mel (04/07/83)
I finally got YAM up on the Rainbow -- WOW what a difference! [YAM was
written by Chuck Forsberg, a first class job, thanks.] File transfer to/fro
UNIX is super easy and reliable (YAM on the Rainbow, sb/rb on UNIX gives batch
transfer of 1K blocks with checksumming, YAM and umodem/MODEM also works, but
one file at a time with 128 byte blocks). YAM also keeps a huge scroll
(>40,000 characters) of the terminal session with review commands that are
easy and convenient (better than the measley 8 pages on my beloved Concept).
All this just barely works at 9600 baud (I had to really trim the inner
loop). Vi works fine, emacs (Warren's) sometimes screws up, but clears up
with ^L (this with TERM=vt100 and the Rainbow in YAM.CMD). You can flip back
and forth between YAM modes, including terminal mode, and both CP/M's without
the phone connection dropping (DEC are you listening?) or that damn 15 second
hardware test and menu. I still have a little cleaning up to do. CP/M-86
keeps the file info in a different "segment" than the program. So the neat
structures in the YAM C code are useless and old ugly peeks must be used to
get counts of free space and R/W status, etc. DEC doesn't present any way to
get the status of the printer port (or the comm port or the terminal display,
for that matter), so it is not yet possible to run the printer while
communicating. I'll report on how to do that when I search it out. Next
comes additions to remap these stupid keys into something useful (wish I could
do something about the "<" key, the most mindless placement of all time!).
Still no support from DEC. No technical information at all. No catalog of
software or accessories. No maintenance contract (and my 90 day initial
warranty has expired, alas). No nothing! Can't find any vendors of programs
on Rainbow disks, either. Thank goodness for the VAX floppy reader and easy
uploading from 8" SSSD disks.
Computer Innovations C86 and its library performed flawlessly. This is a
super product, well worth the price. I also got BDS C Version 1.5 for the Z80
side. It needs a minor DDT fix in the run-time package C.CCC due to some
DECism Leor explained to me, but I didn't understand. It also, or maybe more
so, is a bargain. I'll run some benchmarks soon and post the results. My gut
feeling is that the Z80 side turns circles around the 8088 on compile speed,
load speed, run speed, and disk space economy. Until next report,
Mel Haas , houxm!mel