RCONN@SIMTEL20.ARPA (Rick Conn) (08/06/85)
The book on ZCPR3, namely ZCPR3: The Manual, is out now, and it is available from the Library of Computer and Information Science and the Small Computer Book clubs. It is also available from Echelon. The book is divided into three sections: Using ZCPR3 (detailing all the commands with chapters devoted to the online documentation system, menus, VFILER, DU3, and general concepts), ZCPR3 Internals (how the system works), and ZCPR3 Installation. The book is 350 pages. If you have questions on ZCPR3 (and all of the softwre in the the <CPM.ZCPR3> archive on SIMTEL20), the book is a good source. I wrote ZCPR3 and the book, so you know where I'm coming from, but I really feel that the book meets a need. The next few issues of Byte (starting in Sept) contain Steve Ciarcia's column on the SB180 single-board computer, and there is a lot of ink on ZCPR3 here as well. Echelon has just received (from me) a new document on IOPs (the Input/Output Package concept of ZCPR3), and this adds another 60+ pages of reading. You can get a hardcopy from Echelon or download the document from a Z-Node (see the list on SIMTEL20). Finally, the Echelon newsletters (there are over 25 now) provide lots of information on the evolution of ZCPR3 and changes/bug fixes/new activities. I have written an article for Micro Cornucopia on the operational concept behind the ZCPR3 Environment Descriptor (which should appear in the next issue). Hopefully, this is enough reading to really start to get the ZCPR3 concepts across. The source code to the entire system is on SIMTEL20, and I will be sending an update soon which will bring the files on SIMTEL20 up with the latest versions of the software. Rick -------