June 1984 — Vol 6 No 6
Source
Open original PDF • June 1984 • Vol 6 No 6 • 64 pages • $2
Overview
David Morganstein continues as President through this issue (election season). ★★ "AppleWorks: A Review" by Walt Mossberg (p25) — Mossberg's first major Pi byline, four years before his "Apple II News & Notes" column would launch (Feb 1988), and 17 years before his career-defining Wall Street Journal Personal Technology column. AppleWorks was Apple's integrated office suite for the //e/// and would become one of the most important Apple II applications ever. ★ "Apple Owners Guide to the //c" (Robert C. Platt, p22) — Pi's coverage of the Apple //c (launched at Apple's "Apple //c Forever" event, April 24, 1984, two months before this issue). ★ "Apple Donates ProDOS Manuals" (Tom Warrick, p39) — Apple donates documentation to the Pi library. "Apple Tracks: ProDOS Prose" (Richard Langston III, p40) — companion ProDOS piece. "Macintosh and His Sisters" (Loftus E. Becker Jr., p20) — Becker's reflection on the Mac in the Apple family. "WAP Elections" (p5) — 1984 election results, restructuring leadership (Tom Warrick becomes VP-Programs, Bob Platt VP-SIGs by November). "Design the WAP Logo" (p19) — Pi solicits a new logo design. "Logo Virus: Part II" (Ron Murray, p14) — Logo programming series (about LOGO virus simulations, not malware). "Don't Be an IF Junkie" (Gary M. Mugford, p43) — structured-programming polemic. "Rules for an Expert System" (Frederick E. Naef, p47) — Naef continues his expert-system thread.
Table of contents (selected)
| Article | Author | Page |
|---|---|---|
| President's Corner | David Morganstein | 4 |
| Event Queue, WAP Elections, SIGNews | — | 5 |
| Telecomm SIG News | Dave Harvey | 7 |
| Q & A | Bruce F. Field | 10 |
| LOGOSIG News | Nancy C. Strange | 12 |
| Logo Virus: Part II | Ron Murray | 14 |
| DisabledSIG News | Jay M. Thal | 16 |
| EDSIG News | Peter Combes | 17 |
| A Page From the Stack | Robert C. Platt | 18 |
| SIG Mac News | Ellen L. Bouwkamp | 19 |
| Design the WAP Logo | — | 19 |
| Macintosh and His Sisters | Loftus E. Becker Jr. | 20 |
| Apple Owners Guide to the //c | Robert C. Platt | 22 |
| ★ AppleWorks: A Review | Walt Mossberg | 25 |
| Help, My Printer Doesn't Work | Joan Bixby Dunham | 26 |
| PI-SIG News | Raymond Hobbs | 28 |
| I Am What I Am | John A. Love III | 32 |
| The Cheapest Re-inker | Walton Francis | 37 |
| Apple Donates ProDOS Manuals | Thomas S. Warrick | 39 |
| Apple Tracks: ProDOS Prose | Richard Langston III | 40 |
| Don't Be an IF Junkie | Gary M. Mugford | 43 |
| 1001 Binary Tales: Architecture | Raymond Hobbs | 44 |
| Suggestion for Program Doc. | Joan Bixby Dunham | 46 |
| Rules for an Expert System | Frederick E. Naef | 47 |
| Pascal Tutorials | Robert C. Platt | 50 |
| The Forth Column | Bruce F. Field | 52 |
| Bylaws Amendment | Robert C. Platt | 54 |
| VisiCalc Data Entry Tips | Merle Block | 54 |
| WAP Reading Library | Walton Francis | 56 |
Highlights
★★ AppleWorks: A Review — Walt Mossberg
Walt Mossberg — then a Wall Street Journal reporter and Pi member — files his first sustained Pi byline reviewing Apple's new integrated suite. Mossberg's pre-Pi-columnist appearances during the AppleWorks era are exactly the period he himself later describes as his Mac/Apple-fan amateur years. AppleWorks (released January 1984) became the best-selling software in U.S. retail for years, the dominant Apple II application.
Apple //c launch — Robert C. Platt
Apple unveiled the Apple //c at the April 24, 1984 "Apple //c Forever" event in San Francisco. Platt's "Owners Guide" is Pi's substantive launch coverage — small, portable, 128K, integrated everything.
Apple Donates ProDOS Manuals — Tom Warrick
Apple Computer donates ProDOS technical documentation to Pi's reference library — a notable Apple-to-Pi gift in the //c launch moment.
Entities
People: David Morganstein, Robert C. Platt, Tom Warrick, Walt Mossberg, Loftus E. Becker Jr., Richard Langston III, Ellen L. Bouwkamp, Bruce F. Field, Peter Combes, Nancy C. Strange, Jay Thal, Joan Bixby Dunham, Ron Murray, Gary M. Mugford, Frederick E. Naef, Raymond Hobbs, Walton Francis, Kevin Nealon, Dave Harvey, Merle Block, John A. Love III Topics: AppleWorks 1984, Apple IIc, ProDOS, Mossberg at Pi, Expert Systems, Pi 1984 Election References: AppleWorks, Apple IIc, ProDOS, Macintosh
Connections to other issues
- Walt Mossberg's first major Pi byline — predates his 1988 "Apple II News & Notes" column (1988-02 — V10 N02) by 4 years
- Apple //c launch — sets up Pi //c coverage through 1984-1986
- 1984 WAP Elections lead to Tom Warrick VP-Programs / Bob Platt VP-SIGs (confirmed in masthead 1984-11 — V06 N11)
- ProDOS thread: launched in 1983-10 — V05 N10, canonical at Pi by mid-1984