PING: Charles Self

[sammy]

It is still a local company. We started out in Smyrna, moved to Kennesaw, moved to Marietta, and then moved back to Kennesaw. All in Georgia :-)

-- Sam Mitchell semware.com

[Greg G]

I wasn't aware you guys were still around. I really loved QEdit - especially the ability to write your own help, macros, and keyboard maps, and then write them back into the EXE, resulting in one compact executable to keep track of.

I lived less than 5 miles from your place in Marietta back in the late

80's. Lived in Florida from 1992-2000, then moved back to Georgia after a brief stint in NJ.

How do you like the traffic these days... ugghh....

Greg G.

[Larry Blanchard]

I remember that one too. But my favorite was the full C compiler (no, not a subset) that ran on the Z80. Others had said it couldn't be done. Came on 2 (IIRC) 8" floppies. I wish I could remember the company name, but my memory is getting old along with the rest of me.

And my favorite computer error message was from a Fortran compiler written for the GE400 computers by Charley ... (damn memory). The message was:

"The compiler has gotten lost - there are a myriad of possible reasons."

Still makes me chuckle :-).

[WillR]

Now you've ticked me off cause I should remember. Now I'm gonna be=20 trying to remember for days. :-(

I presume this was for CP/M -- cause I do remember something -- and I=20 don't mean Microsoft who was doing their Commercial BASIC as I recall.

Maybe we should give a free Dynabyte System to the person who remembers..= =2E

Never saw that one -- must have been a better FORTRAN programmer than I=20 thought I was. :-)

--=20 Will R. Jewel Boxes and Wood Art

power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those=20 who have not got it.=94 George Bernard Shaw

[Odinn]

BDS C is the only one I can remember. Targeted at the CP/M-80 systems (Z80 and Intel 8080)

[LRod]

Was it Aztec or something like that?

I had a CP/M card on my Apple II+ with 80 column card and keyboard enhancement (for that pesky upper and lower case stuff). No 8" drives, though. A friend of mine who worked at Bell Labs was on me for a long time to learn C. I somehow wound up with a C compiler, and I think I might have actually ran it once, but I was a long ways from trying C out in those days. Still am, frankly, but I don't have need for it now. You know, those who can, do, those who can't...well, I can't even do that.

[mac davis]

learn to deal with it, Will.. it gets worse as ya get older... Label it a "senior moment" and turn the page.. *g*

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[mac davis]

Oh shit... now you're making me remember my $5,000 apple II+ system... that got replaced later with a $1,000 846..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Larry Blanchard]

I remember! I remember! It was a company called Ecosoft - If you sent them a bug report they'd fix it and send you an updated compiler with your bug and others reported all fixed.

And yes it was CP/M.

Can I have an Ohio Scientific system instead?

[Larry Blanchard]

Right! I finally remembered the company (Ecosoft) but not the compiler name.

[sammy]

Thanks for the kind words.

Yes, rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated :-) Actually, we just celebrated our 20th anniversary this November.

I know what you mean. And it just keeps getting worse. I avoid Barrett Parkway (by Town Center) if at all possible.

-- Sam Mitchell

[Odinn]

Ecosoft was EXPENSIVE, and had a nasty habit of crashing while compiling if you had a syntax error in your code instead of just reporting the syntax error.

[Greg G]

Well deserved, considering the other options available at the time. I learned WordStar as my first real word processor, and the keyboard mapping allowed me to emulate it quite well. I despised WordPerfect and those annoying, inconsistent function key mappings. While there may have been a way around it, I never used it enough to find out.

The "Mark Column" feature was novel as well, as I recall (on the PC). But that was a long time ago, and I was just a lad at the time. ;-) We did computer maintenance primarily for local military installations before the infamous suspicious fires and eminent domain acquisitions of Bacon's Grand Vision for the city that National Geographic referred to as the little redneck town on the outskirts of Atlanta.

BBS's and PC bridge software to ARPANET were the norm for us. Ah, yes. I (barely) remember $450 300baud modems, Windows 1.0, the GEM GUI, CP/M, $2,000 dollar 10 meg hard drives, IBM BIOS lawsuits, FTL and Robert Voysteres, Heathkit, DRDOS, FIDOnet, the DEC Rainbow, RHIME and PCRelay. Man, I feel old...

Worked as a contractor to IBM briefly, a laughable place replete with college students in poorly-fitting polyester suits who did programming support for obsolete System 34 consoles and the fumbling, soon-to-be-released AS400 whose tape drives seemed destined to spill magnetic media onto the floor with the least hint of provocation. I hate suits - both kinds. ;-)

West Coast programmers got to wear shorts, T-shirts and beenie caps, play with rubber chickens, and I'm forced to wear an uncomfortable suit and tie while pulling floor tiles for a new network loom - for far less money than I ever made in my life!

Cripes, I sound like a now-deceased grandfather...

Congratulations! I didn't mean to imply your demise, only that I hadn't heard anything in a while.

I vacillate between regarding the computer as the source of many modern evils and it being a useful tool for engineering use. After investing time and energy into computer knowledge and then having it rendered semi-obsolete within the span of a couple of years, I tend to avoid anything new that is computer related if at all possible. ;-)

I took the opportunity to briefly look over your web site and the features of TSE Pro. I like the idea of transparency - especially when working with crowded, multiple source windows.

Unfortunately, much of the work I do uses VBA in Access, and the editor, while much improved over Bill's _other_ Office excuses, is integral to the program.

I still do some Assembly and C++ stuff - the latest being an in-house replacement for the horrific JAVA based UPS software that came with our American Power Conversion UPS units.

I installed that stuff, groaned in absolute disbelief, and axed it immediately. After decoding the serial cable logic and peculiarities of the UPS units themselves, I donned the LED port monitors and proceeded to write my own Windoze Service, complete with a Control Panel applet, and it's been smooth sailing on our 4 servers and various workstations ever since - even through the infamous "Server Won't Boot because of the aforementioned JAVA software license" escapade of 8/16/2005. Never even noticed until the distraught complaints started rolling in from dealers all over the US. Unbelievable PITA!

I avoid _driving_ if at all possible! I go out in the daytime maybe once a week, and tend to grit my teeth the whole time. I am one of the few native born Atlanta residents left - most have fled, retiring from successful businesses and leaving the commerce to the various BORGS that seem destined to consume the world in a tsunami of mediocrity and tacky strip malls. I-85N is no man's land, 400 is not much better, and I-75N is just about to climax.

I used to work on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs and it is also quite a different place these days. If it weren't for the Rockler Store, I wouldn't go over there either. :-\

Glad to see you're still around, but just one more On-Topic question. Do you actually engage in woodworking or did a WebSearch for "Semware" call your attention to this newsgroup? IMWTK.

Well, I've rambled on for 15 minutes - long enough. FWIW,

Greg G.

[sammy]

I know what you mean. When I worked for EREIM around Lenox (before starting SemWare), my co-workers were amazed that I was from this area, and had lived her all my life.

While I've built a (rickety) barn, a (wobbly) micro-wave stand, and some (crooked) book-shelves, it was a google groups search that brought me here. Sorry about that.

-- Sam Mitchell

[Greg G]

I have a few other friends who remember when there was no I-285 or Cumberland Mall, and vaguely recall the 688 club, but not many...

That's OK. Just curious. Hang around, get out a crowbar for your wallet, and take up yet another all consuming hobby. Then your stuff won't be as rickety, wobbly, or crooked. ;-) It's really a lot of fun - mostly...

FWIW,

Greg G.

[Larry Blanchard]

We're really getting into off-topic old, old history here, but I can't resist one more comment.

You must have had an earlier version than I did. I remember Aztec C as very reliable on my S100 buss CP/M system. I don't recall it being expensive, but since I have no record of my purchase you may be right there.

[Larry Blanchard]

Hah! When you start remembering Univac, Ramac, IBM650s, Readix, and yes, plugboards, THEN you can feel old :-). I'm 68.

And I don't remember what I paid for my first 8" floppy drive, but I remember it put a hole in my computing budget for a while :-).

[John Thomas]

[e-mail] wrote in news:1135267407.290682.124400 @g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Hey, that counts!

No need to apologize. There's a pretty large subset of tech-type wood- dorkers in here.

[Greg G]

I abdicate - that's a bit before my time. I guess that makes you a superior old fart than I. ;-)

As a kid, I do remember buying surplus computer boards that had tiny clip mounted vacuum tubes attached - but I never knew from equipment what they originated. 1000 or so of these 12" x 9" boards would functionally fit inside a 2mm x 2mm dot these days.

As have many of my computer related purchases. I still have some of it. Wanna see? ;-)

Greg G.

[Contrarian]

FYI: jstar, which comes with many Linux distros and is on this account's FreeBSD system, is Joe Allen's joe wordstar mode. Free. GPL

jstar(1): Joe's Own Editor - Linux man page

Robert Sawyer's agrees with you on WordPerfect WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor URL: