microcom the magazine for W?S-8l Kysers ORAK m QWERTY A /* -*~*« ';. 74470"65947 luper Ke That Never Caught On TRS-80* Model I Computer Owners . . . Store Up to 350 Kbytes on a 5" Disk FORMATTED OISX STORAGE CAPACITY KBYTES ' / s / / y s S * s /, s The DOUBLER™. It packs almost twice the data on a disk track as your single-density system. Depending on the type of drive, you can store up to four times more data on one side of a minidiskette than you can store using a standard Model I mini-disk drive. • The DOUBLER™ reads, writes and formats either single- or dou- ble-density minidiskettes. • Proprietary design allows you to continue to run TRSDOS* NEW- DOSt. Percom 05-80™ or other single-density software without making any changes to software or hardware. Switch to double- density operation at any conve- nient time. • Includes DBLDOS™, a TRSDOS* compatible double- density disk operating system. Mini-Disk Systems More storage capacity, higher reliability — from Pcrzom, the industry leader One- two- and th'ee-dnve configira s in either 40- or "7 Fjiy burned-m From only >tf • CONVERT utility, on DBLDOS™ minidiskette, converts files and programs from single- to double-density or double- to sin- gle-density. • The DOUBLER™ circuit card includes high performance data separator, write precom pensation circuits for reliable disk read operations — even with 80-track drives. • Plug-in Installation — The DOUBLER simply plugs into the disk controller socket of your Ex- S2 ° PERCOM DISCOUNT $20 COUPON worth $20 toward The Purchase of a DOUBLER™ Coupon No. 80M103 Expires December 30. 1980 -.„« Void where prohibited by law. pansion Interface, requiring no strapping or trace cutting. Expan- sion Interface disk controller may be completely restored to original configuration by simply removing the DOUBLER™ and re-installing the original disk controller chip. • Works with standard 35-. 40-, 77- and 80-track mini-disk drives rated for double-density operation. • Introductory price, including DBLDOS™ and format conversion utility on minidiskette, only $219.95. Use the coupon for even greater savings. Call toll-free. 1-800-527-1592. for the address of your nearest authorized Per- com dealer, or to order directly from Per- com PERCOM DATA COMPANY, INC. 211 N KIBBv GARLAND TEXAS 75042 1214)272 3421 rredOTHMh at Peu.mii Data Company. In<- • tradr-miik jl Tandy Kadki Shack ( oryiorarion u-hich ha* BO ' iradema' of App.uat ( <.m>|..ini. In. rlatiotithip to Ptr c OW Dala Company. PRICES AND SPf CiriCATIONS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WrTHOUT NOTICE. PRICES DO NOT INU.ITO SHIPPING AND HANDLING CHARGES TRS-80* Model I Computer Owners . . . Double-density storage It's really here! Here at Percom. And your authorized Percom dealers. And double-density storage is here in a big way. Because now you can choose from three different levels of mini-disk systems — all double-density rated. And get the storage that precisely meets your application needs. Not to mention the service and quality that's made Percom the industry leader. Although rated for double-density operation, all levels of Percom drives work equally well in single- density applications. You can operate these drives in ordinary single- density format using TRSDOS*, Percom OS-80™ or any other single-density operating system. Or, you can add a Percom DOUBLER™ to your Tandy Expansion Interface and store data and programs in either single- or double-density format. Under double-density operation, you can store as much as 350 Kbytes of formatted data — de- pending on the drive model — on one side of a five-inch minidiskette. That's/our times the capacity of standard Model 1 mini-disks, almost 100 Kbytes more than the capacity of the eight-inch IBM 3740 format! Available in 1-, 2- and 3-drive configurations in all three model lines, Percom burned-in, fully- tested drives start at only $399. n TFD-40™ Drives TFD-40 Drives store 180 Kbytes (double-density) or 102 Kbytes (single density) of formatted data on one side of a 40 track minidiskette. Although economical- ly priced. TFD-40 drives receive the same full Percom quality control measures as TFD-100 and TFD-200 drives. TFD-100™ Drives TFD-100 drives are "flippy" dnves. You store twice the data per minidiskette by using both sides of the disk. TFD-100 drives store 180 Kbytes (double density) or 102 Kbytes (single-density) per side. Under double-density operation, you can store a 70- page document on one minidiskette. TFD-200™ Drives TFD-200 drives store 350 Kbytes (double-density) or 197 Kbytes (single-density) on one side of a minidis- kette. By comparison, 3740-formatted eight-inch disks store only 256 Kbytes. Enormous on-line stor- age capacity in a 5" drive, plus proven Percom reliability. That's what you get in a TFD-200. the DOUBLER™ — This proprietary adapter for the TRS-80* Model I computer packs approximately twice the data on a disk track. Depending on the type of drive, you can Up to Tour rimes as much data — 350 Kbytes — on one side of a minidiskette as you can store using a Tandy standard Model I com- puter drive. Easy to install, the DOUBLER merely into the disk controller chip socket of your Expansion Interface No rewiring. No trace cutting And because the DOUBLER reads, writes and formats either single or double density disks, you can con- tinue to run all of your single density software, then switch to double-density operation at any convenient time Included with the PC card adapter is. a TRSDOS* -compatible double density disk operating system, called DBLDOS™ plus a CONVERT utility that converts files and programs from single- to double density or double- to single density format Each DOUBLER also includes an on-card high-performance data separator circuit which ensures reliable disk read operation The DOUBLER works with standard 35-. 40 77- and 80- track drives rated for double density operation Note Opening the Expansion Interface to install the DOUBLER may void Tandy's limited 90-day warranty. Drive enclosures, power supplies Percom drive enclosures are finished in compatible silver enamel Three sizes accommo- date etther 1 . 2 or 3 drives. Drive power supplies are heavy duty, cool running open-frame design Three wire ac power cords are safer, have lower noise pickup Free software patch This software patch, called PATCH PAK' M upgrades TRSDOS* for operation with improved 40- and 77 track drives. For single density operation only Quality Percom products are available at authorized dealers. Call toll free 1-800-527-1592 for the address of your nearest dealer or to order directly from Percom. In Canada call 519-824-7041. ,M trad.-- "V Inr • (ratal **ton which has no relationship 10 PWl OBI llala Oimpany PERQCM PERCOM DATA COMPANY INC ,- ■■ H K'OBv . GARLAND T« December 1980 Issue #12 PUBLISHER Wayne Green EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Sherry Smythe CORPORATE CONTROLLER Charles Garniss, Jr. ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Edward Ferman ASSISTANT PUBLISHER Jeff DeTray ADVERTISING MANAGER Kevin Rushalko CIRCULATION MANAGER (603) 924-7296 Debra Boudrieau BULK SALES MANAGER Ginny Boudrieau ADVERTISING SALES (603)924-7138 Penny Brooks John Gancarz Manuscripts are welcome at 80 Microcomput- ing, we will consider publication of any TRS-80 oriented material. Guidelines for budding auth- ors are available, please send a self-addressed envelope and ask for "How to Write for 80 Micro- computing." Entire contents copyright 1980 by 1001001 Inc. No part of this publication may be reprinted, or reproduced by any means, without prior written permission from the publisher. All programs are published for personal use only. Ail rights reserved. 80 Microcomputing (ISSN -0199-6789) is pub- lished monthly by 1001001 Inc., 80 Pine St., Peterborough NH 03458. Phone: 603-924-3873. Subscription rates in U.S. are $18 for one year and $45 for three years. In Canada, $20— one year only, U.S. funds. Foreign subscriptions (surface mall), $28— one year only, U.S. funds. Foreign subscriptions (air mail), $60— one year only, U.S. funds. In Europe please contact Monika Nedeia. Markstr. 3, D-7778 Markdorf, W. Germany In South Africa contact 80 Micro- computing, P.O. Box 782815, Sandton, South Africa 2146. Australian Distributor. Electronic Concepts, Attention: Rudi Hoess, 55 Clarence Street, Sidney 2000, Australia. All U.S. sub- scription correspondence should be ad- dressed to 80 Microcomputing, Subscription Department, P.O. Box 981, Farmingdale. NY 11737. Please include your address label with any correspondence. Postmaster: Send form -3579 to 80 Microcomputing, Subscription Ser- vices, P.O. Box 981, Farmingdale, NY 11737 The Dvorak Keyboard Page 66 by Waldo T. Boyd and Jon Etherton The latest in super efficient keyboards is 30 years old. Dvorak's scheme never caught on with manufacturers, but an innovative piece of software lets you program your own key- board. 80 Applications Page 42 by Dennis Bathory Kitsz When Kitsz, the mad assembler, gets in a Christmas spirit, expect the unusual. Here you have his complete recipe, including parts, for creating your own holiday cheer- in harmony. Seasons Greetings Page 112 by Valerie Vann Want to do something nifty for the holi- days? Turn your 80 into a graphic decora- tion. Let your screen scroll snowflake and Christmas designs. CAL81 Page 128 by John F. Strazzarino Create gifts for your friends with your 80. This program tells you how to make a gift that will keep you and your computer in mind all year round. Holiday Cheer by Norman s. Kerr Page 1 32 The last of our holiday packages to you lets your 80 send its own greeting cards. The program also maintains your card list through- out the year. Assemble it Yourself by Richard Koch Page 21 2 Plumb the depths of your editor/assembler and let it modify itself. Prepare yourself for a bear! This program is a monster, so let us know if it's a wise use of space. 4 • RD tJirmrnmnutinn Der.&mher 1980 109 The Office Computer Gary Valle Care and feeding instructions. 132 Holiday Cheer Norman S. Kerr Better in your mailbox than your Wassail bowl. 66 The Dvorak Keyboard Waldo T. Boyd and Jon Etherton How come your keyboard's so awkward? 206 Turn-on Dr. J. H. Nestor Hate to hear the printer grumble and can't reach the switch? Change it! 260 Gregorian Converter Hubert C. Borrmann You may like Pope Gregory, but your 80 prefers Julius Caesar. 166 Joystick City Larry Suter Get the pleasure of smooth moves. 112 Seasons Greetings Valerie Vann Turn on your 80 and celebrate. 125 CAL81 John F. Strazzahno Keep your dates straight. 255 Com pu-Sk etch Merl J. Hendricks Video etching with your 80. 102 STATS Robert P. Johnson The latest in statistical programs are compared. in3©MM0@GJ)[l 160 Now if s Time for. . . Name That Routine David Cornell A labeling program that indexes its own routines. 147 Mysteries of the Level II ROM Victor Griswold Revelations from within. 82 Into the 80's, Part 4 Ian R. Sinclair Tagging, dimensioning and further magic. 94 A Manipulative Wizard John D. Adams Study the dark secrets of arrays. oirminrv 200 COMPAC Daniel M. Romanchik This article is not about assembling robots. 212 Assemble it Yourself If EDTASM isn't enough, try this. 257 RESTORE Data Pointer Control David R. Cecil Point where you will. 259 Less Is More C. E. Winterbauer Another mystery. 263 Keyword List Plus Jack Decker List your keywords and more. 8 Remarks Wayne Qreen 10 Inside 80 Ed Juge 14 Input 20 80 Accountant Michael Tannenbaum 22 Education 80 Earl R. Savage 24 The Assembly Line William Barden 32 Reviews 42 80 Applications Dennis Bathory Kitsz 51 News 58 Products 268 Annual Index 274 List of Advertisers PUBLISHER/EDITOR Wayne Green MANAGING EDITOR Michael Comendul TECHNICAL CONSULTANT Jake Commander PRODUCTION EDITOR Clare McCarthy ASSOCIATE EDITOR (COPY) Carolyn Straub NEWS EDITOR Nancy Robertson REVIEW EDITOR Pamela Petrakos ASST. TECHNICAL EDITOR Chris Brown EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Chris Crocker Debra Marshall TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Dennis Kitsz EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATION Cresca Clyne Nancy Noyd DESIGN ASSOCIATE Diana Shonk MANUFACTURING MANAGER Noel Ray Self PRODUCTION MANAGER PUBLICATIONS Nancy Salmon ASST. PRODUCTION MANAGER PUBLICATIONS Michael Murphy AD COORDINATOR Sue Symonds ADVERTISING PRODUCTION Steve Baldwin, Bruce Hedin, Maryann Metivier, Dion Owens PRODUCTION DEFT. Joan Ahern, William Anderson Jr., Patty Burr, Linda Drew, Bob Dukette, Kenneth Jackson, Ross Kenyon, Patrice Scribner, Thomas Villeneuve PHOTOGRAPHY William Heydolph, Terrie Anderson, Bill Suttenfield TYPESETTING Barbara Latti, Sara Bedell, Michele Desrocher, Luann Keddy, Mary Kinzel, Linda Locke, Karen Podzycki Cover artwork and illustrations on pages 66 I 67 by Alex Stevens Alex is a brilliant, young illustrator at- tending Massachusetts College ol Art. 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 5 META TECHNOLOGIES MTCAIDS- MODEL I . . $69.95 MODEL II . . $99.95 Introducing the latest addition to MTC's family of data management systems. AIDS III NO PROGRAMMING easy to use COMPLETE PACKAGE including demonstration application, documentation and MAPS-III (see below.) • Up to 20 USER-DEFINFD FIELDS of either numeric or character type • CHARACTER type fields may be any length (total, up to 254 characters) • NUMERIC type fields feature automatic formatting, rounding, decimal alignment and validation • Full feature EDITING when adding or changing records: ENTER FIELD icon't type m more characters than specified) BACKSPACE (delete last character typed) RIGHT JUSTIFY FIELD contents DELETE FIELD contents SKIP FIELD (to next Or previous field). RESTORE FIELD contents SKIP RECORD (to next or previous record) • SORTING of records is MACHINE CODE assisted. 200 RECORDS (40 characters) in about 5 SECONDS ANY COMBINATION of fields (including numencsi with each field in ascending or descending order • SELECTION of records for Loading Updating Deleting. Printing and Saving is MACHINE CODE assisted - Specify up to 4 CRITERIA, each using one of 6 RELATIONAI COMPARISONS LOAD or SAVE selected records using MULTIPLE FILES Example Select records representing those people who live in the state of Col orado, but not in the city of Denver, whose last names begin with "F" and whose incomes exceed S 9000 00 Example: Select records representing those sales made to XYZ COMPANY that exceed %2b 00. between the dates 03 15 and 04 10. MAPS III (MTC AIDS PRINT SUBSYSTEM) included at no charge, has the following features • Full AIDS III SELECTION capabilities. • Prints user specified fields DOWN THE PAGE • Prints user-specified fields in titled, columnar REPORT FORMAT, automatically generating column headings, paging and (optionally) indentation • Can create a single report from MULTIPLE FILES. • Prints user defined formats for CUSTOM LABELS, custom forms, etc BEVOflD BfiSkC FOR MODEL II MTC is proud to announce MTC EXTENDED BASIC for the Model II. by R Ryen Features in elude "fixes" to existing BASIC, multi line func tions. extending an existing sequential file, PEEK POKE, greatly enhanced screen control and ex panded editing capabilities The contents o variables are NOT CHANGED when editing, delet ing. inserting or merging lines, allowing continued program execution' All this and much more. Com- patible with SNAPP BASIC, below MTC EXTENDED BASIC $99 95 MTC brings you the best of SNAPP. Inc. s Model II BASIC interpreter at a very special introductory price Written entirely in machine language, the enhancements are fully integrated into BASIC and require no user memory or disk space. Utilizes AP- PARAT's NEWDOS modifications to BASIC on the Model II Features include 16 single keystroke commands for editing, listing, and other opera- tions. An enhanced program line renumbering ta cility supports relocation and duplication of blocks of code Includes a powerful cross-reference capa- bility lor producing a list identifying program line locations of user specified variables and line numbers Output may be displayed or printed Compatible with MTC EXTENDED BASIC, above SNAPP BASIC for Model II $ 99 95 MTC AIDS CALCULATION SUBSYSTEM MODEL I . . .$24.95 MODEL II . . $39.95 MTC's most popular AIDS subsystem. Use lor report generation involving basic manipulation of numeric data Features are: • User specified page title • Columnar Headings • Optional Indentation • Use for accounting, inventory, financial and other numeric based information systems. Columnar subtotals generated when there is a change in a user-specified column. User-specified Columnar Totals Columnar values computed using con stants and or column values Balance forward calculations (Ex Gross sales equals previous gross sales + sale amount ♦ sales tax) Compare AIDS-HI CALCS-III " with any other data management package under $100! Others make claims. CALCS-IH M delivers! CALCS-III v REQUIRES THE PURCHASE OF AIDS-MI OR AIDS-II " w Let your TRS-80™ Teach You ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE REMSOFTs unique package INTRODUCTION TO TRS-80' ASSEMBLY PROGRAMMING" in eludes ten 45-minute lessons on audio cassettes, a display program for each lesson providing illustra- tion & reinforcement, and a text book on TRS 80 Assembly Language Programming Includes use ful routines to access keyboard, video, printer and ROM. Requires 16K Level II. Model I. REMASSEM-1 $69.95 FOR DISK SYSTEMS $74.95 Let Your TRS-80 ' Teach You ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE DISK I/O TECHNIQUES REMSOFT does it again! REMDISK 1 is a concise, capsulated supplement to REMASSEM 1. Package consists of two 45-minute lessons on audio casset- tes, and display programs providing illustration and reinforcement. Provides specific track and sector I/O techniques, and sequential and random file access methods and routines REMDISK-1 $29.95 II MTC AIDS MERGE-IH™ This subsystem will combine up to 14 AIDS created data files into a single, large file An op- tional purge capability removes duplicate entries while performing the merge operation (can even be used to eliminate duplicates in a single file). Machine-code assisted for highspeed perlor manes, MERGE -IIITM properly handles tiles sorted by any combination of fields, including numerics, with each field in ascending or descending order. MTC AIDS MERGE III™ $19.95 For Model II $29.95 Let Your TRS-80 Test Itself With THE FLOPPY DOCTOR & MEMORY DIAGNOSTIC by THE MICRO CLINIC A complete checkup for your Model I THE FLOP- PY DOCTOR completely checks every sector of 35- or 40-track disk drives. Tests motor speed, head positioning, controller functions, status bits and provides complete error logging. THE MEMORY DIAGNOSTIC checks for proper write/read, refresh, executabiiity and exclusivity of all address locations. Includes both diagnostics and complete instruction manual. SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS $19.95 6 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 MAKES EVERY BYTE COUNT IN YOUR TRS-80™ MODEL I OR MODEL II DISK SYSTEM NATIONAL HOSPITAL AND HEALTH CAM SERVtCf $, INC. September 17. 1980 Dear Keta Technologies, Because of my work load, this is the first opportunity tha I have had to write you concerning the programs that I have purchased from your company. The programs; CALCS, SHRINK and SITTER have paid for themselves 1000 times over. I was able to take a custom written billing program which we had paid $2600 for and was able to condense it with SHRINK to about two-thirds of its original size! This was an incredible boon to my company as now I am able to fit several more utility programs on the same disk as the billing program. Just today I was able to adapt the 'S0RTR' program in the series of sorts of SIFTER to work with our billing program. I believe that you understate the speed of this sort. I n my experience, it is sorting over 500 records of 255 bytes in length in less than two seconds. As compared to the incredibly slow basic sort that I had in before, the 'S0RTR' routine is just short of a miracle. Imaoine having to wait over k$ ninutes everyti-ie a file of 500 records was accessed for sorting with the basic sort. If I h«d paid $500 for just this sort alone, it would have been worth it, as that is the amount of money it will save my cor>D3Py in the next six months. Now I have another eleven sorts in addition to the 'S0RTR' program to adapt. This program, SIFTER, is worth many tines what you are currently charginq. CALCS has outdone a series of programs (Al DS III AND MAPS) thatl didn't believe could get better. With the arithmetic manipulative gualities of CALCS I will be able to custom-write a total accounts payable/accounts receivable system. Not only that, but I am now able, using CALCS, to do sales, cost, and many other reports which regui re predicting arithmetically some future performance. Your program has completely revolutionized the paper-flow in my office. With the addition of NEWD0S+ I have an unbeatable software package. I can't thank you enough for the speed and error-free performance of your proqrams. WHAT NEXT META-TECH ? How about revolutionizing the word-process i nq area ? You have an eager customer waiting to buy. I have yet to use your REM-ASSEM system because of my work load, but froT the little I have done with it I an- very satisfied. If you come out with anyth ing new, please contact me. (S>-sis (met'amor'fa sis), u.. />/. -ses(-sOz'). 1. a transforma- tion. 2. a change or successive rhangcs in character or appearance. 3. MTC's transition in 1981 to u binder and better way of doing business, featuring new and improved pro- ducts and services. Products damaged in transit will be exchanged. Prices. Specifications. and Offerings subject to change without notice. V 80 w box of 10 Meta Technologies strikes again ... at the competition! These are factory fresh, absolutely first quality (no seconds!) mini-floppies. They are complete with envelopes, labels and write-protect tabs in a shrink- wrapped box. INTRODUCING ■TM PLAIN JANE 1 DISKETTES The Beautiful Floppy with the Magnetic PersonalityTM In 1980 alone, MTC has sold nearly a third of a million dollars worth of brand-name diskettes. If anyone knows quality, we do. And these are quality diskettes. The catch? They are in a plain white box. You're not paying for fancy printing, fancy labels or fancy names on the packaging. We don't even put our own label on the package (labels cost money). At this in- troductory price (our regular price will be $21.95 per box of 10) we cannot offer quantity or dealer discounts. PLAIN JANETM Diskettes $19.80* VERBATIM brand Diskettes (box of 10) 5'/«-inch(forTRS-80TM) MD525-01 $23.95 10 boxes of 10. . . (each box). . . $22.95 8-inch FLOPPIES Single-Density. FD34-1000 . . . $29.95 Double-Density, FD34-8000 . . $39.95 MORE PRODUCTS MOST ORDERS SHIPPED WITHIN ONE BUSINESS DAY * PRICE GOOD THRU DECEMBER 31, 1980. Sorry, no dealer or quanti- ty discounts. Allow for possible shipping delays. WE ACCEPT • VISA • MASTER CHARGE • CHECKS • MONEY ORDERS • COD Add $2 50 for standard UPS shipping & handling $2.00 EXTRA tor C O D Ohio residents add 5Vt% sales tax. TO PLACE ORDER 1-800-321-3552 CALL TOLL FREE FOR PRODUCT INFO 1-800-321-3640 IN OHIO call (216)289 7500 (COLLECT) IYIeta Techmqlqgjes Cqrplmtom 26111 Brush Avenue Euclid Ohio 44132 801010 TRS-80 is a TM ol Tandy Corp PLAIN JANE i* a TM ol MTC 1980 by Metatechnologies Corporation. Inc. s Reader Service— see page 274 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 9 #? REMARKS Documentation is a back breaker for small firms. Many solve the problem by having terrible instructions. A first rate product has to look good and have top- notch instructions. Even shipping is a problem for the smaller firm. To control its shipping, Instant Software has to ware- house all programs being distributed. We don't need the aggravation of having orders for something which is out of stock and over which we have little control. This means that smaller software houses will have to keep program packages in our warehouse, but at their expense. Then comes the matter of advertising. This means the design and concept of the ad as well as its production. Once pro- duced, the ad has to be run in the appro- priate magazines. The more ad space you buy, the better the deal you get. Smaller firms pay a heavy premium for their small ads. And the worst part of this is that the larger the ads, the more response you get to them. There is just no justice . . . and no free lunch. In every step a larger firm saves money. When you look at the situation closely, there isn't any step of the production and marketing of software that a larger firm can't do more economically than a smal- ler firm. If a smaller software house put more time into further programming, and left, not only distributing, but documenta- tion, packaging and marketing to a larger firm, the net result should be far more real income. Instant Software, for example pays a royalty of 20 percent of its whole- sale price to a programmer. The day is not far off when some major firm is going to want several hundred In- stant Software programs converted for their computer. One such bulk order can bring in a $15,000 royalty check just for the initial order— even for a simple game pro- gram! A more sophisticated business pro- gram may bring in an initial royalty of $40,000 or more. You have me out there pushing hard for this type of sale for you. Programmers who are already market- ing their programs themselves have the option of submitting them to Instant Soft- ware, while continuing to sell the pro- grams themselves. There's never been any problem with this. Instant Software asks only that there be no arrangements with any other third party software mar- keting firms. It takes several thousand dollars of investment before a new pro- gram package is ready to be marketed, so Instant Software wants to be sure that this is not going to be wasted by having the program come out from some third firm with a lower price. I hope that makes sense. ■ INSIDE SO by Ed Juge, director of computer merchandising, Tandy Radio Shack couple of days ago, I received a r\ phone call from a Model I owner. He was in the process of developing a rather unusual application to be used on a large number of TRS-80s. The Model I didn't have the disk storage he needed, yet he couldn't justify the cost of a Model II. Model III appeared to be a perfect solu- tion. Question: Would his already-written BASIC software work? Since. . .uh. . . mmm. . .his programmer had disassem- bled TRSDOS and was using some "un- documented" DOS routine My answer? Be prepared for a re-write! Radio Shack did it to another one. . . right? Wrong! The programmer did it to himself. Had he used only documented addresses, his program would have con- verted and run well on Model III. Ad- dresses we don't publish, however, will change from one release of TRSDOS to the next (or in this case between Model I and III versions.) This is why we don't pub- lish them! The point of the story is— the program- mer that has the savvy to pull such tricks (and there are lots of you), must have the foresight to anticipate the results. If the program is for your own use, no problem. If you intend to sell the program to- someoneelse. . .it could be a problem. Be sure it's understood what can happen if an attempt is made to use the program with a different release of either TRSDOS or our ROM. Model III vs. Model I Since I've indicated Model III TRSDOS is akin to Model I TRSDOS, let me explain. The ability to use Model I software on Model III does not mean that Model III is just a repackaged Model I! It is a new de- sign with some intentional similarities. We tried to respond to many of your sug- gestions. . .those cards & letters do work! We kept the 16x64 screen format for compatibility, with the same high-resolu- tion monitor as built into Model II. We in- cluded the Model I cassette format so that the large base of Model I software can still be used. Yet at the same time we've in- cluded a new, faster, more reliable 1,500-baud analog cassette I/O system. We've given you a means of converting Model I disk software to Model III format, but Model III uses fast 40-track double- density drives. Our popular 12K Level II has grown into a 14K Model III BASIC. Model Ill's BREAK key returns control to you from any opera- tion, even LPRINT with no printer, or a bad CLOAD?, and you won't lose the resident program. Every key has auto-repeat, and there's a keyboard-controlled screen print feature. Model III also has a parallel print- er port (so even Level I BASIC now has print commands). Model III BASIC in- cludes the dual-speed cassette capability. a real-time clock, upper and lowercase drivers, a special graphics character set, and RS-232 I/O routines. You can define your own cursor character, blinking or non-blinking. In your applications programs, you can protect up to seven lines at the top of the screen from scrolling during input to the screen. There's even a ROUTE command to direct specified outputs between key- board, display, printer, and RS-232 (send or receive). By the way, there are 24 pages of ROM addresses in the manual. Model III TRSDOS The Model III TRSDOS is more like the Model II than Model I. The directory and free space map are pure Model II, as are many of the features and commands. There are ERROR and HELP commands for quick reference, a fast string sort, and a variable cross reference utility. You can even write and protect a diskette via soft- ware command. M Ill's DO file capability allows a string of automatic keyboard en- tries which allows you to powerup in your application program after entering the date. A CONVERT utility allows Model I disk programs to be moved to a Model III diskette, without disturbing the Model I diskette. A variety of commands provides for a number of functions. For example, CREATE allows pre-allocation of disk file space, DUAL duplicates output to video and printer, MASTER tells TRSDOS to al- ways begin a disk search on a specified drive other than Drive 0. There are also a series of CMD (x) com- mands, with different arguments serving a number of purposes. CMD(C), for exam- 10 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 META TECHNOLOGIES FOR YOUR TRS-80" DISK SYSTEM PROGRAMMING TOOLS TDAM $19.95 For Model II $29.95 Includes MTC QUE Card! Having trouble with RANDOM FILES? With MTCs Table-Driven Access Method (TDAM) you'll never fret over FIELDing again. No knowledge of random access lites is required. Insert the TDAM "interpreter'' into any BASIC program and type in a few DATA statements describing the information in your files. TDAM does the rest! Reads and writes fields and records of any type (even com- presses a DATE field into 3 bytes!). Features automatic file buffer allocation/deallocation, memory buffering, sub-record blocking/de- blocking, and handles up to 255 fields per record. Super fast and super simple! Complete with TDAM interpreter, instructions and demo pro- gram. Requires programming experience. SIFTER $19.95 For Model II $29.95 Twelve in-memory high-speed sorts for use in any BASIC program: stable, non-stable, with/without tags, for numeric or string data. Random File Sort included. Some sorts written in machine code. Includes sort subroutines, demo programs and instructions. Relocate as needed with .REBUILD. Requires programming experience. ^ SHRINK $19.95 For Model II $29.95 Makes Every Byte Count! Make programs smaller and faster! Combines lines & removes un- necessary code including remarks, without alter- ing program operation. Typically reduces pro- gram size 25% to 40%. SUPERSEDE $19.95 For Model II $29.95 A "must have" for the professional programmer or the serious amateur. Probably one of the greatest time-savers available. Write programs in shorthand - change variable names - generate program documentation - use with REBUILD and MINGLE to build new programs from old ones. MINGLE-II $19.95 For Model II $29.95 Merge up to 14 files (Program or Data) into a single file. Data files may be merged in ascending or descending sequence with the ordering based on a user specified comparison field. A very han- dy utility for consolidating data files. "OTHER MYSTERIES" VOLUME II •oreword by H.C. PENNINGTON MH 1(1 »V»/ 7 It ISM in i OHGD ttfCXl Ml H MS -I I ECU /../ II*. I If* *UI Call now and place your order for this new book, MICROSOFT^ BASIC DECODED & OTHER MYSTERIES for the TRS-80TM' , from IJG. Inc. A primer for cassette and disk BASIC on the TRS80TM. the information provided applies to similar MICROSOFTTM BASIC interpreters. Features include definition of terms, an over- view of BASIC and DOS, explanation of exits, er- ror codes, verb actions, "cold" and "warm" restart procedures and examination of system utilities, arithmetic support and I'O driver routines, and the communications region in RAM. Individual routines are explained in detail, with an index provided for easy access. Appen- dixes include tables for BASIC and DOS vectors, stacks and interrupt locations. PLUS thousands of comment lines for the complete MICROSOFTTM BASIC. MICROSOFTTM BASIC DECODED . . $29.95 The perfect supplement for your NEWDOS, from IJG, Inc. "TRS-80™ DISK AND OTHER MYSTERIES" by Harvard C. Pennington 132 pages written in PLAIN ENGLISH packed with HOW TO information with details, examples and in-depth explanations. Recover lost files and directories, remove file protection, make BASIC programs unlistable. How to use SUPERZAP. recover from DOS errors and MORE! TRS-80™ DISK $19.95 NEWDOS/80 by Apparat Apparats long-awaited successor to NEWDOS I is here! This is not an enhanced version of NEWDOS. but a completely new product. Simplified DOS commands can be instantly ex- ecuted from BASIC, even within a program, without disturbing the resident code. System op- tions, such as password protection, number and type of disk drives, BREAK key enable/ disable and lowercase modification recognition, can be quickly and easily changed. Five new random- access file types allow record lengths of up to 4096 bytes, and no FIELDing! A powerful CHAIN facility allows keyboard INPUT s to be read from a disk file. An improved RENUMBER facility per- mits groups of statements to be relocated within program code. Diskettes may even be designated as RUN-ONLY! Features all NEWDOS* utilities (SUPERZAP 3.0, etc.) and much more! One MTC technical staff member said having NEWDOS/80 is "better than sex" (you'll have to judge for yourself!). Includes 180-page instruction manual and MTC QUE card. NEWDOS/80 $ 149.95 MTC QUE Card only $7.50 CALL REGARDING OUR NEWDOS+ UPGRADE PRICING. Complete for Model I with all utilities Plus exclusive MTC QUE card! NEWDOS + $69 95 by Apparat I includes REF, RENUM, SUPERZAP, EDITOR/ ASSEM , DISASSEM., DIRCHECK, and more! This I is the original NEWDOS with all of Apparats utility jrograms. Includes exclusive MTC QUE (Quick User Education) card. I MTC QUE Card only $1.50 MORE PRODUCTS Products damaged in transit will be exchanged. Prices, Specifications. and Offerings subject to change without notice. MOST ORDERS SHIPPED WITHIN ONE BUSINESS DAY DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED WE ACCEPT • VISA • MASTER CHARGE • CHECKS • MONEY ORDERS • COD. Add $2.50 for standard UPS shipping & handling $2.00 EXTRA for COD. Ohio residents add 5>/?% sales tax. TO PLACE ORDER 1-800-321-3552 CALL TOLL FREE FOR PRODUCT INFO 1-800-321-3640 IN OHIO call (216)289 7500 (COLLECT) IVlETfl TeCHNQLQGJES CoflraRflTON 261 1 1 Brush Avenue Euclid Ohio 44132 TRS 80 is a TM of Tandy Corp 1980 by Metatechnotogies Corporation, Inc ^ Header Service— see page 27* 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 11 INSIDE %0 pie, compresses program lines by remov- ing remarks, spaces, or both (your option). CMD(L) loads a specified machine lan- guage routine to be called from BASIC, and CMD(0) sorts or alphabetizes the con- tents of an array to name just a few. Of course, the physical differences re- flect many of your suggestions, too. The one piece cabinet is capable of housing a Level I or II ROM, up to 48K RAM, RS-232, two of the four possible disk drives, and it's all fed by one power cable. To hold the non-disk price down, the add-on drive kit for drive includes the controller and pow- er supply for both internal drives. Again, the parallel printer port is built In, so we've eliminated the need for our ever-popular expansion interface with Model III. You'll be happy to know that every ef- fort has been made in Model III to elimi- nate Radio Frequency Interference. I hope it's obvious that Model III. both in hard- ware and software is anything but a "warmed-over Model I." We've Been Getting Questions O: Can my Model I be retrofit to Model III specifications? A: Unfortunately, no. The hardware Is too different. Q: Does the introduction of Model III mean that Model I will no longer be avail- able? A: As inevitable as death and taxes, the day will come when every product we make, even Model III and the pocket and color computers, will go. As of now, I honestly can't tell you when Model I will cease. The real question behind this question is usually "Am I (Model I owner) now going to own a useless piece of outdated hard- ware? My answer is an emphatic NO\ Dis- continuance, when it comes, won't change the benefits of your computer or its value. Q: Is It true that Radio Shack has been delivering 77-track double-density drives and just not telling anybody? If so, can Model I work with them? A: All of our drives, from day one, have had double-density heads. Earlier this year, we began to use drive mechanisms which were capable of 40 tracks, not 77. Those are the drives we sell today. They are faster, band positioner drives, and work well with either Model I or III. Our engineers tell us that Model I would not work reliably in a double-density mode. By the way, the earlier 26-1160's and 61 's won't work with Model III. Q: Is there a modification to eliminate RFI for Model I, especially for ham radio use? A: No. We don't know of a reliable way to eliminate RFI in existing Model I's. I've heard stories from people who have killed 90 percent of the interference, but they also tell me that others have tried their methods (some quite involved), without any real improvement. O: If I buy a Model III, can I be assured satisfactory operation with my ham equip- ment, without Radio Frequency Interfer- ence? A: All computers generate some level of RFI and Model III like all of our computers, complies with FCC regulations. But it's our belief that the FCC tends to protect your neighbors— not you— from the com- puter. You may simply have to choose be- tween computer operation and TV, ham radio, etc. I know RFI isn't a pleasant situ- ation. I've spent a few nights on 20-meter CW with my unmodified Model I and M-80. Visicalc Comes To TRS-80 We began shipping Model I Visicalc software back in late September. Al- "Q: Can my Model I be retrofit to Model III specifications? A Unfortunately, no. . though it was for Model I only, the plan was to have a Model III version available in November. On the chance that some of you are not familiar with Visicalc, it's worth explanation. You'll find it one of the most versatile programs. Picture a large spread sheet with up to 63 vertical columns labeled A, B, C, etc.. and up to 256 horizontal rows labeled one, two, three . . . and so on. (There are a few restrictions depending on memory limits.) Visicalc turns your computer's memory in- to such a sheet. Now, any location on the sheet (Al, AK211, Q7, etc.) can contain a label or heading, or a number, or a formula telling the computer how to calculate the figure there. For example, A32 could be Net Profit, and could be A6 (Gross Profit) minus A30 (Total Expenses). Now, the fun. If you want to do income projections tor a year, enter your first month, then tell Visicalc to assume a 5 percent monthly increase in sales. You can handle fixed expense items by repeat- ing those exact numbers for all 12 months. And when you're finished, when you enter or change a figure, Visicalc per- forms a bit of magic. The new numbers are calculated and put into place immediate- ly. Adding other variables is quick and easy. For example, what if you add a new employee, buy a new delivery truck, move into a less expensive office, start an ex- pensive ad campaign, increase sales faster, have a sales slowdown? Your bills can be adjusted for seasonal variations by entering a fixed amount or a relationship to a base month. Your video screen acts as a window on your spread sheet, and you can move the window anywhere. You can lock headings in place while scrolling, or even split the screen horizontally or vertically, scrolling only a portion of the display. Of course Visicalc can print specified portions of your spread sheet, or store it all on disk for later use. The possible uses are endless. Whether you're calculating the family budget, or doing corporate financial plan- ning—if you own a TRS-80, Visicalc would be an excellent addition. (Yes. Tandy's financial wizards have been using it for some time, too.) And yes again, it will be available for the Model II in December if Murphy doesn't butt in. The Management Computer With the introduction of Visicalc, Scrip- sit, TRS-80 Videotex, and Profile, and especially with one-piece hardware like the Models II and III. businesses are find- ing that the TRS-80 is a valuable manage- ment tool. It saves time and labor, man- ages data, does financial planning, and even composes memos or letters. It also can provide a low-cost electronic mail ser- vice by means of Videotex software and the CompuServe Information Service. And best of all, it's not just another future con- cept. It's all happening today. If you haven't tried the CompuServe, you should. Our TRS-80 software pack- ages include a free hour on the system. Your unique user number and password come right in the software package. There is no sign-up fee even if you decide to keep going after your free hour. Whether or not you find a home with CompuServe, the Videotex gives you an excellent general purpose communications package. Visicalc, Scripsit, Profile and Videotex all make outstanding gifts for computer owners, and are almost universally usable regardless of the first use of the com- puter. Also remember that cassettes, disk- ettes, and dust covers make outstanding low-cost gifts. But for you we at Radio Shack want to wish you. a happy holiday season and an outstanding 1961 . We hope your stocking on Christmas morning comes stuffed with outstanding and uni- que computer gifts. ■ 12 • 80 microcomputing, December 1980 SNAPP II EXTENDED BASIC A fomtly of enhancements to the Model II DASIC interpreter. Port of the pockoge originated with the best of APPARAT INC.s thoughts in implementing NEWDOS BASIC. The system is written entirety in mochme language for SUPER FAST execution. The extensions ate fully mtegroted into Model II DASIC and require NO user memory and NO user disk space The packoge is mode up of the following six modules eoch of which moy be purchased separately: XDASIC — Six single key stroke commands to list the first, last, previous, next, or current program line, or to edit the current line. Includes quick way to recover DASIC program following o NEW ot system or occidental te-boot. Ten single character abbreviations for frequently used commands: AUTO CLS, DELETE. EDIT. KILL LIST. MERGE. NEW. LUST, ond SYSTEM MO XREF — A powerful cross-reference focilify with output to disploy ond/or printer Trace a vari- able through the code Determine easily If a variable is in use. $4C XDUMP — Permits the programmer to display ond/or print the volue of any or oil program voriobles. Identifies the variable type for all voriobles. Eoch element of ony array is listed separately. (40 XRENUM — An enhanced program line renum- bering facility which allows specification of an upper limit of the block of lines to be renum- bered, supports relocation of renumbered blocks of code, ond supports duplication of blocks of code. $40 XFIND — A cross teference facility for key words and character strings, also includes global re- placement of keywords. $40 XCOMPRESS— Compress your DASIC programs to on obsolute minimum. Removes extraneous information.- merge lines, even deletes state- ments which could not be executed. Typically saves 30-40% space even for programs with- out REM srarements! Also results in 7- 1 0% im- provement in execution speed. $40 ENTIRE PACKAGE ONLY $200.00 DOSF1X A collection of parches to TRSDOS usability and function includes our well-known DREAK7E patches to keep the break key from being used accidentally. FREE WITH ANY MODEL II SOFTWARE PACKAGE CONVERT This remorkoble utility converts V formot files (the sequential format used by rhe SHACKS COOAL ond DASIC Compilers) to rhe F formot files (the sequential file format used by the DASIC interpreter ond DASCOM) and vice verso. Without this product, programs written for the interpreter will hove to be RE-KEYED to be used by the SHACKS Compiler DASIC. $75 SDASIC - Model I and Model II Program in o high-level full srruc fured OASIO The DEST of the DASIC pre-processors. PERFORM named subroutines CONDITIONAL cose structures WHILE loops, UNTIL loops And much more Forget about line numbers Model II version is compiled ond SUPER FAST From Ultimate Computer Systems. Model I $5C Model II $75 XPRINT Print neatly formoted hord copy list- ings of DASIC programs from disk. Programs moy be ASCII or compressed. Quick ond easy group selection allows you to print many listings with one command. $35 HDPRINT Allows you to access a serial printet simultaneously with the stondord parallel printer Easy interface to DASIC Drive two printets at once! $75 BPPRINT Updates to The Electric Pendl to support true proportional ly spaced printing with the Shocks new letter quality printer, rhe Daisy Wheel II Produces copy which looks os if it hod been typeset $ 100 HITOII A helping hond when converting DASIC programs from the Model I to the Model I Automatically adjusts PRINT @. ond PRINT USING to compensate for differences in the language Advjses you where adjust- ments ore necessary for PEEK. POKE, etc. $25 H EXTENDED DUILT IN FUNCTIONS Now you con give your TRS-oO oil rhe functions you wished DASIC had given you in the first place. These verbs will give you pro- gramming obilities that moke you look good Adds the following function verbs: SORT. PEEK. PEEKW. POKE. POKEW. ETIM$ and XTIM$ _ $50 ~~] DIAL MUSR 330D Auto Answer/Auto Dial, Direct Connect Modem, 300 boud, originotes/onswers 103J compatible When used in conjunction with out DIAL, software is capable of complete origination of communi- cations with remote locations without operator intervention. Special combination price, modem ond software $430 Software only $50 .--232 .:.:.... .:._._._....;.:..•:•.:;... bU ■U.A ::•"" i:-::.: 5 : :•:"!:: I!!' : :»;i: :: i:: ;i: &;..!:; : : ; :::: •.:::. :.: •:::•:•: .::::.:..::•.:•„::• :■::.: •.::••:: ....::■::. |r3;"Y|3f" ET . ;:;:;. .:: : ::.... .::::: :::. ::: .::::. ::::::. ::::::.' ::::::. ::: .:::::: I -BKHHSiS 6160 Corporate Park Dr. Cincinnati, Ohio 45242 Ohio residents coll collect (513)891-4496 Coll Toll Free 1 - ©00 - 543-4628 All products now ovoiloble to run with TRSDOS 2.0. Most products will soon be ovoiloble for the Model III. CALL FOR DETAILS! H MASTER / SLAVE This software packoge was de signed to support the transferring of files from one Model II to another via direct connection or modem/phone line connection. ALL kinds of files, ond baud rates up to 9600 ore fully supported. Transfer files in either direction, even with the SLAVE Model II UNATTENDED! $150 I SPOOLER— Model I ond Model II muim Our workhorse! Unlike the one supplied with TRSDOS 2.0. ours requires no special knowledge or rroining on rhe pott of rhe operator. Additionally ours performs much bet- ter. On the Tandy SPOOLER even/rime a disk is accessed rhe prinrer stops dead! This pockoge is available for Model I. intheTRSDOS/NEWDOS 80 versions, or for the Model II. Greatly en- hances system performance when running ryp- icol business opplicorions Many opplicorions hove been benchmorked to run nearly TWICE AS FAST with rhe SPOOLER installed Instolls in minures ond no chonges ore required ro your programs Preferred Model II versions require NO user memory. Oprionol feorures for rhe Model II version only Serial printer support, ond DISK SPOOLING sup- pott is particularly recommended for word pro- cessing opplicorions $100 SERIAL PRINTER OPTION $50 DISK SPOOLING OPTION $50 HOSTII/TERMII Allows remore control of o Model II HTJfl from another Model II. or any ASCII terminal. Out Host system, unlike rhe one supplied wirh TRSDOS 2 0. supports occurore screen posirioning on rhe Term srorion Without this feorure. formored displays oppeor on rhe terminal looking like randomly ploced gor- boge Requires NO user memory! This sysrem is designed to provide sofrwore support to our cusromer locations wrrhout ever leaving the office $50 TERMS OF SALE: Credit cotd customers odd 3% C.O.D. customers odd $3 Ohio residenrs add 4Vj% soles rax. Shipmenrs normally mode rhe some doy we receive your order OUR GUARANTEE: If your diskerte arrives domoged. ■DH we will replace ir without charge. If you ever occidentolly damage it. we will reploce it for o $10 handling chorge. For a period of one year, we will provide you with ony enhancements or updates for o $10 handling charge For a period of one yeor, if errors ore discovered m the programs, they will be corrected without charge In the event we connot correct on error you moy return rhe program material for a refund Electric Pencil is a trade mork of Michael Schrayer Software. Inc TRS-ftO >• a rrodemork of rhe Radio Shock divtsioi o' Tandy Corporarion. NEWDOS ond NEWDOS/60 ore rrodemorks of Apporot, Inc 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 13 SO INPUT "He was a first-class communicator . . . / for one will not forget his discussion of the appetite for the miraculous in modern man." Micro Millenium When reviewing The Micro Millenium for your August issue, Nancy Robertson was clearly unaware that the author died suddenly before the book was published. This may well explain the deterioration she detects in the later chapters. In addition to his qualifications as a psychologist, Christopher Evans was an applied computer scientist in the British 'boffin' tradition. His pioneering work on dialogs between microcomputers and naive users led to the development of the MICKEY system, in which an unattended microcomputer is used to gather medical information from patients. (On some sen- sitive topics, it seems that patients will give more accurate information to a sym- pathetic microcomputer than to a human doctor, and prefer to do so.) He was also a first-class communicator of scientific developments to the non- scientist, combining a flair for exposition with sturdy common sense. I for one will not forget his discussion of the appetite for the miraculous in modern man, culmi- nating in a demonstration of spoon-bend- ing as performed by Uri Geller, given in swimming trunks during the lunch break in a symposium on 'Man-machine Interac- tion' in Greece. His was a rare combination of talents, and his death has left a gap that will not easily be filled. Dr. Hugh David 91830 Le Coudray-Montceaux France A Ham Writes I have never written to you before al- though as a Ham I have read 73 Magazine for a number of years and now subscribe to 80 Microcomputing. In passing, I must say that I admire your style. You are one of my favorite curmudgeons. I use the term affectionately since I aspire to the same estate. The reason for the letter is to tell you that the second issue of 80 Microcomput- ing I received more than paid for several years' subscription. 1 was just about to disconnect my interface to drive to Nash- ville (35 miles) because of a problem that had developed between my TRS-80 and my H-14 printer. Both seemed to be oper- ating well but the information the comput- er was sending was printing out as gar- bage on the printer. The October issue came just as I was about to start pulling things apart, so naturally reading the magazine took precedence over fixing the computer. The issue fell open to James Kunzman's article about the NEC Spin- writer and his problems with a warped RS- 232-C board. To make a long story shorten with a screw driver, a pair of tweezers, and a pencil eraser, I was able to fix my prob- lem without a $24 trip (plus mileage) to the Radio Shack repair center. I hope you and your magazine live for- ever. Donald R. Goss, Chairman Division of Humanities Gallatin, TN Bat Guano I just received my fourth issue of 80 Mi- crocomputing. The house rule here is that three back issues of any magazine re- main; all others are tossed out. But 80 Mi- crocomputing seems to contain so much information that I can't use it all at once but must keep the magazines on file for a time when I can get around to it all. After four issues, the quality of the in- formation I'm keeping is coming strongly into doubt. From the June issue, I patiently keyed In the "Life" listing. I realized in the pro- cess that something was wrong with the program, worked around it, and saw the corrections in the July issue. In the August issue, I patiently keyed in the "Swords and Sorcery" program, again realizing that that program was screwed up, too. You can jimmy a missing symbol in an assembly program, but it's hard to supply missing data in a BASIC program. These missing items apparently had noth- ing to do with the programs themselves, but were just results of shoddy editing. This month— September— I tried "Di- vine Proportions," and found that the pro- gramming itself was downright shoddy— the parallelepiped, for example, was drawn wrong, and the option to print out the proportions clobbered the screen dis- play. Again, if 80 Microcomputing's staff had checked out the program, this shouldn't have happened. Another case of editorial irresponsibility. 80 Microcomputing also carries hard- ware modifications. I haven't tried any yet, but I have the fear that if I did, I might wind up with a smoking wreck instead of a mi- crocomputer if the hardware modifica- tions are as shoddily checked as the soft- ware that's published. Ol' Madman Wayno can rip us off only so far. 1001001? 101101— bat guano on your antenna. Richard Amyx San Jose, CA Richard, see previous letter.— Eds. Article Argument Your August 1980 issue quoted and snidely commented on an article in the June 16, 1980 issue of Business Week wherein two Tandy VPs stated flatly that no new computers were coming out this year. When I queried Radio Shack about the item, they reported an inability to find the quoted article in that Business Week. Nor could I. When I brought this to your atten- tion, I was directed to the June 9, 1980 is- sue of Business Week. But I came up dry there as well. No interview, no article. It looks from here that an apology is due the Tandy people. At the least, it is no way of healing the breach between your maga- zine and their advertising department. John R. McGinley, Jr. New York, NY I suggest you read a little more closely before sending off your next letter to an editor. The first three paragraphs of the 80 piece you referred to are reprinted here. "An article printed in Business Week, 14 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 June 16 stated that, "Over the next six weeks Tandy plans a barrage of new prod- ucts to follow up its initial foray into the small business market with its TRS-80 Modelll." "It goes on to say that a desktop com- puter for scientists and engineers, a word processor based on the Model II and small computers that will automate inventory controls are to be expected. "At Tandy Corp., both H. L Seigel, Na- tional Publicity and Promotion Manager, and Senior Vice President of Operations, Charles Phillips, deny the thrust of the Business Week article. They both say no new computers that they know of will be marketed by the company before the end of the year. " It is not the Business Week article that quotes the two Tandy executives who denied knowledge of the new computers, it is 80 that quotes them. Business Week had the scoop. We tried to follow it up, without immediate success. The Septem- ber cover story gave the details that would have been nice to have had in August. The Business Week article is indeed in the June 16 issue on page 106J, entitled "Tandy's personal-computer salvo. " Nancy Robertson 80 News Editor Dislikes Content I'm sorry, but the time has come when I feel compelled to write regarding your cur- rent editorial content regarding "software pirates". Believe me, I do not condone this practice, but I feel you are using your pub- lication, supported by my subscription fees, to promote a very self-serving, vest- ed interest on your part as head of Instant Software. I subscribed to 80 Microcomputing be- cause it was advertised as being the top of the line in publications dealing with the TRS-80, not because it was to degenerate into a soapbox for the slanted views of its publisher or to become saturated with ad- vertising material. As examples of the current state of your publication I cite the following: In the last issue of 80 Microcomputing there were fourteen pages devoted to the software pirating on the copyright situa- tion and one hundred twenty-five pages of advertising material. These examples amount to the follow- ing percentages: Pirate to TRS-80 material 6.2% ot total contents Advertising to TRSSO material 55.3% ot total contents Total editorial/advertising 61.5% of total contents As a businessman I realize advertising revenue and editorial content are impor- tant parts of any publication, but after dis- counting some questionable material and still arriving at a total subscriber oriented magazine content of 38.5% of the 226 pages of your last issue, I honestly think you are putting the cart before the horse at the expense of your readers. I for one would like to see you and your publisher friends get off your collective soapboxes and get back to the business at hand— publishing some top quality magazines dedicated to the top selling computer in the world — the TRS-80. Vern H. Hall Though we can't agree with your break- down of editorial matter and are confused at your reasoning concerning articles cov- ering software copyright or piracy — Wayne's editorials aside— we would like a chance to respond to criticism that our magazine is becoming more crowded with advertising. Nowhere has the pressure to introduce more editorial matter in the magazine been more sharply felt than in our own of- fices. This pressure has not only come from upper management, but from our own sales department. The editors are in complete agreement with these sentiments. Perhaps, to a reader, our magazine's growth rate and the problems encoun- tered are not self-evident. A publication which appeared in January 1980 at 147 pages and appears just one year later at over 250 has undergone radical changes. The editors have been chasing advertising space sales since February. The more hectically we operate, the more difficult it is to guarantee both lucid and accurate articles; articles which we hope depart from what passes as "techni- cal" literature to become both education- al and even enjoyable. Only now are we properly staffed to do the necessary job. In the future we hope to offer yet a larger and more carefully edited magazine.— Eds. Connector Advice Radio Shack now sells a 40-pin card edge connector (Part 276-1558, on page 126 of their 1981 catalog) which they de- scribe as "compatible with many micro- computers." While this connector fits the TRS-80 expansion port, from the back, the TRS-80 has the low numbers at the left, and the odd numbers on top of the printed circuit card. With the card edge connector held so that the low numbers are at the left, the even numbers are at the top. This causes no problem if two card edge con- nectors are used on a single cable, but anyone who uses the connector to attach the TRS-80 to a circuit board should be aware that the wires will be ordered 2, 1 , 4, 3, 38, 37, 40, 39 and not in the usual sequence. Sherman Levine White Plains, NY Scripsit: Round ? Further to the letter in your September issue from William O'Brien: I have now been using Scripsit for about three months, and am generally happy with it, but I am still bugged by the lack of line feed with the Enter key. I've become used to it and work around it, but it would be nice if it could be made to work. I use my TRS-80 with an IBM Selectric typewriter and Escon (USA) interface unit. With this, the Enter key doesn't give a car- riage return unless there are several char- acters in the line. This means that such things as block formats and paragraph formats don't work. You could say that I should have used a Tandy printer, but I won't buy that! For a start, in an office environment you must be able to produce typewriter quality print- outs, and Tandy had not released their daisy-wheel printer here at the time of writing. They have no other printer with the needed quality. Also, for business correspondence you must have a number of other features, such as half line spacing, both for setting out and so you can write things like C0 2 or MC 2 . You must be able to underline and you should be able to use all of the charac- ters on the type ball, including Va and Vi. It is also nice to be able to correct small mis- takes in the middle of the printed page, which you didn't see until you printed it out, using the typewriter's corrector rib- bon. No printer can give you that with Scripsit— except the Selectric. To get all of this you need either a dedi- cated word processor (at $15,000 + ) or a printer which doubles as a typewriter. This is what I have, and if I could just get it to execute a carriage return with the Enter key, I'd be happy. Hope someone out there has had the same problem and solved it! David D. Harris 470 Manon Rd. Plympton Park S. A. 5038 Australia 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 15 SO INPUTS Needs Equipment As you probably know, the Coast Guard Auxiliary is a nonprofit, volun- teer organization whose primary pur- pose is to assist the Coast Guard. Here in the Caribbean, our group operates mainly in the area of Search and Res- cue. We have a considerable amount of information to assist us during SAR operations that is presently stored in files, books, boxes and on scraps of paper. When time is of the essence, we must rummage through all of this ma- terial to find the needed information. The suggestion has been made that all of this data could be stored in a small computer. Our problem, however, Is that we do not have any government funding and all of our equipment is purchased by individual members. The purchase of a microcomputer would be out of the range of our people since most of us are retired and live on fixed income. Is there any possibility of one of your readers donating a used or out-dated computer to our group? As a nonprofit organization, we are permitted to ac- cept donations of this type and the do- nor would receive a favorable tax write- off. It would be greatly appreciated if you could assist us in this matter. Milton Greene - Vice Commander Coast Guard Auxiliary St. Croix Box 2759 - Christlansted St. Croix -USVI- 00620 Bi-Sync v. A-Sync I have what appears to be an unsolv- able problem which might be of inter- est to both you and my fellow readers and just possibly of enough potential to engender the development of a solu- tion! On the surface the situation seems simple: I operate a 32K TRS-80 with disk drives. With the R 232 board and a 300 baud R/S, modem communications with the outside world are a delight. My corporate headquarters, on the other hand, operates a monster IBM System 34, communicating with the world in 3741 protocol via 201 C 2400 baud dial-up equipment. Trouble is that the system 34 com- municates in Bi-Sync. I need to com- municate in A-Sync. Short of spending upward of $5,000, there appears to be no solution to my problem. Software packages are not available. Conversations with data communications companies who might act as an interface have proven either fruitless or way too expensive. Any ideas?? Raymond L. Watkins ICC Industries, Inc. Dover Chemical Corp. Davis at 15th St. P.O. Box 40 Dover, OH 44622 Sciipsit Reboot Aid Reference 60 Microcomputing for the month of July; there was a gentle- man concerned with rebooting to DOS when using SCRIPSIT. Have no fear, if your system does reboot all you have to do is go to DEBUG and execute G6008. SCRIPSIT will come back with no loss of data. Do not try going to BA- SIC after reboot and enter by SYSTEM: Your data will be lost for sure. There is also another answer to reading the directory when in SCRIP- SIT, and that is to buy NEWDOS 80 by APPARAT Inc. of Denver, Colorado. This is an excellent DOS system and allows you to read the directory with- out losing SCRIPSIT. Chuck Gould Route 6 Box 6460 Nampa. ID 83651 Keyboard Bounce I have a problem; but first a word of explanation. I am a graduate mechanical engi- neer. I own a TRS-80, Model II with 16 K. This was originally a Model 1, 4K which I have had modified (by Radio Shack) to Level II, 16K. Each morning that I Intend to use the computer I first have to CLOAD a cassette titled Keyboard Debounce, Systems * KBFIX. Without first loading this cassette I have to go through the throes of key- board bounce (multiple printing). I can't understand why loading this KBFIX cassette will solve the keyboard bounce, but the repair shop tells me that the affliction (to the computer) cannot be repaired on a permanent basis internally. Granted, loading this cassette con- sumes only a few minutes time and the computer performs beautifully after loading it. But I'm 63 years old and I like to put my time in more beneficially. John V. Lane 14400 Astoria Street Sylmar, CA 91342 DATEL Aid I recently purchased a DATEL 30 Selectric based I/O terminal. I have been unable to find documentation and DATEL is now defunct. The ter- minal is EBCDIC encoded and I would like to convert it to ASCII. Any help in this conversion or documentation on the electromagnet driver board, power supply board, logic board, or the 50 pin connector between the logic and the typewriter would be greatly appreci- ated. Brad M. Dickey 2806 Treehouse Pkwy Norcross, GA 30093 Needs Interface My surplus Datel Selectric came with a software driver that works fine on programs, but it will not work with a word processor. I have tried both Pen- cil and Scripsit, and it will not print. Can anyone suggest an interface? Paul Kalkstein Phillips Academy Andover, MA 01810 16 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 ows your love life? A little dull around the edges' Maybe the mo> teived. an Innovative niual to ting, adventurous, delicious fun' Interlude is: romantic . . . p > is B A Bed of Roses i Inter- *49)BT #7)BKodeo! .. #71)B 'I he King and 1 ■ . ude 84 ) B Caveman Caper ( Interlude #82 ) B From Here ■ satin DriMms (Interlude # 72). luded in the program Most are described n detail m the accompanying manual, but^^^^^^^HHSriudrs me buried m the premium awaiting that very jy. (When you learn secret ^^^HP^ > n be the ^rime') Interlude . ■P* hencesyou !i you ready f<>- Jhe Ultimate Experience. Interlude INTFRLUDE. Apple II vaetpark Houston [txaa 77042 I'm rvaliy ready Send my Interlude toddy TKS-9* Ki" Poster Available for immediate shipment production of th* *1 without ad copy PWaM anckxe your check payable lo LNTERL UDE t$4 %—intiud or a^plete the charge Wcxmaiion: IVmqandlwHxSng tupping charges) All charge customer* mini sign her* Expiration date MaeanCard Bank Cod* CHARGE < I STOKERS ;>rrier ray phone in" 1-800 231-5768 Eat. 306 E • ^O 392 2348 Eat 306) _ Age . » - st*v ap - A AppW Computer*. Inc. •"TKS.80 a • re&trtmi Hadnrwrh . A Radto Shack. a Tandy Co 80 inputs Book Review TRS-80 Disk & Other Mysteries by H. C. Pennington is an exciting title isn't it? Here, I thought, is a book that will tell all about how the disk knows where to start and when to stop, how the system knows where all the pieces of a fragmented pro- gram are located, how a multiple disk sys- tem knows which drive to use. Perhaps it will give me hints on changing code on the disk so I can change the start-up process. This book promises to answer all my TRS-80 disk related questions. The book starts out nicely enough; there is a short paragraph that says the TRS-80 is a pretty neat machine and Pennington loves It. Then there is a page about the crumbs in Fort Worth who are responsible for the existence of the TRS-80. We learn that the stupes who put TRSDOS together obviously didn't know what they were doing, but there are a pair of heros in Colorado who have saved the day for all us TRS-80 disk owners. Most of the rest of this book tells us about the mistakes in Radio Shack's TRSDOS and the inadequacies of some of the other disk systems and how great NEWDOS is. We learn that NEWDOS works and fixes all the mistakes. The book then describes how to use NEWDOS com- mands and features. The conclusion I draw is that the documentation with NEWDOS is inadequate and I have spent $22.50 for an instruction book that I don't need. The title should have been Newdos & Other Mysteries. John Grass Portola Valley, CA Sinclair Slips After reading Mr. Sinclair's excellent ar- ticle, "Into The 80's", I have found the fol- lowing bugs: 1) The power switch does not perform a memory clear function during power-up. This is performed by the combination of a inverted input NOR gate, (Z53 & Z52), & the RC network, (R47 & C42). See R/S techni- cal reference manual for details. Three poles of the four pole switch are used to switch the three power supply connec- tions, ( + 5 & - 5 vdc & vac). 2) When a reboot occurs, "Memory Size?" appears during program execution and you do not always lose the program in RAM. When it happens press the reset button first, then pull a list to see where your program went wrong. (By the way, the explanation given by R/S of the function of the reset button is incorrect (L II manual pg. 1/2). Pressing reset returns the com- puter to "READY", not to "Memory Size?". Also you do not lose the program in RAM.) 3) The maximum characters per line al- lowed is 255, not 250. 4) On Print® syntax, the comma should be used after the position argument, (PRINT@64,". . .). This mistake was in the article, example 4 is correct. 5) This is not a bug but a method I have used to rid my keyboard of bbounce. Clean the contacts as R/S has recom- mended. Then paint the contacts with "Blue Stuff" or a similar product. Spray a small amount of the chemical into a paper cup, then dip a flat toothpick into the foam and gently paint the contacts. The chem- ical is a mild polishing formula which wipes the contacts each time they close. This chemical is used on TV tuners to keep the gold contacts clean. John F. Costello Philadelphia, PA POKE Convert It seems that both Bertram Thiel ("Dou- ble Size Graphics", June 80) and Jeff Eisen (Input column, September 80) have neglected to mention that there are more ways to escape the 32 character mode than CHR$(28) and CLS. I have found that POKEing into memory location 16445 will effectively convert the video contents back to 64 characters per line and will leave the cursor where It is while CHR$(28) brings it to position (0,0). If for some rea- son you don't want to use CHR$(23) to en- ter the wide letter mode. POKE 16445,8 will do the same. Benjamin Junge Los Angeles, CA Dancing Numbers Program >UST 5 CLS 10 8 = 1 20 FOR X = TO 895 STEP B 30 PRINT«X, B 40 NEXT X SOB = B + 1 60 FOR L - TO 75 : NEXT L 70 IF B> 891 STOP 80 GOTO 20 READY >_ Try it just for fun! I also would appreciate hearing from readers with programs helpful to the blind. John Rago Rt 2 Box 19 Logan, I A 51546 Continued to page 28 Math Flash Bugs Corrected Lines for "Math Flash", Page 158, Sept 1980, 80 Microcomput- ing: 95 ON Y GOSUB 1000.1 100.1200.1300,1400.1500.1600. 1700.1800 100 IFY = 0THEN GOSUB 1900 105 ON D GOSUB 2000,2100:W = 0:Y-0 220 IF G C THEN PRINT @ 0,G;" IS WRONG, elc (Rest of line remains unchanged). Jim Barbarello R.D.H, Box 241 N Tennent Rd. Englishtown, NJ Machine Language Bug Got a friendly call from Nashville Tenn, this PM from a Ham who was try- ing to make sense out of an article of mine in the August 80 Microcomput- ing, "Towards Machine Language". There was a foul-up in the printing on page 144. Under the heading Machine Code Listing, using T-BUG, punch in this series of commands starting at memory location 5000: CD F6 04 3E 31 32 20 3E 76 The only nice part about composing room errors is that I find great numbers of folks out there who appreciate the effort that goes with authorship. Allan S. Jofte W3KM 1005 Twining Road Dresher, PA 19025 18 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 EXCITING NEWS FOR INVESTORS WITH TRS-80 32K DISK-BASED SYSTEMS! Standard & Poor's proudly announces STOCKPAK, a unique software and data system to help you meet your investment goals like a Weill Street professional. STOCKPAK not only delivers a "stand-alone" Port- folio Management System but also gives you the soft- ware for Standard & Poors monthly Common Stock Data Service (available to TRS-80 owners on a sub- scription basis). With STOCKPAK and the Data Ser- vice you command one of the most powerful and versatile investment tools available. Here's How STOCKPAK Will Help You: A 900 COMPANY DATA BASE SERVICE Monthly Data Service subscribers receive a diskette containing 30 vital financial items on 900 of the most widely traded stocks (S&.P "500" and 400 NYSE, ASE and OTC issues). Accompanying this monthly diskette is an Investors Newsletter highlighting important fi- nancial news and investment strategies, with sugges- tions tor maximizing the usefulness of the system. STOCKPAK SELECTION SYSTEM The heart of STOCKPAK is a powerful, analytical stock selection tool which enables investors to choose stocks which meet their investment criteria. For exam- ple, you may wish to select only those oil and gas stocks with price/earnings ratios of less than 7 and yields of 6% or more. Once a group of stocks has been selected, you can store it as a separate data hie for continuing use. REPORT WRITER You can define the report formats you would like to see on those stocks meeting your investment objec- tives. Hundreds of calculations and ratios that you define can be sorted, averaged or totalled, and dis- played on video screen or optional printer. PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Now you can effectively evaluate and manage your own stock portfolio of up to 100 securities with as many as 30 transactions for each. You can record "buy" and "sell" transactions, price and dividend information and stock splits for instant retrieval, for record keeping and tax purposes. You can measure actual performance or create hypothetical situations to help you make "buy" or "sell" decisions. HOW TO ORDER STOCKPAK STOCKPAK is designed exclusively for TRS-80 users with 32K business systems with two mini-disk drives. You can obtain the basic software and sample Data Base, plus a comprehensive User's Manual from your local Radio Shack Store for only $49.95. The STOCKPAK Monthly Data Updating Service can be ordered directly from Standard & Poor's for $200 an- nually, or from the order form provided in the basic package you purchase from Radio Shack. 5/1 Standard A Poor's Corporation 25 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. NY 10004 (212) 248- V*M H74 ^^54 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 19 jft ACCOUNTANT by Michael Tannenbaum C.P.A. "While this may seem to be a lot of Mickey Mouse work, it is really sound data processing practice." Recently I demonstrated the Radio Shack Payroll System for a client. Af- ter entering the data for several new em- ployees, the program halted with a cryptic message OV ERROR IN LINE 11 32. Cover- ing my confusion with a humorous remark about Murphy's Laws, I listed the line. The line contained a multipurpose rou- tine used for both alphanumeric and nu- meric input, that determines the value of the input string. Unfortunately the input data contained an address 229 E 69th St. which the program had interpreted as 229 raised to the 69th power. Of course I was able to make a quick fix (E became East) but the experience was quite distressing. If an inexperienced clerk had been operating the computer, he might have quit in disgust. Since the error occurred with the payroll master file open, the file could have been destroyed. This type of bug is quite difficult to fore- see. I am sure that future programs will correct this oversight and have proce- dures to facilitate an abort in case of an incorrigible error. However, this experi- ence provides an important lesson. A New Product The Payroll System is a new product. New data processing products, both hard- ware and software, are prone to strange and unanticipated errors. My experience has been that most new systems of any complexity require at least six months of field operation to purge bugs. For this rea- son an older software product supported by a reliable software house often offers the safest path to reliable automation of your business recordkeeping system. One of the first microcomputer ac- counting packages was the Osborne Sys- tem. This system was developed by Adam Osborne and Associates for the Wang 2200 in the mid 70s. Originally written in Wang extended BASIC, it has been con- verted by many vendors for both the Model I and Model II. The system has been thoroughly field tested and documented in a series of published manuals. In the latest manuals, the Wang BASIC listing has been re- placed by CBASIC listings. Many reputa- ble software houses offer versions that are quite low in cost. The version that I tested was obtained from the Small Business Systems Group, Main St. and Lowell Rd., Dunstable, MA 01827. They have chosen to offer the sys- tem as a series of stand alone modules (accounts payable, general ledger, ac- counts receivable and payroll) or as an in- tegrated Accounting Recordkeeping Sys- tem. Either method of application offers some advantages. In an integrated sys- tem each subsidiary recordkeeping mod- ule contains a program which prepares data for entry into the General Ledger pro- gram. At the end of each month, a special program generates general ledger infor- mation, eliminating hand journal entries. Technically, an integrated system can eliminate close out journal entries that are required each month. This would increase accounting accuracy many times. By posting the recurring journal entries (for example depreciation, cost of sales and amortization) and financial reports can be prepared automatically. Some Sacrifice Alas, nothing is obtained without sacri- fice. The catch is that an integrated sys- tem must sacrifice disk capacity to con- tain all the programs and data files on one set of disks. The integrated system for the Model II only accommodates 400 receiv- able customers and 400 payable vendors. The General Ledger was limited to 200 ac- counts. There is also a limit on the number of open transactions which can remain in the system. All limits can be doubled by using an additional disk. Fortunately receivable capacity — or the capacity of any other module— can be expanded at the expense of other modules. The Small Business Systems Group (SBSG) thought- fully included the variable designations for file limits used in each subsystem. With 34 programs and 13 files the inte- grated accounting system represents an outstanding value. All major functions are menu driven and it will be easily learned. In addition, an invoicing module is in- cluded to automate billing operations. The package is supplied on two dual density eight-inch diskettes with a 24-page description of the system and di- rections. Buyers are clearly directed to purchase the Osborne manuals. The system description is not intended to pro- vide the detailed information that is available in the manuals. All menus and functions are as speci- fied in the Osborne manuals with the ex- ception of the invoice module and the sep- aration of the accounts payable and re- ceivable main menus. All edit checking and data limit testing specified in the manuals are included. However, the job cost provisions of the original system have been eliminated. The one new feature, invoicing, greatly extends the usefulness of the package. Designed as are the other modules, in- voice data is entered into a transaction file, where it can be altered by a file main- tenance procedure. When all data is cor- rect, an invoice printing routine is se- lected. An additional routine prints ship- ping labels. Limited Capacity The capacity of the transactions file is limited to 50 items. To purge it, the Ac- counts Receivable Update program must be run. It transfers the invoice totals to the Accounts Receivable transaction file, which does not update the receivable rec- ords directly. To accomplish this task the Accounts Receivable Update program it- self must be run. While this may seem to be a lot of Mickey Mouse work, it is really sound data processing practice. No file is updated dir- ectly in the Osborne System. All files are batch updated with hard copy control to- tals generated for each batch. This pro- vides an independent audit trail which should be used to control the accuracy of the data retained in the system. Unfortunately the use of a batch update procedure creates a potentially danger- ous situation. In a batch system entered data is usually subject to adjustment. En- tries should be pretotaled and totals bal- anced to the computer batch proof totals after entry. If the totals are out of balance, an adjustment can be made. All modules in the Osborne system can 20 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 PLEAIANf MEMORY for f RI-SO uien MT-32 printer memory module MCROTEK- Give something different this season — the pleasing gift of increased memory — to your favorite TRS-80* user. The MT-32 from Microtek. The new, brilliantly designed Printer/Memory expansion module for the TRS-80 Model 1. This unit will add 16K or 32K of RAM to the basic 16K machine without the expense of a full blown expansion interface. The module also contains circuitry to drive Microtek's MT-80P dot matrix printer or any other Centronics- compatible printer. No special software routines. No hardware modifications. Attaching or detaching takes seconds. One year warranty. Three configurations are available: • Without RAM assembled and tested (MT-32A @ $119.50) • With 16K RAM assembled and tested (MT-32B @ $159.50) • With 32K RAM assembled and tested (MT-32C @ $199.50) Available from Microtek or your nearest computer dealer. 9514 Chesapeake Drive San Diego, CA 92123 Tel. (714) 278-0633 TWX 910-335-1269 Outside California call toll free: 800-854-1081 MICROTEK ^360 * TRS-80 is the Registered Trademark of Radio Shack, Div. Tandy Corp. 5(9 ACCOUNTANT adjust unentered transaction batches. It is quite possible, therefore, to transfer an invoice to the Accounts Receivable module and delete it or modify it before posting. To guard against this situation, the in- voicing module provides a series of hard copy reports which are generated when data is transferred. Invoice data entry has six different screen formats. The first screen format prepares the top portion of an invoice. The Accounts Receivable file provides a bill- ing address, while shipping data must be entered manually. A special file pre-defines up to 10 differ- ent types of payment terms which are se- lected by code when the heading is pre- pared. This should be adequate for most firms. In addition the same file includes in- formation about the contents and size of the company's packing labels. This por- tion of the file is used to generate carton labels. There is no provision to record sales by salespersons or their commissions. No doubt this could be added if required; there is no shortage of memory. After completing the heading, a trans- action entry screen is displayed. This screen allows up to 10 line items. However since the invoice cannot determine the ac- curacy of the item description and price. With larger disk space such an extension would be possible. Separate Screens Setting up a separate screen for each element of the invoice should facilitate the development of custom data entry modules for each business environment. In the test sample each detail data line provided for the following: A 10 digit compound SKU/part number A 20 character part description Unit prices up to 999998.00 Quantities up to 9999.99 An automatic price times quantity exten- sion You can also include comments such as Partial Order or any other special notation in the body of the invoice. After all detail lines are entered, an edit screen is presented. The operator may edit the details lines and enter sales tax codes and shipping charges. If the ship- ping charges are not available at this time, they can be bypassed and entered later. This option permits you to prepare a pre liminary invoice. The final invoicing screen allows the operator to record or cancel the invoice. Options are also available to selectively alter the heading, detail line items and to- tal—without requiring display of the other portions of the invoice. The invoicing procedures added by the SBSG to the Osborne system are well thought out. However, because invoicing and merchandise selection are labor in- tensive activities for most firms, I recom- mend you customize this application. While this adds to the cost, the resulting labor savings can be significant. I would like to thank those readers who have been sending "war" stories and let- ters of encouragement. It is good to hear from you. To those who have been critical about my Model II bias, I hope to review several Model I packages in the near future.! EDUCATION gn by Earl R. Savaqe %J\f A well known quotation states: "There is nothing new under the sun." In spite of that, there are different ways to combine the known in order to accom- plish new results. So, let's see what old things we can combine to overcome a couple of frequent problems in instruc- tional programming. A very common problem is limited mem- ory. My correspondence with instructors around the country indicates that the typi- cal TRS-80 setup has 16K of memory. More limited are the large number of 4K machines in schools and homes. Even a 16K memory can put severe restrictions on an instructional program. Two Small Programs The severity of the memory problem is dependent, of course, on the subject mat- ter being taught and the level at which it is being presented. You might want to break up the program into two or more smaller ones which will fit the memory. This ap- proach leaves something to be desired even when automatic CLOADing of the se- quential programs is provided. The second problem concerns learning styles. We all know that some students learn better by reading, others by listen- ing, others by writing, and so on. It follows that a program designed for general use will be more effective if it provides for more than one learning style. The greater the number of learning styles for which a program makes provision, the more effec- tive it will be. One significant input to the student, overlooked in computer programming, is his auditory sense. Both in school and out, people have been learning for years by means of audio tape recordings. Schools are well stocked with cassette re- corders and instructional tapes. Yet when they get an 80, it seems not to have oc- curred to them to use the included cas- sette machine for audio instruction as well as computer programming. This combination is particularly appli- cable to programs containing relatively large explanations. If that material re- quires no interaction by the student, there is no point in using valuable RAM memory to contain it. Here's how it all fits together. The computer program is written in the normal manner, except that long explana- tions are omitted. After the program is re- corded on cassette, an appropriate series of voice recordings is put on the same cassette in the proper sequence. To use the program, the learner CLOADs the computer portion of the type. Then, he re- moves the computer plug from the ear- phone jack of the cassette machine. The student types RUN and the computer pro- gram begins as usual. When commentary is needed, the com- puter turns on the cassette and the audio plays out of the speaker. As the program continues, the audio is turned on and off. Each word of the audio material saves several bytes of RAM which can be used for a treatment of a longer topic in the nor- mal display interaction mode. The Mechanics The computer program and the audio may be put on the same cassette or on two different ones. The following instruc- tions are presented as though a single cassette is used. • In the introduction of the program, the students should be instructed to re- move the computer plug from the ear- phone jack and to leave the cassette ma- chine in the play position. • At each point in the computer pro- gram where audio is needed, insert this line: 22 80 Microcomputing. December 1980 Digital IC Probe & Logic Falser PRB- 1 DIGITAL LOGIC PROBE Compatible with DTL, TTL CMOS, MOS and Microprocessors using a 4 to 18V power supply. Thresholds automatically programmed. Automatic resetting memory. No adjustment required. Visual indication of logic levels, using LED's to show high, low. bad level or open circuit logic and pulses. Highly sophisticated, shirt pocket portable (protective tip cap and removable coil cord). Automatic threshold resetting • DE to > 60 MHZ Compatible with all logic families 4-18 VDC • lONsec. pulse response Supply OVP.to 1 70 VDC • 120 K Q Impedance No switches/no calibration • Automatic pulse stretching to 60 Msec. Open circuit detection • Automatic resetting memory Range extended to 16-26 VDC with optional PA- 1 adapter PLS-1 LOGIC PULSER The PLS- 1 logic pulser will superimpose a dynamic pulse train ( 20 pps) or a single pulse onto the circuit node under test. There is no need to unsolder pins or cutprinted-circult traces even when these nodes are being clamped by digital outputs. PLS-1 is a multl-mode.high current pulse generator packaged in ahand-held 8hlrtpocketportablelnstrument.lt can source or sink sufficient current to force saturated output transistors in digital circuits Into the opposite logic state. Signal Injection is by means of a pushbutton switch near the probe tip. When the button is depressed, a single high-going or low-going pulse of 2jx sec wide is delivered to the circuit node under test. Pulse polarity is automatic: high nodes are pulsed low and low nodes are pulsedhigh Holding the button down delivers a series of pulses of 20 pps to the circuit under test. High input impedance( off state) 1 meg ohm • Multi mode-single pulses or pulse trains Low output Impedance (active state) 2 ohms • Automatic polarity sensing Output pulse width 2 Msec nominal • Automatic current limiting; 7 amps nominal Input over voltage protection -60 volts • Automatically programmed output level Finger tip push button actuated • Circuit powered Power lead reversal protection • No adjustments required Multi-family RTL, DTL. TTL. CMOS. MOS and Microprocessors PRB1 DIGITAL LOGIC PROBE S36.9B PA 1 HIGH VOLTAGE ADAPTER PCI POWER CORD, Alligator Clips *4.9S PT2 REPLACEMENT PROBE TIP(8) 91.M PC 2 POWER CORD. Micro Hooks S9.9S PLS 1 LOGIC PUL8ER S40.99 OK Machine fi* Tool Corporation * * 3455 Conner St., Bronx,N.Y. 10475 U.S.A. Tel. (212) 994-6600 Telex 125091 'Minimum billings $28 OO, add shipping charge «2 00 New York State residents add applicable tax ^ fl#j Oer Service see page 274 80 Microcomputing. December 1980 • 23 EDUCATION $0 GOSUB6000 • Put this subroutine in any appropri- ate place in the program: 600 OUT 255,4 6010 PRINT0965, "AUDIO ON . . . 6020 IF INKEYS < > "G" THEN 6020 6030 PRINT0965. STRINGS05.32): 6040 OUT 255.0 6050 RETURN Each time program execution transfers to the subroutine, line 6000 starts the cas- sette motor. Line 6010 puts a message at the bottom of the screen and line 6020 stops execution of the program while the audio is playing. When the letter G is typed, execution falls through to line 6030 which removes the audio message from the screen. Line 6040 stops the cassette motor and line 6050 transfers execution back to the main program. • When you have finished writing and debugging your program, CSAVE it. Then, with the cassette machine completely dis- connected from the 80, record the audio segments in the appropriate sequence. • The first audio segment should be concluded with words similar to these: "It is almost time to return to the other part of the program. When you hear the beep tone, press the letter G on the keyboard. When the beep tone sounds, you should press the letter G for GO (BEEP)." • Each subsequent audio portion should be ended similarly. • The cassette will continue to run until the letter G is pressed. The space between your audio segments should be sufficient to allow time for the student to find and press the G. Summary This new combination of interactive programming and recorded audio seg- ments can be advantageous in many dif- ferent applications. It works well in almost any type of formal or informal instruction- al program. The method can be used to list rules and conditions in game programs. Business programs, too, often contain a considerable amount of explanatory ma- terial. The computer/audio technique is great for pointing out the major facts about a chart on the screen, adding sound effects, putting sound and printed words together in the study of phonics, sound and notes in music and so on. Give the computer/audio program tech- nique a try on your next project. You'll discover just how easy it is to multiply your memory. ■ THE ASSEMBIY LINE by William Barden. Jr. n the early 60s, I attended an assembly language class which used a Scientific Data Systems computer. One of my fellow students was asked to key in his version of a homework assignment from the con- trol panel of the computer. The instructor then asked him if he was confident that the program would work. The student re- plied that it would work because the ER- ROR light on the control panel didn't come on as he entered the machine lan- guage program. These days we are all more sophisticat- ed about program debugging than that. Debugging however, remains just about as tedious and frustrating as it was then. In this column we'll take a look at the general technique of debugging assembly language programs, the debugging tools available and final testing of programs. Using T-BUG T-BUG is Radio Shack's cassette-based debug package. It provides rudimentary debugging functions, but can be used ef- fectively to debug programs of any length. T-BUG normally occupies RAM from loca- tion 4380H to 497FH. Many people have relocated T-BUG to different memory areas by disassembling T-BUG, observing which instructions were non-relocatable and changing addresses accordingly. This was mostly done early in the TRS-80 game when there was only T-BUG and Small Systems Software RSM-1 available for debugging. T-BUG can be put onto disk by relocat- ing it to upper memory (above 6FFFH) and using the DUMP command of TRSDOS to write it out as a CIM (core image module). You'll probably want to use the disk DEBUG package instead, and I'll continue to assume so in the following discussion. Let's assume that you have T-BUG on cassette or disk and want to debug an as- sembly language program. First, get the object of your program and T-BUG into memory at the same time, by using the fol- lowing procedure: 1 ORG your program at an area that does not conflict with T-BUG. Assemble it, check for errors, edit and reassemble if necessary and create an object tape on cassette. 2 Load the object tape you created by using the Level II monitor mode. Type SYSTEM after the > prompt of Level II and then type NAME after the *? prompt of the monitor mode to load the object file. NAME is the name you used in assem- bling your program. If you did not use a name, NONAME is used as a dummy name. 3 Load T-BUG by typing TBUG after the *? prompt that follows a successful load of your object tape. 4 Type / ENTER after a successful load of T-BUG. You should now be in T-BUG as evidenced by a clearing of the left section of the screen and the # prompt. An alternative to this is to load T-BUG and use it to key in the machine language code for a program to an area of memory. This is useful if you find a listing in 80 Mi- crocomputing or elsewhere and don't want the agony of entering and assem- bling the source code. Make certain that the location of the program doesn't con- flict with the T-BUG area, and, that ail the code is there. T-BUG shines at rapid entry of machine language bytes; you can enter them as fast as you can type! First Steps in Debugging You've got your program and T-BUG in memory and are in T-BUG. Much of your debugging should have been done al- ready! You should have gone through your listing several times in detail and "desk-checked". Assembly language pro- gramming is not interactive; if you find er- rors, you'll have to edit, reassemble, and reload, and you'd like to keep that to a minimum. Table 1 lists the T-BUG commands available. Basically, all you can do is ex- amine memory locations and register con- tents, set breakpoints, and read and write cassette tape files. Is it possible to debug effectively with such a limited number of commands? From my experience with T-BUG, DEBUG (disk), RSM (Small Systems Software), Z-BUG (Microsoft's EDTASM-PLUS De- bug), and a number of minicomputer and large computer debug packages (half of which seem to be named so that their ini- tials spell out "DDT"), I would have to say yes. I would say that the time spent debug- ging a 1000-line program with T-BUG vs. the time spent with the most powerful de- 24 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 *B aaaa Set breakpoint at nex location aaaa »F Fi<" previous bruaHpoim Use after breakpoint. ra Continue from breakpoint *.) aaaa lump ii hex location aaaa *L LoarJ a T-BUG or SYSTEM tape »M aaaa Display -or.atiop aaaa Ef'tt'f rni* v.iluc if conlen ENTER i! OK. s to bu L'ld'iyt-d ur simply #P aaaa bbbb cccc name Write cassette 'mm aaaa through botib witti sta name NAME. tiny aOdross wx . d'iu file #fl Display 'oyislttrs X (after M, J, B. Pv Exit operation. Table 1. T-BUG Commands bugger would be no more than twice as long. One does not continually enter a stream of commands to the debug pack- age—there's a lot of head scratching go- ing on in between. The exception to this might be Microsoft's Z-BUG, where edit- ing and reassembling can be done with- out reloading on an interactive basis, en- abling efficient program development. The procedure commonly used with any debug package is this: First, every pro- grammer tries one run to see if by some miracle it works just as expected the first time. (It doesn't.) Next, a search for gross errors is done. This Is not a systematic procedure, since there will probably be bugs popping out at you on execution. Use the B command to set a (B)reakpoint and then execute a J(ump) to the start of your program. The breakpoint is exactly that— the program will be executed until the breakpointed in- struction is reached and then T-BUG will be re-entered. This gives the user control so the program doesn't bomb. If a pro- gram hang-up occurs, the program and T-BUG will have to be reloaded, or it may be possible to RESET the CPU and restart T-BUG at location 43A0H (by SYSTEM and 17312/). T-BUG implements the breakpoint by putting a CALL 4380H into the breakpoint location. This can have disastrous results (Fig. 1), where the 43H wipes out a variable used earlier! When the breakpoint is reached, vari- ables, buffers, or other memory locations can be examined for proper contents by using the M(emory) command to display memory locations. The R(egister) com- mand displays register contents. The M command can modify any location by typ- ing in a new value in hex. One of the failings of T-BUG is that reg- isters must be modified by altering memo- ry locations associated with them. The F(ix) command restores the original values to the breakpointed location. After the breakpoint is fixed, a G(o) can be used to continue from the breakpoint after a new breakpoint is established. Binary Search for the Next Error Debugging using T-BUG proceeds in this fashion: establishing one breakpoint at a time, reaching it, examining variables and buffers for proper results, and estab- lishing a new breakpoint. The process evolves into a binary search for the next error— breakpoint halfway through, see if the breakpoint is reached. If not, establish one earlier, and so forth. This is not sophisticated debugging, but it works. The P(unch) and L(oad) commands can be used to write and read in T-BUG cas- sette files. T-BUG files have a format iden- tical to SYSTEM tapes produced by EDTASM. If you're working with a large as- sembly language program, it's convenient to patch and save the program on cas- SOURCE CODE MACHINE CODE BEFORE BREAKPOINT AFTER 8000 8003 8005 8006 LDA. iLOCNi 3A058G JRNEXT 1801 DEFB 33H 33 LDB.A 47 3E0580 CD 80 43 "f CALL 4380H WIPES OUT 33H A I LOCN' Figure 1. T-BUG Breakpom t Problem sette every so often. This way the patched program can be reloaded. Since T-BUG can be saved in the same tape file, a P(unch) command can produce one enor- mous file including the patched program and T-BUG; this can then be reloaded with a single SYSTEM command. Patching Patching is the process of deleting, modifying, or inserting machine code directly to the object or machine code in memory without reassembling. Here's an example: Suppose we want to add two in- structions after PATCH in the program of Fig. 2. Obviously there's no room between the instructions (or little, anyway). The in- structions are added to a patch area somewhere in memory and the code is modified as shown. Here's a philosophical question— when should you patch and when should you re- assemble? You should certainly patch if you are sharing a TRS-80 with 32 other programmers and you can't get on the machine to reassemble for six days. You should certainly not patch if you are using EDTASM-PLUS with in-memory assembly capability. For all other conditions, you should patch whenever you find errors that can be corrected by modifying one instruction (such as changing the register in LD R1.R2), by deleting one or more instruc- tions, or by inserting instructions. Reassemble whenever you have patches of more than a dozen or so. To patch you must do some hand as- sembly of instructions. Another way to find the proper instruction configurations without manual assembly is to look through your listing to find identical or similar instructions for the patch. The patch area may be adjacent to the pro- gram, or it may be anywhere in RAM. If it is close to the program area, it is easier to in- clude it in a P(unch) command. Using DEBUG If you have a disk system the debug task is more convenient. DEBUG can be called off disk. It loads into the system utility area. If you are using the Apparat EDTASM, MISOSYS EDTASM, or the Radio Shack Disk Assembler, source files can be saved on disk and object files writ- ten to disk. The latter feature makes it easy to reload the machine code for debugging purposes. The sequence for loading the object and transferring con- trol to DEBUG goes like this: 1 After TRSDOS DOS READY, prepare DEBUG by typing DEBUG. TRSDOS will come back with DOS READY again. 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 25 THE ASSEMBLY LINE LOCATION SOURCE CODE BEFORE PATCH AFTER PATCH 8000 PATCH LD B.A 47 47 1 4 7 CALL SUBR1 -*i CALL SUBR2 CD03B0 CD1FB0 | C3O0C0| a C61FB0 / JP TO PATCH AREA AT COOOH PUSH AF PUSH BC ro INSTRUCTIONS BE INSERTED. COOO (PATCH AREA) REPLACES DESTROYED INSTRUCTION F5 C5 CD03B0 C304B0 / PUSH AF PUSH BC CALLSUBR1 :- boocjh / INSERTED INSTRUCTK )NS / JUMPS BACK TO8004H Figure 2. Patching Code A Display in ASCII. C Single step Instructions, but execute CALLs in full. Daaaa (SPACE) Display from hex location aaaa. Gaaaa (.bbtxx.cccc)) Execute at location aaaa with optional breakpoints bbbb. cccc H Display In hexadecimal. 1 Single step instructions. Maaaa (SPACE) Set modification address to aaaa and display data Rrp dddd (SPACE) Load register pair with dddd. S Full screen display U Set dynamic display update mode. X Cancel command, set display to register mode. ; Increment memory display to next block. - Decrement memory display to last block. Table 2. DEBUG Commands 2 Load the object module output by Ap- parat, MISOSYS, or the RS disk assembler by LOAD NAME. 3 Hit BREAK to enter DEBUG. The DEBUG commands are shown in Table 2. DEBUG permits the same opera- tions as T-BUG, but displays a screen full of memory contents or a combination of memory and register contents. More than one breakpoint may be specified, which is a decided advantage as there is invariably more than one path through the program to be checked. After each patch has been made, the patched core image can be written out to disk by performing a G402D, which re- boots TRSDOS, and then doing a DUMP NAME (START = X'aaaa, END = Xbbbb\ TRA = X'cccc'). Be sure to include the patch area in the area to be DUMPed. The DUMP will create a new NAME file or re- place the old NAME file which can then be LOADed as before. As with T-BUG. too many patches get confusing, and at some point it's best to do a new edit and reassembly. DEBUG includes a command to single- step instructions one at a time. Single- step through Level II or TRSDOS routines to supplement information gleaned from disassemblies. Single-step can be also used to trace a path through your program to find out where a variable gets clob- bered, or when an unexpected path is taken. Small Systems Software RSM-2 Small Systems Software was one of the first companies to bring out a significant piece of software for the TRS-80. Their RSM-2 and RSM-2D are upgraded versions Features of the FATIGUE FIGHTER : B REDUCES OPERATOR FATIGUE THEREBY ALLOWING MORE EFFI- CIENT USE OF THE COMPUTER B INSTALLS EASILY WITH PRESSURE SENSITIVE ADHESIVE. NO SCREWS, CLIPS, OR DRILLING TO DAMAGE MONITOR Qi DESIGNED TO MATCH TRS-80' STYLING FROM THE BLACK AND SILVER BORDER TO THE LETTERING TYPE FACE B FITS BOTH THE MODEL I AND MODEL II I DOES NOT VOIO THE COMPUTER WARRANTY I ENHANCES THE APPEARANCE OF THE MONITOR ■ PROVIDES A DURABLE, EASY TO CLEAN SURFACE TQ ORDER SEND* Hs m s and Address Typed or Cltsrly Printed with ' Check or Money Order for S9.SS * Per Unit. COO's •MMCE INCLUDES SHIPPING mr9 S2.50 Additions! Psr Order. Florida Residents T BS-SO IS A TBA.OfMS.PK Of TANDY Add flS g^. T .«. SOUTHERN INNOVATIVE DESIGN 1520 NORTHEAST 12TH STREET GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA 32601 ,-373 This product ri sa hrt frost «*» rolloulnsi •svo*ot*s;ias4 St«sM— ■ho* trssfi to b* Boat pis — nt tor SKtir.d K vtswln*. Cm* — m l tlvitv pss*s In Uts sr— w band of ths spaotrus. Contrast Is nanoad by rsduoina tha —mm li«hi fall In* art • OTT. Thas* tfs— fsotors oosfelns to f t«ht operator fstious. Finally, Ms wanted sore tnen just function. IN MUfsd TRS-tt stullna. ttetured here is proof of our iwci»— . * p r od uc t ws ere proud of. tS ±a 26 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 Give Your ■ he Best e Microline 80 6u can't find a better small printer. The Microline 80 will outperform and outlast every competitor. It will run all day at 80 cps with no duty cycle limitations, producing letter perfect printing on plain paper. And the head is warranted for 200,000,000 characters. You can't find a better value either. The "(licroline 80 includes upper and lower case haracters. double width and condensed printing, friction and pin feed, six and eight line per inch spacing and block graphics for charts, graphs and diagrams. And it operates with TRS-80 \ Apple and other popular small computers. The only extras are snap-on trac- tors and a buffered RS232 interface. Give your computer the best, the Microline 80. TRS-80 is a registered trademark of Radio Shack, a division of Tandy Corp OKIDATA Okidata Corporation 111 Gaither Drive Mount Laurel, New Jersey 08054 609-235-2600 Sft APPLICATIONS of the original RSM-1 monitor, and they are powerful monitors. Monitor here is synonymous with debug package rather than the earlier meaning of control pro- gram or operating system. The RSM-2 and RSM-2D packages con- tain commands to display and modify memory, to transfer control, and to break- point as in T-BUG and DEBUG. The pack- ages also contain many other useful com- mands, such as FIND (search block for one byte), HUNT (search block for address value), MOVE (move one block to another), TEST MEMORY (random memory test), EXCHANGE (exchange two blocks of memory), ZERO (fill memory block with specified byte) and others. The packages allow display of memory in ASCII or hex, printing of data to a paral- lel line printer (or to a serial printer through a serial interface), reading and writing SYSTEM tapes, reading and writ- ing disk sectors (RSM-2D), and, for a grand finale, include a Z-80 disassembler for displaying code in mnemonics. When dis- assembling, none of the original com- ments from any code are printed! A Zbignew Z-BUG Package I don't want to keep harping about cer- tain products— but after all, even I have a price (roughly equivalent to a box of disk- ettes)... The Microsoft EDTASM-PLUS, however, really is a superlative package. (Alas, it is cassette and not disk based). It includes a beefed-up Editor, Macro As- sembler, and most importantly, the ability to assemble directly in memory. The last feature allows the debug portion of EDTASM-PLUS to be used on an interac- tive basis with the Editor and Assembler. The object code of a program can be de- bugged, and an immediate edit and reas- sembly can be done without reloading. Z-BUG includes most of the features mentioned above, including disassembly and single stepping. Its single, most pow- erful feature operates in conjunction with in-memory assembly— symbolic debug- ging. When an assembly is performed, the machine code is automatically assem- bled in the next available (or user speci- fied) section of memory. At the same time, the assembler symbol table is preserved. This symbol table can be referenced by Z-BUG to examine memory locations sym- bolically. For example, you can type "TABLE/", and Z-BUG will search the sym- bol table for the location of TABLE, and then display its contents. Data can also be input in symbolic form— a location could be modified to the value LOOP + 5, for example. Program Final Tasting The last step of the debugging process should be a comprehensive test of the final version of the program. A basic pro- gramming maxim is that programs never work the first time. Here's another: There is no final program! Programs are released with bugs for two reasons. The first is in the nature of programs themselves. Programs are de- signed to provide generic solutions to many permutations of inputs and outputs. Not all permutations can be tested— there are simply too many possibilities. As a re- sult, programmers pick representative in- puts and outputs for testing. In the worst cases, a few runs are made through the program and the program is then pro- nounced "tested". In the best cases, a test plan is drawn up and the program is tested by a test driver. It's entirely possi- ble that the final testing phase could take 25 percent of the total time spent develop- ing the program! I'd like to recommend the programs of a company that does this comprehensive final testing, but they've unfortunately gone out of business. . . Which leads us to the second reason there are bugs in final versions of TRSDOS, NEWDOS, VTOS, Level H BASIC, and just about every other program. As every programmer working in a commer- cial environment knows, there is always a great deal of pressure to finish a program so that it can be sold. This holds true in TRS-80 software companies as well. We'll just have to live with the bugs, fer- ret them out, and hope that the companies correct them. Meanwhile, make it a goal to do some final testing of your assembly language programs. End of sermon. Still Another Model I Assembler Roy Soltoff of MISOSYS sent me a copy of his MISOSYS Disk Mod. (I suspect he wanted me to use it, I ike it, and write about it in this column.) The Disk Mod is a set of patches for RS EDTASM that converts it to a disk as- sembler with source and object file storage on disk. Other features I found handy were the ability to interface a serial printer, and page formatting. In short, this version of EDTASM contains all of the Ap- parat changes to EDTASM plus others. I've used this and I like it. (OK, Roy, you can send that box of diskettes). Next month we'll have the results of the Third Assembly Line Programming Con- test. (I'm getting the Amana ready for shipment to the winner now. . . ■ SO INPUTS Continued from page 28 Printer Pagination One of the less than desirable features of Radio Shack's Printer I with the roll pa- per is that there is no way to get page spacing when LLISTing a long program or printing a long calculation report. At least, there is nothing in the documentation to cover this. Dr. Lien's "Learning BASIC II" tells us that the standard printer page length is 66 lines and that this quantity is stored at memory location 16424. Also, stored at location 16425 is the variable that tells the computer how many lines the printing head has moved away from the last top of form positioning. The command "LPRINT CHR$(12)" moves the printing head to the next top of form and restores memory lo- cation 16425 to to start recording the new page. Try this little routine. Disk save a long program (more than 100 lines) in ASCII- save "BUDGER/BAS", A. Now it can be read and inputted as a sequential file. Now run this little program: 10 CLEAR 500 20 OPEN'T',1, "BUDGER/BAS" 30 FOR N = 1 TO N:'N = YOUR NUMBER OF LINES 40 IF PEEK<16425) = 50 THEN LPRINTCHRS<12) ELSE 50 50 UNEINPUTH 1, RS 60 LPRINT RS 70 NEXTN 80 CLOSE 90 LPRINT CHRS02) There it is, your long printout is paginat- ed and you can fold it or rip it into equal pages, side punch, and store in a binder. Many other things can be done with PEEK (16425)! Richard Halloran San Francisco, CA Qwikdisk In your article in the September issue called QWIKDISK, the 09H and 19H num- bers gives 12ms step times not 10ms. The 08H and 18H numbers also give only 12ms not 5ms step times. 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"OUR BEST AD'S ARE NOT WRITTEN - THEY'RE RUNNING ON TRS-80's" "Quantities "mited on some .tems • TRS HO is j t-ademark ol Radio Shack • Magic Wand is a trademark oi Small Business Applications »CPiM it a trademark o' Digital Research Inc • Ail So'tware >s sold on an as i»" basis and *itnoul *a»'aniy • Puces and programs are suoiect Ic change *nnoo' ncrtKe • Add $2 00 snipping A handling or na<.r or.lc ^ OFFER EXPIRES 1/31/81 • Reader Service— see page 274 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 31 SO REVIEWS Edited by Pamela Petrakos "A group of composers, with their ears tuned to the future, had developed musical techniques on early 'monster' computers, and an unfamiliar, disquieting kind of 'computer music' was born." BOOKS O O O T M "1001 Things To Do With Your Personal Computer" Mark Sawusch TAB Books, Inc. Blue Ridge, PA $12.95 Hardcover, 335 pp. $7.95 Softcover by Fred B lech man robably the most annoying question aimed at computerists by non-com- puterists is, "OK, so what can you do with it?" Mark Sawusch addressed this ques- tion and came up with over 1000 answers! Sawusch's 335 page book is an amaz- ing collection of practical ideas and pro- grams divided into 12 broad categories, and includes a glossary, appendix and in- dex. Each category contains at least several, and as many as dozens of poten- tial applications. A run through the chapter titles indicates the enormous scope of this book: Applications for Every- one, Business and Financial Applica- tions, Technical and Scientific Appli- cations, Educational Applications, Hobby Applications, Games and Recreational Applications, Control and Peripheral Ap- plications, Artificial Intelligence and The Future Personal Computer, Utility Pro- grams, Miscellaneous Applications and A Compendium of Additional Applications. The four page glossary explains the meaning of common computer and pro- gramming terminology. The appendix covers financial formulas, gives ad- dresses of 78 microcomputer manufac- turers, contains a table of metric conver- sions and presents 11 flowcharting sym- bols. All in all, this book is really overwhelm- ing! Although it contains 75 actual pro- grams (several running over four pages!), this book is not intended as a how-to book as much as a what-to-do book. More than 1000 ideas are offered, and covered in suf- ficient detail to provide a basis for a vir- tually unlimited number of spin-off ideas. I was particularly impressed with the supporting information provided in many of the chapters. Simple formulas are used throughout, so you can easily develop your own programs by building on or alter- ing the example programs provided. Dia- grams, flowcharts and illustrations are sprinkled throughout. The type is large and easy to read and the program listings are in bold typeset — not hard to read re- duced photocopies of matrix printing! Although I couldn't find mention of the programming language anywhere in the text, it appears that all programs are Radio Shack TRS-80 Level II BASIC, with some programs designed for disk use. This means they can be adapted to the majority of microcomputers that use Microsoft BASIC. There are no machine language or assembly language programs included. My criticisms of this book are in the pro- grams and listings. Some programs are very long, yet no indication of memory re- quirements are given. It appears that some would exceed 16K, and sometimes a program that looks short uses extensive string or array space. I would like to see each program with a REM line indicating memory needed, and whether the pro- gram can be used without disk. Also, because each of the programs has been typeset rather than photocopied from an actual listing, there are numerous typesetting errors. This, together with the fact that the author has made no attempt to explain the line by line operation of the programs, and has not listed the variables and their usage, makes this a book too ad- vanced for beginners. While a beginner could certainly key in and RUN the pro- grams, the main thrust of the book is to stimulate ideas for those already familiar with BASIC programming. My hat is off to Mark Sawusch for the ef- fort and imagination he used writing this extremely stimulating book. If you are into BASIC programming, you'll probably find enough ideas and examples here to keep you and your computer busy for 01 100100 binary years! ■ An Introduction to Computer Music Wayne Bateman John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, NY Hardcover, 314 pp. $24.95 by Dennis Bathory Kitsz omewhere, a mechanical voice sings "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true." Some time ago, an enthusiastic high school science teacher played us an experimental recording of that song, and, with half chuckle, half sigh, acclaimed it a portent of things to come. A group of composers, with their ears tuned to the future, had developed musi- cal techniques on early "monster" com- puters, and an unfamiliar, disquieting kind of "computer music" was born. But those were the days when robots were imminent; George Orwell's 1984 was hardly a decade old. The experiments in computer music conducted by Lejaren Hiller and others were viewed with a hos- tility interbred with fear. Renewed Interest The appearance of An Introduction to Computer Music by Wayne Bateman her- alds a renewed interest in the genre. The real 1984 is now in sight. An Orwel- lian cataclysm seems nearly as quaint as the predictive fictions of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. Maxwell House coffee jingles have brought this musical electronic sound to the public. Robert Moog's "music synthe- sizer" has made his name as familiar as Kleenex. No amateur band was complete without one; computer music composers were forced to retreat to the safety of the universities. The production of music generation pe- ripherals for the TRS-80 and other person- 32 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 al computers demonstrates that many composers other than academics are now enthused about sound and music created with the aid of digital circuits. Computer music is not merely electron- ic music, though, but rather a very versa- tile technique of composing and orches- trating sound and structure beyond that normally available to humans. In general, electronic music is any sort of deliberate sound created or mutated by electronic means, issuing from a loud- speaker. In classical terms, electronic music can be divided into three overlap- ping areas: • Concrete music The original music is acoustic, meaning it is produced without electronic help. Then, that sound is trans- formed by electronic circuitry. • Synthesized music: Many musicians object to this term, claiming that all music is real, not synthetic (in fact, I call my own synthesizer an "electronic music devel- oper" to get away from that artificial music term). But the phrase can be gener- ally defined as any music originated by electronic means and processed through traditional audio circuitry (oscillators, fil- ters, reverberators). • Computer music: This music is gener- ated, manipulated and controlled by a computer. Normally, only the final presen- tation to the listener involves any analog (audio) circuitry. Bateman's book deals exclusively with computer music. The book is neither aca- demically thorough nor popular, occupy- ing a dangerous middle ground in which Bateman is not entirely comfortable. Bateman is a lucid writer, but the topic is too big. Introduction leaves us confound- ed by detail. The question of the computer's validity as a musical device is briefly discussed in the first chapter. Bateman believes in that validity, and presents the physical and mathematical fundamentals of its tones and their harmonics. Frequency spectra, additive and subtractive synthesis of complex tones, sampling intervals and phase relationships are presented. These topics are complex, but vital to computer composition, so Bateman includes a for- midable but inevitable helping of mathe- matics. Two unsatisfying chapters on comput- er operation and languages follow. (Bate- man's machine has the unnerving habit of giving its accumulator a compliment, rath- er than complementing it.) These chapters present flow charts and theoretical pro- grams in FORTRAN, Pascal and "En- glish." BASIC program samples are in the appendix. The author does not tell what machinery to use to test his theoretical programs, on the assumption that the hardware (but not the software!) might be- come outmoded. This leaves the reader unclear on how to "plug in" to the com- puter. Waveform Analysis Successive topics include modulation (not musical, but sonic), dynamics and waveform analysis. The chapters contain a great number of graphs representing sonic events. The waveform analysis chapter is Bateman at his best, but even the experienced composer/programmer winces at the convoluted waveforms of oboe and clarinet, for which separate charts are presented for each of the first twenty-one partials! Bateman describes the computer's syn- thesis of complex tones— sounds which cannot be created by sounding objects, but are the results of waveforms, manipu- lated and reformed, within the composer's mind. He asserts that this changes the way a composer will create new works of art. "Here, the composer is in direct control of the timbral quality of all the sounds in the composition. Consequently, he or she must understand the fundamental consti- tution of these sounds and the principles governing the methods of their produc- tion. This is why extensive study of acous- tics and waveform analysis must now take a prominent place in music theory as the electronic medium is brought into the art." The text discusses recorded and natu- ral sounds, proposing a difference in ap- proach between the more common analog processing and the difficult but potential- ly more accurate and reproducible meth- od of sound generation with a computer. Finally comes the art: Scales and tonal- ity are presented with a lucidity and depth of understanding surprising and gratify- ing. Obviously, Bateman is at home with contemporary Western music and its long history, and his tone and selected musical examples are both to the point and re- freshing. Bateman has included a probing dis- cussion of the dilemmas of the computer in modern society, "Machines and Human Creativity." Bateman speaks of the per- sonification of machines this way: "Any- one who programs a computer quickly be- comes accustomed to its cold, mechanis- tic responses to every instruction, and to its banal incapability of humanistic inter- action." Bravo for Bateman. Introduction to Computer Music re- mains an unsatisfying work. It is because personal computer users are given no hint on how to begin the task of composition. Because it seems mathematically de- tailed, the book can be overwhelming. Also it assumes some knowledge of mu- sic theory, and is not directed to the growth of the extemporizing composer/ performer. But, the book does present a topic returned from public banishment, and deserves the attention of composers and other musicians, as well as computer hobbyists. ■ KEEPIT Version 2.0 Dennis Bathory Kitsz The Alternate Source (TAS) Lansing, Ml $9.95 by Jack Decker A ■ any folks have purchased the TRS-80 IVI Model I in expectation of using it for serious applications only to discover the limitations of the cassette-based system. For those unable to justify the added ex- pense of moving up to disk operation, there is now available a very underrated program that could make serious applica- tions on the Model I a whole lot easier. Written by Dennis Kitsz (a name that should be familiar to 80 Microcomputing readers), KEEPIT is a utility program that packs a lot of power into less than 1K of machine code. Several Features KEEPIT has several features. First is the inclusion of the KBEEPFIX routine which initially appeared in 80 Microcom- puting (February, 1980, pages 14 and 15, also see the update which appeared in the column on pages eight and nine in April, 1980). This routine provides keyboard de- bounce, automatic character repeat (after a short delay) when a key is held de- pressed, and an audible beep at the cas- sette output port each time a keystroke is entered. Useful as that may be, the next feature 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 33 After you play the Temple ofApshai, you can play Sticks and Stones for free. Within the 200 rooms and catacombs ot the Temple ot Apshai, untold treasures await you — the hero. All you have to do is elude, outsmart and outwit the beasts, monsters and demons lurking in the dark labyrinth. Spend minutes or hours on this role-playing tantasy - the boldest computer game in our Dunjonquest™ series. Now, when you order the Temple ot Apshai," you get the "Sticks & Stones" board game for no extra charge. In tact, if you're not satisfied with the "Temple of Apshai," you can return it within 10 days and still keep "Sticks & Stones!" But don't wait, this special offer is limited. (Well also send you a catalog outlining our other exciting com- puter games). Automated Simulations. P.O. Box 4247, 1988 Leghorn Street ^«a Mountain View, California 94040 Department 80 Please send me the "Temple of Apshai" (ot: Coss«fte ($24 95) Dirt ($29 95) TRS-80 D 16K, Level II □ 32K TRSDOS APPLE Not available G 48K Applesoft In ROM PET D32K Not available City. State. Zip L Check enclosed Amount $ Charge to: ~1 VISA i MasterCard # Expiration dale (Add $1 00 shipping ond handling charge, plus 6% or 6' ?% tax tor California residents ) Or cho»B« By phone (800) 824 7888 operator 881 In California (800) 852 7777 operoloi 861 II you prefm call these numbers tor a list ot m# computer stores near you microcomputing renewal card. THIS IS WHAT YOUR MAILBOX WILL LOOK LIKE IN JANUARY ... if you don't send in your \rf\ 80 Microcomputing made its debut in January 1980. If you subscribed with the first issue for one year, your subscription will be ending with the December 1980 issue. To keep your 80 Microcomputing coming uninter- rupted, mail in the card today. . (or XeroxTM the coupon or use the subscription card in the back of the magazine.). 80 Microcomputing has brought you a whole year of exceptional articles and reviews plus hundreds of dollars worth of usable pro ing to be bigger and better. How can you afford to have a Keep 80 Microcomputing in my mailbox . . . Bill me for Name Address City_ Ql year* 18 U 2 ye*r»/$30 G 3 year«/$45 State Zip. (Attach mailing label if you have one) Canadian $20/1 year only. US funds. Foreign $28/1 year only. US funds 80 Microcomputing • PO Box 981 • Farmingdale NY 1 1737 rrrir> *?■ > 34 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 SO REVIEWS is the real workhorse of the program be- cause it allows BASIC programs to be saved in the middle of a RUN with all its variables intact. Here's how it works: At whatever point you want to save your program, you press BREAK. Set up a cassette to record the program, then type the command: •SAVE/RUN' PROGRM" (The asterisk is the cue for the KEEPIT pro- gram to take over from BASIC and inter- pret the following commands.) "PRO- GRM" may be replaced by any file name of up to six characters. When you want to retrieve your pro- gram, hit ENTER for the MEMORY SIZE?, and ready the cassette recorder. Enter SYSTEM, then enter the file name. The tape will load, and the program will reap- pear exactly the way you saved it. What happens is: The BASIC program is re-loaded, along with all variables, sys- tems pointers, the KEEPIT program itself; even the video display is restored just as it was. Only "free space" (memory not used during execution of the program) will not be affected. You simply CONTinue your BASIC program right where you left off! Such a feature can be used to debug new programs by saving a program at vari- ous points throughout a run, thus allow- ing you to go back and reconstruct what was happening in the logic flow of the pro- gram just before the crash. "Epic" game players will find it handy to be able to save a game in progress and return to it at their convenience. (KEEPIT does louse up the Disk* Mod MISOSYS Alexandria, VA $20 by Buzz Qorsky \Af hen I recently acquired my disk ww system, I began looking for a utility that would make my Radio Shack Editor/ Assembler more useful. I had lots of assembly language programs on tape, many of which required editing to make the machine code compatible with the disk system. The thought of having to enter them again into a disk-based system such as Radio Shack's $99 disk EDTASM package was not appealing. When I saw an ad for the MISOSYS Disk* Mod pro- gram, I decided to give it a try. Easy Data I/O The tape came promptly, with readable instructions and answers to some ques- tions I had submitted with my order. These questions would have been an- swered in the instructions, but the MISOSYS folks wrote out the answers anyway. I had some trouble loading the tape; I tried to load it with SYSTEM in Disk BASIC and it wouldn't load. I assumed that DISKMOD was the program's identifier, but a little reading showed that it loads as DSKMOD. Once I got it loaded, it always produced disk errors during execution. I put the program on disk with TAPEDISK, as suggested in the MISOSYS directions. When the program ran from disk, it worked fine, picking up my copy of the EDTASM and putting it on disk. Since I've had the program on disk, I've enjoyed using it very much. It permits easy input and output of data (assembly text or object code) to either tape or disk. Disk* Mod provides prompts where file- specs are required. Anyone familiar with EDTASM will find this easy to use. There are some nice additions to these features. While in the program, you can get a disk directory which shows the mem- ory usage of each disk file, and you can kill files on the disk. You can see how much memory the current program is us- ing, as well as how much text buffer is left. When you exit the program, you can go to DOS automatically, or you can specify any destination address. Debugging When reentering the program, you can enter a hex address to protect an area in high memory where there might be a printer driver or other program. By entering a you can get back into the program, without destroying what was in the buffer when the program was ex- ited, as long as other operations did not overwrite the buffer area while out of the program. This feature makes debugging nearly painless, since you can save source and object codes on disk: Exit, use DEBUG and come back. If when working with the program DEBUG did not over- write the buffer, you're back in business. If the buffer was ruined, it can be emptied and the saved program entered from disk. Tape users will find this quite different from the sequence required for debugging with a tape-based system. I found only one problem with the adapted program. It doesn't handle some assembly text errors well. When I had a statement that wasn't in correct format, that line and the next several lines printed erratically and illegibly, but the error wasn't pointed out. If the print during as- sembly starts to look strange, look for er- rors and you can fix the program and the print at the same time. ■ current screen display a bit, however this may not be applicable to all games.) I think its most practical application will be to maintain data in array variables within the BASIC program, and output it to tape along with the program. As an example of the latter, consider a short program to save ten names and phone numbers to be displayed later on the video. A simple save program might look like this: 10 FORX- 1 TO 10 20 INPUT NJ.PS 30 PRINT I- 1.NS.PS 40 NEXT Later on, when you want to read the data, you can use this program: 10 CLS FOR X = 1 TO 10 20 INPUT*- 1.NS.PS 30 PRINT N$.P$ 40 NEXT Or, using KEEPIT you can do this: 10 FORX = 1 TO 10 20 INPUT N$< Godfather i ■ ... ' ^010 <'i ■ meenie. ^ML ^m I could he 1 jtf ^^fl 1 another 1 ^7/ nutf/ // v< ^^ 7/wr^KE 1 Bayesian, *JIJ> /i<(//7 ^ I weighted factor ...a perfect would StOpM ^i///((/v.vh, Order No. 0159R $14.95. SPACE TREK II— Protect the quadrant from the Invading Klingon warships. The Enter- prise is equipped with phasers. photon tor- pedoes, impulse power and warp drive. (T1) Order No. 0OO2R $7.95. SEE YOUR LOCAL INSTANT SOFTWARE DEALER OR Just Call Toll-Free 1-800-258-5473 AIR FLIGHT SIMULATION— Take off and land your aircraft without making a crater This "instruments only" simulation starts you with a full tank of fuel, which gives you a maximum range of about 50 miles. You'll get constant updates of air speed, com- pass heading and altitude. After you've ac- quired a few hours of flight time, you can try flying a course against a map or doing acro- batic maneuvers T(1) Order No. 001 7R. $9.95. SPACE TREK IV- 'STELLAR WARS: En- gage and destroy Tie fighters in your attack on the Death Star For one player •POPU- LATION SIMULATION: A two-player game where you control the economy of two neighboring planets You must decide Guns or Butter? (T1) Order No. 0034R $7.95. BASIC AND INTERMEDIATE LUNAR LAND- ER — Bring your lander In under manual control. The basic version Is for beginners, the Intermediate version is more difficult, with a choice of landing areas and rugged terrain. (T1) Order No. 0001 R $7.95. COSMIC PATROL— We put you in com- mand of a small interstellar patrol craft. You must defend Terran space and prey on the Ouelon freighters that carry vital war supplies— but beware of their l-Fighter es- corts. They're well armed, extremely fast and they NEVER miss! With its real-time ac tion, impressive sound option and superb graphics, this machine- language program Is the best of the genre (T1) Order No. 0223 R $14.95. Airmail Pilot —Return to the early days of aviation You must fly the mail from Col- umbus to Chicago. Your Jenny, a cloth- covered biplane, must take you through un- predictable winds, hail and electrical storms Your mission is to get the mail through in the shortest possible time. There is an on-board clock to time you flight, from takeoff to touchdown . . . assuming you are able to complete it (T1) Order No. 0106R $9.95. NIGHT FLIGHT— Your mission is to fly over the North Atlantic and make a nighttime photo/recon flight above the enemy fleet. NIGHT FLIGHT lets you take-off. fly and land a propellar-driven aircraft. You can practice approaches and landings with an on-screen display of the landing field infor- mation—It will practically teach you to fly. (T1) Order No. 0117R $9.95. COMP-U-NOVELS WHO-DUN-IT? Criminal elements have committed five dastardly crimes As the investigating detective, you must solve them You can compete against either Detec- tive Nybbles, a computerized sleuth, or up to four other human detectives. •DEDUCTION: Guess the order of tour symbols out of six or seven different ones. To make things even more complicated, you can let the computer repeat symbols and have a range of 2401 possibilities. (T1) Order No. 0047R $7.95. SANTA PARAVIA AND FIUMACCIO Become the ruler of a medieval city-state as you struggle to create a kingdom. Up to six players can compete to see who will become the King or Queen first. (T1) Order No. 0043R $7.95. There are over 300 Instant Software dealers throughout the U.S.A and the world. We ship the seme dey we receive your order. CODE— Minimum System Required (T1) = TRS-80 Model I Level II. 16K RAM (T2) = TRS-80 Model I Level II, 16K RAM with Expansion Interface 16 + K RAM and one disk drive (73) = TRS-80 Model II, 32K RAM WRITE FOR OUR NEW INSTANT SOFTWARE CATALOG Instant Software * A trademark of Tandv Corporation We Guarantee It! ^/O Guarantee ^\^ ^2 PETERBOROUGH, N.H. 03458 OUR PROGRAMS ARE GUARANTEED TO BE QUALITY PRODUCTS. IF NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED YOU MAY RETURN THE PROGRAM WITHIN 60 DAYS A CREDIT OR REPLACEMENT WILL BE WILLINGLY GIVEN FOR ANY REASON. 40 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 HOME/PERSONAL THE WORDSLINGER— An economical word processing program that was de- signed for the individual user or small business featuring: automatic formatting; text editing; and tape storage Once you've used the WORDSLINGER. you won't want to go back to your typewriter. (T1) Order No. 0129R $29.95. MIMIC— Test your memory and reflexes with five versions of this popular game You must match the sequence and location of symbols displayed on your monitor within the time limit. Instructions on how to pro- duce accompanying sound effects. (T1) Or- der No. 0066R $7.95 CLIMATE COMP— This two-program pack- age includes: WEATHER FORECASTER, which gives you a short range weather fore- cast based on the information that you en- ter and WEATHER PLOT, which will display climatological data for any major city in the United States. (T1) Order No. 0102R-1 $19.95. BODY BUDDY— Includes these three pro- grams: • ADULT CALORIC REQUIRE- MENTS: Will determine your Basal Meta- bolic Rate and suggest strategies to achieve your ideal weight! •FLEXIDIET: Creates an "infinite" number of diet menus, on a day-to-day basis Choose your caloric intake, from 600 to 2400 calories per day The • ANATOMY QUIZ program teaches a mini-lesson on the various organs of the human body, giving location, size and func- tions). (T1) Order No. 0109R S9.95. ENERGY CONSUMPTION— This program will record and analyze your utility bills for up to five years, when you supply the fol- lowing Information. Gas/WateriElectricity used and their respective costs. It will cal- culate six monthly usage averages and unit costs. Data can be compared for any month or multi-month periods. (T1) Order No. 0132R $9.95. BUSINESS SALES ANALYSIS— If your business is sales, you're faced with some unique prob- lems. This package is divided into several modules to help solve those problems: The SALES ANALYSIS module is designed to provide guidelines for determining sales performance, to analyze this performance and show you where it can be improved The DATA STORAGE module allows you to Store data in an automated processing led- ger. The MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS mod- ule can take all the sales records for your group and show you who your best sales- persons are, who needs more training and give you a sales forecast. Finally, the MAR- KET ANALYSIS module can show you where determined sales efforts can pro- duce the most success. (T1) Order No. 0131R 124.95. ORACLE-80 — will provide you with busi- ness analysis and forecasting capabilities previously available only on large computer and time-sharing systems. A flexible, pro- fessional time series analysis and forecast- ing package for use in product planning, business planning, sales forecasting and more. Financial managers and economists can analyze economic climates and in- vestigate business cycles. ORACLE-80 is designed to be used and understood by the typical businessperson. All input and out- put is written in plain English and the package documentation carefully explains all the functions of the program. ORA- CLE-80 puts the future in your hands. (T2) Order No. 01 40R $75.00. BUSINESS PACKAGE IV— This business package contains two programs: • BUSI- NESS CYCLE ANALYSIS: This program can plot the expansion and contraction cycles of any aspect of your business. • FINAN- CIAL ANALYSIS. Now you can get the fig- ures for any type of annuity, sinking fund, or mortgage and compute the yield and value for bonds. The package includes a blank data tape (T1) Order No. 0019R $9.95. FINANCIAL ASSISTANT — Compute the figures for a wide variety of business needs, including: •DEPRECIATION: Figure de- preciation on equipment five different ways. «LOAN AMORTIZATION: Enter a few essential factors and get a complete breakdown of all costs and schedules of payment for any loan. • FINANCIER: Per- forms thirteen common financial calcula- tions. • 1 % FORECASTING: Use il to fore- cast sales, expenses, or any other histori- cal data series. (T2) Order No. 0072R $7.95. CHECK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM-Use this program for writing checks and main- taining records. You can make entries, edit/ correct entries and print out the checks. It will also search and display records by number, code, date, description or amount. A Code and Search routine allows you to print a report of all checks written for spe- cific expenses. You can print your letter- head and account number at the top of each report. System requirements: (T2) with a compatible tractor-feed printer 0147RD $39.95, ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE/ACCOUNTS PAYABLE— These Model I programs will handle the drudgery involved in AR/AP en tries. They will also provide invoices, state- ments, reports and more. Each program is capable of handling up to 1500 entries per month, posted to as many as 760 accounts The AR/AP package is ideal for any small business and can easily be used by anyone familiar with AR/AP operations. System re- quirements (in addition to T2: Three disk drives and a Line Printer (tractor-feed). Order No. 0075RD $199.95. MAIL/LIST— With a five-inch drive, you can store up to 600 names per disk without DOS. or 300 names with DOS. The program maintains separate alphabetical and ZIP code files under constant sort When you add a name or ZIP code to your list, it will be inserted into its correct position in the file The program will record your data in nine fields address, city, state. ZIP code, phone number, phone extension and name (2) plus a five character code field The best feature of this program is the sort process that lets you determine alphabetical or ZIP code or- der for label printing. (T2) Order No. 5000RD $99.00 ONE-D MAILING LIST— A comprehensive mailing list program that will run on only ONE disk drive! Up to 1 7 fields of selection for name/address retrieval. Its features in- clude; Auto-sort (alphabetic or ZIP code). Easy error correction and recovery. Prints selective listings. Supports up to 4 drives. Prints mailing labels and listing of all names on file. (T2) Order No. 0123RD $24.95. EXECUTIVE EXPENSE REPORT GENERA- TOR— Provides you with emergency relief in the form of a clear, plausible expense layout Input your grand total and cash ad- vance (if any), and you'll receive an itemized expense report, from breakfast to snacks. (T1) Order No. 0135R $9.95. GAMES WINNER'S DELIGHT— Do you enioy a chal- lenge? Then try WINNER'S DELIGHT in- cluding: • AMAZING: You must escape from a maze, one that you view from the in- side, working against the clock; • JUNIOR CHECKERS: Not your usual game of check- ers. . .the challenge is to beat the comput- er in the fewest number of moves. •JUM- BO JIGSAW: Fit the pieces together in the fewest number of tries, • THIRTEEN WAYS: Try to fill up your columns with the numbers you roll on the dice— the comput- er will try to fill its columns first! (T1) Order No. 0124R $9.95. FUN PACKAGE I -Why call it "Fun Package"? Judge lor yourself! This enter- taining package includes: 'ROCKET PILOT: Flying it is easy -it's the landing that's tough! -PAPER, ROCK, SCISSORS: It's the time-honored game just as you remember it, played against yourTRS-80. •HEX I: Just when you master this puzzle game, the computer will increase the dif- ficulty -MISSILE ATTACK: Use your ml»- siles to protect your city from jet attack. Requires ■ TRS-80 Level I 16K. Order No. 0037R $7.95. DEMO III— The biggest package ISI has ever released, including: • RACE 1: Careen around the race course as you try to beat the clock; • TARGET UFO: Destroy all the invading UFOs; »LIFE: Experiment with this simulation of the life cycle of a colony of bacteria; »PHONE NUMBER CONVERTER: Change those hard to remember 7-digit phone numbers into easi- ly remembered words; • BIORHYTHM: Plot biorhythm curves for anyone, anytime; • GRAPHICS PROGRAM: This program will show you what your TRS-80' s graphics display can do; • RACE 2: Five different tracks for the more experienced driver; • HORSE RACE: Up to nine players can bet on and enjoy our most entertaining horse race program; • DRAWING BOARD: Draw pictures or messages and store them in memory or on cassette tape with this easy- to-use program; • 24-HOUR CLOCK: Trans- form your computer into an accurate digital clock (Tl) Order No. 0055R $7.95 OIL TYCOON— Avoid oil spills, blowouts and dry wells as you battle to become the world's richest oil tycoon. Two players be- come the owners of competing oil compa- nies as they search for oil and control their companies. (T1) Order No. 0023R $755. BOWLING— Let your TRS-80 set up the pins and keep score. One player can pick up spares and get strikes (T1) Order No. 0033R $7.95. DEMO II— contains: »TIC-T AC-TOE: An old time favorite with three levels of difficul- ty; • TIME TRIALS: Try to beat the clock as you race your car through curves, chutes, and chicanes; • MAZE: One or two players can search through the maze for the secret square: • HANGMAN: One or two players can try to guess the secret word; • WHEEL OF FORTUNE: Choose your number, place your bet and see if you can break the bank (for one to eight players); • HURRICANE: You can track and monitor hurricanes in any part of the world; • BUGSY Can you build your Z-80 bug before the computer does? • HORSE RACE: Pick a sure winner and place your bet (for 1 to 100 players) (T1) Order No. 0049R $7.95. BATTLEGROUND— It is late 1944 and the Allied forces are sweeping toward Berlin. As General in command, you study the map. At your command are tanks, planes, artillery, infantry, engineers, and vehicles. The battle map of your sector will fill with markers to show the development of your forces. You and your opponent will assume the roles of warring Generals, as the battle unfolds. The stark reality of World War II comes alive in BATTLEGROUND.(T1) Order No. 0141 R $9.95. 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POPULAR GAMES GOLF/CROSS-OUT - Have fun with these exciting one-player games Included are •GOLF: You won't need a mashie or putter - or a caddie, for that matter - to enjoy a challenging 18 holes •CROSS-OUT Remove all but the center peg in this puzzle, and your neighbors will call you a genius (T1) Order No. 0009R $7.95. We ship the same day we re- ceive your order. SEE YOUR LOCAL INSTANT SOFTWARE DEALER OR Just Call Toil-Free 1-800-258-5473 We Guarantee It! SEE OUR ADS ON PAGES 196 8, 197 FOR ALL NEW INSTANT SOFTWARE PROGRAMS C? Instant Software i yO Guarantee ^\^ • 2 PETERBOROUGH, N.H. 03458 OUR PROGRAMS ARE GUARANTEED TO BE QUALITY PRODUCTS. IF NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED YOU MAY RETURN Till PROGRAM WITHIN 60 DAYS. A CREDIT OR REPLACEMENT WILL BE WILLINGLY GIVFN FOR ANY REASON. 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 41 ^APPLICATIONS by Dennis Kitsz Now, don't tell me you've never picked up a soldering iron before. Maybe so, but by the time you get done putting to- gether all those easy-to-assemble toys for the whippets, this project will seem like a piece of cake. So get down to your electronics supply house and get integrated circuits 74LS30 (two), 74LS02, 74LS125, and 74LS374; four 14-pin sockets; one 20-pin socket; five 1K-ohm resistors; a TRS-80 edge connec- tor, some perf-board and a five-volt power supply kit. Toss in a pair of audio cables, too, and maybe a little box. What's Kitsz up to this month? Zounds, sound! Not a just a few raspy squawks, but lots of them. . .four separate voices, created by a mere 160 bytes of a program! This circuit the "Earie," is in time for the holidays and inexpensive. A bag of parts would make the great gift for someone to while away a chilly January hour or two. The Circuit The principle of the hardware is simple: it merely provides a kind of "window" to a single location in RAM. The location we will be spying on is 4FFF hex (20479 deci- mal). Z3, Z4, and Z5 create a signal which is activated only when we write to location 4FFF (20479 decimal). See Fig. 1. Z3 decodes the FF byte of the address. Photo 1. board. IB it*. The complete Earie circuit as constructed on a 2 by 2 1/2-inch piece of perf- Z5a-c and Z4 decode the 4F byte and com- bine it with the computer's "write" signal. Z5d NORs the resulting signals together to produce a single pulse defining "write to 4FFF." (See Table 1.) Z1 acts as an electronic dam and reser- voir: Data from the computer continuously wells up against Z1 's input. But the data is permitted to flow into the output, where it is preserved, only when a pulse opens its electronics sluiceway. Unlike circuits where the output status is determined by the stable level of a trigger signal, the 74LS374 lets input flow to output only when the trigger (CLK) signal is changing from zero to one. That is, it is edge trig- gered rather than level triggered. The CLK signal for Z1 is the output of To decode "write to address 4FFF". convert the address to binary, and identify the address lines associated with each bit Hex Value: — -4 F f F Bit 0100 1111 1111 1111 Address Line: 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 Z 1 Step 1 Feed eight address lines (0 through 7) to the inputs o( an eight-input NAND gate When all lines go high (1). the output ot the NAND gate will be zero. Step 2 Feed address lines 12 and 13 Into a NOR gate. When these swing low, the NOR gate goes high. Step 3 Feed address line 15 Into both inputs of a NOR gale When this line goes low, the NOR gate goes high. Step 4. Feed the WRITE signal, which is active low, to both inputs ot a NOR gate When the signal is active, the NOR gate goes high. Step 5. Feed the outputs of the above three NOR gates, which will be high when they form the values need- ed, into three inputs of an eight-input NANO gale. Step 6 Feed the remaining address lines (8. 9. 10. 11, and 14) to the other five inputs of the eight-input NAND gate When these lines go high together with the lines from Step 5, the output of the gate will be low Step 7. Connect the outputs of both eight-input NAND gates to a NOR gate. When both NAND outputs are active (they will be low), the NOR gate goes high Only when the address 4FFF appears simultaneous with a WRITE signal will this combined signal go high Table 1 Z5d, "write to 4FFF." So when we write to memory location 4FFF, whatever data is being placed in that memory address will also be brought to the output of 21. Finally, Z2 contains four separate three- state buffers. A buffer is merely a device which allows a signal to pass through it, unchanged, in one direction. The three- state quality is an important one for com- puters, because dozens of separate cir- cuit outputs are connected to the same set of wires. Confused signals and dam- aging short-circuits must be prevented. Thus, not only can some devices output a high signal (1) or low signal (0), but they can also turn invisible when they are not needed. This is the important third state. This three-state buffer Z2, though, is not part of any complicated data or ad- dress bus— its outputs only go to some re- sistors. Why the third state? It allows us to turn the sound off during a rest; the rea- sons will become clearer when we take a look at the software. A few resistors complete the circuit, blending the four outputs into two, as well as offering the outputs of Z2 a bit of pro- tection against casual cable connecting. The discrete channels can be used for those with quadriphonic systems. The Earie is very simple to build, and can be completed in an evening. Remem- ber to use a regulated five-volt power sup- ply. A good experimenter's supply is sold by Jameco Electronics (1021 Howard Ave- nue, San Carlos, CA 94070, (415) 592-8097) for $14.95, although a simpler source, such as that shown in Fig. 2, is adequate for the sound circuit. Any type of wiring can be used, be- 42 • 80 Microcomputing, Decemb+r 1980 + 5V 7805 . * 1 + ^tnI0 M F :6.3V 300 mA ♦ rx220 M F rs.l^F 1 * Figure 2. Power source for the sound circuit; any regulated five-volt source is adequate. cause in this circuit, neatness is a matter of aesthetics rather than necessity. For those new to digital hardware, I particular- ly recommend the wire-wrapping method as a contribution to sanity; errors in wiring can merely be unwrapped. Photo 1 shows the completed circuit, which fits on a small 2 by 2 1/2-inch perf- board. The "header" connector on the card's edge is a useful, money-saving sub- stitute for expensive 40-wire cables (which are clumsy to strip and solder to circuit boards). Instead, this connector mates DO 3 Dl 4 02 7 D3 8 D4 IS OS 14 06 17 D7 18 with a cable whose far end plugs into the TRS-80 expansion connector. The cable and a pair of headers can be obtained from Digi-Key Corp., P.O. Box 677, High- way 32 South, Thief River Falls, MN 56701 , (800) 346-5144. The cable, which can be used for many projects, costs $11.95; a pair of headers is $3.49. Making Sound with Software The production of interesting sound and music with microcomputers is a con- siderable challenge. December Kilobaud ♦ 5V T20 Microcomputing features more than a half-dozen ways to create music. Some of the newer integrated circuits described can produce three-voice music, but the programming can be complicated. The way the Earie creates sound is by listening to the activities taking place in memory location 4FFF. In fact the sound is no more than the pattern of changing electrical impulses of various bits being stored in that memory address! By carefully considering computer tim- ing, we can turn individual bits of that memory address off and on often enough to produce a square wave. There is only one serious problem: time. BASIC is much too unwieldly to use for producing multi- voice sound waves because even its sim- plest instructions take a large fraction of a second to execute. A simple loop like 10 FOR X = TO 255 : POKE 2O480.X : NEXT takes two full seconds to complete. There's not much monophonic music in zi i^ 1 2 r iu IK -vw- IK ■vw- IK - il it H '» it •> IB rt Q bo o fc» 10 11 tt 14 * B o| u U 17 1* 1» 11 M =M^ o Wo U fao C\\ 4o 4. gfj « .1 44 57 to M fr« 71 74 to •4 * % 104 — +- — o- i0t im iao iij nb 144 in ,40 would take to toggle a bit in the accumula- tor, restore the original pitch value, and move on. The reason for this is subtle: If we take more time when changing the waveform than when leaving it alone, then a higher frequency (because it toggles more often) will take more aggregate time than a lower frequency. Hence, it will lengthen the loop as a whole, and lower the simultaneous pitches in the chord! When all the testing has been complet- ed for four voices, the result (in line 1220) is written to 4FFF. Thus, whatever wave- form differences might have occurred are now transferred to both memory location 4FFF and to the circuit. (See Fig. 5.) In lines 1230 to 1280, the note duration value is retrieved from the alternate BC register pair, and the loop is repeated until the note is complete. When the note is fin- ished, the index register is moved six places forward to the next block of notes and durations (lines 1370 and 1380). A duration of zero gives the cue to end the music (lines 1440-1460); if the BREAK key is depressed (lines 1470-1500), the piece also concludes. The program in Program Listing 2 con- verts a familiar tune to values which can be read by the assembly language pro- gram. Connect the Earie, powerup the TRS-80, set MEMORY SIZE to 20320, and CLOAD the BASIC program. There is just enough room to squeeze it in, but you must CLEAR0 before running it. Its only job is to read the pitch values for the in- dividual voices and durations and POKE them in place starting at 20480 (5000 hex). The starting address is also put in place. Load the SYSTEM music subroutines. Figure 4. Useful pitches that can be derived by the program in Listing 1. The pitches shown, which are only approximate, are for a TRS-80 with a 50 percent speed up modifi- cation installed. Pitches sound a tritone below on an unmodified unit. VOICE I REGISTER H-l VOICE 2 RE6ISTER L«5 VOICE 3 REGISTER D>6 VOICE 4 REGISTER E>3 HEX VALUE IN RIGHTMOST BITS OF 4FFF: rijiriririrLmuirirLnnjuiriririrLmi i jl Figure 5. Idealized waveforms present at the output of the circuit, representing the changes to the four high bits in memory location 4FFF. I'll. •()<•< Result Integer Result 160 44 970 40 179878 152 47.336 38 189 345 144 49 966 36 199864 136 52 905 34 211621 126 56.212 32 224 848 114 63115 28 256.969 106 66.622 27 266 486 104 69 164 26 276735 96 74 949 24 299.797 90 79 946 22 327 061 64 85656 21 342625 80 89939 20 359.766 76 94.673 19 378.691 72 99932 18 399.729 66 105.811 17 423242 64 112.424 16 449695 60 119919 15 479.675 57 126.230 14 513 937 54 133 243 13 553.471 52 138.368 12 599 593 48 149 898 11 654 102 44 163 525 10 719.512 42 171.312 9 799 458 Table 2 48 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 100 0-20460 110 FOR X » 0+2 TO 22000 STEP6 120 READ A : IF A-255 THEN 380 130 POKE X,A : NEXT 141 DATA 9,0,0 150 DATA0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 160 DATA0, 0,0, 0,0, 0,24,0 170 DATA24, 0,16, 0,16, 0,18,0 180 DATA20, 0,21, 0,24, 0,27,0 190 DATA24, 0,21, 0,20, 0,18,0 200 DATAU.16,16,16,16,24,0 210 DATA24,24,16,0,16,16,18,0 220 DATA20,0,21,8,24,0,27 230 DATA24,24,21,21,20,20,18,18 240 DATA16,16,16,16,16,16 250 DATA15,18,16,15 260 DATA13,12,16,16,18 270 DATA20,24,21,20 280 DATAIB.18,20.18 290 DATA16,16,16,16,15,15,16,16 300 DATA16,16,18,18,20,20,21,21 310 DATA24,24,24,24,20,21,24,0 320 DATA18,18,18,20,18 330 DATA16,16,15,15,13,13,12,12 340 DATA16,18,20,21 350 DATA24,24,24,24,24,24 360 DATA 24,24,24,24,24 370 DATA24,24,24,0,255 380 REM * VOICE B 390 FOR X • Q+3 TO 22000 STEP6 400 READ B : IF B=255 THEN 660 410 POKE X,B : NEXT 420 DATA 0,0,0 430 DATA0, 0,0, 0,32, 0,0, 0,0 449 DATA0,0,0,9,32,0,0,0 459 DATA32, 0,0, 0,24, 0,0,0 460 DATA32, 9,0, 0,24, 0,0,0 470 DATA32, 0,0, 0,24, 0,0,0 480 DATA20,21,20,24,21,24,0 490 DATA32,32,0,0,24,24,0,0 500 DATA32, 0,0, 0,24, 0,0 510 DATA32,30,27,24,21,24,21,21 520 DATA20,21,20,24,21,21 530 DATA24, 0,27,0 540 DATA32,0,40,20,21 550 DATA24,30,27,27 560 DATA2B,28,27,30 570 DATA32,32,32,32,24,0,24,0 580 DATA20,20,21,21,24,24,26,26 590 DATA32,32,32,32,32,0,32,32 600 DATA24,24,24,0,0 610 DATA32,32,32,36,27,27,27,28 620 DATA26,24,28,26 630 DATA24,27,30,32,30,36 640 DATA32,32,32,32,32 650 DATA32,32,32,255 660 REM • VOICE C 670 FOR X » Q-f4 TO 22000 STEP6 680 READ C : IF C-255 THEN 940 6 90 POKE X,C : NEXT 790 DATA0,0,9 719 DATA0, 0,0, 0,40, 0,0, 0,0 720 DATA0, 0,0, 0,40, 0,0,0 730 DATA40, 36, 32, 0,40, 0,0,0 749 DATA40, 36, 32, 0,40, 0,0,0 750 DATA40, 36, 32, 0,40, 0,0,9 760 DATA27,27,27,27,27,0,0 779 DATA4B, 36, 32, 0,40, 0,0,0 780 DATA40,36,32,0,40,0,0 790 DATA40,36,32,36,32,36,40,30 800 DATA27, 27,27, 21, 27,0 810 DATA36,36,54,54 820 DATA42,42,64,64,64 830 DATA48,48,42,38 840 DATA36,36,32 ,42 850 DATA40,49,49,40,49,49,0,0 860 DATA40, 36, 32, 0,49,9,9,0 870 DATA40,36,32,0,40,36,40,42 880 DATA48,48,48,0,0 890 DATA40,36,32,0,40,36,48,0 990 DATA42,42,42,42 910 DATA40,40,40,4O,40,4O 920 DATA40,40,40,40,40 930 DATA40,40,40,255 940 REM * VOICE D 950 FOR X - Q+5 TO 22000 STEP6 960 READ D : IF D-255 THEN 1220 970 POKE X,D : NEXT 980 DATA64,60,54 990 DATA48, 0,64, 0,64, 0,64, 60, 54 1000 DATA48, 0,64, 0,64, 0,64,0 1010 DATA96, 0,64, 0,64, 0,60,0 1020 DATA96, 0,64, 9, 64, 0,84,0 1030 DATA96, 0,64, 0,64, 0,84,0 1049 DATA64,64,64,64,64,64,0 1959 DATA96, 0,64, 0,64, 0,60,0 1960 DATA96, 0,64, 0,64, 0,84 1070 DATA48,48,54,54,60,60,72,72 1089 DATA64,64.64,64,64,64 1990 DATA72,72,80,80 1100 DATA84,84,96,96,96 1110 DATA96,96,108,96 1120 DATA144, 72, 54,54 1139 DATA80, 9, 54, 0,54, 0,80,0 1140 DATA96,0,60,0,64,9,128,9 1159 DATA96, 96,96, 0,80, 80, 80,0 1160 DATA60,64,7 2,80,84 1179 DATA96,96,69,64,60,64,72,72 1180 DATA64,64,128,128 1190 DATA96,96,96,96,96,96,96 1290 DATA0,64,6B,54 1210 DATA48,64,96,255 1229 REM • RHYTHMS 1230 FOR X - Q TO 22000 STEP6 1240 READ E : IF E>255 THEN 1490 1259 POKE X,E:POKE X+1,100 : NEXT 1260 DATA3,3,3 1270 DATA4,4,4,4,4,4,3,3,3 1280 DATA4,4,4,«,4,4,4,4 1290 DATA4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4 1300 DATA4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4 1319 DATA4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4 1329 DATA4,4,4,4,8,4,4 1338 DATA4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4 1349 DATA4,4,4,4,4,4,8 1359 DATA4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4 1360 DATA4,4,4,4,8,8 1379 DATA8,B,8,8 1380 DATA8,8,4,4,8 1390 DATA8,8,8,8 1400 DATA8,8,8,8 1410 DATA4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4 1429 DATA4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4 1439 DATA4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4 1440 DATA4,4,8,8,8 1459 DATA4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4 1460 DATA8,8,8,8 1470 DATA3,3,3,3,5,5,5,6,7,7,7 1480 DATA11,14,42,9,9,255 1499 POKE16526,96:POKE16527,79 Program Listing 2. BASIC listing of a familiar holiday tune to be used in conjunc- tion with the machine-language driver in Listing 1. and either BREAK or enter a slash ("/"). The piece is ready to play. Connect the cir- cuit's cables to a high-fidelity audio ampli- fier, and type: PRINT USR(0) Well, it seems lively enough, but why are the pitches so low? Look at Table 2. The maximum frequency that an unmodi- fied TRS-80 can produce using this pro- gram is 719 5.12 Hz, which means the pro- gram loops through its actions more than 7000 times per second. By itself, this is a very high frequency, nearly double the highest playable note on an acoustic in- strument. The difficulty arises when we are forced to use one of 255 possible values through which to send our pitch loop. This means that the only possible pitch values are 7195.12 divided by one through 7195.12 divided by 255. The smaller number of divi- sions aren't close to a traditional scale, al- though the notes are high. The larger num- bers yield pitches that are fairly in-tune, but also quite low. You might be forced to think of the mel- ody as being sung by a group of very raspy baritones. Another option is a hardware speed-up to the TRS-80 (see 80 Microcom- puting, Feb., 1980). This will raise the pitch a half octave. Another option is to use a re- triggerable flip-flop at the far end of 22. This requires one more integrated circuit to reshape the waveforms and make them audible. There are also a few software methods, but they reduce the attractiveness of the program. The extraction of a voice will raise the pitch; the extraction of two voices will raise it further. At last, a single voice can be produced which will open up a great portion of the traditional scale. Just think— if another three TRS-80's turn up for the holidays. . . It is possible to create a look-up table by compiling the score as it is input, be- fore it is performed. In that way, a com- posite monaural sound can be produced that is relatively in tune and higher in pitch. However, this method is sophisti- cated and certainly outside the scope of "Applications." Of course, the realm of quadriphonic, three-dimensional audio sound effects is still available, and perhaps this is the best use of the Earie. If you plan to use the circuit with an au- dio mixer, POKE 20479 (4FFF) with zero before starting; this will get all the voices in phase (i.e., starting at the same time). Likewise, you can experiment with phas- ing by altering the value in 4FFF before be- ginning a piece, of at the start of each note. Those with an expansion interface can save the trouble of building the hardware at the cost of lowering the pitches still fur- ther. The pitch value can be stored at 4FFF, but also loaded into 37E8, which is already mapped to the printer port ad- dress. Just hook up some resistors to the edge card, and it's ready to go. Of course, you can't use rests in this configuration. Creating Your Own Tunes Putting together your own music is time-consuming but straightforward. Fig. 3 is an excerpt from my arrangement of the tune in Program Listing 2. These mea- sures are written two ways; One is stan- dard musical notation, and the other is notated to use with the hardware. Since the machine language program uses a single loop to produce all four voices, it follows that the loop is conclud- ed at the termination of the shortest note in a harmonic group. That's why a note must be redrawn on the score— as a re- minder to include in in the next loop. Also, 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 49 5& APPLICATIONS each rest is counted as a separate "note of silence," requiring that each rest be no longer than the shortest note played si- multaneously with it. Once you are certain that you've got the score broken into four lines of equal parts, you can create the BASIC POKE program. The pattern is six bytes long, two for dura- tion, and four voices. The note's duration takes two bytes. The first byte must be at least 1 , and the second can be any value. I maintain the second byte at 100 (64 hex) in this example, but it can be used to shade the rhythm with rubato. Finally, the voices follow in order, one byte for each pitch or rest in the harmonic structure. A zero in any voice position de- fines a rest, and a zero in the first duration position defines the double bar. Good luck, and here's hoping you like those raspy baritones! Personal Thoughts This month's Applications completes my first year with 80 Microcomputing. Dur- ing that time I have been rewarded with hundreds of letters and telephone calls from readers with suggestions and ques- tions. Since early spring, every column has been based on suggestions from readers, and there are many more yet to address. So during 1981, expect to discov er how to add ROM and RAM to your TRS-80; a step-by-step on converting a machine language program to BASIC POKEs and strings; what to do when your system stops working; high-resolution graphics (What did he say????); single- keystroke subroutines; and replacing your BASIC ROM with a monitor of your own making. I look forward to hearing from you, and wish all you remarkable, diverse TRS-80 users the very best during this sea- son and the coming year.B 10 POB X - 20320 TO 20478 : READ A : POKE X,A t NEXT 26 DATA 221,33,0,80,1,255,79,217,221,70,0,221 30 DATA 78,1,217,221,102,2,221,110,3,221,86,4 50 DATA 221.94.5,10,230,15,36,37,194,133,79,203 60 DATA 231,44,45,194,140,79,203,239,20,21.194,147 76 DATA 79,203,247,28,29,194,154,79,283,255,2,10 86 DATA 37,194,168,79,238,1,221,102,2,195,174,79 90 DATA 253, 229, 2S3, 225, 230, 255, 45, 194, 186, 79, 238, 2 100 DATA 221,110,3,195,192,79,253,229,253,225,230,255 110 DATA 21,194,204,79,238,4,221,86,4,195,216,79 120 DATA 253,229,253,225,230,255,29,194,222,79,238,9 130 DATA 221,94,5,195,228,79,253,229.253.225,236,255 140 DATA 2. 217, 11, 120, 177, 217, 194, 1S5.79, 17, 6,0 156 DATA 221,25,221,126,0,183,200.58,64.56,183.202 160 DATA 103.79,201 Program Listing 3. BASIC listing that will POKE in place the assembly language driver for the 4FFF sound circuit. Once this program has been run, it may be delet- ed to make room for Listing 2. SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS microcomputing Give al! your friends who own a TRS-80* the best possible Christmas present— 80 licrocomputing. 80 Microcomputing is the only journal devoted to the TRS-80* and its users . . . the only journal packed with reviews, programs, applications and hundreds dollars worth of software. 80 Microcomputing—the best idea for Christmas yet. Bill: Me Card # MC VISA AF YES. bill me for signature 1 year at $18.00 Expire Date Interbank # My Name Address City State m Please enter a one year gift subscription to: ime . Address My State Canadian $20/1 year only US funds Foreign $28/1 year only US funds All Christmas Gift Subscriptions will begin with the January 1981 issue. 80 Microcomputing • PO Box 981 • Farmingdale NY 1 1 737 50 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 SO NEWS Ad it Ad hv Nanr.v RnhArts edited by Nancy Robertson Model I Caught By FCC Fallout Have you heard that the Model I is being discontinued? That's the latest piece of gossip traveling the indus- try grapevines. There is reason to speculate on an early death tor the first born of Tandy's compu- ter line: Model I micros are in short supply, and the Model I must be remodeled to meet Federal Communication Commis- sion (FCC) regulations that will go into ef- fect Jan. 1, 1981. Will the Model I be discontinued? Ac- cording to Tandy/Radio Shack's John Shirley, who heads the computer division, "That's not the sort of thing we'd like to comment on one way or the other." Ed Juge, another Tandy exec, did mention "the difficulty of guaranteeing shipment after the first of the year." Shirley claims that Model I computers are presently "in short supply because we are later than we anticipated with the Model III, and it has put a strain on produc- tion." But FCC compliance is still up In the air. The FCC first considered regulating low power communicating devices for radio frequency Interference (RFI) in 1976. After three years of study, rules limiting radio frequency (RF) emissions were adopted as amendments to Part 15 of the Chapter 47 laws (laws under the jurisdiction of the FCC). The amendments, rather than cover- ing the broad range of electronic com- municating devices, regulate computer RF emissions only. They are particularly strict for personal computers. The problem originates with conflicting uses of the electromagnetic spectrum, which carries television and radio signals. The extremely quick electronic signals and pulses that are the basis of computer operations create high frequency radio waves. Circuits and traces sometimes act ' i y^(Jfo»o^ as antennae for these waves. Unless fil- tered, computer generated RF interferes with radio and TV transmission. In delineating the need for regulation, the FCC has divided computers into two broad categories: Class A and Class B. A Class A "computing device is marketed for use in commercial, industrial or busi- ness environment(s)"; and a Class B "computer device is marketed for use in a residential environment notwithstanding use in commercial, business and indus- trial environment(s)." The term "computer device" is meant to stretch to the realm of peripherals, which are also required to comply by Jan. 1 if they are marketed for consumers. A study of the Part 15 amendments, conducted by Wewer & Mahn for the Micro Industry Trade Assoc., points out that the "dual classification scheme is rooted in the theory that Class B (con- sumer) devices are in closer proximity to radio, TV, and in many cases, land mobile services than Class A (commercial) de- vices and thus have a higher potential for causing interference." Restrictions on Personal Computers For this reason and others, the FCC is imposing heavier restrictions on home computers. Gene Smarte, the technical editor of 73, a magazine for ham radio en- thusiasts, estimates that Class B radia- tion limits are over 3 times more de- manding than Class A limits. His calcula- tions are based on the figures given in Table 1, which are taken from sections .810 and .830 of Part 15. Wewer & Mahn have interpreted Class B limitations to rule out RFI from 450Kh to 1000Mh— prac- tically the whole broadcasting range. Actual compliance to the new rules is also less stringent for Class A products in the view of the Wewer & Mahn law firm. Manufacturers are required to "verify" Class A compliance— a lax measure in comparison to "certification" which is re- quired for class B devices. Certification is granted on the basis of testing, applica- tion forms and fees. Verification is grant- ed on the basis of the manufacturer's word about test results. The Effect on Prices Depending on the amount of research and development required to meet the regulations, it is likely that FCC com- pliance will result in price hikes for several products. John Shirley, the corporate head of the computer division of Radio Shack, says that, "There's no question a substantial amount of money has been spent on R and D because of this." Shirley believes the price of some products will remain un- changed, but that other prices are bound to reflect the added work. Price increases will not affect the new color computer, which has been regis- tered with the FCC as a TV interface de- vice under separate FCC guidelines. Al- though cost has been added to the manu- facture of the Model III, Shirley does not believe it will warrant a price hike for cus- tomers. "The Model II is a Class A device in our opinion," Shirley says, and should Continues to pagw 56 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 51 SO NEWS Micros Spotted in Crime Lineup That crime has kept pace with technol- ogy is an inescapable fact of life, but the problem has assumed a whole new dimension with the advent of computer science. The nub of the problem is that business and government have all too fre- quently plunged into the computerization of their operations with little or no regard for security. It is not a small problem nor is it a sim- ple one. Estimates of losses due to com- puter crime run anywhere from $100 million to $40 billion annually, but the rather disturbing truth of the matter is that no one really knows how much is being siphoned off. Microcomputer Crime Heretofore, computer crime has been primarily limited to the realm of main- frames and minicomputers, but micro- computers are fast becoming a favored tool in the compucrook's burglar bag. For y^dlMi^dfiAi(Um example, a micro might be programmed to mimic a terminal and thereby secure ac- cess to a sensitve data bank. It may also be used to clandestinely duplicate a sign- on routine just long enough to obtain the large computer's password. The thief may then interrogate perhaps thousands of systems at his convenience. Microcomputer-related crime may also take the form of an automated "cottage industry." Such was the case recently in Pennsylvania where John "Cap'n Crunch" Draper was arrested for "phone freaking," spoofing Ma Bell's dial codes to make free use of the phone lines. Although the offense is not new, Draper's updated version of it was more sophisticated than previous methods in that he used a microcomputer. Utilizing a highly involved program, Draper inter- faced his Apple II with his home phone via a modem. He was then able to scan the phone system for operating WATS lines. Eventually he was detected by the phone company's monitoring equipment. A simpler form of micro crime was un- covered earlier this year in Tulsa, OK where a bookie had neatly and efficiently encoded all of his illicit transactions on his desk-top computer. His operation was raided, but, much to the consternation of the vice squad, none of the usual trap- pings of a bookie joint were apparent. All the records were maintained on a few diskettes. The police lugged the equipment back to the station house where they tried, un- successfully, to crack the computer's pro- tocol code. Failing in this they summoned a manufacturer's rep. In a 1980 version of an old "bright lights and rubber hoses" session the rep successfully interrogated the "accomplice," paving the way to con- viction of the bookie. All of this is Greek to the public at large and, predictably, the person on the street tends to be skepti- cal of that which he does not understand. Recently, a survey entitled "Dimensions of Privacy" was performed by Weston Assoc, for Century In- surance, Inc. Among the re- sults are these three items which serve to illustrate the somewhat uncomfortable feelings many people have about computers in general. 54 percent of the respon- dents now believe that com- puters are a threat to privacy; 63 percent feel that the use of computers should be sharply curtailed to preserve privacy; and 51 percent state that in 10 years people will have lost much of their ability to keep their lives private. Laws on Computer Abuse State and federal lawmakers have intro- duced several proposals designed to curb computer abuse. Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D-Conn) has sponsored S-240, The Feder- al Computer Systems Protection Act, now being studied by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Originally introduced in 1976, the bill has since undergone substantial rewording to more precisely deal with the technicalities of the areas it covers. The bill in its present form was drafted by Philip R. Manuel, an investigative con- sultant in the field of white collar crime and for 11 years chief investigator for the U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation. "Computer crimes (controls) have to date been shoehorned into existing by in- adequate laws dealing with crimes rang- ing from mail fraud to obscene phone calls," said Manuel. "But this bill clearly defines computer crime as computer crime and affords a large measure of pro- tection to the computer systems of the federal government, financial institutions, and all businesses which conduct inter- state commerce. It further envisions pro- tection for sophisticated electronic funds transfer systems whose vulnerability to computer fraud is enormous." Several laws have been enacted on the state level to define and control computer crime. California's legislation in this area is generally acknowledged to be among the best to date, although it is not above criticism. Don Parker, a computer crime expert with SRI International in Menlo Park, CA finds himself in agreement with most of the California's computer crime statute but, takes exception to the law's defini- tion of computers. He says it excludes "programmable pocket calculators with attached external memory devices." In Parker's opinion, the clause is vague and it constitutes a weak spot in an otherwise good piece of legislation. Combatting Compucrime Effective methods of combatting com- pucrime are, of course, available. Main- taining the physical security of the com- puter can be divided into four broad clas- sifications: 1) controlling the entrance to Continues lo page 56 52 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 Competency Tests Processed by TRS-80s At Conant High School, Jaffrey, NH, a TRS-80 is being used to process and record state mandated tests. Administra- tors at Conant believe it is the first 80 ap- plied to Competency Testing. The tests are required in New Hampshire, as they are in 38 other states. The tests are mandated under NH State Statute 186.5, Section Six, which delin- eates the powers and duties of school boards. The law has been on the books since 1973, however, it was only in 1977 that the state implemented a set of guide- lines called the Accountability Plan under which competency testing falls. The Accountability Plan has six steps with which each school district in the state must comply. They include perfor- mance indicators, assessment, analysis of data (Specifically, the state wants to know what the proficiency level is for a whole school in math, language arts, his- tory and science.), and a management plan which outlines district plans for im- provements in levels of proficiency throughout the year. Do these tests contribute to the level of proficiency? Since Competency Testing was first implemented about four years ago, the middle-school students in the Jaffrey-Rindge district have steadily in- creased their performance level on the Stanford Achievement Test, a standard- ized norm test given nation-wide. The overall average fell into the ninth stanine in 1979, which is in the highest percentile of achievement, Larry Bramblett, director of instruction for the district, said that when competency testing first started students placed in about the fifth stanine. which is in the average range. Putting 80s to Work This particular school district is ahead of its time— not only in instituting the test but also in their method of compiling re- sults and making them as timely as possi- ble. John Davys, senior consultant to the NH State Office of Education, and the ad- ministrators of this school district feel that the micro is vital to how successful these specialized tests can be. Davys feels that the Conant project is significant on a statewide level because, "It is unique in the sense that they have maximized the use of technology. Schools have one of the largest stores of human resource and this resource bank shouldn't be tied up with mundane tasks. Technolo- gy does those tasks more accurately and quickly and allows the staff to work with the students— which is the way it should be." At a meeting of the Joint Management Council of educators from all over the state, Keith Burke, chairman of the coun- cil and principal of Conant H.S., gave a demonstration of how their TRS-80 has helped the district manage Competency Test results. "The council is there," said Burke, "to help other districts implement Competen- cy Tests. They (the council) are always looking for a better way to do it and one way is through managing and keeping track of the data." That's where the 80 comes in. "The most important thing is keeping accurate records of the testing results or else the whole system goes out the win- dow. The computer handles this very well." said Burke. "Also, it's within 98 per- cent of the school districts" budgets." Bramblett said that compiling the re- sults without the computer took too much time and it was also costing the district about $7,000 annually to have someone work on them full time. The whole sys- tem—Radio Shack Line Printer III, TRS-80 48K Level II— including the program, cost the Jaffrey-Rindge district roughly $5000. In New Hampshire, Competencies are taken in grades three, seven and 10 and are given at least three times a year. The way the system works, if a student passes all four areas of testing, for example, in the seventh grade, that student will not have to take the exams again until the 10th grade. If a student doesn't pass the Competency in a particular area, science for example, but passes in the other three areas, that student will only retake the failed test until it's passed. How Conant Discovered the 80 Conant H.S. has owned a 8K PET, for the past few years. Both Burke and Bramblett saw what the most basic of mi- cros could do and decided that a comput- er was what they needed in order to com- pile and turn around test results quickly. After checking out both APPLE and PET systems, they were told by both dealers that it would be difficult converting the program. Because the program was origi- nally written on a TRS-80 by programmer Peter Wells, and because he highly recom- mended the TRS-80, it became the logical choice. Dave Bramblett Praising Micros to Educa- tors Some of the specifics of the program are updating, displaying and adding to student records of the Competency Test results. A summary record for the whole school, a class or an individual can be dis- played and printed. All of these categories are represented by percentage rates. The program also generates a mailing list to parents. One disk contains the test results of all the students in a particular school. The in- formation on the data disks are safe- guarded by program disks which are pro- tected by code words. The disks are dupli- cated and put into a safe. Robert L. Brunelle, commissioner for the New Hampshire State Department of Education, feels that the use of micro- computers to process testing results can be a valuable tool. "The system is ail interconnected," says Brunelle. "Each district must report to the commission. From this data, the commission does a statewide sampling and from the sampling reports to the Leg- islature, and in turn the Legislature acts accordingly with the overall findings." The use of micros in the school districts to compile test results could expedite what can normally be a long and tedious bureaucratic process. Besides taking care of the paperwork of Competency Tests, Burke is working on programs that will do scheduling and report cards. Some of the students at Conant H.S. have also become fascinated with the many uses of the TRS-80. "For example," said Burke, "the student council president was having trouble keeping track of the in- ventory in the school store, so he wrote a program to take care of the problem. It (the TRS-80) is a fantastic teaching tool"! By Pamela Petrakos 80 Staff J 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 53 SINEWS Readers 9 Digest Swallows the Source n a jointly issued press release spokes- men for the Reader's Digest Assoc, Pleasantville, NY and the Source Telecom- puting Corp., McLean, VA, announced the Source's acquisition by the Digest for an undisclosed amount. Terms of the ac- quisition were not made public and spokesmen for both organizations are ex- tremely reticent when queried about the deal. Rumors of the Source's financial woes have been rife for several months, and if the microcomputing grapevine is to be be- lieved, the reasons for the Source's take over are likely to lie in its own financial problems. The event is newsworthy in light of parties involved: The Digest is a multi- million dollar publishing conglomerate, and the Source is a pioneer in microcom- puter network technology. In a carefully worded press release an unidentified spokesman for the Digest is quoted as follows: "The service which can be rendered in helping to expand the de- livery of education, health care services, information and knowledge via cable systems, telephones, satellites, etc., is thoroughly consistant with our publishing philosophy." Several words stand out: Education, health care services, cable systems, satel- lites. It appears that someone within the Digest organization has big plans for the Source. What these plans are will remain conjecture until both organizations de- cide to lift the veil of silence they have painstakingly maintained. Everyone who is anyone within the Digest organization prefers not to comment. Spokesmen for the Source have proved equally taciturn, and one can only wonder why. Logical Merger The merger of a publishing conglomer- ate and a computer network is quite logi- cal. This type of arrangement reflects cur- rent trends within the publishing industry regarding small company acquisition by larger organizations and efforts by large corporations to diversify their operations as a hedge against the declining economy. Jack Taub, chairman of Source Tele- computing Corp., says in the joint press release, "We could not have found a bet- ter partner than the Reader's Digest." He is probably correct. The vast financial re- sources the Digest has at its disposal and the business acumen it brings to the com- puter network industry are formidable. The impact this merger will have on the Source's 7000 present customers is un- clear, however. One thing is obvious. Changes are tak- ing place within the computer network in- dustry. Though a clear picture of what can be expected as a result of the Source's take- over has yet to develop, the doings in Pleasantville and McLean indicate one thing— this might be a good year to ask for a modem for Christmas. ■ by Chris Brown 80 Staff Campaign Applications: Did Computers Influence Voters? What really went into the Presidential campaign? Did we choose a winner for the intelligence, integrity and capabili- ty of the candidate, or did we judge the product of a computer inspired version of the perfect politician? John Cragan and Donald Shields, pro- fessors of communications at Illinois State University and the University of Missouri, developed a computer program that analyzes demographic statistics and opinions polled from a given geographical area. The program then chooses among several versions of statements address- ing current political situations and ar- ranges a campaign speech that should appeal strongly to the average voter in the polled area. In the September 22 issue of Computer- world, Cragan is quoted as saying, "I'm sure that almost every [candidate] out there today is using a variation of this. I don't think it's as sophisticated or as cyn- ical, but it's something that is used to pre- test [statements and ideas] before you have a candidate saying them." Before the nation made its choice at the polls, I spoke to campaign workers at the national headquarters of the three major presidential candidates. Each campaign made use of computers in several applica- tions; none admitted to using them to the extent suggested by Cragan, however. Carter's Camp The Carter campaign probably had the most organized and effective applica- tions. Bill Krause was the Director of Infor- mation Services at the national headquar- ters. He had a staff of three, himself, one of Carter's sons, and a 19-year-old who came on the staff and was trained in BA- SIC. In-house, the campaign used Tektronix microcomputers for standard data pro- cessing. With these, they kept files on all personnel and volunteers: skills, when they were available for work, etc. The largest day to day job tackled with the computers was scheduling. The schedule of who should be where doing what changed often — particularly in the last few weeks of the campaign. Members of the Carter family on the campaign trail traveled with a terminal, and checked scheduling changes daily through the campaign's mailbox at The Source. The Carter campaign also used the New York Times Info Bank, with which they've had a contract since 1969. The Info Bank was used to do research on the other can- didates, and to scan news stories for key- words concerning Reagan, military force, etc. The campaign people received ab- stracts of articles containing pertinent keywords, and these facts were used in turn for campaign speech writing. This method of research and fact gathering greatly reduced the work involved in track- ing Carter's opponents, and dropped the necessary information into the laps of Carter's speech writers. Krause said the general election budget was done on the G. E. time sharing sys- tem. IBM System Six word processors were used for personalized letters and other mail. The Anderson Campaign John Boswell, EDP Coordinator (among other things) for the Anderson campaign, described three computer applications used in that office. Ninety-five percent of the budget was used to keep computer files on contributers and supporters of the Anderson campaign: contribution history, general personal characteristics, income, and other statistics which could be used by state campaign offices looking for local volunteers and canvassers. Other applications mentioned by Bos- well were payroll and disbursement rec- ords. All of these applications were in turn used again to prepare internal manage- ment reports and the required income re- ports to the FCC. The Anderson campaign was under Continues to page 56 54 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 Put an image on your TRS-80 These cassette programs will introduce you to a new generation of quality software for your 16K Level II TRS-80. • 158 j MAKE YOUR CHECK OR MONEY ORDER PAYABLE TO: I Image Computer Products, Inc. I 615 Academy Drive •NOC.O.D.'S | Northbrook, IL60062 I PLEASE PRINT NAME I ADDRESS I | CITY ■ SIGNATURE _ | PLEASESEND I 8001 I I I I I I STATE ZIP_ PACKAGES INDICATED qty: PRICE 8002 8003 8004 STRATEGY PACK I STRATEGY PACK II STRATEGY PACK III ACTION PACK I ANY COMBINATION OF TWO ALL FOUR | VISA MASTERCARD | MONEY ORDER CHECK I CARD* I EXPIRATION DATE $19.95 ea. $19.95 ea. $19.95 ea. $19.95 ea. $36.95 $69.95 IL RES AO fi - TAX SHIPPING * HANDLING TOTAL $1.00 Everything from Fast-action animated skill games through mind boggling Strategy and Simulation programs is included in this software collector's series. Each package contains a quality program cassette in a protective storage box, and complete operating instructions. These programs run on a 16K Level II TRS-80 Model I. Strategy Pack I #8001 Wall Street Challenge. This computer simulation of the stock exchange is easy to play and always challenging. Invest in several corporations ranging from Municipal Power and Light, a blue chip stock that usually provides steady growth, to Offshore Industries Limited, a high-flying speculative stock that is certain to change often. Roman Checkers. Challenge a friend or test your logic and skill In a match against the computer with this ancient game of strategy. Strategy Pack II #8002 Metropolis. This computer simulation of a small city lets you wheel and deal in the fast-paced world of real estate. Up to eight players can buy businesses with an eye on building a fortune. Mlndmaster. This classic strategy game takes on a new dimension as the computer designs the hidden problems and reports the results of each guess. Wordmaster. Multiple players may compete against the computer to find the hidden word. Each player can select the level of difficulty that matches his individual skill. Strategy Pack III #8003 Wildcatting. This computer simulation of an oil field combines chance, adventure, and discovery The object of the game is to purchase property, drill oil wells, and strike it rich. Frame Up. The object of this strategy game is to "frame-up" your opponent by selecting your plays so that all possible moves are blocked. Think several moves ahead to increase your chances of winning. Recall. Up to four players can play this classic game of matching pairs of numbers hidden behind a grid. The computer will select the numbers at random and score the results of each guess. Action Pack I #8004 Space Ace. You are in command of a Galactic Federation Starfighter. Search out and destroy enemy ships with your lasers. Shooting Gallery. A good ol" county fair shooting gallery right on your own computer. Loads of fun for up to four players. Bomber Run. Pilot a bomber behind enemy lines searching out targets on the ground. Or, defend the ground and shoot down the bomber. Air-Sea Battle. Pilot your plane over an enemy ship and try to sink it. Or, captain the ship and shoot down the bomber. so FCC-Model I Dance Continued Irom page 51 not be affected by the Class B deadline. Table 2 charts the current Part 1 5 status of Radio Shack computers. Shirley made no mention of the Model I in reference to expected price changes. It is questionable whether or not the time and money required to modify the Model I warrant compliance. How much is a hob- byist willing to pay? And what about the Model III option? These are bound to be the thoughts of Tandy's top brass. Interim Labels Dave Garner, Tandy's liason with the FCC, says, "We will not make a computer that does not meet compliance after January first." In his opinion the company has three options :1) interim labels; 2) re- developing products; and 3) dropping pro- ducts. Products that are marketed after Jan. 1, 1981 that do not meet Class B specifications must carry the following label permanently attached: This equipment has not been tested to show compliance with new FCC Rules (47 CFR Part 15) designed to limit in- terference to radio and TV reception. Operation of this equipment in a residen- tial area is likely to cause unacceptable in- terference to radio communication requir- ing the operator to take whatever steps are necessary to correct the interference. Garner explains that there is currently no time limit on the use of those interim labels. They are being used broadly for pe- ripheral devices, since few companies have reached that stage in the certifica- tion process. But deadlines for the interim stage are expected soon. Garner summed up Tandy's position as he understands it by saying that "All of our product line will eventually meet com- pliance." The statement sounds positive and reassuring to consumers worried about the obsolescence of their micros. But what has he said? Will the Model I be dropped from the product line? Or will the Model I be remodeled? ■ by Nancy Robertson 80 Staff Class A Radiation Limits Frequency (F) Distance Field Strength (MHz) (meters) luV/— ) 30-88 30 30 88-216 30 50 216-1000 30 70 Class B Radiation Limits Frequency (F) Distance (MHz) (meters) 30-88 3 88-216 3 216-1000 3 Table 1 Field Strengths PLUS! Purchasers of the MUSIC BOX will receive "Newtechniques"„the micro com- puter music newsletter featuring music education, sound effects software and ideas for interfacing the MUSIC BOX to your BASIC programs. And you get the best in microcomputer music software... MU SI CRAFT 1 .2, which consists of five machine language programs: 1. Intelligent Music Editor (not merely a text editor) ■ Catches notation errors immediately upon entry ■ Has full complement of cursor controls ■ Uses notation similar to standard music notation ■ Supports unlimited tempo, key signature, automatic transposition, and "instrument" changes throughout a piece ■ A special microtone option divides the octave into up to 99 increments, for producing glissandos and modern electronic music, 2. Fast multi-pan compiler supports powerful chorus and repeal features, 3. Play program with four modes Standard mode for individual songs Juke box mode for creating your own song menus Live keyboard mode for turning your computer into a real-time instrument Rehearsal mode for playing along with your computer. 4. Waveform program lets you create instrument sounds in addition to the 14 supplied. 5. Utility program gives hard copy print out ■ Transmits music filet via modem. Including power supply, speaker cable, 100-plus page manual in custom binder, and Musicraft tape and disk versions on cassette, plus demo music '149. AOO S3 SHIPPING PLUS SI IF COO N V STATE RES. AOD SALES TAX. • 243 NEWTECH COMPUTER SYSTEMS, INC »»» Reader Service — see page 274 *5? w « 9 SCReen INPUT replaces INPUT and is easily adapted to YOUR application. • 'ARROW" keys ( f |~^- ) provide full cursor control. Makes editing easy. C^\ Can't be out-run by even the fastest typist J^fe Up to 80 data fields on a screen • Flashing cursor - won't hide data beneath it. O Fully relocatable - work in any TRS-80* Model I Level II machine, without modification. ( *TRS -80 is a Radio Shack Trademark) SCRINPUT in finance Developed for a Panfccf, lo-tn amounts. Interest rales and number of payments are typed directly Into the video worksheet. Computer cah ulales and displays results, fteiu values can be typed directly over old. Much easier and faster than INPUT. Imagine. Data entry by filling in a video form. Easy error correction - just type over mistakes. Mo cumbersome INPUT statements, no valuable data scrolling off the screen. SCRI NPUT MAKES IT POSSIBLE IN JUST T HREE STEPS: iw your input form on the video screen using PRI Define data entry fields in the SCRINPUT data table. Activate SCRINPUT through a USR cal Now fill in the blanks. SCRINPUT assigns all data to BASIC variables which are processed normally by your program. It's that easy! SCRINPUT comes with user manual of instructions, examples and demo programs. Even the loan worksheet program and a source of listing of the machine language code are given. Try SCRINPUT. If you are dissatisfied for ANY reason, return it within 10 days for a full refund. ACR Consultants 1 000 North Bittner Road New Palestine. IN 46 163 • 282 Please Send Me: : SCRINPUT on diskette $27.00 SCRINPUT on cassette $29.00 Phone Orders Welcome (317)861-6319 • All orders shipped ivithin 24 hours * JO-ddy money back guarantee ' VISA or Mastercharge accepted Indiana Residents please add 4 % sales tax. Personal Checks take two weeks to clear. Name Address. City. State Zip. Credit Card Number. Signature Expiration Date. 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 57 NEW PRODUCTS Edited by Chris Crocker S-100 Processor Board Eliminates Polling The Model CPD-280 is a Z-80A based, second-generation processor board de- signed for the S-100 computer bus. It oper- ates at four megahertz and is geared to- ward multi-user systems. Eight vectored priority interrupts maximize the central processor's executable time by eliminat- ing the need for polling. A real-time clock generates the interrupts required by the multi-user operating system. Two serial and two parallel ports utilize direct memory access for high speed data transfer. All functions are performed by LSI chips. The second generation processor board costs $750. Volume discounts are avail- able from Measurement Systems and Controls, 867 N. Main St., Orange, CA 92668. Reader Service *-» 164 Double Density Software Disk Zap 2.3, a disk editor from Micro Systems Software will work either single or double density disks. It is track and sec- tor oriented, and offers access to all parts of the disk. It formats and backs up disks, as well as edits them. DOSPLUS 3.1 D, also from Micro Sys- tems, is similar to most single density op- erating systems, but offers the increased storage of double density. Disk Zap 2.3 costs $19.95, and DOS- PLUS 3.1 D is $99.95 from Micro Systems Software, Inc., 5846 Funston St., Holly- wood, FL 33023. Reader Service ^172 Utility Cleans Disks Nupurge is a utility program that cleans disks of unwanted clutter after a program is killed. It loads the disk directory into memory, and lets the operator choose which programs to keep and which to kill. MSC Processor Board The unused sectors are zeroed. In addition, according to Soft Sector, Nupurge will figure out the password of any program. The program costs $24.95 on disk from Soft Sector Marketing Inc., P.O. Box 2471, Livonia, Ml 48150. Reader Service • 173 Education Sampler Education Sampler is a program for high school math/science courses. It will test, self-drill, or provide answers in three subject areas: algebra, geometry, and chemistry. The user may select an answer accura- cy level for testing purposes between .01 and 5% error. The cassette version costs $15 from Harry H. Briley, P.O. Box 2913, Livermore, CA 94550. Reader Service ^166 Radio Shack 1981 Computer Catalog Radio Shack's 1981 TRS-80 Computer Catalog No. RSC-4 lists Model I and II equipment, as well as the new Model III, Color Computer and Pocket Computer. Also notable are the Daisy Wheel II Printer which produces typewriter quality hard copy for $1,960; a Plotter/Printer that produces hard graphics for $1,460; and Videotex, a two-way information retrieval system terminal for $399. New education- al hardware for the TRS-80 includes the Network I Controller, which allows teachers to upload and download pro- grams for up to 16 student stations for $499. The catalog also lists books and soft- ware and is available free from Tandy/ Radio Shack, 1300 One Tandy Ctr., Fort Worth, TX 76102. Reader Service ^185 Business Analysis And Forecasting Package Oracle-80 is a business analysis and forecasting package from Instant Soft- ware. The package can be used in sales analysis and forecasting, product plan- ning and business planning. Investors can analyze stocks, company trends and growth rates. The package can be used in analysis of general economic climates, business cycles and energy consumption trends. Oracle-80 requires a TRS-80 Level II with 16K and a disk drive, and costs $99.95 for disk or $75 for the cassette version. Oracle-80 was released in Instant Soft- ware's fall-winter catalog. The catalog in- cludes 55 new programs for the TRS-80 58 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 Software for any season At The Bottom Shelf, we're continuing to produce some of the best TRS-80™ software available anywhere. In the two years since we released the Library 100, we've developed sophisticated data managing, general accounting, and system utility packages. We also developed the first disk drive head cleaners for both Model's I and II. The result has been resounding acclaim from users, dealers, and computer magazines. But this is just the beginning. In 1981, TBS will introduce for the Model II the most dazzling and intricate applications software it has yet produced. The culmination of ten months of work. In early 1981, you will witness MEGAMAIL, the most thorough and professional mailing system ever written for the Model II. We've come along way in two years. We are now on the threshold of a new era in computer programming. The Bottom Shelf is leading the way. With software for all seasons. TRS-80 is a registered trademark of the Tandy G»rrx»ration. ►-6 THE BOTTOM SHELF, INC. (404) 296-2003 • P.O. Box 49104 • Atlanta, GA 30359 v* Reader Service — see page 274 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 59 NEW PRODUCTS Models I and II, Apple II and PET. Catalogs are available free from Instant Software, Peterborough, NH 03458. Reader Service ^329 Pharmacists' Aid Pharmacy Associates' catalog lists pro- grams for medical and pharmaceutical use. Programs included are: Antibiotic Dosing, Aminoglycoside Dosing, and To- tal Parenteral Nutrition. The programs require TRS-80 Level II or Disk BASIC with 16K. The catalog also lists a TRS-80 Pocket Computer version of Aminoglycoside Dosing. All programs are available from Pharmacy Associates, 1202 Fox St., Bossier City, LA 71112. Reader Service ** 170 Catalog Lists New Books A 16-page catalog from Creative Com- puting Press features three new books. Computers in Mathematics: A Source- book of Ideas offers 224 pages of class- room activities. The Impact of Computers on Society and Ethics: a Bibliography, compiled by Gary M. Abshire, lists over 1900 entries, including books, magazine articles, news items, and scholarly pa- pers. Katie and the Computer by Fred D'lganzio and Stan Gilliam is an illus- trated adventure story that explains the workings of computers to children. The catalog also describes a record al- bum of computer music, a board game, T-shirts, reprints, back issues of Creative Computing and ROM and ten additional books. The catalog is free on request from Creative Computing Press, P.O. Box 789-M, Morristown, NJ 07960. Reader Service ** 160 Shrink Data Files Reduce is a program designed to re- duce the size of a data file made with Ra- dio Shack's Profile data file system. It al- lows a number of data files to be used on the same disk with a BASIC program. The program also will reduce the file size on the Profile disk to use only one file in a BASIC program, and use the BASIC program on the Profile disk. Reduce costs $19.95 and is available from Micro Devel- opment Systems, 720 Dartmouth Lane, Schaumburg, IL 60193. Reader Service * 162 Circuit Design Software The Circuit Design Software programs are 37 engineering and statistical pro- grams on seven cassettes from Howard W. Sams and Co. The new series of programs are for use in the design of active filters, matching pads, attenuators, heat sinks, integrated circuit timers, Zener diode regulators and bipolar transistor circuits. The programs allow the operator to solve simultaneous equations with real and complex coeffi- cients and polynomial roots. The operator also can determine the effects of design parameters. The packages require Level II BASIC and at least 16K RAM. Prices range from $16.95 to $21.95 and are available from Howard W. Sams and Co., Inc., 4300 W. 62nd St., Indianapolis, IN 46268. Reader Service • 163 Program Calculates Intoxication Intoxltron, a program from The Lawtech Co. estimates a subject's blood alcohol content and degree of intoxication, based on sex, weight, number and strength of drinks, and time since the first drink. A single occasion can be analyzed, or a general chart may be produced. INC., another program from Lawtech, explains cumulative voting, performs cal- culations necessary to understand and al- locate shareholder voting power, and con- tains a checklist of pitfalls, as well as a bibliography. Each program requires a 16K TRS-80 with Level II BASIC and costs $16. They are sold by The Lawtech Com- pany, P.O. Box 1523, La Grande, OR 97850. Reader Service ^174 Hard Disk System Works with TRSDOS HDOS-2 is a hard disk operating system designed specifically for use with TRS- DOS 1.2 on the TRS-80 Model II. The pro- gram allows a standard Corvus hard disk drive to be interfaced to existing soft- ware with minor changes to the software, according to Computer Program Associ- ates. The system occupies 1K at the top of memory, and allows multiple drives to be used. It restores PEEK and POKE com- mands, and adds three new BASIC com- mands. HDOS-2 supports only random ac- cess files; and programs or sequential files may not be stored on disk. Prices were not released. HDOS-2 is available from Computer Program Asso- ciates, 150/6 Beltway Dr., Dallas, TX 75234. Reader Service ^ 178 Parallel I/O Board Has 5-V Supply The Parallel Input/Output Board is a new peripheral board from Persteve Elec- tronics, Ltd. for the TRS-80. It connects di- rectly to the edge connector at the back of the computer. The board contains nine eight-bit I/O ports and is controlled via the Level II BASIC instructions INPUT and OUTPUT. It is powered by a single 5-volt power supply. The assembled version costs $65; an unassembled bare board is also available from Persteve Electronics, Ltd., P.O. Box 3623, Stn. D, Ottawa, Canada K1P 6H8. Reader Service s 167 General Accounting Package and CP/M System A General Accounting Package con- sisting of a general ledger, accounts re- ceivable, accounts payable and a com- plete CP/M operating system for the TRS- 80 Model II are available from Microed. The package uses double entry with user-definable accounts. Seven levels of account classification are possible with up to four digit fields at each level. The CP/M operating system included has all of the standard CP/M programs plus Microed-written utility programs. These utility programs can format disks, copy disks, and operate on a single drive. Microed CP/M for the Model II is capable of single or double density operation and automatically senses the density of the disk. The complete package costs $415 from Microed, 3910 Bandini St., San Diego, CA 92103. Reader Service * 161 Corrections Regrettably, two photos were interchanged In the November New Products section. The Micromatic 80 belongs on page 58 and the Mediamix 50/80 Inter- face on page 56. Our apologies tor the confusion. Also, we reported the address incorrectly for Multl Media Systems In our September Issue. The correct address Is Box 41084, Indianapolis. IN 46241. 60 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 Enjoying 80 MICRO? then read on 80 MICROCOMPUTING has proven, in its first several issues, that it can give you more information on theTRS-80* than any other single source. The magazine has grown more informative with each month and we still have lots more interesting ideas in the works for you. With the TRS-80* (or 90. . .etc.) being the most popular microcomputer in the en- tire world, you are going to benefit from this in many ways. The more computers there are out there of one kind . . . the more good programs you are going to have for this system. I hope that is obvious. You may be sure that 80 MICROCOMPUTING will be packed with the shorter programs and reviews of the larger ones. You can waste an awful lot of money on stuff that looks great in the ads, but fizzles out when you try to use it. You need our reviews. The wealth of programs will also mean that there will be much better programs for the TRS-80* than any other system. Put yourself in the seat of a computer pro- grammer and you'll understand this. If you are going to spend several months de- veloping a comprehensive program, and it takes all of that to write and debug a big program, would you write it for a system which has sold one hundred units or one which has sold over 300,000 systems? The answer is obvious. . .and this is why we are already seeing programs coming out for the TRS-80* which are far better than anything for any other system on the market. This is tough for other systems ... the law of the computer jungle. Between our connections with Instant Software, the largest publisher of micro- computer programs in the world, and Kilobaud MICROCOMPUTING, you know that 80 MICROCOMPUTING is going to be your most important link with software for theTRS-80*. With Instant Software being sold and promoted in every country in the world where the TRS-80* is being sold, our input of programs is also the best in the world. We get programs submitted from every- where. . .often from 50 to 100 a week! You'll get the cream of the crop either pub- lished or reviewed in 80. HARDWARE TOO The same law of the computer jungle holds for hardware. Would you, as a manu- facturer, market an accessory for a system which has sold 100 units or would you go "TRS-80 is a trademark ol Tandy Corp , first for the one which has sold hundreds of thousands. It is, as with software, self- evident why the great bulk of the hardware accessories for computers are for the TRS-80* these days. 80 MICROCOMPUTING has the advan- tage of the use of the largest and most complete microcomputer lab in the world... the one developed for Instant Software and Kilobaud MICROCOMPUT- ING. This means that most new pieces of equipment are tested and in use by our staff. . .and this means that we can tell you what we think is outstanding. . .and where we find ripof fs. This lab is important to you. SUBSCRIBE If you are not already a subscriber to 80 MICROCOMPUTING, please get signed up right now. The yearly rates are $18, and that is a bargain. Just one single program of use to you can be worth much more than that. One review of an accessory could save you many times that much invest- ment. I would appreciate it if you would ap- point yourself a committee of one to get more subscribers for the magazine. You will benefit even more than we do here at the magazine. . .because the more read- ers we have, the more ads we will be able to attract. . .and the more ads, the more pages of articles you will get every month. The 80 market can, I think, support a couple of hundred pages of ads... and that would mean a magazine of nearly 500 pages a month. That should hold you. You may not have time left to use your comput- er. ENCYCLOPEDIA If you've read Kilobaud MICROCOM- PUTING, you know that I try hard not to " the coupon beiow has been used please M out subscription tc duplicate published material. My concept is that every reader should save every issue (we sell inexpensive boxes for this so they can sit on your library shelf) and treat the magazine as a continuing encyclo- pedia of computing. I make sure that much of the material in each issue is written in simple language so it will be understand- able by even the rawest newcomer to com- puters. Oh, I have articles for the more ad- vanced users too, so you'll have some- thing to look back over later and use as your understanding of your system grows. Try to think of 80 MICROCOMPUTING as more of a large club newsletter than an ivory tower high-level publication. I'll leave the pomp to other publishers. . .the ones with the well-deserved inferiority com- plexes who cater to their inadequacies by publishing esoteric baloney. This magazine is written by the readers and edited by people whose aim is to help you enjoy your TRS-80*. SAVE With each issue costing $2.50 at your computer store, that's $30 a year. For $18 a year you can subscribe ... at least for now. As the magazine expands, please do not be surprised if the cover price increases, along with the subscription price. I started 73 Magazine for radio amateurs twenty years ago with a cover price of 37c (two for 73c) and it is up to $2.95 a copy now (and it is the largest of the ham magazines). For you bargain hunters. . .and those who find that one year goes by all too rap- idly, the three year rate for 80 is $45. This, too, will be going up. . .reflecting the infla- tion, paper increases, postage increases, and a short vacation for me in Hong Kong next year. Someone has to pay for that. the Header Se' card Ml the bach o* the maga/" YES ! Si 9 n me on as a subscriber to 80 Microcomputing for only $18 a year! Card#_ Exp. Signature Name Address City 12 issues-$18 36 issues -$45 Please bill me Payment Enclosed Master Charge VISA American Express State Zip w microcomputing Potprhnrniinh N H 034 SA Subscription begms wit Bach issues. while avail Canada: $20 per year U! All other loreinn Buhner ne«t published issue ibie are J3 each funds it ions S28 one vear onlv 3Q0B8 PMC-80 Level II 16K at $645 SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE • Reads all Level II BASIC tapes • Reads all SYSTEM tapes • Full range of peripherals The PMC-80 is a "work-alike" computer to the popular TRS-80* Model I, Level II by Tandy, Radio Shack. The PMC-80 has 16K bytes of RAM and the complete Level II 12K BASIC ROM by Microsoft that makes it 100% software compatible with programs from Radio Shack and from the hundreds of other independent suppliers. The built-in cassette player reads standard Radio Shack programs for the TRS-80.* Sold through computer stores. Video output for monitor and TV Optional FASTLOAD at 8000 baud Optional Upper/Lower case The PMC-80 will operate with any of the many peripherals Radio Shack and other independent vendors have in- vented to plug into the TRS-80.* Most importantly, the Interface Adapter per- mits Expansion Interfaces with memory expansion to 48K to be added. An Expansion Interface will also permit the addition of Radio Shack compatible 51V' disks and disk operating systems, RS 232, printers, etc. "TRS-80 is a registered trademark of Tandy Radio Shack. **422 Personal Micro Computers, Inc. 475 Ellis Street, Mountain View, CA 94043 (415) 962-0220 62 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 NEW PRODUCTS Payroll System Maintains Tax Files PR is a payroll system for the TRS-80 Model II that calculates payroll for em- ployees while maintaining monthly, quar- terly and yearly totals for reporting pur- poses to multiple states. Tax tables are maintained via on-line commands with no programming required, according to Micro Architect, Inc. PR requires TRSDOS 1.2, a 132-column printer, a dual disk system and 64K mem- ory. The program costs $129 from Micro Architect, Inc., 96 Dothan St., Arlington, MA 02174. Reader Service • 181 Index on One Disk or Two Two new versions of the Keyword In- dexing System are available from North- east Microware. The Keyword Indexing package is a series of programs enabling the user to create a disk file, build an index of all key words, and search for them us- ing combinations of key words. The new systems include an enhanced version for two disk systems and a com- pressed version for one disk systems. Both require 32K of memory and run under TRSDOS. They are available from North- east Microware, P.O. Box 2133, Boston, MA 02106. Reader Service * 183 Lighting and Fault Current Programs Two electrical engineering programs from MC.2 have on-board files of equip- ment and fixture characteristics. The E3M Fault Current Program uses a per-unit calculation procedure and per- mits an unlimited number of bus voltage levels, panels and branches. Three-phase symmetrical voltage and fault currents are calculated at any point in the system, with or without line voltage drop. The E5M Lighting Program automati- cally calculates the number, spacing and location of luminaires required to give a desired level of illumination in a project of up to 100 rooms. The program also will de- termine the lighting level supplied by a given number and type of fixture. Prices were not released. The programs are written for the TRS-80 Models I and II from McClintock Corp., P.O. Box 430980, Miami, FL 33143. Reader Service • 165 Belden Bit Driver Short-haul Modem The Belden Model 9338 metallic con- ductor Bit Driver short-haul modem is part of an RS-232C compatible data transmis- sion system. The Model 9338 metallic Bit-Driver modem provides asynchronous simplex and duplex data transmission. The metal- lic conductor unit is recommended for use in clean electrical environments. De- pending on the type of cable selected, operation range extends from 1500 to 4500 meters. The price of Model 9338 is $195 from Belden Corp., 200 S. Batavia Ave., Geneva, I L 60134. Reader Service *-» 184 Program Tests, Drills T.E.S.T. is a classroom aid from T.Y.C. Software. The package contains two pro- grams: a Maintenance Program and a Test and Drill program. The Maintenance Program creates a test of up to 35 ques- tions and saves it on cassette. In order to produce a test, a question is typed on any topic (up to 240 characters), the type of question— true or false, multiple choice, or completion— and the correct answer entered. When finished, the test is saved on cassette. Test and Drill is a utility program de- signed to accept the test prepared by the maintenance program. With the Test and Drill program, students can either use the questions as a review, take a scored test, or the teacher can have the computer pre- pare a printed test or worksheet with an- swer key. The package contains two programs and a manual for TRS-80 Level II, 16K for $11.95. For more information, contact T.Y.C. Software, 40 Stuyvesant Manor, Geneseo, NY 14454. Reader Service • 176 Terminal Programs Transfer Files SMART80E and SMART80C are termi- nal programs for use with the Exatron Stringy Floppy and cassette-based sys- tems, respectively. The programs are used in conjunction with a direct-connect tele- phone interface called The Microconnec- tion. The terminal programs allow the trans- fer of BASIC programs and source code files. The programs also feature software selection of half and full duplex plus the ability to transfer text created by either Electric Pencil or Scripsit in upper/lower- case. For additional information on SMART80E, SMART80C or The Microcon- nection, contact The Microperipheral Corp., Box 529, Mercer, Is., WA 98040. Reader Service * 1 77 COBOL Compiler On Release 2 CP/M RM/COBOL, a high-intermediate level ANSI-74 COBOL compiler, is available on Release 2 CP/M systems for $495. This compiler, compatible with several minicomputer COBOL compilers, has al- ternate keys (multi-key ISAM), CRT screen handling, program segmentation, interac- tive debug, and other Level II features. Im- plemented under the Cybernetics, Inc. ver- sion of Release 2 CP/M on the TRS-80 Model II, RM/COBOL is source-program compatible with Tandy's COBOL The RM/COBOL User's Guide and the RM/COBOL Language Manual may both be obtained for $40 (refundable upon pur- chase of RM/COBOL), from Cybernetics, Inc., 8041 Newman Ave., Suite 208, Hunt- ington Beach, CA 92647. Reader Service ^ 169 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 • 63 NEW PRODUCTS Five DOS Utilities And Teachers' Package The Alternate Source has a five- program utility package for the TRS-80. Three of the programs are written in Z-80 machine language and can be used with either Level II cassette systems or with DOS systems. Two are written in BASIC, for use with DOS systems only. The three Z-80 utilities are distributed with a relocatable module which allows them to be dumped at the user's specified starting address. They are BTrace, Com- press Program Utility and Search. When TRON is activated. BTrace leaves the screen display intact and places any lines being executed in the upper right- hand corner of the screen. Compress Pro- gram Utility allows BASIC programs to be compressed in a variety of ways. Search will locate any BASIC line containing whatever argument the user wishes to find. The two BASIC DOS programs are Changes and Replace. Changes provides a screen or printed listing of the differ- ences between two programs. Replace will locate all occurrences of an argument and replace it with a string. The package is available on a single disk for $29.95. Schoolmaster, a separate package, is a record keeping system for teachers. It generates cumulative reports for each student, and flags students whose as- signments are missing. Teachers can ex- amine a variety of grading methods before recording grades, according to the Alter- nate Source. Schoolmaster will present both individual and class statistical data. Schoolmaster requires a 32K TRS-80 with one drive. The program comes on diskette for $24.95. Programs are avail- able from The Alternate Source, 1806 Ada Street, Lansing, Ml 48910. Reader Service ^-326 Disk File Directory Master Diskette Directory version 1.1 reads, stores and categorizes the direc- tories of up to 320 disks. The program will list all files on disk, by file extension, disk number or program category. Master Directory will also search for a file name and list every number of that file, its size, and the number of the disk con- taining the file. The program is available for $29.95 from Micro Systems Software, Inc., 5846 Funston St., Hollywood, FL 33023. Reader Service ^341 Information Retrieval for TRS-80 SE (Search Entry) is a general purpose information retrieval program. It is a ma- chine language program for the TRS-80 Model I, Level II. SE's command structure facilitates data entry, data searches, and quick data storage and retrieval on tape or disk, ac- cording to the manufacturer, Information Technology Systems. Some commands are available from the ENTER Option re- sponse with a single keystroke. Targets can be any combination of 64 characters, employing unlimited ANDs and ORs, according to ITS. The program includes error messages and error check- ing procedures. Data entries are identified by a three- character code assigned by the user. All of memory, less 4K for the program, is available for storage. SE is sold in two versions: SE2.0 for 16K Level II (cassette) costs $24.95, and SE3.0 for DOS up to 48K costs $49.95. SE is avail- able from Information Technology Sys- tems, Post Office Box 2667, Sarasota, FL 33578. Reader Service ^334 Series of Educational Instruction and Utilities Rite 80 Software is selling several series of field tested programs for use in schools. Written for Level II machines, the series are Math, Spelling, Topics, Earth and Roll book. The Math Series consists of three pro- grams for individual or group work, de- signed to help students increase their speed and accuracy in basic arithmetic. The three programs in the Spelling Series drill students on rote memorization of spelling words. The Topics Series, four programs, allows teachers to test students on any subject, using short phrases or single words as answers. The program will ac- cept different words with the same mean- ing for correct answers. Earth is a video animation of the earth rotating on its axis. Rollbook is a disk utili- ty for teachers. It will record up to 100 grades for 40 students. Rollbook is priced at $49.95 from Rite 80 Software, 4660 Willens Ave., Woodland Hills, CA 91264. The other series are priced by program. Programs cost $19.95 each, with discounts given for the pur- chase of an entire series. Reader Service ^335 Elcompco Disk Drive System The Elcompco disk drive is a case and power supply with either MPI-B51 or Shu- gart SA-400 drives. A large 18,000 uF ca- pacitor and fixed voltage regulators are in- cluded to reduce ripple and noise from the power supply. The heat sink is mounted externally, and allows the drive system to run cool while powering drives, according to Elcompco. The system is available with one drive or two. Kits are available for the case and power supply only, or including drives. The drive will power mini-floppy drives com- patible with Shugart or MPI power require- ments. Dual drives with case and power supply cost $800. Single drive in double case is $475, and a single drive in single case costs $400. The kit without drives costs $135. The drive systems were released in Elcompco's winter catalog of hardware and software. Catalog and disk drives are available from Elcompco Microcomputer Periph- erals, P.O. Box 6133, Albany, CA 94706. Reader Service ^339 TRS-80 Data Management System Data Access Corp. has DataBank soft- ware for TRS-80 Model II microcomputers. Databank is a system of pre-programmed, data independent modules that are adapt- able to each user's requirements. File maintenance, data management and report generation functions are op- erable as soon as the user indicates file specifications. Typical applications in- clude mailing list maintenance, inventory and accounting records, student or per- sonnel files, and patient/client data sys- tems. DataBank uses hashing, assembler subroutines and other techniques. Files can span up to four disk drives with as many as 32,767 records. Key access time to a given record is a second or less. Modules are divided into four main groups: configuration utilities, file maintenance, report generator, and a sub- routine library. A multi-purpose editor pro- gram is also included. DataBank runs under TRSDOS and BASIC. It is priced at $249 per installation from Data Access Corp., 4221 Ponce De Leon Blvd., Coral Cables, FL 33146. Reader Service ^175 64 • 80 Microcomputing, December 1980 From Rudyard Kipling's KIM, General Computer brings you an adaptation of the exciting, mind expanding game of memory and recall. KIM uses dynamic handi- capping to compensate for skill differences while urging each player into greater challenges. Everything adjusts -display times, number of objects displayed, identification difficulty, and even scoring as you play your way through a data-base of thousands of items. Quicken your perception, sharpen your awareness, and develop an elephant-like memory ... while enjoying the competitive excitement of playing KIM. • An exciting two player game with competitive skill- difference handicap scoring (Junior could beat daddy every time!) • Or, A challenging single- player contest • Includes a BASIC source list- ing as part of a trend-setting manual • 16K. Level II version SI 9.95 (cassette) • 32K, TRS-DOS two drive version S24.95 (diskette) • For Visa and Mastercharge orders, call toll free anytime 1 -800-824-7888. In California. 1 -800-852-7777, ask for Operator 115 • Dealer Inauiries invited General Computer Co. 4873 Longer Lane Woodbridge, VA 22193 k- 251 &*>*# 1 » Season's Greetings from all of us at Software Mart. Best wishes for the coming year. ^2B6 J sc Software-Mart SOURCE MAILBOX * TCU155 24092 Pandora St., El Toro, CA 92630 24 Hour Service In California Call (714) 768-7818 Call Toll Free 1 (800) 854-7115 ^^ afcrarf** ^* 8 ** 3 s S