which don’t This is writing a page in your word processor and stand what’s really happening. they could just as easily set it to anything have to appear in pairs; the new paragraph the HTML then selecting which lines are headings, or When you design your web pages, else that they like. So, no matter how much marker is

, which you can see in the that which words appear in bold. remember that you don’t have complete effort you put into your pages, they could screenshot at the end of each section of produced There are now programs that make writ- control over how things will look. Unlike look very different when someone else looks text. the first ing Web pages that simple, including add- PostScript, HTML isn’t a “page description at them later. A title and paragraphs aren’t the only screen

246 247 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JANUARY 1996 JANUARY 1996 can dooneoftwothings—ittellthe can easilyinsertalinkbyusing“anchors.” feature ofapageislinks.Fortunately,you tures isallverywell,butthemostimportant Creating awebpagewithheadingsandpic- Anchors away you canreadthefileeasily. practice toleaveplentyofblanklinessothat whole pageononelongline—butit’sgood spaces betweentags—youcouldputthe automatically, youdon’tneedtohave look somethingliketheboxonright. The simplestpageyoucouldwritemight of thepage,andbodyispageitself. used togiveinformationincludingthename — the“head”and“body”.Theheadis these two,andaredividedintotwosections All thetagsforyourpagemustbebetween with thetag,andend. document isawebpage,yourfilemuststart JANUARY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 248 An anchorisaspecialtypeoftagthat Since webbrowsersformatyourpage To ensurethatnewbrowsersknowyour

1 CUTTING EDGE PCW When yousavethe document, makesure format —Wordwon’t you saveitinHTML remember foryou ● FOCUS . 3 Creating apagewithimagesandlinks has aname: place inthedocument. so thatpeoplecangostraighttoaparticular miniature tableofcontentsatthebeginning very handy—youcould,forinstance,puta useful, butifyouhavealongpageitcanbe from somewhereelse. it canbeamarkerthatpeoplejumpto browser wheretogowhenit’sclickedon,or page This isthetexttoappearon Here’s ananchor Each anchorthatyoucreateinthisway The secondtypemightnotsoundvery 2 Small butperfectly Windows though it’snotseeninWordfor browsers willdisplaythetitle, the Filemenuandtypeitin.Most select HTMLDocumentInfofrom 6.0a orlater then youcangrabitfromftp.microsoft.com.Rememberthatyou’llneedWord from thelistofdocumenttypes.Ifyoudon’thaveInternetAssistantforWord, formed To giveyourdocumentatitle, To startcreatingyourdocumentwithWord,selectFile..NewandthenHtml just anotherpage. file, whichcouldbeamovieclip,soundor “nigel2.htm” thenthebrowserwillreadthat name ofafileinthequotes,like the phrase“Clickhere”.Ifyoujustput and theendofanchortag—inthiscase click onwillbethetextbetweenstart on theinternet. Resource Locator),andcanpointanywhere Click here this: to gowhenyouclickonit,andlookslike reference —ittellsthewebbrowserwhere through thetext. anchors likethisareinvisibleifyoujustread dow —butitwon’tbehighlighted.Named tags willbeatthetopoftheirbrowserwin- someone jumpstoit,thetextbetween You canputareferenceanywherein The actuallinkonthepageforpeopleto The textinquotesistheURL(Uniform The othertypeofanchorisahypertext This anchoriscalled“info”andwhen 4 drop-down stylemenu. select theheadingyouwantfrom the headings, justhighlightthetextandthen another document.Ifyouwanttoadd You cantypeitinorjustcopyfrom This isthebasictextofdocument. h>Drawahorizontallineacrossthepage Forcethebrowsertomoveanewline Endallyourparagraphswiththistag Thesetagsmaketextitalic Textbetweenthesetagswillappearinboldtype Putthesearoundthe lowestlevelheading.Youcan Putthesetagsaroundthetextforatoplevelheading

---

... ... CreatealinktospecifiedURL

...

...

Insertthepicture“picname”,ordisplaytext Createalinktothenamedanchor“NAME” Createalinkto“filename”inthedirectory“path” Createanamedanchorcalled“NAME” ... Thetextbetweenthetagswillbetitleforyour ... ... Putthesetagsaroundthemaintextofyourpage ... Other tags: Thesedenotetheheadingofyour document,which Putthesearoundthewholeofyourdocument