Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA (Info-IBMPC Digest) (01/14/86)
Info-IBMPC Digest Monday, 13 January 1986 Volume 5 : Issue 4 This Week's Editor: Richard Nelson Today's Topics: PC/VI Now Available (2 msgs) ALICE Pascal - Syntax Directed Programming Environment New AT ROM Disk Type Tables Polytron's PolyMake HP Thinkjet Fortran Subroutine Library for PC-DOS (2 msgs) Statistical Package for the IBM-PC Epsilon and Sidekick Incompatibility (2 msgs) Hiding Files (3 msgs) Bare Boards and Real Cheap Clones Third Serial Port on a PC (2 msgs) Quadram Memory Board Problem PC-DOS Backup/Restore Format Query ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Pat M. Iurilli" <pat@pyuxqq.uucp> Subject: PC/VI Now Available Date: 10 Jan 86 15:20:49 GMT To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.ARPA A version of vi is now available that runs under MS-DOS. It's from Custom Software Systems, P.O.Box 551 MO., Shrewsbury, MA 00545, phone 617-842-1712 for $149.00. It is designed to run on an IBM PC or compatible. It's about time! -- Pat M. Iurilli Bell Communications Research Piscataway, NJ {allegra, ihnp4, topaz}!pyuxqq!pat ------------------------------ From: LORANY <lyourk@ihlpm.uucp> Subject: PC/VI Date: 12 Jan 86 05:38:14 GMT To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.ARPA > Custom Software Systems, P.O.Box 551 MO., Shrewsbury, MA 00545, > phone 617-842-1712 for $149.00. It is designed to run on an IBM PC or > compatible. It's about time! > -- If you get this you should also get a different ANSI.SYS device driver. I have purchased PC/VI and found it to be like an ADM 3a at 9600 baud with the standard ANSI.SYS driver due to the lack of delete or insert line. I purchased the FCONSOLE.DEV driver that Custom Software Systems recommended from Hersey Micro in MI and re-did the termcap (added the delete/insert line capability) for the 'ibmpc' entry. The difference in speed is like night and day. I use PC/VI in conjunction with Turbo Lightning and it makes a GREAT editing system. PC/VI also works with a terminal off the serial port at 9600 baud; just update the termcap lib for it. PC/VI has all of the idiosyncrasies the UNIX version has so there is nothing to get use to except fast response. I imagine that PC/VI would work even faster with an AT. A final note, if you don't have a hard disk it will slow down tremendously due to temporary file allocation for 'undo' and the space for the support files it requires. Now if I could only get a COMPLETE version of memorandum macros, 'mm' for MS-DOS, I wouldn't want to get UNIX for my pc anymore! Loran Yourk AT&T Technologies ihnp4!ihlpm!lyourk W: 312-510-6885 Disclammier: I have no connection with the companies mentioned above except that I am an addicted user of their software products and without them my PC/XT would be an expensive toy. ------------------------------ From: Brad Templeton <brad@looking.uucp> Subject: ALICE Pascal - Syntax Directed Programming Environment Date: 8 Jan 86 02:11:32 GMT To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.ARPA Product Announcement as Follows: ==================================================================== Looking Glass Software has launched ALICE: The Personal Pascal, a syntax-directed complete programming environment that is particularly good for learning and prototyping. It consists of an integrated template-driven syntax directed editor with a Pascal interpreter and debugging facilities. A syntax directed editor is an editor that intimately knows the syntax of a language. You edit your programs as program trees instead of dealing with them as text. New structures are built by filling in the blanks in templates. Among other things, it's impossible to make a syntax error in such a system. To see ALICE, pick up the January issue of Computer Language Magazine. Each copy has an ALICE demo disk stuck to the front cover. This is a full version that can't save files. You can also order the demo disk through ads in Byte, PC and PC World. It is published by Software Channels Inc. of Houston and Toronto. Or send mail to me for further information. The program itself is $95 and is shipping now for the IBM-PC. I won't go into major details here to avoid offending the net. You can mail for more full information, or if requested, I will post it to the net. Here is a short list of some of the notable features of the system. o Multi-level UNDO/REDO o Symbol name completion (like TENEX) o Menu of possible input at any point o Edit multiple programs o Colour to display semantic info o code "hiding" o Entry-time semantic error detection o All action from menus if desired o Use of uninitialized variables, bad array indices etc. detected o Motion picture execution mode o Macros for customization o Programmable editor (In Pascal!) o Over 500 help screens o Help on all commands, errors, built-in routines and features of Pascal Phone 713-359-1024 for details or mail me. 800-448-3400 Ext. ALICE to order. ========================================================================= Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473 ------------------------------ From: LICHTENBERG.PA@Xerox.ARPA Date: 10 Jan 86 13:36:11 EST Subject: New AT ROM disk type tables To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa Found on a bulletin board: /Mitch Lichtenberg. (Lichtenberg.PA@Xerox.arpa) =================== As most of you already know, the IBM PC/AT's ROMs have recently changed. The first change can be noted when running the new SETUP: 47 drive types! Opening the machine, one can see a *smaller* motherboard, which uses 256K RAM chips instead of the 128K stacked chips. Don't get your hopes up though -- the motherboard still only accepts 512 Kb total. The fixed disk drive parameter table in the IBM PC/AT now has room for 47 different drive types. Types 1 through 14, and 16 through 23 are defined. The remaining entries are all 0. Drive type 15 is a special type which indicates a new drive type (above 15). Two new fields apparently have been defined in the AT's CMOS RAM (the private RAM connected to the battery): address Description ========================================= 19h Drive type for fixed drive C: 1Ah Drive type for fixed drive D: At address 12h in the CMOS RAM, there is one byte which is used to define the drive type for both fixed disk drives C and D. Bits 4 through 7 defined the type for C and bits 0 through 3 for drive D, respectively. If either field indicates drive type 15 (decimal), then this is an indicator that the BIOS should look into the new locations in the CMOS RAM to get the correct drive type. [Actually, the BIOS may not even look into location 12h anymore, but it is set for compatibility]. Refer to pages 5-167 through 5-169 in the March 1984 edition of the IBM Personal Computer AT Technical Reference for a description of the drive characteristics table. Starting on page 1-45 of the same manual is a description of the layout of the CMOS RAM. Drive characteristics fields: Offset Description =================== 0 Max. Cylinders (word) 2 Max. Heads (byte) 3 Unused (word) 5 Write Preconpensation Cylinder (word) 7 Unused (byte) 8 Control flags (byte) Bit 7 or 6 to disable retries Bit 3 if more than 8 heads 9 Unused (3 bytes) 12 Landing Zone (word) 14 Sector per track (byte) 15 Reserved (byte) Drive Max Max Write Control Landing Sectors Type Cyl Heads Precomp Byte Zone per Track ======================================================== 1 306 4 128 0 305 17 2 615 4 300 0 615 17 3 615 6 300 0 615 17 4 940 8 512 0 940 17 5 940 6 512 0 940 17 6 615 4 -1(no) 0 615 17 7 462 8 256 0 511 17 8 733 5 -1(no) 0 733 17 9 900 15 -1(no) 8 901 17 10 820 3 -1(no) 0 820 17 11 855 5 -1(no) 0 855 17 12 855 7 -1(no) 0 855 17 13 306 8 128 0 319 17 14 733 7 -1(no) 0 733 17 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 (reserved) 16 612 4 0 0 663 17 17 977 5 300 0 977 17 18 977 7 -1(no) 0 977 17 19 1024 7 512 0 1023 17 20 733 5 300 0 732 17 21 733 7 300 0 732 17 22 733 5 300 0 733 17 23 306 4 0 0 336 17 24 0 0 0 0 0 0 (reserved 24-47) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (all zeroes) . . . . . . . 47 0 0 0 0 0 0 Has anyone out there figured out what IBM is referring to when they say the new IBM PC/AT ROMs will no longer support an 8 MHz clock? Has anyone noted any other ROM changes? ------------------------------ From: johnl@ima.uucp Subject: Polytron's PolyMake Date: 7 Jan 86 03:52:00 GMT We used Polytron's PolyMake to put together some large C programs, the largest of which is about 500K of object code. It is a good reimplementation of the Unix make and has no particular bugs that I've noticed. 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. John Levine, ima!johnl ------------------------------ From: Bamford <bamford@ihuxw.uucp> Subject: HP ThinkJet Date: 6 Jan 86 23:47:32 GMT To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.ARPA > [2] The mini-review of the HP ThinkJet in the PC Magazine 1984 (not 85) > printer review issue mentions that the ThinkJet has a full Epson > emulation mode. Yet, the review of the ThinkJet in the Jan85 BYTE > review says that the ThinkJet CANNOT emulate the Epson printers. > Can someone please tell me which review is correct? The ThinkJet emulates most of the functions of the MX-80 (with graphtrax). Graphics it does understand. Italics it does not. Underline it does, bold it does, n/216 " spacing it does not. I am able to use an epson-targeted routine to do a graphics screen dump to my thinkjet and the only problem is that the output is too narrow. Not a serious problem... Furthermore, printing a 100 page document on the HP will not cause permanent hearing loss ( :-) ) -- Harold Bamford AT&T Bell Labs Naperville, Ill (cornet) 8-367-5744 (312) 979-5744 (work) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Jan 86 09:38:08 cst From: cody@anl-mcs.ARPA (Jim Cody) To: 7508***%fsurai.bitnet@wiscvm.arpa Subject: Fortran Subroutine Library for PC-DOS There are at least three sources for numerical Fortran subroutine libraries for PCs: 1) The Scientific Desk is available from C. Abaci 208 St. Mary's Street Raleigh, NC 27605 (919) 832-4847 2) NAG PC-50 (their top 50 programs) is available from Numerical Algorithms Group, Inc. 1101 31st Street Suite 100 Downers Grove, IL 60515-1263 (312) 971-2337 3) A subset of the IMSL library is available from IMSL, Inc. 2500 ParkWest TRower One 2500 CityWest Boulevard Houston, TX 77042-3020 (713) 782-6060 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Jan 1986 20:14 EST From: Mike Kramer <MMKBC%CUNYVM.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU> Subject: FORTRAN Subroutine Libraries To: <Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA> In response to the request for a math subroutine library for the IBMPC similar to the IMSL mainframe pkg, look no further - IMSL offers a version of their subroutines called IMSL/PC. There are two libraries offered: IMSL/PC MATH LIB and IMSL/PC STAT LIB combined price for the pair (university rate) is $600 per copy. But check the list of subroutines; not all the mainframe subroutines have been ported. A cheaper and more limited collection of subroutines is available from Wiley (the book publisher) Professional Software. A full set of subroutines is available for $175. Languages supported are: C,Fortran,Basic. You must specify the language version you are interested in. Mike Kramer Dept. of Physics Brooklyn College of CUNY ------------------------------ Date: 10 JAN 86 15:55-N From: DOMMELEN%HWALHW5.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU To: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA Subject: Statistical Package for the IBM-PC. A version of the IMSL library for the PC is available, contact IMSL for information, delivery etc. We've ordered it but not yet received the stuff. The description sounds good, just what you expect from IMSL, I'll give you an excerpt from the folder they sent us: STAT/PC-LIBRARY includes the IMSL Library's most frequently used statistical subroutines, include: Basic statistics, Regression analysis, Analysis of variance, Nonparametric statistics and tests for goodness-of-fit, Time series analysis and forecasting, Random number generation, Probability distribution functions and their inverses. The address: IMSL, NBC Building, 7500 Bellaire Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77036 USA, telephone: (713) 772-1927. (usual disclaimer, we're a very content user of their mainframe version). Wim van Dommelen, Computer Centre Agricultural University, DOMMELEN@HWALHW5.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: Thu 9 Jan 86 11:18:30-PST From: William Pearson <PEARSON@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA> Subject: Epsilon and Sidekick Incompatibility I use these two programs together without any problem. You must be careful to exit SK with the same ALT-CTL sequence you entered it with instead of using ESC. Bill Pearson (Pearson@sumex-aim.arpa) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Jan 86 14:28:33 pst From: jeff@aids-unix (Jeff Dean) Subject: Epsilon and Sidekick Incompatibility I have been using Epsilon and Sidekick together with no problem. You obviously have to change the invocation sequence for Sidekick (using the Sidekick installation program); I have found the LEFTSHIFT-RIGHTSHIFT method convenient. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jan 1986 10:52:22 PST Subject: Hiding Files From: Richard Gillmann <GILLMANN@USC-ISIB.ARPA> To: Craig Norborg aka Doc Pierce <aic@PUCC-I.ARPA> cc: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA In-Reply-To: <1236@pucc-i> You can make files read-only or hidden in MS-DOS. Every file has an attribute byte associated with it. One nice zero cost way to set the attribute byte is to use the CHMOD program in the Info-IBMPC library. Of course, anyone who knows what they're doing could find the file and reset the attribute byte, so this won't stop a malicious hacker. Dick Gillmann ------------------------------ From: brown@nicmad.uucp Subject: Hiding Files Date: 8 Jan 86 15:52:44 GMT To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.ARPA In article <1236@pucc-i> aic@pucc-i.UUCP (Craig Norborg aka Doc Pierce) writes: > > For security purposes at a place I work, we were wondering if it was >possible in ms-dos to make files so that people couldn't write onto them. >One possible way we thought of was just to make the files so they can't >see them by "hiding" them like some of the system files. I know write >protecting a floppy is one way, but this doesn't help with a hard drive. >Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated. One way is to use the PC-DOS ATTRIB command, which allows you to change the Read Only attribute. You could also get Norton's Utilities, 3.0+, and use the sector r/w capabilities and manual change the directory entry so that you can hide and read protect the file. A MS-DOS directory entry is like this: Bytes 0-7 Filename 8-10 Extension 11 File Attribute 01h read only 02h hidden file 04h system file 08h filename+ext = volume label (root directory only) 10h subdirectory name 20h archive bit You add up the bits in byte 11 to get the combination you want. Hope this helps. ------------------------------ From: Ward Christensen <ward@chinet.uucp> Subject: Hiding Files Date: 8 Jan 86 05:37:14 GMT To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.ARPA There are a couple of public domain utilities that will do what you want. If you have access thru Compuserve, via a local users group, whatever, you should be able to find them. The two I have are ALTER, which only does a single file, and CHMOD that can do several files at once. I use it like a security system - creating subdirectories with funny names, then hiding them. Actually, you can also "zap the bits" with a disk utility such as Norton - I often do this (although I use Media Magician since Norton didn't [initially] support my 15M hard disk). "You know, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know" Bela Lubkin ------------------------------ Date: Fri 10 Jan 86 11:23:33-CST From: Larry Smith <CMP.LSMITH@R20.UTEXAS.EDU> Subject: Bare Boards and Real Cheap Clones I bought a clone from Compu-add and have had no problems, though I don't do anything at all fancy. It was 640K, two half-height floppies, clock, Amdek 310A monochrome monitor, DOS 2.11, and Epson LX-80 printer for $1200 just before Christmas. The most complicated thing I've done is add a RAM disk, which was only hard because I'd never done any assembly language programming and didn't know anything about MS-DOS. I ought to try Sidekick and let you know if it works. Oh, by the way, I added one of those 1200 baud board modems from PC's limited ($159, no software) and it works perfectly. ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jan 86 00:50 PST From: William Daul / McDonnell-Douglas / APD-ASD <WBD.TYM@OFFICE-1.ARPA> Subject: Third Serial Port on a PC Query We are trying to find out what hardware is available that can be used for a 3rd serial port on a IBM-PC. We will write the device driver doing the I/O instructions. What interrupt lines would such a device use? Thanks for any leads or suggestions, --Bi// ------------------------------ Date: 9 Jan 1986 10:32:28 PST Subject: Third Serial Port on a PC From: Richard Gillmann <GILLMANN@USC-ISIB.ARPA> To: William Daul / McDonnell-Douglas / APD-ASD <WBD.TYM@OFFICE-1.ARPA> Any card with a serial port on it can be used for COM3 and COM4. The problem is that only two interrupt levels are reserved for serial interrupts, namely level 4 for COM1 and level 3 for COM2. It's been suggested that you could put two ports on one interrupt level and poll them both when you got an interrupt but as far as I know this has never been tried. There are a zillion PC expansion cards on the market. Maybe you could find one that allowed you to tie COM3 to some other interrupt. Level 2 is generally unused on non-ATs. I believe Tecmar makes a board with 8 serial ports on it. I don't know how they propose to use them all, but it might be worth looking into. Of course, if the data rate of your application is slow enough, you might be able to get away with polling and avoid interrupts entirely. Dick Gillmann ------------------------------ To: ud-ibmpc@huey.udel.EDU cc: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.ARPA Subject: Quadram Memory Board Problem Date: Thu, 09 Jan 86 13:08:26 -0500 Message-ID: <6128.505678106@huey> From: Dave Farber <farber@huey.udel.EDU> The Quadram extended memory boards for the AT consistently!! fail to work with 15 megahertz crystals. I have a AST board at home that runs great at 18 mh. Somewhere out on the net I remember seeing a comment on that. Can someone help? Dave ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Jan 86 00:31:08 est From: Robert Morris <ram%umass-boston.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa Subject: PC-DOS Backup/Restore Format Query Cc: ram@umass-boston.CSNET By looking at files made with pcdos 3.0 BACKUP, I hacked up a version of restore to run under unix which restores into a file hierarchy replicating that of the msdos backup, and it seems to work well enough with backup files loaded up with kermit 2.27. For the other direction, to copy a tree down to the pc, I need to know a little more about the backup format. Is it documented anywhere? Do these programs already exist? Does kermit have magical tree copying ability that I just don't know about? Is there another way to solve this problem (e.g. tar running on the pc ) ? ------------------------------ End of Info-IBMPC Digest ************************ -------