29 December 1986
                                  Z-NEWS 608

Of  Significance.    We  can  hold back no longer.   San  Francisco  bay  area 
newspaper,  Computer  Currents, published fortnightly  by  Center  Productions 
(Stan  Politi,  Publisher)  carries "CP/M Connection" column  written  by  Ted 
Silveira.   Paper format is 11" by 14" tabloid,  multicolor with  state-of-art 
graphics.  Usually runs 84 pages per issue.  Computer Currents is  distributed 
to  stores free in the SF bay area.  They stay in business from  fees  charged 
advertisers.   Ads are from companies located mainly in  northern  California.
Well,  Ted's column is the only regularly published piece we know of  covering 
CP/M-compatible  marketplace,  excluding some in TCJ and  Profiles  magazines.
Ted  has  had  four articles on Z-System printed in  this  quality  newspaper.
Though  free  at  many  computer  store locations in  SF  area,  we  know,  if 
requested, they deliver it for nominal postage charges of $22 for six  months, 
$40  for  one year, mailed first-class (bulk mailed, only $18 per  year).   If 
interested,  call  415/547-6800,  or write  Center  Productions,  5720  Hollis 
Street, Emeryville (Oakland/Berkeley), CA 94608.
     James  River  Group  (Z-News  503-5),  the  accounting  software  people, 
continues  to  upgrade their CP/M-compatible database package.   JRG  supplies 
software  system  that takes care of our customer orders and  status,  mailing 
lists, and financial and balance sheet reports.  If you run a business,  small 
to  medium  size, and need to get control of your bookkeeping,  call  612/339-
2521,  or  write  125  North First Street, Minneapolis,  MN  55401,  for  more 
information.  Tell them Echelon sent you.

                 "Now with this 'double strength' combination
          you can take industry standard Z80-compatible software and
       add colossal graphics like you see on this page.  That's right--
                             graphics like these
    with your Z80 software!"--SB180FX/GT180 ad from Dec '86 BYTE, page 383
     --------------------------------------------------------------------
Z-Node Activity.   Jay Denebeim, ZBYE author and Z-Node #42 Sysop, located  in 
Durham,  NC,  919-471-6436,  comes up with super  remote  access  system  menu 
script.   Z-Node Central uses a similar one.  So impressive and useful!   When 
on  RAS in file-side area type VMENU<cr>.  Then, you are asked to select  your 
terminal  type  from a list of terminals.  After you  make  selection,  behold 
telecommunications world made possible by Z-System.  Screen-oriented  features 
are beyond realms of PC DOS and Unix.  Point to a file or library, press a key 
to  down  load!   Point  to  a library to  type  out  contents  of  a  member.
Connection  is  so  efficient,  eloquent!  Those  who  have  not  tried  using 
1200/2400 baud VMENU/VFILER menu-driven communications miss power of  Z-System 
applied to a RAS.  Wow!  Yes, we are blessed...
     Speaking  of  blessed...John T. Brown, Sterling  Heights  (Detroit),  MI, 
continues  to  develop useful scripts for VFILER and VMENU.   You  recall  his 
earlier  works, MENUS-JB.LBR, carried us into regions never  explored  before.
Now he sharpens his focus to produce truly coherent set of menus.  A series of 
files  show  how  to set-up your computer to do what  do  does.   From  master 
VFILER.CMD  you  control your computer functions, wordprocessing,  Pascal  and 
BASIC  language program development (John has just ordered Z80 Turbo  Modula-2 
from   us),  database  management  using  dBase,  cataloging   using   Discat, 
communications  using Term3 with point-to-file to send and prompt for name  of 
file  to  receive, with selected protocol.  Extensive use of  aliases,  ARUNZ, 
GETVAR, and RESOLVE make possible much of the automation magic displayed here.
All, on Z-Nodes and on SUS #8 as file JB-VFCMD.LBR.  Thanks John--your  spirit 
and your contributions are greatly appreciated.

From  Our  Mail  Box.   From Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,  I.D.  McCreath  writes, 
"Being a left-handed owner of a beta format VCR, I must conclude that I  enjoy 
belonging to the beleaguered minorities such as the ZCPR community.   However, 
aside  from its technical excellence, the main attractiveness of the  Z-System 
is  that  the  major portion of the system is accessible to  the  users.   The 
incremental improvements that have resulted from the ability of the  community 
to  improve and extend the utilities speak eloquently of the virtues  of  this 
approach.  I hope that you will continue to keep the system and its  utilities 
as  accessible to the users as you have in the past...keep up the good  work."
Mr.  McCreath goes on to renew his subscription to Z-News and suggest ways  to 
improve  Z-System  through use of more memory and use of  libraries  as  named 
directories.  Thanks for the encouragement.  We hunger for and are nurtured by 
ideas  from  the  community  that keep us alive  and  motivated,  to  keep  us 
conscious. 
     "I  run a Sierra Data Sciences SBC-100 on Z-System (ZCPR3 and ZRDOS).   I 
will gladly provide my BIOS modifications to anyone having this [S-100]  board 
who  would  like  to try ZCPR3..." offers Michael  Broschat,  2610  E.  Aloha, 
Seattle, WA 98112, 206/328-0561.  Anyone wish to take Michael up on his offer?
     Aubrey  Keithtley,  Albany  W.A., Australia, states, "I  have  applied  a 
number  of  the  alias  script items detailed  in  the  newsletter...is  great 
enhancement to the tremendous operating system.  Every re-rereading of  Z-News 
brings greater understanding and I 'dips me lid' to Mr. Seventimes."  We  feel 
enough  is  in print now to permit anyone to write aliases  to  satisfy  their 
requirements.
     Since  you  asked--yes, Newword driving Hewlett-Packard's  LaserJet  Plus 
printer produced 552-page Turbo Modula-2 User's Guide and Reference Manual and 
new  24-page  Z-Catalog.   Indexing, Sectioning, and Tables  of  Content  were 
handled by MicroPro's StarIndex.  All on Z-System computers.

Of Significance, More.   Our sieve benchmarks (Z-News 607-2) for Borland's Z80 
Turbo Modula-2 are questioned, as being too quick, as making IBM PCs look bad.
Below, source code we used.  You who have received Turbo Modula-2, we  started 
shipping on 5 December, can run times.  We state again:  on Micromint SB180FX, 
standard sieve time is 6 seconds; on Ampro Z80 Bookshelf is 10.   Measurements 
per  BYTE instructions, Jan '83 issue, i.e., time starts when "10  iterations" 
displays and ends with "1899 Primes".

 Turbo Modula-2                           Turbo Pascal
 ------------------------------------     ------------------------------------
 MODULE sieve;                            PROGRAM prime( OUTPUT );
 CONST  size = 8190;                      CONST   size = 8190;
 VAR                                      VAR
   i,k,prime,count,iter: INTEGER;           i,k,prime,count,iter: INTEGER;
   flags: ARRAY [0..size] OF BOOLEAN;       flags: ARRAY [0..size] OF BOOLEAN;
 BEGIN                                    BEGIN
   WRITELN('10 iterations');                WRITELN('10 iterations');
   FOR iter := 1 TO 10 DO                   FOR iter := 1 TO 10 DO BEGIN
     count := 0;                              count := 0;
     FOR i := 0 TO size DO                    FOR i := 0 TO size DO
       flags[i] := TRUE;                        flags[i] := TRUE;
     END;                                 
     FOR i := 0 TO size DO                    FOR i := 0 TO size DO BEGIN     
       IF flags[i] THEN                         IF flags[i] THEN BEGIN        
         prime := i + i + 3;                      prime := i + i + 3;         
         k := i + prime;                          k := i + prime;             
         WHILE k <= size DO                       WHILE k <= size DO BEGIN    
           flags[k] := FALSE;                       flags[k] := FALSE;        
           k := k + prime;                          k := k + prime;           
         END;                                     END;                        
         count := count + 1;                      count := count + 1;         
       END;                                     END;                          
     END;                                     END;                            
   END;                                     END;                              
   WRITELN(count,' Primes');                WRITELN(count,' Primes');         
 END sieve.                               END (* prime *).
 ____________________________________     ____________________________________

What more can we say or do...simply, Borland does it again--designs a language 
compiler, Turbo Modula-2, that produces code that runs faster than other high-
level  languages.   Give  it a try, you Pascal  and  C  Language  programmers.
Quickness  of  development environment is something to  behold,  with  two-way 
interactive  compiler/editor  combination (Z-News 604 has more).  Item  30  on 
Price List, $69.95 plus $6.00 shipping and handling, continental USA.
     And  yes,  we know some compilers produce faster-running  code  by  using 
switches  and  register variables, but this defeats spirit of  BYTE  benchmark 
tests:  use  sieve source code, as above, in its simplest form.  That  we  do, 
with  results as reported in Z-News 607.  (Sieve measurements reported  in  Z-
News  602-4 were for one iteration, not 10, and were for  BASIC  interpreters, 
not compilers.)

Z-User's  Corner.   ZEX is usable as a direct replacement, in most  cases,  to 
ZCPR3 SUB and CP/M SUBMIT and XSUB.  Seems many are intimidated by ZEX but  it 
is  no  more  difficult to use than SUBMIT, if you don't  use  its  bells  and 
whistles.   ZEX  is memory-based and uses 6k-bytes of TPA  (Transient  Program 
Area), the down side.  But executes much faster than disk-based SUB or SUBMIT, 
the  upside.  Of course, ZEX has many more possibilities for  creating  batch, 
automation script files than the other two.  On the other hand, if you do  not 
need operator or script-file character input into an application program,  and 
if  script  is  not too long, less than 200 characters, try  using  an  alias.
Remember,  one  alias can call, use another to get around  length  limitations 
(get  and  study TLIB, Z-News 607-2).  Lots of both ZEX and alias  scripts  in 
previous  issues of Z-News and in Z-System User's Guide, all good examples  to 
tailor for your particular tasks.
     Most  of us get anxious when, in the middle of a program, we  don't  know 
what  to  do  next.  In our world, to get out of where we don't  want  to  be, 
typing ^C, X, ^X, K, or ^K usually drops us to next lower level of system.  If 
none  of  these work, we just have to cold boot machine.  Nothing  wrong  with 
starting over.  Times we succeed and times we fail are equally important.
     Steven Greenberg's compression talent shows in his Version 2.3 release of 
CRUNCH,  on SUS #8 and Z-Nodes.  Remember SCAN.EI benchmark file?  Well,  file 
uncompressed  is 544 records long, squeezed it is 23; crunched, using v1.1  it 
goes  to  10 records, but is only 8 using v2.3.  CRUNCH  is  progress.   Which 
leads us to...

String  Searching,  continued.    No magic powers required to  know  we  enjoy 
string-search  programs.  Well, milestone occurs for release and  shipment  of 
JetFind  (also  known  as ZGREP during beta  testing,  Z-News  604-2,  607-1).
JetFind  takes its place at head-of-class for speed and  overall  flexibility.
From  our  previous reports, you know it is fast--two to six (2  to  6)  times 
faster  than other search programs for Z80/HD64180 machines.  But look at  all 
these other features:

 1. Searches ASCII, WordStar, compressed, and library files for simple strings
    and regular expressions.  First character of found string is screen
    highlighted using either half-intensity or reverse video.
 2. Operates from command line or from interactive menu prompts.  Three
    screens of built-in help, ZCPR3-style.  Z-System aliases and shells
    automate searches.
 3. Found strings sent to console, printer, and file.  Optional appending of
    found data to declared file for automatic report generation.
 4. Number of lines to print before/after found string line can be specified.
 5. Extracts and uncompresses member files from library (LBR) files.  Members
    may be straight text, squeezed, and crunched.
 6. Displays directory of libraries.
 7. Regular Expression matching ability equivalent to Unix grep, get regular
    expression and print.
 8. Files declared using ZCPR3 file_list, DU and DIR forms; named directories
    recognized.
 9. To customize, clone technique permits saving current option settings under
    different names, many versions retained for particular applications.
10. Input files containing regular expressions, i.e., search scripts, speed
    repeat searches for complex strings, with OR and EXCLUDE operators.

Fourteen options (modes) control search and results:

    c    Count matches, don't display the lines
    d    Show Directory of filenames and library members
    i    Ignore case                                   Show line Numbers    n
    p    Show matching Point on line (uses screen highlighting)
    rmn  Show Region around match, -m to +n lines
    s    Show only Short form: DU:filename: linenumber
    t    Type file, one screen at a time
    v    Show non-matching lines (reVerse)               Match full Word    w

    l    List output to printer                           Output to File    f
    a    Append output to existing file
    m    Minimum lines only, without numbers, to list/file

With  so many options, alias and shell command script possibilities  are  near 
infinite.  Here are the regular expressions and their meanings:

    .	  Matches any character.
    [  ]  Define character classes:
	  Any character, or range of characters within the brackets is
          matched: [aqA-Z] is "a", "q", and the uppercase letters.  To
          include "]" in the class it must be the first character.
       	  If the first character is "^", the remaining bracketed characters
          are not matched.
    *	  Matches the preceding character, or character class, zero or more
          times.
    +	  Matches the preceding character, or character class, one or more
          times.
    ^	  If the first character of the expression, causes a match only at the
          beginning of the line.
    $	  If the last character of the expression, causes a match only at
          the end of the line.
    |	  Separates two regular expressions.
    
    \<    Start of a word                                  End of a word    \>
    \t	  TAB character                                    Character "c"    \c

          <in_file    Reads the expressions from "in_file".  If just "<" is
                      specified, the default in_file (JETFIND.PAT) is used.
          >out_file   Writes the matches to "out_file".  If just ">" is
	              specified, the default out_file (JETFIND.LST) is used;
  	              if ">>out_file" is specified, or ">>", the matches are
	              appended to the existing out_file.

To illustrate power of regular expressions, a few examples:

          Expression:		  Matches:
          t.me		 	  "t", followed by any char, followed by "me"
          ^time		          "time" at the beginning of a line
          time$	                  "time" at the end of a line
          end\.		          "end."
          to \<be\>	          "to be", not, e.g., "to begin"
          b[aeiou][^ \t]	  "b", followed by a vowel, followed by
                                  any char except space or tab
          \<[A-Z].*\>		  any capitalized word
          ^[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9]*:  any assembly-language source-code label
                                  (letter + possible letters/digits + colon)

Carefully study example expressions above and think of what they could mean to 
you.  Find words at end or beginning of lines, homonyms, capitalized and whole 
words, program labels.        Using default modes, program command-line syntax 
is simple:

               jetfind <strings to find> <files to search><cr>

The more formal syntax structure is:

    JETFIND [-mode_letters] <expressions> <file list> [>[>][out_file]]<cr>

where  "expressions"  are either "strings to find" or "<in_file".   No  syntax 
knowledge  is  needed in interactive mode--it's self-prompting  with  built-in 
help.   Multiple  strings and files with excludes, and change of  options  are 
permitted.   From  command line, jetfind<cr> puts you into  interactive  mode.
JetFind User's Guide has many examples to get you going.
     JetFind  runs on Z80 CP/M and Z80/HD64180 ZCPR3/Z-System computers.   The 
really  good  news:  JetFind is ready now!  Price,  including  14-page  User's 
Guide, is only $39.95 plus shipping and handling.  JetFind is progress!

In Other Words.   Letter from R. Scott Truesdell, Corona Del Mar, CA, to Jerry 
Pournelle,  Dec  '86 BYTE, page 342, tells of experiences with  SB180  and  Z-
System.  (Wonder what Jerry will think of Z80 Turbo Modula-2, since for  years 
he  has craved this language to use with Zeke.  Micro Cornucopia magazine  has 
comparison  of FTL and Turbo Modula-2 in Apr/May '87  issue.)   Interestingly, 
comparison  between our Z world and MS-DOS are made by Scott, and he  ends  up 
favoring Z!  Also in same BYTE issue, on page 383, Micromint has  show-stopper 
ad--so does EI on page 374.
     Morris  Simon  places  another Z-System magazine  article--this  time  in 
Nov/Dec  '86 Micro/Systems Journal.  No one can say word is not being  spread.
Keep it up, Morris!
     Those  using S-100 bus systems and interested in high-resolution  display 
monitors for scientific and engineering applications (640 by 330 pixel, 7 by 9 
character in 8 by 11 field--effective 10,500 baudrate) should contact Baganoff 
Systems, 3141 David Court, Palo Alto, CA 94303 for detailed information.  They 
offer BE-82 video board with documentation and software for $390 and  DB-WRITE 
technical  wordprocessor  for $100.  Amdek 310A video monitor and  Key  Tronic 
keyboard recommended.
     For  several  issues, we bulk-mailed Z-News to  save  money.   Experiment 
failed!   USPS, United States Postal Service, seems to treat bulk  worse  than 
poor kin.  First class takes 3 or 4 days in continental USA but bulk may  take 
up  to  6 weeks.  What can we say...a newsletter coming out every  two  weeks, 
trying  to bring news in a timely manner cannot use bulk.  USPS is example  of 
what happens to service, any kind of service, when competition is lacking.  We 
taxpayers,  through appeals to our Congress, may improve situation, but...   A 
solution to problem: make mail delivery responsibility of private sector.  UPS 
and  Federal Express shame USPS, show what  check-and-balance  free-enterprise 
can and does do.
     ====================================================================
Of Angels and Eagles.   We white-lie so much, truth is hard to recognize  when 
it  appears.  To ourselves and to others, non-truth is a way-of-life.   Always 
has  been,  likely will remain so.  Liars are poor in spirit but  control  our 
world.  What can be done?
     For  we who have stood at the edge of The Pit, known midnight terror,  we 
take our stand.  We pay price, and reap rewards, of a straight path.  Now...
     On  this  triple-eve of the New Year, to our daughters, tough  but  silky 
soft,  and to our son, gentle but rocky hard, we leave best-of-class, best  we 
can muster.  Example, our being, is gift neither they nor we are ashamed of, a 
legacy.   Will you join and make a similar pledge: set, be example  of  action 
and thought all can live by and be proud of?
     Now  to break-fast on a pair of Zydeco tacos and some white Zinfandel,  a 
combination that makes you want to dance.  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): 415/489-9005

Trademarks:  Little Board, Bookshelf, Ampro Computers; SB180, SB180FX,  GT180, 
Micromint;  PRO-180,  Magnum  Digital; ON!, Oneac; DT42,  The  SemiDisk,  Deep 
Thought   42,  SemiDisk  Systems;  TR-XL180,  M.A.N.  Systems;   Z80,   Zilog; 
HD63484/64180,  Hitachi; Z-System, ZCPR3, ZRDOS, Z-Tools, Zas,  Zlink,  Z-Msg, 
Term3, Quick-Task, FINDS, PPAL, Lasting-Value Software, Echelon; CP/M, Digital 
Research;  Unix, AT&T Bell Laboratories; MS-DOS, Microsoft;  Graphix  Toolbox, 
Turbo  Pascal,  Turbo  Modula-2,  Borland  International;  WordStar,  Newword, 
MicroPro International; JetFind, Bridger Mitchell.



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                              Z--the high flier!



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Z-News  608  is  Copyright  MCMLXXXVI  Echelon,  Inc.   All  Rights  Reserved.
Permission  to reprint, wholly or partially, automatically granted  if  source 
credit is given to Echelon.