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Table of contents: |
| COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE Issue #7 | Home | Index | Magazine | ||||||
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| Articles in section: ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
| "ABOUT
CFDM" ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE |
| Back to top |
"ABOUT CFDM" COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is dedicated to those who still enjoy running under RS DOS. It will deal with that format exclusively. A primary goal is to keep the COCO community strong. By providing a unique means of communication, maybe old fires will be rekindled as you and I share our knowledge and experiences! The success of this effort depends on each one who becomes a subscriber. Everyone must contribute his/ her two cents in the form of articles, programs, opinions, experiences, etc. If this happens we will all look forward to the next issue. (Check out the manual with your starter kit for details on how to submit material.) Now let's have some fun!!! =* |
ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is the creation and property of Rick Cooper. It is distributed solely by RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE. The material which makes up each issue remains the property of the author(s) or contributor(s) unless an agreement has been made otherwise. COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE is dedicated exclusively to those who enjoy the COCO3 operating under RS DOS. It is hoped that this publication will encourage the continued usage of our favorite computer. Neither CFDM nor RICK'S COMPUTER ENTERPRISE will be responsible for the submission or publication of any material that does not belong to the submitter. WE DO NOT ADVOCATE OR SUPPORT PIRACY! =* |
| Articles in section: ABOUT THIS ISSUE |
| CONTENTS...PART
1 (v1 i7) CONTENTS...PART 2 (v1 i7) CONTENTS...PART 3 (v1 i7) PROGRAM DIRECTORY (v1 i7) THIS MONTH'S COVER |
| Back to top |
ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE (2)
1 "ABOUT CFDM"
2 ABOUT COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE
ABOUT THIS ISSUE (5)
1 CONTENTS...PART 1
2 CONTENTS...PART 2
3 CONTENTS...PART 3
4 PROGRAM DIRECTORY
5 THIS MONTH'S COVER
ACTIVE COCO (3)
1 Coless Computer Design
2 The National Dragon Users Group
3 UP-2-DATE DRAGON DISK MAGAZINE
=>
____________________________________________________
ADVERTISEMENTS (2)
1 CFDM SUBSCRIPTION
2 LOOKING FOR COCO SUPPORT?
ARTICLES OF THE MONTH (1)
1 BASIC PROGRAMMING-LABELPROCESSOR
COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY (5)
1 305th BOMB GROUP
2 CFDM COMICS by Chai <g>
3 HOLYHEAD
4 PURPLE MOUTAIN MAJESTIES
5 TERRY'S SURPRISE
=>
____________________________________________________
FAMILY TREE (4)
1 ARTHUR WILLIAMS
2 CHARLIE ROUND
3 JIM BENNETT
4 RICK PORTER
FORUM (4)
1 HAND SCANNERS, IBM BUS & COCO?
2 MS-DOS or OS-9 68k?:My opinion.
3 The Future of the CoCo Community
4 The PERFECT "Home" Computer!
=*
|
FROM THE EDITOR (5)
1 FROM THE EDITOR
2 KUDOS <g>
3 MONO-CFDM
4 SPOTLIGHT ON CRAY AUGSBURG PT 1
5 SPOTLIGHT ON CRAY AUGSBURG PT 2
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (11)
1 HANGUP IN #5
2 HARDCOPY MODS
3 How many friends?
4 IMPRESSED WITH CFDM
5 Lets Help Rick!!
6 Letter to Rick
7 ONE OF THE FIRST RESPONDERS
8 Rainbow Indexes Update =>
____________________________________________________
9 TETRA Smasher!
10 Thank You Letter
11 To The Editor
POTPOURRI (5)
1 !GREAT DEMO RESULTS!
2 An Idea for a New Word Processor
3 COCO WILDLIFE <g>
4 EDUCATION PROJECT UPDATE
5 ONCE IN LOVE WITH AMY
PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH (6)
1 A HSCREEN2 Math Mixture
2 A HSCREEN2 Math Mixture Pt. 2
3 A Loader for "/NIB" Pictures
4 SPHERE - THE GLOBE PLOTTER =>
____________________________________________________
5 STANDARD TIC-TAC-TOE
6 Uncle CoCo Tells A Story II
REVIEWS (2)
1 C III Pages V 2.5
2 Zebra's Label Designer
=*
|
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (11)
1 Banner Mania
2 DANN, OPT FOR RAM DISK UPGRADE!
3 LOOKING FOR COCO MAX II
4 MISC HINTS
5 MORE HINTS
6 Monochrome Screen POKES
7 NO ERROR IN "GHANA BWANA"?
8 RAINBOW Program Info
9 SUGGESTION TO D. MCCONNELL
10 Thanks again/CoCo Friends
11 Thanks to JR Waggoner
=*
|
Here's a description of the files on the PROGRAM
SIDE. File names preceeded by an asterisk are data
files and not to be RUN or EXECed!
NAME.........COMMAND..SECTION OR DESCRIPTION......
* 305TH .NIB........PIXFILE FOR GALLERY.BAS.......
AMY .BAS..RUN...POTPOURRI (MUSIC).............
* AMY .BIN........DATA FILE FOR AMY.BAS.........
BOOT .BAS..RUN...LETTERS TO ED.-'TO THE EDITOR'
CLRPICK .BAS..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
* FONT .BIN........ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
GALLERY .BAS..RUN...DRIVER FOR THIS MONTH'S ART...
GLOBEPLT.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
* HI RICK .NIB........PIX FILE FOR GALLERY.BAS......
* HOLYHEAD.NIB........PIX FILE FOR GALLERY.BAS......
=>
____________________________________________________
* LABELPRC.OO1........ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
* LABELTUT.001........ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
M .BAS..RUN...FROM THE EDITOR - "MONO-CFDM".
* MATHFONT.FNT........FONT DATA FOR MATHMIXR.BAS....
MATHMIXR.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
* MOUNTAIN.NIB........PIX FILE FOR GALLERY.BAS......
* MUTILS .BIN........FROM THE EDITOR - "MONO-CFDM".
* NIBLOADR.BIN........PIX LOADER UTILITY............
PIXLOADR.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
PRINTME .BAS..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH.........
THRPIGS .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
TICTACTO.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH.........
- SOME OF THESE PROGRAMS SHOULD NOT BE RUN UNTIL
COPIED TO ANOTHER DISK. SEE INSTRUCTIONS! =*
|
MOUNTAIN ROAD I found a picture of a scene taken from
New Hampshire. This is the first picture that
I have painted on the Coco 3 from the New
England area. As you can see, this area of the
country is very picturesque. I hope to see
more pictures from other states . If anyone
has any other ideas and pictures, please send
them my way. I am always looking for a
challenge.
=*
|
| Articles in section: ACTIVE COCO |
| Coless
Computer Design The National Dragon Users Group UP-2-DATE DRAGON DISK MAGAZINE |
| Back to top |
Coless Computer Design Coless Computer Design (Coless - no color, black
and white, PMODE4/HSCREEN3) is a small software
company (converted apartment bedroom), run solely
by the author. Having created the 96+ fonts for
the CoCoMAXs and the original fonts for MAX-10,
the company's main function is to create software
and support RS DOS programs such as CoCoMAX I, II
and III, ColorMAX3/Deluxe, MAX-10, Newspaper series,
CIII PagesE etc. Except for its own programs, all
featuring point and click graphics interfaces,
the company supports programs with the same feature
(mostly fonts and/or graphics clipart) which makes
for ease of use.
Coless Computer Design will support the CoCo until
there is no more need. AD's appeared in the RAINBOW
from approx. mid 1990 to early 1991. =>
____________________________________________________
To find out what the company has to offer and for
a free catalog write to:
Coless Computer Design
1917 Madera St. #8
Waukesha, WI 53186
or call (414) 549-0750
=*
|
The National Dragon Users Group The National Dragon Users Group (NDUG) of the UK
is run by Paul Grade of 6 Navarino Road, Worthing,
Sussex, England and has members in most of the
major computer literate English speaking countries
plus a number of European countries, notably
Germany. However, in view of the fact that the last
of the Dragons rolled off the production line in
Wales, way back in 1984, the numbers are rather
understandably shrinking year by year.
Paul produces a newsletter bi-monthly on behalf
of the Group called UPDATE, the last issue being
numbered 83. In the intervening months I produce a
disk magazine called UP-2-DATE, and it doesn't
take a genius to realise where the name was
derived from! This is a comparitively new venture
as the current issue is only No 6. =>
____________________________________________________
Other ventures supported by the Group are a
Public Domain Library run by Stuart Beardwood from
Halifax, South Yorkshire, and a Graphics Library
run by myself (Ray Smith) from 5 Glen Road, Poole,
Dorset, BH14 0HF.
For the uninitiated, the Dragon is a Coco 2 clone,
as it uses the same 6809E microprocessor and the
same 'SAM' video chip. It virtually uses the same
Basic by Microsoft, although this is slightly
scrambled, one can only assume by Microsoft to ward
off any lawsuit by Tandy.
The Dragon also has parallel printer and monitor
ports and a much improved disk operating system
which allows single or double sided disks and either
40 or 80 tracks. The minimum sector requirement for
a file being 1 sector as compared with the 9 =>
____________________________________________________
sectors required by RSDOS.
As a consequence, programs on the Dragon can be
converted comparitively easily (?) to the Coco and
visa versa. That is why the NDUG has a sprinkling of
Coco users as members, although Tandy never
marketed the Coco3 in the UK and only half-heartedly
pushed the Coco 1 and 2.
Subscriptions for Stateside members would be
around 20 dollars, and new members would be welcome.
=*
|
UP-2-DATE DRAGON DISK MAGAZINE UP-2-DATE is a Dragon based disk magazine edited
by Ray Smith on behalf of the National Dragon Users
Group of the UK.
Whereas COCO FRIENDS magazine needs a Coco 3 and
makes plentiful use of color, UP-2-DATE is mainly in
black and white, with the occasional splash of color
when the computer is switched to PMODE3.
The text is on a 50 character wide screen and text
files can be up to a maximum of 105 lines (5 pages
of 21 lines each) in any one file, although of
course articles are often more than one file in
length.
The magazine fills the disk completely, using
EVERY sector on the disk which is available to the
programmer. Due to the difference in the Dragon's
DOS, there are no hidden empty sectors and =>
____________________________________________________
every issue of the magazine displays NO free bytes.
Which just goes to show how much material can be
crammed into those 5 inch magical magnetic squares.
The current issue contains, among other items,
Adventurer's Log written by Robert Cleminson,
additions to the library of machine code modules
and their source code, a selection of graphics and
another of music.
There are articles on programming and one
explaining Offsets and the meaning of Position
Independent Code, plus another on 'Stealing from the
Coco'. In the latter, the author, who has access to
dozens of public domain programs, explains his
method of conversion.
On top of all this there are games and utilities
and it all adds up to a bargain for the Dragon =>
____________________________________________________
user at two pounds sterling, which works out at
today's exchange rate at somewhere around 3.75
dollars plus postage.
If there are still any Dragon users in the
States, my address is Ray Smith,
5 Glen Road,
Parkstone,
Poole,
Dorset
BH14 0HF
England
=*
|
| Articles in section: ADVERTISEMENTS |
| CFDM
SUBSCRIPTION LOOKING FOR COCO SUPPORT? |
| Back to top |
CFDM SUBSCRIPTION Is your subscription running out? Here's how to
check:
On your mailing label next to your name is a number.
The number after the last dash (-) is the last
issue on your present subscription. Please don't
let your subscription expire.
WHEN YOU RESUBSCRIBE PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR ENTIRE
SUBSCRIPTION NUMBER. THIS HELPS ME LOCATE YOU IN
MY DATABASE!
A single issue of CFDM is $6. A 6 issue subscription
is only $30 (a savings of 6$).
COCOs FOREVER!! =*
|
LOOKING FOR COCO SUPPORT? While we have some very experienced users to help us along, the vast majority of our membership is here in need of our purpose...Helping each other to learn about the CoCo. Our seven year record speaks pretty well to serving members who because of time or distance cannot attend meets. Most are out of town or out of state! There's a lot more to M.I. & C.C. than meetings. Our "UPGRADE" newsletter, mailed on disk, has become a real hit with MAX III graphics accompaning articles. The articles from RSDOS Basic programming and hard- ware to OS-9 by James Jones of Microware, dump to screen (TV, Mono, or RGB) or printer. Sometimes => ____________________________________________________ with the news before the big mags and editorials you will not see in the commerical magazines. With many user tips and ideas. Our POWER PACKED domain library is available. What's there is carefully selected as "The Best Available" public domain, Shareware, and Orphanware. +OS-9. We also have a "Christian Software Sub-chapter". It simply offers Christian oriented software and lists for those interested. No need to advertise to find or sell that equipment you've just upgraded from. Your free ads will be in the middle of a community looking for it. Have you noticed the 3rd party market producers => ____________________________________________________ dropping like flies? The shrinking Rainbow? The support of your CoCo is rapidly being left to YOU! As support decreases, belonging to a CoCo group is your best support. M.I. & C.C. is here! Presently we have members in over 12 states pluse Canada. Our 90% renewal rate says most all feel MI&CC is very worth- while. Join up and see why. New member dues are $12 per year (US) or $17 for outside USA. Includes meetings,newsletters, & sub- chapters. ($2 sample disk) Terry Simons, 1328 48th St. Des Moines, IA 50311 (515) 279-2576 =* |
| Articles in section: ARTICLES OF THE MONTH |
| BASIC
PROGRAMMING-LABELPROCESSOR |
| Back to top |
BASIC PROGRAMMING-LABELPROCESSOR BASIC MADE EASY.
This article is the first in a new monthly series,
in which we will write a rather complicated BASIC
program. The program will be a LABEL PROCESSOR with
a mini word processor as an input editor, and all
kinds of other "goodies".
Each month we will write a part of the program and
I will explain the HOW and WHY of each piece of code
line by line. Along the way you will be able to
customize the program to suit your own individual
taste. Your input is invited !! If you think that
something should be added or changed, please let me
know, and if I agree, we will do so. But please bear
in mind that, due to the time needed to compose =>
____________________________________________________
and send out this magazine, there will be a two
month delay before you get my response. By the time
you are reading this, my second column for issue #8
has already been send to Rick. This month you will
find FIVE separate programs on the flip side of this
disk that are part of this series. FIRST copy all
five PROGRAMS TO ANOTHER EMPTY DISK. MOST INPORTANT
DO NOT run the program LABELPRC/001 with the CFDM
disk in the drive. LABELPRC/001 makes changes to the
Grain Allocation Table on the disk in the default
drive. If you are not familiar with the GAT and how
it works, read my article in issue #5. We will make
use of some of the things discussed there in this
months program part.
Here's a list of the five programs mentioned earlier
and what to with them .......................... =>
____________________________________________________
1. LABELPRC/001 This months program part.
2. FONT/BIN A special HSCREEN font that is
used by the label processor.
3. CLRPICK/BAS A "HELP" program that lets you
pick your own screen colors for
the labelprocessor, or other prgs.
4. PRINTME/BAS RUN this program to print this
months article ( LABELTUT/001 ) to
your printer. Instructions will be
printed on the screen.
5. LABELTUT/001 This months article. ( 6 Pages ).
NOTE to ADOS users, you do not have to run PRINTME,
just put you printer paper at top of form and type:
SCANP "LABELTUT/001" PRINTME/BAS mimics the SCANP
command when ASCII files are "read". Well number one
is away. Hope it's somthing you all like. GEORGE =*
|
| Articles in section: COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY |
| 305th
BOMB GROUP CFDM COMICS by Chai <g> HOLYHEAD PURPLE MOUNTAIN MAJESTIES TERRY'S SURPRISE |
| Back to top |
305th BOMB GROUP
I created this picture in HONOR of the men that
gave their lives in WWII as members of the 305th
BOMB GROUP stationed at Chelveston Air Base from
1942 to 1945. This year they are having their 50th
Anniversary Reunion in England. I did not join the
305th until January 1946, when they were based at
Lechfeld Air Base in Germany to participate in the
'Casey Jones' project, photo mapping Europe and
North Africa. The 305th was inactivated 25 Dec 1946.
The Group was activated in March of 1942 at
Salt Lake City AB and completed training at Muroc
Lake AB, CA and were in operation by October at
Chelveston (Northamptonshire) England. Their first
combat mission was flown on 17 Nov 1942. The last
combat mission was flown on 25 April 1945. During
active combat the Group completed 480 missions.-->
____________________________________________________
They dropped 22,362 tons of bombs and 73 tons of
leaflets. The Group claimed 332 enemy aircraft des-
troyed with a loss of 154 of the Groups B-17s.
The 305th was the 'CAN DO' Group and reported
to the 40th BOMB WING of the EIGHTH AIR FORCE.
We have an Annual Reunion, which unfortunate-
ly is during our Wedding Anniversary, therefor, we
do not attend too many of them. We support the
Heritage Museum located just outside of the gates
into the Grissom AFB, about 60 miles north of
Indianapolis, Indiana. Last week on our way to the
US AIR & TRADE SHOW at the Dayton International Air-
port we visited the museum and I VIDEO'd the outdoor
plane display -- museum is only open on weekends.
They have a B-17, which is still under reconstruc-
tion. I was able to VIDEO an excellent B-17 ==>
____________________________________________________
at the AIR Show and also a group of men wearing WWII
flight suits! The day before the Air Show there were
about eight small tornados in the area -- no serious
damage as it is mostly farm land there.
We did not spend a full day at the AIR Show as
the temperature dropped to 66 degrees with strong
winds -- watched the THUNDERBIRDS perform on the TV
at the Motel. We did tour the U.S. Air Force Museum
and the Annex Buildings, which contain the Presi-
dential collection. The Camcorder was busy!
Hope you enjoy my latest art work done with
COCOMAXIII -- took about three hours.
Godfrey J. Moll
1571 East Erie Apt 103
Springfield, MO 65804 ==*
|
HOLYHEAD
I use COCOMAX-3 to do all my drawings, and I get
some of my ideas from the British magazines my wife
buys, yes she is British...So I have sent in 5
drawings hoping that they can be used in your
magazine.
They are listed as...HOLYHEAD...NIGHGALE...ROOSTER..
BIG BIRD and PONY.
Arthur Williams
(See Art's graphic HOLYHEAD on the flipside. Run
GALLERY.BAS.)
=*
|
PURPLE MOUNTAIN MAJESTIES
This is a scene such as you might see in the
western part of our country. It does not particu-
larly represent any specific place, although Grand
Teton National Park might come close.
As I said in an earlier issue, I do not consider
myself an artist. I am trying to use some of the
painting techniques taught in art programs on
educational TV. To be perfectly honest, I have never
touched a brush to canvas, although, the actual
implementation is quite different on the computer
screen. So, joystick in hand, I jumped right in
with my trusty CoCo and learned as I went along.
=>
____________________________________________________
As long as Rick considers my efforts sufficiently
worthwhile to include in CFDM, I'll continue to
crank them out until my imagination and/or eyesight
give out. I hope my experience will encourage others
to give it a try and share their results.
=*
|
TERRY'S SURPRISE
Some of my better drawing ideas have come from
postage stamps. I also did the Maryland stamp (see
my Fest disk). The commeratives make both a good
challenge as well as very nice graphics. They are
originally chosen for their picturesque beauty. And
you needn't follow the graphic exactly as I did
here. My first graphic of the Maryland stamp was
exact. Then I needed something for a F-15 Wolfe
(helicopter gunship) graphic. So, I took out the
sailboats and drew in some gun towers.
Pick out the stamp you like. Lay it beside your MAX
or other drawing program. First, look at the colors
and set those you need. Look for shades. Here I
knew I'd need two shades of blue for the sky and
clouds. Also, three or more shades of green, =>
____________________________________________________
a good mix for grass and tree texture. I'd need some
brick shades. Note the two sides of the building are
the same pattern. Dark, medium, and light. Using
dark and medium on one side and medium and light on
the other makes a nice shaded transition. This can
be applied to brick, grass, trees, or most anything.
Be sure to reserve the "Animate" boxes early, if you
are intending to use them. By the way, this graphic
only uses about ten of the sixteen colors.
For windows, I only draw one, then cut and paste.
It's the easy way to draw objects that need to be
the same size anyway. Draw awhile and put it away.
If you don't like it yet, dig it out and look and
say, "this should be.." and begin to edit it. Then
when it's done, look again and see some changes =>
____________________________________________________
that would make it a little better. That's why they
call it a "graphic editor". You'll see the results
on the other side of this disk. What is it a graphic
of? When you see it I'm sure you'll agree it's a
very appropriate "Hi Rick, from Mid Iowa and Country
CoCo, displayed on Rick's Friends Disk." (For the
first time anywhere.) Til then...Terry Simons.
RICK: THANKS TERRY! VERY APPROPRIATE INDEED!!
To the Friends: Please look at the front side of
your mailer after viewing Terry's "HI RICK".
=*
|
| Articles in section: FAMILY TREE |
| ARTHUR
WILLIAMS CHARLIE ROUND JIM BENNETT RICK PORTER |
| Back to top |
FAMILY TREE My name is Arthur Williams, I was born at Guildford
N.S. Wales Australia in the year of 1920, that makes
me an oldie...I have been married to my wife Pat for
47 years, we have 1 boy and 3 girls, and now have 9
grandchildren...We lived in Guildford for 60 years
till we retired to Harrington.
Harrington is about 300 miles north of Sydney on the
mouth of the Manning River, 21 miles from Taree,and
8 miles off the Pacific Highway.
My interests are gardening, fishing and boating and
of course my computers...I have a COCO-3, CM-8
Monitor, 2 Single Disk Drives, 130A Printer, Mouse
and Joystick...I also have a HX-1000 two 3 1/2 and a
=>
____________________________________________________
1 1/4 inch Drives, DMP202 24 Pin Printer, Joystick
and Mouse...
Anyone wishing to write to me please do so, my
address is.
Arthur Williams
No.67 High Street
Harrington.Australia
N.S.W. 2427.
=*
|
FAMILY TREE 823 Lotus Drive
Erie,MI.48133-9634
Hi: My name is Charlie Round a retired glassware
maker for over 41 years at Libbey Glass in Toledo,
Ohio. I live one half mile north of the Ohio state
line in Erie, Michigan. A widower the past 9 years
and I have 4 children. Three daughters, Diann,
Debbie, Tracy, and son Steve. Plus my latest K-9
friend Frosty.
My system consists of 2 COCO 3's, 128K, 512K
with a MPI, 2 FD-502 disk drives and a DMP 110
printer.
Though liking the COCO very much consider myself
a novice when it comes to programming. I mainly
enjoy altering other peoples programs to suit my =>
____________________________________________________
needs.
My other hobbies are reading (mainly reference
books), woodworking, gardening, cooking, fishing,
and any type of repair work.
I've subscribed to Rainbow since 1990 and have
recently purchased 5 years of back issues to help
gain more knowledge with the COCO. CFDM has renewed
my interests a great deal these past few months.
I'm hoping to learn more in the near future.
==*
|
I am 47 and live in the Hudson River Valley of "up-
state" New York which is IBM country and the place
where the famous Woodstock Festival was held. My
wife and I have 4 children ages 4 - 19.
I am an artist and I have taught art for 20 years at
virtually every grade level from pre-K thru college.
It was graphics which first attracted me to the CoCo
in 1985. I am a self-taught programmer, had 3 of my
programs published in RAINBOW, and sold some of my
programs under the name E.Z.FRIENDLY Software.
At the present time I have two great interests: edu-
cational programs for pre-school aged children and,
of course, graphics. I think I own just about every
graphics program that was ever sold for the CoCo.=>
____________________________________________________
I have written a lot of graphics software which
"fills in the gaps". I like to manipulate digitized
images. I have developed techniques for creating
color separations and enlarged images comprised of
up to 16 HSCREEN2's!
I would like to communicate with others who are
using the CoCo for graphics. My address is:
118 Corlies Avenue
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
=*
|
RICK PORTER Hi,
My name is Rick Porter and I am 32 years old. I
started computing in 1984 with a SINCLAIR ZX81. Two
years later I got a COCO1. I still use this one as
well as a 512k 3. My home is Cooke City, MT. It is a
small town with a year round population of about 75,
and is the northeast entrance to Yellowstone Park.
I am a bass player in the band "BEEF LIPS". During
the summer we can often be found playing the local
watering holes. My hobbies include motorcycles,
snowmobiles, fishing, hiking, and, electronics. I
enjoy learning OS9, C, and Assembly Language. Most
of my programming consists of modifying Rainbow
programs. I use Dynacalc for business projects and
CM3 to layout printed circuit boards. I use CMPRO
and am working on MIDI programming & hardware =>
____________________________________________________
I may be reached at:
RICK PORTER
BOX 1057
COOKE CITY MT 59020
=*
|
| Articles in section: FORUM |
| HAND
SCANNERS, IBM BUS & COCO? MS-DOS or OS-9 68k?:My opinion. The Future of The CoCo Community The PERFECT "Home" Computer! |
| Back to top |
HAND SCANNERS, IBM BUS &
COCO? In issue #5 of CFDM, Scott Baldridge asked that I
consider designing a software/hardware combination
to allow the CoCo to use a Hand Scanner. IT CAN BE
DONE! Here is my basic idea: I plan to design an IBM
type BUS ADAPTER for the CoCo. This would allow acc-
ess to not only Hand Scanners, but virtually any IBM
compatible hardware product (imagine having a 1024 x
1024, 1.2 million color Super Super VGA display for
the CoCo!). The device would be mapped at the area
used by the OLD X-PAD (which does not work with the
CoCo 3 anyway). I have two problems though, before I
begin designs. FIRST - I only have schematics/pin-
outs for the 8-Bit IBM type bus. I would rather go
ahead and design around the 16 or 32 Bit bus, pre-
ferably the 32 bit. If any of you friends have a
pinout of the 16 and/or 32 Bit IBM type ==>
____________________________________________________
Bus, or know where I could get one, please contact
me via CFDM or through the mail. A photostat would
be appreciated. SECOND - How many of you friends
would actually be interested in such an interface?
Let me know via CFDM. This is something I've planned
on designing for a long time, and now I know that at
least one other person would be interested. For
anyone who would like to get in touch with me, I may
be reached at the following address:
ROBERT ALLEN TURNER, C/O KATHY & TERRY DALE,
RT 3 BOX 458, DOUBLE SPRINGS, AL 35553
Note that my previous address from previous issues
of CFDM is still in service, but I only get the mail
from it every two weeks.
==*
|
MS-DOS or OS-9 68k?:My opinion. In the May issue of the Rainbow, Lonnie Falk said in
his Print #-2 column, that there would never be a
Coco 4, and that the new OS-9 68k machines would
never be as succesful as the CoCo, because they
would never have the same amount of software that
the Coco has. He also said that if you needed a more
powerful machine, you should invest in a MS-DOS
system. I do agree with him, in that there will
never be a true Coco 4. But I do think that if
people are willing to learn OS-9, and dedicate the
same time and enthusiasm with the new machines, we
can make the new machines as popular as the Coco.
Lonnie said that the main reason that the new
machines will not survive, is because ofthe lack of
software. When Tandy introduced the Coco 12 years
ago, there were few programs avaliable for the =>
____________________________________________________
Coco and most of them from Radio Shack. It was the
continued support of the Coco Community that made
possible the creation of so many software and
hardware for the Coco. If we do the same thing with
the new computers, and we support the programmers
that are developing software and hardware for the
new machines, I think that we can make them as good
as the CoCo. I have used MS-DOS but I think OS-9 is
superior in every aspect. We also have the advantage
that we can learn to use OS-9 with our CoCo's, and
that the new machines use a Motorola CPU, the same
manufacturer that created the 6809 CPU used on the
CoCo. Well, this is my opinion. Now, I would like to
hear what other friends think about this. I also
sent a letter to the Rainbow saying something
similar. And last but no less important, I plan =>
____________________________________________________
to keep my CoCo until it no longer displays the
"Disk Extended Color Basic" message. So keep the
CoCo alive too. Thank you for your attention.
Luis E. Tanon Garcia
Calle #-2, M-12
Dos Rios Bayamon
PR 00961.
=*
|
The Future of The CoCo Community I have several thoughts that I would like to share
concerning our future.
1. At the present time we are declining in numbers.
2. There have been 2 different kinds of CoCo-ists:
those who have been primarily interested in the per-
formance of the computer (speed, multi-tasking, up-
grading, expanding memory, etc.) and those who are
mostly interested in applications (how is it useful
to me?).
3. The performance oriented person left our ranks
long ago. The only thing that could possibly
persuade him to rejoin our ranks would be the
appearance of a truely super fantastic CoCo 4. I
wouldn't want to have to hold my breath for that to
happen.
4. The applications oriented person will =>
____________________________________________________
probably be loyal for a long time. At least until
his or her CoCo expires from exhaustion.
5. I believe that our future lies in software appli-
cation and not in the expectation of a new CoCo with
expanded capabilities.
6. I hope that CFDM will become the "think tank" for
the development of more sophistocated software.
Perhaps, some of us can pool our talents and work
together on developing more programs. That is what I
hope happens.
=*
|
The PERFECT "Home"
Computer!
Computers for Science, Medicine, Business,
Industry, etc. differ from the Tandy Color COCO 1, 2
& 3 in two ways:
1. Tandy's COCOs "Cost Less".
2. COCO 3 has "no room for improvement". It is
all that is NEEDED in a Home or Small Business
computer. No more changes (upgrades) every six
months like the 'clones'; No further modification
costs, so Tandy doesn't make them anymore. Software
is unlimited - more available than any one person,
or family can ever use. Therefore, a COCO owner
need not fear obsolesence in 6 months, like MS-DOS
users do. He or she can relax and enjoy. =>
____________________________________________________
Knowledgeable COCO users know their systems,
though they cost so much less, can do ANYTHING
a 'Clone' can do; maybe a little slower but that
is compensated by the EASE of use. And, a huge
memory capacity is not needed to run RS-DOS
programs. Also, no fear of what new gimmick will
cause your COCO to become obsolete. That's all a
Home Computer ever needed to be in the first place!
A COCO 4 would not be an improvement to the
capabilities of the Complete COCO 3 system we now
have, so Tandy never made one. You can't improve
on 'Perfection'.
=*
|
| Articles in section: FROM THE EDITOR |
| FROM
THE EDITOR KUDOS <g> MONO-CFDM SPOTLIGHT ON CRAY AUGSBURG PT 1 SPOTLIGHT ON CRAY AUGSBURG PT 2 |
| Back to top |
FROM THE EDITOR Due to the lack of disk space, I'll have to make
this entry relatively short.
This has been an especially difficult but also a
most enjoyable issue to put together! I think it
is one of our best so far! I hope you will agree!
It's been difficult because I have been working
very hard on a new program to put graphics inside
the magazine. The program is nowhere near complete,
but I have included two entries which were created
using the new program. (See KUDOS and COCO WILDLIFE
for examples.) Be forewarned, TESTING HAS NOT BEEN
COMPLETE AND NOT ALL THE BUGS HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED!
I hope you will indulge me. I just had to put a
few in this issue! =>
____________________________________________________
It's been an enjoyable issue because of the new
folks who have contributed in various ways. This
is also a time when many are resubscribing and I've
been encouraged by the numbers and by the personal
notes you've sent!
One S.O.S. for those who haven't sent in Family
Trees. Please do so! We want to hear from you!
The thought that "maybe some are not comfortable
with ENTRY WRITER", has crossed my mind. It's
really not that hard, but to make it even easier for
you, I'll accept your FT in an optional format. If
it will help, just send me a hardcopy (on paper)
from your favorite wordprocessor or typewriter.
SEE YOU NEXT TIME!! =*
|
|
CFDM THANKS FRIENDS CRAY AUGSBURG NORM BARSON WALTER BAYER JIM BENNETT CHAI BOUPHAPHANH DEBRA CAIN JOHN D CLEMONS H ALLEN CURTIS JAMES J GIBBONS VICTOR KELLS KEIRAN KENNY TED KITSOS DANN MCCONNELL GODFREY MOLL RICK PORTER GEORGE QUELLHORST CHARLIE ROUND HERB SCHULER TERRY SIMONS RAY SMITH LUIS TANON JERRY TOFTE ROBERT A TURNER ARTHUR WILLIAMS |
MONO-CFDM The following is an excerpt from a letter by Lee
Anderson:
..I can't read your disk magazine on my monochrome
monitor! Yes, I can bang away at the "clear" key
everytime I get into a new section of the magazine
until I find a combination of "colours" that let me
read the text, but the "Help" screen is not readable
with any of the combinations available to me.
I wonder if I am the only one with this problem? It
would be interesting to know if other monochrome
monitor users are staying away for the same reason.
I can't think it would be a hard thing to fix. Maybe
if you get it solved sometime, you could let me
know....... =>
____________________________________________________
RICK: Letters such as this one from Lee are always
welcome because they let me know about "real"
problems that "might" be solvable. The solution may
even help our Friends enjoy CFDM, thus stay with us
and even recommend us to others.
Although color is hard to compete with, I can see
where some might prefer black and white or some
other combination of monochrome. After searching
thru the source code of the several files that make
up CUTILS.BIN, I was able to make a monochrome
version of CUTILS. It can be found on the program/
side of this issue. The files included are M.BAS
and MUTILS.BIN. To use the monochrome version, you
should first make a backup of any issue of CFDM (#1
-current) and kill the C.BAS and CUTILS.BIN =>
____________________________________________________
files. Then copy M.BAS and MUTILS.BIN to the copy.
RUN M.BAS for CFDM in monochrome. The colors are
black and white. Even the HELP SCREEN has been
changed to black and white.
I hope these files will be of benefit to Lee and to
other Friends. You may wish to try this monochrome
version just for fun!
(The monochrome version will not work with the
original STARTUP KIT.)
=*
|
A Chat with CRAY AUGSBURG PART 1 The following interview with Cray was conducted by
Rick Cooper via telephone on July 16, 1992.
Background: Cray Augsburg, the son of Air Force
parents, was born in Tokyo, Japan. He grew up in
Lexington, Kentucky and moved to Louisville in 1984.
Cray's wife is Ruth. They have two children, Sarah,
age 8, and Joshua, age 6. Cray has been Managing
Editor of RAINBOW MAGAZINE since 1986.
CFDM: How did you learn computing?
Cray: About 1980, I received a Radio Shack pocket
computer as a gift. It had limited memory and a one
line display, but it was exciting to learn how to
program it! Later I took some computer courses at a
University of Kentucky extension school. My goal =>
____________________________________________________
was a degree in electrical engineering. For that
purpose I enrolled in the Speed Scientific School at
the University of Louisville. In 1982, I purchased
my first CoCo. It was a 16K, non-extended BASIC,
tape-based system. I soon upgraded to 64K and disk
drives. I purchased OS9 in 1983. It sat on a shelf
for two years before I started to get interested.
CFDM: How did you come about your job as Managing
Editor of RAINBOW MAGAZINE?
Cray: An ad in our local paper had an interesting
line: "Looking for someone with CoCo experience."
Something about the contact address rang a bell. A
little detective work and it was apparent that
RAINBOW had placed the ad. The next day I took my
resume and showed up at RAINBOW headquarters in =>
____________________________________________________
Prospect, Ky. I went to work the following day!
CFDM: How's the health of the CoCo community as you
see it?
Cray: The CoCo market has been in a slow decline
for the last 2 or 3 years. Some of the bigger
companies have dropped out and the likelihood of new
products is not great. Continued communications
between CoCo users is paramount to the continued
enjoyment of our CoCos. As long as we all continue
to communicate, the CoCo should be around for some
time to come. This is why the RAINBOW is so
important!
(See Part II.)
=*
|
A Chat with CRAY AUGSBURG PART 2 CFDM: Many of our Friends would like to know "Is
there any chance that TANDY will ever make CoCo
again?"
Cray: I would suspect not, but I cannot accurately
predict what TANDY will do. They seem to be finding
themselves a comfortable niche in the compatible
market. But (a little on the light side here) if
say 50,000 people sent a down payment on a CoCo 4,
then maybe!
CFDM: What advice would you give those of us who
still love our CoCos?
Cray: CoCo is alive and well. It is a rare machine
which performs to the level of the user. If you are
a little lonely, I suggest getting into modems and a
good BBS or DELPHI. Or cultivate some =>
____________________________________________________
pen pals and keep close contact. The new OS9
UNDERGROUND, CFDM, and the RAINBOW should fit into
your plan as well. I would stress getting involved
in CoCo clubs and encouraging meets, fests, and
participatory activities. Send your newsletters and
press releases to RAINBOW to let us know what you're
doing.
CFDM: What questions would you ask, if you were
interviewing Cray Augsburg?
Cray: Of the many questions I've received over the
last few years, these are asked most often: "When
will RAINBOW cease publication?", "Why do RAINBOW
ads cost so much?", "Does Lonnie use his CoCo?",
"Why no more RAINBOW FESTS?", "Will RAINBOW be
absorbed into PCM?", and "What will happen when =>
____________________________________________________
RAINBOW goes?"
CFDM: Thanks Cray! Your questions are much better
than mine, but I promised to be nice! I appreciate
the cooperation of Cray, Lonnie, and RAINBOW for
granting this interview. I hope it is as interesting
for you now as it was for me to do! Cray was great
to talk with and I hope to be able to visit with him
and the folks at RAINBOW in the near future. Long
live the CoCo and RAINBOW MAGAZINE!
=*
|
HANGUP IN #5 I know that Rome wasn't built in a day, and I
realize that good things take time. However, I
have ran across an interesting problem with Issue
#5. It seems that I can access the magazine with no
trouble at all, but I have problems accessing ran-
dom files within the magazine, even after a "cold-
start." For example, when I received Issue #5, I
loaded the magazine side and accessed the Main Menu.
I then proceeded to the "About This Issue" section,
where I tried to access the first entry. This is
where my computer "hangs up". I get the same menu -
"About This Issue" - with a red border. Sometimes
the <Break> key will send me back to the Main Menu,
but, more often then not, I have to hit <Reset> and
try again from the beginning. I also try cold-start-
ing, with no luck. There's more. =>
____________________________________________________
The interesting part of this problem is that it
only occurs once in a while, pretty much whenever
it wants to. I have no idea why - I do the same
thing with back issues with no problems.
Not to worry, Rick. I have muttled through and
have gained access to the entire disk. Just took
a little longer than usual. But, as I said, good
things take time, and you are doing a FANTASTIC job
with CFDM. I anxiously await each issue, and I am
renewing my subscription today.
May CFDM and the CoCo live on forever. JT
RICK: Thanks Jerry and any others who have
experienced difficulties! This problem has been
reported to me from various Friends and with
various issues. Some send their disks to me =>
____________________________________________________
to check out. Nearly always they work fine for me.
Others tell me they never have a problem. This is
a very strange situation and I have no idea what the
answer is. I have learned from programming that
there is an answer somewhere and eventually it will
be known.
In summary, I appreciate your patience and continued
support. Hopefully "we'll understand it better by
and by."
=*
|
HARDCOPY MODS Rick,
The enhancements are great. I especially like the
SYSOP menu. Is there an easy way to change LPRINT
so that it doesn't print the empty leading lines and
the ending form feed? I'm pleased to see you have
enlisted H. ALLEN CURTIS & KEIRAN KENNY. They are 2
of my favorites from RAINBOW. The Rainbow is a very
important resource. Nearly every question posted in
CFDM has been answered within Rainbow's pages. The
non-subscribers should consider subscriptions and
back issues. I would like to see a series on ML and
Assembly Language. The series on memory management
and basic extension, mentioned elsewhere, would also
be very interesting. I would also like to see how to
convert between the many different graphic formats.
Does TRANSPIX allow conversion from P4 to CM3? =>
____________________________________________________
I really enjoy James Gibbon's artwork as well as
the other art submissions. I also appreciate your
professional approach of using an itemized invoice
that clearly states the issues to be received and
the personal Thank You. Some section mentioned
going to 40 Track format and that all drives support
this and are limited by Tandy's ROM. I'm not certain
I agree. An old Tandy drive I have has never been
able to format more than 37 tracks. I gave in and
got a brand new MITSUMI 40 track drive. I was
surprised to see it only has select jumpers and no
others. It works fine and is quiet. It still will
not run the very first (that you replaced) disk.
I wish CFDM the best!!
=>
____________________________________________________
RICK: Thanks for a most interesting letter! A few
comments:
1) I also appreciate the interest Allen, James,
Keiran and other experts have taken in CFDM. I also
wish to point out that we have discovered that many
of our so-called "unknown" Friends are displaying
much skill and knowledge!
2) Rick, I'd have to look at the AL code for the
LPRINT to see if the linefeeds can be readily taken
out.
3) I agree with your comments on the importance of
RAINBOW! Your ideas for articles are great! TRANSPIX
puts PMODE pictures on HSCREEN2 (nothing more).
=*
|
How many friends? Rick,
Thanks for a great magazine, and for having the
tolerance for going through all the submissions you
must be getting.
My question or query is: how about listing in
each issue how many CoCo Friends there are subsrib-
ing to date? I, for one, would like to know how many
of us are left. Just a thought. Again, thanks!
RICK: Thanks for asking John. I have not written
numbers previously for fear of disappointing those
who think thousands of CoCoist have responded. We
still have high hopes. The ingredients are =>
____________________________________________________
here. We are getting fantastic support from the
Friends we now have and more Friends will probably
mean an even greater experience.
Now to the answer to your question. As I write this
on July 10th, nearly 300 folks have responded to
try CFDM. About 160 have subscribed for AT LEAST
six issues. That's a very good subscription/response
rate. But, frankly I can't see how anyone can not
join us after seeing even one issue. I'm sure there
are some good reasons some have not. If I used a
monitor (such as color TV) and could not see the
text very well, I probably would not subscribe to
CFDM. This problem was presented to me recently by
Lee Anderson. I have just sent him a copy of the
monochrome M.BAS and MUTILS.BIN and hope =>
____________________________________________________
this will help him enjoy CFDM. (Those two files
are on the PROGRAM/SIDE of this issue. See the
entry MONO-CFDM in the FROM THE EDITOR section.)
I hope many more Friends will find us. But for now
I think we're doing GREAT!
=*
|
IMPRESSED WITH CFDM Dear Rick,
I just received my startup issue and issue 5
complimentary today. I was so thrilled after
spending 3 1/2 hours at my CoCo reading these disks,
that I want to subscribe. Your magazine really
impressed me so much that you will find enclosed a
check for $46.00 for issues #2, #3, and #4, plus a
6 month subscription starting with issue #6. I've
never done any programming on my own, but your
magazine makes me think that I might want to try.
Keep up the great work!!
Sincerely,
Debra H. Cain
=>
____________________________________________________
RICK: Thanks Debra! That's the effect we hope to
make on everyone! The secret to the continuing
enjoyment of CoCo is meeting and sharing with others
who love the CoCo as much as ourselves.
=*
|
Lets Help Rick!! With CFDM issue #6, I recieved a letter from RICK,
the letter was a proposed AD for submission to THE
RAINBOW, for a future issue. RICK asked me if it was
OK to use my name in the AD. (YES RICK IT'S OK.) I
will continue to mention the CFDM to all my COCO
contacts. I am sure we all agree, CFDM is the great-
est thing to happen in COCO land in the last millen-
ium. Anyway thats my opinion. The CFDM gives us hope
and new programs, and a place to ask questions and
get answers. I am relatively a new kid on the COCO
block. When I read some of the letters and articles
in every issue, we have to have a unique medium and
CFDM is just that! RICK has spent countless hours
getting it going, and if he needs my help to raise
the CFDM subscriber population, he's got it!(CTRL2)
=>
____________________________________________________
All it takes is for us to mention CFDM, and tell
everyone the truth, its a great deal!!
I for one would really hate to see the CFDM fold,
like many other COCO publications have done in the
past. My wife even admits, I'm like a kid waiting on
a neat toy that I ordered, every month about the
15th on, I call her daily and ask,"Is my CFDM in?"
so if you feel like I do, GET THE WORD OUT!
Dann 'Mac' McConnell
RICK: Thanks Dann! I needed that!
=*
|
Letter to Rick Congratulations to my fellow "Bananalander",
Colin North (CFDM # 4) for his picture of a good
old Queensland country "dunny".
For the benefit of the unitiated, the word is
derived from a Scotch word meaning a cellar, under-
ground passage or dugout.
Colin's edifice, with elecrtic light and real
store-bought toilet paper roll, is really modern. If
you can dig out a copy of Chick Sale's "The Special-
ist", you will learn that, in the dunnies of my long
gone boyhood, the standard provision was last year's
Sears Roebuck or its local equivalent.
=*
|
LETTER TO THE EDITOR HI RICK:
HERE IS MY ENCLOSED CHECK FOR A YEAR
SUBSCRIPTION TO CFDM. I THINK YOU HAVE SOMETHING
FABULOUS STARTED HERE AND I DON'T WANT TO MISS
OUT ON ANYTHING. THANKS TO YOU AND ALL INVOLVED
IN CFDM.
Charlie Round 0-03-7
RICK: Thanks Charlie. Notice Charlie's subscription
number. He was the fourth person to respond to
CFDM!
=*
|
Rainbow Indexes Update I own the 10-yr. version of R.I. I am
interested in updating it. Do I return it for
the upgrade, or does the cost include a completely
new disk, making my present version obsolete?
I'm not clear on the cost involved, either, or
it would have been included in my check, for $30 to
continue my CFDM subscription for another 6 months.
Keep up the good work, Rick. I hope to have
more time, soon, to reply to some of the nice people
I have met with the aid of CFDM. Well, what I mean
is I feel like I have met them through their sub-
missions.
=>
____________________________________________________
RICK: Vic, the procedure for updating to the 11 year
RAINBOW INDEXES is to send in one of your original
disks and $6 + $2 s/h. I'll send you the 11 year
version on a flippie diskette. You won't need your
old version any longer because the new version has
all the old data plus the new!
Thanks for your continued support and nice letter!
=*
|
TETRA Smasher! SORRY RICK, but I topped out on YOUR TETRA
game after about 30 tries. Your statement '(Don't
even ask about levels 8 and 9!) on page 30 of your
"ALL RICK'S SOFTWARE" book didn't stop me from find-
ing level 10 (:) and level 11 (;). Unfortunately
when you do reach these levels the mode of 'play'
slows down to a crawl?
I would suggest that you add a little 'YOU
BEAT TETRA' screen when a player reaches level 10?
Enclosed is my check to continue my partici-
pation in CFDM for another six Issues -- LOVE IT!
I very much enjoy adding new Pictures to your
PUZZLES Program! When I go away for the Winter I
always take a few Jigsaw Puzzles just in case there
is a rainy spell -- now I'll have them on DISK!
==>
____________________________________________________
RICK: Congratulations Godfrey. You must have great
hand/eye coordination plus uncanny intuition. I've
not played TETRA a great deal, but I've only seen
level 8 before being crushed.
Also thanks for enjoying PUZZLES. It's one of my
favorite creations!
P.S. Your artwork is great and your descriptive
entries make them more meaningful and enjoyable.
=*
|
Thank You Letter First I want to thank you for the startup
kit and the complimentary disk #4. I was very
impressed by what CFDM had to offer to the CoCo
user. While the RAINBOW magazine has managed to
discourage people from contributing programs, I
found many interesting articles and programs in
your magazine. At first I had a problem loading
some of the graphics, but switching to Disk Basic
2.1 solved the problem. Going through the articles,
I recognised some familiar names and even some
customers of mine. I hope to become a regular
contributor to your CFDM magazine.
I have enclosed a $30.00 check for 6 issues and
I will tell CoCo users about your magazine.
Again, thank you for doing such a great job.
=>
____________________________________________________
RICK: And thank you Walter for joining CFDM. We
are thrilled to have another Friend who can teach us
more about our favorite computer!
=*
|
To The Editor Dear Rick,
Please excuse my first attempt using Entry Writer.
I keep pressing the wrong button...You will see I
have made 4 saves in Family Tree.
By now you should have the bank draft for my
subscription of 6 disks, I wish to thank you for the
2 disks that you sent me, I have sent a copy of Vol.
1 No.1 to a couple of COCO Friends that could be
interested...As you can see by the cheque the cost
of the disks have increased by the low rate of our
Aus. Dollar and the amount the banks charge for a
cheque...But I think your venture is a good idea,
and I will try and subscribe to it as long as
posible, I only hope I can put a few programs =>
____________________________________________________
on the one disk to save costs.
Rick when I went to load the program side of the
disk, I found I had to DIR and LOAD...I think
someone asked about how many Granules left on a disk
so I have put on disk a small BOOT program that I
have used for some years...Just RUN"BOOT" and use
the arrow keys to place the cursor on the program
you wish to load and press enter...It will load BAS.
and BIN programs.
Rick this Program you may have seen and used but I
thought I would send it any way...As you can see I
keep pressing the wrong button, about 5 saves now, I
will improve I hope.
Bye For Now Arthur Williams =>
____________________________________________________
RICK: Thanks Arthur for your nice letter, pictures,
and for joining CFDM! I am including your BOOT.BAS
in this issue.
=*
|
| Articles in section: POTPOURRI |
| !GREAT
DEMO RESULTS! An Idea for a New Word Processor COCO WILDLIFE <g> EDUCATION PROJECT UPDATE ONCE IN LOVE WITH AMY |
| Back to top |
The GREAT DEMO CONTEST is over. Our thanks to all
who participated with your demos and also with your
votes! A good number of Friends did cast ballots
and ALL demos received votes. But, the winner held
a convincing margin at the end.
AND THE WINNER IS
GRAFIX
by
Stuart Wyss-Gallifent
Congratulations to Stuart! He has been sent a list
of prizes to choose from and we will award his
choice as soon as possible!
=*
|
An Idea for a New Word Processor We have some really good word processor programs
for the CoCo 3, Telewriter-128, Max-10, and Simply
Better, just to name 3. But there's one feature
that I'd like to see which none of these have. I'd
like to be able to start by selecting from a menu
of a variety of formats such as, reports, letters,
brochures, business forms, labels, etc. In this way,
the computer would control the page size and the
placement of the text. For instance, in a letter
the computer would set up the inside address, the
salutation, etc. and then center it on the page. The
same thing could be done for a number of different
formats. I realize that you can change the formats
within each of the 3 programs I named but this is
inconvenient and many times leads to all kinds of
unexpected problems. This is very apparent if =>
____________________________________________________
you should want to put items into several columns
within a body of text. For example, I have never
been able to figure out how to set up a format for
an employees pay stub. I wind up saving an old stub
and then trying to type over it to create a new one.
Ecchh! It would be so much simpler to select the
format from a menu, type in the name and numbers,
and be done with it! I think if someone wrote such
a word processing program, there would be a definite
market for it. It would also advance our software
capability another step.
=*
|
EDUCATION PROJECT UPDATE Our current project is geared toward educational
programs. Ironically a number of our programs this
month are educational programs. I hope you are
working on a program or have an idea for someone
else. If so, send it in! Remember, those who
submit educational programs OR educational program
ideas, will receive a free copy of William Miller's
SPELL DOWN. I mistakenly printed William's name as
Robert last issue. My deepest apologies William!
LATE FLASH #1: Don Good desires educational programs
for higher math, such as Trig or Calculus.
LATE FLASH #2: Leslie Waltz desires ideas for an
education program. Leslie's address is:
720 Carver St N W, Massillon, OH 44647
=*
|
ONCE IN LOVE WITH AMY Although all of you remembered hearing "STARDUST",
last month's selection, here's one some of you may
not recognize.
"ONCE IN LOVE WITH AMY" was written in 1938 by
Frank Loesser for his Broadway production of a great
musical "WHERE'S CHARLEY?". And, like many such
tunes was not expected to be the hit of the show.
It's a catchy tune and adapts well to transcribing
on the computer.
I hope you have had the opportunity to listen to
these songs through a stereo, or hi-fi, system. That
brings out the best in computer music.
I want to caution you about my continued =>
____________________________________________________
submission of these songs. Too many years ago I
became interested in the electronic organ, and
learned enough about it only to please myself. Even
my wife was not too encouraging...it was that bad.
But, I developed a love for classical organ music;
like stuff by BACH and MENDELSSOHN and many others.
I'll be feeding you a diet of that type of music
from time to time because it works so well on the
computer. That is, if you encourage me! So be fore-
warned, if you give me any inkling you want more of
this, you'll get some good old BACH in your diet.
If you like organ music you'll love some of the
stuff I have.
I'm writing this before I've received Issue #6, =>
____________________________________________________
the one with "STARDUST" in it. So it will still be
another month or more before I get any of your
comments. My August submission will be on its way
before then, so I'm really going out on a limb that
you will want to hear any of this stuff. If you like
it write to CFDM. If it's really that bad, here's
my address again for direct criticism:
Herb Schuler
809 Locksley Lane
Woodbury, NJ 08096
I'm only kidding, really. Try your hand at music
transcription using George's "MUSIC3+". You'll get a
kick out of it.
Hope you enjoy!! Herb =*
|
A HSCREEN2 Math Mixture In my program, HSCR2EZE (CFDM Vol. 1 # 3), I
demonstrated the use of routines I had developed to
add a little flexibility to the use of HSCREEN2.
This program uses these routines to provid a mixed
sample of math problems that, I hope, will prove
useful for a teacher or pupil. All the HSCR2EZE
subroutines are present in the listing with their
original numbering. In addition, I have inserted
subroutines for the specific purposes of the program
(about which more later).
But, first of all, I needed some math symbols, so
I used a program, FONTGEN, by David R. Jenkins from
the May '87 Rainbow to change some HPRINT characters
to suit my need. Thus, # is a power 2 sign; $ a
power 3 sign; & a PI sign; the backslash (SHIFT-CLR)
a division sign; ] a root sign and CHR$(64) is a =>
____________________________________________________
degree sign. The amended HPRINT font was saved as
MATHFONT/FNT. It is loaded when you run MATHMIXR.
I would suggest that you run MATHMIXR to get the
feel of how the program works and then use a two or
three column LLISTing program to make a hard copy of
the listing.
The title page menu offers a choices: Arithmetic
(lines 500 to 1490); Squares and Rectangles (lines
1500 to 2490); Circles (lines 2500 to 3490) and
Triangles. In Triangles, beginning at line 3500, you
have a choice of resolution by Arithmetic (lines
3570 to 4490) or Trigonometry (4500 to 5490). In
each section, there is plenty of space over to
follow the examples and try entering a few problems.
The procedure is much the same in all sections,
but to begin with the simplest, Artihmetic, type =>
____________________________________________________
an equation as in line 510, and then a text
expression of the equation as in line 520.
Subroutine 150 is the input routine. Subroutine 321
compares your answer with the value Z and returns a
result, RIGHT or WRONG, that is printed by line 540.
Subroutine 325 is a delay loop and line 560 deletes
the result to make room for the next question.
Each section ends as in lines 1430 to 1490.
Subroutine 326 gives the score and invites you to
calculate your own percentage.
Line 1510 establishes a random value (SD) for the
side of a square. Line 1530 establishes the
coordinates, H and V, for the HPRINT statement in
line 540.The values for the long side (LS) and short
side (SS) of a rectangle are set lines 1660-70.
Continued in Part 2. =*
|
A HSCREEN2 Math Mixture Pt. 2 Resolving triangles by arithmetic, uses
Subroutine 141 that draws a triangle with a base and
height of random length, and prints the values on
the sides. In line 3740, the statement NB=1 is an
instruction to line 146 to skip printing the value
on the base. To skip the value on the height, insert
NH=1 before the GOSUB141.
In this section I have used only arithmetical
statements in keeping with the purpose of the
section.
Resolving triangles by Trigonometry uses
Subroutine 291 to draw a triangle with a hypotenuse
of fixed length (126) and label the angles A, B and
C, and their opposite sides a, b and c.
In Triangles and other sections, values printed
on the screen are shown with two decimal places. =>
____________________________________________________
When these shortened values are used for
calculations, they will not produce the same result
as the equations that generated them. However, the
correct equation is adjusted to cope with this
problem.
I am assuming that students will use a calculator
to get their answers. Where an answer involves an
integral followed by a long decimal fraction, you
can type one or more digits after the decimal point.
The length of the string for the correct answer will
be adjusted to the length of the string, V$,
returned by Subroutine 150. See line 322.
I would hope that, eventually, a teacher would
prefer a program specifically for one subject. Thus,
if you want only Circles, delete all lines from 350
to 2490 and lines 3500 to 5490. Delete line 3490. =>
____________________________________________________
If you have any difficulties with this program or
if you have any suggestions as to how it could be
improved or made more useful I would be glad to hear
from you. My address is:
van Montfoortlaan 31
2596 SP The Hague
Holland
=*
|
A Loader for "/NIB"
Pictures I have no artistic talent, but I like CFDM's pictures and I have been copying them to a single disk so that I could have them easily available for viewing. But I found that having a basic driver file for each picture took too much disk space, so I made PIXLOADR to serve as a general loader. The program contains elements from drivers for still pictures and animated pictures. So that it can differentiate between the two, all pictures with an- imation have been saved with filenames that begin with an asterisk. When you run the program, a two-column directory of all "/NIB" files on the disk is displayed. Enter the name of the picture you want to view. After it is loaded, press any key to load another. There is a bug in the program that, maybe => ____________________________________________________ Rick can help me eliminate. If you make a mistake when you enter the name of a file to load, the program will freeze up. NE ERROR is ERROR # 26 in the RS DOS, but an ON ERR GOTO error trapping routine did not work. Note for our editor: a back-up of my picture disk is on the flipside with PIXLOADR. RICK: THANKS FOR A VERY GOOD EFFORT KEIRAN! A few other Friends have sent loaders too! All were good, but maybe your's was the easiest to add the changes you suggested. I have taken the liberty to put in a check for "FILE NAME IS TOO LONG" and "INVALID FILE NAME". If the file name is not on the disk, you will be given another chance to input a name. =* |
SPHERE - THE GLOBE PLOTTER Sphere - The Globe Plotter is an interesting little program which I obtained from an electronics instr- uctor back in 1985. It was a public domain program for the APPLE ][e computer. Originally, it had no name, so, based upon what it does, I called it The Globe Plotter, and later, added the prefix; SPHERE. The program will take your input, and based upon what you enter, it will plot a three dimensional globe at the specified viewing angle. The first time that you run the program, enter D,D as your response to the first set of coordinates. This will provide the default values necessary for a good demo of the program. I think you all will like it. When you run the program, don't plan on using your computer for a while (45 minutes or so). The screen scaling takes a little while to run. The screen dump routine ==> ____________________________________________________ included as part of the program will work with the DMP-105 & most other TANDY dot matrix printers. I originally converted this program to work on the CoCo 2 in high speed mode, using the PMODE 4 and SCREEN set 1,0. I have converted it to work with both the CoCo 2 & 3 High Speed Modes, just prior to submitting it to CFDM. In the future, I will have a version prepared for the HSCREEN modes of the CoCo 3 so look forward to seeing it in CFDM. The new ver- sion will provide a more pleasing resolution than is possible in the PMODE 4 mode. For now though, I hope you enjoy SPHERE - THE GLOBE PLOTTER & I hope you will look forward to SPHERE 2. CFDM FOREVER!!!! ROBERT ALLEN TURNER, C/O KATHY & TERRY DALE, RT 3 BOX 458, DOUBLE SPRINGS, AL 35553 ==* |
STANDARD TIC-TAC-TOE Dear friends: Here is a version of TIC-TAC-TOE that
I originally wrote for the TIMEX/SINCLAIR 1000, and
subsequently converted to the CoCo. It plays a
pretty good game for youngsters. However, once you
figure out the trick for beating it, you can win
every time. I won't tell you how, I'll let it frus-
trate you for a while. Some of you will probably
beat it the first time. HAVE FUN. If you have any
questions, feel free to contact me at:
ROBERT ALLEN TURNER
C/O KATHY & TERRY DALE
RT 3 BOX 458
DOUBLE SPRINGS, AL 35553
===*
|
Uncle CoCo Tells A Story II Oh, no! Not a sequel! Yep, 'fraid so. Oh, well one
story deserves another. At least I hope you liked
Goldilocks and the Three Bears in Issue #4. I had a
lot of fun doing it. I had originally thought to
submit it to the Rainbow, but when CFDM came along,
I knew it was a better medium for this type of pro-
gram. More kids would probably get to see it, be-
cause quite frankly, it is much easier to type RUN
"********", than it is to spend 2, 3 or more hours
typing in a relatively long program.
This time around, I've redone the story of The Three
Little Pigs. I actually had more fun doing this one
than the first one. My kids (John, Scott, Tara, and
Kayla) gave me lots of input. Now, I would like to
ask for your help. Please write and give me your =>
____________________________________________________
thoughts and input. Did you like the first two sto-
ries? What about them didn't you like? How can any
future stories be made better? What stories would
you like to see? I like doing these stories, and
will probably continue to do them. But Rick won't be
willing to publish them if there is no interest. So
how about it, kids, let me hear from you.
You will find that this story looks and runs much
the same as the first. Only a few slight cosmetic
changes have been made. That is not going to be the
case with any future stories as I incorporate your
and my ideas. I'm deligently learning Assembly Lan-
guage, so that I can experiment with special effects
using Machine code. Since Assembly is slow go at pre
sent, don't expect any new stories for a while. =>
____________________________________________________
One final note:
This program is dedicated to all children around the
world. You are the future. Have faith, have hope,
and pray that someday no child will have to say--
I'm sick--I'm hungry--or I hurt.
Thank you for being a CoCo Friend!
******************** ******************
* John D. Clemons * * To run program *
* Rt. 2 Box 70 * * type *
* Bland, VA 24135 * * RUN "THRPIGS" *
******************** ******************
=*
|
| Articles in section: REVIEWS |
| C
III Pages V 2.5 Zebra's Label Designer |
| Back to top |
C III Pages V 2.5 This program is perhaps the most sophisticated piece of software for the CoCo that I have ever used. If you were to see this program for the first time and for some reason did not know that the computer was a CoCo, you might very easily think that you were seeing software for a more expensive system. From the sculptured look of the icon menu to the programs ability to manipulate graphics and text files, this software is truly first class! The program is not really a graphics editor and it's not a word processor but it has features akin to both. It enables you to create and manipulate both graphics and text. You can load graphics (PMODE4 and HSCREEN2) files that you have saved on disk using any of the popular graphics editors. You can => ____________________________________________________ also load in text files saved in ASCII format. It even gives you the ability to "flow" text into a specific area of the page and around other areas! C III Pages v 2.5 will save your creations as CLP files which can be loaded into MAX-10. To the best of my knowledge, it is the only program which will allow you to edit MAX-10 graphics files. The program comes with a wide selection of fonts. Additional fonts and an extensive collection of clip art is also available. I use this program for two jobs: first, to create things like posters and fliers; second, as a link between my graphics software and my word processor. I think it is a valuable desktop publishing tool.=* |
Zebra's Label Designer Zebra's Label Designer (LD) let's you design labels
with pictures and text. The program supports
two sizes of address labels, file folder labels,
audio cassette labels, and diskette labels. LD uses
a graphic user interface (GUI). The GUI is excell-
ent. For example, after you place a picture on a
label, you can remove it by dragging the picture to
a picture of a trash can.
The program is set up so you place pictures on a
label. Zebra has many picture disks available.
The picture disks also work with Zebra's CoCO Graph-
ic Designer Plus (CGDP). The CGDP is for designing
cards and banners. The pictures are PMODE pictures
and limited to a certain number of dots. Still I
find the pictures quite acceptable for labels. ==>
____________________________________________________
The picture disks have a wide assortment of pictures
for all occasions and subjects. Picture disks cost
extra. I used the LD to design labels for our Xmas
cards. My family was very pleased with the results.
We received several compliments from folks on our
Xmas list.
The LD comes with a mail merge function. The mail
merge fucntion is well documented. In fact, the LD
has outstanding documentation.
The LD text editor is a simple and adequate editor.
Text can be small, wide, tall or big. Only one font
is available with all four sizes. The LD has a
label preview so you can get the picture and text
placement correct before you print. ==>
____________________________________________________
I would not send my copy of the LD back to Zebra but
it does not work perfectly for me. I find that for
doing one inch labels, I cannot print several labels
without carefully watching the printouts. I have to
stop the print, reverse microfeed my printer, and
then continue printing. This is a major liability
if you are relying on the LD for a business purpose.
I've also had the program tell me to insert the
program disk into drive zero when the program is
already in drive zero. I get around this by
inserting a pristine backup copy of LD into drive
zero at this point.
Ted Kitsos
4712 Strathdon Drive
Fort Wayne, IN 46816 ==*
|
Banner Mania A CoCo friend of mine, also uses an MS-DOS
system. He prefers his CoCo 3, with one exception.
"Banner Mania". It surpasses "CoCo Graphics
Designer Plus" by Zebra in one area: 'Banners'.
I'd like to be able to get this superior
program for RS-DOS. Can anyone help?
Victor Kells
424 S WEIMAR ST
APPLETON WI 54915-3415
414-730-9071
=*
|
DANN, OPT FOR RAM DISK UPGRADE! Dear Dann,
If I were faced with the dilemma of choosing
between a 512K upgrade and a Drive #1, I would
choose the former for the following reasons: Most
upgrades include a RAM disk program. With such a
program you can effectively have the upgrade and
Drive #1 also. Whenever you need Drive #1, you can
quickly install the RAM disk version of that drive.
RAM disk Drive #1 will operate at memory speeds
which are significantly faster that a physical drive
and you will still have plenty of extra memory. If
you are not in need of extra memory, you can install
another RAM disk drive (Drive #3).
=>
____________________________________________________
Not having used MAX-10, I do not know whether
or not that program is compatible with RAM disk
usage. However, I do know that my desktop publisher,
ULTRALACE, (the Rainbow May, 1991 - Sept., 1991) is
enhanced by RAM disk usage.
Best wishes,
Allen Curtis
=*
|
LOOKING FOR COCO MAX II I am looking for a copy of Cocomax II. I've got
Cocomax III but I was disappointed that it didn't
have an option to either draw on a PMODE4 screen or
convert a Hi-res screen to PMODE4. The only
conversions I've seen go the other way, ie from
PMODE4 to Hi-res. So in consequence anything I
draw in Cocomax 3 is incompatible with my work with
the Dragon computer.
Are there any magazines in the States which
advertise second user software for the Coco, as
nowadays so many programs which were targeted to
the Coco 2 are no longer available, or so it would
seem.
Thanks for your help. =>
____________________________________________________
Ray Smith
5 Glen Road
Parkstone
POOLE, Dorset
BH14 0HF
England
=*
|
MISC HINTS RICK COOPER: The Rainbow 80 Column DISK EDTASM
patch is in the January 1988 issue on page 154. It
also needs the line: 160 DATA"END","END" It did
not work for me. I use the same method you listed,
and never bothered to figure out why the patch did
not work. Maybe it is for a different DISK ROM ver.
Pieter & Andrew Vervark: In the Mar 92 RAINBOW
page 20 it is mentioned that a 68B21 will work for
the keyboard PIA. Hints for replacement are also
given in this Q/A section. Original parts may still
be available from:
TANDY NATIONAL PARTS 800-442-2425
900 EAST NORTHSIDE DRIVE 817-870-5600
FORT WORTH TX 76102 =>
____________________________________________________
All repair parts for Tandy products are available
through this source.
Jim Gibbons: First, make sure the grounding clips
on the cartridge connector are tight & clean and the
disk controller card edge is clean. If they need to
be cleaned, gently rub with a pencil eraser or use
contact cleaner until the corrosion is all removed.
The disk controller & cable can also emit rf noise.
Try wrapping these parts and your receiver with
sheets of foil that are then attached to ground.
Monitors can also give off rf noise. Placement of
foil can do wonders for shielding. Be careful not to
block cooling vents or create a short circuit.
Conductive paint & adhesive-backed foils can be used
to shield the inside of the components cases. =>
____________________________________________________
Jerry Shaulis: Your drives should work with a COCO
2 or COCO3.However, the older disk drive controllers
require +12 volts on pin #2 of the 40 contact edge
connector. The COCO1 has +12V but the COCO 3 does
not. You must supply +12V from an external supply
or route +12V from the disk supply. Other choices
include, adding a 5V to 12V converter or using a 5V
only controller IC such as the MB8877. Yes, you can
use your drives in any position. The actual setup
will vary. Tandy pulls pins in the cable connector,
ties all the selects together, and allows one-sided
drives. The standard way uses a 34-34 pin cable. It
uses drive select jumpers, and allows double-sided
drives. There must be 1 termination resistor per
setup. All this is written in detail in the June 88
pg 159 and April 90 pg 93 issues of Rainbow. =*
|
MORE HINTS Dann McConnell: To access the back side of your
drives you must change the drive control table.
It is located at $D7AA for DOS1.0 and at $D89D for
DOS1.1. POKE &HD89F,&h41 :'make 2 the back of 0
POKE &HD8A0,&H42 :'make 3 the back of 1
The pokes shown are for DOS1.1 and assume you are in
RAM mode (COCO 3 is all the time unless you change
it). Now you must format each side of your disks. To
format the disk in 0 > DSKINI0 & DSKINI2 . You are
now set to use both sides. The same applies to the
disk in drive 1 if you have two drives. If you have
one drive the second poke is not necessary.
Jerry Robey: To use a hard drive with basic you can
use RGBDOS from RGB computer systems, HYPER I/O from
Burke and Burke, or OWL BASIC 3 from OwlWare. =>
____________________________________________________
ODDS & ENDS:
SAVEM"PIXNAME",3584,9727,41175:'SAVE P4 GRAPHICS
10PMODE4,1:SCREEN1,1:GOTO10:'DISPLAY P4 SCREEN
10CLS0:GOTO10:'MONITOR SCREEN SAVER
POKE65497,0:'COCO3 HIGH SPEED
POKE65496,0:'COCO3 NORMAL SPEED
POKE113,0:DLOAD:'LIKE COLD START
DLOAD:'LIKE RESET
PRINTPEEK(487)*256+PEEK(488):'ML START AFTER CLOADM
PRINTPEEK(126)*256+PEEK(127):'ML END AFTER CLOADM
PRINTPEEK(157)*256+PEEK(158):'ML EXEC AFTER CLOADM
EXEC 44539:'PAUSE UNTIL A KEY IS PRESSED
POKE&HE6C6,33:'DISABLE AUTOMATIC HSCREEN CLS
POKE&HE6C6,141:'RESTORE AUTOMATIC HSCREEN CLS
POKE150,X:'X=BAUD 1=9600 88=600
POKE111,254:DIR:'PRINT DIR TO PRINTER =>
____________________________________________________
I use the ramdisk from Frank Hogg Labs. It is in
the program 512KUT along with a printer spooler. It
works great with CFDM. I setup the ramdisk & backup
CFDM to it. Then, change the default drive to the
ramdisk with a DRIVE X (X=drive#) command. RUN"C" &
I'm up & running. To make a submission disk, BACKUP
the latest CFDM to ramdisk, DRIVE x, LOAD"PATCH" and
EDIT lines 210 & 270.Change the first 0 in each line
to the drive number of the ramdisk you're using. RUN
and the unnecessary files will be erased. Next use
ENTRY WRITER to write the files and exit. Finally,
backup the ramdisk to a formatted disk in a floppy
drive. Using the ramdisk allows moving between all
CFDM sections very quickly and saves much wear on
the drives.
=*
|
Monochrome Screen POKES Some CoCo users that still use TVs or CMP monitors,
wonder how they can get a more readable screen when
using the 40 or 80 columns screens on their CoCos 3.
Well, before I purchased my CM-8 RGB monitor, I
asked the same question. Then one day, while looking
at the February 1991 issue of the Rainbow, I saw
some POKEs in the "Letters to the Editor" section
that disable the color signal that goes from the
CoCo. I found that I could get a very readable
display in the 40 and 80 columns screens of my CoCo
when using a color TV as a monitor. I thought that
this information might be usefull to other CoCo
users that are having trouble using the 40 or 80
columns screens with a TV or CMP monitor.
The following POKEs, disable the color signal =>
____________________________________________________
that goes to the text screens (32, 40, and 80
columns), and to the HSCREENS. The POKEs are the
following: POKE &HE033,16
POKE &HE03C,19
POKE &HE045,19
POKE &HE07A,144
POKE &HE071,144
You can use these POKEs in your own programs or you
can use them alone. This other POKE, puts the CoCo
in an inverse video mode, green letters on a black
background, which may be useful if you are using a
green monochrome monitor, or to give a more
professional look to your programs. This POKE also
makes the CoCo display true lowercase on the 32
column screen. The POKE is the following:
POKE &H95C9,&H7F:POKE &HFF33,&H10:SCREEN 1,0 =>
____________________________________________________
I hope that the people that read this, can find a
good use for these POKEs in your own programs or if
you need them to get a better picture on your CMP or
TV. I would also like to thank R.R. Simpson, and
William W. Coolman, who where the ones who sent
these POKEs to the Rainbow.
=*
|
NO ERROR IN "GHANA
BWANA"? In issue #6 of CFDM, H.J. Moenich asked about the
error in GHANA BWANA. Actually, there is no error,
the program will boot up and run fine on the CoCo 1
and 2 with 64K. It won't work with the CoCo 3 unless
it is patched. The problem is, it boots up similar
to OS-9 Level 1, version 1. The "*" program is the
same program used to boot OS-9 on DISK BASIC 1.0 &
2.0 (it simulates the DOS command). The DOS command
and the "*" program both read TRACK 34 into CoCo
memory starting at Address &H2600 and EXEC's it at
&H2602. The older versions of OS-9 and probably the
GHANA BWANA loader, will not work on the CoCo 3
because the boot program block moves itself over the
256 bytes at &HFE00 through &HFEFF, thereby trashing
the interrupt vectors of the CoCo 3 and causing a
system crash. STEVE BJORK, The author of GHANA ==>
____________________________________________________
BWANA released a program some time ago on DELPHI
which would patch the GHANA BWANA program & several
of his other earlier programs to work on the CoCo 3.
I Don't have this program, but I remember reading
about it in an issue of the Rainbow several years
ago, so I don't know if it will still be on DELPHI
or not. If some of you friends have this PATCH,
please submit it to CFDM as it is PUBLIC DOMAIN. I
need it and I'm sure Mr. H.J. Moenich would also
appreciate it. I have tried to patch the GHANA BWANA
myself with only frustration to show for it. If any
friends would like to try to patch it, here are the
general guidelines to follow when patching games
such as this and older OS-9 Level 1, Version 1 & 1.1
games. Read the boot sector from TRACK 34 of the
disk into memory starting at &H2600 and ==>
____________________________________________________
disassemble it starting at &H2602. Look for a BLOCK
MOVE ROUTINE within the first 256 bytes, as well as
a JUMP or BRANCH to the moved code. Lower the TARGET
ADDRESS of the BLOCK MOVE by &H0100. Also, lower the
JUMP or BRANCH by &H0100. Be careful when changing
branches, they're relative to the current instruc-
tion position, not absolute. This is about all of
the information that I have. I hope it is useful to
some of you CoCo Friends. I have been unsuccessful
at disassembling the GHANA BWANA boot code, because
my disassembler overwites it when I load it. If
anyone has Mr. BJORKS patch, I would appreciate a
copy. THANKS. ROBERT ALLEN TURNER, C/O KATHY &
TERRY DALE, RT 3 BOX 458,
DOUBLE SPRINGS, AL 35553
===*
|
RAINBOW Program Info This is in response to MADMIKE Hoke's question
about the use of RAINBOW programs in CDFM.
Before 1985 (and possibly somewhat later) RAINBOW
contracts gave themselves NON-EXCLUSIVE rights to
the published articles and programs. Thus, if per-
mission could be obtained from the authors who kept
their program rights, those programs could legally
appear in CDFM. All those programs, however, were
written for the CoCos 1 and 2 and perhaps would need
some up-grading.
In later contracts the RAINBOW purchased the
authors' rights to their articles and programs out-
right. Thus, permission for use of those programs
would have to be obtained from the RAINBOW.
=>
____________________________________________________
I know of some later contracts that allowed the
author to retain his article and program copyrights.
In particular, my "Ultrlace" articles and programs
were published in the RAINBOW (May 1991 through Sept
1991 and May 1992) under such contracts by my
request.
=*
|
SUGGESTION TO D. MCCONNELL Dan, this is only my suggestion, but this is what I
would do if currently faced with the decision of
getting a 512k upgrade or a second Disk Drive. I
WOULD GET THE 512K UPGRADE. Why? Because we can no
longer be sure how long they will be available. The
disk drives will be available for some time to come.
However, I have heard that there is only one maker
of 512K boards still in business. TOTAL BUMMER. And
with the 512K upgrade, you will have access to many
different RAM disks, which will serve you well as a
second disk drive until you get one. MICROCOM is
going out of the CoCo business and are currently
having a Final Clearance sale. 512K is going for
$49, I think. HOPE I HAVE BEEN OF SOME HELP - BOB.
===*
|
Thanks again/CoCo Friends I still can't believe that there are so many of
CoCo friends out there, that care and try to help
other CoCo-Nuts. My last letter to Rick asked for
help in my dilemma of a 512K upgrade or a Drive 1,
The irony of this dilemma is that prior to 3 June
when I was scheduled for cataract surgery, I made a
list of all the Pro's and Con's of both routes. One
of the Pro's of the Upgrade was that I wanted to
punch in ULTRALACE from Rainbow (excuse me Lonnie, I
mean THE RAINBOW!), and to do so I needed 512K, one
of the other reasons was Kings Quest III, that I had
picked up at a clearance shelf of RS. Back to the
irony, one of the letters I recieved was from the
originator of ULTRALACE, H. Allen Curtis. His letter
made lots of sense, and I thank him for the advice.
(CTRL2) =>
____________________________________________________
This evening I recieved a call from another CoCo
friend in the form of Bob Brutko in Rochester NY.
He had the same advice, so I am really glad I did
go for the upgrade, Bob and I talked for at least
30 minutes, and I found out how to install a fan
in my CoCo, I had searched high and low for a small
fan to install, Bob gave me the PN# I can use at RS
and HOPEFULLY get the right thing, my RS is a toy
and TV store, not a computer store!! Bob has me
delving into the RAMDISK program that was included
with the UPGRADE. I really enjoy having the CFDM as
a avenue to ask questions, I know now, for every ??
I have, Someone out there has a answer! Thanks
again everyone!!
Dann 'Mac'
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Thanks to JR Waggoner I want to thank J.R. for his offer of the patch for
Desk Mate. But after reading a few issues of CFDM I
am planning on ordering my 512K upgrade, that is if
COCOPRO gets my phone order that I placed during his
inventory. I have dived in and really enjoy all the
tutorials on everything! Just to think when I seen
RICKS AD in Rainbow, I was ready to Con my better
half into letting me go MS-DOS , because of RICK my
wife is Happy and so is my COCO! Again Thanks to J.R
Waggoner! And to all the COCO friends that have
sent me help!
I do need a little help though , I recieved a letter
from a Robert Allen Turner in Pell City AL, he was
very interested in an old TRS80 Mini Drive that I
had advertised in CFDM earlier. <CTR-2> =>
____________________________________________________
I lost his letter after I answered him, I am still
holding the Drive for him, so if you are out there
Bob, please contact me, I'm open for offers or Trade
and I know you will get some use out of it, it's
just sitting here so lonely for a home.(chuckle)
Also, does anyone know if OWL ever answers letters?
I wrote 2 letters requesting prices on a Drive 1 for
my FD502, I had read in the Mid Iowa and Country
Disk Magazine that Terry had bought a drive for $65
plus shipping, to date no answer!
*Mac*- EOF
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