Volume 4, Number 19 18 May 1987 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | _ | | / \ | | /|oo \ | | - FidoNews - (_| /_) | | _`@/_ \ _ | | International | | \ \\ | | FidoNet Association | (*) | \ )) | | Newsletter ______ |__U__| / \// | | / FIDO \ _//|| _\ / | | (________) (_/(_|(____/ | | (jm) | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Thom Henderson Chief Procrastinator Emeritus: Tom Jennings FidoNews is published weekly by the International FidoNet Association as its official newsletter. You are encouraged to submit articles for publication in FidoNews. Article submission standards are contained in the file ARTSPEC.DOC, available from node 1/1. Copyright (C) 1987, 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. Thirteen Weeks to FidoCon! Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 Filling the Gap .......................................... 1 2. ARTICLES ................................................. 2 Tentative Conference Agenda .............................. 2 Dutchie & Brinkers - A Fidonet Point System .............. 3 How to Remove Disk Labels ................................ 7 High Speed Protocols ..................................... 9 3. COLUMNS .................................................. 12 Hayes modems and compatibles ............................. 12 What's Hopp-ening? Part I of ???? by Ryugen Fisher ...... 23 The Regular Irregular Column ............................. 25 4. NOTICES .................................................. 29 The Interrupt Stack ...................................... 29 Conference Hotel Room Rates .............................. 29 IFNA Board of Directors Ballot ........................... 30 FidoNews 4-19 Page 1 18 May 1987 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Filling the Gap Let's face it. As forms of communication go, electronic mail falls short. We are all very much used to supplementing words with tones of voice, facial gestures, and body language. It is quite possible to communicate fully by the written word, but few of us are Shakespears or Hemmingways. It takes a great deal of skill and practice to fully express oneself by the written word alone. But the written word is all that electronic mail gives us. Worse yet, our minds place more emphasis on the written word than on the spoken word. A comment which would rate a raised eyebrow when spoken results in massive flames when written. Sarcasm becomes well nigh impossible to detect. Off-the-cuff remarks look like rock-solid statements of position. Fortunately, there's a way out. Once you actually meet the people you communicate with, it becomes much easier to interpret their messages in the way they actually meant them. Coming soon is your big chance to do just that. The next to last weekend of August is the Fourth International FidoNet Conference. This is our big get-together, where you can finally meet all those people you've been hearing from all along. This year it's being held near Washington DC, which makes it a great excuse to visit the nation's capitol. While you're there, take a few extra days vacation and be sure to visit the Air and Space Museum. You'll see everything from the Wright brother's original plane to an Apollo capsule that went to the moon. Also check out the Washington Zoo and see the pandas. [A tip: Wear comfortable shoes when you visit the zoo. It's huge. I made the mistake of wearing a new pair, and almost killed my feet. And be sure to visit the reptile house.] But first, last, and always, it's a chance to meet your fellow FidoNet people. There will be interesting speakers, hospitality suites offering free food and drinks, exhibitors showing their latest and greatest, and swarms and swarms of people you've heard from and talked to over the net and always wanted to meet. I know I'll be there, and I'll be looking forward to meeeting you. Stop by my room and say "hi". See you there! ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-19 Page 2 18 May 1987 ================================================================= ARTICLES ================================================================= Fourth International FidoNet Conference A Tentative Agenda Thursday Night 1500 Registration 1900 Welcome party 2100 Deadline for IFNA board of directors votes Friday Morning 0900 Opening ceremonies 1000 High speed modems 1100 Report from the FTSC Friday Afternoon - Technical Track 1300 Fido Version 12 1400 Opus 1500 TBBS 1600 Dutchie Friday Afternoon - Legal Track 1300 Amateur versus Commercial Electronic Mail 1400 Legal Aspects of Electronic Mail 1500 Software Use and the Law 1600 Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks Banquet Saturday Morning 0900 FidoNet in North America 1000 FidoNet in Europe 1100 FidoNet Down Under Luncheon Saturday Afternoon 1300 Routing 1400 Extended Addressing: Zones and Points 1500 The FidoNet<=>UseNet Gateway 1600 Future Directions for EchoMail Sunday 1000 IFNA Board of Directors meeting This is still VERY tentative. Most of the speakers have not finalized the title for their talks yet. We are also still lining up additional speakers on additional topics. If you know of anyone willing to speak, or if there is anything else you would like to hear someone talk about, please contact Brian Hughes at 109/634. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-19 Page 3 18 May 1987 Henk Wevers 500/1 Europe Proudly Announces DUTCHIE The first fully operating POINT PROGRAM DUTCHIE is written by Henk Wevers Cloeckendaal 38 NL-6715 JH Ede The Netherlands DUTCHIE Copyright (C) 1987 by Henk Wevers. All rights reserved. 1. Release date of DUTCHIE. Dutchie will be released May 1, 1987. From that date it can be file requested or down loaded from distributing nodes around the globe. See at the end of this article for details. 2. What is DUTCHIE ? Dutchie is basically written to get most of the load off of Fido/OPUS/Seadog BBSes. From now on, you can do almost all of your communication with the BBS offline, Dutchie will take care of sending/receiving files to and from your host and you can now even subscribe to local, national and international echomail conferences. They will be delivered at your home at night and, if you wish, you can have your mail printed out before you wake up in the morning. Messages can be entered locally and transferred to the BBS directly or during lower phone rates at night. 3. What do I need to run a DUTCHIE? At the moment you need an IBM (compatible) PC with around 512K of RAM and two floppy disk drives or a hard disk. The BBS that serves you must run SEAdog, Opus, or Fido, or a combination. For the best service you should pick a node running SEAdog on top of the BBS all day. I guess that Opus will be capable of handling all services also in the near future. The version of Opus that will be able to do so should be 1.00 or above. The sysop of the serving BBS must run BRINKERS, a program to serve DUTCHIES. Please check with him or her. 4. What can Dutchie do ? FidoNews 4-19 Page 4 18 May 1987 Oh Boy, we can write a full manual on this, but let's try to cover most of it. Communications Program ---------------------- First, Dutchie is a simple but very powerful communications program for those cases where you want to deal in real time with the BBS that serves you. We will call that BBS the BOSS from now, and you the POINT. Dutchie is capable of emulating an ANSII terminal (VT-100), can automatically dial the BOSS, and can upload/download with the following protocols: Xmodem-Modem7-Telink-SEAlink. The latter is a VERY fast sliding window protocol supported by Opus and SEAdog. You can change the baud rate given 300/1200/2400/4800/9600 baud support, and choose your communications port (1-4). You can shell to DOS during a session to do all kinds of fiddling. Message editor -------------- Dutchie has a full screen message editor to enter messages locally. You can send and receive those messages with Dutchie's mailer program. A few points: - Full screen editor - Read and write message text from/to disk - Change messages and resend/change already sent messages. - Attach file(s) to messages - Request file(s) from your boss - Send normal (nightly) mail or crash mail directly to your Boss - Multiple area support so you can easily maintain different echomail electronic conferences. Mailer program -------------- Via your Boss you can be attached to the worldwide Fidonet without the hassle of running a Bulletin Board. The only thing you have to do is to make some arrangements with your Boss about forwarding mail, mail times, and costs for forwarding mail and files. In the most simple setup all mail and files are routed through your Boss. He/She will help you to setup things. Remember, if you want a file from your Boss want to send her/him a file there is no need to call into that BBS personally. Just prepare the request or the message at your own time and let DUTCHIE do the rest. Either at night, during cheap hours or directly, if you are in a hurry. The mailer program is simple, and works almost automatically. There are menu choices for sending or requesting files FidoNews 4-19 Page 5 18 May 1987 immediately as well as getting your mail from your boss as soon as possible. We call this crashmail. If you are awaiting crashmail from your boss you can tell Dutchie so and Dutchie will wait until the mail has arrived and then exit. On the other hand, If you want to do the mail at night or will receive so called echomail conferences from your host during the night, you can start Dutchie's Nightwatch utility as soon you have finished working with your machine. Dutchie will deliver mail at the specified times, can receive mail all night and can pickup mail that the Boss is holding for you (you pay the phone bill in this case) or you hold your mail and files until the Boss picks them up (If you find a rich host. Hurry folks those systems will have a lot of Dutchies to serve soon!) The Mail printer ---------------- Dutchie can be told to print out all newly received mail at a specified time. Imagine having your favorite conferences and your private mail available at breakfast! FidoNet ------- Via your Boss you can exchange electronic mail and files with other people using the Amateur Public FidoNet around the world. We are approaching the 2000 attached computers now without any Dutchie on the net yet! How many will these be in a year after Dutchie? IFNA ---- If you are going to use the Public Fidonet, you should consider becoming a member of IFNA, the International FidoNet Association. For a miserable $25, you help prevent the net falling apart. There is a lot of work done behind the scenes only to keep things running! Advanced DUTCHIE features ------------------------- If you are unfamiliar with electronic mail we suggest you use Dutchie in the Basic setup as a POINT under a BOSS for a while. The BOSS will help you and once you have 'grown up' in the electronic mail scene you can make yourself more independent and become a self serving system in the Matrix. (Matrix is the same as Fidonet, Opus people use this name ). The first feature you can enable in Dutchie is the 'External Node scanner'. This means you need a nodelist that is published weekly by IFNA. As soon as you have enabled this feature, DUTCHIE will ask you for a net/node name anytime you were referring to your BOSS. This means you now can automatically FidoNews 4-19 Page 6 18 May 1987 dial up, poll, request files and send files to all nodes in the nodelist. You have gained one more degree of freedom. Another feature is to allow people on your system. If you enable this a human caller (yes Dutchie knows the difference between a human and another machine!) is directed to an external program. This can well be a BBS or just a program of your own you want them to run. There are PD programs that can be used to make a sophisticated system. Now, for the full flavour, Dutchie is capable of much more. You can hook in external 'pack' and 'schedule' programs to get another degree of freedom and do all your mailing yourself, or send where ever you wish. At the moment of writing these programs will still be in beta test, but they will be released soon! Opus's packer Ommm can be used to do this, so watch out for news about this when you are ready for it. Although being a POINT under a BOSS gives you a lot of services with minimal hassle and frustration. THE PRICE --------- Ah well, I could make this product shareware, but why bother? It is free for all noncommercial applications. Restriction is that it must be used in a private situation, that is no government building, no firm, whatever. Only running on your privately owned machine in a private home is allowed. I have put a lot of work in this just to give you the pleasure of using it. If there is money to be made on this it should go to me don't you think? Now, if you don't fall in above category, just contact me. It won't hurt. I'll probably let you use it for free after a written request. In special cases, I may want to discuss things with you person to person. You pay the plane and hotel, I'll come and tell you that it is ok to use it (you may end up paying the bill for a vacation for me and my family in the USA if I think you can afford it ). If you are allowed to use it for free and you like the program, send me a postcard. SYSOPS ------ To serve POINTS you must run Brinkers. Available free. No restriction on the use of Brinkers. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-19 Page 7 18 May 1987 How to Remove Those Pesky, Tattered, Stuck-On Diskette Labels Are you fed up with those ugly, stuck-on diskette labels? Do you have so many layers of labels on your diskettes that you have to force them into your diskette drive? Eh, Bunky, is that what's troublin' you? Well, lift up your head, take a walk in the sunshine and never give up; help is at hand! Removing old diskette labels is a cheap, simple, relatively fast process requiring three things: you, the diskette and some rubber cement. I use "Best Test White Rubber Paper Cement" or "Sanford's Rubber Cement," although any equivalent product should work just as well. (There is also a "Sanford's Thinner" which is used to reconstitute rubber cement which has thickened; since this is probably the solvent alone, it might work just as well as rubber cement; why don't you try it first and let me know how you fare?) First, remove as much of the label as possible manually. Doing this will provide a surface which will be more easily penetrated by the solvent in the rubber cement and will minimize the amount of work you have to do later. Work from the corner; remembering that the diskette is circular inside the jacket, you will be applying no pressure to the diskette itself if you work from the corner. Next, apply a liberal layer of rubber cement to the remaining label and to any glue residue still stuck to the diskette. This step is easiest if you have purchased rubber cement in a bottle having a little applicator brush integrated into the lid. During this process, observe all of the caveats printed on the rubber cement container or, if you really enjoy a Cheap High, work in a small, unventilated area. Next, allow the rubber cement to work for awhile but don't allow it to dry completely. You're looking for that magic moment when the glue holding the label to the diskette has loosened but the rubber cement has not yet dried. Then, using your index finger, work from the edge of the rubber cement area and stroke toward the center of the area. The proper technique is a combination of a stroking and one-fingered finger painting motion. You have to do it to get the idea. As you do this, the rubber cement will dry and will begin to roll up under your finger. If you have timed things right, the label will roll up right along with the rubber cement or will be loose enough to peel away easily, leaving a relatively clean surface underneath. After you have done the above, there could still be some remaining label and/or glue residue. Just repeat the above process once or twice and every shred of evidence that there was ever a diskette label on your diskette will disappear, leaving the diskette pristine! Of course, you must be extremely careful to confine the rubber FidoNews 4-19 Page 8 18 May 1987 cement to the label area. That is, don't allow any material, wet or dry, to stray onto the magnetic surface of the diskette proper. If you lack manual dexterity, small muscle control or are just a complete klutz, reconcile yourself to ugly diskettes. Developing facility with this process will require some experimentation. Start with a diskette that you don't care about; then, work your way up to the diskette containing the only copy of your economic model of the universe. Good luck. This fascinating contribution to the state-of-the- art, high-tech frontier of personal computing was provided by: Joe Vincent 805 Pine Way Anchorage, Ky. 40223 (502) 244-1541 Don't send me any money. Don't send me any diskettes. Don't send me anything. If you have any improvements to the above process or have alternative methods for removing diskette labels, please let me know. I might become the Peter Norton of diskette label removal. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-19 Page 9 18 May 1987 Kilgore Trout, 107/7 High Speed Protocols Quite some time ago we performed a series of benchmark tests aimed at producing an equation for predicting XMODEM file transfer times. The results of those tests were originally published in FidoNews, volume 3, number 7. Insights derived from those tests were directly responsible for the development of the SEAlink file transfer protocol. SEAlink is a variant of XMODEM which employs a sliding window technique in order to eliminate turnaround time and propagation delays. Our tests indicated that such delays are the primary source of lost time in a typical XMODEM transfer at data rates of 1200 bps and higher. YMODEM takes a different approach, in that it uses a larger block size (1024 bytes versus 128 bytes) to reduce the number of times the line must be turned around. The amount of lost time in a YMODEM file transfer should therefore be one eighth of that of an XMODEM file transfer. Additionally, YMODEM has fewer bytes of protocol overhead for a given file transfer than does either XMODEM or SEAlink. This makes it a bit more difficult to relate the two directly. Our original benchmark results came up with the following formula for predicting/XMODEM CRC file transfer times on a local connection: Equation 1: Blocks*1340 Blocks Time in seconds = ----------- + ------ Baud rate 4 The last term is due to line turnaround and propagation delays. Assuming that this is invariant, the equivalent formula for YMODEM would be: Equation 2: Blocks*10300 Blocks Time in seconds = ------------ + ------ Baud rate 4 FidoNews 4-19 Page 10 18 May 1987 Since SEAlink gets rid of the propagation delay and the turnaround time, and also does not kill time waiting for the ACK, the equivalent formula for SEAlink would be: Equation 3: Blocks*1330 Time in seconds = ----------- Baud rate Given a file size of 1,048,576 (1 meg) at 2400 baud, this yeilds: Table 1: Method Blocks Time ------ ------ ---- XMODEM 8192 1h 50m 22s YMODEM 1024 1h 17m 31s SEAlink 8192 1h 15m 40s This is based on a turnaround delay of 0.25 seconds (0.27 seconds was measured). If we assume an additional sattelite lag of 0.5 seconds (single hop, if I remember the numbers correctly), then we get: Table 2: Method Time ------ ---- XMODEM 2h 58m 38s YMODEM 1h 26m 03s SEAlink 1h 15m 40s Assuming zero turnaround delay gives the values: Table 3: Method Time ------ ---- XMODEM 1h 16m 14s YMODEM 1h 13m 15s SEAlink 1h 15m 40s So at some point where the turnaround time is between zero and 0.25 seconds, SEAlink becomes faster than YMODEM. So where is that point? It should be given by the formula: Equation 4: 10640 10300 ----- = ----- + X Baud Baud where X is the turnaround delay in seconds (note that this equation is made by equating equations #2 and #3). This equates to: FidoNews 4-19 Page 11 18 May 1987 Equation 5: 10640 = 10300 + X*Baud or: Equation 6: 340 X = --- Baud Different baud rates yield the following values for X: Table 4: Baud X (seconds) ---- ----------- 300 1.13 1200 0.28 2400 0.14 4800 0.07 9600 0.04 These assumptions are of course based on a clean line. SEAlink becomes markedly superior to YMODEM in the case of sporadic line hits, as (1) SEAlink retransmits fewer bytes than YMODEM, and (2) SEAlink doesn't throw away as much received data when it gets a bad block. Conclusions: We'll ignore the 300 baud case, since YMODEM is using much to big a block for 300 baud. Normal XMODEM is quite sufficient for 300 baud use. At 1200 baud YMODEM is slightly superior to SEAlink for local connections on clean lines, due to less protocol overhead. SEAlink becomes slightly superior on very long distance connections where propagation delays become a factor. At 2400 baud SEAlink should be slightly superior even on a local connection, becoming increasingly preferable at higher baud rates. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-19 Page 12 18 May 1987 ================================================================= COLUMNS ================================================================= Host net 508, Node:508/4 Tel. int+55 421284 Ignaat Simons Chopinlaan 3 7333GA Apeldoorn Netherlands HAYES modems and compatables. 1. Introduction. In the world of modem freaks and slowly on in the industrial world, the HAYES modem is a defacto standard. The official standards like RS232c (USA) and V24/V28 (CCITT) describe the Physical part of a data circuit, while the V25 (CCITT) describes the A(uto) C(call) U(unit) function. The speeds and usage of the modems are laid down by the CCITT V- standards, mainly in the V21 till V36 books. Due to the different country and telephone company laws, modems are different and not compatable with each other, exept modems of one vendor. Some years ago, it was very unwise to make a connection with two different modems, even if they claimed to be according a V-xx norm. Mostly this was no problem, because a data transport was mainly between two predefined points via a leased line or switched network. The connection was buildup manual, or made automatic via autocall function ACU (V25/RS232). The HAYES-300 modem (I think this was the start), besides the Physical RS232/V24/V28 norm did specify the modem control command level between modem and terminal via the AT leadin and the +++ command to return from a data state to the command state. Also it describes the handling of automatic speed detection. This command set enables operators and application programmers to buildup a connection via normal conversation. As it could be programmed, the connection via a switched network was possible automatical via simple statements like "CALL John". The original HAYES-300 was not using call procedures like 108/1 or 108/2 (DTR circuit). With the HAYES-1200, this command set was extended to cope with more than one line speed, the BELL 103 and BELL 212A. The last one more or less compatable with the CCITT V22 norm. Also the automatic speed selection in 'answering' mode was build in. With the HAYES- 2400, the set was dramatically extended with three speeds, BELL-103, BELL-212A and the CCITT V22 and V22bis norms. So handling also in 'answering' mode an automatic selection. As the BELL-212A and V22 uses a PSK (four-level phase shift keying) and V22bis uses QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) technic, which were designed for synchronous modems, the HAYES-modem translates the asynchrone data into FidoNews 4-19 Page 13 18 May 1987 a synchronous way by inserting and consequently removing a STOP bit in periods where no character is send. The HAYES- 1200 is not compatible with the BELL-212A/V22 synchronous modems. The HAYES-2400 is also in this aspect compatible and serves also the formal Half duplex (RTS/CTS-handling). As the HAYES-1200 did serve only the CCITT 108/2 mode, the HAYES-2400 supports also the 108/1 mode. Really you can say, the HAYES-2400 is a complex intelligent unit. Despite the well written handbook of HAYES, it is a hard job to make a compatible one. From all modems (compatibles) I have seen, there are a few which come close to the HAYES, the most are fare away. As my job is Faultfinder (Support), I really was very pleased, HAYES did implement in the HAYES-2400, a really complete circuit test via the S16-register, even with remote commands, so the fully V54 norm of CCITT. As most Hobbyist but even profesionals have big problems with reliable circuit connections, and more the solvation of it, a modem without this feature nowadays isn't worth the word MODEM so certainly not the word HAYES. 2. HAYES-clones. What is "compatible". Really nothing if not exactly said with WHAT. "HAYES compatible" is to vaque. "HAYES command set compatible" is better. Most modems, so not all, are only compatible with a "subset of HAYES command set". But also most "hayes" modems have commands not existing with hayes. Some unlucky vendors did use commands or registers not used with hayes-1200 at that time, but later used in the HAYES- 2400. (Bad Ques). The best I can say most of the better clones are more or less compatible upto HAYES-1200. As I don't know if besides HAYES-1200 and the HAYES-2400, also a HAYES-300 exists, I further only refer to this two, from which both I have the specifications. In Europe a lot of 'hayes' modems with only the V21 and V23 speeds exists, which are similar, but absolute not connectable, with the BELL-103 and BELL-202 norm modems. As most application programs only use a small set of the HAYES-command set, most clones will run with these packages such that the user is pleased, not to use his fingers and ear to make a connection. This if he has a user friendly telephone company (are there), but mostly the results are hopeless in peak hours, if there is a mismatch between the modem commands and the terminal commands. I had a modem and a terminal program and on some day no nice CALL was succesfully. With finger and ear there was no problem. Reaction of the terminal was "BUSY". The real point was, the modem did not pickup in ATX2 mode the dial tone from the Telephone company, so didn't start dialling. As the modem had not a speaker (for cheapness), I could not use the ATM1 FidoNews 4-19 Page 14 18 May 1987 command, to follow the connection process. The dial signal was strong enough, but the frequency was a little ouside (WHO's) specification. 3. The HAYES set. With this I hope, without copying the whole 250 pages of both Hayes handbooks, to give enough information to understand the HAYES-set and the differences. Hayes propose to use as terminal program, the Hayes Smartcom II Version 2.1. 3.1. The Physical DCE/DTE-lines. With DTE is meant the Data Terminal Equipment (Your terminal or Host computer) and with DCE the Data Circuit (termination) Equipment (all equipment between two modems RS232 plugs). The HAYES-1200B is the 1200 type but as a card to be fitted into an IBM-PC. The same for HAYES-2400B. The pin assignments must be in accordance to ISO 2110. Pin # Circuit Towards Description 1200 2400 EIA/CCITT 1 AA 101 N/A prot. ground x x 7 AB 102 N/A signal ,, x x 2 BA 103 DCE transmit data x x 3 BB 104 DTE receive data x x 4 CA 105 DCE request to send x 5 CB 106 DTE clear to send H x 6 CC 107 DTE data set ready R x 20 108.1 DCE connect data set x x 20 CD 108.2 DCE data term. ready x x 22 CE 125 DTE ring indicator x x 8 CF 109 DCE data carrier detected x x 23 CI 112 DTE select altern. rate x 12 CI DTE as previous (Bell212) x x 24 DA 113 DCE TX-clock (DTE source) x 15 DB 114 DTE TX-clock (synchr.) x 17 DD 115 DTE RX-clock (synchr.) x Remark: x means served by the modem. H means tied to +10 volt (True). R means tied to pin 8. Pin 20 (DTR) can be simulated in the 1200 and 1200B type with a dipswitch. Pin 6 and 8 can be forced to true in the 1200 and 1200B type with a dipswitch. 3.2. The telephone line. On the telephone lin level some distinction can be made on FidoNews 4-19 Page 15 18 May 1987 the HAYES-2400, between jack type RJ12/RJ13 (multi line jack) and the RJ11/RJ41S/RJ45S (single line jack). The 1200 only supports the RJ11 (single line), RJ12/RJ13 (multi line), which can be set by dipswitches. This typically is different per country. In the USA and some other countries, the telephone set remaines connected in parallel to the modem. In other countries like the Netherlands the telephone set is switched of, as soon as the modem goes off-hook. 3.3. The modulation frequencies and call setup phase tones. The following information is not exactly the HAYES-modem information, but a hopefully readable extract from the CCITT-norms. As I have not the Bell-norms, more or less the USA norms are deducted from other documents. The frequencies used with the different baudrates are: 3.3.1. For the F(requency) S(hift) K(eying) methodes. These can be used as well as Synchrone. Norm Send Receive Answ. mode '0' '1' '0' '1' tone Bell-103(ORG) 1070 1270 2025 2225 1270 300 FD Bell-103(ANS) 2025 2225 1070 1270 2225 300 FD Bell-202(main) 2200 1200 2200 1200 2025 1200 HD Bell-202(back) 487 387 487 387 - 0-150 HD V21 (ORGinate) 1180 980 1850 1650 980 300 FD V21 (ANSwer) 1850 1650 1180 980 2100 300 FD V23-1 (main) 1700 1300 2100 1300 2100 600 HD V23-2 (main) 2100 1300 1700 1300 2100 1200 HD V23 (back) 450 390 450 390 - 0-150 HD Remark: '0'= "start bit" = "space" '1'= "stop bit" = "mark" FD = Full Duplex, HD = Half Duplex. Important is, the modems use filter technics to seperate the transmit channel and receive channel. Some autoanswering modems also by filter technics decide in which mode they are called. 3.3.2. Automatic answering sequence (V25). If ringing is received on the line, the CE/CT125 circuit (pin 22) will be raised true. If CD/108 circuit was true, the modem goes OFF-HOOK. If not the modem waits for a true signal on CD/108 (pin 20), before it goes OFF-HOOK. The modem remains after 'off hook', for 1.8-2.5 sec. silent and then transmits the 2100 Hz. answer tone during 2.6-4.0 sec. or till 100msec. after a response from the calling station. At least now 75 msec. silence is maintained. The 2100 Hz is intended to disable network echo cancellers or echo suppressors and is reversed in phase every 425-475 msec. Now the circuit CC/107 (pin 6) is set true to indicate to the terminal, a connection is ready. The calling modem reacts on the answer tone also by setting circuit CC/107 (pin 6) true. FidoNews 4-19 Page 16 18 May 1987 A response normally as mentioned is the frequency of a binary '1'. If the equipment of the telephone company does not have echo control devices, the 2100 Hz tone may be replaced by any other tone e.g. directly the binary '1'. Only after this sequence (or in ommission of it) directly the autospeed modems will determine the baudrate norm. In Europe, with its V23-splitbaud rate complexity, there are Hayes compatibles trying to select at the moment after the answer sequence to select: V21, V23 (viditel), V22 and V22bis. This means actually a detection criteria for carrier frequencies at 980/1180 (V21), 450/390 (V23) and 1200 V22(bis) modulated with 600 baud. At the same time all kind of frequencies like 2100, 550, 1800 Hz. and busy tone, dial tones around 425 Hz. has to be ignored. 3.3.3. For the D(iferential) P(hase) S(hift) K(eying) and the Q(uadrature) A(mplitude) M(odulation) methodes. These methodes are primarly for synchrone transmission, but asynchrone is allowed by inserting extra stop bits between characters. Norm Send Rec. Guard tone Mode Methode V22 (ORG) 1200 2400 - 600/1200 FD DPSK V22 (ANS) 2400 1200 1800(550) 600/1200 FD DPSK V22(bis) (ORG) 1200 2400 - 1200/2400 FD QAM V22(bis) (ANS) 2400 1200 1800(550) 1200/2400 FD QAM Bell-212A (ORG) 1200 2400 - 1200 FD DPSK Bell-212A (ANS) 2400 1200 - 1200 FD DPSK The guard tone is only send in the high channel (2400 Hz. carrier, so by the answering modem, but can be disabled per country. The 550 guard tone is another option. Basically the Bell-212 and the CCITT-V22 are the same. But in detail there are differences. Which, I don't know yet for sure, it may be the scrambled '0' instead '1's (see lateron). But in the HAYES-2400, there is a command ATBn, with which the BELL-212 (n=1) or V22 (n=0) is selected. This only for the 1200 baud FD mode. The V22bis is fully compatible with the V22 norm. The difference between V22 (600/1200 baud) and V22bis (1200/2400 baud) is V22 works with 2 dibits and V22bis with quadbits. The way of working of PSK/QAM modems is to complex to explain here, but it is important to know that a phase change of the modulated carrier of: 0 degrees is equal to dibit 01 90 degrees is equal to dibit 00 180 degrees is equal to dibit 10 270 degrees is equal to dibit 11 These first two bits in the V22bis quadbit are compatible with the dibits of V22, to remain compatabilty for fallback mode. The V22bis has another 4 levels of detection by means of a quadrature amplitude modulation technic. FidoNews 4-19 Page 17 18 May 1987 3.3.4. Automatic answering mode V22(bis). At calling time the sequence as described above with the FSK type modem is valid for the V22(bis). The called modem reacts instead or after the answer sequence with unscrambled binary '1's at 1200 bit/sec. and well in the upper channel (2400 Hz. carrier). This till it detects scrambled '0' or '1's in the lower channel (1200 Hz. carrier). The calling modem remains silent till it for 155 msec. detects unscrambled '1's in the upper channel, after which it remains silent for 456 msec. and then transmit unscrambled double dibits 00 and 11, if in V22bis mode, for 100 msec. followed by scrambled binary '1's or if in V22 mode it transmits direct scrambled binary '1's (*). Here the distinction 1200/2400 baud is made by the calling modem. The called modem reacts with scrambled '1's preceded, if V22bis with the unscrambled double dibit 00 and 11. At the moment of detection of the double dibits, the circuit CI/112 (pin 12) is set true (indicating 2400 baud). In both cases the scrambled '1's are observed for 600 msec. after which the circuit CF/109 (pin 8) is set true. If V22 (1200) the data transfer is started under control of CA/104 (pin 3). In the V22bis mode (2400), first scrambled binary '1's are send form both sides for 200 msec. on 2400 bit/sec. mode. Noted, that till now all was transmitted on 1200 bit/sec. After this 200 msec. also the V22bis mode is ready for data transfer. I know it is confusing, but so it works. To make it more difficult, the (*) mentioned in the text is true for V22bis and for V22 alternative A and B only. For V22 alternative C, for the '1's you have to read '0's. As the V22 norm is very confusing on some aspects, one remark has to be made. In V22 (not V22bis) 3 alternatives can be selected. Alternative A and B are compatible with V22bis, but alternative C not. The difference is the scrambled binary '0's stead '1's of the calling modem. So the real difference between alternatives A/B and C is, that alternative C includes the possibility for mode V, for anisochronenous data upto 300 bit/sec. Which manufacturer tells me which alternative as mentioned in V22 he serves. Or has this to do with the Bell-212 norm. Who can tell? Has this to do with the famous ATBn command in the HAYES-2400 modem? See above. Be carefully with these V22 and Bell-212A norms. As explained before only the 2400 baud (V22bis) is compatible. The 1200 sometimes works, but sometimes not. E.g. I had an USA RIXTON 212 modem, not corrected for the European market. Also I had a Dutch designed (DATAD) V22(bis) V23 and V21 modem and an English (PACE) for the same speeds. The RIXTON works pretty most at the time with both the DATAD and PACE modem. But sometimes it goes wrong and the Eurpeans connects at 2400, which is strange, but true. With an original HAYES- 1200 (with no ATBn) command as the HAYES-2400 has, nearly the same result. The two Europeans hardly are connectable at 1200 baud to each other. This has in my opinion to do with FidoNews 4-19 Page 18 18 May 1987 the way of speed selection. We try to come out of this struggle. 3.4. Some advise on real physical level. If you are ggiing into communications with modems and you have no Telecomfreak-friend close to you and you want no nervous breakdown in the near future, have at least a "breakbox", self made or from the shop. This to follow the different DTE/DCE levels. If you want to log a HAYES session to evaluate the connection process or data exchange process, make from your old computer a "DATASCOPE". (See Appendix A for some suggestions). An other advise is to standardise your cable set. As some manufactures make a mash of the V24 or RS232C pins, you have not to follow it. On telephone line level it is handy to have in your surrounding a scope or frequency counter. 3.5. Connection of the terminal to the HAYES. The Hayes modem has a minimum and a maximum baud rate. If you connect a terminal to the modem, make sure you have the right pins connected in relation with the dipswitches. Also if you have selected e.g. 108/2 mode, be sure your terminal program support them. It is possible to connect only the pins 2,3 and 7. So in this case the DTR and the DCD are forced true. In general I don't like this methode. With the Hayes-1200, RTS and CTS are not used, so only full duplex is possible. With Hayes-2400 you have to use these signals only if you use the Half Duplex mode (Synchrone mode). Otherwise RTS (pin 4) is neglected and CTS (pin 5) is set true. So if you have connected the terminal properly, at the time you give an 'A' or 'a', the modem decides what the baudrate is and set the terminal interface UART according to it. Hayes is very street forward. This speed is maintained till after the , which always finishes a command line. With the next A from a new AT command line, a new speed can be defined. There is one other possibility. In auto answer mode or if a call is made, the baudrate can be else as the speed in the last passed command mode. This on real modem level, the baudrate detection selects another speed. The Hayes reacts with the connect code on this last command mode speed and than switches to the new speed. To give an example. Suppose the terminalspeed is 2400 baud. A dial is made towards a 1200 baud only modem. The Hayes will start the connect phase as described in 3.3.2. but finally will get a connection on 1200 baud. So he will react towards the terminal with 2400 baud with 'CONNECT' or '1', switches back to 1200 baud, which the terminal has to follow, otherwise it result in a terminal/modem mismatch. Also a +++ on 2400 baud will not be accepted. Only 1200 baud, from this moment on. So suppose the established call at 1200 baud is broken. The Hayes will, after the carrier disappear, fall back into command mode still in 1200 baud. The terminal has to give an AT FidoNews 4-19 Page 19 18 May 1987 on 2400 baud if it wants the original 2400 baud connection again. 3.6. The differences in the Hayes command set. Very short a comparision between HAYES-1200 and HAYES-2400 modem will be given and only per command a short functional recoqnition. First however the Hayes command-input line. It starts with AT or at (no mix of UPPER/lower) and ends with a cariage return from now on indicated with . The only exeption is the A/ command, which needs no . During commandline editing backspace (hex '08') is accepted. One or more commands can be given after one leading AT. The max. length of the input string however is 40 char. Blanks can be inserted for more readability. Command. What does it. Hayes-1200 Hayes-2400 Return code AT Attention y y OK A/ Repeat last comm. y y depends A Off hook (ANS) y y none (data) Bn 1200 (V22/Bell) - n=0-1,1 OK Cn TX off/on n=0-1 - OK D Dial y y see modifier En Echo off/on(comm) n=0-1 n=0-1,1 OK Fn Echo off/on(data) n=0-1 - OK Hn Hook on/off/spec. n=0-2 n=0-1 none (data) In prod.code/prom-cc n=0-1 n=0-2 info Ln Speaker (L/M/H) - n=0-2,1 OK Mn Speaker off/on n=0-2 n=0-3,1 OK On Online only O n=0-1 none (data) P Set pulse dial y y OK Qn Result code Y/N n=0-1 n=0-1,0 OK Sr=n Set reg. r to n r=0-16 r=0-27 OK Sr? Display reg. r r=0-16 r=0-27 contents r T Set touch dial y y OK Vn Result code N/W n=0-1 n=0-1,1 OK Xn Dial process n=0-1 n=0-4,4 OK Yn Long disconn. - n=0-1,0 OK Zn Reset only Z n=0-1 OK &Cn DCD on/carrier - n=0-1,0 OK &Dn DTR modes - n=0-3,0 OK &F Load factory set - y OK &Gn Gaurd tone - n=0-2,0 OK &Jn RJ-jack sel. - n=0-1,0 OK &Mn Asynch./Synchr. - n=0-3,0 OK &Pn Pulse ratio - n=0-1,0 OK &Rn CTS mode - n=0-1,0 OK &Sn DSR mode - n=0-1,0 OK &Tn Test local/remote - n=0-8 OK &V Display conf/tel - y OK &Wn Write conf. MOS - n=0-1 OK &Xn Line clock mode - n=0-2,0 Ok &Yn Sel. default prof.- n=0-1 OK &Zn Store teleph. nr. - n=0-3 OK FidoNews 4-19 Page 20 18 May 1987 Remark: n=0-2,1 means, n can be 0,1,2 and 1=default. If n=0 this may ommitted. (ATV0 equal to ATV). All numbers are in decimal (max.=255). Dial What does Hayes-1200 Hayes-2400 Modifier it P Pulse dial y y R Reverse to ANSW y y Sn Dial stored tel. - n=0-3 T Touch dial y y W Wait 2e dialtone - y . Pause y y ! Flash - y @ Wait for silence - y ; Return to comm. y y The registers. Reg. What does it. Hayes-1200 Hayes-2400 S0 Ring to answ.on 0-255 0-255,00 S1 Ring count 0-255,00 0-255,00 S2 Escape code 0-127,43 0-127,43 ASCII S3 Cariage return 0-127,13 0-127,13 ASCII S4 Line feed code 0-127,10 0-127,10 ASCII S5 Back space code 0-127,08 0-127,08 ASCII S6 Wait for dial tone 0-255,02 0-255,02 Sec. S7 Wait for carrier 1-30,30 1-30,30 Sec. S8 Pause time comma 0-255,02 0-255,02 Sec. S9 Carrier detect time 1-255,06 1-255,06 1/10 Sec. S10 Lost carrier time 1-255,07 1-255,14 1/10 Sec. S11 DTMF dialing speed 50-255,70 50-255,95 mSec. S12 Escape code guard 0-255,50 0-255,50 1/50 Sec. S13 UART status reg. y y S14 Option reg. y x'AA' S15 Flag reg. y y S16 Modem test 0-2,0 bit settings S17 res. - res. S18 Modem test time - 1-255,00 Sec. S19 Res. - Res. S20 Res. - Res. S21 Bit mapped options - 00 S22 Bit mapped options - x'76' S23 Bit mapped options - 07 S24 Res. - Res. S25 Detect DTR change - 0-255,05 1/100 Sec. S26 RTS to CTS delay - 0-255,01 1/100 Sec. S27 Bit mapped options - x'40' Remark: 1-255,01 means, range 1 till 255, 01=default. All numbers are in decimal (max.=255). x'76' is hexadecimal. FidoNews 4-19 Page 21 18 May 1987 Return codes Hayes-1200 Hayes-2400 Digit Word 0 OK y y 1 CONNECT y y 2 RING y y 3 NO CARRIER y y 4 ERROR y y 5 CONNECT 1200 y y 6 NO DIALTONE - y 7 BUSY - y 8 NO ANSWER - y 9 reserved - - 10 CONNECT 2400 - y ======== Appendix A. Datascope. A datascope looks to both the RXD and the TXD line of a V24/RS232C line. So only follows what happens on the line. There are very nice commercial packages as FELINE, HP etc., but they are expensive and they use mostly a special POD to connect to the V24 line. Most of them you have to preset on one speed and than to start the logging. If you have an old computer with better two speed programmable UART or a SIO chip and you can program them in Assembler/basic/pascal or C, you can make your one one. The next story is a simplified logunit only to log datastreams preceded with a AT-string. Most of the application programs works in terminal session as well filetransport in a half duplex mode. Or better, never the TX and RX line transports a character. So basically in default you have to look to the TXD-line, and look at 2400 baud for a character x'41','06', '78' or '01'. At that moment you know that probably the speed is 2400, 1200, 600 or 300 baud. You get on line speeds 600 and 1200 a framing error, because the stop-bit is not detected. Now depending the detected speed you have to wait (time-out) till the rest of the character is passed, then you have to change the speed of your comm-port, and await for the 'T', If it is a 'T' than you have the speed, if not wait on 2400 baud for the posibilities as described above. The basic idee behind this is really simple. If you listen with 2400 bit/sec to a 300 bit/sec send character, the start bit is detected and will serve for the startbit and 7 bits char. bits (so 7 zero bits). The eights char. bit is formed of the LSB bit and well 1/8 portion of it. The second portion will be the stop bit. So if on the line really is transmitted a 600 bit/sec char., the same is true with 1/4 portions. Furthermore you have to look to both the TXD and RXD line, if on one a char. is received. If so you put this char. in its own buffer and in the other one a x'00'. Lateron you can print it out, one line from buffer RXD, one line from buffer TXD in Hex or FidoNews 4-19 Page 22 18 May 1987 ASCII (or both) outfit. Go on on the same speed till you didn't receive for 30 sec. any character on both lines and start again with AT synchronisation. In fact the HAYES inside micro computer is doing the same. Don't try to write the buffer to disk at first instance, because you need a DMA at least, but also 2 buffers. So buffer it in memory only. You can try to write to disk in the silence just before the new AT string. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-19 Page 23 18 May 1987 Ryugen Fisher What's Hopp-ening? Most of the readers of this newsletter are unfamiliar with my name and have little idea why I would be writing an occasional column. Those who are fortunate enough to get ECHOMAIL have probably seen my mutterings but might well not recognize the me as Ryugen Fisher. Instead they know me as "That Old Frog" SYSOP of 220/1, The Old Frog's Swamp. Recently, I was asked to serve as the chairfrog of the FTSC (Fido Technical Standards Committee) and it is in that capacity that I am writing you today. As some of you may know, the job of the FTSC is to document and make available to users or developers the "complicated" parts of the way that Fido and Opus and SEAdog and ?????? talk to each other so that when the systems attempt to talk to each other, there is every chance that they will succeed. This is why "Net Mail" and "Echo Mail" and many of your everyday useful utilities work, because they are written to the specifications of a published (and available) standard. Additionally the FTSC advises the Board of Directors about new products (hardware and software) that might affect the net. In this effort, I am fortunate enough to have the outstanding contributions of (in alphabetical order) Ben Baker, Bob Hartman, Thom Henderson, Tom Jennings [occasionally!], Ken Kaplan, Vince Perriello, Wynn Wagner and Gee Wong. I doubt that there is a board anywhere in the world that is not using programs developed by at least 3 of these illustrious gentlemen. These, then, are the members of the FTSC committee and I wish to publicly thank them for their past, present and continuing contributions. Recently, there have been many questions about the new 9600 baud modems. Some of you may have them, most do not. Of course, those folks that do have them are anxious to see them on the weekly nodelist, and I can not blame them for this. At the present time, the 9600 baud modems are not listed on the "official" nodelist although Mr. Mike Johnson (Tulsa) is preparing a list of 9600 HST modems that you can add with XLATLIST to the official list if you have a 9600 HST and wish to try to link with someone else that has one. Many people have asked why the 9600 baud modem is not on the official list, and explaining that is the second reason for this column. The first reason that the 9600 baud has not become a "standard" is that Fido, in any of its versions currently available, will NOT work at 9600 baud. Opus and SEAdog will handle the 9600 baud throughput, but Fido just won't do it. I'm sure that you will agree that this is an important consideration. We hope that as the new Fido 12 and Opus 1.XX finish their testing, more sysops will change to one of these systems and thus support 9600 baud modems. But, while software development is one issue, it is not the only (or even the major) one. FidoNews 4-19 Page 24 18 May 1987 The major issue is compatibility. Simple put, unlike the 2400 baud modem that was designed to a standard so that Hayes and USR and Multitech, etc could all produce a modem that could and would talk to another brand, in the evolving world of 9600 baud modems, there are not two brands of reliable modems that can talk to each other at 9600 baud. Nor do all the brands "step down" to a slower speed in the same way. What this means is that a U S Robotics 9600 HST cannot connect with a 9600 Telebit and neither of them talk to a 9600 Microcom. And such major modem manufacturers as Racal Vadic, Hayes, Anchor and Multitech have not yet even released a product! But, they are going to. And as each of them is released, we will do our best to test and evaluate, hoping that a common industry standard will soon be reached. When that happens, when two diverse brands of modems are able to repeatedly connect with each other at 9600 baud and can pass the committee's other tests, you can be certain that you will read about it HERE before you see it in PC WEEK or INFOWORLD. What we are hesitant about is that at this time the FidoNet network is the largest network in the world and our adoption in the nodelist of a "non-standard" modem might well (artificially and prematurely) serve to create a "defacto" standard that actually RETARDS the development of a really great 9600 baud modem. At this time, NONE of our testers were willing to spend their $$$ on the products. And as long as that remains true, we can not, in good conscience, actively or BY IMPLICATION encourage you to purchase a 9600 baud modem. We would like you to know that questions regarding the "standard" F-O-S (Fido/Opus/Seadog) interface can be addressed to the FTSC at 220/1 or via U.S. Snail at: Standards Committee P.O. Box 1061 Rhinelander, WI 54501 Questions can be addressed by IFNA members and non-members alike, and we will do our best to assist you. That "Community and Continuity" Old Frog ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-19 Page 25 18 May 1987 -- The Regular Irregular Column -- Dale Lovell 157/504 I'd like to start off this column by thanking all of those who have taken the time to write to me. One of the things I like best about this column is hearing from someone I've been able to help (or who thought I had something interesting to say). While the echomail conferences are fine for some things (like asking questions), I think FidoNews is a better method of distributing information that you think many people might need. Even information that would only apply to sysops (a new or improved utility for example), not all sysops have the time or resources to read every message in the sysop echomail conference. While it looks like FidoNews is getting many more submissions recently, it still looks a little pale at times. Let's all try to keep FidoNews in mind when we discover any useful information. -- Oops... I goofed (Correction department) -- In my column on PageMaker and Ventura Publisher there is a mistake. There is a run-time version of Windows. Since Ventura didn't need GEM (it had a run-time version built-in), but PageMaker needed Windows (the package even came with a full Windows) I had assumed that there was no run-time version of Microsoft Windows. David Dyer-Bennet (Sysop 14/341) brought this to my attention. It seems that Microsoft includes a run-time version of Windows in its Windows Development Kit. I don't know why Aldus didn't take advantage of it with PageMaker, but it does exist. -- Postscript, Laser Printers, and such -- In the same column I had asked if there were any other Postscript laser printers in the market. It was brought to my attention a device by The Laser Connection called PS Jet. PS Jet replaces the top of a Hewlett Packard LaserJet (or anything built on the same engine like the Canon Laser printer) and turns it into a Postscript Laser Printer. Please note that this can NOT be used with the new HP LaserJet series II, only with their original LaserJet printers. In addition to this I found a list of PostScript printers in the latest issue of BYTE magazine. The list includes the ITT Qume Scrip Ten, the NEC SilentWriter LC- 890, the QMS PS 800 and PS 2400, and the Texas Instruments OMNILASER 2108. Armed with this list of names I went down to my local dealer and found out that he is able to order the TI printer. Some people suggested to me that something like a LaserJet and the JLaser board would be much quicker than PostScript. The problem I'd have with this is Ventura doesn't really give you that much more for a JLaser. It may be able to do some graphics quicker and allow you to print in reverse text (white on black), but it doesn't give you the variety of type faces and sizes. That's where Postscript really shows its' stuff. With most of the laser printers you have to define a font in every size you need. FidoNews 4-19 Page 26 18 May 1987 If you design a special font, you have to create it in EVERY size you intend to use it. A printer using PostScript doesn't have this liability. A font is defined by it's outline. If the font is there, great tell it what size you want to use for now. Ventura knows about this and gives you the greatest variety and flexibility with a PostScript printer. Graphics with PostScript are indeed slow, but it also allows some special things with them. If you import an AutoCad drawing into Ventura, when printed (to a Postscript device) it will show with the greatest resolution possible. If you're using a laser printer, 300 dpi (dots per inch). If you have a Linotype Linotronic L300 with the PostScript RIP, it comes out at 2540 dpi. This way you are always getting the highest resolution possible. I don't how PostScript does these tricks, especially enlarging and reducing a font smoothly, but it does do them and do them well. For more information on this, I'd recommend you pick up the May 1987 issue of BYTE magazine. There are several articles on DeskTop Publishing, with a few dedicated to PostScript. -- Updates and comments -- Incidentally, Xerox has released version 1.1 of Ventura Publisher. Included in the new release is support for many more printers (the original version knew about less than a dozen), and better support for some of the existing printers. One of the extended features in Version 1.1 is the support of PostScript download fonts. I've seen a few of these advertised for the PC, and it's nice to see that Xerox isn't going to ignore what is going on in the real world. Continuing support can be hard to find these days. The price for a new copy remains the same ($895) and updates are $100. I don't see anything wrong with this fee, as it should include quite a bit of updates to the manual. While I would normally complain loudly about having to pay for an update, I'm not going to complain about this one. While it would be nice for companies to give top notch support after you've purchased their product (read give free updates), it would make software prices unreasonable. Can you imagine the price increase for a piece of software if "included" in the price was a few decades of updates? While it would be nice, I can't see it as being practical. If the update is because of a major bug, I think it the company should send the updates free. But when it's a "legitimate" update, I see no reason not to charge a reasonable fee. If the update just consists of new disks, I can't see charging that much for it. On the other hand, if the update includes a new manual (only if needed, I have little use for duplicates of manuals) I can easily see the need to charge for it (printing costs can be very high). -- MathCAD (MathSoft, List Price $249) -- I was given a demonstration of MathCAD this past week by a professor at a local college. I've been interested in MathCAD since I saw one of their ads. It looked like an interesting FidoNews 4-19 Page 27 18 May 1987 program and while I still can't afford it, I did want to take a look at it. The demonstration was by no means a real "test run" although I did have a chance to play with it for awhile. I was very impressed with MathCAD's capabilities. It really is a "spreadsheet" for engineers in the way that Lotus is a spreadsheet for accountants. In almost no time at all I was getting it to calculate the results to somewhat complicated (to me at least) formulas. Since I knew I was going to get a chance to try it, I brought several of my old college texts in Calculus, Computer Science, and Physics. I was able to get MathCAD to solve many of the examples (and problems) from each textbook, even going so far as to graph the equations. For the first time I was able to "see" how much faster different sorting algorithms were for a number of elements to be sorted. All I had to do was enter the formula for average number of "swaps" (obtained out of the textbook) for each algorithm, give a range to represent the number of elements, and graph each function. Total elapsed time was less than 10 minutes, and that's including some learning time as well! When I was in college, it would have taken me over a day to write a program to analyze the different functions and graph them, and even then my graphs would have been much cruder (due to lack of graphics experience and laziness). Since MathCAD lets you insert text anywhere, my "spreadsheet" could very easily have been a handout from a college course. Everything neatly labeled, functions looking like they do in textbooks (no sqr(), but a "real" root symbol), and explanations for everything. it would have been nice to have had this when I was in college, a lot of the work would have been completed in minutes instead of hours. While I wouldn't recommend you send your children off to college with a copy of MathCAD, it would be to easy for them to just finish the book work instead of actually learning about the topic. I would recommend this program to anyone who has to do a lot of function solving in the course of their work. This would probably include almost anyone designing electronic components, buildings, and the like. Overall I am very impressed with the program. It will work with any graphics cards (CGA, EGA, and Hercules mono) and takes advantage of a math coprocessor if it's installed. If you plan on running it on an XT (even a turbo XT) get an 8087, it will crawl without one. I'd go so far as to recommend a math coprocessor for any machine it's going to be run on frequently. That's the only drawback I could find in the hour or so I was able to use the program, and I can barely see that as a drawback. Anyone who is using their computer for a math intensive application (like MathCAD or a CAD program) should have an 8087/80287. It can make a world of difference between barely running, and running quite well (and quickly). -- Winding down -- The best game I've come across this week is Silent Service from Microprose (list price $34.95). Last week I mentioned that I hadn't been able to get it to run. Well, the problem was in their copy protection scheme. It just didn't like my NEC V20. I ended up pulling the V20 out and putting the 8088 back in order to get FidoNews 4-19 Page 28 18 May 1987 it to boot. While I can't condone a copy protection scheme that is this unforgiving (or a program that only supports the CGA video card like this one), I really do enjoy Silent Service. There are several different "games" within the program ranging from target practice to war patrol. I've been busy with the latter for the most part (I was already familiar with the game from my Commodore days). I start off at one of the three Pacific sub bases and patrol the Japanese shipping lanes. I'm told when I run across a ship or convoy. Since there are many types of ships I can decide if the convoy is worth the time involved (one freighter is not worth taking on 3 destroyers). While I've been concentrating on the big ships (tankers and troop ships), I have gone after large convoys of freighters. My biggest problems have been with the "Kaibokan" destroyers. You usually only get one good chance at hitting a convoy, after the first torpedo "salvo" the convoy starts zig-zagging and the destroyers escorting them come looking for you! It is a very accurate simulation of World War II submarine warfare and can be very addicting. If you getting tired of the standard shoot 'em up style games yet still want some action, look into Silent Service. Just be prepared to deal with strategy as well as good aim. The best book I've found is "Solutions in C" by Rex Jaeschke (Addison-Wesley, $17.95 list). It covers some of the more advanced topics of C, and has helped me to understand my compiler a little better. Most of the books I've seen on C don't cover topics like stack and heap management, and in some cases this could be very important. It also goes into more detail than most of my other C books on structures, arrays, bit fields and the like. This is not the book for someone just beginning to learn C, but it does do nicely for someone who is trying to learn more than is discussed in most of the books available on C. I plan on making it a permanent part of my library and would recommend that others do the same. As usual there's quite a bit lying around that I haven't gotten around to looking at yet. Part of the reason is lack of time, but some of it is lack of interest. I would really like to hear from some of you on programs that you've found to be worthwhile. Not only will you "get your name in lights" (I try to give credit where credit is due), but you could save me a lot of time as well. Below you'll find my US mail address, uucp address, and FidoNet net/node number. If you're sending me netmail through FidoNet, please route it through 157/1 (157/0 will work as well, but I hit 157/1 more often). Next week, I'll give you the current results on my valspeak/LEX project. Dale Lovell 3266 Vezber Drive Seven Hills, OH 44131 uucp: ..!ncoast!lovell FidoNet: 157/504 ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-19 Page 29 18 May 1987 ================================================================= NOTICES ================================================================= The Interrupt Stack 24 May 1987 Metro-Fire Fido's Second Birthday BlowOut and Floppy Disk Throwing Tournament! All Fido Sysops and Families Invited! Contact Christopher Baker at 135/14 for more information. SEAdogs may GET more information by requesting FPICMAP.ARC from 135/14. 20 Aug 1987 Start of the Fourth International FidoNet Conference, to be held at the Radisson Mark Plaza Hotel in Alexandria, VA. Contact Brian Hughes at 109/634 for more information. This is FidoNet's big annual get-together, and is your chance to meet all the people you've been talking with all this time. We're hoping to 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------- A few people have contacted the Radisson Mark Plaza Hotel about obtaining a room for the upcoming FidoNet Conference and have been somewhat surprised at the rates quoted. Please rest assured that conference attendees do NOT have to pay full room rates! When booking your room, be sure to tell them that you are attending the International FidoNet Conference. This will get you a rate of $80 per room for any number of occupants. ----------------------------------------------------------------- FidoNews 4-19 Page 30 18 May 1987 Bob Morris 141/333 Chairman, Elections and Nominations Committee The next two pages are your Official ballot for the Election of the IFNA Board of Directors. The following are the few rules which must prevail in this election: 1. You must send a legible copy of this ballot to the address listed on the ballot. It must be signed and bear your net/node number. 2. You may vote for any one person in your region for the position of Regional Director. This vote is to be cast in the LEFT column of the ballot. 3. You may vote for any eleven people in any regions for the position of Director at Large. These votes are to be cast in the RIGHT column of the ballot. 4. Voting will continue until the end of registration at the Conference in August. The results will be read during the opening of the business meeting on the first day of the conference. 5. Write-in Votes will be accepted and are requested during this election. FidoNews 4-19 Page 31 18 May 1987 IFNA Board Of Directors Ballot Regional At Large Region 10: Steve Jordan _________ ________ Region 11: Ryugen Fisher _________ ________ Theodore Polczynski _________ ________ Region 12: Region 13: Don Daniels _________ ________ John Penberthy _________ ________ Thom Henderson _________ ________ Gee Wong _________ ________ Brian Hughes _________ ________ Region 14: Ben Baker _________ ________ Ken Kaplan _________ ________ Brad Hicks _________ ________ Region 15: David Dodell _________ ________ Larry Wall _________ ________ Region 16: Bob Hartman _________ ________ Hal Duprie _________ ________ Region 17: Rob Barker _________ ________ Randy Bush _________ ________ Bob Swift _________ ________ Region 18: Wes Cowley _________ ________ FidoNews 4-19 Page 32 18 May 1987 Region 19: Mark Grennan _________ ________ Wynn Wagner _________ ________ Region 2: Henk Wevers _________ ________ Write-in candidates: ___________________ _________ ________ ___________________ _________ ________ Name ______________________________ Net/Node ___________ Signature______________________________ Date ___________ Please complete this and mail it to: Robert Morris IFNA Elections Committee 210 Church Street West Haven, Ct. 06516 or bring it with you when you come to the conference in August. These ballots will be counted by myself since with 200 members the charges for a CPA would be very high. Hard copies will be made available to anyone wishing to insure that their vote was included. Thank You Bob Morris Elections and Nominations Committee -----------------------------------------------------------------