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From: geof@imagen.UUCP (Geoffrey Cooper)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.tandy
Subject: TRS-80 III Help Needed for wayward soul
Message-ID: <722@imagen.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Dec-86 12:54:09 EST
Article-I.D.: imagen.722
Posted: Mon Dec 15 12:54:09 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Dec-86 05:01:32 EST
Distribution: na
Organization: IMAGEN Corporation, Santa Clara, CA 95052-8101
Lines: 49

I am now the proud (?) owner of a TRS-80 Model III computer.  I know
nothing about this machine, other than the obvious external
characteristics that show when you use it:

	- two 5.25" floppy drives
	- 64-column screen
	- no control key on the keyboard (sigh)
	- serial interface (?) on the bottom of the computer (DB-25 female connector)
	- alleged 48K ram (says so on the machine)
	- two printed circuit card edges protrude from the bottom of the
	  printer, implying that an edge connector might attach to them.

I also got a "Line Printer VII" matrix(?) printer.  I got a Scripsit
word processing program with documentation.

	* I have no documentation on TRSDOS
	* I have no documentation on the machine itself (what's in
	  there, a Z-80?)
	* I have a DB-25 to DB-25 connector that doesn't plug into
	  the printer.  The printer has two connectors on it, one for
	  what looks like centronics parallel, the other a round
	  connector with some number of slanted slits in it.  A switch
	  that selects "par", "8bit" or "7bit" leads me to believe that
	  the latter is a serial connector.  There is no indication of
	  baud rate.

Help!  Can anyone
	a) give me a description of the machine?
	b) give me a list of trsdos commands?
	c) give me the pinout of the printer's serial connector,
	   and a hint or two about the baud rate?
	d) allow me to photocopy a manual or two, or give me an address
	   to order them from?

Also, some other questions that I'd like to understand:

	1) Are there other operating systems sold for this beast that
	   I should consider (OS9, CP/M)?
	2) Can I run any useful languages on it?
	3) Is it a dead end machine, or does tandy still support it
	   (I'll probably answer that one myself when I go down to radio
	   shack tomorrow night).
	4) Is there a hint of compatibility with more recent tandy computers.

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated!

- Geof Cooper
  {decwrl,sun,saber}!imagen!geof
  			       ^ n.b.: one 'f'