Several products introduced at TI fairs
By JOHN KOLOEN
If the turnout at the Chicago TI Faire is any indication, the TI99/4A world is alive and well. Its difficult to fix the number of visitors who attended this year’s faire at Triton College, but the exhibit hail remained packed during most of the day Nov 7. Attendance at the demonstrations depended on what was being displayed. Myarc again gained a substantial crowd for its demonstration of the Geneve and MYArt Also demonstrated was the Mechatronic 80—column card.
Several new products were introduced at the Faire by Genial Computerware and Bytemaster Computer Services.
Genial Computerware introduced PC-Transfer ($25) by Mike Dodd, a program that transfers MS or PC-DOS text tiles for use with the 4A and Geneve and Remindme ($15) by John Johnson, a calendar program written in assembly. Also introduced by Genial were three programs by Peter
Hoddie: Graphics Expander ($10), which lets you take existing fonts and expand them in up to nine sizes in both horizontal and vertical dimensions; and two disks of fonts — called Genial Font Pack 1 and 2 ported from public domain fonts for other computers. The Font Pack disks are $10 each.
Bytemaster introduced String Master ($19.95), a programming environment for the 4A using assembly LINKs.
One of the most promising new products at the faire wasn’t even displayed. Two visitors from Italy. Dr. Luigi GrilIi and Daniele Morini, brought with them a program called TIBM. The program is desicned to transfer files between PCs and the Geneve and 99/4A. The two are developing the program with Paulo Bagnaresi of BA-Writer fame.
However, what is more interesting is what the trio is working on in connection
with TJBM. While it will transfcr files between PCs and the 4A/Geneve, Dr. Grilli also indicated that it may include the ability to transfer BASIC programs from a PC to a TI. Language differences made understanding difficult, however, Dr. Grilli insisted that he, Morini and Bagnaresi are not stopping with text files and that the ultimate aim is to allow users to convert BASIC programs written for a PC for use on a TI. (It’s not known if all versions of BASIC that run ott a PC will be supported.) Dr. Grilli pointed toward a December release of the first version of the TIBM pro.gram, though it is not certain whether it will include the BASIC conversion utility.
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