Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!caip!lll-crg!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!B.ISI.EDU!Info-IBMPC From: Info-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU (Info-IBMPC Digest) Newsgroups: mod.computers.ibm-pc Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V5 #74 Message-ID: <8608030031.AA16907@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Date: Sat, 2-Aug-86 18:41:32 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8608030031.AA16907 Posted: Sat Aug 2 18:41:32 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 3-Aug-86 04:24:26 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: INFO-IBMPC@B.ISI.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 1360 Approved: info-ibmpc@usc-isib.arpa Info-IBMPC Digest Saturday, 2 August 1986 Volume 5 : Issue 74 This Week's Editor: Billy Brackenridge Today's Topics: Rootpath.c LEX Source ATPERF & ATDISK Testing File Existence in Turbo Pascal DeSmet C 2.41 no malloc Bug Number Nine Board PD Assembler Orchid's 286e Accelerator Board Micro Stock Software Summary Stock Program for Micros Volume Labels (2 Msgs.) dCLOCK Clock (2 Msgs.) Security (3 Msgs.) Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing Large Priam Disks for AT ProDesign II Today's Queries: VDISK & PC3278/9 -- INT 15H Conflict Multi-User AT Epson JX Driver for MS Windows Wanted Tek 4105 or DEC VT240 Emulators for PC EGA Printscreen dBase III Bug Crossword puzzle maker wanted Expansion Box: XT or AT Bus Serial I/O expansion Accessing COM1 from Lattice C 3.00 PC-DOS V3.2 -- What are the problems??? Bootable Disks IBM PC Professional Graphics Display and Controller Micro Emacs 3.7 Epsilon EEL Language Question CMI Drives How to Drive Multiple Graphics Screens from One AT? PC-like Keyboard for AT Needed IBM Logo Assembly Language Routines package Large Screen Video Display "direct.h" Needed for grep.c ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu 17 Jul 86 16:09:24-EDT From: Robert Lenoil Subject: Rootpath.c To: lotto%harvard@EDDIE.MIT.EDU ROOTPATH.C Converts a path name argument to root based canonical form rootpath determines the current directory, appends the path argument (which may affect which disk the current directory is relative to), and qualifies "." and ".." references. The result is a complete, simple, path name with drive specifier. -Robert Lenoil [ROOTPATH.C has been added to the library. -wab] ------------------------------ Date: 24 Jul 1986 19:08:54 PDT Subject: LEX Source From: James H. Coombs LEX.C A Lexical Analyzer Generator. From UNIX converted to DeSmet C. James H. Coombs 7/22/86 ------------------------------ Date: 1 Aug 1986 08:53:04 PDT From: Anonymous@B.ISI.EDU Subject: ATPERF & ATDISK ATPERF.C and ATDISK.C are two of the August 1986 PC Tech Journal PC-AT test programs. The combination ATPERF.C and TIME.ASM check AT performance, while ATDISK.C and PDISKIO.ASM check disk performance. I didn't type the 80287 or EMM code in the former as I have neither on my machine I didn't type the disk write code in the latter as I didn't want to accidentally clobber the hard disk. [ATPERF.C Has been added to the INFO-IBMPC library. This file contains ATDISK.C and the assembly language routines as well. -wab] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 Aug 86 11:00:14 PDT From: Mike_Gertsman%UBC.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Subject: Testing File Existence in Turbo Pascal There is a minor bug in the Exists function that has been given in the Turbo Pascal reference manual since the product was first released. The problem is that the function creates a file handle when it performs a reset. If the file exists, and is not explicitly closed after the call, repeated calls to the function will eventually produce I/O error F3 (too many open files). The following is a modified version of the function which avoids this error: function Exists(Filename : Filename_Type):boolean; var Fil : file; begin Assign(Fil, Filename); {$I-} Reset(Fil); {I+} Exists := (IOresult = 0); Close(Fil); { statement added to Borland version } end; ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 17:32:54 edt From: SCHEUTZOW%gitpyr%GATECH.CSNET@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA, MICHAEL J Subject: DeSmet C 2.41 no malloc Bug I disagree with the recent Bug Report that said that DeSmet C will overwrite the static variables if malloc() is used. I'm also using version 2.41. I ran the program: static char buf[1024]; main() { char *a; printf("Buf loc %d\n", buf); /* bad programming! */ while(a = malloc(5 * 1024 * sizeof(char))) printf("New buf %d\n", a); } It looped 12 times when run (reflecting the 64K data limit), and none of the buffers overlapped. I think Jim should check for a programming error, i.e corrupted pointer or maybe a segment wrap- around (doing any math on pointers?). I hope you find the problem. Mike Scheutzow "There is nothing wrong with the 8086 that Georgia Tech treating it like a PDP-11 wouldn't cure." gt6294b@gitpyr -RBJ- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Jul 86 23:26:18 pdt From: Richard Jennings To: nike!B.ISI.EDU!Info-IBMPC Subject: Number Nine Board At a recent Intel seminar they had a Number Nine Board demo with their graphics chip running in a COMPAQ. I am holding off on an EGA for the same reason. Rich. arpa -> jennings@lll-icdc.ARPA uucp -> seismo!lll-crg!jennings@icdc ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 07:12:40 cdt From: mlw@ncsc.ARPA (Williams) Subject: PD Assembler John Duimovich asked about a Public Domain assembler...suitable for teaching. CHASM (a CHeap ASseMbler) is available in the public domain and includes tutorial materials. It's on most BBS systems for download. I think we may have a copy here that can be ftp-d and I'm sure it exists somewhere in the simtel20 archives. Don't know for sure if it's hard to get through a BITNET connection... Mark L. Williams mlw@ncsc.arpa ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 14:37:34 PDT From: rick@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu (Rick Randall) Subject: Orchid's 286e Accelerator Board Just my 2 cents for the accelerator board audience... Got Orchid's 286e (1M on board, standard -- no wait states), and I after some trial and error finding out which software caused problems, I like it! I won't bother advertising the Norton SI rating, because although it is very high, I don't really believe in it as a good measure. But it is *fast* for the practical applications I indulge in. I guess it is "better than an AT" for many applications, as claimed, but I have little experience on an AT, so I can't judge. It sure is one heck of a lot faster than my native PC-1, however. It's lovely to see the screen update almost instantaneously. Has Ramdisk, spooler, and cache software, all of which appear to work well. I had problems with the printer using my older AST spooler, but they cleared up with Orchid's. I also had mysterious problems with the keyboard until I identified the culprit as one of my ram-resident programs (NU-EPSON), which doesn't seem compatible. Also, I was using the 1DIR (DOS shell) program that came delivered with my QUBIE hard-disk, but found that it would not run in the 286e mode -- apparently it accessed the controller card directly in some way not supported, and decided I didn't really have a QUBIE. Solved this by upgrading to the "generic" 1DIR for $25. [I wouldn't be without 1DIR, by the way!] There is very little else in the way of problems to report...I am getting an occasional "missed keyboard interrupt" problem, which for various reasons I am convinced is not due to software; I have not yet gotten through to Orchid for assistance. It is more of a nuisance than anything else -- it pops you back into the host (8088) mode with a message left on your screen, and you have to re-boot the 286. Hope this is something like a jumper switch that could be in a better position... Other than this, I have been *very* pleased with my new machine. I notice that the board comes with a fairly large number of "socketed" chips; these, I presume, are either ROMs or proprietary chips and are capable of being easily upgraded. I like this. In order to switch between the -286 and the 8088 modes you have to run a DOS-level program. In other words, there is no "hot-key" or hardware switch to switch modes. One of the advantages of going with an accelerator board is that you can still run programs that must run on the 8088 -- i.e. that will not run on an AT. This was the main reason I decided not to upgrade to the AT or an AT clone. Another reason was that I couldn't see sinking any more $$ into a 286 configuration when the -386 machines will be coming out soon! I have found getting through to Orchid somewhat frustrating. They have an interesting "phone-menu" system: when you dial on a touch-tone phone, there is a message that prompts you to dial one of several 2-digit numbers accord- ing to the type of assistance required. Dialing the number truncates the message and gets you to a second layer of messages appropriate to your prob- lem, etc. Finally, you have the precise area you want to talk to, you dial their number...and it rings 6 or 7 times...precipitating a final message indicating that you can dial another number to leave a message. When this number also rings and ring, you can wait for an operator -- if he/she answers! Modern technology to the rescue -- at least it's more fun than getting a busy signal (although more expensive, at long-distance rates). Last week, all the technical personnel were at a picnic; this week, they haven't yet returned my call. Are they busy or something? The above diversion is not meant to discourage buyers; the product seems very sound. Dissenters are welcome to chime in. Rick Randall EECS Department University of California, San Diego decvax\ rick@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu ihnp4 >---> sdcsvax ---> rick ucbvax/ rick@sdcsvax.uucp ------------------------------ Subject: Micro Stock Software Summary Date: Fri, 01 Aug 86 16:11:48 -0800 From: Scott Menter Thanks much to everybody who replied to my request for microcomputer software for stock market analysis. I'm excerpting here the replies; they were very helpful, and I'm very grateful. (Sorry for the length, but I didn't want to have to make any judgments about what parts of these letters would interest everyone, and what parts not). +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ E. Scott Menter Internet: escott@ics.uci.edu UCI Systems Support Group UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucivax!escott "...Say, Foz, about my vocals..." +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------- Forwarded Messages Subject: Re: Stock Program for Micros From: SAC.HQSAC-ACMI@e.isi.edu In 'Better Investing', a publication of the National Association of Investors Corporation (NAIC), there is an ad for a program called EvalForm 3.0. The Investment Club I belong to uses version 2.0 with a CP/M based machine. Although the program is designed to support NAIC methods to evaluate a stock it is an excellent tool for the investor. Data is gathered from either Standards and Poor's, Value Line or both and entered into the program. The printout provides buy/sell/hold price ranges, best price to buy, upside/downside, and several other valuable stats. The report is about two pages long with very little wasted space. For more info write to : INVESTOR'S SOFTWARE BOX N BRADENTON BEACH, FL 33510 (704) 743-2109 (813) 778-5515 and identify your computer. For info on the NAIC or how to start your own investment club write to: NAIC 1515 E. ELEVEN MILE ROAD ROYAL OAK, MICHIGAN 48067 Marc Frederick HQ SAC/ACCA, OFFUTT AFB NE 68113 ================================================================ From: jhs@mitre-bedford.arpa Organization: The MITRE Corp., Bedford, MA Without a doubt, the micro with the most stock market forecasting software is the IBM PC/XT/AT and clones. I don't have specific recommendations on forecasting packages, but there is so much of it that finding it shouldn't be a problem. The Atari ST will, it is rumored, be able to run most IBM software with an adapter to be announced soon (or is it already announced?). However, your friend should probably just go buy an AT clone such as the Zenith Data Systems Z248, or the IBM PC/AT itself, or comparable units from AT&T, NEC, ITT, WANG, Leading Edge and many others. The only reasons for using the Atari ST for this purpose would be to save a lot of money and to have a 68000 processor to play with. From the way you posed the question, neither goal seems especially applicable. Buying a straight AT clone would undoubtedly minimize the unforeseen complications in using standard software. For a color monitor, I would suggest the NEC JC-1401P3A "Multisync" monitor, which has very high resolution and is one of the few that you can use for word processing without feeling bleary-eyed. (The monochrome text display is the sharpest I have seen on a color monitor.) Princeton Graphics is also said to have a very good monitor. The Atari monitor might also be a good choice at a lot lower price. Any of these would justify one of the hi-res graphics cards that are available for the AT clones. - -John Sangster jhs@mitre-bedford.arpa ------- Message 3 From: chabris_c%h-sc4@harvard.harvard.edu I can't discuss it since I haven't actually used it, but I hear good things about the ISGUR Portfolio System from Batteries Included, for the Atari ST and MS-DOS. It uses the GEM interface and includes an excellent communications program, IS-Talk. Hope this helps. Christopher F. Chabris 15 Sterling Road Armonk, NY 10504 CompuServe: 73277,305 UUCP: ...!harvard!h-sc4!chabris ARPA: chabris%h-sc4@harvard.ARPA BITNET: chabris@HARVUNXU.BITNET AT&T: (914) 273-8828 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 07:08:53 cdt From: mlw@ncsc.ARPA (Williams) Subject: Volume Labels Bill Crocca asked (a while ago) about changing disk(ette) volume names via Turbo Pascal...I can't address the Turbo Pascal part of the question, but I dug up some info on the volume label itself which may help or may inspire somebody else on the net to provide a definitive response... The volume label is a special directory entry. The 11 characters that ordinarily represent the filename.ext are used as one field for the volume name. Using DEBUG to look at my hard drive showed that the volume name wasn't in what I took to be any particular place and I guess that's right -- the file attribute field (the 12th byte of the directory entry) had a value of hex 28. That maps out to the attributes "archive-system-volume label", so I guess the entry could be anywhere in the directory. I seriously doubt that normal DOS services will let you toy with the volume name once it's established. I tried a plain "rename" command against the whole volume name and the volume name with the last 3 char- acters as an "extension." No go. It would probably work if the file attributes were changed to the appearance of a standard entry, then the renaming were done, and the attributes changed back. I have no idea what facilities Turbo Pascal provides for any of this. I hope that either gives you some help, ideas, or inspires other res- ponses. Perhaps Bill can tell us how he ultimately meets this challenge. Mark L. Williams mlw@ncsc.arpa ------------------------------ Date: 1986 Jul 28 22:28 EST From: Bob Babcock To: , Subject: Volume Labels In reply to a question from Crocca.wbst@Xerox.COM regarding the method for writing disk volume labels from Turbo: If you know how to execute DOS calls from Turbo, you're almost there. It is not necessary do anything dangerous like writing directly to the directory. I have successfully labeled disks using a C language program as the interface with DOS. The same technique works for floppies, hard drives and RAM disks. The only thing you can't do this way is write a volume label with lower case or other illegal characters. First point: there are bugs which make MS-DOS functions 4EH and 4FH unsuitable for reading volume labels. You can't find the label at all if it's the first entry in the directory, and labels with embedded blanks are not returned correctly. You need to set the disk transfer address with function 1A, then use function 11H with DS:DX pointing to an extended FCB with the attribute byte set to 8. If the disk does not have a label, you can create one with function 16H. If the disk is labeled, you can change the label with 17H, the rename function. After either of these, I think you also need to close the file with 10H. (My code does it after a rename; I don't remember if this is really necessary.) Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to delete a volume label with function 13H. You may trigger a bug which exists in some, if not all versions of MS-DOS 2.11: deleting a volume label on a disk which has a hidden file (such as the BIOS) as the first directory entry will damage the FAT entry for that file. This will probably not be immediately evident until you write additional files on the disk, at which point you will find that some of them are cross-linked. I first ran across this bug in a disk labeling program supplied by Sanyo. I disassembled the program to see how it worked and built the faulty algorithm into a disk indexing program I was writing at the time. Before I realized what was happening I had zapped 14 disks. The bug was reproducible on a Compaq, so it isn't just a Sanyo DOS problem. Bob Babcock pepap@cfa1.BITNET pepmnt@harvarda.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: 1986 Jul 28 22:34 EST From: Bob Babcock To: , , Subject: dCLOCK Clock Responding to an inquiry from mlw@ncsc.ARPA regarding the dCLOCK clock/calendar board: I put a dCLOCK clock/calendar board in my slightly IBM compatible Sanyo 555 a few months ago and it worked fine. The driving software came in the form of lists of numbers and a BASIC program to convert them into two .COM files, a technique sometimes used in PC Magazine. One program is put into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to set the DOS date and time from the dCLOCK, the other transfers the DOS date and time into the dCLOCK when you need to set it. I didn't actually have to type these things in, I got them off a bulletin board run by the company which sold them to our users group, along with a device driver which forces all time checks to the dCLOCK. This isn't necessary on a machine which keeps reasonable time, but it's nice on the Sanyo which runs its software clock fast to compensate for the fact that it stops during disk accesses. Unfortunately, the device driver doesn't allow setting the dCLOCK. Meanwhile, I recently added a memory board which has a clock on board, and interferes physically with the dCLOCK, so I'm no longer using it. I never had any problems with the dCLOCK while I was using it (a claim I wish I could make for my current clock). If you are buying more than one of these boards, you can probably negotiate a better price. My Sanyo users group got them for around $45 each. The board is made by Microsync. Usual disclaimers apply. Bob Babcock pepap@cfa1.BITNET pepmnt@harvarda.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Jul 86 15:49:21 pdt From: decwrl!amdcad!cae780!ubvax!lance@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Lance Keigwin) Subject: dClock Clock A couple of people asked about experiences with dCLOCK, a real-time clock-calendar that fits directly onto the system's motherboard in the 8088 socket. It does not occupy an expansion slot, nor does it interfere with other cards. We bought a few of these for some XT's that didn't need all the features provided in today's multi-function cards. The price was very attractive ($60 + $2 shipping), and the idea deserved investigation. We were pleasantly surprised! The dCLOCK in effect, fits *under* the 8088. Installation was quite simple. The package included instructions for keying in two BASIC programs of about 50 lines each which produced 2 .COM files for reading and setting the clock (that was annoying, but it helps keep costs down and makes shipping this tiny clock easy -- it comes in a little tube). As far as functionality is concerned, it works just like any other battery-operated real-time clock. You set the time once, and read the clock when you reboot. We have had no problems with it. Oh, you can get one of these little marvels from: Microsync Computer Products Dept. P.O.Box 116302 Carrollton, TX 75011 (214)492-5265 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 11:09:19 cdt From: mlw@ncsc.ARPA (Williams) Subject: Security Michael Domino asks about preventing unauthorized access to the hard drive... There are a few different ways to handle this, so here are some ideas. Some are good, some not so hot. 1. Buy a key-lock for the system. 2. Use some other device (furniture, etc.) to provide physical security. 3. Encrypt your hard drive information. There are a few software packages that will do this. 4. Use a program like ALTER that lets you hide subdirectories and files. Users who don't know what to look for will have trouble finding anything. 5. Buy a security card for the PC (my favorite). A few vendors (I think MISCO was one) sell a shamefully big card with lots of empty space that forces a logon process whenever the machine is turned on -- no matter which drive the system will be loaded from. Usernames & passwords can be changed & several can be resident at once... If one thought far enough ahead, I suppose one could get a Bernoulli Box or equivalent and put the cartridges in a safe when they weren't in use. You might not even need a hard drive! Mark L. Williams (mlw@ncsc.arpa) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1986 09:35 EDT From: willie sanchez Subject: Security In response to the query by ugebrow%buffalo.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA on protection of hard disk drives or complete system protection for pc's, there are at least two such systems in the public domain/shareware world. For protection of just your hard drives while still allowing boots and thus access to the pc's computing power, I use PC-LOCK by Johnson Computing in Newport News, Va. It works through the config.sys file so it is not easy to circumvent. You are prompted for a password at boot time and if not correct will not allow u access to hard disk drives. If u boot from a: or b: drive and attempt to access any hard disk will give u an "invalid device" message, thus allowing use of the pc's computing power while protecting hard drives. An authorized user can hit the left hand shift key three times successively and lock up the machine until their return at which point entering of the initial password will unlock the machine (processing, if any will continue while machine is locked!). Johnson Computing's address is 20 Dinwiddie Place, Newport News, Virginia 23602. It is available through various bbs's. If you have trouble obtaining it please advise, since i have a c copy of it. It is distributed as shareware and a per pc charge of $17.50 is asse ssed for commercial use. For locking up a pc, hard drive and computing resources, SYSLOCK can be used. It also works through config.sys but can be circumvented by booting with floppy. Software comes with documentation on disabling the a: drive for booting and example batch programs to redirect instructions to a: drive once you have booted. It is also available on bbs's as public domain software. It is coms from J.C. Kilday Associates, Peaks Island, ME 04108. My personal opinion is that PC-LOCK is preferable. Please contact me if u are unable to locate a bbs with this software. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Jul 86 15:05:40 cdt From: moore@ncsc.ARPA (Moore) Subject: Security I just downloaded PC-LOK11.ARC from Trenton State BBS (609-771-2829), which seems to do what you're looking for: if you boot from the hard drive you're forced to supply a password; if you boot from a floppy you get 'invalid drive specification' if you try to access C: w/o first supplying a password. Jim Moore NCSC Panama City FL ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 14:52:53 edt From: "Craig C. Douglas" Subject: Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing To: marvel-h%osu-20@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA This regards Howard Marvel's query about FORTRAN packages for computing: ... I particularly need good matrix inversion (MicroWay offers an assembler program for this -- any good?), random number generators, and distribution functions (normal, central F, non central F, chi-square, etc.). These may be in assembler or Fortran. There is a new book from Cambridge University Press called Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing by William H. Press, Brian P. Flannery, Saul A. Teukolsky, and William T. Vetterling which contains routines to do the following (according to the book flap in front of me): - solution of linear equations, matrix inversion, calculation of determinants - singular value decomposition - interpolate and extrapolate polynomials and rational functions - construct and evaluate splines - integrate functions on open and closed intervals, improper integrals, adaptive Romberg integration, Gaussian quadrature - fit and evaluate Chebyshev polynomials - accelerate the convergence of series - compute special functions, including complete and incomplete gamma and beta functions, Bessel functions, and elliptic integrals - generate uniform, normal, Poisson, and binomial random deviates - sort, rank, and index arrays - find roots of generic functions and polynomials, and solve nonlinear sets of equations - find minima and maxima using Brent's method, variable metric methods, linear programming, and simulated annealing method - calculate eigenvectors and eigenvalues - do fast Fourier transforms, sine transforms, cosine transforms, power spectrum estimation, and convolution and deconvolution - maximum entropy estimation and linear prediction - calculate multidimensional Fourier transforms - do statistical tests, including t-test, F-test, chi-square test, - Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, contigency table analysis, and nonparametric statistics - fit by linear and nonlinear least squares and with robust methods - Runge-Kutta and Bulirsch-Stoer integration for ODE's - do two-point boundary problems by shooting and relaxation methods - solve PDE's by simultaneous over-relaxation and ADI methods - ... and much more. All of the routines in the book are available on floppy in FORTRAN or Pascal from the publisher. There are also example books and routines available separately. The relevant ISBN numbers are ISBN 0-521-30811-9 book $ ? ISBN 0-521-31330-9 Numerical Recipes Example Book (FORTRAN) $18.95 ISBN 0-521-30956-5 Numerical Recipes Example Book (Pascal) $18.95 ISBN 0-521-30958-1 Numerical Recipes FORTRAN diskette, V1.0 $19.95 ISBN 0-521-30955-7 Numerical Recipes Pascal Diskette, V1.0 $19.95 ISBN 0-521-30957-3 Numerical Recipes Example Diskette (FORTRAN) $19.95 ISBN 0-521-30954-9 Numerical Recipes Example Diskette (Pascal) $19.95 [I assume these are IBM-PC format. Microsoft compatible?? -wab] I paid $34.50 for the book a week ago (I do not know the list price). All of these items have publication dates of 1986. New York and California residents have to add local sales taxes. New York and Canadian residents can order by calling 914/235-0300 and the rest of us by calling 800/431-1580 (VISA/MC orders). Checks and VISA/MC are accepted by mail to Cambridge University Press, Order Department, 510 North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY 10801. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 86 00:22:08 EDT From: johnl%ima.UUCP@CCA.CCA.COM Subject: Large Priam Disks for AT We have a 60MB Priam "Inner Space" disk drive. It came with a device driver that let us use the space not visible to the IBM BIOS. The BIOS thinks that it's a type 12 drive, and can see a 32MB disk partition. Priam's driver lets you divide up the drive any way you want, in our case turning the rest of the disk into a 26MB partition. I'd expect the same scheme to apply with the 71MB drive. Priam's software is quite nice, and makes it easy to format and partition the disk as desired. John Levine, Levine@YALE.EDU or ima!johnl ------------------------------ Date: Fri 1 Aug 86 00:59:14-EDT From: Joseph M. Newcomer Subject: ProDesign II I needed a good graphics system, and after having suffered through PC Paintbrush and other really bad systems, I decided to break down and get ProDesign II ($299, American Small Business Computers, 118 South Mill Street, Pryor, OK 74631). Well, there's good news and bad news. The good news is pretty good and the bad news isn't so bad, so I rate this product rather highly. It is not too hard to learn, although I still must keep the manual nearby even after a couple dozen reasonably complex drawings. Like most PC products, it reflects a horrid fascination with function keys and the cursor pad, which makes it very hard to use (the quality of life would be greatly improved if function keys and cursor pads disappeared. Give me EMACS-like key binding ability!) But all in all it is not as bad as many such programs. The one major defect it has is that you configure it with a horribly elaborate program that requires you reconfigure EVERYTHING even if it is the same. Thus there are times when I'd like to do the drawing on my Hercules card (because of the quality of the resolution) and then display it on my CGA to check out the colors (even though that loses because there aren't enough colors...) but this requires a full configuration. Or set it up to print sometimes on my Canon color ink-jet printer, then on my FX-80+, etc. A royal pain. I'd like to have startup-loadable drivers instead of these silly configuration programs (I'd be happy to exit and restart to change devices. PC Paintbrush is the biggest lose ever, requiring a system reboot to reconfigure the device! Fine for PCjrs but not the way to fly on an /AT). The good news is that it really does some quality drawings. It has ways of setting real-world units and putting down unit-calibrated lines between two points, which they call "auto-dimensioning". I sat here with a ruler and a map and "digitized" a map to our house, and it went quite smoothly. I've done a number of drawings of things like panel layouts, rack panels, etc. and they work real well. It drives my 6-color Radio Shack plotter and FX-80+. My Canon color ink-jet printer doesn't appear in the list, but may be compatible with some other one there. Another piece of good news is the folks there are quite responsive to suggestions, requests for help, etc. and really try to help. It has a nice multilayer capability, with up to 20 layers per drawing. Great for providing different views of an object. I've used this feature quite a bit. It comes with a nice "quick reference" sheet that I set up in front of me and has the same information in online help. Minor gripes include the fact that it doesn't seem possible to change the line width or type (solid or dotted) once the line has been placed. The rotation of objects requires bizarre placement of points (one of those 3, 4, 5 or 6-point affine transforms, I think. I've found it easier to erase and redraw objects). The status line doesn't display all the interesting status, but does display status many other programs don't including relative and absolute coordinates in terms of the user's calibration. Erasing a single line segment is impossible; it always erases everything connected to a point, so you can't select and erase a single line, only things connected to a point. It suffers badly from not having the EMACS philosophy about repeats or arguments. If I want to go 8 steps over I have to hit the key 8 times; instead of typing ^U8^F I have to hit the cursor right key 8 times. No keyboard macros either. If I want to activate or deactivate a layer of the drawing or change the current layer I'm working on I have to go into a "layer menu", use the cursor keys to get to a layer and select it on or off. I'd also like to be able to package several layers up with a particular name and select by name (one view is layers 2,7,9 and 13; another is 1,3,4,5 and 12, and finally one is 6, 10 and 11). Needs an exchange-point-and-mark option to get me back to where I started the line. A mouse is nearly useless if you care about exact dimensions and grid alignment. If I could just get key motions bound to the keyboard instead of those silly cursor keys and get other functions without using silly function keys, I would be able to use it significantly faster than I currently do. It has no "area fill" techniques like the Macintosh, and cannot represent colors by textures on a monochrome display. Area fill is to a solid color only and is a pain to use. If it weren't for the auto-dimension feature and color I'd use a Mac instead, but the ability to work to color compensates for a lot. I talked with them and passed some of these ideas on and they said "just wait until you see the LATEST version...out in a couple months". I think this is one of the nicer CAD packages around. I've been very happy with what I've produced using it, and can say that unlike a lot of packages I've bought this is one I don't regret buying; even with the problems it is still a pleasant package to use, and worth the price (in fact it may be underpriced but I'm not going to tell them...) As usual, I don't have any affiliation with these people except as a pleased-if-not-absolutely-totally-satisfied-in-every-tiny-detail customer. But then I'm real picky about graphics software. This ranks very high. If I could just get the selection and grouping capabilities of McDraw as well it would be super. ------------------------------ Date: july 30 1986 From: <$29%DHDURZ2.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA> Subject: VDISK & PC3278/9 -- INT 15H Conflict We have problems in operating the VDISK-driver (PC-DOS 3.0, 3.1) and the PC3278/79 terminal-emulation-adapter-card simultaneously. A probable cause may be that both, the VDISK-Driver and the 3278/79- emulation-program, use INT 15H. Does anyone have a suggestion for the circumvention of this problem ??? Peter Stede, $29@DHDURZ2.BITNET Heidelberg West-Germany ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 86 10:00:34 ADT From: wdw%ACADIA.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA (Bill Wilder) Subject: Multi-User AT A lot of faculty wordprocessing at our university is done on a multi-user micro (CP/M-like OS and WordStar). We would like to move up in the world and provide WordPerfect access to faculty without the expense of individual micros for each faculty member. We would very much like to hear from anyone with experience using a multi-user AT running DOS (not XENIX). What type of PC-like terminals do you use? How is performance? Any problems running software (WordPerfect in particular)? Thanks for any leads you can give us. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 86 13:10:01 GMT From: Keith Dale Subject: Epson JX Driver for MS Windows Wanted A friend of mine has an IBM PC/AT with an EGA monitor and an Epson JX-80. He would like to be able to print color pictures created with Draw under Windows. When he's running Symphony under Windows there's no problem, as Symphony has it's own driver; however, his Windows distribution disks included no JX drivers. Does anyone know where he can obtain one? I saw that in Vol.5,#37 of Info-IBMPC Gabe Newell from Microsoft stated that device drivers were posted on the Windows RoundTable on GEnie ("the new General Electric Information Services network"). Perhaps someone who has access to that BBS (I don't) could download/upload to an FTP-able site?? I have only Arpanet access. Is this a reasonable request? Legal? Any reply would be welcome!! Keith M. Dale BBN Communications Corp. ------------------------------ Date: Wed 30 Jul 86 10:35:05-CDT From: Bob Paver Subject: Tek 4105 or DEC VT240 Emulators for PC I'm looking for pointers to products that emulate either a Tektronix 4105 or a DEC VT240. We're using Leading Edge and Sperry PC's with a mixture of Hercules, Tecmar, and IBM-clone graphics boards. If you're aware of any, please let me know. Even better would be anyone's personal experience with one. Do they work well? Good color? Resolution? and so on. Thanks, Bob Paver (512) 834-3316 Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp. (MCC) 9430 Research Blvd, Echelon Building #1 Austin, TX 78759-6509 ARPA: paver@mcc.com UUCP: ut-sally!im4u!milano!paver ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jul 86 21:28:23 PDT From: crash!pnet01!gof@nosc.ARPA (Jerry Fountain) To: crash!noscvax!info-ibmpc@usc-isib Subject: EGA Printscreen We just purchased a Video-7 Vega (EGA compatible) + NEC Multisync for our Engineering system at work as an upgrade of the normal CGA. The results are great BUT we can no longer do screendumps (in EGA mode). Graphics.com is only for the CGA modes. Does anybody have a PD EGA dump program or know where I can get one? Jerry Fountain ARPA: crash!pnet01!gof@nosc ------------------------------ Date: Thu 31 Jul 86 13:00:23-PDT From: Steve Dennett Subject: dBase III Bug A few months back I thought I saw some articles in various pc magazines and online about a serious bug that turned up in the new dBase III. However, on going back, I can't find any of them. Has anyone heard about this bug, specifically, what it does? Since we installed dBase III on one of our hard disks, it has died twice. Thanks. Steve Dennett dennett@sri-nic.arpa ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Jul 86 16:05:09 EST From: Jim Ennis Subject: Crossword puzzle maker wanted Hello net, I am looking for a crossword puzzle generator for the IBM PC family of computers. This is meant to be used to generate puzzles for high school language students in Spanish and Latin derivatives. I would appreciate any pointers to a free (hopefully) or shareware or commercial product. Jim Ennis University of Central Florida Computer Services PO BOX 25000 Orlando, FL 32816 BITNET: JIM@UCF1VM.BITNET ARPA: JIM%UCF1VM.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA CSNET: ENNIS@UCF-CS.CSNET ------------------------------ Date: Fri 1 Aug 86 00:16:27-EDT From: Joseph M. Newcomer Subject: Expansion Box: XT or AT Bus I'm in the market for expansion boxes for PC class machines. I need two PC or PC/XT compatible boxes and one PC/AT compatible box, although I can easily limit the /AT expansion to have only PC and PC/XT compatible cards with no serious loss. Any recommendations for good products or warnings about turkeys? Configuration 1: Expand PC with serial line card, Appletalk card Configuration 2: Expand XT with tape cartridge, second full-height hard disk. Configuration 3: Expand AT with 1/2 height 360K floppy, full-height hard disk, tape cartridge, multi-serial-I/O. ------------------------------ Date: Fri 1 Aug 86 00:22:55-EDT From: Joseph M. Newcomer Subject: Serial I/O expansion I need to add multiline asynchronous RS-232C serial I/O capability to an AT-class machine. Minimum of 4 lines, very desirable to have 8, on one card. Application will require special software be developed, so COMx compatibility is second-order effect (does not need to be same device, or have same register interface, etc.). *MUST* come with sample source code for initialization and use in interrupt driven and polled modes! I've spent too many hours in the Z80 world trying to figure out how to initialize one of those multiprotocol chips when all I wanted was 9600 baud async 8 data, no parity, 1 stop bit... Recommendations welcome! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 01 Aug 86 12:22:48 +0300 From: CHANA WOLF Subject: Accessing COM1 from Lattice C 3.00 I am trying to write a dumb terminal emulator in Lattice C and am having trouble accessing COM1. I don't have the Cfood Smorgasbord. I tried setting the communications parameters with pokes to ports (hex) 3fb and 3f8,3f9 (baud rate), and then accessing the input either as stdaux, as a file, and directly from the receiver buffer register. Nothing seems to work. Any suggestions? Chana Wolf Computation Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem chana@hbunos.BITNET [Why not use the numerous packages offered in the info-ibmpc free lending library! COM_PKG2.ASM is my favorite. -wab] ------------------------------ Date: Fri 01 Aug 1986 08:42:01 EDT From: Subject: PC-DOS V3.2 -- What are the problems??? Cc: djex@ll PC-DOS V.3.2 -- What are the real problems??? Recently we received some new PC/XT's with new keyboards and half height 360's. We are using the Tall tree Jram3's for the memory expansion card. Everything goes fine until we try to format a floppy disk. It appears to go through the format ok, but hangs up before it gives the # bytes message. Without the Tall tree board in, the format command works correctly. Anybody have a handle (or Patch) on this problem? I will be happy to do a summary of PC-DOS V3.2 problems and solutions, so please "send me your problems (and solutions)". Dan Enxing MIT Lincoln Laboratory (L-234) 244 Wood St. Lexington, MA. 02173 -or- AUTOVON 478-5980 (ask for ext. 4177) -or- (617) 863-5500 x4177 -or- djex@LL.ARPA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Aug 86 09:10:28 cdt From: moore@ncsc.ARPA (Moore) Subject: Bootable Disks A coworker recently came to me with AT&T MS DOS 2.11 floppy in hand and said that diskettes created with FORMAT B:/S aren't bootable, and it's true. I tried on her machine (PC computable Monarch) and my XT, and the dreaded non-system disk message comes up. I ran a COMPare against the original, bootable COMMAND.COM, IBMBIO.COM, and IBMDOS.COM files successfully. There must be something that /S or SYS do *besides* simply copying those files. Any clues? Jim Moore NCSC (904) 235-5158 (voice *and* data) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Aug 86 12:06:45 wst From: munnari!swanee.oz!edmund@seismo.CSS.GOV (Edmund Lai) To: munnari!info-ibmpc-request@usc-isib.ARPA Subject: IBM PC Professional Graphics Display and Controller We would be most grateful if someone can give us some details regarding the IBM Professional Graphics Display Controller for the PC. We bought the hardware together with the graphics development tool kit from a local IBM dealer in Perth, Western Australia and were told that we can address each individual pixel on its 640x480 screen for our image processing work. However, a few thousand dollars and a few months later NO ONE from the dealer or IBM Australia could provide us with the information on how to do it (sound familiar? |-) Someone from IBM Perth did mention about a book published by IBM which contains the technical details on the workings of the controller card. But he could not remember the title or order number. Does anybody know? Any information will be useful. Thanks in advance. Edmund Lai Dept. of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Western Australia. ARPA : edmund%swanee.oz@seismo.css.gov UUCP : ...!{seismo,mcvax,ucb-vision,uks}!munnari!swanee.oz!edmund ------------------------------ From: george@EDN-VAX.ARPA (George Sullivan) Date: 30 Jul 1986 1444-EDT (Wednesday) Subject: Micro Emacs 3.7 I seem to remember an announcement indicating that version 3.7 of microEmacs had been completed. If so where can I ftp it from? Any other news about it would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance. George Sullivan Defense Communications Engineering Center Reston, VA. ------------------------------ Subject: Epsilon EEL Language Question Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 20:52:46 -0700 From: Randy I have a question about programming in eel. To quote the rather scanty (should I say brief?) Epsilon manual: Quote: All loaded variables, commands, EEL subroutines, key tables, and keyboard macros have their definitions stored in the name table, which is internal to Epsilon....Entries can be retrieved by name or numeric index. Endquote. (p. 130) Does anyone know how to reference the name table? Say I have the numeric index (or the name) of a variable. How do I determine it's value? I want to do something like print the value of variable given it's index: bprintf("Variable's value is: %d\n", Name_Table[index]); How can this be done? Thanks, Randy Day. UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4}!uw-beaver!uw-june!randy ARPA: randy@washington CSNET: randy%washington@csnet-relay ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 1 Aug 86 23:20:34 edt From: Nathaniel Polish Subject: CMI Drives Does anyone have any experience with the newer CMI drives? In particular the 30 meg model 6640. BCE is advertising them in Computer Shopper real cheap and also they suggest that "quantity discounts available". The claim is that the 20 megs in the old ATs were bad but these are fine. They are hard to sell because of the bad name. Any thoughts? Anybody want to put together a bulk order, please send mail to me immediately. Also, these are for ATs with 39msec av access time. Nat Polish@cs.columbia.edu ------------------------------ Date: 27 Jul 1986 13:06-EDT Subject: How to Drive Multiple Graphics Screens from One AT? From: MHARRIS@A.BBN.COM I am still trying to find a way to drive several (different) graphics screens using a single AT. All the EGA & clone cards (e.g. Orchid) seen so far are hard wired to the same memory address, i.e. two of these cards will conflict. I'm talking to the higher-priced folks this week (e.g. Matrox, Number Nine), but I need to drive four screens -- and four of those cards cost a bunch. The right choice still feels like EGA/clone cards. Do you know a way to put their memories at different addresses? Or are you a manufacturer who can help? Or does anyone know a BETTER solution? Thanks. -- Michael Harris MHarris @ BBNA 617-497-3794 ------------------------------ Date: 28 Jul 1986 19:52:42 EDT Subject: PC-like Keyboard for AT Needed From: Norman Lyons I just purchased a PC-AT clone. It's a good machine, but I have one problem with it. The keyboard is very sensitive, it is easy to unintentionally generate strange strings of characters. This problem is even more acute for me because I suffer from Lou Gherig's Disease. My hands are too stiff to handle such a keyboard. I would like to continue to use my PC keyboard with the AT. The plug fits, but the units are incompatible. Does anybody know if it is possible to make them compatible by swapping chips around? If so, how? Are there any firms that do this? Beyond this, does anyone know of a keyboard like the PC keyboard that is compatible with the AT? Thanks in advance. Norman R. Lyons LYONSN@ISIA (Arpanet) Naval Postgraduate School 2872p@navpgs (Bitnet) Monterey, California ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 21:52 EDT From: "Roger C. King" Subject: IBM Logo Can someone give me a pointer on where to find Logo Computer Systems Inc., the originator of IBM Logo? Roger King ------------------------------ Date: Mon 28 Jul 86 17:07:46-EDT From: EDICK@TL-20B.ARPA Subject: Assembly Language Routines package To: info-ibmpc@B.ISI.EDU Does anyone know of any assembly language routines packages compatible with MS Fortran to allow interactive programming e.g. setting cursor location, clearing screen. Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Jul 86 12:41 EDT From: slade.wbst@Xerox.COM Subject: Large Screen Video Display I need to display the screen of a PC to a large audience in a classroom and/or lecture hall. Normal PC monitor would likely be connected to a MDA (monochrome) with Hercules graphics board. ( Also curious about CGA and EGA solutions). What alternatives are there and how readable, i.e. text, is the technique? Michael Slade arpanet: slade.wbst@xerox.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Jul 86 16:18:44 EDT From: George Keller (IBD) Subject: "direct.h" Needed for grep.c In order to compile grep.c with C86 in my machine, I need "direct.h." Where is it found? If small, could someone mail it to me at . Thanks. George Keller ------------------------------ End of Info-IBMPC Digest ************************ -------