Practicalc

History and Preservation Issues

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eslapion
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Practicalc

Post by eslapion »

Is there still a demand for the manual of Practicalc?

Back around 2001, I finally cracked the code and transfered it to floppy.

I may now feel energetic enough to scan these instructions.

This program is one of the few with which it is truly best to have 24k expansion.
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orion70
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Post by orion70 »

Hello Eslapion, good to read you again. :)

I have a complete copy of Practicalc plus (cassette tape version, 16K min required), bought at Raymond's in Minnesota in 2008. If you see the list I posted in that thread, you find the program in the C64 list :? . Back to Italy, I put all the stuff in a garage, except for Develop-20, and I never realized that the Practicalc program I bought was in fact for the VIC and not for the C64 until I moved to a new house three months ago! :oops:

So, I finally tried it. Very similar if not identical to Practicalc, it's a very nice spreadsheet utility indeed - impressive to see how a VIC could also be used by VISICALC-oriented businessmen :P .
I think the main difference between Practicalc and Practicalc Plus is that the latter can also produce histograms from series of numbers, as specified in the advertising found on Compute's Gazette, Aug 1983, page 55 :wink: . I don't know if there are versions of Practicalc plus available in the web, but in case there aren't, I can try and dump the cassette. I still don't have a scanner, maybe I can also take pictures of the manual with a digital camera.

Eslapion, it would be great if you could provide a manual for Practicalc, so I could complete it with pages where additional "Plus" features such as histograms are explained.
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eslapion
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Post by eslapion »

Just to let you know, Practicalc's tape was copy protected.

Defeating the protection to transfer it to disk was pretty difficult.

I suspect Practicalc Plus will have a similar protection.
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orion70
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Post by orion70 »

I don't even try then.. I thought it was possible to dump a cassette "as is" into a TAP file, with copy protection and everything, simply using a PC recording and some specific software... Of course one would have to re-create a tape, or use VICE, to play the program. Sorry for my poor competence in this matter. :oops:
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Mike
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Post by Mike »

It is very well possible to make a *.tap file from Practicalc Plus, with its copy protection included, just as you wrote.

But then there's not much the protection can do against the built-in monitor of VICE. ;)
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