?General General information on MP/M 8-16 MP/M 8-16 is a proprietary implementation of Digital Research's MP/M-86 operating system from Gifford Computer Systems. This implementation of MP/M-86 enables systems with CompuPro hardware to run both 8- and 16-bit programs simultaneously in a multi-user, multi-tasking environment. ?sw The SW feature of MP/M 8-16 The SW program is the most innovative part of Gifford Computer Systems' enhancements to MP/M-86. This program enables the system's 8- and 16-bit file access capability. When the user gives a command on the MP/M 8-16 command line, the shell first searches the directories for CP/M-86 (16-bit) files with a .CMD extension. If a .CMD file is not found, the shell automatically invokes SW, which searches for a CP/M-80 (8-bit) program with the same file name, but with a .COM extension. ?SUBMIT Using SUBMIT with MP/M 8-16 Although the SW program is called automatically by the shell when you ask for an 8-bit program, the SUBMIT facility does not know how to do this. Thus, you must explicitly give the A:SW command on lines of a SUBMIT file that call 8-bit programs. For example, if you want to run an 8-bit program called F80 on a file called BILLING.FOR, and then erase the file called BILLING.LST, your SUBMIT file would have the following two lines: A:SW F80 BILLING.FOR ERA BILLING.LST ?CLOCK Setting the time with the CLOCK command MP/M-86 has a TOD command which allows setting the time, but will not work under MP/M 8-16. MP/M 8-16 uses the real-time clock on the System Support board to set the time instead of the time derived from the TOD program. Instead of using TOD command to set the time, use the CLOCK command. TOD will still return the correct time. Unless the NiCad battery back-up is disconnected from your System Support board, you only have to set the time once. The System Support board may be removed from the computer and reinstalled later as long as the battery is always connected to the board. The NiCad battery will last for about two years. ?MPMINIT MPMINIT.CMD and MPMINIT.SUB Before giving the user at the system console control of the system, it first checks for files called MPMINIT.CMD and MPMINIT.SUB on user 0 of disk A:. If it finds MPMINIT.CMD, it runs the program. It then looks for MPMINIT.SUB; if it finds it, it runs SUBMIT with the file. For example, you can use the MPMINIT files to check the status of the disks, and the amount of disk space available. ?USERINIT USERINIT.CMD and USERINIT.SUB When a user gives a correct login name (and password, if necessary), the system checks user 0 of drive A: for files called USERINIT.CMD and USERINIT.SUB. If it finds USERINIT.CMD, it runs the program. It then looks for USERINIT.SUB; if it finds it, it then runs SUBMIT with the file. These programs are run for all users. ?Passwords Passwords on the system There are two types of passwords on MP/M 8-16. You can protect files and you can prevent unauthorized users from logging onto the system. The file protection is documented in the "MP/M-86 Operating System User's Guide" in the section on files. The login protection is documented in the "MP/M 8-16 Reference Manual" in the section on the PASSWD file. For more information on the PASSWD file, give the command HELP MPM PASSWD. ?PASSWD The structure of the PASSWD file is: NAME:PASSWORD:DRIVE:USER:PRINTER:ACCESS:PROGRAM:COMMENTS |__| |______| |___| |__| |_____| |____| |_____| |_______ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1. User login name 2. Optional password field 3. Optional default user drive (default = drive A) 4. Optional default user number (default = user 0) 5. Optional default user printer (default = printer 0) 6. Optional selective terminal access numbers. This is a comma separated list of the console numbers users will be allowed to use. If no assignment is made in this field, the user has access to any terminal. 7. Optional default application program, such as SuperCalc. Users with an entry in this field are automatically entered into the program specified. The system searches for the program exactly as if the user had typed at the default prompt. Upon exiting the program, the user is automatically logged out. 8. Optional comments field ?TTYS The structure of the TTYS file DEV #:BAUD RATE:HANDSHAKING:PROTOCOL:TTY NAME:COMMENTS |___| |_______| |_________| |______| |______| |_______ \ \ \ \ \ \ 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. Number of terminal, corresponding to connection on computer back panel. Numbers begin with 0. 2. Terminal baud rate; the default is 9600. Baud rates are selected from the following: 0 = 9600 1 = 110 2 = 300 3 = 600 4 = 1200 5 = 1800 6 = 2400 7 = 4800 8 = 9600 9 = 19200 A = automatic baud rate detection for modems 3. Optional RS-232 hardware handshaking. Hardware handshaking is generally not required for terminals; if not specified, the default is 0. If handshaking is necessary, enter the number corresponding to the type of handshaking needed from the following: 0 = No handshaking 1 = Hardware handshaking (DTR) (RS-232 pin 20) 2 = Software handshaking (XON XOFF) 3 = Reserved for custom application 4. Optional communications protocol. This is a three character entry. The default protocol is 8 data bits, 2 stop bits, and no parity, which are the settings for most common terminals. If you need to change this, select the configuration you need from the table below and enter the three characters without any spaces. For example, if your terminal requires a protocol of 7 data bits, 2 stop bits, even parity, enter 72E in field 4. Data bits Stop bits Parity 8 2 N (none) 7 1 O (odd) E (even) 5. Optional terminal name of up to 8 characters with no spaces. The terminal name is often entered as "console" for the system console, "tty1" for terminal 1, "tty2" for terminal 2, etc. This field is used to identify the location on the system of a user in the WHO facility, and will be used in future MP/M 8-16 utilities. More than one terminal name can be listed, separated by commas with no spaces. 6. Optional comments field. ?LPRS The structure of the LPRS file. DEV #:BAUD RATE:HANDSHAKING:PROTOCOL:LPR NAME:COMMENT |___| |_______| |_________| |______| |______| |______ \ \ \ \ \ \ 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. Number of printer, corresponding to connection on computer back panel. Printer 0 is the default printer for users. 2. Printer baud rate. The default and options are listed in the help for TTYS. 3. Optional RS-232 hardware handshaking. The default and options listed in the help for TTYS. 4. Optional communications protocol. The default and options are listed in the help for TTYS. 5. Optional printer name. This field is described in the previous section. The value here is used in the MPM-86 PRINTER command, which changes the default printer for a user. 6. Optional comment field. ?WTMP The structure of the WTMP file A sample entry is: tty2 david 2 16642132392034 7221982 4 The first two fields are the terminal name and user name. The contents of the other fields are: 2 1664 21 32 39 203 4 7 22 1982 4 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. Console number. 2. Days since January 1st, 1978. 3. Hour of the day (24 hour clock). 4. Minute of the hour. 5. Second of the minute. 6. Julian day of the year (1-365) 7. Day of the week (Sunday = 0, Monday = 1, Tuesday = 3, etc.) 8. Date in month-day-year. 9. Program file link number; the first entry defines the length of the file. ?MAIL The MAIL Utility The MAIL utility lets you send mail to, and receive mail from, other users. For more information on MAIL, give the command HELP MAIL or HELP MAIL ALL. ?Reminder Reminder files Each time you log on the system, MP/M 8-16 checks user area 15 on disk A: for a file called name.REM, where "name" is the name being logged in. If it finds the file, it types it on your screen. ?MOTD The Message of the Day Each time a user logs in, the system types out the message of the day. The message is kept in the file called MOTD on user 0 on drive. This file can contain anything you wish, including escape sequences to control the user's screen. Create and update the MOTD file with an editor such as ED or WordStar. ?FORMAT Formatting diskettes and disks Floppy diskettes used with the MP/M 8-16 system must be formatted before being used to transfer or store information. The FORMAT program included on your system diskette formats both single and double density diskettes, and the recommended format is double density diskettes formatted for 1024 byte sectors. It is extremely unlikely that you will need to format your hard disk once it is in use. Formatting a disk erases all of the information on it. It is also unlikely that you will want to run the destructive disk test, since this also destroys the information on your disk. ?help The HELP facility The HELP command gives you more information about the system, or about programs supplied with the system. You can also make your own help files, or modify the ones we supply. To get general information on a subject, simply type HELP and the program name. The HELP program will access that help file, and the subject of GENERAL. To get a list of the subjects in a help file, give the command "HELP filename ALL". ?TOD The TOD Command in MP/M 8-16 The TOD command prints out the current time of day. Under MP/M 8-16, it does not set the system clock. This is done with the CLOCK program. For more information, type HELP MPM CLOCK. ?PRINTER The PRINTER Command in MP/M 8-16 The PRINTER command takes the names of printers, as well as their number, as arguments in MP/M 8-16. For more information on printer names, type HELP MPM LPRS. ?COPY The COPY command To make an exact copy of the system diskette, use one of the formatted diskettes supplied by Gifford Computer Systems, or format a diskette with the FORMAT program, choosing 1024 byte sectors. You must boot the system with CP/M 2.2, then give the COPY command. ?SYSGEN The SYSGEN command Use the SYSGEN command to copy the system tracks of a boot diskette to another diskette. ?Shutdown Shutting down your system It is important that you follow these procedures each time you turn off your system or reset it (re-initialize by pressing the reset button), especially if you are running your system with a hard disk. These steps ensure that data is written from the hard disk cache. Failure to follow them may result in loss of valuable data. 1. All users (except system console) log off of the system by giving the LOGOUT command. 2. After all the other users have logged out, the user at the system console gives the DOWN command. This turns off all terminals except the system console. 3. Release the system diskette from the floppy disk drive. Hold in the red reset button on the front of the Enclosure 2, turn off power to the computer by pressing the bottom part of the power switch down, and release the reset button. ?DOWN The DOWN command The DOWN command turns off all terminals except the system console. For more information, type HELP MPM SHUTDOWN. ?MAKE The MAKE command The MAKE command creates an empty file on your disk. This is useful if you need to make a file that does not contain any information, but the existence of the file is important to other programs. To make a file, give the MAKE command and the file name at the system prompt. For example, to create the file TEST.FIL, type MAKE TEST.FIL at the system prompt. ?WHO The WHO command The WHO command lists the users on the system, their consoles, and the time they logged on. ?TIMELOG The TIMELOG utilities Gifford Computer Systems provides dBASE II utilities to get login histories of users and terminals on your MP/M 8-16 system. These utilities read from the WTMP file, and write out a dBASE II data base. ?SuperCalc SuperCalc Your system includes a copy of SuperCalc, which is a financial spread-sheet program which is used to forecast costs and benefits for businesses. To run SuperCalc, give the SC command. If you need help when running SuperCalc, type the question mark (?) key. ?dBASE dBASE II Your system includes a copy of dBASE II, which is a complete data base management system. To run dBASE II, give the DBASE command. ?SYNC The SYNC command The SYNC command copies the cache disk buffers to the hard disk. MP/M 8-16 systems with hard disks use cache memory to improve the speed of accessing the disk. This means, however, that there are times when RAM memory contains information that has not been written on the hard disk. The system does an automatic SYNC command every 30 seconds. If you want to flush the cache memory before then, give the SYNC command. ?languages Programming languages Gifford Computer Systems sells the following computer languages: Assemblers -- SORCIM ACT-80, ACT-86, Trans86. Digital Research SID (8- and 16-bit), MAC, RMAC BASIC -- Microsoft's BASIC interpreter and compiler (8-bit); Digital Research's CBASIC (8- and 16-bit) interpreter, and CB80 compiler (8-bit) C -- Computer Innovations C86 (16-bit); Whitesmith's C (8-bit) Pascal -- SORCIM's Pascal/M (8- and 16-bit); Digital Research's Pascal MT+ (8- and 16-bit, Speed Programming Package available) FORTRAN -- Microsoft FORTRAN (8-bit) PL/1 -- Digital Research PL/1 (8-bit) ?ABORT The ABORT command ABORT stops execution of a process. The syntax is: ABORT process n where process is the name of the program to be aborted, and n is the terminal number that the program is running on. ?ASM86 The MP/M-86 Assembler The ASM86 assembles assembly language statements, and produces an object file in hexadecimal format. It is documented in the MP/M-86 Operating System Programmer's Guide. ?ATTACH The ATTACH command The ATTACH command attaches a detached program. The syntax is: ATTACH process where process is the name of the detached program. ?CONSOLE The CONSOLE command types the number of the user's console. ?DDT86 The dynamic debugger The DDT86 program aids the dynamic debugging of MP/M-86 programs. It is documented in the MP/M-86 Operating System Programmer's Guide. ?DIR The DIR command The DIR command displays a list of files that are on a disk. The name specified to the DIR command can have wildcards. For more information on wildcards in file names, type HELP MPM WILDCARDS. You can also use the [SYS] option of DIR to list files with the system attribute. To list files on a user number other than the one you are connected to, use the [G] option with the number of the area. For example, to list all of the files on user 6, give the command "DIR *.*[G6]". ?DSKRESET The DSKRESET command Give the DSKRESET command before removing a floppy diskette from a drive. This prevents you from destroying another person's data if they are also accessing that diskette. If you do not give an argument to DSKRESET, all drives are reset. You can specify the individual drives that you want to reset. ?ED The ED editor The ED command allows you to edit files. It is documented in the MP/M-86 Operating System User's Guide. The ED editor is not very sophisticated, and Gifford Computer Systems recommends the use of other editors, such as WordStar, instead of ED for most applications. ?ERA The ERA command Erase files from your disk with the ERA command. The ERA command accepts wildcard specifications (for more information on wildcards, give the HELP MPM WILDCARDS command). ?ERAQ The ERAQ command Selectively erase files from your disk with the ERAQ command. This command is similar to the ERA command, except that it prompts you before each file, so that you can erase only some of a given group. ?GENCMD The GENCMD Command Use GENCMD to create .CMD command files from hex file (such as ones created with the ASM86 command). The GENCMD command is documented in the MP/M-86 Operating System Programmer's Guide. ?MPMSTAT The MPMSTAT command The MPMSTAT command displays information about the internal status of your MP/M 8-16 system. The information displayed by MPMSTAT take up more than a full screen, and generally is not useful to the casual user. ?wildcards Using wildcard characters in file specifications An asterisk (*) in the filename or filetype is replaced by any number of characters in the filename that is searched. A question mark (?) in the filename or filetype is replaced by one character in the filename that is searched. For example, the command "DIR BA*.TXT" will list BANNER.TXT and BAD.TXT, but not BURNER.TXT. The command "DIR BA?.TXT" will list BAD.TXT, but not BANNER.TXT. ?PIP The PIP command The PIP command moves files from a disk to another file, or to an external device (such as a printer). The format of the command is: PIP destination=source You can use wildcard characters in the filename. For an explanation of wildcard specifications, type HELP MPM WILDCARDS. The destination is the name of a file to be created, the name of a disk (the same file name as the source will be used), or LST: (to print out the file). There are many options that you can specify to modify the PIP command. When copying a file from one disk to another, you should always use the V and O options. If you are copying all of the files from one disk to another, and want to update files that are on the destination disk, use the options V, R, O, and W. To copy all of the files from A: to B:, give the command: PIP B:=A:*.*[VROW] The options that are most commonly used are: A - archive Gn - "Goto" user n. If this is specified on the destination file, this writes the file to user n. If it is specified on the source file, it reads the file from user n. K - Kill console display during a wildcard file transfer. O - Object file transfers. This option should always be used. R - Read files that have the system attribute set. Tn - Expand TAB characters to n spaces. This is useful when listing programs on printers. V - Verify that the data is copied correctly after each record is written. This option should always be used when transferring files from one disk to another. W - Write over files that have the read-only attribute. ?REN The REN command Rename files on a disk with the REN command. The format is: REN newname=oldname The command will accept wildcards if they appear in the same place in both the new and old names (e.g., REN MYPROG.*=YOURPROG.*). For more information on wildcards, type HELP MPM WILDCARDS. ?SDIR The SDIR command The SDIR command displays a list of files that are on a disk. The name specified to the SDIR command can have wildcards. For more information on wildcards in file names, type HELP MPM WILDCARDS. The SDIR command is different than the DIR command since it takes many more options, displays more information about each file, and sorts the file by filename and file type. The options most commonly used are: SYS - list all files with the system attribute DIR - list all files with the directory attribute RO - list all files with the read-only attribute RW - list all files with the read-write attribute USER=n - list the files from user number n USER=ALL - list the files from all user numbers USER=(n1,n2,...) - list the files from user number n1, n2,... DRIVE=d - list the files from drive d DRIVE=ALL - list the files from all connected drives DRIVE=(d1,d2,...) - list the files from drives d1, d2,... EXCLUDE - list all files except those specified in the command The default is to list all RW, RO, SYS, and DIR files. You can get help for the SDIR command by giving the command SDIR HELP. ?SET The SET command The SET command is used to set the attributes on files and disks. The name specified to the SET command can have wildcards. For more information on wildcards in file names, type HELP MPM WILDCARDS. The options are: Disks: SET d: [RO or RW] - set the disk read-only or read-write SET d: [NAME=name] - give a name to the disk SET d: [PASSWORD = password, PROTECT=ON, DEFAULT=password] - password protection SET d: [MAKE=ON, CREATE=ON, ACCESS=ON, UPDATE=ON] - XFCB creation Files: SET filespec [RO or RW, DIR or SYS] - set the file(s) read-only or read-write, and directory or system SET filespec [PASSWORD = password, TIME = ON] - set the password and timestamping SET filespec [PROTECT = READ or WRITE or DELETE or NONE] - set the protection You can get help for the SET command by giving the command SET HELP. ?SHOW The SHOW command The SHOW command displays information about disks on your MP/M 8-16 system. If no argument is given, the amount of space left on the drive is displayed. The options are: USERS - displays each user and the files on the disk that are allocated to them. DRIVES - lists extended information for each drive, such as the number of directory entries. LABEL - displays the label, password protection, XFCB status, timestamp status, and update time of the disk. You can get help for the SHOW command by giving the command SHOW HELP. ?SPOOL The SPOOL command The SPOOL command sends files to the printer. The syntax is: SPOOL file1, file2, ... The spooler can be stopped with the STOPSPLR command. ?STAT The STAT command gives information about disks and files, and sets the read-only protection on files. In MP/M 8-16, it is superseded by the SET and SHOW commands. ?STOPSPLR The STOPSPLR command stops the print spooler. For information on using the print spooler, type HELP MPM SPOOL. ?TYPE The TYPE command The TYPE command types files on your terminal. ?USER The USER command The USER command changes your user number. tions are: USERS - displays each user and the files on the disk that are allocated to