Printed documentation for XENIX® is extensive. XENIX® System V/286 for the Tandy 3000HD (catalog #25-4201, $595.00) comes with four (4) PC sized, 5\(12" by 8\(12", manuals:
Additionally, if you purchase the optional XENIX® System V/286 development software (catalog #25-4202, $595.00) you get another five (5) manuals:
Most of the Reference Manual (both volumes 1 and 2) pages can be optionally loaded onto the hard disk for quick user terminal access.
After installing the system I ran a few quick benchmarks. While no benchmark test can ever tell all things, the few simple benchmarks that I ran indicated that the 3000HD I had, ran on average approximately 30 percent faster than my Tandy 6000. Needless to say I was impressed!
No keyboard is perfect, but the 3000HD keyboard has one of the nicest feels available. Unlike many other products, the Tandy 3000HD keyboard does not require multiple key strokes for any of the standard UNIX® shell characters.
The 3000HD comes without any operating system (XENIX® and MS-DOS® are extra cost options), but if you buy both (MS-DOS® (catalog #25-4103, $99.95) and XENIX® System V/286) they can co-reside on a single hard disk and either operating system can be selected at boot time.
Living in a somewhat rural area, power fluctuations and short power outages are somewhat common. Accordingly, I often found that my computer systems had reset because of these power outages. When such resets occur, some computers will only fully reboot with operator assistance at the console. The Tandy 3000HD does not require such operator involvement. The 3000 comes with a battery operated user-resettable internal clock and a boot track controlled timeout to automatically reload the kernel and go into multiuser mode. Of course programs executing during a crash may still create a problem with lost data, and for that reason I still recommend a battery power backup system like Tandy's BPS-400 Standby Power System (Catalog #26-1189, $595.00).
Since each XENIX® implementation will likely be unique, kernel modification for optimum performance becomes a desirable option. Accordingly, Tandy has provided users a way to reconfigure the XENIX® operating system kernel of the Tandy 3000HD with a configuration kit provided standard with the XENIX® System V/286 Development System. Reconfiguration of the kernel is not something to be tried by the casual XENIX® user, but when properly done by a knowledgeable administrator can save considerable computer resources and maximize the value of a system.
Tandy 6000 owners will be jealous of the fact that the 3000HD does not need to be shutdown to format floppy diskettes. Unlike the 6000, 3000HD users can format floppy disks while other XENIX® System V/286 programs are executing.
But one of the real advantages of the Tandy 3000HD is the hardware expansion options and upgrades available from Tandy and other sources. Some of the options available directly from Tandy include: the Tandy TCS-100 Tape Cartridge System that can hold 48Meg on a single backup cartridge; the external 10 and 20 megabyte Disk Cartridge Systems; an internal 20-megabyte Disk Cartridge System; additional random access memory boards and chips (up to 12 megabytes of RAM); a high resolution color graphics kit; serial port expansion boards; internal and external floppy and hard disk expansions; and of course a wide selection of monitors, terminals, printers, modems, and many other accessories and supplies.
The following Tandy 3000HD application software packages are already available directly from Tandy: RealWorld (Chichester, New Hampshire) General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Order Entry and Sales Analysis; Tandy's in-house developed SCRIPSIT® word processing; and Profile, Tandy's version of the Small Computer Company's (New York, New York) database management system. Several other XENIX® based software packages are available through Tandy's Express Order Software program.
Additionally, I have experimented with several software packages developed for the official IBM PC/AT XENIX® port and for XENIX® System V/286 from the Santa Cruz Operation (Santa Cruz, California) which seem to work flawlessly, true to the binary code compatibility promise of Microsoft, Inc. (Bellevue, Washington). If the binary code compatibilitity between XENIX® versions is 100% (as I suspect), then there is no reason why products like SCO-Professional™(1-2-3® workalike), Lyrix™ word processing, and FoxBASE™ (dBase™ workalike), all from Santa Cruz Operation, Inc. (Santa Cruz, California), and hundreds of other software packages from other sources, should not work on the Tandy 3000HD.
Microsoft's Visual Shell is an excellent user interface patterned after the user interface of Microsoft's successful spreadsheet, Multiplan, and word processing package, MS-Word. When using "vsh" the contents of the current working directory are displayed in the top window of the screen, and a set of commands are displayed on the bottom few lines of the screen. Files in the current directory are selected using the arrow keys, while commands (including Copy, Delete, Edit, Help, Mail, Name, Options, Print, Quit, Run, View, and Window) on the bottom of the screen are selected with the space bar, the backspace key, or the first letter of the command. Single key stroke commands allow the user to migrate up and down the directory structure. The system date and time are continuously displayed, and updated, in the lower right hand corner.
After considerable success with their MS-DOS DeskMate® software that comes standard with Tandy's IBM-compatibles, Tandy decided to include a comparable product with their port of XENIX®. I was pleasantly surprised to find this interface included with XENIX® for their Tandy 3000.
While the DeskMate® software includes spreadsheet, calendar, database, calculator, phone directory, and word processing programs, it is the user interface to the XENIX® utilities that is unique. The date and time are displayed in the top right hand corner of the screen. A calendar for the current month is displayed on the top left of the screen, with any entries that have been entered to the calendar system for the current date displayed along side. Below that, the name of the current directory is displayed. Further below are six user definable boxes that contain the names of files accessible by the Text, Worksheet, Filer, Calendar, and Mail programs respectively. The last of these six boxes is labeled "APPLICATION" and contains a list of user accessible (and user customizable) application programs. Application files are simply pointed to, and are then opened for modification with a single key stroke.
Additionally included in this interface are options to call the following XENIX® programs with "fill-in the blanks" options:
Within very well defined limits, the user can tailor the interface to access the programs, files, and directories that he or she normally uses.
With tools like Microsoft's Visual Shell ("vsh") and Tandy's DeskMate® ("desk"), even novice users can learn to work quite effectively in the powerful XENIX® System V/286 multiuser, multi-tasking environment.
You can email me on the Internet at rab@foothills.com