t t the small systems j ournal OCTOBER 1983 Vol. 8, No. 10 > $3.50 in USA $3.95 in Canada/£2.10 in U.K.. A McGraw-Hill Publication 0360-5280 UNIX >T MICROS F W 1 nl . Computer crime on tne increase NEC's latest advance »Inside Apple -^- ^ Vol. I. No. 3 Apple's new Monitor II. A sight for sore eyes. If you've been using a TV as a monitor, perhaps you can get a friend to read this for you: Apple's brand new Monitor II will improve your vision. It features all the latest ergonomic improvements in monitor technology. For example: Studies have shown that the leading cause of eye fatigue for computer users is lack of contrast between the displayed characters and their background. So we designed the Monitor II around a high conttast green phosphor CRT that provides an extremely dark background. That means you can read text at a lower brightness. And that means you can be more productive — working longer and more comfortably. Toward that same end, we also gave Monitor II a tilt screen. So you can angle it perfectly for your working position, without scooting your chair around or sitting on phone books. And we made that screen anti reflective to reduce glare from ambient light. Monitor II also features a high bandwidth video amplifier and a high tolerance linearity circuit. The former keeps characters from smearing on the screen and eliminates the annoying "ghosts" left by a fast moving cursor. The latter keeps characters crisp, legible and prevents "keystoning" right up to the edges of the display. Both add up to superior display of 80-column text and extremely accurate graphics. Designed as the perfect system partner for the Apple lie Personal Computer, Monitor II requires no monitor stand. It's a perfect fit, aesthetically as well as technically. So it's pleasing to the eye even when it's turned off. See for yourself. At your local authorized Apple dealer. Interior of CRT is etched to reduce glare and improve crispness. Fits perfectly atop the Apple lie Now Apple plots color. Since color graphics are becoming ever more important in business, we've been hearing more and more calls for a color plotter as reliable as an Apple. Here it is: Apple's new Color Plotter can generate all kinds of presen- tation graphics, engineering drawings or anything else you have to illustrate in up to eight brilliant colors. And it can perform its art on any size paper up to 11" x 17" Or, with optional transparency pens, it can draw right on transparent film for overhead projection. Measuring just 4.8"H x 16" W x 12"D, it's the smallest four- color, wide bed color plotter you can buy — about half the size of conventional flatbed plotters. So it takes up less space on your desk and can easily be High tolerance linearity circuit. High bandwidth video amplifier. moved to someone else's desk. There are two color plotter accessory kits to choose from to assure a perfect marriage with your Apple II or He, or Apple III. Each kit comes with eight color pens — red, blue, green, black, burnt orange, gold, violet and brown. Plus a starter package of plotter paper. Plus all the manuals, documentation and cables appropriate to your particular kind of Apple. So you can get up and coloring right away. Apple also offers a complete selection of 24 different pen packages — so you can choose whatever colors you need in a variety of widths for a variety of applications and media types. As you might expect, all of the above is available at many of our authorized Apple dealers. Carry on with AppleCare Carry-In Service. No matter how long you've owned your Apple system, you can now get a long term service contract at a very reasonable cost. AppleCare Carry-In Service is a service plan that will cover most Apple-branded components in your system, for one full year. It covers an unlimited number of repairs and is honored by over 1500 authorized Apple dealers nationwide. Apple-trained technicians assure you of the highest quality service, fast — in most cases less than 24 hours. AppleCare Carry- In Service is ideal for anyone who needs to know ahead of time the cost of maintenance for their system. So check out the details — you'll find it's the lowest cost health plan an Apple can have. Apple Computer Inc., 20525 Manani Ave., Cupertino, Calif. 95014. For the authorized dealer nearest you, call (800) 538-9696. ©2983 Apple Computer Inc. AppleCare is a service mark of Apple Computer Inc. Circle 39 on inquiry card. BUTE Volume 8, Number 10 Page 36 Page 51 Cover Story 36 Product Preview: The HP 150 by Phil Lemmons and Barbara Robertson / "Magic" is the code name for Hewlett-Packard's latest personal computer project— and it fits. In this preview, we take a look at the hardware and software that make the machine so special. 51 An Interview: The HP 150's Design-team Leaders by Phil Lemmons and Barbara Robertson / Jim Sutton and John Lee talk about the development of the HP 150. Columns 67 Build the Micro D-Cam Solid-State Video Camera, Part 2: Computer Inter- faces and Control Software by Steve Ciarcia / In this final article in the series, you'll learn how to attach the camera to the expansion buses of the Apple II Plus and the IBM PC and how the camera is programmed to work. 94 BYTE West Coast: Shaping Consumer Software by Phil Lemmons and Barbara Robertson / In an interview, Trip Hawkins, president of Electronic Arts, discusses the criteria he uses to judge software and explains his view of the programmer as artist. 107 User's Column: New Computers, Boards, Languages, and Other Tidbits by Jerry Pournelle / A medical diagnosis-by-computer program is the star attraction this month. Themes 130 The Unix Operating System by Bruce Roberts / The multiuser, multitasking operating system developed at Bell Laboratories offers powers and abilities far beyond those of normal microcomputer operating systems. Our theme articles explore the reasons behind Unix's popularity. 132 The Unix Tutorial, Part 3: Unix in the Microcomputer Marketplace by David Fiedler / The final article in this series explains the differences between various Unix ver- sions and between true Unix systems, work-alikes, and look-alikes. 160 Unix and the Standardization of Small Computer Systems by Jean L. Yates / The Unix operating system and the C language will be major factors in the stan- dardization of file handling and compatibility across small systems and mainframes. 170 A Tour Through the Unix File System by James Joyce / A devoted Unix user surveys points of interest in Unix's hierarchy of files. 187 The Unix Shell by Stephen R. Bourne / The author of the standard Unix shell presents the program that interprets users' commands and is a programming language in its own right. 209 Unix as an Application Environment by Mark Krieger and Fred Pack / Unix is the operating system of choice for many programmers because it offers portability, com- munications capability, a rich set of utilities, and a large body of applications. 219 Usenet: A Bulletin Board for Unix Users by Sandra L. Emerson / A look at a network of more than 500 Unix systems and its various and sundry uses. 241 The Unix Writer's Workbench Software by Lorinda L. Cherry and Nina H. Macdonald / This applications package can improve your writing by analyzing rough drafts and suggesting improvements. 253 Typesetting on the Unix System by Bill Tuthill / With troff, you can typeset manuscripts, tables, and equations with Unix. 266 Moving Unix to New Machines by Michael Tilson / Unix is highly portable, but transporting a large body of software can present problems. Reviews 280 The NEC Advanced Personal Computer by David B. Suits / The author met the microcomputer of his dreams in the form of high-resolution graphics, color, and 16-bit performance. Page 132 BYTE is published monthly by McGraw-Hill, Inc.. with offices at 70 Mam St, Peterborough NH 03458, phone |603| 924-928 1 Office hours: Mon— Thur 8:30 AM — 4:30 PM, Friday 8:30 AM — Noon, Eastern Time Address subscriptions to BYTE Subscriptions, POB 590, Martinsville, NJ 08836. Address changes of address. USPS Form 3579, and fulfillment questions to BYTE Subscriptions, POB 596. Martinsville, NJ 08836 Second class postage paid at Peterborough, NH 03458 and additional mailing offices, USPS Publication No. 528890 (ISBN 0360-5280). Postage Paid at Winnipeg. Manitoba. Registration number 9321 Subscriptions are S2I for one year. S38 for two years, and S55 for three years in the USA and its possessions. In Canada and Mexico, S23 for one year, S42 October 1983 292 Radio Shack's TRS-80 Model 4 by Rowland Archer Jr. / Offering a host of new features and a new, improved price tag, the Model 4 is proof that large corporations can be responsive to the needs of their customers. 306 The Morrow Micro Decision by Tom Wadlow / A review of the company's first effort at a single-board, stand-alone personal computer. 316 The Microneye by Chris Wieland / Until now, the cost of adding vision to a com- puter has been out of reach for most users. Now there's the Microneye solid-state camera, which interfaces easily with a variety of popular microcomputers. 324 The M68000 Educational Computer Board by Robert W. Floyd / For $495, you can get acquainted with a 68000-based single-board computer with 32K bytes of RAM and what the author says may be the best monitor program in RAM ever developed. 341 Fancy Font by Paul E. Hoffman / With this easy-to-use program and an Epson printer, you can design your own type styles. 428 More Unix-style Software Tools for CP/M by Christopher O. Kern / The Microtools package includes the most popular utilities available for the Unix operating system. Features 350 Photographic Animation of Microcomputer Graphics by Peter Cann / By in- terfacing a movie camera to a computer, you can achieve the animation quality of com- mercial movies or television. 366 The Fourth National Computer Graphics Association Conference by Alex- ander Pournelle / This year's NCGA conference offered improved graphics hardware, but graphics software still leaves a lot to be desired. 384 Echonet, Part 2: The Compiler by C. Bradford Barber / In the conclusion of this series, the author explains how his system produces relocatable code from English- like programs. 398 Computer Crime: A Growing Threat by Collen Gillard and Jim Smith / The machine that provides businesses with a competitive edge is also placing them at the mercy of a new type of lawbreaker— the computer criminal. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent unauthorized computer access. 439 Mainframe Graphics on a Microcomputer by Mahlon Kelly / If you have a smart- terminal program and a microcomputer capable of high-resolution graphics, you can display complex graphics. 447 Talker by Heyward S. Williams / Writing a talking program is simple, says the author, if you can use PRINT and INPUT statements to automatically transfer information to a speech synthesizer. 480 Bitmaps Speed Data-handling Tasks by Eric Sohr / Strings of ones and zeros can make short work of ordered-list comparisons and file searches. 499 Simplified Program Interfacing by Raymond Irvine / A programming technique based on jump and data tables simplifies the interface between two programs when at least one of them has fixed entry points and data addresses. Nucleus 4 Editorial: A Challenge to Education 570 Books Received 7 MICROBYTES 574 Event Queue 12 Letters 586 What's New? 540 User to User 669 Unclassified 548 Ask BYTE 669 BYTE's Ongoing Monitor Box 556 Software Received and BOMB Results 566 Clubs and Newsletters 672 Reader's Service Cover photograph by Arbogast Photography for two years. S61 for three years. S 53 for one year air delivery to Europe. 1 7. 1 00 yen for one year surface delivery to Japan S37 surface delivery elsewhere Air delivery to selected areas at additional rates upon request. Single copy price is S3. 50 in the USA and its possessions, 53.95 in Canada and Mexico, S4.50 in Europe, and S5.00 elsewhere. Foreign subscriptions and sales should be remitted in United States funds drawn on a US bank. Printed in the United States of America. Subscription questions or problems should be addressed to: BYTE Subscriber Service, POB 328, Hancock, IMH 03449 Page 280 Page 67 Page 350 BUI the small systems j ournal Editor In Chief: Lawrence J. Curran Managing Editor: Pamela A. Clark Senior Technical Editors: Gregg Williams, Richard Malloy Technical Editors: Richard S. Shuford. Curtis P. Feigel, Arthur A. Little, Stanley Wszola, Bruce Roberts, Gene Smarte; Anthony J. Lockwood, New Products Editor; Steve Ciarcia, Consulting Editor; Mark Welch, Staff Writer; Alan Easton, Drafting Editor. West Coast Editors: Philip Lemmons, Bureau Chief; Barbara Robertson, Technical Editor; Donna Osgood, Assistant Editor. McGraw-Hill, 425 Battery Street, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 941 1 1 |4I5) 398-7990 Copy Editors: Nancy Hayes, Chief; Warren Williamson, Elizabeth Kepner, Joan V. Roy, Dennis E. Barker, Anne L. Fischer; Margaret Cook, Junior Copy Editor Assistants: Faith Kluntz, Beverly Jackson, Lisa Jo Steiner, Jeanann Waters Production: David R. Anderson, Assoc. Director; Jan Muller, Virginia Reardon, Michael J. Lonsky; Sherry McCarthy, Chief Typographer; Debi Fredericks, Donna Sweeney, Valerie Horn Advertising: Deborah Porter, Supervisor; Marion Carlson. Rob Hannings, Cathy A. R. Drew, Lisa Wozmak, Jeanne Cilley, Jeanna Reenstierna; Patricia Akerley, Reader Service Coordinator; Wai Chiu Li, Quality Control Manager; Linda J. Sweeney, Advertising/Production Coordinator Advertising Sales: J. Peter Huestis, Sales Manager; Sandra Foster, Administrative Assistant Circulation: Gregory Spitzfaden, Director; Andrew Jackson, Subscriptions Manager; Barbara Varnum, Asst. Manager; Agnes E. Perry, Louise Menegus, Jennifer Price, Mary Emerson; James Bingham, Single-Copy Sales Manager; Deborah J. Cadwell, Asst. Manager; Carol Aho, Linda Turner Marketing Communications: Horace T. Howland, Director; Vicki Reynolds, Coordinator; Timothy W. Taussig, Graphics Arts Manager; Michele P. Verville, Research Manager Business Manager: Daniel Rodrigues Controller's Office: Kenneth A. King, Asst. Controller, Mary E. Fluhr, Acct. & D/P Mgr.; Karen Burgess, Linda Fluhr, Vicki Bennett, Vern Rockwell, Lyda Clark, Janet Pritchard. JoAnn Walter, Julie Ferry Traffic: N. Scott Gagnon, Manager; Brian H/gg/ns, Cynthia Damato Receptionist: Linda Ryan Personnel/Office Manager: Cheryl A. Hurd Publisher: Gene W. Simpson; John E. Hayes, Associate Publisher/Production Director; Doris R. Gamble, Publisher's Assistant Editorial and Business Office: 70 Main Street, Peterborough, New Hampshire 03458 |603) 924-9281 Officers of McGraw-Hill Publications Company: President: John G. Wrede; Executive Vice Presidents: Paul F. McPherson, Operations; Walter D. Serwatka, Finance & Services. Senior Vice President-Editorial: Ralph R. Schulz. Senior Vice President Publishers: Harry L. Brown, David J. McGrath, James R. Pierce, Gene W Simpson, John E. Slater. Vice President Publishers: Charlton H. Calhoun III, Richard H. Larsen, John W. Patten. Vice Presidents: Kemp Anderson, Business Systems Development; Shel F. Asen, Manufacturing; Michael K. Hehir, Controller; Eric B. Herr, Planning and Development; H. John Sweger, Jr., Marketing. Editorial A Challenge to Education Lawrence }. Curran, Editor in Chief Two months ago, I editorialized about Project Athena, an effort at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to explore how advanced computers and computer graphics can change the ways in which university students learn (August, page 4). Both Digital Equipment Corporation and IBM Cor- poration are contributing valuable equipment and services to the project, which is named after the Greek goddess of wisdom. I applauded those com- panies, along with Apple Computer Inc., for their contributions to educa- tion. Apple has donated several million dollars worth of personal computers to more than 9000 public and private schools in California. Now it's time to applaud Radio Shack for undertaking "America's Educa- tional Challenge," a program intended to introduce computer literacy in the earliest grades possible. The program will help elementary and secondary school teachers to teach students about computers by assisting teachers to become computer literate themselves. Three years ago — even before it for- malized this program— Radio Shack took steps to acquaint educators with computers by allowing them free use of equipment in Radio Shack training centers. In announcing the details of America's Educational Challenge earlier this year, John V. Roach, president and chief executive officer of Tandy Corp., explained why training facilities, located at more than 400 Radio Shack Com- puter Centers, had been opened to educators. He said educators had repeatedly indicated that they couldn't effectively communicate with students about computers until they themselves became computer literate. Roach also commented that Radio Shack's efforts grew out of the company's conviction that most Americans under the age of 40 will have to become com- puter literate in the next decade. We agree, and we commend Tandy/Radio Shack for undertaking America's Educational Challenge. The program enables teachers to take three courses that provide 24 hours of computer training, including an introduction to BASIC, BASIC programming, and a workshop intended to give professional educators an overview of microcomputer ap- plications in the classroom. In addition to a certificate authorizing free teacher training, Radio Shack has sent the following to more than 103,000 U.S. schools: an educator's hand- book describing how microcomputers are used in schools, a basic computer- literacy package designed to teach elementary computer concepts with duplication masters, a secondary-level textbook that illustrates programming concepts, examples of what other school districts are doing with computers, and an order form that enables teachers to sign up for additional computer training. Radio Shack deserves recognition for sponsoring the program. Of course, it can't help but stimulate sales of Radio Shack computers and software when teachers who have been trained on the equipment decide to purchase their own computers or have an opportunity to influence a school's purchase. But the cost to Radio Shack for only the teacher-training portion of the program could top $10 million if only 2 percent of those being offered the classes took them. That's a substantial investment that carries no clear guarantee that only Radio Shack will benefit from the influence of AEC-trained teachers. ■ October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. SSfSU--" 0- * BOTH WORLDS OF ^^so^eruns un- der CP/M. ..-y Your com. with CPPQ comp 1 sfanc' " analysis. z \o\e\Y oU jufines, EXPANDABLE (h seria J comP ati " rdsinour i,~,n inter- , package- with 16U^- are included- The following are registered trademarks: CP/M-80 — Digital Research Inc. MS-DOS— Microsoft PC-DOS — IBM Perfect Wiitei — Perfect Software Perfect Calc — Perfect Software MBasic — Microsoft lution J Su1»raraphia puVyouintof closest dealer- COMPUTER CORPORATION 209 West Street Annapolis, MD 21401 (301) 268-6650 (800) 638-6066 How to buy a computer by the numbers. Introducingthe Cromemco C-10 Per- sonal Computer. Only $1785, including software, and you get more profes- sional features and performance for the price than with any other personal computer on the market. We've got the numbers to prove it. The C-10 starts with a high-resolu- tion 12" CRT that displays 25 lines with a full 80 characters on each line. Inside is a high-speed Z-80A microprocessor and 64K bytes of on-board memory. Then there's a detached, easy-to-use keyboard and a 5'A" disk drive with an exceptionally large 390K capacity. That's the C-10, and you won't find another ready-to-use personal com- puter that offers you more. But hardware can't work alone. That's why every C-10 includes software \ —word processing, financial spread \ sheet, investment planningand BASIC. MHard-wcrking, CP/M "based software nnat meets your everyday needs. Soft- ware that could cost over $1000 some- where else. FREE with the C-10. There's really nothing else to buy. But the C-10's numbers tell only part of the story. What they don't say is that Cromemco is already known for some of the most reliable business and scientific computers in the industry. ^^ And now for the first time, this technology is available in a personal computer. One last number. Call 800 538-8157x929 for the name of your nearest Cromemco dealer, or to request literature. In California call 800 672-3470 x929. Or write Cromemco, Inc., 280 Bernardo Avenue, P.O. Box 7400, Mountain View, CA 94039. In Europe, write Cromemco A/S, Vesterbrogade 1C, 1620 Copenhagen, Denmark. CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc. All Cromemco products are serviced by TRW. Cromemco Tomorrow's computers today Circle 127 on inquiry card. m m '<%£> <&>'** MICROBYTES Staff-written highlights of late developments in the microcomputer industry. WESTERN ELECTRIC IS FIRST IN U.S. 256K DRAM MARKET Western Electric, New York, NY, is now selling its 256K-bit dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chip, which is currently being shipped. Previously, Western Electric had made components only for its own products. Several other U.S. firms are developing 256K DRAMs for shipment in 1 984. Motorola plans to ship samples to companies in the fourth quarter of 1 983 and offer production quantities in early 1 984, while Intel, Micron Technologies, Texas Instruments, INMOS, and National Semiconductor are expected to begin shipping sample 256K chips during the first half of 1 984. While other firms prepare 256K- by 1-bit DRAMs, Mostek, Carrollton, TX, has announced that it will begin shipping samples of a 32K- by 8-bit DRAM this month. Mostek expects that architecture will result in less expensive, less complicated designs but is also working on a 256K- by 1-bit DRAM. Despite Western Electric's experience in the design of semiconductor products, the other entrants into the 256K DRAM market don't consider it any different from other competitors. One firm projects the sales of 256K DRAMs at several billion units per year by 1 988 and is uncertain that any one company can dominate that large a market. Just as significant in the industry are the six Japanese companies reported to be designing or shipping samples of 256K DRAMs: NEC, Oki, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Toshiba. The Japanese have already achieved a dominant market position in 64K DRAMs. In addi- tion, Siemens Corp. is reported to be developing a 256K DRAM in Europe. Oki Semiconductor says it will ship 10,000 units per month in the U.S. starting this month. Oki ex- pects to ship about 20 percent of all 256K DRAMs worldwide in 1984, or about 600,000 of 3 million units it predicts will be sold. SHORTAGES AND DELAYS OF COMPONENTS AND MEMORY PLAGUE MICROCOMPUTER COMPANIES A rapid increase in orders for microcomputer components and memory has led to shortages and delays for some products. The earliest pinch was in 64K-byte RAM chips, but high demand for other com- ponents has also led to production delays as suppliers receive unanticipated orders and must either delay shipment or ship partial orders. National Semiconductor, which abandoned its 64K DRAM chip in early 1983 because of production problems, planned to manufacture the Oki Electric 64K DRAM start- ing in September and hopes to have its own version in production by mid-1 984. Low-power CMOS components, logic circuit chips, and even the popular Z80 microprocessor are becoming hard to get. In late summer, lead times for many versions of these products were 14 to 16 weeks, as compared to less than two weeks in February. New orders for one National Semiconductor logic circuit won't be shipped for at least 30 weeks. Of several computer manufacturers contacted, most say they haven't been hurt by the pinch, though many agree a problem exists and that it could get worse. Most said they have long-term contracts with suppliers for their needs and speculated that new companies might have more problems. TELELEARNING CREATES AN ELECTRONIC UNIVERSITY Telelearning, San Francisco, CA, has announced an Electronic University through its networking system. The company will sell a software and modem package that enables owners of the IBM PC, Apple II, or Commodore 64 with at least one disk drive to access Telelearning's network system. The package will cost from $1 19 to $200, depending on the computer. Users can then select courses for $50 to $200 each, access course materials, and ask questions of the instructor through the network. Access is through Tymenet, Telenet, and Uninet at no additional charge. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS AND TIMEX TRY TO BOOST SALES OF LOW-COST COMPUTERS Texas Instruments, Lubbock, TX, has extended the $50 rebate on its 99/4A computer until January 31, 1 984, and extended its warranty to one year. Tl will also provide 99/4A buyers with a free five-hour course or a free "Teach Yourself BASIC" cassette. In addition, Tl has cut the price of a disk-drive/ memory system: the expansion unit, a 32K-byte RAM cartridge, and a disk drive and controller will be combined for a retail price of $550, down from $1200. In another effort to boost sales, Timex Computer Corp., Waterbury, CT, is giving away a Timex watch to buyers of a Timex/Sinclair TS1000 and a RAM pack. Timex will also offer two free software packages for every two purchased. Circle 415 on inquiry card. October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. MICROBYTES WANG ANNOUNCES A HIGH-DENSITY MEMORY MODULE Wang Laboratories Inc., Lowell, MA, has announced the single in-line memory module (SIMM), a high- density memory package that fits nine 64K-bit RAM chips into a %- by 3-inch space on a printed circuit board. Wang hopes to use 256K chips in the SIMM in the future and predicts that the SIMM could fit 1 megabyte of memory in a 3- by 4-inch area using industry-standard mounting practices. INTERLAN ANNOUNCES A $400 PER DEVICE ETHERNET LINK Interlan Inc., Westford, MA, has announced a terminal server to link personal computers and peripherals to Ethernet for as little as $400 per device. Any computer, printer, modem, or other device with an RS- 232C (serial) interface can be attached to the NTS-10 terminal server, which links to Ethernet. An eight- port NTS-10 costs $3200, while a four-port version is $2500. MYSTERY FIRM SIGNS LARGE CONTRACTS WITH IMI, TANDON Tandon Corp., Chatsworth, CA, has announced a $310 million contract with an unnamed buyer for floppy-disk drives. International Memories Inc. (IMI), Cupertino, CA, also announced a contract with an unnamed firm for more than $100 million worth of 5V4-inch Winchester hard-disk drives. The contracts will probably account for half of each company's business through 1984. ONYX, SCHUCHARDT, AND MICRO RIM UNVEIL INTEGRATED SOFTWARE FOR UNIX, IRM Onyx Systems, San Jose, CA, has announced what it says is the first integrated software package for the Unix operating system. The Onyx Office includes a user interface "shell" that links word-processing, spreadsheet, database-management, and calendar features. Written in C, the package will be available in mid-October. Schuchardt Software Systems, San Rafael, CA, has unveiled Intesoft, an integrated software package for the IBM Personal Computer. Based on Intebase, a $495 database-management system, the Intesoft series also includes a $295 spreadsheet, a $149 time planner, a $195 critical-path package, and a $195 interactive application generator for creating other software. Five additional packages, including a word processor, should be available later this year. Microrim, Bellevue, WA, has unveiled a new database-management package with "gateways" to other popular programs. R:Base can use files generated by Visicorp's Visicalc, Lotus's 1-2-3, Micropro's Wordstar, Microsoft's Multiplan, and Ashton-Tate's dBase II as well as Microrim's own database files. The package is available for the IBM PC for $495 and will soon be available for Unix. NANOBYTES Vault Corp., Westlake Village, CA, has introduced a new software-protection system, the Prolok disk. At the time of manufacture, the disk is physically modified with a unique "fingerprint." Programs can be backed up to another disk but won't run without the fingerprint, which can't be copied or erased. . . .Radio Shack, Fort Worth, TX, has introduced a 64K version of its TRS-80 Color Computer. The revised system features a typewriter-quality keyboard, a white case, and Extended BASIC for $399.95. Radio Shack is also offering a single-button mechanical mouse for the Color Computer for $49.95. . . .Sorcim Corp., San Jose, CA, has added graphics capabilities to its Supercalc spreadsheet program. Supercalc 3, on one single-sided disk for a 64K IBM PC or Compaq, will cost $395. Sorcim is working on a CP/M version. . . .Direct Inc., Santa Clara, CA, is introducing a $3995 16-bit computer with full mainframe terminal capabilities. The 8088-based 1600 Series includes MS-DOS, a Z80 pro- cessor for CP/M-80 applications, and either an HP 2620-compatible or a DEC VT-1 31 -compatible ter- minal. . . .CBS Inc. and Tandy Corp. have agreed to grant each other software conversion rights. . . . Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA, has introduced a four-pen color plotter for $995. . . .The Micropro User's Group (MUG), Larkspur, CA, has been established for users of Micropro International Corp. soft- ware, including Wordstar, Calcstar, and Infostar. . . .Micropro is now selling Wordstar for Concurrent CP/M-86. . . Visicorp, San Jose, CA, has introduced Visicalc IV, combining Visicalc with Multisoft Corp.'s $99 Stretchcalc. Adding graphics and sorting features, Visicalc IV for the IBM PC costs $295. . . .Western Digital Corp., Irvine, CA, reports that its Ada compiler for its $20,000 Series 1 600 microcomputer has been approved by the U.S. Department of Defense. . . .North Star Computers, San Leandro, CA, is offering a "flexible" bundle of software with its Advantage and Horizon computers. Users can choose from among 26 programs — $1 100 to $2000 worth of software — offered by North Star. . . .Morrow Designs, San Leandro, CA, has introduced the Micro Decision MD-1 1, a $2745 hard- disk version of its Z80-based MD-1 . i 8 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. ATARI COMPUTER OWNERS: Pick the positively perfect, practical, printer-port peripheral package, from That's right ... the positively perfect PERCOM DATA 5 W, floppy disk drive with a BUILT-IN PRINTER-PORT, for your Atari* 400/800 is now available! Until now, Atari computer owners who wanted to hook a printer to their computer had only one choice . . . spend about $220 for an interface device. THOSE DAYS ARE OVER. PERCOM DATA has built a parallel printer-port right into its new AT88 PD model. Now you can add a quality disk drive system AND have a place to plug in a printer... WITHOUT BUYING an interface. The AT88 S1 PD'" disk drive operates in both single density (88K bytes formatted) and double density (176K bytes formatted). What more could you want? NO INTERFACE... a high quality PERCOM DATA disk drive... AND a built-in PRINTER-PORT... all with a price of $599. Pick up a positively perfect PERCOM DATA disk drive, with printer-port... pronto! For the name of an authorized PERCOM DATA Dealer near you, call our TOLL-FREE HOTLINE 1-800-527-1222 NOW, or write for more information. 33. Perfectly Priced $599. PERQDM DATA / CORPORATION Expanding Your Peripheral Vision DRIVES * NETWORKS • SOFTWARE 11220 Pagemill Road, Dallas.'Texas 75243 (214) 340-5800 1-800-527-1222 Atari is a registered trademark of Atari, Inc. • AT88 S1 PD is a trademark of Percom Data Corporation. • COPYRIGHT PERCOM DATA CORPORATION 1983. Prices subject to change without notice. Circle 357 on inquiry card. Inter tec Offers ShouldVe Offered tfearf&ctt* ^Warranty The rationale behind the conventional 90-day warranty is that anything likely to go wrong will go wrong in the first 3 months. But it can take 3 months just to get comfortable with a new system. That's the honey- moon-period, when you treat your equipment with the deli- cacy of a safecracker. CompuStar can network up to 255 intelligent terminals and give each of them access to common or restricted databases. Ah, but now it's 5 months down the road, the honeymoon is over, your equipment has finally begun to justify its cost, and that's the afternoon your processor's fan succumbs to fatigue. Or maybe the malfunction is more gradual, like a disk- head drifting increasingly out of alignment. Or more elusive, like an in- termittent failure due to border- line components. When\bu BuildThem Stronger, \bu Can Back Them Longer. And that's why all Intertec terminals, computer networks and disk storage systems come with a full year of coverage. Not because you'll need it,but to assure you that you won't. *CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research. + Microsoft Baste Li a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. See— unlike other makers, we know what we're standing behind. We don't slap Intertec nameplates on other people's parts. We build virtually all our equipment ourselves. And we assemble it ourselves. And we test and re-test it ourselves. More Bytes For \bur Buck. That's also why we can offer you flatly superior dollar-values. In single-user desk tops, for example, our SuperBrain offers "™^"* twin Z80s, standard; 64 kbytes of dynamic ram, standard; up to 1.5 mbytes of disk storage, standard; CP/M 2.2* and MBasicI standard. And compared to conven- tional multi-user systems, our CompuStar systems can give you many more hours of productive labor every day— because, instead of depending on a central processor for data manipulation, each worksta- tion in a CompuStar network has its own processor and its own 64 kbytes of ram. As a result, you can have anywhere from 2 to 255 work- stations working simultaneously without suffering noticeable declines in execution-time. Why Just Expand When \bu Can Up-Grade? In fact, if you assess your expansion alternatives in terms of relative payback potential, you're very likely to find that up-grading with Intertec equip- ment from scratch would be more cost-effective than burdening your existing instal- lation with add-on's. Dollar for dollar, the Inter- tec system is apt to be not only faster, more powerful and more versatile, but more reliable and better supported. Service On Site? Within 4 Hours? In addition to our one-year warranty, and the carry-in service provided by authorized Intertec dealers, we also have 600 factory-trained technicians to provide service on-site in 120 U. S. cities, often within 4 hours. To arrange for that service Since we build our equipment from scratch, we can afford to do it right and still hold down ourprices. just call our Customer Services Department at 803/798-9100. At the same time we'll be happy to give you the name of your nearest Intertec dealer. Or write on your letterhead to Intertec Data Systems Cor- poration, 2300 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29210. intertec Circle 238 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 n Circle 150 on inquiry card. Apple® II, lie 5 megabyte Removable HARD_DISK™ #1,295 HARD_DISK is designed for fast access to large data files. The Removable HARD_DISK PAC™ can even replace floppy diskettes as a very reliable backup media and eliminate the need to add floppy disk drives. One Year Warranty 205-871-0987 Digital Electronics Systems 107 Euclid Avenue Mountain Brook, AL 35213 HARD-DISK. PAC are trademarks of Digiul Elecironic Systems, Inc. Apple If, fie is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Letters Feedback on IBM PC Word Tools "Word Tools for the IBM Personal Computer" by Richard S. Shuford (May, page 176) has done more to educate me on the subject than any other source I have been able to locate. I just had to write and let you know how much I enjoyed it, even though I am not an IBM PC owner. In particular, I found his comparison table valuable, and I appreciate the perspective imparted by comparison of the programs (Volkswriter, Easywriter II, Wordstar, and The Final Word) on the basis of what they do (and don't do) well. I'm sitting at the edge of my keyboard waiting to learn the name of the mysterious fifth program, which he used to edit the article. I noticed a string of features and com- mands in his comments on The Final Word that appear to be nearly identical to those in Perfect Writer. As examples, the embedded style commands in photo 12 on page 210 appear identical to those in Perfect Writer, and the features described in column 2 of the text on that page also bear striking resemblances. Is there a com- mon origin for these characteristics? Loren Marshall 1705 Bartlett Dr. Anchorage, AK 99507 The "mysterious" fifth program was Sorcim Corporation's Superwriter, which I used to write about two-thirds of the text in the review (the other third of the text was written using The Final Word, and I banged out most of the large table on my electric typewriter). We plan to review Superwriter and several other new word- processing programs in future issues. Both Mark of the Unicorn's The Final Word and Perfect Software's Perfect Writer owe their inspiration to the EM ACS text-editing system developed by Dr. Richard Stallman at the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology. Perfect Writer and Mark of the Unicorn's MINCE mimic EMACS more closely than does The Final Word. . . . R.S.S. I was very pleased to read the section on "preliminary cautions" in "Word Tools for the IBM Personal Computer" and then choose word-processing software based on those needs. I think reviewers often miss the crucial point that the user's own needs should be analyzed first. I have a few observations from my own experi- ences with a variety of word-processing programs that some readers may find in- teresting. (I have never used an IBM PC, but my experiences with CP/M-80 word processors certainly have the same impli- cations for PC owners.) About a year ago, our company, which specializes in software and turnkey sys- tems for law firms, began installing an ex- tensive multiprocessor CP/M-compatible system in our pilot-site law firm. Word processing is the cornerstone of law-office automation, so we were eager to identify the best possible software for the firm. We looked at Benchmark, Select, and some others but finally found two derivatives of EMACS: Perfect Writer and The Final Word. Perfect Writer, after evaluation, seemed a better choice than The Final Word. One reason was that we didn't like the forward /reverse orientation of The Final Word and preferred Perfect Writer's separate commands for backward and forward operations. In addition, I use Perfect Writer to compose my PL/I source code and find it excellent for this purpose. However, our attempt at implementing it for the law firm was an utter disaster. A question that word-processing users should ask themselves is: "Am I primarily a text creator/manipulator, or am I a text printer?" I would say that programmers, lawyers, and other professionals are large- ly text manipulators in that they either do not have a need for perfectly formatted print or they have support staff do their printing for them. Secretaries and other clerical workers are certainly interested in text-creation features, but to them the bottom line is getting that letter, brief, or report to their bosses or in the mail in the proper format at the proper time. After a few months of using Perfect Writer, this distinction became obvious to us. The embedded formatting-commands approach of Perfect Writer was impossi- ble for a busy law firm in which countless printed documents are produced each day. We found that just one simple for- matting-command mistake would ruin the format of an entire document, and even a simple two-page letter required enough of these embedded commands to make at least one mistake likely. It frequently re- quired seven or eight attempts before a document printed correctly. Although we clung to Perfect Writer for a long time, we 12 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. With all the clamor about personal computers, a fundamental fact is often overlooked: some simply work better than others. Consider the COMR\Q Portable. A computer will make you more productive. A computer will make you more efficient. You hear it everywhere. But you don't hear much about which computer actually works best. The COMPAQ Portable fits under a standard airline seat for business trips. Works in more places With the COMPAQ™ Portable, you can be as pro ductive in your hotel room or your lake house as in your own office. It's a reliable companion on a business trip. It's a powerful sales aid in your customer's office. You can move it from office to of- fice to share its resources. You can move it into the conference room to answer questions. What's more productive than a computer? A computer that works for you in more places. Works with the greatest number of programs The most important consideration when choosing a computer is "what programs will it run?" The COMPAQ Portable runs more programs than any other portable. In fact, it runs more than most non- portables because it runs all the pop- ular programs written for the IBM® Personal Computer without any mod- ification. There are hundreds of them. They are available at computer stores all over the country. Imagine the power of a portable word processor. There are dozens of word processing programs available for the COMPAQ Portable. Planning, problem-solving, and "what-ifs" are a cinch with a variety of popular electronic spreadsheet programs. The COMPAQ Portable runs them all. There are accounting programs for any- thing from comput- erizing your family budget to full-scale professional man- agement of payables, receivables, inventory, and payroll. There are programs for making charts and programs for com- municating with other computers. So you get portability and you don't give up problem-solving power. The combination adds up to the most useful personal computer on the market today. Add-on options make it work the way you work Inside the COMPAQ Portable are three open slots. Most portables don't have any. Electronic devices called expansion boards fit those slots and give the COMPAQ Portable new powers. As with programs, expansion boards designed for the IBM will work. With them, you can make your personal computer more personal. Want to check a stock price? One expansion board enables the COMPAQ Portable to handle those communi- cations over ordinary phone lines. Want to use your com- pany's central computer files while you're on a trip? There are boards that allow the COMPAQ Portable to communicate with a variety of large computers. Other boards let you hook up controllers for computer games, increase memory capacity, or connect several personal computers in a network. The added usefulness is free The COMPAQ Portable doesn't cost any more than an ordinary desktop computer. In fact, it costs hundreds less than a comparably equipped IBM or Apple® III. The COMPAQ Portable comes standard with one disk drive and 128K bytes of memory, both of which are usually extra-cost options. The bottom line is this — you just can't the popular programs written 'or the IBM PC run as is on the COMPAQ Portable. buy a more practical, useful, productive computer. Compare the COMPAQ Portable. For the location of the Authorized Dealer nearest you, call 1-800- 231-9966. °1983 COMPAQ Computer Corporation COMPAQ™ is a trademark of COMPAQ Computer Corporation. IBM* is n registered trademark oflntLrnational Business Machines Corporation. Apple* is ;i registered trademark of Apple Computer Corporation. V.'iViVrWtt comPAa The most computer you can carry BYTE October 1983 13 Letters eventually relented and installed Word- star. "What you see is what you get" has proven to be the answer. I strongly believe that the most impor- tant factor in choosing word-processing software is deciding whether text creation or text printing is most important. If the user is a text printer, then by all means go with an "on-screen-formatting" type sys- tem and avoid the "embedded-commands" systems like The Final Word and Perfect Writer. Once you have made this distinc- tion, then you can leisurely compare sophisticated features among "on-screen" systems. Paul W. Stackhouse Robert Glass & Company 1 Liberty Sq. Boston, MA 02109 Double-Spacing with Wordstar I learned a great deal from Richard S. Shuford's lengthy review of word- processing programs for the IBM Personal Computer. As an admirer and a heavy user of Wordstar, I am often amused when I observe that some of the important special features of the program are unknown even by the experts. I learn something new about the program almost every month. This is a prelude to pointing out an er- ror in your article. You complained that to print out single- and double-spaced ver- sions of the same manuscript you have to reformat all the paragraphs before the sec- ond printing. Not true. The dot command controls line spacing. If it is the last dot command used at the beginning of the manuscript, it will not only print any de- sired line height (in n/48ths of an inch), but it will also display page breaks on the screen where they will occur during print- ing. So you can choose any line height you want, edit on the screen single- spaced, and see the page breaks where they will occur when the manuscript is typed to your specifications. If you want to print two copies of the manuscript with different line spacings, you need only change the single dot command at the be- ginning of the text and resave. The pro- gram will take care of all the rest. David Gutman 5448 East View Park Chicago, IL 60615 The method of reformatting for line spacing (for double- or single-spaced text) by the Control-Q, Control-Q, Control-B sequence is not completely satisfactory because extra Return characters must be inserted or removed between the para- graphs for consistent spacing. Refor- matting the line spacing by the .LH dot command works if you have one of the daisy-wheel printers supported by Micro- pro, but Wordstar does not seem to sup- port the feature for some less-common daisy-wheel units and most dot-matrix printers. . . . R.S.S. I enjoyed the review of four word-pro- cessing programs. There is a way, how- ever, to change the line spacing in Word- star other than reforming each paragraph, which I found out by writing to Micropro International. I received this answer: at the beginning of the document, insert these two dot commands that will be in- terpreted by the Mailmerge routine: .PFON .LSI (or 2) The first line turns on print-time for- matting; the second line sets the single- or double-spacing. Bruce J. McLaren 203 Briarwood Dr. Terre Haute, IN 47803 Acquiring Mailmerge does indeed give you more formatting capability, but the scope of the review was limited to only the four basic software products. In addi- tion to Micropro's Mailmerge and Spell- star, many software products from out- side vendors are on the market to add capability to Wordstar. . . . R.S.S. I may be able to help Mr. Shuford with one of his Wordstar difficulties: single- spacing drafts and double-spacing submis- sions. Instead of running Wordstar on an IBM PC with an IBM or Epson printer, I'm using a new Morrow Micro Decision with a Star Micronics Gemini-10 printer and running the 8-bit CP/M Wordstar. I un- derstand, however, that the Gemini-10 uses the same control codes and has es- sentially the same capabilities as the IBM or Epson (except for the Gemini-10's pro- portional font), so this might work. When I'm using normal type (10 charac- ters per inch, 65 characters to a line), I always insert .bp on .po0 at the beginning of the text (and see the question mark come up on the first line). Then, before printing, I run a simple Microsoft BASIC program that contains a printer menu. For this form, it effectively does '1PRINT CHR$(27); "M"; CHR$(10); CHR$(27); "Q"; CHR$(75);" — telling the printer that the left margin is 10 and the right limit is 75. That way, the printer runs full speed and does the work. (It makes a big difference in throughput: I'm getting better than 50 cps (characters per second) start-to-finish speed on articles using Wordstar, includ- ing waits, formfeeds, and all.) For the double-spaced submission, you add "CHR$(27); "A"; CHR$(24)" to your LPRINT, and you add these lines at the beginning of your Wordstar document: .pi 33 .mt 1 .hml iml .mb 4 These define a shorter Wordstar page with narrower margins, modified slightly to deal with the linefeed you get compli- ments of the LPRINT statement. That is five lines of typing (of course, you can have it as a text file on the Wordstar disk and copy it in to the document), but it's better than reformatting. I'm inclined to make a single inspection pass through the document before printing to check page breaks. Note that one other thing had to be done, because the original-version Gemini buffer is either loading or print- ing, never both: change the transmission speed to 9600 bits per second. I've got the serial board — necessary for the Morrow — and it works like a champ at 9600 bps. Walt Crawford The Research Libraries Group Stanford, CA 94305 / don't have a Star Micronics Gemini-10 printer handy, so I tried this with my Ep- son MX-80 with Graftrax-Plus. Aside from the Epson's lack of a printer com- mand to set the left margin, the double- spacing -worked, and the method does print somewhat faster than Wordstar unaided. (Incidentally, the later "X" ver- 14 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. QUADCOLORBY QUADRAM ™ The first and only color graphics adapter board your IBM PC or XT will ever need. • Most advanced color graphics board you can buy. • 136 different colors, and expandable memory. • No additional board or modification needed to run existing software— completely PC-compatible. • Serves your graphics needs today... ready to meet your expanded needs tomorrow. Start with Quadcolor I Quadcolor I adapts to any color monitor and starts you off with 32K of memory. That means that in text mode you get 16 active video pages with a 40 column format or 8 pages with 80 column. Twice as many as IBM's Color Graphics Adapter offers. When you switch to the graphics mode, Quadcolor I's 32K memory lets you create two complete pages. You can even modify one page while the other is being displayed, for special effects like animation. Choose 2 true colors for high- resolution displays on RGB monitors. With Quadcolor, there's no reason to limit yourself to black-and-white. Quadcolor I also offers support for a light pen and an RF modulator connector for use with a home television set. Grow with Quadcolor II As your needs change, plug Quadcolor II into Quadcolor I and get a total of 96K of memory combined with higher resolution bit-mapped graphics. Quadcolor II also includes BASICQ, a software package that Display shown on screen produced with Quadcolor II. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. enhances the IBM's own BASIC capabilities. Display graphics like a bar chart, and text like graph labels, together on the same screen. Now that's Quadcolor teamwork. When you're in the mood for fun and games, Quadcolor II has a game port available for your use. The choice is clear Quadcolor is the only graphics board that can offer you all these features and the solid tradition of Quadram Quality. Nobody even comes close. So be sure you choose tomorrow's color graphics board today— Quadcolor by Quadram. With Quadcolor, looking good never looked so good. QUADRAM CORPORATION An Inlelligenl Systems Company 4355 International Blvd./Norcross. Ga. 30093 (404) 923-6666/TWX 810-766-4915 (QUADRAM NCRS) Circle 384 on inquiry card. © Copyright 1983 Quadram Corporation All rights reserved » There's a certain kind of person who buys a Morrow business computer. The kind of person who doesn't follow the crowd. In business. Or away from it. You've succeeded by making your own decisions. And when it comes to a decision on computers, you know that you don't have to pay a lot of money to get a lot of computer. Morrow knows that too. That's why we make a complete line of systems, including software, from $1599 to $2745. Plus letter-quality printers starting at $595. All, with perform- ance so reliable you'll probably never need the nationwide service we offer from Xerox. But maybe you don't know this: We've just introduced a hard-disk system with more performance at a lower price than anything else on the market. Anything. The new MD11 includes an 11MB hard disk; 400K of floppy memory; 128K RAM; 8K ROM; 2 serial, 1 parallel and a main frame communications port. Add the legendary speed of the Morrow controller, a complete package of soft- ware, plus a full-size terminal, and you may not be ready for the price: $2745, complete. Morrow has never built computers to please everybody. We build them for people who demand value. It's simple. Those who know buy Morrow. The computer for independent people. Morrow. 600 McCormick Street. San Leandro, CA 95477 For the Morrow dealer nearest you. call: 1800) 521-3493 (4151430-1970 In California New 11MB MD11 for $2745 Circle 316 on inquiry card. Letters. sions of the Gemini printers are supposed to have remedied the bottleneck of the single-minded character buffer.) . . . R.S.S. Searching for the Unsearchable There was one error in Mr. Shuford's comments that might be significant to people deciding whether to buy Wordstar. He says it "is not possible to use the search functions to locate embedded print- attribute characters. If you want to change all of your underlined text to bold- face, you have to search for it the hard way — by eye." This is true for only three of Wordstar's approximately 20 print-attribute com- mands: the ones for alternate character width, nonbreak space characters, and underlining. (Their codes, Control-A, -O, and -S, are used in the search functions as wildcard codes to allow searching for am- biguous characters.) Even so, there are ways around this problem. People using Wordstar with a modern dot-matrix printer will not often have a problem with Control-S because they'd probably rather use an italic font instead of underlining. I have set up Control-R and Control-Q to turn italics on and off. By the way, it is possible to enter Con- trol-A, -O, and -S in a replace string, so a second way to handle the problem is to write the document with another charac- ter string substituting for the unsearchable one until the time comes to print, then replace it. This is especially appropriate when printing a draft on a dot-matrix printer and the final copy on a daisy- wheel unit. A third approach is to surround the un- searchable characters with searchable characters that do nothing. I use Control- D, Control-X, and Control-Y in this way: IDtSID IXtOIX tYtAlY These guardian characters are ordinarily used as toggles and cancel out after two occurrences. In the search string, I enter: IDtStD ixtstx IY1SIY (Here, Control-S has its special wildcard meaning: search for a nonalphabetic or nonnumeric character.) If you've used a double-strike, strikeout, or ribbon-color- change as the printing-attribute character, you'll find it, too. (This should not cause trouble unless you are replacing globally.) Admittedly, these added key codes are tedious unless you set up a keyboard macroinstruction using a program like Smartkey (from ICI Computers, POB 255, Aurora, CO 97002) under CP/M-80 or Prokey (from Rosesoft, POB 5850, Seattle, WA 98105) under PC-DOS. The remainder of the 20-odd printing codes can be searched for in the usual manner, but enter them into the search string as they appear on the screen, not as you would while typing them into the document. Some control codes are used for cursor movement in the search func- tions; Control-P must be entered before them — this somewhat obscure require- ment is a frequent source of confusion. One important reason to search for the Control-A and Control-S codes is to make sure that their attributes are eventually turned off, so your printout doesn't go on with page after page of underlining or JUST SAY THE PASSWORD TO GET 1200 BAUD, PROGRAMMABLE AUTO DIAL, FOR $449* • 300/1200 Baud • Auto Dial, Telpac™ software available • Full or Half Duplex • Audio Phone Line Monitor • Two-Year Limited Warranty Password™ is the new USR™ friendly mo- dem, designed for use with any small computer on the market today. We have compressed into its miniature (shown ac- tual size) case every operating feature for unattended high speed telecomputing. With auto dial/answer and auto mode/speed se- lect there is little to do but turn it on. So com- pact it mounts on the computer with Velcro®; when you carry your computer you can pocket your Password. So brilliantly conceived it achieves all this with just 12 tiny integrated circuits (a presage of long trouble-free service). If your dealer doesn't know the Password yet, write or call for com- plete specifications. • Suggested list for Password complete with power, phone. RS232 Interface cables. TelpacTM software optional extra, $79. Password, Telpac, USR logo and the U.S. Robotics corporate name are all trademarks of U.S. Robotics Inc. .™ U.S. ROBOTICS INC.™ 1123 WEST WASHINGTON CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60607 (312) 733-0497 Circle 485 on inquiry card. OPEN YOUR APPLE TO A WORLD OF COMMUNICATION Videx' new PSIO Dual Function Interface Card gives you a whole' new world of communication . . . with a whole new ease of operation. The PSIO allows you to use a printer (parallel output) and a modem (serial \iOH port) simultaneously, through use of just one card! But best of all, the PSIO makes com- municating through either method worlds easier than it's ever been before. The PSIO lets you choose from among an unmatched range of software-selectable options, including vari- able baud rate selection, i form width, form length, auto linefeed, linefeed mask, ^ Xon/Xoff protocol, lowercase masking, shift wire mod support, '" duplex mode, parity, data format, ' video echo mode and a slot echo mode. PSIO can also open up new worlds for graphics, since it can reproduce your picture on any graphics printer." Rotate your picture, enlarge it, change it as you wish. Once you-'ve chosen your options, the PSIO's highly sophisticated NOVRAM (non-volatile RAM) will remember and perma- nently save- them. That means you won't have to give the same config- urations over and over again ... your PSIO will do it for you-. And if you want to change those configurations, you can do it through software in- stead of through the con- fusing array of switches that other cards use. /he PSIO will work with any printer/modem you now hap- pen to own., .and it will work with any printer/modem you happen to purchase in the future. Adaptable? Definitely! 7"he PSIO is. completely compatible with BASIC, Pascal and CP/M® systems. The PSIO from Videx ...how in the world Circle 497 on inquiry card. Letters , character spacing. It's a good idea to do this with all print functions that modify more than a single character. John S. Allen 40 Rugg Rd. Allston, MA 02134 Mr. Allen has rightly pointed out that most of the attribute characters can he searched; I'm sorry that I did not ex- haustively test for searching all the printing- attribute characters. (A minor quibble: in addition to Control-S, -O, and A, Control-N cannot be used in a search string.) However, it seems desirable to have program features work identically for all possible cases. When a feature -works in one case and not another, the user will probably be confused and will certainly be burdened with keeping track of what works and what doesn't. He or she will probably disregard the feature. Likewise, for most users, if a feature is poorly documented it might as well not exist. Several other readers who wrote to in- form me about how Wordstar works on GANGPRO-8" MUUTPROGRAMMER $1295.00 GANGPRO-8" allows user lo program up lo 8 EE/ EPROMS srmultaneously using the latest state ot the art programming algorithms. 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PROMPRO-7" is an intelligent sell-contained unit ideally suited lor enginneering development, or tor field ser- vice & production It can program and verity a wide variety ot 8K to 128K EPROMS This unit has a 32K (4K BYTES). Internal RAM Builer that could be accessed by Ihe user through a computer or teiminal. This unit can also program the micro chips such as Ihe 8478. 8749. 8751. 8741. 8742. 8755 The price includes all modules up to 32K EPROMS & The 8748 & 8749H Micros Upload/download ts done by either Motorola or lnlel Hex tormat. PROMPRO-8™ SERIAL RS-232 STAND-ALONE $689.00 This extremely versatile programmer has as much as L28K (16Kx8) ot internal RAM dedicated to the EE/ EPROMs This RAM builer can be accessed either through a computer terminal, or by user target system (EPROM emulation). PROMPRO-8 8 digit alphanumeric display prompts user with the system messages. A keypad option is available tor standalone editing An impressive range ot devices are programmed (as stan- dard feature). *Z4e HUfUt Cfyupsnetd jjOX, If qua, Zp/i&fM, at tlt& dlaht Plice,! QE0OQ0Q 20 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. AVAILABLE SOFTWARE DRIVERS 1. IBM PC 2. APPLE 11 3MDS1SIS 4 CPM 5 TEKTRO NICS 8 QQ2 6 ATARI 7TRSj8OC0L0R 8 REX LOGICAL DEVICES. INC. 1321-E N.W. 65th PLACE FORT 1.AUDERDALE. FLORIDA 33309 TEL (305) 974-0967 TWX, 510-955-9596 DISTRIBUTORS WELCOME FOR QUALIFICATIONS Circle 272 on inquiry card. 8-bit CP/M-80 systems were not aware of the differences in support and documenta- tion in the 16-bit IBM PC version. Until the recent release of PC-DOS Wordstar version 3.3, many customization features enjoyed by 8-bit users were simply not available to IBM PC users. But aside from slightly better installation options and faster writing of screen displays, version 3.3 is not very different from the Word- star I tested. . . . R.S.S. TRS-80 Model 16 Problems We recently purchased a Radio Shack Model 16 microcomputer and upgraded a Model II to a 16. We were faced with the prospect of no software for the Model 16 for over six months. The software prom- ised by Radio Shack has finally arrived and is a version of Xenix. A Microsoft BASIC (TRS-Xenix BASIC) interpreter is also available. We were especially interested in obtain- ing what we expected would be a superior performing BASIC interpreter. The 68000 processor would appear to offer a signifi- cant performance advantage over the Z80. We have run some simple bench- marks (benchmarks No. 1 and No. 2) to test the speed of the new 68000-based in- terpreter. Frankly, we're shocked! Enclosed is a copy of the two bench- marks and timed results for various com- puters. Because of the poor performance of the TRS-Xenix system, we were con- cerned about the effective clock speed of the 68000 in the Model 16. We ran another benchmark and found the clock speed of the 68000 to be about 6 MHz, as advertised by Radio Shack. Clearly something is seriously wrong with the TRS-Xenix BASIC and perhaps even with Xenix as it is implemented on the Model 16. We need a faster BASIC interpreter and are hoping some software supplier will help us recover the investment we have made in Radio Shack equipment. We are not confident, though, that the Model 16 can be improved significantly. We have run two benchmarks on the Model 16, one using TRSDOS-16 with an assembly-language program, and Micro- soft BASIC in the Z80 mode. The bench- mark echoes the character "1" to the screen 10,000 times. The assembly-lan- guage version uses TRSDOS-16 system calls. Shockingly, the BASIC version runs twice as fast. In our opinion, the speed of the Model 16 is totally unacceptable. We : 1. a^uDie siae uble density, ^ Plug compatible with standard 5%" drives, but occupying just one-half the space, these Amdisk-V minifloppy disk drives are engineered for solid performance and relia- bility . . . and they're available now! Drives are available with black faceplate. Just circle the reader service number for complete specifications and quantity pricing. 2201 Lively Blvd. • Elk Grove Village. IL 60007 (312) 364-1180 TLX: 25-4786 REGIONAL OFFICES: Calif. (714) 662-3949 Texas (SO) 498-2334 Amdek . . . your guide to innovative computing! circle 32 on inquiry card. Rana's disk drive was twice as good as Apple's with one head. gfe.i'J! 1 mm Q Hflfl Now we have two. We added another head so you won't have to buy another disk. That's the beauty of a double sided head. A floppy disk which allows you to read and write on both sides. For more storage, for more information, for keeping larger records, and for improved perfor- mance of your system. That's what our new Elite Two and Elite Three offers. It's the first double headed Apple® compatible disk drive in the industry. And of course, the technology is from Rana. We're the com- pany who gave you 163K bytes of storage with our Elite One, a 14% increase over Apple's. And now with our high tech double sided heads, our Elite Two and Three offers you two to four times more storage than Apple's. That's really taking a byte out of the competition. We put our heads together to give you a superior disk drive. We designed the Elite Three to give you near hard disk capacity, with all the advantages of a minifloppy system. The double sided head oper- ates on 80 tracks per side, giving you a capacity of 652K bytes. It would take 4 1 /2 Apples to give you that. And cost you three times our Elite Three's reasonable $849 pricetag. Rana's double sided heads give Apple II superior disk performance power than second generation personal com- puters such as IBM's. It takes 4'/2 Apples to equal the capacity ot our superior Elite Three. The Elite Two offers an impressive 326K bytes and 40 tracks on each side. This drive is making a real hit with users who need extra storage, but don't require top-of-the-line capacity. Costwise, it takes 2!/2 Apple drives to equal the performance of our Elite Two. And twice as many diskettes. Leave it to Rana to produce the most cost efficient disk drive in the world. We've always had the guts to be a leader. Our double sided head may be an industry first for Apple computers, but nobody was surprised. They've come to expect it from us. Because Rana has always been a leader. We were the first with a write protect feature, increased capacity, Your word processor stores 5 times as many pages of text on an Elite Three diskette as the cost ineffective Apple. and accurate head positioning. A first with attrac- tive styling, faster access time, and the conve- nience of storing a lot more pages on far fewer diskettes. We were first to bring high technology to a higher level of quality. So ask for an Elite One, Two, or Three. Because when it comes to disk drives, nobody uses their head like Rana. NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE APPLE III. . . THE ELITE TWO.THREE AND ELITE THREE. THREE RanaSystems 21300 Superior St., Chataworth, CA 91311 (213) 709-5484. For dealer Information call toll free: 1-800-421-2207. In California only call: 1-800-262-1221. Source Number TCT-654 ©Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer. Inc. Circle 395 on inquiry card. Available at all participating Computerland stores and other fine computer dealers. BYTE October 1983 23 ■ ■ SENTINEL ■■■DISKETTES ^■^ ■ ■ I Sentinel Computer Products, Division of Packaging Industries G i Guaranteed when properly used to Read, Write Error-Free as long . as you own them. YOU MAY NEVER NEED. But it costs no more ! The expert technicians who produce and monitor the quality of our diskettes have developed new state-of-the-art technology using equipment we design and build ourselves, unlike any other diskette maker. That's why our burn- ishing method uses a unique, dual-sided technique which provides an advanced degree of surface smoothness, the key to consistent high quality SENTINEL" performance. In addition, a superior, high quality lubricant assuring extra long life and a quality control program which includes certifying every Sentinel Diskette are reasons we can offer you the industry's most exacting guarantee. For unsurpassed information security, choose Sentinel brand, and ask your dealer about the new 2-PACK in a resealable storage case. The Professional's Diskette — Ideal for Personal Use. Sentinel Computer Products, Division of Packaging Industries Group, Inc. Hyannis, MA 02601 Tel: 617-775-5220 Letters __^_^__. would welcome any response Radio Shack might be willing to offer on the per- formance of its Model 16. Sam Harp Marvin Stone Oklahoma State University Department of Agricultural Engineering Agricultural Hall, Room 227 Stillwater, OK 74078 Thank you for the opportunity to re- spond to the letter by Sam Harp and Mar- vin Stone of the Department of Agri- cultural Engineering at Oklahoma State University. We have studied the benchmark tests as submitted by OSU, and we do not substantially disagree with the timings of the tests for the TRS-80. The tests appear to make a Model II running a BASIC pro- gram under TRSDOS a faster machine than a Model 16 running TRSDOS-16 or a Model 16 running TRS-Xenix. As with all benchmark tests, it is appro- priate to say that the particular program used has much to do with the timed results. Benchmark §1 is a straightforward BASIC program that evaluates the sine of an ex- pression containing one numeric variable raised to the power of a second variable and repeats this 1000 times. In Model II BASIC, both the exponentiation and the SIN function are evaluated with single precision only, there being no other pos- sibility. In MBASIC for TRS-Xenix, the same functions are evaluated with double precision only, there being no possibility of performing any math routine at any other precision. So we have the situation where identical syntax typed into the two BASICs will give comparisons of speed for that program, but the two programs are radically different internally. Radio Shack was pleased to be able to offer the Decimal Math Pack as an in- tegral part of TRS-Xenix MBASIC. This removes the "rounding errors" that are an inevitable part of Model II BASIC; of course, this newfound "accuracy" has been at the expense of the speed of some functions, particularly trigonometric functions such as SIN. The BCD (binary- coded decimal) math routines are one of the many ways in which we believe we have been able to provide a superior per- forming BASIC. But this does not mean that all math is slower because it is in dou- ble precision; in fact, a minor variation of the OSU benchmark (using any of the four standard arithmetic operators instead of exponentiation and the SIN function) 4— Circle 417 on inquiry card. ^ I Teletek's New Combo Could Make You A Hero! The SBC-II could be just the right ingredient for your latest concoction. The newest member of Teletek's family of multi-user, multi-processing S-100 products, the SBC-II essentially combines, or "sandwiches" two Teletek SBC-I's into one board. The SBC- II provides the capability to sup- port two users from one standard size IEEE-696/S-100 slave board. The SBC-II maintains full performance for each user with an independent CPU (Z80A or Z80B), 64K RAM, Serial I/O, and FIFO communications port to the system master. The system integrator benefits by getting complete support for two users for the price of one board. TurboDOS and MDZ operating systems will support combinations of SBC-I's and SBC-ll's offering system design efficiency and flexibility never before possible. If you're hungry for value and efficiency, order an SBC-II from Teletek. You'll love every byte. 4600 Pell Drive Sacramento, CA 95838 (916) 920-4600 Telex 4991834 TELETEK Dealer inquiries invited. ©Teletek 1983 Circle 464 on inquiry card. Letters ___^— — — _ will run faster on Xenix than on the Model II. Program mixes containing a substantial proportion of trigonometry will run slower than a program containing little or no trigonometry in either BASIC, and this time differential will be greater on MBASIC than on Model II BASIC. OSU's Solar Energy Benchmark program con- tains a substantial proportion of trigono- metric functions. Philip S. Hurrell Radio Shack Computer Customer Service 400 Atrium-One Tandy Center Fort Worth, TX 76102 Program 230 "** MODEL 16 (TRS-XENIX) 132.0 240 A = 3. 14159 250 B = 3/7 260 FOR 1=1 to 1000 270 Z = SIN(A-B) 280 NEXT I Table 1: BENCHMARK #1 EXECUTION TIME SECONDS IBMPC(MS-DOS) 29.0 OSBORNE (CP/M) 43.0 MODEL II (TRSDOS) 43.0 APPLE II 75.0 Table 2: BENCHMARK #2 EXECUTION TIME SECONDS IBM PC (PODOS) 358 OSBORNE (CP/M) 379 MODEL II (TRSDOS) 429 MODEL 16 (TRS-XENIX) ONE USER. .677 MODEL 16 (TRS-XENIX) TWO USERS 1316 Editor's note: the program for Benchmark 2 is an average BASIC program of 130 lines; due to lack of space, it is not included here. . . . G.W. Commodore 64 Comments I must comment on several points raised in your review of the Commodore 64 (July, page 232). First, I don't know what the obsession is with repeating keys. If you want all keys to repeat, then a POKE 650, 128 will do the trick. A POKE 650, will cause only the normal keys to repeat. Second, it is true that you can enter most keywords with two keys (usually the first letter and the shifted second letter). However, only the screen editor shows this coded form — any listed program prints the full word. When working with the screen editor, switching to the upper/ lower character set (press the Commodore and shift keys at the same time) will figure the code in a more readable form. For ex- ample, POKE 650, would appear as "pO 650, 0". I use this feature quite often for the PRINT# keyword ("pR"). This saves typing the word PRINT and the shifted 3 for the # character. Third, the disk is awkward in some areas, but I feel your selection of the direc- tory display was a poor choice. After run- ning the WEDGE program, the directory can be displayed by typing "@$". Note that it is displayed — not loaded — with this command. Is this any more awkward than booting the disk and typing "CATALOG" on an Apple7 You also state that because of the side sectors, a relative file fills the entire disk. This is not true— you should say that a relative file can fill the entire disk. Many small relative files can be put on one disk. You should have been more critical The Most Promising Duet For An Orthestra* Our duet is perfect for a single user system, e same duet performs even better in a multi-user orchestra. MCM*80: S-100 Single Board Computer ■ Single or multi processor capability ■ Pro- grammable master or slave selection ■ Redundant pro- cessor manipulation ■ 4MHz Z80A or 6MHz Z80B CPU ■ 64K RAM and 2K EPROM with n ■ 2 serial, 2 parallel, 4 timer ports ■ Bi-directional inter- processor channel ■ Dual mode serial ports interface ■ Multi-layer PCB construction. $495* Circle 240 on inquiry card. DCM* 80: S-100 Disk Controller Module ■ 8" and/or 5%" floppy disk controller ■ SASI (ANSI, SCSI) hard disk host adapter ■ Single and double density, single and double side b Software implementation on CP/M' 2.2 and TurboDOS? TM of Digital Research, Inc. 1 TM of Software 2000, Inc. $345. JC SYSTEMS 469 Valley Way Milpitas, CA 95035 408-945-0318 TWX#91 0-381 -7041 universal' Dam System a mora*** mi al Data s> Systems UDS gives 212 users three ways to go! 212A— Today's most popular modem. UDS offers a fully Bell-compatible unit with complete local and remote test capability. Select 0-300 or 1200bps for full-duplex asynchronous commu- nication. The UDS212A is FCC certified for direct connection to the dial-up tele- phone network, and available in multi- channel, rack-mounted configuration. SINGLE UNIT PRICE $595 212 LP — Compatible with 212As at the 1200 bps, full-duplex asynchro- nous communication rate. No power supply or AC connection required; the 212 LP derives its operating power directly from the telephone line. Ideal for applications requiring 212A capa- bility at 1200 bps only. The 212 LP is direct-connect certified. SINGLE UNIT PRICE $445 212A/D — Identical to the 212A, with automatic dialing capability added.' The unit stores and dials up to five 30-digit numbers. CRT menu prompt- ing, single-stroke commands and automatic test capabilities are pro- vided. The 212A/D is direct-connect certified. SINGLE UNIT PRICE $645 Universal Data Systems ® MOTOROLA INC. Information Systems Group 5000 Bradford Drive, Huntsville, AL 35805. Telephone 205/837-8100; TWX 810-726-2100 DISTRICT OFFICES: Old Bridge, N J, 201/251-9090 • Blue Bell, PA, 215/643-2336 • Atlanta, 404/998-2715 • Chicago, 312/441-7450 • Columbus, OH, 614/895-3025 • Boston, 617/8754868 Richardson, TX, 214/680-0002 • Englewood, CO, 303/694-6043 • Houston, 713/988-5506 • Tustln, CA, 714/669-8001 • Mountain View, CA, 415/969-3323 Circle 492 on inquiry card. Created by Dayner/Hall, Inc., Winter Park, Florida ir. ■ ■ VI B^^ — = 10 ^0 ^^^ M x wW m ^^* J As « \ KachText 5000' In a word, a star is bora PeachText 5000™ has arrived. A complete personal productivity system for word processing, financial modeling, mailing lists and simple data-base management. All at one price -$395. 00. And all from Peachtree Software Incorporated. The quality is unmistakably Peachtree: proven, powerful appli- cations with menu-driven features, easy-to-use documentation and quick access to "Help" prompts. And they're fully interactive. PeachText 5000 is available for the IBM Personal Computer,™ the COMPAQ Portable Computer,™ the Texas Instruments Professional Computer™ and the Zenith Z-100. The PeachText 5000 Personal Productivity System includes: 1 Word processing PeachText™ word processor. PeachText has long been recognized as one of the best in the industry, with sophisticated print capabilities second to none and complete editing capabilities for creating and manipu- lating a variety of documents. We've made it even better for PeachText 5000. We've even installed the Random House Electronic Thesaurus™ in PeachText. Spelling Proofreader. This high- performance package can check a 10,000-word document for spelling and typographical errors in less than two minutes.* 2 Financial planning Turn your computer's memory into a worksheet for financial and other mathematical analysis. PeachCalc™ will address up to 256K of RAM, so you don't have to worry about your memory space outstripping PeachCalc's capacity. Combine spreadsheets with PeachCalc's merge functions or insert PeachCalc reports into PeachText documents. You can even use the "Execute" command to set up material from PeachText or other files to be fed into PeachCalc. 3 Data management List Manager. This module uses Peachtree's state-of-the-art screen manager and index file manager to give you complete control over the design and use of mailing lists, labels and other files or reference aids. Output can be used with the PeachText word processor to indivi- dualise form letters or template documents. Limited Time Introductory Offer Now PeachText 5000 is available for $395.00. That's right-just $395.00. And that's not all. With your PeachText 5000 package you will receive: A free box of 10 Peachtree/WabashS 1 ^ " diskettes to hold the fruits of your new Peachtree productivity. A coupon to get Peachtree's "Access Pak" for $10.00. The Access Pak, which has a retail value of $525.00, includes Information Access, which allows you to extract information from Peachtree accounting products for use with PeachText 5000 applications. And you get file converter programs to make existing WordStar,® Easy Writer™ and VisiCalc™ files usable with PeachText 5000 — because you shouldn't have to suffer because you've waited this long for the com- plete personal productivity system. Free 30-day support from Peachtree Software Incorporated, on return of the registration card . PeachText 5000 is here. The com- plete personal productivity system. And it's unmistakably Peachtree. Circle 353 on inquiry card. *In actual trials using an IBM Personal Computer and 320K diskettes, Spelling Proofreader checked a 10,024-word document in one minute and 15 seconds, using the standard 20,000-word dictionary supplied with the package. Checking times may vary depending on your hardware. WordStar is a trademark of MicroPro International Corporation. Easy Writer is a trademark of Information Unlimited Software. VisiCalc is a trademark of VisiCorp. Random House Electronic Thesaurus is a trademark of Random House Inc. Unmistakably Peachtree Peachtree^ Software"" Who are the dealers in my area? Name: Company: Address: City: _Telepho _State_ _Zip:_ ©1983 Peachtree Software Incorporated an MSA company 3445 Peachtree Road, N.E./8th Floor/Atlanta, Georgia 30326/J-800-554-8900 BYT 10/83 Circle 58 on inquiry card. I BTA's MODEL 524 MULTIPORT CONTROLLER is a code activated one to four serial port expander — but that's not all since it has separate and indepen- dent UARTS, buffers and handshaking each port can operate with a different configuration, i.e. different baud rates, stop bits, etc. These features also permit two or more devices to communicate with the 524 simultaneously. Lettar- quality printer High speed printer / Tarmlnal Full duplex with EIA RS-232 protocol Baud rates up to 19,200 Expansion to 16 ports by cascading Peripheral ports may be configured by user software One year warranty -MODEL 524 $249.00 •MODEL 524A $279.00 same as model 524 except has 256 byte rx/tx buffers per port •MODEL 524 D $269.00 same as model 524, plus continuous poll- ing of each peripheral device for data transfer requests. The device is auto- matically connected when its 'turn comes up . ON, BUSY and OFF messages are sent to the peripheral device. J Other models available — Contact us or your dealer for additional information. BAY TECHNICAL ASSOCIATES, inc.. HIGHWAY 603.RO. BOX 3B7 ^ BAY ST LOUIS, MISSISSIPPI 39520 18011467-8231 Letters. about the poor quality (or quality control, perhaps) of the RF modulator. Of four TV sets, my Commodore 64 works on only two. Nothing is said in the User's Guide about any adjustments that can be made. After a few months of using the User's Guide and the Programmer's Reference Guide, some of my pages are ready to fall out. I think this is due to the small size of the bindings. James E. Borden 641 Adams Rd. Carlisle, PA 17013 Two on Logo I must applaud Gary Kildall and David Thornburg for "Digital Research's DR Logo" (June, page 208). For the last year and a half, I have been trying to convince school and college administrators that Logo is a powerful, general-purpose pro- gramming language. Before Logo was available on microcomputers, I taught college and teacher in-service courses in BASIC. The most common myth about BASIC is that the relatively few primitive operations make it easy to learn. This is believed by those who have never tried to teach BASIC to neophytes. Most first- time users complain about the pickiness of the interpreter regarding misplaced quotes or semicolons, and numerous other things. Some adults I've taught even con- fuse PRINT and INPUT. Considering that these two statements do opposite things, one begins to wonder if BASIC is easy to learn. When comparing languages, I always stay away from evaluating specific fea- tures of a language, such as whether or not it supports pointer-type variables, Boolean operators, or whatever. The real issue is this: how easy is the language to think in? The metaphor Logophiles often use for the activity of programming is that it is like teaching the computer (or turtle) a new word. More than just a met- aphor, this changes your perspective on solving the problem. The fact that people can have personalized input and define their own words gives them a sense of power over the machine and helps them view the computer as a mental aid. This results in less blame being placed on the machine for an incorrect result because the user is the one that created the pro- cedure. The ability to create your own keywords encourages you to say to your- self, "How can I break this task up into chunks that are suitable for keyword definitions?". Of course, it isn't necessary to break the problem up into chunks. The example I often use in Logo courses, drawing stickmen, comes from Mind- storms, pages 100-103. Granted, drawing stickmen may be a trivial task on the out- side, but most people adopt this stuctured approach because the solution is easier to visualize, easier to think through, and easier to debug, if necessary. Obviously, I think Logo is an easier lan- guage to think in than BASIC. The adults and children I have taught Logo to over the past two years agree. They also agree that Logo is a powerful language. Logo is a dialect of LISP, which, as Kildall and Thornburg put it, "is a powerhouse of a language." But there is more at stake here than semicolons and quotation marks. Kildall and Thornburg say that Logo demystifies artificial intelligence (AI) and puts AI in- to the hands of many. This is extremely important. Expert systems and other con- tributions from AI will greatly affect the way we use computers and will turn the computer into a thinking tool, not one that just crunches numbers very quickly. The impact that a thinking tool will have on society as a whole must be dealt with, and to discuss it intelligently one should understand the ways and means of ar- tificial intelligence (i.e., its theories and its languages). So wake up, you BASIC fans. LIST is more than just a command that prints out your program. K. Sharman 42 Rossmere Close SE Medicine Hat, Alberta TIB 2J8, Canada Request for Help I am looking for a 12-inch green-screen monitor or terminal with shielding to allow use by individuals with special inner ear problems. The medical problem I refer to allows certain people to hear some normally in- audible high frequencies apparently gen- erated by the horizontal sweep circuits in all televisions and CRT monitors used for computer displays. These frequencies are both heard and felt within the inner ear, resulting in physical nausea, loss of equi- librium, and other related physical and mental distress. In local experiments with such people, assorted wrapping of some monitors in foam or placing them on foam pads par- 30 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Introducing the Most Powerful Business Software Ever! TRS-80™ (Model I, II, III, or 16) • APPLE™ • IBM™ • OSBORNE™ • CP/M™ • XEROX™ L «vt? : ****** « ■.■.%% GENERAL LECeER. . _ — — . . . M mnliOM< »«CU*t»W 1T»*I* ■ .>.:■>•*' WITH )H£ fJRST TtMF COMPUTER USJ ■ ' .:/- .If,, . SP! The VersaBusiness" Series Each VERSABUSINESS module can be purchased and used independently, or can be linked in any combination to form a complete, coordinated business system. VERSARECEIVABl.ES™ $99.95 VersaReceivables™ is a complete menu-driven accounts receivable, invoicing, and monthly statement-generating system. It keeps track of all information related to who owes you or your company money, and can provide automatic billing for past due ac- counts. VERSA RECEIVABLES™ prints all necessary statements, invoices, and summary reports and can be linked with VersaLEDGER II™ and VERSA INVENTORY™. VERSAPAYABLES™ $99.95 VERSA PAYABLES'" is designed to keep track of current and aged payables, keeping you in touch with all information regarding how much money your company owes, and to whom. VERSA PAYABLES™ maintains a complete record on each vendor, prints checks, check registers, vouchers, transaction reports, aged payables reports, vendor reports, and more. With VERSA PAYABLES™, you can even let your computer automatically select which vouchers are to be paid, VERSAPAYROLl.™ $99.95 VERSA PAYROLL™ is a powerful and sophisticated, but easy to use payroll system that keeps track of all government -required payroll information. Complete employee records are maintained, and all necessary payroll calculations are performed automatically, with totals displayed on screen for operator approval. A payroll can be run totally, automati- cally, or the operator can intervene to prevent a check from being printed, or to alter information on it. If desired, totals may be posted to the VERSALEDGER IF" system. VERSAINVENTORY™ $99.95 VERSA INVENTORY™ is a complete inventory control system that gives you instant access to data on any item. VERSA INVENTORY™ keeps track of all information related to what items are in stock, out of stock, on backorder, etc., stores sales and pricing data, alerts you when an item falls below a preset reorder point, and allows you to enter and print invoices directly or to link with the VERSA RECEIVABLES™ system. VERSA INVENTORY"" prints all needed inventory listings, reports of items below reorder point, inventory value re- ports, period and year-to-date sales reports, price lists, inventory checklists, etc. •CQMPlJTRQMCSi 50 N. PASCACK ROAD, SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. 10977 VERSALEDGER II™ $149.95 Versa Ledger II™ is a complete accounting system that grows as your business grows. VERSALEDGER ir" can be used as a simple personal checkbook register, expanded to a small business bookkeeping system or developed into a large corporate general ledger system without any additional software. • VersaLEDGER II™ gives you almost unlimited storage capacity (300 to 10,000 entries per month, depending on the system), • stores all check and general ledger information forever, • prints tractor-feed checks, • handles multiple checkbooks and general ledgers, • prints 17 customized accounting reports including check registers, balance sheets, income statements, transaction reports, account listings, etc. VERSALEDGER 11™ comes with a professionally-written 160 page manual de- signed for first-time users. The VersaLEDGER II™ manual will help you become quickly familiar with VersaLedger II™, using complete sample data files supplied on diskette and more than 50 pages of sample printouts. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! Every VERSABUSINESS™ module is guaranteed I >nA at a fraction nf ihoir^nct If imnaronntcaficfiDf, William VCM3rlWJ3I^C33 ITlOaU us ior any VERSABUSINESS'" module may be purchased (or $25 each, credited toward a late — and at a fraction of their cost. If youarenotsatisneawi may return it within 30daysforarefund.Manualsforany vcn. Durchased for $25 each, credited toward a laler purchase of that module. nteed lo outperform all other competitive systems, atisfied with any VERSABUSINESS" module, you .unlji ,'...■ ^~. . \ /CDC A Dl IL'I N-r_ l-c ■- I.. I U_ To Order: Write or call Toll-free (800) 43 1-28 18 (N.Y.S. residents call 9 14-425- 1535) * add $3 [or shipping in UPS areas * add $5 lo CANADA or MEXICO * add $4 for C.O.D. or non-UPS areas * add proper postage elsewhere DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME Ail prices and specifications subject lo change / Delivery subject to availability. ' TRS80 is a trademark of the Radio Shack Division of Tandy Corp. - "APPLE is a trademark of Apple Corp. - "IBM is a trademark of IBM Corp. •CP/M is a trademark of Digital Research - # XEROX is a trademark ol Xerox Corp. •OSBORNE is a Irademark of Osborne Corp. HiMB Letters . tially attenuates the high-frequency noise or sound, but not enough to permit the in- dividual to use the installation in an office environment. There is also the problem of reducing the circulation of cooling air through the equipment. Have other readers run into this prob- lem, perhaps! We would appreciate hear- ing from anyone who has any sugges- tions, solutions, monitors, or computer terminals with effective shielding (sound, electromagnetic, or both) for dealing with this problem. John R. Page, Pastor Trinity Bible Church 828 Pennsylvania Ave. Medford, OR 97501 OK Modem Tariff Not Okay I am writing in regard to a serious prob- lem that modem users in the state of Okla- homa are facing. Southwestern Bell Telephone Com- pany's Oklahoma tariffs call for the charg- ing of an "Information Terminal Service" rate for anyone connecting a computer to the telephone lines via a modem. This rate is approximately 500 percent higher than the standard residential base rate. The present residential rate is around $9 per month. If you connect a computer to the line with a modem, even if you only call CompuServe once a month, the rate jumps to a whopping $45.90. The addi- tional charge for Touch-Tone service also increases, from $1.25 to $3.50 per month. This will undoubtedly increase dramati- cally if Bell gets the $301,000,000 increase that it just applied for with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Obviously, this tariff dramatically af- fects the entire industry, as the tariff for all practical purposes prohibits noncom- mercial, hobbyist modem use. And if Bell is permitted to get away with the enforce- ment of the tariff (as it is now beginning to), a precedent will be set for other local operating companies to follow in other states. Apparently, Bell is just now beginning to apply this 1965 tariff to noncommercial modem and computer users. And al- though Bell representatives have fallen back on the age of the tariff as an excuse, they have no intention of exempting residential modem use from the provi- sions of the tariff. Therefore, the Oklahoma Modem Users Group (OMUG) is fighting Southwestern Bell and its unfair tariff. We are doing this through media attention, responsible organization, and speaking at Corpora- tion Commission hearings. If all else fails, we will institute legal action to attempt to force a change in the tariffs. Because of the national attention this issue is just now beginning to attract and the fact that we desperately need more support, we have taken several steps to ensure that people are informed. We have a mailing list, and we send out a biweekly newsletter covering the latest updates on the tariff situation. We have also estab- lished a 24-hour hot line that is updated daily with a one- to three-minute recorded announcement; the number is (405) 360-7462. Robert Braver, President Oklahoma Modem Users Group 911 West Imhoff Rd., #634 Norman, OK 73069 ■ v^ AW- 1 -*#& #*K' PC WARE, INC. Dep1 B 4883Tbnino Dr. San Jose, CA 95136 VVARK 1408)978-8626 [PC !■! RSONAI < ilMI'l II K TO ORDER in USA shipping paid by us for orders Ion (US only! F MASTERCARD shipping ehl~ ,. , ■ i i . . • y pre pa For VISA or CA VISA 32 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. See page 273 for our Apple Products Circle 351 on inquiry card. Free Genius In Every Box. At CompuPro, we put a little genius into each of our systems. Maybe it's our dual processor that handles both 8-bit and 16-bit software concurrently. Or another CompuPro first, M-Drive/H™ the board that does the work of a disk drive— only faster. In every case you can get model-to-model expandability, six processors to choose from, 12- to 36-month product warranties and nationwide on-site service from the Xerox® Service Group. For performance, quality and reliability at a cost-effective price, try CompuPro's System 816 family of high- performance computers today. Let our genius multiply your genius. Model A. Single-user, expandable to multi-user. Includes dual processor, 128 Kbytes of static RAM, four serial ports, CPIM"- 8-16™ SuperCalc-867 M dBase II™ Hyper-Typer™ and Field Companion7 M M-Drive™ software is also included. Model B. Ultra-high performance single or multi-user. Includes dual processor, 256 Kbytes of static RAM, nine serial ports, same software as Model A, plus MP/M™ 8-16 TM Model C. Our top-of-the-line multi-user microcomputer. Supports as many as seven user workstations as well as a complete complement of peripherals. Includes 512 Kbytes of static RAM, nine serial ports, same software as Model B. Bundled with on-site service from Xerox Service Group. Model 86/87. For high-speed multi-user applications. Uses the fastest CPU on the market (the 10MHz 8086). In addition, 1.5 Mbytes of solid state disk memory give as many as five users access to 16-bit software up to 35 times faster than disk-based systems. Includes 512 Kbytes of 16-bit memory, CP/M-86f MP/M-86™ SuperCalc-86 and SuperWriter-86™ plus Xerox service. Model 68K. A single-user computer that optimizes the powerful new CP/M-68K™ operating system. Delivers ultra-high speed for those who develop their own progams. Includes 256 Kbytes of 16-bit memory, 1.5 Mbytes of M-Drive/H, CP/M-68K, mapFORTH and C languages, as well as Xerox service. All basic System 816 configurations provide as much as 4.8 Mbytes of floppy disk storage, and are expandable to 1 Mbyte or more of RAM and as much as 4 Mbytes of M-Drive/H. They all have convenience features such as clock/calendar, interrupt controllers, interval timers, and optional math processors. Programming languages available from CompuPro include Assembler, BASIC, Pascal, PL/1 and COBOL, as well as the new ANSI FORTRAN 77™ from Digital Research. ■ For your business, industrial and scientific computing solutions, call (415) 786-0909, ext. 206 today for the location of the Full Service CompuPro System Center nearest you. CP/M and CP/M-86 are registered trademarks and CP/M-68K, MP/M-86 and FORTRAN 77 are trademarks of Digital Research. Xerox is a registered trademark ol the Xerox Corporation. CP/M 8-16 and MP/M 8-16 are compound trademarks of Digital Research and CompuPro. SuperCalc-86 and SuperWriter-86 are trademarks of Sorcim. dBASE II is a trademark of AshtonTate. Hyper-Typer is a trademark of Summit Software Corp. Field Companion Is a trademark of Gensoft Corp. M-Drlve and M-Drive/H are trademarks of CompuPro. Dealer inquiries ihvited CompuPro, a G00B0UT Company 3506 Breakwater Court, Hayward, CA 94545 Circle 99 on inquiry card. l|'i[lKJ|h EMS LJjjEjJ r i^ I I Introducing the capability the world has been waiting for. A single personal computer able to handle Apple, IBM, TRS-80, UNIX and CP/M -based software. The Dimension 68000 Professional Personal Computer does it all. It actually contains the microprocessors found in all of today's popular personal computers. And a dramatic innovation creates the environment that lets these systems function merely by plugging in the software. Add to this the incredible power of a 32 bit MC 68000 micro- processor with up to 16 megabytes of random access memory. You have the machine that easily meets today's needs. And tomorrow's. It's the only practical way to upgrade without the need to recreate your data base. Dimension. At about the same price as the IBM PC, it's obviously the best value you can find. For more information ask your dealer or call us at (214) 630-2562. dimension A product of Micro Craft Corporation, 4747 Irving Blvd., Suite 241. Dallas, Texas 75247. C 19S3 Apple is u registered trademark of Apple Computer. Inc.; IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Maehines Corporation; TRS-80 is a registered trademark of Ratlin Shack, a Tandy Corporation eompany; UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories, Inc.: CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research Corporation. Circ i e 301 on inquiry card. I I I I I 1 - . . . . . . • Product Preview The HP 150 Magic is the code name for Hewlett-Packard's personal-computer project in Sunnyvale— and it fits. Something magical happens when you use the HP 150. The optical touchscreen trademarked as HPTouch goes beyond other pointing devices; it makes you feel that you have remarkable powers in your fingertips. It's almost as if the touchscreen turns your finger into a conduit between your mind and the computer. Hardware: Compact, Powerful, and Innovative This compact machine packs the system-processor unit, memory, video-display unit and control cir- cuitry, three I/O (input/output) ports, and touchscreen electronics into an elegant package that is 1-foot square. Two free-expansion slots permit a network-interface board and expan- sion to 640K bytes of RAM (random- access, read/write memory). An op- tional user-installable thermal printer fits in an enclosure at the top of the unit, with its own connecting cable. The dual-floppy-disk unit contains two single-sided Sony 3V2-inch disks holding 270K bytes each and has a footprint not much larger than the main unit's. The HPIB bus used to connect the disk drives permits the controller to reside with the drives; no expansion slots are required to add additional floppy or hard disks. The compactness of the HP 150 does have one drawback for per- sonal-computer users who do inten- sive computation. There was no way to squeeze a socket in for an 8087 co- processor. Early indications are that the HP 150 will be an open system with respect to both hardware and software, and perhaps someone will develop an 8087 board for one of the two expansion slots. Photo 1 shows the back of the HP 150 with its various I/O connectors. In photo 2, part of the back of the sys- tem has been removed to expose the two expansion slots, one of which is occupied by a memory board. Photo 3 shows the system with the back removed. The motherboard sits one level above the two expansion slots and holds it own piggyback 256K- byte memory board. Above that, you can see the video-controller board. Photo 4 shows the system from the front with the bezel removed and turned around to face the camera. The bezel contains the touchscreen electronics— the grid of light-emitting diodes and photo diodes. There are 24 holes in each side of the bezel and 40 holes in both the top and the bot- tom. This provides touch sensitivity for each row of the display and for each unit of two columns. The touchscreen leaves no doubt that the HP 150 intends to deliver the power of personal computers to more people— nontechnical people. For HP, always known as an outstanding manufacturer of high-performance products for engineers, the 150 signals a bold entry into the broader market now dominated by IBM and Apple. Cyril Yansouni, general manager of HP's new personal com- puter division, confirms this inter- pretation and describes the 150 as the first of a new family of products. Yan- souni also says that the HP 150 will be priced competitively, another departure for the company. A stan- dard system with 256K bytes of RAM and two Sony 3V2-inch disks provid- ing 540K bytes of storage, MS-DOS, the Personal Applications Manager software, and Microsoft BASIC will retail for approximately the same price as the IBM PC with equivalent memory and mass storage. The HP 150's unique touchscreen and user in- terface provide the magic in an already powerful computer. High Performance Hewlett-Packard's engineers did not forsake their reputation for build- ing high-performance products when they designed the 150. The HP 150's 8088 runs at 8 MHz compared to the usual 5 MHz or less, and the stan- dard amount of dynamic RAM is 256K bytes. There are also 6K bytes of static RAM for the screen and 160K bytes of ROM (read-only memory), bringing the total memory for the standard machine to 422K bytes. One of the two standard RS-232C serial- communications ports also serves as a higher-speed RS-422 port, and several peripherals can be daisy- chained off the HPIB connector, per- mitting high-capacity mass storage. 36 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Hewlett-Packard makes some magic by Phil Lemmons and Barbara Robertson Hewlett-Packard plans to introduce the HP 150 at the November Comdex show in Las Vegas and is already working with its dealers to provide all necessary support for that introduc- tion, including major television and print advertising campaigns. Accord- ing to Cyril Yansouni, general manager of HP's personal computer division, the company is establishing Personal Computer Centers for train- ing dealers and end users. While these centers will not sell equipment or soft- ware, a professional training and marketing staff will be available to answer questions, conduct seminars, and refer prospective customers to dealers. Twenty of these centers are already open and 65 additional centers, located worldwide, are scheduled for completion by the end of 1983. For more information on the availability of the HP 150, or the loca- tion of a Personal Computer Center, call (800) FOR-HPPC. Photo 1: A back viezv of the HP 150. Note the two serial ports (DATAC0M1 and DATAC0M2), the port for HPIB bus (used to connect a series of disk drives and parallel printers), and the easily removed battery. Ste* kr , r , c <0/l> b e f i 1 m a L (response) ' where: ■ 1 The 'b' field determines whether a touch will beep; i T he i e i field specifies the video enhancement of the ' field when NOT being touched i 1 The '£' field specifies the video enhancement of the ' field when it IS being touched ' The 'm' field specifies the type of field (ie, row/col 1 reporting, ASCII (as shown here), etc.) ■ 1 The 'a' field specifies when to report (on touch, on 1 release, or both). ASCII mode is considered a 'keyboard ' replacement', hence reports on touch only regardless of ' this field (just like a keyboard key) i ' The 'L' specifies the length of the desired response string i ■ (response) indicates the string to return when touched and ' may include a carriage return if desired DEF FNTOUCH? ( ROW , COL, CHARS? ) =CHR? (27) +"-zg"+ STR$ (ROW) +" , "+STR? (ROW+2) +"r"+ STR? (COL) +","+STR? (COL+8) +"c"+ "Ibl0e2f 2mla"+STR$ (LEN (CHARS?) ) +"L"'+CHARS$ REPT. MODE. 0N?=CHR? (27) +"-z2nlA" REPT. MODE. OFF? =CHR? (27) +"-z0N" TOUCH. DELETES =CHR$ (27) +"-zD" ' Display Main Menu 'Enable touch reporting 'Disable touch reporting 'Delete ALL touch fields PRINT CLS?; 'Clear screen PRINT FNLOCATE? (0, 20) , -"Sample Touchscreen Menu" PRINT FNTOUCH? (5,5, "1") ; 'Define touch field in row 5-7, column 5-13 to return ASCII '1' PRINT FNLOCATE$(6,6) ;"Option 1"; PRINT FNTOUCHS (10, 5, "2") ; PRINT FNLOCATE? (11, 6) ; "Option 2"; 'Put label in field 1 'Define touch field in row 10-12, column 5-13 to return ASCII '2' 'Put label in field 2 Now enable reporting and wait for a character PRINT REPT. MODE. ON?; 'Turn on reporting mode 'Input single character from keyboard OR touchscreen A?=INPUT? (1) PRINT REPT. MODE. OFF?; 'Turn off reporting IF INSTR("12",A?) =0 THEN PRINT CHR?(7);: GOTO 1760 'Did not type a 1 or 2 IF A?="l" THEN CHAIN"PR0G1" 'Selection 1 CHAIN"PR0G2" 'Must be Selection 2 END October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 43 S^Shcjtiwal 13551 v MUcitlM '"' ; " m : '**'- "^'••••- "* *•** 3" ■«*' iif;rM*ui- HttUtt*fMt*d 11 \\ "Si tt&|^M| jir^jjm ij^Jjgjg >MgJM >4|iJ*JiJ jjmrijrm vtjigw| £Jfj ■ b Mb m\ ■ b ■ ■ I3E9 1 fil-fifl KflEI ■ pnn| ig^L!J| K3fj intt Photo 8: A graphics-demonstration program by Hewlett-Packard for the HP 150. Photo 9: HP's operating system shell. Touch an application name to select it, then touch "Start Applic." to run it. P.A.M. When you boot the system, instead of the familiar A> from MS-DOS and a blank screen, you see Hewlett- Packard's Personal Application Manager, P. A.M., on the screen. P.A.M. automatically displays in alphabetical order the names of all the installed programs on the disk. Photo 9 shows the first screen with several installed applications dis- played. A small arrow pointed to the appli- cation named Format A, and it was highlighted, so I knew this was the default selection. I simply touched the Start Applic. softkey and the for- mat screen appeared, with several bars indicating disk drives (photo 10). I touched the second bar for drive B, typed a label for the disk when prompted, then touched HP Format. A small asterisk appeared next to the label. When the formatting was com- pleted, the Exit Format softkey returned the P.A.M. main menu. Three touches to format a disk, and I didn't have to learn or remember any operating-system commands! The only time I used the keyboard was to type the optional disk-drive label. Hewlett-Packard decided early in the project to use the standard MS- DOS operating system (although the company added some features— see the interview with Jim Sutton and John Lee on page 51) so that many popular software packages could run on the HP 150. To facilitate learning and use of the system, they created P.A.M. as a shell for the operating system. The first P.A.M. screen (photo 8) demonstrates the convenient and simple user interface. This interface is common to all the programs Hewlett-Packard is offering for the HP 150: at the top, a program and menu name followed by a line for ap- plication prompts and messages, and at the bottom, a row of softkeys followed by a line for system messages and the clock. (Hewlett- Packard wasn't sure if the clock would be in the final version. Per- sonally, I hope it is. I often lose track of time when I'm working on a computer.) The softkeys replace traditional function menus whose items are usually selected by typing in code let- ters or numbers. In addition, each softkey in a row can lead to an entire tree structure of more softkey func- tions accessed by touching the screen. The software discourages acciden- tal selections. You must move your finger directly into the softkey area. Sliding to a softkey doesn't work. However, because you don't actually have to touch the screen, a finger hovering in the softkey area some- times produces unexpected results. Selections are always highlighted for visual feedback, and in addition, when a softkey is selected, it clicks. The function keys at the top of the keyboard mirror the softkeys on the screen. You can carry out any opera- tion named on a softkey using the corresponding function key. Now to copy the master disk. After I touched the Copy/Backup softkey, screen messages prompted me to type the drive letters to copy from and to. When I entered A: (copy from) the names of all the directories and files on the disk in drive A ap- peared on the screen. I chose the Copy File softkey when prompted; I suspected I could select any files I wanted to copy by touching the file- names, and in fact, I could. As I moved my finger from one to an- other, highlighting each in turn, the small arrow followed. Only names from which I lifted my finger re- mained highlighted (photo 11). The Start Over or Unselect by Name soft- keys undo selections. I wanted to copy the entire master disk, so when I finished playing with the touchscreen, I touched the Select All and Start Copy softkeys. The number of bytes available on the disk in drive B (in the counter at the top right of the screen) decreased until they matched the bytes available for drive A. The computer politely beeped when it was finished. Four touches (and two disk-drive letters typed) from the File Manager menu, and I had copied the master disk. In addition to the Copy Files func- 44 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Photo 10: You can format disks in several drives simultaneously. Photo 11: Select files to copy by touching the filename on the screen. tion, P.A.M. has a Backup function that stores files in a compressed for- mat. With this function, you can select files by name or date. The pro- gram has enough intelligence to know when there is not enough space left on a disk for the next file and will fill the remaining space with smaller files, then prompt you to change disks. Users with hard disks will find the Backup function espe- cially helpful for archiving data on floppy disks. The P.A.M. shell works. It simpli- fies standard MS-DOS functions such as formatting and copying disks. Enhancements such as auto- matically displayed directories are convenient. All the programs offered by HP are automatically installed to run under P.A.M., and programs added later are easy to install. You can customize P.A.M.— changing application names, rearranging names on the screen, set- ting any application to start automat- ically—all by touching softkeys. Users who prefer standard commands can select the MS-DOS Commands ap- plication on the main P.A.M. screen. When you have disks in more than one drive (the HP 150 can handle 12 disk drives), P.A.M. will display, alphabetically, the names of all the in- stalled programs on all the disks along with the letter code for the disk drive. Disks in several drives can be formatted simultaneously. The P.A.M. instructions are easy to understand, consistent, and predict- able. I used the system without once consulting a manual. There's no need to learn how to use the pointing device to position the cursor: there is nothing abstract about touching a particular place on the screen with your finger. In contrast, most com- puter systems require users to learn, remember, and always type correct- ly cryptic codes such as "dir a:" and "copy a:filename.xxx b:file- name.xxx" in a precise and initially mysterious format. Utility programs created specifically for a touchscreen are remarkably easy to use. I wanted to see how touch changed some old friends: Visicalc and Wordstar. They are among the applications that will be available when the HP 150 is in- troduced. Visicalc I touched my way back to P.A.M., selected Visicalc, touched Start Ap- plic, and saw Visicalc on screen. Just as in P.A.M., the top line of the screen contains the program and menu names, the second line a message, and at the bottom is the familiar row of softkeys. Rather than create a new work- sheet, I chose one from the directory displayed in the File Manager. It's easy to move back and forth from any application to the File Manager. Touching the File Manager softkey puts the application on hold; the Back to Visicalc key sends you back where you were (see photos 12 and 13). Of course, I immediately wanted to know if I could select a cell by touch- ing it. I could, although it's a little tricky. It's easy to highlight the col- umn you want, but positioning the highlighting on a particular row takes some practice. Still, it's often a lot easier than typing. The softkeys contain most of the Visicalc commands, and I was able to use touch alone to move cells, replicate, open multiple windows, and select format and printing func- tions. Data can be transferred to a graphics program by touching a soft- key (see photos 14 and 15). Experienced Visicalc users may find the familiar slash commands faster than touching softkeys. But they will be pleased with enhance- ments like additional print functions (photo 16), cell formats and protec- tion, and multiple windows. Wordstar My fingers did the walking back to the familiar Wordstar opening menu, touched a softkey to open a file, and typed a new file name. A screen, blank except for the softkeys, quick- ly appeared (photo 17). Having the Wordstar help menus on the screen would be redundant, so the help level is set to zero, allowing most of the screen to be used for text. I couldn't wait to try my nemesis, a block move. I succeeded in mark- October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 45 'i|- T '^mfHM Select a func ion. ™"^^ Return File: Return Oir: Displayed dlr: fW mmsa MWIMIW gJjMlllitllM mi msiiwuwiia •mvgimttgt * BMIIMM JJJJI wmiwm BBSimmiM mama ii :.V:m:.i,'« ssasuut iiffiSdEBB 22in>uaa ilBBHSmM vf.RVj^g nuMgwiani ■■■1 Hllfit imj ID 3 iflT 22:0-1 i 1 1 <■ T 1 Jimv.-I ■ B^M 'TOItfll Photo 12: You can move back and forth between an application and the File Manager by touching softkeys. Photo 13: A ivorksheet selected via the File Manager (see photo 12) being loaded into Visicalc. ing and moving a block of text with a few touches on the screen and soft- keys (photos 18 and 19). One of the most frequent objec- tions to Wordstar is the difficulty new users have in learning and remem- bering the multitude of command codes. The IBM PC version 3.3 alleviates some of this problem by assigning 10 user-modifiable control codes to the 10 function keys and displaying labels across the bottom of the screen. The HP 150 version of Wordstar takes this idea a bit further: all the commands are on softkeys. Choosing a softkey label marked with lowercase letters produces more commands. Many of the softkeys lead to a whole tree structure of functions. Typists who prefer not to take their fingers from the keyboard can use the inherent Wordstar commands or function keys. The keyboard has ded- icated keys for common commands such as Insert Line, Delete Line, Clear Line, and Insert Character. The ability to touch the screen to position the cursor makes many edit- ing functions much easier. However, because the touchscreen is accurate only to a 2-character width (see the interview with Jim Sutton and John Lee on page 51), you may need to use the keyboard for exact position- ing. Of course, you can't touch what you can't see, but the keyboard facil- itates scrolling with Roll up/Roll down and Next page/Previous page keys. In summary, the touchscreen im- proves Wordstar and Visicalc. Al- though these two programs are old friends to many of us, even the best of friends have a few nasty habits that we wish they could break. In the case of Wordstar and Visicalc, the nasty habit has been the refusal to under- stand anything but control codes and command strings. HPTouch has re- formed these two old friends and made them much more agreeable. Memomaker You might well ask why, if Word- star is available for the touchscreen, HP would offer a second word pro- cessor. HP's Memomaker is a simple word processor, compatible with Wordstar and designed for people Photo 16: Visicalc print options can be selected and changed with touch. Photo 17: Wordstar on the HP 150. Softkeys with lowercase letters lead to another layer of functions. 46 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. : .. "'" '"" 30 Ml 1 y pt 7 for Hilp at my [|H 1 1 n ; : t F O ii i jhh FEB m 8PR MAT lsn.cs 3,000.00 5,250.00 5,512.50 5,768.13 6,077.33 IpST OT GOODS SOUI 2,500.00 2,625.00 2,756.25 2,694.06 3,038.77 BoftBATIMO PROFIT HEMES 2,625.00 2,756.25 2,694.06 3,038.77 lureMUNO EXPENSES 2,000.00 2,100.00 2,205.00 2,315.23 2,131.81 RPRE-TAX PROW JOO.OO 525,00 551.25 578.61 667,75 HI IHCM 1 230,00 1241,50 • 253.57 < 266.25 1 279.37 BMNUFACIURIHO COS! FACTOR prERMINO EXPENSE FACTOR 90S MX 1 mtmmw\ 1 ! ' IT 22||3 1 FILF 1 GOBI ^rc^ BMwefil H nnmn Photo 14: To select a cell, touch it. Photo 15: HP's ehhance'd Visicalc allows i multiple windows. who want a quick and easy way to enter text. Even with the advantages the HP 150 gives to Wordstar, many people don't need or want to learn how to use a full-featured word processor. That's why HP offers Memomaker. With touch to position the cursor and select softkeys, and dedicated key- board keys for functions such as in- serting a line and deleting a character, you don't need to learn or remember any commands. Most people could use Memomaker fully— to write let- ters, create memos, and do rough drafts— without ever reading the documentation. As in Wordstar, I used the touch feature to position the cursor and do block moves. I also tried changing the right margin and realigning the text. Touch makes these functions as sim- ple as they should be. (See photos 20 and 21.) I could go to File Manager^ select files, and read them into Memo- maker without ever using the key- board or learning any commands' (photo 22). Memomaker shows text enhance- ments on screen— highlighting em- phasizes boldface, and italic charac- ters indicate underlining. Margins, tab settings, and standard memo for- mats can be stored in format files and read into a document. Because Memomaker and Wordstar are fully compatible, documents created in one can be edited in the other. An experienced Wordstar user can add advanced features to Memo- maker documents, while someone unfamiliar with Wordstar can i use Memomaker to edit a Wordstar docu- ment. Memomaker is a great little word processor for people who don't want to do serious word processing. Personal Card" File The demonstration program for the HP 150 includes a sample of a name and address program called Personal Card File (PCF). The screen for this program has a drawing that looks like a typical rotary card iridex found, on many desks. To access a card in the file, you touch a tab as if the card file were made of paper and plptic; to rotate the card file, touch the han- dles- would with Photo 18: The cursor shows where I touched the screen. Photo 19: The result ofd block move accomplished entirely by touch. October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 47 Adapting Existing Programs to Use HPTouch: Picture Perfect, Diagraph, and Wordstar Two software houses experienced dif- ferent levels of difficulty in adapting exist- ing software for the HPTouch system of the HP 150 Personal Computer. Computer Support Corporation found it easy to adapt its graphics software, but Micropro had some problems because of the unusual in- ternal structure of Wordstar. Picture Perfect and Diagraph Picture Perfect is a general charting pro- gram that makes it. easy to do business graphics, such as bar charts with three- dimensional effects. Diagraph is a program that lets you draw flow charts, organiza- tion charts, circuit diagrams, and the like by using a library of approximately 100 primitives, including a variety of polygons and many common symbols. Computer Support Corporation of Dallas, Texas, is adapting two programs to run on the HP 150 and to use HPTouch. One program is written in Pascal and is being rewritten in the Pascal of the HP 150. The other pro- gram is written in BASIC and is being con- verted to the Pascal of the 150. Michael Kallet and Jack Hudler of Com- puter Support .explained how to use HPTouch this way: "You access the touch- screen through the HP 150'sAIOS (alpha- numeric input/output system), which is in ROM. You need to write some low-level as- sembly-language routines to access the AIOS. The same linker on the 150 handles both assembly language and Pascal. "In fact, you access the touchscreen just as if it were any. other input/output device. You call an assembly-language routine to set up the mode of the touchscreen that you want to use. We thought we would always be defining touch areas in terms of coor- dinates, checking for touches within the coordinates, and then going to commands that were mapped to the touch areas. But the touchscreen has a mode that makes the touch areas actually return a particular value just as if they were keys on the key- board. Another mode lets the user define an object by touching the screen. "The most useful mode is the one that makes the touch areas return keycodes. You turn that mode on and then set the touch- screen to report when it's been touched. Then you read the keyboard and wait for the return of a keycode and a qualifier. The qualifier says whether the code came from the keyboard or the touchscreen. "Because of its different modes, the touchscreen is more powerful than you realize at first. You could use the row- column mode all the time if you wished, but you end up using the mode that direct- ly returns a particular value. "In interpretive BASIC, you can turn screen areas on and off with escape se- quences. In Pascal, you make assembly-lan- guage calls to AIOS routines. Interfacing to HPTouch is easy in either case." Adapting Wordstar Since Wordstar is written in assembly language, Micropro is using assembly-lan- guage calls to the AIOS to adapt the popular word processor for HPTouch. Pro- grammer Joe Masters reports, "For every character typed or screen area touched, you get information about which device the returned value came from, whether shift or control was pressed, and so on. This in- formation comes to you from the console I/O portion of the operating system. The AIOS interprets the information. "There are routines in the AIOS for writing a line to the screen, writing an en- tire screen, getting coordinates from the screen, and so on. The existing Wordstar makes multiple single-character output calls to write a line. With the HP 150, you can write an entire line at a time by call- ing a routine in the AIOS. It's difficult to get used to, but once you do, development goes much faster." Kirk Hurford, manager of Micropro's OEM support group, explained the method of adaptation: "In adapting Wordstar for specific hardware, we go directly toward the I/O. Wordstar operating in the MS-DOS environment has much slower I/O because of the path that it takes through the operating system. In the case of the HP 150, the effect that we put forth to improve performance is sophisticated. There is a fair amount of intelligence with which Wordstar makes decisions as it's up- CONDOR VISICALC BASIC o . o DSN/LINK PERSONAL CARD FILE fc MAILMERGE 1 * DIF FILES WORDSTAR MEMOMAKER I SPELLSTAR Figure 1: This map shows the data transfer possible among the HP 150 applications. 48 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. desktop cardfile. (The "At a Glance" box on page 41 shows the card file in action.) PCF is designed to keep a handy list of names and addresses (which can be used in Wordstar form letters via Mailmerge). Key-field data ap- pears on the tabs, and the file is sorted in key-field order. To search and select data for an abbreviated version of the card file, select fields and type the criteria. PCF is not meant to be a database program, so all the data from PCF can be transferred to Condor, a relational-database program, for more sophisticated manipulation. Graphics With the high-resolution screen and a good selection of plotters dating the screen. Wordstar uses different AIOS calls based upon what it knows it's going to do. When it's updating characters, for example, it uses different functions from those it would use when it knows it's go- ing to write an entire line. "Without the AIOS, we would not have achieved the high level of I/O performance that we have on the 150. The only other version of Wordstar that is as fast is the latest version for the IBM PC. That took three programmer months. Achieving the same speed on the HP 150 took five pro- grammers weeks." Masters made it clear that the hard part of adapting Wordstar for the 150 was on the Wordstar side, not the HP side. "The part of the adapting that has to do with the touch interface itself is self-explanatory. The documentation and a test program have examples of using the AIOS. But what we're doing on the Wordstar side is difficult." Hurford explained why: "Wordstar is 14,000 lines of assembly-language code. The customization of the HP 150 is com- plex even though we get the information that we need from the AIOS instantly. It tells us where to go on the screen. The hard part is telling Wordstar how to get there." "Wordstar identifies a screen location," Masters said, "not by referring to coor- dinates on the screen but as a 24-bit posi- tion in the file. There are lots of transla- tions that have to take place to make Word- star understand what the AIOS has told it." available from Hewlett-Packard, it's not surprising that HP will be offer- ing three graphics programs for the 150— its own Series 100 Graphics plus two from Computer Support Cor- poration (Picture Perfect and Dia- graph). The Series 100 Graphics can use data from Visicalc or Condor to plot bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, and scattergrams on paper or slides. You can transfer data in, select pen colors and shading, choose options such as horizontal or vertical orien- tation, and pick paper type all by using touch. Photo 23 shows the Series 100 Graphics screen. Photo 24 shows a bar chart created with Picture Perfect. Because of the HP 150's high resolution, the bar chart assumes an almost three- Photo 20: All the commands for Memomaker are on softkeys. The cursor is positioned for a new right-margin setting. Photo 21: Realigning a block of text for the new right margin can be accomplished entirely with touch. Photo 22: You can store memo formats in a separate file and read them into Memomaker. The asterisk in the Help softkey shows Help is toggled on. October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 49 VYioto 23: Series 100 graphics from HP use touch to select pen color, style, and the functions you see on softkeys. Photo 24: A Picture Perfect bar chart demonstrates the high character resolution on the HP 150. dimensional appearance. Softkey menus can be used to define and ad- just charts. Help messages contain key words that can be touched for additional help. Diagraph can be used for flow diagrams, organizational charts, schematics, network design, slides, and presentation aids. Symbols on the screen help nonartists create sophisticated drawings. You can move, connect, and expand the sym- bols by touching the screen. Communications and File Transfers To use the HP 150 as a terminal for communications, simply boot up P. A.M., touch the Terminal softkey to access the four configuration menus, then, using touch or the keyboard, enter or change information to set a configuration. Instead of typing configuration data, you can use touch to select data on the screen. For example, the "baud rate" prompt displays a new bit-per-second rate with each touch. For file transfers, Hewlett-Packard offers the DSN (Distributed Systems Network)/Link program. DSN/Link can transmit both ASCII and binary data. Transfers to the HP 3000 are easy and include error checking. Name the file you want to send or receive and initiate the transfer by touching the screen. Transfers to other com- puters require customization, but log- on procedures and repetitive com- mands can be stored in a file, and a softkey may be assigned for those files so they can be accessed by touch. Transfers to HP 120s, 125s, and 150s can be made without a host- computer connection. Transfers can be unattended, and the program in- cludes automatic logging to disk and printers. Data Transfer When HP decided to offer popular software packages on the HP 150, the company worked on facilitating data transfer between them. Figure 1 illus- trates the possible data transfers among Wordstar, Condor, Visicalc, Memomaker, PCF, and graphics. (Jim Sutton and John Lee explain how they accomplished data transfer on page 51.) The data transfer isn't as extensive as it would be in a fully in- tegrated program designed for this purpose, but there is probably enough movement possible for most applications, and most transfers can take place using softkeys alone. What Makes It Magic? It's not just the touchscreen that makes this machine magical. It's the combination of ease of use, sophisti- cation, and low price. The decision to use a standard MS- DOS operating system means soft- ware houses can quickly modify their popular software packages for the HP 150. Users familiar with these pro- grams can easily switch to touch. Novice users will find difficult pro- grams are easier to learn with the touch interface. The modification of applications to use a common user interface gives a cohesiveness and predictability to all the programs on the HP 150. P. A.M., HP's solution to the MS-DOS A > in- terface, gives new users a place to start and makes utility commands convenient for everyone. But users who wish to can ignore the touchscreen in P. A.M., or any other features that don't appeal to them. Few, however, will ignore touch. Pointing to a spot on the screen is natural, and HP has paid careful attention to preventing ac- cidental selection by touch. Mistakes are less likely than with a traditional system that uses keyboard keys to issue commands. Anyone can quick- ly begin using this system and its ap- plications. The HPTouch interface isn't flashy. It lacks spectacular effects such as desktops full of icons and overlap- ping windows. These omissions don't cause any sense of deprivation; in fact, they help achieve a simplic- ity that contributes to the system's elegance. Although elegance can suggest for- mality that often signals "don't touch," the HP 150 invites us to touch. That makes the HP 150 as inviting as it is elegant. Certainly the HP 150 represents real progress toward the goal of putting high technology at the disposal of ordinary people. —Barbara Robinson ■ 50 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. An Interview: The HP 150's Design-team Leaders by Phil Lemmons and Barbara Robertson Jim Sutton and John Lee led the design team for the "Magic" personal computer system, now known as the HP 150. Sutton is a research and development section manager in the personal software division. Lee is a research and development project manager in the personal office computer division. Both talked to BYTE West Coast editors Phil Lemmons and Barbara Robertson at Hewlett-Packard's offices in Sunnyvale, CA. BYTE: What are the most innovative things about the HP 150's hardware? Lee: The touchscreen and the com- pactness. The touchscreen is not a new input device, but getting it into the box and lowering manufacturing costs took a major effort. BYTE: How did you go about doing that? Lee: We researched the touchscreen and did some preliminary models, trying to get it to work with very in- expensive standard LEDs and photodiodes. BYTE: You used the optical approach because of inexpensive parts? Lee: Well, the optical approach means we don't have to put a special film on the CRT that reduces the con- trast and visibility. Also, with the op- tical approach, you usually don't have the radiation problems that you get with other types of signals going across the screen. We also made sure our design provides ways of loading the parts so that each individual cell doesn't have to be adjusted separate- ly. That reduces our production cost. Sutton: One of the other issues in selecting that particular mechanism for having a touchscreen was to make sure it would be at least as reliable as the other components in the system. Some of the technologies that we looked at early on didn't seem to promise that kind of reliability. With this particular technology, the touch- screen would not be the first point of failure in the system. BYTE: How did you decide what res- olution the touchscreen should have? Lee: As far as resolution is con- cerned, it's really the pointing device's resolution that matters more than the screen's resolution. The sharper the pointing device, obvious- ly, the more precisely you can point. A light pen can get close to a pixel October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 5\ resolution, but we considered having to pick up a special device with a wire attached to it less friendly. So our resolution requirement was the end of a pencil. That was the smallest size we could deal with. Normally you deal with finger size, which is larger than pen size. BYTE: Did you decide to use touch and begin thinking of how it might be used, or did you originally look for another input device? Lee: We were really looking for a friendlier way of interacting with the computer. We had already used labeled softkeys on the screen that match a top row of function keys. The softkey labels could change when the keys changed their functions, but their use was limited by the key- board. Sutton: Originally, touch was an op- tional feature. Over the course of the development of the product, we con- vinced ourselves first of the value of touchscreen and second of our abili- ty to manufacture it for a cost low enough to make the touchscreen a standard feature of the product. We also had some customers directing us toward the touchscreen as an input device. HP has a partner's program in which we work with cer- tain major customers in a very active role and reveal to them some of our future products with an agreement that they won't reveal them. In return, they give us some valuable in- sights into the products. Some of these customers played significant roles in deciding on the touchscreen's role in this product. BYTE: Did anyone argue for elimi- nating cursor control or program- mable function keys, forcing people to go through the touchscreen interface? Lee: I think it was originally designed so that you were able to do anything from the keyboard because at that time the touchscreen was optional. Sutton: Nothing restricts you from using the keyboard as the only mode of cursor positioning. Customers who choose to do coding might use the keyboard rather than the touch- screen mode. But in some applica- tions—for example, on a shop floor- there might be no more than a cou- ple of dozen possible input choices. Then it would be perfectly reasonable to put up the 24 possible choices so that someone wearing a heavy leather glove could poke at the touch- screen and use it as the total input system. BYTE: What was the process by which you designed the keyboard? Sutton: A group was formed to try and unify HP's planning for key- boards, and it did a thorough study on the ergonomics of the keyboard. BYTE: How did you do that study? Sutton: I understand it was done by reviewing all of the external studies that have been done as well as re- viewing the ergonomic standards established and particularly the Euro- pean standards. Our resolution requirement was the end of a pencil— the smallest size we could deal with. BYTE: According to the International Standards Organization? Sutton: Right. We also did a lot of testing with a number of mock-ups that we built. The tilt and swivel fea- tures of the main unit are because of the same international ergonomic considerations. BYTE: Does moving to a different part of the world affect the touch- screen? Lee: There are differences as you move into the Southern Hemisphere, where the magnetic fields are dif- ferent and affect the convergence on the CRT. After we have converged it and centered it for the Northern Hemisphere, there is a shift when we take it to South America. The user can realign the touchscreen by using one softkey that brings up an align- ment grid on the screen. BYTE: What are you aligning at that point? Lee: There is a set of holes you can see on the side of the plastic bezel. That's where the light beams come through. We put a grid on the screen in graphics, and you position the whole graphic screen to align with the holes. In fact, that would prob- ably be necessary in the Northern Hemisphere if you dropped the ma- chine and the yoke at the back moved a little. Sutton: Our production engineers in manufacturing have been quite con- cerned with making sure we had an adequate solution to this problem. The need for adjusting the screen has been minimized, but if it becomes necessary it's easy. BYTE: What was the most difficult part of the hardware design? Lee: The compactness, fitting every- thing into the box. That— and also meeting all the regulatory standards set up by FCC and DBE. BYTE: DBE is the German equiva- lent of our FCC? Lee: Yes. HP also has its own en- vironmental standards to meet. BYTE: Those are more stringent than the FCC standards, or unrelated to the FCC? Lee: The FCC deals only with radio interference. We have standards deal- ing with shock test, transportation, and electrostatic discharge (so that if you are charged and touch the box, you will not cause the system to reset). Actually, the most important thing for any computer user is data integrity. We try to make sure that nothing that the user can do will cause loss or corruption of data. Every bit counts. Sutton: You were asking about the keyboard earlier. In fact, although we get our key switches from a very good vendor, and the vendor does extensive testing, we subjected all key switches to millions of keystrokes with mechanical hands, off-center keystrokes with millions of repeti- tions, and so on. This testing iden- tified some problems so we went back to the vendor and collaborated until we got solutions to those prob- lems. That's fairly typical. Usually we have standards internal to HP that are higher than any of the standards that come from regulatory agencies. BYTE: What did you have to do to get everything into that little box? Lee: Well, there are some design trade-offs. For example, not using an 8086, which would require a 16-bit bus instead of the 8088's 8-bit bus. In 52 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. general, when you do logic design you have to pick parts very carefully to make sure you don't use too many SSI (small-scale integration) parts. Also, you make sure that the chips will be in sync. The 8088 needs a lot of support chips, and the major func- tional chips must talk well to one an- other so you can massage the signals going from one to the other. BYTE: What sort of a CRT is neces- sary to get the resolution so high on a 9-inch screen? Lee: The CRT itself is not the major problem— it's the electronics that drive it, the discrete analog circuitry. We run at about twice the frequency that people normally run, so our analog circuitry has higher frequency response requirements. That usual- ly creates the much higher resolution you see on the screen. BYTE: The graphics are very fast. What did you do to make them that way? Lee: There are both hardware and software factors. First, we have one gate array that handles our graphics display. Second, there is a careful design of the algorithms that do the graphics. We have a very strong graphics group that understands the algorithms of doing vector drawing, area fill, and so on. BYTE: The gate array plays the role of a video-controller chip? Lee: That's right, for the graphics. BYTE: What about character- oriented I/O? Lee: There's a separate controller. We have two planes, a graphics plane and an alphanumeric plane. A Stan- dard Microsystems 9007 does the alpha control. It's a highly functional chip that replaces a lot of peripheral chips needed with the other con- trollers we have been using. The 9007 also does a lot of things itself without requiring the processor to support it. Even if the processor stops, the screen will not. The screen will be refreshed properly. BYTE: Is some RAM (random-access read/write memory) dedicated to graphics storage, or is it all one con- tinuous address space? Lee: It's one continuous address space, but there are separate RAMs for the display because they need John Lee, project manager for research and development in HP's personal office computer division. much faster access. We use some static RAMs. Sutton: One of the other things that makes graphics fast from an applica- tions point of view is the additional level of interface to graphics that is ac- cessible without going through some of the overhead associated with the operating system. BYTE: The GIOS? Sutton: That's right. The graphic I/O system allows an application using this level of interface to do so without incurring some of the overhead that would otherwise be necessary. Lee: That software interface also has some other very important purposes. Most computers actually go directly to the hardware in order to enhance their performance. That poses a very serious compatibility problem in the future, because hardware will change. The GIOS and AIOS (alpha- numeric input/output system) inter- faces give you high performance but are software, so future products can be made compatible. BYTE: Looking at other controllers, what microprocessor is in the key- board? Lee: I guess it would depend on what you call the keyboard. The keyboard itself has no microprocessor in it, just a few random logic chips. We use an 8041 on the main processor board to handle the touchscreen and the key- board. BYTE: Tell us a little bit about the HPIB (Hewlett-Packard interface bus) and how that affects adding pe- ripherals to the system. Lee: The HPIB has been accepted as an IEEE standard and we conform to it. That bus provides the flexibility to add a lot of peripherals through one connector in the main unit. You can just tie in the whole daisy chain with- out any restrictions, except for the electrical and loading restrictions. You can add disk drives and plotters and printers through the same bus. BYTE: What CPU chips did you con- sider, and why did you choose the 8088? October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 53 Lee: The personal computer market tends to be mainly concentrated on the Intel processor family. The Intel family was chosen so we could run an industry-standard operating sys- tem. Other HP divisions are develop- ing systems based on other pro- cessors, focusing on the Intel family. BYTE: Will the hardware be an open system? Will you cooperate with companies that want to make add-on products? Lee: Definitely. BYTE: Does that apply to software as well? Sutton: Yes, it does. BYTE: The power supply in the main unit is 120 watts. Isn't that unusually large for a power supply that isn't also supporting disk drives? Lee: We computed the power re- quirement for up to 640K bytes of RAM, with all the processors, the video, plus an internal thermal printer. . . BYTE: The power for the printer is in there, too? Lee: Yes. The power supply will sup- port the printer and we have some left over for the option cards. In fact, some of the option cards could take quite a bit of power. BYTE: Can you print the screen image at any time with this system? Sutton: Yes, that's true, but with one caveat. It's really printing the inter- nal memory image, not the screen, as you might expect. There are separate planes for graphics and alphanumer- ics, and, generally, you can print the normal alpha you see on the screen and the graphics you see on screen, but if you are seeing alpha on top of graphics with both planes displayed at once, you cannot get those printed out and overlaid correctly. BYTE: What manages the HPIB and the serial ports? Lee: The HPIB is managed by an HPIB controller chip from Texas In- struments, and the serial ports are managed by the NEC 7201 serial pro- tocol controller. BYTE: Did you make changes in hardware because of things that came up in the software? Jim, was there anything you asked John to do so that you could do something you were having trouble with? Sutton: Clearly we made changes in the firmware because of things that came up in the applications. John's role has been primarily the firmware. He's been very helpful to us in terms of being able to provide the right kinds of AIOS and GIOS calls for us to be able to get the very high screen performance that we want. BYTE: John, you actually did the AIOS and the GIOS? Lee: A lot of people got involved in that because it involves everything from the operating system to. . . Sutton: However, the answer's yes. BYTE: What about manufacturing methods? Is HP active in automated manufacturing? Changes were made in the firmware because of things that came up in the applications. Sutton: We are increasingly inter- ested, as are all companies, in this area, to both improve our quality and reduce our manufacturing costs through factory automation. If you walked out through the back room you would see some strange-looking robots making their way among the various devices. We also have manufacturing repre- sentatives involved at extremely early stages in the design of any product like this, to make sure that the prod- uct is easily manufacturable with the kind of quality that we like to have associated with HP. Lee: Manufacturability is an issue that's addressed on day one. It affects some of the things that we do— how the boards are laid out, where the holes are and how many screws we need, and other such considerations. Currently I would guess our most automated process is building the PC board. Production is automated and so is testing. BYTE: You already have disk drives in different sizes that use the HPIB, so all the 3V2-inch, 5V4-inch, and 8-inch drives are available for the 150 at its announcement? Lee: Right, all those drives, the Win- chesters and floppies. BYTE: How compatible is the 150 with IBM PC software? Sutton: Software that was written originally for the IBM PC is transport- able directly into our environment so long as it doesn't depend on special hardware features of an IBM device and uses vanilla MS-DOS calls. If it does use vanilla calls, then it will work equally well with our vanilla MS-DOS. Of course, our graphics resolution is somewhat different, so things that are written to make specific use of our graphics may not be directly transported to the IBM PC. Conversely, things written to make use of special features on the IBM PC may not be directly trans- portable to the HP 150. People will- ing to make the effort of using special features in the IBM PC environment may well like to use the special fea- tures in our environment. For exam- ple, to be able to get the kind of screen performance that we have. BYTE: Will you be offering a Win- chester drive unit with the same form factor as the double micro- floppy unit? Sutton: Yes. Those units will be avail- able at first shipment of the 150. BYTE: Did you consider developing your own operating system with perhaps an iconic interface and bit- map graphics, with your own appli- cations integrated into that? Sutton: Yes. We did a significant in- vestigation and a reasonable amount of work on our own interface and an operating system that provided some substantial additional features over MS-DOS. But we viewed access to software already in the marketplace as critical to the success of the prod- uct. We decided to use MS-DOS for that reason. We would like to provide an extremely wide variety of in- dustry-standard software at the same time we provide another rich set of our own software, which will be more valuable than competitive prod- ucts in the marketplace. Lee: Users should not really have to be aware of what operating system the software is running under. What they're more concerned with is how they're interacting with the system, 54 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. and that's really through a shell or a program that's running on top of what traditionally is called an oper- ating system. I think we achieve the added user-interface capability with- out having to change the standard functions that MS-DOS provides. BYTE: How would you describe the operating-system architecture? Where does the touchscreen fit into that? Lee: The touchscreen is just another device in the system. BYTE: Handled the same way the keyboard is? Lee: Handled similarly to the key- board. BYTE: Where do the AIOS and GIOS fit in? Lee: You can view them as an exten- sion of MS-DOS functions. What we want to do is design compatibility for future products at the operating-sys- tem level. MS-DOS is a standard operating system and changing it would make it nonstandard. But we still want to define a variety of new functions that a standard system can- not provide. So all the new functions fit within the MS-DOS definition. What we do is go through the I/O control path of MS-DOS system calls to access all the AIOS and GIOS functions. BYTE: What is the AIOS? Lee: In a nutshell, what AIOS does is replace what current systems do to write directly to video. That's the main goal of AIOS as far as output is concerned. We want high perfor- mance and multifunction capability to write to video and much tighter control of what people see on the screen. We provide that functionality while at the same time hiding all the hardware dependencies of the sys- tem. We defined a logical interface that can be transferred. Sutton: You can think of AIOS and GIOS as being at a lower level than MS-DOS. They bypass some of the things that would normally go on in terms of typical device output in MS- DOS. At the same time, the AIOS and GIOS are in essence at a higher level because instead of being char- acter-oriented in terms of its output, for example, they can deal with large blocks of text going to the screen at Jim Sutton, section manager for research and development in Hewlett-Packard's personal soft- ware division. once. As a consequence, you can bypass many of the inefficiencies of the usual way of getting to the screen, and at the same time do things in large blocks of data rather than a character at a time. The net result is multiplicative, making the actual screen transfer rates very high. Lee: The input our system allows is very important. In a standard system input is single-character-oriented; hit one key, and you get one character. That is very limited information. For example, the up-arrow key is a non- ASCII (American National Standard Code for Information Interchange) key, so you have no standard ASCII representation of it in one byte. To give the application better control of how the keyboard is actually used, you have to enhance input capability. BYTE: How is transfer to the screen handled under the GIOS? Sutton: There isn't blocking of data, but there are high-level operations such as polygonal fill and vector drawing. These are all handled as single operations, so logically you might consider that blocking of data. I can specify a polygon and fill it, and I don't have to send all the vectors to do the fill. A variety of fill patterns and line styles are all built directly in as GIOS functions. Lee: Most operating systems are basically designed so that you have a computer and two wires talking to a terminal. You view console I/O as talking serially to a terminal outside of the computer, and that basically is a low-bandwidth path. We wanted a path whereby data goes out in a parallel fashion. The AIOS and GIOS achieve that. Sutton: We can frequently write the entire screen in the blink of an eye. With that capability I don't have to wonder about algorithms that will rewrite the precise part of the screen that's changed. We've found that using the I/O structure simplifies a number of the programs that we do. For example, in our extended version of Visicalc, we don't write the whole screen; we're more intelligent than that. We write columns when the screen scrolls because we can write a column as a block on the screen. And we can do the things very rapid- ly. A trick we haven't made use of, but which I'm sure is awaiting ex- ploitation in some future product from us or an outside vendor, is to make use of the two separate planes October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 55 of screen memory. If you are doing something in a graphics application and all your menus are completely active in the alpha plane, bringing up a menu just consists of turning on the alpha plane. This means you can fill an entire screen with a touchscreen menu instantaneously. And as quick- ly as the person touches the item of interest on the menu, the menu can disappear, leaving the graphics intact on the screen. The I/O structure sug- gests a number of novel uses. BYTE: You did your work in Pascal. Did you consider other languages? Sutton: Actually, we did consider and used other languages for that matter. We actively considered using Pascal from a number of independent ven- dors instead of the Pascal from the HP 3000 and considered using C as a language. BYTE: Why did you choose Pascal over C? Sutton: There are a variety of reasons. We like to get a great deal of the work done inside HP in a stan- dard language so that it's easy to port around to other environments. For example, our Visicalc will be available on the 3000. And that's because we were able to write the program once. Then with changes to the I/O struc- ture going to the screen, we were able to make that product run on both machines. To be frank, we also wanted to have control over the quality of the lan- guage. If things turned out to be gen- erating code that was too large for us, we knew we could go in and op- timize the compiler. Some of the utility programs in the system are written in C, but for utili- ties specific to the 150, it wasn't im- portant to have a language with great porting capability. It made more sense to choose a language for other considerations, such as generating smaller or faster code. BYTE: Is P.A.M. the utility that you're talking about? Sutton: Part of P.A.M. was written in C and part in HP Pascal. BYTE: Will you be able to write pro- grams that use the touchscreen in any language? Sutton: Any language can use touch already. There's nothing magic about touch. The touchscreen is controlled at the simplest level by escape se- quences. I send those escape se- quences just as if I were, if you will, printing them. And if I know what the escape sequences are, I read in my manual the escape sequences to activate a touch area at some certain area, then I can do that in any language. BYTE: How did you decide what percentage of the resources, includ- ing memory, would be devoted to ease of use? How important was ease of use? Sutton: We wanted to differentiate the 150 from other products in this marketplace, and ease of use was one of the critical differentiating factors, It has always been our goal to use popular software packages and to develop some of our own. which is one of the reasons, of course, that we settled on the touch- screen. We have a fairly formal procedure at HP for passing external specifica- tions through a rigorous review pro- cess before the product is actually started. But I don't think we made a conscious decision during that pro- cess as to what amount of resources we would devote to ease of use. Our most important constraints, I think, are memory and disk size because we want everything to run on our small- est-capacity disks. Those are impor- tant constraints, and some ease-of- use features do take machine re- sources. For example, we wanted to prevent the possibility of invalid in- put. I think it's quite easy to enter in- valid inputs and have the machine not object to them in some of the products we see on the market. The machine may not blow up, but it will do something that is inconsistent with the inputs. To us, ease of use is important in things as small as that to things as large as using the touch- screen. It all takes effort and code and size. BYTE: Did you know from the be- ginning that you wanted to use popular software packages on your machine? Sutton: Yes; that has always been a goal. BYTE: When did you decide to also develop some of your own software? Sutton: That's always been involved in the machine also. BYTE: To what degree do the appli- cations transfer data among them? Sutton: We have modified existing applications or worked with vendors to modify the applications to use the high-speed I/O and touchscreen fea- tures, and also, in a more limited way, to have the ability to move data back and forth. We've often reworked our own applications to facilitate the data transfer. For example, our own card-file package has been tested to make sure that its data can be trans- ferred to and from the Condor data- base package. In the same way, we've made sure that our own Memomaker editor is able to transfer data between itself and word-processing packages from outside vendors. We facilitate the transfer by using outside vendors' file formats directly or by having easy ways to get between our format and theirs. BYTE: You can move information be- tween the Personal Card File and Condor and between the Personal Card File and Wordstar's Mailmerge program. Did you try for greater data transfer? Sutton: Yes. Our inability to do a greater degree of data transfer is in some sense a limitation of MS-DOS. One reason we thought about build- ing our own operating system was that we knew that with it we could give the appearance of integrating separate, independently written pro- grams. We may yet be able to accom- plish that through other mechanisms or through future releases of MS- DOS. To transfer data among our own applications, we have a mechanism that might be considered similar to Unix pipes. BYTE: What functions does the file manager provide for applications? Sutton: Well, fundamentally, it pro- vides consistency across all applica- 56 October 3983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 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In standalone or slave-satellite configurations you get dedicated ZSOA processing with 64K RAM, 4K EPROM, 2 serial RS-232 channels, 2 parallel channels, 4 counter timers and a host of floppy and hard disk interfacing options. Teamed up with Siena-supported CP/M 22* or networking TurboDOS* you get the most computer power and upgradability for the money. Out-perform your competition with a company that stays a step ahead. Ask for our free "Performance Building Kit" today. ZSIO-4 A powerful four-port RS-232 serial I/O and real time clock board Zilog SlO-chips provide ideal links to CP/M-MPM-and AlphaMicro-based systems for multiuser processing with high speed data communications. •TurboDOS Is a Registered Trademark of Software 2000 Inc. •CPM Is a Registered Trademark ol Digital Research SOFTWARE MJ 7 ~ MY 7 Pro mm — / (2r 216-892-1800 SIERRA DATA SCIENCES Fresno, CA Product Support Division • 25700 First Street • Westlake, OH 44145 (216) 892-1800 • TELEX: 980131 WDMR Circle 423 on inquiry card. tions, whether in-house or proprie- tary. The user has a consistent way to get at data and files on the system. So, for example, using the file manager, a person can readily view any directory on any disk, see that directory sorted in alphabetic order, and by simply pointing to a file cause that file to become the object of in- terest to the application. In addition it provides more functions— in fact, better functions— than conventionally available in packages like Visicalc or our previously existing graphics packages. BYTE: How did you decide what en- hancements to add to Visicalc? Sutton: We looked at a number of spreadsheet packages that are avail- able in the marketplace today, includ- ing the Advanced Visicalc package. Then we compiled a prioritized list of features we would like to see in the package. From that list we chose the features that we could accomplish in the time frame that we had for the product. We expect to continue add- ing important extensions to Visicalc. Our special interest right now is how to tie spreadsheet packages to a larger network environment. BYTE: How did you speed up soft- ware written in high-level lan- guages? Sutton: Our approach has been to develop the languages in a fairly straightforward approach in the 3000 environment and to bring those lan- guages across to the 150. We used the results of that as a basis for analysis on where we could tune and improve performance. First and most obvious was to modify all the I/O to use the AIOS/GIOS to improve performance. In addition, monitors tracked time we spent on particular blocks of code. We used this to determine where, for example, our run-time library might need to be optimized to make it faster. Sometimes the compiler itself needed to be optimized in some ways. Sometimes we could change our coding practices and make use of particular algorithmic features. For example, our first version of Visicalc wrote the full screen in MS-DOS vanilla screenwriting. Our second version of Visicalc wrote the full screen using AIOS. The third version would rewrite only the column that would move the whole screen over and then write only the new column, both of which are AIOS functions. BYTE: You've been working with lots of independent software ven- dors. Do you have a mechanism in place for looking at proposals from ISVs (independent software vendors) and from independent, one-man programming firms that want to write for the HP 150? Sutton: We have a mechanism in place and a better one will certainly be on the way by the time this article appears. We are doing two things simultaneously. One is actively soliciting all the vendors of top soft- ware packages in the marketplace, A special interest is how to tie spreadsheet packages to a larger network environment. and the second is being receptive to the ideas of smaller vendors who desire to participate. At the moment, we have an ISV cookbook that helps vendors use all the features we've de- scribed. We also offer vendors tech- nical support and the physical hardware. In the future we will have parallel R&D and marketing activities: a com- plete R&D lab within the personal software division, whose entire orientation is toward helping ISVs develop software for this machine, and a parallel marketing organization helping from the marketing side. BYTE: What was the hardest part of the whole project? Sutton: The hardest part of the whole project for me was the fact that a lot of things that are normally done serially were being done in parallel. There were huge numbers of critical and interrelated decisions going on at once. BYTE: When were you convinced it would really work as you had imag- ined it would all work? Sutton: I'm a true believer; I always believed it would. The only variable was the time. BYTE: Did this project start before or after the consolidation of the per- sonal computer division? Lee: Before. BYTE: And is this the first project of that division, or is this a project the division inherited? Sutton: In a sense the division in- herited it, but I think that the notion of the project was one of the things that caused the organizational re- structuring of the company. I think that trying to decide your placement in the marketplace goes a long way toward dictating the structure of your organization, and that was true here. BYTE: Was there a specific group of people who worked throughout the project, or were people pulled in and out of the Magic team? Sutton: It was a little bit of both. BYTE: How many people have worked on this project? Sutton: About 50 R&D people are working on it now. BYTE: Did people take the machine home to continue work, or did you keep it pretty well locked up? Sutton: Lately people have been tak- ing it home to work on. I know I took it home. My kids had a wonderful time playing with it. We will achieve great penetration in the 4- to 7-year- old market as well as in the business market. BYTE: Was there a kernel of the team, a group of people who've been working only on this who will go on to another project as a team? Lee: Not necessarily. Sutton: I think in the software area that will probably be true. Our view of the software area has a longer range than this particular set of hard- ware. One of the purposes of form- ing the personal software division is to have compatible, consistent soft- ware across a range of products, both the products that are available now and in the future. ■ Phil Lemmons is West Coast Bureau Chief for BYTE. Barbara Robertson is West Coast Technical Editor. They can be reached at McGraw-Hill, 425 Battery St., San Francisco, CA 94111. 58 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. ire; 11 !: ■ .fPi ■ ■ ■ ^^M ■ I ■ • "..: I ■■-■ success i f ':-.., I "'■ I ■"•■ ■ i ■V ■■ -1. ■ .V I 'I * » ■ ■ # I ■■■ I '■«*. I .",-■ ■ *m m Perfect Software, Inc. #*H ■ T ■ in i ■ • ■ Perfect It's really two v\ systems Powerful, automatic formatting plus simple on-screen editing. Only Perfect Writer™ gives you both. SOME OTHERS It does the work so you don't have to. You probably don't want to know how a word processor works. In fact, even setting margins, tabs, chapter head- ings, and other format details, is something you shouldn't have to worry about. That's why we developed automatic formatting for Perfect Writer™ It's powerful enough to do much of the work for you, so you don't have to think about it. Simple, Edit-Time Formatting Software: Wordstar EasyWriter* f Dedicated Print-Time Formatting Systems: IBM Displaywriter* Wangwriter* Ej Only Perfect Writer'" BOTH Simple, on-screen formatting Automatic print-time formatting Professional word processing in minutes. You don't have to be an expert to produce pro- fessional word processing in minutes. Perfect Writer™ supplies over 100 commands for instant results for- matting your document. Set tabs, align margins, adjust spacing or indent and number lists— all automatically. For business letters. Memos. Reports. Technical Document Formatting Print-time formatting AUTOMATIC: Just write. Perfect Writer™ does the rest for you. Document design formats such as footnotes, indexing, tables of contents, and report formats— they're all automatic. Screen formatting MANUAL: What you see is what you get. Manually control the screen and print exactly what's there. Only Perfect Writer™ does both! papers. Personalized mass mailings. Even books. Advanced formatting features like automatic indexing, tables of contents and footnotes are built in. Simple on-screen editing. What if you have a special format in mind? A quick note or document design you may want to use only once? No problem. Perfect Writer™ also includes simple on-screen editing and formatting — just like the system you're probably most familiar with. Your printed document will look exactly like the document you design as you write. What you see is what you get. Some expensive dedicated word processing systems offer automatic formatting features. Others offer simple manual screen formatting. Only Perfect Writer™ gives you both. Full-power function keys. All Perfect Software™ programs can be configured to take best advantage of the sophisticated features offered with today's computers and smart printers. You can use al] of your function keys — including the more than 50 function keys on the IBM-PC? Perfect Writer™ fully utilizes printers with proportional spacing, too. Print with a choice of up to six typefaces! 60 BYTE October 1983 Writer )rd processing n one. Finally. A word processing program for any computer in your office. SMART PRINTERS DISK FORMATS DATA COMMUNICATIONS COMPUTERS/ MAINFRAMES Perfect Writer "is the most compatible word processing program. Everything you compose with Perfect Writer™— every chart, every table, every doc- ument, everythin g— can be used by virtually any other word processing program or dedicated system. That's because Perfect Writer™ uses true ASCII data files to store your documents. ASCII is the com- puter industry's standard information code. It's read and recognized by computer systems worldwide, regardless of disk format or size, whether it's used locally or sent over telephone lines. Spreadsheets can be included. Want to illustrate your Perfect Writer™ document with a financial table or graph that's stored in a Perfect Calc™ spreadsheet? You can— easily. In fact, you can even edit the numbers for your Perfect Writer™ document without disturbing the original Perfect Calc™ spreadsheet. That's Perfect Software's™ fully integrated programs at work. Split screen editing. You can view and edit two documents on the screen at the same time with Perfect Writer's™ unique split screen feature. One simple command moves you easily between documents. And you can even review a spreadsheet while editing up to six other documents! It makes the preparation of complex documents easier than ever before. Check your spelling as you write with Perfect Speller.™ Perfect Speller's™ in-text spelling checker finds spelling errors and typos at a rate of 4,000 words per minute. (That's 20 pages every three minutes!) Then, at a single command from you, Perfect Speller™ lists the misspelled words or marks errors in the text of your document. Self-teaching software makes it easy. Perfect Writer's™ document design tutorials are matched to the easy-to-read user guide. Eight les- sons are included. Learn how to handle form letters, how to write business correspondence, and how to create your own special spelling dictionary. All tutorials are software-based, interactive programs to make learning easy and fun. Available for all IBM-PC DOS;' CP/M; and MS-DOS operating systems. When you upgrade to new hardware, Perfect Writer™ keeps right on working. All text files are trans- ferable. No other software works with a wider range of personal computers. In fact, Perfect Software™ now available for all of the most popular 8- and 16-bit computers, will soon be available for 32-bit formats as well. Only Perfect Writer™ offers you this much flexi- bility. Write your own success story today. With Perfect Writer™ Perfect Software, Inc. Solutions for success Circle 359 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 61 Perfec Up to seven assoc plus multiple v For successful solutions in financial planning. Perfect Calc™ makes it easy. Perfect Calc™ gives you the financial planning and analysis tools for success. Automatic associated spreadsheets. Built-in ac- counting and financial tools. Easy commands. And only Perfect Calc™ features on-line associated s preadsheets plus split-window display. With Perfect Calc's™ multiple window display, you can see two different spreadsheets at the same time. Change your figures and see how the result ing variations affect each spreadsheet. Up to seven spreadsheets on-line at once. Multiple Spreadsheets Associated spreadsheets AUTOMATIC: No double work— use any information you choose simply by referring to other spreadsheets. Move information, formulas or whole spreadsheets freely between multiple spreadsheets. Permits fill-in-the-blanks automatic forecasting and planning. Sixteen built-in application programs are included. Spreadsheet consolidation MANUAL: Simple cut-and-paste spreadsheet entries. Line, column, or whole spreadsheet additions from any one of seven on-line spreadsheets are also easy with Perfect Calc'.* Only Perfect Calc"* does both! How Perfect Calc's™ multiple file association really pays off. A good example is the built-in Income Statement Program.The income spread- sheet automatically reads from three other spreadsheets: Cost of Goods Statement, General and Administrative Expenses State- ment, and Sales Expenses. All four are on-line simultaneously. All you do is fill in the blanks. Then use all that informa- tion to perform an instant analysis and illustrate the re- sults of potential budget cuts or increases. You change just one spreadsheet using the fill-in-the-blanks style. Perfect Calc™ automatically takes care of the rest. Setting up the Perfect™ spreadsheet! Entering titles, labels, and additional information on your spreadsheet is easy with Perfect Calc™ It recognizes words automatically and handles them correctly without any special commands. If you want to use numbers — like dates— for item labels, that's easy, too. Individually variable column widths add flex- ibility in setting up your Perfect Calc™ spreadsheet. And once you've developed one spreadsheet, you can use it as a template for other applications. Simply refer to it. Self-teaching software. Easy, software-based lessons are included to make learning spreadsheet techniques simple.The lessons are matched to guides in the user manuals so 62 BYTE October 1983 tCalc ited spreadsheets ndow display Sixteen applications built in. And that's only the beginning. Perfect Calc's built-in programs: ( Add custom applications as you like.) ■ Income Statement Program • Cost of Goods Statement • Sales Expense Statement "General and Administrative Expenses • Cashflow Assessment Program •Accounts Receivable Worksheet • Accounts Payable Worksheet • Payroll Analysis Program • Stock Portfolio Evaluation Program • Real Estate Analysis • Chi- square Analysis . Professional Fee Analysis « Family Budget • Financial Net Worth Program • Check Register Program > Individual Tax Return Analysis Program you can follow along in the text. Because you learn on the com- puter at your own pace, there's no pres- sure to perform.Try new applications when you are ready The most complete applications. Perfect Calc™ is the only spreadsheet you can buy with 16 applications built in. Standard paper and pencil financial tools are ready to use. All you do is fill in the blanks. Just a simple command is all you need to start working. And on-screen tutorials and English prompts give you assistance whenever you need it. Handy cursor commands. You can move the cursor easily to the top of a column, beginning or end of a line, to the page before or after— with a single command. And you can go back and forth between two spreadsheets on split screen display with just as much ease.That makes multiple spreadsheet han- dling easier than ever before. The most compatible spreadsheets. Perfect Calc™ data is stored in true ASCII files — the files read and recognized by every computer system. So, it's simple to use a Perfect Calc™ spread- sheet in a Perfect Writer™ report or letter. Or, build graphic displays using the information in one of your spreadsheets. Circle 360 on inquiry card. All the functions you need- and more. You get standard functions for financial, scientific, and engineering applications plus an expandable functions library which allows you to add new formulas as you like. Write your own complex applications programs. Just use a Perfect Calc™ spreadsheet and take advan- tage of the powerful associated files feature. Put the solutions for success to work for you. Using simple plain-Eng lish prompts and on-line references , you can do sophisticated forecasting and planning in minutes. Automatic associated spreadsheet information management. Standard spreadsheet calculation and consolidation. Only Perfect Calc™ gives you both. Start planning for success today with Perfect Calc m Perfect Software, Inc. Solutions for success BYTE October 1983 63 Perfec For successfu manas The powerful records management solution for the personal computer user. Put information to work for you. Most information management systems are either too small or too difficult to use. Now there's Perfect Filer,™ the executive information management system that's easy to use . You can keep track of mail- ing lists, clients, sales, merchan- dise, names and addresses, and much more. Easy to get started. Two ready-to- use data entry forms are provided so that you can begin using Perfect Filer™ immediately One is for individuals, the other for com- panies and organizations. You type important information just once. Perfect Filer™ does the rest for you. No special training is required. In fact, your entire staff can use it. On-line references and Eng lish prom pts provide Information Management Data entry forms AUTOMATIC: To create your own records file, just enter information on the convenient on-screen form. All of the parameters are predefined. Information management MANUAL: Create custom data bases with ease. Build an entirely new structure, or "borrow" data entry groups from existing formats. Only Perfect Filer™ offers you both! INSTANT DATA BASES AND REPORTS assistance when you have questions. And tutorials are in- cluded for improving your skills. Personalized form letters. Use Perfect Filer™ together with Perfect Writer's™ word processing features to add a personal touch to mass mailing letters. You can even tag dif- ferent groups within one mailing list so that your letters to them can include special paragraphs, subsections or operator-typed comments. And Perfect Filer™ remem- bers nicknames, titles— even your special salutation for special clients or friends. Generate mailing lists. Form letters. Specialized record-keeping forms and sorted lists. Choose from the two data entry forms provided or from seven data entry groups. Creating custom data bases has never been this automatic. Single-keystroke data entry menus do the work for you. You enter your data just once on a blank Perfect Filer™ data entry form— whether it be client addresses, direct mail sorting codes, payment records, inventory, or standing orders. Successful information management. Perfect Filer™ makes it simple. 64 BYTE October 1983 t Filer information ^ment. The integrated software solution. When you learn one program, you've learned them all. Perfect Software™ All of the most-asked-for business and per- sonal computer appli- cations in one complete package. Word proces- sing. Financial planning. Mail management. Records keeping. Per- fect Software™ provides the solutions to those everyday business problems. perfect calc- Each Perfect Software™ program works smoothly and efficiently with the others. All share common file structures. And, all use the same command con- PERFECT WRITER" PERFECT FILER" figurations. So, learn one program and you can use them all. Only Perfect Software" offers you this much. Perfect Software™ works with IBM-PC DOS? CP/Mr and MS-DOS" operating systems as well as most 8- and 16-bit computers. And each Perfect Software™ program is power packed with extra- value features, including: • Common control commands. • Manual and automatic functions. • Self-teaching software. Circle 361 on inquiry card. Solutions for success. You get more per- formance, more flexibil- ity and more auto- matic functions with Perfect Software™ than with conventional soft- ware packages. So, you save time and effort. And Perfect Software™ programs are self- teaching and fully inter- active, for productivity plus convenience. Perfect Calc™ provides unmatched spreadsheet performance. Perfect Filer™ is a records man- agement powerhouse. Perfect Writer?™ Rated #1 by Personal Computing; given highest marks by Info- World; and called "the most comprehensive word processing package" by Esquire Magazine. Perfect Software™ Your solutions for success. The Rebate. $160.00. Now, for a limited time, personal computer users can get back $50 each on Perfect Writer™ and Perfect Calc™ And, $30 each on Perfect Speller™ and Perfect Filer™ That's $160 factory direct to you when you buy all four Perfect Software™ programs? 1 Act now. Offer expires October 31, 1983. Perfect Software; Inc. Solutions for success 702 Harrison Street, Berkeley, CA 94710 Perfect Software, Perfect Calc, Perfect Writer, Perfect Filer, and Perfect Speller are trade- marks of Perfect Soitware, Inc. IBM-PC and IBM-PC DOS are registered trademarks of Inter- national Business Machines. CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft. "Purchases made as a part of computer manufacturer's original equipment offer do not qualify. Void where restricted by law. See in-store display lor details. BYTE October 1983 65 This One Decision Saved our Business and Grossed over $ 1 ,000,000. in Sales In 1979, our recreational manufacturing business was booming. And we had developed a new product that looked like a real winner. The new product was extremely important, in that it appeared to be the answer to a seasonality problem associated with our other product lines. By early summer, our order book was bulging. It really looked as if our off-season sales and production problems were over. Then just as quickly the roof fell in. Gas shortages devastated the recreational vehicle market overnight. And our order book for over two million dollars worth of the new product disintegrated. Faced with a fall and winter of virtually no sales, many thousands of dollars of unneeded parts and excess production staff, I had no choice but to shut down the production lines. And if a solution to our problem could not be found, the business itself was in jeopardy. A life saving decision I spent many sleepless nights trying to come up with a solution to this nightmarish situation. Then I remembered a course I had taken in decision analysis. I spent the rest of that night reviewing course material and other books I had bought on the subject. The next day.I called an emergency meeting. Using the decision making techniques I had learned, we spent the rest of the week searching for and analysing potential solutions. The net result was that not only was the company pulled back from the brink of destruction, but we. added over $1,000,000.00 in gross sales during that off-season. A way of life From that point on, almost every critical decision (and there were many) regarding new products, marketing channels, pricing, advertising, production equipment, engineering projects, received this same type of analysis. Although the process was very time consuming and clumsy, because it had to be done by hand, our decisions were much improved. And there were some real benefits that we had not anticipated. 1. Our understanding of each problem was greatly increased. 2. We uncovered opportunities that we would not have thought of in any other way. 3. Our decisions were documented, preventing us from slipping off the selected path or 'rehashing' the same things over and over. 4. Consensus became easier because we were forced to focus and resolve each part of the problem, one piece at a time. The birth of Decision Analyst™ Decision— Analyst was created because the process of evaluating complex decisions with multiple alternatives and many criteria is very tedious and time-consuming if you do it on paper. And doing it in your head is virtually impossible. Any complex decision usually requires multiple revisions to criteria, alternatives, weights and values assigned to them. If done manually, the ordeal of rewriting, recalculating and redocument- ing tends to discourage revisions, thus producing poor results. • CP/M is a registered trademark bfDigital Research Inc. • MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. 66 BYTE October 1983 Decision~AnaIyst overcomes these problems by asking for the minimum input possible from you, in the correct sequence. It leads you step by step through the decision making process, then does all the necessary calculations and produces polished reports without any further effort. And all of your input is stored on your disk so that revisions and updates can be made easily at any time. Comprehensive but easy to use Decision—Analyst is probably the easiest program you'll ever use. You can literally learn to operate the program using only the 'help' screens. But it comes with a thoroughly indexed manual which includes many pages of examples plus a step by step guide to the decision making process. And Decision—Analyst is no fly- weight. It uses over 100,000 bytes of fast compiled code and a 40,000 character help file. The program is extremely 'bullet proof and does all the work . . . you do the thinking. And there is no danger of missing a critical step because your analysis is guided through each of the eight menu- driven sections. Endless opportunity for use If you're saying to yourself that you really don't have any earth shattering applications for Decision —Analyst . . . then consider this. If you're in- business, chances are that the most important thing you do is make decisions. Decision— Analyst can help you select key personnel, decide on new machinery or equipment, prioritize major projects and allocate resources, choose a new product or a better price strategy, select new offices or plant locations, select the most profitable marketing channel or the best piece of computer hardware or software. Use it to analyse any decision which has more than one viable alternative. In your personal life, it can help you choose the best job, select the right business, career or franchise, determine the best field of investment or even the right home, boat or car. In fact, improving your decisions is probably the most rewarding thing you can do. Let us help you make a $ 139 00 decision If there's a chance that Decision— Analyst could help you improve even one decision, would it pay for itself? Chances are it would. In fact, it's likely that it could save you the price many times over! So why not take advantage of this special $139.00 introductory price (plus $5.00 shipping) by calling us today? We'll even refund your money, within 30 days, if you're not completely satisfied. Decision— Analyst requires a CP/M or MS-DOS operating system, 52K of RAM, a 24 x 80 column screen and an 80 column printer for your reports. Order by calling collect to . . . Executive Software Inc. 705-722-3373 Dept.no. m> DA5 Two North State Street, Dover, Delaware 19901 '" Decision— Anal ysl is a trademark of Executive Software Inc. ' Copyrighted 1 983 by Executive Software Inc Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar Build the Micro D-Cam Solid-State Video Camera Part 2: Computer Interfaces and Control Software Serial interfaces for the Apple II and the IBM Personal Computer and versatile software for the Apple II Last month I introduced you to the Micro D-Cam, a relatively low-cost direct-output digital camera that you can build, either from scratch or from a kit distributed by The Micromint. Using a 64K-bit dynamic memory chip as its optical sensor, it has a resolution of 256 by 128 pixels (pic- ture elements), which is adequate for many applications, including input of graphic images, pattern and character recognition, robotics, process control, and security. In part 1 1 explained the principles of operation of the IS32 Optic RAM (random-access read/write memory) and the rest of the Micro D-Cam's hardware. (Table 1 may help you re- call some of the IS32's characteristics.) This month I'd like to finish the proj- ect by discussing how the camera can be attached to the expansion buses of the Apple II Plus and the IBM Personal Computer and how the camera is programmed to work. The amount of software included with this article is somewhat more than you've come to expect from a hardware-type fellow like me, but I feel it is necessary to properly show Copyright © 1983 Steven A. Garcia. All rights reserved. by Steve Ciarcia how software can be used to enhance the final picture. In particular, some of you may be interested in the method used to present a gray scale on an Apple II computer. A Quick Review The IS32 Optic RAM from Micron Technology Inc. is a memory chip specially packaged to function as a digital image-sensing device. (Be- cause its output is a pure digital signal, it cannot be used to directly drive a composite-video monitor.) The IS32 contains 32,768 usable light- sensitive elements arranged in a matrix of 128 rows and 256 columns. Each of the elements in the matrix is a light-sensitive capacitor, a memory cell that can be accessed randomly by simply reading in the appropriate 1. two 128- by 256-element arrays each measuring 5.504 by 1.088 millimeters 2. element size: 8 microns by 9 microns 3. vertical center-to-center spacing: 21.5 microns 4. horizontal spacing: 8.5 microns 5. spacing between left and right arrays: 150 microns Table 1: Specifications of the Micron Tech- nology IS32 Optic RAM, a 64K-bit mem- ory chip that has the extra talent of serv- ing as a digital image detector. row and column address. Light strik- ing a particular element causes the capacitor, which is initially pre- charged to a fixed voltage, to dis- charge toward volts (V). The capac- itor discharges at a rate proportional to the light intensity throughout the duration of the exposure. When the cell's content is read, a logic remain- ing in the cell indicates a bright pixel— the capacitor was exposed to a light intensity sufficient to dis- charge the capacitor past the thresh- old point. A dark pixel is indicated by a logic 1 remaining in the cell, which happens when the light inten- sity is not sufficient to discharge the capacitor past the threshold point. The operation of the image sensor can be compared to the function of film in a camera. The user can regulate the exposure by two adjust- ments: aperture (f-stop) and shutter speed. The aperture adjustment con- trols the amount of light that is allowed to expose the light-sensitive medium (either the IS32 or the film emulsion) by mechanically widening or narrowing the hole through which the light passes. The shutter speed (or scanning speed in the case of the IS32) dictates the amount of time the sensitive medium is exposed. October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 67 SERIAL SERIAL SERIAL APPLE INTERFACE OR IBM PC INTERFACE OR RS-232C INTERFACE + 5V GND ) SERIAL IN SERIAL OUT EXT CLK IS32 / / / LIGHT REFLECTED FROM Figure 1: A block diagram of the Micro D-Cam system. The Micro D-Cam's equivalent of an electronic shutter is controlled by commands transmitted to the inter- face. Sending a SOAK command to the Micro D-Cam has the effect of opening the shutter. After the ap- propriate period of exposure has elapsed, two commands, REFRESH and SEND, stop the exposure (close the shutter) and transmit the image to the host computer. Interfacing the Micro D-Cam Last month, when we looked at the control and driver electronics of the basic Micro D-Cam, we found that it communicates with its host computer serially, one bit at a time. In its minimal configuration, it requires four wires to be connected to the host computer: two supplying +5 V and ground potential and one each for serial data in and out. In a non- specific configuration, it can operate asynchronously over an RS-232C link (at a data rate of up to 19,200 bps or bits per second), but I have devised serial interfaces for the camera that can be attached directly to the IBM PC and Apple II computers' buses (although still communicating serial- ly). Using a fifth signal, an additional external clock signal provided to the bus interfaces by the drive elec- tronics, the Micro D-Cam can then function at data rates up to 153,600 bps. The complexity of interface cir- cuits of this type depends upon the host computer's bus structure and address range. The general scheme of connection is shown in figure 1. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the circuit that forms the interface from the Micro D-Cam circuitry (shown in part 1) to the expansion bus of the Apple II Plus computer. It owes its simplicity to the predecoding of the I/O (input/output) slot ad- dress already provided on the Apple's main circuit board. The ad- dress decoders usually required in a peripheral interface are eliminated, and the complete serial interface can be built with only two integrated cir- cuits. The 74LS245 octal bus trans- ceiver buffers the TTL- (transistor/ transistor logic) level serial data into and out of the MC6850 ACIA (asyn- chronous communication interface adapter). The serial bit rate is con- trolled by the external clock output from the Micro D-Cam drive elec- tronics. For maximum speed, the clock frequency should be set for 153,600 Hz. Figure 3 on page 70 shows the serial interface circuit for the Micro D- Cam configured for the IBM PC's bus. Due to the greater complexity of the Intel 8088 processor as compared with the Apple's 6502 and the PC's larger memory-address space, the in- APPLE IX BUS + 5V [2_5 GND [2T>- DEVICE SELECT DO ]49 E> Dl [48, D2 fIT>- D3 fIF; D4 fl?>- D5 fH^ D6 [A3>- D7 flT r/w (iT>— + olZo>^ ao [T>- + 5V ^7 18 IS 15 11 IC31 74LS245 DIR Al A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 22 21 19 18 17 16 13 + 5V 10 CS1 CS2 IC30 MC6850 DO Dl D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 R/W E RS RX DATA RX CLOCK TX CLOCK DCD CTS /77 I IC32 74LS04 MICRO D-CAM CONNECTIONS _S 1 TRANSMITTED ""v I DATA -* 1 DATA- RATE < 1 CLOCK Number Type +5 V GND IC30 MC6850 12 1 IC31 74LS245 20 10 IC32 74LS04 14 7 Figure 2: A schematic diagram of an Apple 11 Plus or Apple lie interface for the Micro D-Cam. The serial data stream from the Optic RAM is converted to parallel bytes and placed on the Apple's data bus by the ACIA and bus transceiver. Although operating asynchronously, high data rates (up to 153,600 bps) are possible because of the external data-rate clock input from the camera-control circuitry. 68 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 457 on inquiry card. Diskjungl^r s Clears Path •\> •' s$. Tnllgrass Technologies In today's hard disk \ jungle, Tallgrass clears a path by offering high performance, integrated mass storage solutions for the IBM® PC and compatibles, the T.I. Professional and the Victor 9000 computers. TALLGRASS INNOVATIVE FEATURES MASS STORAGE SYSTEMS with formatted HardFile™ capacities of 6, 12, 20, 35 and 70 Mb, all with built-in tape backup. CONVENIENT INTEGRAL TAPE BACKUP SYSTEM allows rapid tape "image" streaming, or incremental file-by-file backup and restore on ANSI standard inexpensive data cartridges, instead of the usual floppies, video cassettes, or low-capacity removable Winchester devices. NETWORK READY and fully compatible with networks such as PCnet®and EtherShare™ HIGH RELIABILITY with dual directory and read-after-write verify options. A dedicated landing zone, where the read/write heads reside when the disk is idle, provides data protection during powerdowns and transportation. EtherShare 1M is a registered trademark of 3Com Corp. PCner" is a trademark of Orchid Technology IBM* is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp. Follow the Tallgrass path to your local computer dealer and watch your personal computer transform into a powerful data processing system. From $2,995.00 U.S. including integral tape backup. Available from COMPUTERLAND® Entre® Computer Centers, MicroAge® Computer Stores and other participating computer dealers. New! IBM-XT Cartridge Tape Backup World Headquarters: Tallgrass Technologies Corp. - 11667 VV. 90th St. Overland Park, KS 66214/ 913-492-6002, Telex: 215406 TBYT UR Canadian Distributors: Micro-Ware/ 440 Phillip St. Waterloo, Ontario N2L 5R9/ 519-884-4541 CompuServe / 1675 W. 8th St. 'Vancouver, B.C. Vol 1V2, 604-733-7783 European Distributor: CPS Computer Group. LTD Birmingham. England B276BH / (021) 7073866 Australian Headquarters: Tallgrass Technologies (Australia) 'Five Dock Ptaz.i Suite 12.50 Great North Road Five Dock .- Svdnev, N.S.W. 204o <02> 712-2010 Tallgrass Technologies Corporation o z N- 1^. h- r~- f» h. r— T- 1^ CD > + «* -a- ■* «* <* >* ■* CM -* ■* [0 CO 10 ( > U) ■sf id C) CM <.') ( > < > t^. CO ° (7) * LO (O r- CO O) o O O o o o o o o w -* f f- rS — ,13 ^§ tJ *■£> & (J en o ■"-"UJ u •«-* X2 i° 3 p So 60 r V* o 70 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. " § m Last Night, 39 Musicians Had a CompuServe conference, so did 31 M.D.S, 49 Sports Fans And 640 Apple polishers, And No one had to Leave home. The Electronic Forum, Cheaper than Long Distance and Much More Rewarding. Every night on the CompuServe Information Service, professional and social groups discuss a wide range of subjects. From what's new in medical technology to what's nouvelle in continental cuisine. And every day more computer owners who share a common interest are discovering this exciting new way to exchange ideas and even transfer hard copy data. Circle 525 on inquiry card. And besides electronic forums, they leave messages for each other on our national bulletin board, "talk" informally on our CB simulator, and communicate via CompuServe's electronic mail. But best of all, in most cases, CompuServe subscribers get all of these state of the art communications options, plus a world of on-line information and entertainment for the cost of a local phone call plus connect time. To become part of this flexible communications network, all you need is a computer, a modem and CompuServe. CompuServe connects with almost any personal computer, terminal, or communicating word processor. To receive an illustrated guide to CompuServe and learn how you can subscribe, contact or call: CompuServe Consumer Information Service. PO Box 20212 5000 Arlington Centre Blvd . Columbus. OH 43220 800-848-8199 In Ohio call 614-457-0802 An HS.R Block Company BYTE October 1983 71 (2a) Status Bit 1 2 3 4 5 Meaning When Set to 1 data has been received from the camera a command may be sent to the camera unused unused received data was improperly framed data received before previous byte read (2b) Command Bit Meaning When Cleared to 7 none (always 1) 6 none (always 1) 5 alternating-bit mode (ALTBIT) 4 wide-pixel mode (WIDEPIX) 3 7-bit data bytes (7BIT) 2 transmit one frame instead of two (1ARRAY) 1 refresh instead of soak (REFRESH) send the requested image (SEND) Table 2: Meanings of bits in the status register (2a) and command word (2b) for the Apple II /Micro D-Cam interface. terface requires three times as many integrated circuits. In the IBM, the Micro D-Cam's two port addresses are decoded by three chips: IC5, IC6, and IC7. These are 74LS136 open- collector exclusive-OR gates con- nected together in a "wired-OR" con- figuration. The voltages wired to the 11 inputs of the address decoder determine the interface board's ad- dresses. As shown in figure 3, the ad- dresses I used were xD26 and xD27 (where x can take on any hexadeci- mal value from to F). The 6850 ACIA (IC8) functions as previously described except that IC2 and IC4 are configured as a wait-state generator to facilitate timely access to the bus. Data and Command Format The 6850 ACIA comprises a data register and a status register. You can configure operating parameters (such as parity, stop bits, start bits, clock- ing, etc.) by writing values into the status register. Before the host com- puter can access the Micro D-Cam, the ACIA has to be initialized to the proper configuration. The control software does this by writing two bytes, a hexadecimal 03 followed by a hexadecimal 14, into the status register. The first byte performs a master reset on the ACIA, while the second byte specifies that the serial transmission protocol is 1 start bit, followed by 8 data bits, followed by 1 stop bit. Reading the status register allows the control program to determine when new data has been received and when the ACIA is ready to send data. The meanings of the status bits, when set, are as shown in table 2a. In normal use, only bit is checked when seeing if data is available from the camera. Bits 4 and 5 are used only in debugging, as these situations should not normally arise. When de- signing the program that receives the image from the camera, it is a good idea to incorporate a time-out mech- anism in case the camera stops send- ing bytes before the program expects; otherwise, the program can hang up if the software misses even a single byte. In the Apple II Plus and He, the hexadecimal addresses of the type COnE access the status register of the ACIA on an interface card plugged into the corresponding slot, while COnF addresses access the ACIA's data register. The n is the hexadeci- mal value of the slot number plus 8. For example, suppose the interface card were plugged into slot 3; 3 plus 8 equals B, and so address COBE will access the status register and COBF the data register. Command Functions While the camera is running, the host computer directs the Micro D- Cam's operating modes by sending it command words. Each command word is composed of 8 bits, with functions as summarized in table 2b. Let's look at each of these in detail: ALTBIT Mode: When bit 5 is clear (equal to 0), the Micro D-Cam trans- mits only the pixels from the even- numbered rows and columns in the Optic RAM. This mode usually pro- duces a clearer image than the NOALTBIT mode at the expense of losing resolution. WIDEPIX Mode: When bit 4 is clear, the Micro D-Cam transmits each pixel in the array twice. Each image- sensing element is rectanguJar in shape, so by "double-transmitting" the pixels, the proper width-to-height (aspect) ratio is maintained when the image is displayed on the computer's video monitor. 7BIT Mode: The Apple II's imple- mentation of high-resolution graph- ics is somewhat peculiar. The most significant bit of each byte on the hi- res graphics page is reserved as the color bit for a group of pixels, while each of the other 7 bits stores a 1 or as a bright or dark value for a pixel. In 7BIT mode, the Micro D-Cam transmits data in a format compati- ble with the Apple's high-resolution format, with 7 bits of pixel values per byte. The 7BIT mode is selected by clearing bit 3 of the command byte to 0. The alternative to 7BIT mode is 8BIT mode, which is achieved by set- ting bit 3 to 1, The 8BIT mode causes the camera to transmit in normal bit- mapped format, with all 8 bits in the byte containing image data, and is preferred for use with all computers other than the Apple. 1ARRAY Mode: The 1ARRAY mode is selected by clearing bit 2 of the command byte. Using this mode, only data from the image focused on the lower light-sensitive array is transmitted from the Micro D-Cam. By setting bit 2 of the command byte, 2ARRAY mode is selected, which causes data from both arrays to be transmitted from the camera. The 2ARRAY mode causes a split-screen effect because of the space between the two arrays in the image-sensor chip. REFRESH Mode: In some ways, the Micro D-Cam is like any other 72 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. More than a personal computer. It's an accountant, word processor and financial planner. 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All of our systems are backed by responsive, nationwide service and support through the Customer Service Division of TRW, Inc. So if your business or profession demands more than a personal computer can deliver, talk to Altos. Call, write or clip the coupon today for a free brochure and the name of your local Altos representative. Packed with more value for business D Please tell me more about the hundreds of uses for an Altos desktop business computer system. □ My application is □ Please have an Altos representative contact me. Name Title Company Tel Address City/State/Zip Mail to: Altos Computer Systems. Attn: Marketing Services, 2641 Orchard Park Way. San Jose, CA 95134 800-538-7872 (In Calif., 800-662-6265) In Canada. (416) 864-0740. 'Complete five user Altos system for S3. 390 per user or $16,950. Price approximate and may vary in your area. Packaged system includes an Altos 586-10 hard disk computer with the XENIX "/UNIX Operating system with the Altos "Business Command Menu Interface," five terminals, and the ALTOS ACCOUNTANT (with the built-in ALTOS COMPUTER TUTOR). ALTOS EXECUTIVE WORD PROCESSOR, and ALTOS EXECUTIVE FINANCIAL PLANNER applications. Price does not include printer, cables, installation, taxes, additional training and maintenance. ALTOS is a registered trademark of Altos Computer Systems. XENIX is a trademark of Microsoft and is a microcomputer implementation of the UNIX operating system. UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. c 1983 Altos Computer Systems COMPUTER SYSTHMS Circle 30 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 73 Command Control Character Effect > increase exposure time < decrease exposure time F fix exposure time to current setting L load previously stored image from disk N print negative of screen image onto Epson printer P print screen output onto Epson (Graftrax option required) Q quit and return to main menu R toggle display of exposure time and light level S save current image to disk T use current light level and autotrack the exposure Table 3: Options for control of the Micro D-Cam that may be selected in real time through the distributed menu-driven software. See table 4 for the options provided in the GREY16 program. camera. It must receive the proper amount of light to make the image develop properly. Too much light will overexpose the image, while too lit- tle light will underexpose the image. Exposure time is determined by how long the control program in the host computer allows the Optic RAM to be exposed to light without its cells being refreshed. Refreshing the image sensor is the same process used in any dynamic memory: the existing charge in each cell is sensed, the voltage compared with a thresh- old potential, and a fresh potential of V (for a logic 0) or +5 V (for 1) is rewritten into the cell. (The only difference in the Optic RAM is that all cells must contain +5 V at the beginning of an image-sensing cycle when refreshing stops.) If the image sensor is not continually refreshed, the light focused on each cell causes the voltage in each cell to leak away at a rate proportional to the intensity of the light. When the image sensor is not being refreshed, we say it is "soaking" (in light). Allowing the image sensor to soak for longer periods of time enables the Micro D- Cam to see better in dimmer light. When the REFRESH mode is selected (by clearing bit 1 of the com- mand byte) the Micro D-Cam keeps the image sensor's cells refreshed while it is sending an image. When bit 1 is set, SOAK mode is invoked. This causes the camera to soak (and therefore remain sensitive to light) while it is transmitting an image. SEND Mode: When a command is sent to the camera with SEND mode selected (bit cleared), the camera begins transmitting an image. Control Software The software for controlling and displaying pictures is vital to the operation of the Micro D-Cam. Menu-driven versions of the Micro D-Cam control software for both the Apple II and IBM PC are available from The Micromint. However, some of you may already have the Micron Technology Optic RAM or a similar 64K-bit dynamic RAM device with suitable chip lay- out, and you may want to build the Micro D-Cam from scratch. Conse- quently, I have included with this ar- ticle complete listings of two control programs written for the Apple II. One provides experimenters with a means for testing the Micro D-Cam; the second is a more sophisticated software routine that enhances the image and performs gray-scale ordered dithering (I'll explain this term later). While the Micro D-Cam software includes some additional menu-driven utility programs (some options of which are shown in table 3), all the Micro D-Cam photos printed here and last month can be reproduced using only the two pro- grams in the magazine. A Sample Control Program The Micro D-Cam demonstration program (listing 1 on pages 512 through 518) illustrates the simplest possible software needed to receive an image from the camera and dis- play it on the Apple's hi-res screen. It is not really as long and compli- cated as it looks; the accompanying flowchart (figure 4 on page 76) should reveal the general scheme of opera- tion. The software consists of two parts: a short BASIC main program (listing la) and a set of machine-lan- guage subroutines (shown in assem- bled format in listing lb). The BASIC program loads the machine-language code from disk, interactively sets the correct I/O-slot number and exposure time, and calls the machine-language code to display the image; upon re- turning to BASIC, the calling pro- gram checks to see if you want to ter- minate the process. The hard part of the work is done in the machine-language routines, which were necessary to allow the Micro D-Cam to operate at 153,600 bps. When called, the machine code begins by making sure that the hi-res screen is being displayed. It then in- itializes the ACIA and sends a com- mand to tell the camera to soak with- out sending an image. (This effective- ly clears the Optic RAM and tells the camera to begin the exposure.) The program then waits for the duration of the exposure. The next step is to read the image from the camera and display it on the screen. To save time and memory, the software sends the picture straight to the hi-res screen memory (rather than reading it into a separate buffer area and then moving it) to minimize the processing of the final image. The mode used is alternate-pixel, wide- pixel, with 7-bit data words. Before any part of the picture is received, a number of memory pointers are set up to facilitate proper placement on the screen. A command is sent to the camera to begin transmitting the im- age, and the program loops to read in each byte of the image and put it on the screen. The control software knows how many bytes of image data it should receive from the camera, but a prob- lem can arise from relying on byte- counting to determine when to stop reading data: if the computer misses one, it could hang the system up. To be on the safe side, a time-out loop has been provided in the image-read- ing routine. If the computer times out 74 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Fill in the blanks. quadboard byquadram; now available with no ram installed. Quadboard. the world's best-selling multifunction board for the IBM Personal Computer, now boasts a brand new feature— Nothing. No RAM. The perfect amount of memory when your system has all the RAM it needs. Now you can take advantage of the Quadboard's other enhancement capabilities without paying for unneeded memory or giving up that Quadram Quality. Whether you own a PC. PC II. or PC XT Quadboard comes with a parallel port designed to operate most parallel printers and other parallel devices. A fully- programmable serial port for all your data communications needs, and a battery-powered chronograph (a real- time clock/calendar to keep your system's clock always up-to-date). Plus there's QuadMaster Software, too. With QuadRAM Drive. The program that lets you use part of system memory as multiple RAM drives. Solid-state drives that let you store and retrieve important information fast. And Qspool. The buffer program that lets you compute while you print. Now you won't ever have to wait on your printer again. And there's also Qswap. The program that lets you change line printers 1 and 2 back and forth. As often as you like. Whenever your printing needs change. And remember, Quadboard still comes fully- socketed. For memory expansion in 64K increments. So whenever you're ready, simply plug in the desired number of chips for up to 256K additional RAM. Versatility. Dependability. Quality. Quadboard by Quadram. Still the first and only board your IBM PC, PC II. or PC XT may ever need. u9D (Socketed with no RAM installed) Available at retail computer stores worldwide. QUADRAM CORPORATION An intelligent SySlcmi Company 4355 International Blvd./Norcross, Ga. 30093 (404) 923-6666/TWX 810-766-4915 (QUADRAM NCRS) Circle 385 on inauirv card. ® Copyright 1983 Quadram Corporation All rights reserved ( START J SET UP DISPLAY FOR HI- RES PAGE 1 INITIALIZE ACIA (SEND HEXADECIMAL 03 THEN 14 TO STATUS REG) SEND COMMAND TO SOAK WITHOUT SEND (HEXADECIMAL D3) WAIT FOR DURATION OF EXPOSURE SEND COMMAND TO SEND IMAGE (HEXADECIMAL CO) INITIALIZE MEMORY POINTERS AND TIME OUT COUNTER DECREMENT TIMEOUT COUNTER READ BYTE AND STORE IN MEMORY IN IT TIMEOUT COUNTER CLICK APPLE'S SPEAKER TRY AGAIN GET THE STARTING ADDRESS OF THE NEXT ROW ON THE HI-RES SCREEN TRANSFER BYTE TO SCREEN INCREMENT POINTERS CHECK KEYBOARD SET TEXT MODE f STOP J Figure 4: A flowchart of the Micro D-Cam demonstration program for the Apple II. The program consists of a BASIC main routine, shown in listing la, and some 6502 machine-language subroutines, shown in assembly-language form in listing lb. while waiting for the camera, it clicks the speaker, checks for a keypress, and tries the entire command se- quence again. In this manner, you are alerted to any possible problems. Because the Apple's hi-res screen display is mapped nonlinearly into memory space, a lengthy table at the end of the machine-language code provides the starting address for each consecutive row of the hi-res screen. The program gets the address of the beginning of each row and then reads 40 bytes from the camera, plac- ing them consecutively on the screen. The next row, and each row after it, is done in a similar manner. Once the image is on the screen, a command is sent to the camera to refresh without sending. This gets it ready for the next exposure. Finally, the machine code checks the key- board and processes any command inputs before returning to BASIC. Obtaining Gray Scale A more user-friendly demonstra- tion of the Micro D-Cam that also provides a level of gray-scale capabili- ty is the GREY16 program of listing Command Control Character Effect N display the image in normal size (256 by 64) F display the image in full size (256 by 128) G create a picture (256 by 128) with 15 levels of gray (this process takes about 30 seconds and displays a countdown of the number of ex- posures from F to 0) E change the exposure time of the current displayed image, the upper limit of the gray-scale image, or the lower limit of the gray-scale image S save to disk the picture currently being displayed (this may be done in any of the three display modes: normal, full, or gray) Q quit the program and return to BASIC Table 4: A summary of user commands implemented in the CREY16 program of listing 2. 2 (pages 518 through 538). It has one mode that allows you to do quick aiming and focusing of the camera, another to let you get an idea of what the final picture will look like, and a third to create a 15-intensity-level gray-scale picture on the Apple II. (The processes involved are outlined in the flowchart of figure 5. Unfor- tunately, space constraints prevent me from showing you a similar pro- gram for the IBM PC.) Using GREY16, you can change the length of exposure for the image be- ing displayed, or you can change the upper and lower exposure limits of the gray-scale image. Once you've ob- tained a satisfactory picture, you can save it on disk for later use or print it on an Epson MX-80 printer (equipped with Graftrax) using the screen-dump program. A summary of available commands in the GREY16 program is shown in table 4. When it is first powered up, you start the camera running by selecting one of the options from the GREY16 menu. If the exposure time is insuf- ficient, the screen will be black. If the exposure time is excessive, the screen Text continued on page 82 76 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. HOW DOES 1 With SUPER STAR ... The First S-100 Computer To Use a 5 MB Removable Cartridge. ■ ■ Advanced Digital's new SUPER STAR™ is the first of a family of S-100-based computer systems to be equipped with a 5-1/4" 5-MB Fixed/ 5-MB Removable Cartridge Win- chester disk drive (10 MB on-line storage capacity) as standard. Now you can have the capacity of up to 50 floppy diskettes and the speed and convenience of 100% backup using the industry-standard Dysan 5-MB cartridge. SUPER STAR is the ideal system for business, professional, and educa- tional applications. Its CP/M* operating system (standard) gives you access to a vast library of readily available software programs. The six- slot motherboard allows plenty of room for expansion. And as your business grows, SUPER STAR can grow with you. If you need more memory, just plug it in. SUPER STAR is based on the S-100 IEEE standard. To add more users, simply add Advanced Digital's SUPER SLAVE™ processor boards and TurboDOS* operating system. Now you've got an extremely power- ful, multi-user, multi-tasking, multi- processing SUPER STAR computer system for up to four users. SUPER STAR is truely a Super computer system. Look at these outstanding features: • New Slim-Line Profile • 5-1/4", 10-MB Winchester Disk Drive, 5-MB Fixed, 5-MB Removable Cartridge • 5-1/4", Half-High, 48TPI Floppy Disk Drive (Osborne Format Compatable) • Six Slot Motherboard • Switch-selectable 1 10/220 V Power • Up to 4 Users With SUPER SLAVES And TurboDOS • CP/M Operating System Standard • One Year Warranty SUPER STAR is the perfect sys- tem for applications requiring large data storage capacity, speed, per- formance, reliability, and dependable, convenient back-up capability. And at a suggested retail price of $5,000, SUPER STAR is a SUPER VALUE. 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For European Distributor, contact: 1714) 891-4004 (5a) f START J LOAD ROUTINES I N IT VARIABLES POKE SOAKTIME DISPLAY EXPOSURE TIME CALL SUBROUTINE NORM DISPLAY CALL SUBROUTINE FULL DISPLAY YES G" CALL SUBROUTINE SET EXPOSURE YES CLEAR SCREEN ( STOP J SET NORM DISPLAY YES SET FULL DISPLAY YES V" NO POKE EXPOSURE LIMITS CALL SUBROUTINE GREY DISPLAY GET KEYPRESS B SAVE PICTURE (5b) ( NORM A ^DISPLAY J CLEAR ACIA INIT POINTERS TELL CAMERA TO SOAK WITHOUT SEND WAIT EXPOSURE TIME TELL CAMERA TO SEND IMAGE ., GET NEXT BYTE FROM CAMERA PUT BYTE ON SCREEN INCREMENT POINTERS NO /do -( READ NES. ING \ GE / YES \. IMA ( RETURN J (5c) ( FULL ^) ^DISPLAYy/ CALL SUBROUTINE TAKE PICTURE CALL SUBROUTINE DISPLAY PICTURE f RETURN ) Figure 5: Flowcharts of the GREY16 program for the Apple 11 (the figure continues on pages 80 and 82). The BASIC portion appears as listing la, the machine-language portion as listing 2b. The main routine (5a) calls various subroutines: NORM DISPLAY (5b), FULL DISPLAY (5c), SET EXPOSURE (5d), GREY DISPLAY (5e), TAKE PICTURE (5f), DISPLAY PIC (5g), and ENHANCE (5h). The subroutine GREY DISPLAY takes sensor pixels from 15 exposures and translates them into arrays of the smaller display pixels to represent intermediate brightnesses. Figure continued on page 80 78 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. From Computer Plus to YOU . :J 1 1 l-iail J 1 1 l-flll J 1 1 1- 8 : ■ "| * ' ^ ModeM00 8K$679 ModeM00 24K$835 CITOH Prowriter $375 CITOH Prowriter II $649 H^iej - ; "*Hfmw Model IV 16K $849 Model IV 64K 2Disk8cRS232$1699 CoCo Drive $329 CoCo Drive 1 $235 BUY DIRECT Here are just a few of our fine offers call TOLL FREE for full information. COMPUTERS R.S. Modem II 160 DISK DRIVES Model 12 64K1 Drive $2699 R.S. DC-1200 565 R.S. Model IV Drive 515 ModeM2 64K2Drive 3375 PRINTERS Color Computer Drive 329 Model IV 16K 849 Smith Corona TPI D.W. 469 Color Computer Drive 1 235 Model IV 64K Silver Reed EXP500D.W. 430 Primary Hard Disk M12 2689 2 Disk & RS232 1699 Silver Reed EXP550 D.W. 665 Primary Hard Disk Mill 1799 Color Computer II 16K 185 Daisy Wheel II 1745 ETC. w/16K ext. basic 245 DWP210 629 CCR-81 recorder 52 w/64K ext. basic 305 DWP410 1159 C.C. Joysticks (pair) 22 Pocket Computer 2 165 CGP115 159 16K Ram Chips 25 ModeM6B1Dr256K 4249 DMP100 315 64K Ram Chips 75 ModeM6B2Dr256K 4915 DMP120 395 8K Par/Par Microfaser 135 Model 100 8K 679 DMP200 520 Parallel printer cables are ModeM00 24K 835 DMP400 1010 available for most computers MODEMS DMP500 1219 SOFTWARE Lynx Ml/Mill 235 DMP2100 1745 CoCo FHL Flex D.O.S. 69.95 Hayes Smartmodem II 235 Gemini 10X 315 R.S. Software 10% off list. Hayes Smartmodem 1200 565 Gemini 15 425 Send for listing of Novation Smartcat 1200 459 CITOH Prowriter 375 brand name software. Novation J-Cat 125 CITOH Prowriter II 649 R.S. AC-3 129 Okidata CALL R.S. Modem I 89 Epson CALL We have the lowest possible Fully Warranteed Prices AND a full complement of Radio Shack Software. Prices subject to change without notice. Not responsible for typographical errors. TRS-80 is a registered trademark of Tandy Corp. TOLL FREE 1-800-343-8124 com P.O. Box 1094 480 King Street Littleton, MA 01460 617-486-3193 US free catalog SINCE 1973 — BYTE October 1983 79 Figure 5 continued: (5d) ^EXPOSURE/ GET NEW HIGH EXPOSURE (5e) GET NEW LOW EXPOSURE f RETURN J f GREY \ I DISPLAY J CLEAR TABLE PRINT COUNTDOWN CALL SUBROUTINE TAKE PICTURE INCREMENT PIXEL'S COUNTER ADD INCREMENT TO SOAKTIME IN IT POINTERS | IS COUNT I GREATER THAN | VALUE IN DITHER MAT. NO CALL SUBROUTINE DISPLAY PICTURE TURN ON PIXEL 1 > m INCREMENT POINTERS f RETURN J (5f) f TAKE "N ^PICTURE J CLEAR ACIA TELL CAMERA TO SOAK WITHOUT SEND WAIT EXPOSURE TIME TELL CAMERA TO SEND IMAGE INITIALIZE POINTERS .' ! GET BYTE FROM CAMERA PUT BYTE IN BUFFER AND INCR. POINTERS NO /»° ne\ TH \ GE / YES \^IMA CALL SUBROUTINE ENHANCE ( RETURN J (5g) ( DISPLAY "\ \_ PICTURE J INITIALIZE POINTERS ,' » NO GET BYTE FROM BUFFER PUT BYTE ON SCREEN, INCR. POINTERS /DO -( w TH \ EEN/ YES ^ySCR ( RETURN J 80 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Figure continued on page 82 SPSS I W I: Hj jl Jra| iiiiiniiiiii in in iMsmm Why pay more for a 1 200 ba 21 2A Modem for your I T Flip the pages. You see PC modem cards with fewer features advertised for as much as $599. Up until now that's how much it cost to make a modem capable of transmitting at 1 20 charac- ters per second (1200 baud). It doesn't take a computer to figure out the savings in phone line charges when you communicate four times faster than the 30 character per second modems (300 baud). Now you can have the solution to your communication needs at an unheard of price. NOW COME THE SMART GUYS You can imagine how precise the components had to be to convert tones over a phone line into characters. Precision equates to cost. With the advent of the mass market in personal computers the economics of scale drove the costs of manufacture down but did not effect the pre- cision required. The technology used is called "analog filtering". It is the process of sending (modulating) and receiving (demodulating) tones with perfect pitch. A lot of adjusting, noise suppression, and a little magic is required. Real expensive. Some use lots of chips and filters (known as discrete components). The latest rage is LSI (Large Scale Integration) technology. Which is the same old analog stuff condensed onto fewer chips. A NEW IDEA We took a different approach. With the Qubie' PC modem card you can say goodbye to the fellow who delivers your ice because refriger- ation has been invented. Through the use of four microprocessors (see picture) the tones are chopped up digitally and measured millions of times per second, eliminating the need for analog circuitry. Two microprocessors do the modulating, two the demodulating. The chips are programmed to emulate the 103 (30 charac- ters per second) or 212 (210 characters per second) standards and determine the correct speed automatically. It's a proven technology that provides outstanding performance. Best of all, it's inexpensive and reliable. NO CORNERS CUT We included every feature you would want in a modem card. It plugs into your IBM PC or XT and occupies any one slot since it is just 6/1 of an inch thick. The card comes with an asynchronous port which can be used for a printer when you are not using your modem (COM1 or COM2) It's FCC registered for direct connection to your modular phone jack with the cable which is included. There is a separate modular jack for your telephone or you can listen through the boards' speaker. It operates in full or half duplex mode on Rotary dial lines (pulse dialing) or on tone lines (DTMF), or a combination of both. It will work in originate or auto-answer modes. A separate microprocessor, a Z8, controls all the functions. ud, auto-dial, BM PC? not convinced, and are ready to buy another brand of modem, ask them if their product can take our acid test. THE ACID TEST Qubie' gives you a 30 day satisfaction guarantee on your modem. If you are not completely satisfied we will refund the entire amount of your purchase including the postage to return it. If you can, get any of our competitors to give you the same guarantee. Buy any modem you like and return the one you don't like. We know which one you will keep. WHY PAY MORE? We don't have a clue. It's all here. A high quality, full featured, communications package at a price that used to be reserved for 300 baud modems. But if you decide to spend an extra $200 or $300, we would sure like to hear why. We have spent lots of time thinking about it, and frankly, we just can't come up with a reason. TO ORDER BY MAIL SEND -Your name and shipping address -Daytime phone number -California residents add 6% sales tax -Company check or credit card number With expiration date. (Personal checks take 15 days to clear) LET'S TALK SOFTWARE The Qubie' PC modem is 1 00% compatible with the Hayes software commands so you can use any of the popular communications packages like CrossTalk, Transend, PC-Talk III, etc. Of course we include our Qubie'Comm software package. We think it is as comprehensive a program as you will need. It stores phone numbers, log-on information, handles setting the modems characteristics, saves to disk fles, transmits from disk files, and even allows you to transmit a disk file with error checking using the XMODEM protocol. You can even set up your modem for auto answer mode so your computer can be accessed remotely. WHY BUY FROM US Because besides having the most advanced product on the market, we stand behind it and you.lfatanytimeduringthe one year warranty period your modem should require service, we will fix or replace it within 48 hours. Notice also there are no hidden charges in our price. Nothing extra for credit cards or COD charges. We even pay UPS to deliver to you. If you still are TO ORDER BY PHONE: Call (805) 482-9829 PRICE: $299 Includes: 21 2A compatible 300/1 200 Baud Direct-Connect modem, Qubie'Comm Software, cable to connect to modular phone jack, installation instructions and manual. 1 year limited warranty. Cable for Serial port to printer $25 SHIPMENT We pay UPS surface charges. UPS 2 day air service add $5 extra. Credit card or bank check orders shipped next day. . Circle 389 on inquiry card. QUBIE' DISTRIBUTING 4809 Calle Alto Camarlllo, CA 93010 Figure 5 continued: (5h) f ENHANCE J INITIALIZE POINTERS NO /THIS AN\ YES ^EVEN ROW BITS 0. 4 ARE UNCHANGED BITS 2. 6 ARE UNCHANGED BIT 2 GOES TO BIT 5 OF BYTE ONE ROW AWAY BIT GOES TO BIT 3 OF BYTE ONE ROW AWAY BIT 6 GOES TO BIT 1 OF BYTE + 1 ONE ROW AWAY INCR. POINTERS BIT 4 GOES TO BIT 7 OF BYTE ONE ROW AWAY INCR. POINTERS INITIALIZE FILLIN POINTERS YES BITS 1, 2, 5, 6 ARE "HOLES" BITS 0. 3. 4. 7 ARE "HOLES" BITS 0, 4 ARE UNCHANGED BITS 2,6 ARE UNCHANGED BIT 3 COMES FROM BIT OF BYTE ONE ROW PREVIOUS BIT 5 COMES FROM BIT 2 OF BYTE ONE ROW PREVIOUS BIT 7 COMES FROM BIT 4 OF BYTE ONE ROW PREVIOUS BIT 1 COMES FROM BIT 6 OF BYTE -1 ONE ROW PREVIOUS INCREMENT POINTERS ( RETURN ) Text continued from page 76: will be completely white. These situations may be remedied by in- creasing or decreasing the exposure time or changing the lens aperture. You may need to focus, also. Even- tually, a clear picture will appear on the video screen when the lens is properly adjusted. The gray-scale portion of the pro- gram demonstrates what can be done with just a little bit of software en- hancement, permitting you to create images with 14 intermediate levels of brightness (plus extreme dark and bright) and display them on the Apple's hi-res screen. The image of an automobile shown in photo 1 is an example. The technique used to display the gray-scale pictures on the Apple II Plus and He computers is known as ordered dithering, in which half-tone values are constructed from multiple binary black or white images. The process requires the Micro D-Cam Photo 1: The Micro D-Cam was aimed at a car parked outside. The dithered digital gray-scale image shown here is displayed by an Apple II Plus. system to take 15 exposures of the same subject, each lasting a little longer than the previous one. (This normally takes only several seconds.) After each exposure is taken, every pixel in it is checked. If the pixel is on (showing a 1 value corresponding to brightness above that exposure's threshold), a counter location corre- sponding to that pixel is incre- mented. At the end of 15 passes, this process yields a table of values, each value describing the relative intensi- ty of its corresponding pixel. For ex- ample, if a pixel's final value is 15, that pixel should be displayed max- imally bright; if a pixel's value is 8, the pixel deserves a shade of gray half- way between the black and white extremes. Once the pixel-intensity table has been constructed, a 4 by 4 dither 82 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. More micro software is mug/' written for Hayes than for any other modems! Because Hayes, the telecomput- ing leader, continues to lead the way! With popular-selling modems that make telecomputing a breeze for beginners or professionals. And with sophisticated engineering that appeals to software developers. Send for our free Communications Software Directory. It lists more than a hundred software programs written for Hayes modems by independent programmers. For diverse communi- cation functions, from the practical to the fun. But all maximizing the advanced telecomputing capabilities of Hayes modems. Whether you're collaborating on competitive strategies with offices in the field. Doing your gift shopping via computer. Or collecting and analyz- ing commodity or stock information. Let Hayes provide the superior com- munications link! Mail the coupon today for your free copy of the Hayes Communica- tions Directory. (Or pick one up at your local computer store.) Provides a comprehensive -portfolio management — system for active trader, money manager or investor. Protects sensitive - information sent over — telephone lines so that no unauthorized person can decode files. THE FLIGHT PLANNER TR1.K GAMMON - Permits use of normal - telephone lines for accessing international Telex network. \ Aviation software - simplifies planning and increases safety. Automatically logs-on to networks, answers phone, saves incoming - data, and allows it to be stored on disk, edited, and printed. Transfers files between - various micros, minis or mainframes. Automatically answers phone in your name; - receives, delivers messages. NOTE: More and more software is being written for Hayes modems every- day. Please let us know if you would like to have your program included in our next software directory. Circle 205 on inquiry card. Allows users to play — backgammon with players at distant locations. | | Mail To: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. I Attention: Marketing Services, 5923 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Norcross, Georgia 30092. Name Address . City . State . .Zip. Please send additional information on: D Smartmodem 300* ** □ Smartmodem 1200* ** □ Smartmodem 1200B* (plug-in board for IBM PC) □ Micromodem He" (for Apple computers) (D Hayes *FCC approved in U.S.A. * 'DOC approved in Canada. '■ 1983 Hayes Microcomputer Products. Inc. Steven A. Ciarcia Consulting Editor BYTE A McGraw-Hill Publication 70 Main Street Peterborough, New Hampshire 03458 Telephone 603/924-9281 ■inn (2a) (2b) Photo 2: A corner of the author's business card (2a) was easily reproduced by the Micro D-Cam (2b) because the printing represents only two levels of brightness. One potential use of the image camera is in optical character recognition. Steven A. ( Consulting Edil matrix is used to assign a display value (an array of binary pixels) to each screen position. In this software, the matrix is as follows: 8 2 10 12 4 14 6 3 11 1 9 15 7 13 5 Then, one pixel at a time, the values in the table of final image magnitudes are compared to the array-element values in the matrix. If the image value for the pixel is greater than the element's value, that array element is turned on. If the in- tensity value is 0, none of the matrix elements are displayed bright; if the value is 8, elements through 8 are displayed bright; and if the value is 15, all the elements become bright. In this manner, 15 levels of luminance may be represented but at a certain loss of spatial definition. The process is repeated across the entire screen until each screen position has a value assigned to it. It would definitely be possible to use different-size dithering matrices, with certain trade-offs. For example, a 2 by 2 matrix would yield only 5 levels of gray but would have much finer spatial definition, while an 8 by 8 matrix would yield 64 levels of gray but with much loss of spacial defini- tion. The GREY16 program overcomes many of the limitations associated with binary optical sensors. While black print on white paper (like my business card, shown in photo 2) is easily viewed by the Micro D-Cam with no enhancement, we don't live in a pure-black-and-white world, and three-dimensional objects need shading to be recognized on a two- dimensional video display. This is most easily demonstrated with a series of photos of a pair of dice. Photo 3a shows the color and lighting conditions of our sample ob- ject. If we use the Micro D-Cam with- out gray scale, we obtain the binary picture in photo 3b. (This slightly vague yet quite representative picture of the dice would probably be usable in robotics or some recognition applications.) For a more representative picture, we can invoke the G command in the GREY16 program to produce photo 3c. There is now no question of what the subject is or what value is shown on the dice. If the image were repro- duced on a computer capable of dis- playing half-tones, it would look much more like photo 3a than this dithered Apple II Plus display. (3a) (3b) (3c) Photo 3: A pair of dice (3a) was scanned by the Micro D-Cam. When only tioo levels of luminance are recorded and sent to the com- puter's display, the result is the output shown in photo 3b. When multiple gray-scale exposures and ordered dithering are invoked, the more easily recognizable output of photo 3c appears. 84 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. little of the best. Pick up the MICRO MATE Computer Paper you need! Quality Paper... pack- aged in a make-sense, easy to handle quantity. . .at an affordable price! MICRO MATE continuous computer j papers fit printers of all popular word processors, desktop, per- sonal and small business i computers. ^ Available from independent forms distributors, computer manufacturers, computer supplies catalogues, i office supply and computer stores and other retail outlets / in your area. / ■ •E Computer Paper that is affordable and portable! M-91 series fit 80 column printers. M-41 series fit 132 column wide printers. M910LE20 blank register bond 1 part, W perforated side margins (ideal for word processors) M910PPTC 9V2"x11" blank, V? perforated side margins, carbonless 2 part M910PPTC 9V4"x11* blank, V? perforated side margins, carbonless 4 part M41GHS J4Wk.11" Vf green bar register bond 1 part M41GTC 14W'x11" w green bar carbonless 2 part /MICR0**1TE4 M41GTC 14'/«"x11" W green bar carbonless 4 part MICRO MATE is a Trademark of SGM Allied Paper, Inc., Dayton, Ohio. Circle 412 on Inquiry card. ERG/68000 MINI-SYSTEMS D Full IEEE 696/S100 compatibility HARDWARE OPTIONS D 8MHz, 10MHz or 12MHz 68000 CPU □ Memory Management D Multiple Port Intelligent I/O □ 64K or 128K STATIC RAM (70 nsec) D 256K/512K or 1MB Dynamic RAM, with full parity (150 nsec) □ 5V«" - 8" D/D, D/S floppy disk drives □ 5MB-40MB hard disk drives D Full DMA Disk Interface D SMD Disk Interface D V*" tape streamer D 10 to 20 slot backplane D 20 or 30A amp power supply D Desk top or Rack mount cabinets SOFTWARE OPTIONS D 68KFORTH 1 systems language with MACRO assembler and MET A compiler, Multi-user, Multi-Tasking D Fast Floating Point package D Motorola's MACSBUG D IDRIS 5 Operating System with C, PASCAL, FORTRAN 77, 68K-BASIC 1 , CIS COBOL 4 , RDBMS □ UNIX 2 Sys III C, etc. D CF7M-68K 3 O/S with C, Assembler, 68K- BASIC 1 , 68KFORTH 1 , Z80 EMULATOR 1 , APL □ VED68K' Screen Editor Trademark 'ERG, Inc. 2 BELL LABS 'Digital Research 'Micro Focus 'Whitesmiths 30 day delivery with valid Purchase Order OEM prices available For CPU, Integrated Card Sets or Systems. empirical Research Group, Inc. P.O. Box 1176 Milton, WA 98354 206-631-4855 Closing Observations Two articles have not been enough to describe all the capabilities of the Micro D-Cam. If I had more time, I'd try some experiments using different lenses and filters. Theoretically, if three exposures were taken through red, green, and blue filters, we should be able to create a color image. One interesting fact I did observe is that the IS32, like most silicon- based image sensors, is infrared-sen- sitive. My test was somewhat un- scientific, and I have no precise data on the Optic RAM's spectral sen- sitivity I merely lighted the subject with some infrared light-emitting diodes, but it was clearly seen by the Micro D-Cam even in visible-light darkness. This mild success leads me to con- sider related experiments. Don't count on it, but in a few months you just might be reading about some sort of character-recognition wand I've built using an Optic RAM. In the meantime, if you find any other dynamic RAM chips that are suitable in this application or wish to show me a character-recognition program of your own, please write and let me know. Next Month: Communicating with their fellow humans can be a problem for people who cannot speak. We'll look at a way digital electronics can be harnessed to remedy this dijficulty.m Editor's Note: For a review of a similar assem- bled product, see page 316. References 1. Ciarcia, Steve. "Analog Interfacing in the Real World." BYTE, January 1982, page 72. 2. Ciarcia, Steve. "Build the Micro D-Cam Solid- State Video Camera, Part 1: The IS32 Optic RAM and the Micro D-Cam Hardware." BYTE, September 1983, page 20. 3. Crow, Franklin C. "Three-Dimensional Com- puter Graphics." Part 1, BYTE, March 1981, page 54; Part 2, April 1981, page 290. 4. Grob, Bernard. Basic Television: Principles and Servicing, 4th ed. New York: McGraw- Hill, 1975. 5. Newman, William M. and Robert F. Sproull. Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics, 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979. 6. Tomas, Joe. "Hardware Review: Dithertizer II." BYTE, February 1982, page 219. 7. Walker, Terry, Harry Garland, and Roger Melen. "Build Cyclops: First All Solid-State TV Camera for Experimenters." Popular Elec- tronics, February 1975, page 27 8. Williams, Thomas. "Digital Storage of Images." BYTE, November 1980, page 220. The following items are available from The Micromint Inc. 561 Willow Ave. Cedarhurst, NY 11596 (800) 645-3479 for orders (516) 374-6793 for information 1. Complete Micro D-Cam unit including in- terface card, extension cable, IS32 Optic RAM, lens, remote housing, operator's manual, and utility software. Specify Ap- ple 11 (11 Plus or lie) or IBM Personal Computer. Assembled and tested $295 2. Same as item 1 except in kit form. Specify Apple 11 or IBM PC. Complete kit $260 3. 1C32 Optic RAM sold separately. Each $42 4. Serial-interface (RS-232C) Micro D-Cam for general use. Software listings for several dif- ferent computers to be available soon. Call for price and delivery. Please add $4 shipping and insurance in con- tinental United States, $20 overseas. New York residents, please include 7 percent sales tax. Editor's Note: Steve often refers to previous Cir- cuit Cellar articles as reference material for each month's current article. Many of these past articles are available in reprint books from BYTE Books, McGraw-Hill Book Company, POB 400, Hights- town, N] 08250. Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, Volume I covers articles that appeared in BYTE from September 1977 through November 1978. Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, Volume II contains articles from December 1978 through June 1980. Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar, Volume III contains articles from July 1980 through December 1981. Special thanks to Carl Baker and Jim Herrud of Micron Technology Inc. for their contributions to this project. To receive a complete list of Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar project kits available, circle 1 00 on the reader service inquiry card at the back of the magazine. Steve Ciarcia (POB 582, Glastonbury, CT 06033) is an electronics engineer and computer consultant with experience in process control, digital design, nuclear instrumentation, product development, and marketing. In addition to writing for BYTE, he has published several books. 86 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. SAGE™ TECHNICAL BRIEFING HSK INTERFACING SAGE MICROS W^^^P^^C3"PB^WBW he Faster The Floppy. Floppies Think They're Winchesters. People get awfully impatient with slow drives. But the awful truth is, most micros are slower than the slowest drives. When a processor is unable to keep up with a drive, it simply slams the door shut after reading only part of a track. The diskette continues speeding along under the head, but no data is being transferred. After a sector of dead time, the read resumes again where it left off. Not so in a Sage™ micro. It can read an entire track in one revolution, step to the next cylinder and read another entire track during the second revolution. Time- wasting with interleaving and skewing never occur. The lightning fast disk interfacing and 68000 processor actually let the floppy drives on a Sage micro meet the theoretical transfer rate for standard 5'/4 inch floppy disk drives. How fast is that? Fast enough to load a 20K program in about a second. Our Winchesters Think Big. There is only so much area on a 5!4 inch hard disk. So how come we can give you an extra l.5Mybytes on a lOMybyte Winchester? Remember, it's the computer, not the drive, that makes the difference. The Sage IV micro features full track buffering instead of one or two sector buffering. This means that the disk area that usually must be reserved for header information, synchronizing gaps and trailer gaps can now be used for storage. Be A Sage Thinker. No other computer gives you so much disk performance and capacity for so little. So whether you'd be satisfied with one or two floppies that think they're Winchesters, or if you need big Win- chester capacity up to 200 megabytes, think Sage micros. Call today for full details and the name of your nearest dealer. Sage Computer Technology, Corpo- rate Office, 4905 Energy Way, Reno, Nevada 89502. Phone (702) 322-6868. TWX: 910-395-6073/SAGE RNO Eastern United States Sage Computer Technology, 15 New England Executive Park Suite 120, Burlington, MA 01803 (617) 229-6868 In UK TDI LTD, 29 Alma Vale Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8-2HL Tel: (0272) 742796 Tx: 444 653 Advice G In Germany MM Computer, GmbH, HallwangerStr. 59, 8210 Prien Tel: 08051/3074 Tx: 525 400 mmco-d © 1983 Sage Computer Technology all rights reserved Sage & Sage IV are trademarks of Sage Computer Technology The computer you don't wait fori Circle 409 on inquiry card. Circle 543 on inquiry card. Circle 542 on inquiry card. • Disc Drivers • Printers • Switching Power Supply • Monitors • Personal Computers SUPERC© SUPERTRON ELECTRIC CO., LTD. P.O. Box 55-1326, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. Telex: 24317 SUPEROHM Tel: (02) 713-3492 SPECIALIZING IN DISK DRIVER "Capacity: 163K Bytes. *48TPI stepping mechanisn recording. * Average rotational latency: 100 milliseconds. "Track to track access time: 20 milliseconds. 'Data transportation speed; 250K bits/sec. "Mean time between failure, over 8,000 hours. *Disk rotation speed: 300 RPM. 'Dimensions: 150(W)x51(H)x233(L). *Net weight: Less then 1.9kg. FIDELITY DEVELOPMENT CORP., LTD. P.O. Box 1625 Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. Telex: 21776 FIDCO / APPLE * EXPANSION CARDS 16K RAM $ 41.00 128K RAM $315.00 80 Column Card $130.00 Z-80 Card $115.00 RS-232 Card $ 75.00 RS-232C Card $ 82.00 IEEE-488 Card $149.00 Disk Control Card $ 68.00 Parallel Interface Card $ 61.00 Graphic Card 16K $ 99.00 Grappler Card+ 16K Buffer $129.00 Grappler + Printer Interface Card $ 99.00 Super Serial Card $129.00 Super Copy Card-64K $101.00 Clock Card $ 85.00 Music Synthesizer Card $175.00 W/2 external Speakers 6809 Card $315.00 Forth-79 Card $ 75.00 A-D/D-A Card $199.00 A/D Conversion Card $ 99.00 -16 channels D/A Card -4 channels $123.00 6522 VIA Card $ 75.00 Communications Card $ 98.00 SYSTEM SPECIALS 64K-Apple* Compatible, Disk Driver, Disk Control and 80 Column Card. 12" Green Monitor Z. $999 _S 64K-Apple* Compatible, Expandable to 192K 32K Rom, Advanced 78 Function Keyboard, W/Disk Driver, Controller and 80 Column Card, 12" Green Monitor CIRCUITS & SYSTEMS CORP. 2210 Wishire, Blvd., Suite 577 Santa Monica, CA90403, USA. (213) 933-7183 ck/MO/B; Cl« t to change without notice and availability nk r-.u-k- allow time for company or r. VISA/MASTER- CARD/COD +3% CA Resi- »4 plus 2% tor Blue Lable- Residents ADD Ta SHIPPING : %2 plus 2% tor UPS '. overages will be returned. • APPLE IS THE REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF APPLE COMPU TER, INC. ACCESSORIES KEYBOARD (l)Apple* Compatible $ 83.00 (2)W/26 User Definable Keys $147.00 POWER SUPPLY Heavy Duty Switching Power $ 86.00 Supply + 5V 5A +12V 2 A -5V 0.5A -12V 0.5 A Fan W/Surge Control $ 42.00 Powerstrip W/S Control $ 23.00 JOYSTICK (l)Deluxe Model $ 39.00 (2)Basic Model $ 14.00 DISK DRIVER Shugart SA-390 $230.00 MODEM All Modem-300 Baud Acoustic Moden $173.00 Auto Answer $169.00 Auto Answer-6 Slot $360.00 Auto Answer 12 Slot $473.00 Additional Slots $100.00 TELEPHONE W/10 No. Memory $ 35.00 Cordless $ 85.00 Discounts on Volume Purchases Further Items Available on Request 88 BYTE October 1983 Circle 541 on inquiry card. FfriC- W^htWl oi* fi. vw\> For a small business system Wats beer-budget priced there's no better buy today than the MIC-500 from Multitech. It's got the same sparkling performance features as other popular micros including Z-80A processor, 64k RANI, CP/M 2.2 operating system, and a full compliment of business software including a word process- ing package, an electronic spreadsheet, a sorting utility, a mass mailing system and a data base system. This package is especially designed for the MIC-500 by the structured Systems croup, one of the top software houses in the U.S. Beyond that the MIC-500 is definitely not ordinaire. Dual floppy disk drives packing 500k bytes of low profile storage give you the on-line power you need. For larger storage requirements, the MIC-500 also comes with 2 megabytes of storage for only a moderately higher price, unlike comparably priced micros, the MIC-500 also features wide expandability via twoRS-232C ports and a parallel printer port. The corker though is price: the mc-500 comes with the pricetag of an unbelievable $1195, inclusive of the powerful business software package. Of course, dealers and OEMs can expect discounts when you buy them by the case. For full details on the powerful MIC-500, write Multitech Electronics, 195 El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, CA 91087. or phone (BOO) 538-1542; in California 1408) 773-8400. Circle 320 on inquiry card. MULTITECH ELECTRONICS 195, W. El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, CA. 94087, U.S.A. TEL: (800) 538-1542, In California (408) 773-8400 Outside North America please contact: Multitech Industrial Corp. 315, Fu Hsing N. Road, Taipei 104, Taiwan, R.O.C. TEL: (02) 713-4022 (20 lines) TLX: 23756 MULTIIC 19162 MULTIIC 'The $999 pricB Is lot a minimum of 10 sets and is inclusive of the sollware package. Specifications subject to change Z-80 is a registered irademark of Zilog. Inc. CP/M is a registered trademark ol Digital Research Inc Circle 536 on inquiry card. Circle 537 on inquiry card. AK-GC1 AK-GC5 Please feel free to contact us at: ANKO ELECTRONIC CO.. LTD. No. 180 Fuho Rd., Yungho City, Taipei County, Taiwan, R.O.C. Cable: "ANKOELECO" Taipei Telex: 31375 ANKO Tel: (02) 924-6397,924-5443 In Western North America, Contact the exclusive dealer: PRIDE COMPUTER PRODUCTS, INC. 319E. 2nd Ave, Vancouver B.C. V5T 1B9, Canada Tel: (604)879-1579 Telex: 0454247 ' You need . . . DATATREE ET-2000 SMART TERMINAL not only because it has 9 additional functions as FUNCTION ET-2000 ESCI3 TELEVIDEO950 CLEAR LINELOOK — SET PAGE MODE RECEIVE ESC a — CLEAR USER LINE ESCfDEL — SEND FIELD ESCm — REVERSE FIELD TAB ESCn — CONTINUOUS BELL ON ESC01 — CONTINUOUS BELL OFF ESC02 — READ CURSOR CHARACTER ESCp — CLEAR PAGE MODE RECEIVE ESC- — . . . but also it provide more excellent features that will make you leader in terminal market. Unit in P.C. model also available. Contact us today for more informations. G. S. IV!. INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD. P.O. Box 53-692, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. Telex: 27014 GGMCO Cable: "GGMCO" Taipei Tel: (02)700-2515/6, 703-2171 (10 Lines) The Vanguard Of Things To Come, Disk Drives * Low Profile, Light Weight 'High-precision head positioning mechanism LDD-103SSA Apple II Compatible LDD-103SDS IBM Compatible Mechanical Dimensions. Height: 41.3mm (1.62in.) Width: 146.1 mm (5.75in.) Depth: 215 mm (8.46 in.) Weight: 1.4 Kg (3.08LBs) Nominal "Eject mechanism for easy removal of discs * Less heat, generation and minimum noise. 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'IBM, PC is registered trademark of IBM Corp. ,£M Micro -Professor Learn Computing with the Micro-Professor-IP for $199 The Micro-Professor (MPF-IP) is a complete hardware and software system that will expose you to the amazing world of microprocessors. A comprehensive teaching manual gives you detailed schematics and extensive examples of program code. All of this makes for a superb learning tool for students, hobbyists and microprocessor enthusiasts alike. Also serves as an excellent teaching aid for instructors of electrical engineering and computer science. With the Micro-Professor-IP you get: • Z-80 processor chip • High quality 49-key keyboard • On board 4 K-byte RAM • On board 8 K-byte ROM including: • Interactive Monitor • Line Assembler • Two Pass Assembler • Tekt Editor • Disassembler • Language options of BASIC and FORTH. You'll also get a lot more including: • Built-in speaker • 20 digit alphanumerical green tube display. • 48 Input/Output lines • Battery back-up circuits for RAM • Bus expandable Z-80' architecture • Three user's manuals • Program storage/ reading cassette interface Options • Student Workbook ($15) • Printer ($99) • Speech Synthesizer Board ($139) • Sound Generation Board ($99) • EPROM Programming Board ($169) • Input/Output and Memory Board ($139) MPF-I Micro-Professor Z-80* CPU, 2K RAM expandable to 4K, 2K RAM, sophisticated monitor expandable 8K, 6-digit LED display plus a built-in speaker, cassette interface, and sockets to accept optional CTC/PIO, BUS is extendable. As well as being an exciting learning tool, the MPF-I is a great lowcost : board for OEM's. Circle 321 on inquiry card. (mi) MULTITECH ELECTRONICS INC. 195 WEST EL CAMINO REAL SUNNYVALE. CA 94087 U.S.A. TEL: 408-7738400 TLX: 176004 MAC SUVL FAX: 408-7498032 'Z-80 is a trademark of Zilog Inc. istributor list .S.A earning Labs, INC. 0. Box 122 alhoun, GA 30701 EL: 404-629-1521 echnlcal Laboratory (/stems, INC. O. Box 218609 ouston, TX77218 EL: 713-465-9793 Canada Future Electronics INC. S1VAD INC P.O. Box 16664, Jackson, MS39206 TEL: 601-355-3110 L.A.B. Corporation 4416 River Road Afton, MN 55001 TEL: 612-436-1169 Etronics 3928 148th N.E. Redmond WA 98052 206-881-0857 DIGIAC CORP. 175 Engineers Road, Smithtown, N.Y. 11787 TEL: (516) 273-8600 Montreal 237 Hymus Boulevard Pointe Claire, Quebec H9R 5C7 TEL: (514) 694-7710 OTTAWA Boxter Centre 1050 Boxter Road, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3P2 TORONTO 4800 Dufferin Street Downsview, Ontario M3H 5S8 CALGARY 5809 Macleod Trail South Unit 109 Calgary, Alberta T2H 0J9 Vancouver 3070 Kingsway Vancouver, B.C. V5R 5J7 Outside of North America mail to: Multitech Industrial Corporation 977 Min Shen E. Road, 105 Taipei, Taiwan. R.O.C. Tel: 02-769-1225 Tlx: 19162 MULTIIC 23756 MULTIIC An Unbeatable Partner For Your Personal Computer OUR MODEL DG-5 5%" MINI FLOPPY IS IN MASS PRODUCTION FOR APPLE AND IBM PC 8" DSDD DRIVE -6809 CARD AUTO RETURN JOYSTICK FOR APPLE II KEYBOARD- MODEM KIT-40 COLUMN DUALCOLOR DOT MATRIX PRINTER -40/80 COLUMN FOUR COLOR PLOTTER PRINTER FOR APPLE II AND IBM PC. SPECIAL SOFTWARE FOR APPLE II STRUCTURED BASIC COMPILER APPLE II SIMULATED FUNCTION KEYS PROGRAM. MICRO PROCESSOR - BASED ENERGY REDUCTION CONTROLLER FOR AC MOTOR (CHINESE PATENT PENDING) MICRO PROCESSOR-BASED ELECTRONIC BRAKE CIRCUIT (CHINESE PT. NO. 17362) * Apple II is a registered trade-mark of Apple Computer, Inc. *IBM, PC is registered trade-mark of IBM Corp. FOR DETAILS OF ABOVE PRODUCTS AND OUR NEW MODEL PORTABLE COMPUTER DGI, IBM PC COMPATI- BLE COMPUTER DGII, AND THE FIRST COMMERCIALI- ZED LOW COST HIGH PERFORMANCE MINI COMPUTER MODEL DGIII FROM TAIWAN, R.O.C. PLEASE CALL: DG CO. Dealer & Rep. Inquires Invited 2nd FI.,No. 117 Yen Chiou Yuen Rd., Sec 1 .Taipei (115) Taiwan, R.O.C. TEL:(02) 765-0497 New Product Enhances Your Apple II EMENT 8/16 TERMINAL CARD Make Your Apple II Really More Capable And Powerful *Built-ln: a power supply that solves the expansion and stability problem. *Bullt-ln: printer Interface. * Built-in: two floppy disc drives •Built-in: 5 expenslon slots. ♦Enhancement 8 can run cp/m programs. nhancement 16 can run MS-DOS, CP/M-86 and USCD P — system pro- grams. Make Your Apple 1 1 An Intelligent Terminal ♦Baud rate — 50~19.2K *Data bit —5,6, 7, 8. ♦Parity check — non, even, odd, mark, space *Stop bit — 1, 1.5,2. *Up load & down load — file transmission ♦Block mode — Yes. ♦Modem connection — DTE, DCE ♦Language —BASIC JEG language J.E. COMPUTER CO., LTD. Telex: 22072 JECOMPUT Cable: "JECOMPUT" Taipei Tel: (02) 799-6740/4 Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. circle 544 on inquiry c GENIUS MUSICIAN BOARD The GMB Is Specially For Use With Apple II, Apple ME Personal Computers sn ju 9P PM J ~^^- . .. „nrtfl£) ' — ^^M Use Our Musician Board And Become A Musical Genius! This state of the art, compact Interface card allows the user to create, play and store music. Simple insertion Into slot 2 on 4 8 K Apple type computer is all that's required to convert a computer into a music machine. The GENIUS MUSICIAN BOARD comes in a complete self-contain- ed package with everything you need to hear and play computer- generated music. Along with the GENIUS MUSICIAN BOARD interface card, is included detailed Instructions, keyboard coding labels, and two mini stereo speakers with audio cables. With an easy- to-obtaln adaptor, you can also hook up a stereo amplifier with external speakers. Recommended Retail Price US$149 Agents & disbutors are most welcome. The user not only can play the Apple II keyboard as an electronic piano but also can utilize simple keyboard commands to play pre- programmed music; create custom music programs: develop and compose new music compositions; add special sound effects (gun- shot, explosion, laser or rockets firing, PACMAN melody)! or designate melody, tempo, chord, beat and rhythm (waltz, rumba swing, tango, disco, blues, begulne, latin, rock, new wave). The most wonderful performance of the G.M.B. is only one 5-1/4" floppy i s ^L. may contain about one hundred popular songs with chord & rnythm, also works In progress can even be saved on a disk for later completion. The combinations are limited only by the user's creative imagination. WRITE FOR CATALOG Add $1 .2 5 per order for shipping. We pay balance of UPS surface charges on all prepaid orders. © Copyright 1983 by INNOVA COl Prices listed are on cash discount basis Regular prices slightly higher. Prices subject to change IND. CO., LTD. AH rights reserved, INNOVA COMPUTER INDUSTRY CO. LTD. u.s.a. office: sundelight int'l inc. Telex: 10949 INNOVA Tel: (02) 760-5877/8 933 " c s> GREENWOOD AVE. 1st Fl„ No. 1, Alley 2, Lane 929, Min Sheng E. Rd., Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. TEL^Mia-S^I^^Mf^^UNDUR Circle 545 on inquiry card. Apple II is a registered tradrmark of Apple Computer, Inc MULTTTECH GIVES YO\ APPLE A FACELIFT This array of high quality peripherals from Multitech not only adds to the aesthetic value of your personal, they also transform it into a more powerful, more productive pleasure or business machine. The AccuFeel ■keyboard oilers you the com- tort, convenience, and productivity you just can't get with original keyboards. •Models plug-compatible with the Apple II and IBM PC "Positive tactile feedback •Low profile, sculptured and detachable keyboard '90 keys including numeric keypad and 16 user tunction keys •Ergonomically designed with DIN specification compliance •Auto-repeat on all keys *6 loot cable lor portability •High cost eftectiveness •Convenient key layout MUlTITtCH INQ18THIAI CORPORATION 315. FU HSING N. ROAD. TAIPEI 104. TAIWAN. R. 0. C. TEL 102)713-4022(20 Lines) TLX: 23756 MULTIIC. 19162 MULTIIC With the SSB-Apple Speech Synthesis Board you too can program your Apple II to talk to you. 'High performance Texas Instruments TMS5220 speech synthesis chip •1,200 word English vocabulary •Apple II plug-compatible 'Onboard audio amplifier and speaker •Wide application range MULTITECH ELECTRONICS INC I95. WEST EL CAMINO REAL SUNNYVALE. CA 94087. U. S. A. TEL 1408)773-8400 TLX. 176004 MAC SUVL FAX: 408-7498032 Circle 322 on inquiry card. The ErgoVision high resolution monitor packs powerlully clear graphic capabilities into a till n' swivel housing that will keep long hours ol com- puting Irorn turning into a pain in the neck. "High resolution 12" non-glare screen •P31 Green or C134 Amber phosphor *NTSC composite video input interface 'Compatible with most popular micros •Ergonomic design with full tilt and swivel capabilities 'Video bandwidth ol 14 MHz •Resolution ot 1000 lines center, minimum .800 lines corner •Scanning frequency of 15750Hz horizontally, 55Hz vertically The Slimmer is a half-height 5H " thin Sloppy disk drive that Is compatible with some of the most popular computers on the market today, in- cluding the Apple II. "Cost effective on-line storage "143K byte storage *35 track compatible •Super slim profile •Fast positioning time •High reliability •Safe media protection The MIC-40 thermal/dot matrix printer offers hard copy at a very soft price, packing features such as: •40 characters/280 dots per line "120 CPS (150 to 180 LPM) *5x7 dot size alpha-numerical characters •7x8 dot size graphic characters "Full 96 ASCII character and 50 graphic character display "Centronic parallel interface •Optional RS232C and current loop serial interface IBM is a regislered irademarlt of IBM Coipoianon BYTE West Coast Shaping Consumer Software Trip Hawkins of Electronic Arts explains his criteria for judging software and presents his view of the programmer as artist by Phil Lemmons and Barbara Robertson The Aesthetics of Software To judge computer software, we first need a basis for criticism, just as literature and other forms of creative endeavor have their own criteria for excellence. The most famous basis forjudging drama, of course, is Aristotle's doctrine that tragedy must preserve the "three unities" of time, place, and action. But computer programs have an important characteristic that literature lacks: multiple branching. Computer pro- grams have hundreds and thousands of conditional steps, and a user can run a program many times without ever taking the same path twice. Furthermore, the computer has special characteristics as a medium. When William M. "Trip" Hawkins, president of Electronic Arts, talks of the need for home computer software to be "hot, simple, and deep," he is suggesting a set of criteria for judging software. In the interview that follows, he explains those three terms in a way that amounts to an essay about the aesthetics of home computer software— a basis for criticism of home entertainment and educational programs. Hawkins's views should prompt discussions among computer users about the nature of software, and in time those discussions may form the basis of an aesthetic to stand alongside those of literature and art. BYTE West Coast Bureau Chief Phil Lemmons and West Coast Technical Editor Barbara Robertson interviewed Hawkins at Electronic Arts' office in San Mateo, California. BYTE's questions to Hawkins appear in boldface, and Hawkins's responses follow in lightface. What Software Should Be Like You have said that software must be "hot, simple, and deep." Did you borrow those terms from some latter- day Marshall McLuhan? No, I made them up. "Simple" came from Lisa. The first time I started talk- ing about computers as a medium was when I started talking to people about Lisa. At Apple we were trying to get people to understand why Lisa software was only possible with Lisa hardware. And the medium is the message. "Simple" just means I can mini- mize the amount of time it takes for somebody to get into the product. In that sense, "simple" can apply to any kind of application, whether it's a game, an educational product, some- thing to satisfy the intellectual curiosity of an adult, or something that pays your bills for you. When I worked at Apple, we had a struggle with Lisa in the early go- ing. The engineers wanted to know whether or not the person who would be operating the Lisa would be a naive or sophisticated user. We finally convinced them it really didn't matter whether it was a CEO or a secretary— everybody considers his or her own time precious and wouldn't want to spend any time learning to use the computer and software. And in the consumer market, lei- sure time is precious, too, whether it's Johnny's leisure time after school or a parent's on the weekend. No- body wants to spend time studying a manual to play a game. The idea of having to read a manual to play a game is pretty scary in itself. The "simple" part has to do with how the program is presented on the screen and what kind of controls you use to interact with it. For example, Mule is an economic simulation game, and there's a whole lot going on. There are a lot of financial trans- actions, but you never do anything except move your joystick and push the button. "Hot" has more to do with how you take advantage of what a specific computer can do. For example, the Atari offers much better sound than the Apple, so it's important for an Atari machine and an Atari owner to get a product that takes advantage of that. "Hot" means how well this product uses the heat that's in this medium, how well it takes advantage of the special things it can do. You're always trying to take advan- tage of the maximum rate at which somebody can absorb information. And getting the medium as hot as 94 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. possible makes it easy to do that. The computer really has four things going for it as a medium. Two are sound and video— you have to use sound and the screen to the fullest advantage. The third asset of computers is their interactiveness— the natural feedback loop. People get a lot just from the machine making a funny noise because of some action they've taken. The fourth asset is what I call "hidden machinery" the fact that the computer, because it's a data-processing machine, can take an enormous amount of information and keep track of it, providing a structure for it that is completely invisible to the consumer. The best example I can think of is Flight Simulator. All you can see on the screen is the view out the cock- pit and the controls spinning around, but there's all this scaffolding behind it that will sustain you in the air, and you don't have to deal with any of that. Flight Simulator creates a realistic experience. Realism usually is based on data, and the more data you have for a situation, the more realistic it is. But if that data is apparent to you as you use the program, then the com- plexity is going to be apparent to you. And that's the problem. Imagine what Flight Simulator would be like if I played it as a board game. It would be a disaster. I'd be constantly computing my velocity, my altitude, and all kinds of other things. The same thing goes for adventure games. Think of an experience like Dungeons and Dragons, where you're trying to create a very realistic adventure. There are all these charts and tables and complicated manuals, and you're trying to figure out how much weight each person's carrying Trip Hawkins and where he's holding different weapons, how much each one is paid for the weapons, what kind of damage the weapons do when they hit, what percentage of the time they hit, and what kind of monster they're attacking. You have to keep track of all this data. Computers are really good at keeping track of that, and they should be used to hide the machinery. Getting a program to be hot is a combination of taking advantage of all four of a computer's assets. I think you're failing to fulfill the promise of home computing if you're not push- ing those as far as you can with a par- ticular idea. Video games tend to be purely visually oriented; sound ef- fects haven't been that far advanced. With a really good video game you've got some interesting interaction, some interesting graphics, and some interesting sound, but you're not tak- ing advantage of the hidden machinery. That's partly why "deep" comes in. A lot of video games are simple and hot, but almost none of them are deep. A lot of that has to do with the fact that an arcade is a crazy place with lots of noise and distrac- tion. You can't take time to think about what you're doing; you've just got to be reacting. And the experience has to be over and done with in 60 sec- onds. In the home you don't have that constraint, so you can do things differently and offer greater variety. I don't think anybody's going to have sustained interest in something that's not involving them at all mentally. A mind- less reaction is OK for a few minutes' relaxation, but it's cer- tainly not going to become a large portion of your leisure time over years. Parents don't particularly want to encourage that, anyway. What they really want is products that have depth . Again, if I can use Mule as an example, it's a very complicated eco- nomic simulation. But when you start playing, there's a beginner ver- sion, so some of the complexity is very deliberately stripped out of it, and you only have to learn how to move the joystick and press the but- ton. There are some very interesting music and graphics, and it's still more complicated than a typical video game. In other words, you have to learn how to do a few things and understand a few mechanisms on the screen. Once you get those down, you know how to play But learning how to become a good player of the tournament game is totally different — by the time you're playing for the fiftieth time, you're still learning things about it. And a lot of the basic rules of economics are cleverly concealed, so you learn things like the learning curve theory of production, economies of scale, basic supply and demand and bar- gaining, acquired resources and scar- city or controlling price through October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 95 market share, and collusion. It's phenomenal how much is going on. Even so, when you start out it can be very simple; in fact, you can do other things in the game to handicap people. If, for example, you have an adult playing with a 10-year-old for the first time, the child can be given a special character that has more points and has a longer turn, and the adult can be handicapped. The way you handicap adults is to make them humanoids, and since the game takes place on a foreign planet, you assume that its harsh climate affects the humans. Simple, Hot, and Deep in Other Software Do ideas like "simple" and "hot" apply to both educational and enter- tainment software? Yes. Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either. I see the meat of this market in products that combine entertainment and education and don't consciously try to separate the two. A part of our market is still pure fun, and another part is pure learn- ing, but I think the meat of the market is those two in combination. We see two other parts of the market as distinct. We call one "per- sonal development" just because that's a better way of describing the way an adult thinks about education. In more cases than not, you're in- dulging a particular intellectual curiosity about how computers work, about music, art, chemistry or any- thing you feel like learning about or tinkering around with. A computer is a very interactive playmate for do- ing that. The fourth market after entertain- ment, education, and personal devel- opment is home management. That divides into information manage- ment and financial management. In- formation management includes word processing, retrieving informa- tion from other computers, and so on. And then there's financial man- agement, which includes things like how to make financial planning deci- sions and how to figure out how to finance a new house or get your taxes paid. Do you see those things as straight- forward business-like applications or as games as well? I think there's a direction we can go there, but people still fundamental- ly want to get the job done. I think we can make the experience of get- ting the job done a lot more interest- ing. Sound effects for bouncing checks? I think there probably will be some We're trying to encourage people like Gahan Wilson to get involved with the computer because they're in the business of using an artistic medium to evoke an emotional response. playfulness for that sort of thing, but it had better not get in the way of ef- ficiency. Simple applies equally well across all those categories. Hot also applies equally well because you're trying to figure out how to take what a specific computer can do and make it as compelling as possible. Deep really has more to do with whether or not I find the bottom of the prod- uct quickly. Clearly, I don't want to find the bottom of it quickly; I want it to continue to be interesting, con- tinue to unfold. We understand some of your pro- grams are going to involve interest- ing collaborations. We're trying to get people like Gahan Wilson involved with the computer because they're in the business of us- ing an artistic medium to evoke an emotional response. Most people in computers haven't thought about the medium that way. We're really trying to encourage that. I think it's going to take a style of software develop- ment that's more accessible, where programming is no longer exclusive- ly the province of the people who know how to handcraft assembly code. People who know how to handcraft assembly code seldom are as aesthetically oriented as Bill Budge or as oriented toward emotion as a great film director. You're going to start to see more collaborative efforts. Rock, Flicks, and Object Code Every artist shapes a creation or per- formance around the capabilities of the equipment used. The musician must work with vocal cords or the harmonics of an instrument. The actor calls upon facial expression, body movements, and the par- ticular characteristics of the film camera. The software programmer, too, must shape a program to existing technology. But the personal computer goes one step beyond by allowing interactiveness. A performance becomes an integration of the user, the programmer's software, and the hardware. Yet the programmer, unlike the performer, takes a back seat to the instrument— the computer— when it comes to recognition. With the exception of a few famed instruments such as the Stradivarius violin, praise for the equip- ment over the performer does not occur anywhere but in the software program- ming industry. Still, the entertainment industry pro- vides parallels for the software industry. Both combine the skills of many people to produce a product— be it an album, a motion picture, or a program. Financial arrangements, however, vary consider- ably. In the popular music industry, the songwriter, the musician, and the pro- ducer generally get royalties. The musi- cian divides royalties with an agent, a business manager, a personal manager, and perhaps a public relations firm. In the motion picture industry, the company is the producer. Screenwriters get fees or perhaps a small percentage of the film's earnings. The actor gets fees, a percent- age, or both, and usually pays some part of the earnings to an agent, a business manager, a publicity agent, and so on. The software industry is different. The programmer may be an employee who writes code to implement someone else's idea, or he may generate the original idea, the detailed design, and the code itself. In the latter case, the programmer can sell the program for a flat fee, give it to a publisher in exchange for a royalty, or produce copies and contract with a dis- tributor to sell to retail stores or directly to users. Trip Hawkins and Electronic Arts are 96 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. MICROHOUSE MONITORS Hitachi I $299 Hitachi II 499 GRAPHICS Fastgraphs $189 D Graph 199 PRINTERS Prowriter Parallel $429 Smith Corona Tractor $139 Prowriter Serial 629 Banana 239 Smith Corona TP- 1 529 Grappler P lus , 134 LANGUAGES Basic 80 Compiler $289 Basic 80 Interpreter 259 Msort 149 Fortran 80 Compil er 289 DATABASE Microsoft Cobol 80 $539 muLisp/muStar 144 muLisp/muMath 189 C Compiler 18 9 COMMUNICATIONS Dbasell $439 Tim III Dbasell/Dutil. . . 499 Datastar... 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MICROHOUSE A WISE CHOICE FOR ALL MICRO PURCHASES! MEDIA Maxell FD-1 ... $40 Maxell FD-2 ... $49 Maxell MD-1 . . . $31 Maxell MD-2. . . $44 TWO LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU BETTER TOLL FREE PHONES: 1 •800»523»951 1 BOX 499, BETHLEHEM, PA 18016 OR 1 •800« FOR -SURE P.O. BOX 4380, SPARKS, NV 89432 It's easy to do business with MICROHOUSE Dept#100 Prices subject to change without notice Full tech support Lower prices We accept MasterCard, Visa American Express and purchase orders Circle 302 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 97 leaders in the movement to treat program- mers as artists and reward them accord- ingly. As Hawkins notes, however, the analogy of the software business to show business can easily be strained. When did you get the idea to organize this software house on a different model? At Apple, while we were working on Lisa. Lisa software was inhibited by the need to have so many people simultaneously in agreement. That would be difficult regardless of the collection of people involved. It occurred to me that in film, tele- vision, books, and other forms of entertainment media, artists all work kind of independently. And already by that time there were certainly ex- amples of that in programming. Bill Budge, for example, had done some space games and then he worked for Apple for six months. I think a lot of software people have plunged into building a huge soft- ware organization without realizing the limits to growth that eventually you're going to have to live with. What are those? The "mythical man-month," for one. Nine women can't make a baby in a month. And there comes a point in a software project where if you add more people it'll never get done. And I think that you have to find ways to keep things decentralized. Our model of the world is sort of the ultimate in decentralization. The question is, how can we make these talented programmers and pro- gram designers who are working scattered all over the world as pro- ductive as possible? Once we can answer that, making the company grow indefinitely is just a function of finding the best talent and leveraging it more effectively than someone else can. We have all the advantages that go with a small company. We can have a more personal relationship with the programmers. Apple certainly wasn't a huge company, but it had a lot of trouble, as many corporations do, dealing with the idea of putting the software people on a pedestal and treating them differently from every- one else. I realized, hey, they are dif- ferent—let's put them up on a pedestal. Based on your view of home com- puters as a new medium and of pro- grammers as artists, how have you organized Electronic Arts different- ly from other software houses? The most important department is the talent department, and that's staffed with producers. Producers Our producers are very important people— they're a little like book editors, a little like film producers, and a lot like product managers. basically manage the relationship with the artist. They find the talent, work out product deals, get contracts signed, manage them, and bring them to their conclusion. The pro- ducers do most of the things that a product manager does. They don't do the marketing, which in some cases product managers do. They don't make decisions about packaging and merchandising, but they do get involved. They're like book editors, then? Yes, they're a little like book editors, a little bit like film producers, and a lot like product managers. I think the biggest time sink for a producer over the full course of the product devel- opment is working with the software artist while he's finishing the soft- ware—turning around new releases and getting the bugs eliminated and getting manuals straightened out. Usually what happens on the man- ual is that the original artist will pro- vide something in some rough form, and the producer will figure out how to turn that into a final manual. Do producers get salaries? Yes, they're on salary. Some day, when it becomes really easy to figure out a measure of a producer's effec- tiveness, these people will get a piece of the action. Their performance will be based on how well the products do. I'm already trying to get them to think like portfolio managers— you have this much cash to invest in terms of advances, and you've got this kind of bottom line to play with in terms of what royalty percentage you can give out, so how much can you spend on the overall marketing, that sort of thing. The idea is to figure out how to produce the most revenue from that. And whether you want a couple of really expensive high-risk, high-reward possibilities, or some of those balanced with some inexpen- sive 18-year-olds and one more ex- pensive educational group or what- ever. What are the producers' back- grounds? We have five of them full-time right now. Three of them worked at Apple; in fact, two of them worked directly for me. One was product marketing manager for all the Lisa software, and she's very good at working with en- gineering people. The other two peo- ple from Apple had similar kinds of reputations for being good at work- ing with engineering people. One producer sold computers for IBM and then became an executive recruiter. He signed Gahan Wilson. Our fifth producer, who came from one of our competitors, Automated Simulations, was basically doing all of the company's product marketing. She's basically a social scientist. Are most of your contracts with in- dividuals or with groups? It's a range. You have guys like Bill Budge who are individuals and then you have guys from a company like Childware, where it's a group of about four. Then there's another category where there might be one key individual, somebody like Dan Bunten at Ozark Softscape or Jon Freeman at Free Fall Associates. Dan Bunten's the guy who did Cartels and Cutthroats, Cytron Master, and Com- puter Quarterback. He did those pretty much on his own, but now he has his brother and some other family members involved, and they set up a separate company. Then you have people like Jon Freeman. He specializes in design- game design, not even program de- sign. His wife, Anne Westfall, spe- cializes in program design. And then there are two other guys that they work with; one is strictly a program- 98 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. LOOK WHO BUYS SOFTWARE FROM US! II you order software from us. you're in good com- pany. You see. some of our best customers are America's biggest corpora- tions. Maybe they're attracted by our low, low prices (big companies are price-conscious too!) Or maybe when you're an "IBM", you're looking for something extra. Like the personal service, giant inven- tory, and in-depth technical support you'll find at 800-SOFTWARE You see. when you call us, we'll take care of you like our business depends on it. Because it does. Which means when you place an order, you can be sure we'll Till it the same day. And that our unique Order Tracking System™ is keeping labs on your order every step of the was. Most important, we'll be there if you need us after your software arrives. We'll make sure that you'll receive the finest post-delivery service in the industry. And that's a promise. Next time you're looking lor low price ami great service, do what IBM. General Electric, and a lot of other big companies do. Pick up the phone and give us a call. We'll show you why some hard-headed companies buy their software from us. 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Ste. 14 Berkeley. CA 94710 CA residents add sales las. MOO-SOFTWARE) TO ORDER, C All TOLL-FREE: 800-227-4587 or 415-644-.1(,ll D I'liiui.im' Miik-i* iimrplvd I'lonc i..N u~ m ailinnic G I'lumpl I 1>S Uj> Blue label U Call I. ii shipping chargci. trtv ttlHlhtt!, .iricj nllici Inw Millwaic pi ii-i-. D Niw iipi-n Mon S.il a IiiIl-i nali.iii.il and national llcata u o„a Q Put' ills liable Circle 5 on inquiry card. Jhanee BYTE October 1983 99 mer, and the other is a combination programme! and game designer, so it ^ a little bit of everything Actually, i guess right now the solo performers aie the exception We have only four 01 five who can really work that in dependently L)o you, like book publishers, get unsolicited products, unsolicited disks? We do. We expect that their volume is going to go up a lot once we're on the market Do you welcome that? Absolutely, although you tend to have a very low hit rate about one in a hundred 01 worse I've already been through that at Apple, and Rich Melmon. otu vice president for mar- keting, went through it at Visicorp When a programmer signs a contract with you, how is it likely to make his life different than if he were do ing software on his own? Ii's a ceally big difference The guy to talk to about that would be Bill Budge because he recently was tunning his own company 1 know in Bill's case, there's a lot of time you spend answering the phone, talking to distributors, getting orders, approv- ing artwork or packaging, getting labels printed, doing mailings to dealers, just doing a whole lot of stuff that I find interesting. People like Bill In some situations now we're much happier to be dealing with lawyers rather than programmers because they don't get freaked- out when they first see a contract. find it thoroughly tedious. Some pro- grammers out there enjoy it, and 1 think in some cases it will prove to be their downfall because they're not very good at it, but they like it, and so they'll do a mediocre job both run- ning a company and trying to do the software. Do you expect to be dealing with 40-50*3 Savings Software As ■ member of the Software of the Month Club, you'll receive: □ SAVINGS: high volume buying means low prices to members D SELECTIONS: members to decide best sellers - others also available □ NEWSLETTERS: tips & "how-to" by consultants D HARDWARE SPECIALS: co-op savings D Membership registration fee $25. Join now for only $6. (limited time) D No minimum purchase required. Software of the Month Club, Inc. 953 MiSbionSt . Mint Mall San Francisco. CA 94 1 03 Clty/Stalo/Zip Enclosed is $6 Please- enio-ll me in the Club U Check or Money Order LJ VISA Q MASTERCARD I Cup Date | cj-d»_ JPjIure agents for programmers some day? Sometimes we already do. They do exist. In some cases they're just _ lawyers, but, depending on the amount of experience they have, they can be very smart. There are situa- tions right now where we're much happier to be dealing with lawyers because they don't get freaked-out when they first see a contract. Contracts with Programmers What are contracts with program- mers like now? The typical software contract spends most of the time talking about maintenance and support and stuff like that. Once the kind of software that we buy from an outsider is done, it's done, so there's less emphasis on issues like support. There's more em- phasis, though, on the rights to dif- ferent kinds of things. So in fact it's really much more closely modeled after a recording contract. We want to make sure that if we ever want to do "greatest hits of 1983," we can put all the programs on one disk. What about the fundamental finan- cial aspects of the contract? It really boils down to a royalty rate on products that we manufacture, which is the market range, typically 10 to 20 percent of the wholesale revenue. Some manufacturers are more out of sync with the market than others, but I think over the next year the rates will become reasonably standard, the same way they are in the record business. Right now they're still all over the map. How does the range in software com- pare with what's available in books? We don't actually encourage too much of a range. So much of our business is driven by percentages of sales that you can't really justify pay- ing a much higher percentage of sales to one guy than another guy. What you're really looking for is higher total revenue on a better product. If you look at our marketing costs, sales commissions, things like rack servic- ing fees and administrative and R&D budgets, they all tend to be set up as a percentage of sales. 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Multibus is a Trademark of Intel Corporation. LSI is a Trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation. Circle 83 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 101 those percentages start to work in your favor. So all your programmers will be get- ting the same royalty? No, I wasn't trying to suggest that. A certain amount is a function of bargaining and a certain amount is just a function of what we think is fair. The rates are not widely disparate. The thing that does change is the amount of the advance, and that's a function of the track record of the software artist. If he or she really has a strong track record or if the software development method used is clearly more expensive than somebody else's, but we think it's the right method, then we're going to pay for it. For example, right now we're work- ing with Childware, a group that spe- cializes in educational software. When people from the company came in and showed us their first script, it was something like 32 pro- fessionally drawn pictures on a story- board. That kind of richness of com- munication is going to cost you. Some of these groups now have a staff graphic artist and a staff musi- cian, and they'll have certain ex- penses built into the way they do the development. One other point I wanted to make about the royalties is that we divide things into three categories. There are royalty rates on products that we are actually manufacturing. There are two subcategories there. One is prod- ucts where the programming is done by the original artist, who gets a residual royalty rate. If it's a derivative version that's on a machine in which the artist did not do the original pro- gramming, he still gets some royal- ty, and that's worked out. The second category is licenses. For example, the Bolivian government says, "We'll pay you $100,000 just for the rights to convert Pinball Con- struction Set to Bolivian." If there's a straight license, a much higher per- centage of that goes to the artist because we don't have to do any manufacturing and distribution. The third category really has more for 8080, Z80 A Run-Time Library for Whitesmiths' C 2.1 ■ Fast execution ■ ROMable ■ No royalties ■ Fully reentrant machine support ■ CP/M file support ■ Error checking ■ Usable with our AMX Multitasking Executive Benchmarks Lint to ASCII conv. 2. Long to ASCII conv. 1 t < 3. Long random number I, generator 4. Double 20 x 20 matrix : ; ;; ' multiply 1 1 1 1 5. File copy (16kb) 1 1 p 1 ■ with Real-Time C □ without A MhzZ80, 8" SO diskette. Times may vary with processor, disks, etc. Real-Time C manual only source code $ 95 $ 25 $950 Intel mnemonic $ 50 to A-Natural converter AMX and Real-Time C are trademarks ol KADAK Products Lid. A-Natural is TM ol Whitesmiths Lid. CP/M isTM ol Digital Research Corp. Z80isTMolZilogCorp, KADAK Products Ltd. 206-1847 W. Broadway Avenue Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6J 1Y5 Telephone: (604) 734-2796 Telex: 04-55670 If to do with merchandising. We may want to create a product specifically for merchandising, but we're not the manufacturer. For example, a T-shirt. The royalty rate there will be very low because we're not anticipating mak- ing any money on it. Research and Development You also have a research and devel- opment department. With the soft- ware written mostly outside, what does the research and development department do? Develop proprietary software tools that our software artists can use to build products faster and to build products that they couldn't build on their own. Utilities that construct graphics for a particular machine? Let me talk short term and then long term. In the short term there are things like software theft protection, assistance in getting up on a machine that the particular artist is not familiar with, and assistance with sound. It's more the nuts and bolts kind of thing right now. In the long term, we're going to put together a workstation that is specif- ically designed for creating the kind of software that we want to create. And the development system will have things like languages and de- bugging tools and compilers, and it'll have a lot more memory and a lot more processing power than any of the machines that the consumer is ultimately going to own, today or in the future. You're developing your own com- pilers? We're not necessarily doing all of the development work ourselves. But we already have a FORTH compiler that runs on all four of our target ma- chines for this year— the Apple, the Atari, the Commodore 64, and the IBM PC. We're bringing it up on our first version of the development system. We might have toolkits for sound and graphics, and so on.i Phil Lemmons is BYTE's West Coast Bureau Chief. Barbara Robertson is West Coast Technical Editor. They can be reached at McGraw-Hill, 425 Battery St., San Francisco, CA 94111. 102 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 253 on inquiry card. CUBE! FROM CUBIT. The only game of its kind for the Apple Computer. Innovative, new and colorful. Cubit offers an extra dimension. It transforms a two-dimen- sional screen to a 3-D arena. Cubit offers more than just the hand/eye coordination of typical shoot'em- up games. It offers fast-moving, action filled, strategy based entertainment. And you don't have to be a concert pianist to handle the controls. Simple to learn, yet enormously challenging to master. Playable with both joystick and keyboard. For 48K Apple Computers with 3.3 DOS. Enjoyable in black and white, but a whole lot more fun on color monitor. Look for our next game, to be released soon. Dealer/ Distributors— Please contact us for details on Cubit and our Apple and IBM PC line of products. Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computers, Inc. Micromax Systems, Inc. 6868 Nancy Ridge Drive San Diego, California 92121 (619) 457-3131 See us at forthcoming Applefest and Comdex shows. INNOVATORS IN MICRO-COMPUTER SOFTWARE Dealer Inquiries, Circle 305 All others, Circle 306 YOUR PROGRAM HERE ■ The Chaplin character licensed by Bubbles, Inc. , S.A. 104 BYTE October 1983 The best software for the IBM Personal Computer. Could it be yours? Attention, all programmers. Here's a chance to reach the top. If you've written software that's completed and runs on the IBM Personal Computer, we could be interested in publishing it. (We also could be interested if it runs on another computer. If we select your software, we'll ask you to adapt it to our system.) But be advised. Our expectations are great. Because the software we publish must be good enough to complement IBM Personal Computer hardware. In fact, the more you take advantage of all our hardware capabilities (see the box at right), the more interested in your software we become. Think about incorporating color graphics into your program, for example. Use sound. Consider the power of our keyboard and remember to utilize the ten programmable function keys. In all cases, we're interested in "friendly" software — with emphasis on quality and wide appeal. Programs with the greatest chance of being published must be easy to use, offer a better way to accomplish a task and provide something special to the user. What kinds of programs? All kinds. Education. Entertainment. Personal finance. Data management. Self improvement* Games. Communications. And yes, business. We select programs that will make the IBM Personal Computer an even more useful tool for modern times. n IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER SPECIFICATIONS User Memory Display Screens Permanent Memory 64K-640K bytes Color or monochrome (ROM) 40K bytes Microprocessor 16-bit, 8088 High -resolution 80 characters x 25 lines Color/Graphics Text mode: 16 colors Auxiliary Memory Upper and lower case 2 optional internal Operating Systems 256 characters and diskette drives, 5W DOS, UCSD p-System, symbols in ROM I60KB/180KB or CP/M-86t Graphics mode: 320KB/360KB Languages 4-color resolution: per diskette BASIC, Pascal, FORTRAN, 320h x 200v Keyboard MACRO Assembler, Black & white resolution: 83 keys, 6 ft. cord COBOL 640h x 200v attaches to Printer Simultaneous graphics & system unit All-points-addressable text capability 10 function keys graphics capability Communications 10-key numeric pad Bidirectional RS-232-C interface Diagnostics 80 characters /second SDI.C, Asynchronous, Power-on self testing 18 character styles Bisynchronous protocols Parity checking 9x9 character matrix Up to 9600 bits per second u J 5 So, if you think your software is the best, consider submitting it. If it's accepted, we'll take care of the publishing, the marketing and the distribution. All you have to do is reap the benefits of our royalty terms. And you're free to market your program elsewhere at any time even if you license it to us. We're offering the ladder. Think about taking the first step. For information on how to submit your program, write: IBM Personal Computer, External Submissions, Dept. 765 PC, Armonk, New York 10504. ==== = The IBM Personal Computer A tool for modern times For more information on where to buy the IBM Personal Computer, call 800-447-4700. In Alaska or Hawaii, 800-447-0890. tUCSD p-System is a trademark of the Regents of the University of California. CP/M-86 is a trademark of Digital Research, Inc. Circle 216 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 105 Is your personal computer TOO personal? Lets face it! It's difficult to envision a business environment where only one person needs access to the daily statistics of the business. The Salesman wants to know if his customer's product shipped. The Accountant wants to know if the bills are paid. The Secretary has to get that letter out. You can't afford to keep them waiting. The unique architecture of the IMS Multi- processor System allows all functions to be performed simultaneously! Choose from the IMS family of expandable computers to fit your business* •4 user 5000IS System shown. Other IMS systems expandable to 8 and 16 users. Call or write today for the location of your nearby IMS dealer. Toll Free: 1-800-648-7979 In Nevada call: (702)883-7611 INTERNATIONAL 2800 Lockheed Way, Carson City, Nevada 89701 • Telex 910-395-6051 We Build Computers As If Your Business Depended On Them IMS INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTORS: Argentina British Virgin Islands Australia Canada Austria Chile China Greece Israel Malaysia Ecuador Hong Kong Italy Mexico France India Korea Netherlands New Zealand Saudia Arabia Spain Turkey U.S.A. Philippines Republic of South Africa Sweden United Arab Emirates West Germany Puerto Rico Singapore Switzerland United Kingdom West Indies 106 BYTE October 1983 Circle 221 on inquiry card. User's Column New Computers, Boards, Languages, and Other Tidbits What may be a revolutionary medical program highlights this month's potpourri I'm writing a lot of this on my Otrona in a San Jose hotel room. I don't quite know where the month of June went. Actually, I do: two speeches, a convention, and a lot of work on my novel. Make that three speeches. Fortunately, there's a lot to write about. Of course, when you're writing about the micro business, there's always a lot to write about. For example: Modula-2/86 is here. The version I have just now runs on the IBM PC under CP/M-86; by the time you read this, there should be others. The Logitech version includes source code (in Modula-2, of course) for KEYBOARD.MOD and DISPLAY. MOD, which are the modules that define the keyboards and display; by fooling about with them, you can make Modula-2 work with a number of PC work-alikes. You can be sure I'll have more to say about Modula-2. Something Really Wonderful I like to give speeches. Most writers do, and as a former professor I often miss my classroom. I simply don't have the time to do it as often as I would like. I particularly like to give speeches at conferences because I get to meet the other speakers and I learn things it might take me years to discover otherwise. That happened not long by Jerry Pournelle ago at a physicians' conference in Vail, Colorado: I saw a real vision of the future of the micro. I was supposed to speak at 0900, an hour I don't much care for. Physicians apparently are much earlier risers than I, for they were supposed to have a speaker at 0830. She was sen- sible, though, and presumed it a mis- print, so they didn't have anyone at that ghastly hour. Rather than waste their time, they invited the next day's speaker to begin. He turned out to be Dr. Lawrence Weed, and he hadn't finished when I arrived. I thus discovered by accident the most ex- citing computer program I've seen this year. The official name is Problem- Knowledge Coupler. I'd be more like- ly to call it "Diagnosis by Computer" or an "Auto-Doc." The interesting thing is that the night before I was discussing the possibility that "some- day" there would be computer pro- grams to assist in diagnosis, and several physicians and I agreed that day would not come soon. We were wrong. The Problem- Knowledge Coupler (PKC) is here right now. Dr. Weed demonstrated it to a fascinated group of physicians. Although most were pleased to see it, one medical student was terrified. "What is there for us to do if the machines can do it all?" he asked. Of course, the PKC doesn't "do it all," but it sure does a lot. It is common knowledge that a pa- tient's medical record is the single most important diagnostic tool avail- able to a physician. A case history plus a good description of symptoms are vital to meaningful understand- ing. The PKC makes use of this. A PKC is, of course, a computer program. The patient enters as much of his case history and symptoms as possible in response to a series of questions asked by the program. I'm told this can be done as a dialogue between patient and machine, but I'm sure it's a lot smoother if mediated by a medical professional, such as an office nurse. Other information, such as blood pressure, pulse, and the like, can be entered by the nurse or the physi- cian. When it's all done, the program offers a list of possible causes. Note that the machine hasn't "made a diagnosis." It doesn't even present a weighted list; it merely gives all it knows about what could have caused the patient's problems. The physician is free to use intuition, leap to conclusions, order further tests, or do anything else that seems indicated. It's possible that the physician knows of causes that the machine hasn't listed, in which case the pro- gram should be updated. According to Larry Weed, however, that's not October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 107 the typical situation. Consider: we're dealing with a lot of symptoms and indicators. Age, weight, sex, presence or absence of facial hair, blood pressure, somatic type, hereditary factors, diet, previ- ous operations— all these can be im- portant. According to Dr. Weed, a physician generally has to think about as many as 40 indicators. Meanwhile, dozens of possible causes may exist, all linked to the various symptoms in highly complex ways. Medical diagnosis approaches fun- damental limits to human capabili- ties. Weed demonstrated this by giv- ing the audience a list of symptoms and asking for possible diagnoses. The conference, with more than 40 physicians, could come up with no more than a dozen possibilities; the computer program knew of 28. Clearly, a physician plus Problem- Knowledge Coupler will be more ef- fective than the physician alone, and the more obscure the problem, the more likely this is to be true. What really astounded me is that the program runs on microcom- puters. Dr. Weed has versions for CP/M 2.2 on the North Star Advan- tage and the IBM PC. It should be easily adaptable to other CP/M systems. Aye, There's the Rub Now comes the disclaimer. I am not a physician. My doctorates are in other fields entirely. Clearly, then, I am not competent to evaluate the medical effectiveness of Larry Weed's computer programs. The programs are certainly easy to use. They seem to run without glitches. I say "seem to" only because I've yet to do any exhaustive testing, although I intend to. I spent a lot of time with Larry Weed, including taking part in a dialogue discussion with the entire group, and I was much impressed. Weed has solid academic and medi- cal credentials. He's also fond of pointing out that major league baseball teams and professional MEMORY BLOCK Clear Lucite'" cube containing a fragment of history.. .ideal for paperweight or interesting exhibit. Contains magnetic core memory from an IBM 360 Computer (circa: late '50's-early '70's). Size 2"x2"x2'/2". 10 day money-back guarantee if not completely satisfied. $ 1 495 TIMESHARE Only you and your fellow programmers will know what time it is with this binary numeral wall clock. Handsome simulated dark walnut finish, accurate quartz movement with sweep second hand. Perfect for office or home. Runs on one AA battery, (not incl). 1 1 W diagonal. 1 yr. warranty. 10 day money-back $oQ95 guarantee if not completely satisfied. 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Printer. . .$649.00 HES64 Turtle Graphics R $49.75 Heswriter R $38.75 Attack of Mut Cam R. . $34.75 Turtle Tutor R $29.75 Turtle Trainer R $29.75 Paint Brush R $23.75 Benji Space Rescue D.$29.75 Home Manager C/D . . .$39.75 Cardprinter / LQ1 $499.00 Cardprint DM1 $109 00 5 Slot Expansion 64 $54.00 64 Write NOW .. . $39 00 64 Mail NOW ..$29.00 20 Write NOW $29.00 64 Keypad $29.00 Universal Cass Int $29 75 Printer Utility $19.75 6 Slot Expansion $79.95 3 Slot Expansion $24,95 Vic 20/64 Printer int $59 95 SPINNAKER 64 Kindercomp . .$21.75 Story Machine $23 75 Face Maker $2.3.75 Snooper Trooper $29 75 Delta Drawing $34 75 commodore HES VIC 20 1 awand ca946io ' For price quotes, information, or in California call 1 -41 5-893-7676. We credit your order for the call . Technical Department (41 5) 893-7678. 1 nternational Telex 3381 39 (attn. 1 49) Support, Service and Price. Shipping/Handling UPS surface $3.00 plus an additional $3.00 per item for UPS Blue. C.O.D. orders add $4.00. For personal check allow 2 weeks for delivery. All items subject to availability, prices subject to change without notice. Calif, residents please add 6>2% sales tax. * IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines. CF7 M is a registered trademark of Digital Research. On the other hand, the Osborne Executive comes with much intro- ductory material and a powerful soft- ware package, plus the possibility of updates to compatibility with the IBM PC, an option the Kaypro doesn't have. Osborne also has a widespread network of dealers and service centers; more than Kaypro as of this writing. That, too, is subject to change and could be different by the time you read this. I have experience with both ma- chines: I had a very early copy of both the Osborne 1 and the Kaypro II. Each had its problems, but all those difficulties were fixable. The early Kaypro II had some software problems that caused excessive disk wear. The early Osborne 1 had other troubles, particularly with the key- boards. In both cases the problems have been revised out of the later- production machines. I still have my old Osborne 1, and it does yeoman service as a loan-out machine; Barry Workman ended up buying (from Kaypro Corporation) my old Kaypro II. He has a special program that lets it read a wide selection of disk for- mats, and it has become a workhorse for his operation. Neither machine has required what I'd call excessive maintenance. They've both had their out-of-service periods, but nothing I wouldn't expect given their hard usage. Thus, I have no trouble recom- mending either the Osborne 1 or Kaypro II as a first machine for some- one with a low budget. Neither would be my first choice if I could af- ford more, but both are more than adequate as word processors and general-purpose computers for writers and small-business owners. By the time you read this, however, you may not be able to find an Osborne 1; they don't make them anymore. They recently dropped the price to $1295, and while they last, that's a pretty good deal. Some do appear on the used market. I've never advised anyone to buy a used computer. Given that this computer no longer exists, there's not a lot of competition down at the low end of the "transportable" professional com- puter price scale. 110 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 147 on inquiry card. THE EASY CHOICE Best Separate Compilation — Best Error Handling — Best Implementation on a Small Computer Comments From 1983 LA AdaTEC Compiler Faire ". . . JANUS/Ada encompasses at least 5 times as much of Ada as Supersoft, including many of the more exotic features of the language." Creative Computing ". . . The compiler performed exceptionally well . . . the linker performs flawlessly . . . the error handling is excel- lent . . . RR's support is the best I've ever encountered." InfoWorld "The compiler breaks new ground in the microcomputer field with its excellent runtime error-checking code and its excellent compiler error messages." Microsystems "They're (RRS) honest to a fault, so they call their language JANUS; but its more nearly Ada than any other microcomputer implementation I know of ... I watched some of the demonstrations and it works." Jerry Pournelle, Byte Encouragement of this kind deserves a just reward; we now intend to complete our compiler and submit it for validation. Our Ada line is available on the following operating systems: CP/M, CP/M-86, MS-DOS, PC-DOS and CCP/M-86 Available from the following distributors: Westico, Inc. 25 Van Zant, St. Noiwalk, CT 06855 (203) 853-9880 Marfam Corporation 5340 Thornwood Dr. Suite 102 San Jose, CA 95123 (408) 226-0170 ffcs Suntex Data 10175 Harwin Suite 100 Houston, TX 77036 (713) 271-9191 S-100 Systems 3687-4 Shobumachi Obayashi Saitama, Japan 346-01 04808 (5)0416: 04808(5)6565 Internationally Micronix CP M. CP M8t>. rrP M-86 .irr MdflMlhl oj 'ADA i. a iiadi'nirtth of thr U.S Department 01 MS-DOS II /, tifldpniaik of Mitio*o(l Copyright 1983 RR Software OFTWARE, INC. 11 Blackmore St. Windsor 4030 QLD. Australia (07)57 9152 Nord-Micro Informatique 155, rue du Fauburg St. Denis ...rh.w 75010 Paris (1)205-39-47 specialist in state of the art programming P.O. Box 1512 Madison, Wisconsin 53701 Circle 393 on inquiry card. (608) 244-6436 BYTE October 1983 HI Kaypro 4 versus Osborne Executive Either the Kaypro or the Osborne is satisfactory as a first computer. They're both competitive with any- thing else in their price range. My experiences with them are a bit limited, but so far neither has given me any trouble, and both are notable improvements over the earlier models— so much so that I urge anyone comtemplating a first machine to try to spring for the extra bucks to get the Executive or Kaypro 4 rather than the Osborne 1 or Kaypro II. The Executive has true composite video output: you can plug it direct- ly into a monitor (but not a TV). If you want to use the Executive to drive a TV set for demonstrations or simply because you want a larger screen, you'll need an RF modulator. The Kaypro machines do not have any external video output. On the other hand, the screens for both the Executive and the Kaypro machines are adequate, although if I were do- ing a lot of work with either, I'd want something bigger The Executive has a much nicer screen, and the character set is more pleasing. These are matters of taste, of course, and not everyone would agree with me. Neither the Osborne Executive nor the Kaypro can be described as por- table. "Transportable," yes; but not portable. Both weigh the same: too much (about 28 pounds stripped). I already have arms like an orangutan from carrying the Otrona Attache. (That machine weighs only 18 pounds, but with disks, power cord, documents, and shoulder-strap carrying case the entire mess comes to about 25 pounds; I'd be smarter to put most of the documents in my checked luggage.) Alex and I have carried both Osborne and Kaypro machines all across the country; you can do it, if you have to, although you won't enjoy it. The Executive has single-sided INTRODUCING The first software program Sign-Master is an exciting new program that for the first time lets you transform ordinary-looking presentations, proposals and special reports into dynamic, colorful word charts. Before Sign -Master, it required a graphic artist or dedicated graphics processor to create im- pressive word charts, both time- consuming and more costly op- tions. Now, with Sign-Master's amazing flexibility, you can pro- duce presentation-quality word Mesmerize with ROMAN FONT charts on paper or acetate in six different type styles and in 1 6 dif- ferent sizes — a real break- through when you consider that over 65% of all presentations consist of word-only formats. (When graphs are indicated to n CAPITALIZE with BOLD ROMAN FONT double-density disks (180K bytes per disk); the Kaypro 4 has full double- sided disks, for a full 380K bytes on each. This is probably the most significant hardware difference be- tween the two. The Executive has two serial output ports and one parallel port that can be either IEEE-488 or Centronics (printer) compatible. Kaypro ma- chines have one serial port and one Centronics port. The real difference between the machines shows up in packaging and software. The Kaypro was designed by engineers and looks it. Alas, so were most of the Kaypro documents. The latest ones are a vast improve- ment over the ones that came with the first machines, but they still assume you're willing to learn a good bit about CP/M and that you want to know things about your computer. Example: whenever your Kaypro does a warm boot, it tells you so by printing the words "warm boot" on the screen. Users not familiar with CP/M react to this in various ways, some of which can be ribald. The Osborne "philosophy" is that most computer users know little and care less about the way computers work; Adam Osborne would rather commit seppuku with a printed- circuit board than gratuitously tell his users that the machine has done a "warm boot." The Executive runs vanilla CP/M+ (3.0). The Osborne documents assume you don't know what that is and go from there. (When you turn the machine on with a Wordstar disk in it, the Osborne assumes you want to run Wordstar and brings that up; you never see CP/M unless you want to.) Osborne's software package in- cludes a number of industry stan- dards, such as Supercalc and, of course, Wordstar. There's also Micro- soft MBASIC, Digital's CBASIC, and a run-time disk that will let you run programs written in UCSD Pascal (but not write them; you'd have to buy that separately). Also included SIGN-MASTER! to bring word charts to life! highlight your data, ideas and conclusions, our Chart-Master™ graphics software is available to do the job.) Sign-Master can also be used to create effective instruction materials, bulletin board an- nouncements and direct mail pieces that demand attention. To generate real impact, Sign- Master word charts can be as col- orful as you like, depending on the plotter you use. And you can be as creative as you like by capital- izing or italicizing a single charac- ter, a single word, or an entire line at the touch of a button. In addi- tion, margins can be justified left, right or centered. Best of all, Sign-Master's on- line instructions, power and vari- ety of options make you a "Sign Master" without special training. Sign-Master — the first soft- ware program that brings word charts to life. Sign-Master supports a wide variety of plotters from IBM, Pana- sonic, Hewlett-Packard, Houston Instruments, Yokogawa, Strobe, Amdek and many others, for use with IBM PC, PCXT and other compatible computers. The retail price of Sign-Master is $245.00. For a complete infor- mation kit and name of your near- est dealer, contact; Decision Resources, Inc. 25 Sylvan Road S. Westport, CT 06880 (203)222-1974. Sign-Master and Chart-Master are trademarks of Decision Resources, Inc. Circle 143 on inquiry card. DecisionResources, Inc. Software Designed for Decision Makers Program 8-MHz 8087 5-MHz 8087 8-MHz processor (no 8087) 5-MHz processor Test n = 32,000 6.55 sec. 9.87 sec. 3 min., 53 sec. 6 min., 12 sec. Mat20X 4,44 sec. 7.24 sec. 1 min., 11.96 sec. 1 min., 51 sec. Mat50x Table 1: 1 min., 1 min., 3.5 sec. 41 sec. Benchmark tests for the 8087 17 min., 52 sec. Systems Support Board. 27 min., 38.7 sec. is Personal Pearl— six disks' worth. Pearl is a "program writing program"; in practice that means you can write fi]e-manager programs with it. If you work at it, you can write some pretty sophisticated stuff. The Kaypro package is interesting. You have a choice of Perfect Writer or Wordstar; either way you get Wayne Holder's The Word Plus, the best spelling program I know of. The Perfect package includes Perfect Writer, Speller, Filer, and Calc. There's also Chang Lab's Profitplan, a spreadsheet something like Perfect- calc. It's not as good as Supercalc. The package now includes MBASIC and an off-brand BASIC called SBASIC (which is something like CBASIC in both speed and program structure) . In other words, the software pack- ages are comparable. The real dif- ference between Kaypro and Osborne is philosophical. If com- puters scare you but you can't live without them, Osborne is clearly the better way to go. If you're willing to live with ambiguities and you're curious about small computers, the Kaypro may be more appealing. They're both good machines. That's Fast! Jim Hudson has revised his 8087 math board; it now plugs directly in- to a Compupro 8085/8088 Dual Pro- cessor without modifications to the Compupro board. The board was re- worked by Compupro, then redone again by Hudson, who tends to be something of a perfectionist. The problem with the 8087 "math cruncher" chip is that it runs at 5 MHz (or 5 million cycles per second). That's somewhat slower than the 8 MHz of the 8088 processor ("brain") chip; the result is that if you want the extra math processing speed of the 8087, you have to slow the whole system down. This used to require modifications to the 8085/8088 pro- cessor board. Hudson's new board takes care of it without those modi- fications. To install Hudson's math board, you must remove the 8088 chip from your processor, plug his board in where your chip used to be, and plug your chip into the empty socket on his board. Two pins on his board in- teract with the original Compupro processor board to slow it down without your having to do anything else. You wouldn't think it would be worth the effort to slow your system down, but if you have many calcula- tions to make, it's not only worth- while, it's necessary. The speed im- provements are shown in table 1. Two benchmark tests are included in this table: 32,000 mathematical oper- ations (program Test) and the matrix filling and multiplication "bench- mark of sorts" I first described in my October 1982 BYTE column. As you expect, "Mat20x" fills and multiplies 20 by 20 matrices; the "Mat50x" times are for 50 by 50 matrices. As you can see, adding the 8087 makes for dramatic speed improve- ments, even though you've slowed the whole system from 8 MHz to 5 MHz. For the past six months, I've run my system at the slower speed in order to take advantage of the 8087. It's even nicer if you can get an 8-MHz 8087. Intel, which makes the chip, was kind enough to supply one for my system. Hudson's board is de- signed to let you update by simply snipping off two small pins (it's ex- plained fully in Hudson's docu- ments); that will put your 8088 back up to 8 MHz after you get the faster 8087 chip. Intel's people say they'll be able to supply 8-MHz 8087 chips in quantity toward the end of 1983, possibly by the time you read this. We put the 8-MHz 8087 in my sys- tem and speeded the 8088 back up to 8 MHz. The speed improvement is noticeable. There's also an improve- ment in disk operation speeds even when running 8-bit software with the 8085. My engineer friends tell me that's impossible. All I can say is that it seems faster. There's not a lot of software that can make use of the 8087, but there's more than I would have supposed. Digital Research supplies 8087 pack- ages with both Pascal MT+ /86 and its C86 compilers. In addition, Digital's ASM86 assembler comes with 8087. LIB, a package of 8087 support routines. Supersoft advertises a FOR- TRAN 86 with 8087 support capabili- ty. Logitech's Modula-2 will have 8087 support modules. Finally, Jim Hudson's piggyback 8087 board normally has no effect on the 8085 (8-bit) half of a dual pro- cessor, but there can be exceptions, as with Jack Hersh's FORTRAN 80-87 software reviewed below. As I was writing this, Jim Hudson called to say that he has a version of the 8087 board for the NEC Personal Computer, and he expects to have one for the Zenith Z-100 by the time this is published. If you crunch numbers, this is a must. Speed, Precision . . . The 8087, and especially the 8-MHz 8087, will have a larger impact on the micro community than you might think. Because 8-bit machines are so very slow in operations involving high- precision numbers, a great deal of the 8-bit software has been written to use only single precision. The 8087 isn't particularly efficient at single-pre- cision calculations, so for much soft- 114 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. In a race between 200 cps printers, Anadex outran Okidata Two to One.* Rnaaex Unprinted paper after test. <> Okidata 84 Anadex 9625A *For a copy of the independent test lab report. Call (800) 792-7779. In California Call (800) 792-9992. Anadex. Nobody else comes close. ©Copyright 1983 Anadex, Inc. ANADEX, INC. • 9825 De Soto Avenue • Chatsworth, California 91311, U.S.A. • Telephone: (213) 998-8010 • TWX 910-494-2761 U.S. Sales Offices: San Jose, CA (408) 247-3933* Irvine, CA (71 4) 557-0457 'Schiller Park, I L(31 2) 671-1 71 7 •Wakefield, MA (617) 245-9160 Hauppauge, New York, Phone: (516) 435-0222 • Atlanta, Georgia, Phone: (404) 255-8006 • Austin, Texas, Phone: (512) 327-5250 ANADEX, LTD. • Weaver House, Station Road • Hook, Basingstoke, Hants RG27 9JY, England • Tel: Hook (025672) 3401 • Telex: 858762 ANADEX G ANADEX GmbH • Behringstrasse 5 • 8752 Mainaschaff • Frankfurt, W. Germany • Tel: 01 1-49-06021-7225 • Telex: 4188347 Circle 35 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 115 ware written for, say, the Z80, there's only a gain of a factor of 3 to 4 if you put an 8087 in the loop. If you use double precision, there's a gain of perhaps 500. Thus, older micro programs may not be much improved, but if you want double precision (or greater) from a micro, there's a way to do it, provided you can work in FOR- TRAN. While I was at Jim Hudson's house, Jack Hersh came in. People in the micro world tend to have nonmicro origins. Jim Hudson, for example, was an anthropology major in college and ended up work- ing for Intel through a chain of coin- cidences. Similarly, Jack Hersh started off to be a philosopher but has become a computer whiz. He markets his stuff under the name Avant-Code. Hersh has written a series of library modules for Microsoft's FORTRAN F-80. You write a normal double-pre- cision program in FORTRAN and link in his modules with Microsoft's L-80 linker (which is supplied with its FORTRAN). Of course, that won't work on just any system. You need a Compupro Dual Processor with Jim Hudson's 8087 board attached. In addition, you must have the Compupro Systems Support Board, and you must run the system under the Compupro standard CBIOS (customized basic input/output system). Hersh's pro- gram runs fine with M-Drive/H pseudo disks, but it won't work with the earlier M-Drive or Warp Drive system. What's happening, of course, is that although FORTRAN F-80 uses only the 8085 part of a Compupro Dual Processor Board, Hersh's rou- tines wake up the normally dormant 8088 chip and induce it to do the management necessary to coordinate things for the 8087 chip. In order to do that, you need some extra mem- ory. There's a slot for that memory on the Compupro Systems Support Board; Hersh supplies the memory chip to plug into the usually empty socket. It all sounds complex, but in prac- tice it's easy enough to install and use, and if you have a lot of double- precision numbers to crunch and must use 8-bit software, it's worth looking into. Jazz Up Your Z-19 The Heath/Zenith Z-19 is a good terminal but has some problems. For one thing, if you try to run it at a really high speed— say at 19,200 bps- it drops characters and otherwise gives me trouble. Some time ago I was sent a simple fix for that. The Super-19 from Ex- tended Technology Systems does the job nicely. For 50 bucks you get a new ROM (read-only memory) chip and some instructions on how to install it. The whole job, including figuring out how to remove the cover from the Z-19 if you've never done it before, takes no more than 10 minutes for a slow worker. The documents say that you can run the Z-19 at 38.4 kbps, but ours wouldn't run that fast. It goes at 19.2 New! A work center as efficient as your computer At last! 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Call toll-free: 1-800-258-4720 In New Hampshire: 1-800-552-0320 Visa, MasterCard, American Express nsjjj; Yield Hon* Quality pine furniture for over 35 years Dept BY30 North Conway, N.H. 03860 Please send me the Deerfield Computer Desk Finished *320A 8199.95. Add $35.00 shipping. Kit "320K 8139.95. Add 815.00 shipping. Please send me the Rolling Printer Stand Finished # 365A 8139.95. Add 812.00 shipping. Kit *365K 899.95. Add 810.00 shipping. Please send me additional free Information. Name (please print) Address City State Zip 116 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 520 on inquiry card. True MAIL ORDER Wees With so many so-called Mail Order establishments using "toll free" lines, and grandiose advertising, how can you, the customer, expect to receive true mail order savings? We have done away with these expenses to offer comparable service passing on the savings to you. Our reputation for low prices and satisfaction is outstanding. 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SCALL COMPUTER PRODUCTS FOR IBM The Ultimate Peripheral MONTE CARLO" GT" CARD 64K SCALL $45 per 64K upgrade Ask about the Quatro " Card T & G Products: Joysticks $42.00 Trakball $49.00 BUSINESS Visicorp: Visidex $180.00 Visifiles $180.00 256K Visicalc $180.00 Visitrend/Plot $225.00 ENTERTAINMENT: Infocom: Zork I $27.00 Zork II $27 00 Zork III $27.00 PRINTERS OKIDATA: Microline 92 $ 499.00 Microline 93 $ 869.00 Juki Printer • L/Q • 18CPS $CALL C.ITOH: Prowriter I Parallel $ 369.00 Prowriter I Serial $ 489.00 Prowriter II Parallel $ 629.00 Prowriter II Serial $ 689.00 F-10 Starwriter $1 150.00 F-10 Printmaster $CALL Brother HRl: $ 775.00 Smith Corona TPI: $ 539.00 Star Micronics: Gemini 10X Call for low prices! 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Circle 103 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 117 without a glitch, though. The Super-19 got a very extended test when Alex took the Z-19 terminal (with the Super-19 in it) off to UCSD (the school, not the system) last fall, and we both forgot to mention it in previous columns. Alex has had this installed as part of Helen (his CCS Z80 system) for months, with no problems, and he says he'd never go back to 9600 bps now. Recom- mended. A Glitch or Two The Z-19 with Super-19 won't run at 38.4 kbps for the same reason that you can have trouble running the Heath/Zenith Z-29 terminal at 19.2 kbps. The cables are very sensitive to electrical noise. In fact, if you want to run the Z-29 at 19.2, you must use the cables sup- plied with the machine, and don't ex- tend them. Otherwise, the machine can sometimes drop characters. This can have dramatic results depending on the character dropped; leaving things out of a command string is always inconvenient and often dis- astrous. It's a good general principle: if you're trying to run things up toward their limits, pay a lot of attention to cables and cable connectors, and keep all the lines as short as possi- ble. This is only common sense, but it's sense that's too often ignored. As long as you pay attention to the cables, the Z-29 works fine at 19.2, and we still like it a lot. Slowly but Surely . . . A recent letter from Canada com- plains that the Compupro 8086/8087 board doesn't seem to run much faster than a Z80. My correspondent thought this impossible. I put the problem to Tony Pietsch, and tonight I got his report. Much of the 8086 software, includ- ing the BIOS supplied by Compupro, is thinly reworked 8085 (8-bit) stuff. Some was hurriedly translated. The result is fast machines with v-e-r-y s-J-o-w software. Help is on the way. Tony has begun rewriting all the Compupro BlOSes and is slowly working his way through all the products. He recent- ly finished a new BIOS for the Dual Processor. I installed it tonight, and it speeds things up something won- derful. By the time you read this, the BIOS I use, including all the friend- ly little touches like recovering from some CP/M BDOS (basic disk operat- ing system) errors, will be standard with Compupro equipment. It does point up a problem: if you want the absolutely latest state-of- the-art hardware, you may have to either write your own software or put up with something not so fine for a while. On the other hand, what I think of as "not so good" often turns out to be better than what most peo- ple think is "standard," and when you have really high performance hardware, you can be certain that someone will eventually develop software worthy of it. Sweet Adeline Alas, poor Adelle, my very low serial number Otrona, is no longer with me. She developed some prob- lems with the disk speed regulator. Under ordinary circumstances, she'd have gone to an Otrona dealer to be fixed. The dealers simply swap out modular parts until the machine works again. This is easy enough because the Otrona is very modular in construction, and a very inexperi- enced technician can swap assem- blies. However, in my case Otrona tried fixing things under time pressure— I was always about to leave for some- where—and with a minimum of in- convenience to me, meaning that Judy Seelig, from CTI (which repre- sents Otrona in my area), would come out to Chaos Manor with new drives, new data separator chips, new software, etc., and see if that didn't solve the problem. Adelle was an older machine. She'd been on more than a dozen trips with me, including a long train trip in Italy. All these changes were designed to bring her up to date so that she'd be similar to what Otrona is shipping now. Sigh; while the improvements were obvious, none of those mea- sures solved the disk speed problem. The wizards at Otrona concluded that the problem was with the disk controller chip itself, but by then Judy had had enough of driving out here every Saturday morning. She came one last time and swapped Adeline for Adelle. Then, before Adelle went back to the factory, Judy took some of the parts, like the screen, to swap into her own system: Judy's Otrona is even older than Adelle. Thus I'm writing this on Adeline, who has been with me to all my speeches and conventions this month and has also been in nearly constant use as an auxiliary machine at home. No hitches, no glitches, no problems. I can continue to recommend the Otrona Attache as both sophisticated and reliable. The machine is easy to use, the keyboard is reconfigurable (we have one disk set up to change the keyboard into one optimized for the WRITE text editor we favor), and the software package is very good. I carry mine to all my conferences and speeches, and just about everyone is impressed. They particularly like the Charton graphics package that comes with the Otrona. Personal Basic The war between Digital Research and Microsoft continues. DR is heating it up with Personal Basic, which is an interpretive BASIC for CP/M-86 and MS-DOS. Persona] Basic is a lot like Micro- soft's MBASIC. That's not a coinci- dence. On the other hand, it isn't iden- tical. Some of the differences are significant. Others are simply annoy- ing. The most annoying is that there's no FILES statement in Personal Basic. Thus you cannot get a list of disk files from within a BASIC program. This seems very odd; surely Digital Re- search of all firms would know how to implement it. Digital's CBASIC and CB-80 don't have the feature either; I wonder if it's a policy? I send copies of the column to the people affected. The man who wrote Personal Basic just called in some anxiety. The proper statement is DIR, which is what CP/M uses. In my 118 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. micro/SPFeducates micros so you don't have to re-educate programmers. Are you considering microcomputers for programmers already familiar with SPF? Con- sider the time and effort you could save if re-educating programmers wasn't required. Now it isn't. micro/SPF™ is an advanced programming tool. It is designed to accommodate professional programmers familiar with SPE Re-education is not required. What's more, micro/SPF™ is available for the IBM Personal Computer. Plus, other compatible 16-bit microcomputers. And, future releases will include all extensions of the mainframe environment. Stop wasting valuable time re-educating experienced programmers. More and more companies realize the potential value of using microcomputers to perform business functions. But the need for more sophisticated software, designed to satisfy experienced programmers, has become evident. Seasoned professional programmers have come to expect less from micros. Less perfor- mance. Less sophistication. And less flexibility. Not anymore. With micro/SPF™ experienced programmers can quickly and easily recognize the SPF emulation characteristics and operate more efficiently. Also, they can make better use of their personal computing time. Why? Because the problems and frustrations typical of current microcomputer software are eliminated. micro/SPF™emulates mainframe software on microcomputers. micro/SPF™ executes under PC-DOS, MS-DOS and the family of Digital Research's CP/M-86 operating systems. We've educated micros, so you don't have to re-educate your programmers. To find out more about micro/SPF™ and other mainframe software tools, contact us. Also available through Digital Research, Inc. nunosrr mmn mi* nwci a rr hum srccm mcM'trr Mumttn I HHlXttE UI'.;J'l.flY SOURCE DATA 1 EDIT iHKrtTt OH CHANGE SOURCE MTft J trTUITIES I'EM'owi HICHO'SPf irrlUrY FUNCTI T niMii'.i. msi'L/iv iNt'owiDTiun riwitr micro X EXIT TKKMIMATt THE MICHO'SEf SESSION mi key to ukmimoti; MCRO'SFr uit - ntrv rmiiL — imwumn minimus mou: PROJECT in) rilAStll I IIM. ■■■> TEST Mi ■ = = > COtOL iimni -■■■-> nnuiii ibuh ro> kdiiei seleci PHASER Mainframe Software for Micros PHASER SYSTEMS, INC., 24 CALIFORNIA ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111 • 415-434-3990 PC-DOS and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Company. CP/M-86 is a registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. Circle 366 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 119 defense, that was not listed under FILES, COMMANDS, or NAMES in the index. A big difference between Personal Basic and MBASIC is the way pro- grams are stored. MBASIC wants you to do SAVE "D: Filename" or SAVE "D:Filename.ASC",A In the first line, the file would be stored as a .BAS file, and the storage format would be binary; this has ad- vantages in storage space and speed of loading. The second line would produce art .ASC file that would be in ASCII characters, i.e., something readable by people as well as machines. To recover a program, you LOAD it: LOAD "Filename" Personal Basic wants you to do SAVE Filename in order to save a program. It will be stored as Filename. BAS and will be act improve effect enable excel SYSTEMS CORPORATION 655 Redwood Highway Suite 311 Mill Valley, Ca. 94941 Software to be released December 1983 through selected Distributors. in ASCII format; there is no provision for storing programs in binary format. To get a Personal Basic program back, you don't LOAD; you type OLD Filename and if you alter the program and want to save it, you type REPLACE Filename I suppose there's nothing wrong with doing things this way; indeed, I recall being pretty tired of getting syntax errors when I didn't put the quote marks around a program name for LOAD or SAVE operations. A lot of the differences between DR Personal Basic and Microsoft MBASIC are like that: possibly im- provements, but not dramatic im- provements; and they do take getting used to. The editing feature is very different. As of this moment I don't like DR's as much as Microsoft's, al- though I'm prepared to be convinced it's mostly a matter of what I'm used to, because it has some nice features not found in the MBASIC statement editor. There are other differences. Take error messages, for example. If you type something incomprehensible, MBASIC prints the message "SYN- TAX ERROR." Personal Basic prints "Something is wrong," which doesn't seem a great deal more helpful; how- ever, Personal Basic also puts a small caret (-) at the point in your com- mand line where the interpreter got lost. This can be useful. The best and worst parts about Digital's Personal Basic are the docu- ments. The best part is a tutorial that teaches a fair amount about BASIC for people who've done zero BASIC programming. It's well written and reasonably well indexed, but it's not complete and doesn't tell much about advanced features like random- access files. The tutorial is well written in English, but that's not true for the reference manual. While better than the old Digital Research documents (the ones translated into binary and 120 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 539 on inquiry card. For users of Apple, IBM, TRS/80, Atari, Commodore, Texas Instruments, and other brand name computers: Herd's the easiest way to buy quality diskettes at discount prices Now you can get error-free double density diskettes by IBM, Control Data, Maxell and Verbatim delivered to your door. For some of the lowest prices around. You save because we ship huge volumes of magnetic media in boxes of 10. To order, use this form. For even faster service, call toll-free. 1 -(800)-FLOPPYS or ®1-(800)-521-5700 Michigan • 1-800-482-4770 Canada • 1-800-265-4824 Alaska/Hawaii • 1-800-821-9029 ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED Shipping & handling F.O.B. Southfield Transaction Storage Systems Inc., Southfield, Ml EXPECT A MIRACLE Circle 479 on inquiry card. Size T^== Qty. \ferbatim® Qty. Control Data Qty. maxell Qty. | 5-%" SS 5-V4" DS 8"SS 8" DS 24.90 39.90 24.90 39.90 23.90 34.90 19.90 29.90 19.90 29.90 28.90 41.90 Sub Totals $ $ $ $ Name Compa Addres Title ny City □ AMEX Card # State . .Zip. □ MASTERCARD □ VISA Exp. Date . Shipping and handling 1-6 boxes add $4.00 per order 7 or more add $6.00 per order. Clip and mail today to: Transaction Storage Systems, Inc. 22255 Greenfield Road, Southfield, Ml 48075 «*TB then Swahili before being retranslated into English), this one really isn't very good. Worse, it gets truly obscure as soon as it tackles subjects too advanced for the tutorial. Example: random-access files. In order to have random-access files on a disk, each file must be exactly the same length. Let's sup- pose each file is 50 bytes long; to find record number 30, the program need only figure out where the 1500th byte is stored in that file; it goes and gets it and presents bytes 1501-1550. Similarly, if you want to alter the thir- tieth record, the program writes the new 50-byte record in where bytes 1501-1550 were on the disk. This isn't particularly simple for the program, but it's easy for the programmer. The problem comes when you specify what those 50 bytes are, and it's particularly tough if you want to compress the data. Data compression is complicated, but it does save time and disk space. Consider: a single "word" for an 8-bit computer consists of 2 bytes. It can take all values between and 65,535 (or if we allow negative integers, be- tween -32,768 and +32,767, more or less). Suppose I have two integers, II = 2366 and 12 = 786, and I want to store them. What must I do? If I store them in ASCII (human- readable) form, that will take 7 bytes; in addition, I will need a byte to separate the two numbers and an- other to separate the second number from any data following it. That's 9 bytes so far. This is the way CBASIC stores integers. It wastes space, but it's simple. On the other hand, if I compress the data, I can do it all in 4 bytes: 2 for each integer. This requires two things: a routine that will convert my integers into binary (and back) and a way to tell my program that the first 4 bytes in a record are two integers. Both Microsoft MBASIC and Digi- tal Research Personal Basic do this. They do it in a slightly different way; Digital then thoughtfully supplies an option that allows you to read and B 7 T w ' £ w*tTeR W ■ DAISY WHEEL PRINTER/TYPEWRITERS • Full Olivetti type-writer warranty when purchased complete Complete BYTEWR1TER using: Olivetti Praxis 30 portable $405 Olivetti Praxis 35 portable $545 Olivetti Praxis 40office machine S645 Interface only wired and tested S 1 65 The parallel interface mounts entirely internally. Interconnecting cables available for most computers. 1 25 NORTHVIEW~RD., ITHACA, N.Y. 14850 (607) 272-1 132 write compressed data in the same format as Microsoft. Both recover compressed data through use of the dreaded FIELD statement. The FIELD statement isn't all that awful once you understand the theory. In our example above, for instance, the FIELD statement would be FIELD #8, 2 as 11$, 2 as 12$ because we are going to store two in- tegers, and each requires 2 bytes for storage. We've made a sort of map. Now we have to convert II and 12 into strings. A special function con- verts integers to 2-byte strings (MKI$). Of course they're not real strings; what they really are is binary numbers. They can't be real strings because they might contain goofy numbers such as 07 (which the com- puter interprets as a command to ring the bell). However, they're stored as strings and recovered that way. We shove them into a record that is controlled through use of this par- ticular FIELD associated with a par- ticular file (#8 in this case). When we recover those numbers, the value of 11$ will be our original integer 2366. A special function (CVI) can convert a 2-byte "string" into an integer, and we use it: II = CVI(I1$). You can have more than one FIELD. If this is confusing, don't worry about it. It's going to get worse. Digital Research now tells us: "Reallocating field space does not cancel the original mapping; rather, the two maps coexist. For example, if you specify FIELD #10, 20 AS X$, 40 AS Z$, 10 AS Y$ and FIELD #10, 70 AS N$ the first 20 bytes the next 40 also 10 also in Y$. "Do not use statement with declared in a Otherwise, the moves to string the buffer." of N$ are also in X$, in Z$, and the final an INPUT or LET a variable that was FIELD statement. variable's pointer space instead of to 122 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 71 on inquiry card. NOVATION CATS* VS. HAYES Take a close look at both and you'll discover the Novation Smart- Cat™ modems give you everything you get with the Hayes Smartmodem — plus some critical extras. OFF-THE-SHELF SOFTWARE It's a draw. There's a lot of software for both. For the Smart-Cats, there's ASCII Express "The Pro,"" 1 Crosstalk 16,™ Transend 1M and more that let you do virtually anything you'd like. No compromises. ONLY ON THE CATS Instant status report Place a call and your Smart-Cat knows what's going on every micro- second. Fail to get a dial tone. 7 Your Smart-Cat tells you right now. With Hayes, you can wait through an en- tire call-answer cycle — then wonder what went wrong. Dial tone detect on long distance With special long distance tele- phone services, you must wait for dial tone part way through a long dialing sequence. The Hayes modem relies on a pause — which works if things go just right. Smart-Cat waits, detects the tone, then completes dial- ing. It always works. True, automatic "redialing" The Hayes modem gives you a simple Repeat of the last command. Enter another command since you last dialed and you've lost the number. Smart-Cats give you both Redial and Retry Redial calls the last number dialed no matter what has happened in between. Retry keeps retrying on a busy signal. A handy time-saver. Easy on-line commands With Hayes, you need escape and re-entry codes when on-line. With the Cats, just enter a single command — or even string a bunch together. Smart-Cats follow them, then go back on-line. No lost contacts. No lost data. Test everything The Hayes modem has only inter- nal self-testing. But the Cats do more. They also test the rest of the communications loop. At 1200 baud, the Cats can automatically run data over the line, through the other modem and back. You know if your modem is right. You know if the rest ot the loop is right, too. NOVATION LSI VS. HAYES r -r:~-TTir : r r-r. -. jr. Large Scale Integrated (LSI) cir- cuits — more and more logic on a smaller and smaller chip — is today's technology. It's the breakthrough that has made personal computers possible. It eliminates all kinds of parts and adds all kinds of logic. Our LSI does something else ex- ■ tremely logical. It cuts costs. $ 595 s (NOVATION) VS. $695* HAYES) The Smart-Cat 1200 is $100 less than the Hayes Smartmodem 1200. Now that's a lot smarter. Lower price, LSI technology, lots of software — and no waiting. You can see them now at your computer store and let your computer out tonight. : ^- : .\. :■■:-':■■■- ' ■■ ■ ■ ■: ■ < < How to make a smarter buy on a smart modem SMARTER-CAT MODEMS Novation, Inc., 20409 Prairie Street, Chatsworth, California 91311 • (800) 423-5419 • In California: (213) 996-5060 ASCII Express "The Pro" is a trademark of Soulhwestern Data Systems • Crosstalk 16 is a trademark ot Microstul Inc. • Transend is a trademark of SSM Microcomputer Products, Inc.. Smart-Cat is a trademark of Novation • Hayes is a tradename ot Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc Circle 331 on inquiry card. 'Suggested rct.nl prices DATA EXCHANGE/64K SPOOLER The ADS-8212 DATA EXCHANGE/64K is a computer independent interface converter and print spooler. It can be installed between virtually any computer and any peripheral. Data can be input in either serial or parallel, stored in its 64K bytes of RAM, and output serial or parallel. Serial ports support baud rates from 50 to 19,200 and both hardware and software hand- shaking. The input and output ports are completely independent; input data with one protocol and baud rate and output it with a different protocol and baud rate. Selections are dip switch selectable. A unique feature is its ability to make unlimited numbers of copies. Hitting the copy button will send another copy to the printer. When done making copies, hit the reset button to clear the memory Included with the DATA EXCHANGE/64K are two 4 foot output cables, one parallel cable with standard Centronics type connector and one serial cable with standard DB 25 connector. Standard plugs are supplied for input ports. Suggested list price: $339.00 Dealer inquiries welcome. INPUT DATA EXCHANGE/64K OUTPUT RS-232 >< 64K BUFFER RS-232 50 TO 19.2K BAUD 50 TO 19.2K BAUD PARALLEL PARALLEL Available at your local dealer or contacl ADS ANTEX DATA SYSTEMS A Division of International Antex Inc. 2630 California Street ntain View, California 94040 ■ Phone (415) 941-7914 elex: 348 399 "KARMIGA LTOS" I read that five times before I could figure out what it meant. It says that if you do one FIELD statement mak- ing one allocation (mapping) and an- other using different variable names do- ing another, then when you read in the data from a random file you can treat it either way: if you ask for N$, you'll get all 70 bytes of the record; if you ask for Z$, you'll get the mid- dle 40 bytes. This is useful if you don't want all your records to have identical structures. (They must, however, all have the same length.) Microsoft doesn't explain it a lot better, but it does give more ex- amples of programs making use of files, so that it's a little easier to puz- zle out how it's done. Someday a software publisher is going to explain complex stuff like file structures as well as the simple stuff. That hasn't happened yet. Digital Research's Personal Basic tutorial is a step in the right direction, but it stops far short of what's really needed. Oh, well. When I get my PC running prop- erly I'll benchmark Personal Basic against Microsoft MBASIC. My sub- jective impression is that they're pretty comparable, but I don't have a Microsoft MBASIC that runs under CP/M-86, so I can't do actual tests yet. CB-80 Fans Take Notice CB-80 (compiling CBASIC) also has a means for compressing data and has its equivalent of the dreaded FIELD statement. CB-80 makes use of a Digital Research program called Access Manager; with it you can write some really complex CB-80 pro- grams. Indeed, you can write data- base programs that rival dBASE II in their power and complexity. I'll have a lot more on Access Manager in a later column; mean- while, serious CB-80 programmers ought to be aware of it. They also ought to be aware of Software Magic. Al Dallas is a part-time program- mer. He has developed some tools of great value and interest and markets them under the firm name Software Magic. Dallas's tools consist of lots of little 124 October 1983 ® BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 37 on inquiry card. YOU WANTED TO BE THE BOSS. ■5 /, t ^Sm 4 YOUR BANKER WANTS THE LATEST MONTHLY INCOME STATEMENTS, BUT THE BEST YOU CAN GET HIM IS TWO MONTHS OLD. Today, even the greatest entrepreneur can feel that he works for everybody but himself— the IRS, the landlord, the banker, even the janitor. WITH THE BOSS, YOU'RE THE BOSS AGAIN. Business and computer experts agree the key to solving your business problems is the choice of software. Hardware equipment selection is second. To be competitive today means handling large amounts of information quickly. To be on top tomorrow means managing much, much more. The Boss Business Software Products are com- prehensive business software programs which get you information you need, as you need it, when you need it and the way you need it. You know your financial picture at every moment. You don't have to wait to close out the books at the end of every month. The Boss takes care of all your business needs, your financial accounting, payroll, inventory and time billing. WITH THE BOSS, YOU'RE THE BOSS AGAIN. The Boss Business Software Products are com- patible with most hardware systems. Call Balcones Computer Corporation to learn more about making yourself the Boss again. □ YES, Send me more information on The Boss. NAME COMPANY ADDRESS CITY STATE ZIP PHONE TYPE OF BUSINESS For more information call toll free: 1-800-531-5483 Balcones Computer Corporation 5910 Courtyard Austin, Texas 78731 THE BOSS BUSINESS SOFTWARE PRODUCTS Circle 55 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 125 utilities that let you handle data with CB-80. As an example, he gives you the function CVI(I$), which will con- vert a two-character string to an in- teger, and the reciprocal MKI$(I), which will turn an integer into a 2-byte string. There are lots of func- tions that call in the contents of the Items Reviewed Access Manager $300 Personal Basic $150 Digital Research POB 579 Pacific Grove, CA 93950 (408) 649-3896 Attache Computer $2995 Otrona Corporation 4755 Walnut St. Boulder, CO 80301 (303) 444-8100 CB-80 Book $74.95 Magic Library $49.95 Software Magic 11669 Valerio St., #213 North Hollywood, CA 91605 (213) 765-3957 Executive Computer $2495 Executive II Computer $3195 Osborne Computer Corporation 26538 Danti Court Hayward, CA 94545 (415) 887-8080 FORTRAN 8087 Library $200 Avant-Code 1508A Oxford St. Berkeley, CA 94709 (415) 549-3257 Kaypro 4 Computer $1995 Kaypro Corporation 533 Stevens Ave. Solana Beach, CA 92075 (619) 481-4300 Modula-2 for the IBM PC $495 Logitech 165 University Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94301 (415) 326-3885 Problem-Knowledge Coupler Not available PKC Corporation RR 1, Box 630 Cambridge, VT 05444 Super-19 $49.95 Extended Technology Systems 1121 Briarwood Bensalem, PA 19020 8087 Hardware Board $495 Hudson and Associates POB 2957 Santa Clara, CA 95051 (408) 554-1316 computer's registers; these are very useful if you're going to patch assem- bly-language routines into a CB-80 program. Also included are date functions, functions for use with Access Manager, a really efficient SORT function based on the Quicksort al- gorithm, and other goodies. These are all made available as a library of functions you can call in a program and bring in at link time. Al Dallas also has a book, Inside CB-80, that gives the addresses and actions of a whole lot of CB-80 rou- tines; if you're heavily into mixing assembly-language routines into CB-80 programs, it is invaluable. It's a sort of advanced grimoire of CB-80 formulas; if you're not very familiar with CB-80, it won't do you any good. For that matter, his Magic Library documents assume you know a good bit about CB-80 and Access Manager, although nowhere near as much as his book does. If you understand the dreaded FIELD statement, you can use Magic Library to good advantage. If you don't, you'll have to learn it elsewhere. Whimper . . . Sigh. The pile of unreviewed— indeed, sometimes unopened— soft- ware, books, and even hardware grows daily. By its very nature, this column can tackle only stuff that I've found time to use. I cannot and will not write "reviews" from spec sheets and PR notices. Alas, that dooms me to fall farther and farther behind, but there seems no help for that. To those who sent products for review, I can only counsel patience. I'm dancing as fast as I can.H jerry Pournelle is a former aerospace engineer and current science-fiction writer who loves to play with computers. Jerry Pournelle welcomes reader's' com- ments and opinions. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Jerry Pournelle, do BYTE Publications, POB 372, Hancock, NH 03449. Please put your address on the letter as well as on the envelope. Due to the high volume of letters, Jerry cannot guarantee a personal reply. 126 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Accept no substitutes. If you're looking to buy a dBASE-like system, you'll really like dBASE II® dBASE II is the relational database management system (DBMS) we introduced to the microcomputer world in 1980. It was the best, most powerful and easiest-to-use database manage- ment system available. It still is. You'll wonder how you managed without it. Because it's so powerful yet so easy to use, dBASE II has become the standard for managing data with a microcomputer. Doctors and lawyers, accountants and sales- people, stockbrokers and students, big businesses and small are all managing their data better with dBASE II. Books have been written about it. And other microcomputer data handling programs measure themselves against what dBASE II can do. dBASE II turns data into a company resource dBASE II starts where file handling systems (such as our own Friday!™) leave off. You get a running start on your business solu- tions because dBASE II includes a complete hands- on tutorial. You can quickly and easily create a full business information system because all of your data is at your fingertips. Using English-like commands, you add, delete, edit, display, print and manipulate your information. Once you've decided on what you want done, you save the instructions so that even your least experienced personnel can perform the most complex business functions with two words: Do Invoices, Do Payroll, Do anything that needs to be done. Your data and your programs are independent, so you can change one without changing the other; in fact, change the way you do business without destroying what you've done. And dBASE II even simplifies conversion from your present system, and can handle data from other programs, or create files that other programs can use. Circle 46 on inquiry card. It's the most advanced information manage- ment tool available for your microcomputer. And it's only $700 (suggested retail price). The best selling DBMS known to man. dBASE II struck a responsive chord in the busi- ness community when it was introduced and quickly became the best selling database management system made for any computer, micro or mainframe. To see why, drop by your nearest computer or software store and ask for a demonstration. Then take a package home and use it for 30 days. If it's not everything we said it was, return it and get your money back. But we think you'll keep it. Can over 150,000 users be wrong? Ashton-Tate, 10150 West Jefferson Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90230. (213) 204-5570. ASHTON -TATE ©Ashton-Tate 1983 dBASE II is a registered trademark and Friday! is a trademark of Ashton-Tate. BYTE October 1983 127 TKiSolver does for equations what word processing did for words. The first thing you should know about the TKiSolver"* program is that it is not a spreadsheet. Instead, it does something completely unheard of (until now] — it turns your personal computer into a voracious equation processor. The next thing you should know is that if the TKiSolver program can't make life with your personal computer easier land pay for itself], even if you use it only 15 minutes a week, you are a very rare person. And finally, you should know ex- actly what equation processing is, and how it works. If you keep reading this, you will. Equation processing with TKiSolver, or problem solving made easy. The best way to under- stand what the TKiSolver program is, is to understand what it does. The following simple example is designed to do just that. If you're still a little in the dark after reading it, stop in at your local computer store for a very enlightening hands-on demonstration. Begin by setting up your problem. The TKiSolver program lets you do it quickly, easily, and naturally. For ex- ample, a car costs $9785. What would be the monthly payment on a three- year loan if the down payment is 25% and the interest rate is 15%? STEP 1. Formulate the necessary equations to solve your problem and enter them on the "Rule Sheet" simply ( lr) Rule: CAR LOAN St Input ::::::;; VARIABLE SHEET === Name Output Unit price dollars down 2446. 25 dollars loan 7338.75 dollars dp percent payment 254.40618 dollars i percent term years ======= RULE SHEET = = = = = = = pr ice down- loan down/pr ice=dp payment; loan»( i/( l-( 1+ i )*-term) ) price of car down payment bank loan down payment percentage monthly payment interest rate term of loan by typing them in (as in the screen photo). For example: "price-down = loan." STEP 2. Enter your known values the same way on the "Variable Sheet." For example: "9785" for price. You may also enter units and comments, if you want* STEP 3. Type the action command ("I" on your keyboard) to solve the problem. STEP 4. TKiSolver displays the an- swer: the monthly payment is $254.40. Backsolving, the heart of TKiSolver. Now that you've defined the problem and solved it, TKISolver's unique backsolving ability also lets you think "backwards" to solve for any variable, regardless of its position in the equation. For example, if you can only afford a monthly payment of $200, you can re-solve the problem in terms of that constraint. The TKiSolver program will solve the problem, dis- playing your choice of a higher down payment, a longer loan term, or a lesser interest rate. This unique back- solving capability forms the basis of TKISolver's remarkably flexible prob- lem-solving ability. 128 BYTE October 1983 Also, as you can see from the example on the screen, TKISolver deals not only with single variables, but with entire equations and sets of simultaneous equations. It also deals with much more complicated problems than this one. How complicated? That's up to you. What kinds of prob- lems? That's up to you, too, but pop- ular applications include finance, engineering, science, design, and education. Other extremely useful and interesting things TKISolver does. Aside from its basic problem- solving abilities, the TKISolver program performs a number of pretty fancy tricks. Like: Iterative Solving; in which TKISolver performs successive approx- imations of an answer when con- fronted with equations that cannot be solved directly, I like exp (xl = 2 - x • y and sin (x • yl= 3 - x - yl. Like: List Solving; in which TKISolver attacks complete lists of input values and solves them all, allowing you to exam- ine numerous alternative solutions, and pick the one you like best. Like: Tobies and Graphs; using the values you pro- duced with the List Solver, the TKISolver program will automatically produce ta- bles and graphs of your data. You can look at your formatted output on the screen or send it to your printer with a single keystroke. And like: Automatic Unit Conversion; in which TKISolver lets you formulate problems in one unit of measurement, and display answers in another. Very convenient what with all this talk about going metric. The TKISolver program also pro- vides a wide variety of specialized business and mathematical functions like trig and log and net present value. Then, there's TKISolver's on-screen Help facility that provides information on commands and features any time you want it. Just type "?" and a topic name. And of course the TKISolver pro- gram combines all these features in one integrated program. TKJSolverPacks make problem- solving a picnic. TKISolverPack™ application packages are specially developed by experts in specific fields. Each package contains a diskette with about a dozen models that include the necessary equations, values, and tables for solving a particular problem. The models are usable as-is or you can easily modify them. TKISolverPack application pack- ages available from Software Arts include Financial Management, Mechanical Engineering, Building Design and Construction, and Intro- ductory Science. Additional TKISolver- Packs are on the way from Software Arts, McGraw-Hill, and others. We know you're out there. No matter who you are, or what you do, if it involves using equations, the TKISolver program is an indispensable tool for you. So, visit your local computer store today, and see TKISolver in action. You'll be amazed at how much faster and more effectively you'll be able to work when you discover the power of equation processing with the TKISolver program. «&. SKoms Software Arts The inventors of VisiCalc® 27 Mica Lane, Wellesley, Massachusetts 02181 617/237-4000 *You can easily define appropriate unit conversions on the unit sheet. TK.TK!, TKISolver, TKISolverPack, The Problem Cruncher, the stylized I and the slogan "NOW YOU DON'T HAVE: TO THINK LIKE A COMPUTER TO USE ONE!" are trademarks or registered trademarks of Software Arts, Inc. SATN, TKISATN and DIF are trademarks or registered trademarks of Software Arts Products Corp. Software Arts is a trademark of Software Arts, Inc. and Software Arts Products Corp. The TKISolver program and the TKISolverPack applications packages are products of Software Arts, Inc. which is solely responsible for their contents. VisiCalc is a registered trademark of VisiCorp. Copyright © 1983 Software Arts, Inc. All rights reserved P/N 100-092 P 8/83 Circle 432 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 129 The Unix Operating System The Unix* operating system has descended from the realm of minicomputers into the midst of microcomputers, mating advanced software features to new and powerful 16-bit microcomputer hardware designs. This multiuser, multitask- ing operating system developed at Bell Laboratories offers powers and abilities far beyond those of normal microcomputer operating systems. Although Unix has attracted attention for some time, access to it usually has meant being part of a research project or attending an academic institution. A growing market now takes advantage of portable software environment; the Unix operating system, written in the C language (see August 1983 BYTE), makes the move from 16-bit microcomputers to IBM mainframes and the Cray-1 a simple pro- cess. In the near future, Western Electric (the marketing arm of Bell Labs) will offer the newest version of Unix, System 5, for the 80286, 6800, 16032, and Z8000 microprocessors. Some of the licensed versions of Unix already available for microcomputers are Xenix (Microsoft's enhanced Unix) for the Altos 586; Xenix and UniPlus-H for the Apple Lisa; 4.1 BSD Unix and Venix for Digital Equipment Corporation's Professional 350; the Fortune 32:16 with Unix version 7; Venix and Xenix for the IBM Personal Computer; and TRS-Xenix for the Model 16B. Western Electric is rumored to be planning a low-cost Unix microcomputer as well. Computer professionals who once refused to take microcomputers seriously now take a second look at the powerful 16-bit microcomputers and the ad- vanced software-development environment that Unix offers. Most find the vast collection of software tools (small general-purpose programs) in Unix a boon to their work. Other prominent features of the Unix operating system include its hierarchical (tree-structured) file system that allows you to break up your work area into easily identified groups, the ability to run several programs simultaneously, a flexible command shell that lets you customize the Unix system, I/O (input/output) redirection, and automatic "piping" of the output of one program into the input of the next program. Unix also enables programs to make use of its advanced features. Applica- tions for microcomputer Unix systems, everything from Wangwriter-like word- processing programs to accounting applications, are bursting onto the scene. Many of these are migrating from the minicomputer/mainframe environment and have multiuser/multitasking capabilities. Unfortunately, popular microcom- puter programs written in assembly language may be slow in coming to Unix and hampered by a single-user, single-task orientation. The flexibility of Unix's user interface allows menu-driven command shells, such as those offered by Fortune and Altos, that make Unix simple to learn and use. Unix systems are selling. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) placed an order for $30-million worth of the Zilog System 8000 with the Unix operating system to use for word-processing, financial-spreadsheet, and data-managernent appli- cations. (One of the largest users of Unix systems outside the Bell system is the Federal Government.) Even McDonalds, looking for a break today, is buying Unix systems. With its expanding availability on microcomputers, the second coming of Unix is here. — Bruce Roberts 132 The Unix Tutorial, Part 3: Unix in the Microcomputer Marketplace by David Fiedler 160 Unix and the Standardization of Small Computer Systems by Jean L. Yates I/O A Tour Through the Unix File System by James Joyce 1 87 The Unix Shell by Stephen R. Bourne 209 Unix as an Application Environment by Mark Krieger and Fred Pack 219 Usenet: A Bulletin Board for Unix Users by Sandra L Emerson 241 The Unix Writer's Workbench Soft- ware by Lorinda L. Cherry and Nina H. Macdonald 253 Typsetting on the Unix System by Bill Tuthill 266 Moving Unix to New Machines by Michael Tilson "UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. Painting by Robert Tinney 130 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. BEKBEtl umuimiiiiiiitiitiiiinMiiuiuiiiiii ••miH ™*« MM -« n nmucra* iiiiiiiiiiuiiuininiiiiiiiHuimuuiiiiiii iiiiiuiiimiiimiiiiiiiiiiimmiiimii dJ 1 i •^ f **■ \ iiiiiiininni ■■•■ --■'"' r ^ v ^ i The Unix Tutorial Part 3: Unix in the Microcomputer Marketplace Which software companies offer licensed Unix and which offer look-alikes and work-alikes In the preceding two articles of this series, we've examined the features and facilities of the Unix operating system, looked at a few of the many applications programs available to use with it, and seen how users can customize their working environ- ments in Unix to the point of creating their own applications using available utilities. This last article explains the differences between the various Unix versions and between true Unix and Unix look-alike systems. You'll also see what changes various software firms have made to the Unix system and some of the computers it runs on. Implementations Old and New Over the past 10 years six notable modifications of Unix have been available to groups outside the Bell System. In 1973, Unix Version 5 was released to selected educational in- stitutions (version numbers were designated by the edition of the Unix Programmer's Manual released with the software). In 1975, Version 6 became the first incarnation of Unix to be sold to commercial firms as well as to schools. The most widely used version as recently as last year, Ver- sion 6 has been responsible for the by David Fiedler growth of the "Unix legend." Because, under a government- ordered consent decree, the Bell System was forbidden to compete in the commercial marketplace, Unix was offered to all users under very restrictive terms. A source license only would be granted, and the soft- ware would be offered as is, with no support, no refunds, no warranty, and no maintenance. These terms were decidedly un- competitive because a Unix license would cost a company $20,000 (edu- cational institutions were charged $200), but a few firms felt the im- proved productivity achieved with Unix was worth the fee. Programmer's Workbench, more commonly known as PWB, was es- sentially Version 6 with certain im- portant utilities added. Among these were: • the Source Code Control System (SCCS), which allows you to keep ac- count of changes to a text file (whether program source code or an epic poem in German) so the text at any stage can be recreated • a remote-job-entry (RJE) facility that lets Unix users process batch jobs on an IBM/370 system • the nroff and troff packages for text formatting and typesetting support The advent of Version 7 in 1979 brought new attention to Unix. Many of the previous rough spots had dis- appeared, the maximum file size had grown to 1 gigabyte, and a standard I/O (input/output) library had been introduced. During this period, microcomputers running Unix ap- peared, and Unix look-alikes such as Whitesmiths' Idris and Mark Williams' Coherent emerged. While it sometimes seems as though Version 7 has been around for a long time, in fact it had been on the market for only two years when Sys- tem III was announced in late 1981. Relatively few architectural changes were made, but System III con- solidated the most important features of Version 6, PWB, and Version 7, thus allaying any uncertainty of potential customers as to which version was best. A new pricing policy was in- stituted under which licensees could offer binary sublicenses to their customers for as little as $100. In the view of many observers within the industry, System III was the begin- ning of AT&T's deeper commitment to the Unix operating system as a com- 132 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Photo 1: Digital Equipment Corporation's Micro/PDP-11 is a microcomputer version of the original PDP-11 that Unix was developed on. The system has a 10-megabyte hard disk (with floppy disks for backup) and 256K bytes of memory. mercial product. Unix System V was formally an- nounced in January 1983, at the Unicom conference in San Diego. For the first time, users outside the Bell System would be working with the same version of Unix used by those inside, and they would be eligible for the same support, training, and ser- vice, as well. System V improve- ments included a redesigned file sys- tem for faster throughput and several internal changes for higher reliabili- ty. AT&T's recent announcement that it would be supporting source code licensees for Unix System V on four advanced microprocessors (the Intel 286, Motorola 68000, National Semi- conductor 16032, and Zilog Z8000) gave notice to the industry that AT&T intends to keep promoting Unix ag- gressively in the fastest-growing seg- ment of the market. Outside Bell Labs Software developers are never satisfied with anything— even Unix. From the day the first tape left Bell Laboratories, Unix has been made bigger and smaller, faster and slower, friendlier and more cryptic. Surpris- ingly, all this poking around by peo- ple intent on improving Unix actual- ly yielded some useful results, in- cluding several variants that are com- mercially important on their own. The noncommercial institution best known for its work with Unix is the University of California at Berkeley. October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 133 The Berkeley Computer Science De- partment, under the primary leader- ship of Bill Joy (now at Sun Microsys- tems), has added the following fea- tures (among others) to Unix: • the ex and vi screen editors • the INGRES database-manage- ment system • a replacement for the standard Unix Bourne Shell, called the C-shell • the general-purpose video ter- minal interface packages called curses and termcap • larger disk-blocking factors and other performance improvements • an assortment of useful general- purpose utilities such as more, apropos, finger, head, and strings (exotic names are a Berkeley hallmark) As is typical with academic groups, the Berkeley people have been quite generous in sharing their improve- ments with others. While essentially the code of the Berkeley programs is in the public domain, much of it as distributed discloses Bell Labs' licensed Unix software and so may be sent only to Unix source licensees. Nevertheless, entire nine-track tapes full of this code have been sent around the world to licensed Unix sites. When distributed as a package, the Berkeley software is usually known by release numbers. The 4.1 BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution^ package has been developed for the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) VAX line of computers, while other BSD releases are intended for PDP-11 computers. Other groups have updated the Berkeley software in turn and made it more general in scope. Many of the Berkeley enhancements have been transported to 68000-based machines by Unisoft Systems as part of its popular Uniplus + package. It is safe to say that a majority of Unix sites to- day run some programs originally developed at Berkeley. Even AT&T adopted several of these programs as part of its latest Unix System V release. Commercial Enhancements Interactive Systems (1212 Seventh St., Santa Monica, CA 90401) was the first commercial organization with a Unix license. The company also has the distinction of being the first organization to offer hardware and software support for the Unix sys- tem. Since 1977, Interactive Systems has been distributing its own en- hanced Unix system and set of utili- ties consisting primarily of what would today be called office-automa- tion software. Collectively called the IS/1 system, enhancements include packages such as multiwindow screen editors (INed), improved elec- tronic mail programs with Telex/TWX facilities (INmail), and word-process- ing packages (INroff, INtext). Once exclusively tied to DEC equipment, Interactive Systems now also sup- ports smaller computers such as the Onyx and Plexus. Another firm that's been around a while is HCR (Human Computing Resources, 10 St. Mary St., Toronto, Ontario M4Y 1P9, Canada). HCR has achieved a reputation for customer support while emphasizing a slight- ly different technical path from In- teractive Systems. HCR specializes in transporting Unix to different pro- cessors (such as the Three Rivers Perq machine and National Semiconduc- tor 16032), and enhancing it with technical improvements such as graphics and text overlay software. This last feature allows people using smaller processors in the DEC line to develop and run software that would normally be limited to larger machines such as the PDP-11/70. Venturcom (139 Main St., Cam- bridge, MA 02142) has developed this , kind of "shoehorning" to a fine art. Its Venix system manages to bring full Unix functionality to machines as small as the IBM Personal Computer and DEC LSI-11/2. Even with its small size, Venix adds real-time extensions that make it equally useful for larger computers. Venix has become quite popular for laboratory use and has given Venturcom a reputation for small-system expertise. Microsoft (10700 Northup Way, Bellevue, WA 98004) is a name that has long been associated with microcomputer system software, yet the firm didn't offer Unix until relatively recently. While some early versions of its Xenix system were developed by other software houses on contract, Microsoft has turned Xenix into a well-supported product with significant performance and reliability enhancements. Xenix is available on the Radio Shack Model 16 and Apple Lisa, to name just two recent versions. The most widely used of the in- dependently available systems is Uni- plus + from Unisoft Systems (303 West 42nd St., New York, NY 10036), a company whose specialty is the narrowest of all. Unisoft's sole busi- ness is transporting Unix System III to 68000-based computers, and the company has plenty of experience, having done this 50 times or so already. Anyone who buys a com- puter running Uniplus + gets not only Unix System III but also some Berkeley enhancements as well as a few that Unisoft added. A good number of compilers and applica- tions packages will work on any ma- chine with Uniplus + , including the NCR Tower, the Apple Lisa, the Sun Workstation, and computers from Dual, Callan, Codata, Pixel, and Corvus. Unix Look-alikes All of the software systems men- tioned so far are based on the original Bell Labs Unix that has been trans- ported to a new computer or other- wise modified. There has also been a thriving business in developing operating systems that act like Unix to both the user and the applications code. Such look-alike systems occupy a significant portion of the market. When the first few Unix look-alikes were introduced, Unix sublicenses were priced in the thousands of dollars. Now that sublicense pricing has been substantially cut, look- alikes must both drop in price and have more functionality than before in order to stay competitive. Even so, it's historically been easier for com- puter manufacturers to deal with the look-alike vendors than with AT&T. The first and best known look-alike system is Idris from Whitesmiths Ltd., (97 Lowell Rd., Concord, MA 01742). At this writing Idris is still compati- ble only with Unix Version 6, but it 134 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. ntroducing a whole new way of looking at data. •GRAFOX worts with IBM BASIC and other comma i BASIC files. GRAFOX also sraphs .DIF files ; created on VisiCalc, 1-2-3, and DB MASTER Introducing colorful charts and graphs all at the push of\a button. Introducing a powerful, easy-\o- use data handling system that produces presen- tation quality graphics on most popular printers. Introducing GRAFOX, by Fox & Geller. The complete graphics software. Turning data into colorful charts and graphs is what GRAFOX is all about. And GRAFOX does it faster and easier than any other stand-alone graphics package. V '...* GRAFOX is powerful! With the ability to go directly into IBM BASIC* and .DIF data files and use the data for charts. And Fox & Geller's unique data- query capability enables GRAFOX to summarize data from thousands of records. Thus eliminating the need for the user to do any manual processing of raw material. But most importantly, GRAFOX is easy-to-use. Requiring no prior experience. If you want color charts or graphs on your screen, printer or plotter, you want GRAFOX. The powerful, new, complete graphics software from Fox & Geller. FOX& GELLER INFORMATION HOTLINE (201)794-8883 Her, Inc. 604 Market Sfreet, Elmwood Park, N.J. 07407 FOX&GELLER Fox & Geller, U.K. 17 Wigmore Street, London Wf, England. 011 441-580-5816 Circle 189 on Inquiry card, has retained a loyal following among its users due to its small size and high degree of portability. An 8080-based computer with bank-switched mem- ory running full Idris can write a floppy disk that can be read by a VAX running Idris— something that can't generally be done with machines running Unix. Idris now runs on computers based on any of five dif- ferent microprocessors. Another prominent look-alike is Coherent, introduced a few years ago by the Mark Williams Company (1430 West Wrightwood Ave., Chicago, IL 60614). Coherent's main claims to fame are that it is fully compatible with Unix Version 7 and that it comes with almost as many utilities as does Unix. It has been transported to the PDP-11, Z8000, and 8086. UNOS, written by Charles River Data Systems (4 Tech Circle, Natick, MA 01760), was intended as a look- alike but goes even further than Unix. While UNOS is compatible with Version 7, it also supports real- time operations for fast response where necessary, such as in labora- tory work or industrial process con- trol. CRDS's own Universe 68 com- puter uses UNOS, as does Motorola on that firm's Versabus-based system. UNOS seems to be limited to 68000- based systems as a design constraint. Unix on Personal Computers Ignoring for the moment the rapid- ly dropping prices in the computer world, most 16-bit computers that run Unix or Unix-like operating sys- tems are out of the financial reach of many individuals. Never underesti- mate the ingenuity of software devel- opers, though, who have made a variety of Unix-like systems targeted toward specific computers or pro- cessors. Like Unix, these systems all have hierarchical file arrangements and most are multiuser and multi- tasking, but some are closer to true Unix than others. While some of these systems may be able to run on floppy-disk-based computers, a hard disk or other high-speed disk drive is necessary to fully exploit the power of the software. One of the oldest companies in the microcomputer field, Cromemco (280 Bernardo Ave., Mountain View, CA 94043), introduced its Cromix oper- ating system on the Z80 processor in 1981. Cromix might be properly termed a work-alike rather than a look- alike: while its user interface, utility programs, and file system are pat- terned after Unix, its system calls are not compatible. This somewhat limits Cromix in the marketplace because programs written for Unix are not automatically portable to Cromix (and vice versa). Nevertheless, Cromix has been popular among owners of Cromemco equipment because it can emulate their older operating system CDOS (itself a CP/M work-alike) and yields quite respectable performance even on a Z80-based system. With the advent of its dual processor Z80/68000 board, Cromemco introduced Cromix for the 68000, also. This version has probably been less of a success due to the large number of 68000-based systems running real Unix, but it still lets you run CDOS programs because the Z80 is present. It is prob- AZTEC C - ' C ' PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM PORTABLE SOFTWARE APPLE CPIM IBM I 5Sfc*< ««*#>«* 9*& ..^Sfrfi. eW^S*-* ,tW* too ^::>^ii6> w Dort-w? ^.^soPP^'ioo^ 65 10' * ;C* a M »<^^H^fe:^ '^K^STw*** 808°. code lot **•?% «***£&«& ie'9* **»#z P3Z& c ofv pi\e' s •^ 8s r>e "5> cx "«k£$L«*~ .8W*?Sw»'fifr«. oos \0' .cW de ?, a nd^ a(V ,ffie<* ■S&* P »ce C8<> US* nW>C« Ma ''" 58 " , Shipping: COD. 2nd day delivery, or Canada, add S5. Canada 2nd day or US next day delivery, add S20. Outside North America, add S20, and lor 2nd day add $75. -^•ssf %*r so?' eo* . co«*' ^- c °' OW el soo led 1 p oV)5 ^o-t70 8 W>PP ' 136 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 286 on inquiry card. Number One Add- On Products for IBM PC The Multifunction Cards that let you get the most out of your IBM PC AST Research Number One Add-Ons let you realize the full potential of your IBM PC or PC- XT without wasting valuable slot space. By combining your memory and input/output requirements on a single card, you can take advantage of more of the capabilities IBM designed into the PC, while leaving space for future enhancements as they are introduced. AST Research multifunction boards can add user memory from 64K to 51 2K to your PC bringing your PC memory to its maximum of 640 K. You also receive the added features of serial ports, parallel ports, a clock calendar, game adapter port, and SuperPak'" — the utility diskette with the most powerful disk emulator and print spooler software available. SixPakPlus'" — Up to 384K memory, serial port, printer port, optional game port, and clock calendar on a single card. I/O Plus II™ — Up to 2 serial ports, optional printer port, optional game port, clock cal- endar on a single card. No memory. MegaPlusir — Up to 51 2 K memory, up to 2 serial ports, optional printer port, optional game port, and clock calendar on a single card. ComboPlus'" — Up to 256 K memory, serial port, printer port, and clock calendar on a single card. Communication Products— Other AST Re- search Number One products include system enhancements and mainframe communica- tions products such as 3270 SNA and 5251 terminal emulation, 3780 RJE support and AST-PCnef — the Local Area Network spe- cifically designed for the IBM PC. AST Quality All AST Research multifunction boards come with the AST "Plus" — our unsurpassed repu- tation for quality, reliability, after-the-saies support, and overall design excellence — which give our products the best price/per- formance ratio in the industry. AST Research Number One Add-On Products are available at Computerland, Entre, Busi- nessland and other computer stores world- wide. Contact AST Research, Inc. for the dealer nearest you. (714) 540-1333/863- 1333 TELEX: 295370ASTR UR PCnet is a registered trademark of Orchid Technology, Inc. Circle 6 on inquiry card. Qife QAAngg to ^ou/t c^App^e IMAGINE editing your BASIC pro- grams up to 5 TIMES FASTER with powerful tools like SEARCH, REPLACE, INSERT and DELETE, just like your favorite word processor! IMAGINE having over 50 special FUNCTION KEYS, reducing fre- quently used commands to only two keystrokes, AND creating your own custom keys to perform complex pro- cedures with a single stroke. IMAGINE having a large and growing ,. ; library of helpful programs from Hollywood Hardware and your other favorite software companie RIGHT AT YOUR FINGERTIPS/ NOW IMAGINE having all of this power and more in your Apple ALL THE TIME, without having to search for the right disk, wait for it to load, or worry about memory conflicts, system crashes, reboots, etc. YOU HAVE JUST IMAGINED. THE ULTRA ROM BOARD/EDITOR, a com- plete and expandable Program Development System in EPROM. TIRED OF BROKEN PROM- ISES? If the Ultra Rom I Board doesn't do every- thing we say, simply return it within 30 days for a COMPLETE REFUND. CALL OR WRITE ■r K> FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION. CURRENT PRODUCTS: 2 1 3) 989 1 204 able that Cromemco will eventually adopt Unix and release a Cromix emulator to support its current customers. Two work-alike systems for com- puters based on the underrated 6809 processor are Uniflex from Technical Systems Consultants (POB 2570, West Lafayette, IN 47906) and OS-9 from Microware Systems (5835 Grand Ave., Des Moines, IA 50312). Both systems are supported by a number of C compilers and applica- tions programs on computers from several manufacturers. Micronix is available from Morrow Designs (5221 Central Ave., Rich- mond, CA 94804) on its Z80-based Decision One line of computers only. This system is compatible with Ver- sion 6 Unix and includes a CP/M adapter that allows most programs written for that operating system to be run. Owners of the IBM Personal Com- puter and its look-alikes can rejoice in the added power they get from the 8088 processor and the ability to han- dle over 64K bytes of memory. While several of the transportable Unix look-alike systems mentioned previ- ously can run on the IBM PC, two newer products created expressly for the PC are worth some attention. QNX from Quantum Software Sys- tems (POB 5318, Station F, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3H5, Canada) is a work- alike operating system that has the additional features of interprocess communication, prioritized tasks, and support of disk emulators to im- prove system throughput. A special utility allows you to transfer files be- tween QNX and standard MS-DOS media. A C compiler and full-screen editor are included in the $650 price. A firm called Lantech Systems (861 Chartwell Dr., Dallas, TX 75243), which also specializes in user-trans- parent local-area network software, has announced an operating system called Unetix. Selling for only $99, Unetix provides a special user inter- face that allows you to have as many as 10 concurrently active tasks, each one executing in its own separate window on the PC screen. Any or all of these tasks can be the included MS-DOS emulator, which lets you 138 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 212 on inquiry card. With the p-System ™ from — ■ -'-* For: IBM PC & XT CORONA COLUMBIA EAGLE COMPAQ COLBY DOT HYPERION Do you feel stifled by your operating system? The p-System from NCI wUl release you. It is the complete program development environment for the IBM Personal Computer and compatibles. This is the fast p-System with the special p-machine emulator developed by NCI. The p-System from NCI gives you everything you need in one system at far less than the cost to add similar utilities to any other OS. It includes a powerful screen editor, a multi-function file manager and RAMdisk support for fast access to files. Dynamic memory allocation lets you create programs larger than 64K and a print buffer frees your computer to perform other tasks while printing. This operating system is stable, friendly and easy to use. Command options are presented on a menu requiring only a single keystroke. The 8087 Numeric Coprocessor Support allows extremely fast floating point calculations and the asynchronous I/O lets you use serial printer and communications routines. With the p-System you can choose either UCSD Pascal, Fortran 77 or Basic as your programming language. NCI also offers hard disk support for the IBM XT, Corona, Columbia, Corvus, Tallgrass, k Davong, Genie 5+5, QCS, Datamac, SPEED. PORTABILITY. RELIABILITY. Microdisk and Santa Clara. Corvus OMNINET support can easily be added as well as memory cards from AST Research and Tall Tree Systems, the Colorplus card and the Hercules graphics card. When you buy the p-System from NCI you get technical support and complete documentation. For full details call or write: Network Consulting Inc. Discovery Park, Suite 110 - 3700 Gilmore Way Burnaby, B.C. Canada V5G 4M1 (604)430-3466 M Personal Computer and IBM Personal Computer XT are trade marks of International Business Machines Corporation. The p-System™ is a trade mark of Sof tech Microsystems, Inc. UCSD Pascal is a trade mark of the Regents of the University of California. OMNINET is a trade mark of Corvus Systems Inc. 5+5 is a trade mark of Genie Computer Corporation. Colorplus is a trade mark of Frederick Electronics. run most current programs un- changed. While Unetix is a single- user system, it is compatible with Unix. Eventually, multiple PCs run- ning Unetix will be able to share resources and communicate at high speeds. What About Real Unix on Microcomputers? Let's consider for a moment why Unix wasn't initially transported to machines both bigger and smaller than the PDP-11. While a college stu- dent might not need to justify spend- ing hundreds of hours writing a C compiler for a new machine or mov- ing Unix to that machine to satisfy his innate curiosity, the situation is dif- ferent in the commercial world. The PDP-11 minicomputer line has, for years, been synonymous with good performance at a moderate price, and there were few competitors with as broad a base of installed systems as DEC had. It made little sense to move Unix to a larger computer, for what company would risk using an unsup- ported operating system on a $300,000 machine? As for transport- ing Unix to smaller systems, for an entire decade, PDP-lls and similar machines were the smallest com- puters that could run Unix. By the time Version 7 of Unix was announced in 1979, it was in use on hundreds of computers both inside and outside the Bell System, and thousands of computer science stu- dents at universities had begun to ask, "Why doesn't everyone use such a terrific system?" With this ground swell of support (and the entry into the business world of those univer- sity graduates), only one thing held back the general use of Unix— inex- pensive, powerful hardware. Only in the last few years, with the advent of 16-bit microprocessors, in- expensive semiconductor memory, and high-performance, low-cost hard-disk systems, has it been possi- ble to bring the price of a powerful computer within reach of most small businesses and even many computer hobbyists. Unix, as both the first por- table operating system and the first to emphasize programmer produc- tivity over machine efficiency, is the Photo 2: Plexus' P/40 uses multiple Z8000 microprocessors to achieve performance ap- proaching that of a VAX. natural choice for such systems. First Implementations on Microcomputers: The Z8000 The first implementation of Unix on a microcomputer was the Onyx C8002, introduced in 1980. Based on the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor, the original Onyx was a desktop machine with an integral hard disk, cartridge- tape backup, 256K bytes of memory, and enough RS-232C ports to sup- port eight users. At about $20,000 in- cluding the Unix operating system, at the time it was about half the price of any other computer that ran Unix. While early versions were hard- pressed to keep up with multiple users, Onyx (25 East Trimble Ave., San Jose, CA 95131) kept enhancing its machine's performance. Today's Onyx offerings are much improved, and systems in its Sundance line are available with the entire computer built into a video terminal— including the cartridge-tape backup, which has become Onyx's hallmark. Zilog (1315 Dell Ave., Campbell, CA 95008) was not far behind in in- troducing a computer based on its own processor. The Z-Lab Model 20, a precursor of Zilog's current System 8000 line, marked the first entry of any microprocessor manufacturer in- to the Unix arena. At the time, this was especially important because it meant factory support for the software and hardware both. The Zilog com- puters run ZEUS (Zilog Enhanced Unix System). Probably the most carefully de- signed Z8000-based systems come from Plexus (2230 Martin Ave., Santa Clara, CA 95050). Built around Intel's Multibus, all Plexus machines share the same basic philosophy: spare the main processor from carrying the full computing load. With this in mind, intelligent controllers are used to run the disk, tape backup, terminal ports, and Ethernet interface. The part of the operating system code that runs each set of peripherals is actually resi- dent in the peripheral controller it- self. This way, the Unix code running on the main processor needs to make only high-level requests of the con- trollers and can then continue pro- cessing user programs. The result is that a computer such as the Plexus P/40 (see photo 2) has performance comparable to a VAX at a fraction of the price. An Aside on Chip Competition Why were these machines based on the Z8000, rather than the Intel 8086 (which was available even earlier), the LSI-11/23, or the now- popular Motorola 68000? The fact that the 8086 has no memory manage- ment would allow users on the same 8086-based system to interfere with each other's programs and data; recently, however, engineers have found ways of adding this protection, and so 8086-based Unix systems have appeared. The 68000 wasn't available as a production item when the Onyx and Zilog machines were introduced, and other technical problems with this chip caused further delays in development of 68000-based com- puters. Perhaps as important as these factors is the similarity in architecture between the PDP-11 and Z8000: C compilers were developed quite early for the Zilog chip, a necessary first step for transporting Unix. In spite of the early problems, the fact remains that the 68000 micropro- cessor can support a much larger 140 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 442 on inquiry card. When it comes to superior performance, we study our lines very carefiilly. Superior printer performance is not a fluke. It evolves from analyzing printed line after printed line. Taking the time to test and retest. After 30 years of manufacturing precision parts, we know that there are no shortcuts. And so we took the GeminMOX and method- ically put it through its 120 cps pace. We achieved a print head life of over 100 million characters with an extremely precise dot align- ment creating each crisp character. So far so good. Next, sophisticated performance de- manded versatility. A wide choice of character sets, a buffer expandable . . to 8K,and the ability to interface with all popular personal computers. We added macro m instruction, giving GeminMOX the capability to perform up to 16 operations with one com- mand. We included as standard a paper feed system that has a friction and fully adjust- able tractor feed. Then we even built in the dexterity to print graphics and text on the same line. Done. And, of course, staying the best means constant reviewing and fine-tuning. Keeping the Gemini easy to find, easy to afford and so reliable it can be warranted for up to twice as long as its major competitors. . Only the most careful " j^f engineering has built the new /""^ hard-working GeminMOX. tm You'll applaud its performance. micronics'inc THE POWER BEHIND THE PRINTED WORD. Computer Peripherals Division 2803 N.W. 12th Street, Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport, TX 75261 *j&mirai--IOJC linear addressing space per user than any other current 16-bit microproces- sor. It can also run at higher clock speeds and support virtual-memory schemes and has 32-bit internal reg- isters for manipulation of larger numbers than its competitors. For these reasons, and due to the rela- tively painless porting services pro- vided by Unisoft Systems, the 68000 has become the most popular pro- cessor for small computers running the Unix system. This doesn't necessarily mean that the 68000 is the best chip, though. In- tel, Zilog, and DEC would be quick to point out that any software firm writing programs that could run only on 68000-based systems would be cutting out a great deal of its possi- ble market. In general, it's almost im- possible to make a blanket statement as to which of these four processors is best for high-performance Unix systems because so much depends on the overall architecture of the machine. Selecting a computer that runs Unix should be done on the We listen, and look, and probe It's surprising how much there is that's fresh and new. Just waiting to be shared It's often that way with things that are simply elegant. Like a shell. Like UNIX UNIX REVIEW THE MAGAZINE FOR THE UNIX COMMUNITY UNIX is the trademark of Bell Laboratories, Inc. UNIX REVIEW is not affiliated with or sponsored by Bell Laboratories. UNIX REVIEW is offered by the publishers of CP/M Review □ UNIX REVIEW— $23/year bi-monthly D CP/M REVIEW -$ 1 8/year bi-monthly Name Address MasterCard or Visa No. Exp. Date Business Office (206) 232-6719 Editorial Office (201) 625-1797 MAIL TO: REVIEW PUBLICATION, 2711 76th Ave. S.E., Mercer Is., WA 98040 basis of available software, expand- ability, adherence to industry stan- dards, support, service, and price- not just the type of processor used. A Few 68000-Based Computers Due to the large number of similar 68000-based systems in today's mar- ket, we'll examine only a few that are representative, innovative, or unique in some way. Fortune Systems' 32:16 machine, for example, has won a great deal of admiration for its introduction of a menu shell that lets even novice users perform tasks ranging from file copy- ing to system maintenance by follow- ing menu choices. Included with the Fortune machine is a powerful word- processing package and a stripped- down version of Unix. The C com- piler and many development tools are available at extra cost, but because Fortune's chief market is executives, this isn't considered a great draw- back. Fortune's base price of $5000 created quite a stir when the system was introduced, although this is for just a bare-bones floppy-disk-based system. Still, the Fortune (1501 In- dustrial Rd., San Carlos, CA 94070) is highly competitive with an attrac- tive package and a great deal of available software. Pixel (1 Burtt Rd., Andover, MA 01810) uses a strategy similar to Plexus in boosting the performance of its 80/AP and 100/AP machines. A TMS9900 processor handles system- level I/O (input/output) and memory mapping, a 68000 microprocessor runs user programs and the Unix sys- tem itself, and intelligent peripheral controllers pick up the rest of the load. A unique twist is the use of special video terminals that are mem- ory-mapped into the video controller memory. The screen editor software can then manipulate strings of text in this memory directly, instantaneous- ly updating the display without the overhead of sending the data over a serial port. Regular serial ports are supported by a separate controller. The Universe 68 from Charles River Data Systems, as noted earlier, uses an in-house Unix look-alike called UNOS. Both hardware and software have been designed for high perfor- 142 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 401 on inquiry card. / vvvvvvvvvvvvv. vv. vvvvvvvvvvvvvv v 1 /^\r% /~\ s — X /^\ 'Dedicated to Your $&* oo 7 L- If j( 1 X> J Satisfaction!' Y% X Of I he I Ix^N LOW, LOW PRICES! MfcOt/i C? ? I y//\V >/ V y GREAT SERVICE! WT'/ V 9 V, — ' -XL V-y V ^» — / what more can you ask for! v ~t? oo I PERIPHERALS FOR ALL COMPUTERS X PRINTERS: DISKS: STAR MICRONICS: GEMINI 10X: The improved & updated 10 SCALL GEMINI 15X $CALL SMITH CORONA: TPI SCALL C.ITOH: Prowriter I $ 369.00 Prowriter II $ 689.00 F-10 Starwriter $1150.00 F-10 Printmaster SCALL JUKI: The New! UQ Printer 18CPS S 539.00 OKIDATA: Microline 92 S 499.00 Microline 93 $ 849.00 CALL FOR PACEMARK PRICES! Kangaroo: With library case and 10 year warranty! S 1 /4" SS/DD (Box of 10) $19.50 5'/4" DS/DD (Box of 10) $28.50 5W SS/DD (Box of 6) $14.50 5'/4" DS/DD (Box of 6) $22.50 HARD DISK DRIVES: DAVONG: (IBM, Apple) 5MB $1339.00 10MB $1739.00 15MB $2139.00 TANDON: TM-100-2 $235.00 DISK DRIVES: Fourth Dimension: With Controller $270.00 Without Controller. .. $220.00 HALF TRACK: Macro Joystick for your Apple" Complete melal enclosure issional joystick ompatible Adjustable Verbatim: 5'/4" SS/DD (Box of 10) $20.95 5VV' DS/DD (Box of 10) $29.95 Dysan: 5'/4" SS/DD (Box of 10) $30.95 5%" DS/DD (Box of 10) $38.95 MONITORS: Amdek: Color I $299.00 Color II $499.00 310G Green $179.00 300A Amber $179.00 300G Green $144.00 Taxan: Amber 12" $144.00 Princeton Graphics System: RGB Hi-Res . $Priced too low! Zenith: ZVM 121 Green . $ 99.00 MODEMS: COLUMBIA DATA PRODUCTS MPC Personal Computer Features; IBM PC Compatibility • 128K Ram • ■ 16 Bit Processor • • 8 Expansion Slots 2 RS232 1 Parallel < Floppy and Winchester Rana Series' "^ controllers buill in • Ei.te 1 scallXCALL FOR PRICES ON, Elite n scall\COLUMBIA'S NE\ Elite ill scall\ PORTABLE! Hayes: Micromodem II with terminal program . . . $CALL without terminal program . $CALL Smartmodem 300 Baud $209.00 1200 Baud $509.00 Novation: J-Cat $119.00 AppleCat II $279.00 SmartCat 1200 Baud $CALL . Robotics: Password $CALL PRODUCTS FOR YOUR IBM-PC®: MBI: l-C— MAGIC: Programmable Graphics Screen Dump Prom Chip. . $CALL Monte Carlo" GT" Card $CALL Monte Carlo" Quatro'" Card $CALL T&G Products: Joysticks $39.00 Trakball $49.00 Kraft Products: Joysticks $55.00 Game Paddles $33.00 Quadram Corporation: Quad Board: 64K $CALL Microfazer $CALL Maynard Electronics: Floppy Disk Controller: Parallel $209.00 Serial $239.00 SOFTWARE: Infocom: Zork I $27.00 Zork II S27.00 Zork III $27.00 Deadline $CALL Lifetree Systems: Volkswriter $CALL Continental: Home Accountant Plus .... $CALL Visicorp: Visidex $179.00 Visifiles $179.00 Visitrend/Plot $225.00 256K Visicalc $179.00 OTHER COMPUTERS WE ALSO STOCK: Franklin ACE 1000. 1200 Commodore 64K Call for IBM PC and Apple lie Prices PRODUCTS FOR YOUR APPLE®: SOFTWARE: MBI: VIP Graphics Card $119.00 Appletime Clock Card $ 85.00 EXPANSION CARDS: Microsoft: 16KCard $ 79.00 CP/M Z80 Card $259.00 Generic: 16KCard $CALL Videx: 80 Column Card with Softswitch $269.00 Advanced Logic Systems . . SCALL Continental: Home Accountant $ 53.00 On-Line: Screenwriter II $ 85.00 Silicon Valley Systems: Final Analysis $134.00 Word Handler $125.00 VisiCorp: Visidex $180.00 Visifiles $180.00 Visicalc $180.00 T&G Products: Joysticks $ 42.00 Game Paddles $ 28.00 Kraft: Joysticks $ 49.00 Game Paddles $ 33.00 mos For a Great Time, Call: 1-800-533-8987 P.O. Box 22573 • Minneapolis, MN 55422 • 1-612-535-4544 Circle 177 on inquiry card. TERMS AND CONDITIONS: Payment: Personal checks are accepted although cashier's checks and money orders will be shipped first. VISA and Mastercard accepted — add 4% to total. Shipping: We calculate exact freight — for mail-in orders add 3% UPS GRD, 4% UPS BLUE - Monitors minimum $8.00. Delivery: ASAP with 2-4 weeks on average. Price List: Features all of our up-to-date pricing. General: We replace or repair faulty goods at our discretion— refunds only at our discretion — no returns on software. vwvwwwwwwvwwwvwwvwwvvvvvwwvvv w magine a single board computer with all the features you need. A quiet multilayer board that wouldn't need to be plugged into an external bus. Meet a new high-powered friend board computer. We've put all the features on one boai. ' DJUD On s include: l/EEPROMS , megabyte of DRAM with parity .,e, mapped Memory Management system MA controller ur serial ports, baud rates programmable (RS-232, RS-422) )ck Calendar Chip and CMOS RAM, battery backed up writer Timer ippy disk controller ASI hard disk interface r EPROM 2>M 2.2**, CP/M Plus**, and MP/M** re available to run the RAM as a disk or as a i buffer (CP/M Plus) .X expansion connectors (in case you need even more) &4HR TECHNOLOGY B4HR-80 i-design r unparalleled support. We hope you hav afs on bo dealer discounts are available. "" does more. We designed g to success-oriented companies; we nished products on the rtl " rface systems, and software - uestion. Call Ken Clark todav MHR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. MHR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 1 842 Hoffman Street Madison, Wl 53704 •Z-80 is "CP/M. CP red trademarks ot Digital Research Corp. mance. The computer uses Motor- ola's Versabus, a 32-bit bus that allows high data-transfer rates. A 4K-byte high-speed cache memory is pro- vided so that the main 68000 pro- cessor can run at 12.5 MHz without wait states, which would not be pos- sible otherwise. This architecture, ac- cording to the vendor, allows perfor- mance greater than that of a VAX-11/730 at a price comparable to a Micro/PDP-11. Another high-performance ma- chine is designed for laboratory use but could be equally well-suited to an office environment. The Masscomp MC-500 uses three 68000 processors and three separate buses internally. A separate graphics terminal with its own 68000 and 384K bytes of mem- ory supports multiple processes with a joystick and special windowing software. Masscomp (543 Great Rd., Littleton, MA 01460) has modified Unix to add process locking and priority scheduling and added a virtual-memory support package from Berkeley. A multiple-window menu system and graph-plotting round out the package; data acquisi- tion runs on a separate processor still. The result is one of the fastest 68000-based computers on the market. As a generic look at Multibus- based 68000 computers, let's examine the Sun Workstation from Sun Micro- systems (2550 Garcia Ave., Mountain View, CA 94043). The original Sun processor board was developed at Stanford University, while the board Sun itself uses has been further enhanced. Sun's long suit is a high- quality workstation with 1024- by 800-pixel graphics. The Multibus allows Sun to provide a wide range of peripherals, and the company's software expertise enables it to offer the Berkeley 4.2 version of Unix, which is otherwise available only for DEC's VAX series of computers. Vir- tual memory, an optical mouse, multiple screen windows, and Ethernet support options enable a user to set up one Sun or a dozen with equal ease. What do I mean by "generic"? Sun licenses its processor board design to a number of different manufacturers, Circle 54 on inquiry card. Instant one -button color printing. Press here . It's just that easy! Any time you want to print what's on your Apple's screen just hit the copy button on your Transtar 315 color printer with our PICS card installed, and it's done! No special programming, no lengthy code sequences, no need to exit your program! Just press the button and it prints! By adding the optional PICS card to your $599 Transtar 315 color printer, you've opened up a whole new world of easy color printing. For the first time ever, our PICS parallel interface card enables you to screendump virtually any program - graphics, charts, games -- even copy-protected software! Specially design- ed only for the Apple II, II+, Me, and Franklin computers, the Transtar 315 PICS card does the work of a parallel card and a lot more and costs only $1 19.95. At the push of a button, Transtar's innovative new 4-color dia- gonal ribbon will print up to 7 colors and more than 30 shades in a single pass. The 315 is precision-built to exacting standards by Seikosha, the most experienced company of the famous Seiko group- recognized worldwide for quality and dependability. In fact, one of the nicest things about Transtar's 6-month warranty on parts and labor is that you'll probably never use it! Innovative, inexpensive, dependable, easy: the Transtar 315. Color printing has never looked so good! Only $599. "PICS cards arc currently available for Apples and Franklins. PICS cards for other computers will be availahle in the future. Circle 480 on inquiry card. Transtar A Vivitar, Computer Product P.O. Box C-96975. Bellevue, WA 98009 BYTE October 1983 145 who generally go to Unisoft Systems for their Unix license and then to any maker of Multibus peripheral and memory boards. As a result, quite a few68000/Multibus/Sun-board/Uni- plus + systems are available, each ap- pealing to different market needs. While selecting between these sys- tems can be confusing, ultimately it protects the consumer in the event of a market shakeout— if one vendor goes out of business, its surviving competitors can probably support its customers. The Intel 8086 Processor As I explained above, 8086 imple- mentations of Unix have been delayed due to hardware considera- tions. Altos (2641 Orchard Park Way, San Jose, CA 95134) is the chief sup- plier of 8086-based Xenix machines. Its ACS8600 computer is configured around the Multibus, while its newer 586 computer is based on a single board and is small, inexpensive, and powerful. For around $8000, it pro- vides up to six users with the power of a 10-MHz 8086 and 10-megabyte hard disk. Intel's own Unix system is aimed primarily at OEMs and built around the Multibus, so future 80286 microprocessor boards can be easily integrated. Any mention of the 8086 would be incomplete without a reminder that the hundreds of thousands of IBM Personal Computers and its clones represent the largest potential market for Unix-like software. The IBM PC is based on the 8088, which is inter- nally like the 8086. Other Implementations While the 8086, 68000, and Z8000 are the current "big three" in the microprocessor world, other popular single-chip processors can run Unix. The next generation of micropro- cessor chips includes the National Semiconductor 16032 and Intel 80286, both of which will be supported by AT&T with Unix System V. BYTE has presented in-depth technical cover- age of these processors already, so I will only mention in passing that the specifications of the 16032 and 80286 are comparable to several cabinets' worth of mainframe hardware. HCR and National Semiconductor have both demonstrated working Unix systems based on the 16032. Intel is already demonstrating Unix for the 80286. Other computers are available that use proprietary microprocessors. For example, the DEC PDP-11/23 pro- cessor can be found in both tradi- tional minicomputer environments and in DEC's new Micro/PDP-11. The Micro/PDP-11 is housed in a thin cabinet (see photo 1 on page 133) with a 10-megabyte hard disk, floppy-disk backup, 256K bytes of RAM, and two serial ports, all for $9200. While these specifications are not unusual compared to some of the 68000-based systems, they are notable because they provide the Micro/PDP-11 user with upward com- patibility through the PDP-11 line all the way up to the PDP-11/70. This can be an important consideration for an end user or OEM, especially because most software written to run on the Unix system (particularly public- domain software) was originally writ- 16 Co orful reasons to get doublestuff actual doublestuff" reproduction LORES DOUBLE LO-RES CONDENSED SotH DOUBLE LO-RES Software Development Inc. now offers you something that Apple never told you was possible in the lie. It's called DOUBLESTUFF.™ Using standard Applesoft BASIC commands, in combination with your existing programs, you can expand your color graph- ics from 16 color Lo-Res (40 x 48) to double Lo-Res (80 x 48). Unheard of before! Available NOW! With BASIC commands. Double Hi-Res 16 colors (560 x 192 pixels) is aflyours on your Apple lie. It literally doubles the width on your standard color TV or monitor. Requirements: Apple He — either 80 column card for double Lo-Resolution. Extended 80 column card for double Hi-Resolution. NEW Products available November '83: doublestuff designer,'" my first coloring book.' to ltuohe -i^i^A \\ D EVELOP M E NT INC. Apple and Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. Doublestuff'" is a trademark of Software Development Inc. designed by: Louis Bonfiglio and Peter Joselow To order, send check or money order in the amount of $39.95 New York State residents, add sales tax to: Software Development Inc. 2053 West 11th Street Brooklyn, NY 11223 Tel. (212) 449-6300 Dealer inquiries invited. 146 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 435 on inquiry card. "\Wiat more can I do?" YOUR FIRST BASIC PROGRAM, Your computer can probably do more for you than you originally thought. And learning to expand its capabilities is as easy as reading a good book. SYBEXisthe pioneer of computer book pub- lishing, offering over 60 titles developed for beginners through ad- ^ vanced. They are so well written and easy to understand that virtually anyone can learn to operate a computer in a matter of hours. m^MBMj Doing Business with I Pascal by Douglas I Hergert and Richard I Hergert ($17.95;) The first of its kind, this book uses examples and explains how to: design business sys- tems in Pascal, write practical business pro- grams and use powerful Pascal language. Your First BASIC Program by Rodnay Zaks ($9.95) Write your first BASIC program in one hour! At last, a "how-to-program" book for the first-time computer user, aged 8 to 88. Colorful illustrations and simple diagrams make this book both easy and entertaining. Mastering CP/M' by Alan R.Miller($16.95) Now you can use CP/M' to do more than just copy files. With this book you will learn how to incorporate additional peripherals with your system, use console I/O, use the file control block and much more. Also included is a library of useful macros. The Apple' Connection by James W. Coffron ($12.95) Now you can learn the simple techniques for putting your com- puter to work control- ling external non- computer devices in your home or office. Design a computer- controlled burglar CP/M The Apple Connection m alarm system and control lights, electricity, and other non-computer devices in your home or office. And all are explained in simple, non- technical terms. SYBEX books are available at bookstores and computer stores everywhere. For a free catalog, mail the coupon or call TOLL-FREE 800/227-2346. Prices subject to change without notice. I Send me: D A free catalog D 0-09 1 Doing Business with Pascal $1795 D 0-092 Your First BASIC Program $9.95 □ 0-068 Mastering CP/M' $16.95 □ 0-085 The Apple'' Connection $12.95 Add: ,□ $2.00/Book UPS D6y 2 %SalesTaxCARes. □ $1 2.00/Book Overseas Mail Charge my: Q VISA □ MasterCard D American Express Card # Exp Date Total Amount Enclosed $ Signature Name Address City/Stale/Zip Mail to: SYBEX Inc., 2344 Sixth St., Berkeley. CA 94710 © 1983 SYBEX. lnc.1A11 SYBEXCOMPUTER BOOKS Circle 453 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 147 Complete C Tight Code No Royalties Library Source • C - The Language tor Protessional Programmers: C combines full control of the machine with the best productivity features. C is used by: IBM Bell VisiCorp Digital Research MicroPro Wang Microsoft • A Complete Implementation - C86 includes all of the features described by Kernigan and Ritchie. C86 delivers portability, consistency, FULL C. • Extensions include long identifiers and additional data types. • Tight code is produced by C86. Only needed code is linked from the library. The January 1983 Byte benchmark shows C86 as the fastest. • No Royalties are payable to us on C programs you sell. • Library Source provided includes UNIX I/O support, interface with and control of the Operating System and of hardware, all functions described in K & R, a Mathematics Library, and a Trigonometry Library. • Overlay Support allows development of large programs. • Assembler may be used to write a function. Macro support can increase productivity. Programs are ROMable. • Our Update Policy helps you to keep the Best Personal Com- puter C Compiler for the 8086 as the technology improves. See your Dealer for: □ Free Information: "C86 Product Description" NC □ "The C Programming Language" by K & R $ 25.00 □ "The C86 User Manual" 35.00 D C86 Compiler Diskette and Manual 395.00 We support all common formats under PC-DOS, CPM-86, MSDOS and MPM-86. VISA and Master Card accepted. They Say It All... We Do It ALL Computer Innovations 10 Mechanic Street Suite J-1 04 Redbank, NJ 07701 201-530-0995 C86 is a trademark of Computer Innovations, Inc. CPM-I and MPM-86 are trademarks of Digital Research. MSDOS is a trademark of Microsoft. PCDOS is a trademark of International Business Machines. Prices subject to change without notice. 148 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 110 on inquiry card. ten for the PDP-11. Hewlett-Packard has its own imple- mentation of Unix running on its HP-9000, which superficially re- sembles an Apple except that it has three-dimensional color graphics, runs like a VAX, and costs over $64,000. Three Rivers Computer's Perq workstation supports an HCR- transported Unix with multiple win- dows and extremely high-resolution graphics. Larger Unix Hosts The PDP-lls have long been used at Bell Laboratories for software de- velopment, engineering, and office automation under Unix. Use of both Unix and the PDP-11 spread to the Bell Operating Companies for the business applications necessary to run the Bell System. The top of the PDP-11 line, the PDP-11/70 minicom- puter, requires several 6-foot-tall racks of equipment; this machine is rapid- ly becoming obsolete due to the newer additions to the VAX line as well as the more powerful microcom- puters. The VAX is currently DEC's most powerful line of computers. A true 32-bit machine with virtual address- ing capabilities, the VAX has also become pervasive in the Unix world. Specific versions of Unix have been written to take advantage of VAX ar- chitecture: Berkeley's 4.2 BSD and a previous offering from AT&T known as Unix 32V Other firms, such as HCR with its Unity system, have made Unix facilities available to users of Unix-based software "on top of" DEC's own operating system for the VAX, known as VMS. The first non-DEC machine Unix was transported to was an Interdata 8/32. Interdata was replaced by Perkin-Elmer (2 Crescent Place, Oceanport, NJ 07757), the first mini- computer manufacturer to support Unix. This firm's most recent line of machines, the 3210 series, comprises fast 32-bit computers of file-cabinet size with prices comparable to high- end microcomputers (in the $50,000 range). For those with budgets in the $300,000 range, Gould S.E.L. (POB 9148, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33310) has its Circle 400 on inquiry card. > Let's Talk GrafTalk GrafTalk is business graphics software that works as hard for your business as you do. You can use GrafTalk the way you'd like GrafTalk is flexible in accepting commands. You can type English- language commands interactively, run commands from disk files, or use GrafTalk's menus if you prefer. jS^JT^T GrafTalk has all the graphics features you need Choose from stacked, percentage, clustered, or floating bars; exploded pies, line plots, scatter diagrams and combinations plots. And adjust their style to fit your needs. GrafTalk has lots of extras These include a built-in text editor, a mini-spread-sheet, a feature for creating your own menus, the ability to save and edit your graphs and the capacity to interface with many other programs. GrafTalk has good, clear documentation With our color tutorial and full Reference Manual, you can begin making useful graphs right away. Chances are it works with the hardware you want GrafTalk runs on CP/M systems, the IBM-PC and other 16 bit systems and with so many screens, plotters and S printers that we don't / have room to list them all. Call or write to put GrafTalk i to work / for you. / GrafTalk is a trademark of Redding Group Inc. CP/M is a registered trademark of . \ Digital Research. ZWWKi 4 )0 io:ifcCtt®B-@:(iii@i 609 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877 Telex 643351 2730 High Ridge Rd, Stamford, CT 06903 203/329-8874 Concept 32/87 series. At this writing, these are the most powerful com- puters running Unix with full factory support. Gould is rapidly becoming an important factor in Unix circles due to its commitment to Unix and wide-ranging product line. Last but not least in the minicom- puter world, we have the IBM Series 1. While this is the first computer IBM has offered with Unix support, it surely won't be the last. Apart from its Personal Computer, IBM is ex- pected to supply its 4300 mainframe series with Unix as well. Mainframes and Supercomputers The customers for this class of ma- chines generally want operating sys- tems with more controls, checks, and audit trails than Unix has: it's rare that a firm buys a mainframe just to support software development. Even so, Unix has been available on the famous IBM/370 computers for years, although not from IBM, and not com- mercially; Bell Labs transported it a while back to explore the ramifica- tions of running Unix on these behemoths. Amdahl, the maker of the original IBM look-alikes, an- nounced in 1981 that it would sup- port Unix on its System 470 series. Any other mainframe Unix imple- mentations are for now at the rumor stage only. Current rumors include not only the IBM 4300 series but also the next version of the Cray super- computer—without doubt the world's fastest. While these develop- ments are indeed likely to occur, they point up a certain controversy: should every computer everywhere really run Unix? Is it necessary, de- sirable, and even possible? Competition from Other Systems Unix, if it is to be considered a can- didate for the "universal" operating system, should be compared with every operating system on every computer. In the interest of brevity I will limit the discussion to some of the most popular of today's operat- ing systems for microcomputers. Minicomputers and mainframes are in many cases capable of supporting several operating systems simulta- neously; nevertheless, these larger machines are more likely to use the manufacturer's own operating system because of the larger installed base of software. In the first article of this series, I ex- amined the CP/M operating system and mentioned that it was limited to 8080-compatible processors. While this is true for the most widely used version of CP/M (CP/M 2.2, also called CP/M-80), Digital Research Inc., the creator of CP/M, has also been selling versions of CP/M that will run on other processors: CP/M-86, CP/M-8000, and CP/M- 68000. The user interface for these versions is similar, but it is not always possible to simply recompile all your programs written for CP/M-80. This is because fewer high-level language compilers are available for the 16-bit versions of CP/M, limiting the porta- bility of applications programs. CP/M was not designed as a por- table operating system (although it was written in the high-level lan- guage PL/M, oddly enough), so the Graphics Plus GRAPHICS-PLUS is a field installable enhancement board for the popular Zenith 1 Z19 video terminal adding many power- ful features found only on terminals costing much more. GRAPHICS-PLUS provides Tektronix 2 4010 compatible vector drawing graphics, VT100 3 compatible 80 and 132 column display formats, off-screen scrolling memory, program- mable function keys, "Plain English" menu-driven Set-up mode, and a host of other enhancements. Installation can be accomplished within 15 minutes using only a screwdriver. GRAPHICS-PLUS an enhancement For Z19 Terminals from Northwest Digital Systems • Tektronix 2 4010 Compatible Graphics 512 Horiz by 250 Vert Resolution 80/132 Col and 24/49 Line Text Displays Seven Page Off-Screen Text Memory Menu-driven "Plain English" Set-up Mode 16 Programmable Keys- 128 Chars Each Optional Hardcopy Port • Simple Field Installation 1 ™ Zeni,h n Tl, T-o.t ;_ 1 TM Zenith 2 TM Tektronix 3 TM DEC GP- 19 Upgrade for Z1 9 Terminal Z1 9 Terminal With GP- 1 9 Installed S 1495 Northwest Digital Systems P.O. Box 15288, Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 362-6937 150 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 330 on inquiry card. Before you bet your software business on an OS, look who's betting on MS-DOS and XENIX. A waiting market. If you write and sell 16-bit software, MStm-DOS and XENIX™ give you the largest installed base. In fact, over fifty 16-bit manufacturers offer their microcomputers with MS-DOS or XENIX. IBM, Victor, Altos, Wang, Radio Shack, Zenith and Intel, to name just a few. And the list is growing. That means there's a ready and expanding market for your 16-bit applications software. The UNIX™ connection. XENIX is the multi-user, multi-tasking, UNIX-derived operating system for 16-bit microcomputers. MS-DOS 2.0 is Microsoft's single-user OS. MS-DOS and XENIX share hierarchical file structure and I/O redirection, including simple piping. MS-DOS 2.0 also pro- vides XENIX-compatible system calls. That means there's a migration path for programs written to run under MS-DOS and XENIX. What's more, both MS-DOS and XENIX are supported by Microsoft® languages. That's your single-supplier advantage from Microsoft. Comprehensive support. Microsoft offers you a full product support program. Excellent docu- mentation. Plus continual enhancements to both languages and operating systems. Your applications programs can even be listed in Microsoft's grow- ing Source Directory of 16-bit applications packages. Contact us for current software offerings and vendors. Leadership. Microsoft led the world into the 8-bit microcomputer marketplace %. with the first BASIC for microcomputers. Now, we're leading it into the 16-bit market with single and multi-user operating systems. Bet the winner. If you're writing and marketing software in the 16-bit marketplace, MS-DOS and XENIX are setting the standard. In fact, they're the standard operating systems for the world's largest selling 16-bit microcomputer systems. Which means your market is already there... and growing. Contact us for complete information. Before you bet your software on an operating system, look where your market is betting. BETTER TOOLS FOR MICROCOMPUTERS MICROSOFT MICROSOFT CORPORATION 10700 NORTHUP WAY BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON 98004 Microsoft is a registered trademark. and MS, XENIX and the Microsoft logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories -^ '%f £%%&&> <>Gf y&Y\V>L ^ K<«V r o# TOLL FREE ORDER — 1-800-421-3135 TECHNICAL INFO - (BOS) 842-1133 Call for programs not listed. We will try to beat any legitimate price for Software. — MOST DISK FORMATS AVAILABLE — CP/M Program names prefaced with # are also available for IBM PC. DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS. BUY OF THE YEAR! DBASEII+Everymans data base primer +Extra diskette with DBase Accounting, Mail List and Inventory Programs. IBM PC and CP/M — Call for our special price. 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PCDOS MS C Compiler MS Pascal Compiler Prokey Norton Utilities PCII Copy Program Datamost Write-ON Real Estate Investment Prog Microsoft Flight Simulator $365 $285 . $65 . $65 . $34 $94 $94 $38 Howard Real Estate Analyzer II $1 85 CP/M 86 for IBM PC $49 CBasic 86 $145 CIS Cobol 86 $595 Palcal MT+86 W/Spp $450 TERMS: Prices include 3% cash discount. Add 3% for charge orders. Shipping on mosi items S5 00 AZ orders +5% sates tax. Prices subject to change. WAREHOUSE SOFTWARE 4935 West Glendale Ave., Suite 12 Glendale, AZ 85301 transported versions lack the univer- sality that originally made CP/M so popular. Also, CP/M is a single-user, single-tasking system with relatively few built-in system utilities. In fact, many of the programs sold for use with CP/M-80 are utilities that, when added together, give that system many of the features of Unix. The only problem is that by the time you've purchased all these programs, you're short of both money and user memory. While CP/M-Plus will pro- vide more performance for 8-bit ma- chines, even the newer Concurrent CP/M for 16-bit processors is only a single-user system. For these reasons, I don't expect CP/M to provide a serious challenge to Unix in those markets appropriate for Unix unless its capabilities are en- hanced significantly. Even then, CP/M as a Unix-like system may find only the same limited acceptance as other Unix-like systems do today. What of MS-DOS, Microsoft's operating system for the IBM PC that has become a de facto standard on 8086-based computers? Microsoft's plans for MS-DOS include gradual upgrades so that single-user MS- DOS will be virtually indistinguish- able from single-user Xenix. A case in point is the current version of MS- DOS known as 2.0. This system has a hierarchical file structure, I/O re- direction, and supports shell-like command files. Because Microsoft owns both Xenix and MS-DOS, it's a smart move on the company's part to coordinate an eventual merger. However, this merging muddies the comparison. Clearly, if MS-DOS is to become like Xenix (and therefore like Unix), it will no longer be con- sidered competition. MS-DOS is also limited to 8086 and 8088 processors, so let's look upon Xenix as the multi- user MS-DOS of the future and call this a battle already won by Unix. The UCSD p-System is one of the few truly transportable operating sys- tems on the market that doesn't resemble Unix. Sold by Softech Microsystems Inc. (16885 West Ber- nardo Dr., San Diego, CA 92127), the p-System's most distinctive feature is that programs written for it have close to full object code compatibili- ty regardless of what system they were written for. Programs don't even have to be recompiled to run on a dif- ferent type of computer, as long as the p-System is supported on both machines. Currently, the p-System runs on a wide range of processors, including the 8080/Z80, 8086/8088, 6502, 6809, 68000, TMS9900, LSI-11, and PDP-11. However, the price you pay for this portability is speed. The p-System depends on a special type of machine-independent object code called p-code. While p-code is the same for all machines, it has to be translated into the object code for any particular machine so it can ac- tually execute. The catch is that this translation is done while the program is running: it's interpreted, the way most BASIC language implementa- tions work. Also, the p-System is multitasking but not multiuser. The p-System doesn't seem to have made much of a dent in CP/M sales and shouldn't hold Unix back a whole lot, either. There's another operating system being talked about a great deal lately that's considered by many to be new, but it was actually developed quite a while ago. Like Unix, it's both multi- user and multitasking, programmers who use it become inflamed with religious zeal, and many small com- puter makers are beginning to use it. It's called Pick. Pick Computer Works of Irvine, California, licenses the Pick system on a select group of minicomputers and a growing number of high-perfor- mance microcomputers. Pick's chief strengths are that it was developed specifically with commercial applica- tions in mind (it's essentially built around a database-management sys- tem) and that it has a strong base of applications software already in place. Pick has already proven itself a worthy competitor of Unix because it's been implemented on a few com- puters that don't have Unix also. The Pick brigade is small but grow- ing. A great deal depends, oddly enough, on the Unix software houses: if the visible output of Unix- based applications doesn't grow, word may spread that there's no soft- ware available for Unix. This would 152 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Training Programs Make Using Personal Computers Easy. Even the best application programs and personal computers still take a considerable amount of time to learn how to use. That is . . . until now! Cdex Training Programs are computer-assisted training programs that make learning straight-forward and efficient. In an hour, you can master the material on the Cdex disks and begin using the intended product. It's tough to learn about computers from a book. That's why all Cdex Training Programs are on disk and are: Highly Interactive . . . Creating a dialogue with you and serving as your personal tutor. Completely Self- paced . . . You set your own learning time. Graphically Oriented . . . Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. Usable Now and Later . . . Clear and concise training and reference programs for the first-time or experienced user. Cdex Training Programs run on the IBM" PC and XT Computers. COMPAQ" Portable Computer, Apple" lie, II Plus and III Computers, DEC Rainbow" 100 Computer and Texas Instruments Professional Computer See how effective a Cdex Training Program can be; ask your computer dealer for a demonstration. Cdex'" Training Programs are available for: The VisiCalc" Program The WordStar'" Program The SuperCalc'/SuperCalc'- Programs The EasyWriter II'" Program How to Use Your IBM" Personal Computer with CP/M-86" and Concurrent CP/M-86'" How to Use Your IBM* Personal Computer with PC DOS How to Use Your Apple" lie Personal Computer How to Use Your Texas Instruments Professional Computer with MS DOS Managing Your Business with the Lotus'" 1-2-3 Program Managina Your Business with the MULTiPLAN'" Program Managing Your Business with the VisiCalc" or VisiCalc" Advanced Version Program Managing Your Business with the SuperCalc'" or SuperCalc"" Program The dBase II" Program IBM" PC DOS 2.0 DB Master 1 "- Version 4 The BPI " General Accounting Program IBM" Asynchronous Communications State of the Art'" General Ledger Peachtree General Ledger Making Business Decisions Using the Lotus'" 1-2-3 Program Making Business Decisions Using the MULTIPLAN'" Program Making Business Decisions Using the VisiCalc" or VisiCalc" Advanced Version Program Making Business Decisions Using the SuperCalc'" or SuperCalc-"" Program Cdex" Training Programs We make it easy. 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PROLOK Software Protection Systems, PROLOK Diskette and PROLOK Evaluation Diskette are trademarks of Vault Corporation, '. 1983 Vault Corporation cause a certain amount of disen- chantment among potential Unix end users and be a boon for Pick. However, this is all just window dressing because already many more applications programs are available for Unix than for Pick. The Perchwell Corporation predicts that Pick will be the system of choice among OEMs who choose not to use Unix for pro- prietary reasons and that Pick will be successful in this second-fiddle role in much the same way that Oasis or Turbodos relates to CP/M. Competition from Look-AIikes If Unix functionality and com- patibility are the only way to go, then it seems reasonable that the biggest competition for standard (i.e., AT&T) Unix will not be from other operating systems but from the look-alikes and derivatives. Here, we're talking about real money competition rather than "which operating system is better" because all these implementors tacit- ly agree that Unix is better. The biggest question mark is Microsoft and its Xenix. Apart from the success Xenix has had with hard- ware manufacturers such as Altos and Radio Shack, the tie-in to IBM with MS-DOS means that Microsoft is in a good position to bid on any possible IBM PC contract. It's hard to predict whether IBM will support a Unix-like system on the current PC or wait for its upcoming 80286-based model. AT&T itself could have the ad- vantage in the latter case (because it will have the rights to the "official" 80286-based Unix), so IBM could well prefer to deal with AT&T directly. IBM has proved unpredictable before, however, and might rather go with Microsoft because it is smaller. The smallest company of all here would be Venturcom, which has the advantage that its Venix system is well thought of by IBM. In the absence of any decision by IBM, the situation would be thrown open to all the current PC-compatible systems. Of these, Unetix and Venix would most likely end up ahead: the first for its price and the second for its em- bedded applications and heritage. Look-alikes in general have some of the same advantages as systems such 154 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 494 on inquiry card. Circle 171 on inquiry card. OUR LIMES ARE HELPING THE WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATE! The Lime'" is a surge protector from EPD. Surges are fluctuations on the powerline that can happen at any time, causing downtime, data loss and permanent damage to com- puters, software and all micropro- cessor controlled equipment. Limes keep the White House Communications equipment safe from the dangers of power surges that could damage or destroy it without warning. Electronic pro- tection devices, like TheLemon™, The Lime"', The Orange™, and The Peach '" , are at work all across the nation in places lik Justice Department, ( Bank of N.Y., Southwestern New England Telephone, Dfebold Inc., Harvard University, and other leading organizations who know the value of expert protection. Who's protecting your equip- ment from powerline problems? Play it safe and go with the leader in surge protection that protects America's leaders. With EPD you're not only protected by the expert technology behind all of our products but by an insur- ance policy from Lloyds of London that insure With EPD you're i, company. DON'T PLUG IN WITHOUT US. Electronic Protection Devices Inc. P.O. Box 673, Waltham, MA 02254 (617)891-6602 • 1-800-343-1813 as CP/M and Pick. Some manufac- turers will go for these systems specifically to have something they can control a bit better (some will do it just for the price differential). Uniplus + will continue to be popular as long as the 68000 is king; it's an easy way to get into the market. The most important factor will be compatibility; look-alikes will survive only as long as applications software is available for them. If the dif- ferences between a look-alike and the original mean that software has to be transported to the look-alike, it won't be worth the trouble to use the look- alike in the long run. An effort is be- ing made among these vendors to determine a standard system inter- face. This should go a long way toward keeping them all in business. An interesting factor is that AT&T's size will actually promote competi- tion. Because it's so big, it can't possibly do everything, and if it could, it certainly couldn't do every- thing right for everybody. And now that people are realizing how popular The Data Defenders Ring King™ Data Defenders. A rugged defense against grit, sharp objects, bending and all other enemies of magnetic media. New Tray. The Ring King 070 Tray has an attached, hinged lid that locks. Built-in handles for easy moving. Inside are seven rigid dividers and room for 70 mini diskettes. Flip File. Closed, it's a vinyl binder that protects 20 mini diskettes. Open, the cover flips up and out of the way to pre- sent diskettes for fingertip selection. These Data Defenders can organize and protect your data. Visit your Ring King dealer or write for our Diskette and Data Filing Systems Catalog. Ring King Visibles, Inc., 2210 Second Ave., Muscatine, Iowa 52761 (800) 533-9647, in Iowa (319)263-8144. LEADERS IN COMPUTER SUPPORT Ring King "Apple fesl— San Francisco-booth 1151." 156 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Unix is becoming, they're beginning to leave the universities, the Bell Operating Companies, and Bell Labs. They all have their own ideas on how to improve Unix and write applica- tions for it, and youll be seeing many new companies spring up from this "underground" base of talent. Conclusions We've seen that it's technically possible for just about any machine with a 16-bit processor (or larger) and a reasonable amount of disk and memory capacity to support Unix. And in spite of the other operating systems around, computer firms ap- pear to be hedging their bets: they may support other systems, but a Unix implementation always hap- pens to be available. It seems neces- sary, at least in the market for today and for the foreseeable future, for many computers to run Unix. But do we really need Unix on every machine? Industry analysts have called for a universal user inter- face that would let people move to a new job without having to relearn all their computer skills. This would go a long way toward the dream of com- puter literacy for the masses. The rapid proliferation of Unix seems to indicate that it might be a candidate for such an honor. ■ A free, detailed set of charts listing companies mentioned in this article, their addresses, and their products, can be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Unix Charts, do Infopro Systems, POB 33, East Hanover, NJ 07936. References 1. Fiedler, David and Susan. Unique: Your In- dependent UNIX and C Advisor, Volume 2. East Hanover, NJ: Infopro Systems, 1982, 1983. 2. Freiboth, B. Unix System III Guide. El Cerrito, CA: Pacific Micro Tech, 1983. 3. McGilton, H. and R. Morgan. Introducing the Unix System. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983. David Fiedler (Infopro Systems, POB 33, East Hanover, N] 07936) is the editor of the monthly newsletter Unique: Your Independent UNIX and C Advisor and the magazine UNIX Review. He is also an analyst for The Perchwell Corpora- tion, a consulting film assisting management of companies using Unix. Circle 402 on inquiry card. NOW PLATO COURSEWARE MAKES ALGEBRA FRIENDLY Algebra can be a fascinating learning experience with the help of PLATO® educational courseware. PLATO helps bring out the best in your child . . . and the best in your Apple II Plus or Apple He. A new series of PLATO lessons can help your kids feel comfortable and confident about Algebra. Practice problems change at random to challenge them,- examples of solutions guide them,- per- formance reports encourage them. If a mistake is made, PLATO shows kids the correct answer or how to correct it. So before they know it, they're into Roots, Polynomials, Factoring, Equations and much more. These Elementary Algebra lessons join the growing PLATO library of quality educational courseware for microcomputers. Other lessons include Math, Foreign Languages, Physics- Elementary Mechanics, Computer Concepts, Computer Literacy and Keyboarding. See the PLATO line at selected retail outlets. All PLATO micro courseware is available for the Apple II Plus and Apple He. Some lessons are also available for the TI99/4A and Atari 800. For a free PLATO catalog: Call toll-free: 800-233-3784. (In Calif, call 800-233-3785.) Or write Control Data Publish- ing Co., PO. Box 261127, San Diego, CA, 92126. Warranty available free from Control Data Publishing Co., 4455 Eastgate Mall, San Diego, CA 92121. PLATO COMPUTER-BASED EDUCATION CONTRPLDATA PUBLISHING THE • KM COMPUTER TO HAVE WHEN YOU'RE HAVING MORE THAN ONE. \4 <' V "4^> wv m ^ n M R K M If you're considering linking up more than one computer, there's only one computer worth considering. The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer Sys- tem by Acorn. One of the BBC Micro's many built-in features is an economical and powerful com- munications network. We call this the Econet® local area network, Econet lets you combine up to 254 BBC's into a single com- munications system. Virtually no other system lets you hook up this many computers this easily. What's more, you can link two micros without any special hardware. And all computers on the Econet network can share disc drives and printers. But what really makes Econet such a great network of comput- ers is the computer it networks. The BBC Micro. The most versa- tile computer anywhere for its size and price. Its enormous built-in expansion potential means it can handle anything from basic tasks to advanced Econet networking. It also means changing technology won't change it into an obsolete system overnight. All of which make Acorn the perfect communications system for schools or business. If you'd like to learn more about how Acorn can build you the perfect communications net- work, write Acorn Computers Corporation, 400 Unicorn Park Drive, Woburn, Massachusetts, 01801, or call toll-free 1-800- 225-8001 (in Massachusetts call 617-935-1 190). We'd be happy to communicate with you. >IC0RN COMPUTER^ <£j 1983 Atom Computers Corporation Circle 13 on inquiry card. M&s I ■i ■ 4 S*. Unix and the Standardization of Small Computer Systems Developed at Bell Labs around 1970, Unix is heavily influencing the assimilation of systems and applications software Small computer systems were first standardized at the hardware level, with standard microprocessors, buses, peripheral chips, and peripherals providing increasingly low-cost systems. Major hardware vendors are now working with soft- ware houses to standardize operating by Jean L. Yates systems and applications so that microcomputers and mainframes can communicate on program, file, and message levels. Within the next three years, the most commonly used type of personal computer will achieve multiprocessing capability, and the number of networks and multiuser Time of System's Popular Use 1979 1981 1983 1985 Type ot Computer Vector Graphic System B Onyx Altos 586 a future system Storage Capacity (bytes) 56K 256K 512K 2 megabytes Microprocessor Used Z80 Z8000 8086 68010, 286, 386, or 32032 Operating System CP/M Unix Xenix a virtual type Number of Users 1 1 to 6 1 to 6 1 to 25 Storage Media two 500K-byte floppy disks tape and 5 to 10 mega- bytes on hard disk 1 megabyte of floppy-disk backup for a 10-megabyte hard disk a 2-megabyte backup for 50-200-mega- byte hard disk Price $5500 $15,000 to $30,000 $8000 $6000 Table 1: As great strides are made in improving hardware capabilities, business computers will return to 1979 levels. prices of small- systems will grow dramatically. The Unix operating system and the C language will be major factors in the standardization of file handling and compatibility across small systems and mainframes. Table 1 portrays the rapid decline in price and accompanying increase in hardware capabilities of typical small-business microcomputers over the past four years. In 1979 the Vec- tor Graphic System B was one of the most popular small-business sys- tems. With 56K bytes of memory, a Z80 microprocessor running CP/M, single-user capability, and 500K-byte floppy disks (very high density for its time), the system sold for $5500. By 1981 a new generation of com- puters with increased hardware capability and a corresponding higher price became popular. Onyx's 8002, for example, which could han- dle up to six users, offered 256K bytes of RAM (random-access read/ write memory) with a Z8000 16-bit microprocessor and the Unix operat- ing system. A tape backed up its 5- to 10-megabyte hard disk, and the system sold for $15,000 to $30,000, depending upon the configuration. Today, products such as the Radio 160 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Shack TRS-80 Model 16 and the Altos 586 have radically reduced the price of Onyx-type systems. The Altos 586, which provides 512K bytes of RAM, an 8086 microprocessor, Microsoft's Xenix version of the Unix operating system, one- to six-user capability, and 1 megabyte of floppy- disk backup to a 10-megabyte hard disk, sells for about $8000, depend- ing upon the configuration. Table 1 points out that with $6000, users could purchase much more comput- ing power in 1983 than in 1979. In addition to the Altos 586, the TRS-80 Model 16, Fortune's 32:16, IBM PC- XT, and Victor 9000 are examples of systems offering high levels of hard- ware performance for a comparative- ly low price. By 1985 a small-business micro- computer selling for $6000 will pro- vide 2 megabytes of memory, use a 32-bit microprocessor such as the 68010 or the 386, and offer a virtual operating system. (Today, such sys- tems, which let you run other sys- tems over them— as you would ap- plications programs— are available only on 32-bit superminicomputers and mainframes.) This hypothetical 1985 system should let up to 25 users utilize a 2-megabyte floppy-disk, tape, or optical-storage backup and 50 to 200 megabytes of hard-disk storage. Increasingly, operating systems for small-business computers are being written in higher-level programming languages such as C. These systems offer networking and other commu- nications capabilities, hierarchical file systems, and disk sharing. Unix is often the vehicle used to take busi- ness applications from minicom- puters to microcomputers. Unix and the C language are increasingly evi- dent in standard software for 16-bit micros. The Drive to Standards The standardization of hardware has been clearly demonstrated, and standardization of the operating system is evident from the populari- ty of CP/M, MS-DOS, and Unix. These three operating systems are keys to large libraries of applications software. Currently, the big push in standards is to connect microcom- puters to minis and mainframes. Although the hardware and operat- ing-system levels are themselves problems, the biggest problem is connecting packaged applications such as Visicalc or word processors to mainframes and allowing files to be shared and manipulated from mini- or mainframe-based data storage to micro workstations. Licensed Unix sites will number 1.4 million by 1987. Available for micros, minis, and mainframes, Unix becomes a viable standard for file and program com- patibility. Standardization Areas To connect micros to mainframes, standardization must occur at several levels. Although it might initially ap- pear that standardization should oc- cur at the hardware-connection level, most of the standardization needed for software transfer to mainframes and across different types of micros occurs at the operating-system level. SOFTWARE -OPERATING SYSTEM FILE FORMAT USER INTERFACE COMMAND NAMES DIRECTORY STRUCTURES I/O RECORD LOCKING LANGUAGES SYNTAX GROSS SUBSETS SEMANTICS FUNCTIONAL CALL NAMES AND ARGUMENTS APPLICATIONS -DE FACTO DRIVER BY MARKET AND PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS -FILE TRANSFER COMMUNICATIONS -X .25 -ETHERNET -CHRISTENSEN'S MODEM PROTOCOL -VIDEOTEX STANDARD And in many cases, Unix is the stan- dard by which new operating-system developments are being compared. At the operating-system level, the file format, or the way in which files are held on a floppy disk, is undergo- ing considerable standardization. The type and order of bits at the beginning and end of files and the way in which data is held in the file maintain, in many operating sys- tems, the same format that Unix has historically used. Unix holds almost all data and text files in standard ASCII (American National Standard Code for Information Interchange) code and does not encode or encrypt data unless it proves absolutely necessary. Great flexibility in moving or manipulating files is thus main- tained. You can observe most Unix files with a text editor and see what they contain, unlike binary or hexa- decimal files, which produce only dashes and blips on the screen. Command names, directory struc- tures (specifically the hierarchical directory of Unix), I/O (input/out- put), and record locking are other areas of standardization on which Unix is having a great impact. Lan- guage (gross and subsets) syntax and function call names and arguments are other areas where the C language HARDWARE CPU BUS STRUCTURE DISK FORMAT HARD AND FLOPPY KEYBOARD Figure 1: A look at the various areas that are experiencing standardization. October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 161 and the system calls of Unix are evolving. At the applications-software level, drivers for terminals and disks are standardizing as vendors realize the importance of offering a standard in- terface for easy transfer to their com- puters. File transfer from micros to mainframes is also becoming stan- dardized. A format growing in popularity is Visicorp's DIF, which has been adopted by most spread- sheet-application vendors as the standard way to hold and manipu- late spreadsheet data. For more in- formation on this data-interchange format, see "DIF: A Format for Data Exchange between Applications Pro- grams" by Candace E. Kalish and Malinda F. Mayer (November 1981 BYTE, page 174). Some of these stan- dards are shown in figure 1. Standard Operating Systems The three major families of stan- dard operating systems are MS- DOS, CP/M, and Unix. Figure 2 shows that MS-DOS is expected to be the market leader for the next three years. CP/M-80 and CP/M-86 together match the market size of MS-DOS, and the recent Visicorp/ Digital Research alliance could push CP/M-86 up near the MS-DOS level. (Visicorp and Digital Research have Unix for Microcomputers— A History Developed by Bell Laboratories around 1970 for use on minicomputers, the Unix operating system has evolved into a multi- user system for 16-bit business microcom- puters. In contrast to the Apple II, which uses a 6502 8-bit microprocessor, or the TRS-80 Model 1, which incorporates a Z80, a 16-bit microcomputer includes such microprocessors as the 8086 or the 68000. As a multiuser system, it lets many users interact simultaneously with the computer from different terminals. Unix is actually an operating-system chameleon; its many forms and flavors are the result of adapting research and devel- opment software to commercial uses. To- day, the operating system is distributed by more than 100 computer and software ven- dors. Some versions are specifically for use on microcomputers, and some forms of Unix have been reworked to meet the needs of such users as engineers, typesetters, and government agencies. The majority of Unix users are micro- computer owners whose specific needs dif- fer from those of the traditional computer user. Many find themselves confronting a multiuser operating system for the first time and are thus unfamiliar with the special software-maintenance requirements such systems involve. Because Unix was not developed for the uninstructed user, a beginner cannot take advantage of much of its computing power. Two companies in particular are promot- ing the adaptation of Unix for microcom- agreed to place Visi On, Visicorp's user interface, over Digital Re- search's operating systems and to provide language and tool support for each other's products.) The number of licensed Unix in- stallations by the end of 1986 will be only 1.4 million, although pending announcements by small-system manufacturers, specifically Commo- dore, could boost that figure by another million units. Although the number of Unix licenses is less than that of MS-DOS or CP/M, those operating systems' sales figures (in dollars) are nearly equal. An average Unix-based system is a higher- performance micro or mini that can accommodate multiple users and costs more than a system running MS-DOS or CP/M. Table 2 shows the number of new Unix licenses and the dollars that will be spent on licensed mainframes, minicomputers, and microcomputers from 1981 through 1986. The micro- CUMULATIVE SIZE OF INSTALLED BASE 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 Figure 2: Projected sales of major nonproprietary operating systems through 1986. 162 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. CUMULATIVE NUMBER OF UNIX LICENSES THROUGH DECEMBER 1986 MAINFRAME 1087 0.1% MINICOMPUTER 26.000 1.9% Figure 3: At the end of 1986, mainframe and minicomputer licenses for Unix will represent only 2 percent of the total number issued. puters: Microsoft Corporation ofBellevue, Washington, with its Xenix operating system for use on 8086-, Z8000-, and 68000-based microcomputers, and Unisoft Systems of Berkeley, California, which makes a system for 68000-based microcom- puters. Other vendors have brought Unix to such computers as the Onyx and Plexus. From its origins as a software program for text editing and formatting, Unix has evolved over a decade to the point that it is now a massive set of programming tools for software development, text preparation, and communications in addition to its ability to perform operating-system func- tions. The developers of Unix pioneered the concept of software portability— the capability of operating on various types of computers. This concept was introduced by the Bell System because it didn't want to have to write new software when it decided to use a new type of computer. Portability has proven to be a major sell- ing point for Unix. The C Language Unix is written in the C language (see the August 1983 BYTE), which was also developed at Bell Laboratories. Machine- independent C was designed for large soft- ware programs that can be used on various types of systems; Unix derives its portabil- ity from C. Many microcomputer com- panies develop applications software in C, often using Unix tools, which are specifically designed for efficient C programming. Bell Labs has continued to enhance Unix software and releases periodic updates. With its release of System V earlier this year, Bell demonstrated support of versions for microcomputers in addition to its line of minicomputer-oriented products. Bell may decide to offer additional microcom- puter and business software in the future. Today, more than 200 independent soft- ware vendors offer Unix applications pack- ages for spreadsheet, accounting, inven- tory-control, and other business uses. computer market represents the bulk of Unix units and dollars, although the minicomputer sector is by no means insignificant. Figure 3 diagrams the predicted preponder- ance of Unix licenses for microcom- puters through December 1986; those licenses will account for 98 per- cent of the total issued. The Shift to Commercial Use From 1980 to 1986, Unix end users will change dramatically. As figure 4 indicates, Unix users in 1979 were almost entirely from research facili- ties and universities, the Bell System, or the government/military. At that time, commercial users made up only 3 percent of the total. By the fourth quarter of 1983, however, 93 percent of an estimated 100,000 total Unix sites will be commercial. As the Unix market changes to meet commercial needs, it will also serve a vertical market, one that pro- vides specialized software to such Annual Distribution of New Unix Licenses 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 42.2 88.3 111.9 119.1 115 248 325 370 On minicomputers $ Million 220.5 357.0 542.0 838.0 1015.0 1053.0 n mainframes $ Million 3.7 7.6 Units 9 20 Units 1310 2200 3375 5050 6710 7690 Total 372.8 1087 4025.5 26,335 On microcomputers $ Million 31.4 447.3 1588.8 3437.7 4996.1 5256.5 15,757.8 Units 1320 23,710 110,600 269,800 414,800 495,500 1,315,730 Grand total $ Million 255.6 811.9 2173.0 4364.0 6123.0 6428.6 20,156,1 Units 2639 25,930 114,090 275,098 421,835 530,560 1,343,152 Table 2: Demand for Unix licenses for microcomputers will skyrocket over the next three years. diverse fields as banking and medicine, which implement Unix yet cannot share applications pack- ages. The Vertical Unix Market Yates Ventures surveyed more than 600 companies, mostly mini- computer systems houses that sell vertical-market software packages as turnkey systems with 16- or 32-bit minicomputers. Of the companies surveyed, more than 400 have prod- ucts that could run under Unix; 250 expressed an interest in or said they planned to offer their software on a Unix system. The vertical market's potential for Unix varies from area to area. One of the largest areas is the banking in- dustry, which is particularly inter- ested in lower-cost fault-tolerant or nonstop systems. Fault-tolerant sys- tems provide built-in mechanisms that work to prevent breakdowns. Tandem originally had the market for nonstop systems to itself. Such companies as Auragen, Bunker- Ramo, Parallel, and Tolerant Trans- action Systems, however, are now competing with Tandem and offer- ing much less expensive computers. These manufacturers are providing a viable alternative for those sectors purchasing nonstop systems. Many of these groups simply cannot afford the bigger Tandem systems. October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 163 Hank: Here's the report you've been waiting for. Hope you put your system on automatic and didn't wait up. lb all reps: Price changes on follow- '" items effective immediately: 10-111A, 10-114A; 10-AL. 1 Take that, bud. (And retaliate fast. I know phone rates are low now, but game's cutting into sack time.) .., iliiiii //////////////// your computer's telephone. //// %/////////// llliiiiiiiii, Wouldn't it be great if, somehow, you HIHIII) could connect your computer to your accountant's, down the street? To the IBM** PC at the branch office, upstate? Or to your favorite chess challenger, across country? With a telecomputing system by Hayes, you can. Quickly. Easily. And for the price of a phone call. Hayes Smartmodem. Think of it as your computer's telephone. Hayes Smartmodem 300, and the faster Smartmodem 1200, work with any computer with an RS-232 I/O port. They allow you to communicate, over ordinary phone lines, all across America. But any modem will send and receive data. Smartmodems also dial, answer and disconnect calls. Automatically. Without going through the telephone receiver, making them far superior to acoustic coupler modems. Choose your speed; choose your price. The lower-priced Smartmodem 300 is ideal for local data swaps and communicates at 300 bps. For longer distance and larger volumes. Smartmodem 1200 communicates at 1200 bps or up to 300 bps, with a built-in selector that automatically detects trans- mission speeds. Both work with rotary dials Touch-Tone* and key-set systems; connect to most timesharing systems; and feature an audio speaker. Either Smartmodem is a perfect match for many different computers And if you have an IBM PC, Hayes also provides the perfect communi- cations software. Smartcom II™ We spent a lot of time developing our software, so you can spend less time using it. Smartcom II prompts you in the simple steps required to create, send, receive, display, list, name and re-name files. It even receives data completely unattended— especially helpful when you're sending work from home to office, or vice versa. And if you need it, there's always "help!' One of several special functions assigned to IBM function keys, this feature explains prompts, messages, etc. to make communicating extra easy. With Smartcom II, it is. The program remembers communication parameters for 26 different remote systems. Just punch a key, you're all set. You can treat dial-up and log-on sequences the same way. In fact, Smart- com II comes with codes already set up for four popular information services. COMPUSERVE®DIALOG'S KNOWLEDGE INDEX?" DOW JONES NEWS/RETRIEVAL 1 SERVICE, and THE SOURCE™ AMERICAS INFORMATION UTILITY.™ Procedures for obtaining an account with each of the services are included in the Smartcom II manual. But that's not all. Special offers for Smartcom II ownersl Dow Jones News/Retrieval Service has a special introductory offer for Smartcom II owners. By calling a toll- free number, they receive a free password and one free hour of service anytime after 6:01 p.m., local time. You'll also be entitled to a valuable ^^^^ Special offers QD Hayes 164 BYTE October 1983 Welcome to TELEMAILI Your last access was/Tuesday, Jan. 4, 1983 11:07 a.m. CHECK these bulletin boards: TELEMAIL...TELESO END USERS OF UNIX subscription offer for THE SOURCE. Smartcom II owners who subscribe to THE SOURCE will receive one free hour of daytime service. Like all our products, Smartcom II and both Hayes Smartmodems are backed — by excellent documentation and full support from us to your dealer. So see him today. Break out of isolation. Get a telephone for your desktop computer. Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc., 5923 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Norcross, GA 30092. 404/449-8791. Smartcom II is a trademark of Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. 'TM American Telephone and Telegraph * "IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines. Corp. © 1983 Hayes Microcomputer Products. Inc. Sold only in the U.S.A. COMPUSERVE INFORMATION SERVICE is a registered trademark of CompuServe, Incorporated, an H S R Block Company. KNOWLEDGE INDEX is a service mark of DIALOG Information Services. Inc. DOW JONES NEWS/RETRIEVAL is a registered trademark of Dow Jones & Company. Inc. THE SOURCE and AMERICA'S INFORMATION UTILITY are service marks of Source Telecomputing, a subsidiary of The Reader's Digest Association. Inc. Circle 207 on inquiry card. 1979/4Q 11500 SITES) 1982/2Q (8000 SITES) GOVERNMENT/ MILITARY 10% COMMERCIAL 3% 1983/40 (ESTIMATED 100,000 SITES ) GOVERNMENT/ MILITARY 4% GOVERNMENT/MILITARY 0.4% UNIVERSITY 2.5% BELL 4% Figure 4: These pie charts show a projected shift in the type of user implementing Unix. By the end of this year, approximately 93 percent of licensed sites will be devoted to commer- cial applications. The Market for Unix Applications Software Based on marketing interviews it regularly conducts, Yates Ventures has projected what types of applica- tions software will make up the total Unix market of $282.6 million in 1983. Accounting and business- systems software, for example, will represent 30 percent of the Unix market. Word-processing packages will hold second place with a 25 per- cent share. The productivity- management sector, which includes such packages as electronic spread- sheets, will represent 15 percent. Figure 5 compares the applications- software-market breakdown for 1983 with projected figures for 1986. By 1986 vertical-market packages will dominate a $1.7 billion market, representing 37 percent of the total. Productivity-management packages will make up 26 percent of the overall market, with accounting and business-systems software running third at 15 percent. Figure 6 depicts the shift toward verticality— Unix applications-software vendors will see significant growth in that seg- ment. Note, too, that in 1983 hard- ware vendors and applications- software developers will evenly share 80 percent of the sales of Unix applications packages. Systems in- tegrators will represent a scant 4 per- cent. By 1986, however, that seg- ment will be selling microcomputers October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 165 Circle 123 on inquiry card. MicroSpoolef Saves Time MicroSpoolers mean an end to waiting. The MicroSpooler stores data and feeds it to your printer as fast as it can handle it. You don't lose valuable computer time waiting for the printer to do its job. Easy to install. Easy to use. Easy on the budget. These stand-alone MicroSpoolers can be installed in- line between virtually any printer and any computer. Features: • 16K. memory (user expandable to 32K or 64K) • Status readout • Internal power supply • Vertical mount configuration • Indepen- dently selectable baud rates and handshaking • Satisfaction guaranteed • Priced from $219.00 Send or call toll free for literature on our complete Spooler lines. CONSOLUNK CORPORATION Dept. 2-48 1840 Industrial Circle Longmont, CO 80501 (303)651-2014 800-525-6705 UNIX 16-BIT APPLICATIONS-SOFTWARE MARKET SHARE (PERCENT BY NEW SALES) 1983 $282.6 m 1986 DATABASE MANAGEMENT $1747.2 m Figure 5: Applications software for Unix 16-bit systems will bring in more than $1.7 billion in 1986. with Unix as the standard operating system, and its turnkey system for vertical markets will bring its market share to 55 percent. Also by that time, independent third-party ven- dors of applications software will control 30 percent of the market while hardware vendors hold on to 10 percent. Conclusion The standardization of small com- puter systems, which began at the hardware level, has now reached operating systems and applications software aimed at the Unix market. Encouraged by the availability of Unix on microcomputers, minis, and mainframes, vendors will continue to adapt it across the spectrum of microcomputer and mainframe prod- ucts. Moreover, the vertical market APPLICATIONS- SOFTWARE VENDORS FOR UNIX 1983 SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS 1986 •OTHER INCLUDES INDEPENDENT CONSULTANTS. RETAIL DEALERS AND MAIL-ORDER HOUSES. Figure 6: Turnkey systems for vertical markets will strengthen systems integrators' position among vendors of Unix applications software. for Unix will expand. In the future, Unix microcomputers can be ex- pected to command a large share of the microcomputer market because they are priced higher than units that run MS-DOS and CP/M. In the years ahead, those Unix-based micros will be sold largely by systems integrators that will offer vertical-market turnkey systems previously offered only on minicomputers with proprietary operating systems. ■ jean L. Yates is president of Yates Ventures (4962 El Camino Real, Los Altos, CA 94022), a firm that conducts marketing research on Unix, publishes periodicals and books, and produces training materials on the operating system's use. Author of The User Guide to the UNIX System and Business Guide to the UNIX System, she is also a member of the National Computer Conference pro- gram committee. 166 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Repeat it once more... "No manual tax preparation in , 84 w Micro-Tax* can turn your personal computer into a profit center — you'll increase your client volume and take the drudgery out of tax preparation. And since the returns never leave your office, you have complete client security. MICRO-TAX* IS COMPREHENSIVE. It offers three Federal tax packages and 23 fully integrated state pack- ages, so you can select the programs that best meet your needs. Level II has a tax depreciation module, and it automatically computes underpay- ment penalties, self-employment taxes, minimum taxes, and income averaging. For those who prepare Federal partner- ship, corporate, and Subchapters returns, Micro-Tax* has a Federal Level III package. Each tax season Micro-Tax* offers you an update package. MICRO-TAX* IS VERSATILE. The program is compat- ible with your IBM PC* or XT*, DEC Rainbow*, Radio Shack*, or any other personal computer with CP/M*, PC DOS* or MS DOS*— from Apple* to Zenith* Instead, save yourself time and money and satisfy your clients with your personal computer and . . . MICRO-TAX FULL FEDERAL MICRO-TAX* PERSONAL COMPUTER SYSTEMS - < - => a* i < a 1 si 91 3; -- 13 F E[ )E R A L FC )F -"J U s .5' A N 3 SI :h EC >u .E s S CO ID \t 1C L C UD of* ED 1 - S -"■ ■-■ i => E en 1 'I' as ESS UQ-u. Level 1, Individual • • • • • • • • Level II, Professional Individual • • Level III, Partnership/ Corporate ' • • • • • • Level IV, Overseas • • • • • • ' • • • • •All forms and schedules subject to final IRS changes for 1983 tax year. ■ 25 Integrated state returns available • Orders taken for yearly update packages MICRO-TAX* IS FLEXIBLE. It's up to you; you can input the client tax infor- mation at the time of interview and produce the forms immediately, or en- ter data during the day and batch print returns at night. Micro-Tax* prints your returns on IRS forms, IRS ap- proved substitute forms, or with trans- parent overlays. MICRO-TAX* IS FRIENDLY. You can organize data entry in a sequence very similar to that of manual tax prep- aration, or you can compute forms out of sequence. It's up to you. So go ahead, repeat it once more. . . "No manual tax preparation in '84." No need — once you've got Micro-Tax*. Call Micro-Tax* direct for complete details, or call your local dealer. Prove it to yourself: order a demonstration package — a complete 1982 Federal, Corporate/ Partnership or State sys- tem for only $58.00 each. 'C PM — trademark ol Digital Research. Inc .; DEC Rainbow — trademark of Digital Equipment Corp.: MICRO-TAX— trademark of Microcomputer Taxsystems, Inc.; MS DOS — trademark of Microsoft Corp.: PC DOS. IBM PC. and IBM XT- trademarks of IBM: Apple — trademark ol Apple Computers: Zenith — trademark of Heath Company and Zenith Radio Corp.; Radio Shack — trademark of Tandy Corp Circle 308 on inquiry card. MICRO-TAX* MICROCOMPUTER TAXSYSTEMS, INC. 6203 Variel Avenue, Suite A Woodland Hills, CA 91367 Dept 1B Phone (213) 704-7800 BYTE October 1983 167 Introducing the FT-88 jet printer. Anything else is just a lot of noise. In a market where noisy superlatives such as "incomparable", "second-to-none", and "the epitome of excellence" are casually applied to a wide variety of printers, Siemens has taken a more quiet and purposeful approach. The FT-88 is our new jet matrix printer. Upon close inspection, you'll see that it is equipped with all the features your business can benefit from — consistent print quality in a variety of type styles, high speed (150 cps), tractor or single-sheet plain paper feed, full graphics capability, universal interface with personal or desk computers, and modular design for simplified service, if it is ever required. But in addition to this, the PT-88 offers you something that many others simply can't... a QUIET working environment. Listen very carefully. The super-silent PT-88 whispers while it works, at less than 50 dBA. Compare it to those that operate at more than twice that sound level and clang, screech, rattle and shriek. Then think of how nice it will be to accept phone calls or conduct meetings while the PT-88 is hard at work. . . right next to your work place if you wish. In short, the FT-88 puts it all together — reliability, flexibility, performance, and low- cost operation — all in one compact, super- silent unit. The result is a printer of exceptional long-term value. Now the question remains — Is it incomparable? Second-to-none? The epitome of excellence? We'd want you to decide for yourself. One thing's for sure. It's remarkably quiet. And in an increasingly noisier business environment, we think that's something you can appreciate. For more information, contact: Siemens Communication Systems, Inc. Office Terminals Division 186 Wood Avenue South Iselin, NJ 08830 (201) 321-3400 or 240 East Palais Road, Anaheim, CA 92805 (714)991-9700. Quietly impressive printers... from Siemens. CC/3020-020 SIQ751 A Tour Through the Unix File System How to find your way around in the multiuser Unix operating system and its associated files by James Joyce Unix, a large operating system designed for multiple users, gives rise to many system and user files that can be segregated into different file areas, each with its own directory. This is preferable to having hundreds of files lumped into one work area because a simple request for a directory listing would fill a terminal's screen several times over. The Unix operating system, therefore, has a hierarchical, or tree-like, file system (though the tree is upside down, with the root at the top), allowing direc- tories to contain subdirectories. Some users find them- selves at a loss to understand the tangle this seems to present. Let's take a tour of the file system and pause at points of interest to see the sights. The first point of interest is where we get on the tour by logging into a Unix system. I'll use my company's sys- tem in these examples: ITS UNIX Welcomes You. Please, :login: guest Password: Step right this way for the tour! % The login procedure is standard on multiuser systems, with the system identifying itself and asking for user's name and password, then giving the message of the day once you successfully log on. The % is the Unix com- mand interpreter's prompt character, letting you know it awaits your next command. Unix users will recognize the prompt as that of the C-shell developed by Bill Joy at the University of California at Berkeley. I will present examples in terms of the C-shell because it and other Berkeley enhancements to Unix are in widespread use throughout the Unix community and because all ex- amples will be typescripts of an actual tour through the file system on my company's computer. Everything I type in and the system's responses have been captured by the script program developed by Mark Horton while he was also at Berkeley. To tell where we are in the file system, the pwd com- mand will print the working directory; that is, the direc- tory where we are currently working within the Unix file system. In Unix, a directory is a file containing infor- mation about other files that are said to be "inside" it. % pwd /usr/guest % The result of pwd is the full path name to the working directory, showing which directories you go through to get to the present directory. The first slash ( / ) indicates root, the top of the file system hierarchy. The root file con- tains usr (pronounced "user'— the directory of users), and the second slash separates the name usr from guest, our account name. The guest directory is inside the usr direc- tory and contains all the files of the guest account. Figure 1 is a diagram of this relationship. Directory entries in- clude pointers to files elsewhere on the disk, as the lines in the diagram suggest, rather than the actual files them- selves. What's Inside /usr/guest ? The login directory /usr/guest contains several files whose names you can see by typing the Is command to list file names: 170 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Figure 1: The relationship of directories and files in the Unix hier- archical file system. (Photo by fames Joyce.) %ls tour typescript The file .cshrc is used by the C-shell to tailor its actions to your desires. You can even customize the prompt to something else by typing The file tour contains the text of this article, and typescript is the copy of what appears on my screen during the tour presented here. The command Is -a produces a list of all files, even those that begin with a period or "dot" ( . ), which usual- ly indicates special system file names. % Is -a .cshrc tour typescript % We see three new files, the names of which are pro- nounced "dot," "dot-dot," and "dot-c-s-h-r-c." The first filename, "dot," is a nickname for the current directory. (Perhaps an easy way to remember this is to think of the dot as the Unix shell, or command interpreter, press- ing its finger against the inside of the screen to point to where it's currently working.) The listing of files gives the . and . . directories, too, which means directories also are files. The second file, "dot-dot," is short for the parent directory, one level up from where you are. Every direc- tory has at least two entries in it, one for "dot" and one for "dot-dot," files that are automatically created when- ever a directory is made using mkdir, the make-directory command. set prompt="Yes, Jim?" so that instead of % you are prompted with Yes, Jim? There is much more that can be done with the .cshrc file, but we must press on with the tour. Permissions, Owners, Sizes of Files So far we are learning how to be tourists in the Unix file system. The pwd command tells us what directory we are in, and the Is command tells us what files are in that directory. Next well learn about permissions, ownership, the size of files, and date stamping. The command Is -la produces the long listing of all files: % Is -la drwxr-xr-x 2 guest drwxr-xr-x 32 root -rwx 1 guest -rw-rw-rw- 1 guest 1 guest 144 Jun 25 12:49 . 544 Jun 21 00:26 .. 98 Dec 18 1982 .cshrc 1561 Jun 25 12:46 tour 176 Jun 25 12:50 typescript The first character in each line is either a hyphen, in- dicating the file is an ordinary file, or a d, indicating the file is a directory. Not surprisingly, "dot" (our working directory) and "dot-dot" (our parent directory) have a October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 171 d in the first position of the long listing of files. We can see the file names in the right-most column of the Is command's output. Reading from the right, we can see a date stamp, expressed as month and day (Jun 25 for typescript), and time of last modification (12:50 on a 24-hour clock). The 176 indicates the number of bytes in the file, and guest is the file's owner. The 1 indicates the number of links to the file. Because each file is minimally linked once to its parent directory, the number of links is at least one. If the link count drops to zero, the file is deleted. The line of hyphens for typescript tells us that all per- missions for the file are "turned off." However, the line of permissions for tour says read and write permissions (r and w) are enabled for (from left to right) owner, group, and everyone else. This file is actually writable by anyone on the system— usually not a good idea, but a demonstration here of permissions. Permissions for .cshrc are turned off for the group and everyone else, but the owner can read, write, and ex- ecute (r, w, and x) the file. Note that although "dot" is owned by guest, "dot-dot" is not— it is owned by root, the parent of all Unix files. Changing Directories The cd command changes directories, and if you sim- ply want to go up one level the command is %cd .. and, to verify that you have done so: % pwd /usr % Instead of /usr/guest the response from pwd is /usr, mean- ing that you have successfully moved up one level in the file system. The next thing to do is to see what files are at that level: % Is -1 drwxr-xr-x 2 root 64 Jun 11 12:27 adm drwxr-xr-x 2 check 400 Jun 22 14:22 bin drwxr-xr-x 2 root 128 Jun 11 12:33 diet drwxr-xr-x 3 root 336 Jun 11 12:38 games drwxr-xr-x 2 guest 144 Jun 25 12:49 guest drwxr-xr-x 4 root 448 Jun 11 12:46 include drwxr-xr-x 9 jim 528 Jun 24 17:26 jim drwxr-xr-x 1 3 root 496 Jun 13 15:41 lib drwxr-xr-x 20 root 320 Jun 11 13:16 man drwxr-xr-x 2 root 32 Jun 11 13:17 preserve drwxr-xr-x 7 root 112 Jun 11 13:19 spool drwxr-xr-x 14 root 320 May 30 15:06 sre drwxr-xr-x 2 root 112 Jun 11 13:20 sys % lines have been omitted to save space. We see guest in the list, the directory we just left. It comes alphabetically in the list, just after games, the directory where the Unix games are. The man directory contains the online Unix Programmer's Manual, and sre and sys contain, respectively, the source code for the user utilities and for the Unix system. A Visit to Root The root directory, /, is the parent of all directories, the primum mobile of the Unix system. And when we move up one level, and look at the contents of root we see: %cd .. % pwd / / % Is -I drwxr-xr-x 2 root 2672 Apr 5 16:38 bin drwxr-xr-x 2 root 1024 Jun 8 15:21 dev drwxr-xr-x 2 root 480 Jun 11 23:01 etc drwxr-xr-x 2 root 448 Jun 8 17:00 lib drwxr-xr-x 2 root 4128 Oct 5 1982 lost+found drwxrwxrwx 2 root 32 Oct 5 1982 mnt drwxrwxrwx 5 root 464 Jun 25 12:48 tmp -rwxr— r— 1 root 65206 Jun 8 12:09 unix drwxr-xr-x 32 root 544 Jun 21 00:26 usr The directory bin (pronounced as it is spelled) contains the executable binary versions of the Unix utilities, such as Is and pwd. Scanning down the list, the eye leaps to the file named unix. Unlike the other files, it is not a directory. It is an executable file, as the permissions in- dicate, but it is executable only by root, the owner. The file unix is the kernel, or the control program, of the Unix system. Unix is a term that can apply either to the kernel of the Unix system or to the totality and functionality of programs that run on the Unix system. Let's tour some of the more interesting directories. Touring /bin First we will change our working directory into /bin and then find the number of files inside it. % cd /bin % Is | wc -I 165 The second line in the example is a two-part command. First Is is run, and its output is sent (or piped) to the wc (word count) program, which is in turn told to report only the number of lines it counts. There are 165 com- mands in /bin. To see them we type In this and following long listings of directories, some % Is -I -rwx— x— x 1 bin -rwx— x--x 1 bin -rwx— x— x 1 bin 34964 Oct 5 1982 adb 307 Oct 5 1982 calendar 9216 Oct 5 1982 cat 172 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. The 3 reasons why our software should cost yott an arm and a leg... 1 . We are highly specialized and limit our produc- tion to only 7 categories: MANUFACTURER, WHOLESALER, DOCTORS, DENTISTS, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS AND FINANCIAL PACKAGES. Our distribution and service network blankets the nation and spans the globe. Our microcomputer software is so finely tuned and incredibly simple it will make your secretary into a computer wizard. These are the reasons why our software should cost you a lot, and they are precisely the reasons why it wont. . . 1 . Specialization increases quality but reduces research and development costs. 2. Worldwide distribution increases volume and reduces unit costs. 3. Simplicity increases effectiveness but reduces installation and operation costs. For complete information about the microcom- puter software that should cost you an arm and a leg, but doesn't, just send for our free brochure. It deals exclusively with your business or profession and it is written in very plain English. The brochure is free, and the postage is paid. DISTRIBUTOR AND DEALER INQUIRIES ARE WELCOME. INTERNATIONAL MICRO SYSTEMS 6445 Metcdf . Shawnee Mission, KS 66202 (913) 677-1137 Circle 233 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 173 Figure 2: An example of piping the output of one program through another program. (Photo by fames Joyce.) -rwx— x— x 1 bin 12060 Oct 5 1982 cb -rwx— x— x 1 bin 12892 Oct 5 1982 cc -rwx— x— x 1 bin 8288 Oct 5 1982 chmod -rwx— x— x 1 bin 9528 Oct 5 1982 cp -rwx— x— x 1 bin 61212 Oct 5 1982 csh -rwx— x— x 1 bin 10836 Oct 5 1982 date -rwx— x— x 1 bin 2748 Oct 5 1982 echo -rwx— x— x 1 bin 40244 Oct 5 1982 eqn -rwx— x— x 1 bin 12508 Oct 5 1982 file -rwx— x— x 1 bin 14324 Oct 5 1982 find -rwxr-xr-x 1 bin 438 Oct 5 1982 lint -rwx— x— x 1 bin 20564 Oct 5 1982 login -rwx— x— x 1 bin 21148 Oct 5 1982 Is -rws— x— x 1 root 23972 Oct 5 1982 mail -rwx— x— x 1 bin 12112 Oct 5 1982 man -rws— x— x 1 root 8636 Oct 5 1982 mkdir -rwx— x— x 1 root 10236 Oct 5 1982 mv -rwx— x— x 1 bin 57844 Oct 5 1982 nroff -rws— x— x 1 root 16808 Oct 5 1982 passwd -rwx— x— x 1 bin 8436 Oct 5 1982 pwd -rwx— x— x 1 bin 10140 Oct 5 1982 rm -rwx— x— x 1 bin 12564 Oct 5 1982 script -rwx— x— x 1 bin 24900 Oct 5 1982 sh -rwxr-xr-x 1 bin 546 Oct 5 1982 spell -rwx— x— x 1 bin 42964 Oct 5 1982 tbl -rwx— x— x 1 bin 62496 Oct 5 1982 troff -rwx— x— t 4 bin 120456 Oct 5 1982 vi -rwx— x— x 1 bin 8536 Oct 5 1982 wc % Some of the files, such as vi, the visual screen editor, seem astonishingly large, and others, such as spell, the program that checks spelling, seem astonishingly small. One explanation is that small files may be shell scripts, or files containing lines of shell commands that call on other programs to do parts of the desired task under the direction of the script. Two entries in the long listing deserve brief mention. The vi entry has a t where execute permission for others is normally indicated. The t signifies that the "sticky bit" is set, so that vi stays around in the system's swap space, ready for execution. The s in the entry for mkdir indicates "set user identification code on execution," allowing the user access to otherwise restricted files. The vast number of commands in bin and the pipe symbol ( | ) help applications developers join them like Tinkertoys to make new applications. A Tinkertoy-style example of piping the output of Is through wc can be seen in figure 2. Often, using shell scripts, developers can produce applications by using existing general- purpose programs. These applications may be slower than specific programs written from scratch, but developers will have something working quite a bit sooner. Why /usr/bin ? The /bin directory is quite large, and in part to keep it manageable (remember that command names are searched for sequentially), the overflow from /bin is put in /usr/bin. The /usr/bin directory is also the place for local program additions, although some installations create a directory called /local for that purpose. Let's see what is in /usr/bin. °/o cd /usr/bin % Is | wc -I 22 % Is -I -rwxr-xr-x 1 root -rwxr-xr-x 1 root -rwxr-xr-x 1 root -rwxr-xr-x 1 root -rwxr-xr-x 1 root -rwxr-xr-x 1 root -rwxr-xr-x 1 root % The first three files are parts of the CU, or call Unix, pro- gram that allows a user of one Unix system to call up another computer system over a telephone line and either execute commands on that system as though logged in as a normal user or communicate between the two machines to put a file to that system or take a copy 17020 Oct 27 1982 cu 15652 Oct 27 1982 put 21764 Oct 27 1982 take 31060 Oct 5 1982 uucp 18204 Oct 5 1982 uulog 8712 Oct 5 1982 uuname 28708 Oct 5 1982 uux 174 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. PKASO Printer Interface Family and Apple //e... We work together PKASO. 1*1? *C 103 l*> jtessjk Staticide by ACL Incorporated Staticide 1 960 East Devon Ave. Elk Grove Village, IL 60007 (31 2) 981 -921 2, TELEX: 433025 1 Circle 12 on inquiry card. ;ssSf*» of a file from that system. The other files are parts of the Unix-to-Unix copy program, an improved facility similar to cu. These communications capabilities come with the standard Unix system. Relative Pathnames and /usr/lib Because every directory's parent has the nickname "dot-dot," we can change into a directory at the same level (that is, attached to the same parent directory) as our present directory by using .. in the cd command. % cd ../lib % We are now in /usr/lib and can see how many files there are and what they are by using the commands we've learned. % Is | wc -I 29 % Is -I -rw-r — r — 1 root 57 Mar 17 23:27 crontab drwxr-xr-x 2 root 432 Jun 1 1 12:53 font drwxr-xr-x 2 root 64 Jun 1 1 12:49 lex drwxr-xr-x 2 root 64 Jun 11 12:49 macros -rwx— x— x 1 root 14876 Oct 27 1982 spell drwxr-xr-x 2 root 192 Jun 11 12:51 tmac drwxr-xr-x 3 root 496 Jun 11 12:52 uucp % The files are restricted in that they are readable by others or executable by others but not writable by others. Just as with library books from your local public library, you are not to write in the holdings in this electronic library. Some of the directories here are specific libraries for the named programs. For example, lex is a library for the lex program in /bin, and uucp is a library for the uucp pro- grams in /usr/bin. But what is the directory called font? We can go look with the command % cd font % Typing the commands to tell us how many files are in a directory and what they are is becoming a bit tiresome, and so it is time to introduce the history mechanism of the C-shell. Historical Commands To see the most recent commands we have given the C-shell, we enter % history 21 Is | wc -I 22 Is -I 23 cd font 24 history % We offer no static to our customers. May we interrupt the hoopla with a few facts? 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CA 91362 FOR THE IBM 256K WITH AN RS-232C INTERFACE $349 $507 WITH SUPERCALC 2 512K WITH AN RS-232C INTERFACE $579 $727 WITH SUPERCALC 2 Our fully-populated memory boards include parity checking and a standard RS-232C interface. They »are compatible with all IBM software. This is a rare opportunity to save a great deal of money without sacrificing quality. These boards meet the highest standards of design, materials and manufacturing available — at any price. They are completely guaranteed for two years. Alpha Byte also carries the finest in IBM soft- ware, such as: Lotus 1,2,3, D BASE II Multiplan TK Solver CP/M 86 Please call for our low prices or come visit us at our new California store. InLosAngetes: (213)706-0333 By Modem: (213)991-1604 _ — — -• --i '"cALL OUR MODEM LINE I FOR WEEKLY SPECIALS. I ' We accept VISA. MasterCard or C O.D (add $3 lor C D.) Aori a $3 shipping marge lo prepaid orders actual stripping charges will be added to non-prepaids California residents add appropriate sales lax Circle 27 on Inquiry ca I % cd -guest % pwd /usr/guest % The tilde notation is not restricted to your home direc- tory but can be used with any valid login name. % cd -jim % pwd /usr/jim % You can specify a directory within a login directory if you know its name. % cd —jim/letters % pwd /usr/jim/letters % The Unix System's Closet We are nearing the close of our tour of the Unix file system, but we could not leave without looking into the Unix system's closet, /etc. % cd /etc % Is | wc -I 28 % Is -I -rwx -rw-r— r— -rw-r— r— -rwx -rw-r— r— -rw-r— r— -rw-r — r — -rw-r — r — -rw-r — r — -rw-r— r— % 1 bin 1 root 1 bin 1 bin 1 bin 1 root 1 bin 1 bin 1 root 1 bin 7736 106 32 6248 32 2467 321 42020 31 49 Apr 5 16:18 Jun 8 16:55 Jun 8 16:54 Apr 5 16:18 Jun 23 10:23 Jun 21 00:26 Jun 21 15:43 Apr 5 16:18 Jun 23 13:33 Jun 23 13:39 cron group ident init motd passwd re termcap ttys ttytype Many people may already know that the online pass- word file is /etc/passwd. Some may have heard of termcap, the file that describes terminal capabilities to such pro- grams as the vi screen editor, the rogue game (similar to Dungeons and Dragons), and application programs do- ing screen-oriented updating using the curses package. But few will have heard of the other files here. They are employed by the system rather than by users, although users definitely benefit from them. The ident file contains the greeting that identifies the system to a potential user. The contents of this file can be displayed by typing cat, the Unix command common- ly used to display a file. % cat ident ITS UNIX Welcomes You. Please, % -^ lie*- It's as simple as A B C. . . Converse offers you a very versatile, packed-with-features, communications package for CP/M, MS-DOS and Apple DOS systems. Converse Gets Them lAiiTijoijzi Together Apple Radio Shack Kay Pro Zenith Vector Xerox Converse is a unique file transfer and telecommunications program for the non-technical as well as the professional user. Converse features include: • Compatible with auto-answer and auto-dial modems • Terminal Mode operation with data capture option • Error detection with automatic retransmission • Remote operation mode • Multiple file transfer with wild card option • Status display • Display of transmitted data stream in ASCII or HEX • Completely menu driven for non-technical user • Flexible software interface • Multi-CPU licensing agreement Ideal for multi-computer environments: dealers, software developers, clubs and schools. Whether you own Apple, IBM, Osborne or any other personal computer, Converse is the vital communications link that gets them together. Disk and manual configured for Apple Dos, CP/M or MS-DOS $145.00. For any two of the above operating systems $195.00. Order your Converse today. Order Desk: (609) 854-5228 Technical Information: (609) 854-5234 _ PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE PRODUCTS Sentry Plaza Office Bldg. /216 Haddon Ave. Suite 503 / Westmont, MJ 08108 Circle 376 on Inquiry card. The motd file contains the message of the day, dis- played as each user logs into the system. % cat motd Step right this way for the tour! The ttys file tells whether a given terminal on the sys- tem is allowed to display a login message, and what data rate the terminal connected to it must be. The ttytype file tells the type of terminal that is connected to the sys- tem, so the routines that use termcap can look up the characteristics of a particular terminal and take advan- tage of its capabilities. The End of This Tour We now come to the end of this brief tour of the Unix file system. The tour did not last long, but it did range fairly widely over the file system. It should be apparent that the file system is highly organized, although, as the Unix Programmer's Manual indicates, the position of files is subject to change without notice. The warning is not given without reason. Unix is disk-intensive, simply because there are so many files in so many directories. A typical Unix system takes 10 megabytes of disk storage to allow for several users. If the commands and user files are on the same disk, that disk often cannot keep up with the processor's demands for data. Some Unix systems achieve notice- able improvements in performance simply by putting the /usr files on a separate disk from /bin. Many other im- provements of a similar nature are quite straightforward; someone who has read this article carefully could an- ticipate them. Those of you who have Unix available to you are en- couraged to take this tour on line, with the article near your terminal, taking notes of the differences. Drawing a diagram of your system will show you much I have not had time to discuss here. To leave the tour properly, we should return home: °/ocd % pwd /usr/guest % and, finally, exit the Unix system with a Control-D or, in the case of my system, % logout! James Joyce is president of International Technical Seminars, a Unix con- sulting firm, and founder of the Independent Unix Bookstore (520 Waller Street, San Francisco, CA 94117). . re We Dealer Friendly In this era of "user-friendly" computers and software, the needs of the dealer often are overlooked. Not so with CMC. We have been in the wholesale computer/peripheral business for over 4 years and fully understand the importance of responding quickly to dealers. CMC knows that in order for you to thrive, we must bust our fannies to make sure there is distributor support. We make every effort to ship immediately from stock such noted products as: COMPUTERS SOFTWARE HARD DISKS CMC SuperSystems Accounting Plus Corvus PMC MicroMate AshtonTate CMCTarga™ Champion Chang Labs MicroPro Microstuff PRINTERS Datasouth Panasonic Star Micronics Perfect Software jeletex Sorcim MISC. TERMINALS/ MicroBuffer MONITORS Panasonic Teletex Datec Modems Dysan Diskettes Smart Cable CMC International Distributed Products Division Call 800-426-2963 (206)885-1600 CMC INTERNATIONAL BUILDING 1720-130th Ave. N.E. BELLEVUE, WASH 98005 182 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 85 on inquiry card. NEC's crisp, clear, high-performance JC1203 RGB color monitor ai industry standard. Also available, the JCI2l2composite video versio. x««B I — L_ j h^^^^^ fl 1 L— fl ii a st * h a n N =:::?::::;:■:•: Hi M D A • ,j "J ^m H^HI^^H m NEC PC-8023A-C NEC's classic JB120I green monitor, one of microcomputing's performance legends. Easy on the eye, and the checkbook. 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Houston, TX (713)461-0100 Hall-Mark Electronics Dallas, TX Call your local Hall-Mark office or call: (211).'! 13-5920 Southeastern Data Products Lynchburg. VA (801)384-0000 MP Systems Dallas, TX (214)385-8885 Waybern Corporation Garden drove, CA (711)554-4520 Micro Distributing, Inc. Coquitlam, B.C., Canada (604)941-0622 Wetaskiwin Computers Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada (403)352-9302 Peripherals Plus, Inc. Montreal. Quebec, Canada (514)364-5554 Tele-Terminals Brooklyn Park, MN (612)536-6000 Milwaukee. WI (414)785-9221 Zepher Industries, Inc. Seattle, WA (800)562-5057 WA WATS (800) 426-5047 Nationu icle WATS Tek-Aids Industries Arlington Heights, IL (312)870-7401 Perfect Software, Perfect Writer. Perfect Speller, Perfect Filer, and Perfe Software Company. Fast Graphs is a trademark of Innovative Software, trademarks tit Digital Research, Inc. OASIS is a trademark of Phase One Circle 88 on inquiry card. t Calcare trademarks of Perfect Software, Inc. Heme Accountant Plus is a trademark of Continental ic. IBM and IBM PC are trademarks of International Business Machines. CP/M and MI"M are registered MS-DOS, MS-BASIC and XKNIX are trademarks of MICROSOFT. 'Prices effective June 1. lHH.'l IN 1982, Tkt COMPETITION WAS BUSY TRYING TO COPY TH K emiDi -■-. . v ' jL They say a moving target is harder to hit. Well, we've been moving very fast recently Last year we introduced the FIRST and, until now, the best dedicated disk emulator ever designed for S-100 microcomputers, with unparalleled price and performance, the SemiDisk I. The original. Naturally we had imitators. But nobody managed to duplicate SemiDisk's features, let alone improve on the idea. And now the original is even better: only $1495 for 512 Kbytes, including the sophisticated SemiSpool print-spooler software system (only $2350 for 1 Mbyte). Far better performance for much less money. ! couldn't stop there. So we Jie S-100 SemiDisk II. It includ .verful features, such as storage capacity p to 2 Mbytes per board, 8 Mbyte total disk size, automatic power-fail check and battery backup provision, and on-board hardware parity checkinc for exceedingly fast operation. Features the competition can only wish they could offer. And a $1795 for 512K ($2650 for 1 Mbyte), it still costs le: than inferior imitations. Twice as fast as the SemiDisk I, SemiDisk II runs wide circles around hard disks, and blows floppies off the road. Needless to say, it leaves the competition crawling in the dust. So if you want tr benefit of truly extraordinary computer performance, you'll find it in the SemiDisk II. Make no mistake about it, SemiDisk II is the fastes highest density, easiest to use, most compatible, most cost-effective microcomputer disk emulator ever built. And considering the SemiDisk I, that's really saying something. SemiDisk It's the disk the others are trying to copy. SemiDisk Systems, Inc. P.O. Box GG Beaverton, OR 97075 (503)642-3100 Call 503-646-5510 (or CBBS " 7NW, a SemlDlsk-equipped computer bulletin board. SemiDisk trademark ot SemiDisk Systems, Inc. Copyright ■ 1983 SemiDisk Systems, Inc. The Unix Shell The Unix shell is and both an interactive command interpreter a programming language The Unix shell is both a program- ming language and a command lan- guage. As a command language it provides a user interface to the pro- cess- and file-handling facilities of the Unix operating system. As a pro- gramming language it contains mechanisms found in algorithmic languages. This combination en- courages use of important concepts unique among operating systems. The shell can modify the environ- ment in which commands are exe- cuted; the outcome of a command may determine the flow of control. The flow of data may also be con- trolled and redirected via the shell, enabling communication between processes. The shell executes commands that are read from either a terminal or a file. Simple commands are written as sequences of "words" separated by blanks. The first word is the name of the command to be executed; re- maining words are passed as argu- ments to the command invoked. For example, the command Is -I prints a list of the filenames in the current directory. The argument -I tells Is to print the date of last use, the size, and the status of each file. Commands are similar to proce- dure calls in languages like Pascal or FORTRAN. The notation is different in two respects. First, although the arguments are arbitrary strings, they need not be enclosed in quotes in most cases. Second, there are neither parentheses enclosing the list of arguments nor commas separating by Stephen R. Bourne them. Command languages tend not to have the extensive expression syn- tax found in algorithmic languages. Their primary purpose is to issue commands; it is therefore important that the notation be free from superfluous characters. To execute a command, the shell creates a new process and waits for it to finish. These operations are primitives available in the Unix operating system. A command may be run without waiting for it to finish using the postfix operator &. For example, print file & calls the print command with the argument file and executes it in the background. The & is a metacharacter (i.e., has special meaning to the shell) interpreted by the shell and is not passed as an argument to print. Associated with each process is a set of file descriptors numbered 0,1, ... , used in all I/O (input/output) transactions between processes and the operating system. File descriptor is termed the standard input, and file descriptor 1 is termed the stan- dard output. Most commands pro- duce their output on the standard output that is initially (after logging in) connected to a terminal. This out- put may be redirected for the dura- tion of a command, as in Is -I > file The notation >file is interpreted by the shell and is not passed as an argument to Is. If the file does not exist, it is created; otherwise, the con- tents of the file are replaced with the output from the command. To append to a file, the notation >>file is provided, as in Is -I > > file The standard input may be taken from a file by writing, for example, wc < file Wc (word count) prints the number of characters, words, and lines on the standard input. The standard output of one com- mand may be connected to the stan- dard input of another by writing the "pipe" operator, indicated by |, as in Is -I | wc Two commands connected in this way constitute a "pipeline," and the overall effect is the same as Is -I > file wc < file except that no file is used. Instead, the two processes are connected by a pipe created by an operating system call. Pipes are unidirectional; syn- chronization is achieved by halting wc when there is nothing to read and halting Is when the pipe is full. The Unix operating system, not the shell, deals with this matter. A filter is a command that reads in- put, transforms it in some way, and prints the result as output. One such filter, grep (to search a file for a pat- Circle 416 on inquiry card. October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 187 1-2-3 . . . REASONS TO BUY FROM PACIFIC COMPUTERS . . . low prices product si pport satisfied customers "When Data I/O decided to buy micro's we shopped around lor the best onces. Imagine our surprise when we found Pacific Computers! Full service attention at mail order prices, a combination that made my job much easier. Informed, helpful and responsive. " Wes Gilbert Director, Mgmt. Services COMPUTERS Franklin, Kaypro, Teletote Portable Apple HE, Altos, Zorba, Columbia Portable & Desktop PC's, Superbrain ... CALL FOR LOWEST PRICE! PRINTERS Gemini 10x . $329 Okidata 92 . $529 Diablo 620 . $952 Mannesmann Talley 160L 10" carriage w/tractor . $659 Mannesman Talley 180L 15" carriage w/tractor . $861 Daiseywriter . $999 Microbuffer 64K stand alone . $290 IDS Prism 132 Sprint, 3.4K Buffer $1179 Other Brands We Have Them All! MODEMS Hayes 300 baud . $209 Hayes 1200 baud . $499 Hayes 1200B for IBM . $459 Other Brands - We have 'em CALL MONITORS BMC Green New Style .. $99 Amdek Amber . $179 Taxan Amber . $149 $143 $95 Zenith ZVM 121 Green APPLE PERIPHERALS ALSCP/M . $299 ALS ZCard $139 .. S95 Apple Dumpling Grappler Plus . $139 Grappler 16K Buffer Board . $125 SSM Modemcard, internal. 300 baud . $245 . $219 PFS Filler .. $89 PFS Report .. $69 More than 1000 programs CALL Other Products - We have em . . . CALL IBM PERIPHERALS AST I/O (no ram) w/1s, 1p.c,g. .. . $219 AST Mega Plus64K, 1s. c . $359 Tandon TM100-2 drive . $259 Hercules Board w/monochrome & graphics ... . $389 Peachtext 5000 . $275 Lotus 123 CALL . $210 USI Color & Monochrome Graphics Card, new product . . CALL Davong, Corona, Tall Grass. Targs Hard Disks CALL PFS File $99 .. $89 PFS Report More! 100's of programs available CALL PACIFIC COMPUTERS 13256 Northup Way #7 Bellevue, WA 98005 to order call collect 206-641-7233 prices reflect 3% cash discount Bank Cards FOB Seattle Sorry, no COD All products currently in stock. tern), selects from its input those lines that contain some specified string. For example, Is | grep old prints those filenames from the cur- rent directory that contain the string old. A pipeline may consist of more than two commands; the input of each is connected to the output of its predecessor. For example, Is | grep old | wc —I prints the number of files in the cur- rent directory with names containing the string old. Filename Generation Many commands accept arguments that are filenames. For example, Is -I main.c prints information relating to the file main.c. The shell provides a mecha- nism for generating a list of filenames that match a pattern. For example, Is -I *.c generates, as arguments, to Is all filenames in the current directory that end in .c. The character * is a pattern that matches any string including the null string. In general, shell patterns are specified using the following notation: * matches any string of characters including the null string; ? matches any single character; [ . . . ] matches any of the individual char- acters enclosed. A pair of characters separated by a minus matches any character lexically between the pair. For example, [a-z]* matches all names in the current directory beginning with one letter from a through z. /usr/fred/epns/?* matches all names in the directory /usr/fred/epns that consist of at least one character. If no filename matches the pattern, the pattern is passed, un- changed, as an argument. This mechanism is useful both to save typ- ing and to select names according to some pattern. It may also be used for finding files. For example, echo /usr/fred/*/core finds and prints the names of all core files in first-level directories of /usr/fred. (Echo is a standard command that prints its arguments, separated by spaces.) This feature can be expen- sive, requiring a scan of all subdirec- tories of /usr/fred. There is one exception to the rules given for patterns. The character , (period) at the start of a filename must be explicitly matched. echo * therefore echoes all filenames that don't begin with . in the current directory. echo .* echoes all filenames that begin with . in the current directory. This pre- vents inadvertent matching of the names . ("current directory") and .. ("parent directory"). (Ls suppresses information for . and .. .) Care should be taken when you use the rm command with generated patterns. You could easily remove more files than you intend. To reduce the chance of error, first echo the pat- tern, as shown in this example: echo tmp* followed by rm tmp* Be careful not to introduce a space between tmp and * . Interactive Use of the Shell When the shell is used from a ter- minal, it issues a prompt before read- ing a command. By default this prompt is $. It may be changed by setting the prompt string: PS1=yesdear 188 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Thirsty for 384k for Your IBM PC? Try a Since the introduction of DOS 2.0, the capabilities of the PC have been increased with the ability to address up to 640k of memory. With the current PC having 256kavailable on the computer motherboard, you need another 384k to reach 640k. Great you say, but multi-function boards only have room for 256k on them. Well look again, because nowyoucanget the new SixPakPlus™ with up to 384k of memory, clock/calendar, asynchronous IRS232C serial) port, printer port, SuperDrive™ electronic disk emulation, and SuperSpooler™ printer spooling. There is even an optional game port. And if you already have enough memory for your present needs, you can still get on the bandwagon by buying it without any memory. When your needs for memory grow, the sockets are ready for you to install six banks of 64k parity checked memory. With the SixPakPlus'" from AST Research you get the most advanced multifunction board available from the industry leader in IBM PC enhancements. TM You get a clock/calendar powered by a clip-on battery which does not require factory service to replace. It automatically loads the correct time and date when you turn on your computer. The serial port can be configured as COMI or COM2, and has jumpers for simplifying wiring of cables. The printer port uses all the same signals as IBM's — you can even use the IBM diagnostics on it. The optional game pot: uses any IBM compatiblejoystick. The board is backed up with a one-year warranty on parts and labor and the Oubie' satisfaction guarantee. If for any reason you are not satisfied with the performance of your board within 30 days of purchase, you may return it for a full refund, including the postage to return it. And if your board should need warranty service we do the repairs in 48 hours or we replace your board with a new one. That's the level of service that has made us the largest dealer in the world for AST Research products. Mega PI us II & l/O-Plus II The Ultimate Expansion for IBM PC or XT The AST Research MegaPlus II'" has three functions standard Parity checked and fully socketed memory up to 256k in 64k increments; clock/ calendar with battery back-up for automatic loading of time and date when the computer is turned on; and asyn- chronous communication port (RS232C serial) which csn be used as COMI or COM2, (DTE for a printer, or DCE for a modern). Also included is SuperDrive™ "electronic disk" software. This program builds "disk drives" in memory which accessyour programs at the speed of RAM. You get SuperSpooler™. print spooling software. It operates your printer while you continue to work with your computer Options include a 100% IBM compatible parallel printer port fcan be configured as LPT1. or LPT2), and a second RS232C asynchronous port ICOMl or COM2|, Three MegaPak'" options can plug onto your MegaPlus II "piggyback" style to give you an additional 128k or 256k of memory, or a game port. I/O-Plus II™, is the answer for those who don't need additional memory but would like all those other multi-function board features. The l/O-Plus II'" comes standard with a clip-on battery powered clock/calendar, an asynchronous communication port (RS232C serial). SuperDrive'" electronic disk, and SuperSpooler'" print spooling software. Optional is a second asynchronous port |DTE, or DCE), a parallel printer adapter, and the best game paddle adapter on the market. II is an IBM standard game port, but it can also use Apple compatible paddles and joysticks. Options are all socketed so they may be added later should the need arise Both boards come with a one year factory warranty and the Oubie' satisfaction guarantee. If for any reason you are not satisfied with the performance of your board within thirty days of purchase, you may return it for a full refund, including the postage to return it. TO ORDER BY MAIL INCLUDE: -complete description of products requested -daytime phone number -California residents add 6% sales tax -check or credit card number with expiration date (personal checks take 18 days toclear| TO ORDER BY PHONE: In California (805) 482-9829 Outside California TOLL FREE (800) 821-4479 PRICES: l/O-Plus 2'" with Clock/calendar, serial (asyn- chronous) port, SuperDrive'" and SuperSpool'" SI29 MegaPlus II™ no memory, with clock, serial, and software - S229 SixPakPlus™ no memory, with clock, serial port, printer port, and software: $229 Each 64k of memory installed and tested on MegaPlus, SixPakPlus or alone S50 Parallel Printer Port S35 Second Asynchronous Port S35 Game Adapter {I/O or SixPakPlus] S35 MegaPak™ with 256k of Memory S299 128k of Memory S199 GamePak for MegaPlusll $40 ConnectAII Cable Bracket SI 9 Cable to Parallel Printer S35 Cable to Modem or Serial Printer S25 Diagnostics Program $10 SUPERWRITER by Sorcim SI79 SUPERCALC by Sorcim SI59 dBASE II by Ashton-Tate S409 Word Processing Keyboard S229 Keyboard/Superwriter Package S399 SHIPMENT Normal shipment is day after receipt of order. We pay UPS surface charges on all items except keyboards. For keyboards add S5 for surface. SI0 for 2 day air. All COD shipments add S3 handling. QUANTITY PURCHASES? If your corporation, institution, or users group has needs for quantities of boards, call us for details on our quantity purchase program. OUBIE DISTRIBUTING 4809 Calle Alto, Camarlllo, CA 93010 Tempo House IS Falcon Road, London, SWtl, UK Circle 564 on Inquiry card. sets the prompt to be the string yesdear. If a newline (carriage return) is typed and further input is needed, the shell issues the prompt > . Mis- typing a quotation mark sometimes causes this. If the prompt is unex- pected, an interrupt returns the shell to read another command. This prompt may be changed by saying, for example, PS2=more Following login, the shell reads and executes commands typed at the ter- minal. If your home directory con- tains a file named .profile, the shell ex- ecutes it before reading any com- mands from the terminal. The follow- ing .profile is typical: date calendar MAIL=/usr/spool/mail/srb HOME=/usr/srb PATH=.:./bin:/bin:/usr/bin:$HOME/bin TERM=... export MAIL HOME PATH TERM This profile also prints the date and checks the calendar reminder service. If you always use the same terminal, then you should set the TERM vari- able in the profile. Shell Procedures The shell may be used to read and execute commands contained in a file. For example, sh file arg-i arg 2 . . . calls the shell (itself a program, called sh) to read commands from file. Such a file is called a "shell procedure." Arguments supplied with the call are referred to within the procedure using the positional parameters $1,$2,. ... If the file wg contains who | grep $1 then sh wg fred is equivalent to who | grep fred where $1 is replaced by fred, and sh is an append command. (The com- mand to end the case statement is esac, "case" spelled backward.) When append is called with one argument, as in wg fred is equivalent to sh wg fred This enables shell procedures and programs to be used interchangeably. Frequently, procedures are used to loop through the arguments ($1, $2,. . .), executing commands once for each argument. An example of such a procedure is tel, which searches the file /usr/lib/telnos containing lines of the form fred 277-0123 bert 277-0789 Cttek DEVELOPMENT HARDWARE/SOFTWARE HIGH PERFORMANCE/ cost ratio (601)467-8048 EPROM PROGRAMMER Compatible w/all Rs 232 serial interface port * Auto select baud rate * With or without handshaking * Bidirectional Xon/Xoff and CTS/DTR supported * Read pin compatible ROMS • No personality modules • Intel. Motorola. MCS86, Hex formats • Split facility for 16 bit data paths * Read, program, formatted list commands * Interrupt driven, program and verify real time while sending data • Program single bvte, block, or whole EPROM * Intelligent diagnostics discern bad and erasable EPROM • Verify erasure and compare commands * Busy light * Complete w/Textool zero insertion force socket and integral 120 VAC power (240 VAC/50Hz available) $799 Htand alon MODEL 7956 Model 7128-L1.L2.L2A .5209.00 Model 7128-24 $289.00 DR8 or DR5 $ 30.00 DR8PGX or DR5PGX ..$ 75.00 Cross Assemblers J200.00 XASM (for MSDOS) . . .$250.00 U/V Eraser DE-4 $ 78.00 RS232 Cables $ 30.00 8751 adapter $174.00 8755 adapter 5135.00 48 Family adapter . . ,. S 98.00 $499 MODEL 7228 MODEL 7956 GANG PROGRAMMER Intelligent algorithm. Stand alone copies eight EPROMS at a time. With RS-232 option $999. DR Utility Package allows communica- tion with 7128. 7228. and 7956 programmers from the CP/M com- mand line. Source Code is provided. PGX utility package allows the same thing, but will also allow you to specify a range of addresses to send to the programmer, Verify, set the Eprom $i; done The command create alpha beta ensures that two empty files, alpha and beta, exist and are empty. The notation >file may be used on its own to create or to clear the contents of a file. Also note the ; (or newline) re- quired before done. The notation >$1. append filel file2 appends the contents of filel onto file2. If the number of arguments sup- plied to append is other than 1 or 2, a message indicating proper usage is printed. The general form of the case com- mand is case word in pattern) command-list ;; esac each branch being terminated by ;;. The ;; preceding esac is optional. The shell attempts to match word with each pattern in the order the pat- terns appear. If a match is found, the associated command list is executed, and execution of the case is complete. Because * is the pattern that matches any string, it can be used for the default case. Caution: no check is made to ensure that only one pattern matches the case word. The first match found defines the set of com- mands to be executed. Below, the commands following the second * will never be executed. case $# in esac 192 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. SuperSof t BASIC Compiler ,® for CP/M-86, MS DOS, and PC DOS Compatible with Microsoft BASIC The SuperSoft BASIC compiler, available under CP/M-86 and MS DOS, is compatible with Microsoft* BASIC and follows the ANSII standard. If you want to compile BASIC programs under CP/M-86, PC DOS, and MS DOS, SuperSoffs BASIC compiler is the answer. Greater accuracy with BCD math routines If you have used other languages without BCD math, you know how disconcerting decimal round off errors can be. For example: With IBM PC* With SuperSoft BASIC BASIC with BCD math 10 A=.99 10 A=.99 20 PRINT A 20 PRINT A 30 END 30 END Output: .9899999 Output: .99 As you can see, SuperSoft BASIC with BCD provides greater assurance in applications where accuracy is critical. SuperSoffs BASIC is a true native code compiler, not an intermediate code interpreter. It is a superset of standard BASIC, supporting numerous extensions to the language. Important features include: • Four variable types: Integer, String, and Single and Double Precision Floating Point (13 digit) • Full PRINT USING for formatted output • Long variable names • Error trapping • Matrices with up to 32 dimensions • Boolean operators OR, AND, NOT, XOR, EQV, IMP • Supports random and sequential disk files with a complete set of file manipulation statements • IEEE floating point available soon as an option In addition, SuperSoft BASIC has no run time license fee. SuperSoffs line of fine language compilers includes FORTRAN, BASIC, C, and Ada. SuperSoft BASIC lets me run compiled BASIC programs under either CP/M-86 or MS DOS. *SuperSoft BASIC is compatible with Microsoft BASIC interpreter and IBM PC BASIC. Due to version differences and inherent differences in compilers and interpreters some minor variations may be found. Machine dependent commands may not be supported. The vast majority of pro- grams will run with no changes. Japanese Distributor: ASR Corporation International, 3-23-8, Nishi-Shimbashi, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 105, Japan. TEL (03)-4375371. Telex: 0242-2723. European Agent: SuperSoft International Ltd., 51 The Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England TN2 5TE. TEL. 0892-45433. Telex: 95441 Micro-G. SuperS ft FIRST IN SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY PO Box 1628 Champaign IL 61820 (2171359-2112 Telex 270365 Requires: BASIC compiler: 128K memory $300.00 SUPERSOFT LANGUAGES: THE STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE. Circle 446 on inquiry card. Microsoft ic a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. IBM PC is a trademark of International Business Machines I CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research. poration. BYTE October 1983 193 (TAURUS ONE) + (YOUR PC) = (PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEM) Now a new micro computer based data acquisition and control front end that gives you:— Power that's easy to use:— Plugs into any RS232C, RS422, or IEEE 488 port on your Personal Computer • Powerful Command | functions that include: simple reads and writes, high speed block analog reads, pulse counting, frequency, change of state detection, direct thermocouple input, and more • Results in engineer- A ing units • Convenient screw termi- ** nal panels • Compatible isolated AC/DC 3 amp switchers and , isolated input sensing • r Power that's easy to cost justify:— / A full range of input output (« modules provide: 12 bit r analog inputs with 4 _— programmable ranges for inputs from ± lOmV to ± 10V. digital I/O. counters, pulse output, 12 bit analog output, 4-20 MA input/output, thermocouples • Stand alone mode with direct terminal support • Remote operation • Communicates simultaneously to three computers • Internal diagnostics • Power that's easy to expand:— Plug in expansion to 1024 points • User memory allows downline load of user written functions and programs • EPROM space for special user functions • Rack mount hardware available for all options • TAURUS ONE Write or call ior more information to: IN U.S.A. TAURUS COMPUTER PRODUCTS INC. C/O I.M.S. P.O. BOX 1663 BUFFALO. N.Y. 14203 (603) 673-6662 IN CANADA P.O. BOX 911 STATION "U" TORONTO. ONT. M8Z SP9 (613) 226-5361 TELEX: 053-3577 The case construction can also be used to distinguish different forms of an argument. The following example is a fragment of a cc command. for i do case $i in -[ocs]) . . . ;; - *) echo unknown flag $i ;; *.c) /Iib/c0 $i . . . ;; *) echo unexpected argument $i ;; esac done To allow the same commands to be associated with more than one pat- tern, the case command provides for alternative patterns separated by a |. For example, case $i in -x|-y) ■ • ■ esac is equivalent to case $i in -N) ■ ■ ■ esac The usual quoting conventions apply; thus case $i in \?)... esac matches the character ?. When a command finishes execu- tion, it returns an exit status (return code). Conventionally, a zero exit status means the command suc- ceeded; nonzero means it failed. This Boolean value can be tested using the if and while constructs. The general form of the conditional branch is if command-list then command-list else command-list fi The else part is optional. The value tested by if is that of the last simple command in the command list following if. Because this construc- tion is bracketed by if and fi, it may < Circle 459 on inquiry card. SuperSoft's NEW C Compiler . . . when quality counts. In 1982 SuperSoft helped C programmers around the world move their applications from 8 to 16 bit operating systems with the first C compiler under CP/M-86® PC DOS, and MS DOS. With SuperSoft's new release of version 1.2.6, with its enhancements, upgrades, and improvements SuperSoft is helping those programmers stay ahead of the pack. SuperSoft was there when it counted in 1982 and will continue to be there for you in the future. Today there are several C compilers on the market, and you can look at them all. But if you want a C that's fully portable, syntactically compatible with UNIX version 7 C, rigorously tested, fast in both compilation and execution, packed with more library functions than any other, and produces a very highly optimized assembly code. ..then you'll find only one. The SuperSoft C compiler. Professional Qualify Recently companies have been scrambling to catch up by releasing C compilers. SuperSoft started working on C over three years ago, and the work has never stopped. While others were struggling to put in features, SuperSoft was refining and polishing. ..adding the quality professionals depend on. Thoroughly Tested SuperSoft C has been tested with hundreds of commercial application programs. And all this testing has paid off... with a compiler that's highly reliable in every phase of operation. Portable SuperSoft C is now available in most operating system environments. Since we don't sell operating systems, we can support them all. And as new operating systems become popular, SuperSoft C will be there. Circle 447 on inquiry card. Packed with Library Functions SuperSoft now has the most complete set of library functions available. All provided with source code. Thorough User Manual The new user manual is extensive — jammed with thorough explanations to help you every step of the way. And our technical hotline can help answer any additional questions. SuperSoft's line of fine language compilers includes Fortran, BASIC, Ada, and C. So when quality counts, think SuperSoft. SuperSoft C, CP/M version: $275.00 all other versions: $500.00 SuperS ft FIRST IN SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY P.O.Box 1628 Champaign. IL61820 (217)359-2112 Telex 270365 Japanese Distributor: ASR Corporation International, 3-23-8, Nishi- Shimbashi, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 105, Japan. Tel. (03)-4375371 . Telex: 0242-2723. European Distributor: SuperSoft International Ltd., 51 The Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England TN2 5TE. Tel. 0892-45433. Telex: 95441 Micro-G. UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories CP/M-86 is a trademark of Digital Research BYTE October 1983 195 be used unambiguously in any posi- tion that a simple command may be used. This is true of all the control- flow constructions. Furthermore, in the case of if there is no dangling else ambiguity. Apart from considerations of language design, this is important for interactive use. A C-language style if ... then ... else, in which the else is optional, involves looking ahead to see if the else is present. In this case, the shell is incapable of determining that the if construct is ended until the next command is read. The conditional AND and OR operators are also provided for test- ing the success of a command; they are written && and ||, respectively. command^ \\ command 2 (2) command^ && command 2 (1) executes command 2 only if command) succeeds. It is equivalent to if command) then command 2 fi Conversely, executes command 2 only if command) fails. The value returned by these constructions is the value of the last command executed. Thus (1) returns true if and only if both command) and commandj succeed, whereas (2) returns true if and only if either command) or command^ succeeds. The while loop has a form similar to if. while command-list) do command-list 2 done Command-list) is executed and its value tested each time around the loop. This provides a notation for a break in the middle of a loop, as in while a; b do c done First a, then b, is executed. If b returns false, the loop exits; other- wise, c is executed and the loop resumes at a. This deals with many loop breaks, but break and continue are also available. Both take an optional integer argument specifying how many levels of loop to break from or at which level to continue, the default being considered one level. Variables The shell provides string-valued variables that may be used within shell procedures and interactively as abbreviations for frequently used strings. Variable names begin with a letter and consist of letters, digits, and underscores. Variables may be given values by an assignment or when a procedure is invoked. An argument to a procedure of the form name=value causes value to be assigned to name before execu- tion of the procedure begins. The value of name in the invoking shell is not affected. Such names are some- times called keyword parameters. Keyword parameters may be ex- ported from a procedure by saying export user box IBMPC-8087SUPPORTFTK)MMICROWARE 87FORTRAN/RTOS™ is a full ANSI- 77 subset with 8087 extensions It generates in line 8087 code allowing use of all 8087 data types, including 32, 64 and 80 bit reals and 64 bit integers The complete subset I/O is supported including Internal and External Files and List Directed I/O. Extensions include recursive subroutines, interrupt handlers and the generation of software interrupts 87FORTRAN/RTOS uses the Intel large memory model, allowing data/code structures which utilize the full megabyte. The compiler provides direct access to 8088 ports and supports logical operations on 8 and 16 bit operands normally treated in assembly language. 87FORTRAN/RTOS is ideal for applications which are number intensive or control hardware. 95% of all "main frame" size programs compile and run without extensive editing. The price includes support for one year and RTOS $1 350 87PASCAL7RTOS™ is the most powerful compiler available to PC users at this time. It is an ISO-Standard Pascal, with 8087-8088 exceptions These make it possi- ble to use all the 8087 data types directly, while generating modules in one of the three Intel Memory Models Modules produced using different memory models can be inter- faced and linked This gives the user com- plete control of the memory model/speed trade off characteristic of iAPX cpus All exceptions to the ISO definition are clearly marked with a grey background in a manual which is a standard of the industry, and more readable than many tutorials. The compiler makes it possible to cause or handle inter- rupts It also reads ports and performs all the tasks necessary to control iAPX-86 hardware. Use of 87 PASCAL guarantees you upward compatibility with future Intel processors and languages. Includes RTOS $1 350 RTOS™ — Real Time Operating System RTOS is a MicroWare configured version of iRMX-86, Intel's legendary real time operating system. This DOS is entirely re-entrant and provides many features found only on mainframes It includes the Intel Assembler, ASM-86, which supports the 8086, 8087, 8088 and 80186. All modules produced by the compilers or ASM-86 are combined, loaded and managed with the Utilities LINK-86, LOC-86 and LIB-86. These products make it possible to load modules anywhere in RAM, and resolve external references between runtime modules Overlays with a single root job are supported by the linker. Binding of modules is accomplished at link or load time. RTOS/ASM-86/LINK-86/LOC-86/LIB-86 $600 Micro Ware P.O. Box 79 Kingston, MA 02364 (617) 746-7341 You Can TalkToUs! MicroWare 8087 Products 8087-3 CHIP in stock $223 87 MACRO - our development package for the IBM Assembler includes a Preprocessor which translates 8087 opcodes source for a library of code macros and a COMPLETE function library with trigonometries transcendentals, encoder/ decoder and conversions $1 50 87 BASIC - includes patches for BASCOM.COM, BASCOM.LIB and BASRUN.EXE and the MicroWare 8087 runtime routines $1 50 MATRIXPAK - assembly language matrix routines callable from any 8087 compatible IBM compiler. Allows user- specified very large matrices Size is limited by available ram $1 50 87FASTPAK - includes one Micro- Ware runtime library, the 87/88 Guide, an 8087, and installation instructions $375 87/88GUIDE - an excellent tutorial on writing 8087 code and interfacing it with compilers Full of code that runs! $30 Microsoft Fortran 3.1 289 Microsoft Pascal 3.1 289 Microsoft Business Basic Compiler 495 Microsoft C Compiler with Librarian 450 Computer Innovations CI/C86 345 Supersoft Fortran 340 Energraphics 235 Abstat 345 64K RAM Upgrade Kit 64 Hayes Smartmodem 1 200B 499 Sandstar Modular Expansion Boards call Epson FX-100 or C Itoh Printers call 196 October 1^83 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 311 on inquiry card. SuperSof t FORTRAN For CP/M-86, MS DOS, IBM PC DOS, and CP/M-80® SuperSoft FORTRAN is the answer to the growing need for a high quality FORTRAN compiler running under CP/M-86 and IBM PC DOS. It has major advantages over other FORTRAN compilers for the 8086. For example, consider the benchmark program used to test the IBM FORTRAN in InfoWorld . p. 44, Oct. 25, 1982. (While the differential listed will not be the same for all benchmark programs, we feel it is a good indication of the quality of our compiler.) Results are as follows: IBM FORTRAN: SuperSoft FORTRAN: 38.0 Seconds 2.8 Seconds In its first release SuperSoft FORTRAN offers the following outstanding features: 1. Full ANSI 66 standard FORTRAN with important extensions 2. Standard data types, double precision, varying string length, complex numbers 3. Free format input and free format string output 4. Compact object code and run time support 5. Special functions include string functions, dynamic allocation, time/date, and video access 6. Debug support: subscript checking, good runtime messages 7. Full IEEE floating point 8. Full 8087 support-available as option ($50.00). Program developers: SuperSoft's family of FORTRAN compilers means you can write your programs once and they will run under CP/M-80, CP/M-86, and MS DOS. This lets you get your applications running fast no matter what the environment. "At last, a FORTRAN compiler that works great on my 8086, 8087, and 8088 and Z-80 based systems!" SuperSoft FORTRAN: available NOW and working great! Requires: 128K with CP/M-86 or MS DOS, 32K with CP/M-80 Price: $425 (in each environment) In conjunction with SuperSoft, SuperSoft FORTRAN was developed by Small Systems Services, Urbana, IL, a leader in FORTRAN development. CP/M-80 and CP/M-86 are registered trademarks of Digital Research. IBM PC is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp. Japanese Distributor: ASR Corporation International. 3-23-8, Nishi-Shimbashi, Minato-Ku, Tokyo 105, Japan, Tel. (03)-4375371. Telex: 0242-2723. European Agent: SuperSoft International Ltd., 51 The Pantiles. Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England TN2 5TE. Tel. 0892-45433. Telex: 95441. Micro-G. SuperS ft FIRST IN SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY P.O.Box 1628 Champaign. IL 61 820 (217)359-2112 Telex 270365 The current compiler allows 64K code space and 64K data space with expansion anticipated in future releases. Circle 448 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 197 Support the arts. We are speaking here of business sup- port of the arts, and what it can do for your clients, your employees and your company. In a word, lots. Because in addition to the rewards that the arts have to offer society, there are rewards that the arts can and will offer business. Very real, very tangible rewards. All very much in your com- pany's self-interest. To learn how to go about getting them -or, as the case may be, how to go about it better-there's Partners - Partners is the first practical guide to corporate support of the arts. And for anyone who has anything at all to do with the arts -or would like to -it's indispensable. In it, you'll find dozens of examples of how business and the arts have helped-and continue to help-one another. Detailed information. No-non- sense advice. Sources to turn to for guidance. Specifics. Partners: A Practical Guide to Corporate Su p port of the Arts . For more information and prices, write us today at the address below. And see how much your business can get from supporting the arts. It's one of the few things in this world that's selfish and selfless at the same time. Partners. The first book on supporting the arts that doesn't leave everything to the imagination. Partners is published by the Cultural Assistance Center, Inc., a nonprofit service organization estab- lished to promote and assist cultural institutions. Write the Cultural Assistance Center, Inc., 330 West 42nd St., New York, N.Y 10036. Modification of such variables within the called procedure does not affect the values in the calling procedure. (Generally, a process may not modify the environment of its caller without an explicit request on the part of that caller. Files and shared file descrip- tors are the exceptions to this rule.) A name with value intended to re- main constant throughout a proce- dure may be declared readonly. The form of this command is similar to the export command, readonly name . . . Subsequent attempts to set readonly variables are illegal. Variables within a procedure are set by writing, for example, user=fred The value of a variable may be sub- stituted by preceding its name with $; echo $user echoes fred. (Echo is a standard com- mand that prints its arguments, sep- arated by blanks.) The general nota- tion for parameter (or variable) sub- stitution is ${name} and is used, for example, when the parameter name is followed by a let- ter or a digit. If a parameter is not set, the null string is substituted for it. Alternatively, a default string may be given, as in echo${d-.} which echoes the value of d if it is set, and . otherwise. Substitutions may be nested; thus echo${d-$1} echoes the value of d if it is set; otherwise, it echoes the value (if any) of $1 . A variable may be assigned a default value using the notation ${d=.} which substitutes the same string as ${d-.} unless d was not previously set, in which case it is set to the string . . (The notation ${... = ...} is not avail- able for positional parameters.) When a parameter is required to be set, the notation ${d?message} substitutes the value of the variable d if it has one; otherwise, message is printed, and execution of the proce- dure is abandoned. If message is ab- sent, a standard message is printed. A procedure that requires some pa- rameters to be set might start with : ${user?} ${acct?} ${bin?} The : command is built-in to the shell and does nothing after its arguments are evaluated. In this example, if any of the variables user, acct, or bin are not set, the shell abandons execution of the procedure. Some variables have a special meaning to the shell (see table 1). Command Substitution Standard output from a command can be substituted in a way similar to parameter substitution. The com- mand pwd prints on its standard out- put the name of the current working directory. If the current directory is /usr/fred/bin, the command d = v pwd' is equivalent to d=/usr/f red/bin The entire string between grave ac- cents ('. . .') is taken as the command to be executed and is replaced with the output from the command. The command is written with the usual quoting conventions except a ' must be escaped using \ . For example, Is 'echo "$1 m is equivalent to 198 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. NOW THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO MAKE dBASE II A TREAT (ONLY ONE IS GUARANTEED.) Let Autocode write your programs for you. For those of you with no desire to join the ranks of computer programmers just to get your work done, treat yourself to Autocode. Autocode is the easiest, fastest way to get what you want from dBase II, because it generates complete, high quality programs from simple instructions. Whether you're a dBase II master or just learning, you'll like the way Autocode writes powerful, elegant code with a minimum of effort. And you'll appreciate the fact that Autocode, unlike slower, less capable program generators, supports sophisticated dBase II features like on-screen calcula- tions and multi-tiered criteria for report generation. dBase II is a registered trademark of Ashton-Tate. Autocode 1 is a trademark of Stemmos Ltd. Even if you're an experienced programmer, the consis- tent quality of Autocode's programs will win you over. Use Autocode without risk. Give it a try. For only $19 5. 00, you get the unabridged Autocode disk and our concise, entertain- ing, clearly written manual. We're so sure you'll like the simplicity of Autocode's easy to use menu-driven operation, the only risk is that you'll never go back to dBase II alone. So for a taste of the best thing that's ever happened to dBase II, try Autocode. Contact your dealer, or call toll-free 800-262-8800 or (415) 777- 3800. Or write Axel Johnson Corporation, 666 Howard St., San Francisco, California 94105. l&f A member of the Axel Johnson Group. (a) $- (b) SMAIL $HOME $CDPATH $PATH $PS1 SPS2 $IFS The exit status (return code) of the last command executed as a decimal string. Most commands return a zero exit status if they complete successfully and return a nonzero exit status otherwise. Testing the value of return codes is deferred until the section on if and while commands. The name of the command procedure being executed. This variable can be used to distinguish cases when a command has more than one name. For example, the following script is called ttytek and a link to the same file exists called ttyblit. If the file has any other name, and is executed by that name, the default case applies. The command sets terminal options using the stty command case $0 in ttyblit) stty erase * H I ttytek) stty erase * H I ') stty erase * H I esac ) ffO tabs ;; ) tek -tabs ; The number of positional parameters (in decimal); used, for example, in the append command to check the number of parameters. $# is also updated by the set command. The process number of this shell (in decimal). Because process numbers are unique among all existing processes, this string is frequently used to generate temporary filenames. For example, ps a >/tmp/ps$$ rm /tmp/ps$$ The process number of the last process run in the background (in decimal). The current shell flags, such as -x and -v. When used interactively, the shell looks at the file specified by this variable before it issues a prompt. If the specified file has been modified since it was last looked at, the shell prints the message you have mail before prompting for the next command. For user fred, this variable is set as MAIL=/usr/spool/mail/fred The default argument for the cd command. The current directory is used to resolve filename references that do not begin with a / and is changed using the cd command. For example, cd /usr/fred/bin makes the current directory /usr/fred/bin. Cd with no argument is equivalent to cd $HOME The list of directories searched by cd. Each directory name is separated by : . A typical setting of this variable, CDPATH=: .. :$HOME/desk specifies that cd should search the current directory, the parent directory, .. , and $HOME/desk. If the directory ../src exists, and there is no src directory in the current directory, cd src changes the directory to ../src and prints this string as confirmation. A list of directories that contain commands (the search path). Each time a command is executed by the shell, a list of directories is searched for an ex- ecutable file. If $PATH is not set, the current directory, /bin, and /usr/bin are searched by default. $PATH consists of directory names separated by : . For example, PATH=.:./bin:$HOME/bin:/bin:/usr/bin specifies that the current directory (the before the first :), ./bin, $HOME/bin, /bin, and /usr/bin are to be searched in that order. In this way, individual users can have their own commands in $HOME/bin accessible independently of the current directory. The directory ./bin allows ac- cess to any directory named bin from the current directory. This separates commands from data files within a directory associated with some project or activity. If the command name contains a /, the directory search is not used; a single attempt is made to execute the command. The form ./cmd may be used to bypass the search path for command in the current directory. The primary shell prompt string, by default, $. The shell prompts with $PS2 when more input is needed; by default, the value is >. The set of characters used for blank interpretation. Table 1: Variables that have special meaning to the shell. In table la, the variable $? is set after each execution of a command; all others are set initially by the shell. The variables in table lb are typically set in the file .profile in the user's home directory. IS $1 Command substitution occurs in all contexts in which parameter sub- stitution occurs (including "here" documents) and the resulting text is treated the same in both cases. This mechanism allows string processing commands to be used within shell procedures. An example of such a command is basename, which re- moves a specified suffix from a string. For example, basename main.c .c prints the string main. The following fragment from a cc command illus- trates the use of basename. case $A in *.c) B='basename $A .c l esac sets B to the part of $A with the suf- fix .c stripped. Here are some com- posite examples: for i in 'Is -t l ; do . . . The variable is set to the names of files in time order, with the most re- cent files first. set 'date 1 ; echo $6 $2 $3, $4 Print the date arguments in the order specified, e.g., 1970 Feb 3, 11:59:59. The output from date is Tue Feb 3 11:59:59 GMT 1970 and the shell breaks up this output as arguments for the set com- mand. The result is assigned to the positional parameters. a='expr $a + 1' Increment the shell variable a by 1 using the output from the expr command. Evaluation and Quoting The shell provides parameter sub- stitution, command substitution, and filename generation for the argu- ments to commands. Let's look at the order in which substitutions occur and the effects of quoting mechanisms. 200 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 508 for dealer inquiries. Circle 509 for end-user inquiries. Getting more out of. ,*, ?, |, and & have a special meaning. Any- character preceded by a \ is quoted and loses its special meaning, if any. The \ is ignored; thus echo\?\\ echoes ? \ . To allow long strings to continue beyond one line, the se- quence \ neivline is ignored. A \ is convenient for quoting single characters. When more than one character needs quoting, the above mechanism is clumsy and er- ror prone. A string of characters may be quoted by enclosing part of the string between single quotes, as in echo ' * ' The quoted string may not contain a single quote. A third quoting mechanism uses double quotes and prevents inter- pretation of some, but not all, meta- characters. Within double quotes, parameter substitution and com- mand substitution occur, but file- name generation and the interpreta- tion of blanks do not. The characters in table 2 have a special meaning within double quotes and may be quoted using \ . For example, echo "$x" passes the value of the variable x to echo, whereas echo '$x' passes the string $x to echo. In cases requiring more than one evaluation of a string, the built-in command eval may be used. The eval command reads its arguments (which have therefore been evaluated once) and executes the resulting com- mand^). If the variable X has the value $y, and if y has the value pqr, Graphics for the IBMpc Apple II This is a spectacular collection of graphics programs for the IBMpc and the Apple II or lie. It contains more than 60 programs in BASICA. They're listed beside theory and equations in a 280 page self-teaching guide. An optional program disk is available. These programs will show you how to write your own 2D and 3D graphics software and they will give you many useful, ready-to-run graphics routines to incorporate in your own software. Programs are menu driven and modular. They show how to use elementary graphics commands and do 2D and 3D translation, rotation, scaling, clipp- ing, windowing, hidden line removal, shading, perspective, hi-speed anima- tion, with applications to science, business, engineering and games. Adopted as a text in many leading universities. We know you will be pleased. Please send: IIBMpc Book- $30.50 DIBMpc BASICA Disk- $21.50 □ Apple Book- $30.50 □ Applesoft Disk- $21.50 Name Address City/State/Zip □ check enclosed □ visa/mastercard expiration date_ call (617)934-0445 for faster delivery KERN PUBLICATIONS • P.O. Box 1029B • Duxbury, MA 02332 Designer f~^~Q f^rX ) f-^-Q This is a professional 3 dimensional graphics design program. With Designer you can interactively create 3D drawings on the screen, rotate in 3 dimen- sions, enlarge, view in perspective, store on disk, recall and update. Run Designer - a cursor appears on the screen with a set of 3 dimensional coordinate axes. Move the cursor around in 3 dimensions identifying node points, lines and points defining curves. Curves fit through points using a cubic spline algorithm. See your 3D picture being created on the screen. X,y,z coordinates are displayed as the cursor moves. Then enlarge, rotate, store your 3D picture on disk, recall and modify. The picture stored on disk is a text file of node x,y,z coordinates and the lines and curves comprising the 3D object. Interface Designer 30 to other pro- se grams through this disk file. Use Designer as a graphics pre-processor for your own applications software. Designer is supplied on disk in machine language with a user's manual. Perfect for CAD/CAM applications. Please send □ Apple Designer 30 -$85 □ IBMpc Designer 30 - $85 Name Address City/State/Zip □ check enclosed □ visa/mastercard .expiration date_ ^A_ call (617)934-0445 for faster delivery KERN PUBLICATIONS • P.O. Box1029B • Duxbury, MA 02332 202 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. then eval echo $X echoes the string pqr. Errors and Faults The treatment of errors depends on the type of error and on whether the shell is being used interactively. An interactive shell is one with I/O con- nected to a terminal. Execution of a command may fail for any of the following reasons: • I/O redirection fails because a file does hot exist or cannot be created; in this case, the command is not executed • the command itself does not exist or is not executable • the command terminates abnor- mally; for example, with a "memory fault" • the command terminates normal- ly but returns a nonzero exit status In all of these cases, the shell goes on to execute the next command. Except parameter substitution command substitution ends the quoted string quotes the special characters Table 2: These characters have special meaning when enclosed in double quotes; they should be quoted using \ . for the last case, an error message is printed. All remaining errors cause an exit from a procedure. An interactive shell returns to read another command from the terminal. Such errors include • syntax errors; e.g., if . . . then . . . done • a signal such as terminal interrupt; the shell waits for the current com- mand, if any, to finish execution and then either exits or returns to the terminal • failure of any of the built-in com- mands, such as cd If any error is detected, the flag -e causes the shell to terminate. Procedures normally terminate when an interrupt is received from the terminal. An interrupt is com- municated to a process as a signal. If cleaning up (e.g., removing tem- porary files) is required, the built-in command trap is used. trap 'rm /tmp/ps$$; exit' 2 sets a trap for terminal interrupt (signal 2) and, if this interrupt is re- ceived, executes the commands rm /tmp/ps$$; exit Another built-in command is exit, which terminates a procedure. The exit is required in the preceding ex- ample; otherwise, after the trap is taken, execution resumes at the place where interrupted. Signals can be handled by a pro- cess in one of three ways. They can be ignored, in which case the signal is never sent to the process; they can be caught, in which case the process must decide what to do; or they can Business Scientific Data Plotting Data Plotting Software for Micros- mis 232 pg book/disk package contains 1 8 programs in BASIC for processing and plotting data: Histograms, pie charts, log plots, regression, statistical analysis, curve fitting, barcharts, stock market charts, 3D views of surfaces, data management, applications to science, engineering and business. Special features include writing text over graphics, automatic scaling and axis labeling, automatic replotting when data is changed. Book contains program listing in Applesoft BASIC with theory, equations and full documentation. Disks contain same programs in Applesoft BASIC or IBMpc BASICA. Use the programs as-is or modify and combine for your own special applications. Please send I l Book- $30.50 Applesoft Disk- $19.95 IBMpc BASICA Disk- $19.95 Name Address City/State/Zip D check enclosed D visa/mastercard expiration date_ call (617)934-0445 for faster delivery KERN PUBLICATIONS • P.O. Box 1029B • Duxbury, MA 02332 Applied Statistics lor Micros Applied Statistics for Microcomputers- This is a package of profes- sional level statistics programs for use in business, science and engineer- ing. Book contains program listings in BASIC alongside theory and documentation. Optional disk contains same programs in BASIC. Book gives clear, easy-to-read tutorial on errors, statistical distributions, hypothesis tests, variance, covariance, regression, response surfaces and time series. 22 programs calculate normal, chi-square, t and F distributions; variance with randomized blocks, Latin squares, factorials, response sur- faces. Hi-accuracy mutti-linear regression program has data handling and transfor- mation. Also programs for hypothesis testing, sorting and smoothing. Numerous practical applications. Assumes no prior knowledge of statistics. Used as a text for years at a leading university. Please send: QBook- $38 D IBMpc BASICA Disk- $26 D Applesoft Disk- $26 CP/M86 Disk- S26 Name Address City/State/Zip □ check enclosed O visa/mastercard expiration date_ y^. call (617)934-0445 for faster delivery KERN PUBLICATIONS • P.O. Box 1029B • Duxbury, MA 02332 Circle 259 on inquiry card. October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 203 Circle 29 on inquiry card. i ALPHA OMEGA COMPUTER PRODUCTS ... 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JOYSTICKS 44 QUENTIN APPLEMATE DRIVES .... 235 SUPER 5 THIN LINE DRIVES 263 WIZARD BP016K BUFFERED INT. .. 139 EPS KEYBOARD 297 COOL & TIME (Fan, Time, Surge) 69 PFS FILING SYSTEM 82 PFS REPORT 82 DBASE II 395 WORDSTAR 239 CALL FOR COMPLETE PRODUCT LINE AND CURRENT PRICING (213 345-4422 4847 LA MONTANA CIRCLE TARZANA, CA 91 356 S All products are in factory sealed packages. We guarantee all items for 30 days. Within this period, defective merchandise returns must be accom- panied by RMA number. All other returns will be subject to a 10% restocking fee. For prepaid orders there will be a 3% shipping charge, $5.00 minimum. There will be an additional $4.00 sur- charge on COD orders. Cash or Cashiers Check is reguired on COD orders. Calif, residents add 6.5% sales tax. Prices subject to change without notice. be left to terminate the process. If a signal is ignored on entry to the pro- cedure by invoking the procedure in the background, trap commands (and the signal) are ignored. A procedure itself may elect to ig- nore signals by specifying the null string as the argument to trap. A trap may be reset by saying, for example, trap 2 which resets the trap for signal 2 to its default value (exit). The procedure scan exemplifies the use of trap without an exit in the trap command. The scan command takes each directory in the current direc- tory, prompts with its name, then ex- ecutes the command typed at the ter- minal. Interrupts are ignored while executing the requested commands but cause termination when scan is waiting for input. d='pwd v for i in * do if test -d $d/$i then cd$d/$i while echo "$i:" trap exit 2 read x do trap : 2; eval $x; done fi done The command read x is built-in to the shell and reads the next line from the standard input and assigns it to the variable x. The command test -d arg returns true if arg is a directory and false otherwise. To execute a command, a new pro- cess is created using the system call fork. The execution environment for the command includes I/O and the states of signals. The environment is established in the created process before the command is executed. The built-in command exec is used in the rare cases requiring no fork. The environment for a command run in the background, such as list *.c | Ipr & is modified in two ways. First, the default standard input for this kind of a command is the empty file /dev/null. This prevents two parallel processes, the shell and the com- mand, from trying to read the same input. Chaos would otherwise ensue. ed file & allows both the editor and the shell to read from the same input at the same time. The other means of modi- fying the environment of a back- ground command is to turn off the quit and interrupt signals so they are ignored by the command, thus ena- bling use of these signals at the ter- minal without causing background commands to terminate. Summary You should now be able to begin using the Unix shell as a program- ming language to write your own shell scripts. Existing Unix com- mands can be easily combined to create your own tools. Some of the examples shown in this article are ex- tremely useful. I recommend that avid Unix users go on to greater pro- ficiency with the Unix shell. The major alternative to the stan- dard Unix "Bourne" shell is the C- shell developed at the University of California at Berkeley. The C-shell is superior for interactive use with its aliasing, history, and job-control facilities. But if you want to write por- table shell scripts that can be used on any Unix system, use of the standard Unix shell is recommended because it is available on all Unix systems. ■ Dr. Stephen Bourne is best known for his con- tributions to the Unix system, including the "Bourne" shell and the book The Unix System. An internationally known computer scientist with 15 years of computer systems experience, he is one of the designers of the Cambridge Capability Com- puter and is recognized for his contributions to programming-language design and compiler-con- struction techniques. Dr. Bourne can be reached at Silicon Graphics Inc., 630 Clyde Court, Mountain View, CA 94043. 204 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Match the 68000 Competition with UNIX operating systems. Beat it withUniFLEXJ e can't keep a good thing secret. Our new UniFLEX Operating System for the 68000 is better than the competi- tions UNIX operating systems or like offerings. Better in several ways. A whole new generation of users can now enjoy the efficiency, flexibility, and reliability that built our reputation. Want the full story? Call us. Or watch for more details. There is a superior alternative. Technical Systems Consultants, Inc. Ill Providence Road Chapel Hill,NC 27514 USA Telephone: (919) 493-1451 Telex II: 510-920-0540 l lNIX'*is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. Unil'I.F.X""is a trademark of Technical Systems Consultants, Inc. "More documentation? Go to a book store." "Training? Call a computer school. Technical support? Call the publisher." Interested in dBASE I Tor 1-2-3? Beware The Dreaded Finger Pointers! Sound familiar? Does your dealer turn into a "finger pointer" when you need help? At Software Banc we offer a complete system that doesn't stop when your software is delivered. Careful Product Selection Do you get bewildered by the endless lists of soft- ware you find in most ads? Let us be your quality control department. We only sell the best pro- grams on the market. After a thorough evaluation we chose dBASE I i™ for data process- ing, and 1-2-3™ for financial management. Our complete line of add-on products help you to continue to get the most from your software. 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Prices You Can Afford tl-2-3™ $399 tdBASEII™ $479 tABSTAT™ $379 dBASE II™ User's Guide $29 DBPlus'" $95 dGRAPH'" $199 dUTIL" $69 dNAMES™ $109 FRIDAY™ $199 QUICKCODE™ $199 TEXTRA™ $60* tNo-risk 60 day money back guarantee "Only available for IBM PC with MS-DOS. Free Catalog If you want to learn more about SoftwareBanc, call or write for our free product catalog. SoftwareBanc 661 Massachusetts Avenue Arlington, Mass. 02174 Fortechnical support call: (617)641-1235 Dealer Inquiries Invited. '" Manufacturer's trademark Payment may be made by: MasterCard, Visa, check, C.O.D., money order. Mass. residents please add 5% sales tax. Add $5.00 for shipping and handling. Prices subject to change. Chicago Oct. 17-21 Dallas Nov. 14-18 s SoftwareBanc Order Toll Free 1-800-451-2502 (617) 641-1241 in Mass. m San Diego Dec. 12-16 Hours 9AM-8PM E.S.T. Monday-Friday 206 BYTE October 1983 *y 1-2-3 Sjifvwldlrrt. (■rajihio. Infomtaifcin MMMCd Plot ■ft*y J* In "**' T^J 1 ' ' ^^ V v - . ^^H ] jsm ' ADAM B. GREEN ■i Taught by the nation's leading dBASE II expert, Adam B. Green, whose dBASE II User's Guide has sold over 30,000 copies. "Green doesn'tjust teach dBASE syntax, he establishes the fundamental terminology and organization behind data-base management systems." dNEWS - Ashton-Tate each your computer who's BOSSI Attend a dBase II or 1 -2-3 SoftwareBanc Seminar Here are Just a few of SoftwareBanc Seminars' clients: ABC Arthur Anderson Boeing Aerospace CBS Chase Manhattan Bank Citibank Computerland Cornell University Digital Equipment Corp. Digital Research Dunn & Bradstreet E.F. Hutton Fox & Geller IBM Internal Revenue Service Laventhol & Horwath Merrill Lynch Osborne Computer Corp. Polaroid Corp. Price Waterhouse RCA Shell Oil Smithsonian Institute U.S. Air Force U.S. Navy U.S. Postal Service Victor Business Products Westinghouse Xerox 1 983 Schedule of Classes Anchorage New York August 11-12 Sheraton Anchorage Washington, D.C August 29-September 2 Marriott Crystal Gateway 4 Days of Instruction 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. dBASE II Fundamentals dBASE II Programming Advanced dBASE II Problem Solving with 1-2-3 September 19-23 New York Hilton Chicago October 1 7-2 1 Hyatt Regency Dallas November 14- AMFAC San Diego December 12- Hyatt Islandia State of the Art Presentation Buffet Lunch/Coffee Breaks Portfolio of Comprehensive Video and sound system Video tapes of program authors Seminar Notes $175 Per Day of Instruction Pre-payment may be made by: MasterCard, VISA or Check. Call or write to register SoftwareBanc Seminars 661 Massachusetts Avenue Arlington, MA 02 174 (800)451-2502 (617)641-1241 in MA Circle 433 on inquiry card. 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KONAN SPECIAL! 5Mb. for S-100 1629 -DISKETTES- 3M/ Scotch 5 1 / 4 ". ..$21. 95 jingle Sided, Double Density) 5%". . . $30. 95 (Double Sided, Double Density) Call us for the lowest prices on other popular diskettes! If you can't find what you I need listed here, just call for \ the best prices on the items you require. N.Y. residents., add appropriate sales tax. We accept VISA and Master Card. Personal and company checks, allow2weeks to clear. C.O.D.'s require a 25% deposit. All prices and offers may be withdrawn without notice A Unix as an Application Environment A tools approach to the needs of the business community The operating system defines a computer's environment. And the first requirement of an environment is that it be reliable. Users need a robust software foundation— one that's not susceptible to a crash yet is able to exit gracefully when neces- sary. The system's stability should quell the need for releases of new ap- plications, and the sponsoring organ- ization should provide reliable sup- port. Generally speaking, the oper- ating system should be mature. Users also have secondary needs. The operating system must provide a framework for its two kinds of Users: the developers and the ehd users. Developers are most produc- tive when they have good tools to aid the programming process. These tools include languages, debugging aids, text editors, and other utilities. End users have an entirely different set of needs. They should be isolated from the esoterica of the computer and be given something that is easy to use. Finally, various technical features are needed: • the ability to handle multiple users • interprocess communication and concurrent operations so that users and their tasks can work together by Mark Krieger and Fred Pack • communication capability so that users on different machines can work together • file locking so that users do not get in each others' way • a rich set of utilities so that we are spared from having to create our own routines • portability so that the programs we write today will continue func- tioning in the advanced machines available in the future • a large body of applications so that the computer can immediately perform useful work for us Because it meets these criteria, we believe that the Unix operating sys- tem is one of the systems of choice. General Software Problems Unfortunately, most designers of operating systems neglect the heeds of the end user. The early designers didn't expect their systems to be used in the mass market, and later design- ers patterned their products after the originals to provide compatibility. Furthermore, most computer users Were technically adept; system soft- ware "hand holding" wasn't neces- sary. Finally, until quite recently microcomputers' limited computa- tional power kept designers from de- voting the machine resources re- quired to make the system software easy to use. These historical problems are being overcome due to the dramatic drop in microcomputer prices and the in- crease in computer capabilities. Stated simply, a low-cost computer must not require extensive operator training. The typical computer user is someone with a problem to solve, not a computer professional. The increased computer "horse- power," storage, and graphics capa- bilities that are standard today per- mit the system designer to make the system infinitely more pleasant to use for both computer professionals and the problem solver. The historical problems of operat- ing systems center on their tenden- cy to be cryptic, unfriendly, and un- standardized. Phrasing a command precisely can require extensive study i of a dense, technically oriented, and 1 usually poorly worded system man- ual. Occasionally, machines respond even to proper commands with system-error-messages such as BDOS ERROR or ERR ON DEV 0/1, which are incomprehensible. The user may find that his data is lost because he forgot to issue the SYNC command when he turned off the October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 209 machine. Integrated software application packages such as 1-2-3 from Lotus Development and Visi On from Visi- corp provide session guidance, com- mon data and command structures, and consistent documentation. How- ever, a fully integrated environment can be achieved only by the underly- ing operating system. Apple's Lisa is the first of such systems. Lisa pro- vides extensive graphical representa- tion, lets users issue commands without keying, and can exchange data with all the integrated applica- tions. Alternatives Several operating systems are vy- ing for a significant share of the microcomputer marketplace. The primary ones are CP/M, MS-DOS, Pick, and Unix. Lisa-style operating systems will soon be contenders. CP/M: CP/M was the first signifi- cant microcomputer operating sys- tem. Consequently, it has the largest collection of application software. Because the older microcomputers had limited power, CP/M did not pro- vide sophistication for either devel- opers or users. Updated versions have added concurrency, multiuser capability, and portability. Many of CP/M's features have become de facto standards because of CP/M's popu- larity on 8-bit computers; however, CP/M is hampered by its limited abilities. MS-DOS: MS-DOS, designed for the newer 16-bit machines, remains largely compatible with the com- mand syntax of CP/M. This has proven to be a winning strategy, and MS-DOS is very successful. At this time, MS-DOS is not portable and runs only on the 8086 microprocessor family. MS-DOS is evolving to more closely resemble Unix, by mimicking the tools approach and file structure, which is so useful for program devel- opment and applications. Pick: the Pick operating system, an applications environment, was de- signed around databases and query facilities, which means it is easy to use. Because it permits programming only in BASIC, it is not efficient for math or computational applications. Of course, a good deal of data pro- cessing is concerned specifically with databases. Pick is portable and runs on a wide range of machines. Origi- nally designed for larger machines, it has the sophisticated facilities busi- ness users demand. Unix: the Unix operating system, designed by Bell Laboratories 10 years ago as a program-development base, originally ran on minicomputers. It is Several operating systems are vying for a significant share of the microcomputer marketplace. The primary ones are CP/M, MS-DOS, Pick, and Unix. very portable and has migrated both up- and down-scale. Though a fine development system, until recently Unix lacked application programs and was not for the end user. It has always provided an integrated, con- sistent, and powerful environment to software developers through the tools approach. We'll discuss Unix's strengths, weaknesses, and potential in greater detail later. Lisa: the Lisa-style operating sys- tem will have a profound effect on the front-ends of all future operating systems. A Lisa user sees a graphics display with pictorial representations instead of words. He operates the system by manipulating a mouse, which moves the cursor among the pictures (or "icons"), each of which signifies a command or the data to be handled. In addition, extensive use is made of windowing, which en- ables the user to see several displays at once. Mice and windows are proliferating in new application designs even for other operating systems. For in- stance, Multitool-Word, a new word processor from Microsoft, uses a mouse and multiple windows, as do Visi On and the Unipress EMACS ex- tensible screen editor for Unix. Strengths of Unix Unix has a reputation as the best environment for writing and main- taining programs, but it is considered a poor basis for end-user applica- tions. We feel that the acclaim is just- ly deserved, but the negative senti- ment is not as appropriate regarding applications use. Unix is multiuser: because the cost of a machine is borne by several users, it can be lower than multiple single-user alternatives. Other oper- ating systems are moving toward multiuser capability, but Unix has always had this facility. A less obvious advantage of multi- user systems is the availability of shared data. Most applications rely on a database of some kind, and this data is usually of general interest to the user community. While networks of single-user machines can theoret- ically access a common data bank, in practice this is a cumbersome process. Another inherent virtue of multi- user systems is the ability to develop software jointly. Large projects re- quire many people, and the in- dividually created components be- come integrated during the course of the project. Interim testing and final integration are greatly simplified when all the components reside on the same computer. MP/M, a mem- ber of the CP/M family, is available in a multiuser format, as is Pick. Lisa and MS-DOS 2.0 are not multiuser systems. Multitasking capability: the process of running more than one program concurrently is another asset of the Unix system. This permits you to do more than one job at your terminal: for example, you could query a database while printing a lengthy report. Most microcomputer operat- ing systems do not provide this capa- bility, and even some mainframe operating systems limit the scope of multitasking. Unix has no built-in constraints on the degree of concur- rent work. Unix is the best program-development system: though most computer users are not programmers, they do rely on the programmers' creations. Thus, Unix applications can be particular- ly sophisticated because the develop- ment environment is so rich. 210 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. A number of standard languages are included in Unix, among them C, assembler, and FORTRAN. Pascal, COBOL, BASIC, and Ada are also available. C combines the efficiency of assembly-language with the con- trol structures of modern high-level languages. Many applications exist for most of the other languages. Unix also provides several editors and de- bugging aids. The standard ed line editor is usually supplemented with the vi screen editor, which is now part of Unix System V. The concept of reusable tools per- mits existing program segments to be strung together. Many applications require sorting of data, for example. Under most operating systems, the programmer must either write his own sort or obtain a commercially available one. Using this sort may be a separate job step. As one of its hun- dreds of built-in utilities, Unix in- cludes a sort that can be run as a con- current task or as a separate step. All of these utilities can interface with either terminals or files and com- municate with each other. An exam- ple is the /RDB database package. /RDB is a collection of approximate- ly 40 interacting tools that let you build a relational database without writing a single program. An advanced file system: historically, operating systems organized files in a "flat" structure so that users' data and programs were commingled. As system complexities and disk sizes grew, flat file systems became in- tolerable. Unix provides a far ad- vanced method of managing data and programs: the tree-structured file hierarchy. In Unix, files are members of direc- tories, which are themselves mem- bers of higher-level directories. Data and programs can therefore be orga- nized coherently according to need. Any file or directory can be protected against unauthorized access. This protection extends to read/write/ex- ecute access for specific users, groups of users, and the entire user com- munity. The file system is easily navigable from within programs or the command line. Unix has extensive communications capabilities: standard Unix utilities transfer files between computers. In addition, the communications pack- age permits a user to pass through one computer and log into another. Weaknesses of Unix The most often cited criticisms of Unix are its "user unfriendliness," its tendency to destroy files when the hardware crashes, its lack of record interlock needed to permit multiple, simultaneous write access to shared data, and the lack of a body of avail- able applications. Until recently, the Bell System seemed unconcerned with the commercial potential of its Unix product and thus did not take the steps needed to ensure its success in the marketplace. User unfriendliness: Unix was de- signed for computer professionals, an audience that appreciates terse com- mand syntax because a minimum of keystrokes are needed to get results. Thus, to copy files you enter cp in- stead of "copy." This minimalist r fkV i^ DBPlus SORT, COMPRESS, and TRANSFORM dBASE n" DATA FILES 500 1000 RECORDS SORTED If you are serious about dBASE II,™ you need DBPlus.™ This program runs outside of dBASE II,™ and per- forms the following important functions on dBASE II™data files: •Sort • Compress/Decompress • Transform DBPlus™ is designed to free you from the chore of typing, or memorizing a new language. In most cases all you have to do is move the cursor to the next menu item and press return! SORT DBPlus™ can sort a data file up to 15 times faster than dBASE II™ on a single field; 32 fields may be sorted in a single pass, and each additional field requires 1% more sorting time. COMPRESS/DECOMPRESS A copy of any dBASE II™data file, can be produced which is only 30% to 40% of the original size. The compressed file will save you transmission time and phone costs, when you send a data file over a modem. Making backup copies of large data files can use up many floppy disks. Compressed files will save you space in archival storage. TRANSFORM You can now modify the structure of any data file, by adding, deleting, and modifying fields, without any programming knowledge. dBPlus™ can also create a new file which is compatible with WordStar/MailMerge.™ Now retailing for $125. Manual and demo available. Call for a dealer near you. HumanSoft 661 Massachusetts Avenue Arlington, Mass. 02174 (617) 641-1880 Dealer and distributor inquiries invited! dBASE I! is a registered trademark of AshtonTate. Inc. WordSlar/MailMerge is a registered trademark of MicroPro, Inc. Dlii'lus is a registered trademark of llumanSofl Circle 214 on inquiry card. October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 211 philosophy extends to the Unix manuals, which require considerable study to comprehend. Few examples are given, which further makes the system difficult to learn. In reality, Unix is no harder to use than any command-line-oriented sys- tem. You must learn the syntax of the commands, and Unix cannot be faulted for having so many com- mands; these commands, after all, are what give it great power. The commands use a standard format and syntax, unlike some competing products. In addition, the develop- ment of new menu-oriented shells is making Unix more accessible to the end user. The documentation is im- proving considerably, and numerous books have been written on Unix, which improve the learning process. Propensity to destroy files: the criticism goes back a few years. Because Unix uses a "write behind" file mechanism to improve disk per- formance, there is a risk of file cor- ruption or data loss if the hardware is not properly turned off (e.g., dur- ing a power failure). Such file losses occurred with regularity years ago; however, recent improvements have made Unix at least as robust as other systems. Lack of record interlock: the lack of a record-interlock feature has been a serious impediment to widespread commercial use of Unix. Most data- processing applications require users to share a common database, and, as discussed earlier, Unix made shared Unix comes with C and FORTRAN, and other languages are becoming available as demand increases. data possible by its multiuser nature. Unfortunately, Unix did not protect these files against simultaneous write access, which created the risk of file degradation. Of course, application developers could arrange for their own protection, and many did. Even WON THE PRICE WAR In every battle, we came up the victors. Not only in price, but in service and support as well. I-8QO-257-52I7 Call to order: (in NJ 609-424-4700) We cony: Intertec Data Systems Corvus Concept Corvus Hard Disk C. Itoh Printers NETWORKING EXPERTS TnStar Data Systems 2 Keystone Avenue Cherry Hill. NJ 08003 609-424-4700 215-629-1289 WE SERVICE WHAT WE SELL so, the operating system is the best place for such protection, and Unix has not had it until recently. The Bell System: another criticism of Unix has been that it is a creature of the Bell System, whose interests may not correspond to those of the com- mercial computer world. This obser- vation has certainly been valid, and as Unix progressed (without com- plete upward compatibility) from Ver- sion 6 to 7, and later from System III to V, observers had the right to feel that the system was too unstable for them to rely on. Bell has clearly responded to those objections: the royalty fee has been reduced, the company has promised that it will not make future enhance- ments at the expense of compatibili- ty, and Bell Labs has begun working closely with the major hardware manufacturers so that Unix can be available in a standard manner on all the popular 16-bit microprocessors. Unix as an Applications Base Unix is a sound vehicle for appli- cations programs. The body of exist- ing, commercially available Unix applications is not yet very large because until recently few microcom- puter manufacturers supplied Unix with their machines. Applications are written as authors see a new market develop, and authors can reliably be expected to service the Unix area, just as they have flooded the MS-DOS arena, which did not even exist two years ago. For years Unix has been the primary system in many research labs and engineering firms. These centers have designed many applica- tions for internal use, and some of these are now appearing commer- cially. Languages: Unix comes with C and FORTRAN, and other languages are becoming available as demand in- creases. Thus, both RM and CIS COBOLs, which are very popular on CP/M systems, now exist for Unix. BASIC from Microsoft and SMC have been ported. The first Ada imple- mentations have been for Unix because Unix offered the best devel- opment base for its authors. Pascal, BASIC, and FORTRAN from SVS are 212 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 482 on inquiry card. NEVADA COBOL each! A HIGH CALIBER COMPILER FOR CP/M*. Teachers praise Nevada COBOL. Ex tremely easy to learn, easy to use. Nevada COBOL is installed in hundreds of high schools, colleges, and universities. Its ex- cellent documentation, 165 pages with an index, also serves as a classroom text. And, students love Nevada COBOL. It's the affordable, easy to use COBOL. 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Join them! Order now! o ELLIS COMPUTING ALSO AVAILABLE: NEVADA FORTRAN NEVADA PILOT ™ NEVADA EDIT COBOL APPLICATIONS PACKAGE BOOK 1 $29.95 $29.95 $29.95 $ 9.95 Commodore-64 version available from Commodore Business Machines. MAIL TODAY! To: Ellis Computing, Inc. 3917 Noriega Street San Francisco, CA 94122 (415)753-0186 The CP/M* Operating System, an 8080/8085/Z80 microprocessor, and 32K RAM are required. Software Packages: □ COBOL □ FORTRAN □ PILOT □ EDIT Diskette Format: 8" □ SSSD (Standard IBM 3740 format) 5%" □ Apple CP/M D Xerox 820 (Kaypro) □ Osborne DTelevideo □ Micropolis Mod II □ North Star DD □ North Star SD □ TRS-80 Mod I with CP/M @ 4200 hex □ TRS-80 Mod I/Mapper □ Heath Hard (Z-89) □ Heath Soft (Z-90) □ Superbrain DD DOS 3.X (512 Byte sectors) Shipping/Handling Fees. Add $4 00 lor Ihe lirsl package and $2.00 (or each additional package. OVERSEAS add $15.00 for Ihe first package and $5.00 for each additional package. Checks must be in U.S. funds and drawn on a U.S. bank! Send my order for packges @ $29.95 each Total COBOL Applications package @ $9.95 each Total In CA add sales tax □ Check enclosed Shipping/handling □ MasterCard □ Visa Total #_ . Exp. Date- Signature. Ship to: Name Street- City/State/Zip. CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Research, Inc TRS-80 is a registered trademark of Tandy Corp Apple II is a Irademark of Apple Computer, Inc Osborne is a registered trademark of Osborne Computer Corp Xerox 820 is a trademark of Xerox Corp Kaypro is a trademark of Non-linear Sys Heath/Zenilh is a trademark of Heath Corp IBM is a Irademark of International Business Machines. Corp Nevada COBOL, Nevada FORTRAN, Nevada PILOT, Nevata EDIT and Ellis Compuiing are trademarks ol Ellis Computing. Inc S 1983 Ellis Compuling, Inc BYTE October 1983 213 available from certain hardware manufacturers. Menu systems: the "user unfriend- liness" issue has been disposed of by front-ends to Unix, which replace the command-line interpreter (shell) with a formatted screen that displays a menu. For example, Fortune and Altos Unix machines both include a menu shell. In addition, Unipress's menu system can be tailored easily either as a replacement Unix shell or as a front-end to any application. Properly configured menus can significantly reduce the learning period and error rates and guide the user. Word processors and editors: Unix in- cludes both word processors and text editors: the nroff/troff package is ex- tremely powerful, although difficult to learn and use; the ed line editor has recently been supplemented with the full-screen vi product. Software vendors are now provid- ing excellent additional tools. The XED, Horizon, LEX, and the Fortune Forword word processors have fea- tures heretofore available only on ded- icated word-processing machines. EMACS is a screen editor that has migrated to Unix from its origins on DEC 10/20. This product has extraor- dinary powers; for example, multiple windows enable several files to be edited simultaneously, and a built-in compiled MLISP programming lan- guage provides great extensibility. Spreadsheets: the microcomputer age was to an extent built upon the spreadsheet. Such programs are now available for Unix. The Unix environ- ment is so powerful that spread- sheets like Ultracalc have no practical limits on the numbers of rows or col- umns. Unicalc is compatible with Visicalc and Supercalc. Both these spreadsheets are written in C, so they can be placed easily on any Unix machine. Multiplan is also available. Database and ISAM: because Unix itself does not provide a keyed file mechanism, products have been written to fill this need. (Only Pick has been designed with a built-in database.) A variety of modern rela- tional databases are now available. Mistress, Informix, Unify, Ingress, and /RDB are all tailored for Unix. Some of them also support query languages. Programmers often want to access data based upon a key or index, with- out needing a full database system. The Phact ISAM (indexed sequential- access method) system from Uni- press enables the C language pro- grammer to build and maintain so- phisticated multi-index, variable- length record, ISAM files. The Infor- mix package also has an ISAM system. Emulators: because so much soft- ware is designed for the older 8080/ Z80 CP/M computers, several Unix software houses have written emula- tion packages that can interpret CP/M object code. This capability vastly ex- tends the range of usable applications for Unix. Because Mimix, an emulator for CP/M, is written in C, it is portable and runs on PDP-11, VAX, 8086, and MC68000 Unix sys- tems. The Bridge is another example. Emulators for MS-DOS, Apple DOS, and CP/M-86 should be avail- able soon. Business applications: the word pro- cessors and spreadsheets mentioned above are the first step toward full business applications. In addition, now that COBOL and BASIC func- tion on Unix, a tremendous body of application software for business can be ported to Unix. The Open Sys- tems and MBSI financial packages already function on Unix, and others are following. Summary This powerful operating system is demanding new applications; its soft- ware foundation is growing, and Bell Labs' decision to lower royalties and work with equipment manufacturers is giving Unix a needed push. As a result, great numbers of microcom- puter users are being attracted by this multiuser operating system, no longer labeled unfriendly since the implementation of front-end menus. The Unix system is catering to the needs of both developers and end users, and a continued increase in widely known business applications will ensure that Unix meets its potential. ■ Mark Krieger earned an M. S. in computer science from Pratt Institute and was a visiting computer scientist at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. He is president and cofounder of Unipress Software. Fred Pack earned an M.B.A. from Nezv York University. He is vice-president and cofounder of Unipress Softivare (1164 Raritan Ave., Highland Park, Nf 08904). DATA TRANSFER PROBLEMS? YouxJUmpleJSolution is REFORMATTER® Diskette Conversion Software Avoids serial communication protocols. Needs only one system to transfer data. Converts source code and data files. • Allows 2-way transfer. • Quick, reliable, and inexpensive. VERSIONS Runs On CP/M CP/M CP/M-86' CROMIX DEC RT-11 MS-DOS' TRSDOS II TRSDOS II Reads/Writes -* ►IBM 3740 -< ►DEC RT-11 • <&.• * >* ■ IBM 3740 -* ►DEC RT-11 -4 ►CP/M ■ ^S^ IBM 3740 -* ►DEC RT-11 PRICE: S249 'S350 Requires B" floppy drive. (415)324-9114 TWX: 910-370-7457 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 2, Palo Alto, Calif. 94301 214 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 309 on inquiry card. Even if your business isn't pictured here . . . CADO has the computer system you need. Whatever you sell — product or service — if you're in business with CADO. . .you're in business. It's that simple. CADO has a computer system to help you keep track of every side of your specific business — inside and outside. Here's why more and more businesses are choosing CADO: EXPERIENCE. CADO has been installing turnkey solu- tions to specific business problems for ten years — an eon in high-tech time. SOFTWARE. Hundreds of programs are available through CADO's vast Distributor network. Your nearby CADO office has a staff of professional programmers who can also design or adapt an application tailored to meet your exact needs. EXPANDABILITY. You can start with a desktop system (video terminal and printer) and grow — with CADO — to a 64-terminal system with 1.1 billion bytes of storage. The fact is, the CADO supermicro outperforms many mini- computers that cost tens of thousands of dollars more. Complementing all that data processing power, you get CADO's exclusive WordBase,™ which combines power- ful data capture techniques and output control with com- Circle 75 on inquiry card. plete word processing capabilities. WordBase does all your word processing, lets you generate custom reports, prepare forms, and create unique data bases — all with- out hiring a technical staff. So whatever business you're in — put yourself in this picture. Call 800-556-1234, ext. 128; in California, 800-441-2345, ext. 128 for the name of your nearby CADO Distributor. Or send in the coupon below. r CADO A CONTEL COMPANY CADO Systems Corporation 2055 West 190th Street • RO. Box 3759 • Torrance, CA 90510 (213) 323-8170 • Telex 66-4711 CADO TRNC My business is Please rush me more information now about the CADO system I need. NAME_ TITLE COMPANY_ ADDRESS CITY . PHONE_ .STATE. .ZIP. BYTE October 1983 215 How HP business graphics Enhance your reputation for being more pro- fessional, persuasive, credible and effective than your competition with the new HP 7475A Business Professional's Plotter. Make a first impression that lasts The vital importance of graphics to today's business professional cannot be overstated. In survey after survey, statistics prove graphics can help you spot trends and relation- ships quickly, analyze data accurately, and communicate your ideas with more clarity and power than in any other way. Even more im- portant, graphics can actually increase personal and company productivity. And create first impression of quality and professionalism that lasts and lasts. Graphics: the end to meetings that go nowhere In a fascinating research project conducted by The University of Pennsylvania, 123 MBA candidates were involved in a study designed to test the effectiveness of business graphics in meeting situations. The results were startling. In the group where visual aids were used: • Meetings were shorter: The study showed a 28% reduction in meeting length when transparencies were used. • Group consensus was faster: Agreement was reached by 79% of the group using transparencies, compared with only 8% among the control group using no visual aids. • The decision process was accelerated: 64% of study participants said they made their business decisions immediately after the vis- ual presentation. When overheads were not used, the control group said they delayed decision-making until some time after the group discussion following the presentation. • Presenters with visual aids were perceived as being more profes- sional, persuasive, credible and effective than those not using visual aids. Now, with the new HP 7475A Business Professional's Plotter, your meetings can have immediate and productive results like these. How the quality look of HP graphics can help The way you present your information can be equally as important as the actual information you're presenting. And that's where the new HP 7475A Business Professional's Plotter lets your profes- sionalism shine through. Standards unsurpassed in the plotter business The technical standards of the HP 7475A have no equal for pro- ducing quality graphics. With a resolution of one-thousandth-of-an- inch, curved lines are smooth, not jagged, and straight lines are consistently straight. Its exceptional repeatability (the ability of a pen to return precisely to a given point) assures that intersecting lines and circular shapes will meet exactly. The result is high-quality charts and graphs you'll be proud to present. Why 6 pens when experts say 4 will do? Graphics industry experts maintain that good graphics contain four colors per chart. But Hewlett-Packard goes the experts two better by providing a six-pen carousel, so you can store and use pens of different widths — thick pens for bold headings and thin pens for details. And with six pens, you won't have to waste valuable time changing them. That's important when "the boss wants to see your \ sentation in twenty minutes!" With the HP 7475A, you also get automatic pen capping to pre- vent pens from drying out between uses, and special "pen damping' (gently lowering the pen to the paper or transparency) to increase pen life and ensure better line quality. . . use after use after use. You also get a rainbow of 10 colors to choose from , in two line widths. Your choice: 2 paper sizes and today's most popular graphics software packages While most professional business applications will be satisfied with standard Wi x 11" paper or transparencies, the HP 7475A adds the 216 BYTE October 1983 can be the key to your success. capability of plotting on larger 11 x 17" media, too. The larger plots are especially well-suited for time lines, PERT charts, schematics and engineering drawings. Best of all, you don't have to be a programmer to produce quality graphics on the HP 7475A. It's supported by a variety of professional graphics software packages for both HP and non-HP desktop and personal computers. Naturally, speaking of software compatibility leads us to hardware compatibility. . . . Compatible with almost any personal computer in the marketplace today With two interfaces available, the HP 7475A quickly "makes friends" with most models of today's most popular personal computers, including IBM? Apple,™ Compaq™ Osborne® and Commodore™ — as well as a host of HP computers. The cost? Surprisingly affordable The new HP 7475A Business Professional's Plotter is an amazingly affordable $1895. When you consider that a typical fee for a single five-color transparency from a graphics service is $50— and that the same transparency can be prepared for about $1 in materials on the HP 7475A — the return on your investment is almost immediate. Another choice: HP's low- cost, high performance Personal Computer Plotter For the "business on a budget'.' you may also want a look at our 2-pen Personal Computer Plotter, the 7470A. Its low cost (only $1095) is as remarkable as the quality of its plots. With many of the same features as the new HP 7475A, the HP 7470A plots on a single paper size (8'A x 11"). It stores and caps two pens, and you can easily change the pens yourself for multi-color plotting. Best of all, the HP 7470A 2-pen plotter lets you turn your personal computer into a personal graphics workstation for only $1095. Send for your FREE "Better Presentations Package" today! For a FREE sample plot, overhead transparency, and more details, mail the coupon below today. We'll also enclose a list of software packages you can use with the HP 7475A or HP 7470A. For the name of your nearest Hewlett-Packard dealer call toll-free 800-547-3400. ■435 EWLETT PACKARD ! "! YES! I'm ready to gain a reputation for being more profes- sional, persuasive, credible and effective than my competition. Please send me your FREE "Better Presentations Package," so I can learn more about the new HP 7475A Business Profes- sional's Plotter and the HP 7470A Personal Computer Plotter. I understand I will receive this valuable package without cost or obligation. Name Title Company Address City/State & Zip Phone Number (_ My computer is -)- Send to: Hewlett-Packard 16399 W Bernardo Drive, San Diego, CA 92127 Attn: Marketing Communications j 1303 BT0 Circle 210 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 217 SUMO-TESTED WOULD YOU BELIEVE 3 OUT OF 4 S*JM0 WRESTLERS RECOMMEND CASES BY COMPUTER-MATE 1 "' Neither do we. But, it wouldn't surprise us. Because our cases are built with brute strength, able to take a tough beating from even the mighti- est challengers. Stop wrestling with your computer equipment. With our cases you have ease of transportation plus maximum protection for all your components. Standard cases available for IBM, DEC, Apple, Tl, plus many others. Custom built cases are also available to help protect almost any configuration of sensitive equipment. For loss prevention, each case has a 3 x 5 personal identification frame and individual serial number with toll free number. And like all Computer- Mate products, each case is pre- screened for excellence and backed with a 100% unconditional guarantee. •*■ rr« ■'•A*' •^k*K 1 M 3 If ■*c* For order/information contact: Computer-Mate. 1006 Hampshire Lane, Richardson, Texas 75080 Dallas (214) 669-9370 • Texas Residents (800) 442-4006 Out of State (800) 527-3643. Dealer inquiries welcome. I m 1 Sjr^flfs "— -^*^T^Sr^ Chances are your computer equipment will never undergo a heavy bout with a Sumo wrestler, but with protection from Cases by Computer-Mate'" the odds are 3 to 1 your equipment would win. Usenet A Bulletin Board for Unix Users You can easily connect to a nationwide network of Unix enthusiasts Although they aren't as well known as Unix text editors and program- development tools, Unix communica- tions programs are powerful pack- ages that provide access to Usenet, an electronic network that links Unix users around the country. You need only a Unix system and a modem to electronically send and receive mail, transfer files, and discuss the delights and frustrations of using Bell Labor- atories' operating system. The com- prehensive set of networking capabil- ities even enables you to log in to both a local and a remote system and work on the two simultaneously. The Usenet Network Usenet provides a set of programs (collectively called netnews) that allows messages to be posted in news groups, where user-defined topics are discussed. Anyone who has ac- cess to a Unix system running Usenet can participate in this network: there are no special membership require- ments. The network is managed and maintained cooperatively by volun- teers. Although no central adminis- tration exists, individual members who devote a significant amount of time to Usenet are generally consid- ered opinion leaders when policy or strategy decisions are needed. Mark Horton, who works at a Bell Labora- tories branch in Columbus, Ohio, is such a leader. Horton, who became by Sandra L. Emerson interested in Usenet while at the Uni- versity of California at Berkeley, helped develop the current Usenet programs. He points out that Usenet has grown from 50 sites two years ago to more than 500 today, with 5 to 10 new sites joining every month. In January of this year, Horton polled Usenet members to assess their feel- ings about a potential surge in mem- bership resulting from the spread of desktop Unix systems now available at more popular prices. Although some members were concerned that the network might become over- loaded, the general sentiment was in favor of continuing to allow anyone with access to a Unix system to join. Participation in Usenet To set up a Usenet site, you need a Unix system, a modem (preferably an auto-dial type), and disk storage to cope with the flood of messages that Usenet will unload once you are connected. It's not unusual for a large Usenet site to have more than 2 megabytes of messages in its queue. The C-language Usenet programs run under the Unix operating sys- tem, but physical networks other than Unix's native uucp (Unix-to-Unix copy) can be used to carry the news: for example, gateways exist on a limited basis to the Defense Depart- ment's ARPANET and IBM's Bitnet. The majority of sites, however, use the uucp programs because they are already supplied with the rest of the Unix software and their use requires no special hardware. Usenet members can sign up for any of several dozen news groups on topics ranging from assembly lan- guage to auto mechanics. And any user can start a news group. The Usenet community— currently made up of Unix users at universities, manufacturers and packagers of Unix systems, and providers of Unix- related services— has already built a large, unique, and occasionally rich database of news and commentary. Usenet's History The Usenet software was devel- oped by a group of programmers — Steve Daniel, Tom Truscott, Steve Bellovin, and James Ellis— at Duke University in the spring of 1980. The first connection they made was to the neighboring University of North Carolina. Prior to the development of Usenet, Unix users could send elec- tronic mail and files from point to point using the existing Unix network facilities, but no larger organizational framework or technical support was available for pooling news from a wide reading audience. Version A of the Usenet front-end software was originally intended for use by the members of Usenix (uni- versity Unix users group) as a means Circle 119 on inquiry card. October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 219 for online publication of their news- letter, but this implementation never really materialized. In the fall of 1980, Mark Horton at Berkeley learned of Usenet and became the first West Coast link. After the network was in- troduced at a Usenix meeting in Delaware, several more Unix sites were connected to it. Soon Usenet sites were scattered across the coun- try; Oregon's Reed College and the University of Oklahoma were early members. Shortly afterward, pro- grammers at Bell Labs (at the mother node in Holmdel, New Jersey) took notice, and Usenet was strengthened by the addition of Bell Labs person- nel and facilities. With very little advertising, Usenet gained 50 mem- ber sites in its first year. The Usenet software was original- ly designed to deal with a volume of one or two news articles per week. With an increasing volume of mes- sages (the current level of activity is nearly 50 new articles per day), it became clear that new front-end soft- ware was needed. Aided by a tal- ented young programmer named Matt Glickman, then a high school sophomore, Mark Horton and others at Berkeley rewrote the Usenet soft- ware early in 1982. The version B pro- grams could handle the increased volume and, more important, could sort the messages by topic. Previous- ly, messages for all news groups had been delivered in the order in which they arrived at the news machine. The version B programs (B News) contributed significantly to the growth of the network. The latest release of these programs is B News 2.10 (spring of 1983). The older form of the news programs, A News, is still in use at two of the original Usenet sites. A screen-editing front-end package called notesfiles is also available at some Usenet sites. Between releases of front-end soft- ware, any Usenet member may sug- gest improvements or solutions for bugs and post them in a news group. They are then distributed to the net- work from news groups such as net.sources. When a new member joins Usenet, a neighboring site sends a copy of the source for the news programs and documentation to the new site. In- stalling the programs and custom- tailoring them to individual needs is not particularly complicated; ade- quate disk storage, however, is quite important because the programs and documents themselves now consume about 700,000 bytes. Because of its size, the 2.10 B News release is being distributed in Unix tar format (suitable for tape or disk) instead of through the net.sources news group. Finding your nearest local site is a key part of getting on Usenet, either as a new site or as a user. Because there is no central distribution point for the Usenet programs, the spread of both news and software depends on the cooperation of member sites in forwarding materials to their part of the network. It's a Bulletin Board Although the protocols of getting on Usenet and adding or reading messages are slightly more elaborate than those for The Source or Compu- Serve, Usenet does appear to the user as would most electronic bulletin boards. Messages are dated and posted in news groups, each of which is named according to the main subject matter of the messages it posts. Anyone entering a message must decide which news groups should receive it. Messages and an- nouncements of general interest are posted to net.general. For example, net.general might announce the forma- tion of new news groups, post trivia questions, and relate other miscella- neous messages. As in many information utilities, each subscriber can select a personal list of topics. However, users may read articles from any news group at any time. The software can keep track of which articles have been read; unread articles are listed chronologi- cally by publication date, beginning with the earliest. Of the more than 500 official Usenet sites, most are at universities and Bell Labs research facilities. Each site that has an intelligent modem (and can therefore forward messages) agrees, by convention, to forward news to at least two or three other machines. This agreement cuts down on phone costs and helps distribute network maintenance. However, each region also has one or more back- bone network machines that link to up to 50 Unix systems. Recently, manufacturers of Unix systems and software and providers of Unix- related services have been joining Usenet in increasing numbers. The user population might therefore be shifting from an academic and research community to one including many representatives from the out- side world. The Usenet reading au- dience undoubtedly numbers in the thousands. A Map of the Network Of course, you don't have to be an official site in order to participate in Usenet. Many Usenet users simply obtain accounts on major network node machines, such as the nearest VAX, and dial into these machines to read the news. Users at official Usenet sites who have agreed to store and forward news set up uucp links with the network node machine and with their neighboring Usenet machines. The uucp programs func- tion by queueing up work in a spool- ing directory and performing it at times specified in system files. The fact that the uucp process always in- volves copying— copying out work to be sent and copying in work to be received— is another reason that ade- quate disk storage is important for Usenet sites. Usenet sites poll the network on a regular basis, telephon- ing specific machines at agreed-upon times to send and receive work. If you own a desktop Unix system, to join Usenet you will likely become an end node connected as a satellite to the nearest large Unix system. Par- ticularly in the San Francisco Bay area, some manufacturers of Unix systems and software have been making their in-house development machines available on a limited basis for Usenet use. Although no formal mechanism for network self-study is set up, inter- ested users periodically measure the volume of traffic, make a map of the network, and even analyze the con- tent of network news and post it to the appropriate news groups. Several 220 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Heart of TEXAS COMPUTER SYSTEMS Toll Free 1-800-433-5184 CORVUS Texas 1-817-274-5625 HARD DISK DRIVES Complete from $1649 Single and multiuser HARD DRIVES for all brands of computers One or several computers can share A HARD DISK. TCS DRIVE CABINET is industrial grade heavy guage metal, safety (used, and comes with gold plated external connector with extender cable. 1 DRIVE in Cabinet 2 DRIVE Double Cabinet 40 track single sided $199 40 track single sided $399 80 track (dual sided 40 track) . . $299 80 track (dual sided 40 tracks] $599 160 track (dual sided 80 track . . $399 160 track (dual sided 80 tracks! $799 1 DRIVE Double Cabinet Drives In cabinets come assembled 40 track single sided $259 an ?, ,es,ed wi ' n P ower ^PP 1 * 0rder 80 track (dual sided 40 track) . $349 Cable se P arale| y 160 track (dual sided 80 track) 5449 (JNLY 160 track (dual sided 80 track) $CALL 40 track single sided $165 8 inch Slimline sgl/dbl sided $CALL 80 track (dual sided 40 track) $CALL Winchester Hard Drives 5 Meg $399 CALL IF YOU FIND A LOWER PRICE ON DRIVES ^PERCOM^^ Hard Drives supporting both DOSPLUS and LDOS 5 Megabytes ot storage $1390 15 Megabytes ot storage $1990 10 Megabytes of storage $1690 20 Megabytes of storage $2490 PRINTERS A PRINTER CABLES AND ilk ^^ m^*-i // INTERFACES AVAILABLE Call for current pricing PRINTERS • 100 - 120 - 160 CPS " Super Script-Subscript • Bidirectional Logic Seeking ' Underlining • Friction and Tractor ' Backspacing Doublestrike • 9X9 Dot Matrix ' 5, 6, 8 1/2, 10. 12 and 17 Pitch " True Decenders ' Programmable Line Spacing • High Res-Bit Image Block Graphics ' SIX (6) MONTH WARRANTY GEMINI 10X (9 Inch Carriage. 120cps) Friction and Tractor $CALL GEMINI 15 (15 Inch Carriage, 100cps) Friction and Tractor JCALL GEMINI 15X (15 Inch Carriage, 120cps) Friction and Tractor. . . ,$CALL DELTA 10 (10 Inch Carriage, 160cps) Friction and Tractor $CALL STAR Printers can be interfaced with most computers on the market today, such as: Apple II. lie. 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MODEL 16B. 1 drive $CALL MODEL 16B, 2 drives $CALL Model 12 and Model 16 Accessories 128K memory board (256K Max.) $629 128K extra memory chips (RS) $269 128K extra memory chips (TCS) $189 Xenix Microsoft Multi-user Basic . . ., $269 Xenix Accounting Software ' SCALL Xenix Multiplan Spread Sheet Software $263 MII/12 to M16 multi-user upgrade kit $1339 DT/1 Video Terminal $629 MODEL IV MODEL IV. 16K Cassette $825 MODEL IV. 64K. 2 drives, RS-232 $CALL Model III Color Computer All Radio Shack equipment is shipped from our store in Brady, Texas TCS Model IV, 64K, 2 Disks Systems come with 180 Day Warranty $1499 pt t\ $1699 With standard 40 track qC-2^ With 2 dual headed 40 double density drives n a track double density drives Over 340.000 bytes Over 730.000 bytes Enhanced Model IV Operating System Enhanced Model IV Operating System Fully assembled and tested systems that are software compatible and functionally identical to Radio Shack units sold at computer stores for $hundreds more ■ CONTROLLER BOARDS are high quality double sided epoxy boards with gold plated contacts. 1 POWER SUPPLY is the finest switching type available. ■ MOUNTING HARDWARE includes power and data cables 1 DISK DRIVES are Tandon. the same ones used by Radio Shack, 40 track, double density, with a 5 millisecond stepping rate. TCS MODEL III DISK EXPANSION KITS 1 Controller. Power Supply, Mounting Hardware & Instructions $249 2 Controller, Power Supply. Hardware & one 40 track Tandon Drive $429 3 Controller Power Supply. Hardware, two 40 track Tandon Drives $598 3a Kit 3 but with two 80 track drives (dual sided 40s) $791 3b Kil three but with two 160 track drives (dual sided 80s) $989 TCS MODEL IV DISK EXPANSION KITS 1 1 Controller. Power Supply. Mounting Hardware, one 40 Track Tandon Drive $479 12 Controller, Power Supply. 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CART WINCHESTER $1495 Lab Quality LVA S A/D BDS for IBM-PC SS-10D BUS S-100 MAINFRAMES PARA DYNAMICS 3BEOS PRONTOW/SEQUENCER HEAVY DUTY PWR. £ COOLING FOR 2D BOARDS AND ANY MIX DF DRIVES S BACK-UP DEVICES $1235 3DEO B BACK MOUNT SO SLDT $7 15 SBOO R RACK DUAL e" DRV CAB 35525 3B1OD10SLDIDUAL5V. SB85 INTEGRAND BOO DBBF W/DPTIDNS 1497 SPEC. PAINT. FILTERS. B-IOO CONNECTORS. AC CBLS. TERM. M.B. 110DOW/WODDTRIM S449 FLOPPY DISK DRIVES ADD-ON DRIVE SYSTEM ALL-IN-DNE CABINET WITH BO MEQ. H.D. G. B aUME E4E F.O. CABINET. PWR. SUP.. CABLES. S FAN W/FILTER INCLD. S3.B9B pume B4E B" DSDD S46Q H MP/ CAN'T LIST All equipment is in factory cartons with manufac- turers' warranty. Prices subject to change without notice. Most items in stock or shipped as received. 1 NATIONWIDE SERVICE, MOST PRODUCTS SUPER WAREHOUSE P.O. BOX 373 WALUNGFORD. CONNECTICUT 06492 ORDER LINE ORDER HOURS 203-265-1223 9: °° A *« ■ *°° f^-isr MONDAY-FRIDAY PHONE ORDERS FREE (ONC DOLLAR CREDIT FOR PHONE ORDERS) October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 225 Circle 229 on inquiry card. Announcing (he Encore diskette. The way it performs, youU never guess it costs only $1.59! Here's your best value in diskettes today. New Encore meets the same high standards that big-name brands meet -100% error-free performance, ANSI certification. In many cases it actually exceeds system requirements.There's even a 1 -year replace- ment guarantee. Yet the cost is as low as $1 .59 for single-sided, single-density 5Vt" Encore diskettes (when you pur- chase four or more boxes, ten diskettes per box). And only $2. 99 for double-sided, double-density 5Ya" Encore diskettes. With important savings comes reliable perfor- mance on all popular systems: Apple II, 1 1 Plus, lie, III; IBM PC; Radio Shack TRS-80; DEC; Wangwriter and many others. So from now on, get accurate, reliable performance without the high cost. Get Encore. Send coupon today. Or call 1(800)547-5444. In California 1 (800) 547-5447. To ensure your complete satisfaction, Encore diskettes are covered by a 45-day risk-free trial period. Allow two weeks for delivery.This offer good only in the Conti - nental U.S. Call for information on system compatibility. FREE Inmac Floppy Library Case! Order your Encore diskettes within the next 30 days, and with each box you'll receive a free Floppy Library Case for easy storage, fast retrieval, and sure protec- tion of your data. But hurry - supplies are limited. (Limit 4 per order) inmao World's leading source of computer *&$&* supplies and accessories. ^•< M ^^" ■Price for one SSSD 5% Encore diskette when purchasing 40 or more diskettes ORDER NOW Inmac, Encore Introductory Offer, 2465 Augustine Dr . . Santa Clara, CA 95051 Yes, I think Encore sounds like a great deal. Please send me: No. of boxes Order No./Description Price per box of 10 diskettes 1 7970 - 5'/<" SSS0 $25.90 soft sector (2.59 ea) 7971 - 514" OSDO $43.90 sotlsector (4.39ea) 7960-8-SSDD $39.90 soft sector (3.99 ea) 7961-8"SSSD $32.90 soft sector (3.29 ea) IBM format 2305830 2-3 $19.90 (1.99ea) $35.90 (3.59 ea) $29.90 (2.99 ea) $24.90 (2.49ea) 4 + $15.90 (1.59ea) $29.90 (2.99 ea) $26.90 (2.69 ea) $19.90 (1.99ea) 'Customers in CA, CO, DC, NJ. NY, TX, IL, GA add applicable tax. Sales Tax* Total Order □ Check enclosed D Bill Company P.O. No. O Visa D MasterCard Account No. Signature City State D Please send me a Iree Inmac catalog. control net.games.emp net.micro. pc net.sf-lovers fa.arms-d net.games. rogue net.misc net.singles fa.editor-p netgames.trivia net. movies net.social fa. info-terms net.garden netmusic net.sources fa.info-vax net.general net.new.group net.space fa.info-vlsi net.graphics net. news net.sport junk net. ham-radio net.news.config net.sport. baseball msgs net. invest new.news.groups net.startrek net.ai net.jobs net.news.map net.suicide net.audio net. joke net. news, newsite net.taxes net. auto net.jokes net.nlang net.test net.aviation net.jokes.d net. notes net.travel net. books net. Ian net.periphs net.tv net.bugs.2bsd net.lang net. pets net.unix-wizards net.bugs.4bsd net.lang.c net.philosophy net.usoft.s net.bugs.uucp net.lang. pasca net. physics net.wanted net.college net.lang. pascal net. poems net.wine net.columbia net.mail net. politics net.wines net.comics net. math net. railroad net.wobegon net.cooks net.med net.rec net.women net.cycle net.micro net.rec.caves net.works net.dcom net.micro.68k net.rec. photo parents net.emacs net.micro.apple net. records net.flame net.micro.atari net. religion net.followup net.micro.cpm net, rumor Table 1: A list < )/ active news groups compiled from a San Francisco Bay area news machine in May 1983. The net.cooks, net.unix-wizards, and net.sf-lovers were among the list's most active groups; each contained more than 500 cu rrent articles. conference composed mostly of aca- demic, technically sophisticated com- puterists: their favorite play is their work. However, at least a third of the news groups are concerned with hobbies and recreation. Computer games— mostly of the Dungeons and Dragons genre— are well repre- sented. There have also been groups on birds, boats, bridges, caves, coins, photography, and scuba diving. The news groups on science fiction (net.sf- lovers) and the Star Wars movies have attracted so much activity that some members have grumbled publicly about these "groupies" and the amount of disk space they consume. Because messages stay on the net- work for two weeks unless an earlier expiration date is specified, a very ac- tive news group can indeed loom large on the network terrain. (For a partial listing of Usenet news groups, see table 1.) Usenet Site Requirements The most important prerequisite for becoming a Usenet site is to know the location of the nearest existing Usenet site and the name and tele- phone number of the person in charge of it. You must have access to a Unix system and have system-man- ager (superuser) privileges in order to set up the uucp and netnews system files. You also need a modem, prefer- ably an auto-dial one (to initiate transactions), and sufficient disk storage to handle the news flow. With an auto-dial modem, your system can telephone other systems and initiate uucp work, including Usenet work. Such systems are called active uucp sites. When an active sys- tem initiates a uucp transaction, it telephones the remote system and allows that system to log in as a user. The active system then performs work for the remote system. Without an auto-dial modem, you must wait until a neighboring active site tele- phones your system, then your work is passed along to the active site only after it has emptied its queue of work being sent to your system. Although being a passive site is not a great limitation, you must arrange for an active site to poll your system on a regular basis. You can do so by ex- changing tokens such as system names and setting up system files that contain phone numbers and call- ing times. Although an active site can poll 7 to 10 machines for work, the uucp link connects only two machines at any time. TIMES FASTER THAN dBASE II TM If you bought your computer to save time, then you need SUPER, the most powerful database system you can use. Power is a combination of speed, ease of use and versatility. SUPER has them all. FAST - To demonstrate SUPER'S speed, ISA retained a professional dBASE programmer to benchmark SUPER vs. the acknowledged leader. A simple mailing list application was chosen to minimize dBASE programming cost. The results: Task SUPER Time dBASE II Time Set up/Program 5:20 min. 12:18:00 hrs. Input 100 records 50:29 min. 1:27:50 hrs. Sort & Print Labels 6:41 min. 4:18 min. Totals 1:02:30 hrs. 13:50:08 hrs. Notice that SUPER was faster at every task where your time is involved — and saving your time is probably the whole reason you bought a computer. EASY TO USE - SUPER won because of its ease of use. Since it is menu-driven, office personnel can easily learn to use SUPER to set up their own applications, speeding and simplifying dozens of tasks without the need of programmer support. VERSATILE - SUPER, unlike other business programs, doesn't dictate how to run your business. With SUPER the computer does what you want, when you want, the way you want it. SUPER may be the only business program you'll ever need. It can handle customer files, payables, receivables, depreciation, appointments, cost accounting, time charges, commissions, inventory, manufacturing control, and even matrix accounting systems! SUPER PERFORMANCE AT A SUPER PRICE - That SUPER beats the $700 dBASE program may surprise you, but in terms of price vs. performance SUPER has no competitors. Among its features are: production input, data compression, multiple databases on line, transaction posting, file reformating, stored arithmetic files, flexible report formats, hierarchical sort and multi-disk files for up to 131, 068 records. It can select by ranges, sub-strings, and field comparisons. It interfaces to word processors such as WordStar™, SuperSCRIPTSIT™, Model 11/16 SCRIPTSIT'", and NEWSCRIPT™. In fact SUPER has so many features that it takes a six-page product description to cover them all. Write or call and we'll send you one. SUPER is available for TRS-80™ Models I & III under NEWDOS™, LDOS™, and DOSPLUS; for TRS-80 Models II, III and 16 under TRSDOS™; and CP/M™ systems. NOW $199.00* Manual (Price applicable to purchase) Now available for the IBM PC MasterCard and VISA accepted. 25.00 OTHER SOFTWARE • ManageMint™: A PERT/CPM project management system compatible with SUPER. It includes scheduling, resource and financial management modules. • Sales Planning and Data Extraction System: Improves hit rates while cutting costs. • Small, economical program packages for accounting, business and office applications as well as utilities. Write for Catalogue Institute For Scientific Analysis, Inc. SOFTWARE FOR HARD USE Dept B4 Institute for Scientific Analysis, Inc. P.O. Box 7186 Wilmington, DE 19803 (215) 358-3735 ORDERS ONLY 800-441-7680 EXT. 501 Trade mark owners dBASEII-Ashton-Tale. SCRIPTSIT. SuperSCRIPTSIT. TRSDOS. and TRS-80-Tandy Corp NEWDOS/80-Apparal. Inc. WordStar-MicroPro Intl. Corp. NEWSCRIPT-PROSOFT. LDOS-Logical Syslems, Inc. CP/M-Digital Research. "Plus $15.00 formatting charge tor non-standard CP/M version. Circle 231 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 227 "I built this 16-bit computer and saved money. Learned a lot, too!" Save now. Build the H-100 kit, a computer that will keep pace with technology for years to come. Advanced 16-bit computing at a kit price! With most circuit boards al- ready pre-wired, H-100 is our easi- est computer kit. And our manuals ensure that "We won't let you fail!" Dual microprocessors deliver 16- bit speed and 8-bit compatibility. The industry standard S-100 card slots allow a host of peripherals and memory expansion to 768K RAM. A high-density (320K) 5.25" drive is standard. Powerful options in- clude an internal multi- megabyte Winchester drive (available soon), i See the world's first 16-bit/8-bit computer kit, plus peripherals and software. ..at your Heathkit Elec- tronic Center.t Or mail the coupon today for a FREE Heathkit com- puter catalog! H-100 SERIES COMPUTER SPECIFICATIONS: USER MEMORY: 128K-768K bytes' MICROPROCESSORS: 16-bit: 8088 8-bit: 8085 DISK STORAGE: Built-in standard 5.25" disk drive, 320K bytes/disk KEYBOARD: Typewriter-style, 95 keys, 13 function keys, 18-key numeric pad GRAPHICS: Always In graphics mode. 640h/225v resolution; up to eight colors are available" •128K bytes standard. "Optional. COMMUNICATIONS: Two RS-232C Serial Interface Ports and one parallel port DIAGNOSTICS: Memory self-test on power-up AVAILABLE SOFTWARE: Z-DOS (MS-DOS) CP/M-85 Z-BASIC Language Microsoft BASIC Multiplan SuperCalc WordStar MailMerge Data Base File Manager Most standard 8-bit CP/M Software Buy from the leader in electronic kits and save! • Heathkit Electronic Centers are units of Venlechnology Elec- tronics Corporation. Heath Company and Vehtechnology Corporation are subsidiaries of Zenith Radio Corporation. Prices, product availability and specifications are subiect to change without notice. Get your full-color Heathkit Computer Catalog! CLIP COUPON AND MAIL TODAY TO: Heath Company, Dept. 334-102 Benton Harbor, Ml 49022 Please send my FREE Computer Catalog, with details on the new 16-bit/8-bit H-100 Computer Kit, today! Heathkit Installing the uucp Programs Installing the uucp programs is the first major hurdle a prospective Use- net site must clear. Some manufac- turers of Unix systems, such as Intel, which makes the Xenix-based 86/330 system, are currently supporting uucp versions that are known to work. Al- though Microsoft's Xenix and Uni- soft's Uniplus+ standard distribu- tions include cleaned-up and newly documented versions of uucp, direct support from software suppliers ranges from limited to nonexistent. The uucp programs were developed for much more restricted networking than they are currently being asked to sustain for Usenet and other uses. According to Mark Horton, the uucp programs have not been thoroughly revised since 1978, and they've needed many patches and fixes since then. Fortunately, Usenet itself has been the means of distributing many of these improvements, but most people who have tried to install the uucp programs would agree that they are remarkably temperamental. Paul Miller of Horizon Software Systems, who is currently writing a book with Charles Clanton on Unix system ad- ministration, enjoys using uucp but admits that the best way to get it up and running might be to hire some- one who's done it before. While I don't intend to provide here a complete guide to installing uucp, I can offer a few handy hints for system managers. Volume 1 of the UNIX Programmer's Manual (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1983) provides additional instruction in the use of uucp under entries for uucp, uux, and mail. Tutorial papers, "A Dial-up Network of Unix Sys- tems" and "Uucp Implementation Description" are included in volume 2 (part B). Some of uucp's problems result from the nature of its assigned task. The ability of one system to log into another system (usually as a user named uucp) and receive or send files represents a fundamental breach of system security unless authorized ac- cess is verified. Many of uucp's failures are caused by lack of permis- sion at some point in the transaction. Every file in the Unix file system is 228 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 209 on inquiry card. Statement ACCOUNT NO: Accounts Receivable Ledger invoice DATE OF INVOICE: PAY TO THE ORDER OF: Payroll Job Estimate Purchase Order PERIOD ENDING RG.HRS RATE AMI :: OVER f ED. TAX | PICA ST TAX .1 : 1 DESCRIPTION: PROJECT: JOB NO: PO. NO: BY: DATE: CHECK: DATE: PRELIMINARY COST ESTIMATE: Computerize without changing a thing. To automate your business, don't change all your familiar business forms. Change to VersaForm. VersaForm fills out your present forms very much the way you do. Only faster. And (if you'll pardon the expression) more accurately. Why, it even prints on forms of your own design. Then VersaForm stores this information. Alphabetically and numerically. Which means, you now have a data base that can track your business. Product by product. Customer by customer. And month by month. Also, VersaForm prints the kind of reports that help manage your business, within today's tighter profit margins. Like sales reports based on familiar information. Information that VersaForm tabulates, automatically. What's more, VersaForm automatically checks for errors. Something that doesn't happen when people fill out forms manually. Your people are familiar with your forms. So are your customers. Why change a good thing? Form management is business management. Another fine product from Applied Software Technology: 170 Knowles Drive, Los Gatos, Calif. 95030 (408) 370-2662 Circle 546 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 229 We have adio Shac i i i i 2,000 new programs for your TRS-80® 12. CP/M is the runaway leader in disk operating systems, but until now owners of Radio Shack computers have been locked out of the thousands of useful programs that operate on CP/M. Now you can put the power of CP/M into your Radio Shack TRS-80 II, 12, or 16, and be able to use all the popular and useful software — and hardware— that has been previously out of your reach. Use any printer. Instead of being chained to Radio Shack hardware, you'll be able to add a video terminal, any printer (serial or parallel) and several Winchester hard disk drives with storage up to 80 megabytes. Yes! Send me free information about CP/M for Radio Shack. Name Address . City Uses only 8.5K of memory. Since our first version went on the market in 1980, we've condensed and refined it into a compact, easy-to-use system enjoyed by thousands of users. Besides the standard Digital Research CP/M manual, you'll get the 250-page manual we've developed through our long experience in adapting CP/M to Radio Shack com- puters. Our manual has lots of examples and an index and glossary. You'll have your first working disk in ten minutes. Only $200. The floppy disk version of Pickles & Trout CP/M is S200. The hard disk versions (lor Tandy, Corvus, and Cameo) are S250, except for the multi-user Cameo, which is S400. pjCKLFO State. Zip . Phone or send us your business card. Pickles & Trout", P.O. Box 1206, Goleta, CA 93116 (805) 685-4641 ^ROU'T I I I I TRS-80" Radio Shack/Tandy Corporation. CP/M" Digital Rese Pickles & Troul " Pickles & Trout. «> 1983 Pickles & Trout 230 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 368 on inquiry card. Figure 2: This diagram represents part of a Unix file system tree. Beginning with root (I), it shows four directories in root, three user di- rectories, and four directories mimed by sandy, one of which (Letters) contains two files. flagged with a set of permission bits defining levels of access for the file's owner, the owner's group, and the general public. Access is defined as "read" (can read or copy), "write" (can edit), or "execute" (can execute a command or command file, or search a directory). Files are arranged hierarchically; beginning with the root of the file system, files are in- dexed in directories, which in turn point to other directories, and so forth (see figure 2). The relationship of any file to the root directory is expressed as the file's path, which consists of directory names separated by slashes, ending in the file's name. For example, the file memo in the directory Letters might have the following path: /usr/sandy/Letters/memo (This user capitalizes the first letter of each of her directories so that they will be listed first in a directory listing.) The usr directory is a name conventionally given to the directory used to index the work of system users. When a user logs in, work is begun in the home directory, which usually has the same name as the ac- count name. If the appropriate per- missions are not in effect at any point in the path of a file involved in a uucp transaction, the transaction fails. In addition to requiring appropriate permissions on the files and direc- tories involved in uucp work, a number of system files are installed Circle 215 on inquiry card. > - //*r r#* ; - l: 8 ♦Y Uncompromising rsrsn; DUAL GPIB-4BB INTERFACE BOARD A Stand-Alone, Independently Controlled Dual Channel IEEE-4SS I/O Processor. In- terface Activity Modes for Controller-in- Charge, Controller Assigned or Terminal Bus Slave, and all Interface Functions are handled transparent to Host System CPU through an on-board CPU and DMA con- troller. User Friendly operation. AST, P/IM 5274B-BOO-1Q2 $675.00 Top Board Support; Logic and 32K X B RAM Bottom Board 9BK X B RAM 128K X 8/64K X 1G CMOS STATIC RAM MODULE 150 microsec. Access, Extended Address- ing, Programmable wait cycles, Write pro- tect and Bank select. Battery back-up capability. No wait cycles with fast 16-Bit Processors. AST, P/IM 5S74S-650-128 SS25.00 1S-BIT A-D-A CONVERTER BOARD 8 Channel A-D: 12 microsec. Conversion, 5DKHz Sample Rate, Programmable Gains, Dffset and Diff. /Single Modes. 8 Channel D-A: 2 microsec. Settling, Bipolar V or Unipolar I Output. Program- mable Reference levels, Dual-Ported Chan- nel Refresh RAM. 18/8-Bit Data Tranafere via I/O or Memory Mapped with Extended Addressing. AST, P/N 52748-900-101 $455.00 MULTI-FUNCTION I/O BOARD A&T, P/TSI 55748-100-101 S3S5.00 SMART PROTOTYPING BOARD KIT P/IM 55748-400 560.00 sic Price. FOB Factory. ■DecificaCions subject to change without I/O TECHNOLOGY POST OFFICE BOX 3119 CANYON COUNTRY CA 91351 [B05] 252-7B66 PERIPHERAL SUPPORT BOARD Two Serial SYNC/ASYNC Ports with RS-232, TTL or Current Loop Outputs, three B-Bit Parallel Ports, three Timers, Real Time Clock/Calendar and Response Programmable Interrupt Controller. Small Proto Area with + 5 and ± 1 2v. AST, f*/N 5E74B-1E0-101 S3S5.00 ' "' ' " ' ■■"•"*"'>Tf!JlflMtWWnfr MULTI-PURPOSE PROTOTYPING KIT Industrial Quality with Plated-Thru holes for Wire-Wrap or Solder projects. Complete with +5, ±1£v Regulators, Bus Bar, Filter Capacitors, and Manual. AST, P/IM 52748-450 S70.00 in order to improve and refine uucp performance and security. These sys- tem files contain telephone numbers, site names, and access information used for linking to a remote machine. The first requirement for perform- ing uucp work is that a log-in name exist by which remote computers can identify themselves when they log in to your machine. Traditionally the user name uucp is used, and an en- try is made in the user account file, /etc/passwd. Locations of uucp Programs and System Files Most uucp programs and files are stored in four areas: a commands di- rectory (such as /usr/bin), a library (/usr/lib/uucp), a system-administration directory (/etc), and the spooling directory (/usr/spool/uucp). System files such as L-devices, L-dial- codes, Lsys, SQFILE, and USERFILE con- tain utility and security information. Each machine in the network has a uucp site name; a machine's own name is usually stored in a file in the /etc system-administration directory (e.g., /etc/systemname). The library file L.sys records the names of remote machines that will be logging in as uucp on your machine. Your machine's name, in turn, must be in- stalled in the L.sys files of machines that yours will log into. The L.sys file must list the site names and connec- tion information for all machines with which you plan to connect. A password for the uucp user may also be included in the L.sys file entry. Here are some sample entries from an L.sys file: frobish Any tty13 1200 tty13 login:- EOT-login: uucp ssword: Uucp-psswd usxvax Any ACU 1200 6328792 login:- EOT-login: uucp ssword: Uucp-psswd cranshaw Any ACU 300 sr6760884 login:-EOT-login: uucp ssword: Uucp-psswd L.sys entries include the site name, calling times, the device and speed for the connection, and a simulation of the log-in sequence. The letters ACU in the sample entries stand for automatic calling device (or auto- dialer), and a telephone number that will be used by the intelligent modem appears. If no ACU is mentioned, the connection is assumed to be hard- wired. Area codes and their abbrevia- tions (such as "sr" for Santa Rosa, California) are stored in the L-dialcodes file, which is also in the library direc- tory. The dashes and EOT symbols between log-in tokens indicate a pause, so that the modems and com- puters can synchronize with one another. Because the leading letters of "password" are usually lost in transmission, they are omitted in the L.sys file entry. There are many dif- ferent opinions on the correct way to set up the L.sys file. Some installa- tions, for example, also use ogin: for login:. If trial and error doesn't result in success, try to make your L.sys file congruent with those of the ma- chines you will be calling. The L- devices file contains one entry for each device on which uucp may call out. For example: PROGRAMMERS FLIGHT SIMULATOR Apple 11 Plus DOS 3.3 48K This total IFR System disk features gobs of menu selectable flight programs each with breath taking realistic picture graphics, moving scenery, airport approaches, holding patterns and much much more. $50.00 At your Computer Store or direct from Visa Mastercard Programmers Software 2110 N. 2nd Street Cabot, Arkansas 72023 (501) 843-2988 PROGRAMMERS "C" the extras we offer C Compiler — • Complete non-float implementation (float avail 3Q) per Kernighan and Ritchie. • Small and medium models supported. Medium model allows greater than 64k of code and greater than 64k of data. • Complete standard I/O package. <" " source lev^l utbuyge' c-window - » debugging. nr hreakpo" 1 *^ Available for MSDOS systems C Compiler $195.00 c-window demo package c-window $195.00 (w/manual and diskette) $45.00 c-systems c-window tm c-systems P.O. Box 3253 • (714)637-5362 Fullerton.CA 92634 MSDOS tm Microsoft 232 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 377 on inquiry card. Circle 72 on inquiry card. ONIY THE WORLDS BEST WORD PROCESSOR COULD GENERATE WORDS LIKE THESE "PIE: Writer, outscored every other word processing program for microcomputers...(It) crams an incredible amount of power into a small and inexpensive package...PIE:Wnter beat four out of six dedicated word processors. Arthur Naiman "Word Processing Buyer's Guide" McGraw Hill Book Company "PIE:Writer is hard to beat..There is little I can't do with it.. Do not fail to check out this program if you are a first time purchaser." James Martellaro Peelings II Why are some of the most respected authorities in the field of software saying all these nice things about PIE:Writer'"? The answer is easy. Easy to Learn. Easy to Use. Part of the reason that PIE:Writer is the top ranked word processor is that it's just plain simple to run. In fact, you can use it as soon as you get it home. To write a letter, for instance, just (a) load the program, (b) type the letter 'E', and (c) write your letter. Then, (d) type 'F' to enter the print mode for either screen or paper and you're ready to print. You'll get a perfectly typed, spaced and formatted letter. Now what could be easier than that? Powerful Features. Don't confuse our use of the word simple with unso- histicated. PIE:Writer offers features and capabilities ar beyond any other word processing programs for microcomputers. And that goes for most of the dedi- cated word processors as well. Here are just a few: • A tutorial section that easily acquaints you with the features of the program in step-by-step transactions. 1 Operating systemfs) and/or inachine(s) Pric CPT8I00 dedicated word processor* Overall Score $15,000 94>A Dictaphone Dual Disp. dedicated word processor* $13,500 Apple II. IBM PC $149.95 $199.95 WordStar CP/Mt. Apple- IBM PC $500 Easywriler IBM PC* $175 35 * Includes word processing hardware & multistation support. t Require computer ($200-600 extra). CP/M is a registered trademark of Digital Re ofVlSIcorp**Very similar program called Easywriter Professional, avi Iditional CT/M Hardware for your personal rrh. * VisiCale ©is a registered trademark jble for the Apple II. • nne of the i" 05 ' °*° t addition to «««JP r bes , buy.' . March 1983 • You can customize the design of your letters and reports with integrated centering, bold facing, special tab features, mail merge capabilities, automatic page numbering, line lengths and much more. • PIE:Writer is also compatible with both the Apple He and IBM Personal Computer and other popular compatibles. The Hayden Advantage. With thousands already in use, PIE:Writer is part of Hayden's growing "Personal Information Environ- ment" family of software products. This includes PIE: Speller, a 20,000-word dictionary spelling checker with the ability to add user-specific dictionaries. You can expect some very exciting PIE additions in the near future. And naturally, full technical support from the company that has built its reputation on quality and service. But don't take our word for it. Or the experts, either, for that matter. Try PIE: Writer for yourself and enjoy the ease and excitement of writing with the world's best word processor. PIEWriter HAYDEN SOFTWARE Circle 203 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 233 tty5 tty5 300 tty5 tty5 1200 tty2 9600 This sample L-devices file specifies that calls may be made at 300 or 1200 bps (bits per second) through device tty5. A hard-wire link to another machine through device tty2 operates at 9600 bps. If the L-devices file is empty, the site is defined as passive- incapable of calling remote machines. USERFILE The USERFILE restricts a local or remote uucp user's ability to access the local file system. Each entry in USERFILE may contain a user ID, a site name, and one or more path names. Each line specifies what areas of the file system a given user may access. The user can be a person log- ging into the system or a computer calling to perform uucp work. For example, USERFILE could contain: CRT FILTERS stop your CRT from beirv HWr ' -.'fSYvl m.i Any computer luminal operatoi will verify how hi ing. frustrating, and down right inefficient CRT glare can be. Now. thanks to Optech CRT Alters, this hassle can be eliminated. Attached in minutes without tools, Optech diffuses ambient light (external light) while dramatically improving contrast. The result? Data displayed as never before — clear, bright, and without interference. And since Optech CRT filters come in a variety of sizes to custom fit the ; most popular computer terminals on the market today, they actually appeal - to be built into the terminal when attached. Beautiful? Of course. Both in its effectiveness and appearance. And its price tag is less than an inexpensive program. But you be the judge. Call toll free for your nearest Optech dealer. You'll see how to quickly, eco- nomically, and efficiently say good-bye to the CRT eyesore forever. CALL TOLL FREE AT 800-346-7802 SGL HOMALITE CORPORATION 11 Brookside Drive • Wilmington, Delaware 19804 • Telephone 302-652-3686 A subsidiary of SGL Industries, Inc. / ELJBJ^UEL , /usr/public root, / uucp, /usr/public /usr/spool/uucp The first entry allows any user (in- dicated by a null field followed by a comma) access to files beginning with the prefix /usr/public. The second entry allows the user root to access files beginning with the prefix "/"; this means those beginning with the root directory and extending to the whole file system. The third entry specifies that any remote computer logging in as uucp can access files beginning with the path /usr/public or /usr/spool/uucp. Frequently, a shell script will be supplied with your uucp programs that will correctly set up the owner- ship and permission structure for the uucp files and programs. If no such script exists, a list of ownership and permission requirements is provided in the tutorial on uucp implementa- tion. Information about uucp transac- tions is accumulated in several record-keeping files in the /usr/spool/ uucp directory. Periodically, old log files should be removed in order to recover disk space. The secondary programs uulog and uuclean aid in maintenance work: uulog updates the uucp log file or, optionally, reports on its contents; uuclean removes old files from the spool directory. Testing uucp The quickest way to test whether you have correctly set up the uucp system files is to copy a file to another place on the local system, using the -x9 option to provide the maximum amount of debugging information. Once you succeed (return status 0), you can try calling or being called by a remote system. Of course, you must first telephone someone at the other end of the potential connection so that you can install each other in your system files in an agreed-upon way. The syntax of the uucp command requires that each remote system name be followed by an exclamation point. Because uucp cannot deduce routing information on its own, each site name in a machine-to-machine 234 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 420 on inquiry card. *s "LOWEST PRICES "« SMITH CORONA LETTER QUALITY PRINTERS SMITH CORONA TO< $482 STARWRITER 40 CPS S or P . . S1274 PRINTMASTER 55 CPS S or P 1544 NEC 3510 33 CPS SERIAL 1386 DOT MATRIX PRINTERS GORILLA BANANA Graphics .... S221 EPSON MX-80 w/Graphics Ronv. 80 cps .. 427 FX-80 Friction & Tractor 160cps . . 595 MX-100 Friction & Tract. 100cps . . 653 STAR MICRONICS GEMINI 10 2. 3K Buffer 100 cps .. 329 GEMINI 15 15" Carriage 494 OKIDATA 82A Serial & Parallel 120 cps 409 84 Parallel 15" Fr&Tr 200 cps 1005 92 Parallel 10" Fr&Tr 160 cps 514 PROWRITER 8510 10"Par 120cps 404 8600-Near Letter Quality Par 1031 PRISM 80 974 SUPERBRAIN SUPERBRAIN II DOUBLE DENSITY $1970 QUAD DENSITY 2376 SUPER DENSITY 2684 COMPUSTARS FOR NETWORKING VPU-10 CALL VPU-20 CALL VPU-30 CALL VPU-40 CALL DSS-10 CALL AMERICAN SQUARE COMPUTERS Is organizing a World Wide Association ol Computer Dealers. Open a Store or Start Work Out ol Your Homel We Charge NO FRANCHISE FEEI (Our Competitors charge a FRANCHISE FEE ol Irom $15,000.00 to $45,000.00.) Be a Winner! Let US help YOU get started MAKING MONEY by HELPING PEOPLE to put COMPUTERS to WORK. Write or Phone today. Which Computers are Best? . . . Free Insured Shipping at Low Rates. ADVANCED DIGITAL S-100 SUPER QUAD SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER Z-80 64K RS232 DISK CONTROLLER FOR 5" OR 8" . . S474 SUPER SLAVE 128K + PS NET/1 . . 437 SUPER SIX/128 6 MHZ 128K .... 555 TURBODOS SINGLE USER 250 SUPER SYSTEM-DD-8 2327 SUPER SYSTEM-8-HD-10 3920 ALTOS COMPUTERS 586-10 16 bit 12Mb HD $5830 8000-2 64K RAM $2680 8000-15 208K RAM 3653 8000-10 208K RAM 5571 5-15D3USER2 5 1/4" 2201 5-5D 3 USER HARD DISK 4379 8600-12 16 BIT 20 MB HD 9104 TRAXX 5 1/4" ADD ON DRIVES Bare drive SSDD Quantity 2 Ea . . .215 SSDD w/cabinet & power sup 312 TELEVIDEO TERMINALS TELEVIDEO 910 $419 TELEVIDEO 925 Detach Keybd . . 674 TELEVIDEO 950 Prog func keys . . 863 TELEVIDEO 970 VT-100 compat. . . 935 ADDS Viewpoint 3A^ Emulates 458 ADDS Viewpoint 60 Graphics 620 ADDS Viewpoint 90 Prog. EPROM 820 ADDS Color Terminal NEW! 998 Zenith Z-29 Z19&VT100 compat 655 Zenith ZT-1 Terminal+modem 460 Visual 50 Ergonomic $545 Visual 55 New! Enhanced #50 626 Visual 100 80/132 columns 890 Visual 400 ANSI x3.64 compat . . 1074 Visual 500 Graphics 14" screen 1646 TELEVIDE0914 Detach Keybd $506 TELEVIDEO 924 NEW $614 MONITORS ZENITH ZVM 121 Green Phosphor S123 ZVM RGB Color Monitor 545 GDZ-13-14 Composite Color 325 NEC JC1201M 12" Composite Color S378 JC1202DHA 12" RGB Color Mon. 810 JB1201M 12" Green phosphor 176 AMDEK Color I Color monitor S321 300G 12" Green 165 GRAPHICS & COLOR GRAPHICS VECTRIX VX 128 8 colors 322x560 Pix. . . . $2245 VX 384 16.8 million colors 3865 VXM Hi Res. 13" RGB Monitor . . 1430 MICROANGELO MA 512 512x480 Monochrome .. $674 MA 520 512x480 + Screen Pak2 . . 890 COMPUTERS COMPUPRO Compupro computers come as main- frame, boards, and drives, and you must set the switches. 816A Computer 8085/8088 128K $3964 816B Computer 8085/8088 256K 5038 816C 8085/8088 384K 3 users . . . 6470 816D 10 MHz 8086 512K 10052 816-08 CPUZ 208K Oasis 6471 816-016 10 MHZ 8086 512K .... 10052 SEATTLE Pure 16 bit computer is the fastest microcomputer by actual test! S-100. 128K Static Ram, 8 MHz 8086 18 slot, Mainframe, 3 serial & 1 parallel ports. Gazelle II computer $4346 Hard Disk Gazelle II 5750 RADIO SHACK TRS-80 SAVE! CALL TARBELL with 2-8" disk drives EMPIRE I single sided $3304 EMPIRE n double sided 3775 MEDICAL SOFTWARE MICROMED& MICRODENT ... 1656 STARDOC 350 THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE NEW! CALL NORTH STAR ADVANTAGE North Star Advantage 8 BIT 8/16 Work Station $1918 S2281 2 Floppies 360K ea. . . . 2252 2542 5 Mb Hard » 360K Floppy 3362 3652 15 Mb Hard * 360K Floppy 4385 4748 NORTH STAR HORIZON HORIZON 1 User Multi 2 Floppies 360K ea. . . . $2252 N/A 5 Mb Hard & Floppy 3362 $6095 15 Mb Hard + Floppy 4385 6821 18 Mb Hard + Floppy 5837 8273 immmt Micro Decision II MICRO DECISION "A DEAL YOU CANT REFUSE" 64K RAM Z80 4MHz 2 serial ports 5 1/4" disks Free Software — CPM 2.2 Microsoft Basic. BaZic. WordStar LogiCalc spreadsheet, Correct-it ONLY Morrow Term. . ... 2139 MD11 10Mb+400K FL List 2745 MD2 2-5" SS drvs + Per. Pearl ... 8 28 MD2 +ADDS 3A+ Terminal 1279 MD2 +ADDS 3A+ +Smith Corona 1779 MD3 2 sided drives & Bookkeeping & Personal Pearl. FANTASTIC BUY MD3 2 Double sided drives 1055 MD3 +ADDS 3A+ Terminal 1508 MD3 +ADDS 3A+ +Smith Corona 2008 Above Packages include all Cables DECISION 1 "IBM-360 on the Z-B0 & S-100 Bus 1 " Sixteen programs running simultan- eously! FREE CPM. Microsoft Basic. S-100, IEEE 696. 14-slot. 4 MHz Z80 Real time clock. Interrupts. 3 Serial & 1 parallel port. 64K static RAM ex- pandable to 1 Megabyte. D100 Hardware & Software as above $1783 D120 1 DSDD 5'/. " + 10 Mb HD •Wordstar. Correct-It. LogiCalc. BaZic. and Personal Pearl $3538 D200 = D120 +MOS, Multiuser $3889 D210w/15MbHDplusMOS. . $4240 D220w/15MbHD6user $5293 MOS Multiuser upgrade to 256K RAM 734 +Micronix operating system .... 1432 MOS+ with above & Whitesmith's C & Pascal 1117 MORROW DISK DRIVES Complete systems include S-100 con- troller, power supply, cabinet, & fan. CPM & Basic 80. Add Drives include power supply, cabi- net & fan. Add System Drive 5 1 4" Winchester 5Mb $1432 $1011 5 1/4" Winchester 15Mb 1713 1362 8" Winchester 10Mb 2625 2134 8" Winchester 20Mb 3187 2766 5 '/<" Winchester 10Mb 1572 1081 8" (w/DMA controller) One 1 sided $870 S576 One 2 sided 1081 800 Two 1 sided 1418 1011 Two 2 sided 1839 1432 Call for latest prices & availability AMERICAN square: 919-889-4577 Circle 33 on inquiry card. 4167KivettDr, Factory Guarantees We Beat Prices COMPUTERS Jamestown N.C. 27282 919-883-1105 BYTE October 1983 235 path must be included on the com- mand line. For example, uucp -x9 /user/sandy/Letters/memo frobish!usxvax!cranshaw!/usr/arnold would copy sandy's memo file to the arnold directory on the cranshaw machine via machines frobish and usxvax. Currently more than 1500 Unix systems are known to be uucp sites. A Usenet news group lists contact in- formation for many of these ma- chines. Mail and file-transfer services, as well as the Usenet news service, are supported. On the Network Once you have established a uucp link to your nearest Usenet neighbor, you can copy over the news programs and install them. Matt Glickman has written a USENET Version B Installa- tion Guide, which should be part of the initial documentation you receive. One of the first articles you submit should go to net.news.newsite in order to provide contact information for use by the network. If you are planning to forward news to other sites, you must also install their site names and the names of the news groups to be forwarded in a sys file, which is similar to uucp's L.sys file. Like other Unix programs, the news programs are simple com- mands with a number of options. On one command line, you specify what you want to do to whom and to what extent. The basic Usenet news command is readnews, which forwards news to you from a default subscription list. Any user can custom-tailor the sub- scription list by creating a .newsrc file in the home directory. The news pro- grams automatically update the .newsrc file with the number of news articles that have been read. A rough- ly accurate list of active news groups can be obtained by listing the news spooling directory, /usr/spool/news. As each article is presented, a header indicates the name of the author, the subject, and the length of Treat your personal computer to famous Diablo letter-quality printing. Apple II IBM Personal Computer Radio Shack TRS-80 Commodore IEEE 488 Centronics "Parallel" RS232C "Serial" Diablo 630 API (all-purpose interface) MTI has the new Diablo 630 API ready for you. Don't settle for less: up to 40 cps, your choice of over 200 metal- ized or plastic printwheels, in MTI's opinion the best letter-quality printer on the market today. And at MTI's best price. Whether you rent, buy or lease our equipment, you'll find MTI is the one source for all the terminals, peripherals, systems, applications expertise and service you'll ever need. At good prices. Call us today. New York: 516/621-6200, 212/767-0677, 518/449-5959 Outside N.Y.S.: 800/645-6530 New Jersey: 201/227-5552 Ohio: 216/464-6688 "QED* Discounts VISA & MasterCard Diablo A Distributor Applications Specialists & Distributors, New York, New Jersey and Ohio. DEC, Intel, Lear Siegler, Texas Instruments, Dataproducts, Diablo, 3Com, Hazeltine, Racal-Vadic, Digital Engineering, MICOM, Cipher, U.S. Design, Protocol Computers, MicroPro, Microsoft, Polygon and Select. the article (in number of lines). A more detailed header giving the transmission path of the article is shown on request. Entering a ques- tion mark will get you the complete list of news commands. A number of responses are possible; you can read all or part of an article, decline to read an article, skip to the next news group, or reply to any item. When you use the quit command (q), a record is made of which articles you read or refused, and you then exit from netnews. Usenet is remarkable for its nation- wide scope and density of informa- tion flow, but in many respects it resembles other bulletin-board sys- tems. Much of the dialogue concerns the operation (or nonoperation) of software, including the news pro- grams themselves. Useful informa- tion is present but may be buried in a host of humdrum commentaries and rather trivial complaints. If you're patient and persistent, though, the occasional gems can make reading all that other news worthwhile. More- over, some of the articles indicate that reading and writing the news can also be a satisfying social activity for network members. What is really remarkable is that the whole Usenet structure has been built and maintained by volunteers and that thus far no heavy-handed central administration has been nec- essary. Usenet is an egalitarian com- munications medium, still open to new members because of the good will of its current members. The im- plicit social contract that exists among Usenet members— to forward news, respond to requests for information, and participate in network mainten- ance—will continue to be a vital part of Usenet. ■ Acknowledgment Thanks to James Joyce, who runs International Technical Seminars and The UNIX Bookstore, for suggesting this article and providing invaluable ad- vice and support. Sandra L. Emerson (309 63rd St., Apt. D, Oakland, CA 94618) is a freelance technical writer and coauthor of a book on the Unix operating sys- tem. She holds a B.A. in English from Duke Univer- sity and an M.S. in health education from the University of Toronto. 236 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 318 on inquiry card. /MicroAge "BECAUSE WE COULDN'T AFFORD MISTAKES!" "They guided us over the rough parts when we needed it' "During September of 1982, we started our MicroAge Computer Store in Tulsa, Oklahoma with 3 people. Today we have 11 people working for us and we're still hiring. By following MicroAge's advice and marketing strategy when we started in business, we were able to reach Tulsa's business computer buyers in a much shorter time than we could have on our own." "Both of us had technical backgrounds in computers but lacked the marketing experience necessary to reach our goals. We used MicroAge's experience and leadership to guide us through the rough spots and boost our sales and marketing potential." "MicroAge. . .they helped us build a sales organization to reach the Okla- homa businessman." \ofin Moiser President George McLawtwn Vice President lb build your o\»n professional computer sales organization with MicroAge write to: /MicroAge co/MPUTer STores "The Solution Store" 1457 West Alameda • Tempe, Arizona 85282 (602)968-3168 MicroAge franchisees \ohn Moiser and George McLawhon shown with IBM products. Circle 293 on inquiry card. SAVE THIS AD IT IS YOUR CATALOG AJC CHANGES MONTH.Y Conroy-LaPointe — The Supply Center for the IBM-PC or XT SOFTWARE BUSINESS for the IBM-PC or XT ASHTON-TATE.aBasBll.ienu!resPC0OSS128K dBase il User s Guide by Software Banc Even/man's DB Primer (Book) TheFinancialPlanner Friday APPUEDSOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY. Versatorm CONTINENTAL The Home Accountant Plus PCM (Filing. Cataloging. Mailing) Property Management DATAMOST, Real Eslate Investment Program Write-On (Word Processor Program! DIGITALRESEARCH.ConcurrentCPM-86'- CBASIC86- CPM86 DOW JONES Market Analyzer Market Manager EAGLE SOFTWARE, Money Decisions FOX S GELLER. Qiiickcode (MSDOS) LIST PRICE S 700 S 30 NEW S 15 NEW! S 700 NEW' S 295 S 369 S 150 S 125 S495 NEW! S 130 S 130 $350 S 200 $ 60 S 350 S 300 S 150 S295 NEW 1 ((Graph (MSDOS. requires cob' graphics adaptor) S 295 dUilfor IBM PC DOS HAYOEN.IBMPieWriter NEW! HOWARDSOFT Real Estate Analyzer II INFORMATION UNLIMITED. EasyWnter II (Word Processorl EasySpeilei II (88K Words) EasyFiler(aDBMS) INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE. Tl M III (a OBMSI * INSOFT DaiaDesign(apowerfuleasytoijseDBMS) NEW! DataBase Marje Easy (Book'i NEW' * LOTUS 1-2-3 NEW! MICROCRAFT Verdic! (Legal) or Billkeeper. each [CP M86I MICROPRO WordStar • plus Itee WordStar Training Manual Marl Merge' ICallon2Pak.3Pak and others) SpellSlar'- WordStar Prolessional. 4 Pak. 3 above - Starlndex NEW! S S 200 S 250 S 350 5 225 5 400 5 495 S225 S 17 S495 S995 S495 S 250 S 250 S 195 S 495 S 350 S275 NEW! S 375 NEW! 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S 395 PERFECT SOFTWARE, Perlecl Writer ■ S 389 Perfect Speller ' or Perlecl Calc ". each S 295 Perfect Filer '" S 595 SOFTWARE PUBLISHING PFS File NEW' S 140 PFSReport NEW 1 S 125 SORCIMISASuperCalcll S 295 SuperWnter S 395 SYNAPSE Fie Manager S 150 SYNERGISTIC Data Reporter S 250 T MAKER TMakerlll S 275 VISICORP VisiCaic- 2S6K S 250 VisiDexorVisiSchedule each S 250 V.siFne or Desktop Plan l. each S 300 UTLTY * CENTRAL POINT Copy II PC BackupanaUlility NEW' S 40 * COMX Fast'ak " RAM Disk emulator and pnnler spooler program Works or- any PC DOS version or RAM Card Menu Driven NEW 1 S 100 HAYES Smancor-ll $ 119 MICROCOM Ivteraienwa S 100 NAGY SYSTEMS Cocy PC Backup and Utilities S 35 NORELLDATA System Backup S 50 NORTON Norton unities lUnll0.9FootCablelrjtlBMKeytioard|extends3To9) $ 50 KeyTrOniC,KB5150.StarKtardTypevrhterkeyboard NEW' 5 269 $350 S875 $ 395 S625 Mk^tWJOGT 64Kp,AMCafdw ' Pan| y 256KRAMCatd*Parity 64K System Catd. 4 Funclion 256K System Card, 4 Function Ivl O I Monte Carlo 64K Five Function |lo I0O0K) QLWDtFAM- .«« Quadlink, Apple II Emulator NOW IN STOCK NEW' S i Quadboard.noRAM.expandableto256K.4lunctionboatdNEWi S 295 Quadboard64K. expandable to 256K,4function board Quadboard 256K. tour function board Quad 51 2 - . 64K plus serial port, expandable 1o 512K Quad 51 2 * . 256K plus serial port, expandable lo51 2K Quad512-.512K plus serial port Quadcoior I Quadcolor II, use with Quadcoior I, se! 640 x 200 Microlazer, vrCopy, Par-Par, 6K, #MP8wPower Supply Microlazer, rCopy. ParPar. 64K. *MP64 w.Power Supply Moolazet, *Copy.Par Par. 129K.#MP1 28 wPowet Supply Microlazer. Snapon. 8K. Par Par, Epson. #ME8, w-Power Supply Microlazer. Snap-on, 64K. Par Par. Epson. #ME64, wvPwr Supply AJ!Mx^fazersateexparidabkalwcopyto512K)(Snar>onlot54K) $395 S 595 $325 $ 550 $895 $295 $ 275 $ 189 $319 $465 S 179 $319 S 279 $ 525 $ 660 $695 $ 65 $ 38 $ 199 S 250 $625 $295 $465 Call $ 215 S 285 $425 $275 $440 $675 S 235 S 209 $ 139 $ 235 $345 S 145 $ 235 TG PRODUCTS Joystick DRIVES (§§) CONTROL DATA OR landon * DISK DRIVES. Double Sided 360K 320K. Same as now supplied with IBM-PC & XT Tested, bumed-in. Wrth installation instructions 60daywarrantybyus- leach S 529 2 or more S 529 HallHeighl360Kor320KDritfes.sameasal»ve $ 395 * HA\/ONG INTERNAL Hard Disk, 5-6MB $1995 m {FofPC-1, complete) CLOSEOUT , Floppy iDrive Control Board, for up lo 4 drives. $195 same with Parallel Pod $ 275 VISTA.fBM-PCXT6K«Baclajp!orHa/dDisJ(,V1200 $1549 MAYNARD $249 $239 $ 199 $ 165 S 205 HOME & EDUCATIONAL EPYX Automated Simulations TempieolApshai S 40 $ 29 Oil Barons NEW' s too 5 75 * AHMONk Executive Suite S 40 $ 27 BLUE CHIP Millionaire S 60 $ 39 BPI SYSTEMS Persona Accounting $ 195 $139 * BPODFRBUND Apple Panic S 30 S 22 CONTINENTAL the Home Accountant Plus S 150 $112 DATAMOST P-g Pen or Space Strike each $ 30 S 22 DAVIDSON T". e Soeeo Reader II S 75 S 55 INFOCOM Dead'ine $ 50 5 39 2on«loi2ork II cr^ork III eact^ ' S 40 $ 29 * INSOFT WornT-^orOuolnxorMysInx each NEW 5 35 S 29 MICROSOFT FiqntSimualonbySub-LogiC! NEW' 5 50 S 35 PBL CORP. Pe'sona investor 5 145 $99 SPINNAKER Snoooer Troops «io'»2 each 5 45 $ 35 Slory Machine or Face Maker or Rhymes & Riddles ea 5 35 $ 25 STRATEGIC NwatpFactot S 40 $ 30 PRINTERS AND ACCESSORIES EPSONMXorFXPRINTERS CALL CALL LEADING EDGE, Gorilla Banana NEW S 250 $209 OK1DATA. Microline 82A. 80 col . 1 20 cps. Para, triction A pin leed S 549 $419 83A,t32col.l20cps.Para.lnction4lradorleed S 899 $725 PHACTICAL PERIPHERALS, Microbuller In-Line 64K. Parallel 5 349 $259 MicrotouHer In- Line 54K Serial S 349 S 259 * STAR VICRONICS, 9x9 Dol Matrix, 120cps, 2 3K. Gemini 10 X S 499 $289 9x9 Dot Malnx. lOOcps, 2.3K, Gemini 15" $649 $469 IBM-PCtoEpsonorStarMicromcsCable 5 60 $ 35 Applelnleriace andCablelor Epson or Gemini 5 95 $ 59 Grappler ■ by Orange Micro, specil/ printer $ 165 $ 119 AppleGiaphicsDumpProgrambyEpson $ 15 $ 9 LETTER QUALITY - DAISY WHEEL PRINTERS: COMREX,ComiiterCn-1,IF,200wpm.Seiial Limited Special SII99 S 545 TTX, I3cps. 10-12-15 Pilch. Para S Ser. PmS Fnclion 5 649 $499 SUPPLIES: Tractor Feed Paper, Ribbons, Heads, Oume Daisy Wheels and Ribbons 8" CP/M-80 SOFTWARE ASHTON-TATE.dBasell MICROCRAFT, Verdicl(Lega!)or Billkeeper (Prolessional). each MICROPRO, WordSlar ' plus free WordStar Training Manual MailMerge" (Call on 2 Pak, 3 Pak and others) WordStarProfessional,4Pak,3above - Starlndex mrrOnWOV^r I Fortran 80 Compiler MOREINSTOCK BASICCompiler COBOL-80 Compiler muLispmuStar-80 Macro-80 MUCH MORE IN STOCK LIST OUR PRICE PRICE S 700 $ 395 S 995 $ 469 S 495 $ 239 S 250 $ 129 5 895 $ 429 S 275 S 199 5 500 $ 325 S 395 S 295 S 750 $ 545 5 200 $ 145 $ 200 S 145 MONITORS AND ACCESSORIES AMDEK,12"Gteen,#300G $200 $159 12"Amber.#300A 5 210 $159 12"Ambet,310AlorlBM-PCXT $ 230 $ 169 + 13"Colorl. Composite $ 379 $ 299 * 1 3" Color II. HGB. Hi Hes (Ap. II. Ill & IBM-PC) $529 $459 13"Colorlll. HGB. Commercial. |Ap. II. Ill) $479 $399 DVM, Color llor III In Apple II Inleriace $ 199 $ 175 NEC,12"Gteen.ModelJB1201M $249 $159 12"Color. Composlle. Model JC1213M 5 450 $349 PRINCETON, RGB Hi Res $ 795 $ 539 QUADRAM.Quadchiome12"RGBCo!or S 795 S 565 Quadrscreen17".968x512.2pages.wcable.card.dlsk 51995 $1595 SANYO.9"Green.ModelDM5109 S 200 $ 139 12"Gteen.ModelDMB112CX S 260 $ 199 13"Color,Composile.ModelDM60l3 $ 470 S 349 ZENITH. 12 Gteen,ModelZVMI21 $ 150 $ 99 MODEMS AND ACCESSORIES HAYES. Micromodem II (lor Ihe Apple II) S 379 $275 Apple Terminal Program (or Micromodem II $ 100 $ 65 IBM-PCSmartcomllSoftware 5 119 $ 89 Slock Chronograph (RS-232) S 249 $ 189 Smartmodem300(RS-232) S 289 $ 225 Smartmodeml200(RS-232) 5 699 $ 535 IBM-PC Smanmodemt 200 B plus Smartcom II S 599 $439 Micromodem 100(S-100bus) $ 399 $275 IBM-PC lo Modem Cable 5 39 $ 29 NOVATION. Applecal II Modem.300 BAUD S 389 $269 212AppleCal.1200BAUD $725 $599 SIGNALMAN. Modem MKI IRS 232) $ 99 $ 79 SSM.TranscendllorApplellDataComm S 89 $ 69 MbdemCard tor Ihe Apple II S 299 $ 259 Transmodem 1200(1 10 300 1200) 5 695 $559 \^OI\V(Jo 6 Meg Hard Disk, wo Interface 1 1 Meg Hard Disk, wio Interface 20 Meg Hard Disk, w/o Interface IBM-PC Interlace (IBM DOS), Manual S Cable Kil Mirror buill in (or easy backup Apple Intedace, Manual & Cable Kit Other Interfaces, Omni-Nel, Constellation, Minor. All in Stock $2395 $1895 $3195 $2695 $4195 $3495 $ 300 $ 239 $ 790 S 595 S 300 S 239 %Sk HP41CCalculalor S 195 $ 149 HP41CVCalculalor«ilh22KMemory 5 275 S 219 Full line ot H'P 75C and HP41 accessories & software Call DISKETTES CONTROL DATA CORPORATION Certified Top Quality Diskettes. CDC, 100 each, 5-1/4, with ring, SS, DD, 48T (Apple. IBM, etc.) 10 each, 5-1 '4, with ring, SS, DD, 48T (Apple. IBM, etc.) 100 each, 5-1/4 with ring, DS. DD. 46T, (IBM, H'P, elc.) 10each, 5-1/4. wilh ring, DS,DD,48T|IBM,H/P,etc.l DYSAN,10each,5-1/4,SS.SD, (Apple, etc.) 10each,5-1'4,DS,DD,48T(IBM.H'P,elc.) MAXELL, 10eactl.5-1i4.MD-l.SS.SD or SS.DD GENERIK" DISKETTES 100 each SS, SD, 35 Track (Apple. Alan, elc ) - 1O0OeachSS.SD,35Track(Apple. Alan.etc.) 1O0eachDS.DD.40Track(IBM.HP,elc.) 1000 each DS,DD,40Track(IBM.HP,elc.) $ 550 5 55 $ 750 $ 75 $ 69 5 89 $ 55 $ 179 $ 19 $ 415 $ 130 $4150 $995 5 626 $ 170 $6260 $1400 With jackets, no labels, produced by a (op ot the line manulactuter. 90 day wananty by us PLOTTERS ENTERCOMPUTER.Sweel-P.wilhApplelnterlaceandSottwaie S 795 $695 * Means a BEST buy AD #980 CASH & CARRY OUTLETS: Over-the-counter sales only Open Monday through Saturday 10.-00 until 5:00. PORTLAND, OREGON, 11507-D S.W. Pacific Hwy, Terrace Shopping Center. Tigard On 99W between 21 7 and I-5. Call 245-1 020. SEATTLE, WASH,, Grand Opening Soon, Call lor location {800) 547-1 289. nnnrniu^ iiirAniiATinn a Lin tchiio All Mail: P.O. Box 23068, Portland, OR 97223, include telephone number, URDERINu INrUHMAllUN AINU IbKMb: All items usually in stock. We immediately honor Cashiers Checks. Money Orders. Fortune 1000 Checks and Government Checks Personal or Company Checks allow 20 days to clear No C.O.O. Prices relied a 3% cash discount so ADD 3% lo above prices lor VISA or MC. For U.S. Mainland, add 3% lor shipping, insurance and handling (StSH) by UPS with $5 minimum for SI&H. UPS ground is standard so add 3% more tor UPS Blue with SlOminimumfor SI&H. Add 12% total for SI&H for US Postal. APO or FPO with S15 minimum lor SI&H For Hawaii, Alaska and Canada. UPS is in some areas only, all others are Poslal so call, wnte, or specify Postal. Foreign orders except Canada for S.I&H add 1 8% or S25 minimum for SI&H except lor monitors add 30% or $50 minimum tor SI&H. Prices subject to change and typo errors, so call to verify- AH goods are new. include wananty and are guaranleed lo work. Due lo our low prices. ALL SALES ARE FINAL. Call before reluming goods for repair or replacement. Orders received with insufficient S.I&H charges will be refunded. ORDER DESK HOURS 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. PST, Monday through Friday and 10 to 4 Saturday. 6 A.M. here is 9 A.M. in New York. OUR REFERENCES! We have been in computers and electronics since 1958, a computer dealer since 1979 and in mail order since 1980. Banks: 1st Interstate Bank, 1503] 643-4678 We belong to the Chamber ot Commerce (503) 644-01 23, Better Business Bureau (503) 227-0648 and Direct Marketing Association, or call Dunn and Bradstreet if you are a subscriber. Fastrak '" and Genenk " are trademarks ot ComX Corporation. WordStar, MailMerge, Starlndex, IntoStar, are trademarks ot MicroPro. 238 BYTE October 1983 LOW PRICES TO PROFESSIONALS WHO KNOW WHAT THEY WANT AND KNOW HOW TO USE IT DISK DRIVES for APPLE 11+ /lie * CENTRAL POINT. Filer, utility and Apple DOS 3 3 S 20 S t5 WHILE THEY LAST • OVERSTOCK SPECIALS • FOR APPLE II/1I+/II6 *ALS,SynetgeertSup«cafc+CorKkjrlor(ll+) $749 $299 tA»lon,320K(WMDiskSy$lem(+ore) $1000 $695 *CCS,Seriallnirjrface7710A $ 160 $ 98 *ComX,t6KRAMCard,1Yr.Warranty,lorll+ $179 $39 F7H791 A2. &• 1 4", 1 43K QisX Drive $♦79 S249 h iWrlnU OmrmllBrOarrllnrAiinriir. $ too S 79 micro-sci +A40.16QK, 40 Track Drive $ 449 $?99 *A70,286K. 70 Track Drive S599 $ 299 AM A70ConlroterCaid S 100 $ 79 Rana Bite1.163K.40Tracks $379 $265 __ E!ite2,326K.80Tracks S 649 $415 M Elite3 652K. iSOTracks S 349 $525 WUf HteCcrtroleriyManualSOiskette S 145 $ 84 »143K Disk Owe. WHirjh Controller Card. ♦Electronics by ComX $ 379 $ 279 S 89 $ 69 1//OTV1 Sota,5"l43KDiskDiiV6Std.Hekjht $ 300 $ 249 V IO IM Controller Card $ 89 $ 75 OiskPakV1200,6MBBackupSys. $1549 $1049 *V1 000 Dual 8". Stci. Formal WiController.CompletelorAppte $2195 $995 Microsoft. t6KRAMCardlorll- $ 100 Saturn Systems.SJK RAM Card lor II- $ 249 $169 EylKRAMCardldril . $ 426 (299 128KRAMCardlorll+ S 599 $399 Silicon Valley. Word Handler $ 250 $ 39 List Handler $ 90 $35 Videx.Vic'eoterm.eOcoiunincardforll + $ 346 $229 IBM-PC/XT SPECIALS y*IO $40 Two or more. 64K CHIP KIT 9 Each, 4164, 200 ns, MEMORY EXPANSION. 90 Day Warranty by us. $mD $229 Two or more, 256K RAM BOARD Fufly Compatible. 2 Year Warranty by ComX. With Fastrak RAM/Disk Emulator and Spooler Software. WorksonDOS1.1or2.0. (§ g) CONTRpL DATA tP&'K? $239 Two or more. 320K/360KDSDD DISK DRIVE Same as now installed by IBM. With detailed installation instructions and 60 Day Warranty by Factory Authorized Distributor. $199 HALF HEIGHT 320K/360KDSDD DISK DRIVE By CDC. With Detailed Installation Instructions. 60 Day Warranty by Factory Authorized Distributor. FOR ATARI * RANA1tX»DlskDrive,320K •|V $449 $369 apple nvne supply center 'DEALERS^ WE BUY EXCESS .INVENTORIES J HARDWARE APPLE lie MK 40 COLUMN $1,250 APPLE lie 123K. 80 COLUMN 51,395 APPLE fie, STARTER SYSTEM BY APPLE (System A) 64K and 60 column Oisti II with controller Apple Monitor 111 Monitor Stand $1,650 APPLE He STARTER SYSTEM BY CONROY-LA POWTE [SYSTEM B] 128K and 80 column i Micro-Sci Drive with controller Filer, Utility and DOS 3.3 Diskette Sanyo 9" Green Monitor RF Modulator (tor color TV) Game Paddies Game with color graphics and sound 20 Blank Diskettes $1,695 WARRANTY; Limited warranty is 100% Pans & Labor for 90 days by us. To substitute or delete drive on System B, subtract $245 and add dnve pnce. (System D) To substitute or delete monitor on System B, subtract $130 and add othei monitor pnce (System M). for Apple 11/ RAM EXPANSION LIST PRICE • CornX. lor lie, 80 COI./64K Adder Card J 295 *ComX,RAMCard,lYr.Wty.(ll + ) 16K $ 179 • ALS.ADDRam(IH) 16K $ 100 • Microsoft, RAMCard (11 + ) 16K $ 100 *SatumSystems.RAMCard(IM 32K $ 249 RAMCard(IH 64K S 425 RAMCard(ll')128K S 599 *AxlonRAMOiskSystem(- ore)320K S1000 VIDEO CARDS *ALS,Smartermll(+ore) ComX,80col./64KAdder(l Vldex 1 Videolerm80col.( + UllraTerm(-r-ore) Soft Video Switch ( Enhancer II {It 4-) Function Strip (II -+ Full VHex Line. Call. Up to 35% off Vista. Vision 80 $ $ 179 $ 295 S 345 $379 S 35 $ 149 S 79 MISCELLANEOUS ALS.The CP/M Card V3.0(^ore) Z-Card(+ore) Color II (+ ore) ASTAR.RF Modulator, lo use TV •CCS,Seriallnledace7710A + Central Point, Alaska Card (copier, + a e) Eastside, Wild Card (copier, + ore) Kensington, System Saver Key Tronic, KB200 keyboard (il + ) Kraft, Joystick (Ap ll/ll + ) Paddle (Apll/ll + 1 M&R,SupRfan(+ore) * Microsoft, Z80 Soflcard ( + or e) 280 Soflcard Plus (+ ore) Softcard Premium Pack (II-) Soflcard Premium Pack (lie) Micro Tek, Dumpling 64, Bulfer * Orange Micro, Grappler Plus (e or + ) 16K Buffer Board forGrappler + Buffered Grappler + .16K 2 Chip Kit for arjove for B4K Paymar, Lower Case Chip (II + ) Practical Peripherals. MBP lie 64K Par. (Epson Internal) (We) MBS lie 32KSer. (Epson Interna!) ( + re) Microbulferlk,l6K,(J-ore) Par/Ser (specify) Microbulferll + ,64K.(*ore) Par/Ser (specify) *PCPI. Appli-Card. 1 4 features 6Mhz RH Electronics, Super Fan II * Saturn Systems, Accelerator II SSM.A10II. Serial/Para Interlace TG Products, Game Paddles (II + ) Joystick (II*) Select- A-Port III + ) Trak Ball (11+) Videx, PSIO, Para/Ser Interlace $ 399 S 169 $ 179 S 35 $ 150 $ 130 $ 130 $ 90 $298 $ 65 S 50 $ 50 $345 S 645 $ 695 $ 495 $ 349 $ 175 $ 175 $ 245 $ 28 $ 50 $ 279 $ 219 $ 349 S 375 $ 75 S 599 $ 225 $ 40 $ 60 S 60 S 65 S 229 OUR PRICE $145 $ 39 $ 59 $ 69 $169 $299 $399 $695 $139 $145 $229 $279 $25 $ 99 $ 59 $299 $129 $139 $ 25 S 99 $ 99 $ 99 $ 69 $219 $ 49 S 39 $ 39 $235 $459 $495 $395 $269 $119 $119 $185 $ (9 $39 $209 $169 $259 $275 S 59 $449 $169 $ 29 $ 45 $45 $ 44 $169 SOFTWARE on disk for Apple 11/11 + /lie BUSINESS LIST PRICE Apple Computer, Inc. 50% off list on Apple Inc. sodware Applied Soft Tech., VersaForm $ 389 Artsci.MagicWindowll NEW! $ 150 $ 700 $ 700 $ 295 $ 30 $ 395 $ 70 $ 250 $ 75 $ 100 $ 350 $ 3D0 $ 150 $ 195 $ 225 $ 175 $ 150 Ashton-Tale. dBase II (Req CP/M 80) Financial Planner (Req CP/M 80) Friday(RequiresCP/M80) User's Guide by Software Banc BPI Systems, GL, AR, AP, PR or INV, each Broderbund, Bank Street Writer Continental. GL. AR, AP or PR ea Home Accountant FCM Dow Jones, Market Analyzer Market Manager Hayden, Pie Writer (Specify 80 col. board) Howard Soft, Real Estate Analyzer II Tax Preparer Info. Unlim., Easywriter (PRO) LJK, Letter Perfect w/Mail Merge * Micro Craft, (requires Z80 CP/M-Card) Professional Billkeeper $ 995 Verdict. (Legal Billing) $ 995 MicroLab.TaxManager $ 180 Micro Pro, (all require Z80-CP/M Card) WordStar" + Training Manual SPECIAL $495 MailMerge" SPECIAL $ 250 SpellSlar" SPECIAL $ 250 * WordStarProfessional,4Pak, 3above + Star Index SPECIAL $895 * WordStar w/Applicardd CP/M SPECIAL $ 495 Microsoft,Mulli-Plan(CP/MorApp!eDOS) $ 275 Financial, Multool (CP/M or DOS) $ 100 Budget, Multitool(CPIM or DOS) $ 150 Sierra'On-Line, Screenwriter II $ 130 TheDiclionary NEW! $ too General Manager II NEW! $ 230 Osborne/C.P. Soft, (Disk and Book) Some Common Basic Programs (75 each) StatisticsandMalhPrograms $ 100 Practical Basic Programs (40 each) S 100 Peachtree, Requires CP/M & MBasic, 40 columns. Series40GLSAR8AP,all3 $ 595 Series 40 Inv. or Payroll, each $ 400 Series 9 Texts Spells Mail, all 3 $ 595 Perfect, Perfect Writer S 495 Perfect Speller $ 295 Perfect Writer/Speller 2 Pak $ 695 Perfect Filer S 595 Quark.Worcf Juggler(lle) S 239 Sensible, Sens. Speller, specffyBOCol. Brd. S 125 * Silcon Valley, Word Handler $ 250 * List Handler S 90 Sof./Sys..ExeculiveSecrelary S 250 Executive Speller $ 75 SoftwarePubllshing, PFS; File $ 125 (specify h- ore) PFS: Report $ 125 PFS: Graph $ 125 OUR PRICE Call $265 $ 99 $395 $395 $199 $ 20 $295 $47 $169 $49 $ 68 $279 $239 $ 99 $129 $149 $119 $99 $469 $469 $119 $239 $129 $129 $429 $345 $199 $75 $115 S 89 $ 69 $155 $ 49 $ 49 $365 $275 $395 $149 $ 99 $199 $259 $179 $ 85 $ 39 S 35 $169 S 55 $ 85 $ 85 $ 85 Stoneware, DB Master DBUIilitylorll Vldex, Apple writer II preboot Oisk Visicalc 80 col prebool disk Visicalc 80 col. 1c 1 76K disk Videoterm Utilities Disk VisiCorp/Personal Software. Visicalc 3.3 Visicalc Enhanced(lle) VisiFileorVisiDex.each LIST OUR PRICE PRICE $ 229 $129 $ 99 $ 69 $ 20 $ 15 $ 50 $ 39 $ 90 $ 69 $ 250 NEW! $ 250 $ 250 $169 $169 $169 ■'.ii'uiVMWL'H:!.. Beagle. Utility City $ 30 $ 22 DOS Boss $ 24 $ 18 Apple Mechanic $ 30 $ 22 Central Point. Filer, DOS 3.3 and Ulilily $ 20 $ 15 * Copy II Plus (bit copier) S 40 $ 35 Epson Graphics Dump $15 $ 9 Insott. GraFORTH by Paul Lutus $ 75 $ 59 Microsoft.A.L.D.S $ 125 $ 75 BASIC Compiler $ 395 $299 CooolSO $ 750 S559 FortranSO $ 195 $t49 TASC Compiler $ 175 $159 * Omega, Locksmith (bit copier) $ 100 $ 75 Penguin, Comp.Grphcs.Sys. NEW! 5 70 $53 Graphics Magician NEW! $ 60 $ 41 Phoenix. Zoom Grafix $ 40 $ 34 Quality. BagofTricks NEW! $ 40 $29 Saturn Systems, VC-Expand 5 100 $ 49 VC-E LI Timex by FD. tape G,X, & 79 $45 [ TUTORIAL by LH. includes Starting FORTH $95 Extensions for LM Specify IBM. Z80, or 8086 Software Floating Point l ] 8087 Support (IBM-PC or 8086) 951 1 Support (Z80 or 8086) Color Graphics (IBM-PC) Data Base Management Requires LM FORTH disk Victor 9000 by DE, G.X $150 $100 $100 $100 $100 $200 fig-FORTH Programming Aids for decompiling, callfinding, and translating. CP/M. IBM-PC. Z80, or Apple $150 CROSS COMPILERS Allow extending, modifying and compiling for speed and memory savings, can also produce ROMable code •Requires FORTH disk. □ CP/M $300 ' IBM" $300 8086» $300 PZ80« $300 i i Northstar $300 P Apple I l/l I + $300 D ALL ABOUT FORTH by Haydon. See above. $25 D FORTH Encyclopedia by Derick & Baker. Programmer's manual to fig- FORTH with FORTH-79 references. Flow charted, 2 nd Ed. $25 Understanding FORTH by Reymann $3 FORTH Fundamentals, Vol I by McCabe $1 6 FORTH Fundamentals, Vol II by McCabe $1 3 Beginning FORTH by Chirlian $17 FORTH Encyclopedia Pocket Guide $7 And So FORTH by Huang. A college level text. $25 FORTH Programming by Scanlon $1 7 FORTH on the ATARI by E. Floegel $8 Starting FORTH by Brodie Best instructional manual available, (soft cover) $18 P P P P P PO P P D 1980 FORML Proc. $25 1981 FORML Proc 2 Vol $40 1982 FORML Proc. $25 1981 Rochester FORTH Proc. 1982 Rochester FORTH Proc. 1983 Rochester FORTH Proc. A FORTH Primer Threaded Interpretive Languages METAFORTH by Cassady Systems Guide to fig- FORTH Invitation to FORTH PDP-11 User Man. FORTH-83 Standard FORTH-79 Standard FORTH-79 Standard Conversion P NOVA fig-FORTH by CCI Source Listing $1 5 □ NOVA by CCI User's Manual includes editor, assembler, and utilities $25 $15 $25 $25 $25 $25 $23 $30 $25 $20 $20 $15 $15 $10 FORTH Computer - Jupiter Ace ! 1 6K RAM Pack 48K RAM Pack x? P Par/Sec Interface $150 $50 $125 $100 Key to vendors: CCI Capstone Computing Inc. DE Dai-E Systems FD Forth Dimension I Insoft LH Laxen and Harris LM Laboratory Microsystems MM MicroMotion MMS Miller Microcomputer Services NS Nautilus Systems PNS Pink Noise Studio SL Shaw Labs (hard cover) $22 I J Installation Manual for fig-FORTH Source Listings of fig-FORTH, for specific CPU's and computers. The Installation Manual is required for implementation. Each $15 P 1802 P 6502 P 6800 P AlphaMicro I I 8080 □ 8086/88 P 9900 □ APPLE II I PACE P 6809 P NOVA D PDP-11 /LSI-1 1 □ 68000 P Eclipse P VAX P Z80 Ordering Information: Check. Money Order (payable 10 MOUNTAIN VIEW PRESS. INC I. VISA, MasterCard COD'S $5 extra. No billing or unpaid PO's. California residents add sales lax Shipping costs in US included in price. Foreign orders, pay in US funds on US bank, include tor handling and shipping by Air: $5 for each item under $25. $10 for each item between $25 and $99 and $20 tor each item over $'00 Minimum order $1 5 All prices and products subject to change or withdrawal without notice Single system and/or single user license agreement required on some products DEALER & AUTHOR INQUIRIES INVITED MOUNTAIN VIEW PRESS, INC. PO BOX 4656 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA 94040 (415)961-4103 Circle 317 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 243 quickly check if you've defined them upon introduction. Tailoring the System Next, let's say you're finished with your paper and have submitted it for publication. The last time you ran proofr, however, it complained about the spelling of your last name and about that cute acronym you used to name your program. You can use die- tadd to create your own supple- mentary file that will be searched automatically next time you use the Writer's Workbench system. Some of the phrases proofr complains about are appropriate in context. Use dictadd and make a private file of phrases; in the future, proofr will ignore some of its own phrases and use yours in- stead. Using this supplementary file concept, you can adapt the output of the Writer's Workbench system to your own needs. Listing 2: The proofr program's output for a first draft of this article. ****************************** SPELLING ******************************* Possible spelling errors in byte_draft are: meta sep. rate SPELLTELL misspeled seperate WORDCHOICE sep If any of these words are spelled correctly, later type spelladd wordl word2 ... wordn to have them added to your spelldict file. ***************************** PUNCTUATION ***************************** The punctuation in byte_draft is first described. double quotes and 18 single quotes 2 apostrophes left parentheses and 1 right ones Because of the unbalanced parentheses, the following check for mistakes may make errors. The program next prints any sentence that it thinks is incorrectly punctuated and follows it by its correction. line 3 OLD: you have just finished a super program and NEW: You have just finished a super program and For more information about punctuation rules, type: punctrules ***************************** DOUBLE WORDS **************************** For file byte_draft: the the appears beginning line 10 byte_draft ***************************** WORD CHOICE ***************************** Sentences with possibly wordy or misused phrases are listed next, followed by suggested revisions. For file byte_draft beginning line 15 byte_draft You *[ utiliz]*e the SPELLTELL program, an interactive program with a data base of the most commonly misspelled words, to find out. Listing 2 continued on page 246 Suppose you decide the audience you usually address is much less so- phisticated technically than readers of technical instructional manuals, and therefore you'd like different standards for prose. Or perhaps you have a favorite author whose style you would like to emulate. To adapt the software for such styles, you first have to gather text samples that reflect your standards. Because the Writer's Workbench system calculates statistics, you must have a reasonable number of samples on line— at least 20 samples of more than 2000 words each. Once you have the text in files, the mkstand (for "make standard") program will calculate all the statistics necessary for prose. Subsequently, when you run the program, you can have your text compared to your own standards rather than those of the system. How It's All Done The proofreading programs look at all the words in the text. The stylistic programs, on the other hand, sepa- rate the words in sentences from the words in headings and figures and tables. Those words should not be in- cluded in any counts of words in sentences, nor should they be in- cluded as part of any sentence. Writer's Workbench programs use embedded formatting commands to discard nonsentence text. Users of the Unix formatting macro packages label their nonsentence text with macros for headings, tables, centered lines, and other displays that are not part of the regular text. Thus, the stylistic programs can figure out which characters to include in their analyses. Word-processing systems in which a typist types as though on a typewriter do not allow this analysis, and the Writer's Workbench stylistic programs would be difficult to imple- ment with such systems. Conclusion The programs we've described are not designed to do everything for a writer; rather, they remove some of the tedious burden of proofreading and provide guidelines about style. In this way, they free writers to ex- amine their organization and content. 244 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. YOU DAMAGE YOUR COMPUTER, PLUG IT IN RIGHT. INTRODUCING THE WIRE TREE AC SURGE PROTECTOR, FROM network: Power surges and voltage spikes. Their causes can be as simple as someone opening your refrigerator, or running a power tool, or switching on a fluorescent light. But their results can be devastating. They can wipe out your computer's memory Even damage its sensitive cir- cuits. That's why smart computer users protect their r— Dersonal computers , Dy plugging them p I A nto The Wire Tree from ' Networx. NPt##i The Wire Tree A Four OuNet Filleted Power Source Voltage Constant surge en- power out- tersThe put Wire Tree. R.F. inter- Filtered ference power out- enters The put Wire Tree. The Wire Tree has four out- lets and provides power surge protection that conforms to IEEE guidelines. It comes with a bracket to mount underneath your desk or table and has a unique cable support feature which organizes your system's power cords into a neat bundle and moves them out of your way And it lets you control system power from a single illumi- nated on/off switch. You've invested a lot of time and money in your computer system. Protect that in- • vestment with The Wire Tree. Ask for one at your local computer store. Networx, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11237 (212) 821-7555 Circle 327 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 245 Listing 2 continued: beginning line 27 byte_draft *[ Through the use of]* WORDCHOICE you discover (he difference. beginning line 27 byte_draft WORDCHOICE is also an interactive program and has a *[ very]* large data base of the commonly confused or misused words. file byte_draft: number of lines 29 number of phrases found 3 Please wait for the substitution phrases - Table of Substitutions PHRASE SUBSTITUTION through the use of: use "by, with" for " through the use of" utiliz: use "use" for " utilize" very: use "OMIT" for " very" very: use "doubtless, no doubt" for " there is very little doubt that" very: use "in a sense or OMIT WHOLE PHRASE" for " in a very real sense" very: use "unimportant" for " of very minor importance" * Not all the revisions will be appropriate for your document. * When there is more than one suggestion for just one bracketed word, you will have to choose the case that fits your use. * Capitalized words are instructions, not suggestions. * To find out more about each phrase, type "worduse phrase." NOTE: If you want this program to look for additional phrases or to stop looking for some, for instance to stop flagging "impact," type the command dictadd. May 19 17:08 1983 PROOFR OUTPUT FOR byte_draft Page 3 *************************** spi it INFINITIVFS ************************ For file byte_draft: Possible split infinitives: to now describe For information on split infinitives type: splitrules Listing 3: The prose program provided these comments on a poorly written technical paper. NOTE: Your document is being compared against standards derived from 30 technical memoranda, classified as good by managers in the research area of Bell Laboratories. READABILITY The Kincaid readability formula predicts that your text can be read by someone with 16 or more years of schooling, which is rather high for this type of document. Good technical papers average close to 13th grade level, even though the audience has more education than that. The programs were designed hier- archically; casual users can get a lot of information with just one com- mand, and experienced users can run individual programs when nec- essary. The Writer's Workbench software has been very well received by writers who have used it. They report that they like getting information about their papers privately; only the computer knows. They prefer specific suggestions to comments such as "vague" or "poorly written" that they often get from human reviewers. Many claim their writing has im- proved simply because the system has prodded them to think about the choices they make when writing. ■ References Cherry, L. L. and W. Vesterman. "Writing Tools— The STYLE and DICTION Programs," Computing Science Technical Report, 91 , Bell Laboratories, 1981. Cherry, L. L. "Writing Tools," IEEE Trans- actions. Communications, Special Issue on Communications in the Automated Office, 30, No. 1 (January 1982), pages 100-105. Macdonald, N. H. "The Unix Writer's Work- bench Software: Rationale and Design," Bell System Technical Journal, 62, No. 6, Part 3 (July-August 1983), pages 1891-1908. Macdonald, N. H., L. T Frase, P. S. Gingrich, and S. A. Keenan. 'Writer's Workbench: Com- puter Aids for Text Analysis," IEEE Transac- tions. Communications, Special Issue on Communications in the Automated Office, 30, No. 1 (January 1982), pages 105-110 Lorinda Cherrxj has a master's degree in computer science. She is a member of the technical staff of the Computing Science Research Center at Bell Laboratories (600 Mountain Ave., Murray Hill, Nj 07974). Nina H. Macdonald holds a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Michigan and ivorks at Bell Laboratories (6 Corporate PL, Piscataiuay, N] 08854). This text includes many long words. Consider running the syllable counting program, sy l, to look at the words in this text with five or more syllables. To do this type the following command when this program is done. Listing 3 continued on page 248 Where to Learn More To find out more about the Unix Writer's Workbench software that was announced at the July 1983 Usenix conference, contact Western Electric Software Sales and Marketing POB 25000 Greensboro, NC 27420 (919) 697-6530 246 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Don't waste another second waiting for your printer to finish before you can use your computer again. With Microbuffe™ printer buffers you can print and process simultaneously! microbuffer: so what are you waiting for? Another fine product f rom ^=.^="#2/lC» IHmJX L m PERIPHERALS 31245 La Baya Drive, Westlake Village, California 91362 (213) 991-8200 • TWX 910-336-5431 Circle 371 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 247 Listing 3 continued: syl -5 filename If most of the long words are technical terms that you must use, consider providing a glossary of terms to make this paper easier to read. If the words aren't technical terms, use shorter words wherever you can. In changing your text, be sure not to use several different words for the same concept; such synonyms are frequently confusing to the reader. VARIATION You have an appropriate distribution of sentence types. SENTENCE STRUCTURE Passives This text contains a higher percentage of passive verbs (32.0%) than is common in good documents of this type (22%) A sentence is in the passive voice when its grammatical subject is the receiver of the action. PASSIVE: The ball was hit by the boy. When the doer of the action in a sentence is the subject, the sentence is in the active voice. ACTIVE: The boy hit the ball. The passive voice is sometimes needed 1 . to emphasize the object of the sentence, 2. to vary the rhythm of the text, or 3. to avoid naming an unimportant actor. EXAMPLE: The appropriations were approved. Although passive sentences are sometimes needed, psychological research has shown that they are harder to comprehend than active sentences. Because of this you should transform as many of your passives to actives as possible. You can use the style program to find all your sentences with passive verbs in them, by typing the following command when this program is finished. style — p filename Nominalizations You have appropriately limited your nominalizations (nouns made from verbs, e.g., "description"). Expletives This text contains a higher percentage of expletives ( 8.0%) than is common in good documents of this type ( 3%). Expletives are words that have no content. For instance, "it" and "there" are often used as expletives in sentences such as "It is dark" and "There are three solutions to this puzzle." In these sentences, "it" and "there" have no content; they are simply linguistic placeholders. Expletives are sometimes necessary, e.g., "It is raining." Often, however, they add unnecessary words to a sentence: "There are three solutions to this puzzle" can easily be shortened to "This puzzle has three solutions." To find all the expletives counted by this program, type the following command after this program is finished. style — e filename PROSE OUTPUTS Options You can request that your document be compared against different standards; typing -t with the prose command, e.g., prose -t filename will compare your text against training documents. A — s option will provide a very short version of the _pr_o_s_£ output. prose — s filename If you already have a style table in a file, you can save time by using it as the input to _pi_o_s_e. rather than the textfile. To do this, precede the style table filename with a -f, e.g., prose — f styletable-filename All the options can be selected at the same time and listed in any order. prose -f styletable-filename — s -t Statistics The table of statistics generated by the program _s_Ly_l_e can be found in your file styl.tmp. If you want to look at it type: cat styl.tmp You can also use the match program, which provides a better format, type: match styl.tmp If you are not interested in the file, remove it by typing: rm styl.tmp ORGANIZATION The _p_r_g.sj; program cannot check the content or organization of your text. One way to look at the overall structure of your text is to use _g_r_£_p to list all the headings that were specified for the _m_m formatter. To do this, type: grep ".H' filename You can also use the organization program, _o_r_g, to look at the structure of your text. _0_r_g will format your paper with all the headings and paragraph divisions intact, but will only print the first and last sentence of each paragraph in your text so you can check your flow of ideas. org filename 248 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. For people whowant power. : r And something more. If you are seeking power in software we believe we have created the program you seek. And our opinion is shared by a great many computer analysts who consider 1-2-3 IM from Lotus® the most productive program in the marketplace. Like many great ideas the essence of its success is its simplicity. With 1-2-3, you have spreadsheet, information management and graphic functions — all in one program. You can switch from one function to another with the touch of a key, instantaneously. Although it seems faster. In effect, it's a perfect combination of raw power and spectacular speed. But for those who want more, 1-2-3 is spe- cially designed so you can develop customized applications for your business needs. And the world's largest electronic spreadsheet has enough operators, functions and commands to perform virtually any task you ask of it. In fact, the only limit is your imagination. 1-2-3 from Lotus is power and something more. Call 1-800-343-5414 (In Massachusetts call 617-492-7870) and find out more about 1-2-3 from Lotus. ■? Lotus The hardest working software in the world. Circle 275 on inquiry card. I-2-.1 ;ind Lotus are trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation. All rights reserved. INTRODUCING SfcgftRusW I I "M fc ■■ ** ^, 1 t m . 3! - 3 y S? *^ ,> ».<•*• — m l «.***■ *£TV t».i *' 11-1 « U " NEW PB £C(SIOH THE SECOND GENERATION 96 TPI DISK NO OTHER PRODUCT LINE IS EXPRESSLY DESIGNED FOR PRECISION 96 TPI PERFORMANCE. What makes one computer a better buy than another? How about a 96 tracks-per-inch drive? It can pack more than a megabyte on a single flexible disk. Today, over 20 microcomputer manufac- turers are marketing 96 TPI disk systems. And thanks to a new diskette engineered to standards previously unattainable, 96 TPI performance can now be as reliable as 48 TPI. The product that makes this possible is the Xidex Precision™ Flexible Disk. A TANGIBLY SUPERIOR DISK. We had no choice. To turn out a highly reliable 96 TPI product line in volume, Xidex had to build the most automated and ad- vanced disk manufacturing facility in the world. And we had to find ways to enhance current capabilities in materials, magnetic formulations, manufacturing and quality control. The best substrate. We start with the most stable polyester substrate commer- cially available. We can command the best because we're the world's largest purchaser of polyester substrate. Using a superior substrate makes the disks less suscepti- ble to distortions caused by temperature and humidity. And that's just the beginning. Tighter hub hole specs. We reduced the accepted tolerances on the center hole diameter by 50% (from .001" to .0005") to Circle 518 on inquiry card. decrease the risk of head to track mis- alignment. Improved signal strength.We coat with a unique magnetic particle that has a signal level almost 20% higherthan average. (This was accomplished without any sacrifice in overwrite and peak shift properties.) The resulting "hotter" signal means you're less likely to lose your data if head alignment is less than perfect. Better finishing. We use proprietary binders and lubricants, and we polish the disk to a higher luster than you're used to seeing. This significantly improves signal performance and assures longer life for the disk drive heads. More protective jacket. Jacket construc- tion is particularly critical to 96 TPI perform- ance. Xidex has selected a 10 mil jacket that is 33% thicker than the industry aver- age. The jacket not only feels more sub- stantial, it offers greater protection from contaminants, extended handling and ex- tremes in temperature and humidity. Its superior squareness and flatness allow it to slip more easily into the drive and im- proves double sided head compliance.The all-polyester liner helps the disk to rotate more quietly and with less torque. Tighter quality control. Product testing must also be a cut above accepted stan- dards. Xidex disks not only go through the most rigorous 100% test procedures, they are also required to pass an additional out- going quality check of 18 tests. Xidex disks are 100% certified ... to a higher level than any other product. But many users don't realize that "100% certi- fied" simply means that the disks are cer- tified against dropouts. Disks can fail for other reasons, too. It's only because Xidex controls all three critical areas— coating, physical construction and testing— that we can produce a reliable 96 TPI product. Naturally, our disks also offer a lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects. HIGH VOLUME PRODUCTION CAPACITY. Xidex's monthly shipments of disks have been soaring since mid-1982. And we're just barely tapping our capability. Our new coating facility will be able to turn out over 150 million disks a year. Our product line also includes a full line of 48 TPI disks that are superior to any- thing on the market.Available in 5M"and 8" sizes, they are made to the same exacting standards as our 96TPI products. A WORLD LEADER IN PRECISION COATING. As one of the largest manufacturers of computer media products, we've been per- fecting the art of precision, high speed, volume coating onto polyester since 1969. In fact, we currently coat more polyester media products than all manufacturers of flexible disks combined. We're also the first vertically integrated American manufacturer of flexible disks in over five years. If you'd like more information on the most reliable 48 and 96 TPI disks that money can buy, give us a call. We also have a technical paper on 96 TPI disks that's yours for the asking. Xidex Magnetics, P.O. Box 3418, Sunny- vale, CA 94088-3418. (415) 964-4652. In California call toll free (800) 672-1403. Outside California call (800) 538-1584. PRECISION" FLEXIBLE DISKS BYTE October 1983 251 Smith- Corona makes a successful printer even better. Introducing theTP-II. When Smith-Corona® introduced the TP-P' daisy wheel printer, it filled an important need. It gave home users and small businesses the opportu- nity to have high-quality letter-perfect printing at the lowest price to that time. No wonder it's been such a success! Now, Smith-Corona improves upon that suc- cess. With the TP-ir printer. The TP-II has all the features of the TP-I. It's compatible with most microcomputers. It han- dles letter and legal sized paper. There's an optional tractor feed for handling fanfold paper. Dual Interface But the TP-II has some significant improvements, as well. It can interface with both serial and parallel computers. Which means you can upgrade your computer when- ever you want without having to buy a new printer, too. Letter-Quality Printing The TP-II has the same excellent print quality as the finest office typewriters. There's r Please send me more information on the Smith-Corona TP-II daisy wheel printer. Na me ~l Address - City _State_ .Zip- L Mail coupon to: Smith-Corona, 65 Locust Avenue New Canaan, CT 06840 Smith- Corona Smith-Corona is a trademark owned by SCM Corporation, 310 I a choice of easy-to-change daisy wheels to give you a wide variety of print styles and languages. (At $7.95 each, you can easily afford several.) There is a new ASCII 93-character printwheel with all the characters necessary to print out computer program listings, as well as printwheels in seven foreign languages. Self-Testing The Self-Test Switch lets you automati- cally print out a test pattern to check on the TP-II's operating condition. You can easily set DIP switches for baud, parity and character bit length. Plus it offers carriage return line feed, as well as a new 256 character buffer. 800 Number for Information Add to all these features the fact that the TP-II is made in America by a company that has earned a reputation for reliability. A com- pany that backs its printers (and everything else it makes!) with a national factory service network and an 800 number you can call if you have a problem. So if you're in the market for a high-quality, low-cost daisy wheel printer, consider the one that's improved upon success. The Smith- Corona TP-II. 252 BYTE October 1983 Circle 413 on inquiry card. Typesetting on the Unix System The formatting and typesetting system built around the troff program works reliably and can be learned in a day by Bill Tuthill The Unix text and formatting system, based on the troff (Typesetter RunOFF) program, is the mainstay of document preparation at Bell Labor- atories as well as many universities and research institutions. Offered free of charge with any computer that runs Unix, troff (pronounced tea-roff) is a dependable system that is easy to learn. Studies have shown that Unix composition is about 2.5 times as fast as typewriter composition and costs a third less (see reference 5). The current facility provides special languages that make tables, equa- tions, and bibliographies easy to specify and format. Without change, it can have the same text file line- printed, typewritten (perhaps with proportional spacing), and photo- typeset for publication. In newer releases the typesetting system also provides languages for drawing dia- grams within a document. The troff program was written in PDP assembly language in 1973 by Joseph Ossanna. The nroff program (New RunOFF) was devised to drive typewriter terminals instead of a typesetter and shares source code with troff. Updated programs were rewritten in the C language around 1975 and evolved slowly but steadily until late 1977, when Ossanna was killed in an automobile accident. Because nobody else knew exactly how troff worked, its evolution came to a halt. Offshoots of troff Other programs later grew up around troff: tbl for producing com- plex tables, eqn for typesetting mathematical equations, and refer for handling bibliographic references. These programs are preprocessors for troff. That is, they look for appropriate areas of text and transform a high- level specification language into low- level typesetting codes. These codes are then passed from the preproces- sors to troff using the Unix pipe The original troff allowed for only four fonts and 15 point sizes; the new one permits 256 fonts and 128 point sizes. mechanism. The functionality the preprocessors provide could never have been built into troff itself given the memory constraints of the time when troff was first used. Another advantage of preproces- sors is that existing ones can be changed, and new ones written, without modification of troff itself. Thus, the modularity provided by the Unix system allowed typesetting soft- ware to grow through accretion into the full, mature system it is today. The first versions of troff produced typesetting code only for the Graph- ics Systems (later Wang) CAT/4. In late 1979 Brian Kernighan began re- writing troff to produce intermediate ASCII (American National Standard Code for Information Interchange) code, which could then, theoretical- ly, be converted to binary codes for any typesetter. In 1982 this software was released to the public. Educational source licenses cost $300 per processor, and commercial source licenses sell for $4000 per pro- cessor. Both are available only to Unix license holders. The distribution tape includes translating programs for the Mergenthaler Linotron 202, Compu- graphic 8400, and Autologic APS-5 phototypesetters and the Imagen Canon LBP-10 laser printer. Note, however, that recent releases of Unix, including 4.1 BSD and System V, do not include the new device- independent troff. The original troff allowed for only four fonts and 15 point sizes; the new one permits 256 fonts and 128 point sizes. In addition, the former line- length limit of 7.54 inches has been lifted. The new troff also provides graphics primitives for drawing diag- onal lines, circles, ellipses, arcs, and splines. Two new preprocessors, pic and ideal, provide a way to include diagrams in typeset documents. Pic is simpler and thus easier to learn, but ideal provides more powerful con- October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 253 structs for shading and opaquing. Unfortunately, neither program is as easy to use as Lisa Draw because they require that diagrams be speci- fied linguistically rather than graph- ically. The coding and design of troff are often criticized. It is true that its old C source code is largely uncom- mented, but it is also well organized and has proven extremely robust. The native input syntax is terse and unnatural, yet it is sufficiently general that macros at the user level are natural, mnemonic, and extensi- ble. Troff is also criticized for its voracious appetite for computer resources, particularly when used in conjunction with the preprocessors. However, some typesetting systems are even worse. Let's face it: the com- puting required for text processing is inherently much greater than that re- quired for numerical processing. Strings take up more space in memory than numbers; calculating character widths and filling and ad- justing lines require a lot of number crunching. Other Formatting Systems Most formatting systems that run on mainframes are based on the runoff formatter written at MIT in the early 1960s. The idea behind that for- matter was to mix text and formatting directives in the same file. Formatting commands appear on lines starting with a period, whereas text lines do not start with a period. With this type of formatter, which could be called a batch system, files are prepared with a text editor and then material is run off with a separate program. The troff program descended from runoff and uses the same arrangement to specify commands. Today, most word processors that run on microcomputers are interac- tive—files are formatted while you are entering text, using one unified program. In many ways this arrange- ment works better than a batch for- matting system, because you aren't surprised by unusual results when you run off a file for the first time. However, the theory that "what you see is what you get" also implies that "what you see is all you get." Word- star, for example, does not provide proportional spacing on a daisy- wheel printer, let alone the ability to do phototypesetting, mathematical equations, and complex tables. The troff system has two principal competitors: TEX, from Stanford University, and Scribe from Unilogic. (In addition, many commercial type- setting systems are available that do not compete directly because of their high cost and because they do not run on general-purpose computers.) TEX was developed in 1978 by Donald Knuth at Stanford. Parts of it, especially its equation-formatting capability, were inspired by the eqn program on Unix. The strength of TEX lies in its algorithms for boxes, Batch formatting may produce unusual results but offers more powerful options. paragraphing, hyphenation, and "glue." TEX considers text objects (such as paragraphs and lists) to be boxes separated from each other by stretchable glue. Entire paragraphs are held in a data structure then out- put all at once to prevent orphans and widows. (An orphan is a single line from the beginning of a para- graph appearing at the bottom of a page, and a widow is a single line from the end of a paragraph appear- ing at the top of a page.) Hyphena- tion is avoided, if at all possible, simply by measuring how much room is left on the final line of a paragraph and placing extra words there. By contrast, troff works a line at a time. Therefore, widows and hyphenation problems occur every now and then, although orphans can easily be avoided. The first version of TEX was writ- ten in Sail; newer versions are in a nonstandard version of Pascal. The principal drawbacks of TEX are that it is difficult to learn and use and poorly documented. Its input lan- guage is baroque and hard to read, and no useful beginner's manual is available— the one book by Knuth must suffice. In addition, many sym- bols required by TEX are not available on standard ASCII keyboards. Tables are difficult to specify using TEX, no bibliographic tools are provided, and TEX has no graphics language. On the other hand, Knuth's Metafont provides a means of describing and creating entirely new symbols. Sup- port for various output devices, both laser printers and typesetters, has im- proved. TEX was chosen by the American Mathematical Society as its standard document-formatting lan- guage. The American Physical Socie- ty chose troff as its standard language. Arguably the easiest to use of all the batch formatting systems, Scribe was written in 1979 by Brian Reid at Carnegie-Mellon University and is now marketed by Unilogic Ltd. in Pittsburgh. Although not so much simpler to use that it can hold its own against interactive mouse-driven systems, the Scribe formatter does ac- commodate different types of docu- ments (such as letters, articles, theses, books) and high-level text constructs (such as paragraphs, titles, and headers). Document types and text constructs are defined in an easi- ly modified Scribe database. This system's beginner-level manual is ex- cellent, as is the documentation for more advanced users. Scribe has two principal draw- backs, however. Its licensing cost is relatively high, and the current ver- sion has no facility for producing mathematical equations, although such a feature is promised for future versions. Tables are fairly difficult to specify using Scribe, and it provides no graphics language. Some users also complain that Scribe is verbose; when converting Scribe input to troff input, deletion is the most common operation re- quired. However, Scribe support for different output devices is (and always has been) excellent. In addi- tion to supporting typesetters that the new troff supports, and some that it doesn't, Scribe supports the Xerox 9700 laser printer. Typesetting with troff To use the troff system, you enter text and interspersed formatting com- mands (lines beginning with a 254 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. WATCH OUT ATARI ! AT-D2 HAS LANDED ! 1*1 ^ $$- IRAK'S floppy and hard disk drive systems for the Apple and IBM-PC are available at many Computerland ana other fine stores worldwide. . . .WITH IT'S FLEET OF THE MOST ADVANCED SINGLE AND DOUBLE DENSITY DRIVE SYSTEMS IN THE UNIVERSE - TOTALLY COMPATIBLE WITH ATARI* COMPUTER MODELS 400, 800, 600XL, 1200XL, 1400XL, AND 1460XL. DOCK YOUR FAVORITE PRINTER DIRECTLY TO OUR DRIVE'S BUILT-IN PARALLEL PRINTER INTERFACE. THERE'S NO NEED TO BUY AN EX- PENSIVE ATARI 850 MODULE. THE COMMAND CONTROL PANEL FEATURES READ, WRITE AND DENSITY INDICATORS, A TRACK COUNTER TO LOCATE EVERY BIT OF YOUR DATA AND A TOUCH-SENSITIVE SWITCH TO PROTECT IT. WARP SPEED OF UP TO 18 TIMES FASTER THAN ANY OTHER ATARI DRIVE IS ACHIEVED WITH OUR OPTIONAL TURBO-CHARGED SOFTWARE. AWESOME POWER — DESTROY A PLANET OR LEARN HOW ONE IS CREATED. BALANCE YOUR CHECKBOOK OR WRITE A BESTSELLER LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE OR CREATE ONE. IT'S MAGNIFICENTLY SIMPLE! — JUST PLUG IT IN AND LIFT-OFF! "Atari isa registered trademark of Atari. Inc TRAK GIVES YOU THE MOST STORAGE FOR YOUR DOLLAR! OUR FLAGSHIP, AT-D2, WITH TWICE THE STOR- AGE CAPACITY OF THE ATARI 810 DRIVE PLUS A PRINTER INTERFACE AND COMMAND CON- TROL PANEL, HAS A VALUE OF OVER S1000 YET COSTS LESS THAN S500 1 SEE YOUR DEALER NOW FOR A TEST FUGH T , OR call toll free: 1-800-323-4853 in Illinois, call collect: 1-312-968-1716 TWX 910-222-1848 microcomputer corporation 1511 Ogden Ave Downers Grove. IL60515 Circle 478 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 255 Circle 151 on inquiry card. FOR INTER-COMPUTER DATA TRANSFER, YOU NEED "PORT AUTHORITY' It's yours with the TLC-1: the three-port solid state data switch. Say good-bye, at last, to the inefficiencies and limitations of the electrical-contact switch. Thanks to the remarkable TLC-1: the solid state data switch with three independent RS232 ports. Repeat. . . three independent ports. v Because of this unique design, the TLC-1 resolves all configurations of switching among any three units. . . computers, modems and printers. This means 63 possible connection configurations - using any combination of DCE and DTE equipment-with all received and transmitted data independently switched. That's "port authority"! And it's accomplished with very simple controls. Just three buttons and six status lights. You need no special software. Moreover, because it processes every function with solid state switching, the TLC-1 participates in each connection while the power is on. So there's no switching noise, no junk data, no glitch of any kind. Just incomparable data transfer.And for $245.00, that's an awful lot of power. ' s To order, or request more information please write or call: asanf Street, Waiertown, MA 02172. (617) 924-1680 Get everything done by Friday! » Invoices. Paychecks. Mailing lists and form letters. Inventory. Reports. And just about any file handling that needs to be done around the office. Get them all done quickly, efficiently and accurately any day of the week— by Friday!™ Friday! is the revolutionary new electronic file handling system for your microcomputer from Ashton-Tate, the people who invented dBASE II® It's just $295 (suggested retail price). For the name of your nearest Friday! dealer, drop us a line. Ashton-Tate, 10150 West Jefferson Boulevard, Culver SftS» ASHTON-TATE dBASE II is a registered trademark and Friday! is a trademark of Ashton-Tate. ©AshtonTate 1983 period) into a file using a text editor. Most people use vi (pronounced vee- eye and standing for visual), a screen editor developed at the University of California. Some installations prefer the Rand editor in one of its many in- carnations (ned, red, ined, e) or some version of emacs, originally from MIT and the inspiration for MINCE and Perfect Writer. All these editors are screen oriented. Some diehards and underprivileged typists still use line editors such as ed, which makes them far less productive than they would be using a good screen editor. When you are ready to run off the text, the file is written to disk and the nroff formatter is invoked: $ nroff -ms file A macro package (such as -ms) is almost always involved because it provides pagination and common text structures such as headers, para- graphs, footnotes, and displays. Here is a short list of the most frequently used -ms macros: TL title .SH section header PP paragraph .DS display start .DE display end .FS footnote start .FE footnote end The nroff formatter provides type- writer output. If you want to typeset the file, this command would be used instead: $ troff -ms file Theoretically, it would not be necessary to change the file. How- ever, lineation and pagination are dif- ferent with troff because the typeset- ter packs more words per line and thus more words per page. If the text had particularly tricky tables, you might want to employ the tbl preprocessor: $ tbl file | nroff -ms or $ tbl file | troff -ms 256 October 1983 © BYTE Publications 1 Circle 47 on inquiry card. 3y/$tffcetf/oii< ALASKA Compucenter Anchorage. 907/561-2125 ARIZONA Tab Products of Arizona Phoenix, 602/864-0311 ARKANSAS Parkin Printing & Stationery Little Rock. 505/375-7231 CALIFORNIA Beta Business Systems, Inc. San Diego. 619/565-4505 Computer Parts Exchange Northridge. 213/341-3783 Data Bits, Inc. Orange County, 714/633-6650 Informco Van Nuys, 213/994-3380 lnt'l Memory Products of California Santa Monica, 213/450-0132 Jeskin Products San Diego, 714/489-0121 Kierulff Electronics, Inc. Offices Nationwide, Los Angeles. 800/338-8811 213/725-2325 (in CA) J. P. Patti, Inc. Sante Fe Springs, 213/949-0961 Quest Media & Supplies, Inc. Sacramento. 916/488-3310 The Supply Depot Simi Valley. 805/583-0505 Tayco Los Angeles. 213/466-5175 Todd Sales Covina, 213/331-7377 COLORADO Compulerware, Inc. Boulder, 303/443-0172 Data Pro. Ltd. Denver, 303/777-8655 CONNECTICUT Associated Computer Supplies, Inc. Monroe, 203/261-6504 FLORIDA AB Data Corporation Tampa. 813/223-7194 Data Pax Miami, 305/446-9291 Kar Printing Hialeah, 305/557-4782 National Data Products Tampa. 800/237-3875 Pinellas Processing Supplies Largo. 813/224-0466 GEORGIA Computer Traders Atlanta, 404/955-0360 Magnetic Media Atlanta, 404/457-0002 HAWAII Unitek Computer Services Honolulu, 808/523-8881 IDAHO R & I. Data Systems, Inc. Idaho FalIs,'208/529-3785 ILLINOIS American Computer Equipment Co. Whealon. 312/653-7444 Comark, Inc. Klmhursl. 312/834-5000 lnt'l Memory Products of Illinois Prospect Heights. 312/537-8000 Prvor Corporation Chicago, 312/644-5650 Thomas Computer Corporation Chicago, 312/944-1401 Visible Computer Supply Corp. St. Charles. 312/377-2586 INDIANA Data Comm Brownsburg, 317/852-5112 Kellev World Company Mishawaka, 219/255-4926 IOWA Nebraska Iowa Computer Supplies West Des Moines, 515/225-2526 KANSAS Mid-America Computing, Inc. Lenexa. 913/492-8805 LOUISIANA Bvrd Business Forms 'Kenner, 504/467-8400 MARYLAND Federal Data Corporation Chevy Chase. 301/986-0800 Grafico Corporation Baltimore, 301/747-1065 MCO Computer Supplies Millersville, 301/621-7800 Spartan Industries, Inc. Burlonsville. 301/384-1300 MASSACHUSETTS Continental Resources Bedford, 617/275-0850 800/343-4688 MICHIGAN J & B Data Processing Supplies Kalamazoo, 800/422-0662 Precision Data Products Grand Rapids, 616/452-3457 Transaction Storage Systems Southfield,800/FLOPPYS 800/265-4824 (Canada) MINNESOTA Allanson Business Products, Inc. Bioomington, 612/881-1151 Compulerware Data Products, Inc. Eden Prairie, 612/941-6150 Sexton Data Products Minneapolis, 612-941-5880 MISSOURI Compulime, Inc. St. Louis, 314/434-5995 Specialty Computer Ribbons Hazelwood, 314/731-0808 NEBRASKA Nebraska Iowa Computer Supplies Omaha. 402/551-1288 NEW JERSEY Data Research Associates Englewood, 201/569-2620 NEW MEXICO I. M.S. Albuquerque, 505/884-7591 NEW YORK Arrow Electronics Farmingdalc, 516/694-6800 Corslar Business Computing Co., Inc. While Plains, 914/428-5550 Daily Business Products, Inc. Hauppauge. 516/543-6100 Dalarex Systems. Inc. Buffalo, 716/633-1031 NORTH CAROLINA Clyde Rudd & Associates Greensboro, 919/288-0222 Kester Business Systems Greensboro. 919/855-1600 OHIO Dak Supply Corporation Cleveland, 216/238-0102 Treb-Kirbv Company Cleveland, 216/651-6282 Trebilco International, Inc. Cleveland. 216/961-3334 OKLAHOMA Data Products, Inc. Oklahoma City, 405/943-9733 Tinker Office Supply Tulsa, 918/622-8891 OREGON Force 4 D. P. Supplies, Inc. Portland. 503/620-8888 National Micro Wholesalers Beaverton, 503/643-0626 PENNSYLVANIA Computer Resources Co. Allen town, 215/776-2100 Granville Associates. Inc. Carnegie, 412/276-3588 National Ribbon, Inc. (NRI) Morrisville, 215/736-1134 Used Computers, Inc. Berwyn. 215/6471881 RHODE ISLAND Narragansett Providence, 401/751-3440 TENNESSEE Advance Magnetics, Inc. Nashville. 615/329-0641 Forms and Supplies, Inc. Memphis. 901/346-1249 TEXAS Bull's I Data San Antonio. 512/656-6367 Grammco Computer Sales San Antonio, 512/6900641 Monarch Paper Company Houston, 713/686-9332 Philbo Enterprises, Inc. Dallas, 214/358-1200 D. G. Renick & Company Houston. 713/688-3604 Sunlex Data Supplies Houston, 713/783-5270 UTAH Rebel Enterprises, Inc. Salt Lake City, 801/261-3300 VIRGINIA Champion Data Products, Inc. St. Charles, 301/843-6980 Federal Sales Service, Inc. Alexandria, 703/922-9400 Overview Systems Falls Church, 703/241-9146 Virginia Impressions Products Co., Inc. Richmond, 804/282-3166 WASHINGTON Western Paper Company Kent, 206/251-5300 Your business can sample the finest 5W double-sided floppies— with our compliments. Control Data is the world's leading producer of disk drives and computer systems for American business. Our hardware and software are hard at work reduc- ing costs, cutting lead time and boosting productivity throughout industry. The same unbeatable quality that makes us a leader in comput- ing also goes into our floppy disks. And now you can test our high quality, error-free performance at a price you really can't beat. Free. How can you try before you buy our flexible media? Just fill out the attached coupon and mail it to us. Your local distributor will deliver your free 5W double-sided double-density floppy. Find out for yourself. Fill out the attached coupon and mail it to Control Data Corporation today! Offer limited to one redemption per business. Expires 12-31-83. HEWN* f 01/K / CONTRPL DATA (la) .vs 1M .TS allbox ; cfE s s s s c c c c c 1 1 n 1 1 . .sp \s+2Northern California .sp \fIRiver Lower Klamath Cal Salmon Yuba N Fork American N Fork U-5 American Middle 3-^ American S For Stanislaus Tuolumne Merced Carson E Fork Truckee • TE Vhitewater\s-2 CI ass Length Season Comments\ 2-3 25 mi . summer warm wate 4-5 21 mi. spring extr emel y 3-4 9 mi . spring portage 1 U_5 13 mi. spring beautiful 3-4 17 mi . summer has tunne 2_? 1P mi . summer most popu 2-3 9 mi . summer inundated 4-5 1P mi. summer cont inuou ^-4 14 mi. spring no dams a 2 20 mi . spring scenic , i 1-3 25 mi . spring scenic , e fp r and pleasant scenery technical, many rocks ft. waterfall at end , several portages required 1 through rock, 3 portages lar Whitewater section by New Melones Reservoir sly difficult and fast bove , very cold water ncludes hot springs asy access, variety (lb) Northern California Whitewater River Class Length Season Comments Lower Klamath 2-3 25 mi. summer warm water and pleasant scenery Cal Salmon 4-5 21 mi. spring extremely technical, many rocks Yuba N Fork 3-4 9 mi. spring portage 10 ft. waterfall at end American N Fork 4-5 13 mi. spring beautiful, several portages required American Middle 3-4 17 mi. summer has tunnel through rock, 3 portages American S Fork 2-3 18 mi. summer most popular Whitewater section Stanislaus 2-3 9 mi. summer inundated by New Melones Reservoir Tuolumne 4-5 18 mi. summer continuously difficult and fast Merced 3-4 14 mi. spring no dams above, very cold water Carson E Fork 2 20 mi. spring scenic, includes hot springs Truckee 1-3 25 mi. spring scenic, easy access, variety Figure 1: Through use of the tbl preprocessor, the input in la resulted in the attractive table shown in lb. Simple lists can be done by hand, but it's difficult to make them work prop- erly on both a typewriter and a type- setter. If you fail to call the tbl pro- gram, junk will appear in place of a good-looking table. See figure 1 for an example of table input and output. If the text contains mathematical equations, you will want to invoke the eqn preprocessor: $ neqn file | nroff -ms or $ eqn file | troff -ms The neqn variant is used for type- writers, while eqn is used with a typesetter. Both programs, developed by a compiler-compiler, translate a simple context-free grammar into ap- propriate formatting commands. See figure 2 for an example of equation input and output. The refer preprocessor can be used to deal with bibliographic material. The pic and ideal languages provide for the inclusion of graphics into a document. Tables of contents, as in figure 3, can be collected and gener- ated automatically or produced as an afterthought. Documentation Guide The troff system is a well- documented one. The original man- uals from Bell Laboratories are not suitable for beginners, however, because they are organized by pro- gram rather than in tutorial order and assume far too much knowledge on the part of the reader. Better material is available, though. For people with 258 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. tomPUTER WAREHOUSE CALL TOLL FREE PRINTERS C-ltoh F-10-Parallel or Serial $1049 55 CPS Serial or Parallel $1555 8510 Parallel (Prowriter) $339 Computer International Daisywriter 2000 W/48K Call Comrex CR-1-S $665 cr-1-p $755 CR-2 $449 Datasouth DS180 $1155 Diablo 620 RO $850 630 RO $1699 DTC 380Z $1080 IDS Microprism 480 $480 Prism 80 $1 160 Prism 80Color $1345 Prism 132 $1310 Prism 132 Color $1 500 Juki 6100 Call Epson All models Call NEC PC-8023A $385 PC-8025 $669 3510 $1365 3550 $1710 7710 $1900 2010 $785 2015 $785 2050 $910 Okidata 82A $385 83A $630 84P $975 84S S1060 92 $490 93 $835 2350P $2020 2410P $2299 Olivetti PRAXIS 41 (w/interface) $725 2300 INKJET $399 Qume 1140w/interface $1369 Silver Reed EXP550P $675 EXP550S $690 EXP500 $389 Star Micronics Gemini-10X Call Gemini-15X Call Delta Call Tally MT 160Lw/Tractors Call MT 180L w/Tractors Call Spirit 80 Call Toshiba P1350 $1445 Transtar 120P $449 120s $429 130P $669 130s $709 140s $1179 T315 $449 Rana Elite 1 $245 Elite 2 $380 Elite 3 $490 Controller (w/Drive only) $75 1000 (For Atari) $290 TRAK pi-1 $199 ATD-2 $375 1-800-528-1054 SPECIAL OF THE MONTH $1375 UNBELIEVABLE SYSTEM! 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Indian School Rd. Phoenix, Arizona 85016 Order Line: 1-800-528-1054 Other Information: 602-954-6109 Order Line Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10-5 MST Saturday 9-1 MST Prices reflect 3% to 5% cash discount. Product shipped in factory cartons with manufacturer's warranty. Plese add S8.00 per order for shipping. Prices & availability subject to change without notice. Send cashier's check or money order... all other checks will delay shipping two weeks. 11/83 Circle 133 on inquiry card. $& FLIP If . boo»mjrt by D/Punch /\J ( running out of diskettes? % how many floppies do you have? V* only listen to records on one side? /? only play tapes on one side? Jf STOP WASTING HALF P YOUR MONEY & MEMORY H EXACTLY. § Why should your single-sided diskettes be kg readable and writeable only to one side? ^S THESE TIMES DEMAND THAT EVERY DOLLAR ■* YOU SPEND HAVE THE POWER OF TWO J GREAT FOR: 1. Saving storage space 2. Increasing memory 3. Mailing backup copies 4. Saving money 5. 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INFO: (617) 964-2126 TOLL FREE 24 HRS ORDER LINE M 1-800-227-3800 ext. 128 <*> copyright 19S3 D/Punch Corp. /? y, We acknowledge alt trademarks jJMJ Dealer inquiries invited. {ffi$i For your FREE bookmark for your J^ manuals, send us a stamped, self- **\ addressed envelope, cdeqi ai H« FLIP If M (2a) ..EQ gsize 12 alpha over {2 pi} int from 1 to omega ~ left { sum from k=1 to inf sin sup 2 X sub k (t) right } left [ f(t) + g(t) right ] cdot sqrt {lambda over phi} .EN <2b) a r Isin 2 ^(r) k-\ fU)+g(t) IV? Figure 2: Example of input (2a) and the resulting equation (2b) set using the eqn preprocessor. Table of Contents Introduction 1 The Unix System 2 The Terminal 5 Tutorial Session 1 Logging In and Logging Out 6 Using the Shell 9 Tutorial Session 2 Using the Editor 11 Writing to Disk 14 Tutorial Session 3 The Shell Revisited 15 Changing Your Password 17 Sending and Receiving Mail 18 Tutorial Session 4 The Editor Revisited 19 Address Arithmetic, Pattern Searching 20 Tutorial Session 5 Elementary Text Formatting 23 To Format or Not to Format 24 Formatting Larger Documents 26 Tutorial Session 6 The Shell Revisited Again 30 Input/Output Redirection 31 Filename Expansion 32 Spelling and Syntax Checkers 33 Tutorial Session 7 The Editor Revisited Again 34 Preserving and Recovering Files 37 Appendix 1: Directories A-l Appendix 2: Login Files A-5 Appendix 3: The Unix Network A-8 Appendix 4: Permissions A-9 Appendix 5: Shell Scripts A-l 1 Appendix 6: Setting Search Paths A-12 Appendix 7: Miscellaneous Shell Metacharacters A-14 Figure 3: Information for a contents page like this one can be gathered and generated automatically or collected later in the production cycle. 260 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 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UsesOsborne-1 modem port & includes cables, power supply & Telepac communications software for the Osborne-1 . Courier $479.88 DC HAYES Smartmodem 0-300 or 0-300/1 200 baud direct-connect modems with auto dial/answer, full/half duplex. Stand-alone units come with power supply & modular cable (RS-232C cable optional). 12O0B is an in-board modem for the IBM-PC & includes Smartcom II. 300 $219.88 1200 $539.88 1 200B w/Smartcom II (IBM PC) $459.88 NOVATION SmartCat (300 baud) $199.88 (1200 baud) $499.88 Apple Cat II (300 baud) $31 9.88 (1200 baud) $669.76 Cat D-Cat (300 baud) $150.88 J-Cat (300 baud) $1 30.88 IBM Peripherals We carry a variety of IBM PC peripherals, including Quad- ram's Quadboards, Quadlink & the single-function boards, AST's Sixpak, MegaPlus, MagaPak, I/0+, Tandon's TM- 100-2 double-sided drives, QCS's Big Blue & Hard Disk subsystems, plus Maynard Disk Controllers in a variety of configurations. Call (800) 343-0726 for prices & orders. Apple Peripherals We also carry numerous Apple ll/ll+/lle peripherals, including Pkaso Printer Cards, Micro- soft's Z80 Cards, RamCards A Premium Packs, Videx's VideoTerm & Enhancer II, Rana Elite-1 Disk Drives, Saturn Systems Accelerator II & Memory Boards, Quad- ram's eRAM 80 Column Card, & Kensington's System Saver & Format II. We also carry the Ace 1000 from Franklin Computers. Call (800) 343-0726 for prices & orders. Accessories We also carry cables, disk- ettes, diskette boxes, switch boxes, surge protectors & printer paper. Call (BOO) 343-0726 for prices & orders. Information/Orders: (603) 881-9855 Orders Only: (800) 343-0726 No Hidden Charges: We pay UPS ground shipping on all our orders, and we never charge extra for credit cards. We accept CODs up to $1 000 & add a $10 fee per order. We have a $50 minimum order. Personal checks are cleared in 3 weeks. All our equipment is shipped with full manufacturer's war- ranty. We sell only what we are authorized to sell to insure full warranty support, & we're authorized for warranty work on a number of printers. We also offer extended warranty plans for many printers. Sorry, we cannot accept open POs or extend credit/terms at these prices. APO and foreign orders are not accepted. We prepared this ad in August, & prices do change, so call to verify them. HIGH TECHNOLOGY AT AFFORDABLE PRICES AMERICAN EXPRESS. 4flM*x nion ItLMINULUiJ/ Al AI-hUKUAbLt KKILtb P* - THE BOTTOM LINE MILFORD, NH 03055-0423 □ TELEPHONE (603) 881-9855 Circle 69 on inquiry card. no previous computer experience, one book teaches editing and format- ting in about eight hours. The Unix Tutorial by Peter Birns, Pat Brown, and John Muster (UC Berkeley, 1983, to be published by Prentice-Hall late this year as Unix for People) starts with the vi screen editor, as is appropriate, rather than with an outmoded line editor such as ed or ex. For those interested in learning all the facets of Unix, rather than mere- ly document preparation, Introducing the Unix System by Henry McGilton and Rachel Morgan (McGraw-Hill, 1983) is a clear but detailed book that includes several chapters on the various editors and formatting tools. It is so good that it is unlikely to be superseded. The System V Unix release from AT&T includes a new guide to document preparation. Un- fortunately, like most of the new documentation from Western Elec- tric, this guide adds more paper to the stack of Unix manuals— but little functionality. It is hard to use this book, and the text is often lifted ver- TSL's new Hard Disk Drive FALCON stores 30 MILLION BYTES Formatted and * installs in minutes on your IBM-PC * can be configured to run either under DOS 1.1 or DOS 2.0 * the disk controller uses error correcting algorithms for maximum reliability. * uses high quality CDC WREN hard disk for storage. TSL's FALCON stores ninety times as much data as your PC double-sided floppy disks. TSL's INTRODUCTORY PRICE $ 3995 00 limited time offer includes a full 90 day warranty. To order your FALCON at this price or to find out if FALCON interfaces with your PC, call (314) 343-9140 or write: FALCON TSL Dept. 10-83B 306 Axminster Drive Fenton, MO 63026 Dealer inquiries invited A Division of Teknar, Inc. Always a step ahead. batim from material available else- where. Consult the books listed in the references list at the end of this article for more on the Unix format- ting and typesetting system. But realize that by the time a soft- ware system is as mature, reliable, and well documented as troff is, it is already outmoded. Anybody who has thought seriously about troff will tell you that someone should write a better formatting and typesetting system. Such a system would provide interactive previewing on a bit-map display, the capability of incor- porating pictures and graphs within a document, and a simple icon- oriented user interface. Of course, those people never volunteer to write this system themselves, nor do they offer to pay for the years of labor re- quired to carry out such a project. Until a better system is developed, users can try some of the sophisticat- ed Unix-based systems, such as the Bedford system, that are already on the market. Those alternatives, how- ever, are very expensive. ■ References 1. Joy, Bill and Mark Horton. "An Introduction to Display Editing with Vi." VAX Unix Program- mer's Manual, Vol. 2c, University of Califor- nia, Berkeley, 1980. 2. Kernighan, Brian W. and Lorinda L. Cherry. "Typesetting Mathematics— User's Guide." Unix Programmer's Manual, Vol. 2a, Bell Laboratories, 1979. 3. Knuth, Donald. TEX and Metafont: New Directions in Typesetting. Bedford, MA: Digital Press, 1979. 4. Lesk, M. E. "Tbl— A Program to Format Tables." Unix Programmer's Manual, Vol. 2a, Bell Laboratories, 1979. 5. Lesk, M. E. and Brian W. Kernighan. "Com- puter Typesetting of Technical Journals on Unix." Proceedings of the National Computer Conference, Vol. 46, 1977, pages 879-888. 6. Reid, Brian K. and Janet H. Walker. Scribe Introductory User's Manual. Pittsburgh, PA: Unilogic Ltd., 1980. 7. Saltzer, J. E. "Runoff. The Compatible Time- Sharing System, edited by P. A. Crisman. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1965. 8. Western Electric. Document Processing Guide: Unix System. 1982. Bill Tuthill is a programmer at lmagen Corp. (2660 Marine Way, Mountain View, CA 94043). He has a bachelor's degree from Middlebury Col- lege and a master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley. His interests include music and outdoor sports. 262 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Circle 484 on inquiry card. 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Rewriting applica- tions every time you change computers is a waste of your valuable time and unnecessary with ALCOR languages. City. State . FREE inforniation-packed brochure. Call or write today to: Systems 800 W. Garland Avenue, Suite 204 Garland, TX 75040 Telephone: (214) 494-1316 Dealer, Distributor and OEM Inquiries Invited. TB&wand VHSDOS an trademarks 4 Thxnfy Corporation VPiMand CBASH 'an rrademarksaj Digital Research MBAStC'isa trademark at C !»».), A1.COR Systems. Qailmut, Texas Circle 24 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 263 LOOK AT ALBERT ANT You've never seen a personal com- puter like Albert. Albert provides basic work-alike ac- cess to over 15,000 programs of Apple- based software. But Albert is also designed with powerful, next-generation features for improved performance now— and spectac- ular applications yet to come. Albert is ready to print and com- municate. RGB output displays up to 16 on-screen colors from 256 selectable hues. 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Albert can generate 256 subtle and brilliant colors — for text display, back- grounds and graphics. And Albert can display everything with RGB high resolution brilliance. Albert draws pictures and graphics lit- erally with a touch of a fingertip. And with astonishing speed. ALBERT VS. APPLE lie. Apple lie Albert Standard Computer 1395* 1595' 64K RAM Memory Included Included Upper/Lower Case Included Included Detached Keyboard 150 Included Parallel Printer Port 50 Included RS 232 Communications 100 Included Networking Port 150 Included Arcade Speed Game Port 150 Included RGB Color 90 Included S.A.M. Voice Output 100 Included A/D, D/A Ports 150 Included Battery/Charger Ports N/A Included Calendar Clock 50 Included Touch Tablet 100 Included Integrated Software: Financial Forecast Word Processor Data Base Manager Mailing List Word Speller 540 Included Battery + Charger 360 50 3385 1645 Standard system configuration. Monitor and disk drives not included N/A ■ No! Available (or Apple lie. 'Standard computer price is manufacturer's suggested retail price. Other prices are actual or typical market prices of indepen- dent compatible products All prices as published August, 1993. Prices sub|ect to change Apple* is a registered trademark of Apple Computers Inc. S.A.M '" is a trademark of Don't Ask, Inc. Albert is incredible fun. Plug in a next- generation analog joystick, and watch what happens. Nothing, but nothing beats games on the Albert. And Albert comes with a complete system of integrated business software. So you can put your Albert to work the day you get it. Ask your Albert dealer for the Albert 60 Second Demonstration. For the Albert dealer nearest you, write or call Albert Computers Inc., P.O. Box 6399, Thousand Oaks, CA 91359. Telephone 1 (805) 497-1073. Albert. The future of the personal computer. 4u**f Circle 23 on inquiry card. BYTE October 1983 265 Moving Unix to New Machines Some portability considerations and a case history of Unix for the NS16032 Noted for its power and elegance, the Unix operating system is highly portable. As a result, largely compati- ble versions of Unix exist on a stag- gering number of computers. The task of moving ("porting," in Unix jargon) the operating system to a new machine, however, can prove chal- lenging, as we will see. Software History Before we look at a case study, con- sider the trends that have influenced software development and the fea- tures that make Unix portable. A ma- jor development in the history of soft- ware has been the movement away from machine-specific (nonportable) code toward machine-independent (portable) code. The earliest com- puters were programmed in machine language, and the resulting programs would run only on a specific type of machine. Later, high-level languages made it possible for programs to be written more quickly; these languages could directly express high-level concepts, freeing programmers from having to deal with many machine-level details. The high-level concept of ad- dition, for example, is independent of the machinery that performs the calculation, and high-level languages that directly express the idea of ad- by Michael Tilson dition with the + operator can free programmers from having to know the format of a particular machine- level ADD instruction. This program- ming ease made software usable on more than one type of machine when high-level languages were imple- mented on new machine environ- ments. Although languages quickly achieved a high degree of computa- tional portability, things were not as easy when it came to noncomputa- tional tasks. The operating-system environments in which the high-level programs ran were very different from one machine type to the next. Although the ability to open, read, and write files is as important in real- world applications as computation, each operating system had a different way of performing these basic func- tions as well as a different command syntax and a different set of utility programs for editing or file mainten- ance. Moreover, most operating sys- tems required that the programmer deal with machine details (such as disk-track size) that were unimpor- tant from an applications standpoint. Unix Portability Advantages In an attempt to overcome these drawbacks, Unix was designed to be portable. Because the Unix system hides most machine details, it can serve a broad range of computers. In fact, Unix is available on machines ranging in price from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions of dollars. No other system has the same degree of portability (see table 1). Portability, in this case, means that software developed for Unix can run without change on almost every available computer (if that computer is running Unix). Programmers also benefit from this portability. For ex- ample, a programmer using a 16-bit microcomputer version of Unix can make use of the full set of Unix utilities, and if he or she moves to an Amdahl mainframe, the same pro- gramming environment can be used. The same commands are used to copy or remove files or to compile C programs. A few details may be dif- ferent, but the programmer needn't relearn everything. Other operating systems take other approaches to portability. The origi- nal CP/M, for example, was portable in the sense that binary 8080 pro- grams could be insulated from the details of device support. Because the 8080 (and Z80) was dominant in the early personal computer market, pro- grams that used CP/M could run on many machines. However, most CP/M programs were written in 8080 266 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. assembly language, so moving these programs to new processors such as the 68000 is not easy. CP/M is also unable to provide some services needed by larger systems, such as multiprocess and multiuser support or a standard high-level im- plementation language. Thus, it does not span the range of machines Unix does. It is hard to imagine, for instance, the CP/M system in control of an IBM mainframe. Another approach to portability that has achieved wide acceptance is the UCSD p-System. P-System programs are typically writ- ten in Pascal. Like Unix, the p-Sys- tem provides an entire operating en- vironment. Because the p-System is interpretive, it is possible to write binary programs that can run on any p-System machine, making p-System applications highly portable. Unfor- tunately, the interpretation is ineffi- cient. And, as with CP/M, the p-Sys- tem environment lacks multiprocess and multiuser support and does not comfortably scale up to larger config- urations. Photo 1: The NS16000 workstation, which includes memory-man- agement and floating-point capabilities. This workstation was used to port a demand-paging virtual-memory implementation of Unix to the NS16032 processor. Another portability approach makes use of a "layer" of software. The layer's function is to hide the ugly details of the operating systems. The most widely known example of this is the Software Tools package, which provides a virtual operating system. With it, programs are writ- ten in highly portable FORTRAN (using a preprocessor to translate an enhanced language into standard FORTRAN). All operating-system functions are performed using only a standard set of library routines. Thus, all that is required to move a program is stan- dard FORTRAN and the necessary library. Now consider the Unix system. It is portable at the source-code level; therefore, if an applica- tions program is written in the C language using standard Unix system calls, that program should be portable to any Unix environment. The Unix system comes with a com- plete set of utility pro- grams, so that large ap- plications can be con- structed using standard tools that function in the same way on all machines. The system has enough power to be used on large machines as well as microcomputers. What Makes Unix Portable? To understand the portability of Unix, we must look at the steps in- volved in porting Unix. How does one get Unix on a new machine? There are three components: a C compiler, the Unix kernel, and the Unix utilities. The Unix system is written almost entirely in the C high-level systems- October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 267 Altos Ithaca Intersystems Amdahl LMC Apollo Masscomp Apple Megadata Auragen Systems Momentum BBN Mostek Burroughs Motorola Callan Data Systems Nabu Charles River National Semiconductor CIE Systems NCR Codata Nixdorf Columbia Data Products Onyx Computer Automation Paradyne Computer Consoles Perkin-Elmer Computhink Philips Convergent Technologies Pixel Cyb Systems Plessey Peripheral Systems Data General Plexus DEC Sun Microsystems Dual Systems Tandy/Radio Shack Durango Tektronix Fortune Systems Televideo General Automation Three Rivers Gould S.E.L. Torch Hewlett-Packard Univac Honeywell Western Electric IBM Wicat ICL Zentec Intel Zilog Table 1: A partial list of manufacturers whose computers can run Unix. implementation language. C is similar to Pascal, although C has a more abbreviated syntax, greater ex- pressive power, and offers much more freedom to access low-level machine resources. The use of C is pervasive throughout the Unix code for both the system proper and the utility programs. Thus, a reliable C compiler is a prerequisite for porting Unix to a new machine. The portable C compiler is an important part of the Unix system. This compiler is de- signed to be adaptable to new machines. The Unix system, which consists of approximately 200 programs, is struc- tured in two levels: the kernel level and the user level. The kernel has full control of the machine resources, while user-level code has no direct access to any resource. The kernel is responsible for process management, I/O (input/output) support, and file- system management. All resource usage (for example, process creation, file creation, or file I/O) is ac- complished by system calls to the kernel. There are about 40 important system calls. Over the years, addi- tional features have been added to the Unix kernel. These features are frills— the basic 40 system calls sup- port 99 percent of the applications programs. These system calls are machine in- dependent to enhance Unix's port- ability. For example, the write system call writes an arbitrary number of bytes to a file at an arbitrary byte position. The parameters do not de- pend in any way on disk-track sizes or other hardware features. In fact, one can write to a file, a tape, or a line printer in exactly the same way. Most aspects of the file-system, process- management, and process-schedul- ing functions are also machine- independent. The kernel interface is narrow and powerful. A small set of primitives provides the necessary services in a way that does not depend on the features of the underlying hardware. This hardware independence stems from the original Unix system's design, which was based on a sim- ple but high-level notion of operat- ing-system service; this concept is akin to the idea of providing the + operator in a high-level language rather than using machine-level ADD instructions. Although the first ver- sions of Unix were not portable (in fact, the earliest Unix system was written in assembly language), the high-level concepts involved are in- herently portable. The "ideas" of ad- dition and file I/O are the same on all machines. The Unix kernel, which is mostly machine-independent and written almost entirely in C, consists of less than 20,000 lines of code. Roughly 1000 of these lines are low-level assembly-language support routines. Around 4000 lines are devoted to device, memory-management, and process support. If these 1000-line and 4000-line sections are rewritten, the kernel should run on a new machine. The remainder of the Unix system (the kernel represents only a fraction of the total code) consists of machine- independent user-level code— even the Unix command interpreter is just an ordinary user-level C program that needs no special machine-dependent privileges at the hardware level. Therefore, to implement Unix on a new machine, you need only build a C compiler and implement the Unix kernel. In theory, everything else comes easily. In practice, it isn't that simple. The Challenge of Porting Unix One consideration in the imple- mentation of Unix is its demand on hardware— Unix needs more hard- ware facilities than either CP/M or the p-System. For example, because Unix is a true multiuser, multiprocess operating system, it usually requires memory management and protec- tion. Memory management enables the system to allocate processes to any free area of memory, and mem- ory protection prevents one program from destroying the code or data of another program that may be run- ning simultaneously. Memory pro- tection is also used to enforce the nar- row and well-defined interface be- tween the user level and the kernel level. Unix systems are oriented toward disk access. Users can request large amounts of work from the system (this means less work for people and 268 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. 4'"V : ?"'v "; ; *:'"v Lowest Software Prices We hereby certify that your purchase from Discount Software represents the lowest price sold anywhere. If you find a lower price on what you purchased within 30 days, send the ad and we'll refund the difference. 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All items subject to availability. *Mfr. trade- mark. Blue Label $3.00 additional per item. CP/M is a registered trademark of DIGITAL RESEARCH, INC. rrw^, IP M SOFTWARE more work for machines). As a re- sult, the system makes heavy use of the disk for program loading and file I/O. The design of the system re- volves around the file system; there- fore, it is not reasonable to run the system without a hard disk. Finally, most Unix configurations require at least 256K bytes of semiconductor main memory. Although Unix is a powerful sys- tem, it can't run on all computers— the hardware must have a certain level of sophistication. An IBM Per- sonal Computer with a hard disk probably represents the minimum configuration. Although the IBM PC, based on the 8088 processor, lacks memory protection, it can run Unix because it is a single-user machine and needs less memory protection than a multiuser system would. Portability Problems Given the right hardware, it seems easy to implement Unix. However, Unix is not perfect, and various prob- lems will arise. For example, many Unix utilities make unfortunate as- sumptions about the underlying machine. It is usually easy to com- pensate for these assumptions on a machine for which they are false, but it can take some time to test all 200 Unix programs to discover any port- ability problems. Ironically, some portability prob- lems arise from features built into the C language, which was chosen in part to enhance Unix's portability. The C language is about twice as ex- tensive as Pascal, mainly because many low-level features (such as arithmetic on pointers) have been in- cluded in the language to allow machine-independent programming. For example, if a C command in- crements a pointer by one, the pointer points to the location of the next data item in memory, not to the location of the next byte. (The latter result would typically occur in response to a hardware-dependent pointer- increment command.) Thus, with the C implementation, adding one to a pointer that points to a double-precision number yields a pointer to the next double-precision number; this operation has the same meaning on all machines running C. Unfortunately (at least from the standpoint of portability), however, some machine-dependent operations are also allowed in C. For example, C allows you to treat a pointer as an integer and to perform bit-masking tests on the value of that pointer. Although this capability can be useful for implementing functions such as storage managers, the capa- bility is inherently nonportable because some machines store point- ers simply as byte numbers while others use more complex schemes. If a program knows that a certain bit in a pointer indicates a certain fact, then the program can successfully run only on machines for which that bit indicates the same fact. Another difficulty encountered in porting Unix is implementing the C compiler. On some machines, imple- mentation is not difficult, but because the language is large and subtle, elim- inating all of the bugs is never a trivial task. On other machines, construc- tion of the compiler can be a formid- able undertaking. For example, the "character" is a C data type, and the C language requires pointers to char- acter (i.e., byte) locations. But some machines are word-addressed— their natural machine pointer can only refer to an entire 16- or 32-bit word, and the compiler may have to resort to extreme measures to provide the necessary byte pointers. At Human Computing Resources (HCR) our im- plementation team has implemented compilers for two such machines and has found the task difficult. The C language is based on a sim- ple model of the underlying hard- ware; some more complicated ma- chines have been designed specific- ally for other languages such as Pascal. The implementation of a C compiler on single-language ma- chines often requires ingenuity because all of those "good" machine features turn into obstacles that must be circumvented, subverted, or other- wise overcome. (For example, C and Pascal subroutine calling conventions are quite different. If a machine is designed specifically for the Pascal convention, implementation of the C convention may be difficult.) At HCR we did it once, and we can testify that it isn't easy. Once a C compiler is implemented, it is necessary to implement the kernel. Again, some machines fit well with Unix, while other machines have features that must be overcome. The closer the fit, the shorter the im- plementation time required. Other problems are not so obvious. For instance, a machine may have used its own proprietary operating system for years, and the programs that drive its various peripheral devices (often written in assembly language) have been passed down from one generation of programmers to the next. In some cases, nobody has looked at the hardware manuals for years. Unix is a whole new sys- tem. The implementation team must sit down with the manuals and write the kernel hardware-support rou- tines. Because the kernel is written in a high-level language, it will probably use all of the available hardware fea- tures. In fact, Unix is known for driv- ing machines harder than any other system. When implementing Unix, programmers often find that the manuals are incorrect or incomplete or that some hardware feature has never before been used and doesn't work. This can wreak havoc with im- plementation schedules. New machines have similar prob- lems. The documentation may be in- complete or wrong. The machines may have design errors. Again, these errors are often not apparent in testing but show up under the load of a Unix system. Prototype machines especially tend to have reliability problems. Most programmers never expected to have to learn how to use a logic analyzer and often find track- ing down subtle hardware errors a frustrating experience. At HCR, we often experience this problem because our implementation team usually uses prototype machines a year or more before they reach the public. A Case Study: the NS16032 This case study provides some in- sight into the process of porting Unix. In mid-1982, we began work on our Unity version of Unix for the Na- 270 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. A flawless future is in sight with 3M diskettes. When it comes to keeping track of precious data, predictable means reliable. Being able to count on every diskette, every time. At 3M, reliability is built into every diskette. We've been in the computer media business for over 30 years. And we've never settled in. We're constantly improving and perfecting our product line, from computer tape and data cartridges to floppy disks. 3M diskettes are made at 3M. That way, we have complete control over the entire manufacturing process. And you can have complete confidence in the reliability of every 3M diskette you buy. Look in the Yellow Pages under Computer Supplies and Parts for the 3M distributor nearest you. In Canada, write 3M Canada, Inc., London, Ontario. If it's worth remembering, it's worth 3M diskettes. Circle 548 on inquiry card. 3M hears you. 3M tional Semiconductor 16032. (This work resulted in a public demonstra- tion at the November 1982 Comdex show. That demonstration was the first public exhibit of a true demand- paged, virtual-memory implementa- tion of Unix on a microprocessor.) The National 16000 series is prob- ably the most suitable chip set avail- able for Unix. It has a 32-bit software architecture, so there are no unneces- sary memory-addressing limits. The instruction set has been designed to support high-level languages. Archi- tecturally similar to the DEC VAX superminicomputer, the 16032 has some additional features. Full memory management is provided with a standard chip, including de- mand paging, which allows virtual memory to be supported. A floating- point chip provides a true floating- point instruction set; the NS16032 does not rely on the cumbersome co- processor scheme used by some other machines. Although the details and actual instructions are different, the machine may be described as a "VAX on a chip." Because the stan- dard Bell Laboratory release of Unix ran on the VAX, we expected this im- plementation to be easier than others. The basic process of a "Unix port" is simple, but there are many com- plicated details. The first step in- volves becoming familiar with the target machine. In my company's case, we took delivery of a prototype workstation from National Semicon- ductor (see photo 1). This station had all of the necessary equipment but no software except for some bootstrap ROMs and some diagnostics. All ini- tial software development took place on a VAX 780 running Unix. (It is con- ceivable that one could port Unix without a nearby Unix development system, but it would be needlessly difficult.) A period of reading and ex- perimenting ensued. When doing work of this sort, it's always a good idea to start with similar software and modify it. We used the portable C compiler for the VAX and converted it into a 16000 compiler. A skeleton of the 16000 compiler already existed. Im- plementation of the compiler proper posed no great technical problems. We did have to make a significant design tradeoff: the 16000 architec- ture allows global data and pro- cedures to be directly addressed, or you can access data and code via the "module table." The latter procedure is a bit slower but results in smaller code because a user might often be able to use 8-bit offsets into the module table rather than full 32-bit address constants. We decided to use the module table because there are many benefits to having smaller code. Smaller code reduces program loading time and reduces the virtual- memory paging rate. The VAX does not have an equivalent feature. The portable C compiler generates symbolic assembly code. That code is then assembled, and the resulting object module is linked with other modules and library routines. The idea of porting Unix is simple; the implementation can become complicated. The second step in porting Unix was construction of an assembler and linker. The main difficulties here in- volved the large variety of addressing modes and the correspondingly com- plicated program-relocation informa- tion needed by the linker. The module table added significant com- plexity. The assembler and linker probably involved as much work as the compiler. Having "finished" the compiler/ assembler/linker, we had to test the result. We developed down-line loading software so that we could compile programs on the VAX and run them on the National machine. We then started to test the compiler. During previous projects (HCR has ported Unix to a number of machines, including the MC68000, the Computer Automation 4/95, and the Three Rivers PERQ), HCR had developed an extensive test suite for the C compiler. This test suite re- quires minimal hardware support — only the ability to print characters. The test suite is not perfect, but it does check out a large fraction of the compiler. On the National machine, the compiler stabilized quickly. Because the machine architecture is very regular, there are not a large number of special cases, which are often a source of compiler bugs. In parallel with the compiler effort, we began work on the kernel. The first requirements were for a boot- strap loader, a low-level machine assist, some software to handle com- munication with the host develop- ment machine, and driver software for the disk unit. When these were met, we ran our first stand-alone pro- grams. These stand-alone programs were some of the basic Unix maintenance programs, modified to call a library of stand-alone routines rather than the (as yet nonexistent) operating system. The programs were used for initial setup, such as construction of an empty file system on the disk or loading of files into the file system. This stage also checked out the team's fundamental under- standing of the hardware. The kernel was the next big step. We adapted a VAX version of Unix to run with the National hardware. As expected, most of the code ran un- changed. It was especially helpful that the memory-management scheme closely resembles that of the VAX. We used the demand-paging code from the Berkeley version of Unix. That code was far from perfect, but it did work, and it gave us a start- ing point. The initial kernel had a number of loose ends, but it was solid enough to start loading pro- cesses. We have an initial kernel test process that verifies that basic func- tions work correctly. Once the initial kernel had come up, we were ready to finish the job. We started cross-compiling the utili- ty programs, starting with the most important. (The utility that rebuilds damaged file systems is quite useful at this point because the system is still likely to crash from time to time.) At the same time, we finished off loose ends in the kernel. Moving utility programs was easy because the 16000 architecture is so similar to that of the VAX. In fact, it is hard for a C program to know that the 272 October 1983 © BYTE Publications Inc. Apf 1* X , > ,s A ■ ■> •■' Apple 3T js /l 6 irallcj */\ VI i . i-.il'l II li WARE PC WARE, INC. Depf. U 4XS3 Tonino l)i San Josi-.C A 951 ;>o (408)978-8626 TO ORDER lo USA si . SA o< n " " ' MASTERl I CA add 6 .8 fo ■ • ...-■■. us A jiio ia\ (cm vnA handling Paynvmi mud ih> in u.S fundi \i' alci inqtiiriiH invited PREVENT THE DISASTER OF HEAD CRASH AND DROPOUT. The war against dust and dirt never ends. So before you boot up your equipment, and everytime you replace a cassette, disk or drive filter, be sure to use Dust-Off II it counteracts dust, grit and lint. Otherwise you're flirting with costly dropouts, head crashes and downtime. Dust-Off II is most effective when used with Stat-Off II. Stat- Off II neutralizes dust-holding static electricrty while Dust-Off II blasts loose dust away. There's also the Dual Extender and Mini- Vac for vacuuming dust out of hard-to-reach places. Photographic professionals have used Dust-Off brand products consistently on their delicate lenses and expensive cameras for over ten years. 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The major task was to verify that all of the utilities are operational. Again we employed a test suite. As a result we found a few more compiler bugs and one or two kernel bugs. Some other programs require adaptation to the specific machine (for example, the FORTRAN com- piler). We also added a few extra sys- tem features, such as bitmap display support. Moving C programs to the 16032 was easy because the 16000 architecture is similar to that of the VAX. All of this sounds too easy. In fact, we did encounter some difficulties. Nearly all of the problems stemmed from the fact that we were using pro- totype hardware with engineering sample chips. At one time or another, everything that could go wrong did. There were errors in the documenta- tion. The disk did not work. The disk controller did not work. The central processor board did not work. The central processor chip did not work. The memory-management chip did not work. The interrupt controller did not work. The floating-point chip did not exist at first and then did not work. The problems were usually in- termittent, often subtle, and always maddening. (Important note: it would be false to conclude that the National chips or hardware are unreliable; these problems always occur with new chips or prototype hardware. Before parts reach production quality, they exist in experimental form. National provided good support during the project and the problems have been solved. We have since then had ex- cellent success in making our product run on original equipment manufac- turer (OEM) machines using the 16032 processor. Because chip- development cycles are long, we Introducing ULTRAF RAME,™ the multitasking, multiuser system designed for system integrators & OEM's. Mainframe-like Chassis Engineering Attractive aluminum chassis offers continuous-duty capability plus all the flexibility you need in one desktop system Tailor a package to your unique needs. Even put you ' name on the front. 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