Apple Orchard v4n6 1983 Sep

| 3 INTERNATIONAL . 4 by, === APPLE CORE™ py ——— “ === presents a @Eeo feo = <s —SEa>——“Cisi — - - a, §=8=6hrt a The Premier Magazine for Apple Computer Users ™M $3.25 (US) SEPTEMBER 1983 VOLUME 4 NUMBER6 How aschool funded p CP/M to SOS Transfer Six Hard Disks : AT LAST: THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT FLOPPIES. Amazing book reveals. all! How to keep from brainwashing your disk so it never loses it's memory. How fingerprints can actually damage disks. Unretouched Kirlian photographs of UFO's (Unidentified Floppy Objects)! The incredible importance of making copies: the Department of Redundancy Depart- ment—and what goes on when it goes on! Power- ful secret methods that scientists claim can ac- tually prevent computer amnesia! All this, and much more . In short, it's an 80- page plain-English, graphically stunning, pocket-sized definitive guide to the care and feeding of flexible disks. For The Book, ask your nearest computer store that sells Elephant” disks, and bring along a buck. For the name of the store, ask us. ELEPHANT MEMORY SYSTEMS® Marketed exclusively by Leading Edge Products, Inc. Information Systems and Supplies Division, 55 Providence Highway, Norwood, MA 02062. Call toll free 1-800-343-8413, In Massachusetts, call collect (617) 769-8150, Telex 951-624. SECRETS OF PERFECT MEMORY: ~ ONEEARTH DOLLAR PDQ II MAKES YOUR APPLE MICRO PERFORM LIKE A MINICOMPUTER PRODUCTIVITY INCREASE PDQ II will make your Apple II or Ile outperform itself. It will fly through tasks which used to take hours. It will perform multiple tasks at the same time. Most Apple software programs will exhibit a 200 to 2,000 percent increase in speed, without reprogramming. NEXT GENERATION CAPABILITIES That’s not all—when you plug a PDQ II into your Apple, it will pro- vide the advanced features of the 16/32 bit MC68000 microprocessor. Your Apple will be capable of utiliz- ing sophisticated, ‘next generation” software products. ONE SIMPLE SOLUTION PDQ II eliminates the need for numerous add-ons — it includes an integrated high speed pseudo-disk, printer/communicatons buffer, memory extension capability and a powerful 16/32 bit processor. PDQ II consists of two system boards which simply plug inside your Apple, making your Micro think it’s a Mini. PDQ II SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS Standard Features Microprocessor © 16/32 bi MC68000 © 1OMHZ User Memory © 256K Bytes RAM Integrated Functionality ‘© Multiple printer/communications buffering © Pseudo-disk operations # Track buffering (p-System) ETC Software ‘© ETC MC68000 Assembler # ETC MC68000 System Monitor ‘© ETC p-System (version IV] to Apple DOS Interface Usility Hardware Sofware Longuages and Software Systems Supported #'Applesoft BASIC Compatibility & Speed up © Apple DOS 3.3 UCSD p-Systom (version IV] Interpreter—executes UCSD Pascal, FORTRAN-77 and BASIC P-Code Apple Il and Apple lle are registered trademarks of Apple Computr, Ine. UCSD p-Systemis a registered 1e Regents of the University of California, Digitalis a registered trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Osborne is a registered trademark of Osborne Computer Corporation. trademark of t Optional Features 2 Titegabyte RAM [Fall 1983) 2°0CS6 p-systom Development System ns ike Operating System © Artificial Intelligence Laboratory incorporating @ Deductive Reasoning System (Spring 1984) INSURANCE FOR THE FUTURE PDQ II provides a powerful p-System run time environment, making it possi- ble for your Apple to take advantage of many of the hundreds of high- quality p-System applications...the same applications available for Digital, IBM, HP, and other computers. PDQ II technology makes your cur- rent investment in software and train- ing more productive, while providing an almost unlimited growth path. Now wouldn't you like to have the PDQ II performing for you? PDQ II comes with a full one year warranty and will be available through your local Apple dealer beginning in July. If you simply cannot wait, send your check or M.O. for $1495. (postage included) to: Enhancement Technology Corporation, P.O. Box 1267, Pittsfield, MA 01202. Mass residents must include 5% sales tax. We'll send you the PDQ II. P.D.Q.! | | The Ultimate Peripheral ENHANCEMENT TECHNOLOGY wit CORPORATION A flawless future is in sight with 3M diskettes. When it comes to keeping track of precious data, predictable means reliable. Being able to count on every diskette, every time. At 3M, reliability is built into every diskette. We've been in the computer media business for over 30 years. And we've never settled in. We're constantly improving and perfecting our product line, from computer tape and data cartridges to floppy disks. 3M diskettes are made at 3M. That way, we have complete control over the entire manufacturing process. And you can have complete confidence in the reliability of every 3M diskette you buy. Look in the Yellow Pages under Computer Supplies and Parts for the 3M distributor nearest you. In Canada, write 3M Canada, Inc., don, Ontario. If it's worth remembering, it's worth 3M diskettes. 3M hears you... v Take a bite... [ Ban be} Vol. 4, No. 6 September 1983 Cover: Photo by Cindy Peterson ARTICLES Review: Hard Disks - Morgan P. Caffrey.... 2.00.06 6 000 e cece cece eect e ete eee e eee ene eee What to look for in mass storage. Review: .ABSTAT = A:S.(Woddy) Lisw00d 0.5: cswoiscisnaricaunseerine cine: coun eee A comprehensive statistical analysis package. Review: Three 128K RAM Cards - Neil D. Lipson, P.E.... 1.6.00... ese eee cee e eee Legend, Saturn and Ramex memory monsters. CP/M to SOS Textmover- Arthur E. Anderson, /// .........0 0c cece ence eee e ence ence eens Introducing a new Apple /// file utility. The Franklin Ace 1200 - Neil D. Lipson, P.E... 2.2.0... 06 cc ccc ccc nee e eee eee eee A 6502 - based personal computer. ‘The: Status of Uniti(1) = Johii Bi. Mathews. MD ics: sedewancasnuncemnanwan cman meas A Pascal keyboard check. Debugging Applesoft Programs - Mike Kramer .. Some BASIC detective work. ‘Apples in: France = Andie Babéatities ic:0s: sanonemnwasnmnmneeane Seema eNT La Pomme est sur la table. Kids Can’t Wait - Nicole Lefcourt......... 0.666 e eect ete teen eet n nee e eee Apple Computer's investment in everybody's future. One school's cooperative computer success story. Apple /// Textfile Case Converter - Mike Kramer. .........0000000cceeeeee eee eeeeeeeeeeeee Choose upper or lower case for clarity. Disk Map:- Peter Meyet cx scvencwiaoeooss urevon yeeeney Leama ewes Na EERE The use of conditional assembly. The Missing Applesoft Random Number - Mark Isaacson ...........0 00000 eee e cece eee ee eee Getting truly random numbers is no problem. DEPARTMENTS Textfile Planting a Seed: The Portable Apple - Peter C. Weiglin. From the IAC Office - Ken Silverman. IAC People. . IAC Sponsoring a Forbidden Fruit- Mark L. Crosby New Temptations, Delicacies, and Necessities. 26 Apple pchard Vol. 4, No. 6 September 1983 Entire contents Copyright ° 1983 by International Apple Core, Inc. Peter C. Weiglin - Editor and Publisher Donna Caldwell - Managing Editor Nicole Lefcourt - Editorial Assistant Val J. Golding - Editorial Associate Contributing Editors: Mark L. Crosby - New Products “Dr. Wo” - Pascal/Languages Editor Neil D. Lipson, P. E. A. S. (Woody) Liswood Morgan P. Caffrey Barry D. Bayer Jim Linhart - Miscellaneous Cartoonery Dawn Brown - Circulation Manager Karen Vanikiotis Zinsmeister - IAC Staff Advertising Representative: JE Publishers’ Representative Company 6855 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90038 (213) 467-2266 Boston - (617) 437-7628 Chicago - (312) 445-2489 Denver - (303) 595-4331 New York - (212) 724-7767 San Francisco - (415) 864-3252 Address for all subscriptions, correspondence, advertising material, manuscripts, etc.: Apple Orchard 908 George Street Santa Clara, CA 95050 (408) 727 - 7652 ‘APPLE ORCHARD (ISSN 0277 - 1950) is published monthly by the International Apple Core, Inc, 908 George St, Santa Clara, CA 95050. Second Class Postage paid at Santa Clara, CA and additional entry points. ‘Subscription Rates (U.S. funds): $24.00 for 1 year, $45.00 for 2 years in the U. S,FPO & APO; $30.00-1 yr. $55.00-2 yt., in Canada; $36.00 (surface), $48.00 (airmail) in Mexico, Central America, Caribbean Islands, Phillippines, Samoa; $36.00 (surface), $60.00 (airmail) in South America, Europe, North Africa; $36.00 (surface), $72.00 (airmail) in Asia, Middle East, South Africa, Australia ‘APPLE ORCHARD is a publicaion of the International Apple Core, a worldwide federation of Apple computer User Groups. The opinions expresses herein are those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the International Apple Core. While we appreciate the co-operation of Apple Computer, Inc. and other sponsoring members, the IAC and APPLE ORCHARD do not necessarily represent the Views of any of these companies. Our existence is derived from the thousands of Apple users, and it is their interests which we serve. 4 Apple Orchard Textfile Orchard staff is surviving quite well, but we could use more material from you, particularly on how an Apple is making life or business more worthwhile. The IAC Board has not objected to an increase in author payment rates, so the incentive for you to contribute is now greater. T his is our second monthly issue in a row; your Apple We'll remind you again that if you subscribed at our old nine- time rate, we're adding one issue to your subscription if it expires before the end of 1983; two copies are being added if the old expiration date was after the end of 1983. That roughly compensates for the fact that our subscription rate is a bit lower ona per-issue basis. Also, for the first time, we have an incentive for a two-year subscription: it's $24 for one year, and $45 fortwo years in the U. S. Outside of the U. S., the rates are as shown elsewhere in this issue, and we've added the air mail postage categories for those international subscribers who requested them. Our cover and cover stories reflect the future; the struggle to provide a computer education program at Willow Glen School in San Jose, CA; and Apple Computer's Kids Can't Wait program. If you can read through these stories without feeling a bit warmer inside afterwards, there's probably no hope for you. Pat Caffrey has been dissecting six hard disk systems from the consumer standpoint; his analysis of what's needed, desired, and found when a hard disk enters your life begins on Page 10. Other products at which our intrepid independents take a look this month include the Franklin Ace 1200, three 128K RAM cards and their associated software (both by Neil Lipson), andthe ABSTAT statistical program package (Woody Liswood). As is usual in this field, about the time you have enough information and experience to get a good handle ona product, there's a new variation coming out That's particularly true in RAM cards; the word is that at least two 1-megabyte cards (yes, megabyte) could be out by the time you read this. A new IAC product for the Apple /// makes its debut this month: a CPM to SOS textfile conversion program by Arthur (“Skip”) Anderson (no relation to Alan). This disk also is the first non-public domain IAC software product, is copyrighted, etc., and duplication for other than backup purposes is not permitted. We're not printing the source code, because the program is just too long; the disk is available. Also for the Apple ///, we present a (shorter) Text File Case Converter for Business BASIC from Mike Kramer. Our international focus gets a boost from Paris’ Andre Babeanu, who tells us what working with Apples is like in France. We'll be working more with POM’S magazine and ‘Andre in the months to come. By the way, what's not here this month is Part 3 of John Uhley’s examination of disk drive access. A bit more testing was required at deadline time, and we'll have it when it’s ready, Peter Meyer's Disk Map article should hold those addicted to spinning vinyl, however. Two articles on Applesoft and a short look at Pascal round out this issue. Let's hear from you. PLATO EDUCATIONAL COURSEWARE BRINGS NEW EXCITEMENT TO LEARNING. If your kids think serious education has to be dull, wait until they use Control Data PLATO® educational courseware. With PLATO courseware, children can learn by competing against them- selves; by interacting with stimulating graphics that keep them motivated. They see their progress, and find real excitement in achievement. PLATO courseware is being used in classrooms across the nation. Now you can bring this quality education — home. You'll find PLATO lessons at selected retail outlets where quality software is sold. For the Apple II Plus and Apple Ile, the TI 99/4A or Atari 800. The selection includes elementary Math lessons in Basic Number Facts, Whole Numbers, Decimals and Fractions. PLATO COMPUTER-BASED EDUCATION Through such computerized activi- ties as “darts” and “pinball,” PLATO makes learning math almost fun. Foreign Language lessons use the popular hangman or pyramid game concept to help teach French, German or Spanish in a way that holds and builds interest. Our Computer Literacy lesson pro- vides a perfect introduction to the computer age for kids and novices. For Apple II Plus and Apple Ie. Our Keyboarding lesson shows children and adults how to use a key- board to enter data into the computer. Developed in cooperation with Gregg-McGraw Hill. Widen your child's world. See the growing library of PLATO educational courseware at selected retail outlets. Or for information and a free PLATO educational courseware catalog, call toll-free 800/233-3784. Or write: Control Data Publishing Co., RO. Box 261127, San Diego, CA 92126. In California call 800/233-3785. ‘Warranty available free from Control Data Publishing Co., 4455 Eastgate Mall, San Diego, CA 92121 ic) CONTROL DATA PUBLISHING Satisfying Over With Innovation Grappler + Printer Interface For Apples and Printers The Original Apple® graphics printer interface. The economical way to add printer buffering. The Since its introduction three years ago, the Bufferboard easily adds memory to your current Grappler has been imitated by many, but never Apple interface system, freeing your computer for matched. Now with Dual Hi-Res Graphics for side additional input. Easily upgradable from 16K, the by side reproductions and Mixed Mode screen dump- ing, the Grappler + remains the most intelligent interface available. Over two Bufferboard can store up to 20 pages of text. It fits neatly inside your Apple, “docking” onto your existing printer interface.” No clumsy boxes or cables, no external power supplies... just conve- nience and economy. With dozen commands the Bufferboard, give Apple users full control over any graphics or you might never text on the Apple screen, including a new 80 wait for your column text dump. Performance, reliability and printer again. support have made the Grappler + the # selling “Versions for standard Grappler + , Epson APL and Apple intelligent Apple interface. Parallel Interfaces. 90,000 Apple Owners And Excellence. Over 90,000 Apple computers are using Orange BURFERED bd Micro products. Innovation and excellence have rapp' er Sig made us the #1 manufacturer of intelligent printer interfaces. The top selling Grappler + has become an industry standard, recommended by The most sophisticated buffered Apple printer more software houses and Apple dealers. To interface available. The New Buffered Grappler + meet the users’ latest needs, Orange Micro will combines the industry leading features of the continue to introduce new products. Recent inno- Grappler + with the time saving economies of the vations include the Grappler + for IDS color Bufferboard.** printers and the new Orange Interface, with text screen dumps and formatting at a low price. There is an Orange Micro product designed for your application. For a complete demonstration, see your Apple dealer today. With this much interface power, you’ll never need a anything else. And the price will surprise you, too. ything pl prise y | inc. 1400 N. Lakeview Ave., Anaheim, CA 92807 U.S.A. (714) 779-2772 TELEX: 183511 CSMA Orange Micro, Inc., 1983 **Not available for IDS printers. Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computers, Inc. The Enhancer II Proudly Presents A Whole New Cast of “Key” Characters! Recognize some of these “key” characters? You've seen them all before on your Apple® II screen, but now the Enhancer II has given them all new identities! The Enhancer II uniquely gives your Apple II user-definable keys. So you can define any key to become what you want it to be. That means phrases, paragraphs or commands that you use frequently (up to 510 charac- ters!) can be re- membered by the Enhancer II and then called up at the touch of a single key. Besides that, the Enhancer II gives your Apple II type- writer mode, with each key assuming the identity of a conven- tional typewriter key. Not only will you recognize all the characters; you'll posi- tively rejoice at having upper and lowercase letters, auto repeat, shift and shift lock again! The Enhancer II also has a type- ahead buffer of 128 characters, so you can keep sending messages to your Apple II even while it’s busy with something else. And if you want to meet even more new characters, the optional Function Strip™ will introduce you to 16 brand-new keys across the top of your keyboard which are yours alone to define. (These charac- ters will never get mixed up with charac- ters from the keyboard!) We may be prejudiced, but we think you’re going to like these new stars of your screen. Suggested retail prices: Enhancer I, $149 Function Strip, $79 Combined Package, $215. Re, eee 897 NW Grant Conallis, OR 97330 (603) 758-0521 ‘The Enhancer Il and Function Strip can be used with any Apple with a keyboard encoder board Apple and the Apple logo are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc “key” characters from Enhancer II. In fact, we'll bet that once you've seen them perform, they'll become the d will Wi. en do th the computer? WHAT IN THE WORLD e ISA “MICROZINE?” Microzine is an interactive magazine on a computer disk, and it can open up the world of computer learning to your children more effectively than any other children’s software available today. Microzine comes to you from Scholastic. We’ve been trendsetters in children’s publishing for over 60 years. Now that traditional teaching methods are being enhanced by computer-taught materials, Scholastic is ready with the innovation that creates an ongoing “dialogue” of fun and learning between your children and your com- puter. Like a magazine, but unlike other software or children, Microzine is constantly current and topical. Your children receive a new four-program Microzine disk every other month and build their own Microzine Library! ENTER A FANTASTIC WORLD OF FUN AND LEARNING! Minoz, ne from Scholastic WHAT CAN YOUR e CHILDREN DO WITH MICROZINE? Microzine can help your 9-13-year-olds take advantage of one of the most important uses your computer can have: exploring new and more effi- cient ways of learning and thinking. (If you don’t own acomputer, your children may be able to use one at school or a friend’s home, or borrow one from your local public library.) Microzine was created with the recognition that today’s children take naturally to computers and that tomorrow’s adults will need to be computer literate—no matter what their careers. WHAT IS “COMPUTER LITERACY” AND HOW e DOES MICROZINE HELP ACCOMPLISH IT? At Scholastic, we believe that learning how to utilize a computer’s wide-ranging capabilities should be an important part of every child’s education. This kind of computer literacy is no longer an option, but anecessity, if our children are to take their places in the computer age. To this end, Microzine is designed to spark enthusiasm and teach these essential skills: * following directions * vocabulary * what a computer can do * learning to use acomputer everyday applications * graphics * logic * parts of a computer * problem solving * the nature of programming * word processing * using the keyboard * data handling 4 wwuar WILL THE FIRST YEAR OF MICROZINE BRING? An ever-expanding library of fun and learning! Every eight weeks there are four full-length programs and the variety is incredible: Who’s that trying to solve . Too wild? Gift Store the Mystery at Pinecrest offers practical Manor, lost in suggestions for the- Northwoods everyone from Adventure and Great Uncle challenging the . yy, Oscar to your far reaches of P 16- year-old space on Mission / /)) twin sisters. to Planet XII? a f Or explore your Could it be some- . “ ] creative options one we know? 6 by composing a (With Microzine, . ‘ ) fc song, writing anything is pos- | and illustrating sible.) All set for a book, or invent- takeoff on the ing your own Space Shuttle— : = game. or maybe a hot air P ‘ Coo, balloon race? Wow! : , = Microzine is (Will Microzine . always full ever get down ee. = of questions. to Earth?) — » If you’ve ever ? dreamed of talking to a Back safe on computer game Planet Earth, designer, Ask visit the Pet Me gives you Store. “A fla- the chance. You mingo for your won't believe bathtub? Or all the current maybe a rare big stars wait- three-humped ing to ask you camel?” questions, too. JUST TURN | | | | NO POSTAGE THE PAGE TO TFMAILED INT: FILL OUT YOUR UNITEDSTATES MICROZINE —a BUSINESS REPLY CARD | | | | | | | | FIRST CLASS PERMIT NO. 2316 HICKSVILLE, N.Y. | POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE | | | | | | | | | | | Scholastic, Inc. P.O. Box 947 Education Plaza Hicksville, NY 11802 5 time The NOTE: The first Microzine Package also contains a bonus: a separate data disk that can be used to save original posters and other personal creations! (A $4.95 value.) After consulting this monthly step-by-step guide written in plain English for users 9-13, your children will be able to show you how Microzine activities work. Easy-to-follow instructions encourage independent work habits, creative thinking and follow-through. BECOME A CHARTER SUBSCRIBER TODAY e AND YOUR FIRST MICROZINE IS JUST $7.95. (A $39.95 VALUE: YOU SAVE $32.00!) Thereafter, pay only $24.95, plus shipping and handling, for each Microzine you accept. You save nearly 40 % off the retail price by subscribing! Each bimonthly Microzine Package contains; a Microzine Floppy Disk with Four Complete Programs. On your first disk, discover: 1. POSTER. What’s two spaces wide, slow, green and silent—and changes to three spaces wide, fast, pink and squeaky? It’s an imaginary paintbrush that lets you create as many colorful posters as you want! 2. SECRET FILES. If your children want to remember who starred in their favorite horse movie of 1982, they need Microzine’s elec- tronic filing system. It works just like the electronic filing systems adults use. 3. ASK ME. Robert Macnaughton of “ET” fame is standing by to accept questions—and ask a few of your children in return! 4. HAUNTED HOUSE. There’s never been a haunted house so funny—or one so willing to let you plan your own visit! Like all Twistaplots® this one ends differently every you venture inside. Microzine Handbook y 0.K., Scholastic. We’re ready to enter a fantastic world of fun and learning. Start our Microzines coming! (Please send us Microzine #1 (featuring Poster, Secret Files, Ask Me and Haunted House) and enter a Charter Subscription to Microzine for the child named below. Bill me the special introductory price of just $7.95 (plus shipping, handling and any applicable sales tax). We will be billed $24.95 (plus delivery) for every Microzine we keep. After purchasing Microzine #1, we are never obligated to buy even one addi- tional Microzine, and we may cancel our subscription at any time. If we are not delighted with the intro- ductory Microzine, we may return it within 10 days and pay nothing. OI’ve already purchased Microzine #1. Please start our subscription with Mierozine #2, for which I will be charged just $7.95 (plus shipping, handling and any applicable sales tax). 61010 06 Child’s Name. Age. Grade. please print) Addres Apt. City. State. Zip. Telephone No. ( ) Parent’s Signature. @ ? } B® THE SCHOLASTI iC | CHILDREN’S MAGAZINE ON A MICROCOMPUTER DISK. SEND NO MONEY; JUST FILL OUT AND MAIL THIS MICROZINE REPLY CARD NOW! Plantins aucune: ce a séed... ah cp a f ast : : eer & EG ae ea E The Apple Portable (73 pple is the pioneer’, we are solemnly told. And so it was. The Apple Il was a watershed device, a plug-in personal computer. No soldering required. That machine started anewera. You've heard that story before. Awwessomme, if we may borrow from a recent car commercial. The Apple /// represented another break with the past: the software machine, the most powerful and flexible middle- weight computer on the market. The undeserved image problems suffered by the /// were people/company failures, not machine failures. Still, the /// is estimated to rank sixth or seventh in terms of Units Out There, after you get above the enlarged calculator models. Lisa? Another revolution, the integrated software/hardware package. There's about an eighteen month waiting list Others will claim to be like Lisa, but it will pay to look closely. Some external feature similarities do not constitute equality. Meanwhile, Apple The Company has elected not to compete in the “low end” market, the $100-$600 area where names like Timex and Coleco are, er, “household” words. Not a bad decision so far, considering the way those guys are beating each other's brains out And then there's Texas Instruments, which apparently has been trying to compete in any market it can find, with results that made quite the wrong kind of stock market history in June. The profit margin isn't in the low end, at least not yet There is, however, one other area in which sales are skyrocketing: the portable personal computer. Specific exam- ples? Osborne, Kaypro, and Compaq, among others. Kaypro, in fact, claims to be third in market share, behind Apple and IBM. Whether that's true or not (sales estimates and reports sometimes contain their own kind of creativity), it certainly indicates a trend toward these suitcase specials, about the size of a sewing machine, with self-contained monitor and disk drives. That's the real key: “self-contained”. Everything in one container, as opposed to four boxes hooked together with fragile cables. But if Apple is doing anything about the portable computer market, it's a well-kept secret; there’s nary a Grade 1 rumor about it (Note: we dismiss out of hand the normal Happy Hour rumor mill chaff that abounds in Silicon Valley; plenty of other magazines can provide you with that) No, Apple The Company is pushing its //e and Lisa models out the door, as fast as they can be made. So Apple seems to have no present incentive to build a//e ina suitcase. What that means is that the portables being sold are IBM-compatible, not Apple-compatible, and there's the long-term danger. The software developers are chasing the other operating system which becomes more desirable over time. We heard of a firm in Oregon that’s about to market a portable Apple, ora box that can contain the Apple components, a monitor, and disk drives. Our review samples are alleged to be on the way, and we'll let you know aboutit as soon as we can. Frankly, that firm should be congratulated. And it’s a shame that Apple didn’t think enough of the portable computer market to divert some resources to it before this. Divert from where? Hmm. How about away from high-capacity disk drives? Come on, Apple: put the disk controller, interfaces and 80 columns on a chip (like the VLSI chips in the //e), puta couple of disk drive sockets, 9-pin paddle/joystick connector, serial and maybe parallel ports on the back of a smaller box, and try one without slots, but with a handle. Fs l September 1983 9 to be reserved to the big computers at five-digit prices, are now available to users of the Apple and other microcomputers. The price is still usually as high as the computer itself, but the hard disk has the effect of unleashing a strong extra increment of power. While to the hobbyist this may be just fun, to the small business or corporate office it may mean dollars saved. H ARD DISKS, those fast mass-storage devices which used Most of the power and savings appear in the form of speed. Speed pays in simple ways—more work, more quickly. Extra storage provides speed advantages too. The ability to access any discrete records almost instantly can be a real advantage in systems that need to respond quickly to query situations. In the hobbyist's or mathematician’s world, the added storage can be 10 Apple Orchard the difference in creating data models large enough to be meaningful. The Apple Il and //e, Franklin, Basis et al. form a unique environment Most applications have appeared under Apple's DOS 3.3. Many others, often of very high quality, have appeared under CP/M, another operating system which pre- dates Apple's by a number of years, and which requires a Z-80 circuit card in the Apple. Enough people have thought enough of this system that it is rumored that there is a higher installed base of CP/M systems inside the Apple world (including all the johnny-come-latelies) than in the rest of the computer world combined. At any rate, CP/M is a potent force in the Apple world, and vice versa. Last, and certainly not least in Apple Computer's considera- Review by Morgan P. Caffrey tion, is Pascal. The UCSD (University of California, San Diego) version of Pascal is both a language and an operating system. Tl state right here that Pascal is the operating system that gets the least attention in this article. Others will need to fill in the gaps pertaining to Pascal. Each of these three environments organizes the disk storage capacity in a different manner. In early hard disk releases for Apple, only DOS 3.3 was supported. Quickly, public demand for CP/M caused manufacturers and independent software developers to include CP/M capacity. But often the user gotan either/or solution; either CP/M or DOS 3.3 but not the two together. Pascal, when it was added, further complicated the issue. Buyer demand has led the way. Every manufacturer | talked with either has, or soon will have, a release which permits the three major operating environments to co-exist, sharing what- ever available storage there is. And the amount of storage is growing. It began with five megabytes (5MB) and is increasing; 6, 10, 15, 20 & 40 megabytes and counting. While this development has been quite an improvement, the buyer (that’s you and me) frequently has been required to read very technical material and then mentally register and properly respond to highly technical questions about amounts of disk space to allocate to which operating system. | haven't found a system in which the questions or the answers reached what | am calling an “intuitively obvious” presentation. Almostall of the systems require the user to assign amounts of storage space to each operating system before storing a byte September 1983 11 of data or program line. The Santa Clara System 5MB drive | tested required the user to install the operating systems in a rigid order. If Pascal was added later, because of a newly purchased application package or simply the addition of that environment to the buyer's stable of software, the entire disk needed to be reformatted. The order of installation was critical. This may be necessary but it isn’t what | want. The problem is that the end user, you and |, wish to remain oblivious to these concerns. Giving the devils (which they are not, really) their due, the problem being solved here is not trivial. The differences between the operating systems are real and restrictive. It takes time to think of a solution which encompases all the neces- saries. Time is usually in short supply when trying to get a hardware product profitably to market. Still, the problem must be solved so thata non-programming user can solve problems without becoming almost a programmer. Concerns The concerns! developed during this project aren’t unusual, butI'll list them anyway. Ifyou buy a hard disk without an answer to each of these questions you are on perilous ground. Ease of use and speed. It should be easy to use. It should be very fast. * Price. | want something (good) below $1000. It hasn't appeared yet. ¢ Ease of installation. This has grown and grown as a consideration during this writing. Things do go wrong and you may have to start over. It shouldn't be hard. It mostly is. Availability of operating systems (soon to be a non-issue) and ease of switching between operating systems to use various application programs. e Facilities for data and program backup. e Implementation information. This is a programmer's concern but | give high points to any manufacturer who lets me know where important information is stored in memory and how to change it when my application demands it | know that this can cause trouble for the vendors but if the information is published correctly | don't believe there will be as many problems as anticipa- ted. Certainly the support software will proliferate at a faster rate. What | Really Want What | want is a hard disk system that lets me get on about the business of using my computer, faster and better. | want to 12 Apple Orchard buy new applications as they become available, and place the appropriate (and all-too-rare non copy-protected) ones on the disk as | want to dedicate the space to them. Idon’t want to have to back up every file in every environment, reformat the disk and re-allocate space to each environment every time a new purchase moves me to the limit | previously assigned to one environment. It turns out that there is such a system. Mountain Computer turned out the most elegant system I saw. It took me 20 minutes to boot and begin operation and, although I had to assign limits to each system, | could retum later as my needs changed and restate the limits. The penalty for this elegance was that it's a slower system. Well, of course. If the limits are fixed, they do not have to be “found” during each operation. But one of the prime reasons | want a hard disk in the first place is speed. Not a happy choice. It turns out that you have to assess the benefits of speed versus the benefits of versatility. |, for one, don't want this to be a versus situation. | believe that, some time in the future, all these problems will be dimly remembered irritations. For now they are great limiting boulders on the available landscape. The Drives Evaluated In the course of this review no skimping was done. We contacted as many of the hardware manufacturers as we could; some responded and some didn’t The ones who did are: (in meaningless alphabetic order) Corona Data Systems (Starfire) Mountain Computer (Dynamic Disk System) Santa Clara Systems Vista Corporation (V1200) Xebec (The kit and the factory-built UPS 9705) Xiten Gallium This list doesn't even pretend to be exhaustive. | worked with what was available. The Corvus, Davong and many others which are daily appearing on the scene would have been nice to evaluate as well, and we're looking into follow-ups. But there was plenty to learn and work with and the only real conclusion | have reached is that you can get a lot for your money but it will pinch sometimes. My father, who first began playing with computers when | was 5 (lam now 36) has just begun to work with a micro andis, in his words, “humbled by how much there is to know once you lose the services of a team of people paid to keep disks, printers, wires and troubles at more than arms length”. The hard disks were invented for use by experts, and now secreta- ries are having to deal with them on a daily basis. Let no one tell you the world isn’t rapidly changing. Hard disks are just another, wonderful, harbinger of the technological revolution. Some Hard Disk Basics A hard disk system’s metallic, rigid storage surface spins much faster than any floppy disk. For this reason the read-head comes in contact with the information much more frequently. Speed. The (Winchester) environment is sealed at the factory. No dust can get in. Reliability. The heads are positioned with very high speed and accuracy. Speed and Reliability. A hard disk system requires a special controller circuit in its box to “talk” to the physical mechanism, sending instructions as to where the data is to be stored or what data to read. The only real evidence of this internal controller is a cable leading from the box which must lead somewhere. A hard disk system also requires a special controller, which takes up an Apple slot, to “talk” to the controller in the box and “ talk” to the Apple data bus and the various operating system environments. All present disk systems store information in circular tracks, dividing each track into sectors, frequently 16 or 32 sectors per track. Some up-and-coming disk storage schemes are think- ing of increasing the density of storage by making the tracks “vertical”, of which more when we get a better understanding of the technology. The future is changing even as we try to adapt to the present For any of the operating systems, the information that is stored on a disk is blocked into “sectors”. Each operating system receives the information from the disk in blocks and is responsible to retrieve what it wants from each block and feed it to the application program. The sector most commonly referred to in the Apple is 256 bytes (characters). Sector length is 128 bytes in CP/M and is 512 bytes in Pascal. Forth (which isn't discussed here much but which can also be implemented) uses 1024-byte blocks. The numbers are not terribly important; they merely point out that to make the various operating systems co-reside on the same hard disk, some software “dispatcher” has to know where everything is and under what scheme it was written. So, when an operating system wants data from a disk sector, a logical block number or a track/ sector pair is sent along with the request to help locate the data. The operating system identifies the track/sector of the logical block and sends that information to the controller software. The controller software has to decipher where the requested sector resides on the actual surface of the disk. In a single operating system the information might need no translation. In a multiple system environment the logical track 0, sector 0 of CP/M or Pascal might actually reside on track 306, sector 12 (or anywhere). The application software should remain happily oblivious to all of this. The system implementer, however has a task on his/her hands. What's important here for most of us is not so much the technical detail of how the little beggar goes about rearranging magnetic flux, but the questions that you need to ask yourself and your dealer before purchasing. In short, how, if at all, cana hard disk help you? So | will present my conclusions before the evidence. There wasn’t a hard disk that didn’t quintuple performance over the floppy disk variety. The actual read/write performance might be critical in a satellite download or very frequent sort system but generally the slowest part of the system is the application software and the disk sits around waiting for its next activity. On balance will trade ease of use and general flexibility for speed where price does not offset that factor. Not one manufacturer had a system that could givetoanew or novice user without fear of trouble. Documentation is part of that problem; it must improve. | don't mean more detail; | was awash in detail that, while valuable to a programmer, was irrelevant and confusing to the user. Universally absent were on-line help-screens to clarify the meaning or effect of required entries. | got lost repeatedly. | had to start over from the beginning after “damaging” configurations by pressing keys out of sequence. It seems to me unacceptable for a confused operator to be able to do so much damage from the keyboard by accident The configuration software should be more sophisticated, requiring less sophistication on the part of the operator. Once each system got going | really enjoyed the added speed and storage space. I was able to get my word processor (Pie Writer) working on each system. Word processing is not speed dependent Unless, as in some word-processors, the file can grow much larger than the computer's memory. Key- stroke time and printer speed are the limiting factors. But loading files to edit, storing lots of files on one drive instead of multiple floppies, and making frequent saves was speeded up significantly. | have several small databases | use under DOS 3.3. They all worked without a hitch as long as the system implemented drives 1 and 2 and would allow the volume to be specified. DOS Volumes and Drives In implementing DOS 3.3, the manufacturers seemed to have some difference of opinion about how to implement September 1983 13 Apple's drive/volume scheme. Corvus pointed the way by leaving the drives as 1 and 2 but simply implementing the volume (0 to 254 allowed per drive) concept Some other manufacturers implemented a multiple drive scheme and ignored the volumes. This is a minor disaster, since very many software applications do limit-testing to avoid any but drives 1 and 2. On the other side of the coin, some software completely ignores the volume specification and limits the user to two drives. Most limiting of all is “Slot 6, Drive 1 and Slot 6, Drive 2, nowhere else”. (Each manufacturer, of course, is convinced that his answer is the only real solution and should be the standard—PCW.) It just points out that application software which is not flexible enough properly to implement the facilities of the operating system will sooner or later cause trouble for the user as new hardware appears. The Environmental ‘‘Footprint” There are very real environmental concerns about noise. The amount of trouble is a factor of the actual noise of the fan and how close the device must be to the operator due to the short length of cables. | think the cable should allow the hard disk box to sit on the floor beneath the desk. When I could do this the noise level was reduced to very acceptable levels. When I couldn't do this | felt added fatigue and strain after a long session. It was noticeable. For those of you who use, as | do, a hands-off phone device, the noise in some cases prevented operation because it kept my side of the line constantly transmitting. When | asked several manufacturers about cable length, | got answers that ranged from “that’s just the length we picked” to “we're trying to reduce Radio Frequency energy around the device”. A long cable can act as a transmitter. Backup seems to be the unsolved riddle. When your application program has created a very large file, larger than will fit on a standard floppy diskette, there must be a way to move that data, in segments, to more than one floppy. The only drive which did this effectively was the Mountain Computer system. Everyone else allows increased size volumes but has left it up to the applications software, or the ingenuity of the operator, to achieve a satisfactory backup. This can bea tooth: grinder. Evaluation Considerations Rather than go into the technical drive information of each drive | picked several benchmark tests. Under DOS 3.3 | used the following Applesoft program. 10 D$=CHR$(4): REM DOS FLAG 15 A$="ABCDEFGHIUJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0 123456789" 20 PRINT D$"OPEN TEST" 30 PRINT CHR$(7):REM BEEP TO SIGNAL BEGINNING OF TEST 40 PRINT D$"WRITE TEST" 50 FOR I=1 TO 256 60 PRINT A$:REM WRITE ALPHABET AND DIGITS TO DISK 70 NEXT: PRINT D$: PRINT CHR$(7):REM BEEP TO SIGNAL END OF TEST The test simply beeps, and then writes the characters "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789" to the disk 256 times and then beeps again. | ran each test five times and averaged the times to compensate for my reaction time. Not rigorous in scientific terms but enough to establish performance compa- risons. | tested the read operation in a similar fashion: 10. D§=CHRS (4): REM DOS FLAG 15 Age" 14 Apple Orchard 20 PRINT D$"OPEN TEST" 30 PRINT CHR$(7):REM BEEP TO SIGNAL BEGINNING OF TEST 40 PRINT D$"READ TEST" 50 FOR I=1 T0 256 60 INPUT A$:REM READ ALPHABET AND DIGITS FROM DISK 70 NEXT: PRINT D$:PRINT CHR$(7):REM BEEP TO SIGNAL END OF TEST To offset the disadvantages of Applesoft, a comparatively slow language, | also ran the following Assembly-language version of the same algorithm. 10 D§=CHR$(4): REM DOS FLAG 20 PRINT D$"OPEN TEST" 30 PRINT CHR$(7):REM BEEP TO SIGNAL BEGINNING OF TEST 40 PRINT D$"WRITE TEST" 50 CALL 768+37: REM GO TO ASSEMBLER ROUTINE FOR OUTPUT 70 PRINT D$: PRINT CHR$(7):REM BEEP TO SIGNAL END OF TEST ORG $300 TABLE —_ ASC ""ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWZYZ0123456789" HEX 00 SETUP LDX 40 LOOP LDA TABLE, X BEQ ICTR JSR FDED ;PRINT THE CHARACTER TO DISK INX BNE LOOP ICTR INC COUNTER BNE SETUP RTS ; PRINT THE CHARACTERS IN TABLE 0-FF TIMES COUNTER HEX 00 To say all this in English: | write all the letters of the alphabet plus all the digits and one carriage return to the disk 256 times. This becomes the DOS 3.3 benchmark. CP/M is easier. | used the PIP utility to move MBASIC.COM (the BASIC language supplied with Microsoft's Z-80 card) toa file named TEST. PIP is a fast copy utility and it happens that it showed more interesting results than does the DOS test CP/M has implemented a faster read/write algorithm for dealing with the disk. Pascal... | might as well 'fess up. I'm notthe world’s greatest Pascal fan. As you may remember from a previous review, when | do use Pascal | look for implementations under CP/M. So, while | have made sure that everyone who says Apple's Pascal is implemented can get up and running, I confined my benchmark tests to DOS 3.3 and CP/M. If this flaws the review, so be it One other thing. I don’t hold much store with benchmarks. I did the tests and included the data so that Peter Weiglin would be happy for the “hard-data” enthusiasts. (Thank you, sir— PCW.) The Systems Vista V1200 - 6 megabyte Cartridges This system is a marvel, although not strictly a hard disk. It is not necessarily the best system for general use but it offers fast access to 1.2 million bytes (megabytes) increments of storage and up to 6 megabytes within a few seconds. This drive uses a cartridge of five specially constructed 5 ¥-inch diskettes, each of which can hold up to 1.2 megabytes of data or program. Remember, the Apple 5 ¥%-inch drive can hold 143360 bytes (143K). These Vista diskettes perform the same as double- density double-sided 8-inch drives. I have to admit that | began testing this machine, an implementation of the Amlyn drive mechanism, with a kind of giddy sense of playing with something that started life as a Rube Goldberg drawing. The idea is to have a mechanism which feeds diskettes to the drive. The mechanism grabs the diskette and changes the attitude of the cartridge for a smooth feed-in and pull-out. That's a lot of physical motion. It's out in the open, available for the wear of dust and the vagaries of diskette material. It wheezes and groans and, finally, works. Disk access time on any one of the five disks appeared to equal that of any of the Winchester drives. It is done, not with mirrors, but with DMA (direct memory access), which turns off the Apple's CPU, jams the data into the destination memory locations and then turns the CPU back on. The implementations of DOS, Pascal and CP/M are sepa- rate. They don't exactly co-reside. You just change cartridges. Cartridges cost about 70 dollars when | started this project The problem with the V1200 is that it fails one of the prime goals of adding a mass storage device. It is fast on any one diskette, but achingly slow in copying from one diskette to another. The physical motion of loading and unloading each diskette adds much time to any backup and/or disk-to-disk data manipulation process. To me this is a delightful solution for writers or small applications which need no more than 1.2 megabytes of storage for any one application. Program developers and consultants might find it very useful to simply dedicate a cartridge to a client and one for backup. It solves many of the backup problems. Just don't think about using it if you need high speed transfers from disk-to-disk. That won't work. I had trouble with disks jamming at first They sent a second test version and the problem simply didn’t reoccur. | can’t predict from this if the problem was circumstantial or design- based. One useful DOS 3.3 utility is Quickcharge. It speeds up normal floppy disk access by quite a bit. It makes copying one floppy to the V1200 much faster. Mountain Computer’s 5 Megabyte Dynamic Disk System (DDS) This was the most elegant total package. The hardware is neatly packaged in one of the smallest containers. Its noise level was the least offensive. Its cables fit easily through the openings in the //e’s back panel. It has one on-off switch and one busy-lamp. It worked the first time I turned it on, no arguments. It comes with a six month warranty. It is, however, slow. No other disk manufacturer in this review has done as good a job in organizing the available storage space. Similar in concept to DOS 3.3’s dynamic file allocation, hardware disk space is used only as data is actually written, rather than reserved in advance. According to Mountain, this feature “can mean up to 50% more disk space available than on competetive systems.” We shall see. Outstanding Features 1. Volume Maintenance Utility - VUTIL The DDS programming was done by Pete Rowe and he wrote the most frequently-used utility, “VUTIL’, in each of the three operating systems. The commands and display in each operating system are identical. Your working habits are identical in each environment You can transfer from any operating system to any other operating system from VUTIL. 2. Storage Allocation There is one managing program which handles the dynamic allocation of the disk space. In each environment you assign space to named logical blocks, called volumes. You attach or release the volumes as your processing needs require. Space is actually allocated to the named volume as it is used. Thus are-allocation at a later time allows all unused disk space to be returned to the general pool and assigned to another named volume under any of the operating systems. This is unique among the drives reviewed. 3. Backup Accessible only from the DOS 3.3 maintenance volume, the backup and restore features allow information from any named volume in any operating system to be copied to floppy diskette. The utility takes care of segmenting all information (files larger than a single floppy) out to the floppy and reconstructing the data should it ever be required. The only negative thing I found about the somewhat lengthy process is that it doesn’t tell you how many floppies you need to prepare. If you run out you have to start the whole process all over again. 4. “Attaching” Volumes Avolume from a different operating system may be attached or booted from any operating system. For instance, while operating under CP/M you might attach a Pascal volume because you want to access a file containing a table of data created under Pascal. This is not a process for beginners. The program running under CP/M trying to access the data must know the Pascal directory and how to acquire the data, but at least each operating system can “know’ that the other exists and the system provides a potential data path for programmers to explore. The documentation was (sigh) preliminary. It was word- processed with parts printed with impact printer and parts printed by dot-matrix. It was always legible and readable, which, unfortunately is not always to say comprehensible. In some cases | read sentences over and over, understanding all the words but still not sure what to do next. It did not, however, keep me from making a successful installation the first time. The installation texts are very good, especially in that they included drawings which accurately reflect the appearance of the interface card and its cable. The drawing shows the cable leaving the Apple II backplate and | was working with the //e. Still, there were no stumbles. Initialization Initialization consists of specifying the slot and providing a disk name (which doesn't appear to have a functional purpose). The document accepts too quickly that concepts of volume name, attachment, etc. have been mastered by the reader. After initializing the disk surface (formatting), you must assign a maximum number of sectors or blocks to each operating system you want to use. This is no different from any other disk system. Once the operating environments are established, you then create named volumes, assigning space to each volume, and attach the volumes you wish to work with. Amaximum of eight volumes may be attached at any one time. Volumes may be write-protected. September 1983 15 Speed Under CP/M I loaded programs approximately 20% faster than from floppy diskettes. This is not a terrific speed gain. Using PIP | copied MBASIC.COM from drive A: (the CP/M boot drive) to drive C: which is the volume | configured for 2048 kilbytes. Ittook26.5 seconds to transfer the 24K program. That is slow. | then transferred C:MBASIC.COM to C:TEST.COM. The results improved to 21.9 seconds; still not good. | then copied the version of PIP over to my floppy (standard Apple drives) and copied MBASIC.COM to TEST.COM on the floppy. The longest time | could get was 13.83 seconds. | don't know why the same utility would take longer on the hard disk than on the floppy disk but it did. Not good. Another quirk of the Mountain system which seems more than just pesky to me is that you lose the use of floppy drive A: but retain use of floppy drive B:. | called to find out if this is what they meant and they said yes. Since none of the other CP/M systems found this necessary I think it is poor design. Overall the Mountain Computer system compared very favorably. The flexibility of the system and the utilities which come with make me lean towards it It is too slow, however when compared to every other system. This is, for now, the apparent cost for that flexibility. If the speed problem was taken care of, it would be the premier system reviewed. Santa Clara Systems The Santa Clara System is not my pick They sent disks for three operating systems but the documentation only covered DOS 3.3. It is not easy to use and the documentation was very limited, difficult for any but the very hardy. The worst aspect of the Santa Clara implementation is under DOS 3.3. Instead of implementing the standard DOS volume concept, the Santa Clara implements multiple drives, greater than 2. Thus to catalog the 23rd partition you type: CATALOG, D23 I believe this is a losing proposition as all the good software | have makes limit checks to see that no drive higher than 2 is accepted. It means that many application programs will need to be rewritten or adapted, if there is no copy protection scheme standing between you and making the adaptation. This is an expensive proposition. There were no outstanding features or utilities which offset this disadvantage. Utilities INSTALL - Formats the “LUN” (which stands for logical unit) into 34 drives per 5 meg section. MC- A cataloging utility which was fine for visual scanning but with no published “hooks” for programmers to make use of it COPYA- Adapted to allow higher drive numbers. Sets tracks 0- 2 busy as though Apple's DOS was needed on every drive (losing 12288 characters of storage per drive, approximate- ly 1/10 of a 5-meg drive) Speed Speed under DOS 3.3 was neither unusually bad nor good compared to the other drives. It was a very marked improve- ment over floppy disk drives. Xiten’s Gallium Disk - 10 Megabyte This was the worst of the lot The 19-page documentation was skimpy and poorly written. It had only DOS 3.3 and an 16 Apple Orchard implementation quirk which apparently made it impossible to access even-numbered volumes. The procedures to format the drive and initialize the volumes worked as described. Either normal or triple-sized DOS volumes are allowed. My first attempt to work with multiple volumes failed and after a number of hours | gave up. One of the strictures of working on this review was that everything had to be accomplished from the documentation provided. Thus, the shortness of the review of this drive.Until they make a marked improvement | don't recommend it for beginners or for programmers. Speed When running the speed test on this drive the speed was, as with Santa Clara drive, neither exceptionally good, nor bad. Itis very likely that these folks have made software improvements by this time, the market being what it is. | really am going to have to reserve final judgment on the system. Two to Go! The last two drives | had trouble with and yet liked a lot In both cases the companies were making the transition to the three-operating system versions, and | had to get a second drive in each case. That's one hardware and one software problem per system. Both of the manufacturers have produced usable, well- priced systems, and are stressing some utilities and general purpose usefulness. They are similarly priced (The Xebec kit is less expensive but | worked with the assembled UPS 9705 which is the same price as the Corona Starfire). Xebec UPS-9705 (5 Megabyte - Prebuilt) | favor a high price-performance ratio more than ease of installation. |am also a programmer and am willing to struggle a bit more than the non-programming user. That inclines me toward the Xebec. It will probably be the kit because I want to. keep the cost down. But the speed performance and the availability of information made the most impression on me. This is all arguable, but it is the subjective impression with which I came away from this project, for whatever that's worth. This system had a cable able to reach the floor, was relatively quiet and well-behaved. It was fast under DOS and CP/M. It was not the easiest installation. The documentation was so prelimi- nary that it was made on an office copier. It was not particularly easy to read. But the documentation provided a “partition worksheet” which enabled me to make decisions, remember why | made those decisions and repeat the actions later, if necessary. The Xebec $1410 Disk controller (the card inside their box, not the one inside the Apple) can control up to two drives with interfaces compatible with the ST-506 disk drive from Seagate Technology. | have come to learn that this means a large number of 5 ¥%4-inch Winchester disk drives. It uses the Shugart Associates System Interface (SASI bus) which apparently makes it more “outward compatible” than others. That is, if a better, cheaper drive were to come along and | got hold of it, | would be able, with knowledgeable effort, to adapt the control ler. Some execellent documentations, of no possible interest to business users but of some real interest to intense hobbyists comes with the device. Disk storage information is an open book. Xebec has not decided yet whether to publish implemen- tation software locations because they do not intend to provide Apple !// User CP/M — SOS TEXTmover le Te System > Apple Ill computer Configuration > Two Apple Ill disk drives > 128K of memory Features > Does not require softcard > Ready to run—just boot > Source Code > Character filters > Reads only CPIM floppies using Apple drives Cost > $25 (California residents add 6.5% Sales Tax) To Order > Send check or money order to: International Apple Core, 908 George Street, Santa Clara, CA 95050. > Make check or money order payable to International Apple Core. Payment must accompany order and must be in U.S. funds and drawn on U.S. bank. > Dealer inquiries invited BP INTERNATIONAL APPLE CORE” Apple and Apple Ill are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. n . les; ! Modem . snurareou Ses . na Se cate sore 5 Retox el visicale SIP and, “POTS as | cleat the Vie together ive” mod nphate. ME” Con tat fe ort the tem ond wt has 0 ie FX Ih not! xiv S. ig others me beghhN® 598, Pl th ve efiex! eR TRANSFER, LECTION Ae REMAN Ye RETRANEM ssi san ity 10 in sang t" as | are DEM EX Is Fea of (OT ig fy teale ON tet Se comma amazing Misneet Ban the S with iow wi cus ot e making ci ficale 2™Pcial MSE and reso is « a software consulting section. As mentioned before, | favor publication of information helpful to software developers as a spur to the development of additional support software. Utilities DISK FIGURE - An Applesoft program to determine disk allocation values. HELLO - A boot menu to select DOS, CP/M or Pascal. HELLO PASCAL - The program to enter the Pascal environ- ment, HELLO CP/M- The program to enter the CP/M environment, FUTIL - A FID look-alike for DOS 3.3 file transfers, APPLEDIAG - A disk-drive diagnostic, Xebec hasn't achieved the elegance of Mountain Computer or the Corona but the price-performance, noise-level, speed seem to meet my needs the best One last comment Justa few days ago | got word that Xebec will release within weeks a 10-meg system at “well below $2000”. I'm not sure how that is going to affect the price of the UPS9705 but | suspect that the price-performance ratio may get a boost from the release. Corona Starfire The Corona Starfire, a nice name, has been around for a while and has been favorably reviewed. They probably won't mind that it wasn’t my favorite system, because I'm not representative of the large market. Their documentation, Release B, was head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Word-processed but very nicely word-processed with good illustrations. Ihad trouble with the installation. The cable requires special grounding both inside the hard-disk chassis and on the controller card, | don’t think novice users should have to open the chassis to make an installation. The original documentation got me pretty lost, and halfway through the project they requested we wait for the final version. O.K. I waited. It was a marked improvement After successfully mounting DOS 3.3 and CP/M | went ahead with the PASCAL and trashed the other two operating systems. Since | didn't hit it with a hammer it must have been something | did from the keyboard. | got no warning messages to tell me | was out of range and havn't yet figured out what happened. That shouldn't be possible. Utilities The system utilities seem comprehensive. These folks have been around for a while and have a lot of satisfied customers, so my trouble may not be typical. | just call em as | see’em (or in this case experience them) DOS 3.3 Plus HELLO BACK@P - Copies a file or makes a mirror-image of a source volume. Volumes must be the same size. COPYC CONFIGURE VMS - Volume Management System FMS - File Management System (FID look-alike) CATALOG COPY FILES VERIFY FILES LOCK FILES 18 Apple Orchard UNLOCK FILES DELETE FILES UNDELETE FILES (nice to have) STATUS REPORT INITIALIZE DISK CP/M The latest release installs a new BIOS (Basic Input Output System) which may lead to incompatibility with some previous software. The document publishes all the right addresses so the software manufacturers can adapt What a pain, though. CP/M Utilities VMGR- Volume Manager - Adds, removes and lists volumes to and from the Starfire. Also allows mounting and write- protecting of volumes. CINSTALL - Installs Microsoft's CP/M onto the drive. CFORMAT - Formats starfire volumes, FORMAT - Standard CP/M format. BACK(P - Does a backup of a full volume. If additional diskettes are required you are prompted. If you geta BDOS error on one floppy and need to start over you can enter the floppy to start with and not need to repeat the ones that were already successful. This is an improvement over the Mountain Computer implementation. RESTORE. - Reverses the BACKUP procedure. FAILSAFE - Allows you to enable/disable from write-verifying immediately following a write. COPY - Copies from one Starfire volume to another. Will not copy from floppies. The CP/M backup facility does a great deal to recommend the Corona Starfire system in a business environment Data grows over time and a stable method to achieve a full volume backup can be money in the bank. Disk Management Utilities The Disk management utility makes this drive a rival with Mountain Computer for the most elegant solution. The fact that | had trouble with the Corona (as with others) can't hide the fact that it has weathered some changes and now has a sophisticated system of creating partitions, mounting volumes, altering partition allocations etc. It is shipped from the factory already configured. Since they can’t guess right about every user's needs or intentions they make it possible for you to change your/their mind. If you need to you can re-initialize from scratch, or may simply elect to adjust the present allocations. More? That's a look at six hard disks, along with some background for the potential hard disk buyer on just what he/she is getting into. We haven't yet covered some other models; six ata time is enough. We would like to hear from you about your problems and successes with Apples and hard disks. What worked for you? What didn't? How did you snatch victory from the drive door of defeat? Let us know. Only one copy system lets you backup _ 64k programs in 20 seconds flat... ...the Snapshot Copykit’ for Apple Ile and II+ While other manufacturers have been making wild promises, we've been quietly developing the superior copy system you've been waiting for: the SNAPSHOT COPYKIT. THE FLEXIBLE CARD - The SNAPSHOT COPYKIT isa board for all systems. It sits in any slot on the Apple Ie, II+ and II as well as software- compatible machines like the Basis 108 and the Franklin Ace. So, you can upgrade your system without paying for another card. Although NO LANGUAGE CARD/16K CARD IS REQUIRED, the SNAPSHOT COPYKIT can be used with any memory card and all peripheral cards. The SNAPSHOT COPYKIT is the only copy card that stays up-to-date. Because all its software is in RAM, rather than inflexible ROM, the new enhancements we continyally develop are made available to you at nominal cost — immediately. THE USER-FRIENDLY CARD ~ We refined backup techniques for two years to make the SNAPSHOT COPYKIT just right for you, whether you're new to the Apple or a seasoned pro. Other copy cards force you to use complex, unreliable procedufes and repeated booting of ‘utility disks’ to copy programs larger than 48K. Outdated ‘nibble copier’ programs involve frustrating trial-and-error parameter changes. Only the SNAPSHOT COPYKIT backs up all 64K memory-resident programs (and most larger programs too) with one simple menu and one press ofthe trigger. THE POWERFUL CARD - The SNAPSHOT COPYKIT gives you back the power over your computer that copy-protected software took away. You can interrupta running program, copy it list it (even ifit’s ‘unlistable’), disassemble it, step and trace it, modify it and resume running it. The program is not disturbed in any way and never knows it was interrupted, You can view its graphics, print them (if you have a graphics card) and much more. You can even temporarily suspend one program while you use another. All backups are automatically BRUNnable files that you can move to hard disk. Our state-of-the-art compression facility lets you put a number of backups on one floppy. With powerful features like these, i's no wonder that BYTE magazine called SNAPSHOT “The Ultimate Unlock System”. The SNAPSHOT COPYKIT has many more features for programmers, gamesters and others. Write for our info packet or leave your address and questions with our 24-hour answering service at (413) 584-7600. We regret we cannot return all calls. All SNAPSHOT owners receive out“Technical Hot-Line’ number for instant technical guidance. PRICE: $139.95 (Snapshot Two is still available for the Apple II and Franklin Ace at $119.95. 16K Card required; please specify brand when ordering). TO ORDER: Mail check payable to Dark Star Systems. Add$3 for shipping in the U.S. ($7.50 to Canada, $15 elsewhere). Mass. residents add 5% tax. COD costs $5 extra (not available outside U.S.) SYSTEMS P.O. BOX 140, Amherst, MA 01004 Apple is a reg, trademark of Apple Computer, ABSTAT v2.2 Review by Woody Liswood Published by: Anderson - Bell Company 5336 S. Crocker St Littleton, CO 80120 (303) 794-7509 System: CP/M BSTAT is a statistical program. I haven'tyet figured out A what the AB stands for although I would place a bet that it comes from the Anderson - Bell company name. There are many statistical programs available for DOS, but few for CP/M. Although ABSTAT doesn't have all of the features as “Statistics with DAISY” in the Apple DOS world, it does have an impressive amount Documentation ABSTAT comes with a91 page “perfect bound” manual. Itis easy to read, and, in my opinion, rather well laid out The installation program explanation is mentioned early in the manual, but the pages are in the back of the manual. That's where they should be. Each of the potential ABSTAT com- mands has a page or more each. That makes for an effective use of white space so the manual does not look cluttered and overwhelming. Each of the commands is illustrated with a sample set of responses as the program would query you from the screen, which is an effective method of getting the point across. | wish more folks would take the time to show those sample screens in their documentation. ABSTAT has the ability to process data using a command file (which we'll explain later). There is a demo file on the disk as well as a demo command file. | would think that the first thing you might want to do is run that command file and let ABSTAT take you through a set of commands and screen displays. | will use some of the reports and information created by the demo to illustrate some of the statistical routines later in the review. Error Trapping As | spend a good deal of time in DOS as well as CP/M, |can tell you that CP/M has horrible error trapping problems. Most programs, when there is an error, seem to drop you back to the CP/M operating system. ABSTAT doesn't do that I was not Review © 1983 20 Apple Orchard able to cause the program to bomb even doing the dumbest things. Their error trapping is as good as any I have used in the DOS environment. Installation The installation of ABSTAT is rather routine. They make few assumptions about your terminals. If you have some extra large storage capacity disk drives then you really do not need to. do the installation. The program will assume that all is on the A: drive. Ifyou must, you can have program as well as data files on the B: drive if you are using standard Apple or Osborne disks. The only thing to watch for is that you must always use UPPER CASE when in the ABSTAT program. Initial Menu ABSTAT boots toa main menu with five areas mentioned. In addition, the boot process tells you how much available memory you have and how many values you might be able to store. For example, my boot screen looks like this (after the logo): MEMORY AVAILABLE IS 59398. WITH ROOM FOR 4529 VALUES you may type “?” for HELP at any time. Commands have been broken into groups: DATA _ - Data manipulation STAT _ - Statistical analysys GRAPH - Graphic functions REPORT - Report writing MISC — - QUIT, HELP, COMM, DIR Type “? groupname” for a listing and short description of available commands. Which Command? | have left the spelling error in on purpose. They may have corrected it by the time you get your version. Actually, you do not have to use any of the “groupnames” to use the program. If you know what you want to do, you can just give a direct command at any time you see the WHICH COMMAND prompt To use the help function you type ? XXXX to get a screen display about the command. If you type a “?” without a 00x name, you are returned to the main menu. MISC The MISC group is somewhat obvious. QUIT gets you back to CP/M. HELP tells you how to use the HELP command COMM, however, needs an explanation. ABSTAT has the ability to run from a command file. This would be similar to an EXEC file in BASIC. It does not, however, create those files; you would need to do that with your word processor. Then you would type COMM XXXX or whatever name you gave your file, and if they were all valid ABSTAT commands in the proper order your system would run by itself. As the manual points out, this feature is good for running reports which you would normally create on a periodic basis, with only the data changed. Using a command file, you would bring your data into ABSTAT, then run your command file. It would turn on your printer and perform all of the analysis which you might need, all while you were drinking coffee with your friends. PRINT * DESC2 * BARGR 1 AUTO/3, CORR FREQ 2 REGR 3 1-2 PLOT 1 2 XTAB RC 1 2 ANOVI * ANOV2 * PAIRT CHIFIT 1 2 CONTIG 1-3 That was the command file which came with ABSTAT, called DEMO.CMD on the disk. Each of the lines is a valid ABSTAT command or a valid response to a normal ABSTAT query. That is all there is to it DIR is the same as the CP/M directory command. Data The data group is as good a place to start as any. Here is the set of DATA commands: CREATE Create a new data file FETCH Read in an existing data file EDIT Edit an existing data file SAVE Save memory data set on disk file TRAN _ Transform current data set PULL Add variables from another file BUILD Transform a variable from another file APPEND Append data from another file PRINT Print data set RAND Random number generator SORT _ Sort data set READ Read ASCII data file WRITE Write ASCII data file DBREADRead dBase .dbf file DWRITE Write dBase .dbf file As you can see, there are many things you can do with your data. The first thing you must do when you get ready to work with any data set is to run the CREATE command. This defines the maximum number of variables which you can use for that file. You do not have to use all of your variables all of the time, but if you say you only will need 10 variables, then later decide that you will need 15, you are stuck. EDIT does what it says it should do. It's probably the weakest part of the program, although it does work smoothly once you get used to ABSTAT’s way of doing things. Within the EDIT function, you can add or change variable names; enter or change the values of variables within a single case; enter or change values within a single variable; or delete entire variables or cases. Perhaps this is a good time to explain case and variable. A variable is one column of data. For example, | use ABSTAT to check the internal relationships during a job evaluation project In one project, we used three major elements: Job Knowledge, Problem Solving, and Accountability. Each of those would be considered a variable. Then we analyzed around 399 jobs. Each of the jobs evaluated received a point score for each of the variables. Each job with its corresponding points for each variable would be considered a case. My problem with the EDIT routine is that it adds data in front of things, allows you to go up a case, down a case and other such things. | am so used to the “CALC” programs and their ease of entry that | dislike going back to an old fashioned line- editor type of approach. | will say, however, that ABSTAT does work rather well and that you can transfer your data to it from a multitude of sources, so that my criticism of the editor should not be taken as a problem but rather as a philosophical point about modern techniques as compared to what was accept: able last year. FETCH is a command you use after you have already created and saved a data file during another work session. PRINT will list your data set to your printer. It's always a good idea to do this, and to make a quick visual inspection of the data. You would be amazed at how many little typos can find their way into statistical data. Figure 1 is a sample set of ten cases out of the 399 which | actually used to generate the sample statistics for this review. One of the best features of ABSTAT is its ability to read and write ASCII files as well as dBase files. This means that you do not have to rekey data which you have in other programs when you want to perform statistical analysis on them. | normally use Selector as my data base of choice in the CP/M world. Selector has the ability to create standard ASCII files. | had Selector create an “ASCII comma delimited” file from the job evaluation project data. Those same 10 items actually looked like Figure 2 before they were transferred into ABSTAT. September 1983 21 Then, | instructed ABSTAT to read only selected columns of that file to create the set of variables which I wanted to analyze. This way | did not need to edit or re-key any of the data. The entire data entry, manipulation, transformation, and file building sections of ABSTAT work very well. They appear to be well thought out and | could not make them bomb or do the unexpected. That is what you need in a good statistical program. Stat There is a number of statistical commands available in ABSTAT. Here is how the help menu shows STAT commands; ANOV1 One way analysis of variance ANOVA2 Two way analysis of variance CHIFIT Chi Square goodness of fit CONTIG Chi Square 2 way Contingency table CORR Correlation coefficients (r) matrix DESC Means, standard deviation, modes, etc FREQ Lists values, frequencies, %, and Z scores MANN Mann-Whitney U test MDIFF Variable pair mean test MEANT Population mean test PAIRT t Test for paired observations PROB CHI, TTEST, FTEST, POIS, BIN probability com- mands REGR Simple and multiple linear regressions SRANK_ Spearman rank correlation matrix Xtab Cross Tabulation ZSCOR Lists values, frequencies, %, and Z scores We will not attempt to explain here what all those mean; that's a couple of three-credit courses. If you're reading the review, I'll assume that you know enough about statistics to understand if those things are worth while for your needs. One feature of ABSTAT is an ability to print your reports to disk rather than to a printer. That way you could move the reports around and place them in a final report using your word processor. | did not actually key in all of the samples for this review. Iran ABSTAT and created the disk file. Then | wrote the report with WordStar and used the Control-K R command to insert the files as appropriate. (He did too, and it drove the typesetter crazy!—PCW) Rather than just talk about the commands and what they do, I thought that you might like to see samples of the actual output That way you can tell if the program really will provide you with the data that you need. | know when I'm looking for this type of program, | always want to see sample output before making a purchase decision. See Figure 3. ABSTAT really worked well on the Rank Order correlation (SRANK). | did this same exact matrix using Statistics with DAISY. DAISY took over 45 minutes to sort each row before it actually processed the data. ABSTAT was done with the entire affair (COMMAND SRANK) in just under 5 minutes. 22 Apple Orchard ABSTAT 2.22 FILE: B:TEST = REVE 4 COMMAND: PRINT DATA VARIABLES: CASE 1K 1 13.0000 2.00000 2 13.0000 200000 3 14,0000 2.00000 4 14,0000 2.00000 5 14,0000 2,000 6 14.0000 2.00000 7 14,0000 2.00000 8 14.0000 2.00000 9 15.0000 2.00000 0 15.0000 2.00000 2P PABE 1 3R 4PT 5 6D 4.00000 80,0000 3.00000 4.00000 80.0000 3.00000 5.00000 93.0000 4.00000 5.00000 73.0000 4,00000 5.00000 93.0000» 4.00000 5.00000 93.0000 4.00000 5.00000 93.0000 4.00000 5.00000 93.0000 4.00000 5.00000 104,000 4.00000 4.00000 107.000 5.00000 Figure 1 0,800, 0,5902, CLERK JR,AAIM, 13,57, AIMB,2,7,BIIL,4,16, ,0,0,80,3,A 0,452,0,6273,REPRO EQUIPMENT OPR TR,AAIM,13,57,ALHB,2,7,BIIN, 4,16, ,0,0,80,3,B 0,114,0,5002, *CLERK, ACCNT JR", BALL, 14, 66, 81 0,431,0,5106,MAIL CLERK,BAIL, 14, 66,BILB,2,8,B11M,5, 19, ,0,0,93,4,8 +258, BLIN, 5, 19, .0,0,93,4,B 0,454, 0,5903,LIBRARY ATTENDANT, BAIL, 14, 66,BILB,2,8,B11H,5, 19, ,0,0,93,4,B (0,800, 0,5710, RECEPTIONIST, BAIL, 14,66, BILB,2,8,B11M,5,19, 0,0,93,4)B 0,800, 0,5809, CLERK TYPIST, BAIL, 14,66, BILB,2,8,BI1M,5,19, ,0,0,93,4,B 0,330, 0,5900, PERSONNEL CLERK JR, BAIL, 14,66, BILB,2,8,B11H,5,19, ,0,0,95,45B 0,431, 0,5701, SWITCHBOARD OPERATOR, BAIN, 15,76, BILB,2,9,B11M,5,19, ,0,0,104,4,C 0,800,0,5610,STOCK CLERK, BAIM, 15, 74,ALHB,2,9,BIIH, 6,22, ,0,0,107,5,C Figure 2 (begin Fig. 3) COWMAND: DESC THERE ARE 5 VARIABLES AND 399 CASES VARIABLE EAN 1K 21.0877 2P 8.44862 3R 15.0276 apr 375,401 560 13.6742 VARIABLE MEDIAN 1K 21.0000 2P 9.00000 IR 14.0000 4PT 299.000 5 6D 14,0000 YVARTABLE SKEWNESS 1k 0.520504 2P ~0,511623 3R 0.601446 4aPr 2.97647 5 6D 0.163328 COMMAND: CORR STD, DEV. 3.38083 2.55329 5.14772 285.989 4.00069 ODE 19.0000 9.00000 14.0000 299.000 14.0000 KURTOSIS| 3.54181 2.99600 3.42952 15,8185 3.38760 VARIANCE 11,4300 4.51927 26.4990 81789,7 16,0039 NINTMUK 13,0000 2.00000 4.00000 80.0000 3.00000 $04 CORRELATION MATRIX 188 VARIABLES: 1K 1.000000 2P 0.995741 3R 0.966303, apt 0.900332 56D 0.975630 1K 1.00000 0.921600 0.763782 0.970223, 2P 1.00000 0.876688 0.962953, 3R STD ERROR OF MEAN 0.169253 0.127824 0.257708 14.3174 0.200275 WACIMUK 33.0000 14,0000 32.0000 2827.00 26,0000 1.00000 0.837660 4eT COEFF OF VARIATION 16,0475, 30,2213 34,2552 7.1823 29.2558 RANGE 20.0000 12,0000 28.0000 2247.00 3.0000 1.00000 5 6D (Fig. 3 cont) COMMAND: FREQ VARIABLE: 2 P cux uN VALUE FREQ FREQ = x 1 SCORE 2.00000 1 1 28 28 -2,52562 3.00000 12 23 5.8 2.13397 4.00000 9 32 8.0 “1.74231 5.00000 1446 15 -1, 35066 4.00000 46 2 2.1 0.959009 7.00000 29 121 ~0,567356 8.00000 54 «175 7.00000 80 255 20, 10,0000 71 32% 43.9 0.175704 63.9 0.215948 81.7 0.607600 11,0000 25351 88.0 0.999253, 12,0000 35386 6.7 1.39090 13,0000 11 3972.8 99.5 1.78256 14,0000 239905 100.0 2AM TOTAL «399-399-1000 100.0 ‘COMMAND: REGR AN MULTIPLE LINEAR REGRESSION 844 DEPENDENT VARIABLE: 3 R 399 SARPLES COEFF OF DETERMINATION: WULTIPLE CORR COEFF: 0.9362 0.9676 ESTIMATED CONSTANT TERN: ‘STANDARD ERROR OF ESTIMATE: AMALYSIS OF VARIANCE FOR THE REGRESSION: DEGREES OF SUM OF SOURCE OF VARIANCE FREEDOM SQUARES REGRESSION 2 9873.38 RESIDUALS 3% 473.219 TOTAL 398 10546. WEAN OF SQUARES 4936.89 1.70005 CORRELATION ‘STANDARDIZED WITH COEFFICIENT © DEPENDENT 0.895480 0.966303 0.139805, 0.921600 REGRESSION VARIABLE COEFFICIENT 1K 1,27212 2P 0.281863 COMMAND: TAB 448 CROSS TABULATION 843 2P 1K DISCRETE 13.0000 15.0000 17,0000 19.0000 21.0000 DISCRETE 14,0000 16.0000 18.0000 20,0000 2000 2 6 2 t 0 0 0 0 0 LTOT 0.52 1.52 0.5% 0.3% 0.02 0,02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% TROW 18.21 54,52 18.2 9.1% 0.0L 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% COL 100.07100.02 25.0% 9.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.000 0 0 6 6 0 0 0 0 0 LTOT 0,02 0.02 1.5% 1.5% 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% TROW 0.0% 0.0% 50.0% 50.0% 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% TCOL 0.0% 0.02 75.0% 54.5% 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.01' 0.0% 4.000 0 0 0 3 6 0 0 0 06 LTOT 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.8% 1.5% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% TRON 0.0% 0.01 0.0% 33.3% 66.7% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% YCOL 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 27.3% 33.3% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 5.000 0 0 0 1% 8 5 0 0 0 LTOT 0,02 0,02 0.0% 0.3% 2,01 1.32 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% TRON 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 7.1% 57.1% 35.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% LCOL 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 9.1% 44.41 17.22 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 6.000 9 9 9 0 4 18 % 3 0 LTOT 0.02 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 1.0% 3.32 6.5% 0.8% 0.0% TRON 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 8.7% 28.3% 56.5% 6.5% 0.0% TCL 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 22.2% 44.8% 38.2% 5.6% 0.0% 7.000 9 6 0 0 0 @ 9 0 0 LTOT 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.52 2.3% 2.5% 0.0% TRON 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% M.5E 31.01 34.5% 0.0% TCOL 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 34,52 13.2% 18.5% 0.0% “14,1543, 1,3039 F TEST 2503.86 0 0.0% 0.0% 0.08 0 0.0% 0.01 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% OTHER TOTAL mM 2.8% 12 3.0% “4 3.51 4% 11.5% a 73 Ca a a rs 2 LTOT 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.32 7.8% 5.5% 0.0% 0.0% 15.5% TROW 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.9% 57.4% 40,78 0.0% 0.0% TCL 0.0L 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 3.42 45.4% 40.7% 0.0% 0.0% 7.0000 0 0 0 0 6 0 2 19 45 14 80 UTOT 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0,02 0.5% 4.8% 11.3% 3.5% 20.12 TRON 0.0% 0.0L 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.01 2.5% 25.7% 56.2% 17.5% TCOL 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0,02 0.02 2.9% 35.2% 97.8% 8.9% 1.000 0 0 0 9 0 09 0 O 4 0 1 LTOT 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.3% 17.5% 17.8% TROW 0.0L 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 1.4% 98.6% XCOL 0.0% 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 2.2% 44.6% 1.000 9 890 0 0 0 LTOT 0.0% 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 6.3% 6.3% TROW 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.01 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.02100.0% TCOL 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.02 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 15.9% ‘COMMAND: ANOYI ‘$43 1 WAY ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE 888 ‘SAMPLE SHE ‘MEAN ‘STD DEV iK 39 21,0677 3.38083 2P 399 8.44862 2.55329 gR 399 15.0276 ‘5.14772 4PT 399 ‘5.401 285.989 56D had 13.6742 4.00049 ‘DEGREES OF ‘SUM OF EAN OF SOURCE OF VARIANCE ‘FREEDOM ‘SQUARES ‘SQUARES: F TEST AMONG SAMPLES 4 4,15953E+07 1, 03988E+07 635.246 WITHIN REPLICATIONS — 1990 3.25758E+07 16369.8 TOTAL 1994 TANTINE+O7 COMMAND: ANOV2 ‘440-2 WAY ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE 80 ‘SAMPLE: SITE EAN ‘STD DEV 1K 39 21.0677 3.38083 at 39 8.44862 2.55329 oR 39 15,0276 ‘5.14772 4PT 399 ‘375.401 285.989 56) 399 13.6742 4.00049 DEGREES OF ‘SUM OF MEAN OF ‘SOURCE OF VARIANCE FREEDOM ‘SQUARES ‘SQUARES F TEST ‘AMONG SAMPLES 4 4.15953E+07 —1.03988E+07 650,290 AMONG TREATMENTS: 398 7. ANBOBE+06 17884.6 111B4t ERROR 1592 (2.54577E+07, 1599 TOTAL 1994 T.ALTANE+O7 COMMAND: PAIRT ‘448 STUDENT'S T STATISTICS $88 VARIABLES: 1K 0.00000 af 7188, 182 0.00000 3R 58.2179 M3197 0.00000 APT 25.0144 25.8054 25.5824 0.00000 5 6) 144.590 63.4918 716.0356 -25.5637 0.00000 K 2P oR 4PT 36D ‘DEGREES OF FREEDOM = 398 COMMAND: SRANK SPEARMAN RANK ‘44E CORRELATION MATRIX $88 VARIABLES: ik 4.00000 2P 0.965180 1.00000 BR 0.964069 0.958539 1.00000 4PT 0.994018 0.978825 9.981867 100000 56D 0.989396 0.977747 0.983244 0.996776 1.00000 1K 2P oR 4PT 56D Figure 3 September 1983 23 Report There is a series of special commands you can use for your reports, The help screen appears like this: PON _ Assigns report output to printer (132 columns) PON 80 Assigns report output to printer (80 columns) POFF Assigns all output to terminal (80 columns) DATE _ Set date to print on report headings (12 characters, any format) TITLE. Set title to print on report headings (64 characters, any format) TEXT Include documentary text from a file When you create a COMM file you probably will eventually run a report. When you do so, if you use the DATE and TITLE. options you will get a professional looking output to your printer or disk which requires a minimum of effort to use. If instead of PON 80, you use the command PON 80 B:SAMPLE you will create your report on the disk rather than on the printer. The command says to create a file called SAMPLE on the B drive. There is only one thing to note here. When you are creating your reports to the disk you do not see anything on the screen. Graph There are two types of graphs constructed automatically by ABSTAT. They are bar graphs and plots of the data. These are not the fancy Hi-Res plots you might be used to, but they do get the point across and print with any printer. See Figure 4. Bargraph also has a AUTO function. The auto function will look at your data for you and automatically scale the data. See Figure 5. (begin Fig. 4) COMMAND: BARS VARIABLE: 1 K AT LEAST 13,0000 5 10 15 2 BUT NOT OVER: FRE 1.00000 0 00.0 1 2.00000 «000.0 1 3.000000 00.0 1 4.00000 0 00.0 1 5.00000 «000.0 T 4.00000 0 00.0 1 7.00000 00,0 1 8.00000 «000.0 1 9.00000 «0 00.0 1 10,0000 0 00.0 1 11,000 0 00.0 1 12,0000 0 00.0 1 13.000 25 1X 14,0000 & 165 TXKKK 15,0000 © 8 2.0. EXNAXK 16.0000) 112.8 TKKKKAK 17,0000 18 4.5 DOOR 18.0000 297.3 TOKO 19,0000 6817.0. TOUIXOO CUO 0000000000000 0000000" 20.0000 5413.5. DOU OOO 21.0000 46 11.5 DOOUXXOO XOXO 22.0000 33 B.S DAUUAXHXXKRKIXINHKK 23.000 358.8 TAU XOOO OOK 24,0000 307.5. TAXKXKIXKRXKXKIXOH 25.0000 © 215.3. XKRXKXXRXXINK 26,0000 11 268 TXXXKKKX 27.0000 ML 2.8 TYKKKKXX 28,000 83 0,8 IKK 29.000 «5 163 IKK 30,0000 & 1,5 IXKKK 31.000 0 00.0 1 32.0000 0 00,0 1 35.0000 25 IX - TOTAL 399 100.0 24 Apple Orchard COMMAND: PLOT 13.0000 18.0000 23.0000 28.0000 33.0000 15.5000 20.5000 25.5000 30.5000 + 2327.00 + 2 I I 1 2017.07 + 1 I 1 4 {TOA + 1 I P 1 5 T 1397.21 + 1 1 1 rot 1 3 1087.27 + 1 1 1 1 21 1 15 TILSM + uA 1 3 1 c4 I 99 ABTA + oe 1 11g 1 SW 1 int 80,000 #2 68 BIT 42 — - - + 13.0000 18.0000 23.0000» 28.0000 33.0000 15,5000 20,5000 25.5000 30,5000 1k Figure 4 COMMAND: BARE VARIABLE: 1 K aura AT LEAST 13.0000 5 10 15 20 BUT NOT OVER: FREQ 2 + 13.0000 205 IK 14.0000 6 1,5. nny 15.0000 8 2.0 TXXRXE 16.0000 11 2.8 IKON 17.0000 18 4.5 TKOKOKONOEE 18.0000 297.3 DORON 19.0000 6817.0 _IXCOOCOO OKC OOO ee OO 20,0000 54° 13.5 DENS XO OOO 00RONONEKRAA 21,0000 46 11.5 DCO. eKenoKeeNeoNo 22,0000 3383 TXKORXEKEKROEKXKARY 23.0000 358.8 LXKCKENONOMKOXNNE 24,0000 307.5 TXNOAXEKEXNORUIKEAE 25,0000 215.3 TXRKEKEKEKONNE 76.0000 11 2.8 EXMKKE 27.0000 AL 2.8 DAKE 28,000 30.8 IMT 29,0000 «513 TMK 30.0000 6 1.5 TUN 33.0000 205 1 TOTAL 399 100.0 5 10 15 2 Figure 5 Summary ABSTAT is a well designed easy to use statistical package for the CP/M environment It has enough statistics to solve many problems. It could use additional functions such as curve fitting (looking at a data set and saying which type of curvilinear, exponential, power, logarithmic, or polynomial best fits the data). There could also be some beta weights calculated as part of the regression functions. But those things are really nitpicking. If you work in the CP/M world and need statistical analysis of your data, then you should have this program as part of your library. fe) How two pens can become your best presentation tools. NEW LOW PRICE ONLY $1,095 Introducing the New Personal Computer Plotter from Hewlett-Packard. Now you can use your personal computer to generate your own presen- tation charts, graphs, and pie charts. How? Simply add on the new high quality, low cost HP 7470A Personal Computer Plotter. The 7470A helps you save time and save money, and lets you communicate quickly, accu- rately and effectively, Quicker understanding. Data, when visualized graphically, becomes information fast. 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Name Gomnpany gt ee Address ae City, State & Zip —___ _ Phone Number ( My computer is Send to: Hewlett-Packard, 16399 W. Bernardo Drive, San Diego, CA 92127 — Attn: Marketing Communications (SRE SE GE EE ES SY = I - | ‘ - 1 | | | i Three 128K RAM Cards Review by Neil D. Lipson, P.E. al available for a computer, because it expands the computer's overall capability to perform many tasks. As it came from the factory, the Apple Il had 48K of memory. The Apple //e has 64K. With more memory, larger programs and data files can be handled. This article will deal with three plug-in RAM cards, the RAMEX-128, the SATURN 128, and the LEGEND 128. Any one of these cards will add 128Kbytes of memory to your computer, extensively expanding its use. Pros and cons will be discussed on each card with some emphasis being placed on economy and compatibility. We'll pass up the opportunity to recall the days when 16K was considered more than adequate. The cards work perfectly on the Franklin as well as the Apple Il Plus. Most of the cards also work on the Apple //e, with limitations described. T he RAMcard is potentially the most significant peripher- In general, all three cards measured up well, but there were some strong points for some of them in particular areas. If the article generates enough interest, we'll cover some of the other RAM cards and in addition cover some interesting applications in their uses. The Ramex-128 The Ramex-128 retails at $499 and includes quite a bit for this price. It has a super fast load for VisiCalc which takes about 20 seconds. It will allow use of 136K VisiCalc, and it has a fast DOS 3.3 phantom disk. The Super Expander for VISICALC is separate. However, there are three versions, so you pay for only what you need: SUPER EXPANDER $65.00 SUPER EXPANDER 80 $99.95 SUPER EXPANDER PLUS, $125.95 Here's where I feel this card has the edge on the other cards. It appears that all of the software from the Saturn disk works perfectly on the Ramex-128 and vice-versa. Only Super Expander Plus will not work on the Saturn card; the other Omega software will work. Because the two cards are similar hardware-wise | cannot say that one card is better than the other with respect to hardware. However, software is another matter. It appears that the Ramex-128 gives an excellent value for the money. 26 Apple Orchard The Ramex-128 can be plugged into any slot, and because there is no jumper, there is little chance of making a mistake (as long as the power is off - this applies to any peripheral card). If you use the card on the Franklin Ace 1000 in Slot 0, you must first move the jumper wire.on the motherboard to disable the top 16K of RAM. I chose Slot 0 for one reason only: I had to. | have no room for any other peripherals, so Slot 0 it was. If you want to use it on a Franklin and have the 64K of the machine in addition to the 128K of the card, then you must use another slot. Of course the Apple //e has no Slot 0, so you have no choice here. This information also applies to the Saturn card. There are some minor limitations in using the Super Expander with other disk cards. The software at present does not work with the Rana controller card. It works beautifully with a Rana drive on an Apple or Franklin controller card; however, there is some code on the Rana card that causes some problems. This can be solved by Rana with an update EPROM, 50 it is possible by the time this article hits the press, the problem may be solved. This only applies to the Super Expand series of disks, not the other software which works perfectly on any controller. This bug is with Rana, not the Ramex. Iran time tables on the speed of all three of the RAM cards, and all were within a few percent of each other with respect to speed. | have some other tricks up my sleeve in using the Ramex-128 which | will cover in a future article, so stay tuned. HIDOS To use HIDOS you must first configure the disk. You choose the appropriate DOS type and INIT accordingly. The instructions for creating super HIDOS are somewhat confusing, but | shall clear it up here. If you use the Ramex-128 in Slot 0, then you can choose DOS types 1, 2 or 3. Pick any one, it doesn’t matter. Ifyou have two 16K cards with one in Slot 0 and the other in a slot before the Ramex-128, then you can also choose any one of the DOS types 1, 2, or 3. Ifyou have one 16K card in Slot 0 and the RAMEX-128 ina Slot from 1 through 7, then you can pick DOS types 1 and 3 (thisis the choice also if you have a Franklin Ace and you plug the RAMEX in a Slot from 1 through 7). Lastly, if you want to load the alternate language to Slot0 along with DOS to the motherboard RAM and 128K of virtual memory, then use DOS type 2. Sa ap The Ramex-128 AMUN} Youcan experiment and pick the DOS type that best fits your purpose. | know that the description sounds a little like “who's on first (base)”, but it all falls into place. From here on it is all downhill. SOLIDOS SOLIDOS is broken down into numerous commands which will be summarized here: 1. MOUNT is used to transfer all of the data tracks from a floppy diskette to the Ramex-128. To save the contents of a floppy diskettes, enter the “INIT command before the *MOUNT command. The MOUNT card track loading is determined by the Ramex 128 slot residence. 2. DUMP is an unconditional data dump from the Ramex 128 to a floppy diskette, which overwrites all existing data on a floppy diskette except the DOS tracks. It must be used carefully or you can destroy information. This command is the opposite of the *MOUNT command. As a result the same rules and restrictions apply to the DUMP command. A common use of the DUMP is to transfer an updated program from the Ramex 128 to a floppy diskette. 3. PROTECT write-protects a Ramex 128 virtual disk, but has no effect if applied to a floppy diskette slot 4. CLEAR cancels a previous write-protect instruction. 5. INITIALIZE is used to initialize Ramex 128 and not save a HELLO program. Normal DOS INIT command can initialize the Ramex 128 and save a HELLO program in memory. Either INIT command is required before using a Ramex 128 as a virtual memory disk. 6. STOREis an array command that stores the data portion of a numeric array to a floppy diskette or the Ramex 128. The STORE command is available for Applesoft programs only. 7. RECALL is an array command that retrieves the data portion of a numeric array that was transferred to a disk or virtual disk via the * STORE command. This command is also available only for Applesoft programs. 8. SAVE is a file name command that saves a program segment and transfers it to a flopy diskette or virtual disk in “S” lot; from line XXXX to line YYYY inclusive under the “filename”. 9. ATTACH is a file name command that loads “saved” programs by file name from a diskette or a virtual disk and appends it to the program already in memory. All v