CUG CD-ROM Vols. 360-379
Bill McCullough (MO) has contributed a spell checker program, Uspell.
Uspell is basically a modification of CUG217 Spell, optimized to improve
the performance under UNIX systems. The optimization techniques Uspell
uses include: replacing scanf with a single read, retaining the whole
index in memory, converting input words to 5 bit format before spell
checking, reading the dictionary in increments of file system blocks
caching locally, eliminating stdio functions, etc. The disk includes C
source code for spell checker, ASCII text dictionary, compressed
dictionary and index files, and a utility used to compress the ASCII
text dictionary.
Jack E. Ekwall has contributed a function library Gadgets, a group
of UNIX-like tools for DOS; and Term, a collection of computer buzz-words.
Gadgets provides functions such as popup/dropdown window, drawing
box, screen and cursor manipulation, keyboard input, color, date,
printer and mouse control, and file manipulation. Some of the functions
are lifted from CUG273 Turbo C Utilities. The library is linkable
to Turbo C v2.0. These UNIX-like tools offer a solution to the DOS
command line interface pipeline problem.
Term includes 634 topics and 32 historical notes/observations about
computer buzz-words. This text is in a text-indexed sequential form
which can be read by a display program, VU. The distribution disk
includes source code for the library and documentation.
Contributed by Russ Cooper (AZ), RMAXTask (a shareware version) is
a library of C functions that lets you run one or more C functions
together in a priority-based, cooperative, multitasking environment
in which a task continues running until it explicitly relinquishes
control by making a call to the multitasking system. RMAXTask provides
full support for intertask synchronization and communication, timed
delays, and access to the PC's keyboard.
RMAXTask provides a more capable scheduler and better intertask communication
than do simple round-robin task switchers such as Wayne Conrad's MTASK
or the system described in the October 1988 issue of Computer
Language magazine, while avoiding the complexity of a full-blown
interrupt-driven, preemptive system like Thomas Wagner's CTask (CUG
330).
The distribution disk includes a large model of the library, complete
documentation, a demo program, and short test programs. To obtain
the source code for the library, you may contact Russ Cooper at RMAX
Development Group, 1033 East Coral Gables Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85022.
This 68020 Cross Assembler v1.0 is an upgrade of the 68000 assembler
written by Paul McKee of North Carolina State University in 1986,
and released to the public domain by Marwan Shaban. Andrew E. Romer
(England) has added the 68020 specific mnemonics (excluding the math-coprocessor
mnemonics), and also introduced minor modifications. The source code
has been modified to conform to the ANSI C Standard and can be compiled
under Microsoft C or Zortech C v3.0 compilers.
The distribution disk includes the complete C source code, makefile,
documentation, assembler executable, and assembly source files for
testing.
C-Across, by Myron Turner (CANADA), is a cross reference utility for
multiple module C programs. The v1.02 update includes minor bug fixes.
The program produces six indexes of functions, prototypes, and globals
that enable a user to see across modules for use in checking and
comparison. Function names are listed in hierarchical form showing the
relationship between caller and callee for functions. Globals are
listed in schematic descriptors that record all modifiers and qualifiers
and enable checking of declarators across modules. C-Across optionally
generates a header file that includes prototypes from function
definitions. It is also possible to list user-defined types and some
preprocessor #defines. The distribution contains a complete set of C
source code, DOS executable code, and full documentation. The program
was developed and tested under Microsoft QuickC.
Contributed by Steve Kirkendall(OR), Elvis (v1.5) is a clone of vi/ex,
the standard UNIX text editor. Elvis supports nearly all of the vi/ex
commands, in both visual mode and colon mode. Like vi/ex, Elvis stores
most of the text in a temporary file, instead of RAM. This allows
it to edit files that are too large to fit in a single process' data
space. Also, the edit buffer can survive a power failure or crash.
Elvis runs under BSD UNIX, AT&T SysV UNIX, SCO XENIX, Minix, MS-DOS
(Turbo C or MSC v5.1), Atari DOS, OS9/68000, Coherent, VMS, and AmigaDOS.
The distribution disk includes a manual for Elvis (over 70 pages),
a complete set of source code for the supporting operating systems,
makefiles, and TROFF format documentation files. In addition, it comes
with source code for utilities that preserve and recover a text buffer
after a crash, generate tags file from C source, display a
C function header using tags, and adjust line-length for paragraphs
of text.
MicroEMACS CUG366 (six disks) updates a popular, portable, extensible
CUG editor to a new version (3.11) and to new volumes in the C Users
Group library (formerly volumes 197 and 198, version 3.9). The new
version includes a new help system, a new windowing system supporting
mulitple screens and mouse manipulation, portable file locking, support
for more machines and systems, better handling of line terminators
on input and output, customization of the characters considered to
be part of a word, temporary pop-up windows for buffer lists (and
similar information), improved debugging information on procedure
crashes, accommodations for formatting languages, and more.
MicroEMACS was begun by Dave Conroy in 1985, and then taken over by
Daniel Lawrence (of Lafayette, Indiana), who is still supporting and
enhancing it. MicroEMACS is supported on a variety of machines and
operating systems, including MS-DOS, VMS, and UNIX (several versions).
CUG367 (four disks) introduces ports of various GNU file and text
utilities to MS-DOS. These files are a variety of utilities derived
from the GNU File Utilities. Thorsten Ohl was instrumental in porting
these utilities to MS-DOS, with additional work by David J. MacKenzie,
with help from Jim Meyering, Brian Mathews, Bruce Evans, and others.
These files are part of the GNUish MS-DOS project. Sources, man
files, and executables are included for cat, chmod,
cmp, cp, cut, dd, dir, head,
ls, mkdir, mv, paste, rm, rmdir,
tac, tail, touch. Source is also included for
du. The routines are somewhat POSIX-compliant and at times
improve on their UNIX counterparts in speed, options, and absence
of arbitrary limits.
CUG368 provides a library of GNU library routines and other support
routines for MS-DOS, ported by Thorsten Ohl. Files include error.c,
getopt.c, getopt.h, getopt1.c, glob.c,
regex.c, regex.h. These are general purpose routines
needed by almost all GNU programs. These files are identical to or
derived from versions distributed with the file utilities (CUG367).
patches can be used to recover original versions. _cwild.c
provides command-line expansion, while ndir.c and ndir.h
provide portable directory access. Other files include pwd.c,
pwd.h, gnulib.h (some prototypes), xmalloc.c,
xrealloc.c. The library would benefit from, but doesn't include
a version of the obstack macros for all memory models.
Contributed by Darrell Whitely.
CUG369 (three disks) provides the Genitor genetic algorithm tool,
produced by Darrell Whitley and his team at Colorado State University.
Genetic algorithms solve problems with only a "genetic" code that
defines the solution space and some measure of fitness of possible
solutions represented by specific code. Genitor was designed for UNIX,
but should port to other systems with a C compiler. The package comes
from a graduate research environment. It assumes a knowledgeable user,
documentation is sparse, and the package is not user friendly. Genitor
includes commented examples for traditional binary optimization, the
Traveling Salesman Problem, and a neural net for solving the two-bit
adder problem.
Contributed by Sara Lienau. CUG370 GATool (two disks) brings a new
genetic algorithm tool to the public domain, and can produce programs
for applications. Genetic algorithms solve problems with only a
"genetic" code describing the possible solutions and some measure of
"fitness" of specific code solutions. GATool, an extensible,
object-oriented C++ system, was written by Sara Lienau in a graduate
research environment, so it assumes knowledgeable users and
documentation is sparse. Designed for UNIX, it should be portable to
other systems, but its menu-driven interface based on curses will cause
some difficulty.
WindosIO v2.0, CUG371 (two disks), is a shareware Dynamic Link Library
(DLL) for Microsoft Windows that supports both text and graphics I/O
so that programs can readily be ported from MS-DOS, in some cases
without change. Jeff Graubert-Cervone (Chicago, Illinois) is the author
of WinDosIO. WinDosIO version 2.0 provides over 200 functions for
standard terminal-style I/O and Borland/Microsoft graphics under Microsoft
Windows 3.0 and 3.1, along with an online user manual, a reference
guide, and several example programs. WindosIO must be used with a
compiler that includes the Windows Software Development Toolkit. The
volume includes an import library, but not the source for the DLL.
See the review in this issue called <169>An Easy Road to Windows?<170>
for more details.
The Mouse++, String++, and Z++ classes, CUG372, were written by Carl
Moreland, (Greensboro, North Carolina), an electronics engineer who
designs microelectronic circuits and uses C, C++, and Awk. The classes
were developed for Borland C++ or Turbo C++. Mouse++ (currently version
3.1, but soon to be updated to version 4) provides a mouse-interface
class and includes the ability to change the cursor. Most of the standard
mouse functions place their results directly into class variables
and return void. The values are obtained using the appropriate
inline accessor functions for the private variables. String++
is a string class (v2.01) and Z++ (v1.0) is a complex-number class.
Carl is developing a keyboard class that replaces the standard interrupt
9 handler and provides some unique mapping features. When the keyboard
class is available, we plan to add it to this volume. The classes
include excellent documentation and example programs.
MicroEMACS for Windows CUG373 (four disks) ports the popular MicroEMACS
program to the Microsoft Windows environment. MicroEMACS was written
by Daniel Lawrence (Lafayette, Indiana), based on code by Dave Conroy,
and ported to Windows by Pierre Perret (Glendale, Arizona). MicroEMACS
for Windows is a port of MicroEmacs 11c. While MicroEMACS normally
comes with documentation and scripts (macros or <169>command files<170>),
they are not supplied with MicroEMACS for Windows, but are available
with MicroEMACS (CUG366). Exhaustive online documentation (in Winhelp
format) is in the works and will be incorporated in this volume as
soon as it is available.
Pierre Perret said that his port to Windows will become part of the
next major release of MicroEMACS. The port was designed to preserve
as much of MicroEMACS style as possible, to minimize changes to the
core code. MicroEMACS calls <169>screens<170> what really should be
called <169>MDI windows<170> and calls <169>windows<170> what should
be called <169>panes<170>. Due to MicroEMACS heritage, various operations
are definitely not CUA-compliant. The CUA.CMD file included
with this package, loaded by the included EMACS.RC, contains
macros that modify the standard MicroEMACS mouse bindings to provide
a CUA-like interface. The combination of multiple screens with menus
(which thoughtfully display the corresponding keystroke commands as
shortcut key combinations), makes EMACS more accessible to beginners
while maintaining its utility for experienced users. These release
notes were prepared using MicroEMACS for Windows.
MicroSpell v2.0, CUG374 (two disks, formerly volume 248), provides
a major release of Daniel Lawrence's (Lafayette, Indiana) spelling-checker
program, which can be used standalone or in conjunction with MicroEMACS
3.11. MicroSPELL has a 1,000-word common word list, a 67,000 word
main dictionary, and can access multiple user dictionaries during
a spell check. MicroSPELL runs under MS-DOS, with versions available
for Amiga, Atari, several flavors of UNIX, and CMS on IBM 370s. MicroSPELL
can be used with the MicroEMACS macro (scan.cmd) which scans
text, stopping at suspect words and providing alternatives to deal
with the word. Three utilities are included: DMERGE, for merging
a text file of words and the main compressed dictionary; CDICT,
for compressing a text dictionary; and BIC, for suggesting
replacements for a suspect word. This volume replaces CUG248, version
1.0 of MicroSPELL. This volume includes sources, executables (for
MS-DOS), dictionaries, and users' guide (in various formats).
TextView, CUG375 (one disk) is a free Dynamic Link Library (DLL)
for simplified manipulation of text windows under Microsoft Windows,
written by Alan Phillips (Lancaster, United Kingdom). Alan Phillips
is a systems programmer at the Lancaster University Computer Centre,
where he writes UNIX communications software.
Similar to WinDosIO (CUG 371), TextView handles the details
of window operations, permitting users to call functions for writing
text (such as TVOutputText) in much the same way printf
would be called in an MS-DOS application (with the exception of an
extra parameter to identify the window where the text will be written).
TextView can create multiple, independent windows that can be resized,
minimized, maximized, and scrolled horizontally and vertically. A
thoroughly-documented demonstration program illustrates the use of
TextView windows to provide tracing and debugging information during
application development. TextView requires the use of a compiler (such
as Microsoft C) which can generate Windows code. The TextView volume
includes a readable and carefully-organized 42-page manual. The TextView
functions follow the same conventions as the Windows API, and the
manual uses the same layout as the Microsoft Windows Programmer's
Reference. TextView function names all begin with TV. The functions
use Pascal calling conventions and must be declared FAR.
Function prototypes are contained in the file textview.h. Adding
this file to your source selects the right calling mode and performs
necessary casts to far pointers. The TextView import library textview.lib
must be included in the list of libraries to be linked. The stack
size required for your application may need to be increased. Some
functions in the TextView import library must be statically linked.
Volume 376 (four disks) adds OS/2 tools to the CUG library. Martii
Ylikoski, of Helsinki, Finland, has provided a large number of free,
dual-mode tools that support both OS/2 and MS-DOS. The tools are remarkably
well packaged. Each tool includes accompanying source, makefile, documentation,
and demo files, along with files (.bat or .cmd) to install
and uninstall the tools. For OS/2 there is also a tools2.inf
file, in the standard format for OS/2 help files. Full source code
is included, generally with a single file per utility. The makefiles
(toolname.mak) indicate the required dependencies. A library
was used in building the tools, and is included in two forms mtoolsp.lib
for protected mode and mtoolsr.lib for real mode. No documentation
for the libraries exists, other than the examples of function use
provided in the source code for the tools. The collection of 54 utilities
provides a variety of functions such as: find file (ff), disk
usage (du), head, tail, set priority (setprty), touch,
cat, and scan (a find-like utility that searches for files and executes
commands once the files are found).
Diskette manipulations are the core of CUG 377 (one disk), provided
by Ian Ashdown, P. Eng., of West Vancouver. This volume provides a
wealth of information about diskette device-service routine (DSR)
functions. The documentation addresses a variety of quirks in diskette
access, and provides considerable hard-to-find information on floppy
diskettes, diskette controllers, and the diskette DSR functions. The
volume also provides extensive example and test routines, with source
code (in both C and C++ versions), for reading, writing, formatting,
and verifying almost any IBM System 34 format diskette on a PC compatible.
The code includes support and interface functions that increase the
diskette DSR's reliability and provide a consistent programming interface
across PC platforms. The information was largely determined through
extensive use of an in-circuit emulator and other debugging tools,
along with careful study of various machines and various DOS and BIOS
versions. Given the variety of ROM BIOSes available, and the necessity
to derive the information by experimentation, the material in this
volume cannot cover every case, but certainly provides a thorough
and careful treatment.
From Robert Davies, a consultant and researcher in mathematics and
computing from New Zealand, formerly with the New Zealand Department
of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), we get NEWMAT (CUG 378,
one disk), a C++ matrix package. This volume was written for scientists
and engineers who need to manipulate a variety of matrices using standard
matrix operations. It was developed by a scientist (Robert Davies
has a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley) to support
real work. NEWMAT emphasizes operations supporting statistical calculations.
Functions include least squares, linear-equation solve, and eigenvalues.
Matrix types supported include:
- Matrix (rectangular matrix)
- UpperTriangularMatrix
- LowerTriangularMatrix
- DiagonalMatrix
- SymmetricMatrix
- BandMatrix
- UpperBandMatrix
- LowerBandMatrix
- SymmetricBandMatrix
- RowVector
- ColumnVector
In keeping with object-oriented design each type is derived from
Matrix. Only one element type (float or double)
is supported. Supported matrix operations include: *, +, <196>,
inverse, transpose, conversion between types, submatrix, determinant,
Cholesky decompositions, Householder triangularization, singular value
decomposition, eigenvalues of a symmetric matrix, sorting, fast Fourier
transform, printing, and an interface compatible with Numerical
Recipes in C. NEWMAT supports matrices in the range of 4x4 to
the machine-dependent, maximum array size 90x90 double elements or
125x125 float elements for machines whose limit for contiguous arrays is
64K. NEWMAT works for very small matrices, but is rather
inefficient.
NEWMAT works with Borland and Glockenspiel C++. The version current
at this writing (NEWMAT03) doesn't work with GNU C++, but a new version
(NEWMAT06) is expected (by November 1992) that will work with GNU
C++. Robert Davies suggests the following as criteria for interest
in NEWMAT: first, a desire for matrix operations expressed as operators;
second, a need for various matrix types; third, a need for only a
single element type; fourth, use of matrix sizes between 4x4 and 90x90;
and fifth, tolerance for a large and complex package. There is a fairly
large file documenting the package, which broadly addresses issues
from particulars of functions and interactions with various compilers,
through design issues in building a matrix package. If you fit the
profile described, then NEWMAT may be the matrix tool you need.
ZOO (version 2.1), is a file archiving and compression program (standard
extension .zoo), written by Rahul Dhesi, with assistance from J.
Brian Walters, Paul Homchick, Bill Davidsen, Mark Alexander, Haruhiko
Okumura, Randal L. Barnes, Raymond D. Gardner, Greg Yachuk, and Andre
Van Dalen. This volume includes C source, executable, and
documentation. Zoo is used to create and maintain collections of files
in compressed form. It uses the Lempel-Ziv compression algorithm which
yields space savings from 20% to 80% depending on the file data. Zoo
can manage multiple generations of the same file and has numerous
options accompanied by lengthy descriptions in the manuals. Zoo
supports a range of hardware and operating systems, and includes
makefiles with various options. Zoo is part of the GNUish MS-DOS
project, an attempt to provide a GNU-like environment for MS-DOS, with
GNU ports and MS-DOS replacements for non-ported GNU software.
This page maintained by Victor R. Volkman
Last updated on 10/20/96