SLO BYTES NEWSLETTER, AUGUST, 1987 CLUB INFORMATION The SLO BYTES Newsletter is a monthly publication of SLO BYTES of the Central Coast of California (San Luis Obispo) an IBM/compatible personal computer user's group. Information found in this Newsletter is derived from magazine articles, manuals, books, other PC user group newsletters, and our own members. The purpose of this publication is to inform our members of meetings, their program content, and other information related to the use of IBM-PC's and compatible computers. Dues to SLO BYTES are $18 per year. As a member you will receive a membership card, an updated membership list, SLO BYTES monthly newsletter, and free use of our Public Domain Library. Contributors are asked to submit articles for the next issue by the 15th of each month either in writing or on disk (ASCII format preferred). Address all correspondence to SLO BYTES PC USER'S GROUP, % Bob Ward, 2100 Andre' Ave., Los Osos, Ca. 93402. Phone 8am-5pm 756-2164, after 5pm - (805)528-0121. Other user's groups have permission to publish any material found in this newsletter. Have a computer related item to sell? Tell the editor and we will put it in our newsletter. For further information call Bob Ward @ (805)528-0121 eves. ****************************************************** Meetings are held the 1st Thursday of every month, unless noted otherwise in the newsletter calendar, at 7:15 pm. New users SIG 6:15 to 7:15 pm. Meeting place: Cal Poly University Biology Department, Science North, Room 215. ****************************************************** DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$-DI$COUNT$ Discounts usually apply only to regularly priced merchandise. Ask a salesman to make sure. You must present your membership card to receive a discount. Paradise Computers 5% - all computers, peripherals, 441 Marsh St. and software. San Luis Obispo 10% - Ribbons, paper, disks & 544-7127 other expendable items. Star Computers 5% - any software in stock. 655 Morro Bay Blvd. Morro Bay 10% - paper, ribbons, cable & 772-7827 other supplies. Computer Logic 10% - off list - all computers, 973 Foothill Blvd. software, computer periphe- Store #4 rals and products. Contact San Luis Obispo Bruce, Paul, or Dave for 544-8347 your discount. WITCO Computers 10% - off already discounted 3563 Sueldo, application software. Building B Special prices on group San Luis Obispo purchases of peripherals. 549-0811 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ CALENDAR ****** NO MEETING IN AUGUST ****** ****** NO MEETING IN AUGUST ****** *** MEETINGS CHANGED TO 1ST THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH *** *** MEETINGS CHANGED TO 1ST THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH *** September 3rd WordStar Version 4.0 by Jules Lieber. October 1st Both Witco & FISBOSA computer stores will demonstrate their computer lines. Mel Sage from FISBOSA will build a computer before your eyes. This will take about 1 hour so prepare to stay late. There is a good chance this computer will be raffled off at our December meeting. Details to follow. October 3rd Central Coast Computer Faire. 8am-6pm at the Park Suite Hotel. Display booths, vendors, door prizes, and seminars throughout the day. Admission free. Contact Britt Morris for further details. 544-2207. The next news- letter will have complete details. Don't miss it! November 5th Poly Windows & 1st Choice by Britt Morris. ====================================================== $$$ 4SALE $$$ 4SALE $$$ 4SALE $$$ 4SALE $$$ *** Epson FX-185 wide carriage dot matrix printer. Used about 6 times. Includes one box paper & 2 ribbons. Excellent condition........... $350 OBO *** Taxan 620 color monitor. Used only a few times. Excellent condition.................... $250 OBO Contact Rona Lee @ 544-2591 for the two items above. ====================================================== COMINGS & GOINGS At our last meeting Dr. Barry Mayer from French Hospital discussed the role of computers in medical imaging. Through the use of a video tape and slides we were taken on a tour of French Hospital's imaging facilities. Computers are the tool by which magnetic resonant imaging and CAT scans are changed into pictures which are interpreted by the radiologist. These are mainframe computers requiring, in some instances, over 300 megabytes of virtual (RAM) memory and gigabytes of storage. Images are changed into pixels by the computer, or tiny dots if you wish; one scan made of millions of these small dots. Resolution is proportional to the cost of the machine with fractions of a millimeter being the standard. After the images are stored either on disk or tape drive, they may be further enhanced by computer, adding color or rotating the images on their axis for different views. The computer can put several "shots" together as a moving picture, important for certain cardiac studies. I know we were all enlightened as to the the use of computers in such a field. I can also better understand the cost of many of these scans with the hardware running $800,000 to $2.5 million. And let us not forget Barry's role in reading the results of these complex tests. Thanks Barry for an exceptional presentation. Next month Jules Lieber will demonstrate MicroPro's WordStar version 4. Rumor has it he will NOT be up- staged by Bryan Johanson's presentation of WordPerfect several month's ago. Exactly what that means .... You'll have to come to the meeting to find out. No he's not giving away a copy of WordStar. Perhaps a handkerchief with his name on it? Candy? Frisbee's? or his old shirt from WordPerfect! And you newcomers, don't forget to come early to the new user's-DOS SIG. Byron will have on his thinking cap and DOS manual handy for all your questions. If you would like us to prepare a special presentation on a specific computer topic for the early meeting, let us know. ====================================================== SPEEDING UP BATCH FILES By Bob Unferth Wilmette, Illinois (INDY PC NEWS Volume 7 July, 1987) (reprinted from Marin Sonoma PCUG, December, 1986) Batch files make life a lot easier, but they are very slow. Even when using batch files in RAM disks, execution time is quite noticeable. It reminds me of the time when a batch file meant a batch of cards. The techniques described here reduce the time required to execute batch file by a much as an order of magnitude. Execution time is closely related to the number of lines rather that the number of characters. To save time put as may commands on one line as possible. Some ways to do this: Instead of using a lot of lines for remarks, put what you hve to say in a file and issue the batch command TYPE filename. TYPE-ing a file takes less that 30 percent as long as ECHO-ing the same information from a batch file. Instead of using a lot of lines to issue commands, put all the commands in a FOR subcommand. For instance, your AUTOEXEC.BAT file might start out: fastdisk parint scrnsave spool 7 sk c: Instead, just say: for %%f in (fastdisk parint scrnsave spool:7 sk c:) do %%f This reduces six lines to one. In DOS 2.1, but not in 3.0, you can eliminate spaces and slightly decrease execution time like this: for %%fin(fastdisk parint scrnsave spool:7 sk c:)do%%f Note the colon between spool and 7. You can't have any spaces within the parentheses except to denote the beginning of a new command. When copying files use the FOR subcommand and wild cards like this: for %%fin(print v sp)docopy a:%%f???.* How much time the FOR subcommand will save, if any, depends on how the disk buffers are used while the Cont.--------> (BATCH FILES) subcommand is being executed. DOS remembers the entire subcommand. It doesn't have to go back to disk to read more of the subcommand as it goes along. But DOS doesn't remember the contents of the batch file unless it is held in disk buffers. Whether or not the disk buffers keep the contents of the batch files depends on what you're doing between batch commands. The IF subcommand supports conditional commands and the FOR subcommand. For instance, you might want to see if a file exists and, if it does, to run several programs and then return to the menu; or, if it doesn't, to display a message and return to the menu. A batch file for this task might look like this: If exist myfile goto programs echo File does not exist. Try again d:menu :programs myprog.ram second.prg third d:menu But it will run faster like this: if exist myfile for %%fin(myprog.ram second.prog third d:menu)do%%f for $$ffin(echo d:menu)do%%f File does not exits. Try again. When a batch file is invoked, batch processing for the first batch is terminated. You don't need to exit the batch file. For example, in the batch file fragment below, the command GOTO GETOUT(and probably label:GETOUT) is unnecessary and will increase execution time in some cases: command c: goto getout :getout A fast way to get out of the middle of a batch file is to issue a command for another batch file, say a file called exit. EXIT can contain only the command REM or just a dot or better yet, nothing. A file that contains nothing doesn't take up much disk space. You can create such a file with another batch file, say AUTOEXEC.BAT, by inserting this command: for %%fin(echo rem)do%%f>d:exit.bat The rem part of the command can be any command that doesn't look for parameters on the command line, e.g., cls or pause or sk. Of course, running batch files from a RAM disk is a big help. It's sometimes worth transferring control to a batch file that has been copied onto your RAM disk. The time required for handling the batch operations in a RAM disk is less that one-third of that required for a floppy. NEXT PAGE -------> (BATCH FILES) Putting an end-of-file marker (ASCII 26 or Control-Z) on the same line immediately after the last command, will prevent annoying multiple prompts at the end of batch processing. ====================================================== WORDSTAR PROFESSIONAL, RELEASE 4 - A FIRST LOOK By Jan S. Merle (reprinted from Boca Bits, Boca Raton PCUG, May, 1987 OK, so I'm a WordStar fan -- I admit it. It wasn't easy to learn. The original documentation was awful, and required a how-to book to interpret. And although I use WordStar every day, I keep a reference card handy. I'm probably still using the program for one basic reason: WordStar is what the salesman handed me with my first PC in 1983, and now it's just too much work learning the intricacies of a new program. (...the upstairs Library bookcase opens with a creak, to reveal dust laden copies of Volkswriter Deluxe and Microsoft Word...) But now I've got a whole new reason to stay with WordStar -- enter WORDSTAR PROFESSIONAL Release 4, MicroPro International's long awaited facelift for the Grande dame of microcomputer word processing! The new WordStar may not win as many converts as it once did, due to its complex and largely unchanged system of menus and commands and less-than-state-of- the-art style. However, a number of deficiencies in the previous version, WordStar 3.31, have finally been corrected and many useful new features have been added, making WordStar 4.0 a formidable competitor in the WP Wars once again. I have had my WordStar upgrade for about 2 weeks. I've installed it on IBM PC/XT with 640K RAM, a hard disk and color monitor. With approximately 240K RAM occupied by DOS and various ram-resident programs (including a 64K print spooler and 33K Word Finder, WordStar's Thesarus program), WordStar itself occupied 272K (as normally configured, including a 32K RAM buffer for the main spelling dictionary), leaving 128K workspace for editing. The manual states that WordStar now requires a minimum of 256K RAM (320K with the thesaurus), but that a hard disk is not required. In fact, for floppy-based individuals, WordStar 4.0 can still all fit on one 360K disk and should really sail from a RAM disk. Personally, I'll take the hard disk! The biggest improvements in WORDSTAR PROFESSIONAL, Release 4 are: -- Recognizes DOS path names and subdirectories. -- Changed operation of backspace and delete keys, so that backspace deletes characters to the left of the cursor as it moves left, while the delete key deletes the character above the cursor (my favorite patches to 3.31) -- Adds an "Unerase" feature, to redisplay recently deleted text -- Displays bold and underlined text onscreen on monochrome monitor only. This is not technically possible on a color monitor, so WS 4.0 indicates CONT ------> (WORDSTAR Cont) bold and underlined text and blocks onscreen through use of a user-selectable color highlighting; (effective, but not as good as true WYSIWYG [What-you-see-is-what-you-get] as with monochrome.) -- Runs, loads and saves text noticeably faster. -- Has ram-resident spelling checker and thesaurus programs (hot-key them in, without leaving editing mode -- and thesaurus is Microlytics, Inc.'s excellent WORD FINDER). -- Greatly expanded use of IBM's 10 function keys: use alone or with Ctrl, Shift, or Alt keys for a total of 40 fully programmable function keys. -- Adds user-programmable macros for strings of text or commands. -- Improved its on-line help, now somewhat more context sensitive. -- Enhanced printer support, including proportional spacing, laser printers, user selectable printer ports, multiple copies without merging, and print- to-disk ASCII text file (gets rid of embedded format commands); this creates a text file that can be displayed with the DOS "type" command or transmitted via modem, as in uploading messages to a BBS. -- Includes math functions -- Supports most local area networks with file-locking -- Adds line and box drawing, for borders and simple charts. MicroPro has indeed added more features, but these are the major ones. They represent a significant advance in the usefulness of this venerable word processing program -- enough to inspire me to stick with the labyrinth of menus and commands (warranting 400 pages of manual and an online tutorial), to stick with the outmoded CPM-ish Ctrl and multiple key command sequences. So, until the next revision, I'll be quite happy with WORDSTAR 4.0. Except maybe I could use Sidekick with WordStar to emulate a split-screen capability; or perhaps use my Microsoft mouse and create some pull- down menus; or possibly find some way to clean up the confusing, messy function key legend at the bottom of the screen; or do away with the tacky paper keyboard template; or do something about that balky editing during background printing.... I guess, in the final analysis I really like WordStar; it's familiar, it's reliable, and it's universal. And I know I am not alone, with an installed base of 1.5 million licensed copies (and probably more than twice (CON'T PAGE 4) (WORDSTAR PROFESSIONAL) that may unlicensed copies floating around...). It may not be the word processing program for everyone, but it is extremely powerful by any standard, has been around long enough to be as bug-free as software can get, it's easily customized, and there's a tremendous following of experienced hackers to help me tinker with it! Oh yes, the program is not copy protected and retails for $495.00. The upgrade costs is $89.00. If you currently own WordStar, no matter how old, it's definitely worth upgrading. If not, and you are interested in owning WordStar 4.0 but find even the best mail-order price prohibitive, perhaps you could pickup someone else's old, unused version inexpensively, and then upgrade. It would still be a great value. ====================================================== NEW MEMBERS Welcome to the following new members: Evan Bursey 489-7258 Pat Garzincic 927-8287 Tim & Lynne Iseminger 481-5806 Frank & Lee Morin 528-6279 Marlene Reed 922-8742 Bill & Kerry Wilson 543-5567 Ralph Vrana 543-2375 Arthur Wirshup 543-0654 ====================================================== COMPUTER SWAP MEETS - ONE PERSONS VIEW By Bob Ward Well no vacation is complete without at least seeing or touching a computer. Disney Land and Knott's Berry Farm was fun for the kids, but what about good ole' dad? It was a 50 mile drive from Fountain Valley to Northridge but what's wall to wall traffic and smog when it means going to a computer swap meet. The name "computer swap meet" is a bit misleading, as I suspected, since neither you nor I would be there with our one copy of DOS 1.0 trying to peddle or trade it for something better. Commercial it is..... the prices are, on the most part, as good or better than out of state catalog offerings. A few examples are as follows: Quick Basic $40, color cards with parallel port $47, 30 megabyte 32 msec hard disk $275, or how about an XT clone with 30 meg hard disk and 1 drive for $789. Plenty of public domain software, although most came directly or was copied from the PC-SIG library.... the price $2.50 to $3.00 per disk. I couldn't go away empty handed so I bought a plastic disk holder for 100 disks... $5.75 and some handy soft plastic disk carriers for ~$3.00 each. You know those small binders which hold your DOS manual? Very handy for extra manuals; $1.76 each. With the commercial software, you did have to watch the version numbers. There was an abundance of "cheap" software, some of which was not the current version. Personally, I would take a knowledgeable computer friend along if it was my first computer purchase. With a little experience the "good deals" can be spotted. ====================================================== BITS 'N BYTES **** Mark October 3rd on your calendar and attend the 1st annual Central Coast Computer Faire at the Park Suite Hotel. See CALENDAR for more details. **** Please remember to return the library disks to their proper location after copying. This includes the demo disks. Look in the upper right corner for the number. **** Note that TLC, San Luis Obispo's "386" computer store has been renamed FISBOSA. Due to problems with their business license the name was changed. TLC I could remember, FISBOSA I may have to write on the inside of my eyelids! **** Effective August 28th, my Cal Poly telephone number will be changed. Only the prefix will be different. The new number will be 756-2164. ====================================================== NEWS FROM OUR LIBRARY The following disks have been added to our library for the month of September: #206 PC-ART A great drawing program. Draw circles, squares, or crayon function. Background fill etc. Requires color graphics. Does not need mouse or joy stick. #207 PC-KEY-DRAW Comprehensive drawing program. Great for presentations. Fades, wipes, fills, etc. Color graphics required. Documentation on #208. #208 PC-KEY-DRAW documentation. VIDEO CHEMISTRY -- learn basic chemistry bonding and valences. Graphics required. #209 VALSPEAK & JIVE. Convert your letters into Jive or Valley Girl language. See example below. WATER.EXE -- a fun prank to play on the unsuspecting. ENDZONE -- Football program. ------ ENGLISH ------ Well no vacation is complete without at least seeing or touching a computer. Disney Land and Knotts Berry Farm is nice for the kids, but what about good ole' dad? It was a 50 mile drive from Fountain Valley to Northridge but what's wall to wall traffic and smog when it means going to a computer swap meet. ------ JIVE ------ Sheeit no vacashun be complete widout at least seein' o' touchin' some clunker. Disney Land and Knotts Berry Farm be supa' fine fo' de kids, but whut about baaaad ole' dad? It wuz some 50 mile roll fum Fountain Valley t' No'dridge but whut's wall t'wall traffic and smog when it means goin' t'a clunker swap meet. ------ VALLEY GIRL ------ Well no vacation is like, ya know, complete without at least seein' or touchin' a computer. Disney Land and Knotts Berry Farm is like, ya know, class for thuh kids, man, but what about bitchin' ole' dad? It was a 50 mile drive from Fountain Valley to Northridge but what's wall to wall traffic and smog when it means goin' to a computer swap meet. UPDATES: #186 LOTTO/649 DEMOS: #53 Microsoft Word #54 FrameWork #55 Chart, Sign, Diagram, & Map-Master #56 dBASEIII compilers ====================================================== ====================================================== || || || || || FLOPPY DISKS 4-SALE || || || || @ || || || || THE MEETING || || || || DSDD UNFORMATTED GENERIC 360K || || with labels, tabs, and tyvek sleeves || || || || 1-9 ....... $.80 || || 10+ ....... $.75 || || || || HIGH DENSITY DISKS 1.2 MEG ...... $1.25 ea || || || || NEW LIBRARY DISKS ......... $.90 ea || || || || || ======================================================