1 October 1984 ZCPR3 NEWSLETTER 006 Source File Control: Echelon controls all releases to ZCPR3 software. If you fix a bug please send fix to the single point of distribution correction: Echelon. We give full credit to authors of corrections and upgrades. Please consider us your only point for authorized fixes and changes. Also, please don't put fixes on RCP/M's -- we simply can't keep track of programs we don't absolutely control. We certainly appreciate your concern and consideration for ZCPR3 improvements and problems. There's a rumor circulating stating ZCPR3 is only useful on big systems, those with double-sided 8" or hard disks. We tabulated the file sizes and came up with these approximate figures: Programs Kilobytes Phase 1, 58 COM Files 161 Beta Test Phase 2 COM Files 48 Complete online HELP Phase 1 285 Additional HELP Phase 2 120 System Segments 8 DISCAT Catalog Modules 52 DISCAT online HELP 34 === TOTAL 600 A small disk system could not have all programs simultaneously online. Certainly all the features of Z3 are available using double-sided 5 1/4" disks with over 350K storage. (Our AMPRO BOOKSHELFtm Model 122 with dsdd drives works nicely, 386K storage on each disk.) A newcomer would have the help files available until the system is learned, then that space would be given up to applications and data. Not suited to small systems? On the contrary, we cater to Kaypro, Osborne, Apple CP/M, and Epson QX-10 users; Z3 is a major enhancement for these computers and their present operating systems. ZCPR3 puts Unix-like power in machines of the 8-bit world. And so easy to install using Z3- Dot-Com(tm). Speaking of Z3-Dot-Com, we are shipping! The program has turned out even better than first hoped. All the normal features of standard ZCPR3 are contained. Marketing this program conforms to our company philosophy: bringing useful, cost-effective solutions to the console operator, matter not what his/her level of expertise is. With Z3-Dot-Com, you need know nothing of programming to get ZCPR3 up and running on any type CP/M-80 machine. It takes about a dozen keystrokes, eact number determined by your terminal being on the first or second install- menu! Simple, for example, our mothers could install it, though they have never used computers. Z3 Bug Report: MCOPY doesn't correctly indicate a target disk directory-full status during copying. So be careful at how many files are transferred to a disk to avoid crashing the disk. And, MKDIR, when writing a new or updated directory to disk, 25% of the time erroneously reports a disk write error message. If this happens, you must manually re-enter the entire SYS.NDR. Thanks to Joe Wright of San Jose, California, for pointing these two out to us. Another, MENU may crashi if a letter or number command, followed by a carriage return, is entered that is not on current menu screen; this, first from Chris Hays of La Canada, California. There's more. Lots of minor operational ZEX and Shell problems pointed out by Jay Sage, Lexington, Massachusetts. Thanks to all! These bugs have been verified and presently are being studied. Finally, we are planning an on-one-disk release of bug-fixed programs, hopefully before end of the year. Now to paper bugs. In three places on page 91 of SAMPLER, the L80 $1,Z3LIB/S,... batch statement should read: L80 /p:100,$1,Z3LIB/S,... Without the /p:100 declaration, L80 linker adds an unrequired jump instruction to the object code. Special thanks go to Al Dunsmuir of Scarborough, Ontario, CANADA, for first bringing this typo-error to our attention. Trust our negligence hasn't caused too much pain to those attempting to link utilities after assembly. (By the way, we recommend using the latest L80 Version 3.44, December 1981. The earlier versions, even 3.42 dated February 1981, seem to have too many problems with our REL files.) While installing ZCPR3, for the first time, the user can't use ZEX batch processing as indicated in SAMPLER, pages 60 to 62. Use EX.COM (for Executive) instead, and rename all the *.ZEX files to *.SUB. Replace all ZEX commands with EX commands. After the system is fully installed, and you have assembled ZEX.MAC for your environment, of course it is better to use ZEX for all further batch processing. Z3 TIPS: The MCOPY utility and the RCP-resident CP (for copy, not for command processor) are tailored for different applications; CP for quick, short file copying from or to different disk/user areas without concern for copy verification, but with optional renaming. On the other hand MCOPY is best used for lengthy, multiple file movements with default automatic verification, file existence testing and inspection, multiple disk copying, and optionally, no-verification. With either utility you can copy a file from (or to) an area you aren't logged into! The DIR and DU forms consistently apply. Remember Z3 "fn.ft,fn2.ft2,fnn.ftn" multiple file syntax, in addition to normal wild card (? and *) naming, makes utilities like CP and MCOPY extremely effective. Don't forget, this naming syntax convention is near universal throughout the ZCPR3 Utility System. Try using ALIAS to create fast flow controlled command files: an example used for global command with DISCAT. ZCPR3's File and Disk Catalog Subsystem. IF NUL $1;CAT:;MENU DISCAT.MNU;ELSE;A8:CATSCAN $*;FI If parametes (file and disk search specifications) are specified at the command line, the CP (here CP stands for command processor) runs CATSCAN in A8: using the full Alias tail (the parameters). If only the Alias command is entered, the CP moves the machine to directory named CAT: and runs MENU automatically! This approach can be used in many places to streamline computer operations, especially with MENU MNU or from VFILER CMD files. Different MNU and CMD files may be placed in different directories for extreme flexibility -- UNIX and PC-DOS, move over and breathe our dust. Additionally, comes a thought from Rick Conn: to prevent HELP from returning to the system command line prompt if a requested HLP file is not found, consider making HELP a Shell using the SHSET command of Phase 2. The way HELP performs now was intentional -- if a file is not found, take time, find the file, and place it in the HELP directory. Perhaps HELP could be managed by an Alias, searches made for HLP's not in the current HELP directory. Experiment and announce your findings on AMPRO's BBS. Hacker's Corner: A few of you notice minor problems with various early version of Microsoft L80 -- so do we. What to do about it? Let Microsoft know your feelings; we have. They don't seem too interested ... we wonder why! (By the way, we refuse to accept the distortions in the popular press regarding the meaning of the word: hacker. It has meant, until the ill or non-informed popular press arrived, and will continue to mean, "an intensely caring human being who loves to design, write, and modify computer programs." Perhaps this press should learn a little more before it puts pen-to-paper, especially if they think a hacker is one who electronically breaks into computers.) Echelon is considering negotiating for rights to sell inexpensive upgrades to M80 and L80, and also to sell skeleton packages of MAC. Certainly present sales of these programs must be near non- existent and the two respective companies should welcome someone pushing such products, you would think! As we become accustomed to a particular computer environment, we expect familiar tasks to take approximately the same time to accomplish. Such is not the case on a timeshare system. As the system load changes, it takes different amounts of time to do the same task! With one user, if it takes 5 minutes duration to compile and link a program, then with 2 doing similar compiles, it takes 10 minutes for each. Or if it took 10 seconds to scan, with your editor from top to bottom of a file, now the duration is different. What an unnatural thing to have to experience. Can you imagine a four user 80286 or 68000 running under Unix as each user loads the CPU with text scanning, accounting calculations, or compiles. Thus we say, to each his own CPU, connected through a local area network (LAN) to other machines and resources, eg, expensive typesetters, mass storage, and central mainframe processor. Also think of hardware reliability through redundancy. If the timeshare goes down, all users must do something else until it's fixed. With a CPU per user, many parallel units are available if one of them fails. If the LAN goes down, the peripheral units are not available to serve the net. We believe a machine should have a consistency about it as perceived by the operator. The machine is the tool, not the operator. Or do we have something wrong? We discuss next the techniques' cost differentials, both human and hardware. We at Echelon feel blessed because of the quality of our customers. You don't seem to have the disease of modern social Western man: expectation of instant gratification for his actions. For if you did, you would never have gone through the learning of ZCPR3 and what that learning can do for your computing perspective, and your understanding of mind and breain theory. You who have studied to appreciate principles of ZCPR3 -- studied long and hard -- aren't the same as you were before getting involved! You are now with expanded vision of computing and how humans fit into the scheme. So be it ... Non-customers of Echelon who read the Newsletter from BBS's, ARPAnet, Compuserve, etc, are missing thrills of seeing the printed letter's fine character formation, underlining, bolding and highlighting, and superscripting on multicolored paper. Moreover, our clear address labels are something all should investigate. Buy from us (ZCPR3: The Manual, perhaps, or DISCAT) and you automatically receive the fortnighter, delivered first- class by the (heaven should forbid) US Postal System. Peace! See you down the lines ... Echelon, Inc. 101 First Street Los Altos, CA 94022 Telephone: 415/948-3820 RCP/M & BBS Modem: 408/258-8128