
Ron's Week'n'ADAM
November 17, 1997

A mixed bag this week, along with my apologies for missing last
week. Rich Clee and I were busy exchanging live whinings about 
the paucity of time in retirement. Go figure!

A few weeks back there was an article from here about Powerpaint
file conversions. The idea was to get a head start on the prepar-
ation of graphics for the annual multi-media Christmas card. Now, 
here I am, almost at panic time, and no further ahead. Looks like
current contributions from the community will once again be 
supplemented with 2 colour RLE's and such original festive clip-
art as I can find.

Before proceeding with my tale of woe, let me first remind
readers that anyone wanting to submit Powerpaint screens for the 
annual Christmas greeting card should do so prior to ... oh, I 
don't know... Nov. 25th. You'll have to E-mail them to me. The 
threat of a Canadian postal walkout makes snail mail unadvisable 
at this point. I want to get the package done and on to Bob 
Slopsema by the end of the month so he in turn can give it ANN 
distribution.

Now... on the question of Powerpaint conversions, here's my
problem. Put quite simply, I'm having trouble understanding 
what's out there.  Quite dumb am I. Follow do I not. I've just 
sent Marcel de Kogel a message asking about the output files pro-
duced by BMP2PP.EXE. The program exists in both Windows 95 and 
DOS versions, and does indeed appear to produce an output file 
from an input file. The latter is a bitmap, and the former 
appears to be a Powerpaint formatted file. When I transfer the 
output file to an ADAM disk however, and try to load it into 
Powerpaint, there is no joy in Mudville. 

Now along with BMP2PP.EXE and PP2BMP.EXE there are a series of
files whose job it is to perform the conversion of disk images, 
ADAM to IBM and presumably vice-versa. It is not clear to me 
at this stage whether the output from BMP2PP.EXE needs to be 
processed by one or more of these disk image converters. If 
anyone can shed some light on that, please do.

Meanwhile, Rich Drushel has also produced several articles in
TWWMCA about the conversion between Powerpaint and TIFF RGB 
formats. Today I downloaded from his FTP site a pair of programs 
designed to convert Powerpaint formats to TIFFs. These appear 
to provide conversion in the direction opposite to what I'm 
looking for. So I've sent off a message to Rich to see if he has
anything similar but for conversion from TIFF to Powerpaint.

Meanwhile, here I sit feeling really quite dense. I have a red
and green map of Vancouver Island up on my Powerpaint. That was 
a conversion from BMP to RLE and then via Chris Braymens PC2ADAM
program to an ADAM formatted disk.  I like the results enough to 
feel reasonably optimistic about producing something nice from 
here for the Christmas card. But I would be even more optimistic 
if I wasn't confined to 2 colours.

Perhaps there's something I haven't read yet, or read but not
understood.  That's a distinct possibility.

Meanwhile.....

I've been asked by a couple of people about sending files
(programs, data, or text) by E-mail from a DOS box, but intended
for an ADAM. This can be done, let me give you a 'for instance'. 
Bob Slopsema sent his Christmas card input to me over the 
internet as an attachment to a message which said (roughly
paraphrased), here's my input to your output, don't bother me 
no more. (NOT)  The attachments were saved into a directory I've
got labelled "ANN-TMP" on my IBM. From there I copied them off 
onto a disk and copied them again to an ADAM formatted disk 
using Chris Braymen's ADAMDOS programs. The process is not 
difficult, but you have to remember what you're doing. When using
Chris' programs, I continually forget to add a -T:x as a
parameter at the end of the command line. In the case of Bob's 
two files which were both 10K binary format, the file type was 
B, and so the -T:x became -T:B.   All of that finally produced 
a pair of files that Powerpaint read quite nicely. I think
you'll enjoy the results.

So to make a long story even longer, there are at least 3 ways to
get your Christmas card input to me. And you can send it from 
whatever type of computer pleases you, as long as your file is 
in Powerpaint format, either binary or Smartpaint formats.


1) Send as an attachment to an E-Mail message

2) Upload files to Bart Lynch's Assylum BBS, and advise me so I
can  go get them 

3) Upload files to Compuserve and let me know so I can go get
them

And Finally:

Just got the latest 463 ADAM for November 1997. Nice photo work.
There are some first rate ADAMCON IX shots there. There was also
an exchange of messages between Jerry Vrancks and Compuserve 
about the latter's suggestion that Jerry confine himself to 
access with WinCIM, Compuserve's graphic interface browser rather
than using the 'older computer'. You can read the exact text for 
yourself in the quote which follows.

I felt compelled to reply myself. Here's my rant:


(Ron Mitchell) QUOTE

Dear CIS:

This represents the third attempt this evening to forward 
comments to you about an issue of concern to me: contacting 
you using the WinCim 3.01 graphics interface. My previous two 
attempts were sent using that interface via your "Write to 
Compuserve" option. In both instances I attempted to use Windows
95 dialup connection, it timed out while I was composing the 
message. In both cases I was re-connected, but I got no 
acknowledgement that the message had actually been sent. So I 
will now do what I should probably have done in the first place;
prepare the message off line.

On to the point.

I have been a Compuserve subscriber for many years. I use your
service to communicate regularly with a group of dear friends, 
owners of the Coleco ADAM home computer. There is a section of 
your Computer Club area which we regularly use for our corres-
pondence and for a live chat conference each Sunday night. We 
are users of this computer. In addition, I have others
including a Commodore 64, a Mac SE, and and IBM 486 DX4/120. I
enjoy using them all at various times in accessing your service.
My method of access depends upon my purposes at the time. 
Recently one of our ADAM owners who regularly publishes a news-
letter for our benefit reported that he had received the follow-
ing message from you:

(Jerry Vrancks)   
"Dear Compuserve Subscriber:

Our records show that you have accessed CSi on a IBM or MAC using
WINCIM software but most of the time when you access CSi it's 
with an older computer at a much lower baud rate. We would 
encourage you to use the WinCIM software because you'll be able 
to access more of Compuserve's features."

(back to Ron)
I certainly hope that this message is not reflective of some new
policy that you have recently adopted. I for one do not wish to 
be restricted to the graphical mode of accessing compuserve. 
Neither do I wish to be told what equipment to use when access-
ing your service. My reasons are as follows:

I live on Vancouver Island on Canada's west coast. My community
is a small one where direct phone access to Compuserve is not 
available other than by long distance telephone. I have two 
methods of contacting you; 

a) via telnet through my local Internet Service Provider, 
b) via a local public modem service employing DATAPAC. The latter
operates at 2400 baud and lends itself more readily to the text 
mode of operation.

From my perspective, the text mode of operation is frequently
faster and more efficient than the graphics mode. More specific-
ally, I find use of WinCim 3.01 unsatisfactory and frustrating. 
My impressions are as follows:

1) Uploads and downloads are from here unreliable. On the past
two occasions where I have attempted to download a 1.3 Meg file 
from your Macintosh section, your server timed out and cut me 
off part way through. Several times up to a year or so ago, I 
attempted to upload files to the Computer Club ADAM library, 
only to be informed by my fellow ADAMites that they were not 
properly received, even though I had received indication from
WINCIM and your system that the upload process had been success-
fully completed.

2) WinCIM's performance on my IBM clone is sluggish and dis-
appointing. As earlier stated, my clone is a 486 dx/4 120. It 
has a 2 gig hard drive, 28 meg of RAM and a 33600 baud modem, 
and I am using Windows 95. When I contact Compuserve, WINCIM is 
the only process claiming the computer's resources, other than 
the dialup software and whatever is required to establish a
connection. Excessive amounts of time seem to be spent in
downloading overhead files such as graphics screens, radio 
buttons and the like.  These operations get in my way. The 
layout of most WinCIM screens is cluttered, confusing and 
difficult to follow.

Moreover, during fall and winter evenings, my Internet Service
Provider's facilities are frequently busy at the time when I 
want to log on for the Sunday night conference. It is therefore 
important to me to have an alternate means of communication for 
those times such as our regular Sunday night meeting online 
where I am expected to put in an appearance. 

And finally in my view, there is the question of the restrictions
you place on hobbyists by stating what you have said in the 
message previously quoted.  As hobbyists, we like to try non-
standard modes of operation, to use old equipment where that 
pleases us, and to make sure that those who cannot afford new 
equipment are not denied access to the internet.   We therefore
expriment extensively to find out what is possible and what is
not.  I want you to know that in my experience, access to the
conference, forum, and mail features of Compuserve is faster, 
more dependable, and generally more satisfying using the text 
mode of operation than it is with WinCim.  There are no 
extraneous displays presented on the screen to detract from
the communications taking place. I for one would therefore be
most unhappy if you were to discontinue the text mode of oper-
ation. 
We ADAM owners have been using your service as a lifeline for
many years.  I hope that we can continue to do so.

Yours truly,
Ron Mitchell


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