PD CORNER - By Doug Walker
Let me begin with my apologies to those ordering our PD Disk # 6, the LARN
game.  Ed Burnette has had some last-minute delays in preparing the disk
for shipment.  Ed is quite careful about shipping 'good' code, so I was
unable to fulfill the requests I have received for LARN.  I decided that I
would not send money back unless requested since it is not a large sum
and, if it was me, I would rather be first in line when it does become
available.  I expect that it will certainly be shipping by the time you
read this.

On to newer things. . .
Another couple of PD disks join our collection this month.  PD disk #8 is
the Amiga C source code to HACK version 1.01.  This source, ported by 
Associate Editor John Toebes, is available on the Fred Fish series, but
several people have written requesting it, so I decided it would be best
to give it a number.  The source is to the TEXT version, not the graphics
version.

PD disk #7 is a collection of various utilities and trivialities:

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To order this disk (number 7A) or any previously-issued disks, send $6 US to
The Amigans, PO Box 411, Hatteras, N.C. 27943. Overseas, add $1 for postage.
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   RSLClock is a great clock program.  Now, I know we just put three clock
      programs on the last disk, but this one really takes the cake.  It
      appears in the title bar and tells you the time, date, amount of free
      memory (Chip and Fast), amount of free disk space on one drive, etc, 
      etc, etc. . . This is a truly useful little tool on several counts.
      Thanks to Roy S. Laufer of AMuse for this one.

   Vidtex is a program to display compuserve run-length encoded high and
      medium resolution pictures, found on many of the forums.  George
      Musser gets the credit for Vidtex.

   Tracer is a program provided by Dave Wecker which does ray-tracing 
      pictures.  It includes C source code.  It is intended as a teaching 
      tool to show you how ray-tracing works, but it sure can produce some 
      pretty pictures!  The original author is Friedrich Knauss, with
      additional work by Steve Williams, Jim Horn and Mark C. Reichert.

   Zoo is a file archiver, an alternative to ARC.  Zoo and ARC were compared
      in this month's BYTE magazine;  It looks like ARC does better
      compression, but Zoo runs faster.  Take a look at the article.
      Kudos to Rahul Dhesi for ZOO.

   Loaninfo is a BASIC program which will calculate most aspects of a 
      commercial loan for you.  How long would it take to pay a $10,000
      loan at $300/Month?  Just consult Loaninfo!  Amigan reader Brian D. 
      Catley sent this valuable aid to our offices.

   COPY is a replacement for the AmigaDos command which preserves file
      dates and has the option of replacing only files with later dates.
      The syntax and wildcards are different from the standard AmigaDos
      commands, however, so beware if you have batch files which invoke
      COPY.  Perhaps you should rename this one to COPYDATE or some such
      nonsense and keep both around.  Lee Robertson provided this gem.

   ASM68K is a beta test version of an Amiga 68000 assembler by Wesley
      Howe of Raleigh, NC.  This seems to be a very nice implementation,
      although I have not actually tried to use it (being a thouroughly
      spoiled C programmer).

   NEWZAP  is a file zapper utility which allows you to modify any file,
      even executable files, on a byte-by-byte level, in HEX or ASCII.
      It is descended from FILEZAP on Fred Fish disk # 6, and has been
      modified by John Hodgson to its current state.  John says that the
      program is 'shareware', so if you use it regularly, please send in
      your registration fee.

   Keymate is a hi-res picture which, when printed, serves as a keyboard
      template to show you the keyboard commands for SubLogic's FLIGHT
      SIMULATOR II.   Greg Jones of 167 Overmount Avenue, West Paterson,
      New Jersey 07424 will send you keymates for a variety of programs
      including DpaintII, PageSetter, Aegis Draw and others on disk for
      $20.  The Flight Simulator one is a free sample.  He will also send
      Okimate 20 printouts (color) of the keymaps for an additional fee.

   ARC022 contains version 22 of ARC, a file archival program first
      distributed on disk # 1.  I put it on this disk so those of you
      who have #1 can get the new stuff on disk #6 with the new arc.
      Also included is UNARC, which extracts files in ARC format.  It
      does not compress files, but it takes up a lot less disk space.
      Arc is supported on the Amiga by Raymond S. Brand, and on other
      systems by System Enhancement Associates, Inc.

   Blitz is a fast file browser.  A very fast file browser.  Indeed, a
     blindingly fast file browser.  It is designed to sit in the background
     and be invoked by a hotkey.  A very useful program, written by Hayes
     Haugen.

   Batcher is another program by Wesley Howe.  It does away with the need
      to type 'EXECUTE' before a batch file name.  Neat, huh?

   Ing is a very entertaining little program.  And that's all the information
      you'll get unless you get the disk - I don't want to ruin the surprise.
      It's the next logical extension of the BOING and OING demos. . .
      Congratulations to Leo L. Schwab for a good job.

Well, that about wraps it up for this month.  Thanks to all of you who
have been ordering disks from us, and many, many thanks to the few who
have contributed PD software.  I hope to be hearing from many more of
you in the future.