Epson QX-10

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Epson QX-10

The Epson QX-10 is a microcomputer running TPM-III (CP/M-80 compatible) which was introduced in 1983. It was based on a Zilog Z80, running at 4 MHz, provided 256K of RAM organized in four switchable banks, and included a separate graphics processor chip manufactured by NEC to provide advanced graphics capabilities. Its successor, the dual-processor QX-16, added a 16-bit Intel processor enabling it to also boot MS-DOS 2.11. The case of the QX-16 was enlarged to provide enough physical space for an internal hard-drive in contrast to the QX-10's dual-floppy configuration.

Valdocs

An Epson QX-16 booting Valdocs

VALuable DOCumentS by Rising Star Industries is an obsolete Pseudo-GUI WYSIWYG framework/OS for document creation and management, written as a set of interactive application and system modules which ran only on Epson's QX-10 and QX-16 computers. A version designed to run on the IBM PC was in development when Rising Star closed in 1986.

Valdocs shipped to beta testers circa late 1982. Beta and initial production releases of Valdocs' application modules were written in the Forth programming language while its system-oriented modules (such as E-Mail and disk utilities) were written in Z-80 Assembly Language. Later releases of Valdocs' applications were written in the C programming language.

The initial release of Valdocs included WYSIWYG word processor and spreadsheet applications (with onscreen fonts, an UNDO key, keyboard macros and multiple screen formats), a cardfile database, an E-Mail/communications module, and a desktop manager with an address book, mailing list manager, notepad, calculator and more.

Valdocs specific keyboard on an Epson QX-16

Switching between programs was done by pressing an associated hotkey on the QX-10's keyboard (which was specifically designed to support Valdocs, including an UNDO key) or by selecting a program from a menu the hotkey invoked. The keyboard was referred to as HASCI (Human Application Standard Computer Interface) after the user interface with the same name pioneered by Rising Star Industries.