ZIP Magazine Issue 1
*************************************************************
* *
* ±±±±±±±±±±± *
* ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ± ZIP Magazine, *
* ÛÛ± A MS-DOS based magazine *
* ÛÛ± *
* ÛÛ± Editors -->> Ron Alcorn *
* ÛÛ± Editors -->> W.H. Lambdin *
* ÛÛ± *
* ÛÛ± ISSUE # 1 *
* ÛÛ± *
* ÛÛ± Date: September, 1988 *
* ÛÛ±±±±±±±±±±± *
* ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ *
* *
* ±±±±±± *
* ÛÛÛÛÛÛ± *
* ÛÛÛÛ± *
* ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±±± *
* ÛÛÛÛ±±± *
* ÛÛÛÛÛÛ *
* *
* ±±±±±±±±±± *
* ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ±±± *
* ÛÛ±± ÛÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±± ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±± ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±±±±±ÛÛÛ± *
* ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ *
* ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±± *
* ÛÛ±±± *
* ÛÛÛÛ±±± *
* ÛÛÛÛÛÛ *
* *
*************************************************************TABLE OF CONTENTS - ISSUE # 1
- EDITORS CORNER
- S.E.A. AND PK WARE DISPUTE
- WHAT IS A BIOS
- PLIGHTS AND PERILS OF UPGRADING
- WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A KEYBOARD
- NARC 2.1 REVIEW
- PATERSON TURBO XT BIOS REVIEW
- GALAXY 2.3 REVIEW
- PARADISE VGA PLUS REVIEW
- QFILE 3.1A REVIEW
- PROGRAMMER'S CHALLENGE
- TECHNICAL DATA NEEDED
- ZIP INFO
- BBS LIST
- ZIP SURVEY
- ZIP FILES
Editors Corner
by W.H. Lambdin & Ron Alcorn
This is the premier issue of ZIP. We will try to publish it every two months. If there is a lot of response from you the readers, we may go monthly. I hope you enjoy, and support this magazine.
Here is a list of BBS's where you can download the latest version of ZIP.
These BBS's will be accepting your submissions and also carry the latest version of ZIP magazine.
(606) 878-9500 (606) 864-8862
Secret Kingdom World Of Wonders
Baud : 300 - 1200 Baud : 300 - 2400
Hours : 6pm - 10pm EST Hours : 24
Days : Monday thru Thursday Days : Every day
Sysop : Ron Alcorn Sysop : John Baker
Sysop : W.H. Lambdin Cost : Free
Cost : FreeThese BBS's will only carry the latest version of ZIP magazine. Do not upload your submissions to these BBS's.
(703) 481-0845 (606) 432-0879
Corvette Driver's Strawberry Patch
Baud : 1200 - 19,200 Baud : 1200 - 19,200
Hours : 24 Hours : 24
Days : Every day Days : Every day
Sysop : David Arline Sysop : Terry West
Cost : Free Cost : FreeIf you have an item you would like to sell, write a message to Ron, or me, on one of the above BBS's.
ZIP is in search of a C programmer to do a column that will appear in every issue of ZIP. If you are interested please let us know. Naturally we would not be able to pay you, but it would give you an opportunity to get some experience and help others learn as you go along.
Editorial on the S.E.A. and PKware dispute
by W.H. Lambdin
What do you think about the recent court case with the people that wrote Arc lodging a court suit against Phil Katz because of his arc type utility?
I think that it is a crime that Mr. Katz will no longer be allowed to produce arc compatible utilities. Who do you think they will pick on next? There is Dave Rand that has introduced an MS-DOS version of his CP/M NSWEEP utility. it can dissolve arc files. There is Gary Conway of Louisville, Ky. The writer of Narc, a utility to unarc arc files. There is also Chris Smeets, the author of arc 2.30 an arc program for the Commodore 64, and CS/DOS another arc type utility for the Commodore 128. CS/DOS is supposedly compatible with MS-DOS arc files. These are just three that the authors of SEA ARC can pick on next.
What does S.E.A. want? Apparently, they want a monopoly on this type of utilities. What they failed to understand that the system of free enterprise applies to everyone. If Mr. Katz had not introduced PKARC, and PKXARC, we would not have arc files as the standard on all the MS/dos Bulletin Boards around the country.
Look at the archive programs in the commodore area. There is arc 2.3 by Chris Smeets. Lynx written by Will Corely, there are 15 different versions none of them are compatible with earlier versions. Library has 12 different versions, and the same problem that lynx suffers from. Arkive has 3 versions, and not compatible with earlier versions. Only arc 2.3 offer any compression at all. These are just a few of the archive utilities for the commodore area. The reason that I am familiar with the archive utilities for the commodore area is because I have only recently upgraded from a Commodore 128 to an XT compatible. you have no ideas how lucky you are to have arc files as the standard.
When IBM first introduced the PC, XT, and AT computers, they were trying to stay one step ahead of the clone builders. But in reality, the clones have made these computers more popular. This made MS/DOS computers the standard, not to mention that the computers are faster, and more powerful thanks to the competition. This holds true for software. Look how much ARC, and PKARC have improved due to competition.
What S.E.A. has been able to do, should not be condoned because when there is only one source for an item, everyone looses, because the item will not be able to become all it can be, and the customer has no alternative. It would be like the author of Word Star filing a suit against Omniverse (the creators of Galaxy) for making a Wordstar clone. Galaxy 2.3 is the best word processor I have ever used. When Galaxy fails to meet my needs, I know that there is WordStar that I can upgrade to, and compatibility will be my main concern, I won't have to relearn the commands.
Since there is nothing we can do about the judgment against Mr Katz, I just wanted to express my views about this point. I have heard that Mr Katz, is going to introduce a new archive utility that will be faster, and have more compression. I hope that the new archive utility from Mr. Katz will become the standard archive program, and put S.E.A. out of business. I only hope that having different types of archive programs doesn't become the mess it is in the commodore area. I will probably be one of the first ones to give ARC the boot!
What is a BIOS?
by Ron Alcorn
What is a BIOS? Well it is the Basic Input/Output System on your IBM/MS-DOS compatible computer. To put these terms to a more user friendly look, you could say that the bios basically controls what goes in and out of your computer system. Physically a bios is an eprom chip. An eprom is a chip that can be programed, but programed only once, unless you use an eprom eraser to erase the eprom so you can re-program it again. From my experiences, bios's come on a 27X series eprom. Where X can be 64 or 128. These numbers mean how much memory in K each eprom has. There are other sizes, but these are the most common from what I have seen. Moving on, bios's are also the main link to how IBM/MS-DOS compatible your computer is. So listen to the articles in ZIP so you can see which BIOS best suits your needs. A few brief things you should know are that many bios's these days also contain special features for hard drives, floppy drives, memory specifications, various graphics card support, head parking, and turbo switching. This article if just a brief discussion of bios's, hopefully it has explained what a bios is for you beginner's. I assume that most novice computer users already know what a bios is. Watch for articles in upcoming ZIP's for name specific bios's. I hope that my information has helped you out.
PLIGHTS AND PERILS OF UPGRADING
by W.H. Lambdin
I have been using an XT compatible, but I wanted a faster computer. So I bought the Transformer AT mother board from All Star Micro systems. I have had nothing but problems. None of it is due to All Star. They have helped me in every way possible.
This mother board fits in my XT case & uses my old memory. The board is great. It has turned my Turbo XT into a 12 megahertz AT. Runs 11.7 compared to a 4.77 mhz XT. According to Norton's SI Version 4.0.
The ad says that with the transformer mother board, you will be able to use XT cards. This is true to a certain extent. I am using my old Paradise VGA card, my old Multi I/O card, my old 2400 baud modem. All of this works flawlessly, but the XT hard drive controller that controls my Seagate ST238R 30 meg hard drive. This is where I had major problems.
I followed the instructions that came with my transformer to the letter. I backed up my hard drive before installing the transformer. I booted my system up, everything worked perfectly every file was still on the drive, I was esthetic being able to run 3 times as fast as I did before. I ran SI, and my computer ran 11.7. I ran Core Test 2.8 to check the speed of my hard drive. I was disappointed to find the speed had gone down. In the Turbo XT, it was able to read 137 K per second, but after I had installed the new motherboard, the drive was only able to read 114 K per second. The friend that was helping me install the new mother board said, "the drive will be able to read the data faster after we initialize the drive". We performed both a low level, and a high level format. After restoring the hard drive, we ran core test again but it was only able to read 24 K per second. The poor drive had a lot of slow sectors. Slow sectors are sectors on the drive that format good, but fail to read from.
At this point, I was about to do something I might regret, but the drive was still under warranty. I returned the hard drive, and controller to the company, I bought them from, and I also wanted to upgrade from an 84 key keyboard to a 101 key keyboard. The company called, and reported there was nothing wrong with the drive. I was very pleased, and I received the keyboard and drive a few days later. We set the drive up again, and it only read 28 K per second with no slow sectors. I called All Star micro systems, and asked to speak to the technician. I asked him why my drive had been so fast on the XT, and so slow on the AT.
He said the computer was running to fast for the XT controller to keep up. So I am having to upgrade to an AT controller. $79 and my old XT controller. I could have survived with the hard drive running at 114K per second. The reason the drive was so slow after we initialized the drive, was because it was at an interleave that the controller couldn't keep up with. So the moral to this story is, that if you want to upgrade, and you want to keep your old cards. If the drive is 4/5's as fast as it was before. Don't initialize the drive! This really is a terrific product. I am running a 12 megahertz AT, but I am only using the 120 ns 256K drams that came in my old XT.
A few weeks after I had the transformer mother board installed, I came across QFRESH.COM. Qfresh appeared in PC Magazine. Not sure which issue. Qfresh is a simple little 14 byte program. It simply slows down the rate of ram refresh. The description said speed up your computer. After playing with the values in the source code, I put it in my autoexec batch file. I ran SI, and this computer jumped from 11.7 to 12.0. Well .3 difference is nothing special, but a 14 byte program making that much difference is.
If you would be interested in obtaining a copy of this program, you can download it from Secret Kingdom BBS Mentioned earlier. In the arc file, is the com file set for XT's, complete source code, and instructions on how to optimize it for your computer.
As of now, I am waiting for my new AT hard drive controller, so I am stuck to using my 360K floppy drive. When I get the new card, I will publish an update.
The Hard drive is not the only troubles I have had. I am also encountering problems with my 101 key keyboard. This time it is my problem. I had gotten used to the old keyboard with the cursor control keys on the numeric key pad, and the function keys being on the left. This new keyboard has a much nicer feel than the old keyboard, but I still want to use the numeric keypad for cursor control, and I keep hitting Caps lock for F9 and F10. Oh well it could be worse. I will just have to get used to it.
All Star Micro Systems sells the Transformer for $495, and it really is super. It has 4 16 bit slots and 4 8 bit slots. I am really happy with this mother board. I had been thinking of buying the 12 mhz 286 card from PCSG. It costs $595, and only runs 10.3 according to SI. This mother board runs 12.0, and costs $100 less than the 286 card, plus I will have true 286 expandability with the 4 16 bit slots. If you call All Star, ask for Randy. The number for All Star Micro Systems is 800 525-0286.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN PURCHASING A KEYBOARD
by Ron Alcorn
Which keyboard should you buy? Actually it just comes down to personal taste, but I'll give you a few pointers to let you decide for yourself.
- Injection molded keys are highly recommended for long lasting durability of your keyboard. Injection molded keys means that the letters on the key are molded in, actually two pieces of plastic. Normal keys are one piece of plastic with the letters painted on, and after about a year, the letters start to fade off.
- You may be use to click tactile keys, but if you are new to that type of technology, then you are prone to double type characters every so often. The click tactile keys take more force than the normal keyboard feel to keep from doubling up on typed characters. But the advantage of clicking keys is that you know when the key has been pressed far enough. Actually you also know this on normal type keyboards, but the click lets your ears play a higher role.
- If you are a touch typist, meaning you don't look at the keyboard when you type, make sure the keyboard you get has the plastic notification (small piece of plastic raised up on a portion of the letters F and J).
- If you don't like a keyboard that slides around, try to find a keyboard where all the housing is made of metal. Most keyboards have rubber feet, but the extra weight of a metal housing helps out a little more. But usually the plastic keyboards have a more ergonomic design which makes them look more attractive.
- Keyboard are usually not like type writers, meaning that there are no shift lock keys. Instead a caps lock key is used, but it does not stay in the down position, so you might considering a keyboard that has LED indicators for the caps, number, and scroll lock keys. This way you don't have to type a letter to see if you are in upper or lower case mode and where the number pad is in the number or cursor pad mode.
- Check the dimensions of the keyboard you are getting. You might use a keyboard drawer, so you would not want to get a keyboard that was too wide to fit in the drawer. Although most keyboard drawers will support any type keyboard these days.
- You might like to type with the keyboard in your lap. There are remote control keyboards that don't use cables, but they are hard to come by. Also a cordless keyboard would be easier to use with a keyboard drawer, this was the cable would not snag on the drawer. Although I have never uses a cordless keyboard and have no information on the quality of these type keyboard.
- Be sure that the keyboard you choose has all the standard keys. Some clone keyboards don't have the PAUSE key. Also on some clone keyboards the PRINT SCREEN key is a shift key, meaning that you have to press shift and print screen in order to print the screen. It should be that all you have to do is press the print screen key alone. You also might want to check how many ALT, CONTROL, and SHIFT keys there are. Some people prefer two of each. All keyboards have two SHIFT keys, but it doesn't hurt to check how many it will have. Two ALT keys or two CONTROL keys are not a necessity, but if your old keyboard had 2 of each, then it might take some getting use to if the new keyboard you get has only 1 of each.
- Check what type of computers the keyboard will work with. Some work with only PC or XT's, and some AT only. There are lots of keyboard that have switches or auto switching mechanisms which make the keyboard compatible with and PC, XT, or AT computer.
- Find out if the CONTROL and CAPS lock keys are switchable. This option is only on the AT extended type keyboards that I know of. This options allows you to place the CAPS lock key in the lower left hand corner of the keyboard and the CONTROL key in the middle left edge of the keyboard or vice versa.
- Another personal preference is if you prefer ten or twelve functions and whether they are located on top of the keyboard or on the left hand side. Having two extra functions keys isn't necessary, unless you have software that uses those two keys. Also the two extra function keys mean that you can define more keys for macros with the correct software or if you know how to program them to work for you at the DOS level, then that means you would have a total of eight more macros defined to use.
- Keyboards are available with two pads, one for the numbers and the other for cursor/edit keys. This is a personal preference, but with separate pads, you can use one for numbers and the other for cursoring at the same time. As with only one pad, you have to press the number lock key to toggle between the two modes.
NARC 2.1
by W.H. Lambdin
Narc 2.1 written by Gary Conway of Louisville Ky. This is a menu driven unarc utility that is compatible with all known forms of crunching. It is FreeWare. Mr Conway, asks that if you like this software, and continue to use it, send $20 for the latest version, and documentation on the disk. If you wish to buy a printed (bound) manual, the charge is $15. If you wish, you can buy the printed manual and disk combo for $35. If you need to purchase a site license, the charge is $50.
Narc is very easy to use. It sure helps out new users, by point and tagging files for extraction. It doesn't have any commands to type in, just point and shoot. After I had unarced the arc file NARC came in. I had it up and running in a matter of minutes. It isn't as fast as Pkxarc. I dissolved the narc archive with Pkxarc in 9.71 seconds. Then I used Narc 2.1 to dissolve the archive. It took 20.7 seconds.
When you call up narc, a pop up menu appears on the left of the screen, and it gives you the file names in the directory that have .arc as the extension. Move the color bar down to the archive you wish to examine, and press return. The pop up menu will disappear, and the files in the archive will appear on the screen. It is the same as the verbose listing you can call up with PKXARC with the following syntax. PKXARC -v arc file.
Where Narc really shines is in it's flexibility. I have my hard drive set up that I like to dissolve my .com, .exe, and .bat files to my work sub directory. Then have the documentation files go to the documentation sub directory. Before I found narc, I was stuck to dissolving arc files like this. PKXARC arc file c:\work. Then after the files would be dissolved. copy the documentation to the documentation sub directory. This was a lot of trouble, because I needed to move the files twice. Now with narc, I choose the arc file I wish to work on, then press return. when the files in the arc file appear, I press the space bar beside the com, exe, and bat files. then I move the bar at the bottom to extract, and press return. Two choices appear. highlight, or tagged. I move the bar over to tagged, and press return. Narc then asks for me to enter the path. after I enter the path, and press return, narc goes to work, and it extracts the files I chose. After this is complete, I tag the documentation files, and un tag the other files, and send them down to the documentation sub directory. This is a very nice utility. I only wish Mr. Conway would add a section so you can make archives as easily as narc allows you to dissolve them.
Not only does this program dissolve arc files. With the View option, you can view the file on screen, in a simple to use editor. the cursor keys act as they should, but the page up and page down is a little slow. If you wish, you can print the documentation out on printer, this program even asks what pitch you want the print in. type 0 for the default pitch.
When I first got NARC, I had a slight problem. I had a clock calendar on the 26th line. Before I removed this memory resident program, NARC would lock up on the second file of the archive, then the screen looked like a key punch card. I removed this memory resident program, and I have not had any more trouble. If anyone asks what I think of NARC, I say, "It's about time that someone made a user friendly unarc program. This is it!"
There is one major short coming of Narc. If the arc file you wish to work on has been damaged, Narc will be unable to extract any files that may occur after the bad file. I like Dave Rand,s Nsweep arc file extraction better because if there are files after the bad file, Nsweep can extract them easily
I like Nsweep, but Narc is nicer, it is easier to use, and you can set up the colors the way you choose. Nsweep can extract arc files with about the same speed of Narc. Nsweep is only black and white. But Nsweep was designed to work remotely.
Mr. Conway can be reached at the address below.
Infinity Design Concepts
1052 Parkway Drive
Louisville, Kentucky 40217
Rating ****
PATERSON TURBO XT BIOS
by Ron Alcorn
The Paterson Turbo XT Bios is a great bios for people with all floppy drives. It is also good for people with one or two floppies and one or more hard drives. But if you have more than two floppies with one or more hard drives, then this is where the problems come in effect with the bios. The bios wants to make the third floppy drive C and change the hard drive to drive D. Well with this confusion, everything works properly, but you would have to change all your programs on your hard drive to support drive D instead of C. Most people prefer the first hard drive to be drive C. Personally myself I like drive C to be the first hard drive, but I will let you decide for yourself which you prefer, although when you get down to it, it's really not a bug, just a nuisance to people with hard drives and being used to using it as drive C. All in all it is still a good bios, because most people have only two floppies, but I myself use three. Anyway one of the nice things that I really like about this bios is that it controls 3 1/2" 720K drives without having to have the DEVICE=DRIVER.SYS /PARAMETERS located in your CONFIG.SYS file. You actually don't type PARAMETERS, but some options for your particular computer setup. Refer to your DOS manual for more details on the using the DRIVER.SYS in your CONFIG.SYS file. Among other things, this bios displays what you have in your computer while it is booting. It shows you the amount of floppies, serial ports, game ports, and parallel ports you have. Also what type of display adapter you are using and if you have an 8087 math co-processor. The memory test is about average, its not slow and its not fast. The memory test is done in 128K increments. Also while booting it checks each drive and turns it's light on as on the AT type computers. Once your system has completely booted, you're ready to go. So far the bios has run every program that my friend has. But this is nothing new, almost all bios's now days run about any program there is. The bios does work with non standard display adapters such as EGA and VGA. A few of the older bios's may not work with these display adapters as I have had the pleasure of finding out for myself. The version of this bios is 2.13 as of July, 1988, when my friend purchased it.
Price: $34.95 (Purchased thru mail order, list price N/A)
Paterson Lab.
8575 willows Rd NE
Redmond Wa. 98052-3413
Rating : ***+
GALAXY 2.3
by W.H. Lambdin
Galaxy 2.3 a free ware word processor that is a word star clone. It is a product of Omniverse corporation. The authors ask that if you like and continue to use Galaxy. to send $49.95 to register it.
It is a full featured word processor, but it does need a couple bugs fixed. first, it would be much better it would treat the margins like a type writer does. The program also has a bug with the reformat option. It strips out the spaces you indented the paragraph with. Other than these two bugs, it is great! I wish he would have made the program mark text as Q-Edit does. But this doesn't mark a line at a time, it starts marking text at the point where the cursor is positioned.
This program has pull down menus similar to Q-Edit or PFS professional write, but the speed and options of this word processor beats Q-Edit and PFS professional Write both!
If you need a spelling checker, you can use Turbo Lightning. You just need to set Turbo lightning for Word Star. I especially like the real time spelling checker. Believe it or not, Turbo Lightning does not slow the text entry as most would think.
Printing, Galaxy comes with 20+ different printer drivers, and also comes with a program so you can customize your own. The printing is from disk, not from buffer.
Features. Galaxy comes with all the features, that one will ever need. It has super scripts, sub scripts, Bold face, underline, italics. If you need a good word processor, but can't afford a commercial word processor, I would recommend that you give galaxy a try. I think you will be impressed with its power and speed. It is on several BBS's as GALAXY23.ARC. It should be about 150K.
One last note, Galaxy doesn't save your work to disk like Word star does, Instead it uses a buffer for all text. This is the reason it is so fast. If you have a computer with 640K, you will have about 400K for the buffer. Providing you don't have a lot of overhead.
No review would be complete with out letting you know about it's speed. I have a 64K document I always use in order to compare the speed. On my old 10 mhz XT, Galaxy took 1.82 seconds to find and replace 895 words in that document. PFS Professional write took 3 minutes and 18.37 seconds. Q-Edit 2.06 took 3.82 seconds. On this 12 mhz AT Galaxy takes only .73 seconds.
Galaxy is configurable, you can set the colors, the logged path (this is where Galaxy will search for the files.
If you do not like the word star commands, you can use the menus. Also it has the function keys programed for the most often used commands.
Rating ****
UPDATE: After I registered my copy, I received the same version 2.3, and a bound manual.
I also came to understand about the bugs. If you press return, the cursor jumps to the left margin of the line below. As an added feature you can back space or press the home key to go back to column 1. This is in case you need to put something in left margin. Page numbers, and etc.
the bug with the reformat option, you should have blank lines between paragraphs. To keep the paragraph indention from being striped out, put the cursor on the first character of the paragraph. Then press ctrl-b.
As an added feature for registered users, you also get an option for print spooling. In other words, you can print one document to the printer, and you can be editing another document at the same time.
You get free telephone support, and free upgrades of Galaxy 2 series. You need only pay $5 to cover the cost of shipping and handling. I have heard that 2.4 will be available to registered users about the time you will be reading this. Also Version 3.0 should be available early 1989.
Rating after registration *****
PARADISE VGA PLUS
by W.H. Lambdin
This Paradise VGA card cost's $250. supports VGA, EGA, CGA, MGA (hercules), and MDA. It has 256K screen memory.
This card was recommended as one of the best VGA cards on the market. According to PC Magazine. I am not trying to re write their review about this card. I am just reporting a few items that might be of interest.
SPEED: This card has 256K of 100 ns ram, and can display text or graphics to the screen quickly.
COMPATIBILITY: I have only found one program that refuses to work with the software VGA PLUS.
- MDA: I have not encountered any problems with this mode of emulation.
- MGA: Hercules works fine as long as you let the card auto switch down, but if you force hercules with VGA PLUS software, there will be a few side effects. The game play will but a little sluggish, and the screen will display one screen, and a portion of another.
- CGA: I am even able to run the game Round 42. This game can be found on quite a few BBS's. Round 42 is a good test if you want to see how compatible a VGA or EGA card will be, because it is written in Turbo Pascal, and has 16 colors. It will actually run 16 colors on CGA that only supports 4 colors on the screen at one time. The program that refuses to work with this card is PC-Pool. It simply refuses to work. I am not too worried. It was not my favorite game.
- EGA: There are a couple modes that isn't supported by this card, but it does support all the standard modes. There is a demo on quite a few BBS's called EGAWOW.ARC. I don't know what mode this demo uses, but this card does not cooperate with it. After you adjust the monitor to center the text, this demo will be off center to the left, and left most character width is cut off. This demo, is the only occurrence I have found.
- VGA: This card does not support all modes of VGA, but supports all the standard. There are no complications with the VGA display being off center.
SOFTWARE: There is additional programs that come with this VGA Card. One is a 40+K file to speed up screen writes. I used it for a while, but I don't like for anything to take that much memory away from my system just to speed up text output. Ron found a file on a bbs called ZENO12.ARC, that was supposed to speed up screen writes. ZENO.COM is only 800+ bytes, and it is actually faster that the 40+K file that came on the card. After I upgraded to my AT with the TRANSFORMER, I downloaded NANSI286.arc. This is a program that speeds up screen writes on 286 machines. Nansi286, is a replacement for the ansi.sys file, so it speeds up graphics as well as text. Now I use both Nansi286, and Zeno 13 on my 12 mhz AT, and I am able to type a 90K text file to the screen in only 30 seconds. That is approximately 24,500 baud.
In closing, I would say this card is one of the most software compatible cards on the market. There may be cards that support all modes of EGA, and VGA, but it isn't bad when I only lost 1 program in 50 disks of arc files I have downloaded, and traded with sysops.
If you would like to obtain any of the ShareWare or PD titles mentioned above, you can download it from Secret Kingdom BBS.
Rating ****+
QFile 3.1a
by W.H. Lambdin
Qfile 3.1a written by Ken Flee of Jamestown software. $25 Freeware. It is sort of like the Norton Commander, but isn't as easy to use. Although it does quite a bit more. There have been quite a few major bugs fixed. There are a few small ones lurking around, but they are of no major concern. This program needs the following programs. Vernon D. Buerg's list, and an archive utility. This program supports both the Buerg and the Katz arc programs. It also needs the Findit program by Larry Mc Mains.
With Qfiler, you can run programs without having to exit Qfiler. Since it is so huge, you may find yourself running out of ram. On my 640K system, i have only found one program that refused to run in the Qfiler environment. DupDisk 1.5 (a fast disk copier). I also had two memory resident programs. ALMCLK26 (a digital clock and calendar that resides on the 26th line, and a pop up notepad.
With Qfiler Arc file creation and extraction is much simplified. To make an arc file, tag the files you want in it, by using the F10 key. After you have all the files tagged, press and hold the control key and press the a key. Qfiler will bring up a menu at the bottom. It will give you the following options. (A)dd files (V)erbose list (E)xtract. press a, then Qfiler will prompt you for the name of the file you wish to create. Type the path, then the name. After this is finished, Qfiler will display the path you sent the arc file to. There is one bug. If you choose to put the arc file on a floppy, for some reason, this program will not allow you to add files to the arc file. This bug doesn't occur if you make the arc file on a hard drive.
The V option in the arc menu only displays the verbose list of the arc file you placed the moving bar on. Extracting files from an arc file, Qfiler will ask if you wish to extract all files in the arc file, or individual files. if you select individual, Qfiler will display a directory of all the files in the arc file you highlighted. Move the bar down through the list, and tag the files you wish to extract with the F10 Key. If you wish to tag all files, press t, and then press y. If you wish to extract files from a floppy, it will not work if there is a write protect tab on the floppy. In my opinion, all Qfiler needs in the arc section is a way to view text files or print them from within an arc file.
If you have used Qfiler 3.0d. Give 3.1a a try. In Qfiler 3.0d you had to make three batch files qfarca.bat (for adding files to an archive.) qfarcv.bat (to get a verbose list), and qfarce.bat (to extract files from an archive. Making an arc file with version 3.0d all files in the current directory were included in the arc file. Not just the ones you tagged. And all files would be extracted from an arc file instead of the ones you selected.
I was not able to find Buerg's list. I improvised by renaming QEdit to list.exe, and it worked fine for listing files to the screen. I will get list as soon as I can find it, so it will support everything.
Besides all this, it is a complete dos shell, you can make sub directories, rename sub directories, or files, delete sub directories, also includes a file that allows you to configure it anyway you choose. It really is a must have. Be better when it gets perfected.
Rating ****
PROGRAMER'S CHALLENGE DEPARTMENT
As an editor of this magazine I will be challenging you, the programmer or user, to make or find a program that is better than the one(s) I will be discussing. Usually I will only be discussing one or two programs a month. Reason being is that I'll only be picking what I consider to be top quality programs that are the best in their category.
Also you, as a programmer, are welcome to send in a challenge yourself. If you write a program that you think is better than anyone else's, send it to us along with an article, not a document, about your program showing off its features so that we can place it here in this department for others to know about. This may help you make some money if your program is Shareware, the news could travel around pretty fast on BBS's. Along with the reception of your program and article, you will get a reply from me in this department, whether it be compliments, comments, suggestions, or criticism. So don't complain about what I might say, because you can clearly see what all possible statements can be made toward your program. Remember, if you send in a program and article, it would seem that you are confident in what you do. Also all statements are toward your program, not you. I would not want to offend any person and start a argument. Don't let these statements scare you off, I'm not a bad guy, I just try to give the public a general view. Everything I will be saying will be my opinions only, unless I actually run tests to get true statistics about your program.
Reader's please send in your responses to me. Let me know if you think my choices are good or bad. It doesn't matter to me if you agree or dis-agree with me because everyone has there own opinion.
DIRMAGIC
by Ron Alcorn
DIRMAGIC is written by Michael J. Mefford, you may have heard of him, he is with Ziff Davis. Makers of PC Magazine and PC Computing (and probably a few others that I don't know of). First of all this program is a DOS shell utility. A DOS shell utility is a program that helps you manage files and taking the hassles out of those boring DOS commands. The program is small, a little over 8K. But size has nothing to do with to me. For one thing, it is not memory resident, and I have a full 640K memory. I wouldn't care if it took 80K, as long as it does a good job at what it does. And a good job it does. It is very simple to use and you only need to read the manual to master it. You could load this program up for a first time, and have it figured out in a very short period of time. I'll briefly describe the physical appearance of the program on the display. The current directory you are in is shown in the upper left hand corner. The amount of files and bytes free are shown in the lower left hand corner. On the right side of the screen is a box that tells you all the commands you need for DIRMAGIC to go to work for you. The files are shown on the left side of the display, letting you see twenty one files at a time. The file display looks just like the DOS directory, but it shows the file attributes, where DOS does not. Now that you know what it looks like, here is what it does. Since it does so many things, I'll just give you a chart with descriptions.
KEY(S) - DESCRIPTION (^=control, *=alt, CR=return, $=shift)
_____________________________________________________________
- + - Tag the file that the cursor is on.
- - - Untag a tagged file that the cursor is on.
- CR - View a file if that the cursor is on or if the cursor is on a directory or sub-directory, it will exit the program in that directory or sub-directory. If you are viewing a file. Here are some sub commands. PAGE UP & PAGE DOWN will display the next or previous screen of text. The UP & DOWN cursor keys will move the text up or down one line at a time. The letter F will let you search for a specified text string with. The search command will also allow some searching options, things like global and ignore case. The letter L will find the next occurrence of the string to be searched for. The HOME & END keys will take you to the beginning or end of the text.
- ^CR - This will run a file is the cursor is on a file that ends with the extensions, COM, EXE, or BAT. Once that file has been loaded and exited, you will return back to DIRMAGIC. If the cursor is on a directory or sub-directory it will log DIRMAGIC in to that directory or sub-directory.
- $^CR - Will run a file, but pause when you exit out of the program. Meaning you will have to press a key to return to DIRMAGIC.
- ESC - This exit DIRMAGIC.
- CHAR - If you press any valid character for a file name, the cursor will move to the first file that starts with the character entered. If you press the same character again it will move you to the next file that starts with that same character, etc.
- F1 or ^C - Copy file the cursor is on, unless some files are tagged, then it will only copy the tagged files.
- F2 or ^D - Deletes a file or the tagged files.
- F3 or ^R - Rename only the file that the cursor is on.
- F4 or ^M - Moves a file or the tagged files. Move will copy a file(s) and then delete the original file.
- F5 - Untag all files that are tagged.
- F6 - Tag all files.
- F7 - Sort file display in alphabetical order.
- F8 - Sort alphabetically using only the three character extension of the files.
- F9 - Sort by the size of the file.
- F10 - Sort by the date of the file.
- *F1 - Toggle the status of DOS's verify function.
- *F2 - Toggle confirm status on deleting an untagged file.
- *F3 - Toggle protect status. Meaning DIRMAGIC will warn you if it is about to over write a file if protect is turned on. If it is off, the it over writes the file no matter what.
- *F4 - Toggle status of file sorting. File can be sorted either forwards or backwards.
- *F5 - Toggle highbit status
- *F6 - Change file attributes of file cursor is on or all the tagged files. Only Archive, Hidden, or Read Only bits can be toggle. Does not support SYSTEM.
- *F7 - Search current directory for another file or directory. If it you have searched for a directory and DIRMAGIC found it, then it will ask if you want to log in to that directory.
- *F8 - Will let you enter a new drive and/or directory.
Whew, well that is all the commands. One feature that I should tell you, and this it is what I like most about the program. Say that you have tagged files for copying or moving. When the operation starts, DIRMAGIC will copy all files that will fit on the target disk. If DIRMAGIC runs in to a file that is too big to fit on the target disk, it will skip that file and go to the next tagged file. After the disk has been filled up, you will notice that the files that have been copied or moved, are now untagged. And the files that were not copied or moved are still tagged. Since they are still tagged, it gives you the opportunity to insert a new disk and continue the operation. This way you don't have to go thru and tag the files all over again.
I know I have probably written a descent documentation for DIRMAGIC and I told you not to send in any documentation, that I want an article describing your program. Well in this situation I felt that DIRMAGIC would such an excellent program in my eyes, that I did not want you to miss out on any feature that this program has. If you ever come across that same situation, the editors of this magazine will consider printing the documentations. But we won't make any promises to you. Sorry if it ever causes you inconvenience.
TECHNICAL DATA UNKNOWN
The questions shown below are unknown. The editors have tried to come with the solutions or data needed, but no success has come up as of yet. If you as a reader of ZIP know the solution or data needed, please notify us. Also you are very much welcome to send in questions or data that you need to be answered. We will try to answer your problems if at all possible and also publish the questions you need to ask at your request.
1 - How is the PATH buffer size increased?
Example of what to increase:
SET TELIX=C:\TELIX\
PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\UTILS;C:\GALAXY
SET DSZ=C:\TPB\DSZ.LOG
SET TPB=C:\TPB
PROMPT=$N$GEventually after enough paths are entered, the computer will come up and say Out of environment space.
2 - Need information and stats of Award bios for the 286 AT NEAT CHIP SET. Things such as bugs, good points, disadvantages, and dis-advantages.
3 - Need information and stats on the Paradise VGA PROFESSIONAL graphics card. Things such as bugs, good points, disadvantages, and dis-advantages.
This department is in need of dontation of items that you have no need for. Any items that are for the PC, XT, or AT type computers would be greatly appreciated. It makes no difference if the items are in working condition or not. Items you could send, would be any type hardware items, software, programs/manuals, and electronic equipment. Or anything that you would be helpful. These items received will help us, so that we can help you even more. Thank you!
ZIP INFO
by W.H. Lambdin
This is ZIP. A paperless magazine. All submissions will be printed, unless you ask us not to. We will not modify any text you submit except for spell checking. So the views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.
If you want to send us a submission, upload them to the Secret Kingdom (606) 878-9500. This BBS operates at 300 and 1200 Baud. It's hours of operation is from 6pm to 10pm EST. Monday through Thursday. We will be adding BBS's where you can download the latest volume, and also upload your submissions. When you upload a submission, use ZIP as the extension. We are the sysops of this BBS. We would appreciate it if all submissions were just ascii, and margins set at 10 on the left, and 10 on the right. This isn't demanded, it would just be easier on us. If you want to submit programs you have written, send them along in an arc file with your Text. We will check all programs. If they prove to be unsuitable, we will reject them. (you know Trojans, and harmful programs.)
If you submit a review, follow the examples here. If you think it is a very good program, give 5 stars. If you think it is sloppy, give it one star. If you think it falls between grades, use a plus as this. ***+ This means a rating of 3 1/2 stars, or a little better than average.
We will not make you run from place to place in order to read one article. When you want to read an article, it will be printed in it's entirety before another article will be started. All the advertisements will be found in the back. I like to read the articles with as little trouble as necessary, and the same goes for ad's. We will have advertisements, but the editors take no responsibility in what you may see advertised, so buy at your own risk.
ZIP is being written on AT compatible's using Galaxy 2.3. Galaxy is written by Omniverse incorporation. If you want to find a good Shareware word processor, give Galaxy 2.3 a try. I liked it so much, I registered my copy.
In order for this magazine to survive, it will need help from it's readers. If you wish to correct us on something, or write an article or review for ZIP, please send us your responses. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you wish to reprint an article or review from ZIP, feel free to use it any way you wish, we only request that you give the author credit, and report that the article appeared in ZIP.
EDITORS
Ron Alcorn & W.H. Lambdin
BBS LISTING
- 313 274-0527 HEATH CONNECTION. Baud 300 - 2400. Running PBBS on Heath 89 machine. Storage 96 meg. Files for CP/M, and MS-DOS. Download Ratio 25 to 1. 1 hour access on first call. Sysop Brenton Curl
- 606 432-0879 STRAWBERRY PATCH. Baud 1200 - 19,200. Running PC Board on a 286 machine. storage 500+ meg (with PC Sig library on CD-ROM. Files for MS-DOS. Download Ratio 25 to 1. 45 mins access on first call. Sysop Terry West
- 606 864-8862 WORLD OF WONDERS. Baud 1200 - 2400. Running W.O.W on Xerox CP/M machine. Storage 10 meg. Files for MS-DOS, Atari ST, and Commodore 64. No download Ratio. 1 hour access on first call. Sysop John Baker
- 606 878-9500 SECRET KINGDOM. Baud 300 - 1200. Running TPBoard on 8088 machine. Storage 20 meg. Files for MS-Dos, and Commodore 64. Download ratio 25 to 1. 1 hour access on first call. Sysop's Ron Alcorn and W.H. Lambdin
- 703 481-0845 CORVETTE DRIVERS. Baud 1200 - 19,200. Running PC Board on a 386 machine. Storage unknown. Files for MS-DOS Download ratio 25 to 1. 45 mins access on first call. Sysop David Arline.
If you would like to post a BBS in ZIP, just write a message to Ron Alcorn, on Secret Kingdom, or World of wonders.
When you post a BBS in ZIP, it will remain in the list until you ask us to take it out, or the BBS goes down.. You don't have to continually inform us the BBS is still operational.
The complete BBS list will be a separate file in the Zip archive. Only new BBS's will appear in the pages of ZIP.
We would appreciate any constructive criticism.
ZIP SURVEY
This is a survey that we would like for you to fill out if you read ZIP. It is not required to fill this survey out, it is entirely up to you. The reason for this survey is to see the level of readers we have. Whether they be beginners, novice users, or experts. They are all the same in the eyes of ZIP. The survey will also help us out on what to write about, so that it can help you out at the same time. Thanks anyway whether you filled out the survey or not. We are glad to see that you are another reader of our magazine.
W.H. Lambdin
P.O. Box 328
East BERNSTADT, Ky. 40729
- Please describe your current computer system setup? Includes brands, models, types, and amounts. Add as many lines as you need to.
- What computer options and upgrades do you plan to purchase in the future? Includes brands, models, types, and amounts. Add as many lines as you need to.
- Tell anything you want about yourself that you would like for us to know. Some examples would be what all languages you can program in and you level of programming knowledge you have. You interests or any personal information that you would think be of use.
- Tell us whether you like or dis-like ZIP. Please explain the reason why you like or dis-like ZIP also. Add as many lines as you need to.
FILES MENTIONED IN ZIP
by W.H. Lambdin
Here is a list of all files mentioned in this issue of Zip. They can all be found on Secret Kingdom BBS in the Zip sub directory. These files will remain in the Zip sub directory untill the next issue is available. The first column is the name I called it, second column is the name it is listed by on the BBS, and the last column is the name of the author of the program.
Almclk Almclk26.arc Scott Strench
Core test Core28.arc Core International
Dir Magic DirMagic.arc Michael J. Medford
Dupdsk 1.5 Dupdsk15.arc Jeffrey B. Chwirut
EGA Wow Egawow.arc Connell Scientific Graphics
Galaxy 2.3 Galaxy23.arc Omniverse inc
List List62A.arc Vernon D Buerg
Nansi286 Nansi22.arc Daniel Kegel
Narc2.1 Narc21.arc Infinity design concepts
Nsweep Nswp1020.arc Dave Rand
PC-Pool PCPool.arc Dale Jurich
PKXarc PK361.exe Phil Katz
Qedit Qedit206.arc Sammy Mitchell
Qfile 3.1a Qfile31a.arc Ken Flee
Qfresh Qfresh.arc PC Magazine
Round42 Round42.arc Elven Software
Zeno Zeno13.arc David Seidman
