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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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.
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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-
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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?
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest
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