Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucbvax!SSCTEMP.SAS.UPENN.EDU!theall From: theall@SSCTEMP.SAS.UPENN.EDU (George A. Theall) Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro Subject: Rainbow EchoMail Digest Message-ID: Date: 15 Nov 90 22:35:14 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 175 Rainbow EchoMail Digest Nov 15, 1990 In this issue: RE: NOVICE RAINBOW USER RE: TRANSFER OF LONG FILE RE: PC100A AT AUCTION (2 messages) RAINBOW QUESTION Articles posted to either INFO-DEC-MICRO or comp.sys.dec.micro are currently gatewayed to the Rainbow Echo on FidoNet. You do not need to take special action to respond to articles in these digests. Please send reports of problems or suggestions for improvement of this digest to GTHEALL@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU (Internet). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: 11-13-90 (23:38) To: ALL Subject: RE: NOVICE RAINBOW USER From: FRANK ZSITVAY > GT> Bringing up the Rainbow in Terminal mode, I can successfully > GT> "talk" to the weather station. Now the problem is to write > GT> either a BASIC (CPM) or PASCAL(MSDOS) program to do the > GT> automatic reads to disk. The problem is that looking in the > GT> BASIC manual, I can't figure out how to tie the BASIC input > GT> or inp statement to the communications port (INP specifies > GT> read a byte from port #1 - #255 - but what is the comm port?) > GT> Alternately, maybe Pascal has a better way to handle this. > GT> If I decide to store the data in CPM format, it appears we > GT> have a program that will read it and write it back into > GT> MSDOS format. Do it in MSDOS. in GWbasic, you open a com port like a file, and you set all the parameters you need this way as well. IO is easy, just use input$ and print#. > GT> Secondly, it appears in BASIC that you CAN'T directly append > GT> data to a sequential disk file. You have to copy the original > GT> file, append to that, and rename back to the original. This is > GT> a major problem, since my data files can only be half as large > GT> that way (if I have to make a copy of the whole file every time > GT> I want to append a new set of reading). Any suggestions on this? in gwbasic, you can append to a file. i know, the cpm version won't let you do this. i haven't the foggiest idea why... another advantage of doing this in msdos is that if you need to import the data into an ibm, you can use ibm single density format (which the rainbow can read and write, but not format) and transfer your data that way. you won't need a special tanslation program. - -- fzsitvay@techbook.COM - but don't quote me on that.... American Oil Company motto - Bend over, We'll pump!!! - --- QM v1.00 * Origin: TECHbooks One, Fido Gate to techbook (503) 644-8135 (1:105/369.0) ------------------------------ Date: 11-13-90 (23:38) To: ALL Subject: RE: TRANSFER OF LONG FILE From: FRANK ZSITVAY In article <355.273FF22F.@techbks1.FIDONET.ORG> David.Maroun@f3.n343.z1.FIDONET.ORG (David Maroun) writes: > >Other utilities for transferring big files between any two machines, either of >which may be a Rainbow: The Bear's back-up and restore utilities (look for >BBACKRES.ZIP or .ARC or .LZH); the back-up and restore utilities distributed >with MS-DOS 3.1 if you have that operating system (the Philips versions will >run under Rainbow MS-DOS 2.11), or my XTRAC and XTRACC utilities on this >board. you could also use an archiver like zip to compress the file to a size that will fit on a 180k disk, and transfer it that way. (this works well for text files, since they average better than 50% compression) - -- fzsitvay@techbook.COM - but don't quote me on that.... American Oil Company motto - Bend over, We'll pump!!! - --- QM v1.00 * Origin: TECHbooks One, Fido Gate to techbook (503) 644-8135 (1:105/369.0) ------------------------------ Date: 11-13-90 (23:38) To: ALL Subject: RE: PC100A AT AUCTION From: FRANK ZSITVAY In article <357.273FF22F.@techbks1.FIDONET.ORG> Paul.Robinson@f417.n109.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Paul Robinson) writes: >I agree about people not knowing the real price of computer equipment, but >getting burned a few times is the only way people learn something, assuming >they learn anything at all. Does the phrase "Caveat Emptor" ring a bell? It >is simply the fact that if you purchase things not knowing what you are doing >then you may succeed or you may soon discover that you've been ripped off. > >Perhaps that lets me know not to visit auctions since I KNOW what computer >equipment is worth, and I WON'T pay more than the actual >value of the equipment. But I guess if everyone knew what they were doing the >bankruptcy people would BE in bankruptcy from not >enough bankruptcies! i've had pretty good luck at the university of washington auctions, although i have seen people at these auctions bet outrageous prices on stuff they think is worth a lot. (like one person who purchased a decmate for $350, only to find out it wasn't ibm compatible.) but more often than not, at least at the UW, you usually find some real good buys. - -- fzsitvay@techbook.COM - but don't quote me on that.... American Oil Company motto - Bend over, We'll pump!!! - --- QM v1.00 * Origin: TECHbooks One, Fido Gate to techbook (503) 644-8135 (1:105/369.0) ------------------------------ Date: 11-14-90 (11:23) To: ALL Subject: RAINBOW QUESTION From: PAUL ROBINSON A question comes up in my head as to whether the DEC Rainbow came out before, during or after the creation of the TI PC? The point being that Texas Instruments made an 8086 machine with some better features but the machine was intentionally non-ibm compatible. Realize this: IBM never patented the design of the IBM-PC, or the XT or the AT. As a result, anyone could manufacture a competing machine if they could get a rom-bios for it. And Phoenix, AMI, Award and - as Mike Focke's list of 300 bioses shows - many others followed suit. This meant that above all else a personal computer being sold for use in the IBM environment has to be IBM compatible or have a steep discount, and since computers are selling in the normal 5-10% profit range instead of the huge 30% to 50% profit figures of a few years ago, one has very little alternative but to make a compatible machine. Such could have been guessed at because, given the choice between proprietary architecture and open architecture, people go for the open because they can get what they want from any supplier. This behooves me to ask when the Rainbow came out; if they saw how badly TI was burned in both their small computers and in the PC market, they should have learned one thing: the open architecture is the way people want their systems, and will accept no less. Trying to lock people in with a closed or proprietary architecture tends to lock you out of customers. Yet they never learn. Until Chapter 11, that is. - --- ConfMail V3.31 * Origin: The Pot of Gold - (703-359-6549) (1:109/103) ------------------------------ Date: 11-13-90 (18:18) To: GEORGE THEALL Subject: RE: PC100A AT AUCTION From: AMER NELSON WOW!! I recently attended an auction and saw eleven (11) Rainbow Bs go for $250 TOTAL!! I couldn't bid because I didn't have a truck to haul the stuff away. BTW three of the Rainbows had color monitors and eight had hard disks AND controllers. A dealer picked them up for PEANUTS. ++ Amer ++ - --- Opus-CBCS 1.12 * Origin: Glacier Peak Rainbow, Bellevue, WA - 206/644-8431 (1:343/3.0) ------------------------------