Info-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU (Info-IBMPC Digest) (09/14/87)
Info-IBMPC Digest Sat, 5 September 1987 Volume 6 : Issue 61
This Week's Editor: Gregory Hicks -- Chinhae Korea
Today's Topics:
Administrative Trivia
IBM AT-2 Hard Disks Protection and Response
Adding Second Hard Drive (3 msgs)
Bilingual Word Processing (3 msgs)
Graphics Library for MS-Fortran MS-Pascal Turbo-Pascal Turbo-C (2 msgs)
Booting Another Partition from Within DOS
Sort Demonstrations
Z-248 COM3/LPT2
"Flushing" disk buffers under DOS (3 msgs)
EXEC Error Msg INT 21 function 4B
Daisy Chaining Drives on a PC
Review of Inboard 386
PC/XT 386 Upgrade Board Error
Compusystems Mail Order Fraud Warning (3 msgs)
PS/2 Advanced Diagnostics Included
DOS 3.X and 3.5 inch drives
Discount on OS/2 Developer's Kit
TI Personal Consultant Replies
Today's Queries:
dBase III BROWSE With Line Wrap
EGA Screen Dump Utility
PC LANs using AC Power/In-house Phone Lines - Experience
Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey PC-123 Library
Query on FORTRAN 77 (or 8x) and 386 machines
Programming interface to PC-NFS
Floppy Drive Installation Problems
INFO-IBMPC BBS Phone Numbers: (213)827-2635 (213)827-2515
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 87 11:08:56 GMT
From: Gregory Hicks - COMFLEACTS Chinhae <hicks@walker-EMH.ARPA>
Subject: Administrative Trivia
Due to the number of complaints about the format for the original Vol 6,
Issue 61 of this digest, it is herewith re-issued. In addition, almost
none of our BITNET subscribers received it. My apologies. The BITNET
problem is due to the BITNET mailer. It would not accept the mailing from
my host at Walker-EMH.arpa to list ibmpc.list:@Walker-EMH.arpa but requires a
list of the form "Info-IBMPC_Distribution_List: ;". This problem may be
solved in the near future. We shall see.
Gregory Hicks
Guest Editor
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 87 13:14:46 -0200
From: mcvax!daimi!erja@seismo.CSS.GOV (Erik Jacobsen)
Subject: IBM AT-2 and Hard Disks
Here at the Computer Science Department we have about 25 IBM AT-2 machines
running DOS 3.20 (or is it 3.30?), used primarily for a freshman course.
Each machine has its own 20 MByte hard disk, and the machines are not con-
nected with anything. To work properly they must be installed with the
proper programs (several MegaBytes).
If, by accident or mischief, the files on the disk, or the disk itself, are
erased or changed, it is a fairly large job to re-establish everything.
My first question is: Is it possible to partition the hard disk in two
parts, so that one part (C:) is read/write, and the other (D:) is read-
only? D: would contain all standard programs, and C: all user files.
One way to accomplish this could be to partition the hard disk using the
FDISK program, and write a program (similar to VDISK) that translates
requests for the D: drive to actual disk-reads in the second partition.
This program would also reject all write and format requests.
Further questions: Does such a program exist? What would I need to know to
write it myself (besides the normal DOS-technical reference manual)?
And: Do you have another suggestion for minimizing the maintenance job?
Erik Jacobsen (erja@daimi)
Computer Science Department Phone: +45 6 12 83 55 ext. 126
University of Aarhus
Ny Munkegade, DK-8000 Aarhus
Denmark
From: Info-IBMPC Digest <Info-IBMPC@C.ISI.EDU>
To: mcvax!daimi!erja@SEISMO.CSS.GOV (Erik Jacobsen)
You can simply set the file attributes to read only. Someone would
have to intentionally change the bits in order to write on the files.
Even student written programs would have to go to great lengths to
clobber these files.
There are numerous utilities to set and inspect attribute bits in the
INFO-IBMPC lending library.
No software scheme is fool proof, but I think protecting files on a file by
file (or directory by directory) basis is better than protecting a whole
disk.
For real fanatics hardware could be modified so the disk could only
write if a switch were turned. Also you can get CD ROM.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 87 01:24 EDT
From: Hess@MIT-Multics.ARPA
Subject: Adding Second Hard Drive
Noo! Of course PC-DOS recognizes the existence of more than one hard disk
drive (anything after 2.0, at least).
The problem is with the IBM controller, which can only control a single
10MByte hard disk. And it hogs the ROM spot, so you can't put in another
controller that can use the same (memory) address. In theory, if you were
willing to get a separate controller and drive, you could probably find a
controller that would plug into *both* your new 20MByte drive and your old
10MByte drive. Anybody have an NCL controller (common cheapo mail-order
item, said to be very configurable) with instructions that they could look
this up in? Thing about the in-board drives is that they often come
without an extra cable connector to hook your old one to.
(Alas, I cannot give known-to-work configuration, because after I got my
new controller (without instructions) and 20MByte drive, the 10MByte one
gave out before I even had a chance to hook it up.)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 87 21:40:06 EDT
From: Chris Schmandt <geek@MEDIA-LAB.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Subject: Multiple hard drives
I'm not sure what the problem was, but there was recently a query about
difficulties adding a second (hard) drive to a PC. I may have missed some
particular, but I don't see any problem other than power supply. Most disk
controllers support two drives. The ones IBM put in XT's have
(undocumented) jumpers (actually, a place where you can solder a 4 pin dip
switch) to select 4 "types" of drives, so they need not even be of the same
size. I've configured and run machines with multiple various size drives
with no need to muck with DOS at all; they just appear as drives C and D.
My standard XT power supply supported both, with plenty of other cards in
as well.
chris
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 87 07:47:18 EDT
From: Mark H. Granoff <mhg@mitre-bedford.ARPA>
Subject: Adding Second Hard Drive
I may be commenting on something about which I know nothing about, but,
here goes...
> I too have been told that one drive or the other has to go. The main
>problem appears to be that PC-DOS by itself does not recognize the
>existence of a second hard disk drive. What is required to make the
>second drive available is a piece of software, not known to me, that makes
>the system recognize the second drive, or a partition thereof, as another
>logical drive (e.g. D:, E:, whatever). The Zenith Z-248, a PC/AT clone,
>comes with such a program, ASGNPART, that one invokes in the AUTOEXEC.BAT
>file. There may be some equivalent third-party software that allows this
>on the IBM PC, possibly from the disk drive manufacturer.
Rather than *software*, if your second drive were to be a hard card (one of
those hard disks on a circuit board), some hard card manufacturers include,
on the card, a jumper that tells the card what drive it is (either C or D).
As for whether or not MS-DOS recognizes it, I have not heard of any
problems - it's just another device on the PC's bus.
>Another potential difficulty is that DOS 2.x is rumored to be unable
>to handle large amounts of data (whether this means data in a single
>file or data in several files has yet to be revealed to me), so you
>may have to use DOS 3.x to make effective use of a 30MBYTE disk.
I never heard this. I have an AT&T 6300, running MS-DOS 2.11 with a
20MBYTE hard drive - no problems.
>Also, some documentation from an old Phoenix PFASTER-286 card says that
>the power supply on the PC (as opposed to the XT or the AT) is right on
>the edge, so you may have to substitute a heftier power supply to
>handle an additional drive.
As far as adding a hard card is concerned, I have never heard of anyone ad-
ding a larger power supply with it.
Hope this is informative.
| Mark H. Granoff Member of the Technical Staff |
| USMAIL: The MITRE Corporation | ARPAnet: mhg @ mitre-bedford.ARPA |
| Burlington Rd. M/S B015 |-----------------------------------|
| Bedford, MA 01730 | A T & T: (617) 271 - 7030 |
------------------------------
Date: 3 Sep 87 02:48:30 GMT
From: sadler @ Buckner-EMH.arpa
Subject: Bilingual or Chinese Word Processing
I just read in issue #60 about the bilingual word processor. I also have
no commercial affiliation with that company but can vouch for the utility
of the program. I use to word process in English, Vietnamese, and French.
It is fairly user friendly but the documentation could be better.
The only thing I don't like about it is that is doesn't support EGA.
Granted, it works in CGA emulation but since it relies heavily on graphic
characters, supporting EGA would be at least one order of magnitude worth
of improvement.
Don Sadler,
sadler@buckner-emh.arpa
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 87 22:06:28 EST
From: munnari!mulga.OZ!wwen@uunet.UU.NET (Wilson Wen)
Subject: Chinese Language Word Processor
COOK@ECLA.USC.EDU:
> Does anyone have any information regarding a Chinese Text Editor/
> Word Processor for use on an IBM-PC and a Dot Matrix Printer.
> Desire to generate Chinese characters for Church bulletins, etc.
> The primary user will be a native Chinese speaker/writer who is not a
> computer "hacker" so the program needs to be "user friendly". Budget
> is also low.
You can get in contact with some Chinese students at a university in your
city and ask them to get one of the following standard Chinese MS-DOS
programs:
1. CC-DOS.
Computer Servece Co.,
Beijing, China,
2. H-DOS
H Computer Co.,
Chinese Academy of Sciences
P.O. Box 8721,
Beijing, China
3. Chinese MS-DOS
Institute of Computing Tech.,
Chinese Academy of Sciences
P. O. Box 2704,
Beijing, China.
Almost all of the MS-DOS standard editors, e.g. EDLIN and Olivitte EDIT,
etc., run well under these systems. They also have some Chinese versions
for more sophisticated editors, e.g. PE and BRIEF, for sale.
Wilson Wen
Department of Computer Science
The University of Melbourne
Parkville
Victoria 3052
Australia
===========================
UUCP: wwen@munnari.uucp
ARPA: wwen%munnari.oz@seismo.css.gov
CSNET: wwen%munnari.oz@australia
JANET: wwen%munnari.oz@uk.ac.ukc
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 87 01:24 EDT
From: Hess@MIT-Multics.ARPA
Subject: Chinese Language Word Processing
I once saw some output from a Toshiba printer with intermixed Chinese and
English characters. Mike_Lougee@CC.UM.EDU (or %UMICH-MTS.Mailnet) gave
it to me originally, and a linguist friend of his probably knows where
it came from. (Presumably you'll also get a zillion notes about "Fei Ma"
(sp?) for the MacIntosh.) Hope this helps; I've never used these things.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 87 23:23:51 EDT
From: Russell Nelson <bh01@clutx.clarkson.edu>
Subject: Graphics Library for MS-Fortran MS-Pascal Turbo-Pascal Turbo-C
Here at Clarkson, we have a graphics library for {MS-FORTRAN, MS-PASCAL,
Turbo-Pascal, Turbo-C} that does lines and circles on a {Z-100, CGA, EGA,
and HGC (Hercules)}. It automatically senses the machine you're running on
and adjusts to do graphics on that machine. Since it's still under
development, I don't know how much it will cost, but it's certain to be un-
der $50 for a single copy, $1000 for a site license.
And yes it will have fonts (good old Hershey fonts).
-russ
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 87 12:55:00 MEZ
From: Erich Neuwirth <A4422DAB%AWIUNI11.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: MetaWindows is a Linkable Graphics Library for Turbo Pascal
Somebody asked a question about a general graphics package with linkable
libraries.
A rather good package available in different forms (linkable, include-
files for Turbo-Pascal) is MetaWindows and/or TurboWindows. It is produced
by a company called MetaGraphics. It supports an impressive number of
screen adapters and the price is < 100 $. To run it you have to load a
small resident program also, but you are allowed to distribute this program
together with your code without royalties.
E. Neuwirth
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 87 11:18:47 ULG
From: Andre PIRARD <A-PIRARD%BLIULG12.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: Booting Another Partition from Within DOS
>When MSDOS has booted from the active partition, is there a way (program)
>to boot an inactive partition without FDISK reassignment then reset.
>It seems tricky to perform the necessary resets (e. g. interrupt vectors)
>and load the boot record without getting into very machine-dependent code.
>But I might have missed something... Thanks.
Well, I did. In fact, there is no need to boot DOS. If performing the
resets is difficult, let's simply go through the BIOS reset itself!
The trick is to format a "special" diskette that contains a dummy
IBMBIO.COM (or whatever name) that, when loaded, determines the available
hard disks, reads their partition records and checks their validity (55AA
tag). For each valid partition record, the partition table is examined for
valid entries (both active or inactive) and the boot record they point to
is again examined for the validity tag 55AA.
This gives a list of bootable partitions that can be displayed on the
screen with a prompt for the user to choose one (no national keyboard key
used, just arrows and return). When done, the corresponding boot record is
loaded at 0:7C00 and given control.
That's all there is to it.
When there is need to boot a partition other than the active one, the spe-
cial diskette is inserted in drive A and the machine is reset with instant
access to whatever system available Unix, CP/M or several DOS versions.
But I have no time to program this. So I suggest the idea for an addition
of a very special and funny program to the IBMPC library.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 87 8:27:58 EDT
From: Kenneth Van Camp -FSAC- <kvancamp@ARDEC.ARPA>
Subject: Sort Demonstrations
>[The program is in the library as SORTDEMO.PAS If there is a popular
>demand we will bring over all the sort demos. -wab]
I'd just like to place my vote for getting the full package. Thanks.
--Ken Van Camp <kvancamp@ARDEC.ARPA>
[Votes are two for, one no comment. Anyone else care to vote? - ed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 87 08:28:26 CDT
From: mlw@ncsc.ARPA (Williams)
Subject: Z-248 COM3/LPT2
Please note that the LPT2 port on the government Zenith Z-248 is NOT an RS-
232-C port, but is an IBM-style parallel port. I'm sure the port's
categorization as an RS-232 device by boyd@bragg (whatever) was a simple
oversight...the remaining information in his note is accurate. If there's
any more question, the standard Z-248 from the Air Force contract is
delivered with a 9-pin asynchronous port defined as COM1, a 25-pin parallel
port defined as LPT1, and a breakout device yielding an asynchronous port
defined as COM3 and a parallel port defined as LPT2. Note that the only
25-pin serial port is COM3, which is inaccessible from most software
(and,judging from recent comments, of doubtful utility even if you reach
it). This has caused much confusion among users who are setting up their
own systems, since their previous asynch data line (and hence, their cable)
utilized a 25-pin connector. Fixes are as described earlier: get the 9/25
adapter, get the COM2 card, or get a custom cable built (our technicians
have become adept at churning those things out). My inquiries into
software support for COM3 indicate that the terminal emulation software
from the Z-248 contract will utilize the COM3 port, as will the communica-
tions functions in contract versions of ENABLE. The TERMINAL package that
comes with MS-WINDOWS supposedly lacks the patch to use COM3. In general,
commercial software can't reach COM3.
Sorry if this is re-hashing old info...but if the number of questions in
netland about this topic is remotely proportional to the number of ques-
tions that have emerged locally, someone should be able to profit from
yadoc (yet another discussion of COM3).
Mark L. Williams
(mlw@ncsc.arpa)
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 87 01:24 EDT
From: Hess@MIT-Multics.ARPA
Subject: Flushing Buffers
The only certain way I know to cause a flush is to close the file and
re-open it before proceeding. We used to get around it in FinalWord
programming (the swap file had to be up-to-date in case of a system
crash) by specifically writing blocks of size multiple-512. We didn't
want the seek overhead of the close/open, and MS-DOS seemed not to
buffer blocks that could be immediately written because they were the
"right size". This no longer seems to work, so if your application
isn't too time-critical, just close the file and open again, seek to
the end, and keep on writing. Consider it a "checkpoint", like they
used to do in mainframe batch processing...
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 06 Sep 87 10:24:38 +0300
From: DANIEL T. DREYMANN <J16%TAUNOS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: Flushing Buffers with DOS 3.X
Hello again,
I want to thank the people that sent me answers to my previous message.
* From the editor, I learned about a new DOS 3.3 command to flush buffers,
but I haven't 3.3 yet, so I can't check it.
* Russel Nelson suggested using the MSC 4.0 dup() function, and then clos-
ing the duplicated handle to the file. It works, but the time saved over
closing and opening again the file is not so large. (It depends on a lot
of parameters, but on programs which writes a lot I found it to be 15-20%
faster).
* An anonymous advisor (for some reason the header of its mail was not dis-
played, nor logged in my logfile), suggested the use of bdos(0xD). This
method is extremely rapid, *BUT* if the file grows in size the info. in the
directory is not updated, with the effect of the data being lost. I tested
it on DOS 3.1, and read 3.1 Tech. Ref. which states those facts. It is
possible that the problem is solved on 3.3, I don't know.
Thanks again to you all,
-- Dan.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 87 22:14:46 PDT
From: Dana Myers <bilbo.dana@CS.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: "Flushing" disk buffers under DOS
Daniel T. Dreymann recently posted a question on how to flush buffers on
disk files, especially using MSC V4. Here is my $.02 worth.
Using versions of DOS previous to 3.30, you can perform the "dup
handle/close the dup" sequence. Be aware that you have to duplicate the
file handle using the DOS system call. If you are using the STDIO functions
provided with C, you'll need to first do a "fflush()" on the STDIO stream
followed by a "dup()" on the file handle in use by the STDIO stream. See
the code fragment supplied.
A nicer way is to have a system call do this for you, and PC-DOS 3.30
adds this feature. The function is 0x68, "CommitFile", and accepts a DOS
file handle as a parameter.
This is a program fragment illustrating the "dup()" method. Good Luck.
/*********************************************************************/
#include <stdio.h>
int
_flush(fp)
register FILE *fp; /* STDIO stream structure */
{
register int i;
fflush(fp); /* first flush any C buffered data */
i = dup(fileno(fp)); /* fileno() is a macro in stdio.h */
if (i < 0) /* error! examine errno - this could be a */
return(i); /* "too many open files" error */
i = close(i);
return(i);
}
/*********************************************************************/
Dana H. Myers
Locus Computing Corporation
Santa Monica, CA
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 87 11:58 dst
From: jeff%acorn@oak.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: EXEC Error Msg INT 21 function 4B
I've seen that message before. But the cause for me is that I do not have a
copy of COMMAND.COM in a directory C:\SYS, and in my CONFIG.SYS file I have
as the first line
SHELL=C:\SYS\COMMAND.COM /PC:\SYS /E:62
The first SHELL= is pretty obvious. But the second item, /PC:\SYS, is
necessary also. It should be the path where a copy of COMMAND.COM is kept.
We had some customers who had problems shelling out of our software until I
told them about this nifty line.
The last part is unrelated to your problem. /E:62 increases the amount of
environment space to near maximum in DOS 3.0 and .1, (I think max is 63 or
64) and there is similar (documented in the manual) method for 3.2.
I hope this helps some.
-jeff collier
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 87 12:07 dst
From: jeff%acorn@oak.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Daisy Chaining Drives to a PC
We have daisy chained multiple drives on ATs before. The problem is that
(all of) the HD controllers that I've seen can support no more than two HD
drives at one time. I don't think you're going to find one that can, but
something in the back of my mind tells me that this is a controller chip
limitation, not necessarily a board limitation. (This last statement is
conjecture on my part based on some rumor that I heard sometime ago...)
On top of this, some board can only handle one drive. Compaq portable and
some variations of the DeskPro come to mind. Look on your card, there
should be one 30-something pin cable, that's the drive controller cable.
You can attach to that a cable that can handle two drives. (A connector for
the card and a plug for each drive. If all you have is a connector and a
plug then you need another cable...) There should also be two 20 pin con-
nectors on the controller card. These are cables for data cables, one for
each drive. Attach the controller cable to the card and each drive, and the
attach each data cable. Run the setup program and you can have two drives.
Not quite the answer you wanted but I hope this sheds some light.
-jeff collier
------------------------------
Date: Thu 3 Sep 87 09:43:50-PDT
From: Ted Shapin <BEC.SHAPIN@ECLA.USC.EDU>
Subject: Review of Inboard 386
Phone: (714)961-3393; Mail:Beckman Instruments, Inc.
Mail-addr: 2500 Harbor Blvd., X-11, Fullerton CA 92634
[We had the opportunity to try an Intel Inboard 386 in an IBM/AT recently.
Here is a memo from the person who tried using it: (I might add that it
took a technician several hours to install)]
From: Margaret Johnson, Beckman Instruments, Fullerton
Re: Intel Inboard 386 evaluation
8/31/87
My experience with this board suggests that if I want a 386 machine, I
should go out and buy it - not try to force it.
Comments:
1. The board is not compatible with the EGA. If one is present, the system
makes 4 obnoxiously long beeps on cold boot and begins in 40 column mode.
I had to include the mode co80 command in my autoexec.bat file.
2. I have been evaluating Actor/Windows as potential development tools. Ac-
tor is quite a memory hog. Intel has two drivers, speed.sys and
iemm386.sys. Without these two drivers, my configuration area was 22848
bytes. With them, the area increased to 88336. More than enough so that
Actor could not load.
3. I could not do a warm boot without the drivers loaded. If I tried, the
system would freeze. Lots of fun waiting for the memory check on 2176KB.
4. Although I am sure you have run many tests that better judge perfor-
mance, Norton Utilities gave me a performance rating of 18.7 if full speed,
4.2 if speed was off. This compares to a 5.1-5.3 without the board.
Thanks for the opportunity to evaluate this board. I would not recommend
it to others.
------------------------------
Date: 3 September 1987, 13:54:14 EST
From: 26-324%HARVBUS1.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
Subject: PC/XT 386 Upgrade Board Error
The note in issue 60 regarding the 386 upgrade board for PCs and XTs
sounded almost too good to be true, so I called them. It was. The list
price is $1495, not $495. Still awfully interesting...
Rich Stillman
BITNET: 26-324 at HARVBUS1
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 87 14:54 EDT
From: <KHF%JHUIGF.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: Compusystems
Regarding moore@ncsc.ARPA's inquiry concerning Compusystems: see the ar-
ticle, "Mail-Order Firm Being Investigated for Alleged Fraud" in the August
25th issue of PC Week. (page 157)
For those of you without access to this newspaper, the bottom line
of the article is that Compusystems seems to be a mail fraud operation. It
is currently under investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and
the State of California. DO NOT SEND THESE PEOPLE ANY MONEY. I guess the
bottom line is that when somebody's prices seem too good to be true, they
are!
------------------------------
Date: 3 Sep 1987 14:02:18 PDT
Subject: Compusystems Mail Order Warning
From: Richard Gillmann <GILLMANN@C.ISI.EDU>
According to public messages posted on a local BBS (The Talk Channel 818-
506-0620), the mail order house called "Compusystems" has been cashing
checks and not sending out any merchandise, so beware.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 87 15:01:09 CDT
From: moore@ncsc.ARPA (Moore)
Subject: Compusystems Warning
Thanks to all those who warned me about Compusystems: about 10 people (so
far) took the time to outline the article in InfoWorld recently regarding
this scam. Apparently the postal authorities are investigating.
Jim
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 87 14:48:16 CDT
From: "Richard Winkel UMC Computing Services"
<CCRJW%UMCVMB.BITNET @ wiscvm.wisc.edu>
Subject: PS/2 Advanced Diagnostics
Praise IBM for small favors! They've included the advanced diagnostics
program on their standard reference diskettes, distributed with every
machine. It's accessed by an undocumented keystroke, Ctrl-A, at the
reference disk's main menu. It allows for continuous automatic check-out
of selected options and adapters in the system unit, and 'low level' format
of the hard disk.
Rich Winkel
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 87 01:24 EDT
From: Hess@MIT-Multics.ARPA
Subject: DOS 3.X and 3.5 inch drives
DOS 3.2 and higher support the 720K 3.5 inch disk. Supposedly you can
get 3.1 to run it in 360K mode. I've never tried. (The disk drive brand
I installed was a "Tigertronics" Sony model, into an XT.)
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 87 07:35 EST
From: REILLY@wharton.upenn.edu
Subject: Discount on OS/2 developer's kit
Just received my Microsoft Systems Journal with and offer to have the cost
of the OS/2 Developer's Kit reduced (to 1500) if quantity three or more are
purchased at once. Any one interested?
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 87 17:47:18 EDT
From: Brady%louie.udel.edu@icse.uci.edu
Subject: TI Personal Consultant Replies
I had asked for advice on a problem with TI's Personal Consultant, and got
two replies. These are shown below. Thank you for the help.
From: Jerry Sweet <jsweet@icse.uci.edu>
Joe Brady writes:
> A friend of mine is developing a not-real-big expert system
> (200 rules + some lisp functions) using TI's PC-plus.
> The system runs ok within the PC+ development environment.
> But the run-time module (created by using TI's "build" facility)
> causes the machine to freeze up, after running a while.
> (The freeze-up is not always at the same point; this seems
> to depend on what data has been entered and the path traveled by
> the program.)
>
> The program is running on a 640K Compaq. Anyone out there have
> any ideas what could be causing the freeze? Thanks in advance.
Several TI PC users have informed me that the TI+ system has to be running
in IBM emulation mode to run some applications (e.g. programs using
Meridian Ada tasking). If your language system was developed by TI, chances
are good that its run-time system is designed to use TI's interrupt struc-
ture, and not the IBM-defined interrupt structure.
From: RKIRCHNE%carleton.edu@relay.cs.net
I had a similar problem -- a program that worked with the development
system but not with the run time system. I forget what the symptom was,
though. I was told that if you put (define *user-error-handler* '()) in
custom.pc, the offending error will be trapped and reported.
In my case, I was using SCOOPS and also eval, which I thought I
needed. The problem was not with SCOOPS but with eval. eval is not sup-
ported in the run time system. If I had really needed it, I would have had
to pay 10 or 20 thousand for the privilege. I learned how not to need it.
Roger Kirchner, Carleton College (rkirchne@carleton.edu)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 87 13:29:29 EDT
From: "James R. McCoy (CCS-E)" <jmccoy@ARDEC.ARPA>
Subject: BROWSE With Line Wrap
First, to position myself, I am an occasional user of dBASE III, ac-
complishing simple things by trial and error and, as a last resort, turning
pages in the manual. I'm currently stumped, trying to do something that
ought to be simple and probably is.
For an application being developed, the BROWSE command does just what I
need, with one exception. The total number of characters in all fields of
a record is 300 to 400, and I would like to see 4 or 5 consecutive records
on the screen at once. That is, I want the editing capability and high-
lighting provided by EDIT and BROWSE, with screen layout like DISPLAY. A
means to tell BROWSE to wrap at 80 (or n) columns would do just fine. I
can design the fields to fit with no wrap within a field, and the structure
is such that nothing like a FORM file (___.frm) is needed.
Is there a simple way? Is there any way? Even a response confirming that
I should give in and live with the left/right scroll of BROWSE would be
helpful.
Please respond to fairchil@ARDEC.ARPA. Thanks for any help or commisera-
tion anyone can offer.
- Bruce Fairchild
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 87 20:12:19 edt
From: broscius@dsl.cis.upenn.edu (Al Broscius)
Subject: EGA Screen Dump Utility
Does anyone know of a PD program to print the EGA screen in a way similar
to the standard Prt-Scrn key sequence which works for CGA ?
Thanks
Al Broscius
broscius@linc.cis.upenn.edu Internet
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 87 07:27:24 EDT
Subject: PC LANs using AC Power/In-house Phone Lines - Experience
From: boyd@braggvax.arpa
Have several "low-order" needs for SIMPLE (i.e. cheap) PC Lans for simple
file transfer, etc. Several recent ads about PC LANs using POWER outlets
and IN-HOUSE phone lines at very low cost sounds promising. Any experience
in the community, tips, traps, comments?
Really hate the relatively high cost Ethernet type solution because most
users only want & need to do simple file transfers among 3-5 PC/ATs.
- CPT Joe Boyd
boyd@braggvax.arpa (919)396-6907/6475 Autovon:236-6907/6764/6475
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 87 12:18:16 EDT
From: David Kirschbaum <kirsch@braggvax.arpa>
Subject: Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey PC-123 Library
NetLandians,
The latest Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey (ACNJ) newsletter published
a catalog summary of the PC-123 Software Library. This library contains
tons of spreadsheet (123, Symphony, etc.) files and information.
Does anyone have access to this library or its files? Does anyone
(SIMTEL20?) have plans to upload it to a public location where we can
snarf? I can't afford to snarf all this stuff long distance (assuming it's
available thru ACNJ's BBS), and don't often make it to Trenton NJ to copy
the disks at the ACNJ meetings.
Thanks in advance,
David Kirschbaum
Toad Hall
kirsch@braggvax.ARPA
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 87 22:08:36 EST
From: afc@i.cc.purdue.edu (Greg Flint)
Subject: Query about FORTRAN 77 (or 8x) and 386 machines
A professor that I know wants to port some FORTRAN 77 programs running on
various mainframes to a PC or PC-clone. He was considering an AT-class
machine (slow, but time is not a MAJOR concern). Since 386 machines are
available for not much more money than an AT-class machine, he is now con-
sidering 386 machines as well.
He asked me for advice, but I'm not all that familiar with 386 features.
What I need to know is the following:
1) Is there any compiler that will create code and allow arrays (common
blocks) larger than 640K?
2) Is there any FORTRAN compiler that will create native 386 code? If so,
whose is the best?
3) Should they purchase an 80287 (if no 386 code exists) or 80387 (if 386
code is generated)?
4) Should they spend the extra money and buy a PS/2 with the IBM bus or is
a clone (cheaper) a safe purchase? (They obviously want to avoid a dead
end when OS/2 and related programs are available.)
5) How much RAM is the minimum needed to operate in an efficient manner?
(512K, 1M, 2M, 4M)
6) Should they forget about a PS/2 or clone and look at a Sun with or
without its [soon to be/recently released] 386 option? (Yes, I do know the
Sun is more $'s, but is it worth it if they have the money?)
I know that some or all the above could be answered by articles in the com-
puter magazines (e.g., BYTE), but I really don't have time to research the
subject in sufficient depth. Thanks for any help.
Greg Flint Math G-185 (317) 494-1787 UUCP:
j.cc.purdue.edu!gdf
Purdue Univ. Purdue University ARPA: gdf@j.cc.purdue.edu
Computing Ctr. West Lafayette, IN 47907 BITNET: flint@purccvm.bitnet
-----------------------------
Date: 4 Sep 87 15:50:42 GMT
From: Mark Roth <mroth@afit-ab.arpa>
Subject: floppy drive help needed
Organization: Air Force Institute of Technology; WPAFB, OH
I need some help configuring a second floppy drive on my Zenith Z-248
(PC/AT). I have a 20MBYTE hard disk and a 1.2 MBYTE floppy as drive A:.
This is the info on back of the 360K floppy I am trying to install as B::
Matsushita
FMD00790B4
JVC SS01FF
DC 12V0.19A 300RPM
NO. 151170
Victor Company of Japan
There are several movable jumpers on the drive, the labels next to the
jumpers are listed below, with a yes if it is currently connected. I have
tried changing some of them with no luck. Dir's and format's both give er-
rors.
RY MM-yes MS UA DA-yes DS-yes MX
DS1 DS2-yes DS3 DS4 +WP-yes
Some hard wired labeled jumpers are DR, AR. Unwired jumpers are NR, SO,
SC.
This is the way I got the disk except that I changed DS1 to DS2. When it
was in DS1 both the A and B drive lights came on when I did a DIR. On DS2,
the A drive still works fine, the B light comes on when I access it, but I
get nothing but errors.
Any ideas to help me would be appreciated, or even an address for the
manufacturer of the drive so I can write for specs.
Thanks,
Mark Roth
mroth@afit-ab.arpa
------------------------------
Date: 4 Sep 87 06:16:12 GMT
From: munnari!daemon@uunet.UU.NET (The Devil)
From: ronb@otc.oz (Ron Barrett)
Subject: Programming interface to PC-NFS
Organization: OTC Development Unit, Australia
We have recently acquired PC-NFS and want to set up some "Socket-like" com-
munication between programs on an IBM-AT clone and our Pyramid-90X.
The problem lies in the fact that the PC-NFS documentation makes no
reference to a programming interface, mentioning only high level user com-
mands. Is PC-NFS simply based on RPC/XDR, or are there some subtleties
worth knowing about for programming in a DOS environment?
Comments from anyone with knowledge/experience in this type of application
would be greatly appreciated. Please E-Mail to the net address below.
Thanks in advance,
Ron Barrett
Systems Development
|||| OTC ||||
ACSnet: ronb@otc.oz UUCP: {uunet,mcvax}!otc.oz!ronb
------------------------------
End of Info-IBMPC Digest
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