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Keeping Models 3 & 4 Alive 



Volume 1. No. 5. - September 1988 



$3.00 







Cltnty CUnty 

Chancery Nor " ; T,Kt To ° 



wi- 



■ _ * — 



Wore lest 

STENCIL ^ h:-R« SrWMM 

tieeani — 



LITTLE ORPHAN EIGHTY 



The San Diego trip was wonderful. No smog* no 
ringing telephones, Instead sunshine, fresh air and 
tots of baseball. The scores could have been better, 
but everything considered, tt was a relaxing and fun 
few days. I enjoyed It very much as did Alan and 
Steven, my two VERY expensive Kids. 1 dldnl know 
anyone could eat that many hot dogs In such a short 
span of time! 

As mentioned in the CLOSE # column of last 
issue, tt was time for some serious evaluations on 
the future of TRSTimes. One thing I learned some 
years ago, the hard way, is that no one will ever do 
anything particularly worthwhile without the support 
of their family. Hence, my first concern was that the 
constant demand on my time by TRSTimes might in 
terfere In normal family life. When starting TRSTimes 
in early November of last year, I was concerned that, 
at this time, I might be burned out and would have 
nothing more to offer. Also, of course, then I dldnl 
Know how welt the magazine would be received, nor 
did I Know If It would be self sustaining or If I would 
have to dig into the Wolstrup savings account to pay 
the bills. 

Welt, my worries turned out to be nonexlstant 

My family still thinks TRSTimes Is fun and are par 
tiucipatlng actively; the kids help put the pages in 
order as well as punching In the final staple; my wife 
has acted as the in house proof reader and has, 
more times than not, edited my rambling thoughts 
Into readable articles. She Is a writer, with books and 
many magazine articles to her credit, so her help has 
been invaluable. 

The support of the TRS 80 community has been 
fantastic. The subscriptions came In (and still are) at 
a rate where the Initial startup loan has been repaid, 
all bills are current, enough money to produce and 
mall out Issue #6 Is set aside, and there are still a 
few bucks left over. 

I realize that the accountants at 80 Micro or any of 
the other 'big time 1 publications, past or present 
would hardly classify TRSTimes as a financial sue 
cess, tt is, nevertheless, very satlsflylng that when 
they abort for monetary reasons, a publication such 
as ours, can exist without red Ink on the books. 

The response from the readers has also been 
very encouraging. Article submissions have reached 
a point where both Issues 4 & 5 could easily have 
been 40 pages instead of 30. However, postal rates, 
along with some other factors, force the page limit to 
remain at 30, at least for now. 

As you can probably tell from reading the above 
paragraphs, my fear of burn out was unnecessary. I 
am as enthused about TRSTimes, and the TRS 80, 
as ever before. 1 feel there are many more things to 
explore, more new things to learn and much more In 

formation to get out So the bottom line Is this: 



TRSTimes WILL continue 

in 1 989. 



1 very much look forward to another year 
TRSTimes. Plans for exciting new features are on the 
drawing board. The January Issue will see the begin 
ning of a series of Assembly Language tutorials that 
will be unlike any of the books or articles you threw 
away because you did not understand. This series 
will be written In such a manner that almost anyone 
with a fair knowledge of Basic should see the light 
and thus get started on the Intricacies of Z 80 as 

sembler. 

Also planned, due to popular demand, is regular 
coverage of the machine that started all the TRS 80 
fuss, the Model I. We have promises of articles, as 
well as an in house working Model I with which we 
can verify, or If need be, produce material 

There Is also the possibility of a series of tutorials 
on Basic. Letters have Indicated that many of you 
would like to learn how to program. We may just do 
that 

While other new things are being talked about be 
assured that your favorite columns, such as Tim's 
and Roy's will continue, as will program listings and 
the exploration of the various DOS'es. 

The downside to continuing In 1989 is the fact that 
we are forced to raise the subscription rate. One of 
the major reasons that TRSTimes Is financially sol 
vent is George Templing. George Is the manager of 
the local print shop, and for the past year he has 
been kind enough to trade reproducing costs for 
private MS DOS lessons (seems only fair that MS- 
DOS should be the vehicle to promote TRSDOS, 
doesn't ft?). However, this deal Is not possible In 
1989, so expenses are going up dramatically. Thus tt 
Is neccessary to raise the subsrlptlon rate to the fol 
lowing: ' 

U.S. & Canada: $18.00 for 6 Issues In 1989. 
Anywhere else: $23.00 for 6 Issues In 1989. 

(U.S. funds ONLY, please.) 



Re subscribe now. Make sure your TRS 80 has 
continued information In 1989. The address Is: 

TRSTimes 

2031 1 Sherman Way #221 

Canoga Park, CA. 91306 

Enough of the sales pitch; let's get on with the 
show: 

Welcome to TRSTimes #6 



TRSTimes Volume 1 . No 


■ w- 


September 1 988 


CONTENTS: 








LITTLE ORPHAN EIGHTY 








2 


THE MAIL ROOM 








... 4 


CP/M THE ALTERNATE DOS FOR MODEL 4.... 






6 


LIVING WITH A COMPUTER JUNKIE 








9 


ENHANCING SCRIPSIT 








10 


OLD COMPUTERS NEVER DIE 








13 


TRSDOS 1.3. CORNER 








16 


MACROKEY 








...19 


USING SYS13/SYS 








...21 


TIMS'S PD EXPRESS HIGH REZ 80 








23 


JACK'S TIP SHEET 








...26 


DATE YOUR TRSDOS 6.2. THROUGH 1999 






27 


ITEMS OF INTEREST 








...28 


CLOSE #5 








...30 


TRSTimes is published bimonthly by 


TRSTimes publications. 




203 ll Sherman Way «22l. Canoga Park, CA. 91306. U.S.A. 




Entire contents [c] 1988 


by TRSTimes publications. 






No part of this publication may be 


reprinted 


or reproduced by 


any 


means 


without the prior written permission from the publishers. All rights 


reserved. 


1988 subscription rates 


(6 issues): 






United States and 


Canada: 


$15.00 (U.S.) 






All other countries: 


$20.00 (U.S.) 







THE 

lwl/\IL 

ROOM 




HELP 

I recently purchased a computer question bank 
management system to help me with my Increasing 
classroom workload. 

To date I have been unable to locate a source of 
muttj choice questions (electricity, electronics, mathe 
matlcs, and physics) in Canada. 

Apart from the do it yourself route, do you know 
of a source for test questions in my areas of interest? 

Fred W. Happy 
RR 3. Box 173 
Kingston, Ontario 
Canada K7L4V2 



I have just subscribed to your mag thru' NATGUG, 
and have issue 3 but expect earlier editions In short 
order. It Is good to see someone still cares for us 
Model III users (I got 2, In case one wears out). 

I have a problem and I hope TRSTimes and Its 
readers will be able to help: 

One of my Model Ills came with the OMIKRON 
MAPPER III CP/M board, version 1.0, 35 track, S/D. 
OMIKRON (of Berkeley, Ca.) never did send a D/D 
update. Now out of business, I think. 

Does anyone have access to the D/D update and 
know how I can acquire same? Also I have COMMX, 
TARBELL, ELECTRIC WEBSTER, & WORDSTAR all 
in D/D, with no manuals. It's a shame to let all that 
software and facility go to waste. 

CAN ANYONE HELP PLEASE ?? 

Tony Gerrard 

II Forge Valley Way 
Poolhouse Farm 
Wombourne Staffs 
WV5 8JR 
England 



Can anyone out there in TRS 80 land help Fred 
and Tony? Please write them with arty Information 
you may have at the addresses given above. 

Ed. 



KIND WORDS 

These days I am breathing a great sigh of relief 
with the following and momentum your publication 
and TRS Link are enjoying. I first learned about 
TRSTimes through TRS Link on the Genie system. 

i felt I was being forced to give up my Model IV 
for an MS DOS setup although the IV has done 
everything I needed It to do. Now with the efforts of 
yourselves and others I can continue to learn and 
grow in my computing skills. 

Thank you for all your efforts and support and rest 
assured I will support your publication and ail others 
that keep me up and running. 

Keep up the good work. 

David W. Ireland 
Devoted TRS80 User 
Key Largo, FL. 



I appreciate your efforts and the product of 
TRSTimes. With issue 1.3. (May) just received I can't 
express too greatly our THANKS for continuing to 
support a Great Computer. Please keep me on the 
mailing list for current issues, Disks, etc. 

I am Past President and continuing "Membership 
Chairman" of the "DALLAS MICROCOMPUTER 
USERS GROUP, INC. Our common name is 
DALTRUG Tandy Users. We have a large SIG sup 
porting MOD l/m/rv/4P as well as the Models 11/12/16, 
and have been in existence since 1978. 

Currently we meet each 2nd Saturday, 9:00 am to 
4 pm at the Dallas INFOMART, 1950 Stemmons 
Frwy, Dallas, TX. Our day covers such SIGS as 
"STARTEXT USERS, COLOR COMPUTER, TANDY 
1000,2000,3000, M1/III,IV,4P, MAIN BUSINESS 
MEETING, MODEL 11/1 2/1 6/PUB DOMAIN 
SOFTWARE, AOS 9 USERS, LAPTOP COM 
PUTERS, PERSONAL ANCESTRAL RLE, AND from 
time to time SIGS on Basic and 'C'\ A very active 
and Tandy oriented group. 

We maintain one of the better BBS's In the area 
with plenty of software for the TRSDOS machines, as 
well as MS DOS. 24 hours with 300/1200/2400 on 
FIDO. An open board at (214) 234 4952. 

Please call on us if we can be of help. 

Fred A Drfscoll, Jr. 
Dallas, TX. 



We thank both David and Fred for the kind words, 
it is this kind of support and enthusiasm that will keep 
the TRS 80 alive for a long time to come. 

Had 80 Micro only realized how much we TRS 80 

types love the machine 

Ed. 



TRSTimes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 4 



MISSING PERSONS 



EASYDOS 



Can anyone help me get in touch with Robert Ack 
erman, the author of EasyDos, a DOS shell program 
for the Model 4? I liked It and sent him my reglstra 
tlon In April, but have never heard from him. My 
check has not been cashed, and his phone has been 
disconnected (I even sent a label and return postage 
to return my check In case he no longer supports the 
program). I'd like to find out what has happened. 

Don Singer 
3726 Skyl'ne Dr. 
Scottsbluff, NE. 69361 



The latest address we have for Robert Is: 



ROBERT ACKERMAN 
906 SARTORI AVE. #2 
TORRANCE, CA. 90501 



Ed. 



P2DOT 

Several readers were Intrigued by Steven Jerkins' 
review of P2DOT In Issue 4 and would like to get In 
touch with the author of the program. We did some 
research and, hopefully, this is the author's current 
address: 

PAUL F. BARNETT 
BOX 170 
HENDERSON, KY. 42420 

Ed. 



ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE TUTORIAL 

Please continue in 1989 so i can reap the benefits 
of the promised tutorial on assembly language. I 
have tried to read through several books and articles 
on the subject, even took a night class, but I get lost 
almost Immediately, i am a fair Basic programmer, 
but I Just can't grasp the concept of assembly Ian 
guage. Will your tutorial provide me with some un 
derstandlng? 

Brian Colson 
Jacksonville, FL. 



First, as stated in Little Orphan Eighty, TRSTimes 
has committed to continue with another six bl month 
ly Issues in 1989. This means that, among other 
things, the assembly language tutorial is on the draw 
ing board. The plan is to aim this tutorial at people, 
just like you, that has a fair to good knowledge of 



Basic. As much as possible, we will treat assembly 
language as if it was Basic itself. 

Teach you assembly? 

NO, only YOU can do that. 

Making you see the light to get you started? 

YES, I'd say there's a good chance. 

Ed. 



CHANGO80 
CORRECTION & SOLUTION 

I have invested several hours of my life typing in, 
finding and correcting my typos, and playing CHAN 
GO80 from issue 4. 1 have found the game very en 
lovable, challenging, but mostly frustrating: I can't 
get a perfect score. What Is the correct sequence? 

P.S. I resent the comment In C$. 

E. W. Simmons 
Wausau, Wl 



Even though the listing for CHANGO80 contains 
two offsetting minor errors, they in no way prevent 
you from getting a perfect score at 169 moves. 
However, a perfect score does really take 170 
moves, but since the logic In line 500 does not Incre 
ment the score if the puzzle is solved, a perfect 
score Is indicated at 169 moves. To correct this 
change lines 500 and 510 to read: 

500 M = M + 1 :IF B = THEN GOSUB 30: 
GOTO 510 ELSE GOSUB 30: GOTO 320 
510 PRINT@256,ER$:IF M = 170 THEN 
PRINT@285, "Perfect score GENIUS": GOTO 600 

C$ was intended to be tongue in cheek. By all 
means remove It or change it to whatever you would 
like it to be. 

CHANGO80 is meant to be challenging and, YES, 
also frustrating. This type of puzzle game loses its 
charm once you know the answer and can solve It at 
will. However, since several letters have indicated 
the same frustration, we will give the sequence for a 
perfect score. Use it once to get the idea, and then 
promise to never look at this solution again. 

7,8,5,8,7,8,6,8,7,8, 

3,8,7,8,6,8,7,8,5,8,7,8,6,8,7,8, 

4,8,7,8,6,8,7,8,5,8,7,8,6,8,7,8, 

1,8,7,8,6,8,7,8,5,8,7,8,6,8,7,8, 

4,8,7,8,6,8,7,8,5,8,7,8,6,8,7,8, 

3,8,7,8,6,8,7,8,5,8,7,8,6,8,7,8, 

4,8,7,8,6,8,7,8,5,8,7,8,6,8,7,8, 

2,8,7,8,6,8,7,8,5,8,7,8,6,8,7,8, 

4,8,7,8,6,8,7,8,5,8,7,8,6,8,7,8, 

3,8,7,8,6,8,7,8,5,8,7,8,6,8,7,8, 

4,8,7,8,6,8,7,3,5,8,7,8,6,8,7,8 



Ed. 



TRSTimes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 5 



CP/M - The alternate DOS for Model 4 



by Roy Beck 



A reader has asked me to explain SUBMIT and 
XSUB. That's easy In a simplistic sense: SUBMIT Is 
the analog of the DO (JCL) files of TRSDOS, and 
XSUB adds some capability. But that s hardly a satis 
factory explanation, especially if you do not under 
stand DO files. So let's give it a whirl. 

A JCL (Job Control Language) file in any DOS Is 
a means to automate a repetitive task. Obvious ex 
amples at the PC level are, initiating a terminal 
program which requires setting a group of 
parameters to certain values each time, such as 
entering name and password information; and, for 
me, attempting to initiate my dBaseli program with 
the files necessary to do the monthly bookkeeping 
for the club of which I am the treasurer. Since these 
two tasks are under different DOSes, it may be help 
ful to explain both of them. 

Of course, there are many different terminal 
programs around, but the ones I use to move files 
from my Mod 100 to my Mod 4 under TRSDOS are 
the ones I happen to use. The TERM program is In 
ROM in the Mod 100, and the corresponding Mod 4 
program COMM Is an integral part of TRSDOS 6.X. 
(There Is a corresponding program named LCOMM 
in LDOS 5.X). The Mod 100 requires XON/XOFF 
handshaking at anything above 600 baud, so in 
order to achieve reasonable speed, I run at 9600 
baud when moving files from one to the other via my 
null modem. 

Setting up the Mod 100 is easy, as the menu 
shows me the few commands necessary, and I can 
remember them easily. But the TRSDOS commands 
are another story. It's true, there are only 3 com 
mands there to Initialize, but they are not obvious, 
and i inevitably forget something, put a comma or 
space in the wrong place, or do something else 
which requires me to retype the command (and 
curse Roy S. under my breath). I have found out it is 
much simpler to write a little DO file for this task, and 
get on with the job at hand. (As the old saying goes, 
"When you are up to your ass in alligators, it is some 
times difficult to keep In mind that your original goal 
was to drain the swamp!"). Since my goal Is to trans 
fer files from the Mod 100 to the Mod 4, anything 
which minimizes the alligator headcount and 
facilitates the original goal is welcome. 

You may wonder why I donl write on the Mod 4 
under Allwrlte in the first place. The answer is easy. 
The Mod 100 is so much more PORTABLE! (I am 
writing this article while soaking in my hot tub). Since 
the Mod 100 Is battery powered, and all Its voltages 



are below the personnel safety limit of 50 volts, I can 
safely use the Mod 100 In a wet environment Donl 
try that with any computer that requires 110 VAC for 
operation! 

The TRS DO file (MOD100/JCL) which Initializes 
the terminal program is as follows: 



SET *CL TO COM/DVR 
SETCOM(W = 8,P = N,B 
COMM *CL 



9600) 



To execute the file I simply type DO MOD100, 
and almost Immediately I am ready to begin file trans 
fers. 

TRSDOS has a BUILD command to simplify the 
creation of DO files. When you use this, you call 
"BUILD filename" with no extension. Build automat) 
cally adds the /JCL extension for you. Since CR's 
are legitimate entries In DO files, you cannot ter 
minate creation of DO files under BUILD with a CR. 
Instead, use SH + CTL@, which completes the con 
structlon of the DO file and returns you to DOS 
READY. 

The JCL language allows the inclusion of various 
comments which will be printed to the screen during 
execution to guide and inform the operator. The line 
will appear upon the screen, allowing Instructions to 
the operator to be included, such as: "Donl forget 
your wedding anniversary on June 10th!" A Pause 
command Is available to suspend operation while 
the operator changes disks, etc. 

SUBMIT, under CP/M, allows you to do almost 
anything automatically from a SUB file that you could 
do by typing on the keyboard at the DOS READY. In 
fact that Is what occurs when using SUBMIT. The 
keyboard driver is temporarily replaced by a special 
driver which feeds in a script of commands from a 
buffer, supplying a command whenever DOS (CP/M) 
needs further keyboard Input Of course, a DOS 
error or a faulty command in the SUB file will lead to 
trouble, as CP/M is not the most forgiving of DOSes. 
But good equipment and careful preparation of SUB 
files will allow you that "Ain't I Smart?" feeling when 
you get It working. 

My attempt to automate dBase was unsuccessful, 
but the process is still instructional. Following was 
my approach. In Montezuma Micro's CP/M, the com 
mand to start up the dBaseli program and call the 
club files would have been SUBMIT VCC, which 
should have begun execution of the file named 
VCC. SUB. (The name of every CP/M SUBMIT file 



TRSTimes 1.5. ■ SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 6 



must end In .SUB). The listing of the SUB file was 
as follows: 

XSUB <CR> 

DB <CR> 

<CR> 

USE BlVCCFILE INDEX B: NAME LIST <CR> 

SUB.COM Is a transient command and therefore 
must be available on the logged on disk. 

The XSUB in the SUB file stands for extended 
SUBmit, and allows SUB to continue functioning in 
side your application program after it has loaded 
and begun execution. SUB by itself cannot do this. 
(TRSDOS also cannot do this). By the way, not all 
application programs will accept the tender minlstra 
tlons of XSUB. The only way to be sure Is to try it 
yourself to see If your application program is com 
patible. Walte and Angermeyer, authors of the "CP/M 
Bible", say XSUB will work with most programs, ex 
cept those which are "III behaved". This means the 
programs must use only official DOS calls, Instead 
of taking "shortcuts". The only way to know If your 
program Is "well behaved" Is to try XSUB and find 
out. 

To use the XSUB feature, it is necessary to place 
the command XSUB on a line prior to calling of the 
program within which XSUB is expected to function. 
While not mandatory, as a general rule you should 
place XSUB on the first line of the SUB file. Once 
called, XSUB remains resident If its services are 
needed for a second program in a long SUB file, rt 
does not need to be called a second time. Note that 
XSUB.COM, (which Is a transient command), must 
also be available on the logged on disk. 

in my case, the SUBMIT command worked as far 
as loading and beginning execution of dBasell, but 
dBase thenceforth ignored the SUB file, and did not 
accept the remainder of the commands. Evidently 
dBase sets up and uses its own keyboard driver and 
ignores CP/M's driver, it was interesting to note that, 
after QUITrJng dBase, SUBmit resumed activity and 
Issued the remainder of the command list to DOS, 
which had no idea what to do with them! 

We now know dBasell does not accept XSUB, but 
only testing will tell about other programs. To 
paraphrase the old TV commercial, Try it you may 
like It!'. 

By the way, CP/M does not contain an equivalent 
of TRSDOS' BUILD command. To create the SUB 
MIT file, you must use an editor or word processor 
which creates a straight ASCII file. By this I mean a 
file with no unprintable graphics characters In It 
ED.COM, which comes wrth CP/M, is perfectly 
capable of doing this, although many aspersions are 
cast in Its direction because it Is not a full featured 
editor. However, it does small tasks like creating 



SUBMIT flies easily. Another popular method Is to 
use WordStar In the non document mode. (The 
document mode adds control and graphic charac 
ters to the file for formatting purposes, which Is unac 
ceptable to SUBMIT). 

SUB also allows comments In a SUBmit file. 
When the tile is created, comments may be inserted, 
which will appear upon the screen when the file is 
SUBMITted. Each comment must begin on its own 
line, prefixed with a semicolon (;). 

Another feature of the SUB command is the 
capability of accepting variables to be replaced with 
real values at the time of execution. Variables in the 
file are represented by $0 through $9. $0 is a special 
case. It will be replaced with the name of the 
SUBMITled file; $1 through $9 will be replaced by 
their respective parameters on the command line. 

The following example is taken from Walte and 
Angermeyer. The example initiates a new system 
disk and Is actually inappropriate for the Mod 4, as 
Monty (of Montezuma Micro) has provided a simple 
backup command as a part of our CP/M package. 
Nevertheless, I will present the DISKINIT.SUB routine 
for explanatory purposes. 

DISKiNIT.SUB 

FORMAT 

SYSGEN 

;Copy all COM mat from Drive $1 to $2 

PlP$2: = $l:*.COM(V) 

; Display directory of Drive $2 

DIR $2: 

This routine will format a blank disk, sysgen the 
system onto rt copy all .COM files from drive $1 to 
$2, and finally display a directory of the new disk. 

To execute this routine, one would use the follow 
ing command: 

SUBMIT DISKINIT B D 

Wherever $1 appears, B would replace It; similar 
ly for $2. The new disk would be In drive D, and the 
.COM files would be copied from drive B. Where the 
number of parameters fails to match the number of 
variables, CP/M will follow certain rules, if there are 
too many variable values In the parameter string, the 
extra values will be Ignored. If there are too few, the 
corresponding variables will be replaced with nulls. 
All of this will be without notice to the operator. Need 
less to say, the results may not be as you expected. 
As always with CP/M, BE CAREFUL! 

A $ In a comment line will also be treated as a 
variable to be replaced by something from the 
parameter string. But you may well wish to have a 
real $ appear In a comment line. In this case, put two 



TRSTImes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 7 



(2) $'s In the comment line ($$). This will result In 
one being displayed and the other one being 
dropped Into the bit bucket. 

In the course of Its execution, the SUBMIT com 
mand will always create a temporary file on your 
logged on disk named $$$.SUB. This file Incor 
porates the variable substitutions discussed above, 
and is created Immediately after the SUBMIT com 
mand is started. For this reason the logged on disk 
must not be write protected, and must have sufficient 
space for the $$$.SUB file, which will usually be the 
same size as the original .SUB file. 

There are some known bugs in SUBMIT which will 
never be fixed, but can be partially worked around. 
The CP/M manual by Cortesl, "Inside CP/M" (In 
eluded with Monte's CP/M package) points out these 
bugs. Cortes! mentions them on page 130. Briefly, 
SUBMIT files can, and often do contain control 
characters, such as ^Z, as Is used in PIP and ED to 
terminate them. SUBMIT Is supposed to accept 
either ^Z or ^2, replacing either one with the con 
trol z value 1 AH. The bug is that SUBMIT won't ac 
cept ^Z, although It will accept ^2. The work 
around for this Is discussed on pages 192 and 366 
of the Cortes! manual. 

According to Cortesi, there is another bug In the 
SUBMIT command (P. 366). It won't accept a com 
mand line of zero length, preferring to crash Instead. 
There Is no fix for this problem. You will note that I 
created such a problem In my own attempt, where I 
attempted to bypass a date entry requirement with a 
< CR > , but It did not bite me. tt never got that far In 
the execution! I am sure It would have caused trouble 
if XSUB had been allowed to proceed, but unfor 
tunately, dBase defeated me. 

Another reader of these epistles to the TRS faithful 
has taken me (mildly) to task for an omission in my 
essay on PIP. He points out that I omitted mention of 
a parameter for PIP which can be most useful when 
needed. Mea Culpa! 

The missing parameter Is Z Z Is a parameter 
which will zero bit 7 of any byte of a file being trans 
ferred by PIP. The format would be: 

A>PIP B.fllespec Aiflletpec (Z) 

The need for (and utility of) this parameter arises 
when you wish to print a (document mode) Wordstar 
file directly from DOS or when you wish to load a 
W* file Into some word processor which chokes on 
W*'s formatting characters, which Include bytes with 
bit 7 set If you try to print a formatted file under 
DOS, the printer will perform unpredictably, depend 
ing upon how it responds to control and graphics 
codes. My own printer will change fonts, go in and 
out of compressed and expanded modes, etc. Very 
disconcerting. Of course, the need is to get rid of the 



graphics characters, and PIP can do this by zeroing 
bit 7 of every byte. This does not really get rid of the 
offending bytes, it converts them to characters In the 
range of 00 to 7FH, which makes most of them print 
able characters. They will now print as ordinary let 
tars, but at least flie printer can handle them. Of 
course, any which are converted to values in the 
range of 00 to 1FH can still cause trouble, causing 
unexpected form feeds, etc. The unexpected form 
feeds can in turn be eliminated by adding yet 
another parameter, F, which gets rid of all form 
feeds. The sequence of parameters is important, and 
in this case must be (ZF). If the order is reversed, 
only form feeds originally in the file will be 
eliminated. 

By first PtPing the formatted file to a new file with 
the graphics bit unset, you can load the file Into 
whatever WP you have and remove the offending 
characters. Then It can be printed directly with no 
trouble. 



PUBLIC DOMAIN PROGRAMS 



NEW PROGRAMS 



from the Valley TRS 80 Hackers' Group 

public domain library 

for Model I, III & 4 



Send SASE for annotated list 
Sample dltk $5.00 (US) 

VTHG 

BOX 9747 

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA. 

91609 



TRSTImes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 8 



LIVING 

WITH A 

COMPUTER 

JUNKIE 

by Barbara A. Beck 



Ten years ago my husband, Roy, walked into a 
Radio Shack and bought a computer. Hl$ first 
Life hasn't been the same since. 

it was a Radio Shack Model 1 and when he got it 
home he found a perfect place for it in his home of 
flee. He was happy. I was happy he was happy, i 
thought that would be the end of it. 

The Model 1 kept Roy entertained whenever I had 
to be out of the house helping my parents, who were 
both in their late 80$. When I'd get home i knew I 
could always find him In his office, hunched over his 
machine like a drinker at his favorite bar. Some 
times he'd try to get me to join him, but having no 
predisposition towards computer addiction I'd only 
sit down to learn a program or two, like Electric Pen 
cil or a genealogy program, but that was it I never 
got hooked. I could stop any time I wanted. It might 
be days before I'd need to use a computer again. 
And of course I never computed alone. I guess you 
couid say I'm strictly a social computer user. (I was 
also afraid I'd destroy something.) But Roy was dif- 
ferent Once he got started computing he couldn't 
stop. 

His behavior began to change. He started hang 
ing out with the boys at the TRS 80 computer club 
down in Orange County. And we lived In Los An 
geles! But Roy would go to any lengths to be with 
his junkie companions, so once a month he'd spend 
all day Sunday commuting back and forth to his 
meeting. 

One day I came home and there was a strange 
new computer, a Model 4, sitting in the living room. 
"What's that?" I asked Roy. That's ours", he said 
and immediately took it Into his office with him and 
shut the door. 

Next there was a printer. Then a hard disk. And 
then a printer upgrade. The machines outgrew his 



office and began creeping Into the IMngroom and 
the patio where they clung territorially to various 
pieces of furniture. Computer newspapers and 
books spread themselves over every available flat 
surface In the living room and when we put up a new 
book shelf, they overtook that too. Next we put two 
sheets of plywood across part of the open beam cell 
ing in the pado to create more storage space, and in 
no time books and magazines invaded that area 
and won. Cleaning became a chore -until I dis- 
covered the feather duster. But I never did figure out 
how to polish the wood. 

As Roy's condition progressed, I knew that there 
must be a self help group for the loved ones of com 
puter junkies to go to. I found one! It was a Radio 
Shack class on the Model 1. 1 signed up. i guess 
their philosophy was: "if you can't beat 'em, join 
'em!" Roy was happy having a computing com 
panion at last And when I was given my very own 
computer, a RS 100 laptop portable, I figured at 
least we'd go down the drain together. But to my 
horror I returned home one day to discover that 
Roy's own computers weren't enough for him he'd 
borrowed mine! 

"Why can't you just stop after one or two?" I cried. 
"Have you no willpower!" 

Chagrinned, Roy did try harder after that to share 
his supply with me. Being a true computer connois 
seur he set out to educate me, patiently explaining 
every facet of each machine, each program's code, 
each time saving technique. 

We had good times together, there's no doubt 
about It, but sadly it didn't keep Roy's addiction from 
progressing to the point where he began staying out 
at night at least five or six times a month. He said he 
was going to meetings, but I'd find names like 
SAGATUG and VTUG and VTHG (probably her 
sister) written on bits of paper around the house. 

When he began going to Computer Swap Meets I 
decided to try to join In with him one more time. "All 
right, ail right, I'll go to the swap meet with you!" I 
said. "I'll even buy something computer related!" 

I came home with an antique clock. 

Not too long ago I realized It had been a couple 
of weeks since Roy had come home with a new com 
puter or a new printer upgrade or a new computer 
book. Could It be that he was changing after air? 
Was he losing his addiction? 

Then I opened up a drawer and found a bunch of 
computer pieces hidden under a towel. 

"I assume those are yours," I said to Roy, pointing 
to the computer parts In the drawer. 

"Those are ourt", he said. They may be of use 
some day!" 

Once a computer Junkie, 
always a computer junkie! 



TRSTimes 1.5. • SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 9 



ENHANCING 
SCRIPSIT 



by 
David Goben 




Scripsit modifications 
can be found almost 
anywhere. 
The popularity of 
the word processor 
and its ease of use has 
made it an instant win 
ner. Unfortunately, as 
time has passed, 
printers have become 
more and more powerful, being capable of MUCH 
more than the printers current to the time of Sciipslt's 
development, making the word processor seem 
primitive in many respects. Hackers later found out 
some amazing things about Scripsit as they at 
tempted to patch It to accomodate their new printers 
It was EASY to patch. The structure of Scripsit is so 
logically defined, and laid out so understandably, 
that any hacker worth their salt could figure out what 
it was up to in any section of code In only a short 
period of time. 

Since the popularity of my Shareware MODSCRIP 
package has begun to grow tremendously, many of 
Its eager users have started asking me how I manage 
to do so MUCH to a word processor such as SCRIP 
SIT, and still not take away a single byte of text buff 
er space. If s easy. I KNOW the system. That is 
probably the greatest secret to any such 'amazing' 
feat Those who are curious enough will explore. My 
own natural curiosity has brought me a long way. 
When I did not understand something, I made every 
effort to do so. Most often this led me to reading 
hundreds of books, learning new computer Ian 
guages, or simply stepping back and looking at a 
single thing from various points of view. Virtually all 
of these feats apply to how I developed MODSCRIP. 

I started with a disassembled listing of Scripsit I 
then went through the task of figuring out what each 
and every routine did. In doing so I found a LOT of 
free space In the program. Scripsit Is FILLED with un 
used space and un used code. There Is even a look 
up table that is totally ignored by the system. After 
mapping them out and filling them with enhancement 
routines, I set about to find MORE space by examin 
ing the WAY that the original programmer had written 
Scrlpslfs code. From that I figured out how to op 
tlmize It, to make It shorter. Each routine that I made 
shorter resulted In more free bytes to play with. I had 
often spent hours in order to figure out how to free 



up only one or two bytes. I cannot begin to count the 
times that i thought I had squeezed the last free byte 
out of the program, only to wake up the next morn 
ing realizing how i could free several dozen more. 
With each set of free bytes came at least one more 
enhancement, until the sytem grew to often rival, and 
sometimes surpass that of SuperSCRIPSIT. 

Add to this my worst habit: being a programmer, I 
can never seem to leave a finished set of code 
alone. I will always tinker. Often that tinkering results 
In not only finding enough space to place two enhan 
cements where before only one enhancement ex 
isted, but also to make the combined length of the 
two enhancements shorter than the original block of 
code. My other bad habit Is that I will sometimes to 
tally re write a program to save only one byte of 
code. I have this weird thing about making any 
program I write Its ABSOLUTE shortest These bad 
habits also lead me to receive a lot of curious stares. 
For someone will 'wonder where a certain routine 
might be located in a huge program, and I will often 
immediately state the address right off the top of my 
head, in the case of Scripsit, I probably know the sys 
tern as well, if not better than the original author. 
After documenting each and every byte in the sys 
tern, I guess It kind of burned Itself Into my memory. 
These habits are exemplified by the fact that I had 
developed version 1.0.0 of MODSCRIP In January of 
1983, and even now I am STILL hacking away, com 
pleting version 9.0.0 In early June of 1988, and only 
the other day (the last day of June, 1988) I figured 
out how to apply even more patches to accomodate 
printers that require a SECOND code after the back 
space code, to back up a full character space, such 
as is needed on the DWP 410. 

In early 1977 Beve Woodbury up at 80 MICRO 
asked me if I knew how to add a couple of enhance 
ments to Scripsit, to answer a Feedback Loop ques 
Won. In a matter of an hour I had developed a 
program that applied not only those enhancements, 
but several others as well. Unfortunately this amazing 
little program was never published. Only the inqulr 
Ing reader received a copy I later decided to 
present this program In the July 1988 Issue of Com 
puter News 80, but being sqeezed for space, I had 
to put It back on the shelf. When Lance Wolstrup 
asked me to write an article for TRSTlmes, It was like 
being the fastest draw In the West; I had an Instant ar 
tide ready. 

The patches I developed for 80 MICRO have been 
further enhanced, Just today, by patches to make the 
Model I's SCRIPSiT/LC program to work not only on 
BOTH the Model I and Model III, but under ANY 
Model Mil DOS, except for CP/M. With these new en 
hancements you can print such characters as brack 
ets, underscores, control codes, and codes greater 
that 127 directly from the keyboard. It will also recog 
nlze the RIGHT SHIFT key on the Model lii, respect 
Model l/lll high memory settings, exit to DOS rather 
than do a reboot, print to both the Model I and III 
printer ports, and work with other non- Radio Shack 
printers that it before would not operate on. The 



TRSTlmes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 10 



modification program Itself give you the option to 
force It to send a line feed after a carriage return, if 
your printer requires it, thus eliminating the need for 
a printer filter for some printers. 

To apply these patches you need two things. First 
you need a copy of the Model I version of Disk Scrip 
sit 1.0, called SCRIPSIT/LC. If you are using a Model 
III, then you may have to convert SCRIPSIT/LC over 
to your DOS by using a CONVERT utility, such as 
CONVERT on TRSDOS 1.3, or REPAIR on LDOS. 
Second, you need my modification program, called 
SCRPATCH/BAS. The program listing following this 
article is just that NOTICE that you must copy SCRIP 
SIT/LC to another file called simply S/CMD, which 
can be done by using the command COPY SCRIP 
SIT/LC TO S/CMD. S/CMD Is what SCRPATCH/BAS 
will operate on. NEVER work with an original copy. 
ALWAYS use a backup copy, if errors occur and 
you destroy your only existing copy, you will have 
only yourself to blame. NEVER be TOO anxious to 
do ANYTHING. Always be organized and clear 
headed. Those In a rush usually end up taking more 
time to do something than someone with patience 
will, anyway. 

To apply the modifications, go Into BASIC and 
run the SCRPATCH/BAS program. It will open 
S/CMD and modify It You will be asked one ques 
tlon. If you want a Linefeed (LF) to be Issued after 
each Carriage Return (CR), as SOME printers re 
quire, then answer the prompt with V. If you have a 
Radio Shack printer, or any printer that advances a 
line each time only a carriage return Is Issued, then 
answer 'N'. That's all there Is to It All that Is left Is to 
go back to DOS (CMD"S") and enter S, to run 
S/CMD. 

When you are In Scrlpsit, try this: hold down the 
'@' key and press the number keys '1' through '9'. 
How about that? Bet some of you never realized you 
had these symbols. Next, put yourself In the lower 
case mode (If you are not already there) by pressing 
SHIFT @. Notice that you can type capital letters by 
holding down EITHER the left or the right shift keys 
on the Model III (no great feat on the Model I), if you 
want, you may wish to load a document and try print 
ing it, to test printer output. 

How can you send a control code to the printer? 
Easy. Hold down the '@' key and press the number 
zero key. Notice the neat little symbol displayed. Fol 
low this with a code that Is a value of 32 HIGHER 
than the control code. For example, on most Radio 
Shack and Epson printers, you can turn underlining 
on with the code 15. 15 plus 32 equals 47, which is 
the ASCII code for the slash (/). So type a 7 IM 
MEDIATELY after the new symbol you just created. 
Turning off underlining would be to send a 14 code 
out So after the text to be underlined, again hold the 
'(§>' key down and press the zero key, and then press 
the period key (code 46, which Is 14 + 32). 

If your printer supports ASCII codes higher than 
127, then you can use yet ANOTHER special code. 
Hold down the '@' key, but this type type the colon 
(:) key. Here is yet ANOTHER new symbol. This 



would be followed by a key that has a code that 80 
LESS than the desired code. Thus* to print the code 
171, you would subtract 60 from the code, which Is 
111; the ASCII code for the lower case 'o* (OH) 
character. Thus you would hold down the '©* key 
and press the colon (:), than then press the 'o' key 
(you must be In the lower case mode to do this, ob 
viously). 

You have just made Scrlpsit Into a much more 
powerful system. Obviously, this is only a sampling 
of the features you can add to Scrlpsit by using my 
MODSCRIP package, which converts Scrlpsit to 
operate on the l/lll and 4 (In the 4 mode, with 
MAJOR new features) or any other, such as 
Powersoft's PowerSCRIPT, which will modify the l/lll 
or 4 version of Scrlpsit 

if this has whetted your appetite to enhance your 
Scrlpsit system, you can check out 

Powersoft 

4951 Airport Parkway, Suite 700 

Dallas, TX 75248 

They sell PowerSCRIPT for $24.95 (US funds), 
plus $3 S/H. COD add $5. Foreign add $10 (Texas 
add 8% sales tax). 

Their package will operate on Model I's SCRIP 
SIT/LC, Model ill's SCRIPSIT/CMD, and Model 4's 
scRiPsrr/CMD. 

You can also obtain my own MODSCRIP package 
by sending a formatted disk (single sided, Model III 
or 4 Double density formats only, such as LDOS, LS 
DOS, TRSDOS 1.3, NEWDOS80, MULTIDOS, 
DOSPLUS, etc) In a return mailer with return postage 
plus $3 (US) for handling. This Insures that you get 
the latest version, if your BBS operator already has 
it, be sure they have the version that also contains 
the files PRINTERS/TXT and PRTRBKUP/BAS. if they 
don't, then let them know where to get it If you have 
Scrlpsit, but not the Model I version, send proof of 
purchase of YOUR version, such as an ORIGINAL 
customer service bulletin, or even your original 
Scrlpsit disk (these will be returned), and i'll include 
the SCRIPSIT/LC version on the MODSCRIP disk . 
PLEASE be sure to include ail required items: for 
matted disk, return mailer, return postage, and $3. 

Good luck with Scrlpsit, whether you use my pack 
age, Powersoft's, the ones presented In this article, 
or |ust the original, unmodified version. 

David Goben 

28 Montlcello St 

Wllllmantlc, CT 06226 1325 



SCRPATCH/BAS 

10 CLS:PRINT H SCRIPSIT/LC Enhancements, By 

David Goben" 

20 PRINT" 



TRSTImes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 11 



30 FfiihTRun on backup copy of SCRIPSnVLC 

called* 

40 PRINr$/CMD.":PRINT:PRINrOpenlng 

S/CMD..." 

SO ON ERROR GOTO 0: 

OPEN'IWS/CMD^CLOSE 1 

60 OPEN'RM.'S/CMD'lFIELD 1,1 AS A$ 

70 PT = PEEK(VARPTR(A$) + 1) + 256*PEEK 

<VARPTR(A$) + 2) 

80 IF PT > 32767 THEN PT = PT-65536! 

90 HX$ = "0123456789ABCDEF 

100 PRINT:PRINT'Applylng Patches...": 

PRINT:GOSUB 160 

1 10 A$ = >8 :UNE INPUTAdd LF after CR (Y/N)? 
•*A$ 

* 1 20 IF A$ = "THEN 1 1 ELSE A = ASC(A$):IF A96 
THEN A = A 32 

130 IF A = 78 THEN 150 ELSE IF A< >89 THEN 
110 

140 GET 1,1:POKE PT + 25,32:PUT 1,1 

150 CLOSE 1:PRINT:PRINT"Modlficatlon$ Com 
plete.":END 

160 GOSUB 190:IF A$ = "ENDTHEN RETURN 

170RS = A + 1:GET1,RS:GOSUB 
190:PR = PT + A:GOSUB 190:FOR CT = TO A 1 

180 GOSUB 190:POKE PR + CT,A:NEXT:PUT 
1,RS.GOTO160 

190 READ A$:IF A$ = "ENDTHEN RETURN 

200 A = INSTR(HX$,LEFT$(A$,1))*16 + 

INSTR(HX$,RIGHT$(A$,1 ))-1 7 

210 RETURN 

220 'remove Initial out off CR at startup 
230 DATA 00,48,03,00,00,00 

240 'printer output fixes 
250 DATA 14,B2,03,CD,00,52 
260 DATA 15,7A,03,CD,QQ,52 
270 DATA 29,3B,03,CD,00,52 
280 DATA 29,42,03,CD,00,52 

290 allow control code output and 
high- bit byte output 

300 DATA 00,04,3F,C5 J 4F,3E,00,B7,20,1C,79,FE, 

7E 28 11 

310 DATA FE,7F I 28,0D,CD,31,52,FE,0D,18 J 05,0E J 

0A,CD,31 

320 DATA 52,AF,32,03,52,79,C1,C9,FE,7E,79,20, 

04,E6,1F 

330 DATA 18,02,C6,60,4F,18,E8,3A,E8,37,CB,7F, 

20,F9,79 

340 'send byte out to printer 

350 DATA 32,E8,37,D3,F8,C9 

360 Iff you want printer data sent to ROM 

(x'003b'), then use the following data line 

instead off the above data line: 

370 'DATA D5,CD,3B,00,D1,C9 

380' 

390' 



400 fix a bug in tcnpsn 

410 DATA 29,4B,01,3F 

420 "ffix right/left shift key check for model III 

430 DATA 1E,30 $ 09,3A > 80,38 1 E6 I 03,C8,3E,01,C9 
440 DATA 0F,09,03,CD,B8,6F 
460 DATA 0F,35.03,CD,B8,6F 

460 look-up table for special characters 

470 DATA 06,67,10,98,18,90,10,90,1^31,58,32, 

5C,33,5D 

480 DATA 34,5E,35 J 5F,36,60,37,7B,38,7C 1 39 5 7D, 

30.7E.3A.7F 

490 'routine to access special characters 

500 DATA OF^IS.ES.Oe.OE^MB.SS.BE^^S, 

06,23,10 

510 DATA F9,E1,18,08,7E,E1,18,20,00,00,00,00 

520 'exit to dos rather than reboot 

530 DATA 13,E5,02,2D,40 

540 fix printer test 

550 DATA 14,97,03,80,FE,00 
560 DATA 14,A8,03,80,FE,00 

570 'allow high memory to be recog 
nlzed 

580 DATA 00,64,0A,CD,E1, 77,00,00,00,00, 

00,00,00 

590 DATA 26,79,0D,2A,11,44,3A,25,01,FE,49,C8, 

2A,49,40,C9 

600 DATA 06,1C,17,45,4E,48,41,4E,43,45 t 44 v 20, 

42,59,20 

610 DATA 44,41 ,56,49,44,20,47,4F,42,45,4E 

620 'FIX STACK FOR ALL DOS SYSTEMS 

630 DATA 00,44,01, E0 

640DATAOO,D4,01,EO 

650 DATA 04,33,01, DE 

660 DATA 07,01 ,01, DE 

670 DATA 0C,64,01,DE 

680 DATA 11 ,53,01, DE 

690 DATA 1C,CE,01,DE 

700 DATA 1E,EE,01,DE 

710 DATA 28,E6,01,DE 

720 DATA END 




TRSTImes 1.6. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 12 



n 



Old Computers Never Die! 



(Buying and Selling Used Micros) 

by Fred Blechman 



(C) Fred Blechman 1988 



You're ready to move up to another computer 
but what do you do with your old one? If you could 
Just sell your orphan instead of sticking it In the 
closet you might have a few bucks toward your latest 
"gotta' have." Or maybe you can breathe new life Into 
an old corpse vM\ some Jas^f add ons. This article 
will describe how I recently sold four of my old com 
puters and bought a "new" one. I'll also cover the 
way to get add ons and backup units at a bargain. 

Computer Junkies 

There are two kinds of 'computer Junkies" the 
Upgraders" and the "Never Say Die" types. The 
Upgraders buy every new microcomputer usually 
as soon as It's announced no matter how many 
other machines they already have. I tend to be an 
Upgrader, which accounts for the long list of 
machines I've owned: TRS 80 Model I, three TRS 80 
Model III (one with CP/M), one TRS 80 Model 4, two 
TRS 80 Model 4P, TRS 80 MC 10, Coleco ADAM, 
two Sinclair ZX 81, Sinclair Spectrum, Tlmex Sinclair 
1000, Tlmex Sinclair 1500, Tlmex Sinclair 2068, 
Sinclair QL, Sanyo MBC 555, Apple He and IBM 
PC/XT. 

Now, IVe had good reasons to own all those 
machines. In the last nine years IVe written almost 
300 magazine articles and five books about 
microcomputers. I had to have these machines to 
write about them, didn't I? Sure I did! And I had to 
have as many as two or three of some types just in 
case one failed, didn't I? Of course! 

Well, my rationalization might be different from 
yours, but If you're at all dedicated to mlcrocomput 
ing as a hobby or a business, by now you have an 
accumulation of micros, and some of them are just 
gathering dust After many, many hours of sweating 
over a particular keyboard, a relationship develops 
and you just can't let go. Am I right? it seems that the 
thought of selling one of your machines is akin to 
selling one of your children! 

Besides, who would want them? (The computers, 
that Is, not your wonderful, obedient children.) The 
other kind of computer junkies, the Never Say Die 
types, can't give up the micro they started with, faro 
clously responding to those who would have them 
put aside their long obsolete machine for something 
in today's world. The Never- Say Die types almost be 



come cultists, embracing every possible add on to 
their under designed, under powered, under 
memoried machine, trying to somehow make a silk 
purse out of a sow's ear. Never mind the tangled 
cables, corroded connectors, eye tiring displays and 
the like. They join together In user groups devoted to 
maintain the survival of their TRS 80 Model I, ADAM, 
Timex, Sanyo or old Atari and Commodore models 
that have been out of production for years! 

The Upgrader/Never Say Die Marriage 

A great opportunity exists for making both these 
groups happy. All they need to do is find each other! 
It has been said that for every item someone wants to 
sell, there's an eager buyer if they can only find 
each other. 

Here's what I mean. Let's say you're an Upgrader, 
and have finally run out of space for your old 
machines. All you need to do Is find a Never Say 
Die type that wont let go of the machines you'd like 
to sell. 

Or you're a Never Say Die type that's in love with 
the Texas Instruments Tl 99. You need to find some 
one that has a Tl 99 sitting In a closet. 

The Big Decision 



I'm going to assume 

you have one or more -,„ 
micros you have finally TC&k 
decided to sell. I'll lead ^ 7^ 






you through the 
process and then sum- 
marize the situation If 
you are looking for a 
used computer. 

The first thing you 
have to do Is make the 
decision to get rid of 
one of your machines. 
I'd suggest you offer 
only one at a time If 
you have several, since 

that will help you target your market You can always 
have some others on your "next to go" list, but con 
centrate on one at a time. 

Gather everything you have on this computer. That 
means hardware (Including cables and peripherals), 




•*■»* 



TRSTImes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 13 




software, documentation, and books. You'll probably 
be surprised at all you have accumulated for this 
now dead machine. Remember, however, someone 
out there would love to have this little beauty, and the 
more you have to support the machine, the more it's 
worth to the next user. 

What To Charge 

Now you need to 
decide how much 
to charge for this 
"conglomeration of 
obsolete junk" - and 
that's exactly the 
way you must think 
about it! The fastest 
way to sell your 
machine is to sell It 
for a low price. This 
is not easy. You 
may remember, 
painfully, what it 
cost you • and the 
many, many hours 
you labored learn 

ing how to use It __ 

This bears almost no relation, however,"!d what you 
must charge. 

On a national level, the National Association of 
Computer Dealers (NACD) provides survey Informa 
tlon on the prices for over 12,500 new and used 
microcomputer hardware and software items to 
Sybex, Inc. (2344 Sixth St, Berkeley, CA 94710), a 
major microcomputer book publisher. Sybex perl 
odicaliy publishes that NACD information In The 
Computer Blue Book 1 , available at your computer 
book store. 

Also, the Boston Computer Exchange (BCE) of 
fers hundreds of used computer accessories and 
equipment for sale. This information is updated dally 
on CompuServe, an on-line Information and 
electronic mall service accessed through a modem. 
(Call 614 457 0802 for a brochure.) 

CompuServe subscribers can get on line and In 
quire about any Item listed in the BCE database or 
leave a request to list their used computer equipment 
with the BCE. The BoCoEx Index, a weekly report of 
market prices and analysis of marketing trends for 
used computer equipment, is also available for a $1 
surcharge per access. CompuServe users simply 
type GO BCE at any system prompt. 

At the local level, check the classified ads in local 
papers (such as the "PennySaver 8 or "Recycler" 
popular in the Los Angeles area), to see what the 
market price seems to be and go lower for fast 
results. 

Win, Win, Win! 

Not long ago I sold my first computer, a ten year 
old TRS 80 Model I Level II 16K micro (originally 



$800) with a Stringy Floppy Drive (originally $250) 
and $400 worth of tape wafers, an 80 column 120 
character per second electrostatic printer (originally 
$1200, but I got it used for $250), a special serial in 
terface ($25), monitor, cables, and operating 
manuals. That adds up to over $2600 worth of 
original cost items, and I sold It all for $300. The 
buyer wanted to learn Z80 microprocessor assembly 
language programming, and was delighted with his 
purchase. 

The point is, I got $300 I didn't have before, it 
cleared the desk space for another computer I "had 
to have", and the buyer got what he wanted. A Win, 
Win, Win situation. 

I recently sold a TRS 80 Model III, with CP/M 
added, for $500. This machine, with two 180K disk 
drives, originally sold for $2400, plus $800 for the 
CP/M. Yet the buyer was delighted! He had the need 
for both a TRS 80 Model ill and CP/M and he got 
them both In one machine! I bought this machine 
used about three years ago for $1000 a good buy 
at the time. But times change, and the market value 
of older micros Is continually dropping. For ex 
ample, I've been offered a working TRS 80 Model II 
(originally sold for about $4000) for $200! This 
would be a great buy for someone with a working 
Model II that needs a backup. All the seller has to do 
is search out Model II owners. 

So, bite your tongue, grin and bear it and 
charge a price you KNOW Is a good deal. If you are 
going to go to the effort to sell this thing, get It over 
with. 

This does not mean you should put yourself in a 
bad negotiating position. I suggest you set the price 
about 20% or 25% higher than the absolute minimum 
you'll accept This should be a fair, but not Inflated 
price. You may find no reduction is necessary when 
you find an eager buyer. 

Let The World Know 

Next you need to get the word out that you have 
this micro for sale. On a national level, consider 
using the BCE service on CompuServe, mentioned 
earlier. 

For access to a more limited audience, advertise 
in a local newspaper. There are many papers that 
don't charge to place ads, but charge the buyer of 
the paper. They usually classify their ads In 
categories, making it easy for a prospective buyer to 
find exactly what he wants. 

Use User Groups 

You might also find a User Group that might be 
somewhere near you - one that supports the 
machine you want to sell. Local computer stores are 
one source for this information, and some microcom 
puter magazines have listings of User Groups. Con 
tact a principal member of the group and ask them 
to announce the availability of your used machine at 
their next meeting, or to put it In their newsletter. 



TRSTImes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 14 



Some have small classified ads In their newsletters 
for this purpose. Also, you can attend a local meet- 
ing and make a "pitch" during the gathering. You 
might find, however, once you meet some local 
people that can help you, that you don't want to sell 
the machine after all! 

Buyer's Experience 

Although this Is hard to avoid, try not to sell to 
someone who has not used this equipment before 
especially one who has not used any microcomputer 
at all before. If you do, you must make it clear that 
you canl be Involved In helping them learn how to 
use the machine. You could end up providing sup 
port for months! 

I recently sold my Radio Shack MC 10 Mlcrocolor 
Computer, it originally cost me $120, plus $50 for 
the extra 16K memory, plus probably $50 for extra 
books, programs and a vinyl carrying case. I sold 
the whole works, in mint condition, for $50. 1 made It 
clear I could not support the machine. The buyer has 
not called since. Now, this Is a pretty simple 
machine, and I checked it out completely before sell 
Ing It I was willing to sell it to a novice since it was 
designed for beginners and had a good user 
manual. 

The Ideal buyer Is one who already knows ail 
about the machine you have and wants to add it to 
his own collection. Just a couple of weeks ago I sold 
a friend's TRS 80 Model I, with a 48K expansion in 
terface, monitor and and five working disk drives 
(each in a separate case with power supply). Not 
only that, each of the card edges had gold plated 
connectors added, and even a parallel printer cable 
was Included. Total price: $300. The buyer, it turns 
out, really was only Interested In the disk drives, and 
would have paid $300 for those alone. He ended up 
with the entire computer as far as he was con 
cerned for nothing! I suppose if I were a sharp 
negotiator i could have started with $500 as the ad 
vertlsed price but would the buyer have even called 
at that price? This way, my friend was happy to sell 
his computer, I was happy to help him, and the 
buyer was ecstatic. Win, Win, Win again. 

Demonstration 

Be prepared, if asked, to demonstrate the 
machine. I have a table set up in the garage with a 
six outlet power extension, and it makes a great 
place to set up and run a machine I want to sell. I 
personally will not sell a machine that Is not working 
properly demonstration or not unless any defects 
are clearly described to the purchaser. 



Buying A Used Micro 

If you are a Never Say Die computerlst and you 
want to add backup units or add ons to your present 
machine, the process is similar. Check with the BCE 



on CompuServe. Advertise In a local paper under 
"Microcomputer Wanted 8 . Join a User Group that 
supports the machine you want to buy. Many mem 
bers may be thinking of "moving up" and would be 
willing to sell some or all of what they have to help 
pay for their next computer. Insist on a demonstra- 
tion, with your own tapes or disks. If the distance Is 
too great for a demonstration, specify a bill of sale 
guaranteeing refund rf the unit Is defective or not as 
specified. 

And doiii be afraid to ask for a price reduction. 
Most people overvalue when they sell and under 
value when they buy. There is usually a happy mid 
die ground between buyer and seller. 

Be careful of deals that sound too good to be 
true. Some equipment being offered for sale Is 
stolen. If a computer, printer or monitor has a serial 
number removed, it might be stolen. If there Is no 
documentation with the unit, this sometimes could 
mean its stolen, but rt is not unusual for used equip 
merit to have no paperwork. It Is always best to ask 
for an original bill of sale when buying used equip 
ment, but In the real world these have usually been 
lost 

Recently, since I'm the phone contact for a local 
TRS 80 user group, I got a call from a young man 
who had inherited a TRS 80 64K Model 4 with two 
disk drives. He had no manuals, documentation or 
programs, no micro experience, and no Interest In 
keeping rt He was asking $150 for this machine that 
originally sold for $1800. 1 had him bring it over and 
checked it out It had a serial number, and was like 
new! I dldnl have the heart to ask him to drop the 
price. I gave him the $150 and we were both happy. 
It Is now my most used machine. Win, Win! 

New User 

rf you're a brand new computer prospect and 
have never had a machine of your own, ask the help 
of a knowledgeable friend after you have made it 
very clear to both yourself and your friend what your 
NEEDS are. Step One Is determining your purpose, 
Step Two Is finding the software that will satisfy Step 
One. Step Three Is getting the hardware necessary 
to run the software. 

Summary 

Selling your used computer can bring in some 
extra money. Make sure everything works, set a low 
price, and get the word out Be honest and you'll 
avoid a problem later on. 

Buying a used computer can save you a bundle 
compared to a new machine. But you have to do a lit 
tie homework. And it helps if you're a little paranoid, 
since some of what's out there for sale Is defective 
or stolen. 



TRSTimes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 15 



MODEL III 



TRSDOS 

I . O - 

CORNER 

by Lance Wolstrup 



From time to time TRSTimes will try to do some 
thing special for the ones of our readers who are still 
working with Model III, TRSDOS 1.3. We have gotten 
many letters urging more coverage of this DOS, and 
never let It be said that TRSTimes Is not sensitive to 
reader requests. 

TRSDOS 1.3. 

This operating system IS the standard DOS for the 
Model III and, unless you got your machine from a 
fast talking guy wearing a big hat at the Greyhound 
Bus Station, all Model III owners should have a copy. 
It came with the machine. 

Though it lacks some of the features of the 'fancy* 
Model III alternative DOSes, such as LDOS, 
DOSPLUS, NEWDOS/80 and MULTIDOS, It Is still a 
GOOD operating system and, obviously, many folks 
are satisfied with It. It does, however, have some 
quirks that are irritating. This article will discuss AND 
fix some of these irritants. 

BACKUP LIMITED DISKETTES 

Many of us bought commercial software from 
Radio Shack, only to find out that we were only able 
to make a certain amount of 'backups' of these dls 
kettes. It was Radio Shacks way of keeping us 
honest, to keep us from giving away copies to all our 
friends. 

OK, for most of the reasons given In the various 
publications over the years, I agree that we shouldn't 
pirate software. However, I do strongly believe that 
when you own a legitimate copy of a program, you 
should be able to make as many copies as you like 
for personal use. 

When my LAST copy of ZORK, or other protected 
disk, blows up, the disk refusing to boot, I get upset 
The only resource is to fork over more cash to Radio 
Shack for a fresh copy, and in this stage of the 
Model Ill's life, it probably isn't even available. So, 
before this happens to you, let's fix this problem 
once and for all. 



UNLIMITED BACKUPS 

The boot sector (track 0, sector 1) on all TRSDOS 
1.3. system diskettes has a byte dedicated to telling 
the BACKUP utility how many backups are allowed. 
This byte is located at 22H (34 decimal), if it contains 
FFH, BACKUP will allow unlimited backups. Any 
other number means that you have that amount of 
backups left Upon completion of a backup, this 
number (if not FFH) will be decremented by 1 and 
written back to the boot track. When It reaches 0, 
TRSDOS will go through the motions of a backup, 
but the 'backup limited' files will not be copied. 

if you own, and are familiar with, a 'zap program', 
simply replace whatever number is at 22H on track 
sector 1 with FFH and write it back to the disk. 

Realizing that most readers will not own, nor be 
familiar with, a 'zapper', we will take care of the fix in 
a different manner. Instead of rewriting the boot sec 
tor we will fix the BACKUP utility so that it doesn't 
care how many backups the boot sector says you 
have left 

Here you have to be extremely careful. Use a 
backup of the original disk, if possible, or If you 
have any backups left from the original, make one 
now. If all you have is the original with no backups 
left, use it at your own risk!!! 

Insert the disk in drive :0 and reboot When the 
'TRSDOS Ready prompt appears, type the following: 

PATCH *7 (ADD = 528E,F1ND = C8.CHG = C9) 

When you are ABSOLUTELY SURE that you have 
typed the above correctly, press the (ENTER) key. If 
you are successful, you should see the message 
'Patch Made' displayed on the screen, followed by 
TRSDOS Ready, (if a mistake in the above patch 
was made, TRSDOS will display 'String NOT 
Found'). 

Assuming that the patch was made correctly, you 
are now able to make as many backups as your 
heart desires. Now, that wasn't difficult, was it! 

For the ones of you who would like to know what 
took place, here Is a short explanation: 

The PATCH command allows us to change the 
contents of a disk file. You must specify the name of 
the file, the address of the data you wish to change, 
the current data at that address, and the data you 
wish to replace it with. 

Let's take this information and apply It to what we 
just did: 

PATCH this is the command. 

*7 this is the filename. The BACKUP utility Is 
found in overlay 7. The ability of PATCH to modify 
overlays Is not documented in the manual. It works 
just fine, though. I guess they Just didn't want us to 
know. 

(ADD = 528E, this Is the address In overlay 7 
where BACKUP has just finished checking to see If 
you have more backups left it makes a comparison. 



TRSTimes 1.5. ■ SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 16 



FIND = C8, this Is machine code for the assemb 
ly language Instruction RET 2. This means that If the 
comparison of 'are Infinite number of backups 
allowed' is TRUE (zero), we skip the routine that 
goes on to limit the backups. If the comparison is 
FALSE (non zero) we don't skip and instead go on to 
that 'nasty 5 routine. 

CHG = C9) this is the fix. C9 Is machine code for 
the assembly language Instruction RET. The dlf 
ference between RET 2 and plain RET Is that RET 2 
Is conditional. That is, It acts one way If the com 
parison is TRUE, another way if the comparison Is 
FALSE. RET is unconditional. It doesn't care what the 
result of the comparison is. it skips the routine 
regardless. Success! 

MORE PATCHES 
Getting rid of useless prompts. 

Another feature that has annoyed me for some 
time Is, when formatting a diskette, you are 
prompted for the disk name. Now, i donl know if 
you like this feature and faithfully name each disk for 
some unknown, sinister purpose. I don't like it It for 
ces you to type something and then pressing the 
(ENTER) key. Simply pressing (ENTER) for a default 
name will not work; it redisplays the 'Diskette Name?' 
prompt. 

Here Is the patch that will completely bypass the 
'Diskette Name?' prompt Not only will you not be 
prompted ever again, FORMAT will use TRSDOS' 
as a default disk name. 

PATCH *7 (ADD = 5666,RND = 21 ,CHG = C9) 

As In the explanation of the previous patch, 
PATCH is the command, *7 is the filename of over 
lay 7, which contains the code to both the BACKUP 
and FORMAT utilities. 

(ADD = 5666, this is the beginning of the routine to 
prompt for the disk name. 

FIND = 21, 21 is machine code for the assembly 
language Instruction for LoaD register HL with the 
number in the next byte. 

CHG = C9) - just as in the previous example, C9 is 
machine code for an unconditional RETurn. We 
donl need any of the Information in the routine and 
since it was CALLed by the main program, we can 
simply RETurn Immediately thereby bypassing all the 
code that produces the disk name prompt and 
checks to see if one has been typed. (CALL is the as 
sembly language Instruction that works just like 
GOSUB in Basic.) 

Next we will completely disable ail passwords. 
This means that you will have complete access to all 
flies, irregardless of whether or not they are 
password protected. 

The patch Is: 

PATCH *2 (ADD =4ED4,RND = 20,CHG = 18) 



Explanation: PATCH the command 

*2 file name of overlay 2, which contains the 
"OPEN" and "INIT" routines. 

(ADD = 4ED4, In order to do almost anything 
with a file, it must first be opened. DOS, of course, 
handles this for us. At address 4ED4H In overlay 2, 
DOS is on Its way to open whatever file was 
specified from the DOS command line or by some 
application program. Before the file can be opened, 
TRSDOS checks memory location 42FFH to see If 
password check should be skipped. 

FIND = 20, Address 4ED4H makes a comparison 
on the value found In bit of 42FFH. In essence 
DOS is asking 'shall I skip the password check?', if 
the bit is OFF (0) the password chek Is performed. 
If bit Is ON (1) the check Is skipped by jumping 
over the code. 20 is machine code for the assembly 
language Instruction MR 2, offset found at next byte'. 
This is pretty much like when you say In Basic: IF 
X = 1 THEN 200. These Instructions are conditional 
jumps. They will branch to one section of the 
program if the value is 0, branch to another if the 
value Is 1. 

The easiest way to handle this Is to make the con- 
ditional branch unconditional. In other words, we are 
telling DOS that we really don't care if the bit of 
42FFH is ON or OFF. Either way skip the password 
check. We do this by changing 20 to 18. 

CHG = 18) - this is machine code for the assembly 
language instruction 'JR offset found at next byte'. 
The JR Instruction is unconditional. DOS has no 
choice but to jump over the password check code. 

We have effectively disabled all file password 
checking. Now we will disable the password check 
in the BACKUP utility. 

PATCH *7 (ADD = 55A8.FIND = 28.CHG = 1 8) 

Explanation: By now, I am sure, we understand 
that PATCH Is the command and *7 is the file name 
for overlay 7. 

(ADD = 55A8, here BACKUP makes a com 
parison if the disk password and the password you 
typed in matches. 

FIND = 28, 28 is machine code for the assembly 
language instruction 'JR 2, offset found at next byte', 
if the answer to the question 'do the passwords 
match?' is TRUE (0), we then jump over the section 
of code that handles non matching passwords, and 
go directly to the actual backup procedure. If the 
answer is FALSE (not 0), we do not jump. Instead we 
go, by default, to the code for non matching 
passwords that gives us an error message and, even 
tualry, takes us back to DOS without performing the 
backup. Again 'JR 2, offset found at next byte' is a 
conditional instruction. 

CHG = 18) by changing the conditional 'JR 2, of 
fset found at next byte' to an unconditional 'JR offset 
found at next byte', we tell BACKUP not to care If the 
passwords are not identical. Perform the backup 
anyway, Charlie! 



TRSTimes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 17 



You can now type any password of 8 characters 
or less, or simply press (ENTER), to the prompt. 
Backup will be performed as If the correct password 
had been typed. However, there doesn't seem to be 
much sense In prompting for a password that 
doesn't matter, so let's finish up this installment by 
disabling the password prompt from both the BACK 
UP and FORMAT utilities. 

PATCH *7 (ADD = 565A,FIND = 06.CHG = C9) 

Again the file name indicates overlay 7. 

(ADD = 565A, here we are at the first common 
code in the subroutine that handles the password 
prompt for both BACKUP and FORMAT. 

FIND = 06, 06 is machine code for the assembly 
language instruction LoaD register B with the value 
of the next byte. Since the entire routine doesn't do 
anything but Issue the prompt, we can skip It entirely. 

CHG = C9) As mentioned earlier, C9 is the 
RETurn instruction which sends the program flow 
back to the main body of the program, (like a 
RETURN from GOSUB In Basic.) By returning, we 
skip the prompt When you now use the FORMAT 
utility, one of two things will occur: 1. If you type 
FORMAT :1 (ENTER) and the disk In drive :1 is unfor 
matted, the format will take place without any further 
action by you. 

2. If you type the above command and the disk In 
drive :1 has data, you will be told and prompted if 
you want to format ft. Answering V will cause the for 
mat to occur without any further action by you. 

The BACKUP utility now works as follows: 

1. If you type BACKUP :0 :1 (ENTER) and the disk 
In drive :1 is unformatted, the disk in drive :1 will be 
formatted and then the backup will take place. No ac 
tion on your part is neccessary. 

2. If you type the above command and the disk In 
drive :1 Is already formatted, you will be prompted 
with: 'Do you wish to RE FORMAT?'. Typing V will 
format the disk again, then perform the backup. 
Typing *N' performs the backup. Either way, no fur 
ther action Is neccessary. 

In closing, let me give a list of Radio Shack's 
lineup of 'backup limited' software: 

ZORK1 DEADLINE WITNESS STARCROSS 
SUSPENDED PLANETFALL ECHANTER MONTY 
PLAYS MONOPOLY MONTY PLAYS SCRABBLE 
PFS file, PFS report, XENOS and probably many 
more whose titles I have forgotten. 

Also, the power you have been given here Is NOT 
intended to licence anyone to pirate software or in 
vade the privacy of other peoples files. It is intended 
solely to help you manage your own legitimate 
software and private flies. Enough said. 

As time permits, I will play around some more 
with TRSDOS 1.3. Maybe some other interesting 
things will appear in future issues. 



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XAS68K 68000 Cross Assembler, specify Mod 1, 3 or 4 $49.95 

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TRSTimes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1088 PAGE 18 



from HOLLAND 



* Model l/lll Nt wdos/ao 

MACROKEY 

by Ruud Broers 



Just what Is a macro? 

The Illustrated Dictionary of Microcomputers (2nd 
edition) gives the following definition: 

Macro A group of often used Instructions treated 
as a unit entity. 

In other words, a macro is a form of shorthand. A 
long string of commands can be programmed Into a 
macro, which can then be accessed and executed 
by hitting a special sequence of key strokes. 

This Is exactly what MACROKEY Is all about it Is 
an assembly language utility for Model I and Hi run 
nlng NEWDOS/80 that allows you to execute a long 
series of commands with just two keystrokes. 

Here is what to do: 

First type in the program listing using an Editor/As 
sembler; then assemble It as MACRO/CMD. 

When ready to use the program, type MACRO 
< ENTER > . You will immediately be returned to the 
NEWDOS/80 READY prompt 

At this point activate the program by pressing the 
'macro control key*. On a Model 4 running in Model 
Hi mode this control key Is: < F1 > . 

On a straight Model III and the Model I the control 
keyls: <SHIFT> < DOWN ARROW >< Q > . 

A large white character CHR$(143) will be dis 
played, indicating that a macro may now be defined. 

Simply type the word, command, or string of com 
mands you wish to define as a macro. 

When done press the control key once again. The 
large white character reappears Indicating the end of 
the macro. Now press < ENTER > and you will be 
back at the NEWDOS/80 READY prompt Your 
macro has been defined. 

Examples of macro definitions: 

< control key > DIR.1 ,S,I,A < ENTER > < control 
key> < ENTER > 

This programs the macro to display the directory 
of all files on drive :1 whenever the control key is 
pressed twice. Notice that < ENTER > Is a legitimate 
command Inside the macro. 

< control key>COPY,0,1„NFMT, CBF, CFWO, 
SPDN = 4 <ENTER> <controlkey> 

This will copy individual authorized files from 
drive :0 to drive :1 without first formatting the destina 
Hon disk, simply by tapping the control key twice. 



< control key> DATA < control key> 

rf you are typing In a Basic program with a lot of 
DATA statements It would save a lot of time by defin 
Ing the macro as < space > DATA < space > . 

Now, type the linenumber, press the control key 
twice and the word DATA is there, one space away 
from the linenumber and with a trailing space, ready 
for you to type the actual data Information. 

The possibilities are almost endless, but the real 
beauty of the program is that you can redefine the 
macro on the fly Just by pressing the control key 
once, typing the new macro, again pressing the con 
trol key once, and then hitting the < ENTER > key. 

The macro will remain In memory until you 
redefine It or reboot Try MACROKEY, you'll like It 



MACRO 








00100; 








00110 ; MACRO 1.0 for Model W(4) 


00120; update 11/17/87 




001 30; for use with NEWDOS 80 




00140 ; 








00150 ; Ruud Broers, Pennlngburg 


(73 


00160 ; 3437SJ Nleuwegeln, Holland 


00170 ; 








00180 CALL 


EQU 


0CDH 




00190 DOS 


EQU 


402DH 


;retum address 


00200 KBDCB 


EQU 


401 6H 


;keyboard DCB 


00210CHROUT EQU 


33H 


; display chr in a 


00220 F1 


EQU 


60H 


;for model 4(p) 


00230 ; 






;(F1) 


00240 ;F1 


EQU 


11H 


;for model l/lll 


00250 ; 






;(ctrl Q) 


00260 BS 


EQU 


08 


;back space 


00270 BEEP 


EQU 


07 


;beep 


00280 BLOK 


EQU 


8FH 


;block character 


00290 ; 








00300 ; 








00310 


ORG 


0FF01H 




00320 INIT 


LD 


HL, (KBDCB) ;acttvate new 


00330 


LD 


(PATCH).HL ;keyboard drvr 


00340 


LD 


(PATCH2 1 


),HL 


00350 


LD 


HL.DRIV 




00360 


LD 


(KBDCB),HL 


00370 


JP 


DOS 


; ready 


00380 ; 








00390 ; 








00400 DRIV 


LD 


A,(ROA) 


; read out active 


00410 


OR 


A 


;? 


00420 


JR 


2,NRO 


;rf no, Jp 


00430 


LD 


HL,(POINTR) ; resume 


00440 


LD 


A,(HL) 




00450 


OR 


A 


;end? 


00460 


JR 


Z,LRO 


;if yes, then flag 


00470 


INC 


HL 


;tf no, point to 


00480 


LD 


(POINTR),HL ;next chr 


00490 LRO 


LD 


(ROA),A 




00500 


RET 






00510 ; 









TRSTImes 1.5. • SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 19 



00520 ; 

00530 NRO 

00540 PATCH 

00550 

00560 

00570 

00580 

00590 

00600 

00610 

00620 PBC 

00630 

00640 WKEY 

00650 PATCH2 

00660 

00670 

00680 

00690 

00700 

00710 

00720 

00730 

00740 

00750 

00760 

00770 

00780 

00790 

00800 

00810 

00820 

00830 

00840 

00850 MDD 

00860 

00870 

00880 

00890 

00900 

00910 

00920 EXIT 

00930 

00940; 

00950 ; 

00960 SROO 

00970 

00980 

00990 

01000; 

01010; 

01020 ROA 

01030 POINTR 

01040 MACRO 

01050 

01060 

01070 

01080 

01090 

01100 ZZ 

01110 



DEFB 

DEFW 

CP 

RET 

LD 

CALL 
LD 

PUSH 

PUSH 

DEFB 

DEFW 

OR 

JR 

POP 

POP 

CP 

JR 

CALL 

LD 

CP 

JR 

LD 

INC 

LD 

CP 

JR 

JR 

MDD0 

CALL 

DEC 

LD 

LD 

LD 

LD 

CALL 

LD 

CALL 

XOR 

RET 



CALL .fetch key 

0000 

F1 

NZ 

C,A 

A.BLOK 

CHROUT ; print character 

HL.MACRO ;polnt to macro 

(POINTR),HL 



;used f1? 

;lf no, than ready 

;=f1 : to test for 2x f1 



BC 

HL 

CALL 

0000 

A 

Z,WKEY 

HL 

BC 

C 

Z,SROO 



; store be 
; store hi 
;call keY 



;key pressed? 

;lf no, than again 

; restore hi 

; restore be 

;wasltf1? 

; If yes, then read out 
CHROUT ;else define macro 
C,0 

;flnished defining? 

;lfyes,|p 

;store character 

;next position 

;test end buffer 



F1 

Z.MDD 

(HL),A 

HL 

A,(HL) 

0FFH 

Z,MDD0 

PBC 



;ifyes,]p 

;fetch next chr 
LDA,BEEP ;bufferfull 
CHROUT ;beep 
HL 

(HL),0 ;put end marker 
HL.MACRO 

(POINTR), HL ;set pointer to begin 
A,BS ;only for model 4(p) 
CHROUT ;only for model 4(p) 
A,BLOK ;end defining mode 
CHROUT 
A 



LD (ROA), A ;set read out flag 

LD A.BS .dispose of last chr 

CALL CHROUT 

JR EXIT 



DEFB 00 ; read out = active flag 

DEFW MACRO 

DEFM 'Not yet defined a macro .' 

DEFB BEEP 

DEFB 00 ;end defining 

DEFM * *;3 times 

DEFM ' ';32 

DEFM ' ",chrs 

DEFB 0FFH ;end buffer 

END INIT 



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TRSTimes 1.6. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 20 



from ENGLAND 



• Model 4 TRSDOS 6.2 & LS DOS 6.3. 

USING 
SYS13/SYS 

by Gordon Collins 



To save anyone doing a lot of reading , and then 
finding that they are not able to use this, can I now 
point out that the following will only work with 
TRSDOS 6:2:xx and LS DOS 6:3:xx. Also I shall be 
keeping to a very narrow path whilst writing, I would 
get lost myself If I did not If anyone understands 
more of this than me, please feel free to take 
detours. I shall go through this in stages so that 
anyone wanting to branch off can do so, you may 
find out more than I have. I am not a DOS expert, but 
1 am willing to learn whilst listening to others. 

My natural Inquisitive instinct was aroused, when i 
read, against a reference to something called an 
"EFLAG$", "that this byte Is used to Indicate the 
presence of an Extended Command Interpreter (ECI) 
program In the SYS13/SYS slot". Turning to the 
Model IV Owner's Manual revealed nothing. (Be 
cause It was written before TRSDOS 6:2?). The Tech 
nlcai Manual for TRSDOS 6:2, page 262, has 5 lines 
which meant nothing to me, and page 190 tells you 
to remove the file If you have not implemented an 
ECI. Have I missed something somewhere? 

Over a period of time I found out the following, 
which Is a very brief synopsis of all my workings in 
the land of the unknown, I wanted to copy VC/CMD 
to SYS13/SYS and have it work the same basic pro 
cedure can be used for other /CMD flies, if you have 
disk drives of other capacities than those indicated, 
and are sure enough In yourself to modify my path, 
then please feel free. 

BACKUP your system disk to Include an original 
copy of SYS13/SYS. This backed up system disk 
should now be put in drive :0. REBOOT and then 
type: 

DIR SYS13/SYSI0 (S) < ENTER > 

You should see that the 'File Size" Is 1.5K. 

Make at least 27K of free space on the disk (Mod. 
4 VC/CMD is 27K In size). 

Type: PURGE :0 < ENTER > and answer Y to a 
number of flies. 

< BREAK > when you have removed enough files 
(I answered Y to: BREF/CMD, DOS/HLP, HELP/CMD 
andTAPE100/CMD). 



Then type: FREE :0 < ENTER > as a check. 

Using Model 4, VC/CMD on a disk in drive :1 (i 
am using this file as an example only, as almost any 
/CMD Ale can be copied to SYS13/SYS) type In the 
following: 

COPY VC/CMD:1 TO SYS13/SYS.LSIDOS:0 

(C = N) <ENTER> 



As a check, type: 

DIR SYS13/SYS :0 (S) < ENTER > 
You should now see 'File Size 1 as 27.00K. Still 
with me? 

Type: DIR :0 (S.I) < ENTER > 

You should not have found VC/CMD on this disk. 

NOW at DOS READY, type <* > < ENTER > , yes 
just an asterisk and < ENTER > , VislCalc should ar 
rive on your screen. 

You have Just executed an ECI Program!! 

This is where It got a bit more difficult for me. The 
above Is not going to move mountains, but please 
keep reading. Whilst In VislCalc ENTER, 

</>, <S>, <Q>, <Y>. 

You should now be at DOS Ready, you could 
have just rebooted. 

At DOS Ready type: MEMORY (ADD = "E') 
< ENTER > 

A line on the screen should read: 

X006E' = 110 proooo', ... etc. 

What we are interested in are the first two 
X'nnnn's, this shows that the EFLAG* is not set The 
EFLAGS being at MEMORY ADDRESS )C006E' and 
Is XW. 

Again at DOS Ready type: 

PATCH SYSO/SYS LSIDOS:0 (D00,7A =FF: 

F00,7A = 00) < ENTER > 

This has now permanently zapped the EFLAGI 
byte in the SYSO/SYS File and since SYSO/SYS Is al 
ways in memory from bootup, you will now have to 
reboot to effect this zap, so now please reBOOT. If 
you did that, VislCalc should have appeared on your 
screen, "mis is another way or executing an eci. 
Whilst SYSO/SYS remains zapped on this disk, on 
each BOOTIng, DOS will want to load SYS13/SYS, 
you will not see "DOS Ready" again. 

Whilst VislCalc Is on the screen, please type the 
following: </>, < S > , < E >, and In the edit line 
type, MEMORY (ADD = 'E") < ENTER > , you will 
now see that the byte at memory address X'OOeE' 
has changed to XTF. Hit any key to reformat the 
screen. 

We now have one big problem, try exiting Visl- 
Calc by typing, </>, <S>, <Q>, <Y>,aswe 
did above. So something just wants to keep loading 
the ECI, its that EFLAG$ byte we zapped, so with Visl 
Calc now on screen type: 

</>, <S>, <E> 



TRSTImes 1.6. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 21 



In the edit line type: 

MEMORY (ADD = )C6E',B=XW) 

You will see that we have rezapped MEMORY AD 
DRESS X'6E' to X'OO'. Hit any key to reformat the 
screen and exit VisiCalc as above, and you should 
get to DOS Ready. 

The next stage Is so that we do not remain In that 
endless loop on trying to exit SYS13/SYS. This zap 
Is for VC/CMD, record X'0068' and starting at byte 
X'OO* you should find: 

02 02 00 30 6D B6 6D B6 6D 

change these nine bytes to: 
01 03 6E 00 00 02 02 00 30 

This zap will have SYS13/SYS reset address X'BE' 
to X'OO' in memory when loading. 

A better solution is to apply the following patch 
after any /CMD has been copied to SYS13/SYS. This 
will take a few moments and will add a few bytes 
onto the end of SYS13/SYS. Now when SYS13/SYS 
is loaded MEMORY ADDRESS >C6E' will be reset to 
X'OO' so that an exit can be made to DOS Ready 
from the SYS13/SYS file. 

PATCH SYS13/SYS (X'Q06E' = 00) 



Just a further comment before ending, at DOS 
Ready type: AUTO DDUTY/CMD 

On BOOTing up DDUTY/CMD is loaded, also 
SYS13/SYS, the second partition of DDUTY Is then 
available for something else. 

N.B. LeScript, when In SYS13/SYS has to be 
zapped at record X'12\ Find "LESCRiPT/CMD- 
and change to SYS13/SYS, as LeScript looks for Its 
own name before loading, or you could have the file 
"LESCRIPT/CMD 1 also on the disk but this wastes 
space. 

Another N.B., is that when using LeScript with 
DDUTY, note the comment on Page 97 of the Le 
Script manual. 

The various manual references made above may 
not be applicable to all world wide, as there does 
seem to be various local differences. 



Gordon Collins is the Editor of NATGUG News. 

National Tandy & General User Group 

11 Elizabeth Road. 

Sutton Coldfield 

West Midlands. B74 5AR 

England 



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TRSTimes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 22 



Tim's PD Express 
High Rez 80 



by Timothy Sewell 



This month I am going to cover the world of HIGH 
RESOLUTION software that Is available In the Public 
Domain. Please note that in order to use this 
software, you MUST have an optional High Resolu 
tlon board Installed In your Model 3 or Model 4. The 
boards are available from both Radio Shack and 
Micro Labs, and they add a whole new dimension to 
your computer. 

For those of you who like to do drawing, there are 
a few choices available to you... 

TRSDRAW 

Paul Bradshaw has written what is considered to 
be the definitive Public Domain drawing program. 
TRSDRAW is a powerful full screen graphics editing 
program for use with the Radio Shack High Resolu 
tlon graphics board. The program will not work with 
graphic board from Micro Labs. 

Some of the more Impressive features Included in 
TRSDRAW are the ability to remember up to 26 dlf 
ferent "points" of reference for drawing, and an on 
screen Help function that "windows" a help screen 
over the graphic without disturbing what you're work 
ing on. Other features Include drawing boxes, draw 
Ing circles, storing small "blocks" of graphics Into 
memory for manipulation, and screen inversion. 

What Is also nice about TRSDRAW is the ability to 
recover a previously stored graphic If you make a 
mistake. This "Whoops" function lets you recall from 
2 banks of stored memory so if you screw some 
thing up, it can be returned to the state it was last 
saved In. 

The one 'draw back to TRSDRAW Is the fact that 
you cam print a screen directly from the program. 
Paul has promised to Include this function In future 
releases but so far support for this wonderful 
program has not impressed the author enough to 
warrant upgrading. Maybe If more users support his 
efforts he might change his mind. 

DRAW 

Though not as powerful as TRSDRAW, DRAW by 
Scott McBurney has the unique ability to translate 
DOTWRITER graphic fonts on to the High Resolution 
screen. The actual drawing functions are minimal 
and the author even suggests that you use one of the 
other available drawing programs to put together 
your graphics and then use DRAW to add your letter 
fonts. DRAW is written In Micro Lab's GBASIC but 
appears to work on both graphic boards. 



TRSTEXT 

George Madison decided that he enjoyed the ad 
vanced functions of TRSDRAW and also enjoyed the 
ability to use DOTWRITER fonts on the screen that 
DRAW provides. Problem was that he hated having 
to switch between the two programs. George's 
answer is TRSTEXT. TRSTEXT is NOT a drawing 
program, it Is a program that will MERGE new code 
Into TRSDRAW to give It the DOTWRITER 
capabilities of DRAW. You now have the best of two 
worlds in one program (Please note that there are 
several DOTWRITER format graphic fonts available 
in the Public Domain). 

If viewing and printing pictures are what you 
enjoy, there's enough programs out there to keep 
you busy for a long time (I can attest to this!). 

RLE stands for Run Encoded Length. It Is a 
method of viewing and transf ering graphics that was 
popular on CompuServe. The format was created so 
that weather maps could be viewed on computers 
with the ability to view High Resolution Graphics. 
Soon the format expanded beyond maps and Just 
about any subject was game for this format Since 
there are no Communication programs for the Model 
3 or 4 that Incorporate High Resolution Graphics, 
seperate programs for viewing and printing these 
files were created. 

GUTIL 

One of the first full function programs to handle 
RLE format files is GUT1L/CMD. GUTIL can load, 
save, encode, and decode RLE format flies as well 
as HR format files (Hies created wtth TRSDRAW, 
DRAW, PRODRAW, etc.). The programs ability to ex 
pand and move the file around faster then any 
program IVe seen makes this a "must have" addition 
to anybody's library. I do not know who the author of 
this fine program is but I would like to. 

RLE2BIN 

Scott Swalne has written what I consider to be the 
best RLE file viewing/printing utility around. The 
program can handle RLE files In both BINARY and 
normal RLE format files (RLE files for the CoCo and 
Atari are in Binary format though they need a bit of 
correction before viewing). Scott's program also lets 
you dump the graphic on to your printer. They come 
out Just fine on my DMP200. Two different versions 



TRSTimes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 23 



of the program are available one for the Model 3 
and one for the Model 4. 

RLEGEN 

This program written by an unknown author allows 
you to save a file In RLE format on to disk. The 
program takes whatever High Resolution that Is In 
memory and scans every 2nd column of 512 with 64 
column margins. Not all pictures translate Into RLE 
but Its fun seeing what effects can be created. This 
program Is also available for the Model 3, as well as 
the Model 4. 

A format of picture viewing that has taken the 
Model 4 world (If not the entire computer Industry) 
by storm Is the ability to view and print Macintosh 
created MacPaint format files. These READMAC files 
are popping up faster then I can download them and 
believe me when I say I have collected over 2000 dif 
f erent files. Please note that these programs are 
available for the Model 4 only. The model 3 does 
not have the graphic capability to handle MacPaint 
format files. 

MACDISP 

Scott Swaine ushered in the era of MacPaint file 
viewing with this little beauty. MACDISP will load a 
MacPaint file into memory and allow you to view the 
picture by scrolling It with the arrow keys (for a quick 
view from top to bottom you can use the CTRL and 
arrow Keys together). Another great feature of MAC 
DISP is when you want to load a file, you are 
promped for the drive the file can be found on. All 
files with a /MAC extentJon are displayed and you 
move the cursor to the desired file to be loaded, hit 
ENTER and the program works it's magic. MACDISP 
will also iet you dump the picture to your dot matrix 
printer In 80 or 160 column mode. 

HIRES 

HIRES (not to be confused with the Root Beer of 
the same name) is written by Mel Patrick and showed 
up not to long after MACDISP. HIRES Is a bit more 
elaborate though, it can also handle HR format files 
and also allows you to store the HR files Into a com 
pressed format for better disk storage. Viewing a 
MacPaint on HIRES is a bit different though, the 
program displays the picture in 3 seperate screens 
that are toggled rather than scrolled. Personally, I 
prefer to scrolWiew my pictures, but that should not 
discourage you from seeking out this fine program. 
HIRES also give you a choice of printers to dump 
the picture to and will also dump the picture In 
reverse mode If desired. 

For those of you without High Resolution boards 
who would like to see some of these Macpalnt pic 
tures, donl fret! Mel has written several different 
programs for the Model 3 and 4 that will print the file 
to your dot matrix printer without needing to have a 



High Resolution Board installed. Different programs 
are available for different printers. 

So far I have concentrated on just picture drawing 
and viewing programs. Many other types of software 
are available for use with the High Resolution Board. 

If you enjoy games and simulations, you will find 
the following programs of interest.. 

TRSSTORM Is a Hurricane tracking program that 
is written by Dave Phillips. TRSSTORM allows you 
to track storms and recall It's travel path. Previously 
stored storm data files can be recalled and viewed 
for reference purposes. The program can track up 
to 59 different cities In the Gulf Coast area and you 
can manually add your own city rf desired. 
TRSSTORM is available in both GBASIC and 
BASICG versions. 

SHUTTLE Is a BASICG program that draws a 
very detailed rendition of the space shuttle on your 
screen and then proceedes to go through the launch 
procedured step by step. 

SATSONG, written by Robert Slegel and Bob 
Griggs is a very relaxing program to view. A space 
scene Is generated on your screen and you see a 
planet with several moons In orbit A rouge space 
ship sails the space ways and occasionally crashes 
Into one of the moons. Very nice graphics and a joy 
to run. 

CONCEN by Kerry Miles is a variation of the 
popular "Concentration" game. Instead of prizes like 
the TV game show, the "clues" are given as graphic 
patterns and you must search for it's match. 

STOCKS Is a High Resolution version of the Del 
Mar Stock Exchange simulation game is written by 
Alfred Funk (where Is he now?). You can buy, sell, 
trade, and deal with brokers in this realistic game. 

LUNAR LANDER by Ken Conaster Is written for 
GBASIC and the Micro Labs board. The game has 
five levels of difficulty and GLOADS the playing 
screen to give this game some of the finer graphics 
that can be found. 

A new program that was uploaded to GEnle just a 
couple of days ago is a very well done Crossword 
puzzle game. CROSSWRD by Leonard Lorden will 
draw a pre programmed puzzle on to your screen 
and allows you to toggle between the clues and the 
puzzle as you work rt A very impressive program 
worth searching for. If you donate $5.00 to the 
author and send him a disk, he will return the disk 
with additional puzzles for your enjoyment. 

Many of the authors mentioned In this article have 
not been heard from in a long time, tf you know of 
their whereabouts, please have them contact me for 
Ideas about possible future High Resolution articles. 

I have only touched on a few of the many 
programs for the High Resolution board that are 
available in the Public Domain. There are graphic 
utilities, patches, enhancements as well as an assort 



TRSTImes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 24 



ment of un documented features of the Radio Shack 
High Resolution Board available. Many of the 
Programs mentioned this months article are 
SHAREWARE and I urge you to support the authors 
if you choose to use the program. Future articles on 
High Resolution Software will appear in TRS Times 
If readers demand it. Write and let me know If you 
want to see more. These programs and several 
others can be found on various BBS systems as well 
as GEnie and of course THE RLE CABINET'S new 
High Resolution Program catalog. 

STOP THE PRESSES!!!!! 

David Hueismann has just released XARC4 ver 
slon 02.00.01. This new version will now handle MS 
DOS created PKARC files! Several new features 
have been added Including a routine that tells you 
just how long it took to un ARC a file. David is hard 
at work on an upgrade to ARC4 and I can hardly wait 
to see what he comes up with, ill keep you posted! 



MORE GOODIES 
FOR YOUR TRS-80 

Get the latest Issue of TRSLINK 

TRSLINK Is the new disk based magazine dedi 
cated to providing continuing information for the 
TRS 80. A new issue is published monthly, featuring 
Public Domain programs, "Shareware", articles, hints 
& tips, nationwide ads, letters, and more. 

TRSUNK can be obtained from your local TRS 80 
BBS, or you can download it directly from: 

8/n/1 #4 
215 848-5728 

(Philadelphia, PA.) 
Sysop: Luis Garcia- Barrio 

Believe It or not: 

TRSLINK is FREE 



DO YOU OWN A TRS-80 COMPUTER AND ENJOY PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE? 

Like most TRS-80 owners you probably enjoy finding new software for your computer but hate to turn 
over half your paycheck to the Phone Company because you spent all those long hours calling Out of 
State Bulletin Board Systems in search of new Public Domain Software only to find that the selection 
was pretty bleak. 

THE FILE CABINET would like to suggest an alternative to those long hours and HUGE Phone Bills... 

DOWNLOAD THROUGH THE MAIL!!! 

Over the years, THE FILE CABINET has collected TRS-80 Software from all over the country. The Programs 
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transfers or dropped carriers. Best of all... you save money by not having to pay Ma Bell an arm and 
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Each disk in the library is filled to near capacity with quality software for your TRS-80 that would 
take months to collect IF YOU COULD FIND THEM! 

THE FILE CABINET'S disk library is seaperated into catagories such as UTILITIES, GAMES, EDUCATION, 
BUSINESS, and COMMUNICATION. There is now a HIGH RESOLUTION catalog available with a READMAC picture 
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SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? 

A two disk catalog of TRS-80 Model 4 Public Domain Software is available for only $5.00 which is 
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TRSTimes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 25 



J3CK S 

Tip 

o mGGT 



Hardware by Jack Eich 



While Installing an XLR8er board In my Model 4P, 
I found that the board easily falls out of the modem 
slots. 

I remedied this by stripping the Insulation off of a 
piece of Teflon Insulated stranded wire (.080" OD, 
16 gage). I used 2 pieces, each 3 1/2" long, of the In 
sulatlon, tucking a piece into each of the two plastic 
guides and centering each in the modem slots. 

The XLR8er fits fine now, won't fall out and the 
added strips stay firmly in place. 

While working up a program or reviewing data, 
I've often wished I could look back at a screen full of 
information. I've found a way! 

in the 4P gate array system, U82 is a 6116 static 
RAM which contains the information presented on 
the screen. Pin 18 on that chip Is the CE* (chip 
enable) signal and is wired to ground in order to 
keep the chip always working. I piggy backed 
another 6116 soldering all corresponding pins 
together except pin 18 (also lifting pin 18 of the 
original out of its socket). I then mounted an SPDT 
switch (a tiny one) In the case Just below the RESET 
switch. There is room enough but you must measure 
carefully after removing the computer face. Two 
wires run to the two pins 18 and a third from the 
throw connection of the switch goes to ground on 
the computer board. I presume you understand the 
two wires came from the outer poles of the switch. It 
works fine! 

If you want the "second" screen to clear on 
bootup, (assuming a warm system), as soon as the 
system clears one screen, throw the switch and 
press the reset switch again. Now you can start work 
ing. When you have a few lines or a screenful that 
you'd like to refer to later, throw the switch and keep 
on. Remember, though, that this does not reset the 
line or character count, so you'll be starting at the 
spot you left the first screen; but It will scroll, etc, nor 
mally. I should mention that each of the two pin 18's 
will need a pullup resistor to + 5V. A 5K ohm, 1/1 0th 
or quarter waiter to a + 5V trace nearby will do fine. 

The switch I used has a center position (off). I 
thought (without really thinking, of course, It was the 
only switch I had handy), this would be fine. I could 
use this position to blank the screen when I walk off 



and let the machine run. Not So! The screen fills 
with junk! Investigating the board I found that I could 
use either of two unused gates of U92, a 74LS00 
NAND gate IC (2 highs = a low). 

So, I've run wires from each of the pin 18's of the 
two 6116's (remember they will be pulled up If the 
switch is off) to pins 4 and 5 of U92. Pin 6 will go to 
a third $116 pin 18 (It won't need a pullup resistor) 
and this should give me three screens with two to 
save. I haven't mounted that third 61 16 yet because i 
first must check the clearance. I may have to 
eliminate the socket 3. 

I'm a fanatic when It comes to working on circuit 
boards. I run my wires on the solder side of the 
boards. When connecting to socket or IC pins, I 
desolder (using small wirewlck) the pin and 
straighten It (Radio Shack bends them to hold things 
in place when wave soldering). When attaching a 
wire to a pin, I make a very small loop by taking a 
turn around a small needle, cutting off more than 
one turn and looping the wire around the pin. I hold 
the wire in place with a small lump of auto body 
putty. The putty stays soft forever; IVe used the same 
lumps for years. It's plastic and sticky enough that 
when pressed over a wire It holds It In place ade 
quately. 

Of course I remove It after It's served Its purpose. 
I'm fortunate enough to still have some of the very, 
very small hollow rivets we used to use to repair cir- 
cuit boards. When you need to "surface" a wire 
(bring a connection to the top of a board), I use one 
of these rivets. The ones I use have an OD of .060" 
and smaller with a flange on one end and should be 
only long enough to just come through the board. 
Hold your board up to a bright light and you can find 
places where you can install a rivet and miss the 
traces on both sides. Drill a hold just large enough 
to accept the rivet. Take a larger drill and with your 
finders twist It to break the sharp edge of the hole on 
the flange or "head" side of the rivet On the side 
where you want to expand the rivet, make a small 
depression with the drill, insert the rivet from the 
other side, back it up with the flat end of a large drill 
bit (or rod) held In a vise and tap It with a center 
punch. It's now permanently in place and neat Run 
your wire (I use wire wrap wire) to the hole, strip the 
insulation, pull it tight and bend it to hold It in place. 

For a quick disconnect, i use undamaged pins 
from damaged "machined pin" or "high reliability" 
sockets. Each of these pins have an excellent male 
end, especially the gold plated ones. (I think all the 
female ends have gold plated fingers). You can stick 
the male end In the rivet I mentioned above and 
solder it in. Don't let any solder get in the female 
end. Now strip the insulation from the end of a piece 
of small stranded wire, about 1/16" will do. Insert it 
Into the female end of another socketed pin and 
solder ft Slip a piece of shrink tubing (aout 1/10" 
OD) over the wire and all but the male end of the 
pin. Shrink It and you now have a subminiature dls 
connect 



TRSTImes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 26 



DATE YOUR TRSDOS 6.2. THROUGH 1999 



Timothy Sewell reviews T62DOSXT 



I like TRSDOS 6 2 

It's not that I DONT like LS DOS 6.3, I'm just not 
too sure of It yet. Yes, I bought It; yes I have applied 
the 5 upgrade patches that were announced over the 
last year (If you are not up to level L + you're not cur 
rent), and yes I am concerned over the alleged 
protection scheme going haywire (remember the 5 
upgrades?). 

So I choose to continue to use TRSDOS 6.2.1 and 
am quite happy to keep on doing so until I am sure 
of an alternative (the thought of having to convert 
well over 2000 diskettes as well as a hard drive 
doesn't appeal to me very much either.) Call me lazy! 

Like many of us who decided to hold off switch 
Ing, we were faced with the fact that our computer 
would no longer accept a date after 1987. This was 
no big problem to me, I simply turned the date 
prompt off and continued to go on my happy way 
doing what I do with the computer, not caring a bit if 
the file I have has a current date or not But, the date 
is very Important to others, primarily those who do 
programming and need to keep track of their work. 
So the challenge went out to create the ideal environ 
ment for TRSDOS 6.2 that would give us the ex 
tended date capability without having to do a major 
overhaul of our entire disk library. Many have tried 
and many have come VERY close. 

The latest contender to the TRSDOS 6.2 extentlon 
challenge is a package by David Goben called 
T62DOSXT. David has provided a set of patches 
and utilities that allows TRSDOS 6.2 to accept dates 
up to 1999 WITHOUT having to do major conversion 
work on your disk library. 

The unique feature of T62DOSXT is the fact that it 
allows your disks to read and write BOTH TRSDOS 

6.2 and LS DOS 6.3 dating formats. Disks formatted 
under T62DOSXT have the time stamp that is read by 

6.3 but is Invisible to 6.2. This means that if you 
decide to use 6.3 later on down the line, your disks 
will already be compatible with the date/time stamp 
format that 6.3 uses. 

The patches also add the extended features of 6.3 
such as the new SVC routines and continued JCL 
processing. It also allows you to enter your date 
without having to add a zero to single digit months 
and days (06/03/88 for June 3, 1988). Dates can now 
be entered as single digit entries (6/3/88) which can 
save a bit of time upon booting up. In fact any non- 
alpha numeric character can be used as a seperator 
for the date entry. You can just as easily use 6.3.88 
or 6 + 3 + 88, or whatever you feel comfortable with. 
The choice is up to you. Nice touch. 



T62DOSXT also fixes the DIR command so that 
the directory will be displayed by scrolling onto the 
screen without first issuing the screen clear com 
mand. I have always objected to visually losing what 
I was doing when needing to look at the directory. 
Now I have It the way I like It 

Programmers will appreciate the fact that two su 
pervisory calls, otherwise only found In LS-DOS 
6.3., have been added. These are the @HEXD and 
@SCRNPRT SVC's. 

OPTIONAL patches include the ability to boot up 
in all caps, disabling passwords, dumping below 
3000H, speed up of MEMDISK, and scroll protect of 
up to 15 lines. 

T62DOS>0" is easy to install. A JCL file is 
provided that will give you two system disks when 
finished. The structure is very similar to the one that 
was used to upgrade TRSDOS 6.2.0 to 6.2.1. The 
prompts are very easy to follow and you will have no 
problem following through It's routines. 

Included on the disk are some utilities that will 
make life easier for some: 

SYSDRV/CMD allows another disk to be the sys 
tern without changing logical drives. 

ONEPASS/CMD is a fast single pass back up 
program. You will never again need to FORMAT a 
disk prior to BACKUP. 

NEWDOS/CMD allows you to copy programs 
from Newdos/80 single sided disks to TRSDOS 6.x. 
format. 

UTILITY4/CMD Is the latest version of David's 
multi purpose disk zapping program. This program 
is a must for any serious TRS 80 user. 

The disk also contains a set of utilities that will 
allow you to convert older format disks to ttie ex 
tended dating format as well as un converting back 
to the original older format Now you can have your 
cake and eat it too. 

The package is pretty complete and answers to 
questions can be found in if s many documentation 
flies. T62DOSXT Is a fine conversion package and 
should be considered by serious TRSDOS 6.2 users 
who just aren't ready to take the plunge into LS DOS 
6.3. 

T62DOS>cr is NOT Shareware. It is a program 
that Is distributed and supported by David Goben, 28 
Montlcello, Wllllmantic, CT 06226. 

The price It $18.00 and ft well worth tt. 



TRSTimes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 27 



ITEMS OF INTEREST 



HARDWARI 



SOFTWARi 



XLR8 BOARDS 

WITH memory chips AND docs. 
$225.00 (only 4 left) 



LNW DOUBLERS 

without 1791 chip for 
LNW & Model I. 

$10.00 (30 available) 



MODEL I DOUBLERS 

NEW 

- In original box - 
NEVER USED 

with binder of docs. RS#26 1143 

$25.00 (2 available) 



AZTEC 65 WATT 

POWER SUPPLIES 

NEW - In easily removable 

shield case. 
Originally used In Model 4/4P 

until Radio Shack 
substituted them with cheapies. 

$20.00 (many available) 



Please add $5.00 shipping & handling 
for each item. 



JACK EICH 

1643 BOLINGRIDGE DR. 

ORANGE, CA. 92665 

(714) 637 2943 



ANNOUNCING 



| T62D0SXT 



Take TRSDOS 6.2 (c) to the year 2000 with the only set 
.• of patches that don't play games with your directory! 

Tired of k luge patches? Don't want to have to convert even your archival data 
disks in order to read them properly? Don't want to go through a long, 
drawn-out process to upgrade your system disks? 

T62D0SXT is your answer. T62D0SXT provides 100X compatability with BOTH the old 
dating standard AND the new IS -DOS 6.3/LDOS 5".3 dating standard. It will read 
and write to both types of disks with equal, and COMPLETE SAFETY. 

ENHANCED Features provided by T62D0SXT 

* Fully supported dating from January 1, 1980 through December 31, 1999. 

* A relaxed date/time entry on boot-up or when using DATE/TIME. No more 
need for leading zeros. 

* The problem of a running JCL file aborting when it executes a SYSTEM 
(SYSTEM*d) command has been eliminated. 

* Screen clear during directory listing paging has been removed. 

* Support of the new 0HEXD and SVDPRT SVCes for 100% program portability 
with LS-DOS 6.3. 

* Numerous OPTIONAL system patches are included, such as disabling 
passwords, boot-up in all -caps, faster MEMDisk formatting, and allowing up to 
15 lines of Scroll Protect. 

Included in T62D0SXT is NEWDOS; a NEWD0S80-type CONV utility, SYSDRV; change 
system disks WITHOUT changing logical drive names, ONEPASS; a single-pass disk 
format and backup utility, UT1LITY4; a disk/file zapper, DATECONV; convert the 
disks you need for compatability with the old AND new dating standards, and 
UNDATE; this utility allows you to convert a disk BACK to the old standard. 

ORDERING INFORMATION 
T62D0SXT Is only $18 (US funds), plus $2 shipping and handling for US 
destinations. Canada, Mexico, APO, FPO, and US Territories with US zip codes 
add $3 S&H. $7 S&H anywhere else. Send your order to: 



David Goben 
28 Montlcello, Uillluntlc. CT 06226 

T62D0SXT disks. That totals $ 



plus $ 



Dave, please send me _^ . 

postage and handling (NOTF: orders for up to 3 carry the same postage as 1). 

Enclosed you will find S to cover the goods, so quit reading this and fill 

my order. (Sorry, no charge numbers or purchase orders.) 



Your Name 

Address 

City 



State 



Apt i 



Orders shipped next work day after receipt. Same day processing. 

(NOTICE: TRSDOS is a Tandy Corporation tradmark. LDOS and LS-DOS are tradmarks 
of MISOSYS, Inc. T62D0SXT is a COMMERCIAL program, and is supplied on a DATA 
disk. TWO disk drives are required for upgrading your TRSDOS 6.2 system.) 



TRS 80 SOFTWARE for Models 1/3/4/4P/4D 

Many useful programs Economical prices 
Send $2.00 for listing 

PRACTICAL PROGRAMS 

1104 ASPEN DRIVE 
TOMS RIVER, N.J. 08753 



TRSTImes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 28 



BULLETIN BOARDS 



• Colorado 
* Denver 

■ 

KINGS MARKET 

(303) 694 9020 

300/1200 baud (24 hrs) 

Sysop: Jim Burl 

Supports: Model 1,111,4, CoCo, Orch. 90 & 



TBBS ISLAND 

(303)690 9423 

300/1200 baud (24 hrs) 

Sysop: Mike Hastings 

Supports: Model 1,111,4,100, CoCo & Tandy 1000 



Longmont 



DINO BBS SYST 
(303)652 3595 
300/1200 baud (24 hrs) 
Sysop: Chris Anderson 
Supports: Model 1,111,4 & CP/M 



T.B.B.S. (R)emote 

(303) 678 1469 
300/1200 baud 
(9:00 am 8:00 pm MST 
Sysop: Danny Peterson 
Supprots: Model III & 4 
Use 2 < CR > to log on. 



everyday) 



* NEW* 

Recreational & Educational Computing 

Have you been missing out on the only 
publication devoted to the playful connection 

of computers and math? 

The REC Newsletter features programming challenges 
and recreational math, such as: The Magic of Schram, 
123 String, The probability of an N game at Bingo, time 
to complete a collection, 6174, Next Number In Se- 
quence, Locate the Bomb, perfect numbers, Fibonacci 
numbers, prime number generation and contest self 
reference and paradoxes, self listing program challenge 
and solution, pi, mystery programs explained, prob 
ability, Monte Carlo simulations. Also: Fractal art, the 
worlds best card trick (based on algebra), reviews of 
best software and books, editorial, humor, cartoons, art, 
reader solutions, and more! 

Programs supported for TRS 80, Tandy, MS-DOS 

and others 

REC Is available for $24.00 per calendar year of 8 

Issues 

REC Newt letter 

120 Carol Drive 

Clark* Summit, PA. 18411 

(717) 586 2784 



r 



PUBLICATIONS 



CODEWORKS 

This bimonthly magazine comes from the folks 
who used to publish the TRS 80 specific publication, 
80 US, later known as BASIC COMPUTING. 

CODEWORKS Is not TRS 80 specific, Instead the 
focus Is on Microsoft GW BASIC. However, each 
and every program listing has the translations to 
Model l.tll & 4 Basic when needed. 

This Is a fine magazine with lots of information, 
tutorials and Basic type In programs. 

The subscription rate for 1988 Is $24.95. 

Contact 

CODEWORKS 

3838 South Warner Street 
Tacoma, Washington 98400 



SUPPORT 
for your TRS-80 

THE ONLY MONTHLY PUBLICATION 
THAT SUPPORTS YOUR 
MODEL I, HI, IV, 4P & 4D 

CONCENTRATION IS ON THE USER 

APPLICATION OF PROGRAMS, SOURCES 

OF PRODUCTS, PRODUCT REVIEWS, FEED 

BACK LOOP AND NEWS ITEMS FOR THE 

TRS-80 USER 

$ 18.00 FOR FIRST YEAR INTRODUCTORY 

OFFER MAILED IN THE US 

$ 29.50 CANADA AND MEXICO; $ 30.00 

OUTSIDE THE US, CANADA AND MEXICO 

Sample Issue $2.00 US And Canada 
307-265-6483 

Gontfutien, %&& SO 

P. O. Box 680 

Casper. Wyoming 82602-0680 






TRSTlmes 1.5. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 29 



CL0SE#5 



This Issue of TRSTimes was tough putting 
together. The copy you are reading now is version 7. 
That Is, It Is the seventh different layout of foe Sep 
tember Issue. The problem we had was the Kind that 
every editor dreams of: More material than alloted 
page space! There were just so many Interesting ar 
tides that It became difficult to choose the ones that 
would create what we consider to be the right 
balance of Information. I hope we made the right 
choices. 

In the process several fine submissions were not 
Included, such as Fred Cornets Visicalc utility, 
Robert Doerr's demonstration on Windows In Basic' 
and Jim King's plotting program. This material will 
appear In upcoming issues. Also, you might have 
noticed that 'Hunting for Burled Treasure 1 Is missing 
from this issue. No, this series has not been dlscon 
tinued. There just wasnl room. This particular Install 
ment will be shuffled to a spot next year. 

Meanwhile, to David Qoben, who took time out 
from his busy schedule with Computer News 80, to 
give us nice enhancements to Scrtpsit 

To Jack Elch, who Keeps most of our machines 
running, for sharing some hardware tips 

To Fred Blechman, whose numerous articles we 
have read In every conceivable computer magazine, 
for stepping us through the sale of an unwanted com- 
puter 

To Tim Sewell, the Guru of all sysops, for his 
review of T62DOSXT, available hi rez programs and 
the layout of the front cover.... 

To Roy Beck, our thoughtful teacher of CP/M, for 
bringing coverage of this neglected Model 4 DOS 

To Barbara Beck, whose attendance adds much 
needed class to the various computer club meetings, 
for telling us what Roy is REALLY like... 

....a great, big THANK YOU from TRSTimes 

A very special thank you goes out to Gordon Col 
llns and Ruud Broers. 

Gordon is the editor of the National Tandy & 
General User Group newsletter from England, called 
NATGUG News. His article on SYS13/SYS Is Indica 
tlve of the Information you can expect from this fine 
publication which we recommend highly. 

Ruud Broers gives us a nice Newdos/80 utility 

called MACROKEY. Let's think about this for a 

minute! Ruud, with editing help from Peter Romp 

wrote this article and program. They are Dutch - 
from Holland English is not their native language. 

Pretty Impressive. When was the last time any of us 

wrote an article or program In Dutch? We have 

trouble enough expressing ourselves in our own Ian 

guage. Think how difficult It would be to program In 

Basic or Assembly Language If the keywords and 

mnemonics were In Dutch. 



With the help of all these very talented people we 
have produced what we consider to be our best 
issue to date. 

Next Issue, November, will bring some of the ar 
tides we did not have room for this time, 'Hunting for 
Buried Treasure' will be back with a monster size in- 
stailment featuring a joint venture by Tim and Lance. 
George Madison has promised us his update to 
TRSTEXT, the program that allows the use of DOT- 
WRITER fonts on the high resolution screen. He calls 
It TRSTEXT2. We have seen It and, boy, It Is fast 
The PD Express and CP/M columns will be back with 
more good stuff so, 

STAY TUNED DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL!! 



ATTENTION 
MODEL III USERS 



Some weeks ago Norm Freidln sent us a filer 
which he had received from a Canadian company 
called DBSIDE. The flier advertised an enhancement 
to TRSDOS 1.3. that would allow double sided ac 
cess. 

Me this on the level? 9 , Norm asked, so we con- 
tacted DBSIDE. A few days ago we received the full 
package. 

The answer to the question is: YES, INDEED!! 

It does exactly what the advertisement promised: It 
aliows you to use both sides of your disks, some 
thing that TRSDOS 1.3. was never able to do pre 
viously. Of course, you must have double sided 
drives to take advantage of this. 

DBSIDE Is not just a series of patches, it is a com- 
plete machine language program that rewrites large 
portions of DOS to allow double sided access. In the 
process It also enhances several existing commands 
and utilities, as well as adding some new library com 
mands to make your life easier. 

This is a GOOD program and the cost of $29.95 
is very reasonable. If you use TRSDOS *J.3. regular 
ly, DBSIDE Is certainly well worth thinking about 

For further Information contact 

Gary Campbell 

c/o DBSIDE 

Suite 209 1051 KLO Road 

Kelowna, British Columbia 

Canada VI Y 4X6 



One final note: When you purchase a product 
from a vendor, tell them where you heard about It 

If you read about It In CN80 or TRSUNK, tell them 
so. Of course, if you learned about the product In 
TRSTimes, be SURE to tell them. 

Until November, as so eloquently stated by Tim, 

'Make mine TRS 80." 



TRSTimes 1.6. SEPTEMBER 1988 PAGE 30