BBS Toolkit/BBS Toolkit.iso/doors_1/infoibm.zip/INFO006.065

Internet Message Format | 1987-10-26 | 35KB

From codas!mtune!rutgers!mcnc!ece-csc!ncrcae!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!ucbvax!C.ISI.EDU!Info-IBMPC Thu Sep 24 18:53:27 1987
Path: killer!codas!mtune!rutgers!mcnc!ece-csc!ncrcae!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!ucbvax!C.ISI.EDU!Info-IBMPC
From: [e-mail] (Info-IBMPC Digest)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest
Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V6 #65
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 24 Sep 87 23:53:27 GMT
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Info-IBMPC Digest       Thursday, 24 September 1987      Volume 6 : Issue 65

This Week's Editor: Billy Brackenridge

Today's Topics:
            Smalltalk on the PC/AT
            Partitions on Z-248 Hard Disk
              CTS Modem Garbage
          How to get MIT/CMU TCP/IP Package
          The WHOLE scoop on UNIX 5.3 for the 80386
            Dos 3.3 BACKUP.COM bug
               Imaginary Drive Problem
          Flushing Files Without Close Open Overhead
            OS/2 Developer's Kit (2 Msgs)
Today's Queries:
             Spell Checker Wanted
     I need a BIOS update for old IBM-PC Having Problems
       Looking for a Good Inexpensive Schematic Editor
               MS Windows and IBM Mouse
        Uninstalling Memory Resident Programs
            Hard Disk Head Parking
                  Sperry DOS
               Reports within Symphony
            MSC Initializing Static Unions
        Reconfiguration of Northgate Keyboard
                  PRTEGA.ASM
                 PC NJE node
               Redirecting COM1 to Disk
              Security for IBM Model 30

      INFO-IBMPC BBS Phone Numbers: [phone] [phone]

----------------------------------------------------------------------



Date: Mon, 21 Sep 87 17:19:30 PST
From: telesoft![e-mail] (David Reisner @telesoft)
Subject: Smalltalk on the PC/AT

Yep, Softsmarts is still around.  Although mail to the old address should
still get to them, they've moved to

    299 California Ave,  Suite 205
    Palo Alto  CA   94306
    [phone]  (same as before)

Their system - a real Xerox Version 2 image plus their interpreter - costs
$995.  They now offer a "test drive" which will do everything except
snapshot (so you can't save your work) for $149.

(For Smalltalk "beginners" out there, I think it is important to emphasize
 that Smalltalk is much more meaningful as a system (and there is LOTS of
 it) than as a language.  Thus, if you want to use others' work (e.g.
 interesting postings on comp.lang.smalltalk) or may want to work on other
 machines someday, there is a great advantage to using a Xerox V2 (or 2.x)
 image (e.g. Softsmarts, ParcPlace, Tektroniks), rather than a Smalltalk
 language with someone's own system (e.g. little smalltalk, Digitalk
 Smalltalk/V).
)

-David
sdcsvax!telesoft!dar

------------------------------


Date: Mon, 21 Sep 87 21:27:13 CDT
From: [e-mail] (Mahan)
Subject: Partitions on Z-248 Hard Disk

Jim,

     I have experienced this also with only installing one drive (40 Mbyte) on
the military contract (Air Force and Dahlgren) Z-248's.
It seems that if you assign partitions manually (selected with dsksetup)
Zenith reserves the drive letters c,d,e,f for drive partitions.  Automatic
assignment of drive partitions will only assign the boot partition to c: and
will not allow the further assignment of drive partitions to drive letters.
If manual assignment is selected the next available drive letter is g which
is used by the ramdisk driver when it is installed from config.sys.  You can
use the assign command in autoexec.bat after the asgnpart commands to reassign
the drive designation as desired.

     Sample is :
     asgnpart 0:2 D:
     asgnpart 1:1 E:
     assign g=f

     end sample

     This will give c: - main partition on boot drive
            d: - second partition of 40 meg (assumed drive 0)
            e: - 20 meg drive
            f: - ramdisk
            g: - also ramdisk


[e-mail]
Steve Mahan
Code 3120
Naval Coastal Systems Center
Panama City, FL 32407-5000
(Voice) [phone]

------------------------------

Subject: CTS Modem Garbage
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 87 09:03:41 EDT
From: Joe Morris ([e-mail]) <[e-mail]>

In INFO-IBMPC 6:64, Gary Dunn asks about CTS 2400-ADH modems giving a high
noise-to-signal ratio for received data.

I don't have any experience with the ADH series, but our 2400-ADA modems
running at 2400 bps (but not 1200) have the distressing habit of showing
the same symptom if the parity of the terminal program in the PC is not the
same as that of the data being received.  (Don't ask me why.)  Killing the
connection (via DTR toggle), changing the parity, and completely re-initializing
the modem with the new parity setting made it all work properly.

I've had some limited experience with other 2400 bps modems (Vadic, Novation)
and didn't see the problem, but I'm not sure I actually had a parity mismatch
condition during those runs.

------------------------------


Date: Mon, 21 Sep 87 23:38:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: Drew Daniel Perkins <[e-mail]>
To: [e-mail]
Subject: How to get MIT/CMU TCP/IP Package


Well at least one person wants to know and I haven't posted it for a while
so...  We're pretty much finished with a full DEC VT102 emulator and I hope
to release it pretty soon.  Thanks to Ken Key from UTK I also have the
Stanford FTP and multiconnection TCP running under MSC.  And boy does it fly!
I will be able to give this to anyone who can show me a license from
Stanford, so if you don't have one yet, send them some a check and get yours!
Can you beleive I'm promoting someone else's code :-) ?

Drew

The TCP/IP package for PC's better known as PCIP was developed at MIT
using a cross compiler on a UNIX VAX.  In order to make developement
using this package easier, it has been "ported" to the Microsoft
C compiler and Microsoft Macro assembler.  You must have version 3.0
or higher of both the compiler and the assembler.  Also you must have
the Microsoft Make program, Librarian and linker that are distributed
with the compiler and assembler.

Getting CMU PCIP from the arpanet

To get the CMU Microsoft C version of the PCIP package from the arpanet,
connect to host "lancaster.andrew.cmu.edu" with FTP (no quotes when you
really type it).  This machine is a 4.2bsd UNIX system.  Login in as user
"anonymous", password "guest".  Next, use the "cd" command to change your
working directory to "pub".  Now if you do a "dir" command you will get a
listing of all the necessary files.  First, "get" the files "readme" and
"install.bat" in netascii mode.  The rest of the files must be retrieved
in binary/octet/image mode.  Now retrieve the files "tarread.exe",
"root.tar",
"include.tar", "srcdev.tar", "srclib.tar" and "srccmd.tar".  The file
"doc.tar" is also available if you want the scribe documentation.  The three
large files, "srclib.tar", "srccmd.tar" and "doc.tar" are also available in
"compressed" format.  These files have a ".Z" extension.  If you retrieve
these, there is no reason to retrieve the original ".tar" files.  These
files are provided in case you have trouble transferring the large files
over the network.  The UNIX "uncompress" program may be used to regenerate
the original ".tar" files.

Once you have these on your local machine, use TFTP, kermit or some other
file
transfer program to get them to your PC.  Put the files under a subdirectory
such as c:\pcip.  Make sure you do the transfers in the proper mode (octet or
ascii, as above).  The file "readme" explains what you have, and how to
proceed farther.  The program tarread.exe is a very small tar file reading
program that I wrote.  It has very few features, but it serves the purpose
here.


Getting CMU PCIP from BITNET

To get the CMU Microsoft C version of the PCIP package from BITNET, retrieve
the "pcip package" from host cmuccvma.  To do this from an IBM VM system,
type the command:
    "tell listserv at cmuccvma get pcip package"
>From a VMS system running JNET say:
    "send listserv@cmuccvma get pcip package"
If you would like to automatically receive updates you can "subscribe"
yourself.  From VM use the two commands:
    "tell listserv at cmuccvma pw add 'password'"
    "tell listserv at cmuccvma afd add pcip package pw='password'"
And from VMS:
    "send listserv@cmuccvma pw add 'password'"
    "send listserv@cmuccvma afd add pcip package pw='password'"
In either case, replace 'password' with some string.  Once you have received
all of the files, you should have a collection of plain ascii files with a
"boo" extension.  These files are formatted specially so that they can get
through BITNET unchanged (hopefully!).

Once you have these on your local machine, use TFTP, kermit or some other
file
transfer program to get them to your PC.  Put the files under a subdirectory
such as c:\pcip.  Since boo files are all plain ascii files, make sure you
transfer them in netascii mode.  I.e. if you are transferring them from a VM
system, make sure that EBCIDIC to ASCII translation is done.  If you are
transferring them from a VMS system, JNET should have already done the
transformation.  The file "read.me" explains what you have, and how to
proceed farther.

Good luck,
Drew Perkins

arpanet: [e-mail]
phone:     [phone]
US mail: Drew D. Perkins
     Carnegie-Mellon University
     4910 Forbes Ave.
     Pittsburgh, PA 15213



------------------------------


From: [e-mail] (Ron Flax)
Subject: The WHOLE scoop on UNIX 5.3 for the 80386
Date: 20 Sep 87 16:31:06 GMT

In article
<[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Richard Pettit) writes:

>"So, whose product is it that I got when I bought my Bell Tech. machine ?"
>you're asking yourself. Microport. They are one of the companies that

I beg to differ with you here.  Actually Bell's version is 386/ix from
Interactive with Bell's device drivers for streaming tape, intelligent
serial card, non-intelligent serial card, etc.  The only thing
unbundled in the Bell release is the Documenter's WorkBench 2.0, and
of course vpix (the Interactive Systems DOS executive...).

As far as documentation goes, Bell gives you the AT&T hardware
specific documentation (differences specific to the 80386 port of UNIX
5.3), the System Administrator's Guide (from AT&T), and the System
Administrators Reference Guide (equivalent to section 1 of the normal
UNIX manual pages pertaining to administration.  They also give you
the generic AT&T UNIX 5.3 documentation as published by Prentice Hall
for AT&T.  You can of course buy as many copies of this as you need at
around $100 per complete set.


[e-mail]    (Ron Flax)
inet:    vsedev![e-mail]
uucp:    ..!uunet!cvl.umd.edu!vsedev!ron




------------------------------


Date: Tue, 22 Sep 87 14:23:23 CDT
From: "Richard Winkel" <[e-mail]>
To:   [e-mail]
Subject: Dos 3.3 BACKUP.COM bug

IBM has ackowledged there is a bug in the version of BACKUP.COM which
is distributed with dos 3.3.  The problem is it simply stops after the
77'th (?? 78?) directory and says it is through.

Rich Winkel

------------------------------


Date: Wed, 23 Sep 87 12:54:46 EDT
From: David Kirschbaum <[e-mail]>
Subject: Imaginary Drive Problem

Jim Moore described a problem where he used up drives A..E with real
devices, then tried to establish a RamDisk as Drive F.  DOS wouldn't take
it, forcing him to Drive G.

I assume, Jim, that you told DOS (in your CONFIG.SYS) "LASTDRIVE=F"
(page 4-24 in my PC-DOS 3.1 users manual).  The default value is
LASTDRIVE=E.

If you did this, beats me why it's skipping Drive F.
David Kirschbaum
Toad Hall
[e-mail]

------------------------------


Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1987  15:23 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Flushing Files Without Close Open Overhead


This has probably been said already, but in case you're not aware, DOS 3.3
has a single file flush command.  Do int 21H with AH = 68H and BX = file
handle.

[This was mentioned but possiply has been lost in the ensuing
discussion. -wab]

------------------------------


Date:    Tue, 22 Sep 87 11:23:30 PDT
From:     [e-mail]
Subject: OS/2 Developer's Kit


I have the OS/2 developer's kit. At $3000, it is a steal. Microsoft spent
that much alone on the food at the Developer's Conference. Then there
is the approximately six feet of material I now have. This includes
a C compiler, Assembler, Editor (for protected mode), OS/2 itself, Win-
dows and the Windows Developer's Kit, the Microsoft Systems Journal,
and a subscription to DIAL for help. Also, I have 15 hours of video
tapes of the Developer's Conference.
Doing OS/2 development is MUCH more complex than it is for MS-DOS
since OS/2 is a real operating system. Thus, I think it will be very
difficult for the average hacker to write his own protected mode
programs, especially with Presentation Manager. The environment looks
very much like a Macintosh. Very few of my colleagues actually program
their Macs, they just run lots of nifty programs with an easy to use
interface.
  Thus, you really do need all the documentation and help, and this
costs money. I am quite sure that Microsoft loses a lot of money on each
OS/2 kit sold. If you are serious about OS/2, ante up the money fast
since the kit will only be available for a short time longer.
  There is one difficulty, however. OS/2 (as delivered) will not run on
many PCs. For example, it wouldn't work on my PC's Limited 386, or on
any TeleVideo PC. It does work on a Compaq, IBM AT, Zenith, and NCR.
The compatibility problems seem to stem from the disk controller. I
was told that Western Digital controllers work, but TeleVideo's fance
1:1 interleaved, buffered controller doesn't. Also, you need lots
of memory, at least 2 Mb, with 3 preferred.
   Stop complaining about OS/2 if you are really interested in pro-
gramming
Jim Rome

------------------------------


Date: Thu 24 Sep 87 14:45:19-PDT
From: Anonymous
Subject: OS/2 Developer's Kit

[If anybody wants to submit anonymous messages just ship them to me or
whoever is editor requesting anonynimity. -wab]

I've used OS/2 (Version 10.0, Rev 3.42.1.1) for approximately two months on
both an IBM PC-AT model 139 (boosted to 8 MHz, 1 ws; 2.5 Mb ram; 32 Mb,
46 ms, I2L  disk), and an AT clone (8 MHz, 0 ws; 2 Mb ram; 72 Mb, 24 ms,
Toshiba disk.  I've given up on OS/2.  Why?

1.  OS/2 is slooooow.  It is soooo slooooow, you'd swear you were using a
    4.77 MHz PC (without a NEC V20).  For example, OS/2 scrolls text on a MDA
    in real mode at about 2400 baud.  Hey, there's no need to use MORE or
    ^S/^Q; you've got plenty of time to read the text as it goes by!  (When
    the good Dr. Brackenridge saw this, he immediately got sick and left in
    disgust.)  Performance in protected mode isn't much better.  I have yet
    to find an operating system that is slower than OS/2.  MS-DOS, MINIX,
    PC/IX, etc., all run circles around OS/2.

2.  OS/2 is buggy.  I experienced lots of mysterious crashes with lots of
    mysterious messages, i.e., "System detected an internal processing
    error", "Internal thread attempting to leave kernel", etc.  OS/2 would
    even crash (for no reason at all) in the middle of boot.

3.  OS/2 is huge.  The system comes on 8 1.2 Mb floppies, and takes over 7 Mb
    of disk space.  OS2DOS.COM alone is 233,016 bytes.  IBMDOS.COM, the
    DOS 3.3 equivalent, is only 30,159 bytes.  (Interestingly, MS doesn't
    bother to mark the file hidden anymore; I guess it's gotten too big to
    hide...)  Everything else is also bloated.  A comparison of a DOS 3.3
    System Disk and the OS/2 Supplemental Disk is indicative of OS/2's
    "big is beautiful" philosophy:

        Program                Size (bytes)
                DOS 3.3        OS/2

    FORMAT.COM        11616        63040
    KEYB.COM        9056        12278
    MODE.COM        15487        47726
    REPLACE.EXE        11775        29072
    SYS.COM            4766        27602
    XCOPY.EXE        11247        22928

[Does anybody know if Codeview debugging statements were turned on when this
version of OS/2 was generated? How can SYS.COM take 27k??? -wab]

    Hey guys, the more code there is, the longer it takes to load (and
    probably execute)!

    And what do you get for 7 Mb of disk space?  Not much.  Only the bare
    basics, e.g., CD, COMP, COPY, DEL, DIR, EDLIN, MORE, REN, etc., are
    included with OS/2 (MORE still requires a "<").  For comparison, PC/IX,
    IBM's old System III Unix for the PC and AT, also takes about 7 Mb of
    disk space  Then again, PC/IX's 7 Mb include over 200 programs and
    utilities, e.g., awk, diff, lex, mail, spell, SCCS, troff, uucp, yacc,
    and a full screen editor, just to name a few.

    Also, the "Installation procedure for the MS OS/2 Software Development
    Kit" says,

    "MS OS/2 will run ... with the following hardware:
        ...
        1 meg of memory (2-3 recommended).
        ..."

    Don't believe it.  Don't even think about trying to use OS/2 with less
    than 2 Mb ram.  The C compiler, linker, etc. won't run in less.

4.  OS/2 won't boot with foreign cards installed, such as a 3Com Ethernet
    card, a TI320 DSP card, etc.  This means that you'd better keep your
    screwdrivers at the ready if you plan on using your AT to do REAL work.
    You've got to take the cover off the PC and remove/reinstall boards
    every time you switch between OS/2 and ANY other operating system.

5.  Many of OS/2's "new" features did not work.  At least Microsoft was kind
    enough to warn you of some,

    "...memory swapping to disk is not solid in this release.  If you
    stress it too hard it will fail and the system will stop."

    Hey, I couldn't get swapping to work AT ALL.  Codeview doesn't understand
    the concept of threads, nor can it debug dynamic link libraries.  The list
    goes on and on.  And that's what MS was nice enough to acknowledge---
    LOTS of OS/2 just doesn't work.

6.  OS/2 uses the same pathetic file system found in MS-DOS, e.g., filenames
    are still limited to a short eight letters with an optional three letter
    extension, etc.  Peter Norton (and others) get to sell you a brand new
    set of utilities for OS/2 to make the disk and operating system usable.

Conclusion

OS/2 was a terrible waste of $3000 and 2 months of my time.  On the other
hand, if I was cunning enough to dupe 2000+ people out of $3000 each
(=$6,000,000+), I sure would.  And that's just for the beta version---when
the real OS/2 comes out, you get them to pay you again!  About $395.  But
wait, there's more!  You'll need new OS/2 software too.  The total to make a
programmer's OS/2 system?  Here are some VERY rough numbers:

        OS/2                $ 395
        OS/2 C Compiler                450
        OS/2 Assembler              150
        OS/2 Norton Utilities          100
        OS/2 Epsilon text editor      195
        OS/2 CrossTalk Comm package      195
                        =====
                                ~$1500

Hmmmmm, maybe Interactive, Microport, and others should double the price
of their UNIX systems so they'll be competitive with OS/2.  Then again, they'd
still have more features...

P.S., if you own a non-IBM keyboard destined for OS/2 use, you might want to
      test it to make sure that it handles ctl-esc and alt-esc, the key
      combinations used to bring up the session manager and switch between
      screen groups.  Alt-esc doesn't work on many AT-clone keyboards!

P.P.S., if Billy could get 2000+ people to contribute $30 each (=$60,000+),
        INFO-IBMPC might last past October!

[It would be much easier with 30 people at $2000 each. -wab]


------------------------------


Date: 21 Sep 87 16:41:00 EDT
From: "V70NL::S_DANIELS" <s_daniels%v70nl.decnet@nusc>
Subject: Spell Checker Wanted


Would appreciate any tips, comments on a spell checker for a PC or AT.
Needs- preferably not ram-residetn ("pop up" like Lightning) - I like
(liked) Random House from several years ago, but would like if it offered
to retype the corrected word for you, vice making you do it.
Anybody heard about ELECTRIC WEBSTER by CORNUCOPIA SW ? Saw an ad in PC Mag
about a year agop, nothing since.
Appreciate any sugfgestions. Scott.

[I use an old version of Microspell from Bob Lucas/Trigram Systems somewhere
in the Pittsburgh area (I think). This is an interactive spelling checker
and corrector. -wab]

------------------------------


Date: Mon 21 Sep 87 16:22:32-PDT
From: Roland Hutchinson  <[e-mail]>
Subject: I need a BIOS update for old IBM-PC Having Problems


    I have  been trying  to purchase  a ROM  BIOS update  for my  1982
vintage IBM-PC.  (It is the original model with 64K motherboard, etc.).
I have been getting the royal runarround, thus:
    I called a number or IBM-authorized retailers, all of whom said,
"we don't carry it; they don't make it anymore."  I called IBM-Direct
at 800-426-2468, and they said that the product was still available,
although there was a minimum quantity order, and I would have to march
down to my authorized dealer, speak to the manager, and firmly but
gently insist that he order me one.  So I spoke to yet another
friendly local dealer, and he says he (being one of the good guys) has
in fact been trying to get the things from IBM, but they won't send
them to him.
    The part in question is IBM part no. 1501005, officially known as
the "BIOS Update Kit."  Retail price is supposed to be about $70.00,
and I am told that IBM requires that you trade in your old BIOS ROMs,
lest they fall into the hands of some clonesmith.
    I would greatly appreciate any help or suggestions that anyone
could give me.

Roland Hutchinson
Music Department
Stanford University
[e-mail]

[Back when IBM owned the product centers the update was easily obtainable.
One could take the chip into the store and swap it. The product centers
were pretty good for service as well. If you had a complaint it would
get entered into an IBM database and days (sometimes months) later you might
get a return phone call from someone in Boca who had an answer to your
query. In all fairness in those days PCs cost $6,000 so I guess you could
expect a bit of service.

At our local computer swapmeets you can buy a new motherboard for $25. You
might be able to bargain as you won't need a second 8088 chip. Unfortunately
you will have to throw away your 16K memory chips. Nine 256K memory chips
will cost you another $20 - $25. With the money you save you could even
buy more memory. -wab]

------------------------------


Date: Mon, 21 Sep 87 15:31 EDT
From: Peter Heitman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Looking for a Good Inexpensive Schematic Editor


I am looking for a schematic editor program for PC's.  The perfect program
would run under Microsoft Window's and cost less than $100.  If you have
any information about schematic editors running on PC's, I would be interested
in hearing about them.  THanks.

Peter Heitman
[e-mail]

------------------------------


Date: Mon, 21 Sep 87 20:56:06 PDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: MS Windows and IBM Mouse

I've had no luck trying to get Microsoft Windows to recognize
a IBM mouse on my PS/50. Windows works fine without the mouse
however, the IBM mouse driver (MOUSE.COM) will not work, nor
will MOUSE.SYS v6.0. I also tried the mouse driver from MS Word
3.11 to no avail. Does anybody have the drivers for Windows.
I've written 2 letters over the past 2 months to Microsoft about
this and neither has been replied to. I'll gladly send a disk
to anybody who has the mouse driver already.

------------------------------


Date: Tue, 22 Sep 87 21:36:46 CDT
From: [e-mail] (Mahan)
Subject: Uninstalling Memory Resident Programs

     I am currently using a government Z-248 Zenith (8 MHz AT, 640K, 80287).
When I boot I normally install Superkey and Sidekick.  However, when I use
Autocad I need all the memory I can get.  Does anyone know of a way to
remove these memory resident utilities which can be used from within a batch
file?  I would like to be able to type "acad" and have the utilities removed
and then reinstalled after I exit the program.

     I have tried prompting myself to remove them manually during batch file
execution but that is cumbersome, and could swap autoexec.bat files around and
reboot (with reboot.com) but that is slow and leaves the machine in an
unpredictable state on powerup (besides being hard to maintain).

     Please reply to me and I will summarize any workable solutions to the
digest.


            Thanks,
            steve

Stephen Mahan
Code 3120
Naval Coastal Systems Center
Panama City, FL 32407-5000
[phone]
[e-mail]


------------------------------


Date: Tue 22 Sep 87 22:01:26-CDT
From: Russ Williams <[e-mail]>
Subject: Hard Disk Head Parking


I've got an AT clone with a Seagate ST225 but no head park program.  The
manufacturer unhelpfully tells me that such programs are available but
gives no further info.  Can anyone recommend any (hopefully public domain,
available online?) or describe if it's a simple enough thing to write
such a program oneself (if it just involves sending a few bytes to a port
or something.)  I know little about this.  (As I understand it, it is only
necessary to park the head if the system is being moved.  Does this include
shifting it on the table?)

Thanks for any info,
--Russ

------------------------------


Date:         Wed Sep 23, 1987 11:40:35 CDT
From:         'Bryan Ferguson' <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Sperry DOS


    I recently was brought a disk formatted on a Sperry PC with DOS 2.1.
When I tried to access it in any way (dir, recover, & Norton Utilities)
the only response I was able to get was the "File allocation table bad,
drive A: ".  The machine I was using was an IBM PC with DOS 3.21.

    I was able to recover everything on the disk by rebooting with an
old copy of DOS 2.1.  I copied the entire disk to my hard drive which
had originally been formatted with 2.1 and rebooted under DOS 3.21.  Now
everything is usable from the hard disk.

    What is going on?  Is it a Sperry trait or is it DOS?  I thought
DOS was downward compatible.

    Thanks,
             Bryan Ferguson
             <dpbf@siuemus>
             Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville

------------------------------


Date: Wed, 23 Sep 87 15:36:57 edt
From: Mike Watson <[e-mail]>
Subject: Reports within Symphony

Does anyone know of any packages to print a report from
within Lotus Symphony that is a Formtool quality report?
i.e. nice lines and boxes.  Want something to run within
Symphony so macros can be used.

     Thanks,
     Mike Watson
     [e-mail]


------------------------------


Date:         Wed, 23 Sep 87 20:40:13 EDT
From:         "James H. Coombs" <[e-mail]>
Subject:      MSC Initializing Static Unions
To:           [e-mail]

I just had difficulty initializing static structures with unions
containing members with different levels of indirection.  Specifically, I
want to store either an int or an int * in the same place, thus the
union.  When initializing unions, however, the compiler assigns the value
to the first member of the union, so I had problems with indirection
levels.

I worked around the problem by putting the pointer first in the union and
casting the ints to pointers, but I don't have much confidence in this
approach.  Is there a "right" way to do this?  I could store all of these
numbers in arrays, but the majority of the instances will be single
valued, so I would prefer to save the extra two bytes that would be
required in addition to the pointer to the array.

Thanks for any suggestions. --Jim


/* Union of single values and pointers to arrays of values. */
typedef union u_num {
  int *num_array;                      /* Pointer to array.          */
  int num_val;                         /* Single value.              */
  };

/* Table of numeric value(s)-string pairs. */
typedef struct ntable {
  union u_num nums;                    /* Value for the string.      */
  char *string;                        /* The string.                */
  };

/* Define mnemonics for the values. */
#define N_READ      87
#define N_READ_ING 172
#define N_READ_Y    34

/* Array of multiple values.  First element is the number of values. */
int N_READS[] = {3, N_READ, N_READ_ING, N_READ_Y};

/* Initialize the table. */
struct ntable[] = {
  (int *)N_READ_Y, "ready",
  (int *)N_READS,  "read-"
  };
Acknowledge-To: <JAZBO@BROWNVM>

------------------------------


Date:     Wed, 23 Sep 87 23:04 MDT
From:     <[e-mail]>
Subject:  Reconfiguration of Northgate Keyboard
To:       [e-mail]
X-Original-To:  EDU%"[e-mail]",glahe@colorao

I recently purchased a Northgate Computer Systems New AT style keyboard
that I am using with an XT clone that has a DTK bios.  The keyboard has a
switch on the bottom so that it is compatible with either XT or AT machines.
It has the best touch of any keyboard that I have used, but when IBM designed
this keyboard they put the left CapsLock where the Ctrl key should be and
the Ctrl key where the CapsLock should be.  In the June 9, 1987 issue
of PC-Magazine there is a program described on page 413 for reversing these
keys.  It is written in assembly language and is reproduced below.  My
problem is that when I run the assembled and exe2bin version of this
program, my keyboard locks up and I have to do a cold reboot.  Can some-
one advise me as to how the program can be modified so that it will work
with my machine?  Thanks.  Glahe@Colorado on BitNet.

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

CODE SEGMENT
ASSUME CS:CODE,DS:CODE
ORG 100H
START:          JMP     INITIALIZE
OLD_KEYBOARD    DD      ?
CAPS_FLAG       DB      0

NEW_KEYBOARD:   PUSHF
                PUSH    AX
                PUSH    DS
                MOV     AX,40H
                MOV     DS,AX
                MOV     AH,DS:[17H]
                IN      AL,60H

CAPS_PRESS:     CMP     AL,1DH
                JNZ     CAPS_RELEASE
                CMP     CS:CAPS_FLAG,1
                JZ      KEYBD_RESET
                XOR     AH,01000000B
                MOV     CS:CAPS_FLAG,1
                JMP     SHORT STORE

CAPS_RELEASE:   CMP     AL,1DH+10000000B
                JNZ     CTRL_PRESS
                MOV     CS:CAPS_FLAG,0
                JMP     SHORT KEYBD_RESET

CTRL_PRESS:     CMP     AL,3AH
                JNZ     CTRL_RELEASE
                OR      AH,00000100B
                JMP     SHORT STORE

CTRL_RELEASE:   CMP     AL,3AH+10000000B
                JNZ     NO_BUSINESS
                AND     AH,11111011B

STORE:          MOV     DS:[17H],AH

KEYBD_RESET:    IN      AL,61H
                MOV     AH,AL
                OR      AL,80H
                OUT     61H,AL
                XCHG    AH,AL
                OUT     61H,AL
                CLI
                MOV     AL,20H
                OUT     20H,AL
                POP     DS
                POP     AX
                POPF
                IRET

NO_BUSINESS:    POP     DS
                POP     AX
                POPF
                JMP     CS:OLD_KEYBOARD

INITIALIZE:     MOV     AX,3509H
                INT     21H
                MOV     WORD PTR OLD_KEYBOARD,BX
                MOV     WORD PTR OLD_KEYBOARD[2],ES
                MOV     DX,OFFSET NEW_KEYBOARD
                MOV     AX,2509H
                INT     21H
                MOV     DX,OFFSET INITIALIZE+1
                INT     27H

CODE ENDS
END START
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


------------------------------


Date:         Wed, 23 Sep 87 15:47 CET
From:         Helmut Waelder <[e-mail]>
Subject:      PRTEGA.ASM


To the author of PRTEGA.ASM
please add code to reset the line spacing to normal after a graphics print:
ESC 2  on Epson compatible printers, I think.

Thanks
Helmut (ZRWA001@DTUZDV1,BITNET)
Acknowledge-To: Helmut Waelder <ZRWA001@DTUZDV1>

[I have forwarded your message to James van Zandt woh wrote prtega. One
of the reasons we call it the info-ibmpc LENDING library is we encourage
others to add features to programs and give the enhanced program back to
the library. -wab]

------------------------------


Date:         Thu, 24 Sep 87 09:11:18 EDT
From: Ray La Chance - SUNYA VM <[e-mail]>
Subject:      PC NJE node


     Has anyone developed software to make their PC with a Bisync adapter
look like an NJE node to a network?. I have an application that will be cont-
inuously receiving data on an ASYNC adapter. I then want to package the
data and pass it to a variable user on our VM system. It seems that setting
up an NJE link to our RSCS would facilitate my needs very well.
     Besides the software, does anyone have any suggestions for the adapter
boards I could use?
                                Thank You.

Ray La Chance
[e-mail]
State University of New York at Albany
Computing Services Center
[phone]

------------------------------


Date: Thu, 24 Sep 87 13:28:17 PDT
From: Todd Wipke  <[e-mail]>
Subject: Redirecting COM1 to Disk


There are many spoolers that will redirect LPTn to COMn and some
that redirect LPT1 to disk.  I have a plotting program that I would
like to do offline plotting with and need to create a disk file from
the output going to COM1.  If anyone knows of a public domain program
that can redirect COM1 output to disk, please let us know.


------------------------------


Date: 24 Sep 87 16:58 EDT
From: (Gary Chapman) <[e-mail]>
Subject: Security for IBM Model 30
Organization: New York University/Academic Computing Facility Systems Group
Office:    Rm 318, Warren Weaver Hall, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Address: 251 Mercer Street, NY, NY 10012
Work-Phone: [phone] or [phone]
Network-Address(es): Chapman@NYU, or ...!{seismo,allegra}!cmcl2!chapman

The IBM model 30 has two punch holes in the rear for installation of a
u-bolt, which one can presumably use to chain the machine to a desk.

We have been unable to find a distributor of u-bolts small enough to fit
the punch holes, which are approximately one inch apart.  Has anyone
done this procedure?

  -- Gary Chapman, NYU Microcomputer Lab




------------------------------

End of Info-IBMPC Digest
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