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favorite software

T

Terry Yager

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Joined
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What is your favorite software of all time? What one program would you say is the most useful, elegant or just plain fun? This question includes ALL classes of software; programming languages, operating systems, whatever...
For myself, the all-time favorite program (besides CP/M itself) is a utility for CP/M called Nsweep. That one program made CP/M so much more user friendly that it was actually a pleasure to use. Anyone else remember this one?

--T
 
I don't remember NSweep but I do remember the Bruce Artwick Flight Simulator for the Apple ][. That was, at the time, one of the most impressive programming efforts I'd ever seen.

From what I understand some of the basic code and/or concepts are still in use in the Microsoft Flight Simulator of today.

Erik
 
Various versions of Xtree (pro, gold) software got me through the DOS era, Norton utilities/Antivirus has been usefull from my first 286 to my current athlon XP.

I got alot of use from lotus 123 DOS, Amipro 2&3 windows 3.1, Excel all windows versions.

I loved Testpoint for data aquisition and control.

Telix was great during my BBS days.

I wont bore you with my favorite games, list would be long anyway.
 
I would have to say that the original Scott Adam's Adventure program is at the top of my list. XYZZY....oops, guess that doesn't work here! But a close second is Fool's Errand. When Fool's Errand came out for the early Macs, it nearly shut down our programming department for 2 weeks until everyone completed all the puzzles and ultimately the final one.

Anybody else remember these two titles?

Craig
 
Unknown_K said:
Various versions of Xtree (pro, gold) software got me through the DOS era
Click to expand...

I've used many different versions of XTREE and still use Xtree gold version 2.55 now and then.

It's not as useful in a long filename world but then neither am I.
 
collectorcraig said:
I would have to say that the original Scott Adam's Adventure program is at the top of my list.
Click to expand...

There is a module for the TI-99/4 series named Adventure. Many of the Scott Adams files can be loaded in and played with it:

Pirate (came with the module)
Adventureland
Mission Impossible
Voodoo Castle
The Count
Strange Oddysee
Mystery Funhouse
Pyramid of Doom
Ghost Town
Savage Island I & II
Golden Voyage

Then users added several other games which I think I have but haven't played much.

ISTR that Adventureland might be the one you refer to. Also they are PD now.
 
Scott Adams' and all the other Adventureland International titles were available on almost all computers of the day, either released by AI themselves or licence bought by the computer manufacturer. I have a few low-quality COMPUTE! scans of a multi-page Adventureland International advertisment:

http://www.mds.mdh.se/~dal95acn/tidning/ai-pics/

As you might see, Apple II, Atari 400/800, Commodore 64 and Plus/4, Texas Instruments, Color Computer, IBM (PC), TRS-80 and CP/M are listed. VIC-20 versions were available through Commodore themselves, and since this ad is from a US magazine, I'm sure the European computers also had a fair share of Scott Adams.

Edit: also look at the advertisment for STRÄTOS and compare the TRS-80 and Atari screenshots :)

See also this link, about obtaining free downloads of the adventures:

http://www.if-legends.org/~aimemorial/copy.html

It seems Scott accepts payments, but wants big checks if it should be worth the costs to cash them in (so either pay nothing or a lot to play these classics!)
 
Wow, do I ever like the covers from this file:

Adventures: U.K. distribution of #1 - #4.

Those covers would have suckered me in to buying those Scott Adams games for sure!

Chris
 
Re: favorite software

Terry Yager said:
What one program would you say is the most useful, elegant or just plain fun?
Click to expand...
Oh. Emacs of course. Nothing beats Emacs. Well, almost nothing at least. I believe there is a MEmacs or TEmacs for the C128, but often these mini or tiny versions have stripped away too many features to be as powerful as the real one is.
 
My favourite of all time is Sycero dB - it can create a Clipper stock control application in three hours, including table creation, compilation and linking.
Created many complex applications with it in the 1990s

Mike
 
Re: favorite software

"Terry Yager" wrote:

> What is your favorite software of all time?
> What one program would you say is the
> most useful, elegant or just plain fun?
> This question includes ALL classes of
> software; programming languages,
> operating systems, whatever...

> For myself, the all-time favorite program
> (besides CP/M itself) is a utility for CP/M
> called Nsweep. That one program made
> CP/M so much more user friendly that it
> was actually a pleasure to use. Anyone
> else remember this one?

Yeah, but I like pip b:=a:filename.ext[Gu V]
because it's much quicker! ;-)

But I don't really have a favourite program,
CP/M is what I use when I want to do some
programming & Turbo Pascal is what I'm
good at, but I wouldn't say they were my
favourites!

Looking a bit broader, I like my Amstrad
emulator Caprice more, which has save
me the time of booting up the ol' Amstrad
& because it's DOS based so it runs well!
It also lets me run CP/M & do some
programming with TP through that, so at
the moment, that would be my favourite
program! :)

Cheers,
CP/M User.
 
Re: favorite software

CP/M User said:
Yeah, but I like pip b:=a:filename.ext[Gu V]
because it's much quicker! ;-)

Cheers,
CP/M User.
Click to expand...

Ok, lemme see if I even remember pip. I think this command will copy a file from another user area to the one currently logged, with verification. (Provided you have already figgered out how to place PIP.COM into that user area. DDT anyone?) Nsweep does the same thing, but so much easier. You just select the filename(s) from a menu then hit (M)ass file copy, and then you are asked what drive/user area you wish to copy to. (Usually I'm not much on menu-driven programs, I greatly prefer a good ol command line any day, but typing in all those filenames cn get rather tedious.)

--T
 
Re: favorite software

"Terry Yager" wrote:

>> Yeah, but I like pip b:=a:filename.ext[Gu V]
>> because it's much quicker! ;-)

> Ok, lemme see if I even remember pip. I think
> this command will copy a file from another user
> area to the one currently logged, with verification.

Yes, the [Gu] extension is used for copying between
user areas. Say you want a file in user 3, you could
go to user 3 then copy 'pip b:=b:filename.ext[G0]'
which would copy a file from user area 0 to user area
3. But it can certainally quite simple, like
'pip a:=b:filename.ext' which would copy a file from b
drive to a drive.

> (Provided you have already figgered out how to
> place PIP.COM into that user area. DDT anyone?)

I've only used PIP.CMD in CP/M-86 on the Hard Disk
drive & of course I've set it to [sys] (which means it's
loadable anywhere on the Hard Disk regardless of the
user area - I haven't really mastered it on my
Amstrad where it just uses Floppies). Of course on a
hard disk, if I'm using the floppy drive, I can use
'b:pip a:=b:filename.ext' or whatever (b: is my hard
disk! :)

I've used DDT86 a little bit, & I have some notes on
the commands used, but not a lot of them
unfortunately.

> Nsweep does the same thing, but so much easier.
> You just select the filename(s) from a menu then
> hit (M)ass file copy, and then you are asked what
> drive/user area you wish to copy to. (Usually I'm
> not much on menu-driven programs, I greatly
> prefer a good ol command line any day, but typing
> in all those filenames cn get rather tedious.)

I have used Nsweep in CP/M-86 & while I respect
your views, I think it's a good tool for those who are
baffled using PIP. PIP took a little while for me to
understand it better. The most important thing I
found was to keep the options brackets '[]' next to
the directory or filename. A space between those
and an error would result. PIP for myself under
CP/M-86 (which I enjoy more since there is Hard
Disks facilities) I feel seems more convient way of
copying the files, even though it's tricky to learn &
master (with the variety of options), & other file
copyiers I have also seen for other varients of
CP/M (such as ARCOPY).

Cheers,
CP/M User.
 
Well, I have found another use for NSWP, something I couldn't have done without it. When my K10 hard drive crashed, not only did it disappear half of my directory, it filled the directory with a bunch of files that had nothing but (un-typeable) graphics characters for filenames. I couldn't ERA these files (and free up the space they had allocated), because I couldn't type in the filenames, and I didn't want to use ERA *.*, because I wanted to save the files that were still "good". I ran NSWP tho, and it displayed all the "illegal" filenames just fine, and allowed me to delete them with a "d" command. If it weren't for NSWP, I would have had to spend *hours* with a disk-editing program, tracking down the offending filenames and deleting them byte-by-byte. As it was, I had my directory cleaned up in just minutes.

--T
 
Favorite Software

Favorite Software

On Unix and Unix-like environments, I'd have to say VI (or more specifically VIM, where available) is my favorite program. I have had to work on many different Unix boxes in my career, some locally, and some very long distance. The one thing I have found common to all of them is they have some version of VI (be it the original, NVI, VIM, Elvis, ...) installed on them. I guess that's why I lean towards VI instead of Emacs.

On DOS, my favorite program was WordStar. I used it for most everything I did, until we (the U.S. Navy) switched to WordPerfect (then later to MS Word). When I was teaching myself 8086 Assembler, I used WordStar (in non-document mode) as my text editor. I also particularly liked SideKick because the text editor used WordStar key mappings. I still miss that program!

It's hard to pick my favorite game, mainly because I'm not much of a gamer. I think probably Wolfenstein 3-D and/or the original Doom stick with me more, mainly because they were ground-breaking. I have become quite addicted to playing NetHack on my Linux machine though.

As for my favorite programming language of all time, I'd have to go with C. I do work in other languages, but none of them quite match the minimalistic elegance and power embodied by C. I guess it makes me feel kind of macho, in a geek sort of way ;-)
 
On MSDOS machines, CMFiler. A Norton Commander-like utility that
I viewed as essential for getting DOS boxes working. I still use it even on Win 98 in a window. Displays Hex and can edit code or display the text
component and so much else. Written by Charles Martin. An amazingly
versatile tool.
 
"Micom 2000" wrote:

> On MSDOS machines, CMFiler. A
> Norton Commander-like utility that
> I viewed as essential for getting
> DOS boxes working. I still use it
> even on Win 98 in a window.
> Displays Hex and can edit code or
> display the text component and so
> much else. Written by Charles Martin.
> An amazingly versatile tool.

I had XTree Gold on my XT, which was
good to start off, but for some reason
after the XT pack it in the first time,
XTree Gold wasn't the same & seemed
to be missing stuff (I think), or DOS
was properly setup to use the tools it
provided.

The version I had was more suitable for
FAT 16 too, which mean't that it didn't
look good for FAT 32 (with the long
Filenames!).

Cheers,
CP/M User.
 
I used xtree and later revisions from the dos era to windows 95 where I didnt need it anymore (the windows version of xtree didnit initialy use the same shortcuts so I dropped it)
 
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