CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 1
It's been a very busy month for CFOG. At the July 10th Board meeting we reviewed several suggestions for future planning that have been offered by members. Here are a few of the highlights:
I am excited about the future of CFOG. In April, when I took office as President of CFOG, we were down to 276 members from 417 at year end 1985. Several observers predicted that CFOG's membership would continue to drop, and that CFOG would eventually be forced out of existence as has been the case with many other CP/M based user groups. Because of the excellent administration of our finances by past Boards, the strong team spirit of our current Board of Directors, and the hard work of several volunteers (not the least of which is our Editor) we have been able to pursue some very ambitious goals. We currently have over 300 members, a figure that is now increasing every month.
Our current plan to develop our library is projected to take two years to reach completion. We will desperately need your help in evaluating programs and documentation during this period, and beyond as new programs are added. We will need both CP/M users and MS-DOS users to participate. I think you'll agree that the end result will be well worth the effort. Imagine being able to dial into a single source for every program you may ever need, and having access to technical help from users around the country who also use our systems. This is only the beginning. Our newsletter and meetings will also improve as a pleasant side effect of increasing our numbers.
For those of you who are skeptical, let me assure you that the funds used for our hardware upgrades are entirely from surplus funds in our bank account. Our operating budget does not rely on these funds, nor will these expenditures raise our expenses beyond the point that our current membership renewals can support. I think we all owe a deep debt of gratitude to the past officers who have given us such an opportunity to grow.
Bill Kuykendall
President, CFOG
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 2
The August 19 CFOG Board meeting featured formal approval of the purchase of $4800 of hardware from WestWind Computer, bringing the two CFOG RCPMs to 142 and 140 MB, two of the largest systems in North America. An Osborne Executive is included. <Two well used O-1s will be for sale when the new systems are installed. Inquire of President Bill Kuykendall if you're interested in buying one.> The package also includes an 11 MB hard disk for the disk librarian, to make that job a bit more manageable.
The next CFOG board meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 7, 1986, at 7 p.m. at the law offices of Schwartzberg, Barnett & Cohen, Suite 2400, 55 West Monroe. Please leave a message on the answering machine at 726-3569 if you intend to come.
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 3
by Benjamin H. Cohen
V-Spell is a new spelling checker for both CP/M and MS-DOS computers. Selling for $79.95, it undercuts much of the market. I reviewed the CP/M version running on an Osborne 1. For purposes of comparison tests I ran everything on floppy disks.
One of the first things noticeable about V-Spell is the size of its dictionary and program. With 5 chaining overlays V-Spell itself runs 62K bytes. The dictionary is 153K bytes. On my double density Osborne 1 I had to put the program files on Drive A and the dictionary on Drive B. That meant that to check the spelling on a file I had to copy it to the V-Spell program disk, run the spelling checker, and then copy the file back to another disk. You'll obviously want double-sided, quad density, a big RAM disk, or a hard disk to run this one.
The size of V-Spell creates a few problems for those with reduced TPAs. <TPA, or Transient Program Area, is the amount of random access memory that is left to run programs in after the system overhead and any other RAM resident programs are loaded. A nominal 64K CP/M system usually has between 56K and 60K TPA.> When I run my Drive C: RAM disk and SmartKey with a moderate size definition file, V-Spell will check files but won't revise them. Switching to XtraKey, as I often do, makes enough room. SmartKey and the definition file alone are okay. If you're running a RAM disk, hard disk, print spooler, key redefinition program, etc., you may find that something has to be dumped to run V-Spell.
For comparisons, here are the sizes of some other popular spelling checkers that I have in hand:
Program Name .Com Files Dictionary Files Spell 16 30 The Word Plus 47 103 Spell-M 6 56
<Spell is the $49.95 spelling checker from Software Toolworks, Spell-M is the public domain program. The Word Plus is a leading spelling checker.> Those with single-sided double density drives can put Spell or Spell-M on the disk with WordStar or possibly even NewWord; The Word Plus demands its own disk; V-Spell demands two disks forcing you to put the file to be checked on the program disk.
I ran a few tests on a file about 1430 words long. First I loaded the program by giving the command and entering the file name when asked. I timed the program's time to check the spelling in the file. Spell took 34.6 seconds; The Word Plus took 48.4 seconds; V-Spell took 72.8 seconds.
The public domain Spell-M took 60.5 seconds, but that's not directly comparable because it works differently -- it requires the filename on the command line and automatically marks each nonmatched word, writing the text to a new file and making the old file a backup file. Each of the other programs goes through a review process before writing a new file. The lesson seems to be that the bigger the dictionary, the longer it takes to check the file. If that leads to fewer 'false hits' <reports of mismatches that are actually correctly spelled words> that's good.
Then I compared the number of 'hits', or words found by the program that weren't in the dictionary. Spell found 13, V-Spell found 20, The Word Plus found 29, Spell-M found 30. There wasn't a single misspelled word in the file, so this was a test of the dictionary's completeness.
Actually, that's only partly true. The Word Plus and V-Spell work on the principal that a word is a mismatch if the exact word does not appear in the dictionary. Spell uses a 'hashing' technicque with rules about how prefixes and suffixes are added to roots. Thus if 'bunch' appears in the dictionary but 'bunches' doesn't, The Word Plus and V-Spell will generate a mismatch, but Spell won't. The authors of Spell figure that you'll get 2.2 missed errors per 1000 errors because of the hashing technique. On the other hand, you'll save huge amounts of time because the system allows use of a much smaller dictionary which greatly speeds up the time required to complete a spelling check. As we move away from floppy disk systems toward hard disks and ultimately power-protected RAM disks, this becomes less true.
The list of mis-matches explains just what the Spell authors are talking about. There was a common list of words that all three programs caught, mostly proper nouns or acronyms, including such terms as MailMerge, Triton <College>, and SuperCalc. V-Spell came up with some more words, bunches, copyrighted, transacted, unerase, and WordStar. The Word Plus came up with all of these plus a whole bunch more: copiers, debugging, discourages, diskettes, disks, Osborne, peripherals, pirating, renewals, stalwarts. The extra time spent with V-Spell to go through it's larger dictionary did generate fewer 'false hits', but still more than Spell's hashing technique.
V-Spell and The Word Plus both allow you to correct your text without returning to your word processing program. The Word Plus proceeds directly from the checking to the mark and fix procedure. V-Spell returns you to a menu from which you must hit two keys to move to the correcting function. V-Spell always saves the context of the mis-match and shows you from 5 to 20 lines of text <you select with the Settings command from the main menu>, and marks the mis-matched word. The marking is in broken brackets <>, but you can change that to reverse video if your terminal can do that and you tell V-Spell how to do it.
A selection of terminals is listed in the manual, but not the Osborne 1 or Executive. If you know enough to enter the codes to turn highlighting on and off, you can enter them. Even if you're not so technically minded, you can make the mis-matched word stand out by entering a string of characters to surround the word in such a way that it makes the target word readily noticeable on the screen. Choose the settings option to select reverse video, and simply enter from the screen the characters you want on the left side of the mis-matched word in response to the first prompt and the characters you want on the right hand side of the word in response to the second prompt. I found that putting the word between "arrows" like this ----->test<----- is very effective for this purpose. V-Spell uses the same markers or reverse video to highlight the current menu option, as well.
When you've chosen V-Spell's revise option, you'll be shown the first mismatched word in the file, in context, and asked what you want to do with it. You're told how many times this mismatched word appears in the file, too. Depending on your settings, you can choose to make the same correction globally or not, or have V-Spell automatically select global correction. If you do choose the global correction option, V-Spell doesn't bother you with the word again. I haven't thought of a situation in which I wouldn't want the correction to be global, but if there is one, this is an option that The Word Plus doesn't offer.
One of my pet peeves with The Word Plus is that it forces you to tell it you want to "discard" a word that is correctly spelled but not found in the dictionary. V-Spell uses the more appropriate term "ignore".
You choose your option either by moving among the menu prompts by hitting the space bar or by entering the first letter of the prompt you want to execute. In either case, you then hit the <cr>. You can correct the word or ignore it, add it to the dictionary <especially useful for names and technical terms that will be encountered frequently>, mark it for later correction with your word processor, or look up the correct spelling in the dictionary. The last is a boon to slow or error prone typists and bad spellers, since once V-Spell displays its numbered list of possible correct spellings you can simply enter the number of the correct spelling, hit the <cr>, and it's done.
V-Spell allows you to decide whether you want a plethora of prompts in the revise section. You may decide not to disable these prompts if you find that you make a lot of mistakes in correcting the mismatches. V-Spell, unlike The Word Plus, doesn't allow you to go backwards and then resume, nor even, like Spell, to simply start again from the beginning. You can hit ^C to abort, but that means reloading the progam, file, etc.
For the most part, V-Spell seems to be an improvement on The Word Plus, with a bigger dictionary and fewer false hits and more choices in the settings section. Whether you like this style of spelling checker, rather than the lean fast Spell, which simply presents a list of mismatches for you to ignore, add to the dictionary, add the root to the dictionary, or mark in the text to later correct with your word processor, depends in part on whether you're a good speller and a fast and accurate typist. If you are, you might want to save the time to run and the time to tell the program to ignore the false hits that makes Spell a big hit with some people.
If, on the other hand, you are a lousy speller and/or a lousy typist, you might welcome the opportunity to look up words in V-Spell's dictionary to get the correct spelling of a word, or the ease of correcting that comes in V-Spell. Except for the inability to move backwards in the list of mismatches, it seems a much better program than The Word Plus.
V-Spell comes from CompuView Products, Inc., 1955 Pauline Boulevard, Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI 48103, (313) 996-1299. VISA and Mastercard accepted. Shipping extra.
V-Spell comes complete with obnoxious license terms, including a restriction on transfer. That means that if you agree to the license you cannot transfer V-Spell to the purchaser of your computer when you sell it. On the other hand, the packaging doesn't comply with the Illinois Software Licensing Enforcement Act <the so-called "Shrink Wrap Bill"> so it's doubtful whether the license restrictions can be enforced.
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 4
One of the things we have always done around CFOG is to help those who need a hand. We try to maintain a list of those who will accept telephone calls from people in need. We'd like to expand the list of helpers, adding at the same time a bit of extra information to the list to make the system work a little bit better for all. So, if you can help people with problems with WordStar, SuperCalc, CP/M, printers, MBASIC, Turbo Pascal, Bascom, dBase II, or whatever, please drop a note to CFOG Helpers, Box 1678, Chicago, IL 60690, telling us what area you can help in and the telephone numbers where you can be reached and hours during which you will accept calls. Helpers can restrict the amount of help they will give over the phone for free, and you need not be bashful about telling a caller that the problem will take more time than you can devote. It would be nice to have a bigger list of helpers for our new member disk and to publish regularly in PIP.
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 5
Sunday, September 28 --> Modems!
The Sunday September 28 meeting will be devoted to modems, communications software, and RCPM access. We'll have the CFOG #2 RCPM set up and running at Triton College where you'll not only be able to see how access to the system is gained by a telephone call, but to actually witness what is happening at the 'remote' end. We hope to be able to allow as many members as possible to have a short session calling the RCPM, signing on, reading and leaving messages, etc.
Members will be able to obtain specially set up disks with modem software for various systems. Those with special needs will be assisted at the 'custom setup table' where we'll be assembling and overlaying communications software for as many different systems as we possibly can.
For this special occasion, try to bring your computer to help with disk copying.
Tuesday, September 16 -- The Downtown 'SIG'
A SIG or 'special interest group' is normally a gathering of some members of a computer user group who have a special interest in some aspect of computing, perhaps an application <a WordStar SIG>, perhaps an operating system <SIG/M, the Special Interest Group/Microcomputing, of the Amateur Computer Society of New Jersey>, etc. In CFOG we have the 'Downtown SIG', whose 'special interest' lies in meeting downtown.
For those who find that more convenient than the Sunday afternoon meetings at Triton College, the Downtown SIG meets at the offices of Schwartzberg, Barnett & Cohen, attorneys, 55 West Monroe Street <corner of Dearborn> Suite 2400, on the third Tuesday of each month from September through June. The next meeting will be on September 16, at 6 p. m. Pizza from Edwardo's is served <$6.50> for those who are hungry. The meeting usually lasts until about 9:30 or so. Even if you're not eating, come as early as is convenient, for this meeting doesn't normally have a program as such and the conversation starts as soon after 6:00 as people start arriving. Bring your questions!
October 26 --> SuperMit!
If you haven't yet started using batch files, here's something that should get you excited about the possibilities of saving time and effort -- SuperMit, extended facilities for Submit. If the July meeting program got you started, here's a way to extend your uses. Roy Lipscomb, the author of SuperMit, will be our special guest. SuperMit is a series of public domain programs, though Roy has chosen to sell the full manual, so you'll be able to get a 'free' copy of the programs by bringing a disk to the meeting for copying.
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 6
A local firm is starting the service of refilling toner cartridges for the Hewlett Packard LaserJet printer. The cartridges, good for about 3000 copies, cost about $70.00 at Elek-Tek. If refilling them proves to be feasible and the price is about $40, it could be a considerable savings to users. We're testing our first one right now. The toner seems to give a slightly less dark image than we've been used to, but a bit sharper, less blurring of the edges of the characters. There's variance in the toner from cartridge to cartridge, in part because HP specifications allow it. Within that range, HP won't listen if you squawk.
We're told you can refill up to three times. There is a limit, for you are using the mechanical heart of the copier and the 'drum' over again. When you get a new cartridge you are replacing the parts of the printer most prone to wear out.
Save your old toner cartridges. Because of their sensitivity to light and for shipping ease, do save the original packaging. The cleaner strip that comes with each new cartridge is also refurbished, so save the old ones and send them in with the cartridge. To get cartridges refilled, call Pat Hansen at Mark XX Business Supplies in Joliet, 312-472-8522 or 815-723-1551.
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 7
by Mike Andrews
Since Osborne Computer Corporation (both the new and the old corporation) has gone there are a few firms selling the remnants. I recently came across some great deals on the old Osborne Approved Software.
J&D Associates has BASCOM, the MicroSoft BASIC compiler for $29.95. BASCOM takes any compiles any MBASIC ".bas" file into a regular CP/M .COM program. MBASIC is not required to run the compiled COM programs. The compiled programs run faster than .BAS programs with the MBASIC interpreter. BASCOM includes MicroSoft's macro assembler and linker programs, M80 and L80. BASCOM was originally $300.00! J&D has MicroSoft's FORTRAN, also including M80 and L80, for $24.95. J & D Associates, 546 Green Lane Union, New Jersey, 07208 (201) 351-6860.
The Public Domain Software Company (P.D.S.C.) has a lot of the old Osborne software, too. For $17.00 each (or 8 for $95.00) they have: Deadline, a murder adventure game; ZORK-1, an adventure game; Starcross, a "Galaxy game"; Documate plus, index and table of contents programs for WordStar documents; Enumerator, which numbers the lines of WordStar documents (great for lawyers); Footnote, and Math, which allows simple math calculations to be done inside WordStar documents.
For $28.00 each (or 4 for $95.00) P.D.S.C. has : StartPAC, the audio cassette and flipcard tutorial program for CP/M, BASIC, SuperCalc, and WordStar; SuperCalc; MBASIC; Forth ver 2.0; MicroLink, a communications program; dBase Tutor; the Osborne 1 disk diagnostic program; Disk Doctor, a diskette repair utility; Milestone, a project manager program; Mailman, a mailing list database manager program for use with MailMerge; Spellguard, a spelling checker program. For the same price ($28.00) P.D.S.C. also sells MicroSoft Fortran with M80 and L80; and MicroSoft Bascom with M80 and L80, but without the manual.
For $39.00 each (or 3 for $95) they have: BSTAM, a command-line file transfer program; SuperSort; Personal Datebook, an appointment scheduler program; DataStar, the MicroPro database program; Real Estate Manager; SuperCalc; MBASIC; and WordPAC, the writers program package which includes Grammatick, Spellguard, Documate plus, and Footnote.
The rest of the P.D.S.C. offering isn't as great a deal, in my opinion, unless you need to get new software licenses for another computer. For $95.00 each P.D.S.C. has: the Osborne 1 bundled software package including MBASIC, WordStar, SuperCalc, and manual; plus Personal Pearl, a menu driven database program. For $175.00 each P.D.S.C has: the dBase II <Note: probably the old version 2.3b> with the ZIP screen layout program; and the Osborne Executive bundled software package which includes CBASIC, MBASIC, CP/M 3.0, WordStar, SuperCalc and Personal Pearl. Public Domain Software Company Suite L 333 Gold Street New York, NY 10038 (212) 732-2565
For more information about these programs look at back issues of The Portable Companion or Foghorn -- inquire at CFOG meetings of some old Ozzie veterans, or order back issues of Foghorn from FOG. Most of the Osborne software will run on any CP/M or CP/M compatible system. Exceptions include SuperCalc versions 1.12 and higher, which use memory mapped video, thus specific to one computer system. Even if you don't have an Osborne computer, most of the prices are right if you can read or transfer from Osborne format disks, but you might want return privileges in case they won't run.
[Some of these programs are available at 48 State Computer, 8888 West Dempster, Niles, which has some Osborne and other CP/M software as well as many other computer items. Compare prices before you buy.]
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 8
Copyright 1986 James Ayres. All Rights Reserved.
When computer systems first gained widespread acceptance in the business world, two very important procedures became almost universal practices. First, the inevitable practice of destroying one's data and second, the wise practice of making regular backups for use after completeing the first procedure. Until recently, the chant heard throughout the user community has been "Backup, backup, backup".
Every user has his or her favorite story about someone they know (we all know what that phrase means) who:
a) Left their diskette in the sun, b) Formatted a diskette or hard disk, c) Allow a magnet to have its way with an unsuspecting diskette, or d) Lost their data to sun spots.
For example, a cousin of my wife's mother-in-law's brother's son once formatted a diskette that contained the only back up copy of the machine's operating system.
Most users of CP/M machines would not consider running their machine in a business environment without making, on a regular basis, backup copies of their data and program files. This article is not directed to them. However, they may continue reading and bask in a warm glow of self-satisfaction.
In the MSDOS world, there is a strange practice called copy protection. For those of you who don't know what copy protection is, copy protection is a practice whereby some software vendor, deciding that a significant portion of its customers are criminals, does some completely unorthodox programming and provides the user with a program that either secretly modifies the hardware or the operating system.
Copy protection has provided many programmers hours of entertainment. First, we have the group of programmers who spend many hours devising copy protection schemes. They are entertained by the fact that someone is paying them to do this because we have a second group of programmers (most likely men and women made of the same stock as those who founded this country and settled the West), who, living for the opportunity to challenge the unknown, spend a few hours developing ways to unprotect copy protected software.
For a point of clarity, it is this author's opinion that unprotected software is the best protection against a disaster (but by now I think you knew that).
Some early copy protection schemes used unorthodox techniques. For example, I am told that some early schemes used that fact that a floppy disk controller would write to track 41 of a 40 track diskette and used that fact to write copy "protection" information there. This apparently didn't work too well when subsequcnt upgrade to the operating system fixed this bug. (Come on, using a bug in the operating system as a required part of your program!)
The most recent attempt at copy protection on hard disk machines involves writing invisible files on the hard disk. Because these files are invisiblc, they cannot be backed up. Even if one made them visible and made backups, these files must also reside in the same physical location on the hard disk as when they were first "installed".
Which brings me to the point of this article -- if you seriously intend to use a program to automate a significant part of your livelihood (like accounting, data base management, etc.), and you cannot be with out the use of that information for an extended period of time, then you cannot afford to use copy protected software. If you can't make backups and restore your lost files (and we all know "someone" who has done this), then you should not be using copy protected software. Using copy protected software is about as rational a business practice as keeping your accounts receivables on flash paper next to the furnace.
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 9
by Benjamin H. Cohen
Some time ago I acquired a used Executive. Since the use of a Drive C: on my O-1 has spoiled me forever for floppy disk machines, I thought I might get one for the Exec. In the meantime, however, the INOVA 500 had come on the market, and Mark Witt had one, so I decided to try it.
The INOVA 500 is a replacement mother board for the Executive. It has 512K of RAM chips on it. 128K of that serves as the "normal" RAM of your Executive. The remaining 384K is available for RAM disk and print buffer functions.
The basic benefit of the RAM disk operation is SPEED. Forget about waiting while WordStar goes to disk to get one of its overlays: access to overlays is instantaneous. Forget about waiting while WordStar saves a file to let you resume: saving this entire file took 1.9 seconds. Forget about delays while SuperCalc2 grinds the drives when you hit /GB: access to the overlay is instantaneous. Forget about watching the red lights and listening to the drives grind while dBase II or PC-File does a sort: what used to take minutes of grinding is reduced to seconds in silence. The magic is all done on a "drive" that is actually a bunch of random access memory (RAM), configured so that CP/M sees it as a disk drive. "Disk access" simply means RAM operation. Once you try a RAM disk peripheral such as the INOVA 500 or a Drive C:, you'll never want to operate with floppies again.
A RAM disk doesn't give you the mass storage of a hard disk, of course, [though 1MB and larger RAM disks are available] and when you turn the computer off, it goes away [but you can do a reset without affecting the contents of the RAM disk]. It's about 30% faster than the hard disk, I'm told, and still a good deal cheaper.
A review in FOGHORN for November 1985 indicated that at an earlier stage of the software only 253K of RAM disk was available, and no print buffer had been installed. The version of the software that I had was version 0.47, still "preliminary". There were three options, 183K, 253K, and 318K RAM disks. While the documentation claims that the 183K and 253K RAM disks come with a 60K print buffer, in operation it was clear that there is no print buffer. A year of free software updates is included -- when the print buffer software will be coming and when the ability to use the entire 380K bytes that are theoretically available for the RAM disk operation is not known.
At first glance the option for three different sizes of RAM disk seems strange, but there is a good reason for it. The INOVA 500 can load the full contents of a 183K Osborne format disk into its RAM disk in about 16 seconds! That's fast, when you consider that the same transfer on a Drive C: takes about 2 minutes. The process can also be reversed -- the full contents of the 183K RAM disk can be dumped to a floppy in about 16 seconds. Beginning to see the light?
If you choose the 183K RAM disk you can load the entire contents of a f loppy into the RAM disk in 16 seconds and at the end of your session dump the contents back in the same time. If you choose the 253K RAM disk you can load the RAM disk in 16 seconds, but you'll have to use PIP or NSWP or other file copying utilities to move files back to floppies. If you want the 318K RAM disk you're stuck -- the disk copy feature copies "track by track", and when the RAM disk or any disk size exceeds 255K CP/M requires that the minimum file size be at least 2K, so you can't use the fast load feature and will have to load with PIP or NSWP.
I tried timing various functions on the INOVA 500 to see how they compared with Drive C:. Well, both are so fast that for most functions you won't notice the difference at all. Loading WordStar takes under three seconds in either case. If a file took 2.3 seconds to load instead of 2.7, could you tell the difference without timing it? Or make good use of the .4 seconds saved? If you can, "you're a better man that I am, Gunga Din." When you get to "bigger" jobs, transfer of a batch of files using NSWP, for example, the time differences get measurable. I loaded up PC-File and a 10K data file. Sorting 138 records on 7 keys took about 19.5 seconds in the INOVA 500, about 22.7 seconds in the Drive C:. Loading a 152K batch of files into the RAM disk took about 97 seconds on the Drive C: but only about 61 seconds on the INOVA 500. The edge is clearly to the INOVA 500.
The INOVA 500 comes bundled with SKEYS (pronounced "skis"), a multi-use RAM resident program that has so many functions it's hard to count them all: two calculators, one for programers that works in decimal, hex, binary, or octal, and a business calculator with two memories and a it "paper tape" display of both memories and the regular entries; cursor and screen attribute settings; arrow key changeover; 4 additional sets of function keys; 22 extra redefinable function keys with up to 255 characters each; ASCII chart; screen print; and many more functions. The clear and concise manual is 70 pages long! All the functions of SKEYS are available instantly even in the midst of any application program such as WordStar or SuperCalc, instantly, when you hit CTRL-SHIFT and another key. It lacks the memo pad function that PRESTO! offers, a regrettable omission. I haven't tried SKEYS at any length yet, and can't comment on it. SKEYS isn't compatible with PRESTO!, but Smartkey II doesn't bump into it.
The print buffer is said to work only with the 183K and 253K RAM disk, as reported. It's 60K bytes, and "circular", that is, when it fills up it will allow more stuff to be dumped in as it is fed out to the printer. If the file sent to the print buffer is less than 60K, you can hit CTRL-SHIFT-Q, 1 to pause the printing when the paper jams, and 5 to restart. Note that it won't restart from the top of the current page, but only from the top of the buffer. Similarly, you can print extra copies of the file. For example, you could exit SuperCalc start WordStar, and then print extra copies of the spreadsheet even though SuperCalc wasn't even around any more. I tried to print a file from the INOVA 500, but the print buffer was not in evidence, and I couldn't get any reaction out of CTRL-SHIFT-Q. Reports from elsewhere indicate it's available in later versions of the software.
The documentation for use of the INOVA 500 is preliminary and skimpy. It totals about four pages, exclusive of extensive step by step installation instructions. [I had Mark Witt install the INOVA 500, so I can't really comment on the instructions, but it did seem easy enough and took only about 15 minutes or less. If you don't know what you are doing, allow about half an hour to an hour.]
My conclusion is that the INOVA 500 is a great addition to the Executive. It's even faster than Drive C:, and SKEYS offers a lot. On the other hand Drive C: comes with SuperSize SuperCalc2, allowing larger [up to 512K or more] spreadsheets. If big spreadsheets aren't in your plans, consider the INOVA 500. Prices on these things have dropped in recent months. WestWind offers 512K Drive C2 for $450 and 1MB for $600 and now also bundles SuperFile with its products. Microtech's latest ad offers the INOVA 500 for $395 and INOVA 1000 for $550. Features for the INOVA 1000 are indicated to include 800K of RAM disk, sprint load of two floppies, and more.
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 10
General circulation computer magazines don't often have much of interest to CP/M users. User's Guide is gone. Personal Computing ran a feature section on CP/M last summer, but what have you seen there lately. Not much. Computer Shopper has never been a 'heavy' CP/M interest magazine, but there's a tid-bit here and there and the ads are the main attraction!
Starting with August 1986, CS has become 'perfect bound'. It runs 324 pages of newsprint in 10 x 13.25 inch size, with a four-color glossy cover to smear on your fingers. Specific CP/M user interests include a note on Palantir word processing, still available for CP/M; an ad from the Nite-Owl Connection for Mex; an ad for Newint, a series of BASIC programs for interest calculations available for 50+ computers, including CP/M; articles about Apple CP/M and upgrades for Kaypro CP/M systems; and what appears to be a continuing column by Cheryl Peterson on CP/M+ for the Commodore 128.
My favorite ad <this month> was for the Axiom DX2000 and DX2500 daisywheel printers. BCE Liquidators <1-800-545-7447> offered the 13 inch carriage 16 cps DX2000 with cut sheet feeder and tractor for $298; the 15 inch carriage 20 cps DX2500 is just $50 more! Too bad they didn't have any cut sheet feeders left when I called!
CP/M Times isn't really a magazine, it's a 64 page catalog of ads from Central Computer Products <1-800-533-8049, in CA, 1-800-624-5628>. The ads range from a $69 print buffer <64K> to a Kaypro 20 <that's a Kaypro 10 with a 20 MB hard disk stuffed into it>. Software? The gamut. Banner and Banner Plus for your dot matrix printer, save a few bucks on Software Toolworks's already bargain priced software, educational software, etc. Your disk format at no extra charge. When's the last time you saw T-Maker advertised? It's all here. If you didn't get a copy in the mail, be sure to call and ask for one. If nothing else, you can register in their sweepstakes and hope to win a Kaypro 20!
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 11
[The following report was first seen in the July 1986 issue of Dogbytes, the newsletter of the Denver Osborne Group. -- bhc]
Dram, like his master Lamont Cranston, makes himself invisible and becomes Nose, defender of right and CP/M, finder of lost sectors and corrector of parity errors. He sniffs out the truth about PC hardware and software, uncovering villainous plots against the micro user. In this report Nose catches a planning setion at Sutol, providers of the infamous spreadsheet 99, 98, 97 and that well known high priced spread, Chorus ...
Voice #1:
"Well, Crayon, how's the new product coming?"
Voice #2:
"Not bad. The new array is going to be one hundred thousand cubed. We tested it by running the IRS returns for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. for 10 years and only used 10 percent of the capacity. The macros are so complex that it will take people years to learn to write them. With such an investment in time and trouble they'll never want to change to anything else, no matter how much better it might be. We have managed to incorporate many of the features of SuperKalc, but we couldn't fit them all in."
Voice #1:
"Good. How about the size of the product? Does it meet our objectives?"
Voice #2:
"And then some. The code itself is only 924K. But, once we put in six levels of copy protection, four particularly irritating stops and commercials and add filler for future product degredation, add delay loops to slow down the processing and replace BIOS, BDOS and all the drivers with less efficient but proprietary packages it looks like twenty-one 1.2 Meg floppies. We are also planning to offer it already installed on a take home 30 Meg hard drive."
Voice #l:
"Hmm. Sounds nice. How about RAM? What will it take to run it?"
Voice #2:
"A spreadsheet to do the average American family budget should run about a gigabyte of RAM. Anything worthwhile should take about twice that."
Voice #1:
"Any problem with the other members of the Cartel?"
Voice #2:
"The guys over at SM-DOS (Sado-masochistic) were complaining that we only left them one megabyte to load their operating system, but they settled down when I pointed out that they held the lions share of the stock in Cow-chips, the new memory subsidiary."
Voice #1:
"Did the labs people run any retrograde tests to determine what it would have taken to do this on CP/M?"
Voice #2:
"Yeah. We got the usual result."
Voice #1:
"What's that?"
Voice #2:
"Looks like about 6k if we were sloppy with the code and . . . You hear a sniffing sound?"
The Shadow Nose
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 11
A letter from Kaypro Corporation reminds us that there is still at least one manufacturer out there still making 'pure' CP/M 2.2 systems. Sent to subscribers to Profiles, the Kaypro corporate magazine, was a letter offering a "Kaypro Jr. Business Pak", consisting of a Kaypro 1 computer <2 DSDD floppy drives, 9" green screen, etc.>, a Kaypro daisy wheel printer, WordStar, Type-It, and CP/M 2.2. Aimed at parents of college students, a discount coupon was enclosed with the letter.
CFOG's PIP, July 1986, Volume 4 No. 9, Whole No. 45, page 11
[The following appeared as a message on CFOG's #2 RCPM. -- bhc]
Well, just found out a couple of things today that make PC Pursuit a lot easier to live with!
When I signed up with the service, I was given instructions on how to use the Hayes 'AT' command set to control the PC Pursuit host modem. What I wasn't told, was that apparently PC Pursuit is using Racal-Vadic modems and that they support another command set. To enter this optional mode you first enter "ATZ" to reset the modem. Next you type "E" then a carriage return. If all is successful, the modem will respond with "Hello: I'm Ready". The prompt in this mode is a "*".
There are several commands available in this mode. For a list of them, type a "?". The most useful command is "D", as in : "D6551206". Does anyone have an explanation as to why PC Pursuit doesn't tell you that "D" instead of "ATDT" may be used to dial a number?
Anyway, the progress reports in this mode are a lot more informative. You get messages such as "DIALING", "RINGING", "ANSWER TONE", "ONLINE", "NO DIAL TONE",and "BUSY". If the number you dial is busy, you are immediately returned to the command mode instead of waiting for the 30 second timeout which the Hayes mode uses.
Another useful command is the "R" for redial. If you enter "R", you are prompted for the number of times to try, you are allowed 1 - 9. After you enter a number, the last number you dialed is dialed until it answers or the number of tries you specified is reached. You may abort by pressing any key.
You may manually disconnect from your host system at any time by pressing "^C^D".
When you are finished with PC Pursuit, type an "I" at the "*" prompt to reset the modem to the 'AT' mode f or the next caller.