Info-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU (Info-IBMPC Digest) (09/22/87)
Info-IBMPC Digest Monday, 21 September 1987 Volume 6 : Issue 64
This Week's Editor: Billy Brackenridge
Today's Topics:
Columbia Can't Do It
Administrivia
dBASE III Clone
Smalltalk on AT
Chinese Word Processors
National Customization
EGA Monitors for International use
File Transfer
NEC V20 Compatibility Problems
CTS Datacomm Modems
Pagemaker under Windows
The WHOLE scoop on UNIX 5.3 for the 80386
386 Unix
386 Demand Paged Virtual Memory
Measuring Clock Speed from Turbo-Pascal (3 Msgs)
Shift Print Screen for EGA
Packdisk Write-only Drives
TURBO C BUG (long) Casting
Making BREAK = ON More Powerful
Today's Queries:
OS/2 Developer's Kit Questions
UNIPAQ Computers
Imaginary Drive Problem
Turbo XT/Printer Timing Problem
INFO-IBMPC BBS Phone Numbers: (213)827-2635 (213)827-2515
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu 17 Sep 87 19:37:50-EDT
From: Frank da Cruz <SY.FDC@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: Columbia Can't Do It
Well, sad to say, Columbia can't commit to taking over Info-IBMPC.
Given the level of pledges -- the total is currently somewhere in the
$13,000 to $18,000 range -- we simply can't fund a position with the
level of expertise required to run the Info-IBMPC digest. And
without funding, we can't burden our already overburdened technical
staff with the amount of work (at least one full-time position to do
it right) the job entails. Like most other sites that receive the
IBMPC digest, we've benefited enormously from it and we're grateful
for all the help it's given us over the years. Thanks to you, Dick
Gillmann, and all the volunteer editors and program librarians, and to
all those who have participated in the dialog and submitted software
to the lending library since Info-IBMPC began in 1981. We're also
grateful and delighted with the pledges we received in the
unprecedented pledge drive. I hope some other site will be able to
take on the responsibility of running Info-IBMPC and the software
library. Finally, my apologies for the length of time it took us to
come to this decision. With regrets,
Frank
------------------------------
Date: 21 Sep 1987 12:47:05 PDT
Subject: Administrivia
From: Billy <BRACKENRIDGE@C.ISI.EDU>
Last May I resigned from Info-IBMPC. Here it is pushing October. I
don't expect anyone to believe info-ibmpc is going away. I have cried
Wolf! long enough. INFO-IBMPC will probably muddle on.
I can't spend much time editing anymore. I still will keep an arpanet
mail account and will check in every now and then, but I won't be
doing much of the work putting together the digest.
C.ISI.EDU will probably exist for another month or so. It is an old creaky
PDP-10. We and the root domain server are the last users. I had hoped to
find info-ibmpc a new home before the hardware is shipped out the door.
I certainly don't have the time to convert info-ibmpc to run on a Unix.
Of course I would like a full time paid staff member at some university
to take over editing the digest so it can grow in quality and keep up
with the network volume. That isn't going to happen. I guess we will just
muddle along.
Gregory Hicks is doing a great job considering he is at the end of a 300
baud connection to a TAC in Korea and a host C30 in Japan and stuck with
wordstar as a word processor. It is a miracle he gets anything out at all.
If anybody on the arpanet wants to help, we can use another editor to help
out Gregory Hicks if not the digest may or may not get published and the
hardware may or may not disappear in the next month.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1987 22:51 MDT
From: Keith Petersen <W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA>
Subject: dBASE III Clone
I recently received the following inquiry:
>I read an article in the Computer Shopper recently about a "Free" dBase III
>compiler that is out. The guy said to check the local bulletin boards as it
>was being passed around as public domain. Have you seen this yet or possibly
>have it on your bboard?
Yes, indeed! It's available via standard anonymous FTP from SIMTEL20 as:
Filename Type Bytes CRC
Directory PD:<MSDOS.DATABASE>
WAMPDOC.ARC.1 BINARY 101632 0783H
WAMPUM30.ARC.1 BINARY 213248 1374H
--Keith Petersen
Arpa: W8SDZ@SIMTEL20.ARPA
Uucp: {bellcore,decwrl,harvard,lll-crg,ucbvax,uw-beaver}!simtel20.arpa!w8sdz
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 87 05:47:04 PDT
From: halff@nprdc.arpa (Henry Halff)
Subject: Smalltalk on AT
Try Smalltalk/V from Digitalk
Digitalk, Inc.
5200 W. Century Blvd.
Suite 250
Los Angeles, CA 90045
USA
It's cheap ($99), and a pretty good implementation considering
that it runs on a pc.
I don't have any connection with Digitalk apart from the fact
that I like to play with their programs.
hh
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 87 13:06 N
From: <CYP%HLERUL5.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: Chinese Word Processors
Hello,
There is a Chinese Wordprocessor TianMa.
I just got the information here, from a Professor here at Leyden University.
He is teaching Chinese language.
TianMa is available in the USA from:
InternaTIONAL Geosystems Corporation, at San Francisco,
3030 Atwater Drive, Burlingame CA 94010, Tel. (415)697-0911
and from:
CACI Inc, at Washington DC,
1815 North Fort Meyer Drive,
Arlington,VA tel.(703)841-7800.
Of course there are also Chinese Wordprocessors available for the Macintosh,
but I don't know if you are interested in information regarding these as well.
p.s. TianMa uses Pinyin input and gives chinese characters on the screen
automatically.
Sincerely Yours,
Cyp van de Bult, e-mail: CRIGCB@HLERUL2.BITNET or CYP@HLERUL5.BITNET
------------------------------
Date: 01 Sep 87 00:24 +0200
From: "Olle Jarnefors KTH" <P6935%QZCOM.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: National Customization
[Here are excerpts from messages from Olle Jarnefors in Sweden. We were
discussing how to deal with international character sets, particularly
when dealing with mail on PCs. I think INFO-IBMPC is a great place to
discuss this. I hadn't given much thought to this problem when writing
code, but feel this is an issue all us writing code should consider.
The discussion started asking a question about Dick Gillmann's multi
line BBS system DLX. Dick has written his BBS so it can be customizable
to work in any language. The INFO-IBMPC BBS uses an early version of
Dick's code. -wab]
> He only allows 7 bit ascii in messages. Will this work with European
> languages? I assume messages in Europe are also limited to 7 bit ascii.
I would insistently advice Dick Gillmann to design his system so
that it treats all 8 bit characters in the same way. (I assume
it is a BBS for PCs.) In non-English speaking countries we *have
to* use national letters in addition to 'A'..'Z' even to write
the simplest message in our own language. And even Americans
should appreciate the possibility of using high characters for
example to build boxes in their messages.
Sure, national letters can be mapped onto 7 bit ASCII and this
is done in older mainframe systems in all European countries.
But this is the start of endless troubles: Different countries
have different national letters which are mapped to the same
code positions. People can't understand text written in some
other country's character code. It is impossible to mix text in
different languages in the same file or document. Some useful
ASCII characters such as square and curly brackets and backslash
are replaced by letters. English text and program code (compare
C) which uses such characters is ugly to look at and difficult
to read. Code conversion programs are necessary, but have to be
applied from case to case by the user and are difficult to
explain to computer novices. Computer, keyboard, screen and
printer may map the same bitsequence to different graphical
characters.
I don't see any point in just allowing half of the computer's
character set. Soft hyphens and carriage returns can be repre-
sented by other means than setting the high bit. You probably
can't imagine the ugly patches that MicroPro had to do in the
WordStar file format to make it usable on IBMPCs in European
countries.
Some other considerations for making programs usable in non-
English speaking countries:
+ Don't bother about keyboard customization, just use DOS or
BIOS interrupts to read the keyboard. If so, foreign lan-
guage users will be perfectly satisfied to be able to use
their ordinary national keyboard drivers. Don't use Alt- or
Shift-Alt-combinations for commands, unless they are easily
reconfigurable; many such combinations are used to produce
some useful characters such as backslash and dollar on
European keyboards. Don't make assumptions about the locali-
zation of some special character on the keyboard, it is
possibly on some other key on some national keyboards.
+ If your program has a sorting function: Make it easy to
adjust to different languages. Not only should many charac-
ters in addition to English letters be treated as letters,
their collating sequence differ between languages and some
languages give two or more letters equal priority. Also the
treatment of blanks differ: In English the three cases 'real
time', 'realtime' and 'real-time' perhaps should be treated
as the same word. In other languages the first one should be
seen as a combination of two words, that means space should
be sorted as the first letter in the alphabet.
* Don't let your program depend on any particular way of
writing dates, times, addresses or telephone numbers. All
these things differ between countries and sometimes within
countries. For example, I prefer a date to look like
1987-08-31
(other Swedes have other preferences). Also the placing of
the currency sign may differ. In Sweden we write '650 kr',
not 'kr650' (this nowadays amounts to $100, a few years ago
it was only $80, despite the fact that inflation has been as
big in Sweden as it has in the US).
* In some European languages, including German and Swedish,
very long words are not uncommon. (In an ordinary newspaper
article I found words such as 'aderforkalkningssjukdomar'
and 'dehumaniseringsglasrutorna'.) This means that in text
editors it is just not a good idea to automatically move the
last word to the next line when the current line is filled.
You should make it easy for the user to make intelligent
hyphenations, at least as easy as in WordStar.
My plea for 8-bit support was not bound to any recommendation
of the IBMPC code. I just think it will ease future transition
to richer character code standards and in the meantime make
the kludgy temporary solutions necessary in Europe possible.
It's good to see that you wait for international mail
standards. I suppose X.400 is the only offer yet. Some people
here in Sweden -- I'm not among them -- think that the IBM PC
character code is fully sufficient for representing European
languages and aren't interested in true international standards.
We who think that the IBMPC code is a lousy hack (essential
characters left out, non-serious signs included, no provisions
for extra control characters in columns 8 and 9, no discernible
order between the characters, no relation between upper-case
and lower-case letters), putting you at the mercy of a big,
unreliable, and unpredictable company, not really interested in
anything but maximizing its own profits, fight for
international standards such as:
+ ISO 2022 (how character codes should be extended; how 8-bit
codes should be represented in 7-bit environments)
+ ISO 6937 (comprises _all_ characters in European and American
languages using the Latin alphabet, but not Greek letters
and not many special symbols; encodes some letters as
byte pairs instead of single 8-bit bytes; intended for data
communication; a superset of CCITT S.61, S.100 and T.61)
+ ISO 8859 (two different 8-bit codes which together contains
most of the characters of ISO 6937 but encodes each letter
in one byte; intended for the internal representation of
data in computers).
We have not counted on support from Americans in this struggle,
though it would be most welcome as probably most of the members
of the opposite camp are rather narrow-minded business-oriented
people who are ready to accept almost anything that comes from
the other side of the Atlantic.
Olle Jarnefors BITNET: P6935@QZCOM.BITNET
Office of Computing Services P6082@QZKOM.BITNET
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) UUCP: ollej@tds.kth.se
SE-100 44 STOCKHOLM Telex: (Sweden) 10389 KTHB S
Sweden Telefax: +46-8- 10 91 99
(My real name is more close to:) Voice: +46-8-790 91 94
Olle Ja<BS>"rnefors Visit: Brinellvagen 23, Stockholm
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 87 16:26 CST
From: HIMANSHU_B <ELEE2MH%UHVAX8.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: EGA Monitors for International use
I am interested in buying an AT clone which I could take back with me to
India, where the power supply is 220V/50Hz. I am aware that this problem
has been addressed in the Digest in the recent past, but I am still not
very clear about the situation. I know for sure that system units with a
switchable power supply (110/220V) and capable of running at 50/60 Hz. are
available, but the problem is the monitor. Leave alone the voltage, most
monitors specify the frequency for use as 60Hz. From my knowledge in the
field, I would tend to believe that the line frequency is an important issue
where monitors are concerned. I think that the vertical scan rate would be
derived from the line frequency and so there would be problems if a monitor
specified for use at 60 Hz. is used at 50 Hz. I would greatly appreciate if
someone, maybe having some experience with this kind of a situation could help
out and suggest what would be the best thing to do. Thanks in advance...
I could be reached at : ELEE2MH@UHVAX8 or
ELEE1VI@UHVAX1 <Use this address only if the other
one does not work>
Thanks again..
[The NEC Multi-Sync runs on 50 or 60 Hz current. Mitsubishi makes a better
version. The Mitsubishi has composite video input as well as TTL. You can
connect it to your VCR for super high resolution TV. -wab]
------------------------------
Date: 17 Sep 87 17:39:00 EST
From: <wetmore@icst-ecf.arpa>
Subject: File Transfer
> I am trying to transfer binary files from DOD's SIMTEL20 to my VAX
>211/750 running VMS 4.5. We are using the FTP command 'quote "type l 32"'
>but the files we receive seem to contain several extra bytes. Has anyone
>done this and had this problem? Can anyone help me? How do you get files
>from the SIMTEL20 archives onto your PC???
> Thanks
>[I have transferred megabytes from SIMTEL20 via FTP to the C-70 host
>located in Taegu. Normally, I tell the user FTP 'TYPE L' and let it sort
>out the differences between its word size and that of SIMTEL20. (At first,
>I tried TYPE L 32 and TYPE L 36 but had problems with the files.) After
>the desired file is at my 'host', I use the Kermit Protocol portion of my
>Communications software (straight Kermit programs are available from
>cu20b.columbia.edu in directory KER:MS*.*) to download to my PC.]
A couple weeks ago, I attempted to find out how to do the file transfers
from SIMTEL20 and the lending library of INFO-IBMPC, both binary and text.
After a few days of near baldness, I finally figured out the process. Of
course, it's easy now; but it wasn't then.
So, in my quest to make life easier for others who might follow,
I put together a document explaining exactly how to transfer files between a
PC, a VAX, and C.ISI.EDU/SIMTEL20 using the KERMIT and FTP protocols. I
will send it to anyone who would like a copy via MAIL. (Gottlieb should
be receiving one shortly.)
One of my major stumbling blocks is that our documentation of PC-KERMIT did
not mention that you would need SET FILE TYPE BINARY on the VAX
in order to transfer binary files. Of course, every file I tried to download
would not work until the VAX was told to transfer in binary format.
Best of luck,
Brad R. Wetmore
National Bureau of Standards
WETMORE@ICST-ECF.ARPA
A question of my own.
Is there a file list for SIMTEL20 like <INFO-IBMPC>PROGRAM-LIBRARY.LIST on
C.ISI.EDU for the various subdirectories? I would like to find out what
the programs do before I download them. Thank you.
Brad Wetmore
National Bureau of Standards
WETMORE@ICST-ECF.ARPA
------------------------------
Date: 18 Sep 87 11:44 EST
From: SMITH%VAXSCS.decnet@ge-crd.arpa
Subject: NEC V20 Compatibility Problems
After installing a Fastcard IV Mutifunction/EMS board from PMI in Scottsdale,
Arizona, on my IBM XT, my A drive would not work properly (directory was
garbage). Also, the software supplied with the board, IMS, would not
recognize my hard drive. This was highly unusual, since I was not using a
clone and should not have any compatibility problems.
A call to PMI revealed that the NEC V20 processor I was using in place is NOT
compatible with the 8088. It is usually 'close enough' in most cases, but
does not emulate the 8088 100%. Swapping back the original 8088 solved the
problem and the Fastcard IV now works as advertised. The technical support I
got from PMI was very good.
I am posting this letter to make users of the NEC V20 processor aware of
potential compatibility problems with add-in boards. I don't know if the NEC
V30 would have similar problems.
Susan Smith, GE/RCA
Moorestown, NJ 609-722-3766
------------------------------
Date: 18 Sep 87 21:13 GMT
From: aprm @ Hawaii-EMH.arpa
Subject: CTS Datacomm Modems
To: Info-IBMPC @ C.ISI.EDU
This may be of more interest to the DDN side...
The WESTCOM DCSRM recently received a batch of Zenith 248s
from the standard contract, including the CTS Datacomm
2424ADH series modem. Like so many others on the net, we
have had to get some 9 pin modem cables (HP 24542M) to get
them to work with Crosstalk XVI on COM1. We have set up
three modems so far, following the setup procedures including
those on page 63. We used local mode to send the setup
string AT&D2&S1&C1&W<CR>, which does what setting DIP
switches on a real Hayes does.
When any one of these modems connects, to our DDN TAC or to
the local TELENET office, a barrage of garbage is displayed.
Both connections are at 1200 baud, and some of the actual
transmission is visible. If we swap out the CTS for a Hayes
1200 Smartmodem, all is well.
1. Is there a configuration setting we need to set?
2. Anyone else run into this?
By the way, this version does *not* have a speaker, which I
miss for troublshooting.
Gary Dunn
Ft. Shafter LAN: aprmso1!gd IF THIS GETS INTO THE
usenet: garyd@islenet.UUCP HANDS OF THE RUSSIANS,
DDN: aprm@Hawaii-EMH.ARPA IT'S CURTAINS FOR THE
work phone: (808) 438-1030 FREE WORLD.
beach house: (808) 737-0601
------------------------------
From: ndmath!ndcheg!evan@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Evan Bauman)
Subject: Pagemaker under Windows
Date: 18 Sep 87 22:02:55 GMT
>
> I just spent a good part of the weekend struggling through installing PC
> Pagemaker 1.0a and Microsoft Windows 1.03 on a Compaq Deskpro 286 with 1.2
> MB of RAM (enough to make a 512K RamDrive), and an HP LaserJet+ with B and
> Q font cartridges. I am interested in tips and info in two areas:
>
> 1. Optimizing performance of the current combination
>
> The RamDrive is now initialized as the Windows swapdrive, but perfor-
> mance (at 8 Mhz) is fairly sluggish with either Pagemaker or MicroSoft Word
> running under Windows. With a RamDrive this small, should I be using it
> for some program files as well as the swapdrive?
I'm running Windows on an XT clone, so I have lots of incentive
to improve performance any way I can. I added an Intel AboveBoard to
decrease the swapping of temporary info to disk. It came with 256K
which I set up as a swap space. Much to my dismay, Windows never used
this RAM to for swap space. It wasn't until I filled up the AboveBoard
to 1.5MB that I noticed a significant improvement. It looks like Windows
needs an extraordinary amount of space for swapping, so 512K just won't
cut the mustard.
>
> 2. Priorities for upgrades
>
> In terms of performance, should we concentrate on adding more RAM to
> the Compaq? The printer? And do Windows or PageMaker take advantage of
> Extended Memory on the DeskPro 286 to keep from swapping out to disk so
> much? If we buy an additional memory board for the Compaq, should it be
> Extended Memory, EEMS, EMS? If either PageMaker or Word 3.01 are loaded as
> icons, attempts to run most other applications get a Windows "out of
> memory" message.
>
If you're committed to Windows, I would stuff as much RAM in the DeskPro
as possible. The new version of the EMS driver (4.0) promises to
allow program execution in expanded memory in addition to data storage.
This will end the conflict of the EMS or EEMS choice. Buy an EMS
board that will hold a ton of chips.
Until Windows 2.0 is released, you're stuck with 1.03's memory management
algorithm. That is, it will create a swap space for each program based
on the size of the first application loaded. Therefore, (and this
is documented) always load the largest application first.
Hope this helps.
Evan Bauman
Univ. of Notre Dame
..!iuvax!ndmath!ndcheg!evan
ndmath!ndcheg!evan@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
------------------------------
From: rich@devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Richard Pettit)
Subject: The WHOLE scoop on UNIX 5.3 for the 80386
Date: 18 Sep 87 15:27:52 GMT
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.
[This is from the Xenix mailing list. Normally we don't talk about
Xenix or Unix internals as there are other lists better suited for
that. There has been much discussion on this list about moving
beyond DOS. It seems many people are attempting to make the
decision: Will I run OS/2 or some flavor of Unix? -wab]
Ok, I'm sick of all this massive confusion about who, what, where, and why
UNIX 5.3 for the 80386 is, isn't and should be. Since I have the scoop, I
think I'll pass it all on to the world.
In the beginning, there was AT&T.
(You knew it would start that way didn't you ?)
AT&T developed UNIX 5.3 in their labs getting it to run on their line of
3B computers. At this point, they figured that it would be a great idea
to put the system on a 80386 chip. Why not ? They were going to end up
selling 80386 machines some day soon anyway. So, where is the best place
to go to get your OS ported to a chip ? How about the people who made
the chip. Well, that's what they did. Intel was contracted to port the
5.3 code to the 80386. Intel, not wanting this massive responsibility
for themselves decided to subcontract the work. They chose the best
company that they could to do the port because they (Intel) were
responsible for delivering back to AT&T a running version of 5.3.
This company is Interactive Systems, Inc. in Santa Monica, CA.
Interactive (call them IS for short) went quickly to work porting the code,
and in no time at all they had a working version. Not ready to release yet,
but working. The way it works is like this: IS would complete a release of
the code, be it beta or whatever, and they would release the code back to
Intel. Intel would in turn release the code back to AT&T. AT&T would then
release the code to those companies which had contracts with them to supply
the source to 5.3 as it became available.
So, IS is not just a code porting shop. They also sell UNIX 5.3, but
they only sell it to companies. They know very well what kind of crap
Microport goes through trying to support their systems. (Lets face
it, a great deal of people out there are buying UNIX for their AT and
they don't know crap about crap when it comes to crap. I wouldn't be
a customer support person for anything. People calling asking
questions like "I put the floppy in the drive without taking the
cover off the disk and it won't read it. What should I do ?".)
Anyway, since IS sells this system too, they take the code, make some
changes to it and market it as two different products. The first is
called 386/ix. This is just the stock 5.3 kernel and associated
utilities, such as compilers, uucp, sys adm, and so forth. The second
is called VP/ix. This is 386/ix with extensions to support the
"virtual PC" mechanism. This is the MS-DOG under UNIX option. It
utilizes the virtual-86 mode of the 80386.
Now, obviously, since IS is the company doing the port, they are going
to be the people who offer the product first right ? Wrong. IS will only
sell the system if it is absolutely AT&T SVID certified. And they were,
in fact, the first company to have such a product. And to give you a
little clue, they only started shipping their 386/ix product about the
end of August. What does that mean to those of you who got a similar
product from Bell or Microport before then ? That's right. Beta release.
Surprised ?
"So, whose product is it that I got when I bought my Bell Tech. machine ?"
you're asking yourself. Microport. They are one of the companies that
buys the source from AT&T when it becomes available. They want to be the
first company in the marketplace to offer a 5.3 for the 80386. So they
release code that isn't SVID certified. And if you don't believe it,
call them and ask. Call AT&T and ask them what companies currently have
a SVID certified 5.3 available. Don't worry, it's a short list.
Bell gives you a UNIX port when you buy their hardware because it's a
great marketing ploy. What a lot of people don't know is that all you
get is the base system without documentation. Thanks guys.
None of this is to say that any of THESE companies are shifty. As far
as I'm concerned, every successful company on the face of the earth is
shifty. Caveat emptor. Microport doesn't sell any product called
"SVID Certified SystemV/386". It's up to the buyer to find that out.
I'm positive that eventually the Microport product will be SVID certified
and that just like their SystemV/AT product, it will eventually become
a mature, well running, well liked, popular product. The problem is
that buyers simply don't beware before they buy something. You've got
to watch your butt. How do you think the owners of 1984 Corvettes feel ?
That was a new product too.
As for the MS-DOG under UNIX option, Locus Computing of Santa Monica, CA
does the DOSMerge stuff for Microport, and Interactive works in conjunction
with Phoenix Technologies to do the VP/ix stuff. I have used both. I
like VP/ix infinitely better. That is just my opinion. Take it or leave it.
And as an added note, another company that buys the 5.3 source from AT&T
is a little garage shop called Microsoft. Didn't forget about them did
you ? This is comp.unix.xenix isn't it ? MS is taking the code, and working
with Interactive Systems (they are everywhere, aren't they ?) are producing
a 5.3 that will run COFF, Xenix, and DOS executables. Pretty slick, huh ?
This product will be called Microsoft UNIX 5.3. Pretty original. Give them
marketing people a raise.
Does that clear up anything ? I hope so. If you have any more questions,
drop me e-mail. I'm going to regret making that statement. Bye.
Rich (rich@devvax.jpl.nasa.gov)
------------------------------
Date: Sun 20 Sep 87 07:27:49-PDT
From: randy@chinet.UUCP (Randy Suess)
Subject: 386 Unix
>In article <1583@chinet.UUCP> I write:
>> From what I understand, Bell's UNIX is re-packaged Microport
>> UNIX.
>
Well, seems I understand wrong. I got this via email today.
-----
>From: Richard Morris <itivax!umix!utah-gr!science.utah.edu!GU.MORRIS>
I have recently spoken to the folks at Bell Technologies concerning their
UNIX System V/386. It was created by AT&T, Intel, and Interactive
Systems, and is not derived from Microport who has yet to release their
UNIX for the 386. Bell Technologies System V/386 has recently undergone
AT&T certification.
Hope this is of interest to you.
If you need additional information about the Bell Technologies products,
you can contact Dimitri Rotow at Bell Tech. (415) 659-9097. They are
very nice folks to work with.
Could you please post this information on the Usenet. I am currently on
a DEC-20 with a BBOARD system, and I haven't yet figured out how to post
only reply to posted items.
Thank you.
Richard Morris
-------
--
that's the biz, sweetheart.....
Randy Suess
..!ihnp4!chinet!randy
------------------------------
From: root@hobbes.UUCP (John Plocher)
Subject: 386 Demand Paged Virtual Memory
Date: 19 Sep 87 00:12:41 GMT
Organization: U of Wisconsin - Madison Spanish Department
+---- Mark C. Henderson writes in <638@uoregon.UUCP> ----
| +---- I wrote
| | Bell Technologies (800/FOR-UNIX, 415/659-9097) says they ARE shipping!
| | I have device drivers for their tape and smart serial boards which are
| | marked for Unix Vr3/386!
| +----
| Does anybody know what software Bell is shipping with their 386 unix? I
| will not consider it UNIX unless it has a C compiler, nroff, and all
| these other goodies. Does Bell have the full set of utilities available? Any
| information would be appreciated.
+----
1) For the $395 price ($99 in large quantity) you get:
AT&T SVr3 standard distribution Unix
Software development system (C compiler... )
7 Manuals - Includes the complete P-H Unix series + '386
implementation notes.
You DO NOT GET:
FORTRAN compiler
DWB (ditroff...)
"AT&T does not have it ported yet and so has unbundled it"
STREAMS support (also unbundled)
2) You need:
Compaq 386 or iNTEL 386 Motherboard based system (or .?.)
(Does not work well with PCsLTD 386 and MultiTech 386)
AT LEAST 2Mb of contiguous 32bit RAM
An iNTEL EE-80386 chip (i.e., a new one without the infamous
32 bit multiply bug)
3) Exelan, Lachman, et al have ethernet TCP/IP support products
**** I don't have this product, I don't have any ties to Bell other
than using their tape and ICC hardware, and I suggest calling the 800
number (above) if you have more questions.
John Plocher uwvax!geowhiz!uwspan!plocher
plocher%uwspan.UUCP@uwvax.CS.WISC.EDU
------------------------------
To: RECK%DBNUAMA1.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu (Gisbert W.Selke)
Subject: Measuring Speed from Turbo-Pascal
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 87 16:52:58 EDT
From: James R. Van Zandt <jrv@mitre-bedford.ARPA>
> I need to measure the approximate clock rate of a PC from within a Turbo
> Pascal program. So I wrote a little procedure which first got the current
> time (via a DOS call), then executed some silly little loop and then got
> the time again.
> ...
> What puzzles me is that for each machine in about 80% of the cases the high
> value would turn up (fairly stable) and in about 20% of the cases the low
> value would turn up - but never any results in between. Also, the
> *absolute* difference between high and low times was always the same -
> about 155 centi-seconds, irrespective of the clock speed of the machine.
I'll bet you get the high time when the measured interval happened to include
a memory refresh.
- Jim Van Zandt <jrv@mitre-bedford.arpa>
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 87 19:12 GMT
From: <BIOMED%CZHETH5A.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: Measuring Clock Speed from Turbo-Pascal
Turbo-Pascal's (and probably other compilers) clock is updated only 18
times per second. Why is the difference 155 ms ? I don't know.
A related problem surprised me some time ago:
My hardware is a Taiwanese AT, switchable 6 or 8 MHz via keyboard
(Ctrl-Alt-\), but there is no Turbo-LED or something. I wrote a program
to measure the clock speed (in MS-Pascal), which says 'The clock speed
is * MHz', where * is 6 or 8.
Sometimes the same program gives me 4 or 6 as the clock speed, as if my
AT has became slower (4 in 6 MHz mode, 6 in 8 MHz mode). Other programs
(Norton SI etc.) state: Speed is still 6 or 8 MHz.
Easy, you think, some program changed the tics repetition frequency to
something else than 18 Hz. I agree, and I'm almost sure it is LIB (the
library manager supplied with Microsoft's compilers).
Run the speed program - says 6 - run LIB - run the speed program again -
says 4.
Any explanations ? Source of the speed program follows:
program speed (input,output);
{finds clock frequency of an AT. Tics is updated every 18th second. In
this time a 6 MHz AT makes the loop 120 times, a 8 MHz AT 160 times}
var t:word;
i:integer;
function tics:word; extern;
begin
i:=0;
t:=tics;
repeat until t <> tics; {wait for tics change}
t:=tics;
repeat i:=i+1 until t <> tics; {count}
i:=round(i/20);
writeln;
writeln ('Clock speed is ',i:1,' MHz.');
end.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 87 01:17 CDT
From: <KRANTZ%VUCTRVAX.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: Measuring Clock Speed from Turbo-Pascal
I think the reason you get two different times is that in general on a
clock interrupt the system simply returns but on some (in this case I'm
going to guess one out of 5) the system has to do additional work on
the interrupt. I may be making the folly of remembering something from
Unix and not Dos but I think the same thing is true of Dos. I don't know
of any way to get DOS to tell you the speed of the machine, but I think
a NOP takes the same time to execute on an 80286 and 8088 so you might
try a CPU loop. Of course then you might run into the problem of 8088
queue versus 8086 prefetch queue not to mention an 80386 caching. I think
I better shutup before I bite my tongue any harder. Ouch!!
Alan Krantz
------------------------------
Subject: Shift Print Screen for EGA
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 87 17:00:04 EDT
From: James R. Van Zandt <jrv@mitre-bedford.ARPA>
There was a request recently for a program that would allow the print
screen key to work with an EGA. I'd like to submit it to the
library...
- Jim Van Zandt
[PRTEGA.ASM is in the info-ibmpc lending library. -wab]
------------------------------
Date: Mon 21 Sep 87 10:32:24-CDT
From: Ivo.Welch@gsbadm.uchicago.edu,
(312) 324-5036 <CRSP.IVO@gsbadm.uchicago.edu>
Subject: Packdisk Write-only Drives
A warning for those of you that use the PC-SIG packdisk program, and
don't believe in backing up first, since their power supply has never
failed: If you have an unreadable sector somewhere, it appears that
PACKDISK will exit during operation with a read/write error fault, and
leave you with a trashed hard-disk. At least that's what I think
caused mine... In any case, don't run packdisk programs "regularly in
batch."
About write-only drives: I think PC-WEEK magazine runs an article on
disk caching programs, and lists as some of the features the ability
to write-protect drives.
ivo
------------------------------
Date: 21 Sep 87 10:05:35 PDT (Monday)
From: Bicer.ES@Xerox.COM
Subject: TURBO C BUG (long) Casting
I discovered the following bug with (long) casting of negative numbers,
in TURBO C. Here is an example:
main()
{
int i;
long l;
double d;
d = -45.0;
l = (long) d;
i = (int) d;
printf ("l = %ld, i = %d", l, i);
}
When this program is run, the printed result is:
l = 65491, i = -45
Has anyone else noticed this bug?
Jack Bicer
Bicer.ES@Xerox.COM
------------------------------
From: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Subject: Making BREAK = ON More Powerful
Date: 6 Sep 87 18:07:00 GMT
A recent poster asked how to stop a process with <cntl>break while it
is doing no IO at all, like maybe it was doing a long calculation.
I have solved this by writing the following TSR routine, which you put
into your autoexec.bat file along with BREAK = ON.
It is to be assembled with MASM and then it MUST be converted to
a .COM file with EXE2BIN.
Doug McDonald
[BREAKL.ASM has been added to the info-ibmpc lending library. -wab]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 87 08:13 EST
From: "JOHN J. BEECHER-DEIGHAN" <JBD%cgi.com@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: OS/2 Developer's Kit Questions
A question for the good people of Netland:
Has anybody Out There had any experience with the OS/2 developer's kit?
How usable/buggy is it? And (here's the real killer) can you attempt to
do "real development" with it?
OS/2??? I thought AT&T *already* bought off Microsoft! I just can't trust
people who won't stay bought... :-)
Thanks in advance,
John J. Beecher-Deighan
Carnegie Group Inc
(412) 642-6900 x 508
CSNET address: jbd@cgi.com (which, no doubt, will turn into something horrible
when it hits UUCP-land)
[I have asked people to send in hard information on OS/2. I have
gotten several whining messages about the price of the developers kit
which I haven't bothered to publish and several pronouncements from
people that OS/2 is a crock but no factual statements to back up
these claims.
Some of the commercial magazines are starting OS/2 columns, but I
haven't seen any in depth nitty gritty reviews in these magazines either. -wab]
------------------------------
Date: Thu 17 Sep 87 14:34:37-PDT
From: SUSANAP@Cheeta.ISI.Edu
Subject: UNIPAQ Computers
Would you please give me your opinion of the following computer system?
I have never heard of UNIPAQ, know very little about buying a
computer, and would be very grateful for any information (pro or con)
regarding this particular offer.
USC is offering a UNIPAQ computer "complete system " which
includes 640K, 2 disk drives, flat screen nomitor, clock calendar,
graphics compatible video card, DOS 3.2 and User Manual" for $750.
Complete system with 1 disk drive and 30 meg Hard Disk for $1000.00
(This offer expires September 30. 1987.).
CLAIMS:
30% to 70% faster than an IBM PC/XT
Guaranteed to run all your IBM software
One year warranty
THANKS VERY MUCH!!!
Susana
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 87 08:15:38 CDT
From: moore@ncsc.ARPA (Moore)
Subject: Imaginary Drive Problem
I recently installed a 40M drive in a Z-248 which already had the 20M
drive in it. I moved the 40M to C: and D: and the 20M is E:. The
trouble is that, when I load a RamDrive via CONFIG.SYS, it comes up
as drive G:. What happened to F:? If I do a directory on it MS-DOS
reports that the drive is not ready, while format says that format is
not supported on this drive. I've used FDISK to determine that there
is no more space on either drives for another partition, so
(supposedly) I've used up all the disk space with C, D, and E.
Can anyone offer any clues?
Jim
Moore@NCSC.arpa
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 87 22:16:38 PDT
From: aiz@VLSI.JPL.NASA.GOV
Subject: Turbo XT/Printer Timing Problem
I would appreciate your help with a problem. I am running a
Turbo XT (8 MHz) and a Citizen 120D printer. The operating
System is MS-DOS 3.21. Most application programs work fine
including BASIC, WordPerfect, WordStar, dBase
II, III, and III+. Using either MicroSoft Windows or SuperCalc3,
however, the printer acts as though the printer handler is not
waiting sufficient time between outputting characters. There are
frequently multiple characters and character strikes during
carriage return.
If I change the clock rate to 4.77 MHz, everything is fine.
Any thoughts? I thought that the handler was interrupt driven.
Is there a timing loop to be adjusted?
Thanks in advance.
Art Zygielbaum
------------------------------
End of Info-IBMPC Digest
************************
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