April 1980 — Vol 2 No 4

Overview

Pi at ~200 paid members, 450 newsletter circulation. Urban returns from the IAC meeting and Computer Faire and inaugurates newsletter exchange with IAC Eastern Region clubs — reprinting Craig Crossman's "APPLE TRICKS" from A.C.E.S (Boca Raton). New monthly column: Dealer's Corner, premiered by Paul A. Sand writing "How to Buy Software" — Pi has invited area dealers to address customers in a non-commercial venue. SIGAMES (Games SIG, chaired by Al Gass) starts meeting after the Pi meeting in room 205; a youth SIG also proposed by 11-year-old Michael Thomas. NOVAPPLE's March meeting featured a Mountain Hardware demo of the Super Talker synthesized speech card and the X-10 home-automation controller. The "From the Secretary" column publishes a poignant complaint letter from an 11-year-old library buyer and Genevie Urban's thoughtful reply.

Table of contents

Articles

Editorial (page 3) — Bernard Urban

Inaugurates the IAC Eastern Region newsletter exchange. Urban explains the reprint policy: articles may be reprinted with credit; courtesy copies should go back to the originating club. Notes that at the IAC March meeting in San Francisco, Directors were given Pi's library software — David Morganstein has already mailed copies to two Eastern Region clubs at their request. Neil Lipson (IAC Software Chairman) will now send disks directly to Urban for redistribution. Club reps will receive succeeding IAC software either from Tony Cerreta of Big Apple or from Urban.

Also debuts a new column — Dealer's Corner — with Paul A. Sand's first piece. Urban invites Consumer's Corner / Letters to the Editor responses.

Minutes of Pi 3/22/80 (page 3)

• Bernard Urban and Jim Manley reported on IAC and the Computer Faire
• Motion carried: sell Apple Orchard for $2.00 by mail, $1.00 at meeting
• Program: John Moon tutorial on SWEET 16 (covered earlier in print, June 1979)
• Post-meeting: informal Q&A and hands-on

OOPS (page 4)

Last month's "SPIRO" by Jim Simmons was mis-labeled — what actually printed was RANDOM SPIRO (no user-defined parameters). The real SPIRO is published here with full listing — a parameterized HI-RES spirograph using polar coordinates (HCOLOR, HPLOT TO).

SIG News (page 4)

• SIGAMES (Al Gass Chairman) meets immediately after the monthly Pi meeting in Tompkins Hall room 205. Forming an Adventure-style game group.
• Michael Thomas (a club "under 16" member at age 11) is starting a youth SIG — open to students 6 to "?". Contact at (703) 928-8411 or 4412 Eastwood Court, Fairfax VA 22032.

Nybbles (page 4)

• Softape Forth II has a September 1979 update available, $7.50 ppd
• Trendcom 100 can now print Apple HI-RES screen via a factory update (converts the screen to graphics)
• BAC-LAN File Helper announced from BAC-LAN (Columbia MD) — Applesoft and Integer versions available at dealers

NOVAPPLE Minutes (page 5)

March 27 meeting: William English, Eastern Regional Sales Manager for Mountain Hardware, demoed two boards: - Super Talker — synthesized speech for the Apple, demonstrated via a math CAI program; "encourages not only through sight but sound as well" - Mountain Computer Introl X-10 — Apple + BASF X-10 controller for home automation (lights, appliances, switch units). "The APPLE can 'run the house', preparing morning coffee, turning off lights and television, as well as dimming lights." - Coming in May: new Mountain Hardware music board with multiple voices and up to 32 notes in the scale

April 4 meeting: Program schedule announced through July (Total Home Control April 24; Applesoft Tutorial Parts 2–4 May/June/July; DOS May 22; Z80 CP/M (tentative) June 26). Newsletter delivery problems flagged; the Secretary will follow up. Program: Nicholas B. Cirillo began a four-part Applesoft Tutorial aiming to build "a useable financial package" by the end of the series.

"From the Secretary" (page 5) — Genevie Urban

Publishes a complaint letter from an 11-year-old member ("I was very displeased with the disks you gave us! Alot of programs were missing and tons of 'em had errors!"). Genevie's published reply is a gentle but thoughtful explanation:

"First of all, we are not a professional group. Instead we are a group of volunteers trying to offer services to other members. By that, I mean we don't get paid for the work we do for the club. The programs in the library have been donated to us, many of them from members who either wrote them or typed them up from a magazine…"

Invites the member to send disk number, program names, and behavior so they can fix it together. A small-but-classy moment that captures the club's all-volunteer ethos.

Greenapples (page 6) — Andrew Rose

"Disk Organization — Where's That Disk I Wanted?" — Andy's guide to filing disks. Categories: adventures/simulations, games, demos/utilities. Recommends disk jackets in a 3-ring binder, numbered by volume.

Featured technical articles

• "A Hardware Change on New Apples" — John L. Moon: documents differences in newly-shipping Apple II Plus hardware
• "Dealer's Corner: How to Buy Software" — Paul A. Sand: inaugural dealer-perspective piece
• "An Error in DOS 3.2.1" — Hersch Pilloff: bug report (presumably the same multi-drive issue that prompted 3.2.1 in the first place isn't fully fixed)
• "Programming Quickie" — Bruce F. Field
• "APPLE Tricks" (page 11) — Craig Crossman of A.C.E.S (Boca Raton FL): the first reprint under the new IAC exchange
• "A Comment on 'Renumber'" — Bob Schmidt
• "Network Links Units; Includes Mass Store" — industry reprint
• "APnote: Append Fix in DOS 3.2.1 and DOS 3.2" (IAC) — official Apple fix distributed via IAC
• "Adding Photos to a Newsletter" — Crab Apple (another IAC club)

Club news / events / announcements

• ~200 paid members, newsletter circulation 450
• Apple Orchard now resold by Pi ($2 mail / $1 meeting)
• SIGAMES + youth SIG formed
• Next Pi meeting: April 26 at GWU — GWU Engineering Faire same day; no Apple hands-on possible
• May meeting date TBD (Memorial Day weekend conflict — call club number May 19)

Notable advertisements

• Computers Plus, Inc. (Franconia VA) — half-page ad with phone number (703-971-1996) prominently displayed
• BAC-LAN File Helper from BAC-LAN (Columbia MD)

Key quotes

• "With this issue I am initiating an exchange of newsletters with INTERNATIONAL APPLE CORE (IAC) member clubs in the Eastern Region." — Bernard Urban (page 3)
• "The APPLE can 'run the house', preparing morning coffee, turning off lights and television…" — NOVAPPLE minutes on the X-10 demo (page 5)
• "First of all, we are not a professional group. Instead we are a group of volunteers trying to offer services to other members." — Genevie Urban (page 5)

Entities

People: Bernard Urban, Genevie Urban, John Moon, Mark L. Crosby, Susan Eickmeyer, Sandy Greenfarb, David Morganstein, Robert Peck, Rich Wasserstrom, Andrew Rose, Paul A. Sand, Hersch Pilloff, Bruce F. Field, Craig Crossman, Bob Schmidt, Al Gass, Michael Thomas, Jim Manley, Jim Simmons, Neil Lipson, Tony Cerreta, William English, Nicholas B. Cirillo, Phil Eastman, Gerald Eskelund, Theron Fuller Topics: IAC Newsletter Exchange, Dealer's Corner Column, SIGAMES, Youth SIG, Apple Home Automation, Synthesized Speech, DOS 3.2.1 Bug References: A.C.E.S, Big Apple, Crab Apple, Apple Orchard, Super Talker, Mountain Computer Introl X-10, Trendcom 100, BAC-LAN File Helper, Softape Forth II

Connections to other issues

• Inaugural IAC newsletter exchange (Urban editorial, page 3) lands directly from the March SF trip previewed in 1980-03 — V02 N03
• The OOPS clarification for SPIRO follows 1980-03 — V02 N03 page 8
• Cirillo's Applesoft tutorial series (NOVAPPLE) runs across April–July 1980
• DOS 3.2.1 bug picks up the multi-drive concern from late 1979 (1979-11 — V01 N10)

Open questions

• What was Pilloff's specific bug in DOS 3.2.1 — and was it fixed in 3.3?
• Did the youth SIG that Michael Thomas proposed materialize? Watch for follow-up.
• Identify Crab Apple as an IAC sister club (location?).