raymond@skippy.berkeley.edu (Raymond Chen) (02/20/90)
The response to my proposal for a FAQ file was overwhelmingly
favorable. (Not overwhelming, just overwhelmingly favorable.)
The FAQ file is not quite ready for prime time, but with your
help it will be. Here's what I need:
[1] Beta testers (I.e., people who will be willing to read the
current version, and make comments/suggestions)
[2] Votes as to whether the file should be posted just to comp.sys.ibm.pc
or also crossposted to comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d and
comp.sys.ibm.pc.programmer.
[3] Answers to the following stupid questions:
a. What are the differences between the following chips:
8086 80[23]86 80386DX 8087 80[23]87 80387DX V20 V30
b. How do I do a low-level reformat of my hard drive? What
interleave should I use? And what are these acronyms
ESDI, SCSI, RLL, MFM mean? Should I care?
c. Should I leave my PC turned on all the time? What about
mounting it sideways?
d. Any other question you think should be included but isn't.
Remember: If I don't get an answer to these questions, then
they won't go in the file, and people will continue
to ask them over and over and ...
And for those who are curious, here is the table of contents so far
CHAPTER 0: INTRODUCTION
0.1) What is this file?
0.2) I have a question that's not in this file. How should I ask it
to increase the chances that I'll get a response?
CHAPTER 1: OBTAINING PROGRAMS FROM THE ARCHIVES
1.1) What is anonymous ftp? How do I use it?
1.2) How do I use the programs that are posted to comp.binaries.ibm.pc?
1.3) I've uudecoded it, and the file is on my PC. Now what?
1.4) The unpacking program said that the archive was corrupted.
1.5) What public archives exist, and what are their IP numbers?
1.6) I do not have ftp access. Can somebody email me the files?
CHAPTER 2: PROGRAMMING
2.1) How do I program the mouse/joystick? What does interrupt X do?
How do I program my EGA/VGA/whatever graphics card?
2.2) How do I do direct video access from C? Read/write an arbitrary byte?
2.3) What is the difference between extended/expanded memory, and
how can I access it from my C/Pascal program?
2.4) Where can I get curses? vi? emacs? How do I remove a TSR from memory?
How do I write my own TSR?
2.5) What about GIF images? How do I view a GIF image?
CHAPTER 3: SOFTWARE AND VENDORS
3.1) Has anyone had any experience with {company X, product Y}?
3.2) I'm having trouble with product X. Can anyone help me?
3.3) What is the file format that application X uses?
3.4) Rumor has it that company X is working on a new version of product Y.
Does anybody have any information about it?
3.5) What is the SysReq key for?
CHAPTER 4: HARDWARE
**4.1) What are the differences between the following chips:
8086 80286 80386 80386SX 8087 80287 80387 80387SX V20 V30
4.2) Can I move floppies around freely between 1.2M and 360K drives?
How about formatting a 360K floppy as 1.2M? 720K as 1.44M?
**4.3) How do I do a low-level reformat of my hard drive? What
interleave should I use? And what are these acronyms
ESDI, SCSI, RLL, MFM mean? Should I care?
**4.4) Should I leave my PC turned on all the time? What about
mounting it sideways?
CHAPTER 5: MISCELLANEOUS
5.1) How do I undelete a file? Recover from an accidental reformat?
APPENDIX A: The uudecode program.
** These questions will not appear in the FAQ file if nobody sends me
the answers.
Send all questions, answers, suggestions, replies, flames, to
--
raymond@math.berkeley.edu mathematician by training, hacker by choice