[comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest] Info-IBMPC Digest V7 #35

hicks@WALKER-EMH.ARPA (Gregory Hicks COMFLEACTS) (08/06/88)

Info-IBMPC Digest           Fri,  5 Aug 88       Volume 7 : Issue  35

This Week's Editor: Gregory Hicks -- Chinhae Korea <hicks@walker-emh.arpa>

Today's Topics:
                                  386/ix
                            Parallel port reads
                            DMA access request
           Control-c Trapping Under Msc: The Day After (2 msgs)
                          Spooling Files to Disk
Today's Queries:
                      CGA Emulation on Hercules Cards
               Best calendar/Appointment scheduling software
            Do Editors that use BIOS vice Direct Writes Exist?
                         HP plotter driver needed
                        software for theatre work?
                        Turbo C and PC-NFS problem
New Programs Section:
                                 DCOPY.ARC
                   New MSDOS files uploaded to Simtel20]
                         possibly pirated program
                   New MSDOS files uploaded to Simtel20
                          New uploads to SIMTEL20

Info-IBMPC Lending Library is available from:

    Bitnet via server at CCUC; and from SIMTEL20.ARPA (see file
          PD1:<msdos>files.idx for listing of source files)

    SIMTEL20.ARPA can now be accessed access from BITNET via
       LISTSERV@RPICICGE.BITNET using LISTSERV Commands

Send Replies or notes for publication to: <Info-IBMPC@Walker-EMH.arpa>

Send requests of an administrative nature (addition to, deletion from
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Date: Mon, 1 Aug 88 10:14 EDT
From: "MAJ DAVID C. MCGUFFEY" <McGuffey@DOCKMASTER.ARPA>
Subject: 386/ix

There is a digest called 386users which deals with all aspects of using
386 systems.  Their specialty is unix/xenix.  Try 386users@udel.edu

dcm

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 1 Aug 88 10:59:43 EDT
From: David Kirschbaum <kirsch@braggvax.arpa>
Subject: Parallel port reads

  Ken Selvia inquired about a program to read his PC's parallel port and
write data to a file (assuming some external system is sending data to
that port as if it were a printer).

  I think that's gonna be kind of "hardware specific."  The manual that
came with my Persyst Mono Card (with parallel port) gave pretty clear
instructions on how to set up the port for 2-way or input operation, how
to read data, etc., but there's NO guarantee things would work the same
with any other card.

  Could've SWORN I ran across something recently in one of the PC
magazines lately (Byte, Dr. Dobbs, PC Tech, something) about how to use
the parallel port for I/O (with example code .. C, I think), but just
can't find it!

  I could fairly easily write a little hack that would snarf bits coming
in to my parallel port, but with no knowing if it would work on anything
but a Persyst parallel port ... not worth the trouble.

  Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

David Kirschbaum
Toad Hall
kirsch@braggvax.ARPA

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 1 Aug 88 10:54:53 CDT
From: steve@ncsc.ARPA (Mahan)
Subject: DMA access request

Ken Grigg recently wrote about problems he was having using the 8237 DMA
controller chip.

     I ran across some information while installing FASTBACK that may be
useful.  The installation routine contains a check of the DMA (8237) chip.

It seems that most of the AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) DMA controllers are
not capable of handling simultaneous DMA channel activity.  Check the
brand of your controller chip and replace an AMD with an Intel or other
brand.  If you have a soldered chip you may have to replace the
motherboard or use only one channel for DMA at a time.

Stephen Mahan
steve@ncsc.arpa
Naval Coastal Systems Center
(904) 234-4224

Ken, I tried to mail you directly but both addresses bounced.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 29 Jul 88 09:27:02 EDT
From: BRUCE_KAHN@VOID.CEO.DG.COM
Subject: Control-C traping under MSC: The day after

   I recently got a copy of INTERCEP.ASM.  After looking at the principles
involved in trapping the elusive ^C I was sure that my troubles were over.
Alas, this was not to be.  So I typed in the example listed in the MSC
manual under SIGNAL() (used to trap "signals" like CTRL+C and more).
Still no luck.  Well, I dont give up that easy so I tried a whole lot more
(too much to mention here) and finally resorted to using CodeView to trace
into the SIGNAL() function itself.  The example program used it to execute
a program supplied function upon any CTRL+C so I figured Id just watch
what they do and grab the errant text before it is put into the print
buffer and flushed to the screen (there are actually 3 characters put into
the buffer: a control-x to cause termination of any input, a caret and the
upper case C; refer to the System call dictionary under Interrupt 23H).

   I was in for a lot of fun when I found that MSC does almost the same
thing that INTERCEP does but to a DIFFERENT interrupt!  MSC grabs the INT
23H vector (the "Control-C exit address") and uses it to handle the
keypress.

 All the info I have says that INT 1BH (like in INTERCEP.ASM) is also used
and no one seems to be sure of which is used for which.  If you want to
see some real confusion, read the Peter Nortons Guide to the PC concerning
in- terrupts (starting near the beginning of chapter 3).  I digressed...

Anyways, I used CodeView to set breakpoints on the first instruction of
the INT 1BH and 23H interrupts and found that ONLY the INT 23H was called
when CTRL+C was pressed.  Any PC gurus out there that can tell me the
difference between the INT 1B and INT 23?

   Now to the point of this post, I'm stuck again!  I really need a good
solution to this very vexing ^C business and fairly soon.  I have spent 3
days solid with CodeView and have only managed to give my memory a good
work out.  The "Calls" tells me that I went from the normal PRINTF();
routine to the MSC INT 23H handler after a call to the character _WRITE();
routine (built into MSC obviously).  Too bad CodeView cant tell me what
In- terrupts are active or have been invoked.  My thanks to John Galvin
for posting INTERCEP.ASM but Im still back at square one.  Can anyone
offer ANY help or suggestions!??!

                           Bruce (KAHN@ADAM.DG.COM or
                                   Bruce_Kahn%VOID.CEO.DG.COM@ADAM.DG.COM)

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 26 Jul 88 21:04:04 CDT
From: galvin%circle.UUCP@cs.wisc.edu (John Galvin)
Subject: Control-c Trapping Under Msc: The Day After

>   Now to the point of this post, Im stuck again!  I really need a good
> solution to this very vexing ^C business and fairly soon.

Hi Bruce,

    After I saw your message, I decided to do a bit more thorough of a
job.  The result is included below.  It is made up of two files: ctrl_c.c
and ctrl_c.h.  I have tested these routines some, and they appear to
handle Ctrl-C and Ctrl-Break with no problem.  This code was written for
MS C v5.1.  Some rewriting *will* be necessary to get it to work under
previous versions of the compiler.  In particular, the do_break() and
do_intcpt() routines would have to be coded in assembler.  Fortunately,
the do_break() and do_intcpt() are merely C versions of the stuff in
intercep.asm.  So if you had to, you could remove those routines from
ctrl_c.c and replace do_break(INTERCEPT) with intercept() and
do_break(RELEASE) with release().  If you have 5.1 things should work
fine.  Have a nice day :-) !

                           --John


--
John Galvin         ARPA:    galvin@circle.UUCP
1810 Fordem Ave. #6 UUCP:    ...!uwvax!geowhiz!circle!galvin
Madison, Wi  53704  FidoNet: Sysop of 1:121/0, and 1:121/1.  (608) 249-0275

[The program CTRL-C.C has been forwarded to SIMTEL20 for inclusion in file
PD1:<msdos.c>ctrl-c.c ...  --gph]

------------------------------

Date: 27 Jul 88 20:40:20 GMT
From: mcvax!euraiv1!evas@uunet.UU.NET (Eelco van Asperen)
Subject: Spooling Files to Disk

in article <8807200652.AA22120@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, "Thomas W. Dixon"
<twdixon%thunder.uucp@RELAY.CS.NET> says:
>      I am looking for a program that will spool files on the PC to disk
> rather than the printer.  We have a public domain one called LPTx. It
does
> not work well when we try to print a file from inside WORD PERFECT, it
> only sends 4096 bytes of the document to a file.

Why don't you use WordPerfect's built-in print-to-file feature ?  When
installing the printer in WP, it will ask which device to use.  Answer
Other and WP will prompt you for a file-name. The only disadvantage is
that WP overwrites the file if you print more than one document. (This is
even true for WP5.) By the way, which version of LPTx are you using ? I
have v7.0 here.  Don't forget to call lptx with the '-c' parameter *after*
printing the document to force it to flush its buffer and close the file.

Eelco van Asperen.
uucp:        evas@eurtrx / mcvax!eurtrx!evas  #include <inews/filler.h>
earn/bitnet: asperen@hroeur5             #include <stdjunk.h>
"We'ld like to know a little bit about you for our files" - Mrs.Robinson,
      Simon & Garfunkel

------------------------------

Date: 1 Aug 88 06:22:55 GMT
From: munnari!mulga.oz.au!jayen@uunet.UU.NET (Jayen Vaghani)
Subject: CGA Emulation on Hercules Cards

Does anyone know of any software that will do CGA Emulation on a Hercules
Card? Will it actually lock the emulation mode across warm boots? Is the
software PD?

Jayen.
-------
UUCP:      {uunet.uu.net,ukc,ubc-vision,mcvax}!mulga.oz!jayen
ARPA:      jayen%mulga.oz@uunet.uu.net
CSNET:     jayen%mulga.oz@australia

------------------------------

Date: 28 Jul 88 02:00:28 GMT
From: ccicpg!cci632!ritcsh!ritcv!mls9597@uunet.UU.NET (Michael Slade)
Subject: Best calendar/Appointment scheduling software

What is your favorite calendar /appointment scheduler program? I am
looking for one for myself and my group to  use. Some easy way to handle
multiple schedules is a must and some way of scheduling a meeting between
several people is desireable.

If you don't have a favorite, what are some of the assets and liabilities
of the ones you know about?

Commercial products to PD software are all in the running but what
criteria should I be using to judge them?

If there is something that will arrange meetings between people whose
schedule it keeps, both centralized databases and disttibuted database
systems  solutions are possible- what software uses centralized systems
and what uses a distributed model?

All comments, criticisms and even flames on different
scheduling/appointment software cheerfully accepted.

Michael Slade
mls9597@ritvaxa.bitnet

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 25 Jul 88 10:44:41 PDT
From: manley@lbl-csam.arpa (Oscar Manley [ams-doe])
Subject: Do Editors that use BIOS vice Direct Writes Exist?

 is there an editor package that works through bios rather than directly
writing to the screen buffer. I need it to work from my terminal using
procomm 242 on my office pc (host mode will not work with the out put
going directly to the screen buffer).  Any ideas?

OPM

------------------------------

Date: 27 Jul 88 21:10:17 GMT
From: rupp@cod.nosc.mil (William L. rupp)
Subject: HP plotter driver needed

A fellow user is using a piece of software called Beam, from Stellar
Software to do optical design.  For hardcopy, he has been doing screen
dumps, since the software supports no printers.  Does anyone know of an HP
Plotter (7500 series) driver that will support Beam?  If so, we would
appreciate hearing about it.

Thanks.

Bill/Computer Resource Center
rupp@nosc.mil (re:dick anderson)

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 28 Jul 88 9:47:47 EDT
From: Don Cotabish <dcotabis%amc1@amc-hq.arpa.amc>
Subject: software for theatre work?

I would also be interested in receiving any replies concerning theatre
software.

Also, thanks in advance.

-Don

------------------------------

Date: 27 Jul 88 17:01:04 GMT
From: zz1he%sdcc19@ucsd.edu (Heather Ebey)
Subject: Turbo C and PC-NFS problem

I am having a problem running Turbo C ver. 1.5 under PC-NFS 3.0.  It is
difficult to determine which software is causing the problem.

The Turbo C integrated environment will recognize the remote drive, E:,
but it will not load or save files to the remote drive.  After a minute of
a steady blip in the upper corner (means the network is trying), the
message is "Critical Error, Disk is not ready in drive E. Retry or Abort"
Retry just repeats the same.  Abort displays the message "Error: Invalid
drive or directory.  Press ESC."

Has anyone seen this problem before?  Is there a solution? That is aside
from having each user in the microlab copy files to drive C: and then
remember to copy the modified files back to drive E: (each user's personal
directory).

I have calls into both Borland and Sun, but they just got the info and
haven't had time to work on it.  I'm trying to resolve this before August
2nd, when the students who will be using the microlab arrive.

-----------------INTERNET: hebey@ucsd.edu--------------------
Heather Ebey                         Voice:  (619) 534-2448
UCSD, Academic Computing Center, C-010, La Jolla, CA. 92093
-----------------BITNET:  hebey@ucsd.bitnet------------------

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 26 Jul 1988  14:35 MDT
From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA>
Subject: DCOPY.ARC

> From: EIBEN at TOPS20.DEC.COM
>
> DCOPY copies floppies as 'images' from floppy to floppy or from floppy
> to file [and vice versa].. pretty useful, if a 'full floppy' with a
> bunch of subdirs has to be 'moved' and one doesn't really want to
> 'diddle' - so one DCOPY A: FOO - followed by a PKARC A FOO FOO.IMG and
> 'ships' FOO.ARC , which can be by reverse procedure used to
> re-constitute the floppy-image.
>
> Rgds,
> Bernie.

Rather than have it "buried" in <msdos.c> I felt that it should be placed
in <msdos.dskutl>, especially since it includes an executable as well as
source.

Filename             Type   Bytes      CRC

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.DSKUTL>
DCOPY.ARC.1               BINARY      41728  AAC1H

--Keith

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1988  12:20 MDT
From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA>
Subject: New MSDOS files uploaded to Simtel20]

>From: Russ Nelson <nelson at sun.soe.clarkson.edu>

>  <msdos.gif>MACBEST1.ARC     BINARY     144634  CCE9H G-rated GIF pics
>  <msdos.gif>MACBEST2.ARC     BINARY     122871  8590H G-rated GIF pics
>Nope--they're readmacs with a .PIC extension.
>-russ

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1988  14:29 MDT
From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA>
Subject: possibly pirated program

From: Ralf.Brown at B.GP.CS.CMU.EDU

The file VTREE.COM in the newly-posted <MSDOS.DIRUTL>VTREE2.ARC looks like
it may be pirated.  "STRINGS VTREE.COM" shows:

DOS Tree Display
(c) Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 1984
by Robert A. Flavin   Ribo
(No subdirectories)
If you were supposed to have extentions on directory names, there would
have been examples of it in the DOS manual!
TREED -- Displays Directory Hierarchy
         Written by R A Flavin.

etc.

The fact that the filename and the program's text differ is definitely
suspicious, even without the copyright notice.

        Ralf

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 24 Jul 1988  18:53 MDT
From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA>
Subject: New MSDOS files uploaded to Simtel20

Please note - two new directories have been added: <msdos.pcpursuit>
and <msdos.telix>.

Filename             Type   Bytes      CRC

<msdos.arc-lbr>ARCTOOL4.ARC    BINARY      49291  9E51H shell for pkarc
<msdos.database>ASHTIPS.ARC    BINARY      64211  17B4H tips for dbaseii
<msdos.trojan-pro>DELOUSE1.ARCBINARY      22529  A888H trojan/virus protect
<msdos.sysutl>DOSTIPS2.ARC     BINARY      14993  40CCH msdos tips on usage
<msdos.pcpursuit>EXCHANGE.ARC  BINARY      42390  E77EH exchange/cities list
<msdos.telix>EZDIAL10.ARC      BINARY       9201  B346H telix pcpursuitdialer
<msdos.dskutl>FASTCOPY.ARC     BINARY      12210  96FEH fast disk copy
<msdos.sysutl>HDWEELVL.ARC     BINARY       1224  DDC3H hardware error levels
<msdos.filedocs>IBMJUL22.ARC   BINARY     150505  9B71H GEnie IBM RT filelist
<msdos.txtutl>LST60ASM.ARC     BINARY      13833  30A1H earlier list.asm src
<msdos.deskpub>MAC2VENT.ARC    BINARY      15863  0391H MAC to Ventura cvrt
<msdos.gif>MACBEST1.ARC        BINARY     144634  CCE9H G-rated GIF pics
<msdos.gif>MACBEST2.ARC        BINARY     122871  8590H G-rated GIF pics
<msdos.sysutl>ONCALL.ARC       BINARY     116381  65ADH multi-tsr manager
<msdos.txtutl>REMBS.ARC        BINARY      31922  231BH remove backspaces
<msdos.autocad>SHARELIB.ARC    BINARY      15914  7DADH autocad drawing files
<msdos.screen>SNIPPV12.ARC     BINARY      18362  D0DBH write screen to file
<msdos.printer>SPOOLG.ARC      BINARY       3684  F31AH tsr ram print spool
<msdos.screen>TELEPORT.ARC     BINARY      11878  CC20H write screen to file
<msdos.telix>TLX-RVW.ARC       BINARY       2979  DD79H telix 3.0 review
<msdos.trojan-pro>VACCINE.ARC  BINARY      31408  50AAH anti-virus file check
<msdos.zmodem>YAMDEMO.ARC      BINARY     176032  22C9H Pro-YAM demo-Forsberg
<msdos.zmodem>YAMHELP.ARC      BINARY     128389  D604H Pro-YAM demo-Forsberg

--Keith

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 26 Jul 1988  16:17 MDT
From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA>
Subject: New uploads to SIMTEL20

More new uploads to SIMTEL20 today...

Filename       Type     Bytes   CRC

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.ASMUTL>
EXECOM14.ARC   BINARY   21504  0297H <-update of PD EXE2COM w/C-lang.
source

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.BASIC>
OOPS.ARC       BINARY     538  0303H save Basic program after exit to sys

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.BBS>
GATEWAY.ARC    BINARY    6136  EAA5H modem/console both control PC
GATEWAY2.ARC   BINARY    7536  7F6FH modem/console both control PC (newer)
NEWHOST.ARC    BINARY    1544  0D6EH modem/console both control PC

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.HAMRADIO>

SM107.ARC      BINARY  101171   C979 'Super Morse' - Morse code trainer

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.MODEM>
SUBWAY21.ARC   BINARY   10710  8C2EH TSR terminal w/background text capture

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.PACKET>
PACKET.ARC     BINARY   11433  6AC4H Packet Radio tutorial

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.PCPURSUIT>
CITYLIST.ARC   BINARY    1147  4FC0H cities with PC Pursuit out-dialers
TELEPRMS.ARC   BINARY   18330  AD99H proper setting of Telenet parameters

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.SYSUTL>
CNFGTXT.ARC    BINARY   17618  3A51H tutorial on CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.TELIX>
TLX3SORT.ARC   BINARY   20194  EBE9H sort Telix 3.0 phone directory

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.DIRUTL>
TREE.ARC       BINARY    7632  356DH PD graphics Tree directory w/source

Directory PD1:<MSDOS.SMALLTALK>
SMDOCS.ARC     BINARY   70560  C3A8H  \
SMEXE.ARC      BINARY   87840  D8A1H   >Subset of Small-Talk w/C source
SMPROGS.ARC    BINARY  105120  EF6EH  /
SMTALK.ARC     BINARY  174240  2E1AH /

--Keith

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