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- PlayNET COMAL Notes for July, 1985
- ======= ===== ===== === ==== ====
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- by: Joel Ellis Rea (Joel R)
-
-
- -------------- July 04 ---------------
-
-
- The conversation started out on
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- Commodore's new Modem/300 Model 1660.
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- The new PlayNET software now supports
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- this modem and a host of others. The
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- 1660 is advertised as having auto-dial
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- via both pulse and tone dialing, auto-
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- answer, and a built-in speaker so you
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- can monitor the progress of the call.
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- (The speaker shuts off when a carrier
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- tone is received).
-
-
- Commodore's advertising seems
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- slightly exaggerated on two of these
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- features: First, the 1660 does NOT
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- perform tone dialing: the sound chip
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- of the computer (SID, for the 64)
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- must generate the tones. Thus, the
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- VIC-20 can't use the 1660 for tone
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- dialing. Second, and more serious, is
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- the fact that the 1660 does not send a
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- carrier-detect signal to the computer.
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- This means the computer itself has no
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- way of "knowing" if it is connected to
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- another computer or not. Carrier
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- detect (CD) is a NECESSITY for
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- auto-answer (imagine running a BBS
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- that had no way of "knowing" if the
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- user had been cut-off suddenly!).
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- Advertising a modem without CD as
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- "auto-answer" is like advertising an
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- automobile without automatic clutch
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- as having an automatic transmission!
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- And the 1660 obviously can detect
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- carrier, or the speaker wouldn't know
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- when to shut up! Why CBM didn't spend
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- the few extra pennies to tell the
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- computer what the modem MUST already
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- know is beyond me!
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- Anyway, Richard O is writing a BBS
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- in COMAL 2. Ken S suggested he use
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- PROMAL instead for speed, to prevent
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- RS-232 buffer overflow. I pointed out
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- ways around buffer problems. Earlier,
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- DT showed me a trick with substrings
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- and I shared it. Basically (as you
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- know), the substring S$(5) is just
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- short for S$(5:5), returning the 5th
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- character of S$. Well, there are 2
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- other short-cuts. S$(:5) is the
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- same as S$(1:5), and (best of all)
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- S$(5:) is the same as S$(5:LEN(S$))!
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- Foghorn J and I discussed Conway's
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- Game of Life in COMAL (see program on
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- this issue). We talked about FORTH
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- and compared it's "write-only"-ness to
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- COMAL's supreme readability.
-
-
- -------------- July 11 ---------------
-
-
- Captain C told us that IBM's
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- PC-DOS is out in America and runs on
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- generic MS-DOS machines, costs $250
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- or so, but comes only with a Danish
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- manual at present. Today Disk #8
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- will have a package called BASIC that
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- will allow a COMAL program to load
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- and run a BASIC program that will,
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- upon completion, return to the COMAL
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- program! COMAL in education was
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- discussed, with most agreeing than an
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- Apple COMAL is needed BADLY, but very
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- little agreement on how to accomplish
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- this. ST10C is a 10Meg hard disk from
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- Computer Specialties Inc. that works
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- on the 64 (!) and sells for about
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- $1995. Richard O has completed about
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- 90% of his COMAL BBS software.
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-
-
- -------------- July 18 ---------------
-
-
- COMAL Today #8 is at the printers,
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- and will have an article on the
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- INTERRUPT command! CT#8 will also
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- include a Sprite File Loader for
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- 0.14. Also a SAVESPRITE!
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- UniCOMAL's MS-DOS COMAL (IBM's
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- PC-COMAL) is now available from
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- CUGUSA for $295, $250 for Today
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- subscribers. Lego's new toy robots,
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- which can be controlled via a 64
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- running COMAL, will be shown at CUGUSA
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- at MARCA Fair.
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- Cap has now seen Jesse Knight's
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- COMAL QUICK in action. COMAL 0.14
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- loads in 16 seconds - works on both
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- the 1541 and MSD drives!!! It comes
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- with Utility Disk #2 - double sided!
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- $14.95 ($10.95 for Today
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- subscribers). Comes with a booklet,
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- too!
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- Quick Chip will also be shown at
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- MARCA. David M2 is working on a fast
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- loader which he claims will work on
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- 1541, MSD and SFD-1001!
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- Note: COMAL 0.14 may NOT be placed
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- on a BBS. This violates the agreement
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- that CUGUSA has with UniCOMAL, and
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- also violates UniCOMAL's copyright.
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- It is okay to send to a PERSONAL
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- computer via modem, but 131 sectors
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- times 300 baud equals one long
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- upload!
-
-
- -------------- July 25 ---------------
-
-
- Due to the MARCA Fair, there was no
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- COMAL meeting this Thursday evening
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-
- =========== End of Article ===========
-