[comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest] Info-IBMPC Digest V90 #93

Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL ("Info-IBMPC Digest") (05/26/90)

Info-IBMPC Digest           Sat, 26 May 90       Volume 90 : Issue  93 

Today's Editor:
         Gregory Hicks - Chinhae Korea <GHICKS@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil>

Today's Topics:
        BF112.ZIP - Back and Forth v1.12; Task switching program
                         BORLAND's PARADOX DBMS
                           DesqView questions
      EXPLS122.ZIP - CGA/EGA/MCGA/VGA/Herc fireworks/screen saver
                      Read Commodore PET diskette?
               Hooking up a ST4096 drive to an old IBM-AT
                      IBM->NeXT; COM port monitor
                              LISP wanted
       Making command.com run different autoexec.bat upon bootup
                             Novell vs PCSA
                    PCFile-DB version 5 dated May 5
              UUPC 1.07j - uucp for MS-DOS - now available

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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 14 May 1990  18:57 MDT
From: Keith Petersen <w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: BF112.ZIP - Back and Forth v1.12; Task switching program

The ShareWare program Back and Forth has been recently updated on SIMTEL20.

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.SYSUTL>
 Filename   Type Length   Date    Description
==============================================
BF112.ZIP     B  244848  900505  Back and Forth v1.12; Task switching program

This program is not a multitasker.  It is a task switcher.  Up to nine
tasks may be loaded, subject to the limitations of available memory for
swap file storage which can be EMS memory, RAM disk or a hard disk.
See PC Magazine, volume 9, number 9, page 49, for a description and
review of this package.

Keith
--
Keith Petersen
Maintainer of SIMTEL20's MSDOS, MISC & CP/M archives [IP address 26.2.0.74]
Internet: w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil, w8sdz@brl.mil  BITNET: w8sdz@NDSUVM1
Uucp: {ames,decwrl,harvard,rutgers,ucbvax,uunet}!wsmr-simtel20.army.mil!w8sdz

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 14 May 90 14:51:54 EDT
From: kit@cbnewsc.att.com (Shailesh Bhobe)
Subject: BORLAND's PARADOX DBMS
Keywords: PARADOX BORLAND DBMS

I am trying to develop an application on a 386SX machine under DOS
using BORLAND's PARADOX DBMS. Because of lack of any book on PAL
programming, I am running into problems and would therefore like to get
in touch with someone who has done some programming in PAL.  My address
is:

Any help sicerely appreciated.

						Shailesh Bhobe

EMAIL	: att!golfer!smb
VOICE	: (708)968-7238
USMAIL	: S. M. Bhobe
	  2500, Cabot Drive
	  CL II/U08
	  Lisle, IL 60532

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 15 May 90 10:42:18 SET
From: Nigel Head <NHEAD%ESOC.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: DesqView questions

Having installed and played with DesqView for a while I have a couple
of questions which I would appreciate your collective opinions about:

1) One sees a lot of programs (on SIMTEL for example) where it is
claimed that xyzzy.com only requires 8K to run and that it should thus
be put in an 8k DesqView partition. How can this be?? Surely ALL .com's
must require 64K of memory for at least the first few instructions
(until they can reset their stack pointer)??  Have I missed something
obvious here ??  Is it not the case that only .exe's can control the
setting of their registers so that they can be absolutely sure about
their memory usage ??

2) It seems like the DesqView XDI (eXternal Driver Interface) would be
ideal for providing the basis of a process status display (like the 'ix
PS) as it would let one gather all the information about process
states, handles etc with almost no trouble.  Has anyone done such a
thing and would be willing to share it with me ??

PS: Is there a DesqView discussion group somewhere ........ ??

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 14 May 1990  16:25 MDT
From: Keith Petersen <w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: EXPLS122.ZIP - CGA/EGA/MCGA/VGA/Herc fireworks/screen saver

[--forwarded message--]
From: Chris Hook <hook@staff.ucs.ubc.ca>
Re:   Explosiv.com version 1.22, the fireworks screen saver

I have uploaded an updated explosiv screen saver program to SIMTEL20,
as we (Reidar and I) have received numerous requests for the same basic
fixes.

pd1:<msdos.screen>
EXPLS122.ZIP    CGA/EGA/MCGA/VGA/Herc fireworks/screen saver

Explosiv is a screen saving utility which prevents pixel burn-in on
your computer video display.  Rather than simply turning the screen off
while the computer is running, Explosiv displays an always moving
fireworks show.  As a benefit, you never need wonder as to whether your
computer is turned on or off (a typical problem with simple screen
blankers), and you may even find the fireworks display to be somewhat
enjoyable.  This, of course, is a matter of personal taste.

This new version of EXPLOSIV.COM now has the added features/bug fixes:

	1. Now there is no more contention between EXPLOSIV.COM and a) DOS
4.01 and/or its ANSI.SYS (same goes for DOS 4.0)

	2. timer before activation has been extended to 30 minutes.

	3. There is now a novid option which will prevent screen saver from
contending with other resources such as clocks. i.e., they will both
happily work together.

We think no.1 is the biggy, as now EXPLOSIV.COM will not be finicky
about what order its loaded as a TSR, and won't care if a mouse is
loaded with MOUSE.COM, or MOUSE.SYS, and won't be bothered by all thge
above plus DOS 4.01's ANSI.SYS.

Chris Hook

[--end forwarded message--]

Thanks, Chris!

--Keith

------------------------------

Date:         Tue, 15 May 90 18:02:10 IST
From:         "Jacques J. Goldberg" <PHR00JG@TECHNION.bitnet>
Subject:      Read Commodore PET diskette?

Who knows how to read a PET diskette on a PC ?

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 15 May 90 10:26:55 EDT
From: zielke@phy.duke.edu (David Zielke)
Subject: Hooking up a ST4096 drive to an old IBM-AT


I am trying to hook up an 80meg ST4096 hard drive (9heads, 1024
cylinders) to an original IBM-AT (6mhz without speed limiting roms).
The drive tables don't support this type of drive and segate recommends
using a type 12 and then diskmanager.

The problem is that I can't get the drive to perform a low level
format.  If I use Seagates [diag] program it returns a `forward seek
error' the first time the seek test is run (at around cylinder 390 +/-
5 cylinders) and I can hear the heads rachet across the drive.  If I
try a seek test again without powering down the drive I get a
`recalibration failure' and it refuses to do anything.  This same
controller has worked fine with a Rodime 20 meg drive and a segate
30meg drive.  Is this a drive failure?  I just got the drive and it
supposidly worked fine before it was shipped.

Also interesting is that if I have just turned on the machine it will
run the segate surface analysis program.  However it comes back with
every track on heads 1,2, and 3 as bad, with an occasional track bad
elsewhere amoung the nine heads.  I have only let it run through to
about 30 cylinders as the bad track map starts to get so big!

An additional question about using large drives in general, the drive
tables in my machine, could I use an eprom programmer and create a
modified rom which supports this drive?  Does the 6mhz speed limiting
roms support this drive?  I have an inboard 386/AT in the machine and I
don't know how it would respond to non-ibm roms.  I would also like to
be able to run IBM-OS/2 2.0 when it is available.

Thanks for your help...

David Zielke
zielke@phy.duke.edu
zielke@cs.duke.edu
Department of Physics
Duke University
Durham, NC
27706

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 14 May 90 15:38:41 CDT
From: Rick Troth <TROTH@ricevm1.rice.edu>
Subject: IBM->NeXT; COM port monitor

On Mon, 30 Apr 90 19:37:54 CST Don Branson said:
>I would appreciate any help that someone can offer on transferring
>files from an IBM PC to a Next machine. If anybody has done this, could
>you contact me? Thanks.

        I just use Kermit.  With some help from Frank da Cruz,  I got
C-Kermit compiled on the NeXT several months ago.  I just log-in to it
via another TCP/IP site (like our terminal server) with the PC to
transfer any files to/from MS-DOS.  KA9Q is a bit handier on those few
occasions when I can get a SLIP connection.

        Can't say much on the COM1 or COM2 monitoring.

 "The tomb is empty"
 Rick Troth <TROTH@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU> ------------- Rice ONCS VM Systems
Support

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 14 May 90 15:29:04 MEZ
From: Klaus Hahn <I3160901%DBSTU1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: LISP wanted

We're planning to buy a decent implementation of the Common Lisp
standard for a 80386 machine. It should be able to accept asm- or
C-subroutines as a means of making some functions somewhat faster and
it would be nice if windows, debugger, CLOS and all these goodies were
there. Any pointers are deeply welcome.

Klaus Hahn

Dept. of Psychology
University of Braunschweig
Spielmannstr. 19
D-3300 Braunschweig, West-Germany

------------------------------

Date: 15 May 90 19:39:08 GMT
From: minnow!Paul.Zimmerman@cis.ohio-state.edu (Paul Zimmerman)
Subject: Making command.com run different autoexec.bat upon bootup


 > It would be nice if there *were* a way to do what you are
 > suggesting...
 >
 > --
 
 There IS a way to run something other than autoexec at bootup.  My
system calls "system.bat" when it boots! (I got sick of every program
thinking IT knew how to design my autoexec for me when it installed
itself...) It has to be done the hard way, though. Patch command.com
manually with a different file name. This has got to be worked out for
each version of DOS  with NU or something similar...
 
                                             Paul
=====================================================================
# WORLD HEADQUARTERS: T.P.N.V.S. (Twin Peaks Non-Viewers Society)   #
# Usenet - minnow.bgsu.edu         Fidonet 1:234/25                 #
=====================================================================

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 14 May 90 16:59 EST
From: Henry <STEWART%WILLIAMA.BITNET@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: Novell vs PCSA

    Williams College is investigating possible methods of connecting
administrative IBM PC's (XTs, ATs, PS/2s) with the Administrative VAX.
We are most interested in a comparison of Novell's Netware for VMS with
DEC's PCSA.

    Do you know of any literature that compares Novell's product with
DEC's?  Do you know of anyone that has completed such a comparison
recently?

            Thanks,
            Henry Stewart
            HSTEWART@CC.WILLIAMS.EDU
            HSTEWART@WILLIAMS.BITNET
            (413) 597-2093

------------------------------

Date: 14 May 90 13:16 -0700
From: Thomas Wong <twong@civil.ubc.ca>
Subject: PCFile-DB version 5 dated May 5

We found a bug in PCFile-DB version 5. So we called ButtonWare.  Their
technical support said that they know about the bug and have fixed it
in their latest release of PCFile-DB (shareware).  The latest version
is still PCFile-DB version 5, but it's dated May 5th. I've searched all
over and can't find a copy of this shareware (dated May 5th that is).

Has anyone seen and/or does anyone have a copy of this latest version?
I would appreciate any info and/or address where I can ftp this file
from.  Thanks in advance.

Thomas.
    /*----------------------------------------------------------------------*/
   /*   Thomas Y. K. Wong     INTERNET:   thomas_wong@civil.ubc.ca         */
  /*   Civil Eng., U.B.C     BITNET:   thomas_wong%civil.ubc.ca@ubcmtsg   */
 /*   Van, B.C., Canada    UUCP:   ...!van-bc!civil.ubc.ca!thomas_wong   */
/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*/

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 15 May 1990  11:31 MDT
From: Keith Petersen <w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: UUPC 1.07j - uucp for MS-DOS - now available

[--forwarded message--]
From: UUPC/Extended Help Desk <help@kendra.kew.com>

UUPC/extended 1.07 is a small but FREE package for exchanging mail with
a system running or emulating a UNIX UUCP connection.  Other packages
which perform this function include FSUUCP, WAFFLE, and UFGATE, but
they are larger and include USENET NEWS support, which UUPC/extended
lacks; most of those are shareware, rather than freeware.

The UUPC/extended package is now available as files UUPC07JU.ZIP (the
executables, sample configuration files, and formatted documents) and
UUPC07JS.ZIP (the source files and unformatted documents).  The files
were created with PKZIP 1.10; ARC format files are no longer
distributed.  The ZIP files are available on the following Internet
sites via anonymous FTP:

                Site                       Directory
        wsmr-simtel20.army.mil          pd2:<msdos.uucp>
        clutx.clarkson.edu              /pub/uupc
        grape.ecs.clarkson.edu          /f/uploads

UUPC is no longer available from kendra via kermit.  This access has
been replaced by grape.ecs.clarkson, which is an OPUS BBS; it is
260/360 in the Nodelist, and be can reached at (315)268-6667, 8N1,
1200/2400 Baud, 24 hours.  New users of the BBS should download
00readme from the root directory.

The recent changes to UUPC/extended follow; this list is taken from the
UUPCBUGS.DOC, included in UUPC07JU.ZIP.

All questions and bug reports related to UUPC/extended should be
directed to me at help@kendra.kew.com.

Drew Derbyshire

Bugs Fixed in Version 1.07j:

  1. Specifying the -u (user mailbox) option after the -x (debug)
option would reset the debug level.

  2. A transmit error (timeout, presumably, but maybe a NAK too) on a
short packet (like at the end of the file) will cause UUPC to hang and
eventually give up.  The code in gspack() handles short packets by
inserting a length byte (actually an "unused space" byte) at the
beginning of the packet.  If the packet needs to be resent, it inserts
the byte again!

  3. If a duplicate entry exists in the PASSWD file, all other entries
in the PASSWD file are skipped.

     Modified loadhost() to continue looping after a duplicate entry.

  4. Output from loadhost() is incorrectly identified as coming from
checkname().

  5. If a bad communication link exists between UUPC and the other
host, file transfers appear to permanently hang.

     Reduced retry limit to 20 from 200.  This doesn't fix the
underlying problem, but at least reduces its impact.

  6. If the "-b" (Blind carbon copy flag) is used on mail, the "-b" is
handled as a local address and printed.

     Corrected lmail() to suppress the delivery of mail to user '-b',
and corrected sendone() to suppress the header.

  7. Aliases of systems in the local domain are not located by
checkname().

     Added check for full system name before searching for name without
domain suffix.

  8. If local system is not in the .UUCP domain, mail sent to it in the
.UUCP domain is not delivered locally.

     Modified user_at_node() to use checkname() to determine if a
system routed via the local system is in the routing table.

  9. UUCP "From " lines are interspersed with RFC-822 header lines.
Only one UUCP "From " line should exist, and it should be first.

     Modified rmail() to examine incoming mail for UUCP "From" line and
replace it with Received: line.

 10. Temporary file names are now more unique, and UUPC doesn't
overwrite existing temporary files.

Enhancements made in Version 1.07j:

  1. Split mail.c into mail.c and maillib.c to improve compile and edit
response times.

  2. Created options= configuration line in configuration file,
allowing boolean options: *  askcc *  autoedit *  autoprint *  dot *
fromsep *  pager *  purge *  save

     as listed or prefixed with "no" to set and unset options.  This
allowed deleting the 'fromsep=' option line from the configuration
file.  These are described in detail in the sample configuration file.

     NOTE: To make UUPC 1.07j behave the same as previous releases, the
'askcc' and 'autoprint' options must be set.  Otherwise, Carbon copies
wil not be prompted for, nor will messages automatically print.

  3. Added the options (o) command to set and reset options allowed on
the options line of the configuration file.  Also added the 'O' command
to display the current setting of options.

  4. Added the "purge", option, which, when true, causes mailboxes to
be automatically deleted when empty.

  5. Added the "pager" option, which, when true, causes the meaning of
the "p" and "t" (print/type with external pager) commands to be
exchanged with the "P" and "T" (print/type with internal pager)
commands.

  6. Added the "save" configuration option to automatically save any
read, answered, or forwarded message in "mbox" in the user's home
directory when reading new incoming mail.

  7. Added the "dot" configuration option to allow message input to
terminated by a single period (.) followed by a carriage return.

  8. Added the "askcc" configuration option to make prompting for
carbon copies ("Cc:") optional.

  9. Added the "autoedit" configuration option to bypass prompting for
text in interactive line mode and go directly into the user's editor,
if desired.  This option is ignored if no editor is defined or the mail
is not being sent from the console.

Enhancements made in Version 1.07i:

  1. Allow new keyword autoprint=NO in user configuration file to
suppress the automatic printing of messages.  If autoprint=NO is set,
only one line message description is printed.

     Note: Changed to part of options line in 1.07j.

  2. Added the Toggle Autoprint (A) command.  Toggles between autoprint
enabled and disabled.

     Note: Deleted in 1.07j, replaced by 'o autoprint' command.

  3. Moved prototype for FOPEN() from mlib.h into lib.h, where it
belongs.

  4. Split router.c into hostable.c and router.c.

  5. Allow ~filename in save (s) and write (w) commands to save into
another user's mailbox directly without knowing the configuration
directory name for unsaved mail.

-- 
Drew Derbyshire         <--- The guy sitting at the UUPC help desk.

Disclaimer:     I do not accept money or phone calls related to UUPC.

All UUPC mail:  help@kendra.kew.com     U.S. Snail: 108 Decatur St, Apt 9
Personal mail:   ahd@kendra.kew.com                 Arlington, MA 02714

[--end forwarded message--]

Thanks, Drew!  

--Keith Petersen
Maintainer of SIMTEL20's MSDOS, MISC & CP/M archives [IP address 26.2.0.74]
Internet: w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.Army.Mil, w8sdz@brl.mil  BITNET: w8sdz@NDSUVM1
Uucp: {ames,decwrl,harvard,rutgers,ucbvax,uunet}!wsmr-simtel20.army.mil!w8sdz

------------------------------

End of Info-IBMPC Digest V90 #93
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