IIINovember 1985 Volume 8 Issue 11 £1.25 PRACTICAL COMPUTING FOR BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL MICRO USERS POWER PROGRAMS SPECIAL: TOP SOFTWARE FOR BUSINESS PLUSWin a £3,000 Hewlett-Packard laser printer! Amstrad: real WP at last for only £399 plus VAT? TESTSKaypro 2000 Philips Yes Turbo Pascal ELEPHANT printer ribbons, head cleaning disks and computer cleaning kits are now added to the ELEPHANT family to provide you with a total computer supplies package. Together with ELEPHANT MEMORY SYSTEMS disks - certified 100% error free and problem free and guaranteed to meet or exceed every industry standard - ELEPHANT is now more than ever the trusted brand that gives you the best from your computer. Dennison ELEPHANT NEVER FORGETS Dennison Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Colonial Way, Watford, Herts WD2 4JY, Tel: Watford (0923) 41244, Telex: 923321 Prance: Soroclass, 45, rue de l'Est - 92100, Boulogne. Tel. Reseau de Distribution: 605.98.99, Administration des Ventes: 605.70.78, Telex: EMS 206 436 F Germany: Marcom Computerzubehor GmbH, Podbielskistr, 321, 3000 Hannover 51, Tel: (0511) 647420, Telex: 923818 Italy: King Mec SPA, Via Regio Parco 108 BIS, 10036 Settimo, Torinese, Tel: (011) 800.93.93, Telex: 211467 KINMEC-I Other Countries: Dennison International Company, 4006 Erkrath 1, Matthias-Claudius-Strasse 9, Telex: 858 6600 Circle No. 101 COVER FEATURE NEWS HARDWARE NEWS °PRACTICAL ICL's PC Quattro 1 5 SOFTWARE NEWS Cheap, new Micropro COMPUTINGword processor 21 NOVEMBER 1985 CONTENTS AMSTRAD PCW-8256 Printer, screen, keyboard, disc drive and software: all for £399? Glyn Moody finds out 82 how well Amstrad has done the impossible PHILIPS YES POWER Philips' IBMPCcompatible is faster than the AT but uses 3.5in. discs. Jack Schofield says 88IBM NEWS SOFTWARE yes and no to the product Olivetti M-24 SP 23 Our special feature looks at GENERAL NEWS business software packages Computer of the Year which give the extra KAYPRO 2000 awards 29 performance that power users At last, a machine from Kaypro that is stylish need. Ian Stobie explains as well as sturdy. Jack Schofield investigates a PCW SHOW NEWS exactly who these users are, and truly portable IBMulator 90 Software for the Atari on page 122 provides a 520ST 30 comprehensive list of the powerMAC CHARLIE OPEN FILE packages now available. On Turn your Mac into anIBM PC with this page 124 Mike Lewis looks at amazing Macintosh add-on. Now you can CONTENTS Rbase and Reflex, two top- 93 wear Bermuda shorts and be a stuffed shirt This month's offerings 131 flight databases, and Ian Stobie concludes the feature on page BBC 128 with an in-depth review of TURBO PASCAL Key lister 132 FORECASTING Microsoft's Excel super-121 What is the best environment to work in? spreadsheet Barry Clark thinks this award -winning 94 How to keep safe stock implementation of Pascal may well be it levels 137 INSIDE WORDSTAR Printer control -code THE PRIORITY SYSTEM check 141 Paul Myerscough looks at the decision - APPLE support system that didn't quite solve the 101 Pascal calendar 145 miner's strike RM MS WINDOWS Best straight line on 380Z149 After some delay Microsoft's multi -tasking 104 answer to Digital Research's Gem is here REGULARS EDITORIAL Exit the mainframe? 5 Amstrad PCW-8256 WP BONNIE BLUE FEEDBACK was never cheaper. An IBM PC word processor for under £100. Your letters 7 Susan Curran finds out if it's true that you 109 CHIP -CHAT get what you pay for DEC mini on a chip 53 SOFTWARE SOFTWARE THEFT WORKSHOP The copyright law has been tightened up, but Big sorts 55 COMMS LINK does it mean the pirates are sunk? David 110 Bainbridge investigates Imo On-line help 61 THE LEVY SERIES Three-card Brag 63 LASERJET COMPETITION INTERVIEW Your chance to win the latest in printing lann Barron of Inmos 69 technology, a Hewlett-Packard Laserjet worth 112 ASK PC over £3,000 mom You ask, we answer 71 NEXT MONTH TOP 10 MULTI -USERS What's on the stocks 77 Kaypro 2000 IBM BOOKS compatibility in a stylish Many users for the price of one: Glyn Moody 115 Tomes of reference portable package. looks at the pros and cons 153 PRACTICAL COMPUTING November 1985 3 ZERO DEFECT GUARANTEED Fuji Film's achievements in Floppy Disk technology are defining new stand- ards for data protection, durability, capacity and convenience. The anatomy of our floppy disk displays Fuji's meticulous attention to detail and their professional approach to end user requirements. The culmination of extensive research and de- velopment combined with advanced manufacturing facilities have produced the widest range of advanced media to com- plement todays sophisticated PC's. For further information about this tough new breed of floppies, simply call Mike Brunt on 01-586 5900. T5'!'FciluIs'i47FIc't"-i-iisLi7'7747176HIA7i'615D0 Circle No. 142 4 EDITORIAL 01-66 3609 Telecom Gold 81:JET727 Editor JACK SCHOFIELD L cputy Ed tor GLYN MOODY Assistant Editor IAN STOBIE Art Editor HUGH ANDERSON Production Editor JOHN LIEBMANN Sub -editor CAROL HAMMOND Editorial Secular, SUE JORDAN Consultants CHRIS BIDMEAD, PETER LAURIE ADVERTISING 01-661 3612 Advertisement Manager NITIN JOSHI 01-661 3021 Assistant Advertisement Manager NEIL MARCHANT 01-661 8626 Advertisement Executives TONY KEEFE 01-661 8425 JANET THORPE 01-661 3468 Advertisement Secretary JULIE HOOKWAY Midlands and North DAVID BARKER 061-872 8861 Classified SUSAN PLATTS 01-661 8163 PUBLISHER GAVIN HOWE Will mainframes survive? In the beginning was the micro. Then came the reduction in the relative size of storage units over the personal computer, whereupon IBM hijacked the last five years has been 15 percent compound per name. Now PC means, primarily, the IBM year. So even under the status quo, unless there is a PC. After that it means any other kind of personaldramatic breakthrough in packing density, every computer - if you're lucky. However, even the PC isfloor of every office is going to be filled with main- going out of fashion. The coming thing is the "workframe disc drives within the forseeable future. station" . But the status quo is not going to be maintained. Today the real computer user no longer has aAs we have seen, the trend in personal computing is micro. Instead he or she has a desk -top PC linked toto connect PC -based work stations to mainframes. the corporate mainframe - that is, a work station. Perhaps the idea is distributed processing, but the Thismarketing ploy helpsthebig computerresult is simply that individual users increase the manufacturers to sell micros to the data-processingstrain on the processing and storage capabilities of Cover feature: page 121 departments of big companies, some of which hatealready overburdened mainframes. This will lead to Photo: Philip Habib micros on principle. catastrophe and collapse, and then to ire, envy and PUBLISHEDbyElectrical -Electronic Press, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, It also skirts round the problem described in last despair. Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS. Tel: 01-661 month's editorial, which is that the PC or IBM PC Practical Computing does not believe that the 3500. Telex/grams 892084 BISPRS G standard is rapidly going out of date. Why should mainframe industry, whileit may decline, will DISTRIBUTED byBusinessPress International Ltd, Quadrant House, The anyone buy a PC when there are new micros comingactually wither away and die. Nor do we subscribe Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS that offer the same power, or twice the power, forto the popular view expressed by Will Zachmann, SUBSCRIPTIONS: UK £15.50per annum;overseas f23.00per annum; about half or a quarter of the cost? Well, it's OKvice-president of corporateresearchforanalyst selling price in Eire subject to currency because you are not buying a micro at all, but some-International Data Corporation, that "over the next exchange fluctuations and VAT; airmail ratesavailableonapplicationto thing much grander: a work station. few years even the largest [mainframe] manufacturer Subscriptions Manager, BusinessPress There is no argument that some IBM compatibleswill be understood as peripheral to the PC desk -top InternationalLtd,OakfieldHouse, currently offer good value in personal businesswork station, and not as now the other way around". PerrymountRoad,HaywardsHeath, Sussex RH16 3DH. Tel: (0444) 459188 computing. This is not just a matter of the price/ We think the mainframe suppliers will eventually PRINTED inGreatBritainforthe performance ratio. Such factors as the availability ofsurvive by modernising the creaking dinosaurs they proprietors Business Press International Ltd by Greenaway Harrison Web Offset software and hardware adds-ons, ergonomics, hot-sell today. And we think the microcomputer market Division, Southend-on-Sea. Typeset by line support, durability, maintenance and repairwill continue to go from strength to strength. Lithotype Design,London EC1 ©Business Press International Ltd 1985 costs must also be taken into account. Then theWhether the PC or PC work station will still be part ISSN 0141-5433 purchase of a PC - even an IBM PC - may be theof the micro market, or whether it will atrophy in the Would-be authors are welcome to send right choice for many users. The problem withdeathly grip of corporate data processing, remains a articlesto the Editor but PC cannot undertake to return them. Payment is at the work stationconceptisthatmainframe - matter of curiosity, but little real importance. The £35 per published page. Submissions compatibility is being used as a substitute for thatreal micro market can live without it. should be typed Of computer -printed and should include a tape or disc of any kind of analysis. program. As a result, users are ending up with computers that are quite inappropriate to their needs. AndEIYEARS AGO... companies are spending three or four times as muchNowadays,the arrival of a new 64K micro on the as they should be, for installations that perform less market is almost a daily event.