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====[ 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 during April, 1987: [04-30-87] FBK318.ARC 173288 04-30-87 FastBucks v3.18 Home Finance Program/ltd DOC U/L by Loren Olson. FastBucks has been reviewed here a number of times before and the updates this time are quite minor, largely in the area of making it easier to try and recover corrupted data files (the author seems to be spending a lot of time on that lately -- is it a problem with this program?). A few notes on distribution policies re this program: (1) You only get a user manual if you register. The "doc" file that is here covers installation and then pretty much leaves you on your own. In this case, the program is so easy to use that I really don't see that as being much of a hindrance --- I doubt I'd ever read the doc file if I used this program anyway. (2) This is "commissionware" but the copy on this board is serial number 000000 (I didn't even have to patch this one!). (3) Each time you exit from the program, you'll get an annoying reminder to register. I wish the author would at least reconsider (2) and (3). You may wish to avoid the program until he does. EGACLR.ARC 6878 04-30-87 Set selected EGA screen colors from DOS EGACHG.ARC 28408 04-30-87 Use with EGACLR to modify EGA screen colors U/L by Don Richardson. Sorry -- no EGA here. TYPDRILL.ARC 26250 04-30-87 Practice your typing/increase speed w/TPas This one showed up on USENET, and while I don't think it is by any means the best of the typing tutor/practice programs, I'm a sucker for programs that come with their source code and this one does. PROSORTA.ARC 46143 04-30-87 Advanced sorter for Procomm Dialing Directory U/L by Don Richardson. " ProSort can sort your ProComm dialing directory by Name, Phone number, Baud rate, or Command file name in ascending or descending order." PRCMDATE.ARC 9414 04-30-87 Date your BBS calls in Procomm's Dialing Dir U/L by Don Richardson. NOT AUTOMATIC -- you need to run this program manually after each successful connect to do the date stamping. Pretty clumsy stuff. LESSON.ARC 61726 04-30-87 Teacher's Lesson Plan Mngr/180 days/3 classes U/L by David Geerinck. Written by a teacher for others, " LESSON .... will produce, maintain and print a file of lesson plans for 180 school days with a maximum of three different preparations (classes)." PCRGB136.ARC 51888 04-30-87 Keith Graham's PIC viewer plus v1.36,04/29/87 U/L by Bob Weinstein. 1.36 4/29/86 fix to toshiba and 1280 screens. Added support (in the dark - no testing) of VGA.... [04-29-87] VIDLIB01.ARC 58607 04-29-87 Store/Retrieve VIDeo images in packed LIBrary 04-29-87 Many applications including help generator U/L and written by Rip Toren. This looks to be an excellent and valuable collection of programs. VIDLIB creates libraries of text images (screens, if you will). TELL can retrieve items from such a library by subject. That's a much too simple explanation of this program, but it will give you some idea of what's here. The most obvious application is to build your own help system for yourself or for other users. Thus, TELL FORMAT might bring up information on the DOS FORMAT command. More likely, you'd build a help system for a custom application you have put together. There's really no limit to the uses of a generic retrieval/display/library utility of this kind. Go to it .... the author has encouraged folks to upload interesting libraries that you construct yourself, and I'll second that notion. The C source for the TELL utility is included. CDISK354.ARC 134837 04-29-87 CATDISK v3.54 disk catalog/handles ARCs/4-87 Very minor bug fixes to this good disk catalog program, including: Fixed a bug in which showing a summary report involving a disk containing zero length files only would abort ungracefully. Fixed a bug in which cataloguing a disk that contained a file whose name contained all blanks (ASCII 255's) caused CATDISK to go into a continuous loop when updating the catalog file. Added the ability to "read" command line options from the DOS environment area, thus eliminating the need to set up a batch file to call up CATDISK with your favourite configuration. GTXT.ARC 6155 04-29-87 E.Gans' convert text to COM file v1.1 pauses This looks to be about a year old. Where's it been hiding? Anyway, CP/M'rs will remember Eric Gans' TXT.COM program that would allow you to convert a text file to a COM file so you could run it (to display help messages and the like). Here it is ported to DOS, with some nice features, including: - zeroes high bit to read (say) WS doc mode files - allows printing of control characters using "^" - page breaks can be forced with "~" - literals of "^" and "~" can be entered if preceded by "%" ("%%" gives "%") - Issues a "[More]" every 23 lines for text file longer than 23 lines; when you type a character the [More] is blanked out and doesn't waste a line on the screen. Type ^C to exit. BIOSDOS.ARC 34392 04-29-87 Quick Reference card for BIOS & DOS U/L by Mike Rubenstein. TV920.ARC 43955 04-29-87 Televideo 920 term emul w/Xmodem C source/EXE U/L by Bob Hicks. I can't really put this program to a fair test as the only time I would ever want to emulate a TVI 920 is when accessing a Unix system. In those instances, the quality of the emulation depends as much on how good the Unix termcap entry is as the emulator you are using. So ... untested. The good news is the inclusion of the C source. The bad news is that only Xmodem (checksum) is supported. BASCOMFX.ARC 185149 04-29-87 02/23/87 IBM BASCOM2 BLOAD Fixes 632MN. U/L by Bill Andrus. Is anyone actually using BASCOM 2.x instead of MicroSoft's MUCH! less expensive QuickBASIC? Well, if you are, here are some official IBM patches: Replaces existing Basic Compiler runtime module and library with a patch version that fixed the "INPUT PASS END" problem when the header of a BLOADed file contains 1A. GTLOG70.ARC 88904 04-29-87 GT PowerComm logging util v7.0 U/L by Scott Pazur. Some quite minor changes to this add-on util to Meiners' GT Powercomm program. INLIN214.ARC 50404 04-29-87 Convert ASM to TPascal inline v2.14 D.Baldwin 04-29-87 Also includes UNINLINE 1.0 Inline disassemblr U/L by Scott Pazur. Update notes for INLINE: 22 Vers 2.14 Change output format to better accomodate map file line numbers. 21 Vers 2.13 Allow JMP SHORT direct using symbols. 20 Vers 2.12 Allow CALL and JMP direct using symbols. 19 Vers 2.11 Fix bug in CallJmp and ShortJmp which didn't restrict short jump range properly. Fix bug which didn't allow CALL or JMP register. (CALL BX). UNINLINE was still identified as 1.0, yet had different compiler directives in it than a copy here with an earlier date. No bug deal (sic). BAAB.ARC 4687 04-29-87 Binary <==> ASCII file conversion R.Gans U/L by Scott Pazur. For transferring binary files overs 7-bit data lines (very inefficiently!), you can convert binary to ascii and then back again with these utilities. Clearly not the way to go if you can avoid it. UNARC16.CPM 38912 04-29-87 CP/M Unarc util/Rename to UNARC16.COM & run U/L by Kent Hauser. My old CP/M machine (beloved Morrow) is sitting gathering dust in a closet here, so I didn't try this out. A dump of the file indicates it is a self-extracting COM file that will give you a CP/M de-arc util and necessary documentation. It is ARC 5.x compatible but looks like it does not support "squash". CT603-A.ARC 121952 04-29-87 \ J. MacEvoy's CashTrac 6.03/ main pgm CT603-B.ARC 148267 04-29-87 / Personal Finance Manager \ config & docs CT603-C.ARC 131819 04-29-87 \ now w/graphs & chx wrting / graph & hlp U/L by Paul Riggs. As callers to this board know, there has been something of a raging debate here about "crippleware" and a tightening of the policy here re: posting programs that have some of their features disabled or omitted. It's going to end up being case-by-case, and CashTrac is very close to the line. You can "only" record 200 transactions per account with this BBS version of CT. That is, in fact, a lot of transactions (do you write 200 checks a year? I don't think I do.) And, CT allows multiple accounts. So, in short, I'm going to make the call that what's here gives you a fair opportunity to try the program. If you're still using it a year later (or whatever), you really owe the authors a little support -- CT is not a trivial programming effort. But, as I said, a close call, and CT will be a target for extinction when disk space gets tight here. Update notes: 1. Version 6.02 fixes a graphing problem where selection of several record types of opposite polarities (ex: checks and interest) causes incorrect results. 2. Version 6.03 has a fix for a problem where the computer runs out of memory when graphing more than 2600 records. [04-28-87] MOLABEL.ARC 2613 04-28-87 Multiple label printing dBase III+ DOC/PRG U/L by Loren Olson. " MOLABELS is designed to fill the void in DBASE III PLUS that permits only one label printing for each record in the database." EGACUR.ARC 835 04-28-87 Stop lost cursor in 43 line mode of some EGAs U/L and written by Vernon Huang. DESKCALC.ARC 109119 04-28-87 Programmable scientific calculator/non-res U/L by Charles Bitterli. If you can understand all or most of the following, this program may be for you: "CALC allows a computer system to be used as a complete programable scientific calculator. CALC provides the user with access to a number of both pre-defined and user programable mathematical functions through the use of a simple, easy to learn command format. In addition to the basic mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplications, and division, CACL provides a number of complex functions such as Log, Exponent, Sin, Cos, Conversions, Summation, Integration, and many more. A total of 47 individual functions and operators are provided by the program. The user may use these functions and operators, along with both pre-defined and user defined constants and arguments, to define special functions of a complex nature. These user defined functions may then be saved into a disk file for future use without the need for re-definition. Other commands allow the user to delete functions and constants, define special constants for use in a number of functions and/or calculations, show the definition of any given function, and print out all calculation results." NEW301.ARC 22602 04-28-87 v3.01 of A86 - update files only/sm. bug fixs U/L by Stephen Falatko. Some bug fixes and minor enhancements to A86 v3.00. This is for those who already have that version as it's not the complete set (which is on this board). OLINK_32.ARC 25130 04-28-87 OPUSLink com module uses SEALink xfer protocol U/L by Barry Gerber. This is yet another comm module to be run from full-fledged modem programs (qmodem, pibterm, procomm, whatever) to add SEALink protocol support to them. Fine, but what we need is one that takes command line parms to send and receive files, not one that throws you into a terminal mode and requires you then to manually give send/receive commands. Oh well ... XANADU2.ARC 20009 04-28-87 Xanadu Utils v2.0: HotDir 2.1, PCSTAT 3.2, 04-28-87 SFIND 1.02X, QuickCRT, CURSORx & DOC U/L by Tom Drinkard. These are all good utilities. I've not done so before so here's a complete description from the doc of what's included: HDIR.COM - The HotDIR, colorful sorted directory program 2.1. Displays different colors based on file extension. Many options too! Works on Monochrome, Color, & EGA. PCSTAT.COM - PC Status Utility 3.2 - 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). QUICKCRT.COM - Speeds up the time it takes to write to the screen by your programs. Very useful! A must! CURSORC.COM - Resets cursor to original cursor after it has been changed by another program. (Color version). CURSORM.COM - Same function as CURSORC, except that this is the monochrome version. XANADU.DOC - This documentation file HDIRCOLS.BAS - A program that lets you customize HDIR.COM so that you can define the color you want displayed for each type of file. Note that QUICKCRT and the 2 CURSORx programs are new to release 2.0. QUICKCRT looks a lot like ZENO (based on it?) and like ZENO may cause problems with some multi-taskers and other screen-oriented utilities. [04-27-87] HBMS211.ARC 96187 04-27-87 Home Budget Mgmt Sys v2.11 Chkg,GL,COA,& more U/L by David Geerinck. One of the better programs of this ilk on the system (and there are many more than I can review adequately), HBMS does checking and some simple general ledger functions, yet isn't overwhelming. Still, read the docs -- you won't get very far without them, and plan to spend some time learning this one. Update notes for this version (changes don't look major but the bug about beginning a new year is not trivial!): "Fixed bug ... in Begin New Year section when trying to start a new budget from scratch. Also added a warning about how to begin a new year. Added record # to the source account screen display to avoid confusion. Added an underline separator in the printed Transaction report to separate each screenful of information. Added a feature to select either the Income and Expense Report, the Balance Sheet, or both. Added a year designation to the Chart of Accounts Report." QPURSU.ARC 7319 04-27-87 Autodial scripts for PCPursuit (Qmodem 3.0) U/L by Mark Elengold. Sorry -- I don't use PC Pursuit. GRAB13.ARC 51097 04-27-87 Grab address from letter and print it/TSR/1.3 There's a new configuration utility to tell GRAB whether you're using an HP LaserJet and also to have it print your return address (I use labels, but I wondered what others were going to do!). Nice touches. See 4/23/87 review of GRAB.ARC for more info on this program. NSWPPC19.ARC 43447 04-27-87 D. Rand's NSWP (sweep) util for DOS v1.019 U/L by Tadas Osmolskis. Very minor changes to Dave Rand's still-in-progress port of his CP/M sweep utility to DOS. See earlier review of NSWPPC18.ARC. Changes: (1) Bug fix in arc decompression routine; (2) Y command now correctly sets file attributes. GETINPUT.ARC 8810 04-27-87 QBasic subprog/build def length input string U/L & written by Lee Bernbaum. "QBINPUT is a Quikbasic SUB-PROGRAM that can be called to handle input in a reasonably controlled manner, returning a string of a predefined length. The input field is filled with whatever character you specify. You can control whether or not a CR is required when maximum length is reached, thus providing rudimentary word wrapping (until you backspace all the way to the beginning of the string...previous line's X,Y values are not saved). The cursor is always blinking where the next character will go." [04-26-87] MONEY.ARC 22754 04-26-87 Very simple checkbook and budget program U/L & written by Greg Gray. A first release, this one was designed to be the kind of program you could use without reading a doc. Fine, but it may not meet the needs of those of you who are looking for more sophisticated capabilities and the interface is a bit rudimentary at this point. ZDOC0425.ARC 9067 04-26-87 Additional Documentation for DSZ/Steve Shelton U/L by Paul Kopit. I've put a READ.ME file in this doc to try to bring it somewhat up to date. Forsberg's DSZ program is a moving target and some of Steve Shelton's info was out of date. But, it's useful. NOTE: DSZ supports Xmodem, Ymodem and Zmodem -- period. Steve's doc may lead you to think it supports Telink, SEAlink, CIS B, etc. Pro-YAM and ZCOMM do (and a whole lot more, actually); DSZ does not. GALXY210.ARC 159218 04-26-87 Galaxy editor v2.1/WS-like w/pop-up menus U/L by Loren Olson. This editor has received some negative comments from me in the past, mostly because of the way it has been marketed. It is clearly based on the Borland editor toolbox, yet fails to acknowledge that fact (alas, still true). Each release has also been accompanied by the statement that this was the last shareware release with updates only going to those who registered. That seems to be gone this time. And, there are enough enhancements to the editor that it's origins in the toolbox are becoming less obvious. Still.... Anyway, it's a good WS-like editor but with pop-up menus. New features in 2.1 include right justification, headers and footers, fixed or automatic tab stops, optional ruler line, shell to DOS, zoom windows, and more. The speed is very good. For those looking for an inexpensive word processor (no competition with full-fledged products like Word Perfect, etc. but pretty good), Galaxy is worth a closer look. OKSHOW10.ARC 9358 04-26-87 Basic BLOAD file resident viewer/K.Graham U/L by Bob Weinstein. " OKSHOW.COM is a memory resident BLOAD file viewer for CGA displays. It is triggered by a combination of information on the display and a hot key. OKSHOW.COM can be used to view databases of graphics information and is useful for security and sales applications." This is a test version of what will eventually become part of a commercial package. UNDOC21H.ARC 3754 04-26-87 Undocumented INT 21h calls from USENET msg U/L by Michael Pechnyo. DBCNTACT.ARC 123848 04-26-87 Track personal/business contacts (EXE/PRG) U/L by Bobby Mangoba. " Contact Tracker is a program designed to provide the important function of organizing and tracking business and personal contacts. Contact Tracker is written in dBASE with Clipper enhancements and compiled. Without much effort, the code could be adapted to the dBASE environment." The source code IS included, so you can modify this one to your heart's content. Looks good. DSPDBFEK.ARC 1527 04-26-87 dBase PRG to display dbf info U/L by Bobby Mangoba. DBCHDATE.ARC 1680 04-26-87 Date routine for dBase/start & end dates U/L by Bobby Mangoba. "Program to get starting and ending dates for reports, searches, etc. Creates public variables 'start' and 'end'." TABLADDR.ARC 771 04-26-87 Finds memory address of dbase3+ symbol table U/L by Bobby Mangoba. "Finds the memory address of the dBase III Plus symbol table (how esoteric can you get?!). It does not work with FoxBase+." BIN & DOC only. DD20.ARC 14158 04-26-87 Grunin's DoubleDir 2.0 dual dir and file util U/L by Mike Focke. Update notes from v1.5 (edited): 1) A new Sort function - sort by size, date, extension, name. 2) A new Reverse function - reverses sort order. 3) Will use whatever screen colors were current on startup. 4) Move is much more powerful, and easier to use. 5) The two directories are compared, and files with identical entries are marked with a vertical bar. Files with the same name but differing in other aspects are marked with a horizontal bar. 6) The input handling (where you are prompted for filenames) is now much better. Pressing Esc will cancel any input function. Unfortunately, DOS command line enhancers (like DOSEDIT) are now bypassed. As partial compensation, F3, PgUp, and UpArrow all recall the previous command line for editing. 7) The EGA mode is not reset to 25 lines on exit unless it was 25 lines on entry. 8) The cursor behaves itself better. It is still not perfect (alas). 9) Dump Strings no longer skips blank lines. 10) Various cosmetic changes - the menu is in reverse video, etc. This is a nice program but I still wish it had a tag function like most sweep utils do. Without it, entering each command still takes too much typing! ARCAID13.ARC 25857 04-26-87 Shell for ARC building/tag files v1.03 U/L by Ronald Schwartz. Well, I like this one better than FETCH -- it's cleaner and easier to use. But, I still see precious little advantage to wrapping this kind of menu shell around ARC programs. Just my own bias, folks .... MDM7.ARC 29057 04-26-87 W.Christensen's Modem.Asm (fixed) w/asm/com U/L by Bill Gibson. A relic, really, this version of Christensen's modem program was originally for CP/M and then ported -- sort of -- to DOS. The COM file is really not worth anyone's time. The ASM source is interesting. Bill Gibson has done some cleanup of it to get it to compile properly. [04-25-87] LIBMGR.ARC 69984 04-25-87 QuickBASIC LIBrary manager EXE/DOC U/L by Tadas Osmolskis. This is a shell for the QB 2.0x BUILDLIB program, giving the program a more visual, friendly interface. If you prefer the command driven approach of the QB util itself, you can pass on this one. PAGEBRK.ARC 12287 04-25-87 Put page breaks in text file v1.2 U/L by Tadas Osmolskis. Not a new program (and I have a feeling it may have been on this system before under another name) this one just inserts page breaks in files at after xx number of lines. ARC520S.ARC 53059 04-25-87 C Source for ARC 5.20 from SEA U/L by Tadas Osmolskis. Contains the CI C86 source for SEA's ARChive utility, version 5.20 (the current version). There were some other SEA utilities in this archive but they have been removed, at least until some confusion over whether SEA intends all of these to be distributed on BBS systems is clarified. CPRINT44.ARC 39242 04-25-87 Source code/ascii file print util v4.4 U/L by Tadas Osmolskis. Probably not worth taking this version if you have 4.3, the changes are minor: (1) A fix for use with some versions of DOS 2.x; and (2)"added CPRINTS.EXE to the archive. This is CPRINT.EXE with the full screen editor input feature removed so that users with non IBM compatible pc's won't crash their system trying to use the full screen mode." CPRINT is a good utility for printing source code (particularly C, of course) and other ascii files. DEARCSRC.ARC 53111 04-25-87 TP src, DOS, CP/M-86 exec for un-arc util U/L by Tadas Osmolskis. This is an ARC 5.12 compatible extract only utility implemented in Turbo Pascal for DOS and CP/M-86. The source is included and that's what's useful. PKXARC and ARCE are MUCH! faster. Note: "Squash" is not supported (it's not part of the SEA archive standard). EDIT-C.ARC 59127 04-25-87 Editor in C fr Dr. Dobb's source & EXE U/L by Tadas Osmolskis. This is a fairly rudimentary editor that I gather was later enhanced and released as a commercial program. It's kept here for the sake of the source. Other programmers' editors (QEDIT and EDWIN) are much more sophisticated. OKIPRINT.ARC 1634 04-25-87 TSR print util for OKIdata ML 192/193 U/L by Tadas Osmolskis. SCPGEN1Q.ARC 0 04-25-87 Script generator for Qmodem SST & PCBoard 04-25-87 DELETED: Limited use demo : Do not upload This program stops working after being used an unspecified number of times. It has been erased. Please do not upload crippleware or demos to this system. SUP107.ARC 7384 04-25-87 Suppress color on mono monitors w/ASM 1.07 U/L by Henning Close. Traps all screen writes at the BIOS level and suppresses the color. Will not work on programs that write directly to the video buffer. v1.07, 3/12/87 by Dana Nowell, with ASM source. FCON200H.ARC 50184 04-25-87 Fansi-CONsole 2.00H /DEV & HST 3/26/87 U/L by Bill Wood. Edited update notes: 2.00H 03/26/87 FCONBETA.DEV Beta Test Version Fix mode limiting to allow mono to be used inspite of equipment flag setting. Fix to initialize correctly with DOS 3.3 instead of not linking in FCON device. Add limited support for F11 and F12. Chg for bug in AST keyboard ROMs. Fix test to find old Hercules Mono Cards and some poor clones. Add EGAFAKE.PCH to fake EGA returns on CGA. Add IBMBIO.320 for bugs in IBM DOS INT 19H handler. Fixes Quadram QM2 and other programs needing INT 19H. [04-24-87] RZSZ1ET2.ARC 60507 04-24-87 Unix RZ/SZ source 04-17-87 (rz 1.19/ sz 1.27) God and Chuck Forsberg may know what's new in these versions of the latter's Unix file transfer programs. I don't. They compiled just fine on the Unix system I access so, being a slave to the latest, they're what I'm using. But, darned if I noticed any differences. DSZ0422.ARC 41834 04-24-87 Forsberg's X/Y/Zmodem xfer module 4/22/87 There are some significant differences in this latest version of DSZ. First, the doc has been revised to explain the new syntax that showed up in the 4/17 release. To set Zmodem parms, a 'z' must be added to the command line first. Thus: DSZ port 2 speed 2400 z pL1024 sz filenames is the syntax for a Zmodem send with 1K blocks instead of the default (which is now 512 bytes instead of 256). Second, CTS handshaking is now supported. For those of you with modems that support internal error correction and CTS flow control, you can use DSZ for Ymodem-G transfers. For PCBoard, where the Ymodem-G is really Xmodem-1K-G (never mind), the syntax would be: DSZ port 1 speed 9600 handshake on rc -g filename.ext (receive) DSZ port 2 speed 4800 handshake on sx -kg filename.ext (send) NOTE: Don't use Ymodem-G on this BBS as the modems do NOT support internal error correction. MSC4ADD.ARC 13977 04-24-87 Insert for MS-C manual/functns groups/WS & WP U/L by Ed Dougherty. [04-23-87] ADVC11.ARC 14068 04-23-87 v1.1 routine library for (Microsoft) C/Hanlin U/L and written by Tom Hanlin. A good collection of routines for C programmers, some are generic and some require MS-C. Update notes: ADVC v1.1, 04/22/87: DRIVESPACE returns the amount of free space on a given disk drive. INSTINFO.ARC 21740 04-23-87 Instant Info:TSR/9 topics/20 notes per/1.01 U/L by Loren Olson. Interesting idea. This is a mem-res notepad that allows you to divide your entries into up to 9 topics with 20 notes per topic. All entries are time and date stamped. It's useful, but swallows a whopping 80K+ and the notepad editor is very primitive. The hotkey is Alt-F9 and cannot be changed. The program can be removed from memory. ALARM114.ARC 4546 04-23-87 C. Dunford's alarm clock v1.14 / needs PCED U/L by Loren Olson. This is Chris Dunford's nifty little alarm program that works only with PCED (the commercial version of Chris' Command EDitor). v1.14, 4/22/87 release, fixes a bug in the CANCEL command (the old version wouldn't let you cancel the "last" alarm set). HGCBSAVE.ARC 2200 04-23-87 BSAVE 16k PICs from Herc. card even if >16k U/L by Joe Nazzaro. ARCALL.ARC 8187 04-23-87 ARC all HD subdirectories to floppys w/BAS U/L by Joe Nazzaro. BASIC programs that create batch files to ARC entire hard disk to floppies or to restore archived files back to the hard disk. As provided, requires either SEA's ARC or Katz's PKARC. CRIT_ERR.ARC 2816 04-23-87 Critical error handling/Clipper PRG/OBJ U/L by Bobby Mangoba. CREFCARD.ARC 10346 04-23-87 Quick reference card for Lattice C U/L by Bobby Mangoba. SHOOT11.ARC 11804 04-23-87 Select & extract routine for Clipper U/L by Bobby Mangoba. "Program to 'Point and Shoot' from database file - After locating record in file, user can select the record in the file to pass any or all record information to calling program." GRAB.ARC 33505 04-23-87 Grab address from letter and print it/TSR/1.1 U/L by Loren Olson. A mem-res program that allows you to point to the address in a letter you are editing and immediately print an envelope with that address. Hotkeys (hard coded) are Alt-Z and Alt-X, which may pose a problem with some word processors. If you have an HP LaserJet, the program can take advantage of the envelope feeder. The program can be removed from memory. SHOW28.ARC 3242 04-23-87 Display Int 28h Usage w/ASM/com files - TSR U/L by Bill Gibson. "Display asterisk at top-left corner of text screen during INT28 activity. Blank top-left char at every keyboard make code." [04-22-87] MINIXFX1.ARC 13952 04-22-87 Msgs & fixes about Minix from USENET U/L by Jack Velte and John Limpert. BANKRUPT.ARC 7472 04-22-87 1-2-3 WKS to judge corporate finances/Z score U/L by Hewie Poplock. " The Bankruptcy Predictor Formula for publicly traded manufacturing corporations (Z Score) is a simple equation.... This model uses five financial ratios that, when combined in a specific way, produce a single number. This number, called a Z Score, is a general measure of corporate financial health." IOLITE2.ARC 4626 04-22-87 See your I/O devices on your CRT in color/ASM U/L by Stacy Hornstein. Shows disk activity on the screen. Includes versions for both color and mono monitors, with source. DEADMAN.ARC 7502 04-22-87 PC deadman switch by K.P.Graham, 04/21/87/ASM U/L by Bob Weinstein. A special purpose program, DEADMAN prints a message on the screen every X seconds, preceded by a warning tone. The code for this TSR should prove interesting. AUTOCARO.ARC 4928 04-22-87 Autoexec CAROUSEL startup by D.Lewis/04/22/87 U/L by Bob Weinstein. ATPARAM.ARC 12785 04-22-87 Check AT HD Controller Drive Parameters/COM U/L by Jerry Zeller. Just shows you the parameter table of your AT controller and the types currently in use. No doc. ZDOC.ARC 6127 04-22-87 Documentation of DSZ Zmodem-Batch & Ymodem-G U/L and written by Steve Shelton. A valiant effort to cull from the ZCOMM and Pro-YAM docs the info that is needed to understand all of DSZ's parameters. But, some of the info is already out of date (this doc was prepared for the 4/6/87 version of DSZ and we're up to 4/22/87 as I write this) and some of the parms are not implemented in DSZ (.e.g. DSZ does not do SeaLink or Telink transfers as this doc might lead you to think). Still, there's some useful info here. CLEAN104.ARC 45526 04-22-87 Fill unused clusters on disk w/characters 1.04 U/L by George Introzzi. Another program that attempts to foil those who would unerase files or examine clusters formerly occupied by erased files by filling all unused clusters with characters. RPNCALC.ARC 26326 04-22-87 HP-11 calculator emulator w/8087 version v1.2 U/L by Fred Bauer. Allows input of numbers in scientic notation, emulating an HP-11C calculator. Versions included for those with and without a math coprocessor. [04-21-87] EZS.ARC 58444 04-21-87 Easy Spell/PD spelling checker w/TPas source U/L by Fran Horvath. Not new, but includes the complete Turbo Pascal source for this spell checker and a pretty decent dictionary file. The COM file is not included as I think this file will be most useful for its source and the dictionary. CNVRT300.ARC 11881 04-21-87 Convert Qmodem 2.3 FON dirs to 3.0 U/L by Dave Klein. John Friel accidentally left this one out of the initial Qmodem 3.0 release. All it does is make room for the new password field if you are using a QM 2.3 directory. You may not even have that problem (it depends on how long your existing FON entries were). Anyway, the conversion program is here if you want it and has also been added to QMSSTINS.ARC. RESTPRT.ARC 828 04-21-87 Re-enable PrtSc in Programs that disable it U/L and written by Rod Renner. A TSR that will stop programs from disabling print-screen. I've never run into a program that does. I gather from the doc that some games are culprits in this regard. SRCH78.ARC 33769 04-21-87 Search text files for multiple phrases v7.8 U/L by Mark Rapp. Will search file(s) for up to five strings. No doc but type the name of the program for its syntax. BRPR100.LBR 29696 04-21-87 Braille print utility/TP src, CP/M & DOS exec U/L and co-authored by Tadas Osmolskis. "The Braille Printing Utility (BRPR, version 1.00) is designed to split a file produced for an 80-column printer so it can be printed on a 40-column braille printer and bound to allow braille to be read logically across facing pages." CP/M and DOS compiled versions are included as well as the Turbo Pascal source. Posted as a library, rather than an archive, as the ARC format is less well supported in CP/M (though, in fact, there are ARC 5.1 compatible CP/M arc programs). PCRGB135.ARC 45963 04-21-87 Keith Graham's PIC viewer plus v1.35,04/20/87 U/L by Bob Weinstein. Update notes: 1.35 4/20/87 to test Gemini 10, 15 printers. 1.34 3/31/87 Testing of PC Paintbrush Files, Released to Ed Shoemaker for evaluation and distribution. LARC16.ARC 54656 04-21-87 Re-ARC files,ARCA,PKARC &/or ARC/*.*/QB/Buerg U/L and written by Vern Buerg. 4/15/87 Version 1.6 adds more checks to insure that the temporary directory is empty. Also, you may now press ESCape while LARC is running to cancel it. A check was added to stop processing if an error occurred creating a new ARC file [04-20-87] CLIPWHAT.ARC 41127 04-20-87 Link SAYWHAT! screens into Clipper EXE w/TPas U/L & written by Bob Hicks. Rather than having to include separate SQZ files with programs that are designed with SAYWHAT!, this program allows all the screens to be included in the EXE itself. VIDPOP still must be distributed along with the executable. FW.ARC 47990 04-20-87 Filewatch-file activity monitor/C.Dunford/1.0 U/L and written by Chris Dunford. If you're a tinkerer who is always trying to speed up your system (I'm an addict), you'll have all sorts of fun with this one. FileWatch is a little TSR that logs all disk read and write requests by filename (you can limit the logging to executables only or have it log everything). A separate program will then generate a report by filename telling you, for each file, how many sectors DOS requested, how many were actually read, and the % of read requests that resulted in physical disk reads. It provides the same info for writes. The purpose of all this is to help you figure out which files might be best placed on a RAM disk. Or, you could use it to measure the efficiency of your current cache program. Or, even help you decide on the best scheme for disk optimization for those programs that allow you to choose where the files will be placed on your disk. The FileWatch system takes very little memory and runs unobtrusively in background (it got along with all the other TSRs installed on my work machine). The documentation is excellent and the program is quite easy to use, with a good batch file provided to help you collect/merge data and generate reports. FASMEN40.ARC 69797 04-20-87 Fast Menu Devlpt Systm 4.0 12/86 Menu shell U/L by John Sawyer. A 2 level batch-oriented menu system, with up to 10 options on the main menu (called by F1 through F10), any of which can be submenus. This one looks fast and pretty and the documentation is quite good. QFONE300.ARC 112336 04-20-87 QFONEDIT v3.00, QMODEM.FON editor /Crippled U/L by Bob Weinstein. Qfonedit is a very powerful program to manipulate Qmodem's phone directory file (QMODEM.FON). If you maintain a directory with a great many numbers (I don't, and consequently have never had any need for this program), you'll probably find it useful. Unfortunately, Karl Brendel has decided to try encouraging more registrations by omitting 2 capabilities from the BBS version --- (1) The ability to read and save Qfonedit configuration options; (2) On-line help. While the crippling here really amounts to nothing more than making it less convenient to use the program, I still think it represents an unfortunate decision on Karl's part. Frankly, I doubt this is the kind of program that's going to produce many registrations, with or without this type of inducement. That's not a judgment on the value of the program, but rather an observation based on watching what seems to succeed as shareware and what doesn't. I see no indication that add-on products like this generate much in the way of financial returns. Do it for the fun of it, Karl, and for the recognition your good programming and hard work will achieve, not for the money. If you're in it for the latter, don't bother. TPSTRING.ARC 5372 04-20-87 TPascal String routine package /inline code SCOUT27.ARC 124742 04-20-87 TSR sweep-util and DOS shell v2.72 4/18/87 U/L by Loren Olson. An update to the SCOUT TSR sweep and shell program, but no update notes. See earlier review of SCOUT.ARC. VEMM.ARC 36153 04-20-87 Virtual Expanded Mem Mngr 1.10/emulate LIMs Supports a subset of the LIM/EMS expanded memory standard, using your disk drive as the swap area. Thus, allows some emulation on EMS capabilities even if you don't have an EMS memory board in your system, but at a cost -- speed. Some interesting source code is included in the arc. I doubt the program itself will perform well enough to be satisfactory in most applications. CLIPASC.ARC 19070 04-20-87 Access 'flat files' from within Clipper U/L by Bob Hicks. "CLIPASC is a set of User Defined functions, programmed in Assembler which allow a program written in Clipper to access and manipulate information contained in flat ASCII files." Version 1.1. QKWRITE.ARC 1740 04-20-87 UDF in ASM / quick-write to screen in Clipper U/L by Bob Hicks. MEMOLINE.ARC 6108 04-20-87 UDF in "C" to improve memo output in Clipper U/L by Bob Hicks. Allows you to display or print a selected section of a memo field. [04-19-87] QMSSTCOM.ARC 150737 04-19-87 Qmodem 3.0 COM, overlay and QMODEM.HLP QMSSTINS.ARC 74824 04-19-87 Qmodem 3.0 install program & sample scripts QMSSTDOC.ARC 116724 04-19-87 Qmodem 3.0 documentation EXTERNAL.ARC 118728 04-19-87 External file transfer modules & bat files 04-19-87 for use with Qmodem 3.0 John Friel has produced a major revision to his already excellent communications program. Qmodem 3.0 (now called Qmodem SST -- oh well) has become more than just a program to call BBS systems with. It is truly a full-fledged, professional communications package with more capabilities than are available in most (all?) commercial programs. The list of new features/changes in 3.0 would go on for a very long time, so I'll highlight but a few: --- Terminal emulation has been added. Qmodem emulates a DEC VT-100 and a Televideo 925 terminal. The VT-100 is really excellent. While I wish it were a bit faster, it's incredibly accurate and it's doing a lot of work to emulate a DEC terminal so well. --- Support for many new file transfer protocols has been added via execution of external comm modules. John's method for doing this is really very clever. You tell the QINSTALL program the names of batch files that will be executed to perform the transfers. Qmodem passes to those files parameters including baud rate, com port and (if necessary) file names. It works very smoothly and gives Qmodem the ability to execute any external module, including DSZ (for Ymodem batch and Zmodem), PCKermit, WXModem and SeaLink. --- The script language has been vastly enhanced. It is very powerful and yet quite easy to use. I am not one for using script capabilities much, but I finally wrote a few for Qmodem 3.0 a month or two ago during beta testing and have been very impressed. Even if you don't want to write your own, some good ones will undoubtedly show up. I could go on, but most of you will download Qmodem no matter what I say and it's a big package. So, get to it. A couple of housekeeping notes: (1) I was a beta tester for Qmodem 3.0 so the normal caveats apply. (2) EXTERNAL.ARC contains programs that, for the most part, were already on this system. It will quickly get out of date (indeed, it contained an older copy of DSZ than is current so I have updated it). I will probably pull the executables out of that file soon and list those that weren't already here separately, but it's available as is for the time being. DSKVR44B.ARC 59277 04-19-87 Disk Cover program v4.4B/expands ARC/LBR U/L by Francis Sullivan. This happens to be my favorite of the disk cover programs. But, there's no indication of what's new in this release which is 4.4B as opposed to plain old 4.4. I hope the only difference wasn't a new serial number as part of the commission scheme as I've patched that out anyway. QBCRYPT.ARC 3153 04-19-87 QuickBASIC encrypt/decrypt functions OBJ/ASM U/L and written by Jack Kilday. " Designed for use in QuickBASIC programs, EDCRYPT.OBJ provides an assembler-based, called subprogram for string encryption and decryption. The encryption algorithm is based on one contained in an old PC Magazine utility, LOCK.COM ...." ASM source included. SETCOLOR.ARC 5294 04-19-87 DB3+/Clipper Set Color procedure PRG/DOC U/L by Neal Machtiger. BCB.ARC 56681 04-19-87 Batch Commander/Menu Builder v1.0 6/86 U/L by Philip Stults. Egads, I just can't keep up with all the menu programs that seem to be floating around. This one looks well executed and documented, with the following features: -Memory is allocated dynamically. -Each data file is capable of up to 16 pages. -Each page is titled. -Each page is capable of up to 14 options. -Up to 30 commands per option. -Compatible with floppy, fixed or ram disks. -Supports full directory commands. -Windows. -Help for option using Display command. -User Input may be passed to program on command line. -Small data files. -More than one data file allowed. -Fast load time. PEII.ARC 10622 04-19-87 IBM Personal Editor II help file and PROfile U/L by Phillip Stults. A help file that's better than IBM's (what isn't) and a sample PE2.PRO file which contains a few nice macros. BASEBALL.ARC 37555 04-19-87 Keep track of players' stats on your team U/L by John Horneff. [04-18-87] POLYCOPY.ARC 23400 04-18-87 Read disk once/copy to 2 floppies fast U/L by Mike Focke. If you have 2 floppies, this program claims to be able to cut your time in making multiple floppy-copies in half. 360K format is the only one supported. MSTRKY17.ARC 127564 04-18-87 Master Key v1.7C, Norton-like utils including 04-18-87 unerase and unformat / powerful & easy to use U/L by Pete Olympia. MasterKey has been reviewed here several times before. It is an excellent "clone" of some of the commercial utilities packages such as Norton's, PC-Tools and Mace. In addition to an unerase that works on large hard disks formatted under DOS 3.x, MasterKey will allow file and disk editing, changing attributes, times and dates, and much more. This latest version has an "unformat" (a la Mace) for recovering from an accidental format of your hard disk, a wipefile type program (erase a file with no hope of unerasure) and one that fills empty parts of your hard disk with random strings, again for security to prevent recovery of sensitive, erased data. DBA0387.ARC 11496 04-18-87 Data Based Advisor source/demo's 3/87 U/L by Bob Hicks. Several files have been omitted from this arc to save space, including 2 excellent packages from Pete Olympia that were already here and the executable of the Quick program (the source remains). DBWIND.ARC 13557 04-18-87 Window module for dBase3+ v1.0 /ASM/BIN/PRG U/L by Bob Hicks. A module to be loaded into dbase .prg files to open a variable sized window. CLFUNC01.ARC 1999 04-18-87 Alternate to pict - $ format UDF for Clipper U/L by Bob Hicks. XC_PATCH.ARC 2093 04-18-87 Patch PC-DOS XCOPY 3.2 to run with DOS 3.1 U/L by Paul Kopit. Patches PC DOS XCOPY 3.2 to run under any DOS version by elimination the version check. It seems to work fine under PC DOS 3.1. I'd be very wary of trying it under any version of DOS 2.x. EXE2COM.ARC 12730 04-18-87 Replaces EXE2BIN, with C source, C. Dunford U/L and written by Chris Dunford. Wonderful. In all its wisdom (ahem), IBM decided that only techies needed EXE2BIN so it is not included on the DOS 3.3 system disk. Rather, you have to buy it separately as part of the Tech Ref materials. Chris Dunford has come along and written his own EXE to COM (or BIN for you dBase folks) converter and made a few improvements on the program's syntax while he was at it. C source is included (CI C86 v2.2, but looks quite portable and Chris suggests a solution for the one function that may cause problems). LPTCHK01.ARC 2071 04-18-87 Check printer status w/BAT file, v1.0, 04/87 U/L by Bob Weinstein. Checks to see if the printer is on-line, ready, etc. XEQ112.ARC 9312 04-18-87 COM file library & executor saves space,v1.12 Latest update notes: 1.10 2-APR-87 Under DOS 3.x updating writes to original file. Also updates command name in environment for MAP, added wildcard, fixed yet another space computation bug, used local stack for external run only 1.11 13-APR-87 Revised space saved compute, see note above 1.12 16-APR-87 Fixed bug in load_run module which did not initialize stack correctly. Bug manifested itself when MODE was run internally. Returned bad parameters message FILL12.ARC 28190 04-18-87 Optimize copies HD ==> floppies 1.2/recursive This is a very clever program to enable you to make best use of floppies when copying more files to them from your hard disk than will fit on one. The program sorts through the files that match your spec and copies them in the order that will be most optimal (or nearly so). When pausing between disks, you can format another floppy, do a dir on it, erase it, etc. v1.2 adds the ability to do a recursive copy down a subdirectory tree. All in all, a very useful utility. MINIXFIX.ARC 18084 04-18-87 Unofficial patches for Tannenbaum's MINIX U/L by Steve Hite. Various patches to Tannenbaum's low-cost Unix clone. BOOST.ARC 26998 04-18-87 Change speeds on Turbo clones U/L by Bill Seawright. [04-17-87] DM22.ARC 50903 04-17-87 \ Directory Master v2.2 sweep-util 4/11/87 DM22DOC.ARC 34019 04-17-87 / Documentation for Directory Master v.2.2 U/L by James Bach. Really an excellent file manager/sweep util that has been marred in the past by no documentation and a pyramid commision scheme that I find offensive. The latter remains (but this copy is serial #1, i.e. from the author's BBS and thus not yet registered by one with false hopes of getting rich). However, there is now quite adequate documentation which should help you explore all of this program's many capabilities. Update notes 4-11-87: First release of version 2.2. This version uses direct video I/O in some areas and updates the screen several times faster than older versions. Several minor improvements to the VIEW command including the ability to view READ-ONLY files. CLM22.ARC 31551 04-17-87 Custom Label maker, best w/Okidata printers U/L by Cleve Corlett. "The program CUSTOM LABEL MAKER was written to help make fancy labels for disks, return address, and other label needs." Two programs are included: CLM-OKI.COM which prints the labels three-up on the Okidata m92/m93 printer. It makes use of four type sizes and near letter quality printing. CLM.COM prints one-up labels in standard data quality 10 cpi. print on most any printer. CBOOT20.ARC 4104 04-17-87 TSR freezeup controller/rebooter v2.0, 041687 U/L by Bob Weinstein. "CBOOT is a very simple memory resident program which watches the keyboard interrupt. waiting for someone to press the Left Shift, the Alt key and the "B" key all at the same time. When this happens a small menu appears on the screen. The menu allows you to re-boot your PC in one of two ways. It allows you to issue a control-break and it allows you to attempt an exit of your program. A new item, restoring interrupts, is new with version 2.0." [04-16-87] IFDEF.ARC 15992 04-16-87 "Ersatz" conditional compiles for TPascal "Turbo-Pascal does not yet support conditional compilation. IFDEF is a simple filter that may be used to comment in and out sections of the source code, so that one single source may be used to produce object code for different environments." PAS & DOC included. PASPP.ARC 37966 04-16-87 Pretty print & debugging aid for TPascal U/L by David Seidman, who was kind enough not only to upload this program but also to supplement its dismal documentation. PASPP is yet another source code beautifier but has the additional, quite useful ability to add DEBUG procedure calls to the source code. PCTJ0287.ARC 57116 04-16-87 IBM PC Tech Journal Routines - Feb 87 U/L by Bill Wood. LQ_TO_FX.ARC 5120 04-16-87 Convert Epson LQ to FX line spacing U/L and written by Tom Frank. " This program allows an EPSON LQ (or compatible) printer to more closely emulate an FX-80 class printer. This allows most graphics and word processing programs to work properly. The main symptom is that pages printed are longer than 1 page. This is due to the fact that the LQ uses the same escape sequences as the FX but interprets the spacing codes differently." ASM source for this TSR is included and could easily be modified for other substitution tasks. PROI209.ARC 81825 04-16-87 Portfolio management program v2.09/Subset U/L by Jeffrey Heynen. A pretty good investment portfolio package with concentration on determing return on investment (ROI). v2.09 but no update notes. [04-15-87] WINEGA.ARC 50440 04-15-87 650X480 Drivers for MS Windows and Hardware U/L by Vernon Huang. "This package of Windows drivers includes several high-resolution drivers for Enhanced Graphic Adapters with various monitors. Most of the drivers require a 24mhz adapter card to be installed in the feature connector of the EGA. Brief instructions for building this card are given ...." ADVBAS33.ARC 111538 04-15-87 Hanlin's asm LIBrary v3.3 for QuickBASIC U/L and written by Tom Hanlin. I have long since run out of superlatives to describe Tom's ADVBAS package. The bottom line simply is that if you program in compiled BASIC, you ought to have this collection of routines. An astonishing number of programs that are uploaded to this system have been written using Tom's library. Update notes: ADVBAS 3.3, 04/14/87: A new modem status routine, CARRIER, lets you check the Carrier Detect. To ease those data-entry woes, STRIPBLANKS allows you to strip the blanks (and control characters) off either the left or right side of a string, or both. A bug in MAKEWINDOW dealing with shadowed windows has been fixed. A cross-reference listing of where ADVBAS routines are located inside source and object files is now included (ADVBAS.XRF). The manual, ADVBAS.DOC, has been reformatted to allow binding. SUPERV21.ARC 66450 04-15-87 Turbo PASCAL Comm. drivers v2.01 PAS/COM/DOC U/L by Kwanghyan Kim. "SUPERCOM is a replacement for the normal BIOS interrupt 14, which handles asynchronous communications. The support through BIOS is so pitifully inadequate that it is almost impossible to write secure, reliable communications software using the four functions they give you. SUPERCOM gives you 16 useful functions and a variable length receive buffer. It has been designed with interface to high level languages in mind, and in fact includes Turbo Pascal procedures to utilize all of SUPERCOM's functions." UUSLAVE.ARC 52187 04-15-87 Link PC to Unix via 'uucp'/ MS-C 4.0 source U/L by Van Gale. In essence, this program mimics the 'uucico' package in Unix so that your PC can be setup to receive a call from a Unix computer running uucp. Well, ok, but once you've answered the call, now what do you do? Transfer files? X/Y/Zmodem and Kermit are probably faster and more reliable. Exchange messages? Oh really. Do you have Unix mail on your PC? In short, I'm not sure of the practical application for this package, but the code is fascinating. It's uucp packet compatible yet the arc contains a certification from AT&T that the code is noninfringing. For those of you who bought Minix, Tannenbaum's Unix subset, which came without uucp, I gather, maybe you can put this code to good use. [04-14-87] D86V222.ARC 74444 04-14-87 D86 debugger v2.22/Use with A86 and alone U/L by Stephen Falatko. A screen-oriented debugger than can be used with the authors A86 assembler (see below) or as a stand alone. FORM272.ARC 99316 04-14-87 Form-Gen v2.72 /Draw Business Forms U/L by Jay Emerson. A good business forms generator. Latest changes: - The help system has been expanded to include a quick reference to the control keys. - The printer now moves to the beginning of the next page after printing a form. - A small gap left in a joint when drawing a double line down from horizontal single line has been fixed. - The horizontal line drawing routines have been changed ... - A form to be loaded can now be specified on the command line: FORM KEYS - will load the form "KEYS" on startup - Problem leaving "@" on printer at exit has been fixed. - [Alt] [F] for directory display now shows all files. UUNET.ARC 4110 04-14-87 Low cost access to USENET & uucp network There has been increased interest expressed in the message system here about access to USENET (an international, Unix-based message system). One of the Unix user groups (USENIX) has just announced a non-profit, relatively low cost service for gaining access to USENET news, UUCP mail, ARPAnet mail, and various source archives. This archive contains the announcement and an address to write to for further information. No endorsement implied by posting this message -- but, FYI. [04-13-87] INLINE21.ARC 29543 04-13-87 Convert ASM source to TP inline code v2.1 U/L by David Seidman. This is an update to an indispensable tool for Turbo Pascal programmers. David Baldwin's program is an assembler that takes an ASM source file and converts it to inline code suitable for inclusion in Turbo Pascal programs. The archive includes the TP source for the inline assembler and a doc (presumably, if you have need of this tool, you also can compile it yourself). Update notes for 2.1: 2.1 Add NEW pseudo-instruction. Fixed bug which occurred with filenames having no extension. Other bugs fixed, notably those effecting IN and OUT. See also UNINLINE.ARC by the same author. FETCH21.ARC 85909 04-13-87 Menu shell for ARChive utilities v2.1 U/L by Francis Sullivan. I'm really not the right one to review this. I hate menus when they can be avoided so the idea of wrapping a menu shell around various archive functions doesn't appeal to me personally at all. It also seems to me that if you can configure this program, you already know enough about archives that you don't need it (but, I suppose, you could configure it for someone else who knows less). Oh well, as I said, not for me. A couple of gripes: (1) There's heavy use of configuration and menu routines from PibTerm in this program, yet no acknowledgement that I found. As this is "try it and then buy it" software, a note of thanks is the least the author could do (assuming this is permitted under Phil Burns' license in the first place). (2) The default program for typing a file inside an ARC is "ARCTYPE" which the author attributes to Vern Buerg. Wrong. ARCTYPE was a hack on an early version of Vern's ARCE but wasn't done by him and is buggy (it will declare valid arcs invalid). You can configure the program to use something else. UPDATE56.ARC 97093 04-13-87 Backup New|Changed|Old files; v5.6 R.Holmgren U/L by Francis Sullivan. Minor changes to this release: " 5.6 includes a configuration menu (UPDATE T `S'et Technical Switches menu) to define colors, set the Archive attribute bit, and Set Verify." Use the InfoDoor to see earlier reviews. PUTPASS1.ARC 18492 04-13-87 Password protect a .COM file v1.0 U/L by Gerhard Barth. Modifies a COM file (EXE not supported) to require a password before it can be run. Seemed to work just fine on the couple of files I experimented with. Apparently, the author is distributing the source but it's not included in this arc. KWMENU.ARC 61207 04-13-87 Batch-driven menu system w/paswrd prot v3.0 U/L by John Sawyer. With all the menu programs on this system, each new one faces tough sledding and I don't think this one makes it. It's awkward to configure, not particularly attractive, and doesn't seem to have any features not found in others. I'll admit I got off on the wrong foot with this one: THE DOCUMENTATION IS ALL IN CAPS AND THAT DRIVES ME CRAZY! A86V300A.ARC 75159 04-13-87 \ Powerful, fast Macro Assembler now w/ A86V300B.ARC 104798 04-13-87 / OBJ file support/not MASM compat v3.00 U/L by Stephen Falatko. The author of this package, once dubbed by Phil Burns as the "Howard Cosell of programming" because of the immodesty of A86's docs, continues to refine and add features to this program. It has become an excellent assembler and now and again some programs are popping up written in it. The chief "problem" remains incompatibility with MASM and it's awfully hard to buck the IBM/Microsoft standard. In any event, v3.00 adds support for linkable OBJ files and many other new features, plus a substantially revised and improved sets of documentation files. Worth a look if you don't have MASM (but for less than $100 mail order ... oh well, let's not start that again). [04-12-87] PICNIX21.ARC 55700 04-12-87 \ cat chlabel chmod cp cpdir & DOC \ Unix- PICNIX22.ARC 49095 04-12-87 / df diff du / like PICNIX23.ARC 45805 04-12-87 \ fgrep grep ls ntime \ DOS PICNIX24.ARC 46800 04-12-87 / more mv mvdir ncd / utils PICNIX25.ARC 47174 04-12-87 \ ndate necho nset unset pwd rm \ v2.0 PICNIX26.ARC 53184 04-12-87 / show strings switchar tee touch wc/ 1/87 U/L by Yuan Liu. This is version 2.0 of an excellent set of utilities that emulate in DOS capabilities that are available on Unix systems. The programs are all quite good, and what's most important is that they share a similar command structure. Thus, while you might find another 'chmod' or 'tee' program on this system that has the same functions, the 2 would likely be by different authors and have different syntax. The PICNIX package shortens the learning curve by making the syntax uniform. Almost all of the programs also allow you to set environmental variables for their options so you can pre-set them to your needs (assuming you don't run out of environment space!). The doc file is not great, but all of the programs tell you their syntax if you simply type their name and /? (e.g., CAT /? ). Source code is not included, but it is available ($30 brings you a meg of DeSmet C). These programs are shareware and a $15 registration is requested. Version 2.0 has many bug fixes and enhancements to the programs that were included in v1.0, plus some new ones (ndate: show/set date & time; nset: show/set the environment; unset: delete a string from the environment; ntime: time a command; and strings: print ascii in a binary file). All in all, an excellent package. BAR.ARC 1492 04-12-87 Generate status bar for dBASEIII/+ PRG U/L by Bobby Mangoba. Put a status bar on the screen to keep the user informed when an operation is going to take a long time. 2SCREEN.ARC 2764 04-12-87 Browse for dBASE w/out edit PRG/DBF/DOC U/L by Bobby Mangoba. Based on 4/31 PC Mag but with added doc. A BROWSE-like capability to be made available to users when you don't want them to be able to change anything. MEMRES.ARC 5104 04-12-87 TSR technique/C & ASM/by Lattice Tech Support U/L by Jeff Corey. Routines for writing mem-res programs in Lattice C from the Lattice folks themselves. Supports the small mem model. Dates from May '86 but should be useful with newer version of the compiler as well. RINGBACK.ARC 29977 04-12-87 Make comm prg answer on 2d call only/DTR cntrl U/L and written by Jeff Green. The idea is to allow you to hook a package like pcANYWHERE to a non-dedicated phone line and only have it answer after a ringback (i.e. you call, ring a specified number of times and then call back -- it should only answer on the 2d call). Some packages have ringback capability built-in. This is for those that don't. [04-11-87] FASTFOUR.ARC 1671 04-11-87 Fast Fourier transforms in DeSmet C U/L by Mike Rubenstein. PCBFIL31.ARC 74121 04-11-87 PCBoard Dir Maintenance/ PCB 10&11 / v3.1 From John Wulff's notes: "A couple of minor screen display annoyances are addressed in PCBFile version 3.1 which pertain to the Output section. These problems were display oriented only and did not affect the output selection and you may not have ever had any problem, but they popped up on me often enough that they were fixed." PMAP121.ARC 19282 04-11-87 Memory mapper v1.21 shows TSRs & EMS/C.Dunford U/L and written by Chris Dunford. An excellent, fast memory map program that shows what's sitting in RAM (TSR's, etc.) and also gives a summary report of LIMs memory usage. v1.21 has some bug fixes. See review of PMAP120.ARC for more details about this program. FGREP140.ARC 6165 04-11-87 Small/Fast 'grep' for DOS/C.Dunford/v1.40 Chris Dunford's FGREP program (grep is to the DOS FIND program what a BMW 733 CSI is to a bike with training wheels -- OK?) is one of the fastest, smallest grep programs on this system. Although it has less options than some other, more complete imitations of Unix grep, I tend to use it the most because it has the options I need and it's so darned fast. v1.40 adds a new, very useful, capability, explained in the doc as follows: "The -v switch provides a reVerse or negative search. That is, all lines that do NOT contain the specified string are displayed. This provides a handy way to get rid of lines containing specified text. Suppose, for example, that you have a file containing a list of file names, and you are interested in all files EXCEPT those that contain a '$' in the name (perhaps they are temporary files): fgrep -v "$" filename." EX2BIN33.ARC 737 04-11-87 Patch DOS 3.2 EXE2BIN for DOS 3.3 Never fails. IBM decided to leave EXE2BIN off of the DOS 3.3 system disk and make you buy it with the Tech Ref diskette. So, surprise, surprise, here's a patch to DOS 3.2's EXE2BIN so it will run under DOS 3.3. The patch presumably works with other DOS 3.x versions of EXE2BIN as well (none tested here). TC810.ARC 156372 04-11-87 Meiners' TurboCalc spreadsheet/editor 8.10 U/L by Larry Bevil. From the update notes: "1. New feature. Fixed column import. Users may now import data that is fixed length fields. This is handy when the DIF format is not available. The field lengths should match the column widths in Turbo CALC, in this manner Turbo CALC will know how wide each field is. 2. Whenever a wide area, greater than 80 columns, of blank space preceeded a group of numbers, in printed output, the numbers would shift to the left by a random number of columns. This has been fixed." EM38FDOC.ARC 72296 04-11-87 \ MicroEmacs 3.8f DOCumentation for all EM38FIBM.ARC 50444 04-11-87 / MicroEmacs 3.8f: IBM-PC CGA and MONO EXE EM38FEGA.ARC 50130 04-11-87 \ MicroEmacs 3.8f: IBM-PC EGA EXE EM38FANS.ARC 50199 04-11-87 / MicroEmacs 3.8f: MS-DOS ANSI EXE EM38F110.ARC 45785 04-11-87 \ MicroEmacs 3.8f: HP110 portable EXE EM38F150.ARC 63615 04-11-87 / MicroEmacs 3.8f: HP150 EXE EM38F520.ARC 50594 04-11-87 / MicroEmacs 3.8f: Atari ST version EM38FSRC.ARC 224677 04-11-87 \ MicroEmacs 3.8f: C source for all U/L by David Page. Daniel Lawrence's MicroEmacs has been reviewed here (very favorably) several times before, so I'll limit this to quoting the update notes since v3.8b which was the last on this system: 2-feb-87 - added ATARI 1040 support...runs in all three modes right now - added $palette var with palette value in it - undefined "register" in bind.c and input.c for ST520 & LATTICE to get around a nasty lattice bug 4-feb-87 - added, debugged code for switching all 1040ST color modes, added code for HIGH monochrome mode as well, DENSE still pending 5-feb-87 - with John Gamble, found and corrected the infamous bad matching fence problems. - added error return check in various add/delete mode commands 10-feb-87 - re-arrange code in docmd() so that labels are stored in macro buffers - fixed !RETURN to only return if (execlevel == 0) [If we are currently executing] 14-feb-86 - added to outp() calls in the EGA driver to fix a bug in the BIOS - adding code for 1040ST 40 line DENSE mode In short, while 3.8 was a major revision, the changes between b and f may well not be significant to you. NOTE: I can't believe I'm ending up with an ATARI program on this system (EM38F520.ARC contains the executable for the Atari). It may not be here for long. QBMENU.ARC 53763 04-11-87 Menu/window routines for QBASIC 2.0/ v0.9 These look to be decent QuickBASIC menu and window routines but they're a bit short of documentation in this first release. Hopefully, the demo program gives you enough to go on. You'll also need Tom Hanlin's ADVBAS routines as they're used by the demo. DSZ0406.ARC 39272 04-11-87 Z/Y/Xmodem module/run f other comm prgs 040687 Got me. This is straight from TeleGodzilla (Forsberg's board) but he had not posted new documentation or otherwise indicated what's changed. I see some cosmetic changes when using it but no new capabilities. Bug fixes too? REBOOT15.ARC 11857 04-11-87 Reboot system w/alternate CONFIG/AUTOEXEC v1.5 A way of switching CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files before rebooting. This one requires that the files all be kept in a special subdirectory. I change configurations so often on my work machine that I actually use one of these (RECONFIG.ARC) which is similar to this one without the special subdir requirement. DLCXREF.ARC 53446 04-11-87 C cross-reference prog w/DataLite C source Yet another C xref program, but DLC code is popular here so here you go ... [04-10-87] BAWK21.ARC 29543 04-10-87 UNIX-like DOS text processor,v2.1/good doc U/L by Scott Pazur. This looks to be a very good implementation of the Unix 'awk' program. Alas, no source code (it's written in Lattice C 3.0) but an excellent doc file and some sample "awk" files. See also BAWK1.ARC for an implementation in MS-C 4.0, including source. STATUS.ARC 12566 04-10-87 System status report/ASM/BAS/COM PC Mag U/L by Michael Cohen. Not nearly as good as a number of other programs that tell you what's installed on your system, but the ASM source is included. NECP6&P7.ARC 102645 04-10-87 NEC P6 & P7 printer setup/many features/beta U/L by Loren Olson. Menu-driven program to control the listed NEC printers. A "prototype" version written in Clipper (source not included) which explains why it's so darned large. The author says a version written in assembler "is in the works." [04-09-87] RESPRO12.ARC 10341 04-09-87 Disable/Reactivate TSR's/E.Gans v1.2 U/L by James Bach. A worthy competitor to Kokkonen's MARK/RELEASE programs, Gans' RESPRO also allows you to disable temporarily a TSR and then start it up again. Prior versions of RESPRO have been entirely menu driven. v1.2 adds the ability to do some of its operations via a command line, useful for batch files (and also to those of us who just prefer command line driven programs when at all feasible!). Update notes: "Version 1.2: Enabled command-line operation. Fixed bug that allowed loading a second copy of RESPRO. RESPRO now checks specifically for the presence of SideKick; it disables itself if there are over 24 memory-resident programs loaded." Note: The doc erroneously says this is v1.2, 3/19/86. It's really 3/19/87. And anyone who has gotten a check from Eric Gans lately should make sure of its date (grin). [04-08-87] NEWFNT31.ARC 15074 04-08-87 Text fonts on EGA/25&43 lns/supports NANSI/3.1 U/L by Tom Cochran. No EGA here, so from the doc: "The programs in NEWFNT.ARC will provide owners of most EGA systems a new set of text fonts in both 25 and 43 line modes. In addition, they make it a simple task to switch between the ROM-based 8x14 font and the two new fonts. Included with the NEWFONT system are alternate font-switching programs to use with the NANSI.SYS console driver. The NEWFONT system also provides a simple method for users to load the EGA pallette registers, and make them resident throughout almost every application program. Two programs are included that will allow the NEWFONT system to be used with MARK/RELEASE, and with 'EGA-dumb' programs like Microsoft's CodeView." TSHELL10.ARC 40809 04-08-87 TPascal preprocessor (C-like), for v.3.01A U/L by David Seidman. "This program allows you to use a number of C-like preprocessor statements in a Turbo Pascal source file. It interprets the statements and passes the processed text on to the Turbo compiler for further processing. The TSHELL program will load TURBO.COM into memory, install the preprocessor shell, and enter the Turbo main menu. At this point, Turbo Pascal can be used as always, except that the new preprocessor commands can be used in any source file." There is also a command-line driven version of the pre-processor that does not load TURBO.COM and which will work with versions of the compiler other than 3.01A. The author indicates that full support of more recent versions of the compiler is forthcoming. SETRTC.ARC 19670 04-08-87 Set/get AT battery clock time/C source 4/87 U/L and written by Mike Rubenstein. "SETRTC sets the AT battery clock to the current MSDOS time and date. GETRTC sets the current MSDOS time and date to the AT battery clock. Neither program uses any command line arguments. Both programs check for an environment variable DST. If it is present, the time is adjusted by an hour (forward for GETRTC, backward for SETRTC). This allows the battery clock to be kept on standard time and adjusted with John Snyder's DAYLIGHT program." (a copy of DAYLIGHT.COM, somewhat modified, in included). Nice programs for us AT folks (wish I had this one last weekend when we switched to DST) and portable-looking Aztec C source is included. EZMENU3.ARC 41917 04-08-87 EZ-Menu 3.0 3/87 -- application menu system U/L by John Sawyer. A nice looking, easy to use menu system with lightbar type menus, submenus and optional password protection. I had a little trouble with this one when fiddling with it briefly as I made a mistake in the subdir location field and it wouldn't seem to let me edit that field (mind you, this was a brief test of the program and it may have been my fault). There is also no provision for deleting a menu entry which is a bit of a pain. But, if you're into menu systems and want a very easy to setup one, this is worth a look. It's no competition for programs like AUTOMAXX but they're a good deal more complicated. FERS.ARC 153649 04-08-87 Fed Retiremnt Benefit Anlysis v2.0 w/DOC 1/87 U/L by Chuck Furfine. I take it this is the official program to be used to calculate benefits under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) vs. the new Federal Employee's Retirement System (FERS), developed under contract for the government. This archive, containing v2.0, contains full documentation which was produced with an OCR (the agencies have been getting printed manuals). TRG.ARC 138958 04-08-87 Desk manager & menu program v1.0 TI & IBM 1/87 U/L by Loren Olson. The best way to give you a quick idea of this program is to show you a copy of its screen (taken from the doc): January 1987 DESK MANAGER ~ TRG 9:38:35a Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa ENGINEERING 1 2 3 1 - ENGINEERING 1 - Autocad 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2 - ANALYSIS & WRITING 2 - Triangle 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 3 - COMMUNICATIONS 3 - TK!Solver 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 4 - FINANCES & SCHEDULES 4 - Areas 15 26 27 28 29 30 31 5 - PROGRAMMING 5 - Statistics 6 - SYSTEM UTILITIES 6 - A)ppointments C)alculator7 - DOS UTILITIES 7 - D)ialer, phone E)ditor 8 - GAMES 8 - F)ile manager I)ndex 9 - MENU ITEM 9 (OPEN) 9 - L)ock 0 - RETURN TO SYSTEM 0 -RETURN In short, TRG is a combination DOS menu shell and SideKick program (though not a TSR). It all looks quite well implemented and the documentation is OK as well. You'll need a graphics monitor and, according to the docs, the IBM version only runs on a PC-AT. I can't imagine why that is and a brief trial of it on an XT clone here seemed fine. But, given that it puts the screen in graphics mode, it's pretty darned slow on an XT, so ... There's also a version for the TI in this archive which I'm very tempted to delete and may do so eventually. [04-07-87] BASTIPS4.ARC 8235 04-07-87 BASIC tips 4th edition TURBTIP2.ARC 24678 04-07-87 Turbo Pascal tips 2nd edition DOSTIPS6.ARC 56180 04-07-87 DOS tips 6th edition LTSTIPS7.ARC 43120 04-07-87 Lotus 123 tips 7th edition DB3TIPS4.ARC 11122 04-07-87 dBASE III tips 4th edition U/L, compiled and edited by Dean Wood. These are the latest editions of Dean's excellent TIPS series, all Jan-Mar '87. If you're not familiar with this collection, Dean compiles and edits "tips" found in a variety of computer magazines and then collects them in these archives. If you're like me -- a whole lot less organized than Dean, apparently -- you'll find these collections invaluable. FREE402.ARC 5563 04-07-87 Report free conv/extnded/expanded mem 4.02 ASM Nicely done. Reports the total amount of conventional, extended (hmm... AT only or does this work on the new 286 and 386 PS/2's as well?) and expanded memory installed in your system and the amount of each that is available. ASM source included. SCOUT.ARC 123843 04-07-87 TSR sweep-util and DOS shell v2.7x 4/1/87 U/L by Loren Olson. If you're into memory-resident sweep utils (I'm not), this looks like one of the best I've seen. It's relatively memory efficient (seemed to take about 64K in its default configuration) and clean to use. It also has some unique features, including: + Format and print a text file from SCOUT + Reset all file archive bits in a directory + Batch copy all files updated since re-setting archive bits + Set a file's time/date + Automatically tag files for move, copy, or delete + Print a high/medium resolution CGA screen + Save the current screen to a text file + Strip WordStar file while copying + Temporarily disable activation key combination + Show ASCII character table + Display directory listing of .ARC files + Call Sidekick directly from SCOUT You can also uninstall this one from memory quite easily. The BBS version, while complete, loads in conventional memory. There is also a version for registered users that loads part of itself into expanded memory. [04-06-87] FREEMACS.ARC 108896 04-06-87 EMACS editor w/full prgrmmng lang. \ EXE/DOCS FREMACSR ARC 113158 04-06-87 IBM & Z-100 versions, 16K EXE, Fast/ ASM I am not an EMACS guru so I'm not prepared to compare this to other EMACS implementations that are available on this system or to the full Gosling EMACS. But, this is the first I've seen that was written for DOS in ASM! making it both fast and small. The EXE is all of 16K. Included is a full programming language called MINT and the editor itself is largely written in MINT, making it easy (for EMACS gurus) to modify. The full ASM source is also available. Finally, the docs look quite good, including a decent tutorial, making this one of the more accessible implementations of EMACS for those who are not experienced with implementations on other operating systems. ZDEL30.ARC 6695 04-06-87 Multifile deletion w/confirm/ASM/Hanlin v3 U/L and written by Tom Hanlin. O.K., I need to admit a bit of bias here. I really liked ZDEL20 (see 4/2/87 review) but mentioned to Tom that I'd love to see the program give a file's date, time and size when it asks you to confirm deletion of the file. That's exactly what's added to ZDEL v3.0 and, as far as I'm concerned, it makes this program perfect. In a COM file of 1,095 bytes, Tom handles multifile deletions on one command line, and allows wildcards, drive and subdir specs to be mixed in. On a machine like this one where thousands of files are spread across 3 hard disks and many subdirectories, the ability to give the command: ZDEL C:\TMP\*.BAK E:\PROG\ZDEL20.ARC D:\WORK\*.ARC is just invaluable. The program defaults to asking you to confirm each deletion and to giving you datestamp and size info on each file, but you can turn either or both of those off if you wish to live dangerously via a command line switch. Finally, full ASM source is included. Several other delete-with-verify utils have been erased from this system (using ZDEL, of course). They can't compete with this one. MONKEY12.ARC 31991 04-06-87 Examine/modify file(s) time/date/attr w/QB src U/L and written by Tom Hanlin. From a comment left by Tom describing the upload: "This corrects a cosmetic error in the last version of MONKEY, and adds handling for the Read-only file attribute (which will be vital for anyone fiddling with the system files!)." CHGPATH.ARC 15104 04-06-87 Change the PATH string on the fly/C/EXE/DOC U/L and written by Scott Mason. Allows you to change your PATH setting from the DOS command line without having to retype the entire PATH command string. Thus CHGPATH +C:\WP will add that drive/subdir to your current PATH (at the end) and a -D:\LOTUS would take that one out of your existing path. DeSmet C88 (v2.51) source included. LITEBA27.ARC 6342 04-06-87 Freeland's dB3+ LiteBar/now QS,Fox,Clip 2.7 U/L by Tom Drinkard. " 4/3/87--rev. 2.7 (2.6 got lost??)--fixed bugs that manifested in compiled environments, including uncompiled FOX, also added OBJ code for Clipper." ARCE30E.ARC 11110 04-06-87 Extract ARC files/ Buerg, Chin/v3.0e 040287 04-06-87 /Test & /G (password) options/imprvd handling 04-06-87 of bad archives;ignores "Squashed" files I think Vern is determined to make ARCE so indestructible that it would recover from being run against anything, no matter how totally screwed up the target ARC was. Alas, we Sysops do seem to get some pretty bizarre ones uploaded. Latest changes: 3.0d, 3/29/87 - correction to unsqueeze 3.0e, 4/02/87 - correct loop with invalid archives - insure errorlevel non-zero if any errors - correct loop in command line processing JARGON.ARC 137718 04-06-87 On-line manual for dBase & Clipper v1.0 U/L by Lewis Dozier. Looks very good (too bad the source wasn't included). From the docs: "This program is the DBASE and Clipper manual as a database on a disk.... Commands/functions can be retrieved by "NAME" or "TYPE" using the "Home"=NAME key and "End"=TYPE key. The MOVE keys access the database in sequence of the last-used key used for retrieval." You can modify the "manual" (JARGON.DBF) and the program re-indexes, etc. AMORTIZ3.ARC 57039 04-06-87 Amortization Scheduler v3 J.Davis/EXE only U/L by Lewis Dozier. A very flexible program for calculation amortization schedules. No doc is included but there's sufficient information in the program itself. [04-05-87] ASMTUTOR.ARC 35728 04-05-87 Tutorial on assembly language programming U/L by Matt Pollock. An intro to programming in ASM, this apparently dates from Feb '86 and a talk given by Joshua Auerbach of the Yale University Computer Center. OMEGA103.ARC 58950 04-05-87 Omega-Term v1.03, small comm pgm w/X & Ymodem U/L by Loren Olson. The program does sign on as 1.03 but the doc file appears to be from 1.02 and I saw nothing obvious that was different. OMEGA, written in assembler, is a small, fast and remarkably capable comm program. USEMOVS.ARC 9943 04-05-87 Build your own surge protectors --- cheap U/L by Jim Oxford. DELARC11.ARC 11749 04-05-87 Delete a file if it exists in an arc v1.1 U/L by Jim Oxford. See review of DXARC. This program does the exact same thing (and the same as DARC, for that matter) but DXARC comes with its C source and this does not. Also, DXARC has some options (confirm, force a delete for a non-perfect match and don't delete, just report) that are lacking here. In short, I prefer DXARC. [04-04-87] REMOVE.ARC 16889 04-04-87 Unix-like 'rm' (del) with recursive option U/L by Bill Schwartz. The Unix 'rm' command has some options that are lacking in the DOS file deletion command, including the ability to delete a subdirectory with files (even one with nested subdirs). Here it all is brought to DOS and with the ability to set some parms via an environmental parameter so you don't have to always type the command line switches. Well done. FOREACH.ARC 14466 04-04-87 Unix-like command repetition w/new variables U/L by Bill Schwartz. " Foreach will repeat a series of commands substituting the current value of the variable during each pass. The variable is accessed by placing a '$' in front of the choosen letter. For example, if the variable if f than $f would be used in the command line." COPYMOVE.ARC 37914 04-04-87 Unix-like Copy/move w/options incl. recursive U/L by Bill Schwartz. There are other 'move' programs that are smaller and faster than this one and other copy programs that have more features, but both of these programs are quite capable and will be particularly of interest to those looking for command-similarity to their Unix counterparts. DARPC.ARC 41966 04-04-87 DARWIN/Adaptation of CLM arena 'game' C/ASM U/L and written by Larry Himes (based on sources from Computer Language Magazine, Vol 4, No. 4 (April 1987). Yes, yes, a game, in apparent violation of this board's normal policy. But, DARWIN isn't likely to be of much interest to those who look for "regular" games on BBS systems. Based on the article "Darwin: A survival game for programmers", Darwin is a Lattice C 3.10 (mostly) implementation of the Umpire program for those wishing to learn, or sharpen their skills, in C and ASM programming. Similar in some respects to CROBOTS and ARENA, this looks excellent and, of course, the full source is included, with some nice MASM macros. The CLM article is needed for details on the rules of the game. [04-03-87] ALTER23.ARC 3097 04-03-87 Change file(s) dates and/or attributes v2.3 U/L by Pete Olympia. This is the utility I use most often when I want to change the time and date of a file. It also can change file attributes. The program takes wildcards and is fast and small. v2.3 but no real indication of what has changed and I didn't notice any new features. (The display that is given when you type the name of the program has been cleaned up considerably -- there was a mistake in 2.2). DRMAIL.ARC 146178 04-03-87 Directed Mail:Mailing list management v2.11 U/L by Loren Olson. This program is much too involved for me to review adequately and I don't do mass mailings (ahem), so from the docs: * Data input monitoring. * Intelligent upper/lower case monitoring. * Punctuation monitoring on specified fields. * Data integrity checking for state, ZIP code and phone numbers. * 25 user defined codes per entry. Over 900 codes per database. * Code definitions stored and displayed. * Duplicate monitoring. * Multiple report formats. * One touch printing for envelopes, roledex cards, and reports. * User defined defaults, such as prefix, city, state and ZIP. * Number of data records limited only by disk space. * Allows selection of data based on user defined codes, city, sex, state, ZIP, last name, company, date entered or modified date. * Merge files that are compatible with WordStar, WordStar2000, MultiMate, DisplayWrite III, and many other word processors. Registered users get extended print options and "a much better manual with more 'inside information'", plus the right to purchase additional modules such as bulk mail sorting, support for laser printers, etc. In short, what's here is useful but there's more to buy if you decide to use the program. ============================ [SPECIAL] The files listed below contain the April 2, 1987 announcements by IBM of new hardware and software products. Also listed is a Microsoft press release of the same date and 2 BIX articles providing some evaluative material. === IBM 4/2 Releases 04-05-87 Complete Set of Announcements & More ===== IBMOVER.ARC 114904 04-05-87 Overview of all new IBM Products as of 4/2 IBMPS2.ARC 90065 04-05-87 IBM Personal System/2 computers IBMOS2.ARC 84950 04-05-87 IBM DOS 3.3 and Operating System/2 IBMMISHW.ARC 41935 04-05-87 IBM Miscellaneous hardware products IBMMISSW.ARC 69479 04-05-87 IBM Miscellaneous software products IBMSOL.ARC 60236 04-05-87 IBM SolutionPac prorgrams IBMNET.ARC 63198 04-05-87 IBM Network products IBMSTATN.ARC 37214 04-05-87 3270 Workstation prgms & Hi-Levl Lang API IBMDOS33.ARC 20045 04-05-87 Info on DOS 3.3 & Upgrade Order form 04-05-87 (Also included in IBMOS2.ARC) MS-OS2.ARC 3106 04-05-87 MicroSoft Release: MS Op Sys/2, Windows,LANs NEW-OS2.ARC 23606 04-05-87 BIX (BYTE) articles on OS/2 & PS/2 = = = ===>>> NOTES: These files will not stay on the system for very long (probably 30 days at most), so please take the ones you want soon. Also note that the material in IBMDOS33.ARC is contained in IBMOS2.ARC as well (though in a slightly different format) and that both have the upgrade order form for those who wish to upgrade earlier versions of DOS to 3.3. IBMOS2.ARC has additional info on Operating System/2 and related products. Finally, please note that these files are showing up on BBS systems under many different names (.e.g. IBMOVER.ARC is often seen as NEWOVER.ARC, etc.). Please use the several capabilities available to you on this and other systems -- the built-in arc [V]iew function and the DOORs -- to avoid duplicative downloads and uploads. Some of the above U/L by Loren Olson, Mark Stevens and Mike Focke. ============================ [04-02-87] TURBOKEY.ARC 1791 04-02-87 Speed keyboard response rate on AT only U/L by Mike Miller. ZDEL20.ARC 4262 04-02-87 Multifile deletion w/confirm/ASM/Hanlin v2 U/L and written by Tom Hanlin. Now handles full pathname specs on the command line. With that addition, this is one of the best of the delete- with-verify utilities on the system. I know of no other that will handle ZDEL *.BAK D:\OLD\*.TXT F:\NEW\COMP.OBJ etc. A wonderfully useful tool, compact and clean, with complete ASM source included. Needless to say, with power comes risk, so turn off the confirm option at your own peril when using wildcard file specs, especially across drives!!! ASK-YN.ARC 3353 04-02-87 Insert query in batch file w/Lattice C U/L by Jeffrey Heynen. A simple yes-no batch file util that sets errorlevels, with C source. [04-01-87] REVW0387.ARC 58368 04-01-87 Bulletin 1's New File Comments Mar '87 Reviews of programs added to the system during March have been collected in this archive and will be deleted from this bulletin. The reviews have also been added to the database of reviews available via InfoDoor (Door 2), which now contains descriptions of files from 2/1/86 through 3/31/87. ARCUNX11.ARC 64469 04-01-87 ARC 5.1 ported to Unix Sys V / v1.1 3/20/87 The latest port of SEA's ARC v5.12 to Unix, with lots of bug fixes and an attempt to bring even more of the features of the PC version over to Unix. According to the author of the mods, the code has been compiled and tested on AT&T 3B5, 3B15, 3B2/300, and 3B2/400, running SYS V release 2 and release 3. As for portability: "I tried to keep things fairly portable, though I am not that familiar with BSD. I imagine that most things should work (I did change all the 'rindex' calls to 'strrchr', sorry BSD), but I imagine that the setstamp() function is fairly System V dependent. In any event, I will cheerfully listen to any reports of bugs and/or fixes, and will try to maintain the code as well as I can." The author can be reached on UseNet, from which this source came. The arc contains 3 shell archives in their original Unix format (because of the newlines, they won't type properly under DOS but will LIST with Vern's wonderful program) and a README file that I extracted and converted to DOS format so that it can be read here via the door. XEQ103.ARC 6039 04-01-87 COM file library & executor saves space,v1.03 U/L by Vern Buerg. This program allows COM files to be stored inside XEQ's code and executed by the command: XEQ command. Update notes: 1.03 1-APR-87 Fixed bug if in list if file was longer than 9999 bytes. Fixed error in saved space computation See earlier reviews of this program for more info. CCWIN.ARC 30486 04-01-87 Simple window routines for DeSmet but w/ASM/C U/L by Michael Rubenstein. Not new, but it's one of the few windowing packages that has shown up with the assembler source for its routines. Meant for DeSmet C, given the source it should be possible to modify and improve on it for other compilers. PRODIA44.ARC 48868 04-01-87 DIAGS v4.4 (optimzd)Ser/Par/Video diagnostics U/L by Bob Weinstein. This is Joan Riff's excellent DIAGS program (v4.4) with the documentation cleaned up a bit and the program "optimized" by another person (identified only as 'dwr' -- got me). There's been no attempt to hide the fact that this is Joan's program and the executable (now a COM file rather than an EXE) is both smaller and missing some of Joan's distracting messages (e.g. the suggestion that you vote for Eldridge Cleaver for CA Senate????). Given that, I'm willing to post this revision, but note that it does nothing different than DIAGS 4.4 and isn't really worth taking if you already have that one. DIAGS gives detailed info on your serial and parallel ports, your video adaptors, and even on the disks attached to your system. It can also perform very sophisticated tests on the ports and adaptors. An excellent program, whether the original or this modified version. PCRGB133.ARC 49584 04-01-87 Keith Graham's PIC viewer plus v1.33,03/29/87 U/L by Bob Weinstein. 1.33 3/29/87 Unofficial release to test Amdek 1280 monitors and Scanner hooks. Checks for color in PC-PAINT files. Added file extension support for most file types (except text, fonts and DGI. DGI will be dropped in OPTIKS). Fixed picture sizing bug in HP and Canon Laser printers. 1.32 3/28/87 Unofficial release to test RLE graphics. 1.31 3/23/87 Unofficial release to Ed Shoemaker for testing Toshiba printers. QHELP135.ARC 10237 04-01-87 TSR pop-up help for QEDIT 1.35 w/A86 ASM U/L by Bill Walsh. Qedit lacks an easy way to get on-line help and this little TSR (a mod to Kurt Schelin's original by another author who has translated it to A86 assembler) makes up the deficiency. Source provided and can, in fact, easily be modified to make a pop-up helper for almost any program. PLAY.ARC 10517 04-01-87 Emulate BASIC PLAY statemnt/PCMag ASM/BAS/COM U/L by Paul Cox. PASCSEM.ARC 34578 04-01-87 Intro to Turbo Pascal/fr a seminar/B.Feist U/L and written by Bruce Feist, taken from a seminar he conducted some time ago on programming in Turbo Pascal. A good intro and some nice tips. ====================== For reviews of files added to the system during March, download REVW0387.ARC. ======================