New find - Poor Man's Network - - for CP/M!

From: Bob Stek <r.stek_at_snet.net>
Date: Fri Mar 16 19:34:19 2001

I just came across a piece of software I don't remember from 1987. It is
called "Poor Man's Network: A Networking Package for CP/M Computers." It
was put out by Anderson Techno-Products of Ottawa, Ontario. Judging from
the manual, it appears to have been a one- or two-man operation (nothin'
wrong with that - been there, done that).

It uses standard serial or parallel ports and is based upon a very modified
Christensen protocol to communicate with itself on the other computer (it
only support two computers - after all, you couldn't afford more than two
computers if you were really poor <g>). It's capabilities seem to have been
to allow allow read and/or write access to files on the other computer
(handy for those NorthStar hard-sector disk file transfers to and from 8"
drives, for example), sharing drives on the other computer on a R/O basis,
redirecting output to use the other computer's printer or plotter, sending
one-line messages to the other computer, and the ability to send screen
messages and data mesaages to the other computer and to receive data
messages from the remote computer (simultaneous read and/or update a
database using added BDOS calls). Sharing was on a drive basis only. It
took up about 7-8k memory and worked with CP/M 2.2, ZRDOS or equivalent.

Has anyone had any experience with this gem? Or even remember it? Were
there others like it? By '87 I had become enmeshed in the IBM-Microsoft
world, and don't remember this one at all!

Bob Stek
Saver of Lost Sols
Received on Fri Mar 16 2001 - 19:34:19 GMT