Byte (October 1982)

_{Cover of the October 1982 issue of Byte}

Byte covered a wide variety of systems over the course of its live form the 1970s until the 1990s. In 1982, the IBM PC was still new and it wasn't yet clear that IBM PC compatibility would come to dominate both home and business. Issues were generally pretty massive at this time with the October 1982 issue containing well over 500 pages. It includes:

Features

Beyond the Peaks of Visicalc - A look at more complex financial planning applications than a spreadsheet (of which Visicalc was the main representative at this point). Packages looked at here include Desktop Plan II, Microfinesse, and Plan80.

Build the Microvox Text-to-Speech Synthesizer, Part 2: Software - The second in a series on building your own speech synthesizer. This part concentrates on creating the software to make it work.

What Makes Business Programming Hard? - A case study in writing software for a bank.

Adapting Microcomputers to Wall Street - Microcomputers as a tool for financial investors. At this point, it's hard to imagine NOT having computers as tools.

Putting Real-World Interfaces to Work, Part 1 - Part one of a two-part series on monitoring the physical environment (things like temperature, water level, light level, pressure, etc.) with a TRS-80 Model I, TRS-80 Model III, and TRS-80 Color Computer.

The State of Industrial Robotics - A look at how robots were currently being used in industry, still a relatively new thing at this time.

Marketplace - A type-in BASIC telecomputing game for two TRS-80 Model IIIs in which you compete in marketing a product with another person.

Ringquest - A type-in adventure game for the Apple II that originated on the Commodore PET.

_{Table of Contents from the October 1982 issue of Byte}

Reviews

Radio Shack Compiler BASIC - A BASIC compiler for the TRS-80 Model I and Model III.

Wyse Technology's WY-100 Terminal - At the time, standalone terminals were still a thing but they would soon be replaced by IBM PCs and other personal/small business computers with terminal emulation software.

EduWare's Statistics 3.0 - The latest update to a statistical package for the Apple II.

Nucleus

Editorial - Answers to frequently asked questions such as what's the best computer to buy, buy now or wait, which OS will be the standard, which processor will be the leader in five years, etc.