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KERR RRRRE RHR RRR RARE KY EMRE EE REE AREER EY EERE EE ERY Ree EER EEE EE EES THE O/FW DATA EXPANSION TIMEX /SINCLAIR/AMSTRAD METROPLEX NEWSLETTER COVER TG: TIMEX, CP/M, AND MS-00S VOL 5, NUMBER 3<>MAR. 1983 EDITOR: DAVID BAULCH CO-EDITOR: JOHN BATTEY

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NOTES FROM THE EDITOR

I have become aware in the last few months of the demise of the Timex computers. I know that it truly took place about three years ago, but it seems to have risen again. I also know that I have commented about this before, but bear with me as I comment on it again.

We have had Sinclairists, Timexers, and Amstraders all moving away from 8-bit machines and to MS-DOS sand 16-bit machines - not necess:rily an Amstrad. With these supposed "diehards" leaving the 8-bit world for greener pastures, what type of a future do we have for Timex? Other 'diehards' maintain there is life for our computers, yet! Who is right?

We now have the capability of having a universally connected disk system with the LK-DOS cartridge by Larry Kenny. More desktop publishina programs and improvements are forthcoming from Stan Lemke. Other operatina systems other than BASIC are available, 25 CP/M from AERCO and ZEBRA (even though ZEBRA has discontinued the drive system). There sre even more peripherals coming, larger RAM (256K) and more. Does this sound disparaging?

Yes, many user groups are beginning to fall on hard times, our own group included, but others are increasina as computers are being recycled to other people. The more that people predict that we are finally going under, the more the REAL diehards cling to their computers refusing to give up. I hope that this topic has finally been exhausted by now. I would like to have an M5-DOS machine, but not at the expense of giving up my 2068. What is wrong with it? I have an excellent disk system, a modem that həs given me no eroblems, an excellent word processor. (with improved versions still-to-come), a handy spreadsheet, graphics programs, databases, tc., all of with which I am familiar. Everything works, so why should I change to something different when there is no need”?

I will get off my soapbox now and return to the work of the newsletter. - David HMI HM HH KH HKALE IKI LEKKI KH HH KM HK MH KH KEK KKK EK E KERR

This newsletter is published monthly and is zent to all of our subscribers and t other user groups throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe. The monthly printina is about 125 copies. The Timex Sub-Board on the FWKUG MBBS &% FSOE (3/1/N). (817 or 214) 540-4183, carries a number cof TS 2068 and Spectrum downloads and is up 21 hrs. The FWKUG MBBS also carries a large

THE Ci-FW DATA EXPANSION

R number of RP/M (CP/M 2.2) and MS-DOS downloads. The subscription rates for the nevsletter are: $2,50 a month or $12.00 for six monte. Anyone wishing to advertise, our rates are: $5.00 minimum?) for 1/1 page, $10.00 for 1/2 page. and $20.00 for a full page. Pleas: send to: David Baulch, 4424 Geddes Avenue, Fort Worth, TX 73107. 3 D

FORT WORTH FFESIDENT:CHUCK DAWSON VICE-PRESIDENT:FRANK BOULDIN TREASURER:ELLIS SAUNDERS SECRETARY:FRED STOCKTON EDITOR:DAVID BAULCH __ PROGRAM EUITOR:CHUCK DAWSON TECHNICAL EDITOR:FRANK BOULDIN as S

DALLAS

CHAIRMAN:GLYNN HARRIS DOC ALTERNATE: JIM LYONS TREASURER: ARTHUR EMERSON CO-EDITOR:: JOHN BATTEY

RRR KR RRR RK RRR RRR RRA RHR EK TERE KK KHER Fe EK ERK RK EER ERK MEETING NOTES-FORT WORTH

The meeting convened in MEETING ROOM A" of the Fort worth Public Library at 300 Taylor Street in downtoun Fort Worth. The next meeting is scheduled for April 2,1988 in MEETING ROOM ‘At The meetings are on the second Saturday.of every month from 1:00 POM. to 4:00 P.M. The meetings are open.-to all who wish to learn more about Sinclair, Timex, and Amstrad computers. This includes anyone using any type of disk system with their computers, or other computer languages. Any visitors are welcome to attend. hny other computer cperator/ouners are more than welcome as there are many different types of computers, peripherals, and programming languages that get discussed.

We had a very small turnout, possibly because this was the first time in a while that the weather was sv nice. Ellis Saunders was unable to make the meeting because of a prior commitment. Others have just been lax. in attendance. Chuck Clawson started us on the discussion section of the meeting ANYWSy « eat

Fred Stockton has not gotten his 2068 set up as yet. He has Finally figured cut where it is going to go and it will not interfere with his wife's sewing. Before Fred gets it up where he wants it, he says he has to finish his income tax preparation first. (I can understand that myself-but ] də use my 2063 for getting all of my costs and purchases, etc. together using Omnicalc2.) He says that the forms and the booklets are very confusing, as we all know, but he is getting closer to the end of completing the process. Once that is complete, he will set up his computer and get back to learning how it differs from his ‘std’ 1000. Fred Also told us that he was the treasurer for the senior citizens club in this area. He described some of the things necessary fo carry on with his job. I think he just might like to keep track of all that with his computer, once he gets it al) set up.

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THE O-FW DATA EXPANSION

Frank Bouldin wat out for ten days with the flu, but is Finally getting over the last vestages of it. He also had a house guest for a while, his niece from Los Angeles. She wanted to go with Frank to one of those Friday luncheons where, according to Frank, the old “fogeys” get together and talk computers and flving. Flabbergasted, Frank took her and she really enjoyed herself. She is quite intelligent and was able to *hold® her own in the conversations. He has been spending about an hour a day with the satellite hook-up. He has also been keeping up a long-distance conversation with his brother-in-law, a priest, in St. Louis using StarText. His brother-in-law still is having trouble with his Tandy 1000. He cannot aet the backspace key to work while he is on StarText. He might be typing a message, make an error, and cannot backup to erase it. StarText says it is Tandy and Tandy says it is SterText. Chuck suggested that he et a printout of all his keys using the SHOW.ALL keyword. If that-was no help, try using the SHOW.CODE keyword. This allows mgto press a key and see what the ASCII code for that key. If it-is the right one, then there is a configuration problem. If*it~is not, then you can change it to the proper code. PR, dae

i À WEBER rt

Chuck has not been doina a great deal with his computers. He is using them at werk, but has not been doing anything spectacular. He has been doing some downloading from many boards around the area. One that he has gotten a good bit of freeware from is-the FWKUG MBB? & PSDE. Frank said that he has not done any downloading 3s vet, but will probably start checking it out to see what kind of scftware is. available.

I -have been downloading some software myself from the Kaypro board, but mine has been CP/M and not M5-093, I have quite a collection of Free software now, but some of it is not auite as useful as I expected it to be. Many times the programs require that other prceagrams be present to work, like dBASE II. Imay have to break down and write to Aston-Tate, MicroSoft and a-few others to see if they still have some of these programs available in a Morrow format and what is the price. I also had to thank Chuck again for-his help with the OQVERLOADEP 1.2 Program. It-seems amazing to me that someone can cive me so much help with a system that he does not have. Now with my new-found knowledge, I have been changing numerous Timex commercial Programs to work on the disk system. I also brought a number of the new newsletters for- anyone to see and read. I did run ints a new problem that I csanhot figure out as yet. When I’ format a new disk, the system asks what type of system - Timex, Spectrum, or RP/M. I “switched the toggle in the back to Spectrum and turned on the computer. The Sinclair sign came an, but the keyboard was locked ur tight. I°hope that I can Figure out what is wrong. I tried typing in a few other eregrams for the Timex. but was having a terrible-time in getting them to work properl.. It is time to start “debugging” again. This did net take long. but we took a short break before we came back to talk about the Future of the newsletter: and the user group.

We came back to quickly talk about the newsletter and the dues. We were running out of money, and with few naw members

à THE O-FW DATA EXPANSION

coming in, there had to be a change. The cost of printing was too high. This was met by deleting many people that were getting complimentary issues and other user groups that were not giving as good as they were getting in return. I then checked out the cost of going back to Keroxing instead of using the school print shop. Now we are going to be back to where we should be on price. This will help greatly. We also talked about beginning to meet at each others houses, again or possibl: for lunch somewhere and have the meetings there. We all agreed that it would be a nice change. We broke up the meeting a little earlier than usual. :

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AMSTRAD GETTING STRONGER

When I picked up the MARCH 1988 issue of the COMPUTER SHOPPER from my mailbox, What did I see on the cover but the new AMSTRAD PC 1640 snd a banner proclaiming "SIF CLIVE RETURNS WITH NEW LAPTOP. Of course, the first thing I resd was the review of the Anstrad 1640. Reviewer Rich Fields was, on the whole, very pleased with the new Amstrad model. He was a little down on the monitor - you still) can only use the one provided by Amstrad and a lot doun on the user's manual, but he did give good comments to many of the other things about one of the newest computers in the Amstrad line.

I then began to glance through the magazine on my way to reading about the new 788 laptop computer. Un my way to the review I saw a number of advertisements for the Amstrad 1512S0M and 1512SDC and the Amstrad PPCS40 ‘Laptop’ computer from Computer Warehouse in Augusta, Georgia. It seems that Alan Sugar of Amstrad is beginning to get to the American public in a big Way.

The Amstrad 1640HD uses a more powerful version of the 8086 "PU, a true 16-bit chip running at 8MHz, and has the full omeliment of 640K RAM. It even has a socket for an 8087 math s-processor to be installed. A very exceptional unit that pasures up quite well on benchmarks against other like clones. t also costs less. The Amstrad PPC640 has 2-3.5 in 720K drives, 2400 baud modem, Super twist screen, three power modes, a. 10i-kew enhanced keyboard, and much more. I, personally, believe that these new computers will catch on here in the US relatively fast, just keep your eyes open and see! nee ia np EM MHERNRRER EHH BREMNER AISNE ER RMT PTR BERBER EM LR

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ASK CHUCK By Chuck Dawson

QUESTION: I know about the HEX$ function in GWBASIC, which returns the hex value of a decimal argument. But what about going the other way? I want to start out with a hex value and and ug with decimal. There is no DECS function, is there?

ANSLIER: No, there isn’t, but there 15 an 285. way to do the same thing. Let's assume your hex value is in A$. Then Clecimal=VAL( RH’ rAd) This concatenates (add strings) the symbols

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THE D-FW DATA EXPANSION S

"RH" and the contents of AS (for example, 2C) which would yield "SH2C". Now. taking the VAL of this string gives the decimal value.

QUESTION: From within a BASICA program, I want to use the SHELL command to execute a COS command. When I run the rrogram, however, it does not work. I have checked the proaram over and aver but cannot find any problem. Have you ever had the SHELL command fail?

ANSWER: It should not fail if there are no progam errors and a copy of COMMAND.COM is available in the current directory for loading. This second copy of COMMAND.COM (the first is the one loaded at boot-up) is necessary and if not found, will cause the

command to fail. If you are operating from floppy drives, just copy COMMAND.COM to your BASICA Cor GWBASIC) disk and try the program again. If you are operating from a hard disk, copying

COMMAND.COM to the current directory will work, or just use the PATH command to tell the system where to look for COMMAND.COM if it is not found in the current directory.

QUESTION: I have a eregram that was written in BASICA and I want to run it using GWBASIC. It stops with an error at a BEEP command. Can I do anything other than deleting the line?

ANSWER: GWBASIC does not use the BEEP command. However, substituting PRINT CHPS$(7) will give the same results.

QUESTION: I always get nervous when using the DEL command. especially when using a wild card. I am afraid I will delete more than I intended. Any suggestions?

ANSWER: Yes, this trick will let you have a “dry run’ to see what files will be affected before you actually delete. Let's Say you want to delete all files that end in DOC so you first enter DIR *.DOC to ses the list of files. If it looks OK and you want to proceed, just enter DEL *.DOC and those files you just looked at will be deleted.

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MBASIC TIPS By David Haldeman Reproduced from the Cincinnati Osborne Group’ s newsletter, CUGWheels

Here are two hints and tuo routines which you might find useful.

HINT #1: If you need to print a whole line of one character, use ae STRINGS function. It saves a lot of typing. It works like this:

If you want a whale line of asterisks (look it up in your ASCII table in the manual) which is ASCII code 42, just say (for

52 character screen display):

10 PRINT STRING$(52,42)

È THE D-FW DATA EXPANSION

where 52 means print 52 characters with the ASCII code 42. You can print anything you like.

If you want to seroll of the screen, instead of a whole string of PRINT statements, just issue a:

10 FRINT STRINGS( 24,10)

where 10 is the ASCII character for a line feed. You can use it for anything, and it can be used in a graphics mode if you want fancy screen decorations. (Character 127 is especially nice as

a shady character on some computers. )

HINT #2: Avoid using the CLEAR statement within a GOSUB routine. The statement will clear memory so well that the computer will forget where it is supposed to RETURN to!

CLEAR should be used with caution.

MAILBAG-EDITOR’S MAIL

; I received some interesting thinas in the mailbag this week. I have been on the Kaypro board keeping in contact with our old friend Charles Stelding and Ed Grey. I had asked Charles if the AERCO system would really READ a Morrow MD3 format as it is advertised to do. It is nice to have someone who has alreay been through this. Ed Grey has been ‘missing’ from the mailbag for a while, but he brings some interesting news. I also answered a message about dBASE II and some books that I had seen st Lolir #5, here in Fort Worth. The answer I got back was from Norman Peavy and Jim Coburn. Jim, in particular, was the originator of the message. I also suggested to him, since he was working a DOS version of dBASE III+ that he might like to try one of the fieldiess databases, Findex or DataFax. His reply was interesting. I would like to see his program at work.

CICICICICICICICI

Mag#:; 174 Date: 02/26/83

From: CHARLES STELOING (Private) To: DAVID BAULCH Fe: MORROW MOS OISKS

David,

Yas, Morrow MD3 disks will work but you must do something to add the system disk to each disk so that it will boot up. At the moment I can t remember the proper procedure. It has been quite a while since I have used the system. 1°11 look it up and let you know.

Thanks for the message!

CICILILIEILIC ICS

Msg#: 180 Date: 02/26/83 From: ED GREY (Private)

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: DAVID BAULECH Re: PRESS RELEASE

Hello David,

I hope that all is well with you. I have uploaded a press release (in the T/S file area) for your publication. It is called PRESS.WS. Take care.

Ed Grey

P.S. Hmm, I almost forgot, I have my own BBS up and running now. It is called Grey Matter BBS & RCP/M (213-971-6260). Naturally there is T/S file section.

CICICICICICICICI

Msa#: 181 Date: 02/26/88

From: JIM COBURN a of To: DAVID BAULCH a : Re: OBASE II eet

I“ve been using Conder DBMS for 5+ yrs with no problems since I” can write interstructered programs from within Condor with Menu’s that append to other components or programs ‘user written) from-Condor. Plus it has the ability to create data Files in 5+-formats for transfer to w/star or supercalc and reversed also. Their Nas version is nice since you get a 2nd page of ‘fields to aleo create. The program never caught on in Texas because of lack of representation by Condor but the Government uses the program tremendously because cf its flexibility. There are about 28 separate commands i.e append , _ Join, sort, define ue to 32 fields, calculate, write ASCII files on sorted fields, delete etc: Would be nice to have a Dos based ` machine but I never found any reasons to switch. Once wrote a complete program for my ex that had 28 menus, 10 choices per menu that automatically brought up 280 proms with 42 fields and the list: goes on. inter language is: English. 3 HEHEHE HK HK HE HME HK HIN HH LIK KKH KE KKH HHA HK HY AR KKK KRY KHHKE

JRT FASCAL-FINALLY> A PROGRAM By David Baulch

When writing in Pascal, you should use what is called the. *top-down" design method using modular building blacks. The top-down method is building your programs in modules using levels of work. It is difficult to explain, but the method looks something like this: k a (1) Analyze the problem (2) Write the main module (3) Write the remaining modules (4) Resequence and revise as necessary

So, following the proscribed plan, the first thing we need to do is to understand what we want to accomplish. Whe must know what i3 given - the input, and what is required - the output. List any assumptions that vou might have and, from all of this

& THE D-FU DATA EXPANSION

information, develop an overall algorithm. When this is accomplished, begin writing as "English" code for your main module. This will eventually be translated into Pascal. If this module 15 longer than fifteen statements, go back and try again. You are at a level too low to write a competent main module. There is no law stating how many levels you must have, but a good ‘rule of thumb" is to start with a main module of fifteen ar less statements. If the main module can be refined later providing more clarity and finer details, do so, but at a later time. This is modular programming where you can change the module without haviing to re-write the entire program.

Mow that we have something to work from, we need to figure out a program to urite. Being a high school teacher, the most valuable program. to me, is the T/S GRADER program by Robert Fischer. I have modified his program, somewhat, to run on a disk system using a dual’ save making one a back-up copy. I added the 80 column printer driver, and all works quite well. However, ther are certain things I want it todo, but ther is no room in the code. Even if I were to use disk access for each class, this taking more time than the original, I could have the program do more and contain more information PLUS a full BO column printout without using a COPY statement as-in the Timex version. This seems to be a perfect candidate for a Pascal program. .

The first thing that the program needs is a menu module that will tell all of the thinas that the program will do. One of the things it needs to do is to actually start by writing classes. I think it would be a good idea to have-a sort module to alphabetize the names, but that can come later. It would be mice if it would ‘weight’ certain grades, have a ‘search’ mode, and a number of other things that I believe would be handy. Well, figuring out exactly what I want in the first module may

not be so easy after all. Maybe I should follow the procedure like I am suppose to and write down input and output. This may take some time. Well, we have enough to start with so next time I guess I will begin figuring out the actual MENU section which will be the MAIN MODULE of the program. From that module I should be able to figure out all the other modules that will be necessary for the conversions to grades, the names and classes, the weighting of the grades, a quick sort, an alphabetical arrangement, etc. You get the idea. If any of you get any more ideas, please send them to me. I might like to add them in, just add in another module and quickly re-do the MAIN MODULE.

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T5/1000 VERIFY By David Nowotnik From Nov/Dec 87 RAMTOP of Greater Cleveland

With only SK of ROM in the TS/1000 it’s little wonder that it hasn't a verify command. This little program will] take care of that omission.

This routine is based on the LOAD routine in ROM. The change is when a byte is read off the tape. Instead of putting

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THE D-FW DATA EXPANSION 7

the byte into the approprite place in RAM, it is compared with the current byte at that address. If their is not a match, then the routine exits with an error message (R70).

If all bytes match and the verification was successful, with mo mismatch, then the 0/0 message will be returned at the end of the routine.

First, enter this machine code loading routine, with 135 spaces or characters in the REM statement.

10 REM ease... (135 SPACES) cols 20 LET X=16514 ie

20 INPUT As: bas sa

40 IF AS="S* THEN STOP“

50 LET J=16*(CODE A8-28)4CODE A$(2)-28 © 60 IF PEEK X=27 THEN POKE X,J

70 LET X=X+1 eS

p

80 GO TO 30 i oe

Next, RUN the program and enter these HEX digits:

CD 22°OF737"11 00 00 CB 12 CB OA CD 10 7C 18 FB OE 01 06 00 3E TF DB FE D3 FF 1F 30 49 17 17 33 28 10 F1 Fi BA D2 7A 7C 62 éB CD 10 7C CB 7A 79 20 03 BE 20-D6 23 17 30 F1 FD 34 15 21 07:40 50°CD 10°7f 00 CD 6C 7C 19°F6 DS 1E 94-06 1A°1D DB FE 17 CB>7B 78 38 F5 10 F5 D1 20 0J FE:56 30 B2 3F CB 11 30 AD C?°7A"A7 28 BB CF OC EB 21 7C 40°37 ED'52 30 06 1A B9 28 a 02 CF"1A.13°2A-14 40 37 ED 52 Bp ike. T EB 00: Soa ae

©- Now the routine is-in- the long REM statement, and you can

20 LER X=16514 ih ee 30 FOR I1=31744 TO 31878

40 POKE 1,PEEK x

50 LET X=X+1 Oe re 60 NEXT | ; eas 70 NEW SPER PRR

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To use the VERIFY routine, it must be loaded into your TS5/1000, above RAM-TOP, before any other program. First, lower RAM-TOP with these three-direct: commands:

POKE 16388,123 -- ENTER POKE 16389,255 -- ENTER

Mow you may LOAD and RUN your VERFIY routine.

10 THE (i-FW DATA EXPANSION

You now can type in your BASIC program. When you are ready to SAVE it, just SAVE it to tape as you would normally SAVE it. Ts VERIFY, rewind the tape to the start of the program, .and type in, in direct command:

FANG USR 31744 And press play on your recorder and ENTER on your computer.

If you saved the program with variables, the CLEARed them before verifying, or changed the variables in any way, then you may get a verify error (R70). Otherwise, if all is well, you'll get an 0/0 messaye to tell you that your program has been VERIFIED.

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THE Z280 CHIP By Hichael Rulison ?eproduced from the ROCC (Raleigh Other Computer Club) newsletter

CP/M is dead; long live CP/M.

Just as the funeral peroration for CP/M was fading in our ears, ther came a small jubliant horn toot out ot the south-west and west (Dallas and Loas Altos) reporting sightings of unusual news from Winnipeg about products from Redding and CAmbell (Californias, you all!). ;

To wit: Zilog, Inc., has (will?) release(d) the Z280 chip: a super extension of the Z830, 40+ new instructions, clock rates exceeding 10 megaherts, 16 Megabytes of memory space addressable, 8-bit Z80 bus or 15-bit Zilog Z-bus. A true 16-bit chip, but runs Z80 code.

This chip is the basis of the Ultraboard retrofit for the Kaypro Z80 CP/M systems (1, 2-64, 4-B4, 2X, 1U) that provides 1-16 Mbytes of RAM, 12 Mhz instead of 4 Mhz clock speed, RAM disk partition, cache memory for approximately 256 bytes of recently-used instructions or data, and many other features of a technical nature.

The Ultraboard includes a new screen driver to keep up with the 7280, and RGB connector for external color monitor and 1 meg of ROM capacity, and HANDYMAN, a desk top utility. Ultraboard will support multi-tasking and networking -~ when an appropriate operating system 15 developed. Price should be about $500.

Although some of the above may be vaporware, if it proves correct, the Z280 may make a CP/M machine comparable to an xT clone. Certainly something to cogitate on!

Ultraboard: High Tech Research, 1135 Pine St., #107, Redding CA 96001, 800/446-3220 (outside CA).

7280: Messrs: Magill, Davies, or Hampton, Product and Technical Marketing, Zilog, Ince, 210 Hacienda Ave. Campbell CA

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95008, 408/370-8000 or 5164.

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CONVERSATION-MAIL BAG - David Baulch/Chuck Dawson

I read the "new" ASK CHUCK column for this month. I was curious about the DEL.EXE or ERA.EXE which is similar to my DEL.COM and ERA. I. tro can call up only certain files on the directory if I ask for those. Then I can erase them all at one time, or one at a time if there are programs that I wish to keep among those I wish to delete. However, in one particular program that I use, albeit infrequently. I can also DELETE a number of programs, but I can ajd an extra command in using it to request that I confirm each deletion before the system actually deletes that particular file. If I da not place that extra command when I call the program, it will delete or erase all those programs. This can be a mixed blessing. If it always did this, the program would take too long to function properly for speed. Since I can add it if-necessary, it is a boon for dispensing with unnecessary files. Chuck sent me his answer, but also gave me some intereesting information about the Timex version for the Zebra FDO that I was not familiar with.

Date: 2/19/88 Time: 12:21 PM From: Chuck Dawson -- Mail Code: 4579

David,

In MS-DOS, vou cən use “ERASE’ or "DEL" interchangably. I Just use DEL because it is less letters to type. No, in MS-DOS you do not get a-chance to look at each one before it is erased. In Timex Operating System, you can. Guess it is better. CIF you would like to hear about more of the differences between MS-DOS and CP/M and how they match up with the Timex systems-either the Zebra FDD (Chuck’s system) or the AERCO (my system) please let me know and we will be glad to oblige.J FETE EEG 2 HE SEE HE EH GEE Ee EEE EEK KE KK EEK ELE EE EKER REESE KEKE

FURTHER REALIZATIONS ABOUT CP/M

During this month I have, upon occasion, found myself coming across some problems and not being able to figure them out. But, little by little, I am using my computer and learning a bit more about using the CP/M disk system. I had asked Charles Stelding and Chuck Dawson about how you go adding the system tracks to the PD softusre that you receive. I had to wait for an answer, but before I received it, I had figured it out myself - by reading the FILES.COC that comes with the boat disk. The reason that I thought about it. one of the articles in the new FOGHORN for CP/M was shout a guy that did the exact same thing that I would have done. Placed the software in the computer and tried to boot it. Without the system image on the disk, this would not be possible.

t2 THE O-FW DATA EXPANSION

CP/M people use SYSGEN.COM, which I do not have. But I do have two other programs, (1) GETSYS.COM and (2) PUTSYS.COM. You naed to use the BGETSYS first, bringing up the "system image’ from the A drive (usually) into the TPA. Now that the "image" is there, call the FUTSYS to place it on the appropriate disk in the seecified drive, in my case, the B drive. Now that I had figured it out, | formatted a disk and left off the system tracks - on purpose! J] used NWSP.COM, a program I have mentioned before (love that program!), and placed a large number of files on that disk. Then I went through the above procedure, reset the system, and attempted to boot the new disk. No problem!

Little by little, I am learning the subtleties of operating in CP/M,.a fascinating operating system. I am going to attempt to ‘modify’ the operating system with a program called Z8000S that ‘improves* the BDOS and I/0. I think I can afford ‘one’ disk to ‘trash" if I find out that this will not work. I do not agree with a number of other people that shall remain nameless, that CP/M is not only dead, but it should never have been born in the first place. Just because it is not graphics intensive does not mean it is worthless. For a graphics machine, M5-D0S is probably better, but for me - CP/M is just fine. :

ERK RR RRR KERR RRR KERR RK RRR RRR KHER RK EK KR RE RE KE RK EK RK RR KERR ER ERE

Ed Grey Enterprises P.O. Box #2186 Inglewood, CA 370305 (213) 759-7406 voice Grey Matter BBS (213) 971-6260 '

Press Release: February, 1983

The sales and service formally offered by Grey & Clifford COMPUTER PRODUCTS, to the Timex/SINCLAIR community, is going to continue under the name of Ed Grey Enterprises. Not much will change, except there is a new BBS online to support our customers. The Grey Matter BBS & RCP/M (213-971-6260) started on January 24, 1988. It operates 24 hours a day, 8 data bits/ 1 STOP bit’ no parity, and it runs at 300/1200 and 2400 bps. Dave Clifford's TIME-=xX=-CHANGE will continue to be online, but orders and request for sales information should now be directed to the Grey Matter BBS: (phone number and mailing address have not changed). Although I hope to expand the product line with new and innovative Timex products, I will also offer many non-Timex specific products. Catalogs are FREE, just ask by any af the methods mentioned above.

GNNOUMCING.....The Z-51/0 Bare Board Package:

The Z-51/0 FS-232c Serial Interface Card has been recognized as the best R5-232 I/F available for your T/S$2068 computer. The assembled and tested version of the 7-SI/0 card was priced at $77.00, and although well worth that price, many vere reluctant to spend that amount for the product. Now, Ed Grey Enterprises mas a Z-SI/O Bare Board Package that includes the 2 needed boards plus complete (step by step) assembly instructions. This package will allow you to construct your

= 7

Sm ee ome. mies. mo 0 cp erenmeenomnnee

THE O-FU DATA EXPANSION 13

Z-SI/0 as either a STOCK, JLO or AEREO version card. Most of the parts needed for contructing the card can be found sn a 2050 modem card, especially the expensive MOTOROLA modem and modem filter chips. While supplies last, a 2050 modem card will be included FREE with each purchase. The price for this Z-SI/0 Bare Board Package (with complete dacumentation and instructions) is $24.50 + $2.50 S&H. THE ASSEMBLED AND TESTED VERSION OF THE Z-SI/0O CARD IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

It seems that our announced release of the TMx-654 EBS software was a bit premature. Even though developement of this software continues, unexpected problems have delayed its completion. I have refunded all money (with my apology) to those who sent prepaid orders for TMX-64 EBS software. Send name and address if- you want to besadded ‘to the ‘inform when ready" list. . . ooog a PISO HK HK KH SHAH HK HK KH KKH HH KE HK HK HKHK KH HE KKK HEH KK HKG KEK FHKE KH EKER MEHR

atA Ml” DIRECTORY TRACK READER B¥sMichael C. Finn Vol.4,-No.1, TOM, pg. 11

The following program was written on an old model Zebra Disk Drive. Owners of the-newer FDD 3000 may wish to run this proram and report on the results. I don’t know whether there are any software differences:between the two models.

a

The disk drive controller formats the 3 inch disk into 40 tracks, numbered 0 to 39; each containing 4K bytes. Each track is subdivided into 16 sectors, numbered 0 to 15; each cantaining 1/QK or 256 bytes. The first four tracks (0 to 3) sre reserved for the operating system. Track 4 contains the directory. Tracks 3 through 39 contain the-files you saved to disk. When a disk is intially formatted, TOS sets up.40 tracks, writes a copy of TOS to tracks 0 through 3, palces the disk name in the first sector of track 4 and sets all unused bytes to OESh (229d).

The Zebra Disk Drive-Technical Manual remarks that the contents of the directory track can be read using the extended Basic command INPUT *#0. After some trial and error. I found a suitable method to read this track using a Basic program.

I numbered this program beginning with line 200. You may wish to merge this program with a utility program which reads disk headers. One such program-is Chuck Dawson's DISKREAD, which was published in Vol.1,.No.1, of the (now defunct) T.0.P.S. newsletter. DISKREAD, ora similar utility, could be used to obtain further details om the directory contents.

200 REM DIRECTORY READER By Mike Finn

205 PRINT AT 10,04 °SELECT PRINT OUT DEVICE :°°’’"'1 W SCREEN?” "2 PRINTER‘ T

208 INPUT LINE Z$: IF-Z$<*1* OR: Z$>"2" THEN 60 TO 208

210 LET Z=1+VAL Z$- Di

215 CLS ; CAT *- E

220 PRINT #Z°°'THIS PROGRAM WILL ITEMIZE THE ENTRIES ON TRACK 4 OF THE DISK.

14 THE D-FW DATA EXPANSION

225 FRINT #Z

230 INPUT ‘PRESS ENTER TO CONTINUE. °"; LINE BS: CLS

240 RESTORE *#N

300 FOR I=1 TO 128

310 FEM INPUT ~#0;AS;AT I

320 IF CODE A$(1)= 229 THEN PRINT #Z3°RECORD ‘'31;" IS EMPTY. ' GON TO 720

325 PRINT #Z°°PECORD: ‘31

sien #Z;"LEVEL: ";CODE AS(1);" °*;"DISK NAME* ANO (CODE A$=255)

340 PRINT #Z;'HAME: ";A$(2 TO 9)

350 LET A=CODE A$(10): IF A>=128 THEN LET A$(10)=CHR$ (A-128); PRINT #Z;TAB 6;’*PROTECTED CATALOG ENTRY’

360 LET A=CODE AS(11): IF A>=128 THEN LET A%S(11)=CHRS (A- 7428): PRINT #Z;TAB é; ' INVISIBLE CATALOG ENTRY”

370 PRINT #Z; "TYPE: ‘:AS(10 TO 12)

380 IF A$(10 TN 12)="DIR* THEN PRINT #Z° "THIS DIRECTORY CONTAINS ALL FILES AND SUBDIRECTORIES WITH LEVEL NUMBER *;CODE A$(17);".": GO TO 700

390 PRINT #Z; ‘EXTENS sION- #: *;CODE A$(13)

400 FRINT #Z;"EYTES LAST SECTOR: ";CODE A$(14)

430 LET S$=(255*CODE A$(15)+CODE A$(16))/2

420 PRINT HZ; "4 SECTORS WITH DATA: *3S~-

430 PRINT #Z; "BLOCK ALLOCATION: "

440 FOR J=17 TO 24 450 FRINT #Z;TAB 6;CODE AS$(J);TAB 16;CODE AS(J#8)

2460 NEXT J :

500 LET T=!S-1)*256+CODE AS(14)+(254 AND (CODE A$(14)=0)) 510 FRINT 4Z;"TOTAL FILE BYTES: ';T 520 LET AL=INT (S/4) í 530 LET A2=S-4*A1 590 PRINT HZ" UNUSED BYTES IN ALLOCATION: ';1024*(A1+(1 AND (A2<>0)))-T 600 LET A1=INT {CODE A$(17)/4)

610 LET TRACK=4+A1 620 LET AZ=CODE A$(17)-4*A1 630 IF A2=0 THEN LET A2=4 640 LET SECTOR=16-4%A2 l 650 PRINT #Z; "ALLOCATION BEGINS:°° TAB 6; "TRACK °3 TRACK; TAB 16s "SECTOR “;SECTOR - 700 INPUT "PRESS ENTER OR KEYWORD STOP °; LINE B$:. IF BS=CHRS 226 THEN GO TO €00 - 710 CLS 720 NEXT I B00 RESTORE *#0 310 STOP HELLER KKK EAE RS CREEK RL REEL ERE RRR EEK RLK ER REE RRR RE RRR RK RKRERRERE

MORE FROM THE EDITORS MAILBAG

These were inadvertantly left out from the original MAILBAG. I think they needed to be added in. I, again, am attempting to show many people how busy and informative the FWKUG MBBS & PSDE really is. When you have this type of a BBS in your area, I hiahly suggest that you patronize on a regular basis. These people, the SYSOP included, place a great deal of information and help at your disposal, all you need to do is

Oe SEA OT I OG OP AN SS Re eo

THE D-FW DATA EXPANSION 15

ASK?

Mse#: 196 Date: 03/02/88 From: JIM COBURN

To: DAVID BAULCH

Re: CONDOR

The only problem with programs written with condors inter language is that it only works with condor. The great festure is creating screens / menu’s./ helps /. The language is all in English, only 6 commands if/end/endif/etc. I was even able to get someone to enter in-their name/passyword to allow the program to run or else it aborts back-to DU? , I’m sure there is mucho stuff out there in DOS land, but who needs the price, never had any limits set on size of-files. Once had a database of invoices that was 122K and, yes, I automatically had a backup copy of anything I did. It only took one power surge back in 81 to teach me that one. ae

€ICICICICICICICI Msg#s 211 Date: 03/06/88 From: (CHARLES STELDING (Private) To: DAVID BAULCH — as oes Res MORROW FORMAT Po hee eas David, p e a

“SEMESTER eo :

To use the Morrow. formatted disk, the instructions are on the original boot disk. I can’t remember the exact instructions, but it should be there. If-not, I can send you a copy of the instructions. Good lucks Sounds like you are using the CP/M to the max! Lor omo

Saa - eair ESA Charles. Stelding “

(Luckily I figured out how to do this before I received Charles’

letter. All I had to do.was to-read the instructions that came

on the FILES.DOC. Next time I will READ first and A3K second.) CICICICICICICICI

Msg#: 212 Date: 03/07/88.

From: ED GREY To: DAVID BAULCH RET A. Re: PBBS

David,

I am running PBBS software on a TeleVideo TS80I3h. There are many PO BBS software packages available for CP/M, I’m sure one could be made to run on the AERCO RP/M system. Take care.

Ed Grey (I am highly tempted to try that myself, just for the fun of it. A real RCP/M BBS running from. an-AERCO dual-drive 2068 running RP/M. ) CREE A REE RS AROS OE bE

QL VAL STRING FUNCTION By Robert D. Hartung

16 THE O-FW DATA EXPANSION

Vol.d, No.2, TDM, Pg. 32

A Jona tim= ago I saw a note by Mike de Sosa on the Jack of the VAL sting finction on the QL. At the time Į didn’t have one, but witih the recent price cuts I’ve added a QL to my “home for orphan computers’. Although I ordered one with software and QL User Guide, it came sans manual (later received), so I was digging through all my old Sinclair mags for info when I ran across Mike’s comment again.

Mo doubt other users have found purely software approaches Since then. although I have found no one published ones in my non-QL specific mags except the one Mike gave which utilizes Microdrive commands. The problem seems to be that while SuperBASIC does correctly interpret the value of an expression discretely mega as a program line, for example:

LET a¢=2°73*PI or LET a=2*2*PI/C

It seems to “see” only the first item (2) jf the same expression is entered in response to INPUT a:

LET a$=a: FRINT a$/C

While it is a clumsy substitute for what can be done so routinely with “lowly* TS1000/2068 BASIC, the following process will give the correct output for an expression entered as the definition of either a numeric variable or as a string variable definition without quotes or asterisks::

10 expr=0: REM or expr$=0

20 WHEN ERROR

20 FETRY

40 END WHEN

50 CLS: CLS #0: PRINT “expr = “sexpr: PRINT "Enter expression, the r for result‘: EFIT 10: STOP

60 DEFine PROCedure r

TO RUN

R80 END DEFine r RAM HA RRA RRR KL K SEHK RK KAKA KKK ER KEK ERKEKERKEK ERK EKEREEKEESEERESS

RP/M UTILITIES RPMPIP -CONTINUED

Archive Made

The "4° parameter puts RPMPIP into archive mode. For example,

RPMPIP C:=B6:*.ASMCAI will copy from the disk in drive B all .ASM files that have their archive attribute bit t3’ reset to zero. After such source

file is copied, the t3° attribute bit in the source file directory entry is set (1) to mark the file ‘archived.’

ar ne ee ee eee

| | | !

THE D-Fld DATA EXPANSION i?

In archive mode occurence of a full output disk receives special treatment. First, the output file is closed. Then the output file is renamed to indicate that it is only a portion of a file that must be divided onto two or more dismountable disks. After closing the output file, RPMPIP logs out the output drive, then asks for a fresh disk and continues the copy operation on the new disk. The renaming procedure is best illustrated by example. If the output disc becomes full while copying the File named SIMRAM.ASM, the output file is renamed SLMRAHU1.ASH. The remainder of the file will be copied onto the new disc under the name SLMRA#02.ASM. This process may continue onto yet another disk under the name SLMRA#03.ASM, and so on, for as many output disks as required to copy all of the source file SLMRAM.ASM.

Archive Reload

Assuming that the example file SLMRAM.ASM was archived onto two floppy disks under the file names SLMRA#0L.ASM and SLMRA#D2.ASM, the command to reload the file, and thereby restore the file to the original state, would be

RPMPIP B:=SLMRAM.ASM=C !SLMRA#*.ASMCR2]

The 'R° parameter is followed by a decimal value stating the number of input files to be concatenated. When the end- of-information is reached on the file SLMTA#01.A5M, the program will ask for the disk containing the file SLMPAHG2. ASM. This File concatenation process will continue for the number of disks stated in the R parameter.

Archive All

The "B* parameter may be used to force all matching files to be archive copied regardless of the state of the archive attribute bit t3° in the source.file directory entry. For example

RPMPIP C;=B:*.ASMCABI

will copy all .ASM files whether or not previously archived. Interactive selection of files to be archived may be achived by adding a ‘C‘* parameter,

RPMPIP C:=B:*.ASMCABC)

ph program will ask for the confirmation before pracessing each File. :

Concatenation

Files may be concatenated, or chained end-to-end, by a command such as

RPMPIP SLM.ASM=SLMMVM.ASM,B:LIB.ASM,C:DSD.ASM

which will combine three source files into one output file. Parameters may be imbedded in the source list. For example, the

2 ae Beene oes. ene ene e

13 THE D-FW DATA EXPANSION

command RPMPIP T85.HEX=T3SMOV.HEX[1:00 control ZJ, T8SAWT.HEX

will concatenate two intel format .HEX files and remove from the first file all the zero length records.

Ignere Strings fuss

The general form of the ‘I* parameter is Is where s isza character strina ending in control-Z. The-program will omit all characters starting with each occurence:of the string s and extending through the next end-of line (cr,1f),

Delete Columns

The 'D' parameter may be used to extract a stated midportion of each line of an Ascii file. For example, RPMPIP COL3.TMP=REPORT.PRNCD35-45). 0 ssu- will copy eleven characters starting at character position 35 From each line of the file REPORT.PRN. The two decimal values seperated by ‘'-* following the D parameter designate the starting and ending character positions. When only one decimal value follows the D parameter it designates the ending character position. For example, pato RE oT

arapi OEP EAT

PPMPIFP CHOP. TMP=REPORT.PRNCD40) < rence znos

will truncate all lines to 4&0 characters. Console Echo aari ~

The 'E' parameter will cause transferred data to be echoed to the console display "u BES BEE

PMT el PST

Delete Formfeeds SBS > i

The ‘FS parameter causes formfeeds. to be omitted from the owtput. eer, f For example, the command eye PPMPIP CHOP. TMP=REPORT.PRNCD4OEF]

will truncate lines to 40 characters, ignore formfeeds, and echo to the console all data transferred to the output file.

Upper and Lower Case Translation

The 'L' parameter causes all alphabetic characters to be translated to lower case. The "U* parameter causes all characters to be translated to upper case. If both sre stated,

parameter L prevails.

Clear Parity

ee oe ee te re

| : |

Mainai inay w

THE D-FiJ DATA EXPANSION 1?

The 'Z' parameter clears the parity, or high rder, bit of each character copied.

Line Numbers

The ‘N‘ parameter may be used to prefix a line number to each line of an Ascii file.

Object Code

When the filetype of the file being copied is .COM all line editing operations are disabled. Line editing operations can be disabled for any File. by-using the *O° parameter. In the absence of an O parameter while copying a file that is not file type- .COM, data transfer will terminate at the first: control-Z (1A hex) encountered.

Start and Quit Strings © 27°

The start °S° parameter and the quit °Q* parameter may be used to extract a portion of an Ascii file. For example.

RPMPIP MMC.TMP=LIB.ASMCSMMC control ZQCCO control Z]

will copy all data starting at-the first occurence of-the string "HMC" to, but not through, the next occurence of the string ‘CCO’. In order to process lower case characters in start and quit strings, RPHPIP must be-called in console mode.

BON pee

Console Mode

When RPMPIP is called without arguments it comes up in console mode and displays "*° to prompt for input cf an argument string. Case folding does not: ‘occur in console mode, so the command “sequence “3 Š

RPMPIP mit *xMMC.TMP=LIB.ASMLESMove control aeut: control Z1

may be used to extract all text from ‘Move’ to out." Verify Disk Copy

Verification of a disk copy is invoked by the "V° parameter. For example,

RPMPIP C:=B:CHART.*CVI

will transfer all files matching the ambiguous prototype and

“will verify each copy by reading back the data written to disk.

Printer

Destination device names LST: and PRN: may be used to cause the program to copy a file to the list device. For example,

RPMPIP FPRN:=HELLO.PRN

NT Tt: LORS OTTO ED SNES TET E a TLCS IG ee NO RAMI Ea

29 THE D-FW DATA EXPANSION

is equivalent to RPMPIP LST:=HELLO.PRNONTSP4S0)

Lines will be numbered, tabs will be expanded spaced 8, and a formfesd will bə emitted after each 60 lines. The command

RPMPIP LST:=HELLO.PRN lists the file verbatim with tab characters ignored. Fage Skip

The "P" parameter may include a page skip value. For example.

RPMPIP PRN:=HELLO.PRNCEP60-3) will set page size to 60 lines and begin printing at page. 3.. Console j i -

The consols device CON: may be either a destination device or a source device. For example,

RPMPIF CON:=HELLID.ASM will display the file name on the console.

Text files may be created by using CON; as a source device Following the command ;

RPMPIF MAILADR. TMP=CON:

the program will display thew character ‘_* to prompt for text

lines from the console keyboard. Entry of control-Z will end input and the program will then write the data to disk. Compare Files

Two disk files may be compared by a command such as PPMPIF O:LEDGER.BAS::C:LEDGER.BAS

The general form of the compare command is FPMPIF filel :: file2

Compare operations involve no writing, The two Files are read and compared byte-for-byte. If the two files are identical, the program will so state; otherwise the message

Files MISMATCH

will be issued to the console. The E parameter causes mismatching records to be echoed to the console in both hex and

-=.= e o o

maenda noni SS dhe i aa Di a a Se. aee a ere teammate sate SE wat daa aae ma nae e

nen EE EOE Leeann os oe

annetama nent pr enn ana aa

THE D-FU DATA EXPANSION 21

Ascii. The B parameter, when used with the 'E’ parsmeter, causes all records to be echoed to the console.

CATXRF Rev. 1.2 by Simon J. Ewinss 676 Driole- Parkway, Toronto, Ontario. Phone: (416) 484-9427 >> Voice (415) 484-9663 >> Data (occasionally)

Features of Rev. 1.23 oooO I SREL

rabh.

*-Handles up to 2000 MAST<CAT ‘entries.

-Handles any number of- file extension types. -Under 6K-in-size. eee See ‘Printer on/off option. wee ees

‘Choice of 3 or 6 columns.

Choice of normal/condensed type-with Epson MX-380.

Up to 9 space margin ons nna ceny printouts.

Assembler , source code.

Will run as-is! on most Z80 ie voteusn

: Will run ‘as-is* on ALL.Osbornes.

®-Optional disk file routing. >

* °S toggle of printout to-start/stop.

x Uses currently logged drive.

® Auto-sequence to print-sorted:listings for all three options.

CATXRF will sort by:

MOOR MOOK

i: Disk number. mL, 2: File name. 3: File extension.

All three are internally alphabetized. The disk numbers sre extracted from. the .FRE. files generated by the NCAT program at the head of the HAST.CAT file.

The listing is sent to the screen and the printer at the same time plus, if so desired, the option of sending the listing to a-disk file is available.

A fourth option allows printing ‘of ‘all three above, without user intervention.

The program skips the (fn.typ) at: the head of the MAST.CAT file thereby including ALL files in-MAST.CAT in the print-outs. The ++++++,FRE files are also sorted and printed to give the user a record of how much space is_free on each disk.

The printout of each record isas so:

Filename.ext—###

where ### is the disk number. It is necessary that the number of the disk be in the form:

iS o T OF PeT eae ION MRR BF t

22 THE O-FW DATA EXPANSION

—xexxnciex. HRA I catalog my disks as: -CTLG.OQ1 etc.

I s5 important to note that if you select a 6 column printout the screen will get rather messy looking since each column is 16 c acters with 2 spaces seperating the columns. This means that a © column printout is 106 characters wide (+ up to 9 for left margin = 115). 2 column printouts are 52 characters wide (+ up

to 9 for left margin =62).

If you have a 132 character wide printer then the 6 column option will look Fine in the ‘normal’ mode, If not, then you had better choose the 3 column option.

The “condensed” option sends the Epson MX-80 the codes to put it into the condensed mode before printing begins. J] find that the 2 column condensed option produces printouts that make fine disk-jacket labels when sorting by disk number.

The O: option in the printer menu is provided for those occasions when the printer may be unavailable. If a printer is NOT connected the program will “hang” so use the 0: option.

The option of sendinga the printout to a diskfile will open:a file on the currently logged drive called CATALOG.XRF.:A formatted copy of the printout is sent to this file.

The screen will echo ALL printouts regardless of other routing selections. .

This program uses Richard Conn’s SYLIB.REL library (Rev. 2.1) and the Microsoft M80 macro assembler. CATXRF is written in Zilog Z80 mnemonics. Some minor reworking will be needed in order to get it to run on an 8080 based machine.

This program was written on an Usborne-1 OD 80 column computer. The decision has been made to assume 80 columns, however, there are tuo printer options:

1. 6 or 3 calumns 2. Normal or Condensed type

Qption #2 is for Epson MX-30 printers. If you are using another type of printer the codes used in this program may do strange things to your printer.

The clear-screen & form-routines may be patched to include your terminal’s character codes for clearing, and your printer’s. for form-feed. Starting at location 0105H are the 5 data bytes svailable to you for the clear function and 4 bytes for the form Function.

As written the sequence is for the Osborne-1 which uses ASCII 26 for clearing the screen, and an Epson MX-80 which uses 12 for form feed.

nT ar el eee ats |

are een penne meron

©

an.

i 1 ł H i t $

THE D-FiJ DATA EXPANSION Z3

So the sequence looks like:

0105 14 \

0106 üQ N

0107 00 > These 5 bytes for Clear-sereen codeis.. 0108 00 /

0109 GO 7

010A ---> MUST be left as OFFH

0108 GB N

010C 00 `\ These 4 bytes: for Form-feed code(s). 010D 00 vA

010E GO 7

010F ---> MUST be left as OFFH

If the .MAC file isn’t available to you or you do rot have M80 you can use ODT.COM to change these bytes followed by a save of- the appropriate number of pages as CATXRF1i2.COM. (The number of > pages is calculated by taking the number marked as HEXT when DOT first says hello and subtracting 100h from it. Divide the result by 256 and there's the number of pages to save.)

CThis program has come in extremely handy for finding out what: I have- -on each one of my disks. As stated, using the ‘condensed’ option for my printer gives a veeasier program to se for the CP/M than the catalog mode of the Customized MSCRIFT. I have to. do a great deal of extra work and typing to get the same thing. that this program provides. One of-these days, I may attempt to- ‘convert’ this to the Timex version for disk systems. That may take a while, but with a little luck, I may attempt it later this year. - David]

HEH EK KARR KER KR © KHER HK RAR KH E E E E E E E E A E RK RRR RRR DR EEE A RR EK EEE

BENCHMARK From DATSN, JAN/FEB 1988

In the days of David AhI’s Creative Computina, they occasionally published a test of computation speed and accruacy. The algorithm is repeated here in Sinclair Basic. Timex/Sinclair computers are not speed demons, but they are not baci as number crunchers.

10 REM AHL“S SIMPLE BENCHMARK 20 FOR N=1 TO 100: LET A=N

30 FOR I=1 TO 10 . 40 LET A=SQR(A): LET R=R+RND

50 NEXT I

60 FOR I=1 TO 10

rO LET A=A*2: LET R=R+RND

80 NEXT I

90 LET S=S+A: NEXT N

100 PRINT ABS(1010-S/5)

110 PRINT ABS(1000-R)

The above program was modified by using the fast integer for-next loop of the 2.41 version of John Oliger’s disk system. The SAFE loop was used on the two inner loops. Alternate code is encouraged for comparison.

A AOE eh AER FRG CR tne CARE Rie DAD TED. PE PETS bi Ss AL Qs oF

a ad a d araa oa a Aiaia arsaa te <- “7

24 THE D-FW DATA EXPANSION

10 LET L=N

15 LET x=1: LET R=0: LET §=0 18 FOR x=1 TO 100: LET A=X 20 FOR “1 JO 19

20 LET A=5QR(A): LET R=R+RND 40 NEXT

50 FOR “1 TO ID

60 LET A=A*A: LET P=R+RND

TO NEXT

80 LET S=5+A: NEXT x

ed PRINT ABSC1010-S/5)

100 FRINT ABSC1LNOO-R)

The followina chart shows comparison with other computers:

COMPUTER TIME ACCURACY Cray 1 0:00.01 -0000000014 IBM PC 0:24 -01159668 Kaypro I] 1:36 ¿187805 Commodore 64 i353 -0010414 Apple Ile 135.53 -0010414 Timexs Sinclair ‘2068) 2:48 (JLO) -0004131794 TS 1000 (FAST) 2:53 00041294 TI 9974A 3:46 .00000011 Sinclair Z¥31 4:23 -00066852 Sinclair Spectrum 433? . 00066852 Tandy Model 100 4:54 . 0000002058 TS 1000 (SLOW) 16:55 -0004127408

In the acciracy measure, the smaller the better; likewise with time. I'd like to see how the QL and 788 would fare. Ascordina to JLU, a 2068 computer using the fast SAFE for/next loop can loop faster than OL or C128 in fast mode!

MEME K MERE E ELAM SE CLES ERE EK EERE KKK RK EK ERE KKK KK KERR KE KR RK KER

ZX81/TS 1000 TIPS By Don Lamen, SINCUS March/April 1988

Here is a little Function, which may be placed at the beginning or within a machine code program, to stop the program until the tape crlayer starts inputting data.

XxXxX CIBFE HOLO: IN A,{FE) CBF BIT 7.4 z3FA JR Z, HOLD

Where: XXX¥ represents the address.

This is a routine to set RAMTOP and then install your machine cods sb- it, As an example, let's say that you have 80 betes of machines code in 1 REM and you want to install it as address 20000 [7530 hex].

BASIC PART: UPLOAD MACHINE CODE:

ee ee erp ere -