Our feature program this month is OMNICALC 2, the impressive spreadsheet program from Microsphere, Ltd. OMNICALC 2 was reviewed in an earlier issue of SUM (volume II, Number 12).
In my opinon, OMNICALC 2 deserves every bit of praise it gets. Advanced capabilities and ease of use places OMNICALC 2 way ahead of any other spreadsheet at many times the price.
Out of the box, OMNICAL 2 works with the TS 2040 printer. It can be used with full-sized printers too, but being a British program, it was designed with British printer interfaces in mind.
What about those of us with AERCO, Oliger, or A & J printer interfaces? Can we configure OMNICALC 2 to use our full-sized printer? And better yet, can we somehow get full-sized printouts of the histograms that OMNICALC 2 can generate?
Happily, the answer is YES to both requests. By following the procedure below, you will be able to make this “workhorse” of a program work even harder! You will need a copy of OMNICALC 2 (program: tom64000 in particular), and a copy of ZPRINT 80. ZPRINT 80 is the new printer support package from Zebra Systems, Inc. I have a MEMOTECH DMX80 (Panasonic KX- P1090) printer and an AERCO printer interface. The Program can easily be modified for your particular needs. First, type in the following “loader”:
1 CLS: PRINT AT 0,10; "OMNICALC 2+"; AT 1,4; "(C) 1984 Microsphere Ltd.";AT 2,2; " (C) 1986 Mountaineer Software"
2 INK 7: LOAD ""CODE
3 POKE 64012, 132: RANDOMIZE USR 64000: POKE 23728,1: LPRINT CHR$ 15;: POKE 23728,0
4 LOAD ""Line 3 sets the PRINT width at 132, initializes the print driver, and sets the printer to condensed print. Next SAVE this to a blank tape with:
SAVE "omni2+"LINE 1Once you save the loader, stop the tape and set it aside. Next, NEW the computer and LOAD ZPRINT 80. Select the high memory version (zprnt-hi), and follow the prompts to configure it to your printer/interface combination.
Save this driver on your tape following the loader. Finally, transfer “tom64000” to this new tape. This can be done either with a “tapecopy” program like TRANS-EXPRESS if you have a Spectrum emulator installed, or by going tape-to- tape. And that’s it, OMNICAL 2+ is born! A few comments on using this program:
- Make sure that your printer is turned on when you LOAD “omn12+”. Once the print driver is loaded, it will initialize the printer only if it is on.
- With the condensed print, you can print up to 15 columns across on a normal 80 column printer.
- To utilize the graphics capabilities, you need to set OMNICALC 2’s graphic address. This is done with the ‘X’ command, followed by pressing ‘G’, and entering the number 64009 to the “address?” prompt.
- Remember that once you use the Graphics command to print out a histogram, the program resets itself to normal size you will have to Hopefully the next revision will solve this small problem.
I want to publicly thank Karl Smith for all of the help and guidance he provided me with to make this “patch” possible. You can reach Karl at:
Karl Smith
40 White Ct.
Pataskala, OH 43062
I hope you find this “patch” helpful. If you come up with any more modifications for OMNICALC 2 (or any 2068/Spectrum program for that matter), drop me a line:
Bill Ferrebee
Mountaineer Software
749 Hill Str. #6
Parkersburg, WV 26104
NOTE: OMNICALC 2 ($24.95) and ZPRINT 80 ($19.95) are both available from:
E. Arthur Brown Company
3404 Pawnee Dr
Alexandria, MN 56308
(612) 762-8847
Until next time, take care!