Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!princeton!phoenix!pguhatha From: pguhatha@phoenix.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.os.cpm Subject: zcpr3.3 Message-ID: <365@phoenix.PRINCETON.EDU> Date: Tue, 2-Jun-87 22:42:29 EDT Article-I.D.: phoenix.365 Posted: Tue Jun 2 22:42:29 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jun-87 01:44:02 EDT Organization: Princeton Univ. Computing and Information Technology Lines: 96 Keywords: zcpr ZCPR3.3 : some first comments Peter Teuben, June 2, 1987 This concerns ZCPR3.3, the latest update in the line of command processors for CP/M, and my first experiences. We have all watched ZCPR grow over the past years to a fairly grown up module of what we now call the Z-system. None of the original modules from Digital Research are still used, the CCP being replaced by ZCPR and BDOS replaced by ZRDOS (often we write our own BIOS's). ZRDOS can be only be obtained commercially (Echelon), but ZCPR(3.3) can in principle be obtained for free (although at Echelon you have to pay $4x, but I guess they will accompany my order with a nice installation manual). However, I was impatient, and got the 100k of initial startup sources from SIMTEL20. (That's for free, as most BBS's are, I presume) For me this kind of installation is just an evening of work, and very amusing to do so. I installed ZCPR3 last summer in just an evening, including all modifications to the BIOS (thanks to the excellent documentation by Richard Conn). Last september I witnessed a rough discussion between Richard Conn and Jay Sage, on their use of the appropriate assembler for the 'Z-Libraries', i.e. ZAS (Echelon) versus Z80ASM (SLR). I also listened to Richard Conn's story on his building of ZCPR33, on last years Trenton Computer Festival (april '86), and now it is there! To my great surprise the author of ZCPR3.3 turened out to be .... Jay Sage! What ever happened to Richard? (are you listening Richard?) Or his code. But, and this is now perhaps not a big suprise, I completely failed in installing ZCPR3.3 (I thought it was advertised as having an even easier installment as with V3.0, which I thought was already pretty simple), because all of my 'reliable' compilers failed: ASM, MAC, RMAC, M80, Z80MR. (ASM, MAC, RMAC couldn't help it, the new code is now written in Z80 opcode, which I can perhaps agree with; what will happen to the poor old 8080 users, or did they all die?) Apart from a few trivial problems (who EVER came up with the idea of replacing brackets (yes: ()'s) with square bracket's []????), the author used a compiler where one needs now at least an 8 character- length variable name detector. We all now that M80 exports only 6! I phoned SLR, the experts there told me that M80 V3.44 exports 6 yes (because of the .REL format), but can internally use 16 character lenght!! I tried mine (V3.4 from 1980!!), and even a little test, but no way. Does anyone know of that (newer) 3.44 version, and is it true what SLR told me. Other than that, M80 would probably have done the job (apart from two extra needed .PRINTX's and having MACLIB filenames in full and uppercase). Even compilers with 7 character length variable names will fail, as a quick glance over the code learned. The end of the story you can probably guess: I dialed into Jay's machine last nigh and found an order option for the SLR compiler (and Linker, but one could live without this one). After reading the description of the compiler, I'm really impressed. Like 5-10 faster than M80, and so many more possibilities. It will be quite an improvement for assembler programming, but I keep thinking of the funny stories I read in these rebuttals last september. I am looking forward to receiving my SLR compiler from Jay, (Btw Jay, I have a Kaypro 4, DS DD) and will perhaps let you netreaders know what happened. After all, ZCPR is really a fantastic piece of software, and moreover, allows YOU to write and modify part of the operating system (&utilities), which is not possible on many machines for a price like we pay for this Let me know what your experiences are, do all of you know have these fancy new compilers, like ZAS and Z80ASM? I am just old fashioned? Afer all, at some stage we have to make use of the Z80 itself. Of course if we extrapolate this, soon the Z80 users will find themselves deserted, because ZCPR4.0 will be written for Z280 or HD64810 only. Peter Teuben Institute for Advanced Study School of Natural Sciences Princeton, NJ 08540 TEUBEN@IASSNS.BITNET or pjt@astrovax.uucp (PS: I have no regular means of up/down loading to BBS's, in particular the Z-nodes. I would appreciate if someone could distribute this) ----