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Computing overview
Early programming
first: NeXT
Apple watching
Old Tandy portables reborn
Newton Usin'
Radio Shack WP-2: Eccentricities
Radio Shack WP-2: Eccentricities |
Links:Computing overview Early programming first: NeXT Apple watching Old Tandy portables reborn Newton Usin' |
Radio Shack WP-2: Eccentricities
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Now comes the weird part: TRANSFERRING FILES. And you thought this was going to be easy. Pshaw. To actually transfer a file, you can't be editing it. Nor can you be in the "Files" menu (found by hitting F2-8, I think - when I'm vague like that, it means that the keyboard tells me, so I don't pay all that much attention and just read it as needed). You have to be in ANOTHER file in order to tranfer the file you want. BUT, you can't transfer the file in the WP-2 format (which includes hidden tags for formatting). You have to first put the file into ASCII format. This, by the way, destroys any clue of line length that you might have created. Sure, you have an 80 character wide screen, but it will only transfer at 40 characters per line, and it will break words indiscriminately in the process. Go figure. The actual file transferSo, to recap: you have to get your settings right, and you have to convert your file to ASCII format. This last step requires that you go to "Files," choose "Memory" as the location of the file, and type F1-a to convert that sucker. How did you know to choose F1-a? You either read the manual (yeah, right) or you hit F1-1 ("Help") which gives you a list of options for that page. We'll return to F1-1 in a totally new setting with a totally new meaning later on. It's an example of the eccentricities of the WP-2. Just a point here to add to the oddness of the machine: if you want to make more than one file ASCII, it doesn't seem to be able to. Only the most recently edited file will go ASCII in the "Files" menu. As soon as you open a file again, by the way, it reverts to Tandy formatting, meaning you can't transfer it... Wait a minute. The file you WANT to transfer you CAN'T transfer in the required (supposedly) ASCII format because as soon as you OPEN it, it isn't ASCII anymore. PLUS, you can't transfer from the "Files" menu (hitting F2-Telcom doesn't work as it should, oddly enough). What the hell should you do? You can't do what they tell you, and to do what makes sense undoes what they told you to do! Boneheads... Well, okay, there's a work-around. I created a new file (F1-n) that is simply empty, called it empty.do, and I do all my TELCOM work from there. Makes life easier and takes only 192k. If anyone else has a better solution, feel free to tip me in... Anyway, this is what I do from scratch to move a file (lots of this doesn't change the second time you go through, like the whole setup)... And here's where it gets freaky again. If you've got the thing set up for using the RS232 port then the screen will say something like "RS232 port is ready." What then? WHY THEN, YOU HIT F1-1 FOR ABSOLUTELY NO OBVIOUS REASON!! Did I mention that this machine was odd? Good, I thought I did. You're learning... Now comes the next little bit that's annoying. You choose your options (F1-U for upload), then it asks you from where ("memory" is default), and then it asks for the file name. What, I have to remember? It would be much nicer to be given the name, wouldn't it? I end up writing down my filenames (now 8.do, no longer 6.do with a restriction on the first letter not being a number, eh?). Or I come up with regular names that are easy to remember. Oh, and remember that you are transferring xxx.da files, not xxx.do. Your uploaded file looks wrong...All right, you've now transferred a file. BUT WAIT!! It's in a REALLY LOUSY FORMAT once you open it on your machine! That wasn't what I expected at all! What's going on? It's only 40 characters wide, and all the words are split at the 40 character mark, regardles of syntx. What the hell? I got around this by writing an AppliScript which I use in Tex-Edit Plus on the Mac or a macro which I use in MS Word on the PC. Both do the same thing. They clean up the line returns, they format the thing to what I want, and they fix some of my more common typos (I don't bother using the slow WP-2 spell check unless it's on a single word that I'm unsure of). They also fix some of the more odd things the WP-2 does, like putting a "7" at the end of "ing" as in "thing7." No, I'm not hitting that extra "7," how could I? (Try typing thing and see what I mean.) Other weird words: real=ly, kno-w, and the "i-ng" problem. Maybe it's just my machine... SummarySo there you have it. The WP-2 is one idiosyncratic machine. The file transfer routine has become second-hand to me (I just hit those F2 and F1 key combinations like a pro, even if I don't really know what is going on), and the real key to success is to AUTOMATE the process of touching up your files once on the desktop. The macro/Applescript approach made my life much easier. One hint on that one might help. I always type with some recurring pattern, either a double return or a return-tba combination. Find/replace that with something else first (like one tab, or some bizarre letter combination), then strip out (find/replace with nothing) all returns, then take your previous bizarre letter combination and find/replace it with return-tab again. Tedious, but it works. Oh, and while you're at it, change everything to the font you want... So, here's a rundown.Finally, you transferred a file!!
(written 5 June 98)
Ciao, Michael Wittmann |
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