Best Commodore 64 program ever?

[Paul]

There's plenty of "Best Commodore 64 game ever" threads in other forums, but I decided to extend this to all programs.  Why?  Because I feel that, while games were important to the C64, there were some brilliant programs.

My vote goes to GEOS, with the included GeoPaint and GeoWrite.  To me, that really pushed the C64 well beyond what anyone believed was possible.

[Badders]

I'll second that for GEOS. Amazing software.

Pete.

[RobertB]

My vote goes to GEOS, with the included GeoPaint and GeoWrite.  To me, that really pushed the C64 well beyond what anyone believed was possible.

Agreed.  With the Wheels o.s., the GEOS apps were pushed to a new level of usability.  I found it to be a pleasure to use Wheels, far less so using GEOS.

                 Truly,
                 Robert Bernardo
                 Fresno Commodore User Group
                 http://videocam.net.au/fcug
                 July 25-26 CommVEx - http://www.commodore.ca/forum and click on ComVEX

[Rorshach]

Hi all,

Geos is new to me and there are some things I'd like if they were done better. But it is very useful on 8bit commodores for application software, namely home office work, and some DTP functions with geopublish and some of the PD or shareware addons to convert graphics & such to geos formats.

But there are others I have used for longer than Geos and I consider them among the bestest. I cannot name a single best as theres too many good ones for that. Novaterm is an excellent terminal that rates a BEST in its category, another one I used often back in the 80's was thirdterm I think it was called. Another bestest program for me is Speedscript and also Speedcalc though I used Speedscript most of those two. Another good word processor I liked both then and now is Easy Script, I even have the cartridge version for Commodore 16 and Plus/4 called Easy/Script. Despite the somewhat different name it is functionally identical and another excellent program in either form.

Pilot is another one that is not just a program but a programming language thats often overlooked but quite useful for easy to do interactive programs. Back in the 80's I had vanilla pilot but I think that one went in a garage sale after my first 64 went bust. I now have the original commodore pilot but still keep an eye out if i ever find the vanilla pilot variation.

[Paul]

Hi all,

Geos is new to me and there are some things I'd like if they were done better.

Much of that would be due to the fact that Berkley Softworks had to make it as different from the MacOS as possible, because Apple suddenly wanted to sue anyone who had a GUI that bore even a passing resemblance to the MacOS.  Never mind the fact that the concept of the "Desktop Metaphor" easily pre-dates the Mac.

[Rorshach]

Back in those days it should have been Xerox suing apple for infringement.

[Paul]

Back in those days it should have been Xerox suing apple for infringement.

Nah; the "Desktop Metaphor" was one of those things that seemed like an inevitability for home computers.  Xerox did bring to life some of the ideas of the GUI concept, but it had been bantered around for many years prior in various trade publications.

Honestly, Steve Jobs was a nut-job believing that nobody could have "Thought" of the same thing at around the same time.  Like most things in technology, the concepts were already developed, and simply needed time for technology to be developed and matured to make possible.

[zap]

Contiki  and to be specific Contiki v2.3 stand alone webserver. 

Been running Contiki for 2 1/2 years now 24/7 on www.c64web.com.

The Desktop version was great but used too much ram and no extra programs
written for it except what came with it.

It's been a goal for me to get Contiki working under Geos, so i can edit my html on the same
computer my web-server is running on without taking c64web offline.

enjoy