tpug issue 14 1985 may

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/tpug-issue-14-1985-may 1/56

PUG Past. Present and Futureby Michael Bonnycastle, Louise Redger and Gerry Gold

Fake FlightSims Grounded

by Ken Cox

Butterfield:

In Praise

Of VIC 20

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


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8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


THE

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SPR.EADSHEET c omb in es a full-teafure sp readshee t w i th basi c

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8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


MAY

DIRECTORY

.Feature: TPUG:Past, Present and: Futu,re

10 A Club ForCommodore UserslbyGerry Golidand louise Redg.ers11 The TPU6 Software Library by Michael Bonnycastle12 TPUGChapter Meetings by Louise Redgers

Articles

14 In Ptoise of VIC 20 by J.imButterfield

15 Machine Language Converter by David Arclllba'id

16 A superPETCorshow by Brad Bjorndahl'18 A Beginner's D B . S 6ulde: Part Two by Ian A..Wr.lght20 File Teleporting by IPhillKernp

22 TPUGConf.erence198524 Falke Fl'ight SimsGrounded by Ken Cox

26 TheVictim and The Disk by Malcolm O'Brien27 Save-With-Replace: The Real Rumour by Malcolm O'Brien

Micro Proc.esses

28 Where Does It AUlEnd?by Paul Blair28 C-64 Dotceheck by Chris J'ohns·on29 Using Print Using by Sean Rooney29 Custom PET CBMStart-Up Messages by I!anA..Wrilght

30 Ye Olde Pette80 -It Already Existsby John A. Kurczak30 Disabling VIC 20 Memory Expansion by Neil PhllUps31 A Yen for a Different 64 by Ken Cox

Reviews

36 The Second Self by Mike Levin

36 Pro-term 64 by Greg' Payne37 Ring of Power by Marya Miller07 Quintic. Wmrior by Er,icMiller

37 Inside Commodore DOSby Milchael Quigley08 New Word Processor 'Worth the Wait' by !DavePowell,

39 SpeUing Checker ,Not For Everyone by D.avePowell40 Print Shop by M!lke Martin41' rpUG Terrnlncl Programs by Ian A. Wright

.Departments

4 line Hoise with Lana CovieUo6 This and Thot wah Doris Bradley

8 The Answer Des'kwith Malcolm O'Brien21 BBSPassword for May02 Additions to the TPUGSoftware Library

33 TPUGSoftware Order Form42 Products Received With Astrid Kumas44 TPUGAssociate Clubs45 Classifieds46 Ca'iendar of IPUG Events48 TPUGMagaZine Distrtbutors

50 TPUGContacts

50 Index of Advertisers

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


TPUG Magazine ituntes yau to ex -

p re :s s you r 1Jie!U o n Con cmado reccrmpuiing b - y writi1zu to:

L ine N oiseT PUG Maga zin e1912A Avenue Road, Suite 5.

Toronto, O ntario M 5M 4A lCanada

Old Listings IFor NewThis is a complaint or suggestion for the

magazine. Please go back to the old way

of listing the monthly disks. The currentlistings format doesn't present the truepicture of what is on the disk. Ten dollarsis not too high for a disk full of programs,but my point is that one of the unmen-tioned programs may be just the one Iwant. Iquite often buy one of the clubdisks for just one program, and feel mymoney is well spent.

Hoping that this suggestion will help.

Mayland HarrimanPort Arthur, Texas

Congratulations on the wild new library

listings format. Iand allmy friends - oneof whom is a policeman - agree that itis the best thing that has happened in per-sonal computing since Pac-man gobbledhis first dot.

Your friend,

Elvin GlubangPort Arthur, Texas

Air PiracyI recently returned the warrantyregistration card accompanying myFlight Simulator II to the people atSubLOGIC. Along with the card, I en-closed a letter indicating how pleased Iwas with this piece of software, but withsome reservations.I let them know that it would have been

nice i f they had made it MSD drive corn-patible, and that although I was aware ofthe problems of software piracy, I wouldhave liked to have been able to make onebackup copy.Well, they were kind enough to write

back to me just to let me know that their

version of Flight Simulator II is corn-

patible with the MSD disk drives. They

also let me know that, judging by the war-ranty registration card Thad purchased

a counterfeit version.Based upon previous conversations

with oth r TPUG members, Iam led tobelieve that a great many of us have beenhad.

Tim NoursMarkham, Ontario

UrifO' l· tunate lytrue . See our article by KenCo x, o n p ag e 24 o f t hi s i ss ue ,J or th e l ate stu pdate on this sto ry.

Iprotected disks was very welcome.

Mter reading the entire magazine, I

entered the 'Life Saver', and then load-d Easy Script into my computer. Butwait! Easy Script would not load. In fact,the alignment was suddenly so far off

that no program would load! Needless tosay, Iwas a bit concerned.Lucky for me, I received the current

issue of The Tmnsaclo? ' shortly after. Itcontained an article on how to align the1541. Idid so, and am now back inbusiness.

I will not again enter the 'Life Saver'until someone can tell me what 1 didwrong, or how to prevent a similar pro-blem in the future.

Herbert A. PaulWashington, 1llinois

The routine 'A Life Saver For 1541sers' by Mike orman (page 37,February '85 issue) does not seem towork with Easy Script. The programloaded to the point where the disk nor-

mally does its 'break dancing', locked up,and the disk drive light stayed on. Iwasluck enough to be able to extract thdisk with no harm. J do not know if the

luck would hold with other programs.Therefore, r do not think Iwill try thisroutine again until Ican get moreinformation.I would like to have a routine that

would work as this one was advertised.I would like to preserve the alignment ofmy 1541 as long as possible.By the way the new TPUG Magazine

is really great. Ke p up the good work.

Robert A. DueeaseRedondo Beach, California

W e are sorry that you are halting prob-lems w ith th is ro utin e. H ou ie oe r, it ha sa pp ea re d i n s ev er al ma g( J$ in es , a nd has

be en e x te n si ve ly t es te d . I t d oe s t oo rk :w it hour copy of E asy Script, a nd w ith otherproqrams we have tried. It's possibw ,though, that th er e Q .7 ·eother versions ofEasy Script, w ith differen; copyprotection.If anyone has any mO?'e information I

concerning this problem, we would op -

predate hearing from you.

L in e N oise p 7'e se nte d

by L an a C ov ie llo

4 TPUG Magazine

Koala Storage Problem

One of the more important softwarepackages that Iun is Koalapainter withC-64, KoalaPad and rrSD-2 Dual Drive.One of the things I noticed, after Lre-

placed my ] 541 drive with the newMSD-2, was that the st07'ageoption on themain menu for Koalapainter would notwork with the MSD-2. This, evidently,was because Kealapainter was writtenfor the 1541, not the MSD.Iave found a fix for this problem: ru.n

Koalapainter with the program disk indrive zero and a blank formatted disk indrive one. This seems to trick Koala-

painter into thinking that it is a singledrive, instead of a dual drive.

Sean RooneyMississauga, Ontario

Life Saver?

I was pleased to see 'A Life Saver For1541 Users' in the February issue of

TPUG Magazine . The opportunity to

reduce some of the chatter when loading

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


FOURTH ANNUAL CONFE.RE:NCE

fo r members of TPUG

Saturday and Sunday, May 25 and 26,1985

9:30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

252 Bloor St. W, (Bloor & St. George)

FEATURING: Two-day program of speakers covering topics of interest to beginners and experts

Sunday session with Jim Butterfield

Introduction to machine languageRalf~daysessions:

Saturday, May '25thIntroduction to C-64 Graphics by John MooreVery Elementary Programming in BASIC by Lorenzo Pinazza

Introduction to C-64 Sprites by Carl Garant & John Moore

Sunday, May 26th

Commodore Data Bases Versus dBase III by Rob Lockwood

TPUG program library available on pre-copied disks (4040 format $5)

Dealer display area

"Traders' Corner"

"Answer Room""Birds of a Feather" session for BBS SYSOPs, newsletter editors, member clubs

Optional Club Banquet Saturday evening - $25 per person

Optional two-day Spouses program

REGISTRATION: At the door: Members $30,non-members $55 (includes one-year membership)

FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION AND A

REGISTRATION FORM

CALL THE TPUG

OFFICE DURING

BUSINESS HOURS

416..782-9252

416-782-8900

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


This and That _by Doris Bradley

Obviously Introductory

My thanks to Ron Obvious, who did such

a sterling job of filling in Jast month.The last while has been rather hectic,

what with the Commodore Show in SanFrancisco and Jim Butterfield's trip to

Trinidad. The members of TACO wentout of their way to make the TPUG con-tingent welcome. Thanks again, guys-hope to see you another year at Carnival

time.

Changes at TPUGAfter serving TPUG for several years,first as a volunteer and later as BusinessManager, Chris Bennett has decided it's

time for a change and has gone on tobecome a systems analyst for a well-known stock brokerage firm here inToronto. During his tenure at the club,Chris saw the membership grow first tohundreds and then to 3,000 and ultimate-ly to almost 16,000 members. I have en-joyed working with you, Chris- goodluck in your new job!Chris Bennett's successor, under the ti-

tle of General lanager, is LouiseRedgers. As you are no doubt aware,Louise has been very active in TPUG forsome time as coordinator of the Com-modore 64 chapter meeting and advertis-ing director for TPUG Magazine. I amSW'eI speak for all the staff when I wishher all the best as she takes on this newposition.

Renewal DatesThe question still arises: "The first TPUGissue I received was June 1984. Why ismy renewal date in April?"The answer is this. The last issue of the

magazine that you receive when yourmembership ex-pires in April is May 1985

- this magazine. "Why?" you ask. Well,the May 1985magazine is mailed out dur-ing April, the final month of membership.Make sense?

Spinoff from the Break-InOne of the items stolen a few weeks agowas the tape duplicating machine. As aresult, we have no way to replenish thestock of a particular tape once our cur-rent stock is used up. We are also unableto make copies of the most recentreleases ..There is therefore going to bea delay in filling tape orders. We're do-

ing what we can to remedy the situation,

and orders will be filled as quickly aspossible. Unfortunately, tape duplicatingmachines are rare and expensive beasts,not easily replaced.Another casualty was the bulletin board

system. If all goes well, it will be up andrunning' by the time you read this, but ital l hinges on the speed with which TPUGcan settle with the insurance adjuster.

Four-Minute BackupAgain a great big Thank Yon to all thosewho have sent in money for transmissionto Thomas Tempelman. The response hasbeen proof that the networking of clubnewsletters and computer magazinesreally takes place. To date, over 1,000dollars has been received and forwardedto Thomas. Here are a couple of quotes

from accompanying correspondence:

"For the Tempelman fund. May he

prevail- there's a little extra there sinceI share d. a copy with a friend who pro-

bably shared with a friend, etc."

"After reading Jim Butterfield's article

in the November issue ofTPUG Magazine,the members of the Commodore Users ofPanama (CUP) took in donations and

matched them with funds from ourtnasury to help reimburse Mr.Tl31n'pelmanforhis outstanding 3Minute

Backup program. We can still remember

the day when this fine program showed upat one of our club meetings. To say theleast, it was the hit of the day. It is truly

a most worthwhile program and we hopethat this cheque for 100 dollars sends a

message to.M7·.Tempelman that we herein Panama asrpreeiate his effort. "

BASIC 3.5 Memory Map

Our TPUG ambassador from DownThere, Paul Blair, has provided us withthe BASIC 3.5 Memory Map. It runs toten 8 1/ 2 by 11 sheets of paper. In order

to cover the costs involved in copying andmailing, please send two dollars alongwith your request for the memory map.

Annual TPUG Conference

If you haven't done it yet, get your ap-plication for the Conference in the mailtoday. Your 30 dollars will provide youwith the opportunity to listen to manyCommodore experts from near and far.You will find sessions for every level ofex-pertise, and for most Commodore com-puters (including the Commodore 64,

Supel'PET, Commodore 16, Plus/4 and

B-128).

Z-RAM UsersThere is a Z-Ram Users CorrespondenceGroup with no membership fee for par-ticipation. Members will receive an occa-sional newsletter. Anyone interestedshould send name and address to: RichardW. Jones, 1205 Rogers Place, Irving, TX75060, telephone 214·986-6913, Corn-puserve ID: 75076,600.

Tape Alignment KitWe have finally given up on trying to puttogether this kit. A J I those who haveordered it in the past are receiving let-tel'S and an appropriate settlement willbe made in each case. We do have the in-struction sheet, which we will be pleased

to send anyone interested in how to align

his or her Datasette. The sheet, plus a sizeo Phillips screw driver, should do thetrick.

MARCAJuly 26, 27 and 28 are the dates for thesecond Commodore Users ComputerFair, which is being held at Valley ForgeConvention and Exhibit Centre, King ofPrussia, Pennsylvania. There will bemany Commodore experts making pre-sentations, as well as a great variety ofexhibitors of products of interest to Com-modore users. Hope to see you there.

'Liquidware' ContinuedJim wishes to pass on the message thatif you wish some testing done, just sendalong the beer to him c/o the TPUGOffice. We'll see that he gets most of thesubmissions. By the way, have you everbeen to ' ebraska?

Speaking of Nebraska ...

The Midwest Commodore Con-ference/Expo show will be held on Oc-tober 12, 1985 at the Industrial Training

Center, 27th and Q Streets, in Omaha,Nebraska. Jim Butterfield will be thefeatured speaker. More details willfollow.

This Month's CoverThe 'World of TPUG' graphic on thismonth's cover was designed by staff ar-tist Terry Hachey. The printer featuredis the new Okimate 10 colour graphicsprinter, from Okidata, which was kindlyprovided by Computers For Less, of

Toronto. Look for a review of this in-novative peripheral in a forthcoming

issue of TPUG Magazine.

6 TPUG Magazine

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


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8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


The AnswerDesk _with Malcolm O"Br,ien

Index SearchIw ould like to obta in ind ex es a fth efa llow -

ing m ag azine s: Compute!, Computer'sGazette, RUN an d Midnite .. I was

wondering if any of your members might

have indexes (pre ferably on disk) of any

or all of t/t.ose magazines. There are

articles in back issues that I smnetimesw ou ld like to re vie w,. bu t 1fre que ntly have

trouble finding them .

L yn n H a 1'? Ulr ,P re si de nt

Dodge City Commodore U ser Group

Iknow just how you feel, Lynn .. I'm upto my ears in computer magazines too,and indexing them is a project that Iex-pect to be working on very soon. As youmight expect, though, my top priority will

be all the TIYrpets and TPUG Ma ga 'l< in es

published since the group's inception. I'll

be indexing the magazines you've named,along with other items of interest to Com-modore users, from such other sources asM icro, Creative Com puting and Byte.

Watch for news of the TPUG-specificindexes in future issues of TPUG

Magazine.

H ,ard D isk IB luesIhave been having problems with my 9090

H ard D isk Syste m. Iw ou ld like to replaceit w ith a compatible non-Commodore

drive . Do you have any suggestions?

A.lvin FoterBos to n, Ma ssac hu se tt s

We are currently utilizing the B -128 w ith

P re ci si on S oftwCL re 's Superbase to run

our stockroam and purchasing systenu'l.

The difficulty lies in that the 8050 floppy

disk drive doe s 1W t have e noug h capacity

to support the system as well as we wouldlike . Com modore 's 9060 CLnd9090 hard

disks are no longer inp7'oduction, and we

se em to be in the throe s of C Lnnsurm ount-

a bl e p ro bl em . .Co ns eq uent ly , CLnyi nf orma-

tion or suggestions you could supply

reg arding an interface or a c07'lLpatible

hard disk drive would be deeply

appreciated.

Rainer M . Cole

Amityville , New York

I have bad news and I have good news,Alvin and Rainer. Jim Butterfield informs

me that, although there once was a com-

patible hard disk for CBMs, it is no longerin production - that's the bad news. Thegood news is that Jack Tramiel (founder

of Commodore and now owner of Atari)says that Atari will soon be making harddrives for a variety of home computers.

The best news is that a 15megabyte harddrive will cost $399.00 (US)J We'll haveto wait and see onthis one, but there'sanother possibility, as well.With the introduction ofthe C-128 (and

the upcoming IBM-compatible), Com-

modore seems to be going after a sharein the business market once more. Ihavea feeling that Commodore may soon startproducing hard drives again. One more

thing for Alvin -ifyou're using aSuper PET, you can use a variety of hard

drives by installing the OS/9 operatingsystem, Write to the TPUG office, ifyou'd like more details on this.

Out!put iRedir ,ec tionI notice that the 'chang e printer default'

s ub -p ro g ram i nc lu de d 'With Paperolip64D

now asks if you want printer output to the

'user port of the C~64 . Ianswered yes to

this, w ith the 'result that my TP -l now

works with a . sim ple ribbon cable b etw ee n

the C-64 user port and the Centronics

p a1 'a Ue l s ock et o f th e T P- l. Tn o ther words,a n e xp en si ve i nte ?ja ce is 7 W t required -

so long as I am using Paperclip64D. This

s ui ts m e a dm iq 'a bly, as th e MW302 inter-face that I have been using for the p ast te nmonths is in for re pair.

Iwould like to use the printer in this

way with other programs, some com-

mercial, which direct printer output, at

p'1'BSent, to the serial port of the C-64. Ih av e t ri ed . to find out how to do this in the

Programmer's Guide, but w it ho ut SW lc esS.

Does anyone have the answer?

L.F. Ja7'1'ett

C arp, O ntar io

Thanks for the tip on Paperclip. ThePaperclip manual says that your inter-face should be set to its transparentmode, since the program talks to yourprinter directly. Output flexibility is oneof Psperelip's strong points, and a tip of

The A nswer D esk's hat goes out to Steve

Douglas and Batteries Included for sup-porting virtually every printer and plot-ter known to man! '

Redirecting output this way is a tricky

business, however. Your TP-l expects toreceive true ASCII, but your programs

(except Paperclip) are probably sending

PET ASCII. Normally, your interfacedoes the translation and your printer

never knows the difference ..If the soft-ware addresses the serial bus directly,you're out of luck. However, if it usesKemal routines (more likely), you may be

able to change the routines before loadingyour software.

Richard Bradley provided th efollowing:

Printer output can be redirected to theuser port in one of two ways; eitherparallel or RS 232. To do this, you mustdo a CTR!. . SHI,FT 2, You will then be ask-ed: 'Centronics Parallel Output? Y or N '_

Ifyou want Centronics Parallel, answer'Yes': if yon want RS232, answer 'No',

You will then be asked for the baud rate,the parity, whether you want X-Linehandshaking and whether you are usinga VIC-Modern type interface. Answeringa ll these questions according to your set-up will give you RS 232 output for yourprinter or modem.

Miis,si:~ngSpeedscriipt

I ordered TPUG disk (C)T6 specificallyforth.e Speedscript word processor. O n

re view ing the diskC Lfter re ceiving it, I

found that Copy File.C is on the disk in-

stead. What happened to Speedscript?

Please tell m e w hat action is ne cessary toobtain the above w ord proce ssor.

A .8. D ale

N epe en; O nta7 -io

Speediscrip,t was sent to David Bradleyas a submission to the TPUG library, anditwas included on (C)T6,_Shortly there-after, it was discovered that this is a

COMPUTE! program. It was immedi-ately removed from the disk, since

COMPUTEt ' s programs are not in thepublic domain. COMPUTE! maintains

that using the program without having acopy of the magazine in question consti-tutes copyright infringement. Although

this issue is a constant subject of debatei1 1 magazines and on bulletin boards,TPUG respects COMPUTEt ' s position,

and never knowingly distributes any pro-

grams that are not in the public domain.So. ' . please donot submit programs thatare the property of COMPUTE!

Publications.

8: TPUG Magazilne·

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


The Answer Desk . = :=======================================================As far as obtaining a copy go ,try to

get a copy of the March '85 COMPUTE!,

which includes the enhanced version -Speedscript 3.0,

Compute By The Stars, '..

, I am . a professional astrologer, ne w tocomputing, who would like to find

astrological software.. Can you recom·

mend a P?'ogt'am?A. Slayer

Edmonton, Alberta

Ihave King Microware's Astropositions,which does positional astronomy and hasan astrology option. The output consists

of time factors, planetary positions, housecusps (using the Regiomontanus system)and the list of aspects. Note that the out-put is in text. If you're looking forsomething that will print a completechart, with glyphs and house divisions,you'll have to look further. Two other

possible sources are: AGS oftwareBox 28, Orleans MA 02653 and MatrixSoftware, 315 Marion Avenue, BigRapids, Ml.

Matrix has a package for the Macintoshthat is almost certain to have graphic out-put. Also, you might like to check out a

book from Sybex. Astrology - On YOUT

Personal Compute?', by Hank Friedmangives a complete run-down on the prosand cons of software for astrologers.

Which Printer?Whi.ch Modem?I am ~t.Sing a C-64, with a disk d7"ive an d

am onitor, and Iam. conside? 'ing the PU7'-

chase of a modem an d do t m . ab" ix printer.If th e clu b h as done any evatu,ations of di f

fereni equipment, Iwould appreciaie any

commrnts. Iwould like a printer with

t?-ue descenders, that will do al l the C om -modore graphics, an d w ill allow the dum-

ping of images from d1'awing pTograms

such as Doodle.

R.G. Eagle

Prince Albert, Saskatchewan

There are a number ofmodems available,and a bewildering array of printers, The

main thing to keep in mind is: will it work

with the software I have/want to use?Obviously if you buy Commodore pro-ducts all the software you buy will beable to handle them, but some third-partyhardware may not be compatible. First,the modem: the Commodore modems arethe 1600, 1650 and 1660. Other popular

ones are: Mitey Mo Westridge,HE modem and Pocket Modem. TheTPUG library has good terminal pro-grams for any modem you're likely to buyfor use with the C-64.

The printer is a much more complicatedissue. A ll the modems plug into the userport, but a printer can be interfacedthrough the user port, the cartridge portor the serial bus. Few software packageswill allow you to send data to all threeports. One very popular printer/interfacecombination for the C-64 is the StarMicronics Gemini lOX, with a Cardcointerface. Another interface in wide useis Batteries Included's Buscard II, whichhas the added advantage of an IEEEinterface that allows you to use Com-modore duaJ drives (4040, 8050, 8250),The Buscard also includes a machinelanguage monitor and BASIC 4.0. Onceagain, determine your software require-ments before you spend your money on

xtra hardware.

If you have a question for The AnswerDesk, please send it to : The Answer Desk,clo TPUGMagazine, 1912AAvenueRoad,

Suite 1, TOTontO, Ontario M5M hAl,

Cc~nada_ 0

Limited time otter

SSDO .. $ 1S .00/bo xO SOO - $20.00/bo x

(Minimum purchase - 5. Delivery extra.)

Programmers Guild Products Ltd" 255 ManuLife Placa,l 0180 - 101 St.,

Edmonton, Alberta T5J 3S4 Phone: (403) 428·6229

to the highestq,uaUty" lowestpriced brand named is ke tte s a va ila blein C an ada .Q. Who has switched?

A . Professional and educationalinstitutions, national accountingfirms, major engineering firms,software houses, computerretailers and the Toronto PetUsers Group,

May 1985 9

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


A Club For Commodore User.sby Gerry Golid and Louise Aedgers

The Toronto PET Users Group started out as a small band ofusers deeply interested in Commodore computers, at a timewhen there was no software and little help. The major softwareauthors for the Commodore computers all started with TPUG.In those early days we had people like Steve Punter, BradTempleton, Steven Douglas and Jim Butterfield, who werehighly active in helping others to understand what theythemselves had already conquered. The first president of theclub, and later the board of directors, pledged to produce alibrary ofpublic domain software, and meetings with high qualitypresentations. While our success has not always been unmixed,TPUG is continuing to strive for these high goals.Two years ago, it was decided that TPUG should expand

beyond the local members and that we had somethingto offerto those farther away, especially in our library offerings ..At that

time an ad campaign appeared in Compute. ! , and a drive for inter-national membership was undertaken. Commodore computershad spread far and wide, and with them went the need for goodinformation and software. By early 1983, our membership inthe Toronto area was equalled by that from outside. We offeredour more distant members access to the library and themagazine, while continuing to also offer meetings to localmembers. At that time, we had to begin dealing with the dual-ity of being a professional operation, while maintaining ourimage as a club. This duality has not been easy to live with.

The TPUG LibraryTPUG has a commitment to high quality public domain software ..When the demand for Commodore 64 software took off about

a year and a half ago, we undertook to expand our offeringsand move many of the favourites from the PET to the 64. Atthe same time, we were producing a disk of the month for theVIC 20..When VIC sales began to decline, TPUG continued tosupport them, and will continue to do so. A year ago we d.idasurvey that revealed, among other things, that only ten per centof our members owned VIes ..TPUG sees its function as offering

support to those who are small in number but have a stronginterest, as does this group, in a particular aspect of Commodorecomputing.Smaller groups and special interests seem to be part of the

future of TPUG. We are currently running and supportingCommunications, SuperPET and CONIAL special interestgroups, to name a few. We have library contributions that

support these groups, and we hope that they will encourageothers to contribute to Ou r offerings with the items they writeto get better mileage out of their computers ..An example of the

benefits this attitude can bring is to be found in the SuperPETlibrary, which boasts a statistics package on a level with 8ASand SPS8, a collection of scientific routines that was used todevelop a satellite tracking system, and many other moresophisticated pieces donated to the public domain. Theadaptation of Micro Ware's 08/9 operating system to the

SuperPET is another area of special interest development thatwe are expecting to create a new section in our software library ..

The C-64library has become the backbone of the club's income.It is now at the level of importance that we currently have a

full time librarian on staff to improve and expand our software

offerings ..This will also aid in our getting software to the usersfaster, as he has the time to concentrate on getting the latestsoftware out as quickly as possible ..Volunteers do an excellent

job, but one must wait for them to have the time to donate tothe task of putting together new disks ..In March 1985, our (;-64librarian was able to put together eleven disks in a single month,comprising some special interest disks and a monthly disk ofthe usual collection of general interest software.

TPUG Magazine

Undoubtedly the magazine is our most valuable asset at the mo-ment. Our survey told us that the magazine was as importantas, if not more so than, the library. We don't fill our magazinewith program listings - after all, there are plenty of programsavailable in the library. Instead, it was designed to provide helpthat cannot be found elsewhere. From its origins as a four-pagebulletin four years ago, it has become an increasingly interesting

monthly publication.

This year we have tried to give the magazine. a new look, morereflective ofthe special interests of our diverse and well-educatedpopulation. Feature articles on The World of Commodore show,

on computer chess and on mathematical modelling, haveprovided examples of the kind of topic that can be well coveredin our new format. Because it is still a club magazine, we canuse it to tell you what's new in our library, and in theorganization. Most importantly, it is our members' magazine,not a slick professional concern. TPUG Magazine is written byour members, and reflects the deep interests of a group still con-cerned about Commodore computers.

Other Projects

When there is a need, TPUG steps out of the mainstream tosponsor special projects in areas that we feel are not givenadequate support elsewhere in the Commodore community.Consider a couple of instances:

• COMAL is the language that took Europe by storm and basexcited many North American users. TPUG undertook toproduce for our members an inexpensive reference guide toCONIAL, written by COMAL creator Borge Christensen, toaccompany the disks in our library. This book ~ om firstpublication other than the magazine - sold out quickly and is

now in its second printing.

10 TPUG Magazine'

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


• When Avy Moise and Gerry Gold heard that Waterloo andCommodore would soon di continue support for the SuperPET,they felt that this machine - potentially the fastest and mostcapable of all Commodore computers to date - deserved a fifthgeneration operating system. 08/9 was born [01' Commodore.Within four months of receiving the source code from MicroWare, TPUG began shipping V rsion 0.9 of 08/9 for theCommodore SuperPET.

There are other projects under study to continue interest in

the PET/CEM line. For example, TPUG is aware that itmustbe able to contact members anywhere in North America in afew hours, to answer questions and provide software. Begin-

ning next fall, the club hopes to provide free to members aninfor-mation service that spans the North American continent.

Negotiations are now in the final stages for providing this on-line service. More information should be available soon on this

unique project - watch for updates in future magazines,

In sum, TPUG has changed rapidly to reflect the changingneeds of its members. The average member is universityeducated, and many have some technical training. TPGmembers often own other computers (though obviously theyprefer using their Commodores) and are probably more aware

of developments in the computer world than the average person.We are also following those developments, For instance,Commodore Canada will in a few weeks be releasing an IBMclone, and we are expecting a demand for user services ..TPUGwill be ready. The release of the Commodore 128 is also aroundthe corner: we are currently looking into software for thatmachine, and again expect to be ready to meet the new demands.The' Amiga' 68000-based computer is by now almost a myth withall Commodore users, but we stand ready and able to supportthat machine too, when it at last appears, 0

or so machines that were available. MOWle that time, IrememberJlm Butterfield giving me tenjiull disks of pro-grams from a club in the US, saying, "Here, Mike, see ifyoucan get these out to our members." A t that time, Dave Hookwas our librarian. He took those ten disks, integrated theprograms by. category into the existing libtar:y: (which hadgroW1lup;u-ound t apes ) , and cam euJl . t,y diskstbatfurmet1.the foundation of o ur 1i~rary. !fliesoitha Ti lJh< ; te rs ,and a t s eve ra l 1 1 1 eetings aSlonsw e set up machh16S for copy.ing and spsencearaging members to copy part 01' all 0their own use.

Tliere were a couple of problems, There we)!e too manylibrary disks and not enough time for copying. And, as the

volume of copies increased. the wear and tear on the diskdrives became prohibitive. People who offered their machinesto be used for copying found they were being .....re ek ed . B elu e-

tantly, and after a great deal of debate .•we chose to replacethe copy sessions by providing pre-copied, guaranteed ver-

sions ofour library disks, We had to use a goodquaIizy disk,and incorporate the cost of machines as well as disks into

the cost of a TPUG disk.With the advent of the SuperPET and the 4, we split

our library, and spread th e responsibility . l i}mlxiesamong thos·e who had an interest ttl b n e d' machines,

Currently., Bill Dutfield oversees the SuperP'ETlibrary, andacts a -s the co-ordinator of the librarians' committee. David

Bradley became our C-64 librarian, while Mike Donegan re-

tained the responsibility for the PET or 'greenooreen' library.The VIC and C OM AL libraries, an d otner£ SReR as.:the Com-modore Educational Series, fill out our litlrary sections.In aJI, there are about 225 disks in the library, and at ten

dollars a disk, together with discounts if you pick upa diskat a meeting or the office, or buy in quantity, we feel thatthe value a member gets from a TPUG diSkis<S.ecQndo none.White MOody actually buys the complete linFary;,.ithere is anincredible choice, and there should be SDmething foreverybody'S interest. Why not call the office and as k for acurrent listing of the library thatinterests you. and see if

there's something that excites your imagination? 0

'!be TPUG Software Libraryby M~l1aeJ Bonnycastl~e

The TPUGLibrary is a unique institution in that it containsliterally thousands of programsthat have been donated overthe past five by members. Itcontains nQ commercial

is all public domain and unprotected - if

it may b e copied for your own use o r YOIl

The doeurnentajion on the disks isbut is free fol' copying rOl' non-

'l'his attitude reflects the philosophywant to make as much information as poas -our members at the lowest possible cost.

start? Originally, when the club was verysmall, met and exchanged programs (on tape, ofcourse - disks were not available then). A . speaker mightillustrate a program for writing music, or a sort utility. ora super monitor program, and after the meeting would loadthe program. into four or five machines. Then members wouldline up ti'!'take turns 'saving' the program onto their owntapes. N-@tN€ ry e f fi c ien t , but then there weren't many pro-

grams around; and something was far better than nothing.Lan. :Duggan (our founding president) then tried out

He collected master tapes in a box (perhapsd, during the: coffee break after the presen-d 'borrow' a tape ( in e xcYia ng e for your-

dti.....r nee], go to a machine and load the borrowed pro-gram intd'ID.emory. Then you could save the program ontoyou r tape and then return the master tape to Lymanand . security deposit. If the program you wanted

. a go and line up behind the person who W'3$

curt g it and take your copy while he was retur-ning tbe master. That system was okay, but there werealways too few machines, and the process W!l .S very, ve!"yslow, We did make a lot of new friends in the lineups, andit was a opportunity to chat with our neighbours.Tappeared, It was a bonanza. Speakers and

me uld give copies of their programs to the'librarian'. who wou:Jdcreate several 'master disks' as themeeting was in progress. Afterthe meeting you could copy

the ma-s te r onto your own disk using one of the half dozen

Ma.y 11985111

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


TP'U ' G ' Ch o t " M 'e e t i,:', lap 'er ' ee Ings

by Louise Redgers

TPUG meetings have changed a lot since I first started to attend

them. I came on the scene at the time when fifty members wasa good turnout, and the meetings were being held in a lecturetheatre at Sheridan College in Oakville, about forty kilometres

south-west of Toronto.Once each month" a group of very dedicated Torontonians

would head out to Oakville in rush-hour traffic to find out thelatest about their Commodore computers. We would all sit therefor an hour or two, very intent on finding out what the new pro-grams that would be available for copying after the meetingwould do for us. Jim Butterfield, Dave Hook and MichaelBonnycastle were just a few of the members who were show-ing off their latest works of programming art.The demos were bumpy in places, as not everything worked

as it should, but it was often more interesting" from a program-mer's viewpoint, to watch the demonstrator show you how to

. .' ' .W e often w onder i f we did ther, igihtthing by sp li :t ting a l!ong mach ine

!lines rather than by leve:1ofexpertise. ..

fix a problem, than it was to watch the end result,Perhaps the best part of the evening started when we all

headed for the computer lab and started to copy programs andchat with old and new friends. The meetings that TPUG holds

now often lack that initial intimacy in which, if you were newand looking a bit lost, some kind soul.would take you under hiswing and introduce you to his friends, who in turn would intro-duce you to still others. Soon you would know almost everyonewho was in attendance and the faces, names and the ultimatelyuseful phone numbers became very familiar.Well, TPUG meetings have grown, and not necessarily for the

better. While it is very gratifying to know that one can get 300to 500 people out to a meeting (as in the case of the C-64 groupcurrently), there is a feeling that we are often driving peopleaway because we appear to be a cold organization, not meetingthe needs of many of those in attendance.At the time the VIC 20 owners started to outnumber the

PET/CBM users at the meetings, the board of directors met and

decided that it would be best if those who had this new com-puter - which would not run the same software - had aseparate meeting. Originally, this was held at the same time butin a different room ..It was crowded, and lacked the use of a pro-jector for displaying the screen image onto a movie screen.Separate evenings and locations followed, as the two groups hadrather divergent interests. We often look back now and wonderif we did the right thing by splitting the group along machinelines rather than by level of expertise. The Commodore 64 in-itiated another split group, again along machine lines ..This workswell when the machine is new and many of its features are ex-tremely different from those of existing computers, but once

the novelty wears off the problems begin.As the eo-ordinator of the Commodore 64 chapter, I am can-

stantly faced with the problem of what to do at meetings to

entertain people who are at various levels with various interests.They range from the rank beginner who just got hisfirst machinelast week, to the hardware hacker who wants to know how toget his machine to drive everything but the family car ..Caughtin the middle are the folks who just want to know about the latestbusiness software (yes, there really are a fair number of smallbusinesses using the Commodore 64), the student who wantsto learn Logo or COMAL, the parent or teacher who is lookingfor the latest and best educational software, the gentleman whowants to play better music on his C·64, and many others.How does one wow a room full of these people all at once?

Jim Butterfield has a knack for doing just that, but we cannotexpect him to speak every month. Gone are the days when abrave soul from the club comes forward and says, "I wrote thislittle program last month- could I have ten minutes to show

my fellow members how one gets a dog to chase a cat acrossthe screen?" How does one get back to that level? I have beenstruggling with that question for over a year, and the answer

has not come to me yet .Running meetings can be very gratifying to the coordinator,

because at least some of the members will come up and chat,and you get to know who is interested in what type of computing ..It is also very frustrating every month when you search for newtopics of interest and new demonstrators. Helpful suggestionsare always welcome, even though they may not be moved uponas quickly as one would like,Talking to members and making new friends is the ultimate

role of the meetings, and I see less and less of this going on eachyear. The next time you go to a club meeting, go up and intro-

duce yourself to some of your neighbours. Talk to them aboutyour interests. If they are similar, exchange phone numbers.It is always comforting to talk to someone who is interestedwhen you are struggling with the question of which softwareor hardware to purchase this week. Networking and sharing ofinformation is what most associations exist for, and is the bestway for you to get more mileage out of your membership. I haveyet to meet a computer owner who w:illnot talk to another one,but there appear still to be a lot of lonely people wonderingaround lost in the maze of computerdom.

Meetings should tell the user what is new. TPUGendeavoursto do this by keeping in contact with software houses and Com-modore ..They let us know what is going on with a constantstream of press releases for the magazine, and other clubs pass

information to us through their newsletters. We try to then tellour members about the latest shows, the hottest software andthe new machines. This fills one information gap. There are othergaps, though, harder to fin.Teaching programming is a function that TPUG has not taken

on in any major way, We assume that the local boards of educa-tion and others do this better than we can, to a large degree.We do, however, try to provide a forum for questions to be askedand answered. Ifthe meeting that you attend does not, ask thecoordinator. He or she usually can answer a question for you,or point you in the direction of someone who can. Better still,ask for an open forum to be provided at your meeting.Every once in a while, something cernes along and captures

the imagination of the user. It may be a commercial software

12 l'PUG, iM~ag8Zine

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


package or a new noise that can be evoked by doing wild andwonderful things to the SID chip. These should be pointed outto the coordinator and demonstrations for the group arranged.TPUG tries to find and check out new speakers for its annualconference at local meetings, but in this we are limited to localspeakers, as travel arrangements are expensive.It would be great if we could provide hands-on computer

tryouts for new machines and new software, but this isjust notpossible with so many users and so fev.:;,machines. Some clubshave the members bring their own equipment to meetings sothat they can try the latest public domain software and learnthe latest programming techniques. This is great, if you haveenough power outlets, but not very practical for most TPUGmeetings ..We have attempted to create more intimate groups,though, with our Special Interest Groups. We currently havegroups interested in COMAL, Hardware, Communications, theSuperPET and Machine Language. We have a group for busi-ness users, and another one for new users. These help, but they

take a lot of dedicated people who donate their time and energyto get them started and keep them going each month.Ifyou have just attended your first computer club meeting,

and have walked away shaking your head because you did notunderstand much, take heart. Attend three or four meetings

before you decide that this is not for you. .Each month you willunderstand a little bit more, and you will make some helpfulfriends who can explain even more if you ask. Chances are thatif you just walk away after only one meeting, your computeris going to end up in the closet gathering dust. We can help openup the world of computing for you, but you must put in an honest

effort to get your feet wet. We were all lost at our first meetings.Hang in there - the rewards and friendships will beunbelievable. 0

COMALR E , F E R . E N , C E GUIDE

Sixty-tour pages outlining all the C64 COMAL

keywords, with sections on the language's superb

String Handling, Procedures and Parameters,

Expressions and Standard Functions. $9.95,

Send cheque or money order to:

TPUG Inc., Dept. A., 1912 Avenue Rd., ste, 1 1 ,

Toronto, Canada M5M 4A.11

05/9 IS HERETPUG has implementedlhe popular 6809 operating system'OS/9' on the SuperPE1.Super-OS/9 greally expands

software availability and the hardware oapabilities of this

computer while at Ihe same t ime preserving access to the

Wal.erloo .languages an<ifi)fograms.

The cost Q~Super·OSl members will be $195

(Cdn.). which will inc fTIe cost of a hardware

moditieati0r1 that will flol affect the normal operation 01the

SuperPET. 'fwoboard Supe.rPETs require a simple

hardware rnoolncanon - we'provide instructions. To obtain

your copy please send $if95 (Cdn.) to: TPUG (1912A

Avenue Rd., Suite 1, Toronto, Ont.. M5M 4A1. Canada) ..

What does Supe'r;..OS/9offer?• A true operating s,{;stem w ith UNIX features an d the

simpJlcity and command style of Commodore BASIC:

• Multi-tasking and multl-user environment;

• Multi-level directories similar to those avai(able in MS DOS2,0.;

, . .• T ~meana l date stern . lrectorv entries (files);

• File access privile.ges may be restricted by th e owner of

a file.

Extensive software is available for OS/9, most of which will

run on the SuperPET.

{he Super-OSJ9 package includes an assembler, editor,eommand (sheH)library monitor, symbolic debugger and

25K RAM Disk.

Available Languages (compilers) include BASIC-09, Pascal,

CIS-COBOL, 'C' Language, an d others.

AYailable Applications Programs: Word processors,

C business, inventory and accounting applications.

Public Domain: Software, relational database and

spreadsheets, extensive pu.5lic domain software and

documentation.

Tf!UG will acqeire pubhc domain software and assist users I

in the conversion of commercial software to Commodore i

format.

Portabilltyand Expandability• Super-OS!9 programs will run on all OS/9-based

microcomputers.

" Super-OSf9 will run hard disks and parallel drives.

• There will be source code compatibility to versions of

OS/9 that are planned for the MoterGla 680.00.

. f Informatlon call TPUGtnc. (416)7,82:89004116)782.~9252

For t.echnical inf,ormatio:n

G.erry Gold (416) 667-3159/225-8760

Avy Moilse (416) 1661~39S4.1667~9898

Ma.y1985 13

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


In Praise of VIC 20by Jiim Butterfield

Copyright e 1985 Jim Butierfieui. Per-

mission to reprint is hereby gra,nted, pro-

vided this notice is included in thereprinted material.

It's been going on for two years now. Thepundits have been gloomily predicting:"The VIC 20 is dead. Commodore is notmaking it any more. It's not an approp-

riate computer . . . " And that sort of talkannoys me.Yes, the Commodore 64 has more

memory, a bigger screen, more colour' op-tions, sprites, better music and a lot offlashy software going around. And Iagree that many users will feel that it's

time to 'graduate' to a bigger machinewith more features and fun games. Butthe little VIC 20 is a respectable machine,

and an owner doesn't need to beashamed.I'm not sure about this "Commodore

doesn't make them" argument. Com-modore sets up a production line andmakes a zillion units of whatever deviceis involved. These units get warehoused,and the production line is broken downso as to be converted to make somethingelse. At any given time, it could be truethat Commodore is not making 1541 disk

units, or filing cabinets .... or VIC 20computers. Sowhat? Ifdemand continuesand stocks run low, Commodore will justset up a new production line ..VIC 20 is still a bargain-price machine.

That alone makes it attractive. I would

still say to beginners, "If you want atraining machine, try this one ..Don't gointo memory expansion or great numbersof game cartridges, since you maydiscover you want to step up and willhave to discard these extras. But buy adisk and printer, ifyou like; they will stillbe good if you move up to a C-64."When you're a novice and you buy your

first computer, you'll use it to find outabout two important things. ImportantThing Number One is the world of com-puters. You'll learn the buzzwords, simpleprogramming, and what the machine iscapable of: its limitations and its poten-tial The next time around, you'll know

much more about selecting a computer.Important Thing Number Two is that

you'll learn about yourself. Do you hatecomputers? Okay, you've just saved abundle by not buying a big one ..Do you

have an interest in programming ... or

music ... or graphics .. or games ....or business applications? Then you'llknow what kind of computer to buy next

time.Let me list some good things about the

VIC .20.Sure, there are bigger and morepowerful (and more costly) computers,and it can't be all things to all people, butI like these items in particular:

• It's low priced.

•It has big, plump characters on thescreen, ideal for beginners or youngchildren - or poor grade TV sets.

• The user manual packed in the box isexcellent (much less confusing than theone for the C-64).

• It's the fastest Commodore consumercomputer.

• Its BASIC and Operating System (I

don'tinclude sound and graphics here) isvery similar to that of the Commodore 64.

• The screen resolution is about the samevertically and horizontally (176 by 184pixels), giving good graphics possibilities.

• Screen resolution is such that you won'tget 'artifacting' or colour smear such as

may happen on higher resolutionmachines such as the Commodore 64..

• The screen doesn't go blank when youread or write tape.

• Ifyou're a hardware hacker, it's easierthan the C-64 to interface to external

devices, and is much faster in terms of

sensing external signals.

... The little Vlie 20 is

a respectable machine,

and an owner doesn't.

need to be

ashamed. _.

It may be an ideal process controller.Build a custom program into a ROM car-tridge, plug external devices into the userport, and it will happily work away atwhatever job has been defined. In somecases, the traditional input and outputmay vanish, since a TV/monitor may notbe needed and the computer might betucked away where nobody would nor-mally touch the keyboard.Ifyou've passed through the Atlanta

airport, you may have noticed a littleautomatic train that transports users

between terminals and gate areas. It

opens and closes its doors and has a voicesynthesis unit that says things such as,"This train is late leaving because some-

one is blocking the doors." Guess whatcomputer runs it? Right - the VIC 20.

When the Commodore 16 was first an-nounced, it seemed likely to obsolete theVIC 20 once and for all. The new machineis low-priced - not as low as the VIC 20,but it has 40 columns, 16K of RAM anda greatly expanded BASIC. Yet it hasn'tdone so. Jim Strasma thinks this isbecause the C-16 has no communicationsport, and modems are very popular withVIC 20 users. Don't get me wrong: theC-16 is nice and, if your objective is pro-gram writing, you should consider it quite

seriously. But the VIC 20 still lives.

Software isthinner than we might hopefor: magazines and user dubs seem to

bypass the VIC 20. It's not snobbishness.Let me ten you what my problem is, inthis area. If I wish to write an advancedprogram - say, one using machinelanguage or special graphics - I mustface two problems. First, it might not fitat an into the little 5K VIC, and I must

add the qualifier, "Runs only on ex-panded VIC 20 computers" This bothersme, because I like to write universal code

whenever possible, but there's a greaterdifficulty. The VIC's architecture shiftsaround depending on what memory hasbeen added. The screen might be at 7680or at 4096. BASIC might start at 4097or at 1025 or at 4609. This makes it toughto write a single advanced program thatwill fit any configuration.

Ifyou have a VIC 20, don't be ashamedof it. You may want to switch to anothermachine, and that's okay; there are manyreasons to do so. You might want theextra software that other machines offer;you might need forty columns (or more)for your work; you might be enthusedabout music; you might want lots ofmemory; you might want a new graphicssystem; or you might have fallen in lovewith a program that will only play on abigger machine.

When you're ready to graduate fromthe VIC-.20to another machine, go for it,Your time with the little machine willstand you i.n good stead, But in mostcases, the VIC 20 won't be junked or sold.It's an old friend, and you'll likely put itout to pasture as a games machine in the

recreation room. 0

1 1 4 ,PUG Magazine

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


_Machine Language Converterby David An:hlbaldi

Oeeasionally I write a machine Ianguag routine that I want to use wid) a BASIC program. This uSlJallj ' means ecnvertingtheML program into DATA statementa, and ha,ving my BAStQ program poke it into memory. But what is easiest for me

is not always easiest for meas.a typistf C . g a one 01' two hundred byte ML pr . DA.J:Ats is n 1Ya long typingjob, but the c:nances of:m Istakes when entering alnhose nUllibe ty higa.

this in mind I wrote Converte r , which wUl convert YOXlrMLprogram into a BASIC loader, and save it to disk.Load yOIU' ML program, then run C o nv er te r. Y ou 'll be asked for the starting and ending addresses of your ML program,

a r u e for the BASIC loader, and a starti:ng line numlp-er.Pick one that won't conflict with the line numbers of thebe me . it with. T.h~ default is ten. Keep in m ind thaot the highest th eth e E oader is 63g0p~·gon irs t line so .hig,b th at Y G 'Il un out.the loader so that y o u . can-use it as a - the last line has t'he si .ngle

Delete this line if you intend to use the loader alone, rather than as a subroutine.

10 r e m * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * S00 printI5,chr$(1);chr$(4);20 rem* eo.n'Jerter 2/18,.,.'84 * 31.0 PI" in1:#5,z0$; chr$(lsb);; chr·$(msb)

' E ! J n * d~\lid a r c h i b a l d ;+:,~;

em. (313) 736-0239 * 920 rem *output "for zz=":;a"to 'ea.!:r e m * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ' * * * * ' * * * 330 r e m tread z x ; p o K e ZZrZx:next z z

•

60 clo,se5, lS:.pr int "(elr )'" :z0$=cht'$(1 Hcl1r$(4)

7~~PI'l'in1ispc( 1:5); "<r vs )convertet~ ":. 'pr int ...

80 pr ini: :pr in: IIml pr'09'rams s tar-t ing

(s.pa'ce >address": i npu t " (in dec i:ma1)!!;sa

sa>65535 then 80nt ' l lml prog.l"aM$ < r'Q $ Y en

a d d r e ~ s " : i ~ p u t f l ~ i n d ec imal )< 'II ;ea

if ea<0 or ea)65535 then leaif ea(sa then 8e:in<to:'t;'ltti.nt "s ave program u~lderspaaemhait f i1e name" = in~'U1; na

$

140 if na$=a~ then 13B150 ;print: pr int Itstart 1 . ine mwbers

<s.pace }at what number": input" (null=500;tl,0)";ln

1 if]n ~0 th,en l!l =50000:170 if1n <0 or In >63000 then In =0:

90to 150lS0 if (ea-sa)/12 *10+1 n(S3 900 then

(;s,p'ace }240r intt=:f;'$' i,ntsPl;: (t;~D' "<rvs~war'lfI lit'!9 I! !" .

print~<rvs) starting line number ma);' be too h ish t ! !<s.hift-space )'"

you wish to

"nput ne nu.mbe~">()i'es/no)";a$if asc(a$)=B9 then 150open15,B,15:open5,S,5,na$t nrP,w

"nput*15,e,el$,e2$,e3$if e}0 then prin1:printU(r9s)";e .:,e 1$;" D : e2$;" It s e 3.$: sot0 5 1e J

270 tFn;:l n: gos.ub 6 Ie28,0 rem *autput 1 cad ad dre s s and

rem *f i.rst l.ine number.

,,11:50

3:60

370

.,

print*5,chr$(129);"zzR;chr$(178) tp r in it15r s tr $(sa) ~" ";clir~I~164 ); ~

str'$(ea) ;'P r int i5 , ": ,,; ch,t~$(135 ); "z x : " ;print#5,chr$(151):"zz,zx~lI;chr$(130);" zz"Jchr$CB);rertl ; + : . p l " int •return I one *In=lo+10:tp=la=gosubprint#5.z0$;chrS(lsb);

304411145121

460

47048i049050101~

520

printI5,chr$(142);chr$(0);

rem *get m.l pr'ogr'am at) cot1vE!rt(space >;:0.rem *data sta.tements.for t=sa to ea:a$cstr$(peeK(t»sl= sl+len(a$):if 51)24 then(space}gosub 530ds$=ds$+r ighi::$(a$"l en (.a.S) -1) +" T

o .

570

580

rlext t

gos.ub 53e

rem tend file with two zeros*prini::H5,chr$(0);chr$(0J;close5r15:en,d'rem *'O 'u i:p ut 'data ••

tIn=ln+10;tp=ln:~osub Blaif In>6390a then 5SBp r· in t#5 ,2.0$; CfH"'$( lsb)t;d1t'>$U3U;" II;p ro inHt5, left.S(ds$, 1en'ehr$(l2I) ;

ds$="":sl=m:returnprint:print:print"(rvs)line nurnbel" too large":print"p{ogram en

ded II.': goi::o 50er'em *,eonlJart 1 ne n,umb·el"into

rem * : s p 1 it de c ma1 .'msb=int (i:lp/256 : lsb=tp-,256*msb:

r e t ur-n

590

6006101

May 1985 15

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


A SuperPET Carshowby Br,ad Bjorndahl

Many SuperPETs were originally pur-chased because five different high level

languages are included with the machine.No doubt many SuperPETs were 1W t pur-chased for the same reason.Why are there so many languages?

Isn't BASIC enough? Why didn't they getit right in the first place? W hy are thereso many dialects? Did the original ver-

sions have errors?Iwould like to answer these questions,

but that would require not only know-

ledge of the languages, but also a recount-ing of the history and philosophy of com-puting science. In other words, 1am not

qualified. The SuperPEThas been agreathelp to me, though, in putting thelanguages in perspective byletting me ax -periment and play with them. Ihavelearned that each language has its owncharacter, which makes it more useful ormore elegant for some applications thanfor others. Without getting into detailsof syntax and structure, let's now look ateach of the SuperPET's languages in

turn.The first language is familiar to most

of us..I visualize BASIC as a motorcyclewith a. sidecar in which you (the user or

programmer) are calling out directions tothe driver. Unfortunately, the driver isan elephant who, though he hears welland is very intelligent and cooperative,

interprets your instructions any way hedamn well pleases. Your job is to expressyourself in a \va,ythat takes you whereyou want to go, even if you hit the kerba few times along the way. RUN andSTOP work quite well, thank goodness,but GO TO wher'e I was last f l ight wil l

head for the nearest tree ..GOTO 1 : 00 willkeep you on the road, assuming there isa road 100, but it may be the wrong direc-

tion. Worse yet is GO TO the Irightwithout additional instructions. This willcause you to, travel in circles - an 'infinite

loop' ..Next consider Fortran, which I see as

an ancient pickup truck. Ithas a rottedwooden box and bald tires, and is heldtogether with crazy glue. It runs ongasohol made from manure at a run-downfarm two hundred miles north of here ..It

is no fun to drive, but it will get you toyour destination. This truck is so old thatit would hardly run at all without some

modern parts patched onto its rusting

body" For example, Fortran allows 'ex-ecution time formatting', which gives aprogrammer a means of defining the

structure of records ina file while the fileis being read. It is very powerful, and isoften missed by programmers who moveonto more modern languages. However,it would never be necessary if Fortranallowed records to be read properly. Infact, many computer installations thatprovide Fortran have modified the

.... 1can't decide i f theC language is a high-powered sports car, a .

moped or a spa.ce

shuttle., ,...

language so that records can be re-read.

The patches on Fortran show a definitelack of foresight, but remember that For-tran was a pioneer language. It is still

quite popular, and has a lot of support interms of amount of software.The COBOL language is a late 1950s

passenger car with the useless featuresof that period: large fins, two tone paintjob, oversized engine that eats gasoline ..On the other hand, it is very well main-

tained and gives a feeling of comfortwhen driven. For example, COBOLallows you to write code that soundsalmost like English, things like: PER·

FO:RM UPDATE · ROUT IN E UNTIl:L END ·OF·MIASTEIR·FIILE AND E:ND'·OF-

UPDATE· !F ILE . .Debugging can also berelatively easy, since COBOL putsrecords and data in preset locations thatcan be listed and examined by program-mers ..One of its useless features that, Ibelieve, is no longer provided on newer

versions of the language, is the AILTERverb. Itis possible with this command tochange the destination ofa.GO TO duringexecution. Imagine the debugging tanglesthat could lead to.Pascal is a more modern vehicle,

perhaps one of those K (or L or M orwhatever) cars. It is more streamlinedand fuel efficient than earlier designs likeCOBOL. Itis easier to use, with featureslike power steering ('pointers') and powerbrakes ('types'), but it lacks some neededengine capacity. In particular, Pascal hasbeen criticised for weakness in the . i 1 0

area. Its strengths are its rational, 'stan-

dardized' features for structured pro-

gramm:ing. Just as automobile manufac-turers design parts to be interchangeablebetween models, so the modern lan-guages use interchangeable program-ming statements. A great deal of timeand energy is saved if everyone knowsand agrees onthe meaning of WHitE and!FOR.APL is an all-terrainvehicle; it can go

just about anywhere, but it is easy to getlost and can be dangerous to your (men-tal) health. APL is a lot offun to explore,and to explore with. It can be addicting,because there is always another way ofgetting where you want to go ..APL hasa strong mathematical flavour with itsGreek symbols and inherent matrix (ar-

ray) handling features ..APL assumes thatevery variable is an array, and this simplefact makes it different from all conven-tionallanguages. For example, additioncan be done on one variable (by addingits entries) or two (adding correspondingelements). Addition on one variable canalso be done by adding the first element,then the first two elements, the firstthree, and so on, to give an array with

the same dimensions as the original. Twoarrays can be added after rotating one ofthem like achain of beads, Arrays ofmore than one dimension can be added

along the first (row) or second (column)or other dimension. The options areendless, and after figuring out what theyare, the programmer then has to figure

out what they can be used for. APL hasto be seen to be believed.With.OS/9, the C language will become

available on the SuperPET. I've seen alittle of it, but not enough to decide if it'sa high-powered sports car, a moped or aspace shuttle .. I know that it is foolish topush analogies, but I can't help wonder-ing what a language would look like thatcorresponds to: a train (efficient but withinflexible routes); an aircraft (fast but lowcapacity); or a bicycle (fun,efficient, easyto learn, but can't go far).Processors that execute more than one

instruction at a time, artificial intelligence

and expert systems, are being developedright now, A little experience with ex-isting languages will go a long way

towards understanding trends in the com-puting industry. The Super PET can pro-vide that experience fo r those who are in-terested in, afraid of, obsessed with orconfused about what to expect in the

future, 0

16 TPUG Magazine

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


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8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


A Beginner's BBSGuide: Part Twoby Ian A . Wright

Bulle tin boarding h a s become 1)e171

popular in recent 1rwnths and modems areamong the hottest selling peripherals. Tosome extent, this popula1'ity results from

a multi·media blitz caused by storiesabout 'hackers' presented in the movies,

on television and in print. Real telecom-

mun ica tio n, h ow ev er, is an e 'n do yabl e a nd

often ve?",!!useful activity, not - as the

media often portray it - a solita1"'!Janddestructive one..In the fi.?'st of this series

ofarticles, Ian described some of the usesafbulletin boards. This month he explains

the proper procedures for accessing a

boord: Where possible the examples ared7'awnjrom TPUG's own Bulletin BoardSyste'ln (BBS).

:R .ing ... R ing

You have just arrived home with a newmodem and terminal program for yourCommodore computer. First, please sitand read the manuals and instructionbooklets that accompanied these items.1know people who have destroyed com-puters, modems and disk drives byplugging peripherals into the wrongplaces. No matter what computer/modemcombination you have, you should follow

the modem assembly and terminal pro-gram loading instructions, double check-

ing all the way. Then, if you live in oraround 'I'oronto, dial TPUG's BBS at

416-782-9534. You will almost certainly

not get through right away - sometimesyou will dial for over an hour before thephone rings because the TPUG BBS,despite 24 hour service, has about 700current users, many of whom are tryingto access the line just as you are. At thispoint, an automodem will seem like atruly worthwhile investment!Once you have got through to the BBS

you will hear a high pitched squeal. Youshould now switch your modem to data(for direct connect and automodems), orinsert the phone into the cups of themodem (for acoustic modems). How you

get to 'terminal mode' will differ depen-ding on your terminal program, but oncethere you will probably have to press theR E . T U , R N I key a few times to make con-tact. If everything is OK, an openingmessage will start to flow across yourscreen and you are now BBSing.

Log'on~Login

You must know the correct password(printed in this magazine) to enter theTPUG BBS but, as a new user, you willnot be allowed access to the TPUG BBSuntil the office has checked yow' member-

ship and logged you on to the member-ship list. Each time you '1ogin' (access thesystem) in future, your name will beautomatically checked against the active

membership list. At this first contact youwill read a welcoming bulletin and youwill be expected to provide your name,

address and club membership number.Most 'Punter-systems' use a similar logonprocedure although the specifics mayvary slightly from board to board. Thelast step to joining the system is to entera six character 'user code' of your own

creation. Don't forget to write the codedown in a safe place because you will notbe allowed future access without it.If all goes well, you should be able to

access the rest of the TPUG boardwithin

a week.

Spells and Incantations

The TPUG BBS password was instituted

by Tom Shevlin, a former SYStemOPerator (SYSOP) of the TPUG BBS,because ofthe phenomenal increase in thenumber of non-member users. With theem-rent limit of about 700 active users onour system, if you don't login for awhile,you may find yourself being treated as a

new user and having to wait for member-ship renewal- again. Some other localboards, like the BBBBS and Appleby, areprivate, and charge a small fee formembership in an attempt to control theflood of users. Only a few, like PSI-WordPro and COMSPEC, are still open

boards.Why all these precautions? Most of the

18 TPUG Magazine

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


changes have been instituted within thepast few years as modems have becomecheaper and more popular ..There are nowthousands of BBSers in the Toronto areaalone, and the small percentage makingup the 'lunatic fringe' has increased at thesame time, The frequency of 'systemcrashes' caused by an inconsiderate few,and some rather nasty deceptions byother vandals, have forced BBS SYSOPsto institute tighter regulations on accessin the interest of keeping their systemsworking. You can help all of us by selec-ting an unusual user code. Do not useyour last name, nickname, or anything

similar, and do not tell anyone your code,ever. One local board has recently insti-tuted a fee for replacing user codes, andthreatens expulsion for those who sharetheir codewith others. Sloppy users causetrouble for all, and the unpaid, over-worked, and dedicated SYSOPs deservebetter ..

Now You're On-LineYour first action as a novice user shouldbe to type HELP at the 'Command >'

prompt, because this will give you alisting ofthe allowable commands on theBBS..If your terminal has print capabili-ty, and/or a print buffer, this would be agood time to capture this information so

you can print it out for future reference.Some of the more commonly usedmessage commands are listed in the boxon the opposite page.When returned to 'Command >', type

F1. to read messages forwards from thecurrent message #1. This message maybe reference #10235 (the 10,235thmessage left on the BBS since it wasstarted), but since fewer than :200messages can be on-line at any time, themessages eventually 'falloff the disk'.The average life-span o r a message onTPUG's BBS is about a week, so unlessyou login regularly, all the messages youread will have been replaced by new ones.Each time a new message is entered, theexisting message numbers are decre-mented by one until they reach zero and

disappear for ever.You don't have to answer yes to the

prompt 'Continue With Messages?' ifyoutype CONT to switch to continuousmessage reading. While readingmessages you can still hit S to pause and

restart, but typing .AwilI not abort thecontinuous reading of messages as it didin non-continuous mode. Use CTR'l·A toskip to the next message, or CTRL-P toreturn to the 'Command >' prompt.CTRL·S will exit from various searchmodes like TOME.The command NEW will read all

messages entered since your last login,but this will not work until you havesucessfully completed one BBS access.Most of the other read commands, likeTOME and RALt, are explained in thehelp list- they are designed to speed upaccess for the experienced user ratherthan for the neophyte.So far you have looked over the regular

(REG) section of TPUG's BBS .. Youshould now type TECH to investigate themessages in the technical section usingthe same commands as in the REG sec-tion. This area of TPUG's BBS was in-stituted in January, 1985 for enteringtechnical questions like "Should I double-side my disks?" and "What is an IRQ vee-tor?" and answering them - rather likean on-line question room. No questionsare too simple. We all learn from theanswers.YouwiU probably find that your time

limit will be exceeded when you get back

to the 'Command >' prompt again. Likemost other BBSs in our area, TPUG hadto institute a 30minute time limit to allowas many users to access the board aspossible within a 24 hour period. After 25minutes on-line you willsee 'Time Is Run-ning Out!', and your connect time afterevery prompt. At 30 minutes you cancomplete your current activity and you

will then see 'SYSTEM TIME EXCEED-ED!' and you will be disconnected. Thebest time to phone a BBS is in the weehours of the morning when the demandis least, or in the early afternoon if the

BBS is open 24 hours. The busiest timeseems to be from late afternoon tomid-evening.

If you have some time left, or if youmanage to get back on later, you shouldinvestigate the bulletin section of theBBS by typing B at the 'Command >'prompt. The bulletin section is set up withits own menu of selections and theprompt is now 'sub-Command >' to in-dicate that you are in a sub-section of theBBS. Be sure to read TPUG 's T en. C om -mandments. The material in BBSbulletins ranges from schedules of TPUG

events to a review of some of Toronto'sbars - it's the SYSOP's choice.

Next time

In the next article I would like to dealwith entering, deleting, forwarding,editing and uploading messages to a BBS.If space permits, I will talk about pre-formatted messages and some of the eti-quette of telecommunicating ..Till then, ifyou have any questions please send themto me clo the magazine - either by mail,or by sending a message to TPUGMAGAZINE on the BBS. 0

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IMay 1985 1! 9

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


File Teleportingby Phil Kemp

An important ingredient in a strong com-puter user community is the sharing of

ideas - and of programs exemplifyingthose ideas. This requires the desire toshare, and also the ability to do so easily.One important means of sharing is thetransfer of program files by telephone.

Many of us have acquired modems, sowe can access Bulletin Board Systems,Comp-U-Serve and other services. Someof us use message systems and othermainframe-based services at work, and

now can have access to these at homealso. Getting the basic 'dumb terminal'dialogues to work is not difficult oncewe've determined for each system the

right combination of parity, word-length,echo-p lex , number of stop bits, and so on,Fortunately, there are only a finitenumber of permutations of these choices.Almost al l publicly available services com-municate using the 7-bit ASCII(American Standard Code for Informa-tion Interchange) codes to representcharacters.However, when we come to file trans-

fer operations, mass confusion reigns.Almost everyone, it seems, has difficultywith this at first. And when we turn to

our favourite magazines and manuals (sooften a source of comforting advice) wefind tantalizing references to 'protocolbrand X', but little hard information.Having struggled through this wasteland,and achieved some modest successes, I'dlike to share the fruits of my experience,in the hope that others can progress lesspainfully.

The first major obstacle is the use(abuse, actually) of the terms 'filetransfer', 'uploading' and 'downloading'.Almost every commercial terminal pro-gram claims these abilities; unfortunate-

ly, the terms are not so ironclad as onemigh t expect. I suggest some more mean-ingful names f(1I' these features in theform they are commonly implemented.

Dialogue Capture: This is the simplestform of 'downloading'. Characters re-ceived are saved in a memory buffer, andwritten to disk or tape at some conveni-ent moment ..We command the accessedservice to list some file content, and save

the buffer content for later review andprocessing. There are some variations:dialogue capture may be always active,

or we may switch it on and off. If our

memory buffer is small, then a 'stop'signal must be sent to the sender whilewe clear the buffer, and a 'send' when the

buffer is again ready. This is often refer-red to as X-ONfX-OFF protocol; unfor-tu.nately, many of the services we mayaccess do not recognize these signals. Thetechnique is well-suited for text files(messages from an electronic mail ser-vice, or programming tips from Comp -U -

Serve, for example).

Auto-Typing: This is the simplest formof 'uploading'. Almost every host servicewe use has some facility to record what

we type: mainframes have text editors;Bulletin Board Systems have messageentry commands ..So, if we send data by

simulating a fast typist, we can have'uploading'. There are some pitfalls towatch for here.

Our terminal program must know whenthe host system is ready to receive thenext piece of text, In its simplest form theprogram may simply insert pauses be-tween characters (or groups of char-acters) long enough to be sure the host

.. .Data

communi:cations by

phone iis somewhat

like shouUng down a

long corridor, ..

will be ready. Surprisingly long pauses(several seconds) may be needed to en-

sure the host will always be ready" andour transmissions will be slow. Usuallythe host will send a 'prompt' sequence ofcharacters when it is ready. If we knowwhat this sequence is, we can start send-

ing soon after we receive it, thus minimiz -ing the time to transfer data.How soon? Data communications by

phone is somewhat like shouting down a.long corridor. When communication inone direction ends, a pause is needed toallow the 'echoes' to die away beforesending a reply _A delay of about 1/5 seeond is often recommended.

Error Check~ng.: The 'dialogue capture'

and 'auto-typing' methods of file transfer

have a serious limitation. There is essen-tially no checking for transmission errors.

And,in the real world, clean, noise-free

phone lines are rare. Now, for textmessages, the transposition or loss of afew characters is often not disastrous: the

meaning usually remains clear. For aBASIC program, changing X =1 to Y = 1,for example, can radically alter the logic.

And small errors like this are very time-consuming to diagnose and correct. In thecase of a m a c h in e -c o de program, changinga single bit of an instruction usuallycreates a serious problem.

This means that we need error checksfor-program file transfers. Unfortunately(for those of us trying to understand theprocess) the simplest checks are rarely us-ed. We could use parity checking, inwhich each 8-bit character contains 7 bits

of data plus a check bit. According to datacommunications experts, this is a ratherineffective form of checking anyway, and

many errors would slip through. Many ofthe services we're likely to access ignorethe parity bit even if we set it. Anotherapproach is to have the receiver 'echo'

back to the sender each byte receieved,so that it can be verified against thecharacter actually sent. This greatlyslows down the effective rate of datatransmission, and at 300 baud (about 30bytes per second) we already need a lotof patience. So this, too, is unusual,Most commonly-used error-checking

methods employ a 'block transmission'protocol. In this case, a group of databytes is sent, accompanied by a few extracheck bytes, The receiver verifies thecheck bytes against the data bytes, andreplies with an ACK (positive acknow-ledgement that the block is okay) or NAK(negative acknowledgement, indicatingan error) code..The sender then sends thenext block, or resends the last one, as re-quired. The general class of block trans-mission protocols has many quite dif-

ferent instances. A few of them are ofparticular interest to the average CBMuser with a low-speed (300-baud) modem.

Christensen (or XMODEM) Protocol:Explorers of the BBS world will discovermany boards running the CPlM operatingsystem. These generally use XMODEMprotocol for program file transfer. Datais sent in blocks of 128 bytes, precededby a special SOH (start of header) byteand the relative block number, andfollowed by a single check byte. The dataand check bytes are related

mathematically. Commonly the check

20 T PUG , Maga.zlne

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


byte is simply the low-order byte of the

sum of the data byte values. In some im -plementations a more effective techniqueis used, called CRC (Cyclic RedundancyCoding). The receiver can posit ively iden-tify the start of the block, ensure that theblock arriving is in fact the next one ex-pected, and flag most transmission er-rors. Standard ASCII codes for SOH (1 ),

ACK (6) and NAK (21) are used.

PET File Transfer Protocol: This is theconvention used in the CBM BulletinBoards written by Steve Punter, and is

therefore of greatest interest to most ofus. Data is processed in groups of 127bytes. Each byte of data is transmittedas two bytes, representing the two

nybbles (halves) of the data byte. A dollarsign character, for example, which is in-tern ally represented as hexadecimal code24 (decimal 3 6 ), w i ll be transmitted as th

two characters '2' (hex code 32) and '4'(hex code 34). Since each byte transmit-ted represents four data bits, only thecharacters 0 through 9 and A through F

are transmitted. Each group of 127 databytes is thus sent as 25 4 bytes, followedby a two-byte checksum, makingtransmitted blocks 256 bytes long. Thechecksum permits most transmission er-rors to be detected. on-s tandard ACK

(29) and NAK (17) codes are used. Sinceno block number is sent, it is possible for

an entire block to vanish withou trace.However, provided the sending and

receiving programs 'operate at the samespeed, this method is quite dependable.

Coping With Missing Data: Ifwe havea simple data character error, th n ourblock checksum verification will usuallydetect it. But what if a burst of noise onthe line occurs, so bad that a charactereffectively vanishes? If one of the 256characters in a transmitted block fails toarrive, then the receiver could be lefthanging, waiting for an event that willnever happen. The PET transfer proto-col handles this by adding extra

characters: each 256·byte data block istrailed by a group of extra 'Z' characters.Likewise, each of the 'ready for nextevent' codes is repeated several times-

just in case the first character doesn'tmake it through.This resolves one problem, and creates

another. When a data block arrives andis processed, we must be sure the trail-ing 'Z' characters have also all arrivedbefore we ask for the next block. The

same consideration applies to the otherextra bytes sent. This can be taken care

of by adequate delays (say 1120 second

per character expected) b fore we flush

the input buffer and respond.

Timing - the Critical Issue: Having

established a character transmi ion code(ASCII) to be used and an r ror-checkingprotocol (PET File Transfer, say) to han-dle mangled or missing bytes and tomakeclear who should do what and when,what

can go wrong?Timing - poor timing to be exact. Forexample, suppose OUI' actual transmissionrate is a trifle high. Ifwe use our corn-

puter as a dumb terminal, and directlytype what is to be sent, we will rarelystress the system. Most people do nottype at thirty charaet rs a second.However, an 'intelligent' terminal pro-gram sending data for us can drive themodem at full speed for extended periods,and the potential for 'overrunning' ourlistener becomes real.

\A i e hav n ted the need for delays, to

ensure that all expected characters ar-rive, and to allow line 'echoes' to dieaway. Delay length should be fixed afterexperiment - we are dealing with an in -

exact science.

Where Does This Leave s? 'I h e worldof low-spe d (30011200 baud) asyn-chronous data communications is a

jungle. There are few standards widely

accepted. Particularly in the case of filetransfers, there are many div rse sets ofrules, each in limited use. By gainingsome understanding of the essential

issues, we greatly increase the chancesof success in our attempts to transfer filesby phone. 0

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8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


Do not RUN this yet! Make sure that lines150 and .200have no errors. Then follow

this little procedure exactly. It will seemodd, but it is the easiest way to movecharacters from one place to another inthe computer's memory - a move wemust make, somehow or other.Considering that the C·16 has RAM

only up to 16K, we put the characters atabout 12K ($3000 hex). To protect thecharacters from being overwritten by the

strings, we lower the top-of-memory

pointer to where the characters begin.The move itself can be done in severalways; the simplest uses the built- in

machine language monitor. Let's do it:

Type MONiIITOR.and push RETUFIN.You'll see all sorts of gibberish on the

screen .. I gnore it. Where the cursor isflashing, type the following line, makingsure you have exactly one space betweengroups of letters and numbers:

T 0000 D7FF 3000

and push 'FIETURN'.Type letter 'X' andpush RETURN'to get back to BASIC. Thejob is done ..We haven't hooked up thecharacters yet, but they are now available

to us, for any modifications we may wish

to make.Now you can FlUNthe program. You

will see a change in characters. Press any

key to restore things to normal. This

breaks the hook, but the characters canbe used again when needed.

DetailsWe redefine the percent key into a Com-

modore logo shape" as drawn in theDATAlines. The patterns are decoded ina subroutine in line 230. This is an all-

purpose subroutine. You can call it again

and again, the magic word being GOSUB

with a line number.The new characters are active until you

press a key (line 190), at which pointthings are reset to normaL If you wish,you can put a iREMon line 200 for thecharacters to stay put for a while, so'thatyou can experiment with them, but be

careful - this line is needed, most ofthetime.

Why? When you get any kind of aner-ror while using defined characters, the

screen fills with a fair amount of floatinggarbage. Do not panic: blindly type'GOTO 200 and press IReTURN..This will

set things back to normal. Alternately,

while holding the STOP key firmly down,press the tiny little reset button on theside, type 'X' and RETURN. Your pro-

gram should be intact, and itshould LISTand RUN!properly.

Where did we get 37?That's the screencode for the 'U ' character. How do weknow the screen code? Look it up in the

index of the manual, or print 'II' in thefirst screen position, and underneath

type:

PR .1NT PEEI<.( 12 *256)

The formula in line 160 tells the computerto put new character values at the begir t-

ning of our new character memory, whichwe placed at hex $3000 or decimal3*4096 =12288 plus the character offset.

Since each character takes up eight bytes,we multiply the screen code by 8 andzero-in smack on. the character sec we

want, to get the offset.The character number can be any

number from 0 to 127. Don't try usingnumbers larger than 127 (reverse

characters). It won't work.To switch from the normal character

set to the one you want, you must POK'Ecertain places in memory. This is done in

line 150. Conversely, to disconnect, werestore the computer's normal values

(line .200).

We used the machine language monitorto move the characters, as this is the

quickest way to move them. It's not verysatisfactory in a running program, of

course. The alternative is a loop to P;E'E'Kand POKE the characters. It's very slowin BASIC, and IPEIEKingROM needs a

trick:

POKE 1176,44: V=PEEK( .some

address): POKE 1.176,1.41

You can place al l sorts of statements bet-ween the two POKEs, as long as they donot involve any character strings.

Erro,rTrapping'An error on our part normally would

cause an error message to be neatlyprinted on the screen. But this is dif-

ferent. When there are errors, the com-

puter gets thoroughly confused andpresents you with a live, jittery mess onthe screen. We can't prevent all the er-rors, but we can catch most: TRAP2,I)0

in line 140 should trap many typingmistakes. When it happens, instead of be-

ing at the computer's mercy (trash on the

screen), we go to line 200, which restoresthe normal environment. In line 210 weprint our own error message, preceding

it with the '>' character.Needless to say, tiline 200 ismistyped,

all this is in vain ..You can't trap a trap.

ER is an error number that the corn-puter detected. Ifzero, we have no error.

If minus one, we also have no error.

Careful here- you must code IF !EIR0to be able to pick up the entire messageERR$(ER).. It won't work when you code

IF ER THEN. .. Sorry about that. It'srather peculiar, I admit. 0

An RS 23.2for the VIC 2'0

and C-64b y Keith Falkner

My presentation at this year's TPUGConference will show you how to con-

struct and program a usable RS 232 portwith a minimum of parts ..We cheat a

little on the voltages, but it works and it's

safe.Commodore provides little information

about the RS 23.2port. Th e Commodo re

64 Us er's Guide doesn't mention it at all,

and Th e CO '1 nmod0 1'e 64 Programmer's

Reference Guide omits some vital details.

This is a real pity, because there are verymany RS 232 peripherals that our com-

puters could use if only the RS 232 portwere better understood ..For instance, Iam typing this on an Apple Macintosh,

and I will send it to my Commodore 64'sRS 232 port so that Ican send the textto TPUG Magazine on disk. Ian instead

use an RS23.2 modem or a printer.

You've probably seen a genuine RS 232device. They usually have DB·25 connec-

tors, which have two rows of holes (orpins), one row of thirteen and one row of

twelve. This looks nothing like a Com-modore User Port, with its 24'pin edge-co nn ecto r ..Another difference that you

absolutely must deal with is the voltagehassle. Our computers produce or detectsignals of zero or five volts; RS .232

devices accept or deliver approximately+ 12 volts or -12 volts. Actually, some useup to 25 volts.Fortunately, al l the hardware hassles

can be solved with fifteen dollars' worth

of common parts: two connectors, one

chip, and a pair of resistors. You can builda simple adapter in a cassette box, put an

edge-connector on one end and a DB-25socket on the other, and have a plug-inadapter that does not require modifica-

tion to your computer. Full details of thisplug-in adapter, including the necessarycables to connect to a printer or modem,

are available in a s ev en -p ag e article fromTPUG. If you are not planning to attendthe conference, but you want this infor-mation, please send one dollar and a selfaddressed envelope to the club and a s k

for the 'RS 232 Port Article' ..Programming an RS 232 device is

really simple, but again there is a . hassle.

You must OPENI the RS232 file first,

because BASIC must take two 256·byteareas of memory to handle traffic to and

from the device, and it destroys yourvariables and arrays to do this (with a

ClIFI). 0

May 1985 .23

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


Fake Flight Sims GroundedIby IKen Co.x

Owners of a Toronto Commodore com-

puter dealership are facing criminal fraudcharges following a five month investiga-

tion by the Royal Canadian MountedPolice into 6000 bogus copies of

SubLOGIC Inc.'s software hlt,Flight

Simulator II,"It's the first time, as far as I know,

that a charge of this nature has been laid,where they have actually gone ahead and

duplicated not only the diskette, but themanuals, the box, and even the warrantycard," said an RCMP investigator, who

asked not to be named. "This is the

largest scale that has ever been seen in

this office. It's a case where itwasn't justcopying, it was outright counterfeiting."

Bootlegs of the aircraft simulation were

sold for 25 dollars wholesale and up to 60dollars retail across Canada and northern

New York state.The complaint originated with Fligbt

Simulator II's manufacturer, SubLOGICInc., in Champaign, Illinois. Company of-

ficial Bill Voss told TPUG M aga .z in e thatCanadian distributors had complainedthat competitors were getting the prod-uct cheaper. He came to Toronto and

found counterfeits in the stores.

"When I first looked at them it wasquite difficult for me to be a hundred per

cent sure that they weren't ours. Itemslike that exist in the videotape and recordindustry, but I believe this may be the

firstactual counterfei ting of software,"

Voss said. "When you're talking aboutimitation being the sincerest form of flat-

tery, we've been very flattered here. But

it has been in a less than nice way .."The quality also surprised Bruce Hamp-

son, business manager of the CanadianComputer Dealer Association,

"To my knowledge there has neverbeen another case of exact duplicating or

counterfeiting in the world," Hampson

said in an interview.Mark and Harold Herzog of House of

Computers Inc" and Stephen Weisbrod

and Harold Taylor of Syrograph Inter-national Inc -:are charged with conspiracyto commit fraud.The commercial aspect of program

copying has become the RCMP's 'pri-

ority' according to the RCMP source. "If

somebody is trading them, there is very

little under the Copyright Act that you

can do.,You can't really charge them with

fraud, because there is no material gain.

(But) if there is a material gain, or if itprejudices the company to any great ex-

tent", a charge will be laid,Hampson agreed that police should con-

centrate on those who reproduce and sellentire packages .."In counterfeiting, they

are taking over the distribution networkthat the legitimate manufacturer has, and

substituting their product .."Most of the 6000 packages are in the

hands of computer owners. The RCMPwas able to recover only about three tofive hundred of the:counterfeit programs.

According to SubLOGIC's Voss, hiscompany has "probably exceeded

200,000" in total sales of FHght

Simulator nor the Commodore 64, and"approaching half a million" for all

translations.The sale of illegitimate software, said

the RCMP source, "is getting a little outof hand. You can easily go out and buy

yourself a copying program. There is, un-fortunately, nothing that can be done

against them. We were looking at the

possibility of trying to come up with

J~.f,~

Sf.

Is it 01' isn't it? Connterfeit copies of

SuhLOGIC's F.Light Simulator 11are v i 7 ' -

tually i nd i st ingu isha:b le f rom the "ealthing.

'manufacturing burglar's tools', but you

can't do that to a person who makes

crowbars either."The Canadian Computer Dealer Asso-

ciation is worried about so-called Soft-

ware Evaluation clubs, which sell 25

dollar memberships. Clubrnembers pa.y

a 'service fee', typically 10 dollars, to get

a copy of a commercial program minus

the protection. "They give it to you totake home to evaluate. You are suppos-ed to play with it until you are happy thatitis what you want and then you destroy

it, go to a legitimate dealer and buy alegitimate copy. Of course, there's no

follow-up in this, and no obligation onyour part, soyou keep the pirated copy,"Hampson said,

On a less commercial scale, computer

dealers and software companies aresuspicious of many users' groups,

"Many advocate and promote trading

of software", Hampson charged, "One

fellow buys 11 program and breaks thesecurity on it. Each month when they

meet, they each get another ten pro-grams."

Then there are companies that buy one

program and distribute cost-free withinthe organization.

"We believe that one out of every ten

pieces of software in existence is

legitimate ..When 90 per cent of all thesoftware in use is illegal, then somethingdrastic has to be done," Hampson said.Hampson also reports that the anti-

piracy battle has become downright ug-

Iy , So-called 'vigilantes' befriend piratesat user group meetings and get invited

to their homes, "When the hacker leav sthe house, they break in and eraseeverything the hacker has, whether it islegitimate or not. What they're doing isbreaking the law, but they are sending ascare through the American hackers,"

RCMP investigations into softwarepirates have recently intensified. The

police source for this story is "the resi-

dent hacker in the RCMP office ..I am be-ing utilized to the office's benefit in ap-proaching these people ..1can speak a lot

of the language,"Bill Voss of SubLOGIC praised the

RCMP for their interest in the FlightSimulator II case. "I came in with a com-

puter problem and there just happened

to be a constable who was a home com-puter buff."One of the difficulties is antiquated

legislation .. "The penalty section of theCopyright Act at the present time allows

a 10 dollars per copy maximum fine, toa total of 200 dollars pel' charge," thepoliceman said, Counterfeiters "would

gladly plead guilty and leave laughing", 0

2.4 TPUG Maga~lne

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


by Mal'colm O'Brien

Warning: Thefollowing 7'eadingmaterialcontains explicit de.~c?·iptions ofdisastrous disk e'l'rors and is notfor thesqueamish or weak of heart! Readerdiscretion is advised ...

What evil lurks in the hearts of 1541s1Not even the Shadow knows. There are

several common horror stories retoldtime and again in hushed whispers byusers from Alaska to Zanzibar. Tales offiles banished to an uncharted MylarTwilight Zone, never to be accessedagain; of programs viciously decimated

by the infamous Save with Replace; ofblocks missing and presumed purged

after validating; and, most common of all,heads that go out of alignment (what arethey looking for?),Not pretty pictures! Maybeyou've even

lost pretty pictures ..We have all read of(or experiencedl) such strange and

distressing occurrences with these in-sidious devices. Tales of woe are all toomany and explanations or solutions al l toofew.Personally, J have experienced such

heart-wrenching agonies only twice. Both

cases seemed to confirm the hypothesisthat the fi.le you lose is the one that is

most important to you. And in both casesIlost programs that Ihad been con-

tracted to write, Losi.ng many hours of

work is bad enough, but when they're

written for someone who wishes he hadthe program three months ago it's evenworse. Because of their value, Ispentsome time doing detective work, and Ifound some things that may prove to be

informative and helpful.In the first case, I was writing a pro-

gram to track a stock portfolio, I hadwritten about seventeen blocks worth ofcode to create and maintain the requiredfiles. I went across town to show mycustomer what I'd done and to get moreinformation from him as to whatmanipulations of the data he wanted theprogram to perform.Imagine my surprise when, after

loading the program, I got the R.EADYprom pt almost immedia tely! "No way!",I said,"It's seventeen blocks long!" Ilisted the program: it consisted of oneR E M statement! Needless to say, my

customer was duly unimpressed. I wiltedseverely. What could have happened?Iecognized the

R E M

statement.Iadsaved several of them, each the name of

a routine that needed to be written orthat Ihought Imight need. In effect Iwas using the directory as a scratchpad

to prompt me to remember the items that

still needed doing, But how in the nameof all that's serial did I get 'RaJ' (Return

On Investment - a one block file) whenI'd typed in LOAD"STOCK",8 (a seven-teen block file)? It didn't make sense.

_ '

My other dr'eadful experience hap-pened tome while Iwas working ona sales tracking program .....

ed sleuth and intimate friend of Mr.Sherlock Holmes ..David said, "Did you

run Diskrnap on it?" In a flash, Iresponded "Diskmap?"

Bradley informed me that Diskmspis

a program in TPUG's C·64 software lib-rary, on disk ( C) T9 . .It will give an account-ing of every block on a disk, telling you

which blocks are allocated, and to whichfiles. It was very helpful to me in this caseand Iecommend it.

Dr. Bradley and Ietired to the gentle-men's computing quarters and set to

work. We ran Diskmap on the wretchedfloppy and scrutinized the printout eare-

fully, looking for clues ..The key to unlock-

ing this case was the curious fact that asingle block had been allocated to two dif-

ferent files, "That's not supposed to hap-pen", muttered Bradley .."That's nice toknow", said L

Continuing my investigations, Iwenthome and loaded Diskview, another in-valuable TPUG program. It has appeared

most recently as Diskview 3 on (C)M9.Iigured that although the first block ofmy program had been overwritten, theother sixteen were probably still intact onthe disk- somewhere. Iooked over theDiskmap printout, hoping to find a pat-

tern to the block assignments ..Itooksome 'educated'guesses as to the loca-tion of the track and sector of the next

block and looked at their ASCII represen-tations. Whenever r found something

that looked like my program I tracedblocks. After I'd found all 16 blocks I told

the negligent BAM that these blockswere al.located to my program andchanged the numbers for the first trackand sector in the directory. So, by 8o'clock the next morning, Ihad my pro-gram backl

What had gone wrong? I remembersaving that R E M statement and I thinkthat I had performed some operations onanother disk immediately before, Mysuspicion is that the drive didn't realizethat I'd changed disks and that it was still

referring to the BAM of the other disk.The solution? Always initia~i:l:ethe disk

before performing a write operation! Itonly takes a moment, and it's a momentwell spent if it spares you the heartbreakof an overwritten program.My other dreadful experience happened

to me while I was working on a sales

Finally I decided that only one thing couldhave caused thiserror - and I had to findout what it was,

The first step in my investigative mis-sion was to get a second opinion- anda third, and a fourth. I knew I was onto

something when I got the same responsefrom everybody. They shrugged theirshoulders and said, " I dunno."I'd spent about fifty hours on this pro-

gram and wasn't about to let it go! It was

on that disk somewhere and I was deter-mined to find it.Desperate, I contacted

the eminent Dr. David Bradley, renown-

26 TPUG Magazine

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


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tracking program. A list of the productsbeing sold was the culprit this time, andit was several blocks long. Once again, ofall the files that could have been clobbered,it had to be the one that Iadn't backedup. There were several other files on thedisk that never would have been missedbut my 1541(alias Jaws) had to overwritethe longest and most complex programI've written to date. But this time Inowexactly when and how it happened.Iwas working on a program to main-

tain the SEQ files that the sales program

used. Ielected the 'Put fi l to disk' op-tion from the menu, expecting to en-

counter a STOP command that would endthe program.l was forgetting that r hadalready written the code for that option.The fire in Jaws' eye lit up and my pro-

gram was gone. VI/hatwent wrong? I had

mistakenly opened the file to read, whichshould have meant that attempting towrite to the file would result in an errormessage, but no transfer of data when thesubsequent PRII:NIT#statements were ex-

ecuted .. Well, somehow or other thosePRINl# statements worked! Each recordin my file was written out onto the diskjust as nice as you please - over the mostimpor t an t program ['d ever written. Jaws

strikes again .. Just when you thought itwas safe to go back into the DOS.

There are several morals to this story:

• Ensure that all your disks have uniqueIDs , and don't change a disk's ID .

e Make sure that you open your files towrite if you use PRINT#.

by Malcolm Qr'.Brien

B¥ now you''re;~robabl:vwth e save-with-replace bug. 0 e ll , you 'r emat jon on this b ug so fa r a m cu nts to e more thanrufnour, hearsay and speculation. As r state across thepage,,8<1;ve-wit):t-replacehas a lways woeked for m e - b utIthave stopped using it. 0

The classic bug, for those who have never met it, goes

Uk-e this: You Mad a,Rrogr:am (LO.A.D"PROGRAM A'1_,8),maK : es ome «ha, ng e s, then save itwlth th e CL

@' replace func-t ion (SAVE "@O:.PAOGRA,M A" ,8).. At this point,

everything is normal - or seems to b e. T he surprise cerneslater on, when you load another program (LOAD "PRO-

. Bn ,S) _Gildget - or shock.Jgi sappointm£mt ,fi, co .n nm l 0 n and di - the r re\nsed wersiun o f

f l rog:ram A. At this point, Progra .mBJ

which wBisthelongest and m os t va luab le p rog ram you had ever written.is either very difficult to reconstruet or completely

place b u g - : h a s beenssed as a ~ hany pro 3/uthoritl.es.Part of roblem is that

even those wli{l believe in the reality he bug are in

disagreement a s to which disk drives are subject to it. Aso tt e m i g h t expect, though, tIle 1541 driva.is Ul primd ic t at e . Ano t he r difficulty i s that no one lia s y e t comew~ wi'!;h a y;ea1I\y convincing exp lan . ofhow the.ougmight b e caused, despite in tens ive scr of th e rel;~al'ltDOS routines, A third and related d iffic u'lty is th at n o oneH.&:l .everbeen>able to p ro dnce a routine with which th ehug can be reliably demonstrated. .

.Until now. ~ re~ealed in,the latesti e of the highly-regarded magaZine The Trd,'fISactor, C . H. 'INhitlem,of Hudson, igan has devised a shod program witbwb idh lili.e 'th-replace bug ean b e easily induced.

Readers who wish to see the actual listing are referredto The Transactor; here itneed omy b e said that the pro-

Save- W ith-Replac ,e:T l i e Rea l Rumomt

·'Always send an initialize command tothe drive before performing a writeoperation.

This article would not be complete if itfailed to discuss Save with Replace ..1have used the little snake, '@', moretimes than I care to remember and ithasalways worked properly for me. Afterboth of the events described above peopleasked me if I'd used Save with Replace.Ihadn't. The single IREM statement wasa regular save, and the other problemwasn't a save at all! Lou Sander is doing

an in-depth study on Save with Replace,

and I'm sure that we'll all be very in -terested to see what his conclusions are.Until then I suppose we'll all live in fearand sleep with a nightlight. 0

gram operates in the simplest way imaginable, by

repeatedly. saiv.mg short test files using the dy.n<).mickE:.yboardtechnique. ~ aghort 'f im e,o n th e 6M er {I f

a fe... minutes, one of the test files will prove to have thewrong data.

In an effort to deter-mine the significance of th is n ewinfbrmat ion , T P U G M a ,g Q ; z i 1 U J asked Some wel l -knownusers to share with O U Z o readers their knowledge of andexpilrience with save-with-replace. Now we can bo ld ly

stand up a nd a rId to the:rtmlolJl.',hearsay and s pe fu il a ti on . .What follows are the comments of our expert panel:

P rime Commodo :r il l. R Jim Butterfield: "The importerrtthing. if the bug 'is real, is to understand it to the point

where it's manageable. It seems that now we cap at lastprio¥e that jt really does ~t, and reproduce it. llhat'sa good first step to figlll'tng out how itworks.~ .. "

Star Trekking programmer Dave Neale: "I had a lotof problems with it when I used files that all started with

the same four or five letters follow~d by a I, 2, etc. I hadfElw..,el',nce I started p utti ng th l; ' n ii:n lb er· .in fron~ of th efilehame.NO\v i don't use it at all, I Have a linei'n eac'1lBASIC program that scratches the original f il e, t h~n s aves

and v e ri fi e s it. That ' s the only method I use to s av e B A SICnow . 1 tbiqk, though, that the p rob lem is ~ combination

of the 1541 and the media. This would explain why thebqghas been so elusive; also - and I wapj; to stress this

- it seems to happen more as the disk gets older:Se sure

to make backups. 1 save everything onto four separatedisks. Star Tre ,! .{k i ng i s on seven G l i s k s . "

Karl. WIdoD" edito.f of The Tra1fsactor; •'Basically, I

though t I had some problems with it " but when I l pp Js :e d

at the (1541 ROM source) code, I thought it han to besomething else f(1usiag the problem. Itstill to be

something else, aecause the code is about as t IOl"ward as jlt comes . One of my less favourite theories is that

it's unit-dependent." 0

May 1985 27

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Micro Processes _

Where DoesIt All End?

by Paul Blair

CopYTight 0Paul Blair 1984It happens to all of us at some stage or another, Iuppose. This

time, it happened to me ..Imessed up a disk. Badly. No problem, though - get the

backup out and recover the situation. Ah! The backup went toZanzibar the other day with something else on it, because 1was

short of disks. a Idecided to rebuild the wreckage (I reallydidn't have any option ... )What I needed was a routine to provide me with an audit trail

of the sectors of each program in order of appearance. IfIhad

that, Icould reconstruct the chains and recover as much as

possible.Informed readers will know that each disk sector contains 256

bytes of storage. The first two bytes hold the so-called 'chainbytes' - the track and sector numbers of the next block in thefile. Using these two bytes Commodore computers can stringstorage together in any quantity required.So this routine was born. With it, you enter the track and sec-

tor where you want the audit trail to begin, and it beavers away,reading until it finds the end of the chain. Here's bow:

100 REM: TRACK/SECTOR AUDIT TRAIL110 REM: ANY COtv1MOOORE00S2 DISK DRIV

E120 REM: PAUL BLAIR130 REM: LII\IE 210 FOR C-S4 ONLY140 REt-r1:150 GOT0200160Put the error routine here ...

170 INPUT#15,EN,EM$,ET,ES:IFEN=0THENRETURN

180 CLOSE4: CLOSE 15 :·PR I NiT " <2 DOWl\!)

<RVS )0 I SK ERROR (OFF>" ; EN; EM$; E:T: E

S: H·lD190

Now the program proper .. ,

2ae PRINT"<CLR)(10 SPACES}<BLU)PROGRA

1"<1RACE"210 M~5328e:POKEMr1:POKEM+l,1

Get the starting track/sector, even if it's a guess ...

220 PRlt-lT"(OOWN><BLK><6 SPACES)WHERE SHOULD TRACE BEGIN": INPUT"

<OOWN>TRACK"; TK2313 It-lPUTI(OOWN>SECTOR";SC:PRINT:GOTO

300

Open the error channel, plus a direct access channel ....

240 U=8: OPEN 15, U , 15 , " 10 II : OPEt·15,U ,5 r IIij

":GOSU8170

Read in the chosen block with a direct access command, Ul:

250 PRINTij15,"Ul";5;0;TK;SC:GOSUB170

Scan the first two bytes from the buffer where the Ul commandstored them. If the first byte is zero, or greater than the max-imum number of tracks,35, on a normal disk, you have foundthe last sector (line 270) ...

260 GETtt5, 11\1$ : IFIN$=" "THENIN$=CHR$(0)270 TK=ASC (IN$) : IFTK=00RTK )35THEN3402813 GET#5 r IN$: IF n'j$= n "THENI N$=CHR$ (0 )280 SC =ASe ( IN.$) :CLOSE5 : CLOSE 15

Format the values to two characters each for tidy output ...

3£10 TK$="T"+RIGHT$(STR$( 100+TK) ,2)310 SC$="S"+RIGHT$(STR$(100+SC),2)

320 PRI'ITTK$" : "SC$" <3 SPACES>";330 XX=XX+1:GOT0240:REM KEEP COUNT340 CLOSE5:CLOSE15:PRINT350 PR INT" <DOWN><8LU} "X X "BLOCKS COW·H

EO<DOWN> "360

And see if there is more work to be done ....

370

38133804013410

PRINT"(BLK}PRESS Fl FOR MORE"CHR$( 13) "PRESS F3 TO END"GETY$: 1FY$= " IITHEN380I FY$=CHR$ ( 133) THEI'.lRUNIY$=CHR$ ( 1.34) THENEND

GOT0380*

Printer output could be included quite easily if required. Afavourite trick goes like this:Chop GOT0300 from the end of line 230. Put in th s lin s

instead:

.231 DV =3!: INPUT" <DDWI'DHARD COpy (Y /t'-J) II

:AN$232 IF ASC (AN$) =89THENDV =4 : RD1 YE S233 OPEN 4,DV:GOT0300

Then, change PRINT to PRINT#4 in lines 320 and 350, and addCLOSE 4 to line' 340.Yes, I recovered the disk. It took a while, but was worth it.

With better management, you should only ever have to use this

for fun or sleuthing. 0

C-64 Datacheck Iby Chr,is Johnson

There are many programs that convert sections of memoryintoDATA statements that can be poked back by a BASIC loader.This is an easy way of incorporating sprite information ormachine language routines into a BASIC program.

28 TPUG Magazine

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


Micro Processes.=::::::::~~~~::::::::::::::::::::::~=~~~::::::::::::::::::::::=::::::::::::=:::::=======::::::::::This routine differs from most in that it provides a checksum

at the end of every tine. When you run the BASIC loader thisprogram creates, any error will be caught and you will be toldwhich line the error is in.Type in this program and SAVIE it before running it - it erases

itself when it 's finished, leaving you with only the BASIC loader.The DATA statement line numbers show the address of the firstpiece of DATA in the line, unless that would conflict with theline numbers of the program (less than 14); or unless it is higherthan BASIC line numbering allows (the upper limit is '63999).0

o print"<clr><2 down> self-cheCKing data statement gle!ner.ator < 10 spaces)(down>- b~ chris johnson - (2 down>•

1 inputflstart at"Jb:input"(down)< 2 spa c e s >e n d at"; f: i=b :1 =b : ifb < 14orf)=S4000thenl=14

2 print"(clr)10fori= "b"to i+"f-b"step8":print"b="b"(left>:f="f"(left>:i=• i" < 1eft>: 1 = " 1 " < 1 eft> : g 04"

3 PDKe631.19:poKe632.13:poKe633.13:pOKe~198,3: stop

4 print"<clr)";:for K = I to 8:poKe S31+K.18:if i > f then nex tK :9 oto S

5 printl~data h;:fo rj= 0to 7:P K= peeK(i+j):c=c+pK:printpK"(left>,o;:nextj:printc:i=i+8:1=1+8:c=e:nextK

S printnb="b"<left>:i="i"(left>:f="f":1="1 u ( 1eft>: 904"; :.if i+j)f +8t h enprint"(left>8"

7 pOKe188,16:poKe S31.19:poKe640.13:stop

8 print"(clr> (2 down> ":fo ri=0to S:po Ke630+i,13:printi:next:poKe198,10:print"(home)":end

91011 forj=0.to7:reada:poK.e(i+,j) ,.a:c=cta:

next.j :readcs12 ifc<>csthenprint"(2 down>Error in

(space)line";i:fori=lto25:a=abs(a-15):poKe54296,a:next:stop

13 c=0':next.i

U sing P:R I:NT US:ING

by Sean Rooney

One nice feature of the Plus/4 and C-16's BASIC 3..5 isthe PRI'NT!USING command for formatting output. These commands areuseful for working with the printer, as well as with the CRT.

For printing to the screen, the command looks like this:

110 pr·int using " I * f t : tUHt.Miltij".ia,b

The number signs (#) in the command indicate the number ofplaces to be printed before and after the decimal point. Thenumber is padded With zeros to the left and right as needed,

or truncated to the required length. Any character that is neithera number sign nor a decimal point indicates the end of the for-

mat string for a particular number ..

Here is a little program with PRIN T US'ING:

1 for' a=l t052 print using "M# M#.ij"iIt";a.a*a3 next a

The output looks like this:

1 1.001212. 4.00039.12101214 16.00'12115 25.00121

The number signs can be included in any string:

1 a$= "'i am tUt yea'rs old a~)d my br o+her is 1# year' S o old II

2 for i=1 to 2: read a,b3 print using a$Ja,b: next56 data 14,23

7 data 5,9

Here's the output:

i am 14 years old and my b ro th er- i.s 23 years old

i am 5 years old and my br·other is9 years old

So that's how you use PR I,NT US ING to format your output to

the screen. And if you want a hardcopy? Maybe you've guessed

it ... the command is :PRINT# US ING .

1 read a,b2 open 1,4,73 P I"int# 1. us ing"##.IHf<3spac,es )ij# •.#

#"; a sb4 close 15S data 1 1,89.4,49. 2,9. 98.017 data 13,9.41.9,7,0

This time the output goes to the printer:

1 1 . 1 2 ) 1 2 148 •.2699.019.417.66

89.408.ee

1 3 . 1 2 ) 0

9.0121

01.60

You should get acquainted with PRINT US .ING and PRINT# us-ING if your machine supports them. When it comes to format-

ting your output, they can make life a lot easier. 0

Custom PETlCBMStart-Up Messages

by IanA. Wright

There is often a need to identify a particular microcomputer {ora number of them} as "The Property of , ,.. " to reduce the

chance of theft, or because it is required for insuranceidentification. Metal plates, spray-painted logos and inscribed

identification have all been tried by individuals and businesses to

thwart those who wish to acquire a microcomputer without

May1'85 29

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


Micro Processes- = = = = = = = = = = = = ~ = = = : : : : = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = : : : : = = = = = = = = = = = = = =paying for it. However, paint can be r moved, plates can bepulled off, and the scribing can be filled Or covered. one of thesemethods are totally foolproof, although they do make theft muchmore difficult.

Dornen ic DiFrancesco, of COMSPEC Communications inToronto, has come up with an exciting way to identify yourmachine(s) that uses the ability of the computer to protect itself.

This n w alternative does not deface the unit and is almostimpossible to remove - a custom screen message that is burnt

into the machine's D-ROM. Each time the machine is turned on,it could say, for example:

•• 'COMMODORE BASIC 4_0···

Property of Ian A. Wright

31746 BYTES FREEREADY.

A computer tha publishes its owners name whenever it isturned on is a difficult rna .hine to fence! Up to 256 characters ofyour choice can b inserted into PET/CBM machines (also intothe SuperPET, but not without some service work). You canhave a 'Hoser' or 'Punk' machine ifthat's what you want. Youcan easily insert th new R M into machines that do not havesolder d ROMs yourself but,if they are soldered in, the machinemust go into the ervice d partmsnt for a few days. 0

ye OldePette 80 -It Already Exists

by John R. Kurczak

Mter reading the article by Tom Bartoffy in the February issue,I have good news to report to 2001, 9-inch screen PET owners.

I have been using an 80 column board, which is available forthis PET from Microcomputer Services in England, for almosta year. An 80 to 40 column switch is available to provide bothmodes of operation - for 40 column graphics and for 80 col-umn wordprocessing. The board is about 4 inches by 7 inchesin size, and plugs into the 'E' ROM socket, leaving room to access

the two empty ROM sockets.With this board the CBM computer will have all the functions

of an 032: 80 column screen width, screen window facility, TABfunctions, Escape key, Repeat key, 15screen editing commands,automatic line end indication (with optional piezo buzzer or CB2sound box) a pause facility during program listing, and specialROM routines to provide repeat on all keys.In addition to these commands, the Microport 80 column board

has the capability to toggle between two character generators- by installing a 4K ROM to provide the standard CBMcharacter set and a medium resolution graphics character set.The diagrams and instructions provided with this board make

it very easy to install. 10 special soldering is required. Thefollowing are the modifications required to install the board:

• Make the keyboard 'SHIFT-LOCK' key into an ordinary pushtype key, which now serves as the 'control' key.

• Break link 'P'.

• Remove 'E' ROM to plug into the 80 column board.

• Fit various connectors to their propel' locations.

• Fit the 40-80 column switching unit.

Of these changes, the keyboard modification takes up the mosttime. The board should take about one to two hours to install.I am very pleased with this 80 column board, and have found

complete compatibility with 8032 software, including WordPro4 PIUB,Visicalc, The Manager and the Petspeed compiler. If

you are usi.ng Paperclip, there is no need to upgrade your wordprocessor as it works in both the 80 and the 40 column modes.COMAL 80 is a delight to use with 80 columns ..After using the80 column mode for some time, Iound that the characters in

the 40 column mode were too coarse and large. Now Iarelyswitch to 40 columns except for games.

The cost of this board is 125 pounds sterling. The present ex-change rate for the pound is decreasing so you can get a goodprice on the board. The 80 column board can be ordered from:Microport, 7 Clydesdale Close, Borehamwood, Herts., WD6 .2SDEngland, telephone 01-953-8385 ..

By the way, I have just received a 64K conversion kit thatmakes my Olde Pette into a CBM 8096. Drop a line to themagazine if you would like to see this product described in afuture issue. 0

Disabling VIC 20Memory Expansion

by NeU ;PhilUps

When you first bought your VIC 20, chances are you weren'taware of the trouble of adding extra RAM. When more than3K is added, the VIC shifts screen memory from its defaultlocation.This can cause problems. Most commercial programs written

for the unexpanded VIC will work only if there is no memoryadded. With extra RAM in place, all the PEEKs and POKEs willbe to the wrong location, and your computer will 'hang up' onyou.

So you say it's no problem - just remove the expansion car-tridge and all your troubles will disappear! Well, not quite allof them. Ifyou have a large collection ofprograms that will workonly on the unexpanded VIC, yet also make frequent use of yourexpansion unit, you willfind yourself constantly having to unplugit. This is not only tiresome, but wears the contacts on both thecomputer and the cartridge. Too much wear may render themuseless, and lead you to expensive repairs,

Fortunately, there's a better way. The following little programwill give you the best of both worlds. Simply run the program,

and any expansion plugged in will be cancelled. The VIC willrespond with the cold start message, but now showing '3583BYTES FREE'. If you wish to get your expansion back, simplytype SYS 6480.2..This will completely reset your computer toits proper state.

10 FORA=lT027:READ8:POKE8191+A,B:I\EXT20 SYS8192

30 DATA 168,0,141,129.2,141,131,2,169,16

4£1DATA 141,130,2,169,30,141,132,25£1DATA 141,136,2,32,24,229,108,0,192

Now, any program (at least, any program I have yet tried)can be run without ever having to tug at the back of your VIC.0

30 l'PUG Magazine

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


MicroProcesses -==:::::::::::::::::::::=====::::::::::::::::::::::::::::~

A Yen for aDifferent 64

by Ken Cox

Recently, a friend of mine returned from a visit to Japan witha magazine that most of us probably have not seen, It is called

VIC! The Magazine For Compute'!'"Age,Inside the back cover was a glossy ad for the Commodore 64.

While staring at the picture of the computer, I felt somethingwas odd. Sure enough, after a while I noticed a 'yen' symbol

in place of the British pound sign. An even closer inspectionrevealed that the left-side graphics characters (the ones you getwith the logo key) were not graphics at all. They were Japanese

characters.Remember the touted Max Machine that never appeared here?

It is advertised inside the front cover and there are program

listings for it.

The cover story features the Commodore 64, including the V1CII and SID chips, software and peripherals. The article resembles

a manual as it explains the computer's architecture in Japanese.Some things, like Jim Butterfield's memory maps, are univer-

Notice anything unusual about this keyboard? The picture, froma Japanese Commodore magazine, shows the yen sign instead

of the British pound, a.nd Japanese characters instead of thegraphics on the left side of the keys.

sal and international. They take up nine pages, complete with

some annotations in Japanese.Computer users who are upgrading from a VIC or Max to the

64, are given step-by-step directions for replacing the ROMs in

a 1515 printer to make it a 1525,. and to turn a 1540 drive intoa 1541.The magazine listings include a calendar generator, a sprite

demo called Jumping Tomato, Yesterday by the Beatles, anda Commodore 64 organ. All the programs are in BASIC, butsome employ machine language routines. Although the BASICkeywords are English, some of the REM statements contain

Japanese.An advertisement puts the price of the 64 higher than you

might expect: 99,800 yen ($520 Cdn.) For a 1541 disk drive you

can expect to pay 79,800 yen ($416 Cdn.) 0

To satisfy the demand for our high quality disk games

and cassettes, we're introducing:

M'ASTERTRONIC'S

MAILORDERMANIA!Look at these spectacular prices now available through

our mail order department ... and it's so simple to order:

You select from our product list:Arcade Act ion Arcade AcUon

Spac.Walk C64 OlsclCa:u. 5999 Big Mac C64 Disc 59'.99

BMXRacer C64 Disc/Ca.s. 5999 Challenger C64 Disc 5999

Chill.r C64 Dlsc/Cass. $9,99 S~RmcB C64 Disc 59.99

City Fighte, 064 D,sc/C., s. 59.99 P,gs In Spac. C640i.c 5999

Duck Shoo I C64 orse / c . . . . $999 Candidnto C64 O'SC 59.99

Ortneecn C64 Oise/Coss. 59.99 Mind Control C64 Drsc $9.99

Squirm C64 Oisc/C.os. 59.99 Dark Slar C64 Disc S9.99

Kiks'lart C64D,sc $9.99 Mag'c Carpel C64 DISC $9.99

Munchman i a C64 ca.s. $9.99 1985 C64 Disc 59.99

Bionic Granny C64 Ca ss, 59.99Vegas Jackpo' C64 DISC $9.99

3D Maze Vic 20 $7.99 Vegas Jackpot Vic 20 $7.99

Duck Shoot \ '1C:2O $7.99 Doodle Bag Vic 20 $7.99

New Yor~ Bli tz v ie zo $799 A.I P VIC 20 $799

Bulle, VIC 20 $7.99 Sub Hunl VII; 20 $7.99

UndermIne Vic 20 $799 Pnan10m AIIBCk VIc; .20 57.99

Neu rron ZIpper Vu::20 $799 Psycho Shopper V ie 2 0 $7.99

Roc~m.n VI<2(J 5799

Adwenlure AdvenliJrll1

Ouest rOf the C64D,sc $t2.99 Sa-KBa 01 C&! Disci S 2.99

Holy Gr.il ASS'O Cess.

Educ.Uonlll Educ.llonlll

Counlwitn C6~ DiSC $1299 MakeMu.ic C64 p.sc 512.99

Oliyer WithMisiertronic

look Sharp C64 Disc $t299 Quick Thinking C64 Drsc 5t2.99

UlIIl lI •• u uu u • •

Games Creator CM Oisc/Cass. $19.99 Games Designer VI<;20 512.99

Order 2 or more, and receive a tree 19 x 25 Mastertronic

Poster/Calendar!

You mail your order to;

Pearl Direct Mar.ketlng Corp,.60 Bullock Drive,Markham, Ontario L3P 3P.2

Plus $2,00 postage & handlingVisa & Mastercard accepted(OntariO residents add 7% retail sales tax)

You receive your exciting Mastertronic software by

prompt return mail plus a free catalogue of a/l

our products.

For rurther information call us at (416) 471-5858

May 1985 31

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


UbmryAddftrons----------TPUO'slibrary o/public domain soft-w are g ro ws mon th by month. Hund red s0 / disks containing thousands of pro-gra ,ms are avai lab le to TPUG m . . e m b e r s at

th e nom inal cost of tendoUa,rs per disk.Cons id e ri ng tkat ea ch d is k is packed wi thgood p rog rams, a t t oday 's s of twa rep ri ee sthis is a /anta .st ic value.

In order fO r the library to k ee p g row-ing , .our librarians need a cons tan t 8'Upplyof ne w programs. If you /taveW1"itten aprogram ora co llect ion o f programs that

you think m ig ht be a n asse t to th e library,please send it to;' TPU G ProgramLibrary, 1912A A venue Road; Suite .1,Toronto, Ontario .M5M 4A1, Canada . .Ifyour cont ribut ion is accepted yo u 'Will be

sent the library d isk o f you r cho ic e . I J ,f orsom e re ason, your cont7-ibution is no tn ee de d, y ou r o ri gin al d isk will be re-t1trned to y ou .On th es e p ag es our l ib rar ians describe

re ce nt a dd itio ns to th e lib ra ry .

Commodore 64 March

Disk.: (C)TH:

The March disk contains a wonderful ter-

minal program, a great mortgage

calculator, a program to help your bowl-

ing league keep track of its money. agreat space invaders-type game, an amaz-ing disk utility program ,and a 64.versionof the very first game that I ever played

on the PET years ago, Artillery.If you are wondering why the disk ap-

pears to be quite empty, it is because theterminal program (called Ftrstterm 3)has a manual for the program includedon the disk. All you have to do is print

it out. The disk utility program also hasa manual included. The other programs

on the disk have instructions included in

a couple of files written b y me. All in all,

this is without a doubt the best-documented monthly disk in the history

of the club. The way I look at it - if youcan't use it, it is no bargain. I hope youall agree with me, but if you don't please

write to me clo the TPUG office.

Rumours A bout W hat You Win B e See-in g In T he N ea r F utu re : Speaking of newthings destined for the library, be on the

lookout flora wonderful directory utilityprogram that should be appearing on the(C)TI disk (next month). It is not a public

domain program - it was sent in to theFreeware Library ..If you find the pro-

gram half as useful as [do, you will glad-

ly send Mike Embry (the author) the

small amount that he requests. Of course,be sure to read over the instructions that

he includes with the program.Also you should be seeing a new game

byTPUG stalwart Ron Obvious. Ron callsthis one Ghoul I)ogs. It is not likeanything that you have ever seen before!People that are into telecommunica-

tions should b e watching for another com-munications disk. Recently I have been

collecting and receiving a lot of excellentterminal and BBS programs. that are

compatible with most of the Commodore64 modems (1650, Pocket Modem, 1660,Mitey Mo, Westridge, etc .... )At the moment I am hard at work

reorganizing a lot of the the old monthlydisks, so in the very near future you will

see some new category disks made up ofpreviously released programs. While Ihave been devoting much of my time tothis task, I have found that I have got

quite a backlog of new material. Thatmeans that as soon as I get finished withthe reorganization, I will be releasing

some more 'M' series disks.

I would like to thank all those who havebeen contributing their efforts to thelibrary ..All of your programs and nice let-

tersare very much appreciated. But, ofcourse, I (and the other librarians) are stilllooking for more 'treasure'.

Remember, if I am doing something

wrong then I want to hear about it!

Chances are that if you don'ttell me, I

will never know ...

Comlmodo·r,e 64 Music

iDiisks: (C),s9, A" B, C,and D

These five disks contain songs created by

several very talented people using thecommercial program Master Composer.

The songs make the most of the SID chipand should be a welcome addition to yourpersonal library.Most of these songs were downloaded

from CompuServe. I would like very

much to give credit to the people that putall of the time into these creations, but

only a very few files come with their own

loader program and credits. The songs

appear on these five disks exactly as theywere downloaded from CompuServe,

Credits appear only when they were in-

eluded by the author. All five disks con-tain the same menu program. To load it,just enter:

lOAD "0:·",8 [P RESS ReTURN ],Followed by:

RUN IP ;RESS IRETURN j

Once you have done that an you have todo is select the song(s) that you want tohear, and sit back and enjoy!

Commodo:r,e 64

iFlreeware Disk: (C)$1'

We are very pleased to announce the

release of ou.r first Freeware disk. Thisdisk contains a package called MusicAssembler ,64for transcribing and com-

posing music. The disk can be obtainedfrom the club for $10.00, and completedocumentation is available from the

author for $15.00.

Commodore 64

Graphics Disks: (C)H1,

2 a'nd3

These three disks contain pictures thatwere created using Doodle ..Also includ-ed is a menu program that allows you to

look at anyone picture, look at all of the

pictures in sequence, or print a picture onyour 1525 or MPS-80l printer in normalor expanded mode. Ifyou use Doodle and

have other pictures, th.is menu programcan be easily modified to use them.AlI of the pictures were created and

donated to TPUG by Wayne Schmidt. If

you have ever wanted to see some first-

rate high-resolution work on the Com-modore 64, these are the disks for you!

Commodore 64

Ko,alaPad IDis;k: (C)H!4

This disk contains a menu system that re-quires a KoalaPad graphics tablet. Ifyou

do not have a KoalaPad then this disk isnot likely to be of interest to you, but ifyou have one, youare in for a real treat.Roger D. Burge, the author, has really

gone to town this time! The menu pro-gram is the same as any other menu pro-gram except that you use the KoalaPad

32 f!PUG M'agazlne

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


SOFTWARE ORDER FORMTORONTO PET USERS GROUP

1912A Avenue Road, Suite 1416-782-9252 Toronto, Ontario 416-782-8900

M5M4A1

Name Membership iNO. . / IStreet Address

City/TownJP.O.

Province/State

Postal/ZIP Code Telephone

DISKSTo order club disks by mail, send $10.00 for each 4040/2031/1540/1541 disk (4040 format), and $12.00 foreach 8050/8250 disk (8050 format). We do honour purchase orders from school boards.

These disks are for use with a computer and a disk drive.

Please send me the following:

3 Letter/No. 4040 or 8050

Code Description Format Price

Total $ .00

TAPES

To order VIC 20 or Commodore 64 library tapes, send $6.00 for each tape.

To order PET/CBM or Commodore Educational Software, send $10.00 for each tape.

I These tapes are for use with a computer and a datasette.,

If for a PET computer. what model - BASIC- 1.0( ), 2.0( ), 4.0( )?

3 Letter! o.Code Description Price

Total $ .00

The prices indicated include postage and handling as wen as Ontario Provincial Sales Tax (i f applicable).o Cheque/money order enclosed (payable to TPUG) 0Visa/Mastercard #

Expiry date Signature

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


Library Additions-== :::::::::::::::::::::::::::==== :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::==== == == == == == == == == == == == == == =

I of the first lunar landing. Use the cursor The second disk Iwant to talk about isto move the arrow to t ie program name the June 1984 release disk. This disk isof your choice, and then press one of the keys to adjust the LEM's bum rate as it f hbuttons to enter your selection. Several descends to the moon's surface. Anima- a starter package for the new user 0 t eother programs by Roger are also includ- tion only occurs at the time of impact. SuperPET, but contains many items ofed. One of them is a very good torpedo The game is based on the laws of physics interest to the more accomplished hacker.

b f K I and the rea-l.LEM's design. However, the First, it contains the text for a 28-pageame. There are anum er 0 .' oa a- ~. ~ ~ hI LE'''I . . to land because itha S introductory and reference manual on t _ereated pictures for your viewing enter- rea n. lS easIer .. ~ .. ~

tainment, and much more! As Isaid smooth controls ..This version makes up - SuperPET and its Waterloo interfaces.d t . . t I I gh to i c ease The rest of the disk contains a set ofefore, if you have a KoalaPad, this diskaes III III erva song enou ~ in r . ~

- 1 the difficulty. general utilities, along with sets ofs for you_ .

Although, asImentioned above, these specific utilities and demonstration pro-Presented by David Bradley fi v games are not officially Freeware, grams for each of the languages (except

TPUG Library Co-ordinator you may feel that the author deserves COBOL) . There are routines to assist the

CompuServe 10# 70216,414 some extra compensation for the work new user in utilizing the language of histhat he has put into them. If so, please choice (again except COBOL) . This is asend two dollars to: fine disk and should be a great help to

Superf'E'I' owners who wish to exploreTony Romer307-9535 156th Street further.

Edmonton, Alberta Presented by Bin OutfieldT5T 2N8

Presented by Daryl Kiing:

VIC 20 Ma.rch Diisk:

(V)THI

Yes, you heard it here last - the TPUGoffice was broken into ..The most seriousloss, from the point of view of the VIClibrary, was the tape duplicator. Theresult is that tapes have been delayed inbeing sent out, so please be patient: theequipment is being replaced.This month's disk has quite a few

games on it, thanks to a generous submis-sion from Tony Romer of :8dmonton,Alberta. These are high-quality programs- Iwould have accepted them asFreeware but, as they were sent as ageneral submission, you'll gain an ex-

cellent set of programs for your personallibrary ..There were some problems con-verting the games to disk, but 1 thinkthose have been solved.

Garden Snake: Playa snake feeding oneggs in a suburban garden. Avoid theelectric fence, any rotten (freckled) eggsand consuming yourself, Clear the eggsto advance to a higher skill level. Thegame is joystick-controlled.

ZAP!!: Dodge the violet anti-stars, andstrip the clubs, diamonds, hearts, spadesand no-trumps from the screen. You have

only a limited time to clear each ~cr~enand advance to higher levels. TIllS is a

joystick-controlled game for up to six

players. .Trapped: You have only one exit from an

n bynby n cube. Scale the walls, floorand ceiling to find it. If you don't havean expander, you are limited to a foul'floor cube; with one, you can play up to

six floors. You should turn the VIC offand on before loading Trapped if you areusing an expander, in order to resetmemory pointers, The first four-floorgame has an obvious solution - after

that, you are on your own.

Kaleidoscope: A faithful reproduction ofthe child's toy, Press SHIH W 01' SHIIFT

T to freeze a frame.

Apollo Lander: An accurate simulation

SuperP'ETJune, 1984and March, 1985 D;isks:

(S)TGa.nd (S)TN

This month, Iwill briefly discuss twodisks. The first is the March monthly disk,while the second is from last June.Somehow no description or index of thatdisk was published, yet it is a particularlyinteresting one. Both of these disks havebeen made available to TPUG throughth e generosity of ISPUG.The March disk contains several pro-

grams designed to provide communica-tion facilities to the various Waterloolanguages. The first of these isBASIeOM, a machine language programthat - when combined with severalmBASIC programs - allows a mBasicprogram to send and receive datathrough the serial port. Also provided isa core mBASle program to facilitateyour use of BASICOM. A documentationfile on the disk provides additional infor-mation on how to interface to these

facili ties.In a similar vein, APLCOM provides a

machine language interface to permit theAPL user to easily utilize the communica-tions capabilities of the SuperPET fromhis favourite language. The final com-munications program is a generalized ver-sion of BASICOM to operate with theother languages. AJso on the disk is SteveZeller's APL workspace containing al l

the functions published in Issue 14,volume 1of the Super PET Gazgtte. Thesefunctions are also related to assistingwith communications, and aredocumented with the text of the suppor-ting article,

lPiEr March Diisk: I(IP)TH

This disk features not only the latest ver-

sion of Rick Illes' Electric Pencil wordprocessing program" but also a Freewarecontribution from John Easton -MemoCal.Electric Pencil comes complete with

versions for 8032 and both fat and skin-ny 4.o32s;. and with a quick referenceguide as well as an extended one ..MemoCal, which produces a monthly

calendar with up to ten entries a day, iswritten for PET and Commodore 64, andis also fully supported with documenta-tion. As you probably know by now,Freewareprograms are - unlike our.other library programs - not in thePublic Domain, although the authors have

made them available to TPUG to distrib-ute in the usual way. The normal prac-tice with Freeware is for the author tosuggest an appropriate price for the pro-gram in the on-disk documentation, Ifyouagree that the program has merit, youare asked to send money directly to theauthor. In this way, we hope to generatehigh quality, inexpensive software for

club members, while at the same time giv-ing authors of good programs the support

they deserve.Other programs on this month's diskare Don't Load Me - a program withunusual. results that you had better try foryourself; a utility written by JimButterfield and modified by Rick Illes to

protect your programs by maru.ng themauto-run; a utility to let you downloadyour own characters or do hi-res printson an MX-80; a program for electronicsenthusiasts to calculate resistor values;and an upgraded version of the gameWarlords.

Presented by Mike Donegan

34 TPUG Mag:8zlne

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


PROTECT YOUR COMPUTER

COVER IT

Covers For All Makes and Models of

Commodore Products

Set of Three (Keyboard, Disk Drive and Monitor) $17,50

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If you enjoy Jim Strasma's many books, and his

articles in this and other magazines, you'll be glad

he also edits his own highly-acclaimed computer

magazine, now in its slxth year of continuous

publication, Written just for owners of Com-

modore's many computers, each iMidnite Soft.ware

Gazette contains hundreds of brief, honest

reviews.

iMidnite also features timely Commodore'

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Rated the BEST educationalprogram for the VIC 20

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In daily use by schools across the USA.NEWI Commodore Plus/4 or16 Tape $21.95 Disk S24.95

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8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


evie~s _The Second Self:Computers and

the Human Spirit

by Sherry TurkleDistributed in Canadaby General Publishing

Price: $23.95362 pages

Rev'lew by Mi.ke Levin

Sherry 'Iurkle's book is perfect for so-

meone who is curious about the differentreactions to using and programming a

computer. It is also a fine book for thecomputer professional who wants to get

behind the technology of hardware andthe technique of software, and into the

connection between the person and theresults in programming style. And it isa very good book for someone who knowsI:ittle or nothing about computers, andcannot understand the fascination they

have for others.For those of us somewhere in the

undefined category of hobbyistsfascinated with this rapidly changingfield, but perhaps uncertain about its im-pact, 'I'urkle is stimulating andehalleng-ing reading. She reassures us that we are

dealing not with a dehumanizingtechnology, but with something to whichwe bring creativity, and which, on the

other hand, shapes our thinking.

Throughout the book, the message thatthe ultimate control remains with the

user is very clear. Moreover, Turkle'sresearch demonstrates the deep satisfac-tion and creativity that are part of COlli"puter programming and use.The central question ofthe book is how

computers affect us, their users, and howthey change our thinking. TurkJe answers

this question in two ways: with regard tothe personal 'interface' of the individualand the computer, and with regard to thegeneral impact of computer use on our

thinking about the human spirit. She

believes that the use of new forms oftechnology changes our definition of

humanity.Turkle did hundreds of interviews with

users, and their quoted statements il-lustrate the broader questions she asks

about the impact of technology. Everytype of computer user is represented,from video game players o·fall ages, to

hackers and scientists developing ar-

tificial intelligence. The feelings, goalsand ideas oftbe users are quoted. Turklecombines this direct reporting methodwith psychological ideas to develop her

analysis of how users are affected by their

interaction with the computer. She ex-pands 01 1 these individual responses tooutline the patterns of behavior that

make up the culture of computer users.

Her central organizing idea is that, inthe use of the computer, a person projects

an image that comes from his personali-

ty onto the machine he uses, creating 'asecond self' - hence the title of her book.

Her goal is to explore the changing senseof the human spirit that the widening use

of computer technology is creating.She uses well-chosen examples drawn

from the experiences of individuals. She

is able to illustrate the way differentkinds of creative minds address program-ming problems, and to record the

pleasures and satisfactions the computer

affords beyond those of solving atechnical problem. She shows how the dif-ferent levels of involvement and com-petence create a culture of computer

users, with rules, ideas, heroes, morals,standards, goals, and recognition of

achievement. For the person outside thecomputer culture, she recounts in a live-

ly way its great myths and explains itsvalues. She even manages to illuminate

the aspirations and motives of the

hackers and artificial intelligence

scientists.Turkle's ideas about how technology

shapes the human spirit and changes ourconcept of what being human means areprovocative; her research is thorough andoriginal; her style is lively. .The Second

Self is a very worthwhile book! 0

IEEE drives, such as the 2031,4040, orthe MSD disk drive used with a trans-

parent IEEE card. It also has manyprinter options, and will support either

Commodore printers or any properly

interfaced parallel printer. For thisreview, I tested the program with a MiteyMo modem, two 1541 disk drives, and a

Compute Mate CP80 printer with aCard? +G interface.This terminal program has a 40/80 col-

umn display, full/half duplex, status line,auto dial, auto logon, wordwrap, DOS

commands, screen dump, modem onloff,up/downloading, real-time clock, on-lineclock, RAM buffer, printer support, pro-

grammable function keys, remote ter-minal modes, and VT/.52 and Televideo910/920 terminal emulations, It is writ-

ten entirely in machine language.Pro-term 64 also offers the ability to

customize certain set-ups in the program.Telephone numbers, screen set-up, auto

logon, function keys and RS 232parameters can all be saved as default

files, These can be loaded in at the endof the main program load ..

The auto dial mode works well witheither tone or rotary dial systems, It canhandle up to twenty numbers at a time,

and has a good menu screen containingsystem names, numbers and protocols.\¥hen connection is made, it automatical-

ly goes to terminal mode, sets up the pro-tocol, and shows the system name on thescreen.

Auto logon automatically responds tohost system prompts and is very easy touse. I find it works well with Com-

puserve, but with Bulletin BoardSystems it responds too quickly; and even

then, the first characters of your responseare lost. This can be corrected by leav-

ing spaces in front of your responses inthe auto logon set-up.

Pro-term 64 has a 19K buffer in 40 col-

umn mode and an 11K buffer in 80 col-umn mode. It has various buffer com-mands such as open, close, load, save,view, print, transmit, and transmit a line.

The buffer can be used to receive ortransmit sequential mesoThere are two programs on the disk for

changing sequential or image files.to pro-gram files and back. Pro-term 64can also

be used in conjunction with a. word pro-cesser, for making up and editing buffer

files.Pro-t.erm64 can be used for upldown

loading on Bulletin Board Systems using

Steve Punter's 'old protocol'; or between

Pro-term 64from King Microware'

Terminal programfor the Commodore 64

and a variety of modems

36 TPUGMagazine

!Review by Greg P,ayne

Pro-term 64 is a user-friendly, menu-packed terminal program, for use withthe Commodore 1600, Commodore 1,650,.1650 compatible modems,Mitey Mo,Hesmodem 2, Hayes Smartmodem 1'200,

or any RS 232 type modem.

Pro-term '64 bas commands for two

1541 disk drives. It will also support

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


R e v i e w s . : : : ' = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = : : : : = = = = = = = : : : : : = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = : : : : : : : : :two Commodore 648. Xfon X/off upl

downloading is advertised on the pro-gram jacket, but Ian't find this featurein the program or the manual.

The 'Wait for Call' option has threechoices. Di rec t T e rm i na l goes to terminalmode when a ring and carrier aredetected. Mini BBS allows you to storea message in the buffer, and it is sent

when a ring and carrier are detected.

With Visual Phone Answer, you can leavea . message in your buffer that is sentwhen a carrier is detected, allowing thecomputer calling to leave you a reply thatis then stored in your buffer. All threemodes allow you to receive either voiceor data calls.

There is also a Status Line on the topof the terminal screen. It tells you how

much room is left in your buffer, the timeof day, an on-line dock, and if your

modem signal is off or on. Both clockshave programmable alarms.Pro-term 64 is a very good te rmina l

program,with a well-written manual. Theonly major drawback I find is that it

doesn't have Steve Punter's 'newprotocol'. . 0

Ring of Powerfrom Quicksilva

Adventure gamefor the Commodore 64

Reviiew by Marya MiUer

Onefatefu~ day. ,..thaKing lost his mind

and , a lt h0 7 lg h he searched for' it hig h andlow, was unable to find it, and so wasdriven from. the kingdom ....

No, your Quest is no t to find the king'smind: merely the crown jewels ..Nice andsimple,

Mind you, finding them is not as easy

as you might think. You have to crossoceans, wander around beaches, forests

and tea gardens" explore subterraneanpassages and mazes, and contend with

heartless customs officials and elevator

operators, angry dads, alcoholic piratesand bacon-brained giants ..To name but

a few.All this is pleasantly entertaining. The

game is intelligently planned and set out.

The obstacles are sometimes realpuzzlers, and therefore very satisfying

when you finally do overcome them. And

there are really no boring aspects to thegame at all.

Well, almost no boring aspects. Thegame can be played in 'graphics' mode ortext, but let me warn you - the 'graphics'mode is slow, tedious, unimaginative anda nuisance. Fortunately, it is also

optional. 0

Quintic Warriorfrom Quicksilva

Arcade-style game forCommodore 64 and joystick

package, I expected an adventure gamerather than an arcade game. However,fighting the mutants was pleasant.Everyone needs to do a little laser.blasting now and again ... 0

Review by Eric MUler

Quintic Warrior has nothing to do withthe artwork on its package. Apart from

that, it is a very good game.One feature Iparticularly liked: when

you kill a mutant, the word 'ZAP!' flasheson the screen. The mutants come in a

variety of colours, which adds interest tothe onslaught on your screen, preventingthe game from being another Space In-vaders clone. "

Itwas easier (and therefore more fun)to score at the higher levels, because you

gained extra points, but it was harder toactually stay in the game (naturally!):which was both satisfactory andchallenging.

Inside Commodore DOS

b y Richard Immers

and Gerald G. Neufeld

Published by Datamost,20660 Nordhoff Street

Chatsworth, CA 9'1311-6152508 pages. $19 ..95 (US)

Another thing Iliked about QUlin.tic

Warrior: you could pause the game byhitting the space bar, and resume it again

by hitting :FlETURN:. Great for when youare on a hot streak and the phone startsringing. Or you have to untie your ki d

sister from the railroad tracks.One annoyance: when zigzagging

around at high speed, occasionally you

run across your own firing line and getkilled. Also, one hazard you have to con-

tend with is your own malfunctioningtargetting grid (supposed to zero in al lmutants, but which turns on you instead):

if you aren't actually working thejoystick, your computerized weapon

system will kill you repeatedly until allyour lives are exhausted. You have to belightning fast injumping out of the sights

to avoid this terrible fate. Frankly, it's

more ofa nuisance than a challenge ..Quintic Warrior is one of the more in-

teresting games I have played on my C-64

for quite a while. It was nicely puttogether, but from the picture on the

Review by !Michael Quigley

It is unfortunate that, in order to truly

understand how the 1541 disk driveworks, you have to shell out more bucks

on top of the cost of the drive itself. Inthe case of this book, however, th.emoney

is well worth it.Although there are other treatises on

the 1541, the great delight about Inside

Commodore DOS is that it is well boundan d printed, and has been created by peo-ple who are not only literate (a real rari-ty in the field of computer literature) buthave a sense of humour, to boot.About two hundred of the book's pages

are devoted to explaining the various

commands, how data is organized on adisk, direct-aecess programming. how to,create errors, and how to recover from

various nightmares (like physically

damaging the disk).The remaining pages are taken up by

an analysis of the 1541's ROM. This is adisassembly, but not in the normal sense

one may be accustomed to with a machinelanguage monitor. Itlists the starting ad-

dresses of routines (all of them, from

$C100 to $FFFE) and then provides adescription of what happens at each loca-tion. Anyone who wants to get the usualkind of disassembly will have to use oneof the programs that reads any area of

the drive's RAM or ROM , a nd then storesit in a program. file. Th;- ;:-rogram file can

then be loaded into the computer and 'ex-amined. (Another source of this code isin The Anatomy qfthe 15~1Disk Drive,published by Abacus Software.)Notal! portions of the book are gospel

truth. There are some passages on thealleged incompatibility between the 1541

and.4040 drives that are not accurate, ac-cording to one knowledgeable member of

OUI' users' group, an expert on the 4041.0.

StHL these faults aside, Inside Com-modore DOS is an excellent addition toyour no doubt ever-increasing library of

computer books. 0

May 1!985 37

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


New W or,d Processor 'W orth th e W ait'Review by Dave Powell!

The Worcip.rocessor, written by Sfeve

Punter ..Frott: Pro-Line Software Ltd.,755 The Queensway East, Unit 8,Mississauga, Ontario L4Y 4C5. On disk

for the C-64. $69.95 (Cdn.)

This is the long awaited successor to

WordPro 3 + ..It's had a bit of an ident-ity crisis, with several name changessince conception (WordPro 64, WP64),but it has been well worth the wait. Com-parison with WordPro 3 + (which, in-cidentally, is marketed by ProfessionalSoftware- not Pro-Line) is inevitable.To my mind, the new product is far bet-ter, and would be the preferred purchase.However, if one already had WordPro3+, one would have to be a perfectioniston rich to want to buy The Word-processor as well,

OutputThe C-64's forty-column screen is a trialfor authors of word processors, becausethe output ishard to visualize on forty col-umns ..Some products use special charac-ter manipulation to squeeze in eightycolumns; some scroll sideways as onetypes; and some- including WordPro

3 + - ignore the problem (wait to see iton the printer!).The WordprocesBor takes a three-step

approach. During editing, one sees a nor-mal screen, and the program moveswords so that none is split over two lines..This happens as one types, even in insertmode, when other lines may be reformat-ted as well. Steps two and three are onoutput - 'video' or 'mapped' may bechosen, rather than the printer. Both ofthese show the effects of all the format-ting commands. Video' shows forty col-umns of the output and can be stopped

at any paint, and scrolled left and right.By this means, 160 column output can behandled (many printers are this wide),whereas squeezed eighty column outputwould fail, Mapped output shows the

whole width at once, not as characters,but as2 by 2 pixel blocks (very smallsquares). Thus the 'look' of the lines canbe examined, though the text cannot beread .. Mapped output shows the samenumber of lines- twenty-three - asvideo output at any time. Video output

can be switched to mapped (and back and

forth) with one keystroke.

This innovative approach works ..Proofreading is done on the text as entered,and the appearance, including such things

as pagination, can be checked in either ofthe screen output modes. Underliningshows in video mode as reversecharacters, and boldface in the highlightcolour (yellow, as installed). I had to try:if both are specified, it shows as revers-ed yellow!Two things are missing. There's not

even a limited upwards scroll in video ormapped mode, so if one misses a part, it'sstart-over time. Secondly, in mappedmode, the screen is big enough to containa whole sixty-line page, and I wish it did..This would show the vertical 'balance' ofa page - especially important for onepage business letters, and the like.Some word processors support a single

popular printer and make it jump throughhoops (for example, giving the 1525descenders and underline by using thegraphics mode). Tile Wordprocessoruses separate printer modules for a largevariety of printers, and uses the standard

facilities offered by each particularprinter to good effect. This is good if onehas more than one printer, or I S going tochange, or has a versatile printer, but notif one has a 1525. Then again, one mayask why one has a word processor if one'sprinter is a 1525.

One of the 'printer' modules actuallyoutputs the formatted text to disk, inPunter BBS format - useful if one is in-to uploading.

lMisce,II'a!neous features

There's an excellent implementation ofthe full set of disk commands, includingeasy reading of the error channel. Thedirectory list is neatly formatted in twacolumns, and a selection may be madefrom the screen without having to retypethe filename.

I particularly like the fact that the abort

key (the f1 function key) works in everycase except during disk access ..There'salso a warm restart key. With these keys,

one has the confidence to experiment,knowing that an exit is nearby.

To customize the package, one can runa supplied program, answer the ques-tions, and produce a file that will be read

on each subsequent startup. The screencolours can be specified, and up to fourunit/device combinations for disk. It'snice to see that multiple 1541s are sup-ported, and that there is no automaticassumption that the second one has to beunit 9..Unless one has a large linked fileon more than one diskette, or a file fullof form paragraphs, there's no need for

more than one drive, though. Once theprogram. has loaded, including the printermodule, there's no need for the programdisk.

Customizing is not for the squeamish.The program disk has no write protectnotch, and the first step in customizing

is to cut one! One has to really want tocustomize. Incidentally, once the notch iscut, one might as well rename one'sfavourite printer module to the defaultname, so that it gets loaded automatically.

Easy to useI find The Wordprueessor very easy touse, especially for writing letters (or art-icles). For reports, lists, or tables, it is alittle less friendly ..For instance, the tabsonly extend to column 40. Copying a linewith embedded spaces (such as part of atable) loses the spacing, unless one

remembers to use forced space mode, orthe 'graphic tab' feature.

The manual is very good ..It is the newstandard Pro-Line size, well written, ina good order, and with a quick referencesection at the back. There's no index, butthis is partially compensated for by afairly comprehensive contents page ..There are a couple of errors and typos,but nothing that one can't work out ..It'snot a training manual - one will be

available (for a price) later on. Those whoare familiar with a word processor(especially Werdpro 3+ or any of itsclones) should have no problem.The Wordp,rocessor is a good word

processor that will meet the needs of

most households, and many small busi-nesses. Ithas few bugs, it is easy to use,

and the price is right. 0

38 TPUG Magazine

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Spelling Checker Not For Everyone

Review by Dave Powell

Spellpro 64 , 'Written by Jim Butte1field.From Pro-Line Software Ltd., 75 5 The

Queensway East, Unit 8, Mississauga,Ontario L.4Y 4C5. On disk for the C·64.$69.95 (Cdn.)

SpeUpro 64 is a companion product toThe Wordprocessor. It reads a TheW ordprocessor file and checks words forinclusion in a dictionary. Any word notin the dictionary may be a spelling error,or it may just be a new word. SpeUproprovides the means to go through a listof 'unknown' words and, for each one,either skip it, correct it, or add it to thedictionary.

A basic dictionary is provided, and thiscan be copied to another diskette and ex-panded to a maximum of 25 thousandwords. One may choose tomaintain manyseparate (specialized) dictionaries, andkeep backups. There is provision for up-dating the dictionary manually, orautomatically from a list produced as aresult of a spelling check, or from a se-

quential file. Corrections identified dur-ing a Spellpro run may be stored, load-ed into The Wordprocessor's Extra Textarea, and used to update the original textautomatically.

I had some problems with this product.When scanning text, it ignoresapostrophes, hyphens and's' suffixes. I'dprefer it to ignore trailing apostrophesand to split hyphenated words into theircomponents. (The shifted hyphen, usedfor semi-automatic hyphenation in TheWordprocessor, would be excepted.)Because final's' is ignored, a word suchas il lnes will be accepted as correct if iL -lmese is in the dictionary. Capitalizedwords are converted to lower case priorto checking and, having failed the check,are presented - still in lower case - forpossible correction. Without the context,this can be confusing: one of mydocuments had an address in it, and oneof the words that came up as being

wrongly spelled was ave. This had mesearching for quite a time - how couldI correct it if I didn't know what it was?Was it a partial have or gave? No. It wasin the address, as in 129SomewhereAve. !'I'he checking process is quite fast. It

looks like some really efficient code isbeing executed here. But Iound it timeconsuming to have to go through the list

of 'spelling errors to see which ones

really were errors. With the supplied dic-tionary, one of my earlier articles had 130

'hits' - and no errors. Itwas my inten-tion to update the dictionary with these,and try the next article, and so on untilI came to this one. 1found that the timeto update the dictionary was prohibitive:the update is quite slow as it reads andwrites each file of words (2 6 files, one perletter) that bas a change. Naturally, myupdate hit every letter except V, X and Z !The manual update process seems quite

comprehensive, but is intimidating on the

first try. One logical inconsistency is thatonce a word with an apostrophe gets in,one cannot delete or change it, becausethe keyboard input routine won't acceptan apostrophe!I was also upset by the disk support. M y

usual beef: good support for 4040 or one1541, but poor for two 154b.. Theseparate program that backs up a dic-tionary doesn't handle two 1541s. Themain program starts out by asking for aunit and device number if one has twodrives. "Usually #9", the manual says.The prompt will take only one character,which doesn't leave much room for 10 or11, and anyone who read "Two disk or

not two Disk" (TPUG Ma.qazine,

MarlApr 1984)will remember how I cameto have a unit to! Without thinking toofar ahead for possible consequences, 1left

the 'I' of '10', and carried on. .Sometimelater, Iound myself being prompted tohit PLAY and RECORD ...

Itopped the process of customizing mydictionary on the second round, when thedisk hung somewhere in the middle of the

Fs.In normal use, one would customize a

dictionary in small doses, and the frustra-tions that Iexperienced would not be asconcentrated. As the dictionary gets bet-ter, the 'errors' will be more likely to betrue spelling errors rather than candid-ates for dictionary additions. One eaution,

however. With any spelling checker that

allows updates, there is a danger that onewill proliferate and legitimize one's errorsby adding erroneous words to the dic-tionary. Be sure to check all the wordsthat are added! In fact, check the supplieddictionary as well - Iound six errors ina quick scan of the listing.Doyou need a spelling checker? Iound

that Idon't. In my The Wordprocessorreview, the suppl ied dictionary found 103words it didn't know, and one error. Thiswas before I'd proof-read it. It s not thatI don't mis-type words - I do - but I

tend to see errors as Iommit them. Run-ning a spelling checker is too time con-suming for too little benefit in my case.Ifyou can't spot your own typos, and youneed clean copy, get one, and spend some

time to get a good dictionary. But if youcan't spell, remember that no spellingchecker is better than its dictionary. Ex-pect to spend time with a hardcopy dic-tionary (you remember - a book!) tocheck every word that comes up.

Spellpro ,64 does an efficient job. 1

found it integrated well with The Word-

processor, and Iiked the way the dic-tionary customization can be done semi-automatically as one finds missing words.I've seen checkers where each wordwould have to be retyped to get it in -

dud d. Personally, I don't think I w ill getmuch use out of the product, but then, asmy wife has observed, I type so slowly,it's not too hard to get the spelling right.One last note to Pro-Line - check out

the screen where it says "Gatheringwords for addition", prior to updating adictionary ... you missed a spellingmistake! 0

May 1985 39

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Review by Mike Martin e 1984

Originally written for the Apple, Print-

shop by Broderbund quickly became abest seller. One distributor told me thatthe company had doubts that it would sell,and almost did not release it. But it fillsa strong need of most users of home orlight business computers.

It is technically a graphics program, butnot of the usual kind. Almost all graphicsprograms deal with the monitor screenand concentrate on colour, plotting andshapes, sometimes includ.ing a screen

dump. Printshop is oriented almost en-tirely to printers. If you don't own a

printer, stay away from this program. Inmost cases, you will not even see a screen

version of what will print: only the in-dividual elements.

The program is very friendly. You

could boot the disk and print a cardwithout opening the reference manual,and do pretty well. The manual is good,

and a quick reference card with all the artcuts is included. Two versions of the pro-gram are on the disk. Side One works

with Epson RXJMX/FX, Gemini Starl0/15X, C-Itoh 8510, Legend 880, NEC80Z3A, Panasonic KX-PI0901l091, Tally

Spirit 80, Blue Chip, and Okidata 92/93.Side Two works with Commodore

V1C-15.25and MPS-80L Interfaces sup-ported include Xetec Cardco, Grappler

CD, Tymac Connection, TurboprintlGT,and Micro World-350. The program iskeyboard-driven, but a joystick or a

KoalaPad may be used for graphicsdesign.Most of the modules work the same

way. The cursor keys are used to

'highlight' your selection, and the

RETURN key implements it. The first

menu offers Greeting Card, Sign, Letter-

head, Banner, Screen Magic, andGraphics Editor formats. The operations

in each format are basically the same.Each one is displayed on its own screen,fully documented.

The basic steps are straightforward.You choose from nine borders, pick an artcut by name or number, select its sizeandposition it, choose your print style, typeyour text, and then print. Ifyou change

your mind, just use the left arrow key togo back a few screens. The program isvery forgiving, and easy. I was surpris-

ed at how few mistakes crept into my ef-forts. Ifyou make errors in your choices,the printout may not be exactly what youwanted, but is still good and usable. Theprintout takes about two minutes a page,and seems to be easy on the printer. Onmy Gemini, all nine pins print on eachpass and the speed is about the same asnormal printing. One holdover from theApple days is the use of the CTRL key to

access such features as erase line, toggletype size, select solid, outline or 3-D let-ters, centre a line, and select left or rightpositioning.

'Greeting Card' format lets you com-pose two panels, each one-quarter of a

page in size .. On each panel, you canchoose one art cut and use it in one of

several sizes and layouts. You use onetype style on each panel, but in two sizes,with your choice of solid, outline or 3-D,though not mixed on the same line. If

your type overlaps the art cuts, a narrowwhite border will surround each letter,

making it easy to read. One panel printsupside down in the upper left corner, theother prints right side up in the lowerright. With the proper folds, you have a

greeting card. You are also allowed toprint a 'credit line' on the back of thecard ..

'Sign' format prints one panel, fullpage. You have the same options on art

cuts, positioning, type font and.such, butthe 'small' art cut is the same size as the

'medium' cut on the Greeting Card.

'Letterhead' format gives you one artcut printed right, left, or on both sides.

One line of large fancy font type isallowed, followed by three small lines ofplain block type and, if desired, a thin line

below them. At the bottom of the page,another art cut and more type can beprinted.

'Banner' format prints 7-inch high let-ters and art cuts lengthwise on the paper.

The manual warns against printing toomany banners at a time lest you overheatthe printer. Pauses are built in for the

computer to compose the next section,but a printer buffer would eliminate those

pauses, possibly causing a heating

problem.

'Screen Magic' displays a couple ofkaleidoscopes on the screen. The first

features round and oval patterns, and thesecond has more angular ones. When you

see a pattern you like, you can freeze thescreen for storage, printing, or the addi-tion of lines of type. This printout is halfa page, and horizontal. You can print itas is, or reverse the pixels as in a photo

negative.The 'Graphic Editor' allows you to

create or change art cuts, but issomewhat limited. Itoffers a simple drawand erase option with keyboard, joystickor KoalaPad. One size, no plotting, no filland no frills. You cannot use graphicsfiles from another program with this one.Printshop offers structured creativity.

It is indeed creative and useful, but veryset in its ways. You choose one, and only

one, type style per panel. You are allow-ed to pick an art cut, but only one perpanel. You choose size, and are given op-

tions on where to put it and in what pat-terns, but only in the given format. One

interesting option is called 'tiled'. For'

this, the art cuts are printed with edgestouching, forming a pattern.

Broderbund provides a two year war-ranty with free replacement, and a $5.00

(US) replacement (plus $2.50 postage)after two years. That's a very long war-ranty, and a most reasonable price. On

the Apple version, Broderbund releaseda second disk with additional type stylesand art cuts. A Commodore version is

probably in the works.An

Atari versionis in release, and an IBM version is be-ing written. All in all, even at the $50(US) list price, I consider Printshop agreat bargain. Short of the Macintosh, Ihave not seen anything better. No C-64should be without it. D

fi R E V I E W B Y

M I K E M f i R T I N

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TPUG Term inal Program sReviews by Ian A. Wright

There are many uses for a terminal pro-gram. Transferring programs or sequen-tial files across a room or across the citycan reduce the costs of operation for a

small business. The ability to access amajor stock database like Dow Jones can

make anyone a wiser investor in themarkets. Students can program theirassignments at home and upload the

working files to the college or universitymainframe, rather than queue up till thewee hours on campus. The electronic cot-tage is already feasible - but you must

be able to communicate.The terminal program is the link

between you and the host at the other endof the phone line. If you are forced towork with 40 columns and the host sends80, this adds immensely to your frustra-tions; however, 80 column video on a C-64is not terrific either! Where possible, a

terminal should allow lots of options, eventhough you might not need them right

away. Yet when you load your terminalprogram in after the third month you

shouldn't have to answer the same dumbquestions about parity and stop-bits thatyou did the first time - unless you want

to.

A good terminal can make your entryinto telecomrnunicating easier; a bad onecan turn you right off. Two terminal pro-grams available to TPUG members on(C)C3.,the latest communications disk forthe C-64, may be just what you need -and not just because they're free. These

terminals have additional features thatmove them beyond the 'no-frills' pro-

grams that come packaged with a modem.Let's take a look at these two fine

TP G programs.

Autodi al Iallfrom the TPUG library

Updated terminal programfor the Commodore 64 and

1650 Automodemand some others

Autodial/all is the latest version of theautodialling program Autodial/1650 I

reviewed along with the 1650Automodemin the March/April, 1984, issue of TPUGMagazine. A description of the originalprogram's many features are in that art-

ide, so I will not go into detail here ..Some

of the features are: full support of repeatdialIing on a number of modems (in-

eluding the HESmodem and Mitey Mo);dialling a sequential file of numbers thatyou can write and edit or revise; choiceof one number to dial or a series of

numbers; an alarm when contact is made;complete up/download, using Punter pro-

tocol; screen colours, etc.The latest version has added options:

there are now programmable 'control

keys', uploading is now reliable, and thereis now a choice of things like baud rates.

Autodial/1650 has been used suc-cessfully by many local BBS users for

over a year, and the new version hasproven to be reliable in both upload anddownload - although slow, because of theold Punter protocol used. The terminalprovides many options in its menu, andthe program itself can be rewritten if you

wish to make any additions or alterationsto customize your version, since it is

mostly in BASIC. My only reservationsconcern the necessity to load a file of

numbers and keep track of those already

autodialled.

Term 64from the TPUG library

Terminal programfor the Commodore 64

5 Examine/Alter Function Keys

6 Load or Save Parameters7 Send File to Modem

8 Save Memory Buffer9 Exit Program

Notice the 'buffer' referred to in items4 and 8? Oh wow! Now the owners of

C-64s can actually p'l'int downloaded

material, just as PET owners can. TheC·64 and VIC 20 have a problem drivingtwo devices (modem and printer) at thesame time, since both devices work byinterrupting the operating system. Paul'sprogram gets around this problem by us-

ing free RAM as a buffer - an accessiblesection of memory - to store material so

that it can be processed later.This buffer feature alone turns Term64into your key to the realm of profess.ionaltelecomputing, and it is complemented bymany other useful features like a clock-

timer, all-caps mode, and even word-wrap

- all of which are displayed on the statusline at the top of the terminal screen.

Within the terminal mode you can alterfourteen different functions but, more

important, these 'parameters' can besaved and loaded back in the next time.To me, this is a major indication of a pro-fessional program, since I don't have to

make the same choices again each timer use it.Term64 doesn't support autodialIing

modems. Paul's reasoning was that thereare many kinds of autodiallers, and itwould be difficult to support them all. To

this end, there is a program calledAutodiaUing prologue which willlet you

select a number and redial your modemuntil a carrier is received. It then loadsin your choice of terminal program. This,

too, is available on the latest TPUG com-munications disk for the C-64.Paul Higginbottom originally wrote

this program for commercial sale, butdecided instead to release it into the

public domain. For aspiring program-mers, telecomputerists, and on behalf ofthe TPUG library, I would like to thank

Paul publicly for this generous gesture.A professional terminal program

available free - it boggles the mind.Whether you choose to try Auto-

dial/all, or Term64, these are two

examples of the excellent programs thatare available from your club library at a

cost of a few dollars. If you download

them from a BBS - they're free! 0

For the business user, the programTerm64 has some features that make itvery appealing. Term6,4 has been nick-named 'Higgterm', because itwas writtenby TPUG member Paul Higginbottom,

who designed it for professional on-line

use with mainframe host systems likeCompuserve and The Source. Term64has a lot of outstanding features that are

not commonly found outside expensivecommercial programs.The first thing you notice when you run

Term64 is the two-tone grey screen andthe gorgeous character set - just like the

IBM's. Very clear and business-like, anda refreshing change from distracting

multicoloured games menus. The pro-gram is menu-driven, with nine initial

options:

1 Enter Terminal Mode2 Disk Directory

3 Examine/Alter Protocols

4 Print File/Buffer to Screen/Printer

May 1985 41

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


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8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


TPUG, Associate Cubs,---CANADA

C64 North Bay Users Group (Ontario) meets at Cassellholme

on Olive SI. on the first Wednesday of the month at 7:30 prn.Contact Matt Vautour 705-474-5692.

Chaleur Commodore Club ('New Brunswick) meets at the

District School Board. Dalhousie, on the third Wednesday of the

month at 7:00 prn, Contact Terry Traer 506-684-4852.

Commodore Owners ot Musk.oka (Ontar.io) meets at MacAulay

Public School, Bracebridge, on the first Wednesday of each

month at 7 prn. Contact Mike Wilson 705-645-6300.

Edmonton Commodore Users Group (Alberta) meets at Ar·

chbishop Jordan High School, Sherwood Park, on the 'last Fri·

day of each month at 7 pm. Contact Bob Kadylo 403-465-3523,

Fredericton Commodore Users Group (New Brunswick)

meets in Room 105, Administrative Building second floor, at Saint

Thomas University, on the third Wednesday of each month at

7:00 prn. Contact John W. Palmer, Comp 53, Site 15 Castle Acres

SS#3, Fredericton, NB. E3B 5W9,

Guelph Computer Club (Ontario) meets at Co-operators ln-

surance Assoc. on the second Wednesday of each month at 7:30pm. Contact Brian Grime 519-822-4992,

London Commodore Users Club (Ontario) meets at Althouse

College of Education, main auditorium on the third Monday of

each month at 7 prn. Contact Dennis Trankner 519-681-5059.

Niagara Commodore Users Group (Ontario) meets at Lakeport

Secondary School, SI. Catharines, on the first Monday of each

month at 7.30 pm. Contact Ian Kerry 416-688-6464.

Sarnia C64 Users Group (Ontario) meets at Lambton Collegeon the first Sunday of each month at 7:30 pm. Contact J.C.

Hollemans 519-542-4710,

Saskatoon Commodore Users Group (Saskatchewan) meets

in Room 2C02, Engineering Building, University of Saskat-

chewan. on the last Friday of each month (except June, July and

December) at 7:00 pm.

Commodore Users Club of Sudbury (Ontario) meets at Lasalle

High School in the cafeteria on the last Thursday of each month

at 7 pm. Contact Tim Miner 705-566-9632,

PET Educators Group (Windsor, Ontario) meets at Faculty of

Education Building. 600 3rd Concession. Windsor. on the third

Wednesday of each month (not July and August) at 7 p rn , Con-

tact John Moore 519·253-8658,Winnipeg PET Users Group (Manitoba) meets at Gordon Bell

High School. Room 228, on the first Wednesday of each month

at 7:30 prn. Contact w.P,U,G" p,O, Box 4096, Station B. Win·

nipeg, MB. R2W 5K8.

UNITED STATES

Boston Computer Society/Commodore users Group meetsat Minute Man Tech High School. Rt 2A Uustoff Rt 128). in l.ex-

ington. MA, every second Monday of the month at 7 pm. Con-tact Harvey W, Gendreau 617-661-9227,

C-64 'Users Group, Inc. (Chicago, illinois): seven chapters meet

at 7:00 pm. Northwest Chicago (Logan Square) on the first

44 TPUG Magazine

Tuesday; River Grove on the first Wednesday; Des Plaines on

the first Thursday; Park Ridge on the second Monday; Calumet

Park on the second Tuesday; Westchester on the second

Thursday; Southwest Chicago (Gar1ield Ridge) on the secondFriday: Evanston on the third Wednesday. For exact locations

and changes. contact Darrell Hancock 312-588-0334, or David

Tamkin 312-583-4629.

Commodore 64 Owners of Petaluma (California) meets in the

multi-use room, La Tercera School on the third Thursday of the

month at 7:00 prn. Contact Robert Hermann 707-762·1376,

Commodore Computer Club of Toledo (Ohio) meets at Bed-ford Administration Building on Temperance Rd.. between Lewis

and Jackman Roads on the second. Friday of each month at 7:30

prn. Contact Jim Cychler 419-475-9160.

Commodore Houston Users Group (Texas): Clear Lake

Chapter - Nassau Bay City Hall, NASA Road #1, on the first

Wednesday of each month at 7 prn. Central Chapter - Far-rish Hall, University of Houston main campus. NW Chapter-

Bleyl Jr. High School. 10,000 Mills Road (Cypress- Fairbanks SO),

on the third Thursday of each month at 7:30 prn. Klein Chapter

- Hildebrandt Middle School. 22.800 Hildebrandt Road (KleinISO). on the third Tuesday of each month (except July & August)

at 6:30 prn. Contact Mary F. Howe 713-376-7000,

Commodore Users Society of Greenville (South CaroUna)

meets at the Greenville National Bank. Community Room, 10

Pleasantbury Drive. Greenville. SC, on the last Thursday of each

month at 7.30 pm.

Genesee County Ar,ea Pet Users Group (M'ichigan) meets at

Bentley High School on Belsay Rd. on the third Thursday of each

month at 7 prn. Contact Gordon Hale 313-239-1366.Greater Omaha Commodore 64 U.G. (Nebraska) meets at

South Omaha campus of the Metropolitan Technical Communi -ty College, 27th and 0 Streets in Room 120 of the Industrial Train-

u 50 W~A; PO YO() 1'"HINK of -rsc HOM,~

'COMPU"(ER R£VOI..-Vr/ON?"

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


TPUG Associate Clubs ~===============

ing Center, on the first Thursday 01 the month at 7 pm. Contact

Bob Quisenberry 402-292-2753.

Manasota Commodore Users Group (Florida) meets at the

Florida Power and Light Building, Bradenton, on the second and

fourth Thursdays of the month at 7 pm. Contact Robert O. Bron-

son 813-747-1785.

MAT-SU Commodore-54 Club (Alaska) meets at the Alaska

Computer Systems store, Wasil la, on the third Thursday of each

month at 7 pm. Contact Terry Maw 907-376-7508.Michigan's Commodore 64 Users Group meets at Warren

Woods High School in Warren, on the third Tuesday of each

month at 7 pm. Call 313-773-6302.

Mohawk Valley Commodore User's Group (New York) meets

at the Clara S. Bacon School in Amsterdam, at 7 pm an the se-

cond Tuesday of the month. Contact William A. Nowak

518-829-7576.

Mountain Computer Society (Sandy, Utah) meets at Murray

High School on the second Thursday and last Tuesday of each

month at 7:00 pm. Contact Dennis Senior801-566-5593, or Don

Jones 801-967-6641.

Russellville CUG, Inc, (Arkansas) meets at Oakland Heights

Elementary School on the third Thursday of each month at 7:30prn. Call 501-967-1822.

Sacramento Commodore Computer Club (California) meets

at Kit Carson High School, on the fourth Monday of each month

at 7 pm. Contact Geoff Worstell 916·961-8699':

S.C.O.P.E. (Dallas, Texas) meets at U.T.D., Erik Jonnson

Building (Corner Floyd & Campbell Rds.), in Plano, on the se-

cond Saturday of the month at 1 :30 pm. Contact Betty Clay

817-274-0709.

Southern Minnesota Commodore Users Group meets at

Mankato State University on the first Thursday of each month

at 7:30 pm. Contact Dean Otto 507-625-6942.

Tri-City Commodore Computer Club meets at Washington

Public Power Supply System auditorium' on George WashingtonWayan the second Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm . Con-

tact George Carpenter 216·946 7746.

Westmoreland Commodore User's Club (Penn.) meets at

Westmoreland County Community College, in Youngwood, on

the third Friday evening of each month. Contact Bob McKinley412-863-3930.

ALL COMMODORE 64,

VIC 20, COM'MODORE 16,

AND PEr OWNERS

AT E TIO

A complete self-tutoring BASIC programming course

is now available. This course starts with turning

your computer on, to programming just aboutanything you want! This course is currently usedin both High School and Adult Evening Education

classes and has also formed the basis of teacher

literacy programs. Written by a teacher, who after

having taught the course several times, has put

together one of the finest programming courses

available today. This complete 14 lesson course

of over 230 pages is. now available for the COM-MODORE 64, VIC 20, COMMODORE 16 and P ET

computers and takes you step by step through a

discovery approach to programming and you can

do it all in your leisure time! The lessons are filled

with examples and easy to understand explanations

as well as many programs for you to make up..At the

end of each lesson is a test of the informationpresented. Furthermore, ALL answers are supplied

to all the questions and programs, including the

answers to the tests. Follow this course step by

step, lesson by lesson, and turn yourself into a

real programmer! You won't be disappointed!

We will send this COMPLETE course to you at

once for just $19,95 plus $3.00 for shipping and

handling (U.S. residents, please pay in U.S. funds),

If you are not COMPLETELY satisfied, then simply

return the course within 10 days of receipt for aFULL refund.

Fill in the coupon or send a facsimile.

1---------------------I NAME: TP

II ADDRESS: _

I CITY: _

I PROV./STATE: _

II POSTAL/ZIP CODE: _

i Check desired course:I Send Cheque or Money Order to:I Brantford Educational Services

I 68 Winding Way,Brantford, Ontario, Complete course: $19,95I Canada, N3R 383 Postage and hand.: $3..00

I ~~ m.~---------------------

COMMODORE 64 0

VIC 0 PEr 0

COMMODORE 16 0

May 1985 45

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


Calendarof TPUGEvents:-_Meeting Places

Brampton Chapter: Central : '?"'l econdary School, 32 Ken-nedy Rd. N. on the second Thursday of the month at 7:30 pm

in the Theatre.

Central Chapter: Leaside High chool, Bayview & EglintonAves, on the second Wednesday of the month at 7:30 pm in theauditorium for "advanced" computerists,

COMA.LChapter: York Public Library, 1745 Eglinton Ave. W,

dust east of Dufferin) on the last Thursday of the month at 7:30pm in the Story Hour Room (adjacent to the auditorium).

Commodore 64 Chapter: York Mills .1.,490 York Mills Rd.(east of Bayview) on the last Monday of the month at 7:30 prnin the cafetorium.

Communications Chapter: York Public Library, 1745 EglintonAve, IN. (just east of Dufferin) on the first Wednesday of themonth at 7:30 pm in the Story ROllI' Room (adjacent to theauditorium).

Eastside Chapter: Dunbarton High chool (go north on WhitesRd. from the traffic lights at Highway 2 and Whites Rd. to nexttraffic lights; turn left to parking lots) on the second Mondayof the month at 7:30 pm.

r ;

M AYI

MON TUES WED THURSi

1 2Communications

,

i

,6 7 8 9'I

"

\ 1(; 20 Central

MachineLanguag

1

13,

14 1 5 16Eastside Hardware Sup rPET Westside

Brampton

I

20 21 22 23

27 28 29 30Commodor 64 CQMAL

46 TPUG Magazine

Hardware Chapter: York Public Library, 1745 Eglinton Ave,W. (just east of Du.fferin) on the second Tuesday of the monthat 7:30 pm in the Story Hour Room (adjacent to the auditorium),

Machine Language Chapter (6502): Fenton High School, offKen:nedy R d. south of Steeles Ave., Brarnpton, on the first Tues-day of the month at 7:30 pm in the computer room. For furtherinformation call Garry Ledez ci a 416-782-8900.

SuperPET Chapter: York University, Petrie Science Building(check in Room 340). Use north door of Petrie to access building.On the third Wednesday of the month at 7:30 pm,

VIC 20 Chapter: York Public Library, 1745 Eglinton Ave. W.(just east of Dufferiu) on the first Tuesday of the month at 7:30pm in the auditorium.

Westside Chapter: larkson Secondary School, Bromsgrovejust east of Winston Churchill Blvd. (south of the QEW) on the

third Thursday of the month at 7:30 pm in the Little Theatrefor PET/CBMIVIC 20/Commodore 64.

Are you interested in organizing some other interest group inthe Greater Toronto area? Please let the club office know, bymail, phone, or TP G bulletin board .

.;

JUNE

MON TUES WED THURS

3 4 5 6VIC 20 Communications ~ Brarnpton

i

MachineLanguage

10 11 12 13Commodore 64 Hardware Central

Eastside

18 19!

207up'rP8'r W stside

24 25 26 27COMAL

,

,

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


You can now custom design

your own printer fonts or choose

from one of the different varieties

already on the disk. Not only that

but you can read in any standard

commodore ASC 1 1 sequential

file and change the typeface.

All THIS PLUS:

1. Mix up loIS fonts in

one document

2. Design custom fonts

lncludlnq symbols. foreign

language, math

symbolsect..

3. Includes font to give you

descenders on your 152'5/

80 I printer.

4. Convert most popular word

processing; files to custom

fonts. For special effects.

5. Also includes the signwriter

64 program to print signs

and banners. ~.

i i r i ' i ~ ~ ~ r ' ~ : ~ ~ ~ ~ ; r C ! " . i " " ! T I I " r . : ~ U . :~J . -201·838 ·9027

DISTRIBUTING. INC1342 B Haute 23 Butler, N.J

* Reqvrres 1525/801 or aO)l other printer wlthgrephic.'n!erl.c.(~IW·350. Ty mac

Ccnr eencn ect ... )

tm

by Sky le s E le ct ric Wo rk s

i The fast B AS IC compiler that received!

ra ve re views in COMPUTE rs GAZETTE

I[Jan '85J and l lPUG magaziine [ !Mar '85!]In tro ducto ry o ffe r: $ 99 '.9 5 Cdn

Also, I - I . . . . , tm

'_ _!n n , 1 1 D I IG I 'Y$34.95 Odn. O N DISK FO R T HE 6 4

Keep a comprehensive, corrjputerized

record of your tennis matches.

Send check or money order to:

JCS Computer Software

p.o. Box ,2570 Postal! Station r:Scarborough, Ontario, Canada M1:W- 3P2Ontario residents add 7% provincial sales tax.

Deale r linquiries welcome..

Canad ia n ( ~C_S) distr ibutor

OS/9 Software NOW AVAILABLE!!Spreadsheet - ,DynaCailc US$99 Can$1i2'9

A third generation spreadsheet. Powerful and easy to

use.

Word Pr·ocessor - Stylograph II

US$1!49 Can$189

Menu driven, fast. Extensive features.

Formats to screen as you work.

MaUmerge - a self-standing program that merges

files and creates form letters.Spel'lcheck - a high-speed 40,000 word plus die-

tioary, works with Stylograph or any other word

processor .

C Compiiler US$t20*" Can$1ISS....

Full featured, faithful to Keran and Richie standard.

The language of the future.

Please add $10 forshipping/handling. An prleessubjeet to change. Ontario residents add 70/0 PST..Plea.se order dlreet, enclos'ing cheque or lliIoneyorder to:

T,PUG,1'9,t2A.A.venue Rd.,.Suiite #1., Toronto, Ontarto MSM4.A.1

BA.S,IC09 US$11:0 CanS152

A full featured, sophisticated semi-compiled BASIC.

See BYTE magazine, April 1984.

Pascal US$175 Can$242

A full featured standard Pascal Compiler.

Fo.rtran (Avail. Aug. '85) US$12.0** Can$166H

A full featured standard Fortran compiler.

SCREiD US$75 Ca.n$104

A full screen editor with full cut-and-paste.

DA.TA!BASE- COMINGiSOON

These prices represent substantial reductions from

usual 089 software prices.

.. * 10 c O : P V Ibuilkprices.

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


CHECKS MECHANICAL SCREENREAD Oil] OF CHECKS SPEEDS. (LAMPING

STOP POSIIION RADIAL HEAD ALiGNMEN] OF DRIVE

Pa.ckage includes:

• True digital a.lignment disk with offset tracks

• Quiet Drive stops to reduce need for

continued realignment on old style drives ..

(703)491-650'2 ~. ~. _800-762-5645 - = 136A6 JEFfERSON DAVIS HWY

WOODBRIDGE. VA 22191CARDINAL SOFTWARE .' _ In Canada APPIN MICRO

See ,eviews in: RUN. Jan. 1985. - 1283 PHARMACY AVE

p. 122: Midnight Gaze ll. #.2.1. - = - SCARBOROUGH. 0 T_ M1R 2Jl19M. p. 49: Ahoy! April 1985. p. 32 _ (~161"3·0843

"* * FORTH!: COMMOD'OiRE 64 *"* ----------------

PUT THOSE FUNCTION KEYS TO WORK WIITH

Supplied on disk only (no tapes)

SCREEN DUMP, ETC TN

SCREEN DUMP, ETC sets up f1 throughf8 to give the fol lowing capabili ties:

11 - HELP KEY (Information and' ESCAPE key from other routines)

1-2- SCREEN DUMP TO PRINTER (True dot by dot dump! Screen can be LO-RES or HI-RES, and can even include custom characters

and sprites! - NO restrlctions)

13 • BASIC MEMORY ALLOCATION (Displays and allows changes to Start/End of BASIC RAM, Variables, Arrays, and Strings)

1 4 - SCREEN DUMP TO DISK (12 capabilities, PLUS sprite data. blocks and custom character sets used tor screen are also saved)

15 - SCREEN MEMORY ALLOCATION (Displays and allows chang.es to locations of screens, sprite memory blocks and character set)

1 6 - SCREEN LOAD FROM DISK (Reverse 01 14 - locations can be changed)

f7 - HEXADECIMAL TO DECIMAL OR DECIMAL TO HEXADECIMAL CONVERSION

f8 - USER DEFINED (Transfers control to user supplied machine language program)

Alii of the above functions may be performed at any time, even during execution of a BASIC or machine language program. Alter the

I function key has completed its task, the interruped program will continue as if nothing happened! Compatible with most BASIC and

machine language programs. 12 requires a 7 or 8 dot per byte DOT ADDRESSABLE printer such as Commodore, Epson, Garnlnj.etc.

In U.S., PHONE 1-800-8.24-7888; Ask for Operator #530 (Orders only please)

(In Alaska & Hawaii, 1-800-824-7919; Oper. #530)

Commodore 64 is reg. trademark of

Commodore Business Machines. Epson

is reg. trademark of Epson America.

Gemini Is reg. tradmark of Star

Micronics, inc .

Includes shipping (MO residents add 5.125% tax.)

(44.95 Canadian funds)

III:

-_ .._._ _ '

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED!

Return within 15 days for full refund

Phone, or send check or money order to:

IRQ, Inc.

P. O. Box 457

SI. Charles, MO 6330.2

U.S.A....... "for tnnovetive, RelIable, and Quality solutions, look to fRQ"

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


THE ULTIMATE SIMULATION

. .! cSTA~G~~EI3:

ilVersion II

For The 6'i

• Impressive Graphics

With Hi-Res Features.' Realistic Sound• Strategic Thoughr Involvement• The Only Game That ParallelsThe T.V. Series And Movies

U PLANDDept. AP.O. Box 1324Meaford, OntoNOH ive , Canada( 5191 538 -- 1758

SOFfW ARE (0;, Only)

$21.95 Cdn. $19 ..95 U.S.

Onl. Resident; Add 7,),. Pravincial Sale, Tax

Pleo,e Make Cheque Or Money Order' Payable

To Dove Neale

Dealer Inquiries Invited

Even Spoc]: Would

Find It Challen8infi,

A new utility and basic aid lor your C64

D ISKAL IGNERfOR YOUR 15'11DISK DRIV.EI

III less Ih'.11 an hour, with just a Phillip, screw-

driver and the DISKALIC:-JF.R llisk. vou can

r'"ty"ur 15 - 11 o a ,: k 0" f inc. perfectly ,c~li.l!:I1ed!

$ ,2 9. 95 Cdn. S24.95U.S.

60 new commands including manyof the BASIC4.0 diskcommands.Do graphics without peeks and pokes and having to remember all those memorylocations. Commands such as HllINIE, DRAW, HPilO'T, MOVE, T!EXT andHPRIINT.

(0111"";0 Rcsidc"t add 7'i'oProvincial Sales Tax]

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I ~ ~ = = = = = = = = = L ' = 1 1 = ' = 3 N = ' = 3 ' = = = = = = = = = = = 4I

In the Toronto area DISKALlGNE;Rmay be purchased at :Electronics 20015529 Yonge St., Wiillowdale, OntarioM2N 5S3 (416)223-8400

Sprites, sound and screen commands get rid of the tediously long commandlines. Just type in the note (E#, Gb, F, etc) or state the colour (COLOR 1,2,3.) orlocale a sprite (SPRITE [num[x,yJ).

HOT NEWS!!!

The BSS is back. up':1U

Function keys are allowed -- there is a buil! in screen dump (text or graphics) --type lines 120 characters long.. .

BAliD64

15 additional BASIC commands including RENIUM, TRAP,AUTO, HUNT, HE LIP, DEL, CHIANGE

ALL THIS AND MORE AT A PRICE O~ $49 ..95 (Ont. residents add 7% sales tax)

PHONE (416) - 677-8200 AND WE WILL ACCEPT YOUR MIC OR VISA ORSEND THE COUPON. WE SHIP PREPAID

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TELEPHONE (416)- 677- 8200

special prices for schools and dealers

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pro toco l and more. Includes sonwera , cables. manuals

dnd fREE access '10CampuS .r vl J.year gualanlea. En-

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avauab le ", Don"' t set tl e tor less when you can have

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Vli,ZASTARBRINGS LOTUS 1·2.31 POWiERTO YOUR; COM,MODORE.64!

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This i nqa ruous U.K program IS sweeping North America!

Imagine a Spreadsheet, Graphlcs and Database pro-

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t ine/ba r/pi e g raph c .apabl ll l~ . and InI "9,al e< l database

POl 'l er1ul manu and execu tive I 'o r automa lic operauen

Compatible wnh most printers & word processors. com-prehens ive manual . backup d isk and tutor ia l, I nc redibl e

performance at 5179.~5 postpaid. (Reg. S189.95)

O T H E R F A V O U R IT E SFlig hi Slrnulatcr II (0)

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Pinball Construcncn Sat (DJ

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Academy T <l v la Plus (01

Add 52.00 per s il ipmeni l or "Di lle r Favourites " onl y ( any

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8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


A cadem y S oftw are

AHOY Magaz ine

Ba tte rie s In clu de d

8 ra ntfo rd E du catio na l S ervice s

Ca r€ fin a l So ftwa re

Comal Users G roup. USA

C om puter N etw orxx

C om~tJ te f R en ta ls

C PU E lectron ic S ystem s

Electronics 2001

GRQ" Ma r ke tin g .

IRQ Inc.

JCS Com puter Software

K in g M ic ro wa re

Marca

Mastertronic

M ic ro co mp ute r S olu tio ns

M ic r&W D is trib utin g

M id nite S oftw are G aze tte

NCR

P ro gre ss iv e Pe rip he ra ls & Software

Programmers Guild Products

S erendipity V entures Inc .

S hirin ia n, G e org e

The S oft W arehouse

T oro nto C om pu te s!

TPUG (Com puter Fair)

T PUG (C on fe re nc e)

TPUG (Corna l Reference Guide)

TPUG (OS/9)

TPUG ,{D is k Su bs cr ip tio n)

T ra l20 E du ca tio na l S oftw are

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TP 'UG IContacts

TPUG OFFICE 416/782~9.252, 416/782-8900

TPUG BBS 4161782-9534

Board of DirectorsPresidentVice-PresidentTreasurerRecording Sec.

General ManagerMember ervicesLibrary Co-ord.

TPUG MagazinePublisherEditorAssistant EditorAd Director

Michael Bonnycastle 416/654-2381

Chris Bennett 416/782-9252

Carol Shevlin c/04161782-8900

John Shepherd 416/244-1487

Rosemary Beasley c/04161782-8900

Gord Campbell 416/492-9518

Gary Croft 4161727-8795

Mike Donegan 416/639-0329Bill Dutfield 416/224-0642

John Easton 416/251-1511

Carl Epstein 416/492-0222

Keith Falkner 416/481-0678

Gerry Go.ld 416/225-8760

Rob Lockwood 416/483-2013

Louise Redgers 416/447-4811

Louise Redgers 4161782-8900Doris Bradley 416f782-8900

David Bradley clo4161782-8900or the TPUG BBS 4161782-9534

or Compuserve IDN 70216,414

Louis RedgersNick ullivanMarya MillerLouise Redgers

416/782-1861

416/782-1861

4161782-18614161782-1861

Meeting Co-ordinatorsBrampton Cbapter Garry Ledez cl0416/782- 900Central Chapter Micha IBonnycastle 416/654-2381

C-64 Chapt r Louis Redgers 416/447-4811

COMAL Chapt r Donald Dalley 416/742-3790Victor Gough 416/677-8840

Communications Richard Bradley c/o4161782-8900

Eastside Chapter Judith Willans c/o4161782-8900

Darren Fuller c/o416/782-8900

c/04161782-8900c/04161782-8900

416/225-8760

416/486-7835

c/o4161782-8900

416/251-1511519/442-7000

Hardware ChapterMachine Language Garry LedezSuperPET Chapter Gerry GoldVIC .20 Chapter Rick Adlard

Anne Gudz

W stside Chapter John EastonA J Farquharson

LibrariansCOMALCommodore 64

FrenchP ETSuperPETVIC 20

BBS Sysop (voice)Assistant Sysop

Conference

Victor Gough 416/677-8840

David Bradley c/o416/782-8900

Richard Bradley c/o4161782-8900

Baudouin St-Cyr cl04161782-8900Mike Donegan 416f639-0329

Bill Dutfield 416/224-0642Daryl King c/0416/782-8900

Walter Holowatenko 4161782-8900

Richard Bradley c/0416f'782-8900

andy Paquette c/o4161782-8900

Doris Bradley 416/782-8900

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


You're invited to thebiggest party atValley Forge since

George broughtthe boys!

M. . R . C . •

The biggest Commodore User Fair in the US.

July 26, 27, 28Valley Forge Convention Center" VaUey Forge PA

• Speakers! • Seminars! • Hanging out!

• Fun! • Vendors! • Great Buys!• Social Events! • Fun!Areas Tours available.

Meet the names you've only read about. Jim Butterfield.

Dick Immers. Len Lindsey. Many, many more! Ask the ques-

tions you need answ.ers to. Have 21/2 days of non-stop

Commodore fun! Bring the whole family. Lots to do. See.

And buy. Bargains galore!

Pre-registration by Ju.ly 1: 21/2 days $25 M.A.R.C.A. Mem-

bers $15 Family Rates avaHable.

For pre-registration information; M.A.R.C.A., P.O. Box1902, Martinsburg, West VA 25401.

DON'T MISS THE PARTY!

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


The SFD-l00l (Super Fast Drive) is now available. With double-sided double-density format, overONE MEGABYTE can be stored on a single floppy disk. ONE HUNDRED 1541-formatted disks can beredu~ed to only SIXTEENSFD-l001-formatted disks. By using theintelligent IEEEbus and a bus expansionIEEEinterface, the S.fD-l001 loads programs and data over TWICE as fast as the 1541 drive, and ALLTHISinside a case the size of the 1.541's!

FULLY 'COMPATIBLE with any Commodore computer that has an IHE interface. F.R'EEutility disks for both theCBM 8032 and the Commodpre 64 are included! Transfer all your files and programs easily from any Commodore

disk drive to your S'FD·1001il

EXPAND your system now with this fast, high-quality, large capacity Commodore disk drive.

The SFO-l001 is available NOW froml'rogressive Peripherals & Software, lnc., your quality

Commodore software and hardware source, Suggested retail price is only $39995,

Dealer inquiries are invited call for more information or for the name of the dealer nearest you...

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


e er

Commodore Magazine

P R O G R A M S ,

P R O G R A M S ,

P R O G R A M S !

M O S T

C U R R E N T

A N D

C O M P L E T E

N E W S !

C L E A R E R ,

M O R E

C O M P R E H E N S I V E

T U l D R I A L S !

Of T A I L E D

H A R D W A R E

A R T I C L E S !

T H E M O S T

P R O D U C T

R E V I E W S

T H E M O S T

C O L O R

G R A P H I C S !

Creating You.rOwn Games on the VIC and 64

-an indispensable guide to the theory and technique of

game design.

Commodares-programming chaflenges to toggle the bits in your own

random access memory.

Ship to Shore-the latest on the telecommunications front.

SOS-your programming maydays answered.

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_ , 1 year Ahoy! subscription (12 issues) .... ,...... $19.95

2 year Ahoy! subscription (24 j :ssues) . . ,. ,. .. .. , .. $37.95, lM y p'aYllllent (in U.S . . dollars) is enclesed,

I B i I I ! me,

Make check or money order payable to ton International.

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ADORESS _

$.26.95

$49.95

CITY

8/2/2019 TPUG Issue 14 1985 May


overa ll r .a ti ng :

L ike a s m art, c om p ute riz ed filin g c ab in et, T HE CONSUL TANT c on tro ls y ou r in fo rm a tio n fo r y ou . Y ou c ho os e th e file s iz e a ndfo rm at - T HE C ONSU LT AN T's .D exib lefile sttuc tu re ad ap ts to alm ost any ap plicatio n y ou c an th ink o f. A nd y ou c an cb an ge th e

. s tm litU re o f y o ur file s w ith ou t h av in g to r e'~ nte r data - a g re at tilQ e s a \'e r~ E as y to le ar n a nd s im p le to u se . B ig s ys te l,lt sp e ed a ndsopb i s ti ca ted sor tiDgfuRc 't ion s , all fo r an excelloy low p rice . .No w on(Jer THE C ONSU LTA NT com es highly r ecomme.nded !

AVA ILABLE NOW FOR THE C OMMODORE 64. COMING SOON FOR THE IBM ec.

tpug issue 14 1985 may

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