Info-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU (Info-IBMPC Digest) (07/10/86)
Info-IBMPC Digest Wednesday, July 9, 1986 Volume 5 : Issue 67 This Week's Editor: Eliot Moore <Elmo@B.ISI.EDU> Today's Topics: PC/PC Clone Recommendations INT 19h, BIOS Reboot Cheap "voice synthesizer" effect Binary File Transfers via Kermit Tall Tree JRAM AT3 boards Computer Discount Warehouse Information SNA 3270 Emulation, German Version Davong hard disk--use Golden Bow's FiXT Davong Fixed Disk and Dos 2.0 Epsilon Appletalk/Laserwriter/IBM/Mac nets Incompatibility: Compaq vs. Fastback Polynomial Factoring Hardcards: Intralink 2000 Combicard Extending RGB monitor PC-BLUE Vols 188-197 and new 000 available Leading Edge & Sperry Clock Utilities Xon/Xoff INT19 and drive C: (2 Messages) Disk Organizers (2 Messages) Today's Queries: Books on Autocad LCD display driver for PC Toshiba 1100 Storyboard Simula, TeX MS-DOS 5 CTTY troubles Tandy 3000 / MS Word / EGA Problems Returning to the dir a batch command was called from Printer Redirection Comm/LAN Adapters ATT 6300 Graphics Drivers Wanted DOS Input Character Buffering MODE Cytek Multi-C Tektronix Emulator ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 1 Jul 1986 20:32-EDT Subject: PC/PC Clone Recommendations From: ABN.ISCAMS@D.ISI.EDU Matthew inquired about recommendations, as he was planning to buy a PC or clone. I have nothing against his tentative selection (a Corona, I believe), but would recommend he keep one thing in mind I've found very important. I run a Gulfstream Micro .. an 80286 CPU (8MHz) with PC-DOS 3.1. The sheer processing speed has totally spoiled me! I absolutely HATE to work on anything less .. even the 8086 clones and fast boards don't match it. Now I'm a programmer .. I tend to get bitten less by "processor- sensitive timing loops". I don't have or need color or graphics, altho I suspect I'd have NO problems there .. compatibility is excellent. I hear the cries of those considering which add-on fast-CPU board (or V20/ V30/etc) to add, with boards still in the multi-hundreds of dollars, and incompatibility biting them left and right. If I were you, compadre, I would consider a system running as FAST as possible, with the FASTEST memory available (preferably expandable to the full 640 Kb on the mother board like my Gulfstream). I'd look at hard disks from access time as well as capacity .. surprising how you can get double or better the acess speed (as well as greater capacity) for a relatively small increase in price or just by looking around. I would NEVER work on a 4.77MHz system, only grudgingly at 6MHZ, and kinda envy the new 10MHz no wait state CPUs and mother boards coming out now. David Kirschbaum Toad Hall ABN.ISCAMS@USC-ISID.ARPA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 1 Jul 86 13:38:47 edt From: "Bennett E. Todd III" <ecsvax!bet%mcnc.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> Subject: INT 19h, BIOS Reboot >From: Jim Carter <jimc@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU> >[...] Does anyone know how to boot from c: (the hard disc) short of >an illegal jump to the absolute BIOS coldstart entry point [...] I am not sure what you mean by "illegal"; part of the formal definition of the Intel 8086 architecture specifies that at powerup the segmant registers will be initialized to all "1"s and the pointer registers will be all "0"s, so the official cold boot location is FFFF:0000. Legally. Jump there and you'll do a cold reboot. -Bennett -- Bennett Todd -- Duke Computation Center, Durham, NC 27706-7756; (919) 684-3695 UUCP: ...{decvax,seismo,philabs,ihnp4,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!duccpc!bet ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 1 Jul 86 13:50:16 edt From: D Gary Grady <ecsvax!dgary%mcnc.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> Subject: Cheap "voice synthesizer" effect Joe can get an inexpensive "computer voice" sound effect by using an old radio trick: Hold a pair of headphones tightly against your throat and run a buzzing sound through them. Then, taking care not use your own vocal cords, say whatever you want. This has been used to create "talking train whistle" and "talking guitar" effects for years. At one time I think there was even a patented system based on this, but I'm fairly sure the patent must have expired by now. -- D Gary Grady Duke U Comp Center, Durham, NC 27706 (919) 684-3695 USENET: {seismo,decvax,ihnp4,akgua,etc.}!mcnc!ecsvax!dgary ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Jul 86 07:26:37 cdt From: moore@ncsc.ARPA (Moore) Subject: Binary File Transfers via Kermit Walter (c/o Barry): I'm surprised you're having trouble transferring binary files with Kermit, a REAL nice (and free) communications program.... The Digest editor stuck a comment in your note referring to (perhaps) a bad communcation parameter. Enclosed are the parameters I use for transfers (binary and text) from a VAX 11/750 and 780 under UNIX 4.xbsd via MS-KERMIT v2.29: Baud 9600, Com1, no parity, local echo off, xon/xoff flow control, no hand- shake, ....., send pause time 0 ms, start-of-packet char ^A, send packet size 94, control char prefix #, EOL char ^M, block check using 1 char checksum,... Most of these settings are default. Running a STAT from the VAX Kermit shows: Line /dev/tty, speed -1, mode remote, modem-dialer direct, duplex full, flow xon/xoff, handshake none..... If this doesn't help feel free to write me directly. Aside from that (in regard to Kermit, anyway) I'd suggest contacting the distributors of Kermit, Columbia University, at INFO-KERMIT-REQUEST@CU20B. They are most curteous and helpful. Jim Moore NCSC Panama City FL ------------------------------ Date: Wed 2 Jul 86 12:33:39-PDT From: Bob Knight <KNIGHT@SRI-NIC.ARPA> Subject: Tall Tree JRAM AT3 boards Hi - well, I just finished a battle with these boards, and thought I might impart my experiences with them so that some other unfortunate doesn't fall into the same pits. I am integrating some ATs and decided to use the Tall Tree products, largely because of recommendations on this list. First of all, I was upgrading my AT, since I find that 2MB of memory just isn't enough for me. So, here's what I started with: IBM PC/AT, 9 Mhz, 512K motherboard Core Int'l 70 MB hard disk AST Preview card AST Advantage with 1.5 MB This system has been running this configuration for about 6 months with no problems. So, I get the JRAM boards along with an appropriate amount of Hitachi 150ns 256K RAMs. Being a do-it-yourselfer, I populate the JRAM board with 2MB and pull the Advantage card, installing the JRAM in its place. Things immediately don't work - the memory diagnostic gives unknown codes (at least the Tall Tree documentation doesn't list them) and things are generally wierd. MEMTEST points to all 8 banks being bad. So, I manage to clear some errors by RAM swapping, but things are still wierd. So, the next morning, I call Tall Tree. Tall Tree, in their documentation, say that they have recommended chips, and to call them for those recommendations. The person on the phone sez "Well, it should work at 9Mhz, what chips are you using?" I sez Hitachi. He sez, "tough luck, Charlie, we have found that Hitachis don't work in our boards" and then proceeds to list (in order of preference): Toshiba Fujitsu NEC OKI Micron Tech So, I get home and I have 5 banks of OKI memory and 1 bank of NEC memory in my Advantage card. Out goes the Hitachi (actually, into the Advantage goes the Hitachi), and in goes the 6 banks of approved memory. I plug the JRAM in and, lo and behold, I'm getting the same errors. Well, I did what I should have done in the first place - I dropped the clock speed to 8 Mhz. Voila! Everything works. So I then sez to myself "self, there can't be THAT much difference between RAM chips, can there?"...so I populate the remaining 512K on the JRAM board with Hitachis. Everything still works. So, I'm now happy as the proverbial pig - I got 704K DOS, JBOOT, JSPOOL, JDRIVE and all that happy stuff. And I'm a heck of a lot wiser when I see flakey memory problems on an AT. The bottom line is - use the recommended chips and don't push your clock speed. If you're gonna operate above 8 Mhz, you probably oughta go to 120ns RAMs. I'm not, since I have a substantial investment in 150ns parts. Bob ------------------------------ Subject: Computer Discount Warehouse Information Date: Wed, 02 Jul 86 15:48:10 -0500 From: Mark H. Granoff <mhg@mitre-bedford.ARPA> Since several people have asked, I figured that many people might be interested, so here's information on how to get in touch with the Computer Discount Warehouse. Address: 340 Anthony Trail Northbrook, IL 60062 Phone: 1-800-233-4426 In case you are interested in getting some piece of mind (and not just taking my word for how reliable they are), here are some more fun and exciting phone numbers: Illinois Better Business Bureau: (312) 444-1188 [between 10am and 2:30pm their time] Illinois Chamber of Commerce: (312) 580-6900 Good luck! Mark H. Granoff (mhg@mitre-bedford) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 02 Jul 86 22:43:57 MEZ From: UNM406%DBNRHRZ1.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA Subject: SNA 3270 Emulation, German Version SNA 3270 and RJE support ----- GERMAN language version We have an AT attached to an IBM 3081 via SNA 3270 emulation and RJE support ,version 1.01 , with german keyboard support. Unfortunately this language support produces quite a lot of confusion. 1. The program interchanges the two keys #^ and <> .This seems to be a relict from the older keyboard, where this two keys had different locations. 2. The programs interprets everything it sees in the new "language". It is sometimes rather difficult to read e.g. mail from the US , because exclamation marks are interpreted as (U with dots), and the ampersand comes out as a paragraph sign. Of course, writing may be even impossible without a key translation table. Does anybody have any experience with this stuff, or a better version, or an idea how to change the program ? Naturally, this should be easier for No.1, while No.2 seems to be a rather principal problem. Thomas Miller,Bonn,FRG, UNM406.DBNRHRZ2%BITNET ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Jul 86 15:26:34 EDT From: Edward_Vielmetti%UMich-MTS.Mailnet@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Subject: Davong hard disk--use Golden Bow's FiXT > From: Jill.Crisman@ius1.cs.cmu.edu > Subject: Davong Fixed Disk and Dos 2.0 question > > I recently got a 5M Davong Hard Disk for my IBM PC. > ... > Is the software available to format the disks for DOS 2.0? I got a hand-me-down Davong hard disk as my first computer at work here, and after too long of struggling with the flaky Davong software and the copious lack of documentation I found a reasonable solution. Golden Bow Systems (PO Box 3039, San Diego CA 92103, (619) 298-9349 ) makCs a product called "FiXT" , $80, that allows you to treat your Davong, Datamac, Great Lakes, Percom, Tandon 5112, Tecmar, TallGrass, VR Data, and a few more drives & controllers as if they were standard, normal DOS 2.x or 3.x hard disks. You can get rid of the old Davong software entirely, and use DOS Format to format the disk. (All the data is lost in the process, tho, so you should use Copy to backup the hard disk to floppies.) If you have an older PC, with 64K on the motherboard and a serial number under 300,000, you need to get the hard disk BIOS from IBM, "BIOS Kit ROM Module", P/N 1501005, to boot from the hard disk. Rather than spending $xx and waiting for it to come in, I used Skip Gilbrech's BOOTCFG and told it to initialize the optional hard disk roms. (You can find BOOTCFG on IBMSW on CompuServe, on the Wipcus BBS in Ann Arbor, MI at (313) 663-1835, the VOR RBBS in California at 1-415-994-2944, or on fine bulletin boards everywhere. You don't need it if the roms are newer. The machine has been passed on from my posession once again, and it's still in use. That hard disk is slow, eh? Edward Vielmetti, Computing Center MicroGroup University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109 emv%UMich-MTS.Mailnet@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA emv@umix.uucp (only if necessary) ------------------------------ Subject: Davong Fixed Disk and Dos 2.0 Date: Wed, 02 Jul 86 11:06:15 -0500 From: Jeff Edelheit <edelheit@mitre.ARPA> Jill - I have a 10 mb Davong drive. At the time I got it, I was able to get my hands on Davong's Multi-OS psuedo PC-DOS operating system. I was never really pleased with it (it was a real dog) and was really happy to discover Golden Bow Systems. Golden Bow is in San Diego and has developed a chip that you place in an empty socket in the motherboard. This little gem allows you to boot off the Davong as it it was a real Xybec, Seagate, etc. hard drive. It supports DOS 2.0 thru 3.1. My only remaining complaint about the Davong drive is that it is NOISY! However, I guess I can live with that. Regards, Jeff Edelheit (edelheit@mitre.arpa) The MITRE Corporation, 1820 Dolley Madison Blvd. McLean, VA 22102 (703) 883-7586 PS - I have no relationship with the now-bankrupt Davong other than as a somewhat dissatisfied customer. Likewise, I have no relationship with Golden Bow Systems other than as a very happy customer. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jul 86 10:53:34 edt From: Nathaniel Polish <polish%lexington@columbia.edu> Subject: Epsilon A previous posting suggested that Epsilon does memory mapped screen handling. I do not think that this is the case. For one thing Epsilon is too slow for this to be true. I recently set up my monochrome with an EGA running in 43 line mode. I then ran Epsilon with the -vl43 option. Oh yes, I am using NANSI.SYS to go to 43 row mode (<esc>[=43l I think). This works fine. Since the 80x43 screen is not memory mapped and Epsilon works, I assume that Epsilon uses the BIOS. Nat Polish@cs.columbia.edu ------------------------------ From: lotto%lhasa.UUCP@harvard.HARVARD.EDU Date: 2 Jul 86 10:02 EDT Subject: Appletalk/Laserwriter/IBM/Mac nets TOPS - announced and in the last throws of beta testing is a software only product for Macs and a board/software product for PCs. It provides a device driver that allows PCs to be active participants on an Appletalk network and utilities for Laserwriter arbitration and use. It furthermore provides a file system translation between the two environments. I have been using a 1 Mb RAM disk on my AT as a shared disk with three Macs. The Macs see this thing as an icon, and throughput is almost winnie-like. The AT is not a dedicated server, I can use the Mac disks just as easily. For those of you unfamiliar with Appletalk, we ran the network about 300' using plain 2 twisted pair w/ ground. Throughput is 250kb Mac to PC and 800kb+ PC to PC. The best thing about this network is the price. I do not know what has announced to date about this, but it will be seriously less than most any other net. This is something worth waiting for. Mfrs are Centram Systems West out in sunny Ca. Non-disclosure type papers prevent me from releasing much more detail, but it will be worth purchasing if you own PC/Laserwriter combinations or PC/Mac groups. My affiliation with this company is as a beta test site only. All statements herein are personal views and do not necessarily represent Centram, Harvard or any other organization. PS. The PC-NFS mentioned in a recent digest, FTP systems TCP/IP stuff and the real DECnet DOS v1.1 recently announced make this an interesting time for ethernet/VAX/PC sites as well. What fun! Jerry Lotto Harvard University Chemistry Dept. lotto@harvard.harvard.edu or lotto@harvunxw.bitnet or ...!harvard!endor!lhasa!lotto or shout VERY loudly ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Jul 86 09:51:00 cdt From: cyb-eng!bc@SALLY.UTEXAS.EDU Subject: Incompatibility: Compaq vs. Fastback A good friend of mine here in Austin suffered through an unfortunate incident recently involving his standard old Desk Pro and Fastback. He is not on the net, but I will be happy to try to forward any replies to my net address. FASTBACK - DANGER - BUG WARNING I have had serious problems with Fastback Version 5.03 from Fifth Generation Systems. Of 64 backup disks the Fastback Restore utility choked on 53 - locking up my computer and requiring power down to reset. When I called Fifth Generation they were courteous and knowledgeable, but a promised fix has not arrived in over 2 weeks. I will update this message when it does arrive. My problem, according to Fifth Generation, is that some Compaq Desk Pros have disk controllers that their programs cannot deal with. They did not mention this problem in printed or disk documentation. Documentation states that the program works on IBM PC, XT, AT, and Compatibles. If Compaq computers aren't IBM compatible, what is? Will this program work on all IBMs (surely they all use the same controller)? I noticed some odd behavior when first using the program. But seduced by the promise of quick and easy backup protection I convinced myself that it was minor. Several disks backed up and restored properly so I felt safe. A month later after formatting my hard disk, I found I was not. Before considering purchase of any backup system, consider the following questions. How can I be sure that the restore function will work when I need it most? Would the software company tell me if their product may lose all my data? Does the software license absolve the software company of all responsibility if their product wipes me out? Is the saving of a few minutes backup time worth jeopardizing my business records? Could flashy performance get me too? Sam Williams, Business Systems Consultant ------------------------------ From: microsof!donco@uw-beaver.arpa Subject: Polynomial Factoring Date: Wed Jul 2 10:11:21 1986 >Date: Tue, 1 Jul 86 10:48:58 cdt >From: mlw@ncsc.ARPA (Williams) >Subject: Polynomial Factoring > >Does anyone out there have any good math tools for the PC or know of any >development libraries that provide relatively high-level math facilities? >I'd especially like to hear from anybody with hands-on experience. Thanks. >Mark Microsoft sells a symbolic algebra package called "muMATH" that provides high-level math facilities (see Microsoft Languages Newsletter 1-7 in July 86 magazines - Byte p.59 or PC Tech Journal p.28). In addition to tools for polynomial factoring, it performs differentiation, integration, trig, etc, etc. For mathematicians, engineers, scientists, and other people that work with numbers and formulas, it's a great product. Call or write Microsoft for a data sheet. Don Colton, product manager for muMATH ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jul 86 07:08:11 UT From: <U015415%HNYKUN22.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU> Subject: Hardcards: Intralink 2000 Combicard Recently I bought the Intralink 2000 Combicard, a 20 Meg hardhard, sold in Holland by Intralec Benelux B.V. It's composed of a NEC D3126 3.5 inch Winchester Disk Drive and an OMTI 5510 Data Controller. The formatted capacity of the drive is 20.25 Meg, 17 sectors of 512 bytes per track, 4 tracks per cylinder, 611 cylinders per drive. It is very quiet in operation and pretty fast. It uses one slot in my Olivetti M24, but because it's 1.6 inches thick, the slot next to it cannot accept a full size board anymore. The controller includes the IBM PC/XT BIOS. A ROM at C000:0000 can be used to preformat the disk and to set the interleave factor. It comes preformatted for an IBM PC, with an interleave factor of 6. (My Olivetti M24 needs an interleave factor of 3). When installed, DOS 3.0 and DOS 3.1 did not recog- nize the disk. DOS 2.11 did not have any problems with it. I pre-formatted, FDISKed and FORMATted the disk using DOS 3.1, and it ran without problems. (It cannot be used under DOS 2.11 anymore because of FAT incompatibilities). The controller can handle one more diskdrive. The price was very high, however, about US$ 1,400. But in Europe we are usually ripped off when buying things that are relatively new on the market. The specs do not show how much current is drawn from the 12V supply, only that it draws .5Amp from the 5V at maximum. Heat dissipation at average running is 13W. Other specifications are: Specifications my own tests. minimum seek time 18 ms 22 ms average seek time 85 ms 84 ms maximum seek time 215 ms 213 ms average latency 8.4 ms --- start/stop times (max) 15 sec MTBF 20000 POH The card comes with one year of warranty. The only odd thing I found yet is that the DOS disk parameter table (INT 21H function 32H, PC Tech Journal May 86) shows the disk to have 3 heads in stead of 4. Doeg, Jos Wennmacker <U015415%HNYKUN22.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU> Universitair Rekencentrum Geert Grooteplein Zuid 41 NL-6525 GA Nijmegen The Netherlands ------------------------------ Date: Friday, 4 July 1986 17:49:29 EDT From: Joe.Newcomer@sei.cmu.edu Subject: Extending RGB monitor I'm currently typing this while reading my RGB monitor at the end of 100' of cable. I used RG/174 50ohm (small diameter) cable. 5 wires on pins 3,4,5,8 and 9 with grounds connected to pins 1 and 2 worked fine. The display is certainly not as crisp as it was with the standard (short) cable but it works. Thanks to Chris Schmandt (geek@media-lab.mit.edu) for the advice. A 500' spool of this wire cost under $50. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1986 23:33 MDT From: "Frank J. Wancho" <WANCHO@SIMTEL20.ARPA> Subject: PC-BLUE Vols 188-197 and new 000 available The new releases of the PC/BLUE distribution disks are now available for Internet users via ANONYMOUS FTP on SIMTEL20 in PD:<PC-BLUE.VOLnnn>. See the beginning of the combined -CATALOGs in reverse volume order in PD:<PC-BLUE.VOL000>PCBLUE.CAT for what's new. PC-BLUE:PC-BLUE.CRCLST.60706 will be available later this morning. --Frank ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Jul 86 12:05:14 EDT From: "Robert L. Plouffe" <PLOUFF%MX.LCS.MIT.EDU@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU> Subject: Leading Edge & Sperry Clock Utilities The file EDGCLK.ARC has been uploaded to SIMTEL20 and located in PD:<MSDOS.COMPATIBLES>EDGCLK.ARC. This ARC file contains the source and executable files for two utilities that will be useful to owners of Leading Edge, Model M and Sperry PC personal computers. (Maybe Model D also. See below.) They are: LE_MCLK Reads the on-board battery backed-up clock and sets the current clock to its values. This code is intended to be executed in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The .COM file is only 28 bytes. SETCLK Sets the date and time of the battery backed-up clock and simultaneously updates the current clock. The function of LE_MCLK is built into DOS 2.11 as supplied with the machine, and the v2.11 COMMAND.COM will update the battery clock with the internal DATE and TIME commands. So, if you stick with DOS 2.11 you don't need these utilities. However if you upgrade your DOS to 3.xx, you will find that it has no knowledge of the on-board battery backed-up clock. These utilities will then do the job and restore full function to the use of the battery clock. The programs use an undocumented feature of the on-board ROM BIOS. The Time-of Day interrupt (INT 1AH) has four additional functions beyond that of the IBMPC ROM BIOS. This is fully explained in the documentation. I suspect that the DOS 2.11 supplied with the Leading Edge, Model D is identical to the one supplied with the Model M. If so, then the ROM BIOS must also provide the same functionality for the additional INT 1AH functions - so this code will probably work with a model D also. Someone who has a Model D please let me know. Reply to PLOUFF at MIT-MX since I am not on all of the mailing lists to which this is directed. ------------------------------ Date: 7 Jul 86 12:46:52 PDT (Monday) Subject: Xon/Xoff From: "Michael_Krause.ROCH"@Xerox.COM The OS 3.1 for the Xerox 6060 series PC's (Olivetti made) supports XOn/XOff and ETX/ACK protocol which are setable via the Configur.COM utility which comes standard as part of the package. The utility supplies full, NATURAL control of the serial ports/protocols as PC-DOS has never seen the likes. Good Luck, mak ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Jul 86 9:08:00 EDT From: John Lowry <jlowry@z.bbn.com> Subject: INT19 and drive C: Anyone got any ideas ? I have an OLD (believe me) PC with an added hard disk. This PC has been running on DOS 2.1 and I load the hard disk by booting 2.1 from floppy and running a 32 byte hard disk "init" program. The init program does some setup, calls the hard disk ROM (CALL C800:0003), and then calls an INT19. This works well with DOS 2.1. Now I want to go to DOS 3.1 and all is not so well. The hard disk ROM loads and does it's thing appropriately, but the INT19 bombs the system. I get interesting messages too. (PARITY CHECK [1-2] sometimes, most often nothing) I thought that perhaps DOS was trying to read disk info from the hard disk and getting confused upon reboot, but have no way to run FDISK or FORMAT under 3.1 since I can't boot the hard disk from it. (I get the "incorrect DOS version" message). HELP !! John Lowry jlowry@bbnz.arpa jlowry@bbnccv.arpa jlowry@bbnccv.UUCP (via harvard) ------------------------------ Date: 2 Jul 1986 15:19:40 PDT Subject: INT19 and drive C: From: Billy <BRACKENRIDGE@B.ISI.EDU> You might have better luck investing $30 in the IBM BIOS upgrade kit. (part # 1501005) You must return U33 to your friendly product center. I'd call first to get it ordered and in stock before pulling out your old BIOS. This will allow you to boot from hard disk. I have an original model PC as well. You ought to replace the 8088 with a NEC V20 as the old 8088s had a bug causing possible random crashes. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Jul 86 11:35:53 PDT From: sdcsvax!rick@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Rick Randall) Subject: Disk Organizers I have seen several recent references to commercial disk re-organizers, and I thought it might be useful to "advertise" a public domain one: Disk Organizer (DOG) which has been referenced on the net somewhere recently (which is how I got wind of it), and which works remarkably well -- and is *free* (with freeware request for contributions). DOG can be found on many local Bulletin Board systems, has many tailoring options, is reliable, and has worked well for me. Before purchasing one of the hyped and over-priced re-organizers, I would recommend at least trying this one. Rick Randall EECS Department University of California, San Diego decvax\ rick@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu ihnp4 >---> sdcsvax ---> rick ucbvax/ rick@sdcsvax.uucp ------------------------------ Date: Thu 3 Jul 86 09:00:58-CDT From: Pete Galvin <CC.GALVIN@R20.UTEXAS.EDU> Subject: Disk Reorganizer There's a public-domain program in my public directory <CC.GALVIN.PUBLIC> called DOG. It moves clusters to make file contiguous and even accepts a file containing instructions on where to put which files. It's good, I use it, it's flexible and free...go for it. --Pete ------------------------------ From: Kevin Terpstra <war%tp3@rand-unix.ARPA> Subject: Books on Autocad Date: 01 Jul 86 18:14:31 PDT (Tue) Do any of you know of any good books on how to use Autocad. I have inherited a whole Autocad system with ADE-3 and the whole nine yards but, alas, no manuals. i have called several book stores, computer book stores, etc., but they don't seem to know what I'm talking about. Recomendations to some good books (which I could order) or some good book stores that might have this stuff would be greatly appreciated. I realize that I could order the manuals but they aren't all that great anyway. Thanks in advance Howard (war%tp3@rand-unix.arpa) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Jul 86 05:36:40 pdt From: Scott Holladay <scott%atlas.physics.uoft.cdn%ubc.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> Subject: LCD display driver for PC I am building a piece of instrumentation around a PC-Bus SBC. I am including a PC expansion bus in the design, so that I can use some of the commercially available accessory cards. I particularly want to use one of the large-format Toshiba or Hitachi LCD displays of the type used in various laptop computers as the output device, both for its convenience and for its low power consumption. However, the manufacturers that I've contacted all say that they do not know of any expansion cards that will drive such a display. Apparently, they all build their own interface between the CGA circuit and the driver built into the display module. Does anyone out there know of an expansion card that will perform this interface function, or, if it is relatively simple, could you refer me to a circuit that I can build myself that will do the job? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Jul 86 14:07:43 cdt From: steve@ncsc.ARPA (Mahan) Subject: Toshiba 1100 I was wondering if anyone out there had any experiences with the Toshiba 1100 personal computer. Information on reliability, compatibility with IBM PC, display legibility, battery life, etc.. would be appreciated. Please mail directly to me and I will summarize to the net. steve@ncsc.arpa Stephen Mahan Naval Coastal Systems Center (904) 234-4224 ------------------------------ Date: Wed Jul 2 16:44:16 1986 From: jperry@sri-unix Subject: Storyboard We would like to transfer Storyboard images to 35 mm express to make slides with the Polaroid Palette software package. If anybody knows how to do this with Polaroid Palette or can suggest another package that will do the job, we would appreciate a response ASAP. If you don't know but might know somebody who **does** -- we'd also appreciate a referral. Thanks in advance! John Perry, SRI International ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jul 86 14:51:28 -0100 From: unido!gmdzi!achim@seismo.CSS.GOV (Achim Klabunde) Subject: Simula, TeX 1) Does anybody know whether there is a SIMULA compiler available for pc or pc/at? If so, where to get it? 2) Are there versions of TeX for pc, at? Does anybody have experiences with these? How to get them? I will be grateful for any information on these points. Please reply by email! If anybody else is interested in these questions, please mail to me. I will send a summary by email or post it to this newsgroup . Thanks in advance Achim Klabunde Gesellschaft fuer Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung P.O. 1240 D-5205 St. Augustin 1 West Germany UUCP: ...mcvax!unido!gmdzi!achim ------------------------------ Date: 3 Jul 86 14:21:00 EDT From: "CHRISTOPHER E. SHULL" <shull@wharton-10.ARPA> Subject: MS-DOS 5 Reply-To: "CHRISTOPHER E. SHULL" <shull@wharton-10.ARPA> Does anyone have an informed opinion as to when DOS 5 will be available? My own guess is 1st Quarter 1987, but I haven't heard anything more specific. Will IBM force MS to delay until after the Christmas holiday season so they can unload as many PC's as possible before they are completely obsolete? Also, while it is common knowledge that DOS 5 will allow 80286 machines to address up to 16 MBytes of RAM, will this RAM have to be in any particular format? Will EMS and/or EEMS still work in their kludgy fashion, or will they be required, or will they not work at all, or what? The reason I ask is that I have to add memory to 15 PC/AT's that already have 512 K, and I only need to get them to 640 K immediately, but what to assure compatibility with DOS 5. Thanks in advance! -Chris Christopher E. Shull Decision Sciences Department The Wharton School Shull@Wharton-10.ARPA University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6366 (215) 898-5930 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 1 Jul 86 13:35:54 pdt From: Steve Walton <ametek!walton@csvax.caltech.edu> Subject: CTTY troubles We have an IBM PC/XT running PC/DOS 3.10 which we talk to with our Unix Vax. We do this with a "CTTY COM1" command, and then connect to the PC's serial port with either tip(1) or Kermit. We find that at any speed faster than 1200 baud, we get a large number of "Error reading COM1--Abort,Retry,Ignore" messages. We also find that we cannot run Kermit on the PC reliably for file transfers unless we do a "CTTY CON" before starting Kermit, which we do via a batch file which re-does "CTTY COM1" after PC Kermit exits. Anyone else having similar problems, know of a fix, or have an idea of what's happening? Is CTTY stupid? Does it not recognize XON/XOFF flow control? Please respond directly to me, as I don't read Info-IBMPC regularly. If I get a solution, I'll post it back to the net. Steve Walton ametek!walton@csvax.caltech.edu ucbvax!sun!megatest!ametek!walton ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jul 86 09:56 EDT From: "Roger C. King" <RCKing@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA> Subject: Tandy 3000 / MS Word / EGA Problems I forward the following problem description for one of my colleagues to see if anyone can offer any suggestions or similar experiences. ----- I have two different IBM PC/AT type systems that I am using with Microsoft Word and the Microsoft Mouse (bus version 5.0). At my office I have a 6 MHz IBM AT with the IBM EGA (128K) and Enhanced Color Display, and I have a system at home which consists of a Tandy 3000HD, an IBM EGA (128K), and a Princeton Graphics HX-12E Monitor. The system at work performs flawlessly in all modes. At first, I had a problem with vertical patterns of colored dots appearing on the screen, but this was fixed when Microsoft sent me some patches to the mouse driver. Since then, I have installed Mouse Driver 5.02 (which came with Word 3.0), and Mouse driver 5.03 which I just received. Both of these also work well. My system at home is a different story. When I try to use Word in the graphics mode with the mouse, the screen develops a jittery double-image effect. I get a second flickering image displaced about 1/2 a character to the right of the normal image, almost as if the display system is about to lose sync. Initially, with mouse driver 5.0, the problem occurred only after the system had been on for a little while. When I applied the patches which cleared up the colored dots at work, the flicker at home became permanent. My first suspicion was a hardware problem, particularly because it seemed to be warm-up related. Having two systems at my disposal, I performed several experiments. The problem does not occur at work with either EGA card, but it occurs in the Tandy with both EGA cards. The problem occurs with my current HX-12E Monitor, and an earlier one I had. I do not have the problem if I run Word in Text Mode with the mouse, or if I run Word in Graphics Mode without the mouse. PC Paintbrush works fine with the mouse, and the high resolution graphics in the EGA works very nicely with Paintbrush and 2 other programs I have (but which don't use the mouse with graphics). The problem exists with both Word 2.0 and 3.0, and Mouse Drivers 5.0 (with or without patches), 5.2, and 5.3. Because the problem only exists when I run Word in Graphics Mode with the mouse, it suggests a software problem which is somehow aggravated by the high clock speed of the Tandy (there is also 1 less wait-state in the 3000 than in an AT). All of my other software works fine with this combination of hardware, and all of your software works fine except in this one mode. On the other hand, it's possible that the IBM EGA just won't quite work in the Tandy in this mode. It almost worked with Mouse Driver 5.0, which indicates that the software is running the EGA close to the edge in the Tandy, and the higher versions seem to have gone over that edge. I've been struggling with this for 6 months now, and it is a subtle problem, but I hope you can help me. I can't believe that I'm the only person who is having this problem, given the popularity of your products, the Tandy 3000, and the EGA. I also think there must be a software fix, even if it is in some sense a hardware problem. It may be that this is not a problem with Microsoft Word or Mouse, but with my other hardware. The IBM EGA has a reputation for being "flaky", and it may be that I have two bad boards. It may be that one of the EGA clones is known to work with Word and the mouse in the Tandy, and I could try that. I specifically bought Word because of its EGA support, and I would hate very much to have to abandon it. ------ Roger King MIT Lincoln Laboratory ------------------------------ Date: Tue 1 Jul 86 12:40:45-PDT From: Ted Shapin <BEC.SHAPIN@USC-ECL.ARPA> Subject: Returning to the dir a batch command was called from This is one way to issue a batch command from any directory, possibly change to another directory and change back to the original directory. Is there a simpler way to do this? First, we need to create a file with just the letters "cd " and no return line-feed at the end. We can do this with DEBUG by reading in a file with the proper debug commands. DEBUG <makecd where the file makecd contains this: e100 <-- this says start modifying memory at 100H 63 64 20 <-- these are the three characters (including space) rcx <-- this says set the cx register 3 <-- to 3 which is for the 3 characters ncd <-- this says name the file "CD" w <-- this writes the file q <-- this quits DEBUG Now here is a batch file that will change to the \foo directory and then come back to where it was called from (this assumes the system prompt is "PROMPT $P$G"): if exist \foo\ret.bat del \foo\ret.bat copy cd \foo\ret.bat <-- this starts building a "cd" command cd >>\foo\ret.bat <-- this adds the current dir name cd \foo rem The next line proves that we changed to another directory echo cd [ here you would do whatever you need to do ] c:\command /c ret <-- this runs the batch file to change back to the original directory Ted Shapin. ------------------------------ Date: 3 Jul 86 19:21 EST From: davidsen%kbsvax.tcpip@ge-crd.arpa Subject: Printer Redirection I want to redirect the printer (PRN) to the 2nd parallel port. Am I missing something in MODE? It tells me how to get to the serials ports, but I can't seem to get to another parallel. <bill> ------------------------------ Date: Thu 3 Jul 86 19:25:29-PDT From: Jeffrey Stone <STONE@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA> Subject: Comm/LAN Adapters Does anyone have or has anyone seen a list of communication adapters for the IBM PC and compatibles? Optimally, I would like to find a list which covers 3270/asynch/LAN boards and is as complete as possible. Product review would be great. I would appreciate pointers to articles, online lists, etc. Thanks, Jeffrey Stone, Menlo Park, CA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Jul 86 16:13:58 est From: munnari!aragorn.oz!robert@seismo.CSS.GOV (Robert Ruge) Subject: ATT 6300 Graphics Drivers Wanted Reply-To: munnari!aragorn.oz!howard@seismo.CSS.GOV (Howard Greenhill) Has anyone got any low level graphics drivers for the Olivetti M24/ATT 6300 color or monochrome boards. The drivers would be preffered to be written in C. Thanks in advance. Howard Greenhill | UUCP: {seismo,mcvax,ukc, Sciences | hplabs,nttlab}!munnari!aragorn.oz!howard Deakin University | ARPA: munnari!aragorn.oz!howard@SEISMO.ARPA Victoria, 3217 | CSNET: howard@aragorn.oz Australia | ACSNET: howard@aragorn.oz PHONE: +61 52 471380 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 3 Jul 86 18:59:41 -0200 From: Kurzion Yair <yair%bengus.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA> Subject: DOS Input Character Buffering Hello There ! Writing a multi-tasking operating system for the IBM PC-AT , I am facing the following problem : I would like to catch characters requested by the different processes (via INT 21 , AH = 3F) in order to direct characters to the different process buffers I handle . The problem lies in the fact that DOS does character buffering somewhere inside its giant source . I would like to manipulate with the DOS buffers . Has anyone ever done that ? Can anyone send me the address where the DOS buffer is kept ? Does anyone know anything interesting about how DOS handles input characters ? Many Thanks In Advance Yair Kurzion. (yair@bengus on the bitnet) ------------------------------ Date: Friday, 4 July 1986 17:58:05 EDT From: Joe.Newcomer@sei.cmu.edu Subject: MODE Does anyone know how the DOS 'mode' command works? Here's my problem: when I boot my machine, I can be at the monochrome monitor/keyboard or the color monitor/keyboard. The keyboard and monitor lines have been switched but I have no way to determine this. Therefore, I want to issue the message: color or monochrome? on BOTH displays, get the response, and set the appropriate mode (I will have a remote-boot button at the remote display). Using the BIOS call 16H option 0 has strange behavior: if I am on the monochrome display, the BIOS routines do not let me set any color mode. If the equip_flag switches are not 3 (mask 30H) (color display as default) then it sets the mode to 7 no matter what I ask for. if I am on the color display, setting mode 7 causes the color display to lose sync and never regain it (at least until I get a 'mode co80' command issued). One obvious solution is to write directly into the memory areas for those cards, but what I'd like to do is what the 'mode' command does. How does it do it? I'm not enough of a DOS COMMAND.COM expert to figure out how to start tracing this one down. I program in Lattice C 3.0. Any help will be appreciated. joe ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1986 18:30 EDT From: James H. Coombs <JAZBO%BROWNVM.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA> Subject: Cytek Multi-C Cytek has a "Multi-C," which is supposed to support multitasking. Does anyone have any experience with this product, or with the company? Thanks. --Jim Acknowledge-To: James H. Coombs <JAZBO@BROWNVM> ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Jul 86 09:46 EST From: GKN3M2%IRISHMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA Subject: Tektronix Emulator Does anyone know of a good P.D./shareware/cheap Tektronix emulator for the PC. I don't need much more than the basic ability to emulate a Tek 4014. Communications protocols are not a problem and I can store images on the screen using MS Windows. Please reply directly and thanks in advance. Evan Bauman University of Notre Dame gkn3m2%irishmvs.bitnet@wiscvm.wisc.edu ------------------------------ End of Info-IBMPC Digest ************************ -------