Super Shareware Collection/Super Shareware Collection.iso/info/kgl_9401.zip/PILGRIMS.ART

Text File | 1994-02-03 | 8KB | 164 lines

A PILGRIM'S PROGRESS IN COMPUTERLAND
(My Life and Times with Kaypro Computers)
By Richard N. Swift


   Late in the fall of 1984, I bought a Kaypro 4 from the now-
defunct Wolff Computer people in New York and set about learning
how to use it.  I still remember watching in amazement as I
formatted my first diskettes, and all those numbers paraded by
on the screen; I was already hooked!


An Abundance of Word Processors

   Both Wordstar and Perfect Writer came bundled with Kaypros in
those days, and I chose to use Perfect Writer because it handled
footnotes better than Wordstar and never regretted that choice.
I kept hearing that successive versions of Wordstar added all
sorts of features, like yanking back accidentally-deleted
material, but Perfect Writer had all those advantages from the
very beginning.  (I still hope that someday someone may explain
to me why Perfect Writer disappeared completely from view and
Wordstar flourished; it is just one of those many mysteries I
confront regularly in working with computers.)

   Anyway, I hoped that a writing deadline I had to meet would
force me to learn Perfect Writer quickly.  I wrote the article,
my Kaypro and Perfect Writer manuals constantly at hand, and
managed even to get rough data-processing copy out of my Okidata
92 printer.  But, when it came time to prepare the finished
copy, in letter-quality print, on special paper, with precise
margins dictated by the publisher, I could not get my printer to
"interface" (that barbaric word!) properly with the Kaypro.  I
then suffered what must be the ultimate humiliation of a
prospective hacker: I had to type my final copy on my still-
reliable IBM Selectric typewriter!


Misfortune Strikes

   Well, I took the Kaypro 4 with me to Puerto Rico, where I
spend my post-retirement winters, and in January 1985, on the
89th day of the 90-day warranty period, the machine hung itself
up in a seemingly permanent bind.  I rushed it to the local
service people who took one look at it and said, "Oh, you have
one of the old machines!"

   "What do you mean, old?" I asked indignantly.  "It's 89 days
old, so far as I'm concerned."

   Only then did I learn that I owned a Kaypro 4(83), and that a
Kaypro 4(84) was now on the market, incorporating a graphics
screen, a fan and a modem.  The service people installed a fan
for me -- they thought that San Juan's semi-tropical heat was
responsible for my problems -- and, whether their diagnosis was
right or wrong, the machine functioned perfectly for seven years
thereafter.  I also learned how to make my printer do all its
tricks and was quite happy with it, although friends tell me
that I went around like a Zombie much of the time, as I tried to
resolve in my mind the latest problem the computer had thrown my
way.

   I left the Kaypro 4(83) in San Juan when I returned to New
York in the spring of 1985 and bought a second machine, a Kaypro
4(84).  New crisis: the two machines were not completely
compatible.  But a miracle lady at Wolff's guided me through the
necessary re-formatting, and I learned how "SYSGEN" would allow
me to use my diskettes on both machines.


Up The Upgrade Path

   In 1986, I upgraded Perfect Writer with Plu*Perfect Writer,
which gave me enhanced directory listings, the equivalent of
function keys, and the possibility of using swap files of
various sizes.  (Of course, I managed to wipe out my Master
Plu*Perfect Installation Disk in attempting to copy it, because
I missed some warning published in an appendix, but the
Plu*Perfect people kindly replaced it!)

   In the fall of 1987, I found the Creative Computing Club
(CCC) in New York.  It was then a Kaypro Users' Group, but now
embraces both CP/M and DOS.  It proved most helpful, and I was
inspired by one of its members to acquire the Advent Turbo-Rom
for the Kaypro 4(84); its amenities included a faster Kaypro, a
built-in screen-dump, a capacity to configure the shape of my
cursor, and a screen-saving feature that blanked out the screen
if the machine stood idle for more than ten minutes.  I also
acquired "Backgrounder" and sped up my work using the macros
that it made possible.

   A very long manuscript I was working on now began to cause me
storage problems, and I began to think about a hard disk drive.
After much debate internal, I decided in the autumn of 1988 to
go "whole hog" and buy both a 40 MG hard and a 2 MG Ram drive,
and also to acquire the Z-System (NZ-COM: ZDDOS) through a CCC
member.

   He generously installed my new drives and introduced me to
the mysteries of the Z-system, and I was sufficiently convinced
by the merits of all these improvements to upgrade my Kaypro
3(84) in Puerto Rico in the same manner, the next winter.


Hands On, At Last

   Having overcome the fear of lifting the lid on the Kaypro, I
actually installed the ramdisk and hard drive myself, albeit
with the aid of a lot of telephone advice from a very patient
"Gary" and "Gregg," then resident genii at Advent in California.
(Advent is no longer supplying hardware for Kaypros, but they
were wonderful while they did.)  Of course, it was just my luck
that the hard drive in Puerto Rico proved defective, and I had
to remove it and return it to Advent.  While it was in "sick
bay," I re-installed my two floppy drives and used them and the
ramdisk.

   Before I returned to New York in the spring of 1989, Advent
sent a replacement hard drive; I installed it; and it was
working perfectly when I left.  At least, it worked perfectly
after I had graduated to "Backgrounder ii" and ZSDOS 1.0, having
learned the hard way that the original Backgrounder itself was
incompatible with the Z system, and Backgrounder ii did not work
with ZDDOS.  All these changes were possible because Bridger
Mitchell in California (the father of Backgrounder) and Jay Sage
(who, I still believe, knows everything about computers) in
Massachusetts shared their genius with me and were patient
telephone advisers.

   Back in New York, I leaned on my CCC contact again to
diagnose a problem with my Kaypro 4(84), which led him resolder
two spots on the backside of its power pack and, as a special
bonus, to make the greatest improvement of all: moving the RESET
button from the back to the front of the machine!  These repairs
left me free to begin learning how to use my new software!


From Kay To Z

   NZ-COM itself must have had the worst documentation in the
world, an admittedly hard distinction to achieve, but, as I
mastered it and ZSDOS (whose manual was much better), again with
a lot of help from Jay, the Z-system made my machines extremely
effective, more so in some ways even than DOS machines, as I
would later learn.  I was able to adjust the Kaypro operating
system to my own requirements, to load and execute complicated
programs rapidly, to use named directories, to secure files with
passwords, to enjoy Datestamper, and, best of all, to devise
"command aliases" that allowed me with just a few strokes on the
keyboard, to set off a sequence of operations that would go on
for minutes (and might continue forever, I suppose, if one
chose).

   Unfortunately, my Kaypro 4(83) died in January 1992, and I
had to switch to DOS.  I miss my Kaypros and the Z-System,
however, and I hope that those who continue to walk through the
original CP/M groves will persist, enjoy, and upgrade.  With
luck, they may never have to join the masses using DOS.

---------------------------------------
(Dick Swift now logs on every morning from retirement in sunny,
snowless San Juan, Puerto Rico.)

                -thirty-