University of Vaasa, Finland, Sun 4 node number 128.214.12.3
(chyde.uwasa.fi) has a collection of PD and shareware programs which
are available by anonymous ftp (file transfer program). This
/pc/pd2/news90.pd2 file contains news about the programs in the
/pc/pd2 directory (in reverse order).
....................................................................
Prof. Timo Salmi Co-moderator of news:comp.archives.msdos.announce
Moderating at ftp:// & http://garbo.uwasa.fi/ archives 193.166.120.5
Department of Accounting and Business Finance ; University of Vaasa
mailto:ts@uwasa.fi <http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/> ; FIN-65101, Finland
....................................................................
N e w s o f 1 9 9 0
Mon 31-Dec-90: Now that the year 1990 has gone by it is interesting
to take brief a subjective look back at some features from a
moderator's vantage point.
The number one product of the year on the net seems to have been
McAfee's virus scanner which was updated at very frequent intervals
throughout the year. (Currently /pc/pd2/scanv72.zip.)
Another product that captivated the scene at the beginning half
of 1990 was LZEXE from France by Fabrice Bellard. (Currently
/pc/pd2/lzexe91.zip). The idea is brilliant in its simplicity.
Compress any executable program, and place the code to decompress it
at run time into the program. Later PKWare followed suit with its
pklite, and will probably dominate in the future because of its
well-known brandname and US background. (Not perhaps fair in a
sense, but that's the way "the market" stands.)
I was pleased to see one of my own packages (currently
/pc/ts/tsfaq15.arc) to do particularly well. When I started
collecting frequently asked questions from the news, and find
answers to them, I didn't quite foresee that it would so quickly
become this popular.
One of the depressing features I saw repeated many times over in
program packages in 1990 was poor testing before releasing. There
were several programs which were either very difficult to implement,
had poor user interfaces, or simply did not work at all. More than
ever before I saw what I call my "ten minute rule" broken. (The
rule: If an experienced user is still completely stuck after the
first ten minutes, a shareware product is badly done.)
The turbulent PC file compression scene earlier dominated by the
.arc packing method saw .zip emerge the dominant archiver in 1990.
What lies ahead is difficult to say, since this is a volatile and
competition prone area. We had repeated gossip of much enhanced
versions of .lzh and .zoo archivers throughout the year, but nothing
happened.
Net connections improved in general during the year, but there
were occasional breaks in the overseas link in particular. Another
sad feature was that so many parts of comp.binaries.ibm.pc had
technical difficulties in reaching the destinations. This is
probably due to the length of these packages. Also our site
experienced repeated problems in this respect.
One of the nice features (and perhaps a sign of maturity) is that
no really serious flame wars had to be endured in c.b.i.p.d this
year.
A Happy New Year from uwasa.fi archives.
Tue 25-Dec-90: Bug warning pkbug.zip about PKWare's pklt10.exe
executable file compressor.
Mon 24-Dec-90: Merry Christmas! Acquired the following program
updates:
bx901223.zip A collection of lists of Finnish BBS phone and node
numbers. In Finnish, but that is not really a problem
in BBS lists (the long distance tariffs are).
chk4lz20.zip List lzexe and pklite compressed executables.
By John Land. Has been updated to detect pklited
files, since I last looked at it. Useful.
drx091.zip List axe, lzexe, and pklite compressed executables.
By Raymond Kaya. Screen divided in two. The first half
gives the directory listing of compressed executbles,
the other half to normal executables. Nice and
definitely useful if you use compressed executables.
dsz1216.zip External Zmodem by Omen Technology. Umpteenth update,
16-Dec-90. An excellent product with a frustrating
documentation.
dsz1216n.zip What's new in dsz1216.zip.
had difficulties with the installation and the user
interface, and didn't quite like it compared with some
other help interfaces I've seen. Many potentially
useful utilities get discarded by these kinds of first
impressions (right or wrong).
pattr15.zip Set file attributes in many ways from Patri-Soft. Norm
Patrquin has hit upon a successful formula for writing
useful utilities. The basic idea is that you can
choose in very many ways the files you want to handle
with a user interface that is very similar across his
utilities. His perhaps best known utility is pcopy85d.
The only problem is that the utilities have so many
options, that they sometimes feel a bit bloated.
where44a.zip An excellent file finder by Keith Ledbetter. This one
is one of my favorites as a well made program. It
searches files by a wild card name, executes the
optionally, searches optionally for duplicate names,
pklited executables, and so on. And all you have to
know is to write whereis. The self-documentation is
good and concise enough. The unixish feature of
executing files perhaps feels slightly superfluous.
Sat 22-Dec-90: Updated the Finnish BBS list to be bx901222.zip.
Thu 20-Dec-90: Acquired /pc/pd2/pklt10.exe. It is an .exe and .com
file compressor from PKWare. The idea is the same as in Fabrice
Bellard's /pc/pd2/lzexe91.zip, which was one of the biggest program
hits of the first half of this year. These utilities compress your
executable program and insert an extraction code, which uncompresses
your program when you call your program. This is a great space
saver especially on (older) laptops.
Some users were worried about extraction times, but they are not
significant. Another worry was the possibility of compressed
viruses, but scan.exe currently checks for lzexed files. A third
worry is confusing the original and the compressed files, but the
system can be made to work both ways.
Tue 18-Dec-90: Darwin's list of US BBSes usbbs79.zip 1-Dec-90.
Mon 17-Dec-90: Acquired the following updates
scanv72.zip --> scanv71b.zip
where42b.zip --> where42a.zip
Sat 15-Dec-90: Updated the Finnish BBS list. It is now available as
/pc/pd2/bx901214.zip by anonymous ftp from uwasa.fi archives.
Wed 12-Dec-90: Obtained Adnrew Rossmann's /pc/pd2/infop141.zip
system information program with Turbo Pascal sources. It is a good
program, but it still crashes on some systems like Sharp PC-6200.
Mon 10-Dec-90: Received TeleReplica update 3.6 directly from the
author Doug Thomson. This remote control of PC is available as
/pc/pd2/tr3-6.zip.
Mon 10-Dec-90: Replaced arj015a.zip with the self-extracting version
arj015a.exe. Arj015a.exe is a beta test version of Robert Kung's
.arj archiver.
Mon 10-Dec-90: Updated the following files at uwasa.fi archives.
bx901208.zip A collection of Finnish BBS lists. Even there is some
text in Finnish the list are internationally readable
dosref18.zip Programmer's Technical Reference for MSDOS and the
IBM PC by Dave Williams
where42a.zip Fast file finder + executor by Keith Ledbetter
Sun 9-Dec-90: Obtained beta test update arj015a.zip of Robert Kung's
.arj archiver.
Sat 8-Dec-90: Well folks, it looks like we have yet another archiver
to our plethora of PC file compressors. This one makes packages
designated with an .arj extension. It is available from uwasa.fi
archives as /pc/pd2/arj014.zip. The author Robert Kung puts forward
that arj beats both .zip and .lzh compressions. According to the
documentation, this is the second alpha test release.
Fri 7-Dec-90: Acquired McAfee's instant update scanv71b.zip from a
Finnish BBS to replace the newly released scanv71.zip.
Fri 7-Dec-90: Acquired /pc/pd2/pak251.exe to replace pak250.exe and
pak251.zip. It is NoGate Consulting's self-extracting compression
program with a security envelope. This update can handle files with
.pak, .arc and .zip extensions. The switches of the program can be
configured by the user.
Fri 7-Dec-90: Micro Maniac's BBS file list files-mm.zip has been
updated.
Wed 5-Dec-90: Acquired McAfee's virus scanner latest version
/pc/pd2/scanv71.zip, and deleted the previous scanv67c.zip.
Fri 30-Nov-90: Downloaded uuexe413.zip from UseNet binary postings
(comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d). This uuencode/uudecode for MsDos by
Richard Marks can also handle xxencoding/xxdecoding, and and looks a
good one also in general. At the same time I deleted (unlinked)
uu.zip and toaduu19.zip from the /pc/pd2 directory.
Thu 29-Nov-90: Got update danix102.zip of Unix-like MsDos utilities
from the author, Dan Schikore. This is a useful package.
Wed 28-Nov-90: Update of the Finnish BBS list. It is now
bx901118.zip.
Tue 27-Nov-90: TeleReplica version 3.5 PC remote control by Doug
Thomson is now available as /pc/pd2/tr3-5.zip. Howard Harvey's
resident upper right-hand corner clock and alarm is available as
clockon.zip.
Mon 26-Nov-90: Acquired /pc/pd2/dsz1119.zip, the 19-Nov-90 release
of Zmodem, and /pc/pd2/dsznew.zip, what's new in dsz111990.
Thu 22-Nov-90: Update of Andrew Rossmann's system information
program infop140.zip. I haven't tested this version myself. All
the version before this one have caused crashes on one machine or
another, but there is much useful source code in there. These kinds
of programs are not easy to write.
Tue 20-Nov-90: Updated the node and phone number list of Finnish
BBSes to be bx901112.zip.
Mon 19-Nov-90: Acquired the following updates to uwasa.fi archives,
directory /pc/pd2:
shez59.zip A very good shell for handling packed files.
where41a.zip File finder by Keith Ledbetter, now can optionally
run the found files.
Sat 17-Nov-90: Dan Schikore's collection of Unix-like MsDos
utilities has been updated to be /pc/pd2/danix101.zip. The update
corrects a bug in the ls program. Available as usual by anonymous
ftp or mail server from uwasa.fi.
Fri 16-Nov-90: Acquired /pc/pd2/96bb1190.zip, World-Wide 9600 baud
BBS list by Mark Montgomery dated 27-Oct-90. I checked it for
Finnish BBSes, and found it practically useless. If this is any
indication of its general quality as a world-wide 9600 list, the
information the list provides is poor.
Thu 15-Nov-90: There are often questions asking for Unix-like
utilities from the MsDos, perhaps since many users have a Unix
background and would like to use familiar commands. And some of
these commands are useful for MSDos even if one hasn't used Unix.
We have the following packages at uwasa.fi archives in directory
/pc/pd2.
danix.zip
dantools.zip
picnix3a.zip
picnix3b.zip
picnix3up.zip
The daxic.zip collection by Dan Schikore is the latest dated
12-Nov-90. It is a nice set and includes for example man, head, and
tail, which have been sought my many users. The well-known picnix
utilities are by Peter Heitman, and date back to 1988. The oldest
collection we have is the alse useful dantools.zip by Daniel Norton
dating back to 1987. Also see directory /pc/unix.
Mon 12-Nov-90: Acquired Ample Notice appointment calendar version
2.0x /pc/pd2/an201.zip by Mark Harris. The outward appearance has
changed markedly since the an131 version. More information has been
packed on the screen. Whether this cramming is for the better or not
is up to your own taste. Be that as may, AN is a useful reminder and
calendar.
There are a couple of other new versions at uwasa.fi /pc/pd2
directory. They are list75f.zip file viewing and browsing utility
by Vernon Buerg, and Darwin's list of US BBSes usbbs78.zip 1-Nov-90.
Fri 9-Nov-90: Replaced the Finnish BBS and node list bx900825.zip
by the update bx901102.zip.
Wed 7-Nov-90. Updated the files-mm.zip huge file list.
Mon 5-Nov-90: Acquired to uwasa.fi archives
/pc/pd2/pak251.zip NoGate Consulting file compression in zipped
form, version 2.51
/pc/pd2/chk4l191.zip Detect lzexe compressed files by John Land,
version 1.91
Mon 5-Nov-90: Replaced Telix 3.12 with version 3.12a. The new files
are tlx312a1.zip, tlx312a2.zip, and tlx312a3.zip.
Sat 3-Nov-90: Update /pc/pd2/ps44.zip of Patri-Soft shareware text
finder. This is a good one, but not without bugs. Textsearches for
ascii below 32 and beyond 127 tend to cause crashes. And it does
not take properly into account the need of searching for text with
diacritical characters, which are needed in Scandinavia.
Sat 27-Oct-90: Got update tr2-8.zip of TeleReplica 2.8 PC remote
control by Doug Thomson directly from the author.
Fri 26-Oct-90: A couple of weeks ago there was much discussion in
the UseNet news about utilities which would move entire directories
for MsDos (in a similar way as mv does for Unix). Two main
suggestions came up repeatedly. The first was to use an MsDos
equivalent of Unix mv. Many users pointed out that the Picnix
utilities (picnix3a.zip, picnix3b.zip, and picnixup.zip) contain
Unix like commands for MsDos. Another solution that was suggested
was a program called prune. Such a utility has been published by Pc
Magazine's ever skilful contributor Michael Mefford. I have made
this prune utility available at uwasa.fi archives as
/pc/pd2/prune10.zip.
Fri 26-Oct-90: Here are some of the new uploads at uwasa.fi.
/pc/sysutil/4d302aup.zip An 3.02A update to 4Dos 3.02
/pc/diskutil/copyq224.zip A multi-disk copy utility
/pc/pd2/ps43.zip File and text search from Patri-Soft
Fri 26-Oct-90: Acquired update /pc/pd2/usbbs77.arc of Darwin's US
BBS list.
Tue 23-Oct-90: Acquired a new release of /pc/pd2/files-mm.zip. This
is a huge (some 1.4Mb ! when unpacked) list of files available at
Micro Maniacs Opus 2:515/1 tel 358-0-425966. I feel that it is
instructive to have available a file list of a good bulletin board,
even if you don't intend to call long-distance to Finland :-). This
is to show what files are circulating in BBSes.
Not a bad idea for the users to look at this, or a similar list,
when wanting to know if a utility exists for a such and such
purpose. This is NOT saying that you shouldn't pose questions about
the existence of utilities for a task you have in mind. It is
saying that the answer is often found directly by searching through
these filelists. (Editors can very handy for performing the
search).
Our own file lists of chyde.uwasa.fi archives are /pc/INDEX,
/pc/ts/0dir-ts, /pc/pd2/0dir-pd2, and /unix/ts/0dir-u.
We also keep a copy Simtel20 file list /pc/pd2/simibm.arc in case
you have difficulties in connecting to Simtel20. Notice though,
that the most up-to-date version is best found at the original site.
Mon 22-Oct-90: McAfee's virus scanner /pc/pd2/scanv67c.zip now
available from chyde.uwasa.fi thanks to Ralph Sims.
Wed 17-Oct-90: The printer to file rediction utility version 7.00
dating back to 1987 (/pc/pd2/)lptx700.zip is now available from
chyde.uwasa.fi. If anyone knows of a more recent version, please
let me know, and have it so, I can make it available to the net. I
am not deleting (yet) the (/pc/pd2/)lptx.zip version 6.00, because,
in the words of the author, the different versions are rather
parallel (there is a underlying pun there somewhere) than upgrades.
Tue 16-Oct-90: Acquired the following upgrades:
bbs1090.zip A list of US BBSes by James Toro, October release.
infop135.zip PC system information with sources by Andy Rossmann
pdel42.zip Norm Patriquin's selective delete with many options
shez58.zip The Compression Companion by Jim Derr
Mon 15-Oct-90: Got update /pc/pd2/inter590.zip of Ralf Brown's
interrupt list. The definite must for every advanced MsDos
programmer.
Sat 13-Oct-90: TeleReplica 2.6 remote control of PC by Doug Thomson
is now available as /pc/pd2/tr2-6.zip.
Wed 10-Oct-90: PC-Magazine Vol 9 Num 14 published a potentially very
useful batch to com file compiler bat2exec.com by Douglas Boling. I
recently tested version 1.2 of this compiler and found it too buggy
to be really operative yet. Now an updated version 1.3 has been
published, and this looks very promising. Definitely worth a closer
look. I had to do some mild hacking to put together a package
/pc/pd2/bat2ex13.zip, because I found updated parts scattered around
in different files in a BBS. I took the liberty of creating the
bat2ex13.zip package myself from the constituents I found. The
documentation is from version 1.2, but as far as I can see this
shouldn't cause any problems. The assembler source and the .com
file in the created package are version 1.3 files.
Mon 8-Oct-90: McAfee's virus scanner scanv67.zip now available.
Fri 5-Oct-90: Ralph Sims (ralphs@sumax.seattleu.edu) kindly uploaded
/pc/pd2/list75e.zip and /pc/pd2/fed153.zip to chyde.uwasa.fi. The
former is an update of Vernon Buerg's well-know file viewing
facility. The latter is FileEdit binary file editor of Phillip
Nickell. I have had trouble in finding a satisfactory binary
editor, but this one looks a potentially good one. There is some
minor confusion in the documentation, though. The document file
contains several needless double captions.
Wed 3-Oct-90: Acquired /pc/pd2/pak250.exe. It is a self-extracting
compression program from NoGate Consulting's. This update can
handle files with .pak, .arc and .zip extension. The switches of
the program can be configured by the user.
Fri 28-Sep-90: Available at chyde.uwasa.fi archives
/pc/pd2/chop11.zip by Flint Pellet. For extracting parts from
binary files. Some users have asked / discussed such a utility on
the news in comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d.
Thu 27-Sep-90: There was a very interesting utility in PC-Magazine
Vol 9 Issue 14 called bat2exec by Doug Boling. It compiles .bat
batch files into .com files to speed them up, and perhaps also to
hide the sources. There have been a couple of updates since, and we
currently have /pc/pd2/bat2ex12.zip at chyde.uwasa.fi archives. The
concept is excellent, but I think that there are still serious bugs
in the utility.
Fri 14-Sep-90: Update of Andrew Rossmann's system information
program infop131.zip.
Tue 11-Sep-90: Ralph Sims kindly uploaded a facility called ronset
to chyde.uwasa.fi today. The author Ron Bemis calls it a batch file
enhancer, but a better description for this impressive utility would
be an environment variable programming language. I took the liberty
of renaming it in accordance with the version number, and it is now
available as /pc/pd2/ronset21.zip by anonymous ftp.
Tue 11-Sep-90: Vernon Buerg's file listing utility list75b.zip is
now available for anonymous ftp download at chyde.uwasa.fi thanks to
Ralph Sims (ralphs@sumax.seattleu.edu).
Sat 7-Sep-90: Acquired Vernon Buerg's 30-Aug-90 release of the de
facto PC standard of file listing utilities (/pc/pd2/)list75a.zip
for anonymous download from chyde.uwasa.fi, Vaasa, Finland.
Wed 5-Sep-90: Acquired pdel41.zip. Patriquin's file and directory
deleting facility. Very handy, but use very carefully.
Sun 26-Aug-90: Acquired an update of Chris Dunford's memory mapper
(/pc/pd2/)pmap203.zip for anonymous ftp download from our site
chyde.uwasa.fi. Also acquired the latest Finnish BBS list and put
it in (/pc/pd2/)bx900825.zip. Although the captions are in Finnish,
the essential information is easily drawn from from the list.
Tue 21-Aug-90: Acquired /pc/pd2/list74a.zip and /pc/pd2/pcopy85d.zip
for anonymous ftp download at chyde.uwasa.fi, Vaasa, Finland. The
former is an update of Buerg's very well-known file browsing
utility. The latter is Patriquin's excellent, if not somewhat
overbearing selective copying facility. - Updated the Finnish BBS
list from bx900501.zip to bx900614.zip.
Sun 19-Aug-90: I have made Bill Davidsen's guide on submitting to
InterNet ibm binary postings available as /pc/pd2/submbin.arc. -
Turbo Power Software's excellent tsr utilities are available as
/pc/pd2/tsrcom29.zip. - Because my fellow moderator Harri Valkama
(hv@chyde.uwasa.fi) is on vacation, I have made McAfee's virus
scanner scanv66b.zip available also in this /pc/pd2 directory. -
This also reminds me of the fact that you are very welcome to upload
good programs to chyde.uwasa.fi to the /incoming directory. If you
kindly do so, please send a description to Harri.
Thu 14-Aug-90: The system information program infoplus has now been
updated to infop125.zip. On my 25/386 it still crashes on page 2.
Tue 14-Aug-90: I have removed /pc/pd2/anonlist.arc because it is
available as /pc/doc/ftpsites.lst.
Tue 14-Aug-90: I have removed the following packages from the
/pc/pd2 directory. See /pc/0contents for their current directories.
esc.zip Send escape sequences by Jouni Leppajarvi
global.com The precedessor of sweep
invest1.zip A very simple funds investment calculation program
mkmst121.zip Market Master stock analysis
spin.zip Spin (even an unformatted) disk
Mon 13-Aug-90: I have removed the following packages from the
/pc/pd2 directory. See /pc/0contents for their current directories.
pkfind11.arc Find files anywhere, even within .arcs
pkzf10.exe Search for a file throughout a disk. .zip files too.
remind49.zip A reminder from Robert M W Tsou
reminder.zip A reminder from Jukka Jarvela
sa210a.zip Security analyst program
sprm23.zip A stock portfolio record manager
stkmkt.zip An old stock market charting programs.
stockmar.zip A stockmarket program.
sypstok3.zip Stock trader III. Graphical stock market analysis.
tfe_210.zip Telix phone directory editor
vol8n16.zip From PC-Magazine. Includes dirmatch.com. Neat indeed.
Sun 12-Aug-90: Acquired 5-Aug-90 version of Ralf Brown's list of
interrupts inter490.zip.
Thu 8-Aug-90: Downloaded from the binaries the system information
utility infop100.zip by Andrew Rossmann based on sysid44 by Steve
Grant. Consequently deleted sysid50.zip
Sun 5-Aug-90: Extracted Darwin's US BBS list (/pc/pd2/)usbbs75.zip
(1-Aug-90) from the UseNet news. Obtained Norm Patriquin's pcopy
version 85C pcopy85c.zip. Pcopy is a well-known file copier with a
really great number of switch options. Obtained chk4lze.zip by John
Land. It is yet another (useful) facility for detecting .exe files
that have been compressed with lzexe. Finally, obtained fast file
finder with sources fff345.zip by Don Williams.
Thu 2-Aug-90: Acquired (/pc/pd2/)dosref17.zip programmer's technical
reference for msdos and the ibm pc (21-Mar-90), by Dave Williams.
Omitted the older versions progref1.zip, progref2.zip, and
1216ref2.zip. Also acquired Jim Derr's archive shell
(/pc/pd2/)shez57.zip (25-Jul-90) update. Again there is some (this
time really minor) confusion with validate cheksum, but since this
seems to occur regularly with shez, I'll ignore this.
Mon 30-Jul-90: Update 96bb0690.zip. A sporadic list of 9600 bps
BBSes 1-Jyl-90.
Thu 26-Jul-90: The archive shell shez56.zip is now available from
chyde.uwasa.fi. This one is the same as in Simtel20. Obviously
someone likes practical jokes or there is some other confusion in
the distribution. The first copy (now discarded) I acquired had its
validation information changed in the readme.now file. And it also
contained an inserted superfluous text file advertising some BBS.
Incidentally, this is not the first time when there is confusion
with shez validate information. In version 5.4 the author informed
Keith Petersen that there had been a mistake.
Wed 25-Jul-90: Acquired a new version dsz0626.zip of z-modem for
download by anonymous ftp from chyde.uwasa.fi. Also acquired
shez56.zip, but here I run into a dilemma. The validate crc's
differ from that of the documentation. The documentation says for
shez.exe 07D4 and 0793, but the validate program gives 09E5 and
1829. Also the file sizes differ documentation saying 122344 and
validation 122184. The shezcfg.exe informations agree. Can someone
shed some light on this. For the time being I shall not put the
suspect shez56.zip up for general download.
Thu 19-Jul-90: Added three packages to directory /pc/pd2 in the
chyde.uwasa.fi anonymous ftp archives. Two of the utilities are by
Michael Mefford from the PC-Magazine. The first is dirmat20.zip.
It is an update of his excellent dirmatch utility for comparing and
manipulating two directories. The second is dirmag2.zip. It is a
very worthwhile two-part utility for managing directories. The
third of the acquisitions is script.zip which complements the
utilities for capturing scrolling screen output to a file. It is
quite similar to concpy11.zip which we already have, but this one
includes C sources.
Sat 14-Jul-90: Recently there was a query in the c.b.i.p.d news for
a utility capturing screen output to a file. In addition to
(/pc/pd2/)snippr22.zip which we already have another utility came
up. It is (/pc/pd2)concpy11.zip containing an excellent capture
utility by Christopher Dunford from 1988. I have now acquired it to
the chyde.uwasa.fi collections. The two utilities are somewhat
different and thus serve complementary purposes. Snipper can be
used to capture what the user wants from a still screen. Concopy,
on the other hand, captures to a file everything that scrolls
through the screen.
Thu 12-Jul-90: Acquired a new release of /pc/pd2/files-mm.zip. This
is a huge (some 1.2Mb ! when unpacked) list of files available at
Micro Maniacs Opus 2:515/1 tel 358-0-425966. I feel that it is
instructive to have available a file list of a good bulletin board.
This is to show what files are circulating in BBSes. Not a bad idea
for the users to look at this, or a similar list, when wanting to
know if a utility exists for a such and such purpose. This is not
saying that you shouldn't pose questions about the existence of
utilities for a task you have in mind. It is saying that the answer
is often found directly by searching through these filelists.
(Editors can very handy for performing the search). We also keep a
copy Simtel20 file list /pc/pd2/simibm.arc. Notice, that the most
up-to-date versions are at the original sites, naturally.
Sat 7-Jul-90: Extracted Jon Granrose's list of anonymous ftp sites
from the news and made it available by anonymous ftp from
chyde.uwasa.fi, Vaasa, Finland, as /pc/pd2/anonlist.arc.
Wed 4-Jul-90: Downloaded Darwins usbbs list for jul 1990 from the
news, and named it /pc/pd2/usbbs74.arc.
Tue 3-Jul-90: Acquired update /pc/pd2/fff342.zip of the fast file
finder by Don A Williams. In addition to being able to search
within .arc, .lzh, and .zip files this useful utility has the
ability to handle extended wildcards, that is wildcard definitions
such as *onfi*.sys.
Thu 21-Jun-90: Acquired a revised version unlzexe5.zip of the
utility reversing lzexe packing of an .exe file.
Sun 27-May-90: Since the introduction of Fabrice Bellard's excellent
executable file compression idea (/pc/pd2/lzexe91.zip) there have
emerged a number of useful companion programs. Here is information
on some which are available by anonymous ftp from chyde.uwasa.fi
from directory /pc/pd2. Because the original program is in French,
an English shell lzeshl30.zip has been programmed by Pete Petrakis.
- Since the compressed files (usually) have exactly the same name as
the original, utilities are needed for identifying which files have
been compressed. There are two such utilities currently in the
/pc/pd2 directory. They are islzexe.zip by Derrick Burgess, and
isl12.zip by Alan Posner. Their user interfaces are somewhat
different, so you may adopt them both. - It is also very useful to
be able to reverse the compression process. The unlzexe4.zip
package by Mitugu Kurizono performs this feat. One problem with
lz-compressed executables is the possibility of undetectable
viruses. Until the introduction of the announced scanv63, they way
to check for on infection is first to decompress, and then apply
scanners.
Fri 25-May-90: It has been almost exactly a month since the last
update in chyde.uwasa.fi /pc/pd2 directory, because I have been
rather occupied otherwise. In the meanwhile we have had the sad
news of the cutbacks in Simtel20, which is an unfortunate loss to
the net. - This time I have update an131.zip of the Ample Notice
calendar reminder. The shell for lzexe executable files compression
program has been updated to be lzeshl30.zip. I have obtained a new
(shell-type) utility tozip51.zip for converting other packing
methods to .zip. The excellent whereis file finder is now in
version where37.zip. Shez shell for all kinds of archives has been
updated to shez55.zip. The file list of Micro Maniacs Opus
(358-0-425966) files-mm.zip is again up-to-date.
Thu 26-Apr-90: More PD programs from Finland. Three utilities by
Jouni Leppajarvi. All available by anonymous ftp from site
chyde.uwasa.fi, the first two in directory /pc/pd2. A neat small
utility esc.zip to send escape sequences. A program to spin even an
unformatted disk, spin.zip. Useful when using a cleaning diskette.
And some C routines for interrupt driven i/o on serial ports. For
the relevant directory, see the /pc/0contents file.
Tue 17-Apr-90: More PD program production from Finland: Available by
anonymous ftp from chyde.uwasa.fi (/pc/pd2/)du11.zip recursive disk
usage utility by Jussi Puttonen.
Tue 17-Apr-90: Acquired to chyde.uwasa.fi two auxiliary programs for
the (/pc/pd2/)lzexe91.zip .exe file compresser. The first is
(/pc/pd2/)islzexe.zip by Derrick Burgess. It tells whether a file,
or a set of files, has been compressed with lzexe. The second is
(/pc/pd2/)lzeshl21.zip shell for lzexe by Pete Petrakis. It is
useful, especially if you insist on you program comments to be in
English, and it preserves the original date of the .exe file to be
compressed. (Personally I prefer dating all the compressed .exe
files to 1-1-81 as marker of their being compressed). But, when I
tried to test the /u option of the shell, it merrily proceeded to
crash my laptop.
Mon 16-Apr-90: The executable files compressor (/pc/pd2/)lzexe91.zip
is now available (also) from chyde.uwasa.fi, Vaasa, Finland. There
has been much discussion in b.b.i.p.d. about this French utility by
Fabrice Bellard. I like the concept. It is particularly useful on
a laptop with a limited ram disk where I want to keep a few (four,
actually) of the most frequently needed utilities. It is true that
the compressed exe files do not load quite as quick as
noncompressed, but the difference is not material from the user's
point of view. Ca, c'est tres bien!
Mon 16-Apr-90: Acquired (/pc/pd2/)zdoc0108.zip documentation for dsz
z-modem. I believe that this is a definite must for users of dsz,
since it seems to include many useful tips, and cover much
information not directly present in the original dsz documents.
Sun 15-Apr-90: Deleted masa_bbs.zip, and updated bx900211.zip to be
bx900411.zip. These are lists of Finnish BBSes.
Sat 14-Apr-90: One frequently posed question in c.b.i.p.d has been
for a small PD / shareware editor, and Tiny Editor ted.com (as well
as Qedit, and a few others) has often been suggested. I have
updated (/pc/pd2/) ted.zip at chyde.uwasa.fi by including the
original assembler and basic codes in the package. (Otherwise the
package is unchanged.)
Fri 13-Apr-90: Acquired a number of packages to the /pc/pd2
directory. Package dsz0411.zip is an update of the z-modem, and
dszop3.zip contains some older instructions for using dsz. Package
fff332.zip is a fast file finder that can look into archives.
Package masa_bbs.zip contains information about Finnish BBSes. It
is in Finnish. Package pctech is a collection of older utilities
dating back to 1987. Package snippr22.zip is a useful screen
snapshot utility.
Fri 12-Apr-90: Update of the long path and environment utility
cpath20.zip from Cor J Veenman.
Wed 11-Apr-90: Mottos seem to be popular in email signatures. I
don't have one, but if I did it would be something like:
"I work at a university. But what is your excuse."
or
"This sounds reasonable. Let's do so anyway."
Wed 11-Apr-90: Updated the files-mm.zip file list from Micro Maniacs
BBS. A nice list to show what can be found at a good BBS.
Tue 10-Apr-90: Came upon a screen speed-up program which might be
quite useful, that is (/pc/pd2/)thefast6.zip. It is inevitable that
in using a PC something has to be the bottleneck. Since the advent
of 386 and fast hard disks it seldom is the processor or the disk
access any more, and lately I have noticed that the video adapter
(especially if 8-bit) is the problem. The way it shows is that the
cursor movement is not at par with the other parts of the PC. It
will be interesting to see if this program provides a temporary
respite, and whether there are side effects.
Sat 7-Apr-90: Got shez541.zip update. As you know this is a very
good shell for handling packed files of many types.
Fri 6-Apr-90: Cor J Veenman kindly provided his cpath.zip, which is
a utility for adding directories to make paths longer than 128
bytes. It also includes utilities to give information about the
environment space.
Thu 5-Apr-90: Obtained the following updates.
find211d.zip Fast file finder
msker301.zip MsKermit version 3.01
onside13.zip Sideways printing
sysid50.zip System information about your PC
where36.zip File finder capable of scanning archives too
Fri 30-Mar-90: Acquired PKWARE's .zip file handling facility version
1.10. This one is the "European distribution" version, and I have
consequently renamed it (/pc/pd2/)pkz110eu.exe. Available by
anonymous ftp for chyde.uwasa.fi, Vaasa, Finland, as usual.
Tue 27-Mar-90: Acquired dsz0321.zip z-modem version 21-Mar-90.
Thu 23-Mar-90: Replaced pcopy83f.zip by pcopy84.zip.
Mon 05-Mar-90: Here is information on some recent uploads made
available for anonymous ftp at chyde.uwasa.fi. - QEDIT21.ZIP is an
examination version of SemWare's newly released QEdit Advanced 2.1.
This is a flexible and compact editor, which I personally use
extensively (version 2.08). And being but "a satisfied customer", I
feel that can recommend it on the news. (No editor wars, please).
- There is also a utility called QMAC21.ZIP containing marco
utilities for the new Qedit. - Another update is BBS0390.ZIP which
replaces BBS0290.ZIP. It is named "TheList". It is a list of US
BBSes from James E Toro - REMIND49.ZIP is an update of a nice
reminder (what else) program by Robert M W Tsou. - The Micro
Maniacs files list FILES-MM.ZIP has been updated up to 5-Mar-90. -
Finally, there is a rather specialized program dating back to 1988,
so there might be more recent versions around. It is called
JMOONS.ZIP. It is a Moons of Jupiter Orbital Clock by Andrew Jones.
It is because of this last program that this message is also
(cross)posted to the sci.astro news group. - All these files with
the exception of jmoons.zip will be located in the /pc/pd2
directory. To locate jmoons.zip please see the /pc/0contents files.
Tue 20-Feb-90: The directory /pc/pd2/ at chyde.uwasa.fi has a number
of utility collections available by anonymous ftp. The latest
addition to this collection is z10.zip. It is called General
Purpose MS-DOS Utilities / Enhancements. This is a nice collection
by Scott M Pazur. It is certainly worth looking at. Not entirely
novel (what utility collection could be), but there are some useful
twists from the usual plot.
Fri 16-Feb-90: Update 96bb0290.zip, a world-wide (but not
comprehensive) list of 9600 bps BBSes.
Wed 14-Feb-90: Update pcopy83f.zip of Patriquin's good, but bloated
copy program. Update shez53.zip of the shell for handling packed
files of any kind.
The 13-Feb-90: Converted the few remaining .lzh, .pak, and .zoo
files in the /pc/pd2/ directory to .zip at chyde.uwasa.fi. The
converted files were onside.lzh, powtool1.lzh, powtool2.lzh,
toaduu17.pak, nnansi.zoo, and uu.zoo. This also means that until
Harri Valkama (hv@chyde.uwasa.fi) returns next week you can only get
these converted files from the /pc/pd2 directory. The old files
will remain as ghosts in /pc/.. directories, but they are not
available. (For those in the know, this results from the fact that
we use hard links to files in our directories.)
Mon 12-Feb-89: Updated the world-wide 9600 bps BBS list. The new
list is (/pc/pd2/)96bb0190.zip replacing 96bb1289.zip. Also got
(/pc/pd2/)blp1.zip, which is a world-wide BBS listing as of
26-Jan-90.
Sun 11-Feb-90: Took down the 256K typeahead buffer posted by John
Joubert in comp.sys.ibm.pc, checked and processed it to be
(/pc/pd2/)typeahd.zip.
Sat 10-Feb-90: Version list73d.zip of Buerg's list program. Update
bx900129.zip of Finnish BBSes (in Finnish). If someone has a direct
access to updates Finnish BBS lists, I would appreciate the
information, because the way I get these lists is more or less
haphazard. Updated files-mm.zip. Removed all dsz z-modem packages
except the latest one: dsz0128.zip, and dsz1019.zip (the one that
works).
Fri 9-Feb-90: I have renamed the 0contents file to 0dir-pd2. This
is to avoid duplicate naming with other directories. Likewise, I
have renamed 0news file to be the current 0news-pd2 file. The file
of last year's news has been renamed 0news89.pd2.
Wed 7-Feb-90: Acquired bonus507.zip. It is a non-commercial
collection of Turbo Pascal 5.0 units with source code from
TurboPower Software. Also acquired dsz0128.zip. I decline from
further comments about the transfer problems I keep having with
these new z-modem versions.
Mon 5-Feb-90: Received update list73a.zip of Vernon Buerg's list
program, the definite must.
Sat 3-Feb-90: Updates xanadu20.zip (utilities), bbs0290.zip (US BBS
list), and a new file sprm23.zip (stock portfolio record manager).
Thu 1-Feb-90: Updates pcopy83d.zip and where35.zip. Acquired
tfe_210.zip. It is an editor for Telix .fon directories.
Wed 31-Jan-90: Pretty Printer pascal code made available as
pritprn.zip.
Fri 26-Jan-90: Acquired z-modem version dated 22-Jan-90. The files
are dsz0122.zip, dsz0122n.zip, and dsz0122x.zip. I don't understand
if this is intended to be some kind of a joke or what, but many of
the dsz versions (this one included) refuse to cooperate, while some
of the older ones get trough.
Sun 21-Jan-90: Acquired a new release of files-mm.zip. This is a
list of files available at Micro Maniacs Opus 2:515/1 tel
358-0-425966. I feel that it is instructive to have available a
file list of a good bulletin board. This is to show what files are
circulating in BBSes. Not a bad idea for the users to look at this,
or a similar list, when wanting to know if a utility exists for a
such and such purpose. - Obtained dc106.zip. It is a very useful
directory control (copying files etc) utility (ver 1.06f) by Peter
Esherick along the ideas of Michael Mefford. - Also acquired update
pcopy83b.zip of Patriquin's copy program with a zillion options. -
The older (1989) news concerning the /pc/pd2 directory have been
transferred to 0news89 from the 0news file.
Fri 19-Jan-90: The new MsKermit 3.00 version has come out and Harri
Valkama has obtained it for our archives, and it is available as
msker300.zip. I have not tested it yet, but I certainly will very
soon. But I have had the opportunity of looking at the beta test
version.
Fri 12-Jan-90: After I posted the message about file finders in the
news, Forrest Gehrke kindly mailed me two more good file finders,
which are now available by anonymous ftp from chyde.uwasa.fi at
Vaasa Finland. These packages are (/pc/pd2/)tf77.zip and
(/pc/pd2/)ff211.zip. The former is called TurboFIND, and it is by
Paul Giroux. The latter is called Fast file finder, and is by Keith
P Graham. The ff.exe fast file finder has a number of useful
switches, and it can search through .arc and .zip files on request.
Thank you, Forrest, for these nice additions to the chyde.uwasa.fi
archives.
Wed 10-Jan-90: Converted (with a couple of exceptions) all the .arc
files to .zip files. The saving of disk space was considerable.
The reduction was about 25%, that is from 5Mb to 4Mb. The added
nice feature is that the datestamp of these files can be made the
locically correct one, that is the date of the most recent file
within the .zip package. I have exercised this option.
Harri Valkama kindly obtained the beta test version msker30t.zoo
of the new MsKermit 3.0 version. The testing period for this
program is announced to be brief. Only one week.
Also obtained the new version shez52.zip of the package handling
shell.
Tue 9-Jan-90: Obtained a more recent version of the arc to zip
converter. The current version is a2z16d.zip.
Sun 7-Jan-90: There are many many conversion programs between the
different packing methods. Obtained a2z16.zip for converting .arc
files to .zip files.
Sat 6-Jan-90: Got sysid47.zip. It gives comprehensive system
information about your pc. Source seems to be included.
Fri 5-Jan-90: Obtained where34.zip. It is a very good file finding
program from Keith Ledbetter. It searches the disk(s) for given
file name(s) even within files packed with the common packing
programs. Has many useful switches.
For the older news please see 0news89.pd2.