========================================================================= XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XX XX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XX XX HHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH HH HH HHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH HH HH IIIIIIII IIIIIIII IIIIIIII II II IIIIIIII IIIIIIII II II XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XX XX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXX XX HHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH HH HH HHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH HHH HH IIIIIIII IIIIIIII IIIIIIII II II IIIIIIII IIIIIIII III II XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XXXX XX HH HH HH HH HH HH HH HH HH HH HHHH HH II II II II II II II II II II IIII II XXXXXXX XX XX XX XXXX XXXXXXXX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX HHHHHHH HH HH HH HHHH HHHHHHHH HH HH HH HH HH HH HH IIIIIII II II II IIII IIIIIIII II II II II II II II XXXXXXX XX XX XX XXXX XXXXXXXX XX XX XXXXXXXX XX XX XX HHHHHHH HH HH HH HHHH HHHHHHHH HH HH HHHHHHHH HH HH HH IIIIIII II II II IIII IIIIIIII II II IIIIIIII II II II XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XXXXXX XX XXXX HH HH HH HH HH HH HH HH HH HHHHHH HH HHHH II II II II II II II II II IIIIII II IIII XX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XX XX XXXXXXXX XX XX XX XXX HH HHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH HH HH HHHHHHHH HH HH HH HHH II IIIIIIII IIIIIIII II II IIIIIIII II II II III XX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XX XX XXXXXXXX XX XX XX XX HH HHHHHHHH HHHHHHHH HH HH HHHHHHHH HH HH HH HH II IIIIIIII IIIIIIII II II IIIIIIII II II II II =========================================================================== THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE FIRST OSBORNE GROUP - - - - - - - - - F O G =========================================================================== Vol. 1 No. 6 (Non-member price $1.50/copy) MARCH 1982 =========================================================================== The First Osborne Group (F O G) has been formed as a users group for all persons who use or are interested in Osborne Computers. Membership is available to any interested party whether or not they currently own an Osborne Computer. Dues are $24.00/yr. in U.S., $30.00/yr. elsewhere. OFFICERS IN THE F O G President/Founder Frank Morton Treasurer Leo E. Grandi Vice President Jeri Edwards Disk Librarian Kent Walker Technical Counsel Byron A. McKay Editor, FOGHORN David M. Oates NEXT MEETING: 1:00 p.m., Sunday, March 21, 1982 7th WEST COAST COMPUTER FAIRE San Francisco Civic Auditorium & Brooks Hall San Francisco Civic Center (Yes, you will have to buy a ticket to get in; however, the ticket is good for all three days!) DEADLINE - All material for the April FOGHORN must be submitted by March 29th. Bulk mail needs more lead time! *********************************************** * COME TO THE WEST COAST COMPUTER FAIRE !!! * *********************************************** The 7th West Coast Computer Faire will be held at San Francisco's Civic Auditorium & Brooks Hall on the 19th, 20th, & 21st of March! It is the largest "open" convention anywhere on small computers, drawing virtually anyone who has anything to do with small computers (Manufact urers, Dealers, Distributors, Users, etc.) If you have never been there, you do not want to miss it! Parking will be limited; so Carpool, Bart, Muni, take the train, or whatever to make it easier on yourself. FOG will be at the Faire! We will have a table in the Civic Auditorium on the main floor. Our location is P15 on the Polk side hallway. Osborne Computer Corporation will have a large choice location at 426H in the front center of the main arena, also in the Civic Auditorium. The following persons have accepted responsibility for our table for the days indicated; Fri. 19th - Simon Kisch, Sat. 20th - Glen Evans, & Sun. 21st - David Oates. So you see each of our three local groups are represented. Stop by, help, .HEFOGHORN MARCH 1982 answer questions, and spread the word about FOG. Naturally I will be there all three days, and look forward to seeing all of you! March Meeting at the Faire! - - Our regular meeting will be held at the Faire on Sunday the 21st at 1:00 to 3:00 pm. According to the program, we will be in Room 421! We will have Jim Morefield of M&M Enterprises and John Gaudio of the newly formed Denver group with us, and most important of all, Dr. Adam Osborne has agreed to address our meeting! I have asked for a room for 200 to 300 persons, but with the crush of people that will be there on Sunday and with Dr. Osborne speaking, I strongly recommend that you get there early to get a good seat up front! We cannot restrict access and there are bound to be many interested non-members wanting to join us! It is going to be a BIG day for FOG, you will not want to miss it! Incidentally, if you have never been to the Faire before, you will want to come one of the other two days (tickets are good for all three days) to see the Faire, as there is much too much to be seen in only a few hours! Tickets are $15.00 at the door. Many Bay Area computer stores have tickets at $13.00. ......NOTICE!!! There will be NO MEETING at Dysan in Santa Clara on the 18th! ..... Frank --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHRONICLE - Santa Clara meeting - February 18th ..... by Mike Mehr Unaccustomed as I am to taking minutes, I must say that the last FOG meeting at the Dysan Auditorium gave me a lot of food for thought. As our last full meeting before the West Coast Computer Faire, there was much business to be taken care of. Since the Faire is coming up on March 19-21 (Friday through Sunday), it was decided to have our monthly meeting there on Sunday at 1 PM. As Frank was taking care of the business part of the meeting, several large boxes were carted in by volunteers and Thom Hogan began setting up his presentation. It turned out that the boxes contained a projection TV set and Thom wired his Monadapt (and later someone else's) to the set so we could all see what he was doing. As he turned his machine on, up came his directory with the comment "Space = 4864K bytes." We soon found out that he was using a 10 MByte $3000 Winchester disk drive from Trantor as drives A and B and his floppies were C and D. That's not double density, that's hecto-density! Thom's presentation was officially the dealer demonstration that he often gives to new Osborne dealers. However, as usually happens when he visits us, he was inundated with questions and didn't really have time to do justice to the presentation. Well, maybe Part II will be finished at another meeting. As the talk progressed, we were all asked to fill out a sheet of paper about what we liked and disliked about our machines and any questions we had for the factory. This information will all be compiled into an article that will appear in Portable Companion, OCC's new slick user magazine that will be coming out soon. Part of it will be dedicated to FOG and other users' groups for our own use. Another progressive idea from the Fountainhead. Thom announced that OCC will be kicking off a multi-million dollar ad campaign to bring the Osborne name to the masses. He noted that several publicity articles and reviews have already appeared in major publications like Fortune and Business Week. Even Macy's will be selling Osbornes on a trial basis soon. He also said that we can expect several new products to be announced at the Faire, so be on the lookout for new stuff, especially Double Density. The OCC modem will be tiny, he said, and is currently awaiting FCC approval. Other products were mentioned, but we should see the real stuff at the Faire, so enough speculation! Since many questions were software-related, Thom mentioned several helpful hints about how to use Wordstar, Supercalc, and CP/M effectively. He noted several times that it is wise to allow Wordstar from two to three times the amount of disk space your file takes up while it is being edited. In other words, don't edit that 23K file if you don't have 23K or more space left on the disk, especially if you move backwards through the file. He also mentioned that Wordstar 3.0 has even more problems with scrolling than 2.26 and that 4.0 will probably be out soon, so users may want to wait on getting the new version. He also told us about using MOVCPM and SYSGEN, and that many articles devoted to software and hardware will be talking about these same topics in the Portable Companion. One other thing: Osborne will be announcing many software products in the months to come, but for those of us who can never get enough, Thom mentioned that Lifeboat, Cornerstone, and Digital Marketing all sell software on Osborne-format diskettes. And don't forget, there's still all that public-domain programming available from the FOG library. See you at the next meeting (Sunday at the Faire)! (My thanks go to Mike Mehr for contributing these Feb., Santa Clara meeting notes - David) SAN FRANCISCO OSBORNE GROUP Meeting - Feb. 24th, 1982 .. by Peter Fleming The meeting was called to order by S.F. FOG President, Glenn Evans at 8:15 pm in Room 205, Bldg. C, Fort Mason Center. He began with a brief review of the previous meeting, indicating that the membership had chosen to become a member of the First Osborne Group which began in Santa Clara. He asked for a volunteer to work with the Constitution & Bylaws Committee of FOG to help establish guidelines for the interrelationship of the two groups. Jim Schenkel, a San Francisco lawyer, offerred to accept this position. Asking for other volunteers resulted in the following offers; Treasurer - Don Brown, taker of minutes - Peter Fleming (is that a Recording Secretary? ED.), Newsletter assistants - Mark Switzer, Michael Reed, Conrad Paiseki, David Blair; OCC Liaison - Albert Ujcic. After some discussion, it was agred that our Regular Meetings should be held on the Wednesday following the third Thursday of every month. This will allow for transmission of our minutes to the FOGHORN. Therefore, the next meeting will be Wednesday, March 24th, at 7:30 pm unless notified to the contrary. - - Hunter Morey announced that the DYSAN Corporation would make available special rates to anyone interested in bulk purchase of diskettes. For DYSAN 104/1D with reinforcing rings the bulk prices are; 1-2 Boxes $50.50/Box, 3-4 Boxes $49.50/Box, 5-9 Boxes $48.50/Box, 10-19 Boxes $46.50/Box, 20-99 Boxes $44.50/Box with 10 Diskettes per Box Anyone wishing to avail themselves of these prices, should contact: Peggy LeClair, DYSAN Sales Representative, at (408) 730-2145. With additional discussion, the following were chosen for Workshop/Special Interest Group topics, with the following volunteer chairpersons: TOPIC CHAIRPERSON PHONE Program Swapping Frank Hatfield 641-4772 Beginners Jerry Kindred 567-5840 Trouble-Shooting Glen Evans 661-4324 Assembly Language Glen Evans 661-4324 MUMPS Peter Fleming 641-8416 Databases (DBASE) Phil Smith 523-6617 Interfacing (IEEE-488) Don Davy 472-6384 Typesetting Lori Small 495-6280 Graphics Kent Walker 359-1227 Modems, Networking Matt Lonergan 435-9322 ( ED. note - all are Area Code 415 ) A workshop for Beginners and Program Swapping was scheduled for Wed., March 10th at 7:30pm, Room 205, Bldg. C, Fort Mason Center. Frank Morton, President of the First Osborne Group, distributed phone lists of those who have expressed an interest in FOG, and Membership applications in FOG for all those interested in joining. He also passed on information from Thom Hogan's talk at the last FOG meeting that all Osborne Owners will be getting a letter from OCC offering a one-time purchase of the new Users' Reference Guide, at OCC cost (@ $5.00 ). He also discussed that some persons have been having difficulties with COPY or BACKUP, and showed how this may be overcome using FMT, or FORMAT, plus SYSGEN and PIP (with *.*[OV]). Frank showed a small green plastic overscreen to be used to convert the OS1 monitor into a small "green screen" (available for $5.00 from Digital Deli). He also kindly volunteered himself and Kent Walker to attend the Mar 10th workshop to answer questions and help solve problems. Kent Walker, FOG Disk Librarian, discussed copying policies: 1) DO NOT contribute any proprietary or copyrighted programs to the Library. We DO NOT wish to participate in any form of software "piracy". 2) Only paid-up FOG members are entitled to copy programs from the FOG Library. This privilege is one of the major incentives to membership, and renders membership cheap at $24.00 per year! 3) "Copies of copies" are every bit as good as copies of the Library Disks themselves!! Please cooperate in sharing among yourselves. This will reduce "wear & tear" on the Library diskettes, as well as the librarian. The contents of the first 21 diskettes have been published in the FOGHORN, and are available with the FOGHORN back issues on diskettes FOGHORN.001 & .002. The latest additions include: Diskette FOG.022 - "PACMAN",etc. Diskette FOG.023 - General Ledger, Improved for Osborne Diskette FOG.024 - Disk Labelling Program Diskette FOG.025 - Curve-Fitting Program (MBASIC) Glen Evans asked for suggestions of problems members would like to see addressed in future meetings, with the following results: 1) One member asked for help in making a Diablo printer operate at 1200 BAUD via the Serial Port. 2) Several indicated problems using the COPY program with upgraded machines. They were reminded that they could use FORMAT, SYSGEN, & PIP with the [V], i.e. verify option. 3) Someone raised the comment that some of the new Keyboards have a problem with slipping out of the CAPSLOCK. Another said he still had difficulty reaching ":" while in CAPSLOCK. It was suggested that these problems should be referred to the Dealer for possible replacement. 4) Several members mentioned problems obtaining timely service from their Dealers. It was suggested that these problems be brought to the attention of OCC by letter with specific complaints, so that OCC could take steps to improve dealer service. It was also pointed out that one of the S.F. members, Frank Hatfield, is quite knowledgeable about computers, has an Osborne, and is willing to help anyone. He is located at 409 Capp St. with phone 641-4772 and operates under the business name of NEED-TO-KNOW. FIRST East Bay meeting - March. 3rd . . . reported by Frank Morton The first East Bay F O G meeting was held at the Computer Center store on University Ave. in Berkeley. It looks like the turnout (approx. 75) topped that at the first San Francisco meeting; but to be fair, there were a lot of S. F. people supporting the Berkeley meeting! With that many persons present it was crowded and one of the first topics of discussion was centered around the question of finding a suitable meeting place in the East Bay. No solution has been found to date, so if you have any suggestions contact the organizers Simon Kisch at (415)841-5900 or Mark Goldowitz at (415) 652-2531. The Computer Center people were excellant hosts and very helpful, but it looks like this is going to be a large active group. - - After introductions by Simon and Kent Walker the writer was asked to say a few words about F O G. The current 4 page telephone list (all members and many interested non-members) was passed out. The F O G participation at the West Coast Computer Faire was discussed and Simon said he would arrange to handle some of the Tickets to the Faire for the convenience of East Bay folks. - - Glen Evans, president of the San Francisco group was introduced. He told of the special interest workshops being planned by S.F. FOG, starting with a Beginners workshop on Mar 10th at Fort Mason. - - Maureen Harris, who works in Dealer Support at Osborne Computer Corporation, was nice enough to join us. She shared some ideas with us and answered many questions. She thinks the enthusiasm of the user groups is exciting. For the new OS1 owners she offered the suggestion that they get up the courage to try new things on their computers, saying " .. don't let the machine beat you". It has been my own experience on computers in general that one can learn a lot by logical experimentation. If what you are trying to do is backed up with an extra copy, the most you are likely to lose is whatever you are experimenting with, and the trial and error approach can be very educational. Maureen indicated that the dealers will soon receive a patch for fixing the erratic behavior of WordStar while scrolling. It will involve writing a small program, but should be very helpful. I will try to get a copy in the next FOGHORN if possible. - - Near the end of the meeting Jim Tunnell, Training Manager at OCC, stopped by on his way home from work after a very long day of editing Videotapes. His group at OCC have been hard at work creating Educational Videotapes for use in training the Dealers and for presentation by the Dealers and possibly Users Groups to help train end users in the workings of the OS1 computer and all related software. - - There was a question and answer (sometimes) session involving how to hook up printers, when will we see Double Density, etc. And someone was kind enough to bring a beautiful cake which was shared by all. I didn't get the name of the contributor, but it was certainly appreciated by everone there. FIRST Denver meeting - March 4th Greetings from DOG, (The Denver Osborne Group). Our first meeting was held on March 4, with about thirty hearty souls in attendance, (Mother Nature dropped enough snow that night to keep all but the heartiest souls at home). We discussed the library that was so kindly supplied us by Frank Morton, and our other friends "in the FOG", considered such matters as dues and officers, and, (the best part), shared some of what we'd learned about the Osborne 1. There were two presentations at our first meeting. One showed how the function keys can be programmed to perform a sequence of operations, such as configuring Wordstar, or bringing up a program in Basic, with just one stroke of the keys. The other was the introduction by Dr. John Sparks and his wife Patti, of their talking Osborne 1. John tied in a Votrax TYPE-'N-TALK, and Patti programmed our favorite computer to speak to their children, (the youngest of our members). Sarah, (3), Mike, (5), and Becky, (a Basic programmer at 9), all put the talking Osborne to work regularly. It's helping the little ones to learn the alphabet, and improve their counting skills, while Beckie develops her talent as a programmer. The presentation was thouroughly enjoyable, and it brings up some interesting and exciting questions. Where would you and I be now if our folks had been able to give us tools like this when we were only three? Look out world! Becky, Mike, Sara, and their friends are on their way! Wishing You All The Best From Denver, John Gaudio, Member of the Denver Osborne Group *************************************************************************** NOTICE! Regarding Mel Cruts' Bulletin Board ... In the last FOGHORN the telephone number for the Bulletin Board was given twice, but differently! The correct number and procedure is as follows; dial (408) 263-2588 and let the phone ring only once. Hang up and call again within 40 seconds. When you get the carrier signal from the computer, hit two carriage returns to get instructions from the computer how to proceed. *************************************************************************** FROM THE F O G . . . by Frank Morton The Feb. 22nd issue of InfoWorld had a special section on the subject of Users' Groups with a picture from a FOG meeting and with our phone and mailing address in the listing of users' groups. In addition, there is a similar phone/address mention of FOG in the new User's Reference Guide that comes with each new OS1 computer. The net result has been a tremendous increase in interest in FOG from literally everywhere. There have been so many mail and phone inquiries that I have fallen sadly behind in responding to these requests for information. This is presently an all volunteer organization; I work full time during the week in the Aerospace industry and sell computers on Saturdays. This explains why there is often no response at my home phone on weekdays. I intend to get this copy of FOG to everyone who has contacted me, hoping that will help to bridge the gap until we can get all your letters answered. I also want to write up some suggestions on starting a Users' Group for those who have asked how to do it. Many thanks for your interest, enthusiasm, and your understanding while we try to catch up with this sudden growth we are experiencing. ....Frank eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee FROM THE EDITOR As this FOGHORN goes to "press" I don't know whether it will be photo- typeset or printed on my printer and photocopied. So you may or may not be looking at the product of my new daisywheel printer. That's right, I final ly bought my daisywheel printer. It is a DTC-382 WP from Data Terminals & Communications (DTC) in Campbell, CA, and I am delighted with it. DTC has several printer/terminals (both RO and KSR) for sale at bargin prices...and, on top of that, a discount for FOG members. These printers are typically pedestal mounted and consist of refurbished Diablo HyType I print mechanisms and power supplies, and DTC microprocessor controlers. If you are looking for a good daisywheel printer, check out the DTC-381, an RO for $1195 (less the FOG member discount), its a beauty! If this sounds like a free ad for DTC, it is! I'm very happy with my printer and I want to spread the word to my fellow FOG members. So if you're interested in a daisywheel printer, give me a call or stop by the FOG table at the Faire on Sunday...I'll be there. I know of five other FOG members using DTC printers. Ask Leo Grandi about his DTC-381. By the way, the DTC staff really knows how to roll out the welcome, as anyone that came to the demo night (Feb. 25th) will tell you. In addition to the demonstration of the printers working with our Osbornes, we learned about the company's history and got a complete tour of their new facili ties. We were treated to refreshments and a look at their microcomputer, DTC Micro 210A, their 300/1200 baud, very clever, modem and their newest terminal (a very intelligent device). DTC will have an exhibit at the Faire too. I haven't customized my WordStar to take advantage of all the DTC features yet but, when I do I'll be set to help...you (?). In the meantime, as you can see (maybe), it is working just beautifully. I haven't had time to select my favorite print wheel, so you may see (?) some type style changes in the future. .............................................David --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TO THE EDITOR WOW, less than two weeks after I join FOG I get my Feb.'82 FOGHORN. It arrived even before my OCC 1. Hence, I have a (few) "simple" questions perhaps you can answer. Before I ask them, I would like to introduce myself. I am an accountant who was "made" a Systems Analyst/Programmer by the company president after a week long course in a computer manufacturer's educational center in Hayward, California. While in California for the course, I walked into the Digital Deli and the experienced advice of Frank Morton who steered me to an OCC 1. I had the OCC 1 shipped to my home in Houston, Texas. I also joined FOG. I must say that I am impressed by its extensive coverage of the uses of the OCC 1. Even though I still have not received my OCC 1 (as of 2/19) and live 2,000 miles away I know I can get the help I need to make the best use of my OCC 1. Speaking of uses for the OCC 1, I intend to use it to keep the books of several small non-profit organizations issuing no more than 500 checks a year. So my first question is how can I get copies of the General Ledger and other FOG library software (when I am) so far from S.F. Bay? Speaking of diskettes, can I get in on a (group) purchase of Inmac diskettes? Can I do it (copy library diskettes (?) Ed) through the bulletin board at Mel Crut's house? I have a modem so I can contact it over the phone but, I don't know how it works. As soon as I feel comfortable with my OCC 1 I intend to start a Houston chapter of FOG. David Goodrich Houston, TX ("How to get long distance library service?...has not been determined yet. I'll let you know. For info on Inmac...contact Steve Foster at (408) 253- 1510. Some, not all of the library is on Mel's BB.... David) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SYSTEM NOTES Getting your printer up! .......... by Frank Morton Many calls have been received regarding getting your printer working with your OS1. I like to take it in a step-by-step sequence. The first step is to be sure that the printer works by itself! Most printers have a self- test mode. On an Epson MX80 (I'll use it for examples, since I am most familiar with my own printer) you hold the LF button down when turning on the power. When it prints out the pattern of characters at least you know it can print! For the following Software discussion to be valid you must have a machine with an upgraded configuration; i.e. your Serial Number is higher than 3500, or your machine has been modified at the Dealer location with an Upgrade kit such that you now have a total of 5 Original diskettes of software. If this is not true, the following will not apply! - Next, I recommend that you put the CP/M System diskette in Drive A and a WordStar diskette in Drive B; both should be back-up copies without write protect tabs. When the CP/M prompt A> shows, type SETUP, where denotes the RETURN key. First you want to configure Drive "A". When the "Configuration Program" menu appears, the most important item for this discussion is item "A" (the Printer). When you press A, a new menu will appear. After pressing one of the five keys A to E (D for Epson with a parellel hook-up), an "X" will return you to the main menu where you will be asked "DESTINATION (A,B,or X to exit)". At this point you want to use "A" to modify the System tracks on the CP/M diskette in Drive A. You will observe the red light on Drive A indicating that the modifications are being written to that diskette. You have now modified the diskette, BUT the Random Access Memory in your computer has not changed from what you originally read in from the System diskette! To try out your changes, YOU MUST push RESET at this time and then RETURN, to load the modified System programming into the computer! - Now you are ready to see if your CP/M can talk to the Printer. With the Printer hooked-up to the OS1, its power turned on, and the On-Line indica tor telling you that everything is "GO", you need to send a ^P from the OS1 to alert the Printer. Here ^P is used to indicate holding down the CTRL key while striking the "P" key. The problem, is when you do a ^P nothing hap pens! Nothing is shown on the screen, and nothing happens at the Printer! Worse yet, ^P is also used to turn off the Printer! Consequently, if you held the "P" key too long you may have turned it ON & OFF again!!! Assuming that you hit the "P" quickly, a RETURN should get you an A> on both the screen and the Printer. If you do a DIR at this point, you should be printing a Directory, as well as viewing it on the screen. So we see that SETUP connects the CP/M software to the Printer. At this point, the next step is to configure the System tracks on the WordStar diskette. You can repeat the SETUP procedure with DESTINATION => "B" at the end to write on the B Drive (I hope you still have the WordStar diskette over there) - - or you could use SYSGEN to copy the modified System tracks to computer memory, then out to WordStar, or any other diskette you will be using with this Printer. The important point is that if the System tracks are not correctly modified, CP/M cannot talk to the Printer!! .. IF YOUR PRINTER DOES NOT WORK with CP/M at this point, you must play around with your choice (A - E) of printers in SETUP, and/or change switches in the Printer until you get a combination that works! Only after you have CP/M working with the Printer should you use the INSTALL program from the System Utility diskette to modify WordStar to take advantage of all the useful things WordStar can do. That is the subject of several articles which are in the User Guide or FOGHORN, and I will not go into that here. The important thing is to recognize that INSTALL modifies software to connect WordStar to the CP/M System, and you can do ordinary printing with CP/M or WordStar after following the above step-by-step procedure. ................. Frank (And, speaking of modifying WordStar, here is one of those articles now.) WORDSTAR WITH EPSON By Jim Woolley If you have an Epson printer, you should consider patching WordStar to make use of the special printing features of the Epson. This article describes a step-by-step procedure for installing the necessary patches. The procedure is designed for an Epson MX-80, but should be applicable to an MX-100 as well. It is very easy to do, so don't be intimidated if you're a novice. Patching WordStar is described in Section 14.4 of the MicroPro WordStar User's Guide. Use the following recipe: 1. Put a copy of your WordStar disk in drive A. Put a disk containing INSTALL.COM (probably your CP/M Utilities disk) in drive B. After the CP/M prompt, execute INSTALL using A>B:INSTALL 2. Answer the first question regarding "normal first-time INSTALLation" with N for NO. 3. Refer to Section 14.4.5 of the User's Guide for INSTALL's next question. Answer with option D to modify and replace your existing WS.COM file. When asked for WordStar filename, answer A:WS.COM. 4. INSTALL then asks about your terminal, printer, communications proto col, and printer driver. Answer U for UNCHANGED and Y for YES to each. 5. The next question asks if modifications are complete. Answer N for NO in order to make additional patches. Section 14.4.6 of the User's Guide describes how to make patches. Refer to pages D-24 thru D-27 to see where patches will be made. Section 10 identifies print control characters indicated by ^ in the following text. 6. Patch PSCR: = 01 for more efficient operation of the Epson. My version of INSTALL did not recognize PSCR:, so I referenced location 06A1 instead. 7. To enable use of subscript (^V) and superscript (^T), make the following patches: PSCRLF: = 03 PSHALF: = 02 PSCRLF:+3 = 0A PSHALF:+1 = 0D PSHALF:+2 = 0A Additional patches to PSINIT: and PSFINI: in step 11 will provide half-line spacing. Skip this step for more efficient printing if subscript and superscript are not important. 8. To use alternate character pitch (^A) for Epson condensed mode (132 char/line) and standard pitch (^N) for normal mode (80 char/line), patch the following: PALT: = 01 PSTD: = 01 PALT:+1 = 0F PSTD:+1 = 12 9. The four user functions enable setting and cancelling Epson emphasized and expanded modes: ^Q = Set emphasized mode. ^W = Cancel emphasized mode. ^E = Set expanded mode. ^R = Cancel expanded mode. Use of these functions is described after step 11. Patches are USR1: = 02 USR2: = 02 USR1:+1 = 1B USR2:+1 = 1B USR1:+2 = 45 USR2:+2 = 46 USR3: = 01 USR4: = 01 USR3:+1 = 0E USR4:+1 = 14 10. I use the change ribbon color toggle (^Y) to set or cancel Epson emphasized-double (wallbanger) mode. Patch RIBBON: = 04 RIBOFF: = 04 RIBBON:+1 = 1B RIBOFF:+1 = 1B RIBBON:+2 = 45 RIBOFF:+2 = 46 RIBBON:+3 = 1B RIBOFF:+3 = 1B RIBBON:+4 = 47 RIBOFF:+4 = 48 Emphasized-double mode may also be set by ^Q^D. If you have Graftrax, you may wish to use ^Y for italics. 11. For initializing and restoring the Epson print modes, patch PSINIT: and PSFINI:. Since my version of INSTALL did not recognize PSFINI:, I have referenced everything to PSINIT: PSINIT: = 0C PSINIT:+11 = 0B PSINIT:+2 = 12 PSINIT:+12 = 12 PSINIT:+3 = 14 PSINIT:+13 = 14 PSINIT:+4 = 1B PSINIT:+14 = 1B PSINIT:+5 = 46 PSINIT:+15 = 46 PSINIT:+6 = 1B PSINIT:+16 = 1B PSINIT:+7 = 48 PSINIT:+17 = 48 PSINIT:+8 = 1B PSINIT:+18 = 1B PSINIT:+9 = 41 PSINIT:+19 = 41 PSINIT:+A = 06 PSINIT:+1A = 0C PSINIT:+B = 1B PSINIT:+1B = 1B PSINIT:+C = 32 PSINIT:+1C = 32 If subscript and superscript are not important and you have skipped step 7, then patch PSINIT: = 07 PSINIT:+11 = 06 and skip the patches indicated for PSINIT:+8 thru +C and for PSINIT:+18 thru +1C. These are all of the patches required to use the special Epson printer features. Print control characters described in Table 10-1 of the WordStar User's Guide will enable these features as follows: ^Y = Emphasized-double print toggle. Do not use twice in the same line, as the second will cancel the feature for the entire line. Do not use with ^A. ^A = Alternate pitch (132 char/line). Do not use in the same line as ^N, since ^N will cancel the feature for the entire line. Do not use with ^Y or ^Q, as these will temporarily suspend the effect of ^A. ^N = Standard pitch (80 char/line). This is the default mode. Do not use in the same line as ^A. ^Q = Set emphasized mode. Do not use with ^A. ^W = Cancel emphasized mode. This is the default mode. Do not use in the same line as ^Q, since ^W will cancel the feature for the entire line. ^E = Set expanded pitch (40 char/line if used with standard pitch ^N, or 66 char/line if used with alternate pitch ^A). This mode is automatical ly cancelled at the end of the line. It may be cancelled in mid-line by use of ^R. ^R = Cancel expanded pitch. This is the default mode. All of the other print control characters function as described in Table 10-1. Subscript and superscript toggles ^V and ^T make use of half-line spacing if the patches described in steps 7 and 11 are utilized. The above description includes some information which is not clearly stated in the Epson User's Manual. Namely, if in the same line you set and cancel condensed, emphasized, or emphasized-double mode, the overall effect is to cancel each. Also, if you set emphasized or emphasized-double while in the condensed (132 char/line) mode, the effect is to temporarily suspend condensed mode; when emphasized or emphasized-double is cancelled, condensed mode is resumed. Additional patches may be used to customize the WordStar sign-on message as described in Section 15.3 of the User's Guide. To make the printer description read "Epson MX-80 Printer", patch the following hex representation of ASCII characters beginning at location 01B4: 45, 70, 73, 6F, 6E, 20, 4D, 58, 2D, 38, 30, 20, 50, 72, 69, 6E, 74, 65, 72, 20, 20. I also made the terminal description read "Woolley's Osborne 1" by patches beginning at location 0190: 57, 6F, 6F, 6C, 6C, 65, 79, 27, 73, 20, 4F, 73, 62, 6F, 72, 6E, 65, 20, 31. You can put in your own name using locations 0190 thru 01B0 and the ASCII codes given in Table 8-1 of the Osborne User's Guide. For consistent capitalization in the other sign-on messages, I patched 01DB=43, 01EA=50, 020D=44. While you're at it, you may wish to install additional modifications described in Section 15.4 of the WordStar User's Guide. To make WordStar work more like a typewriter, I made the following patches: ITITOG: = 00, to make WordStar start with INSERT OFF. INITWF:+1 = 00, to start with JUSTIFICATION OFF. ITPOPN: = FF, to omit page numbers by default. Further changes made were: WID: = 78, for 120 column wide terminal screen (p.D-4). DEL3: = 23, for longer delay before a menu (p.D-16). There is a company in San Jose which sells a program to make these Epson patches to WordStar for you. Their price is $85.00. By following the simple recipe given in this article, you can do the job yourself. So, this one issue of FOGHORN may be worth almost four years of FOG dues. Aren't you glad you joined? Simple Patching of Autost.com by Byron A. McKay This is just a simple note on how to patch the program AUTOST.COM to customize it to your systems needs. First off I will assume you have a basic knowledge of how the DDT program works. If you don't have this knowledge, read the chapter on DDT in the "CP/M Primer" by Murtha and Waite. At any rate, use DDT to make the following changes to AUTOST.COM to customize it to your personal needs. Autost.com is located starting at 0100H. When you exit DDT you will type the command "SAVE 10 AUTOST.COM" to save the binary image of your patched version. There are two possible changes to make in Autost.com that I have found (if you find more let me know!!). The first is the program that Autost.com will kick you into after it runs. The second is the sign-on message that appears after the program starts on auto-boot. To change the program name that Autost.com jumps to use DDT to go to the address location 0169H and merely place the CP/M filename of the program that you want to run here. For example, if you wanted to have Autost.com throw you into XDIR.COM after it boots up, you would use DDT to patch in "XDIR" beginning at location 0169H. To change the message that appears on the screen at sign-on (right after the "Big 0") then patch in your message starting at location 0180H. You will have only 20 bytes to work with and you can not go over without destroying the program!!!!! The characters that you see above what appears to be the bulk of the program are the graphics that appear on the screen as the "Big 0". Have fun creating your own custom disks and using Autost.com!!! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE APPLICATIONS TOOLBOX --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************************************** * Here's a new column for the FOGHORN. We hope to in- * * clude programs written to be run under MailMerge and * * SuperCalc. These programs will address themselves * * to particular applications such as data base creation* * (this issue), personal checking management, etc. * * Several programs have been written for SuperCalc and * * will be presented in future issues. If you have any * * programs of this sort, send them to our newsletter * * editor and they will be printed in this column. * ******************************************************** TURN YOUR OSBORNE INTO AN ELECTRONIC FILING CABINET by BILL ESSEX Several months ago I was happy to discover that the editors of Byte magazine had seen fit to devote their November 1981 issue to Data Base Management Systems (DBMS's). Such systems have been the stuff my dreams were made of -- well, some of my dreams, anyway. Anyone with the smarts to purchase a microcomputer can now have the capability of storing and retrieving large amounts of data. A few years ago such large stores of information were consigned to science fiction (witness those TV reruns of "The Twilight Zone" and "Outer Limits") and, until recently, only governments or large corporations could afford such massive amounts of information. With the advent of the microcomputer all that has changed. And now there is the Osborne 1, move over world! DBMS's are now in the reach of anyone. Now, admittedly there is a lot of software out there which will enable you to create, compile, sort, search, and otherwise manipulate or massage data. Much of it costing a great deal and worth every penny. But after reading Edward Brent's article in the November 1981 Byte (p. 18 f.) I decided that it might be possible to use the MailMerge option of WordStar to emulate data base entry. The system I will soon describe is far from perfect and has little of the flexibility true DBMS's have. I designed it primarily as a stop gap measure to allow me to create data bases until I have a true DBMS. The program is DATABASE.FMT. When run through MailMerge it creates files which contain the notes I need to write reports. It is designed in such a manner that I will be able to retain the note files and use with my (future,canned) DBMS when I decide on one that will meet my needs and my pocketbook. (Bob D'Orazio has also done alot of work with this MailMerge/data base system - see the CHRONICLE in Feb. FOGHORN, Ed.) Brent makes note of how powerful word processing programs are (as we know) in composing, correcting, and printing text at the last stages of report writing. He goes on to make the point that during the note taking and research stages a good DBMS is most important. Brent then says: "All the functions performed by note cards can be carried out more efficiently by a DBMS. For each idea or quotation, you can create a record in the data base file which includes as its main text the quotation or a statement of the idea. Key fields can be identified for reference to the author, journal, page, and date. To help you organize the ideas later, you can use other key fields to include a brief phrase that summarizes the context of the record. Several additional key fields could contain other types of information to sort the files in many different ways." ////////////////////////////////////////////////// -------------------------------------------------/ MAIN HEADING ORDER SUMMARY / -------------------------------------------------/ KEY1 KEY2 / --------------------------- / / TEXT1 - TEXT2 (TEXT3-5 optional) / / -------------------------------------------------/ CITATION / -------------------------------------------------/ figure 1 - format of an electronic notecard Each "note card" is designed to hold 7 fields. All fields except text fields should use periods between each word of the field. The first is "MAIN HEADING" and should include a section or subsection heading and be taken from the original outline that you have constructed for your report. "ORDER" is merely the numerical order of a particular note card assigned when the "note card" is typed. For "ORDER" use a letter and number up to 5 numbers. "SUMMARY" can be a single to several word brief description of the text contents. "KEY1" and "KEY2" are keywords selected from the text describing content. Text lines 1-2 are always printed on "note cards." Text lines 3-5 are optional and are not printed unless text is entered on them. "CITATION" is a reference either citing a journal, book, magazine, or person responsible for information on text lines. In effect what we are talking about is designing a program to write on electronic note cards which are located in a note file - your electronic filing cabinet (see figure 1). Our program DATABASE.FMT is below. This version is commented to make it easier to understand. When you enter this program on a disk use WordStar's "editing no file" menu and select "d". Do not include the left-sided bracket in your listing, and you need not include the double dotted comment lines - the brackets were only included to allow for listing the program when printed out for the newsletter. ====================OOO================= [..this is the commented version of DATABASE.FMT [..a screen oriented DATA ENTRY FILE for databases. [..this system creates a file of "electronic notecards" [..and is set up to prompt you from the SCREEN. [..Follow the steps below: [..(1.) logged disk drive must be in DRIVE B [..(2.) enter Merge-Print from "editing no file" menu [..(3.) answer Merge-Print questions as follows: [..(4.) NAME OF FILE TO MERGE-PRINT? -DATABASE.FMT (=RETURN) [..(5.) DISK FILE OUTPUT? (Y) [..(6.) OUTPUT FILE NAME? (ENTER NAME AND USE *.NTS file [.. extention) (NTS= notes) [..(7.) START AT PAGE NUMBER? for begenning [..(8.) STOP AFTER PAGE NUMBER? for end [..(9.) NUMBER OF COPIES for one [..(10.)USE FORM FEEDS? for N [..(11.)SUPPRESS PAGE FORMATING? for N [..(12.)now you are set to begin entering your data into the [.. notes file you have specified. [..(13.)to stop the data entry process just press , [.. next enter a capital "P" and you will be asked if [.. you want to abandon, resume or hold printing to [.. the *.NTS file you have just created in DRIVE B. [..(14.)WordStar sometimes hangs up when you try to exit DATABASE.FMT [.. be persistant. Keep hitting the , upper case "P", and [.. upper case "Y". You will finally exit to either the PRINT [.. or DELETE option of the "editing no file" menu. Now all you [.. have to do is to key in CONTROL U (^U) and the ESCAPE [.. button and you'll be out of the data entry program with your [.. note file intact. [.RM 65 [.OP [.CS [.DM** You are now creating a series of electronic notecards [.DM [.DM ****** DATA ENTRY INTO DATA BASE ******** [.DM ****** SET "CAPS LOCK" TO ON ******** [.DM ENTER SYMBOL AND DATA CALLED FOR BELOW: [.DM [.DM--------------------------------------* [.AV "MAIN HEADING", MAIN HEADING, 25 [.DM---------------------------* [.AV "ORDER" , ORDER, 6 [.DM-------------------------------------------* [.AV "SUMMARY", SUMMARY, 30 [.DM-----------------------------------* [.AV "KEY1", KEY1, 25 [.DM-----------------------------------* [.AV "KEY2", KEY2, 25 [.DM !----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----* [.AV "TEXT1", TEXT1, 60 [.AV "TEXT2=___'", TEXT2, 60 [.DM !----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----* [.AV "TEXT3=___'", TEXT3, 60 [.AV "TEXT4=___'", TEXT4, 60 [.DM !----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----!----* [.AV "TEXT5=___'", TEXT5, 60 [.AV "CITATION" , CITATION, 60 +&MAIN HEADING& *&ORDER& :&SUMMARY& <&KEY1& >&KEY2& '&TEXT1& &TEXT2& &TEXT3/O& &TEXT4/O& &TEXT5/O& **&CITATION& [.RP [.FI DATABASE.FMT [..end of "DATABASE.FMT" [..(data base entry format) When this program is run you will be prompted from the screen and your answers will be written on consecutive "note cards". Following are several examples of notes written through the use of DATABASE.FMT to help me write this article. +FOG.DATA.BASE.ARTICLE *C6 :SORTING.WITH.DBMS' DBMS 'A DBMS ALLOWS YOU TO SORT DATA IN ADDITION TO CREATING YOUR DATA BASE.' **BRENT, BYTE - NOV'81, P 28 +FOG.DATA.BASE.ARTICLE *C7 :SORTING.WITHOUT.DBMS' ^QF 'SORTING WITHOUT A DBMS ON MY OSBORNE INVOLVED USING THE ^QF COMMAND OF WORDSTAR -- SUGGESTED BY DR. PETER FLEMING, FELLOW MEMBER OF FOG.' **BILL ESSEX figure 2 - 2 entries in "*.NTS" file - entered by running DATABASE.FMT OK, now we have our series of note cards, but what now - how do we sort these note cards? By chance Dr. Peter Fleming (a fellow FOG member) suggested a solution to me at the December '81 FOG meeting. Dr. Fleming brought to my attention the Find, Search, and Block Write commands of WordStar. He told me that he would take notes during a work day and place them in a WS file. He would at the day's end use the find command <^QF> (see Sect. 8.07 - WS User's Guide) to search through his notes. This enabled him to reference particular points in his notes. He would then place markers around the data he needed (Sect. 8.08 WS UG). After marking the block of information a block move would be used to move that informa- tion to another file thus further ordering his original mass of data (Sect. 8.09 - WS UG). When I wrote DATABASE.FMT I generally followed Brent's suggestions on p. 28 of his article. To make the WS searches using the find ^QF command more precise I assigned different symbols to the different portions of the "note card" MAIN HEADING uses a "+", ORDER a "*", SUMMARY a ":", etc. When entries are made for each field of the "note card" the program automatically includes these symbols. Searches become more precise because with use of the <^QF> command the cursor will stop on every occurance of the string you are searching for. But using the symbol in your search will stop the cursor on a particular string. For example (see figure 2, above) if I were looking for the keyword "sort data" - with the <^QF> command I'd find it in the text as well as in the keyword section. However I want to find it only as a keyword. Keywords use the symbol "<" or ">". Placing a period between words in any of the "note card" fields except text fields helps to sort out identical strings from text entries. Now if I run the <^QF> search for "