Pro/File 2068 owners take note! A few frustrated folks who added the new Machine Code Sort capability from the BREAKTHROUGH newsletter experienced crashing problems whenever they tried to alphabetize files by one particular line, but ordering by any other line worked fine. This is a bug in the machine code–not a typing error.
Robert C. Fischer, 221 Scoggins St., Summerville, GA 30747 was able to pinpoint the exact effect. He wrote, “If you compare a line of data in different files, and the data matches EXACTLY, but if in one case the data is the last line of a file while in the other it is not, the program crashes. The routine can’t handle a comparison of * and code 1 which signify the end of file and end of line markers respectively.”
What does this mean? Well, basically, it means that you should avoid sorting any file on the basis of the last line. A more prudent approach would be to use the first few lines of each file to store “sort codes” and use the remainder of the file to store other data which would not be sorted. Unfortunately, it would be a major task to fix this bug. It is far easier to arrange your data in such a way that the bug will never rear its ugly head.
To all of you who ran into problems with this and thought you were losing your sanity, please accept my apologies for not spotting this problem. We can ail thank Bob Fischer for accurately describing it. Incidentally, Bob publishes a newsletter called “Extensions” which features adaptations and enhancements to the Pro/File 2068 program. He has come up with some pretty neat things which you should check out. Extensions is a bargain at just $6. Write to Bob for your copy soon.
Another rather curious bug in the TS2068 32K Non-Volatile Ram board has been fixed. A very few of the first boards produced would end up with a dead battery after the board had been left in the computer for a few hours. We checked chips, batteries, diodes, virtually everything we could think of and still couldn’t find the leak. Imagine our surprise when we found it was the battery prong touching the inside of the TS2068 case (which has a grounded conductive coating on it to reduce RF noise). It was a dead short! Anyway, a small piece of electricians tape over the battery prong makes the board last practically forever. We estimate that in “storage mode”, that is, when it is removed from the computer and is powered solely by the on-board lithium cell, the memory will retain its contents for about 145 years!
Finally, here’s a hopeful tidbit. Tom Bent, the creator of the 32K Non-volatile RAM, is hard at work figuring a way to use this memory on the TS1000! He reports that a TS1000 rear connector for the memory board is close to being operational.