TS COMPUTERFEST
A midwest Timex/Sinclair Computerfest is being planned for May. Most software, hardware, magazines and other supporters will be on hand to answer your questions and help you make better use of your computer and to help rekindle interest in the family of T/S users–particularly those who have their machines hidden on the top shelf of their closet.
For more information, write to:
T/S Midwest Computerfest
3832 Watterson Ave
Cincinnati, OH 45227
or:
Frank Davis
513 East Main Str
Peru, In 46970
COMPATIBLE DRIVES
Mrs. Ana Meleiro of TIMEX Portugal wrote in response to our July article “An Update On Using the Portuguese Disk Drive System” by saying that you can use 3 1/2″ or 5 1/4″ drives in your system as drive B, C, or D as long as the step rate is 6 ms. And that FORMATing would be done in the normal way as with the 3″.
Beware though because Zebra has’ stated that they will not honor the warranty on any systems which do not use only the supplied drives.
NEW BOOK
IM-PRESS 1412 Rosewood, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 (313) 761-2231 has just announced a new book entitled “1-HOUR TELECOMPUTING” which was written to help you better understand the telecomputing process and get the inmost out of your system. $19.95
WORKIN’ IN THE “SOFTWARE PATCH”
The object of this (hopefully! ) continuing column is to provide you with some easy-to-do modifications to software you may already own for your 2068.
A “patch” is an addition of modification to the source code of a computer program. Making these changes should either enable your program to perform a new task, or improve upon a feature already available.
Since most of us (including me) are not fluent in programming in machine code, I will attempt to make any modifications to M/C as simple as possible. This means you will probably only need to POKE some numbers into specific memory locations. While making changes in-BASIC are much easier, breaking into the listing of a program can possibly (not always, though) be a trick. Depending upon the design of the particular program, it could be as easy as pressing the BREAK key. Some programs even give you a menu option to escape to BASIC as Tasword does. Some pro-
gramners want to make it difficult to break into “their” program. You can usually foil their efforts by using MERGE “” instead of LOAD “” to load the program into the computer.
Many of the patches I will share with you were given to me by good friends from throughout the country. Others came from various user group newsletters and a few from myself. I will acknowledge the proper sources when I share their modifications with you. If you have any patches you would like to share with everyone send them to:
Bill Ferrebee
749 Hill Street #6
Parkersburg, WV 26104
The first patches I would like to share with you are for the TASWORD TWO word processor program by Tasman.
First, most of you probably know of the five POKEs that allow you to use an AERCO Centronics interface with TASWORD. Simply LOAD the program and enter BASIC through the main menu. Then:
POKE 57999,127
POKE 58001,103
POKE 58008,127
POKE 58014,219
POKE 58015,127The other modification for TASWORD is a collaboration of William Erickson of Decatur, GA and myself. If you own a full-size printer and a
TS2040 printer, you may or may not know of this problem. If you print out a text file with your full-size printer and then want to use your 2040 to print, it can’t be done.
To remedy this, enter BASIC through the main menu as above and add or modify the following program lines:
29 POKE 26703,0: POKE 26704,5
290 RANDOMIZE USR VAL "59806": POKE 26703,0: POKE 26704,5: GO TO VAL "10"Then GO TO 25 and SAVE this version of the program.
I thank Bill for his input “patch”. You can reach him at:
William Erickson
1445 Oldfield Rd
Decatur, GA 30030
Next time I will share modifications for OMNICALC 2 that will enable you to use a full-size printer to output your spreadsheets. Until then…Keep computin’!
— Bill Ferrebee
According to recent reports, HARRY TOWNER has several brand new 2068s as well as a few cassettes and cartridges of Timex software available at very reasonable prices. Harry Towner, 3022 N. Josey Lane #135, Carrollton, TX 75007; phone 214/394-1156.