Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA (Info-IBMPC Digest) (10/30/85)
Info-IBMPC Digest Tuesday, 29 October 1985 Volume 4 : Issue 126 This Week's Editor: Today's Topics: Epsilon 3.0 from Lugaru SIMTEL20 Repository Status WHEREIS.ASM Update in Library DOSamatic Review Problems with Hidden Files Lotus 1-2-3 LISP/PROLOG Hostess 8 Channel Serial Interface Query PC ram Test Query ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 26 Oct 1985 14:01:19 PDT Subject: Epsilon 3.0 from Lugaru From: Billy <BRACKENRIDGE@USC-ISIB.ARPA> To: info-ibMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA I have been testing the latest version of Epsilon from Lugaru Software Ltd. My beta test version is 2.99, but I am told the official version 3.0 has been released. Epsilon is a clone of EMACS, a popular screen editor which runs on just about every machine and operating system worth discussing. It is the standard editor here as it is the only editor common to the myriad different machines in ISI's menagerie. Epsilon now includes an extension language called EEL. (Epsilon Extension Language) Richard Stallman, author of the original EMACS feels strongly that extendibility is one of the most important features of an editor and in the past has criticized the EMACS clones on the market. I think he would be pleased with the new version of Epsilon. With the exception of the new extension language, Epsilon 3.0 doesn't differ much from versions 2.xx. One major fix is in the incremental search. It used to be difficult to use the search command in a keyboard macro as the macro would execute whether the search was successful or not. Adding this conditionality to the search greatly increases the utility of keyboard macros. Version 3.00 is also more flexible regarding the hardware environment. One can now specify the size and location of the screen as well as access the color attributes of various displays. Lugaru makes the most intelligent use of search paths and environment variables I have seen in a DOS program. Epsilon will always find its file! Epsilon allows one to run compiles and other well behaved programs in background while you are editing. Background tasks only run while Epsilon is waiting for keyboard input so it doesn't slow down editing noticibly. I have had some problems with Texas Instruments resident device drivers loaded while running background assemblies. I was assured by Todd Doucet of Lugaru that Sidekick and other similar programs work fine with this version of Epsilon. If anyone experiences similar problems please let me or Lugaru know. The original EMACS was written in MIT TECO, other versions have been written in Lisp or Lisp like languages. Epsilon is written in EEL which has the syntax of C. The entire source code for Epsilon comes on the disk along with an EEL compiler. If there is something you don't like about Epsilon you can change it. I am no fan of C. I hate C. I have a closed mind on the subject. I assume someone who likes C would love EEL. I can tolerate EEL which coming from me is the highest praise. One of my many objections to C is that it tends to reflect strongly the hardware architecture of the machine it is running on. EEL is not a native compiler, but runs on a byte coded virtual machine. The best thing about EEL is you forget you are running on a miserable 8088. Integers are 32 bits. If you want a new buffer call: zap(buffer) and you have a buffer that can contain 32 bits worth of characters. You can have all the buffers you want and have them as full as you want. Swapping isn't that bad either. The algorithm seems to be more intelligent than your random page fault algorithms. Epsilon is an existence proof that well written EEL code need not be slow. One of Epsilon's biggest selling points has been that it is fast doing things like screen updates. As there are fast native routines for doing most anything you might want to do with strings of characters, you aren't spending much time in interpreted code. One of the powerful features of the EEL machine is the regular expression search. I am told it is more powerful than Unix's grep. I have used it for munging messages headers in routines I wrote to put together this digest. Once you get the hang of it is fun to play with and I think more powerful than the sorts of things one would have written in TECO. Lugaru's phone service is excellent. The company is run by computer programmers who sell a product primarily used by computer programmers. When you call the phone is always answered by one of the principal authors of the program (or at least they fooled me). As I had a beta test version I probably called more often than most people, but if they can step me through C syntax they can deal with anybody. Like many PC programs Epsilon is getting bigger. It requires twice the space on the disk as the last version. This is no problem on PCs with hard disks, but I am not throwing away my Epsilon 2.02 which is small. I can take it travelling on a floppy disk and still have room for other stuff. Lugaru Software Ltd. 5740 Darlington Road Pittsburgh, PA 15217 (412)421-5911 ------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Oct 1985 22:43 MST From: "Frank J. Wancho" <WANCHO@SIMTEL20.ARPA> To: INFO-CPM@AMSAA, INFO-MICRO@BRL, ADA-SW@SIMTEL20.ARPA cc: INFO-IBMPC@USC-ISIB, INFO-HZ100@RADC-TOPS20 Subject: SIMTEL20 Repository Status Collection Name # files # dirs ~Size(MB) # Disk Pages MICRO:<CPM.*> 2,880 124 30.6 16,651 MICRO:<CPMUG.*> 1,923 92 12.8 6,454 MICRO:<SIGM.*> 4,795 205 40.8 21,341 MICRO:<PC-BLUE.*> 3,092 104 27.3 14,694 PS:<ADA.*> 288 28 17.3 8,176 PS:<UNIX.*> 676 26 15.8 7,743 PS:<MAIL.ARCHIVES> 101/14 lists 37.5 13,681 MICRO: is an RP06 disk drive which is full. We are anticipating the installation of an RP07 Real Soon Now, along with a TU78 tape drive. The RP07 has a capacity of almost three times an RP06 and has double the channel speed. The TU78 is capable of 6250 bpi. Shortly after the installation and check out of the RP07, all the collections listed above, except the mail archives, will be moved to the RP07, which will be named PD:. We will then be able to bring the SIG/M and PC/BLUE collections up-to-date and add others as they become available. Look for an announcement of the changeover. Additions and changes to the CP/M collection are usually announced to INFO-CPM. Additions to the SIG/M and PC/BLUE collections are announced to INFO-CPM, INFO-MICRO, INFO-IBMPC, and INFO-HZ100. Additions and changes to the Ada collection are announced only to ADA-SW. To be added to ADA-SW, send your request to ADA-SW-REQUEST@SIMTEL20. Additions and changes to the Unix collection will be announced to a new list named UNIX-SW. To be added to UNIX-SW, send your request to UNIX-SW-REQUEST@SIMTEL20. --Frank ------------------------------ Date: 26 Oct 1985 15:48:42 PDT Subject: WHEREIS.ASM update added... From: Koji Okazaki <swg.KOJI@USC-ISIB.ARPA> To: Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA cc: Koji@USC-ISIB.ARPA The following file has been updated by Tom Brengle. Tom's source had some problems when assembling with MASM 3.0; however, Richard Gillmann cleaned that up. So snarfers, let's tip our hats to Tom and Richard, eh? WHEREIS.ASM Takes a file name or pattern (e.g., *.BAS) as an whereis.doc argument and finds where it is in the file system by starting at the root and working down through all the sub-directories. [Updated by Tom Brengle so that "WHEREIS filename" does the same thing as "WHEREIS filename.*"] <DECVAX!MCNC!AKGUA!CLYDE!FLOYD!WHUXLE!JPH@UCB-VAX> 2/18/84 <Tom Brengle, BRENGLE%LLL@LLL-MFE> 10/23/85 ------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Oct 85 10:33:38 PST From: walton%Deimos@CIT-Hamlet.ARPA Subject: DOSamatic Review I have just downloaded and attempted to use DOSamatic from UTEXAS-20. I am not impressed, I'm afraid. First of all, I think Erik Bailey misled us slightly, although probably unintentionally. DOSamatic is a command shell which uses the arrow keys and pop-up menus to move around in your system, allows single-keystroke deletion and creation of files, and so on. It is NOT a multitasker, however. You can indeed start several programs and switch between them using the "hot key" (ALT F10), but only the one at which you are currently looking is active. In DoubleDOS, for example, the background and foreground tasks operate independently. It also seems to be relatively buggy. Here are a few: I tried to run KERMIT as one of the tasks, and found that the Kermit escape sequence (<control-]>C) no longer got me back to Kermit command level. If I started an editor as a task, and jumped back to DOSamatic, the Tasks Active indicator on the main DOSamatic screen still said 0 tasks active. It seems to be sensitive to the placement of its necessary environment variables--if they're too far down the list, they don't get seen at all. There is a general difficulty here, I think, which is that its going to take a LOT more work, thought, and human engineering to make a command shell or environment which is both easy to use, flexible enough for programmers, and significantly faster and easier for a good touch typist (which I am) than just typing the commands at the DOS prompt. DOSamatic fulfills none of these criteria, and I don't intend to use it. Steve Walton Caltech Solar Astronomy walton%deimos@cit-hamlet.arpa walton@citdeimo.bitnet ...!psuvax1!walton@citdeimo.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Oct 85 17:30 EDT From: "Roger C. King" <RCKing@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA> Subject: Problems with Hidden Files Does anyone know how to get rid of hidden files? Roger King ------------------------------ Date: 25 Oct 1985 14:45:57 PDT Subject: Re: Problems with Hidden Files From: Info-IBMPC Digest <Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA> You can use the CHMOD program (in the Info-IBMPC library) to change the mode of hidden files to 0 (normal). Then delete them in the usual way. Dick Gillmann ------------------------------ Date: 27 Oct 1985 1829-PST From: Rob-Kling <Kling%uci-20b.zotnet@UCI.EDU> Subject: Lotus 1-2-3 To: burhan%ecld@usc-ecl.arpa cc: cfmucken@ddn2.arpa, info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa Jackie, I'm about to but 7 Leading Edge PC's w/hard disks so am concerned about potential problems of unreliability. Given the rave reviews in PC-Week, Consumer Reports,etc. it's unlikely that there is a basic flaw in the architecture.... however.... Here's one "elementary" guess about the problem w/Lotus 1-2-3 not writing to drive C. 1-2-3 must set the default drive to C: /wgdd [/worksheet, global, default, drive] must be set to C:\propersubdir. If his Lotus 1-2-3 is configured for B: as the default drive, he can get the problem you describe. [BTW: I have a had a minor problem with Vterm (a terminal emulator) generating unexpected software interrupts on the Model D. But other programs have run smoothly.....] I would appreciate hearing if there seems to be a design problem with the Leading Edge Model D. Rob Kling UC-Irvine. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Oct 85 9:31:21 EST From: Kenneth E. Van_Camp (LCWSL) <kvancamp@Pica-Lca.ARPA> To: info-ibmpc@Usc-Isib.ARPA Subject: LISP/PROLOG To whoever was asking about LISP and PROLOG on MS/DOS systems, and the person who subsequently noted the existence of XLISP in the public domain. I would also like to point out that the copy of XLISP that I got from Bytenet also included a PROLOG interpreter written in XLISP -- two birds with one stone, if you don't need much speed and don't need the full implementation. Also, if you don't want to fool around with C, there's a decent LISP interpreter written in Basic by Randy Beer that appeared in 80 Micro some time ago. It was written for TRS-80's but I easily ported it to my Sanyo 550. Let me know if you want more info on when it appeared, or maybe I can send source to USC-ISIB (although I don't know what copyright laws apply with regard to 80 Micro). --Ken Van Camp (kvancamp@pica-lca.arpa) ------------------------------ From: bierma@nprdc.arpa (Larry Bierma) Date: 29 October 1985 1329-PST (Tuesday) To: info-ibmpc@isib Subject: Hostess 8 channel serial interface Greetings, Does anyone know of a XENIX driver for the Hostess 8 channel serial interface? Alternativly, technical documentation on the hostess board and/or samples of other serial line drivers for XENIX would be appreciated --Larry ARPA: bierma@nprdc.arpa UUCP: {decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!sdcsla!nprdc!bierma PSTN: (619) 225-2161 "And where are all the sportsmen who always pulled you through" ------------------------------ Date: Saturday, 24 August 1985 14:39-MDT From: CSTROM@SIMTEL20.ARPA Subject: PC ram test needed ReSent-To: Info-IBMPC at USC-ISIB ReSent-Date: Sun 27 Oct 1985 09:47-MST Can somene point this CP/M refugee to a good public domain ram test program for the IBM PC/XT? Such a beast _must_ exist - I am looking for something akin to the CP/M-80 MEMR2, not the quick once-over type of thing the rom already does. Thanks. ------------------------------ End of Info-IBMPC Digest ************************ -------