AN A.N.N. REVIEW BY that Wizard from the Wild West 
Joe Waters (Falcon@Federation.hack.com) 
Albuquerque, NM 87111 
 
Joe Waters who will be doing articles, reviews, etc. on a regular basis for A.N.N. has been programming since he was in the 7th grade and he brings much experience with him.

        PRODUCT: Multi-Loader, EOS, SmartBASIC v1.5,
                 Pro-Load and Pro-Copy
        SOURCE:  Practical Programs
                 4318 Monroe Avenue
                 Kalamazoo, Michigan 49002-2063
        Format:  Flippy DDP or disk
        Price:  $8.95 U.S.  (Free with any other
                 software purchase from
                 Practical Programs.)

             This disk is basically a huge revision on Coleco's
        SmartBASIC 1.0.  Multi-Loader is the boot block replacement for
        the rather unimaginative one located on the standard SmartBASIC;
        instead of blanking the screen and loading BASIC, this one gives
        informative information and allows you a choice of options on
        what exactly you wish to load.  By holding down different keys
        and pulling the computer reset switch with the disk in the drive,
        you have a choice of loading SmartBASIC by itself, SmartBASIC
        with the EOS revision, SmartBASIC with the EOS revision and
        ProLoad, or any combination of the above.  The EOS is the same
        deal that you get with your Disk Manager software when you buy
        your disk drive from Coleco; it loads the most recent revision of
        EOS (Extended/Enhanced <depending on who you ask> Operating
        System) from the disk and then proceeds with it's task.  I have
        been wondering ever since I got my first disk drive some 5 years
        ago what good this EOS revision does, and I still don't know.
        I'm sure that it's good for something though, although I have one
        of the first beta test ADAMs and I can't tell much of a
        difference.  I think (though I havn't taken the time to play with
        it yet) that one of the revisions allows bi-directional printing
        for the ADAM printer in SmartBASIC...  The EOS option is a nice
        one to have though, because otherwise if you wanted to have a
        SmartBASIC with the newer EOS installed, you needed to boot Disk
        Manager first (which takes around 30 seconds all by itself) and
        then use the "RUN FILE" option from there to run SmartBASIC
        (another 20 seconds or so.) Thie whole shooting match from
        Practical Programs loads in just under 30 seconds, so there's a
        huge time savings.  Just for the sake of completion, I tested the
        Practical Programs SmartBasic vs.  two public domain versions of
        SmartBASIC 2.0, my own version of SmartBASIC 1.0 (the Coleco
        original), and my SmartBASIC 1.0 plus the Disk Manager EOS boot.
        The Practical Programs version comes up with EOS revision 7,as
        do the two versions of BASIC 2.0 (both include the same revision
        file on disk), while SmartBASIC 1.0 by itself comes up with
        revision 5 (I *TOLD* you I have an old ADAM!) and revision 7 if
        I boot Disk Manager first.  In all the years I've had my revision
        5 EOS, I havn't seen anything different from it and revision 7
        (though I must admit that I wasn't looking very closely.)
             However, whether or not you are in need of the EOS revision,
        that's not the big part of the picture here.  The really nice
        piece of software here is the new SmartBASIC 1.5.  This highly
        modified version of SmartBASIC has a whole slew of bug patches
        built into the program; no more need for a lengthy HELLO program
        just to "fix" BASIC.  Included are fixes for the DATA/REM phantom
        space bug, INIT initializes blocks free for disk and DDP, PR#2
        prints straight to your parallel printer interface, RECOVER
        recovers "h" files now, and, one that I found VERY useful, BRUN
        and BLOAD now run/load programs from a different drive without
        having to specify a load address (like "BRUN JUNK,D6") will work
        correctly in SmartBASIC 1.5, while it will not in either BASIC
        1.0 or SmartBASIC 2.0.  Also, the input line length has been
        increased to 239 characters (from SmartBASIC 1.0's 128) so you
        can stuff more junk on one line.  While all of these
        modifications can be accomplished by anybody with various patch
        programs, I've always been annoyed having to wait for twelve
        blocks of SmartBASIC "HELLO" program to load JUST TO FIX WHAT'S
        WRONG WITH BASIC.  This is a very welcome piece of software,for
        that reason alone.
             But wait, there's more.  If you order now, you get this FREE
        set of GINSU STEAK KNIVES!  It slices.  It dices.  It cuts
        through steel rods!  Watch our trained professional take down
        this charging rhino with nothing but a GHINSU BUTTER KNIFE!
        (Whoops, they're having that home shopper thing on TV, I
        sometimes get carried away.  Sorry about that.)
             Don't go away yet though; there really is more.  Along with
        Multi-Loader, EOS, and SmartBASIC 1.5, you get two FastLoaded
        SmartBASIC programs:  Pro-Load and Pro-Copy.  Pro-Load boots up
        from SmartBASIC 1.5 if no HELLO program is found.  It firsts
        prompts you to set the date (which can be skipped if you wish by
        pressing <RETURN>), and then loads a directory of all of the
        files on the disk.  It is completely driven with the
        the arrow keys, and is extremely user friendly.  The program will
        allow you to run or load any program from any disk/DDP at the
        touch of a couple of buttons; the user can also, of course, elect
        to drop through to SmartBASIC.  The other BASIC program included
        on this disk is Pro-Copy.  This program at first appeared to be
        similar to Coleco's File Manager utility that I mentioned
        earlier.  After playing with it for a while though, I found some
        interesting features.  Pro-Copy will allow the user to copy
        individual or multiple files from any disk to any DDP in any
        combination.  The program also allows you to copy system files
        (such as the SmartBASIC or SmartLOGO program FILES) to different
        disks and DDPs; it will also copy the boot blocks that go with
        these programs, and allow you to rename them on-the-fly if you
        wish.  Although I havn't had much of a need to use this piece of
        software yet (I use mostly CP/M) it appears to be very
        professional and well done.
             When you consider the price of this package and what you get
        for it, this appears to be a great value.  Practical Programs is
        obviously in this business for the user, not the money; I figure
        they could legitimately charge $25 or $30 and still have people
        buying it.  This is a very well done package, and well worth the
        miniscule price. 
 
some
        interesting features.  Pro-Copy 
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