PC CLONES MAGAZINE START UP DISK


This disk contains original utility programs that
have proved useful in the operation of PC/XT/AT
computers and compatibles. Many of the programs are
for use with hard disks and enable the management
of the large quantity of files you develop on these
large drives. There are also many useful programs
for those with floppy disks.
All of these programs are copyright by the
author and are supplied to you free, however the
author does not waive any of his rights under
copyright law.
Neither Computer Shopper of Titusville, Inc.
or the author is responsible for the quality of
the programs or the condition of the disk. IN NO
EVENT WILL COMPUTER SHOPPER OF TITUSVILLE, INC, OR
ANDREW FRIED BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES,
INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS,LOST SAVINGS, OR ANY
OTHER INCIDENTIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
OUT OF THE USE, OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE
EVEN IF COMPUTER SHOPPER, OF TITUSVILLE, INC, OR
ANDREW FRIED HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGES.
We will not replace damaged disks. The
purchase price of PC Clones Magazine is $3.95
without the software and disk and it is
understood that receipt of this disk is not a
sale of either the programs or the disk.
Upon receipt of the disk, you are
granted a license to use the programs for non-
commerical use.
You may reproduce the programs for your own use,
but you may not sell or give them away to anyone.

A description of the software folows:

BARCODE.EXE
-----------
This utility program will produce Code 39
barcode on mailing labels or regular paper. It
will print up to a maximum of 12 characters. It
is suggested that in order to save space you
print only uppercase letters, although BARCODE will
recognize and print lower case letters. For more
information, type:
BARCODE
at the DOS prompt. A short help menu will appear
describing the calling conventions. Requires an
Epson compatible printer.

BLANK3.COM
----------
This program will prevent CRT image burn by
completely blanking the screen after three
minutes of inactivity. The program is a memory
resident program which should be called up by
your autoexec.bat file. If you use Sidekick, be
sure to load this program in memory before loading
Sidekick.
Every time you press a key or an application
program uses DOS to update the screen timer
inside BLANK3.COM is reset. If the counter
reaches three minutes, the screen video driver
shuts down. In order to restore the screen,
depress any key (preferably Alt or Ctl) and
the screen will be restored to normal. NOTE:
This is not designed to work on an EGA card.
One additional feature of this program is
that if you press the ALT-F keys together, a
formfeed will be sent to the printer.

BNCHMARK
--------
This program is used to benchmark the speed
of various computers.
It performs 100,000 calculations of each
type displayed and returns the number of timer
ticks it took to perform the test.
Note that 18.2 timer ticks equal
approximately 1 second (a timer tick occurs every
55 ms.).

CLEAN.COM
---------
A high speed Wordstar to ASCII conversion program.
May or may not work on clones not supporting high
speed DMA memory tranfers. To run, use the
following syntax:
CLEAN filename[.ext]
CLEAN will then rename the current file to an
extension of *.bak and copy the clean file back
into its original name.

COLORS.EXE
----------
This utility produces all of the various color
attributes on the screen in their native color.
Extermely useful if you write programs and want
to find various color combinations.

DATETIME.COM
------------
This utility will take the current system date
and time and change all of the files that
match the pattern given. For to set the date
and time of all of the files in your DOS directory,
you would type the following:
DATETIME C:\DOS\*.*
If you wanted to restamp only the EXE files, you
would enter:
DATETIME C:\DOS\*.EXE
Note that the full path must be given!

DIRTY.COM
---------
The exact opposite of the CLEAN program. This
program translates an ASCII file into Wordstar
format. Once converted, however, you must go
through the file and manually insert hard carriage
returns at the end of a paragraph. Really nice
for exchanging files with others. This program
also requires a DMA capability.
It is invoked with the following syntax:
DIRTY filename[.ext]
The new file will then have the extension of *.wsf.

DISKINFO.EXE
------------
This utility will return information regarding the
hard disks in an IBM PC/AT or compatible system.

DOCLEN.EXE
----------
This program will accurately estimate the number
of lines and pages in a document. Useful for
making the decision to print or not to print. Call
it up like this:
DOCLEN filename[.ext]

FF.COM
------
Definately one of my favority utilities. This
program merely sends a form feed character to the
printer. Saves you the effort of having to take
the printer offline, hit the form feed key,
wait for the paper to advance and then hit the
onlike key.

FIND.EXE
--------
Helps you to find files on a hard disk. It
will search a disk drive, beginning at the root,
for any and all matches you present to it. The
DOS wildcard characters '*' and '?' are legal.
For example, 'FIND *.bat' would find all files on the
default drive ending with a 'bat' prefix. FIND is
case insensitive, meaning that '*.bat' and
'.*.BAT' produce the same results.
You could also specify a different drive.
For instance,
FIND C:X.BAT or FIND C:\X.BAT
will cause FIND to look for all files with the
name 'X.BAT' on drive C to be displayed.

HDPARK.EXE
----------
This program will safely park the heads on a
hard disk. It should be run whenever the disk is
going to be transported. It is also suggested
that you routinely park the heads just prior to
shutting down the system.

INT.EXE
-------
This program is very useful for any programmer
writing interrupt software or memory resident
software. It permits you to obtain the actual
memory address of any interrupt vector in the
PC. Typing "INT ?" or "INT HELP" will present
online help. One of the really nice features
of INT is that all uninitialized
interrupt vectors will be flagged with an "-" in
front of them and all of the vectors pointing to
an IRET instruction will be flagged with a "*"
in front. You may type "INT" to receive a
complete interrupt vector dump or you may type
"INT num" for a single interrupt vector.
"INTnum1 num2" will dump all vectors
falling between the two numbers.

ISPRIME.EXE
-----------
This program will tell you if a number is a prime.
To call it, you merely type:
ISPRIME nnn
where nnn is any number.

MOVEFILE.EXE
------------
This program will enable you to move a single
file from one directory to another without
having to actually move the file.
Only the directory areas are updated. In order
program, you must specify the full path for the
source file as well as the destinatiion file. For
example:
MOVEFILE C:\UTILITY\ABC.COM C:\LETTER\ABC.COM
the program will move the file abc.com from the
utility directory to the letter directory.

PRIME.EXE
---------
This is another benchmark program useful for
determining the overall speed of a unit. It
calculates the first 1000 prime numbers and
returns the number of divisions necessary to find
them. It also returns the time required to process
the program.

PRTSCR.COM
----------
This is another memory resident utility. When
run, it loads in memory and remains dormant until
you call it up. Once loaded, any time you press
shift-prtscr the program will send the current
screen to a disk file (non-graphics only). The
program will automatically add carriage returns
at the end so that the screen image can be edited
with a standard text processor. Note that
each screen will be saved in a file beginning at
SCREEN.000 and can go up to SCREEN.999.

ROMCHECK.EXE
------------
This utility will check your system for optional
ROM signatures with indicate a firmware routine on
an expansion card. Most PC clones, for example,
will return a signature at C800:0000; that
is the hard disk controllers card ROM.

ROMDATE.COM
-----------
Displays the date of the ROM and any copyright
notice found at address F000:E000.

RS232.EXE
---------
This utility will cause the "TR" modem light on a
Hayes modem to flash. It begins by telling you
which communications port it is addressing after
which it toggles the RTS and DTR lines ten
times. You stop the program by depressing any key.
It is useful for determining what port the modem is
attached.

SETCLOCK
--------
This utility will enable you set the IBM PC/AT
clock without having to boot the system up with
the diagnostics disk. To set the time, use
the command TIME' at the DOS prompt. Once you
set the time, run SETCLOCK. SETCLOCK will get the
time from the operating system and update the CMOS
clock in the AT.

SWAP.COM
--------
If you have at least two printers attached to your
system, this utility will swap their port
addresses around. This means that LPT1: will now
print to LPT2: and visa versa. It is extremely
useful for those having both a letter quality and
a dot matrix printer hooked up to the system
using two different parallel ports. Rerunning
the program will swap the ports to their
initial state.

TABX
----
This utility will remove all tab characters from
an ASCII text file and replace the tabs with the
appropriate number of spaces.
It is called up by the following syntax:
TABX filename[.ext]

THATSALL,EXE
-------------
A public domain program that will suprise you
for color graphics card equipped clones only.