CCP/M Meeting Notes - February 1989
Our next meeting on February 14 (Valentine's Day!) will feature Z System
applications. Remember, CCP/M is a dealer of NZCOM and Z3PLUS (and
DateStamper etc.) and we hope you come to the meeting and see examples of
how useful and fun it is to operate a CP/M machine equipped with this new
Operating System. You'll never want to go back to CP/M after learning
about and then using New Z System!
The best way to learn how a well built Z System looks is to see one in
operation. The notes below are provided as background on the application
I'm going to have on display.
The last meeting of CCP/M was well attended. Ray Gentle picked up where
Brian Nalewajek left off and introduced spreadsheets via SuperCalc 2 on an
Osborne. While skillfully explaining what spreadsheets did and how to run
them, Ray also did a great job answering questions from the audience. I
had a Royal running MicroCalc, a demo spreadsheet written in Turbo Pascal.
It was not really needed since Ray had such a well planned discussion of a
real spreadsheet. Thanx a lot Ray and Brian for one of the best
presentations ever! New member Ked Butt and about half of Ray's Fire Dpt.
were in attendance! Hope all the new faces come back for more!
A COBOL Application under Z System
I hooked up my 20 mb hard disk to a Kaypro II about 3 weeks ago and
installed Z System. I have been very busy building the environment I want
to work in and thought you might be interested in how one person has taken
advantage of the tools Z System provides.
To get underway, a little history. As is often the case, a single upload
to my RCP/M started the whole thing. COBOL.LBR contains the files you need
to compile and execute programs written in NPS MICRO-COBOL (Common Business
Oriented Language).
I've written some applications in this dialect of COBOL and built a library
named MIS301.LBR. I chose this name in honor of the most complex program
I've written so far in it. This program solved an assignment in MIS301,
the COBOL class at CCSU, a former employer of mine. It is available for
download from my RCP/M (phone # is (203)-665-1100).
Menu scripts and alias scripts are also being developed and will be
discussed below.
As you read this, try to imagine yourself as you use your own computer.
What do you do frequently? What would be nice to select from if you could
design your own menu? Because this is exactly how I create my computing
environment. Each time I found something that I wanted to do, I just beef
up the commands understood by the computer! This, as I see it, is
precisely what Z System is all about.
I offer, for starters, the following alias. An "alias" is a little piece
of "job control language" which feeds the multiple command line buffer of Z
System after resolving any parameters it's passed.
UNSEQ=RENUM=SEQ REN REN1.CBL=$1;EXEC $0;REN $1=REN2.CBL;ERA REN1.CBL
This will be explained below. Finally, take a look at the following menu:
COBOL Development Menu
System File 1 $F1
Q Quick look (QLZ40) V Show Version
L run Library utility (LU310)
X eXecute $F1
C Compile $F1
R,U,S Renumber,Unsequence,Sequence $F1
F set System File 1
E Edit $F1 (VDE266) ^ formfeed the printer
B Browse $F1 1 print SALES.RPT
Z enter Z command 2 print SALES.ERR
3 print SALES.DAT
D eDit SALES.DAT
O lOok at SALES files 4 print $F1
The following code is what I chose to support the single letter commands
above (space between letter and script added for easier reading)
V ECHO 01/17/89 %>at 4:50 %<PM
R RENUM $F1
U UNSEQ $F1
S SEQ $F1
Z !"command->"
E EDIT $F1
F SETFILE 1 "file "
Q QL "mask? "
X EXEC $F1
C COBOL $F1 $$"options? (CDLPSTW) ->"
D EDIT SALES.DAT
O QL SALES.*
L LU
1 PIP LST:=SALES.RPT;CHRS 0C
2 PIP LST:=SALES.ERR;CHRS 0C
3 PIP LST:=SALES.DAT[P60;CHRS 0C
^ CHRS 0C
4 MODEM:WRAP -I16 -W200 -H $F1 >LST:
B QL $F1
One of the programs which evolved out of this process is named UNSEQ.CBL.
If you have an interest in learning more about COBOL, you might consider
downloading this file.
UNSEQ reads a COBOL program and "unsequences" it. That is, it strips away
the six digit sequence numbers in the input file. COBOL programs must have
the first 6 "card columns" set aside for "sequence" numbers. One of the
nice features of MICRO-COBOL is an option which tells the compiler if there
are sequence numbers in the source code file. You save a lot of space on
the disk if you don't use sequence numbers.
Recall the alias named UNSEQ above. When I pick U from the menu shown
above, "system file" 1 is "unsequenced". Z System allows you to identify
up to 4 files as "system files", with the SETFILE program. You may display
what the system file names are and you may also use them in menu and alias
scripts.
UNSEQ=RENUM=SEQ REN REN1.CBL=$1;EXEC $0;REN $1=REN2.CBL;ERA REN1.CBL
If "system file " 1 was MIS301.CBL, this would translate to
REN REN1.CBL=MIS301.CBL;EXEC UNSEQ;REN MIS301.CBL=REN2.CBL;ERA REN1.CBL
compliments of ARUNZ, the extended command processor (without which Z
System users could not live...)
EXEC is one of the files in COBOL.LBR. It loads .CIN files and invokes
CINTERP.COM. In our example, UNSEQ.CIN (the output of the compilation of
UNSEQ.CBL) would load and run.
UNSEQ.CBL, SEQ.CBL and RENUM.CBL all read in a file which is named
REN1.CBL, either unsequence, sequence or renumber it and put out their
result in a file named REN2.CBL. Since you typically would want to process
files with real names, like MIS301.CBL for example, the alias above simply
renames your file to what the application requires, runs the application
(EXEC $0) and then renames the output back to your filename, MIS301.CBL for
example.
The interesting thing about all this is the bootstrapped quality of the
operating environment. That is, something that was developed under a
simpler environment now is being used to help create an even more powerful
operating environment. I used to be able only to compile, edit and execute
COBOL programs. Now I may request the use of a new "macro" called UNSEQ on
any .CBL file. Neat!
NPS MICRO-COBOL is pretty slick. The DOC file is 19 pages long and is
well-written. I am developing a COBOL.NOT file which discusses the
limitations I've encountered. So far I've managed to list 23 things.
Experienced COBOL programmers might be interested for example in the
limitations of the MOVE and MULTIPLY verbs etc., the fact that AND and OR
are not implemented and many other "gothchas" I fell into.
It's interesting to me that the author of NPS MICRO-COBOL did not credit
himself in the DOC file. I'd like to know who wrote this fine
compiler/interpreter. I'd like to know what the intermediate code is like
etc. In fact, it would be a lot of fun to try and enhance the program so
it could handle multiple MOVEs etc. Perhaps the Wizard can help is
out.
Question for the Wizard: Who wrote NPS MICRO-COBOL? In what
language? When was it released? Is source code available? Etc.
(The Wizard is a very old and wise CP/M guru who exists solely to answer
those tough questions that come up from time to time. If you, kind reader,
either have such a question or are amused by treasure hunts such as the one
posed above and the like, drop Jim Taylor, Pieces of Eight Editor, a note.)
The single example I've tried to explain is obviously just one of the
hundreds of commands my computer now does for me. I can jump from one menu
to another thanks to MENU.COM, a Z System shell. I can print files
(established earlier to be "system files") by invoking WRAP.COM, a fine
file lister written in C (or PIP etc.). I can backup changed files to
floppy, check the integrity of a disk and reorganize my hard and floppy
disks with single key strokes. To find out more about how menu scripts are
written, check out MENU.MNU.
Lee Bradley, CCP/M Secretary and Z Plan Contact for CCP/M
01/17/89 at 4:50 PM
