CP/M

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ CP/M / CPM_CDROM.iso / simtel / archives / cpm / 8209-1.txt < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-02-12 | 187KB | 4,747 lines

2-Sep-82 00:29:00,1511;000000000000 Date: 2 September 1982 02:29-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: More CP/M 3.0 info To: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 2 Sep 82 2:32-EDT Via: Brl; 2 Sep 82 2:36-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 2 Sep 82 2:41-EDT This came from CompuServe CP-MIG: --- Sb: CP/M 3.0 31-Aug-82 23:50:15 Fm: Digital Research Well, I haven't the foggiest what the enduser upgrade will be. Or if there will be one. Requires a lot of mods to a 2.2 BIOS to take advantage of some of the performance enhancments. CP/M3 is capable of doing disk I/O 10-20 times faster than optimized 2.2 systems, especially on hard disk systems. It can run with the BDOS mostly banked, and use alternate banks as L.R.U. directory caching and deblocking buffers. The deblocking is done by the BDOS, not the BIOS. There is a whole new set of utilities, it will come with RMAC, LINK, LIB, a MP/M-like SET and SHOW instead of STAT, rename with wildcards, console I/O redirection to/from disk, lots of other goodies like that. Most users should wait for their system suppliers to offer preconfigured systems, unless they have implemented their own 2.2 BIOS's. We are finding it increasingly hard to give tech-support to individuals trying to write BIOS's. I guess I could go on for a while, but I mainly know about the internals of the BDOS-BIOS interface, and not much about the enduser interface level of the system. Ask specific questions, I'll try and answer them. -jrp 2-Sep-82 00:30:00,25062;000000000000 Date: 2 September 1982 02:30-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: Long message - RCPMLIST.27 To: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 2 Sep 82 2:33-EDT Via: Brl; 2 Sep 82 2:36-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 2 Sep 82 2:43-EDT +++ Remote CP/M Software Exchange Systems, List # 27 +++ Last Revised August 28, 1982 ============================================================== A summary of all known (and running) Remote CP/M Software Exchange Systems using XMODEM for program transfers. It would be appreciated if operators of new RCPM systems will transmit the needed information about their systems to Ben Bronson [Hyde Park RCPM (312) 955-4493], or to Jud Newell [Mississauga RCPM (416) 826-5394]. Ben and Jud will attempt to coordinate updates to the RCPMLIST as they occur... List # 27 revised and updated courtesy of: Mississauga RCPM and Hyde Park RCPM ============================================================== Revision Summary as of August 28, 1982: Note: [^^= data changed since RCPMLIST.26, 06/20/82] [& = data changed since RCPMLIST.25a, 05/08/82] [> = data changed since RCPMLIST.25, 05/07/82] --------------------------------------------------------------- NORTHEAST --------------------------------------------------------------- MISSISSAUGA ONTARIO RCP/M, (416) 826-5394, Jud Newell. 24 hrs. 300 and 1200 baud. No A.L.D.S. Up as of 08/28/82. 20Mb hard disc now on line 24 hrs/day. [Toronto] Special Interest in New and New Releases of Software. System supports extensive HELP files and Software DATABASE. ^^PMMI available now only on request. 300/1200 baud standard. ---------------------------------------------------------------- MISSISSAUGA ONTARIO HUG-RCP/M, (416) 273-3011, Toronto Heath Users Group. 1800-0600 wkdys, 24 hrs wkends. 110,300,450,600,710 baud. No A.L.D.S. Up as of 06/20/82. 2+ Mb of files on 5 drives. [Toronto] --------------------------------------------------------------- Mid-Suffolk RCP/M and Data Exchange, (516) 751-5639, Al Klein, 1700-0900 weekdays, 1700 Friday - 0900 Monday. 300,450 Baud. SPRINT, MCI. Up as of 8/12/82 @400k on 4 drives. [Long Island] Sysop interested in new programs for all micros. Note Phone will be answered voice 0900-1700 Monday-Friday. ^^NEW SYSTEM. SYSOP interested in all micros. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Johnson City, NY SJBBS, 607-797-6416, Charles ---. No call back. Eves., etc. 300 baud. No alternative long-distance service. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 2 Mb of files on 2 drives.[Upstate New York] ---------------------------------------------------------------- SuperBrain RCPM, 617-862-0781, Paul Kelly. 1900-0700 wkdys, 24 hrs wkends. 110, 300, & 1200 baud. SPRINT, ITT, MCI. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 300 K files on-line. [Lexington, MA: Boston area] (Special interest in Superbrain-adapted CP/M programs) --------------------------------------------------------------- Rochester RBBS, 716-223-1100, Arnie McGall. No call back. 24 hrs. 300/1200 baud. SPRINT, MCI, ITT. Up as of 08/27/82. @2.4 Mb of files on 3 drives. [Upstate New York] (S-100 based. General CP/M software. The standard RBBS/ RCPM system coexists with a separate passworded message system called Datastar, which can be entered from CP/M but runs on a separate computer (charge for DataStar usage). ^^New Speeds,now supports 1200 baud. Data/Star no longer free and carried a .05 per minute charge for use. RCP/M remains free. --------------------------------------------------------------- Bearsville Town SJBBS, 914-679-6559, Hank Szyszka. No call back. 110,300,450,600,710 baud. No a.l.d.s. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 4MB of files on 4 drives. [Upstate New York]. (Installing MP/M. All CPMUG programs available by request. General CP/M software) ^^Double Sided/DD Drives now on line. Capacity doubled. ------------------------------------------------------------- Woodstock, N.Y. RCP/M. 914-679-8734. John Doak. No Call Back. 1800-2300 Monday-Friday, 0800-2300 Weekends. 75-450 Baud. ? ALDS. Up as of 08/27/82. ? Capacity. ^^NEW SYSTEM. ------------------------------------------------------------- Brewster RBBS, 914-279-5693, Paul Bosshold & Carl Erhorn. Call Back at all times. 9pm-8am Weekdays, 24 hour weekends. 300,450, 600, 710 baud. No a.l.d.s. Up as of 02/28/82. @ 500 K of files on 1 drive. [Downstate New York] (S-100 based. General CP/M software) --------------------------------------------------------------- EAST CENTRAL --------------------------------------------------------------- Flanders, N.J. 201-584-9227, Ken Stritzel. No Call Back. 24 hours, 110,300,450,600,710 baud. SPRINT,MCI. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 26mb on hard disk (= 3 logical drives) + 1.2mb on 2 floppies.[Northern New Jersey] ^^ 26mb hard disk now installed. --------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Bogdanovich's RBBS, 201-747-7301. No call back. 1800-2300 wkdys & 0800-2300 wkends. 300 baud. a.l.d.s. accessibility & disk capacity not known. Up as of 08/27/82. [New Jersey] > NEW SYSTEM. Further data needed. --------------------------------------------------------------- Remote CP/M and Bulletin Board System of Cranford, New Jersey 201-272-1874, Bruce Ratoff. Eves., etc. No call back. 110,300, 450 & 600 baud. SPRINT, MCI. Up as of 08/27/82. 2- 3 Mb of files on 3 drives. Bulletin Board of SIG/M Group [New Jersey] (General CP/M software; active also as a bulletin board) --------------------------------------------------------------- Allentown RBBS/RCPM System, 215-398-3937, Bill Earnest. 24 hrs. No call back. 110, 300, 450, 600, 710 baud. SPRINT & ITT. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 10. Mb. of files on hard disk (=4 logical disks). [E.Pennsylvania] (General CP/M software. Bulletin board of the Lehigh Valley Computer Club and SIG/M Group) --------------------------------------------------------------- Laurel, Md RCPM/RBBS, 301-953-3753, Wayne Hammerly. No call back. 24 hours. No A.L.D.S. 2 drives with 600k capacity now on line. PMMI on order, currently running at 300 baud only. Up as of 08/27/82 --------------------------------------------------------------- RLP RCP/M, McLean Va, 703-524-2549, Bob Plouffe. No Call back. 24 hours. SPRINT & MCI. 4 (N*) Drives with 640kb of files. Running CBBS for messages. Up as of 08/27/82 % Phone Number corrected. Note correct number is 703-524-2549 --------------------------------------------------------------- Grafton, Va. RBBS, 804-898-7493, Dave Holmes. No call back. 24 hrs. 300 baud. No a.l.d.s.? @ 200 K of files on 2 drives. Up as of 08/27/82. (Tidewater Va.) (Carries CP/M, TRS-80 & Apple software; plans for setting up a dual system (on one line) with an LNW-80 as well as the CP/M computer. Active as bulletin board) --------------------------------------------------------------- State College, Pa. CUG-NODE, 814-238-4857, Joe Shannon. No call back. 24 hours. 300 baud on login, then PMMI baud rates. No a.l.d.s.? @ 3 mb of files on 3 drives. Up as of 05/08/82. [Pennsylvania] + New System . Runs C-NODE software, with UNIX-like commands > (type 'cat commands' after reaching the '%' prompt) and file > xfer programs called 'send' & 'rcv' which are MODEM/XMODEM > compatible. Only BDS- and other C s'ware for downloading; > no msg system. --------------------------------------------------------------- MIDWEST --------------------------------------------------------------- Geneseo, Ill, 309-667-2504, Richard Blessing, call back. 0700-1700 . 110,300,450,600,710 baud, No ALDS. Up as of 04/22/82. @ 500 k on two drives. ^^NEW PHONE. System may not yet be back in operation. ------------------------------------------------------------- IBM-PC BBS, 312-647-7636, Gene Plantz. No call back. 1800- 0700 wkdys & 24 hrs wkends. 300 & 1200 baud. SPRINT, MCI, ITT. Up as of 08/13/82. @ 200 K of files. [Niles: Chicago area] > NEW SYSTEM. Run for members of ACPU. Access to operating > system requires password -- contact sysop. Bell 212A freqs > at 1200 baud. ------------------------------------------------------------- AIMS, Hinsdale, Ill. 312-789-0499, Mark Pulver. No call back. Eves. & ? 300 baud. SPRINT, MCI, ITT. @ 10 mb of files on hard disk. Up as of 08/27/82. [Chicago area] -------------------------------------------------------------- NEI RCPM System, 312-949-6189, Chuck Witbeck. No call back. 1800-0100 wkdys, 1200-0100 wkends. 300,450,600,710 baud. MCI, SPRINT, ITT. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 2 Mb of files on 2 drives. [Chicago area] (Main emphasis is on communications programs, including versions adapted to non-standard CP/M systems) --------------------------------------------------------------- Hyde Park RCPM/RBBS, 312-955-4493, Ben Bronson. No call back. 0100-1700 daily. 110, 300, 450, 600, 710 baud. SPRINT, ITT,MCI. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 2 Mb of files on 2 drives. [Chicago] (Special interest in hard- & software reviews, C progs, and very recent releases of standard programs) --------------------------------------------------------------- Logan Square RCPM, 312-252-2136, Earl Bockenfeld. No call back. 0100-1900 wkdys, irreg. on wkends. 110, 300, 450, 600,710 baud. SPRINT, ITT, MCI. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 1 Mb of files on 2 drives. [Chicago] (Special interest in recent releases and developing on-line databases, with daily change of software on B drive) --------------------------------------------------------------- Palatine RCPM, 312-359-8080, Tim Cannon. No call back. 1800- 0600 wkdys, 24 hours weekends. PMMI baud rates Thurdays 1800- Sunday 1800. 300/1200 Vadic all other times. SPRINT,MCI,ITT. Up as of 08/27/82.@ 4.8mb of files on 4 drives. Emphasis on very recent releases, updates to existing programs and BDS C programs. Disks on B:;C:; and D: are rotated with a second set daily. [Chicago] --------------------------------------------------------------- Westland, Michigan RBBS/RCPM, 313-729-1905, Ron Fowler. Call back. 24 hrs. 110, 300, 450 & 600 baud. SPRINT, MCI, ITT. Up as of 06/01/82. @ 1.4 Mb. of files on 2 drives. [Detroit] (Emphasis on very recent releases) --------------------------------------------------------------- Technical CBBS, 313-846-6127, Dave Hardy. No call back. 24 hrs. 110, 300, 450 & 600 baud. ITT, SPRINT, MCI. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 3 Mb of files on 3 drives. [Detroit area] (Emphasis on very recent releases. RCPM sysops desiring access to the passworded RCPM Clearing House system should leave a msg on TCBBS. Active message system) --------------------------------------------------------------- Royal Oak CP/M, 313-759-6569, Keith Petersen. Call back. 24 hrs. 110, 300, 450, 600, baud. 1200 baud modem now available on request. Use CHAT or leave a message if you want the 212A switched in. ITT, SPRINT, MCI. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 600 K on 2 floppy drives + 10 Mb on hard disk (=2 logical drives). [Detroit area] (Emphasis on new programs & recent updates of standard progs. --------------------------------------------------------------- Pontiac, Mi. RBBS/RCPM, 313-338-8505, Larry Breaux, 2pm- midnight, ? Baud, ? ALDS, ? File Storage. Up as of 04/08/82. --------------------------------------------------------------- Southfield, Mi, RBBS/RCPM, 313-559-5326, Howard Booker. No callback. 24 hrs. 300, 450 baud. ITT, SPRINT, MCI. Up as of 07/22/82. @ 2.7Mb on 8 (logical) drives. [Michigan] (Special interest in BDSC programs, doc. files and recent updates of standard programs.) ^^DISK Capacity increased. --------------------------------------------------------------- MINICBBS/Sorcerer's Apprentice Group, 313-535-9186, Bob Hageman. Call back. 24 hrs. 110, 300, 450, 600 baud. ITT, SPRINT,MCI. Up as of 02/27/82. @ 500 K on 2 drives. [Michigan] (Running on an Exidy Sorcerer. Needs password, "SORCERER". Special interest in adapting CP/M software and assorted hardware to Sorcerer systems) --------------------------------------------------------------- Fort Fone File Folder, 414-563-7442, Al Jewer, Shawn Everson. No Call Back. 24 hours. 110-710 baud. ALDS ?. Up as of 8/27/82. @20mb on two Corvus Drives. ^^ SYSOP now has 20 meg installed. $ NEW SYSTEM. Specializing in MP/M, CP/NET and BDSC programs. $ 6mb Corvus Drive expected shortly. --------------------------------------------------------------- Cincinnatti RBBS, 513-489-0149, Henry Deutsch. No callback. 1800-0600 daily. PMMI Baud rates. ? ALDS. @1.8mb on two drives. Up as of 6/20/82. Specializes in Telecommunications. ^^ NEW SYSTEM. Information Needed. --------------------------------------------------------------- West Carrolton RCP/M, 513-435-5201, Rich Malafa & Bob Drake. No call back. 24 hours. PMMI Baud rates. ? ALDS. @11 mb of files on hard disk (= 4 logical drives). Up as of 6/24/82. [Dayton OH] ^^ NEW SYSTEM. --------------------------------------------------------------- Columbus CBBS, 614-272-2227 [268-CBBS], John Walpole. No call back. 24 hrs. 110-600 baud. SPRINT, ITT, (MCI?). Up as of 08/27/82. @ 300 K of files on 3 drives. [Ohio] (Now running MP/M, on a Tarbell SD controller; occasional slow response means the sysop is also using the system; special interest in BDS-C programs. Also active as a bulletin board) --------------------------------------------------------------- Pickerington RBBS, 614-837-3269. Greg Bridgewater . No Call Back. ? Schedule. 300 baud. ? ALDS. @1mb on 4 drives. Running TRS-80 with Omikron. Up as of 06/27/82. ^^ NEW SYSTEM. Information Needed. --------------------------------------------------------------- Mission, Ka, 913-362-9583, Dave Kobets. No Call Back. 24 Hours. 300,1200 Baud 212A Standard. ALDS?. Up as of 5/31/82. @ 2meg of files on 2 drives. [Kansas] $ NEW SYSTEM. Running Heath H89, DD/DS drives, with high speed $ access. --------------------------------------------------------------- SOUTH --------------------------------------------------------------- NACS/UAH RBBS/RCPM, 205-895-6749, Don Wilkes. Call back.24 hrs. 110, 300, 450, 600 baud. No a.l.d.s. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 700 K of files on 4 drives. [Huntsville, Alabama] (Run for N. Ala. Computer Soc. at U. of Ala.; general CP/M software) --------------------------------------------------------------- EL PASO RCP/M, 915-598-1668, Sigi Kruger. Call back. 1800- 0600 Monday-Friday, 24 hours Saturday, Sunday 0000-1200 and 2000-2400. ? Baud. ? ALDS. ? Capacity. Up as of 07/10/82. ^NEW SYSTEM. Information needed. --------------------------------------------------------------- CALIFORNIA --------------------------------------------------------------- Los Angeles R/CPM, 213-479-3189, Bob McCown. No Call Back. 24 hours. PMMI Baud Rates. SPRINT, MCI. Up as of 07/22/82. ? Capacity. System features catalog of the latest CP/M, Apple, Atari, TRS-80 and IBM PC software. ^^NEW SYSTEM. SYSOP expects to have software for all types of microcomputers available for download. --------------------------------------------------------------- Pasadena CBBS, 213-799-1632, Dick Mead. No call back. 24hrs. 110-600+ baud. ITT, SPRINT, MCI. Up as of 06/20/82. @ 1.5 Mb of files on 2 floppies & 8.3 Mb on hard disk. All data now on hard disk.[Los Angeles area] (Also active as bulletin board. General CP/M software) --------------------------------------------------------------- Pasadena RBBS, 213-577-6034, Rich berg. No call back. 1600- 0700 weekdays, 24 hours weekends. ? Speed. ? ALDS? Up as of 07/13/82. ? Capacity. ^^NEW SYSTEM. More Information Needed. --------------------------------------------------------------- G.F.R.N.Data Exchange [RBBS], 213-541-2503, Skip Hansen. 24 hrs. 300 & 1200 baud. SPRINT, MCI, ITT. Up as of 08/27/82. 2.4 Mb of files on 2 drives. [Palos Verdes, S. Cal.] (Standard CP/M s'ware with special interest in ham radio- related programs. Soon (with MP/M) will also be reachable thru 450 mhz radio. Note the 1200 baud capability) --------------------------------------------------------------- San Jose Oxgate, 408-287-5901, Paul Traina. No call back. 1745 -0800 wkdys, 24 hrs wkends. 300 baud. SPRINT, MCI, ITT. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 2.4 mb of files on 3 drives. [SF Bay Area] > Formerly Siliconia RCPM, inadvertently dropped from this list > due to the name change. Networked with other systems using > the Oxgate software. --------------------------------------------------------------- Collossal Oxgate, 408-263-2588, Mel Kruts. Call back. Hours & other info not known. Up as of 08/27/82. > NEW SYSTEM. Part of Oxgate network. This 'Collossal' has 2 > ells. --------------------------------------------------------------- Piconet Oxgate, 415-965-4097, Byron McKay. No call back. 24 hrs. 110-710 baud. SPRINT, MCI, ITT. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 2 mb on 2 drives. [SF Bay Area] > NEW SYSTEM. Part of Oxgate network. Sponsored by Piconet > CPM Interest Group. --------------------------------------------------------------- RBBS of Marin County, 415-383-0473, Jim Ayers. No call back.Eves & nites wkdys, 24 hrs wkends. 110, 300, 450, 600 baud. SPRINT, ITT, MCI. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 1000 K of files on 2 drives. [SF Bay Area] (S-100 [IMSAI] based. 24-hour operation expected soon) --------------------------------------------------------------- Larkspur RBBS/RCPM, 415-461-7726, Jim C. No call back. 24 hrs.110,300,450,600,710 baud. SPRINT, ITT, MCI. Up as of 08/27/82. 2+ Mb on 2 drives. [San Francisco area] The system carries general & new CP/M software) --------------------------------------------------------------- G.F.R.N Data Exchange [RBBS] Garden Grove, 714-534-1547, Doug Laing, 24 Hours, 300 and 1200 Baud, 5. mb of files on 6 drives, up as of 08/27/82. special interest in amateur radio and apple/cpm software, also general interest CP/M. This is the second G.F.R.N system. {Garden Grove, California] --------------------------------------------------------------- San Diego RCPM, 714-271-5615, Brian Kantor. No call back. 24 hrs. 300 & 1200 baud. ITT, SPRINT, MCI. Up as of 05/01/82. @ 2.4 Mb of files on 2 drives. --------------------------------------------------------------- CP/M-Net (tm), (805) 527-9321, Kelly Smith. 1900-2300 (PST) Mon-Fri, 1900 Fri to 0700 Mon. 110-600+ baud. No alternative long-distance service. Up as of 08/27/82 with 20 Mb of files on 2 hard disks (=8 logical disks). [S. California, Bakersfield]. (System now includes SIG/M Vol. 1-10 = E:, SIG/M Vol. 11-20 =F:, SIG/M Vol. 21-25 = G:. XMODEM 'DISKMENU.DOC' for entire system directory (over 2100 files NOW available!). --------------------------------------------------------------- Thousand Oaks RBBS, 805-492-5472, Trevor Marshall. No Call Back. 24 hours. 300/600 baud. No ALDS. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 2mb on two floppies. ^^NEW PHONE NUMBER. Now running INFOSOFT with 4 logical disks. Supports subdirectories. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sacramento CBBS/RCPM, 916-483-8718, Sacramento Microcomputer Users Group. No call back. 24 hours a day. 110,300,450,600,710 baud. SPRINT. 700K+ Files on two drives. (expansion planned to 1.5m). Up as of 03/20/82. Joe Bergin, Don Bozarth, John Moorhead, & Bob Ress Sysops. [Sacramento, CA] (S-100 based, with special interest in CP/M; disks will change bi-monthly) --------------------------------------------------------------- SOUTHWEST --------------------------------------------------------------- Boulder Colorado RCPM, 303-499-9169, Jack Riley. No call back. 1900-2230 weekdays, 1200-2230 weekends. 110,300,450,600,710 baud. No A.L.D.S. Up as of 6/20/82. 32mb hard disk on line at all times. [Boulder, Colorado] --------------------------------------------------------------- Denver CUG-NODE, 303-781-4937. No call back. 24 hrs. 61- 710 baud. SPRINT (& MCI, ITT?). Up as of 06/10/82. @ 1 mb on 2 drives (?) > NEW SYSTEM, sponsored by (BDS) C Users' Group. For info on > use & s'ware see the State College Pa. CUG-NODE entry above. --------------------------------------------------------------- NORTHWEST --------------------------------------------------------------- Olympia, WA. 206-352-7530 . Tim Linehan. No call back. 24 hours. ? Speed. ? ALDS. Up as of 7/22/82. @5mb on Northstar system. ^^NEW SYSTEM. SYSOP alternating software while testing system. --------------------------------------------------------------- Yelm RBBS & CP/M, 206-458-3086, Dave Stanhope. Call back. 24 hrs. 300 baud. No a.l.d.s. Up as of 08/27/82. @ 250 K of files on 2 drives. [Olympia, Washington] --------------------------------------------------------------- Chuck Forsberg's RCPM, 503-621-3193, No call back. 24 hours. 300/1200 baud. SPRINT . Up as of 08/27/82. @? Files on line. [Oregon] $ Now can be reached with SPRINT. --------------------------------------------------------------- Beaverson, Oregon RCP/M, 503-641-7276, Dave Morgan. 24 hours. ? Speed. ? ALDS. Up as of 6/30/82. @26mb of files on Hard disk (4 logical drives). Interest in very recent releases and computer art. ^^ NEW SYSTEM. --------------------------------------------------------------- Frog Hollow CBBS/RCPM, 604-873-4007, David Bowerman. No call back. 24 hrs. 100-710 baud. 1.2 mb on 2 drives. Up as of 08/27/82. [Vancouver, BC] > System missed in earlier RCPMLISTs. General CP/M s'ware; SIG- > M & CPMUG s'ware available by request. Current trial project > requiring use of 100 baud ends 05/08; system may then force > use at => 300 baud. --------------------------------------------------------------- GENERAL NORTH AMERICA --------------------------------------------------------------- CP-MIG. On MicroNet, type 'RSIGS (CP-MIG)'. Sysops Dave Kozinn, Tom Jorgenson & Charlie Strom are arranging to have MN carry much of the new CPMUG and SIG/M software, plus a newsletter and a CP/M-oriented CBBS. --------------------------------------------------------------- OVERSEAS --------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Taylor's Remote Computer and RBBS, Australian local; 09 459 3787, Paul Taylor. Available most Australian evenings. Manual connection only, requires CCITT 300 Baud modem in ANSWER or ORIGINATE mode for access. Running IOS (CP/M compatible), 64K Z80, 5Mhz system @ 2MB on 2 8" disks with 48K CACHE buffers. Up as of 12/01/81. [Perth, Western Australia]. NOTES: 1. Whether a program exchange system is accessible by an a.l.d.s. (= alternative long-distance service) should be con- sidered when planning to modem over long programs. Charges on SPRINT, ITT/CITYCALL and MCI are 50-60% of Ma Bell's regular long distance rates. 2. Call-back systems are those where a computer and real people share the same telephone line. To contact the people, just dial & let the phone ring until you get an answer. To contact the computer: (1) dial, (2) let the phone ring once, (3) hang up just before the 2nd ring, & (4) re-dial. 3. Note that the 212A/Vadic 1200 Baud modems may not be compatable with yours. Most of the above systems are using Vadic 3451 Triple modems, compatable with both Bell and Vadic Standard. Sign on the first time at 300 baud to determine the system capabilities. Note also that PMMI's can sometimes be used above 300 baud with 1200 baud systems. 4. All times listed are local time. 5. For further notes & explanations, see RCPMDATA.17 2-Sep-82 01:15:00,593;000000000000 Date: 2 September 1982 03:15-EDT From: Leor Zolman <LEOR@Mit-Mc> Subject: Anyone know of a CP/M sort program? To: INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 2 Sep 82 3:18-EDT Via: Brl; 2 Sep 82 3:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 2 Sep 82 3:37-EDT Idealy public domain and available on the net...I've just downloaded the 188K SPELL dictionary and the spell docs tell me to sort it alphabetically. I don't have a sort-merge program, and don't really know much about how they work, so I'd rather not have to write one! Does anybody have a suggestion as to how I get this beast sorted? Thanks, -leor 2-Sep-82 03:14:00,819;000000000000 Date: 2 September 1982 05:14-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: ARCHIVE.ASM available To: Info-Cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 2 Sep 82 5:17-EDT Via: Brl; 2 Sep 82 5:26-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 2 Sep 82 5:29-EDT Kelley Smith's ARCHIVE.ASM is now available on MIT-MC as AR20:CPM;ARCHIV ASM Here's a short excerpt from the file which tells about it's purpose: -- ARCHIVE is a user oriented disk maintenance utility for archival storage and file backup. User facilities include the ability to selectively 'tag' files for archival (or non-archival) attributes, display file archive attributes, or backup non- archive files to a selected disk. Wild-card filenames (using '*' and/or '?') may be used freely, to select some or all (i.e., '*.*') files for archiving. 2-Sep-82 13:39:28,475;000000000000 Date: 2-Sep-82 13:39:28 PDT (Thursday) From: Chapman.ES at Parc-Maxc Subject: Re: S-100 FDC Survey Results In-reply-to: DAN's message of 31 August 1982 21:09-EDT To: Dan Blumenfeld <DAN@Mit-Ml> cc: Info-MICRO at BRL, Info-CPM at BRL Via: Parc-Maxc; 2 Sep 82 16:35-EDT Via: Brl; 2 Sep 82 16:46-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 2 Sep 82 16:58-EDT Please send me a copy of your disk controller survey. I never did get my answers to for your survey. Sorry about that. Cheryl 2-Sep-82 16:56:00,1308;000000000000 Date: 2 Sep 1982 1556-PDT From: Jim Moore <MOORE@Usc-Isib> Subject: Re: SPELL V1.1 To: MADLER at Mit-Ml, info-cpm at BRL In-Reply-To: Your message of 30 August 1982 20:41-EDT Via: Usc-Isib; 2 Sep 82 19:05-EDT Via: Brl; 2 Sep 82 19:17-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 2 Sep 82 19:28-EDT Michael, I like your spell -- I liked 1.0 better (a little). I'mI'm not sure if this was plannwed, but I discovered that I could rename spell (1.0() ame spell (1.0) to "spelstar.ovr" and WS would correctly (apparently) evoke it w/ the "S" at the no-foile menu. When it returned, there was a minor glitch due to returning .bak filename, but no matter. However, for all the bugs you mhave fixed in spell 1.1, it now refuses to behave properly when renamed, as above, and evoked from ws a"' la spellstar. I get an disk error every time. However, when called from cp/m directly, it seems to work just fine. Query: can the virtues of 1.1 be retained while whatever changes are made to permit spell to once again masquerade as spellstar?ar? It would be nice. Also, how difficult is it to augment 1.1 to print out tehhe word-statisticas at the end of a run? I I know this is all really nit-picking -- thanks for a good program. Jim Moore ------- 2-Sep-82 17:02:00,660;000000000000 Date: 2 Sep 1982 1602-PDT From: MOORE at Usc-Isib Subject: KERMIT To: info-cpm at BRL cc: moore at Usc-Isib Via: Usc-Isib; 2 Sep 82 19:01-EDT Via: Brl; 2 Sep 82 19:06-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 2 Sep 82 19:15-EDT Has anyone out ther gotten kermit working? I tried to MACRO assemble kermit.mac on my tops-20 and got the error: UNABLE TO FING UNIVERSAL CMD, which seems to be appropriately fatal. I assume that kermit.mac is for the tops-20 and kermit.asm is for the micro. What am I missing? Who should I ask? Should I care? (It looks like a good thing -- file group transfers between micro and mainframe). Thanks, Jim ------- 2-Sep-82 20:04:00,1365;000000000000 Date: 2 September 1982 20:04 edt From: Walters.SoftArts at Mit-Multics Subject: Re: Applicard Sender: COMSAT.SoftArts at Mit-Multics To: A2DEH at Mit-Mc, INFO-APPLE at Mit-Mc, INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc, Boebert.SCOMP at Mit-Multics *from: Tim Walters <Walters.Softarts at MIT-MULTICS> Local: A2DEH at MIT-MC,INFO-APPLE at MIT-MC,INFO-CPM at MIT-MC,Boebert.SCOMP at MIT-MULTICS, cc:WALTERS:sent.po Original-date: 01 SEP 1982 18:56:00 Via: Mit-Mc; 2 Sep 82 20:22-EDT Via: Brl; 2 Sep 82 20:38-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 2 Sep 82 20:46-EDT The Applicard is made by PCPI, whose address is: Personal Computer Products, Inc. 16776 Bernardo Center Drive San Diego, CA 92128 I spoke with the developers for a little while at a recent convention. The card is designed to use its own 64k memory and only communicates with the Apple to do I/O. This allows the CPU to run at a full 6 MHz, since it is not contending with the Apple display bus. In fact, they claimed, multiple cards could be installed in the Apple and run independently. Although communication with the Apple was only (I think) 40k bytes/sec., they did not believe this resulted in any effective loss of disk access speed on the programs they had tried. Although I saw the card, I did not see it in operation. I am also not sure what software is being provided with the card. 2-Sep-82 22:19:00,382;000000000000 Date: 3 September 1982 00:19-EDT From: Devon S McCullough <DEVON@Mit-Mc> To: INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 3 Sep 82 0:26-EDT Via: Brl; 3 Sep 82 0:47-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 3 Sep 82 0:51-EDT I made a some slight mods to the North*Star 1d MDS entry in MCar10:CPM;S100DC SURVEY. It's a pity nobody saw fit to review their 2d MDS, the 1d has been out of production for years. 3-Sep-82 00:38:00,1647;000000000000 Date: 3 September 1982 02:38-EDT From: Jonathan W Platt <JWP@Mit-Mc> Subject: Disk Formats To: INFO-MICRO at Mit-Mc, INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 3 Sep 82 2:55-EDT Via: Brl; 3 Sep 82 3:06-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 3 Sep 82 3:16-EDT I am involved in a project which hopefully will provide our computers with the ability to read or write in any disk format. We have a great need to transfer customer's data from one micro's diskettes to another's - given any two micro's. The BIOS level coding for this is fairly trivial. On the lower levels of drive controller coding however, it doesn't appear so easy. One must know if the particular micro is using the IBM 3740 single density format, IBM system 34 double density format or some off-the-wall format of their own. Our computerbasically has two drives. One of which would be set to one system's format and the other drive to the destination format. The question is, Who uses what controller's in their micros?, What density(ies)?, What format?, Hard or soft sectored? and how do they structure the upper levels of their disks (i.e. # tracks, sectors per track, block sizes, directory sizes, etc...). Mainly though, I'm interested in how the disk are formatted (address fields, data patterns - things never seen by the typical user). Does anyone out there know of a compilation of this type of information? Individual input from those who have found this information through hacking their micros is also very, very welcome! Please reply to me directly. If there is a demand for it, I will compile the data and make it available on the net. JWP@MIT-MC 3-Sep-82 01:30:00,467;000000000000 Date: 3 Sep 1982 0330-EDT From: EGK.MIT-OZ at Mit-Mc (Edjik) Subject: Re: KERMIT To: MOORE at Usc-Isib cc: info-cpm at BRL, EGK.MIT-OZ at Mit-Mc In-Reply-To: Your message of 3-Sep-82 0250-EDT Via: Mit-Mc; 3 Sep 82 3:53-EDT Via: Brl; 3 Sep 82 3:58-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 3 Sep 82 4:08-EDT CMD.UNV is distributed by DEC and should be on all TOPS-20 systems oor at least on your disstribution tape. it contains some COMND% jsys macros -- Edjik ------- 3-Sep-82 01:47:00,984;000000000000 Date: 3 September 1982 03:47-EDT From: Leor Zolman <LEOR@Mit-Mc> Subject: New sort/merge program available To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 3 Sep 82 3:52-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 3 Sep 82 4:07-EDT I have implemented the sort-merge program from Software Tools in C, and the file is now available as "AR36:CPM;SORT 1C". It has successfully been used to alphabetize the "SPELL" dictionary of 188K characters. This took about 15 minutes on my 10-meg hard disk; I suspect it could take anywhere from a half hour to an hour or so to do it on floppies. Anyway, the thing was still being debugged two hours ago, and surely has room for performance improvement. If anyone succeeds in speeding it up a bit, feel free to replace the file with your faster version. I felt it was important to get it up as soon as possible, in case there are others like me who'd like to add their own flagged words to the SPELL dictionary and be able to sort it for use by DICCRE. Enjoy, -leor 3-Sep-82 08:20:24,448;000000000000 Date: 3 Sep 1982 8:20:24 EST (Friday) From: Mike Meyer <mwm@Okc-Unix> Subject: system utilities in C To: info-cpm at BRL Cc: mwm at Okc-Unix Via: Okc-Unix; 3 Sep 82 9:21-EDT Via: Brl; 3 Sep 82 9:33-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 3 Sep 82 9:55-EDT I have uploaded the aformentioned system utility to MC as CPM;SYSCOPY C. If someone more knowledgable would place it in the appropriate archive, (BDSC-?, DSKUTL?) I would appreciate it. mike 4-Sep-82 17:11:00,474;000000000000 Date: 4 Sep 1982 1911-EDT From: John S Labovitz <RMS.G.HNIJ.MIT-OZ@BRL> Subject: Full screen editor To: Info-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 4 Sep 82 19:30-EDT Via: Brl; 4 Sep 82 19:39-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 4 Sep 82 19:57-EDT Does anyone have the screen editor that was published in Dr. Dobbs journal that they could LMODEM to MC:CPM; (or to me)?? I have seen it around on a few RCPM's, but a ~50k file costs a lot to download. Thanx much. John Labovitz ------- 4-Sep-82 18:43:00,566;000000000000 Date: 4 September 1982 20:43-EDT From: Frank J Wancho <FJW@Mit-Mc> Subject: MODEM for TOPS-20 To: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 4 Sep 82 20:47-EDT Via: Brl; 4 Sep 82 20:57-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 4 Sep 82 21:05-EDT There are two slightly divergent versions of MODEM for TOPS-20 in MACRO: MC:AR60:CPM;MDM20 158MAC - the original, written and maintained by Bill Westfield (BILLW@SRI-KL) MC:AR60:CPM;MDM20 48MAC - an experimental version by Ted Shapin (BEC.SHAPIN@USC-ECLC), based on the original 4-Sep-82 23:28:00,823;000000000000 Date: 5 September 1982 01:28-EDT From: Mitch Wolrich <MITCHW@Mit-Mc> Subject: 1771 <-> 179X diskette conversion To: info-cpm at BRL cc: MITCHW at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 5 Sep 82 1:32-EDT Via: Brl; 5 Sep 82 1:37-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 5 Sep 82 1:44-EDT I have a small quantity (20 or 30) diskettes that were written with a Tarbell single density controller.. Tarbell (back when I used to use one) had chosen some sync byte or something in the formatting of sectors that made disks formatted with this controller unreadable on a 179X controller. I seem to remember there being a program that would convert the old formating information to something that was compatible with the newer double density format.. Can anyone point me to a solution?? Would be much appreciated. Mitch Wolrich MITCHW@MIT-MC 5-Sep-82 08:04:00,1259;000000000000 Date: 5 September 1982 10:04-EDT From: Roger L Long <BYTE@Mit-Mc> Subject: 1771 -> 179X conversion To: MITCHW at Mit-Mc cc: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 5 Sep 82 10:08-EDT Via: Brl; 5 Sep 82 10:18-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 5 Sep 82 10:27-EDT The 1771 accepted both 00h and FFh for filling interrecord gaps, while the 179X requires that you use FFh. If you change the format program you use to format diskettes on your single-density system to use FFh for your fill bytes, the diskettes written will be compatible. Also, a simpler solution would be to just format a batch of diskettes on the system with the 179X controller (which must already use the FFh fill byte) and then copy your old diskettes onto these newly formatted diskettes. Before you go to a lot of work, I'd at least try reading some of your old diskettes with the 179X. When the incompatiblity was first discovered, I already had my 1771 system, and went ahead and changed my FORMAT program. I would assume that Tarbell then started shipping out single-density controllers with compatible software. I would also assume that any distribution diskette would be compatible, as I've never had any problem reading such diskettes on my double density systems. -roger 5-Sep-82 09:18:18,1157;000000000000 Date: 5 Sep 82 11:18:18-EDT (Sun) From: Rick Conn <rconn@BRL> To: info-cpm at BRL Subject: DJ/2B FORMAT2 and SGEN Programs Via: Brl; 5 Sep 82 11:28-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 5 Sep 82 11:34-EDT I've just uploaded the following programs to AR20:CPM -- CP/M Name MIT-MC Name Function FORMAT2 DJFMT 10MAC Formats DJ/2D Rev B disks with a few DJFMT 10COM options beyond the FORMT# pgm SGEN DJSGEN 13MAC Sysgens DJ/2D Rev B with a few options DJSGEN 13COM beyond normal SYSGEN Since the DJ/2D uses 179x controller chips, these programs (in source form) may be useful to non-DJ/2D users as well to give them insight into how to use the 179x and program it. One nice option with both FORMAT2 and SGEN is that they support immediate, non-prompted execution, so that they may be placed in a SUB file and used without operator intervention. For instance, FORMAT2 /A4 formats drive A: as format 4 (1024 bytes/block) and SGEN /AB copies the system from A: to B:. Additionally, SGEN adds a nice capability of specifying a CP/M disk file as a destination (as opposed to the OS tracks of a disk). Enjoy! Rick 5-Sep-82 10:21:00,568;000000000000 Date: 5 Sep 1982 at 1121-CDT From: mknox at Utexas-11 Subject: ARCHIV.ASM To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Utexas-11; 5 Sep 82 12:27-EDT Via: Brl; 5 Sep 82 12:37-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 5 Sep 82 12:48-EDT As soon as I got the msg about ARCHIVE being available I picked up a copy and attempted to install it. But the patch into BDOS given as: WRT$DIR EQU BDOS$ENTRY+05C8h seems to be in the middle of an instruction. Is this something I am not doing right (a.k.a. brain fade), or is something really not correct? MKNOX at UTEXAS-11 ------- 5-Sep-82 10:41:00,825;000000000000 Date: 5 Sep 1982 0941-PDT From: Dick <MEAD@Usc-Eclb> Subject: Re: CHDIR.HEX To: W8SDZ at Mit-Mc, Info-Cpm at BRL In-Reply-To: Your message of 30-Aug-82 2157-PDT Via: Usc-Eclb; 5 Sep 82 12:42-EDT Via: Brl; 5 Sep 82 12:56-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 5 Sep 82 13:00-EDT Mail-from: ARPANET site USC-ECL rcvd at 1-Sep-82 0031-PDT Mail-from: ARPANET site BRL rcvd at 1-Sep-82 0028-PDT Date: 31 August 1982 00:57-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: CHDIR.HEX To: Info-Cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 31 Aug 82 1:23-EDT Via: Brl; 31 Aug 82 1:31-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 31 Aug 82 23:04-EDT For those who cannot FTP .COM files from MIT-MC, there is now a .HEX file available in AR13:CPM;CHDIR HEX The password in the distribution file is "CHDIR" you will need it to re-configure for your own use. ------- 5-Sep-82 19:13:58,578;000000000000 Date: 5 Sep 82 21:13:58-EDT (Sun) From: Rick Conn <rconn@BRL> To: Dick <MEAD@Usc-Eclb> cc: W8SDZ at Mit-Mc, Info-Cpm at BRL Subject: Re: CHDIR.HEX Via: Brl; 5 Sep 82 21:18-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 5 Sep 82 21:28-EDT Knowledge of the internal password of CHDIR is not necessary for initial installation. By entering CHDIR from a priveleged user area, the password scheme is bypassed. The current version of CHDIR specifies user areas 10 and above as priveleged. Sorry about the delay on the HLP file for CHDIR. It's still coming. Rick 5-Sep-82 21:35:00,1309;000000000000 Date: 5 September 1982 23:35-EDT From: Frank J Wancho <FJW@Mit-Mc> Subject: Comments on MORROW DJ 2D/DMA? To: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 5 Sep 82 23:43-EDT Via: Brl; 5 Sep 82 23:48-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 5 Sep 82 23:55-EDT I'm considering purchasing the DJ 2D/DMA so that I can add an 8" drive to my system and possibly replace the controller for the 5-1/4" drives in my N* in the same stroke. I have some questions before I take the plunge: 1. On the surface, it would appear worthwhile to replace the N* controller with this DMA controller anyway, even if I didn't get the 8" drive. Is this really worth it? Should I consider the CompuPro Disk 1 instead? Why? 2. If I go with the Morrow and an 8" drive, it looks like the best bet is to go ahead and get their DISCUS 2+2/DMA single drive package which appears to include everything I need. Should I consider just getting the controller and, say, a QUME DT-8 or Mitsubishi, and scrounge for a suitable case, power supply, etc.? 3. Are there other more worthwhile choices I have not considered? Any possibilities should include a DMA controller or have I been oversold by the specs? Experienced opinions and second-hand hearsay welcome. If there's enough interest, I will summarize for the list. Thanks, Frank 6-Sep-82 01:39:00,2803;000000000000 Date: 6 September 1982 03:39-EDT From: Frank J Wancho <FJW@Mit-Mc> Subject: KERMIT files available To: INFO-CPM at BRL, PROTOCOLS at Rutgers Via: Mit-Mc; 6 Sep 82 3:43-EDT Via: Brl; 6 Sep 82 3:48-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 6 Sep 82 3:56-EDT KERMIT source files and documentation are now available on MC as described below: MC:CPM;AR67: SIZE CRC KERMIT DOC 136k 4542H SCRIBE formatted doc file (complete) KERMIT HLP 2k C297H Brief help for TOPS20 users KERMIT MAC 73k 56A4H MACRO source for TOPS20 end (KERMIT-20) MC:CPM;AR68: KERMIT ASM 102k B590H Original KERMIT-80 source for use with SYMBOL KERMIT GET 3k C869H How to raw capture the HEX files using DDT KERMIT HTH 21k 3F0CH HEX for Heath 89 KERMIT-80 KERMIT OSI 21k 110AH HEX for OSI KERMIT-80 KERMIT ROB 22k 0545H HEX for VT-180 (Robin) KERMIT-80 KERMIT 1ASM 102k 4A0CH Source for KERMIT-80 edited for use with ASM (An implementation of KERMIT is also available from Columbia University for the IBM mainframe...) Abstract (extracted from the doc file): 'KERMIT is a set of programs that implement the "KL10 Error-Free Reciprocol Microcomputer Interchange over TTY-Lines" protocol. As the acronym tries to imply, KERMIT allows error-free transfer of files between computers over normal terminal communication lines. The protocol was originally intended for use between microcomputers and Digital Equipment Corporation DECSYSTEM-20 KL10 processors (hence the name), but, happily, the protocol will work between any two computers. 'KERMIT transfers data by encapsulating it in "packets" of control information. This information includes a synchronization marker, a packet number to allow detection of lost packets, a length indicator, and a "checksum" to allow verification of the data. Lost or corrupt packets are detected, and retransmission is requested. In addition, various special control packets allow cooperating KERMITs to connect and disconnect from each other and to exchange various kinds of information. 'The KERMIT manual and all the associated programs are available to anyone who asks for them'... 'We encourage anyone who develops new implementations of KERMIT to send them back to Columbia so they can be included on the standard KERMIT distribution tape; full credit will be given to all contributors. In return, we trust that no one who obtains KERMIT will attempt to put it on the market, claiming it to be their own.' -------------------- We will provide a gateway service at MC for updated source files for either KERMIT-20 or KERMIT-80. Please send notice of file availability to me (FJW@MC) and bug reports, etc., to EIBEN@DEC-MARLBORO, who made these files available from Columbia. --Frank 6-Sep-82 02:44:00,599;000000000000 Date: 6 September 1982 04:44-EDT From: Leor Zolman <LEOR@Mit-Mc> Subject: file append utility To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 6 Sep 82 4:48-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 6 Sep 82 4:50-EDT Here's another useful general-purpose CP/M utility I've conjured up to make using SPELL a bit easier: APPEND.C. This takes a small file and appends it onto another file of any size, using CP/M 2.2x random-record I/O so it doesn't have to read through the entire destination file. APPEND is useful for appending onto the end of the SPELL dictionary, of course. -leor P.S. The file is "AR36:CPM;APPEND 1C" 6-Sep-82 10:03:00,13732;000000000000 Date: 6 Sep 1982 0903-PDT From: Jeffrey at Office-2 Subject: printer query results To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Office-2; 6 Sep 82 12:08-EDT Via: Brl; 6 Sep 82 12:18-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 6 Sep 82 12:28-EDT I received the following messages in response to my "letter quality printer" query. My conclusions are: - the Diablo 630 is very popular; this is probably a combination of reasonable price, good functionality, and high reliability; - the Fancy Font software package from Pacific Software is very interesting. I have some brochures and print samples about this product and I'm impressed. Apparently, Fancy Font and an Epson printer with Graptrax can together print a number of fonts in a number of sizes with several variations in facing (e.g. regular, bold, italic, etc.). The "News Release" from Pacific software sort of implies that all samples were printed unreduced (i.e. the samples were copies of pages which came "straight from the presses"). During a phone conversation with Mr. Overman of Pacific Software, I believe he said that the "News Release" itself had been reduced. Well, that's probably just a nit. The package can certainly produce beautiful pages using multiple fonts. Don't expect to produce voluminous documents in breathtakingly exciting olde english font however. Print speed is advertised as about 6 lines per minute. Thanks to all who responded to the query. Jeffrey Stone Menlo Park, CA p.s. My hytype I daisywheeler is back from the shop and I'm $129.55 lighter. But -- its worth it. The old clunker once again makes neat, clean marks on paper. Maybe I'll stick with it for another year. In any case, I'll certainly order Graftrax ROMs for my Epson and will either purchase Fancy Font or roll my own. the responses to the printer query follow --> --------------------------------------------- Date: 31 August 1982 17:54-EDT From: Robert Elton Maas <REM at MIT-MC> Subject: correspondence printer query --> correspondence service bureau To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2 I wish somebody with a printer would open a private business which accepts electronic mail and prints it on paper and stuffs it in an envelop (or has it printed inside a sealed envelop the way bank deposit slips and paychecks are done) and puts postage on it (or meters it) and posts it, so I can send mail to non-compute people without having to write or print longhand or make a trip to campus to pick up my listing and mail it myself. This would be sort of like ECOM except it'd be for small customers, or like what NIC used to do about 10 years ago for free until they ran out of funds. Date: 31 Aug 1982 1627-PDT Sender: SCHNUR at USC-ISI Subject: Re: letter quality printer query From: SCHNUR at USC-ISI To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2 Message-ID: <[USC-ISI]31-Aug-82 16:27:06.SCHNUR> In-Reply-To: Your message of 30 Aug 1982 0739-PDT Jeffrey, My wife has used a nec 7700 printer for about 1 year now in our home translating business. She has typed well over a million words in that time frame. the printer has performed flawlessly. Since the thimbles can take 128 characters it is possible to get some fairly versatile print fonts. As of yet however Nec does not produce one that has both a Full roman set and enough Greek and scientific characters to be perfect for use in all occasions. At Nrl we also have the two headed Qume top of the line printer. This printer breaks down every month or two and its proportional print is poor. The nec can produce excellent copy with a good text writer,e.g. Vectors memorite III, Micropro's wordstar. So I would go for the NEC over the Qume. I do not know much about the new Diablo. Joel (NRL 6510) Date: 31 August 1982 05:11-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ at MIT-MC> Subject: letter quality printer query To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2 Hi, Jeffrey, welcome back to the net. You might try sending your inquiry to INFO-PRINTERS@MC - you're more likely to get a reply there, I think. I would enjoy seeing what you get back from this query. Thanks. --Keith Date: 31 August 1982 21:07-EDT From: Leor Zolman <LEOR at MIT-MC> Subject: printers To: jeffrey at OFFICE-2 I just bought a Diablo 630, and love it! Especially when combined with Mark of the Unicorn's "final Word", which knows all about what the Diablo can do. I'm doing all my C docs on it. A BIG win. -leor Date: 31 August 1982 21:17-EDT From: Charlie Strom <CSTROM at MIT-MC> Subject: correspondence printer query To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2 cc: INFO-PRINTERS at MIT-MC Jeffrey, I noticed you have an Epson printer. That reminded me that there is a most interesting new software package that has just been introduced called Fancy Font. This set of programs takes advantage of the Epson graftrax rom resolution (apparently higher than most if not all other printers in its price class) to print a variety of typfaces. The author has included a selection of several styles of type in each of several sizes (I have a preliminary version, so this may differ slightly from what is now being offered), a text formatter which handles the dozen or so fonts, the Epson standard character sets, justification, margins, headers, etc. with both command line options and imbedded controls, as well as a program to edit the supplied fonts and one to create those of your own. The latter looks like a real big job to me, so I think I'll pass on it! Anyway, the point of all this is that the print quality is fantastic. I can't wait for the reaction when I send my next memorandum in old English! The price of Fancy Font is I believe around $180, and in my opinion it is well worth it. Source is: Softcraft 8726 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 1641 Los Angeles, Ca. 90045 213-641-3822 Date: 5 September 1982 20:05-EDT From: Charlie Strom <CSTROM at MIT-MC> Subject: correspondence printer query To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2 cc: CSTROM at MIT-MC Sounds like you are as impressed as I was [editor's note: Charlie is referring to Fancy Font]. I do not think you will be disappointed with the formatter. It allows justification, centering, variable margin size, headers, footers, etc., and up to ten fonts/document. I am currently playing around with the definition of fonts of my own using the Hershey Character set as a basis. This looks like a most simple proposition. Regards, Charlie Strom <CSTROM@MC> Date: 31 August 1982 21:48-EDT From: Dan Blumenfeld <DAN at MIT-ML> Subject: High Quality Printers To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2 Jeffrey, If you're currently looking at diablo-type printers (and you're willing to pay $3-4K), I suggest that you give SanTek (formerly Sanders Technology) a call. They manufacture a "high-density" dot-matrix printer which uses a multi-pass technique to produce high quality output. I've been using one recently, and it's really a nice unit. The printer has many features worth mentioning. First of all, the key to the flexibility of the printer is that it accepts up to six ROM cartridges (similar to the Atari Game Cartridges), each one containing either one or two fonts. By sending the printer commands (it has lots of them), you can switch between fonts, etc. It sure beats changing Daisywheels. Another very useful feature of the printer is that it has different print qualities (which is does by changing the number of passes per line). When preparing drafts, you can use the draft ("Epson") quality which in itself looks pretty good. The nice thing about this is that the printer zips along at over 300 cps bidirectional. The highest quality output is printed at about 75 cps or so, which blows away Diablos. There are also intermediate quality settings which require less time to print. All of this is also under software control. As far as fonts go, SanTek has a catalog which has everything from Helvetica to Cyrillic to Hebrew, as well as Presentation Fonts, Greek/Math Fonts, etc. They also have a dot-plot ROM to so that one can turn out graphs and charts. The printer lists for about $4K which is much more cost effective than the double daisywheel diablo. The only drawback of the printer is that it is not the most quiet printer I've seen. Then again, for 300+ cps, I can tolerate a bit of noise. Hope this helps out... Dan Date: 1 Sep 1982 (Wednesday) 0827-EDT From: ATHEY at LLL-MFE Subject: printers To: jeffrey at OFFICE-2 Well - there are lots of printers available. Since you already have an EPSON that tells me that you don't want something really expense like a Sanders or Malibu - and that you don't need a dual mode printer. Diablo and QUME are probably the most popular with the Diablo being my preference BUT there is another one on the market which lists for half the price of the Diablo - it is the Daisywritter. This nice machine sells for $1495.00 with a 48K buffer and $1095 with a 16K buffer(I think). The actual print speed is 30 cps BUT it has a fast slew rate of 200 cps, which is used for 1 to n spaces...effectively giving it a throughput of 50 - 90 cps for average letters..the Diablo 16xx print at 55 cps max. Better yet with the 48K buffer which can be downloaded in approx. 30 secs. the printer will continue to print for about 30 min....leaving your machine free to do what it will. If this isn't enough there is one more capability...it handles all of the Diablo/Qume/Centronics data protocols as well as having 4(not 1) interfaces: IEE 488, Serial, Centronics Parallel, and I forgot what the fourth one is. You don't pay extra for these --- it comes with all 4. Sounds like this would get you the most for your money as well as doing the job you need to get done. If your requirements are not what I assumed let me know and I'll see if there isn't something around to fill them. Chuck Athey - ATHEY@LLL-MFE Date: 1 Sep 1982 1023-PDT From: Jim Moore <MOORE at USC-ISIB> Subject: Re: letter quality printer query To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2, info-cpm at BRL In-Reply-To: Your message of 30 Aug 1982 0739-PDT Jeffrey, We have been using a Diably o 630 (ksr), and are completely satisfied with it. Excellent quality printing & reliability. Only problem (minor) is that to use it w/ Wordstar, two of the "smart" chips have to be pulled. Seems that too much intelligence is not a good thing. I would be interested in your replies. Good luck, Jim Date: 2 Sep 1982 1406-PDT From: Jim Moore <MOORE at USC-ISIB> Subject: Re: letter quality printer query To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2 In-Reply-To: Your message of 1 Sep 1982 1806-PDT Jeffrey, I got mine (2) [editor's note, Jim is referring to a Diablo 630] for about $2500, w/ a hefty which included a hefty discount. If you use wordstar, you will want to pull out the chips in sockets F23 and F32. You might be able to save $$s by buying a 630 w/o these chips initially. They make the 630 "too smart" for WS to deal with. I got a b-i-dir. tract. feed and a cut-sheet feeder (from someone else). I am very pleased w/ both. The feeder is expensive, so unless you plan to do A LOT of typing on cut sheets and envelopes, I reccomment that you pass on this one. Good luck. Jim Moore Date: 3 Sep 1982 (Friday) 2001-EDT From: HUNEYCUTT at WPAFB-AFWAL Subject: Quality printer.. To: Jeffrey at OFFICE-2 Hi, If you're not worried about speed and want to go the 12-1500 $ range now available, the F10 (C.Itoh) can't be beat. 40 CPS and all the bells and whistles you could want with fully-formed characters. In fact, this moose has features that none of the word processing packages can currently take advantage of, like down-loading printwheel specs, etc... Doug Date: Saturday, 4 September 1982 23:59-EDT Sender: ZVONA.GYRO at MIT-OZ From: ZVONA.GYRO at MIT-MC To: Jeffrey at Office-2 Subject: letter quality printer query We use a Diablo 630 with excellent results. These are not as reliable as the older Diablos (e.g. 1650) but are much less expensive. If you get a non-630 Diablo, just be sure it uses metal printwheels -- the plastic ones wear out too fast. If you really feel extravagant you can buy a Wang/Diablo on the surplus market (I can get you one for $2800 but you probably want to buy it out in CA) and a Morrow Mult I/O (by far the best S-100 card for controlling one of these). A friend of mine has had one of these for three years, and except for when he plugged the interface in backwards, @i<nothing> has ever gone wrong with it -- these babies are @i<solid>. -- Scott ------- ------- 6-Sep-82 12:24:28,869;000000000000 Date: 6 Sep 82 14:24:28-EDT (Mon) From: Keith Petersen <w8sdz@BRL> To: info-cpm at BRL Subject: RCPM list adds Via: Brl; 6 Sep 82 14:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 6 Sep 82 14:37-EDT Someone left the following information to add to the RCPMLIST.27 that was released recently. --- El Paso, TX 2-Sep-82 The following information needs to be included/changed in RCPM-27.LST: 1. El Paso, TX RCPM: Change location to SOUTHWEST!! We are NOT in the South! (Actually closer to CA than LA... Change mode to NO CALLBACK! Baud rates: 110, 300 Storage: 500k max (2-drive North Star) 2. Westland, MI RCPM: The system is down for good (it was known before and should be mentioned in the list) 3. CP/M-NET (Kelly Smith): CAN be reached via SPRINT (only). 4. Boulder, CO RCPM: CAN be reached via MCI, SPRINT. 6-Sep-82 12:28:02,833;000000000000 Date: 6 Sep 82 14:28:02-EDT (Mon) From: Keith Petersen <w8sdz@BRL> To: info-cpm at BRL Subject: SD won't work with XSUB Via: Brl; 6 Sep 82 14:37-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 6 Sep 82 14:49-EDT The following is a bug report. If anyone knows how to fix this, please let me know and I'll forward it to the author of this note. --- Does anyone know why SD won't work in a submit file when XSUB is active? Try the following submit: XSUB SD The system will hang after SD outputs one filename! This is consistent regardless of whether D/R's SUBMIT or SuperSUB is used; and it doesn't matter if the standard CCP or ZCPR is in use. I haven't the foggiest what's happening (Oh for a front panel!). If you have a fix, I'd appreciate it. Gary Case 585 Big Sky Court Colorado Springs, CO 80919 6-Sep-82 19:14:46,1898;000000000000 Date: 6-Sep-82 18:14:46-PDT (Mon) From: (BAD ADDRESS)ucbvax (BAD ADDRESS)(BAD ADDRESS) (BAD ADDRESS) , <dag@Ucb-Arpa (David Gewirtz) Subject: Comments on MORROW DJ 2D/DMA? Message-Id: <8208070114.6716@UCB-ARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA> Received: by UCB-ARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.190 [9/6/82]) id a06716; 6-Sep-82 18:14:48-PDT (Mon) Received: from UCB-ARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA by UCBVAX (3.177 [8/27/82]) id a12245; 6-Sep-82 19:15:49-PDT (Mon) To: FJW at Mit-Mc, INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Ucb-C70; 6 Sep 82 22:19-EDT Via: Brl; 6 Sep 82 22:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 6 Sep 82 22:31-EDT I have been using the DJ2D, Rev. B for about a year and a half, along with their disk drives. The drives are nothing special, but if you sanity (rather than dollars) is an issue, I would strongly suggest getting the set of the controller and drives. I have had very little problems with the DJ itself. The only thing that has bugged me is the DMA addressed prom, located at E000. I had to order another prom up at F800 (there not easy to burn yourself). The DJ uses up 2K at the top of memory, plus, if memory serves me correctly, another 2K in transient space as a buffer area. I am really running a 58K system instead of a 60K. If this will cause any problem with you, I would not suggest buying the board. I did, at one time, attempt to use the bank select feature to cause the disk DMA and prom to be in another bank, along with the buffer space. It was a "forever" project and I gave up. As for the operation of the DJ, it is nice and fast, relatively bug free, and as I stated previously, has given me very little hassle in a year and a half of full time use (average of 7 hours daily). If you have other specific questions, feel free to ask David Arpavax.DAG at UCB-C70 PS: if this comes to you with the headers screwed up, please let me know...they should be fixed by now. 6-Sep-82 19:24:42,463;000000000000 Date: 6 Sep 82 21:24:42-EDT (Mon) From: Rick Conn <rconn@BRL> To: info-cpm at BRL Subject: CHDIR.HLP Via: Brl; 6 Sep 82 21:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 6 Sep 82 21:35-EDT I have just completed and uploaded the documentation for CHDIR as the HLP file CHDIR.HLP. It is designed to be read online via the HELP program, and it contains installation and usage instructions for CHDIR. This file is AR36:CPM;CHDIR HLP. Enjoy! Rick 6-Sep-82 23:53:00,592;000000000000 Date: 7 September 1982 01:53-EDT From: Frank J Wancho <FJW@Mit-Mc> Subject: N* BASIC under CP/M To: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 7 Sep 82 1:58-EDT Via: Brl; 7 Sep 82 2:07-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 7 Sep 82 2:17-EDT For those of you interested in running NorthStar BASIC under CP/M, I have uploaded an updated version of the public domain conversion package which now supports N*BASIC 5.2. The files are in MC:AR47:CPM; as: NS2CPM DOC 8K CRC:F99CH NS2CPM 59ASM 22K CRC:19E4H I have not used this conversion, so I cannot attest to its reliability, etc. --Frank 7-Sep-82 07:33:42,628;000000000000 Date: 7-Sep-82 7:33:42 PDT (Tuesday) From: Chapman.ES at Parc-Maxc Subject: Re: KERMIT files available In-reply-to: FJW's message of 6 September 1982 03:39-EDT To: Frank J Wancho <FJW@Mit-Mc> cc: INFO-CPM at BRL, PROTOCOLS at Rutgers Via: Parc-Maxc; 7 Sep 82 10:25-EDT Via: Brl; 7 Sep 82 10:37-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 7 Sep 82 10:53-EDT The announcement of KERMIT availability was the best documented such announcement I've seen since I joined the Info-CPM list. I think it would be very helpful if everyone who made these announcements would include a fairly detailed abstract. Cheryl (Chapman.ES @ PARC-MAXC) 7-Sep-82 11:33:00,324;000000000000 Date: Tuesday, 7 Sep 1982 10:33-PDT To: Keith Petersen <w8sdz@BRL> Cc: info-cpm at BRL Subject: Re: SD won't work with XSUB In-reply-to: Your message of 6 Sep 82 14:28:02-EDT (Mon). From: bridger at Rand-Unix Via: Rand-Unix; 7 Sep 82 13:42-EDT Via: Brl; 7 Sep 82 13:58-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 7 Sep 82 14:05-EDT 7-Sep-82 20:05:00,1171;000000000000 Date: 7 September 1982 22:05-EDT From: Frank J Wancho <FJW@Mit-Mc> Subject: Moved and new RBBS files To: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 7 Sep 82 22:46-EDT Via: Brl; 7 Sep 82 22:59-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 7 Sep 82 23:04-EDT The RBBS (Remote Bulletin Board System - CBBS in BASIC) files formerly in AR63:CPM; on MC have been moved to a new AR69:CPM;. I have also uploaded to that new AR, a new version of RBBS, which includes many bug fixes and new features that I've been dying for someone to include ever since I first saw the program. I would have added more, but I ran out of TPA space... Unless you have at least a 54K TPA or access to PLINKII, don't bother with this version if you want to make a .COM file out of it. (The resulting .COM file is 38K.) The new files are: MC:CPM;AR69: MENU RBBS - name it MENURBBS on your system NEWCOM 1 - name it NEWCOM on your system RBBS 30ASC - ASCII source of RBBS 3.0 RBBS 30DOC - a brief doc file to get started If you want to try it out, call our APPLE RCP/M system anytime (300 baud only), no ringback nonsense, at 915-533-2202 in El Paso, TX. --Frank 7-Sep-82 23:22:00,301;000000000000 Date: 8 September 1982 01:22-EDT From: Paul L Kelley <PLK@Mit-Mc> Subject: New Version of CAT To: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 8 Sep 82 1:21-EDT Via: Brl; 8 Sep 82 1:26-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 8 Sep 82 1:38-EDT A somewhat enhanced version of CAT is now available as: AR53:CPM;CAT 21ASM 8-Sep-82 09:31:00,580;000000000000 Date: 8 Sep 1982 at 1031-CDT From: knutson at Utexas-11 Subject: Disk system query for Heathkit system. To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Utexas-11; 8 Sep 82 11:30-EDT Via: Brl; 8 Sep 82 15:28-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 8 Sep 82 15:54-EDT I am currently converting my H19 terminal to H89 micro and am in dire need of assistance in choosing a disk system. Has there been a survey of micro disk systems done lately? Anyone care to explain the pros and cons of 5 1/4" v. 8" drives on a CP/M based system? Any and all help would be much appreciated. Jim Knutson ------- 8-Sep-82 14:27:00,462;000000000000 Date: 8 September 1982 1627-EDT (Wednesday) From: Dario.Giuse at Cmu-10a To: info-cpm at Mit-Mc Subject: CP/NOS Message-Id: <08Sep82 162738 DG71@CMU-10A> Via: Mit-Mc; 8 Sep 82 17:28-EDT Via: Brl; 8 Sep 82 17:48-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 8 Sep 82 17:56-EDT A friend of mine is intersted in CP/NOS. In particular, he'd like to know the fastest procedure to get a manual and a floppy. Please send replies to Giuse@CMUA. Thank you very much. - Dario - 8-Sep-82 19:28:00,3286;000000000000 Date: 8 Sep 1982 1828-PDT From: Jeffrey at Office-2 Subject: S100 SBC Print Despooler To: info-cpm at BRL cc: jeffrey at Office-2 Via: Office-2; 8 Sep 82 21:41-EDT Via: Brl; 8 Sep 82 21:48-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 8 Sep 82 21:54-EDT For me, one of the annoying things about my CP/M is its inability to print while I do other things. I've tried despool with poor results. I much rather have a true multi-programmed system such as Unix or concurrent CP/M, etc. But - by now I've have a substantial investment in not changing. Its not so much the price of the software or hardware; its more the time I've spent tailoring programs, command files, procedure, etc. to do things just the way I like. I'm therefore interested in a print spooling mechanism which I can add to my Godbout 8085/88 S100 system. The easiest solution seemed to involve the acquisition ($150 or so) of a 16k buffer to fit inside my Epson MX80. Well, that seemed simple. When installed in my printer, the buffer didn't work. It worked at the shop however. After wasting a good deal of time, I came to learn that my Godbout interfacer II parallel port is not really what an Epson want to see. I've just been lucky that it drives the printer at normal speed (i.e. printer speed). Addition of the buffer increased the data transfer rates so much that data would no longer transfer. End of buffer idea. Of course I soon thereafter bought Godbout's Interfacer IV board with a "true" centronics parallel port. In the meantime, however, I've become interested in doing the thing "right". I first thought that maybe the 8088 could despool from some extra memory while the 8085 listened to me. No such luck. Godbout's 8085/88 dual processor board is constructed so that only one of the processors may be active at once. Now, I'm sort of thinking that it might be nice to have a slave processor on the S100 bus. This processor might be able to handle one or more of the following tasks. - buffer printer output and despool it to any printer (I've got a daisywheel as well as the Epson). - spool information coming across my modem to my micro (i.e. catch a long file in a local buffer). - despool information from my micro to the modem (i.e. buffer a file from my system to a buffer and then despool that to the modem. I know this technique will involve more expense than simply purchasing an outboard buffering device. It also, however, sounds like more fun and more flexible. Using this sort of scheme, I should be able to cancel printing from my keyboard (by sending the appropriate message to the despooler). Outboard despoolers usually require a mechanical reset to clear printing. Has anyone built such a despooler? Does anyone have any comments about any of the available S100 SBCs (single board computers) which might be applicable? I suppose that I'll want to have a "slave" processor as my despooler so that it doesn't put memory requests (and the like) out on the bus. Jeffrey Stone Menlo Park, CA ------- 9-Sep-82 13:56:00,551;000000000000 Date: 9 Sep 1982 (Thursday) 1556-EDT From: HUNEYCUTT at Wpafb-Afwal Subject: Info request.. To: Info-CPM at BRL Via: Wpafb-Afwal; 9 Sep 82 15:57-EDT Via: Brl; 9 Sep 82 16:12-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 9 Sep 82 16:26-EDT Hello, Does anybody (or everybody) know if CP/M makes any use of the s1, s2, and cr fields of the FCB in the disk directory. I know what the fields are used for in the in-core copy of the FCB, but is there any reason they can't be used for a 'date-last-modified' field on disk? Thanks for your time, Doug 9-Sep-82 18:50:56,1240;000000000000 Date: 9-Sep-82 17:50:56-PDT (Thu) From: UCBARPA: dag (David Gewirtz) Subject: S100 SBC Print Despooler Message-Id: <8208100050.1186@UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA> Received: by UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.193 [9/6/82]) id a01186; 9-Sep-82 17:50:59-PDT (Thu) Received: from UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.196 [9/8/82]) id a11659; 9-Sep-82 18:09:07-PDT (Thu) To: Jeffrey at Office-2, info-cpm at BRL Cc: jeffrey at Office-2 Via: Ucb-C70; 9 Sep 82 23:07-EDT Via: Brl; 9 Sep 82 23:15-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 9 Sep 82 23:29-EDT I think that the idea of building a print spooler is not necessarily the most expedient thing in the world. If you've got the money, and the time for a toy project, though, it might be fun. Have you tried the public domain UNSPOOL program available somewhere in MC:CPM;? IT is a rather nice unspooler I have seen working on other systems. It does, however require something unusual in the LSTSTAT bios call. I have tried it with my LSTSTAT on the Morrow system with no luck at all (and the LSTSTAT works.) Good luck with it. I would play with UNSPOOL first. David DAG at UCB-ARPA PS: has anyone got unspool up with a lststat...could you send me a copy of your lstat code? 9-Sep-82 19:17:16,2594;000000000000 Date: 9-Sep-82 18:17:16-PDT (Thu) From: UCBARPA: dag (David Gewirtz) Subject: Argh..#@&%^% CP/M Message-Id: <8208100117.1419@UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA> Received: by UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.193 [9/6/82]) id a01419; 9-Sep-82 18:17:18-PDT (Thu) Received: from UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.196 [9/8/82]) id a11794; 9-Sep-82 18:18:58-PDT (Thu) To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Ucb-C70; 9 Sep 82 23:05-EDT Via: Brl; 9 Sep 82 23:15-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 9 Sep 82 23:27-EDT Some interesting observations and just a little raving: For the past few weeks, I have been trying to write a program that will take a 2k, properly orged image and place it on track 0, CCP sectors. That's not all that difficult. What's difficult is trying to make it run on machine to machine. But, sayest thou, CP/M is "the software buss". Thou repeatest with, all you need is to get information on the disk parameters and use that. WRONGO, MAN WITH FLAT FINGERS....Argh!!! CP/M will allow you to get back a disk parameter header and thereby a pointer to the disk parameter block through the SELDSK bios call. Well, the disk parameter block (DPB) describes the disk, right? Uh uh, no way Jose. The DPB describes MOST of the disk, however, HOWEVER, many manufacturers tend to make track 0 different from other tracks. They make other tracks double density, but track 0 single density, or vice versa, or with cheese on top. Nevertheless, they make track 0 with different parameters than the rest of the disk. The SELDSK DPB does not necessarily describe track 0. But, you say, doesn't SYSGEN know how to access track zero. I mean, it DOES access track zippo. Ah well, you see OEM's purchase an OEM license for CP/M and get the source for SYSGEN. AND THEN THEY MODIFY THE THING, OR REWRITE IT. See, I thought, well, maybe, just maybe, I could check the parameters in SYSGEN to see what track zilch is made of, you know, sugar and spice and everything nice. Well, I could, on about 50% of the systems out. Another 50% have totally rewritten SYSGEN. Well, I could patch MOVCPM, thought your perilous writer. But noooOOOOOooooOOOOOo....more than 50% of the OEM's diddle with MOVCPM, or don't even include it. So it's like this...if you modify track zero stuff, beware... you will not be able to make it thoroughly portable. I spoke to Digital Research about this, and they know about it, but can't do a whole lot. Argh...<<growl>>...Argh!!!! (End Rave) Thank you for listening, this time until next time. David DAG at UCB-ARPA 10-Sep-82 00:05:19,399;000000000000 Date: 10 Sep 82 2:05:19-EDT (Fri) From: Frank J Wancho <wancho@BRL> To: info-cpm at BRL, info-micro at BRL Subject: Downtime Via: Brl; 10 Sep 82 2:17-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 10 Sep 82 2:30-EDT Time for a break. Mail to BRL and BRL-BMD will be delayed from Friday, Sept. 10, 2200 EDT to Monday, Sept. 13, 0700 EDT due to a planned power outage. Enjoy your weekend! --Frank 10-Sep-82 01:12:24,1078;000000000000 Date: 10 Sep 1982 1:12:24 EST (Friday) From: Cal Thixton <tj@Okc-Unix> Subject: Re: Disk system query for Heathkit system. In-Reply-to: Your message of 8 Sep 1982 10:31 CDT To: knutson at Utexas-11 Cc: info-cpm at BRL Via: Okc-Unix; 10 Sep 82 2:26-EDT Via: Brl; 10 Sep 82 2:38-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 10 Sep 82 2:44-EDT I would suggest that you look at Magnolia Micro Systems for disk systems for your Z/H89. I have upgraded a friend's H89 using Magnolia stuff and the hardware has always worked and the manuals were always accurate and easy to read. And usually, the installation of anything from them has worked the first time. HOWEVER, although thier stuff has been good, I have noticed that generally, their system with 8" shugart disks is rather slow. I have not had time to figure out why; if it is the type of disks (I have the step rate set to the fastest possible of their version of CP/M) or what. If you are looking for performance, look someplace else, if you want ease of use/upgrade/etc, they are pretty good. cal thixton tj at okc-unix 10-Sep-82 10:48:00,944;000000000000 Date: 10 Sep 1982 1148-CDT From: John Otken <CC.Otken@Utexas-20> Subject: Re: Info request.. To: HUNEYCUTT at Wpafb-Afwal cc: info-cpm at BRL In-Reply-To: Your message of 9-Sep-82 2332-CDT Via: Utexas-20; 10 Sep 82 12:52-EDT Via: Brl; 10 Sep 82 13:00-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 10 Sep 82 13:13-EDT The information I have concerning undocumented FCB fields: dr in directory entry - user number or E5 if file deleted f1-f4 high bits are user assigned t3 high bit set if file has been written to * s2 not used in directory; in FCB, true if file doesn't need to be flushed s1 carry out of the extent rc how many records are currently allocated in an extent d0-d15 allocation map if disk size in blockds <= 256 each byte points to a block else each pair of bytes points to a block * - defined in MPM, CPM86 and to be defined in CPM3(?) Please compare this with your notes and tell me of any differences. John. ------- 10-Sep-82 11:33:06,1182;000000000000 Date: Fri 10 Sep 1982 10:33:06-PDT From: UCBVAX.teklabs!azure!laurir at Ucb-C70 Subject: Re: the s1, s2, and cr fields in a CP/M disk directory Message-Id: <8208110647.15267@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA> Received: from teklabs by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.193 [9/6/82]) id a15267; 10-Sep-82 23:47:54-PDT (Fri) To: teklabs!ucbvax!C70.info-cpm at Ucb-C70 Via: Mit-Ai; 12 Sep 82 17:58-EDT Via: Brl; 12 Sep 82 19:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 12 Sep 82 19:49-EDT This is in response to a correspondent who would like to use the S1, S2, and CR fields of a CP/M disk directory entry to record a file date/time stamp. S2 holds the overflow bits from the extent number. Under CP/M v1, extent numbers were five-bit entities and are shoe-horned into the low five bits of the EX byte. With CP/M v2, extent numbers are lengthened, with bits 5 and up (least significant is bit 0) stored in S2. The disk directory entry contains only 32 bytes, not 36 bytes as a File Control Block does. The CR field, the 33'rd byte, isn't stored. I haven't yet found a purpose for S1. Does anyone know? -- Andrew Klossner (laurir.tektronix@udel-relay) (decvax!teklabs!tekmdp!laurir) 11-Sep-82 16:12:00,651;000000000000 Date: 11 September 1982 18:12-EDT From: Eliot Scott Ramey <ELIOT@Mit-Mc> Subject: PASCAL-80 To: INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 12 Sep 82 18:16-EDT Via: Brl; 12 Sep 82 19:30-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 12 Sep 82 20:18-EDT Where is it? Didn't MicroSoft write a pascal compiler called PASCAL-80? A local computer dealer (and ITS hacker) suggested that I buy PASCAL-80 if I was interested in programming in PASCAL because it was a GOOD compiler and considerably less than PASCAL/MT+. I also think I remember seeing adds for it a few months back. Now that I want it, I can't find it. Does it still exsist? Did it ever? -Eliot at Mit-MC 11-Sep-82 21:39:00,222;000000000000 Date: 11 September 1982 23:39-EDT From: Herb Lin <LIN@Mit-Mc> Subject: What's CP/NOS?? To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 12 Sep 82 18:17-EDT Via: Brl; 12 Sep 82 19:30-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 12 Sep 82 20:21-EDT ?? 13-Sep-82 00:31:42,752;000000000000 Date: 12-Sep-82 23:31:42-PDT (Sun) From: UCBARPA.dag at Ucb-C70 Subject: Memory Test Message-Id: <8208130631.4162@UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA> Received: by UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.198 [9/12/82]) id A04162; 12-Sep-82 23:31:43-PDT (Sun) Received: from UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.198 [9/12/82]) id A25522; 12-Sep-82 23:34:11-PDT (Sun) To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Ucb-C70; 13 Sep 82 2:36-EDT Via: Brl; 13 Sep 82 2:49-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 13 Sep 82 2:56-EDT I need a good memory test. I know there are some running around, but I'm not sure which is which. I need a good one for dynamic RAMs. If there are any other system robustness tests, I would really appreciate knowing. Thanks. David Arpavax.DAG at Berkeley 13-Sep-82 10:52:48,548;000000000000 Date: 13 Sep 1982 09:52:48-PDT From: CCVAX.ron at Nosc-Cc To: UCBARPA.dag at Ucb-C70, info-cpm at BRL Subject: Re: Memory Test Via: Nosc-Cc; 13 Sep 82 12:58-EDT Via: Brl; 13 Sep 82 13:10-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 13 Sep 82 13:15-EDT You need BRAINWASH! It's the best memory test I have ever seen for z80s running CP/M and whatever type of memory. As far as I know, it has never failed to find a bad or even slightly slow chip. The author is Jim Gilbreath. His address is CCVAX.gil@nosc and may be willing to get you a copy. --Ron 13-Sep-82 12:52:00,3509;000000000000 Date: 13 Sep 1982 1152-PDT From: Jeffrey at Office-2 Subject: terminal features To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Office-2; 13 Sep 82 14:56-EDT Via: Brl; 13 Sep 82 15:09-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 13 Sep 82 15:20-EDT I've had my TeleVideo 950 terminal since April 1981. My reasons for choosing the 950 were primarily three: - the displayed image is very clear and stable (no waviness). - the keyboard is separate from the display - it has 11 (22 if you count shifts) PROGRAMMABLE function keys I knew the 950 had lots of features, but I hadn't started using them until recently. I found out that for about $9.50, I could purchase a 8x2k RAM chip which gives the 950 another "page" of memory. This is quite handy. When I have something on the screen which I want to refer to later, I simply switch to the alternate page. Later, when I need to look at the saved screen, I simply switch back. I find this very useful for temporarily saving compiler error messages. Then when I'm in the editor looking to fix things up, I refer back to the saved screen image. I save this image until I've looked at all the areas corresponding to problems. I've programmed one of my function keys to do the switching. Each time I hit F11, the other page of memory is displayed and used if information is written to the screen. Rick Conn's TVI950 configuration program taught me how to program a function key so that its action is local (to the terminal) rather than causing characters to go to the host (my CP/M system). This is how I've programmed my F11 function key. I've tailored Mark of the Unicorn's Mince a little and have established some of the two key commands on the remainder of my function keys. Using the SYNONYM utility, I've created a COM file (950.COM) whose effect is equivalent to the CP/M command: TYPE 950.SAV . I've created the file 950.SAV to contain the terminal commands which load all of my function keys and perform other terminal initialization. I recently modified my BIOS so that at the end of each coldstart, the command 950 is executed. This runs 950.COM which types 950.SAV which configures my function keys and other terminal characteristics. Yesterday, I was thinking about the 950's SEND key. I read my 950 manual and found out that the SEND command could be initiated from the host system. I now have built a program which when invoked, causes the terminal to SEND back the entire screen image which is being displayed. The resultant characters are stored in a file or printed to lst: . This may be slightly useful or may not; time will tell. I guess it will help when I want to catch (in a file) some sample dialogue which isn't more than a screenful or two (I can configure the terminal as 2 - 24 line pages or a single 48 line page). One nice thing about having the terminal send back its content is that the terminal is a REALLY separate machine. It doesn't know or care about coldstarts, control-zilches, or any other special thing which may effect the host. Distributed processing is powerful. I guess the point of all this jawboneing is that many terminals have a lot of logic just waiting for a chance to work. Its probably worth a look at your terminal manual to find out what's out there. If anyone would like the source to the program which captures the screen image from TVI950, send me a request. Its written in BDS C. Jeffrey Stone Menlo Park, CA ------- 13-Sep-82 18:02:00,675;000000000000 Date: 13 September 1982 20:02-EDT From: Charlie Strom <CSTROM@Mit-Mc> To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 13 Sep 82 21:52-EDT Via: Brl; 13 Sep 82 21:58-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 13 Sep 82 22:03-EDT The following files come to MC from CP-MIG, the CP/M specail interest group on Compuserve: AR57:CPM;IF ASM IF HEX IF COM SKIP ASM SKIP HEX SKIP COM IFSKIP DOC This set of programs is designed for incorportion into a SUBMIT file and forms the basis for an IF...THEN...ELSE type of structure based on a variety of options. The DOC file very clearly explains the operation and options. Regards, Charlie Strom <CSTROM @ MC> 14-Sep-82 00:47:32,1155;000000000000 Date: 14 Sep 1982 0:47:32 EST (Tuesday) From: Cal Thixton <tj@Okc-Unix> Subject: Re: Memory Test In-Reply-to: Your message of 12-Sep-82 23:31:42-PDT (Sun) To: UCBARPA.dag at Ucb-C70 Cc: info-cpm at BRL Via: Okc-Unix; 14 Sep 82 2:02-EDT Via: Brl; 14 Sep 82 2:59-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 14 Sep 82 3:07-EDT memory test for what??? 8080? z80? 8085? different processors put different constraints on their dynamic rams. my system is a z80 and when I upgraded my 2 Mhz cpu to 4 Mhz, my "memory test" (supplied in my monitor provided my SD Systems) said that my memory Worked Perfectly. But for some reason, My system would no longer boot. It might sometimes do a partial boot before croaking or once in a while, it might even get to the cpm login message before dying. Came to find out later, after several fistfuls of hair, that the instruct fetch and data fetch cycles for a z80 were not the same length. instruction fetches were faster (beats me why) so while normal memory tests might work, the placing of accual code in that memory and then jumping to it might not. so, now ask, what kind of memory test do ya want now? tj 14-Sep-82 02:20:32,671;000000000000 Date: 14-Sep-82 01:20:32-PDT (Tue) From: UCBARPA.dag at Ucb-C70 Subject: Re: Memory Test Message-Id: <8208140820.18527@UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA> Received: by UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.198 [9/12/82]) id A18527; 14-Sep-82 01:20:34-PDT (Tue) Received: from UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.198 [9/12/82]) id A16760; 14-Sep-82 01:25:41-PDT (Tue) To: tj at Okc-Unix Cc: info-cpm at BRL Via: Ucb-C70; 14 Sep 82 4:33-EDT Via: Brl; 14 Sep 82 4:39-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 14 Sep 82 4:44-EDT _c Ooops...sorry...I need the test for a 4mhz Z80...CCS 2810 board CPU, CCS something else 64K dynamic ram...Morrow DJ2D rev. B controller. Thanks. David 14-Sep-82 11:13:00,919;000000000000 Date: Tuesday, 14 Sep 1982 10:13-PDT To: Jeffrey at Office-2 Cc: info-cpm at BRL Subject: Re: terminal features In-reply-to: Your message of 13 Sep 1982 1152-PDT. From: bridger at Rand-Unix Via: Rand-Unix; 14 Sep 82 13:32-EDT Via: Brl; 14 Sep 82 13:41-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 14 Sep 82 13:45-EDT Yes! I'd like the c-code for the 950 terminal features you've developed, for modification to an h19. Your function-key alternatives for mince also sound good. I have developed a few mince commands that I find helpful, and will be forwarding to Amethyst-Users shortly. Here is the first installment: /* windows for AUG */ MBeginWind() /* on M-, */ { BPntToMrk(sstart); TForce(); } MEndWind() /* on M-. */ { BPntToMrk(send); BMove(-1); TForce(); } MMoveToTop() /* 'M-!' ==> line to top of buffer */ { tmp=prefrow; prefrow=0; ScrnRange(); prefrow=tmp; ToBegLine(); } 14-Sep-82 17:45:00,477;000000000000 Date: 14 Sep 1982 1645-PDT Sender: SCHNUR at Usc-Isi Subject: DATA GENERAL COMMMUNICATIONS From: SCHNUR at Usc-Isi To: WANCHO at BRL Cc: INFO-CPM at BRL, SCHNUR at Usc-Isi Message-ID: <[USC-ISI]14-Sep-82 16:45:00.SCHNUR> Via: Usc-Isi; 14 Sep 82 19:53-EDT Via: Brl; 14 Sep 82 19:58-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 14 Sep 82 20:10-EDT IS THERE ANY THING LIKE MODEM THAT HAS BEEN PUT TOGETHER FOR THE DATA GENERAL MINI'S ? THANKS FOR THE INFO ON MODEM2 FOR THE TOPS 20. JOEL 15-Sep-82 01:33:00,376;000000000000 Date: 15 September 1982 03:33-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: Memory Test To: tj at Okc-Unix cc: Info-Cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 15 Sep 82 3:33-EDT Via: Brl; 15 Sep 82 3:38-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 15 Sep 82 3:41-EDT There is a memory test for 8080/Z80 that uses the instruction fetch. It's called WORM and is available on MIT-MC as AR11:CPM;WORM 21ASM 15-Sep-82 06:36:00,732;000000000000 Date: 15 Sep 1982 0736-CDT From: GUTHRIE at Gunter-Adam Subject: DATABASE SYSTEM: To: info-cpm at BRL, info-cpm at Mit-Mc cc: guthrie at Gunter-Adam, info-cpm at Mit-Mc Via: Gunter-Adam; 15 Sep 82 8:36-EDT Via: Brl; 15 Sep 82 8:48-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 15 Sep 82 9:00-EDT I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO LOCATE A DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM THAT WILL SUPPORT BOTH "UNIX AND CP/M" OPERATING SYSTEMS, I HAVE BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL AND AM IN NEED OF HELP. I HAVE LOOKED AT THE "LOGIX" RELATIONAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT FOR UNIX, BUT THIS DOES NOT SUPPORT CP/M. IS THERE SUCH A DATABASE SYSTEMS AROUND THAT WILL SUPPORT BOTH OPERATING SYSTEMS, IF SO WHERE AND BY WHO? THANKS W. GUTHRIE III --------------------- ------- 15-Sep-82 06:36:00,727;000000000000 Date: 15 Sep 1982 0736-CDT From: GUTHRIE at Gunter-Adam Subject: DATABASE SYSTEM: To: info-cpm at BRL, info-cpm at Mit-Mc cc: guthrie at Gunter-Adam, info-cpm at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 15 Sep 82 8:38-EDT Via: Brl; 15 Sep 82 8:48-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 15 Sep 82 9:04-EDT I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO LOCATE A DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM THAT WILL SUPPORT BOTH "UNIX AND CP/M" OPERATING SYSTEMS, I HAVE BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL AND AM IN NEED OF HELP. I HAVE LOOKED AT THE "LOGIX" RELATIONAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT FOR UNIX, BUT THIS DOES NOT SUPPORT CP/M. IS THERE SUCH A DATABASE SYSTEMS AROUND THAT WILL SUPPORT BOTH OPERATING SYSTEMS, IF SO WHERE AND BY WHO? THANKS W. GUTHRIE III --------------------- ------- 15-Sep-82 06:36:00,727;000000000000 Date: 15 Sep 1982 0736-CDT From: GUTHRIE at Gunter-Adam Subject: DATABASE SYSTEM: To: info-cpm at BRL, info-cpm at Mit-Mc cc: guthrie at Gunter-Adam, info-cpm at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 15 Sep 82 8:39-EDT Via: Brl; 15 Sep 82 8:48-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 15 Sep 82 9:07-EDT I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO LOCATE A DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM THAT WILL SUPPORT BOTH "UNIX AND CP/M" OPERATING SYSTEMS, I HAVE BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL AND AM IN NEED OF HELP. I HAVE LOOKED AT THE "LOGIX" RELATIONAL DATABASE MANAGEMENT FOR UNIX, BUT THIS DOES NOT SUPPORT CP/M. IS THERE SUCH A DATABASE SYSTEMS AROUND THAT WILL SUPPORT BOTH OPERATING SYSTEMS, IF SO WHERE AND BY WHO? THANKS W. GUTHRIE III --------------------- ------- 15-Sep-82 13:27:00,675;000000000000 Date: 15 Sep 1982 at 1427-CDT From: mknox at Utexas-11 Subject: WesCON To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Utexas-11; 15 Sep 82 15:35-EDT Via: Brl; 15 Sep 82 16:11-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 15 Sep 82 16:20-EDT Would anyone who was/is/will-be at WESCON (sep 14,15,16) send me a msg as to whether or not Motorola did indeed announce CP/M-68K. The press release says that they will, but DRI is quoting BOTH Sept. 15 and Dec 15th for release dates! Confusion. Different subject. Surely I am not the only person to try to install Kelly Smith's ARCHIVE program on CP/M-80. Am I the only one not to be able to get the BDOS patch to work? MKNOX at UTEXAS-11 ------- 15-Sep-82 20:39:00,724;000000000000 Date: 15 Sep 1982 2239-EDT From: Andrew Scott Beals <RMS.G.BANDY.MIT-OZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: Re: DATABASE SYSTEM: To: GUTHRIE at Gunter-Adam cc: info-cpm at BRL In-Reply-To: Your message of 15-Sep-82 2136-EDT Via: Mit-Mc; 15 Sep 82 23:43-EDT Via: Brl; 15 Sep 82 23:52-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 15 Sep 82 23:59-EDT 1) I don't appreciate getting 3 (3 fucking copies!) of the EXACT same message. 2) Yes. Put out by sst in silver spring md. you can get in touch with one of the partners by sending mail to: dbl!sby.univax@brl-bmd (he's one of the partners of the co) he made me an offer to convert it to cp/m, but i turned him down because a) he wasn't paying enough, and b) I didn't want the headache. ------- 15-Sep-82 22:25:00,389;000000000000 Date: 16 September 1982 00:25-EDT From: Devon S McCullough <DEVON@Mit-Mc> Subject: ARPAnet TAC bugs To: INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 16 Sep 82 0:25-EDT Via: Brl; 16 Sep 82 0:51-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 16 Sep 82 0:53-EDT I would like to know how many users found LMODEM to be unreliable or unusable when connected via a TAC rather than a TIP, as I have attempted this recently. 15-Sep-82 23:01:00,883;000000000000 Date: 16 September 1982 01:01-EDT From: Leor Zolman <LEOR@Mit-Mc> Subject: BDS C v1.50 early doc available To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 16 Sep 82 1:01-EDT Via: Brl; 16 Sep 82 1:13-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 16 Sep 82 1:16-EDT I've uploaded a rough summary of the features I've put into v1.50 so far to AR36:CPM;V150 PREDOC ... Since I won't actually be releasing this new version for at least a month (probably longer, the major hack this time is a documentation overhaul), I thought I'd make a pre-release version available to registered BDS C owners on this list who send me a SASD (self- addressed stamped 8" disk). There are enough strange new things to warrant some alpha test-siting. Make sure to include something that convinces me you've got a legitimate copy of the pkg. Address: Leor Zolman, BD Software PO Box 9 Brighton, Mass. 02135 later, -leor 16-Sep-82 05:57:00,657;000000000000 Date: 16 September 1982 07:57-EDT From: Frank J Wancho <FJW@Mit-Mc> Subject: DATABASE SYSTEM: To: RMS.G.BANDY.MIT-OZ at Mit-Mc cc: FJW at Mit-Mc, GUTHRIE at Gunter-Adam, INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 16 Sep 82 7:58-EDT Via: Brl; 16 Sep 82 8:17-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 16 Sep 82 8:49-EDT I do not appreciate the language you used in your message. I do not care how frustrated/annoyed you were are receiving multiple copies of the same message; that is no excuse for not behaving as an adult. If this should happen again, I will unilaterally remove you or anyone else from this list. If it persists, I will shut this off altogether. --Frank 16-Sep-82 06:18:00,591;000000000000 Date: 16 Sep 1982 0718-CDT From: GUTHRIE at Gunter-Adam Subject: CONFUSED: To: FJW at Mit-Mc cc: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Gunter-Adam; 16 Sep 82 8:18-EDT Via: Brl; 16 Sep 82 8:38-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 16 Sep 82 8:57-EDT EXCUSE THE MULTIPE COPIES OF THE SAME MESSAGE, I WANTED TO INSURE THAT THE MESSAGE WAS RECEIVED BY A WIDE SELECTION OF PEOPLE. ALTHOUGH I NEVER REALIZED THE MESSAGE WAS GOING TO THE SAME PEOPLE. I HOPE "FRANK" WILL EXCUSE MY IGNORANCE ON THE FIRST TIME USE OF THE SYSTEM!!!!!!!!! EVERYONE MUST LEARN W.GUTHRIE ------------ ------- 16-Sep-82 10:56:54,342;000000000000 Date: 16 Sep 82 12:56:54-EDT (Thu) From: Siegel.princeton at Udel-Relay To: info-cpm at Mit-Mc cc: siegel.princeton at Udel-Relay Subject: Please add me to your mailing list. Via: Princeton; 16 Sep 82 19:33-EDT Via: Mit-Mc; 16 Sep 82 19:40-EDT Via: Brl; 16 Sep 82 20:59-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 16 Sep 82 21:03-EDT 16-Sep-82 16:42:08,900;000000000000 Date: Thu 16 Sep 1982 15:42:08-PDT From: UCBVAX.teklabs!ogcvax!hp-pcd!hplabs!hao!menlo70!sytek!gi!psi!carr at Ucb-C70 Subject: I don't know anything about the disks, but since you have been Message-Id: <8208171351.25900.ucbcad@Berkeley> Received: from ucbvax by UCBCAD (3.180 [8/29/82]) id a25900; 17-Sep-82 06:51:07-PDT (Fri) Received: from UCBCAD by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.200 [9/16/82]) id A08613; 17-Sep-82 06:52:05-PDT (Fri) To: gi!sytek!menlo70!hao!hplabs!hp-pcd!ogcvax!teklabs!ucbcad!C70.info-cpm at Ucb-C70 Via: Mit-Ai; 17 Sep 82 10:11-EDT Via: Brl; 17 Sep 82 10:30-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 17 Sep 82 10:40-EDT investigating Morrow, what do you think about Morrow's Decision 1 running Micronix (that Unix emulator + CP/M 2.2 emulator). I am thinking about purchasing one with around 20 mb winchester + 2 8" floppies. Thanks in advance, Harold Carr 16-Sep-82 17:52:00,786;000000000000 Date: 16 Sep 1982 1652-PDT From: Jeffrey at Office-2 Subject: //if & //skip To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Office-2; 16 Sep 82 19:57-EDT Via: Brl; 16 Sep 82 20:59-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 16 Sep 82 21:04-EDT I've assembled //IF and //SKIP (using MAC) previously announced by Charlie Strom <CSTROM @ MC>. they are very useful utilities which enable conditional execution within submit files. They work by evaluating conditions which you specify (on //IF invocations) and then gobbling one or more statements out of $$$.SUB if the conditions are met (or not met). Conditions include some character string matching (e.g. does $1 equal "abc...") and a good deal of filename testing (e.g. $1.ASM is/is-not ambiguous , or $2.$3 exists). Very nice. Jeffrey ------- 16-Sep-82 19:21:00,1325;000000000000 Date: 16 September 1982 1821-PDT (Thursday) From: ucla-vax!ucivax!csuf!bytebug at Ucla-Security To: ucivax!ucla-vax!Info-CPM at BRL Subject: Argh..#@&%^% CP/M Via: Ucla-Security; 20 Sep 82 14:46-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 15:02-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 15:22-EDT Yes... standardization would be nice, but not just with track 0! I think a much greater problem is the lack of standardization on entire diskettes. The only "standard" format is the 8" single-density format that Digital Research (and others) distribute their software in. If you have 5 1/4" or double density 8" you can just about give up on being able to easily give your disks to the guy down the block who has a CP/M system from a different vendor. It would have been nice if Digital Research would have stepped in when OEMs started developing 8" double density and 5 1/4" systems and define some sort of standard for them as well. Or if we want a hundred different flavors so each OEM can do their own thing, we could have defined the end of track 0 sector 1 (or some *STANDARD* place) to contain a copy of the disk parameter and sector translate tables to use when reading that diskette. Everyone's BIOS could then have a log-in procedure, and everyone could read everyone else's diskettes. Wouldn't that be nice? -roger 16-Sep-82 19:49:09,1227;000000000000 Date: 16 Sep 1982 19:49:09 EST (Thursday) From: Mike Meyer <mwm@Okc-Unix> Subject: Scribe -> ??? translator To: info-micro at BRL, info-cpm at BRL Cc: unix-wizards at Ucb-C70, mwm at Okc-Unix Via: Okc-Unix; 16 Sep 82 21:03-EDT Via: Brl; 16 Sep 82 21:09-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 16 Sep 82 21:17-EDT I just saw the propaganda from the Softcrafts people concerning their Fancy Fonts package. It is as nice as everybody says it is. In fact, the typeface database that comes with it is worth the asking price. However - the formatter that it comes with seems to be a lossage. Well, it doesn't look like what I'm used to (scribble), and is noticeably less powerful. The fix would seem to be some sort of preprocessor. So: does somebody out there have a CP/M based macro processor that can be made to turn something that looks like scribe into something that looks like nroff? Does somebody have a Fancy Fonts -> scribble preprocessor? Is somebody working on one of the two? Now, for the reason this went (I hope) to unix-wizards: I remember seeing several people looking for scribe -> troff translators. This would seem to be close to what I want. Is the source to such a beast available? thanx, mike 16-Sep-82 22:48:00,747;000000000000 Date: 16-Sep-82 21:48:00-PDT (Thu) From: UCBARPA.dag at Ucb-C70 Subject: Re: DATABASE SYSTEM: Message-Id: <8208170448.12531@UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA> Received: by UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.200 [9/16/82]) id A12531; 16-Sep-82 21:48:02-PDT (Thu) Received: from UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.200 [9/16/82]) id A00962; 16-Sep-82 21:46:59-PDT (Thu) To: GUTHRIE at Gunter-Adam, RMS.G.BANDY.MIT-OZ at Mit-Mc Cc: info-cpm at BRL Via: Ucb-C70; 17 Sep 82 0:54-EDT Via: Brl; 17 Sep 82 1:03-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 17 Sep 82 1:09-EDT This system is available for public, justified use. Kindly refrain from profanity. This could spell network suicide when mailing to hundreds of people. It is also not appreciated. David 17-Sep-82 18:53:00,755;000000000000 Date: 17 September 1982 20:53-EDT From: Charlie Strom <CSTROM@Mit-Mc> Subject: IF-SKIP files To: Jeffrey at Office-2 cc: CSTROM at Mit-Mc, info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 17 Sep 82 20:53-EDT Via: Brl; 17 Sep 82 21:02-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 17 Sep 82 21:17-EDT Glad you are pleased with the //if-//skip files. I am not, however the author; rather the credit belongs to Gary Novosielski, one of the more creative people I have the pleasure of interacting with on Compuserve's CP/M special interest group (its called CP-MIG). I try to channel the most interesting original software developed there to MC and thus through the net. I will, however, forward your comments to Gary for his consideration. Thanks for the suggestions. Charlie 17-Sep-82 23:11:00,373;000000000000 Date: 18 September 1982 01:11-EDT From: Frank J Wancho <FJW@Mit-Mc> Subject: RBBS 31ASC available To: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 18 Sep 82 1:15-EDT Via: Brl; 18 Sep 82 1:20-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 18 Sep 82 1:23-EDT The latest version with minor changes over the previous release of RBBS 3.0 is now available in MC:CPM;AR69:RBBS 31ASC and RBBS 3xDOC. --Frank 18-Sep-82 01:02:00,492;000000000000 Date: 18 Sep 1982 0002-PDT From: Jeffrey at Office-2 Subject: credits for //if and //skip To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Office-2; 19 Sep 82 17:30-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 12:28-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 13:47-EDT Sorry folks, Gary P. Novosielski 21 W. Pierrepont Avenue Rutherford, NJ 07070 deserves the credit for //if and //skip rather than charlie Strom. Jeffrey Stone Menlo Park, CA ------- 18-Sep-82 07:17:00,765;000000000000 Date: 18 Sep 1982 0617-PDT Sender: TBOWERMAN at Darcom-Ka Subject: CAT/UCAT/FMAP From: TBowerman at Darcom-Ka To: info-cpm at Mit-Mc Cc: tbowerman at Darcom-Ka Message-ID: <[DARCOM-KA]18-Sep-82 06:17:46.TBOWERMAN> Via: Mit-Mc; 19 Sep 82 17:40-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 12:30-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 13:51-EDT I have a real need for these 3 programs (CAT/UCAT/FMAP) on my Superbrain, which is actuall a Superfive, with one floppy plus a hard disk. FMAP works on the Superbrain, and CAT seems to assemble okay, but UCAT.ASM requires MAC, which I do not have. Does anyone have a .COM version of UCAT, that might work on the SB, or a suggestion as to how I may get it to assemble for a MICRO on a TENEX host? Any help appreciated. Tom 18-Sep-82 09:40:00,1504;000000000000 Date: 18 Sep 1982 0840-PDT From: Jeffrey at Office-2 Subject: "UNLOAD"-like function for non-COM files To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Office-2; 19 Sep 82 17:30-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 12:28-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 13:45-EDT Is there a program which is similar to UNLOAD but processes arbitrary files? I assume it would decompose an arbitrary file to a string of printable characters. There would also need to be an inverse function to recompose the original file from the decomposition (i.e. the printable representation). One use for such a program (and its partner) would be to facilitate transmission of files where tools like MODEM were inappropriate. If I were spec'ing such a tools I would consider: - compression (maybe by simply doing some special processing on repeated strings of length one or two). - validity checks (probably would want to include a checksum as the last line of the printable format version; this would be checked by the reconstituter). If there are interesting answers, I'll publish to the group. By the way, one of my previous querys asked about despooler boards for the S100. I received a number of responses - all but one response just wanted to receive my responses. One respondant suggested that Sierra Data Sciences S100 slave board wa worth looking into. For the moment, I'm going to let that one slide. Its a big project if i start from scratch. Jeffrey Stone Menlo Park, CA ------- 18-Sep-82 17:57:00,610;000000000000 Date: 18 September 1982 19:57-EDT From: Leor Zolman <LEOR@Mit-Mc> Subject: Compuserve To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 19 Sep 82 17:42-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 12:32-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 14:02-EDT I signed up for Compuserve about a year ago and have not used it at all, mainly because I'm lazy about learning it. Somebody offered to lead me by the hand on the system, and even to provide a free account where I could upload neat C stuff and not have it cost me anything. Is that person out there, whoever you are/were, or is someone else around here willing to be a tour guide? -leor 18-Sep-82 19:57:00,6353;000000000000 Date: 18 Sep 1982 1857-PDT From: Jeffrey at Office-2 Subject: MX80 Typesetting To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Office-2; 19 Sep 82 17:29-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 12:28-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 13:12-EDT One of the responses to my printer query earlier this month described a package called Fancy Font from SoftCraft (8726 S. Sepulveda Blvd, Suite 1641, Los Angeles, CA 90045, 213-641-3822). Fancy Font is billed as a "Personal Typesetter" which prints on an Epson printer which is equipped with the Epson GrafTraks option. After seeing some very impressive page copies, I decided to plunk down my $180 for the Fancy Font formatter/print program, the font creation and edit programs, and the various font and character tables which come with the package. It arrived today and so did the Graftak ROMs. I had my usual amount of trouble installing the ROMs (I wasn't real good as a 1401 operator either). Eventually, the ROMs were installed and the printer worked as it had before mangling. Next I brought up the Fancy Font print program and it printed out one of my recent letters in Olde18 font (Old English style - 18 points high). Its really nice. The print quality on my MX80 is about the same as that of Knuth's Tex and Metafont book - which means that it looks very good but under close inspection (eyeballing) is a little raggety. In any case, for a $525 printer, its fantastic. You wont be printing books however, since the print speed is quite slow (advertised at about 6 lines per minute). Nonetheless, Fancy Font is terrific in my opinion. The package includes about 30 font sets (5 or 6 basic styles in a number of different sizes and faces) as well as a large table of characters from which new fonts may be built . The most impressive feature (once you get over the idea that your little MX80 can typeset) is Fancy Font's ability to accept new characters. You can hand fancy font a text file which contains an image made "drawn" from asterisks. Each asterisk represents a point on a grid which is up to 216 x 120 . Using Efont (the font editor), you associate the image with an ASCII code (0-127). Then to invoke that image at print time, simply include the character corresponding to the code in the text file which you print. The following image generates a (vertically compressed "character" which is aobut 5/8 of an inch high. The maximum size character is about one inch square. ****** * * * * * * * * * * * ** ** * * **** **** * * ****** ****** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * ** *** * *** **** * **** ***** *** ***** ******* ******* ****** ******* ******* ******* **** ******* ******* *** *** ******** ******* ***** ***** ********* ******** *** *** ********* ********* **** ********** ********** ************ *********** ************** ********** **************** ********** ******************* ********** *********************** * *************** * * * * * ****************************************************** ****************************************************** ****************************************************** * * * * * * * ******************** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *** *** ******** ******** Here is the image for the letter "A" from a 12 point roman bold faced font: * * * *** *** *** *** *** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** ******* * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** * ** ** ** ***** ****** When printed, the "A" looks much more graceful due to compression in the vertical plane. I think that Fancy Font is a little bit revolutionary and deserves attention. Jeffrey Stone Menlo Park, CA ------- 18-Sep-82 20:06:00,1077;000000000000 Date: 18 Sep 1982 1906-PDT From: Jeffrey at Office-2 Subject: CP/M 3.0 and such To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Office-2; 19 Sep 82 17:29-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 12:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 13:06-EDT One of Digital Resarch's local representatives (they have a Palo Alto sales office) offered some information about CP/M 3.0. Its probably old hat to many, but was interesting to me. - CP/M 3.0 should be released by the end of the year. - the primary improvements are in disk file processing speed (7 fold improvement suggested) - the system is menu oriented and has improved error messages and prompts - 100% program and file compatibility with CP/M version 2 was claimed DR will supposedly soon also release four new graphics products - two for ISV's and two for end users. The representative also indicated that DR would have a number of announcements at Comdex. He indicated that the announced products would be very interesting and ready for pretty much immediate shipment. Jeffrey Stone, Menlo Park ------- 19-Sep-82 01:18:35,2113;000000000000 Date: 19-Sep-82 00:18:35-PDT (Sun) From: UCBARPA.dag at Ucb-C70 Subject: Modems - new toys Message-Id: <8208190718.198@UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA> Received: by UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.201 [9/18/82]) id A00198; 19-Sep-82 00:18:38-PDT (Sun) Received: from UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.201 [9/18/82]) id A18822; 19-Sep-82 00:19:21-PDT (Sun) To: info-cpm at BRL, info-micro at BRL Via: Ucb-C70; 19 Sep 82 18:16-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 12:36-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 14:20-EDT I just visited a local computer garage sale and came back with two new toys, completely devoid of documentation, specs, or any proof that they work. But the price was very right. Anyway, these devices are two 1200 baud modems, a Novation 4000 series 4202B and Ma Bell dataphone 1800. The Bell is actually two boxes, the Dataphone 1800, which has two DB25's on the back and says "P/O data set 202T type", and another box, the dataphone channel interface which has one of those multi- extension phone jobbies on the back and says "series 1 data mounting". My goal is to get one of these modems running as a normal 1200 baud modem. I would guess the Bell machine is auto-dial, or auto answer at least. I've no idea about the novation. I need information about these things. I would like basic functional specs, as well as (please, oh please) documentation so that I can bring these things up. If you've got docs, or know where I can get them (without a three month delay time), please let me know. I am willing to pay copying charges and postage for them. If you can help, let me know and I'll give you my US Mail address and my blessing. Thanks in advance, David PS: for those on both lists, sorry. This probably should even go to another list on modems, but I'm not sure if there is such a thing. Again, thanks. PPS: By the way, for those who are into "property of Bell" stuff, there is no such message anywhere, either inside or outside the boxes, on the PC board, or elsewhere. I figured that it wouldn't be wrong to have them this way. 19-Sep-82 02:34:00,368;000000000000 Date: Sunday, 19 Sep 1982 01:34-PDT Realname: Lauren Weinstein To: info-cpm at BRL Subject: "calculator" programs From: lauren at Rand-Unix Via: Rand-Unix; 19 Sep 82 17:28-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 12:26-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 13:03-EDT Greetings. Does anyone have any sort of "simple" desk-calculator type programs for CP/M? Thanks. --Lauren-- 19-Sep-82 03:40:00,832;000000000000 Date: 19 September 1982 05:40-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: A wish list To: INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 19 Sep 82 17:43-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 12:32-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 14:07-EDT The following is forwarded from TCBBS Dearborn, MI. --- WISHLIST.882 Wish list as of Sept. 1982. T McCormick. These are programs I wish I had. 1. PIP modified to continue from a specified filename. 2. PIP modified to stop copying when a certain filename or beginning letter is reached. 3. Program to lock out specified tracks or sectors rather than ones "found" to be bad. 4. Mod to MODEM displaying the current port addresses and bit masks, and providing ability to change on the fly. 5. Example of PIP mod for custom I/O INP: and OUT:. 6. "NOT" wildcard option. 19-Sep-82 03:41:00,1319;000000000000 Date: 19 September 1982 05:41-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: Royal Oak RCPM support To: Info-Cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 19 Sep 82 17:43-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 12:33-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 14:09-EDT This is an "open letter" to all manufacturers of S-100 hard disk systems. I am looking for a sponsor for the Royal Oak Remote CP/M (RCPM) system. This is an ideal chance for you to spotlight your product where potential customers can get a first-hand look at how it performs. What I am proposing is this: Send me one of your hard disk systems (with S-100 controller), which I will put on-line as the Royal Oak RCPM system. You will remain the sole owner of the equipment. Your only obligation will be to provide maintenance and operation costs for the system. In exchange, you will get an on-line courtesy message that each caller will see everytime he calls the system. You will also receive feedback from me on any bugs/modifications/improvements I come up with as a result of my hands-on experience with your equipment. Personal references: Dave Hardy, CDP Corp. (313)-846-8004. Frank Wancho <FJW@MIT-MC> (signed) Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@MIT-MC> P.O. Box 309 Clawson, MI 48017 Phone (313)-759-6569 19-Sep-82 13:26:00,1466;000000000000 Date: 19 September 1982 1226-PDT (Sunday) From: ucla-vax!ucivax!csuf!bytebug at Ucla-Security To: ucivax!ucla-vax!mknox at Utexas-11 Subject: WesCON Cc: ucivax!ucla-vax!Info-CPM at BRL Via: Ucla-Security; 20 Sep 82 16:02-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 16:19-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 16:31-EDT Motorola did indeed announce CP/M-68K at Wescon, but indicated it wouldn't be available 'till around the end of the year. They didn't have it running at the show. More interesting to me was their announcement of UNIDOS, which they did have running, and was to be Beta-sited in a couple of months, and generally available shortly(?) thereafter. UNIDOS is a UNIX look-alike. Does anyone know if this was an inhouse creation, or if not, whose UNIX look-alike it is? They didn't have literature available for either, preferring to mail out literature after the show, so I will wait and see some of the details when that arrives. Something that really bothered me about Wescon was the lack of the plastic bags to carry literature around in. Quite a few people did have them, which I assume they brought with them, since I didn't locate anyone handing them out. However, if you got on the bus at Wescon to go over to the Disneyland Hotel to see the Mini/Micro con, there were large signs at the entrances stating "NO SHOPPING BAGS", and people turning you back if you tried to enter with anything more than an armload of literature. -Roger 19-Sep-82 18:05:00,765;000000000000 Date: 19 Sep 1982 1705-PDT Sender: TBOWERMAN at Darcom-Ka Subject: CAT/UCAT/FMAP From: TBowerman at Darcom-Ka To: info-cpm at BRL Cc: tbowerman at Darcom-Ka Message-ID: <[DARCOM-KA]19-Sep-82 17:05:41.TBOWERMAN> Via: Darcom-Ka; 19 Sep 82 20:06-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 12:42-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 14:24-EDT I have a real need for these 3 programs (CAT/UCAT/FMAP) on my Superbrain, which is actuall a Superfive, with one floppy plus a hard disk. FMAP works on the Superbrain, and CAT seems to assemble okay, but UCAT.ASM requires MAC, which I do not have. Does anyone have a .COM version of UCAT, that might work on the SB, or a suggestion as to how I may get it to assemble for a MICRO on a TENEX host? Any help appreciated. Tom 20-Sep-82 07:29:00,1770;000000000000 Date: 20 Sep 1982 0929-EDT From: Chuck Perilli <PERILLI@Afsc-Hq> Subject: Re: I don't know anything about the disks, but since you have been To: UCBVAX.teklabs!ogcvax!hp-pcd!hplabs!hao!menlo70!sytek!gi!psi!carr at Ucb-C70 cc: Info-CPM at BRL Postal-address: HQ AFSC/ACDPV, Andrews AFB, DC 20334 Phone: (301)981-2155; AUTOVON: 858-2155 In-Reply-To: Your message of 17-Sep-82 2331-EDT Via: Afsc-Hq; 20 Sep 82 9:31-EDT Via: Brl; 20 Sep 82 13:59-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 20 Sep 82 15:01-EDT I've used a Decision I with 256K RAM, a 10MB Winchester and 1 floppy running an early version of Micronix. Micronix is a fair facsimile of Unix ver 6, but extremely slow. The CP/M emulator is even slower; practically unuseable. I would estimate it runs at about 20%-25% the speed of native CP/M. You set up Unix directories which appear as logical drives to the CP/M emulator. This is a nice setup except that the file structure is not CP/M compatible. You cannot read a CP/M disk under the emulator. You must first run a utility that will convert the files/programs you wish to use to Micronix format, and then run them under upm (the CP/M emulator). The system is much more pleasant to use in "Unix mode", but still annoyingly slow. I just don't think a Z80 can hack a Unix type operating system. In all fairness to Morrow, it was a preliminary release of Micronix I used. They claim the performance of the current version has been improved dramatically. Some new ROMS and other minor hardware mods are included in the new version to beef up performance. Also, from a hardware standpoint, I really like the Decision I. I've been using a 64K CP/M setup for a couple of months, and it's been 100% solid. ---Chuck ------- 20-Sep-82 15:42:05,967;000000000000 Date: Mon 20 Sep 1982 14:42:05-PDT From: UCBVAX.decvax!cwruecmp!group12 at Ucb-C70 Subject: Data Base Manager for CP/M and Unix !!??! Message-Id: <8208210143.9384@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA> Received: by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.201 [9/18/82]) id A09384; 20-Sep-82 18:43:29-PDT (Mon) Received: by UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.201 [9/18/82]) id A10063; 20-Sep-82 20:46:49-PDT (Mon) Received: from UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.201 [9/18/82]) id A12033; 20-Sep-82 20:53:13-PDT (Mon) To: decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX.C70.info-cpm at Ucb-C70 Via: Mit-Ai; 21 Sep 82 0:01-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 1:59-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 2:58-EDT MDBS is an excelent data base management system, and is available for CP/M as well as for Unix. I don't have their address off hand, but they regularly take out full page adds near the front in Byte. A little expensive, but one heck of a dbms! Barak Pearlmutter ...decvax!cwruecmp!pearlmut 20-Sep-82 16:28:00,862;000000000000 Date: 20 Sep 1982 1528-PDT Sender: TBOWERMAN at Darcom-Ka Subject: CAT/UCAT/FMAP From: TBowerman at Darcom-Ka To: info-cpm at BRL Cc: tbowerman at Darcom-Ka Message-ID: <[DARCOM-KA]20-Sep-82 15:28:56.TBOWERMAN> Via: Darcom-Ka; 20 Sep 82 18:30-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 1:41-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 2:20-EDT Excuse me if this is a duplicate, but I sent it several days ago and have not seen it appear: I have a real need for these 3 programs (CAT/UCAT/FMAP) on my Superbrain, which is actually a Superfive, with one floppy plus a hard disk. FMAP works on the Superbrain, and CAT seems to assemble okay, but UCAT.ASM requires MAC, which I do not have. Does anyone have a .COM version of UCAT, that might work on the SB, or a suggestion as to how I may get it to assemble for a MICRO on a TENEX host? Any help appreciated. Tom 20-Sep-82 16:46:00,1099;000000000000 Date: 20 September 1982 18:46-EDT From: Charlie Strom <CSTROM@Mit-Mc> Subject: CP/M 3.0 and such To: Jeffrey at Office-2 cc: Info-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 20 Sep 82 18:46-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 1:41-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 2:22-EDT My contact at D.R. told us that CP/M 3.0 would be released initially to OEM's only. The date as of a couple of weeks ago was Sept. 26 (since that is a Sunday, obviously it is close but no cigar!) Version 3 will NOT be 100% compatible with 2.2 on the application level; the BDOS rather than the BIOS will be responsible for deblocking; programs such as DU that do disk diddling through the BIOS will surely not operate properly. Incidentally, there is no real release date to us poor mortals; my friend told me the documentation is sketchy at best; this coupled with the desire by DR not to end up doing a lot of hand-holding to end users trying to do the BIOS conversion will certainly make them drag their feet a while. I bet the comment re documentation will cause more than a few chuckles by those reading this! Charlie Strom 20-Sep-82 16:57:00,611;000000000000 Date: 20 September 1982 18:57-EDT From: Charlie Strom <CSTROM@Mit-Mc> Subject: Updated EX files To: Info-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 20 Sep 82 18:57-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 1:41-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 2:23-EDT I have uploaded the following updated files to MC: AR57:CPM;EX 121ASM EX 121COM EX 121HEX These files represent a minor bug fix allowing EX operation with Microsoft Basic. Note the balance of the files including the documentation are unchanged. For those unfamiliar with EX, it is a very enhanced replacement for SUBMIT and uses ram as a buffer rather than disk files. 20-Sep-82 20:04:00,621;000000000000 Date: 20 September 1982 22:04-EDT From: Michael C Adler <MADLER@Mit-Ml> Subject: Proposed enhancements to SPELL To: INFO-CPM at Mit-Ml Via: Mit-Ml; 20 Sep 82 22:03-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 1:44-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 2:26-EDT Upon regaining net access, I noticed a number of suggestions for additions to spell. While I will not be working on it for a while (maybe even until next summer), I think that most of the suggestions are good and should be considered. Thank you for your continued suggestions! Any more will gladly be read, considered, and filed. (For later use, of course.) -Michael 20-Sep-82 20:46:00,558;000000000000 Date: 20 September 1982 22:46-EDT From: Frank J Wancho <FJW@Mit-Mc> Subject: "UNLOAD"-like function for non-COM files To: Jeffrey at Office-2 cc: FJW at Mit-Mc, INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 20 Sep 82 22:47-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 1:48-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 2:28-EDT UNLOAD does almost what you want. You simply REName the subject file to fn.COM, run UNLOAD on it to produce fn.HEX, transmit it to the other end, LOAD it (automatic checksum checking is built-in), and REName the resulting fn.COM back to the original name. --Frank 20-Sep-82 23:48:00,679;000000000000 Date: 21 September 1982 01:48-EDT From: Dan Blumenfeld <DAN@Mit-Ml> Subject: Minor SWEEP v3.6 Bug To: Info-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Ml; 21 Sep 82 1:47-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 2:18-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 3:02-EDT While using SWEEP v3.6, I found a minor bug. If you try to copy or mass-copy a file with verification, and the file is empty (i.e. 0K long), SWEEP hangs up. After resetting my system, it seems that SWEEP created the directory entry of the file on the destination diskette, and got hung in the verification routine. This was confirmed, as SWEEP works fine when copying 0K files without verification. Have others experienced this problem? Dan 21-Sep-82 00:06:19,488;000000000000 Date: 21 Sep 82 1:06:19-EST (Tue) From: Ben Goldfarb <goldfarb.ucf-cs@Udel-Relay> To: info-cpm at BRL Subject: Why... Via: UCF-CS; 21 Sep 82 3:23-EDT Via: Udel-Relay; 21 Sep 82 3:32-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 3:47-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 3:55-EDT ...does everything sent to this list go first to brl, then to brl-bmd, then back to brl for distribution? Seems like a waste of time (and header lines). Ben Goldfarb goldfarb.ucf-cs@udel-relay 21-Sep-82 00:07:00,389;000000000000 Date: 21 September 1982 02:07-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: "desk-calculator" programs To: lauren at Rand-Unix cc: Info-Cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 21 Sep 82 2:14-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 2:30-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 3:03-EDT There are two in MC:CPM. Look for ATSIGN COM and DOC and EAC COM and DOC. The DOC files are in AR10:CPM, COM files on AR12:CPM. 21-Sep-82 00:39:32,620;000000000000 Date: 20-Sep-82 23:39:32-PDT (Mon) From: UCBARPA.dag at Ucb-C70 Subject: MX80 Typesetting Message-Id: <8208210639.12025@UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA> Received: by UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.201 [9/18/82]) id A12025; 20-Sep-82 23:39:33-PDT (Mon) Received: from UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.201 [9/18/82]) id A15564; 20-Sep-82 23:41:57-PDT (Mon) To: Jeffrey at Office-2, info-cpm at BRL Via: Ucb-C70; 21 Sep 82 3:00-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 3:11-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 3:21-EDT Nice idea, but please...no more pictures....upload them to mc or something, but please...no more pictures. 21-Sep-82 06:02:00,569;000000000000 Date: 21 September 1982 08:02-EDT From: Frank J Wancho <FJW@Mit-Mc> Subject: Why... To: goldfarb.ucf-cs at Udel-Relay cc: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 21 Sep 82 8:03-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 8:43-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 9:02-EDT The bounce of large-list mail, such as to INFO-CPM and INFO-MICRO, via BRL, then BRL-BMD, and back to BRL, is a hack to get around the problem that when it was direct, certain hosts would timeout while BRL verified every entry in the destination list. It was more of a waste when the mail did not get through at all. 21-Sep-82 16:25:00,424;000000000000 Date: 21 Sep 1982 1525-PDT Sender: TBOWERMAN at Darcom-Ka Subject: CAT/UCAT/FMAP---NCAT/XCAT From: TBowerman at Darcom-Ka To: info-cpm at BRL Cc: tbowerman at Darcom-Ka Message-ID: <[DARCOM-KA]21-Sep-82 15:25:34.TBOWERMAN> Via: Darcom-Ka; 21 Sep 82 18:26-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 18:38-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 18:46-EDT Thanks for the kind responses. I found NCAT and XCAT and they fill the bill. Tom 21-Sep-82 21:21:00,456;000000000000 Date: 21 September 1982 23:21-EDT From: Leor Zolman <LEOR@Mit-Mc> Subject: SORT.C updated To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 21 Sep 82 23:21-EDT Via: Brl; 21 Sep 82 23:28-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 21 Sep 82 23:39-EDT The SORT.C program, stored as AR36:CPM;SORT 3C has been fixed to not lose the last line of each sub-file being merged (so THAT'S why it kept flagging "Zolman" as an error, even though I'm SURE I added it to the dictionary...) -leor 22-Sep-82 03:01:00,415;000000000000 Date: 22 September 1982 05:01-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: CAT/UCAT/FMAP---NCAT/XCAT To: TBowerman at Darcom-Ka cc: Info-Cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 22 Sep 82 5:02-EDT Via: Brl; 22 Sep 82 5:15-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 22 Sep 82 5:18-EDT Charlie Strom <CSTROM@MC> is going to upload the latest version of NCAT/XCAT sometime between now and the weekend. Watch for them. Excellent programs! 22-Sep-82 12:23:00,748;000000000000 Date: 22 Sep 1982 (Wednesday) 1423-EDT From: JONES at Lll-Mfe Subject: dow jones investment evaluator packages for CP/M To: info-micro at Mit-Mc, info-cpm at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 22 Sep 82 17:28-EDT Via: Brl; 22 Sep 82 17:44-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 22 Sep 82 18:52-EDT Does any one on the list know of any software houses selling an investment/portfolio system that will run under CP/M? I know of a package that is available for the Commodore 4016 called DOW-JONES PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT SYSTEM written by someone called MICRO BUSINESS SYSTEMS or the ATARI program called DOW JONES INVESTMENT EVALUATOR. Please send any responses directly to me since I am not on the list. Thanks In Advance, Dan Jones (JONES@LLL-MFE) 22-Sep-82 20:21:00,5168;000000000000 Date: 22 Sep 1982 at 1921-PDT To: lauren at Ucla-Security Cc: fylstra.tsca at Sri-Unix, info-cpm at BRL Subject: MARC comments From: fylstra.tsca at Sri-Unix Via: Sri-Tsca; 22 Sep 82 19:24-PDT Via: Sri-Unix; 22 Sep 82 22:38-EDT Via: Brl; 22 Sep 82 22:49-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 22 Sep 82 23:00-EDT Lauren, Here is the message I promised a long time ago. As you may remember, a couple of years ago I purchased a copy of OS-1, another Unix-on-a-Z80, from Electro/Software Labs. I was able to get it running on my system and spent a fair amount of time studying the manuals. This message is a synopsis of some of the critical gaps in OS-1 that I hope MARC fixes. I won't touch upon E/S Labs as an organization or their customer service. I'm sending this to the whole list because I think others may be interested in developing custom operating systems or may have ideas about how to handle some of the problems. There are only two areas that I feel are crucial, namely booting and customization for disk formats other than 8" SSSD. Booting OS-1 was similar to booting UCSD Pascal from CP/M: you first booted CP/M; then you ran something such as BOOTER.COM; it asked for the name of a drive from which to boot the OS-1 system disk; you inserted the diskette and typed a return; and after a minute or so of disk churning, OS-1 would appear. Obviously this was something of an ordeal. I'd be willing to bet that most CP/M users hit the boot switch pretty frequently during a given session of hacking. One reason for this is to guarantee a fresh copy of everything, resetting the system to a known state. Another is that you might be testing a program that has gone to meet its maker in the infinite loop in the sky. Any C programmer can recount with grief the story about the dynamically allocated block that got away. I really really hope that it will be possible to boot MARC from the system tracks on the disk, rather than go thru a multi-stage liftoff. It seems to me that it should be possible to stitch a copy of the booter along with a standard CP/M BIOS into the SYSGEN image, probably on top of where the BDOS would otherwise reside. This should enable anyone with SYSGEN to create a bootable version of MARC. The second problem with OS-1 was that it had a CP/M 1.4 mentality. That is, it assumed that your BIOS was only capable of dealing with 8" SSSD soft-sectored disks. This can be very frustrating when your system disk contains space for 64 inodes, 62 of which are jammed with all of the useful utilities that are needed to repair broken heirarchical file systems, manage user groups, etc, and you know that your disks can handle four times that amount of space. So...I really really hope that MARC can make use of a CP/M 2.x BIOS. It seems to me that the CP/M 2.x BIOS design provides a reasonable paradigm for device-independent access to any type of disk drive, and it is obviously a standard. Heirarchical filesystems really shine when you have 10 megabytes worth of files to organize; it would be a shame not to take advantage of the existing 2.x BIOS. How many people are still running 1.4 BIOSes? A third area that I feel strongly about, although I believe it's not as crucial as the above, is the provision of a standard display control paradigm. CP/M provides an implied virtual terminal, which is the ASR-33. (I'm stretching it. The CP/M virtual terminal might have Backspace, and it probably has lower case, but it doesn't need either.) We're all used to watching our friends with Apples and IBM PC's run their display-oriented menus and graphics. It's a shame that CP/M doesn't provide a standardized set of primitives to get at the CRT that is connected to 95% of the consoles, so that all of the public domain software could do neater things. I know that recent software products such as WordStar and Mince take care of this problem with a configuration program; and if MARC follows the Unix world view, it will probably use a Termcap data base with an elaborate display library. I'd like to suggest an alternative. Provide a minimum set of display control primitives (definitely putchar, gotoxy, clrscreen; maybe clr-to-eol; probably not ins/del line/char). Have a standardized way of invoking these primitives from C, hopefully in such a way that the primitives can be imbedded in strings and be transmitted with printf(). Then interpret the special commands in the BIOS. One method would be to set the sign bit on any byte containing a display command, which the extended BIOS would notice and process seperately; all other characters would be output just as always. I'd bet that gotoxy, clrscreen, and clr-to-eol would add about 30 bytes to my BIOS. A linkable library of screen-control functions could instead be bound into each program, but that presumes you get the source to everything, or at least the relocatable objects. My proposal allows distribution of display-oriented software in binary form. Well, that's enough on OS-1 and CP/M for now. I hope you'll say that it's already implemented. Dave Fylstra 23-Sep-82 11:56:00,888;000000000000 Date: 23 Sep 1982 1356-EDT From: WOHL at Cmu-20c Subject: Mailing list for Timex/Sinclair micro To: info-micro at Mit-Mc, info-cpm at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 23 Sep 82 14:32-EDT Via: Brl; 23 Sep 82 15:07-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 23 Sep 82 16:21-EDT I just started a new mailing list for the discussion of subjects relating to the Timex/Sinclair 1000/ZX80/ZX81. Send requests to be added to the list to INFO-ZX-REQUEST@CMU-20C. Send submissions to INFO-ZX@CMU-20C. The list will be an immediate distribution list as long as the volume of traffic doesn't bother other CMUC users. Messages will be archived in [CMUC]PS:<ZX>ZX.MESSAGES. Users may submit programs for others to share by FTPing them into [CMU-20C]PS:<ZX.PROG> using user anonymous. This will probably not be too useful until modems for the Sinclair are readily available. Aaron Wohl (WOHL@CMU-20C) ------- 23-Sep-82 17:06:00,4847;000000000000 Date: Thursday, 23 Sep 1982 16:06-PDT Realname: Lauren Weinstein To: fylstra.tsca at Sri-Unix CC: info-cpm at BRL Subject: MARC comments From: lauren at Rand-Unix Via: Rand-Unix; 23 Sep 82 19:08-EDT Via: Brl; 23 Sep 82 19:26-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 23 Sep 82 19:47-EDT Thanks for your comments. I can address your points as they reflect on the current state of the software... 1) Booting. No matter what you do, booting is a difficult problem. I've spent alot of time looking at this issue, and so far have found no "universal" way of allowing users to patch a bootable image into their system tracks -- particularly when they have other than single-density 8 inch disks. There are just too many variations. Yeah, given alot of implementation info and a wizard, it could be done for any given system, but I don't see how to automate the process. I have the code here for a coldstart MARC loader that does part of the work... but it's not enough. Frankly, I can't see spending much more time on this issue until I'm sure that the parasitically booting version comes up on everyone's machines! There are so many variations that coming up with *anything* that can boot *somehow* has been enough work. Once I see how the initial MARC does in mass distribution, I can start worrying about cold booting again. One thing at a time. By the way, the MARC boot program, called MBOOT, allows the user to customize (with SID or DDT) for default selections of root device, reserved memory, and a bunch of other parameters. These can all be overridden by command line options, of course. MARC takes considerable pains to make rebooting a rarity unless you manage to totally wipe out the kernel... all "obvious" parameters such as pseudo-interrupt traps, control-chars, and the like are reset whenever a program terminates (or at user logoff, as appropriate). 2) CP/M 1.4 vs. CP/M 2.X. No worries there. I have finally dropped support for 1.4 systems and MARC now assumes a 2.X-type system for all operations. Since it derives all its info from the disk parameter tables and uses seldsk for disk operations, it should work properly on all legit BIOSes. I know that it has come up under several complex hard disk/floppy bioses without any difficulty, and with no "customizing" in the usual sense. The CP/M emulator attempts to handle all "reasonable" calls to the CP/M 2.X type functions. There are a couple that don't make sense in the MARC environment but very few programs ever use them anyway. There are some limitations on file size and such under the emulator, but these should not normally be of any concern. The emulator is not perfect, but it tries. 3) Display support. As far as I'm concerned, this does not belong in the operating system. A Berkeley termcap type system would be nice, but I sure don't have the time for it now... particularly since no existing programs would be using it! Such an item might be added to Leor's wish list of things to add to BDS C generally, but I don't think it should be MARC specific. MARC does have a stty option for console type that could be used in conjunction with such a feature if it ever appeared. Maybe some nice info-cpm reader will take it upon him/herself to write such a package. Berkeley termcap is public domain, but is rather large. Any individual effort should at least be able to make use of the existing Berkeley /etc/termcap database and should be compatible with the formats in that database. That's about it. Frankly, my biggest concern now is regarding CP/M 3.0. I have a sneaky hunch that support for MARC under 3.0 may be difficult or perhaps impossible. Concepts such as the disk deblocking being in the BDOS would make life incredibly difficult, as would the other inherent kludginess for bank switching and the like that I assume will be in there. No doubt that's why they're only releasing to OEM's now -- they figure it will only be useful in "packaged" systems where the configuration is carefully controlled. If everyone decides to jump on the 3.0 bandwagon, I will have to decide if it makes any sense to try push MARC at all when it depends on 2.X systems. If large numbers of people punt 3.0 and stay with 2.X, then the problems will not be so severe. I would appreciate any comments from people who have some feelings about how much impact CP/M 3.0 is actually going to have. I fear that a new era of incompatibility is about to emerge... with some programs demanding bank switching for large TPA's, and others being capable of running in both 2.X and 3.0 environments. I have no idea how it's going to turn out. --Lauren-- 23-Sep-82 19:11:00,648;000000000000 Date: 23 Sep 1982 1811-PDT From: Ed <PATTERMANN@Sumex-Aim> Subject: MODEM implementations To: info-cpm at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 23 Sep 82 22:11-EDT Via: Brl; 23 Sep 82 22:32-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 23 Sep 82 22:47-EDT I am interested in compiling a list of implementations of Ward Christenson's MODEM or XMODEM program under various operating systems. If such a thing exists, could someone please point me to it. If not, the OS's I am mainly interested in are RSX11m, TENEX, TOPS20, VMS, UNIX, and TOPS10. I will compile such alist if none already exists, and store it in some appropriate place, like the CPM dir. Thanks, Ed ------- 23-Sep-82 19:18:00,572;000000000000 Date: 23 September 1982 19:18 edt From: JPAnderson.DODCSC at Mit-Multics Subject: it is with deep regret... To: info-cpm at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 23 Sep 82 19:19-EDT Via: Brl; 23 Sep 82 19:29-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 23 Sep 82 19:49-EDT it is with deep regret that powers beyond my control ask that this account be removed from the info-cpm mailing list. I will have to monitor its actiond from afar, now, instead of from my ring side sat. (seat). It's a super forum and i hopr it continues strongly for a long, long time. Thanks for everything, Jay Anderson 23-Sep-82 21:39:40,265;000000000000 Date: 23 Sep 1982 23:39:40-EDT From: wdc.mit-ccc at BRL To: info-cpm at Mit-Mc Subject: Please remove me from your mailing list. Via: Mit-Mc; 23 Sep 82 23:39-EDT Via: Brl; 23 Sep 82 23:49-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 24 Sep 82 0:02-EDT William D. Cattey wdc@ccc 23-Sep-82 23:01:00,656;000000000000 Date: 24 September 1982 01:01-EDT From: "James Lewis Bean, Jr." <BEAN@Mit-Mc> Sender: BEAN0 at Mit-Mc Subject: cat/ucat/fmap To: INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 24 Sep 82 1:09-EDT Via: Brl; 24 Sep 82 1:18-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 24 Sep 82 1:38-EDT Didn't someone outdate the FMAP/UCAT two step process and turn it into a simple one step processs. The program that I remember was written in BDS C. It made life much simpler, because it allowed continuous opperation. The user would insert a disk to be cataloged into the B drive, catalog it, and then have the option of quiting or cataloging another disk. lewis bean at mit-mc 24-Sep-82 03:36:06,753;000000000000 Date: 24 Sep 82 03:36:06 EST (Fri) From: Ben Goldfarb <goldfarb.ucf-cs@Udel-Relay> Subject: Re: MARC comments To: lauren at Rand-Unix, fylstra.tsca at Sri-Unix Cc: info-cpm at BRL Via: UCF-CS; 24 Sep 82 4:53-EDT Via: Udel-Relay; 24 Sep 82 5:06-EDT Via: Brl; 24 Sep 82 5:19-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 24 Sep 82 5:44-EDT One counter-comment on the termcap reference. Apparently the 4.2bsd distribution will have an overhauled and completely different terminal definition package (encoded in binary, therefore much faster). Thus, I see no need for anyone to maintain compatability with the old termcap. The hot ticket would be to design it with the new one in mind. Ben Goldfarb goldfarb.ucf-cs @ Udel-Relay 24-Sep-82 19:38:00,603;000000000000 Date: 24 September 1982 21:38-EDT From: Roger L Long <BYTE@Mit-Mc> To: KELLY at Rutgers cc: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 24 Sep 82 21:30-EDT Via: Brl; 24 Sep 82 21:57-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 24 Sep 82 22:12-EDT Some time ago, you wrote to Info-CPM requesting information on where you could locate the source files for the public-domain editor that was written up in the Jan-82 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal. Did you ever receive a reply. I looked through the archives, and didn't find a reply. If the source is anywhere online, I would certainly appreciate a pointer. Thanks. -roger 25-Sep-82 23:43:00,664;000000000000 Date: 26 September 1982 01:43-EDT From: Roger L Long <BYTE@Mit-Mc> To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 26 Sep 82 1:30-EDT Via: Brl; 26 Sep 82 1:46-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 26 Sep 82 2:08-EDT I am currently in the process of bringing up a system with 5.25" double-density double-sided floppies. The controller I am using is the 1791. The 1791 specification gives instructions on how to format single and double-density 8" floppies, but not 5.25". Could someone take a look at their format program and see what sequence of bytes I need to write out to format a 5.25" double density floppy with 16 256-byte sectors (soft sectored). Thanks... -roger 26-Sep-82 10:25:00,1368;000000000000 Date: 26 Sep 1982 0925-PDT From: Jeffrey at Office-2 Subject: Intel's 80286 To: info-cpm at BRL, works at Rutgers Via: Office-2; 26 Sep 82 12:13-EDT Via: Brl; 26 Sep 82 12:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 26 Sep 82 12:33-EDT The most recent edition of Computer Architecture News (CAN) includes an article which compares the performance of Intel's 80286 with other processors. Its a short article consisting primarily of a couple of tables. The tables seem to indicate that a 10MHz 80286 performed five or six small benchmarks much faster than all other tested processors including a 16MHz 68000 and a VAX 780! I've been reading some literature on the 80286 and it appears overcome most of the limitations of the 8086 including limited address space for processes and lack of protection. From where I stand, the smaller 80186 (a single chip coupling the 8086 with some support functions) and the 80286 look like parts of a pretty large comeback for Intel and the 8086-family in the microcomputer marketplace. Maybe its not really a comeback since Intel was never really behind. However, for a while (before the announcement of the IBM PC) it looked as if the 68000 was going to steal the show. I would aprreciate hearing from people with information and/or opinions about the 80286. Thanks, Jeffrey Stone Menlo Park, CA ------- 26-Sep-82 11:19:00,958;000000000000 Date: 26 September 1982 13:19-EDT From: Charlie.Strom at Mit-Mc Sender: CSTROM at Mit-Mc Subject: New catalog files To: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 26 Sep 82 13:02-EDT Via: Brl; 26 Sep 82 13:17-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 26 Sep 82 13:26-EDT Available now: AR53:CPM;NCAT 32ASM NCAT 32HEX NCAT 32COM XCAT 36ASM XCAT 36HEX XCAT 36COM These files replace the FMAP/UCAT files used in Ward Christensen's disk catalog program. NCAT is considerably simpler to use in single or multi- drive systems and does the catalog function in one step. There is also a provision for reporting the amount of free space on each disk. This program can be set at assembly time to include all user areas, but does not allow the specification of which user number on which a file resides. It is thus compatible with FMAP/UCAT rather than FMAP2/UCAT2. XCAT generates a MAST.LST file with cross-referenced entries suitable for hard-copy output. 26-Sep-82 22:21:00,1093;000000000000 Date: 27 September 1982 00:21-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: Computerfest-call for papers To: Info-Cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 27 Sep 82 0:03-EDT Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 0:17-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 0:18-EDT C O M P U T E R F E S T ' 8 3 Toronto, Canada July 8-10 C A L L F O R P A P E R S On behalf of the Midwest Affiliation of Computer Clubs (MACC), the Toronto Region Association of Computer Enthusiasts, Inc. (TRACE) is proud to announce that the 9th annual MACC Computer- fest will be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from July 8th to 10th, 1983. If you're interested in the possibility of taking part in a hobbyist-oriented computer festival by giving a talk or putting on an exhibit, we'd be delighted to hear from you. Write to Frank Kaufman, Computerfest '83, POB 6922, station A, Toronto, Canada M5M 1X6, or leave a message on the Mississauga RCP/M, (416)-826-5394. We'll get detailed info to you quickly. Computerfest '83 is going to be FUN! Hope we'll see you there. 26-Sep-82 22:22:00,2218;000000000000 Date: 27 September 1982 00:22-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: Computerfest '83-details To: Info-Cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 27 Sep 82 0:05-EDT Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 0:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 0:40-EDT C O M P U T E R F E S T ' 8 3 Toronto, Canada July 8-10 On behalf of the Midwest Affiliation of Computer Clubs (MACC), the Toronto Region Association of Computer Enthusiasts, Inc. (TRACE) is proud to announce that the 9th annual MACC Computer- fest will be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from July 8th to 10th, 1983. Here's what the event is about: ORGANIZATION: A Computerfest committee was formed in June of 1982 by volunteers from TRACE, one of the oldest amateur computer groups in the area. The committee meets regularly, and is supported by several professional advisors recruited since its inception. The TRACE computerfest committee competed successfully against two other MACC clubs for the privilege of hosting Computerfest '83, winning the nod by a large majority. THEME: Computerfest '83 will be aimed at the computer hobbyist and the interested public. The overriding motif will be that "computers are fun!". The festival will serve to communicate that message to the public by the example of the participants. The registration fees will be kept low to encourage public involvement and to attract the largest number of computer hobbyists to join in the fun. EVENTS: We hope to attract several well-known hobby-computing figures to take part in a program including seminars, demonstrations, and exhibits on a wide variety of software- and hardware-related topics. Many of the Toronto region's computerists will be involved in the program either as individuals or in connection with club projects. MACC- associated clubs and individuals will be participating as well. Vendors of computer components and peripherals will be displaying their wares, and a flea-market and auction will be part of the show. Further details of the program will be publicized as the schedule gels. 26-Sep-82 22:35:00,961;000000000000 Date: 27 September 1982 00:35-EDT From: Herb Lin <LIN@Mit-Mc> Subject: Dynabyte Monarch co-processor system... To: info-micro at BRL, info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 27 Sep 82 0:18-EDT Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 0:40-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 1:03-EDT I just read in Dr. Dobbs Journal that Dynabyte has a Z80B/8086 S-100 or Multibus system available. Questions: 1. Comments please - which is a better bus to have (S-100 or Multibus), and why? Which bus has more things made for it? Which is more susceptible to failure? Which has more stuff supported under common micro operating systmes (e.g., CP/M)? My needs are those of a person who doesn't want to do a bunch of hardware hacking. 2. What is the track record of Dynabyte hardware? Anyone out there actually running a Dynabyte system? Experiences with Dynabyte as a company from the user support perspective? copies to the list as well as me, please. LIN@MIT-MC thanks. 26-Sep-82 22:55:00,398;000000000000 Date: 27 September 1982 00:55-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: Need WordStar patches for NEC printer To: Info-Cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 27 Sep 82 0:59-EDT Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 1:17-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 1:27-EDT Does anyone have the WordStar 3.0 patches for an NEC PC-8023A-C printer? This is the dot-matrix 100 cps printer that has features similar to the MX-80. 26-Sep-82 22:56:00,2366;000000000000 Date: 27 September 1982 00:56-EDT From: Frank J Wancho <FJW@Mit-Mc> Subject: Mainframe MODEM implementations To: INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 27 Sep 82 1:00-EDT Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 1:17-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 1:29-EDT There are several known variations: LMODEM in MacLisp by Ed Barton (EB@MC or EB@OZ). This is the granddaddy of the mainfame modem implementations and is what we use to up and download the majority of the files to MC:CPM; over the past two years. Unfortunately, it is known to work only on the ITS machines which run MacLisp... Automatically detects if the user is connected to the host via TELNET (ARPANET) and makes the appropriate adjustments... (Source: MC:FJW;LMODEM >) UMODEM in C by Lauren Weinstein (vortex!lauren@lbl-unix) and Rick Conn (rconn@BRL) for Unix machines. Has an option for use via ARPANET, but not tested in that mode due to brain-damaged NCP which strips user data of the 8th bit on input... (Source: MC:CPM;AR43:UMODEM C) TMODEM in C by Eliot Moss (EBM@XX) and more recently by Rick Conn and just recently by Ed Barton. TMODEM is a rewrite of UMODEM for TOPS-20 and TENEX machines. TMODEM is in limbo and in need of further debugging at last report. TMODEM is the only one of this list (other than LMODEM) known to run via an ARPANET TIP or TAC connection. (Source: MC:CPM:AR43:TMODEM C - may not be THE latest version) VMODEM in C by Rick Conn for the VAX under VMS(?) - based on TMODEM. XMODEM in SAIL by Max Diaz (MMD@SAIL). XMODEM appears to require "Control-C capability"... It does not work via ARPANET (yet). Source: MC:CPM;AR60:XMODEM SAI and XMODEM SAIMSG) MODEM in MAC by Bill Westfield (BILLW@SRI-KL). This MODEM is the best of the lot for TOPS-20 users at this time. It does not yet work via ARPANET (yet). (Source: MC:CPM;AR60:MDM20 158MAC and MDM20X 48MAC, an "experimental" version by Ted Shapin (BEC.SHAPIN@USC-ECLC) based on MDM20 158MAC). FTPS and FTPG in MAC by Aaron Wohl (WOHL@CMU-20C). And, finally, FMODEM, by Dr. Larry Armijo and myself, written in FORTRAN IV (for the SEL 32/55) and FORTRAN-77 (for the SEL 32/77). (Source: MC:FJW;AR4:FMODEM FOR for the 55, and S77MDM FOR for the 77). If you do anything with any of these, please let their authors know about it - and me, too. --Frank 27-Sep-82 01:37:37,1253;000000000000 Date: 27 Sep 82 3:37:37-EDT (Mon) From: Keith Petersen <w8sdz@BRL> To: Info-Cpm at BRL Subject: [jph: 68K SW/HW] Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 3:57-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 4:10-EDT Forwarded because of direct reference to CP/M. Please reply to address below. Thanks. ----- Forwarded message # 1: Date: 14 Sep 82 15:05:57-PDT (Tue) To: info-micro at Brl From: harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxa!mhuxh!bwkna!jph at Ucb-C70 Subject: 68K SW/HW Article-I.D.: bwkna.110 Via: Usenet; 26 Sep 82 18:49-PDT Via: Sri-Unix; 26 Sep 82 21:54-EDT Via: Brl; 26 Sep 82 22:05-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 26 Sep 82 22:10-EDT I would be interested to know what hardware/software is available related to the 68000. For example, I know that there is an S-100 board for MC68000 available from DUAL (MC68000 CPU). What kind of operating system (cheap) is available for PC budget. Is there a CP/M like operating system for the 68000? Are there any dual processor boards (other than the 6502/68000). How about a Z80/68000 board? I think CompuPro may be coming out with a 68k board but I can't get any information on it. Thanks in advance. Jim Hawkins BTL Short Hills, N.J. ----- End of forwarded messages 27-Sep-82 13:28:00,1171;000000000000 Date: 27 Sep 1982 1228-PDT Sender: BILLW at Sri-Kl Subject: Re: Dynabyte Monarch co-processor system... From: BILLW at Sri-Kl To: LIN at Mit-Mc Cc: info-micro at BRL, info-cpm at BRL Message-ID: <[SRI-KL]27-Sep-82 12:28:33.BILLW> In-Reply-To: Your message of 27 September 1982 00:35-EDT Via: Sri-Kl; 27 Sep 82 15:13-EDT Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 15:24-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 15:38-EDT Multibus probably has more "professional" quality hardware manufactured for it. Things like hard disk controllers, ethrnet interfaces, .5 inch tape controllers, etc. The S100 bus has more "hobbiest" type interfaces: voice, low res graphics, etc. Multibus tends to be significaantly more expensive than s100 for equivilent functionality. In fact, a bare WW board is about twice as much for multibus as for S100. Multibus has its own regulated power supply, which moves regulation off the individual boards. This may help prevent heath problems on the boards, but it makes for a much more expensive main power supply. The definitions that expand multibus to 16 data bits and 24 address lines are justas ad hoc as the expansion of the S100 bus. BillW 27-Sep-82 15:28:00,1327;000000000000 Date: 27 Sep 1982 1428-PDT From: Dick <MEAD@Usc-Eclb> Subject: Tandon TM848-2 's To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Usc-Eclb; 27 Sep 82 17:15-EDT Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 17:28-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 17:34-EDT I recently purchased two of these half height 8" DDDS drives and made the following discoveries: 1) two will not fit in the same cutout as a standard size drive, unless the hole is oversized. 2) mention is made of a bracket to mount 2 drives in a single slot, however, no mention of how/where to get said bracket. 3) drive motor startup time VERY slow, as opposed to advertised claims that it features 1/2 rotation time startup. 4) one has already died after less than 10 hours use. Seems it lost the ability to read/write 2 sided disks.(this includes one formatted on the drive itself). I had asked about the drives (local OEM) before buying, and was told they seemed fine, but of course later comments seen here and else-where don't look so good. I wonder what the root of the problem is? Are all the 1/2 highs as bad? Or is Tandon just having a bad run? After this I may give up on 1/2 highs and stick with QUME/MITSUBISHI and another box to hold the drives, as it would have been less of a bother. What about the 5.25 DDDS (96tpi) drives, are there any 'gotchas'? ------- 27-Sep-82 16:39:00,432;000000000000 Date: 27 Sep 1982 1539-PDT From: William T Overman <OVERMAN@Usc-Isif> Subject: directory checksums To: info-cpm at BRL cc: overman at Usc-Isif Via: Usc-Isif; 27 Sep 82 18:25-EDT Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 18:37-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 18:42-EDT Does anyone know of a program that will produce a nice listing of all of the file names on a disk along with checksums on the contents of the files? thanks, Bill ------- 27-Sep-82 18:35:00,614;000000000000 Date: 27 September 1982 18:35 edt From: Frankston.SoftArts at Mit-Multics Subject: Re: printer query results/ECOM Sender: COMSAT.SoftArts at Mit-Multics Reply-To: Frankston at Mit-Multics (Bob Frankston) To: Jeffrey at Office-2, info-cpm at BRL *from: BOB (Bob Frankston) Local: Jeffrey at Office-2,info-cpm at BRL Original-date: 27 SEP 1982 18:16:52 Via: Mit-Multics; 27 Sep 82 18:18-EDT Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 18:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 18:30-EDT There are already people retailing ECOM. I think Western Union does and also a company in Brighten MA (Business Corp of America?). 27-Sep-82 19:10:22,2105;000000000000 Date: 27 Sep 1982 19:10:22 EST (Monday) From: Mike Meyer <mwm@Okc-Unix> Subject: Re: Argh..#@&%^% CP/M In-Reply-to: Your message of 16 September 1982 1821-PDT (Thursday) To: ucla-vax!ucivax!csuf!bytebug at Ucla-Security Cc: info-cpm at BRL Via: Okc-Unix; 27 Sep 82 20:08-EDT Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 20:17-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 20:26-EDT Having a sector somewhere on track 0 that told you usefull information about the disk would be nice. Unfortunately, it wouldn't give the "infinite portability" you seem to want. Problems show up in figuring out what format track zero is in to begin with, and then as to whether or not your hardware will read said disk. For example, I recently got a standard 8" disk from a friend - I couldn't read it. Seems that there had been a third party (going from my S100 8" to friends Apple 5 1/4") who had copied the stuff to a double sided diskette, in standard 8" single density format. My system doesn't recognize that a double density diskette is something it can read. Tack onto this the fact that not everybody uses the WD 177x controllers (for instance, I have an NEC PD765) and there are formats that some chips will write that others won't read... A couple of us localy have considered putting in a "mount table" for a fifth (or third) disk. Said disk would have no entries for the translate table or DPB (I think I grabbed the right block). When the user issued a "mount cromdb26 b:", the system would dig those tables up out of a disk file, and patch them into the bios. At the same time, the disk B DPH would be fixed to use the tables. This may be similar to your login command, but was designed specifically to let us read ANYBODIES diskette (withen aforementioned chip limitations). The problem is that this thing is VERY dangerous (at the same level as multiple density 1.x systems), VERY system dependent, and would require much work to add a new disk format. We eventually decided that it wasn't worth the trouble - the two of us could share 8" SSDD, and 8"SSSD worked reasonably well for everybody else. mike 27-Sep-82 21:08:00,1424;000000000000 Date: 27 September 1982 23:08-EDT From: Leor Zolman <LEOR@Mit-Mc> Subject: Policy note to BDS C aficionados To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 27 Sep 82 22:50-EDT Via: Brl; 27 Sep 82 22:57-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 27 Sep 82 23:08-EDT For the past three years, Lifeboat has been the exclusive distributor of BDS C. This will not be true for more than a few days longer; a new NON-exclusive contract has been negotiated, and should be signed all around very shortly. Therefore, BDS C will soon be purchasable from the C User's Group (Robert Ward, et. al. in Kansas) and other distributors. I don't mean this as an advertisement, though; I just want all those people who've refused to have anything to do with Lifeboat yet desire BDS C to know that soon there'll be a way to buy it without making Lifeboat a cent. Some months ago I received a call from some guy who admitted to having a bootleg BDS C, who wanted to pay me for it but refused to buy anything from Lifeboat. The number of customer-service related horror stories I've been sent from irate Lifeboat customers is also pretty staggering. I hope the word gets around that there are going to be other sources for the package! Lifeboat will still be carrying it, but buying it from the User's Group will make the Group have money to play with for neat things like remote software-snarfing systems. RBBS operators: pass the word! thanks, -leor 27-Sep-82 23:10:00,504;000000000000 Date: 28 September 1982 01:10-EDT From: Leor Zolman <LEOR@Mit-Mc> Subject: v1.50 BDS C Doc updated To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 28 Sep 82 1:04-EDT Via: Brl; 28 Sep 82 1:09-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 28 Sep 82 1:21-EDT The file "AR36:CPM; V150 2DOC" is an updated pre-release description of v1.50. The previous file "V150 PREDOC" has been deleted. Any future revisions of the 1.50 doc will simply have their version number bumped (2DOC --> 3DOC, etc.) and I won't bother announcing it. -leor 28-Sep-82 01:49:00,852;000000000000 Date: 28 September 1982 03:49-EDT From: Jerry E Pournelle <POURNE@Mit-Mc> Subject: Tandon TM848-2 's To: MEAD at Usc-Eclb cc: INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 28 Sep 82 3:51-EDT Via: Brl; 28 Sep 82 3:58-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 28 Sep 82 4:09-EDT I get a lot of mail on this; my correspondents are about equally divided between enthusiastic liking of Tanden thins, and utter hatred of them. One major OEM refuses tohandle them because (he tells me) test indicate excessive media wear. He is particularly adamant about not using Tanden 5 1/4" disks. In the hundreds of letters I have, almost all complining about disks concern 5 1/4 " except for a few which det est Tanden tin 8" (and I have never had anyone write me about any 8" except those). Of course this is hardly a random sample, and I pass it on for what it's worth. JEP 28-Sep-82 01:56:00,741;000000000000 Date: 28 September 1982 03:56-EDT From: Jerry E Pournelle <POURNE@Mit-Mc> Subject: [jph: 68K SW/HW] To: w8sdz at BRL cc: INFO-MICRO at Mit-Mc, INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 28 Sep 82 3:52-EDT Via: Brl; 28 Sep 82 3:58-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 28 Sep 82 4:10-EDT There have been some problems with 68000 chips, as well as with getting an OS for it. Bill Godbout ha got some troops writing a sort of mini-operating system in FORTH of all things (as he says, FORTH programmers will understand the documentation -- all 34 of them). Once they have an OS and an assembler onmachines they have, they can play about with trying to do software for the 68000 on S-100 bus. The impression I get on S-100 68000 is Real Soon Now... 28-Sep-82 02:22:00,3236;000000000000 Date: 28 September 1982 04:22-EDT From: Jerry E Pournelle <POURNE@Mit-Mc> Subject: extensions To: INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc, INFO-MICRO at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 28 Sep 82 4:04-EDT Via: Brl; 28 Sep 82 4:09-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 28 Sep 82 4:21-EDT [This was originally sent to info-Pascal, but comsat returned with note that there is no such mailing list. It is, I think, imporant enough to bother all of you although it is of value only to Pascal people...] We are preparing an article as a submission in design of a new standard Pascal Prime. Pascal Prime is intended to preserve the "spirit" of Pascal and retain its remarkably good features as a teaching language, while making Pascal more usable as a practical programming language. The idea is to specify a minimum set of extensions to the language. The extended language will be called PASCAL PRIME. There will be a conference at West Coast Computer Faire, with several of the major compiler writers in attendence. Features that ought to be in PASCAL PRIME will be discussed. The whole mess will get fairly wide publicatin. Here are some candidate features. Arguments for or against their inclusion, plus suggestions for other features which should be included, will be appreciated. FILES IN RECORDS to be allowed. This is not controversial, or hasn't been. Indeed, it's in the standard, although many implementations don't have it. MT+ allows. UCSD does not . We think clearly desirable. OTHERWISE statement after CASE. (OTHERWISE rather than ELSE since latter may confuse readers...?) Ignore underbars as clarity character; do not see. Guarantee the order of evaluation of AND and OR and parenthesized statements. Is a BREAK statement needed? It would be expensive. It might also be against the spirit of the language; but it certainly would make writing programs more convenient. Needs STRINGS and LONG STRINGS to have the same relationship as integers and long integers. Most micro implementations and indeed most implemenations have strings anyway. A Dynamic Size Array variable type? This can also get expensive and needs thought. UCASE & Lcase These are needed as standard library features because they are almost always needed, and are often badly written... STATIC variables: which are LOCAL to a procedure or functin, but which do not go away when you exit the function. Best example would be the seed for a random number functions. Standards for separate compilation and INCLUDE. A way to reseve blocks of memory and get at particular memory addresses. This is of course machine dependent, and needs thought since it compromises portability, but ye gods, without it you are in real trouble..especially with memory map video... Ways to get at the programmer stack? Thought needed; we are not trying to make Pascal become C. Elementary math in the CONSTANT declarations. At least allow four-function arithmetic plus chr(x) and ord(x) in the CONST declarations [Bell = chr(7) as a legal statement] Read and write enumeration types. And as few other ideas. Discussion welcome. What does PASCAL needd to make it the right langauge? 28-Sep-82 02:33:00,703;000000000000 Date: 28 September 1982 04:33-EDT From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@Mit-Mc> Subject: directory checksums To: OVERMAN at Usc-Isif cc: Info-Cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 28 Sep 82 4:16-EDT Via: Brl; 28 Sep 82 4:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 28 Sep 82 4:46-EDT CRCK.COM does that, gives a "cyclic redundancy check" rather than simple checksum. CRC is less prone to errors than checksums. The source code, COM file and HEX file (in case you cannot FTP COM files) is available on MIT-MC as AR24:CPM;CRCK 42BASM and CRCK 42BCOM. The HEX file is in AR13:CPM;CRCK 42BHEX. The program prints the file names as it reads each file, has optional command to write that output to a disk file on the default drive. 28-Sep-82 13:54:00,536;000000000000 Date: 28 Sep 1982 13:54 EDT From: Hoffarth.wbst at Parc-Maxc Subject: Analyst File Formats To: Info-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 28 Sep 82 13:40-EDT Via: Brl; 28 Sep 82 14:01-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 28 Sep 82 14:10-EDT Does anyone have any idea what the format is for the .FIL and .DAT files used by Analyst. I can figure out most of the format, but there are a few numbers that are still a mystery. I would like to write some programs to manipulate these files while still remaining compatible with Analyst. Rich Hoffarth 28-Sep-82 19:06:03,704;000000000000 Date: 28 Sep 1982 19:06:03 EST (Tuesday) From: Mike Meyer <mwm@Okc-Unix> To: KELLY at Rutgers Cc: info-cpm at BRL, mwm at Okc-Unix Via: Okc-Unix; 28 Sep 82 20:02-EDT Via: Brl; 28 Sep 82 20:10-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 28 Sep 82 20:13-EDT I have the visual editor from Dr. Dobb's on an arpanet machine. I now have two problems: where do I put it on mc? and when will the local ftp behave again? I feel that this stuff belongs in an archive on mc, but don't know how to create one/put things in it. If somebody who knows about this would give me the needed information, I would appreciate it. For those of you who can't wait, the place to look is /u1/mwm/netstuff/ved on OKC-UNIX. mike 29-Sep-82 00:30:27,1024;000000000000 Date: 28-Sep-82 23:30:27-PDT (Tue) From: UCBARPA.comay at Ucb-C70 Subject: Aztec C compiler query Message-Id: <8208290630.14414@UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA> Received: by UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.207 [9/26/82]) id A14414; 28-Sep-82 23:30:30-PDT (Tue) Received: from UCBARPA.BERKELEY.ARPA by UCBVAX.BERKELEY.ARPA (3.207 [9/26/82]) id A19261; 28-Sep-82 23:34:06-PDT (Tue) To: info-cpm at Mit-Ai Via: Mit-Ai; 29 Sep 82 3:09-EDT Via: Brl; 29 Sep 82 3:01-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 29 Sep 82 3:25-EDT Does anyone have experience with the new Aztec C compiler available for CP/M? Their ad seems to imply that it implements the "UNIX Version 7" standard. Is this true? In addition, does it allow statics, initializers, floats, doubles, etc? Finally, does the software include a standard i/o package and how similar is this package to the UNIX stdio library. I would appreciate any information that anyone can give me. Thank you very much. David Comay uucp: ucbvax!comay arpa: comay@berkeley 29-Sep-82 04:58:00,612;000000000000 Date: 29 September 1982 06:58-EDT From: Charlie Strom <CSTROM@Mit-Mc> Subject: Godbout rumors To: POURNE at Mit-Mc cc: INFO-CPM at BRL Via: Mit-Mc; 29 Sep 82 7:00-EDT Via: Brl; 29 Sep 82 8:16-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 29 Sep 82 8:28-EDT You seem to have an inside ear at Godbout. Anything new to report on the BIOS you told us about some months back? A lot of mouths are watering! How about a schedule on CP/M 3.0? Lastly, they were supposed to be working on a Z80 designed for slaving to a 16 bitter like the 8086 board, but I've heard little about this one in quite a while. Regards, Charlie 29-Sep-82 08:55:03,1814;000000000000 Date: 29 Sep 1982 8:55:03 EST (Wednesday) From: Mike Meyer <mwm@Okc-Unix> Subject: Re: Aztec C compiler query In-Reply-to: Your message of 28-Sep-82 23:30:27-PDT (Tue) To: UCBARPA.comay at Ucb-C70 Cc: info-cpm at Mit-Ai Via: Mit-Ai; 29 Sep 82 13:18-EDT Via: Brl; 29 Sep 82 13:29-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 29 Sep 82 13:42-EDT I looked at the Aztec C II compiler a couple of weeks ago. Their claim is that it implements the language defined by K & R, minus bitfields. As close as I can tell, they do that. It does indeed have statics, longs, floats, doubles, initializers, typedefs, macros, etc. The I/O library is very complete compared to other CP/M C compilers - the only thing missing (from the I/O library) was scanf. Note, however, that the Unix system calls are not there: read is by 128 byte blocks, etc. even though fread, etc work as expected. Also, ONLY the stdio type things are there. You don't get libdbm, the sort routines, etc. Nor is it exactly Unix C. For example, I tried compiling some code from a Unix system (it wasn't mine), and had some troubles. Mainly, the turkey who wrote the Unix code liked to do things like: long dx ; z = dx . loint ; which caused Aztec C to complain. There may be other such things. I consider this particular problem to be a change for the better, and expect that there will be more like it. Also, anything added to C by berkeley or since K & R appeared won't be in the compiler - enum's, structure assignment, etc. Summary - this is probably the best buy in a C compiler for CP/M if you are looking for a good C compiler for CP/M. If you want something to let you move code back and forth - it's not quite right. You can buy a version for Unix (or so they claim) which would give you the best bet for such things. mike 29-Sep-82 10:09:52,1160;000000000000 Date: 29 Sep 82 12:09:52-EDT (Wed) From: Keith Petersen <w8sdz@BRL> To: Info-Cpm at BRL Subject: [sdt: SSM CB2 Z-80 CPU users...] Via: Brl; 29 Sep 82 12:18-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 29 Sep 82 12:32-EDT Can someone on Info-Cpm help Steve? Please reply to address below. Thanks. ----- Forwarded message # 1: Date: 27 Sep 82 13:47:58-PDT (Mon) To: info-micro at Brl From: harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxj!mhuxi!mhuxv!mhuxm!pyuxjj!pyuxll!sdt at Ucb-C70 Subject: SSM CB2 Z-80 CPU users... Article-I.D.: pyuxll.287 Via: Usenet; 28 Sep 82 5:37-PDT Via: Sri-Unix; 28 Sep 82 8:27-EDT Via: Brl; 28 Sep 82 8:50-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 28 Sep 82 8:59-EDT I am looking for fellow users of the SSM Microcomputer Products CB2 Z-80 CPU board for the S-100 bus. I have recently purchased one, and would like to exchange information about its use and configuration with other users. UUCP: ...floyd!pyuxll!sdt OR ...floyd!hocsr!sdt Steve Trovato Bell Telephone Laboratories Holmdel, N. J. ----- End of forwarded messages 29-Sep-82 11:51:00,748;000000000000 Date: 29 Sep 1982 1051-PDT From: Dick <MEAD@Usc-Eclb> To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Usc-Eclb; 29 Sep 82 14:42-EDT Via: Brl; 29 Sep 82 14:51-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 29 Sep 82 15:09-EDT I had to send this via INFO-CPM as the Mailer can't find dest. ------------ Date: 29 Sep 1982 1037-PDT From: Dick <MEAD at USC-ECLB> Subject: Re: cheap pascal To: Kubicar.Multics.M at BRL In-Reply-To: Your message of 28-Sep-82 1453-PDT Yes, I got it, as did a few others here. While I have not put it to much use, it does seem to be a very reasonable Pascal. It is a P-code type compiler, like CBASIC's INT files, so is not as fast as some. You can't beat the price, even if you hate Pascal (or programming). ------- ------- ------- 29-Sep-82 12:19:00,676;000000000000 Date: 29 September 1982 12:19 edt From: Solomon at Mit-Multics (Richard Jay Solomon) Subject: terminal programs for Applecat II Sender: Solomon.VOARADIO at Mit-Multics To: info-cpm at Mit-Mc cc: Solomon.VOARADIO at Mit-Multics (hold.sv) Acknowledge-To: Solomon.VOARADIO at MIT-MULTICS Via: Mit-Mc; 29 Sep 82 12:31-EDT Via: Brl; 29 Sep 82 12:36-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 29 Sep 82 12:45-EDT Does anyone know of a good terminal program for the Novation Applecat II with the 212A 1200-baud upgrade? ComWare II which is provided will not work under CPM, and Zpro won't work at all when the card is installed. I need to access Emacs as an intelligent terminal. 29-Sep-82 18:04:19,1426;000000000000 Date: 29 Sep 1982 18:04:19 EST (Wednesday) From: Mike Meyer <mwm@Okc-Unix> Subject: apologies To: info-cpm at BRL Cc: w8sdz at Mit-Mc, mwm at Okc-Unix Via: Okc-Unix; 29 Sep 82 19:14-EDT Via: Brl; 29 Sep 82 19:26-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 29 Sep 82 19:36-EDT Oops - after posting the message about the visual editor from Dr. Dobb's, I find that OKC-UNIX doesn't have a protocol for people on other sites to ftp files away. *sigh* It has now been placed on mit-mc where w8sdz at mc requested, and he will announce when it has been put in the cpm directory. For those of you not familiar with this package, it is a public domain visual editor. The (small C) source was published about a year ago in Dr. Dobb's. The version I uploaded has been transformed into BDS C, and has a few extra nobs and whistles, and slightly more speed. It is written in a highly modular form, and is extensively commented about. I had no trouble making it work on my system, and likewise for the other people locally who've tried it out. However - I don't use, having paid good money (and well-spent) for Mince. One person locally decided it was to slow, and went back to his (unix) ed-based editor. Therefore, I won't say that what's on mc will work. I will say that it should be close. Likewise, if you have problems with it, I can't really help with those. If pieces are missing, then I can help. redfacedly, mike 29-Sep-82 23:41:00,393;000000000000 Date: 29 September 1982 23:41 edt From: JPAnderson.DODCSC at Mit-Multics Subject: removal from mailing list.....take two. To: info-cpm at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 29 Sep 82 23:51-EDT Via: Brl; 29 Sep 82 23:58-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 30 Sep 82 0:09-EDT And action!!! Could this account PLEASE be removed from this (info-cpm) mailing list?? We're being deluged with mail. thanks - Jay 30-Sep-82 00:05:00,528;000000000000 Date: 30 September 1982 00:05 edt From: Schauble.Multics at Mit-Multics Subject: Tandon TM848-2 's To: info-cpm at BRL Via: Mit-Multics; 30 Sep 82 0:05-EDT Via: Brl; 30 Sep 82 0:16-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 30 Sep 82 0:24-EDT Another problem I am told that they have: they do not have an adjustable track zero sensor. Therefore, every once in a while, a restore operation will cause the head to seek to track 1 or track -1. It depends on the drive. I have this second hand, so someone really should check... Paul 30-Sep-82 02:48:00,1165;000000000000 Date: 30 September 1982 04:48-EDT From: Jerry E Pournelle <POURNE@Mit-Mc> Subject: Godbout rumors To: CSTROM at Mit-Mc cc: POURNE at Mit-Mc, INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 30 Sep 82 5:25-EDT Via: Brl; 30 Sep 82 5:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 30 Sep 82 5:36-EDT Tony Pietsch has delivered his do-all BIOS to Godbout; it is shorn of the ability to run the Semi-Disk, but it does everything else. They will now test it adn get documentation done (Tony's strong pint is not that, and I refused to do it on grounds of too many other committments). Thus this ought to be available in a couple of months. Bet I can do. Sorry. I was given a bit of a can tied to my tail for mentioning it on the net earlier--it seems they got a LOT of calls about it, and didn't have it then ... Sorry again. I'll know better next time. re CPM 3.0 all I know is I am told I am supposed to be a test site, but no date has been set, and I have seen nothing; I hear stories from those who have, but nothing I'd repeat. Re z-80/8086 duals, no information. SAGE 68000 running UCSD Pascal as the OS works, and machines are being delivered; I have seen them. 30-Sep-82 02:53:00,589;000000000000 Date: 30 Sep 1982 0153-PDT Sender: BILLW at Sri-Kl Subject: Fancy Font demo... From: William "Chops" Westfield <BillW@Sri-Kl> To: info-cpm at BRL Message-ID: <[SRI-KL]30-Sep-82 01:53:44.BILLW> Via: Sri-Kl; 30 Sep 82 5:04-EDT Via: Brl; 30 Sep 82 5:07-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 30 Sep 82 5:13-EDT I was perusing compuserve the other day, and noticed that someone hsa uploaded a FancyFont demo file. Any chance of someone uploading this to the arpanet ? (I am willing to supply storage for a while, if necessary. I understand the file is some 45K bytes long...) Bill Westfield 30-Sep-82 04:51:00,417;000000000000 Date: 30 September 1982 06:51-EDT From: Charlie Strom <CSTROM@Mit-Mc> Subject: Fancy Font demo... To: BillW at Sri-Kl cc: INFO-CPM at Mit-Mc Via: Mit-Mc; 30 Sep 82 6:52-EDT Via: Brl; 30 Sep 82 7:29-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 30 Sep 82 7:41-EDT Funny you should ask... I have already uploaded the files and when they are in place in the proper archive I will let the list know. Should be momentary. Charlie 30-Sep-82 11:02:00,820;000000000000 Date: 30 Sep 1982 at 1002-PDT To: info-cpm at BRL Subject: JRT Pascal From: chesley.tsca at Sri-Unix Via: Sri-Tsca; 30 Sep 82 10:03-PDT Via: Sri-Unix; 30 Sep 82 13:03-EDT Via: Brl; 30 Sep 82 13:27-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 30 Sep 82 13:41-EDT I got what I think is the real story on this the other day: It's being sold so cheap for two reasons: (1) The guy who sells it wanted to see if he could make money selling so cheap you might as well buy it as copy it; and he IS making money at it. (2) He will be coming out shortly with a native code compiler, which will sell for (I think it was) $495; in the mean time, a lot of people will get comfortable with the P-code version, just wishing there were a native code version, and he'll have a really tremendous mailing list of Pascal users. --Harry... 30-Sep-82 11:23:00,2553;000000000000 Date: 30 Sep 1982 at 1023-PDT To: info-cpm at BRL Subject: Software Toolworks C/80 From: chesley.tsca at Sri-Unix Via: Sri-Tsca; 30 Sep 82 10:24-PDT Via: Sri-Unix; 30 Sep 82 13:40-EDT Via: Brl; 30 Sep 82 13:50-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 30 Sep 82 14:24-EDT A friend of mine just bought this C compiler, and I've been reading the manual. I don't remember seeing any mention of it here, so let me summarize it. It looks very good, and only costs $50. It's Kernighan & Ritchie C, except no: o float, double, and long data types (actually it will accept long, but stores it as 16-bits, just like int). o typedef. o Arguments to #define macros. o Bit fields. o #line. o Declarations within nested blocks (i.e., you have to declare all local variables at the beginning of the function definition). It does have compile-time initializers, type casts, and static. It produces assembly code (and you can include assembly inline in the C code with the #asm directive), for either an abs assembler provided with the package, or for Microsoft Macro-80 (so you can link it with other Macro-80 programs). The compiler will produce execution profile code. If you have a real-time clock available, it will tell how much time was spent in each function, and even if you don't, it will tell you how many times each function was called. A related facility allows tracing, by telling you each time a function was entered or exited. It uses an interesting approach to local variables: There are two types: auto and register. Auto variables are allocated on the stack, but register variables are allocated at abs locations but then saved on the stack when the function starts up (making references to them much faster). Local variables default to register, but can be forced to auto by declaring them as such. Parameters can also be declared register, in which case they'll be moved to abs locations at function startup time. Run-time support includes I/O redirection of standard in/out (following the Unix V6 model of fin/fout, not the stdio model of stdin/stdout/stderr), random access file I/O, and limited storage allocation (you can alloc, but you can't free) . The starting point for this compiler was Ron Cain's SmallC, but it sure has been expanded a lot. I haven't played with the compiler at all (I plan to get a copy and try some benchmarks, etc.), but if it does what the manual says, and assuming it produces reasonable code, it sure looks nice. --Harry... 30-Sep-82 12:37:40,836;000000000000 Date: 30 Sep 1982 11:37:40-PDT From: CCVAX.gil at Nosc-Cc To: UCBARPA.comay at Ucb-C70, info-cpm at Mit-Ai Subject: Aztec C compiler query Via: Mit-Ai; 30 Sep 82 14:40-EDT Via: Brl; 30 Sep 82 14:51-EDT Via: Brl-Bmd; 30 Sep 82 15:08-EDT Just finished an article for BYTE comparing several CP/M Pascal and C compilers on a couple of different programs. Aztec C does indeed seem to be as advertised, and has very good portability to unix C systems. It has all the good stuff you mentioned, and data types all the way up through double. The library is pretty complete, and is about to be further expanded. It is also claimed to be very compatible with C86 from Computer Innovations (Manx and CI cross-market each other's products). BDS and C/80 are good too, and a lot cheaper, though not as complete at this time.