Lilypad
A
few of the many articles in this months LilyPad newsletter can be seen
here in their entirety.
The June issue, which can be purchased ($1.50) at many
local stores, features the articles listed
below.
[Newsletter of the Rochester Computer Club, Rochester
NY. Non-profit newsletter use permitted with credit, and copy of the results
to RCC.]
- President's Page
- President Marty Becktell covers the summer, spring gathering, software
to-go, and the hamfest.....p1
- Dick Comegys' Random Writes
- The Editor speaks on Word Perfect 6.1, Dave Sokolov passed on, and
volunteers needed to take over LilyPad in September.....p13
RCC Newsletter Quick Jump
President's Page
June '96 Issue Lilypad p1, Marty Becktell-Pres
[Newsletter of the FROG Computer Society Rochester NY.
Non-profit newsletter use permitted with credit, and copy of the results
to FROG.]
Summer is finally
here; and like many other FROG members I'm finding myself spending less
and less time in front of the computer, and more and more time in the yard.
Still there are things that need to be done that require a computer; and
as I found when I started this month's column, software or hardware will
always find a way to keep you from doing what you really want to do.
In
this case I fired up Word for Win95. I was able to get about half a paragraph,
just enough to get into writing, and I'd get that dreaded "This program
has performed an illegal operation and will be closed down. If the problem
persists contact the program vendor."
After
rebooting Windows I started again hoping that the problem got flushed with
the RAM. But no, it was more persistent then that. So I have one more thing
to troubleshoot over what looks to be a fine summer weekend. I guess the
point is that the number of problems that computers give us is not necessarily
related to the amount of time we spend using them (it is related to how
important a task you need to do and how little time there is to do it).
Summer...
With
the weather deciding to abruptly change from winter to summer- snow to
high 80's or 90's in a week- it's hard to realize it is really just spring.
I
say this because summer is when the FROG hops around, and we still have
one more month at Brighton High.
This
summer we will be at the Media Plays- Henrietta and Greece- for July and
August meetings. Also in July we again have the annual FROG Family Picnic
at the Brighton Town Park. The details will be in next month's LilyPad.
I don't want to force thoughts about Rochester winters, so I'll stop there.
Spring Gathering...
May
18th-- the first nice warm sunny Saturday in at least a year and a half,
32 FROG members and guests showed up for the Spring Gathering and Garage
sale. Again a good time was had by all. Considering that we had such a
good turnout despite such nice weather, we will be doing them again, but
not until fall.
The
gatherings are a chance for members to bring that misbehaving PC to a place
where there has to be someone that can help you figure out what is wrong
with it; or show off an application that you feel is really neat; or just
spend some time socializing with other computer users. (Save again. I don't
trust this machine not to eat my column.)
Software To-Go...
Our
new system for ordering software seems to be paying off. We now have several
month's supply of door prizes. Part of the credit goes to the new system,
but most of the credit needs to go to Bob Frank and Tom Barrett for their
efforts in ordering software. I would like to encourage everyone to let
them know if there is any software you would like to review. We are not
looking for PC Magazine type of reviews; the LilyPad doesn't compete with
PC Magazine. What we want is a REAL user's impression of the product.
HamFest...
Sun
Jun 2nd; and I'd like to say a few things about it. HamFest is a great
chance to get a really good deal on computer parts and software.
It
is also a great chance to get, shall I say, "less than you expected".
The
vendors at shows make their money by selling quantity with very little,
if anything, set aside for support. The best chance you can have for a
successful trip is to know what you are looking for. For example, if you
are looking for memory, know if you need parity or non-parity. Take your
hardware manuals. They have valuable information about your system. You
can always leave them in the car and go out and refer to them for details.
I
always use a credit card. If something doesn't work when you get home,
it is always easier to get the problem resolved if you have your credit
card company helping you. Most vendors charge about 3% extra if you use
a credit card. I consider it cheap insurance.
It
seems that there are a lot of local people now at the shows that can compete
with not-so-locals. It is always easier trying to resolve problems if you
buy from someone local-- plus more of your money stays in the local economy.
Until
next month, may your electron always flow in the right direction, Marty
Becktell, President FROG Computer Society
Lotus Smart Suite 96 Edition
June '96 Issue Lilypad p.3, David Osofsky
[Newsletter of the FROG Computer Society Rochester NY.
Non-profit newsletter use permitted with credit, and copy of the results
to FROG.]
David Osofsky Gets It Running On A 386!
The Windows 95
version of Lotus Smart Suite (CD ROM version) is specified to run on a
'486 or better machine. In particular: IBM PC or compatible (80486 or higher),
VGA, mouse, CD-ROM drive, 8 Mb memory (minimum)- 12 Mb recommended), 57
Mb hard disk space (minimum), Microsoft Windows 95.
I
don't understand why a 386DX is not considered the minimum machine. This
is a bit of a mystery. For this review I decided to live dangerously and
install the software on my Gateway 386DX/25 with 8 Mb ram. To further push
the limit, I was rather low on disk space and used a compression program
on my hard drive. Believe it or not, everything seems to be working!
The Applications -
The
Smart Suite package consists of the following components: Lotus Word Pro
96 Edition, Lotus Approach 96 Edition, Lotus Freelance Graphics 96 Edition,
Lotus Organizer Release 2.1, Lotus 123 Release 5, and Lotus Screen Cam
Release 2.1.
Lotus
123 and Lotus Organizer are the 16 bit versions; by registering the product
you will be notified when the 32-bit Windows 95 versions of the 2 products
become available. The documentation states that these two items are "absolutely
free".
The
product comes with a number of manuals and pamphlets; most are relatively
brief. The printed info is mainly to help you get the software installed
and to obtain a cursory knowledge of the capabilities of the programs.
For further information you are referred to the on-line help and the on-line
tours.
Online tours...
are
screen shows that walk through some of the features and capabilities of
the products. On-line tours exist for Word Pro, Freelance Graphics, 123,
and Approach. They are found on the help menu in these applications.
New
users will find the on-line tours informative. Users who favor books and
manuals will want to consider purchasing some third-party books to help
get up-to-speed.
Installation
proceeded without problem. I performed a custom install and chose to install
every component and option available. This took about 147 Mb of real-estate
on my hard drive.
For
the remaining part of the review I will list each of the major components
of the Smart Suite set and try to say a few words about what I have learned
about them.
Lotus Word Pro 96 Edition -
Word
Pro 96 is a 32-bit word processor. I am using Word Pro to type in this
article for the LilyPad, when I am done with the article I will save it
in ASCII format for hand-off to the editor.
Word
Pro can import a number of different word-processor formats. The two that
I am interested in are WordPerfect format, and HTML (the language of the
World Wide Web). I tried importing a WordPerfect document; Word Pro read
it in, but I encountered a slight problem: the page did not look exactly
as it did in WordPerfect.
For
some reason only two typefaces are currently available to me in Word Pro
(Modern and Roman 10 cpi), I suspect that once I figure out how to make
more typefaces available that the WordPerfect document import might work
better.
Another
strange thing I noticed is that certain characters that extended "below
the line" such as g, y, q would sometimes look screwy, the lower portion
was not always displayed. I suspect that this might be attributable to
the relatively slow machine. I think what was happening was that it was
delaying in printing the lower part when I typed fast. Until I install
the software on a machine that meets the minimum requirements I cannot
complain.
I
was able to import HTML documents and view them in a rendered format. I
have not found a way to switch between the rendered format and the HTML
code (source view).
With
Word Pro you can take a document and export it as HTML. For instance, you
can create a resume in Word Pro and export it to HTML. I don't know if
the product supports HTML links. If you have a resume and transcript in
two separate documents, I don't know if you can create a link from your
resume to your transcript. Certainly, you could manually enter this link
but that would require that you understand HTML syntax. I did a quick search
of the help system but did not find this topic discussed.
Word
Pro contains a spelling checker, a grammar checker and a format checker.
The format checker lets you check your document for consistent use of spacing
between sentences.
Smart Masters -
Many
of the Lotus products contain a feature called Smart Masters; in plain
English, Smart Masters are templates. There are templates for calendars,
invoices, faxes, business plans, memos. In Word Pro if you want to quickly
make an invoice for a customer, all you need do is select one of the available
invoice templates and just fill in your specific information. You can customize
the supplied templates or create your own from scratch.
Team Review -
Some
of the Lotus products support a concept that Lotus calls "team review".
With Word Pro you can create a document and then hand it off to one or
more people for review. The reviewers electronically mark up the document.
You can then merge together all the marked up documents and evaluate which
changes/suggestions to incorporate. To put this in perspective, you can
do the functional equivalent of 1) making eight copies of a document and
handing it out to eight people for review (parallel), or 2) Making one
copy of a document and attaching a circulation list(serial). I have not
personally used this feature. It was explained in the tutorials for Word
Pro and Free Lance Graphics.
Lotus Approach 96 Edition -
Lotus
Approach is a 32 bit database application. Once again my interest in this
product was how easy is it to import data created in other products. I
was able to successfully import a Paradox for Window 1.0 database. This
means that I can remove Paradox from my system and still have access to
data created a few years ago. I also tried importing an ASCII file that
contained records in comma separated form. No problems were encountered.
Lotus Freelance Graphics 96 Edition -
Freelance
Graphics is a presentation package. It lets you create and manage slide
shows. As with Word Pro, Freelance Graphics implements the concept of team
review. You can build a presentation and then hand it off to other people
to review and mark up.
Presentations
built in Freelance Graphics can be packaged and distributed with a "Mobile
Screen Show Player". The screen show player allows anyone to run the
Freelance Graphics presentation even if they do not own Freelance Graphics.
Lotus Organizer Release 2.1 -
Organizer
uses the book paradigm. The Organizer is a loose-leaf binder with sections-
Calendar, To Do, Address, Calls, Planner, Notepad and Anniversary. You
click on any divider to open up that section of the book. You click on
the lower right-hand corner of the right-hand page to advance to the next
page. To page backwards you click on the lower left-hand corner of the
left-hand page.
In
the Calendar section you add your various activities. For each activity
you enter, you are able to program an alarm. The alarm can be an audible
alarm, a message or a program you want to run.
The
software allows you to select the calendar arrangement that you are most
comfortable working with: day at a time, week at a time, month at a time.
With the click of a mouse, you can switch from one view to another. Enter
your appointments once, view them in multiple ways- something you can't
do with a paper appointment book (without keeping multiple books and redundantly
entering the info).
The
"to-do" section lets you keep track of things that you need to
do. I have a habit of writing my to-do lists on little pieces of paper,
I often misplace the pieces of paper. By storing my to-do list in the computer
I can have the best of both worlds. I can have a computer copy that is
always up-to-date and available; and I can print out a hard copy to carry
around and misplace. I have not started using this yet but I am definitely
going to give it a try.
Each item on the to do list can be given a priority (none, 1, 2, or 3)
and a completion status. By default, when you mark an item complete, the
completion date is automatically filled in as the current date. Changing
the completion date is easy.
To-do
items can be categorized. The product contains a bunch of pre-defined categories.
Adding new categories is trivial. It took me literally 30 seconds to add
a category called "FROG Computer Club".
The
to-do list can be viewed in a number of ways, by priority, by status, by
start date and by category.
The
Address section lets you keep track of a person's contact information (work
and home)- address, phone number, fax number, e-mail_ Importing is simple.
I used a copy of the FROG Membership Database in comma separated ASCII
form and successfully loaded it into the address book.
Lotus 123 Release 5 -
I
found the 123 tutorial helpful. I rarely interact with spread sheets; the
tutorial, in about 90 minutes, gave me a good set of basic skills that
can be used to create spreadsheets. Other than the tutorial I have not
used any other part of 123.
Lotus Screen Cam Release 2.1 -
Screen
Cam is an interesting product- like having a VCR built into your computer.
The VCR allows you to record screen activity and sounds. You can then play
the "movie" back. This product is not a keystroke capture/playback
product; it captures screen images and audio (if enabled). When you play
back the movie you are playing back captured images and sounds, as if you
had used a video camera to record your computer monitor while you were
working on it.
When
I installed Corel Draw on this machine, I turned on screen cam and proceeded
to capture the Corel Draw installation session. In the middle of the process
Screen Cam displayed a message and told me that it was halting the capture
process; my hard-drive space was drastically low. The part of the "movie"
that I had already captured was saved. If I had sufficient space on my
hard drive I have no doubt that the process would have completed uninterrupted.
The fact that Screen Cam noticed the space condition and took the action
of notifying me is a plus for the product.
To
give you a general idea of the space used by Screen Cam movies, a 9 minute
recording took about 190 kilobytes (190,000 bytes). I did not play around
with recording audio. It is my understanding that audio from an application
can be recorded, or audio can be added after the video is recorded. For
example, audio narration can be added to a screen cam movie. This product
can be used as a teaching/training tool.
Another
way that I can envision using this product is in doing software testing
or software reviews. You can start up Screen Cam and keep a video record
for later review. Often when testing, it isn't until you discover a bug
that you realize that you should have copied down more info from previous
screens. By saving a video of the session you can go back and review the
screens that are relevant to the bug.
I
would like to see the product enhanced a bit to allow more control when
playing back a video. The ability to jump quickly to an arbitrary point
in the video would be greatly appreciated. Currently you must hold down
the fast-forward button until you get to the part of the "tape"
you are interested in viewing.
A
Screen Cam video can be saved in an executable format that can be run on
a machine that does not have Screen Cam. I am not sure if the resulting
executable must be run under Windows 95 (or if it will run under Windows
3.1). I did a quick check of the on-line help and did not see any mention
of this.
Lotus Script 3.0 -
Some
of the Lotus products support a programming language called Lotus Script.
There is no written documentation in the package on Lotus Scriptonly an
order form. For $10.00 shipping and handling, they'll send you a copy of
the Lotus Script Programmer's Guide and the Lotus Script 3.0 Language Reference.
The
full product of Smart Suite 96 runs about $400. The upgrade price is about
$150. One of the local computer stores had a deal recently where you get
a $50 rebate on the upgrade. As with everything else, do a little price
shopping.
Modem Support: Getting What You Need
June '96 Issue Lilypad p.10, Charles Heisig
[Newsletter of the FROG Computer Society Rochester NY.
Non-profit newsletter use permitted with credit, and copy of the results
to FROG.]
The following
is a summary of my understanding of the effects of the various Error Correction
(EC) and Data Compression (DC) Protocols as defined by various Vxx.x, MNP-
and other protocols used by various 9.6, 14.4 and 28.8 kbps MODEMs.
Since
this information is assembled from a wide variety of sources of unknown
reliability, I am presenting the information as a series of short statements
in the hope that readers will comment freely back to me. This will enable
me to prepare a reliable paper on the subject suitable for wider distribution.
The
following figure and definitions (From: Bob R., Comm Echo, 03-01-96) define
the setup:
Pictured above is a brief sketch of a complete signal circuit, consisting
of two computers (A & B) interconnected thru their Modems.
Five Definitions -
(as they relate to the above Figure 1)
- BAUD RATE: The actual rate of signal transitions per second. Since
each signal may represent more than one bit, it is not the same as BPS.
- BPS or Bits Per Second: The number of data bits per second transmitted
between two modems. Sometimes incorrectly called the baud rate. (See Baud
Rate above)
- DCE (Data Communication Equipment) rate: The transmission speed of
the interface between two modems. The DCE rate and BPS are synonymous.
- DTE (Data Terminal Equipment) rate: The transmission speed of the interface
between a computer/terminal and its modem. Includes the RS-232 Serial ports.
Baud rate is frequently cited in this interface (as is bps), all of which
is depicted on Fig. 1. Note DTE/baud exists on both ends, while DCE/bps
is between the modems. DTE is often called the Port area (and Port Speed)
since this is where the Serial Ports are.
- THROUGHPUT: The DCE rate expressed in cps (Characters/second = bytes/sec).
=============
>From Comm Echo [ENVIRO-LINK BBS]
BY; Bob R. 03-01-96 also ref to WYNTKAM.*
=============
Now to list my observations-to-date:
- DC and EC protocols are implemented either in hardware HDWP (chips
in the modem) or software SFWP (different chips in the modem PLUS the modem
software of the computer).
- HDWP operate only on the DCE signals transmitted between the modems.
- SFWP operate over both the DTE and DCE signals.
- The occurrence of errors is much greater in the DCE signals; i.e..
noise on the phone line, than in the DTE signals.
- Accurate communication should occur between any two modems obeying
the same standard protocol (preferably ITU-TSS V.xx), even though one modem
may use HDWP while the other uses SFWP.
- All other things being equal, the modem using HDWP will be faster than
the one using SFWP, since the latter computer has a greater burden to bear
than does the former. This difference will be magnified when DC is done
in the modems as opposed to being pre-compressed in the computer to .ZIP
etc. files.
- A third set of common protocols, known as Rockwell Protocols or RPI,
were developed by The Rockwell Corp. in parallel and in conjunction with
the V.xx protocols.
Unfortunately, early versions were adopted, labeled as RPI , VFC etc protocols;
and matching hardware (chips) developed and sold before the corresponding
V.xx standards were adopted.
- Early RPI versions may differ significantly from the final V.xx standards,
hus the difficulties experienced when RPI modems try to work with V.xx
modems.
- Identification of HDWP vs SFWP modems via the specs on the box ranges
from impossible to difficult, as manufacturers typically omit this info
completely or hide it in the fine print.
- Indications of the presence of a SFWP modem include the mention of
RPI, VFC, COMIT software_ along with the standard V.xx and MNP- specs,
as well as the statement "Software implemented" for EC &
DC.
- It is my impression that Rockwell is one of the major producers of
modem chip sets and produces both SFWP and HDWP versions, so that one cannot
view the chip packages and identify the type without a data sheet for the
chip set.
- The most reliable means of identifying a SFWP modem is to power it
up and send ATI3 to it via a modem program. My Logicode Quicktel 1414LH
returns the reply:
V2.200-ACF/ATF_DP ROCKWELL RPI (TM) MODEM+01
Neither the box in which it was packed nor any of the 3 manuals accompanying
the modem include any mention of Rockwell, RPI, Software Implementation
etc. All do list all of the appropriate V.xx and MNP- specs. However. I
assume from this that it is SFWP.
I would appreciate comment as to the answers given by HDWP type modems
and how to test them via AT commands.
- Inspection of numerous boxes of various brands reveals that the data
supplied by Logicode is typical of all.
- A review of the available Telecom programs reveals the true pitfall
of SFWP modems. None of the more commonly used packages, such as Telix,
Terminate, etc, support SFWP for DOS. Rockwell has written free drivers
to work with various Windows versions, but not for DOS.
Comment as to the availability of O/S2 and other versions would be appreciated.
- Software supporting RPI & SFWP is limited. One reference gives
Comit, Some versions of BitCom, QuickLink, Procomm, WinCom. ( Ref. RPIFACTS.TXT)
- It is most important to ask the vendor whether the EC & DC protocols
are via SFWP or HDWP. Most will not even have a clue. Before you buy, get
it in writing!!
- HDWP modems are most preferred even though slightly more expensive.
Avoid all mentioning RPI or VFC without mention of V.xx and MNP- specs
appropriate to your use.
QUESTIONS -
- Can anyone name a good reference book discussing the above? I have
not been able to find one.
- Same for the standard and supplemental AT commands.
- Are there other modem programs for DOS, O/S2_ including SFWP for EC
& DC?
- Are there programs for Internet use, using SFWP?
- What other factors have I missed that should be included??
- All comments are most welcome!!
Random Writes
June '96 Issue Lilypad p.13, Dick Comegys, Editor, The
LilyPad
[Newsletter of the FROG Computer Society Rochester NY.
Non-profit newsletter use permitted with credit, and copy of the results
to FROG.]
It's been two
months now that I've been playing with WordPerfect 6.1. Not playing near
enough to make much sense out of it.
Oh,
I can write a letter all right-- do the things that WordStar's still good
for. And writing in WP's GUI environment is neat enough. Not unusual, because
I've been doing that for years now in Geoworks' GeoWrite. And that's probably
my biggest trouble with WP; I'm just plain spoiled by Geoworks!
When
Geoworks' 2.0 version came out, I romped over Ray Miller to claim the production
of LilyPad pages in Geoworks, to tell about that set of applications. So
I thought I'd try the same thing with WordPerfect. Well, I haven't got
there yet.
WP's
templates provide a Newsletter format; but it's their idea of a newsletter--
not mine! (To be fair about it, it's not bad; but so far I have not been
able to match the LilyPad pages-- as I did with Geoworks for the format
Ray was then using.)
The
DOS version of WP runs fast on a Pentium-- almost too fast! It's another
of those DOS applications that runs rings around Windoze! But too many
of the potential resources are in hiding! I've gotten used to seeing lots
of tools at-the-ready with GeoWrite (it doesn't have to be set up that
way; but it's the way I like it-- lots of options at-the-ready.
I
admit-- the format's a lot more helpful than the WordPerfect I instantly
hated seven years ago or more: the blank screen just daring me to do anything
useful; and not even responding to an F1 for Help! The help is there; and
cues me in to the page set-up or style I'm looking for; but it's still
a search-- something I don't know if I want to spend the time to get more
familiar with.
What
I'd like to see at this point is what some of you aficionados are doing
with this tool, to get out posters or brochures or better. One of the features
that intrigues me is being able to put together a two-page-to-a-sheet-of-paper
booklet-- and not have to drag around pages to re-arrange them in the proper
print-out order!
Meanwhile,
I'll keep banging away at it!
One
of FROG's old-timers died the end of March; David Sokolov was an early
member-- perhaps one of FROG's founders (we didn't keep very good records
back then; we were not aiming for immortality-- just for a little help
and cheering-on in getting work out of that miraculous Osborne-01!).
David
was putting his data-base to use in trying to organize the Perinton-area
Democrats-- a worthy-enough objective. And in the course of working through
the possibilities of MBasic, developed a sorting process that whizzed through
long lists-- even at CP/M speeds. Translated into QBasic for the 386-&-up
machines, it's still pretty terrific!
The newsletter editors can be reached at by phone,
email and the RCC BBS
Return To Top
Back to The Rochester Computer Club Home Page
Back to The Rochester Computer Archive Page
This
page created with Netscape
Navigator Gold
This page last updated on April 13, 1997.
Copyright © 1996, 1997 Rochester Computer Club. All
rights reserved.
|