🚀 go-pugleaf

I ordered one with a color monitor from The Bit Bucket in Newton, MA on
July 13.  They offered a B-W version as a loaner on July 15, which is
when the got their first shipment.  I declined, but if a dealer can
offer loaners, the supply must be copious.  

All the software I saw was "in a state of development", i.e., menu options
were not implemented.  
			Bill Henneman
			BostonU

> What is happening to the user group machines?  I saw one enthusiastic
> posting about a VT52 (clearly state of the art) emulator.  What else
> can one do with the machines that have been shipped?  Has the "mixup"
> continued and the software somehow got lost?
> Stephen J. Langdon                  ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,sun,nsc}!amdahl!sjl

Judging from the traffic on CompuServes ATARISIG, most of the machines for
the users groups have arrived. There have been a few minor problems with
the machines, but all-in-all it seems that the people with ST's love them.

The July 22 issue of (I think) Electronic News quotes the Atari VP of 
marketing and sales - they say they are shipping 20,000 a week and expect
to ramp up to 30-35,000 in a month or so. However, the west coast distributer
has not yet recieved any. "Your ST is in the mail".

The Official anouncement of the Commodore Amiga is due to happen this week,
and rumor has it that Commodore already has stock on hand ready to ship.

- Steve McIntosh, Kontron Electronics, Irvine CA.
".. where we are going, we dont need -roads-."

[re anyone seen an st?]
Yeah I have one at home.

[What came with it?]
Essentially nothing. What you get is the hardware package (computer,
monitor, ssdd 3.5 driver,) and GEM/TOS, and LOGO (or is it NO GO :-})

Gem seems to have a few bugs, i.e. it is possible to confuse it as
to which windows are where.

TOS is okay so far (the machine has been running for three days-
one crash so far.)

The printer interface is not configurable from the desktop.

The real time clock isn't battery backed up, and the start-up doesn't
require you to set it. (Bummer if you have a hard disk and want to
do incremental backups.)

The documentation is worse than horrible. The TOS guide is totally
superficial, and the LOGO manual is actually the worst users manual
I have ever seen.

A lot of retailers have returned units as DOA. But it appears that there
were two production QA flaws: loose chips and too long pins on some of
the pc boards (shorting onto the case or something.)

There is absolutely no mention of Basic or ROMTOS upgrades- although
Canadian buyers insist that they received coupons for Basic, and Atari
has claimed that TOS proms will be available (free?) to package purchasers.

The VT52 emulator is somewhat flakey about cursor addressing, and has
absolutely zero file transfer capability. 

There is no software available for developers except through Atari,
and the procedure for obtaining development software from Atari is
less than straight-forward.

But all of this aside, the damn thing is cute! It clearly outperforms the
MAC, and the desktop is an excellent environment. (Word of warning, this
machine is better suited as a workstation than the ultimate game machine.
If you want stereo 3D graphic animation, buy an Amiga when it materializes.)

Best advice: if you want to do development for the ST, go get one now and
badger atari for the development software, if you want to use the thing,
wait till september.

Happy HACKING.

-- 
						Mark Roddy
						Net working,
						Just reading the news.

					(harvard!talcott!panda!enmasse!mroddy)

>There is no software available for developers except through Atari,
>and the procedure for obtaining development software from Atari is
>less than straight-forward.
> ...
>Best advice: if you want to do development for the ST, go get one now and
>badger atari for the development software, if you want to use the thing,
>wait till september.

If you want to be an ATARI ST developer, buy a development system directly
from ATARI.  I got mine for the cost of the system plus $300 for the
development package (C compiler, linker, assembler, resource editor, kermit
(for file transfer), lots of documentation.)  

I don't know why you say say that getting development software is less than
straight-forward...  All I had to do was send a check.

>The VT52 emulator is somewhat flakey about cursor addressing, and has
>absolutely zero file transfer capability. 

I use kermit for file transfer (it's more reliable than standard file
transfer anyway....)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Semper ubi sub puri ubi.
                     
    Steve Tynor
    Georgia Instutute of Technology

 ...{akgua, allegra, amd, harpo, hplabs,
     ihnp4, masscomp, ut-ngp, rlgvax, sb1,
     uf-cgrl, unmvax, ut-sally}  !gatech!gitpyr!tynor

-- 
Steve Tynor
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,masscomp,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!tynor

> What is happening to the user group machines?  I saw one enthusiastic
> posting about a VT52 (clearly state of the art) emulator.  What else

This is about as ridiculous as a "state of the art" adm3a emulator! :-)
-- 
					Tim Smith
				ihnp4!{cithep,wlbr!callan}!tim