80-Bus News |
January–March 1982 · Volume 1 · Issue 1 |
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I think that the CP/M routine DUMP.COM has very unsightly output, when used on a Nascom, because it is expecting a screen that is wider than 48 characters. So, if you want a program that tabulates 8 bytes to a line, this is what you do:
| 1/ | Insert a disk with DDT.COM and DUMP.COM on it. |
| 2/ | Type DDT DUMP.COM and press Enter. |
| 3/ | Type S12E and press Enter. |
| 4/ | Amend the byte displayed, which should be 0F, to 07. [i.e. type 07 and press Enter, then type “.” and press Enter.] |
| 5/ | Type GO and press Enter. |
| 6/ | Type SAVE 3 TAB.COM and press Enter for the last time. |
You now have a new command, which will impress all sorts of people, or {more likely] make them wonder what on earth you are going on about, which is what happens when I try to explain about computers to the people I work with. Console yourself with the thought that they are not on the leading edge of the highest technology around, and probably can’t even remember where they left their towels......
Of all the equally effective ways of producing the character set of your dreams on your Nascom, I chose to use a Nasbus compatible board made by a firm called Aids To Industry. This board can be fitted with from 1K to 4K of RAM, which the system accesses through the bus, or through a ribbon cable with a 24 pin header on the end. This latter plugs in where the graphics EPROM used to be. Normally, the board is supplied in a form that requires you to set a switch to decide which side the board is read from, but if you ask them nicely, ATI will modify the board slightly, so that it gives priority to the Nasbus, but is connected to the character generator socket at all other times. Handier than pushing a switch? Lots.
Microdigital, who used to be a Nascom dealer once upon a 1 MHz clock, have sold their magazine, the Liverpool Software Gazette. It has been taken over by the Apple users group, and renamed “Windfall”. I only mention this in passing because under the new management, and printed on very posh type glossy paper, it looks exactly the way this magazine would, if it had more advertisers. They have even thrown out the machine that they were using to put all those mispnirts in it....
If anybody has one they don’t want, I would like to haggle over a Microdigital Relay board, on account of it seems like the easiest way of automating things like my tape machine.
Whatever happened to the following more or less interesting (according to your point of view) things?
| 1/ | The letters from all the Citizens Band experts, telling us how we can set up a Nascom network, or that it is impossible. Can it be that they are too busy discussing the “Smokey Bacons” to spare the time? Networking is too important and interesting to remain the preserve of TRS80 owners and the millionaires who have British Telecom modems..... [In the event that they just don’t answer, how about an article from one of the legitimate radio hams who use radio teletypes?] (See Dave Hunt’s bit elsewhere – Ed.) |
| 2/ | The answers to the last “whatever happened to...."? |
| 3/ | The list of things I was going to ask about? |
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