Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL (07/22/89)
Info-IBMPC Digest Sat, 22 Jul 89 Volume 89 : Issue 70
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Chinhae Korea <COMFLEACT@Taegu-EMH1.army.mil>
Today's Topics:
DisplayWriter conversion
Re: Problems Formatting a Hard Disk
Re: Problem with TurboPascal 5.0 & ATI
New Release of C-Kermit Available for Testing
Turbo Pascal Bugs
Turbo Programmer Bug (was Turbo Pascal Bugs)
Today's Queries:
OPUS Boards
Parity errors from using floppy disk drives
Re: Problem with TurboPascal 5.0 & ATI EGA Wondercard
PS/2 50Z-- VGA Screen Dumps for HP printers
Public Domain TeX Available
text retrieval using DOS
TIFF and/or PCX code
Adding a third drive to my XT clone
Friend needs clone help
Info needed on Apricot F10 computer
Weitek 1167 and Expanded Memory
DISKCOPY-like Utility for One Drive
Making an IBM 3812 Postscript Compatible
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 11 Jul 89 19:51 EST
From: J-R%MTUS5.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: DisplayWriter conversion
> Date: Tue, 20 Jun 89 13:51:11 CET
> From: Wolf-Dieter Batz <L12%DHDURZ1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
> Subject: Converting 8" diskettes from IBM6580 (Displaywriter System)
>
> We have a lot of data and text on an old (5 years or so) IBM Display
> Writer System (IBM6580) with an 8 inch floppy drive box (IBM6360).
I helped with a conversion from DisplayWriter (8 inch) to DW4 (5.25" on
PC) recently. The product used was IBM's... it's software and cables,
everything you need to transfer documents over. I don't have any product
info close, but IBM's product center (or any authorized dealer) should be
able to help you locate it.
I can get the part number, etc. if needed... please let me know.
regards - JR
------------------------------
Date: 11 Jul 89 17:33:47 PDT (Tuesday)
From: "George_C._Burkitt.ElSegundo"@Xerox.COM
Subject: Problems Formatting a Hard Disk
I had a lot of trouble trying to format / partition a Micropolis 1355 / WD
RLL controller combo until I got the Disk Manager software Micropolis
provides. (Like other DM software for other drive suppliers, it is
written by Ontrack and is provided [usually] free of charge by
Micropolis to people who need to use it to sell the drives).
------------------------------
Date: 12 Jul 89 04:56:59 PDT (Wednesday)
From: "Michael_Krause.henr801E"@Xerox.COM
Subject: Problem with TurboPascal 5.0 & ATI
I had similar problems on an AT&T 6300. My problem was caused by some
wierd interface with the clock driver I was using. The 6300 has a
motherboaed clock and, with PC-DOS 3.3, I need a clock driver to get the
time from the clock when I boot. When I upgraded to Turbo Pascal 5.0 and
when I entered TP5 everything was all right but when I exited TP5 my
screen (mode?) would be clobbered. I finally avoided the problem by
getting rid of the driver and now enter the date & time manually; what a
drag. I suspect that the problem isn't directly with the driver I was
using but with some combination of things that I didn't want to take the
time to diagnose. The problem was such that re-entering TP5 or entering
Turbo Debugger did not reset the screen to the Borland colors but left it
messed up. Re-installing both TP5 and TD numerous times and ways had no
effect and Borland couldn't help beyond the point of suggesting that I
dump the driver (ATTCLOCK.SYS a.k.a. OLICLOCK.SYS) from my config.sys
file. Good luck. Maybe if you try Borland again they'll have a better
fix for you than they did for me. Over all, I've been MORE than satisfied
with the Borland language products since Day One about 7 years ago and
continue to send money when the offer upgrades.
Mike Krause
Xerox Corporation
Rochester, NY
------------------------------
Date: Mon Jun 19 16:52:29 1989
From: Frank da Cruz <fdc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu>
Subject: New Release of C-Kermit Available for Testing
This is to announce another test release of C-Kermit, 4F(085), to replace
the earlier test release 4F(077) that was announced on April 3, 1989.
This version fixes several serious problems in 4F(077), namely:
- Connect-mode craziness when when connecting back to a remote system
after transferring a file. Thanks to Frank Prindle for finding the fix
for this. The fix is only for BSD versions, other versions may still
experience minor problems (a few glitch characters) under these
circumstances -- if anybody can track down the problem and fix it, please
do!
- Protocol misnegotiations when C-Kermit is running in server mode,
caused by a missing comment delimeter. This caused all sorts of trouble,
repeat counts and 8th-bit prefixes being accepted as data, etc. Oops!
- Hangup command, and ^\h connect-escape, fixed up so as not to leave
lock files around (Patrick Wolfe). Seems to work OK in BSD-based UNIX
versions, untested in System III/V.
Besides these fixes, 4F(080) has several new features, including:
- Further performance improvements, mostly from Paul Placeway of Ohio
State University (of Macintosh Kermit fame), including "encode-ahead" and
dynamic packet sizing (similar to Kermit-370).
- Support for OS/2, contributed by Chris Adie of Edinburgh University in
Scotland. Unfortunately, Chris's work was based on release 4E(070) of
C-Kermit, and so there had to be a lot of code-shuffling. The result is
entirely untested, which is one reason why this release is a test release
rather than a real release. See the separate announcement from Chris
Adie.
- A new 'transmit' command, for raw uploading. As yet, not
interruptible.
- 'dial' command support for the Microcom ax9624 modem, from Jim
Knutson.
- Recognition of file-type attribute (text or binary) when receiving
files.
- Addition of file creation date to the attributes which C-Kermit sends.
C-Kermit still does not do anything with dates on received files (tested
in Berkeley versions, not tested in AT&T or other versions).
- Support for tilde in file names in all interactive commands that parse
input or output file names (SEND, RECEIVE, GET, DIRECTORY, LOG, CD, etc).
- Support for tilde in file names sent to the C-Kermit server in GET,
REMOTE DIRECTORY, and similar commands.
- Support for 4.1BSD, Apple A/UX, NeXT, and RT PC AIX 2.2.1 added to
makefile, and support for UNOS, Zilog/ZEUS fixed up (but not tested).
See the file ckuker.upd for details about the changes.
This release has been compiled and tested on a SUN-4/280 with SUNOS 4.0, a
VAX/8700 with Ultrix 2.0, and an Encore Multimax 310 with UMAX V 2.2. It
was also briefly tested in the AT&T System V environment on the SUN, and
seemed to work OK. Further testing is required on AT&T UNIX variants,
Xenix, etc.
PLEASE report the results of your testing. We need to know if this
version works on all the systems that the program tries to support before
we can make it an "official" release.
The new release is available via ftp from watsun.cc.columbia.edu, in the
directory kermit/test/ck*. Also in the same directory on cunixc.
BITNET/EARN users may also access the test files in the new KERMSRV test
area. Refer to these files as T:CKU*.*, T:CKC*.*, T:CKW*.*, and (for
OS/2) T:CKO*.*, for example:
TELL KERMSRV AT CUVMA MAIL DIR T:*.*
TELL KERMSRV AT CUVMA SEND T:CKC*.*
Please get the files, try them out, and report any problems to me. After
the kinks are worked out, version 4F will replace the current standard 4E
release.
Note, there are also some ckv*.* files in kermit/test for the VAX/VMS
version of C-Kermit, but they are not totally up-to-date with this new
test release. Watch Info-Kermit for further announcements.
There are also some other C-Kermit systems that haven't been updated in a
long time, including the Amiga (cki*.*), Data General AOS/VS (ckd*.*),
OS-9 (ck9*.*), etc. Volunteers?
Thanks to the many people who tested 4F(077) and 4F(080) and sent in fixes
and suggestions, including (in no special order) Ge van Geldorp, John
Evans, Mark Buda, Martin MacLaren, Dave MacKenzie, Paul Placeway, Joe
Doupnik, Chris Adie, Frank Prindle, Gary Holbrook, Patrick Wolfe, and Jim
Knutson, and apologies to anyone I forgot to mention.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 89 10:12:57 -0400
From: grant@itd.nrl.navy.mil (William (Liam) Grant)
Subject: OPUS Boards
Hello, we just received a second hand machine here and we're trying to
figure out what all off the boards on it are for. I've got most of them
down, but I am puzzled by a board marked "OPUS". It is covered with
National Semiconductor Chips (32xxx) family processors. I was also told
that it probably had something to do with running UNIX. Does anyone have
any ideas they can pass along ?
William (Leprechaun Liam) Grant Grant@itd.nrl.navy.mil
Code 5541 (202) 767-2392
Naval Research Laboratory
Washington, D.C. 20375
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 89 21:11:53 -0400
From: ken@cs.rochester.edu
Subject: Turbo Pascal Bugs
> 1) If you use EOF(file_variable) boolean function without an argument,
> e.g.: "If EOF then begin ... end;" the program simply freezes. The
> compiler lets this by without generating a "syntax error" message (File
> Variable expected, or something like that). I once had to delete a very,
> very long program, line by line, to locate this (and, yes, it was
> modularized - I still had to do it, due to the simplicity of its nature).
Isn't EOF defined as EOF(input) in standard Pascal? In that case what
your program was waiting for was a ^Z. (I just tested this on our Unix
Pascal compiler and indeed EOF is EOF(input).)
------------------------------
Date: 13 Jul 89 10:17:27 GMT
From: leif@ambra.dk (Leif Andrew Rump)
Subject: Turbo programmers bug was Re: Turbo Pascal Bugs
"C'est ma vie." <JSHIN%HAMPVMS.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> writes:
>Here are some of my favorite bugs.
>(NOTE: these were in version 3.0. I don't know if they happen in v.4
>or v.5.)
They sure do!!! (But it's not Borland's fault - at least not the first
one!!!)
>1) If you use EOF(file_variable) boolean function without an argument,
>e.g.: "If EOF then begin ... end;" the program simply freezes.
That's because WRITE[LN], READ[LN] and EOF use the default input/output
(keybord/screen) unless a file-variable is specified, e.g. WRITE[LN](file,
data), READ[LN](file, var) _AND_ EOF(file)!!! Try use ctrl-Z (End Of File)
next time and see what happens :-)
>2) When an arithmetic operation on Integer variable "overflows," it is
>simply "wrapped-around" during runtime. No carry, no overflow, no error,
>no crashing.
Well that's life!!! It's quite easy to verify that the result from a
aritmetic operation is sane by checking the overflow flag in the CPU but I
think Borland rejected it because the code will slow _quite_ a bit if they
inserted JUMP ON OVERFLOW after every calculation!!!
Leif Andrew Rump, AmbraSoft A/S, Roejelskaer 15, DK-2840 Holte, Denmark
UUCP: leif@ambra.dk, phone: +45 42424 111, touch phone: +45 42422 817+313
> > > Why are tall Irish girls with red hair so wonderful ? ? ? < < <
------------------------------
Date: 11 Jul 89 18:38:28 PDT (Tuesday)
From: Yang.OsbuSouth@Xerox.COM
Subject: Parity errors from using floppy disk drives
I have a 10MHz Fountain 286. Whenever I install a Wyse EGA or Tatung VGA
board, using a floppy disk drive (360K or 1.2M) causes the machine to hang
with messages like "Memory Read Error" or "Parity Error," forcing me to
reboot. The EGA board usually won't hang right away, but the VGA does.
When I replace those boards with the Fountain Monographics card (supports
B/W and Hercules graphics), the problems go away entirely. I have not
noticed any other problems while using the EGA and VGA boards. In
particular, the hard disk always works correctly.
The manual that came with the system has instructions for installing an
optional Fountain EGA board, so I know my system should be able to handle
at least some EGA boards. I've gone through the manual pretty thoroughly,
and I've tried changing some jumpers, all to no avail. (I know about, and
am correctly setting the Mono/Color jumper on the motherboard.)
Does anyone know what the problem is, what I can do to solve this problem,
or how I can contact Fountain?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Sam Yang
yang.osbusouth@xerox.com
------------------------------
Date: 13 Jul 89 12:01:38 EDT (Thu)
From: rjs@moss.ATT.COM (Robert Snyder)
Subject: Problem with TurboPascal 5.0 & ATI EGA Wondercard
Dave Klein reported having trouble using Turbo Pascal 5.0 with an ATI EGA
Wonder video card. He was hoping for a solution to the problem.
Unfortunately, all I can report is my similar experience with this card.
I purchased a program called TurboCAD which is a drafting program written
in Turbo Pascal (although they don't provide source). I was unable to get
it to display anything useful on my screen, and after 3 months of phone
calls to both the publishers of TurboCAD and to ATI, I finally gave up and
returned the program. The TurboCAD rep. actually purchased the same card
and was able to reproduce the problem, but decided that it was a
compatibility problem with the card. The ATI rep. was sent a copy of the
TurboCAD program, and he claimed that although the colors weren't being
set correctly, everything else about the display was fine. I tried lots
of switch settings and a new BIOS from ATI with no success (as did the
TurboCAD rep.). There's apparently something that the Turbo Pascal
graphics drivers do that the EGA Wonder card doesn't respond to in a
compatible way. My advice if you wish to continue pursuing Turbo Pascal
programming of graphics would be to get a more compatible video card.
Look for magazine articles which rate compatibility.
Robert Snyder
{att|clyde}!moss!rjs
rjs@moss.ATT.COM
(201) 386-4467
The above statements are my own thoughts and observations and are not
intended to represent my employer's position on the subject(s).
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 89 16:09:58 EDT
From: bob <PHADKE@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject: PS/2 50Z-- VGA Screen Dumps for HP printers
I'm looking for a screen-dump utility for VGA graphics to support the HP
Laserjet or Deskjet. Does anyone know where to look?
Bob Orr
Arun G. Phadke
Userid : PHADKE@VTVM1.BITNET.EDU
Phone : (703)-231-7029
------------------------------
Date: 13 Jul 89 14:18:00 EDT
From: "Marc Poulin" <archive@softvax.radc.af.mil>
Subject: TeX
Hello.
Could someone please tell me where I can find a PD version of TeX for the
IBM, and also a driver for an HP Deskjet.
Any help would be very much appreciated. Please reply directly to me,
since I don't suscribe to this list.
Thanks again,
Marc Poulin
INTERNET: ARCHIVE@SOFTVAX.RADC.AF.MIL
BITNET : V069HPMS@UBVMS
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 89 15:05:40 EDT
From: "Paul F. Schulze" <PFS%NIHCU.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: text retrieval using DOS
Does anyone know of any text retrieval packages that are available under
DOS?
By this I don't mean DBMS's that allow you to store text fields, and then
to string search them, but rather packages that allow you to search large
numbers of medium(10+k character) size documents with Boolean algebra,
proximity conditions(words must be in the same sentence, paragraph, page,
etc), and that allow you to develop a search tree with weights being
applied at each of the branches (including negations, eg searching a
"terrorism" database one would want info on "red Guards", but not on Mao's
Red Guards), so that the resultant set of documents would be ordered by
"relevancy" to the subject.
And that do it in something less than 30 seconds/document.
I've seen something like this from a company called Verity, a product
called TOPIC, but it exists only in the UNIX world. The only
Microcomputer Operating System it will be ported to is going to be OS/2
EE.
The nicety of the TOPIC system is that it links nicely to SQL based DBMS's
which allow you to do the typical tabular manipulations required by my
application(under DOS, for example Paradox or Oracle).
I'd appreciate hearing about any package someone knows about.
Thanks in advance.
Paul Schulze PFS@NIHCU
Division of Research Resources
Westwood 849
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD, 20892 USA
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 89 13:13:16 CDT
From: Tim Preuss <NU136715@VM1.NoDak.EDU>
Subject: TIFF and/or PCX code
Does any have/know of any C or Pascal routines that will import TIFF
and/or PCX image formats? We have a professor here who wants to scan
images, then manipulate them with his own code. Any suggestions and/or
hints would be appreciated.
Thanks
Tim Preuss nu136715@vm1.NoDak.edu
Academic User Services nu136715@ndsuvm1.Bitnet
North Dakota State University
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 89 15:40:16 EDT
From: DEEJ%MAINE.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Dj Merrill - work)
Subject: Adding a third drive to my XT clone
I have been given an old, full-height IBM floppy drive and would like to
attach it to my XT clone externally. My power supply has 4 outputs, so
that is not a problem. The real problem is that the floppy controller
card that I am using is a combined multi-I/O card that has a serial port,
clock/calender, and game port built in, and it is a no-brand imported
board, and I have no paperwork on it.
I thought that I might be able to tap into the existing ribbon cable, run
a cable outside, and simply swap drive selects A and C or such, since the
drive selecting is done thru the twist-in-the-cable method, instead of
using the drive selects in the drive themselves. I haven't had too much
luck in doing this so far.
I was hoping that someone might have some suggestions on how I might get
this to work.
My computer system includes:
-MicroSmart Smart Micro (PC/XT clone) w/ 640K
-one 3.5 drive as drive A:
-one 5.25 drive as drive B:
-CGA
I was hoping to set the third drive as drive C:
Many thanks...
-Dj Merrill
DEEJ@MAINE.BITNET
DEEJ@MAINE.MAINE.EDU
------------------------------
Date: 11-JUL-1989 21:38:46.19
From: ALIAO@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU
Subject: Friend needs clone help
I'd like some help/opinions on a request that I'm posting for a friend of
mine at work.
Basically, my friend's looking for an MS-DOS AT compatible clone with:
Phoenix Bios, 20 thru 40 Meg hard drive, 5.25" quad density drive,
parallel printer interface, async. communications interface (presumably
for a modem), monochrome graphics board & corresponding monitor,
upgradeable to 80386 and enough spare slots for memory boards (I think the
last two specs is an option for upgrading the system to OS/2).
My friend specifically asks:
"Are there any clone makers (mail order?) other than Compqa, Dell, AST,
etc., that make good reliable clones in this price range of $2000 or less
that you would reccomend owning (ex: Altec Zip/386-25, Zeos, Compuadd,
Northgate, etc)?
Thanks in advance
-drew liao
------------------------------
Date: 12 Jul 89 10:45:00 EDT
From: "BUNCH, CAMERON DAVID" <cbunch@paxrv-nes.arpa>
Subject: Info needed on Apricot F10 computer
I have an Apricot F10 IBM-PC compatible computer made by ACT
(COMPUTERS) Ltd which has suffered a power line surge that wiped out the
BIOS ROMS. There may be other problems but the destruction of the ROMS
has been verified by reading out their content into a PROM programmer and
finding that they read something different every time.
Does anyone know if ACT is still in existence? All attempts to
contact them have failed. Does anyone know of sources of support and/or
maintenance manuals for this machine? The ROMS in question are marked
Vr3.1 and are 27128 types. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated!
Please respond directly to INTERNET address CBUNCH@PAXRV-NES.ARPA
Thanks in advance.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 89 09:46:25 CDT
From: Chris Daft <CDAFT@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Weitek 1167 and expanded memory.
I have a Tandy 4000 and want to run a program (Neuralworks) which uses the
Weitek coprocessor. I see from the documentation that I have to get a
memory manager which turns my extended memory into expanded memory, and
also 'supports the Weitek.' I have these questions:
1) Why does the coprocessor need expanded memory to run?
2) What does 'an EMM which supports the Weitek' mean (I will be buying
Quarterdeck's, since the Tandy EMM doesn't support the Weitek, and
Compaq's, which does, only works on Compaq machines).
3) Any information on the Weitek's architecture would be interesting. For
example, why do I need to load a Weitek TSR (interrupt handler?) before it
will run?
Thanks for the help!
* Chris M.W. Daft cdaft@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu *
* Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering Tel: 217/333-9573 *
* University of Illinois 217/333-1640 *
* 1406 West Green Street Fax: 217/244-0105 *
* Urbana, IL 61801 *
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 89 09:47:48 MEZ
From: I1120101%DBSTU1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: DISKCOPY-like utility for one drive
If you only have one 1.2 MB disk drive (or one 3.5" 1.44 MB drive) copying
a large disk is very clumsy.
Is there a program somewhere in the archives that makes the job easier?
Thanks in advance
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 89 10:57:54 BST
From: HII013%IBM.SOUTHAMPTON.AC.UK@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Making an IBM 3812 Postscript Compatible
Can someone let me know of any laser printers that are postscript
compatible. Is it possible to change the IBM 3812 printer to be
postscript compatible?
Mike Palmer
hii013 @ uk.ac.soton.ibm
[For a discussion on Laser printers, postscript compatability, et al, see
the October 31, 1988 issue of PC Magazine. For discussions on your
question above, lets see what the net has to offer. gph]
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest
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