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- ANNOUNCEMENT
- DIMS RELEASE 1.03 AVAILABLE
- Dear Neighbors:
- I am pleased to announce the availability of DIMS
- release 1.03.
- The differences between this release and the original
- release 1.0 are minor. All files are compatible. The best
- thing is that the default printer listing format is now much
- more useful. Some errors have been corrected. Performance
- of the "get" command has been improved. New transient
- commands "nadin" and "cheshir" have been added. The manual
- has been updated. Two useful new format control files have
- been added.
- When you get release 1.03 you will have to go through
- the installation editing again. This consists of your
- rewriting the cursor positioning subroutine in DEDIT.BAS,
- and rewriting the clear screen subroutine in all the other
- programs, and making similar adaptations for your printer.
- After you're done editing don't forget to load and save all
- the programs with BASIC. Running with programs in ASCII
- form will seem to work for a little while before crashing
- with a mysterious error.
- I will make 8" CP/M or Osborne disk (2 disks) copies on
- your formatted disk(s), supplied with return postage. DIMS
- users may send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope to
- receive the next bug fix or release notice.
- ------------------------------------------------------------
- Update to the update: In recent weeks various needs
- have produced some more DIMS news:
- I have installed DEDIT 1.03 and several other updated
- modules on the Osborne 1. Heretofore I was using 1.0 as
- installed by Yankee O.U.G. which did not do the running-out-
- of-space indicator properly. Turned out that problem was
- due to the O-1 not being able to handle a burst of backspace
- characters as delivered by the BASIC STRING$() statement.
- Suppose it's because they get substituted with backspace-
- space-backspace somewhere. Made it a loop instead and it
- works fine in the 1.03-Oz version of DEDIT.
- I have installed the entire DIMS 1.03 system (except
- DCFORM, which is obsolete) on an IBM PC. There were more
- problems translating to BASICA than I'd hoped, but it was
- pretty straightforward work. Same backspace problem in
- DEDIT as the Osborne, same fix. Backspace on the IBM is
- chr$(29), by the way! Biggest bore was editing out all the
- fancy formatting I'd done with BASIC-80's line-feed trick.
- Maybe they they decided since it's a non-standard thing and
- incompatible with WordStar they'd dump it.
- Wasn't happy with the incomplete control system of a
- "5152 Model 2" workalike printer - Think I got all the
- programs fixed to work with it, but I wasn't able to revise
- the .DFO files.
- Dealing with the space requirements of a 12,000-name
- list engendered DGET+, which inputs records from a
- sequential data file according to "find" or "select"
- criteria from the command line. Example command: sel get+
- Also fresh off the keyboard is DUNFLAG.BAS, a transient
- that goes thru a file and deletes a character string of your
- chouce from a field, closing up the space. Example command:
- unflag (Then you are asked for what field and what string.)
- Sorry, these aren't documented in the manual yet.
-
- PERSONAL NEWS
- I've moved to my new laboratory in a rehabilitated
- lumber mill building. I am very pleased with it, a large
- skylit hall in which I have spread out work areas for sound
- production, audio service, manufacturing and computer work.
- After a couple of months of shutdown due to moving and
- remodelling, work is hot and heavy in the lab now. A word-
- of-mouth network among film sound people is bringing me many
- new clients for Nagra and Stellavox tape recorder
- calibration. The next busiest area these days is the
- computer, I have a mailing list customer growing by leaps
- and bounds. Whenever they crank up for a mailing I have to
- go thru the hard disk and make room to work in - it's like
- having a big basement, once it's full, it's a constant
- battle to keep space available.
- I spent almost every cent of my available credit getting
- my new place set up, so I will be driving hard at making
- money to pay off the debts for the next few years, no new
- toys. Worth it.
- If you are interested in audio engineering please write
- for a brochure on my latest product, the FX-series of
- multichannel preset parametric equalizers.
- I'm using my Radio Shack Model 100 for do-lists,
- appointment calendar (in TEXT), shopping lists, most-
- commonly-used phone numbers file, recording notes, and daily
- journal writing. I wish I could make enough time to write
- some software for it. I have a good start on a data base
- management program for the 100 which builds from the
- experience of DIMS. I hope I can get it finished and make
- it commercial. Hope someone comes out with a compiler for
- it.
- Sincerely,
-
- Dan Dugan
-
-
- Note: DGETP.ASC should be renamed to DGET+.ASC after extracting
- from the archive. This file had to be renamed temporarily because
- the "+" is a reserved character on the operating system used to
- make this .ARK file.
-
- DIMS is a program written to run on CP/M-80 MBASIC.
- served character on the operating system used to
- make this