

  WindoWatch         The Electronic Windows Magazine of the Internet




                              WHAT'S    INSIDE

  Vol.1  No. 5                                             June 1995
  Editorial
  Letters to the Editor
  Gregg's Page
  Getting Warped                                     John M. Campbell
  Acrobat Tutorial Part 2                                   Jim Plumb
  VB& Delphi:Separate Views of Component Programming       Herb Chong
  A Product Review: Borlands Delphi               Peter Neuendorffer
  Stanley Does Windows                           Bob Miller's Stanley
  Understanding PC Memory                             Paul Williamson
  Thanks for the Memory                                  Kyle Freeman
  A Product Review: Plug-in for Windows                 Frank McGowan
  Fun and Games                                        Jerry Laulicht
  Accessing The Internet Using Windows95                Thomas F. Lee
  Idiots-Redux                                             Bob Miller
  Alice Delivers Mail                              Peter Neuendorffer
  The Fine Art of TechnoGibberish                            Jim Gunn
  A Windows User Reports on Windows95                Leonard Grossman
  Plug of the Month:A WindoWatch Feature
  The Last Word                                            Ben Schorr
  The WindoWatch Staff
  Where You Can Find Us! The Various Formats


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   Editorial

   Why is it so disappointing when a personal icon becomes just like
   everyone else - human?  Paul Somerson in his June 1995 PC Computing
   column of 6/95, fell from my pedestal of unimpeachable objectivity
   while keeping his track record for humor, color, and oftentimes,
   courage.

   Somerson's description of the poor and outclassed Senator from
   Nebraska as a "Censorious Cornhusker" who will limit speech and
   ideas to that of "gloppy pablum" is a wonderful bit of over-
   statement.  I envy Somerson's way with words and in the class of -
   I wish I had said that first is the phrase "as popular as voting
   against oxygen" when critiquing the alleged Communications Decency
   Act.    What clinched it for me was the killer phrase, albeit a bit
   too in, and a bit too hot, and more than a bit too arrogant with the
   Somerson characterization of Exon as a "paranoid technophobic prig(s)".

   I know that this rhetoric should not be compared to calling one who
   disagrees with your position as a knee jerk liberal, -the L word,
   - Socialist or worse; Or tagging law enforcement as black booted thugs
   ready to cut down women, children, gun owners, gays, blacks, browns,
   yellows and everything in between; Or tarnishing those with Conservative
   values as Fascists; Or suggesting that death, by any means of doctors
   performing legal abortion services to pregnant women is justified.
   Very scary stuff!

   It seems to me, however, that this is pandering to group think and or
   group speak. It reflects the accepted norms of dialogue, style, custom
   and rigidities of those who no longer control the informal computer
   networks and more specifically the Internet. To be very blunt, it also
   sells magazine subscriptions. The traditional Internet playground
   supported by universities with their faculty and students, DOD
   contractors and their subs, and hardware/software developers and their
   opinion making computer professionals is over! The private club has been
   replaced at the mere cost of about $25 per month for unlimited access with
   homepage. Questions of privacy, commerce, public service access, legal
   enforcement of drug laws, copyright protection, encryption, and porno-
   graphy are legitimate and important areas for thorough and thoughtful
   debate. We  have the option to disagree without being disagreeable. We
   have the obligation, because this is our turf, to ameliorate the extremes
   and to help fashion solutions which protect privacy and prosecutes those
   who use the Internet to engage in sedition, murder, or theft of property.

   If computer professionals, as Somerson fears,  turn the Internet into a
   "soulless Sesame Street" it is because we engage in stereotyping with
   labels that are worn out and without utility while turning a deaf ear and
   closing our collective eyes to behavior that is offensive, rude and in
   some jurisdictions illegal.  If we don't clean up our own act, it is
   very clear, the Fed will...one way or another. 



   Letters  to  the  Editor

   On Idiots Redux...Issue #4

   May 5, 1995
   My biggest concern was that the rest of the publication was fairly
   respectable, and contained some very well thought out content. If the
   reader were to jump to the article and see the 'ranting' that Mr.
   Miller produced, it might leave a bad taste in their mouths.  I
   especially like the premise behind Mr. Miller's article.  It was just
   the execution that I had a problem with.

   He seemed to get too far into personal peferences and unchecked facts.
   You cannot win the hearts of the readers if they notice the gross
   errors in your article and Mr. Miller had some pretty bad errors.  The
   last thing we need is a 'Rush Limbaugh' of the computer world.

   Hopefully, in future articles, we will see him deflate even more
   balloons that the computer publishing industry has formed, but with the
   dignity of factual data behind him.

   Sincerely,
   Kevin Taufner

   Our writers are invited because they don't rant and do keep reminding
   us all, this editor in particular, that ranting creates much heat and
   very little light. To  equate differences of opinion or preference with
   a "Rush Limbaugh" style  is neither accurate nor enlightening. It is in
   the same category as the Somerson attack upon Sen. Exon.  (See
   Editorial this issue) Neither characterization says much! This
   publication, if it stands for  anything, is one that provides an
   untethered voice for responsible and careful computer professionals. As
   long as our readers feel that ours is a unique approach we will
   continue  to do "our thing" and let the chips of opinion fall where
   they will..   lbl


   The WindoWatch Homepage

   For those of you who remain uninitiated to the WindoWatch home page we
   urge you to visit.  Often you will find brand new articles from our
   staff and others. We try to remember to announce these offerings and of
   course will republish them in the next regular issue of the magazine.
          www.channel1.com/users/winwatch/WindoWatch.html



   Our Newest Colleague

   A very big welcome to Jim Gunn who will be bringing his considerable
   talent to WindoWatch.  Jim has been publishing the SALT PUDDLE POINTLESS
   which is a teasing satirical rag loaded with information.  He and his Lady
   will provide their own unique spin to the growing and more visible world
   of WindoWatch.


  Your Windows95 Tip and Fix

  How about submitting  your own Windows95 Tips, Tricks and Fixes?
  We will publish them and make sure you get public credit for your
  creativity and inventiveness.  Also looking for the very best in
  Windows95 URLs. Our homepage visitors will note that the most recent
  list was contributed to us by our own Paul Williamson.

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                                GREGG'S  PAGE


  Don't give up the GHOST...

  Our regular, Gregg Hommel is finishing up his much awaited upgrade for
  GHOST BBS to v.3.20. That is his reason (excuse) for disappointing
  those who read WindoWatch in order to read Hommel. I'll stop whining and
  assure everyone that GHOST 3.20 will be out on June 15.

  In any case, as an exchange for his regular column he is allowing
  WindoWatch to scoop the Big Boys and tell his friends and fans that he
  is about to come up for air and return to his world of Email, Aspect
  tutorials, and <GGG's>.

  GHOST BBS 3.20 is a mini-BBS replacement for the Datastorm supplied Host
  application with Procomm Plus for Windows 2.xx.  It includes enhanced
  security, full ANSI support, multiple file libraries and bulletins --
  along with a bunch of other enhancements!   Also included are features
  missing from Host, such as virus scanning of uploaded files, and support
  for DOS BBS door applications.

  Gregg's Aspect tutorials will continue in Issue #6.

  Gregg Hommel is the Co-Host of The Rime Windows Conference.  He serves
  on the Editorial Board of WindoWatch and is contributing to us a tutorial
  series on the Procomm for Windows Aspect language.



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  Getting Warped!                                         A Fable !

  A Trip to the Twilight Zone            (c) 1995  by John Campbell

  Looking back, it started just as any other day.  If only I had  known
  how that day, and those to follow, would change my life.  They say I
  can go home soon so maybe  I can make a fresh start.   But I'm getting
  way ahead of my story.   Let me introduce myself.  My name is John
  Campbell.  I liked to think that I was a reasonably normal person.  I
  had a job, friends, nice neighbors.  But that was before OS/2 Warp
  entered my life.

  The place where I worked used a lot of IBM terminal equipment. The IBM
  Man, as we called him, occasionally showed up to repair something that
  had quit working.  Usually, we struck up a conversa- tion particularly
  since I had been bitten by the computer bug. We liked to trade notes
  about the latest and greatest in technology.  Now,  I'm no expert,
  understand, but I like to think I know enough about computers to be
  dangerous.

  Don, the IBM Man, always ended these encounters by asking if I  had
  switched to OS/2 yet.  He preached OS/2 with the fervor of a born-again
  Christian testifying at a tent revival meeting.  I was "letting the
  world pass me by," he warned.  I ended these conversations by telling
  him I was satisfied with Windows.  At this, Don always retreated,
  muttering to himself.

  As time passed, I noticed that the computer magazines were  doing more
  articles on OS/2.  The writers seemed especially  impressed with the
  newest incarnation - Warp.  They were saying things like:
  "User-friendly - easy to install - runs DOS & Windows programs
  seamlessly -the Operating System of the Future."

  Finally, my curiosity got the better of me.  I decided to give Warp a
  spin while awaiting the long-promised computing revolution  from
  Redmond, which, as the months passed, appeared to be more myth then
  reality.  So, what if there were rumors of installation headaches?  I
  felt up to the challenge .  I sent off my order, and waited.

  I spent the next day telling my friends and the local computer guru
  types about the adventure I was about to undertake.  The word spread
  like lightning through the entire community.  My friends at the local
  computer consulting firm shook their heads in disbelief.

  "OS/2?  Are you out of your mind, Campbell?

  Aren't you getting a little too old to be asking for that kind of
  trouble?" seemed to be the general consensus.  Even the hackers who
  frequented the local BBS were abuzz at the news.  One teen commented to
  another, "This Campbell must be some awesome dude, man."

  While awaiting Warp, I perused the Compuserve, BBS and Usenet
  conferences devoted to OS/2 in general, Warp in particular.  A lot of
  activity here, I soon discovered.  I was troubled by some of the message
  topics, such as "It ate my Computer," "How do I  get rid of this thing?"
  and "O Dear God, help me."  Several  messages even asked for the Suicide
  Prevention Hotline number. I began to have doubts, but it was too late
  now.  I had committed myself.  I quickly scanned headers, saving a
  message here and  there for future reference.

  The UPS man showed up at my office the following day with an ordinary
  looking  package.  I eagerly opened it, and beheld the large, white box
  bearing the red OS/2 WARP logo down the side. I immediately asked for
  the rest of the day off.  No time to waste and  I hurried home  with my
  treasure!

  DAY 1

  I opened the package and sorted through the contents of various manuals,
  cards, and a cd-rom with two diskettes.  I read some of the preliminary
  stuff and then appraised my setup.  I had 60 meg free on drive C, so I
  decided on a dual-boot configuration, with Warp installed on C: .  I had
  already read through a compatibility list I retrieved from CIS, and it
  appeared that I might have a problem with my  Hercules Dynamite video
  card, and perhaps my Sony 55E cd-rom drive, but, what the heck, it was
  time to begin the installation!

  I popped the first installation disk into my B: drive.  And then it
  struck me.  This beastie has to be installed from Drive A!  Muttering, I
  pulled the case off my trusty Gateway 486 and began switching ribbon
  connectors on the floppies.  I then rebooted and made the appropriate
  change in the CMOS.  "There," I thought,  "that wasn't so bad. Just a
  minor setback!"  I again slipped the first disk in my machine and
  anxiously waited as the drive churned.  I whooped for joy as the OS/2
  Logo appeared!  "Piece of  cake," I smugly told myself.


  I followed the on-screen instructions to change disks, and watched
  various messages scroll by.  It was now time to access the cd-rom to
  continue.   Then, BLAP!  "Oh no, the dread red screen!"  I had seen
  references to the red screen in the online messages.  Not good,
  Campbell.  Warp was telling me it couldn't find my cd-rom drive.  Time
  to go back and bone up on solutions.

  I found some references to updated drivers for troublesome Sony drives
  on Compuserve.  I searched the OS libraries and came up with some likely
  prospects, which I downloaded.

  This time, no red screen!  Instead, the display informed me that Warp
  was examining . . .installing files . . . updating . . . configuring . .
  . examining . . writing . . updating . . . "How long can this go on," I
  wondered?  Finally, after what seemed hours, Warp announced that it was
  ready to reboot and do its thing.  "Alright," I thought, "this is more
  like it."  The reboot proceeded, and, ... BLAP!  No, not the red screen
  this time, but rather a plain-jane screen proclaiming "TRAP! GOTCHA!
  Write down these twenty-five cryptic numbers and call your technical
  support folks!"  I stared at the message in disbelief.  It was now late
  in the day.  Call IBM?  No way.  I'll just reboot. The three-finger
  salute did nothing... my computer was locked up tight.  So I did a cold
  boot, and, nothing!  No familiar "Loading Ms-Dos".  Instead two strange
  SYS something or other symbols.

  I needed some fresh air, so I decided to go out for a walk.  But, as I
  got up to leave, I felt a cold chill in the room.  It was as though
  something sinister was there with me.  I looked around  but saw nothing.
  I shrugged and left.  Uptown, I passed a bar.

  Heretofore my drinking had been limited to maybe a mixed drink during
  the social hour at the annual hobby convention.  I now felt the need ,
  so I went in, sat down and ordered a Rum and Coke.  That hit the spot so
  well that I had another.

  When I returned home rather late I was determined to recapture my
  computer before calling it a night.  I searched for my trusty DOS boot
  disk.  Aha! Found it.  But wait - it's a 5 1/4 disk so  I had to swap
  drive letters.  Cursing, I opened the case, and reversed the drives,
  then changed the CMOS - again!  OK, I was able to get to my DOS prompt
  and set about the business of getting rid of Warp.  Firing up my trusty
  Xtree, I gasped at the sight of my C drive.  New directories under
  directories, nested under still more directories.  Dozens of them - and
  then my eye caught some strange files in the root directory.  I stared
  in bewilderment at one called EA DATA. SF.  "No wonder this thing
  doesn't work - these files have holes in them," I thought. Muttering, I
  reached for Norton Disk Editor.

  Between Xtree and Norton, I finally excised the last traces of Warp, or
  so I thought.  With a sigh of relief, I rebooted.  BLAP!  I sat stunned,
  as the mysterious SYS jargon reappeared. "Surprise, I'm still here," it
  proclaimed.  I tried to tell myself "get hold of yourself, Campbell,
  don't let this thing whip you."

  Back to the conferences.  Surprisingly, another 400 messages had been
  posted since yesterday.  I waded through the pitiful cries for help
  posted by other Warp newbies.  Several messages led me to believe that
  Warp had tampered with my boot sector.  "The nerve of this thing," I
  muttered . . .  I proceeded to do the  recommended SYS C.  But it was
  still there.  In desperation, I rummaged through my diagnostic disks,
  and finally found a Norton Emergency disk I had prepared earlier, just
  in case.  No question that this qualified as an emergency, so I popped
  it into my machine and told it to restore boot sector, partition tables,
  everything.  Success!  I was able to reboot.

  It was now well past midnight.  Exhausted, I turned away from my
  computer.  "Whoa, what's that?"  For a moment,  I thought that I saw a
  faint image in the room.  And it seemed very cold again.  I told myself
  it was just my imagination.  I had to get some sleep.  I fell,
  exhausted, into bed.

  DAY 2

  I had strange dreams that night- Steve Manes and a bunch of little men
  wearing blue jackets hammering, sawing and using blow torches on my poor
  computer.  I awoke in a cold sweat.  I was supposed to go to work, but I
  called in sick.  This Warp thing had to be tamed.  So I headed straight
  for my computer, armed with a new resolve.  I checked the Warp
  conferences for fresh insight, and was greeted by 650 new messages.
  Undaunted, I began researching my problem.  Time passed.  I discovered
  that I needed something called "Update Installation Diskettes," and a
  "FixPak."  It seemed that first one, then the other had to be run.  But
  wait, to run this FixPak thing I also needed a "kicker" disk, and had to
  create disk "images?"  I haunted online conferences and downloaded files
  for what seemed hours.  Finally, I had all of the necessary ingredients.

  It was past noon, now, and I needed something to take my mind off all
  this techno stuff.  I went to the same bar I had visited yesterday.
  This time, I ordered a whiskey - straight - and proceded to gulp several
  more.

  I was feeling a bit light-headed and giddy when I returned home. Several
  neighbors gave me quizzical looks as I walked down the street.  "What's
  their problem" I wondered, "and  when was that tree moved into the
  middle of the sidewalk?"

  Back at my computer, I made a note to replace the monitor, which had
  become a little blurry.  Strange, I hadn't noticed that defect before.

  It was time to tackle the fixes.  Lets see now, I create Corrective
  Services Facility disks 1 and 2, and FixPak XR0W005 Corrective Service
  disks 1, 2 and 3, being sure to label the latter three disks CSF so that
  they will not be mistaken for the first two.  Huh?  This jargon was
  enough to baffle someone who was stone, cold sober.  I dutifully
  proceeded as instructed and then began the install process again.  The
  phone rang.  It was my boss, asking if I was feeling better and would be
  at work tomorrow.  I told him maybe, and hung up.  Can't be disturbed
  now, I thought.  Again, Warp pondered...  installed... diagnosed....
  updated....   A good half-hour later, it decided it was satisfied, and
  rebooted.  My drives churned, then, the Warp desktop appeared!  Success!
  Yes!

  It was now evening and I hadn't eaten since morning, so I decided to
  take a break.  I hadn't shaved either, but no matter.  I wolfed down a
  hurriedly microwaved frozen something or other, and returned, excitedly,
  to my computer.  It was time to see what Warp was all about.  As I
  entered the room, I was certain that I saw a fleeting image in a corner.
  I looked again, but there was nothing there.  I shrugged and began
  studying the strange new desktop image on the screen.

  I opened the DOS folder.  Five applications stared at me.  But these
  were not stuff I ever used.  "Where are MY programs," I shouted!  I looked
  in the Windows folder.  Only six applications had survived the migration
  to Warp?  "Steady Campbell," I muttered, maybe the good stuff is in this
  Windows-OS/2 folder.  Whew!  My entire Windows desktop!  It was still
  alive!  Time now to run my programs.  I excitedly clicked and double
  clicked here and there.  I began to get that sinking feeling.  Pipeline
  couldn't find a key file, Acrobat sternly scolded me for daring to open it
  in Standard Mode, Groliers couldn't find its database, Zoo Animals claimed
  it didn't exist, and Myst screamed a timer initialization error at me.  As
  for the Windows 3.1 desktop, it merely blinked as I repeatedly clicked it.
  I fled back to the DOS folder.  "I've got to put some good stuff in here,
  surely my trusty DOS programs will run," I thought.

  Without reading the help file (that stuff's for sissies), I opened the
  File Manager thingy, and proceeded to drag my DOS programs to the
  desktop.  Quickly, I clicked my new OzCIS icon.  OZ tried to load, then
  gave up the ghost, complaining that it couldn't find some file.


  QmPro refused to budge.  Not even a blink.  Disgusted, I left, slamming
  the door behind me.  I headed for the bar.

  DAY 3

  It must have been the wee hours of the morning of Day 3 when I staggered
  home.  I don't remember anything more that day.

  I was awakened about noon by the phone ringing.  It was the boss again.
  I made some excuse about seeing a doctor, and hung up. Warp was now an
  obsession.  Surely, I can make it work.  I just need to bone up a bit
  more.  I decided I might as well read the manual, and the online help.
  Hmm, it seems programs have a "Settings Notebook," and there's a bit
  more to adding programs than dragging them from a file listing.  Gee,
  this is getting involved.  The notebook had page after page of settings.
  Too much, Campbell.  I decided to look in the OS/2 folder.  Surely that
  stuff's set up right.  I decided to try the Internet Connection.

  Patiently, I filled in question after question in the dialog boxes.  At
  last, I was ready to go online and get a user account.  My modem dialed,
  then tried to connect, and tried, and tried.  I changed settings and
  tried again.  No connect.  Now I was getting mad.  I decided to go
  through every blasted modem string the program listed, until I found one
  that worked.  Hours passed.  I had tried thirty possibilities, and none
  worked.  I went to the bar.

  As I returned home, I noted that several more trees had been moved into
  the sidewalk, causing me to be rather badly bruised by the time I
  crawled back into my house.  No matter.  I will tame this thing.  I
  hated to admit that it was time to call tech support.  I called the
  number, and was greeted by a menu.  That menu led to another, and to
  still another.  By then, I wasn't sure where I was in the vast labyrinth
  that was IBM tech support.  Finally, I got a number for someone that
  handled connection problems.  It wasn't toll free, but so what.  I
  called the number.  A voice said "hello."  I asked if this was IBM.  The
  voice cursed and hung up on me.  I went back to the bar.

  DAY 4

  Some new friends must have taken me home.  When I awoke, it was midday.
  I decided it was time to shave and get something to eat.  I went out
  into the sunlight.  Neighbors gave me long and wary looks while hustling
  their children back into their houses.  My boss pulled up and demanded
  to know what was going on.  I told him to bug off.  I wouldn't even
  think of returning to work until I had conquered Warp.  He muttered
  something about everyone being expendable, and left, shaking his head.
  I went back inside and headed for my computer.  This time I was certain
  that I saw a strange figure in the room. Whatever it was vanished as
  quickly as it had appeared.  I spent the rest of the day changing
  settings - dozens of them.  I actually got one program to run - briefly.
  I decided to celebrate.  I went to the bar.

  DAYS 5 - ?

  Everything is beginning to run together now.  I lost track of the
  passage of time.  Warp had become an addiction.  I spent hours on end
  changing parameters, following the online conferences, and haunting the
  bar, which by now, was as much my home as the place where the cursed
  computer lived.  I got a pink slip in the mail.  One day I seem to
  remember a priest stopping by, offering to do an exorcism.  The Warp
  people online were exhorting the faithful to hang in there; that the new
  Windows was a wimpy system, and that real men stayed with IBM, no matter
  what the cost.  Still, one poor soul pleaded with the sysop to give him
  Dr. Kevorkian's phone number.

  As for me, I continued to tweak, modify, and generally screw up every
  application I had.  Execution files took on strange new names, never to
  execute again.  Data files became mangled beyond belief or salvation.
  There were online rumors that someone had actually gotten Myst to run
  under Warp.  He became an instant legend.  By now I had actually gotten
  several programs running - I think - as my monitor became more blurry
  with every passing drink - I mean hour.  Finally, my old Windows wheezed
  and spurted to life on the Warp desktop.  I was overjoyed!  At last, I
  had succeeded!  I was now curious to see what would happen if I switched
  to the PC Tools replacement desktop.  I moved my mouse toward the icon.
  Suddenly, I was again aware of a presence in the room.  I could swear I
  heard a chuckle.

  I took a deep breath and clicked on the PC Tools icon.  The new desk-top
  appeared!  But then, strange things began to happen.  The Warp screen
  began to bleed into the new one.  Frantically, I began hitting keys.
  Escape, Break, everything I could think of.  But no use.  Now, my screen
  resembled a piece of Picasso art.  The Warp and PC Tools screens had
  become a montage of interleaved bits and pieces.   And a strange hissing
  noise erupted from inside my computer's case.  It grew louder.  I
  panicked and grappled for the power off switch.  Too late!  My machine
  emitted a final death rattle as it expired.  The monitor blew,
  scattering pieces of Warp and PC Tools all over the room,  knocking me
  to the floor.

  When I regained consciousness, I surveyed the wreckage that once was my
  beloved computer.  I began to cry.  Suddenly, a ghostly figure appeared.
  I rubbed my eyes and stared in amazement.  The apparition looked
  familiar.  It was Bill Gates!  "Sorry about your computer, Campbell,"
  the ghost began.  I have been watching all along, just knowing that
  something like this was going to happen.

  But I am here to offer you salvation."  "How did you do this?," I
  sputtered.  "You can't really be here.  Is this some kind of Virtual
  Reality trick?"  Gates smiled.  He replied "It's not really that hard.
  Remember, we bought the Roman Catholic Church a while back.  Well, now
  we have access to the Vatican's Vision code. They've pretty much kept
  visions all to themselves for centuries, you know.  We modified it and
  now call it 'Visional Reality.'"

  By now, I was sobbing hysterically.  " What do you want" I im- plored.
  Gates, still smiling, held out a box.  "This is your salvation,
  Campbell.  It's Windows 95. It's User-friendly - easy to install - runs
  DOS & Windows programs seamlessly -the Operating System of the
  Future."

  When I awoke, I was in this place.  Must be a hospital, I thought.  Did
  it all really happen, or was it just a nightmare?

  The door opened, and a man wearing a white jacket entered the room.
  "Well, I see you're awake, Campbell," he said.  "I'm Doctor Jones.  We
  were worried about you for a long time.  Some people found you wandering
  the streets, wild-eyed and raving.  But I have every reason to believe
  you can make a full recovery."

  I asked if I could go home now.  "Afraid not," replied the doctor. You
  people who attempt to install Warp usually have to  stay at least six
  months.  Takes a long time to recover from that experience."

  I looked around.  Something didn't look quite right about this place
  --bars on the windows, for one thing.  "Where am I?," I inquired."  The
  doctor smiled.  "Don't worry, Campbell, we will take good care of you
  here.  Welcome to the FOREST HILLS SANATORIUM."

  John M. Campbell is indeed full of all sorts of pleasant surprises. His
  regular job as Manager of the Unemployment Compensation Board of Elkins,
  WV doesn't appear to interfere to slow his creative bent. The whimsical
  line drawings were done by Kathy Skidmore and Shauna Hambrick.  John is
  a regular contributor to WindoWatch.



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    
                            Creating Acrobat Files

                            (c) 1995 by Jim Plumb



  This article will deal with  more of  the  Tools and Utilities in
  Acrobat Exchange. We will focus on how to create Articles, and fun
  things to do with Text and Graphics Selections.

  Focusing Your Readers' Attention: Using the Article Tool

  One challenge for the electronic document maker is to keep  attention
  focused upon the content of an article, not on the programs techniques
  for reading it easily.   One way to do this is to minimize the needs for
  paging,  scrolling, and zooming in and out to follow the flow of
  columns. How to minimize such distractions,  and how  to make
  manipulations of the material almost transparent is the challenge to
  Exchange's programmers and the document makers using Exchange.  The
  Article tool is the key technique to a solution. It enables you to chain
  together the sections of your story or article,  regardless of the size
  or complexity of the entire document,  so that  the reader can navigate
  with mouse clicks.

  Some planning is required to create a chained article, of course,
  probably at the authoring stage. Also a sense of how you want to convey
  the import of the tale. Exchange only gives you  tools to make it easier
  for your reader to  grasp the articles contents. You will want to
  divide your story, for example,  into screen-viewable and fairly
  easy-to-digest chunks. This may require collaboration between the
  document designer, the editor, and  perhaps the writer.

  What you do is select the Article Tool from the Tool Menu--note that
  the cursor becomes a cross hair (+).   Draw a rectangle around what you
  designate as the first area of the article with the left mouse button so
  as to highlight  it. (See graphic below.)  Now the cursor changes to the
  "article flow cursor." Then highlight successive chunks of text and
  graphics until your article is defined. This will take a few tries and
  you will likely have to experiment with different flows of the articles
  sections.  Once you are finished creating the sections and the flow,
  press the End Article button on the status bar. (See  Exchange's Help
  for more instructions on how to resize, insert, and combine article
  boxes.)   You will be able to help your readers to select the articles
  which interest them by  describing the article in a dialog window on
  Article Properties. (You find this choice in the View menu.)


  Reading an Article

  Articles can be read with either Acrobat Reader or Exchange. When you
  encounter an article as defined above in a PDF file, your cursor changes
  to the hand symbol shown above and the message "Read Article" appears on
  the status bar. Clicking will make the article fill the screen, ensuring
  good readability. Status bar will read Follow Article. Once you've
  read that section, click again. The article will scroll itself to the
  next section, and so on, following columns and page jumps throughout a
  document. When you reach the last section of the article, the status bar
  will read Exit Article.

  You can return to the beginning of the article by doing a Control-click
  of the mouse. As you do this the status bar will read Begin Article.

  Selection Tools

  Both the text and graphics in PDF files can be copied  into other
  application files.  The Text Selection Tool is in the Tools menu in both
  Reader and Exchange (or use the ABC icon in the button bar). After the
  cursor becomes an I-bar, select parts of text to copy and paste in the
  usual way,  or Select All and Copy from the Edit menu. Once the selected
  text is on the Clipboard, you   paste the text into another document
  which uses a different application with no conversion problems. You can
  also paste the text into a PDF document note or bookmark. Acrobat
  converts the PDF text to RTF (Rich Text Format), thereby saving some of
  the formatting from the PDF document.

  You can convert PDF files to HTML format if you have Word for Windows
  6.0a and the free Internet Assistant  or Quarterdecks WebAuthor, both
  add-ons to Word.  Select the text you wish to convert,  in Word select
  Paste Special-not Paste--from the Edit menu and then select Formatted
  Text (RTF) in the Dialog Box.  You now have a semi-formatted  RTF file,
  and  a little fix-up can make it look like the original file. Then do a
  Save As--not Save--and choose HTML as the file type.. Voila! With a
  little more touch up to this file and you have a Web-ready document.
  Unfortunately neither of these program tools have been converted or
  ported as of May, 1995 to work with  any other word processors. In fact,
  they  cannot yet even be used with any other versions of  Word.

  Selecting and copying Graphics from a PDF file is just as easy. The
  Select Graphics tool is accessed from the Tools menu (also in both
  Reader and Exchange). The cursor changes to a cross hair. Drag a
  rectangle around the graphic, copy to the clipboard, and paste into
  another applications document. A cautionary note--you may well have to
  use one of those fancy graphics converter programs to make this work
  depending on a variety of variables


                          Some Words About Security

  Depending on the degree of security you want your PDF file to have, you
  can assign passwords and other controls to a PDF file to limit user
  access to it.  PDF documents with passwords or limited functionality are
  called secure files and  cannot be inserted into another file. A
  non-secure file  inserted into a secure file inherits the new file's
  security settings. Pages cannot be extracted from a secure file.


  Security is set when you Save As a PDF file. Click on the Security
  button to open the Security dialog box. Two passwords and four
  limitations can be set. The choices in the above  box  shows a
  completely secure PDF file.

  Summary

  I hope these articles on creating Acrobat files have been helpful. I
  have focused on some of the basics to get started. You can get very
  detailed information from Exchanges Help file with still more
  information from the Compuserve Acrobat forum, Adobes BBS, and the
  comp.text.pdf Usenet newsgroup.

  This is the second in an Acrobat Tutorial series from Jim Plumb. Jim is
  the Editor of the WindoWatch home page.  Jim is our resident Acrobat
  expert and would love to hear from our readers at
  jplumb@user1.channel1.com


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                  Separate Views of Component Programming

                           (c) 1995  by  Herb Chong

  The face of Windows programming changed when Visual Basic entered onto
  the Windows programming landscape. Sure, there were other "visual"
  programming languages before Visual Basic appeared, and there were even
  other Windows visual programming tools before Visual Basic, but visual
  programming gained real popularity for business applications when Visual
  Basic appeared. Perhaps it was that Microsoft released it, or perhaps
  that it was mostly based on Basic, a programming language that many
  programmers started with when they were teenagers. No matter. Visual
  Basic is a force to be reckoned with in the Windows development arena.
  For all it's popularity and rapid development capabilities, Visual Basic
  still is a very limited tool in many ways. In this article, Ill look at
  one aspect of Visual Basic and Delphi, components, and how they differ
  in the way they approach components.

  Both Visual Basic and Delphi allow programming by using components. In
  Visual Basic, that mostly means Visual Basic Extensions (VBXs)  but it
  also can include regular Windows Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs). For
  Delphi, it means VBXs that support Version 1.0 interfaces, DLLs, but
  also a third form, which I will call plain components. Ill first look
  at the component model that Visual Basic and Delphi have in common, and
  then the model which only Delphi has.

  Component Programming

  At first glance, Visual Basic and Delphi appear very much like one
  another. Their development environments look alike and work somewhat
  alike too. To give you an idea of how similar Visual Basic and Delphi
  appear, here are screen shots of each application, ready to begin a new
  programming project. Ive minimized or shut down other things I normally
  keep running so that you can get a better idea of what the development
  environments alone look like. (For those of you that notice these
  things, yes, this is a 1280x1024 desktop, the only way to program. The
  screen shots are full 1280x1024 bitmaps.)

  As you can see, the visual aspects of the two development environ-ments
  are very much like one another. I have deliberately arranged the windows
  of the design environments so that there is more correspondence than usual,
  but I find that I tend to arrange my windows similarly when  developing
  just because I like to keep certain things in certain places. I'm a firm
  believer in "form follows function" and so does Microsoft and Borland.
  To no-ones surprise, because both environments look much like one
  another, they work much like one another too.

  In both these programming tools, you develop new applications by first
  deciding what forms you need. These forms are what end users will see as
  dialogs and windows. Then you select components and draw them on your
  forms. This is part of the visual aspects of these programming tools.
  Another part of the visual aspect is the direct access to code by
  manipulating objects. When you double click on a control in Visual Basic
  or a component in Delphi, the design environment brings up the code for
  the default event of the control or the component. The fact that these
  are Windows development tools forces event-driven programming on you.
  The development tools makes things a bit easier because they know what
  event is most common for a given control or component and help you out
  by going right to it. Finally, you connect the forms together using
  program code to structure their relationships. In a nutshell, this the
  basic approach to Windows programming that you take with these and other
  "visual" programing tools.

  Each control or component has associated with it a set of properties.
  These properties are sometimes called instance data by computer
  scientists. The controls properties are a fundamental part of how you
  program using Visual Basic and Delphi. Properties can define appearance,
  how they interact with the rest of the program, or how they interact
  with the user. Some properties can be set only at design time, when you
  are programming. Others cant be set at all, and yet still others can be
  accessed only when the program is running.

  I'll skip over how the rest of the development environment functions
  because that isnt why I am here. Im here to talk about components and
  their evolution. Visual Basic was one of the first popular visual
  programming languages to come out that used a component model of
  programming. It uses components as a way to package function and data
  into a single object that programmers and users can interact with to do
  something. Components defined the Visual Basic way are pluggable objects
  that you can package up and put into programs when you need them, just
  like a mechanic puts the tools they need into their toolbox. While you
  are designing, its easy to add and remove components as needed. You
  dont finalize the component list until you are ready to build the
  executable version of the program. Delphi follows this model of
  components closely enough that, for all practical purposes, you can
  treat a Delphi component the same as a Visual Basic control if you want.

  So, at first glance, Delphi is nothing more than a refined Visual Basic
  with Borland benefiting from more than 4 years of industry experience
  with visual programming with Visual Basic. If that were all that made up
  Delphi, there wouldnt be much point in continuing this article and,
  frankly, not much point in this article in the first place. That clearly
  isnt the case though. Borlands strength and Microsofts weakness in
  programming languages is objects and object-oriented technology. Delphi
  is significantly more than just components, it uses
  object-oriented-components. Visual Basic 4.0 doesnt do objects, no
  matter what Microsoft says, because the underlying Basic language
  doesnt do objects. Delphi does objects, and that is where the future
  lies. Object-oriented Programming and Design

  So far, I've been talking about how Visual Basic and Delphi are alike.
  However much they are alike on first glance, Visual Basic and Delphi
  come from very different roots and design philosophies. The key to the
  most fundamental difference is that Visual Basics underlying language
  is a structured programming language while Delphis underlying language
  is an object-oriented programming language. What does this mean? Lets
  review some basics of object-oriented programming.

  What does it mean to say that a programming language is an
  object-oriented programming language? The four classic things that an
  object-oriented programming needs to have are: abstraction,
  encapsulation, modularity, and inheritance. What do each of these mean?
  Abstraction

  When programmers talk about abstraction, they talk about modeling
  complex things. Modeling is the process of capturing enough of the
  essential aspects of something complex so that you are able to
  understand and work with it, but at the same time not capturing so much
  that it is still too complex. This is not the only type of abstraction
  there is, but it is probably the most common one that programmers
  encounter.

  For example, creating an object model of your checkbook requires knowing
  that it needs to keep track of your bank transactions, checks you write,
  and your balance. It also requires knowing that you can make deposits
  and withdrawals and what they do to your balance. Knowing what kind of
  paper your checks are printed on and where you keep it are probably not
  important for a program that manages your checkbook. Everything about
  your checkbook gets stored in a class. Its this class definition that
  gets turned into a programming language and that you use in a program.

  An object-oriented programming language allows you to create and manage
  entities that model something that you work with in your program. What
  distinguishes an object-oriented programming language like Object Pascal
  from an ordinary structured programming language like Visual Basic in
  terms of abstraction is that the object-oriented programming language
  allows the programmer to enforce the abstraction. The abstraction is
  more than just a series of conventions that are shared by several
  procedures. The abstraction becomes a fundamental aspect of an object
  and the compiler can make sure that no-one using the object breaks the
  rules of how to use it.

  Encapsulation

  Object oriented programming languages also feature encapsulation. This
  is a fancy way of saying that an object class knows things about itself
  that it is not going to share with anyone else. If you want to know
  something about it from another object, you have to ask nicely. Asking
  nicely means using something the object supplies to obtain the
  information.

  Your class doesnt need to know how a checkbook object stores the
  current balance, or that it even stores one at all. Maybe, because of
  how your program needs to work with a checkbook, you dont even keep a
  running total. Maybe it calculates one each time someone needs to know
  the total. The details of what goes on inside the checkbook class are
  known only to the checkbook class itself. No other class needs to know.
  All they need to know is that the checkbook class has a procedure named
  Balance and that when they use it, they get the current balance of the
  account.

  Object-oriented programming languages allow you to enforce data hiding
  or encapsulation. You can tell the compiler that something isnt to be
  known outside of the object. The only way to access it is via member
  functions in C++ parlance, or methods in Object Pascal. Object Pascal
  enforces the object classs degree of encapsulation by the way the
  programmer designed the class. If the class implementation is written in
  Object Pascal, which they usually are, you can change the class to
  encapsulate differently using the language itself. Visual Basic enforces
  encapsulation by making a VBX something that is written in an entirely
  different language. You cant use Visual Basic to write VBXs.

  Modularity

  Modular programming has been around for a long time and has been seen as
  a good thing for nearly as long. Modularity is what most programmers
  think about when they think components. If you can take a component from
  one program and put it into another program (written in the same
  language usually) and have it work the same, youve got modularity.

  With good design, we should be able to use the checkbook class in both a
  investment management system and in a small business accounting system
  in addition to being part of your electronic checkbook. Modular
  components can do enough by themselves to be useful, but also can work
  well with other object classes to build something more powerful or more
  complex.

  Visual Basics components are essentially VBXs. The rest of the design
  of Visual Basic makes it hard to reuse code and forms in other projects.
  There is just, by nature too much interdependency to allow pulling a form
  out of a project and drop it into another project without a lot of work.
  Delphi's Object Pascal makes the process somewhat easier. You can, with
  good design, package anything from a simple control like a button to an
  entire application as a module and place it into a new application. Object
  oriented programming makes this easier than the older structured
  programming style of programming. This doesnt mean you cant do the same
  thing in Visual Basic, just that it is harder. You have to do the work on
  your own. You won't get any help from the compiler.

  Inheritance

  Up until now, I have only talked about features of an object-oriented
  programming language that exists to some degree in ordinary,
  non-object-oriented languages. Inheritance is where the two make a clean
  break. Inheritance exists only in object-oriented languages and nowhere
  else. Inheritance means that I can use a class as a model and inherit
  from it most of the things that it does, without copying the model
  class, and modify (override) what things I need changed.

  Suppose you needed to make a daily interest checking account class. In
  the non-objected-oriented way of programming, you would either go into
  the checkbook source code and make it know how to do both ordinary
  checkbooks and daily interest ones, or you would copy the checkbook code
  and change it to do daily interest calculations. In an object-oriented
  programming language like Object Pascal, you would derive a new class
  from the checkbook class, call it something different, like daily
  interest checkbook, and add a method to calculate interest daily and
  deposit it to the checking account. You don't look at the old source
  code, and you dont change the old source code. You say, in effect, Im
  just like that class over there, except for these differences. If
  someone using your new class needed to make a deposit, they would use
  the Deposit method, just like they used to with the old class. The same
  thing would happen, because its the old (we say ancestor) classs
  method gets called. It just so h pens that we have magically
  materialized a Deposit method in our own class, all because we inherited
  from the checkbook class. Our class is free to use all of the methods
  too. In the Daily Interest method, the simplest thing to do would be to
  calculate the interest earned and then call the our own

  Deposit method.

  Now how does this relate to VBXs and Delphi components. Well, you cant
  inherit from VBXs. Theres nothing to inherit from because VBXs  arent
  classes, and even if they were, they are written in a completely
  different programming language anyway. You could put an object oriented
  wrapper class around a VBX (something that happens in Delphi and other
  Windows C++ tools), but that still requires the language itself to
  support object oriented programming. Visual Basic doesnt. Delphis
  components are almost all written in Delphi itself. There are a few
  token VBXs to show that Delphi is compatible with them, but even then,
  they have object-oriented wrappers that make them look like classes.
  Where you are supposed spend your time is with components written in
  Delphi itself. They are true classes and follow all the rules of
  inheritance that is so key to this discussion.

  I Want a Widget Almost Like That One

  If you replaced the word widget with VBX, you would describe the anguish
  of many Visual Basic programmers. You cant modify how a VBX works except
  by changing its properties. If there isnt a property to change what you
  want, you are out of luck. You either have to make do without that
  feature, buy someone elses VBX, or write your own. Since you cant write
  a VBX in VB, you probably need a separate programming staff just for VBX
  writing, or you have to learn a lot more about Visual Basic than you want.
  This probably explains the huge VBX market. Most VBXs do almost what you
  want. The situation much different in Delphi. Because the components are
  written in Delphi itself and are written as classes, if you want something
  slightly different, you can derive a new object and make it slightly
  different. Deriving your own new object classes are a fundamental part of
  programming in Delphi, so you are not doing anything different from what
  you would do in normal programming. Just as important, if you derive a new
  class and find that its handy to have around for other project, you can
  make it a part of your standard component libraries, use it, and derive
  from it, just like you would from the components that Borland supplies
  with Delphi. Summary

  Inheritance, one of the most powerful features of object-oriented
  programming, makes Delphis components hugely more flexible than the
  VBXs in Visual Basic. VB 4.0s new OCXs are nothing more than VBXs with
  a new, and much more complex, mask. Visual Basic is still not object
  oriented and OLE components have not much to do with objects, despite
  what Microsoft says.

  Delphi has the foundation of an object-oriented programming language.
  With the foundation, you can use or build an entire object framework and
  class hierarchy to organize your components. Being object-oriented,
  standard object-oriented techniques of object-oriented design and
  programming extend the framework and component class hierarchy. If you
  have ever said to yourself that youd like a VBX almost like that one,
  but not quite, its time for you to switch to Delphi.


  Herb Chong continues to present technical material in very
  understandable language. Herb has been a Contributing Writer to various
  publications like Windows Sources  and Inside Microsoft Windows  as well
  as his leadership as the WindoWatch Contributing Editor. This article is
  the beginning of a Delphi Tutorial Series.


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                           A  Product  Review


      DELPHI -  A Programming Language from Borland International

                 A Review  (c) 1995 by Peter Neuendorffer




  Borland International has recently released a rapid application
  development language - a brand new programming language for Windows. It
  is Delphi, and it promises to bring the power of object oriented
  programming and the structure of Pascal to the Visual programming world.
  Much has been already said about Visual Basic; the point and click
  language that allows rapid prototyping of Windows programs using
  reusable graphical objects like list boxes and text boxes. Certainly
  were there no Visual Basic, there would be no Delphi.

  Borland is obviously very proud of this new software, and it has been
  eagerly anticipated in the past year. They boast over 700 third party
  software and services already. The Borland Developer's conference will
  be in San Diego from Aug. 6-9. Delphi topics there will include Rapid
  Application Development, objects, Windows 95 and Delphi, and Database
  design. (Call 1-800-350-4244 for reservations.)

  This review will talk a bit about rapid application development, and
  some of the features of Delphi that I find noteworthy. This past week, I
  was able to port a DOS Pascal (Turbo Pascal 7.0) database application
  into Windows using Delphi. It was a relatively painless process, and
  large portions of my code stayed the same. Translating a DOS application
  to Windows in less than two weeks would have been unheard of a couple
  years ago. I remember hearing John Dvorak speak about how companies
  usually farmed out their Windows version releases to a third party, as
  people didn't know what to do with Windows.


  The Language

  The File Input/Output language syntax in Delphi is almost identical to
  Turbo Pascal. Old style error trapping -what to do when an error occurs,
  say when a file is opened that does not exist- is supported. Delphi also
  has a new system of exception handling that can trap any type of error,
  including data range errors.

  One of the advantages of Delphi is that it is Pascal based. Long
  regarded as the ugly sister language, Pascal is strongly typed. That
  means that data has very definite characteristics. It is pretty hard to
  go awry when writing in it. Most developers have preferred C for it's
  seat of the pants "devil may care" aspects. But when dealing with
  Windows, in my opinion, having a highly structured language prevents a
  lot of bugs and makes for a sturdier application.

  There is an increasing demand in the industry for easy to use
  inter-faces, or windows (small case here) to large database engines. The
  office worker can have the ease of  use of  Windows, combined with the
  power of SQL databases on a network. This vertical development is made
  much easier with Visual Basic. Delphi's Client/Server edition takes this
  process even further.

  According to Borland, local database applications created with Delphi
  can be ported to the Client/Server edition by simply recompiling the
  application with the Client/Server version of Delphi.

  Delphi has full Object Oriented language structure. This means that the
  programmer can modify graphical or logical objects in an orderly way
  with object oriented programming. Because the action code procedure is
  encapsulated into the object, programs are much sturdier. Sending
  messages and modifying the behavior of these objects - say a modified
  memo box -becomes a matter of adapting or "deriving" a child object from
  a more generic one, much as the composer does a variation on a theme.

  Rapid Application Development

  Someday, hopefully, the average bright office worker will be able to put
  together an application in real time, much as we can now draw a picture
  in Paintbrush, thus I suppose throwing a lot of us out of work.

  Applications that self modify could be used to adapt to changing needs.
  In the meantime, it is a blessing to have the new Visual programming
  languages. They present graphical objects without having to write a line
  of code. You just click the list box onto your Window and then click it
  on to write the code for what to do when the user clicks on it.

  The problem with previous Visual languages, was that you could not
  customize the behavior of these objects. With Delphi, you can design
  your own components- something that had to be done in C previously. You
  can write your own DLLs (dynamic link libraries). You can use other
  libraries. A number of third party ones are advertised in the Delphi
  literature, including Graphics Server from Pinnacle, and Fax Plus and
  Comm Library 3 communications routines from Microhelp.

  Applications created with Delphi are claimed to be fully compatible with
  Windows 95, and NT, by the way. To convert Delphi applications to 32bit
  mode, the developer simply does a single mouse click in the forthcoming
  Windows 95 version of Delphi, without having to change a line of code.


  Object Inspector


  Much like Visual Basic, Delphi provides an Object inspector where you
  can make settings for your graphical objects at design time. These menus
  are visually exciting, and offer many properties not available with
  Visual Basic. You can set a Window to always be on top, and you can set
  a text box to read only. Text boxes are called memos in Delphi. Much
  like trying to learn Spanish after French, the close relation of Delphi
  to Visual Basic can be disconcerting - the same thing having two
  different names. The memo was well thought out by Borland. You can
  control and access particular lines of text as they are in a special
  string array type. This allowed me to put pop-up colored tags next to my
  text box to point out certain lines of text. These string arrays can be
  easily copied to other controls. Thus a list box list can be transferred
  to a memo with one line of code.

  An internal graphics editor - a small drawing program - is a welcome
  addition, allowing you to quickly create bitmaps for inclusion in your
  programs. Many more controls are standard with Delphi than with Visual
  Basic. The menu designer is intuitive and "what you see is what you
  get". A great deal of effort went into making these sub areas easy to
  use.

  Writing The Application

  At first I was miffed that so little documentation was provided with
  Delphi. This is my only complaint about Delphi. However, an exploration
  of the online Help usually, but not always, provides answers to
  questions. Developers familiar with Borland's usual strong documentation
  providing cookbook examples are going to be disappointed. On the
  Internets World Wide Web, Borland has a site htpp://www.borland.com.
  There I was able to download for free the Object Pascal Language
  Reference Guide (objlang.zip 929k) which is available in hard copy from
  Borland for a fee. Technical support via telephone is available at $2.00
  per minute or on account.

  The code editor uses all the familiar Brief style editing commands. I
  didn't care for the Find utility, but other features are great,
  including the ability to color highlight your code by types of words.
  The nice thing about Delphi code writing is that you have a clear sense
  that you are dealing with separate and complete files. You can page
  through them as text files, and are not boxed into little windows as in
  Visual Basic. Certain things are required of you to make units available
  to one another, something that was automatically available in Visual
  Basic, but in a limited fashion.

  When you compile your program, a single .EXE is created. You no longer
  have to distribute a myriad of .DLL or .VBX files for installation of
  your application. The VBRUN300.DLL runtime library of Visual Basic has
  no counterpart in Delphi. This is because Delphi is a full native code
  compiler. Your program is in machine language. Visual Basic has an
  ingenious interpreter system, but, as a result, Visual Basic programs
  run more slowly than Delphi ones.

  When you compile your program, only those files that have changed are
  re-compiled. Also, with smart linking, only code that is used is
  compiled as "dead code" is ignored. This problem has plagued C
  programmers, but users of Turbo Pascal have long had the advantage of
  this "smart linking." You can manage dynamic memory with a variety of
  simple schemes, also familiar to Turbo Pascal users. File input output
  is identical to Borland Pascal and Turbo Pascal, thus allowing those of
  us who have worked in Pascal to easily port applications.

  Delphi is fun to use, and has a lot of nice touches - not the least of
  which is an easy way to move seamlessly between the graphics and the
  code. Whether Delphi will replace the other Visual programming languages
  or not, I can't say.. It looks like Borland has a winner, and barring
  serious problems  in the field, should keep developers happily busy for
  a long time.

  Delphi, a Visual Pascal-based development language for Windows. Price:
  The regular Delphi is priced at $495, with a $199.00 promotional price
  for 90 days.

  The Delphi Client/Server edition has a suggested retail of $1000.

  Platform: Intel 386-based PC or higher
          Microsoft Windows 3.1 or later, 100% compatible version.
          6MB of extended memory or higher, 8Mb for Client/Server.
          30Mb hard disk space, 50Mb for Delphi Client/Server
          CD-ROM drive (3.5" disks available separately for $19.95)

 Strongest point: Combines the power of object oriented programming with
 the structure of the Pascal Language with an interface vastly improved
 over Microsoft's Visual Basic.

  Weakest point: Curiously poor documentation. The manual is an overview,
  and the online help requires search skills that assume you already have
  a strong knowledge of the language.


  Peter Neuendorffer is a Windows and DOS programmer.  He is the author of
  MBTA Directions on the Boston Transit (mbta127a.zip) for DOS; My New
  Project (mynewp13.zip) Project Management for Windows and  Scrubble Text
  file scrambler (scrubb10.zip)

                                     ww


 *                      *                       *                       *



                       The Cat's Out of The Bag!

                       (c) 1995  by Stanley
          The twenty pound black and white furry Windows expert!


                  Bob Miller's  Stanley Does Windows


  Word for Windows 6.0x

  Q: I just tried to print out an envelope for the first time.  First, I
  noticed that the old envelope icon in Winword 2.0 is gone, replaced by a
  cumbersome procedure for printing an envelope.  When I printed out an
  envelope, the address was double-spaced! Looked bad, and of course, I
  couldn't get the entire address printed.

  A:Envelopes and labels are probably one of WinWord's worst
  imple-mentations.  No matter what kind of formatting you have for the
  text, when you copy it into the envelope box, it is formatted as
  ENVELOPE ADDRESS, which is one of the styles in the NORMAL style sheet.
  Likewise, the return address is formatted as ENVELOPE RETURN.  You must
  go into the FORMAT STYLE menu and change the para-graph and font
  attributes for these two styles to whatever you want.  In particular,
  you should specify single space and no first line indent.  Save all this
  stuff to the template, and thereafter the envelope should print
  properly.

  Labels are even worse because no matter what font you want, the default
  remains the same, so if you want something other than the default you
  must change it each time. I added the envelope icon back on the tool
  bar, and hooked it to the envelope and label macro.

  Q: I frequently need to open files that don't end in .doc and it is a pain
  to have to keep changing the file open extension.  Is there anyway that
  I can make Word default to all files instead of just .doc?

  A: To change the default file extension in the FileOpen dialog for Word for
  Windows 6.0, you can edit your FileOpen command to look as follows:


                                   Sub MAIN
                                   Dim dlg As FileOpen
                                   GetCurValues dlg
                                   dlg.Name = "*.*"
                                   n = Dialog(dlg)
                                   If dlg.Name <> "*.*" And n = - 1 Then FileOpen
                                   dlg
                                   End Sub

  Purrfectly yours,

  Stanley


  Bob Miller really does have a Stanley!  Stanley is a very computer
  literate cat and came to the desktop by way of main frames. He's been
  mousing around Bob's system for some time and has become a real expert!
  lbl

                                 ww



 *                      *                       *                       *


                      Understanding PC Memory

                        by Paul Williamson
               (c) 1994 Backyard Software Systems, Inc.


                         Conventional Memory

  Conventional memory is the first 640K of memory in your machine. MS-DOS
  has a limit of 1024K of addressable memory (conventional memory plus the
  UMA), and all MS-DOS applications must run within this conventional
  memory.

  Between the top of conventional memory at 640K and the start of extended
  memory at 1024K lies the 384K Upper Memory Area (UMA).  This area does
  not contain physical memory.  Mapped into the 384K UMA are the system
  BIOS (basic input/output system) ROM chips (in the F000 to FFFF address
  space) and the Display Adapter memory (in the A000 to B7FF address
  space).  When you install other accessory cards, such as network
  adapters, they may also occupy space within the 384K UMA.  It is
  important to remember that the 384K UMA is always located in the same
  area of the IBM-compatible computer's address space: from 640K to 1024K
  (A000 to FFFF hexadecimal).  There are no exceptions to this rule.

  This means that a standard IBM-compatible machine with 640K of
  conventional memory installed really has 1 MB of address space. The
  system addresses conventional memory in the first 640K, and the UMA in
  the next 384K, the area from 640K to 1 MB (1024K).  This does not mean
  that the machine has 1 MB of physical memory.  A machine with 1 MB of
  physical memory has an address space of 1408K.  This consists of the
  640K of conventional memory, the 384K UMA, and the 384K of extended
  memory starting at 1024K.

                         EXTENDED MEMORY

  Extended memory is the simplest type of add-on memory to under-stand.
  It is also the type of memory used by Windows 3.x running in either
  standard or 386 enhanced operating mode. Extended memory is a seamless
  continuation of the original 1 MB address space on 80286 and 80386 (and
  higher) computers.  Extended memory always starts exactly at 1024K,
  where the 384K UMA ends.  There are no exceptions.

  It is not possible for an 8086 or 8088 machine to have extended memory.
  This is a hardware limitation of the 8086/8088 processors, which can
  handle only 1024K of total address space (that is, 640K of system memory
  plus the 384K UMA).  This is one reason why Windows 3.1 cannot run on
  8086/8088-based machines, as it requires a minimum of 256K of extended
  memory (or 1024K for enhanced mode).   The 80286 processor can address
  16 MB of total memory, and the 80386 processor can address up to 4
  gigabytes (GB). Note:  PC manufacturers often refer to extended memory
  as expansion memory, which is not to be confused with expanded memory.

  Due to the way DOS addresses memory, the actual amount of memory that
  can be physically addressed is 64K more than 1M.  This means that the
  first 64K of extended memory can be directly accessed by DOS.  With
  version 5.0 of MS-DOS, this area was designated the High Memory Area
  (HMA) and is normally reserved for DOS use.

  Windows 3.x and all applications running under Windows 3.x access
  extended memory through the Microsoft Extended Memory Specification
  (XMS).  Rather than accessing extended memory directly, access is made
  through an XMS driver.  The driver supplied by Microsoft for this
  purpose is called HIMEM.SYS. Older MS-DOS applications, ones that check
  available extended memory through interrupt 15, service 88H, will not
  see any extended memory with an XMS driver loaded.  Such applications
  must be rewritten to use the XMS, instead of interrupt 15, to access
  extended memory.

                        EXPANDED MEMORY

  It is important to understand the concept of expanded memory if you
  still run DOS applications that use it.  There are two different kinds
  of expanded memory, differentiated by their Lotus/Intel/Microsoft (LIM)
  Expanded Memory Specification (EMS) version numbers.

  LIM 3.2 Expanded Memory
  We discussed earlier how PC/XT machines with 8086/8088 processors can
  address only 1024K of memory, of which only 640K can be used as RAM for
  MS-DOS and MS-DOS applications.  You can't add more than 640K of
  conventional memory to the system, but you can provide more than 640K
  through a technique called bank switching. Expanded memory uses an empty
  area in the 384K UMA of the machine to provide this functionality,
  called the Page Frame.

  To use an expanded memory card, you must load a device driver to let the
  card know how to communicate with the PC.  This device driver is called
  an Expanded Memory Manager (EMM).  A LIM 3.2 EMM establishes a 64K page
  frame within the 384K UMA to perform EMS bank switching.  The 64K page
  frame consists of four contiguous 16K pages.  LIM 3.2 expanded memory
  won't work without a 64K contiguous page frame.

  The page frame is the area where the EMM maps information into and out
  of the RAM of the expanded memory card.  Information is not physically
  copied from the EMS card to the RAM of the computer; the device driver
  simply makes the page frame point to the data on the expanded memory
  card.  The data then appears in the page frame, and your application can
  access it.

  LIM 4.0 Expanded Memory

  LIM 3.2 expanded memory is fine for storing data such as spreadsheets in
  expanded memory; however, because the LIM 3.2 specification does not
  allow programs to run in expanded memory, it is not useful for
  multitasking.

  With LIM 4.0 you can have many more than four 16K pages.  LIM 4.0
  supports up to 64 pages, which are enough to bank 1 MB of memory at
  once.  Second, the page frame itself no longer must be four contiguous
  16K pages.  In fact, you need no page frame at all. Whichever EMS
  version you are dealing with, the basic operating principle of bank
  switching is still at work. Although LIM 4.0 is a standard that offers
  many advantages over LIM 3.2, few applications have yet been written to
  take advantage of LIM 4.0.

  Backfilling

  With LIM 4.0's limit of 64 16K pages, you have enough pages to bank
  switch the entire conventional address range of the processor.  However,
  there must be no active ROM or RAM of any sort where you put an expanded
  memory page.  Thus, you can't map EMS pages on top of anything that is
  already occupying address space in your machine (such as loaded MS-DOS
  or video/system ROM).  On the 80286 processor, you should disable as
  much motherboard memory as possible (down to 256K) and let the expanded
  memory card supply that memory.  This process is called backfilling.
  This doesn't mean that your computer will have only 256K  your programs
  still see a 640K machine.  But because the expanded memory card is now
  supplying the memory, it can bank switch the memory.  This capability is
  called large page frame EMS, and it allows programs to run executable
  code in expanded memory, a major improvement over LIM 3.2.

  The 80386 processor has a built-in ability to readdress any page of
  memory to any other location.  This means you don't have to backfill on
  an 80386 to get large page frame LIM 4.0 functionality, nor do you need
  an expanded memory board.  It's easy to convert your 80386's extended
  memory to expanded memory with an 80386 EMM such as Microsoft's
  EMM386.EXE.

  If you're using an expanded memory board on an 80386 machine, read your
  manual carefully before you backfill.  Not all memory boards have the
  register support to supply more than four 16K pages (LIM 3.2).  Though a
  memory driver may conform to the LIM 4.0 specification, that does not
  mean the hardware can provide more than four pages.  Also, because
  Windows 3.1 supports extended memory directly, backfilling expanded
  memory will not give you any advantages, and the memory on the
  motherboard is often faster than memory on an expanded memory board.

  LIMulators

  Some programs, known as LIMulators, emulate expanded memory on 8088- and
  80286-based machines using hard disk space and/or extended memory.
  These programs are not much of an advantage, because although they
  supply expanded memory, they are not hardware.  They must locate a 64K
  EMS page frame in conventional memory and also take up space for the
  driver itself.  LIMulators generally take close to 80K of conventional
  memory to run. Because conventional memory is the most precious memory
  on your machine, these types of programs are not recommended.  They are
  also typically extremely slow.

  On 80386 machines, it is possible to use a 386 Expanded Memory Manager
  (such as EMM386 or Quarterdeck's QEMM) to emulate expanded memory.
  These LIMulators use the XMS rather than interrupt 15 memory to emulate
  expanded memory and are much more efficient than other types of
  LIMulators.

  Expanded Memory Difficulties

  LIM 3.2 expanded memory requires a page frame to work, and the page
  frame is located within the 384K UMA of your machine. Unfortunately,
  your EMM is not the only competitor for that memory space.   Add-on
  boards, such as network cards; 3270 emulation cards; RLL, SCSI, and ESDI
  disk controllers; and even high-resolution video cards, can contend for
  this address space. Several potential difficulties can arise due to this
  contention:

  Lack of Space.

  The major problem is simply finding at least 64K of contiguous free
  space in which to locate the LIM 3.2 page frame.  LIM 4.0 does not
  require a 64K page frame but is almost useless without it, as very few
  applications have been written to take advantage of the LIM 4.0
  specification. Frequently, the address areas of various adapter cards
  need to be shuffled to open a contiguous 64K page frame.  Complicating
  this process are boards such as the IBM 3270, which have nonmovable
  addresses in most machines. Mapping Conflicts.   Most 386 EMMs (such as
  EMM386.EXE and Windows 3.1 386 enhanced mode) use a search algorithm to
  find unused memory addresses between C000 and DFFF located in the 384K
  UMA to use as page frames.  Some cards (adapters) do not reserve their
  address space until you access the card, so the memory manager can
  inadvertently map EMS pages on top of an address the card will request.

  This is often true of Token Ring network adapters and can cause hanging
  and intermittent operation. In case of problems, the first thing to do
  is disable expanded memory.  This procedure will determine whether a
  page conflict is causing your difficulty.  If the problem goes away
  without expanded memory, the memory manager must be told to exclude the
  address the adapter is occupying from consideration as a page location.
  Consult your memory manager's documentation for information on how to
  exclude an address range.  The adapter may also have to be moved; you do
  this in different ways with different memory managers.


  Paul Williamson is an on-site consultant for Chase Manhattan Bank. He is
  well known on the nets and has hosted many conferences.  He is on the
  WindoWatch Editorial Board and can be reached at
  72611,1543@compuserve.com



                                  ww
 *                      *                       *                       *


                            THANKS FOR THE MEMORY

                          (c) 1995  by Kyle Freeman


  If it hasn't happened to you yet, be assured it will!  You've just
  gotten that new computer loaded with RAM.  Windows is running as
  smoothly as a Mozart minuet; you're multitasking like a carnival
  juggler.  Then one day you try to run some program, probably a great new
  game, and you're greeted with a rude message telling you that you don't
  have enough memory.  You try it again without any other programs running
  and still you get the same message.  "But I've got  eight, or sixteen or
  thirty-two megs of RAM?

  How come I can't run this one program?"

  There are lots of reasons you can run out of memory in Windows,
  especially if you are running DOS programs in a DOS window.  You can
  also run out of resources long before you run out of memory.  But if you
  fail to get past this guardian dragon while running only one program,
  then what you've probably run into are conflicting demands for two types
  of RAM: expanded memory (EMS) and extended memory (XMS).

  Windows programs use XMS but this new game or spreadsheet or flight
  simulator requires EMS, or at least will run better with EMS.  If you
  optimize your machine for Windows, it will use XMS, but if you set it up
  to use EMS, it will usually cost you a big chunk of RAM, which can slow
  Windows performance, sometimes drastically.  How can you get the best of
  both of these memory worlds, without having to buy a second computer?

  There is a way -- two, in fact.  Both require some trade off in
  convenience, but the cost is really minimal.  What follows will explain
  what to do, when in fact,  you have this conflict.  Check the
  documentation of the program that is giving you this out of memory
  message.  If it says that you should use expanded memory with it, then
  what follows, is the solution to your problem.  Or it may be that you've
  already set up your system (or someone else has set it up for you) to
  use EMS, but now you're running into the other side of that coin, and
  your Windows programs don't get enough memory because of the RAM your
  EMS setup is eating.  In short, you can either set up a multi-bootup
  menu or make a special bootup disk. Neither is difficult to do.  I'll
  show you how to do both later on, as we'll go through each step by step.
  But first let's take a quick trip down your computer's memory lane to
  examine the secret life of RAM.

  While Gertrude Stein may have been right that a rose is a rose is a
  rose, RAM would have caused her to think again. Not all RAM is created
  equal. Of course, all your RAM holds little bits of information the same
  way, but the areas it fills and the rules governing those areas differ.
  Lets look at five aspects of RAM, all of which play some part in
  resolving your expanded vs. extended conflict.

  Conventional Memory

  First, as you probably know, no matter how much RAM your computer has,
  the critical number is 640K. Thats the first 655,360 bytes of memory
  that your CPU addresses (1 Kilobyte is 1024 bytes; 640x1024 = 655,360).
  Its called conventional memory, or the lower 640, as opposed to all the
  rest of your RAM, which is above the first 640K. When you run out of
  memory, its usually this lower 640K that youve used up. All your DOS
  programs use this memory, and some Windows programs use bits of it, too.

  Upper Memory Area

  This 640 K limitation came about because Intels first chip, the 8086,
  addressed 1 megabyte of memory in what is now called real mode. When
  IBM designed its first personal computer to use this chip, it decided to
  set aside some of this 1 MB, 384K in fact, for video cards, system ROM
  (Read-Only Memory), BASIC expansion cards, and various other cards. The
  384 Reserved memory message you see when your computer boots up or when
  you check your memory usage by typing mem refers to this area. So
  Microsoft designed its disk operating system (DOS) for IBM to use what
  was left of the original 1 MB, which turns out to be 640K.

  However, this never happens, primarily because using the Reserved area
  that way would be like harnessing Pegasus as a plowhorse.  First, the
  ROM at those addresses is read through your BIOS, which is much slower
  than the speed with which your machine can access RAM.  So to make the
  whole operation much faster, most BIOS's now have the ability to take
  the information stored in those addresses, remap the addresses to RAM,
  and then write the information for those addresses to its new home in
  RAM. Then when your system is looking for something that it expects to
  find in those addresses, it finds it at exactly the address it was
  looking for, but now that address is in RAM.  This is known as
  shadowing.  Videocards and system ROM are the things most usually
  shadowed.

  In addition, as it turns out, machines rarely if ever use all of that
  384K of reserved addresses for the things for which they were set aside.
  Instead, through the use of special software (DOS uses HIMEM.SYS
  andEMM386.EXE), some of those addresses are mapped out as upper memory
  blocks (UMB) that can then be used to load all kinds of things that
  would otherwise be forced to take up some of your lower 640 K.  But
  before we can discuss the creation of UMBs, we have to look at the kind
  of memory from which UMBs are formed.

  Extended Memory

  XMS came about when Intel introduced the 80286 chip, which could access
  16MB of memory. IBM used this chip in its AT class machine, which could
  access XMS. XMS is all the memory that exists above the 1 MB mark. To
  access this memory, programs need to run in what's called protected
  mode. All DOS programs run in real mode and can't access this XMS. For
  one thing, this memory has no addresses. Memory addresses stop at the 1
  MB limit. Windows can use this memory, but its unavailable to DOS
  without some program designed to run in protected mode. HIMEM.SYS is the
  DOS program that coordinates the use of your system's XMS so that
  programs calling for it don't conflict with each other. It also gives
  access to something called the High Memory Area.

  High Memory Area

  Another wrinkle of the 286 chip was its ability to carve out one more
  little space called the High Memory Area (HMA) that DOS could reach in
  real mode. Its the first 64K of memory past the 1 MB limit. By design
  the only things that can be assigned there are DOS itself, the system
  buffers, and the DoubleSpace driver. (Actually, DesqView could fit
  there, too, but Im assuming youre using Windows or you wouldnt be
  having this conflict to start with.) Well come back to this later, as
  filling it properly can have a small but perhaps crucial effect on your
  EMS v. XMS problem.

  Expanded Memory

  To allow DOS programs to use some of this extra memory, Lotus, Intel,
  and Microsoft put their heads together to create something called the
  Expanded Memory Specification (thus the LIM EMS you may have seen).
  Through software managers, like EMM386.EXE, some of that XMS can be made
  to act like ("simulate" is the term usually used) extra, or expanded,
  lower 640K memory, which doesnt require going into protected mode. Thus
  DOS programs can use it as if its an extension of the basic lower 640K,
  which in fact it is.

  But before the alchemy that transforms XMS into EMS, EMM386 must first
  create an area in the first 1 MB of addressable memory that can hold it.
  Naturally, the place to do that is in the 384K of reserved addresses.
  EMM386 looks at all those addresses, finds what isnt being used, which
  is usually a lot, then maps those unused addresses with some of your
  XMS, otherwise unusable by DOS, thus creating the Upper Memory Area. It
  can then put some of your programs that would normally fit in the lower
  640 into these UMBs. This is where your Terminate and Stay Resident
  (TSR) programs are often loaded, as well as sound card, CDROM, and
  network drivers. Windows itself loads its translation buffers there,
  also in a 64K segment. In 386 enhanced mode, Windows allocates buffers
  in the Upper Memory Area to translate MS-DOS & network application
  program interface (API) calls from Windows protected mode to MS-DOS real
  mode.

  In addition to creating the Upper Memory area, EMM386 also manages EMS.
  When a DOS program needs EMS, it calls EMM386, which then creates whats
  called a page frame in the Upper Memory Area that always requires 64K.
  EMM386 takes some RAM from the pool of expanded memory youve asked it
  to use, assigns it to some available addresses in Upper Memory, then
  puts the data from the program there in 16K segments. Only data can go
  in the page frame; executable code cant. EMM386 pages through the data
  as its called by the program that uses the data, until the calls by
  some greedy DOS program exceed 64K. It then looks for other areas in
  Upper Memory in which to write the new data while keeping up with where
  the first 64K worth of calls were allocated. This is called bank
  switching. By means of it, EMM386 can handle several megabytes of data
  by switching these 64K segments.

  This is the core of the conflict between XMS and EMS. Ideally, there
  would be enough free space in the Upper Memory area to place both the
  translation buffers & an EMS page frame. But on many systems theres
  not. If youve set up your system to use all this Upper Memory for your
  TSRs, Smartdrv, your mouse, and whatever else, its usually pretty well
  full up. If you ask EMM386 to use EMS, it must carve out a 64K page
  frame, which will push out many of those TSRs and drivers into the only
  other place they can fit, which is the lower 640K. To deal with both
  heads of this hydra, you can use the multi-bootup capacity built into
  DOS or you can make a special bootup disk. The following assumes youre
  using DOS 6.0 or higher. If youve still got an older version of DOS,
  then my advice is UPGRADE! Its the best $50 you can spend on your
  machine.

  Before we go through these options, however, you should first get your
  system optimized for however you plan to run it most of the time. In
  most cases that will be to run Windows, and therefore you'll want to
  give all your computers memory above 1 MB to EMM386 to use as XMS. To
  do that, put the following line in your CONFIG.SYS file:

  DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

  You probably have such a line already. If it contains some other
  switches after the NOEMS, like X=C000-C7FF, or I=B000-B7FF, leave them
  as they are. They are exclusions and inclusions of UMBs that either are
  or arent being used. EMM386 is instructed to use these addresses to
  provide more UMBs.

  Next, optimize the order in which youve loaded everything in both your
  AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS. Here are a few helpful tips. First, if you
  plan to use Windows most if not all of the time for this particular
  setup, you dont need to load a mouse driver in AUTOEXEC.BAT. That
  driver only works for DOS programs in DOS. Windows loads a mouse driver
  automatically, so you can save some valuable memory by omitting it here.
  If you must load one, move it up to the top of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
  Mouse drivers require a lot of RAM to initialize, nearly 50K, then a
  much lesser amount, usually between 14 and 20K, once installed. Youll
  want your mouse driver to load in upper memory, but if it cant find a
  UMB with about 50K of free space, it will load low, robbing you of much
  needed lower memory. Its got a much better chance of finding that 50K
  if it's loaded first. It will then give back the rest of that 50K it
  isnt using after it initializes so other programs can load high.

  Next, if you're using SETVER.EXE, put REM in front of it. SETVER fools
  older programs that require a specific version of DOS, like 2.0, into
  believing theyve found it. Few programs require it. Youll save some
  memory by excluding it. If you find that something you run needs it,
  then of course you will then have to remove the REM to let it load. But
  in most cases, its simply a memory waster.

  The same is true of the FCBS line you may have. File Control Blocks are
  similar to SERVER. Some older programs require them, but not many. If
  you have a line that sets FCBS=16,0, as an alarming number of systems
  do, quite needlessly, you can safely change it to FCBS=1. COMMAND.COM
  requires one file control block, but its a safe bet that nothing else
  you have needs one. If you have no FCBS line, the value defaults to 4.
  You can save a couple hundred bytes of RAM by adding FCBS=1, but unless
  youre hell-bent to get every last byte of RAM, you neednt go to the
  trouble.

  Too many buffers can take up memory as well. Buffers fit into the HMA,
  along with DOS. Nothing else goes in the HMA, so you want to fill it
  with as many buffers as you can without an overflow into low memory. A
  reliable rule of thumb is to use BUFFERS=40 if you arent using
  DoubleSpace, and 17 if you are.  In DOS6.22, you can check to see how
  much of your HMA is filled by your present buffer setting by entering
  MEM /A.  If the amount of space left in the HMA is several K, you should
  include more buffers until its full. You can also add a little bit of
  Upper Memory by excluding the address set aside for monochrome video. If
  you have a color monitor, youre probably not using this area anyway,
  although its always possible that something you installed has figured
  this out and appropriated it. But probably not. So in your

    DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386 NOEMS line, add a space and X=B000-B7FF.

  This will give Windows an extra UMB to fill with TSR's. If you do this, you
  must also add

    DEVICE=C:\DOS\MONOUMB 86 to the [386Enh] section

  of your SYSTEM.INI file in Windows. Make sure you have a file in your DOS
  directory called MONOUMB.386; you might have erased it thinking it did
  you no good. If youre using QEMM or 386MAX as your memory manager, you
  must use a file called MONOUMB2.386.

  DoubleSpace takes up a big chunk of memory, about 50K. Its not
  something youre likely to be able to alter: either you use it because
  you need it, or youve got a big enough drive that you merely smile at
  it in passing whenever you do a search of your DOS directory. If youre
  thinking about using it, be aware that it will make whatever memory
  problems you may have all the more acute.

  One last tip is to check the line of your AUTOEXEC.BAT that loads your
  MS DOS Extender for your CDROM (MSCDEX.EXE). It should look something
  like this:

    LH C:\SB16\DRV\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /L:F /M:20


  The" /M:x" switch usually found there sets aside a number of buffers for
  your CDROM. The x is the number of buffers youre telling your system
  to use. While it would be ideal to have as large a number of buffers as
  possible, those buffers take up lots of RAM. A number between 10 and 20
  is usually optimum. If by some chance your system was set up with a
  number near the limit of your CDROM, such as 64, youre being robbed of
  about 100K of RAM by that little stinker.

  So, after getting these two files in fighting trim, run memmaker (or
  whatever equivalent you might have, e.g., QEMM), make sure no gremlins
  attacked your machine and that everything works as it should, then copy
  these files somewhere safe, and go back to do it all over again. This
  time you want to change the NOEMS switch on your EMM386 line to RAM.

  This will be the setup to use for those programs that require EMS. If
  the documentation for your EMS programs state you need to set aside a
  specific amount of EMS, add that number, in kilobytes, after RAM. For
  example, King's Quest asks for 2 MB of EMS, as I recall, so your line
  would read

               DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM 2048

  Because the RAM switch will set up a 64K page frame in upper memory,
  other things that used to go there will be squeezed out. Since you will
  be using this setup for specialized purposes no doubt less frequently
  than the first one, you can probably jettison some things from your
  AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files that you wont use with this setup.

  If, for instance, youll not be using your CDROM or your SoundBlaster
  with the programs that require EMS, don't load those drivers. Its
  doubtful this will be the case, as whatever that new program is thats
  causing your memory problems probably uses one or both. Exclude your
  network drivers if you don't intend for this setup to run over your
  network.

  One thing to change will probably be your FILES= line in CONFIG.SYS.
  Windows uses lots of file handles, but the game or flight simulator or
  whatever may not need near as many. Find out the most files specified in
  the documentation for all of the programs for which you need EMS, and
  set the FILES= line to that number. If none of those programs specify
  anything about files, try using 20. If any-thing hollers, you can bump
  it up as need be. Also look for DEVICE=C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS. Its unlikely
  that youll need ANSI for both of your setups. Leave it out, if you have
  it, for the one that doesnt need flashy prompts or screen colors
  dependent on ANSI.

  Also remove all the LH /L:1,16790 type stuff from all the lines in your
  AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS Dont remove the rest of the line: just the
  LOADHIGH or LH /L:xxx part. Youre going to rerun memmaker to let it put
  all these things where they can fit after its added a page frame.  And
  of course, if your first setup goes into Windows as the last line of
  your AUTOEXEC.BAT, remove that.

  Now rerun memmaker. Youll get a different set of LH addresses and a
  different amount of free memory. Here is the fun part. You get to choose
  either a multi-bootup setup or a special boot disk. The easiest is
  probably to copy this second set of AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files to
  a bootup disk, one that has COMMAND.COM, io.sys, msdos.sys, and if
  relevant, dblspace.bin. You won't see the last three with a directory
  search, as they are hidden, system files, unless you use a comma after
  "dir" when looking. They'll all be in lower case, which is DOS's way to
  show you that a file has the hidden attribute.

  If you don't have a bootup disk, you can make one in a few seconds by
  putting a formatted disk in drive A and typing SYS C: A: and pressing
  Enter. This will copy all your system files to the floppy. Then copy the
  original pair of AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files back to your root
  directory after putting the second pair on this disk. Then whenever you
  boot up, youll get the setup optimized for Windows, and whenever you
  want to run your EMS programs, you can reboot using the bootup disk you
  have just created.

  If, however, you tend to lose disks or have so many around you can never
  find the one youre looking for, or people at work come by on a regular
  basis to borrow your disks and dont return them, or for whatever
  reason youd prefer to have this choice of setups on your hard drive,
  theres another way to accomplish this. Its a bit more involved, but it
  works well and its always there for you.

  You'll want to set up a multiboot sequence in your CONFIG.SYS and
  AUTOEXEC.BAT files. To do this, youll need both sets of files youve
  just created. Open an ASCII text editor (you have at least three, if
  youve got DOS 5 or above and Windows: type EDIT at a DOS prompt, or use
  Notepad or Write in Windows). Import your first CONFIG.SYS file. Put
  "[menu]" as the first item in the new CONFIG.SYS, with two menuitem=
  lines under it. (Dont, of course, type in the quotation marks.) The
  menuitem entries will specify the names of the two bootup regimes you
  will use. You can call them anything you want: Standard and Games, or
  Extended and Expanded, or Yin and Yang. It doesnt matter, so long as
  you know what each name means. So you might put

  [menu]
  menuitem=Windows
  menuitem=Games

  Then below those lines add a section called Windows enclosed in
  brackets. Underneath those brackets copy the entire CONFIG.SYS file from
  the first setup you copied into some safe place. It will be the one with
  the EMM386 line that had the NOEMS switch. E.g.,

  [Windows]
  DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
  DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
  command
  command
  command

  Then type the other section name below that. Be sure to call it the same
  name you gave the second menuitem. Then copy the entire CONFIG.SYS file
  from the second set of setup files you created earlier. E.g.,

  [Games]
  DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
  DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM
  command
  command
  command

  I've found that it's dangerous to make a [common] section, as the DOS 6
  help docs tell you, because DOS executes all the lines in the [common]
  section before it goes to the individual menuitems. Thus, if you try
  putting everything in the [common] section except the EMM386 line, which
  may be the only thing different in your two CONFIG.SYS files, DOS waits
  to do the EMM386 lines last.  It will load all the drivers in the common
  section low, since EMM386 hadnt yet begun to manage any upper memory.
  So Ive found it best to make two complete menuitem sections. Once you
  have the CONFIG.SYS properly divided into the number of setups you want,
  save your CONFIG.SYS file in your editor, and then open up your
  AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Start this AUTOEXEC.BAT file with the line

  goto %config%

  and then have two sections that begin with a colon and the name of the
  two menuitems you defined in CONFIG.SYS. So using the example above,
  your new AUTOEXEC.BAT file should look like this:

  goto %config%
  :Windows
  command
  command
  command
  goto END
  :Games
  command
  command
  command
  goto END
  :END

  Of course, you put underneath the Windows heading all the commands and
  their specific addresses that the first memmaker run gave you for your
  AUTOEXEC, and the second set of AUTOEXEC commands and addresses under
  Games. Youll then get a choice upon bootup thereafter asking you which
  of the two you want to use.

  Whichever you defined first will be the one on which the cursor rests as
  the default, so youll save a keystroke on each bootup if you put first,
  the one you plan to use most often.

  That's all there is to it. You can now laugh in scorn at the memory
  problems that once bedeviled you. You might even think of Bob Hope as
  you hum or whistle "Thanks for the Memory."


  Kyle Freeman, a former college teacher, is now a San Francisco
  consultant. He can be found in the various Windows conferences around the
  nets and can be reached at kyle.freeman@lcabin.com.  Kyle is a WindoWatch
  regular contributor.


                                    ww

 *                      *                       *                       *



                          PLUG-IN for WINDOWS
                           A Product Review
                       (c) 1995 by Frank McGowan


  A follow-up review of last months WindoWatch Plug of the Month

  PLUG-IN FOR WINDOWS

    Plannet Crafters, Inc.
    P.O. Box 450
    Alpharetta, GA  30239-0450
    Phone: 404-998-8664
    FAX:   404-998-8197


  Like the House Republicans, with another month's experience under my
  belt, I've kept my promise and am now an official, registered user of
  Plug-In !   So, do I still think it's worth the $20 (plus shipping)?  In
  a word, ubetcha! After less than two months as a user, I'm hopelessly
  hooked. After using it for just a few weeks, I couldn't imagine not
  having it at my disposal.

  I still haven't figured out all the bells and whistles, but I can claim
  a lot more insight than a month ago. For one thing, I know that it's a
  whole lot easier moving around from program to program via the QuickRun
  menu than it is the old Windows route: I can get to my best-loved
  programs, like File Manager and Print Manager, with just a couple of
  clicks, without having to switch to Program Manager and open up the
  group icon. The analogy is that of a direct flight compared to making a
  connecting flight with a long layover (and in a terminal on the wrong
  side of the airport).  It's not as good as non-stop, but it's a heck of
  an improvement all the same.  I also enjoy the flexibility of picking my
  "cursor of the day": I sometimes feel like using the guy with the big
  nose as a pointer and the stoplight as the wait cursor; and sometimes
  I'm more in the mood for a baton pointer and a "Please wait, I'm trying
  to think" wait cursor.  It seems like a little thing, but those little
  things do add up.

  Something that's a little more significant is the ability to put program
  groups inside other program groups. When you start approaching the
  Windows maximum, I believe it's forty, you will appreciate being able to
  stick your Accessories group inside your Main group, for instance. Once
  it's in there, you can spot it quickly, because it has little chevrons
  next to its >name< .... something like that!  And, you can put more than
  one group within another, so you can open up a lot of space on your
  desktop.

  Among the more meaningful features is the low resources alert, which can
  be a real lifesaver. If you're about to run out of memory or disk space,
  you'll be told far enough in advance to avoid a catastrophe - at least
  most of the time.  In truth, the warning came a little late for me on
  one occasion. I was lucky and was able to recover with little damage.

  Alarms, both simple and complex, are another neat bell and whistle and
  is literally so if you have a sound board. Even if you have just the
  rudimentary sound capability, you can set up an alarm that will make a
  suitably alarming noise at the appointed time. Again, this is a major
  improvement over the alarms you can set via the Calendar program.
  Another example of filling a gaping hole.

  One thing I especially like is that most,  although not quite all, of
  the Help screens come up maximized. It's really annoying to have to fish
  around for the scroll bar, only to realize that the screen is at only
  90% of its maximum size. One thing I would suggest, however, is that
  they teach the writer the difference between "it's" and "its." In case
  you're wondering, "it's" is a contraction for "it is"; "its" is the
  possessive form of "it." This kind of error is bothersome and detracts
  from the content.

  Also, while they're at it, they could tone down some of the snideness.
  Is it really necessary to chide Microsoft as in the Help screen
  describing the System Information feature, by noting that you can see
  how long it's been since you started Windows and have a contest with
  your friends to see who can keep Windows alive the longest? Although
  it's just a little sophomoric  and gratuitous, I suppose theres no harm
  done.

  Aside from these small niceties, Plug-In is just so darned convenient.
  It's always at your disposal, by means of a small icon in the shape of a
  (are you ready?) plug (which you can change to a socket), so you can
  easily reconfigure it to suit your needs or your mood. Or, if you decide
  you desperately need to have the Calculator on hand for immediate
  access, just click the plug and click Accessories. If that still isn't
  fast enough for you, make the calculator a menu item of its own.

  I suppose I have to point out the few warts I've found, just to give
  this some balance. I've already mentioned their confusion between it's
  and its - not a biggie unless you're an old fogy (like me). I should
  also mention that it's available for some programs, such as WordPerfect
  and AmiPro, only if you do some finagling involving the Exclude List,
  which lives in the Title Bar option of the Configure Plug-In menu,
  hidden under the General button.  All of this is explained in a Help
  screen, but of course, if you didn't know it was there, why would you
  ever try to find it? I actually didn't find it. A very inquisitive
  colleague with much too much time on his hands was the one who stumbled
  onto it, and only because he couldn't stand not having this feature
  available when he was using WordPerfect.

  I also think it would be a good thing to be able to double-click on Exit
  Windows, rather than having to click the OK button or press Enter. Phew!
  That about exhausts my long list of complaints. I'm just wondering what
  they'll do for an encore when Windows '95 makes its long anticipated
  debut. As for how sold I am - well, I'm one of those folks who never
  recommend anything (books, restaurants, movies, etc.) because invariably
  the people who take my recommendation end up hating the
  book/restaurant/movie (and, by extension, me). But with Plug-In, I'm an
  enthusiastic, if not downright zealous, proselytizer. I've turned
  several of my workmates on to it, and so far no one has been anything
  less than happy. Of course, there is this one guy for whom nothing's
  ever good enough...maybe this once I'll...nah, let that sleeping dog
  lie!


  Frank McGowan is a computer consultant with many years of tech writing
  and teaching under his belt. His background includes employment by some
  of the biggies in the industry. With his wife Sue, or he with her 'cause
  she's the proud owner of a CD Rom drive, they will start looking at some
  of the new CD Rom titles coming to market. Frank is a regular WindoWatch
  contributor.

                                  ww

 *                      *                       *                       *




                           ENTERTAINMENT FOR SOME

                        (c) by 1995   Jerome Laulicht

  We have been threatening to add a fun page for big kids from the
  beginning of our short history.  With this evaluation of The Crossword
  Wizard  and Idea Wizard by Cogix Corp.,  we begin -- and none too soon!
  We believe that  there will be a marked increase in games and  puzzles,
  including a spruce up of old favorites, with the advent of new
  multimedia tools  developed for Windows95 game programmers.

  Our first effort is Crossword Wizard,  chosen because crosswords can be
  challenging fun, are good candidates for computer treatment, and  their
  ad was so informative!  It is especially appealing if you want to learn
  how to create or solve crosswords. It also will create challenging
  puzzles for you to solve and technically it is a well-done Windows
  program.  It has interesting features and, while sometimes awkward, is
  an excellent alternative to newsprint paper and pencils.

  Like other intellectually challenging entertainment, crosswords continue
  to attract a varied audience, off and on-line. Cogix has not replaced
  the puzzle on paper so eminently useful to stave off boredom while
  waiting for doctors, dentists, children, planes, etc. They can, however,
  be an alternative to Doom  as a break from work,  while having the
  advantage of being useful in a multitasking environment. Aficionados are
  skilled at spending ten minutes at a time on a puzzle so there is no
  problem mixing it up with a bit of work , which can allow you to think
  about the remaining problems  in the puzzle in the background.

  The challenge is to use the computer to enhance the process enough to
  make it worth having a crosswords program.  The Cogix  effort meets the
  challenge sufficiently well to be a good choice.   It goes well beyond
  presenting you with interesting puzzles to solve which is about all my
  previous program did. The program does come with some ready made
  puzzles.  Children and beginners can start with easy puzzles, gradually
  building up to those creations where you can quietly curse--the epitome
  of adult entertainment. Experts will find much to like and puzzle over
  while spotting weaknesses, as they are required to do.

  Probably the most interesting and  powerful enhancement in a crossword
  program is one which helps you to learn how to create puzzles more
  easily and with less tedium. My past experience with a crossword program
  was disappointing--good puzzles but too awkward to use happily and a
  tedious and difficult help file on the construction of puzzles. With
  Cogix,  construction is easier to learn and do, with the added ability
  to easily try words out and  then quickly see results. This has the
  bonus of speeding  up learning because a surprisingly small amount of
  text suffices, along with  commands provided to show you alternatives
  and  display results.  Ive oversimplified a bit but the steps are
  really intuitive.

  There are three ways to construct new puzzles.  The easiest is to
  command the program to make an original puzzle for you and then choose
  among several possible sizes and three levels of difficulty. You can get
  a cup of coffee or a beer or even work while waiting for the words to be
  chosen and the clues to be displayed. If your computer is rather slow
  you can be patient  or limit the construction time. Or you could just
  watch the  program sift through its "database of over one million word
  associations".  Staring at and thinking about this process a few times
  and reading  a few paragraphs  gives you a rather clear idea of what is
  going on.

  Something called a "sophisticated combinatorial search algorithm" is used
  in puzzle creation. And get this, the "word associations are derived
  from WordNet, an artificial intelligence lexicon developed at a
  Cognitive Sciences Laboratory".  Information about this  is coming from
  Cogix for those who are interested in AI.

  Yet another way demands even more input from you to build a puzzle
  around your own choice of  six words with their clues.   If you watch
  the rather fast process, try several different sets of words, and think
  about any problems you encounter, you will get even more insight into
  what is involved. In a few tries, I learned that when I opted for a
  large-sized puzzle the program could not create one, even with its one
  million word associations to choose from. Politely, I was told to try
  again but to substitute a shorter word for the longest one.  Probably
  limitations of the available dictionary and some unexplained program
  restrictions.

  The last possibility is wide open and  even more demanding.  You choose
  everything, including ALL the words with clues, and fit them all
  together. This is my next fun! project.  A variety of help is provided
  by learning to use the programs tools.   For example, there is a
  sizable vocabulary of words organized alphabetically and by length. Some
  of your words will actually be two to five words. If you need a seven
  letter word starting with the letters FA, you can see a display of all
  words in the list meeting these specs and choose one, then replace it
  with other possible words to find the best one.

  Probably the second most powerful feature of a crossword program are the
  nature and variety of the hints it lets you call upon. Again the Cogix
  effort passes muster.  You can demand one letter or one word, get visual
  and/or spoken reactions to your choices, and much more.  This helps
  beginners to learn since they can gradually wean themselves from the
  help.  It is also a neat way to move toward the capability to solve many
  of the hardest puzzles Cogix presents for your frustration--and the
  hardest ones are indeed difficult.

  What Crossword Wizard lacks are full blown tutorials with practice for
  you and reactions to some of your errors to teach you how to solve
  puzzles or to completely construct your own.   Ideally this would be
  pitched at several levels including one for kids and one for adolescents
  so that even beginners could  at least get a good sense of things.

  With CD-ROM's, it is easier to provide a mixed learning experience for
  difficult tasks and Cogix has already incorporated spoken words, music
  and visual clues in the current version.  Obviously such an effort
  demands a potential for enough sales to warrant the effort.  This is one
  of those programs which many more people would probably buy if they
  could borrow it first for a week to get a sense that they could  use it.
  Cogix does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. Wouldn't it be nice,
  however,  if we  could go to libraries to borrow a program like
  this--with protection for the developer so that it could not be copied?

  Orders--800-455-3388    Phone--415-454-7217      Fax--415-457-4089
  Price--$40--30 day money-back guarantee
  Requirements--386 or better; Windows 3.1, Win95, WinNT

  Jerry Laulicht is a retired professor from the University of Pittsburgh.
  A NYTimes crossword addict, his proficiency is noteable.  He also cheats!



                                    ww

 *                      *                       *                       *


                     Accessing the Internet Using Windows95

                         (c) 1995 by Thomas F. Lee

  What is Windows 95?

  Windows 95 is, or in due course will be, the next version of
  Microsoft's Windows.  At present available only in beta, Windows 95 is
  due for formal release in August 1995.  As part of the pre-release
  testing process, Microsoft has released beta versions to a variety of
  beta programs. The currently available beta is build 347 and is also
  known as M8 or Windows Preview Program (WPP).  Later builds of Windows
  95 have been provided to a small group of developers and testers.  This
  paper is being written using build 445 and 450 although all testing and
  dialogue boxes shown in this document relate to M8 (build 347).

  If you install Windows 95, remember this is a beta version of an
  operating system and does have bugs.  In the development of this piece,
  the author has experienced numerous crashes and hangs - Windows 95
  (along with the applications noted) is NOT yet stable. Thus far, only
  unsaved work has been lost - this amounts to several pages of typed work
  - but it is all re-doable.  You might not be so lucky.

  How do I get Windows 95

  If you don't already have it, the chances are you can't, or won't get it
  before it is formally released.  Potential sources of Windows 95 are the
  MSDN Level II subscription and being a Microsoft Solution Provider.

  How do I connect to the Internet with Windows 95?

  There are two broad approaches to Internet connectivity with Windows 95.
  First, you can connect to the Microsoft Network which (eventually) will
  support a full Internet feed.  The other is to use one of many  Internet
  Service Provider and use Dialup Networking.  While the MSN will possibly
  be easier to use, it does not currently offer Internet connectivity.

  In general, Windows 95 follows a layered approach to Internet
  connectivity, the key layers being:

    physical (i.e. modem or Ethernet)
    transport (i.e. TCP/IP)
    client applications (e.g. mail, news, etc.).

  There are several ways to connect these various layers, but first you
  have to have a modem installed and working.

    Connecting a Modem

  Setting up your modem is pretty straightforward.  First, you must have a
  modem which is compatible with Windows 95.  Microsoft issues a Hardware
  Compatibility List (HCL) which specifies hardware which has been tested
  and will work under Windows 95. .  At present, this list has about 100
  modems which are alleged to work.

  If your modem is not on this list but is Hayes compatible, it will probably work.  If it not on the list and is not Hayes compatible, it may not.  For best results, use a modem on the HCL.

  To set-up the modem, you should run control panel
  (Start/Settings/Control Panel).  Then select the Modems to bring up the
  Install New Modems set-up wizard.  This will guide you through the
  process of installing your modem.  Usually, you can let Windows 95 find
  your modem, but at this point in time, Windows 95 is not all that good
  at autodetecting all modems and may detect a modem which is somewhat
  different than the modem you actually have!  Such is the state of the
  art in modems.  You can also select your modem from the supplied list of
  supported modems.

  If you have a modem which is NOT on the list, you can try to set-up a
  'standard modem' - this is a generic Hayes compatible modem driver and
  certainly seems to work for some modems. However, the generic Hayes
  compatible modem driver may not enable all the features which your modem
  actually has.   Modems which are known to work with both Windows 95 and
  Demon are as follows:

  Modem Detected/Used As

  US Robotics V.34 US Robotics V.Everything
  US Robotics World Port 14400 Fax/Data
  US Robotics World Port 14400
  Hayes Ultra 144 V-Series
  Smartmodem Standard Modem Supra V32.bis faxmodem
  Standard Modem Courier HST Dual Standard with V.32bis
  ASL Standard Modem (detected) Courier 14400 Dual Standard

  Note:  this list is obviously a subset of the modems supported by
  Windows 95 and the absence of your modem from this list does not mean
  that will not work. The above modems, on the other hand, have been shown
  to work when connecting to a variety of Internet services.  Additions to
  this list are welcome!

  Setting up TCP/IP

  Once you have set up your modem, you must then set-up TCP/IP  to run on
  top of the modem.  For Windows 95 users, the best option is the 95's
  built in TCP/IP stack.  You install this using the Network set-up
  facility by first running Control Panel and then selecting Network.
  This will bring up the Network set-up dialogue.

  The much discussed Network set-up dialogue is a very complex procedure.
  You will need to get all the options right in order to use the Windows
  95 stack fully.  Be prepared to experiment and to ask others in Windows
  newsgroups and conferences for assistance.  The smallest error will
  affect your success. Look for the screen of the Network setup dialogue.


  Using the Configure tab, you must 'Add' an adapter and a protocol.  The
  adapter should be the Microsoft Dial-up Adapter.  This will bind the
  protocol stack to the modem.  Next, you must add the TCP/IP protocol.
  Once the TCP/IP protocol is added, you must configure the protocol.

  Before proceeding, you should check to ensure that the TCP/IP stack is
  bound to the Microsoft Dialup Adapter. In earlier beta versions of
  Windows 95, it took some effort - taking things out and putting them
  back in (with a reboot in between).   In the window on the top of the
  Network  dialogue box, you will see the 'Network components installed; -
  this should show TCP/IP bound to the adapter!  You will be working on a
  screen called The Network Setup Dialogue Box.

  You might see something different to this dialogue box - but the key
  thing to ensure is that TCP/.IP is properly bound to the Dial-Up
  adapter.  With TCP/IP properly bound to the adapter, you will next need
  to configure TCP/IP.  This  is easy (if you understand TCP/IP!) and
  involves configuring the properties of the TCP/IP running on the Dialup
  Adapter  To do this, highlight TCP/IP bound to the Dial Up Adapter and
  select Properties (or double click it!).

  This will result in a dialogue box called TCP/IP properties.

  Using the TCP/IP properties dialogue, you must configure, at a minimum,
  the IP Address, the Gateway and the DNS configuration.  For IP address,
  you should add the IP address issued to you by your Internet Services
  (e.g. 158.152.26.84).  Please note - you will need to configure your own
  IP address in the IP address box - the one noted here will NOT work for
  you! You must also specify a subnet mask.  Normal  dial up customers
  should use 255.255.0.0, as you are a single node on most Internet
  providers' network.

  Next, you must configure your Default Gateway and DNS.  Configuring the
  Default Gateway and DNS is similar:

  You will  need to put in your providers  name and domain in this
  dialogue box.  The author's node name is PSP and the domain for all
  Demon Dial Up customers is DEMON.CO.UK.

  So with these IP addresses, etc. configured, you are almost ready to go.
  All you have to do is to configure Dial Up Networking - the last step in
  the process.

  Setting Up Dial Up Networking

  Dial up Networking enables the user to connect to a remote computer and
  access information held on the remote system,  DUN (Dial Up Networking)
  is the Windows 95 Version of Remote Access Service (as found in Windows
  NT and Windows for Workgroups 3.11).

  To set up dial up networking to connection, first select the Dial Up
  Networking Folder.  This folder is under the Start button
  (Start/Accessories/Dial-Up Networking).  If you intend to use this a
  lot, as the author does, you might find it convenient to create a
  shortcut to the folder on your desktop.  Next, you should select the
  Make a New Connection icon to bring up a connection Wizard.  The first
  screen in the Wizard allows you to create a name for your connection
  (e.g. Demon) and the modem you wish to use.

  The next screen allows you to enter the phone number of the computer you
  wish to call - this is the name of the POP/vPOP nearest you.  You must
  specify the Area Code (this is the dialing code - but without the
  leading zero!), the telephone number and the country code.  This creates
  your connection and all you need to do is to configure this.

  To configure the connection, right click the connection and bring up the
  Property sheet. First click on Server Type to bring up the server type
  dialogue.

  Be sure to disable the Enable Software Compression and Require Encrypted
  Password check boxes.  Also, you should only have the TCP/IP protocol
  selected.  You can then Click on OK.

  Selecting Configure on the connection property screen, brings up another
  tabbed dialogue box. Under the General Tab, you should select the Com
  port your modem is attached to (e.g. Com1 and the maximum DTE speed
  (i.e. 57600).  If your modem is fully supported and has a speaker, you
  can also select speaker volume.  Under the Connection tab, you must
  enter Data Bits (8), Parity (none) and Stop bits (1).  You should also
  select Wait for dial tone before dialing. Under the Options Tab, select
  Bring up terminal windows after dialling.  You should also bring up the
  modem status.

  Using  this configuration with a Dial Up Networking

  Assuming all the above instructions have been followed, you are ready to
  connect to the Internet.  Just double click on the new configuration
  connection in the Dial Up Networking folder, select connect and Windows
  95 will dial up your provider and present you with a Terminal Window.
  You must logon, entering your login name, your password and connection
  type (i.e. PPP).  Then hit F7 and Windows 95 will finish creating the
  connection. Once you are logged on, you can minimize the Dial Up
  Networking icon and begin to use your Internet applications.  See
  Section 6 for more details.

  Once you have all this working, you can tidy your desktop up by dragging
  your new connection onto the desktop, onto the Start Menu or to
  somewhere else you might find useful.  The author has a folder on the
  desktop with all  related utilities, etc.

  Automating the Connection

  Out of the Box, Windows 95 does not support dialling scripts - thus
  necessitating the manual entry of your node name, etc. in the Terminal
  Window.  Some third party add-ons have been developed to simplify this
  process.  One such utility is Robodun. Robodun can be found using url:
  ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/winsock/win95/rdun60.zip.

  This utility comes with a good help file.  Several folks have found
  Robodun easy to set-up and use - providing you get Dial Up Networking
  set up properly.  The faq author has found it unreliable - working on
  only 25% of connections.  Note that Robodun stores your dialing scripts
  in the registry.  Robodun does this automatically.

  Troubleshooting

  If you setup Windows 95  as described, all should work.  But such is the
  theory of things.  Some things to try:

  If you're upgrading from a Trumpet based Winsock environment, make sure
  you don't have multiple winsock.dll files in your path.

  Unless you have a particular need, use PPP over SLIP.  All Winsock
  clients work with Demon over PPP.

  Applications

  This section will describe applications known to work or not to work
  using Win95.   The presence here of any application does not constitute
  an endorsement and the absence of an application does not do the
  reverse.  Unless explicitly stated, all applications noted here are
  either built into Windows 95 or are available on ftp.demon.co.uk.
  Where possible, URLs will be given.

  Mail

  Windows 95 comes with a built in mail client, Exchange.  Exchange is
  based on POP3 and does not fully support SMTP. The MAILOPT.INF file on
  the CD has the relevant lines commented out for some reason - presumably
  since the code is not stable. The comment for the comments say something
  about a maintenance release. To fix this after the install, you need to
  hack the registry using REGEDIT.To enable Internet Mail under Windows 95
  (build 347), you should follow the following steps:

  Find the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\:
   Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OptionalComponets
   Add a string value with the name and value of "Route66".
   Add a subkey also called "Route66".
   Add the following values under this new key:
   Default  =	 (undefined)
   Inf      = 	 mailopt.inf
   Installed	=	 0
   Section	= 	route66

  Reboot and use then Control Panel / Add Software / Windows Components
  wizard to install the SMTP mail handler.  Then, add it to your Exchange
  profile in the usual way. Now - the above is easy and the author has
  done it doing exactly the above.  If any of this is not straightforward
  to you, DO NOT ATTEMPT IT.  The author will accept no liability for the
  reader totally screwing up his/her/their registry.  Note that Microsoft
  don't usually stop things from working without a good reason. Caveat
  emptor.  Be Careful.

  News

  No built in News client is currently available within Windows 95,
  although Microsoft have suggested that a NNTP client may be built into
  exchange at some point.

  WinVN works well, although you must be logged in to utilize it. Given
  the currently poor level of performance of Demon's news server, this is
  probably not an option except during highly unsociable hours.

  WWW Browser

  Netscape 1.0N works well, although does occasionally GPF.  It can be
         found at:
         ftp://ftp.mcom.com/netscape/windows/ns100-16.exe.

  Version 1.1 is now available from ftp.mcom.com in both 16-bit and 32-bit
         format.   A  32-bit version is available from URL:

         ftp://ftp.mcom.com/netscape/windows/n32e11b3.exe.

  FTP

  Windows 95 comes with a basic text mode FTP client which is adequate for
  most things.  WS_FTP32
  (ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/winsock/apps/ws_ftp/ws_ftp32.zip) also
  works well and has the distinct advantage of being windows based. Some
  users have had problems with this software, but the author has found it
  stable.

  Gopher

  WS_Gopher works extremely well and is very stable.  A version can be
  obtained from:

  ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/winsock/apps/wsgopher/wsg-12.exe.

  Finger

  Ws_Finger (Version 1.4) works acceptably and is available from:
        ftp:/ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/winsock/apps/wsfinger/wsgngr14.zip.

  Archie

  WS Archie  -
  ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/winsock/apps/wsarchie/wsarch07.zip,

  works OK.  If you select an appropriate FTP client (e.g. WS_FTP) and
  have the executable either in the path or in the wsarchie directory,
  archie will automatically retrieve files found.

  Ping

  WS_ping 32
  ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/systems/ibmpc/windows3/winsock/wsping32.zip)   works well.  The 16-bit Windows Socket Ping (Wsping) seems to not work properly under Windows 95.

  Telnet

  The built in version of Telnet is adequate but only manages VT100
  emulation.

  Acknowledgements

  The following have added material used in this article.

           Gary Collins        gary@gcollins.demon.co.uk
           Ian Thomas         it@mightyit.demon.co.uk
           Jeff Hartley         Jeff@jhartley.demon.co.uk
           Mark Ferguson   mark@cddc.demon.co.uk
           Ziggy Uszkurat   Ziggy@uszkurat.demon.co.uk

  Thanks to Susan Lee Tanner (slt@psp.co.uk) for the most excellent
  proof-reading!

  This document was initially prepared as a FAQ  (a frequently
  asked/answered questions document) for demon.ip.support.win95.  It was
  mainly concerned with explaining how to connect Windows 95 to the
  Internet using Demon Internet Services.  That it may be helpful in
  other ways  was not the primary intent. The original can be found at

     ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/win95/win95faq.zip.

  The text version is found at

   ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/ibmpc/win95/win95faq.txt.  The text version

  will also be  posted periodically in demon.ip.support.win95.

  All relevant copyrights are recognized and acknowledged.

  Thomas Lee is a partner in PS Partnership, a small United Kingdom
  training and education consultancy.  PS Partnership is a Microsoft
  Solution Provider specializing in Microsoft Back Office and Windows 95.
  Thomas is a Microsoft Certified System Engineer and Certified Trainer.
  He can be contacted at    tfl@psp.co.uk or Thomas_Lee@msn.com


                               ww

*                       *                       *                       *





                             IDIOTS-REDUX

                        (c) 1995 by  Bob Miller

  Time now for yet another installment in our never ending saga of the
  idiocies published as  advice  in our leading computer magazines.  We
  have a banner collection this month.

  Windows Magazine, June, page 226

  [on the subject of how large to make the permanent swap file] My advice
  is to make it half the size of installed RAM, but the authors of
  Wintune benchmarks suggest the following formula: 16MB minus installed
  RAM.

  So, for a 4 meg system, he wants a 2MB PSF while the benchmark people
  want a 12MB.  Both are foolish. 2 is nowhere near enough and 12 is
  ridiculous overkill.

  Same issue.

  "If you have more than 16MB of RAM and you run WFWG 3.11, consider doing
  away with your swap file altogether........Provided that you have more
  RAM than you need, this selection should speed operations by preventing
  the use of your hard disk for virtual memory."

  On the contrary, the lack of a PSF (permanent swap file) will always
  SLOW Windows down.  Without one, it conducts a complete sweep of memory
  twice a second to see what can be discarded if needed -- even with lots
  of memory available.  A PSF eliminates this time wasting step.

  Infoworld, May 22, page 96

  "So, bottom line, this version [OS/2 Warp Connect] is more lead than
  gold....IBM simply needs to do a lot more testing before calling the
  alchemist.  Given these problems can be ironed out, Warp Connect is
  easily my favorite corporate OS."

  Leaving aside the fact that the latter sentence is not correct
  grammatically, does one detect, perhaps, a slight prejudice here?
  "more lead than gold" equals "favorite ..OS? Logic 101 anyone?

  Infoworld, May 15, page 49

  "...we took time off to walk one of the maybe 30,000 miles along the
  Great Wall."

  Fact checkers, anyone?  If the Great Wall were 30,000 miles long, it
  would more than circumnavigate the entire Earth.  One tenth that length
  is closer to the actual amount.


  Infoworld, May 8, page 108

  "Way back when I used Windows 3.1, the first thing I loaded...was Norton
  Desktop for Windows.  I found Windows to be virtually unusable without
  it."

  Really?  I could find 60,000,000 users who would disagree.


  PC Magazine, May 16, page 104

  "[Windows 3.1] File Manager does offer an awkward form of drag and drop
  copying.  Most users just fill in the command line.

  Not the users I know.  Drag and drop is simple and fast.


  Same issue from a review of the Packard Bell machine.

  "Page 411.  Service and Reliability.....................E [as in awful]
  Page 413.  .....makes the Packard Bell ...a smart investment."

  Maybe they define "investment" differently that I do.


  PC Computing, June, page 50

  Desktop Apps.  	Top Pick
  Word Processor	MS Word 6.0
  Spreadsheet		MS Excel 5.0
  Database		Lotus Approach 3.0

  Now it is possible to argue with these selections but they are certainly
  reasonable.  How then, can the top of that list be:

  "Software Suite	WordPerfect PerfectOffice 3.0."

  Something does not compute here.


  PC World, June, Page 278

  "If you want Windows to use the buffer of a serial ports 16550 UART
  chip, place this line ...in system.ini: COMnFIFO=On."

  In reality, due to a bug in the logic, that will turn the buffer OFF.
  The absence of the line or setting it to 1 will turn it on but this
  won't.


  Same Issue Page 230

  [discussing the high problem rates and terrible service] Ransom [VP
  Marketing] grades Packard Bell's support efforts as "a C, moving towards
  an A".

  Of course, if you want an honest view of a service problem, you ask the
  VP of Marketing...NOT!


  Same Issue Page 168.

  "[review of the Supra FaxModem 288] Alas, the modem came in dead last in
  all our benchmarks, sending data at only about half the rate of the
  faster modems, and making connections in less than a quarter of the
  attempts made.  Were it not for its poor performance, the FaxModem 288
  might have had a shot at a best buy."

  And if pigs had wings..............  How foolish can you get?


  Same Issue Page 66

  [review of Word Pro -- formerly Ami Pro]

  "The early beta release shows plenty of innovation.....the spelling
  checker highlights unrecognized words."

  What a wonderful innovation!  Gee, didn't Word Star do this in 1985?


  Same Issue Page 60.

  "After installing the operating system [Win95] on a 486 Deskpro with...a
  120 MB hard drive, we had a mere 79MB left for other applications.

  ...... Since the Deskpro lacked a CD-ROM drive, we spent over 2 hours
  swapping the programs 12 disks."

  41 megs for Windows and DOS combined is hardly excessive -- especially
  with the debug code still in the product.  And who in their right mind
  thinks a 120MB drive is sufficient for any version of Windows today?
  Further, I have installed Win95 from floppies.  It takes well under an
  hour.  Perhaps they were too busy checking out the innovations above
  to swap disks on a timely basis.


  Same Issue Page 228


  "Primary activity: Word Processing and E-mail
  Minimum configuration:  66mhz 486DX2, 8MB of RAM, 15 inch monitor."

  That is a nice system but is hardly a "minimum configuration"


  Same Issue Page 229

  "How many pages a day? This is the minimum configuration
  More than 20   8 ppm PCL 5
           20 or fewer	4 ppm to 6ppm PCL 5"

  Get real!  I print 30 pages a day  and I need an 8 page per minute
  printer? Not hardly.


  Insert ad for Prodigy.

  "We'll send you software in Windows 3.5 format."

  Really?  I know Windows 3.1 and 3.11, WFWG 3.10 and 3.11 and NT 3.5 but
  what is Windows 3.5?  And, if they mean 3 1/2 inch format, what does
  Windows have to do with it?


  PC Computing, June page 214

  "RAM disks are useful, however, as a place to put temporary files."

  No they are not.  Not many apps use temp files and those that do use
  large ones.  Few people can afford enough RAM to create a RAM disk big
  enough to hold a WinWord document with a couple of embedded graphics.
  And, if your RAM disk is too small, crash city.


  PC Magazine, June 13, page 30

  "MSN prowls around your hard disk, grabs your autoexec.bat and
  config.sys files......"

  It does no such thing.  It does compile a list of some of your installed
  software and the hardware that it recognizes but does nothing with it
  unless you expressly authorize it to transmit the information.  There is
  no default -- you must allow or not allow it.


  Same issue, page 91, from our Idiot's Hall of Fame honoree, John Dvorak.

  "Now I hear that Windows 95 is a November product.  At least, that is
  what one fellow 'close to the programmers' told me."

  Gee! And my sister-in-laws babysitter's former boyfriend's pizza
  delivery mans one time roommates gardener told me that John Dvorak
  picks his nose in public.  Nothing like factual information from a
  reliable source.

  Idiots Redux  is the invention of Bob Miller who has a huge collection
  of Conference Host assignments from both RIME and Ilink competing with
  time for his collection of stamps. A very knowledgeable Windows writer,
  Bob is the head of a Mental Health Agency and can be found at
  bob.miller@channel1.com He and Stanley are regular WindoWatch contributors.


                                   ww


  *                     *                       *                       *


                       Alice Delivers the Mail
                     (c) 1995 by Peter Neuendorffer


  You have to realize Alice and I work in a very upscale neighborhood.
  Both of us are on the Coffee Cart Committee, and both are quite
  educated. There has been a big difference between us lately, though.

  You see, Alice is now the Network Supervisor, and I am still at my same
  desk. She has instituted new mail policies, which she says were
  inevitable given the climate of competition and back stabbing in our
  foyer. She says that people are not aware of the problems that their
  email can cause.

  Alice started as network supervisor by changing everybody's passwords.
  At some future date, she says she will give everyone their new
  passwords, but for the time being, requests must be made in writing
  twenty-four hours in advance of each access. This has been approved by
  the President of the company, a liberal gentleman from CalTech.

  The other day I happened to write my mother a long email letter and
  mentioned Alice several times. However, when I quizzed Mom on the
  letter, she said there was nothing about Alice in it.  I called up Alice
  and she told me that that omission was due to a recent random intercept
  solution she was instituting immediately.

  I asked her if she read people's mail at home. "Oh certainly not, she
  said,  "it is illegal to open the mail at home".  But in the workplace,
  you have no right to free speech.  Congress cannot make laws restricting
  speech, as you know. But we can."

  Alice showed me her new Nonsense Obfuscation Software. It uses
  search and replace to substitute words in mail for their opposites.
  She says that she can selectively target certain transmissions, on
  purpose or at random to turn them to gibberish and create the correct
  level of disinformation. "Nonsense," I said. "Exactly my point," she
  retorted. She continued:

  "I am also starting a new program redirect mail to different addresses
  in an effort to promote homogeneousness. It is high time that people
  started sending responsible correspondence. This will guide us back to a
  sane information policy that I can live with."

  I can hardly wait until next year when I will be Network Supervisor and
  Alice will be back at her old desk.  I am just grateful that the
  government will never read my mail.  It's bad enough with Alice. She says
  I am totally paranoid, but somehow she seems to know so much about me
  lately.


  Peter Neuendorffer is a DOS and Windows programmer.  He and Alice have
  been contributors to WindoWatch from its inception authoring many articles
  and reviews.


                                  ww


*                       *                       *                       *




                            The Mail's In!

                    The Fine Art of Techno-Gibberish

                           (c) 1995 by Jim Gunn

  There was a hiccup on the net and the following messages I sent to
  alt.pointless got posted here by mistake.


  mw>Jim, you're a professional and I need some clarification on
  mw>something.  If you're not too busy doing INI nerd stuff, could you
  mw>explain the difference between the preview release of Windows 95
  mw>and shareware? ... mable.wicks@somewhat.com

  Why sure, Mable. I'll just shut down the Killer Morphs from Pluto game
  and will enlighten you.

  You see, shareware is a means of distributing working copies of
  programs. Generally, they are limited a bit in their functions but you
  get to see what they do and how they do it. You can use them for a
  specified period of time. If you're pleased, and want to keep using the
  software, you send in a registration fee and will receive the real
  thing.

  You can download shareware from an on-line service or BBS, or you can
  order it from a distribution company. The cost is roughly the same if
  you have to pay connect charges or long distance fees, usually around $3
  per program or about the same per disk to have a distributor mail them
  to you.

  Windows 95 preview, - that's a whole different thing! What happens here
  is you get a working copy of the program, which is limited in that all
  the features aren't ready yet. You can use it for a limited time, or in
  this case until late August. If you decide that you like it, you can
  then buy the final version which will be, hopefully,  - ready!

  Distributing a preview is different, too. For example, Windows 95
  preview comes on a CD along with twelve diskettes. Including tax, tag
  and dealer prep, this comes to about $36. Now if you were to order
  twelve diskettes from a distributor, that would also come to a total of
  $36.

  HH>Hey, if you can break away from all your hi-tech wheeling and
  HH>dealing for a few minutes, could you offer any advice on what
  HH>system I should buy in order to have the latest and greatest
  HH>technology in the world? You see, I feel that I need bragging
  HH>rights when I tell everyone what I have.
  HH>harry.hitech@we.still.run.cpm.com

  Sure friend, glad to. I just finished some emergency plumbing repairs
  down in the scary basement, really a crawl space, and haven't started on
  another project yet. Yuck!

  First of all, you need to be aware that there never was, and never will
  be, the latest and greatest technology. CPUs are an excellent example. A
  seventy gz (gazillion) megahertz model is announced. Vendors all claim
  to have a new system using that CPU. Unfortunately, there is a six month
  lead time because the new CPU really isn't being manu-factured yet. All
  they have are some prototypes to test with. So you go ahead and order
  the seventy and are told soon, very soon.    This really means you
  have a six month's wait before actual delivery.

  In the meantime, five months later, an eighty gz (gazillion) megahertz
  model is announced. This way, when your new system actually arrives it
  is at least into a month of obsolesence.  At this point, you must
  understand that you wont be able to read any of the current crop
  computer magazines without crying real tears for the rest of the year.
  Your brand new seventy gz (gazillion) megahertz $5000 system is now
  priced at $2500. If you had  waited a few months longer you could have
  gotten the eighty gz (gazillion) for what you paid and found that the
  ninety gz (gazillion) megahertz model had just been announced.

  In spite of all this, even though you won't have ultimate bragging
  rights, you will have something that you can't type fast enough to keep
  up with regardless of which model you get. They all exceeded your
  keyboarding capacity several years ago.

  Think deeply on that, my friend!


  TH>Mr. Gunn, help! I see that you are an INI nerd and know all
  TH>about the contents of all those control files.

  TH>My system displays black text on a white background just fine.
  TH>However, I have the uncontrollable desire to change it to red on a
  TH>purple screen with title bars in dull orange. I'd also like to change
  TH>the look of all the 3D buttons to round rather than rectangular.
  TH>Could you tell me what lines to change in my INI files?
  TH>tim.hands@strange.edu

  Just finished an intense cookie and dog biscuit session with Lady, my
  office manager, so I'll take a brief break and offer advice.

  Format your hard drive, then either sell the system or donate it to a
  charity. Join the peace corps or another useful service. You obviously
  have nothing meaningful to do with a computer.

  SR>Jimbo. What is the meaning of life? Why does my monitor
  SR>flicker?
  SR>snide.remark@doggie.org

  Well, being in-between massive projects at the moment and having read
  all my E-mail, I think I can safely answer that. First let me address
  life.

  For normal people, it is a process of growth, pain, discovery and
  futility. There are good times and bad, things that are desired and
  things that are achieved. It is a condition that lasts for only a finite
  period yet the duration is different and unknown for everyone. It is an
  adventure that one didn't ask to go on, but no one wants the journey to
  end. Life is a sorrowful joy.

  To INI nerds, life is understanding what

       UseScreenOnThursdays=000.210.0043,75,006
       SweepBothMiddleSections=PERHAPS
       KeyboardUseAforB=C

  means in WIN.INI and actually caring. It is the course we take towards
  understanding why anyone bothers with the Internet or why people buy
  cellular phones. Discovery of the true meaning of the 640K barrier and
  the search for a final and absolute definition of what the term "client
  server" actually means are driving forces. We progress in stages
  throughout the term of our existence until we finally reach an age,
  where when faced with Windows 95's explorer, we discover that our mind
  set is; "This is stupid! What was so wrong with File Manager?"  It is
  the realization that we have acquired deep and unshakable religious
  convictions about the particular word processor or backup program we
  have finally learned to use well and death to anyone who blasphemes by
  disagreeing.

  Basically, it's a mess.

  Now for the monitor part of your question; I have no idea. Have you
  considered taking it as something personal?


  Jim Gunn is a bearded guy living in Salt Lake City, UT (a.k.a. Salt
  Puddle) who smokes Benson & Hedges menthols. He actually has a thirteen
  year old blue merle collie named Lady who acts as office manager and
  Pollyanna to clients, deliverymen and employees. As a sideline, he is
  president of Sterling Consulting and is officially considered
  certifiable ... even by Microsoft (case #1198).




                                      ww


 *                      *                       *                       *





  A Typical User Reports:

                         On Windows95
                   (c) 1995 by Leonard Grossman


  A few thoughts now that I've removed Windows95 from my system.

  1. I miss it.

  2.  I'd forgotten how great WFWG really is.

  My purpose in experimenting with the beta was exactly that -- an
  experiment.  And it was fascinating!

  I  love the interface.  One thing I had hated about Windows 3x was
  opening and closing the program groups to find what I was looking for.
  In the few weeks I ran '95, I added shortcuts to my most often used
  program groups and especially applications.  It was nice to let my mouse
  glide over the menus when I was looking for something else. Smooth.

  It may only be my imagination, but it seemed that even though most of my
  drives were stacked, that once Windows was loaded and the specific
  application  finally stopped churning my harddrive, every thing was a
  bit faster. Even WPWIN 6.1.

  Internet access using the old Trumpet Winsock worked fine.  I felt much
  more comfortable leaving Eudora open while I web surfed and had fewer
  on-line glitches while running under '95 than under WFWG. However, the
  drive churning with Netscape that had finally been eliminated with 32b
  file access and 32bdrive access under WFWG returned using 95. This hung
  my computer for several seconds...over and over again.

  Hang ups were the real problem.  I accepted the long loading period but
  for some reason even when '95 appeared to be ready my mouse often was
  not. At the strangest times my generic serial mouse seemed to go
  berserk.. A look into the control panel indicated the device was not
  found or that drivers were missing.  Unfortunately something happened to
  my CD in the process.  I could no longer access it and therefore
  couldn't replace or change the drivers.  I think I damaged my SCSI card
  when reinstalling all of my cards to try to determine if the mouse
  problem related to a poorly seated I/O card. The CD still isn't working
  even under DOS. It's fortunately time for an upgrade as it's single
  speed.

  If it wasn't the mouse, it was something else. Applications would
  suddenly hang up and I'd have to get out of the system out with a cold
  boot which is of course, not recommended.  Once I did do a reinstall
  right over the original using the floppies, but too many things still
  hung up.  So.. for now at least, I gave up.

  Back to my post mortem.  In fairness, I suspect most of the problems I
  had were directly related to the fact that my machine is an odd
  collection of pawn shop and recycled parts and that the old WFWG on my
  system may already have quirks from my unmitigated tinkering.


  Other gripes:

  1.    I really think MS should have made long filenames an option.
  And should have made it OFF by default.  If they had done so, '95 would
  not have rendered so many utilities unusable and would have permitted
  DOS backups without the inelegant LFNBK.  By naming some of the WIN 95
  subdirectories and files with long filenames Microsoft consigned all of
  us to long file name hell.

  2.  Not so long ago, Doublespace and Stacker were virtually -no pun
  intended- the same. '95 handles Doublespace and Drivespace drives in full
  32 bit mode.  Could '95 really not recognize and handle Stacker in 32 bit
  mode? Certainly so, if MS had wanted to. These wouldn't be marketing
  ploys, would they?

  3.  Speaking of marketing ploys-- ta daaaa>>>> MSN. The Microsoft
  Network has a long way to go.  When I access the Internet directly its
  fast.  Even on my 14,400 modem I find access acceptable (except for the
  Netscape churning I mentioned before). MSN is slow and the interface is
  awful.  I never did find the files that were available for download and
  found getting around impossible even though Im a refugee from CIS and
  GEnie with an occasional visit to AOL and Prodigy.

  4.  Further, the fact that MSN was able to recognize that I needed the
  software update without my telling it to check for it, was scary.  What
  else was MSN reporting about my machine? I cant judge whether this is a
  plus or a minus-- there are so many ways to do everything that it gets
  confusing.

  Until only a few months ago I was quite satisfied with DOS and only came
  kicking and screaming into Windows for easy Internet access. Therefore
  the move from 3.1 to WFWG to 95 has been rather fast.  I know that I
  still  have a lot to learn. In any case, this was only an experiment.
  I'll probably return again for a longer visit. In the meantime:

  I hadn't really fully appreciated how well WFWG worked for the things I
  do.  I'm not heavily into multi-anything.  I use a suite of Internet
  clients, along with WPWIN 6.1, WP5.1 (DOS), Telix (DOS), SLMR (DOS),
  Printshop Deluxe and a few other applications on a regular basis.  Now
  that I am back in WFWG, I have created icons for my most used DOS
  applications and find they run as well, if not better, full screen under
  WFWG.  Taking a hint from the '95 desktop, I have cleared the clutter.
  All I see when I load windows is my open "Internet Suite" including
  Telix and Slmr with the iconized internet clients along with four
  program groups.  Everything else is below the screen and if I really
  need them there is the scroll bar.

  My office is just beginning its migration to Windows using WFWG. I
  realized that I can be more useful to them if I learn more about WFWG.


  Leonard Grossman is a Chicago attorney with the Office of the
  Solicitors in the Department of Labor and is a booster of the great BBS
  that got him started: Chicago Syslink, now based in Berwyn, Illinois. He
  is active in several local user groups.

                         ww

*                       *                       *                       *



    The WindoWatch ...
                         PLUG  OF  THE  MONTH


  Another Shareware SuperStar!

  This month's selection has won almost every shareware award available.
  To make its evolution and development even more spectacular, this old
  friend can run under Windows95 with nothing more than a fresh
  installation.  I dont need to hawk its strengths because as soon as the
  name is mentioned, experienced windows users will nod in agreement. When
  one talks about Personal Information Managers this software must be
  included among the best and most aggressive PIM contenders
  notwithstanding the very low price tag it carries.

  The inclusion of a very sophisticated data base engine can be configured
  to include a universe of information.


  Therefore, for these reasons and more.....



  The WindoWatch Plug

      of the month is...


                           Time and Chaos 4.0




  Time and Chaos v 4 can be ordered from the developer for $29.95

  There will be a full review of the product in Issue #6 by Frank McGowan.

  iSBiSTER International, Inc.                CompuServe ID: 74017,3424
  1111 Beltline Road, Suite 204	              BBS Support: 214-530-2762
  Garland, Texas 75040	                              Fax: 214-530-6566
  Voice 214 495-6724




                                      ww

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                           The  Last  Word


                     CAN I SEE YOUR LICENSE, BUDDY?
                          (c) 1995 Ben Schorr



  But officer...

  As business becomes increasingly reliant upon computers and computer
  consultants proliferate there is a growing clamor for standards and
  certification of computer professionals, and in some places outright
  licensing.  As a computer professional I have some admiration for their
  efforts, but I have to reject this idea, at least for the short term.

  I'd love to not have to compete with cut-rate, inexperienced, amateurs
  who poison the waters for those of us who really do work hard to obtain
  and maintain the skills necessary to serve our client's needs.
  Certification would help to thin the ranks of the "PC Magazine Experts"
  who hang out their shingles as computer consultants and make the rest us
  look bad.

  But who will be charged to set the standards? A private organization or
  government? It would seem that government would have to be involved,
  lest we end up with competing private organizations espousing competing
  certifications. For specialties, such as the CNE or MCE that would be
  fine, but as an all-encompassing "Certified Consultant" program it could
  be merely confusing to have multiple programs. And, what happens when
  somebody realizes that he/she can get rich by offering a "certification"
  for a fee and a two  question true or false quiz?

  Unfortunately....

  "Public office is the last refuge of the incompetent."
  -Boies Penrose-

  How many politicians are experienced enough in business  technology to
  know if a certification program or exam is comprehensive enough, current
  and a fair measure of consulting skills?

  What will those standards be? Computer technology is a huge and rapidly
  advancing field. Before any test could even be printed, the technology
  being tested would be technically obsolete. I've taken Artisoft's skills
  tests on diskette, and was disappointed to discover that a significant
  percentage of the test was on either old versions of the software or
  Artisoft products that none of my customers were interested in. How many
  accountants are using the Sounding Boards?

  Are we going to quiz prospective consultants on RLL hard drive
  technology? How about video conferencing?  How to configure a sound
  card?  How to underline a paragraph in Ami Pro?  No, I think the better
  quiz would be one tested a consultant's integrity, business sense and
  ability to OBtain information...rather than REtain it. Half the
  questions my clients ask I don't have answers for...but I do have
  resources which give me the tools and sufficient knowledge to ask the
  appropriate questions. The ability to find anything is more important
  that the ability to know everything. But is there an effective way to
  test for that?

  Of what value would the certification be?  How many of you service
  Novell Networks?  How many of you are CNEs?  I'm willing to bet that at
  least half of the Netware service done is done by people who aren't
  CNEs.  And the certification is even LESS valuable if the customers
  aren't aware of it.

  There is an organization called the ICCA.  Ten points to anyone who can
  tell me what that is.  A very broad hint: It's the Independent Computer
  Consultants Association.  Is there any value in advertising that you are
  a member of the ICCA?  I have over 200 clients and I'd be surprised if
  any of them have ever heard of the ICCA.  Being an ICCA member carries
  no more weight with them than being a member of AAA.

  If the certification is to be meaningful, customers must place some
  value on hiring certified consultants. In my opinion, the cut-rate
  consultants, certified or not, are still going to be out there, getting
  their $20/hour from customers who don't want to hire professionals. I'm
  sure I'll get some mail from cut-rate consultants who are irritated at the
  implication that they're not professionals, but here in Los Angeles
  skilled consultants can, and do, demand and get much higher rates. The
  people getting lower end fees tend to be hobbyists or people with skills
  or experience that merit little more in this very competitive Los Angeles
  market.  My apologies to those of you who are simply underpaid or work in
  less affluent markets.

  So!  What of licensing?  This faces the same dilemma as certification.
  What would be required for the license?  What value will the customer
  place on that license?  Could  there be civil or criminal penalties for
  doing computer work without the license?  I find it hard to believe that
  the government, particularly with the recent Republican surge, would
  involve itself in creating the massive new bureaucracy required  to
  license and regulate the computer consulting industry.

  The question has been posed: Can the Internet be used to help in the
  qualification and certification process? In my opinion...no. The Internet
  is a big anonymous warehouse full of data and informa-tion...but everyone
  is faceless and anybody can be anybody. For finding a qualified
  consultant, the Internet is no better than chance and a cut or so less
  useful than a business man casual luncheon. The exposure to knowledgeable
  people is, of course, useful. You can chat and ask questions and lurk or
  "eavesdrop" on  other professionals discussing relevant issues. It still
  boils down to what the consultant knows, is able to convey and able to
  accomplish when he (or she) rolls up their sleeves and gets to work on
  your project.

  When all of the dust and rhetoric settles, bottom line is still
  establishing standards for certification and the big  three questions:

  1. Who sets the standards?
  2. How do you make the certification valuable?
  3. How do you account for all of the specialties and subspecialties
     within the industry?

  Until there are answers to those three questions, effective
  certification and licensing remain impossible.

  What it comes down to is that it's still up to each and every one of us
  to demonstrate our worth and skills to each customer and prospect and then
  to market them. What tools do we have available to do that?  Well, here
  are a couple that come to mind:

  1. Referrals from existing clients. Encourage clients to refer their
  friends and associates to you. When someone provides a particularly
  strong lead perhaps a token gift just to say thanks! A little
  appreciation goes a long way. Obviously, if you combine that with doing
  a great job for that new referral (which reflects positively on the
  person doing the referring)  that client is that much more likely to be
  on the lookout for more new business for you. An existing client's words
  (especially to a friend of theirs) can carry a lot of weight towards
  establishing your value.

  2.  Establish yourself as a recognized expert by being published or
  doing guest speaking.  Offer to speak at local service clubs, schools or
  other community events.  Don't make a sales pitch out of it, but rather
  speak to inform on a subject you know well.  If you are clear and
  intelligent, your audience will perceive your expertise and they will
  seek you out for your knowledge and assistance. Write articles or
  columns for established publications that cater to your target market.

  3.  Don't underrate yourself.  If you charge a low rate, prospects
  perceive a low value.  They'll acknowledge that you're $20 cheaper than
  the competition but wonder why.  In fact, your rate can be a status
  symbol for a  client to say that they have an "expensive" consultant on
  the payroll.

  Don't be outrageous about it, but find out what other computer
  professionals in your area are charging and don't be shy to charge in
  the same range. If you're good, the value is there and the client will
  be happy to pay your rate.

  There is a lot of competition out there.  Especially in California there
  are a lot of former employees who've been laid off and are promoting
  themselves as computer consultants at least until they can find another
  job.  We can't expect a reasonable, workable or effective certification
  or licensing program to separate the wheat from the chaff so it's up to
  each of us to set ourselves apart.

  As always I'd love to hear from you and get your opinions on this or
  other computer or business issues.  E-Mail me at ben.schorr@bcsbbs.com.


  Ben Schorr is a computer consultant in Los Angeles.  He is also the Host
  of the Ilink consultants conference. He has been associated with
  WindoWatch since issue #1 and has had his recent WindoWatch article
  A Computer in Every Pot reprinted in the Redwood Chip newsletter.



                                       ww

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                        THE  EDITORIAL  STAFF



  Editor                                     Lois B. Laulicht
  ContributingEditor:                              Herb Chong
  Production Editor                              Paul Kinnaly
  HomePage Editor                                   Jim Plumb
  Contributing Writers:

             Derek Buchler, John M. Campbell, Kyle Freeman, Jim
             Gunn, Gregg Hommel, Paul Kinnaly; Jerry Laulicht,
             Angela Lillystone, Jeff Marchi, Frank McGowan, Bob
             Miller, Peter Neuendorffer, Ben Schorr, Paul Will-
             iamson


                          .

  EDITORIAL BOARD

            Herb Chong, Gregg Hommel, Lois Laulicht, Paul Williamson.



  SUBMISSIONS and REQUESTS

            Email using Internet:
            lois.laulicht@channel1.com
            windowatch@ins.infonet.net
            winwatch@user1.channel1.com

            Editor
            WindoWatch
            Valley Head, WV 26294

  WINDOWATCH HOME PAGE:

            http://www@channel1.com/user1/winwatch/WindoWatch.html

  Submissions remain the intellectual property of the author. Manuscripts
  will NOT be returned if not used.

  Electronic File Access

  FTP>ftp.channel1.com/pub/WindoWatch and
  FTP>oak.oakland.edu/pub3/win3/winwatch


  And on the following BBSs: Exec PC; PC Exec; Invention Factory; Atlanta
  Windows Users group;

  WindoWatch is found on Channel One in several formats by calling
  617-354-3137 (28800)  or 617-354-3230 (9600 and 14.400).
  We publish in Acrobat a Windows compatible format and soon in HTML  The DOS
  format uses ReadRoom (*.TOC) One can also read online from the Reader Room
  itself - Door 48. Non-members of Channel One can download the latest
  WindoWatch issue by typing J Free from the main board prompt

  Beginning January 1, 1995, annual shareware subscriptions at $10 per year
  for electronic delivery of the ASCII edition and sponsorship and
  contributions at various levels.

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

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





