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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN LIMA NEWSLETTER JANUARY 1990

      ^NEVER RELEASESD OFFICIAL TI MODULES - PART 1
     ^^^^^^^^^^^described by Charles Good
     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Lima Ohio User Group

     The Lima User Group has obtained some module software
that we have never seen actually offered for sale.  This
software was developed in house by Texas Instruments or was
created by third parties under an official TI license.  Most
of this software has a Texas Instrument copyright statement
on the title screen.  In some cases these modules were
released to very limited circulation.  Most of the modules
were never released at all, mainly because of TI's
withdrawal from the home computer market.  A VHS video tape
demonstration of some of these modules is available to any
user group that sends us a blank tape and paid return
mailer, or $5.  This month I will talk about utiltiy and
application software.  Next month I will describe some never
released game and educational modules.

      DISK MANAGER 3
     The title screen says "copyright Texas Instruments" but
gives no date.  This apparently was the disk manager that
was to accompany the TI double sided double density disk
controller.  Two of these controllers, formatting to 1280
sectors DSDD, were sold by one of the dealers at the 1989
Chicago faire.  DM3 looks very much like the well known DM2.
However DM3 offers you the choice of drives 1-4, whereas DM2
only lets you use 1-3.  Also, with DM3 the defaults on the
screen for "initialize disk" are "double sided" and "double
density." In all other respects DM3 appears identical to
DM2.  I successfully initialized disks with DM3 and my
CorComp controller SSSD and DSSD.  I was not able to make
DM3 successfully initialize in DSDD format, probably because
I think DM3 tries to make 1280 sector (8 sectors per track)
disks in double density.  I have no trouble initializing
1440 sector DSDD disks on my CorComp controller using the
DM2.

      CLASS DATA RECORDER
     Copyright 1981 by Scott Foresman and Company.  This is
one part of the "School Management Applications" series
developed by Scott Foresman, a large publisher of school
text books as well as some better known TI educational
software.  An entire school system could be managed with
this software.  Packages for inventory control, payroll,
salary planning and analysis, student scheduling, and
analysis of student grades within a class and throughout the
entire school system were supposed to be included in this
series.  This complete School Management Applications series
is described in the booklet "Texas Instruments Home Computer
Program Library" (copyright TI 1982, numbers "CL581C" and
"1043605-001" on the back cover) that was packaged in the
box with my first 99/4A.  CLASS DATA RECORDER is given
the Scott Foresman identification number 30406 in this
booklet.  The "School Management Application" series is also
described in a 1982 article by Dr.^Tom Hansen published in
vol 1, #5 of 99er magazine.  Of the 15 separate parts of
this series, only CLASS DATA RECORDER and SCHOOL MAILER are
available to me.

     CLASS DATA RECORDER is for use by teachers to keep
track of and analyze classroom student grades.  The module
is a hybrid of GPL and TI BASIC code, resembling in this
respect the Personal Record Keeping module.  When using
CLASS DATA RECORDER with a Gram device it is necessary to
have TI BASIC (Groms 1 and 2) on line.

     It is necessary to have a newly initialized SSSD disk,
or a disk which has previously been used with CLASS DATA
RECORDER in drive 1 when you select the software from the
main title screen.  If there are any files on the disk that
CLASS DATA RECORDER does not recognize, you will get an
error message.  There is alot of disk activity when using
CLASS DATA RECORDER.  Apparently the program stores most of
its data on disk rather than in memory, allowing the
classroom teacher to manipulate large amounts of data.

     You are first asked for the date.

     On first use with a clean  disk you are then asked:
     Course Title
     Period of the day
     Term of the school year
     Teacher name
     Will assignments be weighted?

     You then get to enter the names of all the students in
the class.  Then you enter the assignments, each with the
following information:
     Name (of the assignment, such as "Quiz 1")
     Is it pass/fail?
     Weight (only used if assignments are weighted)
     Total Points (the point value of this assignment)

     Later, when you again boot this data disk you are again
asked for the date, and then given the choice:
     1.  Enter/Edit data
     2.  Print Reports.

     Selecting #1 gives you a chance to enter grades or
manipulate data.  You are, from #1 above, given this menu:
     1.  New assignment and scores.
     2.  Assign gradelines
     3.  Edit records
     4.  Add a student.
     5.  Assign final grades.
     6.  Add a new course.

     If you choose to PRINT REPORTS, you are given the
following choices:
     1.  Class list
     2.  Individual Student Summary
     3.  Cumulative Class Averages
     4.  Class Averages/assignment
     5.  Rank List
     7.  Histogram.
     Printing is done to RS232.  If you have a Gram device,
you can change this to PIO.

     As an experiment I have recently used CLASS DATA
RECORDER to keep track of student data in one of the classes
I teach.   It is very user friendly.  Although I don't have
access to the original documentation I have had no problems
figuring out how to use CLASS DATA RECORDER except for the
initial first time startup procedure (SSSD disk with no
files on it in DSK1.).  This can be a useful piece of
software to any teacher IF a way can be found to direct
output to a printer.

      SCHOOL MAILER
     Copyright 1981 by Scott Foresman and Company.  This is
also part of the "School Managment Applications" series.
The module is a combination of GPL code and TI BASIC and
requires two drives.  First time use requires a blank SSSD
in both DSK1.^and DSK2.

     This software is used to generate address labels for
the students in a single school or an entire school system.
Printing output is to RS232.  Labels can be printed based on
grade, teacher, building, zip code, etc.  The program serves
as a data base for student and parent names addresses and
phone numbers.

     On first use you are asked the following information
about each student in the data base:
     Name
     Grade
     Room
     Sex;
     Parent or guardian name
     Street Address
     City
     State
     Zip code (up to 9 digits)
     Option field  0-9 (I havn't figured out the meaning of
this yet.)

     Upon subsequent booting of a data disk you are given
this menu:
     1.  Enter information (as above)
     2.  Edit/Display information
     3.  Print Reports
     4.  Upgrade all students (indicate that they have been
promoted to the next grade).
     5.  Delete a grade

      DISK DUPLICATOR -release 1.0
     There is no date or copyright notice.  The powerup menu
has these choices:
     1.  Duplicate Pascal Disks
     2.  Duplicate Basic disks
     3.  Compare Disks
     4.  Diskette Quality Test
     5.  Catalog Disk.

     In reverse order to save the most interesting for last,
#5 is identical to disk catalogs of the DM2 and DM3 modules.

     #4 offers you the choice of "Destructive test (YN)".

     The Compare Disks routine (#3) will terminate the first
time a difference is found in a sector by sector comparison.
However the exact nature of the difference and the sector
location of the difference are not given.

     I was not able to check out PASCAL disk duplication
(#1).  Duplicating BASIC disks (#2) is the most interesting
feature of this module.  Duplication only works with a SSSD
master.  You can make two copies of the master disk onto two
copy disks with only one keypress.  You put the master disk
in DSK1. and the backup disks into DSK2. and DSK3.  First
the copy disks are initialized, one at a time.  Next, sector
by sector information is read into memory from the master
disk and then output to the first copy disk and then to the
the second copy disk.  Since this is sector by sector
copying (something DM2 and DM3 don't do) copying is rather
slow compared to what is possible with a track copier.  I
suspect that track copiers were unknown when DISK DUPLICATOR
was created.

      DIAGNOSTIC TESTS
     Copyright 1979 by Texas Instruments.  This is
designated is PHM3000, the lowest numbered module in TI's
official module number system.  It was designed to test the
99/4 (no A) console.  No equivalent for the 99/4A was ever
produced.  This module, like the dealer demonstration module
PHM3001, was not sold widely, if at all, to the general
public.  The DIAGNOSTIC TESTS module is mentioned in the
documentation "ADDENDUM" that was packaged in the box with
the first 99/4A I purchased in 1982.  A console diagnostic
module is a good idea.  Diagnostic tests on disk, such as
those released by TI to user groups a few years ago, require
a more or less working console as well as a functioning disk
controller and drive.  Some module problems would prevent
testing from disk.

     The title screen and main menu of DIAGNOSTIC TESTS use
the large console character set, the character set used from
the powerup "Press 1 for TI BASIC" etc menu.  This is
somewhat unusual.  The main menu gives these choices:
     1.  Automatic test
     2.  Keyboard test
     3.  RAM test
     4.  Video display
     5.  Sound test
     6.  Calculation test
     7.  Cassette test
     8.  Handset test
     9.  Maintenance test

     Choices #1 and #3 put various multicolored patterns on
the screen.  I don't know what these patterns mean.

     The keyboard test (choice 2) lets you press any key and
have its character displayed on the screen.  This includes
the arrows, which are displayed as arrows.  Lower case
characters, as well as non arrow FCTN characters give
meaningless displays.

     Video Display (choice 4) lets you view a bit map mode
display (called pattern mode by the module) that includes
sprites and an interrupt driven count down clock.  You can
also view 40 column "text mode" and "multicolor mode".  The
latter is rarely used in TI software, and includes squares
composed of 4 pixels with the color of each square
independent of any other.  The "multicolor mode" test
display is interesting.

     Choice 5, sound test, automatically tests all aspects
of the sound chip.  Some of the generated test sounds are
quite pleasing.  This is not a speech test.  TI speech was
not around in 1979.

     The calculation test, choice 6, automatically checks
addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, log
functions, trig functions, and "miscellaneous" functions.
You don't see much on the screen.

     Choice 7 exercises CS1 and CS2.  You have to verify
that the cassettes are doing what the computer says they are
supposed to be doing.

     The biggest surprise in this module is the handset
(joystick) test.  The screen display indicates that FOUR
JOYSTICKS can be tested.  Tests include all 8 joystick
positions plus the fire button.  Does anyone know if the
99/4 had provisions for four joysticks?

     The maintenance test (choice 9) brings up a display
that says "for repair technician only."  You can check groms
0,1, and 2.  You also test sound, VDP RAM, and XML.  I don't
know what "XML" is.  The screen display for most of these
tests simply says "test in progress."  You do hear something
in the sound test, and a ghosty immage flashes across the
screen in the VDP RAM test.
     .PL 1