Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA (Info-IBMPC Digest) (10/31/85)
Info-IBMPC Digest Wednesday, 30 October 1985 Volume 4 : Issue 127 This Week's Editor: Eliot Moore <Elmo@USC-ISIB.Arpa> Today's Topics: DEARC - Generic TurboPascal Program Unpacks .ARC Files Mystic Pascal NEC V20 (2 Messages) Graphics in MS Fortran Dual Color Monitors PC Network Today's Queries: Lotus and extended RAM Bridge (the card game) XENIX Updates ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wednesday, 30 October 1985 07:50-MST From: "B.Eiben LCG Ext 617-467-4431" <EIBEN@MARLBORO.DEC.COM> Subject: DEARC - Generic TurboPascal Program Unpacks .ARC Files ReSent-To: Info-IBMPC at USC-ISIB DEARC.PQS, a generic Turbo V3 routine which unpacks .ARC files, (ARC is a utility widely used on FIDO bulletin boards to pack files together), has been uploaded to SIMTEL20 as: Filename Type Bytes CRC Directory MICRO:<CPM.TURBOPAS> DEARC.PQS.1 BINARY 11904 89D3H Up to now, we CPM people have been stuck having to skip any .ARC files. No longer!!!! The utility should be compiled and run passing the .ARC filename as the p1 parameter. Al Hull ------------------------------ Date: 31 Oct 85 00:04:49 EST From: John McNamee <jpm@BNL44.ARPA> To: Info-IBMPC@USC-ISI.ARPA Subject: Mystic Pascal Have you all seen the ads for Mystic Pascal? They promise the world for a low price. Sound a little familiar? It should. Guess who runs Mystic? None other than Jim Tyson of JRT Pascal fame. Would you buy something from the man who pulled off the JRT scam? I sure as hell wouldn't, and I don't think many other people would either. And don't think that Jim has reformed his ways. Mystic Pascal is nowhere near done, yet you can be sure they will take your money and tell you that your package will ship the next day. John P. McNamee decvax!philabs!sbcs!bnl44!jpm jpm@BNL44.ARPA ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Oct 85 22:02:13 PST From: walton%Deimos@CIT-Hamlet.ARPA Subject: Multiply and NEC V20 In digest 66, Bob Stine stated that he had been told by the company which sells Easy-Flow Plus, HavenTree Software, that installation of a V20 broke the latter program because the multiply overflow bit is set when the product of two 8-bit numbers gives a 16 bit result. This is hogwash. After execution of the following three instructions, the carry and overflow flags will be set on both an 8088/8086 and a V20, as they should be: MOV AX,FF ; put 255 decimal into AX MOV BX,2 MUL BL ; multiply a byte 255 by a byte 2, giving ; the result of 510 (1FE Hex) in AX If the installation of the V20 really did break a piece of software, then it is important that the net know about it. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Oct 85 15:27:28 PST From: walton%Deimos@CIT-Hamlet.ARPA Subject: NEC V20 It appears as though I will have to eat my words somewhat. I have found a (combination of) software which crashes my Z-151 when a NEC V20 is installed, and works fine with an 8088 installed. I had been having mysterious crashes of my system during the past few weeks, but had attributed them to combinations of various new RAM resident utilities which I thought might be interfering with each other. Yesterday things were so bad that I ran the Zenith Disk Based Diagnostics on my machine. I got horrible error messages on the CPU Board Diagnostic: "Either the System Clock is Slow or the Prog Int Timer Is Fast", and "CPU/COMM Speed Error", and recommendations that the interval timer (8253 chip) and/or the interrupt controller (8259 chip) and/or the clock crystal were bad. Re- placing the 5Mhz V20 with an 8 MHz one I had produced the same result. Replacing the V20 with an 8088 made the problem disappear. Two other Z151's with V20's installed give the first of these two messages, but they haven't suffered mysterious crashes of late. In addition, I have a specific instance of software which crashes my machine when the V20 is installed which works fine when an 8088 is installed--a combination of DoubleDOS and the public domain program DPATH. If DPATH installation is attempted after DoubleDOS is installed, the system crashes with a V20 installed, but works fine with an 8088 installed. So much for my last (?) word on the V20. Steve Walton Caltech Solar Astronomy walton%deimos@cit-hamlet.arpa walton@citdeimo.bitnet ...!psuvax1!walton@citdeimo.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Oct 85 9:35:32 EST From: Kenneth E. Van_Camp (LCWSL) <kvancamp@Pica-Lca.ARPA> To: spiros%gmr.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa Subject: Graphics in MS Fortran The Graphics Development Toolkit from IBM supports the Microsoft Fortran compiler and many graphics boards, printers and plotters. It's a pretty good package and should fulfill your needs. --Ken Van Camp (kvancamp@pica-lca.arpa) ------------------------------ From: crash!landreth@sdcsvax.arpa Date: Tue, 29 Oct 85 17:38:19 PST To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa Subject: Dual Color Monitors > Is it possible to disply and update two different monitors...preferably > color.... It should be quite possible, but I can think of no way offhand without "cheating." It is fairly simply to control an IBM monochrome adaptor/display and a IBM CGA/display (or compatables, of course), but most color displays are mapped into the the B800 segment which means that if two adaptors are plugged in they will conflict. Some non-IBM color display adaptors may allow you to re-map their video-ram which would solve your problem. Now assuming all this works out, you have to write your own software to address both monitors! If you can get both displays "active" at once (sending signals to their respective monitors) then it is simply a matter of manipulating the video RAM in each card separately... Any other ideas?? Bill Landreth { ihnp4 | sdcsvax }!crash!landreth crash!landreth@ucsd ------------------------------ From: crash!landreth@sdcsvax.arpa Date: Tue, 29 Oct 85 17:40:17 PST To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa Subject: PC Network I am too a member of the PC-Network. While I have no reason to be angry or otherwise dissatisfied in particular, I do feel that the Network is very devious in its marketing tactics...this is just a few steps above "telling semi-truths." The reason: PC-Network has good prices. Period. Not great, not the best I've ever seen, but quite good. This is okay, nothing to worry about....EXCEPT that the advertising PC-Network uses makes you feel that you are getting the absolute best deal available anywhere, and the ONLY place they make money is on the initial membership fee. "OK, fine. But that's what EVERY dealer says!" To an extent true, but in PC-Network's case they claim two things: 1: Since they buy in major quantities, they get better deals then everyone else. 2: They STRONGLY imply that you pay their cost+8%. In some cases this last implication simply couldn't be true. I have seen retailers selling the same things for below what the Network says is "wholesale." Now keep in mind that the retailer I am talking about would buy in quantities of 7-10, while PC-Network has the advantages of both quantity and that 8%. Plus the fact that PC-Network got your membership fee. And yet the small retailer can beat the network's wholesale price? Bill { ihnp4 | cbosgd | sdcsvax }!crash!landreth ------------------------------ Date: Wed 30 Oct 85 09:40:20-PST From: Ted Shapin <BEC.SHAPIN@USC-ECL.ARPA> Subject: Lotus and extended RAM To: info-ibmpc@USC-ISIB.ARPA Phone: (714)961-3393; Mail:Beckman Instruments, Inc. Mail-addr: 2500 Harbor Blvd., X-11, Fullerton CA 92634 Does anyone know how to make Lotus recognize the extended memory in the AST board that came out before Intel and Lotus published their expanded memory specification? Ted. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Oct 85 12:51 PST From: Steve Kleiser / McDonnell Douglas ISG / ASD <SGK.TYM@OFFICE-1.ARPA> Subject: Bridge (the card game) Query To: Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA I'd like my XT to be able to play bridge (well, 3 hands anyway!), but have not had any success finding that kind of software. Can anybody help? Thanks! -steve- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Oct 85 16:05:01 est From: Mike Ciaraldi <ciaraldi@rochester.arpa> To: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa Subject: XENIX Updates Query I am also sending this message for my friend Lee Harris. Please reply to Mike Ciaraldi (ciaraldi@rochester). ~s IBM XENIX and new model 239 IBM PC AT with 30 Mb hard disk In the Product Announcement dated Oct. 1, for the model 239, IBM stated that "XENIX 1.0 customers operating with a 5170 model 239 will require an update to the XENIX 1.0 installation diskette." I'm about to order a PC AT model 239 and IBM XENIX to go with it. The order is direct from IBM on a state university research foundation contract; so the local IBM product center has not been terribly cooperative in providing info. I'm a little leery because of that and because of messages I've read about difficulty in obtaining documentation from IBM. Does anyone know whether I'll be provided with the recently announced XENIX maintenance update (reported on this bulletin board) or the update to the installation diskette when I buy XENIX? If not, what is the procedure to obtain these directly from IBM, once I've received XENIX? I know it's a little early to ask, but does anyone know whether the patch to the installation diskette actually works? I.E., does XENIX handle the 30 Mb disk OK if it's installed with the patched installation program? Also, what do people know about this new 30Mb disk? Does it use a voice coil? How fast is it? Is it made only by IBM, or do they also buy someone else's drive? And, what "device type" is it, when you configure your system? ------------------------------ End of Info-IBMPC Digest ************************ -------