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00NZCOM.DOC
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Preliminary Information about New Z-Com v2.0 (NZ-COM)
by Joe Wright
4 June 88
** NEW Z-COM RELEASED **
As Murphy always knew, if a Manual can be late, it will be. On
the other hand we expect it to be worth the wait. Initial
purchasers of NZ-COM will have the following information and the
Manual will be mailed later. Thank you for your indulgence.
SYSOPs. Please distribute this file as widely as possible.
Thank you.
Most of you who are reading this may already have a fair grasp of
the Z-System and how its many features work so well for us. I
won't go into a lengthy explanation of it here. Z-System will be
covered more fully in the Manual. In the meantime, almost any
material you read about Z-System is generally applicable to New
Z-Com v2.0.
1. Introduction:
NZ-COM, like its predecessor Z-Com, will allow the user to
install Z-System on his CP/M 2.2 system automatically, without
any programming or assembly. You will have it running on your
computer in seconds. This is where the similarity ends.
NZ-COM will allow you to customize your operating system
environment in ways you could have only dreamed about. You can
change operating systems at any time, even in the middle of a
multiple command line. You can do it manually from the command
line or automatically from within alias or menu command scripts
using flow controls depending on system conditions.
You can change the whole operating system or any part of it. You
can switch from one command processor to another or from one DOS
to another with a simple command.
Need more memory temporarily for a specific application? Simply
load a new system without IOP or RCP and FCP if not needed, run
the memory hungry application (PerfectCalc comes to mind) and
when you're finished, load up your normal system again. All this
is done in seconds with one multiple command.
Using NZ-COM is really simplicity itself. You don't need source
code. You don't have to assemble or link anything. You don't
even need SYSGEN or DDT to get NZ-COM running. You don't have to
'hack' on anything (unless you really want to).
If you have a floppy system, copy the distribution files to a
work disk at put the distribution disk away. If you have a hard
disk system, I suggest you copy these files to the A0: partition
of the hard disk. NZ-COM will work from any drive and user but
A0: is preferred and will speed things up considerably.
Getting NZ-COM running the first time is a two-step process
almost too easy to talk about. First use MKZCM.COM to define the
system you want to build and then use NZCOM.COM to build it.
Here's how:
A>MKZCM NZCOM<cr>
MKZCM will present a full screen describing a full-up Z-System
for your computer. For the sake of argument, let's say you like
it like that. Press 'S' for save and MKZCM will create two files
for you, NZCOM.ZCM and NZCOM.ENV. Second step:
A>NZCOM<cr>
In about three shakes of the old lamb's tail, NZCOM will have
loaded seven or so modules, written two files and given you the
Z-System A0:BASE> prompt. You are now in the world of the
living. You have a fully functional full-featured Z-System at
your disposal. You have arrived!
One of the primary features of Z-System is the TERMinal
CAPabilities (TERMCAP or TCAP) segment in the environment. As
delivered, NZCOM installs a minimum Lear-Siegler ADM-3A tcap.
This will suffice for most Osborne and Kaypro computers and for
most Televideo and Wyse terminals and many others. If your
terminal doesn't like ADM stuff or has more capability, now is a
good time to create your own NZCOM.Z3T file. Use TCSELECT NZCOM
and choose your computer or terminal from the list. You can load
the resulting descriptor with NZCOM NZCOM.Z3T (or of course with
LDR or JetLDR).
NZ-COM is delivered with a minimal NZCOM.NDR Named Directory
module naming A0:BASE and A15:ROOT. This file is loaded
automatically by NZCOM whenever there is space available for it.
You may use MKDIR NZCOM.NDR to modify this file to taste or to
make new ones.
2. Practice:
Now that we know we have Z-System, let's play around a little.
Type MKZCM<cr> again and get the system environment map display.
You will note that each of the segments have an address as well
as a definite size. MKZCM calculates the addresses of the
segments based on the CBIOS address (where your computer's BIOS
really starts) and the sizes of the various segments. The order
of the segments is fixed by MKZCM but their sizes are definable
by you. You may lengthen, shorten or eliminate a particular
segment by defining its size.
Let's define a really small (large TPA) system. Note the TPA
size report near the bottom of the screen. We need CCP, DOS and
BIO segments as they are for the present. Leave them alone. The
IOP (12 records) is the first candidate for elimination. Type
'4'. Now type '0' and return. The new display will show no IOP
and a TPA 1.5k larger. Continue with selections 5, 6, and 7 for
RCP, FCP and NDR and notice how the addresses and the TPA size
change. Due to a technicality which requires our BIO segment on
a page rather than record boundary, you will not gain TPA by
eliminating the SHS Shell Stack segment. Leave it at 4 x 32.
Now type 'S'. You will be asked for a filename. Type 'SMALL' and
return. MKZCM will create SMALL.ZCM and SMALL.ENV in the current
directory. Now type NZCOM SMALL.ZCM and return. Voila, mesdames
et messieurs, the Minimum Z-System. You will note (run MKZCM
again) that the difference of the real CBIOS address and our NZ-
COM Bios address is 400h or only 1k. That is the total overhead
of Z-System. Whithin 1k you get multiple commands, the Z3
messages, external Path and FCB, the Wheel, the Z3 environment
and termcap as well as a full 4-entry shell stack. Still a full-
capability Z-System and only 1k larger than your old CP/M system.
Magic. You return to the full-up system with NZCOM<cr>.
3. What's Going On Here?
NZ-COM (and Z3PLUS*) is a little more than just cute. It is a
true advance of the art. Operating systems and segments thereof
have, until now, been 'black' magic. The OS was just something
you learned to live with. From the largest mainframes to the
most modest micros, users had to simply take what the got and do
the best they could with it. No more. The New Z-System puts a
definite end to that. The User, not just HAL or BigSoft,
determines his own operating system environment. The User is not
stuck, either, with his last best choice. Any part of NZ-COM can
be modified in many ways and at any time by the User from the
command line or from alias or menu command script. The New
World.
NZ-COM consists of two Major command files, MKZCM.COM and
NZCOM.COM, a selection of Z-system ReLocatable (ZRL) files and a
number of utility command files. We have already touched on
MKZCM and NZCOM. The ZRL files contain the building blocks of
the system. There are six of them contained in NZCOM.LBR:
NZCPR.ZRL This is Jay Sage's ZCPR34 Command Processor
NZDOS.ZRL This is Dennis Wright's ZRDOS at version 1.9c
NZBIO.ZRL Mini-BIOS for warm-boot of NZ-COM (2 records)
NZIOP.ZRL Dummy IOP structure
NZRCP.ZRL The Resident Command Processor
NZFCP.ZRL The Flow Control Processor
ZRL files are actually REL files which can be produced by many of
our favorite assemblers. They are renamed to ZRL to avoid the
temptation to run a standard linker on them. These files use a
multiple Named COMMON Block construct which a normal linker
simply can't handle. Only NZCOM, Z3PLUS or JetLDR have any
chance at these files.
NZ-COM uses a data structure known as an environment descriptor,
Z3ENV to the initiated, for its operation. Z3ENV contains or
implies the addresses and sizes of all Z-System segments as well
as other data used by the command processor and Z3 utilities to
determine or change system status. Z3ENV fully describes a
particular system for NZ-COM.
The output files from MKZCM (name.ZCM or name.ENV) define a
complete and explicit system in terms of the environment
descriptor. NZCOM can read either of these files and determine
how (or whether) to make any changes to the current system. You
will note that .ZCM files are actually ASCII text in the form of
a standard symbol table. You might edit this file to fine-tune a
system more to your liking.
The actual programs contained in the .ZRL modules use Z3ENV for
all inter-module references. In this way a newly loaded RCP can
find the address of the command processor and other segments of
interest.
NZCON.Z3T and NZCOM.NDR are binary segments which are not address
sensitive. They can be loaded anywhere. If you already have Z3T
and NDR files for your current Z3 system, you may simply rename
them for use under NZ-COM.
4. What's REALLY Going on Here?
Once you play around a little and get used to what goes on, you
will notice NZCOM searches an LBR for its files unless told not
to. You may put any of these files into NZCOM.LBR or any other
LBR and get them from there. Although it costs one directory
search to open an LBR, subsequent accesses of the LBR do not go
the the directory and are, therefore, quick. If you get
conscientious, you can place the ZCM (or ENV) files in the
library and eliminate that search. If you get really
conscientious and ensure that the LBR occupies contiguous (or
contemuous) allocation blocks on your disk, it flies.
For you 'speed at any cost' types, NZCOM will build your favorite
system an create a single ZCI image file of it (name.ZCI). This
system can be loaded in the twinkling of an eye, without
reference to even the LBR. No free lunch. Each of these ZCI
files are 10 or 12 k long, costing disk space.
NZCOM is also a hot package loader. It can load any of the
system modules individually or in groups. As mentioned earlier,
NZCOM looks for its packages in an LBR file unless you tell it
otherwise. You tell it 'otherwise' with an explicit DU: or DIR:
reference. Consider the possibilities.
NZCOM NZRCP.ZRL
NZCOM will open NZCOM.LBR, read and load NZRCP.ZRL from it. If
you want to load a file from disk, without reference to the LBR,
the command might be:
NZCOM A6:NZRCP.ZRL or NZCOM WORK:NZRCP.ZRL
NZCOM supports DU: references under CP/M and either DU: or DIR:
references under NZ-COM.
Let's get really fancy and consider that we have a seperate LBR
for descriptors, NZCOM.LBR for the modules and some loose files
on the disk. We can build a system this way.
NZCOM B0:DESC.LBR, TEST.ZCM, A0:NEWRCP.ZRL, A15:NZCOM.LBR
This will get TEST.ZCM from B0:DESC.LBR, get NEWRCP.ZRL as a disk
file from A0: and then open A15:NZCOM.LBR for the rest of the
modules required for the new system.
5. Conclusion
This short note is not complete, and is perhaps too technical.
We will wait for the Manual (75 pages by now!) for a more
complete description. The real purpose of NZ-COM is to present
to the normal user of Z80 computer systems, not just to the
'techie' developer, the latest and best operating system
environment possible. I believe that it can do just that.
I am reminded that some of you don't actually own NZ-COM yet, and
can't really follow these examples on your own computers.
Fortunately for both of us, this situation can be remedied almost
at once for the price of a good dinner. At $69.95, NZ-COM will
not upset your stomach, is high in nutrients and has no
cholesterol. Unlike a good dinner, NZ-COM will keep you
satisfied for more than eight hours. Guaranteed. Low-fat
software..(Somebody, Stop him!).
If none of this has whetted your appetite, then I simply don't
know what to tell you. If, on the other hand, I have created a
certain longing or even hunger in the pit of your stomach, please
send me the price of a good dinner and we will both be satisfied.
(Ok, ok. I quit.)
* Z3PLUS by Bridger Mitchell of Plu*Perfect Systems is similar
in many respects to NZ-COM and presents the New Z-System to CP/M
3.0 users of Commodore 128, Osborne Executive, Morrow MD-11 and
others. Also $69.95 from Alpha Systems.
.pa
ORDER FORM
New Z-Com v2.0 (NZ-COM) $ 69.95 (+ Calif Sales Tax)
Alpha Systems Corporation
711 Chatsworth Place
San Jose, CA 95128
(408) 297-5594
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