Panel Plus II
A screen painter originally released as "Panel" for CP/M in 1981 and then put out PL/I code targeting the Digital Research PL/I compiler. Later converted to having a C output and ported to DOS and re-released with a v1 version number in or around 1985, and in 1988 as Panel Pus II as a screen painter and C UI library with support for OS/2 and VAX VMS and the possibility of a DLL version on OS/2 and DOS which opened up support for FORTRAN as well as C on those two operating systems, the company shortly after that added support for UNIX, Xenix and QNX.
By the time version 2.1 hit the market in 1991 the library not only supported the usual multiple windows and menu options but had added features such as field editing capabilities that include automatic conversion of currency and date formats to different national standards and full word-wrap text editing.
The system is still being sold in 2016, albeit without any form of support but with full source code.
- Lattice version
The Lattice company sold a version of Panel under its own name in the mid/late 80's, this version targeted the Lattice C compiler and environment specifically and therefore systems that the Lattice C supported but RCS did not including the Atari ST and the Amiga. In other terms the Lattice version appears identical to the RCS version and shipped with the same manual as the RCS Panel DOS version. After the introduction of Panel Plus the RSC company offered a Lattice version of that program separately form other versions at a discounted price.
Version
- Last known version:
- Adds DBCS support for 32 bit OS/2 and IBM DOS/V, a fully Japanised version, adds support for Microsoft Windows and RMX. FORTRAN support dropped.
- Panel Plus II v2.1 (1991)
- First version to be CUA compatible, adds support for Microsoft C 6.0, Watcom C and Metaware C compilers with Pharlap, Eclipse and Rational Systems extenders being supported for DOS systems. The system also had on-line help database that works with Microsoft's Quick-Help utility.
- Panel version 6.0d (1987-07-11)
Links and publications
- Panel Plus II product page on Copia
- Panel Plus II product leaflet ca 1990/1991
- Ray Lance: A review of Roundhill Computer Systems PANEL - From Amazing Computing magazine Volume 2, Number 1 page 61 - January 1987 - This is a review of the Lattice version.
Licence and availability
Discontinued commercial software. The company changed the licensing terms and prices repeatedly during the lifetime of the product, by the time version 2.1 was released Roundhill had simplified the product offering, lowered the price and softened the terms of the licence in response to a number of competing libraries. PANEL Plus II v2.1 was available with full source code for USD495 for each platform and a self-porting version was also made available for unsupported C environments.
