HALIFAX AREA
                PERSONAL COMPUTER SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER                                     MAY 1995

Meets 4th Sunday of each month, 7:00 pm
     Nova Scotia Community College
     Institute of Technology Campus (NSIT)
     Leeds Street, Halifax, N.S.

28 MAY MEETING

Intro Topics
     - Windows Feature - Bill Marchant
Feature Topic:
     - WordPerfect Update -Guest Speaker:
   Agnes Ballatyne - Novell Applications Group


IN THIS MONTH'S ISSUE:

Announcements

Report From the Chair
An end of year update on the Society

What Might Have Been
This series on a look back in time concludes with part five

Leaving Home - on the Information Highway
More Internet info from David

Thoughts on; Subdirectories
Managing these using Windows

The Newsletter
A few notes about this document

Meeting Schedule 94/95
Dates for the rest of the year


GENERAL INFORMATION

This document is mailed to all paid up members and to anyone who
has attended a meeting within the past three months.  Yearly
membership dues are $15.00.  The text of the newsletter is
available on ATAB 435-0751, (8N1) and other local bulletin
boards.
Society Mailing Address -
  P.O. Box 29008, Halifax N.S., B3L 4T8
Executive
  Chairperson - David Potter
  Vice-Chair - Andy Cornwall - 861-4503 (h)
  Secretary/Newsletter Editor - Colin Stuart - 461-0370 (h)
  Treasurer - Garth Bennett - 492-3368 (h)
  Disk Librarian - Thayne MacLean - 461-0082 (h)
  and but not least Norman DeForest, Henry Hill, Arthur
  Layton, Rob MacCara, Bill Marchant, George Richards, and
  Diane Smith


ANNOUNCEMENTS


We have a number of announcements in this 
month's issue.

Last Planning Meeting
The last planning meeting was held on May 1st.  In attendance
were Norman DeForest, Henry Hill, George Richards, David Potter,
and Les Currie.

The next planning meeting will be held on the 5th of June, at
8:00pm at the Institute of Technology Campus (NSIT), Leeds Street
in Halifax.  This will also be our first Annual General Meeting. 
For more details, see the announcement on this topic on the next
page.

Next Meeting Topic
The main presentation for May will be by Agnes Ballantyne who is
the local representative for WordPerfect.  As you know,
WordPerfect is now a part of Novell, and Agnes will have
information about the latest products from that company.  We
should look forward to a very entertaining and informative
evening.


First Annual General Meeting
Our first official year end was April 30, 1995 and our Annual
General Meeting is scheduled for June 5, 1995 at N.S.I.T. Leeds
Street, Halifax, N.S. at 8:00 p.m..  Members wishing to place
anything significant before the meeting are requested to contact
any of the  executive  at or prior to the regular monthly meeting
to be held May 28, 1995.

The meeting will include some discussion about special
promotional events including ticket draws that might be held next
fall;  the selection of an executive group, a financial and
membership report and then adjournment to hold our regular
planning meeting. 

All members are encouraged to attend the Annual General Meeting. 
We ll try to serve coffee.

Society Draw
There will not be a draw at the next meeting.

Membership Expiry Dates
For those of you who are not already aware, the membership expiry
dates are printed in the upper right corner of your newsletter
mailing label.  If you wish to continue to receive this
newsletter and know what interesting meetings are coming up, you
either have to renew ($15 per year) or come to the meetings and
put your name on the list that is passed around.

OS/2 Users Group
Meets the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm.

Those who are interested in attending should contact Carey Rolfe
at 462-4551 or E-Mail crolfe@fox.nstn.ns.ca for date and time
confirmation.

WordPerfect Users Group Meeting
Meetings of the Atlantic Canada WordPerfect User Society are held
on the third Wednesday of the month at 6:30 pm.

For more information contact:

Therese Mackintosh, 435-5456.

Advertising and Want Ads
We don't charge for small individual want ads.  That is any
Society member or other interested person with some computer
related item that they wish to sell, trade, or give away can
contact the editor to place an ad in the newsletter.  We would
expect that more commercially oriented advertising provide the
Society with some remuneration for carrying the ad.

An ad will normally only appear once but let me know if you need
it repeated.  Ads can be given to me at meetings or give me a
call two weeks to ten days before the next general meeting
(newsletter deadline).


REPORT FROM THE CHAIR

This has been a very eventful year for the Society... 
1) we have registered as a society, 
2) started selling tickets and holding draws for computer related
items at the monthly meetings and 
3) have established a presence on the Internet through the (now)
Chebucto Community Net. 

In the process we have increased our presence in the community
and enjoyed a modest increase in membership.  Although this year
has seen a number of changes, in many ways we are a very  laid
back  group.  We have a core of regular members many of whom have
been attending meetings for years and a planning group that could
be described in much the same way.

The opportunity exists to expand our group activities into other
areas such as  special interest groups  but it will require
members step forward and express an interest in additional
activities to drive the process.  I would encourage all members
of the group to make their interests known and assist in any way
possible to make group activities as interesting as possible.

We now have the ability to raise funds through ticket sales and
draws, this potential revenue could be used to bring in guest
speakers or send members to conferences... (at a recent computer
show, Bill Gates (Microsoft Boss) met privately with
representatives of user groups...) we could be there too!

In closing, I would like to acknowledge the volunteer effort that
members of the society make... especially in organizing meetings,
managing the finances, and disk library and publishing the
newsletter.  Many hands certainly make the work go easier and I
would like to encourage the assistance of all members in our
group activities.

Respectfully submitted.



David L. Potter
Chair


WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN - PART FIVE

by Garth Bennett

Having looked at three different machines over the last few
Newsletters, let's now have a look at the operating system which
kept them going.  The wealth of the computer software companies
is directly proportional to the acceptance of the operating
systems they develop.  This is why IBM is doing their thing with
WARP and OS/2 and Microsoft is running like hell to get Chicago
(Windows95) out.  One can only imagine the intense pressure on
its project manager.  Those quiet enjoyable Monday morning
meetings with Bill Gates must be a joy.  No wonder there has been
such a rise in Pepto Bismol production.

Originally, from this series' point of view, there was Digital
Research and its CPM operating system for 8 bit machines.  The
founder, Gary Kildall, a former Navy guy, wrote the system to get
these new little machines talking with all the peripheral devices
(disk drives, monitors etc).  Digital Research (DR) quickly grew
and became, to those times, what Microsoft is today.  It provided
tools for the public and specifically programmers to make the
computers do things.  They produced compilers and operating
systems and specialized tools for programming..

The story goes that IBM first asked DR to come up with an
operating system for its soon to be released 16 bit machine.  The
story is lost in the mythology of computer history but Gary
Kildall was either busy flying his private plane the day IBM came
calling or didn't feel his company had the time to tackle this
project with the others they had on their plate.  One of the DR
Marketing Vice Presidents said it all "We consider it a corporate
misstep".

The similarities between Microsoft's MS DOS (purchase from Seattle
Software company and upgraded) and CPM for the 8 bit machines are
two numerous to mention.  It is those similarities that make
people shake their head when they read and hear of the latest
copyright infringement lawsuit that Microsoft has launched.  For
the better part of a year it was a battle between DR and
Microsoft as DR quickly produced CPM/86 for 16 bit machines. 
Unfortunately, for them, IBM was selling PC DOS for 50 dollars
while they were offering CPM/86 for 220.  Again the public got a
chance to vote with their pocket book.  CPM/86 was later named
DR_DOS and now stands at Version 7.

Microsoft and IBM stayed together until the early 90's and
developed additional versions of PC/MS_DOS while DR tried,
valiantly, to get into the mainstream of operating systems.  In
the mid eighties, with all the action centered around Windows, DR
started to develop a GUI which was called GEM.  Again slow
reaction to marketing situations left the product behind and not
much has been left with the exception of its use as a OEM front
end on Packard Bell and Magnavox.

With the sale of DR to Novell it looks as if Version 7 will be
the last and it will be a battle between Microsoft, IBM and some
new, yet to be announced contenders in the battle for our
operating system dollar. 

In wrapping all this up if things had gone differently with a few
changes at head offices in computer companies around the world,
today I could be writing this on a Computer powered by a
downstream generational chip from the Z80, on a computer built by
Radio Shack and using Wordstar Version 20.5. under the Digital
Research DOS which would now be the owner of Novell instead of
the other way around.  Not quite sure if we would be any further
ahead but all those years with CPM could be put to better use and
I might be able to use more of those old SuperCalc templates.



Biblical Bits #20

-- First lesson of PASCAL --
when I BEGIN I will also make an END   1 Samuel 3:12


LEAVING HOME -
(on the Information Highway...)

by David L. Potter

For those who haven t tried Internet yet... here are two good
reasons for hitching a ride:

1) you can learn more about things that interest you,  and...
2) you can meet others that share that interest

The most amazing thing about the Internet is that I can, in
confidence, offer these two reasons without qualification.  Not
only will you find coin and stamp collectors but historians,
genealogists, philosophers (modern and classical), antique car
buffs, collections of tasteless and truly tasteless stories and
jokes, dead languages, food, medicine (and support groups),
religion, sex, music, military analysis, boasts and rumour...
computer software and hardware, the list goes on and on and grows
and grows every day!

Special interests are most accessible through the  Usenet News 
which is one of the big four services available.  (The others
being e-mail, file services such as FTP and, documents services
such as the World Wide Web.)  It should be noted that Usenet
employs an  e-mail  type interface and that it is possible to
send and receive binary files via newsgroups.

There are literally thousands of newsgroups each of which focus
on a more or less specific topic.  These newsgroups are simply
groups of messages that circulate over the Internet, so many
newsgroups, in fact, that most Internet providers offer only a
portion of the newsgroups available.  If you have an Internet
account with a Internet Service Provider that offers Usenet
Newsgroups you may be able to request a particular newsgroup. 
This is a good question to ask a service provider before you sign
up.

When you sign up for an Internet account you will usually find
you have been subscribed to a few sample newsgroups.  The first
thing to do is to find out how to browse the available newsgroups
or search for a particular newsgroup.  The procedure will vary
depending upon the software you are using... Chebucto Community
Net wants you to yank in  the full list of newsgroups which
you can then browse using the page down command (it will take a
while to browse the list!) Or search using the  /  key to
initiate the search and then enter a text string to search on. 
When you find a newsgroup you would like to subscribe to press
 s .   To unsubscribe use the  u  command with the cursor
positioned over the newsgroup you want to delete.

The more general the focus of a newsgroup the greater the amount
of message traffic that occurs conversely the narrower the focus
of a newsgroup,  the higher the  signal to noise (more content). 
All newsgroups will enjoy their share of visitors who think
 Barney Sucks  or pointing out some of the more subtle aspects of
John: 3,16.

Newsgroups utilize a local  news server  software program that
manages the flow of messages.  Messages arrive from points afar
and are  sorted  according to newsgroup, and thread (several
massages on the same topic), in addition, the news software
tracks which newsgroups _you_ have  subscribed  to, ...which
messages _you_ have viewed,  and presents you with unread
messages when you invoke the newsreader.  After you have viewed a
message it is marked as read and not presented to you again
unless you specifically ask for all messages.  Some users find
this disconcerting especially after they have composed a witty
reply and find that their art has  disappeared . 

News software will allow you to reply to a posting.  This reply
will be sent out to all other Internet sites that offer this
newsgroup.  You should also be able to send a private e-mail
reply directly to the individual who posted a message.  For the
brave of heart you can post your own message.  Most news software
offers additional features which I will leave for you to explore
yourself.

Most Usenet sites, archive postings for several days, weeks,
months depending upon the amount of file storage available.  In
addition, there are several sites that archive all Usenet
postings in one or more newsgroups.  It is also possible to
search these archives for the e-mail address of individuals who
have posted (if you know a friend who has an interest in model
rockets, a search may find that they have posted to Usenet and
provide you a working e-mail address!).

Participation in newsgroups is guided by a series of conventions
that have developed over the years.  The strongest disfavour is
reserved for individuals who post off-topic.  This includes
commercial postings, get-rich quick schemes, and postings from
individuals strongly opposed to issues near and dear to the
hearts of the  regulars .  Good Internet citizens, listen twice
before speaking.  Good citizens also search out the  FAQ 
(frequently asked questions) that are associated with most
newsgroups in an effort _not_ to ask beginner questions for the
umpteenth time.

Newsgroups represent one of the most accessible Internet
services.  The software is relatively easy to use and newsgroups
effectively provide the  key to the highway  through newsgroups
that focus on other Internet Services.  Two newsgroups worth
following by news users are:

news.answers   (regular postings of frequently asked
questions from many newsgroups)
news.newusers.questions  (Questions and answers for new Usenet
users)

Next month, if the creeks don t rise, mailing lists that take the
focused discussion of newsgroups one step further...


THOUGHTS ON SUBDIRECTORIES;

by W.T. Marchant

Introduction
It has occurred to me that the time has come again to review for
our new users some of the commonest DOS commands, but since the
use of Windows is now so widespread, there is a need to look at
these commands from the point of view of the Windows user as
well.  That is to say, if the DOS command CD changes directory,
how can we do the same thing in Windows... Or can we... Or do we
need to???  Anyway, the next few contributions from me will be an
attempt to cover some of this material. 

1.  Subdirectories exist primarily on hard disks as a means of
    organizing the storage of data and programs.  They can also
    be used on floppy disks when required.

2.  Subdirectories generated by both DOS and WINDOWS are the
    same, and are completely compatible one with the other.  A
    subdirectory can be created in DOS and used by Windows as
    easily as it can be created in Windows and used by DOS.

3.  The main subdirectory on any disk is called the ROOT.  This
    is indicated by the drive letter followed by a backslash. 
    Thus C:\ indicates the root directory of the C drive on your
    computer.  The root directory will contain any files (both
    data and program) which are placed there, as well as other
    subdirectories which  grow  off the root.

4.  The easiest way to see the structure on your computer is to
    use windows.  Put the mouse cursor on the  Main  icon and
    double click the left mouse button, then select  File
    Manager  and do the same.  The result will be a screen
    showing the subdirectory structure (sometimes called the
    directory tree) on the left, and the files in the selected
    subdirectory on the right. If your screen does not look like
    this, you must select  View  with your mouse, and then
    select  Tree and Directory  from the pull down menu.  You
    can move to any subdirectory in the tree by moving the mouse
    cursor to it and clicking the left mouse button.  When you
    do this you will notice the files on the right side will
    change.  These will be the files in the subdirectory that
    you selected.

5.  Another way to see the structure is to use DOS.  Leave
    windows.  When you have done so you will have the DOS prompt
    on your screen.  If this is the root directory  type  TREE 
    at the prompt, and the structure will be revealed.  Chances
    are rather good that you have enough subdirectories that
    they cannot all be seen on the screen at the same time.  Use
    the special DOS command  TREE | MORE .  This will cause the
    list to stop when the screen is full.  You press any key to
    get the next screen full.  The  |  symbol on most keyboards
    is above the Enter key and to the left of the Backspace key. 
    You have to use the Shift key to get it. For some reason,
    the symbol on the keyboard is shown as a broken vertical
    dash instead of one continuous dash, but it is the same
    symbol.

6.  Subdirectories tend to be specialized.  There may be a
    subdirectory for each different game or application program. 
    This permits DOS or Windows to find all the elements of the
    application easily without having to look all over the place
    for them.

7.  Windows has its own subdirectory.  You will also notice that
    some subdirectories contain other subdirectories as well as
    files.  This is all part of the organization that makes it
    possible for hundreds or even thousands of files to exist,
    and still be easily found and used.  You will see a file
    name in one subdirectory, and another file of the same name
    in another subdirectory.  This is one of the advantages of
    subdirectories.  Since the purpose of many files is
    indicated by their names, it is easy to want to use the same
    names over and over.  It is not permitted to have two files
    of the same name in a single subdirectory.  DOS and Windows
    would have no way of knowing which one was which.

8.  When a new program is put into your computer it is
     INSTALLED  usually by a program called INSTALL.EXE.  The
    install program will make new subdirectories as necessary
    for the new program and place the required files in them. 
    You may find an INSTALL.EXE file in several different
    subdirectories.

9.  Sometimes it is necessary for the user (that s you) to make
    a new subdirectory or to remove one.  There are three DOS
    commands relating to subdirectories that you should know: 
    They are MD,  CD and RD.  These three commands are also
    known respectively as MKDIR, CHDIR and RMDIR.  The use of
    the short form is encouraged if only to save typing.

10. The CD command will be used the most so we will deal with it
    first.  CD means Change Directory.  If you are at the root
    of your C drive, the prompt should look like this  C:\> . 
    To change to the windows subdirectory, the command at the
    root would be  CD WINDOWS .  Don t forget the space between
    the CD and WINDOWS.  The prompt would then look like this
     C:\WINDOWS>   indicating that you could now deal with files
    in the Windows sub directory.  To get back to the root, use
    the command  CD\ .   The prompt will change back to C:\>
    indicating that you have again changed subdirectories.

11. To make a new subdirectory, you use the command  MD 
    followed by the name of the new subdirectory.  Thus, if you
    need a new subdirectory at the root directory, ensure that
    you are at the root.  Remember the DOS prompt looks like
    C:\>.   Type  MD NEWDIR  or whatever name you want to use. 
    (We will cover file names in another session.  For now, stick
    to simple names of  eight letters or less.)  DOS will return
    the original prompt.  To show that you have made a new
    subdirectory use the command CD to use it.  Type  CD
    NEWDIR .  The prompt should now look like this  C:\NEWDIR>. 
    This is your new subdirectory.

12. The command to remove (destroy) a subdirectory is RD.  While
    you are in your new subdirectory you might try to remove it. 
    You will find that you cannot do so.  At the  NEWDIR 
    prompt, type  RD NEWDIR .  You should get the response
     Invalid path, not a directory, directory not empty .  This
    doesn t mean that all three of these things are wrong, just
    that one of them is.  In this case  Invalid path .  (We will
    cover PATH  in another session.)  To remove a directory you
    must not be using it.  So change back to the root, and
    repeat the RD command.  This time it should work.

13. You should not have to make or remove directories very
    often, but you should know how to do it.  It is a little
    easier in Windows so lets look at that now.  Back in
    Paragraph 4 I told you how to get to the Windows File
    Manager, so do it again now.

14. You have the Tree on the left, and a list of files on the
    right.  You can move up and down through the tree by using
    your up and down arrow keys. And you can move from the right
    to the left panel by pressing the Tab key.   You may have to
    press the Tab several times to get from side to side, since
    it also stops a several other places on the way.  You can
    also use the mouse to navigate these windows, just click on
    the window you want to use.

15. To make a new subdirectory, be sure you are in the directory
    tree side of the screen, and the root directory symbol is
    highlighted.  With your mouse, select the  FILE  item in the
    menu at the top of the screen.  Then  Create Directory  from
    the drop down menu which appears.  A dialog box will then
    appear and ask you to type the name of your new
    subdirectory.  Type  NEWDIR   or some other name that you
    like and either press the Enter key, or click OK with the
    mouse.  You will see the new directory name appear in the
    directory tree, proving that you have just created it

16. To change directories in Windows File Manager, you merely
    put the mouse cursor  on the directory of your choice and
    click.  The name will be highlighted, and the file list on
    the right side of the screen will be displayed.  Of course
    if you select your new directory, there will be nothing in
    it, since nothing has been put there.

17. To remove a subdirectory in Windows, highlight the name with
    the mouse and then select the  File  item from the top menu. 
    From the drop down menu select  Delete .  You will be shown
    the name to confirm.  You select OK.  Windows then asks if
    you are sure.  You select  Yes .  In windows, be careful
    deleting subdirectories which contain files, because the
    files will also be deleted.  Windows will ask if you wish to
    delete the files, but sometimes it is easy to give the wrong
    answer.  Just be careful.  In your case there are no files
    contained in the subdirectory, so  Yes  is the right answer.

18. To make a new directory under another directory, repeat the
    routine from paragraph  15, but make sure the subdirectory
    which is going to be the new parent is the one you
    highlight.  That s all there is to it.


ABOUT THE NEWSLETTER

Newsletter Articles
We are almost always in need of good articles.  In the past
couple of months I have received articles from several members
thus enabling me to take a short break from writing.  If anyone
has something that they feel would make a good article, an
interesting story to tell, or even a good meeting topic, please
don't hesitate to pass it on.

Articles can be submitted in almost any format, ASCII text, AMI
Pro, MS Word, Windows Write, WordStar and of course WordPerfect. 
How does one get an article to me?  Various ways are available. 
You can bring it to a meeting or give me a call and upload it to
me.  If you are on the Chebucto FreeNet, Internet, or any type of
e-mail system that has a gateway to the Internet, you can send
something to me via the internet to where I work -
hlfxtrad.educ.stuartce@gov.ns.ca

It does work, that is how a number of articles in previous
month s editions were received, but if you are sending a file
attachment to your message, it should be UUencoded and not a mime
attachment.

Newsletter Production Notes
As usual , for those who may be interested, the newsletter was
formatted this month with WordPerfect for Windows 6.1 running on
either a 386SX-25 or a 486DX-33 (each has 8mb of RAM).  Much of
the clipart used is from Novell (formerly WordPerfect)
Presentations 3.0.

The original was printed at 600 dots per inch resolution on a HP
Laserjet 4M.  If I don't have access to this printer then we
print it on an Okidata 850 at Bits and Bytes on Queen Street in
Dartmouth where they allow the Society to print the originals at
no charge.

The main body of the newsletter is set in 10 point Palatino with
the article headings being 14 point bold.  The title on the first
page is ITC Zapf Chancery Medium Italic 19.2 and 16 points.

There was a few less copies made this month compared with the
last few months, with about 85 copies produced of which around
just over 70 were mailed out.  Any extra copies from the previous
few months issues that I have will be brought to the next meeting
for those who are new to the group or may not be in regular
attendance.

I do have a complete set of all the previous newsletters and if
someone wanted to look through these, let me know and I can bring
them to the next meeting.


MEETING SCHEDULE - 94/95

Only two more meetings left.  The dates for these are listed
below. 

28 May
25 June

The planning meetings are normally held on the second Monday (8
days) after the general meeting.  They are also located at NSIT,
normally in a small boardroom to the left as you come in.  Anyone
is welcome to assist in the planning of future meetings or
events.

Any changes to the scheduled dates will be announced where
possible at the regular monthly meetings and/or in this
newsletter.