Sinc Link

SINC - LINK

September - October 1986 vol.

SINC-LINC IS A PUBLICATION INDEX
OF THE TORONTO TIMEX-
SINCLAIR USERS CLUB AND IS
ISSUED 6 TIMES A YEAR.
COPIES OF THE NEWSLETTER
ARE $1.50 EACH FOR NON-
MEMBERS, MEMBERS RECEIVE A
FRRE COPY AS PART OF THE LARKEN DISK DRIVE

$20.00 ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP 2068 ROM ROUTINES

FEE. 10 FUNCTION DISPATCHER

11 QSPELL REVIEW

THE HACKER SCARE

BOB'S NOTEBOOK

TRS-80 CONVERSION

SDS ASSY. INSTRUCTIONS
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

wh‏ هی ی يو ف

NEWSLETTERS ARE EXCHANGE
FREE OF CHARGE WITH OTHER AND OTHER TIDBITS HERE AND
TIMEX-SINCLAIR USERS THERE...
GROUPS.

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PUBLIC DOMAIN AND CAN BE
REPRINTED, PLEASE CREDIT
THIS PUBLICATION AND THE
AUTHOR IF YOU COPY
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FOR SALE:

2 Word Processing Systems COCO compatible

32k tape based, parallel print output, $120
64k w/ 2 drives, parallel print output, $400
Add $50 for 300 baud modem

Contact Ian Singer at (416)699-6380

TORONTO TIMEX - SINCLAIR USERS CLUB

P O. Box 7274 Stn. ል Toronto, Ont., MSW |።3
Canada

medicine, law, or engineering, etc.-- really well anc
can be “asked" to answer questions in these subjects);
and the first time-sharing system which made computers
more accessible to programmers. They also developed the
first TV-like screens for computers which are so common
today. Previously programmers basically had a typewriter
with continuous paper to do their programming on. As
Strange as it may sound, an activity which these
programmers enjoyed partaking in was the deliberate
"crashing" of their computer systems, This usually meant
temporarily putting the machine out of order through
clever means. The purpose of which was to find flaws in
the system so as to correct it afterward.

In the 1970's, 8.1.1. hackers were stil} around, but
there was yet another type of hacker which grew into
existance, In his book, “OUT OF THE INNER CIRCLE", 84171
Langreth gives a very interesting adcount of the
telephone hackers of the 70's, and their importance to
the hackers of the 80's. The popular name given to these
hackers at the time was phone phreak. The phreaks had a
great interest in exploring the world-wide telephone
network without paying the cost of making the calls. How
was this possible? Around 1950 AT&T decided to base
their long-distance switching system on a
multi-frequency system, whereby audible tones were used
to perform various functions such as opening lines,
switching from local to long-distance trunks, and many
other tasks which human operators used to do. Soon
afterward, a blind 8-year old boy by the name of Joe
Engressia discovered that by whistling at different
frequencies to his phone, he was able to make it switch
to a long-distance line, and he was able to make long
distance calls for free. He did this for years, and in
college he whistled up phone calls for his friends, Soon
word got around about what Joe was doing, and others
Started doing it. As a result phreaks started to spring
up from everything from pipe organs to flutes to tape
recorders. The activities of these phone phreaks were
not entirely unlike the activities of the hackers of the
80's which we will look at shortly.

In looking at the hackers from these various decades
one can see similarities in ali of them. They were
usually young individuals who had a rebellious nature
about them, They tended to stray from the confines of
societal rules and regulations and can be viewed as
somewhat mischievous. 1980's hackers are no differert
than their predecessors in this sense.

From SLUG, the St. Louisville Users Group newsletter,
retyped by GFC

TS 2068 SOUND ROUTINES

GUNSHOTS:
10 SOUND 6,15;7,7;8,16;9,16310,16:12,16;13,0
20 PAUSE 60
30 GOTO 10

WHISTLING BOMB:
10 SOUND 7,62;8,15
20 FOR I = 50 TO 100
30 SOUND O,1; PAUSE 3
40 NEXT I

“computer break-ins"

THE HACKER SCARE
by John T. Nguyen
Part 1 of 3

Back in 1983 it seemed like everywhere | turned I
would find an article on kids breaking into computer
systems, These stories were not limited to just
magazines and newspapers. Television also gave these
Stories a fair amount of air time. Being an avid
computer enthusiast myself, I read and watched with
interest at the illegal, but yet colorful activities of
these kids (known as “hackers") and marvelled at how
they had brought national attention to themselves,
Everyone including government officials (Caspar
Weinberger in particular) took notice of these teen
agers and seriously looked at the threat they posed to
the security of computer systems across the nation.

Groups like the 414's made headlines by breaking into
the computer systems of government installations and
corporate agencies. From 1982 to 1985, these hackers
received a great deal of publicity from the media. They
were praised, criticized, and at times, feared. The
public, by and large, did not understand the crimes
these teenagers committed. As a result the nation as a
whole had mixed feelings of fear and doubt about
computer security and about computers in general. The
period from 1982 to 1985 spans this period of
"electronic uneasiness" or more specifically, the period
of the “hacker scare”,

If anyone has read an article about these teenagers
they undoubtedly have stumbled on the word “hacker”, a
term used to describe these kids wno break inte computer
systems.

Traditionally, however, the word had very different
meanings. About 20 years back, "hacking" was used by
early programmers to refer to the process of chopping or
hacking a program down in size and thus make it more
efficient at each turn, When “hacking” was used as a
noun (f.e. hacker), it referred to someone who was
totally devoted to computers and spent every waking
moment in the computer room. In the 1970's "hacker" took
on 8 more general meaning of “someone who works with
computers in one form or another, more specifically in
programming". Starting in 1982, “hacking” and "hacker"
took on stil] another meanina, Reporters who wrote
Stories about teenagers who broke into computer systems
referred to them as "hackers". And every time "hacker"
was mentioned, the connotation of
was assumed,

How did the hacker craze get started in the first
place? To answer this question it will be necessary to
go back to the early 1960's when the first hackers first
into existance, These early hackers were young computer
wizards (many of whome were school drop-outs) who were
employed by the artificial -intelligence and computer
research laboratories at ዞ,1,1, Because of their
expertise, M.I.T. hired them to develop sophisticated
software and hardware. These hackers were a strange
group of people who ate and slept at strange hours, but
their devotion to computers resulted in some of the most
important advances in computer science. They were
responsible for writing the first chess-playing
Programs; the first “expert system” (this was a program
which was programmed to "know" a Subject «such as

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Conversion for Sinclair is:
20 GOTO (50 AND X=1)+(60 AND X=2)+(70 AND X=3)
Type in exactly as written, the AND 15 ANDing a
memory value and is necessary. 50, 60, and 70 are the
lines jumped to.....change them to suit your program.

MTERM TIPS

I've noticed a lot of M-TERM tips and thought I'd
list a few:

#1:**** TO SET M-TERM RAMTOP****

When you enter M-TERM with a PRINT USR 54016 it
CLEARS and sets RAMTOP at 54015, To CHANGE THIS just
POKE 54024,103 then POKE 54025,191.

#2:””።*** TO CHANGE BUFTOT******

POKE 61166,70 and POKE 61167, 190 The two byte
number you want to get 15 a number that WHEN 26710 14
SUBTRACTED from it, will give the answer of what you
want your BUFTOT to be. It is a good idea to make it a
couple of hundred bytes LESS than the actual space
that's available so that there's WORK-SPACE ROOM to
use when you exit to BASIC and save to disk or tape,
It stops the worrying about WHEN to save. Just wait
unti] the “buffer full” signal..

NOTE** THE ABOVE POKE VALUES ARE FOR A RAMEX DISK
"MDOS;0" BUT... THEY WILL WORK IN ANY SITUATION

#3:***** TO AUTO=RUN RAMEX “MDOS;Q" پیی٭٭٭‎

Usually, when you inittalize the “MDOS;0" you're
returned to Copyright Message and have to enter your
next command. To get past this, do PRINT #4: LOAD
“MDOS80" CODE:: POKE 49647,201: RANDOMISE USR 49644.
The “201" poke makes it possible to do other commands
after initializing. .Jike loading “M-TERM"CODE: PRINT
USR 54016 and then maybe load your REPEAT DIALER
program or whatever,

#4: READ SAVED FILES WITH A LOOP

You don't need to have M-TERM loaded in order to
read files... A loop like FOR J=26710 to 48999: PRINT
CHR$ PEEK J;: NEXT J: will do it. The same loop with
this addition, IF CHAR$ PEEK J = 13 THEN LET J = 8 +6
(before the PRINT) 15 handy to check on how you are
doing when preparing FILES with LINE #*s and REM's but
you have to change the loop start to 26715 (or you'}}
be off by six) I hope something here will be of help
to you....

Downloaded from Compuserve Data Library August by Greg
Lloyd

185-80 TO 2X81 CONVERSIONS
by George Chambers
from W.J. Henry material

CONVERSION FOR READ/DATA:

Original 80۔۲۸۶‎ sample Program to be converted.

1000 DATA 1,4,28,123,730,4040
1010 DIM G(7)

1020 FOR J =1 TO 7
1030 READ 6(3)
1040 NEXT J

To convert we store the information (data) in a string
Sample 151000 conversion,

1000 LET C$ = "000100040060012307 304040"

{note the zero groups)

(sets up array)

(picks out the data items from
the data groups)

1040 LET G(J) = VAL A$ (4*፲=33 TO 4*J)

(the key to the whole operation)

(gets the next data item)

1020 DIM G(J)
1030 FOR = 1707

1050 NEXT J
What we have done 15 to take a substring from the

C$ string containing the data items.

TRUNCATE:

To convert the following functions LEFT$, RIGHTS
MID$, TL$ from TRS-80 to Sinclair.

Use the following conversions:

TRS=80 SINCLAIR
LEFT$(A$,N) A$(1 TO N) OR AS(TO N)
RIGHT$(A$,N} AS(LEN ጳፄ=ክ+1 TO) or
A$(LEN A$-N+1 TO LEN A$)
MID$(A$,M,N) A$(M M+N-1)
TLS (A$) A$(2 TO LEN A$) or A$(2 TO)

In all of the above cases, what we are doing is
simply slicing a string expression mathamatically, I
believe it is known in the manual as slicing or
truncating. In LEFT$ conversion this returns the
first (N) characters, starting at the first character
from the string A$. A study of the other conversions
will show a similar procedure.

JUMPS - Converting the ON GO TO command:

Conversions for the ON-GO TO statement.
The ON GOTO statement in the TRS-80 15 in the form:

ON (algebraic expression) GOTO Nl...eNn , where N1 to
ዘክ are a list of program line numbers, The expression

is evaluated, control of the program continues at the
line number whose position on the list is the integer

of the expression.
۲85-80 example...

20 ON X GOTO 50,60,70 (IF X=1 JUMP IS TO LINE 50,
IF X=2 JUMP IS TO LINE 60, IF X=3 JUMP TO LINE 70)

Ré 1 Neg (Brown, Black, Green)
R7 22K (Red, Red, Oraage)

RB 4,7۶ (Yellow, Violet, Red)
፪ፃ ፲፪ (864, Black, Orange)

Capacitors as smal! as possible

C1 isut 25V Electrolytic 2 each

ር2 2201 14V Electrolytic Axial

ር3 Slat (8.12) 2 each

ር ۱:7010 Tantalum ፥/- 55 (16886) 2 each
ር5 #.ፀ47ዘ፥ (473 oF .#47ዘ)

66 8.82204 (2232 oF §.822)

ር7 ፅቹ፤ Tantalum ፥/- 55 (488K or 68?)

IC's and Diodes

101 555 8 pia

[ር2 4136

Di ۱۷4۱498 diode 6 ea

Miscellaneous

Jusper wires for PCB

3,588 panel sount sono earphone jack 3 each

፲, 588 aono earphone plug oa 12°-16" card

Cassette case a

Label

Circuit Board

SUS software and manual (included with system only!

Circuit Boards are available from Integrated Bata Systens,
38 Srockwount ዘፈ. Toronto ሸዳ 701 tor Sif + PST + 86
PLH. The complete systen is 858 ¢ PST + ۶1.58 PeH. Otter
expires 11/38/86,

TIMEX 2068 REPAIRS

Quotation from a letter I received from one of our our
out of town members, Ylad Treka.

“To describe my odyssey with the computer repair:
I sent the computer to Arkansas on June 6, 86 and !
enclosed 8 money order for $30 (US). The computer was
in it's original box, minus the ROM chip, which
survived the mishap (unplugging the 00), so I kept it.
I received acknowledgement from Timex on July 18,86.
Before 1 mailed the computer to Timex | took it to
Customs Office and I had the serial number registered,
The computer came back finally on Aug. 25, 86. I had
to pick it up from Customs, and from the amount spent
for the repair, $29.95 (US) I paid duty and Federal
tax = $6.76. The computer looks brand new (probably
15) and the box contained everything that comes with a
new computer: book, power adapter, cords, and the
TV-Computer switch (hook-up)"
G, Chambers.

SUPER DATA SAVE
The SBS filter and software are designed to be used with
the 2X81 ፲518፪8# to give a save load speed of 16K in 29
seconds. In addition to this it verifies Saves, saves
loads data blocks only, loads named programmes or data
blocks, scans a tape for named programmes or data, gives
bytes free and renuabers basic programmes,

SDS FILTER ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS

Install all resistors, then capacitors, thea diodes then
T's. Install a jumper in the position sarked J.

Wire a 3,588 jack to the position earked E, 18 the normally
closed position, for the monitoring earphone. Wire a ۵8
jack, in the sormally closed position, for the ፃፃ
Timex/Sinclair power supply.

Nodify the cassette case by taking apart and removing the
two protrusions that keep the cassette in place. Brill a
hole in each end 2fee from the edge that opens so that the
jacks can be installed. Drill a Jaa hole 3#፪8 from the edge
an the right end. Run a wire with 3.5mm plug through the
hole just drilled and wire to the % points on the PCB.
Run jumpers fros these points to the ፃህ ሽር output jack
observing proper polarity. Install the jack om the right
side of the case. Run a wire with a 3588 plug through the
computer ear hole in the case and install to the
appropriate points. Rua a wire with a 3,588 pleg through
the cassette ear hole in the lett side of the case and wire
to the appropriate points ዐዘ the PCB. Rua awire with a
3.5um plug through the computer ear hole in the right side
af the case aad wire to the appropriate points on the PCB.
Install the jacks in the case.

Test the unit. If any problems check all soldering
connections, wiring and component polarity and positioning.
Especially check the two diodes at {the filter output as
these may blow if the filter is powered down before
removing from the EAR jack on the computer. Insert the PCB
in the case along with the label, ٣۶55588016 the case and
seal shat.

Software and manual copyright P. Hargrave. Filter design
copyright P. Hargrave with manufacturing rights owned ከሃ
Integrated Data Systems. Copying of all ar any part of the
SBS system, or reproducing it withoet our permission, is a
violation ot copyright laws.

PARTS LIST FOR SDS FILTER

Resistors 1:

Ri {80K (Brown, Black, Yellow) 3 each
R2 18K (Brown, Black, Orange)

R3 128K (Brown, Red, Yellow) 2 each
RA 24K (Red, Yellow, Orange)

85 5.4K (Green, Blue, Red)

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

could write a very smart
program that could program

other computers. The
development and application of
an AI system that could

program computers is one of
the most difficult, and
fascinating projects facing
computer scientists in this
decade.

The development of an AI
system would revolutionize

automation.This type of
automation would not be
physical, but mental. In the

near future, processes that
require a logical examination
of many facts, and require
split second decisions, will
probably be automated by an AI
system. We might find this
type of AI on assembly lines
of the future. Consider this
scenario: A GM car assembly
line experiences a short
circuit in one of its' robot
workers. As a result plastic
sheilding on a high voltage
wire nearby is accidentally
ripped and left bare by the
malfunctioning robotic arm. To
make matters worse, the
resulting sparks have started
a fire in the spray painting
section, setting off the
fire-warning-system. Instead
of allowing thousands of water
sprinklers to flood the fire
and the live wires, the
intelligent

assembly-line-monitor, directs
an alternate course of action,
far less dangerous than the
former. It sounds the
evacuation alarm. When ail
human workers have exited, it
locks all human accessible
doorways, sprays the
electrical fire started by the
live wires with CO2, and uses
highly controlled water jets

It seems that I have always
been interested in "the study
of how computers can be made
to act intelligently," or in
other words, Artificial
Intelligence. But I suppose I
really became interested in
Artificial Intelligence, or AI
for short, when I purchased
my first computer, a Sinclair
ZX81. I was fascinated by the
way a computer could solve

problems and follow
instructions S0 precisely.
However, I £ind myself
becoming increasingly

dissatisfied with all the new
"high-tech" computer equipment
I find myself surrounded by
each day. What I am talking
about is the problem of
computer-programmers-headache.
This is similar to "tennis
elbow", or a runner's
"athletes foot". It's nota
new dilemma, but it's an
annoying one. No matter how
advanced the technology is
that we work with, there are
always some tasks that become
tedious with time. There are
many ways in which smart AI
systems can be implemented to
make life more enjoyable for
everyone. This technology
should not be feared,
computers will always be under
the control of man. Even
though man will leave many
tasks to machines to think
about and perform, he will
still have many tasks to
perform that can't be carried
out by any computer or
machine.

One of the major problems
with computers today is that
they are stupid. They have to
be reprogrammed to perform
even the simplest new task. It
would be ideal if someone

>

LARKEN DISK DRIVES
by Peter Hacksel
247 Queen St. We,

Toronto Ont , M5Y 5
(416) 596=1-663

Compuserve 73537, 1436

After a four month leave of absence from the land
of computers, (And land itself for that matter!) I
have returned and so plan to resume my column, In ጠሃ
last article I showed how to set up the Larken Drive,
Now that you have your computer set up and having read
the manual you now should be enjoying your drive. The
Larken Drive is as we know somewhat limited in it's
range of commands as compared to other drives. For
example the Larken DOS does not support commands for
such things as Random Filing, copy disk, etc. However
there are ways of getting around such things. All it
involves 15 a little understanding of how the LARKEN
DOS stores it's information on the disk.

For those who don't already know, a disk drive
15 something
like a cross between a record player and a
tape recorder. The disk is made of a substance much
like what is in a cassette tape however it is capable
of storing a larger amount of information in a smaller
area. The disk resembles a record in that the
information is stored in a circular fashion and 15
read by spinning the disk and placing the head of the
disk drive onto the disk, The major difference between
a record and a disk is that a record has one groove
spiralling in toward the center label whereas the disk
has a total of 80 tracks (40 on each side.) These
tracks are separate rings and do not spiral.

Fach track is labeled from 0-79 and may contain a
total of 1960 bytes of information. The drive has a
head on each side of the disk which moves back and
forth across the disk by jumping from track to track.

Now to keep track (no pun intended!) of all this
information the 005 uses the first track (Track 0) 85
a directory. On this track 15 stored a list of all the
programs on the disk and where they may be found.

For example let us say that you want to save a
program that 15 500 bytes long on a newly formatted
disk. First of 811 the DOS will check to see if there
are any programs stored on the disk by looking in the
directory. It finds that Track 1 1s empty and saves
the program onto that track. the DOS then records in
the directory the name of the program and the track to
which it was saved. (in this example Track 1). Now
although the program only used 500 bytes of the 1960
bytes available on the track , the entire track 15
reserved for that program and no other information may
be stored there unless that program 15 deleted.Now let
us say that we would like to save another program
which is 6500 bytes in length. This will require 4
tracks to save it.(We say that the program is 4 Blocks
long) For this program the DOS will check the

to extinguish the solvent fire
nearby. After circuit and
atmosphere tests show that no
danger to humans remains, the
doors are unlocked. Later, a
complete emergency-diagnostic
report is printed and filed,
in unvolatile memory, for a
permanent record of the
accident.

Fantasy? No, most of the
technology described above is
available now. In fact,
systems similar to this may
even be in existence today.

I hope that this look at
the advantages, and potential
of Artificial Intelligence has
given a greater insight into
the current and future state
of technology. We will benefit
greatly from Al technology. We
should not be afraid to leave
a few, or many, decisions to
machines if we have faith in

our own intelligence and
ability.

ድ Author:Unknown
* Downloaded from The Ascii Exchange

SOFTWARE REVIEW
Game: BOMBJACK Rating 9.5/10
T/S 2068 with a Spectrum ROM catridge

BOMBJACK is one of the best games of 1986. The
graphics are the best I have seen. In BOMBJACK you
are flying around the screen collecting bombs. You
have to collect all the bombs before you go on to the
next screen, There are flying birds that can kill
you. Robots turn to flying saucers when they reach
the bottom of the screen,

After collecting 11 bombs a flying "P" comes out.
After getting the "P" the birds and robots freeze up
and you will be able to kill them.

Once in a while a flying "3" comes out which means
bonus, and a flying "ع"‎ comes out which gives you 500
points and an extra Man to play.

This game is very addictive, Sound effects are
great, too.

by Renato Zannese

CALL 26EE+-DRAW X, ۶
The parameters must be stacked, and ۰۶
for CIRCLE.

saved as

CALL 2813==ዐክለዘ X,Y
CALL with ABS X in ር, ABS Y in B, SGN X in E, and
SGN ፣ in 0) and save ዘ'!! as above.

CALL 2፻70==5፲ለርሂ STRING

Passes the “parameters" of a string to the
calculator stack as an argument for string functions.
At entry, A holds 1 if the string is ‘simle", 0 if it
is DiMenstoned ዕዮ a slice; DE holds the string
address; and BC holds the length.

CALL 2 EB2-<MULTIPLY 16

This multiplies HL by DE, giving “Out of Memory” if
the result overflows.

CALL 2FAF=-UNSTACK STRING

Retrieves the “parameters" of a string result from
the calculator stack; address to DE, length to BC.

CALL 3046H--ALPHANUM

Returns with CARRY if A holds the code of a
or digit, NO CARRY otherwise,

letter

Returns CARRY if A holds a valid letter code.

CALL 3009166

Returns with NO CARRY if CODE *0*ሬ: A>=CODE "9",

CALL 30፪6--57ለር፪

A Converts the integer value in A to floating-point
and puts in on the calculator stack,

CALL 30ሂ3==3፲ልር።ጾ

BC Converts the integer value in ፀር to
floating-point and puts in on the calculator stack,

CALL 3160H--UNSTACK BC

Retrieves the top value from the calculator stack
and loads it into BC

CALL 31A1~-PRINT FP

Prints the top number on the calculator stack. The
use of the “floating-point calculator” (RST 40) is
“beyond the scope of this article." Hopefully there
will be another piece, after I test some of the more
obscure functions.

Wm. Linden

USEFUL ROM ROUTINES IN THE TS 2068

RST 8 (or CALL 8)-eReport an error.

This causes the routine to halt, and report the
error whose code is one MORE than the following byte,
፻,9, RST 8 DEFB 8 15 a STOP (Error 9). OEFB 9 for

ERROR A, etc. Useful for programming your own error
reports.

RST (or CALL) 10ዘ==ዞኮ1ስቲ CHR$(A)

Prints the character whose code 15 in A to the
current output stream. This can be used with all the
“control characters" listed in the character set,
followed by loading any necessary operand or operands
into A and using another RST 10, I found that TAB
requires two operands like AT, even though the second
makes no difference!

CALL 436 He=BEEP

[0 do a BEEP X,Y, X and Y must have been
sucessively placed on the calculator stack with the
routines for that purpose. E.g. BEEP 1,30 LD A,} CALL
3086 LD A,30 CALL 30E6 CALL 0436H

CALL ۴۱۸۲۔73۲‎ MESSAGE

ለ very useful routine for handling "ragged" message
tables, The table should be at address TABLE, starting
with a byte 80H, and with the last character of each
message “inverted” by adding 128 to its code to mark
the end, The routine is called with TABLE in DE, and
the message number in A (The first message 15 "0").

CALL 8A6==CLS

CALL 8A9--CLEAR LOWER SCREEN
CALL 939H==SCROLL

CALL 938--PART SCROLL

Scrolls the bottom “8" lines,
above intact.

leaving the screen

CALL 97F==PART CLEAR
Similar to the last, but CLEARS the bottom 8 lines.

CALL A 02--COPY
CALL DID--NEW
CALL 1230H--OPEN CHANNEL

Load into A:l for lower screen, 2 for main screen,
or 3 for printer and call this routine to direct
subsequent output. Unless a PRINT or LPRINT statement

is in the same BASIC line preceding the USR call, the
lower screen is the "default channel" until another
one is opened by this CALL.

Downloaded from Compuserve Data Library August 1986

by G.Lloyd

THE FUNCTION DISPATCHER
by Mike Lemyre

The routine to call the function dispatcher í
found on pages 214-216 of the Timex Sinclair 206
Intermediate Advanced Guide Some people have bee
unsucessful in finding a use for this uttlity. Howeve
I was reading an article in the news letter of tr
Personal Computer Club of Toronto; which dealt wit
the I.B.M, function dispatcher when calling 0.0.5
functions f noticed a similiarity between the tr
utilities. The priciples to keep in mind are:

1, Initialize machine stack,

2. Push service code,

3. Set up registers to function requirements.
4. Call the dispatcher.

Compare these routines,

1.8۷۰ TS2068

XOF ax,ax LD DE 0
push dx push DE
push ax push DE
mov ah,2h 10 DE 135
mov d1,38 push DE
int 0٤8 ld A,38
ret call 6200

ret

Both of these routines print the & character, Sor
other routines that have been sucessfully called are:

Service Code Function
34 cis
89 plot be
135 print char
141 cls
142 serol?

I will expand on the uses of subroutines an
function calls in my next article.
ERRATUM
Disk Droppings
In the last issue of the newsletter (4.4) there were

8
couple ዐየ editting errors in the listings in Grec
Lloyd's article, “Disk Droppings". The two listings
below are the corrected versions.

1@>LET i=33282a

20 IF PEEK i<32 THEN POKE i,32
: LET i=i+1: POKE i,32: GO To 2g

34 IF i>52488 THEN STOP

48 LET i=i+1: GO TO 28

1Ø>LET i=3328¢9

28 FOR k= TO 419199

38 IF PEEK (i+k)<32 THEN POKE

(i+k), 32:
AB NEXT k

POKE ({itk+1),32

directory and find that Track 1 has been used and that
the next 4 availiable tracks are 2,3,4 and 5. The
program is then saved to these tracks and it is noted
in the directory that these tracks are reserved for
the second program. When it comes time to load a
program all the DOS does is simply move the head to
Track 0, read the directory, find which tracks contain
the program and then move the head over to the tracks
and one by one read the program into the computer
memory, If you decide that you wish to delete a
program the DOS simply erases the name of that program
from the directory. This means that if you try to load
that program again the DOS will look in the directory
and will not find the name of the program and assume
that there is no program with that name on the disk
and will return with a "NO FILE” error report. NOTE:
When a program is deleted the name is removed from the
directory but the data 15 NOT erased. This means that
it is possible to recover this data provided that you
do not save another program overtop of the data. This
means that if you accidently delete an important
program 1t 15 possible to recover the lost data. ۴
on this later.

This should give you a very basic understanding of
how the information 15 stored on a disk. With my next
article we will investigate ways of using routines
from the 00S to manipulate the data and increase the
powers of the drive enormously.

SABREWULF
Some useful POKES for the game SABREWULF:

Here is how to add these POKES:

1, Load the first part of Sabrewulf,
press break.

2. Type:

POKE 23756,i:CLEAR 65535

3, Edit the line, move the cursor to the end and

delete the
PRINT USR 23424.
4, Add line 10 with any of the following POKES:

stop tape and

POKE 43575, 255 for infinite lives, one player.
POKE 45520, 255 for infinite lives, two players
POKE 45599, 255 for number of initial lives =
1 to 255.
POKE 41725, 255 for no limit on gained lives
5, Next add line 20:
20 PRINT USR 23424
and finally Run to load in the rest.

from the Oct. 1984 issue of YOUR COMPUTER = page 36

/ሪ

by Larry Sadler

The following is a quick review of QSPELL, the
spellecheck program obtained from Curry Computer in
Glendale, Arizona 85312-5607.

QSPELL 15 a program that has a 25,000 word
dictionary, with room to add an additional 1,000
words. It has features that allow you to use it to
solve crossword puzzles, anagrams, or other word
puzzles that make many words from the letters of 4
given word. It has patches to hook into Quill so that
the output of QSPELL can be exported to Quill for
correction.

I do not recommend QSPELL for routine document

writing. It is not an integral part of Quill. You
write the document, save to cartridge, load the
QSPELL, load the saved file, and choose between

ignoring, marking, or adding each word of the document
that is not in the default dictionary. QSPELL then
creates a new file as named, which is then reloaded
inte the reloaded Quill. The new document ከ85
scrambled the words marked by the dictionary so that
you can delete them and insert the correct word (if
you can remember what it was!).

The merit of QSPELL is {t's game and puzzle
features, and that it can be used te check the
variables in a program. Another advantage, for some,
is the fact that you can create customized
dictionaries of your own = 6.9.፥ jargon for a
particular industry (computer, electronics, medicine,
engineering, etc.).

The demerit is that QSPELL 15 separate from Quill
and does not provide for editing/correcting from
within Quill. I suspect that this is because the 128K
of standard RAM is not sufficient to accomodate a
version of Quill that integrates a dictionary feature
(or a Theraurus), The dictionary alone occupies 70K.
Perhaps when the QL becomes standard with,say, 640K or
so RAM, a new version of Quill wili be produced. Till

them get a second opinion on your work before you send
it out.

EXPLOSION:
10 SOUND 6,637,7;8,1639,16310,16312,56313,8
20 PAUSE 90
30 SOUND 8,0;9,0;10,0

//

133Fe=CLEAR EDIT LINE
134EeeCLEAR WORK SPACE
1354H==CLEAR CALCULATOR STACK
1541]He@LLIST
CALL 1545108-7
CALL 15A1--PRINT LINE
Print the program line whose ADORESS 15 in H Le

CAL8
CALL
CALL
CALL

CALL 1606+-LINE ADDRESS
Enter with a program line number in HL.
line address in HL.

Returns

CALL 1745H=<DIFFERENCE

Loads 86 with HL minus DE, and switches HL with DE.
Useful for finding string lengths.

CALL 1788H-=PRINT NUMBER
Print the number in 8C.

CALL 1:04-00 ع‎
CALL ۸۶۲۔1۶۲‎
Pause for BC ticks.

CALL 21DB-=PRINT STRING

Print to the current channel a string of length BC
at address DE.

CALL 2603-=PIXEL ADDRESS
Enter with C holding the graphics X coordinate and B
holding Y coordinate . Returns with HL holding the

address of the appropriate display file byte, and A
holding the bit number corresponding to that pixel,

CALL 263E--PLOT C,B
Load X coordinate into ር and Y into 8 to do a PLOT.

CALL ሪ6ፅዐ።። UNSTACK A
Retrieve top value from calculator stack to A.

CALL 2686H=--CIRCLE
To execute CIRCLE X,Y ,Z, the three parameters must

be sucessively placed on the calculator stack. Also,
the routine corrupts H'L', which is needed for a
return from a USR. Thus, it has to be used:

EXX
PUSH HL

EXX
LO A, X
CALL 3056
LD A,
CALL 6٤6
LO A RADIUS
CALL 30፪6
CALL 2686; CIRCLE X,Y RADIUS

EXX
POP HL

EXX

SEPT /4, 19284

You may remember me telling you about getting some
printer ribbon ink,and. starting to ink my own used

ribbons. Well, it is working out pretty well. I am
sometimes a Tittle too generous with the ink on the
ribbon, but it is really going not too badly. They

supply me with a pair of plastic gloves to handle the

ink, I haven't used them, but I must say I should.
Pretty hard not to get ink on the fingers.

In the current newsletter there are a couple of
comments about how disk prices are coming down, I
bought a package of 10 for $8.28, plus PST a few days

ago and this is better that either Ian Robertson or
Greg Lloyd reported in their columns. I bought them
from INTERNATIONAL MARKETING CORPORATION, 133 Midwest
Road, Scarborough. (416) 759 6721.
several

I have put together folders containing

material on different topics. There are binders for
LARKEN, MODEMS, and Hacking, so far, If anyone 15
interested in borrowing them just drop a Jine, You

will have to ask you to return them quite promptly,
because they are proving to be popular among our

in-town members, but you should be able to Xerox any
items that you are interested in, and return ît.
I'm not sure whether you read the item in the

newspapers quite recently about a new computer being
It is being produced by
Hyundai. Yes that's right, the auto-maker (I kid you
not, to quote Jack Carson), It was in a business
column. It is to be a sort of IBM clone, but cheaper
than the other clone competitors. Being handled in the

USA by the firm, BLUE CHIP ELECTRONICS, and sold
through discount stores.
I have mentioned to some members that I have

made up several copies of tapes that I call "Games
Tapes“. That is what they are; games for the 152068.
There are 3 tapes; tapes 1 and 2 are for the Spectrum
or the TS2068 with a Spectrum ROM; the other. tape 3
is for the ፲32068,- Ask for one of them, if you are
interested. I would ask that you not keep them for too
long though.

I mentioned in an earlier letter that our
treasurer had suffered a heart attack. He has since
had an operation, which was successful, and 15 due to
go back to work in October, I believe. We have another
member who has had the same kind of problem. Anthony
Youatt, from Nipawin, Sask. had much the same trouble,
8 heart attack, and he was to have been operated on
about a month ago. I have not heard from him for some

time, but I must tell you a little story, which left
me feeling mortified.

“testmarketed in the USA,

Dear Out-of-town members,

Every time that I sit down to compose this
column I hope to be struck with an inspiration. It
never happens and this time is no exception.

We had a sort of a delay in the publishing of
our newsletter during the past several months, However
we now have a push on with.a new editor and we expect
that we will have two more issues out by the beginning
of December. That will put us back on track as far as
6 issues a year goes, Fortunately we have several
regular columnists who contribute a page, and that
makes the whole task really quite easy. I pasted up
the MAY/JUNE issue, and the new editor and myself put
out this issue. It is only 12 pages this time because
a couple of columns did not appear on time. However I
expect that we will have no trouble in Filling 14
Pages henceforth,

Quite a bit of our letter jis filled with LARKEN
stuff. I suppose this is natural because the more
active members are often the ones who have the Drive,
and they naturally want to write about it. Mostly, the
disk systems that are offered for the Timex are really
just a barebones 00S, without any particular utilities
to take advantage of it's possibilities. The LARKEN
system 15 no exception, The difference is that with so
many active members in our club owning it, we are
developing quite a suite of utilities to go with it.

There is a disk DOCTOR program which enables one to
look at the track makeup and to readily make changes
On an individual bit basis. Then there is
to facilitate the copying of programs on a single
drive system. Bob Mitchell] has written a program to
make it easy to change the name of a program on a
disk; also another Program to maintain an index of
Programs that one has on disk, Altogether a very
exciting time. I am trying to pursuade someone to
write a program to be used with the MTERM II program
to allow for the automatic transfer to disk of the
MTERM data buffer after it is filled up. This would
allow for the collection of any amount of data via a
modem. Just insert a new disk, when that one is filled
up. Well, you see what I mean,

a program

One other thing, I see where I made a typo error in
the last issue, where I said that 1 could hold 5 files
on one disk, with the LARKEN, Larry Crawford, one of
our members from London,Ont., took me up on that
Saying that that wasn't particularly good; he could
hold 8 files on his (OLIGER) system. I meant to say 50
files, that is I have four files used for the Tasword
program and 50 letter headers, that I call up when I)
address a letter to an out of town member, That's 54

files total Sorry about that L
። arry;
LARKEN!! f i e

. “ፍሎ Met

it 15

Do any of you out there have a pottery friend. 1
mean someone who mixes their own glazes, etc. I ask
this because when I first bought my 2181 I ۱ 0
programming by writing a masterpiece program to
perform glaze calculations. Funny thing though, having
done that, the program just languishes there because I
know practically no potters to have them use it and
marvel over it. Really I am dying to get it into the
light of day, so if you know of someone who would be
interested in it, gat us together. It was designed
for the ZX81, and adapted for the 2068, Actually it
is in the club library too, but I think computer nuts
don't get turned on by pottery making,

(I used to throw clay, until I became president of
this club; now I don’t have time for it!!)

Another of our members has sent me a letter which I

understand was produced with a SHARP ርጅ-=515ዞ
four-colour Printer Plotter. 1 mention this because
he mentions that they are on sale at Total Office

Systems, Unit 14, 1050 McNicol! Ave. Scarborough (493
3575, for $99, Roy writes," I find it to be excellent
for plotting and for the few letters I write."

And the price certianly seems right!

You might take note that Consumers Distributing
have the COMPUDECK tape recorder in their current
catalog. It sells for $33, and is very highly

recommended by all of our club members, and the price
is right also. It is not suitable as a normal

recorder, because there is essentially no loudspeaker,
in the normal sense,

One of our jintown members, jin fact it is our:
newsletter edîtor, Sean Wenzel, is setting up a
bulletin board. It is almost ready to go; he is just
waiting for a phone line. I hope that we can take
advantage of it by creating a TIMEX section on it. I
cannot tell you anymore about it yet but I hope that
the next newsletter will have lots of information
about 15. IT 15 not on a 2068, rather, I think
an IBM clone, but what the hell, we aren't fussy, are
we! We'll take it.

Sincerely,
George C,

has built a digitizer for the 2068,

Anthony called me one day, from Winntpeg, I think
it was. Anyway my opening remark was," I haven't heard
from you for so long, I thought you'd died.”
Forgetting that he had written to me a while before,
telling of his heart attack, I must stop using that
comment, It was alright when I was younger, but it's
getting too close to the bone now! !

For those of you who are able to make it to Toronto
you may be interested in a computer show to be held at
Harbourfront on Saturday, October 18th from 10 a,m, to
6.pem. It is billed as “the computer show for the rest
of us", home users, small businesses, teachers,
students, hobbyists. Cost is $4. admission. I don't
think our club will be represented; they want $40 for
a booth, and that seems a bit much. We shall see what
the membership thinks. But it 15 the sort of show for
hobbyist types,

Some of you may be wondering what the going price
of a 2068 is these days. Well, I have been
instrumental in getting buyer/seller together on a
couple of occasions lately, where the selling price
was $150. For our US members this is in $CAN,

One of our former members has given me a number of
old magazines. Seven issues of SYNC, 6 issues of ZX
COMPUTING, I also have the seven issues of TIMEX/
SINCLAIR USER, which I am more relaxed about loaning
now. So if you are intarested in borrowing a batch of
them , say the word. Of course it goes without saying
that you would pay the postage (expensive!); and I
would like them back! I also have all the issues ዐየ
YOUR COMPUTER magazine. I think I would send them 4th
class, and that is quite a bit cheaper,

One of our members, Eric Michaud, 1269 Andrew Court,
Sarnia, ONt.
With it he is able to pick up images from the output
of another computer, a VCR or TY and capture/display
them በበ the 2062, He uses the joyetick port ac the
input connection. 1 mention this project of Ian's,
because it 15 so fascinating, and because he would ከ8
interested in hearing from others with a like
interest. So do drop him a line if you are interested.
Ha has sant me some of the images on a LARKEN disk, I
made prints of them on My 2040 printer and took them
to the club where they created considerable interest.

Anyone know of a CHEAP video camera? Ian is looking
for one for an extension to his project.