ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MICROPENDIUM P.O. Box 1343 Round Rock TX 78680 Phone 512-255-1512 Internet jkoloen@io.com MICROREVIEWS FOR JUNE 1995 by Charles Good This month I am reviewing very significant new products I demonstrated at the recent Lima MUG Conference. --------------------- Geneve SCSI by Western Horizon Technologies and Bud Mills Services. Since the day of the Lima conference I have been using a SCSI card and a "Slow SCSI-2" 40 meg hard drive in my Geneve system. I am delighted with its elegance, performance, and low cost, and highly recommend a SCSI hard drive system to any Geneve user The system is elegant because everything can be mounted inside the pbox. No external power supply is required. My SCSI hard drive takes so little power that it can be operated using an unmodified pbox power supply in addition to one regular half height or two very low power half height floppy drives controled by a TI or other floppy drive controller. The hard drive, which is the size of a 3.5 inch floppy drive, can be mounted in the drive bay next to a half height DSK1 using a 5.25 inch mounting frame available for about $5 at most computer stores. I chose instead to put my hard drive on a slot inside the main pbox compartment one slot away from my SCSI card. My hard drive is mounted on the back half of a TI clamshell. This is the half of the clamshell with the little wings that allow it to snugly fit into a slot in the pbox. I used the clamshell that covered my firehose 99/4A cable, which most Geneve owners should have as surplus since the firehose cable is not needed for a pbox containing a Geneve. All you need to do is drill a couple of holes in the clamshell and bolt on the hard drive. Then thread one end of a "Y" power cable out of the floppy drive compartment and connect it to the internal hard drive and connect the cable that comes with the SCSI card to the hard drive. If you have a pair of very low power floppy drives and a second "Y" power cable, you can run both floppy drives and the SCSI hard drive at the same time off of the pbox power supply. Many will find that only one floppy half height drive and the SCSI hard drive can be powered directly from the pbox. Performance is fantastic compared to using just floppy drives or a combination of floppy drives and horizon ramdisks. My 40 meg drive has over 160000 256 byte sectors of file storage space. Based on some timed tests I have done, using my Geneve's hard drive to load the new v5.2 Funnelweb word processor, and loading and saving a 360 sector DV80 document to and from the word processor is AS FAST OR FASTER than the same operations using a horizon ramdisk on a 99/4A system. Saving large text files is significantly faster. I really find this amazing, because I thought you couldn't get anything faster than a horizon ramdisk. The "MDOS v2.50S delta" Geneve operating system I am using seems very full featured. I have experienced no bugs. You can copy and delete files, create and remove subdirectories, etc. using the same syntax used for hard drives controlled by an HFDC. In fact, if you really want, you can have HFDC controlled MFM hard drives and SCSI card controlled hard drives working together in the same Geneve pbox. Support software allows you to format hard drives as well as search sectors for strings edit sectors. For sector operations you have to know which sectors to edit or search or you have to search the entire hard drive. With the software I now have available you can't just put the cursor next to a file name and automatically look at the sectors of just that file. A really nifty fairware "Directory Manager" program by Clint Pulley is included. It is very full featured and user friendly, operateing somewhat like Funnelweb's Disk Review. A display shows all the file names in a selected directory. From this display you can view (in ascii or hex) copy move delete rename protect unprotect single or groups of files. You can easily bounce back and forth between one directory and another and you can delete rename and create directories. If you move the cursor next to a text file and press "E" you can edit that file with a text editor. Clint's requested donation for this software is only $10, an excellent value! Limitations: -You cannot YET use a SCSI hard drive on a "Genmod" Geneve. If you have a Memex memory expansion card with more than 512K of extra memory then you have a genmod Geneve. -You need to have a second 32K fast ram chip mounted on your Geneve card to use the SCSI interface card. You remove the existing 32K socketed ram chip, purchase or make a stacked set of two 32K chips already soldered together, put this stack back in the socket, and make one solder connection with a little wire. Either BMS or WHT will sell you the pre soldered stacked 2 chip set and will mount them for you if you send them your Geneve. The operation takes very little time if you do it yourself. Many Geneve owners already have this modification. -You can't YET entirely boot the SCSI version of MDOS from Cecure's PFM flashdisk boot rom. The 128K SCSI DOS is too big to fit on the 120K PFM boot rom. I have software from Cecure Electronics called SCSI4PFM that lets you put most of SCSI MDOS on a PFM and boot the last 8K of MDOS from some other device. This eliminates the extra keypresses normally needed to bypass the PFM when booting SCSI MDOS from some other device like a floppy. Unfortunately, current versions of SCSI MDOS do not recognize the PFM+ flashdisk drive. This means that currently a PFM+ flashdisk is useless on a Geneve with SCSI and can't be used to contain the last 8K of SCSI MDOS. Instead you have to put this last 8K of SCSI MDOS on a floppy disk or horizon ramdisk. The limitations discussed in this paragraph are only of concern to those who have PFM or PFM+ installed on their Geneve. -You can't YET make the SCSI drive act as DSK1. The first SCSI drive's device name is "SCS1" (thats a "one", not capital I) and cannot be reassigned to DSKsomething. DSK1 emulation is supposed to be available in future versions of SCSI MDOS. -You can't YET boot MDOS automatically from the hard drive. This will require the as yet uncompleted SCSI DSR eprom. As of this writing the only way to boot SCSI MDOS is from a floppy in DSK1, from a horizon ramdisk, or (partially) from a PFM boot rom. -You can't YET control a SCSI floppy drive or other type of SCSI peripheral with the SCSI interface card. The ability to do this awaits further refinements of MDOS. As of now you need to have a separate floppy drive controller. On the Lima Conference video tape Mike Maksimik, author of the SCSI version of MDOS, says support for SCSI hard drives and CD rom drives will definately be forthcoming. Cost: From BMS the SCSI card with cables, MDOS, and support software costs $170. A 40 meg (available storage after formatting) low power slow SCSI-2 hard drive like mine costs $100. The presoldered stack of two 32 chips with a little wire already attached at one end is $25. There is a $5 per order shipping charge. WHT has similar prices. SCSI sard drives of other sizes are available from BMS or WHT and can also be purchased on the open market. There is no extra cost software required other than the requested fairware donation for Directory Manager. The combined cost of the SCSI card and 40 meg hard drive and the extra 32K (if needed) is probably less than you would pay now for a new HFDC card alone from Cecure. Originally you had to pay about $350 for the HFDC plus the cost of a compatible MFM hard drive (most of which were slow and of relatively low capacity) plus the cost of an external power supply for the hard drive. These high costs kept me and many other 99/4A and Geneve users from enjoying the benefits of a hard drive system. Now many serious Geneve users (and soon 99/4A users as well) can afford to move up to the really massive mass storage capacity of a relatively fast hard drive. If you (like me) are a total klutz when it comes to drilling holes and soldering then BMS (and maybe also WHT offers a complete plug and play Geneve package deal. You sendin your Geneve. BMS will mount the extra 32K and return your Geneve along with a SCSI card, cables, software, and a 40 meg drive already mounted on either a 1/2 clamshell or a 5.25 inch frame. The hard drive will formatted, loaded with support software, tested on your very own Geneve. Just pop your Geneve and SCSI card back into your pbox, plug in a few cables, and you're ready to go! The complete package price including shipping is $325. The only thing BMS can't guarantee is that this setup will work with TWO floppy drives in your pbox because the two floppy drives and the hard drive may eat up too much power. If you hear your hard drive drop out when two floppy drives are in use you will have to disconnect the second internal floppy drive. This is what I had to do, and that is why you might want to play it safe and use the 5.25 inch frame option. This plug and play system package will definately work with one internal half height floppy and maybe with two. Call BMS or WHT for product availability. -------------------- RXB v1002 (or higher) by Richard Gilbertson This product has a long history and has been reviewed in Micropendium several times. I am reviewing it again because a significant new feature has lately been added. RXB is an "extended extended basic", with many enhancements added to the original TI extended basic. It started out several years ago as "Windy XB". Then it became an enhanced version of "Gram Kracker XB" that was sold by Miller Graphics on their Utility 1 disk for users of their "Gram Kracker" gram emulator. RXB, as it is now called, has literally been revised and updated 1002 times. There are about 50 XB commands and sub programs that have either been added or enhanced compared to the original TI XB, and the product is under continuous revision. In the few weeks since I started evaluating RXB for this review it has advanced from v1000 to v1002. It is probably the most enhanced of the many "extended extended basics" that have appeared over the years. RXB is fully compatible with any existing XB program, even XB programs containing assembly code. I have found no exceptions to this. Right now you need either a Gram emulator (Gram Kracker, Gramulator, or Gram Karte) or a Geneve to run RXB. It comes on disk as a set of gram files along with a massive on disk user guide and lots of useful programs that take advantage of RXB's special features. If enough people are interested in an RXB cartridge, WHT will make the cartridges. Projected cost is about $60 per cartridge, and 25 advance reservations are needed for a production run. As I understand it, WHT will not require money up front but will require a firm agreement to pay on delivery. Phone or email WHT for more details. When you first boot RXB you have many choices, and you have to make a choice quickly. If you press the space bar RXB immediately defaults to XB command mode and bypasses the DSKx.LOAD search. If you press a number from 1 to 9 RXB will go directly to that drive number and search for LOAD on that drive. If you press the period key RXB goes to its editor/assembler screen. If you do nothing, after about 20 seconds RXB automatically begins searching all drives from 1 to 9 for an XB program call LOAD. If LOAD isn't found on any drive RXB eventually defaults to XB command mode. The editor/assembler portion of RXB is exactly like the TI EA module with the addition of a disk directory option. Internally the EA portion of XB is coded just like the TI module, so that ALL software that runs from the TI EA module will run from RXB. I know of no exceptions. If you bring up a disk directory you can move the cursor next to the name of a runable assembly file and run the software directly from the disk directory. The main new feature of RXB, and the reason for this review, is batch file capability. You can use a DV80 text file created with a text editor to control RXB command mode. The syntax from command mode is CALL USER("DSKx.FILENAME") where FILENAME is a DV80 file. When you press FILENAME takes over complete controlof RXB. Yes, it is possible to write an XB program using a text editor and then load the resulting text file into RXB and make it a runable XB program, but this is only one of many batch file possibilities. RXB takes the text file and reads the file, one character at a time into the keyscan of RXB command mode. You see your text appear on screen just as if you were typing on the keyboard, and the text is immediately executed. This means that ANYTHING that can be done in command mode from the keyboard can also be done under the control of a text file. RXB assumes that a carriage return in a text file is the same as pressing from the keyboard. If you don't have a cr at the end of a text line RXB goes directly on to the next text line and considers it to be part of the same line of input. You can have one RXB program line with more than 500 characters. You can create an entire runable RXB program as a single large paragraph starting with the program's one and only line number, with double colon command separaters within the paragraph, and with a single carriage return placed at the end of the paragraph. The RXB package comes with a USER-DEMO text file that really puts CALL USER through its paces. As you sit back and watch, RXB under the control of USER-DEMO creates runs merges saves and deletes (from disk and from memory) programs, runs TRACE, opens files and reads data into the files, and brings up disk directories to show you what is or is not currently on the disk that originally only contained the file USER-DEMO. I wrote an RXB batch file. modified from one originally written for use with Super Basic. My batch file is designed to automate the process of adding checksums to an XB program saved to disk under the name PROGRAM prior to publishing the code in MICROpendium or in a newsletter. You put my DV80 batch file saved under the name BATCH, Tom Freeman's CHECKSUM program (available on disk from user group libraries, from MICROpendium, or from me as described below), and the XB file PROGRAM on a disk in DSK1. Then from RXB you enter CALL USER("DSK1.BATCH") and watch the magic. My batch file actually produces INPUT into the running CHECKSUM program. You end up with an on disk publishable DV80 listing of PROGRAM with checksums suitable for publication in a newsletter. You also get a copy of PROGRAM saved as a runable XB program with checksums added to each line of XB code. Here is my checksum batch file, complete with rem statments to tell you what is going on: ! Batch file using RXB v1001 to add checksums to XB PROGRAM and print a listing of PROGRAM for a newsletter. OLD DSK1.PROGRAM SAVE DSK1.CKSMINPUT,MERGE RUN "DSK1.CHECKSUM" ! The next two lines add INPUT into the running CHECKSUM program 1.CKSMINPUT 1.CKSMOUTPUT CALL NEW MERGE DSK1.CKSMOUTPUT ! Delete unneeded file DELETE "DSK1.CKSMOUTPUT" ! Prints PROGRAM as DV80 file for use in newsletter LIST "DSK1.NEWSLETTER" ! Saves PROGRAM back to disk with checksums added to each line of code. SAVE DSK1.PROGRAMCHK ! Delete unneeded file DELETE "DSK1.CKSINPUT" The only thing similar to RXB's batch file capability is Super Basic. This is a commercial disk based program that does not need a Gram device and runs with the regular TI XB module. Super Basic is protected by a gizmo that plugs into the joystick port. You can easily copy the SuperBasic disk, but you have to have the physical gizmo plugged in for SuperBasic to run. Batch files written for SuperBasic should run on RXB of you add a cr to each batch file line. My only complaint about RXB is that under certain circumstances it is not recognized by Funnelweb's Disk Review. Problems occur only if you have RXB on line and load Funnelweb using some method other than DSKx.LOAD, such as autoload from a horizon ramdisk or as an EA5 program from RXB's editor assembler menu. Under these circumstances if you bring up a disk directory from Funnelweb's Disk Review, move the cursor next to a runable XB program and press "R" to run the program, Funnelweb will respond with "XB not found". Ifyou have a regular TI XB cartridge plugged into the console and do this Funnelweb will run the XB program. Many Funnelweb users will find this to be only a slight annoyance. The RXB author says this minor incompatability between RXB and Funnelweb is due to a bug fix that was made in TI XB years ago in Gram Kracker XB. RXB is based on Gram Kracker XB. Super Basic is commercial and may no longer be available. RXB is now FREE! RXB used to cost $25 from CADD Electronics, but when the author sent me a copy he wrote "freeware" on the envelope. I talked to Rich Gilbertson on the phone and said, "You mean shareware don't you?". He replied, "No, its freeware." I said, "You mean you don't expect people to send you money for this", and he replied, "That's correct." Never the less, you should send Rich some money. Because RXB v1001+ is free, EVERY Geneve user and gram device owner should try it out. Send some money to Rich and he will send you the very latest version. Or send me $2 and I will send you on two DSSD disks the latest RXB version I have together with on disk copies of CHECKSUM and my batch file. -------------------- Funnelweb v5.2 80 column editor. by Tony McGovern This latest edition of the Funnelweb family of 80 column editors is the most flexable and has the largest text buffer of any word processor ever written for the 99/4A or Geneve. When the editor boots you get your choice of one 128K text buffer, or two 64K text buffers, or four 32K text buffers. If you are use multiple text buffers you can have a different document in each buffer, up to four documents in active editable memory simultaneously. You can edit each of the documents in each of the buffers separately and you can cut and paste between the different buffers. You can block up to 22 lines of text from one document, put these lines in a separate clipboard buffer, and paste the contents of the clipboard anywhere into any of the edit buffers. There is also a View buffer (in addition to the 1-4 edit buffers). You can put text from the View buffer into the clipboard and paste this text into any of the edit buffers. This 128K text buffer size is, by any 99/4A or Geneve standard, enormous. The edit buffer of most TI Writer clones is about 22K. MyWord on the Geneve has a buffer of about 50K. You can load the single 347 sector v5.2 documentation file into the 128K text buffer and still have 48% of the buffer free. When you invoke ShowDirectory you get a display showing the percent of the current buffer still empty and the number of text lines still available. The Funnelweb edit buffers will only accept a finite number of lines (about 4500 for the 128k buffer) because the computer has to keep track of line numbers. Help screens are generated from a single DV80 file that loads into memory when the editor is loaded. This help file is editable by the user using the Funnelweb editor. The editor keeps track of all the path and file names you use in a session when you LF, SF, PF, in each of the multiple edit buffers. When you do any of these operations a window pops up showing you all these file names and gives you quick access these files by pressing a number, or you can type in the path of a new file. The program also keeps track of the names of each file currently in each text buffer, the number of lines in each buffer, and whether each buffer has been edited since its file was loaded. All this information can be quickly displayed in a pop up window when desired. This 80 column editor requires Geneve or a 99/4A system with an 80 column adapter. You add the files on the v5.2 upgrade disk to your Funnelweb v4.4 system disk. You need the v4.4 FW and/or LOAD files to make this editor work. To use the multiple buffers or the single 128K buffer you need 192K of VDP ram. If the editor senses that your system has only only 128K of VDP ram (such as an unmodified Geneve) it will default to a single 64K edit buffer. If you havn't already done so, this Funnelweb editor gives you a good reason to have Cecure Electronics add the needed additional VDP ram to yourGeneve. The editor comes with command line language files and character sets for American and British English, French, German, and Swedish. Italian and Spanish may be added later if consumers help Tony McGovern to do so. The complete extended IBM graphics set (ascii 0-254) can be typed on screen and printed WYSIWYG directly from the editor with most printers. Like the rest of the Funnelweb system, the 80 column v5.2 editor is fairware. If you use it regularly you should send Tony McGovern and additional donation. If you want to try it out send me $1 and I will send you the v5.2 upgrade files on a DSSD disk. -------------------- ACCESS: BMS - Bud Mills Services (SCSI cards and hard drives, extra 32K fast ram added to Geneve), 166 Dartmouth Drive, Toledo OH 43614. Phone 419-385-5946. WHT - Western Horizon Technologies (same products as BMS, also RXB cartridge), 3297 Woody Lane, San Jose CA 95132. Phone 408-848-5947, ask for Don O'Neil. Internet doneil@hooked.net Richard Gilbertson (RXB author), 1901 H. Street, Vancouver WA 98663. Tony McGovern (FWB v5.2 author), 215 Grinsell St., Kotara NSW 2289, Australia. Internet phpam@cc.newcastle.edu.au Delphi GLOBAL01 Charles Good (your humble reviewer and sender of $1 disks), P.O. Box 647, Venedocia OH 45894. Phone 419-667-31431. Internet cgood@osulima1.lima.ohio-state.edu (preferred) or good.6@osu.edu