Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL (07/22/89)
Info-IBMPC Digest Sat, 22 Jul 89 Volume 89 : Issue 71
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Chinhae Korea <COMFLEACT@Taegu-EMH1.army.mil>
Today's Topics:
A long PATH
VGA BIOS
Other .GIF sources
Equipment Checkout & Inventory
PKZIP and Sub-Directories
PS/2 Problem(s)
Screen Problem with Turbo Pascal 5.0
Re: .ZIP Ansi codes
Today's Queries:
386SX adaptercard for 286 ATs
ALLOY FTFA Controller Card
EGA laptops with 20 Mb hard drives
CPU time used under OS/2
Information on PKARC/PKXARC Request
Landmark CPU Speed test
Orchid designer board problems
Runtime string input to batch files
Scientex Support
Request for Expanded Memory simulator
Zenith Flat Screen 'Shimmies'
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and from WSMR-Simtel20.army.mil (see file PD1:<msdos>files.idx for listing
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 89 13:20 CET
From: Ulf Emanuelson <VETUF%SEUDAC21.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: A long PATH
I seem to remember a discussion on this forum a couple of months ago about
how to have a real long PATH defined. I didn't think I'd need it at that
time, but now I do| I apologize for the iteration, but I'd really
appreciate if someone could send me an explanation on how to get a PATH
variable longer than one command line.
Ulf Emanuelson
Swedish Univ. Agric. Sci.
------------------------------
Date: 3 July 89, 14:52:19 EDT
From: MTSJMC%GSUVM1.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: VGA BIOS
Tim,
The problem with the code you showed us was that you were loading AL
rather than DX with 3DAh. If you change the line that reads
mov al,3DAh
to
mov dx,3DAh
the code looks like it ought to work just fine. BUT, that code won't solve
your problem with PLASMA unless the LOGIX 16 bit VGA card is MUCH, MUCH
faster than the standard VGA board (which it very well may be). I know
because I also tried to impliment PLASMA in such a way that would
eliminate the flicker. I finally succeeded, but the code that waits for
the beginning of vertical retrace that you included in your message is
only the beginning. The real problem is that the bios routine to update a
block of DAC registers is far too slow. I found that it was necessary for
me to talk directly to the hardware in order to completely eliminate the
flicker. The way VGA hardware works, talking to it is very simple and
quick. Whoever designed the VGA logic had his head on straight more often
than not.
If you want, I can BITNET you the source (Turbo C 2.0) that I wrote. When
I translated PLASMA from Pascal to C, I changed the name to OOZE. I also
added secondary colors to the palette that PLASMA used. Be warned though.
To get the speed required to eliminate flicker, it was necessary to write
large chunks of the program in assembler. What you'll get is a hybrid of
ANSI C and inline assembler.
Jeff Clough, Programmer Extraordinaire
Georgia State University Computer Center (MTS)
MTSJMC@GSUVM1.BITNET
404.651.4537.BELLNET
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 89 13:19:36 edt
From: KAHN%void.mceo.dg.com@RELAY.CS.NET
Subject: Other .GIF sources
There are 2 other Internet sources for GIF files that I can remember off
hand. They are HUBCAP.CLEMSON.EDU and UMN-CS.CS.UMN.EDU. There are a
couple others but I cant remember off hand. Ill post a more complete list
when I can dig them up.
Bruce (KAHN@ADAM.DG.COM)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 89 10:26:09 EST
From: Howie Richburg <RICHBUHJ%SNYCENVM.BITNET@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: Equipment Checkout & Inventory
Two product that you should look at are:
PCTRACKER RG software Systems, Inc.
2300 Computer Ave. Suite I-51
Willow Grove, PA 19090
(215) 659-5300
Micro Resource Manager Computer Associates (formly ATRIUM Software)
200 West Lowe
Fairfield, Iowa 52556
(515) 472-6400
We started by using PCTRACKER but found it very easy to relate components
to the wrong configuration. Their product listed for about $695. We
changed to Micro Resource Manager which made it much easier to maintain
this type of information. It also offers many features not available in
PCTRACKER. MRM, I beleive offers variations of their top of the line
product which I beleive lists at $4,995. They even offer multi-user
versions for LANS and a VAX. We are pleased with the product if you can
get beyond that initial price tag.
Howie Richburg
State University of New York
Central Administration
Albnay, NY 12246
------------------------------
Date: 5 Jul 89 11:00:00 GMT-15:00
From: "Tim DeJane" <motu_7a@wmms-srf-yoko.arpa>
Subject: PKZIP and Sub-Directories
In INFO-IBMPC Vol 89 Num 65 Bob Johnson asked for archiving
software that does sub-directories.
>From: <U27745@UICVM.uic.edu>
>Subject: Does PKARC do Sub-Directories
>Does anyone out there know of a program which compresses all files on a
>hard drive (logical partition) into one or several files ...
>... I guess I'm looking for a PKARC type program which does
>subdirectories. Any ideas?
Today I downloaded a copy of PKZIP ver 0.92 from a local BBS. With the
proper command line switches it will archive and un-archive
subdirectories. This file can be found on most BBS's as PKZ092.exe
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 89 13:50 EDT
From: <ELJAZZAR%UTKVX3.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: PS/2 Problem(s)
> Hi, I've a problem with a PS/2 model 60. At power on it shows error
> 162,163 and needs the reference diskette to start. It says that an error
> in the time or date was found. The strange thing about that is it does
> signal that error at random ( sometimes & sometimes not). Any help
> would be appreciated.
Maybe this will help:
Error Code Meaning [Possible] Solution
162 External Drive not ON Turn External Drive ON before
restarting, OR
Press F1 to continue..
163 Date and Time Not Set Use the Reference Diskette to set the
date and time. I would also suggest
you check the battery of your PS/2.
Mohamad El Jazzar
UT Computing Center
Knoxville, Tenn.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 89 14:27 N
From: <BRATRICH%DULRUU51.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Screen Problem with Turbo Pascal 5.0
| In Info-IBMPC Digest V89 #64 DAVID KLEIN asked
|
| I'm having a problem with my new version of Turbo Pascal 5.0. It
| does not seem to want to leave my monitor in a readable colour, that is,
| the screen is put at a solid amber colour. As a result, the commands are
| just not visible on the screen and when exiting from TP the monitor is
| still solid amber. (...) My configuration is a standard XT clone
| with an ATI EGA Wondercard.
We also have this problem with our ATI EGA Wondercard.
We have found only a partial solution of this problem.
1. use your softswitch program which came with your EGA Wondercard to
turn on the monocrome-mode (SMS M80).
2. start Turbo Pascal 5.0, write your Program and compile it to disk.
3. leave Turbo Pascal and go back to the color-mode (SMS CE80).
4. start your program. (compiled Programs will run fine in color-mode)
If you want to use graphics within your programs, you probably may use the
Hercules BGI-driver to test your programs in Turbo Pascal 5.0. Later you
can compile the Program with the "GraphMode := detect" option directly to
disk.
To get rid of this problem, we wrote to Heimsoeth Software, the german
distributor of Turbo Pascal 5.0, and (after a long time, some phone calls
and letters) we got this message: (i'll try to translate)
(...) tell you, that there is still no solution for your problem with
your ATI EGA Wondercard. According to Borland there will be no solution in
future! This depends on the impossibility to detect the correct status of
this card, which will be necessary for the debugger (to switch between the
Turbo Pascal- and the program-screen). We are sorry (...)
If there is another way to use the ATI EGA Wondercard with Turbo Pascal
5.0, please let me know!
Michael Bratrich Bitnet: BRATRICH@DULRUU51
Universitaet Ulm EAN: BRATRICH@RZ.UNI-ULM.DBP.DE
Albert-Einstein-Allee 11
D 7900 Ulm
West-Germany
------------------------------
Date: Mon Jul 3 02:14:40 1989
From: upaya!tbetz@marob.masa.com (Tom Betz)
Subject: Re: .ZIP Ansi codes
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest you write:
>Yeah, this has been making the rounds on the DR_DEBUG echo on FidoNet
>(with lots of heat and little light). The two real solutions so far are
>to use STRIPZ to strip the comments, and to omit ANSI.SYS or use an ANSI
>replacement without the keyboard reassignment (ZANSI but not NANSI).
>As pointed out by people who got upset by the PK-bashing that ensued, ANY
>archiver which allows comments (PAK, ZIP, ZOO, etc) can become the source
>of a key-reassigning escape sequence.
You should know that Katz has already announced that his next release will
default to stripping all Esc codes from comments. They will be available
for display by invoking PKUNZIP using a command-line switch.
This discourages abuse of this minor misfeature.
"There are no magicians. There are no hidden | rutgers!lilink!upaya!tbetz
people or gurus somewhere in secret. You have | Tom Betz, Greyston Foundation
already been given the teaching by the greatest | 114 Woodworth Ave.
illuminated sages born." - Gopi Krishna | Yonkers, NY 10701-2509
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 89 13:19:03 MES
From: PT151%DMSWWU1A.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: 386SX adaptercard for 286 ATs
Dear networkers!
I think about upgrading my AT-compatible 80286 clone to a 80386 one.
Because I am looking for a cheap solution I would prefer an adaptercard
with a 80386SX prozessor on it which can simply plugged into the 80286
socket on my motherboard.
I have read in some magazine (BYTE or so) about one or two companies
offering or developing such a card but there was no definite information
about adresses, price etc.
If anybody knows about such a 386SX upgrading card for ATs (price,
distributor, ...) please let me know it.
Thanks in advance
Hans-Georg Reusch <PT151@DMSWWU1A.BITNET>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 89 8:52:22 CDT
From: Washburn@ST-LOUIS-EMH4.ARMY.MIL
Subject: ALLOY FTFA Controller Card
A friend of mine has a Sperry MICRO/IT, 640KB, 40MB HD, 1.2MB FD, he
installed an ALLOY FTFA controller card and connected an ERWIN 40MB tape
drive, model 445. Using EZTAPE software, when EZTAPE is executed the
screen prompt appears and the message "There is no tape drive connected to
the system press any key".
Does anyone know what switch and jumper setting should be made to get
the tape drive recogized?
Thanks
Fred Washburn
WASHBURN ST-LOUIS-EMH4.ARMY.MIL
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 89 17:19 CST
From: TIMOTHY KUPP <KUPP12%UREGINAV.BITNET@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: EGA laptops with 20 Mb hard drives
As the subject line above says, I am looking for prices on an IBM
compatible, 8086 or 80286 based laptop (portable) with EGA (or Hercules)
graphics and at least a 20 Mb hard drive. All the machines I've looked at
in mail order magazines seem to be way above US $2500, so I'd appreciate
any advice on new (or used) machines that would fall a bit lower than that
price range.
Thanks in advance for the help.
Timothy Kupp
KUPP12@UREGINAV (Bitnet)
KUPPTW@UREGINA1 (Bitnet).
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 89 15:56:49 MEZ
From: "Heinz-Joachim Staerke" <STAERKE%DS0MPI11.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu>
Subject: CPU time used under OS/2
I am running OS/2 Vers. 1.1 and the IBM FORTRAN/2 compiler Vers. 1.04.
Does somebody know how to check the CP time used in a FORTRAN program ?
The GETTIME routine helps, but when running different tasks together the
result makes no sense. I would like to have something like the CPUTIME
routine in FORTVS.
Any idea ? Regards Heinz-Joachim Staerke
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 89 10:18:52 edt
From: KAHN%void.mceo.dg.com@RELAY.CS.NET
Subject: Information on PKARC/PKXARC Request
I'm interested in writing a PKARC/PKXARC set of programs for my Apple GS
so that I can take some work home at times (I take files from the PC ->
Mac and read Mac disks on my GS). I would appreciate any information I
can get on the format of the files created so I can write an them. If
there are sources available, a copy of them or a pointer to where I can
get them would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Bruce (KAHN@ADAM.DG.COM)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 89 10:03 EDT
From: Plummer@DOCKMASTER.ARPA
Subject: Landmark CPU Speed test
Can anyone explain the Landmark number for various machines? How does it
compare to Norton SI and dhrystones? Why does it tell me that a 10MHz 286
machine is running at 12.7MHz? Norton tellms me that my clone with 8 MHz
clock and a V20 CPU is 3.01 as fast as a vanilla XT whereas Landmark says
1.7x, the same as the ratio of clock frequencies. Yet another benchmark?
Thanks. Bill Plummer (Plummer at DOCKMASTER).
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 89 15:06:53 PLT
From: "James G. Hallett" <HALLETT%WSUVM1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Orchid designer board problems
I have an Orchid designer VGA board (8-bit version). It works pretty well
exce pt for two problems with Microsoft Word 5 and MathCAD versions 2 or
2.5. Micro soft changes the display from color to monochrome when either
the screen is cha nged to textmode or on leaving the program. Only
rebooting can restore the col or display. MathCAD trashes the screen when
paging up or down through a docume nt. Ctrl-R can fix it, but it's easy
to get lost in a complex and lengthy docu ment. The software folks say
it's a hardware problem. Orchid says it's a software problem. Anybody
have suggestions?
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 04 Jul 89 13:53:21 ADT
From: "Ajit J. Thakkar" <AJIT%UNB.CA@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: Runtime string input to batch files
Does anyone know a good mechanism whereby a character string can be
passed from the keyboard to a batch file while the latter is executing? I
tried W.J. Claff's STRING.ASM routine (Byte 1987 IBM issue) without
success. Claff's strategy is to use an undocumented DOS interupt to feed
the string to an environment variable. Although STRING sets the env. var.
in the master env. block, the assignment does not seem to take effect
until one has exited the batch file, which is NOT being run from a
COMMAND.COM shell. I made sure of that by checking that an ordinary set
command in the same batch file alters the master environment. I'm using a
Zenith-supplied MS-DOS 3.3+. Any ideas?
Ajit Thakkar, Chemistry Department, University of New Brunswick,
Fredericton, NB, Canada. Voice: (506)-453-4629.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 89 14:05:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Curtis P. Yeske" <cy13+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Scientex Support
Here at GSIA/CMU we have an extensive collection of old documents in the
Scientex format. Scientex has since gone out of business. We need a
migration path for this collection, short of manual conversion.
1. Did any software house pick up support for Scientex?
2. Are there any of these conversion tools out there?
-Scientex to WordPerfect.
-Scientex to ChiWriter.
-Scientex to Tex.
3. Is there a user's group for Scientex which I could address these
issues to?
Thank you very much for your time and consideration. If there is
interest, I will post a summary.
Curt Yeske
H/S Coordinator
GSIA CMU
cy13@andrew.cmu.edu
cy13@andrew.bitnet
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 89 09:47:21 CDT
From: "Dick Smith" <RSMITH%UWF.BITNET@CORNELLC.cit.cornell.edu>
Subject: Request for Expanded Memory simulator
Are there software products available which permit the use of
Extended Memory as Expanded Memory?
Dick Smith
Department of Physics
The University of West Florida
Pensacola, FL 32514
(904)474-2269 <RSMITH@UWF.BITNET>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 89 14:23:27 CDT
From: Hans Isakson <B581HRI%UTARLVM1@icsa.rice.edu>
Subject: Zenith Flat Screen 'Shimmies'
I have a Zenith Flat Screen monitor that shimmies (you know, like my
sister Kate) regardless of software. Does anyone else have this same
problem? Does anyone know of a "fix" for it?
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest
************************