August 1980
Contents
1. Fort Worth AMAZMn Bad Information It has come to our attention that sev eral people including a few Radio Shack employees may be telling cus tomers that Computer Services will customize or modify Radio Shack soft ware COMPUTER SERVICES DOES NOT HAVE FACILITIES TO CUSTOM IZE OR MODIFY SOFTWARE AND NEVER HAS Radio Shack software is sold on an as is basis and you should look over the specifications carefully to be sure the software will meet your needs Price changes which became effective July 1 1980 The following changes in suggested retail prices became effective July 1 1980 Also effective July 1 upgrade kit prices no longer include the cost of required instal lation Check with your local Radio Shack for current charges New Suggested Stock Description Retail Price Increases 26 0500 Carrying Cases 75 00 26 1054 4K LII TRS 80 649 00 26 1120 Level II ROM Kit 150 00 26 1304 Space Saver Desk 56 00 26 1451 Line Filter 2 0 00 49 00 26 4301 Model II System Desk 369 00 26 4302 Line Printer III Stand 149 00 Decrease 26 1053 16K LITRS 80 699 00 26 1101 16K RAM w Keypad Kit 200 00 26 1102 16K RAM Kit 119 00 26 1104 Model I Lower Case Kit 59 00 26 1141 16K Expansion Interface 429 00 26 1142 32K Expansion Interface 559 00 700 ONE TANDY CENTER FORT WORTH TEXAS 76102 MIODE THE MICROCOMPUTER NEWSLETTER PU2. INT DV 256 MS 256 10030 POKE 16526 LS 10040 POKE 16527 MS FENG ae oh a GP 6 Pe os QOS a Are your programmers re creating the wheel Radio Shack s COBOL De velopment System makes it possible for you to use programs written in COBOL COmmon Business Oriented Language on your TRS 80 64K Model II microcomputer system Our COBOL is compatible with a vast library of existing COBOL programs including many which have been written for business and accounting applications Radio Shack COBOL of fers multi key ISAM Index Sequential Access Method files a one pass f Contifiod BA Se i compiler run time package full screen formatting program linkage and Diskonto ame 1 segmentation as well as full ANSI level 2 Input Output For program dis tribution a run time only disk is available allowing you to distribute only the object code 26 4703 COBOL Dev 299 00 26 4704 Run Time Disk 40 00 Editor Assembler __ FORTRAN fz Certified w 3 Ng Diskette i i Radio Shack puts the power and flexibility of ANSI 1966 FORTRAN where you need it in your home office or school No more punched cards to fold spindle and mu tilate No need for remote entry long turn around times or special operators Our FORTRAN can put you back in command of your information The FORTRAN package comes complete with Text Editor Compiler Linking Loader and Fortran subroutine library
3. eae PGS ra ae DS Ss pee tg Now a Data Base System that Answers Questions How does it work VERSA FILE is an easy to use sentence oriented data stor age program You enter information in simple sentence form MARY HAS A BLUE 1970 AUTOMOBILE JACK WAS BORN IN A BLUE HOUSE The computer stores information in one of seven disk files based on a KEY WORD In the above examples HAS and WAS are the key words To retrieve information simply ask a question WHO HAS SOMETHING BLUE The computer will search the appropriate KEY WORD file for a match You can use the key words provided or change them to meet your special needs 26 4510 Versafile 69 00 Model II Versafil System Features include Insertion of new information Single or multiple word searches Single and multiple item kills e Global search e List contents of one or all files Print information using optional printer Entry Editing Character Delete Character Insert Cursor Positioning Conversion program for 50 Hertz operation ye ex g 20 W gy z PDA DA ths Standard amp Poari S STOCRPAIC and Portfolio Management System Complete System Only 4622 As Shown Including STOCKPAK Stock Selection System Enjoy a powerful flexible completely interactive system enabling you to analyze and manipulate a large amount of vital financial data for stock transactions and management of your investm
4. honesty reliability and deport ment as well as mathematical grade and computer experience This program is one portion of an extensive program for gifted and talented students both at the secondary and particularly at the college level by the University of Oklahoma by the University of Oklahoma Li Radio Shaek MICROCOMPUTER NEWS 700 ONE TANDY CENTER FORT WORTH TEXAS 76102 IF UNDELIVERABLE DO NOT RETURN Computer Clubs from page 4 Marin County TRS 80 Users Group MCTUG 45 Selfridge Way HAFB CA 94934 1 415 853 6893 after 6 PM Milwaukee Area TRS 80 Users Group MATUG P O Box 184 S Milwaukee Wi 53172 Orange County TRS 80 Users Group OCTUG 2531 E Commonwealth Ave Fullerton Ca 92631 1 714 738 0789 Rochester New York s TRS 80 Users Group Mark C Williams 295 Phillips Road Webster N Y 14580 1 716 265 0341 St Louis Area TRS 80 User s Group SLATUG 7510 Suffolk St Louis Mo 63119 Tampa Bay TRS 80 Users Group T Bug 80 P O Box 247 Tamp FI 33601 TRS 80 Users Group of Corpus Christi 6214 Hidden Cove Corpus Christi Tx 78412 PROFILE rom page 11 Please make the following changes 60 GET 1 2 J 0 FORI OTONF 1 F 1 16 THEN GET 1 3 J 0 70 FIELD 1 J 16 AS DUMMY 90 J J 1 NEXT I CLOSE These changes need to be made on both pages 26 and 28 The following change is to be made on page 28 only Add R 32 to the DIM statement in line 10 P
5. 00 a m culties ARKANSAS All Cities AETN Sept 19 thru Sept 24 1980 1 per week When a BASIC program of sufficient size aik Seti is put into memory it will wri Network in ULCBAS This wil cause be pete fe Oy JAN SONUNA G DABILA RENER to freeze or return to MEMORY SIZE KAFT 13 KTEJ 19 The following loading procedure will fix 6 the problem SOUTH CAROLINA All Cities Open Circuit July 1 thru Aug 5 1980 12 00 noon SYSTEM ENTER A Circuit Sept 11 thru Oct 16 1980 8 30 9 20 10 10 12 00 2 05 PULCBAS ENT 9 ehh TARE aoe Five shows each Thurs on above dates BREAK O a ne show at 9 40 a m on the following dates gt READY Sept 11 12 POKE 28829 242 ENTER Oct 1 3 6 13 15 22 24 3i READY Jan 0 12 19 23 28 30 1981 POKE 28830 125 ENTER FOR 16K r 271981 28830 189 FOR 32K Mar 3 11 13 20 23 1981 28830 253 FOR 48K Apr 3 6 10 13 15 22 1981 READY May 13 18 20 22 25 27 1981 gt SYSTEM ENTER MASSACHUSETTS ENTER All Cities WGBH 2 Boston Sept 15 thru Oct 17 1980 WGBY 57 Springfield Mon at 9 45 a m 5 No gy Oct 13 because of holiday ec 15 1980 with Christmas break following Model I Level II BASIC Resuming Jan 5 1981 thru Feb 2 at 11 15 a m ote Series will be shown in its entirety to all high Reference Manual schools in Mass during week of Sept 8 1980 FLORIDA Page C 5 lists CHR 225 as being th
6. One show per week at 11 45 a m for three 6 week runs Pike Falls Church VA 22041 It was par Syracuse WCNY 24 Sept 15 thru Oct 20 1980 iall Ra ae i A Schenectady WMHT 17 Oct 27 thru Dec 1 1980 tially funded by Radio Shack Further in New York City WNET 13 April 6 thru May 11 1981 quiries should be directed to IITC EW JERSEY Camden WNJS 23 Feb 23 thru March 30 1981 The following is a partial listing of stations Montera bad a4 Apii 6 thru Meyl 1 eer a i f i i 3 renton ST 52 uesdays at 9 a m with repeats on pe Sen ate oe New Brunswick WNJB 58 Wed at 12 30 p m and Fri at 9 15 a m aea GEORGIA t local Education Station or ITC Chatsworth WCLP 18 Oct 13 Oct 27 1980 Mon amp Fri 10 45 a m Columbus WJSP 28 Jan 12 Jan 26 1981 Mon amp Fri 10 45 a m Cochran WDCO 15 May 11 May 25 1981 Mon amp Fri 10 45 a m Problem with Augusta WCES 20 Oct 14 Nov 18 1980 Tues 9 00 a m Parrott WACS 25 Jan 27 Mar 3 1981 Tues 9 00 a m Upper Lower Case mod Pelham WABW 14 Apr 21 May 26 1981 Tues 9 00 a m Waycross WXGA 8 If you have had our Upper Lower Case Athens WGTV 8 _ _ _ _ ee eee ee ee modification installed and you use the oe Statewid Sept 12 1980 10 00 11 30 I 1 6 t lt ities atewide ept e a m Lessons 1 cassete sion of the ULCBAS driver 9 station Sept 16 thru Oct 21 1980 9 00 a m routine you may experience some diffi network Jan 20 thru Feb 24 1981 9
7. Radio Shack TRS 80 VIDEOTEX Information Retrieval System May 27 1980 FORT WORTH A new two way information retrieval system for home or office use was unveiled today at a public seminar in Fort Worth s conven tion center by Radio Shack the principal operating division of Tandy Corporation Purchasers of the equipment will be able to carry on keyboard question and an swer conversations with a central com puter over the telephone lines and view the result on their color or black and white television sets Called TRS 80 VIDEOTEX the system will soon be available in several configura tions according to company officials One option designed for owners of the esti mated 400 000 personal computers now in use is a software package which con verts the computer into a VIDEOTEX device Simultaneous release of this soft ware for Radio Shack s popular T RS 80 computer and several other makes as well was predicted by July 31 Continued on Page 6 DO aaaaaamsssisass Radio Shaek The biggest name in little computers PERSONAL COMPUTING ADVENTURE OF THE MIND This is a six part education television se Preliminary Telecasting Schedule ries produced by Johns Hopkins Univer STATION amp sity Applied Physics Laboratory in con CITY CHANNEL DATE amp TIME junction with International Instructional NEW YORK Television Cooperative of 5205 Leesburg Watertown WNPE 16
8. do it and for a good reason Like them we will never change the SVCs but we absolutely will change ad dresses whenever we update the DOS If you can t understand how to use SVCs you either need to go to school or stop trying to write machine code software Our final note on this subject just to satisfy our own curiosity we took a little survey at the NCC to see what other manufacturers and system software suppliers including the most famous microcomputer DOS supplier offer in extended documentation The result We all do just about the same thing And that s it for this issue I have run out of airplanes More in the next issue Jon Shirley Vice President Computer Division Radio Shack Mailing Labels for Model I Accounts Receivable 26 1555 The following program will allow users of our Model I Accounts Receivable pro gram to use the customer information to create mailing labels The mailing labels are available as part number 26 1404 10 CLS PRINT ARS MAILING LABELS 20 CLEAR 500 30 DEFINT A Z 40 DIM P 500 1 50 INPUT BY 0 LAST NAME 1 ZIP CODES A 60 INPUT GIVE ARS PASSWORD P 70 PI CUSINDEX P 1 80 PD CUSDATA P 1 90 ON ERROR GOTO 1000 100 OPEN I 1 PIS 110 INPUT 1 Z TN Z2 2 2 2 2 2 120 N TN 1 130 INPUT 1 Z Z 2Z 2 2 2 2 Z 140 FOR X 1 TON 150 PRINT X 160 INPUT 1 Y P X 0 P X 1 170 NEXT X CLOSE 180 OPEN R 2 PD 190 FOR X 1 TO
9. see how the information at location 14312 changes An article will follow in a later issue which will give details on what information can be available with PEEK 14312 and what information each of our current printers provides to this location ee PHONIMES LONI LOCAUON Notes From Computer Services on Application Packages 26 1504 Level II Payroll Problem When printing checks on salaried employees an hourly wage is printed on the check Answer It will print hours if any are specified and overtime is worked However the figure for regular earnings is based on salary 26 1551 Model I Disk Mailing List Problem There is some discrepancy between manuals about how many names the system will handle Solution Both versions 1 0 and 1 1 hold the same number 1 Disk system Approx 600 names 2 Disk system 900 names 26 1553 Inventory Control Problem If 1 Reorder Pt Qty and the Max Order Quantity are close together Ex Reorder Pt 2 and Max Qty 3 2 Units are being sold 3 While the item is on order QTY on hand reaches 0 Then the program will never give Out Reorder Stock in dication even though the item is under the Reorder Point If the quantity received from the order does not bring the quantity on hand to or above the reorder point the pro gram will not request a reorder even though the item is still under the reorder point Solution To fix this problem change line 3450 of the IC
10. sorting Vendors an Out of String Space error occurs Solution If you experience this problem make the following changes to APSORT 40 CLEAR 11000 DEFINT A Z 70 CLEAR 0 CLS PRINT a 80 FIELD 2 JD 127 AS VQ 2 AS VO 20 AS V1 105 AS V2 Problem You are unable to preview checks Solution The normal reason for this is that you have not selected any invoices to print checks for Return to the MAIN MENU and follow normal procedures for selecting invoices for payment Problern There is a potential problem that could arise if you select invoices to be printed by discount date Solution Modify lines 1290 and 1295 of the APS program Insert the underlined portions into the indicated lines 1290 DUANDCVI 4 lt DD AND ABS CVI I3 gt 0 AND ABS CVI I4 gt 0 1295 IFABS CVI I4S lt DD AND ABS CVI I3 gt 0 AND ABS CVI I4 gt 0 Problem After updating accounts and posting all invoices system Status shows unposted accounts Solution This is a problem which has occurred The solution is to be certain that you exit the program in the correct man ner each time If you do not use the proper method to exit some files may not be updated correctly 26 1555 Model I Accounts Recetvable Problem Unexpected ERROR CODE 5 in LINE 2500 Solution This error occurs when more than 256 transactions are posted to a single customer If you have a customer with t
11. teacher to ac company them but schools were limited to 1 or 2 participants unless they could furnish additional cornputers for extra applicants Originally planned for 50 students using 25 TRS 80 microcomputers with Level II BASIC enough extra TRS 80 s were brought by Participants mainly borrowed from their schools so that 78 persons 66 students and 12 adults attended the program Although originally planned as a 9 30 4 30 program student enthusiasm expanded it to an 8 am to 5 pm program by the second day Continued on Page 7 i Radio Shack to offer Compu Serve Information Service May 27 1980 FORT WORTH TX The era of instant convenient access to up to the minute electronic information and services is here today according to a joint announcement by Radio Shack and CompuServe Incorporated Radio Shack through its nationwide chain of Radio Shack Computer Centers Radio Shack stores and dealers will be the ex clusive retailer of the software necessary to access the CompuServe Information Service through microcomputers such as its TRS 80 or by means of dumb infor mation terminals Beginning August 1 microcomputer users with Radio Shack s new TRS 80 VIDEOTEX software package will be able to access data provided by CompuServe through its national packet switching and computer network This is presently avail able in more than 230 markets on an in expensive local call basis Continued on page 6 New
12. 02 Model II Inventory Management Problem In List Sales Transaction When there is more than one video full of sales tickets the program will not list the 17th transaction item The transaction is the machine it simply will not list Solution In program SALES BAS change line 2540 from 2540 THEN N N 17 to 2540 THENN N 146 Radio Shaek The biggest name in little computers TRS 80 Printer Ribbon Life Expectancies We have had several inquiries about the life expectancy of our printer ribbons In order to help you determine how long a ribbon should last we are presenting the following information The nominal life expectancies for our printer ribbons are Printer Ribbon Million Pages of Cat No Cat No Characters Type LPI 26 1150 1152 26 1413 One 1 208 LP Il 26 1154 26 1413 One 1 208 LP Ill 26 1156 26 1414 Two 2 416 LP IV 26 1159 26 1413 One 1 208 WP 50 26 1157 ACT 0159 One 1 208 The number of characters given is for one ribbon and is the RATED life of the ribbon In most cases we find that we actually get many more characters per ribbon than shown To give you a comparison we checked an office supply catalog for the 16 ribbons which listed expected number of characters the average was 141 000 or about 14 of our expected ribbon life The number of pages given assumes 80 characters per line and 60 lines per page Most applications do not print this much information on each page so you
13. 5 The formula for calculating logical records LR first line 20 on page 25 of the manual is incorrect This line should read 20 PR 1 INT N 1 4 LR N 1 PR 1 4 6 Sample programs for accessing PROFILE data are given on pages 26 and 28 Continued on Page 12 Model II Supervisor SETBRK The following information will allow you to lockout the BREAK key in Model II Enter DEBUG press M to modify mem ory then FOOO for our starting address Enter the following data 13 FO 21 00 00 3E 03 CF ED 5B 00 FO 22 00 FO EB 3E 03 CF C9 Check the values carefully If they are correct press F2 then S to return to TRSDOS Turn DEBUG OFF Save a copy of the routine to disk using DUMP SETBRK CIM START F000 END F020 This BASIC program will demonstrate the use of SETBRK 10 CLS 20 SYSTEM LOAD SETBRK CIM 30 DEFUSR amp HF002 40 X USR 0 50 AS INKEYS 60 IF A THEN GOTO 50 70 IF ASC AS 1 THEN END 80 PRINT THIS IS A TEST 90 GOTO 50 This program will demonstrate that the BREAK key has been disabled Press F1 to end the program Level II Memory Map Corrections John Manning of Auburn KY points out the following errors in the Memory Map Appendix D published in the second edition of the Level II Reference Manual 26 2102 Please change the following HEX ad dresses FROM TO 3000 2FFF 3001 3000 4010 401D 41EC 41E6 College from page 7 ability
14. BLISHED FOR TRS 80 OWNERS Gw The View from the 7th Floor This is the first run of a column that F time permitting will appear in every Com puter Newsletter The 7th floor refers to the floor the Computer Division and Com puter Merchandising occupies in Tandy Center in Fort Worth Texas Our presi dent chairman and other gurus are on the 19th floor so I presume we can be consid ered to be more down to earth And while I have taken on this first column mostly written on airplanes I may pass future ones on to Ed Juge who helped a lot in preparing this one The reason for this column is that we receive more calls and letters on non technical issues than we could ever an swer in the detail they deserve So we send a nice torm letter saying thanks for the information it s been passed on to the appropriate people for study But the truth is they are We do read them and this col umn will attempt to answer some of the most often asked questions plus a few of the one of a kind but very thought pro voking toughies Since this is the first column I want to tackle some bad press we have been get ting and clear up some amazing at least to us misconceptions about Radio Shack I am going to be a little tough and outspo ken and if you don t like it I won t apolo gize but I will guarantee honesty Continued on Page 2 ter NEWS AUGUST 1980 Volume 2 Issue 6 NEWSLETTER INDEX IN THIS ISSUE
15. Cassette UNLOCKER se iisrsd domes saente 12 CompuServe Information Service 2 GCOMmPUter Clube isic 5 Katie celine wna h 4 Computer Service Note 6 Compier Senis o onia caw daana REETA 12 Fort Worth Scene ETETETT 1 Hardware Mods for Model II 4 Is Your Line Printer Ready 8 Line Printer III Notes 5 Line Printer IV Cables saccos 60e eeu 6 Mailing Labels for MI ARS 7 Model II Supervisor SETBRK 11 Model Il Vetsaile si coisa yaca re aware 5 PERSONAL COMPUTING ADVENTURE OF THE MIND 3 Printer Ribbon Life 0 0 0 11 Selecting a Model IIOS 5 Software Update Department Model I DOS Manual uosa miratoni obs 6 Level II Reference Manual 1463 2 Memory Map Corrections 11 Notes on Application Prgms 8 Profile 26 1562 si ersen seca amas 11 Upper Lower Case Mod 26 1104 3 Model II Notes on Disk BASIC 5 Notes on Inventory Mgmt 10 Notes on TRSDOS 1 2 4 Patches for TRSDOS 1 2 4 Reference Manual Changes 5 The View from the 7th Floor 1 TRS 80 Goes to College 2 USR Entry Point Calculations 6 MADEOTER soca arias whee iad Miardracks Ghee 2 Retail prices in this newsletter may vary at individual stores and dealers 1 The company cannot be liab
16. N 200 J P X A 210 3 JR INT J 1 2 1 220 JD J 2 INT J 1 2 1 230 FIELD 2 JD 127AS D 11AS F 13 AS L 17 AS A 15 AS STS SAS Z 240 GET 2 JR 250 LPRINT F LS FULL NAME 260 LPRINT SAS STREET 270 LPRINT ST CITY amp STATE 280 LPRINT Z ZIP CODE 290 LPRINT 300 LPRINT 310 NEXT X CLOSE 320 PRINT END OF JOB END 1000 CLOSE PRINT ERROR ERR 2 1 1010 PRINT JOB ABORTED END College from page 2 A Saturday Computer Science Fair and Brag Session is planned for next October SO participants can show off computer programs written since the workshop ended Dr Andree says the emphasis is on computer assisted problem solving rather than on programming for program ming s sake Participants from Texas Oklahoma and Kansas were selected on the basis of recommendations by their principal as to mathematical interest and Contined on Page 11 5 Radie Shaek The biggest name in little computorn Disk BASIC from page 5 an incorrect value The following program will demonstrate the problem 10 CLEAR 1000 DEFDBL X X2 1840 20 X0 0 PRINT X2 30 X0 VAL X0 PRINT INT X0 STOP The value printed should be O but the program will print 1 If you try this program with FIX in place of INT in line 30 the result will be the same wrong Now remove the PRINT a statement from line 20 The program should now function correctly f
17. OCKPAK 49 95 e Ad Q7 OY Cd A DA wy S S5 wS aD i TRS20 Malian Sofware aD Radio Shack now offers this program to allow you to send Mailgram gt O messages directly from your TRS 80 microcomputer Messages can LN t be sent electronically from your TRS 80 via Western Union Electronic AS Mail Inc to a post office near your addressee for delivery with the RY next business day s mail This program provides full message editing IM lt 3 capability and storage of frequently used addresses and texts for 4 quick access in the Western Union Electronic Mail Inc system gt An application for a Mailgram Service Agreement must be submitted to Western 6 Union Electronic Mail Inc Mailgram message charges are specified in this Service Agreement Mailgram is a registered trademark of the Western Union Telegraph Company N e Cc X a a gt i a we The TRS 80 Mailgram Software is a very versatile package i ni 9 System features include BUSINESS REPLY MAILGRAM MESSAGE e F F Use your return address s lt i Saed he aan Use Western Union Electronic Mail Inc address Jp to 9 999 groups ot addresses Common Access Stored List Service 7 Up to 999 999 total addresses Radio Stations eo Multiple Address References send the same message to a variety of Television Stations gt address types Daily Newspapers gt lt Variable Text Messages e
18. S program to read 3450 GOSUB 1790 IF LEFTS IV LEN IX lt gt IX OR 1Q gt IR OR IR lt lO 1Q THEN RETURN ELSE GOSUB 1780 GOSUB 3800 RETURN Problem Customers have reported a problem in Inventory Control when a listing of Inventory by prefix is printed If the pro gram has been terminated improperly or the system crashes causing values to be reinitialized the Total Cost and Retail Cost values may be incorrect on the complete inventory listing Continued on Page 9 Radio Shaek The biggest name in little computers Program Corrections om pases Solution Add these lines to ICS 1725 IFGI lt gt TIANDGC lt gt TC ANDGP lt gt TP ANDGR lt gt TR THEN GOSUB4050 4000 GC GC 1Q IC GP GP IQ IP GR GR 10 IC Gl GI 1 RETURN 4050 Tl Gl TC GC TP GP TR GR RETURN Change these lines 1730 Gl 0 GC 0 GP 0 GR 0 LPRINT LPRINT TOTAL ITEMS LISTED TAB 25 TI 1790 GOSUB2540 GOSUB2600 GOSUB2610 GOSUB 4000 RETURN If the totals are shown incorrectly when option 9 Dis play System Status is chosen then print a complete list ing and everything will be reset to its correct value for both options Note Be sure you are using the latest version of ICS Version 1 1 and TRSDOS version 2 3 26 1554 Model I Accounts Payable This program requires 48K RAM when used in the three disk configuration Problern When you are
19. age 5 8 of the Model I TRSDOS manual gives instructions for modifying the DISK DUMP BAS utility for use without a line printer Please correct the second line of these instructions to read If you do not have one Line Printer connected change all LPRINTs to PRINTs lines 190 260 270 and DE LETE line 160 The line numbers and instructions given were for an earlier version of the program than the one currently released with TRSDOS 2 3 An error also exists on page 7 34 In the last paragraph change the next to the last sentence to read Buffer 1 is assigned to the file On page 7 74 the last statement in line 260 should read LSET LP MKSS LP Our thanks to Robert Hollinger for point ing out these errors Also the last line on page 7 73 should read 37 4 10 1 gt Sub record number 1 Computer Services Notice Computer Services advises us that there is no operator on duty after 5 00 PM CDT Representatives are available until 7 00 PM CDT During these last two hours there are more phone lines than people If your call is not answered immediately please try again as all representatives are on a line USR Entry Point Calculations John C Adams Jr of Tullahoma TN pro vided us with this quick method for con verting USR entry point in Model I Level II BASIC to the required values for the POKE statements 10000 INPUT DECIMAL ENTRY POINT DV 10010 MS FIX DV 256 10020 LS
20. cedures From time to time we may Continued on Page 6 a Radie Shaek The biggest name in little computers CompuServe from page 2 Initially the network will offer a variety of services at a low hourly rate including major news wire services electronic mail and bulletin board service educational and financial programs a securities infor mation service and various computer games CompuServe has revealed it has entered into an agreement with the Columbus Dispatch that will make it the first daily metropolitan newspaper available elec tronically Users of the service will be able to receive constantly updated local and in ternational news syndicated columns sports and other information Bank One of North America headquar tered in Columbus Ohio will soon utilize the service to provide on line credit card verification and processing according to officials The network will interact directly with the bank s computers Bank One will also be able to demonstrate the feasibility of bill paying and funds transfer functions from the home or office Other services and information expected to be added include weather transporta tion schedules commodities classified ads inventories newsletters library data mail order services medical and agricul tural information CompuServe a subsidiary of H amp R Block Inc headquartered in Columbus Ohio has provided computer services to some of the nation s
21. do is insert the Unlocker tape The computer will search for the shift B program load it and return to BASIC Mr Westerfield can then enter the correct file name CLOAD B and get the program he wants This procedure prevents you from having to RESET the computer each time you make an error One word of caution while this method will unlock the computer if you typed the wrong filename for CLOAD it will not recover your program if you meant CSAVE B and you typed CLOAD B In this case Unlocker will return you to BASIC but you will have lost your original program COMPUTER SERVICES ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBERS Phone Hours 8 AM to 7 PM Central Time Computer Services 900 Two Tandy Center Fort Worth TX 76102 1 800 433 1679 WATS Except Texas 1 800 772 5914 WATS Inside Texas 1 817 390 3583 Switchboard 12
22. e Cities to be Schools To begin September 1980 space compression code for 63 blanks nae a This is incorrect and should read 20 Orlando PRINT CHR 255 63 blanks Our thanks to David Modney of Roches ter NY for pointing this out 7 Jacksonville ITFS closed circuit Daytona Beach Fort Myers Fort Lauderdale West Palrn Beach Radio Shaek The biggest name in little computers Additional Patches for Model II TRSDOS 1 2 FREE Modifications 1 Problem BREAK key and COBOL As supplied neither RUNCOBOL nor RSCOBOL available for will run from a DO file This was done because pressing BREAK with an active DO can destroy ISAM files if it occurs during index updating The fol lowing PATCH will allow you to use DO files You may COMPILE a series of COBOL programs with RSCOBOL using a DO file and there are several advantages to doing so DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EXECUTE RUNCOBOL FROM A DO FILE See the next Patch Patch PATCH RSCOBOL A 7055 F C2BF75 C 000000 2 Problem Executing RUNCOBOL from a DO file allows the operator to press the BREAK key at any time If COBOL is updating ISAM indexes at the time the BREAK key is pressed the ISAM file will be destroyed and unusable To prevent this from happening the following Patch will prevent RUNCO BOL from being executed frorn a DO file Patch PATCH RUNCOBOL A 7077 B CD C CC 3 Problem On some Model II hardware there
23. efore unprint able Many printers will accept it how ever as a linefeed In the Line Printer III one and only one CHR 138 will be ac cepted and produce a linefeed Any addi tional CHR 138 characters will be ignored What this means is that on a Line Printer I LPRINT STRING 10 138 will move the paper up ten lines On a Line Printer III the same instruction will move the paper only one line The solution is to use CHR 11 for Model II and CHR 10 for Model I rather than CHR 138 with your Line Printer II LPRINT STRING 10 11 with Model II will give you 10 linefeeds with Model it will give you 10 Top of Forms and LPRINT STRING 10 10 will give you 10 line feeds with Model I Model II Versafile The manual for Model II Versafile 26 4510 indicates on page 2 that the correct method of exiting the program is by pressing the BREAK key This is incor rect To exit the program and return to TRSDOS press the ESC key Model II Reference Manual Changes Operation Manual Page 7 6 of the operation section of the Model II manual has a misprint Pin 28 or Fault is an active LOW signal not an active high as the manual states The manual should read FAULT Input to computer from printer Low indicates fault paper empty g light detect deselect etc These signals are active low 28 TRSDOS Reference Manual Page 3 14 of the TRSDOS manual indicates that DATM32 has its orig
24. ent portfolio The basic package is made up of three program diskettes and a FREE Demo Data Base diskette all especially de signed for your TRS 80 Level II 32K Business System In addition a comprehensive User s Manual is provided STOCKPAK Portfolio Management System Diskette 1 contains the software for the maintenance and control of a portfolio with securities owned by you or a simulation capability for any group of securities you wish to evaluate STOCKPAK Screen and Select System Diskette 2 Of fers the capability to apply a variety of investment criteria to the 900 stock data base identifying securities to meet such criteria as price earning ratios of less than 10 selling below a given price etc Both stocks selected and criteria statements can be stored for instant recall ESE aS Ee we a ay POO ee STOCKPAK Report Writer System Diskette 3 creates your own customized reports of stocks meeting user selected criteria along with additional pertinent informa tion from the data base STOCKPAK Demo Data Base contains a 900 common stock data base of the most widely traded stocks with 30 vital financial items on each of the companies Optional updating available Minimum hardware requirements include 16K Level II TRS 80 microcomputer system 16K Expansion Interface two TRS 80 Mini disk drives Minimum 80 column printer is optional If Purchased Separately 26 1507 Standard amp Poor s ST
25. everything an ex perienced programmer needs crest Galetti Sheet i Aa 299 00 26 4702 Editor Assembler 199 00 20 Radio TRS 80 Model II gi ee S 4 r More languages mean more power and flexibility for your Model II Four f EN oy f haek languages means you can choose the language which best suits your cur Ea AY D rent application If you need COBOL this morning and FORTRAN tomor R A Division of Tandy Corporation row your TRS 80 Model II stands ready to serve with a simple change of Stop coding machine language programs by hand Radio Shack s Editor Assembler package provides you with an Editor Assembler Cross reference facility Linking Loader FORTRAN subroutine library and ASCII Print Display Utility The macro assembler can provide you with fully relocatable machine code to give maximum flexibility during the life of your pro grams Features macro and conditional assembly Z 80 or 8080 mnemonics get started today 26 4701 FORTRAN d rogram diskettes No conflicts no lost memo A Q Retail prices in this newsletter may vary at individual iiis AE stores and dealers The company cannot be liable for p g MG pictorial and typographical moccan 26 4002 TRS 80 64K Model Il 22 20 0020 0c 3899 00 4 QQ go Most Accessory Items in Product News are Available Quickly on Special Order SS RA cay hv yr z oO DAP Oy Reh PGE ERS Org HQ Me
26. f you d like to submit a program for evaluation here s the procedure 1 Submit a concise description of the program what it does who would use it and why you feel it would have mass appeal and tell us what configuration of computer is required to run it memory disks printer etc NO MORE THAN ONE TYPE WRITTEN PAGE State whether or not the program has been copyrighted and whether or not you ve sold copies of it this doesn t affect our interest but does affect the way we must handle it to protect your interests and ours Obviously the program must be your original work Contractually you will be required to hold Radio Shack legally harmless in the event of a copyright lawsuit by someone else 2 Give us some time We often move slowly We will let you know if we re interested and arrange to have you send a copy of the program for more serious evaluation And above all you must realize that there are many reasons why we might reject your program poorly written or documented Continued on Page 7 TRS 80 goes to College Dr Richard V Andree professor of mathematics and computing sciences at the Univer sity of Oklahoma Norman held a week long free workshop in Computer Programming for Mathematically Gifted Students Applications were restricted to students who would be returning to their schools next year and who had completed a year of mathematics beyond first year algebra Students who wished could invite a parent or
27. for you before you return the unit Computer Clubs We have not printed any new computer club addresses for a while so we have a long list Gosub TRS 80 Users Group PO Box 712 Worcester MA 01613 1 617 845 1851 Manchester Users Group MUG Manchester New Hampshire 624 0089 or 627 4100 Continued on Page 12 Radio Shaek The biggest name in little computers Some notes on Line Printer III 26 1156 Underline Character When we introduced the Line Printer III in the Novernber 1979 Newsletter we indi cated that the printer has an underline character The printer does have the underline character CHR 95 How ever the printer will NOT underline char acters The underline is provided for those who wish to create blanks special effects etc The only way we know of to underline characters is to print the line of text take the printer OFF LINE use the DOWN LINE button to reposition the paper and then reprint the line using only underline characters and only where you want un derlining Soft Linefeed On several occasions and in some of our older programs we have suggested that you use LPRINT CHR 138 as a soft linefeed This is a method used with sev eral of our printers e g Line Printer I to advance the paper with a minimum of printer action and noise This procedure will not always work with the Line Printer III The 138 character is a graphics blank and ther
28. he Sourcebook to help connect programs to potential customers We are continuing to bring out peripherals and this Fall will introduce some great new printer values And this effort as well as the efforts of the Customer Service group who answer thousands of calls a week are all to further serve you The bottom line is we do care Misconception No 2 Radio Shack does not purchase outside software Fact We do In fact 60 of our software line was written by outside programmers or software houses mostly on a royalty basis We do edit the manual we do insist on our screen formats so that when you buy a program you ll feel at home We spend hundreds of hours testing revising debugging and testing again We try to be sure that the first time computer operator can understand and run the program And of course after all this work we are prepared to support the software and answer your questions so we sell the software under our label Want us to look at your program Well first of all we have probably evaluated a thou sand user programs over the past three years and haven t found but a few we pub lished We ACTIVELY SEEK good serious applications for business lab educational or professional use Only truly exceptional games professionally done with unysually good graphics are of interest Almost without exception our purchases have been from established software houses and professional programmers Now given that informa tion i
29. he prompt is present by simply removing the diskettes or by pressing the RESET button 26 1705 Advanced Statistical Analysis Problem In Descriptive Analysis if you are using large numerical data inaccurate results develop in the Standard Devia tion Calculations Solution Make the following changes to the DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS program DELETE these lines 810 and 830 Change these lines OLD 450 IFSG lt gt 0THENS3 S3 X J AV 3 S4 S4 X J AV 4 NEW 450 S8 S8 X J AV 2 S3 S3 X J AV 3 S4 S4 X J AV 4 OLD 460 IFSG lt gt 0THENSS S3 X AV 3 S4 S4 X AV a4 NEW 460 S8 S8 X AV 2 S3 S3 X AV 3 S4 S4 X AV a4 OLD 750 ONIPGOTO800 860 NEW 750 ONIPGOTO800 857 Add these lines 857 SD 0 V S8 N 1 IFV lt OTHENV 0 ELSESD SQR V 858 SG 0 VV S8 N IFVV lt OTHENVV 0 ELSESG SQR VV Problem In Time Series Analysis Il the moving average does not seem to give correct results Solution The program is working correctly The confusion seems to be about the way the results are presented In a mov ing average averaging 5 days at a time the results for the first average will be displayed for Day 3 Day 3 is the midpoint of the 5 days used for the first average The re sults for each average will be displayed using the Day or week month year which is in the middle of the period averaged 26 45
30. his much activity break the account into two or more sections and process each section as a separate account 26 1556 Disk Payroll Problem In South Carolina a person claiming O zero exemptions has 83 of the taxes withheld Solution For South Carolina ONLY set up the State Tax tables as prescribed in the documentation then after MERGE MYSTATE has been completed change line 5100 to read 5100 J 0 Be sure you SAVE PR4INPUT then continue with the in structions in the manual 26 1559 Manufacturing Inventory Control Problem In some cases the System may reboot while doing an inactive raw material list The problem may be avoided entirely by making the fol lowing change to line 4110 of the REPORT2 program Solution Change line 4110 of the REPORT2 program 4110 FOR Z 1 TO NF GOSUB 11010 HL USRO Problem When printing a Bill of Materials or a Pull Sheet if the number of raw materials in the finished good is evenly divisible by 63 i e 63 126 189 an error occurs Solution Add two lines to the REPORT 1 program 1182 IF ZT 0 THEN FOR Y 0 TO 0 GOTO 1220 2172 IF ZT 0 THEN 2190 Continued on Page 10 Radio Shaek The biggest name in little computers Program Corrections iom paces 26 1559 Manufacturing Inventory Control cont Problem When a third disk drive is added to a two disk configura tion an OUT OF MEMORY error may occur during Bi
31. in at HEX X 6B70 and that DATM64 has its origin at HEX X EB70 These are the origins for EXDATM32 and EXDATM64 respectively The assembly language listing of DATMnn beginning on page 3 15 correctly lists the origins They are DATM32 ORGed at X 6C60 DATM64 ORGed at X EC60 Notes on Model II Disk BASIC Error Messages Disk Full Error If your disk is full and you try to write to the disk a DF error should occur At this time the DF error does not occur Please be aware of this If you try to write to a full disk the computer will lock up and you will have to reboot the system Directory Full Error The FL error code is defined as Directory Full Error The Model II BASIC Manual indicates that this is not defined NM Error The Model II manual lists NM as an undefined error in Model II BASIC The NM error is defined to be a File Specification filespec error and will occur any time an error exists in a filespec Examples SAVE A OPEN D 1 A FIELD 1 255 AS B PUT 1 1 CLOSE In both cases an NM error will occur if A is undefined FIX and INT Under certain circumstances FIX and INT may return Continued on Page 8 Selecting a Model II Operating System The TRS 80 Model II and TRSDOS are designed to be compatible If you should choose to use an Operating System OS other than TRSDOS please use caution when you select the new OS In particular you should look at Updating pro
32. largest businesses and government agencies for more than ten years Operating System from page 5 change some of our hardware suppliers When we do the new equipment will meet OUR specifications For example the Disk Drives in our Ex pansion Bays are not the same as the Drives in the Model II itself and both the drives work well with TRSDOS However some versions of CP M use a track to track step time of less than the 10 milliseconds which we specify for our Ex pansion Disk Systems This difference is causing an excessive number of disk er rors for users of these versions If you are using CP M and are experiencing a large number of disk errors check the step tim ing If it is less than 10 ms and if your ver sion of CP M allows you to adjust step time set the step time to 10 ms This should reduce the number of errors you are encountering CP M is a trademark of Digital Research 6 VIDEOTEX ciom page 2 Also demonstrated and slated for late Oc tober delivery was a VIDEOTEX terminal for non owners of microcomputers The unit attaches to the telephone line and the antenna terminal of any TV receiver The user dials a pre determined number to ac cess the data hase then selects the data desired by pressing specified keyboard numbers and letters Answers appear on the TV screen Tandy chairman Phil R North hailed these developments as breakthroughs on at least two counts First he said out sy
33. le for pictorial and typographical inaccuracies Radie Shaek The biggest name in little computers Seventh Floor from page 1 Misconception No 1 Radio Shack just wants to sell us and forget us Fact First of all Radio Shack sells something to 1 out of every 3 families in America every year We love all our customers especially computer customers and if we can t keep you returning to our stores we will not have a business Secondly we are not a bunch of unfeeling business school trained super executives We happen to be a bunch of normal guys and gals computer hobbyists all including a few hams and many of us have worked in the past in a store And we do feel hurt when we are castigated by your letters as we are always trying to improve our performance I will be the first to admit we can do better so can everyone but are you really giving us a fair judgement We told the world when we goofed and we put in the cassette modification two expansion interface modifications and three TRSDOS releases all free Want to claim we should not have made any errors ask any Brand I mainframe owner how many hardware and software mods he has had We have opened 60 Com puter Centers each with a walk up service department and we are opening more We continue to bring out ever better software including such recent offerings as Profiles Mi crofiles and Scripsit the best and cheapest word processing program around We are publishing t
34. lease note that the Random File Exam ple on page 28 will work correctly ONLY with files whose Logical Record Length is 64 The program can easily be modified for files with LRL 4 8 16 32 and 128 We should point out that the formulas for calculating physical records and sub records PR and LR in line 150 page 28 are normally PR INT KEY 1 N 1 and LR KEY N PR 1 where PR is the Physical Record number KEY is the number of the record you want to access N is the number of sub records in each physical record and LR is the subrecord number which contains the data for KEY We modified these for mulas slightly in the program on page 28 to allow us to determine which disk drive as well as which physical record and sub record contained the information For more information on accessing informa tion in random access files refer to the Model I Disk Operating manual section seven BULK RATE U S POSTAGE PAID Radio Shack A Div of Tandy Corp Cassette UNLOCKER Martin Westerfield of La Motte Iowa sent this suggestion for those of you who use tapes frequently Create one tape which contains programs with each of the filenames that you typi cally use Mr Westerfield indicates that he created a tape with filenames for A through H and shift A through shift H By having this tape if he accidentally enters CLOAD shift B when he wants CLOAD B all he has to
35. ll of Material editing in the Finished Goods Maintenance module This affects 32K systems only Solution 1 DELETE line 1 2 Delete the end of line 11000 The modified line should read 11000 CLS PRINT 448 OUT OF FINISHED GOOD SPACE ON THIS PROGRAM DISK Problem In version 1 0 if more than 63 raw materials are in a fin ished good the Bill of Material and Pull Sheets will not print to completion Solution In REPORT1 make the underlined changes 1180 RC 1 FORX 1TORM 63 1 GET4 RC RC RC 1 IFRM lt X 63THENZT RM X 1 63ELSEZT 63 2170 RM CVI FGS X 3 FORY 1TORM 63 1 GET4 RC RC RC 1 IFRM lt Y 63THENZT RM Y 1 63ELSEZT 63 26 1564 MAILGRAM Problem If you attempt to move Version 1 0 from tape to disk us ing the instructions provided the system will automati cally reboot Solution Version 1 0 cannot be placed on disk The MAILGRAM software loads into the same memory as the TAPEDISK transfer program If you need to place MAILGRAM on disk contact your local store for a free copy of Version 1 1 which will transfer from tape to disk MAILGRAM is a registered trademark of the Western Union Telegraph Company 26 1604 Versafile Problem The manual does not indicate the proper method for ex iting the program Solution The program keeps all files closed when they are not actually being accessed You may exit the program at any time t
36. ntered directly from your TRS 80 keyboard Hospitals t eg Stored Text Messages U S Senate 3 Permanent messages you will use over an extended time U S House of Representatives 4 Temporary stored for a maximum of nine days U S Congressional Committees N5 Multiple Messages can be sent on One Connection sae Legixlatures S BY Fortune 1000 Companies and Non Industrial 300 With the Optional Printer you can make copies of your messages after Domestic Travel Agencies you have completed them Toll free 24 Hour 7 Day a week telephone line 26 1564 MAILGRAM ii Model I Quick Reference Card DANCIN this i ides i pocket sized card provides infor You are the theatrical agent K DEMON mation for Level II and Disk systems for this amazing dancing de l i Including mon He depends on you to write his music and choreo graph the dance to fit Two Dancing Demon Start up instructions BASIC error messages E a sample song and dance Statements routines included Optional Functions ae Aegae FOR Level S nt EN S P T Edit commands Control keys Video control codes TITELE 26 2106 Radio Shaek The biggest name in little computers Seventh F OOT om pace 2 limited market poor error trapping hard to use similar to a program now in de velopment too far from our style etc If we reject it you will receive a form letter no
37. o Some of our contracts for applications soft ware including some soon to be released COBOL software prohibit our publishing source code Systems software is a different story but let s go over our philosophy on this subject First of all our BASIC s are Microsoft and they do not allow us to distribute source infor mation to anyone Now I know that there are lots of neat little routines that you can call that are in BASIC but Microsoft does not document them and frankly we have never had the time to do it Some others have and more power to them they will make a bundle BUT and its a big but we reserve the right to change that BASIC code at any time scramble up addresses etc and render your software unusable If you stick with ad dresses in the Level II reference manual and the Editor Assembler you won t get in trou ble And we have changed those addresses with the latest Level II ROM s we are now shipping We changed the cassette timing to get rid of cassette mod board made a few little fixes and now have Level II in 2 instead of 3 ROM s TRSDOS is a similar matter and while we do own it we also do change it Our pro grammers and our outside program sources are not allowed to use any address of calls not included in our documentation This guarantees that the software will run on all fu ture DOS releases In the Model II manual we have 84 pages on how to use the super visor calls SVCs This happens to be how all the big computers
38. on TRSDOS 1 2 is provided to help you realize maximum use rial numbers 26 4160 101000 and ABOVE of your MODEL II 26 4161 201000 and ABOVE 26 4162 300500 and ABOVE FORMS 26 4163 ANY serial number Do NOT reset the width value under Forms in TRSDOS 1 2 The width function is not working properly and will cause you to lose one character when your line is wrapped around to the next printer line An extra line feed may also be generated If you need to limit the width of the material you are printing you need to handle this in your software VERIFY If you tum the VERIFY function OFF VERIFY OFF you will not be able to write information to the disk under any circumstances TRSDOS 1 2 powers up in a VER IFY ON condition Do not turn VERIFY off TERMINAL PROGRAM If you are receiving a file at a speed which is greater than 600 baud and a blank line is received contains only the carriage return character D the first character of the NEXT line will be lost and an overrun error will occur This happens because the first character of that next line is received before the computer has updated the empty line A temporary solution is to ensure that all blank lines contain at least one space character If this is not practical transmit informati greater than 600 baud ae Note If your Model II has been serviced recently these modifications have proba bly been made Ask your local store to check the service records
39. or both FIX and INT Passwords Ifyou save a BASIC program using a password an IO error then an IE error will occur If you check the disk directory the program name will appear but the directory will show that the file is empty asterisks in the NMBR RECS SPACE USED and EOF BYTE columns If you load the program nothing is there CHR Some people have indicated concern that certain CHR codes which should work in the BASIC immedi ate mode do not These codes are 1 2 3 25 26 30 and 31 The action of these keys in BASIC s immediate mode is masked by the fact that the screen is automati cally reset to normal by the READY prompt mode Is your Line Printer Ready On several occasions we have pointed out that it is possible to determine the status of your Line Printer from Model I Level II or DISK BASIC Specifically IF PEEK 14312 gt 127 THEN PRINT PRINTER NOT READY This statement really only determines whether or not a Line Printer is attached to your TRS 80 If the printer is there but cannot print for some reason off line deselected out of paper etc this test may or may not detect that the printer is not available If you are curious about what information your printer provides use this BASIC routine 10 CLS 20 PRINT PEEK 14312 30 GOTO 20 Now as you disconnect your printer turn it on and off select or deselect if your printer has this feature etc you will be able to
40. seems to be a greater than normal oc currence of TRSDOS ERROR 49s which is a lost interrupt on the Floppy Disk Controller FDC While running in BASIC these are currently translated into NF NEXT without FOR errors and the errors do not seem to be recoverable The following patch has had a measure of success in correcting the problem at customer locations and in internal testing Patch PATCH IODVRS SYS A 0B9D F D0 C D8 Note This patch should be used ONLY if the errors are occurring If you are not having problems the patch is not needed Early Model II s All Model II owners whose machines have serial numbers BELOW these 32K serial below 32000402 64K serial below 64005913 should make arrangements to have a free modification to the FDC board made This modification will help reduce Disk I O problems Please take your computer to your local Radio Shack store They will send the computer to the service facility to have the modification done Also if your computer has a serial num ber below these numbers 32K serial below 32000200 64K serial below 64003500 AND you have or are planning to add a Disk Expansion Unit you should check with your local Radio Shack about a pos sible additional modification Your com puter is affected if it falls within the second range of serial numbers and your Disk Ex pansion Unit has one of the following se Notes on Model II TRSDOS 1 2 The following information
41. should find that these figures are conservative estimates nhs ees eee Information about Model I Profile 26 1562 The following information should help you use PROFILE more effectively 1 We have had reports of problems during the sort process Profile uses an on disk sorting method which requires a large number of disk read write operations Disk life is a significant factor in system failures especially in long sorts on large and or multiple drive systems To help prevent problems you should use new backup copies regularly 2 The maximum number of fields you may have on one screen is 32 If you exceed this number an error message will be displayed 3 You cannot ADD records to Profile from BASIC You can read and modify existing records but Profile will not recognize any new records which you add from a BASIC program 4 If you wish to access Profile data from BASIC the LRL i e the number of characters in each record must be a number which is an even divisor of 256 minus one The reason for subtracting one is that Profile will add a carriage return OD Hex at the end of each record This means that 127 is a valid record length 127 1 128 256 128 2 a whole number but 254 is not 254 1 255 256 255 is not a whole number By this formula 255 is a valid record length However tests show that 255 will NOT work The only valid record lengths for accessing files from Disk BASIC are 3 7 15 31 63 and 127
42. stem is essentially ready for sale unlike several which are in early planning or test ing stage Secondly typical of Radio Shack s marketing techniques VIDEOTEX is a very low cost way to go With under 30 software and under 400 hardware options we think Radio Shack could well be first in line in a tech nology that s certain to become a rather massive reality in the 1980 s Radio Shack described TRS 80 VIDEO TEX as the outgrowth of a device the company originally developed for a novel government experiment called Project Green Thumb Radio Shack because of its earlier cooperation in developing the Weatheradio was invited by the National Weather Service to participate in the proj ect in late 1977 Project Green Thumb is an ongoing agri cultural experiment that employs infor mation retrieval to give farmers a choice of 22 categories of data updated hourly by computer Using terminals developed by Radio Shack in conjunction with Motorola the network involves coopera tion with the Weather Service the Univer sity of Kentucky and the U S Department of Agriculture Green Thumb terminals are presently in use at 200 farms in Shelby and Todd counties in Kentucky Line Printer IV Cables The Line Printer IV uses the following printer cables Model E I Cable Printer Interface Cable for use without an E I 26 1416 Model II Cable 26 4402 26 1415 Model I Disk Operating System Manual P
43. t an individual reply if you have a thin skin it might be better if you don t submit Incidentally fancy programming tricks excessive use of PEEKs and POKEs or use of video RAM for data storage will almost surely guarantee ultimate rejection of a program It s too likely to be incompatible with later system software releases and it s too difficult for our people to support We like to see programs which will run in either 4K Level I 16K Level II or a 32K 2 Disk system 3 Be prepared for a wait of up to a year before you see an accepted program on our shelves All of the testing editing and debugging described above just takes time 4 Be prepared to accept the decision of our software evaluation team Anyone else you write within Radio Shack will just refer you back to them Their decision is final 5 If we like your program we might offer you an outright purchase price or a royalty on copies sold Our royalties are much like some publishers offer not big but if the package sells they can REALLY mount up fast Now if youre still interested send your letters to Radio Shack Software Evaluation 700 One Tandy Center Fort Worth Texas 76102 Misconception No 3 Radio Shack is secretive about its software Fact Youre 40 right and 60 wrong We do publish listings in our manuals of all our BASIC software We do not publish listings of our machine code software as most of its is games and the authors ask us not t