Volume 3, Number 30 11 August 1986 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings FidoNews is the official newsletter of the International FidoNet Association, and is published weekly by SEAdog Leader, node 1/1. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file FNEWSART.DOC, available from node 1/1. Copyright (C) 1986, by the International FidoNet Association. All rights reserved. Duplication and/or distribution permitted for noncommercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact IFNA. The contents of the articles contained here are not our responsibility, nor do we necessarily agree with them. Everything here is subject to debate. Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL Witholding Information and Morality 2. ARTICLES In Rememberence Of... New FidoBBS from Computertown UK! An IBM-PC Compatibility Testing Program Computerfest '86 What is a Julian Date? New Outside Utility Available for Sysop's One Man's Opinion of PC-WRITE New Utility Reports Questionnaire Results New Fido BBS for Vietnam Veterans! 3. COLUMNS Subscripts, WordStar and Epson Computer Industry Spotlight 4. WANTED Wanted: IBM PC programs for publication! 5. FOR SALE Entertainment Software for your PC! Fidonews Page 2 11 Aug 1986 Public Domain Software Library Sale!! 6. NOTICES FidoNews Bugs: The Missing Issue The Interrupt Stack CARTOON: Generic George, by Bruce White dBASE EchoMail Area Fidonews Page 3 11 Aug 1986 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= This week's guest editorial is by Ron Chapple of 17/36, in Victoria, British Columbia. Have You the Right to Withold Information? Do we have the right to information? Is someone immoral if they withhold information from me? Peter de Jager asked these questions in FidoNews 3:22 and concluded that even death can occur as the result of withholding information with the withholder being blameless! I would be interested to know whether Mr. de Jager perceives criminal negligence in the same way as a court of law. Mr. de Jager has made some far-reaching conclusions based primarily on the cost of collecting and processing data. He describes the cost of the processing of data into information as "energy". The logic of the arguments used to defend the conclusions is clear enough: the collector and supplier of processed data has expended energy and therefore the user of the processed data must pay the energy cost (no doubt plus a reasonable profit) to access the information. Despite his initial questions, what is missing from Mr. de Jager's discussion is, in fact, the whole question of morality. Furthermore, the estimation of energy costs is insufficient and misplaced. Let us deal with a few examples of energy cost and morality. Consider the case of a child crossing a street in the path of a vehicle. It no doubt would cost some energy to shout or to dash out to save the child, but what is your moral position if you don't? Collecting the data in this case would not seem to be costly, but ask any parent of a small child, whether it is your own child or another's, where life is even possibly at risk you SPEND the energy regardless and frequently. You have the information, the fact that you are not likely to convert it into cash isn't the point. The point is that someone else needs it and you are wrong if you don't provide it. If, on an evening stroll, you see flames through a window you know what your moral obligations are; at the very least you must turn in an alarm. If you demand a reward before doing so then you aren't a member of the human race. Lest these examples be accused of the fallacy of the extreme case, I would like to examine Mr. de Jager's example of the "private weather bureau". To briefly restate his arguments, the operators of the weather bureau spend energy (money) to collect raw data, spend energy (money) to process it into synopses and predictions and therefore have the right to sell the information to whomever can or wants to pay the price. All this sounds good to me. Even if I don't choose to buy the information myself, I Fidonews Page 4 11 Aug 1986 agree that my life has been made richer by the presence of the option to buy the information. That is as far as Mr. de Jager's argument goes and it is just not far enough! John Donne said "no man is an island" and in this context let us see what energy costs the operators of the "private weather bureau" owe by default to society. Were they educated in the public school system? Did they attend a university funded in part from the public purse? Did they use government documents and guides in developing their collecting and reporting standards? Did they use government-guaranteed business development loans to get established? The list of similar questions is almost endless. The answer of course is that before even the first prediction or weather report is issued the operators already owe every citizen something. How much? Well, not a free prediction for Sunday afternoon's trip to the beach, but in the case of a major disaster a warning is due, FREE OF CHARGE. None of these arguments has anything to do with "makers" and "takers", nor anything to do with depriving people of what they have earned; just an occasional show of humanity. Lastly, information and computer programs are not comparable in this discussion. Programs are tools; to use them in an unauthorized way is the same as refusing to pay for the rental of a carpet cleaner from your local supermarket after you've used it to clean your rugs. Stealing programs is something most of us do simply because we can get away with it. For that you cannot provide a moral defense, but to claim an absolute right to withold information is no more defensible. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 5 11 Aug 1986 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Jerry Hindle, 123/6 In Rememberence I don't know if any of you out there in FREEWARE land ever go thru back issues of FidoNews or not. I do and in issue # 226 there was a notice about the passing of a very special person. Although I never met him, or for that matter, ever heard of him, he affected my life in a way that has really been of immense value to me. The person of whom I speak is none other then Mr. Andrew Fluegelman. If you ,like myself, never heard of him before I suggest you stop to think about what life would be like if you had to BUY every one of the FREEWARE, SHAREWARE, etc. type of programs that you now enjoy at little or no cost to you. I suspect you would have a very limited library of software for your system. After pondering this for a few minutes, stop and think about how all of this FREEWARE stuff got started in the first place. AHA, I see the little bulbs lighting up now..... Mr Fluegelman was indeed the first person to release a major piece of software under the FREEWARE concept. To quote the writer of the obituary posted in issue 226 of FidoNews,"He is probably best known as the author of PC-TALK". His contribution to the computer world will probably outlast all of us and rightly so. He believed in the addage "The best judge of the worth of a piece of software is the USER on his own system". As I said before, I have never met him; and until the other night I never really knew of him. But after reading that notice and looking through my library, it really hit home as to the impact he had on me. In his own way he introduced me to software I would never have been able to afford otherwise. He gave me the opportunity to try new things without having to own a mint. He I suppose made it possible Tom Jennings to be gracious enough to release Fido to the public for public use. HE STARTED A TREND ! Freeware has become a MAJOR source of software for millions of computer owners with a multitude of different machines, and yet most of us (myself included) never make his concept come true for the authors out there who labor over programs for months, even years, simply to give it away on the premise that basically humans are honest enough to be fair about donating something to the author for his troubles. As I sit here pounding on my keyboard, I make a mental Fidonews Page 6 11 Aug 1986 promise to myself to PAY for all the FREEWARE and other freely distributed software that I use and whenever I find the extra cash I do indeed make every effort to send a donation of at least the WORTH of the program to the author. I value freeware as a concept and will continue to support it in every way I possibly can. AND I REMEMBER......... Thank you, Mr. Fluegelman. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 7 11 Aug 1986 John Bone, 503/17 NEW FIDO_BBS from COMPUTERTOWN UK! - LOG-on-the-TYNE Hi, My name is JOHN BONE, and I have been using BBS since 1980, here in the United Kingdom of GREAT BRITAIN, I now (FOOL!) have set up the FIRST FIDO_BBS, in the north-east coast of England. ComputerTown UK!, is alive and kicking, based to a small exent upon the CTUSA!, newsletters of yester-year! My group ComputerTown North east covers the TYNESIDE conurbanation of NEWCASTLE upon TYNE , and GATESHEAD. We have several needs.... international contacts, and help with some of your FIDO users micros.... any ST freaks out there? we would like any info on PUBLIC DOMAIN software, and hints/help etc... We also have several TANDY (TRS-80 model I/II/III IV(P) users) who would like to swop FIDO NET MAIL and puiblic domain software, hints etc. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 8 11 Aug 1986 Mark Welch, 161/459 An IBM-PC Compatibility Testing Program NOTICE: A programming project is being started on the BYTE Information Exchange (BIX), to write an IBM-PC-compatibility test program. The activity is centered in the software engineering (soft.eng) conference on BIX, but input and assistance from all computer users is desired. The following are the opening messages in the conference. If you have any suggestions or comments, please send them to me at Fido 161/459, or via BIX. -- Mark Welch ========== soft.eng/compat #4, from mwelch, Sat Jul 12 23:26:50 1986 ---------- TITLE: A Compatibility Testing Program: Overview I wrote a long essay about compatibility, but who needs it? To sum up: none of the available IBM-compatible computers run every software title. Before buying a computer, most folks would like to be forwarned of what incompatibilities that machine might have when compared to the IBM PC. The goal, then, is to write a program that tests a machine for each of the "known" incompatibilities, and warns the potential buyer. ========== soft.eng/compat #5, from mwelch, Sat Jul 12 23:28:34 1986 ---------- TITLE: A Compatibility Testing Program: Rough design: All output of compatibility test results should be sent to the screen, to a file, and to a printer (if selected). Status should always be stored to disk before any action that could potentially crash the computer, so the program, when re- started after re-boot, will be able to figure out where it left off, note the meaning of the crash if possible, and then continue testing. A particularly incompatible machine may crash a dozen or more times during testing, but the persistent user deserves a complete report. The testing should have several levels: one that doesn't require activity by the user; one that requires keyboard activity only by the user; and one which requires the user to open the machine and play with DIP switches and reboot the machine several times. (Rebooting may be required in any level, if an impolite incompatibility is found.) Fidonews Page 9 11 Aug 1986 1) Test to see if this is an IBM PC. Look for the IBM copyright in the ROM (are there other ways? compare certain byte locations?). If it is an IBM PC ROM, say so, and then continue the tests anyway. 2) Measure the system's speed. If it's not 4.77 MHz, warn the user about programs (list, please?) that are time- dependent. Let him/her know that this problem applies to the AT and PCjr as well. Test RAM speed, CPU speed, overall speed, and if possible (how?) bus speed. 3) (a) Write characters to the screen using DOS, and then do a direct screen read. Report if you can't find the screen in the usual locations. (b) Write characters directly to the screen, and ask the user if it says what it's supposed to. (c) Do whatever it is that generates "snow" on some machines but not others, and ask the user if he sees snow. If so, it's probably more IBM-compatible, but if not, it's better. (d) What other tests for direct-screen-access compatibility might there be? 4) (a) Systematically test each documented BIOS function call, using the "accepted" entry points. Report results of each. (b) Do the same for undocumented function calls and any known entry points used by ill-behaved programs. 5) Hardware: (a) disk drive compatibility (for copy-protected programs using bizarre techniques. How can you test this?) (What do programs do to floppy controllers that might bring out incompatibilities?) Also check speed and compare to IBM PC. (b) Hard disk compatibility. Also report speed (report it, if present, and compare it to the IBM spec of 85 ms). (c) Serial port: if present, check if it's in the right location. Check if there's an 8259 there. (other test for serial port compatibility?) (c) Ditto for parallel port: how do you test it? (d) Keyboard: Ask the user to type certain keys, and see what scan codes you get. Figure out which keyboard it is, if known, and report any possible problems. 6) Kludge time. Now begin executing individual tests. This is where we tag on new tests. ========== soft.eng/compat #6, from mwelch, Sat Jul 12 23:30:04 1986 ---------- TITLE: A Compatibility Testing Program: Distinct areas to test separately: MAIN SYSTEM: a) IBM PC motherboard features (ROM BIOS, DIP switches, what else?) b) PC-1 (64K) motherboard unique features c) PC-2 (256K) motherboard unique features d) IBM PC XT unique features Fidonews Page 10 11 Aug 1986 e) XT 640K motherboard unique features? f) IBM PC AT unique features g) New AT motherboard unique features h) 6 vs. 8 MHz (vs. higher) clocks on AT i) IBM Portable PC unique features (are there any vs. XT?) j) IBM PCjr unique features k) IBM PC Convertible unique features i) other motherboard versions? j) Test for Compaq, Leading Edge, Epson, and other "known" machines? (And list known problems? Or refer to text file?) k) Test for Phoenix, Award, other known BIOSes and version numbers? DISPLAY ADAPTERS: a) IBM Color Graphics Adapter (test all modes, all registers, etc.) b) IBM Mono Graphics Adapter (ditto) c) IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter (also test CGA emulation of it) d) Hercules Graphics Card e) Multi-mode cards (how to check without blowing up monitors?) f) other? I/O: a) Check serial port, if present b) parallel port c) game adapter? d) mouse port? e) light pen? f) cassette port? (snicker) g) Clock/calendar: check for compatibility with IBM AT, AST 6Pak, Quadram Quadboard, other common clocks h) other? Keyboard: a) IBM standard keyboard, enhanced keyboard, AT keyboard, PCjr, Converible. Others? b) test how easily the CapsLock and NumLock lights can be confused, if present. (Does this vary among machines?) c) check buffer, see if we can play with it cruelly. ========== soft.eng/compat #7, from mwelch, Sat Jul 12 23:31:02 1986 ---------- TITLE: A Compatibility Testing Program: Output: The output of the program might look like this: > This machine's video memory is not located in the same place as the IBM PC. Therefore, the following programs may not run: Fribozz ABC, version 4.565 and earlier; etc etc. Fidonews Page 11 11 Aug 1986 > This machine's ROM BIOS does not support the undocumented call to FFE2 which waits for a keypress, and thus may not run the following programs: Friboxx 4.5, XXXY X4.52. etc. > This machine's keyboard seems to emulate the IBM Enhanced keyboard. Therefore, older versions of many programs that directly accessthe keyboard buffer will not work properly; for example, versions of Desqview before 1.21 (except that 1.11 will work); versions of SuperKey before x.xx. etc. > This machine's floppy disk drives don't seem to be compatible with IBM's full-height drives, and thus may have difficulty with copy-protected programs using (scheme), such as (list). > etc. ========== soft.eng/compat #8, from mwelch, Sat Jul 12 23:32:29 1986 ---------- TITLE: Specific Instances of Incompatibility: ---------------------------------------------- On the Tandy 2000 and Sanyo MBC 555-type machines, the second call to the "BEEP" routine will turn off the RAM-refresh. Makes machines go bye-bye. (BIX, btonkin) Compatibility of the video card. For example, the EGA card and compatibles don't have the 6845 and so some software doesn't run properly or not at all. (BIX, kfw) Incompatibiliy between the Princeton Graphics Max 12 monitor and the Everex Edge display card. (BIX, feenberg) Borland's SideKick program had many incompatibilities with a number of compatibles, but version 1.56A fixed many of those. (Can we get a list of those "incompatibilities?") Flight Simulator (Direct Screen write; AT speed problem on early versions; what else?) (Latest version works on the AT but not the Corona/Cordata ATP-8-Q20, according to an InfoWorld review 1/27/86 p.50) Lotus 1-2-3 (Direct screen write; what else?) (Won't work in Hercules or CGA mode on a Corona ATP-8-Q20, according to an InfoWorld review 1/27/86, p.50) Crosstalk XVI (speed problem; direct access to serial port) Managing Your Money (won't run on many machines) V20 incompatibilities? What programs use the undocumented 8088 instruction that the V20 uses as its reserved instruction to enable its new instructions? Fidonews Page 12 11 Aug 1986 Alloy's DOS-73 board (marketed by AT&T) doesn't emulate DOS properly, as far as the COPY command is concerned on a one- drive system (on an IBM PC, "COPY A:GLEEP B:GLORP" reads a file, prompts for a disk swap, and then writes to the disk; on the DOS-73 board, it just reads and writes the same disk, without prompting for a swap.)(IW rvw., 6/23/86, p.42) Symphony 1.1, Framework II, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Chart, and Dbase III won't run on Alloy's DOS-73 board. (IW rvw., 6/23/86, p.42) Symphony 1.1 Framework II Microsoft Word Microsoft Chart Dbase III BASIC ROM (Since no compatible can legally steal IBM's BASIC ROM, none do. Thus, any program that attempts to access fixed addresses within the BASIC ROM will crash. Displaywrite 3 won't run on the Zenith Z-171 (IW, 3/3/86,p.46) ========== soft.eng/compat #9, from mwelch, Sat Jul 12 23:35:30 1986 ---------- TITLE: Implementation Options Given the large number of excellent programmers on BIX, with experience in almost every tongue, it could be argued forever. My proposal is that the compatibility-test program be written in Turbo Pascal, because that seems to be the most commonly- owned compiler on BIX (and because I have more experience with it than any other compiler). I'm sure that many of the tests will need to be coded in assembler; is CHASM (the CHeap ASseMbler, shareware and already on BIX) acceptable? Any comments? Suggestions? +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [Replies sent to Mark Welch at Fido 161/459 will be posted on BIX only if requested. Because of copyright concerns, I cannot distribute messages from BIX without the explicit permission of the messages' authors. I wrote all of the above messages. - mwelch] [Please note that WelchNet has moved from Net 125 to Net 161, and is now a private node available only through FidoMail. (I have moved to Berkeley and will start Law School in August.) Fidonews Page 13 11 Aug 1986 The new BBS phone number is unpublished, but you can reach me by VOICE at 415-845-2430, or write to Mark Welch, P.O. Box 2409, San Francisco, CA 94126.] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 14 11 Aug 1986 Doug Mohney, 109/74 Computerfest '86 Computerfest '86 is designed to be a gathering of local area user groups and vendors in the Washington D.C. area, an event where everyone can benefit from attending, from the person who knows very little about micros to the hard-core "Give me assembly or give me death" hacking types. It will be on Saturday, October 25, 1986, from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM at the Adele H. Stamp Union at the University of Maryland, College Park. There will be representatives from the various user groups in the area, including the Capitol PC User Group and Washington Apple Pi (we're still talking to the Atari & Commodore folks as of this date <7/22/86>). They'll have public domain software, and people to answer questions. Seminars: We currently are in the process of arranging seminars on the following topics: Small Business Computing, BBSing, Desktop publishing, Computers and the Disabled, MIDI, (and lots more if I can dig up the speakers). Apple Computer, Inc. has stated it will send out a speaker for our event. We also are working on getting someone from Atari and we're talking to Bruce Webster to see if he can come and speak (Bruce is the author of "Sundog" and has a column in "Byte"). By the time you read this, I'm hoping we can get a handle on someone else of note. In addition, we'll have a number of local area vendors displaying their equipment and peripherials in the Grand Ballroom of the Student Union, for the whole range of personal computers currently available today, PLUS a "Swapfest" where users can get rid of their surplus hardware and legally acquired software. Why should you come? Basically, this event is designed for you to have fun and learn more about computers. It is a single day event, so I'd feel kinda guilty if you came all the way from New York or Florida just to say "hi". However, if you live within an hour or two of College Park, Maryland (this means Baltimore, large parts of Maryland, Northern Virginia), it should be worth your time. Admission is $6.00/general and $4.00/discount. Print a copy of this from your printer and you qualify for a discount. Xerox it, give it to your friend Fred, and he can get in for a discount. Very easy to get a discount. For more information, contact me (Doug Mohney) at (301) 350-1437 (U.S. phone) or send Fidomail to me on 109/74. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 15 11 Aug 1986 Karl Andrews, 138/24 What is a Julian Date? The numeric extension on the NODEDIFF files is probably the most common example of a Julian Date, at least for Fido Sysops. It is the number of days since the beginning of the current year. So why is it called a Julian Date? Here is the story... Calendars evolved from the observation that approximately 12 cycles of the moon corresponded with one cycle of the seasons. The key word is approximately -- there are about 12.368267 lunar months in a solar year of 365.242199 days, for an excess of about 97 days every 400 years. Since civil calendars must have an exact number of days each year (imagine the confusion if 1987 was to start at 09:24.7 rather than 00:00), various schemes of inserting extra days or months were used to keep the dates synchronized with the seasons, although some societies didn't seem to care. For instance, the ancient Egyptians let the seasons cycle through their calendar, so the date of the annual flooding of the Nile (caused by melting snow in the mountains) gradually shifted until after 1460 years it had gone completely through the year. In 22 BC, Augustus forced them to adopt a variant of the new Julian Calendar, but the two calendars existed side by side for another 250 years. The Roman calendar was originally a lunar calendar, with rather arbitrary insertions of extra days. These adjustments were frequently neglected, with the result that by 46 BC, their calendar was about two months out of sync with the seasons. Julius Caesar established a new calendar, with a year of 365.25 days by adding a leap day every fourth year, to become official in 45 BC. He also added extra days to resynchronize the seasons, making 46 BC some 445 days long. Because of civil disorders and communication problems, the leap year adjustments were made incorrectly for a while, and Augustus readjusted the calendar in the period 8 BC to 8 AD, but the Julian Calendar survived without further change for almost 1600 years. Unfortunately, the mean Julian Calendar Year (365.25 days) exceeded the length of the tropical year (365.242199 days) by about 11 minutes, 14 seconds. The continued accumulation of this excess adds up to about 3 days every 400 years, and causes a gradual slippage of the seasons. By the middle of the 16th century, this had produced a very noticeable effect on the date of Easter, which is based on an actual astronomical observation, so in 1582 Pope Gregory modified the calendar by NOT adding the leap day on century years not divisible by 400, such as 1800, 1900, and 2100, making the length of the mean year 365.2425 days. He also dropped 10 days out of October (the day after 4 October was 15 October) to resynchronize Easter, but these changes were not immediately adopted in non-Catholic countries -- England and the colonies adopted the new calendar in 1752, Japan in 1873, and Turkey in 1927. Fidonews Page 16 11 Aug 1986 The error in the Gregorian Calendar amounts to about one day in 3300 years, and is about the same magnitude as the variation in the rotation rate of the Earth. This, plus the fact that we now adjust the length of the year by using leap seconds (the last minute of June and/or December has either 61 or 59 seconds, as needed), means that there is no astronomical reason to make any further changes in the calendar. The current system of counting the years from the birth of Jesus was established in 525 by Dionysius Exiquus, but the records he had access to were not complete, and he missed the correct date by about 5 years (there is even now a 1 year uncertainty). Unfortunately, this creates a problem in dating events before the Christian Era in that not only do the years BC have a negative sign, but there is no Year Zero. The math for date arithmetic gets rather complicated, and there was always the question of which calendar to use to date any given event; and we have already seen how flaky some of those calendars were. This is why astronomers and other scientists who need accurate ancient dates use Julian Days. The Julian Day system was introduced in 1583 by Joseph Scaliger, a French/Dutch historian who was an expert on calendars, and is a continuous count of the days since noon (GMT) on 1 January 4713 BC. He picked this date because it was when the 28-year solar cycle, the 19-year lunar cycle, and an ancient civil cycle of 15 years all coincided (this will not happen again for another 1281 years). This had the advantage of perfectly unambiguous dates and no negative numbers; for instance, 1 June 1986 is Julian Day 2,446,582 and 1 June 584 BC is JD 1,507,900. The irony of the whole thing is that Julian Days have nothing at all to do with the Julian Calendar; Scaliger named his system after his father, Julius Scaligeri. Calling the annual day count a Julian Date is not strictly correct, but is typical of what happens to technical terms that pass into the vernacular. After all, look at the current practice of using baud to mean bits per second -- a 1200 bps modem is actually running at 600 baud, but is using each change of the signal level to pass two bits of data, something that was not imagined when the term "baud" was coined. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 17 11 Aug 1986 Jim Fullton, 158/104 NEWFILES - A New FIDO Outside Utility for Sysop's NEWFILES is a program designed to run "outside" of Fido, using Don Daniels' (Fido 107/211) Outside utility. NEWFILES allows the individual Fido user to enter a period in days, with the program listing any new files posted to the board during that period. The user will only see files present in areas which he/she has the proper privilege level to access. The program displays information straight from the FILES.BBS file in the particular area. Example: A user has access to area 1 only, called MISC. The DIR.BBS file contains "Misc. Files". The FILES.BBS file contains: EXAMPLE.ARC 06-02-86 An example file LK100.ARC 06-31-86 Data Encryption Utility The files in area 1 are: example.arc 19400 bytes 6-2-86 lk100.arc 38512 bytes 6-30-86 If today's date is 7-25-86, and the user enters 60 days, NEWFILES will generate the following listing on the users screen: Misc. Files EXAMPLE.ARC 19400 06-02-86 An example file LK100.ARC 38512 06-30-86 Data Encryption Utility The users privilege level is read from LASTUSER.BBS. Sysops may use the program by running it locally using the "S" (Sysop) command switch, to avoid having to log on to the system. This will allow access to all areas. The sysop may also specify a number of days to allow in the listing, like this: NEWFILES S 20 This will display all files in all areas entered within the last 20 days. NEWFILES, and it's C source code, along with Outside and SPLTNEWS, the FidoNews Splitter, are available from Nibbles & Bytes Fido 158/104, (919) 942-9267. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 18 11 Aug 1986 One Man's Opinion of PC-WRITE by John J. Herro, 1456 Miner Circle, Endicott, NY 13760 The author is a Senior Software Engineer for the General Electric Company. He has no connection with Quicksoft, Inc., except for being a registered user of PC-WRITE. Since he knows of no Fido nodes near him, he is probably best reached by the U. S. Snail, otherwise known as the U. S. Mule or the Phony Express. PC-WRITE is an excellent word processor / text editor written by Quicksoft, Inc., and marketed under the "Shareware" concept. This means that you can download the latest version from your favorite bulletin board and try PC-WRITE for free. You can optionally "register" with Quicksoft for a reasonable fee, but even if you choose not to register, you are still encouraged to distribute copies of the program. This is such a welcome relief from copy-protected word processors that sell for several hundred dollars! PC-WRITE runs on any size PC, including a PC Junior. The program includes a brief tutorial manual and a quick reference guide, both of which can be printed out. Thus, when you copy PC-WRITE you are also making copies of the two manuals, without the need of an office copying machine! Quicksoft provides several incentives for you to register. One is telephone support. (More about that later.) Users who register also receive a more detailed printed manual (which would not fit on the PC-WRITE diskette), a one-year subscription to a newsletter, and two free updates (or one update and the source code). Finally, when you register, Quicksoft assigns a unique number for you to embed into the program before you give away copies. If anyone registers from one of your copies, Quicksoft will send you a modest sum, hence the name "Shareware." PC-WRITE contains two major programs, ED to edit a file and PR to print it. You simply type ED or PR ; the on-line help is excellent. When you first get PC-WRITE, you run a special program to customize it for your particular printer. A large menu of printer manufacturers is presented; when one is selected, a menu of printer models made by that manufacturer appears. Subscripts, superscripts, boldfacing, underlining, a variety of fonts, etc., are then all available if your printer supports them. If your printer is not on the menu, PC-WRITE can treat the printer as "dumb" (having no special features). Underlining and bold-facing are still available if your printer recognizes backspaces. Alternately, Quicksoft will help you customize PC-WRITE. I've found the telephone support to be excellent, and I never received a busy signal. Even before I registered, Quicksoft was Fidonews Page 19 11 Aug 1986 nice enough to help me with a printer problem. I have a Smith- Corona Deville 3 Messenger typewriter with a parallel computer interface; it isn't on the PC-WRITE menu. It amounts to a daisy- wheel printer with a very small buffer. The DOS PRINT command was working correctly, but when I ran PR, I would get the message "Printer not ready, Abort, Retry, or Ignore?" Responding with R caused errors on the printed page. My MS-DOS manual explained how to do "infinite retry" with a SERIAL interface, but not with a PARALLEL interface. Since my version of MS-DOS came with 90 days of telephone support, and the 90 days had not expired, I first called the MS-DOS support telephone number. When they were not able to help, I called Quicksoft. When Quicksoft asked if I had registered, I said, "No. I'm willing to register, but I want be certain that PC-WRITE will work with my printer first." They were very courteous about giving me help, and advised me to type MODE LPT1:,,P. That fixed the problem, and of course I added that command to my AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Quicksoft also told me that if I had registered first and later became dissatisfied, I would have no trouble getting my money back. ED, the screen editor, has a few features not found even on some expensive word processors. For example, you can optionally make the program continuously keep a paragraph within the margins, even while adding words to the middle of the paragraph! I find this feature very useful. Also, PC-WRITE works with ASCII files - a MUST for programmers. I've even edited .EXE files, because there's no limit to the line length. (The screen automatically scrolls horizontally when long lines are edited.) There are a few "font characters," for example, alternate-B for Boldfacing. These characters can optionally be made visible or invisible. When they are invisible, boldfacing appears on the screen as high intensity, etc. PR interprets the special characters for your particular printer, and also optionally pauses at the end of each page, in case you don't have continuous paper. It also has a nice feature for recovering from a paper jam in a long document. If the paper jams, you can interrupt PR and resume printing from the top of the current page or any other page. Other features include definable keys, mail-merge, footnotes and headers, table of contents and index, automatic page breaks, file includes, keyboard input during printing, etc. The method of writing to the screen can be changed to avoid "snow" on some systems, and the screen can be divided into two windows of unequal size. Text can be "cut" from one file and "pasted" into another. Much thought has been given to assigning functions to keys, although the assignments can be changed if desired. To COPY a block of text, you use F3 three times: at the start of the block, at the end of the block, and at the new location. Similarly, to MOVE a block of text, you use F6 three times, and to DELETE a block, you use F4 twice. (You can undelete the block with control-F4.) For the masochists among you, most of the control codes of Wordstar (tm of MicroPro) are duplicated. Control-D can Fidonews Page 20 11 Aug 1986 be used instead of the -> key to move the cursor right one character, control-F will move right one word, etc. PC-WRITE lacks two features that are found on some expensive word processors. At present, ED cannot handle files that are too big to fit in memory, and there is no spelling checker. Rumor has it that both of these deficiencies will be removed in a later version. In the meantime, PC-WRITE will at least help you segment large files, and spelling checkers like EZSPELL and PC-SPELL can be found on many bulletin boards. PC-WRITE.ARC is available on the IFNA board, 314-576-2743. I hope that PC-WRITE will become the de facto standard for PCs and compatibles, and that the "Shareware" concept will put an end to copy protection forever! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 21 11 Aug 1986 Daniel Tobias, 19/216 New Utility Reports Questionnaire Results A useful feature of FIDO is its online questionnaire. It allows the sysop to survey the users of his system for a variety of purposes, such as to find out the demographics of the user population, or to do surveys of popular opinion. However, until now, there was no easy way to find out the results of such surveys. You could print out the answer files in their raw format, but they just show answers by question number, without giving the question text; you have to look in the question file to see what question is being answered. Also, there is no way to see at a glance how the answers to a given question break down; the answers are shown grouped by user without any tabulation. A utility I have written, and am distributing as "shareware", will solve this problem. QUESREPT (QUEStionnaire REPorT) takes the FIDO question and answer files and automatically generates a report of the results. Multiple choice answers are tabulated and the number and percentage for each choice is given. Free-text answers are listed with all answers to a given question together. The text of your question is given immediately above the report of its answers. QUESREPT can get its input from the standard FIDO files QUESTION.BBS and ANSWERS.BBS, or any other questionnaire and answer files in standard format which you may define. The output can go to the printer, the console, or any other file or device; the page length to format the report may be redefined to customize it for your system. All such parameters may be placed in a control file so that QUESREPT can run unattended (for example, as a regular weekly event) with no user input required. QUESREPT can be downloaded from SOFT FIDO at (318) 636-4402. (It can be found in a file QUESREPT.ARC in file area 6.) Direct all questions to Daniel Tobias on FIDO 19/216. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 22 11 Aug 1986 Todd C. Looney, 143/27 VIETNAM VETERANS BULLETIN BOARD In political terms, the "war" in Vietnam divided the United States in a manner unseen since the time of the Civil War. Like that war, the wounds of divisiveness have been slow to heal, and in fact still very much a part of our society. Since the founding of our great Republic, the traditions of American military history has been one of citizen soldiers answering the call to arms when needed. Even with a standing military force, this continued to be necessary at the time of Vietnam and hopefully will always be so. It was not our fault that this, of all wars, was given so much "visual" publicity in America resulting in it's being the first military action to be so overwhelmingly unpopular in the eyes of our peers. We, as patriotic Americans, did what we thought was best for our country and fellow Americans by sacrificing our own personal freedom for a few years so that others might hold on to theirs throughout their lives. I don't think very many of us wanted, or expected a "hero's welcome" when we returned home from that other world, but we sure didn't expect the treatment we got either - to be ostracized and degraded by those very people we had just finished risking our lives for in the steamy jungles of Southeast Asia. But, as is usually the case, time heals all wounds, and our time for recognition is finally coming about. Slowly but surely, our peers, the American Citizen, is coming to realize that the vast majority of Vietnam Veterans had nothing to do with how the war in Vietnam was waged, that we were but pawns of a a group of confused politicians and bureaucrats. America is realizing at long last that we did not deserve the unfair treatment most of received when we came home, and most Vietnam Veterans are finally beginning to feel proud of what they did for this country as opposed to the shame they endured for so many years. And now our time has come for a bulletin board of our very own, a bulletin board dedicated the the American Vietnam Veteran! It is a place where we can express our feelings in a non- threatening forum atmosphere as well as solicit the views of those Americans who played no active military role during the Vietnam "War". It is a place where we can meet each other on common turf to openly discuss our lives, both the ups and downs, achievements and failures, happiness and pain. All those who wish to participate in our forum are welcome to call; this is not a restricted BBS. We invite anyone who was affected by the political upheaval present during the Vietnam era. We have had some very intelligent contributions from not only those who served in the armed forces during the War, but from ex-protesters, students, draft-dodgers, and even ex- Vietnamese citizens, some of whom had served as Viet Cong prior to their surrender to U.S. military forces. Fidonews Page 23 11 Aug 1986 Other related forums on the LooneyBin include a section devoted to the Wives, Lovers, and Friends of Vietnam Veterans, a Soapbox Forum, and a Genealogy Forum called the ROOT CELLAR. We also have plenty of public domain software available. We feel that the gap we fill in today's society by hosting such a forum as this is an extremely important and valuable one. We solicit any sysops from other areas of the country to follow our lead, and join us if they will by forming a Vietnam Veterans Conference Network of FIDO BBS's. We solicit any sysop who is interested in participating in such an effort, or just simply has a suggestion or twelve to contact us at: ----------=====**[ THE LooneyBin ]**=====---------- 408-293-7894 300/1200/2400 Baud 24 Hours a Day! (except during FidoNet Mail and normal system maintenance) -----=====**[ Todd and Nancy Looney ]**=====----- SYSOPS ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 24 11 Aug 1986 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= SUBSCRIPTS, WORDSTAR AND EPSON by Tom Ingram The purpose of this article is to explain how I was able to get WordStar to print technical manuscripts on my Epson printer with TRUE subscripts and superscripts (not the compressed Epson characters on the same line with the rest of the text). I find the Epson subscripts and superscripts difficult to read, especially after reproduction of the text. First, I patched WordStar using the WINSTALL program. At ^R I patched the following code: 03 1B 41 06. The 03 tells WordStar how many bytes of code are coming. The 1B is the ASCII code for escape, the 41 is ASCII for "A". ESC A 6 causes the Epson to space down only a half line each time it is sent a linefeed. Once this patch is in place, I set up a document as follows: 1) On the first line of the document I issue the dot command PL132. This sets up normal length pages for the ^R command which is issued next. 2) Issue the ^R command on the next line of the document. 3) Now, issue the command ^O S 4. This sets the line spacing to 4 so that the document will appear double spaced. For single spaced documents (with crowded subscripts and superscripts) use ^O S 2 or ^O S 3 instead. Now, in typing a document, use the subscript and superscript, ^V and ^T, indicators as required by WordStar. The printed document will have true half-line roll subscripts and superscripts. That is all there is to it. It is quick and easy and it works. One final comment: this does not allow double subscripts and superscripts. For example, so far as I know, it will not print out subscripted subscripts by issuing any sequence of commands from the keyboard. I wrote this before my latest issue of "Portable Companion" arrived. One statement concerning patching of WordStar 3.30 from the WINSTALL program allowed me to obtain a second solution to the problem I have been discussing. This method is not necessarily better than the one I described above. On the surface it appears to be better but it has the disadvantage of being somewhat slower in printing regular documents which do not need subscripting or superscripting. I now have one disk containing WordStar configured as below for subscripts and superscripts and one configured as above for regular files. This way I do not have to reformat all my old files for the new procedure. Here is the second method: Fidonews Page 25 11 Aug 1986 While in the WINSTALL program provided with WordStar 3.30, when you get to the point where you can type X to exit to CP/M, an undocumented command available is to type +. At this point you can patch WordStar by entering the label at which you wish to make a patch. The program is well prompted here and I was able to patch in the following changes which I obtained nearly a year ago from MicroPro: 1) PSCRLF 03 0D 0A 0A NORMAL LINEFEED 2) PSHALF 02 0D 0A HALF LINEDOWN 3) PSINIT 06 1B 40 1B 41 06 0D PRINTER RESET 4) PSFINI 02 1B 40 EOP RESET I made the patches listed above and they work to produce properly printed documents with subscripts and superscripts. The reason printing is somewhat slower is that each page requires twice as many linefeeds to print the page. Of course the other method works the same way, but it has the advantage that regular documents will print with 66 linefeeds per page. For a continuous underling at ^PS and something like an alternate pitch the following patches could be used: 5) PALT 03 1B 46 0F CONDENSED SET ON 6) PSTD 01 12 CONDENS. SET OFF 7) RIBBON 03 1B 2D 01 UNDERLINE ON 8) RIBOFF 03 1B 2D 00 UNDERLINE OFF ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 26 11 Aug 1986 William/Eunhee Hunter Fido 109/626 Computer Industry Spotlight on: ELECTRONIC MEMORIES AND MAGNETICS CORP. -- Electronic Memories and Magnetics Corp. is a manufacturing firm involved in the production of computer memories, peripherals, and militarized microcomputers. Positions generally available within the company are in the engineering and data processing areas. On-the job and formal classroom training are provided for all technical personnel. Contact: Paul Rosee, Director, Industrial Relations, Electronic Memories and Magnetics Corp., 20630 Plumber Street, Chatsworth, CA 91311. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 27 11 Aug 1986 ================================================================= WANTED ================================================================= Daniel Tobias, Soft Fido, 19/216: (318) 636-4402 WANTED: IBM PC PROGRAMS FOR PUBLICATION! SOFTDISK, INC., the already-successful publisher of magazines on diskette for Apple II and Commodore 64 computers, will produce a monthly disk-based publication for the IBM PC. The first issue of this publication, to be named BIG*BLUE DISK, and which will be contained entirely on a floppy disk, will be shipped to thousands of retail outlets in October, including B. Dalton Booksellers and Waldenbooks. - - OFF-BROADWAY - - If you have written a program for the IBM PC, please consider publishing it on BIG*BLUE DISK; it's your chance to make some money, and get your name in print. Programs of all categories are being accepted. - - YOUR REWARD - - We will select the best programs submitted, and publish them on issues of BIG*BLUE DISK. If we choose to publish your program, we will pay you a minimum of $50, and possibly more-- as much as $500, depending on the nature and quality of the program. This money is for the privilege of publishing your program. You retain full rights to it. - - HOW TO SUBMIT IT - - Submissions can be sent by FIDONET to node 19/216, or uploaded directly to our BBS at (318) 636-4402. Alternatively, you can send them on a floppy disk to: BIG*BLUE DISK, PO BOX 30008, SHREVEPORT, LA 71130-0008. BIG*BLUE DISK is a widely-distributed, carefully-prepared publication, so make sure your programs are well-tested and debugged, and include adequate instructions within the program. Include a note (on paper, in a text file, or in a message to the sysop of our BBS) describing what your program does, what files are necessary to run it, and what system configuration (hardware and software) is required. Please include the source code to all compiled or assembled programs so we can make revisions if necessary. If you have marketed your software as "shareware", please remove all requests for money or other advertisements from the version you submit for publication; alternatively you can contact us for information on other terms for such programs. - - NOTE TO SYSOPS - - There is a finder's fee of 10% for you if you submit a program on behalf of one of your users and it is published. Thus, you may wish to publicize BIG*BLUE DISK and our search for programs. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 28 11 Aug 1986 ================================================================= FOR SALE ================================================================= ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE FOR YOUR PC! SUPERDOTS! KALAH! Professional quality games include PASCAL source! From the author of KALAH Version 1.6, SuperDots, a variation of the popular pencil/paper DOTS game, has MAGIC and HIDDEN DOT options. KALAH 1.7 is an African strategy game requiring skill to manipulate pegs around a playing board. Both games use the ANSI Escape sequences provided with the ANSI.SYS device driver for the IBM-PC, or built into the firmware on the DEC Rainbow. Only $19.95 each or $39.95 for both exciting games! Please specify version and disk format. These games have been written in standard TURBO-PASCAL and run on the IBM-PC, DEC Rainbow 100 (MSDOS and CPM), CPM/80, CPM/86, and PDP-11. Other disk formats are available, but minor customization may be required. BSS Software P.O. Box 3827 Cherry Hill, NJ 08034 For every order placed, a donation will be made to the Fido coordinators! Also, if you have a previous version of KALAH and send me a donation, a portion of that donation will also be sent to the coordinators. When you place an order, BE CERTAIN TO MENTION WHERE YOU SAW THE AD since it also appears in PC Magazine and Digital Review. Questions and comments can be sent to: Brian Sietz at Fido 107/17 (609) 429-6630 300/1200/2400 baud ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 29 11 Aug 1986 Now available from Micro Consulting Associates!! Public Domain collection - 550+ "ARC" archives - 20+ megs of software and other goodies, and that's "archived" size! When unpacked, you get approximately 28 megabytes worth of all kinds of software, from text editors to games to unprotection schemes to communications programs, compilers, interpreters, etc... Over 55 DS/DD diskettes!! This collection is the result of more than 15 months of intensive downloads from just about 150 or more BBS's and other sources, all of which have been examined, indexed and archived for your convenience. Starting a Bulletin Board System? Want to add on to your software base without spending thousands of dollars? This is the answer!!! To order the library, send $100 (personal or company check, postal money order or company purchase order) to: Micro Consulting Associates, Fido 103/511 Post Office Box 4296 200-1/2 E. Balboa Boulevard Balboa, Ca. 92661-4296 Please allow 3 weeks for delivery of your order. Note: No profit is made from the sale of the Public Domain software in this collection. The price is applied entirely to the cost of downloading the software over the phone lines, running a BBS to receive file submissions, and inspecting, cataloguing, archiving and maintaining the files. Obtaining this software yourself through the use of a computer with a modem using commercial phone access would cost you much more than what we charge for the service... Please specify what type of format you would like the disks to be prepared on. The following choices are available: - IBM PC-DOS Backup utility - Zenith MS-DOS 2.11 Backup Utility - DSBackup - Fastback - ACS INTRCPT 720k format - Plain ol' files (add $50) Add $30 if you want the library on 1.2 meg AT disks (more expensive disks). There are no shipping or handling charges. California residents add 6% tax. For each sale, $10 will go to the FidoNet Administrators. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 30 11 Aug 1986 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= FidoNews Bugs FidoNews did not get published last week (4 August 1986) due to a system failure over the weekend. We apologize for the inconvenience. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Interrupt Stack 14 Aug 1986 Start of the International FidoNet Conference, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Contact George Wing at node 1/10 for details. Get your reservations in NOW! We'll see you there! 24 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 passes Neptune. If you have something which you would like to see on this calendar, please send a message to FidoNet node 1/1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Generic George by Bruce White, 109/612 +-------------------------------------------------+ | Yes, your favorite toy does online banking, | | / produces recipes, and keeps the household | | / budget, but it still can't do windows. | |/ | | Oh yeah? Come look at this-- | | right now it's doing FOUR ____\__ | | windows! \ |_| \ | | \ _____ |\ | | | _ | | | | ______ | |_| | | | | __(______)_|_____|___ | | | ||-----------------|| | | | ______ || || | | | \ {} / || || | | |(c) 1986 bw \__/ ||-----------------||__|__| +-------------------------------------------------+ ----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTICE OF NEW ECHOMAIL AREA For dBASE users and Programmers, Nationwide net already started. To join contact 103/508. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Fidonews Page 31 11 Aug 1986 Geoff Arthur, 155/212 This is now the second system operating in Australia NET:155 NODE:212 saying hello and asking that you make it public knowledge that Australia is here. We are currently setting up a network of our own and expect that within 3-4 months we should have at least 30 NODES. Would be nice to here from you and some of your users so please spread the word. My phone number is Australia 02-457-8281 for THE OMEGA-LINE. -----------------------------------------------------------------