=============================================================================== Volume 1 Issue 7 September 1989 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____ _____ ____ ____ ___________ / | / | | | | | | _____ \ / |/ | | | | | | | \__\ / /| /| | | | | | | | / / | / | | | | | | | | / / | / | | | | | | | | ____ / / | / | | | | | | | | |__ \ / / | / | | \ \_______| | | |_________\ \ |___| |/ |___| \____________| |________________\ __ __ ____ ______ _____ ____ | \ || / __ \ --,,-- |,--- //--\\ ||\\ || || || || || \\__ || \\ || || || || |,== ---\\ || \\|| ||__|| || ||___ ___// || \_| \____/ || |____ ___/ The Official Newsletter of: The Motorola Users Group of London =============================================================================== =============================================================================== Autumn Fun =============================================================================== September 1989 MUG Notes Page 1 Motorola Users Group of London 1989 EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT Stan Bischop 500 Osgoode Dr. #122. London N6E 2G9 668-7277 VICE- PRESIDENT Gerry Davis 1053 Frances St. London N5W 2L8 453-8686 SECRETARY Judy Daviau 500 Osgoode Dr. #122 London N6E 2G9 668-7277 TREASURER Sheila Smith 11 Bridle Path London N6Y 2H1 672-4913 APPOINTED POSITIONS MEMBERSHIP CO-ORDINATOR Judy Daviau 500 Osgoode Dr. #122 London N6E 2G9 668-7277 NEWSLETTER EDITOR Sheila Smith 11 Bridle Path London N6Y 2H1 672-4913 P.D.LIBRARIAN Diane Gubbels R.R. #1 Miller Rd. Delaware N7G 3H8 652-3844 PUBLIC RELATIONS Gerry Thomas 232 Oakland Ave. London N5V 4H1 659-1374 B.B.S. SYSOP Wayne Morrison 532 Pinetree Dr. London N6H 3N1 471-5064 NEWSLETTER PUBLISHER Wayne Morrison 532 Pinetree Dr. London N6H 3N1 471-5064 TECHNICAL ADVISORS Stan Bischop 500 Osgoode Dr. #122 London N6E 2G9 668-7277 Gerry Davis 1053 Frances St. London N5W 2L8 453-8686 Wayne Morrison 532 Pinetree Dr. London N6H 3N1 471-5064 MUG Line B.B.S. 24 Hours Daily 300/1200 Baud N-8-1 641-0927 DISCLAIMER The opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of the Motorola Users Group of London, the editors, or the club members. While we try to make sure that all software and hardware projects in this newsletter have been tested and do work, we will not be responsible for any damage to your own personal equipment resulting from using information contained in this newsletter. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Contents of this newsletter are copyrighted 1989 by the Motorola Users Group of London. Reproduction by any means other than for the personal use of members without prior written consent is forbidden. Other non-profit computer clubs may make use of the enclosed material as long as written acknowledgement is made of the source. MANDATE This newsletter is published by and for the Motorola Users Group of London. This club has no affiliation with the Motorola Corporation. This club is a non-profit organization for anyone that may have an interest in Motorola 68XX and 68XXX based microcomputers and the use and exchange of information about these machines. September 1989 MUG Notes Page 2 Table of Contents Page Item ==== ==== 1.....................List of Officers and Mandate 2.....................Table of Contents 3.....................Executive Meeting Minutes 4.....................Emergency Exec Meeting Minutes 5.....................Dr. Dunce 6.....................Peeks Pokes and Execs 8.....................OS-9 and the Real World 11....................Telecom Comments 12....................Understanding Error Messages 14....................About Basic09 SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS The Motorola Users Group of London sponsors two special interest groups (SIG's for short). The beginners' SIG meets on Tuesday nights at Bob and Peggy Griffin's, (78 Beechmount Cres.) starting at 7:00 P.M. The advanced SIG meets at Judy Daviau's (122-500 Osgoode Dr.) Wednesday nights also starting at 7:00 P.M. Whether you have just started out or you are an experienced hacker, there should be something of interest for you! September 1989 MUG Notes Page 3 Motorola Users Group Executive Meeting July 31, 1989 Secretary's Report The meeting was held at 11 Bridle Path and was called to order by Stan Bischop at 8:45pm. Those present were: Stan Bischop - President Sheila Smith - Treasurer Judy Daviau - Secretary Wayne Morrison - Electronic System's Manager Gerry Thomas - Public Relations 1) It was discussed and unanimously decided to give a $ .50 discount per disk to any person who orders their P.D. software at least one week before the general meetings. Hopefully this will get the orders in sooner and Diane will have a bit more free time at the meetings. You may order your P.D. Disks by leaving a message on the BBS to "Diane Gubbels" or you can call her at 652-3844. 2) The current balance in the treasury is $914.15. About $250 of this is reserved for future yearly expenses. 3) It was decided to purchase a "Y-Cable" and an RS-232 Pak from Microcomm. The total cost of this purchase will be about $125.00. We will now be able to return Rick Tower's Multi-Pak and his RS-232 pack as well. The Motorola Users Group would like to thank Rick for the long-term loan of his equipment. 4) Dianne will (try to) purchase one new Public Domain disk from California each month. She will add them to the library as soon as she receives them each month. 5) Gerry Thomas will enlist the aid of Erik Tromp to help/ take-over the Public Domain demonstrations. 6) We had a long discussion on ways to make the meetings more interesting and productive. We will start by involving new people as meeting chairpersons and as Public Domain demonstrators. 7) Gerry Thomas (Public Relations) will distribute flyers promoting our club. Please let Gerry know of any productive places to hang our flyers that he may have missed. 8) We will try to cultivate some local guest speakers. If you know of any subject or applications of computers that others may be interested in, let one of the executive know. 9) The meeting adjourned at 10:40pm. September 1989 MUG Notes Page 4 Motorola Users Group Emergency Executive Meeting August 23, 1989 Secretary's Report The meeting was held at 11 Bridle Path and was called to order by Stan Bischop Those present were: Stan Bischop - President Sheila Smith - Treasurer Judy Daviau - Secretary Wayne Morrison - Electronic System's Manager Gerry Thomas - Public Relations 1) An emergency Exec meeting was held at Sheila's house during the OS-9 SIG meeting to make a decision about buying a new disk drive and a memory upgrade for the computer that runs the Club's BBS. Since the price for the double sided 40 track full height drive was only $34.95 (American funds), it was decided to go ahead and purchase it. As we already have the loan of a power supply and controller to use we do not need to purchase these things at this time. 2) It was also decided to purchase a bare memory upgrade board from Burke & Burke for $39.95 (American funds). It is hoped that with this board and some donated 128K memory chips we will be able to run a 512K system for our BBS. This will enable Wayne to make the logon procedure much faster although it will not give us any more room in the messaging area. This will also allow us to upgrade to the 2.0 version of Ribbs which is much slicker than the 1.0 version that we are running now. The decision to purchase the above items was unanimous among the executive present at the meeting. Sheila is to order these items and we will announce it when they arrive. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * T H E N E X T M E E T I N G O F * * * * _____ _____ ____ ____ ___________ * * / | / | | | | | | _____ \ * * / |/ | | | | | | | \__\ * * / /| /| | | | | | | | * * / / | / | | | | | | | | * * / / | / | | | | | | | | ____ * * / / | / | | | | | | | | |__ \ * * / / | / | | \ \_______| | | |_________\ \ * * |___| |/ |___| \____________| |________________\ * * * * Will Be Held On October 10, 1989 * * 6:30pm to 9:00pm * * London Central Public Library * * Lower Level * * Room #3 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * September 1989 MUG Notes Page 5 A DOCTOR DUNCE 0 by EWG (the forum for the fallible amateur) viv /! Here we are again, and I still do not even know if you like the idea of this column or if it will serve the purpose for which it was intended. This of course is a result of the "lead time" involved in writing. As I'm sitting here making my kids angry, (by stealing their computer), the news letter has not even come out yet with the last column, consequently I have no feed back from anyone. Of course this also may be a result of Ma Bell's and God's abuse of my equipment, particularily the modem which absorbs lightning on a regular basis. (QUESTION:To the more experienced Hackers in the group- Protected power bars are available to save the computer from the line glitches but what can you get to protect yourself from the phone system?) To go back to the last column, some of the old timers informed me that the problem I had on the crashed disk was a scrambled Gat table and was not recoverable. Trust me not to do something simple. This also requires a little explanation. For you jaded experienced persons, bear with me for a few minutes while I try to explain to my Peers. We pick up some of the terms we use in this field as we go along, but some need a bit more understanding. Disks are "formatted" laid out in "tracks" concentric magnetic circles, which are divided into "sectors" slices grouped together into half track "granules". Information is stored on the disk tracks in the granules and sectors. Since the disk is spinning at 300rpm, some way must be used to locate the various pieces of information. The chart the computer uses to keep a record of the locations of every thing is the "directory". The map is located on track 17 and in sector 02 is the chart, sector 04 on compriseing the directory (this is true for RadioShack Disk Operating System) "RSDOS", there are others (a lot of others). If the directory gets damaged, there are utilities which can be used to investigate and maybe repair the problem, if the chart gets ripped up how can you locate anything to do anything about the trouble. Therefore this a lost disk I have and the only possible recovery is a DSKINI, save the disk but lose the information. So much for this time. This is the third attempt at this article, the others were lost one way or another. Same Moral as last week but include the codicil that one should make sure to know how to to save to disk (or whatever) and save a lot of extra work. This was not the column I started to write, but it seems apropriate. If you like it, tell me. If you don't............................ Thats all folks. ...... o .... //v gotta go ! ...../! Bye E.W.G P.S. I'm still open for a forum to try to solve any problems you may like to bring forward. I'll do my best with everbody's help. See you. September 1989 MUG Notes Page 6 PEEKS POKES and EXECS MR. DIG EXTRA MEN.................POKE 21561,XX.................. MS. GHOST EXTRA PLAYERS...........POKE 21115,XX.................. MUDPIE EXTRA MEN..................POKE 29629,XX.................. MULTI-PAK SLOT 1 SELECT...........POKE 65407,0................... MULTI-PAK SLOT 2 SELECT...........POKE 65407,17.................. MULTI-PAK SLOT 3 SELECT...........POKE 65407,34.................. MULTI-PAK SLOT 4 SELECT...........POKE 65407,51.................. N/R...............................POKE 65314,5................... NEW...............................EXEC 44313..................... NON-FLASHING CURSOR...............POKE 41382,0................... NORMAL AFTER EXTRA HIGH SPEED.....POKE 65496,0................... NORMAL AFTER SUPER SPEED POKE.....POKE 65496,0................... NORMAL MODE FROM PAGE 0...........POKE 65481,0................... NORMAL SCREEN AFTER RED TEXT......POKE 359,126................... NORMAL SCREEN.....................POKE 359,0..................... NORMAL SPEED AFTER HIGH SPEED ....POKE 65494,0................... NORMAL SPEED AFTER VIT. E POKE....POKE 65494,0................... NOTE LENGTH, CURRENT..............PEEK 225....................... OCTAVE,CURRENT....................PEEK (222)+1................... ON BRK POINTER TO LINE NUMBER.....PEEK(65036)*256+PEEK(65037).... ON ERR POINTER TO LINE NUMBER.....PEEK(65038)*256+PEEK(65039).... ORANGE ON BLACK,LOWERCASE XX=56..POKE38341-38345,18,134,XX,18,18 ORIGINAL ARTIFACT COLOR SET.......POKE 51,0...................... PAC-TAC EXTRA MEN.................POKE 9009,XX .................. PAC-TAC2 EXTRA MEN................POKE 10489,XX ................. PAGE 0 BACK TO NORMAL MODE........POKE 65481,0................... PAGE 0 DISPLAY (VARIABLES)........POKE &H167,57:POKE 65480,0..... PAINT WITH ARTIFACTED STRIPES.....POKE 178,XX + PAINT( ),,C ..... PCLEAR0 DISK BASIC................POKE 25,14:POKE 26,0:NEW ...... PCLEAR0 DISK BASIC................POKE 25,14:POKE3584,0:NEW...... PCLEAR0 DISK BASIC................POKE 25,6:27,6:29,6:31,6....... PCLEAR0 DISK BASIC................POKE 25,PEEK(188):NEW ......... PCLEAR0 E.C. BASIC................POKE 25,6:NEW.................. PEN STATUS FOR X-PAD..............PEEK 65378..................... PINK BACKGROUND IN TEXT MODE......POKE 359,0:SCREEN0,1........... PINK BACKGROUND TEXT MODE.........POKE 65314,8................... PITCH(401)DURATION(402)OF SOUND...POKE 402,X:POKE401,Y:EXEC44350. PITFALL EXTRA MEN.................POKE &H2CBC,XX ................ PLANET INVASION EXTRA MEN (XX<40).POKE 7446,XX .................. PMODE SET RETURNED (=0 IF NONE)...PEEK 182....................... POKE COMMAND DISABLE..............POKE 32384,68.................. PRINT DISABLE.....................POKE 359,255................... PRINT DISK DIRECTORY..............POKE 111,254:DIR0.............. PRINT EVERYTHING ON SCREEN TWICE..POKE 359,126:P360,162:P361,133. PRINT TRACE ON PRINTER............POKE 360,162:POKE361,191....... PRINTER 0120 BAUD RATE............POKE 149,1:POKE150,202......... PRINTER 0300 BAUD RATE............POKE 150,180................... PRINTER 0600 BAUD RATE............POKE 150,87.................... PRINTER 1200 BAUD RATE............POKE 149,0:POKE 150,40......... PRINTER 1200 BAUD RATE............POKE 150,41.................... PRINTER 1800 BAUD RATE............POKE 149,0:POKE 150,25......... PRINTER 2000 BAUD RATE............POKE 149,0:POKE 150,23......... September 1989 MUG Notes Page 7 PEEKS POKES and EXECS (Continued) PRINTER 2400 BAUD RATE............POKE 150,18.................... PRINTER 3600 BAUD RATE............POKE 149,0:POKE 150,10......... PRINTER 9600 BAUD RATE............POKE 149,0:POKE 150,1.......... PRINTER CARRIAGE RETURN DELAY.....POKE 151,XX.................... PRINTER COMMA FIELD WIDTH.........POKE 153,XX.................... PRINTER FROM KEYBOARD.............POKE 360,162:POKE 361,191...... PRINTER LAST COMMA FIELD..........POKE 154,XX.................... PRINTER LINE DELAY .288 SEC.......POKE 151,64:POKE152,0.......... PRINTER LINE DELAY .576 SEC.......POKE 151,128:POKE152,0......... PRINTER LINE DELAY 1.15 SEC.......POKE 151,255:POKE152,255....... PRINTER LINE WIDTH................POKE 155,XX.................... PRINTER OFF LINE IF = 5...........PEEK 65314..................... PRINTER ON LINE IF = 4............PEEK 65314..................... PRINTER TRACER OFF IN E.C.BASIC...POKE 360,130:POKE361,115....... PROGRAM LISTING SLOWED............POKE 359,60.................... PROGRAM STATEMENT NUMBER, CURRENT.PEEK (104)*256+PEEK(105)....... PROTECTED MEMORY AREA.............PEEK (39)*256+PEEK(40)......... PROTECTORS--JOYSTK VERT. MOVEMENT.POKE 13579,90: EXEC............ RADIUS OF CIRCLE IN PMODE4........PEEK (207)*256+PEEK (208)...... RADIUS OF CIRCLE IN PMODES 0-3....PEEK (207)*256+PEEK (208) ]*2.. RED LETTERS ON PINK BACKGROUND....POKE 359,0:SCREEN0,1........... RED LETTERS ON PINK BACKGROUND....POKE 65314,8................... RED LETTERS ON PINK MAINTAINED....POKE 359,13.................... RED TEXT BACK TO NORMAL SCREEN....POKE 359,126................... REGULAR CURSOR....................POKE 41382,16.................. RENUMBER PROGRAM BY 10's..........EXEC 35337..................... RESET SYSTEM......................POKE 113,0:EXEC40999........... RESTORE EXTENDED COLOR BASIC......POKE 298,25:POKE 303,14........ RESTORE LEADING SPACE OF NUMBERS..POKE 48612,167:POKE 48613,192.. RESTORE MINUS SIGN TO NUMBERS.....POKE 48612,167:POKE 48613,192.. RIGHT AND LEFT FIREBUTTONS IF=252.PEEK 65280..................... RIGHT FIREBUTTON IF = 254 OR 126..PEEK 65280..................... ROM PAK AUTO START DISABLE........POKE 65315,54.................. ROM PAK AUTO START ENABLE.........POKE 65315,55.................. ROM REVISION CHECK................EXEC 41175..................... ROM-PAK AUTOSTART DISABLE.........POKE 65315,54.................. RUN EQUIVALENT....................EXEC 44661..................... SAVE BASIC PROG. TO CASSETTE......EXEC 42060..................... SCALE (1-62) FOR DRAW COMMAND.....PEEK 233....................... SCREEN (HI-RES) END POSITION......PEEK (183)*256+PEEK (184)...... SCREEN (HI-RES) START POSITION....PEEK (186)*256+PEEK (187)...... SCREEN BACK TO NORMAL.............POKE 359,0..................... SCREEN BLACK ON GREEN.............POKE 65314,7................... SCREEN BLANKED....................POKE 359,61.................... SCREEN PRINT DISK DIRECTORY.......EXEC 52175..................... SCREEN PRINT NORMAL SPEED.........POKE 359,60.................... SCREEN PRINT SLOWS WITH CASS. SYS.POKE 359,60.................... SCROLL PROTECTION 64K.............POKE &HA34C,&H04:POKE&HA34D,&H4 SECOND TEXT MODE COLOR SET........POKE 359,0:SCREEN0,1........... SECOND TEXT MODE..................POKE 65314,8................... SECTOR OF DSKINI ERROR..........PEEK 237....................... SECTOR NUMBER OF DISK.............PEEK 65354..................... SELECT CDOS CHIP IN DISTO CONT....POKE 65345,X:113,0 +.... SHIFT BREAK KEY DISABLE...........POKE 41599,255................. September 1989 MUG Notes Page 8 OS-9 and NASA (and other things) by Gerry Thomas (5:45 am Tuesday, May 9, 1989 - I sent the following message to NASA.) As a user of Tandy's Color Computer, I keep hearing at conferences and on various e-mail systems, that the Color Computer (or at least it's motherboard) is "used by NASA". The "OS9 Operating System" is also regularily refered to, as one of the systems "used by NASA", as well. My curiosity has been aroused, and rather than rely on second hand information, I thought I would "ask NASA" myself. The Color Computer (specifically the color computer 3) uses the motorola 6809 chip and multi-tasks under the OS9 operating system. My question is this, "In just what areas does NASA incorporate the 6809 and OS9 operating system (now or in the past) ?". Any information would be greatly appreciated. (note the time in the following response.) =======START=====MESSAGE FROM NASA======09-MAY-89==08:56:26 As you might expect, we use a variety of computer sytems and components. I don't know if we use the chips or operating systems that you listed. Given the number of computers we use, it wouldn't surprise me if we did. =======END=======MESSAGE FROM NASA========================= Well now .......... That just about answers all the questions, now, doesn't it ? - Very concise and to the point. Also very informative. As with any quest, I always have an "alternate plan 'B'". I you can't get the information from the 'horse's mouth' then you start looking for the rest of the 'horse'. I located an article by Kevin Darling (sysop of the CoCo SiG on Compuserve, and the OS9 Users Group, and general guru of OS9). "And now", as Paul Harvey would say, "the Rest of the Story" September 1989 MUG Notes Page 9 OS-9 USED TO MONITOR SPACE SHUTTLE FUELING!! by Kevin Darling -OS9 Users Group (Used with permission) Government Computer News had an article about NASA using the OS-9 operating system in the system that monitors the fueling of the space shuttle. OS-9 was preferred over UNIX because OS-9 is capable of operating in almost real time. Among the computers mentioned capable of running OS-9 was "the lowly Color Computer" by Tandy. Message left in Tandy corner also. People are always asking for examples of where OS-9 is used, so I thought I'd gather up everything I could find... including some stuff from Paul Ward's "Start OS-9" and Puckett/Dibble's "Rainbow Guide" books, along with other sources. As far as I can tell, all are true and fairly accurate: ** OS-9 has been the 1 OS in Japan for years, and competing companies still advertise their software as being "OS-9 like". It's fast gaining popularity in Germany. No word from the Russians as yet ...they're slow though. ** AT&T (yes, the UNIX guys!), uses OS-9 in some telephone manufacturing. ** NASA has long been one of the biggest users for data-gathering. Latest uses: as a realtime control environment for a shuttle telemetry station (rumors are this is the new laser telemetry unit), and for shuttle launch processing checkout, as well as during fueling. Also, a 68010 system controls a 128-headset, 512 channel, digital-sampling, intercom for comms between launch technicians at NASA. The cpu takes audio samples of each station, and mixes them out to the correct conference channel on the fly! A worst-case channel change takes less than 1/2 second. This is on a Performance Technology board set. ** GM used an OS-9 computer to control the Fiero assembly line. I've been told that one time the computer broke down, and an employee's CoCo-1 was temporarily jury-rigged in place of it, since it could run OS-9. ** Ford has used OS-9 at their Michigan test track. ** Both Delco and Fluke Manufacturing use OS-9 in their test instruments, porting programs over from their main UNIX computers. ** Kodak uses OS-9 for their disc camera film production quality control, and to make Kodak disc cameras. September 1989 MUG Notes Page 10 ** A chemicals factory in Germany uses OS-9 to keep watch over the pressure-critical last phase of making some gases. Lives depend on it. ** An Indiana college uses a 6809 GIMIX system to help teach a computer architecture class. They have up to ten students online at a time. ** An NC company (on my advice) is switching to a 68020/OS-9 system to handle the realtime cutting decisions for furniture woods going through a sawmill, WHILE using the same computer for general business applications simultaneously. ** Many business owners have set themselves up with multiple terminals and printers, and using Sculptor, run their sales and inventory accounting from a CoCo-3 set up under a counter . ** The US Post Office is switching to OS-9/68K for their front desk postal scale and terminal computers. Yep, they do power up with "Welcome to OS-9/68000 v2.1". ** FSU's pioneering Center for Music Research is changing over to OS-9/ST for basic (and soon, MIDI) work. Switching between OS-9 and their Sun workstations is simpler than with their Mac/GEM setups, and OS-9 is far more reliable, they say. ** The Fairlight, one of the most advanced music synthesizers available, has always used OS-9, first on multiple 6809s and now on 68000s. ** Sony-Phillips chose a form of OS-9 for their home CD-I interactive video disk information units, which could be on the market this year. ** Honeywell, Hughes, and Boeing use it in sensitive military projects that require realtime responses. For SDI, perhaps? Who knows? ** Some Swedish-made escort warships are _entirely_ controlled under OS-9! There you have it. OS-9 is everywhere around you, and I haven't even come close to including all the applications that hundreds of companies use OS-9 for. So the next time an AmigaDos or GEM or MSDOS user sniffs at you, ask them if they'd trust THEIR operating system in any of the above cases! Courtesy MidNight R.D.S. September 1989 MUG Notes Page 11 TELECOM COMMENTS by W. Morrison With the onset of Autumn, peoples' interest seems to be returning to their computer rooms an BBSing. Activity on the MUG Line has increased lately and the whole computer community seems to be gearing up for another fall/winter season. As most of you already know, our BBS has been running mostly on borrowed equipment. We are in the middle of changing that, and the first stage should be accomplished soon. One of our members, Rick Tower, has loaned us, from the beginning, an RS 232 Pack and a Multi-Pack Interface. With any luck, by the time you read this, he should have them back (finally!). Thanks Rick! Your generosity was definitely appreciated! In August we had an unusually high number of system problems. I thank everyone for their patience and we are trying to sort out the cause. As more progress is made on this, I will keep you all informed. As of now, our best guess is that a disk drive was dying of old age. We shall have to see. In keeping with what has been going on over the last few months, I am going to mention another BBS in the London area that you might find of interest. DataGate 2 is an IBM oriented sytem with many features that some people might find interesting. It has many message bases, some of them with quite unique themes, and allows for another viewpoint on the London and area computer scene. The software used on this system is definitely unique, and the sysop, John Leslie, is quite friendly. The phone number for DataGate 2 is 649-2259 and the settings are N 8 1. Over the summer months, I updated some of the downloads with new material. If you have not been on in the last month or two, have a look-see. You might find something of interest. This Autumn I hope to post more new downloads, since we came into quite a lot of good material over the summer. Keep an eye on the Files area. I have also added something new to the COCO download area. In the File description, I have added some information to all downloads, indicating what each should be saved to disk as. This should help out our newer members. Since I have neither the time nor interest to cover all the BBS's in this part of Ontario, I would invite any of you who might have a favourite system to submit a review of it for our newsletter. I can't possibly try them all, and in this way, we may all discover a good one that we have been missing. If you would like to do so, see me at a club or SIG meeting and we can make the appropriate arrangements. September 1989 MUG Notes Page 12 Understanding Error Messages By Len Fluhrer 3rd. I had planned to continue with my series on Error messages last month but, due to an accidental format the article was erased. I guess the moral of the storey is always check to make sure a disk is blank before you use it. This of cource leads to a problem that is encountered by just about everyone, how can you tell if a disk really is blank? At first this seems to be a rather easy problem to solve. All you have to do is type DIR, or in OS-9 type DIR /dx (where x is any valid drive number). This only works however, if the disk you are using is: a. Formated in the way the operating system is expecting. b. Doesn't contain hidden files or copy protection. c. The disk is error free d. The disk drive is running at the proper speed. e. The system is not booted using the DOS command. In this case some programmers include a boot file with a name of *.bas; but, there are many programs out there that don't have or show any directory files. Let's consider the list above in reverse order. While in basic you can always check to see if a blank disk is in fact a DOS disk by typing the DOS command or by entering the DOS program if you have the older RS DOS version. If the system does nothing after running drive 0 then chances are its not a DOS disk, if the OS-9 logo appears you have an OS-9 Boot disk, otherwise its a RS DOS disk that is using the DOS command to auto execute a program. While I'm on the subject of the DOS command I should mention a few bugs. 1. If you type dir 1 in RS DOS or any other drive other then 0 then DOS will try and boot from that drive. So make sure you type dir 0 then DOS if you want it to Boot correctly. Nowhere is this fact mentioned in the RS DOS manual. Also as orginally set up OS-9 and many other DOS program will only boot if the disk is placed in drive 0. This bug is caused by programmers who have "hard coded" drive numbers into their programs. PS. to all programmers never "hard code" any computer device into your software, as it is a sure way to make enemies fast. September 1989 MUG Notes Page 13 C. & D. have already been mentioned in previous articles. One way many users test for blank disks is by typing dir and then wait for a blank directory or an IO error. If they see a blank dir they assume all is well and start copying new files to the disk, or an IO error then the disk is either messed up or not formated. So what can it hurt if I just re-format it? One, chances are you could have recovered the data on the disk if it did have an IO error and, secondly if your drive is slightly off speed it may (I've had this happen at least twice) show a blank directory even though the disk contains several programs. B. Copy protected disks and MS DOS contain files that are or can be hidden from the user. There are many programs on the market that allow you to unhide these files in the case of the MS DOS hidden files but, many copy protected disks show no signs of files being present until after you boot that disk, usually with the DOS command or some other special boot program stored on another disk. Some of these disks report IO errors when you try to get a dir or report errors when using the free command. A. This is the one that cost me last months article. Different operating systems mean different disk formats. An IBM can't read a RS DOS disk, RS DOS disk can't read an Atari disk, and an Atari can't read an APPLE or OS-9 disk. UNLESS YOU HAVE A COCO3 AND OS-9 LEVEL 2, if you do then you can run RS DOS or PC DOS programs to see what is on these disk first before you format them. Unfortunately I didn't have these utilities working when I re-formated an RS DOS disk in OS-9 format thus destroying forever several MUG news articles. Well that about wraps it up for this month, if anyone has suggestions or questions for future Understanding Error Messages articles please leave me a message on the BBS or at any of the meetings. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * T H E N E X T M E E T I N G O F * * * * _____ _____ ____ ____ ___________ * * / | / | | | | | | _____ \ * * / |/ | | | | | | | \__\ * * / /| /| | | | | | | | * * / / | / | | | | | | | | * * / / | / | | | | | | | | ____ * * / / | / | | | | | | | | |__ \ * * / / | / | | \ \_______| | | |_________\ \ * * |___| |/ |___| \____________| |________________\ * * * * Will Be Held On October 10 1989 * * 6:30pm to 9:00pm * * London Central Public Library * * Lower Level * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * September 1989 MUG Notes Page 14 ABOUT BASIC09 by W. Morrison Now it is time to actually bring the Basic09 compiler to life. Make sure that it is in your current execution directory, and type "basic09" from an OS-9 command line. After a short pause, you should see the Basic09 startup message, and the following; Basic09 Ready B: At this point you are in the command mode of the compiler. From here many system commands can be used, and the OS-9 shell can also be accessed. If you started the compiler in the manner in which I just suggested, you will have accessed 8K of memory for your compiler, as this is the default. If you press your key now, you will see the following; Name Proc-Size Data-Size 6911 free Ready B: By pressing , you have asked for a directory of your Basic09 buffer. It will return with any procedures in memory, as well as the buffer space that is currently free. Since we started with 8K, it is obvious that there is just over 1K in overhead. There are two ways to modify the amount of memory available. One is to use the "mem" command. Type "mem" at the "B:" prompt. You should see 8191. This is the total memory including overhead. To change this type "mem 16000". The reply included a new total memory size of 16127. Now press . We now have a buffer size of 14847 bytes, or almost 15K. An alternate method of doing the same thing would be to specify the total memory size that you wanted from the OS-9 command line that started Basic09. The syntax for this is "basic09 #xxk" where xx represents the number of kilobytes of memory that you are requesting. You have now used two Basic09 system commands. There are many more, and we should, eventually cover most of them. There is another type of command that is also accessible from the command mode of the compiler. It is also possible to access any OS-9 command by first typing "$" at the "B:" prompt, and then the command that you wish to use. For example, typing "$dir" at the "B:" prompt would give you a directory listing of your current data directory. Similarly, typing "$dir /d1/test" would give you a listing of a directory called "test" on drive 1. In a similar manner, almost all OS-9 system commands can be accessed. To actually edit or write a procedure, you must enter the Editor mode of the compiler. From the "B:" prompt type "e test". You shouls now see; PROCEDURE test * E: This tells you that you have started a procedure called test, and that you are ready to edit. The editor used here is very similar to the editor in OS-9's edit command. To enter text you must type a space as your first character, followed by whatever you want your line of code to say. If the first character is other than a space, the editor assumes that you want to use an editor command. September 1989 MUG Notes Page 15 I will now give you some examples of these concepts. I am going to use "_" to represent a space in the following. Do not type in the underscore character. At the "E:" prompt type; _print chr$(2); chr$(62); chr$(42); "This is an example of" After pressing the line that you just typed will be redisplayed, although slightly differently. It now reads; PRINT CHR$(2); CHR$(62); CHR$(42); "This is an example of" Notice how all the letters of all words that are considered by Basic09 to be command words are now capitalized. This is a significant point, since, if you do your typing in lower case, this allows you to see which are command words and which are not. This can be a great assistance in de-bugging your code at a later time. Now type the following; _print chr$(2);chr$(65);chr$(43);"Basic09 at work." After you press , you will see this line re-displayed, and again all capitals will be used for command or key words. If you received an error message on either line, re-check your typing. Once everything is working, it is time to try running this little program. exit the editor by typing "q" at the start of a command line. You should now be back at the "B:" prompt. Now type "run". As you can see, it worked, but it was a little messy. As a last exercise, lets clean up the display. At the "B:" prompt, again type "e". You should now see the first line of our code. We now want to enter a new line of code which will clear the screen before displaying our little message. Obviously it will have to be the first line of this program. To insert a new line in the middle of a procedure one must first go to that line by pressing either the "+" or "-" at the "E:" prompt until that line is displayed. In this case that is, fortunately, not necessary as we are at the current first line. Any new lines of code that are entered under these conditions are positioned before the currently displayed line. For this example that works out fine as that is what we want, so type; _print chr$(12) Since "chr$(12) is the code that Basic09 uses to clear the display screen, we will now have, when we run this procedure, a clear screen to start with. When you are done type "q" to quit the editor, and from the "B:" prompt type "run". You should now see our little message clearly. After you have tried this, you will want to save it for next time as we are going to expand this in future months. To save it, type "save test" at the "B:" prompt, and this procedure will be saved to your current data directory. Save this procedure, and we'll start from here next time. I intentionally left out the need for the "chr$" characters in lines two and three. Substitute new values for the two digit numbers and see what happens. I'll explain what they do next time. For your reference a full listing of the procedure is repeated at the end of this article. PROCEDURE test PRINT CHR$(12) PRINT CHR$(2); CHR$(62); CHR$(42); "This is an example of" PRINT CHR$(2); CHR$(65); CHR$(43); "Basic09 at work"