Phoenix CD 2.0/Phoenix_CD.cdr/02a/pcdg20_2.zip/PCDIG20-.TXT

Internet Message Format | 1986-02-16 | 90KB

Received: from USC-ISIB.ARPA by wiscvm.wisc.edu on 02/11/86 at 23:04:10 CST
Date: 11 Feb 1986 18:18:58 PST
Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V5 #20
From: Info-IBMPC Digest <[e-mail]>
To: Info-IBMPC_Distribution_List: ;
Reply-To: [e-mail]

Info-IBMPC Digest       Tuesday, 11 February 1986      Volume 5 : Issue 20

This Week's Editor: Billy Brackenridge

Today's Topics:

                        Hard Disk Interleaves
               PC Clones Query
            XENIX and 30MB Seagate
               Alsys Ada on AT
 Installing Interrupt Handlers in Turbo Pascal 2.0B (MS-DOS version)
                  MAX Editor
             Dead Terminal Caused Backlog
          A Different Experience with the Proprinter
            Proprinter GKS driver
                  Dbase III+
        Undocumented Microsoft LINK option: /E
               ARC5.12 IS NOW AVAILABLE
               Renaming Subdirectories
     Beware of 'MVDIR.BAT' (& all self-documenting code)
                  MVDIR.BAT
           New Files Available at SIMTEL20
     Rename Directories, Moving Files, & Disk Optimizing
               Disk Optimizers
             DOS vs. Direct Screen Writes
             DOS vs. direct screen writes
               Terminal and PC at Once?
               Alternate Shell Program
         Russian (and French) Word Processors
                   MS Mouse
           Protecting the Hard Disk Heads on an XT
              Symdeb 4.0 -- Stack trace?
           Hotel Front Desk Package Wanted
           Product Evaluation: Classic 286

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Allyn Fratkin)
Date: 11 February 1986 1630-PST (Tuesday)
Subject: Hard Disk Interleaves

I have read with interest the discussions about the interleave factors
on hard disks.  But I still have a few questions.  I work with 4 PC/ATs and
4 PC/XTs.  All of these use the standard IBM disk controllers.  We have a
mixture of disks: CMI and Seagate for the ATs and Seagate and IMI for the XTs.
Are some or all of these disks likely to be suffering from a bad interleave
factor?  How do I check the interleave of a disk, and how can I change it
if I don't like it?

Thank you.

Allyn Fratkin                    [e-mail]
UCSD EMU/Pascal Project          or
U.C. San Diego                   {ucbvax, decvax, ihnp4}!sdcsvax!allyn

[This question has been asked before but never answered. -wab]

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 04 Feb 86 18:10 EST
From:  [e-mail]
Subject: PC Clones Query

  I would be interested in hearing from those people who have
  purchased PC/PC-XT clones.  Specifically, how compatible
  are they?  Is there sufficient support from the dealer?
  How much did it cost?  Feel free to include any general comments
  on the 'feel' of the machine.

                                    Evan Bauman
                        ARPANET --  [e-mail]
                        BITNET  --  gkn3m2@irishmvs

------------------------------


Date: Fri 7 Feb 86 18:46:29-PST
From: William Pearson <[e-mail]>
Subject: XENIX and 30MB Seagate



    I recently purchased a 30MB Seagate drive for my PC/AT (drive
type 8), which installed with no problems under DOS3.1.  I now use
the original IBM 20MB drive with XENIX, and the 30MB drive with DOS,
but I would like to reverse the configuration.  I have Robin Cutshaw's
patches to correct the XENIX disk parameter tables, but it is not clear
to me how many changes must be made to the distribution/installation
floppy.  I am unable to run  "fd /etc/badtrack" because the 30MB drive
keeps seeking to track 0 after checking the first 520  tracks (at least
that's what it sounds like) and as a result I get a "Bad signature (B66D)"
message when I boot XENIX, which does not seem to hurt anything.

    I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has set up IBM XENIX
for the AT to boot from a non-standard drive.

Bill Pearson
Dept. of Biochemistry
U. of Virginia
[phone]



------------------------------


To: [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Alsys Ada on AT
Date: 08 Feb 86 11:02:08 EST (Sat)
From: Bob Munck <[e-mail]>

  I too have been looking into this, and have set aside the money
in my budget.  I'm told by an Alsys source that they have pre-validated
the compiler running on a VAX and compiling to a PC or AT.
(Pre-validation is the point where the vendor has run all of the validation
tests and is satisfied that his compiler passes, such that he is willing
to risk the significant cost of calling in the government validation team
to run the tests officially.)  The source felt that they were within a
week or so of pre-validating the AT host compiler, and mentioned in
passing that the RAM board they supply with the compiler is more likely
to be 4M than 3.  That'll take my AT to 7.5M.

  I've been coding in Modula-2 until now, using the Logitech compiler and
a Final Word II editor reprogrammed to "know" Modula-2.  To switch to Ada,
I need a set of Final Word macros for it.  Has anyone done this?  Anyone
want to help?  (The Modula-2 macros took about four evenings to write, and
Ada has quite a few more statements and reserved words.)
            -- Bob Munck, MITRE  (...!linus!munck.UUCP)
                                 (Munck at MITRE-Bedford.ARPA)

------------------------------

To: [e-mail]
cc: "J. Eliot B. Moss" <[e-mail]>,
    James Dugal <[e-mail]>
Subject: Installing Interrupt Handlers in Turbo Pascal 2.0B (MS-DOS version)
Date: 08 Feb 86 01:11:47 PST (Sat)
From: Alastair Milne <[e-mail]>

[Apologies to non Turbo Hamsters for this long message. The discussion of
Interrupt handlers is meaningless without the code examples, so despite our
policy of not including long code examples in the digest, it seemed the
right thing to do in this case. -wab]

   Ages ago now I posted a general request for information about
   installing user-written interrupt handlers in Turbo Pascal, MS-DOS
   version.  Eliot Moss kindly sent me hardcopy of a terminal emulator
   package in Turbo which installs a handler for auxiliary serial port
   AUX:.  However, at the time I was unable to coax what I thought were
   the relevant sections to behave for me.  Since that time I have had
   reason to do some similar work in 8088 assembly, which led me to
   discover some small but very important details, and also to a better
   understanding of Eliot's package.  Finally, last night, I
   successfully raised an interrupt for a routine in my program
   installed as in interrupt handler, which worked, returned successfully
   to the program, and apparently left the system intact.

   Two major points:
     1. In every routine, Turbo apparently places some code ahead of the
    first user instruction, making it impossible immediately to install
    inline code to save all the registers, as MUST be done in an interrupt
    handler.  The routine itself cannot therefore be installed directly
    as the handler.
     2. The interrupt controller chip, the 8259, must be programmed to allow
        your interrupt, which is done by sending a mask value to port 21H.
    The particular mask value depends on the interrupt you are servicing.
    Also, the interrupt servicer should inform the 8259 when servicing has
    finished.  This is done by sending another mask to port 20H.

     NOTE:  if you want to assign the the two words of any intersegment
        pointer individually, instead of by using the function Ptr, remember
    that the offset is in the FIRST word, the segment base in the SECOND.
    This is contrary to the <seg>:<offseg> notation commonly used.  "Ptr"
    handles this automatically.

   Eliot's technique, which seems to work just fine, is to place in a data
   structure the sequence of instructions needed to save all the registers,
   and call as a far routine the actual handler.  The handler will finish with
   a far return, and the rest of the data structure will restore all
   registers, and return from interrupt.  The advantage here is that Turbo
   doesn't interfere with the contents of a data structure, so the handler
   begins and ends with exactly the code one specifies.  Finally, one simply
   assigns into the interrupt vector the pointer to the structure.

   An example of code to do this:

***************
program lookatinterrupts;

  {I can't stand looking at streams of numbers, especially in hex,
     and especially when they are doing something important: }
  const pushax = $50;  popax = $58;
        pushbx = $53;  popbx = $5B;
        pushcx = $51;  popcx = $59;
        pushdx = $52;  popdx = $5A;
        pushsi = $56;  popsi = $5E;
        pushdi = $57;  popdi = $5F;
        pushES = $06;  popES = $07;
        pushDS = $1E;  popDS = $1F;
        pushCS = $0E;
        pushBP = $55;  popBP = $5D;
        callL = $9A;   { long (intersegment) call}
    IRet = $CF;    { return from interrupt: LAST instruction of handler}
    StI = $FB;   { Set Interrupt flag: allow interrupts to be raised.
             interrupt flag is automatically reset
             when the handler is called.}

  type  array11 = packed array[1..11] of byte;  {Must be adjusted
                    to exactly the number of bytes the
                    initialising instructions need.}
        array10 = packed array[1..10] of byte;  {Likewise for terminating
                    instructions.}
    RoutinePtr = ~byte;  {actually, pointer to anything will do.}
        CallerRec = record
                      SaveAllAndCallServicer: array11;
                      ServicerAddr: RoutinePtr;
                      RestoreAllAndIRET: array10;
                      end;
      { A "CallerRec" is in fact a routine.  All the components MUST be
    directly contiguous, and allocated in this order.  Particularly,
    ServicerAddr is the argument to the far call which is the last
    instruction of the previous field.
    }

  { Declare as constants the stream of bytes comprising the interrupt's
    initialisation, long call, and termination: }
  const  ServicerInit: array11 =
                   (pushAX, pushBX, pushCX, pushDX,  {save all gnrl. reg.s}
                    pushSI, pushDI, pushES, pushDS,
                    pushCS, popDS,    { set DS to CS}
            callL);    { call the servicer, whose address must
                     immediately follow this byte. }
         ServicerTermnt: array10 =
                   (popDS, popES, popDI, popSI, popDX, popCX,
                    popBX, popAX,
            StI,    {re-enable interrupts before leaving}
            IRet);  {finally, return from interrupt}

  var PrntScrnAddr: RoutinePtr;  {to save the pointer to the true
                  print screen servicer.  Fail to restore this,
                  and you will only be able to print the
                  screen after rebooting. }
  { Declare the interrupt vector as what it is: 256 routine pointers
      starting at address 0:0 : }
      IntrVector: array[0..255] of RoutinePtr  absolute 0:0;
  { Provide callers for, in this case, 2 interrupt handlers: }
      PrntCaller, MyCaller: CallerRec;

  procedure myscreenprinter;
  { A substitute routine to serve as an example of substituting
    for an existing interrupt handler.  THE ORIGINAL MUST BE RESTORED,
    or you will lose all screen-printing service.
    NOTE:  NO parameters are possible, either on the stack or in registers.
       The program MUST NOT DIRECTLY CALL THIS ROUTINE.}
    begin
      writeln('screen would now be printed.');
      port[$20] := $10;   {DON'T TRUST THIS MASK VALUE.
               It caused me no problems on the Sanyo MBC-550,
               but that's not compatible enough with IBM's and
               their imitators for a strong argument. }
      inline( $8b/$e5/  {mov sp, bp}
              $5d/      {pop bp}
              $cb);     {retl}
    end;

  procedure myhandler;
  { A very simply demonstration interrupt handler, to make some previously
    unserved interrupt give a response when raised.  The CallL instruction in
    MyCaller calls this.
    NOTE AGAIN: NO parameters;
        the program MUST NOT DIRECTLY CALL THIS ROUTINE.}
    begin
      (**)writeln('in interrupt handler.');
      port[$20] := $20;   { Announce to the 8259 that the interrupt is over.
                Since the particular mask value that announces
                this depends on which interrupt is being served,
                the OUT instruction for this is not built into the
                handler termination code.
                $20 works is the completion mask for interrupt 12}
   {Make sure that the routine uses a long, or far, return, to match the
    long call instruction that called it.  Restore SP and BP just as Turbo's
    code would, if the routine were going to use it. }
      inline( $8b/$e5/  {mov sp, bp}
              $5d/      {pop bp}
              $cb);     {retl}
    end;

  procedure installhandler( IntrNum: byte;
                            var Caller: CallerRec; RoutineAddr: integer);
  { Sets up the callerrec Caller to call the routine whose offset is
    RoutineAddr when interrupt IntrNum is raised.  Although this form does not
    do so, ideally interrupts should be disabled whenever the interrupt vector
    is modified, and restored only when all changes are finished.  Disaster
    could occur if something raised the interrupt while the address in the
    vector was only partly changed.}
    begin
 { Fill in the initialisation field of the record with the instructions
   already declared as a constant: }
      Caller.SaveAllAndCallServicer := ServicerInit;
 { Likewise for the termination code: }
      Caller.RestoreAllAndIRET := ServicerTermnt;
 { Fill in the intersegment address of the CALLL instruction which is
   the last byte in the initialisation code.  The pointer to the routine
   consists of the code segment base, and the routine's offset in CS: }
      Caller.ServicerAddr := ptr( CSeg, RoutineAddr );
 { Fill in entry IntrNum of the interrupt vector with the address
   of the CallerRec (NOT the handler routine itself).  Its pointer is the Data
   seg (NOT the code seg.), and its offset into the data seg: }
      IntrVector[IntrNum] := ptr( DSeg, ofs(Caller) );
     { NOTE:  pointer is put into vector only AFTER what it points to
          is ready to handle an interrupt. }
    end;

  begin
    . . .
{ EXAMPLES OF INSTALLING INTERRUPT HANDLERS: }
       { Install the routine MyHandler as the servicer for interrupt 12: }
    InstallHandler(12, MyCaller, ofs(MyHandler));
{ When superceding existing handlers, BE SURE TO SAVE THEM to be restored
  before the program exits.  Otherwise, you'll find yourself missing possibly
  vital services until you next reboot. }
    PrntScrnAddr := IntrVector[5];
    InstallHandler(5, PrntCaller, ofs(MyScreenPrinter) );
 { Let the 8259 controller know that interrupt 12 is now supported and active:}
    port[$21] := port[$21] and not $10;
    . . .
    IntrVector[5] := PrntScrnAddr;  {RESTORE pre-existing handler. }
    . . .
  end.
***************

  Nobody's favourite coding, but it works.  Eliot also supplied two small
  procedures Enable and Disable to allow and prevent interrupts, respectively.
  I have omitted them here to keep things from getting completely out of hand.
  They consist simply of InLine calls using the STI and CLI instructions.



  Alastair Milne

  PS.  I'm sure that by now, Eliot, James, and anybody else who wanted this
       information is certain that I've forgotten all about it, and that Eliot
       at least is quite irritated, since I told him I would pass his
       information on long ago.  I hope they will accept my apologies for the
       long delay.

------------------------------


Date:  Sat, 8 Feb 86 14:30 EST
From:  "Roger A. Roach" <[e-mail]>
Subject: MAX Editor


I got a copy of MAX 1.01 (and SCR) from:

 Mr. Ivo A. Welch
 Columbia College
 East Campus
 New York, NY 10027

At the time, Mr.  Welsh was available as UI.IVO@CU20B.  The cost was $15
for educational uses, $30 for commercial.  Since it seemed that the
authors were students, I am not sure what their present address would
be.  There was some reference information included on the disks, but I
could not find any other address.

------------------------------


Date:  8 Feb 1986 18:02:56 PST
Subject: Dead Terminal Caused Backlog
From: Koji Okazaki <[e-mail]>


Howdy.

My terminal's been dead for the last couple of weeks.... hence, I haven't
been able to read my mail recently.  Now you all know why I haven't been
answering your messages to me.  Will be operational within a week.  Thanks
in advance for being patient.

                    Koji
                    Info-IBMPC program submissions...


------------------------------


Date: Sat, 8-Feb-86 18:17:31 EDT
From: Manny Farber <[e-mail]>
Subject: A Different Experience with the Proprinter


    My experiences with the IBM Proprinter have been notably more
positive than those reported in an earlier Info-IBMPC.  While there are
some things I don't like about it, I have not had any problems with
paper feeding; quite to the contrary, it has been exceptional in this
area.  The paper can also be ripped off right along the perforation,
with no wastage.   The construction is rather sturdy and the single
sheet feeder is handy, although I don't use it much.  The print speed
(200 cps) is relatively fast (or at least average), and the NLQ mode
produces very clear, easy-to-read characters that don't have serifs.
It also prints all 256 IBM display characters.

    Now the bad parts:  it's relatively expensive, unless you can
get a discount; the output is much more wavy than an Epson's; and
it doesn't have italics built in.

    I have overcome the problem with italics by trapping the output
from PROLOAD (a font loader/editor available on CompuServe) and putting
it in a file, which I copy to the printer with the /B option.  This allows
it to be put in a batch file.  With Microsoft Word, for italics one
can send the codes (in the PRD) file to switch into the download character
set; in the end, it's transparent.  (If anyone wants details or source
code [for the trap routine], drop me a line.)

Manny ([e-mail])

------------------------------


Date:           Tue, 11 Feb 86 12:03:12 PST
From:           Jim Carter <[e-mail]>
Subject: Proprinter GKS driver


   You've all been waiting for the driver for the IBM 4201 Proprinter in
IBM's GKS.  Guess what?  You had it all along.  vdiprgra.sys (for the
standard graphic printer) works on the Proprinter also IF you turn on
switch 6, auto CR after LF.  Switches are under the cover at the left
rear of the machine.  Auto CR has no effect on most other software --
unless your program does a LF and expects to end up in the middle of the
line.
   This was tested on "circut.exe", the GKS demo program that has a print
feature, and on some locally written software.  I have heard that a simi-
lar maneuver also works on IBM-compatible Epson printers.
   My boss pulled this in from a bboard.

James F. Carter            [phone]
UCLA-SEASnet; 2567 Boelter Hall; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA 90024
UUCP:...!{ihnp4,ucbvax,{hao!cepu}}!ucla-cs!jimc  ARPA:[e-mail]

[Cross-posted in net.graphics]

------------------------------


Date: Sat, 8 Feb 86 21:51 EST
From: Yedidyah Langsam  <[e-mail]>
Subject: Dbase III+


The $100 upgrade fee for Dbase III+ is in my opinion worth it. Firstly,
they completely redid the Assist interface. Secondly, there is a new type of
file which keeps track of which indexes go with which file and allows
you to set up a "view" of how you wish your files to be opened without
having to open each index and file independently. This feature is in itself
worth the update. Thirdly, there is the matter of the network support,
which if you need it is great.

A full review appeared in last months issue of Data Base Advisor, and is
well worth reading.


------------------------------


Date: Sun, 9 Feb 86 20:13:17 CST
From: [e-mail] (Ed Nather)
Subject: Undocumented Microsoft LINK option: /E

The option does not exist in MS Link versions 3.00 and 3.01; it seems to
have been added to version 3.02.  I tried it out on a long program and
it works, but the exepack utility that comes with Microsoft languages
works better -- the size reduction was 2X greater than with link /E.

Maybe that's why its undocumented ...

Ed Nather
Astronomy Dept, U of Texas @ Austin
{allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather
[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 9 Feb 86 20:36:47 pst
From: Richard Hallett <hallett%instr.selkirk.bcc.cdn%ubc.csnet@CSNET-RELAY>
Subject: ARC5.12 IS NOW AVAILABLE

[Info-IBMPC is not distributing ARC or ARC format files or for that matter
any binary format files. Discussion is fine but please don't ask us to
send it to you. -wab]

 8 Feb 86 EIBEN, MSDOS:ARC51.COM

.. a truly 'boots-trapping ARC' - beware, You need roughly double the space
of ARC51.COM to get the 'hidden ARC-files' de-arced.

From:    REFUGE::PORTER        7-FEB-1986 16:39
Subj:    New version of ARC - V5.12 in a "package"

Bernie,

Just happened to be checking up on SEAboard, and spotted a new version of
the now famous ARC utility - V5.12.  This one comes with its own unique form
of "packaging" - a "self-unpacking" archive!   It is no longer necessary to
have any "other" file compression utilities to unpack an ARC kit!   The new
"self-unpacking" archive file is named ARC51.COM, to unpack the ARC software
you just run it like any other .COM image and it proceeds to unpack an archive
contained within the .COM file as follows:

    ARC51.COM contents:    ARC.EXE     Version 5.12 executable
                ARC.DOC        Version 5.12 docset
                ARC.TXT        ARC product description

only one caveat - when you run ARC51.COM to unpack the kit, the file must
be in your MSDOS "current default directory".


On another topic: There is now a new version of Fido - V11R, I will try to
upload a copy to LSMVAX as soon as possible.

Regards,

    KhP   Kevin R. Porter
       Sysop of WayStar Fido - (617)-481-7147 in Marlborough, Mass.


------------------------------


Date: Mon 10 Feb 86 08:12:41-CST
From: Clifford A. Wilkes <[e-mail]>
Subject: Renaming Subdirectories
To: [e-mail]
Department: Computation Center - A20/R20 staff


The "Duke Language Toolkit" is a set of programs to describe and
install different character sets on IBM PC's with the EGA.  I've
used it and found it easy to understand and describing a character
set, while time consuming, is not difficult.  The major drawbacks
are its support of few printers at present and the fact that it
will not work on my Sperry.

For more information on the the "Duke Language Toolkit" you should
contact Jeffrey William Gillette at Duke University.  His e-mail
address is:  [e-mail].

I hope this helps.

                    <@>
------------------------------


Date:     Mon, 10 Feb 86 14:25:14 EST
From:     Kenneth Van Camp -FSAC-  <kvancamp@ardc>
Subject: Beware of 'MVDIR.BAT' (& all self-documenting code)

James H. Coombs writes on Feb 6:
>So far, 'MVDIR.BAT' has cost me two hours.  If I'm lucky, I can get
>everything set up again in another two hours, plus diddling this and
>that for several weeks.  I hope no one else has shared this experience,
>and I am writing in the hope that no one else will.
>
>Finally, I have to say that I am not pleased to find an uncommented,
>unexplained BAT file in INFO-IBMPC.

    I guess this must be refering to my MVDIR.BAT, since I think I was
the only one who submitted a BAT file of that name to the request for
directory rename utilities.  However my version was definitely NOT
undocumented.  True there was not documentation within the BAT file itself;
but my accompanying letter provided thorough (I think) guidelines for its
usage.  My mistake was probably in separating the batch file listing from the
rest of the message by a line with many dashes that said <CUT HERE> in the
middle to show where the BAT file began and ended.  When the info-ibmpc
digest arrived at my mailbox, I undigestified it.  The undigestify program
thought the dashes were message separators and hence the BAT file came out
looking totally undocumented.  All I had to do was read the messages before
and after it to get the total picture.  Perhaps your undigestify program did
the same, or even lost the other two parts completely.
    To summarize, the documentation pointed out that the current
directory should be the directory you want to move, and the parameter to
MVDIR should provide the full path of the destination directory.  There were
also instructions to create two supporting files, \TMP\CD.MKB and
\TMP\RMDIR.MKB.  My guess is that your friend didn't create these files, or
didn't create them properly, resulting in the improper construction of the
CMMDS.BAT file from within MVDIR.  In retrospect, I probably should have
made it so MVDIR.BAT created its own supporting files every time it is run,
for the public release version -- to avoid this kind of problem. Of course I
don't do that in my own version because it slows things down and seems like
a waste of computer time.
    It still seems like a very slim possibility that this could have
caused your friend's problems.  MVDIR.BAT was *really* a very simple
program; most of the work was provided by the public domain MV.EXE; are you
sure your version of that is working OK?  If you really want to know for
sure (and if you have the stomach to look into this any further), check and
see if you have a file called CMMDS.BAT on your hard disk.  If so, let me
know what it contains and maybe we can figure out what happened.
    One of the worst things about MS/DOS is the poor support for error
checking in BAT files; ERRORLEVELs are not set from most DOS commands. I'm
really looking forward to hearing from more people on the net about PCUNIX.
Hopefully this system provides some REAL script files, like Unix.

          --Ken Van Camp <[e-mail]>

------------------------------


Date:     Tue, 11 Feb 86 8:42:54 EST
From:     Kenneth Van Camp -FSAC-  <kvancamp@ardc>
To:       info-ibmpc@usc-isib
Subject:  MVDIR.BAT

To those who were wondering what MV.EXE program I was using in my
MVDIR.BAT, I would like to clear up the confusion.  This was NOT the
program written by Harry McGavran (also called MV.EXE); it was written
by Chuck Forsberg and was gotten from Volume 068 of the Simtel20
archives -- not from USC-ISIB.  I don't know if it was MV.EXE that
caused the problems, but probably the easiest solution is to use
McGavran's program instead of Forsberg's.  (McGavran's automatically
renames directories, as well as files.) The only problem is that
McGavran won't release the source and USC won't keep anything but
source.

------------------------------


Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1986  13:28 MST
From: Keith Petersen <[e-mail]>
To:   [e-mail] (Hans A. ]lien)
Subject: New Files Available at SIMTEL20


    Hello again Keith, Why have so many of the files in PCDOS: been
    removed lately?  Will they be replaced by new versions, are the
    programs already available in other PD: directories, or whatever?
    Maybe some of the programs can't be distributed, even for private use?
    I would especially like to have access to the ARC500*.* file archiver.
    Thanks for any help!
            Hans

We have created a new directory PD:<MSDOS> here at SIMTEL20.  It has
several subdirectories, one of which has ARC500.EXE and DQC, and the
latest versions of LU, SQ and USQ.  For a complete list of available
files FTP the file PD:<MSDOS>MSDOS.CRCLST which will be periodically
updated as new files are added.

--Keith

------------------------------


Date: Mon, 10 Feb 86 12:15:33 PST
From: prandt![e-mail] (Don Reynolds)
To: amelia![e-mail]
Subject: Rename Directories, Moving Files, & Disk Optimizing


This note is in response to several messages on disk utilities for renaming
subdirectories, moving files, and optimizing the hard disk.
I have had good luck with the PACKDISK Utilities from

        SoftPatch
        P.O. Box 11455
        San Francisco, CA 94101
        [phone]

PACKDISK        eliminates file fragmentation, unallocated space, reintegrates
                lost clusters into the available space, packs the root
                directory and subdirectories and frees subdirectory trailing
                clusters (but could trash hard-disk installations of some
                software)

DELDIR          deletes subdirectory, its files and subdirectories

NAMEDIR         renames a subdirectory

TRANSDIR        transfers a subdirectory, its files & subdirectories to
                another directory

LISTFRAG        lists fragmented files in the drive

PARK            parks disk before power off

Softpatch's PACKDISK Utilities contains NAMEDIR.COM, which apparently renames
directories with no problems.  But it is suggested that software "installed"
on the hard disk be "uninstalled" before packing (or re-formatting) the disk.

After re-formatting, I have heard it suggested to MKDIR the most used
subdirectories first, for fastest access.  Is that fact or fiction?

The message from Coombs in Info-IBMPC Digest, Vol. 5, Issue 19 should raise a
caution flag and suggest you backup your hard disk before reorganization.

Best,
Don


------------------------------


Date:     Tue, 11 Feb 86 11:45:45 PST
From:     [e-mail]
Message-Id: <860211114545.00g@Deimos>
Subject:  Disk Optimizers
To:       [e-mail]


There are two conceptually different products on the market for hard disk
optimization.  One is the "make all current files contiguous" type, which
makes access to these files very fast but has the disadvantage of being
both temporary and placing all new files at the end of the disk, making
many cross-disk seeks necessary to create new files.  The other type is,
or would be, a disk caching utility--a RAM-resident program which would
hold in memory the most recently accessed sectors on the disk and return
the copy in memory rather than going to the disk if possible.  All
computers larger than IBM PC's use disk caching, and some PC-clones do as
well.  For example, the ITT Xtra-XP (80286-based XT compatible) uses a
disk program which gets AT-class performance on average out of an XT-class
hard disk (85 msec track-to-track access time).  Also, I believe MS-DOS
does hold the current FAT in memory.  At least one product exists which is
supposed to do this disk caching;  I saw the ad in PC magazine within the
last few months, but can't find it again.  The tip-off was the ad said
"Uses Expanded Memory if present."  PC had a disk caching utility a while
back, but it only used a 64K cache (too small for even a 10 MB hard disk)
and was optimized for floppy disks.  I recommend it to two-floppy owners,
but it wasted 64K of memory on my hard disk system.


------------------------------


Date:     Mon, 10 Feb 86 14:31:49 PST
From:     [e-mail]
Subject:  DOS vs. Direct Screen Writes

Minshall-
DOS writes to the screen are slow for two reasons:
1. stdout is normally in 'cooked' mode, in which DOS makes one call
   to the device driver for each character output.
2. ANSI.SYS stacks the registers for each char output, and makes
   one or two BIOS calls per character output, to boot!
Both of these can be fixed.
1. Any handle can be set to 'raw' mode with dos function 44h.  In raw
   mode, DOS passes all read and write requests directly to the device
   driver, cutting the per-character overhead to zero.
2. ANSI.SYS can be rewritten to write directly to screen memory, and
   to avoid stacking the registers.
I'm not sure if anyone else has redone ANSI.SYS, but I took a shot at
it, and would be happy to put my sources up.  It is radically faster.
One test program I wrote- a file viewer- redraws the screen in less than
a tenth of a second.
I think even the most hardcore advocate of direct machine access would
be satisfied with the performance an efficient device driver gives DOS.
                - Daniel Kegel

[Woof Woof Send it to us Daniel! -wab]

------------------------------


Date: Mon, 10 Feb 86 23:46:20 pst
From: [e-mail] (Greg Minshall)
To: [e-mail]
Subject: DOS vs. direct screen writes


Very well.  However, in my test case, I was invoking INT 10H myself.
So (to my very limited understanding) NO DOS, NO ANSI.SYS.  And, I was
still unhappy.  Again, with this approach, one gets some 50 K bits/second
to the screen.  But, I want some number of megatbits/second.

Or, am I wrong?

I would, though, love to see a much faster ANSI.SYS.

Greg Minshall

------------------------------


Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1986 22:15 PLT
From: George Cross  <[e-mail]>
Subject: Terminal and PC at Once?


I have two serial ports on a PC and a terminal (VT 100).  Is there
a DOS multitasking product that will let me connect the terminal to one of
the ports, a modem to another, and then dial out from  the terminal while
still using the main PC console? Perhaps Double DOS - run a background CTTY to
COM1, dial out on COM2, etc.

---- George

[The COM_PKG2.ASM in supports two serial ports simultaneously. You could
use this package to implement this application -wab]

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
George R. Cross                                [e-mail]
Computer Science Department         [e-mail]
Washington State University             [e-mail]
Pullman, WA 99164-1210                     (509)-335-6319/6636
Acknowledge-To: George Cross <FACCROSS@WSUVM1>

------------------------------


Date: Mon, 10 Feb 86 22:35:26 cet
To:  [e-mail]
From:  [e-mail]
Subject: Alternate Shell Program

I am interested in writing an alternate command processor to run under
MS-DOS rather than command.com.  I welcome any input from those of you
who have experience in this area.  I am looking to implement a shell
similar to those found under UN*X.  One initial question I have is
whether or not my shell has to be a .COM file?

Please send comments directly to me, and I will summarize to the net in
a couple weeks when I know what such a project entails.

Thank you,
Eric Schneider           [e-mail]
                         or  [e-mail]

[Try PC-Toolbox from Wendin. It looks like this is exactly what you
are looking for. Perhaps some users of this package can help you out.
Of course we have most Unix utilities in our program library. -wab]


------------------------------


Date: Tue, 11 Feb 86 01:40:21 pst
From: ttidca!ttihwe![e-mail]
To: ttidca!randvax!info-ibmpc@isib
Subject: Russian (and French) Word Processors
Cc: [e-mail]

I asked an associate (a fellow by the name of Potashnik) about
word processors for Russian, and he gave me the name of one
company who makes one.  The company is called Economic Insights,
of Rockville, MD, phone [phone].  Their product uses
a Quadvue display board, generates output only for Diablo 630
and Epson LQ-1500 printers, and costs $595.  That's all I know
about them (I don't speak or write Russian and never heard of
the company until now).

On a (remotely) related subject, another friend who is a big fan
of Microsoft Word is in the process of getting a French version
of MW.  It is apparently only available in France, however.  He
talked to Microsoft in Canada and they have a French-Canadian
version, but it is said to be significantly different from the
French version.  I don't know if there are any other versions out
there for other languages, although I doubt they have a Russian
version.  If they did you might have to order it from the USSR and
pay for it in rubles, anyway.

Randy Cole
Citicorp-TTI


------------------------------


Date: Mon, 10-Feb-86 20:44:59 EDT
From: David Farber <[e-mail]>
Subject: MS Mouse


For those who have MS Bus mice which stop working when the clock is
raised, the new bus mouse and its rev D card works fine at 9 mh.
Hmmm. WOnder why they fixed it.

Also FANSI and MS Word/ PCPAINT just do not agree.

Dave

------------------------------


Date: 11 Feb 86 07:34 EST
From: Jim Moore <moore@ncsc>
Subject: Protecting the Hard Disk Heads on an XT

There has been a lot written in PC Mag, PC Tech Journal, and (I think) this
space concerning the parking of hard disk heads to protect the disk. I'm no
longer sure that's a good idea:

I'd been using SHIPDISK.COM, which comes with the Diagnostics Disk, to retract
the heads every afternoon after work, because my XT sits on the floor on a
stand, a particularly vulnerable position. The last time I ran it, the heads
moved back, then went wild. I had to re-partition the disk and reformat. Fun.
Now the only thing I do is turn the power off and take my chances....

jim

------------------------------


Date:  Tue, 11 Feb 86 11:38 EST
From:  [e-mail]
Subject:  Symdeb 4.0 -- Stack trace?

The new version of the excellent symbolic debugger SYMDEB (included at
no extra charge with the Macro Assembler v 4.0) includes several new
options.  The most intriguing is a new command K which the "help screen"
(?  option) identifies as a "stack trace".  Unfortunately, the manual
says nothing about it.  Anyone know what it does?

------------------------------


Date: Tue, 11 Feb 86 11:59:17 pst
From: Ron Smith <[e-mail]>
Message-Id: <38:[e-mail]>
Subject: Hotel Front Desk Package Wanted


I am searching for a Hotel/motel front desk package that will run on
an IBM PCXT or compatable.  Tha package will be used by students
in the Hospitality Program here at Holland College to familiarize
them with software they will find in the industry.

If anyone can recommend a package please give me the package name,
producer and/or supplier name and address.  A brief description would
also be appreciated.

My mailbox name is <[e-mail]>.
Postal address is Ron Smith
                  Holland College
                  Weymouth Street
                  Charlottetown, P.E.I.
                  Canada,  C1A 4Z1
Telephone is [phone]

Many thanks for any suggestions I may recieve.

------------------------------

Date: Tuesday, 11 February 1986 16:16:49 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Product Evaluation: Classic 286


As you may be aware from reading earlier postings, I have been
interested for some time in upgrading our PC and XT to AT-class
performance.  I have evaluated several boards, most of which were
rejected just based on specs or price.  One low-cost board (Titan
Technologies) simply didn't perform as advertised (SI 1.8x faster,
benchmark 1.2x faster as opposed to a promised "2.5 to 4").

I have finally located a board which solves our problem.  It may not
be the only such board, but I'm somewhat tired of looking, it works,
and I'm using it.

The board is the Classic Technology 286 Speed-Pak.  The board is a
286 chip and the usual connector into the 8088 slot.  Installation was
reasonably straightforward in our XT.  First, the 8088 is removed.
However, unlike most boards, you don't throw the chip away, you plug
it into a socket on the chip.  With the flip of a switch, you can
then change from 80286 operation to 8088 operation.

The device is not strictly AT compatible.  For example, its memory
extension above 1Mb is their own proprietary scheme, which they are
not releasing specs of.  It is clearly not compatible with VDISK
extended memory.  The board itself contains 1Mb of memory, but the upper
banks of RAM are used to hold a copy of the ROM BIOS so that the BIOS
runs with a 16 bit memory path.  Extended memory (Intel/Lotus spec) is
supposed to work with this board, although with only an 8-bit path.
They have a 2.5MB upgrade, but it only runs with their multitasking
software, and they are not currently supporting ramdisks with their
memory upgrade.  Their ramdisk software didn't install in anything
approximating the documented way (in fact, I couldn't get it to install
at all) and apparently you can only add ramdisks with their software where
you would have had floppies (so, for example, you have to configure the
XT motherboard to say there is a B: drive to get a B: ramdisk!).  When
I called them up to ask about this, they said "oh, yeah, there's a bug"
and sent me new software which I haven't tried.  There was also a bug in
their installation instructions.  They supply a little 40pin DIP header
with three capacitors, which is to be inserted in the 8087 slot if the
8087 is not used (the board has a provision for an 80287 also).  The
instructions say "insert the dip header with the notch towards the back
of the computer".  Fine, except the header is totally symmetric.  Not
even a pin 1 marking.  Fortunately, I knew that the three capacitors which
were connected to a corner pin must obviously be to ground, so plugged it
in so that pin 20 (ground) was where the common line to the three capacitors
went.  Not everyone would have known this.

The board also doesn't have a built-in clock/calendar.  Fortunately, we have
one on our multifuction XT memory board (which now serves only as a serial
port and clock).  The goal was not AT compatibility, but XT compatibility
with AT speed.  Since this was of more interest to me than AT compatibility,
I feel no loss.

The Norton SI command says the performance is 7.0 times a PC, and our
benchmark (I/O and compute intensive) ran in 25 minutes instead of 82
minutes.  The difference is obviously the disk I/O limitation (80 ms
seek), since it runs in 18 minutes on my AT with the faster drive
(30ms seek), but only 5.0 on the SI yardstick.  I have had no
failures running any program we normally use.  We also successfully
ran FASTBACK in the 80286 mode to restore files to a new 32Mb disk we
installed, so serious BIOS and device hacking still works.  There
have been no disk problems or other problems of timing.  Performance
of screen editors such as Epsilon is impressive, since it runs more
towards the 7.0 factor.  Unfortunately our best measure was big file
searches, which are also disk intensive; they seem to run 3-4 times
faster.  One nice feature of the 8088 "downgrade" switch is that we
could switch processors and run the same tests again to see what the
performance is like.  A little experimentation showed that switching
processors makes the machine go catatonic; they should be switched
only when the power is off.  My housemate, who was envious of the
performance of my AT, is now extremely pleased.  We even bought some
little "custom hot rod" flames to put on the machine to show it is a
"hot" job.

I am sufficiently happy with this product that we have ordered a
second one for our PC.  The original price was about $1200, but rumor
has it that they have dropped the price by $150 in the last week or
so.  Because we have ordered the second one within 30 days of the
evaluation copy the first one also comes in at the lower price, whose
exact value I will know when the second one arrives in a week or two.
Adding two AT-performance for $2000 is not a bad investment at all.

I hope someday they produce real ramdisk software that allows the creation
of D:, E:, etc. drives in extended 16-bit memory.  This will substantially
improve the performance (for example, I use ramdisk on my AT for Epsilon
swap space).  Being able to put the dBASEIII .dbf and .ndx file for our
major application into ramdisk for the report generation would also be
a big win.  The company didn't seem much interested in this aspect, nor with
releasing the specs to customers, which was a bit of a turn off, but I'm
hoping they will finally wise up and either provide useful software or
provide the necessary specs.

If anyone knows of a cheap Intel/Lotus compatible board or source for
something of that form, I'm interested.

------------------------------

End of Info-IBMPC Digest
************************
-------
Received: from USC-ISIB.ARPA by wiscvm.wisc.edu on 02/12/86 at 20:25:03 CST
Date: 12 Feb 1986 17:12:49 PST
Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V4 #21
From: Info-IBMPC Digest <[e-mail]>
To: Info-IBMPC_Distribution_List: ;
Reply-To: [e-mail]

Info-IBMPC Digest       Wednesday, 12 February 1986      Volume 5 : Issue 21

This Week's Editor: Billy Brackenridge

Today's Topics:
                       Review of "Schmeme" Lisp
                        AT&T PC 6300 Expansion
            Now How About Specs for 1-2-3 Device Drivers?
              SHELL, Modula2 Software Development System
                Fansi Console and Shell from Dr. Dobbs
                       Turbo Board Comparison?
                       monochrome monitor query
               Removing non-DOS Partitions from AT Disk
                      LINK Option /E vs EXEPACK
                      PC-DOS 3.1 and "echo off"
                  CGA: 2 More Palettes in Medium Res
                   Re: File truncation under PC-DOS
                      Co-Processor Board Inquiry
                     WordPerfect and the LaserJet
                              CHMOD Woes

----------------------------------------------------------------------


Date: Tue 11 Feb 86 22:38:38-CST
From: Rob Pettengill <[e-mail]>
Subject: Review of "Schmeme" Lisp


I recently purchased an implementation of the Scheme dialect of
lisp for my PC.  I am familiar with GC Lisp, IQ Lisp, and Mu Lisp
for the PC. I use Lambdas and 3600s with ZetaLisp at work.

TI PC Scheme is a very complete implementation of scheme for the
IBM and TI personal computers and compatibles.  It combines high
speed code execution, a good debugging and editing environment,
and very low cost.

The Language:

* Adheres faithfully to the Scheme standard.
* Has true lexical scoping.
* Prodedures and environments are first class data objects.
* Is properly tail recursive - there is no penalty compared
  to iteration.
* Includes window and graphics extensions.

The Environment:

* An incremental optimizing compiler (not native 8086 code)
* Top level read-compile-print loop.
* Interactive debugger allows run time error recovery.
* A minimal Emacs-like full screen editor with a scheme mode
  featuring parethesis matching and auto indenting of lisp code.
* An execute DOS command or "push" to DOS capability - this is
  only practical with a hard disk because of the swap file PCS writes.
* A DOS based Fast Load file format object file conversion utility.
* A fast 2 stage garbage collector.

First Impressions:

Scheme seems to be much better sized to a PC class machine than
the other standard dialects of lisp because of its simplicity.  The
TI implementation appears to be very solid and complete.  The compiled
code that it produces (with debugging switches off) is 2 to  5 times
faster than the other PC lisps that I have used.  With the full screen
editor loaded (there is also a structure editor) there seems to be
plenty of room for my code in a 640k PC.  TI recommends 320k or 512k
with the editor loaded.  The documentation is of professional quality
(about 390 pages), but not tutorial.  Abelson and Sussman~2's "Structure
and Interpretation of Computer Programs" is a very good companion for
learning scheme as well as the art and science of programming in general.

My favorite quick benchmark -

(define (test n)
  (do
    ((i 0 (1+ i))
     (r () (cons i r)))
    ((>= i n) r)))

runs (test 10000) in less than 10 seconds with the editor loaded - of course
it takes a couple of minutes to print out the ten thousand element list
that results.

The main lack I find is that the source code for the system is not
included - one gets used to that in good lisp environments.  I have
hit only a couple of minor glitches, that are probably pilot error,
so far.  Since the system is compiled with debugging switches off
it is hard to get much useful information about the system from
the dubugger.

Based on my brief, but very positive experience with TI PC scheme and
its very low price of $95 - I recommend it to anyone interested in a
PC based lisp.  You can order from Texas Instruments at 1-800-TI-PARTS.
(Standard disclaimers about personal opinions and having no commercial
interest in the product ...)

Rob Pettengill

------------------------------


Date: Wed, 12 Feb 86 05:56:59 cet
From:  [e-mail]
Subject: AT&T PC 6300 Expansion

I have an AT&T PC 6300 and would be interested to hear from other
owners concerning expansion.  I am looking into an expanded memory
board, and I believe AT&T makes one which would take advantage of the
16-bit data bus.  Does anyone have any experience with this product?
I would also like to find out about other boards for the AT&T which
take advantage of the 8086's 16-bits. (Graphics, ports, etc.)

On an unrelated note, does anyone have a screen dump routine for the
TOSHIBA P1340?  I have FRIEZE (comes w/PC PAINTBRUSH) and it seems to
support as many printers as any, and it does not support the P1340.  I
have written (not entirely successfully) my own driver, but would most
insterested in seeing what others have done.  Ultimately, I would like
to be able to dump AT&T 640x400 monochrome, but would settle for a
routine which expects a CGA.

Thanks,
Eric Schneider       [e-mail]
                     or  [e-mail]

------------------------------


Date:     Wed, 12 Feb 86 05:17 ???
From:     [e-mail]
Subject:  Now How About Specs for 1-2-3 Device Drivers?

Plaudits to the kind soul who contributed the 1-2-3 worksheet file format
specification to the Info-IBMPC archives.

Would it also be possible to obtain for the archives a copy of whatever
specs Lotus may have for writing 1-2-3 device drivers?

Just wondering...

                                        -- Larry Afrin
                                           Dept. of Computer Science
                                           Clemson University

================================
Please send replies, if any, to:
[e-mail]                       or
[e-mail]                or, as a last resort,
any reasonable-looking string with
   "lbafrin", "eureka", and "clemson" in it
(And I'm told that Usenet fans can try ihnp4!seismo!clemson.CSNET!lbafrin)
I disclaim everything anybody ever said about anything.

------------------------------


Date: Feb 10 1986
From:   Hermann Willers  <[e-mail]>
Subject: SHELL, Modula2 Software Development System

1. Did anyone try successfully to put COMMAND.COM into an other
directory than the root ? I tried, but the SHELL command in
CONFIG.SYS did'nt work. "missing or defective command interpreter"
(or so) was the message. My system is an Olivetti M24, MSDOS 2.11,
version to support 720 K drives (M24 = AT&T 6300). Does it under
these conditions always fail or did I miss something too obvious ?

2. Does anyone know, if the M2SDS has nice features like
INLINE (as Turbo-P.), interruptcalls, the capability of executing
as an interrupt service routine, include files (optional),
including EXTERNAL code, absolute variables,
short: the things one wouldn't want to miss in T.P.

Please reply directly to me, since I see only someone else's
copy of INFO-IBMPC and this is VERY irregular.

Thanks in advance for your time and effort !

Hermann Willers
[e-mail]
Heidelberg, FRG

------------------------------


Date:  Wed, 12 Feb 86 13:30 EST
From:  [e-mail]
Subject: Fansi Console and Shell from Dr. Dobbs
To:  [e-mail]
Message-ID:  <[e-mail]>

For the person who wanted a faster ANSI driver, there is FANSI-CONSOLE,
which is shareware of some sort.  Not freeware, but not expensive
either.  Try Hersey Micro Consulting (or "no Smoking Software"?)  in Ann
Arbor, MI.

For the person who wanted to create a shell to replace COMMAND.COM, try
looking at last month's and this month's Doctor Dobbs Journal.  They
claim to have a disk available, with source code (MS-C) and executable
shell.  Try DDJ in Palo Alto, CA.

Brian

------------------------------


Date:  Wed, 12 Feb 86 13:32 EST
From:  [e-mail]
Subject:  Turbo Board Comparison?


Can someone with a Victor plug-into-socket board estimate the speed-up
via Norton tests?  I recall that the most recent message about it
described mostly installation stuff.  Joe Newcomer's note about his
turbo card and an advertisement from Victor sparked my interest.

Brian

------------------------------


Date: 12 Feb 1986 12:09:49 PST
Subject: monochrome monitor query
From: Laurence I. Press <[e-mail]>


Does anyone know a source for schematics and parts for
the IBM monochrome monitor?
Thanks,
Larry Press


------------------------------


Date:  Wed, 12-FEB-1986 12:31 PST
From:    Mike Iglesias  <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Removing non-DOS Partitions from AT Disk

We have an AT w/20mb hard disk.  We had a copy of PC/IX on loan
about a year ago, and we tried to install it, but for some reason
that I can't remember right now, it didn't work.  We don't have
PC/IX anymore, and we want to get rid of the PC/IX partition on the
hard disk so we can have a 20mb DOS partition again.  I've tried
using FDISK to remove the PC/IX partition with no success.  Is there
a way to get rid of the PC/IX partition without having PC/IX?


Thanks,

Mike Iglesias
University of California, Irvine

------------------------------


Date: Wed, 12 Feb 86 04:14:42 PST
From: Ya'[e-mail]
Subject: LINK Option /E vs EXEPACK

By comparing the sizes of the (packed) files generated from LINK ver 3.02
and the /E option with the size of the .EXE file manually packed with the
(scarce and infrequently distributed) utility EXEPACK, I have come to the
conclusion that LINK ver 3.02 option /E generates EXACTLY the same size
file as manually running EXEPACK on a regular .EXE file output by LINK...

Since LINK is easy to get, whereas EXEPACK is only distributed with an
(expensive) subset of Microsoft packages, I heartily recommend using LINK
and /E.  Also, the LINK with /E does not involve the hassle of intermediate
files, and appears to bind at the same rate as LINK without /E.  There is only
one slight problem with packed files, namely SYMDEBUG does not know how to
use them.  In reality this is no problem, you link without /E while developing
and then release the final product packed.  Also, in higher level languages
(such as Quick-Basic), who cares about the Symbolic Debugger, anyway...

While on the topic of Quick-Basic, when is Microsoft going to improve their
manual so as to mention that you have to link to GWCOM.OBJ to get the
serial I/O ports to work, and what the file SMALLERR.OBJ is good for?
It would also be nice if the /V and /W switches to BASCOM worked as the
manual said they did.  (/V works like /W is supposed to, /W produces junk)
Also, a BREAK or a FRAMING ERROR to the serial I/O port crashes Quick-Basic

------------------------------


From: 2212msr%whuts.UUCP@BRL
Subject: PC-DOS 3.1 and "echo off"
Date: Tue, 4-Feb-86 10:15:45 PST

[e-mail] writes:

"For several reasons (none very good) I'd like to use PC-DOS 3.1, but not at
the expense of bat-chatter.  If anyone knows how to patch the 3.x command.com
so it runs .bat files silently, please send it to me, or post it to the net.
The patch for 2.x I am using does not work on 3.x (*sigh*).  I have a kludge
that erases the "echo off" which is echoed when the batch command "echo off"
is executed, but it is irritating after getting used to the real thing."

This patch changes echo default to echo off (DOS 3.1 only!).

debug command.com
-e 1967<cr>
xxxx:1967   01.00<cr>
-w <cr>
writing xxxx bytes
-q<cr>

Max S. Robin
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Rm. 3E-318A
Whippany, NJ 07981
201-386-6865
email:whuxg!2212msr

------------------------------


From: farren%well.UUCP@brl
Subject: CGA: 2 More Palettes in Medium Res
Date: Sun, 9-Feb-86 10:44:51 PST

[e-mail] (Jan Gray) writes:

"From the documentation I've seen, there are only two medium res colour
palettes, one with black, red, green, yellow, and the other black, magenta,
cyan, white.  However, Turbo Pascal can set another two palettes with "high
intensity" colours.  How is this done?  The BIOS Video Set Palette call
doesn't seem to be able to set palette 2 or 3.  Is there a BIOS call to do
this?  Is there a (much less portable) IO address to poke?"

You can get the high-intensity palette by setting the background color to a
high-intensity color (Probably black, that's usually the most common choice).
To do this, you use the normal BIOS call, INT 10H, with AH set to 0BH, BH set
to zero, and BL set to 8 (high intensity black).  Likewise, if BL is set to
zero, you will get the low-intensity pallette.

Mike Farren
uucp: {your favorite backbone site}!hplabs!well!farren
Fido: Sci-Fido, Fidonode 125/84, [phone]

------------------------------


From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: File truncation under PC-DOS
Date: Tue, 4-Feb-86 01:08:02 PST

[e-mail] writes:

"Anyone out there know a way to truncate a file to 'n' bytes in length without
going in and directly manipulating the FAT?  I need a method that is
well-behaved."

Use function 42H (seek) to move the file pointer to the place you want the
file truncated.  Then use function 40H (write) with a count of zero (CX=0).
This comes from the MS-DOS Programmer's Manual so it ought (!) to be well
behaved.  Hope this helps.

Bob Eager

[e-mail]
rde@ukc
...!mcvax!ukc!rde

Phone: [phone] ext 7589

------------------------------


Date: Wednesday, 12 Feb 1986 13:15:20-PST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Co-Processor Board Inquiry


I would like to find out what a co-processor is and how it works.  I have
requested information from suppliers that advertize such products in the
trade magazines but all I get is hype on their products.  I would like to
know does the co-processor and system processor compute concurrently?  How
do the processors communicate, do (all, most, some, none) of the popular
software work on the co-processor?  How does the user control the 2
processors?  Are there (one, two, several, many) different types of
co-processors?  Which one is best? etc, etc, etc. If you are privy to this
information, I would very much appreciate hearing from you.  I will try
to summarize the responses for other curious and/or confused souls out
there with the same interests.  Thank in advance.

Rick Watson


------------------------------


Date: 12 Feb 1986 16:24:43 PST
Subject: Co-Processor Board Inquiry
From: Billy <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]

A co-processor as defined by Intel is a chip nearly pin for pin identical
to the processor chip. In the case of the PC/XT the main processor chip
is an Intel 8088 and the floating point co-processor chip is an Intel 8087.

When the main processor issues a special instruction the co-processor is
informed that the next few following bytes are instructions for the
co-processor to perform. Currently there are two co-processor chips made
by Intel. The 8087 does fast floating point arithmetic, the other is
a special chip that aids in implementation of stand alone word processors.

Intelwill soon announce a third co-processor chip that will
speed up graphics for PC applications.

There are also co-processor boards available for the PC. I suspect
this is what you were asking about and relabeled your query
accordingly. Some co-processor boards use the Intel family chips to
run DOS faster than a PC or AT. Others contain 68000s or National
320XX chips and run various flavors of Unix.


The subject is indeed confusing as no standard has emerged in this area.

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 12 Feb 86 16:27 CST
From:  [e-mail]
Subject: WordPerfect and the LaserJet

The reason WordPerfect will sometimes not print boldface on the
LaserJet even though there is a bold font available is this:
WordPerfect assumes that there is one printer command string for
turning on boldface.  On the LaserJet there is both a primary font
and a secondary font available, and the command strings for working
with them are slightly different.  By default, WordPerfect sends the
string for boldfacing the primary font.  The fixes are obvious.  --
Melinda Shore University of Chicago Computation Center
...!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!shor [e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1986  19:56 EST
From: [e-mail]
To:   Craig Milo Rogers <[e-mail]>
Subject: CHMOD

CHMOD (PC-DOS interrupt function 43H) negligently trashes
register AX on a non-error return from subfunction 00H (Get File)

Not negligent at all.  The DOS technical manual explicitly states
(somewhere) that AX is never preserved by an INT 21.

------------------------------

End of Info-IBMPC Digest
************************
-------
=========================================================================
Received: from USC-ISIB.ARPA by wiscvm.wisc.edu on 02/14/86 at 21:38:40 CST
Date: 14 Feb 1986 18:57:47 PST
Subject: Info-IBMPC-Digest V5 #22
From: Info-IBMPC Digest <[e-mail]>
To: Info-IBMPC_Distribution_List: ;
Reply-To: [e-mail]

Info-IBMPC Digest       Friday, 14 February 1986      Volume 5 : Issue 22

This Week's Editor: Billy Brackenridge

Today's Topics:
            Hard Disk Interleaves
       Xenix 1.0 + Hercules + Princeton + vi = headache
              Memory Board Query
            UNIX|STAT Announcement
               MIDI Interfaces
              Xenix on 30Mb Rodine Disk
           fopen() under XENIX/DOS on PC-AT
             Request Info on Micro-PROLOG
            1.2 MB Drive on PC/XT
                Link/E Option
               IBM System/36PC
               New ANSI Driver
            WordStar 2000 Inquiry
                   SAVVY PC
            5 Mb Cartridge Drives
            Info-IBMPC Submission
               Quick Basic Woes
              System Buffer Pool
         Writer's Workbench for PC-DOS Query
            Expanding Old PC Motherboards
             Where is ARC50.COM?

----------------------------------------------------------------------


Date: Wed, 12 Feb 86 16:21 PST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Hard Disk Interleaves

The interleave function exists because some controllers cannot buffer
adjacent sector READs in real time.  They read one sector, then transfer
the data out; while the data is being transferred, the disk is still
spinning past the adjacent sector.  By the time the controller is ready
to handle a second sector, the head is ready to read a sector some ways
around the track.  The controller knows this, so it originally placed
the "second" sector the same distance around the track.  The interleave
factor is the number of sectors which the controller skips between
"acjacent" sectors.  It also is the number of revolutions the disk must
make to read an entire track.  Since it is a FORMAT function, it must be
done at the initial formatting....usually by the dealer before delivery.
There are a number of non-IBM reformat programs around, but I don't know
them by name.

[Does anybody have any specific programs that will format a disk with
higher interleave factor? -wab]

------------------------------


Date: Wed, 12 Feb 86 19:20:08 pst
From: David Robinson <ia-sun2![e-mail]>
Subject: Xenix 1.0 + Hercules + Princeton + vi = headache


I have just installed Xenix 1.0 on an IBM PC/AT that has a Hercules
color card with a Princeton monitor.  When I use vi, everytime I
insert a character, delete a character, or delete a line the screen
flashes.  This is literally giving me a headache.  Is there an easy
fix to this or do I need to hack up the /etc/termcap entry?

Any suggestions/fixes are more than welcome!


------------------------------


Date: 12 February 86 22:14-PST From:
from: [e-mail]
Subject: Memory Board Query
Date: 12 February 1986, 22:13:21 PST


Anyone out there have strong opinions about reliable and economical
memory boards for the IBM PC (non AT)? We have been using mostly
AST boards here, but I'm curious to know what other people recommend?

*-------------------------------------------------------------------*
* Don Pelton, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford, Calif.  *
* Bitnet: DEP@SLACVM          Arpa: [e-mail]   *
* Usenet: ihnp4!ptsfa!well!dep                                      *
* 415-856-8032 (home)         415-854-3300 ext. 2901 (work)         *
*-------------------------------------------------------------------*
[I like Tall Tree -wab]

------------------------------


Date: Wed, 12 Feb 86 10:04:28 est
From: "Bennett E. Todd III" <ecsvax![e-mail]>
Subject: UNIX|STAT Announcement


What follows is an announcement of a new version (5.2) of my UNIX|STAT
package of data manipulation and analysis programs for UNIX and MSDOS.
The UNIX version is finished, and the MSDOS version will be ready
as soon as we get around to compiling them, certainly by March 1, 1986.

UNIX|STAT continues to be distributed on tape for $20 and floppies
for $15, and you can make free copies for non-profit use.  If you do
data analysis on UNIX or MSDOS, its worth reading on.

For People Who Are Familiar With UNIX|STAT:

So what's new from the old version?  To me the main changes are:
    a. contab (new program) for contingency tables and chi-square
    b. probdist (new and replacement program) for random number
        generation, and probability to/from statistic conversion for
        uniform, normal, chi-square, t, and F distributions.
    c. on-line help built into most programs:
        -L    print program limits
        -O    print program options
        -V    print program version number
    d. ranksort (new program) to rank order data within columns
    e. on-line manual entries will be available on MSDOS, so:
    g. I am no longer distributing free printed documentation.
    f. there is brand new documentation (a big handbook) for 5.2
There are several new features added to old programs, to take up
slack for programs I am no longer distributing (io, vincent, trans, dataplot).

I hope to rid myself of this compulsion to write new UNIX|STAT programs,
so I intend to avoid adding to the package for at least six months.
This should be the best version around for a while.

The long description follows, and it includes ordering information.
Due to the number of calls I have received, and had to return,
I will no longer be returning calls about the package.  If you must
call, leave your name and address and I'll send you a paper copy of
exactly what follows.

And don't forget, send me your addresses in the form they will
appear on a mailing label, or I will let your request gather dust
for weeks rather than try to decipher letter-head.  Foreign
requesters: please tell me what country you are writing from;
I am still wondering where Flatzen-Hozen is.

                               UNIX|STAT 5.2
                   DATA MANIPULATION & ANALYSIS PROGRAMS
                            FOR UNIX and MSDOS

     UNIX|STAT is a set of over 20 data manipulation and analysis  programs
developed  at  the  University  of  California,  San  Diego and at the Wang
Institute of Graduate Studies by Gary Perlman.  The programs  are  designed
with  the  UNIX  philosophy  that individual programs should be designed as
tools that do one task well and produce output suitable for input via pipes
to  other  programs.   Interactive  use  is  supported  in the command line
interpreter  which  also  provides  a  programming  language  for   complex
analyses.   Typical  usage  involves  a pipeline of transformations of data
followed by input to an analysis program, summarized schematically by:

            INPUT DATA | TRANSFORM | ANALYSIS | OUTPUT RESULTS

Functionality often built into statistical  packages  (e.g.,  graphics  and
sorting)   is   not   re-invented   in   UNIX|STAT   which  delegates  such
responsibility to standard tools.

DATA MANIPULATION PROGRAMS:

     abut      join data files
     colex     column extraction
     dm        column oriented data manipulator
     maketrix  create matrix type file from free-form file
     perm      randomly permute lines in a file
     probdist  probability distribution functions
     ranksort  rank order columns
     repeat    repeat a pattern or file
     reverse   reverse lines, columns, and characters
     series    print a series of numbers
     transpose transpose matrix type file
     validata  verify data file consistency

DATA ANALYSIS PROGRAMS:

     anova     multi-factor analysis of variance
     calc      interactive algebraic modeling calculator
     contab    contingency tables and chi-square
     desc      descriptions histograms, frequency tables
     dprime    signal detection d' and beta calculations
     oneway    one-way anova and t-test and error-bar plots
     pair      paired data statistics, regression, plots
     regress   multivariate linear regression
     stats     report summary statistics
     ts        time series analysis and plots

FEATURES:

     easy to use (negligible training period)
     simple input formats (free format field oriented)
     used in pipelines with other UNIX or MSDOS utilities (sort, print)
     flexible data manipulation
     data validation (range and type checking)
     full documentation (manual entries, tutorials)
     extensible (many modular C functions)
     efficient (less than a few seconds per analysis)
     small enough for micros
     runs on any UNIX System (V6, V7, 2.8BSD, 4BSD, System V, etc.)
     runs on MSDOS 2.0 and 3.0 with 96K (IBM PC, Wang PC, AT&T PC, etc.)
     liberal copyright (can't be distributed for gain)
     in use at more than 400 UNIX sites for six years

CHANGES FOR RELEASE 5.0 (March 1985):

     reworked to increase portability, reliability, usability
     most commands now use a standard option parser (getopt)
     all calculations now done in double precision
     improved error messages
     regress now does a partial correlation analysis
     colex and trans added as alternative to dm
     better approximations to F-ratios
     efficiency of I/O improved
     most programs ported to MSDOS
     improved random number seeding on UNIX
     standard exit status (0) on successful runs
     version control added

CHANGES FOR RELEASE 5.1 (November 1985):

     several minor bugs removed
     the full package was ported to MSDOS

CHANGES FOR RELEASE 5.2 (January 1986):

     5 probability distributions with random number generation
     crosstabs and chi-square program
     on-line help in most programs
     plotting options added to paired data program
     anova program more robust
     error bar plots, unweighted means solution in oneway program
     better support for residual plotting in regress
     UNIX|STAT Handbook and new manual entries
     on-line manuals on MSDOS

AVAILABILITY AND ORDERING INFORMATION:

     The programs are distributed under a liberal copyright.  The  software
(program   code,   executable  code,  and  on-line  documentation)  can  be
distributed freely, provided there is no material  gain.   All  rights  are
reserved on the printed documentation.

All prices include delivery and should be prepaid US funds to G. Perlman.

  UNIX Version of UNIX|STAT:
     Price:    $20
     Contents: Program (C language) & Manual (troff) Source Files
     Format:   600 foot half inch 9 track mag tape, 1600 bpi tar format
  MSDOS Version of UNIX|STAT:
     Price:    $15
     Contents: Preformatted Manuals and Executables
     Format:   2S/2D MSDOS 5.25 inch floppy diskettes
  Handbook:
     Price:    $10
     Contents: Examples, Conventions, Reference Materials, CALC & DM Manuals
     Format:   Printed Manual (~70 pages)
  Printed Manual Entries:
     Price:    $5
     Contents: Typeset Versions of Manual Entries, Reference Sheets
     Format:   Printed Manual (~30 pages)

CONTACT:

     Gary Perlman
     Wang Institute of Graduate Studies
     Tyng Road
     Tyngsboro, MA 01879 USA
     [phone]
     UUCP: decvax!wanginst!perlman  CSNET: perlman@wanginst

NOTES:

     UNIX|STAT is unsupported, though known bugs have been removed.
     UNIX|STAT may not be distributed for profit.
     UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories.
     UNIX|STAT is NOT a product of any company or organization.

--
Gary Perlman  Wang Institute  Tyngsboro, MA 01879  [phone]
UUCP: decvax!wanginst!perlman             CSNET: perlman@wanginst
--------------------------------------------------------------
-Bennett

Bennett Todd -- Duke Computation Center, Durham, NC 27706-7756; [phone]
UUCP: ...{decvax,seismo,philabs,ihnp4,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!duccpc!bet


------------------------------


Date:     12 Feb 86 23:41:34 EST
From:       John Duimovich
  <[e-mail]>
Subject:  MIDI Interfaces

We have people here doing a music/computer interfacing project using an IBM-PC
equipped with the Roland MPU-401 and corresponding interface board.

Does anyone out there have any information on :
1) Available MIDI software / documentation for the IBM-PC
2) Documentation for Oberheim System Exclusive Messages, and
   associated protocol. This is really important !
3) Is there a MIDI BBoard/Mail Groups on the Net (or anywhere else !) ?
4) Documentation on the Roland MPU-401. Anyone out there used it ? Problems ?

As this is a specialized topic please reply directly to me and I'll summarize
to the net.

Thanks in advance

John Duimovich

[e-mail]
[e-mail]   if your mailer can't handle > 8 character names.

------------------------------


Date: 13 Feb 1986 09:56-EST
Subject: Xenix on 30Mb Rodine Disk
From: [e-mail]


I have been trying to install Xenix on an AT with 30Mb Rodine disk without
success.  I tried Robin Cutshaw's patches;  they caused my installation floppy
to trash itself.  Mr. Cutshaw very kindly sent me the patched code on floppy;
it doesn't work.  I'm told there are "official" IBM patches now;  does anyone
know if this is so, and how to get them (local dealers feign ignorance)?  Any
help would be appreciated (my project is constrained to IBM issued Xenix, so
SCO is not a possibility).  Thanks.

-- Michael Harris
   BBN Labs
   617-497-3794

------------------------------


Date: Thu, 13 Feb 86 09:25:20 est
From: Kevin Sullivan <[e-mail]>
Subject: fopen() under XENIX/DOS on PC-AT


I developed a program under XENIX and used the -dos option on the compiler
to produce a file executable under DOS.  The fopen() call returns an
absurd value,  however,  when the memory model is specified to be Large.
The program runs under XENIX and under DOS unless memory model LArge.
1) has anyone seen this problem,  do you know a fix?
2) does anyone know how to get IBM to respond to this kind of problem?

Please mail directly to me as I am not on the PC list.  Thanks much.

Kevin Sullivan
Tufts University
kjs%tufts@CSNET-RELAY



------------------------------


Date:     Thu, 13 Feb 86  12:10 EST
From:       Deba Patnaik  <[e-mail]>
Subject: Request Info on Micro-PROLOG

How much does it cost ?
Who distributes the software ?
Are there any other PROLOG interpreters or compilers ?

------------------------------


Date: 13 Feb 86 10:13:41 PST (Thursday)
Subject: 1.2 MB Drive on PC/XT
From: [e-mail]


I am interested in the possibility of using a 1.2 MB high-density floppy
drive as an additional drive on an XT. Naturally, the XT BIOS doesn't
support the high-density drive, but I would like to know if there exist
any MS-DOS drivers for the 1.2 MB drive.

    Abdo.

[Tall Tree in Palo Alto makes hardware & software to support 1.2MB drives
-wab]

------------------------------


Date: Thu, 13 Feb 86 14:36:52 CST
From:  [e-mail]
To:  [e-mail]
Subject: Link/E Option

Microsoft's newest version of the macro assembler documents the /e
(Execpack option). Masm ver 4 (i think) around page 55.

More trivia. Up to and including pc-dos version 3.0 allowed basic to rename
directories (using NAME "?old" AS "?new"). Pc-dos version 3.1 flags this
'error'.   Oh well.

                                                          john lewis

------------------------------


Date: Thursday, 13 Feb 1986 14:26:57-PST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: IBM System/36PC


I just opened up a copy of Datamation and saw an advertisement
from IBM for a "System/36PC".  What is this????
There is a picture of an IBM PC with two floppy drives, monochrome
monitor, and keyboard.  Next to the PC is a vertical mount chassis
system which has a single half-height drive and looks like a PC/AT.
The price? -- $5995! This includes "a 256K, 40MB System/36 Processor".
The ad says that it is available from participating Authorized IBM PC
dealers, Value Added Dealers, and IBM Product Centers.

When was this announced?  Did it just get lost in the RT/PC announcement?


            Lester Waters
            [e-mail]  (ARPA)
            ...!decvax!dec-rhea!dec-viking!waters  (UUCP)


------------------------------


Date:     Thu, 13 Feb 86 18:27:23 PST
From:     [e-mail]
Subject:  New ANSI Driver


Hi, folks.
Here's my console driver:

NANSI.CAT    Nansi.sys is a console driver which understands ANSI control
nansi.doc    sequences. It has several advantages over ANSI.SYS (the driver
setraw.cat    supplied with DOS):
        1. It supports new escape sequences (see nansi.doc).
        2. It provides MUCH faster output under certain conditions.
        3. It supports the 43-line mode of the EGA.
        4. The darned bell is now 1/4 second instead of 1/2 second.

        See the file setraw.doc for Macro Assembler, Lattice C,
        and Microsoft C routines for entering and leaving raw mode.
        <[e-mail]> 2/14/86


So let me know what y'all think.

        - Daniel Kegel

[These files have been added to our program library. It would be very nice
if someone could combine this with the work done for terminal emulation

------------------------------


Date: 14 Feb 86 03:47 GMT
From: ghicks @ KOREA-EMH
Subject: WordStar 2000 Inquiry


Having just purchased an EPSON FX-80 printer, I wanted to try and get
our office copy of WordStar 2000 to work with it...  I installed
the printer as directed, but couldn't find a way to get the right
printer selected.  The one that came closest wasthe MX-80...  But
I can't do proportional spacing from WordStar..  Any ideas on how
to 'patch' (or change the PRINTERS.DB file) to allow WS2000
to understand this printer??

Thanks
Greg Hicks


------------------------------


Date:  Thu, 13 Feb 86 22:23 CST
From:  [e-mail]
Subject:  SAVVY PC


Does anyone have any experience with SAVVY PC. (put out by Savvy Corp.
in Albuquerque, N.M.).  It is advertised as a Database Manager,
Extensible Programming Language, and pattern recognition driven
Retriever.  In addition, it is a virtual system - permitting you to run
programs whose size is limited only by disk space,  allows for 10,000
concurrently open files, has embedded telecommunications, ....

And all of this for $49 !!!


------------------------------


Date: 14 Feb 1986 02:20:34 EST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: 5 Mb Cartridge Drives


Does anyone know if on a system (GRid) using MS-DOS with a 10MB
hard disk composed of 2 5MB cartridges, a contiguous file
greater than 5 MB (say 6.5MB) be built by a data base program?

Specifically, R-Base 5000, Dbase III or Oracle.

Anyone willing to share any experience with the GRiD and large database
systems , please let me know,]]Thanks

Bob Allgood


------------------------------


Date: Friday, 14 Feb 1986 07:09:19-PST
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Info-IBMPC Submission


I have just replaced the 8088-2 CPU in my PC Designs FD-1000 with a V20 chip
and would like to report the differences noted.  My configuration is:

                 PC Designs FD-1000 system (8 Mhz clock)
        512 K    150 ns system ram
          2 M    AST Rampage board
              (128 K used to bring system memory to 640 K)
              (remainder used as ram disk)

The following are comparison timings done before and after the installation of
the V20 chip:


Norton SI index                        1.7        2.9

BENCHA (Interrupt Response)                1.21        1.04
BENCHB (Interrupt Kernel benchmark)            4.39        4.18
BENCHE (String Search benchmark)            6.32        4.83
BENCHF (Bit Manipulation Instructions)            6.70        6.26
BENCHH (Linked List Insertion)                4.40        4.18
BENCHI (Quicksort)                    7.14        5.99
BENCHK (Bit Matrix Transpose benchmark)               18.23           16.03
IEEE Micro (2/81) Digital Filter Benchmark           13.68        8.24

Compilation of 8454 line Turbo Pascal Program          159.00          156.00

DeARC 19 'Crunched' Pascal Sources Files (ARC V5.2)   226.63          220.41

ARC the same 19 files (Crunched)              112.37          109.03

* All benchmarks were run from and used files exclusively from ram disk.
  The numbers represent time in seconds except the Norton SI which is a
  relative index.

  The BENCH? and Filter Benchmark were obtained from a BBS and are designed
  to highlight the V20 performance.

  The V20 has some additional instructions to aid in bit manipulations.
  The table above indicates the timings with the V20 running 8088 object code.
  BENCHF and BENCHK also report timings using the enhanced instructions which
  are:
            BENCHF     3.85
            BENCHK    10.93

  These times are much improved over the 8088 however, the object code is not
  compatible with the 8088.

All in all I can't notice any difference while doing normal operations on the
system. (normal operations include program development using C, Turbo Pascal,
and MASM).  So far, I haven't found any program that was 'broken' by the V20.
If I do, I will go back to running the 8088 and chalk up the $25 spent on the
V20 to experience.

Rick Watson

------------------------------


Date: Fri 14 Feb 86 08:53:06-PST
From: Bob Knight <[e-mail]>
Subject: Quick Basic Woes


On the subject of Quick Basic, I had a private conversation which I enclose
in this message.  If there's anyone else who's run into problems, please
send documentation to me.

Date: Thu 13 Feb 86 14:21:01-PST
From: Bob Knight <[e-mail]>
Subject: Quick Basic.
To: Ya'[e-mail]

Hi - In the latest INFO-IBMPC digest, you spoke of problems you've
encountered with Quick-Basic.  I'm writing an application in it, unfortunately,
and have run into problems with PC hangs that I feel were the fault of
Quick-Basic, and directly related to comm ports, since I'm working over a
radio link.  Your message was truncated, but the last line said something
regarding this.

In addition, I've had random lossage (and I MEAN random) regarding
string space corrupts, out of memory errors and the like.  Considering
the time constraints I'm under on this project, and the apparent
ignorance on Microsoft's part of these problems, I'm looking for people
who've run into them and can perhaps offer some workarounds...

If I had more time, I'd have the luxury of using something that was more
stable.

Thanks much for any assistance given,
Bob
-------
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 86 18:53:38 PST
From: Ya'[e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Quick Basic.

I have devised the following procedures which make BASIC usable

(1) Use BASICA interpreter instead of Quick-Basic where possible

(2) Have the ON ERROR GOTO a statement which consists of RUN
    Don't bother with sophisticated error handling, or Quick-Basic
    will incur another I/O error before it has finished processing
    the last I/O error.  This will drive it nuts...

(3) Manually examine the COM line status register for BREAK and
    FRAMING errors (the ones that crash Quick-Basic).  Refrain
    from opening files on COM until you have manually (thru OUT)
    cleared these bits.

(4) Microsoft Quick-Basic is guaranteed to crash on the following
     o The guy sending thru COM device changes baud rate suddenly...
     o The guy sending thru COM device hits break.  (it breaks...)
-------
End of enclosure
-------

------------------------------


Date:           Fri, 14 Feb 86 08:53:03 PST
From:           Jim Carter <[e-mail]>
Subject: System Buffer Pool


In PC digest V5#20, [e-mail] writes about disc
optimizers and points out that disc "access" can be speeded up a lot if
disc sectors are cached in core; he mentions several products that take
care of this.  Standard PC-DOS v3.1 (and v3.0, the manual says) has a
system buffer pool too.  The default number of sectors in the cache is 2
(3 for an AT) but you can expand it to 99 (=~50K) with the "buffers" command
in config.sys.  All drives share the same cache.

James F. Carter            [phone]
UCLA-SEASnet; 2567 Boelter Hall; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA 90024
UUCP:...!{ihnp4,ucbvax,{hao!cepu}}!ucla-cs!jimc  ARPA:[e-mail]

------------------------------


Date: 14 Feb 1986 09:47:39 PST
Subject: Writer's Workbench for PC-DOS Query
From: Richard Nelson <[e-mail]>



    Writer's Workbench is a text preparation tool available on Unix. Is
there a version of it (or something like it) available on PC-DOS machines?

Thanks,
/richard


------------------------------


Date: Fri, 14 Feb 86 13:25:23 est
From: [e-mail] (Jimmy Parrish)
Subject: Expanding Old PC Motherboards


     Does anyone know of a method of expanding the motherboard memory
of early IBM-PCs. These early machines were limited to 64K ( 36 16K x 1 chips)
memory on the motherboard. Any source for advice or parts would be appreciated.
Please reply directly to [e-mail] .

     THANKS IN ADVANCE

------------------------------


Date:    Fri, 14 Feb 86 15:52:17 PST
From:     [e-mail]
Subject: Where is ARC50.COM?


Gentlemen,
    I noticed that <INFO-IBMPC> has the file ARC50.DOC which is
the documentation for the lastest version of the archiving utility
ARC.  I was wondering:  is the latest version of ARC on ARPAnet
somewhere?

    Thanks,
        -Jonathan Cameron
         (CAMERON @ JPL-VLSI)
[Does anybody want to be the "Official" net depositary of the latest version
of ARC. If so I will put your address in our ARC.DOC file. -wab]
------------------------------

End of Info-IBMPC Digest
************************

-------