


The LSI Journal	April 1984	Volume 2, Number 6
 



INTRODUCTION FROM LSI:


	LATE BREAKING NEWS 	Page 2

	NEW PRODUCTS ANNOUNCEMENTS 	Page 3

	ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST 	Page 4
		patches and update information

	Profile III Plus and LDOS (revisited) 	Page 7



LSI Journal/BASIC Computing Insert:


	View from the Bottom Floor 	Page 9

	Locating high memory routines under LDOS/TRSDOS 6.X 	Page 11


	REGULAR USER COLUMNS:

	*** PARITY = ODD *** - Tim Daneliuk 	Page 12

	'C' What's Happening (Part 6) - Earl Terwilliger 	Page 14

	FROM THE LDOS SUPPORT STAFF:

	LDOS: HOW IT WORKS - an introduction to COMM and LCOMM 	Page 16

	Les Information - Fast Machine Language Disk 1/0 	Page 17

	LSI Journal and LDOS Quarterly Index - by Scott Loomer 	Page 22
	  (Please note that due to the lead times involved,
	   the index in Vol2, #5 is actually more complete.)








Copyright © 1983/1984 by Logical Systems, Incorporated
8979 N. 55th Street P.O. Box 23956
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53223

Main Switchboard and Customer Service: (414) 355-5454
Toll Free Order Number (899) 248-3535




LATE BREAKING INFORMATION
By Bill Schroeder

Yes ... this is the issue of the LSI Journal that was to have appeared in the pages 
of the magazine BASIC Computing. Alas, it seems that this will never come to pass.

About the first week of March, I was informed that there would never be an April 
issue of BASIC Computing. Citing ongoing and growing losses, Irv Schmidt informed me 
that BASIC Computing was going to cease publication. At this writing, they have 
stated that they are making arrangements to have another publication fulfill their 
subscription obligations as they are financially unable to do so. If you have any 
questions about your subscription, contact BASIC Computing at 3838 S. Warner St., 
Tacoma, Washington, 98409 - (206) 475-2219.

On March 9th, 1984, the material that was to have been published in the April issue 
of BASIC Computing was returned to us. We did a mad scramble to put the issue 
together ourselves, and this is the result. Most of the material is presented as it 
would have appeared in BASIC Computing. We are sending this issue to all registered 
LDOS owners to explain the situation. We sincerely apologize for this development. 
Please understand that we had NO KNOWLEDGE WHATSOEVER of the upcoming demise of 
BASIC Computing.

LSI ANNOUNCES TOLL FREE ORDER SERVICE
(899) 248-3535

For your convenience, LSI has installed Toll-Free phone service to our order desk. 
Now you can place orders with LSI "on our nickel". The number will be (800) 248-3535 
and will go into service about March 30th, 1984. We hope you will enjoy the 
convenience of this new service. Please remember that this number is for orders 
only. Customer Service calls will continue to be taken at the main switchboard 
number of (414) 355-5454.

LSI "Such a Deal" Update

Here is the current status of the Deals offered in the last Journal:

DEAL #1:

For those of you that did not receive the previous issue of the Journal, LSI was 
closing out all products not manufactured by LSI. All of the non-LSI software is 
gone, except for MicroPro's MailMerge, Captain 747 from Molimerx and the IJG book 
"How to do it on the TRS-80", by William Barden.

For those who own the LDOS version of WordStar, now is the time to pick up a copy of 
MailMerge. For details on the capabilities of MailMerge, see your WordStar manual 
(the MailMerge documentation is included in it). There are less than twenty copies 
left, so place your order right away. Under Deal #1, MailMerge is $149.40, plus $3 
shipping and handling. We also have a limited quantity of extra WordStar/MailMerge 
manuals available for $20 each plus $4 shipping and handling (binder not included).

"How to do it on the TRS-80" by William Barden is an excellent book for all TRS-80 
owners and LDOS users. This book talks about both hardware and software (including 
LDOS) in a very readable manner. Mr. Barden has always received great praise for his 
books on microcomputers and assembly language programming, and has done it again 
with this book. This is a must for all TRS-80 owners. Whether you buy it from us at 
a discount, or pay full retail, don't boot up without it.

The price, you ask? Well, Deal #1 was only for software products, but "Such a deal 
we have for you". The normal retail price is $29.95, but order it from LSI for just 
$25 by itself, or for $20 with any order over $50 in other merchandise. Enclose your 
check with your order, and LSI will pick up the added shipping charges. Otherwise, 
add $2 for shipping in the United States. Now how many do you want?


DEAL #2:

is over! Please note that the new LSI catalog will be available Real Soon Now. We 
will probably start mailing it out by the beginning of June. Unfortunately, along 
with the new catalog will come some price increases (except for LS-LED, which will 
go down to $49). This makes *now* the time to place that order you've been holding 
off on. Orders postmarked before June 1st, 1984, or placed by phone before that date 
will be honored at the old prices.

DEAL #3:

continues! We said "until we run out" and we meant it (and still do!). With any 
order totaling $50 or more, LSI will include a set of Volume 2 Journals/Quarterlies, 
Numbers 1 through 4 at no extra charge. There is still a reasonable supply left of 
all four issues. Even if you already have all these issues, please take advantage of 
this offer and give them to a less fortunate friend.

DEAL #4:

Speaking of that less fortunate friend, how many of your friends are not using LDOS 
on their TRS-80? Tell them about Deal #4. They can take advantage of it and trade in 
that "other" operating system. Until June 30th, 1984, LSI will take either 
NEWDOS80/v1/v2 or DOSPLUS 3.4/3.5/4 in trade towards the purchase price of the LDOS 
5.1 operating system. Send your old MASTER diskette and MANUAL to LSI, and pay only 
$64.50 plus $5 shipping and handling for a brand-new copy of the LDOS 5.1.4 
operating system (specify model). The only operating system/version other than those 
mentioned above that qualifies for this Deal is 5.0 Model 1 LDOS. It may be traded 
in on LDOS 5.1.4 for the Model 1.

DEAL #5: Sorry, all the extra Radio Shack Hard Disk Systems are gone.

NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENTS

LSI Publishes LDOS Source Code

Logical Systems, Inc. announces publication of the complete, commented, assembler 
source code for the LS-DOS/TRSDOS 6.2 operating system. This may be the first time 
that the complete source code for such a sophisticated operating system has been 
made available to the public at a reasonable price.

The publication is entitled LS-DOS/TRSDOS 6.2 "THE SOURCE", and is published in 
three 8 and 112 by 11, soft bound volumes:

Volume #1 - THE SYSTEM      L-60-011
Volume #2 - THE LIBRARIES   L-60-012
Volume #3 - THE UTILITIES   L-60-013

Each volume is available for $99, or the complete set of three as L-60-020 for $249. 
Delivery of all volumes will begin in June of 1984.

New TRSDOS 6 BASIC Utilities

Logical Systems, the authors of the TRSDOS 6.x operating systems licensed to 
Tandy/Radio Shack for the Model, 4 have announced a new product package for use by 
BASIC programmers, called "BSORT/MOD324".

This package includes a very powerful SORT utility, called "BSORT", which is 
executed from BASIC to sort arrays. BSORT is written entirely in assembler using 
advanced sorting techniques for super fast operation. Tag arrays, index arrays, 
string and numeric arrays, mid-string sorts, ascending and descending sorts and 
much, much more are supported. BSORT requires TRSDOS 6.1.2 or 6.2.0 for proper 
operation. The TRSDOS 6.1.2 release includes a new version of BASIC, and should be 
available from Radio Shack by the time you read this. Radio Shack's catalog number 
for TRSDOS 6.1.2 is 700-2246.
A BASIC program conversion aid called MOD324 completes the package. Again, MOD324 is 
written totally in assembler for speed. This product will convert a Model 3 BASIC 
program to a Model 4-type format. MOD324 is even capable of adjusting print 
locations on the screen ("PRINT @" and "PRINT TAB") as well as pointing out the 
lines that need further attention after the convert. BSORT/MOD324 is available as 
L-32-210 for $49.

LSI Announces FED86

FED86 is the LSI all-purpose File and disk EDitor for the IBM-PC and PC-compatible 
machines (*not* the Tandy 2000) running under MS-DOS or PC-DOS (version 2.X 
required).

Any byte in any given file or disk can be displayed and/or altered. The display 
information in file mode includes: 256 byte record display, file name and drive 
number, record number and relative byte number within the current sector. In 
addition, the value of the byte under the cursor is displayed in hex, decimal and 
binary. In disk mode, the disk relative sector is displayed instead of the file 
name.

FED86 also includes commands for: searching for hex or ASCII strings, a 
case-independent text search, sending a record or group of records to the printer 
and modification of the displayed data (either in hex or ASCII).

All in all, FED86 is a tool that no MS-DOS user should be without. Even if these 
operations sound difficult, FED86 makes them a snap!

LSI Announces the LS-Utility Disk

The LS-Utility Disk can be considered as "the best of 5.1 for 6.X". It includes the 
majority of the most popular filters and utilities from our LDOS 5.1 Filter Disks #1 
and #2, and our Utility Disk #1, reconfigured for use under LDOS/TRSDOS 6. Projected 
availability is June 1984, and the programs included with the LS-Utility Disk are 
expected to be:

PRCODES/FLT	On  printers that will backspace, provides for easy control of 
	boldface and underlining, and also provides slashed zeros.
TRAP/FLT	Traps and throws away any user-defined character.
MAXLATE/FLT	A complete translation filter system for input or output devices.
	Includes tables for EBCDIC and DVORAK translation. Custom tables are
	easily built for any application, and a string of characters may be
	specified to replace a "match".
CALC/FLT	*KI  filter - HEX/DEC/Binary conversion and HEX add/subtract.
KSMPLUS/FLT	Same as KSM, but allows key redefinition "on-the-fly" from the
	keyboard. Also includes "command repeat" and more.
RDTEST/CMD 	Non-destructive forced read of an entire diskette.
READ40/CMD	Allows read-only access to forty cylinder diskettes in a eighty
	cylinder drive by double-stepping (96 TPI only).
TYPEIN/CMD 	Combines the functions of JCL and KSM. Allows most programs that 
	won't 	normally accept JCL to be controlled automatically, if they 
	honor 	the device 1/0 structure of LDOS/TRSDOS 6.

		Items of General Interest

The current release of LDOS for the TRS-80 Models 1, 3 and the LOBO MAX-80 is 5.1.4, 
with file dates of 10/01/83.

The latest (known) release version of TRSDOS 6 is 06.01.02. In this release, there 
are no operating system changes from 06.01.01, but there is a new version of 
Microsoft BASIC supplied by Radio Shack. This version can be obtained from any Radio 
Shack Computer Center upon proof-of-purchase (of a Model 4 or 4P). Your old 06.00.00 
to 06.01.01 DOS disk should serve. The Radio Shack stock number for this update is 
700-2246. Given the heavy demand for this item, your Computer Center may not have it 
in stock, but can order and/or reserve one for you.
Radio Shack Hard Disk Owners who have not yet received the hard disk drivers to 
allow the use of the hard disk under TRSDOS 6 should get a copy of 700-2247. This is 
TRSDOS 06.01.01 along with the hard disk drivers (and formatter). You will also need 
to get the above mentioned 700-2246 so that you have the new version of Microsoft 
BASIC. Again, the Computer Center may not have a 700-2247 in stock for you, but can 
order it.

The following patches have been requested to alter the time/date prompts and 
commands to accept a period instead of a colon or slash as a delimiter. This patch 
accepts a period only (not almost any character as in 5.1.4). The first patch is for 
the boot-up prompts, and should be applied to SYS0. The second is for the DATE and 
TIME commands, and should be applied to SYS7.

.T611SYS0/FIX
. Patch to TRSDOS 06.01.01 as distributed by Radio Shack
. Use the BUILD command or an editor to type in this patch
. as shown, and then PATCH SYS0/SYS.LSIDOS T611SYS0/FIX
.
. This patch forces boot-up date and time prompts to accept
. the period as a delimiter instead of the slash or colon
.
. This part changes the date prompt
D0E,B3=2E
F0E,B3=2F
.
. This part changes the time prompt
D0F,9E=2E
F0F,9E=3A
. End of patch

. T611SYS7/FIX
. Patch to TRSDOS 06.01.01 as distributed by Radio Shack
. Use the BUILD command or an editor to type in this patch
. as shown, and then PATCH SYS7/SYS.LSIDOS T611SYS7/FIX
.
. This patch forces the DATE and TIME commands to accept
. the period as a delimiter instead of the slash or colon
.
. This part changes the date command
D01,EB=2E
F01,EB=2F
.
. This part changes the time command
D03,05=2E
F03,05=3A
. End of patch

The Model 1 to Model 3 upgrade/replacement board mentioned previously by Tim 
Daneliuk in his *** Parity = Odd *** column is available from a company called 
Northern Technology. They are located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, and their 
phone number is (312) 860-1772. By now you may have already seen their ads in the 
TRS-80 magazines.

The following corrections to the article "Profile One Plus" in the January '84 LSI 
Journal were prepared by Joseph J. Kyle-DiPietropaolo:

The patch files for RM, CM, EFC8, EFCC and EFCM needed correction. Using the new 
patch files on the next page with the rest of the previously published patch files 
will result in a properly operating version of Profile One Plus. Please note that 
these patches are for 01.00.00 or 01.00.01 only. With version 01.01.00, all patches 
except EFCM/FIX seem correct, but have not been tested extensively. With all 
versions, PR/FLT should be installed with the SLINE=1 parameter to ensure proper 
report pagination:
FILTER *PR PR/FLT (SLINE=1)<enter>

.CM/FIX *
X'7BC2'=67 44
X'74B8'=18 43
X'7652'=18 43
X'765E'=18 43
X'74BB'=19 43
X'7661'=05 44
X'7832'=05 44
X'761A'=49 40
X'761E'=49 40
X'7617'=01 30
X'782C'=01 30
X'7ABE'=01 30
X'7B3F'=01 39
X'7151'="ONE"
X'73C5'=DE 41
X'74F6'=63
-------------
.RM/FIX *
X'771A'=05 44
X'7770'=05 44
X'779C'=05 44
X'7956'=05 44
X'7598'=18 43
X'770F'=18 43
X'7717'=18 43
X'7765'=18 43
X'776D'=18 43
X'778E'=18 43

X'7796'=18 43
X'759B'=19 43
X'75EO'=63
X'7C63'=01 30
X'7BE2'=01 30
X'7950'=01 30
X'76CE'=01 30
X'714B'="ONE"
X'7CE6'=67 44
X'7591'=DE 41
X'7799'=DE 41
--------------
.EFC8/FIX *
X'56F2'=67 44
X'543C'=01 30
X'5668'=01 30
X'56E9'=01 30
X'707B'=01 30
X'70AD'=01 30
X'7BAF'=01 30
X'7BE7'=01 30
X'7BDE'=18 43
X'7BED'=18 43
X'8DE7'=18 43
X'8DFE'=18 43
X'8E51'=18 43
X'5442'=05 44
X'70D4'=05 44
X'7BF0'=05 44

X'8DD9'=49 40
X'9730'=49 40
X'6DF8'=C4 44
X'6E06'=C4 44
X'5764'=5A 44
X'564C'=5D 44
X'8DD2'=DE 41
X'74C9'=60
-------------
.EFCC/FIX
X'56E7'=67 44
X'9625'=67 44
X'97E9'=67 44
X'9FFD'=67 44
X'A01F'=67 44
X'565D'=01 30
X'56DE'=01 30
X'73B1'=01 30
X'73D5'=18 43
X'73DD'=18 43
X'9228'=18 43
X'9248'=18 43
X'9298'=18 43
X'73E0'=05 44
X'7406'=05 44
X'9225'=49 40
X'5641'=5D 44
X'5759'=5A 44
X'7100'=C4 44

X'710C'=C4 44
X'587B'=60
-------------
EFCM/FIX *
X'8CFF'=67 44
X'7379'=96 43
X'7601'=05 44
X'8843'=05 44
X'8986'=05 44
X'76EC'=C2
X'7423'=18 43
X'75D2'=18 43
X'75FE'=18 43
X'8835'=18 43
X'8840'=18 43
X'882B'=01 30
X'8980'=01 30
X'8BFB'=01 30
X'8C7C'=01 30
X'8772'=DE 41
X'8D7D'=60





 


The following optional patch for LDOS 5.1.3 or 5.1.4 on the Model 1 will allow the 
system time and date routines to utilize a hardware clock such as the Alpha Products 
Newclock80 or Timedate80, and most other clock devices that use the MSM5832 clock 
chip. A similar patch is not possible on the Model 3 as the real-time-clock service 
routines are in ROM. A new service routine could be written as a RTC Task, however.

This patch assumes that the clock is addressed as ports BO through BF. If your 
particular clock module is addressed differently, the underlined bytes may be 
changed. For instance, if your clock uses ports CO to CF, change the underlined B5 
to C5, and alter the rest of the underlined bytes in a similar manner.


. Patch to SYS0/SYS.SYSTEM to allow use of a clock device
. Fix the timer interrupt routine
D04,08=D2 45 ED 78 OD CD A6 47 ED 78 OD E6 OF 85 12 1B
D04,18=C9 11 43 40 01 B5 03 CD C3 45 10 FB
. Fix the date initialization on BOOT
D0D,58=21 46 40 01 BA 01 CD C6 4E 06 03 CD C6 4E 01 BC
D0D,68=0F CD C6 4E EB D6 50 47 DB BB E6 03 11 45 40 21 48 40 20
D0D,7B=26 CB FE 18 22 ED 78 OD A0 07 57 07 07 82 57 ED
D0D,8B=78 OD ED OF 82 77 2B C9
. End of patch




Using Profile 3 Plus under LDOS (revisited)

by Joseph J. Kyle-DiPietropaolo

Profile 3 Plus and LDOS are a very powerful combination. There are, however, several 
things that can cause trouble if you are not careful. Let's take them one at a time.

First, what version should you buy? Well, the only version that will run under LDOS 
is the "Hard Disk" version. Don't let that phrase scare you, as it works quite well 
on floppy disk also. At least two double-density drives are required, and if you are 
going to do any fancy sorting, three would be better. Double-sided and/or eighty 
cylinder drives can be used if you have them.

The "Hard Disk" version is $100 more than the "floppy" version, but this is more 
than offset by the fact that PROSORT is included. PROSORT is Small Computer 
Company's disk virtual sort and enhanced selection module, which normally sells for 
$150 by itself. If you already own the "floppy" version, Radio Shack will sell you 
an upgrade to the "Hard Disk" version for $100 and proof of purchase for the 
"floppy" version. Their catalog number for the upgrade package is 700-6203.

In terms of actually running Profile 3 Plus, there are three things to keep in mind:

1) If you have the *KI driver installed, all references to the <clear> key in the 
Profile documentation should be changed to <shift><clear>. If you are using math 
fields, do not use type-ahead, as Profile does not seem to calculate properly if 
<shift><clear> is struck before the calculation is complete.

2) Profile checks the printer status by looking directly at the hardware. This means 
that if you are using the spooler, the printing rate will not really improve much. 
This can be corrected by searching through all the EFC programs (and RM/CM) for the 
byte sequence 3A E8 37 and replace it with 3E 30 00. This is a good excuse to learn 
how to use FED (included with the LDOS 5.1.4 update). Making these changes will 
disable the check of printer status. Since the system printer driver (which contains 
its own "Printer *BUSY* test") is used to actually output the data, there will be no 
conflicts. Also, you will be able to route printed reports to a disk file without 
having a printer ready and on-line.

3) Lastly, contrary to what the manual says, Profile will *not* work with "DO files" 
under LDOS. This is because of the way keyboard input is requested by Profile. This 
difficulty is neatly fixed by using the TYPEIN utility from the LSI Utility Disk #1 
(Order L-32-070, $39 direct from LSI).

When creating a file of commands to be used with TYPEIN and a Profile user menu, put 
the entire command sequence in the data file. This includes the EFC line. Build the 
file by -putting in the exact keystrokes you would type if performing the procedure 
by hand. Then, invoke the procedure with TYPEIN. Do not attempt to pass the name of 
a DO file to the EFC module by placing it in parenthesis as stated in the Profile 
manual, as it will not work.

For example, let's say that we want to be able to expand our existing data file by 
100 records by pushing one key. First, create a user menu that has an entry called 
"Expand the MAIL file by 100 Records". Set up the user menu so that this entry is 
executed by pushing "E". When "E" is pushed, it should execute the command: TYPEIN 
EXPAND/KYS. The TYPEIN data file you would have to build (with the name EXPAND/KYS) 
is given below. Note that <enter> means the depression of the key marked "ENTER".

Contents of the file EXPAND/KYS:

EFC7<enter>
MAIL<enter>
100<enter>

LSI's LED, the LDOS text EDitor (L-30-020, $29) is an excellent tool for generating 
and maintaining these keystroke files for TYPEIN. LED also has a special HEX mode 
that will allow you to insert the <shift><clear> code (X'1F') directly into a TYPEIN 
keystroke file. This character is needed to terminate "extended mode" functions. 
Without LED, it can be done but it is not easy.

If you must use BUILD, and you need to get a <shift><clear> keystroke into the 
TYPEIN file, do the following: Make sure that KI/DVR is installed when doing the 
BUILD. When you get to the point at which you need to insert the <shift><clear> 
keystroke, actually put a <clear><shift><enter> character there. That character is 
produced by pressing the <clear> key, and while still holding is down, press the 
<shift> key, and while still holding both of them, press the <enter> key and then 
release them all. A Plus/Minus symbol (±) or square block on the Model 1 and MAX-80 
will appear on the screen. Now continue with the remainder of the key data. Whenever 
you need to execute this kind of a TYPEIN procedure, use the following format: 
TYPEIN SELECT/KYS (X1=X'7F1F'). Each <clear><shift><enter> will now be translated to 
the required <shift><clear> when executing. This TYPEIN command can, of course, be 
placed in a user menu.

All prices mentioned above that pertain to LSI products are valid only through May 
31st, 1984. Radio Shack pricing policies and product availability is subject to 
change. Please contact your local Radio Shack Computer Center for more information.



LSI Quick Hint #3

Don't forget about the LDOS SIG (Special Interest Group) on CompuServe. If you are 
already a CompuServe member, simply GO PCS-49. If are not a member, any Radio Shack 
Computer Center can set you up with a membership kit (note: RS232 and modem 
required). There are many useful public domain programs and utilities in the LDOS 
SIG databases, and questions about LDOS and TRSDOS 6 will be answered promptly, 
often both by the LDOS Support staff and experienced users. This is an excellent way 
to keep abreast of the latest in the LDOS world. For most people, CompuServe is only 
a local call away, and that local call plus CompuServe's modest $6 per hour fee is a 
lot less than a long distance call during the day to LSI.


 

View from the bottom floor

Bill Schroeder, Logical Systems, Inc.



Hello to all LSI Journal subscribers 
and readers of Basic Computing. From this 
point forward, the contents of the LSI 
Journal will be presented in Basic 
Computing. We ,,feel that this will be of 
great benefit to both our  tens of thousands 
of users, and to the existing fans of Basic 
Computing magazine. If you are a 
subscriber to the LSI Journal, your 
subscription will be fulfilled by Basic 
Computing, which will contain this LSI 
Journal section. Our subscribers gain the 
additional information, ads, and interesting 
articles from the rest of the magazine, 
while Basic Computing subscribers gain 
technical information and articles of 
special interest concerning LDOS 5.1.x, 
TRSDOS 6.x, LSI products, and last (and 
least), my ramblings.

Just so rumors don't start to fly ... LSI 
was not bought out by Basic Computing, 
nor were they bought by LSI. There is NO 
connection between our companies. The 
name LSI Journal still belongs to LSI, but 
Basic Computing has been granted the 
right to use the name as needed for 
promotional purposes both in and outside 
of this publication. LSI provides all the 
editorial material in our corner of Basic 
Computing magazine. No money changed 
hands between the folks at Basic 
Computing and us here at LSI.

This arrangement is purely one of 
convenience. LSI is a software company, 
Basic Computing is a magazine. Both 
companies are very good at what they do 
best, and less efficient at "the other guy's 
specialty". So, Basic Computing will be 
our publisher.

Mike Schmidt (the owner of Basic 
Computing magazine) and I have been 
discussing the possibility of this 
arrangement for well over a year now. 
Being from a conservative German 
background, I tend to move very slowly on 
this type of major decision. To slow things 
down even more, Mike comes from the 
same conservative German background. 
Between the two of us, we were almost 
moving backward. The final result is, from 
now on, the LSI Journal will be 
incorporated in (about) every third issue of 
Basic Computing (read that as at least that 
often).

Should you have occasion to write or 
call regarding information presented in this 
area of the magazine, please contact LSI 
directly at: 8970 N. 55th St. PO Box 
23956, Milwaukee, WI 53223 (414) 
355-5454. Of course you can always 
contact Basic Computing also, but I would 
like to make it very clear that LSI provides 
all of the material contained in this section 
of Basic Computing.

Now down to what's happening at LSI. 
There have been many changes at LSI as 
we prepare to enter the MSDOS world 
(IBM & compatibles). We will not be 
providing an operating system for this 
market... at this time. Our first product will 
be a truly "RELATIONAL" data base 
manager. This product is very dynamic in 
concept for a micro. It will be easier to use 
than any existing product of similar 
capabilities, faster, more versatile and will 
be very "friendly" to the average user. The 
name and price for this product remain 
undecided at the time of this writing, but 
should be known by the time you read this. 
Please call for additional information if 
you are interested. Note: This product will 
be for use with MS-DOS 2.x only.

Question: What is AT&T up to!?
Answer: Who knows?

One thing is certain: with IBM having 
sold about 850,000 PCs in 1983, and 
projecting about 2,500,000 (that's right-- 
2.5 million!) to be sold in 1984, it will take 
a very heavy hitter to slow them down. If 
there is a company that can actually go 
head to head against IBM in the small 
business and professional market, it is 
most certainly AT$T (whoopsthat $ must 
have been a slip). AT&T is one of the 
largest and richest companies in the world 
(much larger than even IBM).

AT&T could have kept their antitrust 
case of the Seventies in court for another 
20 or 30 years if they wanted to. But lo 
and behold, all of a sudden they offer a 
settlement to the U.S. government. What is 
most amazing is the fact that the airheads 
in Washington, D.C. accepted it. AT&T 
drew their own draft for a break-up and 
reorganization of their own operations. 
They would agree to this "massive" 
break-up only if they would be allowed to 
enter "new markets", that they had (years 
earlier) agreed to stay out of. One of those 
markets is, of course, computers and other 
end-user DP equipment and services.

For many years, the fellows up at Bell 
Labs have been far ahead of private 
industry in computer technology. They 
have perfected practical bubble memory, 
32-bit microprocessors and some of the 
best concepts (and implementations) in the 
software industry. Now, AT&T owns Bell 
Labs, and gets to take the cost of operating 
it as a TAX DEDUCTION (by a special 
Act of Congress). Boy, I wish LSI could 
write off our costs of software 
development that way.

AT&T has more ready cash, a larger 
manufacturing capability, a larger support

system, and a larger marketing system 
than any company in the microcomputer 
field today. For that matter, make that 
ANY company at all, in any field.

And now AT&T cometh
Let us imagine an AT&T 
manufactured, marketed, and supported 
microcomputer system. The word "system" 
is very important here, and is going to 
encompass a lot more than what IBM, 
Apple or Tandy calls a "system" today. 
Think more of something like the United 
States telephone "SYSTEM". That, of 
course, was the last AT&Tcontrolled 
accomplishment. The U.S. phone system 
(and other types of communications 
associated with this "system") are without 
a doubt a major reason for the prosperity, 
industrial growth and power of the U.S.

I believe that the next AT&T system 
will begin to take shape in 1985, and be 
providing full services to the top 50 U.S. 
population centers by 1990, with full 
coverage of the North American continent 
by 2000. Let's take a look at what this next 
"system" might bring.

With the present cable, microwave, 
satellite, and radio network under the 
direct and indirect control of AT&T, it is 
possible today to communicate in "full 
duplex" with almost every residence and 
business in the United States, and many 
foreign countries. Much of the capacity of 
this network is already utilized for data 
transmission, collection and distribution. 
This usage is for many different reasons, 
and by many varied interests ranging from 
Government activities to medical 
education to airline pilot weather data. 
Note: at present, the list of data 
accumulation and distribution uses for the 
AT&T system is growing at an 
accelerating rate, faster than ever before, 
and this rate will continue to accelerate for 
a long time to come as the true potential of 
the system, and the hunger for "DATA" is 
exploited by our friends at AT&T.

I believe that AT&T is about to 
introduce a new computer intended for 
everyone, from the home user, to the 
president of a large company, to the bank 
around the corner. This computer will 
become part of a system of distributive 
processing the likes of which the world has 
never dreamed of. These machines will be 
entirely "solid state" in that they will 
contain no moving parts (other than the 
keyboard system until full voice control is 
perfected).

These machines will have a megabyte 
or more of bubble memory, and at least 
256K of regular RAM (bubble memory is 
relatively slow). There will be a 9- or 
12-inch monitor, with color and graphics 
capability, and TV interface options. A 
keyboard of 90-plus keys will be provided 
and initially a 1200 to 4800 baud 
communication system. This will all be 
available to the customer as components, 
CPU, keyboard, and monitor, with several 
options for each component.

The systems will initially rent for 
between $50 and $250 per month, with all 
maintenance provided by AT&T. By 1990, 
the price should fall to around $25 to $75 
(or the equivalent at the time, adjusted for 
inflation). The initial thrust of this product 
will be aimed at the business market place. 
As production distribution and profits rise, 
they will decrease the costs to truly enter 
the "home" market at around the cost of 
present phone service.

Now for the "magic" - the
SOFTWARE system

The most expensive and the most 
volatile part of any computer system is the 
software. Not the operating system itself, 
but the user applications. The mass market 
for "software" does not exist! But the 
"mass use" potential of software does 
exist. Think about it. Any particular piece 
of music is enjoyed by many more people 
than own the recording. Movies are 
watched by tens of thousands more than 
own a legitimate copy of the movie. 
Libraries are used by many more people 
than own complete libraries, or for that 
matter, those that even own a significant 
number of books.

For the want of a better term, let's call 
this concept "mass-use software". All the 
items mentioned above are "authored", 
"edited", "produced", "published", "stored 
on media", "reproduced" and then 
"marketed". Computer software is handled 
in a similar manner until it reaches the 
"marketed" stage. In most cases you must 
buy or license a physical copy of the 
reproduced media to use the product. That 
would be like having to buy a "print" of a 
movie so you could watch it, or marketing 
a book and NOT allowing it to be added to 
libraries.

This is not efficient, and would have 
greatly reduced the mass acceptance of 
products from the aforementioned 
industries. In the early days of each of 
these industries, the one to one marketing 
concept was all that existed, just like the 
handling of software today. I believe 
AT&T is about to change that, and bring 
computing in the U.S. to a new age of 
maturity.

AT&T could easily provide fifty or 
more supercomputers, properly placed 
around the country. When you turned on 
your own AT&T computer, it would 
automatically establish a link to the local 
supercomputer. You would then select the 
software you wished to use for the day (or 
as long as your machine stays on). The 
software and all support files would be 
sent to your machine. The host system 
would automatically know who you are 
and provide you with your personal data 
files at the same time. It would then 
disconnect from your computer. When you 
complete your work and sign off at the end 
of the day, your machine would 
automatically call the host and send back 
your updated data files, and then shut itself 
off.

Initially, data transmission speeds will 
be limited to 4800 bits per second, or less. 
This will change rapidly in the 1990s as 
fiber optic cables are laid, and fiber optic 
links enter most houses in the U.S. This 
"optical cable" will carry your T.V. as well 
as your phone and computer services, at up 
to hundreds of times faster than existing 
data transmission speeds.

There are several very strong points in 
favor of such a system. First, software 
piracy is eliminated (or made very 
difficult), as only the host has your data, 
and you will not have on-sight permanent 
storage. Handling of diskettes, making 
proper backups of data files and the like 
would not be the user's problem (most 
users don't handle this job correctly 
anyway).

Second, the customer would always 
have the most recent version of the 
software to run. Then, if a bug is reported 
to a vendor, he simply corrects the bug and 
updates the product on any one of the host 
supercomputers. In the middle of the night, 
the host machines exchange updated files. 
The next morning, all software is corrected 
for EVERY user. The same concept 
applies to documentation and updates.

Third, you will be able to send data to 
anyone in the country in just hours or 
maybe minutes. The postal service would 
finally be dealt a long deserved death 
blow.

Fourth would be the reduced cost of 
such a system for the user. How much 
software do you own that you DO NOT 
USE? With this system, you could select 
between dozens (or hundreds) of word 
processors or spreadsheet programs, and 
only pay when you use them. The 
"Software Usage Fee, For End Reception" 
("SUFFER" for short) would probably 
range from 25 cents to as much as $25 per 
day for "rental". AT&T would keep a 
percentage of this fee as a "distribution" 
charge (20 to 30% seems reasonable). The 
SUFFER charges would be levied on your 
regular phone bill, along with: your mail 
charges, T.V. usage, data file storage 
charges, and of course your charges for 
local equipment, options and services. 
Sounds like AT$T will be getting a lot 
more out of us than when they were "just 
the phone company".

One last point is that AT&T would 
probably have little or nothing to do with 
applications software (too much trouble). 
They would accept most professionally 
written packages for installation on the 
system. It would be up to the developer to 
promote and advertise the product to 
generate usage. Programs with very limited 
use would be removed from the system. A 
good software product will make millions 
for the authors under this system. Users 
will get much better quality software, as 
"JUNK MERCHANTS" will not be able to 
survive under this type of system. The 
computer owners would have to use a 
product repeatedly to make it a success.

One big negative is that this whole 
system will make 1984 (the "Big Brother" 
syndrome) a reality, and turn Orwell into 
-a prophet. The government will be able to 
get their hands on "anything and 
everything", from payroll data to the letter 
you write to your mother, and how much 
you owe on your house, directly through 
the system. Tax collections should 
skyrocket. This is the main reason why I 
feel this overall concept will become 
reality. The government will want access 
to the tremendous database created by this 
type of system. Complete electronic 
banking will become reality (there will be 
no cash transactions to avoid taxes) and no 
one will have any truly private 
information.

The end of an era and the dawn of the 
information revolution is upon us. 
Whatever the outcome, our civilization is 
about to undergo radical change.

For all that the AT&T Mega-lith has 
done for the American people in the past, 
AT&T, we thank you. One can only wish 
that the results of your next 
accomplishment will be as benevolent to 
the American people. I hope so






Locating high memory routines under 
LDOS/TRSDOS 6.X

Richard Schulman, MagiComp
2710 W. Country Club Rd., Philadelphia, PA 19131


A short while after my Mod 4 came rolling in, I got the tech 
manual and turned to the SVC section to find out how to 
convert my Mod 3 subroutines. One of the first SVCs I looked 
for was the one to get USTOR$ - the LDOS 8 byte storage area 
allocated to the user. I store the addresses of my subroutines 
there so that I can find them from LBASIC. Unfortunately, I 
never found the SVC -because there isn't one. So I plunged in to 
find out how to locate my routines.

LSI has adopted a convention for a header to precede high 
memory routines. Using this header allows an SVC to locate the 
routine for you. Listing I demonstrates the technique by fetching 
the address of INKY4.




Listing 1


START:	LD	DE,FSPEC	;header to find

	LD	A,83	;GTMOD

	RST	28H

FSPEC:	DEFM	'INKY4'

	DEFB	0DH

DE is loaded with the address of the name of the routine you 
want to find, and A with the number of the SVC (in this case 
83). The name must be in UPPER CASE characters and 
terminated

Listing 2

PUSH	HL	;Save the parameter address
LD	E,(HL)	;Load the actual parameter
INC	HL	;itself into DE
LD	D,(HL)
LD	HL,18
ADD	HL,DE	;Add 18 to DE
EX	DE,HL	;Address of 'INKY4' to DE
LD	A,83	;SVC number
RST	28H
POP	DE	;Recover parameter location
EX	DE,HL	;Move routine location to DE
LD	(HL),E	;Move LSB to parameter
INC	HL
LD	(HL),D	;Move MSB to parameter
RET
DEFM	'INKY4'
DEFB	0DH

Listing 3

14 DIM US(11):FOR X=0 TO 11:US(0)=0:NEXT X
15 DATA 24293,22051,4641,6400,16107,-4269,
   -5167,9075,-13966,2004l,22859,3380
16 FOR X=0 TO 11:READ US(X):NEXT X:
   X=VARPTR(US(0))
17 CALL X(X):INKY4=X '** SAVE INKY4 ADDRESS
20100 '** INKEY ROUTINE
20105 CALL INKY4(Z)

Listing 4
;************
;** HEADER **
;************
BEGIN:	JR	START
	DEFW	LAST-1	;HIGHEST MEMORY BYTE
	DEFB	5
	DEFM	'INKY4'
MODDCB:	DEFW	$-$
	DEFW	0
START:	PUSH	HL	;SAVE LOCATION OF PARAMETER

with a character whose code is in the range 0-31. After 
executing the SVC with RST 28H, the starting address of 
INKY4 is in HL, and the Z flag is set (NZ if it wasn't found).

Of course, that doesn't entirely solve the problem of how to 
get this address into BASIC so that you can CALL (or USR) the 
routine.

The method I chose involves passing a parameter to the 
routine, and sending the address back in the parameter. The key 
to finding the routine is to know where to find the name of the 
routine (so it can be loaded into DE). The program is shown in 
Listing 2. The parameter passed to this program is the 
ADDRESS of the program itself.

That is the secret to finding the location of the name of the 
routine you wish to locate. The program is exactly 18 bytes 
long. Therefore adding 18 to the address of the program (the 
parameter we passed) gives us the location of the name of the 
routine we are searching for. That is the purpose of the LD 
HL,18 and ADD HL,DE instructions. The 18 instructions can be 
loaded into an integer array as shown in the BASIC program in 
Listing 3.

On line 16, X is set to the location of X(0) in memory. It is 
both the location of the routine CALLed in line 17 and the 
parameter passed to it. The integer INKY4 is the location of the 
high memory routine.

There is one more secret to success. You have to translate 
the name of the high memory routine into integers. The letters 
I,N,K,Y and 4 are represented in memory by the ASCII codes 
73,78,75,89 and 52 respectively. To find out what integers to 
use, let's look at I and N. Those two letters make up one integer. 
Set I%=0. Then poke the codes for the letters into I%: POKE 
VARPTR(I%), 73: POKE VARPTR(I%)+1,78. Then PRINT 
1% and you will find that I%=20041. The value for NK is 
22859, and the value for 4 + carriage return (code 13) is 3380. 
Those are the last three values in the DATA statement at line 15.

If your routine name has an even number of characters you 
can terminate the name with an integer value of 0-31 (assuming 
an extra byte of value 0 following the terminating character). I 
just use 13 from habit.

High Memory Headers

None of this is possible without the proper header. My 
header for INKY4 is shown in Listing 4. The first two bytes 
jump to the start of the actual routine. Next is a two byte integer 
with the address of the highest byte of memory occupied by the 
routine. Then one byte which gives the length of the name of the 
routine, 5 in this case INKY4. There follows two byte reserved 
for the address of a Device Control Block if the routine is 
associated with a device and two bytes that are reserved for I 
don't know what.

Do it Again

You can reuse the routine in lines 14-17 in the same 
program. Line 18 would reset US(9) to (11) or however 
many elements after US(8) need to be changed. For 
example, let's find the routine FLASH. Line 18 would be 
US(9)=19526:US(10)=21313:US(11)=72 (I terminated 'FLASH' 
with a 00), followed by X=VARPTR(US(0)):CALL 
X(X):FLASH=X. You can do it as many times as you need in 
the same program. And since you can wipe out arrays in BASIC 
under LDOS (TRSDOS) 6.x, you can ERASE US when you're 
done to reclaim its space and have the addresses of your routines 
in the integers INKY4 and FLASH (and whatever  else).

Be sure to put X=VARPTR(US(0)) before each CALL X. 
BASIC moves things around dynamically and the address of 
US(0) might change between calls to X. And be absolutely 
certain that X is an integer. I can promise you from experience 
that you will not like the results if X in not an integer.

That's all there is to it. Simply MERGE lines 14-17 with 
your BASIC program, then remove the last three integers and 
replace them with the name of the high memory routine you are 
looking for.







***Parity = Odd***

© 1983, Tim Daneliuk, TH Communications Associates




Welcome to PARITY = ODD! This 
may be the first time you've seen this 
column, so introductions are in order. 
PARITY = ODD originated in the early 
days of the LDOS Quarterly. At the time, I 
was reviewing TRS-80 related products for 
several magazines, as well as beta testing 
products for the LDOS operating system. 
In talking with Bill Schroeder of Logical 
Systems, it became clear that LDOS was 
soon to become a dominant force in the 
TRS-80 industry. And what a force it is! 
There are LDOS products for the TRS-80 
Models 1 and 3, and the latest machines in 
that family (the Models 4 and 4P) use a 
descendant of LDOS 5.1 as their primary 
DOS. Yes folks, TRSDOS 6 is a version of 
LDOS. In fact, LDOS and TRSDOS 6 are 
so closely related in concept that most of 
the major commands work almost 
identically.

Originally, PARITY = ODD was 
created as a forum for examining topics of 
particular interest to the LDOS user. In 
this column you'll see product reviews, 
discussions of programming technique, 
solutions to user's problems, and almost 
anything else that strikes my fancy. If you 
have a particular question or want to see a 
specific product reviewed, let me know. 
Moreover, feel free to bring up topics 
unrelated to LDOS directly. In the coming 
installments you'll probably see items 
concerning CP/M and MSDOS now that 
Tandy will be distributing these operating 
systems.

I can be contacted by mail and via 
CompuServe. If you choose to write, 
please send your letter to this magazine 
and my attention. If you want to "talk" by 
electronic mail, you'll find me skulking 
about on the LDOS Special Interest Group 
(SIG) of Compuserve. My PPN # is 
70745,1520. Either way, there are some 
vital pieces of information you should 
always include. First, please include your 
name and address (a telephone number is 
helpful too). Second, always include a 
description of the system you are using. 
Please state explicitly which TRS-80 or 
TRS-80 "work alike" you are using as well 
as the types and sizes of disks drives, 
controller, etc., you have. Finally, if you 
are requesting help with a problem, please 
try to describe the problem in a logical, 
step-by-step manner. Be as explicit as 
possible. I can't much with a problem like 
"It doesn't work right".

Remember, this column reflects my 
opinion. I try to responsibly evaluate those 
products about which I write, but errors 
can and will happen. If you find such an 
error, let me know.
Chips
Tandy recently unveiled their 
MS-DOS machine, the Tandy 2000. The 
2000 is notable because it is one of the 
first personal computers to use the Intel 
80186 microcomputer chip. To understand 
the power of the '186 we need to take a 
quick look under the hood of the modern 
microprocessor.

The much-touted IBM-PC uses the 
Intel 8088 microprocessor. IBM will tell 
you that this makes the PC a "sixteen bit" 
computer. Horsefeathers! Internally, the 
8088 contains data registers which are 
indeed 16 bits wide. BUT -externally (i.e. 
those places where the 8088 "talks" to the 
rest of the computer and the outside world) 
data is transferred 8 bits at a time. This is a 
situation which is much like the 8 bit Z-80 
microprocessor. The Z-80 also has 16 bit 
internal registers and it transfers data to the 
rest of the system a byte at a time. In fact, 
the only significant advantage that a 8088 
has is that it can address up to 1 Megabyte 
of memory directly compared to the Z-80's 
64K Byte maximum. This 16 Bit internal/8 
Bit external architecture is a large part of 
the reason the IBM-PC is so wretchedly 
slow! That's just my opinion of course, but 
if you want an eye-opening experience, try 
benchmarking a program on a TRS-80 
Model 4 or LOBO MAX-80 against an 
IBM-PC. The PC will generally be slightly 
faster, but not enough in my judgement to 
justify the 30-50 percent price difference 
between these machines.


So, what's an 80186? It is an enhanced 
version of the Intel 8086 microprocessor. 
The 8086 is a processor which has the 
same instruction set as the 8088. However, 
the '86 not only has internal 16-bit data 
paths, it also has EXTERNAL 16-bit data 
paths. For this reason alone, it generally 
runs quite a bit faster than the '88. The 
'186 enhances this further by including 
almost an entire computer on one chip, and 
offering a faster clock speed. In addition to 
the 8086 microprocessor, the 80186 
includes such things as a DMA (Direct 
Memory Access) controller, and memory 
chip select logic all on one piece of 
silicon. This makes the '186 a very cost 
effective part when you're designing a 
complete computing system. The 80186 
also has some new instructions which the 
'88 and '86 don't have. The '186 also has 
the advantage of being compatible with all 
the instructions of the '88 and '86. This 
means that programs written for the latter 
two will also run on the 80186!


The bottom line is that you can expect 
the Tandy 2000 to be quite a performer. 
Though it does not appear to be 
"compatible" with the IBM-PC, most 
software which uses the MS-DOS 
operating system for 1/0 (and doesn't try to 
"talk" to the hardware directly) ought to 
work with the Tandy 2000. The one 
potential weakness of the 2000 is that is 
uses "quad density" (doublesided, 
double-density eighty track) disk drives. 
While this gives an enormous amount of 
storage, it may not be easy to move 
programs and files to and from "normal" 
MS-DOS forty track drives. I'm expecting 
a review machine fairly soon - I'll let you 
know what I find.



Disk, Disk, Disk...
If you've followed the evolution of 
LDOS at all, you probably realize that 
Logical Systems also publishes many 
useful add-on products for their operating 
system. The latest such product is called 
diskDISK, and will be especially useful for 
those of you using LDOS on a hard disk 
drive. To understand how diskDISK can 
be used, we need to step back and look at a 
hard disk system.
By virtue of its tremendous storage 
capacity, a hard disk can contain literally 
hundreds of files. While all that storage is 
great, it becomes difficult to keep track of 
all the files on the disk after a while. One 
partial solution to this dilemma is to use 
hard disk "partitions". A partition is simply 
part of the hard disk treated as a separate 
logical drive. For instance, if you had a 
disk drive with four platters (storage 
surfaces) each capable of storing 2 
Megabytes, you could organize the drive 
one of several ways. You could have one 
eight Meg, two four Meg, four two Meg or 
any combination of the above which totals 
8 Megabytes of storage. By the way, 
partitioning is only possible if the hard 
disk driver program is written to do so. 
The point is that one large hard disk is 
made to "look" like several smaller disk 
drives. The advantage of this approach is 
that you break the mass storage into 
smaller, more easily managed "chunks" of 
storage.

Even with disk partitioning, there are 
still times when you will be limited by the 
large number of files you have to manage 
on a hard disk. It would be ideal to go 
even further and sub-divide a given 
PARTITION of a hard disk. The diskDISK 
utility does just that. With diskDISK, you 
can create a "logical" storage area on a 
hard disk which has the capacity of a 5 or 
8 inch floppy. In other words, diskDISK 
creates a file which is large enough to store 
as much as say, a single 5" floppy. Then 
this FILE is installed in LDOS as a logical 
disk drive.

For instance, I generally use a LOBO 
1850 hard disk as the principal drive of my 
system. This drive stores 8 Megabytes, and 
is partitioned into two 2 Megabyte 
partitions (Drives 0 and 1) and one 4 
Megabyte partition (Drive 2). On Drive 1, 
1 have a file called C/DD. This is a 
diskDISK file which ordinarily looks just 
like any other file to the system. If I issue 
the command "DD :3 C/DD" from LDOS 
Ready, this FILE is installed as logical 
Drive 3. From then on, any LDOS 
operation on Drive 3 (DIR, FREE, KILL, 
etc.) takes place physically in the file 
C/DD. This is entirely invisible to the user. 
The diskDISK drivers make C/DD "look" 
like a floppy disk drive. In the case of this 
particular file, I used diskDISK to "format" 
it to look like a double-density, 
double-sided, 40 track disk drive. This 
gives me about 360K of storage on this 
logical drive, more than enough to store a 
C compiler and my current C program 
source files.
You can create a different diskDISK 
file for each major type of file in your 
system to help organize your files. For 
instance, I can have one diskDISK set up 
for BASIC programs, another for 
PROFILE, and still another for utilities. 
There's a hidden benefit in all this too. The 
granule size for an LDOS hard disk system 
is always at least 4K. Even if your file only 
has 2 bytes of data in it it will still occupy 
at least 4K of disk space. When you save a 
file on a diskDISK, the granule size is that 
of the floppy disk you're emulating. For 
instance, files stored on a SSDD 5" 
diskDISK use 1.5 K granules. Your two 
byte file will occupy 1.5 K instead of 4 K, 
for a net savings of 2.5 K of disk space. If 
you have many small files, the savings are 
tremendous. A special diskDISK format 
(called type 1) uses 256 byte granules for 
the most efficient storage possible.

Another advantage is that a diskDISK 
only occupies one directory entry on the 
hard disk, no matter how many files 
actually exist inside. If you have a lot of 
small files on a hard disk or 8 inch floppy, 
you can easily run out of directory space 
before you run out of disk space. In a 
sense, diskDISK gives LDOS the capacity 
of having sub-directories similar to 
MD-DOS 2.x and UNIX.

diskDISKs can be created on any type 
of LDOS compatible media. This product 
is available for either the Model 4 running 
TRSDOS 6 or the LDOS 5.1.x family of 
DOS products. Either package costs $99 
and is available from Logical Systems Inc., 
8970 N. 55th Street, P.O. Box 23956, 
Milwaukee, WI 53223.



Random Items of Interest
Because of the volume of products 
sent to me for review, it isn't always 
possible to look at each one in depth.

From time to time, you'll see mini-
reviews like these. First, if you're an LDOS 
5.1.x user and need a great disk cataloging 
program, take a look at ZCAT from 
MicroConsultants. It is written entirely in 
assembly language and is the best of its 
type I've seen to date. It costs only $35 and 
is available from MicroConsultants, 7509 
Wellesley Drive, College Park, MD 
20740-3037 (301) 474-8486.
Model 4 owners may be interested in 
the new "PRO-CESS" utility from 
MISOSYS. This product is very similar to 
the CMDFILE program included with 
LDOS 5. 1, except that PROC-CESS runs 
under TRSDOS 6. This product also has 
some nice new twists, like being able to 
sort load module records by address and 
conversion of X-type patches to D patches. 
PRO-CESS is $40 and can be obtained 
from MISOSYS, P.O. Box 4848, 
Alexandria, VA 22303-0848, (703) 
960-2998.

Finally, if you use SuperScripsit, there 
are two sources of printer drivers you 
should know about. One is softERware, 
and the other is PowerSOFT. I've used the 
softERware product which seems to work 
fine, but I've not seen the PowerSOFT 
driver. Contact these companies for more 
details: PowerSOFT, 11500 Stemmons 
Freeway, Suite 125, Dallas, TX 75229 
(214) 484-2976, or softERware, 300 
Grenola St., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 
(213) 459-3414.

The Finishing Touches
That about wraps it up for this 
installment of PARITY = ODD. Hopefully 
the next time you read this column, I'll 
have something to report on the Tandy 
2000, as well as the usual collection 
TRS-80 reviews and trivia! So long for 
now.





The "C" Language, part 6
Pointers, arrays, structures and common errors

Earl "C." Terwilliger, 647 N. Hawkins Ave., Akron, Ohio 44313



Could you use some POINTERS on how to STRUCTURE 
better C programs? In this part, Part VI, structures will be 
introduced and the discussion on pointers and arrays will 
continue. Oh? You thought when you read the word POINTERS 
and the word STRUCTURE that this part would really be 
discussing techniques for improving your C code? Ha! Well, 
okay, not to disappoint you, included in this part is a discussion 
of the most common errors or "things" not to do in a C program. 
Will that help?

First, let's continue on from the last part with pointers and 
arrays.

In the last part, you saw an expression *ptr++. Were you 
puzzled? Remember back when the ++ and -operators were 
introduced? It was stated that ++ added one to its operand and -- 
subtracted one from its operand. Be careful applying this to 
pointers. The "one" referred to which is added to or subtracted 
from a pointer is actually a scale factor. This scale factor is 
dependent on the type the pointer points to. That means it is 
scaled by a size equal to the data type length. This holds true for 
all "pointer arithmetic". (For example, in a Z80 based machine 
the scale factors are 1 for char, 2 for int.)

There are some rules to follow when doing arithmetic in C 
using pointers. It is legal to:

add an integer to or subtract an integer from a pointer
subtract a pointer from a pointer
compare a pointer to another pointer

All other conceivable arithmetic, including shifting or 
masking is illegal. Note: a pointer containing NULL or 0 is a


special case. The C language guarantees that if a pointer points 
to valid data, it will not contain 0. The 0 value is usually used to 
indicate an error condition. An example of this would be when a 
storage allocate function is called. This function may have been 
designed to return a non zero pointer to the beginning of the 
allocated storage. If storage can not be allocated it could return a 
NULL (zero) value indicating an error of some type occurred. 
Consider the statements below for the discussion following:

char *ptr;
static char a[5] = "test"; 
ptr = a;
++ptr;

ptr is a pointer to type character. ptr is initially set to the 
address of the array a. This is written as &a[O] or simply a. 
Next, ptr is incremented to point to the next element of the 
array. This is written as ptr++. (Other possible ways to code it, 
in this example, could have been *ptr++, *++ptr, *(++ptr) or 
*(ptr++). Note that (*ptr)++ would create a different undesired 
result than *ptr++. The ++ and * operators are of equal 
precedence and associate right to left.) From the above 
statements, you can conclude that array subscripting can be done 
by incrementing a pointer. You can also conclude that the 
following two expressions are equivalent:

ptr = a;
ptr = &a[0];

(Note that, in effect, an array name is a pointer expression. 
Note also that using pointers rather than array subscripting 
usually results in more efficient code.)

As general rules:

a[n] is equivalent to *(a+n)
*(&a[n]) is equivalent to *(a+n)
&a[n] is equivalent to &a[0]+n is equivalent to a+n

Perhaps if I spelled out how to "pronounce" some of the 
expressions used in the general rules above, these rules might 
become more clear?

&	means the address
*	means the data at
a[n]	means element n of array a
&a[n]	means the address of element n of 
array a
*(&a[n]) means the data (element) at the 
address of element n of array a
This says  the same thing as element 
n of array a
*(a+n)	means element n of array a
a + n	means element n of array a

Did the above help?

If you have been looking at some sample C programs, you 
may have seen by now that sometimes an array name is written 
as a[] or *a when used as parameters in a function. Rather nice 
don't you think? The function, when passed an array name, can 
treat it as an array, as a pointer or both. If you have some doubt, 
look at the C code in Listing 1.

The arguments argc and argv are not new to you, they were 
described in Part II. As you noted, argv is treated as an array and 
as a pointer in the above program. Are you curious about the 
argv[0][0] expression used in the printf function? What will 
print is a single character, the first character of the command 
line argument after the program name. If the above program was 
called test, to invoke it and pass it an argument, you might type:

test –l myfile/dat

If you compile it and try it using the above invocation, you 
should see the - printed. (Try it with different argument values 
and different numbers of arguments.) Of what value is this?


Listing 1

main (argc, argv)
    int argc;
    char **argv;
{
    if (argc < 2) {
        printf("Error - no parameter was 
            given!");
        exit(1);
    }
    ++argv;
    printf("%c\n",argv[0][0]);
}
Well, actually this program might be used as part of a larger 
program and the argv[0][0] could be used to test for a "switch" 
such as + or - in front of a parameter. In the example invocation 
above, I included the myfile/dat parameter to suggest some 
possibilities for you to ponder!

The argv function parameter, as mentioned in Part II, is a 
pointer to an array of pointers. Here is a list of possible ways or 
forms in which you might see it used: argv, *argv, argv[n], 
*argv[0], (*argv)[0], argv[0][0]. Having some trouble 
"visualizing" what each represents? Look at a possible storage 
map (chart) of argv:

     |---------|
argv | address |--------|
     |---------|        |
                        |
                   |----V----|
argv[0] or *argv   | address |------|
                   |---------|      | *argv[0]
   |---------------| address |      |   or
   |               |---------|      | argv[0][0]
   |               | address |  |---V----|
   |               |---------|  | string |
|--V-----|         |         |  |  data  |
| string |
|  data  |

I hope the above map will be of some aid. Try to fit into the 
above map all of the ways of using the function argument argv. 
Enough of this for awhile! Let's switch topics and introduce 
structures.

A nice feature for a language is the ability to group variables 
of different types and treat them as one. This grouping of 
variables, called a structure in C, is called a record in other 
computer languages. Listing 2 is an example of the declaration 
of a sample C structure.

The struct keyword is used to declare a structure. An 
optional name or tag can follow the struct keyword. In this 
example, I used the tag of payroll. The tag names the structure 
and can be used as a shorthand method for the complete 
structure declaration. For example, to declare two more 
structures of type payroll, it might be done as follows:

struct payroll personl, person2;

The variables declared in the structure are referred to as 
members. Structure members or tags can have the same name as 
other simple variables. The C compiler can tell them apart due 
to the way they are used. Members of a structure are referenced 
as follows:

structure-name.member

The "." is called the structure operator. It connects the 
structure name to a member name. More will be said about 
structures in the next part!

Now, as promised, Table I is a list of many of the most 
common errors found in a C program. Keep these "mistakes" in 
mind as you code in C. Looking out for these pitfalls will help 
you design a more "bug free" program.

As you read some of the above most frequent C coding 
errors didn't you say to yourself, "Yes, I have done that before."? 
If you did, you are not alone! Some of these errors are caught by 
the C compiler, many are not. Another program for detecting 
possible errors in C code is called LINT. It typically better 
enforces the rules of C and reports more possible errors than 
does the C compiler.

In the next part, the C programming environment will be 
discussed along with many functions which are part of (or 
should be part of) the "standard" library. Structures will also be 
covered in more detail. Practice your C coding techniques until 
then!

Listing 2

struct payroll {  char  name[30];
                  int   age;
                  char  sex;
                  int   pay;
               }



Table 1 - C Language Pitfalls

Using = instead of == in an if statement 
Thinking arrays start at index 1 instead of 0
Unclosed braces or brackets
Forgetting a ;
Using / instead of \
"Off by one" errors in looping or array indexing
Declaring function arguments after the {
Forgetting the precedence of operators
Thinking C has built in string comparisons
Using ' instead of "
Using ( ) instead of [ ]
Function arguments placed in the wrong order
Not reserving an array element for the terminal \0
Forgetting about "side effects"





LDOS: How it works - an introduction
to COMM and LCOMM

Joseph J. Kyle-DiPietropaolo


LCOMM (on LDOS 5.1.x) and 
COMM (on TRSDOS 6.x) are both very 
powerful communications packages, but 
few people use them to their full 
advantage. Admittedly, the manual(s) are a 
hit terse in regards to these packages, but 
with a little help everyone should be able 
to use these utilities. If you need any help 
in regards to physically connecting your 
modem to your computer, contact your 
vendor for the proper cables and 
instructions.

Getting started-- First, type the 
commands below at DOS ready:

Under TRSDOS 6.x:
SET *CL COM/DVR<enter>
SETCOM (DTR,W=8,P=N)<enter>
COMM *CL<enter>

Under LDOS 5.1.x:
SET *KI KI (T,J)<enter>
SET *CL RS232T 
(DTR,W=8,P=N)<enter>
LCOMM *CL<enter>

Note that <enter> means to press the 
"ENTER" key. If you have a Model 1, on 
the second line type: "SET *CL 
RS232R<enter>" instead. Your system is 
now set up for RS232 communication at 
300 baud, the most common mode when 
using a modem over the telephone line. 
This setup should work for most modems, 
including the Radio Shack modems and 
their DC Modem II.

When you enter COMM/LCOMM in 
this manner, you are immediately in the 
terminal mode. Anything you type will be 
sent to the modem, and whatever is 
received will be displayed on your screen. 
If you use a JCL (Job Control Language) 
procedure to set this up automatically for 
you, don't forget to add a line reading 
"//STOP" as the last line of the JCL file. If 
you don't, control will be returned to DOS 
if you attempt to execute certain 
COMM/LCOMM commands.

Now to actually communicate. Let's 
take CompuServe as an example. Dial the 
phone number for your local CompuServe 
node. If you have a "smart"-type modem, 
refer to your operators manual for dialing 
instructions. Once the phone number has 
been dialed, put your modem on-line. For 
most "dumb" modems, this will mean 
flipping the switch on, or placing the 
phone handset into the acoustic cups. Most 
"smart"-type modems automatically enter 
the on-line mode after dialing.

When the "CD" or carrier detect light 
comes on, type a <control>-C. On the 
Models I and III, this is the combination 
<Shift><Down Arrow> (meaning 
"control") and (while still holding them 
down) then a <C>. On the Model 4, you 
have a <control> key. Depress this, then 
(while still holding it down) type a <C>. In 
either case, Compuserve should respond 
with "User Id:". This is your first prompt. 
Type in your user number (provided in 
your sign-up package -- obtain from Radio 
Shack). For example, the user number for 
the people here at LSI is 76703,437. We 
would type in "76703,437;".

The semi-colon is very important. 
Until you tell CompuServe otherwise, they 
assume that you are using what is called a 
"Videotex-compatible terminal". When 
using LCOMM or COMM, this will cause 
all sorts of nasty things to appear on your 
video display. The semi-colon prevents 
this from happening. Once you are logged 
on, if you change your terminal type (tell 
CompuServe that you have an "other"-type 
terminal) this will not happen and you may 
omit the semi-colon.

CompuServe will now respond with 
"Password:". Type your password from the 
sign-up package and hit <enter>. After a 
few seconds, CompuServe will respond 
with its first menu. Congratulations! You 
have successfully communicated!

Now we know how to establish a 
communications channel from our 
computer, let's look at how we give 
instructions to COMM/LCOMM. All 
commands begin with a 
<clear><keystroke> or <clear> 
<shift><keystroke> sequence. For 
instance, pressing <clear> and holding it 
while you press <8> will display the 
COMM/LCOMM command menu. The 
<clear> key is used as a second type of 
"control" key, one that has special meaning 
to COMM/LCOMM (and many other DOS 
utilities).

But-- what does all this menu 
information represent? Let's take a look at 
an example. *PR stands for the "logical" 
printer device, and the word "ON" is 
relatively self-explanatory. If you hit 
<clear><3> and then <clear><:>, (the 
keystrokes that represent "*PR" and "ON" 
respectively) the *PR device will be 
"turned on". Typing <clear><8> will 
re-display the menu. Do you see the 
difference? There is now a "*" below the 
*PR device, indicating that it is "ON". 
Now, any characters received by your 
computer will be sent to the printer in 
addition to the video display.

So far, we have covered the initial 
"set-up" phase of COMM/LCOMM. In 
future installments, we will cover more 
advanced features of these utilities, such as 
file uploading and downloading.







Les information - faster file access

Les Mikesell



When accessing data files and devices in machine language, 
there are many different techniques that can be used. The operating 
system @GET and @PUT calls (these are called the "Byte 1/0 
calls" because they move one byte at a time) are easy to use, and 
allow use of either devices or files. See past issues of the LDOS 
Quarterly (volume 2, numbers 2 and 3) for more information on 
this method.

@GET and @PUT are convenient, but there is a speed penalty 
as compared to full sector operations. The single byte operations 
can only access one sector per disk revolution, while full sector 
operations may be able to handle an entire track in two or three 
revolutions (depending on the disk type and the processing time 
needed between sectors). Thus, it may be possible to speed up disk 
operations considerably by buffering as much as possible in 
memory using full sector disk I/O. One significant drawback to this 
approach is that the program then becomes responsible for 
observing or setting the proper end-of-file offset when the data file 
does not end on a sector boundary.

The sector interleave on floppy disks is designed to allow just 
enough time to move a sector of data in or out of the file buffer 
before the next consecutive sector passes under the read/write head. 
Any additional processing at this point will usually cause the next 
sector to be missed, and necessitate a wait until the next revolution 
of the disk. When using a hard drive or MemDISK, the interleave 
factor is not critical, but programs will still benefit from the 
reduced overhead of full sector operations.

After opening a file, its size can be determined from the 
contents of the open FCB (file control block). The ending record 
number (ERN) is stored at FCB+12 & 13, and the end of file offset 
(EOF) is at FCB+8. If the ERN is 00, the file is empty. Otherwise, 
ERN-1 is the number of full sectors in the file, and EOF is the 
number of bytes included in the ending sector (where 0 = 256). 
Thus EOF-1 is the offset of the last valid byte in the file buffer 
when the last sector is read. This may be easier to remember by 
keeping in mind that these three bytes are always maintained as a 
pointer to the next record to write to extend the file.

For many operations, a file may be read into memory until the 
DOS error 1CH (end of file) or 1DH (past end of file) occurs, then 
the buffer pointer adjusted back to the correct byte offset in the 
previous sector. However, it may sometimes be necessary to 
determine if the current sector contains any data past the end of file 
before reading the next sector (which would return the EOF error). 
In this case, the next record number (NRN) at FCB+10 & 11 may 
be compared to the ERN after the read. If the NRN is the same as 
the ERN, the sector just read contains the end-of-file.

When writing sequential data using the full sector operations, it 
is necessary to update the EOF byte before closing the file. If 
@POSN has been used, it is necessary to update the ERN, since the 
system will then consider the file to be "random-access" and update 
the length only if it has been extended. Moving the NRN into the 
ERN in the FCB will set the current position as the end of file even 
if the previous ERN was larger.

Listing 1, a program to either add line-feed characters after 
carriage returns, or remove line-feeds, demonstrates some of the 
techniques of handling byte data with the DOS sector operations. 
Note that the input routine simply moves the buffer pointer in the 
FCB for each sector read rather than moving the data from the file 
buffer.

The output routines are a little slower, and will miss the disk 
interleave on a Model I or III with the standard CPU speed. This 
could be avoided by processing the data into a larger buffer space, 
then writing several sectors at once. Pre-allocating the disk space 
before the write would increase the speed also, by reducing the 
number of times the system has to go to the disk directory. This 
may be done simply by using @POSN and @WRITE to write 
(anything) to the last sector of the output file, then re-position to 
record 0.

This program may also be assembled for use with the 
TRSDOS/LDOS 6.x system by deleting the beginning lines 
between the asterisks, and including the standard 6.x header. For 
TRSDOS/LDOS 6.x operation, delete lines 100 to 410 and insert 
the code from Listing 2.

Listing 1 LDOS 5.1 version

00100 ;********************************
00110 ;This part is for LDOS 5.1 
00120 ;operating system entry points:
00130 @ABORT  EQU     4030H
00140 @CLOSE  EQU     4428H
00150 @DSPLY  EQU     4467H
00160 @ERROR  EQU     4409H
00170 @EXIT   EQU     402DH
00180 @FSPEC  EQU     441CH
00190 @INIT   EQU     4420H
00200 @KEYIN  EQU     0040H
00210 @OPEN   EQU     4424H
00220 @READ   EQU     4436H
00230 @WRITE  EQU     4439H
00240 HIGH$   EQU     4411H           ;Model 3
00250 HIGH1   EQU     4049H           ;Model 1
00260 ;
00270         ORG     5200H
00280 ;Put file buffer first to force location
00290 ;on memory page boundary
00300 BUFFR1  DS      256
00310 BUFFR2  DS      256
00320 ;Machine specific code:
00330 BEGIN:  LD      A,(125H)        ;Check mod1/3 ROM
00340         CP  .   'I'
00350         LD      HL,(HIGH$)      ;Mod 3 location
00360         JR      Z,SETHI         ;Go if mod 3
00370         LD      HL,(HIGH1)      ;Mod I location
00380 SETHI:  LD      (MYMEM),HL      ;Store correct value
00390 ;
00400 ;End of LDOS 5.1 specific code
00410 ;********************************
00420 ;
00430 ;Special chars
00440 ETX     EQU     03H
00450 CR      EQU     0DH
00460 LF      EQU     0AH
00470 ;
00480 ;
00490 ;FCB offset definitions
00500 BUFRLO  EQU     3               ;Buffer address
00510 BUFRHI  EQU     4
00520 ERNHI   EQU     13              ;Ending record #
00530 ERNLO   EQU     12
00540 EOF     EQU     8               ;Offset of last byte
00550 NRNLO   EQU     10              ;Next record pointer
00560 NRNHI   EQU     11
00570 ;
00580 START:  LD      HL,LOGON        ;Log on
00590         CALL    @DSPLY
00600 DISKIN: LD      HL,MSG1         ;Prompt for input 
file
00610         CALL    INPFSP          ;Get answer
00620         LD      DE,FCB1
00630         CALL    @FSPEC          ;Move filename
00640         LD      B,0             ;LRL=O (256)
00650         LD      HL,BUFFR1       ;=>disk buffer
00660         CALL    @OPEN           ;Open the file
00670         JR      Z,GOTINP        ;Go if successful
00680         CALL    SHOERR          ;Else report error
00690         JR      DISKIN          ;And ask again
00700 ;
00710 ;File is open, check if it contains any records
00720 GOTINP: LD      HL,(FCB1+ERNLO)
00730         LD      A,H             ;Is ending record 0?
00740         OR      L
00750         JP      NZ,ASK          ;Go if file has data
00760         LD      HL,NODAT        ;Else report empty 
file
00770         CALL    @DSPLY
00780         JP      @ABORT          ;And quit
00790 ;
00800 ASK:    LD      HL,MSG2         ;Prompt for output 
file
00810         CALL    INPFSP          ;Get answer
00820         LD      DE,FCB2
00830         CALL    @FSPEC          ;Move filename
00840         LD      B,0
00850         LD      HL,BUFFR2
00860         CALL    @INIT           ;Create file
00870         JR      Z,ASK1A         ;Continue if good 
init
00880         CALL    SHOERR          ;Else report error
00890         JR      ASK             ;And re-prompt
00900 ;
00910 ;Set up for add or remove LF's
00920 ASK1A:  LD      HL,MSG3         ;Remove linefeeds?
00930         LD      DE,RLF
00940         CALL    SGETYN          ;Prompt, set flag
00950         JR      Z,AGAIN         ;If yes, skip 2nd 
prompt
00960 ;
00970 ASK1B:  LD      HL,MSG4         ;Add linefeeds?
00980         LD      DE,ALF
00990         CALL    SGETYN          ;Prompt, set flag
01000         JR      NZ,ASK1A        ;Must do one or the 
other
01010 ;
01020 ;Read file into memory - set (MORE)=0FFH if it 
doesn't fit
01030 AGAIN:  LD      HL,(MYMEM)      ;=>end of free space
01040         LD      BC,BUFFER       ;=>working buffer 
start
01050         OR      A
01060         SBC     HL,BC
01070         LD      B,H             ;# of sectors that 
will fit
01080         LD      HL,BUFFER       ;Start of buffer
01090         LD      DE,FCB1         ;=>input file buffer
01100 RLOOP:  LD      (FCB1+BUFRLO),HL        ;Set load 
address
01110         CALL    @READ           ;Get a sector
01120         JP      NZ,CKEND        ;End or error
01130         INC     H               ;Bump ptr for next
01140         DJNZ    RLOOP           ;Stop if memory is 
full
01150 ;Now check to see if the last sector contained the 
EOF
01160 ;To be sure all data loaded belongs in file
01170         PUSH    HL              ;Save current posn
01180         LD      HL,(FCB1-NRNLO) ;Check if this is
01190         LD      DE,(FCB1+ERNLO) ;The last sector
01200         OR      A
01210         SBC     HL, DE          ;Is NRN=ERN?
01220         POP     HL              ;Get end ptr
01230         JR      Z,ISEOF         ;Go if this is EOF
01240         LD      A,0FFH          ;Set flag for more 
input
01250         LD      (MORE),A
01260         JR      FINIS           ;And start 
processing
01270 ;
01280 CKEND:  CP      1CH             ;EOF?
01290         JR      Z,ISEOF
01300         CP      1DH             ;Or past EOF?
01310         JP      NZ,DOSERR       ;Quit if other error
01320 ISEOF:  LD      A,(FCB1+EOF)    ;Get EOF offset byte
01330         DEC     A               ;Point to end byte
01340         LD      E,A
01350         LD      D,0             ;DE=offset of EOF
01360         DEC     H               ;Back up to last 
full sector
01370         ADD     HL,DE           ;Add in contents of 
last sector
01380         INC     HL              ;HL=>1 past buffer
01390 ;
01400 FINIS:  EX      DE,HL           ;Pointer to DE
01410         LD      BC,BUFFER       ;START OF DATA AREA
01420 ;
01430 ; Memory is loaded, check for changes
01440 ; BC=>current char, DE =>end+1
01450 ACHAR:  LD      A,D             ;Is this the end of 
the buffer?
01460         CP      B
01470         JP      NZ,NOTEND       ;Go if not
01480         LD      A,E
01490         CP      C
01500         JR      Z,CHECKM        ;End, check for more 
input
01510 NOTEND: LD      A,(BC)          ;Get a character
01520         INC     BC              ;bump pointer
01530         CP      LF              ;a linefeed?
01540         JP      NZ,NTLF         ;go if not LF
01550         LD      A,(RLF)         ;Removing line 
feeds?
01560         OR      A
01570         JR      Z,DOLF          ;Not removing line 
feeds
01580         JR      ACHAR           ;Skip LF
01590 NTLF:   CP      CA              ; carriage RET?
01600         JR      NZ,WRBYT        ;Write if not CR
01610         CALL    PUTTER          ;Write CR
01620         LD      A,(ALF)         ;Adding line feeds?
01630         OR      A               ;Test
01640         JR      Z,ACHAR         ;Skip if not wanted
01650 DOLF:   LD      A,LF            ;Load the line feed
01660 WRBYT:  CALL    PUTTER          ;Write char to file
01670         JP      ACHAR           ;Loop through buffer
01680 ;
01690 ;End of buffer, is file done?
01700 CHECKM: LD      HL,MORE         ;Is there more to 
read?
01710         LD      A,(HL)          ;Zero if done
01720         LD      (HL),O          ;Set for next time
01730         OR      A               ;Set Z if done
01740         JP      NZ,AGAIN        ;Loop till finished 
with files
01750 ;
01760 ;Finished, close the output file
01770         CALL    LSTSEC          ;Flush buffer
01780         LD      DE,FCB2         ;=>output FCB
01790         CALL    @CLOSE          ;Close output file
01800         JP      NZ,DOSERR       ;Go if error
01810         LD      HL,MSG5         ;Else report 
completion
01820         CALL    @DSPLY
01830         JP      @EXIT           ;And go back to DOS
01840 ;
01850 ;Set flag according to 'Y' response
01860 SGETYN: PUSH    DE              ;Save flag address
01870         CALL    @DSPLY          ;Issue prompt
01880         LD      HL,YN$          ;Add Y/N?
01890         CALL    @DSPLY
01900         LD      B,1             ;Max input wanted
01910         CALL    KEYIN           ;Get 1 char answer
01920         AND     5FH             ;Force upper case
01930         CP      'Y'             ;Is it Y?
01940         POP     HL              ;Get flag address
01950         RET     NZ              ;Return if not "Y"
01960         LD      (HL),0FFH       ;Set flag if "Y" 
response
01970         RET
01980 ;Get a filename:
01990 INPFSP: CALL    @DSPLY          ;Display prompt
02000         LD      B,1FH           ;Set max length
02010 ;Get user input
02020 KEYIN:  LD      HL,INBFR        ;=>buffer to receive 
input
02030         CALL    @KEYIN          ;Get input
02040         JP      C,@ABORT        ;Quit if BREAK 
pressed
02050         LD      A,(HL)          ;Else pick up 1st 
char
02060         RET
02070 ;
02080 ;Add a byte to disk buffer/write if full
02090 ;Note that disk buffer must end on XXFFH boundary
02100 ;So the INC L will set the Z flag when sector
02110 ;Buffer is full. (PUTPTR) is a pointer to the next 
char
02120 ;Position in the sector buffer
02130 PUTTER  LD      HL,(PUTPTR)     ;Point to buf pos
02140         LD      (HL),A          ;Move to buffer
02150         INC     L               ;Bump buffer ptr
02160         LD      (PUTPTR),HL     ;Save for next
02170         RET     NZ              ;If not full
02180 ;Write a physical sector to disk
02190 WSEC:   PUSH    DE
02200         LD      DE,FCB2
02210         CALL    @WRITE          ;Write
02220         POP     DE
02230         RET     Z               ;That was easy
02240 DOSERR: CALL    SHOERR          ;Report any error
02250         JP      @ABORT          ;And quit
02260 ;
02270 SHOERR: OR      0C0H            ;Mask for short 
msg.,ret
02280         JP      @ERROR
02290 ;
02300 ;Fill remainder of sector buffer with 00's
02310 ;Set the EOF offset, and flag DOS to reset the
02320 ;File's ERN to the current sector
02330 LSTSEC: LD      HL,(PUTPTR)     ;Get posn in buffer
02340         LD      A,L             ;Did last write
02350         OR      A               ;Hit sector end'
02360         JR      Z,SETEOF        ;Finished on sec 
boundary
02370         PUSH    AF              ;Save last char I
02380         XOR     A               ;Set A=0
02390 FLSEC:  LD      (HL),A          ;Zero remaining 
buffer
02400         INC     L
02410         JR      NZ,FLSEC        ;Pad sec w/nulls
02420         CALL    WSEC            ;Write the last 
sector
02430         POP     AF              ;EOF byte to A
02440 ;
02450 SETEOF: LD      (FCB2+8),A      ;Set EOF offset
02460 ;Note: this step is actually not necessary unless 
@POSN called
02470         LD      HL,(FCB2+NRNLO) ;Put NEXT record no.
02480         LD      (FCB2+ERNLO),HL ;Into ENDING record 
no.
02490         RET
02500 ;
02510 ;
02520 ;END OF PROGRAM AREA
02530 ;ASCII DATA
02540 LOGON:  DB      LF,'TEXT FILE PROCESSOR ',LF,CR
02550 MSG1:   DB      'Input Filespec?
02560 MSG2:   DB      'Output Filespec?
02570 MSG3:   DB      LF,'Remove line-feed characters',ETX
02580 MSG4:   DB      'Add line-feed characters',ETX
02590 MSG5:   DB      LF,'File output completed -,CR
02600 NODAT:  DB      'Input file is empty!',CR
02610 YN$:    DB      '(Y/N) ? ',ETX
02620 ;
02630 ;BUFFERS & POINTERS
02640 RLF:    DB      0               ;Remove LF flag
02650 ALF:    DB      0               ;Add LF flag
02660 MORE:   DB      0               ;More input flag
02670 EOFFLG: DB      0               ;Last sector flag
02680 MYMEM:  DW      0               ;HIGHS pointer
02690 PUTPTR: DW      BUFFR2          ;Posn in output 
buffer
02700 GETPTR: DW      BUFFR1,255      ;Posn (-1) in input 
buffer
02710 FCB1:   DS      32              ;File FCBs
02720 FCB2:   DS      32
02730 INBFR:  DS      40              ;KB input buffer
02740 BUFFER  EQU     $               ;START OF DATA 
BUFFER
02750         END     BEGIN

Listing 2 LDOS 6.x version
00100 ;********************************
00110 ; Header to convert programs with 5.1 CALLS to 6.x
00120 ;
00130         ORG     2600H
00140 BUFFR1: DS      256             ;put on page 
boundary
00150 BUFFR2: DS      256
00160 ;
00170 BEGIN:  DI
00180         LD      (STACK),SP      ;save SP at entry
00190         PUSH    HL              ;Save ptr to CMD 
buffer
00200         LD      HL,0
00210         LD      A,103           ;Disable break 
vectoring
00220         RST     40
00230         EI
00240         LD      HL,0            ;get HIGH$
00250         LD      B,L             ;B=0
00260         LD      A,100
00270         RST     40
00280         LD      (MYMEM),HL      ;Store for later
00290         LD      A,101           ;set up IY
00300         RST     40              ;pointing to flag 
table
00310         PUSH    IY              ;trans to DE
00320         POP     DE
00330         LD      HL,'S'-'A'      ;SFLAGS offset
00340         ADD     HL,DE
00350         LD      (SFLAG),HL      ;store away
00360         POP     HL              ;restore ptr to CMD 
line
00370         CALL    START           ;execute program
00380 ; set up for exit.....
00390 @EXIT:  LD      HL,0            ;HL=0 if no error
00400 QUIT$:  LD      SP,$-$          ;restore SP
00410 STACK   EQU     $-2
00420         RET
00430 @ABORT: LD      HL,-1           ;non-zero if abort
00440         JR      QUIT$
00450 ;use SVC's for operating system functions
00460 ;create label for each CALL used by program
00470 @FSPEC  LD      A,78            ;SVC #
00480         RST     40
00490         RET
00509 @OPEN   PUSH    HL              ;set inhibit bit
00510         LD      HL,$-$
00520 SFLAG   EQU     $-2
00530         SET     0,(HL)          ;ignore LRL errors
00540         POP     HL
00550         LD      A,59
00560         RST     40
00570         RET
00580 @INIT   LD      A,58
00590         RST     40
00600         RET     Z
00610         CP      42              ;LRL error
00620         RET
00630 @READ   LD      A,67
00640         RST     40
00650         RET
00660 @WRITE  LD      A,75
00670         RST     40
00680         RET
00690 @CLOSE  LD      A.60
00700         RST     40
00710         RET
00720 @KEYIN  LD      C,0
00730         LD      A,9
00740         RST     40
00750         RET
00760 @ERROR  PUSH    BC              ;save BC
00770         LD      C,A             ;trans error # to C
00780         LD      A,26            ;display error
00790         RST     40
00800         POP     BC              ;restore BC
00810         RET
00820 @DSPLY  LD      A,10
00830         RST     40
00840         RET     Z               ;can return an error
00850         LD      H,0             ;due to device 
routing
00860         LD      L,A
00870         OR      0C0H
00880         CALL    @ERROR
00890         JP      QUIT$
00900 ;



Index
Index to LDOS Quarterly/LSI Journal, issues 1,1 to 2,4
Scott Loomer



This is the subject index to the LDOS Quarterly and LSI 
Journal for the period from its inception in July, 1981 to the 
October, 1983 issue. Back issues for this period are still available, 
some as individual issues and some as sets. Contact LSI at (414) 
355-5454, or write to Logical Systems, Inc., 8970 N. 55th St., 
Milwaukee, WI 53223. Volume 2, Number 5 (Jan.'84) is also 
available. It includes an expanded version of this index (which, by 
the way, was originally prepared by Scott Loomer).

Subject/Author 	Vol/No/Page

"Active Variable Dump for LBASIC" - Alan Moyer		V2N3P15	V2N4P38
"Alcor Pascal" - Scott Loomer			V2N1P18
Allocation, disk			V2N4P08
AM Electronics, disk controller			V1N1P03
"APL*PLUS/80 A System Overview" - Daniel Lofy & Lee Rice		V2N1P09
"Article, An" Charlie Butler			V1N4P40
"ASCII File Listing Utility for The BASIC Answer" - Jeffrey Brenton		V2N3P19
Assembly language basic concepts	V2N2P58	V2N3P46	V2N4P40
Assembly language patching		V1N6P38	V2N1P46
Assembly language programing tips		V1N5P14	V1N6P64
"At Large" - Earl Terwilliger			V1N6P50
"Automatic Chaining with JCL" - Jim Kyle			V2N4P52
"BASIC and File Structure - A Beginner's View" - Wes Goodnough		V1N6P20
"BASIC Concepts - The RUN,V Command" - Dick Konop			V1N6P69
"Beta Tester, I was an LDOS" - Tim Daneliuk			V1N3P16
Byte I/O	V1N3P38	V1N6P76	V2N2P52
	under LDOS 6.0			V2N3P56
'C' graphics			V2N4P16
" 'C' language, The" - Earl Terwilliger:
	general introduction			V2N1P15
	functions, variables, constants, expressions			V2N2P35
	operators			V2N3P39
	logic, control & flow			V2N4P34
" 'Card' Utility" - Paul Tonini			V2N2P18
"Case of Mis-Allocation, A" - Bill Schroeder			V2N4P08
Case mode indicator			V2N2P11
Changing operating systems			V1N4P40
"Clock Speedup Kits with LDOS, Using" - Tim Mann			V1N1P13
Cobol				V1N6P32
"Color Comes to the TRS-80's" - Scott Loomer			V2N3P28
"Communicating Micro, The" - Gordon Thompson		V1N6P12	V2N1P28
Communications		V1N5P40	V1N6P83
"Communication Host" - James Bruckart			V2N1P35
"Confessions of a Machine Language Addict" - Ray Pelzer			V1N6P38
Configuring with non-relocatable code			V2N4P50
Customer service tips			V2NlP07
Cylinder term explained			V1N1P04
DAMs, Old			V1N1P19
"Data Address Marks" - Roy Soltoff			V1N1P05
Date conversions			V2N4P60
"Device I/O and Independence, LDOS" - Roy Soltoff			V1N3P38
Disk allocation schemes			V2N4P08
Disk Controller, AM Electronics			V1N1P03
Disk byte I/O	V1N3P38	V1N6P76	V2N2P52
Disk drive first access delay			V2N4P63
"Disk Drive Control Linkages, LDOS" - Bob Hawker			V1N6P43
Disk drives (8") on the Model III			V2N3P08
Disk drives, non-Radio Shack			V2N3P55
Disk drive poll			V2N2P27
Disk drive select time hardware fix (Mod 1)			V1N3P18
"Disk I/O in Assembler" - Doug Kennedy			V2N2P55
Disk speed (300 RPM delays)			V1N4P11
"Double Sided Drives with LDOS" - Tim Mann & Roy Soltoff	V1N2P37	V1N3P56
"Easy LScript" James Bruckart			V2N2P22
"Easy VisiCalc" James Bruckart			V2N3P23
"EDAS IV 'Z' Command" - Earl Terwilliger			V2N1P37
Electric Webster with Newscript, LDOS and Sole			V1N6P55
"Electronic Inbasket, The" - Gordon Thompson			V2N4P15
"ELSIE - The Contented Compiler" - Jim Frimmel			V1N3P21
Epson MX-80 tips			V1N5P18
".... er ...." - Earle Robinson:
	assembly language efficiency			V1N6P64
	printers, TBA, UTILZAP			V2N1P39
	printers, word processors, MNet, 'C', LDOS 6.0			V2N2P26
	'C' book, SS drivers, Model 4, PROMPT/CMD			V2N3P33
	UNIX, IBM PC, Telex			V2N4P28
Expansion interface			V1N4P39
"Fast Graphics for 'LC' " - Scott Loomer			V2N4P16
File listing utility for TBA			V2N3P19
File structure, BASIC			V1N6P20
Filter linkage			V1N3P47
"Fortran, Cobol and LDOS JCL" - Glen Rathke			V1N6P32
Fortran With interrupts and SVC's			V2N4P19
"Greek to Me, LDOS - It's" - Charles Knight			V1N5P15
"Hayes Smartmodem, LDOS and a" - John Mullin			V1N6P34
High memory, avoiding memory conflicts			V1N4P13
High memory module header			V1N3P46
Host, communications			V2N1P35
"Inside the Expansion Interface" - Earle Robinson			V1N4P39
"Interrupts and SVC's in Fortran, Using" - J. Bender			V2N4P19
JCL chaining			V2N4P52
"JCL Corner" - Chuck Jensen:
	clear screen			V1N1P03
	file copying			V1N2P30
	compilation macros			V1N3P51
	hex codes, more compilation macros			V1N4P46
	keyboard input			V1N5P34
	logical operators, keyboard filters, LScript patch			V1N6P72
	creating and defining JCL procedures			V2N1P54
	backups			V2N2P49
	JCL With FORTRAN and Cobol			V1N6P32
LBASIC:
	active variable dump		V2N3P15	V2N4P38
	"CMD"O" implementation and possible uses"			V1N4P15
	default extension patch			V1N5P19
	file structure			V1N6P20
	notes (items missing from 1st printing of the LDOS manual)		V1N1P09
	RUN,V command			V1N6P69
	USR routines (relocating to high memory)			V1N3P47
LDOS 5.1.4, New features			V2N4P03
LDOS 6.0
	announced			V2N2P46
	licensing			V2N4P07
	technical manual			V2N4P07
	patches			V2N4P64
"LDOS: How it Works" - Joe Kyle-DiPietropaolo:
	PATCH utility			V2N1P52
	REPAIR, CONV and COPY238 utilities			V2N2P44
	non-Radio Shack disk drives			V2N3P55
	configuring with non-relocatable code			V2N4P50
"Les Information" - Les Mikesell:
	communications			V1N5P40
	RS232 drivers			V1N6P83
	SYSTEM(FAST) and SLOW commands			V2N1P58
	byte 1/0			V2N2P52
	byte 1/0 under LDOS 6.0, CTLP/FLT			V2N3P56
	@PARAM under LDOS 6.0			V2N4P61
"Let Us Assemble" - Rich Hilliard:
	the basics			V2N2P58
	using DEBUG, sorts			V2N3P46
	number base conversion			V2N4P40
"Library, The" - Earle Robinson			V1N4P28
Library commands;
	LOAD documentation correction			V2N1P47
	SYSTEM(FAST)		VlN1P13	V2N1P58
	SYSTEM(SLOW)			V2N1P58
Limited backup policy explained - Bill Schroeder		V2N3P04	V2N4P06
"Linking to LDOS in Assembly" - Roy Soltoff			V1N1P12
"LISP Implementations for the Z-80" Lee Rice & Daniel Lofy		V1N6P26
Listing utility for TBA			V2N3P19
LScript made easy			V2N2P22
"LScript Patches to Add Versatility" - Scott Lower		V1N6P45	V2N1P47
Load module structure			V1N4P42
Lower case lock			V1N4P11
LSI Journal submission and subscription policies			V2N4P02
MAX-80 LDOS described			V2N1P50
"MAX-80 Memory Map" - Chuck Jensen			V2N4P58
Magazines			V2N3P35
Manual story, with corrections to 1st edition			V1N1P16
Memory map			V2N1P34
Minimum configuration disk			V1N2P29
"Mixing Newscript, Electric Webster, LDOS and Sole" Jerry Latham		V1N6P55
"My BASIC Answer" - E. Cheatham (TBA review)			V2N3P17
"Newscript 7.0 and REFLEX" - Gordon Thompson			V2N1P28
"Newscript and The BASIC Answer" - Jerry Latham			V2N2P20
"New Version - EDAS IV, A" - Marc Leager			V1N6P09
Number base conversion			V2N4P40
Old DAMs (see also Data Address Marks)			V1N5P19
Parity errors			V1N1P04
-- PARITY = ODD - Tim Daneliuk:
	introduction, DATAENTR 200 & ISAM 200			V1N4P17
	tips for better programming, DISCATER, Filter Disk			V1N5P11
	BASF drives, drive poll, TAS, MODEM80, HEXSPELL II, Utilities, HELP 
			V1N6P59	V1N6P56
	Tandy, MAX-80, AEROCOMP, Electric Webster, The BASIC Answer
				V2N1P42
	disk drive poll, gold plugs, LX-80, Proofreader, Scripsit Dict.		V2N2P27
	magazines			V2N3P35
	rumors, LX-80 software compatibility, TRSDOS 6.0 software		V2N4P31
"Partitioned Data Sets, MISOSYS Announces" - Roy Soltoff			V1N3P23
"Pascal 80, LDOS and" – D. Hill			V2N1P22
Passwords for LDOS 5.1.x			V1N1P03
Patch, how to			V2N1P52
"PDS - Standard and Other Types of Uses" - Scott Loomer		V2N1P24	V2N3P45
"Performing Date Conversions in BASIC" - Dick Konop			V2N4P60
Printers			V2N1P39
Profile III Plus with LD03			V2N4P55
Quarterly reader survey results			V2N2P06
Radio Shack		V2N1P42	V2N3P03
"Relocating Code for LBASIC USR Routines" - Chuck Jensen		V1N3P47
Reviews;
	Alternate Source (TAS) - Tim Daneliuk			V1N6P60
	APL*PLUS/80 (STSC) - Daniel Lofy & Lee Rice			V2N1P09
	CHROMAtrs (South Shore Computer Concepts) - 	Scott Lower		V2N3P28
	DATAENTR200 & ISAM20V (Johnson Associates) - 	Tim Daneliuk	V1N4P18
	EDAS IV (MISOSYS) - Marc Leager			V1N6P09
	Electric Webster (Cornucopia) - Tim Daneliuk			V2N1P45
	HELP (MISOSYS) - Tim Daneliuk			V1N6P63
	HEXSPELL II (Hexagon) - Tim Daneliuk			V1N6P61
	LDOS Utilities (P owersoft) - Tim Daneliuk			V1N6P62
	LISP (Supersoft) - Lee Rice & Daniel Lofy			V1N6P29
	MAX-80 (Lobo) - Tim Daneliuk			V2N1P44
	Microcomputer Math book (SAMS) - Earle Robinson			V1N5P10
	MODEM80 (LSI) Tim Daneliuk			V1N6P60
	Pascal (Alcor) Scott Lower			V2N1P18
	Pascal-80 IN ew Classics) - D. Hill			V2N1P22
	PDS (MISOSYS) Scott Lower			V2N1P24
	Printers - Earle Robinson			V2N1P39
	Profile III' (Radio Shack) - Sam Goldberg			V2N3P25
	Proofreader (Aspen Software) - Tim Daneliuk			V2N2P30
	Scripsit Dictionary (Radio Shack) - Tim Daneliuk			V2N2P30
	Structured BASIC Translator (Acorn) - Sue Ratkowski		V1N4P21
	The BASIC Answer (LSI) E. Cheatham			V2N3P17
	The BASIC Answer (LSI) Tim Daneliuk			V2N1P46
	UOLISP (Far West) - Lee Rice & Daniel Lofy			V1N6P30
Routing a device			V1N3P38
"Roy's Technical Corner" Roy Soltoff:
	load module structure			VIN4P42
	task processor		V1N5P20	V1N6P76
	error handling during byte 1/0, @CKDRV, KFLAGS, @ICNFG, @KITSK
				V1N6P76
	LDOS 6.0			V2N2P46
RS-232 drivers			V1N6P83
"Running 8-Inch Drives on the Model III Under LDOS" - Peter Simon		V2N3P08
Sector I/O			V2N2P55
"SOLEFIX - Fix that GAT Error" - Erik Ruf		V2N2P14	V2N4P38
Speedup kits			V1N1P13
Sysgen and type-ahead			V1N1P04
System routines:
	@ADTSK, @RMTSK, @KLTSK, @RPTSK - task proc.		
		V1N5P31	V1N6P76	V2N4P19
	@CKDRV - 	determining 5.1.2 vs. 5.1.3 for @CKDRV adjustment		V1N6P78
	@CKDRV – moved			V1N5P06
	@CMNDI - command interpreter			V1N1P12
	@CTL, @GET, @PUT - byte 1/0			V1N3P38
	DAY$ -  day of the week			V1N4P11
	@GET and @PUT under LDOS 6.0			V2N3P56
	@ICNFG configuration interfacing			V1N6P81
	@KITSK keyboard task			V1N6P82
	KFLAG$ keyboard scanner			V1N6P78
	"@PARAM, Using" - Roy Soltoff			V1N2P31
	@PARAM under 6.0			V2N4P61
	"@PARAM, @DSPLY, @EXIT and INBUFS for Everyone" David Vinzant
				V2N2P23
	@RAMDIR documentation correction			V2N2P39
	SVC's and Fortran			V2N4P19
Tandy		V2N1P42	V2N3P03
Task processor		V1N5P20	V1N6P76
"T-Timer, LDOS Supports the" - Roy Soltoff	V1N4P12	V1N5P18	V1N6P66
TRSDOS (Mod I) to LDOS (Mod III) transfer without REPAIR		V1N3P03
TRSDOS (LDOS) 6.0 (see also LDOS 6.x)			V2N2P46
Update policy explained - Bill Schroeder		V1N2P02	V2N4P64
Upper case lock			V1N4P11
Users group directory			V2N1P06
Utilities:
	CONV			V2N2P44
	COPY238			V2N2P44
	PATCH			V2N1P52
	REPAIR			V2N2P44
Version number explanation			V1N2P02
VisiCalc made easy			V2N3P23
"VisiCalc with LDOS, Using" - Roy Soltoff			V1N2P20







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LSI Journal



