FARGO IBM PC USER GROUP NEWSLETTER APRIL, 1987 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Users Group Information--------------------------------------------- 1 Users Group Meeting Notes------------------------------------------- 1 Cheap Shot #3 [PC System @ $895]------------------------------------ 1 Disk Utility: Directory Manager------------------------------------- 2 File Utility: QMove (1.5)------------------------------------------- 3 File Utility: SORTF (2.17)------------------------------------------ 4 Menu Program: Powermenu--------------------------------------------- 5 DOS Hints----------------------------------------------------------- 5 Mini Quiz----------------------------------------------------------- 6 President's Podium: IBM's Machines---------------------------------- 6 Editor's Screen----------------------------------------------------- 6 Uploads 3/9/87 to 4/13/87------------------------------------------- 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Users Group --------------------------------------------------------------------- Meetings are free to the public and new computer owners are encouraged to attend. The Fargo IBM-PC Users Group meets the third Monday of every month at 7:00 p.m. Our current meeting place is the classroom located in Bethany Homes, 201 University Drive South, Fargo. Meetings are free to the public and new computer owners are encouraged to attend. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Want to join?? For an annual fee of $12 you receive our Newsletter, access to our disk library, and copies of IBM's own users group magazine Exchange. Group members also qualify for occasional discount purchases offered by supporting merchants. You can make your check out to Fargo IBM-PC Users Group and either bring it to a meeting or send it to Loren. --------------------------------------------------------------------- USER GROUP OFFICERS --------------------------------------------------------------------- President & Sysop---- Loren Jones Vice-President----- James Grettum Librarian--------- Calvin Paulson Newsletter Ed.-------- Jim Levitt Treasurer------------ Loren Jones --------------------------------------------------------------------- Address: Box 9121, Fargo ND 58109 Newsletter: Box 97, Wolverton, MN 56594 User Group Information: 1-701-232-3332 RBBS Public Line: 1-701-293-5973 --------------------------------------------------------------------- MARCH MEETING NOTES --------------------------------------------------------------------- March Meeting. We want to thank Colleen Bowden for pinch hitting with a demonstration of the NEC MultiSpeed laptop. The NEC portable features a supertwist LCD screen, 640K of RAM, and two 720K 3\" floppy disk drives. The unit runs at 4.77 or 9.54 MHz from a battery which will operate 4-6 hours. The unit constantly charges the battery when attached to an AC power supply. The NEC MultiSpeed also features several utility programs which reside on a 6K ROM chip. The programs include a dialer, a setup procedure, a Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 2 notepad, filer, outliner, and communication package. A parallel and serial port are also included standard, as is an 85-key keyboard which features ten function keys and a numeric keypad. An internal modem is optional for $400. The unit retails at $1995, but Colleen is offering a reduced rate for user group members. Any user group members interested should contact Colleen at Computerland. Surprise! A surprise treat was the first visit of Eric Strandjord, an IBM Systems Engineer who just moved back to Moorhead from Boca Ratton, headquarters of the IBM PC family of computers. Eric, who worked extensively with IBM's Entry Systems Division since the PC's birth, gave interesting insights into what went on behind the scenes at IBM in those early days. We found out why DOS was chosen over CP/M as an operating system, why the PCjr may not have reached its potential, and how networking is going to me increasingly important in PCs of the future. Without revealing information about impending product releases, Eric reassured us that IBM is committed to the philosophy of "open architecture." Open architecture is a design philosophy made popular by the Apple computer (but abandoned in the early Macintosh) which allows third- party manufacturers to add components to the computer. This is in contrast to the policy of a corporation like Radio Shack, which built many machines in such a way that owners had to buy all their hardware from Tandy. Part of IBM's success with the PC stems from this type of design. We are delighted that IBM plans to continue this policy. Eric even reassured us that the Upper Midwest really is the best part of the world to live in--even if Florida is warmer! We appreciated Eric's willingness to handle our barrage of questions. We are pleased to welcome him to Fargo, our user group and the bulletin board! April Meeting. Since IBM is due to release a whole raft of new products on April 2nd, we are hanging loose on the program. We'll be showing the new units at the April meeting. --------------------------------------------------------------------- PC-CLONE #3: 21st Century PC --------------------------------------------------------------------- Tracking down the elusive PC clone sometimes requires hunting in the most unlikely places. The habitat of the 21st Century PC proved to be most unusual. At first glance, the cluster of steel buildings in the 1700 block of First Avenue N. in Fargo seems little more than a collection of condo garages. Vans outnumber cars. Parking space is scarce. Signs identifying the businesses are so small that a visitor has to park along the curb to read them. An 8 x 11 sign hanging in a door window on the west side of one building identified the tenant as 21st Century Computers. Half expecting to see a mechanic in greasy overalls, I opened the door to see if my quary was inside. The PC was there all right, sitting patiently on a solitary computer desk, flanked by a dot-matrix and daisy wheel printer. The solitary PC was the only "for sale" machine in the office. It was obvious that merchandising the computer was an afterthought at 21st Century Electronics, whose major focus is repair and service. Walk-in traffic must be a rarity. Since I didn't come for the atmosphere--but to look at the machine, I introduced myself to Neil Power and began asking questions prior to my test drive. Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 3 System Unit. English is not the native language of the 21st Century PC, as you might expect. It's Eastern origins are hidden behind the XT type case. Inside it features eight expansion slots and room for four 1/2 height storage devices. 640K of RAM populate the mother board. The power supply checks in at 150 watts. The 21st Century PC thinks with a dual speed 8088-2 processor operating at 4.77 or 8 megahertz. Neil informed me that a 10 MHz model is also available. Keyboard. The imported keyboard was made by BTC, which also supplies the keyboard for the Blue Chip PC. This one offered the new IBM layout (function keys on the left, LED indicators at the upper right, and the ESC key above the numeric keypad). Though I liked the key placement, the feel of the keyboard was definitely inferior to my Zenith. PC-Magazine recommends compatibles with the MaxiSwitch keyboard, which Loren likes as well. Neil had not heard of the MaxiSwitch and did not seem to know much about the origins of the BTC. I later discovered the BTC is one of the three largest keyboard manufacturers. Performance. The 21st Century PC boots at 4.77 MHz. You kick it into 8 mHz with a CTRL-ALT-(MINUS) [keypad -] command. The software I tested ran without incident at both speeds. The user can determine the speed of the computer from the shape of the DOS cursor. An underline cursor indicates 4.77 MHz, and a solid block 8 MHz. On exiting application programs, the PC mysteriously slows down to 4.77 MHz, which was a bit annoying. The Sirex BIOS, dated 1986, worked even with my quirky Zenith DOS 2.11. The 21st Century PC copied IBM's annoying habit of flickering the screen when scrolling. Zenith achieved compatibility three years ago and yet eliminated this distracting pixel-scrambling dance. Other compatibles should have long since done the same. Support. Since 21st Century Electronics generates most of its income from service, a potential buyer can expect good support behind the one year parts and labor warranty. Price. The base system price is $699, which sounds attractive until you discover some essential components are not included. That buys a keyboard and system unit with a floppy drive controller and two floppy drives. Neil mentioned TEAC and Fujitsu as 21st Century's commonly installed half-height 360K drives. Adding a monochrome video board, which offers Hercules Graphics compatibility and a parallel port, and a monochrome monitor raises the price of a working system to $895. To that you'll want to add DOS. 21st Century sell's IBM's version of DOS 3.2 for $85 or you can buy a generic DOS 3.2 with BASIC at the same price. If you prefer, you can omit one floppy drive and pick up a Citizen 120D dot-matrix printer instead. Your cost is $995 (plus DOS). Citizen claims 120 characters per second in draft mode and 24 cps in correspondence quality. For someone with an I-have-to-get-started- now mentality, or someone who needs only quick and dirty printing, the package looks attractive. Options. 21st Century Electronics will configure a system to your specificatioins. You can add a multifunction card with a clock and serial port, a hard disk drive and controller, or any number of video board and monitor options. The unit I tested used an Amdek 722 CGA monitor. I liked the colors, but the pixels reminded me of a friend of mine in high school with an unusual smile--they displayed a gap between the rows. The Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 4 underline DOS prompt looked almost like an equal sign. Neil told me 21st Century features Amdek and Thompson monitors, among others. Conclusions. The 21st Century PC is a functional equivalent of the aging IBM-PC. It costs about $600 less and can run 170% faster, according to Norton's SysInfo utility. It is an entry-level unit at a modest price. Compared to other clones, however, the 21st Century PC is a plain Jane. The mushy keyboard and annoying screen flicker are not tragic flaws, but they do detract from the overall performance. --------------------------------------------------------------------- DISK UTILITY: Directory Manager --------------------------------------------------------------------- Not all disk management utilities are born equal. When I downloaded the 55K DM21.ARC utility, I didn't know if it would be a powerful tool or just another rendition of familiar utilities. It turned out to be both. The utility attempts to combine two sets of features--utilities and a program environment. The utilities are good. The program environment is very poor. Display. When you run the 62K program, it divides the screen into three windows. One displays files in the current directory. Another gives information about your drive. A third window is for menu items and help information. The 25th line displays the date and time. The F1 key toggles through twelve different screens within the third window. You can customize the colors for the display, which is nicely designed. Utilities. The utilities cover most operations a user would need. You can copy, delete, rename, move, and view files. Disk Manager will mark groups of files for the same operations. You can change the directory display several ways. Use wildcards to display part of the directory, sort by size or date, or toggle into a tree structure. Disk Master also allows you to change the path, exit to DOS, and generally move around your system with ease. Program environment. When I saw how well the utilities worked, I thought that this might be the package for the new user. That was until I experimented with the program environment. By program environment I refer to Disk Master's ability to define your ALT and function keys, plus your CTRL and function keys. This gives you twenty different programmable commands you can use to execute your favorite programs or set up automated operation of DOS functions like FORMAT. Disappointment. Trying these functions led me to disaster. I rebooted my system seven times in fifteen minutes. Three of the times CTRL-ALT-DEL wouldn't recover the system and I had to reach for the power switch. Even exiting to DOS locked up my computer. I found the help screens too terse to understand how to easily program the 20 options. Others might have no difficulty. But since the market for this is most likely the user unfamiliar with DOS, this drawback is a fatal flaw. Registered users receive documentation (which was omitted fromt he ARC file)--but I am of the conviction that any program that floats around bulletin boards should be user friendly enough to avoid crashing like this one did for me. As a user I avoid programs that don't give enough clear documentation to experiment with them without serious crashes. Though I like the utilities and the general structure of the program, it provided me with too many hassles to recommend it. Disk Manager 2.1 (10/29/86) is a shareware product of Computer Tyme, Inc., 216 S. Glenstone, Springfield, MO 65802. For $60 Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 5 registered users receive a disk and manual. When someone registers using your copy, you receive $15. When someone registers under that user's copy, you receive an additonal $5. I'm not wild about this pyramid pricing. It makes the initial copy unreasonably high. Update disks are $25 each. --------------------------------------------------------------------- FILE UTILITY: QMove (1.5) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Transfering files from one drive or directory to another can be unnecessarily complicated with DOS. It requires two steps. First, the file must be copied, then the original file must be deleted. QMove is a handy file relocation utility that performs both steps for you. It works with either a single file or a group of files and offers one of the best visual displays around. The command syntax of QMove is easy to follow. Assume you want to move a file called RED on drive B in subdirectory COLOR to drive C subdirectory RAINBOW. If your default drive is A, you would enter: A>QM B:\COLOR\RED C:\RAINBOW QMove allows you to use the (*) and (?) wildcards. To move all DOC files from subdirectory SUNSHINE on B drive to subdirectory RAIN on C drive, enter: A>QM B:\SUNSHINE\*.DOC C:\RAIN If you want files moved to the drive and subdirectory you currently use (logged drive), you need not enter the destination drive or directory. To move the file EASTER.TXT from disk B subdirectory HOLIDAYS to your current drive and subdirectory, enter: A>QM B:\HOLIDAYS\EASTER.TXT QMove can also be used to transfer the entire contents of one subdirectory to another. To transfer all files from subdirectory HARD to subdirectory SOFT enter: A>QM \HARD \SOFT Whenever QMove detects that a file on your destination directory has the same name as the file you intend to move, it prompts you for a confirmation. It also prompts for confirmation when you are moving files from one drive to another. In either case, QMove displays a full screen showing the file(s) you intend to move and offering you three choices if you type the F1 key. (Pressing RETURN activates the move instantly.) You can: 1 - (Y/N) Confirm the move 2 - (D) Change the destination 3 - (A) Alter the parameters 4 - (B) Build Path The fourth alternative allows you to build a file containing a list of all the subdirectories in a selected drive. If you chose drive C, with the B)uild command QMove reads all the subdirectories in C and writes them to a file called CPATHS.QM. The utility then uses that file in a window when you select the D [change destination] option. Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 6 This is handy if you have many subdirectories on a hard disk and don't want to type in their names. QMove utilizes the SET command to tell the utility where to look for the ?PATHS.QM files. If you use this utility regularly, you can tell QMove to look on drive C in the UTILITY subdirectory for these files by entering from DOS (or including in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file) the line: SET QM=C\UTILITY In addition, you may have to use the SET command with DOS 3.x to tell QMove how many drives you have. The command is: SET QM=;D, where is the number of drives you use. A third SET variable can be activated if the color display is poor on your monitor. The syntax to force a black and white display is SET QM=;C. You can combine these commands. All three together would look like this: SET QM=C\UTILITY;C;D4 Suppose you want to move ARC.COM to drive C, but you're not sure where. Enter: A>QM ARC.COM C: Now depress the F1 key. Choose D and scroll through the subdirectories on your selected drive. Hit the space bar when you find the one you want. Confirm your choice and the move is completed. QMove does not pause for confirmation in all cases unless you add /p to the end of your command. This parameter forces a pause and displays the menu options on the screen. The command A>QM *.DOC \LETTERS /P moves all DOC files in the current directory of drive A to subdirectory LETTERS. Normally, such a transfer would occur automatically. Here the /p switch turns the menu on and allows you to confirm the move by depressing the F1 key and choosing Y or N with each file. Assessment. QMove is one of the most flexible file relocation utilities available. Though it takes a few moments to get used to, it allows you both fast-and-dirty file transfers or careful, well considered moves. It also gives you the option simply to copy files if you decide you don't really want to erase the original. The utility is available from the user group as a 26K QMOVE15.ARC file. The uncompressed file occpuies 26K of RAM space. QMove was written by Claude Biron, C/O Bill Rigly, 5432 Lanark St., Vancouver, B.C., V5P-2Y1. The requested donation is a modest $5. Version 1.5 was compiled 2/8/86. --------------------------------------------------------------------- FILE UTILITIY: SORTF217.ARC --------------------------------------------------------------------- DOS offers a nice bundle of utilities. Unfortunately, most manuals describe them so enigmatically they might as well be written in Portuguese. Also, they are sometimes difficult to use, requiring the use of filters and pipes. (Sounds like the tobacco industry!) Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 7 Vernon Buerg has a nice little utility that simplifies the DOS SORT utility. His 2K utility goes by the name of SORTF.COM. It is available in a 5K file with an accompanying document called SORTF217.ARC. SORTF cuts the rough edges off the regular SORT utility in three ways. You don't have to use understand pipes and redirection. You can sort ASCII files larger than 63K. You don't have to wait as long for the program to run. The command syntax is fairly straightforward. Type the SORTF command, the name of the ASCII file you wish to sort, and the name of the file you want to contain the sorted information. For example: A>SORTF SCRAMBLE.DOC ORDERED.DOC SORTF will handle strings up to 256 characters and length and up to 40,000 records, depending on your memory size. You also have several options you can type in following the destination file name: /R = sorts in reverse order /C = treats lower and upper case letters the same /+ = adjust the column that begins the sort The last option requires some explanation. Suppose your information is arranged in columns, as in a directory listing. If you wanted to sort by size, you would specify /+14 to tell the program to sort by column 14. A>SORTF OLD.DOC NEW.DOC /+14 SORTF defaults to 12 characters when computing the sort. This is switchable to a length ranging from one to 99 characters. Simply add a comma after the location key and add a number telling the program how many columns of data need to be sorted. For example: A>SORF OLD.DOC NEW.DOC /+14,6 The author of SORTF (2.17) requests a $10 contribution if you like the program and plan to add it to your utility library. It was compiled 3/2/87 by Vernon Buerg, 456 Lakeshore Dr., Daly City CA 94015. --------------------------------------------------------------------- POWERMENU --------------------------------------------------------------------- The king of the hill in menu programs may very well be the Automenu package from Magee Enterprises. This small but versatile program has supplanted even sophisticated commercial programs. Brown Bag Software, which markets their own version of PC-Write and PC-Outline, offers a menu program that seriously challenges the performance of Automenu. Whoa. What is a menu program anyway? For new users, a menu program is a program mostly used by hard disk owners that allows the user to customize a menu of programs on his disk. Instead of switching to the proper subdirectory and executing the command for each application (your word processor, data base, spreadsheet), you construct a menu from which you can select the correct sequence of Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 8 keystrokes. When the program is finished, it returns to the menu so that you can then choose another application. Better menu programs offer other options, displaying the system time and date, the amount of RAM memory available, and the status of CAPS, NUMLCK, SCROLLLCK and other keys. With a menu you can program an option to format a disk, copy files, and perform other houskeeping chores as well. Menus also offer password protection so that a novice user must key in the proper password before running an application. (The protection is minimal, and can usually be avoided by dropping to DOS.) Menu programs serve two functions. They help a new user avoid the complexities of DOS. They eliminate much of the routine of invoking one program, exiting, finding a second, and initiating it. PowerMenu (2.0sw) offers two features that make it a real contender. First, it offers an easy method of constructing your menu. The program begins by displaying a 3 x 4 inch window on the left side of the screen. The window contains ten lines numbered 1 through 0. Each line contains a programmable option. You invoke the option by pressing a matching number key or typing the first letter of the option name. It's wise to keep the first letters different, since the option nearest the top with the letter you type will always be chosen in case of duplicates. Each of the ten lines can do one of two things. Either you can program it to run a program (like WORD or LOTUS) or open a window into another menu of up to ten options. Up to four windows can be on the screen at a time, giving you a total of 10,000 selections (menus and program instructions). This style promotes a tree-like menu development. On my system, selection two opens my Data Base window. Within that one I can choose to run either Reflex or PC-File+. Adding or modifying the options is very simple. Move the selection bar using the arrow key to the selection or a blank space. Hit the INSERT key on the numeric keypad. You will be asked to (re)name the option, tell PowerMenu where the COM, EXE, or BAT file is located, identify the command (e.g. WORD.COM)--including the extension, and define any parameters (either standard or user-prompted). You also have the option of choosing a password to restrict use of your option. In some cases you may want to pause after exiting the option before the PowerMenu screen returns. You can toggle an option to give you time to read your screen before PowerMenu takes over. If the option you define branches to another menu, enter [menu] in the directory field and put a 1-8 letter menu name in the command name field. If you select a new option and it is a menu, PowerMenu will ask if you want to create it, and then take you into the same procedure for the new menu screen. The only problem I had customizing the menus for myself was remembering which programs had an EXE and which had a COM extension. Otherwise, the process was refreshingly simple. PowerMenu supports only 5 resident programs from within menu options (COPY, DIR, ERASE, REN, TYPE). Others must be run from a batch file. Menu creation is a strong point for PowerMenu. Another plus is the display. On my color monitor, it was just terrific! The display features shading which causes the windows to appear three-dimensional. The visual impact is very nice indeed. The colors can be easily modified to suit your taste. You can move from PowerMenu to DOS by pressing ALT-C or using the F4 key. Typing EXIT returns you from DOS to PowerMenu. One warning-- Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 9 don't re-invoke the program by mistake after you drop to DOS by typing MENU. Use the EXIT command. If you don't PowerMenu won't function properly without rebooting. PowerMenu is not without its drawbacks. It occupies 169K on your disk. This includes parts of a DOS shell that are not implemented in version 2. Since I'm comfortable with DOS, I saved space by deleting the DOS help part of the menu. Besides tying up room because of the program size, PowerMenu takes additional space for BAT files. Each BAT file you call through your menu options must exist outside the program on the disk somewhere. Depending on your DOS version, a 80 byte batch file will tie up 2K or 4K of disk space. If you're bumping your head against the ceiling of your hard disk, PowerMenu won't help. If you aren't desperate for space, the consequences are not serious. You are warned not to load RAM-resident programs following PowerMenu. I invoked PC-Paint from PowerMenu and it loaded a RAM- resident program before execution. The system locked up on exit. PowerMenu has a screen save function and a clock and date adjustment, plus a few other bells and whistles you will have to discover on your own. The documentation on disk is clear but not highly detailed. Outside of the additional space for files on disk, I really liked PowerMenu. The program requires 256K and dos 2.1 or greater. It only occupies 2.5K of RAM when running programs. Each submenu requires 1.8K of disk space. My document differed from the introduction screen regarding the price. According to the documentation, a disk, manual, and toll-free technical support costs $94.95--rather steep. For $74.95 you receive a manual and non-toll-free supoort. $29.95 registers you as a user. You receive no disk or manual. The version I downloaded from the Fargo RBBS lacked three utility files mentioned in the manual (MINSTALL, REINDEX, AND SUBMENU). I was able to install the program manually by creating a subdirectory called MENU and placing the files I did receive into it. I then modified my PATH command to include the MENU subdirectory. I suspect these other utilities are reserved as an inducement to become a registered user. PowerMenu is available from Brown Bag Software, File 41719, Box 60000, San Francisco, CA 94160-1719. 408-559-4545 or 800-523-0764. --------------------------------------------------------------------- DOS Hints --------------------------------------------------------------------- Users of DOS probably execute the DIR command more than any other. You can save yourself a few keystrokes by using some shorthand entries. Here are a few you may have missed. 1. To display a directory of all files starting with the same filename most users type DIR FILENAME.*. This uses the (*) wildcard to match all three letter file extension combinations. A shorter entry is DIR FILENAME. It displays the same list and saves two keystrokes. 2. To display a directory of all files ending with the same extension, most users type DIR *.BAK--where BAK is a typical three letter extension. A shorter entry is DIR .BAK. You don't have to enter the wildcard for the filename. 3. Two more commonly used methods assist you in seeing a listing of files which otherwise scrolls off the screen. You can use CTRL-S Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 10 to pause the scrolling, but these other alternatives work better. First, you can cause the display to stop each time the screen is filled using DIR/P. This will cause the display to pause until you are ready to continue. The other option is to use DIR/W. This will display your filenames in five columns, omiting information about date, size and time to conserve space. For a really long directory, you can use DIR/P/W. --------------------------------------------------------------------- MINI QUIZ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Assume you have the following utilities on your disk in the same directory. When you type LOOK, which one will execute? [Mark with a 1.] If your first choice were deleted, which of the other two would execute? [Mark with a 2.] __ A. LOOK.BAT __ B. LOOK.COM __ C. LOOK.EXE --------------------------------------------------------------------- PRESIDENT'S PODIUM --------------------------------------------------------------------- IBM New Products. After two or three years of speculation users were finally introduced to IBM's idea of the future of microcomputing. And I think they may have a pretty good handle on it. They have announced four new PCs in the "Personal System/2" line, as well as a host of new products. I am not sure, but I believe this may be the largest single group of announcements in IBM's history. And the range of products is just as amazing! So here goes.... IBM Personal System/2 Model 30. 8086 based PC running at 8Mhz, 0 wait states, 640K of memory, either 2-720K floppies or 1-720K floppy and a 20MB hard disk. MCGA (part of the new graphics standard provided in all the new machines and discussed later), three PC-compatible expansion slots, serial, parallel, mouse port and clock. Operating System: IBM DOS 3.3 Price: 2-720K 3-1/2" floppy drive system = $1695; 1-720K 3-1/2" floppy, 1-20Mb hard disk = $2295 IBM Personal System/2 Model 50. 80286 10Mhz, 1MB RAM, expandable to 7MB, VGA graphics board, 1-1.4MB floppy, 20MB hard disk, three expansion slots (new style), serial, parallel, mouse port, and clock. Operating System: IBM DOS 3.3, IBM OS/2 Price: 1-1.4Mb 3-1/2" floppy, 1-20Mb hard disk = $3595 IBM Personal System/2 Model 60. 80286 10Mhz, 1MB RAM, expandable to 15MB, VGA graphics board, 1-1.4MB floppy, 44MB or 70MB hard disk (optional 115MB), seven expansion slots (new style), serial, parallel, mouse port, and clock. Operating System: IBM DOS 3.3, IBM OS/2. Price: 1-1.4Mb 3-1/2" floppy, 1-40Mb hard disk = $5295 IBM Personal System/2 Model 80. 80386 16Mhz, 1MB or 2MB 80ns RAM, expandable to 16MB, VGA graphics card, 1-1.4MB floppy, 44MB or 70MB hard disk (optional 115MB), seven expansion slots (new style), serial, parallel, mouse port, and clock. Operating System: IBM DOS 3.3, IBM OS/2. New Video Standard. VGA (Video Gate Array) is the new IBM graphics standard which is a superset of all standards previously introduced, including monochrome, CGA and EGA, only with higher resolution. In a nutshell, it is everything EGA is, complete with EGA software compatibility, with PGA (Professional Graphics Adapter) resolution. It is very impressive. Resolution on the VGA is 320x200 w/ 256 Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 11 colors from a palette of 256,000, or 640x480 w/ 16 colors. Both are all point addressable. Text is displayed based on 9x16 character box. With the Model 50 and above there is an optional higher resolution graphics option available that plugs into a special slot on the mother board. All the graphics are a 2-3x speed improvement over similar graphics on a PC. There is a VGA adapter available for use on standard PCs to make the compatible with the new standard. Price should be about the same as EGA. Monitors. To go with this new standard are a line of analog (as opposed to RGB) monitors, including a soft-white monochrome which displays 64 shades of grey ($250), a 14" Color ($685), a 12" Color ($595) and a "16 Color designed for CAD/CAM type applications. My preference is the 12" color. Software Compatibility. All present software that does not violate the rules IBM has told all vendors to avoid violating runs like a charm. Everything I have tried worked just fine. I watched Great Plains Accounting software run as the Great Plains boys got their first look at the machines and it screamed through them smooth as silk. They were very impressed. Miscellaneous Features. Other features of the system include battery backed up CMOS that stores all the system parameters....no switches anywhere to set. You can also program a password into the system so that it will not boot without the password, a feature particularly nice in a network environment. The 1.4MB floppies transfer data significantly faster than the older 720K drives and are nice to work with. The hard disks are all IBM made and feature a SDSI interface which has a throughput four times greater than PC systems we're used to. System throughput is supposed to be significantly better than anything we have seen. The 8Mhz 8086 based Model 30 is said to equal the 8Mhz ATs. Those who have used it today think it is twice as fast, but no benchmarks have been run. Norton registers a 10.1 on the new system, but this does not take into consideration the higher speed bus, which I think should yield significantly higher performance in all applications. Benchmarks will be available soon. New DOS. With the new systems IBM introduced DOS 3.3 ($120). Along with general tweaking over all new features include: -FDISK now supports partitioning of large drives into multiple volumes. -FASTOPEN command acts as a sort of caching of file handles that are frequently opened. -DOS batch facility to create automatic procedure files. -CALL command for nested batch files. -APPEND command to allow tying subdirectories together. -BACKUP/RESTORE, DATE/TIME, ATTRIB and SYS improvements. -TopView support. -Better hard disk support for improved performance. -Support for 1.4 meg disks. -Support of file transfers between machines using the parallel printer port...transfers scream! -Many more features. Operating System/2. Also introduced was Operating System/2 (OS/2) which is IBMs long awaited (and will continue to wait until Sept.) multitasking operating system for the 80286 and 80386 systems. It will address up to 16MB of memory. It supports any number of windows running simultaneous applications. Comes in Standard and Extended Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 12 additions. Extended supports a built in relational database manager that operates under Structured Query Language (SQL) and ties in nicely with mainframe environments. It maintains DOS compatibility, with improvements targeted in that area before release. Menu driven system. Context sensitive help. Other new products. Optical Disk--200M removable cartridge Write- Once, Read-Many (WORM) disk drive. Cartridges are approx. $20. You can run up to four controllers in a PC, with each controller handling two drives, for a total of 8 drives for a total storage of 1600MB. Access times are about twice the speed of floppies. Targeted for large archival type storage needs. External Tape Backup. 40 and 55 meg tape cartridge backup system with SY-TOS tape operating system. Quietwriter III. ($1669) High quality print at speeds from 100-171 cps in LQ or 160-274 in draft mode. VERY quiet, very impressive. Proprinter X24, XL24. 24-pin versions of the popular Proprinter line. 240 cps draft, 80 cps LQ with four type fonts. Proprinter II XL ($549). New models of the standard 9 pin Proprinters with some new features. Image Scanner. Allows scanning of graphics images. Networks. Both the IBM broadband network and the IBM Token Ring got some hardware and software boosts. IBM-PC Music Feature. Brings an incredible music synthesizer capability to the PC, allowing the use of the PC to study, play and compose music with your PC. Ties in with a MIDI interface to hook keyboards, amplifiers, etc., to the system. SolutionPacs. These are software packages bundled with hardware for specific applications. The one I glanced at was for their new desktop publishing system, which includes the software and their new laser printer. I have been told that a Model 50, a laser and the software package will go for under $7,000. Summary. These are only a handful of the new products out of a stack of Product Announcements that was almost 4" deep!! Easily 300 pages of documentation!! Impact on Market. So what is the impact of all this on the market? Who knows? It definitely puts IBM back in the middle of the fray, and gives corporate America a reason to look back towards IBM when it is time to add more PCs. They are at a price range that any serious business user has to give them serious consideration for many reasons, not the least of which is the comfort of those three little letters "I-B-M". I also think it will spell the doom for some, not all, but some of the clone makers--those that fall will be those that deserve to fall because they aren't doing anything to support the end user. It will place more price pressure on the clones who have less to offer. And with the low production costs, the prices of these new machines will come down. Don't be surprised two years from now if you can pick up a Model 50 for $1,500. Welcome back to the world of PCs, IBM! You've done a nice job! --Loren D. Jones, Sysop --------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITOR'S SCREEN --------------------------------------------------------------------- Publicity. Let's face it we don't have the media coverage of AIDS or Oral Roberts. We do have something new to reach computer users, however--our own business cards. You can offer friends a ticket out Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 13 of the DOS jungle. If you would like to distribute some, let us know. If you know of a place where we can make them available, tell us. Next month we'll be looking at PC-File+ and yet another "cheap shot" IBM clone. --Jim Levitt, Ed. --------------------------------------------------------------------- FARGO IBM-PC USERS GROUP UPLOADS 3/9/87 TO 3/31/87 3D-DEMO.ARC 103424 03-23-87 Demo for Kings Quest ]I[ and Space Quest 008 ADVBAS31.ARC 100352 03-13-87 ADVBAS 3.1 of Advanced BASIC subroutines 007 ADVBAS32 108544 03-30-87 Advance Basic functions Version 3.2 007 ARCE30A.ARC 11264 03-16-87 New, test integrity w/o unARCing. 011 ARCE30C.ARC 12288 03-29-87 ARChive extractor v3.0c V.Buerg 014 ATLAS.ARC 364288 03-23-87 Demo of Atlas Map Display Program 008 BASEBAL2.ARC 134400 03-14-87 A baseball manager game 010 BB-STATS.ARC 25600 03-21-87 Maintain Baseball leaque stats 005 BW-BOTH.ARC 9344 03-22-87 R.Blacher's Bulletin #5 re FE v3.82/mod& 004 CASSTAPE.ARC 42624 03-30-87 Database & label your tape cassettes 003 CHALNGER.ARC 122880 03-20-87 Digitized picture of space shuttle, liftoff 008 CHESS1.BAS 15869 03-22-87 A good little chess program 010 CHKDIR.ARC 10920 03-15-87 Like CHKDSK for subdirs w/ C source 013 CLIPMN20.ARC 24576 03-14-87 Clip Menu 2.0 - more options than ever! 011 CNFG301.ARC 114548 03-16-87 Config 3.01 update & Bullet6 RBBS fixes 095 COMM3.ARC 14080 03-13-87 How to use Comm port 3 on PC 011 COPYMOVE.ARC 41856 03-14-87 UNIX cp/mv with SET= options & recursive 013 COPYRITE.PQS 1536 03-15-87 Insert your copyright into Turbo overlays 050 COPYTREE.ARC 32000 03-22-87 Very Powerful Move/Copy Utility 014 COUNTACH.ARC 20480 03-28-87 Mac Picture of a Countach. Use Readmac. 008 CPU-TIME.ARC 6144 03-24-87 Check the speed of your CPU, works good. 011 CSTDIO.ARC 100352 03-15-87 Library routines for DeSmet C, G. Mansfield 007 CTDESKV2.ARC 68608 03-24-87 Citydesk 2.0 print enhancement utility 015 CTRLALT.ARC 67072 03-31-87 Great utility programm 015 Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 14 D'SCOPE.ARC 23552 03-17-87 Visually monitor RS232 ports (2 ports req.) 001 DB3.ARC 10240 03-10-87 Read dBase files with TURBO 050 DB3WPERF.ARC 10240 03-31-87 Pascal Src Dbase .dbf->WordPerfect mrg file 002 DBSTPO21.ARC 12160 03-28-87 Display dBase file structure from DOS 003 DEMO100.ARC 66304 03-10-87 Great demo program for TURBO 007 DEV12.ARC 5120 03-18-87 Display active device drivers 011 DIALER.BAS 19072 03-31-87 Modem dialer, works good 001 DIET.ARC 62464 03-29-87 Nutrition analysis for healthful eating 004 DIRNAV.ARC 9728 03-16-87 DIRectoryNAVigator.Nice way to move. 013 DM21.ARC 55296 03-11-87 Excellent hard Disk Manager -- ver. 2.1 013 DO.ARC 10240 03-25-87 Execute multiple DOS commands on one line 011 DOODLE.ARC 20480 03-30-87 Make and Use IBM Graphics for WordPerfect 002 DOSMOUSE.ARC 4480 03-21-87 MS-DOS mouse pop up menu: Dakota Mouse sys 012 DROIDS.ARC 49152 03-22-87 Game of droids very good color graphics 010 DS230.ARC 109568 03-14-87 Directory Scanner-very comprehensive 013 EDIT345A.ARC 63232 03-21-87 ASCII Editor Very Nice - Easy to Use 002 EDWIN15C.ARC 113664 03-13-87 *Kokkonen's fast WS-like prgmmers ed. v1.5C 002 EGAART.ARC 28672 03-14-87 Two nice EGA graphic pkgs. 008 ETCH.ARC 23552 03-18-87 Turn your PC into an Etch-a-Sketch 010 EXPUNGE.ARC 5376 03-26-87 Menu-Driver del/copy routine Small/Fast 014 EZMENU3.ARC 45184 03-22-87 EZ to setup Menus v3 - better than AutoMenu 013 F11F12.ARC 3072 03-18-87 Define F11 & F12 keys on new enhanced keybd 012 FAM21.ARC 9216 03-12-87 File Attribute Modifier v2.10, 3/5/87 w/ASM 014 FCOPY.COM 21760 03-13-87 File copy utility (limited to A:,B: or C:) 014 FETCH.ARC 85376 03-29-87 v2.1 Underdog's FileFetcher! A MUST!!! 011 FETCH205.ARC 77952 03-15-87 Underdog's FileFetcher (& More!) 014 FFLFNP.ARC 11264 03-17-87 RAM resident Formfeed Linefeed NoPrtSc 015 FKEYPRT.ARC 22528 03-09-87 Function Key Template print utility v1.1 015 Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 15 FRENCH1.ARC 42496 03-26-87 French Tutor 004 FRENCH2.ARC 37888 03-26-87 French Tutor Disk 2 004 FST123-2.ARC 1024 03-28-87 FAST file access under 1-2-3 Release 2 019 GEMINI.ARC 69632 03-23-87 Adventure game for 2 players via modem 010 GERMAN1.ARC 44672 03-26-87 German tutor 004 GIRLS1.ARC 123648 03-23-87 6 NICE girls for your printer or screen 008 GIRLS2.ARC 112256 03-23-87 another 6 NICE pictures... 004 GREHAN.ARC 12288 03-25-87 386/Asm Source, page 201, Mar 87 Byte 007 GTXT.ARC 6016 03-28-87 Convert multi-page text file to .COM. 011 HALDEMO.ARC 132096 03-15-87 Lotus demo of Hal - user input to lotus 123 019 HB20SW.ARC 204800 03-15-87 *HomeBase v2.0 [Shareware version] (1 of 2) 005 HBUTDOC.ARC 157696 03-15-87 *HomeBase v2.0 DOCS and Utilities (2 of 2) 005 HD1KCLUS.ARC 3072 03-19-87 Format hard disk with 1K clusters 013 HD312.ARC 81920 03-24-87 *HDTEST 3.12 hard disk surface test utility 013 HDIR13.ARC 10240 03-11-87 Latest Graphics DIRectory Display 013 HELP10.ARC 21504 03-31-87 ASM template to make own popup help windows 007 HIT.ARC 1792 03-14-87 A BREAKOUT type of game 010 IBMNEW.ARC 6144 03-29-87 News of IBM's April 2, 1987 new products 004 ITALIAN.ARC 40192 03-27-87 Italian Tutor - use TEACHER.ARC 004 JAPAN.ARC 129023 03-27-87 Japanese Tutor - Use TEACHER.ARC 004 JAVLRN1.ARC 144128 03-12-87 Case studies for use with learning Javelin 006 JAVLRN2.ARC 189184 03-16-87 More case studies for use with Javelin 006 JOYTEST.EXE 34816 03-28-87 Test joystick 1 011 K9X502.ARC 223360 03-15-87 Underdog's Latest K9X Comm package v5.02 001 K9X510.ARC 217600 03-29-87 v5.10 Underdog's Comm Pkg! GREAT!!! 001 KEEPCRS.ARC 3072 03-27-87 TSR util. to keep cursor shape and size. 011 KQ2SOL.ARC 5120 03-20-87 Answers for King's Quest II w/map. 010 KQ3UNP.ARC 2048 03-20-87 Unprotece King's Quest III and Space Quest 009 Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 16 LARC15.ARC 54272 03-24-87 Auto re-arcing of old archives V.Buerg 014 LARN.ARC 148736 03-23-87 A great adventure game for mono\color! 010 LDRES.ARC 7168 03-21-87 Make .COM files memory resident 011 LISTING.ARC 4096 03-25-87 Concurrent processes in TP, Mar 87 BYTE 007 LITLBK21.ARC 63104 03-21-87 Address Book works w/wo Flee's Qfiler 003 LOTUSMOS.ARC 4736 03-21-87 Lotus mouse pop-up menus: Dakota Mouse sys 012 LW86.ARC 21504 03-28-87 Memory resident assembly language help 007 M18GOLF.ARC 4096 03-31-87 Doc & Unprotect for Mean 18 Golf (CGA/EGA) 009 MADLIB.ARC 23552 03-31-87 Great for doing and making own mad libs! 010 MANDEL.ARC 62208 03-11-87 C Mandelbrot equations f/ 7/85 Sci.American 007 MASSMV22.ARC 18738 03-30-87 MassMove 2.2-Move files between subdirs 013 MENSA.ARC 8320 03-30-87 Description of the Mensa (high IQ) Society. 004 MH022187.ARC 144384 03-09-87 Mini-Host BBS communication program 001 MIDISTUF.ARC 46080 03-15-87 Lots of data/source for MIDI progs - MPU401 008 MNGX22A.ARC 95232 03-12-87 *ManageX III v2.2 -- Time, Billing and Book- 005 MNGX22B.ARC 123904 03-12-87 *keeping system for attorneys, consultants & 005 MNGX22C.ARC 154624 03-12-87 *other professionals w/15 or less employees 005 MONOP63.ARC 71680 03-09-87 Monopoly game v6.3 req c/g - minor chg 6.2 010 MR87NEWS.ARC 20352 03-09-87 March '87 Fargo Users Group Newsletter 090 MURFSSEX.ARC 3072 03-18-87 Murphy's Law on Sex 090 NEWOPT88.ARC 14336 03-15-87 Optimize DeSmet C compiler output 007 NMOVE586.ARC 14080 03-21-87 Move utility--Very Good 013 NOINFO.ARC 2048 03-21-87 Remove Procomm opening message 001 OMNI-CAT.ARC 14543 03-13-87 Omniverse Hardware Sales Catalog(GOODS.NEW) 090 OV102.ARC 162176 03-30-87 Outstanding File Manager with Source Code 013 OWNER151.ARC 12288 03-13-87 Identify file owning cluster v1.51, 1/14/87 013 PASSMAKR.ARC 1920 03-29-87 BASIC random password generator 090 PC-TOOLS.ARC 121472 03-29-87 Set of small util programs with "C" source 011 Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 17 PCEDUTIL.ARC 15744 03-25-87 Utilities for CED (Command EDitor) 012 PCFPLUS1.ARC 231424 03-20-87 PC-File+ Button's new high performance(1/2) 018 PCFPLUS2.ARC 132096 03-20-87 version of PC-File written in C! v1.0 (2/2) 018 PCTEST.ARC 14336 03-14-87 Diagnose 8088 problems 011 PCTRACE.ARC 14336 03-15-87 Trap and report DOS & BIOS calls 011 PDAILY.ARC 12032 03-26-87 Patriquin's Daily Command Scheduler 013 PHD_IDEA.ARC 4224 03-24-87 Can You Drive? - thesis idea by Bob W. 090 PICTURE.ARC 209536 03-23-87 More pictures for screen and printer 008 PLABEL11.ARC 18944 03-24-87 Makes great floppy lables 3.5"x15/16". 015 PORSCHE.ARC 38912 03-28-87 Mac Picture of a Porcshe 359 Turbo. 008 POWEREGA.ARC 46080 03-14-87 A waterfall in EGA - must use 286 processor 008 POWRMENU.ARC 141312 03-28-87 Power Menu DOS shell [BrownBag] 011 PRNTFORM.ARC 56192 03-29-87 Menu driven print formatter with install 015 PRT2SCR.COM 128 03-17-87 Send output to screen 015 QBLIBS.ARC 5120 03-28-87 How to use the BUILDLIB function in QB 007 RAMA.ARC 3072 03-15-87 Ram disk with size changable from DOS 013 RBBS-CVT.ARC 87645 03-15-87 RBBS-PC 15.1A Conversion prgms & docs 095 RBBS-DOC.ARC 196608 03-15-87 RBBS-PC 15.1A Documentation 095 RBBS-EXE.ARC 277793 03-16-87 RBBS-PC 15.1A Program and Config 3.01 095 RBBS-EXT.ARC 81920 03-15-87 RBBS-PC 15.1A External protocols 095 RBBS-SRC.ARC 282624 03-15-87 RBBS-PC 15.1A BASIC source code 095 RBBS-TXT.ARC 48128 03-15-87 RBBS-PC 15.1A Required text files 095 REFORMAT.ARC 45056 03-10-87 Re-org/de-frag had disks (w/Turbo Source) 011 REL1ATO2.ARC 6144 03-19-87 Convert Lotus 1A WKS to ver. 2.0 WK1 format 019 REMOVE.ARC 18816 03-14-87 Recursive file removal (deletion) utility 013 RENTLAND.ARC 51072 03-18-87 Cash Rent Estimate Tool for Farmers 005 RESQ21.ARC 18048 03-12-87 Rescue past activity from memory V2.1 011 RJNOVELL.ARC 20480 03-24-87 *Remote Job utility for Novell networks 011 Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 18 RPN141.ARC 101376 03-15-87 Calculator w/8087/Clndr/Res or DOS/Macros!! 011 SAMPLE.ARC 1024 03-21-87 Sample checkbook file for PC-FILE+ dbase 018 SAMPLE.ARC 2048 03-23-87 Sample Checkbook database for PC- File+ 018 SAYTIME.ARC 32768 03-23-87 Make your PC or PC clone speak the time 016 SCRNPRT2.ARC 12288 03-29-87 .ASM source code for screen dump 015 SD.ARC 6144 03-15-87 Switch subdir w/o typing full path, w/ASM 011 SD54.ARC 32768 03-14-87 Sorted DIR v5.4,mono/CGA/EGA,2/87/J.Stetson 013 SEARCH.COM 1408 03-16-87 Search Utility from Byte. 014 SEE123.ARC 10112 03-28-87 Access 123 worksheets from Turbo Pascal 050 SFIND.ARC 6144 03-12-87 Super file finder - even looks inside ARCs 013 SIGNS-PC.BAS 5707 03-22-87 A banner making program 008 SOFTBALL.ARC 4096 03-18-87 Track your softball team scores 005 SORTF217.ARC 5120 03-13-87 Fast SORT replacement v2.17 3/2/87 V.Buerg 014 SPANISH1.ARC 40192 03-11-87 Spanish language tutor 004 SPYDER.ARC 129536 03-24-87 3 games in one, great graphics. 010 STAR.ARC 2048 03-28-87 1 of 4 Read me for info before others 010 STARA.ARC 91136 03-28-87 2 of 4 Electronic Art's Star Flight Demo 010 STARB.ARC 248832 03-28-87 3 of 4 45 min limit needs C/G & 384K 010 STARFLT.ARC 47104 03-28-87 4 of 4 Play is just like actual game 010 STARPC.ARC 37248 03-11-87 Setup for Gemini-10X PC Prntr (Star Micro.) 015 TDSNAP2.ARC 37504 03-30-87 The PERFECT screen capture program! 016 TEACHER.ARC 4096 03-26-87 Use With Languages 004 TELLO.ARC 28672 03-25-87 GCLisp 286 Benchmark source, Mar 87 Byte 007 TEXT123.ARC 13312 03-16-87 A nice Text editor w/ a 123-like interface 002 TICKLER2.ARC 43008 03-11-87 Enhanced appointment calendar program 005 TICKLR50.ARC 91776 03-24-87 Tickler 5.0 Calendar/reminder/alarm prgm 005 TITANIC.ARC 136192 03-28-87 Text Adventure Game Onboard the Titanic! 010 TPC10.ARC 33792 03-14-87 Convert Turbo Pascal source to C 050 Fargo IBM PC User's Group Newsletter -- April 1987 -- Page 19 TPTASK.ARC 3840 03-24-87 Turbo source for multi-tasking 050 TREKMAC.ARC 19456 03-28-87 Mac Picture of Mccoy, Kirk, & Scott. 008 TSR130.ARC 33792 03-15-87 Terminate & Stay Res for DeSmet C,B. Irvine 007 TSRV22.ARC 36864 03-15-87 New MARK & RELEASE utilities 011 TUMBLE16.EXE 4352 03-17-87 Fourth Dimension Hyper-cube 090 UNERA12.ARC 7168 03-14-87 Unerase utility for 30+ hard disks 013 USEREDIT.ARC 32399 03-15-87 RBBS User File Editor version 1.0 096 VP.ARC 236288 03-25-87 VP Planner demo - complete - nice 006 WALLYBIL.ARC 53248 03-30-87 Figure your roomates share of expenses 005 WCOMM15.ARC 54144 03-30-87 XMODEM under MS Windows V0.15 001 WHPD.ARC 512 03-19-87 Protect your hard drive 013 WINDOW.ARC 18432 03-15-87 Windowing for DeSmet C, w/source in C & ASM 007 WT101.ARC 11264 03-24-87 WalkTree-Execute DOS cmds/prgm across sbdir 013 WWIV.ARC 117760 03-16-87 Single user BBS in TURBO (super-fast) 001 XD10.ARC 75776 03-23-87 XD-Extended DOS, Button's DOS shell v.10 014 XDIR.ARC 1792 03-16-87 From PC Mag, Pop Up Directory Utility 013 XDIR.COM 17408 03-13-87 Another sorted disk directory program 013 XPM1.ARC 17536 03-28-87 Convert Printmaster <----->READMAC. 008 20