Info-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU (Info-IBMPC Digest) (03/19/87)
Info-IBMPC Digest Wednesday, March 18, 1987 Volume 6 : Issue 18 This Week's Editor: Richard Gillmann Today's Topics: Long Pathnames/Command Lines (3 msgs) C Cursor control (2 msgs) Advice about text editors: Brief vs. Epsilon (2 msgs) Tektronix 4010 Emulators (2 msgs) Some additions to the knet specs COM3 and COM4 APL Character ROM - Logo incompatibility VAXmate Design Logic design development tools Today's Queries: Graphics Editor for EGA Wanted AT Clone Query Blossom software required 286 accelerator cards and AST RAMPAGE card problem Clock rate compatibitily Query Problem with old hard disk MIRRORS/PC Query Hard disk upgrade for AT&T 6300+ Query JRAM Problems Problem with Hard Disk INT 24H Disk Error Query ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 Mar 87 10:46:58 +0100 (Central European Time) From: XBR1D770%DDATHD21.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu (R. Hoenig, THD) Subject: Large Paths To: info-ibmpc@c.isi.edu Volume 6, Issue 16 of the digest contained a question with the subject "Large PATHs Small Environment" There are two limitations for the size of PATH (and other environment variables). The first is the environment size. You can increase the environment size by patching the command.com or - if you work with DOS 3.x - by using the parameter /E:nn of the command.com in the shell-statement of config.sys (or on command line if you load a second copy of the command.com). With DOS 3.1 you can increase till 1044 byte by /E:62 (unit is paragraph), with DOS 3.2 maximum is 32 KB (e.g. /E:32768). The second limitation is, that the command line for the command.com is limited to 128 byte. If you want to set the path with the set- or the path-command, you can only define a longer path by using SUBST. But if you use a programm, that changes the environment directly, you can also enter a longer path. We have a programm in our library, that lets you define a path till full environment size. Reiner Hoenig, EARN: XBR1D770@DDATHD21.BITNET Institut for Bussiness Administration PSI: PSI%45615130514::BR1::D770 Technical University Darmstadt Tel.: 049 06151 163063 Hochschulstrasse 1 " " 165360 D-6100 Darmstadt Fed. Rep. Germany ------------------------------ Date: 16 Mar 87 16:01:33 EST (Monday) Subject: Long command lines To: INFO-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU From: marty <Leisner.Henr@Xerox.COM> The talk about long search path's has raisen another sleeping demon inside me: How to get long command lines to programs? I'm currently using Allen Holub's shell and it supports a 2k environment buffer called CMDLINE. The idea is a program can examine its environment for the command line and handle it accordingly (or do it in the c startup routine before main [assuming you use C]). Somewhat clumsy. Aztec C supports an interesting feature -- all Aztec programs run from Aztec's make supports a long command line (much longer than 128 bytes). I have the Aztec source code but haven't been able to decipher what they're doing special. When I have a change I'm gonna look into it. Anyone out there knows how Aztec does it? There doesn't seem to be anything special in the targetted program which tells the differnce between whether it was envoked by dos or by Aztec's make. marty leisner leisner.henr@xerox.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1987 21:48 PST From: Gene Hart <MLD3600%UWACDC.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu> Subject: Problem with Undeletable Directory Structure To: <INFO-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU> I created a directory on my hard disk with the name \junk1\junk2\junk3\junk4\junk5\junk6\junk7\junk8\junk9\junk10\junk11\junk12 How can I get rid of it? Things are behaving in a peculiar fashion. cd \junk1\junk2\junk3\junk4\junk5\junk6\junk7\junk8\junk9\junk10 works fine. cd \junk1\junk2\junk3\junk4\junk5\junk6\junk7\junk8\junk9\junk10\junk11 gives the error message "Invalid directory". If I am in the subdirectory \junk1\...\junk10 and enter the command cd junk11 then I get the error "Invalid directory". If, when in this subdirectory, I enter the command dir then I see .,..,and junk11. All are directories. The commmand chkdsk/f gives the error "Cannot CHDIR to c:\junk1\...\junk10\junk11" "Tree past this point not processed." And it doesn't free lost clusters. The Norton Utilies will not run on my hard disk. It bombs with an "insufficient memory" error. What can I do to get rid of this monster? I am running PCDOS 3.2. Could it be a problem with my hard disk or is it in DOS? [Try renaming these subdirectories to shorter names using one of the public domain utilities that can rename a subdirectory. I believe there is a limit to pathnames of 64 or 128 characters. -rag] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Mar 87 05:03:54 PST From: Primixsys!bagpiper@csvax.caltech.edu Subject: Screen and printer routines in Microsoft c To: info-ibmpc@c.isi.edu I have not used Microsoft C much, but there are no such routines that I know of in the standard library. To the first two questions I would advise you to write your own routines. You did not mention what OS you were using but I will assume you are using MS/PC-Dos and not Xenix, ect. Many MS-Dos C's include a function int int86(int intnum,struct *regsin, struct *regsout) that will call bios or dos interrupts. To position the cursor you will have to set DH equal to the row number, DL equal to the column number, BH equal to the page number, intnum equal to 10h, and ah = 2(that is interrupt 10h, function 2). It is very useful to get a book on basic dos routines and familiarize yourself with them. A good book is "The Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC" by Peter Norton (also covers the PCjr, XT, and the AT somewhat). There are other good books around, but this one happens to be the one I am using right now. As far as redirecting O/P from the screen to the printer, all you have to do is to replace stdout with stdprn in your O/P statements unless you are doing complicated O/P (such as graphics) in which case you will have to write a printer O/P routine. You could write a memory resident routine to catch all calls to the Dos and Bios video O/P routines and redirect them to the printer. Good Luck Hacking, Michael Hunter cit-vax!bagpiper@csvax.caltech.edu Occidental College Box 241 Los Angeles, CA 90041 ------------------------------ Date: Tue 17 Mar 1987 10:30:31 EST From: <DIGITS@LL.ARPA> Subject: C Cursor control To: info-ibmpc@c.isi.edu This is a reply to Ron Gershon's question about cursor control from 'C'. He states that there are no built in routines in Microsoft 'C' to easily control cursor movement and from what I have seen, this is correct. However, all is not lost if you are using ANSI.SYS. You can imbed ANSI commands into a 'printf' statement that will allow cursor control and much more; a FAST way to clear the screen for instance. If you have any trouble making this scheme work,, let me know and I will forward some examples but this is so easy that you should have no problems at all. Lou DiPalma MIT-Lincoln Labs ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Mar 87 12:26:57 est From: Joshua Marantz <josh@VX.LCS.MIT.EDU> To: Info-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU Subject: Advice about text editors: Brief vs. Epsilon I feel very strongly that Lugaru's Epsilon is far and away the best PC editor. Unfortunately, UnderWare, the makes of Brief, have a much better advertising scheme than Lugaru's, and as a result, my employer committed to Brief, purchasing licences for every engineer. I refused, however, and made them get me a copy of Epsilon. Actually Brief is also an excellent editor. It is fully extensible, with multiple windows, multiple buffers, you can push into DOS and compile with a keystroke, and most importantly, it has a good Undo facility. The undo facility is the only thing its got that Epsilon hasn't. Epsilon, more than makes up for it in a variety of ways. Like Brief, it is fully extensible with multiple windows and multiple buffers. But unlike Brief, it allows you to put DOS in an Epsilon window, execute a well behaved program (such as a compiler, linker, or Make program), and WHILE THE PROGRAM IS RUNNING, CONTINUE TO EDIT. The program's output becomes part of your Epsilon buffer, and you can cut & paste with it, page-up & page-down to review the output, and so on, just like you had redirected the output to a file and then editted the file. It effectively makes the PC a multi-tasking machine. All the poor Brief users have to look over my shoulder as I compile in the background while continuing to edit. My guess is that Epsilon is completely interrupt driven -- whenever you type a character, the DOS program is interrupted, Epsilon processes the character, and returns control to the DOS program. Whenever the DOS program writes a character (well-behaved programs only, remember) Epsilon grabs the interrupt and inserts the character in its DOS buffer. Extremely well done. Another important consideration is that Epsilon searching is orders of magnitude faster than Brief's. Read in a 42K byte file, go to the beginning, and search for a string 19 characters long that occurs only at the end of the file. Brief does this in 38 seconds. Epsilon does this INSTANTLY. In general, Epsilon seems to be a much more tightly coded piece of software. Compared to Brief, the searching is tremendously fast, while other operations are noticebly but not significantly faster than in Brief. Writing and reading files, refresh speed, etc. Both Brief and Epsilon give you a full programming language to write extensions in. Brief's looks like Lisp, Epsilon's like C. Brief's default editting environment is unique (and incompatible with the rest of the world). Epsilon's looks like Emacs (essentially compatible with the Editor of choice on VAX/VMS, */UNIX, and TOPS-20). I'm sure you could make Epsilon look like Wordstar if you wanted to. I've written macros to make Epsilon look like Brief, to give folks a migration path to the superior Editor. I suspect you could also make Brief look like Emacs or Wordstar. Both Brief and Epsilon list for $199, but discounts are usually available at distributors. It is worth every penny. Note that I am not in any way connected with Lugaru software, Inc. -Joshua D. Marantz Viewlogic Systems, Inc. P.S. I have a fairly major correction. I claimed that searching for a 19 character string in a 42K byte file took 38 seconds in Brief. The problem was that my string contained 4 * characters, which Brief interprets as wildcards. Using \ to quote the *, the search took about 2 seconds. Much more reasonable, but not up to par with Epsilon, where no visible time elapsed. It can be argued that it is a user interface bug that Brief defaults to regular expression searching without indicating so. Epsilon has a different command for regular expression searching. Of course this is all controlled by the user, since both Brief and Epsilon are completely extensible. -Joshua Marantz Viewlogic Systems, Inc. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Mar 87 12:50:48 PST From: Jim Anderson <bilbo.jta@CS.UCLA.EDU> To: info-ibmpc@c.isi.edu Subject: Epsilon C mode Query Has anyone tackled the problem of making Epsilon do a decent job of indenting switch statements? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Mar 87 14:39:07 pst From: reynolds@ames-prandtl.arpa (Don Reynolds) To: info-ibmpc@c.isi.edu Subject: TEKTRONIX 4010 Emulators Yet another addition to the list could be Zap, by Paul Fishwick. In addition to supporting speeds over 9600 baud (for those of us on direct connect modem eliminators), it supports TEK 4010 vector plot mode, point plot mode, and text mode while retaining VT52 or VT100/VT102 capability. Last address I have is Cheshire Cat Software P.O. Box 5 Devon, PA 19333 Support by Software Systems, (800)821-2492. Not copy protected, of course. [Usual disclaimers apply -- I personally use ProComm except for Kermit 2.29 for faster file transfers to IBM compatible mainframes that don't understand parity.] Best, Don ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Mar 87 19:28:29 CET From: Eberhard W. Lisse <LISSE%DACTH51.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu> To: info-ibmpc@c.isi.edu Subject: public tek emulator available I have a public domaine tek4010 emulator which runs on the EGA/AGA/CGA and with HGCIBM or SIMCGA on the Hercules board. I'll send it to R. Eberhardt who asked for one in V 6 I 16. I have sent it to SIMTEL20.ARPA who never aknowledged it and am willing to send it UUencoded to anybody asking. (With no ACK I mean I don't know if they have stored it or not, beeing on BITNET only) Package includes: Turbo Source to UUdecode HGCIBM.ARC SIMCGA.ARC XARC.COM TEK.ARC so anybody can extract it. el ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16-Mar-87 17:39:10 est From: David Farber <farber@UDEL.EDU> Subject: Some additions to the knet specs To: info-ibmpc%c.isi.edu@UDEL.EDU cdp!caulkins writes: One change to the knet specs: The version you have (9.03 with solid state nodes) will support up to 15 users. Actually the electrical properties will support 30 or more, but traffic and contention put the limit at the lower number. The actual limit is, of course, situation and user-patience dependent. Dave C ------------------------------ From: <kubitron@ATHENA.MIT.EDU> To: INFO-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU Subject: COM3 and COM4 Date: Tue, 17 Mar 87 18:46:57 EST If there are no standard port addresses for COM3 and COM4, how does software such as BITCOM recognize modems attached to these ports? I have a modem which is jumper selected to COM3 (to avoid conflicts). Although BITCOM has no trouble dealing with it, the port address for COM3 is NOT stored at 40:4-5 as would be expected. These locations contain a zero word. There must be some standard method of locating the addresses of COM3 and COM4. Too many software packages accept any of 4 serial ports, and too many hardware cards allow jumper selection of 4 logical serial addresses. What's the scoop?!? ---KUBI--- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Mar 87 23:03:59 EST From: Psych Bitnet Files <YFPY0071%YORKVM1.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu> Subject: APL Character ROM - Logo incompatibility To: IBM PC Digest <INFO-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU> I have a peculiar problem of incompatibility between STSC APL and IBM Logo: To get APL characters with the CGA, STSC supplies a replacement character generator ROM for the chip on the CGA. The current release of STSC APL will work without the chip, but with a loss of some 'features' like full screen editing & screen buffer. I also use IBM Logo (from Logo Computer Systems Inc), and when I installed the APL chip, Logo prints the first line or so of its sign-on display and causes my machine to hang, requiring cold boot. I have querried IBM, STSC, and LCSI about the problem, to no avail. LCSI maintains that they are not doing anything funny like looking for an IBM copyright in the ROM, but the guy who wrote the IBM version is no longer there, so they are not sure. STSC tech support can't think of any reason why Logo should crash, etc. I have tried running Logo under debug, but it was not enlightening. Can anyone think of a way to try to pinpoint the problem? Or a better debugging package (pref. PD)? Final note: I've heard that a Montreal company sells a little board called Double ROM that plugs into the ROM socket on the CGA and offers software selection of the character generator chips between APL & IBM-ascii. Has anyone tried this? Does it work as advertised? If there are replies of general interest, I will summarize them to the list. -- Michael Friendly Psychology Computer Coordinator ------------------------------ Date: 16-Mar-1987 1134 From: waters%mosaic.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM To: info-ibmpc@c.isi.edu, stone@sumex-aim.stanford.edu Subject: VAXmate Design When the VAXmate was announced, I sent a detailed description to INFO-IBMPC digest. Unfortunately, the editor (I don't remember who) insisted that it was a DEC Rainbow Compatible PC and therefore, the information should be in a Rainbow Digest. I just couldn't get the point across that the VAXmate is an IBM PC/AT compatible system. As for the VAXmate design, everything was done in-house. No outside help was solicited for the BIOS or any of the software. The VAXmate BIOS has a number of extended features for buffered communications support, ethernet support, and more. The DEC release of MS-DOS 3.10 has a number of bug fixes over the IBM release of MS-DOS. In addition, it supports multiple DOS partitions on a single hard disk (up to four 32Mb partitions on each 128Mb hard disk installed). The best part about the VAXmate is the built in Ethernet and the connectivity to a VAX/VMS system via MS-NET/DECnet. Files can be transparently shared with a VMS system as if the file were on your local hard disk. Lester Waters Digital Equipment Corporation Personal Computing Systems Group WATERS%MOSAIC.DEC@DECWRL.COM (Arpa) ...!decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-mosaic!waters (UUCP) ------------------------------ Date: 18 Mar 87 16:18:24 GMT From: hplabs!rutgers!uw-beaver!dataio.Data-IO.COM!weil@cae780 (Steve Weil) To: uw-entropy!uw-beaver!rutgers!hplabs!cae780!tekgvs!ericf@uw-entropy Subject: Logic design development tools > Can someone recommend any logic design/reduction/development tools for > the IBM PC? Eric, Data I/O - FutureNet has just released a second generation logic synthesis tool called Dash-Gates. It is built on the ABEL(tm) syntax but adds a great many new features. I will list a few of them here, but suggest you contact a sales engineer for more details and literature. Device independant design (you don't need to specify a device until you are ready to generate a fusemap. Interactive, screen-oriented package. No long edit-complile loop. Designs may be partitioned into multiple PLDs. Uses the ESPRESSO reduction algorithm for smaller circuit size. New syntax for specifying don't care information, reduction now uses this information. Completely new state machine algorithm handles synchronous outputs correctly. Also allows don't cares in state values for smaller state machines. Factoring algorithm, breaks logic into multiple levels suitable for gate arrays or discrete gates. Dash schematics of final design automatically generated. New event-driven simulator simulates feedback properly. Simulates equations (not fuses) so design may be checked before reduction or partitioning. Steve Weil Data I/O - FutureNet (206) 881-6444 x569 uw-entropy!dataio!weil ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 Mar 87 21:28:42 est From: bloch-gilles@YALE.ARPA Subject: Graphics Editor for EGA Wanted To: info-ibmpc@b.isi.edu I am working on buiding a system where the PC 1- is interfaced with several videodics 2- can overlay text and graphics on the video 3- can store and playback digitilized voices I have experience with all this except for the digitilized voice. I would like to find a graphics editor for the EGA, where I can very simply print a file on the screen from the C language (also how to get the IBM Seminar papers mentioned in a previous digest about the EGA card). Thanx, gilles ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1987 09:01 CST To: <INFO-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU> From: Dave Benson <C09800DB@WUVMD> Subject: AT Clone Query Doe anyone have information or experience with an AT Clone named JS286? I understand it is made in California. I have not seen anything about it, but a local vendor is supporting it. Has it been written up anywhere? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Mar 87 16:52 IST From: Amir Prat <C44%TAUNIVM.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu> Subject: Blossom software required To: ibm pc info bulletin <INFO-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU> I just got a letter from 'DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES' announcing a new version of BLOSSOM statistical programs for use with Lotus 1-2-3. The letter says that the software is found on several bulletin boards. I tried to locate it in several but could not find it. I know it is found in the NIH central computer. I will appriciate any help finding the BLOSSOM, or if someone has allready got it one can send it over. Thank you Amir Prat bitnet : c44@taunivm ------------------------------ Date: Mon 16 Mar 87 12:45:34-PST From: Ivan Auger <LAWRENCE.Auger@BIONET-20.ARPA> Subject: 286 accelerator cards and AST RAMPAGE card problem To: info-ibmpc@C.ISI.EDU I have been unable to make AST's REMM.SYS driver to work with either an Orchid Turbo EGA card or a 286 Express (PC Technologies) card. I keep on getting a parity error message. I have taken all the precautionary measure such as making the RAMPAGE start at 640KB, disabling the cache, etc... The funny thing is that AST's INSTALL program does detect the RAMPAGE card, and it finds that it has 2meg on it. Has anybody encountered this problem ? (I'm using V6.2 of the AST Superpak Utility, the version of REMM.SYS is 3.1, PC-DOS 3.1 and an IBM PC-XT). Ivan Auger (518)473-3382 lawrence.auger@bionet-20.arpa and/or augeri@csv.rpi.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1987 08:38 CET To: <INFO-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU> From: Karl Keyte Subject: Clock rate compatibitily Query Is anyone aware of any of the major IBM PC software products (compilers, text processing systems, etc..) having requirements to run at a particular clock frequency? Karl ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 Mar 87 15:18:02 PST From: Dixon_Low%SFU.Mailnet@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA Subject: Problem with old hard disk This is regarding my last question about trying to install an old IBM XT hard drive ( 10 meg. Miniscribe II from a real IBM XT ). I might have given an incorrect model number on the controller or maybe was just unclear. The disk drive did not come with any controller, and I would like to run it using my Western Digital floppy / hard drive controller card that is in the AT compatible. The controller is a 16 bit type, for the AT only. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Mar 87 16:05 O From: "Gershon Kunin" <P82041%BARILAN.BITNET@BERKELEY.EDU> To: INFO-IBMPC@c.isi.edu Subject: MIRRORS/PC Query I just saw an ad for a program called MIRRORS/PC from a company called MASTERSOFT. This program is supposed to convert files from the format of one word processor to another. Examples of supported formats are Wordstar, Wordstar 2000, Volkswriter, Word Perfect and Display Write III. In addition, ASCII-EBCDIC conversion is also supported. Does anyone have any experience with this or other such software? Before shelling out $150, I'd like to hear that it works as advertised. Gershon Kunin Bitnet: P82041@BARILAN ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Mar 87 14:01:00 cst From: cody@anl-mcs.ARPA (Jim Cody) To: INFO-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU Subject: Hard disk upgrade for AT&T 6300+ Query Can anyone tell me about non-AT&T hard disk upgrades for the 6300+ when used with Unix? Am now using an Olivetti 20Mb disk. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Mar 87 20:14:31 EST From: Dean Carpenter <ST701979%BROWNVM.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu> To: Info IBMPC <INFO-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU> Subject: JRAM Problems Just an update on that problem I was (still am) having with the older 512K JRAM cards. I have since tried them in several other systems, and all exhibit the same symptoms. That is, after about 5-10 minutes of use, the ramdisk suddenly develops disk read errors and suchlike. The oddest of these suchlikes is that the files on the ramdisk become corrupted ... By corrupted I mean that when comparing a good file from the hard disk to a copy on the ramdisk, 9E hex has been changed to 9F hex, etc etc. Only certain bits are being munged, but they seem to vary with individual poweron cycles. I think something must have somehow fried my system - now I am having trouble rebooting the thing. Admittedly now I'm not using the *EXCELLENT* JBOOT software for the JRAM cards that also traps the NMI interrupt and provides a few other services. But still, it`s weird after running one program in vanilla DOS pressing C-A-D and hanging the system badly enough to need the Big Red Switch. Even the NMI button on the card that came with my copy of the IBM Professional Debug Facility has no effect. Well, sorry about the rambling, but this has stumped everyone I can tell about it, (that's a lot). Guess I'll be spending my $40 to have Tall Trees look at the boards and call me to say that they aren't even any good as paperweights. Dean Carpenter ST701979 at BROWNVM.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Mar 87 14:48 EST To: INFO-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU From: UEG101%URIMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu Subject: Problem with Hard Disk a quick question for those experienced with odd-ball upgrades.. one of the depts. here at URI purchased an XT hard drive and controler from good oled IBM to put in a vanilla PC. The PC, of course, did not have enough power to support the drive, so they purchased a 130W power supply. This was of no help. Is it impossible to use an XT controler with a PC, even if the power supply is adequate? Thanks in advance. Paul R. Zonfrillo Univeristy of Rhode Island, Administrative Computer Ctr. UEG101@urimvs (bitnet) ------------------------------ Date: 1987 Mar 18 22:27 EST From: Bob Babcock <PEPRBV%CFAAMP.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu> To: Info-IBMPC Digest <Info-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU> Subject: INT 24H Disk Error Query I would like to have a large C program I have written recover gracefully from disk errors on DOS function calls which would otherwise give the "abort, retry, ignore" message. I know how to intercept INT 24H, but this sort of error will probably happen in a library routine rather than my code. Thus, the error handler doesn't know exactly what operation is in progress, and the library routine doesn't know that the error is being intercepted. I would like to be able to do something like return to a top level menu, at least without leaving any open files, and ideally without losing track of any allocated core. Is this possible without modifying the library (I do have source code, but I prefer not to touch it). My C compiler is Computer Innovations C86, but I think the problem is generic. ------------------------------ End of Info-IBMPC Digest ************************ -------