Microcomputer software tools very useful

Press, 18 May 1982, Page 25

Microcomputer software tools very useful

Software tools for microcomputers will receive a great deal of attention over the next few years. There are so many similarities between the microcomputer hardware packages available on the market that the purchaser of a microcomputer system will usually make his decision based on the software on the machine, rather than the hardware. This, software will include applications software, systems software (the operating system, languages and utilities) and software tools. If the user is 'going to develop his own applications software his thoughts should be turning to the purchase of software tools to make the software development task easier.

A good software tool might drastically reduce the amount of programming that has to be done, or eliminate programming altogether. Users of minicomputers and mainframe computers are looking critically at the microcomputer industry to see what software tools will be available on microcomputers. These people are now using sophisticated tools on their computers, often to great advantage. They will not be wooed into the: microcomputer fold until they see similar tools becoming available on microcomputers. Many large computer users have a sense of deja yu when they look at the system software on a microcomputer. It takes them back ten to fifteen years when the system software on mainframes and minicomputers was at a similar stage of development. This similarity was commented on recently when Mr Max Burnet, general manager of Digital Equipment in Australia addressed a gathering ofjocal users of Digital Equipment computers. Mr Burnet showed the gathering a slide presentation on the development of Digital computers since the company’s formation in 1957. One of the early PDP-8 minicomputers, released in the 19605, had a timesharing operating system which managed resources in a similar fashion to today’s MP/M — the most common multi-user operating system on microcomputers. ’ “Also, CP/M looks very like an early version of RT--11," said Mr Burnet. RT-11 is a popular operating system for PDP-11 minicomputers. We are not suggesting that CP/M or MP/M are not appropriate for today's inexpensive microcomputers, or that this software will take ten to fifteen years to reach the maturity of present minicomputer software.

Indeed operating systems such as Unix that are now starting to appear on the larger microcomputer systems are very sophisticated. Similarly, we can look forward to the introduction of more and more software tools that will reduce de-

velopment costs on microcomputers. One software tool that a Christchurch company is using to good effect is Condor. Condor is described by its developers as a data base management system, although it is not the traditional type of data base management system known to mainframe users. Condor is not a set of facilities to be called from an application program, but rather a package that allows the user to define computer files, enter data into the files, update the files and sort and print the data — all without writing a program. This tool is available to any user of a CP/M-based microcomputer for ?750. Condor is sold in Christchurch by Mr Graeme

Bryant, whose company, Bryant Microcomputer Systems, is now developing computer packages for small businesses under Condor. "Condor takes away all the effort of file design, file updating and. file reorganisation” says Mr Bryant, who has been using the package since the beginning of the year. Mr Bryant’s philosophy is that computers should fit into the user’s office procedures. The office procedures should not have to be changed to fit the computer. With a facility like Condor he is able to set up customwritten programs for. a cus-' tomer at a reasonable cost. Referring to off-the-shelf software packages, ; Mr Bryant says that it is not possible to get packages so complete that they can be quickly and easily tailored to any company’s requirements, “The installations we’ve been in couldn't use standard packages, or they are too expensive," he said. Writing customised programs takes a long time, but with Condor Mr Bryant can develop applications quickly and relatively error free. He charges $550 per module for business application modules such as debtors and creditors. This makes him very competitive with packaged software. Condor provides a screen formatting capability that sets up screens for data entry. Then, when the data is entered, command strings are actioned that update master files with the new data. Mr Bryant describes Condor as batch oriented at this stage. All the files are sequential files, which makes certain activities slow on large files. However, the developers of Copdor will be releasing an indexing feature that provides for indexed-sequential access. A report writer will also be available soon to supplement the existing reporting module. Bryant Microcomputer Systems have now installed three systems based on Condor, with two further systems about to be installed. The hardware is supplied by Comaint-ADE, Ltd, with

whom Bryant Microcomputer Systems share premises. Mr Mike Quids, sales manager for Comaint-ADE, sees great benefits in the association between the two companies. “If Graeme was not writing software for the systems our penetration would be very small,” he said. Comaint-ADE are the New Zealand agents for Northstar microcomputers. Each of the Condor-based systems so far has been installed with North Star Horizon microcomputers. One user of a Horizon from Comaint-ADE and software from Bryant Microcomputer Systems is a transport company. They have 7000 customers on their debtors’ master file and pro-

duce 3000 statements a month. About 9000 waybills are entered into the system each month. Mr Bryant used Condor to develop a debtors’ package for this customer and a simple sales analysis package. The software also provided vehicle information, such as the revenue per kilometre for each truck. The transport company has a five megabyte hard disc on their Horizon. The cost of the hardware was about $17,000 including sales tax. Another customer of Bryant Microcomputer Systems and Comaint-ADE is Beatrice Products, a handicraft manufacturer and wholesaler. Beatrice Products use their system for general business applications. including invoicing. Mr Roger Turner has had his system for a month and considers he was “pretty lucky with his choice of supplier.” Having had an introduction to computer programming at university Mr Turner finds he is able to use Condor to make changes and enhancements to his application software. . “The beauty of Condor is that it is readily accessible to the average user,” Mr Turner told “The Press.” “I find it particularly useful for reports, where you can basically produce any report you want.” The major files in Mr Turner's system are Condor files. Condor is not, however, flexible enough to carry out all the processing. For example, the invoices are printed using a BASIC program that accesses files controlled by Condor. Mr Bryant is continually looking for other high level software tools to increase his productivity. He envisages that there will eventually be one package that can be used to satisfy all requirements, including word processing. Another software tool will

be described next week, when we report on recent developments at the Christchurch microcomputer system supplier, Micro Business Systems. Micro Business Systems have started using an English software tool called “Silicon Office."