CFOG's PIP, April 1986, Volume 4 No. 6, Whole No. 42, page 1
The delay in mailing the March PIP was caused by my disappearance for about two weeks for my hobby: some of you think computers are my hobby, but that's far from correct. I've been a member of the American Philatelic Society for 25 years, active in a couple of local stamp clubs -- one of which I organized, on and off the Board of the Combined Philatelic Exhibition of Chicagoland over the years, and most recently, for several years a member of the Oranizing Committee of Ameripex '86, the international stamp show held at the Rosemont ExpoCenter from May 22nd through June 1st. At 350,000 square feet, 11 days, and attendance over 150,000, Ameripex was no small potatoes. The March issue of PIP went to the printer before the show, but I couldn't get to it to get it mailed until after the show, so it went out on June 5th. I expect that this issue will go in the mail about June 20th.
Unison World, Inc., has an ad in Personal Computing for Print Master and Art Gallery 1, buth of which are available for CP/M. "Create your own greeting cards, signs, stationery, calendars, and banners", it says. Features of the CP/M version include 122 graphics and background patterns, 11 border designs, text editor, 8 type fonts with various sizes and effects, and ability to save your creations to print later. C. Itoh, Epson, Gemini, Okidata, Tandy, and Toshiba printers are supported. Not tried.
Some of this issue was printed on my Transtar 130 daisywheel printer in 15 pitch gothic mini, instead of the HP LaserJet. I wanted to list some new library files, and they came all in capital letters. The software I use for proportional spacing doesn't take well to all caps material. The "old" technology was easy to set up in dual columns and print a full page at one time.
I have promised a lot of issues of PIP this year -- enough so that by December you'll have the December issue, on time, without any combined or skipped issues in between. That means I need your help. I don't want PIP to be 75% material taken from other newsletters. To achieve my aim of having PIP be mostly original material from CFOG members, you have to write it. Now would be a good time to start. -- bhc
CFOG's PIP, April 1986, Volume 4 No. 6, Whole No. 42, page 2
by Benjamin H. Cohen
[This article is based on one written by Bill Mead and appearing in Cita Scans, published by a Vancouver, B.C. computer dealer. Mead says he got the information from the March Orange Bytes -- bhc]
Try this: Put a formatted, blank disk in drive B:. Put your WordStar disk in drive A:. From the CP/M A> prompt, enter WordStar <filename.ext> b:<cr>. Note the trailing "b:" on the command line.
When you add this command tail, you are telling WordStar to put the finished file on drive B:. The ".bak" file, however, will be on drive A:!
You can do the same from the no-edit menu. Log onto drive B: When WordStar asks for a filename, enter filename.ext a:<cr>. The file will be created on drive A:, with only the backup on drive B:.
Now, what I really want to do is to edit the file on drive B: and put the .bak file on drive A: Let's try this: Log onto drive A:, hit the "d", and enter newfile.ext<cr> b:. Create the file and save it, a couple of times at least. There it is, on drive B:, with the bak file on A:. Wonder of wonders.
It's when you want to edit an existing file that this technique seems to get a bit cloudy. For instance, I'm now logged onto drive A:, the file I'm editing is on drive A:. So after the "d", I entered oldfile.ext b:<cr>. Now there was no ".bak" file on either drive to start with. Let's hit ^KS and see what happens. I've got the file directory on, and oldfile.ext is right there before my eyes. ^KS^QP, and before my very eyes, there's no more oldfile.ext, but there is an oldfile.bak on drive A:! When I log onto drive B:, I find oldfile.ext has been moved over there!
Let's try this variant. Log onto drive B:. The file and a ".bak" file are on drive A: After the "d", enter a:oldfile.ext b:. Now, let's hit ^KS^QP and see what happens. Well, for starters, oldfile.ext is now on B:. Let's try it again. Hmmm! Now, oldfile.bak is on drive B:. One more time, ^KD. Well, now oldfile.ext is gone from drive A:, and the file and the ".bak" file are on drive B:.
CFOG's PIP, April 1986, Volume 4 No. 6, Whole No. 42, page 3
by Benjamin H. Cohen
The Good News:
An ad in the December 1985 Profiles magazine [published by Kaypro Corporation] offered 8-bit Kaypro owners an update to WordStar 3.3 for $79. I wrote to MicroPro on our user group letterhead asking whether the upgrade for Osborne users was still available, if not in Osborne format then could the Kaypro format version be used, and whether the version 3.31 that I have seen advertised is available for CP/M users on 5.25 inch media.
Well, at least I did get a response. Imagine my surprise to find in the CFOG post office box an envelope from MicroPro with a hand written return address, hand addressed! I guess they don't have computers!
The Bad News:
Enclosed in the envelope was a form letter from MircoPro addressed "Dear Kaypro owner". "Unfortunately," the letter says, "we have found problems in adapting our software to your Kaypro machine." The letter concluded that my order was being returned.
I wish I had better news, but it seems that MicroPro ain't interested. That seems to be the general status of the "real world" as far CP/M is concerned.
The Bad News:
Kaypro has eliminated all of its CP/M models except the 2X. The article reporting this InfoWorld reports the general view that the CP/M market is dead. Osborne is now being liquidated. Morrow has essentially dropped out of the CP/M computer business. Most CP/M users familiar with Kaypro, Morrow, or Osborne systems will consider the Commodore 128 disk drives too slow for business applications.
What's left? Find a used computer or go to a systems developer like Don Castella of Disks Plus in Prarie View and get him to make you an SB180 or Ampro Little Board system.
The Good News:
We recently learned about a new 8-bit system called the ON! computer, a full ZCPR3 system with 2 MB of RAM disk, apparently operated on a rechargeable battery and fully protected from any loss of data by power fluctuations or failures! It comes with an 800K floppy, NewWord, etc. We hope to have more on this shortly.
Exciting developments are coming with the development of ZCPRB3 from Echelon, Inc. This new replacement for CP/M will allow machines like the Executive and the SB180, which have banked memory, that is, more than one bank of 64K main memory, to run different programs in each bank of memory, jumping from one bank to another while different functions run in each bank. When you hit the "!" to recalculate a big SuperCalc spreadsheet you can jump to another bank to do a big global replace in a WordStar file, then jump to a third bank where your telecommunications program will have just finished downloading a long file from the CFOG RCPM. The functionality of CP/M computers will increase to the point where it will exceed by far that of MSDOS computers. Why? Because the limitation of 64K RAM, which in ZCPRB3 will mean several 62K working areas for programs (TPA, or transient program area), will mean tight fast running code, while MS-DOS will expand to megabytes of memory leading programmers to write behemoth programs that are slow to execute.
More Good News!
Another article in InfoWorld reported that Riva Software [3255 Broderick St., #17, San Francisco, CA 94123, (415) 382-1080] organized by some former employees of MicroPro, is offering copies of discontinued MicroPro software for CP/M-80 at discounts of 30 to 70%. I'm not so sure how good this news is -- They want $299 for WordStar, $69 for Mailmerge, don't mention upgrades at all, and don't provide a list of computers for which the programs are available, but only a note that "generic CP/M" is not available. Other MicroPro products are also available. If it's WordStar you want, call the folks at NewStar Software [(415) 932-2526] and order NewWord -- at $125 it's a bargain and outshines the old WS, too.
A Final Word:
In a few short years the users of MSDOS will be in essentially the same position CP/M users are today -- bypassed by a world that has moved on to newer toys they will be foundering in a backwater where there is little new software development going on, little new hardware development, and the damn things will still do just what they used to do, and quite satisfactorily. They may be even worse off -- there are a bunch of dedicated folk out there determined to make the 8-bitters go [and while they are correctly convinced that the 8088 is an 8-bit chip, that's one they are not interested in!].
CFOG's PIP, April 1986, Volume 4 No. 6, Whole No. 42, page 4
by Fred A. Metz
I'm a free lance translator, and I use my Televideo 802 all day, almost every day, much of the time as a word processor. However, as anyone else who does routine work on a computer, I have lots of routine input just to start up each session, to convert the WordStar codes in my completed jobs to codes which are intelligible to my agent's word processor before transmission to him, to back up files, to squeeze files for "archives", to catalog, and more. Lots of "housekeeping".
It took me about six months of learning my way around CP/M before it dawned on me that those mysterious Submit files were simply queues of the same kinds of commands that I was laboriously entering manually, day after day, and that I could use them. I promptly did so.
Then, after a short, unexpected course in assembly language (administered by Messrs. Waite and Lafore in their excellent beginner's book, The Soul of CP/M), I programmed the function keys on my own machine, and found that by making a key's "message" an instruction to execute a given Submit file, I could do all that work I used to manually enter by hitting just one (well, maybe a couple, if the Submit has parameters) key.
Now, that's really livin'!
But life isn't all a bowl of cherries, even when you got your function keys working Submit files. I found that I had to pay 2K of disk space for every one of those little Submit files on my double density drives. I didn't like it, but didn't know what to do about it.
After buying a copy of SmartKey, I became intrigued with its potential. I found that I could put a "submit string" on a "smart" key using Ward Christiansen's /.COM, and save Submit files. However, this program was written for a one-shot entry of a string of commands, so that you don't have to wait at the terminal for operation "A" to end before entering the command for operation "B", and so on, so that no provision was made to enter any variables for Submit parameters.
[/.COM takes a series of commands entered as parameters on the command line and executes them in the order entered. While it creates a $$$.SUB file to do this, so you do need 2k of disk space for it, this is a temporary file that disappears when the operation is over, so you only need 2k, not 2k for each tile used. -bhc]
Of course, I don't need SmartKey for a /.COM "submit string" - I could just enter the command string as a function key "message" and get the same effect - except that my Televideo has only 256 bytes in total reserved for my 22 function keys, each of which is limited to 64 bytes, minus one control byte for each key. Not much room for many long strings.
It doesn't make much sense to use your function keys in conjunction with SmartKey, if you have any alternate means of programming them, at least for SmartKey II. (I don't know about the original SmartKey.)
SmartKey II translates function keys and its "supershifted" keys identically, so that by defining a function key with SmartKey, you "use up" a potential "supershifted key". If you program your function keys with an alternate means, there's no such overlap, giving you that many more programmable keys
To solve the variable problem - somewhat - I made a "pseudo-submit string" by defining a "smart" key with a multipart definition, so that I could enter the variables as they were needed during execution of the string.
This solution gave rise to several new problems.
SmartKey can't define a variable occurring several times within the string as $n", and then enter the term to be filled in only once when executing the "pseudo-submit", as you can with a Submit file, because there's no Submit program to operating to plug the terms in at the right places. This means that the definition must provide for a break to enter each variable as it is used, and you must be present at the terminal while a "pseudo-submit" is executing and still needs to be provided with terms.
Moreover, if you use the "pseudo-submit" to call up your editor, you can't use SmartKey to make any definitions while using the editor, since SmartKey's "setup" key is dead while a definition is being executed (or if you enter the editor at a point in the multi-part definition where a variable is to be entered, tapping the "setup" key will cause the definition to continue its operation -- sometimes with quite undesirable results -- before you're ready).
Another problem with SmartKey is that some programs won't work with SmartKey present in memory, or won't work fully, or will only work under certain conditions.
SmartKey's publisher (Software Research Technology) says that SmartKey is not compatible with XSUB and DESPOOL, and furnish a replacement program for XSUB for use with SmartKey.
In my own experience, U.S. Robotic's Telpac communications program hangs when SmartKey is in memory, so that I need to turn SmartKey off before using my modem, and then turn it back on afterwards (this can be done with a "submit string" on a "smart" key, if you have no parameters or variables in the submit string).
Also, SmartKey doesn't like to have Write-Hand-Man (Poor Person Software) around. As long as it doesn't know WHM is there, there's no problem, but if SmartKey finds it out, it hangs up. If you want to use the two together, what you have to do is activate WHM after SmartKey is in memory, then turn WHM off before SmartKey is turned off (unless, of course, you just turn off your machine, or do a cold boot).
In spite of all of the problems raised above, there are times that it makes sense to use a "submit string" (a "smart" key invoking /.COM at the beginning of the definition) or a "pseudo-submit" (just a series of commands separated by carriage returns in a SmartKey definition) to save disk space.
COM files in a library can be called from both the "submit string" and the "pseudo-submit" using LRUN, just as you would in a Submit file.
There's another potential way to save considerable disk space with SmartKey if you do a lot of word processing. I used to use a bunch of little "format" files in my WordStar applications, because different of my jobs use different formats. At various times, I was using 10-20K of disk space, and after I'd read the format file into my newly opened work file, I'd frequently have to go back and fill in some information.
Since working with SmartKey, I've found its multi-part definitions ideal for this application. I find that I can enter my heading and margin "dot" commands and the "ruler" line applying to the format, and set tabs, margins, line spacing, justification and other WordStar specifications all with just one key.
SmartKey is a little slow sometimes in entering the "dot" commands, but not much slower than reading in a format file, and then moving about to fill in the variable information.
Following are some examples of the files and strings discussed earlier, in order to give a clearer picture of each of them.
1) SQ.SUB is an excellent candidate for a regular Submit file, because of the number of parameters it uses, and the length of time it takes to run. It saves files which will probably never be referred to again in squeezed format on an "archive" file.
SQ B:$1 B:$2 B:$3 B:$4 B:$5 B:$6
B:$7 B:$8 B:$9
ERA B:$1
ERA B:$2
ERA B:$3
ERA B:$4
ERA B:$5
ERA B:$6
ERA B:$7
ERA B:$8
ERA B:$9
PIPV B:=A:*.?Q?
ERA A:*.?Q?
As you can see, SQ.COM is on drive A, and the files to be squeezed on drive B. The squeezed version of each file is written to A as it is completed. After all of the files have been squeezed, their unsqueezed versions on B are erased. The squeezed versions are then copied back to drive B, and erased from A.
2) GO.SUB is a Submit file I use to start a word processing session.
l keys
l sk ws
b:
a:ws $1
a:
l if b:errwords.txt continue
era b:errwords.txt
l pip updict2.cmp=updict.cmp
[L - or l - is apparently a version of Lrun.com. -bhc]
GO.SUB loads my function key definitions (KEYS) and SmartKey (SK) from Command.lbr, along with an extensive definition file I use for WordStar and formatting, then switches to drive B (where all of my work files are), and loads WordStar. If I've entered a filename following WS (the 4th line of the Submit file), a work file is opened.
During the WordStar session, SmartKey is in memory and useable.
After the WordStar session, the Submit file returns to drive A. Using If.com [again, from Command.lbr], I look to see if my spelling checker found any errors; if so, I erase the error file Errwords.txt (which has already served its purpose) and back up my supplementary spelling check dictionary file Updict.cmp, in the event that I've added new words to it (if I haven't, I abort the Submit at this point with a ^C.
Here's how this same string of instructions would look (a) as a "string submit" and (b) as a "pseudo-submit". For this example, I've defined both of them on the "[" key.
Of course, the parameter which allow me to open a file in the Submit must be sacrificed, and in the "pseudo-submit", I've had to forego the IF test, too.
Both of these command strings may be keyed in as a single line, by extending the right margin out enough (240 maximum in WS 3.0), or may be on more than one line, as shown here.
a) <[> </ l keys;l sk ws;b:;a:ws;a:;l if b:errwords.txt continue;era b:errwords.txt;l pip updict2.cmp=updict.cmp[v]>
[To accurately enter these commands note that there's a space at the end of each line and the next line's text follows immediately. -bhc]
b) <[> <l keys^ml sk ws^mb:^ma:ws^ma:^mera b:errwords.txt^ml pip updict2.cmp=updict.cmp[v]^m>
The ^M in the SmartKey "pseudo-submit" is a carriage return.
3) Lastly, here are examples of WordStar "dot" commands (a) as they appear in a format file or in a document (I've shortened the "ruler line" so it will fit into PIP's column), and (b) the way it would appear defined on a "smart" key. (As the codes are all standard WordStar codes, I won't bother to explain them.)
(a)
.MT 8
.MB 5
.HM 1
.PO 10
.CW 10
.OP
.. p 2 PO =10; # = 76
.. -----!----------!------!-----------!----R
.HE Translation from
(b)
<[><^os1^m^ol1^m^or80^m
.mt 8^m.mb 5^m.hm1^m.po 10^m
.cw 10^m.op^m.. p 2 po =10; # = 76^m
^ona^m..^m---!--------!-----R
^qs^v..^p^m^v^of^os2^m^e
.he^I^I^ITranslation from>
<^m^m^m^qr^y^qc>
There are several guidelines to remember in building such a string:
CFOG's PIP, April 1986, Volume 4 No. 6, Whole No. 42, page 6
From time to time we mention FOG [First Osborne Group], which is not to be confused with CFOG [Chicago's First Osborne Group], or DEFOG [Detroit's etc.], or SMOG [Santa Monica ditto]. Some names have obviously been chosen for their effect: DOG [Denver], BOG [Boston], and my favorite, Lincoln Local Osborne Group or Lincoln LOG. Some have become less colorful than they used to be -- the Greatland Osborne Bunch from Alaska has changed its name so that it's no longer the GLOB.
For those who haven't the foggiest notion about what we're talking about when we get lost in the alphabet soup of FOG names, here's a short guide:
The "big", "international" Osborne users group is First Osborne Group, based in Daly City, California. That's called FOG. FOG publishes a monthly newsletter, too -- that's called the Foghorn. FOG has, we think, more than 11,000 members. We believe that it had more last year, but while the Foghorn says "Circulation 16,500" on the cover, we've been told that's the print run and the actual figure is lower. All the other OGs, OUGs, etc., are local groups, none of which has ever had as many as 600 members, so far as we know. With 11,000+ members and a monthly newsletter running 56 to 80 pages a month with lots of advertising, FOG has become a $400,000 a year organization, with a well paid full time Executive Director [Gale Rhoades], a paid office staff, and a paid technician.
FOG offers a special deal to members and groups that set up remote systems or RCPMs. FOG doesn't run them, though it does have one such system in its home office, but makes its public domain library available to the system operators of these systems, helps with the software, provides the Metal Message System, and helps pay the phone bill. The sysop has to provide the equipment and do the maintenance work.
FOG also offers a special deal to local user groups that "affiliate" with FOG. The local groups that pick up this connection with FOG are called Affiliated Member Organizations, or AMOs. From a local organization's point of view this is a good deal, as it means the local club get $6 from FOG for every member of the club that join's FOG, plus certain other benefits, and we have no obligations except that the President, Treasurer, and Disk Librarian have to be members of FOG. Since it gives a local group some benefits and costs it essentially nothing, many local groups have become AMOs of FOG.
The club which publishes this newsletter, PIP, is Chicago's First Osborne Group, or CFOG. It's an autonomous local club based in the Chicago area. We have about 300 members. Last year it was over 400. [The loss of membership seems universal -- Pasadena's "Osborne Komputer Owners' Klub", OKOK, has gone from over 200 to 93.] CFOG's newsletter runs generally 8 or 12 pages a month and has few ads. Its revenue for the year is obviously less than FOG's by a couple of orders of magnitude. We run two remote systems, both on equipment bought and paid for with our members dues. We have our own public domain library. CFOG has no paid executive director, no paid staff, no paid technician, and no office on which to pay rent, though last year we did establish a permanent mailing address by renting a post office box.
When we talk about CFOG, then, we're talking about this little local group, that holds meetings at Triton College and in the Loop. Dropping one letter and referring to FOG is something very different.
[Since this local group does get back $6 from FOG for every member of our group that joins FOG, we offer a special deal --the next year when you renew your local dues you will get a reduction of $6 on your local dues. A FOG membership application is in this issue. If you're not a member, consider joining.]
CFOG's PIP, April 1986, Volume 4 No. 6, Whole No. 42, page 7
by Benjamin H. Cohen
Presto! was reviewed in PIP's July-August-September-October 1985 issue (#36). In early 1986 a new version of Presto! was released by Spectre Technologies. A number of the objections of early users have been dealt with, but owners of Osborne Executives may be unimpressed.
The biggest problem faced by Spectre in selling Presto! was that it was a memory hog when used with the Osborne 1, Vixen, and Kaypro machines. Too many users found that the TPA penalty was so drastic that they couldn't use their favorite software with Presto!. The fix was to break Presto! up into parts and leave most of them on the disk.
Presto! now comes with a bunch of overlay files. Only Presto! itself and one overlay are in memory at one time. If you move to the Notepad the Notepad overlay is brought from the disk into memory. Read "delay". When you return to the Notepad again, there is no delay, of course, since the overlay is already or still in memory.
When you move from the Notepad to the Timepad, however, you'll have to wait while the Timepad overlay is loaded into memory. If you want to put the time and date into the Notepad, wait while the Notepad is loaded back into memory.
The combined Presto! version 2.0 and overlays take up more space, too. You can put Presto.com on Drive A: and the overlays on Drive B:, or any or all in a RAM disk, to alleviate the problem, but with the Osborne 183K DD disks, I've never looked for programs that take up more space!
With the changes, Presto! looks a lot better for Osborne 1, Vixen, and Kaypro users, since they can now get the features without losing so much TPA as to be totally crippled -- but Presto! is a little more largo and less presto than it used to be. Executive owners may want to ask for Version 1.0 since there don't seem to be any significant advantages for them with Version 2.0.