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┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ │
│ C A R R I E R D E T E C T │
│ │
│ The PC Communications Journal For Every Modem User! │
│ │
│ Issue #3, September 1991 │
│ │
│ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Table of Contents:
Welcome ........................................ 2
Product Evaluations ................................ 3
HyperAccess/5 Version 2.0 ...................... 3
Free Speech BBS Version 3.10 ................... 8
Learning Center .................................... 11
Writing a BBS Door (Part 1) .................... 11
Protocol Prowl ..................................... 16
Speed and Reliability Tests of Popular Protocols 16
Potluck ............................................ 20
Archives and Why We Use Them ................... 20
ByteLine ........................................... 24
Bonus Files ........................................ 28
Feedback ........................................... 28
Product Information .............................. 29
Carrier Detect is published bimonthly by Michael W.
Crosson. Contents may not be reproduced without written
permission from the publisher. All brand and product
names mentioned in this publication are trademarks and
registered trademarks of their respective companies.
(c) 1991 Michael W. Crosson. All rights reserved.
W E L C O M E
The third issue of Carrier Detect is finally here and
this is the biggest and most diverse issue yet. This
edition is about thirty pages and took me a little longer
to prepare than the ones previous. Inside you will find a
wide variety of material to peruse. I am sure you will
find it was worth the wait!
Like most new publications Carrier Detect is still
changing every time we go to press. In this issue there
are a lot of firsts. In the review department commercial
software is reviewed for the first time and in another
review I give my first "thumbs down." Also this is the
premier appearance of several departments for Carrier
Detect: The Learning Center, which will contain tutorial
type articles, Potluck, an area for miscellaneous articles
that don't neatly fit into a regular category, and
Byteline, a fun, light-hearted section chock full of
interesting general computing information.
The Carrier Detect Reader Door has generated interest
from sysops across the country and I suspect that as more
and more articles are released its popularity will
continue to grow! Since the last issue, the orginal
version has been updated a couple of times already and the
current one now is version 1.11. If you do not have the
latest version please upgrade as soon as possible. Text
searches have been improved and memory requirements have
been reduced by than 80K. Please consider registering
your CDR-Door if you are running it. Registrations will
ensure that the program will continued to be enhanced and
keep the programmer (Scott Baker) happy. He generously
has donated his considerable programming talent to our
journal and deserves some recognition.
I added an advertisement section as one of CDR-Door's
departments but have not yet sold any space. To help
generate some advertisement revenue I have lowered the
price to only $10 dollars. I feel this rock bottom price
is excellent opportunity for you to advertise whatever
goods or services you have to offer. Since computer
enthusiasts all across America will be reading your custom
ad, it's a natural for advertising large pay BBS systems,
shareware, or software and hardware specials. All
advertisement revenue will be applied toward the
substantial long distance phone charges I incur to
distribute Carrier Detect and the operating costs of my
public BBS system.
One final "first" for Carrier Detect this month.
Since my BBS is now a member of Fido-Net BBS, from now on
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 2
you can file request the journal and CDR-Door directly
from my system. Please note that the text edition AND the
door editions of CD are now distributed in the same ZIP
archive. My system supports file requests up to 14.4K
baud V.32bis twenty-four hours a day. My Fido-net node
number is 1:203/49 and you can FREQ Carrier Detect under
the magic names:
CARRIER - Latest version of CD - text and door editions
ALLISSUE - All issues of CD published so far
CDRDOOR - The latest version of CDR-Door
Until next time,
Michael Crosson
Publisher and Editor
P R O D U C T E V A L U A T I O N S
Each month Carrier Detect contains several product
evaluations. Most of these will be software reviews but
from time to time hardware will be discussed as well. The
opinions expressed in Carrier Detect are solely my own or
the respective author of the article. Carrier Detect
strives to be as objective as possible when evaluating
software. Judgments to suitability are made with the
typical modem enthusiast in mind and are not geared toward
the complete novice nor the power user. Exceptions to
this are noted as such in the article.
* HyperAccess/5 Version 2.0
Review by Michael Crosson
Pros: Easy to learn and use
High flexibility and customization
Built in text editor and file manager
Many emulations and internal protocols
Excellent host
Cons: Dialing script can be improved
Clunky interface at times
No crash recovery with Z Modem
Relatively expensive
Speed, Efficiency, Performance - these are concerns of
most everyone as we move into the nineties. It is not
surprising then that the computer industry is knee-deep in
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 3
the hoopla too. The emphasis on CPU clock speeds, disk
drive access times, megabytes of memory, disk caches are
all byproducts of the public's fixation on speed. Hil-
graeve, the publishers of HyperAccess/5 are jumping in on
the bandwagon. A recent cover of the manual touts HA5 as
"Speed You Can Handle" and their company motto is "High
Performance Software to Advance Communications." And lest
you forget that HA5 emphasizes speed, they mention "speed"
or "fast" more than 10 times - on the cover alone!
Strangely, I don't think speed is HA5's biggest
selling point. Sure, it's fast but certainly so are many
of its high end competitors. Furthermore, I suspect that
Hilgraeve itself knows the speed theme is overworked here.
Hidden on page 120 in a mundane paragraph entitled
"Introduction (To PC to PC Communications)" Hilgraeve
tells us that HA5 is first, "An all purpose communications
program for accessing diverse systems". Admittedly less
dramatic than "Stunning Speed and Power and Agility", but
far more becoming, especially since Hilgraeve has stayed
true to this ideal so well.
It's not easy to create a successful "all purpose"
anything because you must meet the needs of many diverse
interests. Thus, it's all to easy to fall into the jack
of all trades, master of none mode. Many publishers and
programmers avoid the problem entirely and focus on
specialized needs. Programs that can be recommend to all,
containing the right mix of features and power, are rare
and deserve our attention. HyperAccess/5 is one of those
programs. It meets the needs of most all communications
users and does so in a friendly manner.
HA5 offers a rich array of features that will delight
most modem users. It contains a robust dialing directory,
large assortment of internal protocols including Z Modem,
A Carbon Copy like remote access capabilities, excellent
host mode, English like script language with many verbs
and a learn mode, a full screen editor, file manager, and
an interactive capture buffer, virus scanner and much
more. Space does not permit the listing of every feature
that HA5 boasts so only the highlights will be discussed.
HyperAccess/5 has a friendly but unconventional look
and feel to its interface. It makes extensive use of
colorful sliding menus and pop-up menu boxes where the
available options are always easy to spot. It is
different from the sparse and simple screens on programs
such as Telix or Procomm, but easier to master since no
memorization of commands is necessary. Extensive context
sensitive online help is always available by pressing F1.
In the past I thought the sliding screens were pretty, but
too slow to be practical. This is a problem that Hil-
graeve has solved with release 2.0. Now by default the
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 4
screens are displayed using direct video writes, a pro-
gramming technique that makes a appreciable speed differ-
ence. They also include new keyboard shortcut macros that
use familiar ALT key combinations found in many popular
terms. Like most aspects of HA5 these options are con-
figurable and you can use BIOS scrolling (desirable when
running Desqview ) and shut off or redefine any or all of
the keyboard shortcuts.
Customization and extreme flexibility are two corner-
stones of this program. HyperAccess/5 has excellent
facilities for command, macro and script development. The
capabilities range from automatic learning of a log on
sequence to the creation of a full fledged BBS system
around the HA5 engine. Automation of routine call tasks
such picking up new mail on MCI are simple to accomplish.
The keyboard can be remapped entirely with custom sequen-
ces, even ones that run external programs in DOS. You
could even design totally new menus with different fu-
nctions then the ones that come supplied with the program.
In short, what you do with HA5 is limited only by your
imagination and your mastery of the English-like script
language. The HA5 user's manual explains how to
accomplish all these tasks in great detail and is chock
full of examples.
In day to day use HyperAccess 5 is a solid performer
but not without a few rough spots. The dialing directory
can hold up to 250 entries and it is easy to add, delete,
or modify the settings on any of them. In addition, the
systems can be sorted in three different ways, by name, by
frequency of calls or by recent activity. To call a
single system is a three step process. Multiple numbers
can be dialed so that a connection is made with all of
them or simply rotated until a connection is made.
Ironically actual dialing is a weak point of the
program and often does not function as it should. When
multiple systems are selected, HA5 will only dial the
first number and then return to the Dialing Directory.
This is an irritating quirk because in a large dialing
directory it can take some time to find and mark the ones
you want to call. Once HA5 returns to dialing menu your
previous selections are forgotten and you have to go
through the entire selection process again, cross your
fingers, and hope that it will work better this time.
This is an erratic problem and seems to occur about fifty
percent of the time on my system.
Another dialing problem concerns erroneous error
messages that HA5 displays during dialing attempts. I
witnessed HA5 misinterpret various series of events
frequently and then display a silly error message such as
"Your modem is not connected to the phone line." or "Your
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 5
modem isn't responding to commands." Plus the dialing
capabilities has a serious shortcoming. There is a cap of
20 redial attempts to any one system. If you want to dial
a system that is busy much of the day, such as a popular
bulletin board and perform an unattended mail run, you are
out of luck. Once HyperAccess/5 has redialed that number
20 times it stops and displays the message, "Redialed
system 20 times without connect." I think that HA5 should
be able to redial the system ten thousand times to make a
connection if that's what it takes. A final aspect of
dialing that I do not care for is that HA5 reinitializes
the modem after every attempt whether it is calling the
same number or not. The ability to have different
initialization strings can be useful but for the sake of
speed should be an option that can be toggled on or off.
Once you are actually connected to a host everything
is smoother in HyperAccess. Plus since HA5 features many
terminal emulation modes, there should be few hosts that
you won't be able to connect to. Those included are
ADM3A, ANSI, Compuserve, IBM3101, IBM3278, RENX3278, TTY,
TV925, TV950, VIEWPNT, VT52, VT100, VT102, VT220, VT320,
Wang, and a custom one for calling other systems running
the HyperAccess/5 host. This strong support for
communicating with mainframes and minis as well as PCs
make HA5 a natural choice for business applications.
File Transfers are a breeze when using HyperAccess/5.
Hilgraeve includes a well-rounded selection of protocols
that should allow you to transfer files on any system.
The program contains ASCII, Xmodem, 1K Xmodem, Ymodem,
Ymodem-G, Kermit, Compuserve Quick B, Zmodem and the
proprietary blazer HyperProtocol. Of the bunch Hyper-
Protocol is the fastest but is not available on most
systems now. Including Zmodem, currently the most popular
protocol on PC systems is a convenience. It works
flawlessly but doesn't contain as many features as the DSZ
Zmodem driver. The most obvious omission is crash
recovery that allows you to restart an aborted transfer
where you left off. However, this isn't a big problem in
HA5 because any external protocol can be run from the
program once a script is written to call it. Hilgraeve
even includes a sample one for DSZ and configured it to
run from the control-pgdn/pgup combination.
Uploading files has rarely been easier than in HA5.
When prompted for the file name you have several choices.
You can accept HA5's best guess filename, enter the path
and filename manually, bring up sorted directories of your
choice and mark files to send or tell HA5 to upload the
files in a list that you have created in advance.
Beginners and experts alike will like the visual marking
method of selecting uploads. It ends all the problems of
remembering cryptic filename and outrageously long paths.
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 6
Two of the best features in the program are rarely
seen in other comm packages - yet go hand in hand with the
types of tasks a typical session might involve. Hyper-
Access/5 includes an excellent full screen editor and a
capable file manager. The editor is superb. It offers
everything that most stand alone editors do and is simple
to use. The text editor allows you to manipulate marked
blocks, split the screen and work on two files at once,
print files or write to disk, search and replace, reformat
text and other fancy functions. Text captured in the
capture file and review buffer can be manipulated in the
same way and allows you to sending text to the remote
system while online.
The file manager is equally useful and impressive.
From inside HyperAccess you can copy, delete, move, print,
and rename groups of files. You also can sort direct-
ories, search for files, scan for virus' and get estimates
on transfer times. Files are tagged the same easy method
as marking them as uploads. If file transfers make up the
bulk of your communicating needs, you will be using the
file manager often. With other terms browsing around DOS
requires you to shell out and load another program such as
X-Tree or PC-Tools. While the file manager in HA5 is
slimmed down, it provides the most essential features of
these popular shells right at your fingertips.
There are other aspects of the program that cannot be
discussed here in the interest of brevity. These include
the host facilities, remote takeover features, script
language, and OS/2 versions. It is not possible for me to
proprerly test some of the features like OS/2 operation
and as such I cannot comment on them with any authority.
Others, such as proper treatment of the script language
would require a technical article beyond the scope of this
review. Based on my familiarity with the rest of HA5 I
doubt that Hilgraeve would disappoint in these other
areas.
As I alluded to in the beginning of this article, I
believe that HyperAccess 5 is about as well rounded a
communications package as you are likely to find. No
matter what the emphasis on your communication sessions
is, HyperAccess has you covered. If you need to call a
wide variety of computer types, HA5 can do it. If you
mostly read and write messages online, HA5 features the
exemplarily internal editor and scroll back buffer options
and allows you to design custom mail runs with ease. If
file transfers are your concern, HA5 comes with a full
toolbox of DOS file commands and enough internal protocols
to match any situation. And finally if you need to set up
a capable host, few programs can match HyperAccess. This
is especially with version 2 since it allows you to run
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 7
other programs on the remote computer as if you were
sitting in front of it when two HA5s are connected
together.
There's little that HyperAccess can't do when it comes
to communication tasks. Plus Hilgraeve's product support
has been excellent whenever I have contacted them.
HyperAccess is not one of the cheapest communication
packages to choose from but it is one of the finest. If
you are unhappy with your current communications program,
I suggest trying HyperAccess/5. Hilgraeve is so confident
you will like the program they offer a refund within
thirty days of purchase if "this product proves unsuitable
for your applications." That's what I like HyperAccess;
it is a class act all the way around.
* Free Speech BBS Version 3.10
Review by Michael Crosson
Pros: Interesting concept
No maintenance required
Cons: Poor customer service
Uses odd commands
Here's a program for adventurous sysops everywhere.
I'm talking about the Free Speech BBS and if you decide to
run it there's no telling what might happen! Free Speech
is a BBS system or door that is dedicated to reading and
leaving messages only. That in itself isn't too unusual,
but Free Speech puts a few twists on the concept that make
it a fascination study of human interaction. However, the
package is flawed by exceptionally poor and careless
customer service AFTER registration and as such is
difficult to recommend.
The best way to describe Free Speech is as one long
continuous tablet where callers can "write" about any
subject they desire. When the BBS saves the message to
the tablet, no record is kept of when the post was made or
who the caller was. In fact the only way someone would
know that a particular person wrote something is if the
author signed the message - (but even then it might be an
impersonation!). The whole idea is too impose as few
restrictions as possible and let people write in an
atmosphere of anonymity. In these conditions your callers
should feel comfortable candidly expressing themselves on
subjects they otherwise wouldn't dare tackle!
Free Speech was originally designed by a sociologist
as part of an experiment. The author wanted to see what
sort of interaction would occur in the situation that Free
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 8
Door sets up. Would the callers be friendly or hostile,
polite or vulgar, discuss intelligent issues or juvenile
dribble? I imagine that general patterns emerge although
the BBS can't help to take on the personality of the
callers to some degree.
In my particular case The Free Speech BBS took a
decidedly hostile turn after running the software for one
month. Things were pleasant enough for the first few
weeks and the conversation was mostly light. Two main
subjects seemed to be on everyone's mind, females and
parties. Once in awhile someone would step up and try to
start a thread with more substance but none of these ever
took off. Then one caller began to make waves and posted
a few inflammatory comments. For better or worse they did
upset many callers and all the sudden the Free Speech Door
became a virtual warzone! In the spirit of the Free
Speech Door, I won't judge whether that is good or bad.
The conversation just drifted naturally in this direction.
Whether or not the conversation would have reverted to
friendlier territory no one can say for sure. In the Free
Speech area, that is left up to the users who visit it.
Installation of the Free Speech is very easy and
offers three different modes of operation. The program
can be run as a standalone BBS system, a door, or as a
gateway into other BBS software. On my system Free Speech
was functioning as a door. The entire installation
process took under 10 minutes. There are only a few set
up options that you must configure before running Free
Speech on your BBS. One thoughtful feature lets you
choose the size of the tablet. Each message progressively
fills up a portion of the tablet and when space runs out,
Free Speech begins at the top again and starts to erase
earlier posts.
If all this has convinced you to rush out and try to
find the Free Speech BBS, read on, I have some bad news.
As you might have gathered I think that the Free Speech
Program is an interesting idea and several of my callers
were enjoying the program as well. In fact, two of the
most zealous posters thought it was such a scream that
they sent me a donation to register it. It's not hard to
forget that you are running an unregistered copy of Free
Speech because the author designed it as annoyware.
After the short twenty day evaluation, (just barely
enough time for my callers to start using it with
regularity), a message appears advising users that the
evaluation period is over and then string of dots is
displayed as you enter the door. These dots serve as a
delay and the number of them increases as you move further
past the 21 day evaluation period. As a general rule I
frown against such tactics that try to force people to
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 9
register. Except in unusual cases, crippleware and
annoyware is promptly deleted off my disk as I prefer to
support software authors who trust the shareware market
they write for. Unfortunately no mention was made of the
annoyware "feature" and it was just one of several
surprises Pinnacle Software had in store for me.
I sent in the requested twenty-five dollar
registration and received a package from Pinnacle more
than 6 weeks later. However, due to the cheap diskette
mailer that was used, the enclosed floppy disk was bent in
several places. Sure enough several of the files on the
disk were unreadable but luckily Free Speech was in a
compressed file and unharmed. I preceded to unarc the
program onto my hard disk and fired up Free Speech.
Again, I encountered another major blooper. Pinnacle had
sent me the same annoyware Free Speech that I already
owned, not the registered on that I was waiting for! To
resolve the matter I had no choice but to call Pinnacle in
Canada at daytime international long distance rates.
To make matters worse I believe that several aspects
of the registration details were misleading. Every time a
user exits an unregistered Free Speech Door a message
appears that says, "Register Free Speech and receive the
latest version!", implying there was a newer version
available for registered users. However, I was informed
by Mr. Campbell that the version I had WAS the latest
version. Another deceptive aspect concerned the
availability of alternate language modules for the door
(besides the English, French and "Silly" ones that are
included). The documentation stated that Pinnacle would
make these available to registered users, but when I
requested one for Spanish Mr. Campbell told me that would
cost an additional twenty dollars!
I expressed these problems and concerns to the
company's President, Tim Campbell, but he was less than
apologetic and quite condescending. He implied that I did
not understand shareware and told me he did not find any
aspect of Free Speech's registration details misleading.
He suggested that I call his BBS later and download the
registered .EXE file later that day. It was not until I
revealed that Free Speech was the subject of an upcoming
review in this journal that he became more cooperative.
At this point he offered to refund my registration, since
I was so unhappy with the situation. Later that evening
Mr. Campbell did call my BBS and upload the proper .EXE
file and the Spanish modules but I believe that this last
ditch effort was too little, too late. I informed him
that I was no longer interested in running Free Speech and
planned to take him up on the refund offer.
The Free Speech BBS is an innovative idea marred by
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 10
poor customer service. If Pinnacle software had spent a
nominal amount of money on a better diskette mailer and
taken greater care in shipping out the proper files, much
of my ordeal could have been avoided. These small steps
would not address all Pinnacle's problems but it would be
a change in the right direction. The shareware market is
vast and competition is keen. Pinnacle's actions and
indifferent attitude suggest to me that they do not value
their customer much. If none of this bothers you might
want to give Free Speech a try, otherwise I recommend you
pass over this and other offerings from Pinnacle Software.
T H E L E A R N I N G C E N T E R
The Learning Center is an area devoted tutorial
articles. It is the "How-To" department of Carrier
Detect. However Articles are not limited to newcomers and
in fact may cover advanced concepts.
* Writing a BBS Door (Part 1)
Tutorial by Scott M. Baker
Doors are programs written for a bulletin board system
to allow the user to perform other tasks than the bulletin
board software allows. For example, a door could be
anything from a bbs lister to a multiplayer simulation
(such as Galactic Warzone, Yankee Trader, Trade Wars,
etc). This article will be a tutorial on how to write
door programs. The programs will be written in Turbo
Pascal (version 5.5 or 6.0) and will use my DoorDriver
routines to provide support for RBBS, QuickBBS, Wildcat,
WWIV, etc.
Right now, we're just going to stick with my
DoorDriver routines since they are the routines that I am
most familiar with. In the future, we may explore a C or
basic door library, or another Pascal library. This
article is the first in a series about Door Writing. I'm
not sure yet how many articles we have. If there isn't any
support for this column, then it'll probably be just two.
If a lot of response comes in, then we'll continue as long
as I have time to continue writing.
REQUIREMENTS
What you'll need:
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 11
- Turbo Pascal by Borland. Either version 5.5 or
6.0 will do.
- DOORDR40.ZIP. This is my Doordriver support
package for TP5.5 and TP6.0. It includes async
support, bbs interfacing, etc. Available from
my bbs (602-577-3650) as well as several other
sites.
- A basic understanding of Pascal (specifically
Turbo Pascal). You don't need to be a Pascal
wizard or anything, but the more knowledge you
have, the better.
BASIC ELEMENTS OF A 'DOOR'
Ok, time to get started. First lets talk about the basic
elements that a door needs.
1) Async communications support.
The door must be able to talk to the user through the
communications port. Support has to be provided for
multiple com ports, locked baud rates, etc. The program
also must monitor the presence of the CARRIER DETECT modem
line to make sure the carrier is not dropped while the
door is in use.
2) BBS software interfacing.
The door needs to be able to grab the user's name, time
left, and other associated information from the bbs
software. Since bbs programs lack standardization, there
are several different methods that have to be accounted
for.
3) Support for ANSI (color) graphics and animation.
Just about every door has ANSI capabilities these days,
so if you want yours to be seriously considered, you'd
better have it as well.
Doordriver will handle the first two points for you
automatically when you call the INITDOORDRIVER procedure
described below. Doordriver has support for the third
point (ANSI graphics), but you'll need to use your own
skills in deciding where you wish to put colors, what
colors to use, etc.
DOORDRIVER PROCEDURES
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 12
There are a series of procedures that doordriver will
provide to you for accomplishing these tasks. Without
getting too complex, let's discuss a few of them:
PROCEDURE INITDOORDRIVER(ctl_file_name: string);
This procedure initializes the door support system, comm
port, grabs the user name, and a few other necessary
things. The variable "ctl_file_name" is a string
containing the name of the control file that your door
will use. For now, let's just ignore the control file and
use the sample included with the DD package.
PROCEDURE SWRITE(out_str: string);
This is DD's compliment to the Write() statement of Turbo
Pascal. The "S" stands for simultaneous. Output will be
written to both the remote user (through the com port) and
the local screen. "out_str" is the string containing the
data you wish to write. Most of your output will use
either this or the following SWRITELN procedure.
PROCEDURE SWRITELN(out_str: string);
Same as SWRITE, except a carriage return/line feed is
appended to the end of the string. This is similar to
TP's writeln statement.
variable USER_FIRST_NAME: STRING;
After INITDOORDRIVER has been called, this variable will
contain the user's first name. The string will be all
upper-case.
variable USER_LAST_NAME: STRING;
Similar to USER_FIRST_NAME, this variable will contain the
user's last name. As with USER_FIRST_NAME, it is only
valid after the call to INITDOORDRIVER has been made.
YOUR FIRST DOOR
Now that you've seen a few of doordriver's support
routines, lets put them to work in the "hello door." The
hello door will be simply a door version of the standard
hello program. Meaning that it displays "hello world" to
the screen. First, a note about my code, I'll be placing
line numbers ({1}, {2}, etc) in the code. These are
intended for discussion purposes and are not needed in the
pascal program itself.
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 13
HLODOOR.PAS:
{1} Program HelloDoor;
{2}
{3} uses crt, doordriv;
{4}
{5} begin
{6} InitDoorDriver('Doordriv.CTL');
{7} swriteln('Hello World!');
{8} delay(5000);
{9} end.
Experienced pascal programmers will feel a bit insulted by
the simplicity of the above program, but it is a necessary
step in learning to use door driver.
COMPILING AND RUNNING THE DOOR
Once you've got that typed in, then it's time to compile
HLODOOR. Using either Turbo Pascal version 5.5 or version
6.0, compile the program to disk. If all goes well, then
you'll be left with HLODOOR.EXE on your hard drive.
Doordriv.doc (supplied with doordriver) includes infor-
mation on how to configure / run the door on your system.
For now, let's just worry about running the door in local
mode. For local mode, type "/L" on the command line. For
example, "HLODOOR /L" will run HLODOOR. Since you are a
local user, the door will prompt you for your first and
last name. A remote user's information would be gathered
from the bbs information file (i.e. DORINFOx.DEF). We
won't worry about that for now.
ANALYSIS OF CODE
Now lets go through the important lines of code one by
one.
LINE 3: Uses crt, DoorDriv;
The "uses" statement is required by Turbo Pascal to tell
TP which units we will be using. Obviously, we need
"doordriv" for DD's procedures. "crt" is required because
we use the DELAY procedure.
LINE 6: InitDoorDriver('DoorDriv.CTL');
This is that all-important initialization statement
described somewhere above. It tells doordriver to get
things all set up and working. The 'Doordriv.CTL' is the
name of that "control file" and we won't pay any attention
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 14
to it for now.
LINE 7: swriteln('Hello World!');
This is our screen output. It'll write "Hello World" to
both the user and the local screen. Since its SWRITELN
and not SWRITE, a carriage return and line feed also will
be sent. There are several ways that this could have been
done. For example:
{1} swrite('Hello');
{2} swriteln(' World!');
- - - or - - -
{1} swrite('Hello');
{2} swrite(' World!');
{3} swriteln('');
The output will be the same in the above situations.
LINE 8: Delay(5000);
This routine is provided by Borland and will cause our
program to delay so you can see the "hello world" before
doordriver exits and clears the screen. The string "Hello
World!" looks pretty plain, doesn't it? Maybe we should
put something a bit more impressive in, such as the user's
name. This would involve using the variables
USER_FIRST_NAME and USER_LAST_NAME. The modification is
simple enough:
Change line 7 from:
{7} swriteln('Hello World!');
to:
{7} swriteln('Hello, '+user_first_name+' '+
user_last_name+'!');
As you may have noticed, I used plus signs (+) instead of
commas (,) to separate the string parameters in the
SWRITELN line. With a standard WRITELN statement, you may
use as many variables as you wish, but with SWRITELN, we
are limited to 1 string variable. The point is, TP
requires us to merge our string variables together with
the plus sign.
CONCLUSION
That's about all the space we have for now. Until our
next release, play around with the SWRITE and SWRITELN
procedures and see what neat things you can write to the
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 15
screen. Next time, we'll dive deeper into some inte-
ractive communication with the user (i.e. we'll ask him
something and then write in back to the screen) as well as
play with some more of DD's internal variables.
P R O T O C O L P R O W L
Protocol Prowl is the place to look to keep up with the
latest protocols that hit the streets. In this issue, we
have a special treat, a speed and reliability test of
several of today's most popular protocols. As you read
this bear in mind,"Your mileage may vary."
* Speed and Reliability Tests of Popular Protocols
Article by William F. Logan
Testing by William F. Logan and Jeff White
A few months ago Jeff White and I initiated testing of
all of the "HOT" protocols. The criteria selected was
reliability, efficiency, and speed. We were *NOT* simply
searching for the fastest protocol. Let's be honest, you
can connect your 2400 baud modem with one of the same,
select Ymodem G without MNP, throw caution to the wind and
hope for the best. I can assure you a fast file transfer
will take place. I also can assure you that if one bit of
line noise or interference is encountered you will end up
with a corrupted, (and useless) file on your hard drive.
We wanted the speed of the transfer to match the
reliability of it as well.
Various items were standardized upon. First, two
files would be transmitted, 35K and 75K in size. These
would be transferred in batch when available. If the
boards I logged onto Long Distance did not allow Uploads,
I would select files as closest to those Kilobytes total
as possible for Download. The speed tests were conducted
first and then the speed and reliability tests. It was
just recently when this final portion of the testing was
completed.
We first utilized the proper software and ran various
noise level test on the line connected to Solitude. With
this information in hand we selected times of day when
there was no level of noise to times when there should
have plenty of garbage screaming across the screen
due to the high level of noise. We wanted to find a
protocol which was not only fast as Ymodem G but as
reliable as Xmodem.
The protocols listed below were tested for SPEED of
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 16
transmission only and the results carefully recorded. We
did NOT utilize the timers built into the protocols as we
soon discovered that at times these are constructed on a
biased basis. We utilized a Digital stopwatch during
the transfer and began the clock at the initiation of the
transfer and ended it with the actual end of the file
transfer. The protocols are listed in the position of
speed in which they were recorded with the fastest first
and the slowest last.
NOTE...THIS IS *NOT* THE OUTCOME OF THE RELIABILITY TEST
AS WELL. THIS IS *ONLY* THE SPEED TEST RESULTS.
==========================================================
SPEED RESULTS
==========================================================
RANK PROTOCOL BATCH AUTHOR
==========================================================
1 Tmodem Y * Micro Tech
2 Zmax [2048] Y Micro Tech
3 Hyper Y ** Hilgraeve
4 Zmodem Mobyturbo Y Omen Tech
5 Mpt Y Matthew Thomas
6 Lynx Y Matthew Thomas
7 bimodem Y *** Erik Labs
==========================================================
* REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR BATCH DOWNLOAD
** HYPER PROTOCOL:
Ymodem G was NOT tested. This is an excellent and
reliable protocol when utilized properly with an Error
Correcting modem. However, it cannot be used correctly
without one and thus was excluded. Also Jmodem and
Super8K were not tested. Jmodem does not fair well on
noisy lines and the shareware version of Super8K is so
crippled due to shareware screens it was not selected.
To be fair to HyperProtocol the protocol is F-A-S-T
when transferring raw uncompressed files. But I decided
to pass on this feature as the majority of files on BBSes
are compressed files.
*** THIS IS NOT AN ACCURATE REPORTING OF THE FULL BIMODEM!
BiModem is a technically superior protocol when
utilized in the send AND receive mode. This fine Protocol
can actually send and receive files at the same time while
providing a chat screen. When utilized in this mode the
throughput is effectively doubled. In this mode it cannot
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 17
be beat. However, for the fairness of the test (none of
the others are capable of bidirectional transfers) it was
tested in one way transmission.
Now we arrive with the results that REALLY matter,
reliability of transfer. I can take any fast protocol and
utilize a speedy hard drive on both ends with disk caching
and create speed. But will the file end up in one piece
or for that matter end up on your hard drive at all? It
is with this in mind that we decided to test for what
matters, Reliability of transfer. But I decided to take
this one step further and add speed to it as well. This
would leave out Xmodem CRC which will just keep ticking
like a fine watch on a noisy line. Ward can be proud of
what he has put together here. Fine advancements have
been made since his pioneering protocol. Note that these
protocols were not only tested locally but all across the
country. I would pick Mornings, Evenings and Middle of
the night to test them. The boards I conducted the test
on were located across the nation, from New York to
California. During this period I even logged onto a board
in Korea very late at night and transferred a 35K file
with the winner of our test with no problems at all. I
attempted to go through as many switching networks as
possible.
And, now without further fanfare here are the winners
of the Speed and Reliability tests.
==========================================================
SPEED AND RELIABILITY OUTCOME
==========================================================
RANK PROTOCOL BATCH AUTHOR
==========================================================
1 Zmodem MobyTurbo Y Omen Tech
2 Hyper Y Hilgraeve
3 Tmodem Y Micro Tech
4 Zmax Y Micro Tech
==========================================================
Mpt and Lynx were so poor on noisy lines and multiple
switching networks that they did not even make the top
again. On one occasion on a local BBS during a noisy
session Mpt chalked up 536 errors during the 35K file
transfer session. It performed the same over noisy long
distance lines. Mpt and Lynx are fine protocols when
configured correctly on both ends and the user has a clean
line in which to transfer. But when they fail, the fail
miserably.
BiModem was not included within this final test as I
did not find one board in my travels across the country
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 18
that offered this protocol. (Many locally but none long
distance) I am sure if offered it would fare well, but
this is simply my opinion at this point as I have nothing
to back it up with.
Now lets pause a moment to go over the results. Omen's
DSZ Zmodem MobyTurbo was the overall winner. During ALL
the testing this protocol did not fail to function or lock
up due to excessive line noise. It would simply downshift
to a safe speed and like a fine watch, keep ticking away
till it was completed. Yet even during these periods of
downshifting the overall speed fared better than the
others. In fact as a result of this test I have just
standardized to this protocol during all of my transfers.
Granted there were times it appeared as if Xmodem was
handling the transfer instead of Zmodem but after the
spurt of line noise cleared it would kick right back up
there again. Since this test Omen has released a graphical
version of DSZ called GSZ. It is essentially the same
protocol but with a graphical display.
Hilgraeve's HyperProtocol was a close second in the
reliability test. However when I did run into a problem
it would actually lock up the transfer. I received many
error messages at times and the worst seemed to be
"PIPELINE IS FULL" that one would lock up the protocol.
At one point I waited for more than five minutes thinking
it would clear up but it never did. Luckily this error
would only happen once in a great while. Normally it
simply downshifted and continued. However, due to the
lockups that occurred it was disqualified from first
place.
Micro Tech's Tmodem and Zmax are other fine protocols.
In Speed, Tmodem cannot be beaten. But again, I received
aborted transfers on severely noisy connections. This kept
these protocols out of the running for first. Zmax [2048 K
packets] did not fair well at all on some connections. I
must admit though when I connected with Micro Tech (Long
Distance) with either Tmodem or Zmax the speed and
reliability of transfer was awesome. If not for a few
aborts this would have been the winner hands down.
Please bear in mind I am not discussing authors,
support policies, registration fees, etc. Granted
somewhere on some echo a complaint has been posted about
one of these. It is no matter to me how the company
supports their products. I am only concerned with the
support I receive for my registrations. I do not profess
to be the Ralph Nader of Telecommunications nor do I wish
to be. Keep this in mind as you judge the suitability of a
particular protocol for your own use.
For this test I was only concerned with the outcome of
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 19
the file transfer and to the best of my knowledge the
results have been reported fairly and accurately. I also
might add at a fair expense to me....but I digress. The
matter at hand is reliability. As users we want the file
to depart our hard drive and reach the remote point with
few problems and errors as possible. Personally, I feel
that you cannot go wrong with DSZ. I have not conducted
tests on GSZ but being as it is simply a graphical DSZ it
would perform well.
I am sure there are those of you who will disagree and
argue these points with me. I can only state what we have
found to be true during these tests.
- Editor's Note
Bill Logan and Jeff White can be reached at Solitude BBS
in Tucson, Arizona (602) 747-5236 or through Fido Net at
1:300/21 and 1:300/23 respectively.
P O T L U C K
This department of Carrier Detect contains articles
that do not neatly fit into the other departments that
appear regularly. Here the articles could be on anything
and will vary in each issue this area appears.
* Archives and Why We Use Them
Article by Thomas O' Hara
Many people new to communications, are puzzled with
archived files on BBSes. First, it can be difficult to
determine what a file is or does by the rather cryptic
descriptions that are found on most BBS file listings.
Secondly, a file extension of EXE, COM or BAT may be
understandable, but just what is an ARJ, ARC, ZIP or LZH?
And then they have to ask themselves "How do you make use
of such a file?" To better understand this mess, we
should stroll through archive history (this is the O'Hara
version, mind you - which may or may not be totally
accurate, but close enough). Since there really isn't any
known better authority on this branch of history, I guess
the responsibility falls on my shoulders to guide you.
Somewhere, back in the beginning of the telecommun-
ication explosion, someone came up with the idea of a BBS.
Now, a BBS is a "Bulletin Board" service or system, and as
such, was primarily used for passing messages from one
user to another - thus the name bulletin board. Back in
those ancient days, fast modems were 300 baud, and the
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 20
only transfer protocol was a straight Ascii - or text -
transfer. The baud rate and transfer type were adequate,
of course, since most people couldn't type that fast, nor
were the terminal programs capable of handling much more
than text.
And then something amazing happened. Newer, faster
modems came out - blazing along at 1200 baud! - and a
gentleman by the name of Ward Christiansen devised a
better protocol - Xmodem - the first reliable, error
checking one. Suddenly more things could be done in less
time, and since Xmodem was able to handle binary code as
well as Ascii code, the possibility of transferring
executable files came into existence. This was a rather
new concept. Again, keep in mind that this is way back in
history (according to O'Hara), certainly more than a
decade ago. This was a time when home computers were
dominated by 8-bit machines such as the Apple or TRS-80.
A time when a big file would have been something less than
48,000 bytes in size. Even then, such a file would have
taken quite some time to pass, 10 or 12 minutes. And,
just like today, such a file might have several data files
and/or text files to support it. After all, you DO need
at least a short instruction file telling you how to use
the program don't you?
Fact is, just like today, you might really have to
download 5, 6 or more files to get a functional program,
and the more files you transferred, the better your
chances were that one was corrupted. Some smart person
stumbled onto the concept of a "library" file containing
ALL relevant files, and thus started the "concept" of
archiving.
Now, a library file didn't really do anything special
to the files, just put them together so you could download
one big one. Actually, due to the rather limited error
checking performed by Xmodem these extended download
sessions may have increased your chance of getting a
busted file. After all, line noise was worse back then,
and today's modems have improved immensely in their
ability overcome this problem. However, our friend that
created xmodem improved it and file transfers become a bit
more practical.
Times change - fortunately. The home computer was no
longer to be dominated by 8-bit machines, since "big blue"
decided to enter the field with its own "pricey" edition -
the IBM PC. This groundbreaking machine was a 16-bit
powerhouse with enormous memory of 640K, not the measly
64K that the 8-bit machines used. Incorporating such a
high RAM level was probably only done to give the
fledgling machines the illusion of incredible power. At
that time no software utilized even close to this amount
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 21
of memory and I doubt that even IBM ever thought that the
640K RAM ceiling would some day become a "limitation" to
the programmer. Of course, one of Murphy's Laws state
that no matter how much space you have, SOMEONE will find
a way to fill it and need more. This also applies to RAM.
Suddenly, we are faced with transferring not just
64-80K libraries of files as we did with the 8-bit
machines, but now we are faced with libraries that could
be 360K - this limit being supplied by the standard floppy
diskette - or larger, since hard drives were available
even back then. But a Xmodem transfer of a file that
large could take over an hour at 1200 baud! And the
"faster" protocols, as they came on line, only improved
this time marginally. Yes, the advent of the 2400 baud
modem halved the time, but this "expensive" peripheral was
limited to only the hard core hobbyist and the well to do.
Something needed to be done to help out the rest of us.
And something was done. To my recollection - and this
is history according to O'Hara - the first serious program
that attacked the problem was a program called ARC.
Through use of programming "magic," this program took
related groups of files and not only created a library of
them, but compressed the file to a smaller size!
Suddenly, these behemoth libraries exceeding 360K could be
compressed into a single file, considerably smaller than
the originals. Perhaps one that was only 75% the size of
the original set of files! A considerable savings in
time, and therefore money in long distance phone calls.
But this was just the begi.ning. ARC was improved by
its developer Thom Henderson, and suddenly became the
first archive standard. Then it too was improved on by
another developer, Phil Katz, using similar coding
techniques. Unfortunately, he chose to continue to use
the same file extension, and eventually we ended up with
the infamous "Arc Wars" that has lead to different
standards and much confusion in general for the public.
In addition, there were other players in the field,
offering different solutions to the same problem. And
suddenly we went from seeing ARCs in the file list to also
seeing others, such as DWC, LZH, PAK, ZIP, as well as ARC.
And yes, there were still others.
Originally, the reason for searching for archiving
methods was to create a file package that could be stored
in the smallest space possible. However, this enabled
files to be transferred from one computer to another in
the least amount of time. Put another way, the smallest
possible archive is the cheapest possible archive to
transfer. And that is why we use archives instead of
uncompressed files. But what of the many possible choices
for the archiver to be used? It is my contention that the
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 22
only archiver to use for online storage is the one that
makes the smallest archive of any given set of files.
Put another way, I advocate NO single archiver as a
standard. If a particular associated set of files is
compressed into the smallest possible package by, say
PKZIP, then the online file should be a ZIP file.
However, if the smallest compressed file is created by
LHA, then it should be an LZH file, and so on. In
reality, you will find that the tighest compressed file
will either be an ARJ or an LZH. I have rarely found that
PKZIP creates the smallest possible archive, ditto for PAK
and ZOO.
An archive is, well, an archive - a place for STORING
records, information, etc. The same is true of an archive
file. Essentially, we use it as a storage file for
infrequently used programs, if, in fact we ever actually
do use them. Since storage is expensive - as is transfer
time - I store the archives in whatever archive format
creates the smallest file. After all, the fewer the disks
I have to maintain, the better off I am. And since I am
NOT a "command line switch guru," nor do I ever intend to
be one, most of my files are stored as LZHs. And here is
where I am forced to vary from my OWN logic. In nearly
80% of all cases, right now the smallest archive is
created by ARJ. Why, then, do I store most of my files as
LZHs? Mostly, it is because I don't have excess funds to
use to register ARJ, and LHA is a free program. And I do
not recommend continuous use of a shareware program
without registering it. At some point in time, ARJ will
be registered, and at that point in time, my personal
files will be mostly converted to that archive format.
One further point of clarification needs be made here,
and that deals with the extensions EXE and COM that you
also find in file lists. Ususally, these are NOT merely
executable files, but are instead a form of file called a
"self extracting archive." When you "execute" it by
typing its filename, you start a process that causes the
file to "unpack" itself into its associated files. This
can create problems for you. When dealing with one of
these types of archives, that is a file ending in EXE or
COM, make sure there is enough space on the disk you are
on to hold the expanded files when you execute it. Even
more basic, make sure that you are not in a directory on
your hard drive where you don't want miscellaneous files
to be placed.
All of the modern archivers create self extracting
files and there is the possibility of running a self
extracting file that would actually overwrite existing
files on the system. I believe that most of the self
extractors will warn you of this situation, but some may
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 23
contain an overwrite switch that would foil this
safeguard. I also suggest that you always look at the
contents of a self-extractor first. This will help avoid
the possibility of accidental overwrite. This may mean
you have to have a copy of every archiver available (or a
multi-format archive viewer such as Debuerg's File Viewer)
but it is worth it. Although many boards test all files
for virii, it is possible to bury one in a self extracting
file inside a standard archive. For safety's sake, you
might consider taking precautions such as starting your
TSR virus checker before you run any new software.
I hope you found this information interesting and
useful. At least one of the original intentions of this
text has been met; To provide a clear statement as to why
we use archives in telecommunications. I also hope that
you can get a general understanding of the meanings
attributable to the different file extensions.
- Editor's Note
The ARJ archiver mentioned in the article is free for
non-commercial personal use.
B Y T E L I N E
Fast facts, tips, comments and rumors on all kinds of
computer related topics.
* BYTELINE - July 1991
by Dirk Powers
DEAR GOTTFRIED: Thanks for last month's tip on using
SETVER. I got MANIFEST to work with DOS 5.0 by telling the
MSDOS.SYS version table that I was using Ver. 3.3. ...
Dear B.W. You are using the beta version of DOS 5 I see.
The "real" DOS 5 has the version table in SETVER, not in
MSDOS.SYS but the method of adding/deleting files from the
table is the same. With the new way of doing things you
have to have this line in CONFIG.SYS - DEVICE=SETVER.EXE.
ANYONE USING DR-DOS? It is being offered for $79.95 with a
certificate letting you buy LOTUS Magellan for $19.95.
DR-DOS is version 5. Was there ever a version 4,3,2,1?
[Gottfried jumping in here - The previous version of DR
DOS was ver. 3.41. And, DR- DOS 6.0 will catch up with MS
DOS 5.0 by incorporating a task switcher].
SYMANTEC's ON TARGET (sets up schedules) free demo disk.
Call 1- 800-228-4122, ext. 303-P.
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 24
SYMANTEC JustWrite for WINDOWS free demo disk. Same #,
ext. 106- P. The program is temporally on sale for $79.
Free FOXPRO 2.0 Demo Disk: 1-800-837-FOX2, offer PCD-701.
CHARISMA PRESENTATION software working model:
1-800-733-3729, Ext. 5050.
GEO WRITE reminds me of AMI PRO except it is faster in its
GEOS environment that looks like WINDOWS but isn't. Too
bad the current version doesn't have a speller, thesaurus
or search & replace ability. It does have some nice
looking fonts, all of which show up on my VGA screen in
true WYSIWYG manner. My old 9-pin Epson prints out the
nine supplied text fonts in any size from 4 points to 792
points (one character per page!) [Gottfried here to say:
Ver. 1.2, free to all registered owners, has the
Houghton-Mifflin spell checker with a 100,000 word
dictionary.]
THE GEO ENSEMBLE package also is lacking when it comes to
any kind of a spreadsheet/database feature except for a
basic name & address program. [Gottfried here again. The
ver. 2.0 release of GEOS ENSEMBLE will have a spreadsheet
that will work with Lotus WK1 files.]
I HAVEN'T WRITTEN much about PSL in almost a year. That's
because I haven't seen a copy of their PSL NEWS. I like
the magazine but if I pick up a copy I can't put it down
'till I have read the whole thing. That's "information
overload" because it takes an hour or so to get thru it.
So, I cut off my nose to spite my face and let my
subscription lapse. They recently sent me the June
issue anyhow.... At one time I had a magazine article in
the works about shareware and PSL would have had a
prominent place in said article. I was writing about PSL,
CompuServe's Forum Libraries, and local Bulletin Boards.
CompuServe was undergoing big changes every month or so
and when I got the article just about ready it was
suddenly out of date. After that happening a few times I
quit and went to work on something less challenging.
PSL MENTIONS some problems with DAK but a letter to the
editor about DAK sez, "Never have I had a problem." PSL
lists a good deal on a laptop (EPSON) from DANMARK......
For a free copy of PSL NEWS call 1-800-2424-PSL.
A NOTE FROM Gottfried Lopez: I find $5 per disk from
shareware from PSL to be exorbitant. If you want one disk
it's $5 plus 4$ shipping. Before I got religion and went
straight I bought disks from many sources including the
infamous Mr. Moto in Nevada and never did I pay more than
$2.50 per disk. And this was for name brand stuff.
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 25
REMEMBER THE PROBLEMS I had with DANMARK and the computer
that didn't have (as advertised) a VGA monitor? I have
tried again to buy a low cost XT type computer to use as a
backup, this time a $249 job (MEMOREX) from a company in
New Jersey. Will let you know how that works out.
AT SEA ON A BATTLESHIP. Last month I spent four days
aboard one of the Navy's two remaining battleships. While
there I put in a slight amount of work (telephone
answering) in the Information Officer's work space with
fellow UofA grad Lt. Rob Raine. He does a lot of things on
the ship, one of which is publishing the ship's newspaper
and also the "plan of the day." A desktop publishing
package I never heard of is used. Rob has his own TOSHIBA
laptop computer and WORD PERFECT 5.1. The official "issue"
word processor is WP 4.2 but other versions plus WORD,
WORDSTAR, etc., have been brought on board by the crew.
Navy supplied PC's are ZENITH brand and all 54 are in
stand-alone mode. Computers are strapped to desktops and
monitors are in turn strapped to the computer. This is not
for theft prevention but rather as a protection in rough
seas.
You probably got the same mailing from Microsoft that I
got re. DOS 5.0 and how you can "upgrade" for only $99.95
direct from MS. Gee, thanks Bill. MS sez I can now get
"direct support" from them. Yeah, and at only $2 a minute.
I can now "recover critical deleted files." I can't
recover ordinary lost files? Who decides which files are
"critical"? The new Task Swapper "ends the time-
consuming quit-load-quit routine." The quit the old and
load the new program strategy is faster than the
task-swapper in my tests.
Oh well, at least EXTEND-A-NAME PLUS works now, which it
didn't with the Beta test version. If you want a better
price for DOS call EGGHEAD as they have a $39.95 special.
SHAREWARE AUTHORS TAKE NOTE: What This World Needs is a
WINDOWS that isn't actually WINDOWS. Some sort of a GEOS
like graphics package. None of the multi- tasking,
expanded/extended memory management. No big "eats up all
your disk space" installation. Something that simply lets
you run a program like WORD FOR WINDOWS with low overhead.
It doesn't do anything but let you run a single written
for WINDOWS program. Am I dreaming?
* BYTELINE - August 1991
A LITTLE MORE INFO (maybe more than you want) on GeoWorks.
The new Ver. 1.2 (free to 1.0 registered owners) has a
spell checker, support for 300 additional printers, and
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 26
built in TETRIS for the game players GEOS is a program
that looks like WINDOWS but runs on an 8088 (or better)
computer. The GEOS ENSEMBLE program has things like a word
processor with quite a few features but is only 58K in
size. The draw program is about 32K. Ver. 1.2 is the
latest GeoWorks and Ver. 2.0 should be out about Jan.
1992. Version 2.0 will have more capability, such as a
spreadsheet. Then comes Ver. 3.0, a full blown 32 bit
operating system that you are supposed to use (?) as a
Novell front end.. Will it all happen? The company is
still a small 75 man operation. Guess we will have to wait
and see. The companies pitch is: Pay us 1% of your
sales and we will give you a runtime graphics environment
that looks like WINDOWS and that you can run on any
computer anyone owns. The people with just an XT or AT on
their desk can get familiar with a GUI on the cheap. A
$100 application ($50 wholesale) costs just 50 cents
royalty. And, we at GEOS do all the work for you on
printer drivers and the GUI menu. All this came to my
attention via the America On Line application which
runs under GEOS. It has a nice look and feel to it. But,
with this stuff you are talking only look and feel. No
multi-tasking even if you have a 486. Sure, with a 512K
8086 you don't have the hardware for any kind of mult-
itasking but you can still run the snazzy looking GEOS and
its programs. As for multitasking on a computer that isn't
a server: Who needs it? Why would you want or need Word
Perfect running in the "background." What's it doing in
the background? Nothing. With GEOS you can shrink Word
Perfect to an icon and it's still there but not actually
running. Same thing you do with Switch-It, Carousel or DOS
5.0's task switcher... List price for GeoWorks is $199 but
CompuServe members and GEnie members often get gangas.
MICROSOFT HAD GOOD experience with the Beta testing (7,000
copies) of DOS 5.0 so they are doing the same thing with
WINDOWS 3.1. It comes on 7 HD disks. Has a much better
"look" to it than ver. 3.0, plus other enhancements.
MY XT CLONE from MEMOREX came out of the box and was up
and running in 5 minutes. It cost $249. Came with 640K,
one 360K drive and a keyboard. There is a serial port, a
printer port, and video output for both color (CGA) and a
mono graphics monitor. I had to supply my own monitor and
cable. Fortunately I had an amber TAXAN monitor not in use
with anything so I plugged it in. The MEMOREX runs at
4.77 or 10 MHz. It's a slimline with just two available
slots. I stuck a hardcard in it which left one slot but
because of the size of the hardcard I'm only going to be
able to put a short card in the remaining slot. A shorty
modem card would be a good choice. The only problem is the
built-in clock-calendar. I can't use it 'cause there is no
software to set it or pick up the time and date on boot. I
need ACER (they built the thing) software STIME, SDATE and
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 27
TODAY. All in all, it's a good backup computer in case
your main job goes on the fritz, like while doing your
taxes on April 14th! The 360K drive is a grave limitation
if all your data files are backed up on 720K, 1.2 meg,
etc., disks. Then the backup computers usefulness becomes
something less than useful. The best thing to do is ZIP
data 2 files and save them to low capacity disks. I
formatted some 360K disks to 420K with MAXI and ZIPPED all
my WORD files files that happened to come to 410K.
HAVING SOME KIND of weird troubles with your computer?
Trashed directories and wrecked FATs? After many months of
problem free operation all of a sudden something started
sending my floppy A: disks to that big DEL in the sky....
"Round up the usual suspects" came to mind. Number one
suspect is always my cache program. I REMed that in
AUTOEXEC.BAT and all returned to normal with drive A:,
though everything was a little slower overall. After
damage control procedures were taken care of I redid PC-
CACHE with the I/a option (ignore drive A:) and things are
fixed but who knows for how long?
FIFTH GENERATION SYSTEMS sent a nice flyer offering good
deals on their products such as FASTBACK 3.0 and BROOKLYN
BRIDGE. They have a BBS where you can download, ask
questions, etc. Or, as they put it in the flyer "lease
[sic] questions." Their 24 hour seven day a week toll free
technical line is their pride & joy. They say, "Set your
alarm one night for 3:00 am and call us. Our technicians
are alert and ready!" The BBS is at (504) 295-3344, 0,8,1
at 300,1200, 2400 baud.
FREE DEMO DISK of Q&A 4.0 by calling 1-800-228-4122 Ext.
102-P
B O N U S F I L E S
For the September issue I've included a simple but
effective way to scan an archive for a virus. A Tucson
sysop, Jerry Cain, wrote this clever batch file. It uses
the popular shareware program SCAN and works with all
major archivers including PKZIP, LHA, and ARJ. The author
included documentation so I won't go into the details
here.
F E E D B A C K
I am interested in getting as much feedback as
possible regarding Carrier Detect and welcome suggestions
or any other comments you may have. If you are a software
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 28
publisher or shareware author and want to submit your
program for possible inclusion in future issues you are
welcome to do so. Finally, if you are interested in
writing an article or review, please let me know!
Prospector BBS - The Home of Carrier Detect
(916) 921-9949, 24 hours, 2400 to 14.4K (v.32bis)
First call access to Carrier Detect Related Files and
shareware programs reviewed in the current issue.
Home Mailing Address:
811 San Juan Road #199, Sacramento, CA 95834
P R O D U C T I N F O R M A T I O N
Following is product information for the products
reviewed in this issue of Carrier Detect. If you are
interested in purchasing or evaluating any of the products
please note the publisher's address listed below. In
addition, all current shareware programs featured in
Carrier Detect will be made available to first time
callers on the Carrier Detect Support BBS.
HYPERACCESS/5
distributed as commercial software
version 2.0
suggested list - $99.95 for DOS only
$199.95 for DOS and OS/2 version
published by - Hilgraeve Inc.,
Genesis Centre, 111 Conant Avenue,
Suite A, Monroe, MI, 48161
Toll-Free Orders 1-800-826-2760
FREE SPEECH BBS
distributed as shareware
version 3.10
cost - $25 dollars registration fee
published by - Pinnacle Software, P.O. Box 386, Mount
Royal, Quebec, Canada, H3P3C6
(514) 345-9578 (voice)
(514) 345-8654 (BBS)
available for download on GEnie in the BBS roundtable
Carrier Detect - Issue 3 - page 29
