CFOG's PIP, March 1988, Volume 7 No. 2, Whole No. 64, page 21

ZCPR3 ON A KAYPRO II -- Proof that Z isn't just for the big guys

by Daniel Brogan

Copyright 1985 by Daniel Brogan. Permission granted to re-print granted if credit is given.

We're all tired of the people who insist you need a hard disk to implement ZCPR3. But Frank Gaudé may have done almost as much harm as good in ZNEWS.302 when he suggested two 360K floppy drives as a minimum disk capacity.

There are thousands of pre-1984 Kaypro II's with skimpy 191K drives out there. Many are used by professional writers like myself. To suggest these many users can't implement Z3 is to throw a big roadblock in the proliferation of a powerful and flexible operating system.

My II runs on Z3 and I can't imagine computing without it. Sure, I've got to be judicious in selecting from among Z's 70- plus utilities (on-line help is but a dream), but that doesn't mean I can't squeeze in a few plums.

In fact, if I weren't so attached to disk--hungry Perfect Writer, I'd be able to squeeze in a few more. For the sake of discussion, here's a look at my set-up.

For a writer, Z's most attractive features (besides such intrinsic features as multiple-command lines, named directories, and search pathes) are menus and aliases.

[Aliases are names, aliases, for a series of commands that a Z-System utility turns into a COM file that you can run. SALIAS.COM is a WordStar like alias editor that creates alias COM files. More recently ARUNZ permits the creation of an ALIAS.CMD file which is simply a text file with aliases in them. Here's a sample alias that I use:

ORDERS   a4:;era pcfile.pro;cpy pcfile.pro=orders.pro;pcfile;s b4:orders.*

This alias takes me to user area 4 on drive A:, erases the existing PCFILE.PRO file, copies the ORDERS.PRO file to the name PCFILE.PRO, runs PC-File 80 (which will automatically open the ORDERS database because that's the setup in the ORDERS.PRO file that we copied to PCFILE.PRO), and upon exit from PC-File runs NeWSweeP with a mask that allows me to quickly select the ORDERS database files to back up on a floppy disk. -- bhc]

Thus, my set-up can be broken into three areas

1. Word Processing Tools:
   Pertect Writer and a 40K swap file, the formatter and printer, Smartkey, and a word-counting program (149K total).
   
   
2. Basic System Components:
   Path, Ldr, Startup, and my system segments. (18K total).
   
   
3. Optional Utilities:
   Alias, Menu, Quickset (a Paul Pomerleau utility to set the quiet byte ad turn off the Kaypro keyclick), SD, Setfile and a big handful of aliases. I've got aliases to do just about everything from setting up the keyboard to reminding me to clean out old drafts.

My favorite alias is called PS.COM. Perfect Writer thinks it's calling up the spelling program, in fact it's allowing me to perform any number of functions (word count, test format, etc.) without ever exiting Perfect Writer. (20K total)

The grand total: 187K. Enough extra room for a few new aliases.

I also keep a copy of NEWSWEEP (a matter of personal preference over VFILER, sorry guys!) and MEX (to transmit finished articles) on my B disk.

Obviously, this ain't a Cadillac. But hey Frank, don't forget about us Chevettes!

NOTE: If any of you other writers out there would like to compare notes, feel free to contact me at Lillipute Z--Node, 312--649-1730.

[Osborne owners are in about the same boat as Daniel Brogan, with 183K bytes on a floppy. It can be done and it's quite useful, as Brogan notes. Of course, if you have more disk space or a hard disk or a big RAM disk, Z-System is much more useful. -- bhc]