September 1990 MCU Magazine

Table Of Contents

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 $6.00 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 nonrefundable.

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 the new building Auditorium, State Technical Institute.

Beginner's Class - First Saturday after the first Tuesday. 1:00 PM Location to be announced each month.

Board of Director's Meeting - Monday after General Meeting. 7:30 PM State Tech, Rm 1106A in new building (near cafeteria).

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

Officers

President Bob Nunn
759-0461
Vice President Bob Earnheart
385-7987
Secretary Dick Coffman
829-3705
Treasurer Wayne Moore
756-5991
Librarian Jim West
366-5544
Education Ron Montgomery
767-0737
Newsletter Cheryl Nunn
795-0461
 
BBS 362-0632
Sysop Andrew George 367-1266
Co-Sysop Kevin Dunn 357-0409

Advertising Rates

Full Page $20.00 1/2 Page $11.00
1/4 Page $7.50 1/8 Page $3.00
Business Card $3.00

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

President's Ponderings

by Bob Nunn

I had the opportunity to teach the beginner's class in August. It had been a while since the last time. I think sometimes we forget what it was like. Using a Commodore Computer is so easy, isn't it. I can remember not too long ago when I first got mine. I bought a refurbished unit from Combe Inc. for $99. The drive was only $149 and it was a refurb also. I also bought the printer but never got it to feed paper so I sent it back. I read through the book and realized that it was all greek to me. I tried loading a few programs off the disk that accompanies the drive. DOS Wedge, what does this mean?? Even after reading the instructions I still had no idea.

Fortunately for me I had a friend who owned a 64. He gave me a disk with about 30 utilities, copiers and games on it. He showed me how to use a program called Super Wedge that had the commands shown on the screen and if you got stuck you just hit *? and the menu came back up. I was lucky. I think many people aren't so lucky. After typing in Open 15, 8, 15 &%*%↑%$↑%$ a few times if they got that far they just gave up and put it back in the box.

We are starting a new program this month. It has long been my personal goal to be able to give a person in need a disk. One that would help them learn to use their computer. Our Members Packets are a deluxe version of this concept. For years now I have personally given away starter disks or sold them for postage and disk costs through my personal BBS. Why would I do this mostly at my expense and time? I feel like it is returning the favor that someone did for me years ago. You see, my job in Marketing is becoming more computer related. Through my experiences with my Commodore I have been able to advance my career. Through my association with the club, my wife Cheryn and I have made many new good friends, so you see I could never give away enough disks to pay back what was given to me.

The program is of nominal costs. It is simply a disk with a page of printed material. These disks would be sold for $1.00 at events open to the public like Ham Fest. They are primarily designed, however, to give to people who come to the meetings or ask club members for help.

Back to the beginners class. We had a young mexican girl in the class. She was visiting some relatives and would be returning to Monterey in 2 weeks. She had just found out about the club. When she left the class she had a disk in her hands. I feel good that when she gets back home she will be able to do more than just play a few games on her Commodore.

Special Notice

The September newsletter contains two special pull outs. The first is the Copy Session Order Form. Fill this out ahead of time and get it to us, and we'll have your disk copies waiting for you at the copy session. If you can't, fill it out anyway and bring it with you. It will help us serve you better.

The second pull out is an addition for your Member's Packet. We were unable to include these docs to ProTerm 128 in the original printing of the Packet. But we promised you it would be updateable, so here's your first update. Andrew George has done a fine job explaining all the features included with ProTerm. Like all good software, this program is relatively easy to use for the beginner, yet capable of doing a whole bunch of fancy things for the advanced user. Thank you Andrew!

Anytime You Want It

A BBS Report by Andrew George

Now there is a new way to get disks from the club library anytime you want it!! Through the aid of Zip I have zipped up the library. Zip is a program that compacts one side of a disk into four files. These files are named in this manner;

1!filename
2!filename
3!filename
4!filename

If a disk is full then each file will be approximately 166 blocks long. When you download these files they are not quite ready to run. First you need to unzip them; once that is complete you have the disk ready to run!!

On the BBS there is a download section that is not in the regular upload/download directories, this section is called the U/X. There are some fundamental differences between the UD and UX commands. The UD command takes you to the download directories; they are individual files that are separated into different directories. The UX on the other hand is a full disk exchange. This is more like looking at the disk directory of a disk in your own drive. This is to say that when you scan a UD directory you are looking at a file and when you scan a UX you are actually seeing a real directory track. So from a command prompt type UX. The UX's will load into memory and you will soon have the UX prompt.

Let's look at what is needed to download one of these fine disks. First of all to see what is in the UX type '$' or 'S'; you will then be prompted for a pattern. These are the same pattern matching techniques that are used in normal Commodore DOS (normal and Commodore DOS is a contradiction in terms I realize), this means that you use '*' and '?'. For example;

File* would show all files that begin with the letters file

?ile would show files that end in the letters ile and the beginning letter could be anything. This could show filenames in a directory that may be like mile, file, tile, etc. For our purpose the pattern you want to see would be like this;

?!*9/89

Why the date? In this particular UX which contains these zipped disks the filenames all end in a date. This provides a little organization to the files. I apologize for the lack of description in the names but there is only so much you can say in fourteen characters. To see the whole directory use '*'.

To download a disk, type DM at the UX prompt. The BBS will ask you for a pattern. Enter the pattern you wish and type return. The BBS will then display filenames one at a time, you answer 'Y' for yes and 'N' for no or 'S' for start. The start option is used after you have selected the files you want. At this point you have twenty seconds to go to the multi file download section of your particular terminal. If something goes wrong it is no problem, just type <control> 'X' three times and the transfer will be aborted and you will have the chance to do it over again.

Well there you have it!! Now you have access to the club library twenty four hours a day via your modem!!!

38,400 BPS for C64/128!

Originally titled New Development for C64/128 Computers by Jim Sanders. Taken from the Monitor, East Tennessee Commodore Users Club. Edited by Bob Nunn

One of the biggest handicaps of these 8 bit machines has been the inability to operate with modems above 1200 baud. This has been recently overcome.

Dr. Evil Laboratories who gave us the inexpensive stereo SID cartridge has now developed a new RS232 Cartridge which claims both machines can now use modems at a much higher baud rate. Here is their sales pitch: OUR NEW HIGH-SPEED SERIAL CARTRIDGE. SwiftLink-232 adds the functionality that CBM left out of the C-64/128: reliable RS-232 communications above 1200 bps.

SwiftLink-232 opens a whole new world In high-speed telecommunications and file transfers for the C-64/128....At a price we can afford! Available June 1, 1990. Order from: Dr. Evil Laboratories, P.O. Box 3432, Redmond, WA 98073-3432

The one I ordered arrived on July 12th and was immediately put to test. The terminal program, Nova Term is to be shipped at a later date. Desterm 128 v2.0, Desterm Manual, Terminal One v8.16 (for the 64) and Q-term v4.2g (for CP/M) were received on two floppies.

After installing the cartridge in the game port. I hooked it to a HST9600 baud modem and booted up the Desterm 128 terminal program. I made contact with volunteer BBS at 9600 baud. Amazing results from the comparably slow 128. There was NO garble. Next came a download test. Using Y-modem 1k protocol, two files were downloaded. The download was hampered by the slow speed of the 1541 drive. The rate of transfer was about the same as for a 2400 baud modem.

The device is not compatible with the IEEE Flash Interface. I did not have a 1571 or 81 available for testing. Perhaps they would allow faster download speeds. It would not be possible to use the cartidge in conjunction with the Lt. Kernal Hard Drives as both interfaces must use the game port exclusively. (Editors Note; It would likely work with the CMD Hard Drives through serial)

My conclusions are that the cartridge is well worth the price. Using a null modem, data may be transferred from one computer to another at rates as high as 38,400. Remember that 2400 baud for the 64 was unheard of just a few months ago.

(Editors Notes 2: Readers of MCUC Newsletter remember that 6 months ago someone using a regular 232 and HST9600 on a 128 with Desterm was doing the same thing. Why the author did not test in 64 mode is unknown. I am excited however at the possibilities. Anyone purchasing this device please let us know about your experiences. Bob)

September Disks of the Month

Sept. 64 Disk

CCGMS Elite V2.0 - the latest version of this ever popular telecommunications program. V2 Update, also included on the disk, gives you the highlights of the newest revisions.

CCGMS MAC. ED.V2 - a macro editor for use with CCGMS Elite V2.0.

CG/MCI Editor - a color/graphics or MCI editor. Will let you make those fancy color/graphic screens you see on the BBS's.

Gary Labels V4 - The latest version of this great label maker-uses printshop graphics. This is one of Cheryn's favorites; she keeps it on her utility disk. Documentation on the disk.

Test Video/Audio - Monitor test for color, alignment, and sound.

Disk Error Logge - Will list out each track and sector and tell you where there are errors.

Outpost - a neat little shoot'em up game.

E-Z Read Me - Will read any sequential file, placed on this disk for your convenience in reading the documentaion files.

Sept. Historical

Civil War History - This one is a gem! Gives you a brief synopsis on 5 of the leading figures of the Civil War from the North and the South. Includes a picture of each.

FIB Tutorial - Information about the mathematician who came up with this sequence; 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,etc. Gives information about different aspects of this sequence.

Sept. 128 Disk

Novaterm 1.4 - a C12B 40/80 column terminal program, the latest version.

Ultraterm.128-80 col. - this latest release will allow uploads and downloads.

Copy Session

Sept. 29 10AM-2PM
State Tech Fulton Bldg Rm 222

Yes, it's time for another famous MCUC Copy Session. for those of you who have attended one before, you know what's in store. For those of you who haven't...well, I'm gonna tell you!

Get a copy of any disk in the MCUC library for free (excluding July through September 1990), on your blank disk. Or pay 50 cents per disk, which is the regular MCUC charge for blank disks.

Get your disk drive cleaned FREE! Yes..I said FREE! Many problems with disk drives can be attributed to DIRTY DRIVES.

Get a chance to look at newsletters from other clubs. We get about 50 a month from around the world. Here's your chance to see what others are doing in the Commodore world.

Have a snack! Volunteers will spend long, hot hours in the kitchen preparing scrumptious homemade cookies for your enjoyment. Colas will also be provided to wash them down.

The Copy Session is provided for CLUB MEMBERS ONLY!.

Now, what could be better? We go easy on your pocketbook, give you something free, and feed you besides!! Come join us!

Order the September Disks of the Month by sending your request along with $2 per disk, $5/3 disks ($1 P&H plus $25 for each disk over 3 to: MCUC, PO Box 34095 Memphis, TN 38134-0095

Classified Advertising

For Sale: Software for sale. Includes Games, Utilities, MCUC Disks of the Month, and disks from other clubs. Price Negotiable. Contact Ben Hudgens 763-1530

Memphis BBS's

By Bob Nunn

I know I have left out a few good local bulletin boards as well as listed a few who may not be so good. We have tested the numbers as of 8/19 but you still should always call voice first when trying out new bbs lines. If you get a carrier chances are good you found one. Always use unique passwords on each system. Some system operators may not reliable and might use your password on another system causing you grief. All are area code 901 unless noted.

MCUC BBS 24 hour, 3/12/2400 bps, C/G, ASCII, ANSII 362-0623
Operator Headgap 24 hour, 3/12/2400 bps, C/G, ASCII 365-1583
Eagle's Nest 24 hour, 3/12/2400 bps, C/G, ASCII, ANSII 372-5754
Underwater 24 hours 3/12/2400 bps, C/G, ASCII 386-2617
Backdoor 24 hours 3/12/2400 bps, C/G, ASCII 353-2809
Flagship 24 hours 9600 bps ASCII, ANSII 382-2864
Garden Of Eden 24 hours 3/1200 bps, C/G, ASCII 366-5022
Treasure Island BBS 24 hours 3/1200 bps, C/G, ASCII 382-3010
Thunderbolt BBS 24 hour, 3/12/2400 bps, C/G, ASCII, ANSII 393-9290
Throne of Bloodstone 24 hours 3/12/2400 bps, C/G, ASCII 375-4677
Digital Underground 24 hours 3/1200 bps, C/G, ASCII 732-1746
Cybernetics 24 hours 3/1200 bps, C/G, ASCII 366-1294
Night Hawk 24 hours 3/1200 bps, C/G, ASCII 601-342-2949
C-Net BBS 24 hours 3/1200 bps, C/G, ASCII 789-4669
I.M.E BBS 24 hours 3/1200 bps, C/G, ASCII 877-3051
Amiga Pit BBS 24 hour, 3/12/2400 bps, C/G, ASCII, ANSII 685-8476

September Special MCUC Custom Notebooks $5.00 ea.

Comes with specially printed inserts for the sleeves on the outside of the notebooks. The insert for the back of the notebook features commonly used commands for easy reference.

Put your Members Packet, to be released this month, in a notebook with the disks. keep everything in one handy place.

A Guide to Modemese

Reprinted from ASCI, April 90 via several other newsletters

Definitions of Telecommunications terms:

ASCII
Italian for ask, ask in "Letta me ascii youa dis."
BAUD
Past tense of what a baby does, "The baby baud all Night."
BUFFER
Opposite of after. ie. "Buffer your do that, you better get permission."
DUPLEX
The type of house in which modems live.
HAYES
Mental condition of most novice modem users.
HAYES COMPATIBLE
Type of modem designed to produce confusion in new owner.
LINEFEED
What lions eat.
MODEM
What you say when you want more, e.g., "Give me modem potatoes."
PASSWORD
A TV game show hosted by Alan Ludden.
PROTOCOL
Biblical. Someone who rebels as in story of Protocol Son.
PUNTER
A kicker in American football.
STOPBIT
What you say when someone is bothering you. e.g., "hey, stopbit before I punch out your lights!"
XMODEM
1. A modem you once owned, but no longer do; 2. A plastic blob that used to be a modem before the big power surge or lightning strike.
YMODEM
Question most frequently asked by non-modem users.

Data Tech Services. Inc.
6870 Hillshire, Suite #19, 20, and 21
Memphis, Tn 38133
901-385-7987
We are a full service repair,
sales, training company for all
types of computers (except Macs).
Thank you for your support.
Due to our increased overhead we
can no longer offer club discounts.

An authorized 64/128 and Amiga
Repair center.

Ham Fest

The Ham Fest will be October 13 and 14 at the Fair Grounds in the Youth Bldg. MCUC has reserved three tables at the Fest. We will be distributing information about the club, newsletters and flyers, and will have for sale some special disk releases we will be preparing. This is a good opportunity for MCUC; last year we signed up about 12 new members, some from out of state. Many Ham Radio operators use Commodore computers in conjunction with their radios.

It's a fun time, time to meet a lot of nice people, talk about your favorite user's group, and show off what you do with your computer. We hope to have about 6 full systems there, and plenty of people to answer questions from Ham Fest attendees.

If you would be interested in an hour or two, or all day with us, please contact one of the officers.

Exciting September Demo

We have an exciting demo for you this month that you won't want to miss. Andrew George and John Blackmer will be demonstrating a terminal program and using the MCUC BBS. John will take us through configuring your terminal program, logging on, and Andrew will show us around the BBS. For those of you interested in seeing both sides of telecommunications, this is a unique opportunity. You will be able to see the Sysop end, as well as what you would see at home on your computer. It's really quite interesting!

Don't miss this meeting!

C64/128 Terminal Software Roundup

by Kent Sullivan Reprinted from Bits & Bytes, May 90

Condensed by Cheryn Nunn

Following is a summary of some terminal emulators for the C-64/128. A terminal emulator would be needed if you are trying to acces a main frame computer.

Bobsterm Pro 128 v2.3 - C128 mode - VT-100 emulation with some VT-102 features. Several known bugs, and some limitations. Also has VT-52 & ADM-31 emulations; supports 2400 bps.

Commercial, available from:
Progressive Peripherals & Software
464 Kalamath St.
Denver, CO 80204

Desterm 128 v1.02 - Matt Desmond - C128 mode - VT-100 emulation with some VT-102 features. Supports the VT-52 mode of the VT-100. No known bugs, but some limitations; supports 2400, 4800, & 9600 bps.

Shareware, available on most major networks or from the author:
Matthew Desmond
265 Beechlawn Dr.
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 5WB Canada
Registration fee: $25

Emulator.100 - Louis Leff - C64 mode - Supports 80 col. through hi-res graphics. VT-100 with some VT-102 features. Appears to have some bugs but overall works pretty well. Supports double high/wide. Supports 300/1200 bps, but loses characters when scrolling rapidly at 1200 bps.

Commercial, available from:
Allegheny Softworks
PO Box 71303
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

C-64/128 Kermit v2.2 - Ray Moody - 80 columns on C-64 (hi-res graphics or BI-80 card) and a C-128 (but still running in C-64 mode). VT-100 with some VT-102 features, support for VT-52 mode of the VT-100. No known bugs, but some limitations. Supports 2400 bps when using the C-128 screen driver only.

Public domain, available on most major networks.

VT-100/128 v2.1 - Fred Bowen - C128 mode - VT-100 with some VT-102 features. No know bugs, but sosme limitations. Suppors 2400/4800 bps (somewhat flakey at 4800).

Commercial? but available on Quantum Link in the "Commodore's Headquarters" area. Soon to be on the 1670 modem disk.

[Ed. Note: None of the above programs support 132 columns, soft scroll or scrollling regions, if I understood the article correctly.]

World of Commodore/Amiga Show

The World of Commodore/Amiga show will be held September 15 and 16, 10AM to 5PM at the Valley Forge Convention Center, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The 8-Bit United Support Alliance, a group of leading 8 bit developers who are dedicated to the survival of the C64/128 computers, are urging 8 bit users to attend and show their support. You can get $6 advance tickets from them by sending a money order along with a S.A.S.E. to: 8 Bit US, PO Box 111, Dept.8, Salem, MA 01970-0111 Tickets are $10 at the door, $5 for seniors and students (includes seminars).

For your information, Valley Forge is about an hour by car west of Philadelphia. You can call 416-595-5906 for more information.

Treasurer's Report

TREASURER'S REPORT 08-16-90

OPENING BALANCE 07-12-90 $ 434.34
 
DEPOSITS:
 
LIBRARY DISK SALES $ 107.00
MEMBERSHIP DUES (5 Members) 90.00
NOTEBOOK SALES 21.00
--------
TOTAL $ 218.00
 
EXPENSES:
 
BBS TELEPHONE (JULY) $ 20.65
NEWSLETTER (AUGUST) 129.30
NEW MEMBERS PACK 107.75
POSTAGE 111.25
CHECK PRINTING 13.04
SOFTWARE PURCHASE 25.47
HAMFEST TABLES (OCT) 48.00
TOTAL $455.46
 
CLOSING BALANCE O8-16-90 $196.88

WAYNE MOORE TREASURER

Secretary's notes

The board meeting was called to order at 7:31 PM. In attendance were: Bob Nunn, Pres., Ron Montgomery, Educ. Coord., Wayne Moore, Treas. Cheryn Nunn, Editor

The board discussed the recent State Tech "Tech Fest" and MCUC's participation in it. It was agreed that although no funds were raised, it was a good boost for our public image. We disseminated a lot of information about the club and feel we will see some new members as a result.

Motion was made to reduce the price of the notebooks to $5 for a September Special by Wayne Moore, seconded by Ron Montgomery.

Discussion was held concerning the upcoming Copy Session in September and the Ham Fest in October. Preparations will be under way for both. Meeting adjourned at 8:19 PM.

Respectfully Submitted, Cheryn Nunn for Richard Coffman

Computer Communications

by Alan Reed, Condensed by C. Hunn, reprinted from CCR "The Hardcopy" 05/90

Most of us are familiar with the procedure that is used for communications between computers that are a long distance from each other. It requires telecommunications software, a "modem" to convert computer signals into audible tones, and ordinary telephone service.

But what if you must transfer files between computers that are in the same room? Assume that they are so different from each other that disk swapping is out of the question, such as an Amiga and an MS-DOS machine.

ASCII files can be transferred between any two computers that have RS-232 serial ports. The computers are connected through their RS-232 plugs by a cable and one null modem (a small box that reroute lines in the cable to the proper pins). You also need telecommunications software running on both computers in order to transfer files, but no modem or phone line is required.

If you do your own programming, an RS-232 link can also be used for data sharing between programs that are running simultaneously on different computers. They can share the work on a compute?1imited task, and arrive at a solution in about half the time it would take one of them working alone.

Index

Officer's Articles 3, 4, 11
Disks of the Month 6
Features
38,400 BPS! 5
Memphis BBS's 8
C64/128 Terminal Software 10
Center Pull-outs
Copy Session Order Form
Member's Packet Update-ProTerm 128 V16.1 Docs

Pro Term v16.1

80 Column Advanced Term Program for the 128

A Tutorial By Andrew George

First you must be in 80 column mode. Load up Run "Pro 128 Term",u#,d#. In a second there will be a screen that will list the features of this terminal program. It should look like this:

       Pro-128-Term
 V-16.1 (c) Mar 29 , 1988
Written by :  Paul Aidukas

Features Include:

Press any key to continue

Press any key to continue load. After a minute or two, you should hear a small tone and a screen will appear that will look like this: [Lines have been shortened to 40 column for purposes of printing in this article.]

*PRO-128-TERM* B=53000
Status:Ready Echo Off Buffer Closed
Dr. 8 1200SA
Standard ASCII
Terminal Ready
(C= H for Help)

One at a time we'll look at all of these. First off, the color bar across the top of the screen is called the status line. The status line shows you the state of various parts of the terminal. These parts are, from left to right, the name of the program, how much space in the buffer, status of the modem, echo on or off, buffer closed or open, work drive number (8, 9, 10, 11), baud rate (it puts you at 1200 to start), standard ASCII(SA) or color graphics(CG). To switch between standard ASCII(SA) and color graphics(CG) press the ALT key. It is located in the upper left of the keyboard next to the TAB key. A beep will sound and the first 3 lines along with the status line are now changed. The status is changed, the CG should be at the far right. Nothing else is changed there but that. The top 3 line should now read:

CBM ASCII
Terminal Ready
(C= H for Help)

Bulletin boards that run on Commodores support color graphics. To see these graphics you must use the CBM ASCII Terminal. The third line tells you that if you hold down the Commodore key then push H it will display a list of commands that you can use from the terminal. C= (the letter 'C' and the equal sign) is sort of a universal symbol for the Commodore key located at the extreme lower left of the keyboard. Let's look at these commands. When you hold C= and press the H key (all the commands work this way) a list will appear on the right. The commands are listed below:

Term Commands V-16.1

Help Main Menu
C= H Cmd Menu
C= F Full Menu
C= O Menus Off
C= T Punter Tms
C= M Multi-Punt
C= X X/W-Y MOdem
C= * Change Dev#
C= A Auto-Dial
c= B Buffer Toggle
C= C Chat Mode
C= D Dump Buffer
C= E Echo Toggle
C= S Read Seq.
C= W Stat Window
C= @ Change Baud
C= + Off Hook
C= - On Hook
C= ALT C/G Toggle

When you press the C= and F keys another list of commands appears on the left side of the screen. These are additional commands available from the terminal. These are:

Home Control-S
C= k Edit F-keys
C= Q Quit Term
C= R Reset Hayes
C= Z Zero Buffer
C= L Load keys & numbers
C= N Send Name
C= P Password

These are commands available to you while you are in the terminal. They give you the ability to use certain features of the program without going to a menu. These commands are active when you first run the program. The Escape (ESC) key, in the extreme upper left of the keyboard, toggles (switches) the commands on and off. If the commands are switched on then PRO-128-TERM should appear in the extreme left of the status window. If they are not on then a flashing "Commands Off" will appear in the extreme left of the status window. Here is a list of the commands and their functions.

Help - Main Menu - This will give a main menu from which you can go to other parts of the program. Really the only time you need this is to get to the disk utility menu.

C= H - Right side help screen

C= F - Left side help screen. This is one of the features that makes this a worthwhile program. These screens will stay in place while you are on-line with your facorite BBS.

C= O - Removes Help screens.

C= T - Punter Transfer Menu. This is the menu for uploading and downloading of prg:, seq. files, and user files (Relatives files can not be sent by the phone lines). To download a file first hit the C= and T; this will display the Punter Menu. Hit R to Receive a file, you will then be prompted to enter a File name, type in the name you wish to call it by, then it will ask (P)rg or (S)eq or (U)ser. The capitol letters in parenthesis is the key to hit to choose what file you want it saved as. After you choose this will appear:

File type prg (or whatever you choose) then a scale numbered from 1 to 80. As you are receiving a file dashes will appear under the scale. These dashes represent blocks of data that you are receiving. When the transfer is finished an asterik will appear and it will put you back in the terminal mode.

To upload a file hit T for transmit a file, from the Punter Menu. You will be prompted for a file name, and then a prompt for file type. You must know what type of file you are trying to upload or the program will abort to the terminal. When you have answered the prompt, the scale appears and the file is being transmitted. To send or receive more than one file at a time hit M for multi-transfer. You are greeted with another menu to receive multi files. You can circumvent this menu with the C= and M key combo. This will take you directly to multi-transfer menu. Hit R the filenames will be transmitted just before the file is. That's all!! At the end of the transfer it will go back to terminal mode. To u/l or d/l multifiles, hit C= M, this will give a menu:

Receive
Transmit
Auto Transfer Toggle
Return Aborts

For the transmission of more that one file hit T for transmit Multi-Files. You will be prompted for a file pattern. At this point hit return and it will show you the files on the disk and this will appear:

(Y)es  (N)o  (A)bort  Ret=start

Then it will show you the files on the disk in this manner:

Send "filename,filetype"?. The filename would be whatever the name of the file is. File type would be the kind of file it is i.e. P for program, S for sequential, U for user. If you want to transmit the file hit Y, if not hit N, or if you do not want to transmit then hit Return alone. After you have chosen the files you want to send hit return and the transmission will begin. When the transmission is through, the program will go back to the terminal.

C=X; this is the X modem menu. X-modem is another protocol for data transmission. This menu works the same as the punter menu. The Punter and X-modem menus have an option Auto Transfer Toggle. This will send or receive multiple files and at end of transmission will hang up the modem and set it to not answer any incoming calls. This is useful for when you set up a multiple file transmission and need to leave. This will keep you from tying up a BBS until it logs you off. W and Y modem protocols are available here also.

C=*; this will give you a Device number prompt. Enter the appropriate unit number for the program to access during read and write operations.

C=A; Auto-dial. This is where you store the numbers for the Bulletin Boards you call. When you press the key combination you are greeted with a menu. 1670/HAYES AUTO DIAL OPTIONS

Carrier detect bit: low

D)  Dial Number
M)  Multi-Dial Numbers
E)  Edit Numbers
S)  Save number to disk
L)  Load numbers from disk
T)  Toggle tone/pulse
R)  Reset redial delay
C)  Toggle carrier detect bit
Option?

The first option 'D' takes you to the dial screen. Each system is listed by a number. Enter the number and press Return. The program will dial the number for you. You must set up the numbers with the Edit option.

M; this is the Multi-dial function. After selection simply enter numbers listed for the systems you wish to call. Press return alone to begin dialing.

Edit numbers, this is where you enter the numbers of the systems you call. Upon selection of edit you will be prompted for the number you would like to edit. Enter the number and press return. A new screen appears and is headed with "Editing List N" where n= the number you have chosen.

This will appear:

Old Number:
New Number:?

Enter the new number. Then this will appear:

Old Name:
New Name:?

This refers to the name of ID number used by the particular system. For example most C-Net BBS's use two characters from the name the sysop has given it. Let's say you had an account on Underwater and the sysop validates you. Now you call on a regular basis. You have an account and your ID number is UW49. Just enter that number and when you log on to the system and when it asks for your login ID then hit C=N. This will enter your ID for the system you dialed. That makes it easy and you do not forget your account numbers.

You will now see this:

Old Password:
New Password:?

Enter the password you have chosen for the system you are entering. Now when logging on and the system asks for your password just hit C= and P, and it will enter your password for you.

After you have entered the password this will appear

Old Delay:20
New Delay:?

This refers to the redial delay, the number of seconds between tries; twenty seconds should be sufficient.

Next this will appear:

Old Baud:12 (3,6,12,24 only)
New Baud:?

Enter the baud rate and press return.

Now this will appear:

Old Mode:0 (0=Ascii, 1=C/G)
New Mode:?

Enter 1 for systems that support Commodore Color Graphics, 0 for those that do not.

After you hit return you will then be taken back to the list screen. A return will take you back to the Autodial menu.

S will save your numbers to the disk. You will be prompted with "are you sure?". Answer Y to the prompt. You will be prompted with filename (Return = default). Return saves the file with the default name Pro-Numbers. This name will ensure that the data is in memory when you run the program.

L this allows you to load number files that you may have created with different names.

T this is for switching between tone and pulse dialing. This should be set according to the service you have.

R this is to reset the Redial Delay. You should not have to change this.

C toggles carrier bit low or high. Here again you will not use this very often. A simple return from the Autodial menu will take you back to the terminal.

C=B; this is the buffer toggle. There is a certain amount of free memory to catch text that is transmitted by the system you are on. There are text files on some systems. If you open the buffer it will save it in memory. The buffer is 53000 Bytes large. When it is open (to catch text) the word open will flash next to the word buffer in the status line.

C=C; this is Chat mode. It allows you to type to another person on another computer. Your words appear in the bottom half of the screen and theirs in the top half. Press ESC to exit.

C=D; dump buffer this will send the contents of the buffer to the modem, but only when there is a carrier.

C=E; echo toggle when Echo is on, your typing appears on the screen. When off it will not. To call a BBS leave it off. To call an individual turn it on.

C=S; this will read a seq. file.

C=W; this turns on and off the status window.

C=@; change Baud rate Input the new speed.

C=+; off hook picks up the line.

C=-: on hook hangs up.

ALT; switches the terminal from Ascii translation and Color Graphics.

The left side of the help screens contain more commands. These are:

Home-Control-S- The home key stands for control and S keystrokes.

C=K - Edit F-Keys - This allows you to edit the function keys 1-8. For instance you could set one up as "atso=5" this would prevent your modem from answering for 5 rings. These keys are used as Macros. They can hold strings of text commonly used and one key stroke can take the place of many.

C=Q - Quit term - you are given a chance to say no.

C=R - Reset Hayes - This sends a series of reset commands to your modem.

C=Z - Zero Buffer - Clears buffer.

C=L - Load keys and numbers - This will load the file that contains the phone numbers and the key definitions.

C=N - Name - Send name to system you are currently on line with.

C=p - Password - send password to system.

These commands are available in terminal mode for ease of use.

There is a Main Menu that can be accessed pressing the Help key.

This menu looks like this:

** PRO-128-Terminal V 16.1 Main Menu **

 B=Buffer Utilities  D=Disk Utilities
 A=Auto dial menu    K=Edit F-keys
 P=Punter menu       X=X modem menu

 Press return for Terminal mode

The only thing you really need to access it for is the disk utilities. We will now look at these. Hit "D" for Disk Utilities.

You are greeted with another menu. It looks like this:

**Disk Utilities**

Work Drive: 8

D=directory     S=send command
'=Disk Status   F=file copier
*=change dev #  (ret)=exit

D-displays directory of work drive.

S-allows you to send a DOS command to work drive.

'-shows status of work drive.

F-copies files between 2 drives.

*-changes work drive number.

(ret)-exits to main menu.

The buffer utilities section is accessed by pressing "B" from the main menu. Here another sub menu that looks like this:

    **Buffer Utilities**

R-read buffer    P-print buffer
L-load buffer    S-save buffer
C-clear buffer   D-load"pro-docs"

    (ret)-exit
    Buffer holds 0 Bytes
    Buffer has:53000 Bytes free

R-read buffer, displays the contents of the buffer.

P-allows you to dump the contents of the buffer to your printer.

L-you can load sequential files in the buffer and view or print it.

S-writes the buffer to the disk.

C-wipes out the buffer.

D-this was included by the author of the program to aid you in the use of it. Select this, print it if you can for additional information.

Return exits to the main menu. The last two lines apply to the status of the buffer.

You should be ready to start calling and supporting BBS's. Hit "A" from the main menu or C= and A from the terminal. Enter "D" for dial, remember you must have numbers in the directory or you will not be able to dial, and select the system you want to call. That's all there is to it. Investigate the program. If you are concerned about hurting something copy it to a disk and work with a backup. Practice offline. Figuring out the BBS programs is a lot easier if you know how to handle your communications software.

Lastly, enjoy the boards!! They are a good source of odd personalities!!!!

Copy Session Order Form

January 1989

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This month featured disks with educational software starting in Kindergarten and going through 5th grade.

September 1989

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This list covers January 1989 through June 1990. It will help us serve you faster if you give us your disk order before the copy session. We will make up the disks ahead of time and have them waiting for you at the session. We can copy to your blanks, or you can pay a charge of 50 cents per disk, which is the cost of blank disks through MCUC. Give your order to one of the officers at the September general meeting, or mail by Sept. 15 to: MCUC, PO Box 34095, Memphis, TN 38134-0095