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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.
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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.
* *
Fly with Z!
* *
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.
