Source: Byte – May 1985

How many people have even seen a 600 page magazine? Magazines are much more uncommon than they used to be and I don’t think any exist these days of this size. But in 1985, that’s how big Byte was. Just spending 5 seconds per page flipping through this behemoth would still take you most of an hour. The March 1985 issue includes:

Features

• Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar: Build the Touch-Tone Interactive Message System – A design for a touch-tone messaging system ultimately designed to be part of an integrated home-control and voice-messaging system.

• Factfinder – A text-oriented database for the to Macintosh.

• Arithmetic on Your PC – Using strings and arrays to perform various operations on a 200 digit number.

• Build a Serial Card – Save $85 by building your own serial card using this design instead of buying one.

• Two Flat-Display Technologies – A look at gas-plasma and electroluminescent display technology. These were used mostly in portable machines. I always really liked the amber gas plasma displays (some Toshiba laptops used these). I don’t think I’ve ever seen an electroluminescent display and I believe these were more expensive and less common.

• Navigation: Putting the Microcomputer to Work at Sea – Navigating the ocean using a personal computer.

• A Unit-Conversion Algorithm – An algorithm and BASIC implementation to convert from one base to another and between different measurement systems such as Metric and English.

Themes

• Build Your Dream Editor – A look at customizable editors for the PC including VEDIT, PMATE, P-Edit, and BRIEF.

• The Commodore 64 80-Column Terminal – Details for building an interface for the Commodore 64 that lets it operate as an 80 column terminal. Normally, the Commodore 64 can only display 40 columns. Incidentally, in the early 1990s I used a shareware terminal program called NovaTerm for calling BBSes that did this in software. Probably not as high quality as a hardware solution but it was acceptable.

• The Kit Solution – A look at the 80186 based Slicer single board kit computer. It includes 256K of RAM and could also be purchased as a complete system.

• Public-Domain Gems – A look at recent public domain software for the PC and Mac. Some titles include PC-Talk III (terminal software for the PC), RBBS-PC (BBS for the PC), Fido (including FidoNet), PC-File (database), PC-Write (word processor), Core War (game), MVP Forth (programming language), and more.

• An XLISP Tutorial – A tutorial for this free LISP derivative. I used SCHEME, another LISP derivative, for one class in college. These languages were designed with recursion and AI in mind.

• Budget 3-D Graphics – A look at SURF, an inexpensive software package for DOS that can produce 3D plots.

Reviews

• The Altos 586 with the XENIX Development System – This machine, starting at $8990, includes a terminal, 10 MHz Intel 8086, the Xenix operating system, a double-sided quad-density floppy drive, and 512K of RAM, a 20 MB hard drive and more.

• The NEC APC III – A computer design for businesses that features an 8-MHz 8086, high-res color graphics (640 x 400), a 5.25″ floppy drive, and 256K of RAM. However, it only has limited PC compatibility.

• Atari 800XL – This was probably my favorite version of the Atari 8-bit computer (though I still prefer the Commodore 64).

• Dazzle Draw – A paint program for the Apple IIC/IIe that allows you to paint with 16 colors.

• The KoalaPad – The KoalaPad is a touch pad interface and drawing tablet. This is a review for the Apple II version though there were versions for a variety of other platforms including the Commodore 64.

• FriendlyWriter and FriendlySpeller – A simple word processor for DOS.

• Tecmar’s JrCaptain – A memory expansion board that can expand the PCjr to up to 512KB of RAM.

Kernel

• Computing At Chaos Manor: On The Road: Hackercon and COMDEX – Discussion and reviews of various products including Animation Toolkit, CD ROM, CineMAC Upgrade Kit, DB Master, Fast Finder, Hyperdrive, Macintosh, MacVision, Mite, Pascal MT+ Professional BASIC, Smartline Smartboard, Wizardry, Wordstar 2000, and Write Once.

• BYTE West Coast: Up to Date – A look inside the Hacker’s Conference (probably not what you are thinking) plus a first look at GEM.

• BYTE U.K.: Multitasking FORTH – With FORTH, multitasking systems can be built even on small machines such as the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX81.

• BYTE Japan: A Sampler – A look at Turbo Pascal, Megabit RAMs, UNIX, PC-UX, the PC-9801F3, the NEC APC III, the IBM JX, and Wordstar 2000.

• Editorial: Another World: The 68000 – A variety of upcoming 68000 computers offer alternatives to the IBM PC and its clones. These included the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST among others.

• Microbytes – MSX computers shown at CES (though none were for sale), wrist computers in Japan, new Braille printer from Visualtek, and more.

• Letters – Letters from readers with topics such as Revelation from Cosmos, fractals, Unix Vs. XENIX, adding a PC hard drive, and more.

• What’s New – A brief look at new products including the Atari 130ST and 520ST, the Atari 65XE and 130XE, the Sharp portable PC-2500, the Commodore LCD, the Okimate 120 printer, three new printers from Epson, Word 2.0, the GS-32 single board computer, the Footmouse, and more.

• Ask BYTE – Questions answered about searching large amounts of text, information about Atari and Commodore computers, acoustic modems for the Atari 600XL, RS-232C interfaces for the Commodore 64, code translators, and more.

• Book Reviews – Reviews of UNIX Primer Plus by Howard W. Sams & Co., The Business Guide to the UNIX System by Jean L. Yates and Sandra Emerson, Understanding UNIX: A conceptual Guide by Paul Weinberg and James R. Groff, A Practical Guide to the UNIX System by Mark G. Sobell, The UNIX Programming Environment by Brian W. Kernighan and Robert Pike, and The UNIX System by Stephen R. Bourne.

• Programming Insights – Hyper, a program for factoring large numbers. Plus, emulating the MAC10.

• Application Note – Tips for using the SUBMIT utility in CP/M.

…and more!