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EI                            Z-NEWS 802                        17 August 1987
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Of Significance.  ZAS/ZLINK v3.0 comes out of extensive beta testing and ships 
this  week.  Duo moves to head of class, ahead of other assembler/linkers  for 
price  and  performance: pure value!  See section starting page  2  below  for 
complete ZAS/ZLINK package description.
     Echelon  becomes  a  dealer for MicroPro's CP/M Edition  Release  4.0  of 
WordStar.   We  offer  product for special price of  $195.00  ($295.00  retail 
value)  to those who are not registered owners of either WordStar or  Newword.
More on WS v4.0 below.
     MOR,  Morrow  Owners'  Review, continues to be a vital  source  of  CP/M-
compatible  news, previously mentioned in Z-News 701-3 and 709-1.  If you  use 
our kind of computing machines we recommend you support such magazines to keep 
them  going.   To subscribe, call or write MOR, P.O. Box  5487,  Berkeley,  CA 
94705,  415/644-2638; Kirsten Andreae is in charge of subscriptions.   If  MOR 
and EI don't act in ways to get your enduring support both of us will cease to 
be.  It's up to us!
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From The Mail Box.  Tony Afflalo, Brooklyn, NY, writes, "Your catalog is with-
out  doubt, the most exiting news on microcomputing since MITS introduced  the 
Altair./ Microcomputing for hobbyists is coming alive once more from the death 
it  suffered as a result of the IBM PC and its clones./ Thanks  to  yourselves 
and Hitachi, you have revived my interest again after four years of  dormancy, 
and  I  am  very  happy to know that CP/M-compatibles  are  alive  and  well./ 
Echelon, you speak my language when you mentioned about a philosophy of living 
and  learning.  There is no greater enjoyment than the pursuit of  knowledge./ 
I...enjoyed  reading your tutorial style catalog over and over, I think it  is 
great,  and look forward with eagerness to receiving your Z-News./ I wish  you 
continued  success,  and  please keep us abreast of the  happenings  in  CP/M-
compatible computing with Z-News, and who is to say, maybe Z-News will grow to 
Z-Magazine in the near future."  (Well, how do we respond!)  Thanks, Tony, for 
the  kind words.  We do our best under trying conditions: a market "gone  with 
the wind."  If a few more were of your thinking we would expand Z-News into  a 
magazine.  We work to make such the case.
      "I am enjoying the adventure of upgrading my system to Z33...running  Z-
COM...in  interest  of helping others, on page 47 of the guide, line  GET  200 
A15:ZC.COM should contain ZC.CP, not ZC.COM...learning both the inner workings 
of  CP/M and about Assembly Language...things are starting to fall into  place 
and  even  more fun,"  writes David Templin of West Sacramento,  CA.   Thanks, 
David,  for  noticing an error; we fixed the next edition of ZCPR  3.3  User's 
Guide.  Guide, with correction, is now at the offset-press printers.   Another 
suggestion of David's not in the guide is to use :STRT as your startup command 
in ZC.COM, as path doesn't presently contain current directory, per advice for 
Z3.3,  include  current directory.  Use either ZPATCH or DU3 to  patch  ZC.COM 
file.  Or you could move your startup file to ROOT directory and leave command 
statements of STRT as they are.  Do either of these things before cold booting 
with your Z-COM that contains ZCPR v3.3.
     We  welcome  letters.   Please  write!  We're  interested  more  in  your 
thoughts, less in your doings--nonetheless, both are equally important to you.
A  digression:  though  both are important,  thought  should  precede  action.
Ideally,  action  should  be  a result of previous  thinking.   If  we  train, 
practice  then our subconscious soon takes control of our motion,  our  anima-
tion.  So let's make sure we train wisely.  Automatic reaction is what we call 
feeling,  emotion.   And  such usually controls what each of us  is.   A  wise 
person  is rarely "emotional," and then only as a social tactic.   Next  news-
letter contains a piece with further thoughts regarding language, extending Z-
801's  In Other Words section: what it is, and how to more  deeply  understand 
the idea behind communications, human to human and otherwise.

Z-Node  News.   Two nodes significantly enhance their remote  access  systems.
Rea Williams, Z-Node #10, El Torro, CA, 714/855-0672, upgrades to USR  Courier 
9600  bps modem.  Let's see if the dial-up phone lines are up to  such  speed.
And for massive storage...
     Rick  Petersen's El Paso, TX, Z-Node #31, 915/821-3638, has  installed  a 
total of 145 megabytes of online storage on his Ampro computer.  Give Rea  and 
Rick a call...

Z-User's  Corner.  We have reported many aliases using "IF $1=//"  conditional 
testing,  to  display a simple built-in help message using  conventional  "//" 
entry  to remind how to use the alias.  Now, seems new ZCPR v3.3 requires  the 
constant,   the // in this case, be declared first.  To use your  old  aliases 
containing  built-in  help, change such alias (and VMENU,  MENU,  and  VFILER) 
statements  to  "IF //=$1".  Maybe Jay Sage, author of 3.3, has a way  to  fix 
this  inconvenience.  If not, it is no big deal to remember to put the  passed 
parameter after the equal sign.
     By  now  most of you are getting used to the new features of  ZCPR  v3.3, 
especially the new IF functions like AND and OR.  OR is used whenever a  piece 
of script is to be used twice.  For example:

         IF //=$1;OR NU $1;ECHO <usage msg>;ELSE;<cmd statements>;FI

Here,  if either " //" or "<cr>", i.e., space followed by two forward  slashes 
or  a  carriage  return, is entered after the command verb,  ECHO  outputs  to 
screen the "usage message."

ZAS/ZLINK Package.  In response to customer demand, Echelon has invested  sub-
stantial  resources into upgrading and enhancing the ZAS/ZLINK  assembler  and 
linker  product.  First, let's discuss what exactly ZAS is, and  then  discuss 
how version 3.0 differs from previous versions.
     What is ZAS?  Priced reasonably at $69.00, the ZAS/ZLINK assembler/linker 
package comes complete with:

     ZAS.COM  - A Z80/HD64180 Macro Assembler for use on  Z80-compatible  host 
machines.  Noteworthy features include generation of object code in  Microsoft 
REL  (relocatable)  format, Intel HEX format, or Turbo  Pascal  INC  (include) 
format.   ZAS  operates approximately twice as fast as  comparable  assemblers 
such  as M80 and MAC/RMAC, produces SYMbol files which greatly ease  debugging 
tasks  when using professional debuggers such as DSD, and takes  advantage  of 
ZCPR3  facilities  (if installed) while remaining completely  compatible  with 
conventional CP/M 2.2 and 3.0.
     ZLINK.COM  -  A Linking Loader for use on Z80-compatible  host  machines.
Allows  the user to link REL-format object files together, and gives  complete 
control  over  where  the various segments may reside in  memory.   A  Linking 
Loader   permits  the  user  to  use  productivity  aids  such  as   Echelon's 
SYSLIB/Z3LIB/VLIB in a very convenient and straightforward manner.
     ZZCNFG.COM  -  A completely new menu-driven  configuration  program  that 
allows  the user to configure ZAS.COM and ZLINK.COM in many ways.   Users  can 
specify  elements  such as default file extensions (e.g., .REL,  .HEX,  etc.), 
whether PRN and SYM files will be generated as the default mode of  operation, 
and  what alternate directories will be searched if the desired files are  not 
found by ZAS or ZLINK in the current directory.
     ZLIB.COM - A Librarian used to create multiple-module library files  such 
as SYSLIB, etc.
     XIZ.COM,  XZI.COM  - Translators to convert  Intel  8080-mnemonic  format 
source  code files to Zilog Z80-mnemonic format and vice versa.   Through  the 
use  of  these programs, you can use ZAS/ZLINK with any  program  written  for 
almost any dialect of assembler (e.g., files originally intended for use  with 
ASM, MAC, or RMAC can be assembled easily by ZAS after translation).   Contri-
buted to the package by public domain programming whiz Irv Hoff.
     ZREF.COM  - Cross reference generator for source  code  files.   ZREF al-
lows easy identification of where each label/symbol appears.
     MLOAD.COM - Super HEX-format to executable program loader.  MLOAD contri-
buted by another public domain programming whiz, Ron Fowler.
     UNLOAD.COM - Executable program to HEX-format "unloader" program.

As  you  see, the ZAS/ZLINK product gives you all of the tools  you  need  for 
creation of Z80/HD64180 assembly language programs, for only $69.00.   Compare 
this  to  other  packages  costing $100.00 or more,  and  you  see  the  value 
ZAS/ZLINK represents.
     What's New in ZAS 3.0?  Changes incorporated into the 3.0 release of  ZAS 
span  many suggestions and bug reports submitted by users over the past  year.
Echelon  listens to its customers and this release is a result.   ZAS  package 
changes  are summarized below.  First, 10 new features, then 9  reported  dis-
crepancies eliminated.  New features:

1.   Full DU:/DIR: filename usage now supported by ZAS and ZLINK, both at  the 
command  line and within pseudo-ops such as MACLIB and INCLUDE.  DU:  recogni-
tion will work in all situations (e.g., non-ZCPR3 systems), and DIR: recognit-
ion allows you to use ZCPR3's named directories to better organize your work.
2.   Under ZCPR3, if an error in assembly occurs, ZAS 3.0  stores  information 
retrievable via aliases and scripts about the file name and exact location  in 
the  source  file where the error occurred.  This information can be  used  to 
create  a  closed-loop edit/assemble cycle much like Turbo Modula-2  or  Turbo 
Pascal,  where an editor is automatically invoked, with the cursor  positioned 
at  the appropriate line.  When changes are complete, the assembler  is  auto-
matically  re-run.   This  cycle can be repeated until either  no  errors  are 
found, or the user decides to manually abort it.
3.   ZLINK  now sets the ZCPR3 Error Flag (if available) to  signal  an  error 
(e.g., unresolved symbols) during the link process.
4.   Alternate  directory  searching can be enabled in  ZAS  and  ZLINK  which 
permits files to be searched for in an alternate DU: if they are not found  in 
the  current DU:.  This gives users running conventional CP/M systems a  semi-
PUBLIC (as in ZRDOS/Z-System) capability, and can be used by users running  Z-
System to locate files outside the normal PUBLIC range of drives A-H and users 
1-8.
5.  Pseudo-ops DB, DC, DZ, and their synonyms are much more flexible in use of 
delimiter characters, which may be either the apostrophe (') or quotation mark 
(").
6.   Added  pseudo-ops  DEFM  (same as DB); DEFC (same  as  DC);  INCLUDE  and 
$INCLUDE  (same as .IN); ASET (same as SET); ENT, ENTRY, and GLOBAL  (same  as 
PUBLIC); and DZ, DEFZ.
7.  Previous versions of ZAS required use of the non-standard square  brackets 
("[" and "]") in expressions involving direct addressing; ZAS 3.0 removes this 
requirement while maintaining backward compatibility.  This is a real boon for 
programmers  who  wish to write their source code so that it  will  be  easily 
ported to different assemblers.
8.  New opcode synonyms: IM0 same as IM 0; IM1, as IM 1; and IM2, as IM 2.
9.   The  user  can configure ZAS and ZLINK to  different  default  filetypes.
Thus, the user can change the default filetypes to his liking.
10.  Added statistics displayed by ZAS and ZLINK to show  code/segment  sizes, 
and both load and execution addresses.

          Some ZAS/ZLINK problems fixed:

1.   .PHASE and .DEPHASE now fully operable when generating HEX or INC  format 
output files.
2.  COMMON functions now work properly in both ZAS and ZLINK.
3.   Keywords such as register names can no longer be used as  symbols/labels.
A  "K"  error  is now generated to point out to the user that  he  cannot  use 
reserved keywords as symbol names.
4.   Previous versions of ZAS would lock up if a zero-length file was used  as 
an input or INCLUDE file, or if an input or INCLUDE file was an exact multiple 
of 128 bytes; ZAS 3.0 is utterly reliable in this regard.
5.   Selecting  PRN file output sometimes caused previous versions of  ZAS  to 
lock up or exhibit other strange behavior; ZAS 3.0 is utterly reliable in this 
regard.
6.   Multiple apostrophes in DB statements were not correctly resolved as  per 
the manual; ZAS 3.0 performs flawlessly.
7.  The "$" symbol when used in ASEG or .phase modes sometimes behaved  unpre-
dictably.  ZAS 3.0 processes this situation without abnormal behavior.
8.  ZAS 3.0 permits auto-declaration of a label as PUBLIC if it is suffixed by 
two  colons (::).  Although this practice can lead to poorly organized  source 
code,  some  existing  programs are written this way  and  now  are  correctly 
handled.

Users  presently owning ZAS can upgrade to ZAS 3.0 by contacting  the  company 
which  sold  the original version to them.  Customers who  purchased  previous 
versions  of  ZAS  from Echelon may upgrade for a $20.00 charge;  new  75-page
manual is included.   Contact  us if you have any questions, would like to up-
grade or purchase ZAS.

Hardware  Beat.  Konica Technology, Inc., 777 North Pastoria Ave.,  Sunnyvale, 
CA 94086-2918, 408/773-9551, ships KT-510 10-megabyte floppy drive in  volume. 
Downwardly  compatible  with ordinary 360Kb and 1.2Mb drives  (Z-News  607-4),
half-height 5.25" drive has embedded SCSI controller, 1.6 megabits per  second 
data  transfer rate, and 75 milliseconds average access time.   Diskettes--480 
tracks per inch, embedded servo written--produced and sold by Konica, for from 
$10  to $25 depending on quantity, are conventionally jacketed, not cased  and 
shuttered  as are Kodak 10Mb units (Z-News 801-4).  Such diskette prices  will 
certainly  come  down if they are ever produced in high volume.   Such  volume 
depends on a major computer manufacturer using them in their products.
     These high-capacity floppy drives, from either Kodak or Konica, especial-
ly with the SCSI interface offer much easier and faster backup to RAM and hard 
disks  than do tape drives.  Random access, instead of sequential,  to  stored 
data make the difference.  Make direct contact if you are interested in  using 
one in your personal computer.

Software  Beat.   Analytical Products (ANAPRO), Peter Shkabara, 213  Teri  Sue 
Lane,  Buellton, CA 93427, 805/688-0826, dealer for Newword, offers  NW  v2.17 
and The Word Plus spelling checker combination for only $69.00 while  supplies 
last.   If you are not presently an owner of WS or NW, here's your  chance  to 
get in on the action at low cost.  Call AP or us today and place your order.
     Many  sources  tell of greatness of CP/M and ZCPR3-shell  WordStar  v4.0, 
soon  to  be  shipping by MicroPro.  Shell version  was  developed  using  our 
bootable-disk  version of Z-System on a Kaypro 10.  We wouldn't have  believed 
the  over 120 enhancements were possible if we have not experienced them  our-
selves,  with our eyes and fingers.  (Z-News 802 was produced with v4.0 and  a 
Ricoh  PC Laser 6000 printer.)  Wow!  We owe MicroPro one huge debt of  grati-
tude.  We at Echelon say now, "Thanks!"

                   Life--a draconian struggle for dignity,
                    to obtain the quality of being worthy.

In  Other  Words.  The almighty yen, a huge trade surplus,  the  world's  love 
affair with their manufactured products, the studies done on their  management 
technique--these  things make the Japanese believe they have the  best  system 
yet, bar none.  Having few natural resources, they buy from abroad, add labor, 
then sell abroad.  Their standard of living is not the highest but the  future 
bids  them  well, the better.  Their attitude of service to the  rest  of  the 
world is the key to their success since 1945.  So why cannot we emulate them?

     Using  appliances is not all there is to life, but these days  most 
     lifestyles  seem  to be determined by them...a time for  peace;  we 
     swear it's not too late.

     Well,  we  live,  on average, much higher materially  than  the  Japanese 
people and we will not--desire not to--lower our standard to compete.  But  if 
we  don't think this through we will end with a standard not to  our  calling, 
but  one determined by global market conditions we didn't help to create.   We 
must be competitive worldwide to continue to live as we presently do.  We must 
be a manufacturing nation in addition to a service one to stay ahead.  We  owe 
nothing less to ourselves and to our children.
     Putting USA's wealth into worldwide perspective: Total net worth of  U.S. 
homes  is $12 trillion; total U.S. household financial assets, $5.5  trillion; 
total foreign investment in U.S. is only $1.1 trillion.  Source of data:  U.S. 
governmental agencies.
==============================================================================
Of  Angels  and  Eagles.  What's our self-image?  How  we  perceive  ourselves 
determines  what we are, how we act and react to life.  Self-esteem  comes  to 
us, is fully established by 12 years of age, and stays with us all our  lives, 
unless...unless  we use mental visualization techniques, physical  relaxation, 
and  lots of personal "mind-talk" to change the things we don't  like,  change 
the things that cause us to be less than what we want ourselves to be.
     Now  to  celebrate day's end--it's been like seven miles of bad  road:  a 
little  supper--we  have a pickled pig's foot and a cool glass  of  beer,  and 
listen  to Bessie Smith, Lizzie Miles, and Billie Holliday records.   See  you 
down the lines...

Echelon, Inc.       885 North San Antonio Road         Los Altos, CA 94022 USA 
Telephone: 415/948-3820    Telex: 4931646   Z-Node Central (RAS): 415/948-6656

Trademarks:  Little Board, Bookshelf, Ampro Computers; SB180, SB180FX,  GT180, 
Micromint; ON!, Oneac; DT42, The SemiDisk, Deep Thought 42, SemiDisk  Systems; 
XLR8, M.A.N. Systems; VAX, Digital Equipment; Macintosh, Apple; HD63484/64180, 
Hitachi;  Z-System,  ZOS,  ZCPR3, ZRDOS, Z-Tools, Zas,  Zlink,  Z-Msg,  Term3, 
Quick-Task, NuKey, Z80 Turbo Modula-2, Lasting-Value Software, Echelon;  CP/M, 
Digital Research; Unix, AT&T; TurboROM, Advent; Graphix Toolbox, Turbo Pascal, 
Borland  Int'l;  Ada,  U.S. Government;  WordStar,  Newword,  MicroPro  Int'l; 
JetFind, Bridger Mitchell.


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                            Fly with Z!



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Z-News  802  is  Copyright  MCMLXXXVII Echelon,  Inc.   All  Rights  Reserved. 
Permission  to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted  if  source 
credit is given to Echelon.
