Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest") (04/28/91)
Info-IBMPC Digest Sat, 27 Apr 91 Volume 91 : Issue 101
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Rota Spain <GHICKS@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil>
Today's Topics:
Apple to IBM -- apple works to ASCII
Reading BBC Micro-Floppy Disks with PC
Disk Drive alignment
Hard Disk Card (V91 #93)
MINISCRIBE CORPORATION (V91 #93)
INT 14
Mod 50Z 2MB on mother
PS/2 1.44Mb drives
Creating an image of a floppy in a disk file (V91 #70)
European C++ User Group
Today's Queries:
ACCOLADE DOC A1
A good Backup in ftp
Better than PRINTSHOP & PRINTMASTER
Problem with Word Perfect on PCSA net
PS2 RS232C Problem
What OS is ACE?
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Date: Wed, 17 Apr 91 12:26:19 +1000
From: c8921212@nucssun1.newcastle.edu.au (Luke Plaizier)
Subject: Apple to IBM -- apple works to ASCII
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest you write:
> Does anyone know if there is an easy way to convert Apple Works
>files to ASCII and then convert them over to an IBM format using an
>Apple 2e. I have heard that it is possible on a MAC, but I am not
>familiar at all with apple computers. I thought about sending the
>apple files to a VAX and then downloading them on an IBM, but how would
>I get the software to run the apple with my modem (without spending
>money of course).
Actually, there is a program around that lets an ibm read apple
disks, but I'm afraid I saw that last year sometime and wouldn't have a
clue as to what it was called or where to find it.
I can sympathise with you because just two weeks ago I upgraded from
a 1986 IIc (The last IIc available in Australia) to a 386 25Mhz. I have
kermit for the IIc which has worked fine (gifs no larger than 100k etc)
and to transfer files I suppose I could log the IIc into a mainframe,
transfer there and then transfer back to ibm. But I have over 50 disks
of appleworks stuff and plan to cable the two together. With the right
cable and software for both the only question is whether to log the IIc
into the 386 or vice versa. I think since the 386 has capture that text
transfer would probable be the best. The hard bit then would be to get
kermit to scroll text - one thing I haven't checked is if kermit
'types'; files which I think by memory it does.
I don't know if I have helped. If you want kermit for the Apple you
can send me some blank disks or apply to comp.sys.apple 2 and there
should be someone in your native country willing to help.
Luke Plaizier.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 91 09:24 MET
From: Anneke Sicherer-Roetman <ANNEKE%HUTRUU54.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Reading BBC Micro-Floppy Disks with PC
>Date: Fri, 5 Apr 91 12:17:52 BST
>From: David J Bartrum <djb@gec-marconi-software-systems.co.uk>
>Does anybody know of a program to reconfigure the IBM PC floppy disk
>drive to read BBC micro floppy disks?
>Failing this, what about any information on reconfiguring the floppy
>drive (by software) or info on the physical formats of BBC or PC floppy
>disks?
I may be able to help you if you can link the BBC and a PC
via RS232/RS423 as I have done. I wrote a communications program for
the BBC that does XMODEM binary file transfer. I'm sure you can locate
a similar program for the PC (I use an old version of Procomm). I can
also give you the exact wire layout between the PR423 and an AT 9-pin
RS232 connector. If you think this might help, please contact me (and
check your email address). Anneke (from Holland)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 91 14:13:13 EDT
From: moy@xp.psych.nyu.edu ()
Subject: Disk Drive alignment
Hi there--
I am a little puzzled how you concluded that the floppy drives were
out of alignment. In my experience, floppy drives rarely become
misaligned. Even the old belt-driven Shugarts from the old Apple ]['s
kept pretty good alignment--and they used a grooved plastic disk and
cam follower to position the head!
I suggest eliminating other possible sources of diskette failures,
like:
* Faulty cable or controller
* Dirty heads OR dirty disks
* Disk drive is near magnetic fields, like monitor flyback
* Faulty disks -- are they cheap, Brand-X?
* Incorrect type of diskette media -- DS-HD disk in DD drive?
* Missing or extra terminator
* Weird DOS/BIOS incompatibility -- does machine require its own
flavor of DOS?
* Bus speed too high for controller
* Using Double-Density diskettes *written* on High-Density drives in
Double-Density drive
The latter cause for diskette "failure" could be a whole can of worms
for the uninitiated, and is one thing I suggest you check first! This
problem has to do an intrinsic difficulty with the different head and
track widths for the two kinds of drives. Most IBM-compatibles are now
being supplied with High-Density drives by default, while there is
still a very large population of XT clones with only Double-Density
drives.
VERY BRIEFLY: You may not be able to use a 5-1/4" Double-Density
drive to read a Double-Density diskette that was written to by a
High-Density drive, with ONLY ONE exception--A fresh, *unused or
bulk-erased Double-Density diskette* formatted, using the "/4" switch,
in a High-Density drive, and written ONLY with a High-Density drive.
This single issue has caused more "Sector not found" panics here than I
can count. I even devoted an article in our in-house newsletter to
this topic.
-Moy Wong, Dept. of Psychology, New York University
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 91 09:25 EDT
From: Danny Taub <DATAUB@vaxsar.vassar.edu>
Subject: Hard Disk Card (V91 #93)
In info-IBM-PC V91 #93, ADDOLORATO Flavio <CALC0N@IMIBOCCO> writes:
> this is my problem. With our technical support we
>recovered a "Hard Disk Card" from an old machine. We'd like to use it
>on a PC/XT as secondary hard disk driver.
>But we don't have any documentation about how do it. On the Hard Disk
>Card there is the following:
> FILE CARD 20
> WESTERN DIGITAL
> ENHANCED PERIPHERALS
> MINISCRIBE CORPORATION
> LONGMONT COLORADO
> USA
>Please send me any information you have about to install this kind of
>device on a PC/XT that already have a hard disk. I'd like also to know
>the address and the fax number of MINISCRIBE CORPORATION
While I don't have the address, I have the number I used 2 years ago
when my 6 year-old drives died. The number is: 303-651-6000. I don't
know if it still works. Best of luck.
Danny Taub
Dataub@Vassar.Edu
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1991 10:37:59 PDT
From: George_C._Burkitt.El_Segundo@xerox.com
Subject: MINISCRIBE CORPORATION (V91 #93)
>From: ADDOLORATO Flavio <CALC0N@IMIBOCCO>
Miniscribe is now a part of Maxtor Corp, but I think the old US Phone
number will still get you to the once-Miniscribe headquarters in
Colorado.
Was Miniscribe US/Colo (305)651-6000
Miniscribe's old European Sales office was 06196-481608, Eschborn,
Germany, may be gone by now
Maxtor's US HDQ is (408)432-1700 in Cailfornia
FAX (408)434-6469
Tech Support (probavly Maxtor product) (408)432-4777
Sorry, I threw away all my Miniscribe phone numbers.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 91 09:30 MET
From: Anneke Sicherer-Roetman <ANNEKE%HUTRUU54.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: INT 14
I have tried this to no avail. I ended up using the very good library
Turbo Async from Blaise Computing. I believe they have a similar
product for C as well (Turbo Async is Pascal). Anneke
------------------------------
Date: 16 April 1991 23:00:47 CDT
From: Darius Vaskelis <u39648@UICVM.uic.edu>
Subject: Mod 50Z 2MB on mother
> I recently installed a 2MB SIMM on my IBM 50-Z' motherboard and would
> like to explore the options of its use.
Minus programs that use it for memory, such as Windows 3.0 or 1-2-3
3.0/1 you've named the biggies: RAMdisk or disk cache.
> 1) This 2MB is exTENDed; XMA2EMS.SYS should be able to configure it as
> exPANDed. However, the oringinal release of PC-DOS 4.00 had a bug in
> XMA2EMS.SYS and will not work with this memory configuration. The
> problem was supposedly fixed in a later version of 4.01, which I have
> and it was not actually fixed. Is there any other way I can configure
> this memory as exPANDed? (like emm386.sys?)
XMA2EMS.SYS, while being buggy in early versions of IBM PC-DOS, was
never intended to turn extended memory on IBM PS/2 computers into
expanded (EMS) memory. What is was intended to do was turn memory on
certain IBM adapter cards for 3270 emulation, XMA memory, into
something a bit more usable in DOS. Namely, expanded (EMS) memory.
Later on, IBM continued to offer cards that used XMA2EMS.SYS to provide
EMS memory.
The sad fact is that an 80286 based machine doesn't have the ability to
remap memory addresses by itself. It needs assistance from other
hardware to do so. But you're not totally out of the water:
1. The All ChargeCard: a product available from IBM educational
resellers is a small card that you place between the 80286 and the
motherboard. It allows full LIMspec 4.0 EMS emulation in hardware for
extended memory. Also allows for 900K+ of free memory under DOS if
graphics modes are not used.
2. i386SX processor replacements: a number of them exist, one of the
better ones seems to be the Sota 386/Express. You yank out your 80286
and replace it with a 16MHz 386SX with 16K cache or a 20MHz 386SX with
32K cache. Also allows for a 387SX math coprocessor, and then you can
use any of the 386 EMS emulators. (QEMM-386, 386MAX, BlueMAX, etc.)
3. Software EMS emulation: on an 80286, this isn't as great as it
sounds. The reason is that without additional hardware, like an All
ChargeCard or a NEAT chipset, you need to sacrifice 64K out of the
precious lower 640K area for the EMS page frame. Also, this EMS memory
will be the slowest around... the CPU needs to pop in and out of
protected mode to access the memory, and only then can it provide it to
the EMS driver. A good one can be found in:
PD:<MSDOS.SYSUTL>EMS40V11.ARC
I think it's originally from PC Magazine, which usually means it
includes the source code.
> 3) I am not interested in running Windows (I find the interface
> cumbersome since I already know DOS well and use 4DOS), but would
> consider DesqView. Can someone tell me what DesqView (or any other
> character-based multi- tasking program) will do for me?
DesqView will let you run multiple applications at the same time, and
will even allow some limited cut and paste between otherwise
incompatible programs. Without a 386 or better though, you only have
640K to work with, and EMS memory is used for swapping. If you have an
EMS 4.0 driver, you can have code execute out of EMS memory, much like
the DesqView/QEMM-386 combination. Note that Quarterdeck makes a
QEMM-50/60 for IBM PS/2s, but that it does its EMS "magic" on expanded
memory found on genuine IBM (and some compatibles) memory expansion
adapters, not the motherboard. It uses some Micro Channel tricks to
map the memory in high memory and create, for all practical purposes,
hardware EMS 4.0 emulation.
My suggestion: go for the software emulation. It's cheap and easy, but
you lose 64K and speed. Unless EMS memory is very necessary to your
system, then I'd go with the All ChargeCard. Note that the All
ChargeCard would be rendered worthless if you replace your CPU with a
386SX later, or add a general bus-mastering CPU replacement (like the
Aox MicroMASTER 386/486 Micro Channel cards).
- Darius
BITNET: U39648@UICVM | "I'd rather laugh with the sinners
Internet: u39648@uicvm.uic.edu | than cry with the saints,
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1991 14:33:00 GMT
From: paulg@bhpmrl.oz.au (Paul Gallagher)
Subject: PS/2 1.44Mb drives
I think there's one or two other brands that like the PS/2, don't check
for the high density hole. I get quite a few people running to me
saying they can't read disks that work fine on PS/2s. Depending upon
which way the format problem has occured, its often useful to have a
roll of sticky tape handy, to cover that troublesome hole!
Paul Gallagher
/\/\ Paul Gallagher, PC Support Officer,
/ / /\ Computer Systems Group,
/ / / \ BHP Melbourne Research Laboratories
/ / / /\ \ 245 Wellington Rd Mulgrave Vic 3170 AUSTRALIA
\ \/ / / / Phone : +61-3-560-7066, Fax : +61-3-561-6709
\ / / / ACSnet : paulg@bhpmrl.OZ.AU
\/\/\/
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 91 08:57:23 +0200
From: RolandF%DGIHRZ01.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Creating an image of a floppy in a disk file (V91 #70)
In Info-IBMPC Digest V91 #70, "Andreas Tranquillini"
<C102TA@AINUNI01.BITNET> asked:
>We need to duplicate a number of DOS floppies (Campus licensed piece of
>software) several hundred times. PKZIP-ing the files from the
>distribution disks does not work in our case
>We would need a solution where a one-to-one image of a floppy can be
>created in a hard-disk file...
The programs 2DISK and 2FLOPPY in the recent PC-Magazine Vol. 10 #5
(March 1991) is just what you need. They are available from Simtel (as
<MSDOS.PCMAG>VOL10N05.ZIP).
"hope this helps", Roland
Roland Friedrich, Ph.D. | Internet: RolandF@hrz.uni-giessen.dbp.de
Professor of Virology | Bitnet: RolandF@dgihrz01
Institute of Med. Virology | Tel.: +49-641-702-2874
Justus Liebig University | FAX: +49-641-702-7390
W-6300 Giessen / Germany |
------------------------------
Date: Tue Apr 16 19:19:21 BST 1991
From: Mike O'Carroll <mike@elec-eng.leeds.ac.uk>
Subject: European C++ User Group
Although a European effort initially, we would of course be interested
to hear from any other similar groups worldwide.
This message is to announce the setting up of a new user group, the
European C++ User Group
The group will be primarily concerned with real life applications of
C++, rather than detailed considerations of language design, syntax,
etc.
The address for correspondance is:
E-mail: ecug@inset.co.uk uucp: ...!mcsun!ukc!inset!ecug
Snailmail: European C++ User Group
City House
190, City Road
London EC1V 2QH
Mike O'Carroll, Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering,
The University, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
E-mail: @ukc.ac.uk:mike@ee.leeds[.ac.uk]
uucp: ...!mcsun!ukc!lena!mike OR mike@lena.uucp
earn: mike%ee.leeds@earn-relay.ac.uk
------------------------------
Date: Wed Apr 17 15:50:00 1991
From: <JVIGNOLO%UCVVM1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: ACCOLADE DOC A1
Does anyone know the address or Fax number of ACCOLADE INC, the maker
of TEST DRIVE and GRAND PRIX programs ?
Thank you in advance.
Juan Vignolo B.
BITNET: JVIGNOLO AT UCVVM1
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 91 08:59:36 MEX
From: "Gabriel C. Lopez Walle" <COCE01%UNAMVM1.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu>
Subject: A good Backup in ftp
Hello networkers.
Does anyone know of a product to do good and fast backups from
harddisk (40M), in someone FTP address???
Thank you for your answers directly to my address.
! Gabriel C. Lopez Walle !
! !
! Departamento de Investigacion en Sistemas Operativos !
! Direccion General de Servicios de Computo Academico !
! Tel. 550-5215 ext. 3866 !
! Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico !
! Ciudad de Mexico. !
! !
! BITNET: COCE01@UNAMVM1 !
! INTERNET: COCE01@UNAMVM1.DGSCA.UNAM.MX !
------------------------------
Date: Tue Apr 16 17:09:34 1991
From: fstarr@taclg.af.mil (TSgt Frank Starr)
Subject: Better than PRINTSHOP & PRINTMASTER
Anyone know of a different, maybe better, commercial or shareware
program to print out signs, posters and the like on a PC-AT or 386? I
have PRINTMASTER at work. The design screen is a bit kludgy, and I
don't like the way you often can't seem to get the same amount of
characters on each line. Sort of like it tapers your script despite
your desires.
I think the version of PRINTMASTER I have is from the 80's, either
86 or 88. I seem to recall PRINTSHOP being just like PRINTMASTER.
Maybe they're different versions of the same thing?
Anyway, appreciate any suggestions.
Godfrey Daniels
fstarr%taclg.af.mil@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1991 12:18:19 CDT
From: cmdbyk@pmvax.weeg.uiowa.edu (Karl Boyken)
Subject: Problem with Word Perfect on PCSA net
We are using a DEC PCSA network, version 3.0, and have been config-
uring the PCs on the net to run WordPerfect 5.1 off the server. Except
for one machine, we've been having no problems. However, one machine
has been giving us fits. We can go into Word Perfect and exit it with
no trouble. But the next time we go back in, we get a divide overflow
error in the initial logo screen, and then the machine locks up hard.
If we run QuarterDeck's Manifest in between, we don't get the error and
everything runs fine.
The machine is an IBM PS/2 Model 50Z. It has an external 5 1/4" floppy
drive and 4 M of RAM. There's a nearly identical PS/2 down the hall
with the same software configuration, and it has no trouble. It's a
model 50, not a 50Z, and it has only 3 M of RAM, but otherwise, they're
set up the same.
Anyone have any ideas? We're stuck. Thanks in advance for any help.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 91 14:47:32 PST
From: Mark Callagan <CLLM1931%BCIT.BC.CA@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: PS2 RS232C Problem
Perhaps this has been explained already but I can't find it in any back
issues of the digest.
I am trying to set up an automatic switch box with 2 PCXTs and 1 PS2-
30-286 to an older LaserJet printer (serial).
The PCs and PS2 are set up DTE and the switch box is input DCE and
output DCE. The printer is DTE.
I should therefore be using straight through serial cables from the
computers to the switch box and to the printer.
The 2 PCXTs work fine but the PS2 generates 22 and 40 errors
(handshaking and communications errors).
All the cables work fine from the PCXTs. I have the the mode set
Com1:9600,n,8,1,p as per the LaserJet I/O.
I have also noticed that the PCXTs give a POS (+V) on pins 4 (RTS) and
20 (DTR) but the PS2 gives NEG (-V) on the same pins. I think this is
where my problem lies.
Can anyone please explain the reason for the difference on these pins
between the PCXTs and the PS2 ? And also how to get around it ? - I
cannot find POS (+V) pin to tie to on the PS2
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Mark
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1991 22:07:28 CDT
From: (David J. Camp) david@campfire.UUCP
Subject: What OS is ACE?
Since Compaq is participating in the ACE environment, and planning an
OS/2-based Risc machine, I am curious to know what operating system
will be used by the ACE group. Since DEC Ultrix is a Unix system, it
is unclear how their lead in this market will apply to an OS/2
environment. The articles I have been reading were unclear about the
choice of OS being made by the ACE group.
Does anyone have this information? -David-
# david@wubios.wustl.edu ^ David J. Camp #
# david%wubios@wugate.wustl.edu < * > +1 314 382 0584 #
# ...!uunet!wugate!wubios!david v "God loves material things." #
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest V91 #101
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