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Table of contents: |
| COCO FRIENDS DISK MAGAZINE Issue #26 | 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 (i26) CONTENTS...PART 2 (i26) PROGRAM DIRECTORY <i 26> 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 (4)
1 CONTENTS...PART 1 (i26)
2 CONTENTS...PART 2 (i26)
3 PROGRAM DIRECTORY (i26)
4 THIS MONTH'S COVER
ACTIVE COCO (2)
1 ANOTHER COCO NUT? by Berney <g>
2 Operation: PATCH (Part 2)
ADVERTISEMENTS (5)
1 3RD ANNUAL "LAST" COCOFEST =>
____________________________________________________
2 CFDM SUBSCRIPTION
3 Do you have PATIENCE??
4 GOOD STUFF
5 The "UPGRADE" Disk Magazine
ARTICLES OF THE MONTH (6)
1 6809 ASSEMBLY PROGRAMMING PT3
2 GETTING UNDER THE HOOD
3 MY HARD DRIVE
4 MY HARD DRIVE PT. 2
5 MY HARD DRIVE PT. 3
6 SUPERPUT TIPS
COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY (8)
1 *3CFDM
2 ART FROM ARTHUR WILLIAMS =>
____________________________________________________
3 BRIDGE
4 BYTE '94 ?!
5 CC3POWER
6 COOLSPOT
7 MUSTANG
8 VIEWING THE CFDM ART GALLERY
FAMILY TREE (3)
1 CHARLES L. GIBSON
2 EDWARD DE KOSTER
3 Herb Forger
FORUM (1)
1 Anyone interested?/
=*
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FROM THE EDITOR (4)
1 FAREWELL TO ANOTHER FRIEND
2 FROM RICK
3 KUDOS <g>
4 UPDATE ON WALTER BAYER
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (7)
1 ENJOYED CFDM #24
2 For Rick
3 GREAT RESPONSE TO PEEKS/POKES!
4 Herb's FASCINATION is a WINNER!
5 KEEP THE FAITH!
6 MISSED PHONE FEST I
7 RAVES FOR CFDM!
POTPOURRI (5) =>
____________________________________________________
1 A RHYMIN' RENEWAL!
2 DOOR by Harold Moenich <g>
3 Operation: PATCH complaints
4 Rambling About Ads
5 The Interchangeable Startup Page
PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH (9)
1 "DMP 105B": ANOTHER SCREEN DUMP
2 CFDMFORM
3 CLRMTCHR - test your color sense
4 FAHRCELS - Watch the Mercury
5 GM 1, GM 2, GM 3
6 J. P. Morgan's Favorite
7 J. P. Morgan's Favorite (Cont.)
8 LSYSTEM Fractals
9 STEREOGRAMS =>
____________________________________________________
REVIEWS (4)
1 CoCo Max 3
2 Color Max Deluxe
3 Da Vinci 3
4 The RAT
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (8)
1 512K CoCo3 Brain Dead?
2 A Question for Robert Turner
3 Answers to people!
4 Do I have questions?
5 GAMES WON'T RUN
6 Note to James Gibbons
7 Packet BBS
8 Turning things off.
=*
|
Here's a description of the files on the PROGRAM/
SIDE. File names preceded by an asterisk are data
files and not to be RUN or EXECed!
NAME.........COMMAND..SECTION OR DESCRIPTION......
* *CFDM .NIB........ART GALLERY
ASSEM3 .BAS..RUN...ARTICLES OF THE MONTH
* ASSEM3 .TXT........DATA FILE FOR ASSEM3.BAS
* BFR .BIN........DATA FILE FOR JPM.BAS
* BRIDGE .NIB........ART GALLERY
* BYTE94 .NIB........ART GALLERY
* CC3POWER.NIB........ART GALLERY
CFDMFORM.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
CLRMTCHR.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* COASTCL .NIB........ART GALLERY
* COOLSPOT.NIB........ART GALLERY =>
____________________________________________________
* DMP105B .ASM........SOURCE CODE FOR DMP105B
DMP105B .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
FAHRCELS.BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
GM 1 .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
GM 2 .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
GM 3 .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
JPM .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
LSYSTEM .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH
* MUSTANG .NIB........ART GALLERY
NEWC .BAS..RUN...POTPOURRI
* NIBLOADR.BIN........PIX LOADER UTILITY
NIBSHOW .BAS..RUN...ART GALLERY
OP PATCH.BAS..RUN...ACTIVE COCO
* POSTMAN .NIB........ART GALLERY
* SCENE .NIB........ART GALLERY
STEREO .BAS..RUN...PROGRAMS OF THE MONTH =>
____________________________________________________
* STEREO .BIN........DATA FILE FOR STEREO.BAS
=*
|
First Snow I chose to do a scene taken from the northern
area of Pennsylvania. This was the first snowfall
of the season when this picture was taken. I
think the first snow is always the most beautiful.
This picture took a little time to do, especially
with the snow on the branches of the trees. I
hope you get the feeling of a first snow in this
picture.
.... Jim Gibbons
=*
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| Articles in section: ACTIVE COCO |
| ANOTHER
COCO NUT? by Berney <g> Operation: PATCH (Part 2) |
| Back to top |
Operation: PATCH (Part 2) Well, how did you do last month?? Did you get them
all? Are you itching to get your CFDM patch??
Now, the conclusion. Here are the last 5 clues for
you to solve.
The keys this time are names of CoCo Friends and
another well-known name. Hopefully, this wouldn't be
too hard for you to find those names.
Remember also, the key are FULL names.
And now, on with the show.......................=>
____________________________________________________
1. KEY: That prolific cartoon artist far from
Kentucky.
QUESTION: What special feature did CoCo 2 #26-3128
have? L PYI P FSYCZWWASNESJBT
2. KEY: He improved MUSIC+ for us CoCo 3 owners.
QUESTION: Who was the TANDY big-wig that was a major
power behind the CoCo? OTXVQYNOPCQGVP
3. KEY: He provided SUPERPUT for CFDM FriendS.
QUESTION: What company did CoCoPRO! absorb in April
1992? YYORQINDZRLGCO
4. KEY: Editor-in-Chief
QUESTION: Who were going to write the first CoCo
history book? BRVJEBWAAGNAOITQG SQKLR =>
____________________________________________________
5. KEY: Our Computer's name.
QUESTION: Name your favorite computer magazine.
ANOYXUXOZQAKFHAEOURCPWVAMT
THINK HARD. And send in those entries. Remember to
include the correct keys and the complete answers.
=*
|
| Articles in section: ADVERTISEMENTS |
| 3RD
ANNUAL "LAST" COCOFEST CFDM SUBSCRIPTION Do you have PATIENCE?? GOOD STUFF The "UPGRADE" Disk Magazine |
| Back to top |
3RD ANNUAL "LAST"
COCOFEST ******************* NEWS RELEASE *******************
Here are the 5 "W's"
WHO? 1) The Glenside Color Computer Club of
Illinois presents
WHAT? 2) The Third Annual "Last" Chicago CoCoFEST!
WHEN? 3) May 21st & 22nd, 1994
WHERE? 4) HOLIDAY INN ELGIN (A Holidome Indoor
345 W. River Road Recreation Center)
Elgin, Illinois (A city block from I-90
& IL-31S)
(Same great location as last year!)
Overnight room rate: $52 (plus 10% tax)
Call 1-708-695-5000 for reservations. =>
____________________________________________________
Be sure to ask for the "Glenside" or
CoCoFEST!" rate.
> YOU MUST REGISTER UNDER COCOFEST TO GET THIS RATE<
WHY? 5) A. To provide vendor support to the CoCo
Community
B. To provide Community support to the
CoCo Vendors
C. To provide educational support to new
users
D. TO HAVE AN OUTRAGEOUSLY GOOD TIME!!!!
HOW MUCH? 1) Admission: 15$ at the door
2-day pass only; sorry no 1-day passes =>
____________________________________________________
Advance ticket sales: $10 + SASE or
$10 + $.50 p/h
Contact: George Schneeweiss, Treasurer
Glenside Color Computer Club
RR#2 Box 67
Forrest, IL 61741-9629
For general or exhibitor information, contact:
-Tony Podraza - Fest Chairman - 708-428-3576 (Voice)
or 708-428-0436 (BBS) or DELPHI - TONYPODRAZA
-Carl Boll, VP, GCCCI - 312-735-6087 (Voice) or 312-
735-3355 (BBS) or DELPHI - CBJ
-Brian Schubring, President, GCCCI - 708-529-3539
(Voice) or DELPHI - THESCHU
=*
|
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. Or get 3 issues for only $16. A 6 issue subscription is only $30 (a savings of 6$). Back issues are available at the same rates. COCOs FOREVER!! =* |
Do you have PATIENCE?? [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
Why not get PATIENCE in PAIRS?
Available for sale are 5 such pairs:
PP: PYRAMID CONSTRUCTION & PYRAMID DESTRUCTION
PP2: GOOD MEASURE & POKER SOLITAIRE
PP3: CANFIELD & HIDDEN ACES
PP4: SHAM BATTLE & WALLS OF JERICHO
PP5: MASKED 12 & LUCKY 13
Each pair is $6.00 including postage & can be
purchased from
H. Allen Curtis
172 Dennis Drive
Williamsburg, VA 23185 =*
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
|
GOOD STUFF I want to clean the closet and need to get rid
of these. Hope the COCO FRIENDS can use any
of the following. All originals, no copies.
Programs have manuals. Prices include shipping.
COCO 2 (64K) WITH TV CABLE AND TWO BOOKS:
"YOUR COCO 2" AND "GETTING
STARTED WITH EXTENDED COLOR
BASIC" $25
DISK SOFTWARE ($5 EACH OR 3 FOR $10)
MAIL LIST PRO COCO ACCOUNTANT II
BABY BASIC 0S9 SOLUTION (LEV 1)
COCO CHECKER HANDICAPPER
DON'T FORGET CASHMAN
PERTASCII (OS9,LEV 1/2) HOME PUBLISHER =>
____________________________________________________
HOME BILL MANAGER FLIGHT SIM 1
BASIC SCREEN EDITOR SANDS OF EGYPT
COLOR SCRIPSIT SPECTACULATOR
COLOR PROFILE COLOR DIRECTORY
COCO MAX & COCO MAX II
ROM PACKS ($3 EACH OR 2 FOR $5)
TEMPLE OF ROM POLTERGEIST
MEGA-BUG CLOWNS & BALLOONS
DISK SOFTWARE ($15 EACH OR 2 FOR $25)
GRAF EXPRESS D.L. LOGO (OS9 LV-1)
TRIVIA FEVER (USE WITH OR WITHOUT COMPUTER)
=>
____________________________________________________
BOOKS ($8 EACH)
ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE PROGRAMMING
BASIC 09 TOUR GUIDE
MANUALS ONLY ($2 EACH)
TELEWRITER 64 (FOR DISK PROGRAM)
COLOR SCRIPSIT (FOR TAPE PROGRAM)
SPECTACULATOR (FOR TAPE PROGRAM)
Since I have only one of each, you may want to
call before ordering.
DINA PHILIPS
1541 NORFOLK DRIVE
ZIONSVILLE, IN 46077
(317) 873-3786 =*
|
The "UPGRADE" Disk
Magazine Looking for good Coco Support?
Look to the:
"UPGRADE" Disk Magazine!
From: "Mid Iowa & Country CoCo"
Now in it's eighth year!
Three as a national Disk magazine.
With the UPGRADE National Disk magazine, we've
grown to be one of the largest CoCo outreaches! I
can say that firmly by the response from over 200
members in over 40 states and 5 provinces of Canada;
with others in Australia & England, we expect to be
around for a long, long time.
The "UPGRADE" Disk Magazine: =>
____________________________________________________
- Does not support OSK or computers not compatible
to CoCo. That we leave to those more qualified.
- Not hard copy, but can be dumped to your printer.
- Displays first rate 16 color H2 graphics, with
articles.
- Does keep you informed with news from around the
country. Including ads and recommendations of
better dealers.
- Does have OS-9 articles concerning the CoCo. We've
just started an excellent level II tutorial series
- Does have Basic program technique articles and
tutorials.
- Does carry a full variety of indepth articles and
reviews.
- Recently added "Marty's Memos" column by Marty
Goodman! =>
____________________________________________________
- We carry tips on where to buy CoCo hardware.
- Software is available thru our library. ($3/disk.)
Join the largest CoCo reach out. Join those who
write "Here's my renewal, I don't want to miss an
issue"! Just $16 keeps you in touch with the CoCo
community.
Your subscription includes: 1 year membership in
MI&CC and UPGRADE Disk magazine subscription.
Requires: 128K CC3, 1 drive, RGB or TV
$16 US $21 Canada $31 Foreign Air
Say "I say it in CFDM" and receive a surprise bonus
disk. Mid Iowa & Country CoCo (non-profit)
Terry Simons Editor/Treasurer
1328 48th Des Moines, IA 50311
(Include your phone & system information) =*
|
| Articles in section: ARTICLES OF THE MONTH |
| 6809
ASSEMBLY PROGRAMMING PT3 GETTING UNDER THE HOOD MY HARD DRIVE MY HARD DRIVE PT. 2 MY HARD DRIVE PT. 3 SUPERPUT TIPS |
| Back to top |
6809 ASSEMBLY PROGRAMMING PT3 View text file associated with this article This is the third article in my series on assembly
language programming. We will examine another
addressing mode and one method of getting parameters
from BASIC. RUN"ASSEM3" to read this month's
article. I hope you enjoy. (If you are bored, bear
with me; I have a reasonably useful program in store
for the last article.)
William Astle
5612, 43 St Cls
Olds, Alberta, Canada
T4H 1C3
=*
|
GETTING UNDER THE HOOD Remember your first car? For me it was a 1967 Plymouth Fury III. Remember the first time you packed in the "group" and went for a spin? Chances are that your first car was not a new one. And chances are you also remember getting under the hood of that car and fixing whatever went wrong on your own. With time, you understood what was going on each time you started that engine. Today things are different. Newer vehicles have become so complex that as long as it is working you don't mess with it, and if it quits you take it to the garage. Most computers have taken a route simular to that of the car. Fortunately for those who are the => ____________________________________________________ tinkering type, our favorite computer is simple enough to get "under the hood" and check it out. If you have a CoCo which is completely dead, chances are it's the power supply. Armed with only a multi- meter, you can check it out. The best way to repair something is to understand how it works. Here is a brief description of the power supply on the CoCo 3. (Refer to graphic "CC3POWER." This is the NTSC ver) The CC3 uses three different voltages to operate its various components. These systems are supplied with a common transformer which converts 120V AC to 16.2V AC and is center-tapped to ground which provides both a positive and negative voltage through the full-wave rectifier D1-D4. Following is a chart => ____________________________________________________ of the responsibilities of the 3 voltage systems. ---------------------------------------------------- Voltage Regulated by Supplied by Used by ---------------------------------------------------- +5 ! IC 8 ! Q1 !CC3 motherboard -5 ! IC 8 ! IC 8 ! serial port +8 ! IC 36 ! IC 36 ! RF modulator ---------------------------------------------------- IC 8: is a custom chip called SALT (Supply And Level Translator). It has 3 jobs; regulating the voltage and current of Q1, operating the cassette relay, and receiving and sending the serial port signals. Q1: supplies power for all integrated circuits and the 40 pin buss connector. This transistor is a likely trouble spot (mine failed within 30 days). IC 36: standard +8 volt reg. for the TV signal. =* |
MY HARD DRIVE A year or more ago I decided to add a hard drive to
my CoCo3. After reading about what was available, I
decided to go with the Burke & Burke XT-RTC. It will
work with both RS-DOS and OS-9, and you could build
the system piece by piece as funds became available.
I bought the XT-RTC (which is the hard drive inter-
face) and was shopping for the hard drive and con-
troller when a friend offered to sell a hard drive
system he could not get to work. I found out it did
work and "He" was the problem. The system included
an XT-RTC interface, two 40M Quantum full ht hard
drives, hard drive controller, power supply, cables
and case. The best part was the price was less than
what I paid for the XT-RTC. With this purchase I had
all the h/w and bought HyperIO s/w to get going. =>
____________________________________________________
Hard Drive hardware requirements:
1) CoCo 2 or 3 should have
2) Floppy Disk Drive should have
3) Multipac Interface or Slot Pac $75.00
4) Hard Dr Iinterface - B&B XT 70.00
-w/ real time clk - B&B XT-RTC add 30.00
5) Hard Drive Controller 50.00
6) Hard Drive - 20Meg 150.00
- 40Meg add 100.00
7) Hard Drive Power Supply 80.00
8) cable & connectors 15.00
9) Hard Drive Case 25.00
Hard Drive software requirements:
1) Hard Drive s/w is included w/ B&B h/w
2) HyperIO - needed to run RS Dos s/w 40.00
____________________________________________________
Quite a list. The prices are what I remember when I
was shopping. You'll save money if you find a used
system or used components.
Since I had a working system I played with it for a
while but never could access the second hard drive
and could not access the RS Dos s/w because my ver-
sion of HyperIO is a later version than the one used
to set up the hard disk. I ended up reformating one
hard drive and started from scratch. The second HD
is on the shelf and is a backup or will be used for
a second system.
See Pt. 2 for a review of how it works.
=*
|
MY HARD DRIVE PT. 2 If you use OS-9 you know you need drivers for the hardware in the system. Then you need a BOOT file with these drivers in it to boot OS-9. OS-9 L2 has most of the drivers you need and OS-9 Development System has some HD drivers. I had to use EZGEN (a file that came with the B&B XT-RTC) to generate my HD drivers. To be more precise you need a device driver and a device descriptor. Then I used CONGIG (a file from OS-9 L2) to generate the Boot file. I then booted the system and formatted the Hard Disk. OS-9 uses a tree structure and doesn't care what size your storage device(s) are. It handles data on a 35 trac single sided floppy just as it does on a dbl sided 360K floppy, 720K 3-1/2" floppy, or 40M Hard Drive. It just has to Know what you have => ____________________________________________________ in the system. The Boot file has this information. I put some OS-9 s/w on the hard drive. Started with CMDS and SYS, but application s/w was a little more involved. Most application s/w has a unique module that must be in the boot file. I had to modify my boot file using OS-9 GEN (on OS-9 L2) to include these modules. Once installed everything works fine. For example, I installed Kings Quest III on the HD and never have to swap flippies (it comes on 5 flip- pies) when I play. RS-Dos s/w is another story. RS-Dos uses a single level directory system. To handle this on a Hard Drive, Burke & Burke offers HyperIO. HIO modifies RS-Dos and allows you to access the hard drive. => ____________________________________________________ Without getting into a technical discussion, he uses Disk Handles (DH) and Mass Storage Areas (MSA). You have four DH to work with and can attach them to any storage device. A storage device can be a floppy drive, a RAM drive or a MSA on the hard drive. You create MSAs on the hard drive. The MSA can be any size from 2K to 3M. I set up 180K & 360K MSAs which are equivalant to single and double sided floppies. Each MSA has a label to distinguish it from the others. I have 52 180K MSAs labeled from /H0/A thru /H1/Z & 26 360K MSAs labeled from /H2/A thru /H2/Z. Once you have finalized your HyperIO ccnfiguration you can burn it into an EPROM. I still boot from a floppy disk because I may still change my config. ==== If I still have your attention see Pt. 3. == =* |
MY HARD DRIVE PT. 3 You config your system with HyperIO much like OS-9 by creating up to nine storage drivers. A driver is needed for each floppy drive, each RAM drive and for a group of 26 MSAs on the hard drive. You also con- fig the default for your disk handles. My system has drivers for two 180K (78 gr) floppies and one 360K (158 gr) floppy, one 180K RAM drive, and the three groups of MSAs mentioned above. My disk handle de- fault sets d0 = /H0/A on the hard drive, d1 & d3 = actual d1 & d3 floppy, and d2 = actual d0 & d2 com- bined into a 360K big disk. I have FD-502 floppies. This leaves me two drivers for another RAM drive or another group of MSAs on the hard drive or a 3-1/2" 720K floppy drive. When I boot from RS-Dos (HyperIO doesn't like => ____________________________________________________ ADOS) I'm on hard drive MSA /H0/A and don't need a floppy drive to run RS-DOS s/w. MSA /H0/A has my MENU & BOOT programs. "*.BAS" is my main menu which lists catagories like Games, Databases, etc. Each catagory has its own menu. The Games Menu, for ex- ample, lists which games are on the HD and when I select one the boot part of the program takes care of the disk handle switching and will LOADM & EXEC the game. Now you know why I like my Menu & Boot programs. I don't have to remember filenames, where the file is on the HD, or use all those keystrokes to switch disk handles. It's user friendly. My way of explaining this may make it sound very complicated. It isn't. If you use OS-9 it's a piece of cake. If I can understand it, anybody can. => ____________________________________________________ So what are the advantages. Once s/w is installed you don't have to work with floppy disks. The HD is faster. You save wear and tear on your floppy drives and disks (but wear the HD instead). You don't need all those back-up copies to work from. The disadvantages? If the s/w doesn't like ADOS it probably won't work with HyperIO. You can't backup protected s/w to the HD. Some s/w will ignore the HyperIO default set-up and convert back to RS-Dos. So I still have to compute using the floppy drives. That's my hard drive. If you have a B&B system or another system I'd like to know how it was set up. ROY *END (finally) =* |
SUPERPUT TIPS Here's some stuff I forgot about until the last
minute, after it was too late to put it into the
SUPERPUT3 doc file. These are some tips for using
SP3, to help it run faster and easier.
*First thing, very important: SP3 occupies $FA0C to
$FEFF in memory (leftover space after the superBASIC
code), so obviously you can't use that space for
your own ML programs. (By the way, I intend to make
SP4 ML-accessable).
*When setting up the buffers within the memory pages
with HBUFF, define your most frequently used buffers
first. I mean chronological order, not numerical. If
you intend to use buffer#4 the most, =>
____________________________________________________
go HBUFFSPT &H3404,x first,before any other buffers
you plan to put in page $34. BASIC sets up its
buffers sequentially, which means that when you ask
for a buffer, the system needs to go thru all the
other buffers before it to get to the one you want.
Note that buffers don't need to defined in any sort
of numerical order (you can go 7,12,2,99 -- anyway
you like), and that the page these buffers go into
have no effect on the buffers or how fast the system
gets to them (assuming you using "legal" pages).
*I touched on this in the SP3DOC.DAT file but I want
to stress it here -- the Y-flip and XY-flip actions
(3 and 5) take much longer to execute than the other
two actions in that group, 2 and 4, because the
process of switching the halves of each byte ->
____________________________________________________
in the buffer is costly. Therefore, if you have the
memory to spare, USE IT. If you need to use a
X-flipped image, flip it and then save that reversed
image in another buffer, like this:
200 SPT0,0,39,39,&H3406,3:'print flipped image
210 SPT0,0,39,39,&H3506,0:'save flipped image
500 SPTX,Y,39,39,&H3506,2:'use flipped image instead
of constantly flipping original image.
I've put the two images in separate pages with the
same buffer number, to keep it organized. You don't
necessarily have to do it this way. You can put a
buffer and its mirror image in the same page (I
could easily have used &H3407 or &H345D for the
flipped image).
=*
|
| Articles in section: COCO FRIENDS ART GALLERY |
| *3CFDM ART FROM ARTHUR WILLIAMS BRIDGE BYTE '94 ?! CC3POWER COOLSPOT MUSTANG VIEWING THE CFDM ART GALLERY |
| Back to top |
*3CFDM
Someone once said, "a picture is worth a thousand
words", well I added a few words with this graphic.
.......... Michael Lewis
=*
|
ART FROM ARTHUR WILLIAMS
Dear Rick,
Please find 3 drawings on this disk, I hope you can
use them at sometime in the future. POSTMAN1 is my
way of saying thanks to all for a job well done, a
Christmas drawing to all CFDM members.
Rick thank you for your help in the past, and to you
and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year...and I hope you are all in good health.
Arthur Williams
67 High Street
Harrington, NSW 2427
Australia
(Also see SCENE.NIB and COASTCL.NIB.) =*
|
BRIDGE
This is my second attempt at serious graphics. I
saw this black and white picture of a covered bridge
in the snow and decided to try and capture it on
the CoCo. Since most of the lines were straight and
the colors not a problem, it was not too hard for.
I am learning a lot about COCO MAX 3, but I have a
lot to learn yet. Still it proves the many facets of
the CoCo that I have yet to explore. I hope you
like it.
Charles
=*
|
BYTE '94 ?!
Here's visionist Ray Berney's prediction for a
possible future magazine cover!
Looks good to me!
=*
|
CC3POWER
In the forum section of ISSUE #20, Jim Bennett
commented on the unique features of CFDM being the
music and graphic submissions. He suggested that
this uniqueness could be expanded; graphics could be
used to present charts, maps etc. The submission
CC3POWER comes from his Jim's idea. For those of
you who have the CoCo 3 service manual, you will
find this schematic on page 45. For those who
would like the whole manual, I ordered mine just 6
months ago through Tandy special order service. It
should still be available. My cost was $39.04 Can-
adian.
(Note: Please see Perry's artile "GETTING UNDER THE
HOOD" in the ARTICLES OF THE MONTH section.)
=*
|
COOLSPOT
You have, no doubt seen this guy on TV and in Video
games, now here he is trying to get in our Disk
Magazine.
He has a interview with Rick, but I don't
know how that will turn out...
M. Lewis
-----
RICK: I tried my best to get this inside the
magazine side, but it was just a little too complex.
It's neat tho and I like it!
=*
|
MUSTANG
With this effort, I'm again branching out into new
territory. I was a little hesitant on starting out
for fear I wouldn't be able to do justice to a very
detailed subject.
I found this picture in an advertisement for a col-
lector's plate in the supplement to my Sunday paper.
I was so impressed that I had to try putting it into
CoCoMax 3. It took the better part of three days be-
fore I was satisfied. I hope you enjoy it too.
=*
|
VIEWING THE CFDM ART GALLERY Please use NIBSHOW to view the .NIB pictures on this
month's disk. As you recall, NIBSHOW was featured
in issue #18 and a more complete documentation can
be found there. NIBSHOW is the contribution of our
Friend Stuart Wyss-Gallifent. Thanks Stuart!
After RUNning NIBSHOW, press D for a directory of
the NIB pictures on the disk. Use the arrow keys to
choose a picture and press the spacebar to view it.
Press BREAK to leave the picture. Press X at the
MAIN MENU to exit NIBSHOW.
=*
|
| Articles in section: FAMILY TREE |
| CHARLES
L. GIBSON EDWARD DE KOSTER Herb Forger |
| Back to top |
CHARLES L. GIBSON When I didn't see my area represented on Michael
Lewis' CFDMMAP (Bonus#4b),I decided it was time to
enter my family tree. After all I am among the early
subcribers of CFDM (#35), and my LPOKE articles in
issue #2 inspired (so he said), Colin North to send
a whole series of programs. I also sent the first
music entry DOLLY (#4), which sparked Herb Schuler
& others to send an explosion of music selections.
SO MUCH FOR THE EGO TRIP! Actually I am only a small
part of CFDM. Rick provided the medium and George
Quellhorst wrote the program MUSIC+3 that made the
music entries possible.I am only a user of these and
other fine instruments.
Anyway I was born in 1931 hence now 62 years old.
I purchased my first CoCo2 in 1984 primarily for my
son. He did learn some programming but he was =>
____________________________________________________
mainly intrested in games and the flight simulator.
I still have a CoCo2, CoCo3 128 and CoCo3 512, 2
disk drives (one single one double), modem, Dmp105
and mostly use an Okidata 390 printer.
I am not the news man but I am self employed as a
major appliance, A/C, furnace repair man for over 20
years. And am thinking of retirement.
The CoCo is still facinating to me and there are
so many facets that I havn't even touched yet. I use
it mainly for business, some music, and I am just
getting into graphics, which I hope to submit soon.
I enjoy being able to program in basic and have the
computer do what I want. It gives me a real sense of
satisfaction and accomplishment. I rarely use it to
play games. =>
____________________________________________________
Like most of you I am alone here. My friends are
all in IBM. Therefore I am glad to have others out
there who are still interested in this great little
machine.
I have recieved a great deal of help and letters
from so many of you I couldn't begin to mention all
of you here but, thanks to all in CFDM.
701 Sherman Ave.
Edwardsville, IL 62025
=*
|
EDWARD DE KOSTER My name is Ed De Koster and I live in Grandville,
Michigan which is a suburb of Grand Rapids. My
wife's name is Kathleen and we have eight grown-up
children. I have been retired for thirteen years
from the treasury department of the State of
Michigan where I worked for over thirty-two years.
I purchased my first Coco while on vacation at a
Radio Shack store in Ohio. I still have this Coco
II and since have acquired another Coco II, a 512K
Coco III, two DMP 106 printers, an FD 501 disk
drive, a CM-8 monitor and a CTR-70 tape recorder.
I have gone to a few RAINBOWFESTS in Chicago and
while there purchased quite a few software items.
I also got some software from a manager =>
____________________________________________________
of a local Radio Shack.
Although I have been playing around with Color
Computers for a few years, I have never gotten
around to doing much programming other than changing
a few programs to fit my needs.
I think Rick has a good thing going with CFDM and
compliment him on the fine job he is doing. Also,
the contributors to the magazine by some of the
members help to make this a fine thing for Cocoists.
I don't think I will be able to submit any programs
to the magazine since I am not a programmer. But I
might be able to make a submission of another type.
I sincerely hope that Rick's CFDM will =>
____________________________________________________
be around for a long time.
My address is: 4365 Wimbledon Drive, S.W.
Apartment 11
Grandville, MI 49418-2822
=*
|
Herb Forger Hi, I'm Herb, 61 years old & striving for 100. I spent some time in the submarine service maintaining torpedo fire control computers and equipment during the Korean conflict. However these computers would not resemble a computer today. After that I went to work for the phone company. I have been involved with "computers" since 1967 when the telephone industry went electronic. I was in on the ground floor of repair maintenance. Then I moved on to management assignments which lead to main frame involvement and error correction duties. Next came the COCO in 1983. I got into a COCO club & found another world of computing. While I'm not even a fair programmer, I can do my share of error detec- tion & correction work. => ____________________________________________________ I have a 128k COCO3, 2 drives & a CM8 monitor with 4000+ programs, mostly from Rainbow but also many other sources; all indexed for reasonable access. As time when on I went to an IBM with 3 of my children. My IBM & my COCO stand side by side, each with its own printer, one with color. I share equal time with both units, but at least I can modify COCO programs to my liking (but not the IBM). I am married to a computer illiterate (Mary) who still loves me after 40 years of marriage & four children (all grown). Having retired 6 years ago, you would think that I'd have plenty of time to devote to the COCO. WRONG! I now wonder how I ever found the time to ever go to work! => ____________________________________________________ I enjoy computing when the weather is bad or just plain cold, but there are other times when fishing/ boating/biking/walking etc eat away at my leisure time. Herb Forger Sr. 88 Dry Hill Rd Norwalk, Ct 06851 Tel: (203)-847-4282 =* |
| Articles in section: FORUM |
| Anyone
interested?/ |
| Back to top |
Anyone interested?/ It feels strange not being able to submit too much
to CFDM recently. I have been working on a couple
of little projects that people may be interested to
hear about.
1) a LASER PRINTER version of AUTOGREY and all those
other screen-dump programs. LASERDMP is written
in machine language (most of it) with help from
George Q., and will print out any HSCREEN 2 in
16 shades of grey. The program automatically
assigns shades based on the colors in the
palette. We are still working out the bugs, so
be patient if you are interested. ('bug' means
that the picture is currently unrecognizable
after it is printed.)
=>
____________________________________________________
2) I have been in contact with Jim Mills, the author
of the Thaediak stories, and I am trying to come
up with a way of saving and loading half-screens
of pictures, while scrolling text in the lower
half. I threw out SUPERPUT, and wrote a very
specific scroll program that is faster than
SUPERPUT because it was deliberately written just
to scroll the lower half of the screen.
I have submitted a demo (DEMO.BAS) to illustrate
this.
3) I cannot believe the response to my program
give-a-way!! If I had only charged people...
Just kidding. Please be patient while I get
another dozen copies of the manual run off.
=*
|
| Articles in section: FROM THE EDITOR |
| FAREWELL
TO ANOTHER FRIEND FROM RICK KUDOS <g> UPDATE ON WALTER BAYER |
| Back to top |
FAREWELL TO ANOTHER FRIEND Again I'm sorry to report that another one of our
dear Friends has passed away. Walter Bayer of
Coless Computer Design, has recently passed away.
Information is sketchy at this time, but I will try
to have more later.
A number of Friends have recently reported that they
could not contact Walter. Then a couple of weeks
ago Terry Laraway wrote that "Walter Bayer has had a
5 valve bypass surgery and is in very critical
condition." Terry also sent a phone number where I
could get more information. After leaving a message
I received a return call saying that Walter had
passed away. I was also promised a letter with more
information.
=>
____________________________________________________
Although some of our other Friends probably knew
Walter better than I, I did receive a number of
calls from him during the last 18 months. He was
dedicated to the CoCo and had spent many hours
writing programs for it. Walter is best know for
his software company, Coless Computer Design and his
best known software was CCIII Pages.
I hope that some of our Friends who knew Walter will
give us more information about his work.
I was told that Walter had no family here in the US.
He had one sister in Europe.
=*
|
FROM RICK It's Saturday, a beautiful, almost spring-like day
here in Liberty! And I'm putting the finishing
touches on issue #26. This kind of weather makes
one homesick for summer and even days of our youth.
It's hard to believe that only a week ago we were
going thru an ice storm and were without electricity
for two days. School was dismissed for three days
but without electricity I couldn't get anything done
on CFDM.
Looking back, it's been a pretty rough month. The
ice storm, a near-record snowfall, and the passing
of a loved one really drains the energy. On Jan.
25th Donna's dad, Phillip Combest, died from
complications of heart surgery. The family is doing
very well now, but it's not a pleasant thing. =>
____________________________________________________
Looking forward to the CoCo year I see the group
continuing to enjoy the companionship we've put
together during the last two. But I don't see any
new things on the horizon as far as offerings of
quality software or hardware. It was very exciting
to be able to acquire and offer COCOPRO!, SUNDOG,
and DAYTON ASSOCIATE's Blue Streak this past year.
Any day now I'll begin work on a program for the
DRAGON THAW issue. I hope I'll be able to do it
justice. And we have high hopes for 'Phone Fest II'
in early April. I hope everyone will give a call
and enjoy that event!
Until next month, Keep CoCoing!
=>
____________________________________________________
This month's scripture was provided in the letter
from Jim Cuthbertson.
----------------------------------------------------
PS: In keeping with your practice of including a
verse of scripture on your disk (which I find very
uplifting) I would submit to you the following in
memorium of Wally.
It's from II Corinthians ch 1, vs 5.
'For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so
our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.'
=*
|
|
<< WILLIAM ASTLE >> << NORM BARSON >> << JIM BENNETT >> << RAY BERNEY >> << H. ALLEN CURTIS >> << JIM CUTHBERTSON >> << EDWARD DE KOSTER >> << HERB FORGER >> << PERRY FRIESEN >> << JIM GIBBONS >> << CHARLES GIBSON >> << GLENSIDE COCO CLUB >> << MADMIKE HOKE >> << THOMAS HUBER >> << KEIRAN KENNY >> << MICHAEL LEWIS >> << D. M. MACFARLANE >> << ESTHER MILLARD >> << HAROLD MOENICH >> << GODFREY MOLL >> << DINA PHILIPS >> << ROY PUTLACK >> << KENNEY TREVINO >> << ROBERT A. TURNER >> << ARTHUR WILLIAMS >> << PAUL WOLF >> << STUART WYSS-GALLIFENT >> |
UPDATE ON WALTER BAYER The following letter and obituary were received
today from Walter's friend Jim Cuthbertson.
----------------------------------------------------
Dear Rick,
I finally got some copies of Wally's obituary to
send to some of his friends.
As I mentioned when I talked to you on the phone
several days ago I had known Wally for about 10 or
12 years going back to one of the original CoCo
clubs organized here in the Milwaukee area.
He certainly never tired of wanting to learn more
and more about his CoCo....
=>
____________________________________________________
Wally had been feeling quite bad for a couple of
weeks in early December and finally around the 18th
or 19th of Dec. he went to the hospital for tests
and was informed that he had suffered a heart
attack. The determination was made that he needed to
have quintuple (5) bypasses. This was done a couple
of days before Christmas. The operation itself was
very successful, however two days later he suffered
a respiratory failure and eventually other internal
organ failure which he finally succumbed to. He
suffered from diabetes and this was probably the
largest contributor to the organ failure.
I'm sure he will be missed by many CoCo Nuts every
where.
=>
____________________________________________________
Walter Bayer
Waukesha - Walter Bayer, age 53, died Tuesday, Jan.
25, 1994, at Waukesha Memorial Hospital. He was born
on Feb. 18, 1940.
He came to Wisconsin from Germany in 1962. In 1963
he enlisted in the Army and served until 1966 in
Vietnam. For the last 16 years he worked as a motor
route carrier for the Waukesha Freeman.
He is survived by sister, Brigitte Pfeffer of
Germany. Other relatives and friends in Germany as
well as Waukesha also survive.
Graveside services will be held Friday, Jan. 28,
at 12:30 p.m. at Wood National Cemetery, Milwaukee.
The Randle-Dable Funeral Home is in charge of
arrangements. =*
|
| Articles in section: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
| ENJOYED
CFDM #24 For RICK GREAT RESPONSE TO PEEKS/POKES! Herb's FASCINATION is a WINNER! KEEP THE FAITH! MISSED PHONE FEST I RAVES FOR CFDM! |
| Back to top |
ENJOYED CFDM #24 Dear Rick,
Please forward another 25 disks. The trouble with
something that is attractively priced and good is
that one tends to lose one's sense for frugality.
And suddenly, I grasp for a disk and they're all
gone!
I received CFDM #24 and Bonus Disk #6 yesterday.
Good postal service!
I was glad to see your very user -- friendly CFDM
Index. I have already had some benefit from it. You
will already have received my submission CFDMCONT
and text files of CFDM contents but, of course, that
will no longer be necessary. Oh well, great minds =>
____________________________________________________
think alike!
I was very touched by Joseph L and Sandra A Kramer's
Family Tree valedictory to Dale, and by Bob
Mirabilo's beautifully and sensitively expressed
FROM THE HEART in Forum. While I read it a quote
from John Donne kept welling up in my mind:
"And when the bell tolls, send not to know for
whom it tolls, for it tolls for you."
Sincerely,
Keiran Kenny
=>
____________________________________________________
------
RICK: Thanks Keiran. It is always a great pleasure
to hear from our Friend from Holland!
Per your entry CFDMCONT, we may still get that in.
It never hurts to see how others approach similar
problems.
=*
|
For RICK Time to renew my subscription again. I guess time
flies when you're getting a good disk magazine. I
find myself burning the midnight oil when the disk
arrives. It's like a good book. I can't turn it off
til I finish the mag side.
I enjoyed George Q's comment in the Aug issue about
adding a width statement in programs. I use ADOS
a lot and work in the 80 col screen. I usually do a
DIR in 80 col to keep it from scrolling off the
screen. Then when I type run "WHATEVER" it hangs up
because the first statement says PRINT at. I just
found out that your entry writer can't handle the at
symbol - the key between P and clear. Why not? The
at symbol gives a help screen and shift/at gives a
which is the same thing you get with shift/<=. =>
____________________________________________________
Well, as you can see, I'm easily distracted. Getting
back to George's comment, I find I'm adding a width
statement early in my programs and adding it to
other folks programs to avoid this hang-up. Thank
George for me for sounding off.
As long as I'm renewing I took the time to put to-
gether some submissions. On this disk you will also
find an article on my hard drive, a Menu & Boot
program, and some questions. Hope you can use them.
Keep up the good work Rick. I look forward to hear-
ing from you and the regulars and enjoy hearing from
the occassional submitter.
Have a problem with 1-18, the heavy disk. When =>
____________________________________________________
I restore the copy I have 46 Free grans instead of
44. At first I could not get the nibshow to run the
last two pics. Tried more backups and restores and
finally got the nibshow to run, but I still have 46
Free grans. That was a heavy disk.
Roy
=*
|
GREAT RESPONSE TO PEEKS/POKES! Received the issue #24 CFDM disk. I am sending $30
for the next 6 issues. The Dancing girl on your
Bonus disk is WILD and amazing!! I am enjoying CFDM
and learning something new from every issue. I must
mention when I asked about pokes & peeks, the
response was great from our CFDM Friends. I thank
all. I am still fumbling but hope to be able to use
the system (ENTRY WRITER) to submit articles.
Thomas Huber
867 No. Lamb Blvd. SP. 48
Las Vegas, NV 89110
------
RICK: It's always great to hear that someone has had
response(s) to their requests for help! =*
|
Herb's FASCINATION is a WINNER! Hi Rick,
Was I delighted to see that Herb Schuler, whose
music talents I greatly admire, has added a splendid
rendition of "Fascination" to my Patience program,
FASCIN8. His music apparently has stimulated my
solitaire playing abilities. Now, I win at
FASCINATION much more frequently.
I hope that Herb's fascinating rhythm brings as
much pleasure to others as it has to me.
=*
|
KEEP THE FAITH! Hi Rick,
It was great talking to you for the very short time
that we spoke today. I realize that spare time for
you must be at a premium but I greatly appreciate
the effort that you and your support group put into
the CFDM project. And I hope that the ping pong
table can withstand the load!
I have enclosed my check for $45 for 100 FLIPPIE
diskettes since I have become tired of making my
own; (my homemade templates don't last that long.)
After 10+ years of that, I think that it's time to
get smart.
=>
____________________________________________________
When I think about your girls helping out with your
project, it reminds me of my own sideline, a
thousand years ago when I had a small trucking
service to supplement my telephone company salary.
Wages were virtually non-existent for them, but my
young employees (daughters and sons) never
complained.
If your wife can keep her faith in your venture and
your family can continue to support your efforts,
then the only remaining factor is the support of all
of us: the CFDM FAMILY whom I believe is quite
strong! GOD BLESS!
Your Friend,
Herb Forger
=>
____________________________________________________
-----
RICK: Thanks for your wonderful letter Herb! As
I write this Donna is stamping mailers for #25. She
also duplicated 250 diskettes front and back today!
I must say that without Donna's help I'd really be
busy!!
And a recurring thought is: "There's a number of
CoCo publications now and it seems that we all have
similar numbers of subscribers...but, I wouldn't
trade ours for theirs!" Our Friends have been so
faithful in supporting CFDM! I don't see an end in
sight for our group!
=*
|
MISSED PHONE FEST I Friend Rick,
I received disk #23 with your offer to bid on the
packages of programs by phone for the one day only
December 21, 1993.
Unfortunately the offer arrived December 22, 1993
thereby excluding me from bidding on these offers.
Mail from you usually takes 10 to 14 days to arrive
here. Why this time frame is a mystery. If you
mail the disks at the end or beginning of each month
it will arrive here in the second week of the same
month. If you have a similar offer in the future,
could you mail it a week earlier. No doubt others
are experiencing the same problem. =>
____________________________________________________
-----
RICK: Thanks for your information and request D.M.
Now I must extend my apologies to all those who did
not receive notice in time to participate in the
first Phone Fest. I hope my flyer in issue #25 will
give everyone ample time to make plans to attend.
And....there's some really GREAT software and books
in those packages. I HOPE EVERYONE WILL CHECK THESE
PACKAGES OUT AND PARTICIPATE IN THE AUCTION. When
putting together the packages I almost hesitated to
include some of them...but I know I won't have time
to enjoy them...so I'll give others a chance. Most
of the packages speak for themselves, but if you're
interested in assembly language be sure to bid on
package #4. Also the CoCo books are fantastic!
=*
|
RAVES FOR CFDM! Every time I get a new issue I find something of
interest to work with. In #18 Leslie Waltz had his
"CD" Music Loader program. It was great, and I
proceeded to put all the music on one disk. Then out
comes issue #19 with George's "Player" program. Now
that is even better and so I did the whole thing
over again. It all keeps me busy!
=*
|
| Articles in section: POTPOURRI |
| A
RHYMIN' RENEWAL! DOOR by Harold Moenich <g> Operation: PATCH complaints Rambling About Ads The Interchangeable Startup Page |
| Back to top |
A RHYMIN' RENEWAL! Dear Rick,
I just received number twenty-four,
And by my count, I'll get two more.
I won't be late like in the past,
Please don't make twenty-six my last!
I really do enjoy the disk,
Be sure to keep me on your list.
For if you end my subscription now,
Like my kid says, "I'll have a cow!".
So before I run short of luck,
Keep 'em comin', here's my thirty bucks. =>
____________________________________________________
Paul L. Wolf
570 Black Rock Road
Hanover, PA 17331
( 7-02-26 )
P.S.: After you read this letter, by heck,
I wouldn't be surprised if you
returned my check!
-----
RICK: Paul it's always great hearing from you,
Now your subscription is up to issue 32!
=*
|
Operation: PATCH complaints If there were any down-sides to my contest, Jim
Bennett brought one glaring example out in Issue 24:
relying on old RAINBOWs for answers.
Well, I had almost completely forgotten something
very important! You needn't know the answer!! YOU
NEED TO KNOW THE CORRECT KEY!! Once you find out the
correct key, the answer will unscramble right before
your very eyes. That's the beauty of this type of
program! The answer is there, just all scrambled up
in code.
(I believe I have given sufficient information in
the clues for the keys.)
=*
|
Rambling About Ads In issue 24 of CFDM, I saw an advertisement for
Rick's FLIPPIES: 100 FLIPPIES for the amazing price
of $45. I won't be the first (or last) to admit
that I have been "making" my own double-sided disks
for about 10 years and I thought that it was no big
deal. After all I had very few bad results. BUT
then I thought about the time it takes to make the
templates to create the second side and the time to
actually make the change to each disk. Also my
cardboard templates don't last forever as I thought.
So finally I got smart. Why spend my precious time
laboring when I can write a check for 100 disks
already prepared for my COCO use. Face it, Friends:
Some times you have to stop and smell the roses!
Thanks, Rick for the bouquet! =>
____________________________________________________
The point of this rambling is that I have seen some
interesting things made available through ads in
CFDM. Rick has a lot of good stuff out there and
everyone's interest in that part of CFDM adds to
the continuing success of this disk magazine. Other
Friends' ads also contribute to this success and I
would hope that all of you would give some
consideration to each of them.
Like each of you, I'm waiting for the next issue of
CFDM!
Herb Forger 88 Dry Hill Rd Norwalk, Ct 06851-3127
Tel: (203) 847-4282
=>
____________________________________________________
-----
RICK: Thanks for the endorsement Herb! And please
allow me to add this: When you make your own flips,
you still have to buy the original diskettes and if
you buy a quality diskette you spend at least as
much as my flippies cost. Personally, I have never
made a flippie because my time is worth more than my
money! Flippies are a great bargain in my opinion.
=*
|
The Interchangeable Startup Page Rick:
First of all I would like to thank you for entering
one of my many programs that I had sent you in the
past in last month's issue of CFDM #24.
But the reason that I'am writing to you is because
of a question posed by Kraig Kemp in last month's
issue asking if it were possible to change the baud
rate for the printer usage at the main startup page
of your basic CFDM program "C.BAS".
Will I'm happy to say that I have revamped the
beginning of your "C.BAS" program to accept seven
diffrent baud rate settings.
600, 1200, 2400, 3600, 4800, 7200, 9600
=>
____________________________________________________
I did not used any more granules than the orginal
"C.BAS" program on the CFDM disk #24 but you will
see a slight change in the remark lines at the
beginning of your program to save the keystrokes
that you spoke of in last month's issue.
I do not run my COCO using NEW DOS or ADOS so I
cannot tell you the changes that I have made will
work with either one however I do use RSDOS and my
COCO had been upgraded to 512K and with the changes
that I have made the "C.BAS" program will run on my
COCO just fine.
Signed:
Kenney Trevino
1146 W. Lynwood St.
Phoenix, Arizona 85007-1917
=>
____________________________________________________
-----
RICK: Thanks Kenney for your valiant and fruitful
effort of answering Kraig's request! I am including
your program lines in the original "C.BAS" and you
can find it on the PROGRAM SIDE of this issue. For
those desiring this option, that is to manually
enter the baud rate each time you fire up "C.BAS",
you can replace the "C.BAS" on your CFDM disks with
"NEWC.BAS".
As I noted in issue #24, the philosophy I followed
in writing "C.BAS" was to make it possible to get to
the magazine with as few keystrokes as possible.
Personally, I am an impatient sort and I like to get
were I'm going as quickly as possible. I do applaud
your work and I think Kraig and others will too! =*
|
"DMP105B": ANOTHER
SCREEN DUMP. Here is another entry in my series of screen dump programs. I love to develop these things! I got the idea for this program from John W. Handis (indirect- ly, via his BASIC screen dump in The Rainbow, May 1988, Page 92 - give credit where due!). He used a novel approach at dumping the two color PMODE screen to the DMP-105 printer. The technique was to check the pixels two across by two down (a four pixel grid ) and to use the Tandy DMP-105 printer Block Graphic codes to represent the grid. A 2 x 2 grid gives six- teen possible binary combinations. The DMP-105 Block codes can be used to represent these combinations. This technique provides almost a full page screen dump. John's BASIC program takes 15 to 20 minutes to dump a PMODE 4 screen to the DMP-105. The Machine Language version that I wrote takes just under 5 => ____________________________________________________ minutes at 600 BAUD. Quite an improvement. I would like to thank Mr. Handis for sparking such a wonder- ful idea! If anyone knows how to contact him, please let me know. The reformatting technique that I used also over- writes the PMODE screen as it dumps it to the printer. My "DMP105A" program does the same. The reason is simple - it saves a lot of code, thus execution time is decreased (it works faster). This program is called "DMP105B". It is a BASIC program with the machine language appended to it via end packing. Do not save it in the ASCII format, or the M/L will be destroyed since an ASCII save cannot represent codes above 127. The program includes a test to warn if this has happened. => ____________________________________________________ My "DMP105A" program should work with almost any Tandy Code compatible printer, with possibly the exception of their earliest (DMP-100, LP VII?). This program, however, will probably only work with the DMP-105, unless your printer has the EXACT block graphics characters, represented by the codes 224 - 239. I could convert it to other printers if anyone can send me a printout of their printers block graphics codes and the codes that represent them. I will also need the code sequence required to put the printer in the 132 character per line mode (this mode will be needed to get a good screen to paper ratio). I have included the source code as: "DMP105B/ASM". The program is: "DMP105B/BAS". R.A.Turner, POB 396, DOUBLE SPRINGS, AL 35553. =* |
CFDMFORM In the early days of CFDM it was common practice to
find a 1/4 sheet of paper in your monthly issue.
This paper was a form to be used for submitting your
contributions to CFDM. This made it simple for Rick
to know what was on your submission disk. Since the
advent of the numbered menu, the need of this form
is not as necessary as before. But it's nice to see
that some still make use of it.
CFDMFORM.BAS is a program that produces a page-size
copy of the submission form. Just turn your printer
on and answer the baud prompt. You'll soon have a
usable submission form, full-sized!
=*
|
CLRMTCHR - test your color sense Differences between the 63 colors available on the CoCo 3 can sometimes be very subtle. This app- lies especially to blue (or blueish) colors of which there seem to be very many available in the CoCo 3 palette spectrum. CLRMTCHR will display a large random color patch left on the black screen. On the right you have an invisible black patch. Depress the up or down arrow to step up or down through the color range until the color that matches the color patch left appears. Press the spacebar to check your judgement. If your choice is wrong, the left color patch will be moved against the right to make it easier for you to see the difference. The program is for an RGB monitor. Change lines 30 and 240 if you are using a CMP monitor. =* |
FAHRCELS - Watch the Mercury FAHRCELS was published in a PMODE4 version on a
T&D disk in 1992. This HSCREEN2 version uses most of
the PMODE4 listing. In the graphic character set,
lines 1270 to 2130, some characters have been given
strings to to produce characters not available on
the keyboard.
Thus, in a graphic text string, CHR$(64), will
print as a degree sign and the backslash will under-
line the previous character. See the text strings in
lines 830 and 890. Because the text strings in the
listing can be positioned anywhere on the screen I
found it preferable to keep the graphic character
set.
The program is, I think, adequately prompted. I
understand that metrification is again on the agenda
in the USA and I hope that young or old Friends =>
____________________________________________________
will find the graphic thermometer picture convincing
and useful.
To begin, you can enter temperatures within the
thermometer range and the mercury will rise accord-
ingly.
In the second part of the program, you can enter
temperatures outside the range of the thermometer.
In this case the mercury will show only if your en-
try produces a result that is a multiple of a value
within the thermometer range. Try F -40 or C -40 for
the only points at which F and C coincide.
As in the PMODE4 version, the thermometer is ac-
tually drawn "behind the scenes" while the credit
and introductory text are on the first screen. My
thanks to George Quellhorst who demonstrated how to
use HSCREEN2 without losing previously drawn =>
____________________________________________________
graphic elements. See George's very colorful
SOLITAIR in "The Rainbow" of December 1988.
I understand that there has been some oppos-
ition to metrification in the USA while, in fact,
countries like Australia and New Zealand that made
the change during the sixties are glad they did.
=*
|
GM 1, GM 2, GM 3 So who needs another Menu & Boot program. I did, so
I wrote this one. Why do I need it? I'm running with
a 40M Hard Drive and a Menu system is the only way I
can think of to keep track of a few meg of RSDos sw.
This program is like my "*.BAS" program submitted a
few months back. You must edit in the name or de-
scription of the program and the filename to RUN or
LOADM. It is different because it uses a 40 column
screen and is expandable up to three pages. Each
page has space for nine filename/descriptions.
GM 1, GM 2, and GM 3 are ASCII files. Start with
GM 1 and use until full. Then MERGE in GM 2. It will
change a few lines and add the lines for page 2. If
you fill page 2 then MERGE in GM 3 to add page 3. =>
____________________________________________________
You must have both files in ASCII to merge. Once the
menu is complete you may want to save it as a binary
file to save disk space.
My screen choice was white on black. Could not get
this in RGB without using the PALETTE command so I
go with CMP in line 10 and set the colors in line 14
with ATTR 3,3. Change this to your liking. Wanted to
get rid of the green border. Found an article in the
Jan '91 Rainbow, p. 24. It says POKE 32720,x (where
x is the desired border color 0-63) and the border
will change instantly. It doesn't work on my mach-
ine. Any help with the border will be appreciated.
Can't think of anything more to say about these pro-
grams so I'll use the last page to prod those who =>
____________________________________________________
don't program. I counted myself in your group until
recently. Sure, I would edit a line occassionally,
but not much else.
This program gave me a lot of satisfaction when it
finally worked. No, it didn't work the first or sec-
ond try. It took planning and replanning. I had to
learn how to use LOCATE and ATTR and MERGE (commands
I knew about but had never used). Then the debugging
and finally it worked. I feel that if I keep at this
some day I may be able to PEEK and POKE worth a
DIM$. You too may have a good idea for a program. We
would like to see it. Let's get started on it.
Roy
=*
|
J. P. Morgan's Favorite The game of Patience presented here was named
Financier in honor of J. P. Morgan. It was a big
favorite of his. This masterful game is considered
to be one of the greatest solitaires ever devised.
One of its features that probably appealed to
Morgan is its bigness: it requires 2 decks of 48
cards each. No Aces are included in the decks.
Financier consists of a Tableau of 3 rows of 8 cards
each and a Trash row (8 Trash Piles) called T-row.
The rows of the Tableau are called the 2-, 3-, and
4-rows. The first card needed in each position of
each of the 2-, 3-, and 4-rows is a 2, a 3, and a 4,
respectively. On any 2 in the 2-row, a 5, then an 8,
and finally a Jack, all in the same suit, may be
played from any Tableau row or the T-row. Also, in
the 3-row, on any 3, a 6, then a 9, and finally =>
____________________________________________________
a Queen in the same suit may be played from any 2-,
3-, 4-, or T-row. The same applies to the 4-row with
a 4, 7, 10, and King of the same suit played in
succession.
The object of the game is to fill each Tableau row
with 8 complete suit sequences:
2-row: 8 sequences of 2, 5, 8, & Jack
3-row: 8 sequences of 3, 6, 9, & Queen
4-row: 8 sequences of 4, 7, 10, & King.
Achieving this objective is very difficult and
challenging! And, for better computer compatibility,
a slight change in the game was made which makes it
somewhat easier to win.
On the screen cards are dealt to the 2-, 3-, 4-, &
T-rows. A Stock of 64 cards remains to be dealt
when needed 8 cards at a time to the T-row. =>
____________________________________________________
The 8 positions in each of the rows are designated
by A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. Key commands are
used to play cards from any of the four rows to the
2-, 3-, or 4-rows. Key commands are also used for
dealing cards to the T-row from the Stock and for
quitting the game.
Suppose you wish to play a card from the C
position of the 3-row. You would merely press on
your CoCo 3 keyboard the keys 3 and C successively.
Suppose that the card in 3C is the 8 of Clubs. The
computer will search the 2-row for a 5 of Clubs on
which an 8 of Clubs may be played. If it finds such
an 8, the play is automatically made; otherwise, you
will hear a beep, indicating illegral play attempt.
Whether the play was legal or not, it will be
printed to the right of the T-row. For instance, =*
|
J. P. Morgan's Favorite (Cont.) if the play had been valid, you might see 3C TO 2F.
If there was no 8 of Clubs in the 2-row, you would
see an "AT" symbol (which cannot be written here)
following the 2. Play from the T-row is accomplished
similarly. For example, playing a 4 of Hearts from
the E position of the T-row to an empty position in
the 4-row merely entails typing TE. Pressing the N
key causes the Next 8 cards to be dealt from the
Stock to the T-row. If any Trash pile in that row
ever contains two or more cards, only the most
recently dealt two are displayed. The most recent
of those two is the bottom-most on the screen. To
quit the game, type Q twice in succession. A list of
the key commands (in menu form) is provided at the
bottom of the playing screen.
=>
____________________________________________________
A position in any of the 2-, 3-, or 4-row is
either outlined in red or it is not. Only cards in
unoutlined positions may be played and they must be
played to outlined positions. After an unoutlined
card has been played, its position becomes empty
and outlined. An empty outlined position in a 2-,
3-, or 4-row may be played to by only a 2, 3, or 4,
respectively. At the beginning of the game, if there
are no outlined positions in any of the 2-, 3-, and
4-rows,there are no possible plays. Such ignomimious
defeats occur entirely randomly; so, take them
sportingly, quit the current game, and ask for a
shuffle to start the next game of Financier.
The filename used for Financier is JPM.
Please see my ad in this issue for other
challenging games of solitaire. =*
|
LSYSTEM Fractals Okay, okay, so you've seen the Mandelbrot, and the
Julia Set, and you've had the opportunity to see
Plasma, and Newtons, etc. Just when you thought
it was safe....Here is a whole new branch of Fractal
math.
Enter LSYSTEM! Because my original fractal
program is too large to add another type, LSYSTEM
is stand-alone. LSYSTEM.BAS is the entire thing.
It does not have the ability to save/load/continue/
color-cycle/etc. It doesn't need to. The shapes
are all preprogammed, and take comparitively less
time. You can always get the same shape back with
a minimum of enlarging and iterating.
LOGO is the basis for LSYSTEM. LOGO is a kids'
programming language with commands like F 10 R 90
meaning Forward 10, turn Right 90 degrees, etc...=>
____________________________________________________
Those commands are the heart of LSYSTEM. When you
run the program, you'll see the dozen or so names
of pictures. They are descriptive of what they
draw. Each name matches to a series of LOGO commands
in memory. After entering the name, like TWIG3, or
FERN1, the program asks for the levels (1-6). This
is the number of repetitions. If you enter a level
of 1, the CoCo draws the basic shape only once. If
2, it draws the basic shape+1 level of the SAME
shape, but smaller. If you enter 3, that is the
basic shape+2 levels of the same shape, each smaller
than the previous. It sounds easy enough! The
basic shape is repeated at smaller and smaller
levels. Some shapes look better at 2 or 3 levels,
others at 5 or 6. Feel free to experiment!
The picture is on HSCREEN 4 for detail. =>
____________________________________________________
More levels take longer. The number of levels
increases the time exponentially. If a shape has
11 steps to draw at a level of 1, then at a level of
2, it has 11 x 11, or 121 steps. At a level of 3,
11 x 11 x 11, at a level of 4, 11 x 11 x 11 x 11,
etc!
The shape is drawn in yellow, and turns white
when done. If the shape is not white, then the
program isn't done, even if you don't see anything
happening.
I have described the DATA structure in the
program. Feel free to add more if you get the hang
of it. I know I will!
Finally, you WILL be AMAZED at how LIFELIKE some
of the pictures seem. They look EXACTLY like plants
and bushes in NATURE, and it's done w/ Math! =*
|
STEREOGRAMS Stereogram! No it's not a musical telegram. Nothing
like that at all. In the following paragraphs I'll
try to describe this phoenomena and hope you'll be
able to enjoy them. (Not all people can see them.)
A stereogram, also called a random dot stereogram,
is a collection of black and white picture elements
scattered in a seemingly random fashion over the
surface of a page. (They also display quite well on
a computer screen.) These random dot pictures are
usually presented in black and white since adding
color seems to distract the viewer.
Stereograms have been around for quite awhile but
have become very popular in the last few years. A
fellow by the name of Charles Wheatstone =>
____________________________________________________
described stereoscopy in 1932. Julesz (1960) was
the first to employ a computer to generate random
dot stereograms. Many consider him the person most
responsible for their popularity today.
I was introduced to stereograms about 18 months ago.
For the past couple of months I've worked on and off
at writing an assembly language program to convert
HSCREEN2 drawings to stereograms. I've completed a
program that does the work and you'll find it on the
program side of this issue.
RUN "STEREO.BAS" and view four sample stereograms.
The first two are generated pretty quickly. The last
two take a little longer. When the stereogram is
completed, you'll notice two black dots at the =>
____________________________________________________
top of the screen. Use these dots to help you focus
your eyes correctly. The three dimensional picture
will pop out at you when you are focused.
Here's how to focus (this does take practice so be
patient). Stare at the two dots at the top of the
page. Try to see both of them at once. You'll begin
to focus beyond the dots at a point behind the
screen located about the distance from your eyes to
the screen. You'll know you're properly focused when
a third dot between the two dots is fully formed.
Relax your eyes a little and the middle dot will be
clearly in focus. Now your eyes can begin to move
down the screen and actually see the 3D picture.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< ENJOY >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
To move to the next picture, press any key. =*
|
| Articles in section: REVIEWS |
| CoCo
Max 3 Color Max Deluxe Da Vinci 3 The RAT |
| Back to top |
CoCo Max 3 When it comes to naming the #1, most popular, best
all-around graphics program for the CoCo 3, CoCo Max
3 wins hands down! In fact, this program is so well
known that you may even be asking why in the world
am I bothering to review it? Isn't reviewing this
program like writing an instruction manual for using
a coat hanger? Well, almost. Except, I want to
address some problems that I have not heard discuss-
ed before.
I will state from the beginning that I believe that
CoCo Max 3 has been the greatest program ever writ-
ten for the CoCo 3. As an artist, I rely heavily on
this program for at least 90% of the computer graph-
ics that I create. It is a great program.
=>
____________________________________________________
Every review of CoCo Max 3 has been overwhelmingly
favorable. I would like to take a more critical
point of view for a change.
The main problem with this software is that there
has been only one significant improvement made in
the program since its release. That was the option
of using the RS joystick hi-res interface. That was
an improvement.
However, 3 other things could be improved. First,
there is a bug in the save part of the program which
can mess up a disk if you save/re-save a file with a
name which is the same as a graphic previously saved
on the disk. Second, the print option uses an odd
method of determining the width of the hardcopy. =>
____________________________________________________
In certain cases, a solid color or pattern will be
printed as wide vertical stripes! Third, there are
many options (see my review of Color Max Deluxe)
that are not included with CoCo Max 3 that really
should be. The program has no options for tilting
or bending sections of the graphic. There is no way
to change pixels from one palette to another except
by painting them another color, often complex to do.
The problem is that there has never, to the best of
my knowledge, been an attempt to patch this program.
Perhaps, CoCo Max 3 is looked at with too much awe
and reverence. However, the program is now 6 years
old and it needs a little rejuvenation. What is
really needed is a good patch to make a great pro-
gram even better.
=*
|
Color Max Deluxe Color Max 3 was the 1st graphics editor for the CoCo
3. It was sold first by Computize and then by
several other vendors (i.e. CoCo-Pro! and Zebra).
Color Max Deluxe was an upgraded version which runs
only on a 512k CoCo. About the same time that this
deluxe version came out, the long-awaited CoCo Max 3
suddenly appeared and quickly became THE #1 graphics
program. Although I agree that CoCo Max 3 is the
top graphics program for the CoCo 3, I have found as
an artist that there are times when I use Color Max
Deluxe because it has several features which CoCo
Max 3 does not have. (Oh, how I wish that it did!)
For one thing, Color Max has options where you can
bend and tilt graphics. For example, if you want
to create a title that curves in a semi-circle, =>
____________________________________________________
you first write it with the text option and then you
put an edit box around it, click on the vertical
bend option, and curve it exactly the way you want.
Another feature that I use is REMAP. This enables
you to switch pixels to another palette. By simply
pointing and clicking I convert the pixels that are
palette 15 to palette 1. This has become extremely
useful to me when I want to overlay clip art trans-
parencies with CoCo Max 3.
Also, it seems to me that the cursor control with
Color Max 3 is just a little smoother than with CoCo
Max 3. It seems a lot less jittery to me.
One area where Color Max 3 is terribly weak =>
____________________________________________________
is the screen dump option. Only a couple printers
are supported and even for those printers, the hard
copy is much poorer than with CoCo Max 3. I never
use Color Max 3 to produce a hard copy. If I want a
hard copy, I'll save the screen to disk, convert the
file to CM3 format using TRANSLAT, and then load it
into CoCo Max 3 and print it.
Nevertheless, for any serious CoCo artist, Color Max
Deluxe has some features which make it a valuable
piece of software to have in your library.
=*
|
Da Vinci 3 This was one of the very first graphics programs for the CoCo 3. It was sold by Owl-Ware. You can pro- bably remember their ads in which there was a pic- ture of the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa picture is also on the program disk and is extremely impressive to see on the monitor screen. However, I give the credit to the artist who did the work and not to the program, because the program is very simple and very rudimentary. There is a very, very small selection of icons. These include very simple options such as a pencil, an eraser, a paint bucket, etc. I must tell you, however, that the screen dump is excellent which is perhaps the program's only noteworthy attribute. I wouldn't use this program for any serious art. =* |
The RAT The RAT was a graphics program which was sold by
Diecom Products. Recently, I have heard/read a few
references to the RAT.
This software has a couple features which make it
really different from other popular graphics editors
for the CoCo 3. First, the menu is a separate
screen; the familiar frame and icons are missing.
The advantage to this is that you can work on the
entire screen without having to use that stupid hand
icon to slide your image around. Second, it is
possible if you have 512k to hold up to 10 screens
in memory at one time! Animation of the screens is a
possibility. Third, the screen dump is the best I
have ever seen! It can produce more shades of gray
than I ever thought possible on my DMP-133. =>
____________________________________________________
On the downside, the selection of options from the
main menu is really limited and there is no way to
load RAT graphics into other graphics software (any
that I know about). The overall design of the pro-
gram reminds me a whole lot of the old Graphicom
program and is somewhat awkward to use when you're
accustomed to the "point & click" icon environment.
The two most interesting things about the RAT are
the animation possibilities and the extraordinary
screen dump. Otherwise, I think most people would
find the RAT altogether inferior to CoCo Max 3.
=*
|
512K CoCo3 Brain Dead? I had my first CoCo go CRAZY this past week --
and first I need to know - Is it possible for a disk
program to scramble the BRAINS of a 512K CoCo?
I was working with a 40 track disk and was hav-
ing some strange endings on the Text Files -- many
different characters instead of the printed words in
the last section of the material. Then I started to
have a complete blowout of the program on the screen
-- back to Disk Basic Screen. Then on to a screen
full of the 'apiece' symbol that I cannot type when
using this program as it gives me the HELP screen at
the top.
After shutting down and cooling off I restarted
and found that I was losing the Disc Basic Screen --
going to a blank GREEN screen and finally to a blank
light screen. =>
____________________________________________________
This 512K CoCo3 is NOT very old -- I'm now us-
ing my original 512K CoCo3 that I upgraded in Sept-
ember of 1991. The unit that failed was in service
from May 1992 till this week. The Text Files worked
okay on the old unit. I would appreciate any advice
as to what may be wrong with my 'scrambled brain'
CoCo?
I guess that with the low prices on CoCo's it
will be almost impossible to find anyone that would
be interested in fixing one.
Any help would be appreciated!
Godfrey J. Moll
1571 East Erie Apt 103
Springfield, MO 65804 =*
|
A Question For Robert Turner A Q&A submission by R. A. Turner in issues 12 & 14, entitled "ML-ADDR" & "PRT#1CFD", contained 3 sets of heavy double lines separating subjects. His initials at the end of the article were made up of the same characters as these lines. While catching up on past issues, I attempted to get printouts of this article, using both the "HARDCOPY" program & "C.BAS" (via the LPRINT command on the SYSOPS MENU). But in each case, this resulted with a printer lock-up just at the first character of the double line. I thought these lines were made up of continuous equals signs (=) & I tried to edit them out. But this is NOT the case: these characters are full => ____________________________________________________ height, unlike the = sign. Robert, how did you create the lines, (since I can't reproduce them)? It seems to me to be made up of the character that appears to the left of a file name that has been KILLed via the SYSOP MENU. I did eventually manage to print out the article by overwriting each of those lines with spaces. However my curiosity made me ask the question. Maybe other friends have noticed this same condition or maybe it is just my Panasonic printer that doen't like that one character. Herb Forger 88 Dry Hill Rd Norwalk, Ct 06851-3127 Tel: (203) 847-4282 =* |
Answers to people! Harold, in Issue 21, you said you had a program for your COCO that could "show IBM pictures on the COCO" then you said you had a disk of PCX files. Although you didn't actually say what the problem was, I am guessing that the PCX files are not compatible with this program. If you send me the disk of PCX files, I am sure I can convert them into a more useable format for you. Just tell me what format you want- CM3? I will load the PCX files into my IBM, convert them to GIFs, transfer them to the CoCo and convert them into CM3 or whatever? You have my address! John Anderson, I have a DMP 105 and Simply Better. It all works great. I think that either your printer is not set at 80 columns, or your margins in Simply Better are off. Please check them => ____________________________________________________ or get in touch w/ me personally. To R.A.T. I have a copy of Color Schematic Designer 2.0. I don't have a manual. I will send you a copy anyway. To Steve Felker RE:40 track. Well, Steve, a disk formatted to 35 will work fine in a 40 track drive. A 40 track disk will work in a 35 track drive, as long as no programs are in those last 5 tracks. The CoCo fills most of the other tracks first,before getting to those last 5 tracks, so you should be okay. You can backup a 35 to a 40, with the CoCo set in 35 track mode. If you have a drive that is capable of ONLY 35 tracks, and you try to make it backup in 40 track mode, the heads will bang!OUCH=> ____________________________________________________ 40 to 35 doesn't work. If you had a RAMDISK, you could set the CoCo to 40 track, copy the disk into RAM, reset the CoCo to 35, and copy out of RAM onto the 35, assuming it would all fit. NOTE TO PEOPLE WHO SEND DISKS TO EACH OTHER:Just be sure that the person receiving the disks has a 40 track system if you send a 40 track disk. I have a few programs that don't run because they occupy those last few tracks and I CAN'T GET TO THEM! Finally to Ted Kitsos : In my opinion, the Spell Check w/ Simply Better is AWFUL! There is no best way. I don't know if you can do it from a RamDisk to speed up that VERY SLOW checking!!! I no longer use Simply Better. I use WordPerfect 6.0 on my IBM. Hope I didn't tread on any toes.... =* |
Do I have questions? I have lots of questions. First, if you didn't read
my article for GM 1 etc., how do I get rid of that
ugly green border in a 40 & 80 col screen? Better
yet, how do I get rid of the ugly green 32 col scrn?
#2) I have a keyboard extension cable. Since I added
this cable my screen boots up with the screen shift-
ed one column. A reset corrects the shift. Will a
shorter cable correct this problem or is the problem
other than the cable?
#3) When using RS-DOS I get head banging during the
the first disk access after boot. ADOS has fixed
this bug. How do I fix this bug in RS-DOS? I also
get this head bang when formatting a double sided
OS-9 disk. Is there an OS-9 fix? =>
____________________________________________________
I could sit and think of questions to fill this page
and the next, but I'll leave some room for Rick. I
have a feeling he will edit in some answers. Thanks,
Roy
------
RICK: Roy first let me apologize for taking so long
in getting your great entries in CFDM. We had such
a stockpile from summer on that many are just now
making it.
Per your questions: I can help on #1. To change the
appearance of WIDTH32 change PALETTE 12 for your
choice of foreground and PALETTE 13 for the =>
____________________________________________________
background. For example: PALETTE 12,63:PALETTE 13,0
gives white text on black.
One poke you can use to change the border in WIDTH40
and WIDTH80 is POKE &HFF9A,X (where X is the color
of choice). The only problem is that this works only
while your program is running. I'll bet there's
another fix and that some Friend knows it!
=*
|
GAMES WON'T RUN I have some games that were purchased from a
subscription library, but they came without
instructions. I thought I could figure out
how to play them, but they won't run on my
COCO 3. If you've played these games on a
COCO 3, I'd appreciate hearing how you did it.
CROAKER PHANTOM TUBEFREN
JUNGLE WILLY
DINA PHILIPS
1541 NORFOLK DRIVE
ZIONSVILLE, IN 46077
=*
|
Note to James Gibbons Compliments on your paintings! Over a year ago you
mentioned painting pictures of scenes from different
states. In October 1992 I sent two pictures with
SASE in case you weren't interested. I think one was
NY state and the other NC. I wonder whether they
got lost or buried! It really isn't important, it
just gave me something to write about!
=*
|
Packet BBS I would like to know if people would be interested
in a COCO Packet BBS. If you are a licensed HAM,
you can get into packet radio with your CoCo, and
by radio, link up with anyone else who also has
packet. When I get my packet station running, if
anyone in CoCo Land has a packet station, maybe you
could log into the system? I'll publish details
when I know them. You can link up from anywhere in
the U.S. and outside the U.S. via satellite. There
is no charge to use packet.
To the curious: Packet is just like using a modem
except that the modem is called a TNC, and is hooked
up to a shortwave radio. The TNC hooks to the
computer, and when you send a message, it goes by
radio to a nearby REPEATER. The repeater sends it=>
____________________________________________________
out at a higher power, to another repeater, and this
sends to another. Each link is local, but since
they're spread around, you can link up with the
furthest state/country for free. Some repeaters
connect to a satellite (FREE) which connects to a
repeater in another country or another continent.
I can have real-time chats with people in England
over Packet radio. I type my message, it is sent
in a matter of seconds to minutes, and I see his
reply on my screen.
A Packet BBS runs just like a telephone BBS. You
can call, log in, read and leave messages for others
download and upload programs, etc. =>
____________________________________________________
>>>> THIS JUST IN <<<<
I have obtained a TNC, and have established a link
to my local Packet BBS. If anyone has packet
abilities, please try to leave me a message.
My Home BBS is WA3TSW in Horsham, PA. Just leave
mail with the SP KA3PLA command. (Send Private mail
to KA3PLA). I promise to respond to anyone who
leaves mail. The radio frequency for WA3TSW is
145.01 mhz. However, you should check with your
local BBS to see if there is a message link to
WA3TSW.
Hope to hear from you all....... Stuart
=*
|
Turning things off. When I first got my COCO and started adding each
new piece of equipment, the manuals specified turn-
ing things off in certain orders. After a while it
gets to be a chore. Is it OK to just turn the power
strip off and on and not do all the other things
separately?? Does anyone have any ideas on the
subject?
Also, I can't seem to find the 1st "Move-It" puzzle,
by Norm Barson. What issue was it in? Have I just
over looked it?
----
RICK: Esther, to my knowledge you can turn the
components off in any order. I have for years with
no difficulities. But when I turn them on I =>
____________________________________________________
have habitually turned on the disk drive before the
keyboard. If others have info on this subject,
please reply.
Per Norm Barson's first MOVE-IT program, it can be
found in issue #21. Due to my mistake MOVE-IT II
appeared before the original. I thought I had put
MOVE-IT in issue #19, but alas I was mistaken. Sorry
for the confusion!
=*
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