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Best software library for an XT/AT?

DisplayWrite was the little cousin to the software running on the IBM 6580 Displaywriter. Does the monitor styling look familiar? It used an 8086 with a minimum 160K of DRAM--and could run CP/M-86 as well as UCSD Pascal.

The interesting thing about the DisplayWriter is that it was prety much useless without the printer for producing documents. Instead of a smart program and a dumb printer, it used not-so-smart software and a smart printer.

And it used EBCDIC.
 
SpidersWeb said:
Edit: most impressive WYSIWYG word processor for your XT - Ami or Ami Pro - they use the Windows 2.x libraries but don't require a Windows install, and I beleive this was the first true GUI word processor until it got owned by MS Word? I had it running on my XT - and while slow it was pretty cool! Only reason I don't put it on XT's is because of the speed issue - but an XT Clone or 286 and it would fly I suspect.
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No, Ami was not the first GUI word processor, not even the first one on Windows; NBI Legend/Legacy was available on Windows for several years before Ami came around. The big difference was that Ami was the first feature heavy PC GUI wordprocessor that worked at a reasonable speed. Legacy became the basis for the Windows versions of Wordstar.
 
Desqview ran on an 8086 though having EMS was very helpful; it worked better on a 386 with lots of memory.

Software Carousel was the big name in task switching but lots of others existed in the brief time between systems having the ability to handle multiple DOS apps and task switching being built into the OS or GUI.

Early Sidekick was so much better than the competition in the whole popup market. Later versions forgot about the need to be small and quick to appear.
 
For a text editor, I really liked E3 from IBM. The interface is easy to adjust to, works just fine for simple and quick editing jobs, and has some nice tools that aren't too common in other popular editors (rectangular block selection, etc). And if you need power, it's very much extensible and programmable.

Graphics packages... PC Paint 3.1 was quite nice and flexible, with support for 20 or so video modes. On a later system I'd give Autodesk Animator Pro a try, but I don't think it would play nice with an XT/AT.

Unknown_K said:
So what about task switchers like Borland Sidekick (Desqview needed a 386 I think)
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wasn't that just a collection of TSR tools? certainly useful, but not exactly a full task switcher, IIRC.
 
For multitasking I used PC-MIX on my 286 for years. This is not a task switcher. PC-MIX does not swap your programs out to disk. They always remain in memory. I would run my comm program (Telix), and whatever else was necessary, up to three programs, without the aid (or hinderence) of WinBlows.

View attachment PC-MIX.ZIP

Try it. It will even run on a 5150. And with EMS support it works even better. I bet you'll like it.
 
- Libraries
- - Utilities

PC-Mag (PC-Mag)
DOSNIX (Vrooman)

Pick and choose, but DM (at 8k) replaces most file managers and listers quite adequately.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Lotus 1-2-3 would head the list. It's why many bought PCs and XTs--in much the same way that a lot of Apples were sold to run VisiCalc.
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I recently bought an original copy of Lotus 1-2-3 ver 1.1, the entire thing is complete and in fabulous conidition, I thought it would look "pwetty" next to my IBM PC's :)
 
One category I would love to have is all the engineering type apps that came out for the early PC in the 1980's. Just the manuals for that software would be killer to have. Sadly I am sure it is all trashed.

Sometime this weekend I will pick a laptop and start cataloging all my apps in Excel.
 
Just got in a couple apps from BOEING (airplain maker made software?). Anyway I got Boeing Calc and Graph, Calc is supposed to be the first spreadsheet with pages. Never heard of this stuff before, hope the disks image ok (will find out later).

Some info:

http://www.boeingcalc.com/
 
It's a shame Daniel's page doesn't have copies of the actual apps. I'd love to get my hands on Menu Works. Seems like it's not easy to find on abandonware sites.
 
I don't have Menu Works but I do have Direct Access v5.0 which is very similar and one of the best menu systems of its time.
 
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