Prowess section |
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Updated: 11/12/18
PROWESS is the Progs Window Manager system, a new user environment for the QL with pointer environment. It contains all the system extensions from PROGS and is essential to run program which need these extensions - some software from PROGS themselves, or the Paragraph word processor for example. The Prowess package includes a HTML reader, a system for automatically installing programs onto your system and even a database engine based on the famous Data Design package from PROGS, and the ProForma package which provides vector fonts on your system. Best of all, Prowess itself is free to use - it's distributed under the GNU General Public Licence.
There's quite a lot of software connected to Prowess, so I thought it best to link to Joachim van der Auwera's website from where you can download the latest versions and access both information and other program package downloads. You can also access the source code and programming information if you'd like to get involved with that side of things. The site address is http://www.progs.be - that page includes a link to their site for downloading their QL software.
In addition, some program demo versions are available on the Demo Versions page, and fonts for use with ProForma, Line Design etc are available from the Fonts page.
Now that Joachim has pronounced that Prowess and associated files are open source and freely available, I can make them available here too.
pws.zip - ProWesS distribution. Unzip this on a HD disk and boot from that disk. You can then use the automatic installation (636K)
app_calc.zip - sources for the ProWesS calculator (18K)
app_global.zip - sources for the global variables ProWesS program (11K)
app_install.zip - sources for the ProWesS installation program (42K)
app_loader.zip - sources for the ProWesS loader (39K)
app_reader.zip - the sources for the ProWesS reader (86K)
c68.zip - special version of c68 prepared for compiling ProWesS applications (326K)
PFbasdoc.zip - documentation for the PROforma SBasic interface (8K)
PFdoc.zip - general programming documentation for PROforma (130K)
PFdriv.zip - sources for all the PROforma drivers (127K)
PFsrc.zip - sources for PROforma itself (486K)
PWbasdoc.zip - documentation for the ProWesS SBasic interface (127K)
PWdoc.zip - general programming documentation for ProWesS (77K)
PWsrc.zip - sources for the ProWesS system (599K)
PWtype.zip - sources for the ProWesS types (103K)
rext_dd.zip - sources for the DATAdesign engine (354K)
rext_global.zip - sources for the global variables thing (11K)
SYSLIBdoc.zip - general programming documentation for syslib (92K)
SYSLIBsrc.zip - sources for syslib library (dll's) (500K)
version.txt - version report all changes to all parts of ProWesS (24K)
Some ProWesS and Proforma documentation/programming manuals are available as eBooks from the eBooks page.
DataDesign.zip
- The DataDesign database application v4.06 (272K)
datadesign409.zip - DataDesign v4.09 (255K)
datadesign412.zip
- DataDesign v4.12, just an update package consisting of English and
German executables and a version.asm file which lists the update
history. Updated by Bernd Reinhardt, this is apparently the first High
Colour version. (65K)
Font Pack 1 - a 2 disk set of _pff fonts for use with ProWesS
disk 1 (1.3MB)
disk 2 (0.9MB)
Fontutils - A package of utilities to convert Type 1 (.pfa, .pfb and .gsf) fonts for use by PROforma, to view and print the fonts. (23K)
fsearch.zip - A file search utility with many useful options, such as search only files with given extensions, directory tree search, match space with a stretch of 'white space' and more features. Please note: this has been copied from a user's installation and as such is not the full installation disk (anyone have a copy of that?). HTML user guide included. (6K)
LineDesign.zip - The LineDesign vector drawing application (162K)
pfdata.zip - print data from Data Design's _ddf files. A small script needs to be made to tell which fields to print and how. (11K)
pflistp.zip - PFlist is a program to produce listings. (18K)
parag107.zip - Paragraph v1.07 by Francois Lanciault. A pointer driven Prowess based word processor from Canada. (78K)
parag203.zip - Paragraph v2.03 by Francois Lanciault. Version 2.03 of the pointer driven Prowess based word processor, now released as freeware by the author. (80K)
PCP.zip - Printer Control Panel, by Wolfgang Lenerz. The purpose of this program is to enable you to use Xchange, or other programs that can make simple ASCII (or other) files, to print to some more modern printers, by using the printer drivers in PROforma.You may print your text to a new device called PFF, the data is then prepared by a filter for PROforma (provided a suitable filter is provided) and PROforma finally takes charge of sending the corresponding data to the printer, provided a suitable printer driver exists. PROforma has a certain number of printer drivers, notably those for Laserjets I-IV. Many modern lasers will be compatible with some of those. This enables you to print QL ASCII files to modern laser printers. (141K)