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***************************************************************** * N O T I C E * ***************************************************************** 15th of December, 1988 This text, Your second Manual Version 4, has been updated to Version 5. The many errors and poor writing in the Y2M has been corrected; in Summer 1988, I taught ST classes and used the experience to write V5. There is at least twice as much information, twice as much text, and six new chapters. V5 is being published in the UK, Holland and Germany. V5 is being distributed in the UK by Paul Glover, ST Club Newsletter, 9 Sutton Place, 49 Stoney Street, Nottingham, NG1 1LX, United Kingdom. V5 is bound in magazine format. The price is about £4.00. Contact Paul Glover for a copy. Andreas Ramos, Jaegergaards Gade 142 8000 Aarhus C / Denmark, Scandinavia Tif: (45)620-1117 BBS: (45)620-2016 **************************************************************** * N O T I C E E N D * **************************************************************** Version 4.0, April, 1988 YOUR SECOND MANUAL TO THE ATARI ST BY ANDREAS RAMOS FOR THE AARHUS 68000 USER GROUP Aarhus, Denmark You just bought your ST, you flip through the manual, you start it up: nothing. You spend a week working with it; you make a mess of the disk which your salesman told you not to destroy. Your salesman can't help you; he's been transfered to the catfood department; the new one doesn't know how to even turn the machine on. But he tries to sell you a program that costs your next holiday, and you've heard that you can get free programs somewhere. It takes you hours to write and print a single page, while your neighbor's kid can program a flight to Jupiter on his toy computer. You live in some town where you always have to say "it's 154 kilometers from that city." The whole thing looked so easy in the store; computers can't really be that hard; your cousin uses one and everyone knows how stupid he is. Or maybe you've worked with your machine for a year now and still have never heard of a SPOOLER. Or a RAM disk. Do you know that all those buttons on your keyboard are not what they seem to be? What ASCII is? Why not to use format programs written before September 87? How to deal with directory problems? How to RECOVER deleted disks? What are PD's and how to get them? What is a BBS? == * * == The Introduction This is the Hitchhiker's Guide to the ST. Not to BIOS, not to GEM, not to BETELGEUSE 5. This manual will not help you to get into the ST; this manual will help you in getting around the ST. If the first one tells you how to turn on the machine, this one tells you how to use it. It is your second (and better) Operator's Manual to the ST. This Second Manual assumes that you've read the first ST Owner's Manual at least twice. You must already know how to create folders, etc. If you haven't, please take the time to do so now. Otherwise, you just won't get much out of it. I have written this as an introduction manual to new members of our user group: the 68000 User Group in Aarhus, Danmark. In all of our meetings and get-togethers and sitting around and general talking, there has been an enourmous amount of information about the use of the ST which has gotten passed around. I've put a lot of the useful tips and ideas, bit by bit, into a file, and now I edited it and organized it. This is the manual I wished I had gotten when I got the machine. This is not a manual to the technical aspects of the ST. That material you can find elsewhere (see for example publications by the DATA BECKER publishing house, address below). Any technical information here is given only in the amount needed to understand a process. I've tried to check all technical information with persons who are qualified; nevertheless, any mistakes are mine. About the language; I've tried to keep the English straight- forward; if there are sentences which are unclear or twisted, please let me know. Everyone should be able to read this. Where necessary, I've put in the Danish or German equivilent. Sadly, there's no standard to the Danish in the ST menues and dialogue cards. If there's something in which you're particularly interested, use the FIND function from the menu (and large letters, with MATCH). Where I have written prices (or assumed prices), it is so that you can get an idea. Prices change constantly. Check before you buy. So that 520 users can load this file, it has been broken up into smaller parts. Credits: this manual, version 4, was written and rewritten with the help, reviews, comments, and discussions of many people, both new users and professionals. Many errors were corrected, new information was added, things were dropped. The first few versions were a near chaotic collection of things: this 4th version is improved in style, structure, and contents. The following persons especially helped me: Karen Nordentoft, Heine Svendsen, Claus Grotrian, Peter Mikkelsen, Olafur Bragason, Terkel Skorup. I also thank many others from our User Group, from the many BBS's in Denmark, and other user groups for tips, ideas, suggestions, comments, and reactions. Of course there will be a fifth version. More, bigger, and better. That will happen with your help and cooperation. If you learn a trick, a tip, an idea, if you have information, guides, advice, write it down, in any language, and send it to me. == * * == Before I start, just one last thing. Don't be afraid of your ST. You're the boss. When I was a little kid, my parents sent me every summer to summer camp in the mountains in Tennessee. There we learned to shoot rifles, use bow and arrow, swim over waterfalls, mountain climb, canoe in white water, catch poisonous snakes barehanded, all the fun stuff. And we learned to ride horses. Feed them, saddle them, rope them. We had this mountain man who taught us, a crazy mean old man who drank Jack Daniels from an old fruit jar (we also learned about Jack; Good old Tennessee). My first day, we line up in the dust, us little kids, in front of these big southern horses. This old man, spitting tobacco, says to us "Don't ever be afraid of a horse. If the horse tries to test you, show him who's boss." and with that, he goes right up to the first horse and with a terrific swing, punches the horse in the face: it fell down. He was right; I never was ever scared of horses from then on. But I was terrified of him. == * * == The Contents of Your Second Manual to the ST (Version 4) Part One 0. Introduction. 1. The Beginning. Computers in General. Definitions. 2. The ST Keyboard. Notes about the keyboard. Special functions. New keyboard layout. Fixing it. 3. The Mouse: a few notes. Feeding and cleaning your mouse. Part Two 4. Disks. Disks, TOS, drives, directories. Formatting, both standard and special. Copying. Recovering. 5. RAM disks. What it is. How to set one up. How to use it. Part Three 6. The Screen. Your Desktop. How to change it. Desktop.Inf and what it is. Icons (Russian and American) and what to do about them. Fixing things. 7. Accessories. How to load them. Different kinds. 8. Wordprocessing. General notes. Different kinds. Some tips and comments to 1stWord/Wordplus and Signum. 9. Magazines and books for the ST. What there is. All the different magazines. Part Four 10. PD's: Public Domain Disks. What they are. How to get them. 11. BBS: Bulletin Board Systems. What it is. How to get onto one. How to use it. * * * Copyright Note * * * This is the fourth version of this manual. Version 1 was 30KB, Version 2 = 60KB, Version 3 = 105 KB. Every six months or so, more is added, errors removed, information is updated. If you would like to recieve further updates of this manual, then become a registered user. To be a registered user, either join our UG (write for further details) or send a donation of 10 US dollars, 10 pounds, 30 Dm, or the equivalent to either Amnesty Interna- tional, any group helping Nicaraugua, or any group which is helping the South African Blacks or Palestinians. Send me a photocopy of your deposit slip and a blank disk; you will recieve the next version. Copyright information: All rights are mine, where those rights do not infringe on other rights. This text may not be sold, given, exchanged, or offered as part of a commercial exchange (I went to law school. I have two brothers who are hotshot American lawyers. I will sue. Commercial copyright infringement is big money. If you hear of someone selling this text, let me know so I can send a generous reward.) Copying of this file is permitted where such copying is free and between users. Public domain services may offer this document for distribution if they do not charge more than 4 dollars, 4 pounds, ten DMarks, or the equivilent in any national currency as a service fee only. Andreas Ramos, 68000 User Group Jaegergaardsgade 142.2, 8000 Aarhus C, Danmark, Scandinavia. BBS tlf 06109777. End of the Introduction ====================== * * ====================== Chapter One: The Beginning. Things Your Salesman Didn't Tell You. Much of the computer is so interconnected that it is difficult to talk of "parts." That makes it hard to understand. You can't really talk just about the screen without discussing the keyboard; the disk is not separated from the windows. Much of the information is thus "general" in a sense, though you will hopefully understand later what is going on. Computer English There is a very complete glossary (vocabulary, or definitions) in the back of your Owner's Manual. Here are more definitions. Booting:This used to be called "bootstrapping." That comes from an old American expression: To pick yourself up by your bootstraps. Germans know this from Munchhausen: he was riding along on his horse one day when they fell into a mudhole. Munchhausen pulled himself out by taking hold of his hair and pulling himself out. When you start up the machine, there are certain programs which are carried out. But in order to carry out those programs, the computer must have a program which is active and can carry out programs. But that program has to be already running so that it can start itself. A curious chicken or the egg pro- blem. What it means, for us, is just starting the machine. There are cold boots: when you start totally, as in the morning. There are also warm boots, as when you press the reset switch, which doesn't turn off the machine completely. Reset vs. Turning the machine off and on (or, warm booting vs. cold booting). When you bomb, there are two things you can do. Either reset, just press the button which quickly blanks the screen or switch the machine off entirely and start all over again (which button, and where it is, will depend on which version of the ST you have. Check your owner's manual). Both seem to have the same effect, but they are different. A total off/on will wipe the RAM memory clean (the machine must be off for at least ten second)(usually the time it takes to say "Why did I ever waste my money on such a stupid, lousy, idiotic program"). A reset will only clear the memory which is not protected by certain routines. If you are using reset proof programs, such as certain ram disks or routines, then resetting will not delete those programs. If you bomb, a simple reset will clear up the memory; if you really bomb, and a reset doesn't help, then you need to cold boot. BOOT DISK:Your BOOT DISK (Start up disk) is the one with which you always start. You can create several different boot disks. Of course, you can boot with any disk you like, unless you have created a special format. If you use just any disk, then most likely you don't know how to make a boot disk, create a desktop, or use accessories. DESKTOP.INF:A file called DESKTOP.INF will set up your desktop the way you like it. This file is created when you use the SAVE DESKTOP option. Accessories:Also on the desktop may be your favorite ACCessories. Auto folder:There may also be an AUTO folder; any programs in your AUTO folder will be automatically run. Data:All of the stuff that goes on a disk, and which you use in one way or another, is in the most general sense just DATA. Just information. There is of course good data (correct information) and bad data (corrupted, or faulty, information). This data can appear as either a program: then it is a set of commands which organizes and works with other kind of data, namely files. PRG:is PROGRAM (WORDPLUS.PRG). RSC:is RESOURCE, which are various parameters and other information for the program. If it is missing, then the program will not load (WORDPLUS.RSC). PD's:A PD is a PUBLIC DOMAIN program or disk (see the PD chapter below). Tools or Utilities:A German defined "Tools" as programs which help you solve problems which you would not have if you did not have a computer. That is the best definition of a tool. A tool, or utility, is a secondary program which fixes problems which you have with your main programs. If you want your wordprocessor to write Spanish characters, then a tool program will let you change your keyboard. There are all sorts of tools, which do all sorts of things. Games:A terrific way to lose five days and your wife and friends. The only worthwhile ones are Flight Simulator II (FSII) and Psion Chess. Desktop:DESKTOP is the main screen, the one you get when you BOOT, on which appear the different WINDOWs, which are a second screen, the kind you can zoom and close. Coffee, Beer and Wine:These will destroy your disks and keys. Don't put them near the computer. Several in the UG have knocked over glasses of wine into the keyboard: disks have been soaked in coffee, and so on. If a disk gets wet, throw it away. You will make the disk drive head dirty if you just "try and see" if it is okay. If you pour liquids into your computer: clear non-sticky ones (water, etc) will usually be okay if you stand the computer on end and let it dry out. Sticky ones (beer, coca- cola, etc) may be a problem. Let the machine dry out. If it is not okay, and your warranty is over, then open and clean with a moist cloth. If your warranty is still good, go to your dealer. CIGARETTES:cause lung cancer, Your lungs will rot and you will die. CLICKING:is pressing a mouse button once; DOUBLE CLICKING is two quick clicks. If you can't double click fast enough, use the CONTROL.ACC (it's in the Owner's Manual) to change the click response time. You will find that some programs will allow the right mouse to click. Other programs will have special or secret functions if you click in strange places. Always try what seems intuitive: mice are very popular with some programers. WP:WP is Word Processing (text editors are something else. COPY:DISK JOCKEY is what you are if you try to copy disks by dragging icons. If you don't like the DISCO scene, then use a RAMdisk, a file transfer PRG, or a good copy program. Laws:Computering has its own laws. The most famous one is: Garbage in, garbage out. No software or hardware is going to improve a lousy idea, even if it is Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (Starwars). Another rule is: The more important the piece of work, the more likely that things will go wrong. This has been confirmed by many users. A third rule, closely related, is: Computers have no mercy, especially with deadlines. Many users, when facing a systems crash, tend to become Catholics; any and all saints are called upon to save the file. This reminds me of the story about the little boy who was climbing around on the roof of a high building; he slips and starts to slide to the edge; he cries out "Oh, God!" Just then, his jeans catch on a nail, and he stops; so he just looks up and says "Never mind!" *.*:The symbols "*" and "?", in computese, are usually called WILDCARDS; they represent any value. These ?.?:are often used in the directory window, for example, to specify which files will be shown. The combination *.* is big magic; it means, literally, WILDCARD.WILDCARD, or ANYTHING.ANYTHING, any file with any extension will be shown. If you write *.DOC, any filename with only the extension .DOC will be shown. If you are hunting for .ACC (accessories) and maybe you changed some of them to .ACX, then try .AC? This will show only those which have AC as the first two letters of the MASK:extender. Selecting files in this way is called using a MASK (a filter). BBS:Bulletin Board Service (Opslagstavle program, but nobody says that. It is also called an electronic mailbox.) If you have a modem, then you can call a central computer (a BBS) and leave messages to other users, receive messages, and get copies of programs. A BBS lets different kinds of computers talk to each other directly. Our UG has one (tlf. 06109777). Database:A database is a program which allows you to collect a lot of information and then get at that information in many different ways. It is nothing more than a very fast and very flexible card file box. Databases can be either on your own disks, with your own data, or they can be large, indus- trial/research databases (instead of 500 or 1000 items, they can have millions of pieces of infor- mation). Large databases usually have their own special programs, written especially for that kind of information, and hence, to use them, you need special training. Practically every single major profession has a major database. Some major data- bases are open and free; either you go to the office (such as a university library database) or you can reach it by telephone; anyone with a modem can call and use them. Most databases charge a fee; usually around 20 to 50 dollars per hour. If you know how to use the base, then you are not on for more than 10 or 15 minutes. Many are commer- cial. The database for oil companies costs 100,000 dollars per hour. That is cheap; a single drilling costs about 15 million dollars; you will gladly pay a 100 big ones just to find out if you have a chance. Modem:connects your computer to the telephone so that it can communicate directly with other computers (BBS, databases, banks, other users, etc.etc.). Mouse:An interface device. A way of sending information to the computer. Your keyboard does the same thing. Mice were developed in the late 60's by Xerox Corporation. Apple made them standard. IBM (I Borrow from Macintosh) laughed at them for a long time, but they are now standard on the new IBM's. Other ideas were light pencils: a pen connected by a wire: you simply pointed at the screen. But that requires even more waving around with your arms. A joystick is a mouse of sorts; just another way to send information to the screen. There are trackballs: you spin a ball to position the cursor. These were developed for arcade games (rough and unstealable). Use SPEED- MOUSE; it reduces your mouse's running space (see Mouse chapter below). Future mice will not be mice at all, but possibly a pair of gloves which send hand positions and movements to the computer: you "pick up" and "handle" what is on screen; there is even feedback: you can "feel" the objects, not just see them on screen. In ten years or so, there may not be anymore monitors or mice; you can interface with your computer simply by waving a hand, moving your finger, etc. Some users already interface with their computers in this manner: something goes wrong and they punch the screen. RAM disk:This is very difficult to explain; although when you understand the concept, it is very simple. An entire chapter is dedicated to this subject below. It is a method of storing data electronically, instead of on disk, so that you can access (read or write) it much faster. It is extremely useful; every single advanced user works with one. READ/WRITE:Reading means that your disk drive is reading the disk, and getting information. This is also called LOAD:"loading"; you load by reading a program and moving it to RAM memory. Writing means that your disk drive is writing information onto the disk (saving). Kilobytes, bytes, KB's, Kbs:The most simple unit of informa- tion is a bit: it is either yes or no. Eight bits together can define (describe or state) just about any letter or message we would want (just multiply 2 by itself 8 times; that produces 256 different states, which means 256 possible separate charac- ters). That we call a "byte." When you press the letter "R" on the keyboard, you don't send an "R" to the computer or screen; instead, you send a string of bits. A word, or a page, or a picture is thus made up of a long string of bits. What is important to know at this level is the size of that string: how long it is. Your files (information, texts or pictures) will have dif- ferent sizes. Short files are of course smaller than long files. Click on OPTIONS to show as text, instead of icons, and you will see the byte size of all your texts. 1024 bytes is a kilobyte; so a file that is 23,378 bytes is also 22.8 kilobytes (you usually round up; therefore it is about 23 kilobytes.) A page of 1st Word text is about 3 kilobytes (3000 bytes). (Of course, this depends on whether you have full pages of text, or lots of empty spaces.) Later in your work, as you began to fill up your disks, it becomes more important to know the kilobyte size of your files. KB is the usual abbreviation for kilobyte; Kb is the abbre- viation for kilobits. TOS:"The Operating System". This is called DOS ("Disk Operation System") on PC's. MS-DOS means that it was written by MicroSoft. TOS is a complex group of programs and systems which make the computer work. Think of a core surrounded by several layers. The central core is the machine itself, the chips and other hardware. Around it, covering it, is: 1) BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). This depends directly on various basic (or main) devices. It works at a very low level. It reads the keyboard, writes single characters to the VT-52 screen, and several other things. 2) XBIOS (eXtended BIOS). This allows access to an extended set of specific devices (for example, the printer ((both parrallel and serial ports)), the mouse, midi, sound, etc). It permits general disk access. It formats disks. Both BIOS and XBIOS form the first level around the hardware. 3) BDOS (Basic Disk Operating System). It is second level. It is therefore not so specific to the hardware. It writes strings of characters to/from the screen/keyboard. It takes care of memory allocation. BDOS runs programs and files. It creates files, does the Read/write, deletes, finds files, etc. 4) A-Line Routines. These simple commands take care of a great deal of the actual work of setting up what becomes the image on screen. Dots, lines, rectangles, filled rectangles, fill closed paths, move/copy rectangles from one place to another, etc. The Blitter works in this area by speeding up these calculations and movements. Over this is... 5) GEM (Graphics Environment Management). A set of routines which are independant of the device. The third layer around the computer. These control the windowing. And last of all, most visible to the user, is... 6) The application program (such as 1st Word). Our programs are the shell, the outside level of this system. The program uses a complex group of abilities from the various parts of the Operating System (OS) and presents them to the user as a simple image on screen. The shell uses GEM to present a graphic interface between the user and the OS. For simplicity, I only mentioned some parts of this system. There is debate and discussion of whether or how much any one part is distinct from other parts. You can see that all the computer magazines spend a great deal of time trying to explain this. There are very few people who understand this system entirely (only a handful of top professional programmers, and they have quite a bit of arguments about it). If you only want to use the computer, or just do some simple program- ming, you do not have to worry in the least about any of this. Problems:The curious thing about computers is that a problem is not a problem, but rather, a challenge. (My high school gymnastics teacher, Coach ((we called him "Coach")) always said "Let it be a challenge to you.") If your car has a flat tire, that's a problem: it has a clear nature (hole, no air) and a clear solution (patch and pump). No discussion. But on a computer, anything can be done in at least ten totally different ways, with totally different methods. And no one agrees about the explanations for why it works. Everyone will solve a problem in his own way: to print out new characters, for example. Hardware people will change the chips. Programmers will reprogram. I would use a utility program. Font users will add fonts; others will redefine the printer. It is very difficult to give "answers" to problems: You "think" you have a problem; you try to describe it, but a working answer, and a final description of the problem, will be something totally diffe- rent. The whole thing is a problem. RAM/ROM:You have two kinds of memory chips: ROM (read only memory) which has information on it which can't be changed or deleted (it can only be "read"); RAM (random access memory) is memory space which you can change (add and remove). Resident:One often talks about resident programs. That means a program which is in the computer (not on disk). The concept is not too clearly defined; different things can be resident in different ways. Your accessories are called resident; they are in the RAM chips; so you call them RAM resident. When you have TOS in ROM, then it is ROM resident; it is in the ROM chip. You need to know about this only to know the difference. Resident:(An example) The program which formats your disks (the one in the desktop menu) is a ROM resident program: it is always there. 520 RAM, 1040 RAM, 2 and 4 MEGA RAM:Different "sizes" of ST's. The number tells you how much RAM the machine has in kilobytes. A 520 RAM machine has 520 KB of space to use (the actual number will be less than that). A 1040 has twice the capacity, and a two mega ram ( 2 MEGA ST) is twice as large as that. For comparison,an expensive calculator has 2 or 4 KB of memory. The Commodore 64's which are so popular have 64KB of memory: a 520ST has eight times as much. The standard PC can be upgraded only to 640 KB: a 1040 ST is almost twice as large (and twice as fast). These numbers only give you a rough idea of size: a poorly written program can work very well, but take up an enormous amount of space: well written programs can often be much smaller. It is only for marketing reasons that the numbers are not correct. You will soon figure out that a 260ST really has 256 KB; a 520ST has twice as much, or 512KB; a 1040ST has therefore twice again as much, or 1024KB. But the numbers are not "pretty," 256/512/1024 is "messy." The marketing people in Atari forced the name to be more presentable. RYFM:What a programmer will tell you if you ask a question which is in your manual. "Read Your *.* Manual" he means. You must read, re-read, and, several weeks or months later, re-re-read the manual. Things you did not understand then will become clear later. CPU:The main chip in your machine. The Central Proces- sing Unit. This is where much of the actual work is done (instructions are carried out, etc). You don't need to know about this, the GLUE chip, or any of that stuff, unless you want to start taking your machine apart. FOOTPRINT:The amount of space it takes up on your desk. Many more concepts and words are defined and explained in the rest of this text. If you find words which you don't understand, let me know. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Don't worry, most Americans and British don't understand much of this vocabulary either. Computer English is just as artificial, false, and unnatural as Computer Danish or Computer German. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Just for reference, here is the DESKTOP with MENUES (for those who are reading this on paper). Mt. Fuji icon File View Options ------------- ------------ -------- ------------------- Control Panel Open Icons Install Drive Install Printer Show Info... Text Install Application Set RS232 Config. New Folder Sort By: Set Preferences VT52 Emulator Close Name Save Desktop Ram Free Close Window Date Print Screen Format... Size Type (* Ram Free is optional) If you do not have these options, something is wrong with your system. Many of our users have not gotten the Control Panel, for example (I didn't get my for the first 4 months). If you do not have this, contact us. The new Control Panel (20KB large, instead of 16KB) joins the Control Panel, Install Printer, and RS232 all into one, a great improvement which clears up two accessory slots (spaces). I include RAMFREE.ACC, which should be a standard. It reports on your memory size left. You must fully understand what all of these options can do. Read your manual again if you don't. It is here that you will create boot disks (AUTO folders), add new ACCESSORIES, create new disk icons for ramdisks (and remove the silly second drive icon if you only have a one drive system), change icon names, file names, change files to READ ONLY, set up your printer to print full screen pictures, make standard format disks, set your screen to show files by KB size, set up your files to automatically load just by double clicking on them, save your desktop, and make printouts of your screen. If you don't understand any of these, or are not able to do them, then READ YOUR MANUAL AGAIN! This SECOND MANUAL assumes that you understand those options. Much of what follows will use these options to change your system. The Owner's Manual only describes the options; it doesn't began to explain that with these; you can change and adapt your system to suit your hardward and needs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V NUMBERS. Programs often have numbers after the name. There is not much of a standard regarding these numbers, but the following seems to be followed by the professional software producers. WORDPLUS V2.02 UK, for example. What do those numbers mean? V2.02 UK means Version 2.02, with British spelling and dictionary. The text versions of the program are usually called V.0.XX. The first released version of a program is called V.1O; when small changes have been made (corrected spelling, etc,) then the new updated version becomes V1.01, V1.02, V1.03, etc. When bigger corrections have been made, then it becomes V1.1, V1.2, V1.3, etc. When major updates and changes have been made, the whole digit changes: V2.0, V3.0, etc. If there are various versions of the program, usually for various languages, then it can be called UK (British English), US (American English), etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Why bother with V numbers? Programs are constantly being upgraded. They are improved. New options are added; errors are removed. About every six months, we see new "generations" of programs: an idea is introduced and is quickly adopted by other programs. You will find out that using a computer is a job of constantly looking for the arrival of better, faster, more powerful programs. Therefore it is difficult to write a standard, "once and for all" list of "tips and tricks;" six months later, it is useless. 1st Word V 1.01, which was the standard for quite some time, is outdated; hardly anyone uses it anymore. Most moved on to V1.06, many use 1.16, and the elite use 2.02. V1.01 is just primitive. There are fashions in computering, just like in bikinis and epistemology. WIMP, the Windows/Icon/Mouse system, is very fashionable now (Apple developed it, Atari copied it, IBM copied it too.) But it is slow and difficult; we may see programs which are not GEM based (TEMPUS is an excellent example). The whole story between Apple, Atari, Commodore, and IBM is much more interesting than Dallas or Dynasty. Xerox originally deve- loped the mouse in the 1960's. At the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)(which also developed SMALLTALK, an advanced inter- face system), the main parts of the mouse and windows idea was developed. Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, used to hang out there. Apple took those ideas and added their contribution: menus. The look of the windows was designed by Apple as well. Digital Research (DR) came along and simply copied the whole thing and sold it to Atari. Apple sued. Apple, a huge company, could have kept Digital Research out of the market for years (DR had been losing money already), so they settled out of court: Digital possibly agreed not to sell any further developments to Atari. That's why, although better versions of GEM exist, we won't get them for the ST. Apple deserves a great deal of credit for being innovative enough to bring such an advanced system to a market which was totally dominated by IBM. Bill Gates, of Microsoft, which wrote MS-DOS, used in every IBM PC and compa- tible in the world, who has a personal fortune of 700 million dollars, laughed at windows and mice and said real men don't use that sort of stuff. Most PC users hate mice. IBM ignored windows ("It has no use in the office.") DEC, which makes the best mainframes, has now agreed with Apple to use the Macintosh desktop as the interface to their mainframes. So what happens to the other companines? Look at the new PS from IBM. All windows. All mouse. Developed by Bill Gates, who now calls himself "The World's Greatest Expert On Windows And Mice." Hewlett-Packard also copied the Windows/Mouse system. Which now has caused Apple to sue both IBM and Hewlett-Packard. This will be an interesting court fight: at stake is the control of the desktop computer market for the next 10-15 years and a market which is worth at least 100 Billion dollars in the USA alone. Digital Research wrote much of the ST's operating system on a contract for Atari Corp. GEMDOS, GEM, ST BASIC, and ST LOGO were done by them. GEMDOS and GEM are poorly written; ST BASIC and ST LOGO are garbage. Silly and trivial errors were made in the GEM system (for example, the harddisk can't have a partition larger than 16MB, simply because of an incorrect number). Atari wrote BIOS, XBIOS, and ALINE. The GEM we have on the ST is a pre-release version from Digital Research. That is why it has bugs and is slow. GEM is already available as versions 2 or 3 on PC's. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MORE NUMBERS: Flip your ST over (gently! gently!). The number stamped on the bottom tells you how old your ST is. Apparently these are sequential; the first one is 1,000,001. Mine is in the 9000's. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Something that is recommended to everyone is to open their computer. Take a look inside. See what goes on in there. It is a simple process of removing only about 20 screws (keep track of which go where!). The machine can easily be put back together again (it was designed to be put together by 14 year old girls working under slavery conditions). Note that changing the machine will violate your warranty, if that is still valid. Many German ST's have a sticker on the case which may not be removed without tearing; this prevents you from opening it. Do not violate your warranty. Please unplug the machine completely before opening. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ATARI, by the way, is the Japanese word for the game "GO". "ST" means either "Sam Tramiel," the hotdog capitalist who owns and runs Atari Corp, or "Sixteen/Thirtytwo," a technical description of the chip's processing capability. The 68030 machine will be called the TT, which means 32/32. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A SINGLE SWITCH. It's not necessary to flip three separate switches to turn on the older ST's. Run all your plugs to one extension plug, put a switch on that, and connect it to the wall. Now just switch off and on there. The whole system turns off and on with one switch. I put my START UP DISK in the drive and run the juice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SWIVEL CHAIRS: All computers should be sold with an office chair included: the kind which turns, is on wheels, with a backrest. You will tend to twist around quite a bit, reaching over and around your keyboard. This will hurt your back. You can buy an office chair for about 5$ (or fifty kroner) at the Salvation Army's second hand stores. The Salvation Army, with its good contacts, tends to get large donations of materials from com- panies. The Salvation Army is by the way my favorite general charity, 92% of their income is used for the poor. The highest paid person in the Salvation Army recieves 23,000$ a year. Nothing. In comparison, most charities spend 45-60 percent on the poor, and the rest on being fat bureaucrats. The US Department of Welfare, which gives aid to the poor, spends 90% on themselves (perhaps I should rephrase that "...which gives aid to the poor..."). If you sit for long periods, your back will hurt anyway. Back problems are common among users; we will sit for three or four hours straight just trying to figure out a program or solve a problem. Something that I have found that helps is a foam wedge pad; it is about 10 cm high at the back. You sit with your knees lower. It has helped me somewhat. You can get these at any foam store for about 2 or 3 dollars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bundled Programs: When you bought your ST from a store, several programs were included with the machine. Some of these were written by Atari Corporation (fx ST WRITER), others were written by independant software houses and were bought by Atari for giving to its customers (Fx 1ST_WORD, DB MASTER ONE). The different programs were given out at different periods and in different countries: new buyers do not get 1ST_WORD anymore, for example. DB MASTER ONE, a database, was given out in Denmark for a few months in 1987. These programs have a curious status; they are very much commercial programs, they are copyrighted, you can not just hand out copies of them. But so many people have them and 1ST WORD has become the standard wordprocessor; it is nearly public domain. A number of public domain services in fact hand out copies of 1ST WORD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Don't waste your time with ST-BASIC, the Basic program that came along with the computer. It's got errors, and rarely works right. I've never figured out what to do with LOGOS; absolutely no one uses it. Blank out those free disks and use them: they're high quality. If you ever want those PRGs again, just go to your dealer with the disk and tell them that it was blank. If you want to learn Basic, or use Basic, get GFA Basic from West Germany: good and fast. Most people use GFA; it is pretty much the standard Basic for the ST; it has good manuals, and lots of books (the first English translation was lousy; the second is better). You can talk to lots of other people about GFA. FAST BASIC from England is also very good and popular. Omikrom Basic from Germany is good too. There is a new version of ST BASIC, written by one of the Tramiel boys, which is bundled with new ST's, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere as good as GFA, Fast, or Omnikrom Basic. Atari Corpora- tion, which only earned 180 million dollars in straight profits last year, refuses to give you a manual. They will send you to the dealer, who is going to laugh if you ask for a 100 page manual. Many people ask which languages will run on the ST. Just about every one. All the major languages, and many dialects, have been adapted to the ST (Basic, Logo, C, Pascal, Modula 2, Lisp, Prolog, Smalltalk, APL, Fortran, etc etc.). Both old fashioned procedural languages, like Basic, and the new artificial intelli- gence langauges have been adapted to the ST. "New" langauges aren't. LISP, the major artificial intelligence language, is over 30 years old and older than BASIC. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Buying hardware and software: Quite a few of our members have bought computers in West Germany and England, despite the long held arguments regarding lack of service or support, without problems. At present, there is no reason for buying hardware or software in Denmark. As for service and support, there is none in Denmark. Prices are simply lower in Germany. With the sole exception of PIXEL (tlf. 05/152441), we do not yet know of a ST distributor which will give qualified service or meaningful support to a professional ST user. Danish businesses which sell business computers have dropped the ST because they were unable to rely on Atari Corporation for service or parts. German stores deliever what they promise. German stores are also reliable in long term: Danish stores has started and stopped with amazing regularity; the first two distributors for the ST crashed spectacularly. New World provided some unbelievable examples of amature errors and poor business sense. The previous importor is remembered for worst things. Datakilden in Copenhagen made such a disaster that they simply declared bankruptcy, to escape their angry customers and debts, and started up again as Scandinavian Software. A company to avoid, in any form. If you are going to invest in hardware or software, check with another user first: make sure that the company is reliable. Atari has come under very strong criticism from developers and users. There is simply no developer support or customer support. For all of their spectacular sales and profits, Atari does not bother with companies which are developing software/hardware for the ST. TOS is faulty; it makes errors and is limited. It was poorly written. Atari kept coming out with new versions, end- lessly changing the TOS; there are dozens of versions now. The latest is not 100% downwards compatible. GDOS, a supplement to the faulty TOS, has been kept secret/unavailable for a very long time. GEM information has been kept secret for no particular reason. The ST is a thirdparty machine: practically everything to it was developed by companies independantly of Atari. It is no secret that Non-Atari components are usually better than Atari compo- nents (especially drives, harddisks, monitors). Practically no application software has been developed by Atari. We don't even have software guidelines for the ST: each developer must invent his own format. Therefore the ridiculous situation with graphics: it is a pain in the neck to convert pictures from one format to another: it took over two years to get a wordprocessor which could read graphics. A software guidelines would give developers the ability to write programs which are compatible with one another. All Macintosh programs are intercompatible: just about anything can be moved from one program to another. This is unthinkable on the ST: try moving your spreadsheet into your wordprocessor. And then into your drawing program. No way. The result means that hardware / software developers must think twice and twice again before entering the ST market: they must first establish a standard. We users lose: we don't get radical, interesting programs for the ST. No one in their right mind is going to develop a totally new program on a machine which has such a difficult market. Get a copy of our PD catalog and ask for the USENET disks: these are downloads (copies) of discussions in the ST section carried out by many of the major persons in the ST world. The Tramiels, Digital Research (who wrote GEM), Atari's marketing director, Simon Poole (far away the best PD author on the ST) and dozens others are talking, discussing, criticising (and bitterly attacking) the ST. Don't start wondering whether you should start looking for another computer. The ST is a great computer. It is extremely powerful. It works, all in all, rather well. It is VERY reliable. Salespersons will tell you in confidential conversation that 30 to 40 % of Amigas need to be rebuilt: perhaps only two or three of 100 ST have problems (and these are mostly just loose chips which are easily fixed). The Amigas are a pain in the neck with their disk sensitivity (a disk must be very good for it; ST's will run fine with not-so-good disks (ie cheaper). And let's talk programs. It tooks seasons for the Amiga to get a simple wordprocessor; we had SIGNUM. There are far more applications programs for the ST. The fact is that there are more games, and more newer games, for the ST than the Amiga, the games machine. And last of all, price. The ST is simply cheaper. Power without the price. The price is of course customer support: you won't get that (and we don't expect it to come either). The only alterna- tive to the ST is the Macintosh II; and that involves a very large price difference. West Germans have really taken to the ST; it is the Mac of Germany. Lots of programs and hardware is created there. We can expect developments and progress from West Germany for the ST. For the money, the ST is the best you can buy in Europe. End of Chapter One: The Beginning. ====================== * * ====================== Chapter Two: The Keyboard Tips and tricks regarding the keyboard: ESCAPE: A clever trick, when working on the DESKTOP: You have a window open, showing one disk DIRECTORY (the contents). You switch disks. Do you then click on DRIVE B? No! Just press ESC (Escape), on the upper left corner of your keyboard. The computer will then READ the new disk. What it actually does is UPDATEs the directory, checking again what's on the disk, but since you've switched disks, it READS the new disk and puts that in the window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This works with RAM disks as well; click on the RAM disk window so that it is on top, and then punch ESC. (Ram disks will be explained below). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ESCape (ESC) is a handy button. When changing directory lines, disk labels, whatever, punch ESC, and it clears the whole thing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you change disks while in an application, such as 1st Word, ESC can help. Load 1st Word (start the prg by double clicking). Now, you want to change disks. Insert new disk. Punch the CURSOR UP ARROW, this puts the cursor on the disk directory line. Now punch ESC. that clears the whole thing. Now hit ENTER. The new disk is read as a default in A drive. If you have 1st Word in D Drive as a RAMdisk, then instead of backspacing and typing some silly nonsense like ( A:Ø*.* ), just punch Up arrow (elevator to top floor) ESCape out the window and ENTER in the ground floor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . You can also write the A:/folder/*.PRG or whatever onto a keymacro program and then produce the whole line with one keystroke (thanks to HS). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Typing an underline ( _ ) in the top directory line will bomb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . You don't have to start up a program just to look at a text file. You can open a file directly on your desktop and look at the first part of it (just double click and choose SHOW TO SCREEN from the dialogue box. Pressing ENTER scrolls one line at a time, pressing SPACE bar scrolls a whole screen. Instead of pressing ENTER and scrolling all the way to the end, press Q (quit). You're out again. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Some versions of TOS (there are dozens of versions of TOS, for no real reason) have a curious ability; press CAPS LOCK and then ALTERNATE: the Danish or German alphabets then revert to English font and produce square brackets and slashes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . You are not stuck with Swedish keys (or whatever is on your keyboard). When you press the "B" key, you don't send a "B" to the computer; you send a long string of codes. This string can easily be changed (edited). You can easily re-program or re- define your keyboard. This requires no expert knowledge; fools can do it (most computer stores fall in that category). Use KEYEDIT.PRG, a public domain program; you get a picture of your keyboard on screen, simply use the mouse to move the keys around or add new keys (for example, get rid of Swedish, and add German or Danish). You can easily make several keyboards, for different languages. You can also place keys in places which are more convenient. The marks ( ' ) and ( " ) should be together, and next to the shift key. The same for ? and ! (and ¡ as well), these should be on one key. Add the Danish é and É to the keyboard. Delete the ridiculous £ sign. You can also use these keys in the directory; instead of writing 1/2_AARHUS.DOC, you can just write ½_ÅRHUS.DOC. You actually have not one, but five keyboards. You must think of several modes: the keys act differently depending on the board's mode. You change modes by pressing the SHIFT, CAPS LOCK, ALTERNATE, or CONTROL keys. The first mode is the normal "qwerty" board, the small letters. The second mode is SHIFT: small letters become large, and numbers remain the same. The third, fourth, and fifth mode is CAPS LOCK, ALTERNATE and CONTROL; press these and then you have different keyboards. The standard keyboard setup, what you get from the factory, has the same thing on both SHIFT, CONTROL, and ALTERNATE. A keyboard editing program allows you to put different keys in the various modes; you can place on the numerical keypad, which is rarely used in the higher modes, all sorts of alphabets, such as German, French, and Spanish. The numbers at the top 1234567890 can also hold different symbols. Paste stickers on your keys so that you can see the different things. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . You will notice after a while that the letters on the keys began to disappear. Touching the keyboard after a year will just rub off the keys. Clear plastic is sold in sheets or rolls which can be cut to fit the tops of your keys. This protects especially the non-american keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Instead of pointing and clicking the OK box in the dialogue box, hit RETURN or ENTER. Both of these keys usually have the same function. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Get in the practise of holding the mouse in your palm, clicking not with the tip of your finger, but with the middle of the finger. Not so tiring. And keep the mouse near the keyboard, so that you can hit ENTER with your thumb. This machine was not designed by a southpaw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . You can always print the screen by pressing ALTERNATE + HELP. Or almost always. Often the printing can be stopped by pressing Control + Q (quit) (or perhaps X, W, or Z as well). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Control + S will often work on your keyboard with some PRGs. This SAVES data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When renaming disk drives, or renaming file names, there is no need to backspace one letter and type in the new: just type it. If the cursor is at the end of the line, it will automatically delete and replace the word. Try this now by clicking OPEN FILE, and just pressing K, the .DOC will change to .DOK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The cursor can be moved with ALTERNATE + ARROW keys; press ALTERNATE + INSERT for a mouse click. The only time I've found this useful is when you have to click the mouse a lot (in a game, for example). Park the mouse over the box, and hold down the Alternate and Insert keys. Also this helps when reading long files (like this one). Park the mouse over the vertical bar on the right side of the screen, hold down ALTERNATE, and press INSERT as you read along. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Careful, though, too fast and this sometimes 'freezes' the computer, nothing works anymore. Panic. Try punching ENTER, or wait a bit. Waving a gun sometimes works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The right mouse button works on the desktop. When you have several windows open, point at an inactive window, hold down the right button, and point and click with the left button. The right button lets you work in non-active windows. Nice, but useless. It's so easy to click up a window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F1 and F10 often have a function in a program. Programmers have many traditional codes, such as pressing "CONTROL (Ctl) + ?"; this sometimes produces a few lines of HELP or other information. When in doubt, punch buttons. Try every key on the keyboard, in combinations. You can't hurt the computer by pressing buttons. However, shooting the computer may damage it. Gunshots are not covered by warranties except in Texas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Something difficult to describe, but rather handy, is an F-KEY guide. If your different programs use different commands on the F-Keys, this little device helps you keep track of them. Take about fifteen or twenty sheets of paper. Bind them together with one of those plastic ring binders: go to any paper supply store; they have a hole punching machine which makes a row of rectangle holes on the side of the paper, into which a plastic ring strip holds the sheets together (it is difficult to describe, but you will know it when you see them)(Use the smallest size, that is, the thinnest ones). Now use a paper cutter so that there is only a strip of paper 1.3cm wide (as if you bound a book which is only 1.3cm wide, but normal length. Still following this? Good. Put the thing above your F-keys. Trim to lenght. It sits there in the groove. Make a different page for each program that uses commands on the F-keys (also a handy place to keep notes about other commands) Just flip the pages back and forth for each program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I put a little red sticker on the F6, Delete Line, key. Then it's just a matter of reaching up and punching it; I don't need to look so carefully. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Many programs can be aborted by pressing Q,W, X, Z, or CONTROL + Q, CONTROL + Q, CONTROL + X, CONTROL +Z, ESCAPE, or F10. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . In Germany, you can buy an AT keyboard which plugs into the ST. The AT keyboard is the best. High quality keys. It comes as a small separate keyboard (similar to PC's) and has a 2 meter telephone coil cable. Your ST is simply pushed back into the corner. Simply unplug the ST keyboard (a flat cable which is very obviouse when you open your machine) and plug in the AT keyboard. AT keyboards cost about 60 pounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Be careful with the keys. ST's are made of cheap plastic. The keys break off very easily. There's a lot of users with missing keys. I broke my Backspace key by dropping a dictionary onto it (small wonder!) Rubber cement doesn't work; it just gets loose after a while. It stayed loose for a long time, until a friend suggested model airplane glue; it's made for plastic (the guy at the store asked if it was for toy airplanes or toy soldiers. I said "for my toy computer"). It worked great. Solid connection. Be VERY careful not to glue the key to the sleeve; you'll freeze the whole thing. Use a toothpick to apply the glue. End of Chapter Two: The ST Keyboard. ====================== * * ====================== Chapter Three: The Mouse There's only one thing to say about the mouse. When waiting for a command to be carried out (waiting while opening a program, waiting while a text is being reformatted, etc), don't wiggle the mouse around impatiently. You send information to the computer when the mouse moves; the computer slows down what it is doing and begans to pay attention to your mouse movements. In other words, if you play around with the pot, it just takes longer to boil water. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Your mouse should roll smoothly. If it doesn't (it feels like rolling on rubber), then you must clean it. In the back of your Owner's Manual is a short description of how to clean your mouse. It is not enough. You need to go further. Open the mouse, as the manual tells you. Use a cotton swab (the little sticks with cotton on the end) which has been moistened (not dripping) in alcohol and wipe the three rollers, turning them too. This softens up the dirt. Take a clean, small, sharp knife (or whatever) and gently scrape the dirt from the rollers, turning them as you go along. (As my chemistry professor used to say: CRAP = Chemical Residue in Apparatus). Don't scratch the rollers. Don't try and see how high the little ball will bounce. Put the mouse back together. New mice cost at least 50$. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Some mice will go "walkies," as one British puts it. As you work on the keyboard, for no reason, the mouse arrow will fly across the screen. Notice that it only goes either straight up and down, or horizontally. There was quite a debate in ST WORLD last year about this; there are several different theories on the reason for this. There are also several different cures; many of which involve fooling around with the hardware. Try pushing the mouse plug tighter into the computer. It doesn't seem to be much of a problem; if it's not broke, don't fix it. Mine does it quite often; other people are rather amazed when it goes flying off by itself. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The right mouse button works on the desktop. When you have several windows open, point at an inactive window, hold down the right button, and point and click with the left button. The right button lets you work in non-active windows. Nice, but useless. It's so easy to click up a window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Oh, right, nearly forgot. Mousepads are all the rage. They really are better as a surface. Don't spend money buying an "offical" pad at a computer store; go to a scuba divers store (underwater sports) and buy some Neoprene, the stuff that wetsuits are made of. That's what mouse pads are anyway (who ever came up with that?). There are two kinds of neoprene: wetsuits and drysuits (A wet suit lets water in, but insulates. A drysuit keeps water out completely.) Use drysuit material. (If you use wetsuit, then it won't "hold" to your table top. Use some double sided tape to hold it down.) The stuff is expensive by the square meter (around 40 £ / square meter of certain thicknesses)(it is measured in cubic centimeters), but you only need a 20X20 cm piece (mine is .40 cm thick). If you use the SPEEDMOUSE.ACC, then you only need 16x16 cm. Don't hope for a free scrap piece of material; none of it is thrown away. They use the little pieces for making fingers for the gloves. End of Chapter Three: The Mouse. ====================== * * ====================== Chapter Four: About Disks, Disk Drivers, TOS, Formatting, File Storage, and Copying. Regretably, much of the information regarding disk formats in previous versions of the manual was wrong. This was due to misconceptions about format procedures. These misconceptions are widespread; many of the formatting programs available are poorly written: you risk loss of data by using them. I thank Olafur Bragason of our UG for explaining much of the following to me. It is very difficult to talk "just about the format," as if we could ignore TOS. TOS, ("The Operating System"), is called on other machines the DOS, the Disk Operating System. You notice this mostly as the File Selection Window. TOS keeps track of what directories have been moving in and out of the drive. When you read a new disk, by updating the directory window, TOS reads the directory and the FAT into memory. That stays there until you read a new disk. The old directory is erased from memory and a new directory is read in. TOS is therefore an interaction between the memory, the directory window, the FAT, the drive, the drive head, the disk, the format on the disk, and the directory on the disk. Complicated? You bet. It is difficult to talk only about one of these. To start, let's look at formats. The disk stores data. That data must be placed on the disk in a fashion so that the drive can put it there and quickly find it again. The format is a structure which helps the drive head know where the head is on the disk. As a Macintosh text puts it, the disk is like a parking area: white lines have to be drawn so that the cars can go into spaces. By drawing the lines correctly, more can fit into that total area. How a disk is formatted (structured) is up to the person who writes a formatting program, within the physical limits of the drive mechanism. ASSUMING THE STANDARD FORMAT: HOW YOUR DRIVE WORKS Your disk is divided into concentric rings, called TRACKS. These rings, or TRACKS, are divided into SECTORS. Assuming the standard ST format, track #0 is on the outside. Track #79 is near the center. The first few tracks and sectors are used for storing information about the disk and files. There are eighty tracks (0,1,2,3...78,79 = 80). On each TRACK (or ring) are 9 SECTORs. These are numbered 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and 9. Every sector can therefore be identified: for example, Track 54, sector 4. On a single sided disk, the data is stored as following: Track 0, Sector 1 = Boot Sector Track 0, Sectors 1-6 = FAT 1 Track 0, Sector 7 to Track 1, Sector 2 = FAT 2 Track 1, Sector 3 to Track 1 Sector 9 = Directory Track 2 to Track 79, Sector 9, = Files. The File Allocation Table (FAT) keeps a list of where your file gets scattered all over the disk. For safety, TOS keeps a backup copy on disk; this is FAT 2. If you want to fool around with the FAT, then here are the values for FAT entries. The FAT has one entry for every data cluster on the disk. If the entry for cluster n is m, then four things are possible. m = 0 (zero), then the cluster is not in use. m = FF1-FF7 means that the cluster is damaged and should not be used. m = k where 0<k<FF1; this means that cluster n is part of a file and that cluster k is the next cluster in the file. m = FF8-FFF; this means that cluster n is the last cluster in the file. It is not necessary to know this information for using the ST. The Directory is just that: the list of which files are active on disk. When looking for your files, go to track 1, sector 3. The directory keeps only the name of the file, the location of the first cluster for that file, and the kilobyte size of the file. On a double sided disk, the data is stored as followes: Side A, Track 0, Sector 1 = Boot Sector Side A, Track 0, Sector 2 to 6 = FAT 1 Side A, Track 0, Sectors 7,8,9, plus Side B, Track 0, Sectors 1 and 2 = FAT 2 Side B, Track 0, Sectors 3 to 9 = Directory Side A and B, Track 1 to 79 = Files. We can immediately see problems. Most file recovery programs are set to look automatically in a specific area for the directory sectors. A recovery program made for single sided disks will look in track 1, sectors 3 to 9. But if we are using a double sided disk, then this recovery program, set to look for directory sectors in track one, will find files. A double sided recovery program will not be able to find the directory of a single sided disk, because it is looking for side B, which doesn't exist. Each sector holds a maximum of 512 bytes, or 0.5KB. This is effective with large files, but small files, fx SPOOLER, which is only 497 bytes, will be inefficiently stored. The smallest storage unit is a CLUSTER which is two sectors. Thus your drive will use a cluster, or 1024 bytes of space, to store 497 bytes. The rest is ignored. The sector is made of a header, the file data, and a closing remark. As the disk head goes flying along, it meets a new sector. First it reads the information in the header. The first information identifies the track number. Then follows the disk side information, then sector number, size of sector, and then the CRC, the Cyclic Redundancy Code (to check for possible errors). Then the head reads the data in the sector. At the end is the CRC again. This closes the sector. Now onto the next sector. So the head reads sectors 1, 2, 3, 4, etc in a row in each track. Now on to the next track. But to switch over from one track to the next leaves very little time, so to make sure that it has gotten into the correct track, it waits a whole new turn in order to read sector 1. Therefore much of the time, the head is being very careful about where it is. If the disk is new (blank), then the drive starts at the outside and works its way inward, saving/reading data along the way. But if the disk has been used very much (files deleted, saved, redeleted, etc) then lots of spaces open up between active files. The computer will then store data on those tracks and sectors, scattering your data not in one long piece, but here and there, anywhere it can find space. This is effective for using the disk in the best way possible, although it will increase the time for the process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It's a good trick (thanks, KHS,) every once in a while to copy all of your files to a new, blank disk. Then the files will be re-stored in the most efficient way, one after the other, sector by sector, in one long line. This reduces access time terrifi- cally. You can do this by transferring all your files into a RAMdisk, deleting all the files from the disk (just throw them from the disk into the wastebasket), and then saving again from the RAMdisk to disk. This can save 30 to 40% time, especially on a boot disk. This is especially effective on a Harddisk. Place the large programs first onto the disk; those programs which you read only and never change. A "disk organizer" is very useful; it sorts out the files on a disk and places them in the most consecutive way possible. This is very useful on a harddisk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Remember, the disk drive head works in the most careful way possible: it floats over the first track and then moves inward. It starts at the outside the first time. This is not however efficient: the directory could be placed in the center of the tracks, for example, and the most distant file would not be more than half a disk away. TOS was written to be compatible with IBM PCs (you can find those in museums). Many users have noticed that they can read IBM formatted 3.5 inch disks. It seemed like a good idea. TOS, and the ST, was developed in only six months. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A double sided drive works the same way. Both heads move over the disk, but together, not separately. Hence a single sided drive cannot read a double sided disk because a double sided disk has track one on side A and track 2 on side B and track 3 on A side and so on. It reduces access time, but makes it impossible for a single sided drive to read, because all it finds on the top side is track 1, 3, 5, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A possible use of the option of giving the disk a name is suggested by OB. He names the disk according to the formatting program so that he knows how it was formatted. It rather difficult, however, to change the disk name afterwards without a new format. VOLUME.PRG can, in certain cases, change the disk name, but only once. Again, this has to do with the nature of TOS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Finally, there are programs to check the disk drive speed (SPEED.PRG). A correct value should be 300 to 305. If higher or lower, it is possible that the drive is reading/writing data incorrectly (the disk sectors will show up too soon/too late for the disk head). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NON-STANDARD FORMATS In the past half year, we have seen some very clever formats. Some of these place sectors in better patterns. Others take advantage of peculiar aspects of the disk head mechanism to improve read/write speed. Why would anyone not use the standard ST format? Non-standard formats can do several things. You can format faster (often just 18 seconds for a format). You can read/write much faster; often more than 50% faster. You can also put much more on a disk (up to 55KB more per single sided disk, or even 118KB more with a hyperformat). If you have 40 disks, this can be about 2000 KB more, just on single sided disks. You must understand how a non-standard format functions. Otherwise, it is pretty certain that you will lose data. Back to the number of sectors/tracks, and their layout. There can well be more or less than 9 sectors. Eleven sectors seems to be the maximum limit. Amiga disks possibly have one sector per track. There can be up to 86 tracks, for example, instead of 79 (the first track is number 0, so "79 sectors" is actually 80). It is a mechanical limit that keeps most drives from making more than 82 tracks: the better heads can go further towards the center of the disk. A formatting program also creates a sector called a BOOT SECTOR. This is used for making a boot disk. If you use another disk for booting, then you can choose not to have a boot sector on a disk. Thus you can store data on that sector. The standard ST format always creates a boot sector; you can boot with any such disk. Another trick is to make fewer directory sectors. The standard format allows space for 112 entries; you can keep up to 112 files on a single sided disk. This is somewhat generous; you could have for example a maximum of 64 entries. Do this by specifying only 4 directory sectors, instead of 7. That gives you three more sectors for data. By these various methods, then, if you have a good disk drive, and a good formatting program, you can place 11 sectors in 86 tracks, with no boot sector, short directory sectors, and you can have up to 475 KB on a single sided disk. A STANDARD FORMAT has 357KB per side. An EXTENDED FORMAT has 390 KB per side. A FAT DISK or FAT FORMAT has 412 KB per side. A HYPERFORMAT has up 475 KB or more per side. The sectors can also be laid nonsequentially on a track. Instead of putting 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11, the sectors can be 1-7-2-8-3- 9-4-10-5-11-6- and on to 1 again; this cleverly gives the head a space between each sector. As it reads sector two, it finishes and is ready for sector 3. But on a standard format, 3 comes right after 2. That is too fast, and hence it must wait another turn of the disk. A nonsequential format gives the head a space between sectors to get ready for the new sector: it reads sector 2, skips sector 8, and then reads sector 3. (There is some discussion here about why some programs can read faster than others. TEMPUS can read a file much much faster than 1st Word. Tempus possibly creates a buffer into which the file is first placed, and then organized for the program's use. 1st Word will read the sector first, and then spend time organizing it and placing it in word processing format. Then it reads the next sector. But by this time, the head has already gone too far; 1st Word must wait for the disk to turn once again in order to read the second sector. The many "Fast Read" programs thus deal with this aspect of 1st Word, which is why they don't help with other programs.) The first sector on the track can also be "sacrificed;" made useless, so that no data is stored there. An error is written onto that sector. This has the advantage of letting the head swing immediately over to the next track, reading the first sector, checking that it is on the correct track, and then going onto the second sector, where it can begin to read at once, instead of waiting for a new turn. It is in exploiting characteristics of the Atari disk drive that "FAST FORMATS" are made. Since they give the head more time to read, by either skipping sectors or with blank final sectors, the head reads the data correctly. These "fast" formats are safe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The directory window, the TOS, the disk drive mechanism, and a misunderstanding of the disk identification procedure all comes together to produce the next problem. This was widespread most of last year, causing many people the dreaded "directory crashes." The ST drive has a way of speeding things up. If you open a folder and look inside and then close again, the ST immediately gives you the previous window again, with all of the contents, without re-reading the disk. The ST saves some of the information of the directory reading (the contents of the window) to memory. It assumes that you did not change disks; it just reads the previous directory from memory. What happens when the computer reads a new disk? The ST uses an 80 byte space in the memory to hold information about the disk. First the directory sectors are read (file names, file informa- tion (date, size, folders, etc.). Then the FAT (File Allocation Table, where the file is spread over the individual sectors) is read into memory. The file names and folder names are sent to the file selector window. When you enter a folder, the ST goes "down" into a second level; it keeps the first level in memory and reads the information for the second level. When you go into a further folder within a folder, then it is "down" three levels. As you move back up from the third level, it reads the second level from memory, not the disk. To go from the second level to the first, top level, it again reads from memory. At any point, whatever level you are in, you click on a file, the ST looks at the FAT in memory and knows where to start looking for the file on the disk. The entire time, the ST must be certain that you did not change disks: if you change disks, then the FAT information and the stored directories are worthless. To prove this, take out the disk in the machine and put in another disk (which is not write protected ("write protect" is the little tab in the back corner of the disk) and was formatted by the ST format menu). The drive noticed that you took out a disk (An infrared light shines through the write protect hole. The infrared light which detects write protection was blocked for a moment as the disk went by, and then for a moment was unblocked, and then blocked again). Click on OPEN FILE. The drive will start up and read the directory. Click CANCEL. Open the directory again. This time, the drive doesn't run. The directory was read from memory. Click on the grey bar at the top of the file select window. The window refreshes, but the drive doesn't run. TOS knows that you haven't changed disks: the infrared light wasn't blocked as if a disk had gone in and out. Hence it just uses the information from memory. On every screen redraw, which happens about 70 times per second, TOS takes a look at the drive and checks whether the infrared light is blocked. Now put a write protected disk into the drive (push the tab so that the hole is open). Open file select. The drive runs, because it knew a disk was removed. Click Cancel. Open again. Drive runs again. The light is shining through the write tab; for all it knows, a disk has been moved. So it checks again. Click on the grey bar. The drive runs again. In the test above, the directories were read from memory. Now, TOS reads them every time from disk. Since TOS, on each screen redraw, sees the light shining, it can only assume that the disk has been removed. TOS is checking serial numbers. When you format a disk, the disk gets a random number as its identification: the disk serial number. TOS checks these numbers to know whether it should make a new directory reading or whether it can just use the previous directory in memory. This is where a great deal of problems come from. Most formatting programs don't change the serial number. Apparently, most persons who wrote formatting programs didn't know about this. Some of the standard documentation (the books for programmers) contain this error. They don't explain that the serial number on the page is an example. So the number is either set to zero or perhaps the same for all formats. You end up with a box of disks which are, for TOS, identical. When you start switching disks, TOS is going to start adding each new directory to memory, thinking that it is all the same disk: the serial number is identical. Imagine the problems if all women looked alike. This "false" serial numbering is the reason for most of the directory crashes, directory window problems, opening a folder but nothing happening, and "wrong" directories which most users have seen if they have used formatting programs (especially FAT formats). One frequent error occurs in 1stWord / Wordplus: you open a directory, open a folder, and then switch disks and update the directory. TOS thinks that the same disk in in the drive (serial numbers are identical) and therefore will try to go "up the directory tree", that is, just return to the level above. But there it will find entirely different information. If you try to save your document at this point, say goodbye. TOS will get disk information from the first disk (where the blank sectors are, etc). You now have the second disk with an identical serial number: TOS will save your document onto the second disk as if it were the first disk. Your data goes on top of other data. The ST uses the FAT from the first disk to save information on the second disk. Remember that the directory sector holds files. It also holds folder names; but only the names, not the contents. The directory contents of the folders is not kept in the directory sectors: that is kept in the data sectors. (Hence, a disk can hold a maximum of only 112 files. But if you place files in a folder, then you can have unlimited number of files.) Make a "wrong" format disk (two with identical serial numbers). Place a number of files and folders and folders in folders on each. Enter the first disk, go down a few levels. Change disks. Ask for a directory re-read to read the new directory. The ST uses the FAT of the first disk to find the contents of the folder. All it is going to find in the second disk's file sectors is stored data from that disk, not the file names which should be there. Hence you are going to see recognizable bits and pieces of perhaps a text file in your file selector box. At this point, the experiment is over: the FAT is destroyed and all of the files on the disk is lost. It is therefore essential that you use formats which correctly give a random serial number to a disk. If you are having problems with the directory windows, now you know why. Use either the standard ST menu format, FCOPY_2.PRG or ALPHAFORMAT.PRG. The write-protected directory re-read, which checks serial numbers, is used by some commercial programs as a copy protection. The program is making sure that you have the original disk somewhere on your desk. You can recognize this problem if you have a non-standard format made with a poor formatter. You click on a folder to open it, and the drive runs and the screen blinks, but nothing happens. The ST has tried to check the serial number, finds that it is the same, and simply reads the directory again. You get a new directory, which is simply the one you had before. This is why the directory window, which otherwise works so well, can get so confused if you pop non-unique serial numbered disks in and out, reading new directories each time, opening and closing folders. If the disks have been formatted without a unique serial number, then the directory window thinks that you have not changed disks: the serial numbers are identical (usually all are zero). But since it is in fact a different disk, the identification of the sectors/tracks will be wrong. So when the ST tries to read the sector, it opens the folder, but doesn't find the correct data. You get a totally blank directory window. Don't panic. Your computer can smell panic. Simply give the ST a disk which has been correctly formatted (that is: it has a unique serial number). The ST becomes happy because now it KNOWS that the disk is different: it performs a new directory reading and everything is okay again. The serial number is exploited as a form of copy protection. When the original is made, the program makes a note of the serial number. When you make your backup copy, your correct formatting program will give the disk a new serial number, as it should. But the program will see that the number has been changed, and therefore reject the copy. Ironically, a "bad" formatting program (which does not set new serial numbers correctly) is good for making backup copies of programs which are protected in this way. Some copy protected programs will, at random, cause TOS to check the disk for the correct serial number. You will notice that the drive runs every once in a while. TOS is checking the serial numbers. The program will then compare that number with the number that the disk was given when it was formatted at the factory. I wrote above that an exotic format may cause loss of data. There are several ways. If the serial numbers are incorrect, then TOS will know from the first disk where the blank sectors are. When you insert the second disk with the same serial number, then TOS will write data onto sectors which it thinks are blank. If you have extra sectors/tracks, and use a sector copy program which does not know how to find those sectors/tracks, then the extra data will be lost. Normally, the information about the format of the disk is at the beginning of the disk. That is usually automatically read by a copy program when the disk drive starts up; but if the copy program is stupid (doesn't check for strange/different format structures), then it will apparently copy the entire disk, and, when you check it, everthing seems to be there. But since the special format stores things in "illegal" places, the copy program will not find that illegal data, even with a format monitor and verification ON (telling the copy PRG to verify the copy). Most copy PRGs don't look for those extra tracks. Parts of your files will be missing. Asking the SHOW INFO doesn't help; it correctly keeps the information in the directory sector that your file is 243,678 bytes long, but that information is stored in the directory sector anyway; whether the actual clusters exist is another matter. The only certain way to make a backup of an extended format / fatdisk / hyperdisk is with a RAM disk or an intelligent formatting program. Again, if you're going to make a disk which will be copied repeatedly by different people (a PD disk, for example), then use the standard 356KB format. The point is: use radical formats only if you: Know what you are doing. Are using a good formatting program. Have a backup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I wrote that you must click on the grey bar in the directory window. Many programs fool around with this: it doesn't seem to be standardized. If you click in the slider box (the up and down space on the right side), TOS will read the directory from memory. You should use this if you haven't changed the disk (no need for a new disk read). If you have changed disks, then click on the grey bar for the first read. Thereafter, you can use the slider box. If you follow this procedure, you will never have trouble. The upper left black box to close a folder, the grey bar to read a new disk directory, the white space in the slider box to freshen the directory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The famous 40 folder problem. Another misunderstood problem. This is actually the 40-folder- visited problem. If you visit (look into) more than 40 folders during a single session, the Atari disk will suffer a directory crash; opening the 41st folder will erase the entire directory sector. This problem has been very misunderstood. Since the ST, to save your precious time, saves the directory to memory, each new folder open/close means a new directory to memory. There is an error in the ST: it often doesn't completely clear away old directories. Bit and pieces remain there. After a while, that becomes a mess in there. You will notice, after a long session, that the FREE MEMORY accessories will report on very little remaining memory, even when there is nothing in the memory. Most people do not get this far in a session. A simple, quick reset just clears the air and everything is ready to go again. This is a major problem in TOS. It can't be changed without a major rewrite of TOS. If you do cross over the limit, it is "Sayonara, User-san!" (that's Japanese for "Adieu, Monsieur!") Those directories come back to haunt you. The directory window gets filled up with bits and pieces of texts and programs. Take a good look. That is the last you will ever see of that disk. The directory is destroyed and the disk becomes unreadable. This happens without warning. Fixing the problem. * A simple reset every once in a while. * Don't use so many folders. * Don't run more than 40 disks in a single session through the drive. * Use any of three programs called 100FOLDERS, FOLDRXXX, or FOLDR999; these increase your folder limit by giving more space to the memory for dealing with directories (if you use such a program to allow 150 folders, for example, then you have a 150 folder limit; crossing that limit is goodbye). FOLDRXXX is the "official" fix written by Atari Corporation. All of these are public domain programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Recover Lost Files To rescue things out of the garbage can. Okay, so you got careless, excited, or whatever, you've deleted a file or even your whole disk either by dragging it into the garbage can or by clicking DELETE in 1st Word. First you of course have a backup disk. Secondly, no panic. The computer doesn't actually delete your file, it just changes the directory name from an active file to an inactive file, one which, on the next WRITE or SAVE, will be written over. The computer, to save time, doesn't actually erase the whole file (Atari USA cares about you). The computer just makes that space free for the next WRITE. In certain cases, you can restore that file name, as long as you haven't made a new WRITE or SAVE. The manual to the DISK DOCTOR is pretty good. Before you attempt this kind of surgery, Herr Doktor, practise first. Set up a file, delete it, and then load your disk doctor and try and recover it. Practise makes good recoveries. Make a backup disk of your injured disk before you try surgery. Copying disks with a sector copier will copy not just good files, but also 'deleted' files, since sector copying is also bit copying. Recoveries however have many problems. As we noted above, the fact that directory sectors may be in different places means that many of the recovery programs will not function on double sided disks. There is not yet one that will recover files that either were inside a folder, or an entire deleted folder. Sadly, one cannot just enter the directory with a disk editor and simply restore the correct values (a delete flag is E5 which is substituted in place of the first letter of your file name). It should be reasonable to simply convert that value to anything else (fx 55, which is U). But the directory entry contains only the file name, file size, and information which identifies the first cluster. Restoring the file name will save your file name, and only one cluster of material (about one screen full). The rest is still lost. The following programs have a file recovery ability: DR_FLOPPY.TOS, GOODIES.ACC, MINI-DOS (all PD). The ability is however very limited: you will need to experiment. H and D (Holmes and Duckworth's) disk tools FRECOVER.PRG (a commercial program) works very well with single sided disks, as long as the file was not in a folder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . There are different kinds of DISK DOCTORs. Some work by only opening the directory sector and changing files back from inactive to active. This is easy and quick. But if your disk has suffered a directory crash, in which the entire directory has been destroyed, then another kind of DISK DOCTOR is needed. If the first one is a first aid, then this second one is a sort of DISK SURGEON (as explained to me by Arthur Dent). This one goes through and reads each individual sector, cluster by cluster, allowing you to save those to a new disk. It's more work but it works in those places where the first one doesn't. Such a program is RECOVER.TOS (PD). If the disk was a work disk, on which you have made countless write/deletes, you will find to your amusement that the file, especially a long file, has been scattered in bits and pieces all over the disk. Recovering can be done, but you will spend a long time putting it back into correct order. It is practically impossible to do this with programs: you can rarely distinguish codes from garbage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SINCE YOUR LOST FILE HAS BEEN CHANGED FROM AN ACTIVE STATUS TO AN INACTIVE STATUS, IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DON'T PERFORM A NEW >SAVE< ON THAT DISK. IF YOU DO SAVE, THEN PART OR ALL OF YOUR LOST FILE CAN BE OVERWRITTEN AND THUS CAN REALLY BE LOST. NOT EVEN THE BGS CAN GET THIS BACK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The following piece of information is intended to be read only by users who know what they are doing. After about 12 months and 5 minutes after you buy your ST, that is, five minutes after your garantee dies, your ST will die as well. This has happened to quite a few users: you are working happily along, and you ask for a directory (open a window from desktop, load a new file, etc...) and there is nothing there. Your disk is blank. You tearfully try another disk. Blank as well. All of your disks are blank. You go down to the store; they grin (!) when you tell them what has happened. The salesman says "Well, we maybe can fix it. It will take two days" (after which his grin becomes even wider.) (!!) You come back after two weeks of no ST'ing. Your ST works now. You shake the salesman's hand and gladly pay the 60 to 100 dollar repair bill (two hours of expert technical work on the machine). You walk away, waving: his grin is triumphant. (!!!) Why doeth the heathen rage? That turkey in the store has just plundered you for 12 seconds of work. Most likely he took it home and fixed it himself. If this happens to you: blank desktop, no files in any disk, O bytes used, etc, then 0) Read Point 11. Twice. Read everything once, and then once again. 1) Unplug everything. Otherwise your mother will find Kentucky Fried Chicken sitting in front of your ST. 2) Place your ST on a large, firm, flat surface. Flip your ST over. Take out all the little screws. Keep them separate; if you put the long (back) screws in the front, they will go through the cover and stick out. 3) Remove case. 4) More screws. Take out. Lift off keyboard. Be careful not to twist or break off the keyboard wires. 5) Atari does not want you in here. Undo the little metal twists and remove metal plate gently. ST's are put together by 15 year old girls in Thailand. They have nimble fingers. Ask your neighbor's daughter to get the back ones. 6) Now, you can see the chips. The insides of the machine. Using the first three fingers of your five fingered right hand, gently press all the large chips squarely down. This does the trick. What happened was that the chips eventually get loose: the girl who built your ST had The Furs (Forever Now) on her walkman. 7) Start putting everything back together again. The cat put the screws under the sofa. See point 2. 8) Plug it up again. Insert a disk, and start computer. 9) Your files are back from Limbo. Place 60$ in an envelope and send to me (address at end of text). 10) If this doesn't work, try again. If it still doesn't work, you have real problems. 11) ANY MODIFICATION, CHANGE, OPENING, JUST PEEKING INSIDE, FOOLING AROUND, THE CAT DID IT, OR WHATEVER WILL CANCEL YOUR WARRANTY. THE STORE LOVES TO CANCEL YOUR WARRANTY FOR ANY REASON. DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. IT IS NOT MY FAULT, AND I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY, IF YOU RUIN YOUR ST OR BLOW OUT THE ELECTRICITY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Then, there is the last trick. When the going gets tough, get rough. If you are getting 0 bytes used, either as a blank screen, or getting more bombs than the Ayatollah, then: 1) Find a large, flat, solid surface. 2) Unplug everything. 3) Pick up your ST evenly about 4 inches, or 10 centimeters into the air. 4) Drop it. 5) Other users prefer to slam it down, firmly and solidly. 6) This has the effect of jarring the connections. I have seen this done several times, and it works. If you are too gentle with the machine, ask your wife to slam it down. They usually do this happily. Be prepared to grab it away from her after the fifth swing. 7) Believe it or not, this is usually the first thing a repairman does with your machine. Just like a whorehouse. Slam, bam, thankyou madame. 50$. You got screwed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you want data and material on the disk to really disappear, only a new disk FORMATTING will garantee that. Otherwise, the local cop's 12 year old kid will happily tell in court how he got your files out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PC users provide endlessly amusing stories. The White House uses IBM PC's. That's right. Ronald Reagan, Edwin Meese III, and Oliver North all have PC's. They are all connected in one big network in Washington. When Reagan told Ollie North (who worked at the National Secruity Council, Tlf (202) 456-4974) to do the silly things he did (sell weapons to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (the guys who kidnap and kill the foreigners in Beirut) in order to pay for Contra terrorists (who were partying in Panama, and occasionally selling General Noriega's cocaine in the US by flying it on the CIA's Southern Air Transport airplanes (to call the CIA, dial (703) 351-7676) and US Air Force airplanes and landing at Florida's Homestead US Air Force base)(one of the cocaine agents got caught in New Orleans with 40 kilos; Edwin Meese III, Attorney General of the United States, the top cop, and Reagan's failed appointment to the Supreme Court, released him. And returned the suitcase to him, saying the man was on important business). (Was there to be a White House party that weekend?) (Meese III is currently in a new scandal; something about 1 billion dollars, Irak, and bribes to the entire Israeli goverment not to bomb a pipeline. Nothing is clear: they are all lying over this one.) Ollie did all of his work on his PC. No problem. Move money around in Swiss banks, send off sailing orders for Danish ships, order C-5A loads of Sidewinder missles: just punch the keys. When "the shit hit the fan" (to quote George Bush, Vice President of the United States, Head of the National Security Council, Ollie's boss, and candidate for President), Ollie just ran home and punched "DELETE FILES." Clever Ollie! The Congress wasted no time with his lie under sworn testimony ("No such files.") and simply asked for the backups. Imagine Ollie's stupid look when he said "Backups? What backups?" Too late: the White House didn't even know that there were backups automati- cally being made of all their little deals. (Ollie and Nofzinger both "lied like hell" to Congress during the Irangate hearings. Congress is pretty easy going, but they don't like liars. Nofzinger got 3 years in a Federal prison for that. Ollie's trial is coming up.) What is Nancy Reagan doing today? Just call up her social secretary and find out! Nancy's day is given on Tlf. (202) 456- 6269. Ronnie's bedtime schedual can be heard on Tlf (202) 456- 2343. To send your fan letters, write to: The White House, 1600 Pennslyvania Avenue NW, Washington DC, 20500 USA. Or just call them up at (202) 456-1414. But I doubt you can order a shipment of cocaine there. Try the CIA number instead. Just say that it's Noriega and where the hell's the check. Dial 009 and then 1 for international calls to the US. One of the best map databases in the world is maintained by the CIA: the WORLD DATA BANK II. It works with ALC (Cartographic Automatic Mapping Program). You may use these free. Contact the CIA Cartographic Office at (703) 487-4650. Remember, they are there to help you. The telephone number for the National Security Agency is secret. The work and purpose of the NSA is secret. The budget is secret. The number of persons who work there is secret. The organization is so secret that for a long time, the name itself was secret. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VERIFY ON and VERIFY OFF: Don't use these programs. VERIFY OFF will help the drive read faster by not double checking each sector/track. This saves about 50% time. This should however be done only with material which you READ only (such as games). Eventually, you will notice errors: small bits and pieces will be missing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A FILE COMPRESSOR can reduce the KB space of your file. For example, some work by substituting long identical strings for single symbols, saving up to 50 or even 80% on text files. This saves space on disks, especiallly with backup disks. This is also useful for transferring large amounts of data over a modem (it saves telephone time). We use ARC.TTP (ARChiver) as the standard on the BBS. Use this program together with ARCSHEL2.PRG. Both, with manuals and explanations, are available as PD. The same thing works as a PICTURE COMPRESSOR. Your picures take up 32KB, only ten per disk. A compressor lets you put up to thirty pictures on a disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . COPY PROGRAMS There's a great story about an IBM user who was having problems with his programs; the distributor asked the user to send in copies of the faulty PRG so they could check it. And the user sent in two copies. Nice photocopies, front and back, of the disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Why copy? You need backups. Disks are not "stable." They can lose data easily. Laying them on top of the TV, dropping them, static electricity, pouring coffee into them, some tourist opening the safety and touching the disk, losing them, or having them stolen. If you lose a disk or data on a disk, then a backup will save you time. Practically every user at one point or another will lose a file or disk. I've lost 74KB files and even entire disks, for no clear reason. If you can't afford to lose it, make a backup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The ST makes copies pretty well; this is how you made your backup copy. Basically, you duplicate your source disk to your target or destination disk. If you have a single drive, as most of us do, then you've noticed that it takes four disk changes to copy one file. If you're copying 57 files in 17 folders, take up knitting instead. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . There are other ways of copying which make it easier. You can either use a COPY PRG or you can use a RAMdisk. There are two ways to copy: the first is actually a FILE TRANSFER. You find the active files on the directory file and then copy them onto the new disk. The second kind is called SECTOR COPYING (also called bit copying): you copy sector by sector, regardless of content. Yea, for it is written in the Book of the Lord, Blessed are those who maketh their Backups (Romans, IV.15). (see especially the the Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790-1793, by William Blake.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "Protected" means that information has been written into the PRG or the disk has been formatted in a special way which makes it difficult to COPY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It is simple to copy several non-protected files (file transfer). A RAMdisk works best here; transfer the files into a RAMdisk, insert new formatted disk, and transfer the files from that RAMdisk to the target disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . To copy whole disks, use a sector copy program (for example, FCOPY2). The program reads your entire disk into memory, and then throws it out again onto your new disk, formatting as it goes along. This is quicker. FCOPY2 is very fast (18 seconds for formatting/copying). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . As noted above, you must be certain that whatever program you use, the serial number is set correctly: each newly formatted disk must have its own serial number. If the formatting program doesn't do this, then you will notice that when you try to open a folder, often the drive will run, the screen will blink, and your folder doesn't open at all. Of course, sometimes you need a formatting/copying program to not change the serial number: if your commercial program has a protection system based on serial numbers, then a new copy will create a new serial number, which the program will then reject. By using a faulty copy/formatting program, the serial number will be copied as well. The program will then check serial numbers, find that it is the same, and thus allow the copy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . To make a backup of a copy protected program (This information is only for those who want to make a backup disk). Commercial copy programs often sell specially because of their ability to copy a protected program. There are also public domain programs which can copy protected programs. Curiously, some powerful copy programs will copy some programs, but not others. It has to do with the different kinds of copy protection methods. But as soon as someone comes up with a new method, two weeks later there's someone selling a copy program which guarantees to copy it. Just collect all the copy programs you can find, and try them one after the other on difficult programs. Some will work. There are different levels of protection; low level means that the program will copy quickly, usually within one or two minutes. Medium level will take more time, Top level copying will take very long; sometimes up to fifteen minutes. Copy programs may offer the ability to specify the various protection levels and to format the destination disk in various ways. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Software piracy is beginning to have an effect. American software houses are dropping development of ST software; there is too much piracy (of course, they were never seriously into the market. And it is easy to drop a machine which has such a small share of the American market). It will take time to see if this happens in Europe. Americans mostly play games on the ST. Europeans use the machine more seriously. Signum is nearly unknown in the US. SUPERBASE was developed in the UK; it has sold 130,000 copies, earning 10 million pounds, despite it being unprotected, because it needs a manual. If you use the program for work, then pay for it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Service and support for registered owners is however non- existent. I have registered copies of my work programs; I haven't gotten anything out of that. Support has been lousy. We rarely hear from companies, and then only to get advertising. I haven't yet gotten offers of updates or whatever else. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dealer's choice: The quickest, most versatile, and easiest to use is FCOPY_2.PRG (a PD program): user friendly surface, allows multiple copies, disk scanning (for formatting errors), sector control, verification, and directory listings. It creates Stan- dard, Fat and Extended formats, plus various exotic formats. It is very fast. It also creates fast formats (the new disks will run faster). It correctly creates a unique serial number for each disk. I use FCOPY_2 for all my PD work. Never a problem. Other copy programs: SUPERCOPY.PRG is powerful. Requires 1MB. It's PD. Other users recommend PROCOPY V.1.32UK. ST.COPY.30 (not PD) and BITTE_EIN_BIT is recommended by many users as well. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It doesn't hurt anything if you put disks in or out of the drive while the drive's red light is on. Many users do this. Just shove one in while the red light is on. If you accidentally delete a file, then you can instantly pop the disk out of the drive; this may save your file. It takes a brief second for the head to start deleting. Of course, this hysterical leaping at your drive will not impress the surf foxes in Malibu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . About cheap disks. There are two kinds of disks. Good ones and lousy ones. All disks are double sided. That's the way they are made. They are then tested. If they are good on both sides, then it is sold as a double sided disk. If it is good on only one side, then that side becomes the top side and it is sold as a single sided disk. You can easily use double sided disks in a single sided drive; your single sided drive, having a disk head on only one side, simply can't use the other side (the bottom side, or "B" side). You can also used disks sold as singled sided in a double sided drive. Use a format checking program and see if it works. If yes, then it is okay. The disk manufacturer sets a very high standard for the disk: often we can use it anyway. It is better sense to buy double sided disks; you will one day have a double sided drive and your disks will be okay for use. There is a very small price difference. There are branded and unbranded disks. There are lots of rumors about this. The general story is that the Koreans began making cheap disks. The Japanese let every one know that good disks had serial numbers stamped on the back. The Koreans began putting serial numbers on all disks: the same number. The Japanese, who consider the Koreans the same way Israeli think of the Palesti- nians, began flooding the market with high quality disks as unlabled disks at below production costs in order to destroy the Koreans. This is probably true; I have seen large shipments marked from Maxell which contained unlabled disks. There are plenty of cheap disks. Be careful. Some are cheap in quality; you can only format perhaps 60 percent of them. Have a written garantee from a dealer you can trust that he will exchange the bad disks. We have had spoken agreements which were forgotten the week later. If you are lucky and find a safe supply of unbranded disks, then you can use them. We get unbranded disks from Maxell for our UG; of several thousand disks, none have had problems. Amiga drives are much more sensitive than ours. If a disk runs on an Amiga, then it is very good. We buy disks which are Amiga quality for our ST's. Which brand is good is a matter of discussion. Americans find Sony to be the best and BASF to be lousy. Germans put down SKC disks. Many of these criticisms were made last year: as you can well think, it is never clear if loss of data is because of the disk or because of a formatting error or bad program. (Consider especially the entire Serial Number debate above. I know quite a few programmers who still believe that all disks have the same serial number). Use FCOPY2; it scans and checks each disk for bad sectors / format errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you've noticed, when there's not a disk in the drive, it takes a long time for the silly drive to figure that out. The drive checks three times to make sure that the disk is missing before it tells you. Someone should write a quick simple program which shortens this "triple checking." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . READ ONLY: From the SHOW INFO menu. READ ONLY is pretty useful. To change a file so that it can only be read, that is, so that it can't accidentally be changed or deleted, first save it. Then close the file and exit 1st Word. Open the disk and ask for the file. Use the pull-down menu for FILES and ask for SHOW INFO (FREMVIS INFO). The window will ask whether the file should be READ ONLY or READ/WRITE. By marking READ ONLY, the file will be protected against accidental deleting, changes or further editing. To remove this protection, simply repeat procedure and mark READ/WRITE. This is a simple but effective method of protection for programs on your work disks. Change your favorite programs to READ ONLY and sleep better. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DISK ICONS: To change the names of your disk drive icons (see also DESKTOP.INF section above). Click once on the icon (so that it is black) and then ask for INSTALL DRIVE in menu. Press ESC (Escape) (upper left hand of your keyboard) and type in the new name, using either capital or small letters. Click INSTALL. The icon now has a new name. Place these where ever you like on the DESKTOP. Insert your boot disk; click on SAVE DESKTOP (GEM DESKTOP) and the changes will be saved to your boot disk. Now you'll have your own icons every time. Your desktop can support up to 26 or so disk icons, which is rather pointless, as you can only use a maximum of 2 real disk drives. Of course, 24 disk icons will certainly impress those Malibu girls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Harddisks: there is little to say about harddisks; the high prices of harddisks for the ST has meant that not many users have them. Harddisks are just about standard for any serious use of a computer. There is no reason for buying an Atari harddisk over a Supra. Both are just as good. The old Atari 204 should be avoided; many of them have problems. The new 205's work very well. The 205 set up program will easily configure the 204 so that it (the 204) can autoboot. Please read the section regarding the 40 folder limit. You will need to have a program allowing at least 100 folders. If you buy a used harddisk, check the drive carefully. Get a written agreement which allows you to return the harddisk in case of problems. Several members have had harddisks which crash or delete material. You will still need disks. You need to make backups. The worst thing about harddisks is the fan. It makes a hell of a lot of noise. This is fine if it is in an office, where there is background noise. But in a home, the high whining noise of the fan is nearly unbearable. The harddisk which is on the BBS is running 24 hours a day, to the great dissatifaction of the home. The harddisk which I have used is bothersome; I switch on the drive to load, and then immediately switch it off again. To save, flip it on, save, and then off again. It starts up in just under 13 seconds. If you can get harddisks without fans, such as IBMs, then it is better, even if it is not as convenient. The Atari Harddisk is tough. I heard of a person who transported his harddisk in a small rucksack. I have put my on the back of my bycycle. Some time ago, while resanding the floors, the shelf on which it was sitting collasped and the harddisk fell one meter onto a hardwood floor, landing squarely on its side. No damage to files. The Atari harddisks have a cable which is only 30 cm long (or something like that: it is very short). You are forced to have it just behind your computer. The fan is not far away. Occasionally move all harddisk files over to another drive, delete the drive, and recopy. This noticebly improves access time. It is possible to build harddisks using a cheap IBM drive and a controller. Several persons have done this. Soon, someone will began to build and sell such harddisks: the price will be around 3000 Kr for 30 MB. A 10MB harddisk is possible for under 2000 Kr. The ST can manage up to 64MB of material. When this becomes a reality, contact the UG for further information. Another possibility is 10MB disk drives. These use 5.25 disks which look like our 3.5 inch disks: each holds 10MB and has the same access time as a harddisk. Simply insert and remove. The disks could give you a large storage capacity in relation to money. Again, you can save money by buying in West Germany. An Atari 205 harddisk, which costs 6,500 Kr in Denmark (and is unavailable), costs 4,000 Kr in West Germany and they have all the harddisks you can carry. Simply pay MOMS (VAT, or Danish taxes) at the border, which means that the whole thing costs around 4,700 Kr. A bus will take you to Germany and back to Aarhus for 35 Kr; do your shopping there, buy a couple of bottles of wine and celebrate on the trip back. You can pay in Kroner at most cities near the border. Call and reserve a harddisk before you go. The 5 gigabyte (5000 megabyte) compact disk drives is a spectacu- lar piece of nonsense. A single disk which can hold 30,000 to 45,000 programs is possible. The copyright fees alone on such a disk would a fortune; if we consider that each program would cost 10 dollars, then the disk will cost a bit under half a million dollars. This could be an idea for PD collections, which are free; the IBM PC PD CD costs 200 dollars and has 45,000 programs. But PD collections are obselete within 3 to 4 months. Commercial programs are updated every few months. And CD's are read-only: you can't change the data. Therefore you can't save program preferences, setups, etc etc. End of Chapter Four: Disks, Drives, TOS. ====================== * * ====================== Chapter Five: Ram Disks What it is. RAM disks: Just what is a RAM disk? Well, first, what it is, and then what you can do with it. A RAM disk is a program which creates a virtual disk drive. 'Virtual' mean 'as if' or 'fake'. The computer thinks that there is another drive. The program takes a chunk of memory (RAM) and sets it for holding data. The good thing is that this data moves back and forth very fast. There's no bother about the drive reading the disk. You know that your disk drive can only read data at the blinding speed of 250 KBits per second. Blinding to turtles. If the data transfer occurs directly on chip, then that little bunny hops faster. RAM disks have all sorts of different names. Disk Cache, Buffer Disks, Memory Disks, Memory Cache, Electronic Disks, Virtual Disks, and then there's all the commercial products: K- RAM, to mention the best known, and MAXIDISK, ETERNAL, Mike's RAMDISK, RAMBUFFER.ACC, and PROFILRAM, to mention the best public domain versions (which are all much much better than K-RAM). The different kinds of RAM disks: First of all is the standard one: either a program or an ACC; you specify the size, set it up. You can't change the size later. Reset and it is gone. Redefineable is better. You specify the size, set it up, and then change the size (smaller or larger). "Reset proof" "Resident" or "resettable" means that the contents will survive a reset: you reset (either to start up new ACCessories, delete others, or just hop out of a program, or you bomb out); no problem; everything is still there. "Compressor" RAM disks will automatically compress the contents (and decompress to run or use); this lets you put for example nearly 500 KB of data into a 350KB ramdisk (amount of compression depends on whether your files are text, programs, etc). And "dynamic" RAM disks have no specific size: You just throw whatever you want into the drive icon and the RAM disk will grow to fit. As you delete, it reduces in size again. To make a RAM disk, first load a RAM disk program (plenty in the PD disks)(double click on it). Then use INSTALL DISKDRIVE in your menu. Some RAM disks will demand that your disk have the right name. Others don't care and will work in any drive name. Make a new disk drive Icon, the letter must be in capitals, either C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, etc etc, go all the way to Z if you like. The description can be anything you like: 3rd Disk, RAM disk, RAM disk, Ramdrive, Disk, Karen's Disk, or just blank; that line doesn't matter. Click on INSTALL. It's now active. Use it just like a second or third drive. Don't format it; you don't need to. You can then copy data from your real disk into your 'fake' disk. And from your "fake" disk to your real disk. You can open multiple windows from that RAM disk icon and move things from one to the other. Deleting is very fast. If you want to keep that icon on your desktop for next time, click SAVE DESKTOP. Why use a RAM disk? If nothing else, it is a very fast way of copying from one disk to another. Copy your data into the RAM disk, switch disks, and then copy from the RAM disk to the new disk. No changing disks. Simply drag the DRIVE ICON into the new window. If you have no ACC.essories, then you can make a large RAM disk, up to 80 or 90% of your entire memory, and copy entire disks as often as you like. This doesn't work with copy- protected programs, of course. Copying in this fashion is called a FILE TRANSFER. The best use for a RAM disk is to run your programs. Make a RAM disk just big enough to hold 1st Word plus some files. Open the RAM disk, double click on 1st Word. instead of taking ten seconds or so to load, it opens in less than two seconds. Create files and save them; it is very fast. There is no nonsense with disk access times. Pop out of 1st Word (QUIT), you go out, and then load in again. Out and back in seconds. It's great if you use big programs which require frequent changes to look at disks or use other programs in between. The problem, if any, with a RAM disk is that you have less work memory. If you start with 400KB of memory and cut up part and call it a RAM disk which you make 300KB large (or any size you want), then your available working memory (what is left over) is only 100KB. You can of course make very small RAM disks, only 20 or 50KB large, or any size you like. Remember that a .PRG often has some .RSC files (RESOURCE) along with it. Those contain graphic notes and perhaps various saved user specifications. All of these must be transferred into your RAM disk (for example, 1st Word.PRG + 1st Word.RSC, and, if you're going to print, 1st Print.PRG + 1st Print.RSC.)(Try this, you can print instantly, without switching disks or any nonsense. If you have a spooler as well, then it works great.) Note that if you SAVE onto a RAM disk, you have to transfer the data from the RAM disk to your normal disk at the end of your work session. When you turn off the power, the RAM disk and everything in it disappears. If you have a bad electrical connection and your ST loses power, then you lose data. If there are big electrical storms, the electricity may also fail. But of course, when there's a big storm, it's more fun to sit on the balcony with a bottle of whiskey and watch the lightning (set your camera for infinite focus, f5.6, a wide angle lense (28mm or so), use a manual release cable and let it catch a few good rays). If you are using a program which often crashes, then you will lose your data in the RAM disk. Just like women, RAM disks are different come in different ways. Some of them, you set up, and to get rid of them, you have to boot them out. Some you have to live with their size; others you can change at will and specify the size. The best of all are ones which can be set up and then taken down, without rebooting. Others are more clever. These are called RESIDENT RAM disks. You set it up, re- boot, it's still there. And best of all, they're faithful; it won't lose the data. These are the absolute best to have. If you have a crash, if you decide to set up a new accessory, or get rid of one, just reset. The RESIDENT RAM disk will keep all your files. RESIDENT RAM disks are somewhat difficult to get; a RESIDENT RAM disk has to be written especially to your TOS. For example, a German RESIDENT RAM disk, written for German ST's, usually will not run on a Danish TOS. MAXIDISK, a RESIDENT RAM disk with a built in file compressor, will compress files automatically (especially text files) so that you can hold over 800 Kb in a 500 Kb RAM disk. MAXIDISK works fine on Danish TOS. Although some people complain that it is a bit slow (it takes .000003 microseconds longer to open a file) than other RAM disks, it is the only one which compresses. It is also available without the compressor. Another great thing about Resident RAM disks is a trick which I discovered. Create your resident RAM disk in drive icon C. Save desktop. The desktop.inf file is saved not on the disk, but in the RAM disk. Copy that file from the RAM disk to your real disk (so that it is present in both A and C drive). NOW... place all your accessories in the RAM disk. Reset. Voila! They load not from disk, but from the RAM disk. Which is of course faster. There are no problems with RAM disks and 1st Word. It really makes it easier to use. Put 1st Word, 1st Print, and both RSC files into the RAM disk. Now, when you print something, there is no INSERT WP DISK nonsense; you can print directly from 1st Word. Try this; it will convince you about RAM disks. MMCOPY .ACC, a public domain PRG, works great to transfer files from disk to RAM disk and back. But of course, it's so easy to go in and out of a PRG with a RAM disk. Some programs will not run in a RAM disk (ST Basic, for example. But that doesn't run anywhere anyhow anytime). Others work very well, much faster. Degas, with all of its silly disk operations, works very well on a RAM disk. Flight Simulator is a pain in the neck on disk; just when it gets interesting, the screen stops so that the disk can load new scenery. Just make a 350KB RAM disk (Maxidisk can be much smaller) and copy everything over. Click on FSII.PRG. Instant startup and no silly disk loads; fly the jet in and at and over San Francisco. Smooth operations. If you've noticed then, using the ESC to switch disks in A drive and using RAM disks, there is no need for a single drive user to have a B drive icon. For those who think ST's are great, just look at the Amiga RAM disk. It is always available. It expands as large as needed, and automatically reduces when you delete material out of it. Always resident. There has appeared a new RAM disk from TOMMY software: reset proof and dynamic. If it compressed as well, I would be happy. End of Chapter Five: RAM disks. ====================== * * ====================== Chapter Six: The Monitor (fooling around with your screen) ICONS: it is curious that these little things are called "icons." The word comes from Greek and means "representation;" it mostly now means a religious pictorial representation, or an object of uncritical devotion (for example "$"). An icon is desktop image which makes it easier for you to manage data. The different icons has particular rules: a folder icon acts only as a folder. You can't make an icon do something else. This makes it easier to remember rules; instead of writing obscure command lines, you simply drag the different sorts of objects around the desktop and the various commands are carried out automatically. There are three different kinds of icons: DISK icons, which look like file drawers: click on them twice to open. FILE icons can look like stacks of papers; PROGRAM icons look like nothing in particular. FOLDER icons act like folders; they can contain both FILES and PROGRAMS; folder icons are used to manage your data. There is also a WASTEBASKET icon; anything (except a DRIVE icon) that is dragged onto the wastebasket is deleted. That is much easier and more intuitive than some bizarre set of commands such as "DEL C:/WRK/*.CFG (ENTER)", which means just delete. You can experiment and find out that you can give any file a PRG ending and its icon will change to look like a program icon. Just try to start this new "program" of yours. Nothing happens; the data is not a program, even though its icon looks like one. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DESKTOP.INF: You will notice that when you click on SAVE DESKTOP (with an unprotected disk), a little file is created which is called DESKTOP.INF. This has some very interesting abilities. Assuming that your desktop was the way you liked it (icons had your names on them, icons and windows were in the right places, etc), then by having DESKTOP.INF on your start up disk, things will always be to your liking. You can edit (change) this file even more. WORDPLUS, ridiculously enough, can't open Desktop.inf. Oh, well. Dig out your 1ST WORD (and switch to WP MODE off) or nearly any other wordprocessor or text editor. Load DESKTOP.INF. Don't try and use WP MODE. You will see the following: (Line) 1 #a020000 2 #b000000 3 #c7770007000600070055200505552220770557075055507702111103 4 #d 5 #E 83 03 6 #W 00 00 30 01 1D 17 08 C:\*.*@ 7 #W 00 00 10 01 1D 17 00 @ 8 #W 00 00 00 04 26 0E 00 @ 9 #W 00 00 0F 0A 15 0B 00 @ 10 #M 00 01 00 FF C 350 Ram Disk@ `@ 11 #M 00 00 00 FF A Disk Drive@ @ 12 #T 00 06 02 FF Waste Basket@ @ 13 #F FF 04 @ *.*@ 14 #D FF 01 @ *.*@ 15 #G 03 FF *.APP@ @ 16 #G 03 FF *.PRG@ @ 17 #F 03 04 *.TOS@ @ 18 #P 03 04 *.TTP@ @ 19 #G 03 04 WORDPLUS.PRG@ *.DOC@ (I have added a line number for reference. My keyboard and TOS don't produce a backwards slash; I have a Danish ø (o with a slash) instead. The "@" symbol (which usually means "price per piece") isn't supported by my printer driver, so I don't what how it will appear, if at all, on paper. This is my DESKTOP.INF, yours will certainly differ. It has also been converted to WP mode; don't try to use it.) What does all this mean? Line 1: The settings for the SET RS232 CONFIG. Line 2: Settings for the INSTALL PRINTER. Line 3: Colors and Key Repeat from CONTROL PANEL. Line 4: Not yet in use. Line 5: Saves SHOW DIRECTORY command. Line 6- 9: Determines how and where windows will open (fx, line 6 has the command for a window for Drive C to open)(C:\*.*@) Line 10,11: DRIVE ICONS. The coordinates, values, identifiers, and label (name on screen). Line 12: TRASH CAN ICON. The coordinates, values, identifiers, and label (name on screen). Line 13,14: Commands for which files/folders will have icons. Line 15- 18: Which files can be run as programs, and what kind of program they are: GEM, TOS, TTP. Line 19: Which programs are INSTALLED APPLICATIONS and the type of files for each (fx Line 19, "WORDPLUS.PRG@ *.DOC@" Wordplus has been set up to load when any .DOC (*.DOC) is double clicked). If there are futher INSTALL APPLICATIONS, then they will appear as extra lines. To change the name of your WASTE BASKET, simply edit line 12. First, ON A UNPROTECTED FORMATTED DISK, click SAVE DESKTOP (or GEM DESKTOP) from your menu. Your desktop configuration will be saved to your disk in a file called DESKTOP.INF . Now load 1st Word, switch off WP MODE, and open this file (open DESKTOP.INF). Half way down the middle, in line 12, you'll see the old name 'WASTE BASKET' or whatever. Carefully! delete those letters and write in your new name (AFFALD, GARBAGE, DELETE, PAPER WOLF, BLACK HOLE, GOODBYE, WC, TEMPS PERDU, 4th DIMENSION, NIEMEHR- SEHEN, SKATTEVÆSNET) etc. There's only enough space for 12 letters; experiment. It is not necessary to use capital letters. Click SAVE FILE. Re- boot. If you did it right, your waste basket has a new name. If you did it wrong, just delete the file and start over again. You can also rename your disk drives here (lines 10 and 11), instead of using the INSTALL DRIVE from the desktop. This method has the advantage of allowing small letters. Just delete the old name and write in your new name (maximum of 12 letters). Drive, Disk Station, My disk, Top and Bottom Drive or Left and Right, Harddisk, Ramdisk, Virtual Disk, Library, Hot Mama!, 500KB, The Big One, or just blank.) Save and reboot. You can also change line 6, by changing *.* to *.PRG, so that the window will only display any file with the ending .PRG (especially useful on a harddisk, where you keep only programs, and don't want to see all the silly .RSC and .DAT files). Furthermore, Line 19 can also be used to let your system look in another drive for an installed program. If you try to run an installed program from Drive B (C,D, etc) and the program is in Drive A, TOS will often sucessfully look "upwards" into Drive A. But if the program is in Drive B,C, etc, and you start the file in A, then TOS won't think about looking "downwards." By adding a pathfile to the program name, you can have the program in a second drive (your harddisk or ramdisk) and just double click on the text file in drive A. I place Wordplus in a folder called "WP_TOOLS". Thus I would write: C:/WP_TOOLS/WORDPLUS.PRG@ *.DOC@ (Note: the slash / should be a backwards slash.) This tells TOS, when any .DOC file is clicked anywhere, to look for WORDPLUS in Drive C, and in a folder called WP_TOOLS. And last of all. You've noticed that once you've installed a program, it stays installed. You can't "de-install" ("de- stall"? "un-stall"? "out- stall"? Whatever.) You usually need to just make a new DESKTOP.INF. No more. Just open up that doggie, find the line (19 etc) and delete it. Save. It's no longer installed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DO NOT DO ANY OF THESE EXPERIMENTS ON YOUR BOOT DISK. Use an extra disk for this experiment. If it works, fine. Copy the new DESKTOP.INF to your boot disk. If it doesn't, just turn off the machine and insert your old boot disk. Back to the laboratory, Herr Doktor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . You don't have to go through all this to make your desktop for different disks. Just copy the DESKTOP.INF onto the other disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If your desktop gets that annoying habit of opening new windows directly on top of other ones, that is because of your DESKTOP.INF. Just place the first window where it should be. Place the second one where it should be. Same with the third. The fourth too. Now close those windows one at a time (if you want opened windows at boot time, open them now). Now click SAVE DESKTOP. Desktop.inf will now remember where you like your new windows to show up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The names of files and folders is practically up to the user. You can write anything you like, except small letters. Underlines create spaces, and ESCape deletes the whole line. Be careful not to use an underline in the directory line (the line at the top of the Select window); this crashes the ST. The three letter EXTENDER at the end of the file name (for example, .ACC, or .DOC, or .BAK) is also pretty much to the user, except a few are reserved for the computer (for example, .PRG, .ACC, .TOS). Give a file the extender .PRG and it will be given a PRG icon, regardless of it being program data or not. Many programs require that their files have specific extenders. Look at the other files in the program and use those extenders. Folders can be named anything except AUTO; the contents of AUTO folders (programs) are run automatically when the machine is booted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What are those .RSC for? That's where info about the PRG is kept. It can be changed and then your PRG will act differently. For example, when someone in Quezon imports 1st Word, they open the .RSC file and translate all the English into Tagalog so that the user gets his local language. It's no big deal to do this. But that's why you need to keep the .RSC files along with the .PRG when it loads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ASCII vs Wordprocessing format. To write a text file which can be opened from the DESKTOP and read like a normal file, switch off the WP MODE (Word Processing Mode) and then SAVE. Your file will be stored as an ASCII file, in standard characters (ASCII = American Standard Codes for Information Interchange) There are two kinds of formats for text files: either wordprocessing format (and each specific wordprocessor has its own special command codes for bold, underline, etc; these codes are stored along with the file), or ASCII formats, which is bare bones. Just text. No fancy stuff. No bold, nothing. Just letters. Storing files as ASCII is useful for making READ ME files or indexes to data on disk. If you are going to transfer text files to another computer which may not have the same wordprocessor as yours, then you MUST transfer it as ASCII format; otherwise they will only see nonsense on their screen (their wordprocessor can not understand your wordprocessor's special codes). However, style commands, such as underlining or BOLD will not be transfer- red. Just use that computer's WP FIND AND REPLACE option to put those back in again. You can mark such places in your text by writing a unique group of words for each command, such as *BOLD*, and then using FIND AND REPLACE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . To copy or delete a whole group of files, just DRAG a box around them; this selects all. You can also use SHIFT and click on the individual icons. This lets you select a group of icons which aren't together. If you miss one, then they all revert to normal. This also works in reverse. If there are 27 icons on screen, and you want every one except the one in the middle, DRAG a box around everything so that everything is black. Then press SHIFT and click on the icon you don't want. It turns white. This is called DE- SELECTING (that is certainly not good English. Computers were obviously developed by Californians.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AUTO folders are special. Any program in the a folder called AUTO will be automatically loaded when you boot. Just make a NEW FOLDER, call it AUTO. Fill it up with all the spoolers, ramdisks, utility programs, etc. This works well, except with programs which have a lot of graphics (like 1st Word). A Boot disk with twenty PRGs in the auto folder and six ACCessories will take a looooong time to open; your computer has to read, verify, and load all of them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . There is now a program which will load a GEM program (AUTOGEM). Just copy this into your AUTO folder, and, when you boot up, your chosen GEM program will automatically start up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By pulling down the CONTROL PANEL and moving the three color bars to the other end, the monochrome screen will invert colors (white on black). Move them back again to reverse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you get a slight flimmering on the screen, this can usually be fixed by tightening the monitor plug into the ST. Just jam it in as tight as you can. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you have one of the newer ST monitors, you can change the size of the screen (larger or smaller). Just fool around with the screws on the back of the monitor. You can increase the size of the screen so that there is very little black border. It is done like this to compress the screen image and thus create higher density (a better image). Increasing your image is not going to mean that you can see more lines. There will be some loss of image density. It is possible to do this with the older monitors, but you need to open the monitor casing. A German word processor, 2nd Word, cleverly is able to show an entire page on screen by the simple trick of turning the monitor sideways. By standing it on its side, you get a more normal page size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . About monitor radiation. All monitors, being cathode ray genera- tors, produce a large electromagnetic field around them. Exposure of over three hours per day can lead to health problems: mostly headaches. There is also sleeplessness, heart disturbance, and flimmering vision (sounds like being in love). Longrange effects are unknown (birth defects, cancer, genetic variation, etc.) An independant comparsion of 17 monitors by a respectable West German consumers test institute found the ST SM124 and SANYO CRT41 to have the least electromagnetic radiation and therefore be the safest on the market. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Last things are always cleaning. The best way to clean your screen is with a few drops of eyeglass cleaning fluid: you can get a little bottle of the stuff at any eyeglass store or drugstore. Eyeglass stores usually give away small sample bot- tles. Really takes off the greasy fingerprints and reduces glare. End of Chapter Six: The Screen. ====================== * * ====================== Chapter Seven: ACCESORIES ACCESSORIES: Because the ST TOS can't multitask, it allows a sort of ability to access certain other programs within a program. These are ACCessories (those files with the ending .ACC, such as CLOCK.ACC). An .ACC is a special kind of program. It loads automatically from the disk into memory at BOOT time. While using any GEM program, you can always get instant access to those accessories. You can gain access to this PRG (use it) by pointing with the mouse at the ATARI logo in the upper left corner. The menu drops down and you can select the accessory by clicking on it. It will then appear in the middle of the screen. If your main PRG is a GEM program (MENUS, WINDOWS, etc, like 1st Word), then you can always use an ACCessory within that PRG. An ACC.essory will not load if: 1) the EXTENDER is not .ACC (it could be .ACX, etc). 2) the .ACC is inside a Folder. 3) it is faulty (missing data, bad copy, etc). 4) its .RSC file is missing or faulty. If the extender is other than .ACC, just use SHOW INFO from the FILES menu to change (edit) the extender from .ACX back to .ACC. You can't load more than 6 ACC's at one time; the ST will crash (actually, it just won't start up). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Note that old CONTROL.ACC (16KB large) requires two ACC spaces (one for the CONTROL PANEL and one for INSTALL PRINTER). The new Control Panel (20KB) solves some of this problem by bringing the printer install options and the RS232 emulator into one ACC. The control panel can also be used to invert the screen colors. On monochrome systems, pulling the color bars all the way to the end will invert colors (white to black) and back again. The ROCP.ACC, the Read Only Control Panel, is great. After a few months, you never change the settings in the control panel. Yet the thing takes up 20 KB of space. The ROCP reads the control panel information from the DESKTOP.INF file and sets it up in a 4Kb file which takes up only one slot. It doesn't take up so much KB space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you run out of memory, you can create more space by 'switching off' your accessories. Click once on your ACC file, and ask for SHOW INFO (VIS INFO). Change the directory extender (file name) from WHATEVER.ACC to WHATEVER. AC1, for example. (or .AC2 or .ACX or anything except .ACC) then reboot. Your ACCessories will not be loaded. To start them again, go to your desktop, click, and change the name back to WHATEVER.ACC. Reboot. If you have any AUTO folders, change the folder name to something else or open the folder and change the .EXTENSIONS from .PRG to .PR1 or whatever. To avoid all this opening and closing, I keep an extra disk with no ACC's or AUTO folders and boot with that (especially to make very large RAMdisks.) Another possiblility is an ACCes- sory LOADER PRG; during BOOTING, it asks you which ACCs should be loaded. It then automatically changes the extender. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Another useful utility is a FREE RAM indicator; there's several, with all sorts of names. These are small ACC's which tell you how much memory is free (availabel). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frankly, I don't think much of clocks on screen. They eat up a lot of memory (a simple digital clock in the upper corner needs 30 KB). They have to be set every time. Atari made a good choice by not putting clocks into the machines: less work, lower prices. I've not yet noticed a reason for having a clock. Many users stick little clocks (cost about 1 $) on the front of the monitor (over the ATARI logo). I have. It's always there; needs no attention. Stopwatch and date included, which is handy when using the modem or timing operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The same with calculators. They seem great, but it's more practical to keep a small solar calculator stuck in your disk box. Always there. If you absolutely will have one as an accessory, then there are scientific calculators, normal ones with and without memory, and even a HP- 41 (Hewlett Packard) available as PD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . And notepads as well. It's just more practical to keep a pencil and some note paper on your desk. Write down file names, etc. It is precisely when you most need a notepad that you are in a situation in which you can't use it. The groove on top of the ST makes a great place to park pencils. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Speedmouse.ACC is very good. It lets your mouse move twice as far over the screen; a simple wrist movement moves the mouse from one corner to the other. This reduces the mouse movements and you don't need as much desk space. I have gotten addicted to the Speed Mouse; if I boot without it, then it feels like swimming in honey. End of Chapter Seven: ACCessories. ====================== * * ====================== Chapter Eight: Wordprocessing The first version of this section was easier to write: 1ST WORD was the standard (and nearly the only wordprocessor) on the ST. But now, there are dozens. 1ST WORD, that simple word cowboy, has gotten updated into a new program (Wordplus). WORDPLUS, SIGNUM (1+2), TEMPUS, WORDPERFECT, BECKERTEKST, are all standards. There are at least 15-20 more wordprocessors and text editors. You must chose your wordprocessor like you choose any other tool. An ax is no good for anything but chopping wood. You don't need a professional wordprocessor, no matter how much the girls will be impressed, if you don't need it. First there are two kinds of word tools: word processors and text editors. A text editor works just with plain text: no fancy stuff. No reformats, no bold or underline, just ASCII, the English alpha- bet. This is good for editing program codes and for writing straight text. TEMPUS is the best: unbelieveably fast, lots of options, and only 60KB (you must see it in action. NO wordproces- sor comes close). A wordprocessor is for fancy writing. Nice blocked paragraphs, underlining and other style commands, automatic pages, WYSIWYG display. (What You See Is What You Get, pronounced "wissy- wig".) There are simple wordprocessors (like 1ST WORD V1.06). There are ones with dictionaries, which check your spelling for you. Others have graphics capability, so that you can put pictures into the text. There are WPs with outliners; you are able to manipulate your text around as blocks, instantly restructuring the entire text. Some print in graphics mode, so that you get extremely good printouts, even with a cheap (okay, okay, your printer isn't cheap. How about..)... "economical" printers. Then there are DTPs, Desktop Publishers, which allow you to do magazine layout. All have limitations and weakness. If they have graphics, then they don't have outliners. They print in graphics mode, but no dictionary. Dictionaries are a pain in the neck to use with large texts. Some have only one font (one kind of alphabet)(ten fonts is not much. Macintosh and IBM DTP packages sometimes have 1,800 fonts. Any printing company works with tens of thousands) We have gotten some nice wordprocessors this Winter for the ST; none are yet truely excellent. The ST still has some time to go before it has a very good WP. But it isn't so bad. SIGNUM was written for the ST; there is nothing like it for any other machine. WORDPLUS is flexible and strong. There are rumors of a WP version of TEMPUS; that would be great news to professional writers. Habatext and Beckertext are two other popular wordprocessors. (Note: Calligrapher, which had such good reviews, was dropped this Spring; it had lots of problems.) This makes this section difficult. The previous versions assumed everyone had the same wordprocessor. Now, most don't. I can only write a few things about general wordprocessing tools which are in the PD collection. Specific tips for wordprocessors is nearly useless. See the BBS to find others who use your WP. Rules for buying a new wordprocessor: 1) Can I convert my texts from the old one to the new one? 2) Can I read other texts from other wordprocessors (either straight or with a simple conversion)? 3) Can I print out with the new program? This isn't a joke: the ST doesn't have a standard printer driver. Someone has to sit down and actually write a program (or redefine a printer program) so that your particular printer will print out a text. In the beginning, there were quite a few people who couldn't get their printers to print Danish, for example. And just because the printer will print out one text from one program doesn't mean that it will print yours. And just because a Juki printer will print, your Seikosha may not. And just because... etc. Seeing is believeing. Go to the store and print out a document with all the possible characters, functions, styles, graphics, etc. 4) Will the new program get along with all of my standard programs? Will it crash if I use my RAM disk, file transfer, accessories, etc? 5) If the salesperson is bothered by you asking all these questions, imagine how bothered he will be when it doesn't work and you come back. It will then take him at least a week to figure out how to solve the problem. If he is bothered, find a better store. Maybe you pay more, but you get service and support. 6) Will it produce ASCII files? Can I write a file and save it in non- wordprocessing mode? Sometimes, you will need to have such files. Things to look for: Graphics and multiple formats (not just Degas, for example). Footnotes (both at both of page or end of chapter). Blocks (moves either in window or to other windows). Size limits to blocks (ten pages maximum?) Styles. Multiple windows. Loads and saves ASCII text. Saves without closing window. Scrolling speed. Prints either whole text or block without closing window. Find, Replace, and with multiple strings (not just one at a time). Hyphenation (orddeling). Dictionary. Add and edit main dictionary. Outliner. Define F- keys. Redefine keyboard. Works from Ram disk or harddisk. Size. Printer drivers. Documentation. Multiple fonts/sizes. Design your own fonts. Intergrate with other programs (can your database create a file which the wordprocessor can read? Can you mix your spreadsheet and WP?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Some general notes about wordprocessors and printers: To print a long text without tying up the computer, use a SPOOLER PRG (a PD PRG). The standard one is 30KB large (these of course can be made any size you like)(it was written by a Dane). This sets aside 32 KB or so in the memory as an extra printer buffer (BUFFER = memory space)(your printer has only about 1 or 2 KB buffer). When you send your text to the printer, the computer reads it from the disk into the spooler, which will then feed it to the printer. Up to about ten pages of full text fit into a spooler. You can exit 1st Word if you like, and work with other programs. But don't turn off the computer. Set up the spooler by creating a folder called AUTO and then placing the spooler PRG in there. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If your paper sometimes starts to roll up in the printer, as my SEIKOSHA does every once in a while, then a long flat piece of wood, about 7cm wide, will keep the outgoing paper unable to curl back into the printer. (The Seikosha is otherwise good: prints 100 pages without overheating, always nice, correct letters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When working with various texts, I've found it works best the following way. First open each text in different windows. Place the main text (target text) full screen (covering up those useless F KEYS and FONT TABLE). Move it down just a bit so that there is space for a grey directory bar. Now open the other texts, all of them; zoom each down to long vertical strips, just wide enough so that the directory bar can tell you which text is which. Place all three up at the top, behind the target text. To call up a text, just click on it. You can see text in a strip. Create a block and CUT; that cuts also the part of the text which is beyond the window. Click back to target text and paste. If you want to see the whole text, just click on its expansion button (upper right square). It then fills the screen. Another click reduces it again. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Notes on particular wordprocessors: Notes on SIGNUM! Persons have actually bought the ST simply because of the program SIGNUM!. It was written for the ST and is unique; no other computer has something like it. Signum is excellent for fine printing jobs; think of the investment in the program as an upgrade for your printer. Characters, instead of being printed out in normal character printing mode, are printed in Graphics mode; it is drawn, dot by dot, with multiple passes. A character, instead of having a dozen dots or so, will have several hundred. Your 9 pin printer, even a cheap one, will thus produce characters which are better than those of a 24 pin printer; a 24 pin printer will print better than a laser printer. It is slow to print (8 minutes per page with a nine pin printer, but faster on a 24 pin printer). Signum also prints in proportional spacing. Signum allows you to place a character nearly anywhere on the screen: this is excellent for mathematical formulas and technical diagrams; its excellent font editor allows you to draw your own characters very easily, requiring no special knowledge. Have lots of memory; Signum uses 5KB per page. If you need to print a few pages with professional quality and various fonts, then Signum is the best. However, it is not very good for actually writing. Screen redraws are rather dramatic and confusing, you can't simply spring back and forth in texts. Blocks are difficult to use; reformatting also is difficult and slow; there is only one screen (no multiple windows). If you print long texts, be prepared to wait a very long time. Fifty pages on a nine pin printer can take about seven hours. There is a new version of Signum now, Signum!2. I haven't used it, so no report. Write your text on a good wordprocessor and then print out the final version with SIGNUM. Use REPLACE to turn all Danish into aa, ae, and oe in 1st Word/Wordplus. Then save as ASCII. Load into SIGNUM, and use its REPLACE function to convert those back again. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A few hints for 1st Word/Wordplus: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . There is an excellent German book to Wordplus (Tips and Tricks to Wordplus); this covers many of the options of the program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A curious thing about Wordplus. You load an ASCII text into it. You now switch WP MODE (wordprocessing mode) ON. You reformat. It won't do that. You then use SEARCH/REPLACE and replace all the spaces with spaces. It now will reformat. When you ask for REPLACE, press the space bar in the top line. In the bottom line (REPACE WITH), press the space bar again. The two are different. This is a bug in the program; however, it is a "good" bug. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . INDENT/OUTDENTS: to indent whole paragraphs (for extended quotes), hit F9 before starting the paragraph. Hit F10 to reformat the entire paragraph. The INDENT is cancelled after using the RETURN key at the end of the paragraph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 OUTDENTS: To write a paragraph with a number (like this one), write the first line, and then, at the second line, hit F9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . # LINES / PAGE: the program automatically assumes an American size page (8 1/2x11 in.). Change this by using LAYOUT from the FILE dropdown menu. ( DIN A4 = 8 x 11 3/4 in.) Single sheet european = 65 lines/page Fan sheet, european = 72 lines/page The RULER LINE at the top of the page is set for PICA (10 characters per inch) (1st WORD has 66 characters per line; WORDPLUS correctly has 65). There are ACCs which let you set up the printer: you can print out in elite, condensed, etc. Condensed is useful for making quick printouts which leave you room on the page for notes, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When printing, you can have ( Side # in Danish)(Seite # in German) instead of ( Page # ) (or just plain #, or even -#- , which gives for example -7- ) at the bottom of the page. Just ask for the Page Layout function, set cursor on Page # line, punch ESC to clear, and write "page #" in your favorite language. You can also put this anywhere on the page, not just the center, but also on the left or right side, or top and bottom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you are bothered by the default of the lines/page in the print option, then create a blank file with your usual layout, plus how ever many (or few) tabs you want. Save this as NONAME.DOC and open it everytime for a new file and then use SAVE AS to rename it. HS told me that he makes several blank files with the proper formatting information (headers, lines per page, tab marks, characters per line, etc) for different kinds of documents (one for plain text, another one for letters, messages, business letters, etc); when he opens a new file, he calls up one of these, writes to it, and then uses SAVE AS... This works pretty well. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . If you use Style commands a lot, then note that when a menu is pulled down, the keyboard doesn't work. Not quite. Nothing happens on screen, but when the menu goes up, all those typed in commands are carried out. Go ahead, make a block, pull down a menu, add in several style commands by punching the F keys. Click RESTYLE, and everything is carried out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DOUBLE COLUMNS: 1ST Word can only think in in one column. To make double, or even more columns, you have to fool the printer. Basically, just run the paper through the printer again and again. Make the first column ending at tab space 27 and then print. Then make the second column, also with 27 characters per line. Use the PRINT option to define the left hand margin (LEFT MARGIN OFFSET set to 46) to the middle of the page, and then reinsert paper and reprint. An easier way is to do the same as the last paragraph, but to use radical indents, starting at tab 38. This is more visible on screen. Set both windows next to each other. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Remember that you can always reinsert the same piece of paper into the printer. You can print text onto magazine pages, to make invitations, or letters onto Playboy foldouts. Be creative. You're not Nancy Reagan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . To put graphics into 1st Word. Just fool the printer. Make a drawing, print it out. Run the paper throught the printer again for the text. Okay, so it's not on screen. Pretend. Some people want everything. It's a cheap solution that works. Like beer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A little used, but very practical ability of 1st Word is the conditional page break. There are three kinds of page breaks: 1) a soft page break (which 1st Word makes itself at the end of the page, this is a --- with a number below it in the left hand window edge.) 2) hard page breaks, which you set yourself, a solid line with a number below it (press either F7 or click once in the left margin. Click twice on the number to remove.) 3) the conditional page break. This is rarely used; most don't even know what it is. And it is the best one. Make this by dragging downwards in the left side along the paragraph in the left side of the window. Remove by dragging upwards. It looks like a dotted line across and then downwards (see the side of this paragraph on screen). This function is very useful when writing long texts and you don't want certain paragraphs or tables broken up over two pages. It turns that paragraph or space into a special space which will not be separated over two pages. It maintains that option, regardless how many times you refor- mat or edit. If you read the text to a new file, then those commands are removed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . You can also print out Wordplus in Elite typeset, at NLQ, and then reduce on a photocopy machine 10- 15%, with a bit of contrast. This produces an excellent page image, as good as or better than office typewriters. It's trouble to use the FONT TABLE. Get KEYEDIT.PRG to redefine your keyboard layout (very easy to do, requires no programming knowlege). KEYMACRO.ACC will let you place macros (strings of text) on a key so that pressing ALT+ the key will produce your address or whatever. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Printer Drivers. If you are having difficulties in printing with your printer (no Danish letters or no special commands such as italic) then just try other printer drivers. Our PD collection has an enormous collection; make a test document with all the letters from the font plus special commands. Try one driver after the other, usually one will fit. Otherwise, ask, maybe there is someone in the group who made a driver for that printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Just because a character appears in your FONT table, it doesn't mean that your printer is going to like it. Make up a test text of all characters and see what comes out of the printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . To make blocks in WORDPLUS, you can start with a small one, then move the mouse to where the block should start or end: point and double click. You can also change the start/end of a block just by pointing to where it should be and double clicking. Nice touch to the program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It is not necessary to have 1st Word on the same disk as the text file on which you are working. When you load 1st Word, a copy of this program is put into the computer's memory. You can now take out the disk. The computer doesn't need it anymore. Put in the text file and ask 1st Word to open a file. It will work on that file. You can insert and remove disks as often as you like; your text (in separate files) can be on several dozen disks, if you like. (OK, so many of you know this. But there are some people who don't.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Be careful with the DELETE function in 1st Word; it's very eager. Sometimes, if your mouse is floating over a file name, and the drive is working, for not much reason, the computer will think that it is a double click and delete whatever the mouse is pointing at, especially if you just deleted a file. Keep your mouse away from the directory window and the OK box. This seems to be a problem with the mouse and drive. If the computer is in the process of opening a folder, a futher click is intepreted as a double click. It does have a use, however, if you're quick, then you can keep the drive running and click in and out of folders to see the directories. Another way to solve this is to change the mask on the directory line. For example, you want to delete all the backup copies (those files ending with .BAK). Instead of having A:/*.*, which means that you will see everything, just change it to show A:ø*.BAK ;this will mean that only .BAK (Backup) files will be shown; then you can just click away and delete the whole mess without worrying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WD+ has the annoying problem that it often can't read files which are not in its special format. I kept a copy of the old 1ST WORD simply because of this. There is a better solution. A "code remover" (such as AJAX.PRG) will remove or strip a text of special wordprocessing codes: you get straight text left, or just ASCII. Wordplus can then load this. But how about those texts which you can't reformat in WD+? Use CON_WP.PRG (Convert to Wordplus), a German PD; any text from any wordprocessor or ASCII is converted to Wordplus format. With these two small programs, you can read any text file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Some points about BLOCKS. To create a block, just drag the mouse over the text you want. To change that block, just point to where the block should start or end and then double click. This resizes the block. To get rid of the block, so that there is no more grey area on screen, just "create" a new block in a blank area (or make a new block which only covers one or two letters). Wordplus still can't think with more than one block. It would be nice to have several blocks at the same time. End of Chapter Eight: Wordprocessing. ====================== * * ====================== Chapter Nine: Magazines for the ST There are practically no translations in computering because last month's magazine is today's outdated information; a major reason for the domination of computer magazines over books as a form of information distribution. But you will eventually realize that today's hot magazine article is actually "cold news" from about three months ago; it takes time for the magazine to find the news, write the article, get it layed out, and printed. If you want hot news, then get a modem and join the BBS's. That is where the action is. Futhermore, magazines have commercial interests; in many cases, that's the only thing they have. Not only that they review article because they get paid by the software producer, but also some magazines will not review products if they are paid money by the competitor. Magazines will tirelessly review lousy products if they happen to own the distributor. Many publishers have the moral level of earthworms; they block or destroy other magazines simply in order to dominate the market. The "competition" between Atari and Commodore seems to be a product of both manufacturers (who are interested in selling their machine and putting the other one down). (Guess who makes ST chips. Right! Guess which company would go under if it didn't have a competitor who buys so many chips. You bet.) Magazines also have an interest in maintaining this "competition." In the early part of this century, William Randolf Hearst, America's newspaper king, sent Frederick Remington, the famous frontiers painter, to Cuba, to paint scenes from the then-on-going Spanish- American War, in which the imperialist US knocked imperialist Spain out of corrupt Cuba without a fight. Remington got to sleepy Cuba, looked around, and telegraphed to Hearst "No war here". Hearst sent a telegram right back, saying "You paint the pictures, and I'll write the war." West Germany is the major country for the ST. German is a very useful language to know. West Germans have bought 80% monochrome monitors, while the US and British users are the opposite, with 80% color monitors. This means that the Germans use the ST for professional applications, while the Americans and British are playing games. This can be seen in the difference in programs: American and British games are spectacular, with whorehouse colors and loud pop music, just like Ronnie and Maggie state events. (Starglider is basically about reconquering lost terri- tory by shooting everything in sight. SDI is a starwars game; enjoy the thrills of total nuclear war.) English utilities are usually simple TOS PRGs, with little graphics, few options. West German commercial programs are very developed; SIGNUM is an excellent example; no English program can compare to its sophis- tication. Only FLIGHT SIMULATOR II or VIP are in that quality. German PD's are usually better than the similar Anglo- saxon commercial PRGs: more options, more developed, more use of the mechanics of the machine. Ordnung muss sein! Drawing PRGS better than DEGAS and DEGAS ELITE can be found as German PD's. Of French PRGs, I only know that they've written a game in which UFOs kidnap all the cats on Earth and you have to play poker to get the kittys back. About ST magazines I'll start with West Germany, the powerhouse of the ST. West Germany buys over 30% of all ST's in the world, making it a considerable market. The 260 ST, smaller brother of the 520ST, is popular there, but users moved quickly to the 1040ST and beyond. Germany has produced technical and professional programs and hardware of a high standard. This is possible in part by the support and distribution of high quality information in their magazines. The foremost publication is ST JOURNAL (from DATA BECKER, Merow- ingstrasse 30, 4000 Dusseldorf, West Germany, tlf (0211) 310010), a computer journal which is the most professional ST developers journal in the world. Typical articles are written by persons with academic computering training. There is little advertising; the layout is that of a professional journal. The DATA BECKER publishing house also puts out a whole row of ST books, all on the various technical/programming aspects of the machine. The lower end, general books, tend to be a bit wordy at times (one book uses several pages on the mouse). The West German magazine ST- COMPUTER is the best ST magazine anywhere. It is probably directly responsible for the high level of ST work in Germany. New products and products in development are announced here. Authors are technically or professionally highly qualified. Products are reviewed not only from Germany, but from worldwide sources. The reviews are critical: the good and bad is carefully described. If the program is weak, they tell you. In- depth analysis of the industry, hard hitting interviews, and the direction of the development of the ST are standard. They often make proposals for projects. Articles explain how to build your own hardward (scanners, eprommers, etc) or complete guides to advanced programming. There are regular contests, with entire systems as prizes, for better software, and the results are professional. The magazine also sells hardware at low prices. ST- COMPUTER is the major source of ST PD disks in the world. No other source has such a large, varied, advanced collection. They present original PD's, sent in by their readers. The library has to be seen to be believed. Practically every single other PD library in Europe takes their disks from this source. In June of last year, they had a handful; in September 87, they celebrated disk #50 with champagne, February 88 has over 120 disks. Scienti- fic, mathematical, and professional programs, including utilities and accessories, are the mainstay of their PD library. There are German drawing and painting programs which are superior to commercial releases. 3- DLABYRINT is an example of a ST basic program which runs quickly and without error. Astrolabium, an astronomy program, is excellent. The trend seems to be towards writing the program in English; at least the screen picture is (mostly) in English. An updated list is in every issue. Their disks cost 10DM each. Our UG has a full copy of the ST COMPUTER collection. ST COMPUTER has close ties to Atari Deutschland, but stand nevertheless editorially independant. The magazine is the best monthly ST computer magazine, not only of Germany, but for both Europe and the US. (ST COMPUTER Redaktion, Schwalbacherstr. 64, 6236 Eschborn, West Germany, about 30$ a year) Another West German magazine is ATARI MAGAZIN. It covers all Ataris, both 8 and 16 bits. There are listings, reviews, personal ads, and contacts as well. (6 Dm each, from Verlag Raetz- Eberle, Postfach 1640, Melanchthonstrasse 75/1, 7518 Bretten, West Ger- many. Tlf 07252/3058.) 68000'er, the West German magazine, was written for the Macin- tosh, Amiga, ST, and Sinclair QL. The QL died, and so it was dropped. Mac people do not read anyone else's magazines (MACUSER is the best for Macs), and so Mac rarely appeared in the magazine. In March 88, Amiga was dropped as well. The publisher annouces that he will make a new magazine for the Amiga. The point is however that the magazine will continue as an ST magazine, not an Amiga magazine. The market is appearing to settle out: the machines, which are nearly identical, are getting a profile. Amigas are either for kids (games) or video studio work (TV studios), with little in between. ST's are somewhat for games, but mostly for home and small office applications (wordprocessing, programming, business, university student, and self- taught programming). 68000'er will now be called ST MAGAZIN. It is a large format, glossy paper magazine, dedicated to 68000 chip computers. The magazine is up to date and informative. There is a personal ads and contacts section. There are listings. They have pretty much dropped everything to do with ST PD's; ST COMPUTER completely dominates that aspect. The magazine is also expensive, with an obscure pricing system. As far as I can tell, a one year airmail subscription to the US is about 133 Dm. Individual issues cost 7DM each. (68000'er or ST MAGAZIN, Redaktion Markt und Technik, Verlag Aktiengesellschaft. Hans Pinsel Strasse 2, 8013 Haar bei Muenchen. West Germany. There is an American office: M+T Publishing, 501 Galveston Drive, Redwood City, CA 940363, Tel. (415) 366-3600.) From Austria, there is XE/ST, a magazine covering both 8 and 16 bit Ataris. It resembles ST- COMPUTER. Enthusiastic workers, well thought, well written reviews and comparisons. They offer a substantial PD library as well. The appearance of the magazine is a good proof of what an ST can do: layout and printing are done with ST's and done well. There are small ads and contacts. (One year 540 shilling, XE/ST, Webgasse 21, A-1060 Vienna, Austria.) There are no Scandinavian commercial magazines for the ST or Ataris. Danish small systems computer magazines are notable in their poor quality. There are mostly repeated reviews of games. They seem to write for Commodore 64s and PC's, a curious mix. There are possible plans (...) for an ST magazine in Denmark in late Spring, 1988. The size of the ST community however makes it very difficult; it is not even certain whether there are 700 or 5000 ST's here. Compare those numbers to the Amiga: 15000 Amigas alone. Peter Pedersen, of STOP UG in Copenhagen, Denmark, edits START, the monthly UG memberships magazine (STOP is the UG, START is the magazine). Written mostly in Danish, it is the only Scandinavian effort for the ST. Peter Pedersen took over editorship only late in the Summer of 87, so the direction of the magazine has changed from mostly games to more serious discussions. Reviews, articles, letters, small ads. The editor is remarkably well informed about the ST and Atari developements. The UG also has a PD collection. Our UG and STOP have close connections: they can be contacted on the BBS; 68000 UG members are encouraged to write articles for START. We can place free small ads in the magazine. Copies of the magazine are available at meetings for 10 Kr. Subscriptions to the magazine are possible for members of our UG. Contact the magazine at: START, Peter Pedersen, Strandvaenget 44, 6710 Es- bjerg, Denmark. The titles of British magazines is a chapter in itself. There was ATARI USER, which featured both 8 bit and 16 bit machines. It then separated into ATARI USER, for 8 bit machines, and ATARI ST USER, for the ST. ATARI ST USER is remarkably bad. Nothing here that hasn't already been printed elsewhere. It dwells mostly on games, standing uncomfortably close to the distributors, doubly so if they are British. (38 £ Overseas. ATARI ST USER, Database Publications, Europa House, 68 Chester Road, Hazel Grove, Stock- port SK7 5NY, England). If you ever wonder why they are so nuts about MICROLINK, well, guess who owns it. A second British magazine was called ST USER. When ATARI USER changed it name, the first ST USER was forced to change its name to ST WORLD. The big sharks push around the little fish. This is further confused by the fact that it continues to be distributed from Canada as ST USER INTERNATIONAL. Not clear? Nobody was. This did not ruin the magazine however. ST WORLD is a small family company, but they put out the best English language magazine available. Sharp, critical reviews, detailed descriptions of professional ST usage. They've gotten quite a line up of writers for their magazine. Dale Hughes writes the funniest articles in computering anywhere; Richard Seel writes excellently researched articles on a wide range of topics. Atari England likes it so much that they recently bought 20% of the stocks in nonvoting shares. ST WORLD maintains its editiorial independence. If you are looking for an English language magazine, then this one is recommended. (Gollner Publications, 10 Theater Lane, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1SR, tlf. (243) 78 39 32.) The "European" (My mother always explained to me that if a British crosses water, then it is a voyage. She is French.) price is about 30 £, which includes several disks and back issues. ST WORLD has been distributed from Canada (under the name ST USER INTERNATIONAL) but poor distribution leads them to find someone else, perhaps in the US. The American price has been 37 $ a year. Soon, ST WORLD will turn into two magazines: one for programmers and applications, another for games. A special magazine is that published by Paul Glover in England. Up to now it has been called the ST CLUB NEWSLETTER, but it is about to change names, along with a total restructuring and new layout. It is a UG newsletter, written by members, and edited by Paul Glover. Since it is not a commercial magazine, it can afford to be open and critical: users will directly state what problems a program has in actual application. The first issues were small, A5 (that's half page size to Americans) roughly written, but packed with information and addresses. The January 88 issue is large format, laser printed, desktop publishing layout. The February issue is even better. Paul Glover manages to produce a very informative, packed newsletter for an amazingly low price: a year's subscription is 5 £. Users write from all over Europe, not just England. There are also lots of tips and tricks on using the ST in totally different things. The ST Club also offers savings and discounts on hardware and software to subscribers. At this very low price, the magazine is definitely worth having. (The ST CLUB NEWSLETTER, Editor, Paul Glover, PO BOX 136, London, E1 1LL, United Kingdom. 5£ for one year. The magazine plus 6 disks is also available for around 25 pounds (the best PD's for two month periods). Of the rest of Europe, not much to say. No one seems to know of any magazines in Italy. There are none in Spain; Atari has only recently set up offices there. France has moved away from the attitude that computers are only for accountants and scientists; this kept the home computer wave out of most homes. But to their credit, they are working on changing this situation (Last year, the major sales argument was that the ST is as good as a PC). The ST has developed very quickly, with about 60,000 machines sold up to Fall 87 in France. There are several French ST magazines, unfortunately I have not been able to get copies of them. Holland is another center for the ST. The Dutch have really gotten orga- nized. There are a great number of ST UGs there, all inter- connected. There are rumors of ST magazines in Poland, but I haven't yet been able to get an issue. Non-Atari Dedicated Magazines We can also look at other magazines which are not written specifically for the ST or ATARI. These cover general small systems. There is firstly PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD. It could be said to the British equivilent of BYTE; professional audience, essays, excellent reviews, lots of advertising for all machines. About 250 pages. (15 £ year, 33 £ for the rest of the world, as they put it. PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD SUBSCRIPTION DEPT, Freepost 25, 32-34 Broadwick Street, London, W1E 6EZ, England). The following reviews of American magazines are based on issues from July 1987 and several issues from November and December 1987. It is of course possible that the magazines have changed. One notices however that a good magazine is good with the very first issue; a bad magazine stays bad. As for American magazines: there is firstly ANTIC (which means in English a "frivolous" or "ridiculous" act.) And that is what it is. If the British ATARI ST USER could be worse, then it would be ANTIC. Very thin articles, with practically no expertise. Very long reviews of the latest joysticks, however. For 8 and 16 bit machines, with emphasis on the 8 bit machines. They think the ST is just a bigger game machine. ANTIC is mostly a software publishing house, with a large number of programs; the magazine exists in order to advertise their products. They sell PD's (all fourteen of them) at 12$ each. Waste your money by sending 40$ (Outside of the US) to ANTIC, 544 Second Street, San Francisco, California, 94107 USA tlf (614) 383-3141). ST USER, of England, was an 8 and 16 bit magazine which split into two magazines. This trend seems to be popular in the US. ANTIC, the awful magazine, split up the magazine and now publishes ST/ART, dedicated only to the ST. It is awful as well. Very commercial. Totally uncritical. Vague, superficial, un- trained. (4 times a year, with disk, for 50 dollars. START, 544 Second St, San Francisco, California. USA.) ANALOG also covers 8 and 16 bit machines. And it too broke up into a ST magazine: ST- LOG. Only a bit better than START. Uncritical. Lots of games. Some articles are simply dopey. (39$ for 12 issues. ST- LOG, 565 Main Street, Cherry Valley, Maine, 01611 USA.)(A member has had a great deal of trouble with ST LOG. He hasn't received an issue in since last summer; three letters to the publisher have not been answered. It is not clear whether ST-LOG has ceased to exist.) Another American magazine is ATARI EXPLORER. This is more serious than the others, which doesn't say much. It makes an effort to bring competent articles on the ST. The biting criticism and in depth reportage of ST WORLD (England) or ST COMPUTER (West Germany) is missing. Atari Corporation has also bought a large share of the magazine. Many of the top people from Atari write regularly in the magazine. Perhaps this prevents it from criti- cizing ATARI USA. They are also very poorly informed about things outside of the US; they are vaguely (uncomfortably) aware that the ST is sold in Europe, but they know nothing about it, since they can't read any other languages. (ATARI EXPLORER, 7 Hilltop Road, Mendham, New Jersey, 07945 USA) (Tlf. 201-543- 6007). 18$ a year, plus 10$ more outside of the US. (But people have ordered it, at US prices, and recieved 6 or more issues, without ever paying anything. I tell them that most Americans think Denmark is somewhere in Oregon.) British shouldn't laugh. American friends of mine think that London is in New Jersey. And I was once asked if West Germany has the same political structure as the People's Republic of China.)(The magazine is having difficulties meeting its publication schedual: they tried to go from four times a year to six times a year, but don't have enough material to print or money to print it. So instead of appearing bimonthly, it is skipping occasional months.) Last American magazine. I was recently sent a copy of ST APPLICATIONS by a member; he liked it as a programming magazine. The magazine is very interested in programming, especially C and Modula 2 (at least, the issue I saw), with lots and lots of listings. Advertising, new products, etc. If you want an American magazine, this is it. (ST APPLICATIONS, Box 980, Forestville, California, 95436 USA. Tlf. (707) 887- 7879. 40$ Foreign, 78$ Airmail.) The American market has the best thing: a very low dollar. Ordering from the US is easy and safe; a GIROCHECK (Postal transfer) can be made out in dollars to the American address; the post office will convert that to a check which is then sent to the US. Be sure to order things with AIR MAIL; Americans tend to think that air mail is a luxury and don't realize that ship mail takes 3- 4 months. But write very clearly that you are using an ST; I got Flight Simulator first for the PC, and now for the XL. If you know of any magazines which I've not mentioned, please send me an issue, I'll photocopy it and mail it back the next day. Non-dedicated magazines Of non- specialized magazines (not specifically ST or Atari) the American magazine BYTE is the most professional, most respected, and serious magazine to all small systems computers. Truely critical and forward looking. Articles on new advances in computering, both hardware and software. If you see something anywhere, it was printed in BYTE several months before. BYTE chose the ST as computer of the year in 86 (which is why I bought mine). But since the ST has had a bad showing in the US, BYTE rarely mentions it anymore. BYTE has however dropped the ST from BIX. PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD is the British equivilent. Lots of advertising. COMPUTE! is another general American magazine worth mentioning. Listings, good articles on trends, developments, the industry, the mechanics of the computer. The SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN has an excellent monthly column on advanced computing. (The October 1987 issue was entirely dedicated to computering. Excel- lent articles from leading professionals on the state of the art and the future of computering. Read about computer systems in the year 2000.) DR. DOBBS JOURNAL is another respected professional programmer's magazine. CT, a West German magazine, is a profes- sional hardware/programmers magazine, with advanced projects and listings. Recent articles explained how to use an IBM harddisk with an ST and how to add a 68020 processor. Most of these magazines can be found in public libraries, university libraries, or computer science departments at universities. Technical col- lege libraries and computer science libraries also have computer magazines; these tend to be serious; programmers/developers magazines and journals. End of Chapter Nine: Magazines for the ST. ====================== * * ====================== Chapter Ten: PUBLIC DOMAIN PROGRAMS PD OR NOT PD. THAT IS THE QUESTION. FOR WHETHER TIS NOBLER... FROM "COLLECTED WORKS OF PHIL BRIDGES, BARD OF THE AIRWAVES" (PENGUIN, ISBN 004-132-93465- 007) There exists a large amount of free or cheap programs for the ST and other machines. These are called PUBLIC DOMAIN programs (usually just PD's). Public Domain programs are written and distributed outside the commercial market. You can find them either from "services" which charge a small amount (about 3 to 5 dollars) or from user groups, of which there are several kinds: the ones who like to make money out of the members and charge about 5 to 6 or even 10 dollars, the ones which charge a small service fee, or the ones which share them for free. About the legal aspects of PD's: There's a great deal of confusion about the kinds of programs. Most people think that PD programs don't belong to anyone. That's not true. There are various legal terms about copyrights which should be kept straight. Copyright law comes from property law and that comes from land law. The main principle in land law is "First is Right." (The real principle is however "Money talks." But that's another issue.) So whoever got there first, or came up with it first, owns it. Basically, everything belongs to some- body. The question is: which and what kind of somebody owns it, and which and what kind of somebody can use it. All "intellectual material", books, plays, films, computer programs, databases, numbering systems, etc. has a legal nature. They all have a copyright. That copyright defines a) who owns the title to the program b) who can use it and c) who can collect a fee for its use. The original author has a natural right to his material for a specific amount of time, usually 75 years or so, depending on that country's laws. He or she may sell or rent or give away that copyright, either for a fixed amount, or for a percentage, or for nothing. If he or she still has the copyright at death, then the copyright passes along, with the house, the toaster, and the cat, to the family or whoever is in the will. After being dead seventyfive years (depending on countries), the author automati- cally loses those rights and the material becomes PUBLIC DOMAIN (this is not spelled (domainE"). The phrase "public domain" comes from land law: "domain" means "property." There's private domain, restricted domain, government domain, the King's domain, etc. That just means who owns the title to it. When a piece of land is used by everyone, like a park, then it is public domain; anybody can go there. Books are good examples of public domain. For example, Gunther Grass is still alive, and owns copyrights to his books. Anyone who performs a play by Tennessee Williams, who died in the 60's, must send part of the money to his family (and they can sell those rights). But if you use a play by Shakespeare, who is very dead, then you don't have to send money to anyone, because "all of us" own Shakespeare's plays; all of his plays are PUBLIC DOMAIN. The point is, everything, even the Moon, has a legal status. The AUTHOR of the title can be one person, a group of persons, or everyone. John wrote a PRG, and thus automatically owns it. John can sell it to Jane. John can also give the program to all French women, or to the world. If John, the author, wrote the program while he was working for someone else, then that employer owns the program. If John writes the program during company hours, his boss gets rich. But if John writes a program to help him deal with his boss's stupid computers, then the lawyers get rich. This is a very complicated area; the main complication is the huge amounts of money which can be involved. Jane, who bought the title to the program, is the OWNER. John can either sell the title entirely to her, so that he only gets money and not even a Christmas card. Or John can lease the title to her, so that after ten years or whatever conditions they put in the contract, it goes back to him. The OWNER can be one person, a corporation, whatever. Part of the rights of owners is to decide who may use the property. The OWNER may define the USER. That can be either one person (only Karen) or a large group of persons, whom Jane can define (all of her friends, but no boys. If boys use it, they are illegal users.) or even everyone in the world. Lastly, Jane can decide what USERS have to pay for that use: she can set the FEE (either money or things). The amount of the FEE can be large, small, or zero. A zero fee is just that, no charge, but it is still a fee. Jane can also decide who gets the money. That can be her or her friends or even Amnesty International. John can write the program and sell it to Jane, who has a computer magazine and then, being a nice person and to get more readers and destroy the other magazine, publishes it for her readers to use for zero fees. Jane still owns the title; we just get to use it for free. A program then is written by John, who sells the title, but not the film rights, to Jane, who then sells its use, but not the title, to companies. When Jane dies, her testament (the will) gives the fee, but not the title, to Amnesty International (they now get big checks in the mail); her testament gives the title to her cat. The cat's lawyer then leases the the title to Paul McCartney, who makes a silly song about it. Paul, being a nice guy, announces in his next record that his fans can use the program for free. John then leases the film rights to a film company owned by Silvester Stallone. See? You can use a program for free, but that doesn't mean anything about who owns it or who has the rights to it. (Those are the type of questions you get in law school. You have five minutes to answer: Can Amnesty sue the cat to force Paul to raise the fee? May Gitte, who divorced Silvester, wiggle her breasts to the song's tune in her next video? (You must settle first whether California or Danish divorce law controls Silves- ter's rights to husband/wife property, namely, if he paid for her breast "improvements," does he have a right to the money made with them? Can he argue for a copyright interest on the grounds that they are artistic (an intellectual product?). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Most PD's are the following: John writes it and keeps all titles and rights. He defines the legal users as a) all private users b) no commercial users. The user fee is either zero (freeware) or voluntarily defined by the user (shareware). John owns it, we use it. With computers, users tend to use the word "public domain" to mean "free" and "copyright" to mean "commercial." You can see that this is a confusion. Everything is copyright. Some things are cheap copyright and somethings are expensive copyright. Of the expensive copyright, there is commercial software. Then comes SHAREWARE. The person who writes shareware releases (gives out) his material to the public (he shares it) and asks for a small voluntary contribution in return. The author still owns the rights to the program. FREEWARE data is given out and the author does not ask for anything, but he still owns the rights to the program. Finally, there is HACKED data. We usually think of HACKED data as something bad. Someone has gone into the program and changed it (fx NASA's lauch rocket termination programs). Either a commercial program has the copyright messages missing, or Shareware programs suddenly get new addresses, and requests for money, to guess who. Or Freeware suddenly gets a shareware status, so that people began sending money to some guy. HACKED data can also be good. Someone went into a poor program and took out a few bugs. That's also hacked. HACKING just means opening a PRG and changing the way it works, for better or worse. Programs got their legal status in 1981. Until then, codes were these obscure things that programers did on large systems. Programers, being a bunch of cowboys, traded codes with each other (on corporate time, of course). In 1981, the large corporations went crying to Congress, saying that they were not making the billions to which they had a right. Congress, made up mostly of lawyers, agreed, and programs became "intellectual property" (this is what we call a "legal fiction"). It became outlawed to copy and distribute programs. The PD scene is not just for computers and old books. Punk musicians, to the total outrage of music corporations (especially the lawyers), released records as public domain. This act caused a shock in the industry; what is music all about, anyway? Punk made the point that music is not just pretty sounds. If someone wrote a program and gave it out as freeware/shareware, they are nice people. If you have a freeware/shareware program which becomes a regular part of your system, think about sending something to the author. Blank disks, for example, or some money. Your imagination may also come into play. Shareware and freeware exists and will continue to exist as an alternative to the commercial $$$$$ system. None of these great cheap computers would have ever happened if IBM's lawyers had control over those kids in garages in California. Many of us have sent money or disks to PD authors; we nearly always get a response: either a manual, or an improved version, or other programs. It is nice to find out that there is a human behind that program you use. Young Germans have been the major force in ST PD's. Thirty or fourty programs a month are released in West Germany; many are of very high quality, as good as or better than commercial versions. Richard Seel, who writes in ST WORLD, recently brought up a point about shareware. The person who releases the program as shareware is depending on a free distribution network made up mostly of volunteers. This is in effect an exploitation of those volunteers for commercial purposes. Selling a program to a distribution house brings in a whopping 5%. You get very little for it. But if shareware develops into a large system, then such persons could recieve much more. Do shareware authors make money? No. I have talked (written) with several shareware authors. One got around 50 pounds in response from several people. Most get an occasional letter. An American got around 120$ all in all. No one is making money on shareware. The idea is about as sucessful as Abbie Hoffman's sugesstion for "voluntary taxation." (In his case, he meant sharing the joints). The PD scene is sadly made up of the hardcore 5%: a small crew of enthusiasts do all the work; the rest enjoy. If you want to contribute: make suggestions to the authors of your favorite programs. Ideas, comments, improvements. Extra abilities. Point out bugs. This is very helpful. Send donations of money or disks, if you can. There is very little really computer "Public Domain;" programmers have only been around for twenty years or so. Just think of it! When the programmer to your favorite game dies and seventyfive years go by, that game will then become public domain. You can then sell it all you like. To Museums of Ancient History, for example. Most of my IBM friends, coming from the primitive past think that programs are either "copyright", meaning expensive, or "hacked", meaning that the copy protection has been removed. Just copying a program doesn't mean that it has been "hacked"; IBM people get so excited about anything if it works. Most of them think that all PD's are hacked programs. They also think that upgrading to 640KB at 4.77 Mhz is the future. They get confused when you point out that the new PS series is not PC compatible. Oh, by the way, the new IBM's are very creative. IBM is a company which makes the future. They just discovered something called WINDOWS. They're all hot about it. And DESKTOPS. They also have invented the 3.5 inch disk. The Indians were in the Americas 25,000 years before Columbus. Who got all the credit? The only thing positive in it for us is cheaper disks. All these third party disk manufacturers will move into the 3.5 disk market, bringing the price down. My disk box is falling in price just as fast as Nancy Reagan's book on decorating the White House. While we are talking about the legal rights of companies, we can also ask about the legal rights of users. That is simple. The legal rights of users: None. That's right. We have none. Your second lesson in law is: companies write the law. And they write it entirely only to protect their interests. They have lots of laws, with lots of penalties, to protect themselves. But protect you? Hah! You buy a program because it promises to "solve your problems. Deal with your paperwork. Do your taxes. Save your time!" It says that in the advertising; it says so on the box. But when you read the very small print, it says: "The company is not responsible in any way for errors or faults in the program: if it messes up your work, destroys your company, ruins your life, so long, sucker!" I must clearly emphasize this point. You use the program at your own risk. If you do a spreadsheet analysis of your company or house, you must be able to independantly analyse and check the results. If the program has made a mistake, tough luck. If you use a program for professional work, you must check and cross check the results. There are lawsuits in court in the US against software companies on this point. The software company association is spending a lot of money fighting this issue. Should a program be held to legal responsibility? Of course. Especially so if the producer promises ("We solve your problems! For Professional Use!"); then if his program ruins you, he must pay. Every single other product on the market is responsible to the consumer. Another legal point. Computer companies, being new to capitalism, are starting from the beginning and moving forward through the various periods. There was the tribal period (programmers sharing and cooperating). Then the feudal period (IBM and Macs being closed machines). We are now in the sea pirates period. Compa- nies, to expand their markets, attack each other and stake out territories. IBM is the biggest pirate; their corporate history reads like Black Bart and the Carribean Jolly Rodgers. Users suffer; until now, to force you to buy their machines at fixed prices in fixed territories and avoid the bother of competition, the companies had annouced that warranties were worthless if the machine had been bought somewhere else cheaper. The European Common Market Court in Strasbourg put an end to that nonsense: any product bought anywhere in the Common Market with a valid warranty in a country will have a valid warranty anywhere else in the Common Market. If a Dane saves money by buying his computer in West Germany, the Danish branch of the corporation must recognize the warranty and provide warranty service. About PD programs: PD's then is a very loose term which covers all programs distributed outside the commercial structure. PD's give you a terrific opportunity to look at a whole range of programs which you otherwise can't afford to buy which do all sorts of things which show you the possibilities and abilities of the computer. Many PD's are Demos or demonstration PRGs. Basically advertising for a commercial PRG. You get to see how the program works. Usually you are not able to save your work or such. This should be more widespread; you can see a program for yourself. But it should be stated that such a disk is advertising; it's not right to pay to see advertising. Other PD's are pre-release versions or test versions of commer- cial programs; some are even commercial programs which never made it into distribution. And many PD's are garbage PRGs; poorly written, not very creative, or not doing anything. You can't really say that they run, actually, it's more that they crash. Not much different than commercial programs. But there are worthwhile PD's. Most of these are utilities: ramdisks, spoolers, fast loaders, etc; little programs which take only a few hours to write and can't really justify 30 or 40 dollars. Since they are simple routines, they usually function correctly and make it easier to work with the machine. The best copy programs I've seen yet are PD (FCOPY2, and ALPHAFORMAT). There are PRGs which read and print the directories of a disk so that you can have a label or a page of disk directories (the best yet is DISKSORT.V2. No commercial program can compete with it). File RECOVER PRGs help you get lost files back; disk monitors as well. There are a great number of calculators which only barely use the computer's enourmous mathematical ability; this is like using a Lamborghini as a doorstop. (no, that is not a kind of spaghetti). (Commo-doorstop?) (Guess what Americans call Commo- dore users? Commies!) All sorts of little clocks put the correct time in the corner of your screen and onto your disk files. PD's can also be large, complicated programs which work very well. AIM, the ATARI Image Maker, is a six disk scientific image enhancement and manipulation system, for which there is no commercial equivilent. For modems, there are good programs which work with all the aspects of communications: modem PRGs (UNITERM is very good), encrypting (so others can't read your texts), compressors (to save telephone time)(ARC), etc. Several excellent PD drawing programs exist; these are better than 70$ commercial ones (for example, MASTERPAINTER and PUBLIC PAINTER (up to 24 screens, GEM based, animation, and much faster rota- tion/distortion routines). Wordprocessors in Arabic and Russian. Music editors as well. Small games are often PD's; 3- D labyrinths are possible only on computers. And of course there are are silly and funny programs which put little crabs into your computer which eat at the screen and so on. For a full list of our UG's PD's, either download it free from the BBS or send a blank disk (with a selfaddressed, stamped envelope). The IBM scene is impressive. Standard catalogues are on two double sided disks; there's about 500 disks in most services. On a CD disk (that's right. An IBM PC PD CD) from the California Personal Computer Special Interest Group (PC SIG) (yep. the CA PC SIG IBM PC PD CD) some 40,OOO PD's are collected. This costs about 200$. Macs have a large collection of PD's. The Amiga, with its enormously complicated screen and operating system, tends to have many text files and source codes to help programers deal with the machine. Amigas, with their excellent screen, also have lots of pictures. Fred Fish has been the major person in the Amiga collection. ST PD's are mostly organized by ST COMPUTER. Most of our ST PD's tend towards accessories and utilities, with some large applications programs in odd areas. Of course, all machines have a great number of games. Running a PD Library: In July, 1986, there were for the ST about nine PD's world wide. By February, 87, there were 30 disks. February 1988 has over 400 ST PD's, it is getting out of hand; many services offer over 300 disks. Of course, much of it is garbage (like pictures of christmas trees). But it is growing. How to get PD's: The small ads sections in magazines give address of services which send you lists and disks costing 3 to 10 dollars. ST- COMPUTER in West Germany (ST- Computer, Schwalbacherstrasse 64, 6236 Eschborn, West Germany) has supported and developed largest original collection of ST PD's. They offer them for about 3 dollars each (10 DM). An updated list appears in every issue of the magazine. Advice for buying from the small ads "commercial" services: send them a small first order, one or two disks. See how long it takes to respond. A good service already has copies made. Paying a bit more is better than waiting five or six weeks. Ask your local store. Stores are buying PD's and making them available on their harddisks for copying; if you copy yourself, it can be very cheap (one dollar or so). In Denmark; New World in Aarhus has PDs available; ECL of Flensborg, BRD, also has a complete PD collection. Join our User Group. We have a library of disks which we bought in common. Members can loan the disks and copy those for free. We have one of the largest collections available. If you want to start a user group library, we will loan the entire set to you. Be careful about "commercial" user groups: you pay 35$ for the priviledge of buying disks from them for 10$ each. User Groups with BBS's (Bulletin Board Services) put PD's on a harddisk to which you can access with your modem. Programs can be downloaded (copied), free to members. Comments and discussions of the programs can be gotten as well. Our BBS has the best of the ST PD's on line (68000 BBS in Denmark: 06/109777; 24 hours, 300/1200/2400 Baud.) Form your own group. Meet a couple of users, put your money together, buy your own disks and start your own collection. (Of course I couldn't have inclded this lot without a quick mention of LOCUTUS PDL, probably the ONLY ST pdl worth thinking about - Dave) End of Chapter Ten: PUBLIC DOMAIN DISKS ====================== * * ====================== Chapter 11: The BBS (Bulletin Board System) As you work along with the computer, you will often began to hear about Bulletin Boards, or BBS's. These are often called "databases" as well. People use "modems" to send and copy programs over the telephone. There is little information about this in the magazines: for a good reason. If we all had modems, then there wouldn't be any magazines. The "large" BBS systems advertise heavily; but the action is on the smaller systems. "Giant" systems in the US rarely get more than a few percentages of the market: those are mostly first time users. They go afterwards to the small systems. Information moves very quickly on BBS's. It can take only a few days for a new tip, trick, note, or comment to move around the world. If you want contact to "professional" or "serious" users, then get a modem. Practically all of the "advanced" users have modems: they can all be contacted on the main BBS's in any country. They are the ones who can spot a problem or solve a problem; they also have a great amount of information. Information about the BBS, the software, the system: A Bulletin Board System (BBS) is a system made up of several components, both software and hardware. The HOST Computer A main computer, the HOST computer, has a program loaded on it that is the BBS program. This host computer is connected to a telephone line and has a modem so that it can answer the telephone. This host computer also has one or more disk drives (either normal drives or harddisks) connected to it. On those drives are the letters that people send to each other and the public domain (PD) programs for copying. This host computer is in a house in Aarhus. The GUEST Computer Your computer at home is called a GUEST computer. You need a modem, a cable, a terminal program, and a telephone line. (Yes, people have asked if they needed a telephone to use a modem). Modems In order for your computer to communicate with the HOST computer, you need a modem. Your computer produces a signal which is converted by the modem into a signal which can be sent over the telephone. Another modem, for example the host computer's modem, then converts that signal back into one which a computer can understand. Any computer can talk to any other computer, regard- less of name, with the proper modem and terminal software. A modem is what you use to connect your computer to the telephone line. It is a little box full of electronics that has a wire going in from the computer and a wire going out to the telephone plug. If you think that you need to put the headset of your telephone into a box, then you have been watching too many James Bond movies. That kind of modem went out with Richard Nixon. There are two kinds of modems: acoustic (the James Bond type) and direct; your computer connects directly to it with a cable, and it plugs directly into the telephone plug in the wall.) Modems come (or go) in various speeds. The speed is how fast it can convert and send your file over the line. This is measured in bits per second, or BAUD. 300 Baud is considered slow; it once was standard. 1200 is thought as the standard nowadays. 24OO Baud is considered fast, and probably the standard within a few years. Businesses use 2400 Baud. 5600 Baud is very fast. If you intend to use your modem for business or heavy use, then get 2400. It is more expensive, but very soon pays for itself in telephone bills. A 300 baud modem can be gotten for around 400 kroner. 1200 Baud cost from 1500 to 3000 and 4000 kroner. 24OO Baud cost from 3000 to 6000 Kroner. (10 Krone is roughly one pound.) Contact us in Aarhus for names and addresses of stores which have modems. You can also buy modems from users on the networks who are selling their old modems. Find someone who has a modem to leave a message on the main BBS's for you (describe your computer set- up and include your "voice" telephone number or address). Prices in other countries will be very different. But Baud numbers don't mean very much. A file is broken into packets (the size of which depends on "protocols," or defini- tion); each packet has a bit of information added to it; the quality of the telephone line is important too; if there is line noise, then packages are repeated until a correct one is sent. The actual number will depend on the protocol used, the line noise, how big (or small) you define the packets, etc. The point is: Baud give you a rough idea of what to expect. I roughly count on 5.6 KB per minute with a 1200 Baud modem using the X- modem protocol. If you use 300 Baud, then it takes four times as long. There are two telephone standards: Bell (American) and CCITT (European). Most modems can usually work in both. If you are in Bell mode, then you can only talk to other modems in Bell mode. The point is, don't buy a modem in the US just because it is cheaper. It may not work here in Europe. Most modems are Hayes compatible. Hayes is a standard; that means your modem can work with many other modems which use the same standard. You don't have to worry about this; just as long as it says "Hayes Compatible". You can get used modems easily on a BBS. Find a friend (or user group) who has a modem and place messages on the major BBS's; soon, people will call you. Do not buy a PC modem. It is "internal"; that means it is connected directly inside the computer and uses the computer's power supply. Your ST must have an "external" modem, one that sits outside of the computer, with its own power supply. Modems can auto- answer. You flip a switch or run a command; and it will then take care of the phone while you sleep. When another modem calls you, it will answer the phone. Of course, you must leave your computer on and with the terminal program running. You can do this at night and have someone send files to you; in the morning, you have lots of programs on your disk. Test any modem before you buy it. Run it in all the different modes. Just because it says so on the box, it doesn't mean.... A cable You will also need a cable to connect your modem to the computer. Those usually cost around 100 to 400 Kroner. A Terminal Program The terminal software makes your computer act like a terminal. Basically, your computer acts stupid (especially so if it is an Amstrad or Commodore). The host computer takes over, and you use your keyboard to run the host computer. Think of this as a keyboard which is connected (by a telephone wire) to a computer very far away. Therefore, when you save or read to the host's disk, you are commanding the host computer, not yours, to act. There are many terminal programs. There are ten or so commercial programs and about twenty or thirty public domain programs. We have 25 or so in our PD library. Try a PD program first; many of these can do the whole job. UNITERM V2.0 is the best PD program; it is even better than many commercial versions. We use UNITERM as a standard: please learn to use that program first. Later, when you understand it, then you can go on and use anything you like. Any BBS can work with any terminal program. You can get UNITERM from us for free. Contact the PD library. The BBS Program Although when you first log on (call up and enter) and see the confusion of a BBS program, remember that most BBS programs are very simple (ours is only 68Kb large) and structured like trees. After a few sessions, it will seem clearer. After a few weeks, you will become frustrated at the simplicity of the program. The main thing that goes on is: People write letters to each other. They leave mail and pick up mail. People send programs to the board and pick up programs from the board. The other functions are used only rarely. You can update information about yourself (address, etc), you can ask for lists of recent users, etc. A BBS has a sort of tree structure, looking like a path of decisions. These things were developed several years ago, when the IBMs were the standard PC. Hence the programs tend to look like a PC program. We are beginning to see newer, desktop based BBS programs. Therefore the word "BBS" is a very complex sort of thing, not really just the BBS program, nor the host computer, nor the guest computer, nor the modems. And all of this software and hardware put together doesn't mean anything with out the users, user group, and sysops (the systems operators, the folks who make sure that every thing works). What is a BBS for? BBS's are used mostly for sending/receiving messages and sending/recieving programs. Bulletin boards (Opslagstavler) can carry all sorts of messages, notices, alerts, discussions, or communications. These can be either public (anyone can read them), restricted (open only to those who can enter a section) or private (only open to whom the message is addressed). The board is divided into sections. Sections are either public or restricted: anyone can enter a public section; to enter a private section, the SYSOP must clear your status. Data files can also be transferred to and from the board. You can send text files (like this one) to the board (uploading) for other persons who will then copy it onto their systems (downloading). You can also send programs. All material that is uploaded into the board goes into a special section. A SYSOP will look in there and check whether the material is copywritten or not. When cleared, it will be transferred into the open board where others can find it. Since it is not possible to control that a copywritten material will not be distributed to persons who may not receive it, we generally do not allow the posting of copywritten data on the board. Public domain programs (PD's) however may be freely copied and distributed. We have placed the best programs from our libraries onto the BBS. You will also find the most recent library list on the board as a downloadable data file. The librarians for the various sections (ST, AMIGA, MACINTOSH) will leave notes about the new additions, etc. If a program is not on the board, ask for it to be uploaded. Databases There are other things to call other than just BBS's. You can call a database. Universities, research institutes, and companies have computer databases which can be accessed by modem. You can search for information there. The database system is extremely well developed worldwide; there is a major database to practically all kinds of information. Games There are also games which you can play. These are called MUGs (Multi User Games). A host computer will have a game program, into which you can enter and play. Many are role fantasy games: entire universes are built up with very special rules of magic and science fiction. There are also social games and other kinds of interactive games. These are widespread in the US: thousands of persons will be involved in a universe at one time. The Future There are about 100 databases in Denmark and several thousand in Europe. Extensive data services exist which connect not just thousands, but hundreds of thousands of users. There are about 60 to 100 BBS's in Denmark (Nov.87). This number increases constantly. Within two years, the entire telecommunica- tion network in Europe will be opened up. The present state monopolies will end. There will be a tremendous increase in the number of databases and datatransfer. A final word about modems. Most of the countries in Europe have state telephone monopolies. Those came out of very interesting and embarassing historical traditions. The state monopolies are lousy, inefficient, expensive, and slow. It is illegal in Germany to use a good modem. Denmark, the country with the most monopolies, worst efficiency, and highest prices, places ridicu- lous rules in front of companies which want to build modems. In 1992, Europe becomes one big country. Those monopolies will end. All of the silly people who "work" for them will have to look for an honest job (who the hell is going to hire someone who says "I worked for the telephone company"?) Don't worry about using a modem "illegally." There are plenty of laws which say you can't do a lot of things. The telephone company employees are more interested in getting their coffee breaks. No one knows what the situation will be in five years. But it will certainly include the widespread use of modems and computers. _______________________________ Now you have all the hardware and software. What's next? Let's call the BBS. USING THE BBS: (The following is specific to our BBS program (Michtron V2.0); however, most BBS systems work on the same general principles.) Our BBS number is 06 10 97 77 in Denmark. The BBS's modem will automatically find out what kind of modem you are using and adjust itself. (In other countries, find the telephone number of the Personal Computing Society (PCS), they are usually in the largest cities. Ask them for one BBS number. Enter it and there you will usually find an updated list of all BBS's). The BBS has four kinds of users: SYSOPS, who run the whole thing. SIGOPS, who run each particular section. Registered Users, who are members of the UG. and Unregistered Users (nonmembers). All users are generally allowed free access to the General Public and the commercial sections. Only registered users, UG members, may access the rest of the board. When you first enter the board, you are first asked several questions about yourself. You create your own password. Do not use the name of your mother, dog, or computer. Make it a nice, long, obscure word (for example, Dictionary839, King67Kong, Aristoteles30, or even random words, such as i5asdfh4q ). Write these down. You can always change your password, name, address, etc. Just log on and ask for the EDIT PROFILE section: you can change your identity here. If you forget your password, log on again as Ronald Reagan Junior. (Password = Dummy too ). Tell the SYSOP to delete you and then start all over again (you lose all the letters to you, etc.) You then enter the board. Here you start already within a section. This is your DEFAULT section. You can change this later in your profile so that you start up in your favorite section. At any time, you can press ENTER or RETURN to get a list of your options. You can always press ESCAPE to finish the section or area. Please don't exit a board by just pulling the plug out of the wall. This has two effects. It sometimes crashes a board. The board keeps track of everything that happens on it. Remember that the SYSOP can see just exactly who was the silly duck who crashed the board. People start calling at 2 am to ask why the board is not up. Guess what will happen to you. Furthermore, your telephone may not switch off. You will continue paying for the connection until you reload and exit properly. To exit correctly, press B for Bye! The board is made up of sections (SIG's = Special Interest Groups). Our current program supports up to 16 SIGS, we hope to get a program which allows a greater number. In each SIG, there are several options. Press RETURN or ENTER for a list of options. To select an option, press the first letter of the option (M, for MESSAGE BOARD, B, for GoodBye, etc). Use Alt + C, make a list of all the different options, and then make a flow chart of the board. At first it seems like a maze, but later it is easy to simply press a key and move from one section to another. Remember that private mail can be read not only by the reciever, but also the sender. If you have problems or difficulties, write a short letter in the public section. You may also write to the SYSOP. Again, your letters will be answered faster by other users than the SYSOPS. Programs and files on the BBS The best PD's from the library are on the board's harddisk. You can easily download programs for yourself from the BBS. We place newest/best programs on the board within several days; you can get them here then. It can take up to three or four weeks for the programs to be registered and entered into the PD library (the point is, if you want the progam faster, use the BBS.) There are about 200 programs on the board now, with room for maybe 1 or 2 thousand. These 200 are the best from our collection. It is simply a question of us getting time to compress and load all the programs. Nearly all programs are compressed. This means that they take up less space. You download the program and then use a decompressing program to decompress the program so that you can use it. We use ARC.TTP (it is easier to use with a shell program called ARCSHEL2.PRG) (do not use ARCSHELL.PRG; that was an early version which crashes often). You can find ARC.TTP on the board, along with instructions on how to use it. SIG's on the BBS 1 Public Access 2 68000 User Group 3 ST User 4 Amiga User 5 ST Programming 6 Amiga Programming 7 ST Games 8 Amiga Games 13 ST/OP User Group (This list changes and may therefore not be complete or correct) Most of the commands and options are listed below: Main Menu (I)nformation for SIG (N)ews file (F)ile transfer (M)essage base (S)ig change (C)hat with SYSOP (E)dit Profile (L)ast Callers (who called last) (B)ye (logoff) Message Base Menu (R)ead mail (L)eave mail (N)ew only (S)can Box (M)ain Menu (B)ye Show Mail in all Sigs (YNQ) Pause between letters (YNQ) Last letter read was # ... Letters range from 1 to 76 Start where? Show Mail in all Sigs (YNQ) Pause between letters (YNQ) (The BBS keeps track of you and remembers what letters you've read or not read.) (Press return for the default value (usually public letters and yes)). File transfer menu (D)ownload (U)pload (S)ig change (M)ain menu (B)ye (UPloading and DOWNloading. You UPload when you send data up to the host system. You download when you copy data down to your system from the host system. It doesn't matter too much which one you say, but downloading means that you take and uploading means that you give.) (Our system uses XMODEM. You'll get a message saying "Go to XMODEM;" well, you already have that set up in the UNITERM.SET. So just punch ALT+T (transfer) and answer the questions. At 1200 baud, you can transfer about 5.6 Kb per minute.) Quitting (To quit the board, press B ('Bye). You get a last chance to say hey to the SYSOPs and give him a message, comments, etc.) "Leave message to SYSOP? (Y N)" And so you are Out. __________________________ Note: Press RETURN or ENTER for a list of current functions. Press ESC or Space bar to quit an action. Vocabulary: BBS = Bulletin Board System. SYSOP = Systems Operator. Log on = To enter the system. Log off = To exit the system. Password = Do not use short words. Do not use the name of your computer, your girlfriend, or your dog. If you want extra security, change your password once a month. Upload = Send data from you to the BBS. Download = Receive data from the BBS to you. Profile = Information about you. Your name, address, tlf number. BYE = (Goodbye!) to Log off or to end the call. SIG's = Special Interest Groups. _____________________ This should be enough information to get you started on the BBS. If you have problems or don't understand something, leave a note in the message section. Say which modem and terminal program you are using. The BBS is confusing to everyone when they first start. But it requires no technical or programming knowledge to use; you just have to learn a few basic principles. End of Chapter Eleven: BBS ====================== * * ====================== End of Your Second Manual to the ST ====================== * * ====================== * * * Copyright Note * * * This is the fourth version of this manual (250KB). Version 1 was 30KB, Version 2 = 60KB, Version 3 = 105 KB. Every six months or so, more is added, errors removed, information is updated. If you would like to recieve further updates of this manual, then become a registered user. To be a registered user, either join our UG (write for further details) or send a donation of 10 US dollars, 10 pounds, 30 Dm, or the equivalent to either Amnesty Interna- tional, any group helping Nicaraugua, South African Blacks or Palestinians. Send me a photocopy of your deposit slip and a blank disk; you will recieve the next version. Copyright information: All rights are mine, where those rights do not infringe on other rights. This text may not be sold, given, exchanged, or offered as part of a commercial exchange (I went to law school. I have two brothers who are hotshot American lawyers. I will sue. Commercial copyright infringement is big money. If you hear of someone using this text in a commercial manner (selling, printing, etc), let me know so I can send a generous reward.) Copying of this file is permitted where such copying is free and between users. Public domain services may offer this document for distribution if they do not charge more than 4 dollars, 4 pounds, ten DMarks, or the equivalent in any national currency as a service fee only. Andreas Ramos, 68000 User Group Jaegergaardsgade 142.2 8000 Aarhus C Danmark, Scandinavia == * * == 68000 BBS Tlf 06/109777 24 Hours All Weather 300/1200/2400 Baud End of Text file ====================== * * ======================