LarKen users who have not yet tried LogiCall have told me that ads and articles had not clearly explained how the LogiCall Ensemble could help them. They had, therefore, not taken the opportunity to buy and use it. After sending them a copy of LogiCall, however, they were pleased with not only the speed but also the new and easier way to execute LarKen file management functions as well as the added utilities and improvements made to the BASIC drivers of many popular TS2068 programs.
LogiCall reduces the number of keystrokes required for LarKen’s LKDOS. All the keys labeled by TIMEX for DOS operation, now work without being preceded by RANDOMIZE USR 100: or PRINT #4: The best reason to use LogiCall is the EASE OF USE and the GREATLY IMPROVED SPEED of all the features of LarKen DOS.
The LogiCall Concept
LogiCall was developed after observing how the integrated software package MASS-11 ran on both a Digital Equipment Corp. mini-computer and an IBM PC. MASS is the acronym for Management Administrative System Software. MASS-11 contained a word processor, data base, spread sheet, terminal package, date planner, FAX and network applications tied all together with help files and supporting utilities. When you turned on the computer, a menu of application choices was presented on the screen. You could call up the application you wished to use by pressing two keys followed by <ENTER>. Furthermore, the utilities included with the package allowed the files to be passed from one application to another. However, unless you worked for an aerospace, pharmaceutical, chemical company, research lab or bank, you probably would have never seen this software in action for yourself because the cost of MASS-11 was too high for home use.
It was disturbing to me that LKDOS required the user to type RANDOMIZE USR 100: LOAD “filename.ex” to load in a program from a menu seen only after typing RANDOMIZE USR 100: CAT “”. I noted that quite a bit of computer time in front of the TS2068 was lost doing menial disk management. RANDOMIZE USR 100: or PRINT #4: always had to be keyed in ahead of the DOS management task calls for execution. Why should this be when the TS2068 has them on the keyboard – all the keys necessary for the DOS functions?
The Added Enhancements
The first thing I decided to do was to make all those DOS keys work without the RANDOMIZE USR 100: or PRINT #4: requirement. I also decided to write LogiCall to permit all the file management task calls EXEcutable by pressing just one key followed by <ENTER>, if one wished, rather than the TIMEX key sequence, like <E> <ENTER> or <7> <ENTER> instead of <SS> <CS> <ERASE> <ENTER>. Also, at the appropriate time the disk menu is displayed automatically on the screen. LogiCall can accommodate this. Furthermore, LogiCall is as transparent as possible. It shows no menus of its own, it looks to the user much like the LKDOS you were already used to. Larry’s CATalog screen looked very professional, all I added was a line to show which drive the system was pointing to and two prompts.
When you power up the TS2068 while holding down the <Enter> key, the CATalog of the disk in Drive 0 appears on the screen. At the bottom of the screen, you are given the ‘Drive?’ prompt to allow you to select any other drive on your system including the Tape drive. If another disk drive is selected, the CATalog of that disk is displayed. The ‘Drive?’ Prompt is then replaced by the ‘Program?’ Prompt.
Since many files on a disk are related to application support such as start-up screens and application machine code files, the concept of a Brief screen and Verbose screen was developed to make the disk CATalog easier to peruse.
The default disk CATalog displays only the basic files hiding the code and array files from view unless the V key is pressed at the ‘Program?’ Prompt. The user can return to the Brief CATalog by pressing the B key at the ‘Program?’ Prompt. The next logical thing to do is to either load in a program or perform some disk management functions.
Logically, the first time out, you may not know exactly how to proceed.
You may now press <?> <ENTER> or <H> <ENTER> to display a ‘HELP’ script on your screen. This two page help script provides a brief description of all the LogiCall functions. Brief means that although a key is given for every possible function, not all of the other key possibilities are given. You should read the manual through once to learn them all! Adding AUTOSTART to a disk is also briefly described here.
This HELP script may be accessed at either the Drive? or the Program? prompt and will always return to the proper prompt.
Not only is one key provided for all the disk management functions possible in LKDOS but there are several logical possibilities to perform that same function depending on your feeling of what that logic should be. For instance, to call the format routine you might use the keystroke sequence suggested by TIMEX, <SS> <CS> <0> <ENTER> to obtain the FORMAT key word. Though this is handled by LogiCall, the format routine can also be called with the sequences <F> <ENTER> and <0> <ENTER>, <0> being the key that has FORMAT under it.
To set the drive pointer, <D>, <G> or <8> returns the DRIVE? prompt to the screen, as does the POINT keyword sequence, when the Program? prompt is on the screen.
Don’t Quite Get It Yet? To activate the LKDOS function in the chart below, LogiCall allows you to press any of the following sequences or keys below followed by <ENTER>. Look at your TS2068 keyboard and see if you can follow the Logic of LogiCall by studying the chart below:
To Key Key Logical Activate: Sequence Labeled Letter or AUTOSTART N VERIFY VERIFY R RENAME 5 (Sorry, this one isn't logical) MOVE MOVE 6 M ERASE ERASE 7 E POINT POINT 8 D G CATALOG CAT 9 FORMAT FORMAT 0 F
Are you beginning to understand the Logic now?
To create an AUTOSTART on a disk press <A> <ENTER>. To save the LogiCall Exec. to a disk press <S> <ENTER>. AUTOSTART and the LogiCall Exec., L.Bl, should be on all your disks including the RAMDISK. They need only one track for each!
If you wish the system pointer to point to a new drive, you can press 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or T at the Drive? prompt. When you do this the catalog of that drive and the Program? prompt will be displayed. Also, at the Program? prompt you can now press 1, 2, 3 or 4 to select yet another drive, see The Logic? Note that 0 is missing from the list. This is because 0 calls the FORMAT program at the Program prompt. If, however, the FORMAT program is not on the current drive, pressing 0 will select Drive 0 rather than the FORMAT program, see The Logic?
LogiCall changes its logic to suit your logic. You knew that if FORMAT.Bl was not present on the displayed catalog then pressing 0, the key labeled FORMAT, would only produce a ‘NO FILE’ message. LogiCall changed its logic because it assumed you knew what you wanted to do, change the drive pointer to Drive 0. And if you inadvertently press 6 instead of 5 at the Program? prompt to RENAME a file and the MOVE program which contains a RENAME routine is not on the current drive, the LogiCall RENAME routine will launch as though 5 had been pressed, do you see The Logic? LogiCall again changed its logic to suit your logic. You knew that if MOVE.Bl was not present on the displayed catalog, then pressing 6, the key labeled MOVE, would only produce a ‘NO FILE’ message. LogiCall changed its logic because it assumed you knew what you wanted to do, RENAME a file, a utility option of the MOVE program.
<T> and <W> call in the Terminal software and the Word processor software respectively. The terminal software can be MTERM II, LOADER V or MaxCom – in that order. If you have to briefly leave MTERM II for some reason, pressing <Y> will immediately return you to MTERM II if you haven’t overwritten the machine code. The word processor can be TASWORD II, MSCRIPT or Spectral Writer – in that order. Of course, you may change LogiCall to call whatever you wish – it is written in BASIC.
The ability to peruse word processor files without first putting them into a word processor and displaying screen files on the monitor without first LOADing in a graphics application were features added for further speed and convenience. Also, LogiCall V6.0 automatically displays word processor files in 64 column mode if TASWIDE is also present on the disk. If TASWIDE isn’t present on the current disk the files are displayed in 32 column mode.
The Ultimate AUTOSTART
To save a great deal of time, the feature of installing AUTOSTART to a disk by pressing ‘A’ <ENTER> was added instead of the user modifying some previously written menu program and copying it to another disk. Previous AUTOSTART programs sometimes took more than one disk track to store. AUTOSTART really needs to do little more than switch the right System ROM into service and call the next program to run. This makes Menu programs easier to write. Please take the time to read a previous article entitled “The Ultimate AUTOSTART” to better understand this concept. An updated version of this article is also included in the LogiCall V6.0 Manual.
Swap ROMS on The Fly
The AUTOSTART created by LogiCall V6.0 is capable of switching system ROMs. How that is done was discovered in the original LarKen manual but few people fully understood how to make it work. Thanks to the wisdom of a yet unknown Toronto area programmer, the LarKen user no longer has to hold the K key down at boot up or use the OUT 244,3 call to turn on the Spectrum ROM. Switching between the Timex ROM and the Spectrum ROM is accomplished by first pointing to a disk with the proper AUTOSTART and then pressing ‘N’ <ENTER> at the ‘Program?’ prompt. If you call what Les Cottrell calls ‘The guilder Lilly’ version of NMI-F.Bl from AUTOSTART, then pressing the LarKen NMI button followed by F will re-boot the system on the last drive you ran NMI-F.Bl, allowing you to exit gracefully from those otherwise exit-less Spectrum programs.
Improved Basic Drivers
BASIC drivers have been modified to provide better menus, easy SAVE and LOAD routines for both the complete application program and the data files they use. When data files are about to be SAVEd or LOADed, a brief disk CATalog is presented on the screen.
TASWORD II was modified to load and save files typing the filename only once and without typing the extension. LOADing and SAVEing to tape was also added back to the LarKenized version of TASWORD II. VU-CALC now has a HELP script!
The New Manuals
LogiCall V6.0 comes with two NEW manuals, an updated more complete easy to read LarKen LKDOS Version 3 manual and an updated LogiCall Version 6.0 manual with sections on the utilities and BASIC drivers for the modified commercial software. Even if you have older versions of LogiCall, these two new manuals are worth the price of V6 ownership. The new LarKen manual includes all known missing information related to operation with the JLO interface and the TASMAN B CPI printer interface. Use of the Commodore 1520 compatible mouse is also covered. These manuals were developed over an eight month period and the masters printed on a laser printer.
The LogiCall Package
Besides the two NEW manuals mentioned above, the LogiCall ensemble includes the following utilities and modified BASIC drivers for your most popular software:
Address Book containing over 400 known Sinclair users, Basic to Text, TS2068 phone directory dials your phone for you, Disk Library, FORMAT.Bl, Tape Header Reader, the LogiCall Exec, MOVE.BL, MSCRIPT & MTERM for LogiCall, MSDOS Disk Reader, NMI-F reboots same disk you originally booted up on, Head Step Rate change, Tape Library, TASWORD II for LogiCall, VU-CALC for LogiCall, VU-FILE for LogiCall, VU-3D for LogiCall, Print VU- CALC files to large printer, Change VU-CALC files to TASWORD files, Hunt The Wumpus, Change screen files to TASWORD files, QCHART for LogiCall.
Modifications to the commercial software covered in the LogiCall manual explain only changes to that software and not any of the standard operating features of that software. If you do not own manuals for the commercial software listed above, you must purchase the tape version of that software from your software vender to legally use that software.
A Mere Pittance
This is no doubt the final version of LogiCall as all the desired features are in with nothing more planned. All the shortcomings and bugs have been eliminated. The price of the entire LogiCall package is $15, every bit of which goes to the vendors to help them stay around to supply the needs of the Sinclair community. Frank and Carol Davis travel to many computer shows to provide us with products for our machines and Rod Gowen has for years provided us with much needed Sinclair items. Please help support these vendors by purchasing a copy of LogiCall V6.0 for your LarKen System now. The New Manuals alone are worth the investment.