RE: How did VMSHARE user interface work?
> -Original Message- > From: cctalk On Behalf Of Andrew Kay via > cctalk > Sent: 24 May 2022 19:12 > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > > Subject: How did VMSHARE user interface work? > > I have been browsing through some of the VMSHARE archives at > http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare/, and I'm curious to know how a user would > have interacted with this system. I tried finding a "help" file or similar > within > the archive itself but couldn't find anything obvious. I think I saw a couple > of > names there that I'd seen here so figure this is as good a place as any to > ask if > anyone can enlighten me. There is still a VM list and some one on their might remember... Do you know I can't remember the details either! There were multiple ways to interact. I think at the start we didn't have terminal connectivity and got daily digests. > > From what I can tell users would connect to a VM host, would they each have > their own account or was it some shared account? > > Once you were connected, was there some special interface to the system - > or did you just use CMS tools (like XEDIT)? It was a specialist padded cell environment. The user names were local to VM Share. If you look in http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare/browse.cgi?fn=CONTACT&ft=MEMO you will see that it was offered by Adesse as "CONTACT" but I can't find anything docs for that either.. > > It looks like discussions were managed by appending a message to a file (a > file per topic), was this something that would be done "manually" or was > there some sort of a script that would take your message and append it to > the file? > It was all handled in the package > How would you know there were new messages in a particular file you were > interested in? Would you have to open each file (or, perhaps look at its > modified date) or was there a different interface used to actually read > messages? > There were commands to list new updates since you last logged in. > Thanks in advance :) > > > Andrew Dave
Re: How did VMSHARE user interface work?
Thank you Dave, your name was one that I had recognized in the archives! Understanding that it was more of a separate program and interface helps me get a better picture, the CONTACT MEMO you mentioned includes a lot of useful hints as to the interface. Andrew On Wed, May 25, 2022 at 4:40 AM wrote: > > > -Original Message- > > From: cctalk On Behalf Of Andrew Kay via > > cctalk > > Sent: 24 May 2022 19:12 > > To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts > > > > Subject: How did VMSHARE user interface work? > > > > I have been browsing through some of the VMSHARE archives at > > http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare/, and I'm curious to know how a user would > > have interacted with this system. I tried finding a "help" file or similar > > within > > the archive itself but couldn't find anything obvious. I think I saw a > > couple of > > names there that I'd seen here so figure this is as good a place as any to > > ask if > > anyone can enlighten me. > > There is still a VM list and some one on their might remember... > Do you know I can't remember the details either! > There were multiple ways to interact. I think at the start we didn't have > terminal connectivity and got daily digests. > > > > > From what I can tell users would connect to a VM host, would they each have > > their own account or was it some shared account? > > > > Once you were connected, was there some special interface to the system - > > or did you just use CMS tools (like XEDIT)? > > It was a specialist padded cell environment. The user names were local to VM > Share. > If you look in > > http://vm.marist.edu/~vmshare/browse.cgi?fn=CONTACT&ft=MEMO > > you will see that it was offered by Adesse as "CONTACT" but I can't find > anything docs for that either.. > > > > > It looks like discussions were managed by appending a message to a file (a > > file per topic), was this something that would be done "manually" or was > > there some sort of a script that would take your message and append it to > > the file? > > > > It was all handled in the package > > > How would you know there were new messages in a particular file you were > > interested in? Would you have to open each file (or, perhaps look at its > > modified date) or was there a different interface used to actually read > > messages? > > > > There were commands to list new updates since you last logged in. > > > Thanks in advance :) > > > > > > Andrew > > Dave >
Re: The TRS-80 Journey Continues
Another question for the masters here. I just tried to revive my Model III. More than half the keys don't work anymore. What is the conventional wisdom on cleaning these old TRS-80 keyboards? Is compressed air usually enough? Can I spray the switches with something like DeOxit safely? I expect when I go to revive my Model I's they are likely to be in the same state. bill
Re: The TRS-80 Journey Continues
On Wed, May 25, 2022 at 2:07 PM Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote: > > > Another question for the masters here. > > I just tried to revive my Model III. More than half the > keys don't work anymore. What is the conventional wisdom > on cleaning these old TRS-80 keyboards? Is compressed air > usually enough? Can I spray the switches with something > like DeOxit safely? I expect when I go to revive my > Model I's they are likely to be in the same state. > I think there were several keyboards used, the one I know (I have versions in the Model 3 and Model 4) was made by ALPS Anyway the switches in that have little conductive rubber pads on the end of the key plunger, These are pressed against a pair of metal contacts at the bottom of the switch to complete the circuit. Of course the rubber wears. Cleaning,trying to re-surface the rubber, etc, makes only a temporary repair, but it's better than nothing. I started by pulling the keycaps off. Then I desolded all the switches from the PCB (it sounds a worse job than it is!). Took the PCB off, then unclipped the switches from the metal frame. The switches do come apart by unclippng the 2 halves of the housing. I cleaned the metal contacts with propan-2-ol, lightly rubbed the rubber on fine wet-n-dry paper and rubbed a soft pencil -- the softest I could get, a 6B I think -- on the face of the pad. Put the switch back together and measured the resistance when it was pressed. Not that the input circuit on the CPU board of these machines is quite high resistance, so a switch that has a resistance of, say 1k ohms will work fine. In the end I got it down to having 3 or 4 that were a bit dubious, needing harder-than-normal pressure or not working every time. Those I put in the numeric keypad area of the keyboard, I could easily live without that... Incdentally old Model1 machines have the metal contact keyboards, same contacts as the DEC VT52, VT100, the HP85, etc, the TI99/4A etc. Those are a lote more reliable. -tony > bill > >
Re: The TRS-80 Journey Continues
On Wed, 25 May 2022, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote: Another question for the masters here. I just tried to revive my Model III. More than half the keys don't work anymore. What is the conventional wisdom on cleaning these old TRS-80 keyboards? Is compressed air usually enough? Can I spray the switches with something like DeOxit safely? I expect when I go to revive my Model I's they are likely to be in the same state. A really stupid suggestion: (cleaning the key mechanisms makes more sense): More than a quarter of a century ago, I revived several of my TRS-80's. None of the keys worked on one keyboard, and many of the keys didn't work on another. But, I noticed that repeatedly pressing an intermittent key made it work reliably, and repeatedly pressing a "dead" key got it working! I had a Rochester Dynatyper and a KGS-80, which were the two most common versions of a box of solenoids to place on top of a typewriter to convert it into a printer. Those came out when there were no cheap printers. There also existed a box, made by an outfit in Walnut Creek, to put UNDER a Selectric that pulled down on the keys, but I neever had one of those, and that was ONLY for Selectric, whereas the Rochester Dynatyper and the KGS-80 worked on ANYTHING with a normal keyboard, even a Merganthaler! I remember once at the West Coast Computer Faire, somebody showed a prototype of one that used fishing line and pulleys to work the carriage return of a MANUAL (non-electric) typewriter - every successful carriage return got a round of applause. I used the Dynatyper and the KGS-80 to "type" a few hundred pages. The TRS-80 keyboards came back to life! -- Grumpy Ol' Fred
RE: The TRS-80 Journey Continues
I had dysfunctional switches on a heating system timer. The trade advice since replacements were unobtanium was open them up and clean the contacts with switch cleaner. The contacts were two "gold" plated pads bridged by pressing down conductive plastic with a textured finish : same design as the keyboards. The cotton buds lifted a lot of black "tarnish" (probably airborne contaminants) from the contacts. Went from a few working, a few intermittent and some totally dead, to all 16 working all the time. Have to see if they last another 12 years before failing. I infer that cleaning off the contaminants is 95% of the solution. I doubt the solvent used is especially critical. Martin -Original Message- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Fred Cisin via cctalk Sent: 25 May 2022 16:33 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: The TRS-80 Journey Continues On Wed, 25 May 2022, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote: > Another question for the masters here. > I just tried to revive my Model III. More than half the keys don't > work anymore. What is the conventional wisdom on cleaning these old > TRS-80 keyboards? Is compressed air usually enough? Can I spray the > switches with something like DeOxit safely? I expect when I go to > revive my Model I's they are likely to be in the same state. A really stupid suggestion: (cleaning the key mechanisms makes more sense): More than a quarter of a century ago, I revived several of my TRS-80's. None of the keys worked on one keyboard, and many of the keys didn't work on another. But, I noticed that repeatedly pressing an intermittent key made it work reliably, and repeatedly pressing a "dead" key got it working! I had a Rochester Dynatyper and a KGS-80, which were the two most common versions of a box of solenoids to place on top of a typewriter to convert it into a printer. Those came out when there were no cheap printers. There also existed a box, made by an outfit in Walnut Creek, to put UNDER a Selectric that pulled down on the keys, but I neever had one of those, and that was ONLY for Selectric, whereas the Rochester Dynatyper and the KGS-80 worked on ANYTHING with a normal keyboard, even a Merganthaler! I remember once at the West Coast Computer Faire, somebody showed a prototype of one that used fishing line and pulleys to work the carriage return of a MANUAL (non-electric) typewriter - every successful carriage return got a round of applause. I used the Dynatyper and the KGS-80 to "type" a few hundred pages. The TRS-80 keyboards came back to life! -- Grumpy Ol' Fred
