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EI Z-NEWS 803 31 August 1987 Of Significance. Don't miss universal TYPE command, one that "types" plain text, squeezed, crunched, and library files. Command is created with ZFILER calling LT, VTYPE, and a three-alias ALIAS.CMD suite. It's described at end of Z-User's Corner below. Power of such command separates Z-System from other operating systems. P.J. Plauger, of C language and software tools fame, writes much needed business ethics article in Computer Language, Sept., '87 issue, pages 13-19. "Just because they can get away with it doesn't make it right." "Just because you're right doesn't mean they can't get away with it." "Just because you can get away with it doesn't make it right." "Just because they're right doesn't mean you can't get away with it." Four seeming contradictions, much like "right of might" versus "might of Right" of Z-News 309, top of page 3, and Of Angels and Eagles of 704. P.J. starts slow but builds to a crescendo, tells it like it must be for personal growth. Required reading! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From The Mail Box. George Dremann writes asking our help to establish commu- nications with those who own Ithaca Intersystems S-100 computers, "especially 6MHz III Main Processor Boards." Are there enough of you left out there with the soul to remember what S-100 is?) Since the company is no longer in busi- ness present users should, may like to know who remains in their community. If interested in becoming part of the community, please contact Mr. Dremann at 1940 Hopkins St., Berkeley, CA 94707, 415/524-7250. From Orinda, CA, Richard Wood considers buying a DT42 (Z-News 501), sends us some benchmarks of an IBM 10MHz AT clone (AST) with 2 megabytes of RAM and a 40-megabyte, 30-millisecond access hard disk--a powerful (costly) setup. Using MS-DOS TYPE function Richard, scanning a 160k-byte text file from top to bottom, produces these impressive measurements: Condition Time, seconds -------------------------------------------------- Standard DOS v3.1 150 DOS 3.1 with Fansi-Console 74 Same but with F-C hardware scroll 24 Fansi-Console has a fast mode by accessing the 6845 display controller chip. F-C makes direct BIOS calls, bypassing the DOS output-to-console function. Speed is equivalent to 67k-baud. We used our Ampro 4MHz Z80 machine with 20-megabyte, 65-millisecond access hard disk, Wyse 38.4k-baud terminal, testing three "type" programs at hand, to scan 160k-byte text file. Echelon results: Condition Time, seconds -------------------------------------------------- VTYPE from ZRDOS v1.7 118 TYPE of ZCPR v3.3 97 "V" command of ZFILER v1.0f 68 VTYPE is slowest because of extensive character testing going on as text is scrolled--scrolls forwards and backwards line-to-line or page-to-page, near instant goto bottom-of-file or top-of-file from anywhere within file, in con- text help, plus many other bells and whistles. TYPE is from command processor (CCP) of ZCPR v3.3 and has option to stop automatically at screen page breaks.èZFILER's V command has line-by-line and page-by-page, and to end-of-file scrolling abilities. Draw your conclusions as to how much faster a SemiDisk 9.2MHz DT42 would be over Ampro 4MHz Z80 (hint: see testing results in Z-News 409 and 501). Thanks, Richard, for sharing your results with us. We recommend you order today your longed-for DT42 computer. Z-Node Activity. A programmer's tip that comes from Al Hawley, Z-Node #2 Sysop and present ZAS/ZLINK shepherd, suggests using ASET instead of EQU under certain conditions. If you are having trouble with multiple same-label defi- nitions coming from more-than-one, several "include" or "maclib" files, ASET may be an answer. ZAS provides both these pseudo-op code possibilities. ASET is useful when a label takes on more than one value during the course of assembly. EQU permits a label to acquire but one value. ASET accepts getting identical values from several sources during an assembly. Software Update Service Report. Well, another SUS diskette is in the making. Subscribers have received fair value: we promised you at least 9 diskettes per year--we have already shipped 11. Here's how #12 looks at newsletter go-to- press time: XDIR III, Version 2.0 Horizontal Listing by File Name/Type Disk: F User: 0 Name: BACKUP, File Attributes: Non-System Filename.Typ Size K RS Filename.Typ Size K RS Filename.Typ Size K RS -------- --- ------ -- -------- --- ------ -- -------- --- ------ -- -SUS .012 0 DD14 .LBR 16 FOR-NXT2.LBR 44 Z33VERR .LBR 14 Z3VARS .LBR 18 ZF10F .LBR 36 ZFILER .CMD 4 ZLDIR .LBR 10 ZMANG-20.LBR 48 9 Files Using 190K, 9 Files on Disk and 196K Left Disk Directory v1.4 is alternative to DIR coming from Terry Hazen--a very nice ZCPR3 utility. FOR-NXT2 are useful batch (FOR-NEXT-PERFORM) utilities, espec- ially for RAM and fast hard disk users, from Dreas Nielsen, the Z-System shell expert. Also from flinty Dreas comes Z3VARS, a library he uses to make easy creation of shells and other utilities. ZF10F is latest upgrade of ZFILER from Z-Team member, Jay Sage, author of ZCPR v3.3. ZFILER v1.0f has macro-command file tagging facility, a real break-thru for our shells. Jay soon further upgrade ZF to more than it is now. ZLDIR is NAOGer Bruce Morgen's update of Sigi Kluger's LDIR. ZLDIR is fast, much faster than LLF but doesn't have some of LLF's bells and whistles. We use ZLDIR in our TLF alias for seeing the text files to be scanned in a library file (see below for an update to the TLF suite). ZMANG-20 is Z-Node #60 Sysop Bob Peddicord's near-final product for file management under Z-System. Menu shell is declared a "super utility" and will find uses by those wanting extreme flexibility to manage application programs and general housekeeping. Syntax is near identical to ZFILER making menu pro- gramming easier. Soon all our shells will have similar parametric syntax and grammar. Z-User's Corner. Correctly placed hyphens within words permit lines to be justified neatly flush left and right, with even and not too much space be- tween words and characters. WordStar, Release 4.0, comes with The Word Plus, TW for short, with expanded main dictionary of over 61,000 words. Earlier TW had only 45,000 words. In addition to all the new WordStar features, math, èmacros, proportional spacing with right-margin alignment, TW adds word handl- ing tools: SPELL, REVIEW, LOOKUP, FIND, ANAGRAM, MARKFIX, HYPHEN, WC, DICTSORT, and WORDFREQ. You can run spell checks from WS's main menu and you can run any command. As a ZCPR3 shell and utility, WS v4.0 knows paths and named directories, command errors are turned over to installed error handler. (We use Z33VERR from SUS #12.) From within WordStar, using the "R" command from main menu, many aliases have been found useful, and actually at lot of fun to design and develop. hyph if ~nu $1;echo $0 - d%>etermine word hyphenation; << echo s%>yntax: $0<cr>;else;cls;echo e%>nter%< ctrl-c %>to exit; << echo;PRIVATE:;hyphen;$d0$u0:;fi hf if //=$1;or nu $1;echo $0 - h%>yphenate words in a file; << echo s%>yntax: $0 <fn.ft><cr>;else;cls;A:;hyphen $d0:$1 $$4;$d0:;fi HYPH followed by a <cr> causes TW's HYPHEN program to load and prompt the ope- rator for a word. This word is the one you wish to know how to hyphenate. Some built-in help is provided with alias script. If you enter other than verb name, i.e., HYPH, followed by a return, you get the title and syntax mes- sage. We use ECHO's lowercase switch, %>, after the first letter of messages, Z-News 801-3. Leading spaces are used to line-up display text for a pleasing, designed appearance. (Remember the "<<" convention. It means the line is one, is continuous. Break is required because page is too narrow for multi- ple-command line length.) HYPHEN, written by Wayne Holder of Oasis Systems five years ago, is not a Z-System utility. So, we have to use our wits (facilities of Z-System) to make the command work from any directory. Here's what we do. Place HYPHEN.COM and its "exception" file, HYEXCEPT.TXT, in a PUBLIC directory. Our public directory is named PRIVATE, directory A6. After clearing screen with resident CLS Z-System RCP command, needed to remove WordStar's prompt messag- es, alias logs into PRIVATE, finds its TXT files and prompts with a "?". Here, enter word for which you wish to determine hyphenation. A reminder is displayed to use ^C to exit. On exit, you are automatically logged back into your previous directory, the one from which you gave the alias command. You may find HF, Hyphenate File, even more useful than HYPH. It places soft hyphens into words of a selected file. Hyphens appear as "=" from within WordStar v4.0 and Newword. These are called soft hyphens. Using ^OD causes the hyphens to disappear, except the ones at the end of lines that print as real hyphens. HF has built-in help we are accustomed to. Notice how the OR is used to avoid repeating the help message. Alias is, as they say, "bullet- proof." More tricks used here to make HYPHEN do what we want it to do. We hard-log into directory A; HYPHEN is then given the drive letter (current drive) on which to find the file, represented by $1, the one you typed in, in which to place the hyphens. After we log back into our current directory from where we placed the alias command. The "$d0:$1" phrase means current drive and first parameter after verb on command line, in this case the filename of the file to have hyphens placed into it. Trailing parameter "$$4" tells HYPHEN to place hyphens in all words 4 or more characters long, the default is 10. Here's the built-in designed help displayed by the aliases after you enter "<cmd> //<cr>": HYPH - Determine word hyphenation HF - Hyphenate words in a file Syntax: hyph<cr> Syntax: hf <fn.ft><cr> è Aliases such as HYPH and HF are best put into an ARUNZ CMD script, saving disk space over that occupied by normal one-file aliases. Above examples use ARUNZ syntax and grammar, ready for ALIAS.CMD script file. See Z-News 701-3 for more on using ARUNZ as CMDRUN with LX and COMMAND.LBR, for speed and disk- space conservation. Scan back issues of newsletter for many other alias ex- amples. Now is the time to try your hand at creating more aliases to automate further your operations. Let us see the results! To stimulate action... We show one more alias (actually three): the reincarnation of TLF, Type Library Files, originally developed by Rick Charnes from ideas of GH and GLF, Get Help and Get Library File, Z-News 507-3 and 508-4, as set of recursive aliases creatable only with VALIAS. Here we use Rick's technique inside ALIAS.CMD as recursive script run by Jay Sage's ARUNZ.COM, renamed to CMDRUN.COM. After, we show how we use TLF in a ZFILER script line to produce a universal TYPE command for files squeezed, crunched, in libraries, and just plain text. tlf if //=$1;or nu $1;echo S%>yntax: $0 [du:]<libname><cr>;else; << ROOT:quiet s;/tlib2 $1;fi tlib2 $z zif;ROOT:zldir $d1$u1:$:1;ROOT:getvar tlib file to type << (x=exit):;ROOT:resolve if x=%tlib;/exit;else;ROOT:resolve ROOT: << lt $d1$u1:$:1 %tlib;/$0 $1;fi exit $z zif;ROOT:quiet r;echo R%>eturning to%< Z-System... TLIB2 displays list of files, ZLDIR actually does it, within library, prompts for file to be typed, the one you desire to scan. After you are finished with selected file, list is shown again, prompt asks for another file or for an "x" to exit. Now for the ZFILER CMD line that pulls it together--makes magic--using LT, TLF above, and VTYPE to scan various kinds of text files. t!$d$u:;if lbr=$t;/tlf $n;else;if co $f;ROOT:lt $f;else; << ROOT:vtype $f;fi;fi;$h: If file pointed-to is a library, TLF is run by ARUNZ renamed to CMDRUN, our ECP. Note: "/" causes CCP to go directly to ECP for speed. If file is squeezed or crunched, i.e., compressed, detection occurs using "co" operator of Z33FCP; LT is called to type file. Finally, if file is plain text, VTYPE does typing to screen. ZFILER command script is run by pressing Escape key followed by "t" key for type. You may wish instead to rename line "v" for view. Of course point- er should be on file you wish to type, either file or library, squeezed or crunched. One final user thought: don't overlook usefulness of TCVIEW by Jay Roumman, on SUS #8 and Z-Nodes, to show what your TCAP is. Terminal Doings. We periodically report ASCII/ANSI terminal developments of Wyse, IBM, DEC, and TeleVideo. What a competition! Now Hewlett-Packard jumps into arena with its own models. Model HP700/22 priced at $575 is competitive with WY-60 and TVI 955. IBM and DEC aren't in the running for value here. Model HP700/41 takes ASCII low-end lead at $375 competing with WY-30 and TVI 905. HP quality at this price? Here again, IBM and DEC seem to have little interest in new contest. Surely Wyse and TeleVideo counter recent HP moves? è A word of caution to would-be giant killers: everyone forgets what would have happened to David if his shot had missed Goliath (I Samuel 17). In Other Words. Words! Oh! Words! What words to use next! Words formed from an alphabet make phrases into sentences, and in context, permit transfer of thoughts from one human to another. That's language! "A systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventional signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings."--one definition of the word language from Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, G&C Merriam Co., 1980 edition. Wow! A book could be written just to describe the words used to define the word language: systematic, means, communicating, ideas, feelings, conventional, marks, understood, meanings. Any wonder we fail to communicate. Fail so often! "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean- -neither more nor less. The question is, which is to be master"--Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass. Usually when thinking of language our minds are brought to concepts of spoken and written words (the marks of our definition), "verbalization" as we often say. Now think of signs and gestures as elements of communication and we know why we seem to do a better job when face-to-face as opposed to using the telephone. These signs and gestures relay much of our inner being to any- one in tune, and most of us are, to receiving such signals. Will machines ever have such tune? "A picture is worth a thousand words." We get into contextual mood by re-reading Z-News 801, bottom of page 4 and all of 5. What and where are thoughts? Thoughts become "concrete" when they are verbalized. Much of the magic may be lost in the process. Why? The words don't fully convey the vision they attempt to replace. Replacement tends to create an unreal vision not of the original's quality. ============================================================================== Of Angels and Eagles. USA drifts into mold of managing wealth instead of cre- ating it. Our brightest young people become lawyers engaged in litigation with each other rather than making the country work. Our schools have far more courses offered in marketing, engineering, and finance than in manufact- uring--symptom of misdirected emphasis. Remember Z-News 606-3, "Manufactured products lead to research and development which lead to engineering which leads to manufacturing more products--a neat closed loop." Some of you thought engineering and R&D should come before manufacturing. But manufactur- ing usually creates the wealth of a nation. From there we get the money ("Where does money fit into our picture..." Z-News 305-5) to do R&D. Missing this point is prime reason US has a $209 billion 1986 foreign debt. Stanford University economist Nathan Rosenberg stated recently that near- ly half the US patents were given out to foreigners--lawyers and arbitrageurs don't create, they administer and manipulate that already created. Japan has far fewer engaged in legal and financial work than we do. Most of them are concerned about customers' needs and product design and quality. Our main concern seems to be: when do we go home and start the weekend. Nineteenth century England was birthplace of those causing the Industrial Revolution: just about everything manual got electrically motorized. The sons and daughters of these materially and spiritually rich people lost interest in what their parents had wrought--so have most of us! Is USA simply to be one of many players on the world economic stage, and not be lead-nation as we have èbeen for so many years? See you down the lines... Echelon, Inc. 885 North San Antonio Road Los Altos, CA 94022 USA Telephone: 415/948-3820 Telex: 4931646 Z-Node Central (RAS): 415/948-6656 Trademarks: Little Board, Bookshelf, Ampro Computers; SB180, SB180FX, GT180, Micromint; ON!, Oneac; DT42, The SemiDisk, Deep Thought 42, SemiDisk Systems; XLR8, M.A.N. Systems; VAX, Digital Equipment; Macintosh, Apple; HD63484/64180, Hitachi; Z-System, ZOS, ZCPR3, ZRDOS, Z-Tools, Zas, Zlink, Z-Msg, Term3, Quick-Task, NuKey, Z80 Turbo Modula-2, Lasting-Value Software, Echelon; CP/M, Digital Research; Unix, AT&T; TurboROM, Advent; Graphix Toolbox, Turbo Pascal, Borland Int'l; Ada, U.S. Government; WordStar, Newword, MicroPro Int'l; JetFind, Bridger Mitchell. * * Fly with Z! * * Z-News 803 is Copyright MCMLXXXVII Echelon, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted if source credit is given to Echelon.