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SMUG BYTES Volume 4, Number DECEMBER

Subscriptions= €10.00/vear

or free with swap.

SINCLAIR MILWAUKEE USE P.O. Box 101 Butler.

MONTHS — How to proagrar - - Disk Survey-How T

=- Presidents Hesseg

1987

Send to:

RS GROUP WI 53007

Part I hey Rate

1 ! 4 PE HE DE DE DE DE HE FE HE HE HE HE TE TE E DE DE TE w 3E

- Rudy - Oliger Boot Progreamk

=- And Other Great T

hings

x x x

If any articles are used pleasex credit SMUG Bytes & the author. x

Send all contributions by the

first day of the month

Bill Heberlein Editor

SMUG BYTES

5052 N. 9ist Street. Milwaukee. WI 53225

EPPS SLPS SS LSS K ses ese)

SMUG Bytes

to:

x MH

x x x x x x x x x x x

1S°SEe7 OFFICERS & WORKING MEMEBERS

“President - N. Schultz

- 353 4522 V. Pres. - W. - 527 2191 Secretary - L. - 321 0694 Treasurer - J. - 377 1385 Education - R. - 542 359i

Dreaqer

Cultice

=- Librarians

Tape - E. Fawloski - 1 338 0260

Book - D. Nickels - 1 284 9691

=- Sub Group Leaders Games - N. Schultz - 353 4522 Meetina date 3rd Sat. month. Hardware - G. Kraemer - 421 0179 No set date. Call for information. Spectrum - R. Hilsmann - 251 5291 Meeting date 3rd wed. month. RF/M = R. Cultice - 542 3591 No set date. Call for information. QL - R. Hilsmann - 251 5291

Meeting date see Spectrum aqroup

December 1987

Heberlein

Frohboese

of the

An update to the membershio list: V

Kutnyak, Mark - 2824788 Kroastad. Warren - 2828665 Frohboese, Nick - 3771385 Frohboese. Judy - 3771385 Fridtiof,. Nolte - 8739299 Kussmann. Kenneth - 3539211

EDITORS Paqe? well at least a paraaqraph or two

If you purchase something from our advertisers. 2 and hopina for more, please mention SMUG Bytes. This is the only way our advertisers know if their ads are effective. This applies to us. any other newletter you read or the “BIGGIES" like TIME DESIGNS. SyncWare News or CTM. We all need advertisers to survive. Although us little quys need help in other areas too.

My appologies to any of you calling the wrona numbers. Flease chanaqe your list.

TIFFS

Thanks to Rod Gowen of RMG Enterprises for this on. Want to use a monitor on the QL? The S pin cable, used by Commodore., will work. Use the sound as the videco input. Of course still no color. We could use a fix for this.

I must apolOaize for the headina in the last issue showina the article on the disks and how they rate. It was planned for the last issue but The other tip is when applying a I was not able to aet it in. Look write protect to your disk

for it in this one. becareful not to apply it to tiaht or. you can aet read failures PEN

LKDOS#*FD-68*LKDOS#FD-6G8#LKDOS*

#*> RMG ENTERPRISES <#*

and LARKEN ELECTRONICS =)=) ANNOUNCE <=<= THE AERCO-LKDOS CARTRIDGE IT'S READY!! IT'S HERE! IT'S GREATS # Now you can add a REAL DISK OPERATING SYSTEN to your 2068 and AERCO FD-68 CONTROLLER!

With this cartridge board you get all of the Larken

DOS commands as well as the Larken EXTENDED BASIC coasands. Now you can SAVE-LOAD-HMERGE-CAT-ERASE

FORMAT-OPEN€ and auch, auch sore!

Sieple 10 minute sod to the Aerco board is all it takes and you can switch between the 2 systes in case you wish to use RP/M on the Aerco system. EVEN GIVES YOU 40K OF RAM DISK ON STANDARD FD-68 PCB! If you have

256K on FD-68, you can have 4-40K RAMDISKS! ORDER SOON! GREAT NEW PRODUCT! ! ONLY $65 . @@+$3ph ADD $6.00 IF YOU WANT EPROM SOCKET INSTALLED. LKDOS CARTRIDGES ALSO AVAILABLE FOR RAMEY AND IGER CONTR! : PRICE! AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY FROM LARKEN and RMG ENTERPRISES `: VISA 1419 1/2 7TH STREET MASTERCARD " OREGON CITY, OR 97045 + 503/655-7484 bod #FOR CATALOG, SEND $3.00: REFUNDED WITH FIRST ORDER FD-68*LKDOS*FD-68*LKDOS#*FD-68* AD EFFECTIVE THRU 1/31/68

December 1987 2 SMUG Bytes

LETTERS

John Shepard asks: If there are any

problems mixing disk drives? A. AS lona as they are Shugart compatable there should be no problem. There could be a problem

with the interface if the density and/or sides are mixed. Be sure to tell the interface manufacturer about this.

Has anyone seen or hear from Robert Fischer, author of Extensions for Frofile, I wrote to him at a 1986 address in Summerville GA.

A. I leave this up to you readers. If you know of Bobs address send the answer to SMUG Bytes.

I would like to add an inexpensive full keyboard. like Cherry. I will pay for instructions.

A. ANY one out there knows how write to SMUG Bytes. I am under the impression it is for a TS2068.

I would like a araphics driver for my IBM compatable Smith-Corona. Fastex 80, printer. Is there a universal IBM compatable driver? Is there a writer who miaqht write a driver?

Larry Anderson asks:

I have bouaht a Maaqnavex and can not aet it to work with my 2068. I am now using it with a QAL.

A. I don’t know what the E. Arthur Brown RGB hookup is but there is a way to convert the composet siqnal into RGB. As to why it won’t work with RPM I don’t know. I have a Zenith RGB and using the AERCO disk interface with a RGE cable, and have no problem with RPM. I have had a problem with the Zenth on the QL when aoina into Monitor mode. The picture is to laroe for the

screen. I hope anyone out there readina SMUG Bytes 3

these questions and can answer any of them will send their answers or questions to SMUG Bytes c/o Bill Heberlein. 5052 N. 9ist Street. Milwaukee, WI 53225.

Computer Definitions

Hard disk - a floppy that’s been ir the sun too lona. Bus - public transporation

Expantion Board ~ city agency issuing building permits Chip =~ also known as meadow

muffins, supplied by Buffalos Nanosecond -— the lenath of time to put your soda down near the keyboard

Picosecond — the lenoth of time it takes to realise the soda is now fallina into the keyboard because you missed the edae.

EROM THe FRES._ The Winter Computerfest is approaching fast and I am wondering how many of you will be going? Plans are still up in the air, but, hope to qo myself. If we aet 3 or 4 maybe we could share the driving and the expenses. SMUG has tried to be represented at all the Sinclair Fests in the U.S. The only one we missed so far is the Northwest one.

Not are fault but all the ads were after the fact.

Another reminder commina up Saturday January 9th at the

Waukesha Expo Center will be a Ham. Computer and Video fest. For more info contact Rudy. Interested in selling anything maybe we can aet a aroup to share a table or two.

December 1987

Disk Makers Ire Stirred Hy Tester By Marsha Johnston Fisher

From the 11/2/87 issue of MIS Weekly

Manufacturers of vee” floppy diskettes were scramblina Friday to respond to a survey by a disk test and duplication firem here that suqaests they are not testina comprehensively for all of the minimum standards specified by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) tor interchanaeability and performance.

Memory Control Technoloay Corp. (Memcon) examined 100 disks, each of 18 different brand names. from different distributors arround the country. for visual defects, measured for "missing" and "extra" bits as indicatores of surface quality. and tested the maqentic coating characteristics. durability and most basic PC formatting capacity.

While all 18 manufactures passed the durability test with flying colors. problems arose with specific vendors. particularly on the ANSI extra bit test and the visual inspection. which is not ANSI-specified.

e.s Extra and missing bits are minute defects on the disk surface that may cause errors in data storaqe or recovery. The ANSI committee said an extra bit occurs whenever a pulse areater in amplitude than 20% of the averaae sianal is detected after a track has been erased. A missina bit is said to occur when the recorded sianal is less than 40% of the average sianal level.

Its (the ANSI committee’s) consenus

was to establish the extra bit test. he gaid. “because it was

December 1987 4

specifically relevant to an end-user. It’s probably the most critical of all the tests to the end-user "because if the disk suffers from an extra bit error, you get an error in the data you’re putting on the disk."

ee-Only three manufactures-BASF. JVC and Memorex-had 100% of their disks pass both of the surface quality tests.

Kodak. Nashua. Sony and 3M had 100% success in the missina bit test, but did not do as well on the extra bit. «see

Other extra bit failures came from Dysan/Xidex with 39 failures of 200 disks, Sentinel 9 and Polaroid 7.

+. Of the manufacturers which did)

not have 100% success rate on the missing bit test, Korth (Memcon’s CEO) said he araded those that had

‘only one disk fail with a qrade of

°C.” They were Fudi. Maxell, Polaroid. Syncom and Verbatim.

eee TDK and aoldstar., which had 100% success with the extra-bit test, had 2 and 3 disks, respectively. fail the ANSI missing bit test. «wee

Finally. "to put the technical test in to a user perspective. we stuck them in a FC. formatted them. put a data oattern in the data field and tried to recover it usina an IBM FPC-compatible." Korth said.

The fact that the maiority of the

disks passed “should be no consolation to the user." Korth said. "The tests from ANSI were desianed to insure

interchanqeability and lona-term | reliability. so that the disks could be formatted on one FC at one moment in time doesn’t mean that it would work with someone else’s PC or six months from now."

SMUG Bytes

So vor want to write a Proaram!

Well vou have ta follow a few rules. They can’t aquarentee a working proaram, thats still up to you, but they will help.

The first thing is to eliminate distractions. I find the TV will distract but the radio can drown out the outside noise. The next thing is to write down what you want to accomplish. For example: I want a proqram to keep names and addresses plus birthdays, and other pertinent notes. I want to list them alphabeticly. by birthdate and a search of the note area for certain words. Using either 80 col. printer or to the screen.

Once you have your idea written down you have a base to work from. Now the idea is to break the idea down into manaqable chunks or in Proaqramming lanaquaaqe, functions. Now vou can take each of these chunks and break it into smaller pieces. When vou can see, in your mind. how to proaram it the function is small enough. The function should be a complete unit. For example: Menu, Update the list, Sort. Frint or Save. The other thina you should do is draw, flowchart. as you ao alona. I¢ you do this then all the steps to aet to this point won’t be foraotten. Using the example from the the first paraaqraph this is how to break it down into functions.

NAME AND ADDRESS LIST

Notice the menu is the first function. Then the menu is broken into sıx smaller functions. Now take each of these functions and break them down. Lets take the New List function. Now what do we have to do to start a new list of names and addresses? Well we will have to define the dimension strina so it will not contain any data. We will have to set the last entry pointer to 0. Also any other controlling Switches. fields or necessary data must be set to the starting values. You can lay this out in the same way as the first level was layed out. See layout 2.

You try the next one and see what you aet. More next time.

SS ame am SY ame ea ane aa amn es amn amm a am cm ces n a ea J ------——~—.

<<DIMENSION>> <<END FPOINTER>> <<SET SORT KEY>> <<RETURN>>

balan LIST>

<<GET KEY>> <<PUT i0 SCREEN>> <<UPDATE RECORD>> <<REWRITE>> <<RETURN? >

SMUG Bytes 5

December 1987

FoR SALE s

If you have anything for sale. you can advertise it for free in this newsletter (provided you’re a SMUG member). Our newsletter reaches an ever-qrowing number of TS User Groups throughout the country, increasing your chances of a sale.

Dr. Lloyd Dreger has his second "Machine Code" book ready. This book takes up where the last one left off. This book will take you deeper into the intricacies of that monster. machine code proarammina.

The price will be the same as the other book $16.95 (SMUG members $15.00) plus $1.50 S&H if not picked up in person.

Multiple Disk

syst ens On Wednesday the 18 of November. the Spectrum aqroup met. Dennis Nickel. who has built an off/on

switch for his Oliger disk interface, and myself. my disk interface is an AERCO. tried piaaqy backinq our two .interfaces. We

tried the AERCO first. it does not have an off/on switch, and pludaed the Oliaqer on behind. Then with the Oliaer off we booted up the system. Everything was ok so far. Then usina "OUT 244,090", to turn off the AERCO interface. we turned the Oliger on. Well we crashed. We then turned off the TS2068. turned on the Oliaqer switch and turned on the computer. It was a crash from the beaginina. What we are atter is the ability to transfer data from one disk system to the other. If anyone out there knows a way that works please let us know.

GK ENTERPRISES

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No need to wait for a sale.

Our prices are low everyday

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December 1987 6

West Allis WI 53227

SMUG Bytes

iin

"SOQ" NOTES BY R.A.HILSMANN

"S" in this case will stand for "“SDOS", "SPECTRUM" and "SOFTWARE". As most who already know me would know, those are a few of the things which will keep my interest in the TS2068 alive.

I added "O" for the Sinclair OL which is the newest of the compu- ters used here. What’s this all about? A NEW COLUMN for this News- letter, that’s what. I hope to be able to keep up with all the wri- ting I promissed to do, but all I can do is try, so here goes.

Things that will be covered are software and ideas to improve the system. System in this case means SDOS, SPECTRUM, DL and SOFTWARE.

As a starter here is a new MENU PROGRAM I wrote for the SDOS sys- tem, which I would like to share with you. This program will not only list the contents of the disk but will also function as a head- scan. In other words, it will give you the location and lenght of each program, be it basic, code or data, and display such information along with the name of the item upon “LOAD & ENTER". Basic is indicated as LINE, which means the starting line the program has to be called with. ABS indicates the program is saved as state of the machine, while VAL means variables.

On the top of the screen you will find information pertaining to the disk in use, such as disk name, number of tracks the disk is for- mated to, number of sides, total bytes in K, and also the amount of bytes still available on the disk.

The cursor, in this case an in- versed bar, can be moved as usual downwards with any key to the item of your choice, and by pressing "ENTER" the program, code or data is then loaded into the 2068 system. This Menu Program will also give an audible signal upon roll- over of the whole menu, indicating the beginning of the menu text.

SMUG Bytes 7

Enter the listing given here, then do a "GOTO 200" to activate it. Line 200 to 35@ will be deleted as you do so, and line 1@ will hold the code necessary to make this program functional, line 10 will also be changed to line @, since it should not ever be taken down to be edited, this would surely wipe out the code it contains.

Enter the program with the 2068 being in the TIMEX mode, otherwise the delete function will not work, although the program will function in either the spectrum or timex mode. Now you may save the program to file @. This version of this program takes into account the latest version of Oligers SDOS, but you may change the FOR/NEXT loop to the old standard using a variable such as X. The loss of speed will be insignificant.

I hope you like it! Next month I will start to write about changing a few major programs, such as VU- FILE, to the 8@ column printer.

till then......Rudy Hilsmann.

10 REM 1 2 3 12345678701234 15 REM USE KEYWORDS FOR D$ IN LINE 20

20 CLEAR: LET A=NOT PI: LET B =A: LET C=A: LET D=A: DIM AS(179 ,20): DIM B$(32): DIM C$(6Ø08): I NK 9: PAPER A: BORDER A: CLS : L ET E=PEEK 23635+256*PEEK 23636+5 : LET F=USR E: LET D$=" LINE DAT A DATA CODE ABS VAL ": PRINT "DI SK NAME: "3A$(178) ‘CODE A$(179, 1)3" TRKS, ";CODE A$(179,2)3" SI DES="; CODE A$(179,3)*5;"K FREE "; CODE A$(179,5) #53 "K" "--------

VAL "60" 30 LET G=3: LET H=1: FOR /I TO J: PRINT AT G,@3; INVERSE 1; OVE R 1;B$: PAUSE Ø: LET O$=INKEY$: IF D$=CHR$ 13 THEN GO TO 150 40 PRINT AT G,Ø; INVERSE 0;B$: GO SUB 1@@: NEXT : PRINT AT 3,0

December 1987

C$: IF ADF THEN RANDOMIZE USR E ‘GO TO 6@

5Ø RETURN

60 BEEP .@8,35: LET I=2: LET J

70 LET G=3: LET H=NOT PI: IF F —I>18 THEN LET J=J+18: GO TO 90 8@ LET J=F+1 90 LET K=PEEK 32768+256*PEEK 3 2769: FOR /I TO J 100 RANDOMIZE USR (E+64): PRINT AT G,OsAS(A-1, TO 10)3" "3;DS(Bt 1)3;TAB 173: IF NOT B AND DO1E4 T HEN PRINT @3: GO TO 120 110 PRINT D; 120 PRINT TAB 22;","3C: LET G=G +1: IF H THEN RETURN 130 NEXT : POKE 32768,K-256*INT (K/256): POKE 32769,INT (K/256) : GO SUB 30: IF A-1<=F THEN LET I=A 14@ GO TO VAL "70" 150 LET L$=A$ (A-VAL "1", TO VAL "10"): GO SUB VAL "15@"+CODE A$ (A-VAL "1",VAL "11")4+VAL "1": ST OP 151 LOAD /L$: RETURN 152 LOAD /L% DATA A‘): RETURN 153 LOAD /LS DATA B$(): RETURN 154 LOAD /LSCODE : RETURN

~~ 155 LOAD /LSABS

156 LOAD /L#VAL RETURN 20@ RESTORE 30@: FOR X=26715 TO 26825 210 READ L: POKE X,L 22@ NEXT X: POKE 26711,Ø: DELET E 200, 230 REM #EEEEeeeee e e e e * USE GOTO 200 TO ACTIVATE * * THEN SAVE USING * * CLEAR: SAVE /®@ * eee 300 DATA 205,18,0,42,75,92,17,3 2,0,25,235,33,52,38,1,212,13 310 DATA 237,176,33,16,38,14,16 4237 ,176,229,235,17,4,0,25,235,35 3,9,38,14,16,237 320 DATA 176,225,17,20,9,62,128 36190,40,4,3,25,48,249,42,75,92,1 7,42,0,25,34 33@ DATA @,128,223,42,75,92,17, 9,@,25,237,91,0,128,26,119,213,1 7,6,8,25,209 340 DATA 19,26,119,19,35,26,119 6213,17,5,0,25,209,19,26,119,19, 35,26,119,33,16 35 DATA @,25,34,0,128,201

December 1987 8

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

"Twas the night before Christeas, quiet sore or less, Not a creature was stirring, except DOS.

The wish list was huna by the tape drives with care, In hopes that St. IBM soon would be there.

The proqrasaers were nestled all snug in their beds,

While coapletion code zeros danced all through their head i.

And all of thea trying to dodae any flap, Had just settled down for a lona winter’s nap.

when out on the lawn there arose such a din,

I hoped right away it was not an abend.

Away to Control we fled like a flash,

Tore open the shutters (for there was no sash).

When what to our wondering eyes should we see, But a qiant aain¢rase and eight tiny pes.

With a little old driver (no one could be cuter), And I knew right away it was old St. Computer.

Hore rapid than nanos his coursers they case,

And he whistled and shouted and called thea by nane. "Now Victor, now Apple, Atari, and Osborne. °

"Gn Sinciair, on Compaq, we'll be there by eorn.’

To the top of MIS lickety-split,

Now respond, now respond, now respond real quick. And then in a twinkling I heard at the door,

The beeps of the tubes led by old Cossodore.

As I drew in ay head and was turning around, Through the door St. Computer cane in with a bound. He was dressed all in eodeas (the strangest of sights),

And his clothes were all tranished with circuits and bytes

A sack full of oroducts (he sure had a bunch),

Just like a vendor without the free lunch.

His eyes how they twinkled. his diaples how deep, His cheeks were like cursors, his nose aade a beep.

He was chubby and pluap, aright ¡olly old aan,

And I thought he could help us with our very own LAN. He said nat a word but went straiaht to his work,

And I knew that his basic would be clear with no aurk,

And lavina his finaer aside of his ear,

I felt with his svstea we'd nothina to fear.

He sorana to his eainfrase. and then he hit ENTER. And away they all flew through the darkness of winter.

But I herd hia exclaie with a areat sense of fun, "ferry Christaas to all, and aay all vour jobs run."

SMUG Bytes