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Early 1980's software question.

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ChrisCwmbran

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I know this section is for hardware questions really but this is very much a relevant era question.

Back when I worked for an IBM dealership in London as a teenager we used to sell a suite of software called Smart, which was 4 manuals and disks in a transparent plastic box of perhaps 11 inches per dimension. It was something that competed with Lotus 1-2-3 etc.

Does anyone remember what this was please?
 
I vaguely remember a mid-80s accounting called Smart (something); it was in the backroom of my employer in the early 90s. Though if you are a bit younger, you could be remembering one of the boxes for Lotus (IBM) SmartSuite for about 1992.
 
Yup. Innovative Software, Inc. brought out their Smart Business Suite sometime around 1985. Smart Suite was mostly intended for large corporate users (i.e. per-seat licenses) and even offered Xenix versions of their software. Sometime around 1988, they merged with Informix, which then spun off the business software operation as Ascential in 2001. IBM purchased Ascential in 2005, after having picked up Informix's database operation in 2003.

Big fish eating littler fish...
 
That sounds about right. I used to have the package... but when my parents moved about 20 years ago all my computer stuff I had at the time vanished....

I am told that there may still be boxes in the garage that haven't been unpacked since the move though! So maybe my own original IBM PC Portable and Smart will be there.... though sadly I think this may be wishful thinking.

Still I have my recently acquired IBM PC Portable to fix... so I only need to find the Smart software!!
 
There are many places, but I'm not sure whether we're allowed to link to them or not. A Google search for abandonware sites would be a good starting place, but most of them are games-oriented. You might have better luck with one that rhymes with "fetusware."
 
commodorejohn said:
There are many places, but I'm not sure whether we're allowed to link to them or not. A Google search for abandonware sites would be a good starting place, but most of them are games-oriented. You might have better luck with one that rhymes with "fetusware."
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Interesting site. Sadly the piece of software in question isn't one that they have however I can see plenty of stuff on there that is of interest.
 
ChrisCwmbran said:
I know this section is for hardware questions really but this is very much a relevant era question.

Back when I worked for an IBM dealership in London as a teenager we used to sell a suite of software called Smart, which was 4 manuals and disks in a transparent plastic box of perhaps 11 inches per dimension. It was something that competed with Lotus 1-2-3 etc.

Does anyone remember what this was please?
Click to expand...

The SMART package as I recall was (and is I imagine) a suite of programs including a DB manager, Word processor and spread sheet with it's own language similar to BASIC. You could use the language to program (obviously) and send data back and forth to the different modules. Problem was (as I saw it anyhow.) the PC could only hold one module at a time and most of the data was stored on the hard drive. Ad that to the interpreted language and blazing slow 11mhz (IIRC) AT speed and you got a slooooooow process the data had to be input during the day and batched in the evenings. Of course we weren't ;-). the greatest programmers out there which may have something to do with it. Neat that others recall this package.
 
marc.hull said:
The SMART package as I recall was (and is I imagine) a suite of programs including a DB manager, Word processor and spread sheet with it's own language similar to BASIC. You could use the language to program (obviously) and send data back and forth to the different modules. Problem was (as I saw it anyhow.) the PC could only hold one module at a time and most of the data was stored on the hard drive. Ad that to the interpreted language and blazing slow 11mhz (IIRC) AT speed and you got a slooooooow process the data had to be input during the day and batched in the evenings. Of course we weren't ;-). the greatest programmers out there which may have something to do with it. Neat that others recall this package.
Click to expand...

Exactly. When I sit back and think even though I was a youngster how much time I spent developing mail merge routines etc for different companies.....

It must be available somewhere!
 
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