Welcome, guys and gals, to the next installment of daisy mae ueber alles, or “Daisy word processor is the best such software, encountered by us for the Timex-Sinclair 2068 computer and Brother 1109 printer”. We fetch Daisy Disk 1, as issued by UPDATE! Magazine, put it into Disk Drive 0, and switch the computer ON, while holding down the ENTER key, thus performing a LOAD of the file AUTOSTART on our said disk. DD0 commences to grind away; Bill Jones’ broadside comes up with a directive, “Press A Key…”; and, we arrive at the main menu, Function Menu, by pressing 3,2,1,n,y,y, in turn.
Well, this time, we consider item 8, “Office Tools,” on the function menu, that is, we press “8” and bring the Office Tools menu to the screen. It contains twelve options.
Option 1 is called Turbo Change and displays the current value of the variable, turbo, e.g., now it shows “turbo=0” . This is the slow virtual memory means by which Bill selects which configuration of Daisy he wishes to use during the current session. There are four, and we disks them in the accompanying article on my souped-up version, where I have broken out each such incarnation into four separately LOADable word processors.
Option 2 calls up Cdbse.B6, which manages data bases with extensions of .Cx (CODE) as you see with Tasword, Mscript, or download files from telecomm. We are first offered the option of specifying, where Cdbse be LOADed from, or escaping back to Daisy, as Cdbse IS an independent program, replacing Daisy and data from RAM. We will disks Cdbse, later.
Option 3 does the same with Dbase-1, which performs many tricks with record files. Let’s consider Dbase-1, later.
Option 4 Daisy Word Processor, presents two more options. [1] Use Daisy Auto Print Menu, and [2] Word Process Disk Files vis LOAD Udbx.B6 Program. Well, [1] is just the “User Pgm Gp”, as discussed last time. And, [2] is just the “Word Proc. 1-50 Disk Files”, also of last time.
Option 5 uses Dbs (Mail Merge), presents the user with the option to either LOAD Dbx.B6, or MERGE Dbx.B6 in order to discard data, or not, respectively. Dbx.B6 is a dbms, or data base management system for building mailing lists. It is like Dbase-1, more like “Dbase-7”, since its records have up to seven fields. Later…..Option 6 calls VU-CALC, which is completely independent.
Option 7 is pressed, in order to escape back “To Function Menu” .
Option 8 Page Management, is used in conjunction with “typewriter mode” and will be talked about later.
Option 9 leads us back to the very beginning of our session with Daisy, reloading Bill Jones’ banner, and permitting REINITialization of the print parameters, such as printer type (TS-2040, Dot Matrix, or Daisy Wheel,) interface (Oliger, AERCO, Tasman, or A & J,) any necessary line feeds, any desired right justification, and any indentation of the first line of paragraphs. Then, we come back to the Function Menu.
Option 10 calls up the creation and/or printing of Daisy’s outline data base. It extends to two levels, and involves two multi-dimensioned arrays, k$(mj,32) and v$(mj, sb, 32). Clever, and Bill’s word processor is applicable to them at every step of the way. [A] calls upon the previously discussed Disk Management Tools, by pressing capital a ===>>> A. You can get to these disk management tools directly from the function menu, by Option 5, data management menu, then option <C> at the Utility, SAVE, DELETE, and LOAD menus, following. In fact, the disk management tools are so useful, as to have been already discussed separately on page 18, Number 1, Volume 6, ZQA, published this Spring. The ONLY problem is, that it’s a two-fingered stroke of “A” or “C”, in order to get to them. So, you know they gotta be pretty darned useful!
[B] loads Udbm.B6, which is entirely independent. It is a universal data base manager for the 2068, managing any and all files, written for the 2068. Later!! Well. that’s twelve options, so we must be through considering the Office Tools menu.
All right, now one of the reasons, that ManlAd.B6, PO+MM.B6, IN+ED.B6, and dbms.B6 be lots better than Daisy.B6 with turbo=3, 2, 1, and 0, respectively, is that we can LOAD ManlAd FASTER than we can DELETE and MERGE Daisy, in order to get to turbo=3. We can LOAD PO+MM.B6 a lot faster than transform Daisy.B6 for turbo=2. We can LOAD IN+ED.B6 much FASTER than we can transform Daisy.B6 into software, corresponding to turbo=1. Lastly, dbms.B6 is quicker to LOAD than Daisy.B6 can have turbo changed to 0. In fact, look here at Bill’s menu.
We see, that dbms.B6 be characterized by maximum free RAM; IN+ED.B6 optimized for INPUT and EDIT of daisy data bases; PO+MM.B6 be setup for maximum printing speed (also room for large mailing list); and, ManlAd.B6 have both INPUT and PRINT on board. Of course, ManlAd has very little FREE RAM, requiring manual addressing with no automatic mail merge.
Office Tools Menu
1. Turbo is already fixed at 0 in dbms.B6.
2. Lets you SAVE data, escape back to dbms.B6, or LOAD Cdbse.B6.
3. Does the same for Dbase-1.
4. Is disabled, since we are not printing with dbms.
5. Lets you SAVE data, escape back to dbms.B6, or LOAD Dbx.B6, in order to manage large mailing lists.
6. Does the same for OmniCalc, or for whatever spread sheet, considered better than VU-Calc.
7. Brings up the Function Menu.[8]
8. and [0] are disabled, since dbms is not for printing. A single stroke of “a” brings on the disk management tools. And, a single stroke of “b” offers a choice of a data SAVE, escape back to dbms, and LOAD of Udbm.B6
[1], turbo is already fixed at 1 in IN+ED.B6. [2] and [3] are both disabled, since IN+ED is not for branching out. [4] is disabled since IN+ED is not for printing. [5] and [6] are` disabled, since IN+ED not be for branching out. [7] escapes back to the Function Menu. [8], [9], and [0] are disabled due to no need for printing in IN+ED. [a] accesses all those neat disk management tools. And, [b] is disabled, due to lack of branching. In PO+MM.B6, [1] finds turbo already fixed at 2. [2] and [3] are disabled, due to lack of branching. [4] brings up last time’s Printing Menu for “Word Processing With User Program Group”. [5] and [6] are disabled, due to lack of branching. [7] escapes back to the Function Menu. [8] brings on Page Management, in support of Daisy’s typewriter mode. [9] REINITializes the printer. [0] is disabled to conserve memory. [a] takes us to Disk Management Tools. And, [b] is disabled, due to lack of branching. Now, in the case of ManlAd.B6, this is a souped-up version of what Bill refers to as “Daisy Mae,” since it’s LOADed with every Daisy capability. Unfortunately, there is neither world enough nor time enough nor RAM enough …. But, we have retained practically everything, and we are saving ManlAd for a bank-switched version, which should provide lots more RAM.
Let’s see what the Office Tools Menu has for ManlAd. [1] leaves turbo, set at 3. [2] and [3] are disabled, due to lack of branching to conserve RAM. Use dbms.B6 for branching. [4] branches in the Printing Menu from RAMdisk. [5] and [6] are disabled, due to lack of branching. [7] escapes back to the Function Menu. [8] calls up the Page Management menu for typewriter mode. [9] escapes daisy itself, in order to REINITialize the printer. [0] branches in the menu for “Data Processing.” This governs creation and printing of outline data bases. [a] accesses the Disk Management menu. And, [b] has been disabled, due to lack of branching, in order to conserve memory.
Next time, we’ll consider the “typewriter mode” of daisy, since that includes discussion of practically the rest of the menu. Seeya …….. .
KEEP ON TIMEX’n