                     ZCPR2 And the OSBORNE-1

     Before  going into ZCPR2 and its features let me first  give 
credit to its author and copyright holder Richard Conn.  We owe a 
great  deal  of  gratitude to Richard Conn  for  allowing  us  to 
benifit  from  what  must have been a very  laborious  effort  in 
producing this collection of programs.

Some  of you may already have been using ZCPR1,  (better known as 
OZCPR) on your Osborne and know how useful it can be.

For those of you who haven't yet enjoyed the benifits of ZCPR let 
me breifly summarize the features:

     JUMP:  This command allows you to jump to a memory location
            and begin to execute a program at that address.  This 
            is usefull if you want to store some frequently used
            (though  small) programs up in high  memory.   Screen 
            size change for instance.

     GO:    This  command will execute whatever program is             
            currently  loaded in memory.   This is handy  if 
            you load a program from  one  disc, such as unsq,
            remove that disk and replace with a blank
            one to send the unsqeezed file to but forget that the 
            disk needs to  be  logged in to  prevent  bdos errors.
            Simply do a ctrl. C to log in the drive and  return  
            the CP/M prompt and then  type  GO.  The  unsq  
            program  will return  to  the  screen without having
            to reread it.

     TYPE:  Similar to the standard CCP type command but this one
            will pause after one page full of info and wait until
            you  decide to continue by hitting any key.   If  you 
            should want to scroll continuosly simply add a space
            P to the command line. eg. type example.txt P

     LIST:  This  is a new command which will send the following 
            file   to the list device,  frees you from having  to 
            hit Ctrl. P


     Those  of  you familiar with ZCPR1 or OZCPR  appreciate  the 
path feature.  This will search the present logged in drive for a 
file  of  the type on the command line and, not finding  it  there 
will  automatically search the A drive for it,  if there, it  will 
load and execute it but remain logged into B drive,  (in our case 
there  are  only  the two).   This relieves you  from  having  to 
preceed  the command with the drive name if not presently  logged 
to  it.   ZCPR2  goes that one better by allowing a path  search.  
The   default path is present drive present user,  present  drive 
user 0,  A drive present user, A drive user 0.  Of course this is 
only  of value if you use user areas but its there.    For  those 
unfamiliar with user areas see any good book on CP/M.

     Another  feature of ZCPR2 is its  way of  displaying  and 
logging  into user areas.  You no longer need to type in USER NN 
to change user areas,  just enter NN:  or Dev NN: and you will be 
logged to that area. You will also see the user number displayed.  
This  feature  is  more  useful to hard disk users  then  to  we 
Osborne owners but is worth mentioning.  This is also where ZCPR2 
departs from ZCPR1 which does not respond this way.

     Perhaps  the nicest feature however is the multiple  command 
line  that ZCPR2 supports.   This allows you to type  in  several 
consecutive  commands  seperated  by  semi colons  and  have  the 
computer  act  as if under the control of a  submit  file.   This 
command  can be up to 128 characters in length and does not  care 
what disk is presently logged in.   The uses of this feature  are 
numerous indeed.

     There are also numerous support files that Richard Conn  has 
created  for  use with ZCPR2,  too many to mention here in  their 
entirety but I will mention some.

     VFILER,  I  believe  this can be used without  having  ZCPR2 
implemented but you will not be able to call programs from it  if 
you  do not have ZCPR2 running.   This is an excellent disk  file 
utility  similiar to DISK7 or SWEEP,  the major differene is that 
it  displays  all files at once on the screen and allows  you  to 
move to and from them with your Wordstar ctrl. keys.  It also has 
an  extensive  help file displayed when a ?  is  entered  as  the 
command.

     MENU,  menu  builds  a cammand line based on input from  the 
user and thus acts as an interface between him/her and the  ZCPR2 
command processor.  It will then execute the selected command and 
return to the menu when done.

     ZEX,  this  little beauty is the king of submit type  files.  
ZEX is a memory resident type of submit file and as such does not 
need  to  have the A drive as the default while  processing.   It 
combines many features of SUB2 and XSUB and allows many  embedded 
commands.

     The above mentioned files are just some of the many produced 
and  released  to  the  public domain by  Richard  Conn  and  the 
explanations  quite  breif.   For a more thorough  explanation  and 
an index  of  ZCPR2  utility files see the Users  guide  files  also 
written  by Richard Conn and on many RCP/M systems thoughout  the 
country, (or maybe they're in FOG's library?).

     The  only  problem with what seems to be a dream come  true, 
(yes there is a catch),  is that to fully implement ZCPR2 and to 
make use of its exteneded features requires some modifications to   
the Osbornes'  Bios.   Osborne  neglected to give we owners the  bios 
source so it is not available to edit.   However all if not lost.  
I sat down for what seemed to be forever and typed in the  source 
from  the technical manual and was then able to edit the Bios  to 
include  the  features which make ZCPR2 so  attractive.   However 
there  is another minor inconvience in that to make room for  the 
ZCPR2  features I removed some of the disk formats  supported  by 
the  original  bios  and as a result the  only  formats  directly 
supported  are  the Osborne SD and DD.   I say minor  inconvience 
because if you want to read those formats just put in an original 
disk and copy the programs to your new ones.   Why waste so  much 
space for the few times you use it?  Also any program which makes 
calls  directly  to  the Bios instead of using  the  CP/M  system 
calls, (generally  considered poor programming practice)  may not 
work correctly due to the routines being moved  around.   Uniform 
and Osize are examples of these, again simply use your unmodified 
disk when using any such program.

     The addition of these features does not mean you have to give
up your usual conviences, ie. your function keys can still be 
programmed as usual and any other setup function will respond the
same as before.
 	
     Any  one  interested in trying out ZCPR2 on the Osborne  can 
send me their name,  address and twelve dollars,  for which  they 
will  receive a disk with ZCPR2 already installed and a  document 
file,  (on the disk) of the important memory locations and  there 
uses.  I'll also include as many of the utility files as will fit
on the disk. As I have not had the oppurturnity to try this modified
bios on a single density only machine I cannot say whether it will
function properly or not, try it at your own risk.

     This version, like OZCPR will automatically log in a disk
drive when an ERA or SAVE command is executed.  This is useful
when you are going through a stack of disks and putting catalog
numbers on them and don't want to log each disk in as you save
the catalog number to it.   

     Tired of your limited Auto start command?   ZCPR2 will allow 
an autost program entry of up to 128 characters on cold boot.
This  combined with the multiple command line feature opens  many 
possibilities on cold boot.   

     
Douglas Judd
2451 N. Sherman Blvd.
Milwaukee Wi. 53210
(414)-444-7563  (voice only)
ssibilities on cold boot.   

     
Douglas Judd
2451 N. Sherman Blvd.
M