hicks@WALKER-EMH.ARPA (Gregory Hicks COMFLEACTS) (03/04/88)
Info-IBMPC Digest Sat, 20 Feb 88 Volume 7 : Issue 18 This Week's Editor: Gregory Hicks -- Chinhae Korea <hicks@walker-emh.arpa> Today's Topics: 64K Block Allocation Windows .TIF File Format Summary GRAPH update Hard cards MSC 4.0 interrupt (^C) handler help needed Turbo C vs Quick C MSC Danger (was Re: Turbo C vs Quick C) Random Number Generator SCRIBE Text Formatter (2 msgs) English to Valley Girl Talk Translator Wanted Yet another copyright message Today's Queries: Errors with 3270 Emulation on Token-Ring Hercules and CGA on a single PC MS-Word Print Driver Tandy DMP-430 Information on .DIF File Format Requested 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 is via LISTSERV@RPICICGE.BITNET using LISTSERV Commands INFO-IBMPC BBS Phone Numbers: (213) 827-2635 and (213) 827-2515 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 18:11:45 CST From: David Camp <C04661DC%WUVMD.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: 64K Block Allocation From: "Ouri ELZUR - ICT <ELZUR%IIL%sc.intel.com@RELAY.CS.NET> Can anyone suggest a way to allocate a 64KB memory, in an IBM PC AT or a clone, which is ALIGNED to the 64K boundary (0x____0000)? Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 14:45:25 CST From: David Camp <C04661DC@WUVMD> I read your inquiry about allocating an aligned 64K block. I did this in a previous program. Here is a code fragment that worked for me. Notice that I had to allocate twice as much as needed in order to insure that two boundaries were in the field. unsigned int far * data_buffer; unsigned long int_buffer; union { unsigned long long0; struct { unsigned int short1; unsigned int short2; } s; } int_holder; { /* Allocate the data buffer. */ data_buffer = (int *) halloc(65536,2); int_holder.long0 = (unsigned long) data_buffer; int_buffer = (((long) int_holder.s.short2)*16) + int_holder.s.short1; int_buffer = int_buffer - (int_buffer % 65536) + 65536; int_holder.s.short2 = (unsigned int) (int_buffer / 16); int_holder.s.short1 = (unsigned int) (int_buffer % 16); data_buffer = (int far *) int_holder.long0; } *----------------------------------------------------------------------* | (314) 362-3635 Mr. David J. Camp | | ^ Division of Biostatistics, Box 8067 | | Room 1108D < * > Washington University Medical School | | 706 South Euclid v 660 South Euclid | | Saint Louis, MO 63110 | | Bitnet: C04661DC@WUVMD.BITNET | | Internet: C04661DC%WUVMD.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU | *----------------------------------------------------------------------* ------------------------------ Date: 17 Feb 88 19:32 EDT From: FAC0395%UOFT01.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Subject: Windows .TIF File Format A few weeks back I posted a query on the net about getting digitized images into the Microsoft Windows envrionment. Since that time, I've had several (4 or more) conversations with Microsoft technical personnel. Each, unfortunately, has had a different story about file formats for Windows. One tech rep said that, as long as my files were saved out in .TIF format I could get them into Windows without any problem. Stupid me, I forgot to ask how. So I called back again, and the next tech rep did not know about .TIF at all. He did call me back and tell me that I can move my images to Aldus Pagemaker and from there into the Windows clipboard. I suspected that the Windows Development Kit might have other information, but today's call quashed that hope. No utility program to transfer .TIF files, but a description of the file formats if I wanted to write my own program. The funny thing is that the .TIF format (tagged image format) was supposedly developed jointly by Microsoft and Aldus. If that's so, how come Microsoft seems to know so little about it. Yet... all of the graphics programs I've looked at --my salvation seems to be in programs for desktop publishing-- support .TIF. I'm working on a hypertext project in Guide. I want to put scanned images in with my text. I also want to do them in color. I can do this easy as pie on a Macintosh and still have a "programable" language to flesh my project out with (hypertalk). I sure as heck ain't going to write a program to translate .TIF into MS-Windows. I suppose that for the present, the bottom line with this is tuf.TIF. I have several promising programs on the way and an offer from a guy who makes a device that scans slides into almost any format that he WILL get the slide that I sent him into Windows. I will be happy to continue this saga later, programs in hand. Maybe it will save someone else some time and frustration. Thanks to those who responded to my original plea for help. Now, where's the number of my Apple sales rep? J. Feustle FAC0395@UOFT01.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Feb 88 20:20:16 EST From: James R. Van Zandt <jrv@mitre-bedford.ARPA> Subject: GRAPH update I have submitted a revised version of GRAPH to the SIMTEL-20 collection, and Keith Petersen has informed me that the files are now in place... Filename Type Bytes CRC Directory PD1:<MSDOS.GRAPH> GRAPH.ARC.1 BINARY 144685 A588H source code GRAPHDOC.ARC.1 BINARY 7899 A675H documentation GRAPHEGA.ARC.3 BINARY 45727 BD22H executables...EGA/VGA GRAPHH.ARC.2 BINARY 46109 9D69H Hercules GRAPHHI.ARC.2 BINARY 46508 24C7H Houstin Inst. plotter GRAPHHP.ARC.3 BINARY 46467 6631H HP plotter GRAPHLI.ARC.2 BINARY 46867 2FFBH LIPS-10 laser printer GRAPHPC.ARC.3 BINARY 48268 F8E5H CGA GRAPHZ.ARC.2 BINARY 48215 D33FH Zenith Z-100 The EGA version now also supports the VGA in modes 17 and 18. The HP version now supports hardware flow control. Parameters can now come from a file as well as the command line. - Jim Van Zandt (jrv@mitre-bedford.arpa) ------------------------------ Date: Wed 17 Feb 88 08:27:09-EST From: Seth Chaiklin <TC.CHAIKLIN@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU> Subject: Hard cards The January 1987 PC Tech magazine has a full review of hard cards for the PC. The Plus Hard Card was the most highly recommended. A friend has used a Mountain Hard Card for the past year with no troubles. ------------------------------ Date: 16 Feb 88 18:54:50 GMT From: shap@bunker (Joseph D. Shapiro) Subject: MSC 4.0 interrupt (^C) handler help needed -From: Creps <creps@silver.bacs.indiana.EDU> - I'm trying to get an interrupt handler to work in MSC 4.0 that will -handle ^C's at any time... -for(i=1;i<100000;i++) if (i % 10000 == 0) fprintf("%d",i); -int interrupt() -{ - fprintf("*** int ***"); - signal(SIGINT,interrupt); - return; -} 1) I assume that you meant either fprintf(stdout,"%d... or printf("%d... 2) What is missing is fflush(stdout); after your fprintf in the interrupt routine. Fprintf only buffers stuff for output until the buffer is full or a newline is found, or whatever, at which time it effects the fflush. You are adding "*** int ***" to the buffer, but not flushing it to the display device. -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Joe Shapiro "My other car is a turbo... Bunker Ramo Olivetti too." {decvax,yale,philabs,oliveb}!bunker!shap ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Feb 88 18:06:56 est From: Shawn McLean <mclean@Think.COM> Subject: Turbo C vs Quick C >From: Ric Messier <ram@lscvax.uucp> The February issue of PC TECH magazine has a C compiler survey and a good article comparing the merits and performance between Turbo C and Quick C. The author suggests that Turbo C edges Quick C in most categories: Quick C provides some minimal symbolic debugging while Turbo C does not; Turbo C supports several memory models while Quick C only supports large. -shawn ------------------------------ Date: 14 Feb 88 15:31:52 GMT From: Dick Flanagan <dick@slvblc.uucp> Subject: MSC Danger (was Re: Turbo C vs Quick C) tim@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Timothy L. Kay) writes: > wfp@dasys1.UUCP (William Phillips) writes: >>wew@naucse.UUCP (Bill Wilson) writes: >>> Turbo C is superior to Quick C. On our campus here we have also >>> had Quick C blow away hard drives, so be careful. >> >>I know of a case where MSC (4.0 I think) utterly scrambled a hard drive >>(not backed up, natch), when a module compiled with one memory model was >>linked with modules compiled with a different model. > >This can happen with *any* C compiler that uses the large model. . . . >If you break the rules and link large model with small model, who knows >what is going to happen? . . . > >The only solution is to stick to small models or get some memory protection ^^^^ An alternative solution is to simply be careful and not break the rules. DOS has always been very unforgiving in this area (it's as much a victim of the Intel architecture as we are), and blaming any compiler because it "lets" us screw up is a bit tacky. Dick Dick Flanagan, W6OLD GEnie: FLANAGAN UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucscc!slvblc!dick Voice: +1 408 336 3481 INTERNET: slvblc!dick@ucscc.UCSC.EDU LORAN: N037 05.5 W122 05.2 USPO: PO Box 155, Ben Lomond, CA 95005 ------------------------------ Date: 16 Feb 88 18:07:15 GMT From: "R.Moats" <rdmi@homxc.uucp> Subject: Random Number Generator Nick_Grumpy_Landsberg@cup.portal.com writes: > Simplistic, but this works: > Generate about 12 random numbers (assuming 0.0 <= i <1.0) > and divide by 12. This is sufficiently close to gaussian distribution > for most purposes. The more numbers you generate before you do the > division, the closer you will get to purely gaussian distribution. (a) You are right, this is VERY simple. However, this also only provides a binomial distribution between 0 and 12 (or however many numbers you use) while you are aiming for a gaussian distribution which is unbounded. A much better (from the point of accuracy, not from the point of ease of implimentation) transform is to use Box-Muller. Given two random variables X1 and X2 which are both U(0,1), calculate Y1 = sqrt (-2*ln X1)*cos 2*pi*X2 and Y2 = sqrt (-2*ln X1)*sin 2*pi*X2 Y1 and Y2 are both N(0,1) !!! Ryan Moats AT&T Bell Laboratories Disclaimer: any opinions stated above are my own, and do not represent those of AT&T. The facts speak for themselves. ------------------------------ Date: Tue Feb 16 09:07:57 1988 From: lotus!bobf@EDDIE.MIT.EDU Subject: SCRIBE Text Formatter To: dandelion!necntc!linus!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!adm!hicks@walker-emh.arpa You might consider the Finalword Formatter from Mark of the Unicorn. It is faster than the version of Scribe I used to use on a mini. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 20:09:07 EST From: johnl@ima.ISC.COM (John R. Levine) Subject: SCRIBE Text Formatter Try Final Word from Mark of the Unicorn here in Cambridge. It includes a editor which is a lot like Emacs and a formatter which is a lot like Scribe. Depending on how fancy your Scribe macros are, you may or may not have to fiddle your document to get FW to eat it. John Levine, ima!johnl or Levine@Yale.edu ------------------------------ Date: 16 Feb 88 19:01:11 CST (Tue) From: james@bigtex.uu.net (James Van Artsdalen) Subject: English to Valley Girl Talk Translator Wanted > Date: Mon, 25 Jan 88 13:47:27 EST > From: rsparbe@NSWC-OAS.ARPA > Can someone give me a pointer to a language translation program for the PC > that translates English text into "Valley Girl TalK"? Bob > [IF such a program EXISTS, It would be TOTALLY AWEsome! gph] De valspeak honky code is alive and well. What it is, Mama! It's some lex stash wid no C suppo't, so's you gots'ta gots' lex around. But da damn "JIVE" honky code is much, much better. It does baaaad din's even wid sho't, o'dinary text. James R. Van Artsdalen ...!uunet!utastro!bigtex!james "Live Free or Die" Home: 512-346-2444 Work: 328-0282; 110 Wild Basin Rd. Ste #230, Austin TX 78746 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Feb 88 22:32:12 EST From: moss!codas!novavax!proxftl!rafael@rutgers.edu (Rafael Mayer) Subject: Yet another copyright message In Volume 7 #13 Dave Sill <dsill@NSWC-OAS.arpa> wrote: >Is he guilty of violating my copyright? Not knowingly. Even if I had >registered the program, it's unlikely the BBS manager would be expected to >know it was copyrighted. However, if I had placed the appropriate copyright >notices in my program, and the thief had not removed them, the BBS manager >would clearly be held accountable. Yes, that is correct but while the BBS manager can not be held accountable and forced to pay damages, an injunction order can be placed on him to force him, and any others who are distributing your program, to cease distribution. I believe (although I'm not 100% sure) that after you become aware that you are distributing copyrighted software, if you don't stop giving it out, you are liable for damages. The basic problem with the copyright issue as applied to software is that not only is it a gray area as far as laws are concerned, but more oft than not the judges and lawyers do not really understand the mechanisms involved. (how the data is stored, what constitutes a copyrightable or patentable algorithm, etc..). It is best not to expect a consistent or 100% sane behavior from the courts until a lot more cases have been tried and some sort of pattern can be discerned. Until then I will be expecting lots of surprising developments and judgments. -Rafael- Rafael Mayer UUCP: {ihnp4!codas,allegra}!novavax!proxftl!rafael Have you heard about the new Cray 3, it is so fast it can execute an infinite loop in 6 minutes!! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Feb 88 18:49:15 CST From: Dan DeNise <C0016%UMRVMB.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: Errors with 3270 Emulation on Token-Ring We recently set up a Token-Ring with 13 user PS/2 Model 50s and a Model 60 file server and 3270 gateway. Everything works fine when the net first starts. But after a while, after people actually start using files on the server and getting in and out of 3270 emulation, we start getting strange errors. People can't log in and people who are already logged in start getting NET810 and NET801 errors. Sounds like the server crashed, right. Here's the strange part: From the keyboard of the server nothing looks wrong! NET still brings up the menus. NET SHARE still lists the people the server thinks are logged in. NET ERROR doesn't list any errors. We can Alt-ESCape to the gateway and display the status panel, even shut it down and restart it. Sometimes a people will still be able to get at files on the server or continue a 3270 session while others just get errors. I've rechecked the startup parameters twice, especially /SES and /CMD, and they look good. Besides which, we start getting errors with only 6 or 7 people on. We're using the new device drivers, not TOKREUI and NETBEUI; IBM PC LAN V1.20; IBM 3270 Emulation 3.03; and no TSRs. Has anyone else seen anything like this? Any suggestions on how to dig more status information out of the server? Dan DeNise University of Missouri - Rolla BITNET: C0016 at UMRVMB AT&T: (314) 341-4841 Acknowledge-To: <C0016@UMRVMB> ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Feb 88 15:12 A From: <COGLITORE@IPACRES> Subject: Hercules and CGA on a single PC We are asking for some information about the possibility of installing on a single PC both Hercules and CGA graphics cards. We would like to know if there are conflicts on buses and if it is possible to have two monitors working toghether showing different information. Dino and Giovax [The program from the Lending Library titled PD1:<msdos.screen>TWOSCRN.PAS allows you to use both a monochrome and a color monitor... gph] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 14:02:23 N From: molliet%CLSEPF51.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Subject: Adapting KIQ (Graphics Package) to IBM-PC/AT We are trying to adapt the layout editor KIQ to IBM-PC AT compatible. We plan to use Microsoft C Ver 5.0. We're looking for a graphic package wich will enable us to modify the graphic module of KIQ. We're using Philips AT compatibles and GENOA extended EGA graphic cards. Has anyone any suggestion for a graphic package wich will make the best use of our graphic card ? Is there any existing version of KIQ for IBM-PC around ? We will summarize if we have significant solutions, as usual. Philippe Molliet Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Electronic Laboratory EL-ECUBLENS CH-1015 LAUSANNE (Switzerland) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 18 Feb 88 12:20:54 GMT From: "Michael S. Hampton" <jedi@clark-emh.arpa> Subject: MS-Word Print Driver Tandy DMP-430 Does anyone out there know of a printer driver for Microsoft Word 4.0 which will utilize all the special features and fonts of the Tandy DMP-430. The print driver which comes with the package is very limited and only uses about 4 of the available fonts. I would really like to use some of the other features of my printer and really like MS Word. Any help will be appreciated. Mike Hampton Jedi@Clark-EMH.arpa SSgt, 3d LES Clark Air Base Republic of the Philippines ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Feb 88 10:10:10 CST From: Dan DeNise <C0016%UMRVMB.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Subject: Information on .DIF File Format Requested There's a user here (not on the NET) who needs to convert some ASCII files on a Unix system to DIF format. He could download, import ASCII, export DIF, and upload, but he'd rather convert them where they are. Is a document describing DIF format available anywhere on the net. I looked through SIMTEL20 and didn't see any likely names. Speaking of which, is there a list anywhere of what's in SIMTEL20? Not just a directory listing, but a real index with a couple of paragraphs describing each package. Acknowledge-To: <C0016@UMRVMB> ------------------------------ ************************ End of Info-IBMPC Digest -------