monson@diablo.amd.com (Steve Monson) (06/17/91)
OK, here's the scenario ... my father-in-law has an old Model II that he's been using for about ten years. Now he has a new spiffy IBM PC type mcahine, and he has a bunch of SCRIPSIT files. How can I get hold of documentation on the format of those files, so I can write him a conversion program for the PC? Our local Tandy guy wasn't too helpful (or interested, apparently). Is there a central Tandy number we can call which will be of some use? One real bottleneck is that he has only a single 8" floppy drive. Converting the files to ASCII using SCRIPSIT's utilities would be possible, but inordinately time-consuming. We'd have to split each file into smaller pieces (can you say reformat disks?) since the disk must have enough room for both the SCRIPSIT file and the ASCII equivalent. This can be a long and dreary job for about 100 floppies. I have tried transmitting the files over the phone lines to the PC, and all the information is there, but there are mounds of junk that come along too. I'd like to be able to determine what is SCRIPSIT formatting information and how to convert the files to readable, properly formatted ASCII on the PC. Or, say... are there any PC editors that understand this SCRIPSIT file format? Maybe I couold use one of them to do the conversion. Any help or suggestions? I hope so, Steve -- Once you give up your integrity, the rest is a piece of cake. J.R. Ewing
bill@bilver.uucp (Bill Vermillion) (06/18/91)
In article <1991Jun17.154642.27750@dvorak.amd.com-> monson@diablo.amd.com (Steve Monson) writes:
->OK, here's the scenario ... my father-in-law has an old Model II that he's
->been using for about ten years. Now he has a new spiffy IBM PC type mcahine,
->and he has a bunch of SCRIPSIT files. How can I get hold of documentation
->on the format of those files, so I can write him a conversion program for
->the PC? Our local Tandy guy wasn't too helpful (or interested, apparently).
->Is there a central Tandy number we can call which will be of some use?
->One real bottleneck is that he has only a single 8" floppy drive. Converting
->the files to ASCII using SCRIPSIT's utilities would be possible, but
->inordinately time-consuming.
->Or, say... are there any PC editors that understand this SCRIPSIT file
->format? Maybe I couold use one of them to do the conversion.
Well Steve, you do have some problems.
Even the Scripsit for the '286 PC's and the Unix/Xenix version for the
'286's and '386'w wouldn't read the format for the TRSDOS or RS Model 16
versions of Scripsit.
I had one client that had bunch of things he needed to transfer (on a xenix
box) so we just printed them all - and turned off the printer. Then we
copied the resultant ascii files to the new machine.
There is/was a conversion for one of the Scripsit versions in Word Perfect
format about a year or so ago - from information I remember seeing on the
net.
Can you print to the serial port and capture on the PC. Just an idea.
--
Bill Vermillion - UUCP: ...!tarpit!bilver!bill
: bill@bilver.UUCPbill@camco.Celestial.COM (Bill Campbell) (06/18/91)
In <1991Jun17.154642.27750@dvorak.amd.com> monson@diablo.amd.com (Steve Monson) writes: >OK, here's the scenario ... my father-in-law has an old Model II that he's >been using for about ten years. Now he has a new spiffy IBM PC type mcahine, >and he has a bunch of SCRIPSIT files. How can I get hold of documentation >on the format of those files, so I can write him a conversion program for >the PC? Our local Tandy guy wasn't too helpful (or interested, apparently). >Is there a central Tandy number we can call which will be of some use? The SCRIPSIT files on the Model II had all documents in a single file and dedicated the entire disk to SCRIPSIT. There used to be thriving business recovering SCRIPSIT disks where people had clobbered the boot tracks by forgetting to turn on the external disks before booting the system. I think there was a utility to convert SCRIPSIT II to Xenix SCRIPSIT documents on the Tandy 16/6000s SCRIPSIT-16, and I have a program I wrote to convert SCRIPSIT-16 to WordPerfect 4.2. If I remember correctly you had to convert from the early versions of TRSDOS to TRSDOS 4.x before you could do the Xenix conversion. I would have to drag out my old manuals to figure out the exact procedures for the SCRIPSIT-II -> SCRIPSIT-16 conversion. As for a Tandy number to help, I think your're probably out of luck there. I couldn't find anyone at Tandy who knew anything about the internals of Xenix SCRIPSIT when I was writing my SCRIPSIT->WordPerfect conversion program and I had to figure out the document coding myself (not a fun job). Bill -- INTERNET: bill@Celestial.COM Bill Campbell; Celestial Software UUCP: ...!thebes!camco!bill 6641 East Mercer Way uunet!camco!bill Mercer Island, WA 98040; (206) 947-5591
jpr@jpradley.jpr.com (Jean-Pierre Radley) (06/30/91)
In article <1991Jun17.154642.27750@dvorak.amd.com> monson@diablo.amd.com (Steve Monson) writes: >OK, here's the scenario ... my father-in-law has an old Model II that he's >been using for about ten years. Now he has a new spiffy IBM PC type mcahine, >and he has a bunch of SCRIPSIT files. How can I get hold of documentation >on the format of those files, so I can write him a conversion program for >the PC? Our local Tandy guy wasn't too helpful (or interested, apparently). >Is there a central Tandy number we can call which will be of some use? > >One real bottleneck is that he has only a single 8" floppy drive. Converting >the files to ASCII using SCRIPSIT's utilities would be possible, but >inordinately time-consuming. We'd have to split each file into smaller >pieces (can you say reformat disks?) since the disk must have enough room >for both the SCRIPSIT file and the ASCII equivalent. This can be a long and >dreary job for about 100 floppies. > >I have tried transmitting the files over the phone lines to the PC, and >all the information is there, but there are mounds of junk that come along >too. I'd like to be able to determine what is SCRIPSIT formatting information >and how to convert the files to readable, properly formatted ASCII on the PC. > The rights to the Scripsit Code were acquired by John Esak, and while he is not putting out any new versions after the port to SCO Xenix, he might still have some ideas for you. Call him at 1-800-527-GURU (he publishes "The GURU"), or write to "root@valar.com" Jean-Pierre Radley Unix in NYC jpr@jpr.com jpradley!jpr CIS: 72160,1341