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Vancouver Area Rainbow Users Group N e w s l e t t e r November and December, 1989; Volume 3, Number 6 Editor: David P. Maroun, 9395 Windsor Street, Chilliwack, BC, Canada V2P 6C5; telephone (604)792-4071 Publisher: DECUS Canada, 505 University Avenue, 15th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 2H2; telephone (416)597-3437 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unless the contrary is indicated, any part of this newsletter may be freely copied or distributed unaltered and with credit given to the original source. While the information provided is believed accurate, the editor cannot take responsibility for the contributions of other writers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Deadlines: For the January and February issue: December 31, 1989 For the March and April issue: February 28, 1990 Almost any legible format is acceptable for submissions, but the ideal is ASCII form on diskette. Diskettes should be accompanied by covering letters describing the files and indicating disk format. We can handle Rainbow CP/M, Rainbow MS-DOS, IBM PC-DOS single-sided, and some others as well (check about them). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Editorial: Miscellaneous Comments by David P. Maroun d:BUG ----- We are now collaborating with d:BUG (digital: Bellevue Users Group), a PC users group centered near Seattle. Amer Nelson, d:BUG's newsletter editor, has opened a section in the newsletter titled, "The Monthly Plagiarizer", which features articles taken from the VARUG newsletter among other sources. He has also donated to our library a utility for reading .GIF files on Rainbows. Included with the reader are several .GIF pictures showing stars, a waterfall, and characters from children's stories. In addition, there is a utility for adapting the reader to various configurations of the Rainbow and a utility for saving images in a form that is quick to redisplay. We tried the .GIF reader on a 100A and a 100B, each equipped with a monochrome monitor. The documentation for the reader says that 100A users are likely to be disappointed, but we thought that the pictures looked good on either machine. We used JOBSDUMP to print some of the pictures on an LA50 printer. The results were quite sharp, but brought out a weakness: The pictures do not fill the Rainbow graphics screen, so JOBSDUMP printed out the blank regions too. When we reversed the colors, the blank regions became black and quite noticeable. Of course, a pair of scissors or a paper cutter could take care of that problem. The .GIF reader uses only medium resolution. We hope that the author will develop a high-resolution version of the program too. Amer is acquainted with several members of our group, and extends greetings to them. DECUS Leadership Meeting ------------------------ As another article in this issue indicates, DECUS had another leadership meeting this year. This time the meeting was held at the prestigious Deerhurst Inn and Country Club in Ontario, a few hours drive north of Toronto. I attended this meeting and thought it was even better organized than last year's. Unfortunately, the Deerhurst Inn itself did not measure up to the Lake Okanagan Resort, the scene of last year's meeting. Lake Okanagan was cheaper, too. The leadership meeting had a social aspect besides the formal discussions. I especially enjoyed meeting people who shared my dislike for alcoholic drinks, tobacco smoke, and professional sports. Parking ------- I have to award some sort of prize to the Mace utility for parking hard disk heads. When I saw it in action, it tried to park all drives named 'C:' or higher. The only problem was that the program was running on a Rainbow with floppy disk drives C: and D:, and a RAM drive E:. There was no hard disk. I have enough trouble imagining floppy disk drives being parked, but a RAM drive? The program gave no error messages; it was satisfied that it did its job correctly. Bulletin Boards --------------- The Sardis Radio Shack bulletin board, which I used to help run, has shut down for good. The closure was largely a result of breaches in security. Someone (or some group of people) managed more once than to get the lists of users and their passwords. It is not hard to imagine how this happened, since the board was run on a computer that was available to Radio Shack customers during business hours. Bulletin board fans in the Chilliwack area are not suffering much from the loss of the Radio Shack board. Karl Drohmann's Farside board started up a few months ago, and is already a going concern. It operates 24 hours per day, seven days per week, except during maintenance periods, and uses a modem operating at 300, 1200, and 2400 bits per second. Karl charges $10 annually for membership, but occasionally leaves the board open to all callers. So far, only MS-DOS software is carried. Anyone interested can call (604) 792-5844. Set your communications program up for eight data bits, one stop bit, and no parity. The Friday 13th Virus --------------------- This virus simply did not exist. It was supposed to appear after October 12, 1989, but reports of damage since then are about the same as ever, so the supposed virus did not make any difference. We should be cautious of the scare tactics that other people use, particularly in the so-called news media. This virus is just one example of a danger that existed only in someone's mind. Compatibility ------------- "About 95% compatible"; "pretty much the same as an XT"; "a close compatible"; "60% compatible". What do these comments describe? The DEC Rainbow! You may be accustomed to hearing that computer described as not IBM-compatible, but times have changed. The 286 and 386 machines, the IBM PS/2s, and the Macintoshes you see nowadays are noticeably different from the original IBM PC. Compared to them, the Rainbow rates as fairly compatible after all, both in software and hardware. Incompatibility --------------- As a consequence of the variety in the marketplace, the user of a so-called compatible computer must be prepared for incompatibilities. Quite likely, some hardware, supposedly designed for a "compatible", will not fit that machine, and the same goes for software. One example of this incompatibility: Not long ago I got the demonstration version of Microsoft Word version 5.0. Microsoft supplies it free of charge to anyone who asks. The program came on a double-sided, high-density, 5.25-inch diskette. Not all "compatibles" can even read that kind of diskette. Furthermore, the program required an EGA or VGA graphics card. Again, many IBM clones lack such a card (the original IBM PC did not have these cards at all). However, I had the use of a machine with a suitable high-density diskette drive and a multi-function video card offering an EGA option. So, I inserted the diskette, chose EGA mode, and ran the demonstration. I got a completely blank screen. Finally, I entered a control-Break to abort. Then I got something. The program asked whether I wanted to see the demonstration again. I made several attempts and got the same result each time. An obvious conclusion of this trial is that Microsoft Word 5.0 is an unusable program. Is Microsoft really trying to reduce sales? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Corrections And Clarifications Janet Charlton's review of Framework III in our last issue said, "One weak point of the spreadsheet is that you can adjust the sizes of columns only by viewing, not by specifying a number as in Lotus, Supercalc, or Multiplan." In fact, Framework III indicates the width of a spreadsheet on a status line near the bottom of the screen, so the user does have a precise, numerical width at all times. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In The News Both International Business Machines (IBM) and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) have acquired voting member status on the Open System Interconnection/Network Management (OSI/NM) Forum. The Forum operates under the auspices of the International Standards Organization, and provides a means of standardizing communications techniques. The Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet-database-graphics program will be available for VAX/VMS systems. The VMS version has been developed from 1-2-3 release 3 for desktop computers, and will accept files prepared under release 3 as well as previous implementations of 1-2-3. Computer Associates offers a free demonstration version of SuperCalc5. The program runs on all IBM and compatible personal computers, but is said to take advantage of 286 and 386 processors as well. To get a copy of the demonstration, call toll-free 1-800-663-6904, extension 10. Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. has announced an expansion of its product line and lower prices on some items. The Personal Modem 2400, with Smartcom EZ software, is designed especially for MS-DOS computers. The combination is expected to sell in Canada for $299. Suitable Solutions has announced Microsoft Windows/286 for the DEC Rainbow. The program uses a Rainbow adaptation kit developed with the help of Leonard Berk Consulting of Ontario. To run Windows/286, a Rainbow needs 640 thousand characters of random access memory, a hard disk with at least two million characters free, the graphics option, and MS-DOS 3.1. Desirable options include a double-sided disk drive (Suitable Solutions' I-Drive), the Turbow-286 accelerator board, the Code Blue IBM emulator, and a Microsoft mouse. Windows and its applications are usually supplied on double-sided diskettes, but Suitable Solutions can provide the software on RX50 diskettes at an additional charge. Interested parties can contact Suitable Solutions 1700 Wyatt Drive, Suite 12 Santa Clara, California 95054 Telephone: (408) 727-9090 FAX: (408) 727-0823 Telex: 287174 SUIT ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LEADERSHIP '89 (Editor's note: The following is taken from a message dated 20-OCT-1989 10:02:58.17 and posted on MUKLUK, the DECUS MicroVAX, by Sharon Wise.) The second (and we hope annual) Leadership weekend was held at the Deerhurst Inn in Huntsville, Ontario from September 28th to October 1. The Board arrived a day early for a meeting, but were joined by the rest of the leaders on Thursday evening for the welcoming reception. Everyone received a Leadership 89 t-shirt and a mug shot from Anne. She enabled everyone to put names to faces over the next few days. The emphasis for this leadership was the LUG and the formulation of a strategic plan with action items covering the many issues of the LUGS. There were presentations the first day from Mark Johnson on the DECUS structure (both Canada and International), Dave Morley on running effective organizations, and Caroline Singleton on Membership/Users (including results from the latest membership audit). We developed a list of LUG priorities and then broke up into small work groups to develop strategies to deal with the assigned issues. One large group, the GIA group (Golf In the Afternoon), carried their discussions for several miles! After dinner, there were BOF (Birds Of a Feather) sessions until 10 pm, a full day. The second day led off with a presentation on the DECUS Office by Susan Kalinger. Then the Digital connection was explained by John de Bruijn. The workshops got together again and, after lunch, gave their presentations. All of the generated action items were discussed and assigned. Then the barbecue got underway with video by Marlene. After dinner we gathered around the campfire to hear the famous Mark Johnson Duck Joke (or was it geese?), network with other leaders, and pass out a few awards for those special contributions over the weekend. A few of the special events were the tap dance lesson, the Cleese videos, the baseball games, and the search for the hot tub shown in the Deerhurst brochure. Leadership 89 was a great success and is due to the LUG Committee (Caroline Singleton, Rob Golan, and Doug Collins), and of course to Anne Murakami and the entire DECUS Office for all of their hard work. Thank you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CP/M-80 Turbo Pascal Is Still Available Borland International no longer supplies CP/M-80 versions of its Turbo Pascal programming language, but Turbo Pascal 3.0 for 8-bit CP/M is still available from Alpha Systems Corporation 711 Chatsworth Place San Jose, California 95128 United States Of America Telephone (408) 297-5594 This 8-bit version of Turbo Pascal is listed at $60 in US funds. Alpha Systems Corporation also provides other CP/M software. A free catalog is available. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Review: The Roland LP-1100 Laser Printer By Gaetan Laporte Matsushita Electric's products are sold locally under the name 'Roland' as well as 'Panasonic' and 'Technics'. Roland Digital Group distributes the Roland items. Recently I had occasion to use the Roland LP-1100 laser printer. The Roland LP-1100 is advertised locally for about $2280 with the standard 512 000 characters of memory, and $2680 with 1.5 million characters. The machine I tried had the 1.5 million. This printer has both serial and parallel interfaces as standard equipment. The serial port allows control by means of XON/XOFF signals or the data terminal ready signal, and permits transferring information at speeds from 300 bits per second to 19 200 bits per second. I tried only the parallel port. The supplier claims that the printer can print up to eleven pages per minute in text mode. I did not time the Roland, but it seemed fast enough for anything I tried. The printer accepts two paper cassettes at a time. You can, for example, put letterhead paper in one cassette and plain paper in the other. A special tray is provided for envelopes. Several printer emulations are provided. Each emulation allows using the codes for a certain printer. You can choose from Hewlett-Packard LaserJet+ (often referred to in the instruction manual as 'Roland LP'), Epson FX-286, IBM Proprinter, Diablo 630, and Roland RP-1250. The Roland RP-1250 mode has two sub-modes, standard (mostly similar to Epson) and IBM Proprinter. Not all features of these other printers are available. For example, the laser printer does not provide a draft printing mode like the Epson FX-286; all text is printed in letter quality. I used the HP, FX-286, and IBM emulations. Resolution (the ability to print fine detail) is rated at 300 dots per inch. Setting up the Roland was quite easy. There is a set of little touch-panels that allow selecting the interface, margins, emulation, paper cassette, and various other features. You can even choose to have all information except printer codes displayed in hexadecimal notation. Words guide you while you make choices. I appreciated the plain English; other systems use symbols that I find hard to decipher. A "permanent save" feature allows keeping settings as the start-up defaults. You can decide whether to have the printer eject the last page of a document after a set period of time. During most of my trials, the printer was configured to wait ten seconds before ejecting the final page. I preferred this arrangement to being obliged to send a form feed, or having the end of one print job come out as the beginning of the next. Of course, sending a form feed makes the printer eject a page immediately in any case. I did find the margin settings a little difficult to understand. What the printer manual describes as a one-inch bottom margin is chosen as a 10-inch bottom margin. The manual measures from the bottom up while the printer measures from the top down. A similar confusion exists for the right margin. Most of the features are also available under software control; that is, you can send codes from a computer to choose the margins or the printer emulation. This proved to be the most convenient way in an office that shared the printer among several computers with different requirements at different times. I got some experience at adding toner. The job is really quite simple. I just shook the bottle, uncapped it, and poured the toner gradually into the receptacle-- gradually so as not to raise a cloud of black powder. Then I washed my hands; the job is messy! Roland supplies the LP-1100 with just a small amount of toner, so a purchaser can expect to add toner soon. A bottle of toner costs about $75. If that seems like a large amount, compare it to the list price of $165 for a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet. However, the LaserJet requires replacing a cartridge including some mechanical parts besides the black powder. What was the Roland's print quality? Very good, just as for any other laser printer I have seen. One feature I liked was the double-width type in Epson mode. I use double-width for headings, but some other laser printers lack the font. Built-in fonts include Courier upright and italic in pitches of 10, 12, 15, 16.66, and 20 characters per inch, and Century 702 proportional spacing upright and italic. Some fonts are available in only certain printer emulations. The LP-1100 had its quirks, though. One it shared with other laser printers I tried is the forbidden area near the margins of the paper. If you try to print right up the edge of a sheet, you lose information; some of the text is not printed. You must format a document with top, left, bottom, and possibly right margins. Like other laser printers, the Roland provides both portrait and landscape ("sideways") orientations. You can switch from one orientation to the other by making the computer send a so-called superset command. However, that command also ejects a page. I suppose you could get both upright and sideways orientations on a single page by using graphics mode or sending a sheet of paper through twice, but I did not try. The code for changing printer emulation also ejects a page. I, along with others in the office, often put the command for choosing a certain emulation at the beginning of a document so as to be sure that the printer was set up properly. We soon became accustomed to getting a "mandatory blank page" at the beginning of a print job. Any laser printer occasionally jams on paper, but I cannot remember seeing any other printer or photocopier jam as severely as the Roland did. In one case, a sheet of paper wrapped around the drum. One staff member spent half an hour or more with tools getting that paper off. In the process, he exposed the drum to light, something the printer manual warns against. Weeks later, the printer began drawing a fine line down each page. To cure the problem, the drum was replaced. In another case, a piece of paper was pleated and trapped behind the drum. We could not see the paper at all until the printer was partly disassembled. Before that sheet was removed, any attempt to print sent sheets of paper through black and with clumps of toner on them. It was decided after these incidents to take special precautions, such as not putting a sheet of paper through the printer just after it has come through once, and ensuring that paper curled down, not up, when placed in a cassette. These precautions make sense with any laser printer or photocopier, but were especially important with the Roland. When you deal with a device as complicated as this printer, you are bound to make mistakes. I soon got accustomed to using up large amounts of paper while I tried to get the result I wanted. Conclusions ----------- I appreciate very much the qualities of this printer. It can produce very good copy indeed, and is quieter than a dot-matrix or daisy-wheel printer. But I find the latter two kinds more reliable and certainly cheaper to maintain (many dot-matrix and daisy-wheel printers are also much cheaper to buy in the first place). Dot-matrix print quality is often entirely adequate. That of an Epson LQ1050, for example, is probably satisfactory for any business letter. As for speed, I can usually start a print job and take care of other tasks while waiting, so even a slow printer will do. If you really need a laser printer, I suggest you think carefully about the serious jamming I saw before choosing the Roland LP-1100 over its many competitors. I cannot say for sure whether a Panasonic laser printer has the same problem, but the common origin of the two brands suggests caution. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Review: dBASE III Plus By David P. Maroun As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, an Ashton-Tate representative told me that my CP/M-86 dBASE II was obsolete, and sent me a free update to dBASE III Plus. I got a complete package of dBASE III Plus version 1.1 with seven double-sided, double-density 5.25-inch diskettes and all the documentation. This is the same package I have seen advertised locally for $520. Although dBASE IV has been available for months, I still see dBASE III Plus in stores, so I am passing on my experiences with the program in case others are interested in getting it. I used dBASE III Plus previously on an IBM PC/XT 286 with 655 000 characters of random access memory and a 20-million character hard disk. This time, the computer was a Rainbow 100B with 918 000 characters of RAM and a 10-million character hard disk. My first task was to transfer the software from the original double-sided diskettes to single-sided, 40-track diskettes that the Rainbow could read. I made the transfer on a Tandy MS-DOS machine. I archived all the files before copying them to the single-sided disks so as not to exceed their smaller capacity. Once I got the files to the Rainbow, I de-archived and proceeded to use them. Previous Ashton-Tate products were copy-protected. My dBASE III Plus was free of copy protection, but it did require an installation procedure before use. Installation involved specifying my name and company's name. My company was myself. I am used to running dBASE II on a single RX50 diskette. There is room on that diskette for the operating system (usually CP/M but occasionally MS-DOS), the dBASE system and help files, a few utilities (such as PIP for copying files), and a database of perhaps 500 records. Even then, there is space to spare for such operations as sorting. The dBASE III Plus system and help files take up so much room that I needed two RX50 diskettes (or two sides of one diskette). I also used the hard disk for a separate text editor, and a third diskette for data files. Since I have drives for only two diskettes at a time, I had to swap diskettes every time I loaded dBASE III Plus. I could, of course, have put all the files onto the hard disk, but I wanted to see how far I could go with diskettes. I might have avoided using the hard disk altogether by using a smaller text editor. Sammy Mitchell's QEDIT 1.38 is only some 30 000 characters in size and runs on a Rainbow under Code Blue, so I could probably have fit it onto the data diskette. As it was, I used SEDT. Its 134 000 characters seemed a bit large for the data diskette. To run dBASE III Plus on a Rainbow, I used MS-DOS 2.11-1 augmented by the IBM emulator Code Blue with its '/V' option, which in turn required most of the memory in the computer. The version 1 of Code Blue I used did not show the 25th line that dBASE tried to display. To see what I typed, I had to give the 'SET STATUS ON' command. That put a status bar near the bottom of the screen and also echoed my typed-in commands within the Rainbow's 24-line limit. The status bar itself told me what drive I had logged in and what record I was dealing with. Included in the dBASE III Plus package is an on-screen tutorial. I could not get it to run at all on the Rainbow. This failure was not a serious problem, though, since the manuals include a very clear tutorial. Unfortunately, the rest of the manuals seemed noticeably harder to understand. Built in to dBASE III Plus (and also to dBASE III) is the Assistant, a set of menus to guide the user through such procedures as creating databases. There is also a separate application generator program which largely duplicates the Assistant. I thought that dBASE III Plus would be better if the Assistant were eliminated. Then the menus would be available only if the user chose the application generator, and would not take up disk space or memory otherwise. An experienced user may find that he can work faster without the menus, and may well prefer (as I did) doing without them. dBASE III Plus provides a great deal of on-line help. However, using that help was a bit tricky in my case since any options I typed in went onto the invisible 25th line. This problem should not bother someone with version 2 of Code Blue since it allows displaying that last line. The Rainbow's 24-row limit is really artificial anyway since the machine has the hardware for displaying 48 lines. I wish some enterprising programmer would develop software for using that feature. dBASE III Plus, like its predecessors, is a programming language. dBASE III Plus has more commands standard than dBASE II does. For example, the new command 'ZAP' is equivalent to the former 'DELETE ALL' followed by 'PACK'; it marks all records in the database for deletion and then eliminates them. In the process, disk space is recovered; if you want to free disk space, you need not copy the database to another file, as dBASE II requires. The extensive programming language provides versatility. The user can configure an application to suit his needs and tastes. dBASE III Plus allows keeping a history of the commands entered, a feature I found helpful. One can scroll through the commands by using the up- and down-arrow keys, and can edit commands with left- and right-arrow keys as well as <Insert Here> (or <Ins> on an IBM PC). The user can control the number of commands stored in memory. dBASE III Plus has special date and memo fields that dBASE II lacks as standard equipment. The memo field is designed for text information, and occupies only ten spaces per record in the database file. The memo can actually be much larger since the text is stored in a separate file. The separate memo file gets the extension '.DBT'. The century can optionally be included in dates, so you can specify '1987.08.25' rather than '87.08.25'. This feature may be quite useful for someone who keeps records in the latter part of the twentieth century as well as the beginning of the twenty-first. Using the century in dates may also be helpful to someone studying events that occurred hundreds of years ago. dBASE III Plus has a limited built-in text editor suitable for short programs or memo fields. For more versatility, the user can configure dBASE III Plus to call up separate editors automatically, one for memos and one for programs. I used SEDT for both functions. The word 'RUN' or the symbol '!' can be used to run an external command without leaving dBASE III Plus. If COMMAND.COM is available, typing !COMMAND<Return> causes a temporary exit to MS-DOS with dBASE still in memory. Typing EXIT<Return> causes a return to dBASE. According to international standards, one should not use commas to punctuate numerals as in '514,000'. The reason is that a comma is sometimes used as a decimal marker (French Canadians see this notation often). Current standards recommend spaces rather than commas. dBASE III Plus permits that style; one simply uses a PICTURE clause such as PICTURE '$$$ $$$' to indicate where the space goes. If the user tries to change a database structure, dBASE II eliminates all data from the database. A typical solution to this problem is copying the structure to a second file, modifying the second file, and reading the data in from the original. dBASE III Plus (like dBASE III) requires no such tricks. The user can modify the structure without losing data, as long as he does not change the names of fields he wishes to retain. Files created by dBASE III Plus have the same basic structure as those of dBASE III, but dBASE II's are noticeably different. A dCONVERT utility is supplied for converting dBASE II files to dBASE III Plus formats. This utility successfully handled dBASE II databases, but could not completely convert dBASE II programs. There are two ways to use dCONVERT. If you type DCONVERT<Return>, you get menus to guide you. That approach requires Code Blue on a Rainbow. However, you can also specify the file to be converted, and the destination drive, on the command line. For example, if B:OBJECT.DBF is a dBASE II database, typing DCONVERT B:OBJECT.DBF E:<Return> will convert OBJECT.DBF to a dBASE III Plus database on drive E:. This second form does not require Code Blue. As long as the user's intervention is not needed after dCONVERT starts running, the program runs under Rainbow MS-DOS 2.11-1. If an error occurs that requires some help from the user, resetting the computer will likely be necessary. dCONVERT can also change dBASE III Plus files to dBASE II format, but success is not always assured. For example, dBASE II has no counterparts to dBASE III Plus's date or memo fields. To convert a dBASE II database successfully, it should have the date stored in the MM/DD/YY format (as in 11/02/89 for the second of November, 1989). I prefer YY/MM/DD, which is correct for sorting, but dBASE III Plus did not recognize a dCONVERTED dBASE II database which contained this date format. dBASE tends to use a large number of little files, one for the screen format, another to give commands, another for indexing, and so on. A compiler and linker are provided to combine these files and also to encode them for security. The compiler and linker ran on the Rainbow without Code Blue. Note, however, that the compilation is not complete. Even a compiled program is interpreted a command at a time when the program is run rather than being already completely in machine language. Ashton-Tate has toll-free telephone numbers for customers. There is a telephone number for technical assistance, but it is not toll-free. I also found it difficult to use. I telephoned once a little after 7 AM. A receptionist answered and immediately and hurriedly asked me for identification, including the serial number of my software. I answered and was promptly put on hold to wait for someone else who might hear my questions. Nine minutes later, no one had yet taken my call, so I hung up and called again, intending to ask whether someone might call back to answer my questions. This time the telephone was answered by "Beverley" (as she called herself). Each time I tried to ask for a return call, she interrrupted me and insisted I answer her questions just as she asked them. I had to identify myself and give the serial number of my dBASE III Plus package. I tried to explain that I should not be put on hold, but she still interrupted and demanded answers to her questions. Finally, when I had answered to her satisfaction, she permitted me to say what was on my mind. She said she would make arrangements, and a few hours later, a man did call me. He seemed somewhat uncertain of himself, but provided some of the information I wanted. Beverley's manners were quite different from those of other Ashton-Tate representatives I have known, and the technical support line was quite different from other Ashton-Tate services. I understand that one can get technical support not only by telephoning but also by writing a letter. I think that second method is well worth considering. As a database manager, dBASE II has a serious fault: The program uses a great deal of disk space to store information. A consequence is slowness in dealing with large databases. dBASE III Plus does nothing to solve these problems. Rather, dBASE III Plus makes the situation much worse by using far more disk space for the dBASE system files, and requiring at least twice as much memory (256 000 characters are the minimum on an IBM PC or clone) as dBASE II (128 000) does. dBASE III Plus is slow even with small stores of information. What I noticed most was a lag in response to each keystroke. The slowness was not so obvious in normal use on the IBM PC/XT 286 with its 80286 microprocessor, even with large databases. But I still remember waiting an hour and a half for a report of one or two pages generated on that machine, and an attached Epson FX-286e printer, by a dBASE III Plus program compiled by Clipper. A solution to this problem is readily available in the archiving techniques put into the public domain. The PAK archiver, which uses some of these techniques, can typically compress a dBASE database to as little as one-fifth of its original size (the actual amount of compression depends on the content of the file). Including archiving in dBASE's storage methods would definitely save disk space. Depending on how archiving is done, it might speed up operation by reducing the time needed to read information off disk or write it to disk. So, now that I have tried out dBASE III Plus, how am I using it? I leave it sitting on disks while I use my "obsolete" dBASE II-86 under CP/M. Sometimes I also use the MS-DOS version of dBASE II, but I prefer CP/M since it leaves more memory available and is faster. The extra features of dBASE III Plus simply do not make up for the huge size and sluggishness. Besides, dBASE III Plus features can be included in dBASE II programs. A manual supplied with dBASE III Plus tells how its characteristics are related to dBASE II's; that manual indirectly indicates how to get aspects of dBASE III Plus by programming dBASE II. The auxiliary files supplied with more recent versions of dBASE II certainly make up for the lack of the Assistant, and those auxiliary files can be removed when they are not wanted. Large numbers of dBASE II programs are in the public domain, so I need not do all the programming myself. In many ways, dBASE III Plus shows what is wrong with much current MS-DOS software. dBASE III Plus is bigger, flashier, and has more built-in features than dBASE II, yet its predecessor could do about as much in less memory, less disk space, and less time. The extra features of the newer software also imply extra complexity and demand more study on the part of a user. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Dos Side: A Menu System by Steven Stewart (Editor's note: This article is taken from the Washington Area Rainbow Users' Group newsletter of January, 1985. The article has been shortened somewhat). A batch file, in its simplest and most commonly used form, is merely a series of MS-DOS commands saved in a file with a filename extension of BAT. Once such a file has been saved you can execute it from the usual MS-DOS command prompt by entering only the filename (without the .BAT extension). I was asked if it is possible to write a menu system using MS-DOS batch files. This is an excellent use of batch files, and can be implemented very quickly and easily. Such a system makes it easier for several people in an office to use a single computer. One batch file displays a menu on the screen which lists the programs that are available on the computer. When the user chooses which program to run, another batch file automatically switches the user to the proper subdirectory or prompts the user to insert the proper disk, and executes the necessary commands to run the program. Thus each user does not need to know the details of where the programs are kept or what the syntax is for any commands. The following is a batch file named MENU.BAT which displays a menu. 1 :ECHO OFF 2 :REM MENU.BAT: DISPLAY MENU. 3 :CLS 4 :TYPE MENU.SCR 5 :PROMPT $a Note that the line numbers shown above are for reference only. If you try this batch file on your own computer, do not key in the line numbers. To run the batch file you just type MENU and a carriage return at the MS-DOS command prompt. The first line, ECHO OFF, is the first line of many batch files. The ECHO command may take any of three parameters. If the parameter is OFF, all subsequent commands in the batch file will not be displayed on the screen. The results or output of the commands will be shown, but not the command lines themselves. If the parameter is ON (the default) subsequent command lines will be displayed. If the parameter is neither OFF nor ON then the rest of the line following the word ECHO is taken to be a text string which is displayed on the screen. ECHO is often turned OFF at the beginning of a batch file simply to control the appearance of the screen while the batch file is executing. The second line of MENU.BAT is a comment to help document the batch file. Comments begin with REM (for REMark). While it is good to document your batch files to some extent, you will find that too many comments can significantly decrease the speed with which your batch files execute. The third line of MENU.BAT, CLS, is an MS-DOS command to clear the screen. The cursor is automatically placed in the upper right corner of the screen. The fourth line uses the MS-DOS TYPE command to list a file, MENU.SCR, which contains the menu just as you want it to appear on the screen. (You could also use the ECHO command repeatedly to list the menu to the screen one line at a time, but the TYPE command will paint an entire screen much more quickly than a series of ECHO commands.) MENU.SCR might show that option 1 is to enter BASIC, option 2 is to enter your word processing program, option 3 is to enter your spreadsheet, and so forth. The last line of the MENU.SCR file might say something like "Enter the number for your choice." If you know how, you might even give your menu screen a professional look by inserting the escape sequences in your MENU.SCR file to create double-width characters for the menu title, put the numbers in reverse video, and use the special graphics character set to draw a box around the menu. The last line of MENU.BAT changes the usual MS-DOS system prompt. By using the PROMPT command you can make the system prompt appear to be just about anything you want, including the time, date, default directory, or any text. The MS-DOS Advanced User's Guide lists the characters to use in the PROMPT command to display special prompts. However, the "$a" sequence that is shown in the MENU.BAT file is not documented. The "$a" causes no prompt to be displayed. This will provide the impression to the user that the computer is waiting for a response to the menu. At any time you can get back the default MS-DOS system prompt (the default drive, e.g., A>) by typing PROMPT followed by no parameters. In response to the menu, the user enters the number of the program to run followed by a carriage return. Thus, you will also need a separate batch file for each choice in the menu. The batch files will be named 1.BAT, 2.BAT, and so on. Here is an example of a batch file named 3.BAT which enters Lotus 1-2-3. 1 :ECHO OFF 2 :REM 3.BAT: ENTER 1-2-3. 3 :CLS 4 :ECHO Put Lotus system disk in drive A. 5 :PAUSE 6 :CHDIR \LOTUS 7 :123 8 :CHDIR \ 9 :MENU The first three commands in the 3.BAT file are similar to those already discussed in the MENU.BAT file. The fourth line is an example of an ECHO command to type a message to the screen. Since 1-2-3 is a copy protected program, you must place the system disk in the A drive even when the actual program is run from your hard disk. Line 4 tells the user to do so. The fifth line is a special batch command which interrupts processing of the batch program until the user presses any key on the keyboard. The message "Strike a key when ready . . ." is automatically displayed on the screen. Presumably, the user will then insert the Lotus system disk in drive A and strike a key according to the instructions on the screen. Alternatively, the user might type Control-C at this point to discontinue processing of the batch file. Line 6 changes the default directory to the LOTUS subdirectory where the program is kept. Line 7 executes 1-2-3. After the user exits from 1-2-3, control is returned to the batch file. Line 8 then changes the default directory back to the root directory or to whatever directory in which the menu system batch files are kept. The last command of 3.BAT is MENU. This executes the MENU.BAT file, which once again displays the menu on the screen. It is important to know that, although one batch file may pass control to another in this way, control will not automatically be returned to the first batch file once the second batch file is finished. MS-DOS keeps track of processing only one batch file at a time and does not allow the nesting of batch files. In the above case it makes no difference since the MENU command is the last command of the batch file. You might also make the MENU command the last line of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. An AUTOEXEC.BAT file, if it exists in your root directory, is automatically executed immediately after MS-DOS is first loaded. Thus, making MENU the last command in this file will cause the menu to be displayed as soon as you first enter MS-DOS. Incidentally, you should also put the DATE and TIME commands in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that you will still be prompted for the date and time to set your system clock/calendar. If you want to enter the above files and try them out you can use the EDLIN program which comes with the MS-DOS operating system. If you use your own word processor, be sure to save your batch files as MS-DOS text files instead of using the word-processor format. For example, in WordPerfect use the "prepare /protect documents" option of the Extended Features key rather than the Save or Retrieve keys to edit your batch files. If you use WordStar, open your file as a non- document file. It should be easy for you to think of ways to enhance the above menu system to suit your own needs. For example, some menu choices might lead to submenus. Others might execute commonly performed MS-DOS functions such as listing the files in a particular subdirectory or backing up certain files to a diskette. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Library Hustle (Editor's note: The following is taken from a message posted on MUKLUK, the DECUS MicroVAX, by Steve Cribbs. The message is dated 28-OCT-1989 12:00:07.42.) It's not too late! The DECUS Library Committee is still gladly accepting contributions for the 1990 Symposium Tape/Diskette set. What's that? Never heard of us? Betcha have! We're the group that sends you the DECUS International Software Library Catalog every fall. (That title may be a mouthful, but the publication is easily remembered as THE CATALOG once you've taken the time to browse between its covers.) You also hear from us again at least twice more each year when we mail out the catalog addendums. You are to be impressed that DECUS members think enough of their library that they submit enough new material and enhancements to existing items each year that two formal catalog updates are necessary. Now, here we are trying to grab your attention again. We need what you've got! Send us your software and we will reward you with fame and fortune. This is not a "jest". The Library Committee is assembling material for the collector's item tapes and diskettes that we will be offering at the 1990 Symposium in Toronto. This year we will be building VMS, RSX, and ULTRIX/UNIX tapes. PC users will not be left out; we will have diskettes for DECstation, VAXmate, and Rainbow computers. So, what-do-we-want? We want your software: Your fixes to DEC's problems, your extensions to what DEC has provided, your tools for easing the burden of system management. Don't be worried that your programming techniques may be a little "loose". Documentation not polished? Not a big problem. Send it in anyway. We want your good ideas. Perhaps, someone who uses your utility will take the time to extend what you offered and re-submit it. Then we all win. You know, ... this may make an interesting LUG project. LUG members could review, test, polish, and document locally generated materials and submit them collectively. When-do-we-want-it? As soon as you can get it to us. We look forward to hearing from you at any time during the year. Right now though, the Library Committee is assembling material for presentation at the 1990 Symposium. Logistics require that submissions for that set must reach us at the DECUS Office by early December 1989. Please include a signed submittal form in your package. Okay, what-fame-and-fortune? Your name in lights ... sorry, DEC no longer ships processors with enough lights to dazzle. But, as a fall-back, we'll etch you into our annotated directories. These documents are included on every tape we issue and often claim prominent spots in the DECUScope and multiple other DECUS publications. Each submitter will also receive an $85 certificate that can be redeemed for Symposium registration, Symposium tapes, orders from the International Program Library, a subscription for the U.S. SIG newsletter, and most other DECUS merchandise. Not bad, eh? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Questions And Answers Do you have a computer-related problem? Send it to us. We can publish it, and if we do not know the solution, perhaps someone else in the users group can provide one. QUESTION: I often have to copy all the .DOC and .TXT files from drive B: to C: under MS-DOS. Can I do this without typing in two commands and without loading some file manager? ANSWER: Yes. You can use the built-in MS-DOS 'FOR' command, as in FOR %I IN (DOC TXT) DO COPY B:*.%I C:/V<Enter>. QUESTION: Is there an MS-DOS program that will make the screen blank out automatically when the computer is not being used? I need this program for an AT clone, but I would also like a program that makes a Rainbow's screen blank out in less than the built-in 30 minutes. ANSWER: Christopher J. Dunford's BURNOUT II version 2.30 can be found on bulletin boards, and should work on your AT clone. There is no charge for using the program. On the Rainbow, you can use Bryan Higgins HISTORY, which will blank out the screen in 8 minutes, as well as giving an extended history of commands entered at the MS-DOS prompt. Rainbow versions of HISTORY are in the VARUG library, and may be freely copied for non-commercial use. There are also versions of HISTORY for IBM clones. As with any memory-resident programs, you should check that BURNOUT and HISTORY do not conflict with other software you are using. The documentation files with these packages mention some possible problems, but you should go carefully in any case. QUESTION: What is the difference between an RLL hard disk and an MFM? ANSWER: The recording technique is different, so that the RLL (run-length limited) method puts 26 sectors into each track rather than the 17 used by MFM (modified frequency modulation) on an IBM XT or 16 on a Rainbow. The extra sectors increase the storage capacity from (say) 40 million characters to 61 million. The difference between MFM and RLL really resides in the controller. An RLL disk used with an MFM controller card provides 16 or 17 sectors per track just like any MFM hard disk. An RLL controller delivers the extra sectors and capacity. We do not know of any RLL controller for the Rainbow, though they are common for other machines. QUESTION: Recently I added more memory to my computer. Now some programs that used to run well give out-of-memory error messages. How can more memory give less? Must I take out the extra memory to run these programs? ANSWER: Some programs take numbers larger than a certain amount as being negative, so adding extra memory can make them think that there is less. You can correct this situation without removing the added memory. Just put the extra memory into a RAM drive. QUESTION: Is there a local business that sells used parts for DEC computers, especially Rainbows? ANSWER: Yes. One such source is Rider Computer Services Ltd., 24-30 Capilano Way, New Westminster, BC V3L 5M2; telephone (604) 522-7855; FAX: (604) 522-6271. Rider also provides service for DEC products. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Buy, Sell, Or Swap This section is presented as a service to members. There is no charge for advertizements placed here, though donations will be accepted. Only items related to computing will be advertized; if you wish to sell an old car, we respectfully suggest that you publicize elsewhere. Advertizements are not accepted from suppliers. Ads should preferably be submitted to the editor in writing or as ASCII computer files, but may also be phoned in. ---------------------------------- FOR SALE: VAX 11/730 unlimited user with MicroVAX II as end node, $20 000 Rainbow 100Bs with keyboards, monochrome monitors, and 10 megabyte hard disks; $1000 Rainbow 100Bs with keyboards, color monitors, and 10 megabyte hard disks; $1100 DEC Rainbow version of dBASE III version 1.0, unopened; $250 Contact Charles Haynes at (604) 985-6125 during business hours. FOR SALE: DEC Rainbow 100A with 256 k of RAM, dual drives, an amber monitor, a Brother 1109 printer that has both serial and parallel ports, and a printer cable designed to function with the Rainbow. The instruction books are available for both the computer and printer. Asking $695 for the whole package, or will trade for a Porsche 911. Offers will be considered. Call Ralph Nickels anytime at (604) 595-6811. FOR SALE: DEC Rainbow version of Lotus 1-2-3 version 1A, $100.00. All disks and the manual are included. Contact Doug Nicol at (604) 792-0025. FOR SALE: Poly-XFR CP/M communications software for Rainbow 100, $20; CP/M-86/80 operating system version 2.0, $14. All software items are in the original packages and have documentation included. One AC fan for a Rainbow 100A (also fits many other computers), $10. Offers will be considered. 7.6 cm (3 inch) adding machine rolls, $0.20 each or best offer, plus any postage. Telephone David P. Maroun at (604) 792-4071 or (604) 666-6271. FOR SALE: One RX50 drive in good condition; $180. Also, 65 536-character DRAM (memory) chips, $1.90 each. Telephone David P. Maroun at (604) 792-4071 or (604) 666-6271. FOR SALE: 300 baud coupler modems, $10 each or best offer 1200 baud GDC-212 modems, some with rotary dial phones, $75 each or best offer HP125 CP/M micro computer, with dual 3.5-inch floppy drives, Word/125, and utilities, $800 or best offer Diablo 630API daisy wheel printer, dual sheet feeder, serial interface, 40 characters per second. Comes with sound cover, ribbons, & wheels. $1400 or best offer. KBS Business Systems CP/M micro computer, dual 5.25" floppy drives, serial & parallel interfaces; offers Contact William Cheng, telephone (604) 661-5045; FAX: (604) 661-5055. Call during business hours. FOR SALE: Peachtree business modules for MS-DOS: PeachCalc spreadsheet, general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, personal calendar, job cost system, and inventory control. $35 each. Note: These modules require Code Blue and maximum memory to run on Rainbows. Contact David P. Maroun at (604) 792-4071. FOR SALE: DEC Rainbow 100A1 with a 10-megabyte Univation hard disk (the hard disk is in uncertain condition) and a DEC LA100 printer. $800 or best offer. Contact Bob Adie at (604) 437-1166; FAX (604) 437-1164. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What Do You Think Of This Issue? Please tell us what you liked and did not like. The best articles were:__________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ The worst articles were:_________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ Comments or suggestions: Send your opinions to The Editor, VARUG Newsletter, 9395 Windsor Street, Chilliwack, BC, Canada V2P 6C5.