NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/comp/sys/ibm/pc/digest/172

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Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V92 #167
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Date: 5 Nov 92 07:12:10 GMT
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Info-IBMPC Digest           Thu,  5 Nov 92       Volume 92 : Issue 167

Today's Editor:
         Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <[e-mail]>

Today's Topics:
                      Advice sought: 486 vs. Mac?
                           GIF information
                      Info-IBMPC Digest V92 #160
                Loss of Date/time and 720K formatting
         Problems in adding a 2nd hard disk drive to AT clone
             Questions on making keyboard look like mouse

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Archives of past issues of the Info-IBMPC Digest are available by FTP
ONLY from WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL in directory PD2:<ARCHIVES.IBMPC>.

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

Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 18:50:57 EST
From: Theodore Lee <[e-mail]>
Subject: Advice sought: 486 vs. Mac?

For various reasons I need to replace my trusty but aging AppleIIGS
in favor of a faster, better-supported and more popular system.  It
would appear that some flavor of 486/50 or a comparably-priced (yes,
I know that is not a well-defined statement) Macintosh are about
right.  I've received conflicting and possibly not completely germane
advice from a few people; I looked over recent issues of the info-mac
and info-ibmpc mailing lists, as well as a few of the popular
magazines, and haven't found the question clearly addressed there
either, so here goes.

My most important concern is ease of use, installation,
administration and freedom from surprises (like unexpected crashes or
software incompatibility.).  I very much like the Apple desktop
metaphor and the consistency with which it is followed in
applications.  I hate Unix, but can tolerate it.  I hate MS-DOS's
filename limitations.  I need to run at least the following software:
WordPerfect, LaTeX, some simple database, some simple spreadsheet,
some drawing program.  I will be running in a communications
environment where I will have a dial-up V32bis SLIP connection to the
internet, talking mostly to Sun/Sparc's running SunOs 4.1  I use the
Suns to send and receive mail, participate in discuss forums, and
exchange files with colleagues.  I would hope there is some interface
with SLIP that would make the Sun's filesystem appear as part of my
filesystem (like PC/NFS); I don't know even what to hope for in the
way of mail handling, but it'd be nice if some equivalent of mh or
emacs-mail, with PEM added, could run on my machine (rather than use
a telnet connection to the Sun.)  I don't know if I need or could use
X-windows to interface to the Suns, although they support it at their
end.  I definitely want to be able to have something like a mail
application, file transfer, and more than one word processing window
active at once, and be able to cut-and-paste between them.  Out of
the few comments I've received from friends, several argue for a
486-OS/2 solution as being most cost-effective and forward-looking,
although the reports on OS/2 itself are mixed, at best.  It is
relevant that although there may be a couple of Mac's floating
around, the rest of the company uses either Sun's or some flavor of
286/386/486 box, with various operating systems.  Being able to read
my current Apple ProDos files on a Mac gives that solution a slight
advantage, but they could be transferred over and converted fairly
easily to the other kind of platform, I believe.

Comments and advice sought; since I don't read either of these
digests regularly, respond directly and I'll try to summarize.

Ted Lee <[e-mail]>

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

Date: Wed, 28 Oct 92 20:20:10 EDT
From: David Kirschbaum <[e-mail]>
Subject: GIF information

In Info-IBMPC #164:

>Date: 21 Oct 92 08:51:00 CST
>From: "Baker, Robert E." <[e-mail]>
>
>        I'm looking for an InterNet location that has information on
>the layout, headers, etc.  for .GIF files.  If anyone has this
>information or can tell me where to find it, I would really
>appreciate it.

Perhaps one of these files (all available at WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil
PD:<MSDOS.GIF> via anonymous ftp) might be useful:

GIF.ARC,52853,880226,Interchange graphics formats
GIF-CSRC.ZIP,5019,901218,C src for a GIF decoder
GIF-DOC.ZIP,35857,901218,Docs re new/old GIF formats & compression
GIF-PAS.ZIP,59023,901218,Pascal src for a GIF viewer
GIF89A.ZIP,22805,901115,Specifications of GIF89A standard from CIS
GIFDECOD.GIF,6912,890115,GIF drawing explains decoding of GIFs
GIFDOC.ARC,89706,880801,Specification of GIF standard from CompuServe
GIFENCOD.GIF,8320,890115,GIF drawing explains encoding of GIFs
MSGIFSCN.ZIP,20700,910719,Displays info on GIF images, checks validity

David Kirschbaum
Toad Hall

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

Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1992 06:29:05 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Leonard Erickson)
Subject: Loss of Date/time and 720K formatting

[e-mail] writes:

>Have a problem which the Zenith "Help HotLine" did not do so hot on.
>I tried to disinstall a space saver from my hard disk.  It
>uninstalled OK, but trashed my disk.  So I had to FDisk it, reformat,
>and reinstall DOS 5.  Then I restored my files.  Everything OK.  But
>discovered that the machine would no longer retain the date/time
>setting from day to day (forcing me to set date with each boot up).
>Nor will the DOS Format or the Norton Safe Format recognize that my
>floopy is 720K.  Both will execute only a 360K format.  I called the
>Zenith Hot Line.

You need the setup program and some utilities that Zenith included with
those old machines. A standard AT setup program won't work. Zenith had
some very strange things in their old DOS...

--
Leonard Erickson              [e-mail]
CIS: [70465,203]             [e-mail]
FIDO:   1:105/51     [e-mail]
(The CIS & Fido addresses are preferred)

[I think the program is called CONFIGUR and should be located on one
of your Z-DOS diskettes.  Another way to get to setup is to depress
<CTRL-ALT-INS> (gets you to the monitor) and then typing SETUP.

However, have you considered perhaps a dying battery for your CMOS?
gph]

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

Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1992 17:20:22 -0500 (EST)
From: John Hudak <[e-mail]>
Subject: Problems in adding a 2nd hard disk drive to AT clone


Hi:

I have an old (1985) PC-AT clone made by 'XOR' company that I am
having problems adding a 2nd hard disk to.  Drive C is a Seagate
ST-225 connected to a WD1002-WA2 controller.  Two floppies also hang
off the controller.  I have the control cable that has the twist in
line 26-31, and my second drive (D) and my original drive C, have
been set to drive select 2 on the back of the hard drive.  I use an
IBM-PC diagnostics disk to configure the system for two hard drives,
and I have used ON-TRACK disk configuration program to low-level
format both hard drives (this will only work in the C position).
THis is part of the problem.  Neither ON-TRACK nor the startup code
for the PC recognize the 2nd hard drive.  When I boot, the drive
select light on the 2nd drive does not light, and the boot monitor
displays a message: Drive 1 failed.  (Drive 0 is the C drive).  WHen
I run ON-TRACK diagnostics, it tells me that either my disk
controller has failed, or the cabeling is wrong.  I have new cables
that came from a IBM AT  and they all work, both control and data,
and my replacement disk controller card is from the same IBM-AT that
has two hard disks and it works there.

I have tried different locations in the backplane, new cables (they
work in the AT I mentioned), varied drive selects, and also verified
that BOTH controllers I have work in the genunine IBM-AT.  So the
question remains:  Why doesn't ON-TRACK or the boot diagnostics
recognize my 2nd hard drive?????  What can be done to fix this
problem?  Its driving me nuts (no pun intended).  IF I get a set of
genunine IBM EPROMS and put them into my existing MB, will (is there
a good chance that) it work?  Is there anything on the MB that I
should know about???  I have added HDs to other systems with no
problem, so whats wrong with this on?  ANy suggestions are really
appreciated I also have removed any I/O card (except the EGA video
card) to remove possible address contention problems with no success.

John Hudak



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

Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1992 16:39:20 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Sheldon Gringorten)
Subject: Questions on making keyboard look like mouse

I am working on a TSR which calls an installed mouse driver to move
the cursor when arrow keys are hit, and mimics a left button press
when a letter 'B' is hit.  Usually a mouse button is hit, an
interrupt is generated, and the BIOS calls the mouse driver through
INT 74h, and sends a packet, one byte of which indicates the current
button status.

My questions:

  I am unclear on the exact format of that packet.  Can anyone clue
me in?

  Can't I trap the occurance of the 'B' with INT 15H, function 4Fh,
and make the same call as the BIOS to fake out the mouse driver into
thinking a mouse button is pressed?  If so, then any calls to INT 33h
to get button status should indicate that a button is pressed.  Isn't
this true?

  Does anybody know any good books on the subject?

  Can anyone suggest other newsgroups to post this to?

Thank you!!!

-Sheldon      ([e-mail])



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End of Info-IBMPC Digest V92 #167
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