Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL (11/28/88)
Info-IBMPC Digest Sun, 27 Nov 88 Volume 7 : Issue 56
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Chinhae Korea <COMFLEACT@Taegu-EMH1.Army.Mil>
Today's Topics:
Keeping up with whats new in MSDOS collection
Index to SIMTEL20
Contacting TRICKLE in Europe
Downloading ARCs with Kermit
Downloading ARC files using 3270-plus and kermit
Grammar Checker (2 msgs)
Fast Hard Drives and AT Clones
Relation grapher
Problems with 3.3 directory Caching
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 1988 23:10 MST
From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL>
Subject: Keeping up with whats new in MSDOS collection
In response to the query regarding descriptions for the files at WSMR-
Simtel20, the following should provide the requested information:
A list of all files in the <msdos> archives is contained in directory
PD1:<MSDOS.FILEDOCS> as follows:
NODESCR.IDX.2 contains a listing of those files that do not have a discrip-
tion.
SIMIBM.HDR.2 contains a PC-File+ database header
SIMIBM.IDX.7 contains a listing of all files that have a one line descrip-
tion. SIMIBM.IDX was automatically created by taking the latest
FILES.IDX (updated daily) and comparing it against a combined list of
current files on several BBS systems.
Also available:
FILDEF.C is a program for comparing a previous copy of PD1:<MSDOS>FILES.IDX
with a new copy. It displays files added and deleted since you got an
older index. This is useful if you are trying to maintain an archive
in sync with SIMTEL20. It can generate output scripts for batch FTP
processing.
SIMIBM.ARC contains the latest SIMIBM.HDR and SIMIBM.IDX.
PD1:<MSDOS.FILEDOCS>SIMIBM.ARC is updated at approximately one month inter-
vals (more frequently, time permitting).
PD1:<msdos>FILES.IDX, however, is updated on a daily basis (sometimes
several times a day when a lot of new files are uploaded). This file
is a comma-delimited file, suitable for importing into PC-File+ or
DBase III.
It's impossible to make a daily updated list with descriptions with the
quantity of new programs available. It's hard enough to keep up with a
monthly update with the terrible network response we've been having lately.
--Keith
[This listing is now contained in the 'Welcome to Info-IBMPC' message that
new subscribers receive.]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 88 10:05 CET
From: Ulf Emanuelson <VETUF%SEUDAC21.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Index to SIMTEL20
Dear net-landers|
I'd like to know if there really is an index to the files at SIMTEL20.
[YES, there REALLY is an index to the files at Simtel20... See the previ-
ous message.]
I've received information that there is such an index and it should be in
PD1:<MSDOS>MSDOS.CRCLST (according to one source) or in FILES.IDX in the
same directory [It is...] (according to another source). I have tried to
PDGET both files, but I have only got the answer that the file is not
found. Any information would be appreciated|
Thanks in advance,
Ulf Emanuelson
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
[There are two messages regarding TRICKLE in Europe in this Digest... gph]
------------------------------
Date: WED, 23 NOV 88 10:47:00 MEZ
From: Raymond Koluvek <R02RDK@DHHDESY3.BITNET>
Subject: Contacting TRICKLE in Europe
A few issues ago European users were requested to use either TRICKLE@TREARN
or TRICKLE@DKTC11. I have tried this without success using the commands
PDDIR and PDGET. These have worked fine with LISTSERV@RPICICGE. Although I
received friendly advice from the sysop in Turkey, his suggestions did not
work when sent to the server since I was advised that the nearest server
was that in Denmark. Despite several attempts to communicate with
TRICKLE@DKTC11 I have received no replies, even to requests for help.
Has anyone succeeded in tapping these sources? I would appreciate any ad-
vice.
To contact a TRICKLE in Europe you need:
/help
The European locations are:
In Denmark: TRICKLE@DKTC11
In Turkey: TRICKLE@TREARN
In Italy: TRICKLE@IMIPOLI
In Belgium: TRICKLE@BANUFS11
In Austria: TRICKLE@AWIWUW11
In Germany: TRICKLE@DB0FUB11
Regards Ray
------------------------------
Date: 21 Nov 88 22:17 -0100
From: Michal Jankowski <sieminski%rzsin.sin.ch@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: Downloading ARCs with Kermit
>from: Jans Andries <WBEVENN@HDETUD1.BITNET>
> I'm a new user of EARN and have been trying to get some files from
> TRICKLE@TREARN. I get these files in a VAX VMS node and use KERMIT to
> send this files (.ARC) to a PC. Here, I attempt to extract the files from
> the archive with the program PKXARC but I can't. In some cases the
> program outputs NO FILES FOUND, and in other cases, the name of the first
> file that it attempts to extract is garbage.
There are two possible causes to your problem:
1. Your .ARCs are being converted to EBCDIC somewhere, or mistakenly con-
verted FROM EBCDIC even when they are binary.
2. Your Kermit-32 is thinking that it is a text file and is adding CR/LF
pairs between records.
You can distinguish between 1. and 2. by looking at the beginnig of .ARC
file on the VAX (use DUMP) - if it has readable name of the first archived
file in bytes 3-13, then it is 2., otherwise 1.
If 1, then try some options of RECEIVE (which I suppose you use to receive
files). I believe the option is /[NO]TRANSLATE or something similar. If 2,
then try 'SET FILE TYPE BINARY' on Kermit-32 side, or if it doesn't help
convert your file to another with proper VMS file attributes using VMS
utility program.
>From: Christoph H. Hochstaetter
> I had the same problems with Kermit as you have. This is because Kermit
> does an automatic EBCDIC to ASCII Conversion to all files. You can set
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> your host Kermit to Binary Files, but not MS-Kermit.
Christoph:
No, the MS-Kermit (or any other Kermit I know of) DOES NOT do any conver-
sion, it knows nothing of EBCDIC. The reason for the lack of 'SET FILE
TYPE BINARY' command in MS-Kermit is that it is not necessary - in MS-DOS
files are stored as-is with no conversion at all. The job of converting
VMS text records to the MS-DOS format of CR/LF delimited lines is done en-
tirely on the VMS side.
Of course, it is always possible to Kermit UUencoded files, but it is
slower, so what I do is exactly the reverse: my host cannot receive binary
files, but only UUencoded mail, which I UUdecode (on the VAX VMS side) and
Kermit to my PC as .ARC (for this speedup to be effective, you have to use
full 8 bit link).
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 88 13:42:09 CST
From: david@wubios.WUstl.EDU (David J. Camp)
Subject: Downloading ARC files using 3270-plus and kermit
I have a couple of corrections to the note posted by Christopher
Hochstaetter regarding the downloading of binary files.
1) You can download files using PC-Kermit. The reason PC-Kermit does
not have a binary mode is because it would be the same as the text mode.
I.E. The Kermit encoding for text is the same as the MS-Dos encoding for
text. You can think of MS-Kermit as always being in binary mode. One dis-
advantage is the ^Z at the end of some MS-Dos text files is transmitted,
resulting in an odd result on non-MS-Dos systems.
2) ARCUTIL has a bug when trying to uuencode binary files. It re-
quires that the input file have fixed-length records, and provides a
utility to convert variable length record files to fixed length record
files. The problem is that this utility pads the last record with garbage.
This garbage is included when you UUENCODE, and the resulting file that you
get after you download and uudecode has the garbage in it. This is not al-
ways a problem, but often is.
3) I have adapted Phil Howard's XXENCODE to work on MS-Dos, VM/CMS,
and the original Unix. It is not fully debugged on the CMS xxdecoding
part, but I will provide source on request. This program uses a method
similiar to UUEN/DECODE, but with the character set [0-9A-Za-z+\-] so that
you needn't worry about conversion across gateways (.BITNET etc). Send re-
quests to the following address:
BITNET: <david@wubios.wustl>;
Internet: <david%wubios@wucs1.wustl.edu>; or via mail...
-David-
*-------------------------------------------------------------------------*
| (314) 362-3635 Mr. David J. Camp |
| Room 1108D ^ Box 8067, Biostatistics |
| 706 South Euclid < * > Washington University Medical School |
| v 660 South Euclid |
| Bitnet: david@wubios.wustl Saint Louis, MO 63110 |
| Internet: david%wubios@wucs1.wustl.edu uucp: uunet!wucs1!wubios!david |
*-------------------------------------------------------------------------*
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 88 14:33:31 -0500
From: Glenn Larsen <glarsen@note.nsf.gov>
Subject: Grammar Checker
I've used Grammatic III for the last book I wrote and have found it ex-
tremely helpful. I use it with WordPerfect 5.0 regularly. One word of
caution. Don't change font or type styles until you've finished using the
grammer checker as font changes seem to cause Grammatic III to hang up
every couple of pages. Save formating and font changes for your last edit.
Grammatic III lets you edit the WordPerfect document directly, while you're
checking the document. Most other programs merely print the errors or
place a little mark to flag them. You can't edit them while checking.
------------------------------
Date: 23 Nov 88 04:03:35 GMT
From: dmocsny@uceng.uc.edu (daniel mocsny)
Subject: Grammar Checker
Get Rightwriter. I swear by it, but I don't need it as much now that I have
changed my writing style to eliminate its complaints I agree with. Still
good for a check, though. How about a UN*X port now...
Be sure to get John Brogan's _Clear Technical Writing_, McGraw-Hill 1973.
It will help you understand how to fix the things RightWriter gripes about.
It will also show that RightWriter does not go nearly far enough.
I wish every technical author that I have to read had mastered these two
essential tools.
Dan Mocsny
dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 88 14:09:22 pst
From: Danny Low <dlow%hpccc@sde.hp.com>
Subject: Grammar Checking Software
>From: Donalee Flaningam <3RLRB2U%CMUVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
>I think I am interested in getting a grammar checking package. I know of
>two that are available: Right Writer and Grammatica 3. Has anyone used
>these packages?
I have used both Right Writer and Grammatica 3. Right Writer is a style
checker not a grammar checker. It looks for passive voice, complex sen-
tences, cliche phrases etc. but does very little actual grammar checking
(e.g. verb and subject matching.) Grammatica 3 does style checking and ac-
tually checks for grammatical errors as well.
Grammatica 3 fails quite often. For complex sentence structures it often
cannot determine when a word is being used as a verb or a noun. However,
most failures are one of caution. You get an error notice even though the
sentence seems to be okay. About 90 to 95 percent of the errors I get are
not real errors. Looking at just the grammatical errors and ignoring the
style errors, I estimate that about one third of the errors are real but
Grammatica 3 catches less than half of the grammar errors.
Right Writer produces a marked up copy of your file. Grammatica 3 allows
you to edit while it checks your file. Grammatica 3 supports more word
processor formats than does Right Writer.
In summary, although Grammatica 3 is definitely better than Right Writer,
it is just marginally better than nothing at all. Unfortunately, Gram-
matica 3 is also the state of the art right now on a PC.
Danny Low dlow@hpccc.hp.com or ucbvax!hplabs!hpccc!dlow
------------------------------
Date: 23 Nov 88 10:43:49 PST (Wednesday)
From: "George_C._Burkitt.ElSegundo"@Xerox.COM
Subject: Fast Hard Drives and AT Clones
>From: Dave Swindell <dswindel@cic.cs.net>
The through - put of short access time vs high data rate drives depends on
the type of access your applications make.
If there are a lot of short reads, access time is the important parameter.
If there are mostly long files, data rate becomes more important.
If there is usually a mix of short and long files to read, my guess is
that access time would be the choice. Most folks who use the RLL drives
(that I know about) get their main gain from the 50% increase in drive
capacity.
[Well ... I used ILEAVE15.ARC (available from Simtel20 in directory
PD1:<msdos.dskutl>) and actually increased the effective throughput of the
drive. The program determined that the optimum interleave for my Tandon
drive was 3 (I had it at 5) and then performed an in-place low level re-
format of the drive. Another program from another source confirmed that
the throughput actually had increased. --gph]
------------------------------
Date: 23 Nov 88 11:01:16 PST (Wednesday)
From: "George_C._Burkitt.ElSegundo"@Xerox.COM
Subject: Relation grapher
>From: Mitch%UMASS.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
There is a program called Function Plot from SoftSmith and The Software
Guild which reads Basic expressions and plots them in black and white.
Softsmith's address is (or was) 2935 Whipple Road, Union City, CA
94587.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 88 12:31:07 EST
From: munnari!necisa.oz.au!chris@uunet.UU.NET
Subject: Problems with 3.3 directory Caching
I believe the problem is due to the lack of a disk change signal from the
drive that indicates that the door has been opened.
This may be due to either the drive type or the controller. I have tested
this on my machines (NEC APCIV's) and it occurs when an olivetti 360k drive
is used as I have to cover connector 34 (disk change signal)
Regards,
Chris Martin
------------------------------
************************
End of Info-IBMPC Digest
-------Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL (11/28/88)
Info-IBMPC Digest Sun, 27 Nov 88 Volume 7 : Issue 56
Today's Editor:
Gregory Hicks - Chinhae Korea <COMFLEACT@Taegu-EMH1.Army.Mil>
Today's Topics:
New MSDOS upload: DABUTIL.ARC
How to transfer files from WSMR-Simtel20 to a PC via a VAX/VMS
SIMTEL20 files in Europe
Single Drive Copying (2 msgs)
Error in LOGITECH Modula-2/86 3.03 - Library Module DOS3
ARCE on VAX/UNIX
Today's Queries:
Expanded memory?
QuickBasic Floating Point query
Information about authoring systems
HARD DISK Type 2 on IBM PC clone??
Keyboard problem
Transfering images from a PC to VCR
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 88 11:17:46 CST
From: Don Branson <C08922DB%WUVMD.BITNET@CORNELLC.ccs.cornell.edu>
Subject: New MSDOS upload: DABUTIL.ARC
Just uploaded: DABUTIL.ARC. It is a SHAREWARE collection of utilities.
The author claims that the programs have been tested on IBM PC's and IBM
PS/2 model 80's. This is the directory and CRC information:
>Filename Type Bytes CRC
>
>Directory PD1:<MSDOS.SYSUTL>
>DABUTIL.ARC.1 BINARY 64880 6067H
Files in this archive:
README.DAB Description of the disk and registration procedures.
DABUTIL.DOC A description of each utility in the archive
DABUTIL.REG A registration form.
LD.COM List Directory utility
FF.COM Find File utility
DI.COM Display disk format information, file location information
SD.COM Sort current directory
ENC.COM Copy file, encrypting it in the process
CATALOG.COM List files and archive contents on a disk
Don Branson
C08922DB@WUVMD.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 88 11:56 N
From: <MEELISSE%HROEUR5.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: How to transfer files from WSMR-Simtel20 to a PC via a VAX/VMS
Hi all!
This might be an aswer to the problem mentioned by Jorge Obiol
(EAOBIOL@EBRUPC51.BITNET) in ibmpc #7.52 about how to receive WSMR-Simtel20
files on a VAX/VMS:
Something (I don't exactly know what) goes wrong when receiving the WSMR-
Simtel20 files. If you avoid the RECEIVE * command, and use the next series
of commands instead, you should get better results:
$ RECEIVE
> COPY/NOTRANSLATE * *
> EXIT
$ ANALYZE/RMS/FDL <Filename>
You now have an .FDL file. Edit this with:
$ EDIT/FDL <Filename.FDL>
You now enter the FDL editor. Enter M (for modify), then R (for record),
then CAR (for Carriage Return), then NONE (for none). Then a few Ctrl-Z's
to exit the editor. Finally type:
$ CONVERT/FDL=<Filename.FDL> <Old Filename> <New Filename>
The new filename is one you make up yourself, and after the convert command
you can download this new file to your PC. There should be no more
problems unpacking your file after this. Good luck!
I also have a question:
A few months back I started to work with Turbo Pascal 4.0, thinking this
was the ultimate update. But now I hear talking about a 5.0 version...
Please tell me, what's new in 5.0? Is it worth it to upgrade?
Greetings,
Danny Lagrouw, Rotterdam, Holland
(MEELISSEN@HROEUR5.BITNET)
------------------------------
Date: 23 Nov 88 20:17 -0100
From: Michal Jankowski <sieminski%rzsin.sin.ch@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: SIMTEL20 files in Europe
>From: <REDDINGT%DM0MPB51.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
> A few issues ago European users were requested to use either
> TRICKLE@TREARN or TRICKLE@DKTC11. I have tried this without success using
> the commands PDDIR and PDGET. These worked fine with LISTSERV@RPICICGE..
I have tried to use the European servers with various levels of success.
The story so far is: I can only receive mail format files (ie, no binary
files). LISTSERV@RPICICGE worked flawlessly and sent me any file I re-
quested. It split big files in parts (there is a limit on the mail message
size, you know), uuencoding them and everything. After TREARN and DKTC11
were announced, I tried them both and got some /pddir listings from DKTC11,
but a /pddir request to TREARN resulted in a uuencoded file that appeared
to be EBCDIC.
I tried to get RPICICGE to send me another file, but it now replies that I
should use a European server.
I tried DKTC11 once more - it worked on Nov 10, but on Nov 13 it told me to
use AWIWUW11 instead. On Nov 13 I requested from AWIWUW11 the following:
pd1:<msdos.lan>EASY-NET.ARC
pd1:<msdos.telix>TLX310-1.ARC
pd1:<msdos.telix>TLX310-2.ARC
pd1:<msdos.telix>TLX310-3.ARC
It replied that those files are being requested and after a day or two I
received TLX310-2.ARC and TLX310-3.ARC from TRICKLE@IMIPOLI(?), each as one
enormous uuencoded mail messsage. They arrived once more on Nov 19, this
time from TRICKLE@TREARN. On Nov 21, I received a message from some
obscure mailer to the effect that a message from TRICKLE@TREARN of Nov 14
was not delivered because it was to big. I can only assume that it was one
of the missing files, but there no sign of the other.
So, my conclusion is: the European servers work for small files only.
Christoph H. Hochstaetter <HOCHSTAE@DMRHRZ11.BITNET> suggested (in issue
54) some more addresses, but I have yet to try them.
Michal Jankowski
<sieminski%rzsin.sin.ch@cernvax.bitnet>
<sieminski@rzsin.sin.ch>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 88 07:47 PST
From: Michael L. Farkas <Farkas@GODZILLA.SCH.Symbolics.COM>
Subject: Single Drive Disk Copy
Beverly Ross writes "I've a friend with a Toshiba 1000 who's going crazy
having to constantly switch diskettes into the one diskette drive in order
to copy files."
If your friend has enough memory to set up a ram disk the size of the disk
they want to copy, have them copy the disk to the ram disk and then copy
the disk to the ram disk and then recopy the ram disk to the new disk.
I've never tried this, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work.
Let me know the results.
Mike Farkas (farkas@scrc-stony-brook.arpa)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 24-NOV-1988 08:37 +0100
From: "UBMJS2::RMEYER" <U0018%DGOGWDG5.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Single Drive Copying
> I've a friend with a Toshiba 1000 who's going crazy having to
> constantly switch diskettes into the one diskette drive in order to copy
> files. Does anyone out there know of any public domain or commercial
> program that can read larger chunks of files into RAM and then copy them?
> I'll relay any responses and they'll be appreciated.
Use the program XCOPY. You will find it in the your MS-DOS disk. [The
program DISKCOPY on the DOS 3.0/.1/.2 works as well.] XCOPY reads the
files into memory and then copys then to the target disk. You only have to
change diskettes, if there is a lot of data to copy or your computer has
limited memory. XCOPY can also be used to copy a complete directory tree
from one disk to another. [DISKCOPY won't do this...]
Reinhold Meyer
Abt. Forstliche Biometrie u. Informatik
Buesgenweg 5
D 3400 Goettingen
BITNET: U0018@DGOGWDG5.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: 23 NOV 88 12:30-
From: HOLTHAUS@DBNINF5.Bitnet
Subject: Error in LOGITECH Modula-2/86 3.03 - Library Module DOS3
This Module doesn`t appear to work properly:
I tried the Procedure LockUnLockFileAccess, but this Procedure returned
very unexpected results: DOS-Returncodes, which does`t exist and so on.
The error is very simple: This Module was translated with the /O+ switch
(Register Optimization on). If you translate it with the /O- - Option,
everything ist o.k. I have tried the Compilation with the /O+ switch, and
the wrong results reappeared. The compiler-specific documentation reports
the problems, if you call DOS-Routines with GETREG and SETREG and Optimiza-
tion on! If you want to use this Module and if you are an owner of the
toolkit (and so the library sources), there is no further problem. Other-
wise you have to program your routine directly.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 88 11:14:46 EST
From: Paul.Birkel@K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU
Subject: ARCE on VAX/UNIX
Is there a version of ARCE that will run on a VAX under UNIX somewhere on
SIMTEL20? I haven't been able to identify one from the .crclst file. I as-
sume that it would be in C.
Basically, in the absence of documentation (strings or otherwise) external
to the .ARC file, I have to move the file to my PC before I can find out
whether I really want the contents. Not that that's all that much more
complicated than getting it from SIMTEL20 in the first place ... but it's
another layer of hassle that *could* be avoided.
[Again, see the first message in this Digest. External documentation IS
available.]
I'd just like to be able to extract a contents, and any .DOC, .TXT, etc.
files, on the VAX/UNIX to see if the executables will prove useful.
Thanks,
paul
Internet: pab@cs.cmu.edu Bitnet: pab%cs.cmu.edu%smtp@interbit
CSnet: pab%cs.cmu.edu@relay.cs.net Uucp: ...!seismo!cs.cmu.edu!pab
USPS: Paul A. Birkel, CS Dept, CMU, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Voice: (412) 268-8893
------------------------------
Date: Wed 23 Nov 1988 10:42 CDT
From: <MCAR002%ECNCDC.BITNET@CORNELLC.ccs.cornell.edu>
Subject: Expanded memory?
As I am not sophisticated about the innards of pc's, this may be a dumb
question, but I'd still like to know. I have a Kaypro PC, which has 728K
RAM. Everything above 640K is available to me as a RAM disk, but I'd don't
really need one. Is there any program that would permit me to use the ex-
tra RAM as expanded memory, which I'd find a lot more useful?
Dale Hample
Dept. Communication
Western Illinois Univ.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 88 10:55:31 IST
From: Sefi Merkel <SEFI@BGUVM>
Subject: QuickBasic bug
I just found I have a problem, I wrote a large program in QuickBasic Ver
4.0, and found that there seems to be a problem with calculations using
floating point variables. I wrote a small test program to try and isolate
the problem:
t! = TIMER
FOR i% = 0 TO 10000: NEXT
PRINT "integer "; TIMER - t!
t! = TIMER
FOR i& = 0 TO 10000: NEXT
PRINT "long integer"; TIMER - t!
t! = TIMER
FOR i! = 0 TO 10000: NEXT
PRINT "single precision"; TIMER - t!
t! = TIMER
FOR i# = 0 TO 10000: NEXT
PRINT "double precision"; TIMER - t!
END
The output was:
integer .1601563
long integer 1.310059
single precision 29.33008
double precision 31.81006
) My question is: why are the floating point calculations so slow? Is
there a way to speed this up (short of buying an 80X87?) I understand that
the 80X87 has to be emulated in software, but must the difference in loop's
be that much? In the Microsoft Basic compiler Version 2.0 the difference
was much smaller. The floating point calaulation was faster even using the
basic interpreter.
NOTE: the compter configuration was is a standard IBM/PC without a 8087
coprocessor (so software emulation is used by the compiler).
Thanks. Sefi Merkel (SEFI@BGUVM.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 88 16:43:00 HOE
From: Montserrat Martinez Guilera <SGCRMMG1@EB0UB011>
Subject: Information about authoring systems
Does anyone have any information about these authoring systems?
IconAuthor (Aim Tech Corp)
Authology (CEIT systems)
Quest (Allen Communications)
Authority (Interactive Training Systems)
MicroTICCIT (Hazeltine Corp)
THANKS IN ADVANCE.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 88 18:15 N
From: Vassilios Tsonis <84655026V@CSGHSG5A>
Subject: HARD DISK Type 2 on IBM PC clone??
I have this IBM PC clone with a ROM BIOS Minta 86. This machine does not
have a hard disk. I found a SEAGATE 20 Mb/Type 2, that was used on an IBM
PC/AT. Is there anyway that I could make it work with the clone? Does any
one know where I could get a controller? Will SEAGATE provide any?
[Controllers should be available from any of the mail order houses...
Check the latest 'Computer Shopper'... Is there a branch of Western Digital
near you?]
with best regards
Vassilios Tsonis, 84655026@CSGHSG52.EARN
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 88 21:57:24 +0100
From: mcvax!geocub.greco-prog.fr!anthes@uunet.UU.NET (Franklin Anthes)
Subject: Keyboard problem
I've written an interactive audio visual program. The hardware I'm using
is:
- IBM PC XT
- Laserdisc player
- genlock board to sync. graphics with video
- sound board, for playing back digitized sounds
- special keyboard (9 keys, no moving pieces, VERY sturdy)
The program controlling the whole setup is written using Turbo C 1.5.
So much for the background:-)
Now the problem:
About 90% of the time, my program doesn't read the keyboard (ie. it's busy
showing video sequences, producing digitized sound etc.). Now if somebody
happens to have their hand resting on the keyboard (just touching it will
do), then scads of key hits are sent to the PC. Things get really bad when
the keyboard buffer fills up. Every new key sent by the keyboard now
provokes a beep, and this brings practically everything to a halt. Of
course in this situation all synchronization between my program and the
video disc player is lost! To remedy this situation I have tried the fol-
lowing
void interrupt (*temp)();
void interrupt dummy(void)
{} /* do nothing interrupt routine */
void disactivate(void)
{
temp=getvect(9); /* save old interrupt routine */
setvect(9,dummy); /* do nothing when keyboard interrupt happens */
}
void activate(void)
{
setvect(9,temp); /* use regular keyboard interrupt routine */
}
This is typed in from memory so there may be some typos. The problem is
that this doesn't work. The machine seems to lock up, if I hit a key when
the keyboard is "disactivated". If I hit keys only when the keyboard is
activated, it seems to work for a while, and then the program locks up mys-
teriously, in the middle of nowhere! The sequence of calls is:
disactivate();
...
activate();
...
disactivate();
...
/* the program locks up while producing digitized sound */
Has anyone else ever had to do somthing like this? I'd sure appreciate
some advice on the subject!
PS: The interactive audio visual is about AIDS prevention here in France.
So if somebody wants to do a good deed today, this is a very good oppor-
tunity.
------------------------------
Date: 24 Nov 88 02:28 -0330
From: D. Bruce Pike Newfoundland <pike%MUN.BITNET@CORNELLC.ccs.cornell.edu>
Subject: Transfering images from a PC to VCR
Is anybody aware of a product which can record PC images using a VCR? I've
been told it's possible to use the composite connector on my EGA Wonder
graphic card but I'm not sure if this will give more than one color or
provide acceptable resolution. I'd be interested in purchasing additional
equipment if it produces more professional results. Any advice or suggest-
ions on my predicament is greatly appreciated.
------------------------------
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End of Info-IBMPC Digest
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