🚀 go-pugleaf

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Date:         Thu 19 Mar 87 11:39:31 PST
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From: Info-Atari16 Digest <INFO-ATARI16@SCORE.STANFORD.edu>
Subject:      Info-Atari16 Digest V87 #134
To: Alen Goldberg <ALEN@WISDOM.bitnet>

Info-Atari16 Digest   Thursday, March 19, 1987   Volume 87 : Issue 134

This weeks Editor: Bill Westfield

Today's Topics:

                             krabat2 help
                           Re: Interesting
                       B. Dalton & ST Software
                              re: ST TeX
                  Re: CTS/RTS Flow Control Problems
                           Keyboard reading
                        C compiler benchmarks
                     Re: News From Hannover Messe
                           Re: krabat2 help
                       a few questions/whatever
            Re: Scientific word processing on Atari - (nf)
                         Re: Supervisor mode
                      RE: RE: Flaming Atari....
                     Re: Moving across the ocean
                   ST Basic problems - RND, Strings

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 12 Mar 87 09:58:02 GMT
From: mcvax!cernvax!jmg@seismo.css.gov  (jmg)
Subject: krabat2 help
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu

The english-version krabat2 uuencoded file got here only with a bit
missing. From begin to end it is 692 lines, but line 264 is short (it may
be due to a missing chunk: it is NOT ending with lots of blanks).
I list below my lines 263-265, in the hope that someone still has the
uuencoded file and can tell me what I am missing. This would appear
easier than getting the whole encoded file again from someone.
If you can help, thanks.


M\0G^, /_\TM%-P/_8[B@(  S\#_P!@"@0  S\#\V,!"@8  S\#\T,!"@@  S
M\#\R,!"@H  S\#\3#0"@P  S\#^[ 0"@X  S\#]8 @"@  $
M\#\H,!"@0 $S\#]0" JE^S\& 0"@@ $C\#\C!P"@P (=J8 9X)V=F9)B.Q T

------------------------------

Date: 12 Mar 87 16:49:59 GMT
From: mcvax!cernvax!jmg@seismo.css.gov  (jmg)
Subject: Re: Interesting
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu

In article <621@atari.UUCP> leavens@atari.UUCP (Alex Leavens) writes:
>  The HitchHiker's Guide to the BIOS, which is part of the Developer's
>Kit.  You buy the Developer's Kit from us.  Contact Cindy Clavern at
>Atari.

I don't want the bl--dy developers kit. I want proper technical
documentation from Atari.

Quote from the editorial of a UK computing journal (serious):-

Another worrying sign is a survey of 2000 xxxx users carried out by
Marplan for xxxx, which showed that while they were more satisfied
with their suppliers in 1986 than in the previous year, they are
still far from happy with the quality of its documentation.
Documentation is not glamorous, nor is it a big moneyspinner for
manufacturers. But to the user it is all-important.

If suppliers want to sell more machines to a user base that has eaten
its fill of glamour and jargon, they will have to start to concentrate
on improving services like documentation and maintenance.

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 87 10:29:10 est
From: Eric Terrell <terrell@ohio-state.ARPA>
To: info-atari16@su-score.arpa
Subject: B. Dalton & ST Software

The same thing happened in a B. Dalton in Columbus, OH.  Here the store
had a fairly good selection, but it vanished recently.  No demo machines.

Terrell

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 87 22:23:19 MEZ
To: info-atari16@su-score.ARPA
From: UNI215%DBNRHRZ1.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
Subject: re: ST TeX


I dont remember who asked (I think it was in Digest 95). The
answer is NO. I asked Tools here in Bonn: there is today no dealer
in the US dealing the ST-TeX. If there's  interest, I'll ask them
for further information (and maybe a demo) and mail it.


Heribert   (Bonn, W-Germany)    UNI215@DBNRHRZ1 BITNET


BTW Can anybody tell me what is comp.sources.atari.st, and if it is
what I think, how I can access it from Bitnet?

------------------------------

Date: 15 Mar 87 13:50:52 GMT
From: stuart@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU  (Stuart Friedberg)
Subject: Re: CTS/RTS Flow Control Problems
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu

In article <228@mks.UUCP>, wheels@mks.UUCP writes:
> In article <25784@rochester.ARPA>, I write:
> > The chips that handle the RS-232C interfaces treat these
> > signals as EDGE-TRIGGERED.
>
> I remember reading that, I think in the Abacus book, but then I also heard
> that was only in the early versions and had been changed for TOS in ROM.

Your source misinformed you.  I have a 1040STf with TOS in ROM.  It
exhibits exactly the behavior I described.  The interface chip is STILL
a MC68901, which is STILL edge-triggered.  You do have your choice of
positive or negative transitions, which is why I said that I thought
the problem was fixable with fancier software (in a nutshell look for
the absence of the negative transition, and keep transmitting).

It may well be that the Avatex and the UR Robotics do not have
significant buffering (they have at least one character of buffering
of course, since the register from which they shift out bits on the
the telephone line is obviously not the register in which they store
the latest character from the ST).  That is a quibble, because the
behavior I described with the sustained CTS signal is not dependent
of modem buffer length, only on the absence of overrun from the host.
Let's not quibble.

Stu Friedberg

------------------------------

Date: 13 Mar 87 12:31:43 GMT
From: mcvax!ukc!its63b!hwcs!neil@seismo.css.gov  (Neil Forsyth)
Subject: Keyboard reading
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu

My first piece of text on the net is a cry for help.

Problem: How can you test the status of a particular key on the keyboard?
Simple question you would think but I can't do it. (Does that make me a moron?)

The GEMDOS & BIOS calls concerning keyboard input either wait until a key is
pressed or give you a key if there is one in the buffer now. None as far as I
can make out request info on specific keys (Mouse & Joystick buttons are one
exception).

I've got a copy of "The Anatomy of the Atari ST", which I think is the UK
version of the Abacus book in the US.
In this book it states that the 6301 keyboard processor's normal action is to
announce each keypress to the operating system (presumably on an interrupt
basis). When the key is pressed the key number is sent (1 - 117) and when it
is released it is sent again with the top bit set.
The book is unclear about where this information appears.
I have an idea to use a set of flag bits to show the status of some keys. These
flags would be updated by an interrupt routine reflecting the status of the top
bit if the correct keycode arrived.

Please, can anyone help me?                     _____
Thanks in advance.                             ! /  ! <- Cut here
             ____                              !/   O
      /\    /                                  !   /!\
  ---/  \  /---                                !   / \
____/    \/        Neil Forsyth               _!_

--
 Neil Forsyth            JANET:    neil@uk.ac.hw.cs
 Heriot-Watt University        ARPA:    neil@cs.hw.ac.uk
 Dept of C.S.            UUCP:    ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!neil

------------------------------

Date: 15 Mar 87 23:08:40 GMT
From: sandra@UTAH-CS.ARPA  (Sandra J Loosemore)
Subject: C compiler benchmarks
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu

The latest batch of Dhrystone benchmarks have just been posted to comp.misc,
and here are some numbers that may be of interest to Atari users.  These are
measured in mythical "Dhrystone/second" units, the two numbers for each
compiler being without register variable declarations, and with 'em:

Lattice 3.03.01   446,  450
Megamax 1.0      1063, 1136

And, just ran this one myself:

Alcyon 4.14       877,  892

On a related topic, a week or two ago I ran a couple of crude tests to
compare the speed of the Alcyon IEEE floating point math library routines
with the FFP math library, and the IEEE library came out about *10 times*
faster.  Basic arithmetic operations seem to be about the same speed in
both formats, except the IEEE divide is noticibly faster than the FFP
divide.  The Dhrystone program does not do any floating point, so if
anybody is really interested in seriously comparing floating point speeds
you'll have to come up with your own benchmark program.

-Sandra Loosemore (sandra@cs.utah.edu)

------------------------------

Date: 15 Mar 87 20:44:07 GMT
From: mnetor!utzoo!utgpu!water!ljdickey@seismo.css.gov
Subject: Re: News From Hannover Messe
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu

> > What is a "blitter", and what difference will I notice if I get one?
>   A blitter is a hardware co-processor dedicated to graphics.
> > What bugs will be killed by new ROMS?
>   ... the underscore bug in the file selector's been fixed ...


I vote for:
    *One* new ROM, that will correct the current list of known problems,
    and which will support the blitter, as an option.


Everyone should get the new ROM.  Upgrade to blitter should be one chip
add on.  The fact that the ROM is biltter ready should encourage sales
of blitter.  Keep inventory list short.  Two different ROM upgrades is
one too many.

--
 L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
 ljdickey@water.UUCP    ljdickey%water@waterloo.CSNET
 ljdickey%water%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.ARPA
 ljdickey@water.BITNET        UUCP: ...!watmath!water!ljdickey

------------------------------

Date: 15 Mar 87 21:38:29 GMT
From: mnetor!utzoo!utgpu!water!ljdickey@seismo.css.gov
Subject: Re: krabat2 help
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu

In article <451@cernvax.UUCP>, jmg@cernvax.UUCP (jmg) writes:
> The english-version krabat2 uuencoded file got here ... with [something]
> missing.
> I list below my lines 263-265, in the hope that someone still has the
> uuencoded file and can tell me what I am missing.

> M\0G^, /_\TM%-P/_8[B@(  S\#_P!@"@0  S\#\V,!"@8  S\#\T,!"@@  S
> M\#\R,!"@H  S\#\3#0"@P  S\#^[ 0"@X  S\#]8 @"@  $
> M\#\H,!"@0 $S\#]0" JE^S\& 0"@@ $C\#\C!P"@P (=J8 9X)V=F9)B.Q T

With the thought in mind that if one user did not get it, others may have
missed it too, here are the three lines from my copy of the file.

================
M\0G^, /_\TM%-P/_8[B@(  S\#_P!@"@0  S\#\V,!"@8  S\#\T,!"@@  S
M\#\R,!"@H  S\#\3#0"@P  S\#^[ 0"@X  S\#]8 @"@  $S\#_F 0"@( $S
M\#\H,!"@0 $S\#]0" JE^S\& 0"@@ $C\#\C!P"@P (=J8 9X)V=F9)B.Q T
================


--
 L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
 ljdickey@water.UUCP    ljdickey%water@waterloo.CSNET
 ljdickey%water%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.ARPA
 ljdickey@water.BITNET        UUCP: ...!watmath!water!ljdickey

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 15 Mar 87 23:54:04 PST
From:     PSIMON%PPC.MFENET@nmfecc.arpa
To:       INFO-ATARI16@SU-SCORE.ARPA
Subject: a few questions/whatever

A few questions/whatever:

   Alex Leavens, what is the official upgrade policy for 1st Word, Neochrome,
and (am I dreaming) ST Basic?

   I am very interested in the image processing program described by Patrick
van Kleef (attempts to reach you personally via e-mail have failed, Patrick).
Is this program available here in the states? If not, could I get it from you,
Patrick? Snail-mail would be necessary for such a beast.

   Is usenet case sensitive? From some of the failed mail messages I have
accumulated, it appears that addresses of the mail I send out are getting
capitalized, perhaps right here at home.

   Richard Sansom, I think NAG is a good idea. I was unable to respond to
you directly.

Thanks,
--Patrick Simon   PSIMON%PPC.MFENET@NMFECC.ARPA   or   Q3971@PUCC.BITNET

Might be of interest:
   According to Dick Biow (ST Applications(tm), March 1987), "The United
States Navy has announced that it will not buy copy-protected programs
from anybody, ever, regardless of quality or utility."

------------------------------

Date: 14 Mar 87 18:16:00 GMT
From: mcvax!unido!tub!csch@seismo.css.gov
Subject: Re: Scientific word processing on Atari - (nf)
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu

1. There is a VERY GOOD technical ,,writer`` for the ST:

        SIGNUM ...

2. TEX has been ported TWICE and there are PREVIEWERs ...

    Both products (TEX & SIGNUM) are sold by GERMAN companies.
    If you`re interested, I`ll send the addresses ...

Rgds.

    Clemens


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Contact via:

csch@tub.uucp

from the US: ...!pyramid!tub!csch
from Europe: ...!unido!tub!csch
Bitnet:      csch@db0tui6 = tub.bitnet

tel.: +49-30-393-3574
      +49-30-332-4015

tlx.: (west-germany) + 186672 rdt d

------------------------------

Date: 16 Mar 87 00:25:30 GMT
From: imagen!atari!dyer@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Landon Dyer)
Subject: Re: Supervisor mode
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu

> Does there exist a software way of changing the memory range that
> is protected by the supervisor mode.

No.
--
-Landon Dyer, Atari Corp.        {sun,lll-lcc,imagen}!atari!dyer

The views expressed here do not not
necessarily reflect those of Atari Corp.    Segments are for worms.

------------------------------

Date: 16 Mar 87 12:05:48 GMT
From: CZHRZU1A.BITNET!K538915@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: RE: RE: Flaming Atari....
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu

Alex, I don't think I was being unfair to Atari (I suppose you didn't see
the original article which I wrote)....I'm pretty sure that you'll aggree
that the 68020 will not be coming out this year unless Atari puts a BIG
effort behind it. In the original article my major complaint was that Atari
is on the brink of loosing a piece of market that it could of had (hi end
68'000 market) and which will now be taken by other machines (Amiga 2000,
Mac II).
   BTW the '_' bug is VERY serious, people like you and me just
shrug their shoulders when they stumble on a bug like that and just don't
use underscores in paths anymore, but I've seen and heard from a number
of casual users which got a nasty shock from this bug (ever lost a 10 page
doc just thru pressing '_'?). Anyway I wish to thank you, Neil and Landon
for reading this group and taking the trouble to answer so many letters.


                               Simon
                               K538915@CZHRZU1A.BITNET


For AMIGA fans:
    I did not intend to start another 'my machine is better than yours'
    battle, I just wanted to point out that the Atari User Interface is
    generally simpler to use than the Amiga's (and the Mac's) and would
    be better for use in an office (if there were less bugs).
      Example: just the possibility that you can insert a disk full of
               files, but without Icon definitions and get an empty
               window (for the simple minded under us = empty disk),
               would probably cause havoc in an normal office
               environment.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 16 Mar 87 14:35:54 SET
To: INFO-ATARI16@SU-SCORE.ARPA
From: ESC1457%ESOC.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
Subject: Re: Moving across the ocean

Don Petcher asked if it was possible to use a computer made for 220V 50Hz
in the USA , it shouldn't give you too much trouble as long as mine is
suppose to be a 110V 60 Hz and work fine in Europe . The only thing you have
to do is to hook it up to a 110V to 220V transformer, the AC frequency
increase is not important as long as you are using a black and white monitor,
 with an external synchro, but if you want to connect it to a TV or a color
monitor you might experience some troubles (if the synchro reference is taken
from the main (110V)). With an 520 1Meg, 2 SF314, 1 SM 124, 1 Panasonic KXP
1091, I use one 500 Watt transformer, wich is more than enough (add the watt
 ratings of all your stuff times 1.2 (safety coefficient) to get the power of
the transformer you'll need.

tune it to maximum of smoke.
J.P. L. Coenen NM9L-ON1KCN.