Good morning, fellow TSers. This issue, we approach the description of Bill Jones’ DAISY, the TS-2068 Software System for the LarKen Disk System. by going to our box of 3.5″ disks and selecting the issue disk from UPDATE MAGAZINE, labeled Daisy #1. Let’s pop it into drive #0 and do an AUTOSTART.
The Daisy banner comes on-screen, accompanied by a tune. and we are challenged to “PRESS A KEY…” We proceed to set up our print paRAMeters, as printer software gradually MERGEs in and DELETEs out. This results in the FUNCTION MENU’s appearance on-screen with a FREE of 20269 bytes and a Turbo of 1.
We intend to diskuss the Data Management Menu this time, and, so, we PRESS 5. Drive #0 grinds away, as the Utility Menu is LOADed. Here, we see offerings of SAVE MENU, DELETE MENU, and LOAD MENU, as well as DISK UTILITIES, Disk CATALOG Options, and a return TO FUNCTION MENU.
[Figure: Daisy FUNCTION MENU screen shot]
The 5160 in the lower-right-hand corner indicates. that GOTO 5160 will bring up this menu again, in case of most progRAM STOPs.
We select 1 for SAVE MENU. Drive #0 grinds away, again bringing up the colorful SAVE DATA MENU. Now, we see , that pressing 1 will SAVE the whole Daisy progRAM, currently in core, along with any Data (in the variable files.) The SAVE is made to any drive #, given in response to the request “Enter Data Disk #” .Next, we find, that pressing 2 will SAVE any Record Data Base File to whatever Data Disk # is given, as before.
All our mailing lists are stored as “m#.A$”. So, we PRESS 2 at THE SAVE MENU, enter a data disk # of 3, and get a CATALOG of drive #3, listing all the character files (.A$). Near the bottom is m69.A$, where most of our TS addresses are stared, like Don Lambert’s, Abed Kahale’s,… Thus, we ENTER 69 now, in case we want to store the mail file, currently in core as a new m69.A$.
A hit of 3 at the SAVE MENU SAVEs the H$ Character Array File as #.A$, where # is chosen after cataloging all the .A$ files, as above, in response to giving a Data Disk #.
Similarly, 4 stands for SAVEing the I$ Character Array File to a selected Data Disk. PRESSing 5 at the SAVE MENU SAVEs whatever Outline Data Base be in core to a selected Data Disk. The outline consists of two character arrays, one for Major topics, the other for Minor topics of each Major.
Keying CAPITAL A will cause drive 0 to grind away, till THE FUNCTION MENU be displayed again on-screen.
PRESSing CAPITAL B requests a Data Disk # and wild card, for cataloging that disk, eventuating in a choice between ERASEing a file, ENTERed on the disk cataloged before your eyes, or just RETURNing to the SAVE MENU, AFTER telling the progRAM where the ProgRAM disk be now located.
PRESSing CAPITAL C brings up from drive #0 the Disk Management Utilities, where colorful menus can be created; disk CATALOGs can be displayed and PRINTed out; and. arbitrary character files on any disk can be viewed, without altering any data in core.
RETURN to the FUNCTION MENU is effected, by ENTERing the drive # of the ProgRAM Disk.
Entry #4 of the Disk Management MENU LOADs in the Toronto LarKen Disk Utilities of George Chambers, which wipes out the Daisy variables, and you are given an opportunity to back out FIRST and RETURN to the Daisy Menu.
Lastly, keying in CAPITAL E at the SAVE MENU causes the 2068 to treat the variable files in core as their own data base, to be SAVEd to a selected DATA disk, resulting in a choice, BETWEEN keeping the DATA already on-board AND doing a CLEAR and LOADing another variable file from a selected data disk. The variable files are identified by their byte length (in 5 digits) plus an extension of .C2 .
At the DELETE DATA MENU, we are given a chance to keep costly memory operations under control. Fresh out of the box, the FREE is shown as 18132. A FREE of 4000 bytes is hopeless, and 7000 bytes permits not much more. As large mailing lists be LOADed in, in order to address documents, contained in H$ and I$, along with miscellaneous strings or outline data bases, you can see, by watching FREE, how precious operating space is used up. On the other hand, you can go to this DELETE DATA MENU and watch FREE increase, as the foregoing data bases be deleted, by pressing 1, 2, 3, 4, and/or 5.
Again, keying in CAPITAL A, B, or C returns us to the FUNCTION MENU, functions to catalog disks, or calls the Disk Management MENU, which we’ll describe again in more detail, but later.
Lastly, the 5168 in the lower-right-hand corner permits us to recover from most breaks by GOTO 5168, to bring back the DELETE DATA MENU.
Remember, memory management is critical on the 2068 with its 37000 of FREE RAM.
The LOAD DATA MENU performs the same operations as the SAVE DATA MENU, except in the opposite direction of data flow. That is, H$ and I$ are LOADed from selected data disks by PRESSing 1 and 2, respectively. For Mail Merge, the addresses are LOADed, by PRESSing 3. Majors and Minors are LOADed for Outline Files, by PRESSing 4, here. And, as above, we RETURN to FUNCTION MENU, function to CATALOG disks, and call the Disk Management MENU, by keying in CAPITAL A, B, and C, respectively. Finally, “D” LOADs variable files, previously SAVEd , by keying in CAPITAL E at the SAVE DATA MENU, above. Minor recovery of the LOAD DATA MENU comes, by going to 5100, as shown in the lower-right-hand corner.
In summary, the Data Management Menu uses LKDOS to get a lot of production from the small RAM of the 2068, VERY USEFUL
Sure, Bill Jones used the Data Management Menu to get more work out of less memory But, this came at the expense of TIME, in the form of exasperatingly slow MERGEs, churning, disk drives, and hand-waving in the sense of repeated entry of BOTH program disk drive # AND data disk drive #.
Well, we have replaced the frequent MERGEs with fast LOADs, usually only two per session. The menus are all on RAMdisk, and the program disk drive # is sensed automatically, upon program entry, thus cutting in half the amount of hand-waving. Pretty good, eh ??
The Data Management Menu is SO USEFUL, as to be in EVERY version of Daisy, always at our disposal.
We plug our single-sided, 80-track disk into drive #0, and do an AUTOSTART, to bring up the word processing MAIN MENU. First, we punch 2, in order to LOAD INPUT/EDIT and immediately bring up the FUNCTION MENU. We see Turbo=1 and a FREE of 19897. Of course, there are no MERGEs and all necessary software is already on board for both INPUT and EDIT.
Let’s punch 5 and immediately spring the Utility Menu to the screen. From here, we hit 1, 2, or 3, in order to be presented with the SAVE MENU, DELETE MENU, or LOAD MENU, respectively. A single key-stroke of “a” RETURNs us to the FUNCTION MENU. “b” accesses the options to CATalog disks. E.G., we punch “O” in response to the data disk drive # query; the input is HOT, and. we are invited to ENTER a wild card for the directly ensuing CATalog of drive #0. Then, we can punch “1”, to immediately RETURN to the previous menu, or punch “2”, to ENTER the name of any file on drive #0, that we wish to ERASE at this time,
The SAVE DATA MENU functions identically, as when it came in the folder from Frank Davis. The only difference is in SPEED of use and EASE of use, in that a single punch of 2 brings a request for data disk #, as before, and a touch of 0 CATalogs all the character files on drive #0. Entry of the arbitrary integer # SAVEs the mail file in core to drive #0 as m#.A$. Then, we immediately RETURN to the program.
NO annoying MERGEs, NO disk access for LOADing of menus all (branch-switched in from RAMdisk,) NO entry of program disk drive #, and NO entry of data disk drive # (just touch the #, once!) And, a single key-stroke of “e” SAVEs the complete variable file of the 2068 to whatever data disk drive be selected at a touch of its number (from 0 to 4).
And so on with the DELETE and LOAD MENUs : More speed and LESS work, while maintaining the SAME functionality of the three menus.
As an instructive example of how we often use the Data Management Menu, we consider the (usual) case of getting ready to PRINT documents, recently compassed by INPUT/EDIT.
So, here we go ! PO+MM has no input or edit facilities, just as INPUT/EDIT has no printout or mail merge capabilities. But, they all have the ability to MANAGE DATA (on disk.)
Starting at the MAIN MENU (AUTOSTART on drive #0,) we touch “I” for “WP : Print+MMrg”, thus LOADing PO+MM.B6. Our colorful Daisy banner comes up to the tune of CHARGE (Once a Trojan, always a Trojan, it seems !!) 3, 2, 1, y, y, y sets up our 9-pin printer the way we like it. Facing the FUNCTION MENU, a punch of “5” and “3” gets us to the LOAD DATA MENU, by way of the Utility Menu. We LOAD H$ with a touch of “1”, “2” LOADs the I$ character array file . And, “3” LOADs the file of addresses. to which we wish to send our document (in H$ and I$, 14 paragraphs in all.).
Next, we hit “a” to bring us straight back to the FUNCTION MENU, from where we select from a myriad of printer styles, by keying in ” < “.
Back again at the FUNCTION MENU, a hit of ” 7 ” enables us to automatically PRINT beaucoup copies of our document, nicely pre-addressed to all our addressees.
Let it be pointed out, that drive #0 serves only to load some version of Daisy. After that is done, then it is available as another double-sided, 3.5″ drive for more data disks !! This is so, because of the lack of any MERGEs or LOADing of MENUs from anywhere, except RAMdisk.
[Figure: Golden Gate Bridge clip art]
Well, next time will be brief, touching on entry #6 of the FUNCTION MENU for “Print Typing”.