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ZIP Magazine Volume 3 Issue 3
Ú-----------------------------------------------------------¿
| É------------------» |
| ±±±±±±±±± Editors: | Volume 3 Issue 3 | |
| ±± Ron Alcorn | May 1990 | |
| ±± W.H. Lambdin È------------------¼ |
| ±± |
| ±±± Here's A Peek At What's Inside! |
| ±± ------------------------------- |
| ±± |
| ±± þ NEWS - PLEASE READ!!!!!!! 5 |
| ±±±±±±±±± |
| þ Hayes V-Series 9600B 12 |
| ±±±±±±±±±± |
| ±± þ Piclab 1.7 14 |
| ±± |
| ±± þ LZExe 0.91 16 |
| ±± |
| ±± þ DSZ Moby Turbo 18 |
| ±± |
| ±± þ Adlib Sound Card 19 |
| ±±±±±±±±±± |
| þ Coppy 3.6 20 |
| ±±±±±±±±± |
| ±± ±± þ Sailing The C's 22 |
| ±± ±± |
| ±± ±± þ Math Co-Processor Emulator 25 |
| ±±±±±±±±± |
| ±± |
| ±± Ú¿ Ú-¿ Ú-¿ Ú-¿ Ú-¿ -Â- ¿  Ú-¿ |
| ±± | | Ã-´ | ¿ Ã-´ / | |À¿| Ã- |
| ±± Á Á Á Á À-Ù Á Á À-Ù -Á- Á ÀÁ À-Ù |
| ----------------------------------- |
| "For Home MS-DOS users" |
| |
| /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ |
| \ "Be sure to read every section in this issue" / |
| / We hope you enjoy this small issue. Thank you! \ |
| \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ |
| ------------------------------------------------------- |
| Up coming reviews... |
| |
| PC Tools Deluxe 6.0, RS-232 Serial Port Information, |
| and hopefully you guys & gals will send us some stuff |
| for everyone to read. We desperately need your help! |
| |
| É-------------------------------------------------------» |
| | ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ A T T E N T I O N ® ® ® ® ® ® ® | |
| Ç-------------------------------------------------------¶ |
| | ZIP BBS supports the HST/V.32 standard at 9600 baud! | |
| | Call (606) 878-9500 from 7 P.M. to 7 A.M. [EST] | |
| | SnapShot Express supports the V.42 standard at 9600 | |
| | baud! Call in at (606) 843-9032 24 hours a day. | |
| È-------------------------------------------------------¼ |
À-----------------------------------------------------------Ù
É-----------------------------------------------------------»
| |
| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| |
| VOLUME 3 ISSUE 3 |
| |
Ì-----------------------------------------------------------¹
| |
| EDITORS CORNER .................................. page 3 |
| FEEDBACK ........................................ page 4 |
| NEWS ............................................ page 5 |
| TOM'S TIDBITS ................................... page 7 |
| CONVERT THOMSON ULTRASYNC TO SUPER VGA MONITOR .. page 8 |
| MNP - NEGOTIATION AND CYCLE RATES ............... page 10 |
| HAYES V-SERIES SMARTMODEM 9600B ................. page 12 |
| PICLAB 1.7 ...................................... page 14 |
| LZEXE V 0.91 .................................... page 16 |
| DSZ MOBY TURBO .................................. page 18 |
| ADLIB SOUND CARD ................................ page 19 |
| COPPY 3.6 ............................... ....... page 20 |
| SAILING THE C'S ................................. page 22 |
| PROGRAMMERS CHALLENGE (EM87 1.2) ................ page 25 |
| QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ........................... page 27 |
| TECHNICAL DATA NEEDED ........................... page 29 |
| BBS LISTING ..................................... page 30 |
| USER GROUPS ..................................... page 33 |
| ZIP INFO ........................................ page 34 |
| |
È-----------------------------------------------------------¼
þþ EDITORS CORNER þþ
I have been busy with my BBS for the last few weeks. I was
searching for a different BBS to run. After I bought the
Hayes V.42 modem, TPBoard started acting up. Now I am
searching for a secondary hard drive.
NOTE: TPBoard 6.1 fully supports the Hayes V-Series modems
now. Hayes was nice enough to send a modem to the
TPBoard authors so they could implement the necessary
features.
Recently, I have been digitizing pictures of missing
children. I am posting the pictures on my BBS for downloads.
These pictures were scanned with a hand scanner.
In this issue, we will be posting the ZIP Magazine
distribution points. Please take a look at them in the
POINTS.TXT file.
ZIP Magazine needs your help. We need for more people to
write articles, and reviews. Ron, and I like to produce ZIP,
but we don't want to do most of the writing. If you have
something you want to say, call one of the support BBS's or
one of the home BBS's, and leave a message to Ron or myself.
If you write an article, upload it to the ZIP BBS, or my BBS
SnapShot Express. Both of these BBS's operate at 9600. If you
have a V.42 modem, call SnapShot Express (606) 843-9032. If
you have a USRobotics HST, or a V.32 modem, call ZIP BBS
(606) 878-9500. ZIP BBS operates from 7pm - 7am 7 nights a
week.
þþ FEEDBACK þþ
ZIP Magazine is the best electronic magazine I have seen.
Christine Blount
I recently made a discovery! I called SnapShot Express BBS to
get some GIF pictures. I thought I would get a few GIF's, but
when I saw that SnapShot Express was a co-home BBS of ZIP
Magazine I forgot about the GIF's. I decided to take a look
at ZIP. The sysop W.H. Lambdin (Co-Editor of ZIP) recommended
that I download ZIP-2-6.ZIP. I thought it would be a
continuous stream of text. Boy was I wrong! ZIP is formatted
to be printed, and had lot's of pertinent information. I will
be looking for future issues. I love it!!! Tom Branermann.
ZIP magazine has been a Godsend for me. I have learned very
much from ZIP. Most of the things I learned were not
available to me anywhere else. Most magazines are not
interested in helping home computer users. ZIP is a first.
Keep it up. Thomas R. Gentle
I am a sysop of a BBS here in town. We love your zip-mag,
and would like to become a hub for you. What all info do you
need?? Thanks Bret Johnson
It is people like you that keep this industry hopping and
interesting. Thanks for your support and the time you must
take to run a BBS like this. Talk to you later.
Richard Wilkinson
þþ NEWS þþ
First of all, we apologize for this issue of ZIP Magazine. It
seems to us that it is less than usual, and probably has
several mistakes. Hopefully not as many as we think though.
Take notice about the two new text files included in this
issue of ZIP Magazine, POINTS.TXT and SUBSCRIB.TXT. The
first file, POINTS.TXT, is a listing of the ZIP Magazine
distribution points that mailed in the application forms. The
SUBSCRIB.TXT file is a form for subscribing to ZIP Magazine.
As always, as I like to repeat this, if any mistakes are
made, and we left something out, please let us know! Thanks
once again.
We have removed the / and * characters from the BBS listing
within the ZIP Magazine text. Those BBS's will still get ZIP
Magazine uploaded to them, they are just not considered
official distribution points as of yet. We are in a a mess
on what to do! There are just too many BBS's for us to call
to check for messages and submissions. What we have in mind
is possibly starting a ZIP Magazine conference on FIDO NET,
RELAY NET, or something similar. No definite plans as of yet
though. We have to do some checking on what the process is
and how much it may cost us. If there are any volunteers to
take care of a mailing service for us, please let us know. We
would be more the appreciative! Things are just getting out
of our hands and wallets. If you have any ideas on what we
should do, please send them to either of the two home ZIP
Magazine BBS's, listed on the cover sheet.
FOR NOW, PLEASE DIRECT ALL QUESTIONS, SUBMISSIONS,
SUGGESTIONS, COMPLAINTS, AND WHATEVER TO ZIP BBS OR SNAPSHOT
EXPRESS BBS.
Sorry, but something has to be done until we can get a
concrete foundation. Please disregard where we mention that
you can send data to ZIP on other BBS's, that is other than
ZIP BBS and SnapShot Express. Once again, we are sorry!
Well I, Ron Alcorn, have written a program called TinyZIP in
Turbo Pascal. It will allow you to re-zip PKWare's ZIP
files. It also has an option to add a comment to the ZIP
file while it is being re-zipped. The program in not yet
complete, but it does work! W.H. Lambdin and I have not
been able to find any of those pesky pests as of yet. Please
let me know if you find any. Later on I intend to add a few
more features. Mainly a feature to re-zip ZIP files imbedded
in ZIP files and strip out any comments.
The program is free, although I will gladly accept and
appreciate any donations! If you have any suggestions,
comments, complaints, or bug reports, send them to the ZIP
BBS. See information on cover sheet for phone number and
operating times.
Before you say, "How do I use TinyZIP"? Well, I wanted to
make the program simple to use, so I included no
documentation. Weird logic huh? Just type TZ and it will
lead you in the right direction. If you can't figure out how
to use it, just let me know, and I'll write a small
documentation file.
The name of the executable file is TZ.EXE. I have compressed
it with LZEXE to make it small as possible. See W.H.
Lambdin's review on LZEXE if you don't know what LZEXE is.
It's nothing to worry about, you don't have to do anything to
the file.
Lastly, why use TinyZIP? Well I find it handy to convert all
of my old ZIP files to the new format each time a new version
of PKZIP comes out. TinyZIP should always work with future
versions of PKZIP, that is as long as the -EX option is
available. The -EX option tells PKZIP to ZIP up the file as
small as possible. No need to linger on, if you have PKZIP
and PKUNZIP, you probably use it all the time and need no
information about it's features. Sysop's will probably get
the most use out of this program.
þþ TOM'S TIDBITS þþ
by Tom Croley
Tom's Tidbits
P.O. Box 188
Battle Ground, WA, 98604
BETTER "DIRS"
If you are still a "fumble fingers" when it comes to DOS
commands, here are a few hints relating to the DIR command
that may prove helpful.
1. Tired of watching your filenames fly by at 1000 MPH. Next
time you type DIR, try typing DIR/P instead. The
directory will pause at the end of every page. You will
appreciate this a lot if you have been trying to use
CTRL-S to pause your listings.
2. If you type DIR/W, the directory will appear in 5
columns. You guessed it... DIR/P/W will produce a 5
column directory that pauses at the end of each page
(good for the very long directories).
3. You do not have to change directories to list what you
want to see. Type DIR \PATHNAME and a list of files in
the sub-directory called PATHNAME will appear. You
could type DIR A: to list the directory of a floppy
without changing to drive A.
4. If you use the > symbol at the end of the command, you
can re-direct the listing to a printer or a disk file.
DIR >LPT1 sends the directory to the printer. DIR
>FILENAME sends the listing to a disk file.
5. Use the * symbol to limit what files appear in the
listing.
a. DIR *.EXE lists all files with the extension .exe
b. DIR B*.* lists all files starting with a "b"
c. DIR *. lists only the sub-directory titles
6 Use the pipe symbol | (not a colon) to pipe the command
through the DOS sort filter. DIR |SORT will list a
directory in alphabetical order. DIR |SORT>LPT1 will
send it to the printer. Do not use the /P option while
using the sort filter. If you do, you will have to press
enter several times to unfreeze your computer and nothing
will be gained.
Master these simple DIR tricks and you can find your way!
þþ CONVERT YOUR THOMSON ULTRASYNC TO A SUPER VGA MONITOR þþ
by Ron Alcorn
This is rather a simple project. You need very few skills.
Basically you need to know how to count, how to read, how to
solder, and what a short is. If you are not good at these
things, get someone to assemble the cable for you.
The cable is very inexpensive. The parts you will need are:
1 15 pin connector (male high density) with hood
1 25 pin connector (male) with hood
3 feet or more of shielded cable (10 conductor or more)
Low wattage soldering iron
Solder
You can order these parts through such places as JDR, Jameco,
Digi-Key, or maybe even Radio Shack.
The connections are as shown in the diagram below.
É----- 1
|
1 --------------¿ | Ú--- 2
2 --------------Ø------¼ |
3 --------------Ø------» | Ú- 3
4 --------------Ø------×-Ù |
5 --------------Ø---» | | 4
6 | | |Ú--Ù
7 Ú----Ø---×--×Ù É-- 5
8 | | | | |
9 | | | È--×-- 6
10 | | | |
11 | | È-----×-- 7
12 | | |
13 | | É-----×-- 8
14 --------Ù | | |
15 -------------Ø---¼ | 9
16 --------¿ | |
17 ------¿ | À---------×-- 10
18 | | |
19 É--Ø-Ø--------------¼ 11
20 | | |
21 | | | 12
22 | | |
23 | | À----------------- 13
24 | |
25 ---¼ À------------------- 14
15
And in case I made a mistake, not saying that I did, here is
another type of diagram.
25 PIN END 15 PIN END
1 --------------- to ------- 10
2 to 1
3 =============== to ======= 6
4 to 2
5 --------------- to ------- 7
14 to 3
15 =============== to ======= 8
16 to 13
17 --------------- to ------- 14
25 to 5
Hopefully I didn't make any mistakes. You'd hate to blow
your monitor or VGA card up! Remember it's not my fault, I
made you do nothing!
No guarantees on what will happen, but this cable has worked
just fine with my Novas 4000 VGA card and Paradise VGA
Professional card with my Thomson Ultrasync monitor.
Anyway, after all that soldering and cable work, the last
step is to change the switch on the back of the monitor to
the "analog" mode. Then plug in the cable to your monitor
and card and you are ready for Super VGA all the way up to
800 x 600 resolution.
Depending on how much free time I get, in the next issue I'd
like to tell you how to fix the pink screen problem that some
Thomson Ultrasync monitors have. Did you know this monitor
is identical to the Mitsubishi Diamond Scan monitor? That is
all except for a few adjustments and the casing. Once you
have your Thomson Ultrasync working correctly, it is better
than the NEC Multisync. The colors are richer and deeper,
and the screen is dark black. Also the Thomson is only
claimed to a resolution of 800 x 560, same as the NEC
Multisync, but the Thomson works just fine at 800 x 600
resolution, where the NEC doesn't. Even if you can adjust
the NEC to fit the picture on the screen, it is distorted.
How do I know all this? Well my Dad bought both of these
monitors, which we still use. Both are used with VGA cards.
þþ MNP - NEGOTIATION AND CYCLE RATES þþ
by Christine Blount
MNP Protocol service levels 1 - 5 was originally developed by
Microcom, INC. and is now in the public domain. In
HST-Compatible Couriers, (GCB BBS) the error control
procedures for levels 1 - 4 have been modified for
asymmetrical modulation at the high speeds of 14.4K, 12K,
9600, 7200 and 4800 BPS (baud).
When the modems negotiate an ARQ (Automatic repeat request
used in USRobotics modems) they indicate their highest of the
first three service levels, 3, 2, or 1 and agree to operate
at the highest possible level. The Courier modem indicates
Level 3 in its error-control request. If necessary, the
Courier drops back to meet the requirements of the other
modem. This establishes the error-control (ARQ) connection.
Level 1
This level, often called Block Mode, supports half-duplex
(one way at a time) transmission. The sending modem
transmits a block of data and waits for an acknowledgement
from the receiving modem before sending the next. Level 1 is
the slowest and is only included because some computer
equipment is restricted to either sending or receiving at any
one time. This mode of operation is usually observed in
communications between terminals rather then in
terminal-to-computer or computer-to-computer links.
Level 2
This level, Often called Stream Mode, Supports full-duplex
transmission in which data flows in both directions at the
same time. Throughput at level 2, due to protocol overhead,
achieves about 84% of the throughput of a normal modem, or
approximately 202 characters per second (cps) at 2400 pbs.
Level 3
Level 3 incorporates Level 2 and is more efficient. Modems
sending at Level 3 strip the Start and Stop bits from the
data characters and transmit the data across the link in a
bit stream, as in synchronous transmission, rather than in
character format. The receiving modem reinserts the Start
and Stop bits for each character before passing the data to
the receiving computer or terminal. This procedure offsets
the protocol overhead loss so that throughput is about 108%
that of a normal modem. Under optimal conditions, two Level
3 modems operating at 2400 bps can exchange data at
approximately 254 characters per second. (cps)
Level 4
At this level, the information in the headers of data blocks
is streamlined to eliminate some of the protocol overhead. In
addition, the size of the blocks is greater then with level
3. The results in characters per second (cps) are as follows.
These reflect operations without the data compression
available with MNP Level 5! Characters per Second Link Rate
Level 3 Level 4 14.4K 1650 1740 9600 1100 1160 2400 254 276
In general, with Level 4 you can expect a throughput gain of
5%, although actual throughput depends on the type of call.
Gains on long-link satellite calls can range from 25-50%.
Level 5
Under Level 5 data compression, the sending modem detects
redundant units of data and recodes them into shorter units
of fewer bits. Examples include the frequent occurrences of
spaces, control characters, or the characters E and S in
ascii text files. The receiving modem decompresses the
redundant data units before passing them to the receiving
computer/terminal. With data compression, throughput of up to
38.4K bps is theoretically possible. Typical achievable
throughput for different kinds of files, in characters per
second (cps), is shown in the following table. This is how
the modem at GCB BBS is set up: DTE rate set at 19.2K bps
Connection (link) rate of 14.4K bps Level 4 also enabled
(longer transmission blocks) Straight data (e.g. not already
compressed, no file transfer protocol) Transmission from a
fast (e.g., 286) computer
File type Throughput (cps)
Assembler or compiler listing.................. 2880
Text file...................................... 2325-2625
Binary file: .EXE.............................. 2175-2400
Binary file: .COM.............................. 2100-2250
.ARC or .ZIP (BBS files)....................... 1500-1650
Random binary 8-bit............................ 1460-1575
We at Granite Cities Best BBS thank you for looking at this
file and hope that it explains some of the facts of MNP file
compression.
Excerted from the USRobotics user manual in part
þþ HAYES V-SERIES SMARTMODEM 9600B þþ
by Ron Alcorn
I really don't know where to begin with this modem. Like any
other modem, there is a lot to cover, but I'd rather keep the
article short and to the point.
How about the price? Well if you are a sysop, you can
purchase the internal version, which I am reviewing in this
review, for $399 bucks. The external version goes for $499
dollars. So as you can see, both prices are very cheap! At
least Hayes is trying to compete with the USRobotics sysop
plan. Actually the Hayes prices are somewhat better, but the
USRobotics modems are faster, easier to use, documented
better, and a whole lot more popular. I've got nothing
against Hayes, but I doubt if any modem manufacturer will
ever have the popularity that USRobotics does with BBS'ers
from all around.
Documentation is a feature of any product that should be
dealt with very concerningly. The Hayes documentation, which
is not the worst, is no where near what I would call good.
Have you ever been to an amusement park and lost some of your
friends? Remember how aggravating and how long it takes to
find them? Well the Hayes documentation kind'a puts you in
the same situation. They have you running all over the place
and you hardly ever find what you are looking for. Even if
you do, you probably have to look some more because they have
one part here and another part there. Another thing, the
manual content for the AT commands should be close to
alphabetical order. Another problem is the index will screw
you up. Part of the page numbers in the index are the wrong
page number for the topic being searched for. Finally I do
have one good thing to say, the included handy reference card
is handy, but it is uncomplete, and so is the manual. Hayes
at least did send some loose papers for the updates of the
new modem commands and registers.
Well I am done with the documentation, but I do have a little
more bad mouthing about the modem. The AT command set will
drive you up the wall. The biggest problem is that Hayes
uses too many S registers for commands. Having a lot of
commands in a modem is fine, but when you try to remember
them by number it gets a bit hectic. I am used to remembering
modem commands by letter. Don't get me wrong, Hayes does
have several letter commands, it's just that there are too
many S register commands.
Another problem, the extended result codes are about
non-standard as you will get. The standard 9600 baud MNP
connection strings are:
CONNECT 9600 /ARQ
CONNECT 9600 EC
Hayes uses the following ones:
CONNECT 19200
PROTOCOL: ERROR-CONTROL/LAP-B
CARRIER 9600
The above is one verbose result code. What this means is
that you are using a locked baud rate of 19,200 baud. Your
actual modem to modem speed is 9600 baud and you are using
error control with the LAP-B protocol. All this information
is nice, but there are very few communication software
programs that will work with this kind of a result code.
I guess your finally ready to hear something good about the
modem. Well I'll put you on hold for a just a bit longer.
I'd like to list a few of the features that the modem has.
300, 1200, 2400, 4800 and 9600 baud rates
Supports 19,200 locked baud rate (See ZIP-3-1 article)
MNP classes 2 through 5
LAP-B and LAP-M protocols
V.42 bis compatibility
Asynchronous and synchronous communication
Only supports COM1 and COM2, no COM3 and COM4!
Full length card
Modem operation is just fine! There are no problems what so
ever. Connections are smooth and clean. You can connect at
300, 1200, and 2400 baud with the normal standards. You can
connect at 4800 and 9600 baud with V.42 bis. There isn't a
whole lot to say about performance. The modem does just
fine. The CPS of the modem is not what I expected on
compressed files (ZIP, PAK, LZH, ARC, ZOO, ETC.). With most
modems running 9600 baud at a locked rate of 19,200 baud, the
CPS is normally between 1100 and 1200 CPS. Anyway, the best
average this modem has done has been between 950 and 1050
CPS. I am going to experiment with the modem some more,
cause there has to be a way to get a better CPS, although
that speed is nothing to be ashamed of.
My final word, this modem is worth buying at the sysop price,
and performs OK. There are over 500 BBS's using this modem
now, so it's popularity is getting larger by the day. I won't
recommend this modem, because USRobotics's speed is so much
better. I have achieved over 1700 CPS with my Dual Standard.
The same speed can be achieved with the 14.4K HST. If you
like Hayes though, I would recommend waiting on the new Ultra
9600 modem. It supports V.32 and V.42 compatibility all in
one modem for $599. This is the sysop price and this modem
is only available in an external version. Also it supports a
locked baud of 38,400, which is the same as USRobotics.
Anyway, the modem is supposed to be available in the second
quarter of this year. So be calling the Hayes BBS to check
up on it by leaving a message to the sysop. The number is
1-800 US HAYES. This is one advantage, the Hayes BBS is
free, and USRobotics is a toll call. Both companies have
superb technical support!
Sorry if my review is not to par, but the documentation just
gets to me! For some reason, my article feels just like the
Hayes documentation, "scattered and uncomplete".
Rating: ****
þþ PICLAB 1.7 þþ
by Roger L. Waer
Lee Daniel Crocker is the author of PICLAB (Version 1.7 as of
this writing) and he has placed it in the public domain.
Have you ever downloaded a GIF file and found it either too
large for your particular screen or too small and wished you
could either squeeze it blow it up?
If so, then PICLAB is the solution. Before I get too far let
me tell you what PICLAB is not (Nor does the author claim it
to be). PICLAB is not an intuitive, menu driven, easily
understandable program that you can just run and follow the
directions on the screen. And again I must state that the
author does not claim it to be any of the above.
Now, to what PICLAB is: PICLAB is actually a graphics
processing language. It gives you the ability to load a GIF
file and manipulate it in many ways. Following is a list of
the command verbs that PICLAB understands.
ADD AVERAGE BRIGHTEN
CALL CANCEL CLIP
COLOR CONTRAST DARKEN
DIR DOS EGAPAL
EXIT EXPAND GAMMA
GDIR GLOAD GRAY
GSAVE HELP HISTOGRAM
LIST LOAD MAKEPAL
MAP MEDIAN MIRROR
NEGATE OVERLAY PAUSE
PLOAD PRINT PSAVE
QUIT RESCALE REVERSE
RLOAD ROTATE RSAVE
RUN SAVE SET
SHARPEN SHELL SHOW
SMOOTH SUBTRACT TDIR
TLOAD TRANSFORM TSAVE
UNDO UNMAP
Unfortunately I have not had time (Nor do I have the
requisite knowledge of the GIF file format) to fully test
and wring out all of the commands listed above. I have used
the system enough to resize GIF files and do some
experimentation on them. All of the commands that I have
used do what they were intended to do and have helped me more
fully enjoy the GIF pictures I have with the equipment that I
have.
One nice feature of the system is that it works on two
picture buffers. One is called the Old buffer and the other
is the New. When you give a command that does something to a
picture it copies the old buffer to the new buffer and then
performs the operation on the new buffer. So, if you do
something that you don't like you can easily undo the last
command.
Using PICLAB you can take the color map away from a picture
(And write it to disk for later use with another picture).
This is sometimes necessary before other commands can be
performed. One example of this is the RESCALE command. You
have to UNMAP the picture first and then issue the RESCALE
command to get the picture to whatever size you are trying
for. You then have to REMAP the picture and then write it out
for use by another program.
PICLAB should work on any machine regardless of video
equipment. The exceptions to this are the SHOW command which
does require a VGA card and monitor. But you can process
images with PICLAB with almost any IBM (Or clone) type
computer.
If I were to ask the author for improvements to this system
my first request would be more and better documentation. The
documentation that comes with the program is extremely
rudimentary and assumes that you know more about graphics and
pictures than you really may. Another suggestion for
improvement might be a simple menu system that would group
commands logically. For example, a menu that leads you
through the UNMAP, RESCALE, MAP and SAVE situation I
mentioned earlier.
In conclusion, PICLAB is very powerful and I apologize to the
author for not having done justice by fully reporting all of
its capabilities. It has done me a service and done it well,
and I therefore recommend it to all with similar needs.
Rating: ***+
þþ LZEXE V 0.91 þþ
by W.H. Lambdin
LZEXE is a program written by Fabrice Bellard. LZEXE is
public domain, and may be passed freely. I have enclosed the
author's address below.
LZEXE is a program to compress .EXE files. LZEXE will
compress files almost as much as Lharc, or PKzip will.
However, LZEXE has one advantage. LZEXE give you the ability
to run the compressed file as is. Compressed .EXE files
uncompress themselves into memory. If you have a lot of .EXE
files on your drive(s) this can save you quite a bit of disk
space.
There are several good reasons to compress your EXE files. 1.
You can get more data on your drives. 2. Your executable
files will be free from virii. If one of your EXE files gets
infected by a virus, the EXE can't de-compress. This would
give you an early warning, so you can restore a recent
backup. to nullify the virus. 3. If you write software,
LZEXE will keep most people from getting at your code.
During my testing, I compressed a few files. They compressed
from 30% to 53% on the average. Read the table below.
program before after
-------------------------------------------------------------
Galaxy 150K 74K
Shez 102K 53K
Q-edit 48K 29K
WWIV 343K 132K
ALTPAGE 13K 8K
-------------------------------------------------------------
LZEXE requires 128K to run. It is recommended that you use
this on an AT type machine. LZEXE will work perfectly on an
XT type computer, but a faster processor will dramatically
speed up the process.
I have a 12 mhz AT. On my computer, compressed programs only
take about 1/2 a second longer to load a compressed .EXE file
than it took to load the original file.
The code that uncompresses the .EXE only adds 330 bytes to
the size of a compressed EXE file. From my tests, the program
compressed with LZEXE is only about 450 bytes bigger than if
you had use PKzip 1.1. I wish PKware would make something
like this for their self extracting files.
Mr. Bellard, has a few other utilities that comes along with
LZEXE. COM2EXE converts .COM files to EXE, so they may be
compressed.
Not all EXE files will work when compressed. Don't worry
about loosing important programs. LZEXE re-names the original
.EXE file to .OLD. If you have a program that won't run,
erase the .EXE file, and rename the .OLD file back to .EXE.
Below are the major reason's why a compressed program won't
run.
1. The file may have internal overlay's in the EXE
file.
2. The program may take a lot of RAM. If this is the
problem, It will say (insufficient RAM) when you
run the .EXE
3. The program may have been compressed with EXEPAK
from Microsoft. LZEXE comes with a program to
uncompress these files. Then you can compress them
again with LZEXE again. LZEXE compresses files
more than EXEPAK.
Let me warn you about one thing. The author of this program
is from France, and all prompts are in french. This is not a
problem, because LZEXE is very easy to run. Use the syntax
below.
LZEXE GALAXY (This will compress the Galaxy.exe file)
LZEXE is still in the beta stage, and will later add more
compression, and a program to uncompress EXE's created with
earlier versions.
Fabrice Bellard
451 chemon du mas de Matour
34790 Grabels (FRANCE)
LZEXE is a fine program, and I highly recommend it.
þþ DSZ MOBY TURBO þþ
by Christine Blount
If you have DSZ.COM dated after Feb 01 1990 you have one of
the BEST protocols available. The people at OMEN
TECHNOLOGIES have put an addition to the ZMODEM protocol
which is known as MOBY TURBO. What is MOBY TURBO? It is a
new option that improves transfer speeds (using zmodem) by as
much as 10%. I have seen the C.P.S. rate go from 232 CPS to
238 CPS using a 2400 baud modem. If you have a USRobotics
HST 14.4 modem you may and should get 1700 to 1800 CPS. This
NEW protocol will work in any situation that regular zmodem
worked in. It works with regular and MNP modems slow or high
speed.
To turn on this feature all that has to be done is add a -m
(little m) to the .BAT file that calls up Zmodem. If you are
using Telemate or Telix or some other terminal program that
has AUTO STARTING ZMODEM you MUST disable this feature
(sorry). Next go to the OPTIONS menu of your comm. program
and look for the Protocol option. At that screen add the
following names to the options. For download name use ZDOWN
(or whatever) for the upload name use ZUP (or whatever). On
the download name choose the option that does NOT prompt for
a download name. Upload doesn't matter. Now save your new
setup to disk. Shell to dos at this time or exit to dos and
create the two batch files.
The ZDOWN.BAT file should look like this
DSZ RZ -m
The ZUP.BAT file should look like this
DSZ SZ -m %3
Now return to your communications program and hit page-down
and cursor to the MOBY option, Hit <Enter> the screen should
Flash an error quickly (The DSZ error no carrier). At least
this way you know that it works. Do the same for Page-up. On
most communication programs you MUST specify an upload
directory if this is true for yours don't forget to use it or
you will get an error file or path not found and DSZ will
abort the upload.
þþ ADLIB SOUND CARD þþ
by Don Peters
Personal Computer Music System
What would be the best way to describe this add on card. It
has to be what the PC should have had but never did. It is
like replacing a monochrome text monitor with VGA. For the
first time a whole new world opens for you. Can a PC really
do that????
Installation was very simple; no strapping only plug in and
go. The card comes with a program called Jukebox which plays
about twelve different tunes. The basic operation is to load
the driver called Sound.com then the program. The card will
work with headphones or connected to a stereo amplifier. Run
TEST from the diskette for volume adjustments and you are in
a whole new world. Try to imagine your PC producing the
sounds of a compact disc player. Run Jukebox and select from
a dozen different tunes you control like a CD player.
The card features 11 channels of programmable sound effects.
A channel is basically one tone, rise time, duration, decay,
and frequency plus noise. I came from the Atari world with
it's 4 channels of audio to the PC world with one channel of
tone only. How I missed the sound feature for games and etc.
Ad Lib offers a complete line of support packages. First
there is the Visual composer which allows you to enter your
own music. It resembles a player piano roll with holes for
the notes. You select the tone for each channel and enter the
notes. Playback is provided for the whole tune or a selected
segment. I would have preferred using bars and notes like
the Music Construction Set software from Electronic Arts but
The Visual Composer does very well. Next most important
package is the Instrument Maker this allows you to define and
create your own instrument sounds or effects. For those with
programming ambitions there is the Programmers Reference with
examples i n 'C' and basic for including these effects in
your program.
Some of the later games Sierra, Activision and etc, support
this card and it is one of the most popular short of the
Roland MT synthesiser which cost about $700 with interface.
THe first game I tried it on was Space Quest III. After
setup was run the title screen came on and it was almost like
a movie instead of a game. I have percussion and instrumental
sound. Can you imagine room filling sound for a game ? Only
the word WOW! can describe the effect.
I purchased the Ad Lib Card from:
Silicon Express Inc
50 E. Mill St
Pataska, Ohio 43062
Phone 1-800-999-6868
Price $122.95
I had originally priced this card for $175 from Sierra and
consider $122 a bargain. This may be the future wave for the
PC. Now I have the best of graphics and sound in one package.
Don Peters
London, Ky
þþ COPPY 3.6 þþ
by W.H. Lambdin
Coppy 3.6 is program written by Thomas A. Lundin. It is
mainly used to copy files from hard disk's to floppies. The
author requests that you send a $10 donation if you use the
program after 30 days. You also get the source code.
While you may want to stop reading the review now, because
the paragraph above sounds like someone wrote a program to
replace the copy command. Well you're wrong.
Coppy does lot's of things that you may be interested in. I
like it because it allows the ability to fill floppies to the
brim. Coppy will copy the largest files onto floppies first,
then work's it's way down to the small files. The sentence
before sounds like a program that Michael J. Mefford wrote.
"CO, or Directory Magic" well Coppy goes beyond these
programs in power, and more importantly simplicity of use.
With Coppy you never have to tag files, or sort the files by
size. Coppy was designed for this single purpose, and it is
driven with command line parameters. Below is the one and
only way I use it.
COPPY *.* A: -M
This tells Coppy to copy all files in the directory to a:
then delete the copied files. Coppy allows use all wild
cards.
If you tell coppy to copy the files to a non-existent
directory, Coppy will automatically create the directory for
you.
If you do not want coppy to sort the files by size before
copying, use the -u parameter. This will put the files on the
floppy in the same sequence as they appear on the hard drive.
The -w command keeps coppy from copying a file to floppy if
there is a file with the same name on a floppy.
The -d command will delete any files on a floppy before it
copy's the files you selected to the floppy.
The -m command Moves the selected files to floppy's.
While you can see that coppy has several interesting options,
coppy has more features that make it important to me.
1. When coppy is first invoked, it ask's that you insert a
floppy for testing. This check's the type media you are
using. 360K up to 1.44 diskettes. Then coppy reports the
number of diskettes it will take to copy all the selected
files. I use this to know how many floppies to format.
this is if I don't have any formatted diskettes
available.
2. Coppy ask's for you to insert another disk when one is
filled. At this point stick another disk in the drive,
and press enter. This sure beats having to re-sort the
directory, and give the command to copy for every
diskette.
As you can see that Coppy does more than just copy files.
Rating
*****
þþ Sailing The C's þþ
by
Ron Balewski
"More Mousing Around"
As promised, I'll continue my discussion on mice. This
month, I'll talk about the mouse in its native graphics
environment, then describe a method for dealing with
on-screen buttons. It may not be the best method, but it's
quick, it's simple, and it sure seems to work.
On to graphics mode! Whenever you activate the mouse in
graphics mode, you'll see the familiar mouse arrow. All
requests for mouse locations will tell you exactly which
pixel the mouse is pointing to. With two exceptions which
I'll describe in a moment, the value limits returned by the
mouse are the same as the pixel limits of the screen. For
example, if you're using the mouse in EGA, the hrizontal
coordinate will be between 0 and 639, while the vertical
will be between 0 and 349. VGA will range between 0 - 639
horizontally and 0 - 479 vertically.
The exceptions to this rule are the 320 x 200 4-color CGA
and the 320 x 200 256-color MCGA screens. They will still
return horizontal coordinates between 0 and 639. If you're
using either of these modes, you'll have to divide the
horizontal coordinate by 2 (shift it right one place) to get
the "true" pixel location.
One other possible stumbling block to graphics mouse
programming is the high-resolution VGA screen. I've found
out the hard way that older mouse drivers don't know what to
do with a 640x480 screen. If you try to program your mouse
at this resolution and find it acts strangely (usually no
mouse cursor), the problem may be the mouse driver anb not
your program. Make sure you have the latest driver for your
rodent. If you don't, get it!
One nice thing about graphics mouse programming is that you
can change the little arrow to any shape you want. I won't
get into the description and examples this month, though. I
hope to do a column on this feature (along with presenting a
cursor design program) next time.
Now that the mouse is running in graphics mode, what do we
do with it? Well, dealing with mouse buttons will probably
be easier than you realize! If possible (and if you have any
understanding of C), you may want to look at the included C
listing while reading this description (I'll have it on a
split screen as I type!). As I said earlier, my method is
surely not the best. But it'll at least get you started
toward customizing your own mouse interpreter.
One other thing -- the listing was written in Turbo C and
uses Borland's BGI Graphics Library. If you're using
Microsoft C, you'll have to change all of the graphics
references to something Microsoft C will understand.
The first step will be to lay out your screen and decide
where you'd like your fancy screen buttons to go. For me,
this is the hardest part, since I'm not an artist by any
means!
Once you've laid out your screen, you should build an array
of "boundries" for the buttons. See the "int buttons"
definition in the listing for an example. The numbers
correspond to the left, top, right, and bottom boundries of
screen buttons.
To draw the buttons, you can use the rectangle() command and
the button numbers you just defined. For example, the first
button would be drawn with the command:
rectangle(buttons[0][0], buttons[0][1],
buttons[0][2], buttons[0][3]);
The text to label the button can also be positioned relative
to the button by using the outtextxy() command.
The big advantage to referring to the button definition for
drawing and labeling is that if you later decide to move the
button, all you have to change is the entry in the button
table. The the physical screen button and its label will
automatically move to the new location.
You'll find my button drawing and labeling code starting at
line 44. Note that I simplified matters by using a for...
next loop.
Now that the screen's all painted and ready to go, you can
initialize and turn on the ol' mouse. See lines 66 - 68 and
their associated subroutines.
At this point, you can start processing mouse clicks. My
code does this at line 70. I wrote a routine called
check_left() which will return a -1 if the left button wasn't
clicked since the last call, a 0 if it was clicked but not on
a valid button, or the number of the button it was clicked
on.
To handle mouse clicks, I like to use a huge case() statement
controlled by an exit flag. Whenever a screen button is
"pressed," its code is executed within the case statement.
The button that's supposed to quit the program will simply
have to turn on the exit flag. At that point, the main
while() loop (line 72) will end and the final tidying-up
instructions will be executed (line 92).
Now let's take a closer look at the check_left() routine. It
starts at line 168. It's really quite simple. I first call
mouse function 5, which tells me if the left button was
pressed. If it wasn't, there was no click -- so I return a
-1.
If there WAS a button press, the mouse driver tells me where
the mouse was when it occurred. I send those numbers to a
seek_button() function (line 196), which is nothing but a
table look-up routine. It checks if those coordinates are
within any of the defined mouse buttons. If so, seek_button
will tell me which one. If not, it'll return a zero.
Check_left() then returns the data it received from
seek_button(). No further processing of it is necessary -- it
already contains the required 0 for no-button or button
number.
If you're still with me (you should be -- this isn't all that
complicated), you should now be able to write your own
screen-button-driven software. Feel free to use my
check_left() or seek_button() routines if you like. After
you do a bit of mouse programming, I'm sure you'll want to
customize them to better fit your way of doing things.
Well, that's it for this month. The article's about due, so
I'd better shut up and send it in or it won't get there!
Next month, unless something better comes up, I'll discuss
how you can change the graphics mouse arrow to any shape you
want. I'll also present a simple drawing program which will
let you experiment with changing the cursor. So, until next
time:
Happy Sailing -- and don't get lost at C!!!
NOTE: See the MOUSE2.C file for the source listing. Also
the line numbers Mr. Balewski are referring to may be
off by a line or two. Sorry, but I got the entire
article though a message, and had to do a lot of
cutting and pasting. Let me know Ron if I made a
dangerous mistake.
þþ PROGRAMMER'S CHALLENGE DEPARTMENT þþ
As an editor of this magazine, I will be challenging you,
programmer or user, to make or find a program that is better
than one(s) I will be discussing. Usually I will only be
discussing one or two programs per issue. 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, news can travel around pretty fast on
BBS's. Along with 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 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 their
own opinion.
EM87 Version 1.2
by Ron Alcorn
This program in written by Ron Kimball. It will allow you to
emulate a 8087 math co-processor on any 80286 or 80386
computer. Why would somebody want to do this, obviously it
would be slow! True, but some people can't afford hundreds
of dollars. Doesn't $5 bucks seem cheap, that's all the
author asks for.
There isn't too much to say. This program works! It has
fooled Norton's SI program, PC Tools Deluxe 5.5 system
information, and QA Plus diagnostics. It also has worked
with all programs that I have tried that require a math
co-processor to function.
It only has one competitor that I know of, which is EMUL87
version 1.01B, and is written by Martin Weigel. EMUL87 is
not as good in my option. First of all, you must load EMUL87
in to memory. Then you use the two included programs, EMON,
and EMOFF, to toggle the presence of the math co-processor
emulation. There is really no way to remove it entirely from
memory that I know of. With EM87, all you have to do to
install it is type EM87 /L, and if you want to remove it from
memory, type EM87 /U. Also, the EMUL87 program caused some
programs to lockup, and also causes a Divide Overflow error
or lockup in AutoCad Release 10 while loading some drawings.
EM87 has none of these problems!
The only fault I have with EM87 is speed, but I suppose
software can only go so fast. It's not the authors problem,
it's Intel's over-pricing of the math co-processors. It
doesn't make any sense what so ever for a co-processor to
cost more than a processor. A co-processor in my opinion
should cost about 75 percent less than the processor itself.
þþ QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS þþ
Q: Now, I have two floppy drives, and they serve me well. A
friend recommended for me to get a hard drive. Could you
please tell me the benefits, and problems with a hard drive?
Terry Bradley
A: Your fiend is correct in his (her) assumption that a hard
drive would be beneficial to you. I will try to break it down
with the advantages, and disadvantages.
Pro's
1. A hard drive could give you 20 to 40 meg of storage
or more. It all depends on how much space you
need. A 20 meg drive can hold about 60 disk's of
data.
2. A hard drive could be anywhere from 2 to 10 times
as fast as floppy drives. Most programs will load
in only seconds
3. You can use sub-directories to keep everything
categorized.
Con's
1. You should back up your data at least once a week.
So in case something unfortunate happens.
2. I would recommend you run a graphic environment, or
some sort of dos shell if you aren't familiar with
subdirectories. Some people have told me, "I am
afraid I will get lost in the subdirectories". This
won't happen. Just remember these two commands.
CD and [enter] will tell you where you are.
CD\ and [enter] will take you back to the root
[main] directory.
In closing, I feel that hard drives aren't luxury items on
PC's. They are absolutely necessary! After you use a hard
drive for 2 weeks, you will never willingly go back to
floppies!
Q: In reading previous issues of ZIP, I have read articles
about EGA VS VGA. Could you explain what VGA (Monochrome) is?
Ray Kurtz
A: VGA (Monochrome) is simply a monochrome monitor with the
resolution, and near shading capabilities of VGA (64 shades
of one color compared to 256 colors). I have heard it said
that VGA monochrome is a vast improvement over Hercules. If
you don't want or need colors, this would serve you nicely.
If you want color, go with standard VGA. Also VGA monochrome
offers you much better graphics capabilities than Hercules.
Q: Could you tell me what the two blocks around each topic
are used for in ZIP Magazine? Tom Branermann
A: They are used by Ron Alcorn's ZIP Spitter program. His
program searches for them, so ZIP Magazine can be split up in
to several files. Sysop's like ZIP Magazine to be split up
this way so they can implement it through a bulletin or
menuing system for online reading.
þþ TECHNICAL DATA NEEDED þþ
by W.H. Lambdin
Does anyone have any information on IDE hard drives? I want
to buy a 200 MEG hard drive for my BBS. A 200 MEG Conner IDE
drive looks nice, but I need some information.
1. How fast are they?
2. Is the IDE format reliable?
3. How many IDE devices are you allowed to have in a
computer
4. Can IDE controllers co-exist with MFM or RLL?
I need answers to these questions, and any other information
you have available.
þþ BBS LISTING þþ
201 471-6391 PASSAIC BBS. Baud 300 - 19,200 using Hayes
V-series. Storage unknown. Sysop James Roy.
207 374-2303 CELEBRATION SHOP. Baud 1200, soon to be 2400.
Storage unknown. Operates 24 hours a day, Sysop Paul
Stookey. #3 Neworld Square, Blue Hill Falls Maine, 04615.
Paul Stookey was Paul in the singing group {Peter, Paul,
and Mary.}
216 264-5116 <TRI>-<WAY> BBS. Baud 300 - 2400 24 hrs.
Running Wildcat 2.0 multinode. Storage 130 meg. Carrying
ZIP Magazine. Over 500 files. Located in Wooster, Oh.
Sysop Dann Way
314 774-2736 The Waynesville BBS. Baud 300 - 2400. Running
Wildcat 1.13. with 104 meg. Sysop Raynond Andrell.
Specializes in FUN!!!
318 352-8311 Genesis BBS. Baud 300 - 2400. operating 24
hours a day. 65 meg storage. Sysop James Pottorff.
Genesis BBS is located in Natchitoches, LA.
318 457-1538 Toepfer's Electronics BBS. Baud 300-2400 Running
M&M BBS on a C-64. 24 hours of operation. Free
Registration. Storage 2 meg. Files for C-64, and MS-DOS
computers. Member of KSAT QDP. Home BBS of Citizens
Aligned for Better Television. SYSOP Darrel Toepfer.
Located in Eunice, La.
416 751-6337 (Data on 20 Node RBBS Customized System) Operate
BBS under the name of THE TORUS SUPPORT NETWORK,
Division of PCanada Systems Inc. 3 Giabytes on-line
including 4 CD-ROM's and operate primary server under
Microsoft OS/2 base LAN Manager (330 megabyte Priam Main
Server on a 386 20 Mhz Acer platform). System Sysop is
Bob Eyer, and we are currently in our seventh year of
operation.
501 273-9257 THE CHICKEN COOP. Baud 300 - 2400.
501 273-0152 THE CHICKEN COOP. Baud 9600. FOR HST, and V.32
modems. Running TBBS 2.1m. 130 meg og storage. Has many
online features including ZIP Magazine, InfoMat, and USA
Today. A member of the Software Distribution Network
which supplies virus and trojan free software direct from
the author's. SysOp Don Chick.
501 422-8777 The Personal Resource System. Baud 300 - 2400
501 444-8080 USRobotics Dual Standard (HST/V.32). This BBS
has several online publications such as InfoMat, Business
Sence, ZIP Beep, NASA Press, Online Digital Music Review,
USA Today, Amy Info, C-News Letter, and ZIP Magazine.
24 hours of operataion with 260 MEG of storage.
606 432-0879 STRAWBERRY PATCH. Baud 300 - 9600. Running PC
Board on a 286 machine. storage 1000+ meg (with PC Sig
library on CD-ROM. Files for MS-DOS. No download ratio,
but uses a point system. 45 mins access on first call.
Sysop Terry West. Located in Pikeville, Ky.
606 789-3423 The AdventureComm BBS. Running RBBS 17. Baud
300 - 2400. Storage 20 meg soon to be 70 meg. Sysop
Charles Baldridge. Located in Paintsville, Ky. Has
Dungeons and Dragons, and TradeWars online games for
verified users.
606 843-9032 SnapShot Express. Baud 1200 - 9600 V.42.
Running WWIV 4.11 on a 12 mhz AT clone. Storage 65 meg.
This BBS operates 24 hours a day. Files for IBM-DOS and
MS-DOS. Ratio 20 to 1. 90 minute access, and full
priveliges on first call. Sysop W.H. Lambdin. Ron
Alcorn. I am specializing in Graphics. So far, I have
over 300 gif pictures, and a few mac pictures. Adult
related files available. This BBS only supports the ZIP
archives. We are located in East Bernstadt, Ky.
606 878-9500 ZIP BBS. Baud 1200 - 9600 using USRobotics
Dual Standard (HST/V.32). Running TPBoard 6.0 on 12 Mhz
AT machine. Storage 60 MEG. Files for MS-DOS. Download
ratio 25 to 1. Full access on first call, no
registration hassles. Operates from 7 P.M. to 7 A.M.
(EST) 7 days a week. Sysop's Ron Alcorn & W.H. Lambdin.
Located in London, Ky.
609 327-5553 UNION LAKE BBS. Baud 300 - 2400. Running PC
Board on an 8088 machine. Free Registration. Storage 94
meg. Sysop George Cuccia. Carries 29 mail conferences.
612 654-8372 G C B BBS. Baud 1200 - 9600 Using U.S. Robotics
HST. Storage 200 meg. Online 24 hours a day. SysOp
Christine Blount. 30 minutes access on first call. This
BBS is located in St. Cloud, Mn.
616 382-3555 BIOS. Baud 300 - 9600 HST. Running WWIV v4.10
on a 8 MHz 8088 Turbo XT Machine. Storage 100 Meg. WWIV
national network node 6650 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Large
MS-DOS file selection, interesting message base and many
on-line games. SysOp Scott Randall.
703 742-6279 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.
714 785-9176 THE SOLID ROCK (CACOL) BBS. Baud 1200 -2400
Running WildCat 1.13. 80 meg storage. Sysop Ron Hossack.
Christian oriented system and doors available.
802 748-8449 HILLTOPPER. Baud 300 - 2400. Running TPBoard
6.0 on a 16 mhz 80286 machine. Storage 146 meg.
FidoNet # 1:132/401.0 in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont. Sysop
Brian McQuade
802 888-7218 BEEHIVE. Baud 300 - 9600 with US Robotics HST
Running PC-Board 12.1 on an 80286 machine. Storage 160
meg. Has quite a few forum's for writers, and items for
sale, etc. Has relay mail with Terry West's BBS
(Strawberry Patch). Files for MS-DOS. No download
ratio, but uses point system. 30 minutes access on first
Call. Sysop Helenmarie B. Robitille.
818 961-7903 CALIFORNIA BUILDERS BOARD - (A MicroLink PCUG
SubBoard). Baud 300 - 2400. Running PCBoard 14.1/E3
919 383-8707 Bull City BBS. Baud 300 - 2400. Running Wildcat
1.13 on an 8088 machine. Storage unknown. 24 hrs
operation. Sysop Roy & Shirley Gurley. This BBS has over
55 doors.
If you would like to advertise your BBS in ZIP Magazine,
leave a message on either of the two home BBS's. We would
allow you to leave a message on any support BBS, but they are
getting to numerous, and also the busy signal doesn't help us
any either.
þþ USERS GROUPS þþ
É-----------------------------------------------------------»
| |
| B.G.A.M.U.G. |
| The Bowling Green Area MS-Dos Users Group |
| |
| BGAMUG meets the 4th Tuesday of the month in the library |
| of Bowling Green High School at 7:00pm. Beginning Dos |
| classes are being planned and will be held in the |
| Computer Science classroom of Bowling Green High School |
| on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. |
| |
| For more information contact: |
| |
| BGAMUG |
| P.O.Box 20384 |
| Bowling Green, KY |
| 42102 |
| |
È-----------------------------------------------------------¼
þþ ZIP INFO þþ
by W.H. Lambdin & Ron Alcorn
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 and any permission
you may give us. So views expressed here do not necessarily
reflect views of editors.
If you want to send us a submission, upload it to one of
BBS's with a * beside it. You can also send them to ZIP BBS
at (606) 878-9500, or SnapShot Express at (606) 843-9032.
When you upload a submission, use MAG as the extension. We
would appreciate it if all submissions were just ascii, and
margins set at 10 on left, and 10 on 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
archive with your text. We will check all programs and if
they prove to be unsuitable, we will reject them. (You know,
trojans, viruses, and other harmful programs).
If you submit a review, follow examples here. If you think
it is a very good program, rate it at 5 stars. If you think
it is of poor quality, then 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 we start an article, it will be printed in
it's entirety before another article will be started. All
advertisements will be found in back. I like to read 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 an 25 Mhz 386, and a Tandy 1400LT
laptop using Galaxy 2.4. Galaxy is written by Omniverse
Incorporation. If you want to find a great Shareware word
processor, give Galaxy 2.4 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 author
credit, and report that the article appeared in ZIP.
