






                   W  I  N  D  O  W  A  T  C  H

           The Electronic Windows Magazine of the Internet




 Vol.1 No. 7                                     September 1995



                             EDITORIAL


              The King Didn't Die - - He Snuck Off !


 The after-shock of the two year OS/2 vs '95 war is over.  IBM has
 abandoned OS/2 to what appears a dwindling corporate market and the
 rhetoric of its faithful following.  The aggressive taunt of OS/2
 boosters -"My operating system is better than your operating system" has
 fallen to the marketing mastery of Microsoft. The language spoken these
 last months has been arbitrary, combative, and, most important, outside
 the fiscal reality of the installed base of DOS-Windows computers.

 In this issue, Herb Chong and Paul Williamson will each discuss the
 impact of Windows95. Herb has the skill, knowledge and objectivity to
 compare each of the operating systems to each other discussing their
 strengths and weaknesses. Paul will report of what is really happening in
 Corporate America: the developing systems criteria, and if, among other
 things, the corporate trend really is toward Windows NT and Windows 95.

 Those who fear the scepter of a Windows of all flavors- read Microsoft
 dominated computer world - have raised their voices too late. The DOS
 world has become a Microsoft world but like the universe around us, it
 is merely a single world. The Internet has spawned a renewed interest in
 Unix.  That interest will be short lived if Unix operating systems remain
 esoteric and archaic. Those among us who have learned to manage our
 computer affairs quite well within the limitations of DOS will refuse to
 be a party to the continued foolish and arrogant esoteria of Unix. Those
 of you who resent the dominance of a Microsoft...stop belly aching and a
 write an operating system for the Internet that is inclusive by keeping
 the best of Unix and incorporating the best of Windows and System7. Copy
 the successful Netscape marketing strategy. Make your fortune by creating
 a viable alternative and give the product away for a few months until it
 takes off.

 As an aside, I find the same people who stridently advocate against
 government regulation or in their terms, interference and control, are
 actively lobbying the Fed to curtail the Microsoft web of modestly
 priced software and services. All of which, simply establishes the lack
 of faith in open competition - particularly if you've lost your
 traditional edge in this burgeoning home market.

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                           Windows 95 and OS/2 Warp
                         Copyright 1995 by Herb Chong

 Windows 95 is now finally with us.  Those who planned to upgrade to the
 newest Windows have done so. Those who wanted to wait and see are waiting
 and seeing some more. Those still using OS/2 are either gloating at the
 problems people are having with their Windows 95 upgrades or wondering
 why they havent made the leap over to Windows.  Somehow, the grass
 always looks greener on the other side, but not green enough.  The press
 argues once more about the relative merits of Windows 95 and OS/2 and how
 they perform.

 Just what is it about the operating systems wars that make it natural to
 mention Windows 95 and OS/2 together in the same breath seem so natural?
 If you believe some of the articles in the press and some of the press
 releases from Microsoft and IBM, Windows and OS/2 are locked into a
 battle to the death for control of the PC desktop. This might be true in
 the minds of some, but frankly there is more imagination in this way of
 thinking than fact.

 Windows in general, Windows 95 in particular, and OS/2, are designed for
 two different sets of users, for which there is very little overlap. This
 doesnt stop Microsoft and IBM from marketing and selling their products
 to the others sets of users, but so far it's been mostly a futile
 exercise for both. The only warring there is to speak of is over the
 small group of users who sit in the middle ground where both Windows and
 OS/2 might be an equally good solution for them. This group is much
 smaller than people like to admit.

 Let's look at Windows 95 first. Just what is Windows 95, aside from lots
 of advertising dollars and marketing hype? What is it and what is it
 designed to do? Way back in April of '94, Microsoft released some-thing
 called the Chicago Reviewer's Guide. In it, there are four points that
 form the basis for much of how Windows 95 is designed:

 *  Compatibility with existing DOS-based and Windows-based applications
 *  Compatibility with existing hardware
 *  Performance equal or better than of Windows 3.1
 *  Safe, hassle-free upgrade and migration

 Given that these are the guiding principles, one can deduce several
 things about the target market.

 *  It's very price sensitive because of the compatibility requirements.
 *  It's geared toward people who dont write their own applications.
 *  It's skewed toward people who dont have a major investment in hardware
 *  It's written for people who are not computer experts and/or dont have an
    expert support staff.

 In a short, its the consumer and SOHO market!

 How does OS/2 fare on these design points? Its compatible with many, but
 not a large majority of DOS-based and Windows-based applications.  Most
 run fine, some run fitfully, and some not at all. OS/2 is fussy about the
 hardware it runs on and generally wont work except on well-known or very
 generic hardware. It demands higher compatibility and supports less
 variety of systems. Under most conditions, running Windows programs in
 OS/2 are slower than in native Windows with adequate hardware resources
 and downright abysmal in minimal configuration. Its meant to be a
 migration tool so that users can run the Windows applications they still
 need while moving over to running native OS/2 applications. The install
 and upgrade process for OS/2 Warp is more cantankerous than Windows and
 requires much more technical expertise if something goes wrong.

 The people OS/2 is targeted for are the people who are not very price
 sensitive because they are willing to buy compatible hardware to make it
 work well. They are willing to write their own applications because there
 are few to choose from. Also, they are either computer experts or have a
 staff of experts on hand to solve their problems. This is medium and big
 business.

 Although it's hard now to find something documenting OS/2's original
 design goals, one can infer some of them from reading the IBM's press
 releases and looking at its design to see what they ended up with.
 Making these into four points, just to match Microsoft's guidelines for
 Windows 95, we have:

 Integrate into the enterprise computing environment
 Provide migration environment for Windows users
 Provide a protected environment for supporting mission critical computing
 applications Provide a multitasking, multithreading, environment for
 client/server applications

 IBM today essentially still owns the enterprise computing environ-ment.
 For better or for worse, if anyone enters the enterprise computing
 market, they have to talk to IBM hardware and IBM software.  OS/2 still
 provides, for desktop operating systems, the most complete and up-to-date
 support of mainframe and enterprise connectivity. Enough of the major
 Windows applications run on it to make it a useful migration or
 compatibility environment for corporations to write their in-house
 client/server and mission critical applications for OS/2 while still
 letting them run their Windows productivity applications. For the moment,
 OS/2's protection is still better than Windows 95's. Corporations care a
 lot more about that than individuals do.

 How does Windows 95 measure up against these criteria? Although Windows
 95 provides several LAN support options, it really doesnt support many
 of the other protocols needed to talk to IBM mainframes without
 connecting to a helping server. Its migration environment is much better
 in that it is Windows. For many corporations, the protection that Windows
 95 gives to applications is inadequate. An errant application needs to do
 less to bring down the system, or worse yet, corrupt data without being
 detected. Finally, because of the Win16 code still remaining in the
 kernel, Windows 95 cant multitask as well as it needs to so as to
 prevent lockouts caused by badly coded or designed applications.

 Windows 95 and OS/2 are both designed to do different things well, and
 they do. People who really need to spend time deciding whether to use
 Windows 95 or OS/2 are people for whom all eight design principles are
 important. For most people, it is immediately obvious that one set of
 four are more important than the other set.  Marketing people who try to
 sell their product to the other set of users face an uphill battle
 because they have to both convince them that the opposite four design
 principles are not as important and also that their own set of design
 principles are more important. It's no surprise that OS/2 has had a
 limited penetration into the home market and that Windows 95, within the
 corporation, has a role mostly outside that of enterprise computing.  It
 makes no sense to say they battled over the PC desktop because they each
 were designed for different, and dissimilar, segments of it.  Its like
 comparing a pickup truck with a sports car. They both have four wheels
 and an engine, ut you would never use a sports car for fixing fences on
 the range, and you wouldnt use a pickup truck in the Daytona 500.

 Herb Chong is the Contributing Editor of WindoWatch.  His reputation as a
 careful and knowledgeable programmer carries over to his lucid written
 presentations. Herb has been a contributing writer for both Windows Sources
 as well as the Cobb Group's Inside Microsoft Windows.


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                 Where is Windows95 in Corporate America?

                    Copyright 1995 by Paul Williamson


 Even though Windows 95 made a triumphant debut, many business users wont
 see it on their desktops at work until the corporate MIS organizations
 first solve many issues.

 This isn't a matter of why corporations arent using Windows 95 as their
 desktop operating system, but really of question of when.  A recent
 survey of corporate MIS mangers indicate that approximately 80% of
 corporations will wait until sometime in the coming year, or later,
 before more than half the desktops will be using Windows 95. In an
 Information Week survey of 75 Information Managers, the majority of
 nearly 50% said they prefer to wait and see because they dont have
 enough information yet to make the monumental decision.  On the other
 hand, many large corporations have already begun the move.  Dow Chemical,
 Chevron and Ford are a few that have started the mass installation or
 will shortly.  Others, like Chase Manhattan Bank, haven't completed the
 data gathering yet, but have committed to the switch.

 Before considering installing Windows 95, or any operating system for
 that matter, a thorough evaluation needs to be completed in several
 areas.  These areas should identify whether or not the operating system
 meets the needs of the end user and the business.  The investigation
 needs to focus upon both technical and business issues.  It may be
 necessary to break the corporation into different disciplines to make the
 decision process easier.  This is especially true for large corporations.
 To start with, you may need to learn some things about these groups -

 What is the technical level of the users?  How many power users will be
 available to act as mentors for the groups? What hardware is currently
 being used? What software is in use? What training resources are
 available? What is their network connectivity requirements? Is remote
 network access to the network needed?

 Once these questions have been answered, then the evaluation can begin
 based on the following criteria:

                Technical Criteria
                Ease of use
                System performance
                Security
                Networking Services and Connectivity Compatibility:
                Hardware and Software
                Desktop Support and Administration Remote Access
                Business Criteria
                Training
                Equipment Needs
                Support Costs
                Migration Costs

 Technical Criteria and Ease of Use

 When evaluating an operating system, you must look at it from both the
 novice users and experienced users perspective.  With Windows 95, an
 additional factor must be taken into account: the comfort level of the
 user with Windows 3.1.  When evaluating this area, the following
 questions should be considered:

 Is the operating system easy to learn?

 Does the operating system provide the most efficiencies for most of the
 users? Is the users interface discoverable?  Does it reveal new
 efficiencies as the user becomes more proficient? Does the operating
 system make it easy for the novice to complete their assigned tasks,
 while maintaining flexibility for the experienced users to customize and
 tailor the way they interact?

 System Performance

 System performance is measured on how the operating system performs
 overall while running a set of broad tasks as well as the ability of
 individual components or sub-systems to perform a narrow set of
 operations.

 There are several suites commercially available which test the ability of
 the operating system.  However, benchmark suites dont necessarily give
 you the whole picture.  Good performance testing requires the use of
 broad, generally accepted benchmarking suites and programs, but these
 need to be augmented with sub-system or low-level tests to indicate how
 well the operating system can support services required by the business
 applications that will be used.  Some of the more common performance
 tests that should be run, will measure the effectiveness of the file I/O
 and printing sub-systems.  Additionally, desktop operating systems need
 to be tested in networked environments to measure the network load and
 I/O throughput, as well as the responsiveness for server functionality,
 if necessary.

 Performance measuring tests need to run on a variety of hardware
 configurations to best determine what the minimum acceptable
 configuration will be.  Also, the results of the tests should be able to
 provide guidelines in developing the standard desktop configuration and
 indicate the necessary additions for the more experienced and/or more
 demanding users.  During the performance evaluation, consider the
 following:

 Does the operating system perform well on a wide variety of
 configurations that are likely to be used in your environment? How well
 does the operating system complete a benchmark test on a given
 configuration? How well does the system perform when connected to a
 network?


 Security

 The need to protect corporate resources from unauthorized access ranks
 pretty high in most organizations.  During the evaluation of the
 operating system, a decision on the level of security required may
 immediately eliminate some operating systems from contention.  Most
 organizations should find the security built into Windows 95 to be more
 than adequate.  For those situations where a higher level of security is
 needed, such as Class C2 as authored by the United States Department of
 Defense (DOD), then Windows NT may be the operating system of choice.

 As you evaluate the operating system protection and security aspects,
 consider these questions:

 How well can a PC's data be secured against those with physical access to
 the machine? How well are server-based resources protected by the desktop
 operating systems security integration with the network? How well are
 locally shared resources secured on the network? Is there the capability
 to record both PC and network events to allow administrators to perform
 security audits and trace security breaches?

 Networking Services and Connectivity

 In most corporate environments, it is extremely important for an
 operating system to be able to provide network support for a broad range
 of clients.  If the operating system can support connectivity in a
 heterogeneous environment, it will be distinguished from all the others.
 Corporate users not only demand support for internetworking capability,
 but require that the operating system support industry-wide standards to
 prevent reliance upon a single vendor to support a multi-vendor
 environment.  While evaluating the networking capabilities, you should
 consider these questions:

 Is the operating system an open and layered networking architecture that
 will allow you to mix components from different sources at each layer?

 Does the operating system have built-in, native support for your
 networks?

 Does the operating system support a wide range of transports
 and protocols?

 Even more than you are currently using, to provide for
 future growth and expansion?

 Does the operating system provide a common, easy to use and consistent
 user interface for accessing the network and networking services and
 resources?

 Does the operating system support an open architecture to allow third
 party and other NOS vendors to easily integrate and add networking
 connectivity enhancements and/or application support?

 Compatibility: Hardware and Software

 Many organizations have invested large amounts of money in their
 applications, desktop systems, printers, modems, and other peripheral
 hardware. When you need to replace your existing operating system, a key
 question that needs to be answered in, "Can my company continue to use
 our existing applications and hardware?"  Also, as the company grows, so
 will the hardware and software needs.  The choice of an operating system
 should not restrict the anticipated growth with limited driver support.
 It must provide the capability to add new hardware to the existing
 environment.

 When examining device support of an operating system, consider the number
 of devices supported, the industry standards that the operating system
 supports, and the compatibility for using existing device drivers shipped
 with earlier operating systems or with devices themselves.

 As you evaluate the device and application support in an operating
 system, consider these questions:

 Does the operating system provide broad device support for existing
 hardware and associated MS-DOS- and Windows-based device drivers in use
 today?

 Does the operating system easily recognize, install, and configure
 devices?

 Does the operating system support running existing MS-DOS- or
 Windows-based applications as well as MS-DOS 6.x or Windows 3.1?

 Does the operating system allow easy exchange information between
 applications or support advanced inter-application communication
 mechanisms?

 Does the operating system provide services for new types of applications
 such as, multimedia, remote access, and communications-related
 applications?


 Desktop Support and Administration

 Medium and large businesses invest tens of thousands of dollars each
 year, not only on the hardware and software for new and existing computer
 systems, but also for system setup and administration.  So far, there is
 little consistency and almost no integration among available tools for
 managing and administering PCs in a networked environment.

 Standards organizations are now working to simplify the management
 scenario by developing standard ways for managing PCs.  These standards
 will mean better and more integrated management tools for the network
 administrator.  To reap any benefits, however, an administrator must
 choose an operating system that supports management mechanisms adhering
 to existing standards or one with an infrastructure designed for
 adaptability to a new standard.

 As you examine the support for manageability or administration of a
 desktop operating system, consider these questions:

 Does the operating system provide the tools and platform infrastructure
 for supporting existing industry standard management mechanisms such as
 SNMP, and provide the flexibility for supporting future standards such as
 DMI?

 Does the operating system provide tools and mechanisms for MIS
 organizations and administrators to customize and control the
 functionality and capabilities on the desktop?

 Does the operating system provide support for administering or managing
 the desktop PC remotely over a network?


 Remote Access

 To realize seamless mobility, you must be able to easily communicate and
 remain productive, whether you are in the office, at a customer site, or
 at home.  You must be able to communicate with coworkers and clients
 regardless of their location, and your transitions between home computer,
 portable computer and office computer must not interrupt your workflow.
 Support for mobility services as part of the operating system ensures
 tight integration and connectivity between portable computer and desktop
 PCs, allowing minimal interruption from real work as you switch from one
 location and/or computer to another.

 As you evaluate the operating system support for mobile services,
 consider these questions:

 Does the operating system support remote access to the key services or
 information you need on your corporate network? Does the operating system
 have robust support for the dynamic nature of mobile hardware, such as
 PCMCIA, power management, and docking stations?

 Business Criteria (Cost and Requirements)

 Training requirements
 Equipment requirements
 Anticipated support cost
 Migration cost


 Training

 End-user training and support training help ensure effective use of any
 product.  A products features and intuitiveness, however, can determine
 what and how much training is necessary.

 As you evaluate an operating systems training requirements, consider
 these questions:

 Does the operating system present any new features that may be difficult
 to use or support? Does the operating system offer on-line help to
 provide answers to common questions? Does the operating system offer
 tools that will help your support staff resolve end-user issues? What
 changes will be evident, but not intuitive?

 Equipment Requirements

 Stated system requirements are usually the minimum supported environment,
 which will normally not meet the needs of most large businesses. As you
 evaluate operating system equipment requirements, consider these
 questions:

 What are the recommended minimum system requirements?
 What is your current configuration of desktop or laptop systems?
 Can the systems be upgraded?

 Support Costs

 Support costs related to a operating system are often a byproduct of
 trainingor the lack of it. Adequate training costs money, but it can
 diminish support costs.

 As you evaluate anticipated operating system support, consider these
 questions:

 Does the operating system present any new features that may be difficult
 to  support?

 Does the operating system offer tools that will help support staff
 resolve end-user issues?

 Are advanced documentation or support tools available to reduce problem
 research time?

 Migration Costs

 Migration costs usually involve upgrading current equipment and
 installing the new software.  In large organizations, these cost can be
 significant. It has been estimated that upgrading some of todays desktop
 system to meet the needs of the user and support Windows 95 may run as
 high as $700 per PC.  However, the Gartner Group has suggested that these
 migration costs should be recoverable within a year due to lower support
 costs.

 As you evaluate the migration cost of an operating system, consider these
 questions:

 Does the operating system lend itself to an automated installation procedure?
 What is the cost to upgrade the current standard machines to the
 operating system requirements? What is the cost of the products? If manual
 installation is necessary, how long does it take?

 The close ties between Windows 95 and Windows NT may cause some companies
 not to consider Windows 95 at all, but wait until the next major version
 of NT and install the NT Workstation.  They also may decide to employ a
 test group scenario of Windows 95 users and see what develops.  Whatever
 the corporation decides, it is inevitable that the desktop user will
 eventually be using Windows 95 or Windows NT.  The IS managers today,
 have their jobs cut out for them in evaluating these two operating
 systems and planning for the implementation of one or the other or both.
 The decision isn't whether or not to move on to a new operating system,
 the decision is when can we move on and what will it take to get us
 there.

 Paul Williamson in an on-site consultant for Chase Manhattan Bank. He
 serves on the Editorial Board of WindoWatch and is a regular contributor.
 Paul is a well known DOS and Windows expert and can be found on a variety
 of networks. He can be reached at 72611,1543@compuserve.com or
 Paul_Wmson@msn.com


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  Programming Notes                                    A WindoWatch feature



                         Window Aspect: A Scripting Language
                         A Tutorial: Part Six Ghost BBS v3.20
                            Copyright 1995 by Gregg Hommel


 I want to digress in this column from our discussions on using an INI
 file, to that of a problem that I ran into recently with GHOST BBS 3.21
 alpha. The actual problem and it's solution are not the point, but how I
 discovered what the problem was and what represented its solution, I
 think you will find interesting . The point of the discussion rests in
 the theory and practice that were used to uncover the problem, and then
 fix it.  It is this information that can be quite valuable to you when
 scripting, and, in my opinion, makes this column worthwhile....

 I had modified some code in GHOST BBS as Im working on 3.21 alpha,
 to improve the functioning and speed of opening and closing DOS doors. My
 original GHOST BBS 3.10/3.20 code had several pauses placed in it, to
 allow the modem time to get set, or so I thought. I wanted to test that
 theory, and lower or eliminate, those pauses to make opening and closing
 a door faster.

 At first, it appeared that no pauses at all were needed. I had eliminated
 them, and GHOST opened and closed the DOS doors on my system without any
 problems, - until I threw Adaptive Answer and fax into the mix!

 You see, before I released GHOST 3.20, I had never actually tested
 GHOST'S use with Adaptive Answer enabled for incoming fax calls myself.
 I couldn't because I didn't have a fax modem. My venerable old ZOOM 9600
 Turbo was doing just fine, and in truth, I didn't want to have a fax on
 my computer. But my GHOST beta sites wanted Adaptive Answer, so I wrote
 the code, without testing it myself, and let them do it for me.  Never
 will I do that again! Even so, Adaptive Answer support didn't turn out to
 be all that complicated, and eventually, we got it working.

 The GHOST 3.20 users along with beta sites were asking if I planned on
 adding fax back functionality to GHOST 3.20!  No way was I going to write
 such code without a fax modem.  In the shareware world one simply can't
 ignore the vox populi.  The obvious solution  was the purchase of  a fax
 modem that supported Adaptive Answer to test GHOST current and future
 features .. and so I did <sigh>.

 It turned out that DOS doors appeared to function perfectly without any
 PAUSE commands in the code, when Adaptive Answer was not functioning.
 However, the same could not be said of the doors when it was enabled.
 Their operation became inconsistent, and unreliable which sent me looking
 for the cause....

 I noticed that when I opened a door from a remote site, with Adaptive
 Answer enabled, I never saw when Adaptive Answer was disabled.  I kept
 seeing, on the remote screen, a string that that made me certain that
 GHOST was not sending.  The string ATS0=0, which, if you know Hayes modem
 commands, is one that turns off autoanswer in the modem.

 This really confused me, as I knew that in my PCP/Win set up, that string
 location was empty, i.e. there was nothing stored there,  that GHOST was
 not sending the string, and finally, PCP/Win 2.xx does not use the S0
 register to control autoanswer, the string I was seeing was completely
 useless.

 However, I do know enough about modems to know that if you send such a
 string to the modem, while carrier is high, i.e. while on-line, whatever
 comm application you are using is going to see the drop in carrier that
 sending the string will cause. The communications applications will
 decide that you have gone off-line. Indeed, in order to avoid just such a
 situation in GHOST, when the modem port is switched back to your real
 port after a door is opened, GHOST sets the modem initialization string
 to null, and uses it's own internal strings whenever the modem needs to
 be initialized.

 When this string appeared on the remote screen, it was not too terribly
 difficult to determine that it came after GHOST had switched the current
 modem port to NONE.  The logic here is that if the string came before
 that, the modem port would still be the active one, and there would be a
 carrier drop, which GHOST would notice, and handle as if the user had
 logged off.  Ergo, the string had to be sent after GHOST had changed the
 comm port to NONE. This made me suspect that it had something to do with
 that switch, and the fact that the modem port was not changed from the
 real port, and still saw autoanswer as being on.

 If this ATS0=0 string appeared on my remote screen before the door had
 actually opened, i.e. while GHOST was dropping to DOS and running the BAT
 file to start the door, there was no problem. The door opened, and
 everything worked properly. However, there was absolutely no consistency
 when this string actually appeared at the remote end (i.e. was sent to
 the fax side of the modem on the host end). It might appear anywhere from
 1 second, to 10 or 12 seconds after the modem port was switched to NONE
 and  it was the latter that was the problem. If the ATS0=0 string was
 sent to the modem when the door had control of the comm port, it saw the
 dropped carrier, assumed the remote had lost it while in the door, and
 returned control to GHOST.

 I most certainly did not want to use a PAUSE of 10 or 12 seconds on the
 off chance that such a long pause was necessary, but I also did not want
 this problem to go on. The obvious solution was to find out where the
 ATS0=0 was coming from, change the PCP/Win set up to eliminate it, and
 then add the code to GHOST to modify that setting when GHOST was running.

 This turned out to be far more difficult than it looked. I checked
 everywhere in PCP/Win set up for such a string. I looked at PW2.INI, and
 even went so far as to look at my PW2.PRM file in a hex editor to see if
 I could locate where it was set.  Nothing!  Nowhere! Nada!

 While all this had been going on for me, I had been discussing my
 difficulties with Paul Heim on CompuServe.  Paul is a first class script
 writer, and a bulldog when it comes to problems. We discussed what was
 happening back and forth, and when I finally could not find anywhere that
 this was set up in PCP/Win, Paul asked me what FAXMON said.

 I hate to say this, but I couldn't answer, for the simple reason that I
 had totally forgotten that FAXMON.EXE was even in my \PROWIN2 directory,
 and that it could be used to monitor commands, etc. sent to the fax
 modem. Paul suggested that I run Faxmon in its Transaction Spy mode, and
 do nothing more than initialize the fax modem, but to be prepared for a
 surprise....

 I am afraid that Paul's warning was not strong enough... I wasn't just
 surprised... I was shocked! My fax init string in PCP/Win setup was a
 simple AT&K3^M,  that is, to turn on hardware flow control. Indeed, this is the string put there by PCP/Win when I installed the fax modem, and seemed to make sense. As a result, I expected to see that init string sent to the fax when I checked the report in FAXMON.

 Well, the init string was indeed there but, it was number seven out of a
 total of nine strings sent to the modem when the fax was initialized!
 Nowhere in PCP/Win setup did those other eight strings appear....

 Some time ago, when my eldest daughter was three or four years old, she
 used to like to drive. She would sit on my lap to she could see out the
 windshield, steer the car, shift the gears, and drive around town. Of
 course, we were parked at the time and the keys were not in the ignition
 but in my pocket.  The steering wheel moved a fraction of an inch because
 it was locked without the ignition on, and the gear shift required her to
 push a button to move it, -- a button positioned out of the reach of her
 tiny hands. She thought she was driving, but in reality, I had complete
 control of the car, and she had none.

 After running FAXMON, and initializing the fax modem, I began to feel
 like a three year old driving the car.  I had the illusion of control,
 but in reality, had none at all! Of course, the conclusion became
 inescapable.  If PCP/Win, unknown to me, was sending a total of nine init
 strings to the fax modem, was it not logical that PCP/Win might also be
 sending that silly and useless ATS0=0 string, without either my knowledge
 or any control of the string on my part?

 Sure enough, running FAXMON clearly showed the string ATS0=0 was being
 sent to the modem each and every time I switched the modem port from the
 real port to NONE.  It was not of my doing, and nowhere in PCP/Win could
 I configure things to stop it from doing this. I had already realized
 that PCP/Win would send the modem init string out when I switched the
 port back from NONE to the real port, and was able to prevent this by
 setting the modem init string to a null. But I could not do anything
 similar to stop the ATS0=0 from being sent.

 I was one frustrated script writer! That silly, and absolutely useless
 ATS0=0 string was preventing my script from functioning as it should, and
 I could do nothing to stop it from being sent.

 Or so I thought then.  Luckily, like Paul, I tend to be something of a
 bulldog.  When I calmed down, I began to wonder if that string was
 being sent because somehow, PCP/Win still saw the fax modem as being on
 the real comm port, and it had autoanswer turned on. Even though it was
 useless, PCP/Win was sending the autoanswer off Hayes command in that
 situation. Perhaps some code left behind from before PCP/Win handled
 autoanswer the way it does now was never removed because the developer
 didn't think it important or that it would hurt anything?

 In any case, it appeared fairly obvious that I had to turn off autoanswer so that the string would not be sent, and my doors would
 therefore, never see it. Obvious, but not that simple.....

 The logical place to do this, was immediately after GHOST had determined
 that a connection (data) was made, and a user was online. So, following
 that logic, I inserted a simple set autoanswer off command in that spot
 in the script.  Nothing happened. FAXMON did not show that autoanswer was
 disabled for the fax, and indeed, if I did a fetch on autoanswer after
 issuing the command, the result showed autoanswer still set to data and
 fax.  What now?

 There were at least two other places where this command would also work,
 or so I thought. I tried the same command in these places with exactly
 the same results - none!  Now, I really was getting confused. Why wasn't
 the set autoanswer off command working? What was going on??

 Test script time... first one, a simple one, like this...

 proc main
   set autoanswer datafax
   pause 5
   set autoanswer off
 endproc

 I compiled and ran the script and it seemed to work. When it started,
 FAXSTAT began running, and showed autoanswer enabled. When it stopped,
 FAXSTAT showed autoanswer disabled, and PCP/Win setup showed autoanswer
 set to Off. So that didn't help until I remembered what might be
 different when GHOST was running.  By the time GHOST knows that a user is
 online, and thus, can safely set autoanswer off, carrier is high on the
 modem.

 Time for another test script, this one a little more complicated, to
 test the command with carrier high.....

 proc main
   set autoanswer datafax
   pause 5
   transmit "AT&C0^M"
   if not waitfor "OK" 8
      statmsg "Carrier change not sent"
   endif
   pause 2
   if $carrier
      statmsg "Carrier high"
   else
      statmsg "Carrier low"
   endif
   pause 5
   set autoanswer off
   transmit "AT&C1^M"
   pause 5
 endproc

 Whoops!  Again, FAXSTAT began running as it should when the script began,
 and indeed showed that autoanswer was enabled. BUT! And this is a big
 one.  This time, when the script stopped running, FAXSTAT still showed
 autoanswer enabled, and so did PCP/Win setup! The set autoanswer off
 command had, as in GHOST, done nothing. PCP/Win had ignored it!

 Logic again.... obviously, set autoanswer has no effect when carrier
 is high. I tested all possible set autoanswer commands and none of them
 worked if carrier was high. Solution! I had to turn autoanswer off before
 carrier went high. Problem! In order to allow the use of Adaptive Answer,
 GHOST does not take over and do anything until such time as a CONNECT
 message is received, i.e. the call is a data call, and  by then, carrier
 is already high.

 I was stymied, but couldn't stop thinking about it. Then it hit me....
 when a user goes to open a DOS door, GHOST switches the port from the
 real port, to NONE. When it does so, THERE IS NO CARRIER ANY LONGER!

 Could I insert the command right after the port switch, and have it take
 effect before PCP/Win decided to send that silly ATS0=0 to the fax side?
 Since the earliest I had seen that ATS0=0 string appear was approximately
 one second AFTER the port switch, maybe, just maybe, it would work.

 And guess what ?  It did!! As soon as the data modem is switched to NONE,
 carrier drops, and the set autoanswer off command turns autoanswer off.
 And this happens before PCP/Win decides that it is going to send the
 ATS0=0 string to the fax side. That string is no longer seen on the
 remote end, and no longer interferes with door operations.

 What can we learn from this?

 1) Use every tool available to you when debugging a script. Don't just
 use the obvious, but look to tools that may not appear to have any use.
 One never knows. In my case, the forgotten FAXMON was the tool that
 eventually gave me the lead to the solution. Had Paul not mentioned it, I
 might still be struggling with the problem .

 2) Do not always assume that it is your coding that is causing a
 problem.  Review your code carefully, but if you still can't see anything that might be causing the problem, try looking elsewhere for a cause.  Don't trust any application. It may be doing something stupid and senseless like PCP/Win does by sending an ATS0=0 string to the modem. Just as startling is that string means absolutely nothing, since the S0 register isn't used under PCP/Win 2.xx.

 If your code looks solid to you, try looking elsewhere for the problem, using whatever tools you have available to track it down.

 3) Don't trust the Wasp manuals to tell you everything.  Nowhere in
 those manuals is there a mention that SET AUTOANSWER does not function if
 carrier is high on the modem port even though this is, indeed, the case.
 Do not expect that all SET commands will function as you want/expect them
 to, under all conditions.

 4) When you have a problem with your code not working as expected, don't
 always look for a problem that is logical or makes sense. PCP/Win sending
 a useless "ATS0=0" string to the modem is illogical, and makes no sense,
 but it was the cause of my problem. I suspect that, in most cases, if the
 cause of a problem was logical and/or made sense, it wouldn't be a
 problem. Don't forget to look for the stupid and illogical when hunting
 down a cause for a problem.

 5) DON'T GIVE UP EASILY! Some problems are easily solved. Others take
 time and effort, but can generally be solved, - just not as quickly. If
 you give up too easily, you may not find that solution, and may thus,
 abandon code that might be useful to yourself and others. Hang in
 there... it may be frustrating, and nerve wracking, but it also may pay
 off in the end.

 6) If you are having a problem that you can't seem to solve, ask others
 for their help. None of us knows everything there is a lot to know about
 Wasp, or, for that matter, anything else. If you can't find a solution,
 someone else may have run into a similar problem, and that experience
 could be useful to your situation. If nothing else, just talking about
 things can sometimes crystallize your own thoughts to the point where the
 solution becomes clearer, or even, obvious. Ask, and believe it or not,
 sometimes you just might receive! <G>

 Enough for now.... I know we were going to continue discussing INI
 format files, and their uses, but this problem came up, and I wanted to
 discuss it here while it was still fresh in my mind. Next column, we'll
 go back to INI files.....

 Gregg Hommel is a much respected Aspect script writer and programmer. He
 is well known on the various nets hosting any number of conferences.
 Gregg sits on our Editorial Board. Comments concerning this or earlier
 tutorials can be directed to him as gregg.hommel@canrem.com



                                     ww





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                    Procomm for Windows Internet Tools


                 Procomm for Windows v2.11 - Another Look!

                     Copyright 1995 by  Phil Leonard



 If you're like most people,  it seems just yesterday when you bought
 Procomm Plus For Windows 2.0 and you coughed up a half of a months rent
 for it.  It looked like a good investment at the time! Who dreamed
 computing would change so rapidly that a lot of Procomms features would
 soon be obsolete. If you are like me, you have been spending more and
 more time on the Internet and less and less time with Procomm.

 Datastorm, the producers of Procomm Plus for Windows, must feel much the
 same as well.  In the latest Procomm upgrade to V2.11, they have  added
 three applications for use when you connect to the Internet. In this
 article, I will show you how to upgrade from version 2.0 to 2.11, and how
 to setup and use these applications: Telnet, FTP, and Ping.

 This article assumes you already have the ability to connect to the
 Internet via PPP/SLIP with your Internet Provider.  It is beyond the
 scope of this article to explain all of these intricacies here. They will
 be a subject covered in a future article.  I am also assuming you have
 Procomm Plus For Windows 2.0 or above and Windows 3.1 or above.

 If you have not upgraded from Version 2.0 to 2.11, you will need to get
 the patch first. The name of the file to retrieve is PW211.EXE which can
 be found on the Internet at ftp.cica.indiana.edu in directory
 /pub/pc/win3/patches/pw211.exe. It is also available at the home of
 WindoWatch,  Channel1 BBS 617-354-2505,  in File Directory #3. Once you
 have the patch, it is easy to upgrade. Just put PW211.exe in your
 C:\PROWIN2 directory with File Manager. Quit Windows and change
 directories to C:\PROWIN2. (CD\PROWIN2 enter) Then type in PW211 enter.
 Next type UPDATE enter. Thats all there is to it. And restart Windows.

 PW-FTP

 Go ahead and start Procomm. Be sure your copy is upgraded to version 2.11
 by pressing ALT-F10. It should say Version 2.11 February 17, 1995. Click
 on the Tools Menu (Or ALT-T) and  you will notice that there is a new menu
 item called FTP CLIENT.  You can also use PW-FTP separately with it's own
 icon.

 If you were to click on FTP CLIENT, here's what you would see.  Notice on
 the left of the screen where your local file directory shows.  On the
 right side of the screen, the remote host's file directory will show up
 when connected.

 Now to add an address, you will select FILE | CONNECTION DIRECTORY or
 click the FTP Book Icon.  This opens the CONNECTION DIRECTORY shown
 below.

 Press the ADD button. I have filled in the appropriate entries needed to
 connect with the Channel1 BBS,  home of WindoWatch. You can choose any
 name for the NAME field but you must enter the proper address for the
 HOST/IP field.  Channel1s FTP address is ftp.channel1.com. You can also
 add the host directory you want PW-FTP to start in when you first
 connect.  In most cases you will select anonymous logon, unless of course
 it is password protected. Your home page address is an example of a
 location requiring a password.

 Finally, it is time to connect. After you connect with your Internet
 Provider, open PW-FTP and select an entry from the RAPID CONNECT menu. If
 you press on the arrow and select an item, it will automatically try to
 establish a connection.

 PW-TELNET

 Setting up Procomm with a Telnet Connection is actually just as easy as
 adding a new modem. In this case, we do not have to add a modem. It is
 called a DIRECT CONNECTION.  First we need to open SETUP | DATA MODEM
 /CONNECTION.  It should look something like the following:

 Now Press the button titled Install New Modem or Connection.
 For this new connection, be sure that your modem entry says DIRECT
 CONNECT and your PORT selection is TELNET  NETWORK CONNECTION.   You have
 just added a new telnet connection. Press OK and get back to the main
 screen. Now you have an additional connection for telnet. To test that
 everything is working properly, press your mouse pointer on the QUICK
 SELECT LINE at the bottom of the screen where your modem shown. You
 should see a pop up list with DIRECT CONNECT-TELNET. Select it and a
 screen should pop up requesting an address to connect to.


 We can now go a step further and add commonly used addresses to the
 ADDRESS BOOK just as if we were calling a local BBS.  In place of the
 DATA NUMBER you will enter the TELNET address you want to connect to.
 Open the DIALING DIRECTORY from the FILE menu or click on the OPEN BOOK
 icon.  An example of the DIALING DIRECTORY follows:

 Press the ADD button to add a new TELNET address.  Enter any name that
 you want in the NAME FIELD. Enter a valid TELNET address in the DATA
 NUMBER FIELD. For Channel1, the address would be bbs.channel1.com. Press
 the drop down list in the CONNECTION FIELD and choose DIRECT
 CONNECT-TELNET. Select the OK button to finish.

 If everything is set up properly now, you can just double click the RAPID
 DIAL DATA field when connecting on the Internet just as you would calling
 a local BBS. What's more, all of your basic Aspect scripts still work the
 same as when dialing into your local BBS. I merely copied my scripts,
 changed the names and changed the directory number to accommodate the
 Internet connections.

 PING

 During your upgrade of Procomm Plus For Windows 2.0 to 2.11, or in 2.11
 if that was the package you bought, you will find a program that does not
 show up in the menu list or in the installed icon group. DSPING.EXE. If
 you do not already have an icon setup for this, set one up now. For Win3,
 in program manager,  select the Procomm group and add the Ping program.
 In Win95, add the shortcut. To use Datastorm's Ping, merely load it up
 and enter the address of your Internet provider while you on line and it
 will return a response based on it's findings.

 Phil Leonard is a Systems Administrator and Accounting Controller. He is
 the latest to be added to the WindoWatch list of contributing writers. He
 can be reached at pleonard@cybercom.net

                                      ww




        *               *               *               *               *



  Qmodem Pro for Windows '95                               A Product Review:


                   Test Driving Qmodem Pro for Windows '95

                     copyright 1995 by John M. Campbell

 Mustang Software claims to have the first full-feature communications
 program for Windows 95. That may well be true, since QmodemPro
 for Windows 95 became available in a timed edition during late July of 1995.  This edition will expire on September 15, but the regular edition of the program became available in late August.

 This is not a comparison of features review, since I haven't used any
 other Windows communication program.  Qmodem Pro (for DOS) served me well
 in the past, even under Windows 3.1.  But that situation is about to
 change, thanks to QMPro 95's Telnet performance.

 I have seldom used Telnet utilities because most such programs lack the
 standard BBS file transfer protocols, making it impossible to easily
 transfer files without firing up a FTP utility.  But QmPro 95 makes its
 full arsenal of protocols available for Telnet connections.  These
 include ASCII, Zmodem, Kermit, CIS B, and the usual assortment of both
 Xmodem and Ymodem flavors.  Also in its favor, the program makes setting
 up a Telnet connection easy.  Since it was it's Telnet capability that
 drew me to try the program, I'll start with this feature.

 Settings for each BBS are made from the Phonebook window.  Right-clicking
 an entry, then Properties, brings up a Connection dialog.  Using Channel 1
 BBS as an example, one would enter Channel 1 Telnet under System Name,
 BBS.Channel1.com for the Primary Number, and Connect Using Telnet.
 That's all there is to it.

 Now, start a PPP connection to your Internet provider, and dial the
 Channel 1 Telnet entry.  On one attempt, I was able to establish a 24000
 PPP connect to Compu-serve, then Telnet to Channel 1 and down-load a QWK
 message packet from the Qmail Door at a through put of better than 1700
 cps.  This was using QmPro's Zmodem protocol.  (I had set my default
 Qmail Door protocol to Telnet Zmodem.)  But on a later attempt, the
 throughput dropped  to 600 cps.  BBS Telnet transfers aren't yet as
 dependable as those obtained via a direct modem connection.

 QmPro 95 has all of the bells and whistles one would expect from a
 full-featured communications package.  There are no fewer than 33
 Terminal emulations.  These should cover just about every possible
 connection.  In case they don't, as many as 256 key  reassignments are
 possible for each emulation.  The program features a powerful scripting
 language and a macro system that can be used to perform many functions.
 QmPro 95 supports both the messaging application program interface
 (MAPI), and TAPI.  The former allows the user to send mail, text or
 graphics from the terminal window directly to mail applications such as
 Microsoft Exchange.  The TAPI feature allows controlled sharing of
 application access  to the modem so that it is not necessary to close one
 communication application be-fore opening another. The package also
 supports OLE 2.0, so phone-book entries can be dragged from the phonebook
 to the Win95 desktop for instant access.

 QmPro 95 also has a neat feature that makes it easier to download
 files from a BBS listing. A file clipboard has been added, to which you
 can simply drag filenames - right from the terminal window listing!
 Then, after you have captured everything you want to retrieve, and have
 the BBS prompt to enter filenames for download, just click on a Send Now
 button.  The selected file names will be returned to the terminal screen.
 And, for uploads, filenames can be dragged from Windows Explorer into the
 clipboard.  No more typing filenames!

 There are still more features. The program supports RIP graphics for
 those BBSes that use this interface; there is a free-standing text
 editor; and there is even a GIF/BMP/JPG file viewer, so you can view
 images while they down load. Users of other popular comm programs will
 have an easy time converting their phone-books.  QmPro 95 has a utility
 that automates the conversion of entries from a variety of popular
 competing programs, and from other Mustang packages, such as QmPro for
 DOS and Windows.  Of course, there is a script learn feature, and a Host
 mode.  In addition, a MD5 feature has been added to permit sending
 encrypted passwords to Internet sites that support this RSA Data
 Security, Inc. algorithm.

 All in all, Qmodem Pro for Windows 95 appears to be a well thought-out
 general communications program.  But for me, the selling feature is the
 ability to easily Telnet to services that until now meant a long-distance
 call.



           Qmodem Pro for Windows 95    ($69 + $10 s&h: after 9/95 $129.)
           Mustang Software, Inc.       (Upgrade from earlier version $49+s&h)
           P.O. Box 2264
           Bakersfield, CA  93303-2264
           800-663-7512 (inside the U.S.)  805-873-2599 (Fax)

 John M. Campbell is a WindoWatch regular bringing his wit and skill to a
 variety of computer related subjects. He is the manager of the Elkins,WV
 West Virginia Unemployment Compensation Office.

                                     ww




        *               *               *               *               *







 A Unique View of 95


                               Derek Discusses '95
                         Copyright 1995 by Derek Buchler

 Microsoft Windows 95 Stuns World
 Redmond, Wash (AP) - Fans and detractors of the long-awaited Microsoft
 Windows 95 have been stunned and amazed by the incredible events
 surrounding the August 24 release. Windows 95 has been hailed by industry
 giant Pierson Holcombe Pewter as "the most advanced operating  system
 ever produced."  But even he could not have predicted yesterday's events.

 It began when peace was declared in Bosnia.  Said Ahmad G'Hui,
 spokesperson for the Serbs, "Now that Windows 95 has been released, we
 just don't see any reason to fight each other.  This is an amazing
 product."

 Then France announced its intention to stop all testing of nuclear
 weapons. "We used to think that our national boundaries were of utmost
 import.  To safeguard them, it was necessary to continue testing
 [nuclear weapons]," said Jacques Fenetre of the French government. "The
 Microsoft Network (tm) has changed all of that.  It's such a small
 planet!"

 On the other side of the "small planet", George Bush and Saddam Hussein
 met face-to-face for the first time.  After a tense greeting, they
 started sharing notes about their experiences as Windows 95 beta-testers.
 Soon the two lifelong enemies were laughing and chatting like old
 friends. In a startling display of candor, Hussein said  If I hadn't
 been so frustrated with the beta, I'd have backed off from Kuwait much
 sooner. Bush laughed and commiserated with Hussein, saying,  Well,
 Saddam, I told you it'd be released eventually, all you had to do was
 wait. Hey!  Let's play some FreeCell!"

 Oil prices dropped as OPEC transferred their accounting software to the
 new platform.  Loggers in the United States' Pacific Northwest turned
 their axes in for spades after seeing a Microsoft Video of spotted owls
 using Windows 95.  In an economic shocker, the Peso reversed its downward
 spiral due to huge Windows 95 sales in Acapulco and Mexico City.

 On the health front, Hildegard Wicca, a housewife in Boston, MA, reported
 that Windows 95 has removed her facial warts.  "I sat down in front of
 the computer, pressed 'Start', and felt something odd on my face.  When I
 looked in a mirror, my warts were gone!"  Even more amazing is the story
 of Mark Cense, the Los Alamos man who was reported last week as having an
 incurable, fatal form of cancer.  His doctors  were amazed yesterday
 when, after simply buying Windows 95 at the local Computer Universe
 store, his cancer went into remission.

 When asked for a comment on these almost miraculous events, Microsoft's
 Bill Gates, recently declared to be the richest man in the United States,
 replied "If you think this is good, just wait until you see Windows 97!"

 Reports that China's release of dissident Harry Wu was contingent on his
 returning with "as many copies of Windows 95 as he can carry" are
 unconfirmed at this time.

 SEATTLE (AP) -- Researchers are scrambling to isolate a particularly
 virulent strain of virus following nationwide outbreaks over the past
 few days that have felled scores of computer users. The virus -- termed
 Winfluenza late-95 -- was first reported on August 24 at a clinic near
 Redmond, Washington.  Scientists are stumped, however, by its  near
 simultaneous appearance across most of the United States, particularly
 around large population centers. Dr. Srinivasa Upasani of the Center for
 Disease Control in Atlanta noted that  "the population most particularly
 at risk would appear to be relatively naive computer users, particularly
 those unduly susceptible to media influence and hyperbole".  Symptoms
 reportedly include severe headache, muscle ache, blurred vision,
 increased blood pressure, and in severe cases, lacerations incurred
 during uncontrollable muscle spasms that typically result in destruction
 of the victims personal computer.

 Emergency rooms, which received a flood of stricken individuals over the
 weekend, report that victims tend to be incoherent and unable to control
 bodily functions.  ER technician Nate Williams, who has dealt with a
 number of Winfluenza cases, observed, "those dudes are hurtin, I dont
 know what would do that to a person, but man I dont want no part of it"!
 Officials are following up on reports that the virus may have been
 purposely spread through infected software packages.  Director Marlene
 Eison of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said, "we are working
 closely with local and state law enforcement officials to ascertain
 whether the Winfluenza virus was the work of a cult". Since the outbreaks
 began August 24, persistent rumors have linked Winfluenza late-95 to an
 obscure cult in upper Washington that follow an enigmatic leader known
 only as Mr. Bill.

 The office of the Washington State Attorney General has reportedly been
 investigating the cult since it became clear that Mr. Bill was bent on
 world domination. The cult allegedly employs hordes of caffeine-addicted
 laborers to craft a varying array of viruses and has been accused of
 using mind control to recruit gullible followers. Microsoff spokesperson,
 Mick Jagger, refused to comment.

 Subject: Microsoft Motors

 Top (N) ways things would be different if Microsoft built cars
 - drumroll, please...

 A particular model year of car wouldn't be available until after that
 year, instead of before.

 Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a  new
 car.

 Occasionally your car would just die for no reason, you'd have to restart
 it.  For some strange reason, you would just accept this.

 You could only have one person at a time in your car, unless you
 bought car '95 or car NT, but then you'd have to buy more seats.

 You would be constantly pressured to upgrade your car.  Wait a sec, it's
 that way NOW! Sun Motorsystems would make a car that was solar powered,
 twice as  reliable, five times as fast, but will only run on 5% of the
 roads.

 The oil, alternator, gas, engine warning lights would be replaced
 with a single "General Car Fault" warning light.

 People would get excited about the new features in Microsoft cars,
 forgetting completely that they had been available in other brands for
 years.

 We would still be waiting on the 6000 sux 58 model to come out.

 We'd all have to switch to Microsoft Gas (tm).

 Lee Iacocca would be hired-on as Bill G.'s chauffeur.

 The US government would be getting subsidies from an automaker, instead
 of giving them.

 New seats will force everyone to have the same size rear end. The size
 would be licensed with royalties due to Microsoft.

 Ford, General Motors and Chrysler would all be complaining because Microsoft
 was putting a radio in all its models.

 Derek Buchler is a computer manager-administrator in the private sector.
 An early WindoWatch contributor, we're delighted to welcome him back.
 Several of these gems appeared briefly on the various nets which we are
 reprinting for the benefit of our readers.


                                     ww





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   Stirring the Programming Pot:


                    Computer Programming Without Spaghetti

                     Copyright 1995 by Peter Neuendorffer


 A good computer program must meet a specified need(s), and perform in a
 predictable and dependable fashion. As a programmer starting a new
 project, I spend several days thinking about the problem at hand.  I
 think much less about how I am going to construct the software, as
 opposed to what I want it to accomplish with it. Slowly, I try to
 envision the outlines of my finished project in my head, often scribbling
 notes on a napkin in a coffee shop.

 There are many design tools which play out for making lists or word
 games, but if I don't have an overall vision of the project, I do not
 proceed. There are times when I will jump into a programming project by
 furiously typing from start to finish, pulling an all-nighter and ending
 up with a conglomeration of incantations that purport to do a task. This
 style of writing can work as long as the author -me- doesn't drop dead,
 quit the business, or have a sudden memory loss.

 Such a tangled mass of programming  is affectionately called spaghetti
 code.  It is analogous to an electrician stringing wires every which way
 in a dangerous and tangled heap. All is well until changes are needed, or
 someone else must maintain the system. Side-effects, where one section
 impinges upon or trashes another region, crop up, sometimes not until
 weeks, months, or years after completion.

 When coding programs, programmers use a higher level language that
 shields them from the nuts and bolts of the machine. The machine is
 merely the medium, and must not be the reason for the program. Higher
 level languages are an outside layer, where the Basic Input Output layer
 that does the work is not addressed directly.

 The BIOS is machine dependent - different for different makes of
 computers. DOS and Windows are designed to provide services to the
 programmer to accomplish small tasks. The tasks, such as sorting,
 searching, counting, comparing of words are combined in a logical fashion
 to accomplish the purpose of the program.

 Computer languages are called higher level not because they are better, but because they are closer to normal English than machine code. No one in their right mind would code a large program in machine code, which is barely removed from long strings of ones and zeros.

 Two popular languages were developed for teaching purposes, BASIC, and
 PASCAL and they have stayed on as popular programming languages. C, the
 language of choice among professionals (I use Pascal) allows the
 programmer to do fancy low-level manipulation, and still have the
 structure of the statements in an English-like fashion, or syntax.

 A computer program is a series of data processing cycles. Some operation
 or processing is done on Input data, producing processed Output data.
 Because the instructions may be stored in a program, the processing can
 be performed without the person present who wrote the program. When
 designing a program I often ask "If I fall down a hole and drop dead,
 will the program still be able to do x,y,z?" By presenting the decisions,
 in effect bringing forward some of the processing to the user of my
 program,  I make my program more flexible. The way I present these
 choices, as well as the gateway to put data into the program (Input) and
 the results (Output) is of central importance.

 The presentation of the data is the interface of the program. Windows programming provides a common interface. Many things about a Windows program, such as the style of the menus, are conventions, or things that everybody has agreed upon. We have the convention in social relations of saying "Have a nice day", upon leaving someone, for example.

 It has been said that a well-designed program works the first time.
 This is wishful thinking. One of the benefits of the faster PC is that
 programs can be designed by running them and making changes. Although the
 program may have been freed of syntax -grammar- errors, a program can
 compile into machine language and still not accomplish it's intended
 purpose.

 These logical errors can be devilishly hard to find. Imagine giving the
 instruction to someone "Take the New York train to Maine." This is a
 logically consistent and valid grammar. But the action it commands is
 impossible, and therefore nonsensical.

 Programs may have a variety of differing routines - collections of
 statements to process information at a sub level. They might be
 instructions executed one after another -procedurally. For example, "Get
 up! Turn off the Alarm Clock! Smoke cigarette! Get dressed." Each of
 these verbs "get up", "turn off" could invoke lengthy procedures that
 have their own code. To us, "smoke cigarette" seems self-evident. But try
 writing a list of all the things you do to accomplish smoking a
 cigarette. This is what the programmer is up against. The computer does
 what you tell it to do, if anything at all, and has no problem accessing
 the wrong data if that is what you tell it to do.

 A second structure could be branching. This is performing different
 activities based upon the result of a condition. The computer, when
 making a comparison to see IF something is true, is actually merely
 comparing the values of two numbers to see if they are the same or
 different. An example of IF would be "If it is raining, then wear a
 raincoat, otherwise (it is not raining) wear a sweater."

 A third type of structure could be Looping. Doing something over and
 over until the situation changes. "Skip rope 2000 times." For a computer, this is doing something until a certain number equals, or exceeds a another number. If you are counting the loops, a common disastrous error is to forget to add one to the counter each time the loop iterates. This leads to the common "freeze" where the user is locked out of doing anything. The loop is endless.

 Still another type of structure for instructions is the recursion. This is
 a curious method where half-way through a procedure, the procedure
 invokes itself again. This is used for problems which may be halved and
 where each half of the problem is done again and again.

 These types of structures are used to make algorithms. Algorithms are
 a finite set of steps used to accomplish a particular task. When
 designing your program, you can describe these using Pseudocode.
 Pseudocode is your own English-like language. In effect, a recipe for
 making a cake could be written in Pseudocode to see how it works. The
 ingredients are the data, the preparation represents the Initialization,
 and the steps for making the cake are the instructions.

 You break the project into small detachable modules, such as "make
 batter", "make icing", "cook cake", and "ice the cake." You could put
 this overall structure into a drawing of boxes, that are set up in a
 hierarchy like a family true. This is a program structure chart.

 To get organized, you can set up Input/Process/Output sheets that lists
 the tasks involved in accomplishing a module. Several tasks per sheet are
 used. Then you list the data that goes into each task, the Input, and
 what is produced, and then Output. You don't worry too much about how you
 will accomplish these, just what the tasks are. Each task you break down
 further, having a separate sheet for each. This is called top-down
 design.

 When working with Windows programming, it is possible to set this up
 directly so you see the sections of your program in their design. This is
 called stubbing. The program has all the Windows ready but each doesnt
 actually do anything. They could have dummy labels saying "This is where
 we make the batter" or "This is where we ice the cake." You can then
 flesh out the code so that each task is in it's proper place in relation
 to all the others.

 It is very tempting in programming to have a set of switches that the
 whole program "sees" called globals. That way the entire program can use
 them. When they are true-false switches, they are called control
 variables, or Booleans. But the tradeoff is that you may forget what you
 have set them to in subsection II.A.i somewhere. As this group grows and
 grows, the logic of your program is handed over to these switches, and
 the English-like look of the program is subverted. I like to use these
 globals a lot, but unexpected results can crop up, called side effects.

 Planning a project is very important. An architect does not build a house
 without making plans. But programmers, myself included, eager to hack
 their way into the symbolic world, are often too eager to dispense with
 the design work. Some programs seem to write themselves. But these turn
 out to be ones that have been carefully planned, with self-documenting
 data with meaningful names, and a logical structure that logically
 follows the problem at hand.

 Halfway through writing this article, I realized that I do not spend much
 time filling out design charts and forms. However, I do a lot of this
 unconsciously when I think about my new project, or when I set up the
 names and structures for my data. Since you can name your data variables
 anything you want, it is a good idea to give them meaningful names.  Cake
 ingredients is a much better name than "x".

 Although the compiler program doesn't care about the names you use for
 your data or routines,  -and if it works, it works! However, you will
 certainly care when you go back to the source six months later. If you
 can't understand what on earth the program that you wrote yourself is
 doing, you might as well throw out the project entirely.

 Much of programming involves passing along "magic" routines and even
 whole systems from one application to another, but this must be done in
 an orderly fashion. The programmer should insert copious comments in
 English reminding him/her what the program does. The extra trouble is
 well worth it. Today's brilliant solution can easily be tomorrow's
 antiquated curiosity.


 Peter is a Windows programmer. His home page URL is
 http://www.channel1.com/users/petern. His latest program is a text
 searcher abool20.zip which can be downloaded from his homepage.


                                  ww




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  A WindoWatch Feature


                               IDIOTS-REDUX
                      Copyright 1995 by  Bob Miller

  We have yet another installment of the continuing efforts of computer
  magazine writers to attempt to prove that they know as much about
  computers as your local Shoe Store salesman does.  This is a shorter
  version than usual not because the authors have gotten any better (they
  havent) but because Ive been too busy to read through the pile of
  magazines I have.  Perhaps, I can catch up next month.


  PC Mag. June 27 page 272
  	"De-fragment your hard disk before re-creating your permanent swap
        file to make sure you can create as large a swap file as
        possible."


	'Scuse, please, but 50MB permanent swap files are NOT a good
        thing.  Most people are much better off with a 4MB Permanent Swap
        File.


  From our Idiots Hall of Fame Charter Member - Dvorak.  Same issue, on
  page 89.
  "Plug-and-play.  I'll believe it when I see it."

   Try making your eyes as open as the space between your ears.  Several
   million people think it works fine. Yes, he wrote it before 95 was
   released - but long after the beta copies were showing that it worked
   fine.


  Same Column as Above:
   "Today, 256 colors is ludicrous and 34,000 colors should be the
   default."

  Leaving aside the simple fact that no card ever built shows 34,000
  colors -32768 or 65536 but not 34,000, more than 256 on the average
  office system is downright silly.  Perhaps Dvoraks word processor or
  spreadsheet program needs thousands of colors - mine run quite fine with
  256.  Indeed, most office machines only need 16 colors for efficient
  computing.


  Byte, July, Page 188
   "It is not easy to remove.  Not only is it in WIN.INI, but it also loads
   in AUTOEXEC.BAT."

  Gee, I thought editing Autoexec.bat was something the average Byte
  reader was capable of doing - even with their editor of choice (EDLIN).
  I guess I overestimated the ability of those readers.


  InfoWorld, August 28, Page 3.
  - quoting a Lotus executive who was commenting on SmartSuite not being
  available on August 24 when Win95 was released. . .
  "Seven million units sold... are the guys lining up at CompUSA at
  midnight? I'm not saying those people aren't important to us, but, over
  the long scheme of things, the amount of time we're talking about is not
  strategically significant."

  I wonder just what is "strategically significant" to this birdbrain.
  Office already has an overwhelming percentage of the Windows market.
  Conceding several months of sales of '95 ready applications to them is
  not likely to increase Lotuss tiny percentage of that market very much.
  And, of course, most of those seven million sales went to OEM's who will
  be installing it onto new machines.  I wonder which Suite product those
  users will be buying?  I wonder how many of them can later be persuaded
  to spend hundreds of dollars for a competing product when the one they
  have will do more than they ever ask?


  Same issue.
  Graphite Designs last week unveiled WinClassic, a Windows 95 utility
  that emulates the Windows 3.1 user interface.

  Now there is a real viable product!  People will just have to run out
  and spend bunches of money on a utility to move backwards.  Besides,
  SHELL=PROGMAN.EXE does the same thing for  free.

  Still from the same issue -page 62. This was written by a lawyer..
  "The UCC is a set of laws governing business transactions that has been
  adopted in nearly identical form by all 50 states."

  I'm sure our readers in Louisiana will be interested to learn that.  I
  have to wonder what kind of lawyer can be unaware of the fact that
  Louisiana still follows French law - not English.

  From an older - June 12  issue on page 90.
  "Microsoft must make OS/2 versions of its applications suite."

  And Sega must make cartridges that also fit into Nintendo's.  And Nike
  should allow Michael Jordan to wear Reebocks.  How silly can you get?


  Wall Street Journal, June 21.  -Discussing BBN and its sale of internet
  services to AT&T
  "..now they have 12,000 feet on the street who can recommend them. Under
  the contract, AT&T's 12,000 person sales force............"

  Now I know that AT&T is a firm supporting the American Disability Act
  and goes out of its way to hire handicapped people but I seriously doubt
  that they really have 12,000 salespeople each of whom has only one foot.


  Windows Magazine, August, Page 246.
  Discussing a Boca modem from the review..."Its performance is
  significantly lower.  Over many of the phone lines tested, the device
  yielded poor results.  It has trouble connecting, often doing so at low
  speeds.  Its last place throughput performance score is likely the
  result of poor compression implementation as well as error correction."

  - from the summary box.. "The only right-out-of-the-box solution in this
  group, the Boca comes bundled with great extras like a serial cable and
  port."

  Perhaps the summary box writer and the review writer aren't speaking to
  each other?  Or does an external modem that comes with a serial cable,
  -this is unusual?  - outweigh the terrible performance?


  Same issue, page 210
  "Here is how the new pop-out menu of control panel settings, as
  described above, actually looks on the Start menu and is followed by an
  illustration of its appearance."

  Perhaps this writer works differently than I do, but I really see a very
  limited usefulness for shortcuts to Date-Time, Joystick, Keyboard and
  Regional Settings - among many others of highly limited utility!   Do
  you know anyone who changes his Regional settings so often that he needs
  a shortcut to them? Or the Keyboard?  Get real!


  From the ad pages.
  Ad for Hurricane. Hurricane's RAM doubling feature gives you un-limited
  resources-making out of memory messages a thing of the past.

  Ad for Long File Names -a $30 program: If you try to mix Win95/ Windows
  3.1 systems and applications across a network or share files with
  floppies, you stand a good chance of trashing all your new Windows 95
  long file names.

  Ad for NEC monitors.   Ready for Windows 95.


  It hardly seems necessary to comment on the absolute stupidity of these ads.
  The NEC ad is stupid. Every SVGA monitor ever built is "ready for
  Windows 95".  The other two are outright lies.



  Idiots Redux  is the invention of Bob Miller who has a huge collection
  of Conference Host assignments from both RIME and Ilink. His newest is
  the Ilink Windows95 conference . A very knowledgeable Windows writer,
  Bob is the head of a Mental Health Agency and can be found at
  Bob_miller@msn.com  He and Stanley are regular WindoWatch contributors.


                                    ww





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  WINDOWS According to Rockn_Robin!        A WindoWatch Feature


                            What is a Winsock?
          -Or: Why Can't They Call it Internet Connection Software?

                       Copyright 1995 by Robin Mabry

 When I started college 20 years ago, computers were huge mystical things
 and programmers, their special attendants, tried to cajole these beasts
 to do our bidding.  Fortunate for me, the University of Missouri's
 Business School had the foresight to rule it necessary that all Business
 School graduates learn the basics of programming. Most Business school
 students dreaded their sentence of punching out COBOL instructions on
 little cards, carefully ordering them, and then dropping them into the
 reader. These students hoped that (1) a card wouldn't jam; (2) the
 timeshare computer would not be so busy as to make you wait hours for an
 answer  (3) error messages would make sense and (4) counted the days
 until the end of the semester.  I confess that I loved it - obtuse
 errors,  mystique, - all of it!

 Notwithstanding, at the time, computer skills were not synonymous with
 power and fortune so I pursued an Economics degree hoping to land a great
 job with a Fortune 500 company.  This I did; and then came downsizing and
 desktop computers.  Twenty years later, the mystique of computers has all
 but disappeared except on the last frontier, the Internet.  What fun
 would it be if Internet connection software was simply referred to as
 that?  Instead, we continue to have mystical terms like tcp/ip, PPP, SLIP
 and of particular interest to windows users, the WINSOCK!

 Access from here (your computer) to there (the Internet) requires that
 your computer send information, data, (okay, stuff !) in a format
 that any other computer on the Internet can understand.  Since the
 Internet is simply a collection of millions and millions of computers
 connected together, it makes sense they would have to agree on a
 common communications method and language.  This is called a protocol.

 Centuries ago, in computer years, the folks who first decided they
 wanted to talk to each others' computers  reached agreement on this
 standard protocol or networking language.  So the rest of us would
 consider it to be really complicated  cutting edge stuff they called it
 TCP/IP.  Just Internet Language would have been simpler but they probably
 figured they could get more money if they said, "I know TCP/IP" instead.
 To make a long story short, TCP/IP is a communi-cations protocol which
 allows us to send scribbles and such all over the world using the
 Internet.

 Your computer's communications program, called a client, speaks only
 simple computer languages like C++ or Basic.  Unfortunately the Internet
 does not!  So your client or computer program,  needs a universal
 translator.  Since the universal translators from Star Trek (TM) are
 trademarked and closely protected by Paramount it was necessary for
 windows program developers to come up with their own. Ta Da!  WINSOCK.
 Win SOCK ? What kind of name is that??? Its short for Windows Socket.

 You still don't get it?

 Well think of it like this.  The computers on the Internet are connected
 through a series of communications pipelines.  Each pipeline screws into
 a socket at one end then connects to another socket on the other end.
 Data stuff is then sent through these pipes.  Its all connected together
 like Tinker Toys - the wheels are the various computers and the sticks
 are communications pipelines. Each one of those sticks connects into a
 hole or socket.  Your program, or client, sends information to the TCP/IP
 universal translator WINSOCK that sends it over a modem to another
 computer or the server. The server then connects into the Internet.

 There are different flavors of TCP/IP that can be used depending
 upon the communications hardware. Most of us will use a modem and
 therefore will use either SLIP or PPP and your WINSOCK will translate
 accordingly.

 What is the difference?  For all practical purposes, nothing.  PPP is
 better simply because it was more thought out and better designed.
 However, many Internet Access Providers only offer SLIP.

 So it is desktop CLIENT program to WINSOCK over MODEM to SERVER computer
 to another computer(s) on the INTERNET, - and visa versa for receiving
 data.

 Clear?  No?  Want more information?  Online sources include:

 WINSOCK FAQ
               http://mars.superlink.net/user/mook/winfaq.html

 This article contains several sections.

 Section 1 covers the basics of  Winsock. Here you'll find out what
        Winsock is and how you can use Winsock applications.

 Section 2 covers the Winsock-related resources available on the
        Internet and Usenet.

 Section 3 covers common questions concerning TCP/IP stacks and
        communications.

 Section 4 covers World Wide Web browsers (Netscape, NCSA Mosaic, etc.).

 Section 5 covers Usenet news readers (News Express, Free Agent, WinVN, etc.).

 Section 6 covers IRC, Talk, and Voice software (WinTalk, Iphone,
        mIRC, WSIRC, etc.).

 Finally, there are several appendices. These include related resources
 and tutorials which are outside the scope of the FAQ proper.

 WINSOCK TROUBLESHOOTING REFERENCE
                http://www.webcom.com/~llarrow/trouble.html

 INSTALLING A WINSOCK CLIENT
                http://acy1.digex.net:80/~lejeune/

 WINSOCK CONNECTIONS
                http://sage.cc.purdue.edu/~xniu/winsock.html

 Now for the good stuff.  Where to find WINSOCK clients.  There are
 a variety of WINSOCK clients including email, news readers for
 USENET news groups, Telnet (for remote Terminal to "networked"
 mainframe), world wide web browsers, utilities to see if someone is
 online like Finger and search tools like Archie and Gopher.  The most
 comprehensive WINSOCK site for windows3.x, windowsNT and Windows95 is
 maintained by "The BeasT Man" <beast@papa.indstate.edu>.  If it's windows
 and Internet related, including stuff like "keep track of time online"
 utilities, it can be found at TheBeasT Man's FTP site:

               FTP://papa.indstate.edu/winsock-l/Windows

 Up to higher level directory
  .message                485 bytes Sun Aug 06 01:14:00 1995
  00_index.txt              1 K     Sun Aug 06 02:31:00 1995 Plain text
  Daemons/                          Tue Aug 29 23:24:00 1995 Directory
  Develop/                          Thu Aug 17 23:21:00 1995 Directory
  FTP/                              Wed Sep 14 16:03:00 1994 Directory
  Finger/                           Sun Aug 06 02:31:00 1995 Directory
  Graphics/                         Wed Sep 13 14:56:00 1995 Directory
  IRC/                              Tue Sep 12 18:20:00 1995 Directory
  Mail/                             Mon Sep 04 23:39:00 1995 Directory
  Misc-Winsock/                     Tue Sep 12 18:29:00 1995 Directory
  Misc_Utils/                       Sat Aug 19 01:21:00 1995 Directory
  Mud/                              Sat Aug 19 20:38:00 1995 Directory
  News/                             Fri Aug 25 23:06:00 1995 Directory
  Perl/                             Sun Aug 06 20:42:00 1995 Directory
  Ping/                             Sun Aug 06 02:31:00 1995 Directory
  SNMP/                             Tue Aug 29 17:27:00 1995 Directory
  Talk/                             Thu Sep 07 00:43:00 1995 Directory
  Telnet/                           Wed Sep 13 15:01:00 1995 Directory
  Time/                             Sun Aug 06 02:31:00 1995 Directory
  ToolBars/                         Fri Sep 08 18:49:00 1995 Directory
  WWW-Browsers/                     Sun Sep 10 16:16:00 1995 Directory
  Whois/                            Sun Aug 06 03:13:00 1995 Directory
  WinDis/                           Sun Aug 06 02:31:00 1995 Directory
  Wsk-Apps/

 MIRROR SITES You Could Try And Connect To At:

 (1) ftp.sunet.se/pub/pc/windows/winsock-indstate                 (Sweden)
 (2) ftp.iquest.com/pub/windows/papa                                 (USA)
 (3) ftp.infomagic.com/pub/mirrors/PC-Networking/WinSock-l

                                                                     (USA)
 (4) ftp.nuri.net/pub/winsock-l                                    (Korea)
 (5) ftp.csie.nctu.edu.tw/pub/winsock                             (Taiwan)
 (6) ftp.riken.go.jp/pub/pc/winsock-l                              (Japan)
 (7) ftp.mira.net.au/winsock-l                                 (Australia)
 (8) ftp.uni-koeln.de/pc/mirrors/winsock-l                       (Germany)

 This fine gentleman also distributes by email, daily digest of updates of
 winsock related software:

 To subscribe to WINSOCK-L-ANNOUNCE, send a message to
              list-admin@papa.indstate.edu
 with a line similar to the following in the BODY of the message
              SUBSCRIBE WINSOCK-L-ANNOUNCE
 OWNER: The BeasT Man .. (BeasT@papa.indstate.edu)

 What would I recommend for the average desktop user:

 email client
    EUDORA     (FREE AGENT if you just want to send/receive)

 news reader client
    FREE AGENT (does offline & online; NETSCAPE is online but is easier)

 WWW browser, gopher & FTP client
    NETSCAPE

 Some users may also want to download a graphics file editor like LVIEW
 and a windows screen capture utility like SnapShot.  If you are a
 windows95 user, I highly recommend using the win95 WINSOCK along  with
 two nice Freeware products: RoboDUN and RECONNECT.  The first program is
 a scripter for the win95 WINSOCK that automatically enters your login,
 password, etc instead of re-entering each line in the post-dial terminal
 screen.  RECONNECT is a neat little utility that will automatically
 reconnect the win95 WINSOCK to your Internet Provider instead of you
 having to click "YES - RECONNECT" each time.

 Till the next time.



 Robin Mabry-Hubbard has worked as a mainframe programmer-systems analyst,
 software project manager and user support/training group manager. Robin
 also taught at local universities teaching programming, computer system
 design, and statistics and other business classes like accounting,
 management, and economics. She has an undergraduate degree in Economics
 from the University of Missouri at Columbia, a Masters in Finance from St.
 Louis University and a BS in Computer Information Systems from Maryville
 University (St. Louis). She is the originator and maintainer of a great
 Win95 Tip Sheet (FAQ) found at  http://walden.mo.net/~rymabry/index.html



                                    ww







        *               *               *               *               *




  Before You Plunge:

       Windows '95 - Some Considerations for Potential Users
                     Copyright 1995 Paul Kinnaly

 As much of this issue of WindoWatch is devoted to commentary on Windows'95
 and related issues and software, Id like to mention a few points
 regarding this new Operating System that have become very apparent to me
 during the past several months that Ive used it.

 First and foremost, do not blindly accept Microsofts assurances as to
 the hardware needed to run it.  The '95 box tells you it will run on a
 386 with 4 meg of RAM.  This is not quite a lie, but it isnt quite the
 truth either. Windows95s speed and flexibility seems to be greatly
 influenced by four main factors: CPU type, available RAM, video bus, and
 disk speed. Generally, most users find that a 486DX66 with 16meg of RAM,
 a local bus, VLB or PCI, video card, and fast IDE hard disk will run
 Windows95 very nicely.  In spite of claims that a 386SX20 with 4 meg of
 RAM,  an unaccelerated 256K video card, and a slow drive will load
 Windows95,  running it on such a system is extremely painful.

 So what does the newest Windows require?   No real consensus has been
 established yet.  Although the major hard copy magazines have just begun
 the testing of the final release,  early results seem to indicate that
 virtually any 486, SX or DX, which has 8 meg of RAM will achieve
 reasonably comparable results under Windows95 when compared to Windows
 3.1/3.11 or Windows for Workgroups. Depending upon your hardware, certain
 parts of the operation might vary slightly, but overall performance will
 be roughly equal.

 Anyone who participates in the RIME or Ilink Windows conferences on their
 BBS or in the Windows-related news groups on the Internet or CompuServe
 and AOL forums will have noticed that even those who were true experts on
 Windows 3.1/WfWG are still climbing slowly through this new operating
 system.  While many features are familiar and similar, many have changed
 significantly.

 For example, tweaking the performance in '95 is drastically different
 from Win3.1.  Perhaps the greatest difficulty for new users is
 under-standing the impact Windows95 has on their autoexec.bat and
 config.sys files. Under many circumstances, they cease to exist.  A
 Windows 3.1 user might have drivers for a mouse, CD-ROM, SmartDrive, a
 memory manager like QEMM, Netroom, EMM386, and many other drivers all of
 which loaded via these DOS setup files.  If Windows95 has new protected
 mode drivers for your CD, and it does have many, none of these notations
 need to exist in either the autoexec.bat and config.sys any longer.  It
 is common to find Windows95 users who have no CONFIG.SYS whatsoever and
 whose AUTOEXEC.BAT is reduced to a one line path statement.

 There seems to be a temptation to return many of these vanished notations
 under Windows95.  Don't do it! At least not at first. While these drivers
 may be necessary in your AUTOEXEC.DOS and CONFIG.DOS files used when Win95
 boots in DOS mode,  they probably are not necessary in normal Win95
 sessions, and may in fact, slow things down.  While some users have
 reported gains from using third-party memory managers, even within
 Windows95, my advice to most would be to forego this route until new
 users have become familiar with what Win95 itself can handle.

 Many potential Windows95 users ask, "How much disk space do I need?"
 It's an understandable question; we all know that disk space fills very
 rapidly and one can never have too much.  However, there are so many
 variables and options when installing Windows95, that there is no quick
 and easy answer. The operating system is big, - thats a certainty!  If
 the greater size justifies increased performance and not merely the
 equivalent of what used to be in Windows and in DOS  I believe there is a
 solid reason to opt for the full installation.

 Should you choose to preserve your old DOS and Windows capabilities with
 the dual-boot option,  it wont delete any of the older files to free up
 space on your system.  My personal suggestion to a potential new user
 would depend upon the size and number of hard disks available. With the
 rapidly plummeting prices of 1 gig, and larger drives, I feel the ideal
 is to be able to devote a partition of at least 120mb or a separate disk
 of about that size devoted entirely to Windows95 and its related files.

 Why that much?   There are two very important considerations behind this
 suggestion. First, Windows95 uses a dynamically sized swap file; and as
 the systems needs change, so does the size of the swap file. Depending
 upon your available memory and the programs you are running
 simultaneously, the swap file might grow to 20 megs or more. Having that
 much free disk space on your Windows drive can help your system run at
 its best potential.

 Secondly, you will find that more and more new software stores at least
 some of its files in \windows\system or in common directories. Office 95,
 for example, added dozens of files to my C: drive, even though Office
 itself was installed elsewhere. So the space needed for Windows95
 although actually for other programs, but stored with Windows,  will grow
 continually.  Giving it about 120mb or more could spare you crunch
 problems later on.

 One feature of Windows95 that many folks relish is the requirement
 Microsoft has imposed,  that to gain the Win95 logo,  third party
 software must contain an uninstall capability.  Thats a big plus when
 house cleaning  a crowded hard disk.  Anyone who has tried to track down
 the orphaned files of long forgotten programs has learned this lesson
 well. But - like most new things - there is a catch.

 When uninstallable software is added to your system, you mustn't "play
 with it. Let me give you an example: You install a new program, the
 visionary VisiCalc95. It comes with a Win95 logo, so it is uninstallable.
 The setup routine, however, doesnt permit a lot of user interaction. The
 software, for reasons known only to its programmers, automatically
 installs itself in what seems to be the new standard to C:\Program Files.

 It then proceeds to add a new folder to your Start menu - including
 entries for README, WHAT'S NEW, CONVERSION NOTES, HELP, CONVERSION HELP,
 etc. - and may even plop a shortcut down on your desktop. You dont want
 it where it is, but moving it to another drive or directory is tough.  If
 you try to do that, you edit your start menu to get rid of all that
 extraneous stuff.  You might also move the shortcut for the main program
 to your already existing Spreadsheets folder.  Great. You use the program
 for a couple of months but when you get Lotus I-B-M, you fall in love wit
 it and decide to scrap VisiCalc95.  No sweat!  Simply go to the Control
 Panel, select Add/Delete Software, and you can uninstall VisiCalc. Right?
 Maybe - but probably not!

 So, you  changed things about. You moved shortcuts around, you got rid of
 start menu entries.  Nonetheless, the odds are that the uninstall script
 will bomb you out.  If it does, getting rid of the files that VisiCalc
 installed will be very difficult, - same old - same old!  Removing all
 references to the application from the Registry will be even harder!  You
 see, Win95 doesnt rely on .INI files anymore; most all the settings that
 would have been stored  in the .INIs in earlier versions of Windows are
 now in the Registry and sometimes referenced in both places.  I would not
 recommend that a novice explore those depths!  Therefore, the lesson from
 Uninstalling is to be very careful when installing !

 During the install of any application under Windows 95, think care-fully
 about the options presented, particularly that of where the program is to
 be installed.  As most software will add some additional files to your
 Windows directory, avoid - if possible - putting new software on that
 drive.  But foremost, remember that if you might decide to uninstall the
 software at a later date, moving shortcuts, changing folders, and similar
 customization may prevent effective use of Windows 95s uninstall
 abilities.

 Finally, I'd caution that, just because it's the "latest and greatest"
 doesn't mean it is the best for you. Windows95 can offer some useful
 improvements to many users right now - and has the greater potential to
 offer many more enhancements in future months and years. In fact, you may
 be wiser to stick with a smoothly running Windows 3.1 or Windows for
 Workgroups setup for now. This would be particularly true if your CPU,
 video card, or hard drives are older and slower than todays standard.
 This is a certainty if you only have 4 meg of memory. For such users,
 saving the $89 towards more memory, if the system is otherwise capable,
 or a whole new system which would probably include Windows95 as its
 default would make far better sense. Windows95 is here today, but
 there'll be a Windows96, and probably a Windows97 as well.


 Paul Kinnaly has the dubious title of Production Editor of WindoWatch.
 His talents far exceed the tasks of proofing and editing copy. He is a
 Management Analyst with the Boston Office of the Veterans Administration.



                                    ww



        *               *               *               *               *






   A Shareware Product Review:


                              Change Of Address

                      Copyright 1995 by John M. Campbell

 Microsoft Windows 95 will be on the street by the time this edition of
 WindoWatch appears, and countless copies of the successor to Win 3.x will
 be in the hands of users anxious to upgrade. Perhaps the most common
 installation question will be whether to allow '95 to overwrite the old
 Windows, or to install it to a new directory. Choosing the first option
 will destroy the Windows 3.x system, making it impossible to retreat back
 to the old and familiar interface that may have taken countless hours to
 fine tune and tweak.  Choosing to install '95 to a new directory will
 preserve the existing Windows, but will require reinstalling almost every
 Win 3.x application under '95 - not a prospect that most people would
 relish.  What to do?

 I believe it was Jeff Marchi who first proposed a good solution to the
 problem of preserving a 3.x Windows installation, while still having all
 Windows apps available for use in '95.  Jeff's solution involved copying
 the Windows 3.x directory, and its subdirectories, to a new location
 under a different name.  Then, the user would manually change all INI
 files to point to that directory.  For example, if C:\WINDOWS was copied
 to C:\WINOLD, all of the INI files (in the WINOLD directory) that had
 lines pointing to C:\WINDOWS would be edited to substitute C:\WINOLD.
 Windows 95 would then be installed over WINOLD.

 Jeff's solution does work, but it involves a lot of searching and editing
 of INI files if one has a multitude of Windows applications.  Of course,
 most text editors have a search and replace feature, but the user still
 must look at every INI file.  If only there was an easier way to automate
 the editing,  I thought.

 Then, I saw the featured utility Change of Address (COA) in the
 June 13, 1995 issue of PC Magazine.  COA was developed to ease
 the task of moving Windows applications to a different drive or
 directory, by changing address strings in INI, GRP and Registration
 Database entries.  The utility features a browser that makes it easy to
 choose which entries to change, as well as INI and GRP file editors, in
 case the user prefers to make changes manually. I quickly realized that
 COA was made to order for the task at hand.

 Here is how I used COA to prepare my system for the Windows 95
 Preview Edition, which I installed on Partition I of my second
 hard drive.  First, I copied E:\WINDOWS and all its subdirectories to
 I:\W95.  Then, I edited my path statement in AUTOEXEC.BAT to point to
 I:\W95.  It was now time to use  COA.  (If you decide to follow this
 procedure, be sure to change the drive and directory names I use in the
 following explanation to those you will be using.)

 COA loads with three windows visible; File List, Find and Replace, and
 Registration Database Viewer.  Clicking the "+" icon located below the
 File List Window brings up a standard dialog box labeled "Get GRP and INI
 Files."  We aren't concerned with GRP files, since all of the Windows 3.x
 apps will remain where they were.  But a number of INI files have lines
 that point to Windows itself.  These lines must be edited.


 At this point,  you would choose the "I:\W95" directory.  A list of all
 INI and  GRP files will appear in the File Name window of the Dialog Box.
 Choose "INI Files Only" in the File Type field.  You may Shift- Click on
 all of the files, or only on those you know contain a reference that
 needs to be changed.  Now, click on "OK."  All of the chosen INI files
 will appear in COA's File List Window.  Next, move over to the Find and
 Replace Window, and enter "E:\WINDOWS" in the Find What: field.  Move
 down to the Replace With: field and specify "I:\W95."  Click the "DO IT"
 icon.

 That's it!  COA will search for all occurrences of "E:\WINDOWS"
 in every INI file, and change the reference to "I\W95."  And if any
 Registration entries contain a reference to "E:\WINDOWS," those will be
 changed too.

 You are now ready to install Windows 95 over the I\W95 copy of
 Windows 3.x.  Have fun!

 I didn't mention several other features COA offers.  Remember that the
 program was written to ease moving Windows apps to different directories.
 COA has both INI and GRP file editors.  Any of these type files can be
 brought into the appropriate editor and modified as needed.

 Also, the Windows Registration Database can be imported into a special
 window, where it appears in tree form.  Any branch can be expanded and
 edited.  To edit a line,  just drag it into the Find What: box under Find
 and Replace.  You can then replace the line with a new string, as you did
 with the INI files.  Be careful, though.  Every occurrence of the
 selected string in the Registration Database will be replaced - not just
 the line you started with!

 I obtained COA Version 1.0 as COA.ZIP (272625 bytes) from the
 Utilities Section of the Ziffnet TIPS Forum.  (The filename may be
 slightly different now, if a later version is available.)  COA can also
 be found on Channel 1 as COA.ZIP - Conference 57, and on other BBSes that
 make PC Magazine utilities available for download.  If a BBS separates PC
 Magazine utilities into monthly files, look for June, 1995.

 John M. Campbell is a regular WindoWatch contributing writer. He the
 Manager of the Elkins office of the W.V. Unemployment Compensation Board.


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    A FreeWare Gem:                                  A Product Review


           An Essential Utility for Windows95: FDFORMAT

                          Copyright 1995 by Frank McGowan


 DI a!? ayyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyRyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy - '95; my withdrawal pains from
 losing Win 3.1 have been excruciating!  While it's undoubtedly true that
 you can't teach an old dog new tricks, this old dog is willing and
 motivated to learn, - as long as the effort seems worthwhile. As you can
 probably tell, I'm still pretty skeptical about the newest OS.  I suppose
 I'll get over it, and learn to love Win95, -- one of these days.

 In truth, I should be grateful to Microsoft.   As one who works in
 computer training, the coming of Window95 with its new challenges,
 obviously opens up a field ripe with opportunity. Guess I'd better grit
 my teeth and climb back onto that wild horse.

 It didn't do much for my dyspepsia, however, to discover that I couldn't
 make backup copies of my Windows95 distribution disks. There is nothing
 quite so upsetting as the message  "This Disk Can't be Copied".  For a
 few moments, I assumed I had a problem with the 3.5  disk drive, so it
 was a small relief to realize that the Windows95 disks were formatted to
 hold over 1.7 meg, rather than the usual 1.44.  I grumbled, and worse,
 about how inconsiderate it was of Microsoft to use a non-standard
 formatting routine (DMF) and not provide the proper utility with their
 new operating system. This huge hole in their package put all of their
 customers at risk of losing the ability to reinstall the system, in case
 of disaster, and assuming the rescue disk failed. I put the original disks
 back in the box, and put the box in a safe place, hoping that nothing
 would corrupt them.

 Then along came a copy of a nifty little freeware program called
 FDFORMAT, the answer to the prayers of all who have upgraded to Win95
 and intend to upgrade their major Microsoft applications, such as Word
 and Excel.

 Created by a troika of benevolent programmers named Christian
 Hochstatter, J. Armengaud, and P. Summers (sorry, I don t have the full
 names of the other members of the team), FDFORMAT transforms a 1.44 disk
 into a 1.7 meg disk; and then its companion program, FDREAD, performs the
 disk copy. Voila! Backup disks! Okay, it wasn't quite that
 straightforward. The documentation was virtually non-existent, save for
 one README file supplied by a benefactor named R.A. Faucett, who
 provided the proper command for formatting a diskette. - R.A., you may
 have saved my sanity!

 After unzipping the distribution file, I had to muddle about figuring out
 what all the little icons mean. It should be obvious, but wasnt to me.
 Even though R. A. told me in the README file that Fdcpy17a refers to
 disks in the A drive and Fdcpy17b.... well, I d been having a tough day.

 Not so obvious is that you have to have already put the disk in the drive
 before double-clicking the Fdcpy17a icon. Old habits ? Or, even more
 important, that you need to format a bunch of  diskettes - (thirteen
 actually) to the new 1.7 meg capacity so they're ready to receive the
 data after you've read the Win 95 diskette into memory. You do this by
 invoking the FDFORMAT program in DOS mode, and specifying the following
 command:

                 FDFORMAT A: /T:80 /N:21 /C:4 /D:16 /M:240

 The program script that shows up when you start the copy process implies
 that you can simply put any 1.44 diskette in, and it will be properly
 formatted. Even though Id already formatted the diskettes, I gave it a
 try with an old 1.44, and although I could not reformat an already used
 diskette others can if the old disk is clean and free of errors.  Quoting
 from R.A. himself

 " This will yield the following results from FDFORMAT after the disk is
 formatted:

        OEM-Entry               CH-FOR16
        Total sectors on disk:  3360
        Sectors per track:       21
        Heads:                    2
        Bytes per sector:       512
        Hidden sectors:           0
        Boot-sectors:             1
        Number of FATs:           2
        Sectors per FAT:          3
        Total clusters on disk: 838

         1716224 total bytes on disk
         1716224 bytes available

 He goes on to say, "The key is the /M:240 parameter. This sets the Media
 Descriptor Byte to F0 (hex). This allows FDFORMAT to successfully use 4
 sectors per cluster on a floppy disk. DOS normally supports only 1 or 2
 sectors per cluster as the FDFORMAT documentation explains. Without this
 parameter, and using 4 sectors per cluster (/C:4), FDFORMAT will
 incorrectly set the Media Descriptor Byte to F8 (hex) and the disk will
 NOT be properly read by DOS."   Thanks RA !

 I inserted the newly-formatted 1.7 meg diskette and pressed ENTER. My
 heart skipped a beat when the message  No valid drive. This drive cannot
 be formatted  popped up on the screen.  I waited a bit, and breathed
 more easily when the files started to be copied onto the diskette.  Of
 course, it was with considerable trepidation that I put in  Win95 disk #1
 and pressed ENTER in the first place.  - I was betting 89.95 the diskette
 wouldnt be wiped out.

 In all, it took about an hour to get through the formatting and copying,
 but considering that my system is now backed up, I consider it time well
 spent. Besides, I was able to keep an eye on the O.J. trial in the
 meantime, almost as mindless a pursuit as performing thirteen disk
 copies. My hat's off to the folks who came up with this ingenious
 program. I have to wonder if they had any idea how popular it is about to
 become?

 Frank McGowan is a teacher, a trainer and a scientific writer.  He is a
 regular WindoWatch contributor. Questions about his articles can be
 directed to him at  76342.3036@compuserve.com


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  A Reasonable Approach to '95



                      Reflections of a ModemJunkie

                   copyright 1995 by Leonard Grossman




 This Month's focus:    The real problem with Windows 95.
                           A revolutionary approach.

 Last week I got a real shock.  I happened to look at a notice from my
 bank.  The details aren't important but it was really scary.  I've never
 paid more than $4,000.00 for a car.  I bought my computer in a pawn shop.
 I make a decent salary.  How can things be that bad?  I began to take
 stock.  The process isn't over but some things are becoming clear.  I
 don't do anything unreasonable or more to the point,  I just try to do
 many reasonable things.  So, getting back to the bank balance,
 something's gotta stop.  How do I get off of this train?

 Windows 95 is reasonable.  Only about $89.  Why not get it and be right
 on the cutting edge?  What if I need a little more RAM at only 40 or 50
 bucks a meg?  A bigger hard drive?  Everyone has heard the mantra:
 "Storage is cheap these days." Remember when a 40 meg drive cost over
 $200 bucks.  I can probably get a gigabyte for that    today.  At that
 little computer shop in down the street I can get a 486 motherboard with
 CPU and one of those cute little fans for under a hundred bucks.  So why
 not jump in?

 Why not? Indeed!  Because it never ends.  Because it is so seductively
 reasonable.  It's not just computers.  Its been going on for years, from
 fins in the '50s to full access to the Internet.  Its just all so
 reasonable, -- and we have to have it now.  Whatever it is, somehow it
 always costs just a little bit more.  Many of us have to stop somewhere
 and Win95 is my line in the sand.  Thus far and no farther... at least
 for now  !!

 Please don't get me wrong.  I wouldn't buy a new machine today without
 Win95 on it.  But before upgrading the operating system (OS) on your
 current machine, I suggest asking yourself a few questions:


     Do you have trouble operating Windows 3.1?

     Do you really multitask?

     Why do you need it?

 The principle advantage of Win 95 is that the interface is easier to
 learn--if you don't already know how to operate a computer.  If you
 successfully downloaded this magazine that probably is not an issue. In
 fact, you will have to unlearn a few tricks and habits to get comfortable
 with Win95.

 It won't be hard.  You may even like the interface.  But it won't really
 be easier for you than your current OS.  On the other hand, if you are
 about to learn a completely new application, it may in fact be easier to
 learn under Win95, just as my learning curve on internet applications was
 greatly speeded up by the use of the Windows interface.  Finally, if you
 are buying a computer for a someone completely unfamiliar with computers
 it may well be worth the jump.  But this is about you and me, not about
 tyros and neophytes.

 The second purported advantage is the improved ability to multitask.  Those in the know say Win 95 can't compare with Windows NT or OS/2-Warp when it comes to real multitasking.  For the sake of argument, though, lets agree that it multitasks better than the existing Windows operating systems.  Bottom line question: How much multitasking do you really do?  Is it a quick look at a spread sheet while in your word processor?  Do you play solitaire while waiting for your e-mail on the internet? (I caught my daughter doing that last night.)  If that's all you are doing, Windows for Workgroups is quite sufficient.  On the other hand, if you are seriously into heavy multitasking and really like the Windows interface, Win95 may be the likely answer for you.

 Conservation of resources while multitasking is one of the hyped advantages of Win95.  That's really the test for whether you really multitask.  Its true, at least it seemed so to me, that the various Internet tools worked better with a number of open and running applications under 32 bit Win95.  But they also work fine under W4WG.  Therefore, it seems to me that if you rarely run out of resources under Window 3.x, you won't need Win95.

 I concede that WordPerfect for Windows seemed a little less starved under
 the new  operating system.  But how much time is really saved? How many
 lock ups prevented?  Even on my pawn shop special -- not much--not many.

 Of course, you can use true 32 bit applications.  How many do you have
 now?  How many do you expect to buy in the immediate future?  But here's
 the trap.  If you think you need Win95, then you'll want to run out and
 buy the 32 bit version of every application you use.  Will your checkbook
 balance be any better at 32 bits?  In truth, each upgrade won't cost that
 much.  Most of them will be reasonable, just like Win95 itself.  And, of
 course, it's all so reasonable. Only there are so many reasonable things!

 What can you do with Win95 that you can't do now?  Do you really need to
 do it?  I resisted Windows altogether for years.  It was only when I
 found something that I couldn't do under DOS did I make the leap.  The
 advent of Windows clients for internet access combined with repeated
 failure at the Unix command line, convinced me to make the move.  I am
 glad I did, but I'm also glad I held off.

 So, when something comes along that I can't do under Windows for Work Groups,
 I'll take a good hard look at it and decide if it's even something worth
 doing.  Only then will I make the leap.

 And in the meantime I won't have that MSN (MicroSoft Network) icon staring
 me in the face, tempting me to log on every time I boot up.  You see, I did
 bring this month's column back to communications, after all.

 Join the revolution!! Stop doing reasonable things!!

 Leonard Grossman is a lawyer for the Department of Labor.  He is a
 regular WindoWatch contributor and can be reached  at
 leonard.grossman@syslink.mcs.com




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           The Cat's Out of The Bag!

         Copyright  1995  by Stanley

                                               The twenty pound black and
                                               white furry Windows expert!


                                                  Bob Miller's
                                                  Stanley Does
                                                    Windows

             Purrfectly Yours
               by Stanley


 How do I keep Windows 95 from asking me for a password every time it
 starts?

 Control Panel, Networks.  Make sure that it says "Use Windows Logon".
 Then, Control Panel, Passwords and be certain to select "all users of this
 machine use the same".
 

 Help!!!!  All my Start menu items have vanished!  What did I do?

 You ran a 16 bit defrag program.  Only 32 bit disk tools should be used
 in Windows 95.  Time to reinstall and read the instructions this time.
 

 In Win 3.1 and WFWG, I could change my permanent swap file size.  Where is
 that option in '95?

 I'd tell you - but you might actually go and use it.  Don't.  Win95 manages
 its swap file dynamically.  You are much better off leaving it alone.
 

 I use the same programs every day.  I used to have a Program Manager Group
 with just these three programs in it.  What do I do now?  It is a pain to
 have to search for them every time.

 Explorer, Windows, Start Menu - or right click on START and then open. File,
 New, Shortcut.  Follow the prompts.  Your favorite programs will appear
 right on the Start menu.  You can also put icons of them on the desktop but
 this is a better way.


 I like Win95 but my kids use the machine all day to play DOS games.  I wrote
 some batch files for them so they can start them easily but the machine
 boots to Windows.  Can I make it boot to DOS instead?

 Sure.  Remove the H,S & R attributes from MS-DOS.SYS.  It's just an ASCII
 file now.  Open it in Notepad and add (or change) the line to read
 BOOTGUI=0.  Your machine will now boot to DOS.  All your batch files will
 run fine.  To start Win95, just type "WIN".
 

 I saw your answer last month to somebody who wanted to run Win95 on a
 clearly inadequate system.  Mine isn't that ancient.  Can I run it on a
 386SX-16?

 Yes.  You can also enter your family car in the Indy 500.  Don't run '95
 on a 386SX anything. Or a DX under 33mz.  Or in less than 8 megs of RAM.
 Ever. I wouldn't wish such on a dog - and, if you know me, you would
 realize that there is very little that I wouldn't wish upon most dogs!
 


 - Purrfectly yours 'til next month.

 Stanley.


 Bob Miller really does have a Stanley!  Stanley is a very busy and
 energetic individual but is always available to perplexed Win95 users.
 With Bob's help he hosts the Ilink Win95 and the Ilink Windows conferences
 to name merely a few. Stanley can be reached through Bob on the Internet
 at Bob_miller@msn.com



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   Changing our World Using Computers:


                             Compuhigh

                  Copyright 1995 by Stanley Kanner

 Education and the Internet!  Schools for the 21st century..

 While rushing about to out do one another, these are buzz words we've
 heard from almost every Board of Education throughout the country. The
 acquisition of technology! But what is really going on? Does the rhetoric
 match behavior and, in fact, how much is the Internet really being used
 in grades K-12? Unfortunately, not much!

 Many school systems have Internet access - but few teachers use it! There
 are isolated school districts which do have some projects going on, but,
 for the most part, these are for small groups of students, and are
 largely experimental.

 Given the above, we decided to go for broke. Why fiddle around with
 little projects when it's possible to create an entire high school on the
 Internet. That means courses, teachers, high school diplomas, - all of it
 and we did!

 In North America, there are over one million homeschoolers. These
 students are perfect for an Internet high school. They need a way to take
 courses they can't get at home, a way to interact with teachers and other
 students, and to be able to socialize and not feel isolated.

 We entered into a partnership with The Clonlara School in Ann Arbor,
 Michigan. The Clonlara School is an alternative school that has a program
 set up for homeschoolers to work independently and still obtain a regular
 high school diploma. This was how the Clonlara School Compuhigh was born.

 The next step was to look at different commercial networks and select one
 to be our online site. We decided to go with Delphi... the smallest of
 the large! They gave us the access and flexibility we wanted, and were
 much looser and less suit and tie.

 Converting seven Delphi forums into a main school lobby and classrooms,
 we set up six basic courses that we felt homeschoolers would have a hard
 time getting independently and would be interesting for homeschoolers to
 take. We started out with English (writing), Algebra, Earth Science,
 World Geography, Small Business development, and American Government.
 This year we have dropped Small Business, and added Algebra II, Geometry
 and Physics.

 The classrooms themselves are not done in real time. Our thinking is that
 real time sessions are expensive, and take away the time flexibility of
 both the student and teacher. The forums themselves are set up as
 classrooms with postings acting as blackboards, lecture podium, and for
 the student, questions and discussion forums. We also rely heavily on
 email between students and teachers.

 We use a very good Bot program called "Dlite" which was developed
 specifically for the Delphi network. The Bot enables the student to have
 a parallel Compuhigh off-line, and lets the students do all their work
 without the meter ticking on the commercial network. In fact the average
 online session only lasts about two minutes. This fits in very nicely
 with Delphi's five hours for ten dollars price scale. It also allows the
 student free time to do research and explore the Internet.

 In future columns, you will hear more about some of the international
 directions we are taking, and other computer related educational issues
 on and off the Internet. This quick sketch of the Compuhigh project is a
 bare bones outline which we'll flesh out as our column develops.

 Please feel free to direct any questions about Compuhigh to;
 Stankan@mail.netvision.net.il


 Editorial Note: Computers are not yet in the appliance category that Herb
 Chong and I discussed several years ago, - even though they are rapidly
 becoming cheap and very obtainable. In some school districts the desk top
 computer is neither widely available or widely used by individual
 children. Many parents are very dissatisfied that their children are not
 being better prepared in either the basics or the electronic world where
 they will be expected to compete. As a result they have withdrawn their
 children from the public school systems. There are many lessons to be
 learned from the homeschoolers, parents and teachers, and the online
 mentors! It is to that end that we welcome Stan to the WindoWatch list of
 regular contributors. lbl






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 Another Alice Adventure                                A WindoWatch Feature:



                                    Multi-Alice

                           Copyright 1995 Peter Neuendorffer


 The UPS man arrived with a large package for Alice, the noted Broadway
 director and my friend.  She promised me that the next day we would try
 out the new multimedia software at dawn. She was staying with me at the
 ocean as part of her vacation to the Isles Of Shoals. Our cottage has a
 large picture window with a spectacular ocean view for sunrise, wave, and
 seagull watching.

 She got me up thirty minutes before dawn and began to set up her
 equipment as I dozed in front of the picture window. I was jarred by
 the sounds of a symphony orchestra suspended over the lighthouse, with a
 large mouse directing from a promontory. The clouds turned a ghastly day
 glo green, a surprising color. Alice was furiously clicking her computer
 mouse in the background. Suddenly there were two suns, one of which was
 making faces and sticking out it's tongue. A flock of orange seagulls
 alighted in red tidal pools and darted after singing fish. Lightning
 began to play upon the horizon of a now cloudless sky.

 "Multimedia Actual Reality!" screamed Alice with glee. I ran outside, to
 escape what was an obvious computer generated projection upon the plate
 glass window. But there were actually two suns, a symphony orchestra on
 the lighthouse, the green clouds, and singing fish. As in the famous Soap
 Opera last episode, I now awoke from my dream.

 Now that I was conscious, I realized it was still before dawn. The sun
 had not risen yet, and Alice was fiddling with her multimedia controls.

 "This will be multimedia actual reality," Alice whispered, and I settled
 down to wait for the sunrise, watching the now dimly-lit waves roll in
 and break upon the rocks. A giant blue heron perched on the bell buoy to
 wait as well. A sudden power outage cut short Alice's show, so we all had
 to settle for the real thing, which was pretty good all by itself.


 Peter Neuendorffer is a Windows programmer. You can download his work on
 the World Wide Web   http://www.channel1.com/users/petern





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                  The Chinese Game of Strategy and Chance!
                      Copyright 1995 by Jerome Laulicht

 Berrie Bloem's digitized traditional strategy and tactics game of
 MahJongg v1.1a, delivers the promise of his earlier shareware version.
 The software offers excellent on-line help for players at all levels with
 unusually clean programming.  We have yet to encounter a single error
 running a highly complicated game and very sophisticated program under
 Windows95. It  all adds up to a tour de force for this tiny programming
 team.

 No small part of their success was in formulating and programming the
 decision rules for the three robot players who are your opponents.  The
 complex game-playing screen is uncluttered and  functional. Even those
 people with limited experience with Windows programs will catch onto it
 quickly. The Help file is almost a model for Windows programs!  It is
 well-organized and written in lucid English. With the search engine you
 almost invariably are given precisely what you need to know in the midst
 of a game.  The introduction for MahJongg novices is first-rate.  It is
 almost possible to be happy that your opponents dont have this resource
 until you remember that their help is already built into their
 programming code.

 The shareware program available for evaluation, provides an excellent
 basis for learning or playing.  The commercial version adds significant
 features and contains real improvements.  It has all the characteristics
 of real MahJongg including the elaborate scoring system that might well
 be unique.  "This game of Chinese origin demands complexity in tactics
 and strategy which takes it beyond most games used for gambling." All
 that is missing is the spice of human interaction, a Chinese setting, and
 the pains and pleasures of gambling. How do you gamble when all your
 opponents are programming components?

 Anyone who has ever played this popular game will love its rapid pace and
 the easily controlled speed options.  Strategies which look impossible to
 understand become clearer and easier to learn using speed control.  There
 are understandable instructions and quick tips available for most
 decisions, along with a detailed scoring table which is displayed after
 each game.

 I had only the vaguest ideas about Chinese MahJongg when I  first looked
 at the program.  I knew  it was an ancient group strategy game and
 popular for gambling.  I had  played the various and  simple matching
 tile games called MahJongg.   Actually I tried this one during a work
 break only because it was on the hard disk.  What piqued my curiosity
 when I  scanned  the instructions were the clear signs of
 complexity--very different from the gambling games I knew.  My attitude
 toward the game is in flux but its mixture of interest and frustration,
 strategy and luck is growing on me.

 The demands for a strategy which  must be quickly revised during the
 play, poses a challenge.  Unlike playing with real people,  I can pause
 to consider options, find facts, and even sneak a peek at the other
 players hands.  Also intriguing is the fact that I have not yet been
 able to decipher the changing strategies of  my ferocious opponents. Yet
 to win, I must make both correct and lucky moves  while remembering their
 discards to keep them from winning first.  Perhaps I have given the game
 added zest by naming the opponents after three of my ferociously bright
 grandchildren rather then my huge and often sleepy German Shepherds.

 Real MahJongg with the original rules is not for everyone.   Given that
 it has survived so long as a form of amusement must be that it is
 interesting and fun, and for some, down right addictive. That it has come
 to western nations  from a quite a different culture makes it more
 difficult and intriguing.  A few things should be made clear.  Ignore
 anything you know or think you know about the tile matching games which
 are called MahJongg  should you  decide to try out this program.  There
 is no meaningful comparison. Also  put aside the  image of  a rather
 mysterious oriental game played by middle-aged women who have too little
 to do or by elderly retired men whose major goal is gambling. This
 venerable game of strategy  requires  mental rather than physical
 dexterity.

 Learning the Game

 A  program cannot be fun or hold your interest unless you are willing to
 learn substantially about its nuances. Complex games demand some
 patience, time and motivation .  Perhaps this is a hallmark of games
 which are fun for big kids as well as for complex computer applications.
 This is absolutely true for MahJongg  novices who need to consult Help
 frequently, especially during the early games they play.  This is not
 anything approaching a tutorial but instead points to where you can get
 needed information and suggests simple learning procedures.  If you want
 more information about the game, see an encyclopedia or the bibliography
 provided by the Bloems. The trick for a novices like me is to learn the
 game with minimal frustration. Enjoying  learning and problem solving is
 a bonus which you can accomplish using MahJongg. This is even more
 important than the difficulty of the material to learn since most give up
 on non-essential learning if it's too difficult.  So take advantage of my
 stumbles and proceed like this to minimize annoyance.

 You need to have icons for both the game and the Help file.

 Stare at the opening screen of the game for a few minutes just to get a
 vague mental image and delay the urge to play.

 You will probably benefit from using the Auto Play option a few times
 before and after reading.

 Call up the Help file alone and you get a quite functional screen which
 gives you immediate access to almost everything,--the table of contents,
 the search engine, an excellent glossary, even the game, etc.

 This screen gives you a glimmer of their concern for teaching the game to
 novices.  It tells you that "before you dive into the game, you should
 read at least the following topics. These topics will tell you all you
 need to know to get started."  You are then sent to the "absolute
 beginner's guide", an excellent idea when done so skillfully and one
 which more programs should emulate. It is "intended to lead you step  by
 step into MahJongg.

 From some reactions to their first release, they learned that an easier
 introductory section was needed to get people up and running with the
 game. The purpose is also to help you to come to grips with the game
 faster."

 The Topics are:
                          +If you are completely new to MahJongg
                          +Object of the Game
                          +Minimum Rules to get playing
                          +Minimum mouse and keyboard commands
                          +Explanation of screen

 The surprise is how well  they fulfill their promise.  It is written
 clearly  and done so well that I only need to emphasize that you read
 these pages before and while playing a half dozen rounds or so.  You will
 barely understand the game at first but you can grasp the mechanics of
 play. Then scan the instructions once again because they will become  much
 clearer. This on-line help (there is no printed manual) is excellent for
 starting newcomers at square one and teaching both the essentials of the
 game and the use of the program.

 As you play more hands,  gradually take advantage of all the options
 which make it simpler and easier for you to learn to play with
 understanding. This is your informal tutorial.  It is best to start with
 choosing to see the hands of the other three players and do it for as
 long as it helps you,  and then asking for quick tips on what tiles to
 discard.  Go to the options menu on the playing screen for these and
 consult help to find out what they do for you.

 After you have developed some insight about the game or the software its
 time to go back to the instructions for the more demanding strategies.
 You are now ready to understand the scoring and use this knowledge as a
 key basis for choosing and altering your strategy and learning tactics by
 making moves. Youre also ready to try speeding up the game by giving all
 players less time for decisions. Speed up impacts only upon you. The
 programmed others will not be affected by such demands. More experienced
 players might try changing some of the rules and/or changing the score
 values for any of the hands or game events.  You can always consult the
 on-line help for discussions and examples of each of these options.
 Simply scan the material first to get a general sense of it, figuring you
 will have to go back when you first run across these situations in your
 play.  Search on words like tactics and scoring and get an idea of the
 range of topics covered in Help.

 Once you can play the game using a few of these options and can easily
 adjust your tactics to them, you are ready for real people as opponents.

 The Bloems promise to develop a network version of MahJongg.  Will it
 become an interesting alternative to the network games of virtual reality
 violence that are so popular on the networks.  Since gambling might be
 frowned upon, virtual money or credits could be used and hopefully no
 hackers would alter either the scores or credit tallies kept so
 accurately on these great counting machines..

 MahJongg for Windows Version 1.01A- The REAL Game  $29.95 US
 Elaine & Berrie Bloem,
 69 lle des Plaqueminiers
 Ile Verte
 06560 Valbonne, France
 100545,2530@ compuserve.com


 Jerry Laulicht is a long time teacher who continues to train clients to
 use Windows95.


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   The Last Word                                 A WindoWatch Feature


                           Hello? Is This Tech Support?
                         Copyright 1995 by Ben M. Schorr

 What has happened to technical support in the 90s?  I can remember when
 the WordPerfect Corporation, in its pre-Novell life, was the single
 largest user of 800  telephone numbers in the country. Did you ever need
 tech support on a WordPerfect product? You would call an 800 number, and
 within minutes a friendly person from Utah would  answer your question -
 no charge - and then wish you a pleasant day!

 Now when you call, at best its a long distance call, and at worst a 900
 number at $2/minute plus, or a $25 per incident charge. Some companies
 have so many tech support calls that they have their own DJ's on line,
 LIVE!

 Did you ever sit on hold with Microsoft's Tech Support? Its some-thing
 that more than  12,000 people do each day  - thanks to Win95. There, you
 can hear a live DJ play music and cheerfully update you on the wait times
 and the number of callers  queued up for the various support departments.

 Imagine your frustration! To go through that kind of waiting only to be
 told that the problem is with your video card, operating system,  word
 processor, or sound card - when it was the  %^&*# !! sound card people
 who insisted that you call Microsoft!

 THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND
 Have you called Packard Bell for technical support lately? We do quite a
 bit of  service on Packard Bell machines and occasionally have a question
 we need to ask of the vendor. By now you'd think we'd know better.

 One of our first experiences was about three years ago when we had a
 client with a CMOS battery failure in a Packard Bell 386. Does that sound
 simple enough? The client was located forty-five minutes away so we
 thought we'd call Packard Bell and find out what kind of battery we
 needed to pick up to replace the bad one.

 I got a technician on the line, provided him the model number of the unit
 and  after a few moments of research he told me it took battery A.  I
 don't really remember his exact answer or the details, but that was the
 gist of it.

 The next morning we were ready to pick up the battery and go out to the
 client, but there was still some confusion as to what type of battery he
 had identified, so we called back. A different tech answered; so we gave
 him the model number and, after brief research, he told us that it took
 battery B. We weren't positive about what the first tech had said, but we
 WERE positive that it wasn't the same answer.

 Now, thoroughly concerned, we called back a third time to confirm; this
 time we got a third tech. We explained the situation and he confidently
 proclaimed that, in fact, that model of Packard Bell machine used Battery
 C.  He was so convincing that we picked up one of the "C" batteries and
 arrived on the client's site an hour later. As you might be expecting,
 after opening the case of the unit, we discovered that all three of the
 techs were wrong! In fact the unit took a  fourth type of battery.

 On a separate matter one of our technicians recently spent twenty minutes
 on the phone explaining their system to their tech. Who's supporting whom
 here?

 If you think that's bad, we recently picked up a new client which is a
 medium sized Los Angeles bank . They've been paying $200/hour to  several
 different large service companies trying to get their IBM PS/2 286 to
 connect into a mainframe/mini using PCLink. In the months of effort, they
 have had absolutely no connection. They've had the cabling checked and
 rechecked, even reRUN and they're sure it works fine. Still, no
 connection. I'm not that familiar with PCLink, but I offered to take a
 look at it for them.

 After arriving at the site my first thought was that perhaps the serial
 port on the PC was dead. So I fired up CheckIt Pro with a loopback plug
 and tested it. It worked like a champ. I checked PCLink's configuration
 to make sure that all was correct. "9600 baud, COM1" looked good to me.
 One more check of the back of the machine brought about an interesting
 discovery though.  The cable was plugged into LPT1.

 LPT1 was, in fact, the only port on the back of the machine that was
 pin-compatible with the cable and apparently the $200/hour blue suits
 didn't think to check and see which port that really was. Since PCLink,
 at least their version of it, doesn't support parallel connects, they
 weren't going to get very far with that setup.  A $2 adapter fixed the
 pin  compatibility problem and within minutes they had a live connection
 that was fully functional. The amazing thing is that after weeks of
 trying, none of these expensive professionals were able to come up with
 that simple solution!

 The point of this story, in fact this whole column, is that for whatever
 the reasons it seems as though the quality of technical support is
 sliding fast. End-users are enduring long waits and high costs to get
 wrong answers. I have dozens more stories of vendors and high priced
 service companies steering end-users wrong; I mean blatantly wrong!

 What's behind all of this? Have systems become so complicated and
 technological progress been so rapid that even those charged with
 supporting them can't keep up with accurate information? Do support
 companies not care about quality support anymore? Or are they just trying
 to gouge consumers?

 Things have been complicated further by the fact that users are, on the
 average, more savvy than they used to be. Often they know just enough to
 get themselves into trouble. I have one client who calls me every two
 weeks...right after he has tried to install a new operating system,
 environment, memory manager or other significant programs onto his
 system.

 Certainly we make mistakes on occasion, too, but I like to think that if
 we made mistakes like those Ive described, that we would either quickly
 catch it, or admit the error and accept responsibility. All too often it
 seems as though companies are making mistakes and then denying any
 responsibility.

 So what's the solution to this mess? Users are getting more and more
 disgruntled and the industry's reputation is slipping fast. What kind of
 remedies do you think are appropriate? If you have any notions or
 suggestions, E-Mail them to me at ben.schorr@bcsbbs.com, and in future
 columns we'll discuss these ideas, and perhaps get a response or two from
 a couple  of the major industry players.

 Ben Schorr is a computer consultant in Los Angeles.  He hosts the Ilink
 Consultants conference and is active on many more.  He is a WindoWatch
 regular. He can be reached at ben.schorr@bcsbbs.com



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             ABOUT WINDOWATCH and the WINDOWATCH WRITERS




 Editor                                       Lois B. Laulicht
 Contributing Editor:                               Herb Chong
 Production Editor                                Paul Kinnaly
 HomePage Editor                                     Jim Plumb
 Associate Editor                                 Kyle Freeman
 Business Manager                                   Bob Miller
 Contributing Writers: Derek Buchler, John M. Campbell,
     Leonard Grossman, Jim Gunn, Gregg Hommel , Stan Kanner,
     Jerry Laulicht, Phil Leonard, Robin Mabry, Frank McGowan,
     Peter Neuendorffer, Ben Schorr, Paul  Williamson

 EDITORIAL BOARD
 Herb Chong, Gregg Hommel, Paul Kinnaly, Lois Laulicht,
 Bob Miller, Paul Williamson.

 SUBMISSIONS and REQUESTS
 Email using Internet
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 Editor WindoWatch
 Valley Head, WV 26294
 Submissions remain the intellectual property of the author. Manuscripts
 will NOT be returned if not used.

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 FTP>ftp.channel1.com/pub/WindoWatch
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 WindoWatch is found on Channel One in several formats by calling
 617-354-3137 (28800)  or
 617-354-3230 (9600 and 14.400).
 We publish in a Windows compatible format and  in HTML  on our home page.
 The DOS format uses ReadRoom (*.TOC) One can also read online from the
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 latest WindoWatch issue by typing J Free from the main board.

 Subscriptions, sponsorship and contributions at various levels.
 Comments, letters, and requests can be sent to us at various locations.
 Postlink to Lois Laulicht ->15  tagging the message "receiver  only" and
 on the Internet lois.laulicht@channel1.com

 WindoWatch (c) 1995 all rights reserved, is the property of
 Lois B. Laulicht and CCC of WV
 Valley Head, WV  26294




