80-Bus News

Editorial

Publishing Deadlines

All things being relative and equal, this issue should be the third one that you have received after fairly accurate two monthly intervals. Having achieved this amazing regularity, it now becomes possible to start announcing publishing-schedules. For a start, as you know, we do not have a great army of staff-writers, in fact we don’t have any at all! Consequently we are pleased to receive articles for consideration at any time, but would prefer it to be well before the end of the second week of each odd month, if there is to be a chance of getting the article in the next issue.

Potential articles may be submitted in any form, but their relative chances of publication range from disks [any Gemini format (SD, DD or QD) and many others (Superbrain, Osborne, Xerox, IBM 8″ etc – but what are you doing with one of those!)], down through tapes [Nascom 2/3 or Gemini RP/M formats, or N1 with CUTs], and then neat typing/​handwriting on clean, uncrumpled paper. The lowest chance of getting something published is obtained by sending in an Nascom 1 format tape, as we can’t read those! Crumpled loo paper is a better bet!

Advertisers should send in camera ready copy by the end of an odd month, and should, preferably, book space about one week before that. Rates are available upon application, but you can be assured, of course, that they are extremely reasonable! All private ads. are free of charge, providing that they are advertising unwanted hardware/​software, and are not for ‘commercial gain’. Clubs may also send in details of their meetings and activities, and these will be published free of charge when space permits.

Maintaining Order

I am currently trying to draw up, for publication, a chart showing all of the Z80 I/O ports occupied by the various 80-BUS/​Nasbus products, the aim of which is to ensure that there are no clashes. Unfortunately, I am not getting on very well with it. I have spoken to a variety of manufacturers, all of whom have promised to send me details, but most of whom haven’t. So, if you manufacture, or are about to manufacture, an 80-BUS/​Nasbus compatible board that uses I/O ports, please send me:

1) Details of the standard port assignments.
2) Details of the optional assignments (if any).
3) Does the board support NASIO and DBDR correctly?

Hopefully I will be able to publish a complete I/O map in the next issue. If it is incomplete I will put in Very Big Letters the names of the unobliging companies.

Moving Technology

This Editorial is brought to you courtesy of Wordstar 3 and a Gemini Galaxy 3. Wordstar is very much the ‘industry de facto standard’ CP/M word processing software. It is, in many ways, nowhere near as easy to sit down in front of and type away as the ’PEN series (Naspen, Diskpen, Gempen), but I have been using those for four(?) years now and therefore have gained a certain understanding of them. Wordstar, on the other hand, has some pretty amazing features, the least of which must be the highlighting and the underlining facilities, not to mention the _sub-scripts and the ^super-scripts, and a massive host of other features. I’ll let you know how I get on. The Galaxy 3, by the way, is as Galaxy 2 but with a 5.4 MByte Winchester and 800Kbyte floppy, and on this one there is a Qume Sprint 5 attached. I can’t work out how I ever managed to produce the old INMC mags using a NAS­COM1, cassettes, and an arthritic IBM typewriter. Those were the days......

And finally, talking of moving technology(!), please note our New Address as given on the opposite page. By the time you get this we should have moved.