Source: Byte – October 1982

Byte covered a wide variety of systems over the course of its live form the 1970s until the 1990s. In 1982, the IBM PC was still new and it wasn’t yet clear that IBM PC compatibility would come to dominate both home and business. Issues were generally pretty massive at this time with the October 1982 issue containing well over 500 pages. It includes:

Features

• Beyond the Peaks of Visicalc – A look at more complex financial planning applications than a spreadsheet (of which Visicalc was the main representative at this point). Packages looked at here include Desktop Plan II, Microfinesse, and Plan80.

• Build the Microvox Text-to-Speech Synthesizer, Part 2: Software – The second in a series on building your own speech synthesizer. This part concentrates on creating the software to make it work.

• What Makes Business Programming Hard? – A case study in writing software for a bank.

• Adapting Microcomputers to Wall Street – Microcomputers as a tool for financial investors. At this point, it’s hard to imagine NOT having computers as tools.

• Putting Real-World Interfaces to Work, Part 1 – Part one of a two-part series on monitoring the physical environment (things like temperature, water level, light level, pressure, etc.) with a TRS-80 Model I, TRS-80 Model III, and TRS-80 Color Computer.

• The State of Industrial Robotics – A look at how robots were currently being used in industry, still a relatively new thing at this time.

• Marketplace – A type-in BASIC telecomputing game for two TRS-80 Model IIIs in which you compete in marketing a product with another person.

• Ringquest – A type-in adventure game for the Apple II that originated on the Commodore PET.

• The Case of the Purloined Object Code, Part 2 – The second in a two part series on software protection from both a technical and legal standpoint.

• User’s Column – A comparison of BASIC and Pascal speed, the best language for different purposes, and more.

• An Introduction to the Human Applications Standard Computer Interface, Part 1 – A standard for personal computer interfaces.

• The Personal Computer as an Interface to a Corporate Management Information System – Building an intelligent terminal interface for the Apple II in Pascal specifically designed to work with GEISCO Mark III time sharing service.

• Software Arts’ TK Solver – A look at a new toolkit based equation solver from Software Arts called TK Solver. Essentially, it is like an electronic calculator for solving algebraic equations.

• Naming Your Software – Considering trademarks when naming your software.

• Program Your Own Text Editor, Part 2 – Part two of a series on creating a text editor. Source code in assembly for the Z80/8080 is provided.

Reviews

• Radio Shack Compiler BASIC – A BASIC compiler for the TRS-80 Model I and Model III.

• Wyse Technology’s WY-100 Terminal – At the time, standalone terminals were still a thing but they would soon be replaced by IBM PCs and other personal/small business computers with terminal emulation software.

• EduWare’s Statistics 3.0 – The latest update to a statistical package for the Apple II.

• Systems Plus: FMS-80 – While referred to as a file management system by the maker, FMS-80 is really a type of DBMS. It runs on systems with an 8080 or Z80 processor running CP/M.

Nucleus

• Editorial – Answers to frequently asked questions such as what’s the best computer to buy, buy now or wait, which OS will be the standard, which processor will be the leader in five years, etc.

• Letters – Letters from readers about a standard BASIC, RSCOBOL, IBM, alternate repair services, double density disks on the Osborne 1, and more.

• Programming Quickies – A BASIC program for generating Mohr’s Circle (a way to find the principal stresses due to combined loads).

• Book Reviews – A of VisiCalc: Home and Office Companion by David M. Castiewitz, Lawrence J. Chisausky, Patricia Kronberg, and L. D. Chukman.

• Ask BYTE – Questions answered about letter quality printers for the Apple II Plus, addressing more that 64KB with a 6502, 8-inch disk drives vs. 5.25-inch disk drives, cassette recorders for the VIC-20, music on the ZX-81, and more.

• BYTELINES – Rumors of Osbourne working on an 80-column display for its portable computer; Morrow Designs to introduce CP/M-based system for $1195; DEC to introduce PDP-11/23 with 256K RAM and 10.8 MB hard drive with support for up to 8 users for $9200; AT&T to enter computer business; IBM to provide improved version of EasyWriter; Apple to drop price of Apple II from $2604 to under $2000; Radio Shack drops price of TRS-80 Model III with 1 floppy drive from $1995 to $1849 and with 2 floppy drives from $2495 to $2295; S-100 bus to be an official standard by the following year (near the end of its life); Grid Compass shows machines with flat panels; techniques being researched for erasable optical disks; and much more.

• What’s New? – Atari markets Telelink II communications kit; new Multifunction Utility Board for the Heath H-89; Mean Green 12-inch green monitor; Hayes Smartmodem 1200 ($699); Pi-3 amber monitor from USI International; 3-inch disk driver from Amdek; portable HP-75C computer from Hewlett-Packard; Zenith Data Systems Z100 series S-100 based computers; DEC introduces the Professional 350 and 325, DECmate II and Rainbow 100; new database for the PET and VIC-20; The Big Four accounting package for the Olivetti M-20; Deadline from Infocom; and lots more.

…and more!