1.2: Differences between Software Packages - jessaskey/fluke900link GitHub Wiki

The original Fluke 900 Software created by ZTest was simply called ‘Fluke 900 PC Software’. It ran in DOS (as 16-bit exe) and obviously had many shortcomings in comparison to today’s Graphical User Interfaces and communication. Fluke 900 Link is a replacement for that software, however there are some differences that may be confusing if reading through the original software manuals because Fluke 900 Link does not function exactly the same way. This section simply lists those differences and tries to explain them clearly for reference.

1. Fluke900Link is modeled after Microsoft Visual Studio as a development environment. It has lots of different windows that allow you to holistically see what is going on between the Fluke900 and your PC. The biggest difference is that since we are now in a Windows world, this User Interface (UI) is obviously mouse oriented whereas the ZTEST software was very DOS and Keyboard oriented.
2. Fluke900Link will attempt to replace both the PC Software AND the libload program which allowed you to create device libraries for lists of devices. These were separate pieces of software from ZTEST with different purposes.
3. Fluke900Link introduces the concept of a ‘Project’ (.f9p) for Lists, Sequences and Libraries… my assumption is that a project is roughly equal to a game PCB… very similar to MAME where there are different names for different versions of the same game… so for instance, since there are like 6 versions of Atari Asteroid’s PCB’s… there might be a Single ‘Project’ for Atari Asteroids and there are different sequences for each revision PCB within that project. Locations and minor TTL/PROM IC differences are the main differences between the PCB versions.