9 September 1985 Z-NEWS 302 Z TIPS: An obscure and probably little understood feature of ZCPR3 is that of using CMD and SHSET commands. Any program is converted into a shell by using SHSET on it. Command (verb) is used to permit application programs to know how to return to themselves (in addition to being user interfaces, accepting inputs, and executing commands). For example, SHSET WS makes WordStar into a shell and there's no way to get out of it, short of cold booting your machine! Suddenly, CMD walks on stage, lends a hand, and allows you to have your way with computer. Use SHSET WS;CMD as command or alias, then on existing WordStar, CMD runs. Typing at this point exits shell (with ERROR message set, permitting directional flow changes to occur if more com- mands are on line). Try them, experiment, and see possibilities for improving your environment. VALIAS is out! Get it from our nodes...Jay Sage did truly remarkable job of making aliases under Z-System easier to create and modify with this utility. His TESTERR program, an alternate to FINDERR, is another for us who use ZAS and the like. It too presently is on many Z-Nodes. Along the way, Richard Conn has finished (at least for now) our library support tools. New era begins--they run only on Z80/NSC800/HD64180 computers using ZCPR3 or Z-System! LGET extracts files, LHELP processes HLP/HQP files from within library files; LLF lists all files, and LX executes specified COM files in libraries. Tools, on most Z-Nodes, are in file LUZ3.LBR. Richard and Martin Murray (Dallas, TX) work together to make NULU a full Z3 tool! What makes a ZCPR3 utility (tool) is described clearly on pages of 229 and 230 of the ZCPR3 Manual. Routines in Z3LIB reduce task essentially to a few subroutine calls! Let's get Ashton-Tate (dBASE II), MicroPro (WordStar 3.0 and 3.3), Sorcim/IUS (SuperCalc II), T/Maker (T/Maker III), and Microsoft (Multiplan) to enhance their 8-bit programs to full ZCPR3 tool status! Would you buy them as upgrades to your presently owned versions? We would! Enough said? WOW! Article describing SB180 and Z-System in September BYTE Magazine hit the spot! Thanks to all who contributed to make commentary possible, especially Mr. Steve Ciarcia of "Circuit Cellar." (Eight-bit lives--move over 16-bitters and make space for us!) But wait, there's much more to come; watch remaining from-now-to-end-of-year issues of not only BYTE but many other magazines and newspapers. We Get Letters: From William A. Dunn, Springfield, OR, "I am pleased with the software but was frustrated with your documentation. I am looking forward to the manual which I ordered last week." (Manual was shipped same day we received order.) "Keep up the GREAT work!" commands Alan, Cathy, and Cynthia Foust, Leonia, NJ. And Virgil Cooper, Carpinteria, CA writes, "Gracious Al Hawley responded to my message by phoning this evening... ." Larry Geller, Tokyo, JAPAN, observes: "I noticed that each issue of Z-News is costing you about one dollar to mail...enclosed find check for $24.00 to help cover those mailings... ." Thanks, Larry, wish more people understood as you! Paul Naitoh, San Diego, CA, asks, "Do I need a hard disk to enjoy Z3?" No, Paul, as you now know two drives, each with 360k-bytes or more capacity, are needed! Lots of Kaypro 4 folks are enthusiastic users; magazine/newspaper columnists/editors Bruce Morgen (Warminster, PA) and Ted Silveira (Santa Cruz, CA) are two such! New Policy: You who receive hardcopy version of Z-News and also download it from a Z-Node may notice that download version is available only after you have received mailed edition. Thanks to Rea Williams (El Toro, CA) for instructing us about fairness: those who pay for Z-News should receive it first! Those who obtain it only from Z-Nodes, essentially for cost of phone call, get it later. Phasing set: Z-News node file is behind mailers by up to a fortnight (two weeks)! Report Card: All books and copies of Term3 ordered have been shipped. These two items were back-ordered for so long...if you have had an order with us for more than three weeks, and haven't received it, please drop us a note. Our records are not perfect, neither are we. Write us if you should have received an order and haven't. Again we thank you for being patient--the ordeal is over for us, and for you. Never again will we get ourselves into such a helpless position of not being able to control what we were responsible for creating (Frankenstein/monster syndrome). Amateur Z User's Corner: We repeat Lewis Carroll (Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 1832-1898) frag- ment, from his Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass series, because it repre- sents so closely what we do: many discus- (Walrus and quote from sion levels, abruptly shifting from para- Lewis Carroll's works; graph to paragraph; but within each, con- In subcription edition.) sistency is maintained. These shifts always produce movement leading to "The time has come," the Walrus said, creation of mental spiral--never "To speak of many things, linear, never to be understood as ups Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and downs, higher or lower, as if Of cabbages and kings." climbing or descending a ladder, but rather like soaring over vast multi- dimensional (more than four) terri- tory--observing, feeling, and doing. You are center of attention and producer of motion! Please don't forget what and who you (and we) could be. Act (not react) while re-acting (feeling)! We wish mad hatter (hacker) would convince his editor to send us samples of (subscription to) their slick Canadian magazine (Computek). We may want to place an ad, among other things. Magazine contains a wonderful 8-bit column written by one who cares, feels. Our kind of folk! Z-Node Activity: Welcome to mid-state Z-Node #34! Sysop Rod Blackman, Visalia, CA, needs callers. You central Californians let him know what you think of Z- (Sketch of Lewis System; 209/739-8303. Carroll's mad Here's a chance to see if community lives: Mark hatter--in sub- R. Evans, potential Node #33, is having trouble under- cription edition.) standing how to get his system up as a RAS. He wants to learn; who wishes to help? If you can offer assistance, contact him at 1720 Utah, San Angelo, TX 76904. Please! While at it, we might look into Thomas Hill, 200 Oklahoma Street, Anchorage, AK 99504; Richard Driscoll, 400 North 30th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85008, 602/267-0504; and Robert Paddock, Box 167A, RD #1, Summit Drive, Franklin, PA 16323, 814/432-3647. These nodes may need assistance getting up. Bob Finch, Node #21, our ham radio packet network expert, should have a dial-in line soon; until then, you Los Angeles area hams can contact him by radio for transfers. His call is N5CXB-1, on 2-meter band frequency of 146.745 mHz OUT/DOWN 600 kHz; IN N5CXB, Bob Finch. Other metro- politan area hams, who presently operate packet networks, wanting to tie landlines to radios using Z-Node concept should contact us, or Z-Node #2, Al Hawley, voice: 213/649-3575. One day, when satellite repeaters are available, all Earth will be tied together through Z-Nodes! Wanting more traffic, Jay Sage installed a 2400 bps modem...try his Boston-suburb Z-Node #3 for Z-System information and to get files: 617/965- 7259. Remember, Jay's a full downloader of EI proprietary programs. WOW! again: Foot put into mouth! Suggesting (in Z-News 209, pg 2, first line) that everyone read material seven (7) times, without simultaneously giving full explanation of why, has been big stumbling block for many. So we deliver details to remove those (mental) blocks; remember, read through explanation (and everything else) seven times: Readings 1 and 2. Skim material twice, quite rapidly. Use your finger to help your eyes play over words, lines, and paragraphs. Key words and phrases, ideas, and concepts begin to take from. You gain a feeling of the thought-flow, a framework making next step more powerful. Reading 3. Read material now from beginning, much more slowly and care- fully. Pause to re-read and ponder new ideas and deep thoughts. Use diction- ary for unfamiliar words. Readings 4 and 5. Skim over material twice again, but not quite so rapidly as first two times. Let key concepts sink in even deeper. This is a more leisurely skim. Pause at any word looked up in dictionary and make sure you know both basic meaning of word, and its meaning in present context. Sometimes the thought expressed by a particular word or phrase is so new that it's difficult to grasp at once, even with dictionary help! Do not worry at this point. Future readings add clarity. Reading 6. Now, read material from beginning again with extreme care. Now is the time to really pause, to ponder, to digest, to impress deeply. Try to obtain essential, inner feeling of messages, even though you may not under- stand them fully or grasp completely at this stage. Try at this point to read material aloud! Reading 7. It's a slow skim. Somewhere between your leisurely skim and your first careful reading, #3. It is time to enjoy, to bathe yourself in new insights and viewpoints opening up to you...new understanding comes (in next octave)! There you have it--we do our best to explain. Never think that learning something new, really new, comes quickly or easily. GREAT EFFORT IS INVOLVED! But keep reading even if you think you don't understand--what comes later (down the lines) explains what came before, following natural back-and-fill (smoothing) concept. Leadership! Who leads and who follows? Bottom of page 5, Newsletter 007, 15 October 1984, we addressed clone-magazines, copy-cats, people with less-than- constructive ideas. Our present observation is: too many editors put out cookie-cutter editions of their publication. The mold is supplied by adver- tisers, and journal after journal use it! As we scan 30 to 40 publications a month we notice a thread, one of indoctrination rather than education. So few magazines have the staff to even edit a news release much less investigate news and write their own reports. If the release wasn't styled by producer for individual magazine format, it simply isn't run...sad! Oh! how sad! A free press? We wonder what is free in what they generally do...freely leading or freely following? Clearly our trade journals show little leadership; so many seem detached, unemotional, have little PURPOSE of their own (other than make money as prime goal). They use pre-formed mold to produce their offerings. We are the losers for it, but it's us who allow situation to exist. Most magazines (but not all) follow standard Madison Avenue criterion for ad space cost, keyed to numbers of paid subscribers. Consequently, sub- scription prices are low--this results in main source of revenues coming from advertisers! Any wonder who controls magazine contents? Roses don't grow on stalks of clover. When corn seed is planted, peach trees don't come up! Is this observation faulty? Time to take a stroll, feel cool breeze coming in from the Pacific. Listen to swaying palms and pines in coast town of Pescadero, and there sip some white Zinfandel at Mrs. Duarte's restaurant and bar. See you down the lines... Echelon, Inc. 101 First Street Los Altos, CA 94022 Telephone: 415/948-3820 Z-Node Central: 415/489-9005 Trademarks: SB180, COMM180, TKBBS, Micromint; HD63484/64180, Hitachi; Z80/800, Zilog; NSC800, National; 8080/85, Intel; WY-50/75/85/350, Wyse Technology; Z-System, ZCPR3, ZRDOS, Z-Tools, Z-Com, Zas, Zlink, ZDM, REVAS, Z- Msg, DSD, TERM III, Term3, Lasting-Value Software, Echelon and their respective owners and authors; MOSART, XE1201/03, Xecom. Z-News 302 is Copyright 1985 Echelon, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Permission to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted if source credit is given to Echelon.