The Lima User Group has obtained some module
software that we have never seen actually offered for sale. This software
was developed in house by Texas Instruments or was created by third parties
under an official TI license. Most of this software has a Texas Instrument
copyright statement on the title screen. In some cases these modules were
released to very limited circulation. Most of the modules were never released
at all, mainly because of TI's withdrawal from the home computer market.
A VHS video tape demonstration of some of these modules is available to
any user group that sends us a blank tape and paid return mailer, or $5.
This month I will talk about utiltiy and application software. Next month
I will describe some never released game and educational modules.
CLASS DATA RECORDER: Copyright 1981 by
Scott Foresman and Company. This is one part of the "School Management
Applications" series developed by Scott Foresman, a large publisher
of school text books as well as some better known TI educational software.
An entire school system could be managed with this software. Packages for
inventory control, payroll, salary planning and analysis, student scheduling,
and analysis of student grades within a class and throughout the entire
school system were supposed to be included in this series. This complete
School Management Applications series is described in the booklet "Texas
Instruments Home Computer Program Library" (copyright TI 1982, numbers
"CL581C" and "1043605-001" on the back cover) that
was packaged in the box with my first 99/4A. CLASS DATA RECORDER is given
the Scott Foresman identification number 30406 in this booklet. The "School
Management Application" series is also described in a 1982 article
by Dr. Tom Hansen published in vol 1, #5 of 99er magazine. Of the 15 separate
parts of this series, only CLASS DATA RECORDER and SCHOOL MAILER are available
to me.
CLASS DATA RECORDER is for use by teachers to
keep track of and analyze classroom student grades. The module is a hybrid
of GPL and TI BASIC code, resembling in this respect the Personal Record
Keeping module. When using CLASS DATA RECORDER with a Gram device it is
necessary to have TI BASIC (Groms 1 and 2) on line.
It is necessary to have a newly initialized SSSD
disk, or a disk which has previously been used with CLASS DATA RECORDER
in drive 1 when you select the software from the main title screen. If
there are any files on the disk that CLASS DATA RECORDER does not recognize,
you will get an error message. There is alot of disk activity when using
CLASS DATA RECORDER. Apparently the program stores most of its data on
disk rather than in memory, allowing the classroom teacher to manipulate
large amounts of data.
You are first asked for the date. On first use
with a clean disk you are then asked:
- Course Title
- Period of the day
- Term of the school year
- Teacher name
- Will assignments be weighted?
You then get to enter the names of all the students
in the class. Then you enter the assignments, each with the following information:
- Name (of the assignment, such as "Quiz 1")
- Is it pass/fail?
- Weight (only used if assignments are weighted)
- Total Points (the point value of this assignment)
Later, when you again boot this data disk you
are again asked for the date, and then given the choice:
- 1. Enter/Edit data
- 2. Print Reports.
Selecting #1 gives you a chance to enter grades
or manipulate data. You are, from #1 above, given this menu:
- 1. New assignment and scores.
- 2. Assign gradelines
- 3. Edit records
- 4. Add a student.
- 5. Assign final grades.
- 6. Add a new course.
If you choose to PRINT REPORTS, you are given
the following choices:
- 1. Class list
- 2. Individual Student Summary
- 3. Cumulative Class Averages
- 4. Class Averages/assignment
- 5. Rank List
- 7. Histogram.
Printing is done to RS232. If you have a Gram
device, you can change this to PIO.
As an experiment I have recently used CLASS DATA
RECORDER to keep track of student data in one of the classes I teach. It
is very user friendly. Although I don't have access to the original documentation
I have had no problems figuring out how to use CLASS DATA RECORDER except
for the initial first time startup procedure (SSSD disk with no files on
it in DSK1.). This can be a useful piece of software to any teacher IF
a way can be found to direct output to a printer.
DIAGNOSTIC TESTS: Copyright 1979 by Texas
Instruments. This is designated is PHM3000, the lowest numbered module
in TI's official module number system. It was designed to test the 99/4
(no A) console. No equivalent for the 99/4A was ever produced. This module,
like the dealer demonstration module PHM3001, was not sold widely, if at
all, to the general public. The DIAGNOSTIC TESTS module is mentioned in
the documentation "ADDENDUM" that was packaged in the box with
the first 99/4A I purchased in 1982. A console diagnostic module is a good
idea. Diagnostic tests on disk, such as those released by TI to user groups
a few years ago, require a more or less working console as well as a functioning
disk controller and drive. Some module problems would prevent testing from
disk.
The title screen and main menu of DIAGNOSTIC
TESTS use the large console character set, the character set used from
the powerup "Press 1 for TI BASIC" etc menu. This is somewhat
unusual. The main menu gives these choices:
- 1. Automatic test
- 2. Keyboard test
- 3. RAM test
- 4. Video display
- 5. Sound test
- 6. Calculation test
- 7. Cassette test
- 8. Handset test
- 9. Maintenance test
Choices #1 and #3 put various multicolored patterns
on the screen. I don't know what these patterns mean. The keyboard test
(choice 2) lets you press any key and have its character displayed on the
screen. This includes the arrows, which are displayed as arrows. Lower
case characters, as well as non arrow FCTN characters give meaningless
displays.
Video Display (choice 4) lets you view a bit
map mode display (called pattern mode by the module) that includes sprites
and an interrupt driven count down clock. You can also view 40 column "text
mode" and "multicolor mode". The latter is rarely used in
TI software, and includes squares composed of 4 pixels with the color of
each square independent of any other. The "multicolor mode" test
display is interesting.
Choice 5, sound test, automatically tests all
aspects of the sound chip. Some of the generated test sounds are quite
pleasing. This is not a speech test. TI speech was not around in 1979.
The calculation test, choice 6, automatically
checks addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, log functions,
trig functions, and "miscellaneous" functions. You don't see
much on the screen.
Choice 7 exercises CS1 and CS2. You have to verify
that the cassettes are doing what the computer says they are supposed to
be doing.
The biggest surprise in this module is the handset
(joystick) test. The screen display indicates that FOUR JOYSTICKS can be
tested. Tests include all 8 joystick positions plus the fire button. Does
anyone know if the 99/4 had provisions for four joysticks?
The maintenance test (choice 9) brings up a display
that says "for repair technician only." You can check groms 0,1,
and 2. You also test sound, VDP RAM, and XML. I don't know what "XML"
is. The screen display for most of these tests simply says "test in
progress." You do hear something in the sound test, and a ghosty immage
flashes across the screen in the VDP RAM test.
DISK DUPLICATOR -release 1.0: There is
no date or copyright notice. The powerup menu has these choices: 1. Duplicate
Pascal Disks 2. Duplicate Basic disks 3. Compare Disks 4. Diskette Quality
Test 5. Catalog Disk.
In reverse order to save the most interesting
for last, #5 is identical to disk catalogs of the DM2 and DM3 modules.
#4 offers you the choice of "Destructive test (YN)". The Compare
Disks routine (#3) will terminate the first time a difference is found
in a sector by sector comparison. However the exact nature of the difference
and the sector location of the difference are not given.
I was not able to check out PASCAL disk duplication
(#1). Duplicating BASIC disks (#2) is the most interesting feature of this
module. Duplication only works with a SSSD master. You can make two copies
of the master disk onto two copy disks with only one keypress. You put
the master disk in DSK1. and the backup disks into DSK2. and DSK3. First
the copy disks are initialized, one at a time. Next, sector by sector information
is read into memory from the master disk and then output to the first copy
disk and then to the the second copy disk. Since this is sector by sector
copying (something DM2 and DM3 don't do) copying is rather slow compared
to what is possible with a track copier. I suspect that track copiers were
unknown when DISK DUPLICATOR was created.
DISK MANAGER 3: The title screen says "copyright
Texas Instruments" but gives no date. This apparently was the disk
manager that was to accompany the TI double sided double density disk controller.
Two of these controllers, formatting to 1280 sectors DSDD, were sold by
one of the dealers at the 1989 Chicago faire. DM3 looks very much like
the well known DM2. However DM3 offers you the choice of drives 1-4, whereas
DM2 only lets you use 1-3. Also, with DM3 the defaults on the screen for
"initialize disk" are "double sided" and "double
density." In all other respects DM3 appears identical to DM2. I successfully
initialized disks with DM3 and my CorComp controller SSSD and DSSD. I was
not able to make DM3 successfully initialize in DSDD format, probably because
I think DM3 tries to make 1280 sector (8 sectors per track) disks in double
density. I have no trouble initializing 1440 sector DSDD disks on my CorComp
controller using the DM2.
SCHOOL MAILER: Copyright 1981 by Scott
Foresman and Company. This is also part of the "School Managment Applications"
series. The module is a combination of GPL code and TI BASIC and requires
two drives. First time use requires a blank SSSD in both DSK1.^and DSK2.
This software is used to generate address labels
for the students in a single school or an entire school system. Printing
output is to RS232. Labels can be printed based on grade, teacher, building,
zip code, etc. The program serves as a data base for student and parent
names addresses and phone numbers.
On first use you are asked the following information
about each student in the data base:
- Name
- Grade
- Room
- Sex;
- Parent or guardian name
- Street Address
- City
- State
- Zip code (up to 9 digits)
- Option field 0-9 (I havn't figured out the meaning
of this yet.)
Upon subsequent booting of a data disk you are
given this menu:
- 1. Enter information (as above)
- 2. Edit/Display information
- 3. Print Reports
- 4. Upgrade all students (indicate that they have
been promoted to the next grade).
- 5. Delete a grade
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