Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL (06/23/89)
Info-IBMPC Digest Sat, 23 Jun 89 Volume 89 : Issue 61 Today's Editor: Gregory Hicks - Chinhae Korea <COMFLEACT@Taegu-EMH1.army.mil> Today's Topics: ZIP Problem (Maybe?) Trojan "PK" archive package? 8514A Video Adapter Chameleon information Extended Memory Application Running (Reverse that) New Assembly PC List Responses on the Programming languages question Files sent to Australia? IBM Infowindow System Re: Using a TDD with a PC Re: Reading Mac disks on an IBM-PC Requesting Help with an IBM/PC Jr Redirection of PrtScr RS232C interrupts seeking ind$file info Slight change in documentation on the ListServers Turbo Pascal Bugs Using TCPIP on a PC Re: Serious bug in Microsoft Fortran 4.1 Info-IBMPC Lending Library is available from: Bitnet via server at CCUC; and from WSMR-Simtel20.army.mil (see file PD1:<msdos>files.idx for listing of source files) WSMR-Simtel20.army.mil can be accessed using LISTSERV commands from BITNET via LISTSERV@RPIECS.BITNET and in Europe from EARN TRICKLE servers as listed: (send commands to TRICKLE@<host-name> eg: TRICKLE@AWIWUW11) AWIWUW11 (Austria), BANUFS11 (Belgium), DKTC11 (Denmark), DB0FUB11 (Germany), IMIPOLI (Italy), EB0UB011 (Spain) and TREARN (Turkey) Send Replies or notes for publication to: <Info-IBMPC@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil> Send requests of an administrative nature (addition to, deletion from the distribution list, et al) to: <Info-IBMPC-Request@WSMR-Simtel20.Army.Mil> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Friday, 2 June 1989 23:34-MDT From: James Ford <JFORD1%UA1VM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: ZIP Problems (Maybe?) This was taken from an IBM SIG conference. This is *NOT* a virus/trojan warning/alert; however I thought it might be of interest. James Original-From: Sysop Of 107/522 Original-Subject: .ZIP Utility ALERT FILES UPLOADED TO YOUR SYSTEM THAT HAVE BEEN COMPRESSED UTILIZING PHIL KATZ'S PKZIP/PKUNZIP UTILITY COULD CRASH YOUR SYSTEM WHEN UNZIPPED! As most of you know it is possible to reprogram your keyboard (and other things) using ANSI Escape sequences... .ZIP programs will allow the use of ANSI in the comments section... I have received several such "innocent looking" files in the last two weeks. One caused my F1 key to display a wide DOS Directory, the other attempted to delete all files on my hard drive! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 89 03:14 CDT From: "David Stever, 45n, 93w, +870ft." <STEVER%sp.unisys.com@RELAY.CS.NET> Subject: Trojan "PK" archive package Recently I downloaded a package from a local BBS called PKFUK.ARC; after uploading it to another board (and somehow not trying it out myself), it was discovered to be a trojan. Phil Katz has been informed, but the rest of the world should be on the lookout for this "package". Phil says that it will destroy any file name(s) supplied on the command line, with some sort of suitable message. David Stever Eagan, Minnesota Unisys Corp. Stever@SP.Unisys.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Jun 89 16:31:35 CET From: "Christoph H. Hochstaetter" <HOCHSTAE%DMRHRZ11.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: 8514A Video Adapter Does anyone know, if there are drivers for the IBM 8514A video adapter for any software. We currently have a 8514 driver for Turbo-Pascal and Turbo-C. We are also looking for drivers for other software like WORD, GEM, WINDOWS, SAS, STATGRAF, ... Any info would be appreciated. Thanks in advance Christoph H. Hochstaetter Philipps-Universitaet Marburg Buero/Office: Privat/Private Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften Universitaetsstr. 25 Carl-Strehl-Str. 20 3550 Marburg 3550 Marburg Phone: +49 6421 28-3895 Phone: +49 6421 14618 BITNET/EARN/NETNORTH: HOCHSTAE@DMRHRZ11 INTERNET: HOCHSTAE%DMRHRZ11@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU UUCP: DMRHRZ11.BITNET!HOCHSTAE ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 89 11:36 From: dantowitz%eagle1.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (Fine Tuning) Subject: Chameleon information Answering Ken Yap's questions about the Seequa Chameleon: It is a good PC and has some great features not present in the IBM PC: It has a RAM character set, so that you can create your own character set on the fly. (On the REAL IBM PC the fonts are stored in a ROM and are not easy to modify.) The color pallets are also soft and can be set to what ever colors you want, not the fixed pallets of the IBM PC. Yes, there is a slot for the 8087 - I have one and it's GREAT! It got me through college years ago when I needed fast floating point operations. (It also has the CGA built in and can do monochrome stuff, but not as nice as the IBM monochrome.) More features - on the ONE board it does have lots of other chip slots (besides the 8087 slot) - I added a game port with a few dollars of hardware (the 558 timer chip and a few cables). There are lots of empty spots on the board ready for more options that usually require a separate board and a PC slot. Okay, a non-feature is the fact that they used a different COMM chip from the standard PC (so Ken's may not be broken, but just isn't working because you need special software). Okay, another bummer, yes, I think Seequa is defunct - or at least last I heard (please let me know if you hear otherwise). I don't know about adding memory, but I do have Seequa's technical addendum, which is somewhat useful. The IBMPC technical reference contains all the schematics and these are basically similar on the Seequa - using the IBM docs I was able to find everything on my Chameleon (add an 8087, a game port, change the drives, etc.) Yes, the Chameleon is supposed to run CPM and MSDOS (the computer actually has a Z80 processor as well as the 8088), but I've never seen CPM running on one. The one draw back is the COMM chip, but everything else works like a normal PC. I put together my own driver for INT 14H (the COMM port) so that the Seequa port looks like an IBM port (and buffers IO too!) As far as being a PC - the only differences are in the COMM chip and a few VERY low level differences in the ROM BIOS. One game program I had depended on a specific value from the IBM PC ROM BIOS (VERY poor programming on the GAME's part) but I fixed the game to work properly. I'd be interested in hearing from all Chameleon readers. There used to be a Chameleon interest group somewhere - is anyone still using Chameleons? David Dantowitz Digital Equipment Corporation Soon to be a Graduate student at UCLA ------------------------------ Date: Tue Jun 6 02:48:53 1989 From: gautier@lognet2.ARPA (SrA Richard A. Gautier) Subject: Extended Memory Application Running (Reverse that) >>From: <BRINKGRE%HLSDNL5.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> >I have two questions: I can only answer the first one, sorry..... >- Are there utilities that allow programs to run in expanded memory ? >Michel Brinkgreve >BRINKGREVE Yes, there is one in the Simtel-20 archives... VMIX 1.51 in ps1:<msdos.sysutl>vmix151.arc The vmix will allow you to do this, (AND MUCH MORE) At least I believe that is what I read in the documentation when I read it. I don't have any EMS or EMMS, so I didn't pay attention while reading it, and I don't keep documentation around, being your average programmer. Hope it does, and it helps. SrA Richard A. Gautier 51st Supply Sq Osan AB, KOREA ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Jun 89 22:00:00 From: Luis Valdivia P. <LISTVIR%USACHVM1.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu> Subject: New Assembly PC List This is an invitation to contribute to a new mailing list, ASSMPC-L. This list is located on USACHVM1 (in BITNET) and deals with issues related to the PC Assembly languages (Intel 8086/88/286/386/...). There is an initial programming goal that the managers of this list wish to accomplish: We are inviting all users to assist in the coding of projects. For instance, our first task will be a Resident Program Manager. We will use Turbo Assembly or MacroAssembly to develop our applications. The users of this new surprising list will receive mail with code contributions and discussions, and eventually the program source listing finished with the help of the participants. Then, the list will propose a new project to work on. Any and all code contributions, ideas, and anything else that will help in achieving this opening goal will be appreciated, discussed, reported and acknowledged for the list. Virtually... ASSMPC-L ------------------------------ Date: 6 June 1989 19:26:31 CDT From: "Michael J. Steiner " <U23405%UICVM.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu> Subject: Responses on the Programming languages question I haven't thoroughly read all of the replies, but here are some ideas from yesterday's (Monday's) replies: I agree that it's not the quantity of languages you know that counts, but how well you know the ones you know. (Knowing a lot of languages is good, though.) I think that C++ and Modula-2 are worth studying, and maybe IBM 370 assembler (but I'm not done with PL/1 and Fortran yet! :-)) Since I am planning to be a system administrator for a university, I don't think COBOL is worth the trouble. Smalltalk seems like a goofy language (almost as bad as Prolog :-)); I would rather learn C++ as an object-oriented language. I haven't heard of Icon, Apl2, or Sgml; what are these like/used for? Is Ada a souped-up version of PL/1? (or does it SEEM to be?) Since I am going to be working in a university environment (with MVS, VM/CMS, and UNIX), which languages that I listed in my original posting do you think I will use the most? The least? P.S. Is there a languages discussion list out there? Maybe we could start one... Thanks for all the replies ************************************************************************* * Michael Steiner * Bitnet: U23405@UICVM * * Computer Science Major * Internet: U23405@UICVM.UIC.EDU * * (Sysadmin-wanna-be) :-) * UUCP: beats me! * ************************************************************************* * Disclaimer: I'm only an undergrad. :-) * ************************************************************************* ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jun 89 12:51:23 +1000 From: munnari!elecvax.eecs.unsw.oz.au!8720142@uunet.uu.net Subject: Files sent to Australia? I am wondering if anyone knows of someone that receieves the simtel20 files in Australia. I am having trouble getting the files from simtel20 since I have to pay for them. Any information would be appreciated. BITNET: 8720142%elecvax.eecs.unsw.oz@uunet.uu.net ACSnet: 8720142@elecvax.eecs.unsw.oz UUCP: ...!uunet!munnari!elecvax.eecs.unsw.oz!8720142 SNAIL: Tim Smithers, 2/48 Redmyre Rd, Strathfield 2135. N.S.W. Australia. Phone: +61 2 766 786 [Try contacting the Melbourne PC User Group by phone at 699-1943 (9am to Noon) or by writing to Melbourne PC User Group, GPO BOX 1728P, Melbourne VIC 3001. No, I done have any connection with these people. I just 'happened' to have a copy of their monthly magazine. gph] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Jun 89 15:44:58 EDT From: Brian M. Clapper <bmc@SEI.CMU.EDU> Subject: IBM Infowindow System A friend FAXed me a recent article which talks about integrating video technology with IBM PCs using something called the IBM Infowindow System. He asked me if I had any further information. I don't; does anyone out there know anything useful about this product? If you do and you're willing to share it, please send me e-mail. If you decide to post it, please send me a copy, since I don't regularly read this digest. Thanks in advance. Brian M. Clapper, Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Internet: bmc@sei.cmu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Jun 89 01:06:02 EDT From: rbarth@tumtum.cs.umd.edu (Richard Rbarth) Subject: Re: Using a TDD with a PC A TDD uses the Baudot code, not ASCII. The modem is not compatible with standard ASCII modems; it is half duplex and uses a mark tone of 1400 Hz and a space tone of 1800 Hz. A computer can talk to a TDD, but... You need specialized software and a special modem, or software that can emulate a TDD modem using existing computer hardware. As an example, public domain software is available for the IBM-PC and PCjr and for the Color Computer that uses their cassette ports to generate and receive TDD tones. Connection to the phone line is via a modified telephone amplifier. This software is available on my BBS, the Handicapped Educational Exchange (HEX) BBS, at either: (301) 593-7033 (TDD or 300 baud 8n1) or (301) 593-7357 (300/1200 baud) Obviously, downloading is not possible for TDD callers. X/Y/Zmodem is supported. The above software supports only computers having cassette ports. For those that don't, commercial TDD modems are available from several sources. The file "compare.tty" is available on HEX describing those I know about. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jun 89 16:29 CDT From: Jerry Katz <KATZJA%SLUVCA.SLU.EDU@UICVM.uic.edu> Subject: Re: Reading Mac disks on an IBM-PC In response to the comment that there is no way to achieve this noble end, let me do a 2-center. I'm a little embarrassed to be mentioning this firm again, but please note the usual disclaimer - I really don't own any of their stock, etc. Mircosolutions sells a board that fits between the disk drive controller and the disk drive on MS-DOS machines. With this board in place, the 3.5" drive CAN read and write MAC disks. I have NOT used this board, but have used their similar board for permitting MS-DOS machines to read Apple DOS (or even Apple CP/M) disks. I have not had any problems with my board in the 3 years I've had it. I suspect their MS-DOS/MAC board is similarly trouble free. MicroSolutions is at 125 S. Fourth St., DeKalb IL 60115, phone (815)756-3411. My guess is that cost is in the $150-200 range. Hope this helps. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 89 22:01 EST From: "C'est ma vie." <JSHIN%HAMPVMS.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: Requesting Help with an IBM/PC Jr Is there anyone out there with a PC-Jr? Especially someone with an experience (or many) with Hard disks! (installing, writing a driver, modifications, etc. - cheap ways, that is) My friend wants to know (he's in Malaysia right now), and don't mention any commercial products (especially Racore) - too expensive! Thank you... John Shin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Jun 89 22:02:40 EXP From: Juan Pizzorno <NCD01009%UFRJ@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: Redirection of PrtScr If you're actually using Kermit and want to have a copy of the screen on disk, you can simply press the key that does that -- PgDn (page down) if I'm not wrong. Well, at least with Kermit 2.31. --Juan ncd01009@ufrj ncd01009%ufrj.bitnet@oac.ucla.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 07 Jun 89 18:06:23 LCL From: Sedat ALIS <SEDAT%TRYILDIZ.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: RS232C interrupts Hello, I need help about RS232C communication on a PC and PS/2. I want to detect a Data Set Ready interrupt via a resident program. Which interrupt must I use? When a PC sends data to the other one, the other one must detect this data. One way is to make a resident program which controls RS232C line status register for data set ready. But I want to do it via a hardware interrupt? Is there anyone who can help me? Sedat ALIS YILDIZ University ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Jun 89 15:09:54 MEZ From: C0033003%DBSTU1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Subject: seeking ind$file info does anyone have a description about the ind$file mechanism of IBM? Anyone tried to utilize this mechanism to supply a low level interface to replace the TCP/IP drivers? We do have ind$file running here, it's a standard feature (I guess) for file xfer between hosts and remote machines at IBM, but I couldn't even find a description of this mysterium until now. Any info would be appreciated. Thanx in advance. #include <disclaimer.std> Detlef J. Schmidt +49 531 391 5514 Computing center, University Brunswick, P.O.B. 3329 D-3300 Braunschweig, F.R.G. C0033003 at dbstu1.bitnet c0033003%dbstu1.bitnet%cunyvm.cuny.edu@BRL.ARPA ..!mcvax!unido!DBSTU1.bitnet!c0033003 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 89 22:56 CDT From: "David Stever <STEVER%sp.unisys.com@RELAY.CS.NET> Subject: Slight change in documentation on the ListServers I recently saw a notice in the Digest that one of the main file headers at SIMTEL20 was now residing on PD3:, instead of PD1:. I had tried in the past to request files via the servers from a pack other then PD1:, and this had resulted in an irretrievable file. I thought that the reply was of interest to the user community at large... >From: "Frank J. Wancho" <WANCHO@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil> >Since there is a system-wide alias of PD: to PD1:, PD2:, PD3:, you can >specify PD:<dirname> without being explicit as to which structure of the >three, except for CD or CWD commands. As far as I know, the RPI and NDSU >servers do not use CD or CWD, but specify the entire pathname. The catch >is that only certain top-level dirs are currently wired into their >servers, namely those related only to the CP/M and MSDOS collections. >Here is the current map of top-level dirs: >PD1: | PD2: | PD3: > | | > HZ100 | ADA SIGM | MACINTOSH > INFO-IBMPC | ARCHIVES STARS | MISC > MSDOS | CPM UNIX-C | TOPS20 > PC-BLUE | CPMUG VHDL | > | PCNET ZSYS | >--Frank ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jun 89 14:02 N From: <OGIGUCHT%HLERUL52.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: Turbo Pascal Bugs A few weeks ago I asked for known Turbo Pascal bugs. Duncan Murdoch sent one to me, but I don't think it's a real bug because the Turbo Pascal manual warn you for this. First his message and then a discussion : From: Duncan Murdoch <dmurdoch@watstat.uwaterloo.ca> You asked in the IBM PC Digest for known bugs. One that hits people doing numerical work is that the code generator generates code that makes very inefficient use of the 8087 stack when working with Extended type operands, including constants. For example, if you run var a:extended; begin a:=1; a:=a+a+a+a+a+a+a+a+a; end. you'll get a coprocessor stack overflow. What is apparently happening is that if an expression parses to (simple expression) op (complicated expression) it gets compiled to calculate simple expression, and push value calculate complicated expression, and push value do op. Just by reversing the first two lines, much better use of the stack is made. The workaround for this bug is to use type Double whenever possible, instead of Extended. Constants should be explicitly typed, i.e. use const one : double = 1.0; instead of const one = 1.0; or just using the number 1 in an expression. Duncan Murdoch He is fully right, this code produces an error, but the Turbo Pascal manual discusses complicated expressions that can lead to an error. What I think happens is, that the compiler should check for this kind of expression and warn you about it, the compiler knows how deep it goes, so it can check how much stack space is needed. In a Dutch magazine, something like this was published. Try the next program and see the output: Program ShowTP5Bug; Procedure s; Var i : Shortint; Begin For i := 0 to 1 do Begin Write (2*i-1:10); Write (-1+2*i:10); Write (-(-2*i+1):10); Writeln (-(1-2*i):10); End; End; { Proc } Procedure b; Var i : Byte; Begin For i := 0 to 1 do Begin Write (2*i-1:10); Write (-1+2*i:10); Write (-(-2*i+1):10); Writeln (-(1-2*i):10); End; End; { Proc } Procedure i; Var i : Integer; Begin For i := 0 to 1 do Begin Write (2*i-1:10); Write (-1+2*i:10); Write (-(-2*i+1):10); Writeln (-(1-2*i):10); End; End; { Proc } Procedure w; Var i : Word; Begin For i := 0 to 1 do Begin Write (2*i-1:10); Write (-1+2*i:10); Write (-(-2*i+1):10); Writeln (-(1-2*i):10); End; End; { Proc } Procedure l; Var i : Longint; Begin For i := 0 to 1 do Begin Write (2*i-1:10); Write (-1+2*i:10); Write (-(-2*i+1):10); Writeln (-(1-2*i):10); End; End; { Proc } Begin { Program } Writeln ('Shortint':10); s; Writeln ('Byte':10); b; Writeln ('Intger':10); i; Writeln ('Word':10); w; Writeln ('Longint':10); l; End. { Program } --------- Output -------- Shortint -1 -1 -1 -1 1 1 1 1 Byte -1 -1 -1 -1 1 1 1 1 Intger -1 -1 -1 -1 1 1 1 1 Word 65535 -1 -1 -1 1 1 1 -65535 Longint -1 -1 -1 -1 1 1 1 1 Yes, I read what was said on pages 25 & 26 of the TP 5.0 Reference Guide, but I think it is better to convert intermediate shortint and byte operands to Integer than to something that is compatible to integer and word. This at least would overcome the 65535 and -65535 results. Has someone any reaction to these things? Hope I've helped people who asked themselves why integer results went wrong sometimes. e-Mail ogiguchte@hlerul52.bitnet phone +31-2522-11809 p-Mail Kagertuinen 65 2172 XK Sassenheim The Netherlands Jeroen W. Pluimers Gorlaeus Laboratories Leiden University The Netherlands ------------------------------ Date: 06/07/89 12:09:39 MEZ From: <BD50180%DHHUNI4.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: Using TCPIP on a PC We are planing for our department LAN's to use Ethernet with Schneider & Koch Cards (SK-NET), Novell Netware 2.12 and the TCP/IP Software from SK to communicate with a SIEMENS BS2000 machine over the same LAN. Does anyone have early test experience with the products? Thanks in advance, WR Dipl. Inform. Wolfram Reinken Universit{t Hamburg, Arbeitsbereich f}r Betriebswirtschaftliche Datenverarbeitung Von-Melle-Park 5, D-2000 Hamburg 13 E-Mail : <BITNET> BD50180@DHHUNI4.BITNET <EUNET> REINKEN@INFOHH.RMI.DE.UUCP ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jun 89 14:24:01 CDT From: FRITZ KEINERT <@CCVAX.IASTATE.EDU:S1.FXK@ISUMVS.BITNET> Suvject: Re: Serious bug in Microsoft Fortran 4.1 About 6 weeks ago I posted a query on a deadly interaction between Microsoft Fortran 4.1 and Zenith microcomputers (and other brands) with an 80x87 coprocessor. Specifically, any kind of floating point error (overflow, underflow, divide by zero, ...) would hang up the machine. The same programs produce appropriate error messages on true IBMs. I got a lead from Bob Allison from Microsoft right away. He pointed me to a file EMOEM.ASM on the Fortran distribution disk. If I understand the information there correctly, IBM uses non-maskable interrupts for floating point errors, whereas other machines use regular interrupts via 8259 interrupt controllers. EMOEM.ASM is used to patch up the run-time library to handle this correctly. However, in order to use it, you have to fill in lots of machine specific information, like the port numbers of the 8259 interrupt controllers. This information is not listed anywhere in the manuals. I have been bugging Zenith about this for weeks, so far to no effect. Microsoft's answer is ``Microsoft does not support the modification of this file. It is up to the manufacturer ...''. This is a literal quote from a letter I received yesterday. In other words: Microsoft is not interested in supporting their programs on any machine other than true IBMs, not even on widely used brand-name models. If that is how they feel about their customers, they can do without my business in the future. Fritz Keinert Dept. of Mathematics Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011 (515) 294-5128 S1.FXK@ISUMVS ------------------------------ End of Info-IBMPC Digest ************************ -------