

#: 5165 S15/Hot Topics
    13-Jul-90  21:22:35
Sb: #5116-#Special! QUICK!
Fm: JOHN R. WAINWRIGHT 72517,676
To: Paul K. Ward 73477,2004 (X)

Hey Paul,
        Another question on that second board.  Will it be available at the
same time as the MM1?  How much for the whole works?  If you can come up with
as good a deal on a hard drive as you seem to have on the case and power
supply, I'd like to hear that too!!
        July 20th, eh?  Pressure.  ARRRRGH  (hehe)

        JohnW

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5175 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  00:22:07
Sb: #5165-#Special! QUICK!
Fm: Paul K. Ward 73477,2004
To: JOHN R. WAINWRIGHT 72517,676 (X)

The second board WILL be available at the same time as the first board -no need
to worry.

Hard drive prices will be competitive, and we may add value to the drie by
preformatting it and including some PD stuff on it.

Paul

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5205 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  21:44:02
Sb: #5175-Special! QUICK!
Fm: Jim Williams 72157,3524
To: Paul K. Ward 73477,2004

Paul, will it be a SCSI drive? What size? What make?       --Eet--


                                   Director of Mayhem
                                  Extra Terrestrial Imports, Ltd.



#: 5167 S9/Utilities
    13-Jul-90  21:40:49
Sb: #BURKE&BURKE + PBJ CC-BUS
Fm: RODGER ALEXANDER 75366,556
To: ALL

IS THERE ANYONE USING A BURKE AND BURKE HD INTERFACE WITH THE PBJ CC-BUS (6
SLOT MULTIPAK)?  THE SLOT SELECT ADDRESS IS DIFFERENT FROM THE RAD SHAK
MULTIPAK AND EVEN CHRIS BURKE HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO HELP ME OUT YET WITH THIS
ONE.  WOULD APPRECIATE ANY INFORMATION, PATCH, ETC. TO HELP GET THE COCO-3 AND
THE MULTIPAK TOGETHER WITH A HARD DRIVE.  (FITS PERFECTLY INTO A TANDY 1000
CASE.)

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5177 S9/Utilities
    14-Jul-90  01:01:23
Sb: #5167-BURKE&BURKE + PBJ CC-BUS
Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227
To: RODGER ALEXANDER 75366,556 (X)

Check CCBUSP.TXT in Lib 10, Rodger... see if that helps. - kev

#: 5168 S15/Hot Topics
    13-Jul-90  22:19:36
Sb: #5142-#GUI
Fm: Frank Hogg 70310,317
To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X)

OK sooooo.... what does this mean?? The question I have is from a user who
wants to know the amount of RAM to have to develope in. On a terminal system
1-2 meg works out well. By this I mean you would load everything in RAM, set up
a RAM disk for C's LIB etc directories and temp files and then have enough left
to work in. It makes a big difference for C programmers to have everything in
RAM even if you have a fast HD. I used a QT20x with 2.5 Meg and had more than
enough though a QT00x with 1meg is tight. The video requirments of your GUI
will effect this. On a TC70 with 1.5meg it would work OK if the GUI only took
256K or so.

Anyway you see where I'm going with this. With memory prices dropping like they
are a dedicated C developer should just buy a couple megs and go nuts.

I guess my question is, What is the minimum RAM to run the GUI with say 2 or 3
windows and no graphics? Looks like what your are saying is that the GUI would
run Ok with about 128 or 256K dedicated to it leaving the rest for the system??

Frank

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5202 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  16:54:46
Sb: #5168-#GUI
Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227
To: Frank Hogg 70310,317 (X)

Ummm. What it means is: the RAM requirements of the video chip far outweigh the
memory requirements of the software.

The video is always in "graphics" mode (there is no "ROM text" mode as on the
coco or IBM displays). Each screen will always take a little more than 64K of
ram, minimum.

So it depends on how many screens the person has open. With 3 screens open in
80x26 mode (a pretty common situation), that's about 200K used for video. The
driver needs will come from non-video ram... round that off as 20K just for
fun.

C programmers always need more RAM <grin>. I agree that many people will jump
to 2-3 meg both because of the low cost, and because of the relatively large
video ram requirements.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5208 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  21:44:39
Sb: #5202-GUI
Fm: Jim Williams 72157,3524
To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X)

Yup... dunno how I managed with only 1 meg on my 2000, even... or 256K or my
A1000! (waaaay back when :)                            --Eet--


                                   Director of Mayhem
                                  Extra Terrestrial Imports, Ltd.



#: 5169 S4/MIDI and Music
    13-Jul-90  23:04:20
Sb: #4830-#midi help
Fm: Lester Hands 70135,430
To: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 (X)

Pete, just had to butt in here! CM3 is now old stuff; I've updated the program
for the CoCo 3 with 512K memory (required). 16 tracks, 16000 notes, 240 ticks
per beat, and more.

(Sorry, I just couldn't help myself...)

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5192 S4/MIDI and Music
    14-Jul-90  12:38:40
Sb: #5169-#midi help
Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230
To: Lester Hands 70135,430 (X)

Okay Lester.... get of yer laurels (grin): what have you got slated for the
MM/1?

Pete]

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5235 S4/MIDI and Music
    15-Jul-90  17:25:50
Sb: #5192-#midi help
Fm: Lester Hands 70135,430
To: Pete Lyall 76703,4230 (X)

MM/1? To be honest, I hardly know what it is. I presume it is one of the
successors to the CoCo 3. At this point I doubt that I will pursue any new
computers. Feeding and watering the ones I have is expensive enough!

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5238 S4/MIDI and Music
    15-Jul-90  20:35:10
Sb: #5235-midi help
Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230
To: Lester Hands 70135,430

Lester -

A browse through DL15 will help you out. In a nutshell, its a hopped up OSK
machine, hires graphics, MIDI hardware, lotsa serial ports, and all the
software (including C Compiler) is bundled.

Pete

#: 5170 S4/MIDI and Music
    13-Jul-90  23:07:52
Sb: #5054-midi help
Fm: Lester Hands 70135,430
To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X)

I think Jon was referring to 1/96th of a beat (no 1/96th of a second).
Obviously if you increase the tempo, then the actual time decreases. I have a
number of musician friends who swear they can easily tell the difference
between 96 and 192 ticks per beat!

#: 5172 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  00:17:02
Sb: #5123-#Is Basic out of date?
Fm: Paul K. Ward 73477,2004
To: Jim Williams 72157,3524 (X)

Jim,

What BRAND SCSI do you have?

That's some system you've got, buddy.

Paul

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5206 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  21:44:13
Sb: #5172-Is Basic out of date?
Fm: Jim Williams 72157,3524
To: Paul K. Ward 73477,2004

Thanks, Pau.... Uhm... it's a Seagate ST277N 65 meg, 40 ms access time. 5 1/4
inch <grin>. I can get the drive specs if you need em (from my mountlist, or
there's this file around somewheres...)   --Eet--


                                   Director of Mayhem
                                  Extra Terrestrial Imports, Ltd.



#: 5231 S15/Hot Topics
    15-Jul-90  13:03:42
Sb: #4997-#Is Basic out of date?
Fm: JOHN TEAGUE 75715,1670
To: Paul K. Ward 73477,2004

Paul, QuickBasic is an outstanding implementation.  BASIC09 is somewhere in
between GW-BASIC and BASIC09--IMHO.  As I said in my earlier message, QB is
being bundled by Microsoft with version 5.0 of MS-DOS.  Some time ago I read
comments by Bill Gates in a magazine that BASIC would become a super powerful
batch language. Apparently, he feels that he has to get zillions of copies of
it out there to achieve that objective and I suspect he is right.  I can
remember wondering when I first used ms-dos why .BAT files were necessary at
all when BASIC was available, but I suspect that was because Microsoft bought
MS-DOS and .BAT processing was already built in. There are three areas where QB
represents an improvement over GW-BASIC (which, for purposes of this
discussion, we can consider roughly equivalent to RS-BASIC.):
  1). Runtime
  2). Language extensions
  3). Development Environment

The most wonderful is the development environment, but to take them in order:
RUNTIME The runtime code is fully compiled and therefore quite fast. Basic09,
of course, is pretty fast, too but uses a semi-compiled i-code.  In QB, the
developer can choose to compile and link so that no runtime module is required.
This simplifies running the program for the end user and you can distribute
your object module to any user who has MS-DOS.  Or the developer can compile
and link the same source so that a run time module is also required.  This
approach produces a smaller object module and saves disk space when you have
several programs that can share the runtime.  This runtime is more a collection
of executable modules like inkey than an interpreter like runb.  In any event,
you can obtain a license to distribute the runtime. Of course, all OS9 level II
users have runb because BASIC09 comes with level II.  I've forgotten what it's
like to have level 1.


(..Continued in next message)...

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5232 S15/Hot Topics
    15-Jul-90  13:05:31
Sb: #5231-Is Basic out of date?
Fm: JOHN TEAGUE 75715,1670
To: JOHN TEAGUE 75715,1670 (X)

(.....continued from last message)

LANGUAGE EXTENSIONS Line numbers are optional.  QB has a call like B09's run. 
However it also has line labels which can be used in GOTO and GOSUB commands. 
It also has a very complete set of control-flow statements including DO,
WHILE...WEND, IF...THEN...ELSE, FOR...NEXT, and SELECT CASE (similar to C's
switch).

DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT

WOW.  When you singlestep through source code a highlight bar appears on the
line of code about to be executed.  You can display variables of your choice in
a debug window.  You can set breakpoints throughout the code.  Include files
are supported (like C).  The integrated editor is far superior to the one used
with BASIC09.  All these features are controlled by a system of pull-down
menu's and dialog boxes that work with either keyboard or mouse.




#: 5195 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  13:08:01
Sb: #5055-Is Basic out of date?
Fm: Mike Guzzi 76576,2715
To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X)

~ Well my view on it it depends on what your writing. in some cases C would
make the program easier and in other cases basic09. I have written a bunch of
utilities in Basic09 that I doubt would be any better in C. However I can see
that some applications would be cumbersome or imposseble in basic09 since it
only has a finite instruction set. I would say map out what you want to do and
then decide what language to do it in.

Mike



#: 5173 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  00:18:19
Sb: #5126-#Is Basic out of date?
Fm: Paul K. Ward 73477,2004
To: Jim Williams 72157,3524 (X)

I have a guy who is currently on vacation assigned so a TAPCIS type thingie.

Paul

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5207 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  21:44:28
Sb: #5173-#Is Basic out of date?
Fm: Jim Williams 72157,3524
To: Paul K. Ward 73477,2004

Another message reminded me... how practical might it be to use the MM/1 as a
remote terminal for my Amiga? Right now, remote CLI interfaces are possible on
the Amiga, but you can't run amiga GUI apps from the remote. Since Kevin's
working on the MM/1's GUI, and since he's familiar with the Amiga....? ah,
well.                         --Eet--


                                   Director of Mayhem
                                  Extra Terrestrial Imports, Ltd.



There is 1 Reply.

#: 5236 S15/Hot Topics
    15-Jul-90  19:12:30
Sb: #5207-Is Basic out of date?
Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227
To: Jim Williams 72157,3524

Eet -

Unfortunately, there's a good reason why you don't see Amiga programs running
on remote GUI terminals... the programs often diddle directly with video
memory. Which kind of cuts out remote usage, unless perhaps someone rigged up
some hardware interrupts a la Bridgeboard wherein any write to Ami video memory
caused a program to go and echo that change to the remote. Can you say "slow"
<grimace>?

Those that don't diddle, but instead use only gfx library calls, could possibly
use a rewritten library that sends the commands to a remote terminal. Alas,
another stickler pops up: like many windowing systems, the Amiga OS allows
_programs_ to directly change gfx context info structures. What this means is
that a program could change, say, whether a menu item was enabled or not... but
without a new SetMenuStrip call, the remote would never know.

Of course, you could send the entire menu structure over on each mouse menubar
click, but ugh! The CoCo, btw, has one instance of this nasty... its menu
structure can also be changed, and without an UpdateMenuBar (UMBar) call, a
remote wouldn't know. And I betcha neither Amiga nor CoCo programmers make
those update calls for every little change (?). I gritted my teeth when I saw
this on the CoCo GUI. That kind of setup is written from the standpoint of a C
programmer, and goes against the cardinal rule (of mine ;-) that any change to
an OS structure should be done via the OS only.

Sorry. Got me fired up a little <grin>. - kev

#: 5197 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  13:10:03
Sb: #5076-#Is Basic out of date?
Fm: Mike Guzzi 76576,2715
To: Floyd Resler 72500,2572 (X)

Yes, I use the ON-GOTO for menu selections. then i have distince areas of the
module that handles the selections. i use GOSUBS for I/O also. but otherwise
where i can i use pure loop structures. but for stuff like menu selections who
wants a pile of IF-THEN-ENDIF's??? thats would be nasty!



There is 1 Reply.

#: 5203 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  18:20:45
Sb: #5197-#Is Basic out of date?
Fm: Floyd Resler 72500,2572
To: Mike Guzzi 76576,2715

Exactly! Not only would IF-THEN-ENDIF's be time consuming, it would be code and
memory consuming as well.  My favorite loop is the WHILE-DO.  It makes it real
nice for checking for proper input.  I mean this:
  press=""
  WHILE press<"1" or press>"5" DO
  PRINT "Enter choice (1-5) ";
  GET #0,press
  PRINT
  ENDWHILE

  is much better than this:

  10 A$=INKEY$
  20 IF A$="" THEN 10
  30 IF A$<"1" OR A$>"5" THEN 10

 Floyd



There is 1 Reply.

#: 5209 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  21:53:41
Sb: #5203-#Is Basic out of date?
Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227
To: Floyd Resler 72500,2572 (X)

Yep. Or even get rid of the Press="" by using a REPEAT-UNTIL loop. It's nice to
have so many choices! ;-)

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5224 S15/Hot Topics
    15-Jul-90  10:41:51
Sb: #5209-Is Basic out of date?
Fm: Floyd Resler 72500,2572
To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X)

REPEAT-UNTIL - Why didn't I think of that?  Well, it's time to go shorten some
code!

#: 5174 S10/Tandy CoCo
    14-Jul-90  00:20:00
Sb: #5129-SCSI drives
Fm: Paul K. Ward 73477,2004
To: Mark S 76004,373 (X)

"The more you learn, the more you find out what you don't know" -observation!

Wonder what the license fee will be for the Orange book, and what can you tell
mo about it?

Paul

#: 5176 S10/Tandy CoCo
    14-Jul-90  00:58:22
Sb: #5163-SCSI drives
Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227
To: Mark S 76004,373 (X)

Cats are great... one is scratching at my door now, in fact. Added a few more
over the months, of course <grin>. How are your two (?) cats doing?

Thx for the info on the Philips spec. Re: CD-I.. they shoulda started selling
the units first, then let people upgrade later to the coming units with the
fullmotion video stuff. They still got a good shot at the market tho, I think.
What competition is there? Commodore's CDTV will be out this fall, so we'll
see.

#: 5178 S3/Languages
    14-Jul-90  01:19:24
Sb: #5097-#Kreider clib docs
Fm: Bob van der Poel 76510,2203
To: Mark Griffith 76070,41 (X)

Mark,

Just finished having a look at the new clib docs. Great job.

However, two files seem to be missing from the archive: system.txt and
sleep.txt. Also, exit.txt gives an mroff error during printing.

In assembling the new mroff I had to change the #include <scfstat.h> to a
#include <sgstat.h> and make some changes to sgstat.h since I do not have a
copy of scfstat.h.... not a problem, but could be pretty frustrating to a
novice C programmer just trying to print out the docs.

Anyway, could you post the 2 missing files (PLEASE, do this as a separate
upload--I don't want to DL the entire 156K again!!).

There are 2 Replies.

#: 5190 S3/Languages
    14-Jul-90  12:02:42
Sb: #5178-Kreider clib docs
Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153
To: Bob van der Poel 76510,2203 (X)

Bob;

 scfstat.h is available in header.ar - just checked my index of ar files.

 Not sure in which DL it's in, but I got it here.

..Jim

#: 5212 S3/Languages
    14-Jul-90  23:04:52
Sb: #5178-Kreider clib docs
Fm: Mark Griffith 76070,41
To: Bob van der Poel 76510,2203 (X)

Bob,

I'll re-upload the missing files and include exit.txt with the error fixed. 
Whew!  This was a long monster to do (almost two years in the making).  I'd
expected more mistakes, but I must have read the files over about 100 times.  I
don't want to upload this all again either.  The first attempt, CIS locked up
at 158K, but the second try went fine.  I also am a long distance call to a CIS
node.

Look in DL3 for a file HEADER.AR or something like that from me.  It has all
the header files you need to run Carls library.  The only difference between
scfstat.h and sgstat.h is the former doesn't have the structure for the rbf
descriptors.

Mark

#: 5179 S1/General Interest
    14-Jul-90  02:08:55
Sb: #Member List
Fm: Tony Cappellini 76370,2104
To: ALL

Is there a way I can download a list of the os-9 users and their member # to
have as a quick reference ? TC

There are 2 Replies.

#: 5183 S1/General Interest
    14-Jul-90  09:08:33
Sb: #5179-Member List
Fm: Steve Wegert 76703,4255
To: Tony Cappellini 76370,2104

Sorry Tony, that capability was removed a while back. Seems a few enterprising
souls were compiling mailing lists and bombarding members with junk E-mail.

I do know of a person that has written a bit of Sculptor code that  processes a
dump of messages  to cull the name and uid.

He then checks to see if it's new to his database. If it is ... he adds it.

Steve

#: 5230 S1/General Interest
    15-Jul-90  12:22:26
Sb: #5179-Member List
Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153
To: Tony Cappellini 76370,2104

Tony;

  Look in Lib10 later today for MEMBE7S.AR.  It includes 3 files - MemberDir,
Tele, and Member.dir.

  MemberDir scans your message capture file for the "Fm:" prompt, checks for
already being on file, and if not, adds it to Member.dir.

  Tele opena an overlay window and scrolls thru the Member.dir file 12 names at
a time, and you can use the arrow keys to select a name and PPN that you want. 
The overlay window closes and the name and PPN are printed to the current
window.

  Sounds like what you are looking for?

 ...Jim

#: 5180 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK)
    14-Jul-90  04:30:36
Sb: #TOP - Munich Release 2.0
Fm: Ed Gresick 76576,3312
To: SYSOP (X)

SYSOP!

Wanted to upload top10.t this AM - no space.

Ed

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5181 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK)
    14-Jul-90  08:30:33
Sb: #5180-TOP - Munich Release 2.0
Fm: Mike Ward 76703,2013
To: Ed Gresick 76576,3312 (X)

OK Ed, give 'er another go. I shovelled some mo' coal into Lib 12.

#: 5184 S6/Applications
    14-Jul-90  10:29:39
Sb: #5002-.PAK files?
Fm: Ken Drexler 75126,3427
To: Wendell Benedetti 72766,2605 (X)

Wendell,

Thanks for the pointer.  I am on my way to Lib 10.

Ken

#: 5185 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK)
    14-Jul-90  10:42:02
Sb: #MSDOS Disks
Fm: Jim Chapman 72557,1120
To: ALL

Does anyone know of a way to interchange disks between an IBM PC (MSDOS) and
OS-9. Thanks, Jim Chapman 72557,1120

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5193 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK)
    14-Jul-90  12:41:37
Sb: #5185-MSDOS Disks
Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230
To: Jim Chapman 72557,1120

Jim -

Assuming you're using a coco, there are patches to CC3Disk that can be made,
and then you can run Bob Santy's PCDOS utilities. That'll allow you to
read/write DOS disks in the Coco3 under OS9/LII. The files are in DL10. Try a
BRO/KEY: *DOS

Pete

#: 5186 S9/Utilities
    14-Jul-90  11:25:55
Sb: #Reading OS9 Directorys
Fm: George Hendrickson 71071,2003
To: all

I am new to OS9 and need some information on reading OS9 directorys. I am
getting ready to write a utility for my OS9 BBS (George's
 Dewdrop Inn) and need to know the formula for converting information taken
from reading the directory into a 'dir e' type thing. There is a program called
DSORT.B09 in the dloads that reads the directory and sorts it from opening a
dir path. When looking at the varibles (printing them) I see alot of 'garbage'
characters. My question is, How do I convert each record into something
readable? The program sets up the records using 'TYPE' and the LSN varibles.
Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks George

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5187 S9/Utilities
    14-Jul-90  11:53:31
Sb: #5186-#Reading OS9 Directorys
Fm: Zack Sessions 76407,1524
To: George Hendrickson 71071,2003 (X)

If you can read C, download my sdir.ar from the Utilities lib.

Zack

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5220 S9/Utilities
    15-Jul-90  04:23:38
Sb: #5187-#Reading OS9 Directorys
Fm: George Hendrickson 71071,2003
To: Zack Sessions 76407,1524 (X)


I can't read C yet but I do have sdir in my CMDS directory! <grin> Pretty nice!
Now if I could do that in Basic09....
..without pipes...


t Nope, can't read C but I do have 'sdir' in my CMDS dir! <,

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5222 S9/Utilities
    15-Jul-90  09:48:22
Sb: #5220-Reading OS9 Directorys
Fm: Zack Sessions 76407,1524
To: George Hendrickson 71071,2003

I only use a pipe to determine the "full path name" of the current directory or
the execution directory. And everything that sdir does can be done in BASIC09.

Zack

#: 5188 S10/Tandy CoCo
    14-Jul-90  12:02:33
Sb: #5135-#Dedicated CoCo3
Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153
To: LARRY OLSON 72227,3467 (X)

Larry;

  To add to Shawn's reply, the 2-3 minute tv blurb (complete with cute baby)
stated that ALL the electrical/electronic stuff in the home was capable of
being controlled by the CEBus & controller.  Diablo Systems is the
developer/mfg.  Not sure of the city, but I'd bet that they're in Concord, CA
or someplace nearby.  Will try and find out if you're interested.

  TV spot had short scenes of family watching TV - doorbell rings & display
switches to front door camera;  commercial comes on - display switches to
baby's room;  garage door activated in AM - controller says to house "ok,
family has gone, start dishwasher, power down unneeded lights, etc., set
thermostat back, ... "

  Wife's comment : "It wasn't hard to learn ... I don't know how I got along
without it before!"

  Looks v*e*r*y promising.

..Jim

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5215 S10/Tandy CoCo
    15-Jul-90  00:21:26
Sb: #5188-Dedicated CoCo3
Fm: LARRY OLSON 72227,3467
To: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 (X)

Jim,
    I haven't seen any demos or ad's like that for the CEBus, but from the
descriptions Steve Ciarcia has been giving in his articles, it does sound very
promising.

  Larry

#: 5191 S10/Tandy CoCo
    14-Jul-90  12:36:16
Sb: #5164-Dedicated CoCo3
Fm: Pete Lyall 76703,4230
To: Shawn Thomas 76226,3237

Shawn -


Slick! I've found over the years the problem is getting OTHERS to adopt it as
the norm as well. For example, Marsha _still_ has to ask me what the light
number is for the studio, dining room, etc.... Every now and then I still find
stuff manually turned off. I thought about cheating all of the off/on switches,
but....

Pete

#: 5210 S10/Tandy CoCo
    14-Jul-90  22:08:06
Sb: #5044-#Dedicated CoCo3
Fm: Lee Veal 74726,1752
To: LARRY OLSON 72227,3467 (X)

Our UPS for our mainframe is the source of its power.  The mainframe IS running
off the UPS batteries all the time.  The power lines from the electric company
are constantly recharging the Uninteruptible Power Supply batteries.  That way
when a power outage occurs there is NO switch over to worry about that might
cause a glitch of some kind.
   If you could get a UPS for your CoCo that could maintain the system during a
typical outage (probably 1 to 5 minutes in most cases), and the system was
contantly running off the batteries and the incoming current was constantly
feeding the UPS recharge circuits, then it would be smooth sailing or
monitoring or controlling...

Just a thought, anyway.

Lee



There is 1 Reply.

#: 5217 S10/Tandy CoCo
    15-Jul-90  00:43:39
Sb: #5210-#Dedicated CoCo3
Fm: LARRY OLSON 72227,3467
To: Lee Veal 74726,1752

Lee,
  You are right, that would completely end the power/down, power/up, reboot,
problems, I just didn't think of going that route I guess because I had the
idea that a UPS to handle the system would be awfully expensive.
  Maybe I should look again....

 Larry

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5219 S10/Tandy CoCo
    15-Jul-90  02:01:53
Sb: #5217-#Dedicated CoCo3
Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227
To: LARRY OLSON 72227,3467 (X)

UPS' do cost a lot, but the coco itself can be run off batteries for a few
hours (depends on battery... I've seen a cig-pack sized nicad run one for 3
hours or so).

I saw an interesting new UPS in Computer Shopper (I think) a few weeks back. It
was a regular PClone power supply box style! Pretty slick. Forgot price.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5234 S10/Tandy CoCo
    15-Jul-90  16:30:40
Sb: #5219-Dedicated CoCo3
Fm: LARRY OLSON 72227,3467
To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X)

Kevin,  After that message from Lee I been going through some old Computer
Shopper's to see what was available but so far all I've seen are model numbers
and prices, no descriptions or specs, so I'm still not sure what price level
I'd be looking at. I guess I'll have to send some requests for more detailed
information.
  I guess I should go buy a new Computer Shopper, just looked at the date on
the last one I bought(December 89), there has probably been a few new items in
the last 6 months. I quit buying Computer Shopper when they couldn't find room
in their 800+ pages for even a half a page on the Color Computer.

   Larry

#: 5211 S10/Tandy CoCo
    14-Jul-90  22:28:37
Sb: #5044-#Dedicated CoCo3
Fm: Lee Veal 74726,1752
To: LARRY OLSON 72227,3467 (X)

An addendum after reading some other replies.  If a running UPS was used as I
described earlier, then you could still have a process that monitored the
incoming power line, if it went dead, then a flag could be set that told the
process to check the line again in 30 seconds.  If it was back up, then simply
reset the flag and go back to sleep and wait for your normal power line
checking interval to pop.  If the incoming power is still down in thirty
seconds, then increment a counter, got to sleep, and wake up in 30 seconds to
check it again.  After the counter being incremented has reached a value which
is comensurate with the UPS's ability to keep the system up properly, then a
critical phase has been reached, where drastic measures must be taken. What are
those drastic measures?  Whatever things that must be done to "save" the system
status somewhere (possibly in a static RAM buffer) in preparation for the
impending doom.  The check routine could then go into a "save" routine each
time that it "found" that it still alive and kicking.  Of course, it would
still be checking the incoming power source, too, just in case power was
restored.

Is it do-able?  Or unthinkable?

Lee

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5218 S10/Tandy CoCo
    15-Jul-90  01:04:22
Sb: #5211-Dedicated CoCo3
Fm: LARRY OLSON 72227,3467
To: Lee Veal 74726,1752

Lee,
    Sounds do-able, I guess at this point I need to start playing around with
connecting this computer to the outside world.

Larry

#: 5194 S10/Tandy CoCo
    14-Jul-90  13:07:47
Sb: #5039-#Dedicated CoCo3
Fm: Mike Guzzi 76576,2715
To: LARRY OLSON 72227,3467 (X)

~ Well I have a file on my BBS that lets you put REL,Boot,OS9p1 into a ROM and
allows you to boot OS9 from floppy (the mentioned modules are the kernal which
are not in the OS9Boot file) that avoids the reading of track 34 and auto-boots
OS9. However if you could get a large eprom or make an array of ROMS there
shouldn't be a reason why you can't do it

Mikere



There is 1 Reply.

#: 5216 S10/Tandy CoCo
    15-Jul-90  00:32:10
Sb: #5194-Dedicated CoCo3
Fm: LARRY OLSON 72227,3467
To: Mike Guzzi 76576,2715

Mike,
    Is that file available here? Sounds like that file would be a good pump
primer. I'll have to see if I have your BBS number.
  Larry

#: 5189 S15/Hot Topics
    14-Jul-90  12:02:36
Sb: #5137-#Update on the OSKer
Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153
To: Scott t. Griepentrog 72427,335 (X)

Scott;

 OOops... here's another thing that has slipped my (aging) mind!

 Add me to your mailing list too, please:

  Jim Peasley
  2228 earding Ave.
  Redwood City, CA.
  94062

 Thanks,
   ...Jim

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5226 S15/Hot Topics
    15-Jul-90  10:58:58
Sb: #5189-Update on the OSKer
Fm: Scott t. Griepentrog 72427,335
To: Jim Peasley 72726,1153 (X)

I have all of your addresses and will be sending you copies on Monday.

#: 5200 S4/MIDI and Music
    14-Jul-90  15:58:59
Sb: UME Version?
Fm: Ches Looney 73016,1336
To: Mike Knudsen 72467,1111

Mike, I just downloaded two UME files that sound pretty nice, but they are in
ver 6 and I only have ver 5, (sob!).  Of course I was able to use them, but
what am I missing in 6?  Should I bug 2nd City or wait a bit for more
developments?   Will you be in Atlanta in October?  Hope to see you there.  
Regards, Ches.

#: 5201 S10/Tandy CoCo
    14-Jul-90  16:54:20
Sb: #5162-#Memory Size Testing
Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227
To: DENNIS SKALA 73177,2365 (X)

Dennis -

F$GBlkMp returns the info you need; including the block size, which is needed
if your driver were to work on other OS9 systems.

However, the buffer size required is a lot to ask from system space... and you
said that this was for the coco3 only, so:

Look in the direct page variables, and you can determine where and how big the
block map is.

 $0040-41 D.BlkMap - points to start of block map
 $0042-43 [noname] - points to end of block map + 1

128,256, and 512K coco's will have those set to $0200 and $0240... that is, $40
blocks of RAM. The trick is, the smaller memory machines will have "NotRAM"
($80) bytes set in some of the blockmap. By subtracting out the number of
notram blocks, you can figure up total memory size. The 1024K machines will
have a blockmap size of $80 ($0200-0280).

So: total blocks = [$0042] - [$0040] - (number of blocks in map set to $80).
    total RAM    = total blocks * 8K

Refs: NotRAM defined in os9defs. D.BlkMap on page 2-1-3 my book. Blockmap
example on page 2-1-5 my book. [noname] not defined anywhere <grin>.

There are 2 Replies.

#: 5214 S10/Tandy CoCo
    14-Jul-90  23:18:08
Sb: #5201-Memory Size Testing
Fm: DENNIS SKALA 73177,2365
To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X)

OK, thanks Kev -- that sounds like it'll do the trick.

                      ***** Dennis *****

#: 5223 S10/Tandy CoCo
    15-Jul-90  10:31:02
Sb: #5201-Memory Size Testing
Fm: DENNIS SKALA 73177,2365
To: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227 (X)

Yup - determining machine memory is indeed an easy task when you know that the
end address of the memory block table is available.  All the rest of the needed
info is fairly well-documented.

What other undocumented info are you privy to?  An update of the tables in your
book would be nice.  How 'bout it?  Please??? <whining here - grin>

                                    ***** Dennis *****

#: 5204 S8/BBS Systems/TSMon
    14-Jul-90  20:28:07
Sb: Hill Top BBS
Fm: J SILLIMAN 72355,1207
To: all

                   Guess what!!!!!
                     ZDD .   3
                     CD    ZD4 ZDD?
                     3   3 3 3 3  3
                         3 @DY @DDY
     After almost 3 months of waiting for it, it is
                   finally here!!!!!

         Hill Top BBS is finally on the largest
             mail echo system in the world.

      Thats right, Net/Node 1:107/319 is officially
                     HILL_TOP_BBS
   Open 23 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
                     (Well, almost)
    Hill Top BBS, supporting the Tandy Color Computer,
  with 20+ online games, and fido-net echo and net-mail,
     invites ALL users to sign on and take a look!

   At present we have 20 megs of online storage space,
          looking to expand as soon as possible.

    If you are into fun and games, like online games,
    and enjoy echo mail conversation, give us a try...
                        (908)638-5698
                         ^^^
                 New, New Jersey area code
                      3,12,2400 baud

#: 5221 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK)
    15-Jul-90  05:52:30
Sb: #TOP - Munich Release 2.0
Fm: Ed Gresick 76576,3312
To: [F] Wayne Day 76703,376 (X)

SYSOP!

I uploaded TOP10.T this morning.

Looks like the remaining files will require about 3 megs.  I'd like to upload
the balance of the files this week.

Ed

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5228 S12/OS9/68000 (OSK)
    15-Jul-90  11:52:23
Sb: #5221-TOP - Munich Release 2.0
Fm: Steve Wegert 76703,4255
To: Ed Gresick 76576,3312

Ed,

Looks like Top10 is in good shape. It's merging as I type.

Hang tight on the the remainder until we hear from Wayne. We need to scare up a
mess of blocks.

Your efforts are really appreciated!

Steve

#: 5227 S3/Languages
    15-Jul-90  11:50:22
Sb: Clib Documents
Fm: Ken Drexler 75126,3427
To: Mark Griffith 76070,41

Mark,

The Kreider library documents look great!  They are a great improvement over
the old set.

I downloaded clibdo.ar yesterday and discovered a few bugs: (No 147 page
document would be complete with out a few.)

1. The following files have lines which exceed 80 characters in width when the
line and page indent is included: conv.txt, gs_rdy.txt, password.txt and
unixtime.txt.  Because of the tight page spacing, this throws off the page
formatting for all following pages.

2. The .sh macro in setstat.txt is missing its <.>.

3. The sleep.txt and system.txt files are missing from the archive file.

4. Mroff.mdoc is missing all sections after 7.1. Based on the cross-reference
table, the missing sections are 7.2 through 11.1.

I can fix the first two items but would appreciate the missing files and the
rest of the mroff manual.

Thanks.

Ken

#: 5229 S10/Tandy CoCo
    15-Jul-90  12:19:21
Sb: #4881-Ledger
Fm: Jim Peasley 72726,1153
To: David Sanchez 76200,2476

David;

  Just guessing here, but it looks like Ledger is calling Syscall, GFX2, or
Inkey.  I've run into this before and while I don't know the technical re,sons
why you would get an 043 error, I do know that by merging the above 3
procedures, the error has never come back.

  Here's the way I do it:



echo Creating alias modules...
cd /dd/CMDS
merge gfx2 syscall cnkey >temp
attr temp e pe
rename gfx2 gfx2.orig
rename syscall syscall.orig
rename inkey inkey.orig
copy temp gfx2
copy temp syscall
rename temp inkey
echo Gfx2, Syscall and Inkey alias modules created.


 Try this and see if your troubles don't go away.

 ...Jim

#: 5233 S15/Hot Topics
    15-Jul-90  16:28:53
Sb: #32 bit bus?
Fm: Frank Hogg 70310,317
To:  76703,4227 (X)

Kev,

The MM1 ads state that it has an 32 bit expansion bus. However the 68070 in the
MM1 is 16 bits and you are instructed to discard the MM1 when you move to the
32 bit bus. Several callers asked about this thinking that the MM1 could be
expanded on this 32 bit bus. Unless my math is wrong or I've become very stupid
you can't run a 16 bit CPU on a 32 bit bus. If you could it would serve no
purpose whatsoever. Before I add this to my next QnA upload I want to make sure
I'm not missing anything.

Can you really expand the MM1 with a 32 bit bus and if so how? Is this just ad
hype?

Frank

PS. Remember the old SWTPC ads with a 25 Amp bridge rectifier? Used to get
Gimix really ticked because they had a 25 Amp power supply and the SWTPC only
had a 8 Amp power supply. Yet the SWTPC ads said it had a 25 Amp bridge
rectifier with no mention of capacity of the supply itself.

Sounds familiar.



There is 1 Reply.

#: 5237 S15/Hot Topics
    15-Jul-90  19:16:06
Sb: #5233-#32 bit bus?
Fm: Mark S 76004,373
To: Frank Hogg 70310,317 (X)

I see no reason why you cant run a 16bit cpu on a 32 bit buss There are a
couple of reasons it could be usefull. 32 bit memory to memory DMA, Slave 32bit
DSP's, Slaved 32 bit CPU, and maybe even a math co-processor. All though I will
agree its overkill, not to mention costly.

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5241 S15/Hot Topics
    15-Jul-90  21:23:58
Sb: #5237-32 bit bus?
Fm: Frank Hogg 70310,317
To: Mark S 76004,373

Yes I see your point, but as I understand it the MM1's memory is restricted to
the 2nd board so memory to memory DMA would not work. I don't know if their bus
would support slaved CPUs etc. But if the memory could not be on the bus none
of your suggestions would work.. would they??

Your point of overkill and costly is why the K-Bus is only 16 bits. It was
designed to be low cost and match the 16 bit CPUs. We can and do run a '30 on
the bus with good results and speed. Our paper calcs show we are only losing 5%
over what a full 32 bit bus would give us. If these run true then 5% is a small
gain for the added cost of the extra bits. We are also planning a CPU card with
on-board memory that would overcome most of that loss. I guess it's a
compromise (sp?) between cost and practical operations.

Frank

#: 5239 S10/Tandy CoCo
    15-Jul-90  21:15:26
Sb: CM-8 service manual?
Fm: James Jones 76257,562
To: All

Is there a service manual for the CM-8?  The reason I ask is that my CM-8 could
definitely use adjustment for convergence.  One can readily see some red and
blue fringes--not bad, but noticeable, especially on magenta areas, and I would
like to get as good an image as I can from this beastie.

#: 5240 S1/General Interest
    15-Jul-90  21:20:13
Sb: MM1
Fm: Richard Ries 76057,3534
To:  73477,2004

 Paul-
 I remember (dreamed of?? ) a rumor <Now that's vague!> that the MM/1 would be
able to run MSDOS stuff. Is this correct, or was I really dreaming?
 I'm not referring to the ability to Read/Write MS-DOS disks, but the
capability of running an .EXE file. (A friend I know has an Amiga with this
capability.) Thanks for your response, Rich Ries

#: 5242 S10/Tandy CoCo
    15-Jul-90  22:21:26
Sb: #QIC 40 Tape Drive
Fm: NAM PUI 73347,3324
To: All



I am in search of a tape backup system. Is there any QIC 40 software for OS9 L
II? an Any suggestion as to how one can get one working on the COCO3? Ta Thanks
in advance for any info you may have.

                   Nam

There is 1 Reply.

#: 5243 S10/Tandy CoCo
    16-Jul-90  00:16:23
Sb: #5242-QIC 40 Tape Drive
Fm: Kevin Darling (UG Pres) 76703,4227
To: NAM PUI 73347,3324

Nam - I don't believe there is yet. Several people have looked into it (me
included), but the docs are really tough going and vague, and I believe it
requires the full attention of the cpu, anyway. Have SCSI tape drives come down
in price lately?

Press <CR> !>