🚀 go-pugleaf

Rainbow EchoMail Digest                         Oct  4, 1990

In this issue:
  RE: PAGEMAKER 3.0
  RE: ZMODEM ON RAINBOW
  RE: EXTENDED MEMORY ON A       (5 messages)
  RE: EXTENDED MEMORY ONA
  RE: RD-53


  Articles posted to either INFO-DEC-MICRO or comp.sys.dec.micro are
currently gatewayed to the Rainbow Echo on FidoNet. You do not need
to take special action to respond to articles in these digests.

  Please send reports of problems or suggestions for improvement of
this digest to GTHEALL@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU (Internet).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date:     09-30-90 (10:29)
To:       GEOFF REED
Subject:  RE: PAGEMAKER 3.0
From:     FRANK MALLORY

 GR>   I'm running it under windows/286 on a "stock" 100+ with a 20 meg
 GR> drive and 896K ram.  it can be a little slow at times, but mostly when
 GR> accessing the disk, which would be better if I had a faster drive than
 GR> an old st-225 that I haven't optimized in a while.

I'm going to try Ventura Publisher first, altho I have the impression
that PM  is easier to use and superior in some respects.

I got WordPerfect 5.0 working on my 'bow, under CB.  It works pretty
well,  except I wasted a lot of time trying to get it to
download fonts to my  LaserJet before giving up and loading
them separately.  Also, can't get the  PTR program to work as
well as I would like.

I have the text of a book originally composed in Bonner Labs RUNOFF for
the  VAX.  Converted it to straight ASCII using SEDT, then
input to WP using TEXT  IN.  A little tricky getting everything
right so that the soft CRs and hard  CRs would be where I
wanted them, but finally figured it out.  The edit  capability
of SEDT is far superior to that of WordPerfect.  So altho it's
a  bit cumbersome, I think my best course for future work will
be to use SEDT for  original composition, then import into WP,
VP, PM or whatever for final  formatting and output.


- --- msged 1.99L MSC
 * Origin: Silver Bullet - Silver Spring, Md. - 301-622-2247 (1:109/417)
------------------------------
Date:     09-30-90 (14:50)
To:       GEORGE THEALL
Subject:  RE: ZMODEM ON RAINBOW
From:     CHRIS RYAN

 > CR>   Some months ago I had some troubles with Zmodem transfers on my
 > CR>Rainbow (using Binkley) & a clone (using DSZ). A question to Chuck
 > CR>Forsberg got the following response:
 > CR>    ".....I also don't have access to a Rainbow computer,....A unique
 > CR>situation such as yours requires some serious consulting

 > to the Rainbow. You might find an older version on a local
 > board; you definitely get it when you register DSZ. On
 > one hand, I'd bet Chuck would be more amenable to questions
 > such as yours from a registered user. On the other, there's

  Funny you should say that, the first apenthesis (....) was a reference
to not being familiar with the version of Zmodem used in BinkleyTerm.
The second apenthesis covered an observation of his that I was
not a registered user of DSZ. Hmmmmm.

 > little reason for someone to register DSZ for use on a Rainbow
 > with only the hope that Chuck will get it working there.

True enough.
As a FYI, BinkleyTerm only functions on the Rainbow because the TRIO
has a Rainbow (Supplied by Bill Bird, a local sysop) to test it
on. Although registration of DSZ is no big hairy deal, sending
him a Rainbow to work with IS.  With our non-8250 compatible
UART, I can't think of any other way he could do the porting to
the Rainbow.

Anybody else have any observations to add?  (or possibly a spare
Rainbow to donate to the cause???? 8^) ).

Chris

- ---
 * Origin: Long_Island RB (Opus 1:102/138)
------------------------------
Date:     10-01-90 (13:17)
To:       DAVID MAROUN
Subject:  RE: EXTENDED MEMORY ON A
From:     PAUL OLSON

Last I heard, the extra memory space on the SS RAMBOW was simply unusable.

As Always,
Paul

- --- Opus-CBCS 1.12
 * Origin: Silver Bullet - Silver Spring, Md - 301-622-2247 (1:109/417.0)
------------------------------
Date:     10-01-90 (13:21)
To:       GEORGE THEALL
Subject:  RE: EXTENDED MEMORY ON A
From:     PAUL OLSON

George,

I thought the 8088 was able to address 2Mb of memory.  At least that is
what the CP/M-86/80 manual states.

As Always,
Paul

- --- Opus-CBCS 1.12
 * Origin: Silver Bullet - Silver Spring, Md - 301-622-2247 (1:109/417.0)
------------------------------
Date:     10-01-90 (23:59)
To:       PAUL OLSON
Subject:  RE: EXTENDED MEMORY ON A
From:     CARL HOUSEMAN

re: 8088... able to address 2 mb of memory.  AT least that's what the
     CPM 86/80 manual states.

 If it says that, it couldn't be more wrong.  The 8086, 8088, 80186 and
80188 are *by themselves* limited to 1 mb addressability.  Of
course you can add hardware to increase the accessible memory -
the way an EMS memory board can make 2-4 mb and more memory
available to an 8088 PC, but if you're talking about the
processor only, that doesn't count.


- --- Opus-CBCS 1.12
 * Origin: Silver Bullet - Silver Spring, Md - 301-622-2247 (1:109/417.0)
------------------------------
Date:     10-02-90 (07:20)
To:       CARL HOUSEMAN
Subject:  RE: EXTENDED MEMORY ON A
From:     PAUL OLSON

Carl,

No, what I'm making a reference to was a passage in the CP/M
programmers manual which said that the operating system had an
addressing scheme which would allow 2Mb to be addressed.  To be
honest, I've never figured out how much memory the 8088 could
address.  I just figured I was limited to 896Kb, and if the
processor could address it, that was enough.  If you'd like, I
can look up the passage in the manual, not that it makes much
difference.  Just a point of confusion!  ;-)

As Always,
Paul

- --- Opus-CBCS 1.12
 * Origin: Silver Bullet - Silver Spring, Md - 301-622-2247 (1:109/417.0)
------------------------------
Date:     09-30-90 (17:55)
To:       DAVID MAROUN
Subject:  RE: EXTENDED MEMORY ONA
From:     ALAN CONROY

  Well, you're right and you're not right.  Based on my discussions
with Suitable solutions when I bought my 286 card, the extra memory on
the board is actually a copy of the standard Rainbow ROM, with
some modifications to make the ROM BIOS work with the 80286
processor. When in Turbow mode, this is writable (but you need
to be sure not to over-write any of the code of the ROM BIOS
routines that you will be using).  When not in Turbow mode,
those addresses are routed to the ROM, and you cannot change the
memory.  This is how, in fact, you can tell if the 286 is in
turbow mode or not (save data from some location and write
something new.  If the new data "sticks" then you are in turbow
mode - then be sure to restore the old value).
So it is not like extended memory on a PC, but if you know what you are
doing, you can use some of it.


- --- Opus-CBCS 1.12
 * Origin: Glacier Peak Rainbow, Bellevue, WA - 206/644-8431 (1:343/3.0)
------------------------------
Date:     10-02-90 (08:52)
To:       ALL
Subject:  RE: RD-53
From:     CHRIS RYAN

General question (I'll sit back & watch for flying fur):
       Recently, a formerly active Rainbow user offered me a RD-53
for a reasonable price (not the issue).  In the conversation he made a
comment that intrigues me.  He stated that there is an
UNDOCUMENTED feature in FORD-DOS <sic> (otherwise referred to
as 3.xx), that allows a user to format an RD-53 with 3
partitions.  His meaning was that the first 2 partitions were
32Meg, with the third one being the remainder of the disk space.
       This seems to be counter to Suitable's (Jerry Miller) list published
in Rainbow News.  Since Suitable did the upgrade of FORD-DOS into the
releaseable 3.10A, I would have thought that this would become
documented,
(if it exists).
       Has anybody else heard of this?  Is it possible that the 3rd
partition is CPM?
       <retire to sidelines>
Chris


- ---
 * Origin: Long_Island RB (Opus 1:102/138)
------------------------------
Date:     10-04-90 (08:30)
To:       PAUL OLSON
Subject:  RE: EXTENDED MEMORY ON A
From:     GEORGE THEALL

PO>I thought the 8088 was able to address 2Mb of memory.  At least that is
PO>what the CP/M-86/80 manual states.

   Paul, because of their segmented architecture, Intel's 8086/8088
processors use a total of 20 bits to address memory. Two registers
are needed for this - one to represent the "segment", or 64K block of
memory, and another to represent the offset within that segment. As
such the highest location in memory which can be directly addressed is
2^20, or 1024*1024 = 1MB. This is a "feature" of the processor itself,
not the operating system being used.

   As Carl points out, schemes have been developed for handling more
than 1MB of memory with machines equipped with these processors, but
they require memory beyond the 1MB boundary be swapped into a special
area before it can be used. Moreover, this page frame, as it is known,
does indeed lie within the first meg of memory.

George
------------------------------