26 November 1984 ZCPR3 NEWSLETTER 101 Z3 TIPS: Creating menus with ZCPR3 tools is easy, once the technique has been learned. Everything needed is in the online HELP system, for MENU, VMENU, and VFILER. But it takes a little doing to get used to creating! So now we do. Command syntax and grammar for MENU and VMENU are similar; differences are noted as we come to them. Until ZCPR3: The Manual is available we are obliged to use available online help facility to learn ins-and-outs of various utilities. We urge you to study these help files. If you don't like reading from your CRT, then use HELPPR to print-out VFILER, VMENU and MENU HLP files. VMENU's power to scroll forward/backward a 16 file-display and move cursor pointer indicating Current File makes it the general favorite for menus though MENU actually has more flexibility; but, why not mix MNU's and VMN's? The beauty of ZCPR3 menus is they may "come and go" depending which directory you are in. Your system can be a hybrid. Flexibility--no operating system has more! Directories may have simple, quick (for-the-programmer who hasn't yet found menus, or a mix there of, to be efficient) command-line completion capability (command- vs menu-driven). On the other hand, menus may be set-up to manage complex functions used too infrequently to justify the mental overhead required to remember what's required...DISCAT uses such menus. Why would you want to remember little-used, multitude of commands with their trailing parameter possibilities? But if you do, ZCPR3 lets you use your recall (organic memory) ability; and if you forget, a menu can be there to serve. A complex three-menu skeleton to show some possibilities (command-line VMENU entry is VMENU <*.typ> ): -x # ^A+++^B Word Processing Display ^A+++^B Current Directory: $D$U 1 - ^AEdit Current File using WordStar^B C - ^ACopy Current File to BACKUP^B 2 - ^AType (Page) Current File^B G - ^AGoto System Utility Menu^B 3 - ^ACopy File(s) to Another Directory^B Z - ^AEnter ZCPR3 Command Line^B # 1ws $Pf 2page $Pf 3mcopy "Destination DIR? "="Source DIR:afn? " cmcopy $Pf g:3 z!"ZCPR3:Command>" # (put display text for menu #2 here and.. # ..put commands for menu #2 here) # ^A+++^B System Utility Menu ^A+++^B Current Directory: $D$U C - ^ARun DISCAT Catalog System^B D - ^ADisplay Selected Directory Files^B Z - ^ARun ZCPR3 Command(s)^B # ccd cat: d!xdir "Enter DIR:AFN and trailing options (U for all users): " z!"ZCPR3:Command>" ## Menu displays have an automatically generated command line allowing the user to go from menu to menu, forward and backward, and to jump to first menu. Goto's may be added to menu lines to custom-jump to menus. MCOPY automatically copies files to directory BACKUP if a destination DIR is not declared. Going to the CAT directory loads ST which runs MENU and its associated MNU file. $Pf expands to full filename cursor arrow points to, the Current File. Using n after the P would evaluate to just the file name, with file type left off. The latter is useful during ASM or MAC and LOAD/MLOAD operations. Options are different between VMENU and MENU: only "x" (permission to exit) is available with VMENU, but "cdpx" (command line expansion, display menu, and page screen) with MENU. The usage intended for each program established options available. A simple but powerful menu example: Richard Conn uses an interesting menu for spreadsheet and database management. In Rick's environment, DBASE.COM and its overlays are in A9:, with all *.CMD files (these are dBASE files and not VFILER CMD's) and data files in B9:. Each dBASE II invocation logs into A: so that dBASE runs from a directory which contains its overlays. The indicated command file does is set the default disk to B: which logs dBASE II into B: for command file and data file processing. The menu-driven process continues until a Quit (which drops Rick into dBASE) or an Exit (which drops him out of dBASE and back to ZCPR3). Upon leaving dBASE, command "B:" is executed, putting him back into B9:, and the menu then resumes. His complete DBMENU.MNU file: -dpx # *** Access to dBASE II and MultiPlan (MP) **** dBASE II D -- Invoke dBASE II and Set Options dBASE II Applications to Run 1 -- Check Book 6 -- Labels 2 -- Income Tracking 7 -- Software Inventory 3 -- Business Expense Tracking 8 -- Hardware Inventory 4 -- Time Cards 9 -- Itemized Inventory 5 -- Name and Address 0 -- MultiPlan Editor M -- Invoke MultiPlan E -- Invoke Editor on File Miscellaneous Functions B -- Run Microsoft BASIC X -- Directory Display T -- Time and Date Z -- Enter Any ZCPR3 Command # da:;dbase DPSETUP;b: 1A:;dbase B:cb;B: 2A:;dbase B:it;B: 3A:;dbase B:be;B: 4A:;dbase B:tc;B: 5A:;dbase B:nad;B: 6A:;dbase B:labels;B: 7A:;dbase B:sw;B: 8A:;dbase B:hw;B: 9A:;dbase B:itm;B: ma:;mp MPSETUP.MP;b: ewm "Name of File to Edit? becho use command 'SYSTEM' to exit;mbasic t!time x!xd z!"Command Line? ## -------------- DBMENU file is for use with MENU and not VMENU (VMENU allows up to 16 display text lines versus MENU's 22, here Rick has 19). Notice the 'SYSTEM' he reminder uses. Highlight display text using ^A and ^B to start and end highlighting, respectively. When designing screen layout, try to achieve text separation, more than provided by the characters alone. For example, highlight headers or highlight functions but never both. Achieve distinctiveness! Remember, study the capabilities of the system and you are set free--free to do exactly what you wish to do! Good News: Zilog Z800 microprocessor details released indicate one super chip...25 mHz clock rate, 8-bit bus, 4-DMA channels, CTC's, a UART, math co- processor for number crunching, instruction set downward compatible with Z80 and 8080, etc. Write to Zilog, Inc. (1315 Dell Avenue, Campbell, CA 95008) expressing your interest in 8-bit microprocessor advancement. Direct letters to Edgar A. Sack, new president of Zilog; Jerry Higgins, Systems Division; Tom Popek, Components Division; William Walker, Finance; Harry W. Look, Z800 Product Manager; and John Johnen, Software Marketing. Let them know they could be "numero uno" in 8-bit computers for both industrial and individual use. (Additionally, first S-100 board manufacturer announcing Z800 product will do a brisk business, coming from pent-up hobbyist and system integrator demand.) But along with good comes bad: samples of Z800 chips are now scheduled for April '85, not mid-February, as was previously announced by ex-Zilog president Franc deWeeger (he recently resigned to become president of Advanced Semiconductor Materials-America, a subsidiary of ASM-Holland). New-Users-of-CP/M_Corner: Many ask why, for so little money, we supply source code to our ZCPR3; can we make enough money to stay in business? Our answer, "We want you to be more than a computer user, to know about computer software, to understand what makes your machine tick!" Being a user is a-okay, but there's so much more to learn, learning that alters your perception of reality! Being simply a user is much like simple consumption...get beneath surfaces and enjoy wonders to behold! By the way, we make a staying-in-business profit from application programs, Discat, Z3-Dot-Com, and others to follow, like Term3, and from ZCPR3: The Manual. Big Business: Several months back we stated that competition in long-distance telephone (satellite) arena would create largest redistribution of corporate and personal wealth in history of our free enterprise system...well, such musing could be more than true. AT&T is spending most of their energy worrying about IBM and not about customers, outcome of which could be loss of their vitality! Watch profit and loss statements for next nine months-- indication of vigor, management discipline. Echelon customers are members of a family, a family connected by a common thread: understanding. We all want to learn, learn through working, thinking, doing, thus becoming what we are capable of becoming. We expect not instant gratification from our actions--we know doing, in itself, is reward enough! But neither do we forget the value of quality of results--lasting value. When we reach for stars, we sometimes don't come up with one, but seldom do we get a hand-full of mud either! Echelon--your single source for economical, efficient, and generally overall useful 8-bit CP/M-80 compatible software. See you down the lines... Echelon, Inc. 101 First Street Los Altos, CA 94022 Telephone: 415/948-3820 ZCPR3 BBS & RCP/M: 415/489-9005 Trademarks: CP/M, Digital Research; Z3-Dot-Com, Alpha Systems; Bookshelf, Ampro Computers; Z80, Zilog; Unix, AT&T Bell Laboratories; ZCPR3, Syslib3, Term3, Richard L. Conn; Discat, Lasting-Value Software, Disk7, Echelon; PC- DOS, IBM, Int'l Business Machines; Xenix, Microsoft; WY-50, Wyseword, Wyse Technology; ZRDOS, Dennis L. Wright; Metal, Delphi Data Systems. Newsletter 101 is Copyright 1984 Echelon, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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