December 1985 — Vol 7 No 12

Overview

Tom Warrick continues as President — closing his first calendar year. ★ "WordPerfect: Perfect WP" (Walton Francis, p44) — WordPerfect arrives at Pi (WordPerfect for the Apple II was first; the Mac version came in 1988). Francis is a veteran of word-processor comparisons (cf. his major 1983 Word Processing Section); his "Perfect WP" stamp matters. ★ "Molecular Biology on the Mac" (Peter Markiewicz, p54) — Pi's first scientific-computing piece on the Mac; Markiewicz's article presages Pi's later medical/scientific coverage. ★ "A 1200-Baud Modem for $175" (Lynn R. Trusal, p55) — landmark price reduction for high-speed (for 1985) modems. ★ "Professional Composer: A Review" (D. L. Porter, p63) — Mark of the Unicorn's Professional Composer, the canonical Mac music notation app. ★ "Whither Group Purchase for Pi" (Martin O. Milrod, p77) + "The Group Purchaser Replies" (Richard Wasserstrom, p78) — internal debate on Pi's group purchase program. ★ "MacAdvantage: Part III" (Robert C. Platt, p68) — Platt closes the year of MacAdvantage with Part III. "Macintosh Wizardry" (Ronald Wartow, p19). "GAMESIG Suggestions for Santa" (Steven Payne, p18) — holiday gift guide. "Ten Tips for Using MacWrite" (Walter Rhett, p65). "EdSIG News" is now bylined Jean Thomas (p15) — Thomas takes EDSIG from Peter Combes. "WAP Bulletin Board Systems" (p11) — multi-BBS listing. "Pie Ala Mode Slice" (Tom Kroll, p17) — Kroll's Slices column continues. "Step-Trace for Forth" (Chester H. Page, p42). "Editing Applesoft Lines" (Eli Argon, p40). "A List Formatter for All People" (Ken Knight, p36). "Diagramless XWDs with Editor" (Richard Fitzhugh, p48) — Crossword-puzzle utility. "Dvorak for Apple" (Michael Spevak, p33) — Dvorak keyboard layout. "Disk /// Write Protect Bypass" (Ed Gooding, p14). "Best of Apple Items from UBBS" (Euclid Coukouma, p51) — Best of column for UBBS.

Table of contents (selected)

Highlights

WordPerfect: Perfect WP — Walton Francis

WordPerfect 1.0 for Apple II shipped around this time. Francis — Pi's word-processor authority — gives it the "Perfect WP" stamp. WordPerfect would dominate Pi's WP coverage through the 1990s.

Molecular Biology on the Mac — Peter Markiewicz

Pi's first scientific-research-on-Mac piece. The Mac was making early inroads at academic and federal labs (Markiewicz was likely NIH-area).

$175 1200-Baud Modem — Lynn R. Trusal

A major commodity-price moment. The Hayes 1200 Smartmodem launched 1981 at $700; by Dec 1985 the price had collapsed. Pi telecomm coverage starts taking 1200 baud for granted from here.

Group Purchase debate

Martin O. Milrod questions Pi's group-purchase program; Richard Wasserstrom (Group Purchase coordinator) replies in the same issue. Pi's internal-policy debates aired publicly in the Journal.

Entities

People: Tom Warrick, Walton Francis, Peter Markiewicz, Lynn R. Trusal, D. L. Porter, Robert C. Platt, Martin O. Milrod, Richard Wasserstrom, Ronald Wartow, Barry Bedrick, Steven Payne, Jean Thomas, Walter Rhett, Ralph Begleiter, Jonathan E. Hardis, James M. Burger, Regina Litman, Tom Kroll, Adrien Youell, Charlene Ryan, David Ottalini, Ed Gooding, Bruce F. Field, Merle Block, Raymond Hobbs, Joe England, Joseph T. Kelley, Michael Spevak, Ken Knight, Eli Argon, Chester H. Page, Richard Fitzhugh, Fred Edwards, Euclid Coukouma Topics: WordPerfect at Pi, Mac in Science, Pi Group Purchase Program, 1200 Baud Era, Mac Music Software References: WordPerfect, Professional Composer, MacWrite, Hayes 1200 Modem

Connections to other issues

• Closes Vol 7 (1985) — Tom Warrick's first calendar half-year as President
• WordPerfect coverage begins; continues through the 1990s
• MacAdvantage column (Platt) Pt III closes; new Mac columns will emerge in Vol 8
• Group Purchase debate — internal Pi policy discussion
• Vol 8 (1986) opens with the Apple IIGS launch year 1986-10 — V08 N10