February 1990 MCU Magazine

GENERAL INFORMATION

MCUC

This newsletter is published monthly for distribution to members of the Memphis Commodore Users Club. It is in no way connected with the Commodore Business Machine Ltd. or Commodore Inc. and Commodore products (CBM, PET, C64, C128, VIC20, Amiga) are registered trademarks of Commodore Inc. The MCUC is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is the free exchange of information & knowledge about the use of Commodore computer systems. Memberships are open to anyone; ownership of a computer is not required. Monthly meetings are open to the public & visitors are welcome.

Dues are broken down into three categories. Membership dues may be paid quarterly (3 months) at $6 or annually at $20.00. An associate membership is offered for those living outside a 45 mile radius of Memphis at $10 per year. All memberships are Family Memberships. Dues are not refundable.

Contribution to the MCUC magazine may be in any word processor. You may submit articles on disk, or a hardcopy, or upload to the MCUC BBS (362-0632). Other User Groups are welcome to reprint material from this magazine; we ask only that you give credit to the author and source.

The editor reserves the right to reject material submitted relating to illegal services, products or unethical practices. All material submitted becomes the property of MCUC. The 12th of each month is the DEADLINE FOR ARTICLES.

Meetings

General Membership Meeting - First Tuesday of each month, 7:00 PM in Fulton Auditorium, State Technical Institute.

Beginner's Class - First Saturday after the first Tuesday. 1:00 PM at the Main Library, Peabody and McLean

Board of Director's Meeting - Second Thursday after the General Meeting. 7:30 PM State Tech, in the Cafeteria.

128,CP/M,MS-DOS Sig Classes - Now meeting with the Memphis FOG group. 4th Tuesday of each month at the Whitestation Library. Copy Session at 6 PM, Meeting starts as 7:00 PM.

Millington SIG - 1st Saturday 7:00 pm, Recreation Center behind Base Hospital

Officers

Advertising Rates

All Rates Monthly
Classified to Members FREE
All ads must be in by the 12th.
CIRCULATION: 300 copies

Presidents Ponderings

by Bob Nunn

Exciting times!! This month another SPECIAL SEMINAR!! The subject this time is GEOS and we have a great teacher, Dwight Campbell. Many of you know him as a past President of MCUC. I also think his wife Bonnie (Ex-Librarian) will also be assisting. Make sure you sign up at the meeting. It's first come first serve. It is limited to the first 20 and each one who attends will be at a terminal. Much thanks to Betty Wilson and Grace St. Luke for the use of their facilities. The fee is $2, for which you receive a class disk and refreshments. You will also need to bring a drive and a mouse or joystick. See the special notice for time and place.

We have 7 great disks this month!! 4 sid disks (music is our theme this month) one each classical, rock/pop, country, and one 60's. The music graphic demo disk makes up the 5th with a collection of knockout demo's. Don't miss the Sabrina Demo. Our 6th is a 128 miscellaneous disk and last but not least is a great Geos Disk, and its a must-have for anyone even occasionally using Geos. We also will have available the TAX disk (in case you missed it) and the Football graphics disk we missed last month. We now exchange disks with 9 groups regularly. You can look forward to more quality stuff.

It's funny, it seems that when Commodore 8 bit computers have reached the twilight of their existence, that even more quality software is available than ever before.

I appreciate your support in the last election. I have quite a few new things in store for the club. Working with the group at the next board meeeting we will be "brainstorming" a bit in terms of what we intend to accomplish for the club next year. This board meeting is prior to the submission of my budget in the March Board Meeting. It is a key board meeting and is important that we get as many people involved as possible. The more brains we get together, the more and better ideas we get, and the more the club benefits. I hope that many of you will attend. We have changed the date to accomodate some of our board members' schedules. Please check the calendar for time and place.

I am hopeful our new meeting facilities will work out. We will then be able to keep the general meeting dates the same. We checked out the new facilities and while they are spacious (the new auditorium seats 200) and the chairs look more comfortable, I am not sure what type of viewing we will have on the demo's. We will do what we can. If it doesn't work out we may have to consider a new meeting date as a last resort. We will keep you posted. ONE SPECIAL NOTE: There are no areas in the new building where you can smoke. Look for the map elsewhere in this issue for the new meeting place and also for areas where smoking is allowed. We will schedule slightly longer breaks to accomodate the smokers.

COPY SESSION in March! If you made the last one you know you won't want to miss this one. Watch for details on the MCUC BBS and the March Newsletter!

Lastly, I want to personally thank all of you who filled out a survey. We leared a few things that we will keep in mind in our planning session. You can and do make a difference.

Bob

Survey Results

Compiled by Cheryn Nunn

We had pretty good response to the survey. All who answered, we appreciate your input. What you have told us in the survey will serve as a guide for the things that are planned for next year.

1. How did you find out about the Commodore computer club?

50% of the respondents found out through a friend, 10% through the bulletin board and 40% through other means, which included salespeople at Sears and K-Mart, Run Magazine, Earnheart Computer Repair and word of mouth.

2. What are your computing interests?

There was good response to this question. Word processing was on top, followed closely by business applications and games. A close third and fourth were telecommunications and programming. Other interests listed included recreational utilities, utilities and education.

3. What type of software are you looking for?

Utilities lead this one, followed by word processing, business applications and games. Telecommunications ranked fairly high along with programming aids.

4. Should the club meetings be:

55% said they should stay the same, 33% said more social and 11% said more formal.

5. Rate each item on a scale of one to seven, one being the highest.

The software demos ranked highest followed by meeting friends at the meeting and club business. Ranking fourth, fifth and sixth were meeting new people, input/output time and free time before and after the meeting.

6. Do you regularly attend the club meetings? If you answered yes, skip to question 8.

65% said Yes, 35% said No.

7. If you do not attend the club meetings, why have you stopped?

The reasons listed for those responding no to question 6 varied from schedule conflicts to transportation problems. Some of the respondents are actually associate members, living outside a 45 mile radius from Memphis.

8. Do you know anyone who owns a Commodore computer that is not a member? If yes please fill in the information below.

We got some responses here, some with addresses, others without. If you listed someone but couldn't find their address at the time, we would like to send them a complimentary copy of the newsletter with a brief note explaining how we got their name and inviting them to a meeting. Just give the name and address to Dick Coffman and he'll take care of it.

9. Do you usually read the Newsletter?

We had all Yes responses here. It's nice to know the newsletter isn't being used to paper the bathroom or something.

10. What areas of the newsletter interest you most? Rate each item on a scale of one to seven, one being the highest.

#1 was feature pieces followed by hints and tips and officers articles. Disk of the month info, technical articles and beginner's info were fairly highly ranked also. A dead last, by a big margin, was humor.

11. Do you have any suggestions to improve the newsletter? Write your comments below.

One person wanted it larger, another wanted to see more people contributing and a classified section, more and better quality pics and maybe puzzles. One person asked for more detailed info on the club disks.

12. Do you plan to buy a different computer in the near future? If yes, what type?

7 said Yes
1-Amiga
4-IBM Compatible
2-Other-128D and ?

14 said No

13. Do you use the club bulletin board?

The majority of the respondents used the bulletin board infrequently or never, which reflects back partly to the club meeting attendance question where several were associate members.

14. What do you use the bulletin board for?

Of those who did use the bulletin board, current club information was most used feature followed closely by download/upload software and the message bases.

15. What improvements would you like to see on the club BBS.

The most requested improvement was online games. More storage for programs followed a close second. A few want to see 80 column support, more voting booth topics and better message bases. A few even thought it was fine as it is.

16. Would you be willing to pay a fee for a much improved club BBS?

The answers were split almost 50/50 yes and no.

17. Do you use the New Member Packet?

66% said occasionally, 22% said frequently and 11% never.

18. Would you be willing to pay for an updateable looseleaf that could be updated via the newsletter and library updates.

The answers here were surprising. 47% said yes, if less than $5 with 37% yes, if less than $10. This tells us that we can go ahead with our plans without fear of making a bad investment.

19. What subjects would you like to see 3 hour Saturday seminar classes on?

Wow! You really responded on this one. Coming in at the top were Hardware PM & Repair 64 and Telecommunications, followed closely by Hardware PM & Repair 1541. A number of you want classes on desktop publishing, basic programming and disk doctor (error repair). Write Stuff (beginner's and advanced), GeoWrite 64, GeoPaint, and Machine Language all were frequently requested. The rest of the topics were also requested to a lesser degree, but nothing was not requested. It shows that you are very interested in having more in-depth classes. We'll be working on that for 1990 for sure.

Geos Seminar

The GEOS seminar, taught by Dwight Campbell will be held February 24 from 9 AM to 12 noon at Grace St. Luke's Episcopal School, 246 S. Belvedere Blvd. This is a couple of blocks west of the Main Library (Peabody & McLean). The classroom is located in the Gymnasium Bldg., upstairs.

We have capacity for 20 people in the class so sign up early at the February meeting. You will learn the basics of operation within GEOS as a system, and some of the basics of using GeoWrite and GeoPaint. You will need to bring a disk drive and a joystick or mouse. Grace St. Luke's has 10 disk drives, so if we have more than 10 sign up and you have 2 drives you can bring, that will help alot. GEOS is much easier to use with two drives. Cost of the class is $2, payable at the February meeting.

Dwight is an expert at GEOS and I'm sure you'll learn much by attending this class.

Secratary's Notes

Official Board Meeting 1/11/90

The official board meeting was called to order at 7:40 PM by Bob Nunn, president.

Officers present;
Bob Nunn, president
Ron Montgomery, Educational Coord.
Wayne Moore, Treasurer
Cheryn Nunn, Newsletter Editor
Richard Coffman, Secretary
Visitor-Ralph Phillips.

Officers elected for 1990 assumed their positions for the year.

All club owned equipment will be inventoried and reconciled. A report will be in the March newletter.

The results of the recent survey (in the newsletter) will be published in an upcoming newletter.

A copy session will be in March. Dates will be published in our newsletter.

GEOS seminar will be Feb. 24. Place and time to be announced.

Demos for Feb. Music and some exciting new programs for other clubs.

Motion made by Bob Nunn to buy "Write Stuff Template" disk. Seconded by Ron Montgomery. Motion carried.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM.

Respectively submitted

Richard Coffman, Secretary

February Disks of the Month

We have 7 great disks for you this month, 4 Sid disks, 1 Sound & Graphics Disk, a GEOS disk and a 128 Miscellaneous disk. Hope you enjoy them!

Jim West

C64 60's Sid Disk

This disk contains songs by Santana, the Beatles, and other groups, all with words. On this disk is a program called sid/maniac. This is a 128 mode sid player. There are also some C128 stand alone music files. Finally, some music for the 128. (There are not sid files.)

C64 Classical Sid Disk

Among the songs on this disk are these you'll recognize when you hear them: a Waltz Medley by Strauss, The Swan by Camille Saint-Saens, Moonlight Sonata, and Flight of the Bumble Bee.

C64 Rock Sid Disk

This disk contains the all new Sid v10.3, never before released by MCUC!. There are some stereo files on the disk, with some very good arrangements by Jerry Roth (he's one of the best Sid composers we've heard). There are songs by Roy Orbison, Robert Palmer, Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, Kansas, and Steve Miller.

C64 Country Sid Disk

This disk contains some classic country favorites by John Denver and Jerry Lee Lewis, a tribute to Elvis, and an excellent arrangement of Jambalaya by Hank Williams (stereo version), among others.

C64 Sound & Graphics Disk

Sabrina is the best digitized music I've heard yet. Far less annoying hash than usual, beautiful graphic, is accompanied by a vertical pole that contains 3 sine waves that match the voices. DYNAMITE!!

Mandlebrot is a software demo that draws the mandelbrot pictures in fantastic colors. Hit + or - to speed up or slow down the action, space bar to change screens.

Molly is a terrific program; demonstrates repetitive pattern art.

Ghostbusters II - music and graphic from the hit movie.

E.T. Demo - music and graphic from the hit movie.

Demo3 - multiple screen graphic/music demo. Press space bar to view graphics.

GEOS Super Collection I

Even if you're only an occasional GEOS user, you'll want to get this disk. MCUC's GEOS disks come preformatted in GEDS and require no conversion.

GEOwar - an advanced game of world domination by army force. The object is either to conquer the world or take over all other player's headquarters (documentation on disk-use Quickview to read, also on disk).

Icon Edit - lets you edit/make custom icons for the desktop.

Graphic Storm - super graphic conversion utility (with docs)

MacAttack - converts MacPaint screens to GEOS.

QuickView - documention reader, lets you quickly read docs or GeoWrite files without opening the application from desktop.

Printer Drivers - we have some new printer drivers; Epson FX-80 reduced, Star NX-1O quadstroke and doublestroke, and FX-8O doublestroke and quadstroke.

Preferences - preset Mystic colors with wizard pointer.

Font Editor 2.2 - customize fonts, lets you resize to odd point sizes; with docs.

PS/PM/NR - another graphic utility

Mouse 1351 - custom mouse driver.

Mouse2 and Joystick2 - lets you use port 2.

Icon Maker - lets you make icons from scratch.

128 Miscellaneous

Since the editor's 128 is on the fritz, I couldn't even load the booter to see what comments Jim had put beside each file. I'm sure this is another top notch disk from our librarian.

• Math Utility 1
• Datafile 128
• C128 Gradebook
• Message Maker
• SoundMake128
• SoundEditor128
• Play-128
• Muskeybd128
• Good Sound Demo
• Sound C128
• Sound Editor
• Color Demo.128
• 80/colors.128
• 80-column Demo
• 128 Sys/Poke/Esc
• 80 Column Tricks
• 80 Raster Change

Disk of the Month Order Form

Use this form to order the disks of the month for January. Mail to MCUC, PO Box 34095, Memphis, TN 38134-0095.

Prices are: $2/disk, 3/$5 to members, $3/disk, 3/$6 to non-members. Clubs may obtain disks on a 1 to 1 exchange basis by sending copies of their Disk(s) of the month. Add $1 postage/handling for 1-3 disks, $.25 for each additional disk.

( ) C64 PS Football Graphics

( ) C64 Utilities

( ) C64 Games

( ) C128 Miscellaneous

( ) C64 Engineering Utilities

( ) Total disks ordered

( ) Total $ sent

See the January newsletter for a description of each of these disks.

Classified Section

Someone put a note on a survey wondering why we didn't have a classified section. Well, the reason is, nobody ever lets me know they have something for sale, computer related or not. REMEMBER, CLASSIFIED ADVERSTISING TO MEMBERS IS FREE!!

For Sale: Frigidaire Refrigerator in excellent working condition. Not frost free. $100, you haul. Call Bob or Cheryn 795-0461

For Sale: Full Size Hide-a-bed. Bought used. Good condition, could use new mattress. $100, you haul. Call Cheryn 795-0461

Seven and a Half Bits (of a two-bit disk...)

by Joe Griffin, ICPUG, England

Jiffy-DOS Revisited

In the last journal, I reviewed Jiffy-DOS and mentioned that I was awaiting the arrival of a Jiffy-DOS ROM for the 1581 and Version 6 of the kernal. Both have now arrived and been installed. I have just completed a long series of tests, involving all the combinations of Commodore stock ROMs and Jiffy-DOS ROMs which were available. Though I did find a MINOR problem with "Big Blue Reader" when used with the Jiffy-DOS Version 6 kernal, I came to the conclusion that the enhanced facilities of the Version 6 far outweighed any problems.

For me, the single biggest advantage of Version 6 is that the 'wedge' commands work, not only with jiffy-DOS and serial drives but also with any drives connected over the Brain Box I.E.E.E. interface. Thus, I can inspect a file on my 8250 without disturbing any program in memory.

Other new features in Version 6 include a built-in file copier and support for the RAM expansion units. Commodore kindly put their RAMDOS into the public domain and I was able to obtain a copy while I was visiting Betty Clay this summer. (If anyone wants a copy, please contact me; usual library rules apply.)

One change in Version 6, is that while Version 5 allowed listings to be paused by depressing the space bar (like on the 8096); in Version 6 the same effect is achieved by holding down the control key (more like the C-64).

On the 1581, Jiffy-DOS reduces load/save times by about a quarter in 80 column 128 mode and in C-64 mode I found that load time came down to one third and saving a 69 block file was reduced from 36 seconds to 15. I have checked that the Jiffy-DOS 1581 ROM still works with Superbase. (Last time, I reported that the 1581 ROM contains a bug on BAM update. To get over this, Superbase needs to do a direct memory execute. If the code in Jiffy-DOS had moved, this could cause massive problems.) Also, the new ROM does not itself cure the bug.

1581 ROM Bug

Last time I mentioned that there is a bug in the code in the 1581 drive ROM. The bug can be demonstrated by using the program which is taken from page 75/76 of the 1581 User's Guide. Type in the program and run it a few times on a blank, formatted disk. Then display the directory of the disk, the 'blocks free' should be a few less than the 3160 of an empty disk. Now remove the disk from the drive and re-insert it, then again list the directory. The number of blocks free has mysteriously gone back up to 3160! If you look at the sectors which should have been written, you will indeed find that the data in them has been altered but they have not been allocated.

Although the copy of BAM held in the drive RAM has been updated, this is not written back to the disk. When the disk is removed, the RAM copy is replaced with a fresh copy read from the disk and the updated, but not written, version is lost.

The fix for this problem is quite simple, but it took a lot of effort to get it out of Commodore. In order to write the copy back to the disk, a routine within the disk ROM needs to be executed. In Superbase, Tom does this only if the BAM has changed. It would be too wasteful of time to do it every time the sector is written, as it might already be allocated.

One problem is that the entry point given is specific to the 318045-01 ROM in the 1581. If the code is moved at all, the the fix will fail and Superbase will probably crash. As reported above, Version 6 of 1581 Jiffy DOS does not move this code, so there are no problems there. I have written to Creative Micro, outlining the problem and the entry for the fix, so hopefully, they will ensure that future mods to Jiffy DOS do not screw up.

So the sixty-four dollar question is "What is the entry point?". Answer $B612! To incorporate it into the above program (page 75/76 1581 manual), an extra line of code needs to be added, thus:

215 print#15,"m-e";chr$(18);chr$(182):rem execute code at $b612

If you want to use direct access programming, rather than stick to the standard DOS files, then you will need to use the above Memory-Execute command whenever you want to allocate or free blocks. However, if you don't intend to do anything crafty, then you won't need this fix.

Newletter Staff

Cheryn Nunn-Editor
Assistants-
Harv & Connie Slemmons
Bob Nunn
Printer-Clarke's Quik Print, Brooks Rd.

Treasurer's Report

TREASURER'S REPORT 12-12-89

GARY THURMAN TREASURER

TREASURER'S REPORT 01-20-90

WAYNE MOORE TREASURER

Commodore You're ($&!%$&!&%$)

or - could it just be us?

by George Burrows

I missed the November meeting. The wife and I had the opportunity of being in West Germany. We visited the following cities: Frankfort, Dusselsorf, Aachon, Mannihiem, Heidleberg, and Munich. My purpose of listing these cities is to state, that without exception, ALL seemed well supported by Commodore. They had Commodore STORES selling the 64 and other computer. They had Commodore SERVICE centers. They had Commodore advertising even on the taxies. While the language barrier prevented me from obtaining all the information I would like to have had, I did learn a lot. Their equipment costs more than ours. They had a lot of software OTHER than games. They seemed to be well supported. Therefore, the thought came to me how nice it would be if we had the same support in America from Commodore.

My father always told me, "Never lie to the person in the mirror." So when I truthfully thought about this matter several thoughts came to me and I would like to share them with you.

First, about 2 months ago I met a man who had purchased a 64 and a 1541 disk drive, secondhand, for $100.00. He also had some COPIED software. Hummmmmm. (This should have told me something about what he would expect.) He had attended MCUC "one" time but felt our astronomical fee of $20.00 per year could not be justified. (??) I, as a member, helped him but this meant nothing to him. He informed me that he thought Commodore was being very unjust in not supporting their own equipment. After all, he had over $100.00 invested in his system. Ha!

As a small business man, we have an accounting system that is second to none. Our yearly software support costs about $700.00 per year. For this support we can call if there is a problem and we have the opportunity of receiving any updates. Since the initial installation, we will not average over two calls a year. I still believe that the support is worth the $700. Commodore does not have this type of revenue to depend on. I wish there was a way we could obtain this type of service on the 64 and 128.

The second thought is with regards to my personal evaluation of the costs that I have invested in Commodore. When I started I needed two systems. I had two 64 systems. When I went to the 128's I gave my 64 systems to members of my family. I now have two 128 systems, both consist of the 128, 1571 disk drive (both with Jiffy Dos), NX-10 printers, either a 1084 or 1902 monitor, 1351 mouse, and 1750 RAM expansion units, with commercial software. I also have a 1581 that I "float" between the two units.

I have listed these units only to emphasize my next statement. If I were to take all of my Commodore equipment and throw them in a crushing machine, (which I will not do) I could without question state that I have received FULL value for my money. The Commodore has taught me more about computers than the IBM I have at the company. I plan to add either a 286 or 386 to my home system. You can be sure it will not be from Commodore for they have proven a fact that should be known to all of us.

"If there is no PROFIT,
There is no PRODUCT."

Maybe there is some company that will take up the backup service. I hope so. Some time ago I saw an ad in one of the magazines that stated in part, "We will answer any problem you have for a nominal fee." I have not been able to find that ad but it would be helpful if the "nominal" fee is not too much and if the "time of response" is not too great. I am not like the gentleman in my first thought. I do not mind paying for service, if I get service.

Last, it is my opinion that if a person owns Commodore equipment and does not belong to a "User Group" they have passed from the ignorant stage to the class of stupidity. Now, more than ever, the User Groups are important. I think the MCUC can do much to help in the future days of Commodore. I am thankful for those that have the ability and time to serve as our officers and we should all support them in any way we can.

In closing let me say maybe, just maybe, Commodore is being smart businessmen. Maybe we need to be just as smart and try to let someone in the KNOW know that we care and are willing to pay (?) to have something that will keep the Commodore as a viable computer.

BBS Report

by Andrew George

Now that there is some reliability in the BBS equipment, traffic is at an all time high, although BBS traffic is up now more than other times of the year. We are getting approximately three to four applications on the board per week!! Some of these applicants have gone on to become members of MCUC!! Welcome aboard guys!! Two of our newer users have just had a little boy!!! Congratulations Teresa and Kevin Ralls!!!!

I'd like to encourage you modem users that are currently only calling Quantum Link, or some other on-line service, to call the BBS. You have only experienced half of the joy your modem can bring. The club offers you a place to learn to use your modem, the BBS!! The BBS has 15 message bases, a library of help files, an art gallery, a voting booth, e-mail, and almost 1 megabyte of storage from which you may download programs. Bob Nunn sends us the stuff that doesn't make the disks of the month; some of these programs have not been seen in this area. So if you are tired of waiting to get on the online services and would like to use your modem for something else, then give us a call!! We support 300, 1200, and 2400 baud. We are up twentyfour hours a day everyday. So call 901-362-0632, we'd be glad to hear from you!!

The Write Stuff Printer Control

Hunter Fields

One of the most frustrating initial aspects of Commodore computering is making your printer perform all the functions it is supposed to do. Because Commodore elected to use code numbers for its alphabet that differ from the rest of the world, considerable experimentation is usually needed to find the correct code combinations to make your printer perform as it should.

The following is a set of codes that I have worked out for the Commodore 64 and 128 with the STAR NX100 printer and The Write Stuff (TWS). This setup should also work with the STAR NX10, NP10, EPSON LX800, FX86e, LX86, LX80, IBM Proprinter and Graphics printer, according to the Star printer manual. I altered TWS's macro letters for the functions to make the printer do the things I want it to do.

Make a copy of your TWS disk, and alter it with these printer codes; do not mess up your original disk. These functions are set into the Version 1 of TWS by booting to the "Busy Bee" screen. ENTERing Customizer, ENTERing BBWriter, ENTERing Dot Matrix, and typing in the numbers shown. In the latest verson of TWS, the Customizer is reached by entering ConTRoL-X.

To save these printer codes, press the F1 key, cursor to SAVE Defaults and press RETURN.

To use the printer codes, press the ConTRol, key, press 1 (one), press the appropriate printer macro as shown above. If (T) on Toggle is shown on this chart, enter CTRL 1, macro letter where you want the function to start and the same thing where you want the function to end. If (NT) or No Toggle is indicated above, the function will continue until you enter a new printer macro. Thus if you want to go from draft mode to NI.Q mode, you will enter CTRL 1 p to go to draft mode and then when you wish to switch to Near Letter Quality, you will enter CTRL 1 q.

Some functions must be used together. Exiting condensed mode defaults to draft mode. So if you wish to go from condensed mode to NI.Q. it is necessary to use the period macro and then the q macro. To go from draft mode to a particular NI.Q font, you must first enter the NI.Q mode and then enter the macro of that font. This can be done by keying CTRL.2 first macro second macro instead of CTRL 1 first macro CTRL 1, second macro.

Suppose you enter the escape codes for your printer and it doesn't work? Support you wish to enter additional functions to TWS? If you have a problem, try substituting the following:

Where four options are given, my experience is that the third number given is the most apt to work.

Ed Comment: Wow. Thanks for a lot of work, Hudson. We noticed that those codes did not agree with our 1000 Rainbow manual and assumed it was a difference in machines. Not so. Hudson tells us, it is just the funny way that Commodore does things. He has worked on each of these codes long and lovingly and they work. He has communicated with Eric Lee over such things as a single SuperScript character if you use a Capital S Macro and continuous if you use a Small t. He also knows that the numberic 28 should not work for an Escape code in NI.Q BUT IT DOES! We believe that these codes will work with the Super Gemini 10X but have not checked them. If you are playing around with the codes or expect to in the future, photocopy or tear out the table shown above and put it with your printer manual. It will save a lot of heartaches and much, much searching. Thanks, again, Hudson.

[Ed. Note: I've not had time to check these out on the club's NX1000. Please, please work with a backup copy of the Write Stuff when testing these codes. Cheryn]

Reprinted from The Newsletter, C-TUG/SOCK Joint Publication, November 1989

Editor's Desk

by Cheryn Nunn

Over the past two years, people have occasionally volunteered to help with the newsletter. Usually, I am at a loss as to what part of it to let someone else do. Also, sometimes the volunteer had no idea what they were letting themselves in for. No more!! After nearly two years, I've finally broken out some little (but very inportant!) jobs that could be done and would help make the WHOLE job a little (or a lot) easier. The following positions are now available on a volunteer, unpaid basis. Your name will appear every month in the newsletter as part of the Newsletter Crew.

Typist/proofreader - This position would type in selected articles from the newsletters we receive from other clubs and proof them for spelling and punctuation (yours or theirs). The keyed files could then be uploaded to the MCUC BBS or brought to me on a disk. I would prefer they be produced with The Write Stuff, but will be flexible as long as I can translate the files without a whole lot of grief. Bear in mind that I may not use everything you type in simply because of space allowances. These would be fillers for when I do need something extra, so I wouldn't want any hurt feeling. (I don't use everything I type in!)

General Gofer - this isn't as bad as is sounds. Let me explain. The deadline for the newsletter is the 12th of each month. Generally, I finish the newsletter the weekend following the 12th, however that falls. Monday morning, the newsletter is ready to go to the printer, but I lose a whole working day for the printer because I can't take it until I get off work at 4 PM. I need someone who could pick it up from me at about 8:30 AM and go ahead and take it to the printer. It wouldn't always fall on a Monday, but I could give you 2 or 3 days notice which day it would be. I live near Hickory Hill and Raines Rd (south of Hickory Ridge Mall) and the printer is located over on Brooks Rd, about 3 blocks west of Elvis Presley. Also, maybe once a month, if you could run out to Bartlett and pick up the club mail from Susie Earnheart and then bring it to me, it would greatly be appreciated. See, it's not so bad!

Now, to go off on a totally different tangent. I've been told I didn't always get articles that had been uploaded for use in the newsletter. I apologize!! It's true, I'm not a real telecommunications nut. And if there are a lot of uploads to BBS, the disks will sometimes be changed out before I can get on to get it. So, we'll set up some guidelines to help insure I get the uploads meant for me. If you can help by following these guidelines, I will very much appreciate it.

1. Upload articles between the 1st and the 12th of the month.
2. Leave feedback to Andrew on the MCUC BBS or Bob on Operator Headgap that you have uploaded an article for the newsletter and the name of the file. I will work with both of them to collect these articles on one disk so that I can get on every other day or so and download them in a chunk. Also, this will keep them from getting lost among other uploads.
3. Because I so rarely get articles from club members other than the officers, I will usually use anything I get. But don't be offended if I don't use your article; I may have just run out of space and will try to use it next month.

I look forward to another year as Editor and will strive even more to meet your needs in the newsletter. Keep the input coming; I don't read minds!!

Cheryn

New Meeting Place

We have been assigned a new meeting place at State Tech. Fulton Auditorium has a class scheduled every Tuesday night this semester so we will be in the new building from the parking lot side, there is a double doorway just before you reach the security office. Take the staircase up to the second floor into a lobby outside the auditorium. At this time, that is where we are planning to set up Jim West with the library, and Dick Coffean and Wayne Moore for taking club memberships. All that may change when we get there, but that is the plan for now, We appreciate your cooperation during this change and welcome your feedback regarding these new facilities. See the map for the designated smoking areas.

The Precision of 8 bit and 16 bit Basics

by D. Gortmans

Reprinted from ICPUG Newsletter November/December 1989

By moving BSIC programs and running them on a number of different machines, similar but different results have been obtained. This has been a problem when the source has had to be modified to satisfy the syntax of different version of BASIC and then test runs carried out to confirm they were correct. However, this was only a minor irritant until one day I entered into writing some programs in association with a member of my local club. These programs were designed to use BASIC to multiply and divide long numbers, and also to calculate the value of Pi to a great number of significant figures. BASIC is not the fastest way to carry out such calculations bu these applications did enable us to exercise some ingenuity in programming to reduce the calculation time to a minimum.

This work started when we read the following four magazine articles.

ADD & SUBTRACTION, Owen Linderholme, PCW July 1987
MULTIPLICATION, Owen Linderholme, PCW August 198
LONGDIV, Clive Semmens, PCW November 1987
EXACT DIVISION, A.M.Tucker, Practical Computing, October 1986

Many errors and some poor logic were found in the coding and the published programs ran very slowly. All three applications were rewritten using a PET model 3032, by my associate H.M.Tucker before I took a hand in checking, providing some final touches and producing versions that ran on other machines.

Programs have been produced that multiply, divide and produce values for Pi on the PET model 3032, C64, IBM PC, AMIGA and the BBC. These conversions brought to the fore a most interesting fact concerning the differences between the BASICs on 8 bit and 16 bit machines. It was found that generally the 8 bit machines had BASICs which were accurate to less than 9 significant decimal figures where as 16 bit machines had BASICs accurate to less than 7 significant decimal figures. As the programs were based on representing long numbers as a sequence of small strings, it was necessary to have each small string 3 characters long on a 16 bit machine and 4 characters long on a 8 bit machine. The effect of this was to erode much of the speed advantage of a 16 bit manchine. However, it certainly brought home why a number of my engieering programs written in BASIC on a domestic C64 gave answers that were more accurate than those obtained on my bog standard PC at work. To demonstrate the relative precisions of BASICs on different machines, let us take the value of Pi. Now, Pi = 3.14159265358979... However, a good approximation is 355/113 = 3.1415929135... Based on this ratio, GWBASIC and AMIGABASIC both gave 3.141593. A CBM calculator, a PET, C64 and C64 emulator on an AMIGA all gave 3.14159292. The BBC Emulator on an AMIGA gave 3.14159.

On the basis of the above values it appears that by considering precision alone, the C64 is one of the leaders. I DO know that it is possible to use double precision and change the above relative accuracies but generally this will erode the speed of the programs even more.

Finally, the AMIGA is able to have a streng length of 32,767 characters. This has an interesting effect in the MULTIPLY programs as it allows two long numbers of up to 255 digits to be multiplied together producing a product consisting of up to 510 digits, that is if you can wait a total of 45.16 secs. for reading the input, carrying out the multiplication and then outputting the result. All other machines considered have maximum string lengths of 255 characters hence they produce products that are limited to 255 digits. With some reprogramming the limit imposed by the max. string length can be overcome but as we did not wish to pursue this line of development, the programs remain limited as described above.

[Ed. note: In my mind, this article only serves to reinforce the stand that all C64 and C128 devotees everywhere take; We've got ourselves a great little machine! Show this to your friends that think they need an MS-DOS machine!!]

The Personal Computer 500

This is reprinted from the Colorado CCC Newletter, who reprinted from Western Illinois PET Users' Group. The data came from the October 89 issue of Personal Computing.

The top 4 computers sold in 1988 (units):

The top 6 computers sold worldwide in the last decade (1978-1988):

CP/M BBS

We received notice in the mail regarding a CP/M based computer bulletin board. It's called Socrates Z-Node 32. There are not charges other than the phone call and they can even tell you a way to call long distance for as little as $1.50 per hour. They have an active message section where users can ask for and give help. They also have a large selection of software, tutorials, text and help files available for download. There are no up/download ratios; they only ask that you participate in the discussions and enjoy yourself!

They sent a whole page full of directions on how to get around the BBS, but due to space limitations and the limited number of people who might be interested, we won't print them here. If you want a copy, call Cheryn Nunn at 795-0461 and I'll make you a copy and mail it or bring to the meeting in February. If you're interested in learning about CP/M telecommunications, this might be for you.

Socrates Z-Node 32
(201) 754-9067
300/1200/2400 BPS
24 hours daily

Index