Info-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU (Info-IBMPC Digest) (08/23/86)
Info-IBMPC Digest Friday, August 22, 1986 Volume 5 : Issue 78 This Week's Editor: Richard Gillmann Today's Topics: UULINK (3 msgs) Wire Wrap Boards (2 msgs) Display-Write File Recovery DSI-0 Board Conversion from Basic to ASCII Lotus 123-1A EGA Driver Available 3278/79 Cards and Structured Fields Basic and Dos 3.2 IBM Technical Reference Guide List Zenith Data Systems BBS Professional FORTRAN three-part-harmony.bas / shaped note hymn Golden Bow System's VCache 3Comm Networks Today's Queries: Small Agricultural Programs Wanted Zilog 8530 and X.25 Queries Foreign Language Fonts Wanted Turbo Pascal Compiler Limit Problem Turbo Pascal BBS Code Wanted Multi-Tasking Query Intermittent 1701 error Word Perfect 4.1 Problem EGA Screen Dump Wanted Disk Problems Problem with Hercules in a Compaq MSKERMIT query Why does IBM async hold up CD? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 23-Apr-86 21:23:49 PDT From: bcsaic!asymet!library@uw-june.arpa (mailing list readers) Subject: Lauren's MSDOS uucp To: uw-june!usc-isib.arpa!info-ibmpc@UNKNOWN!asymet I'm sending this mail from a PC/AT with Lauren's UUCP workalike (UULINK). I can't give a real review because we use such a small fraction of the program's functionality. I can tell you that it runs smoothly and without tinkering for polling one remote site and exchanging mail and (small amounts of!) Usenet news. This is more than can be said for some versions ATT distributed. Support: I have little data. After getting installation instructions I have had almost no occasion to ask Lauren anything. It took over a week to get hold of Lauren to ask about installation procedures, but Lauren tells me that my experience was exceptional. Anyone who would like to hear more should send me direct mail. Fred Wamsley bcsaic!asymet!fred@uw-june ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25-Apr-86 16:02:58 EDT From: David Farber <farber%pcpond.pc.udel.edu@Louie.UDEL.EDU> Subject: UULINK To: info-ibmpc%usc-isib.arpa@louie.udel.EDU In past Info-IBMPC Digests there has been reference to Lauren Weinstein's UULINK package. I have been using it for the past 3+ months from my AT at home. It works in my environment into a MMDF channel on one of the Udel systems and then onto the internet. To say I have been pleased with it is an understatment. It allows me to survive the combined world of the VAX and DOS. I run it in background under Desqview with some accessories my son put together to notify me in forground when mail has arrived. Its all real fun. I have tried uulink on the HP Vectra, the Toshiba T1100 etc and it works just fine there also. Dave ------------------------------ Date: 20 Aug 1986 13:41:12 PDT Subject: UULINK Information From: Billy <BRACKENRIDGE@B.ISI.EDU> (and GILLMANN@B.ISI.EDU) Lauren Weinstein's UUCP program for PCs is available as a commercial product. It's called UULINK(tm) and allows you to put your PC on Usenet using the UUCP protocol. For details, contact Lauren Weinstein at Vortex Technology, (213) 390-3920. Please don't use the net to make inquiries about this product. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Aug 86 14:26 EDT From: Shoots.wbst@Xerox.COM Subject: Wire Wrap Board Query To: INFO-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU Where can I buy PC/XT compatible, full length wire wrap boards? (I already know about I.B.M.'s boards, and have seen boards from JDR Microdevices, San Jose, CA. These are both basically "perf" boards, with no wire wrap pins in them.) I would like to find some boards which have been staked with wire wrap pins 0.1" apart, in columns spaced 0.3" apart, or something similar. Thanks, Jim Shoots ------------------------------ Date: 20 Aug 1986 12:47:31 PDT Subject: Re: Wire Wrap Boards From: Billy <BRACKENRIDGE@B.ISI.EDU> To: Shoots.wbst@XEROX.COM cc: info-ibmpc@B.ISI.EDU I bought wire-wrap prototype boards from Priority One Electronics in Chatsworth (although they have other So. Cal. branches). Of course the wire wrap pins are on the sockets not on the board. Priority One has a selection of sockets in various pin lengths as well as pre cut and color coded wires etc. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 86 18:22:57 edt From: Mike Ciaraldi <ciaraldi@rochester.arpa> To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa Subject: Display-Write File Recovery Thanks to the various people who sent me answers to my recent query about DW3 file recovery. Most suggested using the "recover" command, which did not work in this case, but which they report worked fine for them. I came up with a partial solution, which I offer here. I tried poking around in the disk file (which DW3 rejected with the message "Disk Error") with a disk editor, the Ultra Utilities. I found nothing recognizable. So, I sent the file up to a Unix (tm) system using Kermit, and ran it through the "tr" and "dd" programs. First I converted EBCDIC to ASCII. Looking at the file I saw chunks of text separated by garbage. Then I converted all control characters except CR and LF to asterisks. I downloaded the resulting file to the PC using Kermit again. Then I started up DW3 with a new blank document and used the "Get ASCII" command to import an ASCII text file. I could now manipulate the file with DW3. I did the "Repage" command, and discovered that the last several pages were total gibberish. I deleted those, and wound up with a 30-page document, presentable except for the interspersed blocks of asterisks and garbage characters. I was prepared to chop those out, when I realized that the blocks of text broke at arbitrary places (middle of sentences, middle of words, even), and that they were not in the same order as the original document! At last the light dawned! I was actually looking at what might be parts of several files, interspersed. I mentioned this to someone else, who said he had heard that DW3 manipulates the FAT (File Access Table) and directory on the disk DIRECTLY. If the program was interrupted abnormally, it might leave all your files in an inconsistent state (actually, this is possible with any program, but only if you do something like turning off the machine while the program is still running, so DOS doesn't have the chance to tidy things up, as it does when exiting a program nurmally). DW3's direct manipulations run the risk of causing much greater damage, since i it might manipulate several files without writing the FAT and directory info back to the disk. The clincher was when I mentioned to the lady who originally brought the problem to me, "You didn't turn off the computer while DisplayWrite was running, did you?", and she replied, "Maybe THAT's what I did..." The upshot of the whole thing is that some of the information on the disk was recoverable, which is good news for some people, I suppose. The moral is that all users should be instructed to: 1) Make backup copies of all important files, and 2) Exit all programs normally, returning to the DOS "A>" prompt before removing a disk and/or powering down. Hope this helps someone! Mike Ciaraldi ciaraldi@rochester seismo!rochester!ciaraldi ------------------------------ Date: 18 Aug 86 00:21:00 EDT From: DAVE THOMAS <DAVE_THOMAS%CARLETON.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU> To: <info-ibmpc@isi.ARPA> Subject: DSI-0 Board For those interested , we have purchased a couple of the DSI-020 boards as described in Byte July/August 86 We bought the 12.5Mhz versions with 1MB. They have a DSI-780 {(20mhz and 4MB) for Sept! We bought the SVS Pascal and C compilers. I plugged the board into my old Zenith 150 and up it came! It made my old PC useable as a 68K development system. The Pascal compiler(very standard a la ISO) loads and compiles just like Turbo. Everything we have tried works great. The board has a few jumpers, but looks very well done. They provide great support via Bix(Dsi.32bit). ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 86 17:25:52 EDT From: Edward_Vielmetti%UMich-MTS.Mailnet@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA, deba%umdc.bitnet@MITVMA.BITNET Subject: Re: Conversion from Basic to ASCII There is a program written by Vern Buerg called "Readbas" that takes a tokenized BASIC file and spits out a reuglar ASCII file. This is what you want, I think. How to get it to you? I don't have sources, so I can't post to Info-IBMPC, but it is available on the following public bulletin boards: wipcus bbs 'readbas.arc' (313) 663-1835 vor rbbs 'readbas.lbr' (415) 994-2944 (the author's bbs) The first one is in Michigan (Ann Arbor), the other is in California. If anyone is interested in putting these binaries in a place where they are accessable via anonymous FTP, contact me and I will FTP files to you. Edward Vielmetti, Computing Center Microgroup, University of Michigan arpa: emv%UMich-MTS.Mailnet@MIT-Multics.ARPA uucp: ihnp4!umich!umix!emv new-style: emv@umich.cc.umich.edu emv@umix.cc.umich.edu or on Mike Myers' m-net public access unix, (313) 994-6333 ------------------------------ Date: 19 August 86 10:18 EDT From: T7Y%CORNELLC.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU Subject: Lotus 123-1A EGA Driver Available To: INFO-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU Check out the Boston Computer Society BBS (area code 617 237-3750). Enter the File Section and then File Area 16 - Spreadsheets. In a few days there should be a file named 123EGA.ARC in that directory. 123EGA.ARC contains the screen drivers that 1-2-3 v1a needs for EGA use along with a batch file that will load them onto your disk(s). You will also need a copy of ARC51.EXE to decode the file (should also be available on the BBS). Tom Abdella Tufts University ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Aug 86 17:11 EDT Subject: Re: 3278/79 Cards and Structured Fields From: Michael_Evans_S-E-Banken%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA To: Info-IBMPC Digest <Info-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU> > I would like to transfer data to and from an IBM mainframe using the > IBM 3278/79 card and 'OEM data' structured fields. > Unfortunately, neither of the available programming interfaces > supports this. Doe anyone know how to program the card directly to > send and receive this types of structure fields? I cannot say exactly how you can do this but can maybe supply some pointers. As far as I know their are two requirements for a PC to process structured fields: 1) The port on the 3274 controller must be defined as a DFT (? Distributed Function Terminal) port. The controller then allows more of the SNA session (eg the structured fields) through to terminal than it would for a vanilla 3278/9. 2) The 3278/9 card/driver must be able to take care of all this extra information. I am not sure whether the old IBM 3278/9 card could do this but the IBM card combined with the PC-3270 software which was announced on April 2 definitely CAN support a DFT connection (at least at some point in the future when the right software is delivered). The expensive 3270-PC can use structured fields (with release 2 or later of the control program). Therefore it would seem to be possible. I do not remember if this uses the same 3278/9 card as the above. I would suggest that you get as much information as possible about the 3270 products in the April 2 announcement as see what fits your configuration. ------------------------------ Date: Wed 20 Aug 86 16:20:25-EDT From: David.Zubrow <David.Zubrow@C.CS.CMU.EDU> Subject: Basic and Dos 3.2 To: info-ibmpc@B.ISI.EDU I recently installed Dos 3.2 on a new AT and also copied the Basic interpreters onto my system. Now whenever I run Basic, it starts filling the screen with an endless stream of a seemingly arbitrarily chosen character. Hitting 'break' stops the character output and basic seems to run properly from then on. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this problem? Thanks in advance, Dave Zubrow ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1986 15:39 EDT From: Ben Yalow <YBMCU%CUNYVM.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU> Subject: Re: IBM Technical Reference Guide List To: Deba Patnaik <DEBA%UMDC.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU> cc: <info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa> The best bet for getting a list of all the PC technical reference stuff is an IBM booklet called the IBM Technical Directory Vol II. It contains a list of all the books/reference materials that you can get from IBM, along with their prices. The date on mine is 4/86. The book says you can get more copies of the Technical Directory by writing or calling IBM at: IBM Technical Directory PO Box 2009 Racine, WI 53404 1-800-426-7282 They say you should allow 1-2 weeks for delivery on call-in orders, 2-4 weeks for mail-in. (This is only for the stuff you buy from them; it doesn't include the PC Seminar proceedings) ------------------------------ Date: 21-Aug-1986 0246 From: fulton%donner.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM (Cathy Fulton -- CXO Technical Training) To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.ARPA, fulton%donner.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM Subject: Zenith Data Systems BBS I have available the entire contents of the Zenith Data Systems Bulletin Board System. The ZDS BBS has a wealth of information not only specific to users of ZDS products, but also for users of MS-DOS and applications in general. There is a lot of information on both software and hardware topics such as compatibility, performance, and specific operational problems. There is a large history of questions and answers; many of the answers are very detailed and often provide code patches and solutions. The information in the ZDS BBS is freely available: when you log in, you are not even asked to provide a name or password. The reason I am offering the contents of the BBS is that it is very large and therefore requires a substantial amount of download time. I have the contents of the BBS available in uuencoded, ARCed form. In this form, the BBS comprises about 385K. I have split this 385K into 6 files, none of which is greater than 64K. If anyone is interested in receiving this, please send mail. - Cathy uucp: ...decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-comet!fulton ARPA: fulton%comet.DEC@decwrl ------------------------------ Date: 20 August 86 08:59-PST From: DEP%SLACVM.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA Subject: Professional FORTRAN This is in response to Mark Callaghan at the University of Western Australia, concerning his complaint about bugs in IBM's Professional FORTRAN. If his institution has a volume purchase agreement with IBM, his designated "technical representative" may obtain all current updates to PC products. I know, becuase I have, in fact, obtained updates to the professional FORTRAN for SLAC. I don't what he can do about getting these updates otherwise. It's hard to believe that a bona fide purchaser doesn't have some way to obtain these. ------------------------------ From: ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) Subject: three-part-harmony.bas / shaped note hymn Date: 24 Jul 86 02:01:41 GMT Most microcomputers are doomed to spend their lives in mundane pursuits, if not as instruments of outright anti-culture, e.g. spread-sheets, data-bases, pac-man, global-thermonuclear-war etc. This doesn't mean they can't be put to better use; every PC, AT etc. out there in the land has a voice which, while uninteresting in itself, becomes interesting in combination with others of its kind, much like recorders (the antique flute variety). Not surprisingly, recorder duets and trios sound quite good on two or three PCs. Using Basica or GW Basic insures that the PCs involved don't even have to be running at the same MHZ rating; basic goes by the system clock. The following are two soprano (or soprano and tenor, your choice) lines and a bass line for "Babylon is Falling", my pick of the so-called "shaped note" hymns from colonial days in America, when itinerant singing masters went from town to town teaching singing classes for a month or so at inns, schools etc., using a system of shaped notes in which notes of different duration were represented as different geometric shapes. Simply cut out the three segments of basic "play" statements, read each into a seperate PC, have three people each hit F2 at the same time, and enjoy. If you want to really get serious about it, you might try a slightly deeper speaker on the PC with the bass line. 10 PLAY "l4 o4 g g b g8 b8 >c8 <a8>d d d <g g b8 a8 g b b8 a8 b2 20 PLAY "g g b g8 b8 >c8 <a8 >d d d <g g b8 a8 g b b8 a8 b2 30 PLAY "b. a8 g g >c <b b g b. a8 g g >c <b b2 40 PLAY "l8 g. g16 g g b4 b g >c <a a a >d4 <a4 g. g16 g g b4 g b b4 b a b2 50 PLAY "l8 g. g16 g g b4 b g >c <a a a >d4 <a4 g. g16 g g b4 g b b4 b a b2 100 PLAY "o4 l4 b b g8 f+8e a a8 f+8 g a b b g8 f+8 e8 g8 f+ f+ e2 110 PLAY "o4 l4 b b g8 f+8e a a8 f+8 g a b b g8 f+8 e8 g8 f+ f+ e2 120 PLAY " b. >c8 d8 <b8 >d e f+ e8 d8 <b b. >c8 d8 <b8 >d e f+ e2 130 PLAY "<B8. B16 B8 B8 L8 G4 G E A4 A F+ G4 A4 B. B16 B B G4 E G F+4 F+4 e2 135 PLAY "B8. B16 B8 B8 L8 G4 G E A4 A F+ G4 A4 B. B16 B B G4 E G F+4 F+4 e2 200 PLAY "l4 o4 e e <b >e d d <b >d g e e e <b b >e2 210 PLAY "l4 o4 e e <b >e d d <b >d g e e e <b b >e2 220 PLAY " G. A8 B G E <B >E E G. A8 B G E <B >E2 230 PLAY "e8. e16 e8 e8 <b > e8 e8 d d8 c8 <b >d e8. e18 e8 e8 e e8 e8 <b b >e2 235 PLAY "e8. e16 e8 e8 <b > e8 e8 d d8 c8 <b >d e8. e18 e8 e8 e e8 e8 <b b >e2 ------------------------------ From: connery@bnrmtv.UUCP (Glenn Connery) Subject: Golden Bow System's VCache Date: 18 Aug 86 19:26:55 GMT Just a couple of days ago I received the above disk caching software and have been running it on my PC/AT. This is a write-through disk cacher which can utilize regular memory, LIM/EMS expanded memory or PC/AT extended memory for the cache. I have an AST Advantage board with 1.5M on it. After rounding out the regular memory to 640K, this leaves me with 1408K to play with. Allocating the entire thing to a disk cache instead of to the DOS VDisk seems like the best idea from the few tests I've done. You avoid all of the special case code in synonyms and batch files, shorten your autoexec file, and avoid having to run special load batch files to load say your microsoft c compiler, libraries and include files onto ram disk. It won't be quite as fast the first time you try something, but upon subsequent uses it appears to be just a little more efficient than VDISK. Plus you get the benefit of caching of data files as well. Currently I have the system set up for 1M of VCache and 384K of VDISK, which I use just for the TMP files created by the various passes of the Microsoft C compiler. This seems to be a marginal trade off, but pays off a little for large compiles. For those of you who are interested it has sped up my whole system quite noticably, except for the compile time on Microsoft "C", which hasn't changed much, i.e. it's still abominably slow. Anyway, at this point I strongly recommend the product for those with LIM or extended memory boards. Its available from Golden Bow Systems, P.O. Box 3039, San Diego, California 92103, (619)298-9349 for $80.00 +TAX +S&H. Glenn Connery, Bell Northern Research, Mountain View, CA {hplabs,amdahl,3comvax}!bnrmtv!connery ------------------------------ Date: 22 Aug 1986 14:33:52 PDT Subject: 3Comm Networks From: Billy <BRACKENRIDGE@B.ISI.EDU> To: info-ibmpc@B.ISI.EDU cc: lotto@HARVARD.HARVARD.EDU I thought I'd add my two cents to Gerald Lotto's network survey. We run both 3Comm Ethershare and 3+ software here at USC/ISI. As was pointed out in the earlier message 3+ code uses the Microsoft redirector and IBM netbios interface spec to provide a file system. The earlier Ethershare code just emulated remote disks at the BIOS level. The remote disk emulation was difficult from a systems operation standpoint in that we had to completely back up all disks every week even if only one file changed. Now with the new file system we back up only the files that have been changed. We have several applications which use Dbase and we would like to make them accessible to multiple users. 3+ implements the DOS 3 file locking features which makes this all possible. Performance has improved although that was never much of a problem as our PC applications aren't particularly disk intensive. The bad news is that 3+ is a memory pig. My operating system takes more than 260K now. The SUN network file system provides the same functionality as the 3Comm code in about 100K less code. Also 3Comm masks off interrupts for longer than a 9600 baud character time. As all the PCs in the institute are used as terminal emulators to talk to time sharing systems this rules out using 3Comm 3+ for all but experimental purposes. The new code also appears less robust than the older ethershare code. Our ethernet has a lot of traffic on it and sometimes things get completely out of hand. In these situations the old ethershare code would indicate a disk error code and I would pound on the R for "retry" key until my file got read or written. The 3+ code either gives up or locks up in those situations. Since I got a new ethernet transceiver this problem has disappeared, but the point remains that the newer code is not as robust as the older simpler code in the presence of net errors. I have been able to communicate these problems to 3Comm. Their customer service is a little bizarre in that they have an automated telephone routing system, but it works. Networks are complicated beasts, and given the size of the task they are doing a pretty good job answering telephone problems and complaints. We also have the SUN network file system on order and I will send in my comments on that system after we have a chance to try it. We also run the MIT IP/TCP code which works fine with both versions of the 3Comm software. One can not access the remote file system while running the MIT code, but as I have a large JRAM disk this isn't a problem. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 18 Aug 86 16:14 N From: <INNO%HWALHW5.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU> Subject: Small Agricultural Programs Wanted To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa I am interested in programs made for small projects in developing countries. These programs might be applications written for a standard package like Multiplan or Dbase, but also programs written in Basic Fortran etc. are very welcome. My main interest is small scale agricultural projects where a Personal Computer is used for administration and calculations (statistical), but other applications are also very welcome. My adress is INNO@HWALHW5.EARN My own name is Gert Lokhorst. ------------------------------ Date: Mon 18 Aug 86 21:38:35-EDT From: Drew D. Perkins <DP4Q@TE.CC.CMU.EDU> Subject: Zilog 8530 and X.25 Queries To: tcp-ip@SRI-NIC.ARPA, info-ibmpc@B.ISI.EDU I'm looking for a card for IBM PC's that supports syncronous/sdlc/hdlc communications up to 64kb. What I have in mind should hopefully have a Zilog SCC (8530) chip, interrupt capability, and fullduplex transmit and receive DMA capability. An onboard processor would be nice but not required. The intended application is running TCP/IP over the line. I'm currently using the Tangent Technologies PC MacBridge card which satisfies all requirements but the transmit dma capability. If anyone knows of another card, PLEASE let me know, I'm getting desperate! Also, if anyone knows of any public domain X.25 LAPB code, I'd also like to hear about it. Preferably written in C. I'd like to provide flow control and error recovery on the 64kb link without reinventing the wheel. Thanks, Drew ------------------------------ Date: 18 Aug 1986 22:18-EDT Subject: Foreign Language Fonts Wanted From: ABN.ISCAMS@D.ISI.EDU To: INFO-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU Can anyone point me to public domain source for drivers, fonts, and/or example code (Pascal, Assembler, C, in order of preference) for keyboard, screen, and/or printer for the foreign languages Greek and Arabic? I've got it in Hebrew, but don't have the heart to draw all them new characters! Also, is there a "standard" ASCII table for Greek and Arabic alphabets? I'm gonna crib the keyboard format from foreign typewriters, but need to program in English. Nope, contacting my friendly IBM service representative didn't help here .. seems these are available in foreign countries, but NOT sold or listed in this country (the US). Thanks in advance, David Kirschbaum Toad Hall ------------------------------ To: info-ibmpc@b.isi.edu Subject: Turbo Pascal Compiler Limit Problem Date: Mon, 18 Aug 86 21:11:56 -0800 From: Alastair Milne <milne@ICSE.UCI.EDU> I have just encountered a rather odd situation which leads me to ask for the experiences of the net. The compilation of a 5000-7000 line program was ceasing with an error 98, which, according to the manual, means there is no more variable space available: presumably, as much has been allocated to the DS segment as it can hold. The problem is that the error was occurring in the middle of executable code. I thought it might be allocating a temporary that was going over the limit, but that wasn't it; besides, doesn't Turbo allocate temporaries in the stack segment, not the data? The problem was relieved by making some of the larger procedures into overlays. It was *not* relieved by cutting down the capacities of a large number of string variables (therefore allocation of temporaries could hardly be the problem). Now the question: error 98, on the face of it, should refer only to allocated data. Is it also in fact used for code segment overflows? I don't mean a compiler overflow: this occurs when the symbol table gets too large. I mean actually using up the entire 64K of space in CS. This would be a disappointing ambiguity of messages; but then, Turbo's error reporting capacity has always been very weak. Thanks in advance to anybody who can answer. Alastair Milne PS. The machine was an IBM AT, with loads of memory and hard disc space. The Turbo version was 3. I don't know the precise subversion. ------------------------------ Date: 19 Aug 1986 22:16-EDT Subject: Turbo Pascal BBS Code Wanted From: ABN.ISCAMS@D.ISI.EDU To: info-ibmpc@B.ISI.EDU Has anyone converted one of the Turbo Pascal RBBS programs to run on a PC compatible? I've downloaded the Turbo BBS from DEC-MARLBORO, but don't have the strength to convert all the Rainbow-specific stuff! No, I'm not interested in BASIC or .EXE code ... Turbo Pascal source only. Thanks in advance, David Kirschbaum Toad Hall ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Aug 86 19:12 EDT From: Ya'akov_Miles%UBC.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Subject: Multi-Tasking Query To: info-ibmpc@B.ISI.EDU We at TRIUMF are conducting a search for a suitable multi-tasking real-time operating system to run on our IBM-PCs and IBM-PC/ATs I have heard rumours that MS-DOS version 4 has already been released in Europe, and that it supports multi-tasking. I have also heard rumours that MS-DOS version 5 will support the virtual (protected) addressing on the IBM-PC/AT. Could anyone provide suitable details as to future releases of DOS: o Real-time response to an interrupt? o Context-switch time? o Virtual (protected) memory mode used on IBM-PC/AT? o Network support? ID=TRYN%UBC.MAILNET@MITS-MULTICS [Any issue of PC Week will provide you with a generous supply of multi-tasking DOS rumors. -rag] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Aug 86 12:35:18 PDT From: Bill_Krane%SFU.Mailnet@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA To: INFO-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU Subject: Intermittent 1701 error I have a Sysdyne 10 meg hard disk in an old PC-1 with an XT clone power supply (150 watts). The disk has worked flawlessly for almost a year now but lately I've been getting a 1701 error message intermittently from a cold boot. I've had the controller replaced (under warranty) and the power supply checked out. Some further investigation showed that occasionally the disk does not spin on power-up (hence the 1701). This behavior seems to occur at random and otherwise it functions normally. Has anyone had a similar experience with this type of drive? Any suggestions about what the problem might be? I'm starting to get a little anxious since my warranty runs out in a week or so. Please reply directly to me as follows and thanks in advance: Krane%SFU.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA ------------------------------ To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.ARPA Subject: Word Perfect 4.1 Problem Date: Wed, 20 Aug 86 20:53:17 -0500 From: Mark H. Granoff <mhg@mitre-bedford.ARPA> I think I have found a bug in Word Perfect 4.1, but I would like to know if any one else has had a similiar problem: My document is 20 pages in length. After doing a word count (and having started at the top), I tried to go back to the top. Typing [Home][Home][Up Arrow] caused a "Repositioning" message to be displyed and then a line of garbage characters to be displayed at the bottom of my screen, effectively hanging my system. (I also tried to page up one page at a time and after about 4 or 5 pages the same wonderful garbge appeared.) The only resident program in memory is Sidekick. Interestingly, although I can't get Word Perfect to respond to my keystrokes, they are buffered; if I then invoke SideKick, the keystrokes that I typed are picked up by SideKick. For example, typing 'C' and then calling SideKick, I get the calculator. I experienced this same problem when I had SideKick, CED (a memory resident command line editor), and SCRNBLNK (a screen blanking program). Having heard that SCRNBLNK sometimes causes problems, I immediately ejected it from my AUTOEXEC.BAT (leaving SK and CED). I find it hard to believe that CED or SK could cause contention; they don't with anthing else I run and I have not had this problem until this week. For completeness, I have an AT&T 6300 with a 20mb hard drive running MS-DOS 2.11. Any suggestions/ideas/fixes/prayers/etc?? Thanks in advance. Mark H. Granoff ARPA: mhg@mitre-bedford DDD : (617) 271-8438 ------------------------------ Date: 19 AUG 86 09:46-PST From: BEN%YMIR.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU To: Info-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU Subject: EGA Screen Dump Wanted I'm calling the Graphics Development Toolkit from IBM Pascal V2.0 to produce graphics on my EGA card. My problem has been creating a printer dump of what I see on the screen. I've tried using the printer drivers included with the GDT and had no luck. GRAPHICS.COM can only work with a CGA. Am I going to be forced to muck around in assembler, or is there a simple way to get the print out I would like? Ben Staat Math Dept., Harvey Mudd College bitnet==> ben @ ymir arpa====> engvax!ymir!ben@csvax.caltech.edu non-binary communication==> (714) 621-8006 ------------------------------ Date: 22 Aug 86 09:46 GMT From: ghicks @ KOREA-EMH Subject: Disk Problems To: Info-IBMPC @ USC-ISIB A friend of mine purchased a 20mbyte hard disk from LOGIC ARRAY in Costa Mesa recently. We (he ave the following problem: The DOS FORMAT command reports "Track 0 not fo unusable." The JOS REFORMAT command (from the Info-IBMPC Lib) reports "Incomp Boot Sector. Returning to DOS. FAT par- tially or wholly unusable." (Or something to that effect.) The disk drive in question is an NEC-D5126 20 meg drive with 4 heads and 2 disks. The contrroll is a DTC 5150CX controller. No Software was provided. Other than the following instructions, no documentation was provided: "to physically format the hard disk e following DEBUG: g=C800:5 (We type) Drive=1 (It says "Drive=", We say "1") Set interleave factor to 3 (Contained in the structions.) FDISK Select the DOS partition FORMAT c:/s/V Can't continue for the reason cited above. We formahe disk, ran FDISK (this showed 611 cylinders not the expected 612...), SYS'd the disk for the system, and then booted from the hard disk. Our questions are: 1) do we (he, not I. I have a 'good' hard disk) have a problem? 2) Should walone and hope for the best? Or should we try and fix the problem? 3) What does "track 0 not found. Disk unusable." mean? 4) If track 0 is unusable, why can we boot from the hard disk? How can the system appear to function with a mi? 5) Is there perhaps something we can do to fix the problem? What software should we use? Where can we get it? Your assistance in this matter will be appreciated. Gregory Hicks ------------------------------ Date: 1986 Aug 19 18:43 EST From: Bob Babcock <PEPMNT%HARVARDA.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU> To: <Info-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU> Subject: Problem with Hercules in a Compaq We recently tried to replace the video board in a Compaq portable with a Hercules monochrome graphics card (and external monitor). Unfortunately, the Compaq disk controller board and the Hercules boards both have parallel printer ports LPT1, and neither works with both boards in the system. Anyone out there know how to 1. Modify either the Hercules or Compaq boards to turn the port into LPT2 (Hercules will tell us how to disable the port). or 2. Have any recommendations for an alternate monochrome graphics board with either a serial or parallel port which can be strapped to be LPT2 or COM2? Thanks ------------------------------ Date: Thu 21 Aug 86 10:46:30-EDT From: Joseph M. Newcomer <Joe.Newcomer@c.cs.cmu.edu> Subject: MSKERMIT query To: info-ibmpc@b.isi.edu I can't seem to find a way to turn off the automatic-renaming of files when shipped via Kermit. I seem to be able to turn off the warning that they have been renamed, but not to turn off the renaming itself. I find this objectionable in the extreme. When I send a file to another PC or retrieve one, I expect to find it under the name I specified, not one concocted by Kermit as a "favor" to obviously stupid me who couldn't possibly have meant to supersede that file! I lost several hours debugging because Kermit kept renaming instead of replacing a file I was updating on one machine and sending to another. Does anyone know how to accomplish this short of making source changes and rebuilding Kermit? If not, does anyone have just a PC-DOS version of the source; I can't decrypt the two tons of stuff that comes from Columbia to find just the procedure for locating the PC-DOS sources and rebuilding them. [I tried to remail this to Info-Kermit@Columbia, where it belongs, but I get back that Info-Kermit is not a valid address. Does anyone know what became of the Info-Kermit mailing list? -rag] ------------------------------ Date: Fri 22 Aug 86 11:28:39-PDT From: Ted Shapin <BEC.SHAPIN@USC-ECL.ARPA> Subject: Why does IBM async hold up CD? To: info-ibmpc@B.ISI.EDU Using the IBM Async board and an external modem, when the system comes up, the carrier detect line is held on *from* the async board. Carrier detect is supposed to be a signal *from* the modem. Is this a defect in the design of the async board and how can I make CD depend upon the modem signal? I do not see this problem with async ports on other boards like the AST. Ted. ------------------------------ End of Info-IBMPC Digest ************************ -------