Chicago Faire attracts over 500 visitors
Although the most anticipated software release of the fourth quarter of 1988 wasn’t ready for sale at the 1988 Chicago TI Faire, TIers who attended weren’t disappointed. There were, afterall, some 32 vendors with wares spread across 53 tables in the exhibit hail, and hours and hours of seminars just down a hail to keep everyone occupied.
The fair site this year was moved from Triton College to a Holiday Inn. This turned out to he a welcomed change as the exhibit hall while large was better layed out and the seminar room was just a few steps down the hall. Out-of-towners who spent the two days at the hotel site never had to venture into the chilly, rainy weather to see the show.
The official count of visitors stopped at 525, a turnout that will
assure another fair next year. according to this year’s fair director Marcy Brun.
As for what didn’t happen at the faire, Press, the new word processor by Charles Earl, wasn’t finished. Asgard Software, the distributor, demonstrated an unfinished version of the program to a packed-house, and then took scores of prepaid orders of the pro.grani for later delivery. What visitors did see of Press they liked. The demo included editing functions but no 1/0.
Myarc didn’t show any new products during its seminar but demonstrated its Hard & Floppy Disk Controller on a Geneve. Visitors saw a preliminary version of GFME, a windowing, multitasking environment and an abortive attempt to run Marc Advanced BASIC.
GEME will allow users to run up to four programs simultaneously, but not just any progranls. Only programs that are specifically written or rewritten to utilize GEMF will he able to take advantage ot GEME. Company spokesman Jack Riley wasn’t certain that the Myare BASIC would work as he had downloaded it via modem the night before. While MAB could he loaded, it locked up the computer when trying to run a FOR-NEXT loop.
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