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University of Vaasa, Finland, MIPS R2030 workstation garbo.uwasa.fi, node number 128.214.87.1, has a large collection of PD and shareware programs which are available by anonymous ftp (file transfer program). This /pc/pd2/news91b.pd2 file contains selected news and reviews about the MsDos programs in the /pc directories. (There are more news in /pc/ts/0news-ts and /pc/pd/post##.txt.) ................................................................... Prof. Timo Salmi Moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous ftp archives 128.214.87.1 School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun ................................................................... N e w s o f 1 9 9 1 f r o m 1-May to 31-Dec Tue 31-Dec-91: Made /pc/DIRNAMES using the information in /pc/INDEX. It gives the list of the MsDos directory names at garbo.uwasa.fi with an explanation for each one. Sun 29-Dec-91: Captured from alt.bbs.lists the BBS list of the Federation of Independent States (Russia, etc) and made it available as: 8516 Dec 29 10:06 garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/bbs/fis9112.zip. (Actually, I hear it should be called Commonwealth, not Federation as the list claims. My thanks to Stan Brown for the tip). Sat 28-Dec-91: June-Shyan Yih kindly uploaded us his /pc/envutil eed10.zip Full screen easy to use Environment EDitor, J-S Yih. I like this. It is a very handy utility. Among other things you can conveniently edit your path with eed in an editor-like environment. Sat 28-Dec-91: Acquired from SIMTEL20 to garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/stock rsa301.zip Relational Stock Analysis + graphics DLM Consulting. Seems very professional. As with all similar packages looks daunting at the first encounter. Obviously there is no escaping the manual :-). Sat 28-Dec-91: We have recently created two new subdirectories at garbo.uwasa.fi /pc/linguistics : Files related to the science of linguistics /pc/ham : Ham and other radio related programs I am pleased to announce that these two directories are now jointly moderated by a new co-moderator at garbo jari.perkiomaki@uwasa.fi. Jari works at our linguistics department at the University of Vaasa, and he is a keen ham himself. Harri Valkama (hv@uwasa.fi) and yours truly continue as before as garbo moderators. I specialize in the /pc (the MsDos) directories and our publicity, while Harri continues to moderate all our fields. Harri is also the system manager of garbo, so all connectivity problems are best reported to him. Fri 27-Dec-91: Added garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/hist91.zip. It is my subjective look back at 1991 in comp.binaries.ibm.pc newsgroups and at the archives. Thu 26-Dec-91: I got an update of the Finnish BBS list and it is now available as garbo.uwasa.fi:/pub/pc/bbs/fi911221.zip. I am sure that our foreign friends can't wait to get their hands on it :-). Mon 23-Dec-91: Acquired the following program from a Finnish BBS to garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/fileutil sun-prot.zip Protect executable with a password (unfinished). Here is a very interesting concept from a young Finnish programmer. The idea is to attach a password to the executable which, when called, would refuse to run if the password is not correct. The scheme does not yet(?) work for .exe files, only .com files. Furthermore, it meddles with the cursor in an unacceptable way and leaves it in an unpredictable state after running a protected .com. There is no unprotect the once protected program. But no matter, it is a good idea well worth further development. It is a little reminescent of the McAfee system of attaching a checksum at the end of a file, or of a benevolent virus. I did not try out what what happen if the program were applied on a compressed executable. Sun 22-Dec-91: Acquired the following file from SIMTEL20 /pc/education polyrt1.zip Tutor for polynomials and finding real roots. A model example of a useful educational program. It is obvious that programming and testing these kinds of interactive teaching programs must take a lot of effort. Fri 20-Dec-91: Acquired the following files from SIMTEL20 /pc/math amort11d.zip AmortizeIt, The Complete Amortization Solution. A loan amortization program with and extensive 50 page document and with a nice interface. Perhaps it is just me, but somehow I find it a bit confusing and slightly intimidating. Take a look, and judge for yourself. /pc/batchutil errlvl12.zip Return error level for batches, TifaWare (w asm). Useful, no doubt, but personally if feel a bit uncomfortable with tricks of batch programming which require external programs when one can achieve the same functionality also without them. /pc/envutil push.zip Push/pop the current environment variables (w asm). This is a natural and interesting idea for a specialized MsDos utility. This is one of those cases where upon seeing the utility one kicks oneself and thinks: "Hey, why didn't I come to think of that idea to write a neat little utility". /pc/educgames pcftyp41.zip PC-FASTYPE typing Instruction Program from Trendtech. A nice complement to the collection of programs like /pc/educgames/typrdr11.zip, typefast.zip and /pc/ts/tsgmeb15.zip for developing typing skills. Fastype presents an image of the keyboard in front of you, and signals the keys you'll have to type. One problem for Europeans is that the keyboard has the US layout. CGA graphics is sufficient for playing Fastype. It has menus that make it look like a utility. The distinction is not important, but like the rest, Fastype is in effect an educational game. Incidentally, I might myself be interested to write a typing program that uses the official speed typing rules to measure the users typing skills. (Any typists around with the official information?) Fri 20-Dec-91: We have made a few arrangements at garbo. We have added descriptions to the directory names in our annotated garbo main file list /pc/INDEX (alternatively /pc/filelist/garboidx.arc and /pc/filelist/garboidx.Z). We have also created a few new directories like: /pc/educgames Educational games /pc/exam Old examinations with answers for our students /pc/linguistics Files related to the science of linguistics /pc/net Network related files and deleted /pc/games The former /pc/doc directory has been subdivided into /pc/doc-hard Hardware related documentation and information /pc/doc-misc Miscellaneous information and documentation /pc/doc-net Net service (news, ftp, etc) related information /pc/doc-soft Software related documentation and information Furthermore we have moved a few files from their old directories to directories where they better belong. We have in our sights the replacement of garbo with a more powerful workstation. We shall, however, in all probability retain the name garbo for the new machine as an alias arrangement, because garbo has hopefully become a kind of an establishment. Fri 20-Dec-91: Acquired garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/screen/scap250.zip screen capture utility from a Finnish BBS. It is clumsy. Takes up a lot of memory, and is difficult to use. No match to /pc/screen/ sniprr24.zip. Fri 6-Dec-91: Updated my list of MsDos FTP sites and moderators. It is garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/moder.lst. (It is an ascii file). Sun 1-Dec-91: Acquired from a Finnish BBS /pc/filefind find221.zip Fast file finder by Bruce Gavin /pc/sysutil syslog12.zip A TSR logging of PC usage, Solid Oak Software. It is a 8K TSR that makes a log showing every program run, files handled etc. Seems very useful for control purposes. Mon 25-Nov-91: As some users will recall we accidentally had CompuShow GIF viewer cshw833b.zip on our archives. That version turned out not be shareware and we thus withdraw it from our archives. The author Bob Berry has kindly made the shareware version available, and I just downloaded it from SIMTEL20 from Keith. We have it as garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/gifutil/cshw833a.zip. If you got the commercial version because of this accident, please do not abuse this situation. With the number of files and uploads we have, these things are bound to happen. Warnings from alert users are always welcome. This is how we found out about the current case. Sat 23-Nov-91: Acquired the following packages from a Finnish BBS to garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/arcutil ac142.zip Archive converter by Donald Langhorne. Worth a look if you routinely need conversions from one archive type to another. Reasonably configurable, but reading of the documents is necessary. Making the AC.CFG better self-documenting wouldn't have been a bad idea. /pc/dirutil dbldr136.zip Double Directory management by George Tylutki Two directories side by side can be managed in many ways, such as copy files, delete etc. Obviously useful. /pc/unix dosnx94i.zip Dosnix Unix style utilities from G. Vrooman. One more to the plethora of Unix like command collections for MsDos. I did not test this one, and I'll thus leave the review open to others. /pc/screen nab17.zip "Noger Nabbit" Grab ASCII from screen. Takes some reading and remembering of the docs, but can be useful for grabbing text from the screen and transferring it from one application to another. Mon 18-Nov-91: Some new acquisitions to garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/batchutil catsig.zip Audible and visual alarm for ending a long batch /pc/business int201.zip The Interest Analyzer (updates int108.zip) /pc/education recall1.zip Shareware version of Total Recall educational program /pc/editor tp-et.zip Thumb Print Software's Electric Typewriter Mon 11-Nov-91: I have had to remove garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/gifutil/cshw833b.zip CompuShow GIF viewer from our archives and replace it by the older garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/gifutil/cshw821b.zip because it turned out to my consternation that the newer version has gone fully commercial. It is good of users to be alert for cases like this, since it is not always easy for the moderator to notice. In the case of cshw833b.zip this came as a total surprise since I have seen it around in BBSes (which shouldn't happen given the changed Cshow status). But, frankly, also the author's way of making the change detectable and publicly known leaves much to be desired. Responsible users are implored not to misuse unfortunate instances like this one. Fri 8-Nov-91: Acquired garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/sysinfo/bench60.zip PC Magazine's benchmarks from a Finnish BBS. The interface has been radically changed since version 5.6 (which I retained in the /pc/goldies directory). The old one used text mode without a mouse. The new one uses dialog box type graphics and a mouse. (It is a matter of taste, but I an not personally very keen on the this type of an interface. But I am positive that Windows3 users will just love it). The benchmarks now also include 486 comparisons. Even the version was large (330Kb), but the new is even bigger. A whole 506Kb zipped. Mon 4-Nov-91: Obtained an upgrade of Kim Kokkonen's TSR management utilities from a Finnish BBS. This version has been updated for compatibility with DOS 5.0 high memory management. garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/memutil/tsrcom30.zip Sun 3-Nov-91: Here is a repeat of a little trick for QEdit editor users. You can easily check the spelling of the edited file from within QEdit by a single keystroke. It takes a bit setting it up, though, and you have to have the necessary programs. You'll need garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/editor/qedit215.zip garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/ts/tschek12.arc garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/fileutil/list76b.zip Furthermore it is useful to have garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/sysutil/shrom18g.zip garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/ts/tsqed12.arc The way it goes is this. Define a keyboar macro such as @- MacroBegin Dos 'spell spelled3.dny /f ' CurrentFilename ' | list /s' Return Then you only need to press Alt- and the file is checked for spelling. An additional trick is to call Qedit by using shroom -s r:\ q.exe (where r:\ refers to ramdisk). This way you'll not be running out of memory since QEdit is swapped to disk for the duration of the checking. Sat 2-Nov-91: I have updated my choice of (now) 21 best MsDos programs. I decided to make this a separate file and it is now available as garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/bestprog.zip. Enjoy the list,... and these great programs. Fri 1-Nov-91: Obtained from a Finnish BBS Patriquin's Text and file searcher garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/fileutil/ps50.zip. Otherwise ok, but it still crashes in searches with upper ascii characters. Wed 30-Oct-91: Do something really different for a change. Call a Finnish BBS. See garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/bbs/fi911026.arc for the numbers. Sun 27-Oct-91: I have been taking a closer look at some programs we have downloaded to garbo.uwasa.fi archives from the binary postings and from SIMTEL20. /pc/sysinfo asq130.zip Tutorial style system information program. Takes a nicely paternal approach to presenting and analyzing system information from nested menus rather than subsequent pages of system information. Whether you'll like its format is up to your personal tastes, but it is certainly worth a look as an alternative sysinfo program. /pc/fileutil cdump142.zip Cos File Dump Utility by Ofer Inbar. Not the first, and not probably the last of many file dump programs written (especially if one takes into account that so binary editors can act as fiole dumps, too). This filedump is one of the more useful renditions having the options to produce several types of output. One of the useful options is to find the texts in a binary file. /pc/termutil gsz1015.zip Full-screen version of DSZ Zmodem. As programs Chuck Forsberg's ZModems are undoubtedly among the all time PC greats. GSZ adds color and text graphics to the somewhat drab DSZ interface. /pc/screen dump0891.zoo Dump CGA,EGA,VGA or HERC graphics screen to printer. A resident graphics screen dump by just pressing the PrintScreen key. (At least taxed merrily my inkjet cartridge :-). /pc/sysutil shrom18g.zip Swap to disc when shelling from an application. Every once and awhile one comes upon a program, or an idea that is a veritable gem. SHellROOM certainly is. When you usually shell to MsDos from an application you are left with much less room than usual. SHROOM swaps the application to disk at shell leaving you with much room. Unfortunately it does not work with each and every application (eg Turbo Pascal) unless I have made an error or missed something again. I'll be interested to observe what it does with Telnet when I get at my office 386. /pc/filefind cudup21.zip Colorado Utilities Duplicate File Manager. I've written about this useful utility before. Finds the duplicates even within archives. It has a good interface. Can also be used to browse and delete the duplicate files when they have been found. I have programmed a duplicate file finder myself in tsutlc16.arc, but honestly it cannot hold the canle to this one. /pc/programming interc2.zip Intercept and interpret BIOS calls of a program. This is a specialist's tool. It is useful to advanced programmers especially in studying the interrupt usage of programs and register values of the interrupt calls. Wed 16-Oct-91: It is nice having become such a popular ftp site, but this also has its downsides. At the moment we have to contemplate setting a limit on the number of simultaneous FTP users, just like SIMTEL20 does. Please remember the alternative of using batchftp (if you can) for more efficient usage. It is available as garbo.uwasa.fi:/unix/ftp/batchftp102.tar.Z. Tue 15-Oct-91: Acquired garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/sysinfo/sysid62.zip system information by Steve Grant from a Finnish BBS. This program has interesting offshoots, because /pc/sysinfo/ifp1p147.zip is based on same code (the latter, that is InfoPlus docs stated sysid444). The new sysid62 dates to 2nd of September 1991. Mon 14-Oct-91: To decrease the load please note that the heavily downloaded garbo.uwasa.fi MsDos filelist /pc/INDEX is alternatively available as /pc/filelist/garboidx.arc (with MsDos eolns) and /pc/filelist/garboidx.Z (with Unix eolns). These files are updated at our archive site at the same time as the original /pc/INDEX. Sat 12-Oct-91: As you may recall I recently posted about the further FAQ, feedback, etc information file garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/post05.txt. There is one problem with this system. I keep updating the latest file in the post01.txt - post05.txt series until it contains 30 mail readable messages. This means that the users who are interested in this should be told about it having been updated. No problem though, since we now have the special discussion subgroup cbip.archives for the archive site announcements. I'll just make a brief announcement each time the file has been updated. Thu 10-Oct-91: Besides my Frequently Asked Questions collection garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/ts/tsfaq23a.arc I gave gathered further FAQs, feedback, advice, and interesting messages in /pc/pd2/post##.txt files. I update these files until they have 30 messages. The fourth in the series (post04.txt) is now complete. I have also started the fifth (post05.txt), but it is still almost empty. The post##.txt files are in such a format that you can easily read them (also) with Unix elm or PC /pc/mail/rmail401.zip. Wed 9-Oct-91: I have updated the list of MsDos FTP sites & their moderators. It is garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/moder.lst. This is a minor update bringing up to date the information on the Australian SIMTEL20 and garbo mirror site, now rana.cc.deaking.oz.au. Sat 5-Oct-91: Acquired to garbo.uwasa.fi archives from a Finnish BBS /pc/programming dosref21.zip Dos technical reference by Dave Williams /pc/execomp pklte113.exe PKWare's .exe and .com file compress/uncompress /pc/arcutil am65.zip ArcMaster visual two window user interface (good) shez64.zip Compression Companion for arcers be Jim Derr (good) Thu 3-Oct-91: Summary: Please avoid uploading "naked" .exe's. Again a word to your kind uploaders. (With the natural exception of self-extracting archivers) we would like to get and distribute all our MsDos material in archived (preference order: .zip, new .zoo) format. Although uploads are welcome, if they come as .exe's or .com's, this causes us a definite dilemma. Please avoid using this format in your kind uploads. Mon 30-Sep-91: I have updated for a change an exotic file garbo.uwasa.fi:/pub/pc/bbs/fi910928.arc. It contains lists of Finnish BBSes. (The little Finnish language in the list is not a real problem, since the layout gives the basic idea of the information). Wed 25-Sep-91: Acquired garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/fileutil/list76b.zip from a Finnish BBS. If you are a new PC user and you don't happen to know Buerg's file browser, you are well advised to get it to be able to list the contents of your files. It is one of the best-known (if not the best known) utilities for MsDos, and there are many other programs (some of mine included) that utilize it to perform the listing tasks. More advanced users will find a number of useful properties and settings. For example users who have a Unix background will find LIST /S pipe a useful replacement of Unix less on MsDos. Mon 23-Sep-91: A word to our kind uploaders to garbo.uwasa.fi archives. While we support all the major archive formats, our preferences are 1) Zipped or failing that 2) Zooed (2.10 high compression). Also other formats are welcome if it is very inconvenient for you to use these methods. Many of your uploaders have recently used LHARC, that is .lzh files. If it doesn't make a big difference to you, would you please help us by using your preferred methods because processing the .lzh files causes extra work to my fellow moderator Harri Valkama. But of course good uploads are more important than the package method if you have no choice. Sat 21-Sep-91: I was very pleased to learn that the good people at Columbia decided to do as I implored and prepared a .zip collection of the MsKermit version 3.11 files for MsDos usage. It is now available also from garbo.uwasa.fi as /pc/termprog/msker311.zip. Sat 14-Sep-91: Obtained QEdit editor update /pc/editor/qedit215.zip and the corresponding macro compiler /pc/editor/qmac215.zip from SIMTEL20 after Keith Petersen kindly gave me an advance notice of the impending announcement from SIMTEL20. Semware's QEdit etitor is my personal favorite for a text editor, and I use it extensively. If you want a spelling checker and macros to be used with it, take a look at /pc/ts/tsqed11.arc. Wed 11-Sep-91: Obtained from a Finnish BBS /pc/astronomy/starry.zip Starry Nights Indoor Astronomy by Rob Crockett. Fri 6-Sep-91: Got the current version of the big file list of the English speaking Micro Maniacs BBS 2:220/22 run by Ron Dwight. The file is /pc/filelist/files-mm.zip. Thu 5-Sep-91: Got updates of two Finnish BBS lists and put them in /pc/bbs/fi910905.arc. Tue 3-Aug-91: Unix-like less for MsDos by Mark Nudelman later improved by Mark Lord is now available also from garbo.uwasa.fi archives as /pc/unix/mless177.zip. Less is a good complement for the MsDos TYPE and MORE commands for Unix oriented users since it can handle multiple files and can be used for browsing with many options. It also has a nicely colorful man(ual) page. The other obvious option for MsDos browsing is /pc/fileutil/list76a.zip. Mon 2-Sep-91: We have converted all our old MsDos and Unix (the /pc and /unix directories) Zoo files to the newer version 2.10 Zoos with high compression. We naturally hope that everything is ok, but some files might have errors since the conversion first balked at a couple of large zoo archives with multilayered, embedded directories. Sun 1-Sep-91: Received Ralf Brown's impressive interrupt lists /pc/programming/inter27a.zip and inter27b.zip directly from the author. They are a must for every serious programmer. Sun 1-Sep-91: Obtained some updates from SIMTEL20 including the following very worthwhile packages. /pc/arcutil am64.zip ArcMaster visual two window user interface. Along with shez63.zip the shell to have for handling archives. Personally I use shez, but this is also very good. /pc/filefind cudup20.zip Colorado Utilities Duplicate File Manager. A good interface. Finds the duplicates even within archives. /pc/execomp drx106.zip List and handle compressed executables. A very handy shell for listing and compressing or uncompressing executables. But a what's new would be in order. Sat 31-Aug-91: Acquired from comp.binaries.ibm.pc and SIMTEL20 to garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/execomp unlzexe6.zip Uncompress an lzexe-compressed executable file. This is a fix of an annoying little bug which froze the PC under certain circumstances. The problem fix was found by David Kirschbaum. /pc/arcutil zipoff.zoo Split a large .zip file into smaller parts. Useful to counter the dilemma that arises if a .zip file is becoming larger than the floppy where it is headed. By Morgan Schweers. /pc/termutil szmod150.zip Alternative Zmodem by Scott Baker. Worked without a hitch in the few tests I made. This seems a very interesting development. Sat 31-Aug-91: Obtained /pc/calendar/an204.zip Ample Notice reminder and calendar from SIMTEL20. For those who preferred the full-screen version I have retained /pc/goldies/an131.zip. The new format uses non-overlapping windows which make a split-screen (or have I missed some option), and I find the earlier version clearer. A matter of taste, perhaps. Fri 30-Aug-91: Acquired the following files from a Finnish BBS to garbo.uwasa.fi archives. /pc/termutil gsz0807.zip Full-screen version of DSZ Zmodem /pc/filefind dupcheck.zip Identify duplicate files across fixed disk /pc/editor amac39a.zip AllMacro; QEdit macros Fri 30-Aug-91: I have acquired an updated version of Compart BBS's MsDos file list /pc/filelist/cbbs_dos.zip. I keep a couple of BBS file lists available even if the files need not be on garbo in order to have information on what can be found on good BBSes in way of packages. Thu 29-Aug-91: Got /pc/math/sm13a.zip. It is a mathematical expression evaluator which can process the expressions symbolically in a manner similar to the commercial Mathematica and Macsyma. Recall that even if there is a gap of ten days in these news, it does not mean that there hasn't been any new files acquired to garbo archives in between. Take a look at /pc/_files.in for the monthly list of all incoming MsDos files. Mon 19-Aug-91: Acquired the following files from a Finnish BBS /pc/filefind fff37.zip File Finder Pack v3.7 by Jim Derr (author of Shez) A useful file finder which presents you with a menu of the files found. /pc/stat fit2.zip Statistics curve fitting and data modelling Fri 16-Aug-91: Forrest Gehrke feg@clyde.att.com kindly sent update /pc/termutil/zdoc0814.zip for the DSZ and GSZ Zmodem programs. Very useful. Wed 14-Aug-91: Our old laser printer at the department broke down and I had to use newer laser for printing an article I am writing. The dilemma was that this is a PostScript laser and I had to find an ascii to PostScript conversion program in a hurry. My search of garbo.uwasa.fi and SIMTEL20 archives gave four potential candidates for the task, and my choice was an oldish /pc/printer/text2ps.zip. It is very possible that being in a hurry I didn't scan carefully enough, but I was slightly surprised at how few programs we had for this purpose. The question that remains in my mind is that are SIMTEL20 and garbo missing something essential in this field. Tue 13-Aug-91: There is a very useful auxiliary documentation for DSZ Zmodem usage /pc/termutil/zdoc0416.zip which I just downloaded from SIMTEL20 based on a tip from Keith. We had an older version at garbo. This file is something of a must to DSZ users giving a wealth of information about the numerous DSZ settings. Because of the widely varying transfer circumstances (different host and PC machines, modems, etc) a suitable DSZ command line takes some figuring out. This advice file (along with the examples in the original DSZ documentation) is a good help in that task. Fri 9-Aug-91: Got the new /pc/arcers/lha213.exe archiver for .lzh files from SIMTEL20. Self-extracting. Tue 6-Aug-91: Started the fourth collection /pc/pd2/post04.txt of informative email and postings. Mon 5-Aug-91: Jim Dunn kindly uploaded /pc/batchutil/doscall0.zip. It is a free implementation of the call command needed as an external program in earlier MsDos. Tight executable. Sat 3-Aug-91 : Got /pc/memutil/tlb-v120.zip Upper Memory Manager update directly from the author Dan Lewis. Shareware. Uploads device drivers and TSR in the upper memory. The unregister version limits the number of the modules that can be loaded to two, but that is adequate for evaluating the program. I use this one myself with MsDos 3.30 on my 386s. Wed 31-Jul-91: Acquired /pc/arcutil/shez63.zip Compression Companion update. Tue 30-Jul-91: I have updated /pc/pd2/moder.lst, my list of MsDos FTP sites, and their moderators. Sun 28-Jul-91: I took a look at /pc/batchutil/ask11.zip, which is one of the many ASK commands to enhance batch files. (It was just distributed in cbip, and has been on the archives for some time). One feature that MsDos is sorely lacking is the ability to ASK questions in a batch file, and then branch accordingly. Many authors (I included in tsbat26.arc) have come up with the missing command, usually called ASK (there are also a few other names like QUERY and BRANCH). What these programs do is that they return and errorlevel in accordance with the user's response to the query string. A kind of a standard begins to emerge here, because it is now quite common that the error level returned is equal to the ascii code of the (first) letter of user's reply. ASK11 adds the option for timed-out input. It is also quite small since it is written in assembler with the source code included. One switch which it seems to be missing in ASK11 is the option to impose whether the enter key has to be pressed in ASK in giving the response. It is generally not a good idea to make bacth files dependent on too many commands which MsDos does not originally include. The ASK commands are a clear exception to this rule, because they enhance batch programming in such a drastic way. Thu 25-Jul-91: Obtained from SIMTEL20 an interesting small Turbo Pascal module. It is now in the /pc/turbopas directory at garbo.uwasa.fi and PD1:<MSDOS.TURBOPAS> at SIMTEL20. I have rewritten the file description line. pckselfm.zip Selfmodifying code which survives execompression. By Jim Nicholson. Source included. I tested it with pklite, and it really seems to work. I have written selfmodifying mode myself in the /pc/ts/ tspas24##.arc packages, but they do not achieve this feat. Thu 25-Jul-91: Took down /pc/batchutil/call.zip from binary postings comp.binaries.ibm.pc. It makes it possible to use the call command in MsDos versions earlier than 3.30 where it was introduced as an internal command. Call is the command that can be used to call another batch for another batch and to return to the original batch. It can also used to call a batch repeatedly from the MsDos command line in the following manner: for %f (*.zip) do call rezip %f where rezip.bat is an example of a batch file. (Note that this would not work properly if you omitted the keyword call from the loop. It would work only if rezip were an executable program). Thu 25-Jul-91: Acquired from a Finnish BBS /pc/termutil/txswp121.zip The Telix Application Swapper. You can toggle Telix by using the hot key ctrl-shift-T. I have been using Telix for a long time, and along with Mskermit it is my own favorite Telecomm prog. Perhaps I have not taken a look the right utilities, but this is one of the very few of the numerous add-on utilities for Telix that I find potentially useful. Wed 17-Jul-91: Got update /pc/filefind/dfl301.zip of one of the best duplicate file finders. Wed 17-Jul-91: Got update /pc/mail/rmail401.zip directly from the author Jeroen Schipper. It is an excellent news, mail and message reader for the PC. Thu 16-Jul-91: Withdrew /pc/miscutil/xdos320.zip because of suspicions that were brought to my attention of it containing material stolen from other authors. Sun 14-Jul-91: Acquired PKWare's /pc/execomp/pklte112.exe executable compressor from simtel20. One of the musts. Fri 12-Jul-91: My fellow moderator Harri Valkama and I downloaded the new zoo v2.10 MsDos version from comp.binaries.ibm.pc, and as the logic of an archiver dictates in my opinion, Harri converted it into a self-extracting form. It is now available from garbo as /pc/arcers/zoo210.exe. We are retaining the old version for a littele while for added security as /pc/goldies/zoo201.exe, because archivers are such vital utilities for archive management. Thus both the Unix and MsDos 2.10 versions are now downloadable from us. Wed 10-Jul-91: Acquired from a Finnish BBS the following files. Since someone cracked the pkzip 1.10 authenticity (-av) code some BBSes have been putting in their own ads as the authenticity labels. I removed the labels from these .zip files lest they give a false sense of security. /pc/source comspeed.zip A simple speed test, includes qbasic sources I decided to include this one only because some users might be interested in qbasic sources. /pc/filefind dupes300.zip Find/query delete duplicate files v3.00 R.Adams /pc/filefind fd500.zip Find duplicate files v5.00, dialog interface, J.Bean /pc/fileutil pgp10.zip Pretty Good Privacy 1.0 RSA public key cryptography Takes some figuring out :-). /pc/stock sprm33.zip A stock portfolio record manager rel3.3 (Jun 91) /pc/sysinfo sysck224.zip System Checkout, info on your PC, v2.24 (nice) Check this one out. I liked the concise way in which the information was selected and presented. Tue 9-Jul-91: Occasionally one comes upon pairs of programs that collide. Here is a pair that crashes at least the two 386 I have tried them on. If the Last Byte Upper Memeory Manager, which is a very useful program for giving more Dos base many has been loaded, then using unlzexe causes a freeze. I managed to correct a similar situation with NCSA Telnet by redefining Last Byte interrupts. No such luck yet with unlzexe. Any comments or experiences? The reason why unlzexe is useful for me is for virus checking for the compresses and uncompressed file forms with various virus checkers. For my own compressions I usually go for /pc/execomp/pklte105.exe. Incidentally, virus checking is becoming more and more problematic with the introduction of such execompressed programs that do not allow decompression. This makes the denial of decompression a somewhat harmful switch. /pc/memutil tlb-v119.zip The Last Byte MsDos Upper Memory Manager v1.19 /pc/execomp unlzexe5.zip Uncompress an lzexe-compressed executable file Mon 8-Jul-91: /pc/games/blast.zoo is back after Harri blasted the offending part from the package. Sat 6-Jul-91: Deleted /pc/games/blast.zoo because of the obscenity that was hidden in it. Besides I am not overly keen of having these games on garbo.uwasa.fi archives anyway. Thu 4-Jul-91: Received /pc/mail/rmail40.zip update of ReadMail MsDos mail reader from the author Jeroen Schipper. This excellent reader program is one of my big favorites. Thu 4-Jul-91: There are two forms of garbo.uwasa.fi download statistics. An annotated (ie including file descriptions) sampled MsDos download list /pc/filelist/dload##.lst that I have compiled weekly until now, and a Monday to Monday list ftplog##.lst that is automatically compiled each week covering all the downloaded files for garbo files (ie also non-MsDos files). The latter gives also total daily downloads and uploads, and downloader sites. I am going to make the former list a monthly list after the current dload26.lst. The other download list, ftplog##, is not posted to cbib.archives, but it is downloadable from garbo from the /pc/filelist directory. Wed 3-Jul-91: Acquired from SIMTEL20 to garbo.uwasa.fi /pc/math cc4.zip Calculus Calculator experimental version 4 (good) A comprehensive expression evaluator and function plotter by David Meredith. Includes a help file, can save sessions, and is easy to use. Worth a closer look. Tue 2-Jul-91: I have a couple of file lists of good Finnish BBSes on garbo.uwasa.fi which can be used on the side of SIMTEL20 and garbo filelists to see what MsDos material is in circulation. I received an update of Micro Maniacs BBS 2:220/22 from the SysOp Ron Dwight (thanks Ron), and it is now available as /pc/filelist/files-mm.zip. Mind you, though. It is almost 800K in zipped form. Mon 1-Jul-91: Gary Mussar kindly uploaded /pc/programming/ dosref20.zip MsDos technical reference by Dave Williams. This and Ralf Brown's inter26a.zip & inter26b.zip lists make up a comprehensive documentation of MsDos interrupts. These are musts for every serious MsDos programmer. Sun 30-Jun-91: Keith (Petersen) kindly uploaded a bugfix of the small full'screen binary editor, and it is now /pc/binedit/edcom44.zip. Sat 29-Jun-91: Acquired from a Finnish BBS /pc/binedit edcom43.zip A small full-screen editor for binary files Thu 27-Jun-91: The McAfee virus checking set v80 commencing from scanv80.zip is now in our /pc/virus directory. Wed 26-Jun-91: Acquired from a Finnish BBS /pc/dirutil dcom344.zip Directory Commander v3.44, DAC Micro Systems Sun 23-Jun-91: Acquired from a Finnish BBS /pc/batchutil stackey3.zip Stackey stuff keys & BatUtils by CTRLALT Associates Extracts from the documentation: I.1 What STACKEY Does STACKEY, a utility from the makers of CTRLALT, will automatically place keystrokes in your keyboard buffer. It is intended for use in connection with BATch files. Here is a typical example of a BATch file "lot.bat" for use with 1-2-3 using STACKEY: stackey W18 CR"/FR%1.wk1" CR 123 Entering "lot mysht" at the DOS command line starts the BATch file with mysht as %1. STACKEY has the command line passed to it by the BATch processor with %1 already replaced by mysht. Thus STACKEY places in the keyboard buffer the text: "/FRmysht.wk1" followed by a carriage return. The initial W18 tells STACKEY to pause about 1 second to allow 123 to load. If it weren't there 123 would happily remove the keystrokes from the buffer before allowing any input. These characters wait in the buffer until a program requests keyboard input. The BATch file then loads 123 which requests input and gets it from STACKEY. /FR calls up a dialog to retrieve a worksheet and %1.wk1 followed by a CR loads that worksheet. The CR after the W18 will banish the opening logo screen in those versions with an opening logo. I.2 What BATUTIL does BATUTIL is a program with two purposes: to give you power inside your batch files and to give you more control over the DOS environment. Included in the information that you can get returned in either the DOS errorlevel or an environmental variable are - current time, date, day of the week - total amount and amount free of disk space, memory and EMS - CPU type and type of coprocessor if present - whether a file exists not only in the current directory but on the DOS path and if it exists on the DOS path, the actual directory can be returned in another environmental variable - whether a file has today's date or not - whether one of two files is older than another - you can parse a filespec into individual components Some of these options may not seem so useful at first sight, but, for example, whether a file has today's date or not can be used to make a routine that will only get run once per day. Chapter VI will explain sample uses of BATUTIL. Sat 22-Jun-91: Acquired from a Finnish BBS /pc/dirutil/eddy552.zip EDit DirectorY full-screen directory editor. Once in a while one comes upon a really good MsDos utility program that one has not noticed before. John Scofield's EDDY File and Directory Editor belongs to this category. Once you get going after a couple of minutes initial disorientation, you'll soon see that this is a very handy tool for example for touching filedates, altering file attributes, etc, etc. But nothing, of course, is without problems, and I also managed to mishandle the program to lock my machine needing ctrl-alt-del. Mon 17-Jun-91: Acquired Fridrik Skulason's F-PROT virus protection package update /pc/virus/fprot116.zip from a Finnish bulletin board. Sun 16-Jun-91: Harri has made Ralf Brown's new interrupt list release available as /pc/programming/inter26a.zip /pc/programming/inter26b.zip Thu 13-Jun-91: Acquired /pc/virus/virussig.z16 virus footprint for tbscan Dutch virus scanner v2.3. Tue 11-Jun-91: Update /pc/printer/pprint53.zip of Patriquin's printer facility. Sat 8-Jun-91: Again updated my list of MsDos FTP sites & moderators /pc/pd2/moder.lst after getting the missing information for msdos.archive.umich.edu thanks to Keith Petersen and Allan Bjorklund. Fri 7-Jun-91: I have updated my list of MsDos FTP sites & moderators /pc/pd2/moder.lst. It is a text file. But I am still missing any confirmation from msdos.archive.umich.edu. Thu 30-May-91: Updated /pc/miscutil/utillist.txt. Wed 29-May-91: Another download from SIMTEL20 that I have looked at a little more closely is /pc/plot/rk-plot.zip which plots three dimensional contours. It makes an interesting demo, and I decided to make an exception and include it in our collections even if its documentation is not in English (it is in German). Wed 29-May-91: Another utility worth seeing that I have downloaded from SIMTEL20 is /pc/programming/helppc21.zip Advanced Programmer's Quick Reference Utility by David Jurgens. It has for example interrupt information in a handy format, with a good interface to use the help. This one has class. Tue 28-May-91: Every now and then one comes across a utility that is exceptionally useful. I recently acquired /pc/screen/buffit30.zip from SIMTEL20. It is screen scollback program. In other words you can get back text that scrolled off the screen. The idea itself is very old, but the scrollback utilities I have tried before have had problems with my 386 equipment. Buffit works, and is a nicely programmed utility altogether. Take a look see. Mon 27-May-91: Don't forget the /pc/pd2/post02.txt news file either. I have collected items of relevance from email and news to that file (and its first part01.txt). Today, I have updated post02.txt again. Sat 25-May-91: Harri got the following interesting upload to garbo.uwasa.fi archives, and I took a slightly closer look. /pc/diskutil dskut330.zip Diskutils for copying and formatting v3.30. In effect there are two main programs in this package by Ulrich Feldmuller. One is a nifty diskcopy substitute with a useful user interface. But my test also revealed problems. The copying program copied programs from the source to the target floppy as it should, but the rest of the target tracks remained unusable, and I couldn't write anything on them. Obviously various floppy formats got confused. The other main utility in the Diskutilities package is a disk formatting program. Fri 24-May-91: Acquired several files from SIMTEL20 archives to garbo.uwasa.fi archives. They were just announced in the c.b.i.p.d. news. There is one package that I would like to draw your attention to because it is of an exceptionally high quality, and because of its special interest for calculus. Try it. It is /pc/math mrcry203.zip Equation solver based on Borland's Eureka. Excellent. Thu 23-May-91: Removed on request from garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/bbs nodelist.zip Fidonet Nodelist for Friday, 10 May, 1991 (big) See /pc/pd2/post02.txt for the reasons of the deletion. Wed 22-May-91: Acquired to garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/virus tbscan23.zip A Dutch virus scanner v2.3 by Frans Veldman. To use this scanner you'll have to unzip the virussig.dat file from virussig.z16, which is within the package. Wed 22-May-91: Acquired the following files to garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/bbs aboot200.zip AutoBoot for BBS crashes v2.00 (weird docs) nodelist.zip Fidonet Nodelist for Friday, 10 May, 1991 (big) /pc/database stinfo13.zip US State Information Program v1.30 by Gary Moore (Has a hacked .zip -av authenticy label) Tue 21-May-91: Acquired update /pc/filecopy/pcopy90d.zip of Patriquin's file copy program. Mon 20-May-91: Acquired again an update of the ExtraDos utilities collection /pc/miscutil/xdos280.zip. It is 460K in zipped form. There are many useful utilities in it worth evaluating. But is the authenticy label SQUIRREL Mailbox for real or is it a MAKEAV hack? (Well, it is a hack, and this is funny in a pathetic sort of way. Distribution of MAKEAV outside North America is prohibited by US regulations because of this powerful encyption algorithm. Then along comes some two bit hacker and merrily cracks the encryption :-). Sun 19-May-91: The most frequently downloaded file at garbo.uwasa.fi is not surprisingly the /pc/INDEX list of our MsDos files. To save transfer load, this file is also available both in archived format (with PC eolns) and Unix compressed format (with Unix eolns). These files are respectively /pc/filelist/garboidx.arc and /pc/filelist/garboidx.Z. Fri 17-April-91: Received /pc/cmdutil/anarkey4.zip directly from the author Steven Calwas. Thanks for your upload Steven. The readme file says: "Anarkey is an intelligent command-line editor for DOS. With Anarkey, complete input lines can be entered with two or three keystrokes. Anarkey is intelligent because there is no need to tell it what you want to enter on the command line; simply press the <Tab> key and Anarkey figures out what you want and does it for you." Thu 16-Apr-91: Harri and I decided to create two new directories. They are /pc/diskcopy and /pc/filecopy, and transfer some of the files there. The names should be self-explanatory. Mon 13-Apr-91: Again acquired some semi-old programs to garbo archives: /pc/astronomy estr8911.zip A starmap program v8911, reqs EGA vstr8911.zip A starmap program v8911, reqs 286+, VGA Interesting, _if_ you are an enthusiast. /pc/format ezf32a.zip Menu driven Easy disk Format, v3.20 ezf32b.zip Menu driven Easy disk Format documents, v3.20 Nice interface and idea. Definitely worth a look, with appropriate carefulness. Sun 12-May-91: Found /pc/astronomy/gmovie.zip lying around in a Finnish BBS. It is an old, simple demo of a rotating Earth. Sat 11-May-91: Acquired /pc/pcmag/vol10n08.zip to garbo.uwasa.fi because it contains an interesting utility cdx.com for changing directories based only on a part of a directory name or a file name. Worth a look. Sat 11-May-91: In my series of semiold updates acquired to garbo archives: /pc/filefind dfl261.zip Duplicate File Locator v2.61. Good interface. Quoting my earlier review: "This facility to find the duplicate files on your hard disk has quite many bells and whistles and sports a very nice user interface. Works in two modes, names and exact, which should be self-explanatory. There are already other duplicate finders around, but this one certainly has many features the others don't. The others include finddupe (which crashes my PC), /pc/filefind/sst_52a.zip (which has duplicate finding as one of its extra options), and doubles.exe in /pc/ts/tsutlc16.arc (which has an intermediate mode the other lack for faster finding of 'exact' duplicates by name, size, and date)." /pc/diskutil cudm319.zip Colorado Utilities Disk Manager v3.1.9 It is a disk cataloging utility and the interface looks nice. This is one of the programs where you have to dis deep into the manual if you want to find out what the program is supposed to do. /pc/diskutil dm313.zip Directory Master III v3.13 File Manager. Cute, colorful exploding windows. The author says: "Directory Master III is a File Manager. It copies, moves, and deletes files quickly and easily. You can view text files, too. Furthermore, Directory Master III makes it easy to create, modify and move between directories." Sat 11-May-91: Keith Petersen has found two newer versions of the oldish updates I have been going through lately. They are /pc/miscutil/xdos263.zip and /pc/termutil/tfe_221.zip. Thanks Keith. Fri 10-May-91: Started a new list /pc/pd2/moder.lst, a list of MsMos FTP site mdoerators. Fri 10-May-91: Prepared as usual on Fridays the weekly garbo download statistics /pc/fileinfo/dload19.lst. Replaced dloadold.arc by dload91.arc which contains all the all these Friday to Friday stats since week 7. To me they make interesting reading, since they tell what is being popular. Thu 9-May-91: Acquired to garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/fileutil what29.zip File format recognition utility v2.9 Boots & Pepper Tells various word processor files formats from each other, recognizes different gif files, etc. Useful. /pc/miscutil xdos260a.zip ExtraDOS utilities v2.60 1/2 by Foley Hi-Tech Systems xdos260b.zip ExtraDOS utilities v2.60 2/2 by Foley Hi-Tech Systems /pc/editor galaxy3.zip Galaxy v3.0 word processor Wed 8-May-91: Acquired to garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/diskutil copyq226.zip Multiple one-go Format/Copy/Verify Diskettes v2.26. A nifty utility - with an inevitable shareware nag, that was so much discussed just lately. /pc/editor pco334.zip PC-outline; outlining and planning program v3.34 This program is an old one dating back to 1987 but it is nevertheless a more recent version than we previously had. /pc/termutil tfe_220.zip TelixFonEd dialing directory full-screen editor v2.20 Tue 7-May-91: Acquired to garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/diskutil hdtst495.zip Hard Disk Test/Repair Utility v4.95 /pc/doc theref41.zip Hard drive & controller info v4.1 by R. Falbo I did not test what hdtst does to a hard disk, so be careful. Stand by, Keith will soon be announcing hdtst498.zip from Simtel20. Mon 6-May-91: Harri and I made today a major overhaul of all the .zip files in all the /pc directories. Their datestamps now give the date of the lastest file within arch archive. This can be useful information for assessing how current the archives are, and for comparing potential updates, etc. Fri 3-May-91: Acquired the following updates to garbo.uwasa.fi archives: /pc/execomp drx102.zip List and handle compressed executables. Very good. chk4c310.zip Detect compressed executables v3.10 by John Land /pc/filefind fff35.zip File Finder Pack v3.5 by Jim Derr (author of Shez) /pc/bbs fondir55.zip BBS Text File to Phone Directory Translate Utility /pc/database vidcat70.zip Videocasette Catalog Program v7.0 by William Jackson Fri 3-May-91: Got two neat ascii maps of Finland from Tuomas Kaikkonen. They are in the /pc/pd2 directory. finserv.map An ascii map of Finnish IRC servers finland.map An ascii map drawing of Finland Wed 1-May-91: Got /pc/turbopas/tpmusic.zip from the author J C Kessels. It is a Turbo Pascal unit for playing music in the background using BASIC-like commands. I scanned through the .pas file it contained, but I did not make any tests. Wed 1-May-91: I have moved the 1-Jan-91 to 30-Apr-91 garbo.uwasa.fi news file /pc/pd2/0news-pd2 to /pc/pd2/0news91a.pd2. The 0news-pd2 file will thus contain news from 1-May-91 on. The reason for not waiting until the end of the year is the amount of material that has piled up during the first four months of 1991.