[net.micro.trs-80] DoubleDuty review for Model 4

2141smh@aluxe.UUCP (henning) (01/08/85)

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From the keys of Steve Henning, AT&T Bell Labs, Reading, PA aluxe!2141smh

I recently got a copy of DoubleDuty.  It is a great utility.  It gives you
a total of 3 screens.  Two of the screens are 64k Model 4's, while the third
is a DOS screen only.  You, of course, can use two related programs on the
first 2 screens and use a directory listing on the DOS screen or you can
put the same program on both of the first 2 screens.  An example of the
latter scheme is my terminal program.  Since I have it in both locations,
I can save two screens and retrieve them instantly rather than having to
scroll or page.  To change screens you depress <CAPS> and <F1>, <F2>, or
<F3> to recall screen 1, 2, or 3.  It works with communications programs
despite what the catalog says.  The problem is that when you leave the
communications program, any incoming information could be lost or even
worse cause a lockup of the computer.  This happened to me once and I
just did a big reset and reloaded DoubleDuty and my terminal program
and continued where I left off.  It is best to wait until no data is coming
in the RS-232 port when you switch screens.  
When you switch screens, the old screen is stopped in mid-compute and the
new screen starts in mid-compute where it left off.  That seems logical enough.

For any one that wants to add additional flexibility to their Model 4,
I heartily recommend adding Tandy's DoubleDuty if you have 128k.