Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL!Info-IBMPC From: Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest Subject: Info-IBMPC Digest V7 #56 (Part 1) Message-ID: <8811271229.AA21564@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Date: 27 Nov 88 16:37:33 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: Info-IBMPC@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.mil Organization: The Internet Lines: 355 Approved: info-ibmpc@walker-emh.arpa Info-IBMPC Digest Sun, 27 Nov 88 Volume 7 : Issue 56 Today's Editor: Gregory Hicks - Chinhae Korea Today's Topics: Keeping up with whats new in MSDOS collection Index to SIMTEL20 Contacting TRICKLE in Europe Downloading ARCs with Kermit Downloading ARC files using 3270-plus and kermit Grammar Checker (2 msgs) Fast Hard Drives and AT Clones Relation grapher Problems with 3.3 directory Caching ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Nov 1988 23:10 MST From: Keith Petersen Subject: Keeping up with whats new in MSDOS collection In response to the query regarding descriptions for the files at WSMR- Simtel20, the following should provide the requested information: A list of all files in the archives is contained in directory PD1: as follows: NODESCR.IDX.2 contains a listing of those files that do not have a discrip- tion. SIMIBM.HDR.2 contains a PC-File+ database header SIMIBM.IDX.7 contains a listing of all files that have a one line descrip- tion. SIMIBM.IDX was automatically created by taking the latest FILES.IDX (updated daily) and comparing it against a combined list of current files on several BBS systems. Also available: FILDEF.C is a program for comparing a previous copy of PD1:FILES.IDX with a new copy. It displays files added and deleted since you got an older index. This is useful if you are trying to maintain an archive in sync with SIMTEL20. It can generate output scripts for batch FTP processing. SIMIBM.ARC contains the latest SIMIBM.HDR and SIMIBM.IDX. PD1:SIMIBM.ARC is updated at approximately one month inter- vals (more frequently, time permitting). PD1:FILES.IDX, however, is updated on a daily basis (sometimes several times a day when a lot of new files are uploaded). This file is a comma-delimited file, suitable for importing into PC-File+ or DBase III. It's impossible to make a daily updated list with descriptions with the quantity of new programs available. It's hard enough to keep up with a monthly update with the terrible network response we've been having lately. --Keith [This listing is now contained in the 'Welcome to Info-IBMPC' message that new subscribers receive.] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Nov 88 10:05 CET From: Ulf Emanuelson Subject: Index to SIMTEL20 Dear net-landers| I'd like to know if there really is an index to the files at SIMTEL20. [YES, there REALLY is an index to the files at Simtel20... See the previ- ous message.] I've received information that there is such an index and it should be in PD1:MSDOS.CRCLST (according to one source) or in FILES.IDX in the same directory [It is...] (according to another source). I have tried to PDGET both files, but I have only got the answer that the file is not found. Any information would be appreciated| Thanks in advance, Ulf Emanuelson Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences [There are two messages regarding TRICKLE in Europe in this Digest... gph] ------------------------------ Date: WED, 23 NOV 88 10:47:00 MEZ From: Raymond Koluvek Subject: Contacting TRICKLE in Europe A few issues ago European users were requested to use either TRICKLE@TREARN or TRICKLE@DKTC11. I have tried this without success using the commands PDDIR and PDGET. These have worked fine with LISTSERV@RPICICGE. Although I received friendly advice from the sysop in Turkey, his suggestions did not work when sent to the server since I was advised that the nearest server was that in Denmark. Despite several attempts to communicate with TRICKLE@DKTC11 I have received no replies, even to requests for help. Has anyone succeeded in tapping these sources? I would appreciate any ad- vice. To contact a TRICKLE in Europe you need: /help The European locations are: In Denmark: TRICKLE@DKTC11 In Turkey: TRICKLE@TREARN In Italy: TRICKLE@IMIPOLI In Belgium: TRICKLE@BANUFS11 In Austria: TRICKLE@AWIWUW11 In Germany: TRICKLE@DB0FUB11 Regards Ray ------------------------------ Date: 21 Nov 88 22:17 -0100 From: Michal Jankowski Subject: Downloading ARCs with Kermit >from: Jans Andries > I'm a new user of EARN and have been trying to get some files from > TRICKLE@TREARN. I get these files in a VAX VMS node and use KERMIT to > send this files (.ARC) to a PC. Here, I attempt to extract the files from > the archive with the program PKXARC but I can't. In some cases the > program outputs NO FILES FOUND, and in other cases, the name of the first > file that it attempts to extract is garbage. There are two possible causes to your problem: 1. Your .ARCs are being converted to EBCDIC somewhere, or mistakenly con- verted FROM EBCDIC even when they are binary. 2. Your Kermit-32 is thinking that it is a text file and is adding CR/LF pairs between records. You can distinguish between 1. and 2. by looking at the beginnig of .ARC file on the VAX (use DUMP) - if it has readable name of the first archived file in bytes 3-13, then it is 2., otherwise 1. If 1, then try some options of RECEIVE (which I suppose you use to receive files). I believe the option is /[NO]TRANSLATE or something similar. If 2, then try 'SET FILE TYPE BINARY' on Kermit-32 side, or if it doesn't help convert your file to another with proper VMS file attributes using VMS utility program. >From: Christoph H. Hochstaetter > I had the same problems with Kermit as you have. This is because Kermit > does an automatic EBCDIC to ASCII Conversion to all files. You can set ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > your host Kermit to Binary Files, but not MS-Kermit. Christoph: No, the MS-Kermit (or any other Kermit I know of) DOES NOT do any conver- sion, it knows nothing of EBCDIC. The reason for the lack of 'SET FILE TYPE BINARY' command in MS-Kermit is that it is not necessary - in MS-DOS files are stored as-is with no conversion at all. The job of converting VMS text records to the MS-DOS format of CR/LF delimited lines is done en- tirely on the VMS side. Of course, it is always possible to Kermit UUencoded files, but it is slower, so what I do is exactly the reverse: my host cannot receive binary files, but only UUencoded mail, which I UUdecode (on the VAX VMS side) and Kermit to my PC as .ARC (for this speedup to be effective, you have to use full 8 bit link). ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Nov 88 13:42:09 CST From: david@wubios.WUstl.EDU (David J. Camp) Subject: Downloading ARC files using 3270-plus and kermit I have a couple of corrections to the note posted by Christopher Hochstaetter regarding the downloading of binary files. 1) You can download files using PC-Kermit. The reason PC-Kermit does not have a binary mode is because it would be the same as the text mode. I.E. The Kermit encoding for text is the same as the MS-Dos encoding for text. You can think of MS-Kermit as always being in binary mode. One dis- advantage is the ^Z at the end of some MS-Dos text files is transmitted, resulting in an odd result on non-MS-Dos systems. 2) ARCUTIL has a bug when trying to uuencode binary files. It re- quires that the input file have fixed-length records, and provides a utility to convert variable length record files to fixed length record files. The problem is that this utility pads the last record with garbage. This garbage is included when you UUENCODE, and the resulting file that you get after you download and uudecode has the garbage in it. This is not al- ways a problem, but often is. 3) I have adapted Phil Howard's XXENCODE to work on MS-Dos, VM/CMS, and the original Unix. It is not fully debugged on the CMS xxdecoding part, but I will provide source on request. This program uses a method similiar to UUEN/DECODE, but with the character set [0-9A-Za-z+\-] so that you needn't worry about conversion across gateways (.BITNET etc). Send re- quests to the following address: BITNET: ; Internet: ; or via mail... -David- *-------------------------------------------------------------------------* | (314) 362-3635 Mr. David J. Camp | | Room 1108D ^ Box 8067, Biostatistics | | 706 South Euclid < * > Washington University Medical School | | v 660 South Euclid | | Bitnet: david@wubios.wustl Saint Louis, MO 63110 | | Internet: david%wubios@wucs1.wustl.edu uucp: uunet!wucs1!wubios!david | *-------------------------------------------------------------------------* ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Nov 88 14:33:31 -0500 From: Glenn Larsen Subject: Grammar Checker I've used Grammatic III for the last book I wrote and have found it ex- tremely helpful. I use it with WordPerfect 5.0 regularly. One word of caution. Don't change font or type styles until you've finished using the grammer checker as font changes seem to cause Grammatic III to hang up every couple of pages. Save formating and font changes for your last edit. Grammatic III lets you edit the WordPerfect document directly, while you're checking the document. Most other programs merely print the errors or place a little mark to flag them. You can't edit them while checking. ------------------------------ Date: 23 Nov 88 04:03:35 GMT From: dmocsny@uceng.uc.edu (daniel mocsny) Subject: Grammar Checker Get Rightwriter. I swear by it, but I don't need it as much now that I have changed my writing style to eliminate its complaints I agree with. Still good for a check, though. How about a UN*X port now... Be sure to get John Brogan's _Clear Technical Writing_, McGraw-Hill 1973. It will help you understand how to fix the things RightWriter gripes about. It will also show that RightWriter does not go nearly far enough. I wish every technical author that I have to read had mastered these two essential tools. Dan Mocsny dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Nov 88 14:09:22 pst From: Danny Low Subject: Grammar Checking Software >From: Donalee Flaningam <3RLRB2U%CMUVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> >I think I am interested in getting a grammar checking package. I know of >two that are available: Right Writer and Grammatica 3. Has anyone used >these packages? I have used both Right Writer and Grammatica 3. Right Writer is a style checker not a grammar checker. It looks for passive voice, complex sen- tences, cliche phrases etc. but does very little actual grammar checking (e.g. verb and subject matching.) Grammatica 3 does style checking and ac- tually checks for grammatical errors as well. Grammatica 3 fails quite often. For complex sentence structures it often cannot determine when a word is being used as a verb or a noun. However, most failures are one of caution. You get an error notice even though the sentence seems to be okay. About 90 to 95 percent of the errors I get are not real errors. Looking at just the grammatical errors and ignoring the style errors, I estimate that about one third of the errors are real but Grammatica 3 catches less than half of the grammar errors. Right Writer produces a marked up copy of your file. Grammatica 3 allows you to edit while it checks your file. Grammatica 3 supports more word processor formats than does Right Writer. In summary, although Grammatica 3 is definitely better than Right Writer, it is just marginally better than nothing at all. Unfortunately, Gram- matica 3 is also the state of the art right now on a PC. Danny Low dlow@hpccc.hp.com or ucbvax!hplabs!hpccc!dlow ------------------------------ Date: 23 Nov 88 10:43:49 PST (Wednesday) From: "George_C._Burkitt.ElSegundo"@Xerox.COM Subject: Fast Hard Drives and AT Clones >From: Dave Swindell The through - put of short access time vs high data rate drives depends on the type of access your applications make. If there are a lot of short reads, access time is the important parameter. If there are mostly long files, data rate becomes more important. If there is usually a mix of short and long files to read, my guess is that access time would be the choice. Most folks who use the RLL drives (that I know about) get their main gain from the 50% increase in drive capacity. [Well ... I used ILEAVE15.ARC (available from Simtel20 in directory PD1:) and actually increased the effective throughput of the drive. The program determined that the optimum interleave for my Tandon drive was 3 (I had it at 5) and then performed an in-place low level re- format of the drive. Another program from another source confirmed that the throughput actually had increased. --gph] ------------------------------ Date: 23 Nov 88 11:01:16 PST (Wednesday) From: "George_C._Burkitt.ElSegundo"@Xerox.COM Subject: Relation grapher >From: Mitch%UMASS.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU There is a program called Function Plot from SoftSmith and The Software Guild which reads Basic expressions and plots them in black and white. Softsmith's address is (or was) 2935 Whipple Road, Union City, CA 94587. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Nov 88 12:31:07 EST From: munnari!necisa.oz.au!chris@uunet.UU.NET Subject: Problems with 3.3 directory Caching I believe the problem is due to the lack of a disk change signal from the drive that indicates that the door has been opened. This may be due to either the drive type or the controller. I have tested this on my machines (NEC APCIV's) and it occurs when an olivetti 360k drive is used as I have to cover connector 34 (disk change signal) Regards, Chris Martin ------------------------------ ************************ End of Info-IBMPC Digest -------