David Clark and Al Hathway were sitting at the table in the
Farmington Public Library when my wife and I arrived. Jim Taylor
had left me a note on our board that David was looking for
information and I had sent him a copy of the last newsletter; it
was good to see a new face (and to see how effective electronic
and conventional (US Snail) messaging is).
It was a meeting which started out with only a few people.
Diane Thome gave editor Taylor an article on macros. Newcomer
David Clark owns a Commodore 128 and an Osborne. I passed out
hardcopy of the August disk-based newsletter and encouraged him
to fill out the application to join! He called in to our remote
system a couple of weeks back and stayed for a bit. Hope CCP/M
sees him on our membership list soon!
Two computers were on hand and two presentations were given.
Al Hathway, who has indicated he will serve again as the Program
Coordinator next year, had a handout on Revision Management. His
talk showed how with 4 aliases he has automated the archiving of
program revisions. I showed how with menus and aliases I put a
front-end onto my brother's Weather Almanacs. We both brought
hard-copy of Jay Sage's ARUNZ documentation. Jay's extended
command processor is at version 0.9Q as of March 2, 1989. With
Al's aliases, Jay's ARUNZ releases could be managed quite nicely.
The use of library files was common to both our
applications. Naming my brother's almanacs AL(mmdd).CB (ALmanacs
written in month mm on day dd by Chip Bradley), or naming
software versions vv.ml (up to two digits for major version, one
digit and possibly a letter for minor versions) and then
compressing and adding them to libraries works out real well.
Brian Nalewajek and the others present decided that there
would be a regular second Tuesday meeting in August. Some groups
drop a month in Summer but it was thought that it would be a good
idea to hold a meeting for anyone desiring to come. No formal
topic is planned. An Executive Meeting (to which any and all are
invited) will be held on August 29th at the Newington Public
Library. I'll try to secure the room from 6 to 9. The meeting
will serve as the Nominating Committee Meeting and a CCP/M 1990
Planning Meeting. Where are we going, who wants to go there and
how are we planning on getting there?
The second issue of our now disk-based newsletter was
available in hard-copy and in Kaypro, Royal and IBM format. It
took a 40 page pamphlet this time to print the articles library.
The disks themselves will be quite late this time because I was
late sending Robert Person 20 floppies to format and load from a
master. I expect to get them back on Monday next. You should
have received yours by August 1.
The September meeting's aftermeeting at George's Pizza will
be paid for by CCP/M! We'll buy the pizza, beer, soda and
anything else your little stomach desires. Party time. By then,
we should have had a big Election Meeting and be ready to
celebrate the new leadership and the future of the Connecticut
CP/M Users' Group. I've decided I want to try running the disk-
based Pieces of Eight newsletter in 1990. I herewith throw
myself into the fray and hope any others that want the job either
do it or start gathering material now and co-edit (sort of like
Jim, Al, Brian, Rick and I have been doing for a while). I want
to expand this newsletter to become national (something Taylor
has suggested might prove interesting).
Jim is the proud owner of a 286-based hard disk MS-DOS
computer now. Treasurer Veile and he completed the deal about a
week ago. Jim's primary interest is in using this large disk
capacity and high-performance machine as a publishing tool. I
expect the learning curve is a bit rough now for him. VDE11.EXE
will be his editor for awhile. Daryl Gehlbach sent this via FOG
to our remote a month ago at my brother's request. Jim has said
he wants to do the newsletter on his new machine. I think it's
clear that we are entering a new era of shared tools. As Jim has
pointed out repeatedly, use several. His 20 mb IBM and Rod's
Royal and Al's SB180 and Reno's Televideo and my new Xerox DEM II
16/8 etc. can be turned into a production network of exciting
material if we let it.
The budget will come up at the Executive Meeting. We are
now beginning to be able to predict fairly reliably our
newsletter expenses. 45 cents postage. 19 cents mailer. 25
cents disk. A few hard-copy issues have been available at no
expense but there may be an interest in making hardcopy
available. We should discuss this at the August 29 meeting.
Perhaps the hardcopy pamphlet newsletter could be produced by
certain members and marketed nationally. 10 disk-based issues
run $12.50 in expenses a year. Our current membership fee is
$15. Should cover it.
A Few Specific Budget Proposals
I propose that CCP/M actively support CP/M and Z-System
program contributors financially. A Steven Perkins has recently
released a game called QUATRIS2. Jim Taylor sent it to us and I
in turn have shipped it down to Chris McEwen's Socrates Z-Node in
NJ ((201) 754-9067). Chris runs a recently Z-Noded 60+ mb Z-
System QBBS which I have called twice now. It is a terrific
system. I will model my new system after his in part because it
is clearly taking advantage of the new Z-System. Steven asks for
$10 in his support text and promises another game and the source
code (Turbo Pascal) to QUATRIS2. I recommend that CCP/M send him
$10.
I would also propose that CCP/M support our bulletin board
(soon to be a Z-Node I hope) by paying $15 a month for its
operation. We need to talk more about this in August but I think
my expenses should be lessened and the Group's support made more
explicit in 1990.
Finally, I would like to send a check for $20 to Chip
Bradley for his contribution to the August Newsletter and for his
Weather Almanacs. We have a large resource now in his Almanacs.
I want to begin to make CCP/M an organization known for its
financial support for those that contribute to our effort to keep
CP/M alive and kicking!
Final Thoughts ...
The Bylaws will be discussed and updated at the August and
September meetings. It's a matter of combining revision
suggestions from our last executive meeting with the standing
text in our Bylaws. Our Guidelines and our Bylaws need to be
reviewed and we need to get serious about the specifics they
cover. Like budgets. The group should decide exactly how much
money it has, will earn and where it is going to be spent. If
being a money manager is interesting to you, consider running for
Treasurer!
I expect Al and I will put together articles on our
presentations on aliases. I am looking forward to the day when
people who get our disk-based newsletter will be able to take the
menu and alias scripts we develop and adapt them to their own
special needs. Al's Revision Management system and Chip's
Weather Almanac System (a joint effort by an author and a
technician) represent our first gift to the world via the
Connecticut CP/M Users' Group (trumpet blast, drum roll, cheering
crowd, general Chaos).
I would like to personally thank everyone who has taken part
in the 1988-89 year. We have added a few new members, started a
pamphlet and disk-based publication, become Z-System software
dealers, been blessed with ZDE, NZCOM, QL, ZPATCH, LSH and others
and issues of The Computer Journal that seem to get more and more
fascinating and an announcement of the PC-Z in 1989. What will
1990 bring? I think we should invite someone like Bill Juliani
up (GEnie SYSOP) perhaps in September, maybe October to kick off
the new year. Talk about ConnNET, StarLink, and where BBS's and
GEnie might fit in in the coming year.
That's one idea for a meeting topic. Chris McEwen's board
has a C tutorial going on. Perhaps Steven Perkins would write an
article on how he implemented QUATRIS2 in Pascal. Send YOUR
ideas on people, topics, hardware, business applications etc. to
Al Hathway. It's time to once again be able to know what our
planned meetings will be at least three months in advance .
Lee Bradley, trying to get communications going between
First National Supermarkets' IBM mainframe and NCR Point of Sale
scanning systems during the day and between a Z-System PBBS and
remote callers at night. Communications. Communications. I
recently met a guy who has programmed his IBM 386 in C and Cobol
to do packet-switched message transfer thru ConnNET to a remote
sight. His idea is to support Auto Car Dealerships, for example,
with the hardware, software and expertise they would need. Where
can I find a mint condition 1965 Pink Cadillac in the Northeast
for around $15000? Could your business benefit from a micro-(not
mainframe-) based communications network? Could a cluster of PC-
Z's under the latest Fido-like network do the job? I am trying
to begin to find out.
