INFO-ATARI16 Digest Sat, 21 Oct 89 Volume 89 : Issue 542 Today's Topics: CACHEXXX, (FATs, etc.) Free RAM Comparison GDOS, PP and outline fonts High-speed modems and the Atari ST Running from different environments TOS 1.4 AUTO bug (2 msgs) Turboboost with GCR ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Oct 89 18:07:07 GMT From: imagen!atari!apratt@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Allan Pratt) Subject: CACHEXXX, (FATs, etc.) Ritzert@DMZRZU71.BITNET writes: >According to Allan, XXX must be exactly equal to the size of the FAT. Please, this is a gross misunderstanding. If it *had* to be exactly equal to anything, we would have written it to compute that thing when it ran. What I said is that there's little point in making XXX GREATER than the sum of the FAT sizes. >Related question: is it possible with tos14 to increase the cluster >size, i.e. shorten the FATs dramatically and thus speed up the hd even >further? Will CACHEXXX support such a configuration? TOS 1.4 FAT handling is so fast, you wouldn't notice. My God, it's DOZENS of times faster than TOS 1.2 FAT handling, and certainly acceptably fast in its own right! When the FAT is entirely cached, a Dfree() call on a 16MB partition takes under a second! That's fast enough for me. HDX on release 3.01 of the Atari Hard Disk Utilities disk allows you to create partitions greater than 16MB in size. It accomplishes this by making "sectors" on the disk appear to be larger than 512 bytes. A cluster is always two sectors, but larger sectors means more data per cluster, and therefore fewer FAT entries. Not all disk utilities use Getbpb() to find out how big a sector is, so they won't all work with this kind of partition. For maximum compatibility, therefore, this feature only kicks in on large (>16MB) partitions. CACHEXXX *does* support the larger sector size. No other cache program can, because it doesn't know where to look to find the sector size it should use. Don't use any other cache program if you have any partition >16MB created by this HDX. FYI: on the disk labelled 3.01 you will find HDX's version number is 3.00 and AHDI's version number is 3.01. If you use HINSTALL to make your hard disk bootable, the version number you will see when it boots is 3.01. This is all well and good. If your hard disk driver, whether installed by HINSTALL or loaded from your AUTO folder as AHDI.PRG, says it's version 3.00, GET THE UPDATE. AHDI and bootable disks version 3.00 are DEADLY to data. ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt ------------------------------ Date: 20 Oct 89 13:15:43 GMT From: cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!sharkey!cfctech!teemc!ka3ovk!lake@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Marshall Lake) Subject: Free RAM Comparison Does anyone know if there is a difference in the amount of free RAM on a stock 520ST vs a stock 520STFM? Marshall Lake lake@ka3ovk ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Oct 89 23:01:46 EDT From: David Megginson Subject: GDOS, PP and outline fonts Actually, there is only one package using outline fonts on the ST, but it's Calamus and not Publishing Partner. PP uses some rather pathetic outline fonts on the printer, but it still uses raster fonts for the screen. Furthermore, Calamus uses real, licensed Compugraphic fonts. Besides, what's all this about? Apple is still developing its outline font system. Certainly, a Mac can output to a Postscript device which uses outline fonts, but so can an ST or IBM. Right now, Macs use raster fonts just like GDOS, except the output resolution is not as good on the imagewriter (I imagine). The only system I know of with outline fonts is the NeXT, and the __only__ full DTP package with outline screen fonts is still Calamus (Mac users, turn green with envy!!!!!). David Megginson, Centre for Medieval Studies, Toronto ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 89 03:05:10 GMT From: cca.ucsf.edu!wet!logic@cgl.ucsf.edu (Henry Kwan) Subject: High-speed modems and the Atari ST In article <4649c632.14a1f@force.UUCP> covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert) writes: > >US Robotics has had an outstanding offer to BBS Sysops, and also to USENET >Node Adminstrators. In brief you can buy an USR 9600 HST modem for the low >price of $495.00. This has made the USR 9600 HST very popular with ST BBS >sysops. The the majority of ST BBSes which use a 9600 baud modem use the >USR 9600 HST. So, just call around and look for ST BBSes which are 9600 >buad and you can talk to lots of folks!! > If you think that the Sysop Program from USR is outstanding, wait til you take a look at the Dealer Demo Program from USR. It'll blow you off your feet. Currently, all USR Courier HSTs shipped are 14400 bps. The 9600 bps HSTs had been discontinued for some time now. > >Your transmission speed depends greatly on the quality of the phone line, but >1625 cps sounds typical for that modem. You won't get that high on some >boards though. Some of the loss can be attributed to the TOS, it just can't >handle data that quickly off of the serial port. > Actually, 1625 cps is not typical for the 14.4 HST. The USR manual itself lists 1740 cps as typical when using HST mode and MNP level 4. Some have reported on the HST Echo cps ratings as high as 2000. >That is typical also for Y-modem transfers. The only program that I know of that >gets >>800 cps for uploads is ST TERM, with its built in Z-modem protocol. > I was using Zmodem. That's why I wanted to know if Ymodem-G would improve on that dismal cps rating. Currently, the best I can get is ?900 cps using Ymodem while in v.32 mode. Interestingly enough, Zmodem gives me worse throughput when I use it to upload. > >I have had my USR 9600 HST for 6 months and have found that it is very reliable, >and has paid back it costs via lower phone bills already!! And USR has sent me >to updates (firmware) to it already for free!! That's good support!! > >Rich Covert It's a good modem, that's for sure. I am trouble by the reports of incompatibilities though. It seems that the Dual Standard has trouble connecting to some modems at 2400 bps and even some modems at 9600 bps (v.32). The frequent firmware updates are troubling also. I bought my modem less than a month ago and I find that my firmware is two or more revisions behind already! By the way, a small nitpick. The USR Courier HSTs are not 9600 'baud', they're 2400 'baud'. :-) -- Henry Kwan | AppleLink: D0690 FWB, Inc. | CompuServe: 71320,1034 2040 Polk St. Ste 215 | Internet: claris!wet!logic@ames.arc.nasa.gov San Francisco, CA 94109 | UUCP: ?claris,hoptoad,lamc,ucsfcca?!wet!logic ------------------------------ Date: 20 Oct 89 13:10:59 GMT From: mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!tank!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!dino!sharkey!cfctech!teemc!ka3ovk !lake@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Marshall Lake) Subject: Running from different environments In article <30200004@inmet> hedger@inmet writes: > >I just got my ST so I'm a real novice, and this may seem like a really >naive question but here goes: Is your program set up to use or try to >use the hard disk at all? When your program was first installed was the >hard drive on? At installation time is it possible that the program in >question put a file on the harddisk that he needs to see to initialize >and run? >Just groping. > > Thanks for your help. No, it's nothing like any of that. The program reads and writes files but it just uses whatever it was booted on ... floppy or hd. There's something else. It appears I'm just groping, also. If you have any other thoughts, pass them on please. Marshall lake@ka3ovk ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 89 00:09:12 GMT From: mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!utzoo!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!bigsur!bnrgate!bcar a13!fortinp@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Pierre Fortin 1573589) Subject: TOS 1.4 AUTO bug Has anyone else experienced the following problem? I installed TOS1.4 in my Mega 2. After booting up the system I installed NeoDesk 2.05 and used the new AUTO feature in the "Install Application" to make NeoDesk auto-start on bootup. Next, I re-booted my system and NeoDesk auto-started as expected. I then double-clicked on UniTerm and was greeted with two bombs. OK, only two changes to my environment: TOS 1.4 and Install Application AUTO versus using STARTGEM. I removed the AUTO install feature and re-booted. Then, I started NeoDesk 2.05 by double-clicking on NEOMASTR.PRG and got my favorite desktop. Then double-clicked on UniTerm as before and everything is fine. I repeated all of the above, and it seems to me that there is a bug in the TOS1.4 AUTO- start feature. I also talked to others in our club who have experienced similar two bomb crashes when using this new "feature". Atari? Cheers, Pierre Fortin Ottawa, Canada ------------------------------ Date: 21 Oct 89 03:25:24 GMT From: milton!blake!charlop@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Aaron Charlop) Subject: TOS 1.4 AUTO bug In article <122@bnrgate.bnr.ca> fortinp@bcara13.bnr.ca (Pierre Fortin 1573589) writes: >Has anyone else experienced the following problem? > >I installed TOS1.4 in my Mega 2. After booting up the system >I installed NeoDesk 2.05 and used the new AUTO feature in the >"Install Application" to make NeoDesk auto-start on bootup. > >Next, I re-booted my system and NeoDesk auto-started as I also have had a problem with the autoboot command. I installed my Terminal emulation program AnsiGraf to autoboot. However, when I my computer boots, the program can't access the modem. If I exit the program and restart it from my hd, it works fine. Also when I exit from the program after it has autobooted, my desktop comes up in the default colors not the ones defined in my desktop. I have to call up the control panel from MultiDesk to reset the colors. Anything Atari? On TOS 1.4 incompatibility. It seems that OmniRes will not work with TOS 1.4. Anybody have a new OMNIRES.INF that will work with 1.4. I have version 3.01, maybe I wasn't informed of an update. -- Aaron the Alchemist Charlop@uwachem.washington.edu "Yes, I really am a honest-to-goodness alchemist" Me ------------------------------ Date: 19 Oct 89 14:51:33 GMT From: att!drutx!druwy!dlm@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Dan Moore) Subject: Turboboost with GCR in article <761@utacs.UTA.FI>, jackin@utacs.UTA.FI (Markku M?enp??) says: > Has anybody succeeded in using Spectre GCR with faster > processors (16Mhz) ? I would like to get my MEGA faster and > especially would like to see Spectre GCR roaming in 16 Mhz. The Spectre GCR works with all of the currently available 16 Mhz processor upgrades. Just don't expect it to run twice as fast, most of the upgrades only offer about a 5% performance increase. The upgrades are really limited by the low performance of the memory in the ST (low compared to a 16 Mhz CPU). As far as I know only one of the upgrades supplies a large performance boost since it has 32K of cache memory, that allows the CPU to run at 16 Mhz with no wait states most of the time. With the cache the performance increase can be as large as 100%, the average boost is about 50%. Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs Denver dlm@druwy.ATT.COM ------------------------------ End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #542 ***************************************** =========================================================================