Who wrote Fax9000?

[Tim]

A number of years ago, a program was written for Geoworks Ensemble
2.01, known as Fax9000.

It was a native fax program for GEOS that was offered for sale
through the then Australian Geoworks distributor (Ray Firth), but I
was curious if anyone knew who wrote it. It doesn't seem to have been
offered for sale outside Australia, but there aren't any local GEOS
programmers AFAIK.

Does anyone have any information about it?

Just curious.

Tim

[Edward]

Hi Tim,

I have Fax9000 and also the Spanish Spellchecker, both from Ray.
I did a quick reading in Hexviewer but didn't find any link or word pointing
to the author.
Sorry,

Edward

"Tim" <harve...@yahoo.com> escribió en el mensaje
news:6be7f7dd.03120...@posting.google.com...

[Steve Main]

Fax9000 was written by Geoworks as a fax solution
for the Sharp PT-9000 tablet computer. Sharp never
shipped more than a few dozen of the devices, but
they paid Geoworks a couple million dollars to develop
all the software for it.

The device had one built-in fax-modem, so the software
did not need to work with a wide variety of fax hardware.
Also, Fax9000 required a specific library file developed
and owned by Palm that was on the PT-9000, but was
never included in Geoworks Ensemble or any of the
desktop versions of Geos.

Geoworks did not consider Fax9000 to be a marketable
solution for the desktop. They feared it would fail to work
properly for the majority of Geos desktop customers and
that it would just raise expectations at a time when no
fax solution was in development for Geos 2.x.
The investment required to develop all the necessary
drivers to support fax on the desktop was deemed much
greater than any potential return.

Ray Firth discovered that Fax9000 worked with his own
modem and wanted to market it in Australia. I talked to
folks at Palm and got their permission to distribute the
one necessary library file and then Geoworks allowed
Ray to distribute Fax9000, with the understanding that
Geoworks would provide no additional support or drivers.

Steve

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One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle. "
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-----

[Edward]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the info.

I can see a Palm kind of driver in the DATA LIBS folder, also a Class2 fax
driver and Group3 driver, etc...

Edward

"Steve Main" <ndm...@aol.com> escribió en el mensaje
news:20031205233846...@mb-m27.aol.com...

[Joseph Durham]

Steve Main wrote:
> Fax9000 was written by Geoworks as a fax solution
> for the Sharp PT-9000 tablet computer. Sharp never
> shipped more than a few dozen of the devices, but
> they paid Geoworks a couple million dollars to develop
> all the software for it.

( Wow, a couple of million for development. To bad it did not bear fruit
down the road..)

Good to see you that you monitoring what is going on around here. Your
insight and knowledge have helped all of us Geos users.

Joe

[Tim]

ndm...@aol.com (Steve Main) wrote

> Fax9000 was written by Geoworks as a fax solution

> [but]... did not consider Fax9000 to be a marketable
> solution for the desktop.

Ah! *That* explains both the source and why everyone was so quiet
about such a significant improvement and also where it came from. I
wondered ...

> The investment required to develop all the necessary
> drivers to support fax on the desktop was deemed much
> greater than any potential return.

Pity - I remember Brian talking (in one of the GeoBytes) about
developing small native fax drivers for 2.0. I guess it's always
easier to talk about what you *want* to do. Some of these things turn
out to be extraordinarily complex once you sit down and look at them.
(GeoComm terminal emulation was another, IIRC.)

> Ray Firth discovered that Fax9000 worked with his own
> modem and wanted to market it in Australia.

It didn't work with a lot of modems. Ray used to sell it with a
package of software plus modem hardware that he knew worked.
Eventually, I think one of the Geo-Germans (Marcus, again?) worked out
how to patch the program to make it work with a much wider range of
modems, although it couldn't receive faxes.

I guess it was another one of those things that, unfortunately, had to
be reinvented by New Deal.

As always, thanks for the prompt and informative reply.

Have a good Christmas.

Cheers,

Tim

[Hans Lindgren]

On 2003-12-09 03:13, Tim wrote:

ndm...@aol.com (Steve Main) wrote 

  

Fax9000 was written by Geoworks as a fax solution
[but]... did not consider Fax9000 to be a marketable 
solution for the desktop.
    

Ah! *That* explains both the source and why everyone was so quiet
about such a significant improvement and also where it came from. I
wondered ...


  

The investment required to develop all the necessary 
drivers to support fax on the desktop was deemed much 
greater than any potential return.
    

Pity - I remember Brian talking (in one of the GeoBytes) about
developing small native fax drivers for 2.0. I guess it's always
easier to talk about what you *want* to do. Some of these things turn
out to be extraordinarily complex once you sit down and look at them.
(GeoComm terminal emulation was another, IIRC.)

 
  

Ray Firth discovered that Fax9000 worked with his own
modem and wanted to market it in Australia.
    

It didn't work with a lot of modems. Ray used to sell it with a
package of software plus modem hardware that he knew worked.
Eventually, I think one of the Geo-Germans (Marcus, again?) worked out
how to patch the program to make it work with a much wider range of
modems, although it couldn't receive faxes.
  

I remember using it with an internal class 1 modem, which worked well for a couple of years, but the modem burned due to a lightning storm. It  was an american brand of modem, but I can't recall which. Rememer there was three standards class 1, class 2 and class 2.0. The last one was a proprietary "standard" of  US Robotics. The last one was a real hell to deal with, as many people were mixing class 2 and class 2.0 up, but luckily most US Robotics modem also supported Fax Class 1.

I guess it was another one of those things that, unfortunately, had to
be reinvented by New Deal.
  

Nope, it was Geoworks who did that 1995 in GEOS 3.0 for CCD:s. This would later be introduced in NDO 3.x for the desktop.

As always, thanks for the prompt and informative reply.

Have a good Christmas.

Cheers,

Tim

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Hans

[Glen Doll]

On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 22:12:41 GMT, Hans Lindgren
<nospamhan...@abc.se> wrote:

>I remember using it with an internal class 1 modem, which worked well
>for a couple of years, but the modem burned due to a lightning storm.
>It was an american brand of modem, but I can't recall which. Rememer
>there was three standards class 1, class 2 and class 2.0. The last one
>was a proprietary "standard" of US Robotics. The last one was a real
>hell to deal with, as many people were mixing class 2 and class 2.0 up,
>but luckily most US Robotics modem also supported Fax Class 1.

Hi Hans, Fax9000 only worked with Class 2 modems. While Class 2.0 was
standardized in November 1992, I don't believe Fax9000 uses those
standards, but rather the Class 2 draft (SP-2388, document TR-29/89-21R8,
March 21, 1990, revised August 1990). The drivers included in GEOS 3.x,
4.x are also working off the Class 2 draft, but adding the older more
popular Class 1 standard allowed GEOS users a wider range of modems to
choose from.

Merry Christmas,
Glen

[Hans Lindgren]

Hehe....Well I mixed it all up ;-) The modem is scrapped and I gave the Fax9000 software away years ago, so I had no chance to check it up. Thanks for the clarification, Glen!

BR,
Hans

[Wayne]

What did they do with all the remaining devices, I might like to pick up
oe?

Thanks

Wayne.

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