Shareware Grab Bag

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Shareware Grab Bag / Shareware Grab Bag.iso / 004 / revw0387.arc / REVW0387.TXT

Wrap

Text File | 1987-04-01 | 106.9 KB | 1,916 lines

====[ Bulletin 1 -- New Files ]=================================== Computer Connections PCBoard, Washington, D.C., 2400/1200 (202) 547-2008 -- Public; (202) 547-7621 -- Limited Access ====================== Copyright (c) 1987, Robert S. Blacher. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce and disseminate so long as: (1) No remuneration of any kind is received in exchange; and (2) Distribution is without any modification to the contents hereof, including this copyright notice. Any other use is prohibited without express, written permission in advance. ====================== Brief descriptions and reviews of new files added to the system: [03-31-87] TTT.ARC 183921 03-31-87 TechnoJocks Turbo Pascal Toolkit v3.0 10/1/86 03-31-87 Good collection of screen-oriented routines U/L by Stephen Falatko. A collection of Turbo Pascal procedures and functions, concentrating on screen oriented applications for CGA systems. How can you not love an author whose slogan is "In the software business since Tuesday"? Actually, the collection looks quite good and contains the following: Decl.TTT - All the Type, Const and Var declaration required by the procedures and functions. FastWrit.TTT - A collection of ultra-fast screen writing procedures which are all based on an "Inline" screen update procedure. Window.TTT - A collection of windowing and screen saving procedures. Menu.TTT - A very nice (better than Blaise) menu routine. IO.TTT - A collection of screen input routines. Misc.TTT - A host of miscellaneous procedures and functions. ?????TTT.DEM - Demonstration examples in the use of the Toolkit. ?????TTT.com - Compiled versions of the above .DEM files. There is also an excellent manual written with clarity, humor and style. PMAP120.ARC 17821 03-31-87 Memory mapper v1.20 shows TSRs & EMS/C.Dunford U/L and written by Chris Dunford. "PMAP is a simple program that displays how your PC's memory is being used. It lists all active programs (including resident programs such as Sidekick and PCED) and tells you how much free memory is available for programs. If expanded (LIM) memory is present, a summary of EMS use is also shown." Only Chris could call a program like this "simple." This is v1.20 and the most obvious change is the report on EMS memory which was not supported by v1.11. The program is similar to Kokkonen's MAPMEM (in the TSRxxxxx.ARCs) but with a couple of advtanges: There are some options in PMAP to give various levels of detail that show some info not given by MAPMEM. PMAP is also just a heck of a lot quicker than MAPMEM. Finally, the documentation for PMAP is excellent -- having read it, I actually think I'm beginning to understand a good deal more of what MAPMEM and PMAP both can display. RS232V23.ARC 4001 03-31-87 TSR puts modem status lights on screen v2.03 U/L by Bill Walsh. Particularly useful for those of you with internal modems, this simply puts on your screen what you would see on the status lights of most external modems (e.g. TR, CD, etc.). KILLDIR4.ARC 10160 03-31-87 Remove subdirs even when not empty 4.0 Goebel There's good news and bad news about this latest version of KILLDIR. The good news is that it will delete subdirectories no matter how deeply nested. KILLDIR3 would only handle subdirs 2 deep. The bad news is that the program is larger, a result of having been re-written in C, and that the source code is no longer provided. KILLDIR3 also paused more often to make sure you really wanted to do what the program was about to do. That may have been annoying to some, but added a level of safety. KILLDIR4, when I tested it, zapped a subdir which had 3 more beneath it without pausing to ask whether I realized that and wanted to proceed (I did, in fact, but a confirm option seems like a good safety net). Please don't get me wrong -- this is an excellent program. But, I think I'd rather use Chris Dunford's FILER221 and its RD command to zap subdirs. And, I may keep the 2K KILLDIR3 file around rather than this one to quickly remove the subdirs that it can handle (mine are rarely nested more deeply than v3 could handle). 121-V22.ARC 93684 03-31-87 One-to-One comm program/chat during file xfers 03-31-87 Must run on both PCs/not for BBS calls/v2.2 U/L by Bill Walsh. One-to-One is a specialized communications program for when you are calling someone else running the same package and want to exchange information with that person. As such, it is not for BBS calling, but can be extremely useful for private telecommunications. Unique features include: "1) Type messages to each other while a file transfer is in progress! 2) Never worry about garbled text caused by two people typing at the same time. Incoming and Outgoing text appear in seperate windows on screen. 3) "Share" a text file. You and a friend can be looking at the same text file at the same time." This is version 2.2 of the program with many refinements and much faster screen writing routines. The new features are detailed in "WHATSNEW.121" and the excellent documentation is also up-to-date. A very professionally done shareware package that is worth a look if you do one-to-one (ahah!) communications. LEDOORS.ARC 3009 03-31-87 Switch btw color/bw monitors for LE D /ASM U/L by Ronald Vanek. Not a french restaurant, this is PC Mag's DOORS program which swaps your active display between color and mono, adapted for the Leading Edge D. WP42B.ARC 17706 03-31-87 Revised MS mouse menu for WordPerfect 4.2 U/L and written by Lew Paper. PROMOUS1.ARC 3909 03-31-87 MS mouse driver for ProComm v.2.4 U/L and written by Lew Paper. [03-30-87] SECURE.ARC 14990 03-30-87 Password security for booting a PC w/TP src U/L and written by Bruce Feist. "SECURE allows a PC to be protected with a password. To use it, it must be installed on each disk that the machine may booted up with, which is its main security flaw: anyone can still use the machine by booting up with their own DOS diskette. Despite this limitation, the program is fairly effective at keeping unwanted users out." Turbo Pascal source for this shareware program is included. UNINLINE.ARC 19409 03-30-87 Turbo Inline disassembler/Baldwin/v1.0 U/L by David Seidman. "UNINLINE.COM is a disassembler which accepts an 'object' file consisting of Turbo Pascal (tm) Inline statements and produces an assembly language source file. The source file may then be modified and reassembled to Inline statements using INLINE.COM." The latter, extremely useful, program is on this system in INLIN202.ARC. SRS182.ARC 91316 03-30-87 Still River (DOS) shell w/command recall v1.82 The Still River Shell is one of the better DOS sweep/shell utils, with command recall and several other unique features, including the ability to define your own commands in addition to those that are part of the program. Version 1.78 showed up with no doc at all, but here's 1.82 and the documentation is back again, complete with update notes (which, in fact, show the changes have not been major since v1.33 -- mostly refinements). NOTE: A dump of the EXE file showed the message "Program expiration date exceeded, update needed." That message was also in v1.33 and 1.78. That's usually a sign that a program has been date crippled, but running the program on a system where I had the date set for a year from now didn't produce the message. It remains a mystery to me. Also note, there are a couple of new utilities in the packages: A pushd/popd set, and an XDOS command that allows you to chain BATch files together. The latter works fine, but I don't see its advtantage over a COMMAND /C batch file invocation. As best I can tell, XDOS also loads a secondary command processor. But, for those who didn't know that COMMAND /C NAMEOF.BAT will execute the batch file NAMEOF and then return you back to the batch file from which it was executed ... XEQ102.ARC 5859 03-30-87 COM file library & executor/Saves space v1.02 XEQ is a handy program to group lots of little .COM files into one and thus save some space on your disk. Update notes: 1.01 14-MAR-87 Fixed bug if COM file name is one character 1.02 27-MAR-87 Aligned file size column Added disk bytes saved calc BAWK1.ARC 49676 03-30-87 DOS version of Unix 'awk' C/EXE/DOC/makefile U/L by Jack Velte. This looks to be a clean up of the version of BAWK that was already on this system, with the executable included this time and a rather nifty looking makefile. EXEFORM.ARC 2563 03-30-87 .EXE file header format (text file) U/L and compiled from the DOS tech ref manual by Richard Byrne. DSZ0314.ARC 36613 03-30-87 Z/Y/Xmodem module/run f other comm prgs 031487 For a change, there are actually a few things I can tell are different about this release. First, the doc says it has I/O buffering to help under multi-taskers. Second, the doc now says that DSZ accepts the same numeric parameters as Forsberg's other programs (e.g. YAM and ZCOMM). Unfortunately, Chuck refers you to the docs for those programs for details, and your eyes will glaze over even if you have them, so one in particular to point out. The default block size for Zmodem transfers is 256 bytes. You can change it to deal with varying line conditions. The sender tells the receiver what block size is being used, so the command to send a file with Zmodem and 512 byte blocks would be: DSZ port 1 speed 2400 pL512 sz filename.ext It's the "pL512" which tells it to use .5K blocks and yes, CASE IS SIGNIFICANT --- a small 'l' means something else. This parameter has no effect at all on Ymodem or Xmodem transfers, which are also supported by the DSZ program. DSZ is a comm module that can be run from almost any other communications program. BOYAN-D1 and GT use DSZ, the next releases of PibTerm and Qmodem will, and so can any other program that lets you issue DOS commands or allows you to shell to DOS (yes, Crosstalkers, you, too, can have Ymodem). RZSZ1ET2.ARC 60917 03-30-87 Unix RZ/SZ source 03-10-87 (rz 1.18/ sz 1.26) I really don't see anything significantly different in this version of Forsberg's Unix rz and sz file transfer programs. Included in the arc is a little bootstrap program to get the code over to another Unix machine and some Zmodem primitives and header info. NUHEADER.ARC 13932 03-30-87 Repair dB3 file headers and records v1.3 U/L by Thomas Hamill. I have not tried this one. [03-29-87] MONKEY11.ARC 31857 03-29-87 Examine/modify file time/date/attr w/ QB src U/L and written by Tom Hanlin. Some minor changes to Tom's QuickBASIC program to modify the date, time or attribute of one or more files. ADVBAS needed to re-compile (but you ought to have ADVBAS anyway if you work with QB). UPDATE55.ARC 93518 03-29-87 Backup New|Changed|Old files; v5.5 R.Holmgren U/L by Francis Sullivan. 5.5 23 Mar 87 New/Fixed routines for Parallel dirs (requests:) Technical switch menu: Set Archive bit; Set VERIFY For more info, see review of UPDAT54A.ARC. HELP!30.ARC 71226 03-29-87 HD file mngr/sweep util v3.0, Bruce A. Taylor I didn't see any update notes, so I don't know how this differs from the earlier version. (use DOOR 2 here to call up the 1/29/87 review of HELP!.ARC for more complete info on the earlier version). HELP! is a good, sweep-type utility with an XTREE-like format, where you can bring your subdir tree up on the screen and then move around your drive by pointing at each. Other than that, nothing all that special here, but it's a field where there are a LOT of good programs. My favorites these days are Qfiler, OverView (OV102) and NSWP (when I just want to do some quick tagging and mass copies or deletes). NAN12.ARC 21193 03-29-87 Nantucket News Prog. Disk 8/86 ASM/OBJ/PRG U/L by Bobby Mangoba. Nice collection of routines, with source provided, for Clipper. PRNDSK.ARC 26973 03-29-87 Redir PRN (& other dev) to dsk (& other)w/ASM U/L by Jack Kilday. This redirect-printer-to-disk program passed one of my worst torture tests. I loaded it, loaded PCBoard (this BBS) and turned printer-logging on inside the BBS program. I can't recall another print-to-disk program that survives that test (PCBoard is written in QuickBASIC and such programs muck around with DOS unmercifully). It also captured printer output from Vern Buerg's LIST program, though LIST is well-behaved and several others will work with it. Actually, this program has a lot going for it. It can handle redirection from more than one device and to more than one device. And, it not only can redirect output intended for PRN or LPT, it also can redirect COM port output (remember serial printers, anyone?) and even swap COM1 and COM2, LPT1 and LPT2, etc. All in all, a very handy program and the source code in ASM is thrown in as a bonus. ZD10.ARC 24536 03-29-87 Colorful sorted dir w/install program v1.0 U/L by Geoffrey Bogeaus. Very pretty, with an install program to choose default colors and sort options. Like HOTDIR (see XANADU.ARC), each file extension type can be grouped together and shown in a particular color. So, if you're into that ... CT6-A.ARC 121454 03-29-87 \ J. MacEvoy's CashTrac 6.0 / main pgm CT6-B.ARC 148538 03-29-87 / Personal Finance Manager \ config & docs CT6-C.ARC 130971 03-29-87 \ now w/graphs & chx wrting / graph & hlp U/L by Judy Levine. This program is substantially revised from v5.15 and much improved. Already one of the better personal finance managers, MacEvoy's CashTrac now ranks up there with the best, as good as many "commercial" programs. A very abbreviated list of the new features (there's much more): * Pop-up four-function calculator with memory (Use Ctrl-F10). * Six color text graphing--supports monochrome, mono-graphics, or standard color graphics/EGA monitors. * Check writer, supports almost any check style. * Spreadsheet/database data export and import feature. * Fast direct screen writing on most screens. * Monthly budgets or any-time-period budgets. * Four types of investment interest and dividends. * Enhanced record search features. * Sort routine handles 32,700 records or to the limit of memory, whichever comes first. * DOS path support. * Perform DOS commands from CashTrac. * Reports: there are many enhancements. * On line help files for almost every screen. Use Alt-F10. An excellent program. If you use your computer for tracking your investments and expenditures, this one is worth a look. [03-28-87] CLIP_MSC.ARC 4827 03-28-87 MS-C interface to create Clipper User Def Fnct U/L by Fran Horvath. SCRN0.ARC 30473 03-28-87 MS-C callable functions for fast screen writes U/L by Craig Hulvey. "A collection of MSC callable functions that provide fast direct screen reading and writing of chars, strings, and blocks of screen memory while *automatically* turning horizontal retrace checking on/off based on the type of video card in use.... Included are functions for real and logical cursor positioning, color/attribute setting, scrolling, determining various video types and settings, etc....And just for fun, a zoom-in window similar to Procomm's exploding windows. " NEWIBM.ARC 6144 03-28-87 Rumor/etc. on new IBM machines due Apr 2 U/L by Jim Bready. I dunno. If the announcements are really made on April 2, what good is this info? And, if they're not, then this info is wrong. [03-27-87] LISTB123.ARC 5446 03-27-87 Lists bad clusters on disk, v1.23 /ASM MARK231.ARC 8802 03-27-87 Mark/Unmark bad disk clusters, v2.31 /ASM OWNER152.ARC 11490 03-27-87 Tells which file owns disk cluster,v1.52/ASM U/L by Pete Olympia. MARK and OWNER are just super programs that have been on this program for a while and for which these are minor updates. MARK allows you to mark or unmark a specific cluster as bad. OWNER tells you what file is sitting on a particular cluster. (See also CHAIN, by the same author, which tells you which clusters a file is sitting on). Now, we add a new program to this excellent program, LISTBAD, which simply tells you all the bad clusters on your disk. It doesn't test the clusters -- it just lists out the bad ones that some other program (i.e. FORMAT) has marked as bad. All programs include adequate documentation and full ASM source. CCCFUNC.ARC 39252 03-28-87 Add 'date' and 'state' funcs to Clipper-A86 U/L by Bob Hicks. Clipper user defined functions in PRG format. Source included. MSTOOLS.ARC 12537 03-27-87 Miscellaneous MS-C 3.0 routines/ C & ASM U/L by Richard Kinoshita. IMPRT140.ARC 109741 03-27-87 Image Print: Eps/IBM Print Enhancer v1.40 U/L by Francis Sullivan. By all reports, one of the best of the utilities to help an Epson or IBM dot matrix printer achieve near letter quality and to use various fonts. Update notes: 1.40 DOS 2.0 and up compatibility - input text file can be on another directory. DOS 1.1 compatibility has been retained. Faster screen writing ".RR" ragged right margin if formatting Removed printer reset before printing ARCE30C.ARC 10969 03-27-87 Extract ARC files/ Buerg, Chin/v3.0c 032387 03-27-87 New /Test and /G (password) options 03-27-87 Recognizes but ignores "Squashed" files U/L by Craig Hulvey. Some little thingamajig fixes, worth updating as 3.0A would very rarely declare a valid archive to be invalid. CDISK350.ARC 130325 03-27-87 CATDISK v3.50 disk catalog/handles ARCs/3-87 U/L by Jerry Brown. Latest update notes (edited): CATDISK now supports the entry of a 30 character comment for each file in a catalog. Support for up to two levels of sub-directories has been added. When cataloguing an un-labelled diskette, the writing of the label to that disk is now optional. The command line options have been updated to allow you to specify the printer report format at program startup. JB.ARC 12435 03-27-87 PC-Outline cheat sheets (incl. macros) U/L by Jeffrey Heynen. Provides some help on PC-Outline's command structure. [03-26-87] TDRAW210.ARC 95500 03-26-87 THEDRAW Color Screen Image Text Editor v2.10 U/L by Bill Walsh. TheDraw now supports monochrome screens (why?) and the extended IBM keyboard (you can customize what the extra keys mean). "Other new features are text operations (box drawing, outlining, left/center/right justification, etc...) and Ansi file slowdown. Ansi file slowdown basically makes Ansi files that display veerry slowly (see Alt-S)." O.K., none of these new features is really that big a deal, but TheDraw is one of the best of the ansi screen editors and doesn't need much improvement. ZDEL.ARC 3382 03-26-87 Multifile deletion util w/confirm/ASM/Hanlin U/L and written by Tom Hanlin. Allows multiple file specs on the command line (more than DOS can do) and can require you to confirm before deleting. So, ZDEL *.ASM *.OLD EXAMPLE.TXT is a valid command line, and you'll be prompted before each file is sent to electronic heaven. The ability to take multiple file specs on the command line is unique. On the other hand, all files must be in your current directory, perhaps an unavoidable result of the command line parsing. POWRMENU.ARC 128617 03-26-87 Brown Bag's PowerMenu 2.0sw/DOS menu shell Another offering from the Brown Bag folks, this is actually a pretty good DOS menu system. With barely a glance at the docs, I was able to get this up and running and design a few menus. It's colorful, the user interface is clean, and password protection is available. Importantly, this menu program gets itself out of the way when an application program is loaded so that the menu shell doesn't leave you with too little memory left to do anything. (It's done through the use of a 2K or so loader which is all that stays in RAM after a menu selection has been made). If you wish, you can also allow users ad hoc DOS commands and exiting to DOS completely on via shell. So much for the good news. The not-so-good news is that when you go to use the disk manager program, a sweep-type utility that is part of the program, you get the message that most of its commands are not available in this version. Apparently, Brown Bag has an enhanced version of this program up its sleeve for those who register but, remarkably, that fact is never mentioned in the documentation. The documentation does mention 3 EXE files that are system maintenance utilities. They are nowhere to be found. Incomplete archive? Nope, I downloaded this one myself from Brown Bag's own BBS system. In truth, none of those programs that are missing seems very important. Brown Bag is also offering a commission to Sysops who help procure registrations of their programs. I want nothing to do with that kind of kickback scheme and the serial number in this program is Brown Bag's own, not one they've assigned to this BBS. It's too bad. Brown Bag has been releasing some good programs lately. But, it doesn't look like the perpetrators of the Brown Bag Word Processing Hoax have got it together -- yet? LPMAC1.ARC 32557 03-26-87 MASM macro library/Lew Paper 3/1/87 U/L and written by Lewis Paper who was kind enough to leave the following info in a comment: " File LPMAC1.ARC is a modification of file HERSMAC.ARC. I added documentation, automatic selection of long or short backward jumps, a strategy to minimized the number of long forward jumps and saving PUSHed registers to POP them in the proper (reverse) order." STRIPASM.ARC 14179 03-26-87 Remove comments from MASM include files w/C U/L and written by Lewis Paper. A handy little utility, with complete C source included. YESORNO.ARC 2605 03-26-87 Lattice C 3.11 unredirectable "Yes or NO?" U/L and written by Lewis Paper. MAKEDEP.ARC 12270 03-26-87 Generate makefile dependencies for C U/L and written by Jack Velte. A clever application, you'll need NDMAKE, LEX, BAWK, your favorite sort and pattern match utils and a C pre-processor (a la MS-C's). PROCMD.ARC 88473 03-26-87 Procomm CMD (scripts) editor v1.0 U/L by Jim Longworth. "This is a syntax-directed editor for ProComm command files. It supports the FULL ProComm command language and will allow you to build a ProComm command file very quickly with little or no previous experience in ProComm command files. Each line in the file is built by pointing to one of ProComm's keywords, hitting enter, and then giving the arguments if required." EDBIT.ARC 30059 03-26-87 File/disk byte editor, dump/modify v6.00 U/L by Francis Sullivan. No doc file for this one, but there's quite a bit of on-line documentation and it's a capable binary editor. [03-25-87] LITEBA25.ARC 5171 03-25-87 Russell Freeland's dBASE 3+ LiteBar 3/24/87 U/L by Tom Drinkard. This is a bit puzzling as the last version on the system was LITEBA32, but this does indeed seem to be a newer one with some bug fixes, etc. JREBOOT.ARC 7862 03-25-87 Reboot TallTree JRAM3 from batch file 2 ways U/L and written by Lewis Paper. POPEDIT3.ARC 55823 03-25-87 Create your own popup screens v3.0/v. good A major update to Sal Minero's handy program for creating pop-up screens, v3.0 adds a "full screen editor." Well, that may be a bit of exaggeration but the method of entering text into the screen is vastly improved and does have the basic editing commands necessary to make life a little easier. You can also enter the extended ascii character set into the screen in this version. For those unfamilar with POPEDIT, it allows you to quickly create your own little .COM files which, when loaded, will pop-up a single screen when you hit the hot-key. Useful for designing help screens and more. HOTKEY11.ARC 1319 03-25-87 Excel't typematic speedup for PC/XT keybd 1.10 Other than the version number change, this file is exactly 1-byte different than version 1.05 (so says Gersbach's CMP program) and the docs don't explain what was fixed, but the update gives me a chance to mention that this is one of the best keyboard speedups that I've come across, handling the "overshoot" problem much more intelligently than others. I've had it loaded on my XT clone for quite a while and it seems to get along with everything. EXGRF102.ARC 188857 03-25-87 ExpressGraph 1.02 Business Graphics pkg 03-25-87 from the File Express folks/Easy to use No update notes for this one, so I have no idea how it differs from v1.00 which was already on this system. Presumably, minor bug fixes. Express Graph is a very easy to use, not terribly sophisticated, business graphics package that does the normal assortment of line, bar and pie charts. You can enter data directly and it can also read File Express and .DIF files. Like all of the ExpressWare programs, it is well-supported and *uncrippled*, with full and excellent documentation. NOTE: v1.00 did not, according to users on this system, work with a Herc graphics adaptor. I assume the same is true of this version. MH0320C.ARC 149497 03-25-87 Don Mankin's MiniHost BBS system 03/20/87 U/L by Ted DeCastro. Check MINIHOST.NEW via the DOOR here to see the latest, pretty minor looking, changes to this easy-to-setup and use BBS system. PPC11AS.ARC 141568 03-25-87 Turbo Pas source for PICS BBS v1.1a 3/2/87 U/L by Ted DeCastro. We're getting there. Here's the Turbo Pascal source to accompany the executables that were already on the system. Now, all we need are docs for the DOS version. WSSI312.ARC 173765 03-25-87 Floppy & Hard disk catalog prgm v3.12/v.good U/L by George Introzzi. There's a new program in this version to import comments into your disk database files. The other changes look fairly minor. WSSI seems to be very popular and well though of by those of you who use this type of program. Would that I were so organized. A86V290.ARC 51129 03-25-87 A86 assmblr v2.9 w/OBJ sup/beta/upd files only U/L by Stephen Falatko. This "beta" version of A86 can generate OBJect files for linking. It also handles the complete 286 instruction set, included protected mode. These are the update files only (including a new version of D86, the debug util from the same author). A complete set is due out in a few weeks, according to the docs. [03-24-87] TIMERD.ARC 4307 03-24-87 Turbo Pascal timer routine v1.1 TIMERH.ARC 8127 03-24-87 Turbo Pascal high precision timer routn v1.1 U/L by Mike Rubenstein. TP and inline timer routines, normal and high-resolution, created so that you can use either one you wish without changing your code. v1.1 1/16/87. NEWBOOT2.ARC 14696 03-24-87 Customize Data disk boot sector Ver 1.11 U/L and written by Francisco de Monasterio. Added a new program (NB2.COM) to allow hard-disk default booting without the supporting image files. Also, some bug fixes. For more info, see review of NEWBOOT.ARC below. HDTST312.ARC 75583 03-24-87 Throughly test HD for bad clusters v3.12 A very thorough hard disk tester, this one has the unique capability to do read and write tests without destroying existing data (hopefully). This program really puts your disk through a work-out and takes a LONG time to complete, but if you want to know for sure that all the clusters on your disk are O.K., this program really doesn't have an equal. v3.12 has lots of bug fixes (some of them don't sound all that minor, making me wonder why there weren't more reports of problems with the earlier version). All fixed? Careful on this one, folks. GRAPHX11.ARC 4521 03-24-87 OBJ module lib for ASM Herc mono graphics 1.10 U/L by Bob Roberds. GT1210-1.ARC 136543 03-23-87 \ Paul Meiners' GT PowerComm v12.10 GT1210-2.ARC 130137 03-23-87 / Versatile, frequently revised, comm prgm GTCTL33.ARC 82561 03-24-87 GT Host Mode Files Maintenance Pkg R33/1210 GTLOG64.ARC 91593 03-23-87 Print out reports from GT1210 Powercomm v6.4 GTO1210.ARC 104756 03-24-87 GT v12.10 without the host mode/ smaller U/L by Mike Focke. We have a new phrase to add to our jargon. This is a "stability release." Use the DOOR to look at the READ.ME file in GT1210-1.ARC for a complete list of the bug fixes, etc. Note: With this release, Meiners has created a "terminal only" version for folks who don't need or want the rather extensive host mode that GT has acquired of late. The "small" version is in GTO1210.ARC. If you take that one, you don't need GT1210-2.ARC or GTCTL33.ARC. [03-23-87] MAXAM.ARC 138183 03-23-87 MinShell 1.0/Subset of commercial DOS shell U/L by Chuck Furfine. Actually, this looks to be a pretty decent combination sweep and menu util, but the menu functions are essentially disabled in this "mini" version as you can't save your program set-up table. What's left is an O.K., not great, DOS shell that takes up a ton of memory. Not recommended. BOSS387.ARC 184771 03-23-87 Window Boss v03.15.87/Excellent C window pkg 03-23-87 Supports MS-C 3 & 4, CI C86, Lattice, & DLC Very minor bug fixes to this excellent C windowing package which supports all of the most popular compilers. Good docs, good demo programs, good routines -- a winner. UARTBUG.ARC 13097 03-23-87 Resident util to write to UART ports, w/ASM U/L by Jack Kilday. Based on a PC Mag print util, this one has been modified to write to the comm ports instead and allows you to fool around with all that techie stuff. GUDLUK41.ARC 79137 03-23-87 Side-by-side file view/compare/4.1 EGA support U/L and written by John Dove. Update notes (edited): 4.1 23 March 1987 - Minor revision for a few annoying problems. Fixed the Cursor problem upon exit from EGA 43 line mode. Removed the Drive Test for C: and D: at the startup of GoodLook. Fixed minor problems with the Directory routines at startup. (Now when you change drives, you will change to the logged directory of the destination drive, vice the root directory.) Eliminated keystrokes which should have been disabled when a file is Zoomed. BATMENU.ARC 81584 03-23-87 Batch Menu processing system v3.01 3/22/87 U/L by Loren Olson. Although v3.01, this is actually a first release of a new DOS menu program. BATMENU is geared to systems integrators, VARS and the like who are setting up menu shells for customers to insulate them from that "awful" C:\> prompt (I like command level prompts, not menus, but what do I know?). This program is well documented and seems professionally implemented. Set-up is really quite straight-forward. Features include various password protection schemes, encryption of some of the sensitive configuration data, and a "back door" so that you can get into the system even if your customer has hopelessly mucked it up. XD110.ARC 8918 03-23-87 eXtended [eXchange] Directory v1.10, 03/14/87 U/L by Bob Weinstein. An excellent program that can save you keystrokes in switching around the subdirs on your drive. XD is somewhat like a push/pop util in the sense that it stores your current dir before you change and then lets you jump back to it again. This one's easy to use, well-behaved, fast -- all that good stuff. The changes in v1.10 are mostly minor with the exception that it now sets ERRORLEVELs on exit which will make it even more useful in BATch files. 3/87 release. CONCUR.ARC 22748 03-23-87 Concurrent/multi-task routines in TPascal v1.0 U/L by Craig Hulvey. Getting a PC to do concurrent processing is no joy. Here are some sample routines in Turbo Pascal to get you started. FED_MD.ARC 95353 03-23-87 Fed & MD tax worksheets/ Lotus Rel 2 U/L by Bob Redick. Not Lotus Rel 2 here and no docs for this one, so ... [03-22-87] TPATCH.ARC 26688 03-22-87 Modify Turbo Pascal prgms/Foley/2.00 U/L by Tom Drinkard. Brian Foley of Turbo Power Software provides this little gem that allows you to change some of the defaults in a program that has been compiled with Turbo Pascal. Some mods to the compiler itself are also possible. This is for TP versions 3.00B-3.02A. SCRLOCK.ARC 9851 03-22-87 Scroll Lock & SysReq Lock w/ASM/com/doc files U/L and written by Bill Gibson. Pause the screen display with one finger using either the scroll lock key or (on the AT) the SysReq key. Both of these programs use about 300 bytes of memory, are smart enough to check to see if they're already loaded, and come with complete ASM source. Nice stuff. PCWCARD.ARC 1594 03-22-87 PC Write 2.7 Function Key Quick-Ref card U/L by Bob Redick. DB_DBUG2.ARC 163970 03-22-87 8 dBASE utils/source analysis & more/v2 w/TP U/L by Bob Hicks. Review by Pete Olympia (a/k/a Dr. dBase): Contains 8 useful dBASE utilities along w/ TPascal source code. Can print DBF stru & index exprsn of all files used in PRG, display tree structure of PRG's, tell you where your variables are used, and (get this) INSERT.COM w/c inserts the name of an assoc DBF file into an unused area of the NDX header record. I also like the little text file that describes the structure of NDX files. PCFPLUS1.ARC 225863 03-22-87 \ PC File+ v1.0 Buttonware relational DBMS PCFPLUS2.ARC 131777 03-22-87 / No docs at all! / Manual to registered users Very frustrating. This is the latest version of PC File from Jim Button, replacing both the shareware PC File III (the last version of which was 4.0) and the commercial PC File /R, his relational dbms. PC File+ 1.0 combines the features of both and some new ones and is a $69.95 shareware program. And, the old prohibition against BBS distribution is gone. Button now actively encourages it so long as minimal safeguards are taken to ensure file integrity. O.K. So far so good. The problem is that he has released this shareware version with absolutely NO documentation. PC File III always came with an abbreviated manual which was certainly sufficient to at least get a good feel for the program. How the heck are you supposed to evaluate and decide whether to buy PC File+ when you get no instructions at all on how to use it? If you've ever used PC File before, you'll probably be able to get this up and running, but without any docs, I can't imagine how you'd explore the features that constitute the "plus" in this version. Yes, there's some context sensitive on-line help, but it's very sketchy and not sufficient to learn the program. It's not that these archives are incomplete. The files came directly from Button via Paul Kopit's excellent Software Society BBS in New Jersey. So, this is the package Button wants distributed on BBS systems. That's it folks. I'm not going to do any further review of a program distributed in this manner. I hope Jim Button gets his act together someday. His commercial version of PC File bombed because he overpriced and undersupported it. The failure to provide even limited docs for this new "shareware" version will, I think, doom it as well. I do not recommend this program and it will not stay on the system for very long. If you want a true shareware data base manager, try File Express. EXDOS.ARC 76119 03-22-87 Buttonware extensions to DOS commands v1.0 Having just told you I think PC File+ is a waste of disk space, there are a few nice things I can say about this other new package from the Buttonware folks. It's a collection of utility programs integrated in one executable, with an optional menu system. Commands include: ATTR (change attributes), COPY, DEL, KILL (remove subdirs), LIST (print to screen or printer), MOVE, REName, SEARCH (for a phrase in one or more files), and TIME (change the date/timestamp of files). Almost all of the commands are well executed, with the exception of LIST which just looks awful compared to Vern Buerg's utility. Still, there are other, smaller programs on this system that do each of the above functions better than EXDOS and Chris Dunford's FILER221 is a cleaner, faster and more powerful combination of similar functions. SED1.ARC 45162 03-22-87 SED (stream editor) with -e fix/Lattice/GNU U/L by Jack Velte (who also made the mods). Compiled so the -e command line option will work properly. [03-21-87] GS34.ARC 156704 03-21-87 Brown Bag's GoalSeeker v3.4 TSR add-on for 03-21-87 1-2-3, MP, SC4 and VP/Solve by reverse search U/L by Mark Stevens. GoalSeeker is used in conjunction with your spreadsheet (Lotus 1-2-3, etc.) to automatically find solutions with a "reverse" or "backward" search method, also known as "goal seeking". Goal seeking is the ability to achieve certain targeted values in a spreadsheet by varying the associated data. The program supports Lotus 1-2-3, MultiPlan, SuperCalc4 and VP Planner (there are separate COM files for each program). It is memory resident, taking up about 40K of RAM. The documentation is complete and the program looks pretty powerful. In short, a good package from the Brown Bag folks, uncrippled and worth a look. LPTX600.ARC 30118 03-21-87 Redirect print output to file v6.00 w/ASM U/L by Yuan Liu. Well, that now makes 4 versions of LPTX on this system, none of which are meant to replace each other -- each tries an alternate route to the same path. The good news is that the author, Mark DiVecchio, seems finally to have bought himself a copy of DOS 3.x (earlier versions of LPTX seemed to work fine under DOS 2.x). The bad news is that redirecting printer output to disk still seems to be a difficult feat under DOS 3 and Mark is not promising that this will work with all programs. So, add this one to your arsenal and see how you do with various application programs. PP100.ARC 8803 03-21-87 Pretty Printer 1.0.0 /Page print util/Redrctn U/L by John Howard. A pretty standard page print util (headers, line numbers etc.) but obviously written in C with redirection left intact, meaning you can redirect output to the screen or to a file, which is a nice touch. BLED161.ARC 89853 03-21-87 Batch Line EDitor v.1.61 merge/cmp source/QB U/L and written by Ken Goosens. 3 bug fixes (none look major) and the addition of a beep at the end of a batch run. BLED is an excellent tool for comparing and merging unnumbered source code (such as QuickBASIC). The source code for the BLED program itself is included, and requires Tom Hanlin's ADVBAS library if you wish to recompile it. LTWIND1A.ARC 8674 03-21-87 Supp. LIGHT TOOLS window funcs/req DLC/Blaise U/L and written by Roger Jack. Some additions/simplifications to the Blaise Computing LIGHT TOOLS windowing package (commercial) for the DataLight C compiler v2.2 or later. OV102.ARC 162100 03-21-87 OVERVIEW: File Maintenance (sweep) util v1.02 03-21-87 3/1/87: Fast & Clean w/complete C sources U/L by Loren Olson. This may not be quite as sophisticated as some other sweep-type utils that are on the system, but I like it very much. The interface is fast and clean and all of the essential functions are here, including the ability to execute other programs from within the shell. Also, multiple directories can be handled simultaneously, with each placed in a window, and you can zoom in and out of each. PLUS, the complete C source for the program is included, and it's so darned rare that BBS-distributed programs come with source these days that I'm terribly prejudiced in favor of one that does. The documentation is adequate and you'll quickly learn the program. All in all, a winner. Even though this is a first release, this program already ranks among the top few sweep-type utilities on this system and the more I use it the more I like it. Well worth a look. QEDIT135.ARC 103370 03-21-87 Quick text EDITor, WS-Like,Multi-file v1.35D U/L and written by Sammy Mitchell. QEDIT is the hands-down winner for pure speed of the various text editors on this system. I know of no other program that loads and saves files more quickly (I wish IBM's PE II were even close!) and which generally operates as fast and clean. v1.30, which had been on this system for quite awhile, already ranked among the best of the "full-featured" text editors here, rivaled only by Kim Kokkonen's EDWIN. Which you prefer is largely a matter of taste -- they are both excellent. With version 1.35, Sammy has added some very valuable new features without sacrificing any of the speed or compactness of this editor. The configuration program is substantially revised and is excellent. One of QEDIT's greatest strengths is that you can truly customize it to your own preferences (mine ends up with a combination of WordStar and PE II commands so I can literally forget which editor I am using). There is a new "CMODE" which can automatically set your tabbing for C programs when you edit a *.C or *.H file. Turbo Pascal programmers will enjoy a new command that saves all changed files and then invokes TURBO.COM to compile. There are new print commands to print all or part of a file and printer margins and lengths can be controlled. The size of the edit windows can be controlled with a nifty new command that moves the separator up or down one line. And, there are new box drawing capabilities which are very easy to use (once you get the hang of where the corners are on the numeric keypad -- Sammy's selections were a bit counterintuitive to me, but easy enough to pick up). There are quite a few other new features and fizes that are detailed in the UPDATE.DOC. The not-quite-so-good news is the new word wrap feature. Designated "experimental", it works fine when you are first entering text (it appears you need to be in insert mode for the wrap to work), but is a good deal less satisfactory if you are adding text to an existing line. And, no paragraph reform (yet?) significantly reduces the value of the word wrap. It would be hard, for example, with what's here to use QEDIT to write this bulletin. For that I'm going to have to stay with PE II. Don't let the last paragraph put you off. This is an excellent program and word wrap, paragraph reform, etc. aren't really intrinsic to the type of text editor that Sammy has written. QEDIT ranks among the best and deserves a look by anyone looking for excellent text editing capabilities. [03-20-87] SD11.ARC 6367 03-20-87 Switch subdirs w/o typing full path w/A86 v1.1 U/L and written by Stephen Falatko. A bug fix dealing with switching to directories which were more than 2 deep. For more info, see review of SD.ARC, 3/11/87. FE382-1.ARC 119917 03-20-87 \FILE EXPRESS DBMS, latest version / EXE FE382-2.ARC 128787 03-20-87 /3.82 01/15/87 - the most complete \ FILES FE382-3.ARC 88858 03-20-87 \user-supported DBMS now available / DOCS U/L by Bob Weinstein. The update notes are in FE.NEW which is in FE382-1.ARC and cover changes through v3.81. The doc and example files, which are in FE382-3.ARC are exactly the same as were contained in the 3.80 arhives and need not be downloaded again. All in all, the changes are very minor (see Bulletin 5 on this system for an excerpt from the update notes). But, that's really to be expected. File Express is a mature product which already has a wealth of capabilities. Short of becoming fully relational or adding a programming language a la dBase, which is truly beyond the nature of this program, there's not much that Berdan can add to this already excellent database manager. File Express is easy to use, *uncrippled*, well-supported and quite fast at what it does. If you're looking for a pretty sophisticated database tool but don't need the extra capabilities of the "high priced brands", give File Express a try. For some tasks, it really has no equal. UPDAT54A.ARC 94223 03-20-87 Backup New|Changed|Old files; v5.4a major rev U/L and written by Robert Holmgren. It's been awhile since this program has been fully reviewed, so let me grab a few paragraphs from the doc to tell you what this one is: "UpDate economically maintains archival filesets, as "backup" insurance. It identifies and makes exact byte-for-byte COPYies of files newly-created or changed since the last time you executed the UpDate procedure. You may copy to/from one or more hard-disks (including the Bernoulli box), floppy drives, and/or RAM disks. UpDate also works with some intelligent tape backup systems (those which can write single files to a tape bearing a DOS driveletter). An optional "Old_CopyFiles" sub-system locates and copies files of OLDER date (e.g. ARChived or LiBRaried files) which have been NEWLY ADDED to your monitored directories. This "Old_Files" sub-system also flags filenames that have been DELETED from SOURCE dirs since the last UpDate run, and prompts for deletion of these filenames from TARGET drives/disks, as a clean-up measure." Starting with version 5.0, the UPDATE program took on a new face so that it appears more like a sweep-type utility. Still, the strength of this program is its ability to automate your backup tasks so that you can, after taking the time to plan a bit and configure this program properly, quickly and easily copy all new files after a day's work from one device to another. The changes for v5.4 are really too many to list. Individually, none is major, but there are quite a few and represent significant additions and fixes to an already excellent program. NOTE: There was a mistake in the UPDATE54.ARC that the author quickly corrected. Because some of you had already downloaded the earlier archive, I've named the revised copy UPDAT54A.ARC to show that it has the amended files. PPRINT2.ARC 24228 03-20-87 Patriquin's Print util/best w/HP Laserjet v2 U/L by Loren Olson. A very good page print util from Norm Patriquin, with some features that are specially for the HP LaserJet printer. This is v2.0, 3/6/87, with the following changes: -- /LM (left margin) option corrected. Was not working. -- /LL (line length) option now works with headers. -- Lines with more than 80 characters of data now work -- /HD, /HP options added. It is no longer the default to print headers. Use /HD and /HP to print headers. -- /EX (expanded headings/footings) if headings or footings are desired in dot matrix expanded format, specify this parameter. -- Page ejected if printing terminated with escape ASEASY28.ARC 101324 03-20-87 ASEASY v2.08 LOTUS 1-2-3 clone / no docs U/L by Neal Machtiger. The authors of this shareware Lotus 1A clone have decided to distribute it without documentation. You get a manual if you register. The program is a 1A "look and feel" program but has not in the past been anywhere near .WKS compatible. As there are no docs, and thus no update notes, I guess we can assume that remains true. PAUSE3.ARC 3450 03-20-87 Better PAUSE for batch files w/ASM v3 U/L by Ed Philips. A nice little util, this version of PAUSE is DOS 3 compatible (PAUSE2 was not). Particularly useful in batch files where you have echo off, PAUSE3 allows you to insert your own message, rather than DOS' "Strike a key when ready ...". ASM source included. [03-19-87] RANDARG.ARC 8855 03-19-87 Randomly select message or command w/MS-C U/L and written by Mike Rubenstein. "RANDARG randomly selects an argument or a line from a file and either executes it or echoes it to stdout. It can be used to randomly produce messages or commands in a batch file." Aztec C source included (looks quite portable). FBK317.ARC 165559 03-19-87 FastBucks Ver. 3.17 Home Finance Program U/L by Loren Olson. One of the better home finance / checkbook manager programs on this system, v3.17 of FastBucks makes a few changes to minimize the risk of your data files becoming corrupted and includes a program to try and repair them. There are also some changes to better support mono monitors. NEWBOOT.ARC 9667 03-19-87 Change disk boot sector to be DATA/SYS w/ASM U/L by Bill Walsh. Similar in some respects to Bill Gibson's BootThru program (BT105.ARC), both allow you to modify the boot track of a floppy so your system will boot off the hard disk even when the floppy is in the A: drive. This one also claims the ability to convert a floppy so modified back to a system diskette (assuming it was once formatted that way). In my own applications, that latter capability isn't one I need, but it should be useful to some others. COPYSAFE.ARC 17119 03-19-87 Warns if COPY will overwrite file, TSR w/ASM PC Mag posted a revised version of this program on their BBS to fix a reported bug. All files in the ARC are updated and a COPYSAFE.COR file explains the fix. PCLB-ENV.ARC 10755 03-19-87 Read, check size of envirnmt/PC Lab/ASM,C Assembler and C programs to read the environment (no more info than the SET command gives) and to check its size. COM files included; no doc. Check PC Lab Notes, Vol 6, No. 7, pp 295-311 (April 17, 1987). XDIR.ARC 13032 03-19-87 TSR pop-up DIR w/ASM/COM/PC Mag 4/17/87 The source code may be of value. The program is a loser. PC Mag Vol 6, No. 7. [03-18-87] PROMNU11.ARC 1110 03-18-87 Procomm Menu 1.1 for Logitech C7 Mouse. U/L and written by John Simek. WORDWRAP.ARC 10881 03-18-87 Word wrap article/BIN/PRG for dBIII+ U/L by Bobby Mangoba. An assembler routine to wrap long text fields, the .BIN file is included but not the .ASM (missing from the ARC, apparently). A sample PRG file is also included plus a good doc file. TOSHP351.ARC 15577 03-18-87 Toshiba 351 printer control (.PAS & .COM fls) U/L by Fran Horvath. I'm getting senile in my old age and can't remember for sure whether this was already on the board some time ago, so it'll stay for a bit. The source is included and could be easily modified for other printers. CPR.ARC 24216 03-18-87 C srce print utility w/table of contents U/L by Fran Horvath, who also provided the following comments: "Yet another C source code print utility, this one has a tendency to generate lots of "white-spaced" pages. The nice feature is that it generates a table of contents, showing the page number on which each function appears. The program tries to fit complete functions on individual pages, so that readability and accessibility of functions is enhanced." Source and executable in the arc. PCRGB13.ARC 44447 03-18-87 Keith Graham's PIC viewer plus v1.3, 03/17/87 U/L by Bob Weinstein. The "ultimate" PIC viewer, this is the last significant revision pending a major re-write (it's gotten too big to be a .COM file). DM-31587.ARC 50413 03-18-87 Directory Master 2.1 03/15/87 Sweep Util U/L by James Bach. DM is an excellent sweep utility that aggravates the hell out of me on two counts: (1) It has no documentation, though the on-line help is decent. I can't understand why the significant amount of effort that has gone into programming this thing can't be joined with just a little effort writing up documentation. (2) It's pyramid commissionware. You (supposedly) get a kickback when someone registers a copy with your serial number, etc. Well, this one is serial number 1 so I gather it hasn't been registered yet. To add insult to injury, v2.1 was already on the system. This is still v2.1 but has a later release date. Update notes? Of course not (remember, there's no documentation at all so how could there be update notes). James Bach said in his U/L description that there were some bug fixes. O.K. What frustrates me is that this is such a good program -- if it were garbage, who'd care that the authors seem bent on sabotaging their own program. Ah well ... [03-17-87] LABELS.ARC 142664 03-17-87 Label Master v3.0/Name and address, some dB U/L by Melvin Douglas. A pretty good label printing and name and address database system with some capabilities to export data to other dbms systems. However, an overly large and clumsy program for what it can do, I think. MSCTIPS1.ARC 3833 03-17-87 Tips on using MS C v4.0 and assembly language U/L and written by Ray Moon. First release of a "tips" file on techniques used to write assembly language routines for MS-C programs. SD55.ARC 56498 03-17-87 Sorted dir v5.5/color, fast, EGA/J.Stetson U/L by Woody Crockett. 3/1/87 release of this very good, sorted directory program, the PC version now writes directly to video RAM. There is also now a separate configuration program to tailor SD55 to your own needs. This archive includes versions for the IBM-PC (and close compatibles), Zenith Z-100's and "generic" MS-DOS systems. CDES.ARC 17641 03-17-87 NBS Data Encryption Standards (DES) program U/L by Dean Wood. COM and DOC for a program that encrypts files according to the DES protocol. Not for export? DXARC.ARC 27962 03-17-87 Del files which also exist in .ARC/MS-C 4 U/L and written by Rowland Archer. This is similar in function to DARC, but I like the way it works better and, as a bonus, the MS-C source is included. The program will look inside an ARC you specify, compare the files with those residing on your disk (typically, in a subdir you specify), and erase the duplicates on the disk. The program works reliably, quickly and has sensible command-line syntax. All in all, a winner. FRP-J87.ARC 11032 03-17-87 Calculate your civil service retirement/BAS U/L by David Cassidy. XFLASH1.ARC 12907 03-17-87 Elim CGA Flash w/out Snow 8088/8088-2 w/ASM U/L and written by David Hite. I've always avoided the IBM CGA like a disease, so I can't test this one. Here's what the doc says: "XFLASH eliminates the flash that occurs during scrolling on the CGA, without introducing snow. It does so by intercepting the bios scroll up and scroll down functions, and performing these functions itself. It works by moving characters only during horizontal and vertical retrace periods. It moves as many characters as possible during these periods, and its operation is therefore dependent on the speed of your processor. XFLASH is optimized for the 8088 chip. XFLASH-2 is optimized for the 8088-2 chip." This TSR takes about 960 bytes of memory. Complete ASM source is included. ADVBAS32.ARC 107375 03-17-87 Hanlin's routines for compiled BASIC v3.2 U/L and written by Tom Hanlin. Tom's on a roll, with some nifty new features added to this already superb collection of routines for compiled BASIC. The latest: ADVBAS 3.2, 03/16/87: You can check for the existence of a subdirectory with SUBEXIST (drive spec allowed). COPYFILE will let you copy a file faster than the system COPY command, and without having to do a SHELL. A drive status function, DISKSTAT, has been provided. This allows you to find out such information as the number of bytes in a cluster, the amount of free space left on a drive, total space available on a drive, etc. Routines to convert the time or date from numbers to a string and vice versa have been added (DATEN2S, DATES2N, TIMEN2S, and TIMES2N). For AT machines only, GETEXTM will return the amount of extended memory in kilobytes. BLOCKMOVE will let you move a block of memory from one location to another. DATASEG will retrieve the value of the current data segment. SIMCGA2.ARC 3726 03-17-87 Use many CGA prgs on Hercules brd (1/87 rev) U/L by Craig Tomita. The first release of SIMCGA met with very mixed results, according to user's reports on this board. So, those of you with Herc cards, how does this one do? HASH.ARC 5480 03-17-87 Hashing program listing BYTE Mag. Jan. 1987 U/L by Lewis Dozier. DOSFORT.ARC 15038 03-17-87 DOS function calls in Lahey F77L Fortran U/L by Lewis Dozier. PFMCOLOR.ARC 4446 03-17-87 Add color to PFM227 (file manager), incl EGA U/L by Lewis Dozier. TLPATCH.ARC 11696 03-17-87 Patches to Turbo Lightning 1.00A and 1.00B U/L by Lewis Dozier. 123-HP.ARC 7369 03-17-87 Control HP Laserjet Printer from within 1-2-3 U/L by Lewis Dozier. PATHMOD.ARC 1656 03-17-87 Modify path/later return to original path/BAT U/L by Lewis Dozier. Ahem --- still rather do this with a PCED synonym. See also PUSHPATH.ARC for another approach. DBLARCV.ARC 1476 03-17-87 ARC dir listing in 2 clmns/less info than ARCV U/L by Lewis Dozier. Hmm... methinks someone took Vern Buerg's ARCV code and made just a few mods to it, supposedly to make the display prettier. Frankly, I don't find the display all that pretty and it omits critical info that ARCV provides. It's also anonymous. Not recommended. [03-16-87] LQ204.ARC 117912 03-16-87 Letr Qual & Fonts/Epson/C-Itoh/others v2.04 U/L by David Geerinck. Sigh -- another shareware program that's not big on update notes. v2.03 was on the system, this is v2.04, but the docs are still from 2.00. Got me. Anyway, a very good letter quality and fonts program that, unlike ImPrint, for example, is not limited to Epsons and compatibles (it happens to support my old C-Itoh ProWriter so this program has always had a special place in my heart). ENVIRON.ARC 36386 03-16-87 DOS environment tips-txt and source files U/L by Tony Rood. A collection, with the following: ENVIRONM.EXP 341 Setting Environment Size in DOS 3.1 and 3.2 ENVRPT.ASM 6798 Search for Environment Variable & Return Batch Code ENVSEARC.C 1797 Search for Environment String & Return It's Value ENVXCN 37183 Selected Xcns from IBM-PC Digest Sep & Oct 86 & Jan87 INPUT.C 5958 Read a String from Console into DOS Envir. Variable INPUT.DOC 3817 Documentation for INPUT.C SETENV.C 8397 Set Environment Variable in Master (DOS) Copy CCUR12.ARC 18606 03-16-87 Counting Cursor (ruler) 1.2/disp x,y on screen U/L by Bob Hicks. This is really a wonderful little program for a whole range of tasks, such as figuring out the record layout of a database file. It just allows you to move the cursor around on a screen and give you its row and column coordinates. But, unlike RULER and some others, this one allows you to store the information about the file you are examining to a disk file, and has some other nice touches as well. This is not a TSR; for that, you'll need the more simple MEMRULER program. Recent changes: Ver. 1.1: Minor bug in Wrt command corrected to now record the displayed value of the counter, as opposed to the zero offset value. Ver. 1.2: Screen save operation is instantaneous now, thanks to improved BIOS support in Lattice C 3.1. KEEPCRS.ARC 2147 03-16-87 Prevent programs from altering cursor 1.0 U/L by Bob Hicks. A TSR that requires <1K of RAM and which claims it will keep any other program from altering your cursor. OK, if that's what you want, but the editor I'm using right now (IBM's PE II) makes the cursor a fat block when I'm in insert mode and I like that on-screen info, rather than having to look down at the status line. PRTDRV.ARC 4071 03-16-87 Create mem file of printer setup in dBIII+ U/L by Bob Hicks. May 1, 1987 release (sic -- methinks he meant March) of a program to store printer control codes to a memory file in dBIII+. HSA301.ARC 35296 03-16-87 Text screen management routines in 'C'v3.01 U/L by Bob Hicks. "HSA_TEXT is a library of C functions that provide direct, fast control over the IBM PC screen in text mode. The functions have been developed and tested for the Microsoft versions 3.00 and 4.00 and Lattice version 3.10 compilers." Modules include: TX_STAT - Status functions, functions that return or set system status. TX_STR - String display functions TX_FILL - Character fill functions TX_BLK - Functions that operate on blocks of screen TX_MISC - Miscellaneous functions TX_CUR - Functions that control the cursor Only the small memory models of the compilers are supported. No indication what's new in v3.01 versus 3.0 which was on the system. ARCE30A.ARC 10900 03-16-87 Extract ARC files/V.Buerg,W.Chin/v3.0a 031687 03-16-87 New /Test and /G (password) options U/L and written by Vern Buerg. From the doc: 3.0a, 3/16/87 - added /G for password encryption - added /T for integrity checking only - correct loop in command line parsing - internal optimization - make intergity checking more robust I think the new feature you'll find most valuable is the new /Test function to check whether an archive is valid. During my own beta testing of this program, ARCE proved more resilient to problems when it encountered a totally screwed up archive than any of the other arc utils (which have a rather annoying tendency to simply put your machine into the ozone). As noted, I was one of the testers so I'm prejudiced -- try it for yourself and see. LARC15.ARC 53611 03-16-87 Re-ARC files,ARCA,PKARC &/or ARC/*.*/QB/Buerg A couple of minor changes in this extremely useful program (at least, to me and other Sysops) -- Fixes an overflow problem and adds another check to make sure that the temporary directory used for work space isn't the same as the input and output directories. For more info, see review of LARC14 dated 3/4/87. NOTE: Due to the use of QBasic shell routines, DOS 3.x or later is required for proper operation of this program. [03-15-87] CUR-CTRL.ARC 1028 03-15-87 ASM source for dBASE On/Off Cursor control U/L by Fran Horvath. DOS and assembler routines for dBIII+. CTDESKV2.ARC 68247 03-15-87 Citydesk v2 - Simple desktop publishing U/L by Kwanghyun Kim. The first release of this program had in the doc that it could only be distributed on GENIE so I had to keep erasing it each time it was uploaded. That limitation is gone so the program is here. But, I gotta tell you folks, the approach to "desktop publishing" used here is an antique, similar to WordStar's DOT commands at their worst (itself taken from programs like Unix's troff and nroff). Yes, you can pretty up your text files with this, but learning all the dot commands and entering them by hand isn't going to be much fun. The program supports Epsons and ProPrinters and can also be customized for others. DSIZ11.ARC 1974 03-15-87 Tree display with subdir byte totals 1.1 Gans Version 1.1:"Uses more memory in order to allow up to 20K blocks, directory depth up to eight levels regardless of block size. The '[More]' prompt has been moved to STDERR so it won't show up in a file or on your printer if you redirect program output." PCSETUP.ARC 48258 03-15-87 Makes 2K TSR prtr setup pgms, all printers U/L by Jack Kilday. "PCSETUP.EXE is a program which generates pop-up, memory-resident, printer control programs. These programs are very small (about 2k), and are Lotus style option menus." Once you've created your own program, you can control printer options from it (bold, type style, etc) and do PrtSc's from within the program. So, dig out your printer manual and go to it. CONBOYAN.ARC 13346 03-15-87 Convert other phone dirs to BOYAN format U/L by Loren Olson. Not sure why this was necessary as the CVTFON program already supported Boyan, and just about everything else ... UPDATE.ARC 2926 03-15-87 Copy newer files only to target disk/fast! Another little gem from "Doctor Debug" of Steel City Software (who knows? who cares?). UPDATE A:\MAIN will copy all files from your current directory (e.g. C:\MAIN) that are newer than those in the target you specified. Quite a few other programs do the same thing with more options, but this one is lean and mean. [03-14-87] FREETK.ARC 183992 03-14-87 Subset of TK Solver Plus/Crippled but useful U/L by Rich Cumberlin. This is a "PrevieWare" edition of TK Solver Plus, a new edition of a well-known program. I have not spent enough time with this to determine how useful the crippled version is. The doc claims it includes the "essential" part of the program. TK Plus is described as a "comprehensive, open-ended and friendly problem solving environment.' This free version is limited to 16 lines on the Rule SHeet and 32 lines on each of the Variable and Unit sheets. Very close to crossing the line on this system with regard to crippleware and demos, so grab this one soon if you want it. SETIME.ARC 36528 03-14-87 SeTime 1.0/Set PC system time w/12/24 hr frmat U/L by Loren Olson. Allows you to set a PC's system time using 1:00 p.m. and the like -- you know, the way people talk, not computers. C68K.ARC 116203 03-14-87 68000 C compiler with MS-C 4.0 source U/L and written by Matt Brandt. If you're interested in compiler design, this may be a fun one for you. I'd be kidding you if I tried to review this one -- it's way past me. FU22.ARC 74896 03-14-87 FileUtil v2.2-expand DIR & mod attr,time,date U/L and written by Cal Thames. FileUtil 2.2, 3/14/87: Added verbose listing of archive file directories. BOYFIX.ARC 880 03-14-87 Reset comm port before running BOYAN-D1 U/L by Loren Olson. If BOYAN is giving your COM port fits (it never bothered mine when I tried it), these programs may help. [03-13-87] UNERA12.ARC 6137 03-13-87 Easy-to-use UNERASE that works on large HD 03-13-87 under DOS 3.x/& backup/rest FAT pgm/Gans 1.2 It works! Earlier releases of Eric Gans' unerase program couldn't handle 16-bit FATS on larger hard disks formatted with DOS 3.x. This one seems to do just fine, and constitutes only the second program distributed on BBS systems that, to my knowledge, can safely unerase a file on almost any disk. The other is MasterKey (current version 1.6) which is a much larger and more complex program -- in essence, a clone of the main NU program that is part of the Norton Utilities. This one quite simply and quickly unerases a file. So, if you just typed DEL *.TXT and accidentally zapped EXAMPLE.TXT, just type UNERASE EXAMPLE.TXT and follow the prompts -- you'll likely get it back if you do it immediately after the erasure. There's also a program here to backup the FAT on a disk to a file on another, a form of disaster insurance that sounds like a great idea but not something you're likely to do often enough to have much value. NOTE: I have obviously not tried UNERA12 on every possible hard disk and it's unlikely the author was able to either, so be a bit careful while you see if it's OK on your own system. CHD.ARC 396 03-13-87 Chdir w/o backslash/PC Mag 2/24/87 COM/DOC U/L by Geoffrey Bogeaus. Instead of CD \COMM you type CD COMM. Saves one keystroke. Hmm ... FF.ARC 82695 03-13-87 FileFriend+: TSR file manager v1.10B U/L by Loren Olson. I'm going to take a pass on this one and urge someone else who has tried it to write a message with their comments. I loaded it briefly and it just takes more memory than I'd be willing to give to a program of this kind. It also looks like I'd have to spend some time with the docs to get it to work --- it's operation wasn't intuitive to me. It's a sweep-type util that should be a whole lot easier to use than it seemed to be at first glance. DCS.ARC 51311 03-13-87 Disk Cataloging System v1.01 1/5/87 U/L by Richard Campany. Well, the author is straight forward enough. The doc starts with "Here comes another cataloging program." Now, if he would only say what made this one unique! To be candid, I don't see anything. CURVEFIT.ARC 42075 03-13-87 Lotus 123 .WK1 for curvefitting/graphing U/L by Richard Campany. REL1ATO2.ARC 6127 03-13-87 Convert 1-2-3 1A Macros to Release 2 Format U/L by Stuart Morrison. [03-12-87] PICSPC-1.ARC 133544 03-12-87 \ Based on ROS, Turbo Pascal BBS system PICSPC-2.ARC 74779 03-12-87 / ported to DOS, executables only v1.5 2/87 U/L by Tadas Osmolskis. At the moment, this has only docs for the CP/M version and is otherwise a bit immature. Hold on a bit folks and maybe this one will be ready for prime time. WT101.ARC 10624 03-12-87 Traverse subdirs repeating command w/ASM 1.01 U/L by John Covici (who also made the mods to this latest version). Some bug fixes by John Covici to Don Williams' program, WT was one of the first program to walk down the subdirs on your disk repeating a command you specify in each subdir. READBAS5.ARC 21636 03-12-87 De-tokenize BASICA files to ASCII text files. U/L by Tony Cooper. Similar in function to Vern Buerg's RB58 (see below), I avoid BASICA programs like the plague so I really can't compare the 2. This is v1.5, by Nelson Ford, dated 1/85. The program's few options are given if you just type its name. SLTOOLS.ARC 201308 03-12-87 SoftLink Tools 1.0 (2/87): Calendar, Info 03-12-87 retrieval (grepish) and several good filters U/L by Bob Shuck. These tools look quite excellent. The calendar is yac (yet another calendar), although it has a few nice touches. But, there's an "info retrieval" program for pulling data out of ascii files that is quite powerful with some nifty options. My description of it as "grepish" is a way of saying that its similar to the Unix family of 'grep' tools. I hope that description helps more than hurts. There are also a few filter programs in this collection for deleting blanks and the like, again, all nicely done. The distribution method is quite unique. There is an install program and a rather huge DAT file. When you run the install, you tell it whether you have a color or mono monitor and it creates an appropriate set of executables for your system. Clever (though I suspect just distributing 2 sets of executables would have taken less disk space). A good doc is included. All in all, an excellent looking shareware product. BRADCON.ARC 25550 03-12-87 Font generator for BRADFORD.ARC & more fonts U/L by Ken Bigelow. Allows you to design custom fonts for the BRADFORD program (not included -- it's on this system separately in BRADFORD.ARC). The source for a sample font is included and there are also some additional fonts that were not included when Bradford was originally released. As I don't have the Epson or compatible that this program requires .... [03-11-87] SD.ARC 6041 03-11-87 Switch subdirs w/o typing full path w/ASM U/L and written by Stephen Falatko. Similar in some respects to the program in OVER203.ARC, SD allows you to change to another subdir without typing in the full path name. Thus, SD LAST will change your dir to \one\two\three\last. It searches the drive for the first subdir matching your spec. ASM source (actually, the source is for the A86 assembler which is on this system, rather than for MASM) is included. TELELOG.ARC 78743 03-11-87 Log calls made (phone # & duration) w/ProComm U/L by Bill Baer. Gee. Some people must not trust their chosen long distance carrier to bill them accurately. Hey folks, it's all done by computers. Don't ya trust them things? Anyway, this program works with ProComm only and will keep a log of what phone numbers you dialed and your connect and disconnect times. So, when the big one comes at the end of the month ... TSRCOM22.ARC 36638 03-11-87 Kokkonen's excellent mem-res program mgmt v2.2 TSRSRC22.ARC 48345 03-11-87 Source code and COM for TSRCOM22.ARC 3/4/87 U/L by Tom Drinkard. These are absolutely indispensable utilities if you use a fair number of terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs. The changes for this release are not major. You can now RELEASE back to a MARK but not get rid of the MARK itself. The RELEASE program has also been made compatible with some multi-taskers, even to the point of allowing an uninstall of the multi-taskers themselves (but NOT DoubleDOS). And, the MAPMEM program has some new capabilities, especially when used in conjunction with a new WATCH program. But, the latter is probably mostly of interest to techies. However, this is a collection with which you should stay current, so grab this latest version. The COM arc has executables and doc only; the SRC arc also has executables and the doc, so you don't need both. [03-10-87] TINYLIB.ARC 61702 03-10-87 Source for a standard C library - CL mag U/L by Ken Brown. "Tinylib uses compiler-specific "include" files to take care of all the differences from one compiler's requirements to another. These files provide standardized macros to generate ASM code that meets a specific compiler's coding conventions. Separate include files for each compiler, and for each memory model within any compiler that permits a choice, are required. At present, include files for C86 V1.33 (small model), and for Aztec C V3.40 (large model) are provided." EGAPRTSC.ARC 15336 03-10-87 Print screen on Epson for EGA/w ASM source U/L by Charles Bitterli. DANCAD3D.ARC 191739 03-10-87 Wire Frame CAD w/3D & Perspective view v1.1 U/L by Fred Bauer. "This program was written to do stereoscopic 3D wire frame animation. It is also useful in the production of line drawings and graphs. Automatic Dimensioning can be done in all three axis while drawing. Provision has been made to trigger a movie camera or stop motion VCR through the computers audio output so rapid "pencil tests" can be done on the animation. After the DANCAD program has been verified, high resolution print-out can be made for photography on an animation stand in 35mm. You can also use a hard disk to save the screen pixels in frame files to be read back as a sequence by a loop in a macro file." 640K of memory and a CGA or equivalent required. XC-TOOL.ARC 9027 03-10-87 Expanded WC of Unix; counts words lines etc U/L by Francisco de Monasterio. "XC counts lines, words, or characters (or any combination) from a set of files. The files can include hidden and system files. XC can change read-only, system and hidden attributes of files." 7/85 release. DBU16.ARC 78298 03-10-87 dB3UTIL v1.6-dBASE III/QuickSilver utility U/L and written by Cal Thames. Update notes (edited): dB3UTIL 1.6, 3/10/87: Added one new option: -E<filename> = encrypts/decrypts database <filename>. Added listing of database structures to the report generated by the -A option. Changed command line syntax from \<db3util switch> to -<db3util switch>. dB3UTIL 1.5, 3/5/87: Added two new options: (1) -B = allows the automatic backup of modified files in a dBase system to a specified drive and/or path , and (2) -Q = executes the Quicksilver compiler, linker, and optimizer from dB3UTIL. Also added listing of index file key expressions for reports sent to the printer. HB20SW.ARC 191822 03-10-87 \ HomeBase 2.0 Shareware: TSR Editor, DOS HBDOC.ARC 146260 03-10-87 / Calc, Terminal, Notebase & More/Brown Bag U/L by Loren Olson. Well, that's interesting. Brown Bag Software, best known for selling a somewhat modified version of PC-Write (without exactly trumpeting the facts of its origins) and for buying PC-Outline from John Friend and intially bungling its distribution thoroughly, has now released another product as shareware, it's highly regarded HomeBase desk organizer. I scanned the limited doc very carefully to see if they had crippled this one and I don't see any indication of it. I also loaded and played with the program a bit and didn't run into any "Not in the shareware version" messages. In short, this appears to be the whole thing. What's missing is complete documentation, which you get if you register, but there's enough here to get you going and to give you a fair chance to evaluate the program (which itself has extensive on-line help). I may have to revise my opinion of the Brown Bag folks. As for the program itself, it has been favorably reviewed in PC Magazine and other places and received high praise. It has quite a few more features than its chief rival, SideKick, and they all seem well implemented. The cost is memory. This little fella takes "only" 180K when all of its modules are resident. You can uninstall the resident kernel and get this amount cut in about half, but in so doing you lose capabilities. If you've got the memory to spare, take a look -- HomeBase is an excellent program. But, 640K - 180K - everything else you've got loaded may just barely leave you enough room to do a DIR command. [03-09-87] PC-PR14.ARC 56250 03-09-87 Medlin's Payroll Manager, v. 1.4 '87 tables U/L by Loren Olson. A good, easy to use, payroll writing and payroll summary program. I believe the only change in v1.4 is that the internal payroll tax tables have been updated for this year. BLOSSOM2.ARC 237440 03-09-87 Lotus 123 Rel 2 Statistical Procedures 11/86 U/L by John Stanton. Nov. '86 release of NIH's statistics package for Lotus 1-2-3 Rel 2 only. Functions include ANOVA, CHI2, CROSSTAB, graphs with confidence limits, lifetables, linar regression, parabolic regression, stat probability distribution table lookup and t-tests. CONVERTX.ARC 6911 03-09-87 Convert dBIII+ .dbf to one with soundex field U/L by Bobby Mangoba. FAM21.ARC 8255 03-09-87 File Attribute Modifier v2.1 w/asm/com files U/L and written by Bill Gibson. Allows you to modify the attribute of a file or a dir, including setting or resetting the archive bit (useful in controlling what gets BACKUPed). Takes wildcards. Full ASM source included. [03-08-87] SYSACT11.ARC 40457 03-08-87 Unix-like system activity monitor w/src 2/87 U/L by Brian Miller. Interesting. Provides automatic command logging in a manner somewhat similar to the Unix system activity programs. Takes only about 1K of RAM and has decent reporting capabilities. On a Unix system, you're also interested in which users did what; here, logging by user id is not supported (DOS' "fault" in the sense that a micro is considered a single user system). But, if you want some notion of what you are using your computer for and how long some commands are taking, this is nicely done. ADVBAS31.ARC 99888 03-08-87 Exc routines for QBASIC/Bascom compilers v3.1 U/L and written by Tom Hanlin. More and more programs are showing up where the author credits the use of Tom's excellent ADVBAS routines (and I suspect they're often used without attribution, unfortunately). These routines are excellent and add greatly to the power of BASIC compilers. Here's the latest: ADVBAS 3.1, 03/07/87: Time/date compression has been added. DATE2INT and INT2DATE allow you to convert a date to a single integer and back. TIME2INT and INT2TIME do the same with the time. Given a month number, MONTH will return the name of the month. SPEAKER will enable you to toggle sound effects on and off, without changing the timing of the affected routines. TINSTR lets you search a string for a character of a given type, rather than a specific character. You can search for any combination of Alphabetic, Numeric, Symbolic, Control, Graphics, or Blank characters, or their opposites. The DTR function lets you turn the communications signal DTR on or off. RB58.ARC 3283 03-08-87 Convert token BASIC to ASCII file/Buerg 8/85 U/L and written by Vern Buerg. This program really should have been part of this board's "permanent" collection; now, it is. Vern uploaded it after reading a message from a user here looking for a program that will convert those unreadable tokenized BASIC files to plain ascii. RB does just that. HERC.ARC 7191 03-08-87 Switch Herc board betw text/graphics mode/ASM U/L by Don Udel. Written by Bela Lubkin from Borland, this is v1.1 of the program and comes with source. PSGRAPH6.ARC 24805 03-08-87 \ 3/3 Graphics Lib for PrintShop U/L by Neal Machtiger. The 3rd part of the PSGRAPH series, 4 & 5 were already on the system (and have proved astonishingly popular -- what are you all using your computers for anyway?). Don't ask about the numbering scheme; it's explained in the docs. PSGRAPH4, 5 & 6 make up the complete set of pd libraries for Broderbund's PrintShop. [03-07-87] GTCTL27.ARC 73492 03-07-87 Manage GT1200 Host mode files, msgs, passwrds U/L by Howard Conrad. An aid to using GT 1200 in host mode only. PRCM24DC.ARC 114789 03-07-87 ProComm 2.4x Documentation; NOT formatted U/L by Gerhard Barth. The "formatted" version of ProComm's docs were on the system, but that formatting is a problem on laser printers and some others. It's also a pain if you just want to read the docs on-line. Here's the plain ascii version (and the formatted copy has been erased). PLOTREAD.ARC 1982 03-07-87 Trace graphics using plotter - store in file U/L by John Howard. "PLOTREAD is a short, simple program that allows you to draw or trace pictures on your HP plotter and have them read and stored in file on your computer for use with REPLOT (to redraw the picture on the same or a different size scale) or, if you so desire, to be adapted (by you) as input to screen graphics in BASIC." LABLPLOT.ARC 21392 03-07-87 Text plotting program for HP7470a plotter U/L by John Howard. A tool for generating text only graphics with a Hewlett-Packard 7470A 2-pen plotter. TRAPDISK.ARC 6044 03-07-87 "Trojan Horse" protector, based on BOMBSQUAD U/L by John Howard. This program will trap read, write and/or format calls to a disk (except for drives that are accessed by DOS via device drivers installed through CONFIG.SYS). A useful program if you're testing something about which you're a bit dubious and this one seems friendlier and more powerful than BOMBSQUAD, on which it is based. MINMEM.ARC 7268 03-07-87 Check avail mem/set errorlevel w/MS-C 4.0 U/L by Fran Horvath. Useful in batch files, you can use the errorlevel to make sure there's enough memory available to perform the next task specified and abort it if not. Similar to Vince Bly's FREE2 program, that one comes with DeSmet C source whereas this is MS-C 4.0. O88-V305.ARC 30640 03-07-87 Optimizer for DeSmet C 5/86 v3.05 U/L by Michael Pechnyo. PAS_FLD.ARC 14002 03-07-87 Field input procedure for TPascal, w/ASM src U/L by Michael Pechnyo. PERRY.ARC 24132 03-07-87 Abstract Mathematical Art source, BYTE 12-86 U/L by Michael Pechnyo. SNADER.ARC 5480 03-07-87 Hashing routines source, BYTE 1-87 U/L by Michael Pechnyo. STEPRATE.ARC 5070 03-07-87 Optimize steprate/quiet diskette drives w/ASM U/L by Jack Kilday. Many floppy drives will operate faster and more quietly with a lower steprate than Big Blue set as the "standard." This program gives you the ability to change it. With a little trial and error, you should be able to find what works best on your system. Q-MMC.ARC 4992 03-07-87 Queue routines (exponential dist). Turbo src. U/L by Mike Rubenstein. UXMODEM.ARC 5139 03-07-87 Xmodem w/CRC for Unix: for 'cu' and remote U/L by Judy Levine. Pretty simple Xmodem programs for Unix: One to be used in conjunction with 'cu' when placing outgoing calls and the other for file transfers when you're calling into the Unix system itself. ATBENCH2.ARC 105393 03-07-87 Updated PCTJ benchmark tests for the AT w/src U/L by Judy Levine. Fairly minor changes to this excellent set of tests that you can run on an AT to measure its performance. Also, includes a few tests of AT "compatibility." 3/87 versions from PC Tech Journal. PLEASE NOTE: This was uploaded as MAR87.ARC, which is also the name I've seen on other BBS systems. While I hate to change file names as it often leads to a duplicate upload, that name just wasn't very descriptive so I've done so in this case. The UXMODEM files were also in MAR87.ARC and have been split out. PCBFIL30.ARC 74408 03-07-87 PCBoard Dir Maintenance/ PCB 10&11 / v3.0 A minor change to read properly the system name from the PCBoard 11.8 DAT file. Users of PCB 10 have no need to get this update. [03-06-87] GTLOG63.ARC 91201 03-06-87 Print out reports from GT1200 Powercomm v6.3 U/L by Mike Focke. "May now be run with a log in root directory as some floppy disk users require." EXTENDB2.ARC 15618 03-06-87 Extnd Clipper's function library 9/2/86 U/L by Eric Rosner. PCO324.ARC 121473 03-06-87 PC-Outline! 3.24SW 03/87 Excellent outliner 03-06-87 Only change since 1.08C is Maxthink to PCO 03-06-87 conversion prgm/New licensing policy in 3.24 U/L by Loren Olson. Brown Bag Software has now created 3 categories of registrants, ranging in price from $29 to $89. That change, reflected in both the doc and the PCO.EXE file itself, is the ONLY change I could find since PCO 3.23. And, as noted here before, PCO 3.23 differed from 1.08C (the last release before PCO was sold to Brown Bag) only in inclusion of the MaxThink to PCO conversion program. In short, if you already have 1.08C or higher, you can pass on this "update." MSCPEEK.ARC 4722 03-06-87 How to do peeks with MSC 4.0/CIS thread U/L by Ben Brown. TSRDEMO2.ARC 23030 03-06-87 Sample ASM code for writing TSR's 3/4/87 U/L by Ben Brown. The code looks well commented and useful. MONYMAT1.ARC 149696 03-06-87 \ MoneyMate home finance/budget manager MONYMAT2.ARC 109876 03-06-87 / Also does financial calcs and tax info U/L by David Geerinck. " MonyMate features: * handles up to 5 bank accounts and 25 credit cards * provides tax information * online help * calculates loan payments * prints continuous form checks * interfaces to popular spreadsheets * plus functions to allow tracking of unpaid bills, budgeting, cash flow projection, net worth calculations, and a whole lot more ..." The online help mentions a user's manual, but there isn't one included here. The program also signs on as a "promotional pre-release", but there's no explanation of what that means. In a brief try of this program, I didn't run into any crippled features, but my trial was indeed brief. Feeback from others welcome. Note: When you run the install program, it modifies your CONFIG.SYS file without warning you, a practice that drives me slightly up a wall. AMAXX236.ARC 76528 03-06-87 AUTOMAXX Menu System/PC Manager v2.36 U/L by Bill Walsh. Changes in this latest version: Version 2.36 -- A pop-up calculator has been added. Call this feature with the <alt> C keys. [Sysop's NOTE: But the calculator is only provided to registered users, so ...] Version 2.35 -- The execute from command line feature is now back in the menu system. The sort feature now uses an internal secondary key for better sorting. The files system key selection was changed to allow eXecute with the return key instead of the 'X' key for a more natural touch. ... The screen write was redone to get rid of occasional snow on some ancient CGA boards. In short, the only significant change since version 2.34 deals with a feature not available in the BBS version. AutoMaxx is, I think, one of the best of the menu managers on this system, but it doesn't look like you need this update if you already have the program. FILL.ARC 23869 03-06-87 Optimize copying more than fits on 1 disk/1.0 U/L by Mike Miller. Very similar to Dave Rand's FILLFLOP, this one has a few nice extra touches, like giving you the option to pause to format a disk. Both programs try to optimize use of target drives (typically, floppy disks) when you are copying more files than will fit on one disk, by cramming as many as they can on the floppy before prompting you to insert another. [03-05-87] MARC520.ARC 9357 03-05-87 Merge ARC v5.20 Merge 2 ARC 5.2 files (slow) U/L by David Geerinck. MARC takes files from one ARC and adds them to another. This update merely corresponds to the changes in ARC 5.20. EDIT345A.ARC 63128 03-05-87 Small, capable, full-scrn edit v3.45/cmplt set U/L by Ted DeCastro. The copy of this arc that was already on the system was missing all the various versions of EDIT for different monitors and machines. Here's a complete set, and also contains a couple of additional utils by the same author. EDIT is really a nifty little editor that runs in VERY little memory. The command structure is, to me, a bit awkward, but is worth putting up with if you need an editor that will run in about 20K of RAM. CRYPT.ARC 8875 03-05-87 File encryption program/"Enigma"-like scheme U/L by Derek Rutledge. BASDLX13.ARC 30480 03-05-87 Library for compiled Basic v1.3 03/01/87 U/L by John Jenkins. Ahah, we have update notes this time. Here are the changes: --- BASDLX Version 1.3, Released March 1, 1987 Added the following routines: DATESTR Writes the current date in a string using the following format: Thursday, February 26, 1987 or Thu, Feb 26, 1987 GETSTRD Allows Data entry of a string. Supports all line editing commands (i.e. Ins,Del,left arrrow,right arrow, and many more.) This could be the routine you're looking for to make your data entry programs look sharp! (See documentation for a complete description.) TIMESTR Writes the current time in a string using the following format: HH:MM:SS.HD --- BASDLX Version 1.2, Released February 1, 1987 GUN Simulates sound the of gun or machine gun (fires shots) SNDOFF Turns off speaker to stop sounds from being made. SNDON Turns on speaker to allow sounds to be made QCKPACK.ARC 30975 03-05-87 Pack a dBase file fast/get stru at DOS U/L and written by Ray Price. Two "Junkware" utils for manipulating dBASE files, more are supposedly available for BBS distribution (but were not uploaded by the author.... hmm). Registered users also get the complete set. Version 1.0. LARC14.ARC 53356 03-05-87 Re-ARC files,ARCA,PKARC &/or ARC/*.*/QB/Buerg U/L and written by Vern Buerg. This system was "off-the-air" for several hours last weekend partly because a test version of LARC was going through all 1750+ archives on this system and re-arcing them. The result was a savings of well over a meg of space on this system and insurance that every arc on the system was valid. LARC is a sysop's dream -- a program that takes wildcard specs and re-arcs files. It uses PKXARC to extract files (in case it runs into a "squashed" file) and then uses whichever ARC util you prefer to build the new ones -- Vern's own ARCA, Katz's PKARC and even SEA's ARC. Indeed, it will, if you wish, use any combination of the above utils to build the new arcs and keep only the smallest resulting archive. If you have a lot of older arcs around that were built with less efficient arc utils than are currently available, LARC is your answer. If you have library (LBR) files around, LARC will also convert them to archives if you wish. PLEASE read the doc before running this program. You MUST invoke the program from a subdir or drive that is empty for it to work properly, NOT the subdir that contains the arcs themselves. The QuickBASIC source is included, and requires Tom Hanlin's ADVBAS30 routines if you wish to recompile it. SORTF217.ARC 4224 03-05-87 Buerg's excellent SORT replacement v2.17 3/87 SORTF performs essentially the same functions as the DOS SORT filter (and shares the same syntax) BUT ... it will handle files larger than 63K (DOS' won't) and it's one hell of a lot faster. The changes to version 2.17 are relatively minor: 2.17, February 25, 1987 o Correct problem when maximum records exceeded o Convert to COM program [03-04-87] PC-GL29.ARC 57617 03-04-87 Medlin's General Ledger package v2.9 U/L by Loren Olson. PC-GL is a quite good and easy to use General Ledger program. Alas, the author never provides update notes and I have no idea how this version differs from 2.7 which was on the system (there was nothing obvious when I loaded it). HARONEY.ARC 4054 03-04-87 Graphing Quardric Surfaces, fr. BYTE 12-86 HENON.ARC 29536 03-04-87 Henon mapping, TPascal source, BYTE 12-86 MANDEL.ARC 6661 03-04-87 Create/show Mandelbrot sets, w/C, BYTE 12-86 U/L by Michael Pechnyo. DOODLE.ARC 19860 03-04-87 Create Word Perfect printable drawings U/L by Chuck Cooper. Written by a WordPerfect Corp. employee, DOODLE uses WP commands (more or less) to make drawing printable pictures a little easier. FU21.ARC 70493 03-04-87 FileUtil 2.1/expanded DIR & mod attr,time,date U/L by Tim Conner. See review of FU20, below. v2.1 adds the ability to redirect the program's output to a file (quite useful, actually, as it was tending to scroll off the screen in some operations). XANADU.ARC 17061 03-04-87 New ver SFIND,HOTDIR,PCSTAT3 - file/PC utils U/L by Pete Olympia. Includes the following: HDIR.COM - The HotDIR, colorful sorted directory program 2.0 Displays different colors based on file extension. Many options too! Works on Monochrome, Color, & EGA. PCSTAT3.COM - PC Status Utility 3.0 - Displays Disk/RAM statistics and other information in a well organized format. It is much faster than CHKDSK too! New colors added. SFIND.COM - Super File Find 1.02X - Finds files fast anywhere on your disk (even inside ARC files). All 3 programs are quite good. DBDIR.ARC 8701 03-04-87 Exploded DIR of your .DBF DBASE3 files v3 U/L by Stuart Goldberg. " DBDIR is a .COM program to display database files in the current directory. It simulates the dBASEIII DIR command displaying not only the filename, but # Records, Last Update, Size, Memo(Y/N), Record Length, Number of Fields and Version. It will also display dBASEII information." Version 3, 12/21/86. DIRNAV.ARC 9719 03-04-87 DIRectory NAVigator 1.0: Full screen CHDIR U/L by Stuart Goldberg. " DIRNAV provides a full screen view of the contents of the specified or current directory (sub-directories and files), plus the ability to navigate (change) directories using simple keystrokes." I'm not a great lover of these, but this one seems well implemented. NOYB11.ARC 7340 03-04-87 None of Your Bus./1.1/blank scrn/lock kyb/ASM U/L by Mike Miller. Something to hide? Is that Monopoly you're playing rather than Lotus? Ahem. Oh well, I suppose there are more serious uses for this program. CODE39.ARC 15047 03-04-87 Print 3-of-9 bar codes/w/BAS for Epson/IBM U/L by Mike Miller. SIZES.ARC 16267 03-04-87 Shows # of files + total size/space all dirs U/L by Mike Miller. We're not exactly short of programs in this category, but this one provides a neatly formatted display of how many files are in each subdir on your disk and the space they are taking (it assumes 4K clusters, which is wrong for a >20 meg disk under DOS 3.x). BSR-X10.ARC 81018 03-04-87 Control BSR X10 with command line cmds/w BAS U/L by Mike Miller. Assuming you're using your computer to turn your coffee maker on in the morning (with the help of a BSR control box), this may be your cup of tea (so to misspeak). CALCP301.ARC 69986 03-04-87 CALC PLUS H.P RPN Calculator & analysis tool U/L by David Geerinck. A Reverse Polish Notation calculator plus a whole lot more. Features include a 20-level stack, an array of 20 memory columns, data groups, place holders for missing values, menus, printing, and even rudimentary graphing (CGA required) and curve fitting. All in all, a powerful looking program if you're already used to (or can learn) RPN syntax. S-TOOL.ARC 17920 03-04-87 Unix-like shell expansion for DOS commnds 8/85 U/L by Francisco De Monasterio. A valiant attempt to bring some of Unix's wildcard expansion capabilities to those DOS commands that insist on your typing in the entire filename. [03-03-87] PATCH32B.ARC 99555 03-03-87 IBM's Patches for DOS 3.2 1/87 U/L by Bill Andrus. By the time they get PC-DOS 3.2 right, it will be obsolete! Oh well, that's kind of unfair I guess. Anyway, here's the latest set of patches from IBM, all fairly minor in nature. The description of what's changed is actually included in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file that's on the disk and there's also a self-install program to use when you're updating (though I'd be inclined to do it manually). FILTER19.ARC 20864 03-03-87 General filter/reformatter for ascii files 1.9 U/L by Jeff Corey. " This program reformats files. Fields may be deleted or reordered. Characters may be inserted at any location within a record, at the beginning of each record, or at the end of each record. If the input records end with a carriage return line feed sequence it can be removed. If not, a carriage return line feed may be added." All in all, a pretty powerful looking program, though some time creating the proper configuration ("map") file will be needed to get this program to do what you want. v1.9 just gets rid of a beep during file conversion that wasn't intended in v1.8. YOURLIFE.ARC 25113 03-03-87 Calculates your life expectancy U/L by Edward Hayes. Just what I needed. I woke up this morning a little grumpy anyway and found this on the upload dir. After answering all its questions (there are quite a few), I find I should put my affairs in order pretty quick. Hrrumph. WASM201.ARC 137806 03-03-87 Wolfware assembler v.2.01 2/20/87 U/L by Tony Rood. A bit beyond my capabilities to evaluate, WASM looks to be an assembler that is improving with leaps and bounds. Here are the update notes for the most recent versions: Version 2.00, December, 1986: Major revision. Major new features include conditional assembly, macros, parenthesis in expressions, DOS 2.0 support, and rewritten documentation with index and bibliography. Major bugs fixed are unsigned divide overflow and error closing include files. Upward incompatibilities are operands must be separated by commas, only immediate data can be equated, PROGRAM_SIZE is changed to $SIZE, and user defined symbols should not start with $. Version 2.01, February, 1987: New feature is relative ORG displacement. Other changes are FLAGALL- is now default and larger programs can be assembled. Bugs fixed are error in memory allocation that could result in insufficient memory error and the spelling of "February" is corrected. BASDLX12.ARC 18882 03-03-87 Deluxe fn library for compiled BASIC v1.2 U/L by Tony Rood. Feb, '87 release of this library of routines for compiled BASIC. Unfortunately, the author has not (yet?) adopted the practice of providing update notes .... ANSIX364.ARC 8054 03-03-87 ESC.COM and Exc Documentation of ANSI Sequenc U/L by Paul Kopit. There's no shortage of programs that can send ANSI escape sequences to the console, and here's another. But, what's really valuable here is the excellent documentation on ANSI sequences, including some examples to fool around with. Install ANSI.SYS (or something compatible and faster like ZANSI, NANSI or even FANSI-CONSOLE) and go to it. [03-02-87] PARTNR11.ARC 27687 03-02-87 5.25 <=> 3.5 floppy xfrs 1.1/ Crippled U/L by Don Udel. Unfortunately, this program is pretty badly crippled, a fact I missed when v1.0 was uploaded. v1.1 fixes some minor bugs in support of DOS 3.2 and DOS 2.x. DBU14.ARC 68099 03-02-87 dB3UTIL v1.4 - dBASE III+/QuickSilver utility U/L and written by Cal Thames. dB3UTIL 1.4, 2/19/87: Corrected routine which created the name of the Quicksilver listfile. Previous versions of dB3UTIL would use a root file named, for example, TEST.PRG and attempt to create a listfile named TEST.PRG.DBU. The program will now create a listfile named TEST.DBU. FU20.ARC 66306 03-02-87 FileUtil v2-expanded DIR & mod attr,time,date U/L and written by Cal Thames. "FileUtil provides two disk file related functions: (1) Expanded DIRectory - file information for a single directory or an entire disk based on filename (including wildcards) or file creation time and date. (2) Modify file attribute and/or the file time and date stamp for a single file or any group of wildcard specified files." The program is command-line driven with the syntax shown if you just type the name. The file attribute and time/date stamp change features are new to this release. USBBS34.ARC 33456 03-02-87 Nationwide BBS list as of 03/01/87 fr DARWIN 03-02-87 Formerly RBBS-xxx.ARC/New name/Still the best Pete Olympia has changed the name of his BBS list to avoid confusion ( some thought RBBS referred to Tom Mack's RBBS-PC program, rather than to BBS's generally). Under whatever name, this is still *the* BBS list to have. OPUS-A.ARC 223152 03-02-87 \ OPUS BBS system v0.0 (1/87), a Fidoish OPUS-B.ARC 206754 03-02-87 / BBS system (Fido mail & SEALink compatible) OPUS-C.ARC 212446 03-02-87 \ with Ymodem, Telink, Kermit & WXmodem U/L by Chuma Agbodike. OPUS is a free (no contribution requested) BBS that will be particularly attractive to those looking for netmail capabilities a la Fido but for one reason or another aren't happy with that puppy. I only know about OPUS via word of mouth as I've yet to find one to log into. I also did not set this one up just for the sake of looking at it. But, a scan of the docs indicates this is a powerful program, both in terms of messaging and file transfers. For the latter, you'll need whatever the current version of DSZ is when you happen to be reading this and a copy of WXTERM (both were included here but I've taken them out as they were already on the system). The DOC files are, for the most part, in the "A" arc so you might want to take that one first if the package interests you at all. TURBOSCR.ARC 41644 03-02-87 Make text file a COM file;quick display v1.1 U/L by Gerhard Barth. Nicely done. You create with any editor capable of making ascii files a screen no larger that 79 chars per line and 24 lines. Then, just run this program, tell it the name of the file, and it creates a 2K COM file that includes your text and will flash on the screen when run. That's all you need to know (and that's just as well as there's no doc). MP30.ARC 26365 03-02-87 Micro Print 3.0 --17 cpi, 120 lines on Epson U/L by Steven Powell. Makes me wish I had an Epson. Here's what this program can do: "MicroPrint prints ASCII text files in a variety of print modes -- regular, compressed, and MicroPrint -- on IBM, EPSON, and compatible dot-matrix printers. MicroPrint offers such features as printing on both sides of the page, removal of excess blank lines, printing from selected page numbers, etc." "In the "MicroPrint" mode, MicroPrint sets IBM/EPSON and compatible dot- matrix printers to print in the compressed, super/subscripted mode at 120 lines per page. To promote even use of the print-head pins and to prolong ribbon life, MicroPrint toggles between superscripting and subscripting at each page break." FXMAST32.ARC 21760 03-02-87 FXMASTER v3.20E Printer/font set-up for Epson U/L by David Geerinck. "FXMASTER 3.20 uses one menu (or command line parameters) to let you select ALL 160+ Epson FX-series fonts from your keyboard or batch files. FXMASTER can issue a reset or form-feed, and can variably set margins, skip-over-perf, line spacing and form length, and intl. char. sets. FXMASTER also toggles on/off: sheet-feeder, paper-out sensor, typewriter mode, and quiet (half-speed) mode. Self-documenting. Also supports "Dots Perfect". [03-01-87] PUSHPATH.ARC 4712 03-01-87 Push/pop path -- like push/pop dir w/ASM U/L and written by David Seidman. "Purpose: To allow saving the current path to a stack-like file and then resetting the path to the last entry in the stack." As David points out in the excellent doc, there's a way to accomplish a similar result using the %PATH% variable in a BATch file (or a PCED synonym), but this program provides an easy way to temporarily change your path, and the ASM source is worth a look. NSWPPC18.ARC 43504 03-01-87 D. Rand's NSWP (sweep) util for DOS v1.018 This is still very much a work in progress and you may want to pass it by for now. But, for those of us with our heritage in CP/M where Dave Rand's NSWP program was THE indispensable sweep utility, it's a pleasure to see that he is in the process of porting it to DOS. No fancy windows here or other cosmetic embellishments. The strength of this program is the ability to "tag" a group of files and then perform a copy, erase, etc. on the tagged group. The feature that is unique to this DOS version is its handling of archives. You can "zoom" in on an arc file, which immediately displays it members. At that point, one or more of the files can be extracted or printed. Adding to the arc is not yet supported; for extraction, "squashed" files a la PKARC 2.0 are already handled and the speed is quite good. The documentation, in WordStar format, is from the old CP/M version. Beyond that, there are some update notes that give you some idea of the new features, but some trial-and-error will be in order. However, for those already familiar with the CP/M version, this will be like having an old friend back again. [Note: There was an invalid copy of this archive on the system earlier today. This copy is fine.] REVIEW2.ARC 82112 03-01-87 Employee Performance Evaluation Version 2.0 U/L and written by Ralph Iskaros. Rates an employee based on such attributes as quality and quantity of performance, attendance and "housekeeping" (whether the employee is well-organized and concerned about the neatness and cleanliness of equipment and supplies). That last one caused the program to recommend that I be fired, so it's hard for me to review this one objectively (grin?). INT16H.ARC 3275 03-01-87 Sample Turbo Pascal Interrupt Filter routine U/L by Philip Stults. Written by Tim Weiss of ArcView fame (a PCBoard door), the code presents an example of how to lay down an Interrupt Filter in Turbo Pascal. ====================== For reviews of files added to the system during February, download REVW0287.ARC. ======================