Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA (Info-IBMPC Digest) (01/24/86)
Info-IBMPC Digest Wednesday, 23 January 1985 Volume 5 : Issue 11 This Week's Editor: Eliot Moore <Elmo@USC-ISIB> Today's Topics: HACK 3.0 undigested by a big hairy monster Current Epsilon EEL code listing Overlapping Windows in Microsoft Windows & Request for Comments GM & Lotus Debuggers & Large Hard Disks Cluster Size for 20 MB Hard Disk FAT and Reading Directories Polytron's PolyMake XENIX on fast AT's Tandy 1000 & SCO Xenix Vfiler Problem Multilink? and/or Multiuser Fido OPS-like Package Wanted High-Speed Synchronous Serial Boards (Query) MASM Bugs Remote Console Query ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 23 Jan 1986 17:03:04 PST Subject: HACK 3.0 undigested by a big hairy monster From: Koji Okazaki <swg.Koji@USC-ISIB.ARPA> To: Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA cc: Koji@USC-ISIB.ARPA The latest version of HACK is out finally. Digest the files at will. Don Kneller's introduction follows: ==================================================================== /-\ |@| You are being digested by a mysterious monster -- More -- \-/ PC HACK 3.0 ----------- Requirements ------------ This is an MSDOS version of UN*X HACK 1.03 written in Microsoft C v3.0. It requires 320K ram, DOS 2.x or higher, 2 floppies or 1 hard disk. It uses the ANSI.SYS driver for screen IO, so should be portable to most MSDOS machines. It does work on DEC Rainbows! It was written on an IBM PC with monochrome screen. Features -------- This is the complete UN*X HACK 1.03 with several enhancements: 1) Definable screen characters for the dungeon. Works on the Rainbow too! 2) Numeric key pad (cursor keys) support for IBM BIOS compatible computers (compatibility at the software interrupt level). 3) Support for RAMdisks, floppies, hard disks. If you have sufficient RAM for a RAMdisk, the game is much faster and quieter, especially for floppy-only systems. 4) Several options including pack sorting (by object class) and pack order (to set the sort order), confirmation before hitting tame or peaceful monsters, silent mode for turning off the bell. 5) Protection from disk full errors (and collapsing dungeons). 6) Save files are portable between MSDOS machines. 7) Configuration from a file to reduce the number of environment variables to 1 (which is also optional). Availability ------------ PC HACK 3.0 is available by anonymous ftp from ARPAnet host USC-ISIB in directory INFO-IBMPC. The executable is HACK30.ARC and sources are HACK30S.ARC. Both of these files are ARChives, having been created with ARC430.COM, and hence are binary files. Thus, when you ftp them, make sure you use a binary mode (from our ftp program, I use the command 'type tenex' to set binary mode). Also, if you use kermit to transfer them to your PC, you must use binary transfer (the -i flag in UNIX C-Kermit). The sources are written for the Microsoft C compiler v3.0 and depend extensively on structure assignment and passing, so there will be quite a bit of work converting to a compiler that does not support these. The large compiler model is used (> 64K prog, > 64K data). I will supply executable and source to people who do not have an ARPAnet connection. Send 1 DSDD floppy *formatted* for MSDOS (or PCDOS) 2.x if you want the executable only, and 1 ADDITIONAL floppy if you also want source. The sources will be in ARChive form, so you will need ARC430.COM to unpack them. If you send floppies, please send a SELF-ADDRESSED return mailer with sufficient postage! If you do not supply postage, include $2 for postage. Thanks for your interest in PC HACK, Don Kneller UUCP: ...ucbvax!ucsfcgl!kneller ARPA: kneller@ucsf-cgl.ARPA BITNET: kneller@ucsfcgl.BITNET USMAIL: 2 Panoramic Way #204 Berkeley, CA 94704 USA ------- ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jan 1986 17:26:10 PST Subject: Current Epsilon EEL code listing From: Koji Okazaki <swg.Koji@USC-ISIB.ARPA> To: Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA cc: Koji@USC-ISIB.ARPA The following is our current Epsilon EEL code listing. They are contained in <INFO-IBMPC.EEL>. Epsilon users are encouraged to snarf and contribute EEL code. EEL Code List ===================================================================== KMODE.E A collection of EEL routines that implement some useful functions that are present in TOPS-20 Emacs. <Bob Knight, KNIGHT@SRI-NIC> 1/22/86 LISPMODE.E Modifies Epsilon to be suitable for Lisp applications. <Rob Pettengill, CAD.PETTENGILL@MCC> 11/17/85 NUFORMAT.E Modified Epsilon FORMAT.E file that modifies the fill- paragraph so that it will right-justify the text when given a numeric argument. <Hadden@HI-MULTICS> 11/30/85 ------- ------------------------------ From: microsof!gaben@uw-beaver.arpa Subject: Overlapping Windows in Microsoft Windows & Request for Comments Date: Thu Jan 23 15:03:21 1986 Windows actually does support overlapping windows. In our retail package all of the applications that we included use tiles, but there is nothing that would prevent an application writer from writing an application that was in an overlapping window. Simple examples of overlapping windows are dialog boxes, menus, and pop-up windows (like the Get Info window of the MS-DOS Executive). This is in response to two items that stated that Windows did not have overlapping windows. One thing that I am interested in hearing about are reactions to our Retail Release and to our ISV ToolKit. We are putting together a wishlist of the features people would like to see in future releases of both of these products, and I would be interested in hearing people's suggestions. ------------------------------ Date: Wed 22 Jan 86 12:03:00-PST From: Found in a Bottle Subject: GM & Lotus GM bought a majority share of Lotus Development Corp. for $19 million. An announcement will be made in the next few days. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jan 86 09:32 EST From: Fedele.Wbst@Xerox.COM Subject: Debuggers & Large Hard Disks To: Info-IBMPC-Request@USC-ISIB.ARPA cc: Fedele.Wbst@Xerox.COM We are about to begin a major software task and are considering the purchase of a debugging tool to be used with Computer Innovations C and/or Intel's version of Mark Williams' C. At least two separate systems will be used for development - one XT and one AT. At this time, reviews and advertise- ments have us leaning in the direction of Periscope II by Data Base Decisions. If you have any experience with this or any other PC debuggiong tool, positive or negative, please share it with us. We are also considering the purchase of a gigunda hard drive (100M+) for the AT. Any caveats or recommendations? Finally, we will need a very large tape drive for storage of image files. Help!! Sam ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jan 86 08:09 PST From: DGilbert.ES@Xerox.COM Subject: Cluster Size for 20 MB Hard Disk To: Info-IBMPC Digest <Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA>, IBMPC^.ES@Xerox.COM cc: DGilbert.ES@Xerox.COM My thanks to Dan Hickey. Under DOS 3.1 I deleted the active partition on my 20 mb drive ( IBM PC/XT ) and then recreated it. This using FDISK. After using FORMAT/s/v, the cluster size dropped from 8k to 2k. Why do it? Well, my remaining free space went from approx. 3 mb up to 8 mb. Well worth the change. Apparantly, most hard disk you buy, such as the 20 mb unit I purchased from Priority One, already are partitioned with dos 2.1 format. FDISK tells you only that there is already a dos partiton. USE FDISK ANYWAY. Thanks again, Dan. Doug. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Jan 86 09:27 PST From: DGilbert.ES@Xerox.COM Subject: FAT and Reading Directories To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA cc: "David S. Bakin" <Bakin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA> > 3) Does anyone have any pointer to a similar program which WORKS? Do you have the NORTON UTILITIES 3.10. It has directory sorting, plus numerous other routines. Works with DOS 3.10 hard disk with 2K clusters. Highly recommended.... Doug. ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1986 20:46 EST From: LENOIL@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU To: johnl%IMA@THINK.ARPA Cc: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA Subject: Polytron's PolyMake >If you get Microsoft's assembler version 3.x or 4.0, they throw in a version >of make which is less powerful but looks useful. The version supplied with MASM 4.0 is much improved over the 3.x versions, offering default dependencies (e.g. .asm.obj) and macros. ------------------------------ From: <@ge-crd.arpa:davidsen@kbsvax> Subject: XENIX on fast AT's To: <info-ibmpc@usc-isib> Date: Wed, 22 Jan 86 13:04:29 est From: Davidsen <davidsen@kbsvax.steinmetz> I have tried SCO XENIX SysV on an AT running 7.5MHz, and it ran fine. When I get another copy and a new hard disk, it will go on my machine which runs at 9.0MHz. I will post the results. ------------------------------ Date: 23-Jan-86 10:56:32-PST From: kimery@FORD-WDL1 To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB Subject: Tandy 1000 & SCO Xenix So much for the "100% IBM compatibility" of the TANDY 1000. After several calls to Santa Cruz Operations, I have finally been told that the Tandy 1000 will NOT support XENIX. This has to do with the fact that the Tandy doesn't use memory parity. The SCO XENIX (Both SYS III and SYS V) have this embedded in all the code. If you are thinking of buying the TANDY 1000 as an IBM compatible, DON'T. Aside from this reason, there are a few others that I am aware of: 1. The tandy does not have DMA on the mother board, thus making it impossible to use the cheap memory boards available for the pc. You MUST purchase an expansion board with DMA built in. 2. The Tandy 1000 uses a different interupt for the hard disk controller, thus creating a need for a tandy specific controller. The controllers made for the PC will NOT work. Sometimes I really wonder why I even considered the Tandy, after all I did go through all the headaches with the Model 1. You think after that I might have learned something..... If anyone knows of a version of XENIX that will run on the Tandy 1000, please drop me a line at: fortune!wdl1!kimery or sun!wdl1!kimery or kimery@ford-wdl1.arpa If anyone at Tandy has enough guts to tell me that this "thing" is still 100% PC compatible, I'm waiting ....... ------------------------------ Date: Wed 22 Jan 1986 14:27:55 EDT From: <SAGE@LL.ARPA> Subject: Vfiler Problem To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib I would like to report and inquire about two bugs I have found in VFILER version 2.8 for MS-DOS, which I am using on three different Compaq computers (portable, Deskpro, and 286). Often, when I try to do a mass copy, VFILER neglects to ask for the destination directory but proceeds directly to copy the file to the current directory. Since it erases before it writes, this promptly destroys all the tagged files on the disk. Now I at least ask for verification on mass copy so that I have a chance to answer 'no' to all the prompts and save my files from destruction. Has anyone else experienced this problem also, and do you know of a solution. Could it be due to an interaction with SIDEKICK? Secondly, the help screen mentions an X command that is supposed to execute the file that is being pointed to. When I try it, I just get a message about the command not being recognized. Jay Sage SAGE at LL ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Jan 86 21:17 EST From: "David S. Bakin" <Bakin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA> Subject: Multilink? and/or Multiuser Fido To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA The Fido Installation manual refers to a multitasking software called Multilink, which I've never heard of. I'd appreciate a pointer to Multilink, or, in fact, to a multiuser Fido (e.g., phone number). Please just send a reply to me, not Info-IBMPC, as I suspect this query is rather specialized. Thanks! -- Dave Bakin (Bakin -at mit-multics) ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jan 86 16:32 PST From: William Daul / McDonnell-Douglas / APD-ASD <WBD.MDC@OFFICE-1.ARPA> Subject: OPS-like Package Wanted To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA A friend of mine is looking for a productivity software package that is like the APPLE-MAC OPS package. Thanks for any pointers you might send to me. --Bi// ------------------------------ Date: Fri 24 Jan 86 00:16:26-EST From: Drew D. Perkins <DP4Q@TE.CC.CMU.EDU> Subject: High-Speed Synchronous Serial Boards (Query) To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA Office: UCC-123 x6628 I'm looking for PC serial boards that support synchronous communications up to speeds of 64kb/sec. A board using a chip such as the Zilog SCC chip and having DMA capability would be perfect. Does anyone know of such a beast? Drew Perkins Drew.Perkins@te.cc.cmu.edu ------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1986 21:54 EST From: LENOIL@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU To: jhass%ucbiris@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU Cc: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA Subject: MASM Bugs In-reply-to: Msg of 20 Jan 1986 01:42-EST from jhass%ucbiris at BERKELEY.EDU (7) MASM sometimes incorrectly gives a "value out of range" error, as in the following: ;************************************************************* false equ 0 true equ not false db -1 ; This line is OK. db true ; MASM 4.0 chokes on this line. ;************************************************************* ----- Most values are 16-bit quantities, so "not 0" = -1 = 0FFFFh, which sure enough can't fit into a byte. Try "true equ low not false" and see if that works. (low extracts the lower 8 bits of a 16-bit quantity) ------------------------------ Date: 22 January 86 09:33-PST From: JMH%SLACVM.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA Subject: Remote Console Query Just finished reading the article from "Joe.Newcomer@a.sei.edu" in Info-IBM 860119. I need to connect a terminal to an IBM PC for my wife, who requires a special terminal because of visoin problems. As others have already been there I don't need to reinvent the wheel. I would appreciate information on the correct way, and the pitfalls of using a terminal as console for a PC. Also what programs work (or don't). Please send replies direct to me at address Jim Hodgers 240 S. 12th St. San Jose, Ca. 95112 or via Bitnet to JMH at SLACVM Thanks in advance for the help. ------------------------------ End of Info-IBMPC Digest ************************ -------