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COMPUTER CHRONICLE

 

This file chronicles my “adventures” with TRS-80, PC, Dell, and Toshiba computers from 12/30/82 to 6/1/14, thirty-two+ years of “fun.” Much of it is unreadable now, but WHAT A CHRONICLE IT IS!!!

SUNDAY, Jan. 23, 1983
Dear (FNAME),
Would you believe, my first computerized letter, complete with underlines and boldface print too! Not that there haven't been problems with the system – just listen!
Ordered a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model II with hard disk and daisy wheel printer, along with SCRIPSIT, for about $9,800 on December 30, 1982, mainly for the tax write-off for the year of 1982. Though delivery was scheduled for “late next week or early the week after,” I didn't get a call until Wednesday, January 12, saying it might be delivered the next day, and it was finally delivered at 6 PM on Friday, January 14. Had to pay a $40 delivery charge that wasn't expected, too. Then when I unpacked it, *surprise*, there's no KEYBOARD! “Oh, call us Saturday; I guess it was left at the shop.” At least he (Doug Wyman, the salesman and question-answerer at Radio Shack) didn't accuse me of trying to stock up on a spare keyboard. But Saturday I was busy and Sunday they were closed, so on Monday I phoned to find that they HADN'T had it on Saturday, only by Monday noon. Oh.
1/17/83: So Monday I picked up the keyboard, plus some paper for the printer that they'd promised me but hadn't given me; and I'd taken in a diskette so that Doug could copy me some games (Adventure, Othello, and a 747 flying game that he praised highly), but THEIR computer wasn't available so I had to leave the diskette there and pick it up later. Didn't have time for the computer on Monday evening or Tuesday, but from Wednesday on it's been very busy.
1/19/83: Wednesday I tested the printer by itself, finding it included lovely special characters like ô and è and ñ and é and ü and ç. Then I plugged in the computer—and got an error message. PANIC! Tried again and again, and still got the same error. Finally read (amongst the HD [Hard Disk [and it's great that I can nest three levels of brackets, braces, and parens]] manual, the computer manual, a training manual, and a HD-computer training manual) that the hard disk had to be connected first. Oh. Then I made two mistakes in my very first keyboard entry, which is “TYPE DATE (MM/DD/YYYY).” First I tried the numbers above the letters; that didn't work. So I tried the KEYPAD numbers; those worked fine; later in the day I learned I should have had the CAPS key on: that capitalizes all the letters AND makes the top row of numbers LEGAL for control. Next I tried (01/19/1983) and found you can’t do it WITH the parentheses. Touchy machine! Then I tried to use CLOCK, and later found that was one of the three commands that didn't work with the HD system. Finally I tried some simple math to at least prove to me that the machine WORKED, and by that time it was 1AM and I just HAD to get to sleep!
1/20/83: Thursday I futzed around with the system, seeing if I could “figure out” how it worked, but got nowhere fast. Problem: the EASY introductory notes were written for someone with a simple, non-HD system. I was trying to leap into the much more complicated HD system without knowing the basics. After bugging the people at Radio Shack a couple of times, finding to my sorrow that THEY weren't too familiar with the problems I was running into, I agreed with them that I should really try the basic lessons in SCRIPSIT, which was the basic word-processing system I'd bought for $400, and get into it THAT way. Well, SCRIPSIT, which I'm using now, is a DREAM! At the very BASIC level, it's a very good typewriter: I don't have to keep track of line-turns (it just counts characters as I type and if I got over the margin, it moves it down to the next line so quickly that I'm not bothered by it [of course, you out there with computers know all this already]); I don't have to bother about paper, because the video screen acts like an endless scroll of lines; corrections are MARVELOUSLY simple with the roving cursor; and I can reset margins endlessly, which of course I don't have to worry about in a simple letter.
HOWSOMEEVER, when I got to the first printer exercise, SCRIPSIT kept telling me that the printer wasn't ready. Well, it was turned on and it'd worked with the test set of letters. What was wrong? What was wrong was that I'd neglected to see that I hadn't been supplied with the cord to connect the printer to the computer! That's all. Sure, they had it, all I had to do was come in and get it. Great. Tried some other things myself all day and then decided that I really should do the sample lessons. Finished the first one by about 2AM and decided it was a good enough day.
1/21/83: Friday I breezed through lessons two and three by noon, more and more impressed with SCRIPSIT. It would be a GREAT help in typing. A friend said he was going into town and would pick up the computer cable for me. So I spent the rest of the day doing lessons four through seven, and the friend came in at 11:30 with the cable. With a couple of usual adjustments and changes of little pieces and head-scratchings (it seems that NOTHING connected with what can go wrong is SIMPLY solved), I finally printed out my first three test pages by 1AM. Triumph! Things really doing well!
1/22/83: Saturday morning, disaster! MAYBE it was caused by moving some of the pieces around this morning: the printer cable was stretched too tightly, so I had to move the printer to the LEFT of the computer, which is actually much more convenient since it's nearer to where I sit all the time. Moved the HD under a bookcase I moved in to hold all the manuals and supplies. But when I tried starting the system, IT WOULDN'T START! Tried again and again, no luck. Phone Radio Shack, try something else. Doesn't work. Looks like the HD isn't working. NO! The stuff that I put on it already might be lost. Nothing TERRIBLY important; I'll just have to re-do about an hour's typing. He told me a way around my problem, but Monday I'll have to lug the HD into a Manhattan repair shop, AND Doug said he THOUGHT one of the most EMPHASIZED instructions in the book might be wrong. The MANUALS insist that the HD should be shut off and THEN the computer shut off. Doug insists that the computer should be shut off and then the hard disk shut off! Does this sort of thing happen often??
He says he thinks that's why my disk's clobbered. He apologizes for the difficulties. Talked to another friend who'd been thinking about getting a computer and feared the exact same things I feared: PRECISELY WHAT'S GOING ON NOW! He won't be getting one for a while. Sooooooo, I decided to type a letter, since the lesson was ON putting in the date and a name and a variable message on a letter!
1/23/83: Sunday, today, I decided to MODIFY a letter I sent to relatives with my “saga” and send it to “the group,” for whatever it's worth.
As for indexing, I've ORDERED the Foxon-Maddocks system for $300, even though there are lots of things it DOESN'T do and lots of things it does WRONG. It's better than nothing. I've sent for the MANUAL for Dr. Purton's system that was written for a Model I or III (compatibility as yet unknown, does anyone out there know anything about THAT?). I've sent for information from the Calverts, who wrote ANOTHER British system that says it works on ANY computer, except that the LARGE version (which I want) isn't ready yet. There's ANOTHER system from Harrison, N.Y. that currently works on Apple and IBM, and they're trying to find out what it would take to operate on Radio Shack. Doug SAYS he's interested in helping me in this, but I'll believe it when it happens. Told him to phone the fellow in Harrison with information, and he hasn't done it yet.
Otherwise, things are fine. OTHERWISE!?
DRAT!!!!! Just remembered that the BRACES have a SPECIAL function in this kind of letter, so I guess I can't USE them, so I've had to GO BACK, which is EASY, and REPLACE them with brackets—which took about 30 seconds—USING the system already.
AND I haven't gotten “good” paper yet, so you'll have to be content with this green-bar stuff. Sorry. Next time.
Bob

SUNDAY, 1/23/83: Arnold came over in the evening to type a “simple” resume and took from 6PM to 10PM to do so. He had fun, but it got to be a bit MJUCH. I worked a bit more on some letters, and got to bed late again.

MONDAY, 1/24/83: Lugged the hard disk, in its unwieldy box, into the repair center on 36th and Fifth, vowing never to do it again because of the fatigue involved, and rather than “this afternoon,” as Doug had said, it was “at least 48 hours.” “Take it out of the box,” she said at first, and then “No, we can't store the box here.” “But I'm meeting someone for lunch,” I said, “and I certainly can't take THIS thing into a restaurant.” “You can leave it on the floor, but anyone can pick it up,” she said with unconcern. Finally I cornered a salesman and got HIM to store the box for me. Back later to play with the “floppy system,” which I had to boot about 7 times, putting the diskette in a few times, to get around “ERROR RE-BOOT” messages, and vowed to ask Doug what happens if I DO clobber the SCRIPSIT diskette. What I FIND is that the diskette system takes SO much longer to do the MOST BASIC things (like a simple F2 delete), that the hard-disk system has “spoiled” me into being VERY glad I got it FIRST.

TUESDAY, 1/25/83: Finally mailed all the computer letters, read mail, left the apartment in a state of disarray for David's arrival. Trying to show HIM the system, I just COULDN'T get it booted, so I phoned Doug about it, but he wasn't there. He phoned back while David was on the body-table, so I didn't answer.

WEDNESDAY, 1/26/83: Get a call from Geraldine at 11AM saying the disk is ready to be picked up. Phone Arnold and he's not got the right schedule to help me bring it back. Phone Susan and she's been talking to a friend, and they agree that I should get it DELIVERED to me: I PAID for the system, so it should work with THEIR efforts, not with mine! Sounds good! I phone Doug and tell him that and he agrees to have the system shipped over, but he'll call me to verify that. He doesn't call and the system IS shipped over at 6PM. During the day I use the floppy system as a word processor to type the UNIX index. Some of the facilities work well, some not so well. Connect the system: IT STILL DOESN'T WORK! Try more things: still doesn't work. Vow to visit Radio Shack tomorrow.

THURSDAY, 1/27/83: Take the McGraw-Hill index in, till 11:30, then bride a somewhat hungover Doug in his Radio Shack lair. He offers sympathies, says he'd called this morning to apologize for not having phoned me last night and to ask how things were going. I tell him. I suggest positioning of hard disk on carpet (he suggests I could leave a BIT more space than three inches in back of it for circulation), manhandles a disk to show that I couldn't have clobbered it THAT way, insists I can hook everything into the same plug, checks that I unlocked it (he says he can't assume ANYTHING), asks if the pins on the back are OK (I don't know), and at great length decides to give me a disk to take home with me that he KNOWS works, saying that he didn't get the billing breakdown from the shop, so he really doesn't know what they did to it. I then start, from 11:30 to 4:30, to go through a whole RAFT of questions and “communications.” Find that the new diskettes ARE write-protected because the company's too cheap to put on the write-enable tabs; Doug assures me that if I clobber the SCRIPSIT he'll give me a replacement and mine will be sent to Texas to be replaced; the “pages-per-line” goes over the amount stated to allow for an editing buffer, and when I really THINK about it, the only way to paginate in an index (without LOCKing turnovers to source lines) and STILL control the (Cont.) entry, IS to do it myself; the “disk capacity reached” statement doesn't CLOSE the record I'm working on, so I'll have to do THAT, somehow, before printing the file, but since I hope I've seen the last of my floppy system, I don't pursue that; he says I in fact can't combine letter-formats V and H, though I CAN play with renaming and copying to get AROUND that limitation; Deb convinces me that since the soft return IS a special character, I should be content to TREAT it as a special character, and not get “annoyed” when it's difficult to remove—she seems to emphasize that the F1and F2 combination is the best way to deal with it; I have to IN FACT return to the print monitor to handle the ;prompt when I'm in the middle of a page, but that’s live-with-able; Deb also clues me that my indexing turnover indent CAN be automatic by the format sequence o@{ rather than {@, and it WORKS; a guy in for the dozenth time, expert in SCRIPSIT, says that the hyphenation facility of the DICTIONARY package (which he says is quick) will bring up hyphenated page-range first-numbers—GOOD!; and Doug clarifies that SCRIPSIT is a file name and STUFF is a record name, that I should just try COPY if I don't know what formats things are in, and error prompts will tell me that I should use FCOPY; HE wants to hear about manual errors; I CAN type and print on the screen at the same time using DUAL ON in TRSDOS; and in the end I can save MY SCRIPTSIT floppy-generated files as ASCII files to TRSDOS, then FCOPY to get to HD and convert from ACSII to regular format; AND he gives me a copy of the programs, I make a Xerox of the JETSET instructions, and waits outside with me while I get a cab! (Whew; and I'm HUNGRY, too.) Home at 5 to lots of calls and at 6:30 I add the NEW hard disk—AND IT STILL DOESN'T WORK! In desperation I look at the connecting pins, as he'd mentioned: A PIN IS BENT OUT OF SHAPE AND NOT CONNECTING ON THE UPPER LEFT CORNER OF THE COMPUTER BACK! When I try to bend it back into shape, it breaks. Anyway, I KNOW what's wrong and spend an absolutely DELIGHTFUL time from 8:30-1AM playing with the first introductions to the fascinating, funny, delightful, engrossing, worth-it ADVENTURE games.

FRIDAY, 1/28/83: AND JUST NOW find out how the “automatic paging” works: I'd typed to line 85 in a 50-line-per-page document, and when I hit enter at the end of a paragraph, it CLICKED and I was suddenly writing on line 35 of page 2, and page 1 had been set at EXACTLY 50 lines. So THAT's how it does it! So this morning at 10AM I phoned Doug and told him about it, and he agreed to send the messenger for TWO pieces, saying “It'll take about 20 minutes to fix the pin, you'll probably be able to pick it up this afternoon.” Well, I'd like him to deliver it, but we'll see when it's ready to be picked up! Decide to type this until 11AM, figuring the pick-up wouldn't take place within an hour, but now it's time to get off the system, pack it up, and be ready to be without the computer for a few days: at least I can get some indexing done!

Phone again at 1PM, and he says, “Sorry, I forgot to call.” Delivery fellow comes at 3:40, and I go to the gym ANYWAY. Heat's off in PM, send $300 for the Foxon-Maddocks Index Preparation System, and watch TV.

SATURDAY, 1/29/83: Clean up the apartment, go to the Basel Ballet, watch TV.

SUNDAY, 1/30/83: Watch TV and do the Longman COURTS index manually.

MONDAY, 1/31/83: Phone Doug at 10 and he says it won't be delivered this morning, and I say it can't be delivered tomorrow, so he says to call on Wednesday. Today I deliver the Longman index and see Carol Baker of Churchill-Livingstone to get instructions on a 4000 page book. See Jim Henson at the Museum of Broadcasting, lunch at Richoux, give Barbara a body session, attend the tribute to Walter Terry at the City Center, and watch “Merry Wives of Windsor” on TV.

TUESDAY, 2/1/83: Spend $25 on drinks and parking when I meet Midge and Polly at JFK from 12:15-7:15. Busy day doing nothing.

WEDNESDAY, 2/2/83: Start working on math pages, phone Doug at 10:30 and he says the two pieces will be delivered by noon. Phone at 12:30 and he says soon. The messenger comes at 1:55 and delivers the two pieces and takes back Doug's disk. I get out immediately to the Thalia for a triple feature, then to the Museum of Natural History for a pretty awful Gamelan concert, then home at 9:30 to phone people and get dinner at 10:45-11:45, and then put the machine together, carefully so as not to bend any pins, and do an INIT on the disk that seems to have an error with the APPEND, then play with ADVENTURE for a bit when I just CAN'T seem to read-in JETSET with BASIC JETSET, getting stuck in BASIC, and can't make much progress on Adventure, either! Then INSTALL the Scripsit diskette and find this CHRONICLE, which I bring up to date by 2:20, which I figure is late enough. NOW to try shutting the MACHINE off first and then the DISK, the only thing LEFT to try. Then to WORK tomorrow!

THURSDAY, 2/3/83: Get back on at 10AM, and at least it works ONCE more! Dorothy Thomas invites me to the ASI board meeting NEXT Friday to meet Linda Fetters and Sandi Schroeder, BOTH of whom will be selling their personal TRS indexing systems. Get rid of extra files, copying two “memos” that might come in handy, and phone Doug and Deb, who aren't in by 10:30, and Steve's just stepped out, so I leave a message for them. Now to try a “selective print” of the addresses page-by-page on the printer. Steve calls me back, but he doesn't know anything about INIT and nothing about the games, saying that Doug's at a manager's meeting. Fix up the apartment by Arthur's arrival for a body-session, and get in 45 minutes of work on the HBJ pages before leaving for dinner, at Windows on the World. Return about 11:30 and spend three MORE hours on ADV! Charming!

FRIDAY, 2/4/83: Doug calls to say there'll be another version of TRSDOS-II out in a few weeks, so I shouldn't have to worry about not having APPEND. He suggests using BASIC OTHELLO and BASIC STARTREK, neither of which work, but I MUST get to the HBJ pages, so work 7:20 on them, AND call Foxon-Maddocks to be told they sent the system YESTERDAY, so it should be here TOMORROW! SCRIPSIT does some CRAZY spacing things when you use the special characters for boldface and underlining: sums don't line up vertically, in sum. Even two tries don't get them aligned when both fields are moving around. What a pain!

SATURDAY, 2/5/83: Work 7:25 hours on the pages before Paul Bosten calls with free tickets to the Dance Theater of Harlem. Thank goodness the computer's working fine, except for TWICE when I TOUCH the console there's a ZAP and the things RESETS, which means that the part of the page I'm working on is LOST: the first time it happens I'm JUST before the end of a COMPLEX page, so I grit my teeth and put the whole thing back in, taking the time to “get new page” every so often so that the WHOLE page isn't lost. So the next time it happens I only lose a few lines. But it's something ELSE to think about. Decide to fill out the number of hours needed for all my jobs, and it looks like a RUSH, but a possibility. Treat myself with an evening with the paper, anyway.

SUNDAY, 2/6/83: HBJ takes longer than I thought: without continuous-form paper, it's a real pain to single-sheet-feed each of the 19 pages. Imagine how it would be with a whole index? Work 7:35 on them before finally finishing at 12:25, then get to bed and can't sleep.

MONDAY, 2/7/83: Finish this up-to-date at 9:30, and decide to print it, but have to repaginate it first, since I left the default option of 50 lines/page and want to type 57, which will just put this onto 3 full pages without sliding. Go to dentist, and get back to put the Foxon-Maddocks system onto the computer, and it works almost perfectly the VERY FIRST TIME. Nathan phones the SECOND I've started, and he says he'll bring over continuous-form paper! I'm bubbling with enthusiasm and phone Susan and Arnold to tell them all about it. Do a small test index and things seem to be working well. Down for class and there's the paper from Liberty! BURBLE enthusiastically in class.

TUESDAY, 2/8/83: Coordinate all day, back at 5 for Nathan to phone and say he'll be here tomorrow morning. I phone Raven and they say it's OK to return the Ovarian index on MONDAY, since I'm running WAY behind. Do some more testing and then drink lots of wine while watching “Caddyshack” on TV and decide to go to bed at 11:45. But can’t SLEEP! Up to WORK from 12:15 to 2:05, marking only the first 44 pages in the first 35 minutes, speeding up to 55 pages in 35 minutes, then mark the next 115 pages in 70 minutes. DO get to sleep THEN.

WEDNESDAY, 2/9/83: Wake with a bong at 7:30, only 5.5 hours sleep, but I feel GOOD so I get onto the computer from 7:45 to 8:30, when Nathan enters to say that my buzzer isn't working again. Phone Washington with a list of questions and find that I can LEAVE OUT the F2 code ENTIRELY, which makes typing the records EXACTLY like I did it manually except for the ESC button rather than CR for the next record. Hit ENTER many to many times, mess up the editing a number of times, but transfer a file to SCRIPSIT the very first time and THAT works too! I'm just ecstatic with the system. Input the first 324 records and make a copy of the diskette, but then it's disaster time: I try to get back into the program and the machine RESETS EACH TIME! Have I clobbered the hard disk?? In desperation I phone Maddocks, and he tells me that I went to M/FMA BEFORE I renamed the index back, and I retrieve the system while he's on the phone (he'd called ME back the first time) and I'm feeling SO great that I phone Susan and she says it sounds like I'm in LOVE! Truly an EXCITING day!! Mark through page 469 by 4:25 and input the last of the 672 records by 4:35, sort till 4:48, then do some other stuff until 6:10-6:55, the first editing, and it's going to take a LONG time to edit! There are just so many GOOFS the first time around:
Don't really check the input records, so I've got lots of commas missing, lots of first letters to capitalize, and lots of typos. GOT to do it.
I don't take good notes on things to keep track of:
a) Not enough detail in the notes I DO keep for typos.
b) Didn't keep track of the Greek letters to ADD.
c) Didn't figure a way to take NOTES on the system yet.
3) Chose the WORST system for codes:
a) Didn't make ENOUGH of them.
b) Have to make them so that they ALPHABETIZE correctly.
c) Have to solve problem of GOOD main entry being BENEATH.
4) Since I DON'T use the F2, the main head (with lots of subheads following after it, is usually BEHIND all the subheads because the SUBhead main is pageless while the MAIN head has pages and alphabetizes at the END of them.
5) In addition, the index ITSELF is a bitch, with lots of switches to be made at the end. Then Arnold gives me a free ballet ticket (which I give him the $3 for), and I go there, getting back to edit NOT TOTALLY from 12:10-2:15, when I start making stupid mistakes. Don't even save files, I'm tired.

THURSDAY, 2/10/83: Sleep till 9:30 and read till 10:45, and don't finish editing until 3:55, which is a REAL pain: 17:45 hours for a $515.90 job which comes out to $29.06/hour! But it IS a start. When I complain to Arnold about “all the things I didn't think of in advance,” he remarks, “That's related to the fact that you always find what you're looking for in the LAST PLACE YOU LOOK.” I take the point (that if I HAD planned ahead for EVERYTHING, there wouldn't even be the CHANCE to blame myself for ANYTHING: ANYTHING I didn't think of would have been “handleable with more thought.”) and laugh. Then put on “breakfast” and deliver the (contd.)-entered, pages-torn, perfect-format index. Get down to eat while watching a Steven Spielberg movie on TV from 4:30 to 6, and catch this up to date in the meantime, having decided to ERASE the OVARIAN index, since I'll just use my WORK copy as a “final copy,” since Raven's never asked for a spare copy ANYWAY. Will keep the diskettes for TEMPORARY storage and still keep ONE PAPER copy for a month until everything's fine. Feel GREAT! Return to start on the PATHOLOGY index, which leads to the NEXT problem!

Sunday, 2/13/83: Try to repaginate the index in the SCRIPSIT file BUT THERE'S no room to do it! Try to add space but it looks like I don't have the right manual, since MINE doesn't really EXPLAIN the File Maintenance Processing that's new with SCRIPSIT-HD. Agitate some more.

Monday, 2/14/83: Phone Doug and he can't answer my question. Dorothy says to send it just the way it is, which I do. Phone Mike Magridian but “he's just been on TV and hasn't come down yet,” and then Rich Faulkner gives me JUST the answers I need to have, and I've come through to the next plateau! Jot down questions and changes for the Foxon-Maddocks system, but DO realize that having to ADD the page-numbers for multiple entries is a PERFECT way to check WHICH cross-references MUST change. Into Radio Shack after “Parsifal” and Doug's not there and Steve can't find my copy of the magazine.

Thursday, 2/17/83: Deliver a marvelously-paged but NOT torn-apart index to Tony Buatti at Springer, feeling AGAIN very good about the system, EXCEPT that the Foxon-Maddocks system SHOULD do so much more that I'm beginning to think about the NEXT system that I'll be using. Home from the Thalia relieved to be caught up and decide to try EVERYTHING on the games diskette, and it turns out that “GAME10” is AIRPLANE III, which is JETSET, so I play that from 11-1, exhausted.

Friday, 2/18/83: Luxuriate in being caught up, and reprint the Pathology and Prostatic indexes so that I can throw them OUT. Now to get into the REAL part of the computer, which I've been waiting over a MONTH to do!

Saturday, 2/19/83: Catch up with this chronicle at 6:30, but MUST get to other typing and organizing all these FILES! Then go to Arthur’s party.

Sunday, 2/20/83: File correspondence, check stubs, and receipts, and look at income tax, then watch Pope on David Susskind from 11:30 to 1:30, pretty good.

Monday, 2/21/83: So lots of typing and getting caught up. Feels good.

Tuesday, 2/22/83: Lots of phoning and catching up; shopping for shoes and rubber cement and projector bulb and other things, then dinner with Dennis at Lutece.

Wednesday, 2/23/83: FORMAT all my diskettes, more catching up, finally get started on the McGraw-Hill Physics index, then to Radio Shack at 3:50 for what I think will be 10 minutes to duplicate the games diskettes, but it turns out that MY system formats them for HD, so they have to be REFORMATTED. Leave at 4:30 and get to Churchill-Livingstone to up the page-rate from $1.75 to $2.25, not bad. Then see “The Verdict” and go to Sherryl's for dinner with Dennis and Bob, and back at 12:20 to try the diskettes: THEY DON'T WORK! Hassle till 1:40, getting some good results, but only 2-3 times out of 15 times, and go to bed exhausted.

Thursday, 2/24/83: Up at 9AM and try to get them working, both on HD to FCOPY, leaving how to use the AGAIN statement, and they go in SPURTS, but can't get past the first few files. THEN get hung with the diskette light on, trying to initialize, and nothing happens. Steve flips when he hears I've been trying to do it without the HD on: my machine is really ALL for HD, so it must be on; though I was SURE Doug had said I could self-load with the diskette, or work it with TRSDOS 2.0. He gets me out of it, says the diskettes have to be recopied, and I try MORE, getting bits of CRAPS and LUNAR and HIGHLOW to play with, though LUNAR ends with a program error! Finally have lunch at 2PM! Then back to the Physics index and at 11PM I'm debating whether to print the final repagination when SOMETHING strings out all the entries on two whole pages, and I can only think it came to line 84 and didn't get an end-of-file and messed up. I accidentally find that I can just get a whole “strung-out page and move it back into PLACE, but that takes until 12:40, by which time I'm exhausted. Get ready for bed at 1:30 after doing a lightwork session: back of neck hurts something FIERCE. Get ONE thing down and OTHER problems come up!

Friday, 2/25/83: Finish printing the Physics index after a FEW glitches: for some reason SOME of the pages are 26 lines long, not 25, so when I give a print-order of 54, a line just after an alphabet-space goes onto a separate page and I have to retype. THEN discover that I've used 1HO and gotten only ODD page-numbers, and repage to 1HS, for standard, and then print three copies: two for Helen and one for me. Then catch this up while waiting for the electrician, at 11:35. Today to the gym, to Radio Shack to ask more questions, to deliver the McGraw-Hill index, and then meet Dennis and Susan wherever. Deliver the McGraw-Hill index at 3:30 and get to Radio Shack from 3:40 to 4:45 to copy the games diskettes, but when they let me do it I forget to turn on the diskette-unit first and WRECK one of Debrah's diskettes! Feel awful, but she gets at Steve for not moving the computer that wrecks the diskettes. Steve “doesn't have Doug's diskette” (though it turns out later that he DOES). Steve tells me that 1) I should wait for the INSERT DISKETTE statement BEFORE inserting my diskette, and 2) that I should hit BREAK and REPEAT WHILE I hit RESET. Well, OK, I'll try anything. Also think that I have to give NAMES to these diskettes I'm copying, so I come up with password=AB for GAMETRE and password=A for GAMETWO, but Doug later tells me I should just say N for the prompt which asks if I'm changing information on the diskette. Still more definitions to learn. Try all of them in the PM and THEY DON'T WORK! Copy a directory from GAMES III and get to play CARDDEAL, CRAPS, HIGHLOW which is fun, LUNAR which I take a few notes on but it bombs at the very end, but more of the others just give ERRORS. Discover BIGBEN, which is kind of a huge kicky clock! But try FCOPY (of GAMES III) :0 to:4 {SYS,ALL} and ONCE get ARITEACH and BARGRAPH copies and then get ERROR 40, and when I try again I get ERROR 40 AT ONCE! With GAMES II I get SIMULT and CREDFILE (which I play with a bit), and then get another ERROR 40 and it dies in a CYCLE, whining. Very depressed!

Saturday, 2/26/83: Susan phones to say that Bruce committed suicide last night! Redo HBJ pages for three and a half hours. At least THAT works!

Sunday, 2/27/83: Redo pages for an hour and a half, join the Liebers for dinner, and they come over to be impressed with SCRIPSIT and disappointed at no games.

Monday, 2/28/83: With Susan and Roger all day, “Ring” on TV all night.

Tuesday, 3/1/83: Into Radio Shack at 4:40 after coordinating. Doug tells me about FCOPY 0 ({DIR}) to see the Directory, or that I can MOVE files from 0 to 4 as data. He says to make sure I copy down the entry sequence BASIC JETSET -F:0. I try MY GAMES III and find that it WORKS, so I copy MY file onto THEIRS, which takes until 6:10, even after they've closed. Home and try the FCOPY with GAMES II and get ERROR 40. Try MOVE and get ERROR 39. Try FCOPY 0 {DIR} and get ERROR 40. Get the same with GAMES III. That tears it.

Wednesday, 3/2/83: Phone him at 11AM when I try again in morning and it still doesn't work! Doug says that I've tried everything: send the CPU in for repairs. Messenger comes at 12:15, charging me $30 to pick it up. I go to the Thalia and then watch TV all evening, too depressed to do anything else.

Thursday, 3/3/83: Phone at 10:30 and no one's looked at it yet, so he can't say when it'll be finished. Doug said he GOT the tag on the hard-disk repair, and they “exchanged an AX-1036 for $700”! “Angel,” whom Doug says is good, has it, and “There's a 90% chance it'll be fixed Friday, unless some obscure part needs replacing. There's only a .5% chance of ANY repair bill for ME this year.” Um.

Friday, 3/4/83: I phone Steve at 4 after Bruce's service and HE asks for the delivery. Doug hadn't done it! “You got it,” says Steve smugly, and I want to hit him---”Yeah, only because I had to pursue it!” It arrives at 5:30, and I hook it up with the same tremulous feeling I had on the first day. Will it work? It does, and I copy most of the games from GAMES II until I get to ADVENT/D5, and I get ERROR 4, and then get “?10 ERROR” on the last ten, but AGAIN get exasperated as I try copying them AGAIN and programs like WORM/SCR and SLOWPOKE DO go on a SECOND try, and I try again and again and finally get PEEKPOKE/CMD after about the FIFTH try, and then I go back and CHECK to find what they all DO: lots of statistical and data processing packages, while ARTILLERY is a rather simple-minded range-firing jobbie. But *FRUSTRATION* the two programs of SPACEWAR and OTHELLO keep getting errors. Even worse, I find that, for WHATEVER reason. GAMES III is the SAME as GAMES II, so there's a whole file that I don't even have yet. Got to go BACK to Radio Shack. But I can get to ADVENTURE and I even get to GAME10/BAS again, playing from 11:30 to 12:50, but so messing up the radar settings that things just don't work right. BUT I CAN NOW AT LEAST GET IT TO GO. Feel good, but determined to get the LAST files in!

Saturday, 3/5/83: Work 7:55 hours on HBJ pages, edit working well.

Sunday, 3/6/83: Work 7 hours on HBJ pages, maybe even playing some games.

Monday, 3/7/83: Do bodywork on Dorothy, lunch with her, go to gym, body from her, Actualism.

Tuesday, 3/8/83: Vatican show and watch TV and clear up stuff in apartment.

Wednesday, 3/9/83: Pick up McGraw-Hill index, take HBJ pages to Susan, lunch with her at Mimosa, see a triple at the Thalia, get a free ticket through Dennis via Dana per the public school system for the fabulous “Amadeus,” and have dinner with Dennis at the reasonable 43rd Street Balloon, soused but fairly happy.

Thursday, 3/10/83: Lunch with Paul McLean at Crawdaddy, visit his friend Leighton Holmgren's apartment at 322 W. 57th, home for 6:15 hours on Raven index.

Friday, 3/11/83: Work 5 hours to finish the index and move some of the lines on the pages that are close to 84 lines, but THEN REPAGINATE STRINGS OUT AGAIN. Grit my teeth and put it back together—and THEN IT GOOFS A SECOND TIME! In panic I phone Hugh Maddocks: he calls back at 2 and suggests simply REPAGINATING right at the START—now why didn't I think of that before, go to 22 lines so that it'll all fit on a SCREEN, too! Phone Rowena and she accepts the strange PRINTING Error that comes up with suppression of double-spacing, for no good reason, except that it's the FILE and not the PRINTER because the COPY goofs in the same way the ORIGINAL does. Back to Radio Shack at 4:50 and Doug's not there AGAIN, and they don't have another copy of III yet, and I recopy II and talk about an hour on the phone with Texas, but all they can finally say is to send a diskette with my problem of the REPAGINATE problem and the PRINTING problem, and they'll try to find out about the extra-large file processing. Home with MORE enthusiasm, and this time the FCOPY works for ALL the rest of the files, and I PLAY OTHELLO (which is very intelligent) and SPACEWAR (which isn't, though maybe I just have to figure how to FIND the KNITWITS), and WORM1, which is just EVERYTHING I LOVE in a computer game: simple, increasingly difficult, endlessly possible, and totally captivating. I play for a couple of hours and feel just GREAT about it. Try to investigate some properties of the file, figuring that 7 REPAGINATES will fill the diskette, but it goes on to 14 with no trouble at all, so there is no limit for a SMALL index. Then try to RESTORE an INDEX003 NEWIND/SCR, and THAT doesn't seem to work, for some reason. MORE problems! List FILES again and AGAIN go through ADV—ADVENT/D9, both alone and with BASIC, but none of them work. Have to clear them off. By then I'm exhausted but pleased that I seem to be WINNING with the computer again.

Saturday, 3/12/83: Go through files and sort bills out and get to the Metro for a Herzog double feature and then to Paul's birthday party, and then the New York Times.

Sunday, 3/13/83: Send out 13 pieces of mail and start catching up with pages and the Chronicle, and THEN decide that those should be ONE file: COMBINE them. Susan comes over and (with gin and V8 (3 of them) in her) she can't get into WORM and gets easily frustrated with ADVENTURE: she says she's not into games.

Monday, 3/14/83: “Walkuere” at the Met, more WORM, finish this by 9:35 and print.

Tuesday, 3/15/83: Dorothy here for body. Work on Lea & Febiger puts me AHEAD of my working schedule for the first time since June 7, 1980! Now I can relax??

Wednesday, 3/16/83: David for body and lunch with him at Park Plaza, poor. Susan for body and dine with her and Dennis at Fon Yuen. Only work 4:40 today.

Thursday, 3/17/18: Alphabetize, put in the printer patches to accept underlines, but in the middle of the SPOOL, on page 8, the comment “TOO MANY LINES” comes up. Oh-oh! Try it again. Still. “By coincidence” it stops on an underline character. Phone Hugh. He's never had that happen. Check: that IS the first page where the underline character falls on the last line. I suggest using ANOTHER set of characters, like & and *, for start and stop underline, and he tells me how to put in the patches. Great! They don't show up on the screen while the SPOOLing is being done, but it GOES and there they ARE on the SCRIPSIT file. Very great! Then Hugh calls and says the Global Search won't replace with a control character! Very poor! So he gives me a User-Key sequence which will cut down on the number of key-strokes while I go through the file manually. That takes “only” 45 minutes, but the HASSLE of the day takes HOURS, though I learn how to use User Keys and they ARE very simple. Talk to Sherryl about my triumph and spend the evening watching television.

Friday, 3/18/83: Catch this up to date and prepare to finish Urinalysis for L&F. Finish L&F by 2:15, but I'm only ready to start the next index by 4:55. By 6:50 I simple don't feel like indexing anymore, and at 8:30 I decide to give myself time with the manuals. Finish the last lesson, #8, of the SCRIPSIT training program, then review the training manual (finding, for example, that the Assemble process is just MENTIONED in a Chapter Review, not really described at all), and then decide to READ the SCRIPSIT Reference Manual. Discover that most of the information is familiar to me, but get a jolt at page 40 when I find that a document is limited to 221 pages, which at the index density of 25 lines per page, is “only” 5525 lines, though single-spaced at 60 lines per page would increase that to 13,260 lines, which at the average of 50 characters per line would be over 660,000 characters, which is already over the capacity of one diskette. Then on page 60 I find that I can ALREADY type characters like £ and ™, and that I can define print codes for such goodies as the Greek letters beta and mu, circle-R and circle-C, the fractions ¼ and ½ and ¾, the degree symbol, a vertical stroke, and other neat special characters. Getting sort of groggy by the time I get to the end, but though it's midnight, I still have an urge to read, so I glance through the Spelling and Hyphenation Dictionary, AND through the Hard Disk Owner's Manual. Lots of things look easier to understand now, but I'm getting information overload at about 1:30AM.

Saturday, 3/19/83: Finish this up to date through about the eleventh line on this page, and then shut off the computer WITHOUT returning to the Directory, so of course when I turn this back on after “Life on Earth” from 10-11, I have to redo this page. That's the way to learn! Now at 11:30 I'll investigate these goodie special characters. Try beta = ẞ, acute e = é, dagger = †, paragraph sign = ₱, serpent = , greek mu = μ, copyright = ©, registered = ®, degree = º, vertical stroke = │, ¼ , ½, ¾ , and grave e = é. And just to verify the others THERE, à for grave a, ç for c-cedilla, and ñ for nya-n. Why should I be surprised when the “Spanish exclamation” that's smudged in the list just after the 0 and before the 2 turns out to be 1? Change it to SP, and let's try “printing the screen.” Nothing prints from SP, but I learned that “printing the screen” types xM rather than μ, which is a mu! Then really get into ORGANIZING: build a card-box for ALL my cards, with the headers GAMES NOTES, INFO NOTES, QUESTIONS, USAGE NOTES, and TO BE FILED. Get a notebook for the games pages, but still my desk is loaded. Watch TV 8-9 and down to Dennis's for dinner, and Times till 2:30, with TV.

Sunday, 3/20/83: Start back on the Times, then get back to computer at 1:55. Find to my chagrin that it takes FIVE diskettes to back-up the hard disk, and the SYS files ARE copied again, too! Then install Dictionary from 2:30 to 2:35 and start running it against the files I've written. Running it against the NOTEBOOK pages shows that it doesn't contain SCRIPSIT or mu, along with understandable lapses for OMNI and uh. Then run it against the HBJ pages and add 12 words to the list and actually FIND THREE ERRORS, which is the point of the whole process! Then run it against the Pathology index and get 1415 errors on the 55 pages; sadly, many of them are 111-words from page numbers that are given in ells (l) and not ones (1). But I decide to ADD them, and at one point actually exceed the temporary user's list. Add 578 in the first go-through and boost it to 753 the second time around. “Only” 14 new words per page! Then try it on the BENZO index (and sadly find REAL spelling errors in BOTH versions) and bring it up to 882 words, adding 129 with 45 pages, down to only THREE new words per page. With the Urinalysis index of 72 pages, down to only THREE new words per page. With the Urinalysis index of 72 pages I bring it to 1116 words, having added 2234 for OVER three new words per page, AND finding 3-4 errors that I can add (to my relief) to the index before I send it out. Taking lots of notes on cards, now that I have a place to store them. Also “clear up” more, earlier, by putting the GAMES sheets in a NOTEBOOK for easier reading, with the sleeves of the diskettes as separators, put the printout sheets into a folder for future reference, and add DO NOW, LISTS, and OLD USAGE HEADERS to the box. Get off at 7:30 for TV, Susan coming over later.

Monday, 3/21/83: Make a list of the Hard-Disk SVCs, and then in going through the manuals I decide to make a list of corrections which quickly expand to 3 for the SCRIPSIT Reference Manual, 4 for the Supplement to the SCRIPSIT Reference Manual, 7 for the Model II Owner's Manual, and 9 for the Hard Disk Manual. Come up with more questions for Doug, too, like why I don't show SYSTEM64 in my FILES list and when will the new TRSDOS come in so I have use of APPEND. Take a long time trying to find what LSB-MSB means, and actually get fairly familiar with everything about my manuals EXCEPT the innards of TRSDOS and everything about BASIC. All this takes until 2:30, when I go to the gym, to Dorothy's for a body session, and to class. Back highly affected by revolutionary Class #200.

Tuesday, 3/22/83: Start to read BASIC, but then have to see about jury-duty, get a Cranial from Lois, then see a fabulous Hamburg “Midsummer Night's Dream.”

Wednesday, 3/23/83: Andy calls in the morning to say they'll start painting tomorrow morning! Talk with Mrs. Johnson and John and it seems best to get started even though they'll be destroying my apartment through the weekend. John reminds me of the amount of dust during painting and scraping, so I decide to have to move the whole thing to his place regardless of the fact that he says I can't USE it because he has to use his whole apartment and he's having people over for dinner on Sunday. He suggests I ask Mrs. Johnson to use her apartment, but that doesn't sound like a good idea. Got the diskette from Hugh yesterday, but he said to “ignore what I said on the phone,” so I have to phone him to find out “ignore WHAT that he said.”

3/23/83: INDEX SUMMARY: 1) Raven Ovarian index in February 11.
2) Lea & Febiger Pathology index in February 14.
3) Springer Prostatic index in February 17.
4) McGrawHill Physics index in February 25.
5) Raven Benzodiazepines index in March 11. First REPEAT company; ONE MONTH!
6) Lea & Febiger Urinalysis index finished by March 23, billed on March 25.

SCRIPSIT USAGE FOR COMPANIES:
1) HBJ Level 3 pages typed 2/6, delivered 2/ll.
2) HBJ Level 4 pages delivered March 9.

3/24 to 3/29/83: Men here painting; computer at John's. Back 4/2??(don't KNOW).

3/25/83: BASIC notes P.3l7320.

3/28/83: page 323: BASIC uses 17,920 bytes, TRSDOS takes l0,240 bytes, or 28,l60 for both, NOT MUCH LEFT on 32K machine!
p. 325: each OPEN file takes 834 bytes.
p.327: ? = PRINT. p. 328 <F1> to EDIT MODE pages 532538.
p.329: TAB to 8, l6, 24,....
p.347 BASIC checks only FIRST TWO letters, so SU, SUB, and SUM are SAME variables in BASIC!!!
p. 348: A5% is INTEGER, A5! is singleprecision; A5# is double-precision; A5$ is string!
P.358: <SHIFT><6>is^, which is exponent symbol.
p.4l7 is a bubblesort program. There's a machine language program on p. 4l7.
p.52l: "O" files erases previous data on OPEN.
p.526 and 528 talks of OPEN and BUFFER CORE.
p.522 is BASIC acronym. Find lots of typos: keep them on cards in "NOTEFILE" box.

4/83: April INDEX SUMMARY: 7) McGrawHill BASIC index in April 5.
8) McGrawHill Electronics index in April 7.

SCRIPSIT USAGE: 3) HBJ Level 5 pages delivered April 11.

5/83: May INDEX SUMMARY: 9) ChurchillLivingston Orthopedics becomes the MOST EXPENSIVE index billed at $9875, taking SIX sections for 15,447 lines on 618 pages from the 4,134 page book: 64 cents/line, $2.39/page. Thank GOD it WORKED!

SCRIPSIT USAGE: 4) HBJ Level 6 pages delivered May 9. Leave for trip May 10.

Worked 320 hours between April 4 and May 9, 36 days, over 9 hours/day for the 35 working days during that period, only April 16 unworked.

6/23/83: June index summary OK for indexes 1012, but index THIRTEEN(!), overusing the dictionary, begins going CRAZY and WRAPS the last seven pages into a COIL that I have to be VERY ingenious (duplicating files and practicing "unwrapping" operations until I get one that works) to unravel. AWFUL!
SCRIPSIT USAGE: 5) HBJ Level 7 pages delivered June 20.

7/5/83: FINISH HBJ pages for Level 8 and FINAL set! l96 hours TOTAL for $9300, which comes out to $47.45/hour.

7/8/83: Type 9 letters to all sorts of people, duplicating huge paragraphs.

Leave for Africa July 12 and return from Paris August 14.

8/24/83: Tried to find out about TRS User's Group, but Deb didn't know, told me to look in my TRS80 MICROCOMPUTER NEWS, and I said "What's that?" Should have been a green or blue card in my package, but some were NOT packed with it. So she told me to call 18l78700407 in Texas, who said they put three issues into the mail today and my first issue will be October. Then called customer rep at 889l345 and he put me in touch with Ken Williams at 12012255855, who went to the first NATIONAL meeting in May in Dallas, and there was a small New York region meeting with about 10 people. Jeff Cisco is Regional Director, he works with Cheeseboro Products, and there'll be a meeting in late September or early October to get cooperation and support from Tandy.

8/25/83: Finish last of 26 pages in Africa Journal.

8/30/83: WHERE is list of people I sent copies of EPCOT and HAWAIILA TRIP? I THINK I sent both to Helen and Jimmy, Mack and Betsy, Rita and Denny, Amy and Adam, Don and Hetch, and Bill Hyde on 7/8, and to Edgardo on 8/30. Anyone ELSE?; I think I just PRINTED 10 copies. But where's the LIST?

8/31/83: Tried to DELETE NOTEBOOK and get "Attempt to read past EOF". Delete 2730 OK, left with 1, 73l, and 732. Try to <G> 730, and "Disk space full." ON p.1 and try <N> and get "Attempt to read past EOF." AND 2 and 730 are IN <U><N>. Spent enough time on it and let it go for later.

9/13/83: From Gay User's Group:
1) Check LIST magazine for list of PROGRAMS by subject!
2) Visit Software City, at Lex and 55th.
3) There's a BOOK to check: "Best of TRS Programs."
4) Call David Varas on his PC: 7247467.

9/23/83: Tried to get "next" from NOTEBOOK 730 and get "read past EOF," and I can't delete 73l or 732, and it HANGS, so I have to RESET: nothing else WORKS!

9/26/83: From Maro Riofrancos on Riverside Drive: BeamonPorter is available early next year, but it CAN'T combine page numbers, CAN'T do letterbyletter alphabetizing, and CAN'T ignore beginning quotes, Greek letters, or numbers.

He's at 290 Riverside (at 101 St.), 9A, 8644847, zip l0025. He got my name from Peter Rooney. dBASE2 CAN sort ONLY letterby-letter. He works for Wiley, which pays only 45 cents per line or $l0/hour: he charged $5,500 for 11,000 lines for 1500 text pages. He does 150 books/year, gives $20,000/year to TYPISTS to type his indexes! He has a NEC (for Nippon Electric Company) (he says it's the largest Japanese computer firm) BENCHMARK word processor with 512K limit, HE has 128K, an 8" disk, and gets 1.2megabytes doublesided doubledensity with LITTLE trouble. His longest index has been 3700 lines so far. He has 44 userdefinable keys, a dotmatrix NEC printer, a highresolution screen for 80 characters in 26 lines, has a speaker for music, and was looking at Victor. He GOT a discount for HIS system for $2700, with CPM 86, BENCHMARK, MICROPLAN, and Dbase2. He describes the indexing program market as 1) indexers, 2) authors INTO computers, and 3) publishers. I gave him names and addresses for INDEXIT, COMPUGRAMMA, and Nathan Roseman, saying he should get in touch with HIM to plan the "perfect" indexing system.

10/27 and 10/28/83: Added 14 GAMES to file from Ahl's "More Computer Games."
Find that RUN ERASES program. Had various COMPUTATIONAL problems, like when "FLIP" gave every "Y" a WIN and every "N" a LOSS. RND(N) was wrong for me.
To get back to GAMES: after "TRSDOS READY" type BASIC GAMES/Z
after ">" type RUN "GAMES/Z"

10/29/83: In WORM/BAS get BN error (bad file #) for 614 OPEN "R," 1, "WORM/SCR" :FIELD 1, 10 AS OA$, 50 AS OB$, 20 AS OC$. WORM/SCR is 256, but 196 AS OC$ is no solution. WORM/SCR is ATRB D*X0, filetype F, but OPEN "D" or "O" doesn't work, nor does using buffer 2.

11/9/83: SAVE :4 TO 0 {ALL}, did volumes 0, 1, and 2, then put in Volume 3 and it did NOTHING for 15 minutes. Hit BREAK and get "Break acknowledged. ENTIRE dataset not readable." Because of the open file? LATER I find it was PROBABLY something wrong with an individual DISKETTE, rather than with program or DATA.

11/20/83: Back to checking systems. Since using "A" added a page 733, I tried to see of THAT solved the "EOF error" when using "N" from page 730, but still got the EOF error. But I could get pages 734 and 735 by adding THEM. Then tried various copies: from SCREEN: U (utilities), D (document file maintenance), C (copy document file), and D (document file copy) of SCRIPSIC to GAMEPROG DID work. But then trying U, D, C, T (TRSDOS file copy), T (TRSDOS to SCRIPSIT) a) with GAMES ___ 0 b (for PASSWORD) gives "Illegal I/O attempt"
b) with GAMES ____ 4 b gives "Attempt to read past EOF"
c) with GAMES ____ E b gives "Open attempt for file already open"
d) with GAMES ____ E PASSWORD gives "File access denied due to password protection" (which I guess means "b" is the proper password?)
e) with GAMES ____ E b AGAIN gives "Attempt to read past EOF"
Then I LIST GAMES in TRSDOS and get all kinds of special characters: GAMES is NOT just a programlisting that I can transfer to SCRIPSIT and modifyit seems to be semicompiled!! OK, NOW lets try to create a LETTERS file in Scripsit.

11/21/83: Look at possible DATABASES:
1) COMPUSERVE (Columbus, Ohio), p.6, Oct.83 Database Update, has $3.50/month SERVICE charges. That seems a bit much for me at THIS point.
2) PRESTEL WAS handled by Logica in NYC, 5890828, but Mona Vogel called and said that they STOPPED handling it in April, now it's only available through British Telecom in London. THAT seems like a bit of trouble at THIS point.
3) SOURCE (McLean, VA) 18003363366 was busy EVERY time I tried to call!
4) AT&T PLP was mentioned by Mona Vogel; I don't know anything about it.
5) KnightRitter Viewtron was mentioned; I don’t know anything about it.

12/9/83: Use <U> <D> <L> <P>rint to find filelengths. Do lots of SAVES of files I've worked on for a long timeat LAST. Got "DISKETTE IS UNUSABLE" message for TWO BAD DISKETTES. Can I get my money back? Move the billing page to NOTEBOOK so I can have MAINSCREEN of 1 SCRIPSIT/ 2 NOTEBOOK/ 3 CURRIND/
4 INDEX I'M WORKING ON/ 5 CURSYS/ 6 PAGES I'M WORKING ON.

12/10/83: WORKING ON REPAGINATION OF MOVIES. Problem: 82% for 73pp is too BIG to repaginate, so I only want to do SOME. So I copy it and do it in sections.
Movie list took from 10AM4AM yesterday and 11AMmidnight today31 hours!!

12/11/83: Decide to clean up the screens. Work 13 hours, from noon to 1AM!
I create a TRAVEL document file (DF) by using COPY: with the cursor AT DF DOC, using <C> creates COPY OLD DF/NEW DF. I copy AFRICA there, so I can erase Africa for SCRIPSIA. With <M>aintain after <D>ocument file maintenance after <U>tilities, I change SCRIPSIA to HBJMATH. Then I copy SCRIPSIT HBJMATH to HBJ 78 HBJMATH. NOW I read that you MUST use I EVERY TIME you insert a diskette (p.66, HD manual); it takes about 20 seconds. <U>tility <D>ocument file maintenance <C>opy works best and fastest for WHOLE DF's, and it only copies as many sectors as needed, though it EXPANDS the file copied TO to EQUAL the file copied from even if all the space wasn't USED. The plain <C>opy from the screen goes pagebypage. NEWDICT is 22% of 1024 sectors and 89% of 256 sectors. I LOST first three pages of SYST, but I should have it on diskette, and I DID, restoring 0 in 1.5 minutes, BUT that gave SYST/SCR in TRSDOS but NOT in SCRIPSIT!! When I try to ADD SYST, I get "File Already in Directory". Trying to KILL SYST/SCR in TRSDOS gives ERROR 25, so I guess you can ONLY delete through SCRIPSIT! But delete SYST or SYST/SCR gives "Document File Not Found"!! Try <U>, <D>, <L>ist, <V>ideo and it knows NOT of SYST/SCR. Then try <U> <D> <A>cquire and THAT gets SYST on list!! Sadly, when I LOOK at it, it's the NEWER "first three pages GONE already" SYST, so the pages ARE lost, but I find a "random" copy of page 2 and 3 that I PRINTED on ll/30, so data isn't lost! BUT RESTORE AND ACQUIRE WORKED!!! Still can't "next" past page 7l8. When I try to DELETE pages 7l6 to end, it HANGS, and I have to RESET! Attempts to delete SCRIPSIT NOTEBOOK gets "Attempt to read past EOF." NOW pages 73l and 732 are gone from <U> <N>, but <CTL><N> still gives EOF message. And I can't <CTL><P> from 732. Discover that I can say <F> and say NAME of file and get it QUICKER than giving multiple <S>'s. MOVE implies that the only way to copy MANY files is for all to have the same extension, so I change all the games to GAMES/XXX! I have GREAT fun rearranging ALL the files. Pity I can't do CURR/IND since CURR/IND/SCR isn't possible. Try RENAME CURRIND/SCR TO CURR/IND and get ERROR 25. NOW try I=index and S=SCRIPSIT on AUTO, but I can't make it WORK, so I do a whole elaborate MASTER MENU.

12/18/83: So tired when I finished working about 2:30AM that I TURNED MACHINE OFF WITHOUT EXITING FROM INPUT MODE WITH M/FMA!

12/19/83: Find that I left files OPEN, and when I DO his #6 on page 62, M1/FMA makes the screen go WHITE, but there is one LESS FILE? and do it twice more and it WORKS. Summary says there are 75 BLANKS?? There ARE 752 records but only 677 in SUMMARY? Called Hugh and he told me what to do, and I lost 9 headings, and alphabetization DID reconstruct the summary page correctly. But from THAT date on I have a "CLOSED FILES?" sign OVER the POWER switch! Hugh tells me that now there's a singledrive Model 12 for $3000 that can do 5000 entries, and the Tandy Model 2000 for $2700 with 128K RAM and MSDOS can run his system. Ask him to add a line between letters for me and to think about the SIMPLEST REVERSE: from Topic/sub, pages PRECISELY to SUB/topic, pages. He said he'd look into it. He also said that a CLS will REINVERT the invertedcolor problem I had when I clobbered M/FMA with an electrical zap at one point.

12/21/83: Set up computerized Christmascard list. Rub the tape holding the screen at the corner of the window while running SCRIPSIT and get "THERE IS NO SUCH PAGE." Incredible!

12/21/83: 11:45PM: AGAIN get an electrical zap as I try to count spaces and touch the edge of the screen. 12:l5AM: discover that CORRESPONDENCE gets EOF past 850. 900 is GONE? 12:25AM: hit <CTRL><Q> and get ERROR 32 ACROSS SCREEN, and then it ROLLS! Then back to TRSDOS READY and it's FROZEN; again hit RESET!

12/24/83: IDEA: why not have MANY MYWORDS, one for each INDEX, and LATER (when I find out how) ACCUMULATE them? Set up a SERIES of files and start work on second one. Find that <ESC><SHIFT><?> starts repagination at the top of a page.

12/25/83: Find that even though it SAYS "too many words added to dictionary no update done" it DOES save them in MYWORDS, even though UDUPDATE says not, and UDUPDATE has to be DONE to "legitimatize" them. TERRIBLY CONFUSING!!!

12/25/83: 6:30PM: Find that <ESC><,> can protect HUGE SECTIONS of text from alpha check, making it easier to DO in separate passes. It just ticks past the pages without checking them. Find that COPY can't "amalgamate" files because a copy to an EXISTING file gives "Document already exists" and can't do it.
Also find that it's good to do <U><D><L><V> for FREE of CURRIND to get an EXACT FIT for NNNINDthough it won't take EXACT size, make it TWO sectors LARGER!

12/28/83: Decide to have a PERMANENT AUTO to M, for continue index, indexstart, SCRIPSIT, GAMES, MATH, UTILITIES, and spares. I find that my SAVES to this point haven't been COMPLETE, since I MUST include RENAME INDEXMAP/FMA TO INDEX00?/MAP!! AND my STARTING procedure's been wrong: I've been moving INDEXMAP/FMA to NEW indexnumber, where it is IMMEDIATELY copied over by MASTERwhat a WASTE! AND learn that <HOLD><U>, <D>, and <L> NN goes UP NN lines, DOWN NN lines, or TO line NN.

12/29/83: Saved "M", but when I tested it and executed RUN "M0/FMA" (to start a new index GENERALLY) I got a DISASTER: screen FROZE on "Files exist for index N/ Select drives" and I had to RESET to get out of it. Nothing seemed destroyed; now I know I MUST go to TRSDOS first for RENAME before I can start an index.

l2/30/83: 2:40PM: Just find a dreamnote that would fit BETWEEN other pages I've already PRINTED, and feeling increasingly that I CAN IMPROVE the computer notebook section: or is it only SPREADSHEET programs that AUTOMATICALLY update a table of contents when I add a pagewell, it DOES occur to me NOW that I can HEAD these, now that I find that a header can start ANYWHEREwell, NO, only if NOTEBOOK is at the END! And I DON'T want SEPARATE documents to compress the space in the initial SCRIPSIT screen. AND decide now to move this to the COMPUTER CHRONICLE section!

12/30/83: Seem to hit <F1> AND <F2> TOGETHER, and the screen FREEZES on NOTEBOOK page 2l3, which I'd just FINISHED. So I COPY the screen by hand, then hit RESET and DIR shows SCRIPSIT/DEF? and SCRIPSIT/VIR? and SCRIPSIT/SCR?, but when I enter SCRIPSIT all the files seem OK and 2l3 has been saved as BEFORE, so I WROTE (more than) what I needed and RECOVERED all but 23 lines at END!

l2/30/83: 5PM: Hope this isn't the harbinger of worse news, but I've noticed while typing today that the cursoraction is getting a BIT sloppy, like on backspace going a character farther than I would have thought a bit slower than I would have thought (though that DOES happen when the printer's going, which might affect it). Worse is that without even WORKING at the keyboard, the printerhead has been giving a few pauses AS IF the computer were doing something. Do you think the computer's operating, silently, inwardly, even when I'm not inputting things at the keyboard??? Better than breaking down!!
(But as of 2/1/84 the printer is still working FINE!)

12/3l/83: Figure I've billed just over $34,000 with the computer's help, and putting that help at about 30%, that's VERY ROUGHLY paid for the computer NOW!

1/4/84: CAN'T FIND the Maddocks letter, so I have to PHONE Jane and get her to READ it to me on the phone! Do Maddock's patch, but my current file is ALREADY edited, yet it STILL works. Don't understand why, but it's not important enough to ask about.

1/13/84: Working on MICROBIOLOGY INDEX: with SCRIPSIT's limit of 221 pages, @ 21 lines/page, that's 464l lines, so I'll need to have THREE files.

1/14/84: Move files around to get three MICIND files at the start: COPY CURRSYS GENERAL SYSTEM to GENSYS GENERAL SYSTEM. COPY STAMPS GENERAL to GENSYS GENERAL and STAMPS UNITED STATES to GENSYS UNITED STATES. ReCOPY later.

1/17/84: <ESC><1> won't WORK. At the end, looks like I have to MAKE it and particularly EXECUTE IT IN <CAPS> MODE!

1/21/84: With MICIND files at 55%, I can't repaginate, but at length find that I CAN repaginate to 84 lines without headers, to get FEWEST pages, and it WILL reduce to about 41%, then repaginate to 25 lines (which takes 52%, which is why it couldn't get there from 55%) correctly. Finally, didn't even have to COPY the file to get a "clean slate" to repaginate in.

1/23/84: FREE gives 1051 sectors in 1 extent! CAN'T GET NO LESS!

1/28/84: Through "Structural Program Design" and make neat "STARS", and find that PEEK just doesn't seem to work!

1/30/84: Try FILEBOX, and it looks like TRSDOS will not handle BASIC as in the BOOK SAMPLE. Decide to do OUTLINE OF KNOWLEDGE to get away from frustrations!
Started at 4:l5 and got off at 12:30, 7 hours for 17 pages for 1/3 book.

1/31/84: Work l0:l51:45 on OUTLINE OF KNOWLEDGE. 10 1/2 hours so far.

2/1/84: Finish typing OUTLINE OF KNOWLEDGE from 122:45, then print till 5PM. For some reason LS:2/1 had crept into some linesruining singlespace printouts! I guess I'd hit some crazy things when I was doing input and sometimes getting FUNCTIONS that I just hit BREAK for without thinking that I might ALREADY have clobbered things. Find that <D><P....P><F>ormat is an easy way to get rid of all the 2's.

2/1/84: 6PM: Decide to update the computer chronicle after finishing my outline of knowledge, and figure I don't HAVE to order the STUFF, I can just INPUT it in ANY order MANUALLY finding the right dateplace! Try programs TG and TGA to try figuring how to use PUT and GET, but I keep getting errors on statements in which I try to open files. Extremely frustrating; manuals don't seem to HELP!

2/2/84: Update this Chronicle, at LAST, from 9:45 to 3:30PM! Then, away from the printer printing this, at 3:45 I return to find the printer ribbon BROKEN, lots of caked ribbonink around the paperguide, so I clean that up, replace with a Wordsworth ribbon to compare with Ricoh Radio Shack, and start AGAIN!

2/5/84: In trying to LEARN Basic, I find that the Table of Contents just isn't convenient enough, so I print up my OWN Table of Contents, which helps A LOT!
Then in testing statements, I add to the Contents with "clues" for usage.
Then User's Manual P.324 gives a CLUE: BASIC specifies how many data files can be open! I try BASIC F:1 and I GET ONE FILE!! Triumph! Demo program on p219 then WORKS. AT LAST, progress! Try to read and print a line from an old index with a BASIC program. Try 1) OPEN "I", 2, "EXTIND/SCR" and get IO error.
try 2) OPEN "I", 2, "EXTIND/SCR.PASSWORD, get BM:DIR ACC
try 3) OPEN "D", 2, "EXTIND/SCR.PASSWORD, get BN error!
Check attributes to see what EXTIND actually IS, finding 256 recordlength?!
Then try LIST and the format is VERY WEIRD, records only STARTING at record 12, and intervening records containing parts of OLD indexes. Hassle for a few days.

2/9/84: Try calling Hugh, in desperation, asking for assistance or a book to use, and he STRONGLY suggests that I convert any files I work with to ASCII, so that even if SCRIPSIT changes the formats of ITS files, I can convert them to ASCII, which will always be the SAME. That sounds good, so I pursue it. Start a flowchart for the linelength adjustment program, but the program (QKT) gets very involved.

2/11/84: Find that the LRL=1, and OD is the endsignal. Find that LOF in fact IS the last recordnumber. THEN find that the errors I'd get in WORM and other BASIC programs were caused by my not adding any files in BASIC. GREAT!

2/19/84: I was playing SPACEWAR, wanted to get out of it and hit <BREAK> and got the > sign, and then I think I typed SYSTEM and hit <ENTER>, but there was a SPARKsound, and I got INSIDE THE PROGRAM: T=FIRE PHOTON TORPEDO
B=SHIELD D=DAMAGE REPORT
COMMAND? S1234567879. I gulped, and tried everything to get out of it, but even RESETkey didn't work, so I shut the MACHINE off, and let it SIT, and then turned it back on and it SEEMED to work OK. Worrisome moments!

2/21/84: Copy Biorhythm program from Nahigian's COMPUTER GAMES.

2/22/84: Copy COMPAT/JACKPOT/DIAMON/LIFEG/SINEWV/THREED from same book.

2/23/84: Find RULES for SPACEWAR and play the game for THREE HOURS!

3/5/84: I started on my plan for the Entertainment Lists, duplicating files to work on, and then modified the Master Movie list by a) changing Ohio to 5555, b) making a FIRM datestart column and date format (to eliminate program steps) c) change ???? to 2222, and d) changing blank dates to 1111. Then duplicate multisee movies WITH dates, made easy with a userkey, and then planned to add datebook data to entertainment list, since movies were most of the entries. Then I decided that MDY wasn't good order, so I MANUALLY changed all the ells to ones in the dates, and then did a whole series of 1 to 01 conversions to get EVERYTHING into a YYMMDD format for easy sorting.

3/6/84: Work on GENSOR, finding program error after program error, going from HEX to VAL to A$ to ASC, only to find I'd forgotten PUT!

3/7/84: Talk to Jennifer LiFrieri Reese, who worked at 59th and Madison SBC in 1960 on the 704 with SAP, and she says I CAN operate from diskette by loading while holding <ESC> and <REPEAT> with the hard disk off with NO hardware problem. Phoned her at 4828200 and she led me to page 91, M in DEBUG, for PEEK/POKE, page 404 for DEFUSR for machinelanguage routines. She tells me there is NO BASIC book available for the Model II, and that in a couple of weeks CP/M Plus will be available for $249 from Catalog page 15. I call WORDINDEX at 14084388400 for information to be sent out today.

3/9/84: Deliver LOGO to McGrawHill and a Raven index; find the ribbons are NOT from Radio Shack; find that Brentano's is CLOSED; buy 2 TRS80 books from Dalton's for $64; find lots of discount programs I can't use at Software City; and find that Gratzer: FAST BASIC: Beyond TRS80 BASIC is for Model I and III; Inman: TRS80 BASIC and MORE TRS80 BASIC are for Model I; Chance: 33 Adult games in BASIC is for I and III only, and that anything before February, 1981 for TRS80 is for Model I! Depressing!

3/15/84: "Out of nowhere" I realize I can get CHARACTERISTICS of the files (whether they're programs or datafiles) and LIST the programs to see what the UNKNOWN ones do. So I weed out more unknowns from my filelist. I also doctor STARS, finding that 1200 in the PRINT statement covers 15 lines, 1600 covers 20 lines, 2000 is an error, and 1900 just FILLS screen. 10 for I=1 TO 1000 is OK, but 2000 is better and 3000 is even better. 20 for I=1 TO 500 is OK but 1000 is LONGER. It now runs for about 100 seconds, very nice.
ITH (without an END statement) is either a subroutine or nothing much.
PEEKPOKE/CMD is called by PEPOKDEM/BAS, which works with DEFUSR & PEEK & POKE!!
WINNER turns out to be the winners of SLOWPOKE.
WORM/SCR contains the winners of WORM.
WORDFILE and MCWFILE and COUNTS are heavily codeddata lists for Dictionary?
ERRORS might be something for engineers maintaining my file!
BASCOM32 has lots of comments in a BASIC program.
DOCOM32/SETCOM/COMSUB32/BASCOM32 seem all interlinked; keep them unquestioned.
EXDATM32 and DATM32 comment on "data addition or difference", TRSDOS routines!!
WORM, trying a lot of trial & error, modifying to keep track of TIMES of SCORE.
MESSAGES turns out to be the messages from SCRIPSIT MERGE files!
Change all the names of GAMES to GAMES/XXX, for easy saving.

3/16/84: Sergio comes here after gym and looks at mine, then we go to his place and I look at his. Mine is bigger and faster, he has to admit. Like mine best.

3/16/84: I continue trying to make sense out of various files:
SAV2/D2 contains "BEACH TREASURE RUM" and "GOT IT", twice yet.
PEEKPOKE/CMD dates from Wed May 14, 1980
ORDERMOD/SKR is still a mystery, with JUDY at the start of Record 3.