Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA (Info-IBMPC Digest) (03/16/86)
Info-IBMPC Digest Saturday, 15 March 86 Volume 5: Issue 34
This Week's Editor: Phyllis O'Neil
Today's Topics:
Norton SYSINFO
Genius VHR Display
Re: Top 25 Utilities
TECO EDITOR
Clearing the Screen
Re: Installing Xenix on Compaq Query
DOS 3.1 ASMB (Another Silly Microsoft Bug) [2 messages]
MASM 4.0-- ASMB (Another Silly Micrsoft Bug)
WINDOWS and Hayes 2400 interface to videodisk player
More PC/BLUE Volumes Available
Re: Sector Size
Re: INTERRUPT HANDLERS IN TURBO
Re: IRMA Boards
Re: C
ISPF-like Dialog Management Program Wanted
Today's Queries:
Textile Design
Grammatik and Rightwriter
Living C
Wishlist / MAX (EMACS-like Public Domain Editor) & SCR
PC Implementations of TeX
Microsoft Fortran
Turbo Pascal
DMA transfers on a PC XENIX, nroff, neqn & Epson Printers
Wang PC Problems
WD Hard Disk Condition Code 40
Turbo Pascal Screen Clearing
DOS 3.0 and Old COMPAQs
IBM BASIC Compiler 2.0 Query
--------------------------------------------------------------------
From: dewar@nyu-acf2.arpa
Received: by nyu-acf2.arpa; Wed, 12 Mar 86 21:27:17 est
To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA
Subject: Norton SYSINFO
This information has appeared before, but undoubtedly needs repeating
every now and then (and I hope editors of PC, PC Week, PC World etc.
are listening).
The Norton SYSINFO test is a particularly bad choice of benchmark,
clearly based on insufficient familiarity with the chip family. It is
heavily biased by the multiply/divide time, which is (a) easy to speed
up substantially (as is done on the NEC chips and 80286 and (b) not
particularly relevant for real world tests. In general SYSINFO can
only be used in a valid manner to compare two implementations of the
same chip. Results in other cases are likely to be misleading.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 86 21:35:37 est
From: dewar@nyu-acf2.arpa
To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA
Subject: Genius VHR Display
I have one of these displays and I am very pleased with it. I get 66
lines by 80 characters of very sharp text (better than the IBM
Monochrome) on a pleasing blank on white presentation. I do find that
the attribute 0F (high intensity) is more suitable than 07 (normal)
for general use. The comment which appeared here about insufficient
contrast probably results from using the 07 attribute.
I have had no trouble with heat (and my AT is very full - SMD Disk
controller, Atron Probe, PC Network card (a hot card itself!), tape
backup card, 4Meg memory board ..)
I have the windows driver and it works nicely, although the typical
fonts used by Windows Write are a little small to read with comfort.
I can confirm that there is a glitch which sometimes causes a
transitory incorrect screen display, always cleared by any keystroke
at all, and not happening enough to be annoying.
I have no problems with the BIOS, although I have only rarely used IBM
compatibility (25 line) mode. The only slight glitch in the BIOS is that
the bell is not sounded when the BEL character is written with write TTY.
All in all an excellent product. I cannot imagine putting up with a 25
line screen ever again! I do wish that more products knew about 66
lines (A Pox on IBM for not putting in a BIOS call to get the number
of lines -- the only way I know to do it is to write line feeds until
the screeen scrolls).
The really nice thing about this display, which makes it far superior
to the high res displays on many workstations such as Sun etc, is that
it has a character generator for normal use (ther 750 x 1000 pixel
graphics is or'ed with the character generator display for maximum
flexibility). This character generator is completely compatible with
the normal IBM mono interface except that more lines are present. It
took me all of 15 minutes to modify the editor of my utilities package
so that it properly supports 66 line mode when run on this monitor.
------------------------------
Date: Wed 12 Mar 86 22:59:38-PST
From: Jackie <Burhans%ECLD@USC-ECL.ARPA>
Subject: Re: Top 25 Utilities
To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA
Some obvious ones:
1. The NORTON Utilities: best categorized as disk managers{_;
my favorite and most used ones a) unerase files b) allow
me to look at files in hex mode (even in EBCDIC!) c) sort
my directories, d) find files on my hard disk and e) tell
me the size of my files and whether I have enough room on
a diskette to copy these files.
2. Sidekick--or it would be one of my favorites if it didn't
interfere with my other software--maybe when they develop
a standard for resident programs...
3. Sideways--prints files (especially) spreadsheets sideways
on a dot-matrix printer.
4. BAC--a public domain program for copying modified files to
backup diskettes.
5. ARC--for archiving files; I really like this one--it
squeezes files and saves multiple files in one
archive file. Great for long-term backups and
saving space on diskettes which I pay for out of my own pocket.
------------------------------
Date: 13 MAR 86 09:51-N
From: DOMMELEN%HWALHW5.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA
Subject: TECO EDITOR
Dear Ya'akov_Miles,
I'm interested in your teco project, being a stucked teco-user on DEC
mainframes and cursing MS for not providing a good editor. I would
like to try/test etc. your preliminary version, but..... I'm not able
to download the files I need.
We're connected to BITNET, if you see any chance to send me e.g. the
C source file, I would be most grateful. I will report bugs, problems,
suggestions or fixes as soon as possible. MS-C is available.
Wim van Dommelen, Computer Centre Agricultural University, Wageningen Holland.
DOMMELEN@HWALHW5.BITNET
I'm sending this to INFO-IBMPC after 10 tries mailing it to you directly
and recieving everything back from the Mailnet-Master at MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
I tried YA-AKOV_MILES, YAAKOV_MILES etc., none worked. It's the accent which
is filtered out somewhere. Do you have an alternative adress ?
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 86 01:25:05 PST
From: dgb%DEImos.Caltech.Edu@Hamlet.Caltech.Edu
Subject: Clearing the Screen
To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA
To the person who was concerned with clearing the screen via a scroll,
to my mind that is indeed the easiest way to go. Be warned, however,
that the display attributes are replicated from the bottom line all up
the screen. (I can't remember if it will make vertical attribute
stripes or not, or simply force the entire screen to say, the last
characters attributes. You'll have to experiment and see.) I'm far
away from my references at the moment, but I can't remember a good
implementation independant way of determining screen size. I guess
that you just have to drive a table lookup off of the video mode,
which you can get from the BIOS. This isn't bombproof, but should
work for most reasonably close compatables.
------------------------------
From: Herm Fischer <hermix!fischer@rand-unix.ARPA>
To: frank@db.wisc.edu
Subject: Re: Installing Xenix on Compaq Query
Cc: info-ibmpc@isib.arpa
Date: Wed Mar 12 23:46:08 1986
Dan Frank writes that ``IBM Xenix has the nifty limitatin that it only
installs on 20 MB IBM hard disks.'' I, and most other Xenix users I
know of, are using Xenix on different disks. Most folks are using
disks between 70 and 85 MB. There was an update by IBM (5/85) to make
these disks work properly. There were also instructions on the net on
how to patch unupdated IBM Xenix...
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 86 10:03:44 est
From: dewar@nyu-acf2.arpa
To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA
Subject: DOS 3.1 ASMB (Another Silly Microsoft Bug)
(except they think this one is a feature!)
The trace flag (TF) is used in some debuggers for single stepping.
There are cases in DOS 3.1 (this is a new bug, DOS 3.0 worked fine),
where DOS turns off the trace flag on returning from INT 21H.
You certainly might suppose that preserving the control flags is the
expected behaviour, but Microsoft in response to a question on this
subject claims they have never promised to preserve the TF setting.
Since Microsoft has also never promised to preserve the IF setting, it
seems that to be safe we should perhaps do STI after every INT 21H
call, because if the Kat is right, DOS 3.2 is arriving on 3/16, and
who knows?
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 86 09:53:40 est
From: dewar@nyu-acf2.arpa
To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA
Subject: DOS 3.1 ASMB (Another Silly Microsoft Bug)
The /E option of the linker should generate an EXE file which is
logically equivalent to the uncompressed EXE file. The current version
however results in AX being clobbered. AX on entry to an EXE file has
a definite meaning (it indicates drive validity for the parameteres),
thus it should be passed through to the uncompressed image. Given this
one very obvious violation of the interface rules, there may be
others, I have not bothered to investigate further (I was looking to
see why /E files blew up in a particular case).
Disclaimer:
I certainly have **NO** connection with Microsoft, but I did write
the Realia SpaceMaker program which does a similar sort of thing to
the EXEPACK option (but needless to say does not have this particular
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 86 09:59:12 est
From: dewar@nyu-acf2.arpa
To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA
Subject: MASM 4.0-- ASMB (Another Silly Micrsoft Bug)
MASM Version 4.0 is still pretty much of a mess semantically and has
many bugs, some of which are new with this version. The Intel
assembler has rediculously complicated semantics (especially with
respect to GROUPS, frame/target reloc- ation etc.), and many people do
not understand these semantics, as is clear from messages in this
forum previously. The combination of these complex semantics plus an
incomplete understanding of them reflected in the MASM implementation
is plain diabolical! Well end of flame, now here is a particular bug
which cost another few hours the other day:
A EQU WORD PTR [BP+4] ; typical definition for variable in stack frame
.
.
MOV AX,OFFSET A
This instruction generates no error message, but the OFFSET is ignored
and a move from memory (instead of a move immediate) is generated.
There is no simple way around this, except some cludge like:
OFFSET_A EQU 4
A EQU WORD PTR [BP+OFFSET_A]
.
MOV AX,OFFSET_A
AARCGH!
[This same bug has been mentioned here a few times before. I've
personally quit using the OFFSET operator -- it's just not reliable.
Instead of MOV AX,OFFSET A use LEA AX,A which so far hasn't failed me.
-rag]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 86 18:56:52 est
From: morrell@mitre.ARPA (James Morrell)
To: INFO-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA
Subject: WINDOWS and Hayes 2400
Microsoft acknowledges that there is a problem with the WINDOWS
TERMINAL dialing out with a HAYES 2400. They offer a fix, but they
caution that it may not work and it doesn't. They suspect (as do I)
that the problem is with TERMINAL.EXE software, not just Hayes 2400
setup. They said that when they can get their hands on a 2400, they
will fix the problem. This should be "soon", they say.
------------------------------
Date: 13 March 86 23:05-PST
From: PHMWJ%SLACVM.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA
Subject: interface to videodisk player
My thanks to everyone who provided information in response to my
earlier query (about Feb. 23). It appears that enabling a PC to
control a videodisk player will be easier than I thought. Apparently
'industrial strength' players all have built-in serial ports or
separate controller boxes with serial ports, so I need only provide
serial output from the PC. Several Pioneer players were mentioned,
the model LD-6000 several times, and so were players from Sony,
Hitachi, and Panasonic.
The programming problem will thus reduce to figuring out the command
set of the target player and providing a set of routines (callable by
the program which handles the database queries) to send them out via
the serial port. Anyone want to bet that videodisk player
documentation is no better than computer documentation?
Pat McAllister
on BITNET: PHMWJ@SLACVM
on ARPANET: PHMWJ%SLACVM.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1986 00:49 MST
From: "Frank J. Wancho" <WANCHO@SIMTEL20.ARPA>
To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA, INFO-HZ100@RADC-TOPS20.ARPA
Cc: INFO-CPM@AMSAA.ARPA, INFO-MICRO@BRL.ARPA
Subject: More PC/BLUE Volumes Available
Another batch of PC/BLUE volumes arrived yesterday and are now
available in PD:<PC-BLUE.VOL176> through PD:<PC-BLUE.VOL187>, plus a
new PD:<PC-BLUE.VOL000>, which includes a new PCBLUE.CAT in reverse
order, all on SIMTEL20, of course.
All of our so-called "public domain" collections are provided as-is
and made available to the entire Internet community with access to DDN
via ANONYMOUS FTP.
--Frank
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 86 09:40 PST
From: GEORGEBURKITT.ES@Xerox.COM
Subject: Re: Sector Size
To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA
>MS-DOS determines the size of the largest sector it will have to deal
>with during boot time by examing the sector sizes in use by the disk
>driver in IO.SYS. For most PCs, this is 512 bytes.
Unless there is something I missed, the problem of too-large sectors
can be cured by re-formatting the "weird" drive. This requires the
expensive version of the Diagnostics ($150); or a call to your local
dealer/service man.
------------------------------
To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa, mcvax!ukc!jmh@seismo.css.gov
Subject: Re: INTERRUPT HANDLERS IN TURBO (V5 #20)
Date: 14 Mar 86 02:30:39 PST (Fri)
From: Alastair Milne <milne@ICSE.UCI.EDU>
Your message was by no means old cobblers to me. I congratulate you
on the extent of your knowledge. I certainly wasn't able to find out
as much.
> push bp ; Save old frame pointer
> mov bp,sp ; Mark start of new one
> push bp ; save new frame pointer
> jmp L1 ; jump around space for local
> ; typed constants
> L1: <start of your code>
I'm afraid I don't see from your paragraph #1 how it's possible to
install a Turbo routine directly as an interrupt servicer. The fact
that one at least of the registers is changed before any of them are
preserved is enough to prevent its being an interrupt servicer, since
the code executing at the time of the interrupt would have bp and sp
changed behind its back, which is easily enough to destroy its
functioning completely. That, at least, is how it seems to me. Am I
overlooking something? (There is actually something I can think of,
but I am not convinced, and I'll keep it to myself until I am).
> 2. It is only necessary to inform the 8259 of interrupts you wish
> to receive *which are generated by external hardware*.
I don't suppose you would know what the appropriate mask values for it
are, or, more generally, where one would find a reference on
programming it?
> ...I believe there may be INT instructions from within
> MSDOS that e.g. call screen print routines (INT 5 for IBM PCs).
I'm certain of it. Try using DEBUG to follow a few of the pointers in
the interrupt vector, then disassemble the routines they point to. I
think you'll find they include a few INT instructions. Besides, what
if hardware events occur while DOS routines are executing?
This is a ghastly problem indeed. In other words, any interrupt
servicer which does not create for itself a nice roomy stack elsewhere
in memory may be inviting disaster if its interrupt is raised during a
call to take a crack at amending the servicer's initialisation code to
use
Thanks a lot,
Alastair Milne
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 86 18:27:00 est
From: Mark D. Freeman <mdf@ohio-state.ARPA>
Subject: Re: IRMA Boards
To: info-ibmpc-request@usc-isib.arpa
Before sinking money into IRMA Boards, I strongly suggest you look at
CXI's products. They are reputed to be better, faster, smaller,
cheaper, etc. and add features to IRMA's offerings. They sell
hardware and software, and they even started selling thier software to
IRMA owners, so that IRMA boards can have some of the extras CXI
offers, such as supporting local printers as 327X IBM emulators, etc.
One supplier I know of that sells to end users is:
AK Technology (soon to be a net site, if I can get their
Columbus, OH Convergent VMiniFrame running)
(614) 764-0
I do have sregards to CXI products. (Teresa is their CXI expert.)
Happy hunting!
------------------------------
From: <dual!gatech!akgua!opus!ki4pv!tanner@ucbvax.berkeley.edu>
To: Info-IBMPC@usc-isib.arpa
Date: Tue Mar 11 12:00:56 1986
Subject: Re: C
In response to the question about starting new programme without
retaining current programme in memory:
(1) the C compiler routines generally known collectively as
"exec" will do what you want in various flavours.
(2) routines known as "spawn" appears to invoke dos function x4B
and take a flag of 0, 1, or 2 to wait for child to finish,
overlay parent ("exec") or run concurrently. Note that the
option to run both concurrently is not actually implemented!
spawn family names are spawnv, spawnl, &c. as in execv &c.
This information is from ms-c and ms-dos manuals. The name of the
"spawn" family will likely vary if you use other C compilers.
The routines seem to work, retaining parent as requested. Obviously
the concurrent operation flag is .RFE until there is a multi-tasking
ms-dos.
tanner andrews, systems
compudata south, deland
...{ihnp4!hropus decvax!ucf-cs}!ki4pv!tanner
------------------------------
From: mcvax!dutesta!robvh@seismo.CSS.GOV ( )
To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa
Subject: ISPF-like Dialog Management Program Wanted
As an (addicted) user of ISPF (Interactive System Productivity Facility)
running under IBM MVS/TSO and VM/CMS, I have grown fond of the facilities
offered by the dialog management functions of this program.
These functions include:
- Screen handling: Menus, Selection panels, Data entry panels,
- Variable handling: Conversion, Communication between panels and programs,
Validity tests and error messages during data entry, Profile of variables
between sessions,
- Tables: A linear array of linear structures, best compared to SAS datasets,
each row in a tables may be accessed individually and within each row
separate variables are available, With a table display one ore more rows
may be selected for processing,
- File tailoring: Generation of an output file, in which variables are
substituted, lines can be generated depending on a condition, and tabels
may be processed with simple loop control,
- Debugging: traces and brakepoints available on function call or on
variable access,
- Language support: Functions can be invoked from programming languages
like FORTRAN, PL/1, Pascal, Assembler, and from command languages like
CLIST, EXEC and REXX (comparable with shell scripts or .COM files)
with similar conventions and facilities.
Has anyone run across an IBM-PC version of ISPF that supports the
dialog management functions? I've had a brief look at PC/SPF, but
this one "only" implements the outward appearance (editor, utilities,
command entry) and not the dialog interface (your own program calling
ISPF functions). Even in the UNIX world I have not found a program
with facilities comparable to those offered by ISPF, and I would
heartily recommend that anyone designing a dialog manager would first
have a look at ISPF.
Rob van Hoboken
Delft University of Technology
dept. of Electrical Engineering
Mekelweg 4, room 9.23
PO Box 5031,
2600 GA Delft
Netherlands
telephone: +31 15 786251
UUCP: ..!mcvax!dutesta!robvh
------------------------------
Date: Wed 12 Mar 86 22:35:33-PST
From: Jackie <Burhans%ECLD@USC-ECL.ARPA>
Subject: Query: Textile Design
To: info-pc@USC-ISIB.ARPA
cc: burhans%ECLD@USC-ECL.ARPA
I am asking this for a non-networked friend:
I have a friend in the textile industry who is looking for computer
software/hardware combination to do textile/clothing design work.
She would like to be able to design and possibly print textile
patterns easily and to "freehand" draw clothing patterns (possibly
using a Koala pad type interface). She is not a computer person
and would like something with a friendly interface, somewhat along
the lines of MacPaint--but in color.
The question then: does anyone know of specialized software designed
specifically for this kind of task and/or can anyone suggest possible
choices of hardware and software to achieve this?
Thanks in advance.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 86 11:12:05 EST
From: Ih@louie.udel.EDU
To: lyonsn@usc-isib.ARPA, info-ibmpc@usc-isib.ARPA
Subject: Grammatik and Rightwriter Query
I am interested in the C routtines for combining these two programs.
I have used the Rightwriter a couple times and found it very
mechanical. Where can I buy the Grammatik and how much?
Thanks for your help.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 86 12:40:25 est
From: phunter@nswc-wo.ARPA
To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA
Subject: Living C Query
Cc: jcavall, phunter
To any helful soul on the net:
Can anyone direct me to a US supplier of the Living C interpreter
from a British company called Living Software? Their ad in February's
Byte impressed me, but the company in Florida listed in the ad either
doesn't exist or dosen't handle it. Either way, the 800 number in the
ad got me nowhere. I need a US supplier because I work for the
government and foreign suppliers are frowned upon.
As an aside, does anyone have any experience with this product
and care to comment on it? For that matter, is there another product
that is better as a learning tools?
Thanks
Paul Hunter (phunter@nswc-wo)
------------------------------
Date: Thu 13 Mar 86 11:19:59-CST
From: Ivo Welch <W1.WELCH@CHIP.UChicago>
Subject: Wishlist / MAX (EMACS-like Public Domain Editor) & SCR
To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA
I have just managed to regain access to INFO-IBMPC. So I have missed
quite a number of messages. I am now trying to find two programs:
- One is on top of my MSC wishlist: a good C source code
debugger. Does anyone have recommendations?
- The second refers to one of my recent acquisitions of a
Hercules Graphics Card lookalike (which seems to work
perfectly). Is there some (public-domain?) program that
intercepts (IBM color card) graphics accesses and
translates them into Hercules equivalents?
Furthermore, I have just submitted Jens' and my Public-Domain
EMACS-clone MAX (which is still faster than anything else), and a
version of a SCRIBE-look-alike--both with source--for inclusion into
the INFO-IBMPC library. Anyone please feel free to ...
[Just got the copy of MAX/SCR. Turns out it's NOT public domain. It
is copyrighted and comes with a license agreement and a request for
funds -- so it is in fact freeware/shareware. "Public domain" is
a legal term meaning "not copyrighted". -rag]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 86 14:55 PST
To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa
From: Don Worth (213) 825-7408 or 825-9445 <CSMIDDW@UCLA-CCN.ARPA>
Subject: PC implementations of TeX Query
I'd be interested in someone who has used TeX on micros and minis
comment on the trade-offs of speed. I'm currently using TeX on a Sun
mini, and i like it reasonably well, but it's no jackrabbit performer
in that environment either. Does anybody have experience with both
environments, so they could give a relative assessment of the speed of
operation?
Sean Boisen, boisen!beaune@locus.ucla.edu
------------------------------
Date: Thu Mar 13 16:42:34 1986
From: jperry@sri-unix
To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib
Subject: Microsoft Fortran Query
Does anyone know if Microsoft Fortran (most recent version) is a
FULL or PARTIAL implementation of FORTRAN '77? If it is partial, I
would appreciate a list of the items omitted from the full standard.
A reply ASAP would be greatly appreciated.
John Perry
SRI International
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 86 20:15:09 cet
To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA
From: CHADM1%UCONNVM.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: Turbo Pascal Query
Could someone tell me how to get a directory listing from a running
(compiled) TURBO PASCAL program on the IBM PC? Is there an assembler
routine that can be imbedded in the source code? Is there a DOS
routine one can hook to? Thanks.
Carl David
------------------------------
Date: 13 Mar 86 10:51:24 PST (Thursday)
Subject: DMA transfers on a PC
From: Wax.OsbuSouth@Xerox.COM
To: Info-IBMPC-request@usc-isib.Arpa
Has anyone any pointers/code that allows a program to do DMA tranfers
on the PC. My main use for this is to read or write to disk while
doing other computing. DOS forces you to wait for the I/O completion
before returning.
Allan Wax
ARPA: Wax.OsbuSouth@Xerox.COM
------------------------------
Date: Thu 13 Mar 86 17:44:41-PST
From: D.SMOLARSKI%SCU%PANDA@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA
Subject: XENIX, nroff, neqn & Epson Printers Query
To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA
cc: unix-wizards@BRL.ARPA
Recently some code from Tom Tkacik (Univ Virginia) appeared on
net.sources along with code from Bruce Townsend to compile an
NROFF/EQN table for an EPSON (compatible) printer enabling someone to
utilize the math word processing capability of UNIX with a small
printer. Has anyone gotten this code to work with the standard IBM
(Microsoft) XENIX? If so, how? When I try, the resulting table
(TABEPSON) in /usr/lib/term is unlike the Microsoft supplied tables,
and is rejected at run-time by nroff. Microsoft seemingly strips the
headers from the compiled modules, leaving a file which is a "data"
file (when the file is checked with the Berkeley UNIX "file" command).
Does anyone know of any other code available (free or commercial)
which will enable someone to use the Unix/XENIX nroff/eqn/tbl math
text formatting system with an Epson (compatible) printer? I been
hacking and asking questions for nearly 6 months, but so far no luck.
Please reply directly. Thanks in advance.
Dennis Smolarski SJ
Santa Clara University
(D.SMOLARSKI%SCU%PANDA@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA)
------------------------------
Date: 14 MAR 86 08:40-N
From: INFOEARN%HLERUL5.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA
Subject: Wang PC Problems
Does anyone know why the WANG PC doesn't run "normal" packages like MS
DOS 3.1, Turbo Pascal, Wordstar, The IBM Personal Editor (just to name
a few packages I tried). I always get an error "Invalid/Unrecognized
Interrupt" or the PC just freezes up. Any suggestions are welcome.
Marc Chang Sing Pang
BITNET: SINGPANG@HLERUL5
ARPANET: SINGPANG%HLERUL5.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA
[The Wang PC never claimed to be IBM PC compatible as far as I know.
-rag]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 86 01:28:36 est
From: Glenn Jordan <ecsvax!trent%mcnc.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Subject: WD Hard Disk Condition Code 40 Query
To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.ARPA
Help. I recently purchased an NEC 20-meg hard disk with a Western
Digital controller card for my XT clone. I set it up and formatted it
using the WD lowlevel format program on the card's ROM, and then
created a DOS partition with FDISK, and then Formatted it for DOS
using FORMAT.... All this worked fine. I used it like this for a
week, and then one evening it refused to boot from disk and went into
ROM basic instead.... I proceeded to try to reformat it from the
card's ROM again, but got an "error ------- condition code 40"
returned. Bad system tracks or some other major disk failure, I
guessed, blindly.
Anyway, I got a new Hard Disk, and tried to format it last night,
but the exact same error showed, and still no C: drive....
I guess the WD controller card is dead in some way, and will
receive another Friday, but could someone tell me what the error #40
is trying to tell me....?
This is a WX2 rom copywrite 1985, entered from C800:5
Thanks,
Glenn (trent@ecsvax)
------------------------------
Date: Fri 14 Mar 1986 09:18:29 EST
From: <SS@LL.ARPA>
Subject: XT/370 Speedup Query
To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa
Does anyone have any information as to if an IBM XT/370 can be run
with a clock faster then 4.77MHz ( and if such a speed up would work
in 8088 mode, 370 mode, or both) (In particular would the Micospeed
Fast88 product described in the March 11 PC Week work?) ----- please
Thanks in advance
S. Scharf SS@LL
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 86 15:59 MST
From: Jameson@UNCA-MULTICS.MAILNET
Subject: Turbo Pascal Screen Clearing Query
To: <@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA:info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB>
Does anyone know of a patch which will stop Turbo Pascal programs from
clearing the screen before they run, and possibly from leaving the
cursor at the bottom of the screen afterward? Many thanks.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 86 15:49:13 EST
From: "Steven T. Kirsch" <SK@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU>
Subject: DOS 3.0 and Old COMPAQs Query
To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA
When doing DOS copy operations or other floppy operations, the
original COMPAQ portables sometimes hang (requiring a power-cycle).
I have noticed this problem on all our original portables, but not on
the PC or the Deskpro. Have other people had these problems? We are
also running a 3COM ethernet, but we even have the problem without the
ethernet software.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 86 20:04:34 est
From: Mark D. Freeman <mdf@ohio-state.ARPA>
Subject: IBM BASIC Compiler 2.0 Query
To: info-ibmpc-request@usc-isib.arpa
I am interested in finding out what the differences are between the
first 2.0 and the patched version available through it's dealers.
It seems that they fixed some things and broke others.
A personal aside: I have tried mailing to Mr. Video (brown@nicmad) and
never got a reply, nor any indication that the mail system didn't send
properly. He has mailed to me in response to my postings, so I know
we are connected somehow. If you are reading this, please drop me a
line.
End of Info-IBMPC Digest
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