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From: ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi LASK)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Looking at some binaries
Message-ID: <1990Aug22.174848.20162@uwasa.fi>
Date: 22 Aug 90 17:48:48 GMT
Sender: ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi LASK)
Organization: University of Vaasa
Lines: 35

I have again taken a look at some of the programs that have appeared
in the binaries.  PLOT61 was this time of special interest to me,
partly because I have made available a similar program myself, to be
honest.  The range of the options in plot61 is truly impressive.  On
the other hand, I found a number of problems with plot61.  The first
one is that I did not find a way to keep my function in memory, but
had to rewrite it time and again.  Second, and more serious, if one
has used the program options extensively, the program crashes the PC
(memory allocation error) at exiting.  Some minor points include the
fact that only the background color option worked for me, not the
foreground option (cltr-c).  One of the nice features is an inbuilt
function value evaluator.  Incidentally, plotter.exe within the
package is way ahead its time :-) (the date stamp says September
1990).  - If you are not daunted by a difficult to learn user
interface, do try this one out.  We have made it available by
anonymous ftp for those who prefer this method of getting packages. 

Another binary package worth looking at is BMENU54 if you are
interested in advanced batch programming.  Although bmenu is
essentially yet another ask-errorlevel-extension for batch files,
this one has quite a special twist.  The list of choices is given as
a pull-down menu, which can be placed anywhere on the screen.  A
neat trick indeed.  Also available by anonymous ftp as soon as my
fellow moderator hv@chyde.uwasa.fi has had the time to place it in
our archives. 

Finally, I took a look at PCZ30390 but as with earlier versions I've
seen, there I got stuck.  The Unix host chyde.uwasa.fi and my PC
refused to co-operate through a modem connection when I tried out
pcz.exe at the PC end of things.  I did not put this one up. 

...................................................................
Prof. Timo Salmi        (Moderating at anon. ftp site 128.214.12.3)
School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland
Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun