Open Apple Vol 3 No 07 AUG 1987

_Open-Apple Releasing the power to everyone. Let's make one thing clear Apple has named its new software company Claris Corp, according to a mid-July Apple press release. The name is to reflect “darity and distinctiveness, and to remind us that shaping the future requires a clear vision,’ said William \. Campbell, president of the newventure. As predicted in last month's Open- Apple (page 3.41), the new companys name was derived from a foreign tongue — claris comes from the Latin word for clarity. (OK, OK, so | said itwas going to be Sanskrit—it was a better guess than anything you saw in Nibble, wasn’t it?) Claris expects to move into new headquarters in Mountain View, California by October. _ (While most of you seem to have no trouble separating Open-Apple’s_- baloney from its technical accuracy, it has become clear in the last fewweeks that | should wam the grim-faced few among you that I do occasionally attempt to spice Open-Apple up with a little humor, and that such attempts often involve exaggerations and outright lies. The lies are supposed to be preposterous enough that you recognize them as whimsy. Lest some gullible private eye should waste days looking for the “sources close to the company, who asked not to be identified,’ who tipped Open-Apple off to Claris’ foreign name, let me assure you that such sources do not exist. { just got lucky. Likewise, some of you seem to believe (or at least think / believe) that Open- Apple really had something to do with Apple's decision to start this new company. Contrary to the bloated claims made here in June (page 5.37), am quite sure Open-Apple had nothing to do with the decision. | have no evidence that any of the high-level executives at Apple so much as read this newsletter, much less take it seriously (although there is a copy of Steve Womiak’s three-year subscription payment hanging on the walt around here somewhere). I figure Open-Apple has the presence and influence of a pesky house fly at Apple Inc, butno more. | tell you this so that you have aless dim idea of what, herein, is supposed to be preposterous, and therefore humorous, If, gentle readers, you don’t stop taking my soliloquies so seriously, I'm going to change the name of this newsletter to Open-Addfe,) They answer the phone “Beagle Bros/Software Touch” at the Beagle Bros number these days. Bert and Sharon Kersey, the husband-wife team who founded Beagle Bros, have sold it to Mark Simonsen. Simonsen, along with Alan Bird, was a founder of the Software Touch. The two companies are being combined and a bevy of new AppleWorks enhancement programs, to be called the Time Out Series, is being readied for a September introduction. Simonsen and Bird were Beagle Bros programmers before they started the Software Touch. Kersey remains as a consultant to the company. He says he’s still interested in computers and the Apple II but is tired of running a business. You'll be able to shake Kersey's hand, as well as those of other infamous Apple 1 scoundrels, at the upcoming AppleFest in San Francisco. The dates are Friday, September 18 through Sunday, September 20. The place is the Civic Auditorium. On Friday and Saturday the shows exhibits will be open from 10 to 6, on Sunday from 10 to 4. Conferences will also be held all three days. Conference keynote speakers are Steve Wozniak and De! Yocam, Apple's Chief Operating Officer. Entrance to the exhibits for all three days is $15, exhibits plus the full conference will be $50. American Airlines is supposedly offering special fares for attendees, call 1-800-433- 1790 and ask for Star File #813312. You'll occasionally find Kersey at the Beagle Bros/Software Touch exhibit Go in the front door of the auditorium, walk down the left side of Apple’s exhibit, and continue walking toward the back of the auditorium. You can’t miss it It's the big booth in the back. Walk all the way around it and head back August 1987 Vol, 3, No. 7 ISSN 0885-4017 newstand price: $2.00 Photocopy charge per page: $0.15 toward the front door and there, in its shadows, you'll find Open-Apple’s tiny booth, #222. Stop by and meet the family, Bring money. Open-Applewill be having its first-ever sale on books, back issue volumes, and maybe even subscriptions. Kemember the one about the chemists who changed graphs into Sound? (See "Drumming insight out of data” March 1986, page 2.9 and “Apple Assembly Line,’ September 1986, page 2.58.) Now biochemists at Michigan State have developed a musical way to read the graphs tumed out by an automated analyzer, according to the June 17 Wail StreetJournal. “The ear is fantastically discriminating’ in detecting differences in notes and changes in tempos, explains biochemist John F. Holtand. The ear can ———detect differences that the eye might miss, particularly when the person is tired-or bored while poring over data. “Profs. Holland and Charles C. Sweeley adopted the idea for their research and began telling others. The first response was usually humorous; people would ask us what this week's top 20 urines were, Prof. Holland says. But now researchers have begun adopting the idea for graphs tumed out by blood analyzers used in clinical laboratories and electrocardiograms. “The biochemists have called in two music professors to help convert graphs that depict normal results to recognizable tunes. ‘A normal urine, for instance, might play “America the Beautiful,’ which is a tune everybody carries around in their head; Prof. Holland explains. If the machine suddenly sounded a sour note, the technician would immediately know an abnormal urine had just been analyzed.” There are some amazing discoveries yet to be made in this area and the Apple IIgs is the perfect research ship to make them in. “I WAS TOLD THIS [S WHERE THE APPLE USERS GROUP MEETS; 3.50 Open-Apple Ask (or tell) Uncle DOS The other DOS 3.3 I enjoyed your little article on trademarks that appeared in the July 1987 issue of Open-Apple. [found it particularly entertaining in light of some- thing that recently happened to me. | sawan articlein a magazine (that shall remain nameless) and promi- nentin the title was the name “DOS 3.3”. Hey, Isaid to myself, | know something about that, this may be interesting. | started reading the article and it didn’t take long to realize that something was very wrong. It seems that the latest version of MS-DOS is—you quessed it—3.3. So now when you see the term DOS 3.3 it is not going to be the DOS that we all know and sometimes love, but some hideous impostor. There ought to be a law. Jesse D. Sheinwald Seaford, NY. The same thing happened to me. It reminds Dennis and me of when the IBMers appropriated the widely-used term “PC” and converted it from initials that meant any personal computer into initials that meant one specific (and now defunct, asfar as IBM is concemed) computer. How about a boycott? I would like to bring to your attention another case in which legitimate use of a software product by the owner is interfered with by short-sighted copy- protection policies. The company in this case is Electronic Arts, and the specific product is Deluxe Paint iI for the Apple IIgs. After seeing a more-than-impressive demo at my local Apple dealer's and immediately deciding on a purchase, | was deeply disappointed to discover that the program out of the box would not boot on my ligs, apparently because of Its copy-protection scheme. ‘The protected program refuses to recognize the supplied “key disk” in my Mikon 5,5 inch drive, connected to a Central Point UDC card in slot 7. ‘Technical support personnel at Electronic Arts were courteous but not helpful—the company’s position is that they do not guarantee their software to run on any configuration except pure offthe-shelf Apple hardware (and they admitted that even owners of the Apple UniDisk 3.5 had reported problems). Their suggestion was that | send in a coupon enclosed in the package, along with $20, and wait two weeks (the coupon says 4-6 weeks) for delivery ofan unprotected version, which they feel will run on any configuration. Asa long-time Apple owner and as purchaser over the years of scores of software items, the ownership of none of which | have abused, I feel insulted by Electronic Arts’ presumption. Not only does their policy penalize users who, like me, believe that third party vendors have a legitimate and important role to play in the marketplace, but they seem to overlook the fact that much of the appeal of the lgs is that a Purchaser (in theory) doesn’t have to buy everything all overagain, but should be able to bring alongall his favorite peripherals. There is also the question of whether the large number of Ile owners who can be expected to upgrade their systems in the next year or 0 will be able to run Electronic Arts software without encountering annoyances similar to mine. 1 have gone along (under protest) with Electronic Arts’ suggestion, but only because | have determined Deluxe Paint I! to be a “must have” item. It is the fortunate company that can manage to publish only items in this category, and when in the future iam faced with making or recommendinga choice between purchase of comparable products I will surely favor those companies (in my experience the majority) who trust and support their customers, RWWTaylor Rochester, N.Y. The only point at which you and I differ ts your opinion that Deluxe Paint IT is a “must have” item. Copy protection {s stupid. tnot only harms customers, inthe long run in harms products and publishers. It's a bad marketing strategy, to say nothing of being bad in every other way. With the ligs in particutar I advise you to simply Stay away from copy-protected software. It's dan- gerous stuff. It can mess up your system and mess up your disks. You can’t put it on mass storage devices such as RAMdisks, ROMdisks, or hard disks. You can't use a program selector with most of it. As you've experienced, it often doesn’t work if the hardware isn’t just right. (Activision's ligs protection scheme fails if you have a 5,25 fioppy controller ora mouse card plugged into your system—whether the card is tumed on or not.) Copy-protected software often doesn’t work on later, more advanced compu- ters. And all of this is nothing compared to the problem you have when your copy-protected disk goes bad. With rare exceptions, we simply don’t talk about copy protected software in Open-Apple. There is a wealth of non-copy-protected software in the Apple II kingdom. You don't need to mess with the copy-protected stuff. Look to companies who don't use copy-protection for your software needs. For example, there's Apple itself, Beagle Bros/Software Touch, Pinpoint, Penguin, Central Point, Word Perfect, Sorcim, Diversified Software Research, Stone Edge, Data Transforms, and many, many others. These companies may not have a Deluxe Paint Hf available at the moment, but they will. Patience. Support them when they do, Each dollar you spend on copy- protected software now Is a vote for more copy- protection in the future, J admit it's hard to make an informed vote when none of the publishers who use copy-protection will admit it on the outside of their package, or even, usually, in their documentation. You just have to team which companies use protection and refuse to buy anything from them. Three major companies to avoid are Electronic Arts, Activision, and Broderbund. These three could fall off the edge of the earthand we wouldn't even notice it around here. Integer Basic manuals Although Integer Basic has been shied away from over the years, there were definitely some decent routines in place of the floating point routines of Applesoft. Integer Basic includes sound routines, renumbering routines, and a Mini-assembler. There August 1987 are several undocumented routines that I'd like to leam about, including the SWEET-16 pseudo-processor. However, I cannot seem to get my hands on any Integer Basic documentation. It's all Applesoft. Addison-Wesley (the manufacturer of most Apple books) does not have any Integer Basic tutorials, | was wondering if anyone out there knew of any old Integer Basic manuals I could get my hands on. The Woz leftsome great stuffin there. Christopher Harrison 2516 Hillwood Place Charlottesville, VA 22901 The Computer Shopper ($21/yr, P.O. Bax F Titusville, FL 32781) sometimes has advertisers offering old Apple manuals for sale (look in the classifieds under the Apple section). Apple's Integer Basic manual was titled Apple It BASIC Programming Manual, How- ever, it is really only a tutorial. To my knowledge no one ever wrote the equivalent of an “Integer Basic Technical Reference Manual.” There are a few other additional references we know of that you may be able to find in a library or borrow from a fellow user-group member. Hi-res graphics, sound, renumbering, and several other assembly language utilities for use with Integer Basic were made available by means of a ROM chip called the Programmer's Aid #1 The chip fit into an empty socket in the original Apple II and appeared in memory at $D000-SD7FF. The chip’s information is included in the integer Bastcimage that’s on DOS 3.3 master disks. The book associated with this chip was called Programmer's Aid #1 Installation and Operating Manual. The Mini-assembler has been discussed right here in Open-Apple (March 1985, page 120; May 1987, pages 3.27-3.28). More extensive documentation is available tn any of Apple's Apple il technical reference manuals. Wozniak’s SWEET-16 interpreter was well doce mented by its author in “SWEET-16: the 6502 Dream Machine” in the November 1977 issue of Byte magazine, pages 150-159. SWEET-16 code takes up about half the space of 6502 code, but runs aboutten times slower. The S-C Macro Assembler includes the ability to assemble SWEET-16 and its manual indudes alist of opcodes and some programming examples. Another article is “SWEET-16 Revisited,” by Charles F. Taylor, in Micro —the 6502/6809 Journal, January 1982, pages 25-42. There is also a set of floating point routines in the Integer Basic ROM. These were described in “Apple's Hidden Floating Point Routines” in Kilobaud Micro- computing, l'ebruary 1980, pages 132-135; inPeek- ing at Call A.P.P.L.E, Vol. 1; and in some materials that were once available from Call -A.PPL.E. called the “Wozpak.” 6502 forever Would leaming 6502 machine code be worth the time and effort? In the years to come the 6502 will probably sink deeper into the well of history. Could I expect to gain insight that would carry over to other systems by learning the 6502 now? Ketel Colorado Springs, Colo. Sure. One of the neat things about the 6502 is that everything you leam can be used with the newer chips in the same family, such as the 65816 used in the Apple ligs. A 32-bit chip is also planned for this family, so what you leam should serve you for many years. Lots of what you lear, but not everything, August 1987 will also apply if you later switch toa different family of microprocessors. Tolearn 6502 assembly language you need to get an assembler and some good books. We published a rundown on the major assemblers in August 1986, page 2.55. Books that cover the present 6502 family are listed on page 2.56. Our favorite introduction to 6502 programming is stil! Assembly Lines, by Roger Wagner—available for a mere $2.95 from: Polarware, P.O. Box 311, Geneva, I 60134 312-252- 1984. We're also interested in hearing of other reader's favorite introductory texts to assembly language. COP that ROM desktop, MDIdeas Does anyone know anything about MDideas, Inc.? Are they reliable? Is the OctoRAM board by them any good? Is it better than the Ilgs RAMPlus by Applied Engineering? In the Apple ligs Technical Reference by Oshome/ McGraw-till (a very good book) there is listed an opcode for the 65816 called COP. This stands for coprocessor latch. This sounds awfully like “go use the math coprocessor.” If so, why haven't] read about it here? And why hasn’t Apple said anything about it? Wouldn't it be nice to turn on your IIgs, watch the desktop pop up, click an AppleWorks icon and be ready fo go in under 5 seconds? Currently, it takes more than a few minutes. Well, you can with KOM cards! Be on the lookout! These cards could be the hottest things to hit the IIgs market. Uncle DOS, I've seen your complaints about the Apple Desktop and the push Apple is giving that type of interface. I do believe Apple should support the AppleWorks-type File Card Interface, since its easy, portable, quick, and suits the Apple well. lowever, the mouse interface also works very well, and on the IIgs itshould be exploited. The interface makes it easy to leam new programs, it allows for more graphically oriented work, and makes programs sem|-portable from Mac to ligs. Sure it's not perfect and can be awkward in some programs, but the file card interface can't solve every problem either. The mouse interface also has a standard disk access protocol that makes disk usage much easier. There are. programs out that also make ProDOS easier to use in text mode but they vary in quality and execution. The mouse interface allows beginners to jump right into the file storage area.and not get lost by protocol or command names. For ordinary Joe Schmoes that aren't computer literate but need to use a computer, the mouse interface makes it much easier. Doug McClure Carmel, Ind. We had never heard of MDideas before the IIgs came out, when they were suddenly right there with a basketful of cards for the new machine. Soi cailed them up and asked them some questions, The company is about two years old. It got its start selling hard disk drives for the Macintosh. One of its Primary assets seems to be a strong relationship with Apple's evangelists, which put it in a good Position to develop add-on cards for the Higs. Their OctoRam card is different from the other ligs memory cards on the market in that is uses a memory chip called a SIM. A 256K SIM actually has 256K bytes of memory, unlike a normal 256K memory chip, which has only 256K bits (you need eight ofthem, in other words, to actually add 256K of memory to your machine). Their card has sockets for eight SIMS, which are available in a 256K version for about $75.and in a 1 megabyte version for about $400. Thus, someone wiih deep pockets could expand this card toafull 8 megabytes. MDIdeas setts its 1 megabyte card, which uses four 256K SIMS, for $349.95. As chip prices fall, you could reasonably add more memory to this card until it was fully loaded. SIMS are also used on the Macintosh. There's a $179.95 add-on for the OctoRam called ESP that puts up fo 512K of battery backed-up RAM into the address space the ligs uses as a KOMdisk. That's interesting, since the big problem I see witha ROM disk is updating the programs you put on it MDIdeas also has a igs stereo card ($59.95), a ligs sound input card ($59.95), and a ligs fan/surge suppressor ($149.95). The company’s address is 1165 Triton Drive, Foster City, CA 94404 415-573- 0580, ; We mentioned the COP instruction in our big August 1986 issue on the 65816 microprocessor (page 2.53, 2.55). it is indeed a command for passing control to a coprocessor. The reason you haven't heard more about it is that there isn’t yet a coprocessor for it to pass control to. A similar instruction is WDM, which is reserved for accessing 52-bit instructions in the 65852 microprocessor—a member of the venerable 6502 family that is also stitt under development. Tagree that ROM cards are going to provide us with interesting possibilities, but if speed is your thing (as. it is mine), why not use ProSel instead of the ilgs Launcher or Desktop? I have a He here (that we leave onall the time) that has most of the programs Iusein an Apple Memory Expansion Card. It can get to the ProSel menu from an open-appie/control/reset boot in less than three seconds. From ProSel to the main AppleWorks menu aiso takes less than three seconds with Alan Bird's “Don't Pass Go“ patches. Just as important, to get back to ProSel after quitting Apple- Works takes less than a second, This kind of speed is what I look for in a computer system. In general, however, I agree with your comments about the mouse interface. it's great for beginners and great for graphics-oriented programs, However, itis stow compared to the fle card- or magic menu- type Interface —particularly when switching from ‘one program to another. It is also highly dependent ona mechanical device, the mouse, that] have found tobe unreliable. (Whenwas the last time you pushed ‘one of your cursor keys and the cursor didn't move? When was the last time you had to clean your cursor keys? Both situations are common mouse problems around here.) Nonetheless, those of you who think | am against the mouse interface have misunderstood me. What I have been against is the total abandonment of the file card interface in favor of the mouse interface, Something Apple's people were pushing hard for some fime ago (thelr zeal cooled after they were unabie to add a mouse interface to. AppleWorks). I think both types of interface have an important place in the Apple II kingdom. Cheap accounting What do you know about DASH Accounting's Accounts Payable program for the Apple Ile. It adver- tises so much for solittle. Terrance A. Dunbar ‘Schnecksville, Pa. We called DASH at 408-356-3616 and found out they have just finished a non-copy-protected ProDOS- based accounting package that goes for $149. The $99 product they have been advertising ts DOS 3.5- Open-Apple 3.51 based. Another possibility is a $69.95 package (977,45 with shipping), also not copyprotected and ProDOS-based, called DAC Easy Accounting (214- 458-0038), We haven't seen either package, but our interest is high. Wel by to do a comparison in an upcoming issue, Wel also try to include Manzanita’s Business Works. if any of you know of any other non-copy protected, ProDOS-based accounting pack- ages worth looking af, please let us know. Applesoft enhancements For those interested in entering formulas for Appie- soft translation (“Interactive formulas”, March 1986, page 216), there is.an “evaluate string toolbox” routine included with the TERC Basic Enhancements Version 6.0 from Technical Education Research Centers, Inc. This is a nice package; it contains a bunch of ampersand-like routines that use the-’ instead of the &. The routines allow labelled subrou- tines, formatted printing, better input, and many Programming aids, John M. Wargo Akron, Ohio The TEKC package is fully described by one of its authors in the June 1987 Call -A.P.P.L.E., pages 19- 21 APPLE. Co-op members can get a shareware version of the program from the co-op for $4. The Package is also available, with a printed manual, for $15 from Sean Nolan, 68 Roseland St, Sommenvilie MA02145, 80-column windows How can I set an unmovable “frame” on the 80- column screen? POKE <top> and <bottom> still work, but<left> and <right> don’t. John Jessmer, Jr. Brooklyn Park, Minn. See “The wonderful world of windows” in our June 1985 issue, page 48, for everything we know about putting window frames on ihe Apple II text screen. Here are the essentials, When using 80-column mode on the unenhanced He, the left and right edges of your window must be in odd columns (assuming you calt the first column 1 not 0), and POKE 1405,X-1 does what HTAB X is supposed to do but doesn't. Always place the cursor inside the current window after you POKE in the edge values. After doing a PRINT CHR$(4); "PR#3” to turn on 80- columns, do another PRINT before doing anything else. All the PR#3 does is redirect output to the 80- column fumware--ihe 80-column screen doesn't actually get turned on until something is printed. Any POKEs (or VIABs or other formatting) youdo will be lost when the 80-column screen is initialized, Play with this little demo if you think PR#3 can turn on 80- columns all by itself: 10 FRINT CHRS(21) + REM turn off ®-cotumne 20 PRINT cHRS(4) ;“PRII™ 30 GET AS Ifthese hints and the June 1985 article don’t solve the mystery (and maybe even if they do), you might want to consider incorporating one of the several commerciaity available windowing routines into your program. For example, Roger Wagner Publish- ing’s Trial Size Toolbox (free to Open-Apple sub- scribers from Koger Wagner Publishing, PO. Box 582, Santee, CA 92071) contains a windowing routine accessed with ampersand commands. Nite Owl Software (5754 Lamar, Mission, KS 66202, 913/362- 3.52 Open-Apple 9898) has a $59.95 ProDOS-based set of utilities titled Developer Disk #2 that includes a windowing utility among its many programs. Boot stop, hi-res switches Is there a POKE or CALL that will prevent a control/ open-apple/reset re-boot on the Ile (POKEs, CALLs, etc)? Is there any specific call that will display hi-res page 2 without erasing it? T.Gotanda San Diego, Calif. Noand yes. Control/open-apple/reset is a hardware function that cannot be modified with software, You can tum on hi-res page 2 without erasing it by flipping the sofiswitches that control what your Appleis displaying on the screen. Foranintroduction tothe concept of sofiswitches see “The Magic of Peek and Poke’ in the February 1986 Open-Apple, pages 2.25, There are four pairs of video-display softswitches thal have been around since the original Apple Ii. One pair determines whether the screen witt show “page 1” or ‘page 2.” Another determines witether the screen will show text or graphics. A third selects between hi-res and low-res; the fourth between full- screen graphics and mixed graphics with four lines of text at the bottom of the screen. Here are the locations of these switches. You throw them by POKEing them (it doesn't matter what value you Poke, but zero is nice plump little number). decime] -decinal hax description 45232-16304 50058 display graphics 43233-16303 SCOSL_— display text 48234-16302 $0052 full screen graphics 49235-16301 $€053 mix graphics and text 48236-16300 «$0054 page 1 49237-16288 SC@SS page 2 49293-16298 SCOSE—Lou-res 49233-18237 50057 hi-res For example, the following lines in an Applesoft program will switch from a display of the text screen to adisplay of hi-res page 2: 118 POKE 49234,0 = REM 128 POKE 49239,0 130 POKE 49232,0 140 POKE 49297, REM graphics + REN page 2 RAMdisk detective I'm writing a program that should use a ProDOS RAMdisk. Is there any way to tell from within my program if a supplied pathname is actually a RAM disk and nota regular Noppy? Chris Strauser Nacogdoches, Texas You can detect RAMdisks that use the SmartPort interface as shown here in January 1987, page 2.92. Non-Smartport RAMdisks are more difficult to detect. The volume name of most RAM disks begins with /RAM. That's probably the best way but it’s not perfect. CheckMate’s large ProDOS volume is named /MBAM, and there is an outside chance that some enterprising user may rename the RAM volume. Another possibility is to show the user the names of the volumes that are online and let the user select which one will be used for program operations. The user's selection coutd be saved and used by default from then onward. If the volume was missing at startup, or if the user chose to reconfigure the program, you could ask the question again. This has the advantage of allowing the user to select other types of devices than RAMdisks for program opera- tions. it would atso be a good idea to let the user specify how much of the RAMdisk your program may use. Good BYE, /RAM bug Ihave avery long ProDOS 8 SYSTEM file that I can’t execute from Applesoft because it overwrites Basic.system. | have a little Applesoft program that | want to run right before this SYSTEM file to set up my RAMdisk. Any ideas? One more point of mystery to me. One of my Applesoft programs tries to determine if the data files it needs are online by OPENing a directory (",TDIR"} and READing it My routine knows it has reached the end of the directory when it sees the "BLOCKS FREE ..” banner at the end of the directory. This works until the program searches the /RAM volume. If] have previously run Applied Engineering's ProDrive to create a RAMdisk, everything is fine. But if there is only the small 64K ProDOS RAMdisk, the program bombs with an END OF DATA error. The small /RAM wilt-not-retum the "BLOCKS FREE...” message when you READ it, though obviously it does Ifyou use CATALOG. Mystery? Then it got worse! | found the same thing occurs if run the search on the AppleWorks program disk —a disk with only 2 free sectors. What's up here? S.W.Cummings ‘Clearwater, Fla. To start your large SYSTEM program you need a ‘Small assembly language program that willload and execute it using ProDOS Machine Language Interface commands. if you want to see how that's done, check out the sample program in Gary Little's Apple’s ProDOS: Advanced Features for Pro- grammers, pages 107-112. A simpler possibility is to use the “auto-run” protocol supported by many SYSTEM programs. For example, ProSel supports this protocol. Just as Basic.system will run a program: called STARTUP when it is executed, ProSel will run a program of your choice when it is executed. (When you use this fealure, ProSel will install itself in the ProDOS QUIT command area, then run the program of your choice rather than going to the ProSel menu.) The protocol works like this, The first three bytes of the SYSTEM program must contain a JMP to the program's actual starting location. The fourth and fifth bytes (92003-4) must both contain $EE (238). The next byte contains the length of the buffer that follows, the next the length of the name of the file ‘you want to auto-ni, The bytes after that contain the actual name. For more complete information, see Little's book, page 141 or the ProDOS Technical Reference Manual, pages 86-88. In your case, you can simply BLOAD ProSel (use PROSELSYSTEM for A$ in the following program), poke the name length and name of the SYSTEM program you want fo run into position, and CALL ProSel. Here's how: 108 10 12 120 REM **4 Cheep Launch $#* Eas [progres oui taeits to lintsciee As="progras that supports auto.run protocel” PRINT CHRS(4);“@LOAO”;88; ~,982000, 1575" 130 3=8192 : REM $2000 132 IF PEEK(S) <> 76 THEN 400 134 AF PEEK(S*3) <> 238 THEN 400 136 IF PEEK(S+4) <> 238 THEN 400 138 IF PEEK(S+5) < LEN(FS)#1 THEN 490 Yol. 3, No.7 142 POKE 946, LEN(F'S) 18@ FOR T=1 10 LEN(FS) 162: POKE S¥G+1, ASC(MIOS(FS,1,1)) 10 NEXT zee ze 228 308 PRINI CHRS(4); “CLOSE” : REN close all files FOR 1=48984 TO 49005 : POKE 1,@ : NEXT POKE 49007,1: REM clear bitmap CALL S : REM launch from ProSel 400 PRINT “ERROR--THIS SYSTEN PROGRAM” 401 PRINT ~ ODES NOT SUPPORT AUTO-RuN* On to the problems you encountered with the ProDOS 64K /RAMdlsk, The problem with reading the /RAM directory stems from a design decision. Every main ProDOS volume directory is supposed to contain four blocks of information; no more, no less (this is what limits a ProDOS main directory to a maximum of 51 filenames). But /RAM, mind you, has only aone-biock main directory. It holdsa madmum of 12 filenames. This gives /RAM three extra blocks in which to store files, but trips up Basic.system, which expects /RAM to follow the normal protocol. The same problem is responsible with the Apple- Works program disk—due to the size of the files, the Program disk’s directory had to be reduced to squeeze all the files onto the 5.25 inch disk. The defauit mapping of the first few blocks of /RAM for ProDOS appears to be: block @ enpty block (normally boot code) block 1 empty block 2. —volune cirectary block 3 volune bitnap block 4-7 unusable Blocks 0-7 are marked as “used” within the /RAM volume bitmap. Even attempting to write directly to blocks 4-7 with a disk editor leaves the blocks unchanged. Therefore, blocks 0-1 and 4-7 are assumed to be unusable for data. This Is togical, since areas of the Apple's alternate 64K must be reserved for other uses (altemate memory zero page and stack from $0000-60100, 80-column text display page 1X at $0400-$07FF). The problem could be corrected by “stretching” the /RAM volume directory back to the normal four block length. But that cure is pretty complicated. Now that you know what the problem is, you'd be better off just tapping the BYD OF DATA with an ONERK GOTO statement and letting you program be. This doesn’t work for some people, however, because what they actually want to know is how much free space is left on the disk, rather than what files are in the main directory, In this case, the best work around is to create an empty subdirectory (PRINT D$;" CREATE FREE.SPACE.DIR, TDIR’), READ if, then DELETE it. Since even /RAM subdirectories adhere to all ProDOS specifications, you'll be able to READ the whole thing. It's possible that the CREATE command will retum a DISK FULL error, however. In that case the error itself telis you what you wanted to know—how much room is left on the disk (none). Incidentally, Nibble pubilshed an article also referring to this problem (“/RAM FIX", Nou 1986, page 124). The program given to correct /RAMseems to have some problems that can be demonstrated by running the following test after using Nibble’s ‘program: 10 REN #88 FLL) /REN with dunny files RE 20 Il “30, PRINT CHRB(4): 35 PRINT “7 ‘SAVE. /RAM/FLLE.NO. 1 1 August 1987 40. I=I41 50 GOTO 30 The fix fails due to an initialization error in the repair program. Patch marker Thave so many disks with the PRODOS file on them that itis hard to remember which ones have had your “Stop track 0 trashing” patch applied and which haven't (November 1986, pages 2.73-74). 1 added the following line to your patch program. 350 POKE 9463,206 It appends the letter “P” to the title "PRODOS 11.1” that appears during startup. This P tells me that that version has had the bugs eradicated. Rick Highness Vacaville, Calif. BLOAD NOT.ALLOWED,A$400 Why can’t! BSAVE/BLOAD text page 1 when using ProDOS? The command (A$400, L$3FF) prints a NO BUFFERS AVAILABLE message. Dudley Glass Vienna, Va. Under DOS 3.3, programmers developed the bad habit of BSAVEing text screens and BLOADIng them later. Unfortunately, this practice isn’t safe because of the invisible “screen holes” that are embedded in the text page memory area. These screen holes are used by devices in slots and by the system firmware to remember such things as the last disk track accessed, the current horizontal cursor position, the serial card baud and data format settings, the active $C800 ROM bank, and much more, Although the worst effect in most cases is a “grind” of the disk drive after each new screen is BLOADed, there is potential for more serious ramifications. Thus, ProDOS Protects the screenholes by marking text page 1 ($400-$7FF) as protected in its system bit map. Trying to BLOAD a file into a protected area never succeeds. It always causes Basic.system to retum the totally inaccurate (in this case) NO BUFFERS AVAILABLE message. Flicker comparisons I've been going blind using WordStar with my Apple Tle and Apple {II monitor. Can you recommend a monitor (monochrome}, presumably with a long persistence phosphor, to reduce flicker and any added plug-in boards to improve resolution and reduce flicker? Why are the IBMs or Compaqs so much better in this regard? Phillip Cutler Costa Mesa, Calif. That's not normal. In fact. the Apple Ili Monitor already has long-persistence phosphor. Mine is rock- steady and flicker-free when connected to a Ile. it shows some waviness when connected to a Laser 128, which I've blamed on that computer. A bad cable or bad connections can cause glltches, ascana cable that's too long (it becomes an antenna, picks up vibrations from the electromagnetic roar around you, and puts them on your screen). It is also possible, 1 suppose, that your flicker is due to poorly designed CP/M hard- or software, but Tve never heard anyone complain about that before. T suspect you need to have your system looked over by atechnician. The video circuitry on IBMs and compatibles tends to blend screen character dots together better than the Apple I's circuits do. You can update this circuitry ‘on your Apple by adding a slot-3 80-column card (this isn't the same thing as an auxiliary slot 80- column card), such as the ones made by Videx. Try before you buy, as screen displays are largely a matter of taste. By the way, the 15M is not immune from hideous filcker, either. You've been comparing the Apple display {o IBM's Monochrome Display Adapter output. IBM's Color Graphics Adapter is notorious for severe flicker as the ‘screen’ scrolis—so much so that a program is being sold by a third party company to reduce the irritation. You might also like to take a close iook at the following letter and answer. You don’t happen to be using an Apple purchased outside the U.S., do you? International answers Purther to Tony Bond's letter ("International Apple- Works JI,’ June 1987, page 3.39) regarding date formatting in AppleWorks reports, I would like to point out that my program InfoMerge (Pinpoint Publishing), which is an AppleWorks report generator as well as a mailmerge utility, allows formatting of dates (in printed output) in six differentways, including the European date formats “50 June 1987” and "50- 6-87". And, in answer to the “Hard hardware question” about using U.S. monitors in Europe, I Know only that some years ago, for the purpose of developing software in German, I acquired a German Ile from Apple Computer. This contained a U.S. power supply and I used it with a standard U.S. monochrome monitor. ‘The only problem I had was in hi-res graphics mode, when there was a significant screen flicker, due Presumably to the frequency difference between the Apple motherboard and the video monitor. For the purposes of software development I found the level of flicker to be acceptable, though it might not be so for some hi-res video games. 7 Peter Meyer Captain Cook, Hawaii Abdul Haddi in Wichita, Kansas just sent us a copy of a two-page document he got from Apple called “International Travel with Apple Computers.” This ‘Sheet says that all Apple CPUs, printers, and monitors Sold in the U.S, (with the single exception of the Scribe printer) are designed to work with 110-120 volts at either 50 or 60 Hertz. Thus any Apple system Should work anywhere in the world if the voltage is properly converted. "You will need to obtain a step down isolation transformer. Do not use a power converter designed for hair dryers and electric razors. The transformer will need to be rated for no more than 100 to 150 per cent of the equipment's power requirements and should be obtained in the country of usage. Since all Apple equipment requires a three-prong grounded outlet, the transformer will need to provide such an outlet.” However, the “video refresh rate” on an Apple IT is fixed at either 50 or 60 Hertz, depending on the standard in the country of sale. According to the document, using a 50 Hertz Apple in a 60 Hertz country will cause a flicker in the brighter area of the screen with all Appte monitors except the old Monitor III (much as Meyer describes when using a German Appie in the U.S,). Using a 60 Hertz Apple in a 50 Hertzcountry, “you may notice asmall amount of 10 Hertz weaving or flicker on the screen.” Open-Apple 3.53 T read all this to mean that, except for voltage. Apple’s monitors and printers are the same all over the world. Thus, with the proper transformer, you can use monitors or printers purchased in 60 Hertz countries in 50 Hertz countries, and vice-versa, freely (Scribe excepted), Secondly, except for power supplies and video refresh rates (and a few other details, see "NTSCand PAL Apples,” December 1986, page 2.87), Apple lis are the same all over the worid. Thus, with the proper transformer (or by changing the power supply, as Meyer did—note that some of the power supplies listed in “Releasing the power,” July 1987, page 3.45, are dual 240/120 voit units) you can use Apple lis purchased in 60 Hertz countries in 50 Hertz countries, and vice-versa, if you are willing to put up with some screen flicker. To avoid the flicker, you must change the CPU, not the monitor. Thirdly, we still don't know whether a 60 Hertz AGB card will work in a 50 Hertz Apple II. Does anyone else? Another frigid reboot In regard to “Reboot, cold reboot, frigid reboot” (July 1987, page 5.48): Another way to get a IIgs to erase and resize the built-in RAMdisk without tuming the machine off is to hold down both the open-apple and option keys and press control-reset The causes the machine to startits selftest. You don’thave to wait for the self-test to finish, just interrupt it with a standard control/open-apple/reset reboot. James L. Liles Candor, NC. Very interesting. The self-test must destroy the power-up byte that Bill Basham talked about. Something old, something new Can you have an add-on card in slot 6 on allgs and still use 5.25 inch drives as long as the control panel issetup for a disk port? Is there a way toload andrun DOS 3.3 from the RAM disk? Is there away to usea 3.5 inch disk with DOS 33? Tom Coates Hayward, Calif. J have at this moment a hard disk card in slot 6 of my ligs and a 5.25 inch disk on the end of the ‘Smartport daisy chain. I can’t use them both at the same time, but I can switch back and forth by entering the control panel changing the slot 6 specification, and pressing open-apple/control/reset. See “DOS 3.5” in our October 1986 issue, page 2.70, for a nearly compiete rundown on how to get DOS3.3to work ona 3.5 drive. We cannow adda few more: DOS 3.3.5 (Call -A.P,P.LE., July 1987, pages 15-19), and Oz-DOS ($59.95 from NewTech, P. 0. Box 90211, San Diego, CA 92109). New Tech also seils support software for using the PCI Appli-card CP/M system with the UniDisk, ProFile, and Apple Memory Card. Ilgs missing CALL -144 Your readers might like to know that the Lam technique for entering Monitor commands from Applesoft programs ("Picking Up Applesoft” February 1985, page 112; “A charming difference,’ March 1985, page 123; “Lam a‘la Ruth,’ May 1985, page 140; “Apple Assembly Line,” October 1985, page 177; “Lam a‘la Kashmarek,’ March 1986, page 216) doesn't work on the IIgs. The technique’s CALL -144 crashes He gutem, Cecil Fretwell Waterloo, lowa 3.54 Open-Apple On eartier Apples, CALL -144 ($FF70) jumps into the middle of MONZ, the Monitor routine that produces the ™*” prompt, calls the Monitor's line-input routine, and executes the Monitor commands you type in. Jumping into the middle of it avoids the call to the line-input routine—thus Applesoft can POKE the Monitor commands of your choice into the keyboard input buffer and then call on MONZ to execute them. However, $FF70 Is an “undocumented” entry point, according to Apple, anyhow—it certainly has been well documented elsewhere. The ligs doesn’t support this entry point, The Laser 128 didn't supportit when it was released either, however, it does now Let's hope Apple follows Video Technology's lead—not supporting this entry point makes a significant amount of software incompatible with the ligs. Forget RAMRD, RAMWRT ‘The letter “Odd bank out’ in your April issue (page 3.22) caught my eye. It seems like Holladay is going through an awful Jot just to run a program in aux mem. The best rule of thumb on the Ilgs is to forget you ever heard about RAMRD and RAMWRT. You don’t need them. Holladay’s program would be better off fit switched tonative mode while in main memory, then did a JSL to bank $01. After you get to bank $01 you need to: PHB PHK PLB save the old B (data bank) ragister Push the K (program bank} register set B = to the executing bank 0 uhatever here PLE RTL restore 8 to uhat it usod to be Any code running ina non-zero bank must execute in native mode. This is solely due to interrupts. In native mode, the 65816 saves the program bank (K) register when an interruptoccurs. In emulation mode itdoes not. So when an interrupt happens in emulation mode, the bank information is lost and the only Possibility is to return to bank 0. This isn'ta problem for older programs that use emulation mode in aux mem, because they use RAMRD and RAMWRT. As Holladay explained, these switches turn on the “1” bit of the bank address, but the 65816 has no idea that anything has happened. As far as it's concerned it’s still running in bank 0. Corey Kosak Novalo, Calif. IIgs cable sources Regarding my previous letter on hooking up the IIgs to a Sony KVI311CR (“RGB and TV too,” March 1987, page 3.15): Redmond Cable Corporation, 17371 AL NE 67th Ct, Redmond, WA 98052, 206 882-2009 has them for sale at $29 list and $22 if you are a developer, etc. Theirs are shielded and include the voltage divider needed to switch the IIgs audio into the TV. (Mine isn’t shielded, and I am ordering one of theirs.) They can also make them to a specified length, up to to 15 feet. The normal one is 6 feet. Chris Arndt San Luis Obispo, Calif. And here's where to get the cable youneed to hook Disk II drives with the old-style 20 pin header connector to the ligs Smartport daisy chain: Applied Services, inc., 7474 Hickory Log Circle, Columbia, MD 21045. The cable costs $20 and allows you to connect one or two Disk II drives to the Smartport chain. The cable was advertised in the April 1987 Call -A.P.P.L.E. classifieds (page 58); a local user ordered one and was happy with it. ligs slots, drives missing ‘Two things. First, in the February 1986 Open- Apple, on page 2.8, Jim Luther offers a PFS:Write to text file converter. The Post Office retumed my letter as undeliverable. Do you have a later address for Luther? Second, | and one other person in the Princeton Apple Users Group have noticed a problem with the ligs. Occasionally the computer will turn offa slot that has been set in the control panel to recognize “Your Card”. It happens to me for a Disk II controller card, and it happens to him witha Sider interface card. The only way either one of us has discovered to restore recognition of the card is to power the computer down for approximately 8 hours. | realize the details are sketchy at present but maybe someone else has discovered a way to avoid this problem. At one point when this happened to me the computer mysteriously cycled through accessing the drives and erased part of my Quicken program disk and the data disk. Thank God for backups! David Ciotti Trenton, NJ. Luther's address is now 6717 Locust, Kansas City, MO 64131 T haven't seen this one before, but I have had my Apple 3.5 drive mysteriously “disappear” acouple of times, ProDOS insisted there was NO DEVICE CON- NECTED to slot 5, even though the 5.25 disk at the end of the Smartport chain was still recognized. At the time didn't know how to doa frigid reboot, anda cold reboot wouldn't bring it back, so the only way I figured out to “recover” the drive was to tum the ligs, off. Missing printer found You have given me the final bits of an AppleWorks and Apple Iigs puzzle. Now that I have the whole picture, I'can give you the rest of it. The missing bit, found in your April issue (in the response to “Apple- Works phone dialer,” page 3.19), was the fact that AppleWorks can’t simultaneously recognize a disk and a printer in slot 2. The beginning of the puzzle was the fact that Applesoft could use my letter quality printer in slot 2, but AppleWorks could not. The rest of the puzzle was the fact that ProDOS automatically reassigns a second 3.5 inch disk drive to slot 2, drive 1 ifyou have used the IIgs control panel to set up a RAMdisk in internal IIgs memory. ProDOS puts the RAMdisk in slot 5, drive 2. It leaves the primary 3.5 in slot 5, drive 1 By going into the control panel and setting the maximum size of the RAMdisk to OK, tuning the computer off, and rebooting, I was able to get ProDOS to put the second 5.5 inch disk back in slot 5, drive 2 where it belongs (and where Pascal 13 can findit). And now a printer or modem located in slot 2 will work perfectly under AppleWorks. Denis Anson Hillsboro, Or. One additional bit of confusion is that if you use the contro! panel to set up the intemal RAMdisk as the startup device (look under “slots,” not under “RAMdisk’), the RAMdisk will be at stot 5, drive 1 The 5.5s will be in slot 5, drive 2 and slot 2, drive L We have been unable to figure outa way to change these assignments. To do so you'd have the change the Smartport “unit numbers” that the devices respond to, If anybody figures out how to do this, please tet us know. I’d personally rather see the ligs RAMdisk always in slot 2, drive 1. Pascal would work beiter, Vol. 3, No. 7 the RAMdisk could always be booted (you can’t boot froma device in drive 2, no matter what the stot), and things would just be a lot more similar to how they are with an auxstot card on a Ile. As things stand now, the ligs intemal RAMdisk is often best left at OK. Cards still gobbling ctr-1 My printer's manual says the code for 6 lines per inch is “ESC Ctr’ Ctrlt” but the results I get are weltd, Dr.John A. Hunt Honolulu, Hawait Our trusty book of printer codes shows your printer uses “ESC Ctrl-" N", where N equals the line feed length (plus one) in 48th’s of an inch. Therefore, for 6 lines per inch, the value of N should be 9 (9 minus 1 equals 8, 8 divided by 48 gives usa line feed length of 1/6 inch), which you correctly translate as control-I. Unfortunately, that particular code will get eaten by your printer interface card every time. Try using this code instead, “Ctrl-I Ctrl-Y ESC Ctrt-" Ctri-T ‘Ctr Ctrt-l". It momentarily changes the interface card command code to Ctrl-Y, then changes it back again. For more about this, see our special November 1985 printer issue, page 1.86. Page 3.14 of our March 1987 issue and all the articles it refers to will tell you much more than you ever wanted to know about the Problems people encounter when trying to send control codes to printers. No negative EXEC Negative numbers can be READ, but not EXEC’d, into an INPUT statement. Numbers that begin with a decimal point or a plus sign work fine. Michael Wertheim Plantation, Fla. Yep, we get a SYNTAX ERROR when we try it with INPUT. Around here we always INPUT N$, however, then convert the string to a number if necessary. EXEC handies this with no problems. AppleWorks + Muttiscribe Ive been creating hundreds of pages of mathematical texts with AppleWorks, using all possible tricks to include the special signs mathematicians are used to. However, the main problems remain that those signs are incorporated in complex formulas, are not visible on the screen, and often don’t look as they should on paper. On the other hand, there is Multiscribe, offering many possibilities to solve these problems, but with a clumsy cut-and-paste system and with far too little speed for long texts. A possible solution would be to enter text using AppleWorks, then transfer the file to Muttiscribe for preview, final corrections, and printing, Consequently, Tam trying to write a program that would read an AppleWorks word processor file, convert the AWP control codes to Muttiscribe codes, and create a Multiscribe file. I'd also like to write a Multiscribe- AppleWorks conversion program to go back to the AppleWorks environment where file-merge is an easy operation. The whole process is not so complicated as it sounds except for one problem that I haven't solved yet Using the "View files” option of Copy iI Pluswe can seea header on each AWP file with some code and the position of the tabs. What is the total length of this header and what is the meaning of the various bytes? Bert Hoogewijs Lochristi, Belgium Vol, 3, No. 7 AppleWorks word processor files start with a 300 byte header that contains the following information: +000 - +023 Not used. +004 Not mentioned Ln documentation. 4095 - +884 Tab stops. Either = or |. +085 2oan switch, Booleen. +085 - +089 +290 Four bytes not used. Boolean, whether page break Lines are currently showing. Miniaus left margin that should be added to the nargin appearing on the screen. This is normally one inch, shoun in 1@ths of an inch, or 18 (308). Boolzan, whether file contains eny mail-erge connands. Not used. Mors or less reserved for mail merge feature. Fuailable. Will Never be used by FopleWoorks. IF you are creating Fl KP files, you can use thie area ta keep information that is important to your progran. 4091 4092 1093 - 1249 4250 - +253 Values do seem to change for some of the bytes marked “unused.” We assume these are artifacts. For the Boolean fields, the switch is considered “off” if the byte holds a zero and “on” if non-zero. After the header come anumber of variable-length line records. The first line after the header corresponds to screen line 1, the next to screen line 2, and soon, The first two bytes of each line indicate how long the rest of the line is. The third byte indicates the screen column for the first character of the Une. Usually this is zero, but can vary as a result of left margin, centering, and indent commands. ifthe high bit of the fourth byte Is set, the line ends with a carriage return, The other seven bits givethe number of bytes of text following this byte. This text can include control codes that indicate special AppleWorks formatting features such as underline, boldface, and superscripts. In addition to “text” lines, you will also see two- byte “carriage return” and “command” lines. A “carriage return” line has a $D0 in the second byte of the line. The first byte indicates the horizontal screen Position of the carriage retum. A “command” line has avalue greater than $D0 in the second byte, and various meaningful values in the first byte. ee Chars per Inch: 12 chars” is a sample of how a command line appears on the screen. A line with a value less than $D0 in the second byte {only azerois actually posstble) ts a text line. We can send a complete description of AppleWorks file formats to subscribers who request them, Or you can download the formats from a BBS that AppleWorks author Rupert Lissner has set up. The BBS contains technical information for developers working on accessories that run while AppleWorks is active. The number of the BBS is 702-851-1722. Dennis recently signed on and downloaded this directory to the information available: File 1. 6k. Data Baee common Definitions used in ali data base segnente, including the location of Files and work areas in onary. File 2, 32k, File formats AppleWorks File formats on disk. File 3, 26k, Mein work area Definitions used throughout Appleliorks. Defines common work areas Used by all applic: Defines many of the syrbals refer Files. ons. in other File 4, 3k, Hooks documentation Defines hav to use “hooke” built into version 2.0 that allow you to intercept Keustrokes and output to the ecreen. File 5, 6K, Host documentation Docurentation of routines in the pernarently rseidant portion of AppleWorks. You can use these routines: at your oun risk, of course, for a runser of the furcticns that are basic to ang asserbly language progren. File $ defines where the routines ere located. File 6. 2k, Host entry points This defines, addresses that can be JSR’d to for permanent routines. File 5 deacribes the What the routines do... File 7, 5K, Sub-host docunentation This describes nore routines that are permanently resident. Most pertain tc semory aanagenont. Please note that a patsnt is pending on these menory mafiagement routines, so you may end up paying royalties if thay’re copied. File 8, 1X, Sub-host entry points This.file detines the entry points Far sua-host routings. File 9, 15k Spreadsheet Comeon Definitions usad In 211 spreadeheet cegnents, including location of files and uork areas in neaory. File 10, 10K, Mord processor Copman. Definitions Gssd In ali word processor segnents,, including location of filee and work areas in senory. Files 11, 12, and 13, 41K, SE5.PR source code File 14, 2, Merory manager Use of IIgs memory manager by version 2.2. File 15, 33K, File formats AppleWorks file formats on disie, File 16, 2K. Bugs file Bugs In 2.0, and conflicts betueen 2.9 and other Prograns being developed for the Ilgs. Another use for AppleWorks Are you aware thal Appleworks comes with a utility program that allows you to read and print the data in damaged Appleworks database files? You can even use this utility to produce an ASCII text file, which can. be used in turn to create a new database file. The name of this utility? It's the Word Processor! Here's howit works, Select “Add files to the desktop” and “Make a new file for the word processor”. When. the program prompts you for the source of the new file, choose “From a text (ASCIJ) file’ Unlike most other programs, the Appleworks word processor will not check to see if the file you name is actually an ASCII text file and will load just about anything you tell it to, including AppleWorks data base files, When you load an AppleWorks data base file you'll see all the data that's in it along with a lot of other stuff. In fact, the screen may look so confusing that you'll decide to re-enter the data from the keyboard. That's fine, but at least you can now produce a hard copy of the data to work from, Ifyou decide to reformat the data and create anew ASCII file to load into the data base, the task will go faster with a word processor that can search and replace with control characters, such as FreeWriter or Apple Writer. If you choose this option, it may take some time to format the data correctly, but you are rewarded by not having to retype or proofread anything, ‘The technique also works with files from other programs. DOS 3,3 database files require conversion OpenApple 3.55 to ProDOS first, but otherwise all the operations are basically the same. If your database file contains mostly text, you’ find the task a retatively simple one. Mostly numeric data may require a hard copy as an aid in locating the numerals amidst all the the other stuf. Steve Goldstine NEO Apple Corps Cleveland, Ohio Now there's a neat trick. Interestingly, Apple Writer will also directly load any type of file, but it stops loading as soon as it encounters a zero byte. In AppleWorks data base fites, this occurs tong before you get to the part of the file that holds data. in addition to fixing damaged data base files, this technique could be very useful for converting random- access text files from older programs into AppleWorks data base files. if the random-access file is on a DOS 5.5 disk, use Copy H Plus to convert it to. a ProDOS disk first. Our March 1987 article, “Reading AppleWorks data bases” would be helpful for translating what appears on the word processor screen into what must have been in the daia base file. It would probably also be helpful to take a flle back to the AppleWorks word processor for final formatting. The easiest way to figure out if you have the correct number of retum characters in each record is to simply toad the file into the data base and took to see if everything is appearing in the correct category. At the spot where the relationship between data and categories gets messed up you are either missing a return or you have an extra one. Q{uick change) back to the word processor, fixthat spot, and try again. Subscriber James Green in Woodland Hills, Califor- nia also wrote us about this trick, but he uses it to recover damaged word processor files. More uses for our ADB reader Thank you very much for your reply to my recent request for help in recovering a damaged AppleWorks database. Unfortunately, after spending hours studying the file, | could not find anything wrong with it according to the published file layout. It still would not load into AppleWorks. At that point | took another tack which your readers might find helpful. Using your AppleWorks Database Reader program (March 1987, pages 5.9-3.12) as a starting point, | wrote a program that read my file and wrote it into a text file, which I then used to create a new AppleWorks database. Through this method I was able to salvage all three years of the “lost” magazine index with only about 50 minutes of work, versus many, many hours of re-entering the data. RW Crowley Manchester Mo, Here's another application for our ADB.READER. Dennis recently saw an ad for an MS-DOS program that “compiles” Lotus 1-2-3 dala files into free- standing applications that do not require Lotus itself to use. In other words, a “developer” can use Lotus to enter and manipulate specialized data, “compile” the data into a free-standing application, then sell the data to customers who don’t have Lotus. Our ADB.READER ts only a step or two away from the same thing for AppleWorks. A database format could be laid out with AppleWorks, the file data entered and edited into usable form, then the final database distributed with an enhanced version of our “reader” program. Thus a “simple” Applesoft program could tur AppleWorks into a database development system ofsoris, 5.56 Open-Apple Vol. 3, No.7 Anew How do you get AppleWorks to reportan alphabetic _ lives before running the program — the user also gets horror story : a response in a lookup table? to handle any errors that come along. Please wan users about Applied Engineerings HD- Carl J. Morrison . ‘The program will allow you to setyour desktop from 554 disk drives. When using these drives to make Anaheim, Calif. 56K up to about 1020K. Ifyou make ittoo big, you are copies, one or more sectors on the source-disk are defeating the purpose (leaving room on the RAMdisk - e SuperCalc 3a solves both problems. It allows text isually trashed and can not be verified. Putting on a to be assigned as a value by enclosing the text in for other files). If you make it too small, AppleWorks write tab does no good. With COPYA you may seem to will act as if the card already has too many files and it Parentheses and quotes, as in (“This is a text value”). 2 * a have a good copy but, ifyou try to repeat the copy from For example. if you set cell A5 to (“Fred”), and cell won't expand into the memory card—this will cause the same source disk, you will get read errors. ‘ATO to IF(AS=("Sam’),LAS), then cell AIO will display you to miss ‘out on the other goodies that come with John Waters iis expansion. ra the word “Fred”. Baltimore, Md. 1@ REM Desktop Sizer for Slinky-typs cards The word from Applied Engineering ts that one ‘in alia cial group of their drives had this problem and trey SELECT stops expanded Works a § 4@ DS=CHRS(4) : PRINT 0$;"PRE3~ : HOME issued a recall. The drives were bad right out of the Regarding Michael Colville’s “hanging on startup” $2 PRINT “What K size desktop do you want? *; Dax. It may seem a little paranoid, but perhaps the problem with AppleWorks 2.0, as expanded with §5 IN%UT “"y lesson here {s that all new equipment should be Applied Engineering’s software (July 1987, page 3.44): 4° Koval (ks) 2 KeKI2 + 16 Carefully checked with dummy files and data before quite by accident (after much cursing and ce, See 2 oe 2 pire using it with the real thing, which had no effect at all) I discovered that this 7 PRINT OS:~BLORD APLWORKS.SYSTEM,A82000, TSFF~ , abl problem occurs only when Iboot or restart, Works 80 IF PEEK(B192+3)=20 THEN 20 : REM skip to v2.0 Spreadsheet $tring variables with my ImageRtiter on and the printer “select” 100. REX fix v.3 Iwould like to know whether there is any spreadsheet Switch off a eee program that lets one use the IF statement with text. Either turning on the select switch or tumingoffthe 728 FORT = aoe For example, | would Iike to use astatement such as PT inter will allow the boot process to continue after it {22 EAD J : PORE FXez41 + NEXT ss 4 149 “DATA 178,173,223,34,201,0,173,224,34,233,0,176, IF(A5="Sam’,01). Neither AppleWorks nor Multiplan as halted on the “Getting Started” screen. 2,138,96,169,0,141,223,34,159,0,141,224,34,96 allow text as a clause or argument in formulas; is Steve Moore se cord 300: REM goto common Fix there any other spreadsheet program that has this Carpinteria, Calif. eat bea cei ie facility? Thanks aiso go to Robert Urschel and Quentin 210 F1x=3423+4036 + ueDCE+9662+4096 DrSS.Datye Packard, who made the same discovery. An unex- 220 FOR I=@ TD 25 : READ J : NEXT : REN other data Akureyri, [celand panded copy of AppleWorks 2.0 doesn’t hang on my 230 FOR 1-9 10 28 Jigs in this situation, so I Suspect AES expansion 240 READ J : POKE FIX+1,J : NEXT software is trying to send some kind of initialization 250 DATA 170,173,52,35,201,0,173,63,35,233,0,176, string to the printer. 2,138,96,169,0,141 ,62,35,169,0,141,63,35,96 Open-Apple oe eeenonichauesiing sar semn a on in “hex dump” mode and seetng what gets 310 FOKE FIX+5,KLD z POKE F1X+10,kHI | | printed when you startup AppleWorks, With the 222 POXE FIXe16,KLO + PORE FLx+2t,«il 33@ POXE KEDGE, 32 - ImageWriter I, you do this by tuming the printer on ie writien, edad, published, and a «, 348 POKE WEDCE+2, INT ((F1X-4095}/255) while holding down on the “form feed” button; with e © Copyright 1987 Py oa 1-4 ‘3S@ POKE WEDGE+1,(FIX-4096) - (PEEK(WEOGE+2)*255) Tor Weishaar oy the Imageliriter Il, use the “select” button. 360 PRINT 05;"UNLOCK RPLHORKS. SYSTEM” Busi c sittant Richard Bar ‘WO PRINT OS; "BSAVE APLWORKS. SYSTEM ,AS2000, TSFF~ jusil ons! ichard Barger _ = 1 PRINT “Done.” = Technical Consultant Dennis Doms Pushing back the limits —_s ae ae Steve Stephenson Circulation Manager —_Sally Tally : Business Manager Sally Dwyer Imay beable to shed some light on the AppleWorks Synesis Systems Mos! rights reserved. All programs published in Opew-Appte are | “130 file maximum” and “memory card hogging” P.O, Box 1308 somes geupsand sqnfewtolersmayrepronelesiee | Problems mentioned in your July issue (page 345). ADEE NEES time {0 time by specitic wrilten request. Requests and other First the subdirectory limitation ...my guess is that efiotrvateas mscnaeten oUnee005.stustesente: | ge TEST Cr fies that appears in the screen MY personal AppleWorks disk doesn't have the 85 “Apple message (130) was originally set by approximation oF so limit on AppleWorks files in a subdirectory. P.O. Box 7651 and has never been updated. | checked all of the Maybe it's because of this patch: Overland Park, Kansas 66207 U.S.A. versions I have access to and found that 10,1112, poxe 259,43 Published monthly since Janvaty 1985, World-wide prices in US. | and 1.3 all allocate $1000 bytes of buffer space for poke 759.25 dollars; airmail delivery included al no additional charge): $24 for 1 . $44 for 2 wears $60 for 8 years, All singte back issues ore filenames from a subdirectory. Version 2.0, however, gsAve SEC.m,T0,L2,As300,0814299 ‘currently available for $2 each; bound, indexed editions cl Volume 1 ‘ and Volume 2 are ‘ muaty allocatés only $800 bytes. The buffer is used to sort iracriamesmevotme ieee witte is sie | the names ilo aiphabecal order Each name ety Te ate reais ie a fe Aes 20 Saseaengalaceaboneais corempendereic’ A (as used here) has 918 bytes. This means that the Catalog buffer so that it wil lenam Open-Apple older versions of Appleorks will actually show 170 _&fea beyond the catalog bufer Is unused when file P.O. Box 6331 names and the newer ones will show 85, Interestingly, ing actives are going on, Randy Brandt Syracuse, NY. 13217 U.S.A. what triggers the screen message is a buffer overflow pices See ce Tee hrerisae een" | .try cataloging a subdirectory with 169 names in PO, Box 20920 Unlike most commercial software, Open-Apple is solc in an version 13, It will show all of them without the “130 snpeees Bon Mito crete Re eee EICajon,CA92021 make back-up archival copies or easy-to-read enlarged copiesfor | file maximum” message. Joe cas Le wr erga, Yul ay also copy Ohne Ape bx ‘As for the memory card hogging problem, after Stephenson's patch is for Il-Plus, He, and lic distribution to others, The distribution fee is 15 cents per pege per copy iste o studying the “SYS.DESKTOP” expansion function that AppleWorks iisers with an Apple Memory Expansion the hrermaton ‘Gpoippie a osehl NS conc antoue, AppleWorks 1.5 and newer, uses with the Apple Card or the equivalent (RamFactor, plusKAM). The SRiteatorall Unsatished subsesbers may retam Ieevos aunt, | Memory Expansion Card and compatibles,! came up patch has no effect on AppleWorks if you use a ligs TBddaysctdeleyrafulelund Pleaeircdearatetem your | with this ite patch program. In theory you onlyneed. because on thal machine AppleWorks refuses to look parents of children confirming that all archival copies nave been destroyed. The untuliiled portion of any paid subscription will be to execute it once; however, in realityyouwill probably fora standard-slot-based. memory card. (incidentally, IS lures 10 Tas PUBLICATIONS FuRCeASE PRICE: In no | Tun itseveral times until you figure out your personal for those of you who don’t recognize their names, Case shall | o1 my contributers be liable for any incidental or | “ideal desktop size. Itwill patch AppleWorks versions Stephenson is the author of Checkmate Technology's Sarsby a susecnter 2 rary semages wextessettelees | 9 44 9.9 (with minimum verification). To Keep the AppleWorks expansion software and Brandt is the 'SBN 0888-4017 - Source Mai: 7¢F238 | program simple, the usér gets to set the prefix to the author of Beagle Bros’ MacroWorks and Super eit ate a volume (or subdirectory) where APUNORKSSYSTEM —MacroWorks.)