Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL (04/29/89)
Info-IBMPC Digest Sat, 29 Apr 89 Volume 89 : Issue 46
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Chinhae Korea <COMFLEACT@Taegu-EMH1.army.mil>
Today's Topics:
Administrivia
386 max question
CLP_V10 general purpose 'C' command line processor
Dos 4.01
EGA PLUS graphics card problems
Fritz Keinert bug
Hebrew Word processor
IBM PC Digest
Illegal opcodes
Info-IBMPC Digest V89 #41
Info-IBMPC Digest V89 #44
SCSI Tape backup software
Thanks for the random number generator info!
VAX FTP Problems
Wanted: Screen Saver that runs a program
Write protection is in the hardware, not in the software
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 89 18:17:14 MDT
From: Gregory Hicks <GHICKS@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: Administrivia
Send messages to the Digest to: <Info-IBMPC@WSMR-Simtel20.army.mil>
Send administrative requests to:
<Info-IBMPC-Request@WSMR-Simtel20.army.mil>
Send info on files to upload to: <kpetersen@WSMR-Simtel20.army.mil>
Regards,
Gregory Hicks
Editor, Info-IBMPC Digest
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 89 11:31:14 EDT
From: jdreyer@East.Sun.COM (Jonathan Dreyer - Sun ECD PC Distributed Systems)
Subject: 386 max question
386 Professional consists of 386^max and 386 load, which allows you to put
device drivers "up there" in high dos memory (memory whose virtual address
is between 640K and 1M).
Very useful for PC-NFS!
(un Jonathan Dreyer Sun Microsystems jdreyer@sun.com
) ( 508-671-0385 Two Federal Street sun!jdreyer
un) Billerica MA 01821 "I have no claim."
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1989 12:24 MDT
From: Keith Petersen <w8sdz@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: CLP_V10 general purpose 'C' command line processor
Thanks to Karl Keyte <ESC1332%ESOC.BITNET> for uploading the following
file to Simtel20:
pd1:<msdos.c>CLP_V10.ARC General purpose 'C' command line processor
CLP, by Karl Keyte, is a shareware general purpose command line processor
for the 'C' language which eliminates the need for repeated work in
handling command line options and parameters in 'C' programs. It provides
a means by which the general format of the command line may be defined in
a Command Line Definition file (.CLD), and processed by a single interface
call. Following that call, values and settings of parameters and switches
may be queried by additional calls.
CLP has been tested with Turbo-C (2.0) and Microsoft C (5.1). The
'#include' file given conforms to ANSI standards, and should
therefore be accepted by any ANSI compiler. The object module uses a
standard 'C' parameter stack.
A compiler is provided which takes the Command Line Definition file and
generates a Command Line Library (.CLL) file which contains definitions
for ALL utilities using the CLP interface. The .CLD file should be
maintained by adding and deleting utilities from it as required. Running
the compiler will generate the full Library file (.CLL) from the
definitions.
Four functions are available to the caller. 'clp_accept' initializes the
CLP processor for a given program and command line. 'clp_get_spec'
returns the specification code for a particular parameter or switch
option. 'clp_get_value' returns the value associated with a parameter or
switch option if present. When parameter and switch processing has been
completed, the user may recover certain portions of system memory by
calling the procedure 'clp_release'.
--Keith Petersen
Maintainer of Simtel20's CP/M, MSDOS, and MISC archives
Internet: w8sdz@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil [26.2.0.74]
Uucp: {ames,decwrl,harvard,rutgers,ucbvax,uunet}!wsmr-simtel20.army.mil!w8sdz
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 89 14:31:19 CDT
From: david@wubios.WUstl.EDU (David J. Camp)
Subject: Dos 4.01
Just for the record, our local IBM distributor is selling Dos 4.01, which
purports to fix some of the bugs in Dos 4.0. -David-
Bitnet: david@wubios.wustl ^ Mr. David J. Camp
Internet: david%wubios@wucs1.wustl.edu < * > Box 8067, Biostatistics
uucp: uunet!wucs1!wubios!david v 660 South Euclid
Washington University (314) 36-23635 Saint Louis, MO 63110
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 89 14:00:02 EDT
From: JAMES%FSU.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Subject: EGA PLUS graphics card problems
I am using a Zenith Z-159 PC which has an EGA PLUS Graphics Card installed
in it. The computer is being used with a Tandy RGB High Resolution Color
Monitor (Model number CM-2). My problem is that the computer only seems
to be working in CGA mode. There is a bank of eight DIP switches on the
EGA PLUS card, which (I assume) set the screen mode. Unfortunately, this
computer was purchased second hand, without any manuals.
If anyone can help me configure this computer to EGA graphics with this
monitor (or tell me what each DIP switch does), it would be appreciated.
Please send all comments, suggestions, or frustrations to JAMES@FSU.
James Messer
Florida State University
------------------------------
Date: Tue Apr 25 09:03:48 1989
From: microsoft!bobal@beaver.cs.washington.edu
Subject: Fritz Keinert bug
We document that some machines which are not strict clones do have trouble
with coprocessor interrupts and ship an assembly routine which must be
LIB'ed into the fortran libraries. I am trying to contact Mr. Keinert to
see if he has already tried this, since it is fairly well documented and
is on Disk 1 of the product. We believe that this routine does solve
these problems, and also believe that many sites run Zenith boxes without
trouble.
If, however, this is not the problem, then we are eager to get more
information. Thanks for getting hold of us and giving us this lead.
Bob Allison
Fortran Development Lead
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 89 13:52:34 IST
From: Itamar Even-Zohar <B10%TAUNIVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Hebrew Word processor
In response to Lloyd's query about a Hebrew wordprocessor (VOL89 No 44):
THE BEST AVAILABLE HEBREW WORDPROCESSOR IS NOTA BENE, AND its best Hebrew
version is the Israeli version, which I believe can be bought from
Dragonfly Software in New York. It is not just a Hebrew wordprocessor, but
both a bi- and multi-lingual one, as it would allow writing, and printing,
Hebrew, Greek, Slavic, Slavonic, transliterated texts etc. etc., as well
as just Roman ("English" etc.) and Hebrew.
If you buy it from Dragonfly, you also get downloadable soft fonts, also
for Hebrew. However, these fonts are not acceptable to us, Israelis,
because they look like Gothic script would look to an American, but if
your professor is in Biblical studies, he may not mind that. However, if
you buy a HP LAset Jet printer for him, HP Israel has produced a very
acceptable font cartridge and this printer is extremely well interfaced
with Nota Bene. The bonus of buying Nota Bene is that you don't have to
use 2 different wordprocessors, that is for your English and Hebrew
writing: one wordprocessor takes care of both in the most advanced and
sophisticated way.
If you use HP plus downloadable soft fonts, or the HP Hebrew cartridge,
printing is of course as fast as regular English printing. No difference
between the languages.
For more Information write to NOTABENE@TAUNIVM.BITNET.
Itamar Even-Zohar
Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel Aviv University
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 89 14:54:47 pdt
From: Danny Low <dlow%hpccc@hp-sde.sde.hp.com>
Subject: Re: Search for Readability Software
In response to the query on Search for Readability Software submitted by
Emil DeRenzo @ MITRE-McLean, VA
Any of the style and grammar checking programs will produce several
readability indices as a byproduct. Examples of such programs are
RightWriter and Grammatik III. I use Grammatik III and it produces the
Flesch and Flesch-Kincaid metrics as well as usual average sentences per
paragraph, average words per sentence, etc. For just producing the
metrics, any of these programs will be suitable. Price and support for
your particular word processor is probably the way to select which one to
but.
Danny Low
Question Authority ... and the Authorities will question you.
Danny Low at ...!ucbvax!hplabs!hpccc!dlow (Hewlett-Packard)
or dlow%hpccc@hplabs.hp.com
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 89 11:55 GMT
From: Paul Mather <E181%vaxa.complab.bangor.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK>
Subject: Illegal opcodes
Dear PC gurus,
Hopefully one of you can help me with a problem which often plagues me.
The problem concerns `illegal opcodes'.
My PC XT-compatible micro has at it's heart not an 8088 as one might
expect, not even an 8086. No, it has an Intel 80186.
The problem I encounter with a some programs is that they `crash' when
run. My system reports `Illegal opcode error' followed by a register
dump. I am not too familiar with the 80x86 family of processors (the
MC680x0 family is more my forte) but I'm sure I heard once that the 80186
was basically the same as an 8086 but with the outstanding bugs in the
8086 fixed (such as the segment overrun bug).
This recollection is all very hazy so please could someone out there
please explain the differences between the 8086 and the 80186. Also, if
there are some opcodes in the 8086 which have been dropped in the 80186,
could you tell me which ones these are.
If I am executing illegal opcodes (illegal for the 80186 that is), is
there any way in which I can emulate these opcodes in software?
Presumably attempting to execute an illegal opcode causes an INT exception
(I don't know the number). If so, could the appropriate vector be
redirected to code to check for old (8086/8088) opcodes and perform the
necessary code to carry out their function. The 68000 allows such a
facility.
Any help is gratefully received. If I get enough replies, I'll post a
summary to the net.
Thanks in advance,
Paul Mather.
e181@vaxa.complab.bangor.ac.uk
JANET: e181@uk.ac.bangor.complab.vaxa
EARN/BITNET: e181%vaxa.complab.bangor.ac.uk@ukacrl.bitnet
Internet: e181%vaxa.complab.bangor.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 89 15:23:19 EDT
From: schaum@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Charles P. Schaum)
Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V89 #41
Note to that fellow with the Turbo machine that locks (his name escapes me
at the moment) : With a 10 MHz machine, you must use 120ns RAM or pay the
consequences.... That's roughly a $150 cost at about $6 per chip.
:Chaz: (a.k.a. Schaum@elbereth.rutgers.edu)
Rutgers class of '91
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 89 10:11 EDT
From: Any sufficently advanced science is indestinguishable from magic
Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V89 #44
A friend of mine with a not too compatible pc-clone (port assignments
are different among other things) is looking to find a source code copy of
Kermit. Does anyone here know where to find a copy anywhere on the net?
Paul
------------------------------
Date: 24 Apr 89 13:56:48 PDT (Mon)
From: bill@pdx.csd.mot.COM (Bill Jackson)
Subject: SCSI Tape backup software
Does anyone know of software available for the PC to do tape backup to a
SCSI device? Specifically I have a tape unit from Relax with software
which works great on the Mac, they make a controller for the PC, but they
don't have the software to run it!
Please reply by e-mail, thanks.
Bill Jackson Motorola Inc., Computer Systems Division
12655 SW Center Street, #400, Beaverton, Oregon 97005-1601.
Voice: (503) 643 6247 Fax: (503) 643 7385 {...motcsd}!mcspdx!bill
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 89 23:53:05 GMT
From: SI-7AF <SI-7AF@SEOUL-EMH1.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: VAX FTP Problems
Hello all,
Read with interest the comments about doing ftp's from a VAX machine to
Simtel20. I have access to a VAX machine at Hickam AFB and have done quite
a bit of transfer work with binary files. The folks at Hickam asked me for
a description of how I did it so they could "educate" the other users
there so I captured the sequence to a file and sent it to them. There does
seem to be one "odd" thing about it, the file greater than 32KBytes error
that was mentioned also nails me unless I "kick" the system with a
keyboard input that generates an error reply. For some reason the quote
"type l 8" doesn't work unless it is preceeded by nothing more than the
word binary whick generates the error (see my sequence below).
Haven't tried to experiment further but almost think that any change that
would generate an error would get the two systems to talk properly. There
is a note in the Simtel20 PD1:<MISC> directory about the VAX tenex not
working properly and I found this to be the case on the Hickam-EMH.
- - - - - - - - - Sample VAX FTP Connection Follows - - - - - - - - - - -
$ ftp wsmr-simtel20.army.mil
hickam-emh.arpa Wollongong FTP User Process (Version 3.2)
Connection Opened
Using 8-bit bytes.
<WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL FTP Server Process 5Z(61)-7 at Wed 29-Mar-89 20:27-MST
Name (wsmr-simtel20.army.mil:osanddn): anonymous
<ANONYMOUS user ok, send real ident as password.
Password (wsmr-simtel20.army.mil:anonymous):
<User ANONYMOUS logged in at Wed 29-Mar-89 20:27-MST, job 24.
*binary
<Type I - WARNING: for 8-bit binary files, use TYPE L 8 or TENEX - ok.
*quote "type l 8"
<Type L bytesize 8 ok.
*hash on
On
$ get pd1:<msdos>msdosidx.arc msdosidx.arc
<Port 17.85 at host 26.16.0.100 accepted.
<Retrieve of PD1:<MSDOS>MSDOSIDX.ARC.67 started.
###############################################
66216 bytes in 656 seconds--800 bps
<Transfer completed. 66216 (8) bytes transferred.
*quit
exit
$ @B O S
@B I S
kermit
VMS Kermit-32 version 3.2.077
Default terminal for transfers is: _NTY4:
Kermit-32>set file type binary
Kermit-32>send msdosidx.arc;1
Kermit-32>exit
$
- - - - - - - - - - - - - End Sample Connection - - - - - - - - - -
Hope this does it for you...
Hugh Preston
si-7af@Seoul-EMH1.Army.Mil
OSANDDN@Hickam-EMH.arpa
------------------------------
Date: Mon 24 Apr 89 10:22:49-MST
From: Steven Backus <Backus@SCIENCE.UTAH.EDU>
Subject: Wanted: Screen Saver that runs a program
Can anyone help me find a screen saver that runs a program? What I'd like
to do is have a fractal running instead of the screen going blank.
Thanks in Advance,
Steven Backus (backus@science.utah.edu)
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 89 23:05 EST
From: DLV%CUNYVMS1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Write protection is in the hardware, not in the software
>Date: 10 Apr 89 17:44:00 CST
>From: zielke@physics.rice.edu
>Subject: Possible to write to a "Write Protected" Disk
>
> In reference to the sure fire cure for viris problems using a bootable
>disk in drive A which is "write protected". This write protection is
>performed in software at some level. It is possible "At least on a Real
>IBM-AT 6mhz, first rom revision" to write directly to the disk and bypass
>the write protect mechanism. I do not know how it was done but I know
>that it can be done, I ran across someone who had written this code so as
>to be able to write on disks with no notch cut in them...
> >David M. Zielke
> >ARPA==> Zielke@Physics.Rice.Edu
> Zielke@128.42.9.23
> MaBell==> 713-527-8101 ext. 4018 work
> 713-666-2982 home
>US Snail==> David M. Zielke
> 7490 Brompton #110
> Houston, Tx 77025
The technical reference to the Real IBM AT ('Personal computer AT high
Capacity Diskette Drive', Aug. 31, 1984, pp. 7&8) clearly shows that the
drive won't write unless the write protect sensor sees a hole. The
protection is not in the software (DOS or BIOS) and not in the FDC
firmware. It is done in the drive's hardware. If you want to write to
disks with no notch in them, you have to disable the write protect
sensor---a minor operation, but more than just writing some code. It
requires a screwdriver. I suggest that you confirm this with your friend.
There was a long discussion in the virus list about whether the write
protection on IBM PC is hardware or software; you may want to dig up its
archive to read the sometimes heated discussion (Mac users stating that
they know nothing about PCs but someone told them that only DOS calls
check for write protection and BIOS calls will write irrespective of the
notch; cheapo non-IBM drives that ignore black and/or mirror tabs; etc).
Dimitri Vulis
Department of Mathematics
CUNY Graduate Center
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 89 15:52:54 CDT
From: FRITZ KEINERT <@CCVAX.IASTATE.EDU:S1.FXK@ISUMVS.BITNET>
I noticed a serious bug in Microsoft Fortran 4.10 a few days ago: whenever
a floating point exception occurs (overflow, underflow, division by zero,
etc.), my Z 286 freezes up. Nothing will fix it, except to turn the
machine off and back on.
I would like to know if anybody out there has had similar experiences or
knows the source of the problem. Here are the specifics:
- I am using Microsoft Fortran 4.10 on a Zenith Z 286 with 80287
co-processor and MS-DOS 3.30 plus.
- The bug occurs on every Zenith machine around out our department, not
just on the Z 286. It also occured on a cheap generic XT clone. It does
NOT occur on true IBM PCs.
- The machines I have tested it on are sufficiently different so that one
cannot blame memory-resident programs, other hardware, etc. Besides, I
tried MS-DOS 3.30 and PC-DOS 3.30 without any extras, and my Z 286 still
froze up.
Microsoft was not aware of this problem. The source disks for Fortran
4.10, however, contain some patches for co-processor problems with MS-DOS
3.20, so this is not the first time something like this has happened.
Zenith does not know anything either, but they do acknowledge similar
problems with 80386 based machines.
Any information on this would be appreciated.
Fritz Keinert
Dept. of Mathematics
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50010
(515) 294-5128
S1.FXK@ISUMVS.BITNET
------------------------------
End of Info-IBMPC Digest
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