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 ; 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.