**************************************** * * * Portfolio User 6 * * * * October 1995 * * * * Edited By: Paul Jolliffe * * paulj@jollyp.demon.co.uk * * * **************************************** Contents: ========= Introduction PF Shareware List PF Tools Programming Problem Corner For Sale Questionaire Introduction ============ As Jan said in issue 5 I will be taking over the running of the PF news so that he can pursue developing hardware and software for the PF. I am sure that I speak for the whole of the PF community when I thank Jan for all his hard work. To make a successful news letter I need input from the PF community, to help me create a news letter. One things that I would like to do is to highlight any unusual uses that people have or had for the PF, so if you know anyone or you have such a use then please email me an article decribing it. If anyone has any ideas no matter how strange they may think then please let me know, if anyone one wants to write any aricles then please let me know. I would like to start running the news letter more like a magazine. When I was growing up I owned a Sinclair ZX81 (Timex 2000) computer. It had a massive 1K of ram and blistering graphics (NOT!) but the magazines that were produced were great. They included source code listings and reviews of software, obviously there is little or no new software being released but people are and have written software that the vast majority of us don't know about. There are people like Jan developing hardware addons for the PF, I'm sure that there are people out there who have built small gadgets and bits for the PF, if so write about it and e-mail me. Due to my strange domestic and work arragements I generally pick up my e-mail every 2-3 days, I always pick it up on a Friday or Saturday. I am hoping to set my home machine to forward the mail to my office address. If anyone wants a more immeadiate response then email me a work: paulj@trideuk.demon.co.uk It is safer to CC to my home address as well, just in case: paulj@jollyp.demon.co.uk PF Shareware List ================= In issue 5 Jan published a list of PF shareware on ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk, for those who do not have access to ftp I can email you the programs in the uucode format, the files will then need to be 'pkunzipped' using ver 2.04, should you have any problems receiving files in this format please let me know and I should be able to sor something out. I will send out any requested files on a friday night, please limit each request to a maximum of 5 files per request. If anyone has any programs that are not listed or knows of any other sites then could you email them to me and I will perodiclly send out an updated list with this letter, or alternatively I can bundle a 'software package' with the news letter, let me know what you think. PF Tools ======== I use a program called pk-lite ver 1.5 with my PF, the program strips out and compresses .exe and .com files, this makes them a lot smaller, typacally by 25%. Again if you want a copy please e-mail me. If anyone else uses any small utilities that they would like other people to know about then let me know, these might be text editors or other compression software. Problem Page ============ Once a month I will pick a couple of the e-mail queries that I get or posting to the comp.sys.handhelds new group and the replies that I send back. If I can't answer the query myself then I will try and find someone who can. Help: PORTFOLIO AND INTERNET From J.Geheniau@solair1.inter.NL.net Sat Sep 23 01:05:25 1995 > I want to use my portfolio on the internet. > It is possible now with my rs232 interface, but when I use acom 11 or > xterm2 a lot of strange sign are on my little lcd screen. I think acom or > xterm don't emulate the right terminal. Is there a program for the > portfolio that can emulate vt100 or vt102 ? > IRC is possible but reading mail is a problem. Answer: (From Jan Sedlak) I do not know any vt100 terminal for PF. But I think there must be some way to use PF as an internet terminal. I hope other PF fans will have some ideas. Help: PORTFOLIO AND COMPUSERVE From: "Gayle L. Mills" <102400.2570@compuserve.com> > Hi, do you know if there is a Compuserve version for the Portfolio? > Something that would just ket me do mail(on-line and offline) # > visit a forum and get news, and weather. If you know anything, > please let me know. > Thanks, Gayle, 102400.2570@compuserve.com Help: Manuals From: molyneux@tcel.com > Hello, > Presently I am missing manuals for the memory expansion and PC > card drive. Answer From: sedlakj@dec59 I cannot help we have only Czech translations. The PC card should be no problem. Just one free slot and the CD.SYS mentioned in the config.sys and I think you will be ready to go. I installed my PC card reader in 2 minutes. > If anyone could send me a copy of these manuals, it would be > gratefully appreciated. Can anybody help??? Help: PORTFOLIO UPGRADE, Where to start? From: molyneux@tcel.com > I would like to upgrade my Portfolio but I am unsure where > to start. Could you please advise. Portfolio is designed to use a RAM card as a data storage medium. The C: disk is not much reliable and it takes much of the RAM which is very scarce on PF. So please get at least one RAM card and it will make your life much easier. The RAM cards range from 32 KB capacity up to 4 Megabytes. Help: Portfolio and remote access From: molyneux@tcel.com > I would also like to use my Portfolio when on > the road to send and receive my e-mail and faxes. Will anybody help??? RESPONSE TO SEPTEMBER ISSUE From: Brian Mooney <71023.756@compuserve.com> > I just finished reading the Sept issue of the Portfolio > newsletter you edit, and I want to say "Thank you!"!! It was > posted on the Portfolio area on Compuserve. There hasn't been > much traffic there lately and I've wondered if I was alone in > my continued devotion to the Portfolio. Thank you for letting > me know others are out there. > The products that are being produced are of interest to > me. I am particularly interested in an interface for PCMCIA > cards. I teach at a university, and I see the Port as a great > datalogger and also as a rugged little computer. I do not belive there will ever be a PCMCIA interface for PF, although it is not so hard to make as the PF has ISA-BUS coming out of it. Which no other (I think) palmtop has. > A company here in the USA sells a geiger counter device that > can be hooked up to the Port, and I am experimenting with it > now. If it works as well with the Port as it does with an > IBM PC, I'll send a review for the newsletter that you can > use if you wish. The device is very reasonably > priced ($150 USD), especially for its quality, small > (size of a pack of cigarettes), and might be of interest to > some Portfolio users. > I hope my use of the Portfolio will stimulate some other > academic interest to support the products now being made. > Please count me a regular reader and supporter, and I'm > always willing to help if I can. If there are any other > scientific or technical Portfolio users, I'd like to hear > from them. Programming =========== In issue 4 of PF news Jan covered some of the reduments on proramming the PF. The problem with the PF is its hardware compatability, a lot of the programming environments around use hardware calls that crash the PF, even those that allow you to turn them off. About 8 months ago I found the PF archive at ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk and I dusted off my PF to give the programs a try. I got the PF bug and decided to write some small programs for the PF. I wrote a couple of small routines with Quick Basic but they crashed the PF. I then saw a posting in the comp.sys.handhelds group from Graison Swaan for the Turbo Pascal portfolio unit, since then the world has been wonderful. Turbo pascal is a very easy language to use and learn, it is syntacially simila to 'c' but as I seem to have problems picking up 'c' it is an easy option for me. The Borland compiler compiles programs nice and small, ideal for the PF. It also employs 'UNITS' these are similar to include files and contain procedures and functions that the main program will use. I would like to start including source code listing in the PF news letter that have been written by PF users. The source code can be in any language, although I think the majority of code knocking around is in 'C', Pascal or assembler. I know quite a few people use the excellent P-Basic package, if any one has any source they have written and they would like to share then please send it in. If anyone is feeling adventurous they could always write a set of articles teaching people P-Basic, any takers ?? Here are two contributions that I have received from Jan that were sent to him: ----------------------------------------------------------- From: BJ GLEASON Program: GO! Language: Turbo C, Version 2.0 From: bj gleason <73337.2011@compuserve.com> Here is my contribution... Here is the TC 2.0 source code for the LOAD program... I called it go many years ago... I never released it becasue I felt that it was too big (K wise) and I never bothered trying to trim it down. I does not have all the options that you mention, but they should be easy to add to it... It will invoke the app after it modifies the permdata by stuffing the keyboard buffer... You could always add an option where it doesn't stuff the buffer, and then it could be used in a batch file as well... When you specify the name of the file, it needs to be complete with the path... perhaps someone else could add that as well... Enjoy... bj ----------- Source Listing For: GO! ----------------------- /* go program for the portfolio... by bj gleason */ /* share and enjoy */ #include #include #include #include #include #include #define WORKSHEETNAME 0x08 #define DIARYNAME 0x62 #define EDITORNAME 0xb6 #define EDITORLINE 0x107 #define EDITORCOL 0x109 #define ADDRESSNAME 0x110 #define PERMDATA "C:\\SYSTEM\\PERMDATA.DAT" #define PERMSIZE 730 char startapps[6]={"app/x"}; int line; char file_input[80]; int push_kb(int key, int ascii) { unsigned int code; int head, tail; head = peek(0x40,0x1a); tail = peek(0x40,0x1c); code = (key << 8) + ascii; poke(0x40,tail,code); if(tail < 60) { tail += 2; if (head == tail) return(0); poke(0x40,0x1c,tail); } else { tail = 30; if(tail == head) return(0); poke(0x40,0x1c,tail); } return(1); } void push_keys(char *b){ poke(0x40,0x1c,peek(0x40,0x1a)); while (*b) push_kb(0x00,*b++); push_kb(0x1c,0x0d); } int read_permdata(char *p) { FILE *fp; if((fp = fopen(PERMDATA, "rb"))==NULL) return 0; fread(p,PERMSIZE,1,fp); fclose(fp); return 1; } int write_permdata(char *p) { FILE *fp; if((fp = fopen(PERMDATA, "wb"))==NULL) return 0; fwrite(p,PERMSIZE,1,fp); fclose(fp); return 1; } void set_name(int nameoffset) { char buffer[PERMSIZE+1]; if(!(read_permdata(buffer))){ puts("C:\\SYSTEM\\PERMDATA.DAT Not Found"); exit(1); } strcpy(&buffer[nameoffset],file_input); if (nameoffset==EDITORNAME) { buffer[EDITORLINE]=line; buffer[EDITORCOL]=(int) 0; } write_permdata(buffer); } void main(void) { if (_argc==1) { puts("Usage: GO a [filename.ext]"); puts("Where: a is the app: A C D E S W Z"); exit(1); } if (_argc==3) { strcpy(file_input,_argv[2]); switch (*_argv[1]|0x20) { case 'e' : set_name(EDITORNAME); break; case 'w' : set_name(WORKSHEETNAME); break; case 'a' : set_name(ADDRESSNAME); break; case 'd' : set_name(DIARYNAME); break; default : puts ("Filename not allowed"); } } startapps[4]=*_argv[1]; push_keys(startapps); } ----------- End Of Source Code ---------------------------- From: David E. Stewart Program: LOAD Language: Pascal Hi! Another great Portfolio News ... long one! I'm glad there is still much interest in the Port, especially in Europe. Second, I read with interest the specs for creating a "LOAD" program. Re:Port Issue #4 contains "Launch" which does pretty much what the author suggests, but with a menu type interface. It is also available in a more simple format on CompuServe (I think ... it's been a long time). However, anyone with Re:Port can look in the "source" directory of pretty much any disk and find EDITBX.PAS, which includes routines for setting the current filename in PERMDATA.DAT for any internal app. I found that the second part (loading the interal programs) was a tad more difficult, and I never found a good answer for that. I just shelled out to a batch file to sort of "fake" it out. OK, because I know Jan will bug me for it , here is the Pascal source for getting/setting the PERMDATA.DAT filenames ... don't say I never gave you anything. You may use this freely in your own projects. The functions should be very easy to port into C, C++, Assembler, whatever. When the function looks for a "filenum" it really is looking for one of these values (sorry, I wrote these for my own use, and before I learned Hungarian notation, so very often my variables make little sense!): 1 = Worksheet 2 = Diary 3 = Editor 4 = Address Book ------- Source Listing For: LOAD -------------------------- function getappfile(filenum : integer) : string; var editfile : string; permdata : file of char; a,start : integer; ch : char; begin assign(permdata,'c:\system\permdata.dat'); reset(permdata); editfile := ''; case filenum of 1 : start := $08; 2 : start := $62; 3 : start := $b6; 4 : start := $110; end; for a := 0 to start do read(permdata,ch); while ch <> #0 do begin editfile := editfile + ch; read(permdata,ch); end; close(permdata); getappfile := editfile; end; procedure setappfile(filenum : integer; filename : string); var permdata : file; a,b,c,start : integer; ch : char; perminfo : array[0..730] of char; begin assign(permdata,'c:\system\permdata.dat'); reset(permdata,1); blockread(permdata,perminfo[0],730,a); close(permdata); case filenum of 1 : start := $08; 2 : start := $62; 3 : start := $b6; 4 : start := $110; end; filename := filename + chr(0); c := 1; for b := start to start+length(filename) do begin perminfo[b] := filename[c]; inc(c); end; assign(permdata,'c:\system\permdata.dat'); rewrite(permdata,1); blockwrite(permdata,perminfo[0],730); close(permdata); end; =============================== REAL LIFE : David E. Stewart INTERNET : davestew@netcom.com COMPUSERVE: 73770,2021 =============================== -------- End Of Source Listing ---------------------------- Clubs, Magazines and Events =========================== Germany ------- ULTIMATE PORTFOLIO SUPPORT IN GERMANY From: sedlakj@dec59 Good news for everybody, but specially for users in Germany: The Portfolio activities are increasing and increasing... There is a club now, with about 500 people in database. AND they are selling all Portfolio products of our Czech club. This means that PF users in Germany do not have to order the products from CZ but directly from German Portfolio Club. It is also a good chance for all the rest of the PF users who live in EC (European Community) countries, because there is no extra taxation, and the whole transaction is quicker than odering the product directly from our club here in Czech Republic. So please, take you chance and contact: Mr Wolf-Theo Holl Neue Marktstr. 16 D-47051 Duisburg tel/fax + 49 203 299 880 email wolf-theo_holl@du.maus.de 100113.2626@compuserve.com ANOTHER MAGAZINE ABOUT PORTFOLIO From: Klaus Peichl >Do you know Steffen and his magazine? I can't remember the Postleitzahl (5-digit-number of his hometown), but the rest of his address is: Steffen Kuehnert Thalheimer Strasse 29 ????? Dorfchemnitz Germany I looked up the city-code for Steffen Kuehnert's hometown: It's 09380 Dorfchemnitz. And his phone nr is Germany, 0377542984. He is editing a disk magazine named "P&P" for Pocket- and Palmtop- Computers. The Portfolio is always the most important subject. The magazine comes out 4 times a year and there were 6 issues so far, which I have all. He is normally selling them for 5 DM each, but afaik this is only a copy fee and you are allowed to copy it on your own. So I could send you the past 6 issues, too. But maybe you want to contact him first. A few weeks ago, I called him, and he said it should be possible to reach him via e-mail, but he didn't know how. I had forgotten to tell you that his magazine is in German, so it might be useless for you, except for the software included. For Sale ======== 1 MB and 4 MB RAM Cards for Portfolio Please if you are interested in these cards, send your order as soon as possible. We are collecting orders and we will send them soon to the manufacturer. You can order the 1 MB and 4MB cards both from Czech Portfolio Club and the German Portfolio Club PORTFOLIO PRODUCTS - valid from 20 September 1995 Here is the price list for the products that we can offer you. All prices are in German Marks (DEM) and all prices do not take local tax and VAT into consideration. PERIPHERALS MADE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC - 2 year warranty code description quant./price END PRICE 1-5 6-30 31-100 101-250 251-1000 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HPD 103 Genuine Leather Case with battery pocket 29 20 19 17 16 15 HPD 300 Parallel inteface 25 pin, cable, software 79 60 55 50 45 40 HPD 350 Serial interface 9 pin, RS 232, software 115 86 80 75 70 60 HPD 400 RAM Card 128 KB, min 2 yr. battery life-span 119 94 89 79 65 60 HPD 450 PORTFOLIO MEGA-PACK RAM Card 128 KB, Parallel interf. 25 pin, soft, cable, file man. more, soft instal. 169 136 130 118 105 95 HPD 500 FolioDrive 3,5TS FDD Unit to read and write 1,44 MB diskettes from Portfolio Par. inferf., NiCd battery pack, cable, soft and 32 KB RAM Card incl. in the price 349 280 260 call call call HPD 600 PortWalk tape recorder interface mono/stereo 2MB on 60 minutes tape 59 35 30 25 22 20 --------------------------------- LITERATURE HPD 202 Portfolio Technical Guide in English 120 pgs,+ disk 29 18 17 15 14 13 HPD 203 Portfolio Programmier Praxis, in Deutsch 345pgs,+ disk 29 18 17 15 14 13 --------------------------------- ORIGINAL ATARI PRODUCTS HPC 402 AC adapter 220 V 24 14 12 - - - --------------------------------- OTHER SUPPORT HPD 700 Upgrade your PF RAM to 512 KB 195 150 call - - - HPD 801 60 pin BUS connector 14 10 7 - - - HPD 802 128KB SRAM chip 20 16 15 - - - ---------------------------------------------------- NOTES: END PRICE - suggested end-user price, we sell to individuals at this price call - get current information personally ---------------------------------------------------- contact person: Jan Sedlak sedlakj@dec59.ruk.cuni.cz Portfolio Sarajevska 29 120 00 Praha 2 The Czech Republic Tel: + 42 2 99 61 894 Fax: + 42 2 29 51 86 To order please e-mail Jan and he will let you know about availability, shipping costs etc..., his bank details are as follows: *** Czech Portfolio Club Bank Connection BANK: Ceska sporitelna Jugoslavska 19 120 00 Praha 2 the Czech Republic BANK CODE: 0800 OWNER OF ACCOUNT: Jan SEDLAK - Portfolio Sarajevska 29 120 00 Praha 2 the Czech Republic NUMBER OF ACCOUNT: 720252-028/0800 Without our suuport, Jan and his friends will not be able to carry on developing equipment for the PF, so please if you need anything order now, treat yourself for Christmas !! Questionaire ============ To help me maintain more accurate information about the PF community I would be grateful if you could fill out the following short questionaire. The information supplied will be treated with the utmost privacy. 1 Full Name and email address 2 State/county and country where you live 3 Portfolio Hardware you use 4 Main uses of Portfolio If you develop software what language and version do you use and would you supply source code for the magazine ? 5 Would you be interested in writing an article for the 'magazine' and if so what subject. 6 What you would like to see covered in the future ? - Paul 28/10/95