RITE-TIMES NEWS

CHICAGO AREA TIMEX USERS GROUP

ago ured Cimer Users Group owners Grove, DOS Volume 5, Number 2 March/April 1991 MEMORY MAP

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Convert Tape Programs to LarKen Disk ........ 7

Tape Header Readerist_Q & Potpourri ......... 9

QLUSTer vå 305. for SPECTRUM seis KE NEIEN kea 9 BAS» A E Ee EEN EE E E N oars 12

C.A.T.U.G. CLUB OFFICERS

Here is the list of 1991 club officers and how to contact them. The club has two strong SIGS, SPECTRUM/TS2068 and QL. If you have questions about either of these fine machines or even the

ZX81/TS1000/TS1500 call one of the officers. C=312, S=708. POSITION NAME PHONE PRIMARY FUNCTION

President Nazir Pashtoon 58434-1679 The buck stops here... Vice-President Steve Cooper S968-3553 Meeting Planning, etc. Secretary John Donaldson S232-6147 Records and Reporting Treasurer Al Feng S971-0495 Dues and Purchasing Editor Bob Swoger S576-8068 Newsletter, BBS, etc.

RITE-TIMES NEWS 1

Volume V, Number 2 March/April 1991

Ritte-Times Information

The Rite-Times News is the newsletter of the Chicago Area Timex Users Group. For an annual fee of $12.00 you can become a CATUG member with full membership privileges. Send your dues to:

CATUG TREASURER AL FENG 15 WAKE ROBIN CT WOODRIDGE IL 60517

The Chicago Area Timex Users Group is pleased to exchange newsletters with other Timex and Sinclair supporting users groups at no charge. Send all newsletter requests to:

CATUG EDITOR BOB SWOGER 613 PARKSIDE CIRCLE STREAMWOOD IL 60107-1647

If you desire to reprint any articles that appear here, please provide credit to the author and this newsletter.

We encourage your user group to copy this newsletter and distribute it at your regular meetings to your members free of any charge as we believe that this will encourage better meeting attendance. If you are a user group that feels as we do, please let us know in your newsletter so that we might do this for our members and keep our attendance up.

Articles originating from our group may be downloaded from our BBS and reprinted.

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE Al Feng John Donaldson Nazir Pashtoon Bob Swoger, K9WVY

CLUB MEETINGS

The Chicago Area Timex Users Group meets on the THIRD Saturday of each month at the home of our meeting coordinator Steve Cooper in Downers Grove, Illinois from 1:00 to 5:00 PM. Steve's home is lovingly called

ee ee)

the CLUB HOUSE and is located at 1300 Maple Street in Downers Grove just 2 blocks southwest of the Downers Grove Public Library. Steve should be contacted evenings at 708/968-3553. to confirm the meeting schedule.

When visiting be careful of the Dutch Dooooooooorrrrrrrr.......

INPUT/OUTPUT

I saw in The Plotter a few months back a request from Tom Skapinski asking for help to convert a tape program to LarKen Disk. Though the MMI save is a fast way to get started, neat screens can be lost and I like to keep neat screens! Tom, look below for the article you have been waiting for and good luck.

Tom, you won't have to type in HEADER.BT to get the job done, it is on your LogiCall disk #1.

FROM THE EDITORS DESK

I have recently talked to Bill Heberlein, the president of SMUG. Bill informed me that the Dayton user group (could this be DMA and the DATA BUS we said was dead last time?) will be having a Computer Fest at the Hara Arena and Conference Center in Dayton Saturday and Sunday, August 24th and 25th, 1991. In the SMUG newsletter Bill states that he talked to Gary Ganger of Sinclair fame and found out that they are to group all the Sinclair groups together if we send our table requests to Gary. Here is a reprint from the SMUG newsletter:

"If you are planing on having a table, send your money by the end of June. I hope we have a large contingent of Sinclair Users. Gary said the user group/flea market tables will not have a wall but will be in the center of the hall.

OK, here are the costs: If you choose to go, to all you who want to go the big professional

way, you can get a 10' x 10! both with two draped tables and two chairs for only $150, $175 after June 30. This also includes Friday night set up and tickets for the show. `

The user group way, also known as the flea market, is a little different. For $20, $25 after June 30, you can get a 6' x Bi table space with one chair. You will have to purchase your own tickets, at $5 each, for both days, and if you want to set up on Friday night the extra cost is $25. Also there will be a banquet Friday night. This will cost $13.50. Gary says they are looking for a name speaker. Gary also says that Friday night set up is not necessary as the vendors will be able to get in at 6am with the show opening to the public at 10 am. Garys address is 812 HEDWICK ST NEW CARLISLE OH 45344-2619. His phone number is 513-849-1483. All tables have electricity."

So far CATS, CATUG, ISTUG, NESQLUG, SMUG and T/SNUG are planning on being there. Get your inputs to Gary Ganger

before June 30th for the best

prices on tables.

Bob Swoger, Editor Chicago Area Timex Users Group

TREASURY NOTES

Our balance stands at $413.79. Our current paid membership stands at 15.

Al Feng, Treasurer Chicago Area Timex Users Group

SECRETARY'S NOTEPAD

March 16, 1991

The meeting was called to order by President Pashtoon at 2:05pm. Those present were Messrs. Brezina, Cooper, Donaldson, Feng, Kahale, Mills, Pashtoon, Sauter and Swoger.

An article in one of the other newsletters tells about the Hobbit, a Russian computer that

looks like an IBM-XT on the outside, understands CP/M, and has a Spectrum clone at its heart. It is switchable from Russian to Latin to English with a toggle. Interestingly, the Russian word for computer hobbyist is - they tell us - "“Sinclairski". What next???

Larry Sauter's LarKen DOS board was sent to Larry Kenny for repair and was replaced rather than being fixed for a charge of only $15. Larry was more than satisfied. (There was no Spectrum ROM on it at that price, however.)

Bob Swoger informed Larry Kenny about the mix-up of Western Digital 1770s and 1772s with the wrong EPROMS on them. Kenny thought the L3F should work with both. It does not. When Swoger tried L3F with the WD1770, all 4 drives came on at once. So Bob informed him that he had fixed the LarKen systems for Joan Kealey of Texas and Ron Desind of Florida and that he would be willing to help others in a similar predicament.

Larry Kenny told Bob he hada customer somewhere near him who wanted an update from Version 1 to 3. It turned out that not only did he live in the next town to Bob, he was listed in the phone book. A quick call from Bob and that's how we got to meet Abed Kahale!

Abed Kahale was introduced as a new member of CATUG. A TS2068 user, he has written a program in un-compiled BASIC which does statistical analysis of the stocks in his portfolio. He warns us that it won't tell him when to buy or sell but in charting the ups and downs, he has done well in the market. He was forcibly retired a year ago and has no wish to finda new job. How's that for proof?

Abed has a Foote interface for his printer which goes into the dock port. It may prove to be interesting for some future applications.

This seems to point to a new possibility for our community: If vendors could supply us with the customers' names and addresses from our state, we could get in contact with them. They might not be aware of our existence and may be eager to join. An active user -- with the support of a user group -- could become a better customer. (Something for vendors to think about.)

Through the good graces of Frank Davis - and a better collection of Time Designs Magazine, John Donaldson was able to more-or-less complete his set of TDM. He felt as if he was paying double because he had an unfinished subscription when TDM hit the skids. But it WAS a good magazine and when you're desperate ...

Frank Mills requested a copy of DISKS.Bl so he could SAVE and stay in the program rather than SAVEing and exiting. As a result, Swoger did the update in his latest version of LogiCall and this is now included on all new disks. At this point, there have been 27 customers for LogiCall.

RainbowFest will be held in Schaumburg, Illinois at the Regency Hyatt Hotel on April 26th thru 28th. Although Rainbow magazine (for RS Color Computers) is the sponsor, it caused some discussion in our group. In a world of shrinking CoCo groups and tiny hardcore Timex/Sinclair groups, perhaps they could be persuaded to allow our people to rent a couple of tables. Maybe next year?

The latest JLO EPROM was delivered to Steve Cooper. When will we see a demo, Steve?

Bill Ferribee of Mountaineer Software, Parksburg, WV is looking for a copy of the schematic for a Koala Board. He took his apart and can't put it together again. Can anybody help?

Sinc-Link has a TasPak program

for the TS2068 for Tasword compression and expansion. One of our members reports that his computer crashes when its memory reaches overload. If you load your Tasword program at address 45056, the compression program works on it, takes the spaces out and replaces some of the letters with keywords and puts all of this in at the normal Tasword position, 33280 and suddenly runs out of space at that point. One of Jim Brezina's files was 19,087 characters long - almost all the space you have in a Tasword file - and reached END OF FILE when he wanted to add a few more words. Apparently you're OK up to about 250 lines of text. After that, you're looking at an EOF statement.

One of the problems is that you must be careful about file names. If you try to expand a file that has already been expanded oor if you try to shrink it and it has already been shrunk, all is lost. You'd better have a backup before trying the program!

Bob Swoger has rewritten a few lines to change the extenders. If it's a ¿CT file, only then will it shrink down; if it's a CP file, only then will it allow expansion.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:09pm.

April 20, 1991

The meeting was called to order by President Pashtoon at 2:25pm. Those present were: Messrs. Brezina, Cooper, Donaldson, Feng, Kahale, Mills, Pashtoon, Sauter and Swoger.

Steve Cooper's color monitor needed some attention and some modifications were made. This was done principally to clean up the color.

-- T/SNUG --

Spurred by an letter by Don Lambert in the Clackamas County Area T/S Users Group newsletter on the lack of a SNUG presence,

Bob Swoger was awakened at 4 o'clock the next morning with an inspiration. "Why not take some action to get the thing going? After all," he thought, "SNUG is supposed to be US." Acting on the phrase, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way," he began writing and editorial for a new newsletter. later that day he called Don Lambert. Don agreed to become the Chairman of a new organization, T/SUNG, the Timex/Sinclair NorthAmerican Users Group.

Next, a call to Al Feng gave birth to a quarterly newsletter with the title "ZXir QLive Alive!" which will cover all the Sinclair-based computer products from ZX80 thru QL.

Don Lambert from Auburn, Indiana is Chairman and Chief Motivator of T/SNUG. His phone number is 219-925-1372. Bob Swoger from Streamwood, Illinois is Vice-Chairman of T/SNUG, Newsletter Editor, pro-tem, and BBS SYSOP. His phone number is 708-837-7957. All other Committee Chairs are open. Call one of these fine men to enlist in the cause.

CATUG voted unanimously to pay $15 for membership in T/SNUG. Its newsletter, ZXir QLive Alive!, will carry advertising copy at no cost to the venders. It is T/SNUG's belief that ina shrinking market where venders cannot afford to advertise, subscribers who wish to see what the venders have to offer will pay to see those ads through membership fees.

Through an exchange with Sinc- Link in Toronto, Bob Swoger has

obtained their operating system, OmniBus, and hopes to do an evaluation of it comparing it to his own

product, LogiCall.

Swoger talked to SMUG's Bill Heberlein who has been in con- tact with Ruth Fegley of CATS and Frank Davis of ISTUG. All 3 groups plan to have tables at the Dayton Computer Convention

Saturday and Sunday, August 24 & 25 at the Hara Arena and Conference Center. (This is not confined to Timex/Sinclair.) CATUG will attend.

The Data Bus DMA N/L which some thought dead resurfaced in April 1991 after a long absence since March 1990. The message is: If you don't publish with regularity, people presume the club has been retired.

Former member Jay Siegel visited Nazir and presented him with a plain paper sample of TS2068 graphic output done on an Okimate color printer which he'd gotten for $79 at Toys R Us. Using McMichael Color Copy software, the data was piped through a Centronics interface to the printer. The result is impressive. Bob Swoger reported that for whatever reason these printers can't be found in the Chicago area which has kept CATUG TS2068 owners from enjoying this sport. ee at the DAYTON FEST . °

The group voted to renew its membership in QUANTA, a QL group based in England. It affords much-needed information on QL happenings around the world and provides information of the latest developments in hardware, peripherals, and programs.

Al Feng, in answer to NESQLUG's request for exchange of QL info, sent a copy of CATUG's public domain QL library disk. There has been no response. Note to NESQLUG: Did you receive it?

Bob Swoger reports that LogiCall sales have reached 29 and 9 or 10 of the 747 Flight Simulators have been sold.

Abed Kahale was designated as the Group Archivist in an effort to open up some space in Bob Swoger's crowded garage.

The meeting was closed at 3:18pm.

Following the meeting, there was a QL graphics demo of an

TEE

Easel alternative by Al Feng in which he showed us a stock charting program he'd developed. Abed compared notes with him and found that the way he wrote his program for the TS2068 differed in procedure but achieved similar results.

Nazir Pashtoon gave two demos. The first one involved a small box attached to the ROM port of his QL. This will be known as the QL 4X4. Inside, there are two very large EPROMs and one programmable array logic chip. There are five switches on the device. Two switches on the right select the version of QDOS you need. On the left, two switches select any version of Toolkit you may need, e.g., Speedscreen, Toolkit II, etc. These 4 QDOS and 4 Toolkit possibilities are totally independent, giving a total of 16 combinations. In addition, there is an LED which turns red or green by a third switch. When it is red, you have the 4x4 (16) possibilities. When ite 21S green, if there is anything connected to its expansion slot, you have a feed-through of the ROM bus available. If you have any other language, connected to the slot, it can be activated. So there are really 17 possi- bilities! The extra language or module can stay; it doesn't have to be removed.

The other demo was the addition of a large LCD display screen which can be attached to his 4X4 box.

This was a further development of last month's demo of a board he calls Twist_Q. Either one can be plugged into the ROM port of any stock QL.

John Donaldson, Secretary Chicago Area Timex Users Group

NEWS ITEMS

Plan to attend the DMA Computer Fest at the Hara Arena and Conference Center in Dayton Saturday and Sunday, August

24th and 25th, 1991. Get your money to Gary Ganger 812 Hedwick St., New Carlisle, OH 45344-2619 for tickets and tables before June 30th. His phone number is 513-849-1483. Talk it up at your user group meetings. The Sinclair clan will be grouped together.

ITEMS FOR SALE THROUGH THE CLUB LogiCall AOS-LKDOS Software Ensemble for TS2068 and Spectrum includes LogiCall 4.4 TASWORD II V2.4 VU-CALC VU-FILE and MTERM2 Drivers modified for

LogiCall, DISKS.B1 TAPES.B1 steprt.Bl HEADER. BT (tape header reader by Nazir

Pashtoon) FORMAT. BR MOVE.BL and more all on 2 SSDD disks for $5. You must specify your LK-DOS EPROM version. If you already have a copy you are encouraged to distribute copies to other LarKen LK-DOS users for as you see by the price we are not in the business of making money on it, just making LarKen's LK-DOS the BEST!

So you like to fly? The 747 Flight Simulator for Spectrum by Derek Ashton of DACC sold over 40K copies in EUROPE. Requires Spectrum Emulator. Supplied on LarKen SSDD or DSQD disk only at this time for $10 which goes to Derek Ashton now working at MOTOROLA, INC., Schaumburg, IL.

Call in requests to Bob Swoger at W708-576-8068 H708-837-7957

Want to try MS-DOS first before you switch? Try QLuMSi DOS, the MS-DOS SIMULATOR on your QL first.

QLuMSi (disk/specify) ..... $15

Try Al's Side-Kick on your QL. It is an AOS like LogiCall on the TS2068 and can make your life on the QL a lot easier [you may never lust for MS-DOS again! ]

QLUSTer (disk/specify) ..... $10

CALL: Al Feng 4H(708) 971-0495

GATOR's TWISTED PAIR

Pele REMEMBER ERAN. We now have a 24 hour BBS and encourage you to exchange mail and contribute to the Download Section. Use it and have fun!

K ke ke ke k ke ke ke ke k k ke ke ke ke ke k ke k k k k ke k k k k k k k k

CATUG BBS

708/576-7072 Type at the > prompt: MOTOROLA then GUEST

BYE to log out Commands are: DIR,TYPE,MAIL * UPLOAD filename.type * DOWNLOAD filename.type *

KKKKKKKKEKKKKKKKKKKKKK KKK KKK KK KK

+ + + FF + HF OF + + + + >+

Bob Swoger, SYSOP Chicago Area Timex Users Group

SPECIAL DEALS AND BUYS

It has come to our attention that some LarKen Users are using something less than Version 3 firmware. The club will supply updated EPROMS, SYSTEM DISKS, and MANUALS for just $5 which includes shipping and handling, free if ordered with LogiCall or Spectrum ROM.

If you are a lLarkKen LK-DOS owner and would like a SPECTRUM V2 kit for your system we will supply an EPROM, socket and 74HCT32 for $12 which includes shipping and handling. The install instructions are in your LarKen manual. We shall not be responsible for your install job. AERCO owners need only the SPECTRUM EPROM for $10

If you have a mismatch between you LarKen DOS EPROM and your Western Digital Controller chip, we will send you the correct one for free on behalf of our friends Rod Gowen of RMG and Larry Kenny of LarKen.

Call in requests to Bob Swoger at W708-576-8068 H708-837-7957

+ARTICLES

CONVERTING TAPE PROGRAMS TO LARKEN DISK PROGRAMS

BY BOB SWOGER

In a letter to ROD GOWEN and The PLOTTER Tom Skapinski of New York asked how to convert tape programs to disk programs.

What is needed first is Nazir Pashtoon's program HEADER.BT, a tape header reader program he wrote while a member of list. This program will tell you the autostart line number of a BASIC program and Che start address and length of the machine code files.

Most programs for the TS2068 are made up of a BASIC driver program, a SCREEN save to add CLASS to the program, and the machine code program that does the greatest portion of the work to give the program high speed operation. The machine code programs which need load and save routines usually go back to the BASIC driver program for that type of support.

The BASIC driver program when loaded sets the keyboard parameters like CAPS LOCK and key click length, border, paper and ink colors, sets RAMTOP and loads in the screen file and the machine code file, then runs the machine code file. Variations might load in more than one screen file, more than one machine code file or even call in another BASIC

program.

Most of the time these files all have headers on the tape to tell the TS2068 all the information needed for proper loading like auto-run line numbers of BASIC programs and Start address and length of machine code files. We shall take as an example these simple types of tape programs first. The simplest program to move

would be the BASIC only program. The second simplest would be a program containing a BASIC driver program, a screen file and a machine code file. We will take up this second kind. Let's go thru step by step and see how to move tape programs to disk.

1) Gather HEADER.BT, pencil, paper, the taped program, and a newly formatted disk.

2) Load HEADER.Bl into the TS2068, it will come up running.

3) Start the tape drive in the play mode and play the header of the first program on the tape into the TS2068.

4) Note the type of program (the first is usually BASIC) and the AUTO-RUN line number. If the program is machine code then note the start address and length of the file.

Do this for each file on the tape. Now it is time to copy the programs from tape to disk. Let us pretend that the three ` files had the names 'bdriver', "screen' and 'mcode'. Put your formatted disk into drive 0.

5) Load the program ‘'bdriver' into the TS2068. After it loads in it will wait for the file "screen' to load in. Turn off the tape drive before this happens. Use shift and break to halt the program.

6) Now type LIST 9990 to determine if there are any program lines in this area. For the sake of further discussion let us say we find none. Now add the following line to the program: 9992 RANDOMIZE USR 100: SAVE "BDRIVE.B1" LINE 1 (we are assuming that LINE 1 is the auto-run line number found by using the HEADER.BT header reader program.

7) ‘Type GOTO 9990 and hit 'ENTER' The program is now saved to disk. We shall work on it later.

8) Now the file 'screen' will

be moved. Type in the following:

LOAD""SCREEN: RANDOMIZE USR 100: SAVE “bdrive.CS"SCREEN and hit 'ENTER' The screen file is now on disk.

9) Now the file 'mcode' will be moved. Type in the following: LOAD""SCREEN: RANDOMIZE USR 100: SAVE "bdrive.Cl"CODE 32768, 2345 and hit 'ENTER' The screen file is now on disk. (we are assuming that the start address of the code file is 32768 and its length is 2345 bytes long found by using the HEADER. BT header reader program. )

Now comes the time to go back and make the BASIC driver work. We will assume that there is enough room below RAM-TOP to add the lines needed to get the program to do all it is supposed to. This would not be the case with ZEBRA'sS GREETING CARD DESIGNER. One would have to KRUNCH the program down a bit using NOT PI instead of 0, SGN PI instead of 1, PRINT #RND instead of PRINT #0 and so on. Just do a PRINT FREE to see how much room you have, over 1K will be fine.

A) LOAD "BDRIVE.B1" from disk back into the TS2068 and break into the program.

B) Find the line that loads in the screen file, it looks something like: LOAD ""SCREEN. Sometimes it may look like: LOAD ""CODE but it will be the first LOAD statement after the auto-run line number you found earlier with HEADER.BT.

C) Change LOAD ""SCREEN or LOAD ""CODE to read: RANDOMIZE USE 100: LOAD "bdrive.C$S"SCREEN

D) Find the line that loads in the machine code file, it looks something like: LOAD ""CODE.

E) Change LOAD ""CODE to read: RANDOMIZE USE 100: LOAD “bdrive.C1l"CODE

F) Add the line: 9998 RANDOMIZE USR 100:NEW. This will be used

to get you back to LogiCall when you exit the program.

G) Use the LogiCall manual to further modify the program to do a clean exit to LogiCall.

H) Now type GOTO 9990 and the program will be saved to disk with all the modifications and will be ready to run on your LarKen Disk Operating System.

That should do it, use LogiCall to load it one more time into the TS2068. It should run now just as it did when you loaded it from tape, screen and all! It will just load in many times faster. If the screen file goes by too fast for you, just add :PAUSE 0 after the screen load and you will then have to hit a key to continue the machine code load.

HEADER.BT by Nazir Pashtoon

10 REM <PROGRS. HEADER READER > 20 REM NAP AUG.,10,1984 30 INK 7: POKE 23658,0: CLEAR 32764 40 LET j=32765: LET head=j+45 50 DEF FN g(x)=PEEK x+256*PEE K (x+1) 60 RESTORE 70 FOR n=0 TO 44: READ code 80 POKE (j+N),code: NEXT n 90 DATA 62,0,55,221, 33, 42,128 ,17,17,0, 243,245,219, 255, 203,25 5,211, 255,219, 244,50, 41,128, 62, 1,211, 244,241,205, 252,0,58, 41,1 28,211, 244,219,255, 203,191,211, 255,251,201,0 100 CLS 110 POKE head, 4 120 PRINT AT 18,8;"start the t ape" 130 RANDOMIZE USR j 140 CLS : LET hdtype=PEEK head 150 IF hdtype=4 THEN GO TO 100 0 160 LET h$="" 170 FOR n=1 TO 10 180 LET h$=h$+CHR$ PEEK (head+ n) 190 NEXT n 200 PRINT "Prog. Name > "ch $: PRINT : PRINT 205 LET a=head 210 LET hdlen=FN g(a+11): LET hdadr=FN g(a+13): LET hdvars=FN

g (a+15)

220 LET vars=hdlen-hdvars

230 IF hdtype THEN GO SUB 500: GO TO 1010

300 PRINT "Program is in BASIC DS PRINT

310 PRINT "Program area >";hd vars;" bytes": PRINT

320 PRINT "Variables area >"; vars;" bytes": PRINT

330 IF hdadr>10000 THEN PRINT "There is no autostart !": GOT o 1010

340 PRINT "Line # for autostar t >";hdadr: GO TO 1010

500 LET b$=""

510 IF hdtype=1 THEN LET b$="N umber array"

520 IF hdtype=2 THEN LET bS="C haracter array"

521 IF hdtype=3 THEN LET b$="M achine Code file"

530 PRINT "Program is a ";bS : PRINT

540 IF hdtype=3 THEN PRINT "Bi nary code ,start adr >";hdadr: PRINT

550 PRINT "Block length is >" ;hdlen;" bytes"

560 RETURN

1000 PRINT FLASH 1;AT 18,8;" This is not a tape header"

1010 PRINT FLASH 0;AT 19,1;"Are you game for another try ?(y/n)

1020 PAUSE 0: IF INKEYS="y" THE N GO TO 100

1030 STOP

9992 RANDOMIZE USR 100: SAVE "H EADER.BT" LINE 1

9998 RANDOMIZE USR 100: LOAD "L BLS

This program is part of the LogiCall ensemble on Disk #1 and can also be downloaded from our BBS.

QLUSTer v4.305 by Al Feng

QLUSTer v4.305 (QL Utilities / SuperToolkit Enhanced Release) is a front-end program which accesses five SuperTOOKIT2 key- words [WCOPY; WDELete; SPooL; RENAME; and, WSTATUS] in addi- tion to the standard keywords accessed by QLUTter (COPY; DELETE; “PRINT"; FORMAT; and “VIEW"] for easy QL file ma- nagement.

QLUSTer can also be used as a front end for any valid EXECutable (EXEC_W) program (including, the four Psion programs).

QLUSTer displays the filenames in four columns on any medium (up to 608 files on 8 menu pages) which allows for (too) many small files on a 1.44 meg (or especially, 720K!) floppy if the disk interfaces are ever upgraded, and an access to a reasonable number (?) on a 20 meg hard disk.

Each menu "screen" displays up to 76 filenames. If you have more than 76 files on a medium, the number of extra files not visible on the current screen is indicated.

Most <Key> INPUTs involve only one or two key strokes. The primary utilities are accessed by the appropriate function-key indicated in the legend at the top of the screen.

TK2_EXT functions are accessed

by SWITCHing ( '/! ). The specific file is selected by keying the {'prefix'} which

precedes the file name.

Pressing the 'Down_Cursor' key accesses the next menu page.

To go back to the previous menu

page(s), use the "Up Cursor' key.

Filenames longer than 19 characters are NOT recognized

by the program. The suggested maximum length is fourteen (14)

characters. While more expli- cit (i.e., longer) names are nice, the "real" world only

allows twelve (12) characters; so, using longer filenames is a bad habit to get into.

The 'FILE.DIRectory' is an active file. If you use 'pre-VIEW' ('F5') on this file,

you will see that it is a list of all of the files on the disk. If you have a lot of paper to use (Ui, it can be LPRINTed via the 'Hard-COPY' function.

10

Changing directories can be as simple as pressing either the ‘left’ or ‘right’ Cursor Key. If the current directory is ‘flpl_', for example, and you wish to access 'flp2_', then you simply press the "Right_Cursor' key. Similarly, if you have immediate access to YElp2 and wish to access 'flpl_', then press the 'left cursor' key.

Accessing '‘'flp3_' from 'flp2 ' is a little more difficult; and a ‘shift Right _Cursor' key combination is employed.

To access 'raml_' from 'flpl_' via the cursor keys you must use a 'ConTRoL Left Cursor' key

combination. NOTE: If you do not have RAM disk facilities, you will more than likely set up a file which

reads "“ram3 FILE.DIRectory" on the disk in 'flpl_'.

A SAMPLE RUN-THROUGH

After LOADing QLUSTer, you will see a "white screen" with the version number and other misc. information, followed by the opening screen with the word "CHANGE DEVICE' highlighted.

You can navigate to almost any function within the program from this screen by TABbing along the command bar to the appropriate function name, and then pressing the 'Space Bari to open the appropriate window.

Each time you LOAD the program,

you have to initiate it by choosing a valid storage medium. The default medium is a null 'xxx'.

After you press an appropriate letter (e.g., 'f' or 'F' for "flpl_"), the highlighted bar will move to ‘AUTO EXEC'.

If you press the 'Space Bart, you will see a screen with the files located on the medium.

If you press 'F5' you will see that the screen format remains very much the same.

The line above the menu window will indicate which utility you are accessing with an empty

Mf }' rather than '[F5]', and the name highlighted within a colored block (as you move to other the utilities, the block and empty '{ }' will change accordingly).

Now, if you select any of the

prefixes which are {bracketed} then you see the file's contents; for example, if you

select the BOOT file, you will

see a LISTing of the BOOT file on the medium. If you 'view' machine code, you will see

ASCII & non-ASCII characters.

If you press '/', then you will see that highlighted word will have changed to "“WSTATus" in the top line.

Accessing the 'WSTATus' allows you to determine the file size (bytes), and the date the program was saved (if your QL's clock was properly set!).

If you press '/', again, you will see that it has changed back to 'pre-VIEW'.

QUIT a utility by either

selecting another utility via the function keys, or by using the '(esc)' key to access the “opening page" to access the "AUTO_EXECute' page.

If you try "Eli: you should be

in the '‘'COPY' utility. You will see a flashing cursor after the word "to" near the top of the main window. You

must respond to this by either pressing <ENTER>; or, 'm', 'r', 'f' and then <ENTER>; or, "Toi <ENTER> followed by the drive type and <ENTER> and the number and <ENTER>, again. This becomes the temporary default.

Because the COPYing is done on a key-select (ive) basis you can re-order the contents of one medium by cCOPYing it onto another by simply selecting the various files in the order you choose, omitting those which you do not choose to put on the ‘second' medium.

3

If you press the '(esc)ape' key you will be returned to the command window.

Defile is a method of un-cluttering your disks. Use the 'pre-VIEW' utility ('F5')

to scan the file if you are uncertain of its contents.

Note that the 'FILE.DIRectory' or ANY file will relocate itself inthe first available sector it can find.

For example, if the first file from a medium is DELETed, it

will be replaced by the 'FILE.DIRectory'. Verification (yt h is

requested at the bottom of the screen prior to DELETion of a file.

Hard-COPY allows the selected file to your printer via 'SERial dek? Or 'SERial 2'. It is meant to replace the missing LLIST statement. It may also be used for printing many "HELP" files included with some programs. However, QLUSTer is ignorant of ConTRoL codes, and will not format Quill doc(uments).

you to send

Re-FORMATing can only be done to any like medium as the one currently accessed by QLUSTer.

If you aren't already doing so,

you may want to begin FORMATting your disks with specific names. I use names

such as DOCFILE 01, DOCFILE 02, ABAFILE 01, etc. for data disks.

Pre-VIEW allows you to view the contents of a file without actually having to LOAD it and then LIST it to the screen.

SuperBASIC programs will appear as a LISTing. A “machine code" will be mostly unintelligible non-ASCII characters. A Quill_doc will be unformatted, with the text strung together. Quill lis files will be ASCII files roughly formatted to show the layout.

To pause, you may use the QL's “standard" ' CTRL FS" key combination.

Often times you do not need to “look at" an entire file. If this is the case, then press the '(esc)ape' key to pause or abort the 'pre-VIEW' [You may find the "iescht key is the more convenient way to pause than a 'CTRL F5' combination].

"WCOPY' and 'WDELete' allow for somewhat less discriminate COPYing and DELeting. Upon entering these portions of the program, you will see that you may choose:

Jëiee talba dbf _(g]rf _[o]ther/serial

Selecting ‘'other' will allow you to specify the String,

SPooL allows for background "Hard-COPY' production. If this is the selected PRINTing mode, the physical disk should NOT be removed. If you wish to LPRINT a text_doc(ument) using "SPooL', you should first create a quill lis(t) file.

RENAME allows you to change the name of a file on any medium with the existing proviso that the name be less than 19 characters. You may input a longer name, however, you will not be able to access it via the "standard" functions.

QLUSTer has limited, on-line 'HELP' available.

QLUSTer is TASKMASTER, ORAM, and MINERVA (v1.66) compatible.

HAPPY TRAILS, AND COMPUTING, TO YOU ...

NOTE: For a limited time,

NITE-TIMES NEWS readers can purchase a copy of QLUSTer for only $10.00 (specify disk size). Offer good till May 31, 1991.

If supplied on microcart, send $15.00 (you will also be

12

provided with a 5.25" disk unless 3.5" is specified). Send $11.00 if you supply your own microcart.

Current QLUSTer users should return their master disk with $2.00 for the latest version.

PLEASE NOTE: QLUSTer requires TK2_EXT or FLP_EXT extensions).

To put an AD in the Computer related section of the BBS, put a file in your account with the filename. filetype: COMPUTER.ADS ! ! ! Our ADS are free ! ! ! !

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13

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Someone said there would be no

SINELAIR ComputerFfest

this year... WRONG!

Plan to attend the DMA Computer Fest at the Hara Arena and

Conference Center in Dayton Saturday and Sunday, August 24th and 25th, 1991. Get your

money to Gary Ganger, 812 Hedwick St., New Carlisle, OH 45344-2619 for tickets and tables before June 30th. His phone number is 513-849-1483. Talk it up at your user group meetings. The Sinclair Clan will be grouped together. See the article in March/April NITE-TIMES NEWS for more

details or call Gary Ganger.

SEE YOU THERE,

RIGHT?

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CHICAGO AREA TIMEX USERS GROUP 613 PARKSIDE CIRCLE STREAMWOOD, ILLINOIS 60107