May 1981 — Vol 3 No 5

Overview

Bernard Urban's last editorial as President. Pi now at ~650 members. Urban reflects on the journey from 1979's information scarcity to 1981's "information overload — we need to sort the dang stuff out. The need is shifting from how to put the APPLE II through its paces to what to use it for." Proposes new directions for his successor:

• WAP Slices — regional chapters (WAP-Gaithersburg, WAP-D.C., WAP-Annapolis) for members who can't make Saturday GWU meetings
• A WAP physical office as a pickup/dropoff point for disks, APNotes, newsletters, ABBS, Hotline
• Paid administrative services to augment volunteer effort at ~650 members

Notable content: Peter Rosden's MX-80 update from Epson America (responses on prior bug reports); Bernie Benson's "Apple for the Elderly"; Paul A. Sand's review of the PIG (Pascal) library disks; Walton Francis' Hyper Head-On game review; Dana Schwartz's Single Drive Convert for DOS 3.3↔3.2; Andy O'Brien's Undelete That File; Dr. Wo's "Spring Planting: Seeds for a Text Formatter" — starting a Pascal text-formatter series from scratch.

Table of contents

Articles

Editorial — Urban's farewell (page 1) — Bernard Urban

"This is my last editorial as President of Washington Apple Pi." Reflective:

"We have grown to the point where we have lost some of the spontaneity of the monthly meetings. That's inevitable, but can be remedied. During 1979, our first year, information on the APPLE, any information, was in short supply and hard to come by. So we banded together as did others across the country and helped each other out. Now there is almost information overload and we need to sort the dang stuff out."

Unfinished business he hands off to the next President: - Tax-exempt status - Better software documentation - Updated "Who We Are" - Information kits for prospective and new members - Best of WAP - Courses, courses, courses - Hard-copy libraries

New business proposals: - WAP Slices — regional chapters (WAP-Gaithersburg, WAP-D.C., WAP-Annapolis) - WAP office as pickup/dropoff point - Paid administrative services (at ~650 members)

"Update Notes on the MX-80" (page 1) — Peter Rosden

Epson America called Rosden the week of May 11 in response to his prior MX-80 reports. Likely follow-up on the horizontal-tab bug from Feb 1981.

"Apple for the Elderly or Hope for Changing the World" (page 4) — Bernie Benson

Cover-highlight area. Likely a member proposal/report on using Apple computers with elderly users — following on Elaine Eckels's Feb 1981 meeting request for project help.

"Review of the PIG Library Disks" (pages 6–8) — Paul A. Sand

Cover-highlight. Detailed review of the Pascal Interest Group's library disks — likely covering Bill Wurzel's P-code disassembler, the Pascal filer from Dr. Wo's articles, etc.

"File Cabinet Enhancements" (page 9) — Donald E. Kahler

Improvements to Apple's File Cabinet program from the disk library.

"Hyper Head-On: A Review" (page 13) — Walton Francis

Game review.

"Single Drive Convert — DOS 3.3 to 3.2" (page 14) — Dana Schwartz

Cover-highlight. Utility to convert disks between DOS 3.3 (16-sector) and DOS 3.2 (13-sector) on a single-drive system — solving a real DOS-transition problem. The compatibility headache continues.

"Undelete That File" (page 18) — Andy O'Brien

File-recovery utility — restores files DELETEd from a DOS disk by manipulating catalog entries.

"Diskette I/O Problems" (page 21) — Robert H. Beckley

Troubleshooting common diskette I/O errors.

"Blaise Away — Spring Planting: Seeds for a Text Formatter" (pages 22–33) — Dr. Wo (Tom Woteki)

Cover-highlight. A 12-page article on building a Pascal text formatter from scratch — Dr. Wo's deepest dive yet. Follows from his February 1981 filer article ("Taking a Fling at a Filer") in establishing Pi as the place for serious Apple-Pascal infrastructure articles.

"A Review of Library Disk Volume 32 (Games 9)" (page 34) — David C. Stern

Continues the library disk review series.

Club news / events / announcements

• Pi at ~650 members
• Election in progress (Urban's last as President)
• May meeting: May 30 (5th Saturday)
• June meeting: June 27 (regular 4th)

Notable advertisements

• Computerland Tysons Corner (page 2)
• H&H Scientific likely continues from April

Key quotes

• "This is my last editorial as President of Washington Apple Pi. You're a good group." — Bernard Urban (page 1)
• "The need is shifting from how to put the APPLE II through its paces to what to use it for. I think that's a good sign — the computer as a means to an end rather than an end unto itself." — Bernard Urban (page 1)
• "How about Washington Apple Pi Slices?" — Bernard Urban proposing regional chapters (page 1)
• "Have we grown so large (about 650 members now) that in order to handle the day-to-day business we need to augment the volunteer service with some paid administrative services?" — Bernard Urban (page 1)

Entities

People: Bernard Urban, Genevie Urban, Rich Wasserstrom, Robert Peck, Dana Schwartz, Mark L. Crosby, Sandy Greenfarb, Hersch Pilloff, John Moon, David Morganstein, Bill Bowie, Howard Lefkowitz, Tom Jones, Boris Levine, Jim Rose, Charles C. Philipp, Paul Hoffman, Tom Woteki, Al Gass, Curt Robbins, Peter Rosden, Bernie Benson, Paul A. Sand, Donald E. Kahler, Walton Francis, Andy O'Brien, Robert H. Beckley, David C. Stern Topics: Urban Farewell Editorial, WAP Slices, Single Drive DOS Convert, Pascal Text Formatter, Apple for Elderly, File Undelete References: PIG Library Disks, Hyper Head-On, Library Disk Volume 32, File Cabinet

Connections to other issues

• Member counts: 530 (Feb 1981) → 586 (Mar 1981) → ~650 (here)
• Dr. Wo's text-formatter follows his Feb filer (1981-02 — V03 N02)
• Single Drive Convert addresses ongoing DOS 3.3/3.2 transition pain
• Elaine Eckels elderly project (mentioned 1981-03 — V03 N03 minutes) gets first article

Open questions

• Election results — coming in June issue
• Did WAP Slices ever materialize?
• Was a Pi office ever rented?