SLO BYTES PC USER'S GROUP NEWSLETTER - MARCH, 1988 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 $18 per year. As a member you will receive a membership card, a new member manual, SLO BYTES monthly newsletter, and free use of our Public Domain Library. Contributors are asked to submit articles for the next issue by the 15th of each month either in writing or on disk (ASCII format preferred). Address all correspondence to SLO BYTES PC USER'S GROUP, % Bob Ward, 2100 Andre' Ave., Los Osos, Ca. 93402. Phone 8am-5pm 756-2164, after 5pm - (805)528-0121. Other user's groups have permission to publish any material found in this newsletter. Treasurer: John Rohde 1214 Vista Del Lego San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Have a computer related item to sell? Tell the editor and we will put it in our newsletter. For further information call Bob Ward @ (805)528-0121 eves. ****************************************************** ****************************************************** Meetings are held the 1st Thursday of every month, unless noted otherwise in the newsletter calendar, at 7:15 pm. New users SIG 6:15 to 7:00 pm. Meeting place: Cal Poly University Biology Department, Science North 213 (new users SIG) & 215 General meeting. ****************************************************** DI$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 complete systems. 3563 Sueldo, 5% off computers alone Building B 10% off already discounted San Luis Obispo peripherals, & supplies but 549-0811 not including software. FISBOSA Systems 10% - off packaged systems, soft- 3121 S. Higuera, F ware &/or peripherals when San Luis Obispo purchased with system. Con- 549-9027 tact Lynne Boisen. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ====================================================== || || || || || FLOPPY DISKS 4-SALE || || || || @ || || || || THE MEETING || || || || DSDD UNFORMATTED SYNCOM GENERIC 360K || || with labels, tabs, and tyvek sleeves || || || || 1-9 ....... $.75 || || 10+ ....... $.70 || || || || HIGH DENSITY DISKS 1.2 MEG ...... $1.10 ea || || || || NEW LIBRARY DISKS ......... $.90 ea || || || || Epson Ribbons (MX,FX) || || Narrow - $3.00 || || || ====================================================== Modem prices: FISBOSA (minimum 10 any combination. No other discounts apply.) Everex Evercom II 300/1200 (internal)........... $79 Everex Evercom 24 300/1200/2400 (internal)...... $155 Everex Evercom 24E 300/1200/2400 (external)...... $165 Prices do not include sales tax. Prices good till May 3rd. Warranty 1 year. ----- WITCO COMPUTERS (minimum 5 any combination) Franklin 1200 (Warranty 2 years) (internal)...... $75 Practical Peripherals 1200 (internal)............ $97 Practical Peripherals 1200 (external)............ $125 Practical Peripherals 2400 (internal)............ $179 Practical Peripherals 2400 (external)............ $209 Prices do not include sales tax. Practical Peripherals warranty 5 years. ----- COMPUTER SOLUTIONS *(minimum 5 any combination) Everex 1200 (internal)........................... $79 Everex 2400 (internal)........................... $161 Practical Peripherals 2400....................... $155 Prices do not include sales tax or shipping. ----- PACIFIC EXCHANGES SupraModem 2400 (external).................... $125.95 Prices do not include sales tax or shipping. No minimum order. Mention you are club member. Call 543-1037. ----- Note: All external modems require an additional serial cable ($7-$15) and serial port on your computer. Where group purchases apply (Fisbosa, Witco, & Computer Solutions) contact Bob Ward @ 528-0121 eves before the next meeting if possible. * other quantity price breaks available. Check at meeting. ====================================================== NEW MEMBERS The following individuals signed up as new members at our last meeting. Welcome one and all. Paul F. Bramwell 544-4374 Jonathan D. Brinkerhoff 544-1533 Victor & Tammy Chen 544-4508 Julie Frederick 544-5128 Jim Godfrey George Henderson 528-3892 Gerald & Barb. King 466-1056 Tony Luiz 466-1293 Mark Molini 543-7359 David K. Smith 466-8800 ====================================================== $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ TREASURER'S REPORT John Rohde, treasurer, reported the following income & expenses for the month of February, 1988: Beginning Balance: $ 3173.64 Income: $ 414.30 Expenses: $ -160.69 Computer: $-1041.98 ========= Ending Balance: $ 2385.27 Current Membership: 171 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ KICKING THE PIPE HABIT By Dave Benne (DOS Co-Chairman Beevard User's Group, July, 1987) Pipes should be avoided when they are not needed because MS-DOS, being single tasking, must create an intermediate disk file to pass the data between programs. A pipe can add substantially to the execution time of a batch file. For example try the following batch files: SCANBATS.BAT ECHO OFF TM START FOR %%F IN (*.BAT) DO COMMAND /C READ %%F TM STOP READ.BAT ECHO OFF CLS ECHO %1 TYPE %1 | MORE then try : READ.BAT ECHO OFF CLS ECHO %1 MORE < %1 The first READ.BAT took about twice as long to run as the second READ.BAT when looking for about 5 BAT files. The SCANBATS.BAT cycles through all the .BAT files on your disk. So sometimes it doesn't pay to use piping. You have got to decide which is better for your situation. ====================================================== CONFIGURING YOUR SYSTEM By Peter N. Neuman Hal-PC User's group The FILES command in the CONFIG.SYS file tells DOS how many files can be open at the same time. DOS reserves an area of memory to keep track of each open file, so the more files you allow to be open, the more memory you use. The minimum (and default) setting is 8, and the maximum is 255. The syntax for setting the maximum number of open files is FILES=NN where NN is the number of files DOS can handle at one time. You may think that you do not need many files open, but consider the following facts: Whenever DOS is running, at least three files are open: COMMAND.COM and the two hidden files. An application program that has overlay files must have at least two files open--one for the main program and one for the overlay. In addition, it no doubt uses data files. Even some simple programs automatically make backup copies of the files you are working on, and this increases the number of files that must be open. If you install device drivers or RAM-resident software, each of these files must be open at some time. The manuals that come with application programs sometimes tell you that you need a certain number of files in the FILES command. Database applications, particularly relational databases, often require as many as 20 files in the FILES statement to function properly. ====================================================== BAUD Versus Bps Reprinted from Sacra Blue, newsletter of the Sacramento PC User's Group. Why is it increasingly common for computer magazines to use "bps" instead of "baud"? Because "bits per second" and "baud rate" are not the same. Did you know that 1200 bps and 2400 bps modems both run at 600 baud? Baud indicates the number of times that a modem's carrier state changes per second. The tricky part comes when you consider the number of different states, because that tells how much information can be squeezed over the phone line for a given number of state changes. With only two states, for example, each change of state is like going from 0 to 1, or vise versa. Each change of state is thus equivalent to one bit of information, so "baud" and "bps" would be equal. Now suppose that you can signal four distinct states. Each state could be matched to the two-bit binary numbers 00, 01, 10, and 11. "Bps" will now be twice as much as "baud." Get the idea? Standard 1200 bps modems run at 600 baud with four carrier states, while 2400 bps modems run at the same speed, but are able to distinguish 16 states. (to compute bits per second, the general rule is to take the base-2 logarithm of the number of carrier states and multiply it times the baud rate.) Of course, the more carrier states there are, the more difficult it becomes to distinguish among the slightly different phases that identify them. That's why 2400 bps modems cost more than the 1200 bps kind. They aren't faster, as such; they just have better hearing. ====================================================== CALENDAR April 7th GEM as demonstrated by Gus Thomasson. He has guaranteed a dazzling display! ---> SCIENCE NORTH 215 May 5th COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE - accessing bulletin boards.. A live demo. ---> SCIENCE NORTH 215 June 2nd ---> Meeting in Science North 213 Please note the room change for the months of April, May and June. Disks will still be copied in Fisher Hall 292 during this time. ====================================================== Setting a Default Path and Prompt by Bill Todd Reprinted from Chicago Computing Society On my hard disk system I set the DOS search path to C:\;C:\UTILS;C:\DOS in my AUTOEXEC.BAT file using the DOS PATH command. This works fine while I am working with DOS by causing the root, utilities and DOS directories to be searched automatically for a program and batch files. When running certain applications, however, I want a different path. That's easy since I use a batch file- based menu system to start all of my applications programs. These batch files all have the same basic structure: ChDirMove to appropriate directory PathSet the desired path RunProgramStart the program PathSet the path back to the default Unfortunately, one day I wanted to change the default path. This mean that I not only had to change my AUTOEXEC.BAT file but also every other batch file that changed the path. To avoid this problem, I now store the default path in the DOS environment and any time I need to return the path to its original value I use this stored value. Here is how my AUTOEXEC.BAT file looks now: SETDEFPATH=C:\;C:\UTILS;C:\DOS PATH%DEFPATH% The first command stores the path in the DOS environment with the name DEFPATH. You can see all of the strings in the environment by typing the command SET alone. The second command sets the DOS path to the string stored in the environment. Using environment strings in path files in this way is an undocumented feature of DOS. That means that there is no guarantee that IBM will continue to support it in future releases. However, it has been available since release 2.0. I have now changed all of my batch files to use this method to return the path to its original set value. Now if I want to change the default path all I have to do is change the SET DEFPATH command in my autoexec.bat file instead of searching through every batch file on my disk. This technique can also be used to store the default prompt. Why would you ever want to change the prompt? Have you ever been in a program like 1-2-3 or Symphony, used the exit to DOS feature and forgotten that you were in the DOS prompt each time you start a program that has the ability to temporarily exit to DOS. Using the PROMPT command you can put the program's name or the word "shell~" in the prompt so that it will appear anytime you jump out to DOS. This means that when you leave the program you have to set the prompt back to its original value. If you have stored the default prompt string in the environment, you can restore the original prompt as described above. ====================================================== COMINGS & GOINGS When the February 4th meeting of SLO BYTES PC USER'S GROUP convened it was our full intention to dispose of the business meeting in short order and continue on to main presentation of the evening - A critique of computer magazines. Our apologies to those of you who came specifically to hear about this topic. It will be rescheduled in the near future. First on the list of business topics was the purchase of a computer to run our bulletin board. A lengthy discussion followed before the vote. The bulletin board topic generated much interest with questions asked about member vs. non-member privileges, cost of maintenance, etc. The motion passed overwhelmingly and the computer was purchased the following day from Witco Computer Systems in San Luis Obispo. Our system is an XT monochrome clone with 640K, 4.77 Mhz clock speed, 1 floppy disk drive, a 30 megabyte Seagate hard disk and 2400 baud internal modem. Although the target date for going on line was March 11th, the SYSOP worked so hard that a skeleton version of the board was up and running by the evening of March 6th. We have had great response so far with many individuals logging on already. See the accomp- anying article about the board. A second motion was brought before the group (at this time we were already running behind schedule) to purchase a second computer. This would be used for software presentations at the meetings. A lengthy discussion followed, with the subject matter drifting from the motion that was before the membership. In retrospect, it was apparent that little progress was made on this subject. When the group was small (not many months ago) this was not a problem. Now with the large audiences in attendance a better semblance of order is needed to get through the business meetings. Therefore don't be surprised if some variation of parliamentary procedure is invoked when necessary to help stream line the meetings. The motion to purchase a demonstration computer was tabled until this coming meeting at which time it will again be brought before the members. After a brief (10 minute) discussion from the floor we will ask for a 2nd and vote of the members. We will not drag on the discussion as in the last meeting. If the majority of members want to purchase something else with our treasury, so be it. Vote NO on the existing motion and continue with a new motion. But let's keep it short and to the point so we can proceed to the "fun" part of the meeting, the presentation. Yes, as secretary, I too tend to ramble at the meetings, but feel a brief introduction to new members is in order, no matter how repetitious to the old timers it may seem. We are always open for suggestions! This past meeting we recruited a very special member to our club -- Tony Luiz. He uses a computer as a means of communication with others. The portable computer in attached to the front of his wheel chair. With the use of a pointer on his helmet, Tony can type out words and sentences. The computer then translates the sentences into spoken words. We will attempt to hook his computer up to our overhead projection system so all of us can watch as he types. After this brief demonstration of a very practical use of a computer, Gus Thomasson will demonstrate GEM. This software package is an "operating environment" with the "mouse power" of a Macintosh. From GEM, a never ending number of pull down windows is available. Just "point and shoot" with your mouse, and hardly touch the keyboard. Great for the "hunt and peck" typists among us. I anticipate his demonstration starting about 8 pm. It will last about 45 minutes. The topic for our New User's meeting (6:15pm - 7pm in Science North 213) will be our new BBS, of course! George will have several overhead transparencies showing many of the board's screens and menu's. This will be a good introduction to those of you new to telecommunications and bulletin boards. On May 5th, I will demonstrate a shareware communications package and we will go "on line" with several local and two national bulletin boards. By then, those interested in modems and bulletin boards will be thoroughly indocrinated and "expert" on the subject. ====================================================== SLO BYTES BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM 528-3753 2400/1200/300-8-N-1 Want to communicate with other SLO BYTE Members? Have something to sell? Want to buy some computer hardware? Need a program from our library, fast! Want to send a private message to another club member and be told when they receive it? Use your new bulletin board. Yes, all these things and more can be done through your BBS. What a great means of exchange between members. I get several calls each month from members asking "Do you know anyone who can help me with _________? Why not ask the membership directly, if not at a meeting then through the BBS. The SYSOP (systems operator) has set aside several specific message file areas for this purpose. The first time you sign on to the board we suggest you read ALL the bulletins. As some may be lengthy try capturing the screens to a file. If you don't know how to do that, then hit Ctrl-P or Ctrl-PrtSc so everything coming across your computer screen will be sent to the printer (yes turn you printer on). Answer all the questions as they appear before you the first time and you will be shortly upgraded from first time user to member status. Presently, member status includes access to all file and message sections and a time limit of 120 minutes per day. Non-members are restricted to specific file and message sections and have a limit of 60 minutes. Don't leave the board the first time without leaving a message to the SYSOP. This will be your first message for SYSOP's eyes only. Tell him what you think; what you like about the board or what you would like to see added or deleted. In a very short time, George has put many many hours into what you already see. Notice all the other message sections including: 1. Ask Dr. DOS, 2. General Message area, 3. Member to Member, and more. Explore the file section. One section has computer programs considered exceptional. Another section has been set aside for the disks added to our library during the previous 2 months. Yes, we even have the latest FILE LOCATOR disks in the library. If you want a special file or disk not presently on the BBS, leave a message to the SYSOP and it will be posted for you usually within 24 hours. George has added many files to the BBS which are not in our library so look carefully as many programs are in this BBS. Whole disks start their filename with SB______ and have the extension .EXE. These are COMPLETE library disks which have been "squeezed" with PKARC and then made self extracting. This means, for example, if you type SB101 , several files will be mysteriously extracted from this single file. With a 2 floppy disk system, extract the files to a disk in your other floppy drive. An example would be: A>SB101 B: If you have a hard disk extract them to a separate subdirectory or a floppy disk. As an example: C:\DOWNLOAD\SB101 C:\EXTRACT The above command extracts SB101 found in the subdirectory named DOWNLOAD to another subdirectory called EXTRACT. Of course you can use any subdirectory file configuration you wish. There is a section for sending files only between 2 members. By password protecting the file, only the person you are sending the file to may download it. After the file has been received by the other person the SYSOP will wipe it from the bulletin board. Perhaps you are looking for a file with a certain filename or a message on a specific subject. Use the powerful text search command to look at the whole bulletin board hard disk. These are just a few of the many areas our BBS can help you as a member of SLO BYTES PC User's Group. There are many other fine bulletin boards in the area which you can also explore with your computer and modem. Give them all a try, they're free. That's right no cost to the user. Why do so many SYSOPS spend so much time, money, and energy setting up a BBS? Who knows! I'm just happy they do it. What a great source of communication between fellow computer enthusiasts. Bob Ward ====================================================== USEFUL UTILITIES UPDATE by Dick Trueman Although almost everyone has some kind of word processor, wouldn't it be nice to have a handy full- screen editing program to make minor document file changes and create or modify batch files, like your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, for example? EDIT.COM is such a program, and it's free (no donation requested). EDIT is a 12K program which is very fast, since it uses no overlays and keeps the entire source file (limited to about 60K) in memory. Some of its most useful features are: -- Global search and replace -- Block copy, move and delete -- Function keys used to initiate most commands -- Cursor movement convenient and fast -- On-line help screen showing all commands -- Easy insertion or deletion of lines -- Last line deleted can be "undeleted" -- Text from another file can be inserted at any point -- The current file can be renamed during editing -- Tabs stops can be set -- Line lengths of up to 255 characters allowed EDIT is not fancy, but it's very quick and convenient for many tasks. It doesn't have wordwrap and lots of other goodies, but I have found it extremely handy and useful for its designed purpose -- and the price is right! It sure beats using EDLIN, the DOS- supplied line-by-line editor! You will find EDIT.COM and its documentation file EDIT.PRT on disk #117. ----- LIST62A.COM is the latest version of an extremely versatile program which can display files on the screen under complete control, with forward or backward scrolling line by line or page by page. You need never use the DOS TYPE command again. Some of the interesting capabilities of LIST include: ** Mark a block of text and print it or save it to a file ** Find next occurrence of text going forwards or backwards ** Move to a given line number in the file (LIST always displays the count of the number of lines to the current cursor line) ** Move a specified number of lines forward or backward ** On-line help screen displaying all commands ** Screen can be split -- freeze top half and scroll bottom half ** Optional display of a ruler line at the top of the screen ** Hex values can be displayed for each character Control codes, backspaces, etc. can be filtered out ** For color monitors, there are different color display modes ** By using wildcards, multiple files can be displayed one at a time, and they can be stepped through either forwards or backwards LIST is shareware, and the author, Vernon Buerg, asks for any amount ($15 suggested). There's no obligation, but I use LIST and like it, so I sent in $15. In return, I got a nice "thank you" and a full disk of Buerg utilities! LIST62A.ARC is on disk #238. You will probably also want to copy LISTMODS.ARC from that disk. ====================================================== BITS N' BYTES *** There will be a computer swap meet in Meadow Park this Saturday from 1-4 pm. We have no other details. *** We have 35 copies of IBM UPDATE, a quarterly report about IBM products. Pick one up at the meeting. *** There are 2 narrow carriage Epson ribbons left. At $3.00 each it's a real deal. *** I recently purchased a SupraModem 2400 modem from Pacific Exchanges. With shipping and tax the cost was $134.00. I will bring it to the meeting for you to see. *** If you are interested in a group purchase of modems, call me before the next meeting @ 528-0121 or leave message on our BBS (528-3753). *** Floppy disks will be available for purchase during the whole evening. The disks will be moved from the hallway in Science North to the computer room (Fisher Hall 292) during the main presentation (7:45-8:30). Sales will be handled by Sam Powers who is our computer room monitor. We do need other volunteers to take his place from time to time. Sales of membership and check-out of ATI training disks will occur from 6:15 - 7:30 and after the main presentation. *** Note the meeting places for the next 3 months. New User's SIG will meet in Science North 213 from 6:15 - 7pm. Then we will migrate to 215 which is a larger room for the main meeting. ====================================================== NEWS FROM OUR LIBRARY The following disks have been added to our library in the month of March: NOTE: #188 & 189, PC-FILE+ ver 1.0, has been renumbered to #249,250 & 251 due to increase in size of ver 2.0. PC-CALC+ formly found as PC-CALC v 3.0 on disk #106 has been renumbered to #252,253 & 254 due to increase of size. #106 Poker & Ultima21 PC-SIG #791) Good honest Draw Poker and the ultimate game of 21. #188 QubeCalc (PC-SIG #696) advanced spread sheet with many features found in commercial versions #189 NamePal (PC-SIG #706) Sophisticated address book #255 ESIE, an artifical intelligence generator with examples. LIBRARY UPDATES: #138 Extended Batch language to ver 3.04 #249 PC-FILE+ ver 2.0 program disk #250 PC-FILE+ ver 2.0 utilities disk #251 PC-FILE+ ver 2.0 documentation #252 PC-CALC+ program disk #253 PC-CALC+ utilities disk #254 PC-CALC+ documentation #248 EZ FORMS DEMO DISKS: #64 GhostWriter - application development system #65 A&B TextPro by KnowledgePro A non-linear text generator ======================================================