The Editor kindly gave me the opportunity to preview the responses to ‘The Great BUS Debate’ which are included in this issue. I have concluded that many feel that Gemini and Nascom are converging on a collision course, and whilst there are some areas of direct competition, the recent radical moves on our part as far as software is concerned should ensure that a conflict of this nature will not take place. Gemini have adopted a CP/M look-alike monitor called RP/M (produced by Richard Beal, the author of Nasbug T4 and Nas-Sys 1&3), which means that customers starting with a ROM based system can move on to CP/M without making any changes whatsoever to their software, simply transferring the programs from tape or EPROM to disk with the routines provided. Nascom, however, for historic reasons continue to primarily follow the path of Nas-Sys.

The customer therefore has two clear choices – a single board Nascom approach, or the Gemini MultiBoard approach. In order to allow the user to expand his system and exploit its potential to the fullest, the adoption of one BUS would mean that peripheral manufacturers would have two basic systems to supply with the same product, thereby reducing costs dramatically. Surely this must be to the benefit of all of Nascom and Gemini customers?

Yours sincerely,
John A. Marshall,
Managing Director, Gemini Microcomputers Ltd.

Here I sit, 11 o’clock at night typing away at the keyboard of my trusty Nascom, after a hard days slacking. Anyway, that’s enough of my tales of woe, here’s what I’m writing about.

It’s a bit for CP/M disk systems. Those of you who have a disk system running CP/M 1.4, (and lets face it, judging by the number of people seen carrying away expensive boxes from the various dealers, there must be plenty around), will probably have noticed the fact that when a directory exceeds 13 entries it scrolls off the screen of the Nascom. Well here’s a small program that can be entered under ZSID or DDT which will give a three column directory display. It is executed in the following fashion:

A>CAT

A>CAT d:

A>CAT filename.typ

A>CAT d:filename.typ

Tab version 1.0
HEX output file
HEX dump of :   CAT         .COM