
EI                            Z-NEWS 808                      29 February 1988
==============================================================================
Of  Significance.  Joe Wright, San Jose, CA, has produced (with help from  Jay 
Sage  and Bridger Mitchell) one of the most significant developments  ever  to 
come  along  in the microcomputing world.  His new  Z-Com  offers  flexibility 
never  seen before, or thought possible, for Operating Systems.  Z-Team  comes 
through!   Z-Com,  Version 2.0, does what we have wished for for so  long:  an 
Operating System for all seasons!
     Now  for  some  details...using a relocatable  segment  technique  (named 
COMMONs  and  REL files) controlled from an install and  create  menu,  memory 
space allocated to RCP, FCP, NDR, and IOP is selected by user.  Then a  system 
definition  file  is automatically generated on exit from menu.  File  can  be 
given name desired, e.g., MIN, STD, MAX, etc., indicating relative size of  Z-
System,  i.e.,  Transient Program Area (TPA, where in  memory  an  application 
program  runs)  available.  Using Joe's new universal  loader--yes,  it  loads 
regular  Z-System segments like NDRs and ENVs in addition to REL-type  files--
system  selected  is  loaded  from command line or  from  menus  and  aliases.
Thus...
     We  now  have  ability to, on-the-fly from aliases, adjust  OS  size  and 
functionality  to  get  the job done most effectively.  Here  is  solution  to 
finite  TPAs associated with Zilog Z80 computers.  Start with smallest  system 
your BIOS will permit, add segment space as you require for function and  task 
automation.  Three or four systems should do it for most of us: 1) no external 
buffers,  smallest system, same size as a vanilla CP/M system, 2)  minimum  Z-
System as supplied with Ampro Z80 computers, paths, environmental  descriptor, 
multiple  command lines, shells, external stacks, etc., 3) full  Z-System  but 
except  for IOP, and 4) full Z-System with IOP.  Use each depending on  funct-
ions desired and TPA required.  We witness history in the making.
     We  offer new Z-Com, i.e., Z-Com v2.0, in two versions so you can  select 
the one best for your particular situation:
     Starter  System - Includes REL files for ZCPR v3.4 and ZRDOS v1.9  and  a 
minor  selection  of Z3 utilities, all on one  diskette.   Multi-level  User's 
Guide  and  new  in-depth-coverage ZRDOS manual  included.   Package  provides 
everything needed both for new users and those with previous Z-Com and manual-
ly  installed Z-System environments.  Price: same as Z-Com v1.0,  $69.95  plus 
shipping and handling.
     Full  System - Includes above plus most Z3 utilities, for those  who  are 
ready to become fully committed to Z-System leaving CP/M behind forever.  Yes, 
all the above plus the source to Jay Sage's new ZCPR v3.4--3.4 version  avail-
able only for Z-Com v2.n use--and source to the system segments permitting new 
ones to be created.  For customizing each system created, for programmers  and 
for those who wish to learn to program.  Price not established.
     Other Packages - Likely more variations of full to satisfy need.
     See The Computer Journal, Issue #32, for Jay's article on both Z-Com v2.0 
and  ZCPR v3.4.  (Now's the time to subscribe to Art Carlson's TCJ.   We  urge 
you  to participate in the building of the greatest learning community  to  be 
experienced  in our time.  Get knowledge by reading, studying,  experimenting.  
Call  or write TCJ, 406/257-9119, 190 Sullivan Crossroad, Columbia  Falls,  MT 
59912.)
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From The  Mail Box.  Thanks to anonymous sender from Washington state for mag-
azine  article on wine.  Written by Anthony Dias Blue, Bon  Appetit,  February 
1981,  piece details history (for more on "history," see Z-News 708-5) of  the 
Zinfandel  grape.  Conclusion, Zinfandel is identical with Italian  Primitrivo 
di  Gioia grape, but in select areas of California, because of soil  and  cli-
mate,  a "superior" wine can be produced.  In Italy, only a "coarse and  thor-
oughly undistinguished" wine has ever been made from di Gioia grapes.
     Joe  Wright, Z-Com author and Good-Neighbor Helper, passes on a  bug  fix 
obtained from Peter Mireau of MicroPro for WordStar v4.0.  If a Z3NDIR  buffer 
has not been installed on your Z-System, WS doesn't work as it should.   Patch 
WS.COM (using ZPATCH or a debugger) at location 1251H from 9AH to 96H.   Word-
Star then works without a named directory allocated for Z-System.  Thanks, Joe 
and Peter, for the helpful information.

Software  Update Service.  Earlier Z-News told of most of the SUS programs  on 
#14.  At shipping time it looked like:

                                  DIRectory, Version 1.4  01/22/86
              -SUS    .014    0r| ACOPY17 .LBR   26 | DD15    .LBR   18 | ERASE51A.LBR   14 
              ERAZ10  .LBR   20 | GEN180  .LBR   16 | MOVE21B .LBR   14 | PUBPTZ10.LBR   16 
              RENAM33A.LBR   20 | RENAMZ14.LBR   24 | UNERAZ10.LBR   24 | Z33TRCP .LBR   16 
              Z3LOC13 .LBR    8 | ZLT10   .LBR   26 
                       F0:BACKUP -- 14 files using 242k (144k remain of 386k total)

Z3LOC13  is  Bruce Morgen and Howard Goldstein's greatly enhanced  system  and 
segment  address displayer.  Shows more than early versions did,  and  without 
bugs.   And  it works with straight CP/M.  Try command "Z3LOC Z<cr>"  and  see 
your important Z-System segment locations. And version numbers of the CCP  and 
DOS show, very important in these days of many CCPs and DOSs to try.

Z-Node  News.  Good-Neighbor Helper Paul Harmon, Minneapolis  (Z-News  807-3), 
becomes Z-Node #80 Sysop, and first we know of with Term3 RAS.  His number  is 
612/560-9122  with Kaypro 10 machine in Brooklyn Park, MN 55443.  Paul's  pre-
sent  operational  hours are 10pm to 6am, local time, but soon he goes  to  24 
hours.  Call, give him a friendly welcome for his efforts.
     Dave Vanhorn, Costa Mesa, CA, Z-Node #66, has upgraded RAS up and running 
at  714/961-1135  with 80 megabytes of hard disk storage.  RAS  is  for  North 
Orange  Country Computer Club and runs beta version (v1.60) of Tim  Gary's  Z-
Msg...club is comparing RAS to two BBSs they run on IBM PC-DOS machines.  Need 
we say more...

Z-User's Corner.  Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of  out-
rageously  expert 8-year-olds and yet remain a techno-phobe, or to  take  arms 
against  a  sea of unfamiliar concepts and strange devices, and  by  studying, 
master them all?--that is the question.
     Inconsistency diverts your attention from what you are doing to the tools 
you do it with; tools, the utilities you use to control your computer.  Format 
for Z-System utilities log-on banners, syntax, and built-in help messages  are 
consistent and transparent to you the user, to make your life a little easier.  
(We  do our best to keep our system visually consistent.  When we fail  it  is 
because our egos get in the way: we think we make an improvement on the stand-
ard at the expense of breaking the standard.  Alas!  Oh!  How we so often fail 
to impress or to communicate!)
     Type  4 utilities under Z-Com v2.0 SP(ace remaining on disk),  ERA,  REN, 
and  SAVE  transients  permit using less local memory,  that  devoted  to  the 
operating  system (OS), leaving larger TPA for your application programs.   No 
need to use in-short-supply local memory (RAM) space in either the CCP  module 
or  an  RCP segment for these functions.  Logic here is: whenever  a  function 
requires  going to disk to get a file the utility used might just as  well  be 
disk-based, instead of from in-memory.  In such cases, speed difference is not 
significant.   So, to be logical, we set-up our CCP and RCP to include  funct-
ions to do work for tasks already in memory, like WHL, R, P, POKE, QUIET, etc.
     Continuing...what price a transient over a resident or intrinsic?   Using 
three  files of 16k-bytes length, intrinsic ERA (in the CCP) took 7.8  seconds 
to erase them, one at a time; disk-based Type 4 ERA took 3.7 seconds.  Erasing 
these  three  files  using a wildcard filename took 3.9  seconds  versus  1.5, 
respectively; and, a single 64k-byte file, 2.9 versus 1.5.  A small  advantage 
in  each  case for the CCP intrinsic, but is the time saved worth the  TPA  we 
gave up?  We think not!   On the other hand it's still up to you as to how you 
set-up your system.  (Interestingly, Type 4 transient ERA deleted a  600k-byte 
file  in 2.4 seconds.)  SP, ERA, REN, and SAVE become disk-based with our  use 
of ZCPR v3.4.  All are Type 4 utilities, ones that load under the CCP  result-
ing  in  maximum buffer space allocated for applications and their  data,  but 
they  run under ZCPR v3.4 only.  You use Type 1 or 3 utilities with  v3.0  and 
3.3, respectively.  (Type 2 with internal environment was intended for vanilla 
CP/M use only.)  Using Terry Hazen's Type 1 ERAZ v1.0 or Morgen's ERASE51A.COM 
transient--either, from SUS #14 and Z-Nodes everywhere renamed to  ERASE.COM--
compare multiple command below with using CCP-based ERA for speed:

                       ERASE fn.ft;GO fn2.ft2;GO *.bak

     For you with adventure in your hearts, use JUMP instead of GO with a Type 
4 (or Type 3) transient to avoid having to re-load during multiple use.  First 
determine  where the ERA loads.  Can you do that?  Then use that  address  for 
the  JUMP  load  parameter.  Remember when using Z-Com v2.0  each  system  you 
create is likely to have a different size, so base address of your CCP changes 
depending on system size.

Hardware/Software Beat.  High-Tech Research, Redding, CA, nears completion  of 
their  Z280  board for Kaypro computers.  We understand board is about  to  go 
into beta (outside) testing.
     Next subject...if you use WordStar v4.0, it's time to get your wish  list 
into  MicroPro, formally.  They presently fix reported bugs; who  knows,  they 
may  even  have  a  Release  5.0 out one of  these  days!   But  do  get  your 
recommendations  in now, to make sure your views are considered for  the  next 
update.  Thanks...
==============================================================================
Of  Angels and Eagles.  Since time beyond memory, analogy technique  has  been 
used  to address humanity's barrier to progress, i.e., true progress  and  not 
illusion.  We bring a particular analogy into 20th Century imagery, hopefully: 
a  surfer  skillfully rides waves and all applaud loudly his  brilliance.   An 
elected official shows poor leadership and we cry for his removal.  We explain 
our  point.   Here, the politician is the surfer and we (the people)  are  the 
waves.   To get better leadership (politicians) we must change the quality  of 
the  waves  (us), for from waves come surfers.  Here, an  ancient  analogy  is 
appropriately  applied to us and our leaders: for them to get better  we  must 
get better.  They are us, we are them.  See!  Such wave/surfer analogy can and 
should  be used at all levels of human association, seen and unseen, felt  and 
implied.   Our conclusion: progress depends on you, you depend on  All.   See, 
see you down the lines...

Echelon, Inc.       P.O. Box 705001-800         South Lake Tahoe, CA 95705 USA 
Telephone: 916/577-1105   Telex: 4931646    Z-Node Central (RAS): 408/432-0821

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; Z80/180/280, Zilog; HD64180, Hitachi;  Z-System,  ZOS, 
ZRDOSn, ZSDOSn, ZCPR3n, Z-Tools, Zas, Zlink, Z-Msg, Term3, Quick-Task,  NuKey, 
Lasting-Value Software, Echelon; CP/M, Digital Research; Unix, AT&T; TurboROM, 
Advent;  Graphix  Toolbox,  Turbo  Pascal,  Turbo  Modula-2,  Borland   Int'l; 
WordStar, Newword, MicroPro Int'l; DosDisk, DateStamper, PUBlic,  Plu*Perfect; 
JetFind, Bridger Mitchell.


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                               Z Sets You Free!



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Z-News  808  is  Copyright MCMLXXXVIII Echelon,  Inc.   All  Rights  Reserved.  
Permission  to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted  if  source 
credit is given to Echelon.
