The effect on me of bringing the wrong power cable to the May meeting
was interesting. I was at a loss! I wanted to be able to demonstrate
the software on -alpha.008, a Royal-formatted disk which has on it
what I consider to be as close as you can get to 300k of Public Domain
software at its best. How dependent on my computer I have allowed
myself to become! How challenged I became to try to explain the
material on this disk. Without the "aid" of a monitor I was forced to
provide extra detail. Gabor Szikla liked meeting. He learned a few
things he said to me. I am always happy when I hear this kind of
thing!
For the record, I would like to put down on paper the files on this
disk and perhaps a short sentence or two about them. With the June
issue disk-based, I see this as a prime opportunity to include the
machine-readable software, documentation etc. etc. as part of the
"newsletter". Keeping with a desire to separate Meeting Notes and
other stuff, I will do this elsewhere. (See file BESTOF.CPM).
Al Hathway had a reprint of a book called "The CP/M Primer" by
Murtha and Waite. He had never seen it before and as he read thru it
felt it would be useful to the newer members. The Second Edition of
this book came with the Royal computer for those who bought it from
Railroad Salvage. I have written a letter to the publisher asking for
permission to print in the hardcopy edition of Pieces of 8 one of the
(many marvellous) drawings in this book. I have also asked them if
the book is still in print and if not if it would be OK if we made
copies of the most useful and introductory parts of it. Reinhard
May's comments about this book are interesting; Now that he knows a
bit more about his computer (thru CCP/M membership) he feels he may be
able to get more out of the book than he did when he first tried.
Tom Veile reported that our coffers hold $1259.21. The last
newsletter was expensive. As you can see, we have been putting out a
pamphlet. And I sent out about 50 complimentary issues last month
because I thought the issue was particularly good and that it was
about time this kind of effort were made to attract some of the people
that have expressed an interest in CCP/M either by once being members
or by leaving their name on some meeting attendance list. Hope we get
a few people to (re-)join thru this mailing blitz. The expense of
printing will all but disappear with the new disk-based format. We
will have hard copy of Pieces of 8 available at the Farmington meeting
but to save about 75 cents per issue we will not be sending hardcopy
in the mail.
As I write this I am beginning to realize the implications of what I
am saying. I again appeal to any and all of you who enjoy and read
Pieces of 8. This MUST be a joint effort. Jim, Robert and I will
need the assistance of others to make a disk-based newsletter a
success. This could very well develop into something nationally known
and something people eagerly await in their mailboxes. The first step
to making our disk-based newsletter has already been taken. I have
mailed "CCP/M Survey Kits" to those six people that said "yes" to the
question "Will you help with the CCP/M Survey" on the attendance form
circulated at the last meeting. Reno Franconi, Glen Gross, Al
Hathway, Reinhard May, Gabor Szikla, Diane Thome, and Tom Veile are
the volunteers. I have received 4 so far and the people that have
responded are taking their surveys seriously, as it was intended.
Please don't put off sending yours in. We appreciate the time it will
take you and will report the findings we make in our next Executive
Meeting. We WILL take action based on the information. I will also
put an article together when the results are in on what you said and
what we plan on doing to meet the needs that emerge.
So mostly I experienced the meeting as one of those meetings during
which the latest and greatest editor, disk directory program, library
utility, games, file compressors and decompressors, file managers etc.
were announced, named, briefly reviewed and compared. I wish there
had been more computers, more people and more time. But I always wish
that!
Z-Systems Associates and Leor Zolman have just recently announced a
ZCPR3-knowledgable version of the classic BDS C compiler. Al Hathway
called to tell me about it and I then discovered the ad in the latest
FOGHORN as well as the latest TCJ (these are two of the best journals
available on CP/M today). An integrated editor (RED), symbolic
debugger and (get this) named directory and error flag support. $90.
This is as big news to the software world as Micropro's WS4. When
commercial products are announced that pay attention to ZCPR3, stand
up and SHOUT! CCP/M's Z-Plan status allows members to buy this at 20
percent off. $72 for the finest C compiler on the 8-bit market. See
elsewhere for our Z-Plan order form if interested.
