CFOG's PIP, August 1989, Volume 8 No. 3, Whole No. 71, page 24

A Bunch of Questions From Brazil

by Hanns Trostli, Itu, Brazil

I am a member of CFOG for some years now. I dote on PIP, as otherwise I am unable to be in touch with my fellow CFOGgers, living as I do in Brazil. PIP has been a great source of information and advice, I have received a lot and given very little.

This time I am not sending any contribution to PIP, but a request for help. I presume that one or the other of the readers has an answer to my questions.

I do hope to see some answers in a future edition of PIP; if anybody wants to get in touch with me directly, this is my address: POBox 471, 13300 Itu - SP, Brazil.

Two Questions Regarding dBase II

I use dBase II, V.2.43, and have a command file for printing three labels across. This is a file adapted from one I read in FOG years ago and it works very well. However, I would like to print the output to disk and this I am unable to do. Generally, the ALTERNATE command copies the output on screen to the designated disk file, but in this case the valid output is on paper, not on the screen. Eliminating line 1 of my LBL3.CMD (SET FORMAT TO PRINT) doesn't help. In order to visualize the problem I give this LBL3.CMD file here -- it may interest somebody -- and want to observe that it produces labels of 4 lines each, that in Brazil the ZIP code is in front of the city name and that it works with a simple DBF file, whose fields are: NAME, ADDRESS, ZIP, CITY.

*            LBL3.CMD

SET FORMAT TO PRINT

STORE 0 TO X
DO WHILE .NOT. EOF
STORE X+1 TO X
  @ X,1 SAY NAME
 SKIP
  @ X,41 SAY NAME
 SKIP
  @ X,81 SAY NAME
 SKIP-2
STORE X+1 TO X
  @ X,1 SAY ADDRESS
 SKIP
  @ X,41 SAY ADDRESS
 SKIP
  @ X,81 SAY ADDRESS
 SKIP-2
STORE X+1 TO X
  @ X,1 SAY ZIP
                @ X,9 SAY CITY
 SKIP
  @ X,41 SAY ZIP
                @ X,49 SAY CITY
 SKIP
  @ X,81 SAY ZIP
                @ X,89 SAY CITY
STORE X+1 TO X
 SKIP
ENDDO
SET PRINT OFF
RELEASE ALL
EJECT

My second question regarding dBase is the following: how can I limit the number of records I want to use each time for labels? Suppose I want to print labels for records #31 thru #60, how should I specify this?

And A Question Regarding Directory Entries

As I told in a previous article published in PIP, I use ROMBO, a RAM/ROM device for Osborne 1. I am very happy with it, it speeded up my Ozzy as any RAM disk would, the increased efficiency is notable and very welcome.

There is one slight problem and I wonder whether and how it can be overcome. The permanent files in ROM and the loaded working files in RAM are all considered as A disk. When I load up WordStar all these files appear on the initial menu, cluttering up free space. My files in ROM have all been set to SYS (system files) by STAT, thus do not appear on DIR, but they are there on the WordStar directory of files. How can some directory entries be rendered invisible?

[I suspect that Hans is using WS 2.26. He's right: WS 2.26 shows SYS status files in the directory. I don't recall and a quick look at the WS Bible file doesn't yield any suggestions about how to get WS 2.26 or 3.0 to ignore SYS files (or any others). With WS4 you can specify file extensions that are not to be displayed (so that COM and OVL files -- or whatever you want -- are not shown, regardless of their file status), but SYS files will still show if they do not have an excluded file extension. VDE and ZDE, on the other hand, will exclude SYS files. -- bhc]

And A Quesition: Regarding an Unknown Printer

A friend of mine asked me to obtain a replacement printhead for his dot-matrix printer. Unfortunately, I have been unable to help him and wonder if somebody can identify the printer described below.

I have looked at the printer and can report the following identifications:

1. no trademark
   
   
2. labels: SUPER 5 and EP-150
   
   
3. another label showing a cube, having on each of its three visible faces an uppercase letter "E"
   
   
4. uses multistrike film ribbon, indicated as "for Mannesmann Tally Spirit MT80 and for Commodore 1526/4023"

If nobody has seen such a printer I would like to ask a member who subscribes to the BIX network of BYTE magazine to ask around there. I think that asking that larger audience will be successful in identifying this printer.

And A Question About JG Communications

I need the address of the manufacturer of the RT-60A clock for the Osborne 1, JG Communications. A letter sent to POBox 278, Roy, Utah, was returned to me as no forwarding address is registered at the post office.