No Fragments Archive 10: Diskmags/nf_archive_10.iso/MAGS/BOS/BOSMAG1B.MSA/BOS_TERA_SEC

Text File | 1987-04-21 | 32KB | 671 lines

S  E  C  R  E  T  S      O  F      T  E  R  A  D  E  S  K
=========================================================


 Tips 'n' tricks on using Wout Klaren's unusual and powerful
 desktop software for the ST and TT lines of Atari computers




 _________________________

 B Y   A L   F A S O L D T

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



Technology Writer, Syracuse Newspapers and Newhouse News Service

Computer system trainer and programmer, the Herald-Journal,
the Herald American and the Post-Standard

Syracuse, New York



Copyright (C) 1993 by Al Fasoldt. All rights reserved.






I N T R O D U C T I O N
-----------------------


Another desktop? What's wrong with what we have already?
--------------------------------------------------------

Atari users are lucky. They get choices. Because all early STs were
delivered with a built-in desktop that lacked many of the features
of the rival Macintosh system and the later Microsoft Windows
desktop, alternative desktop software has become common in the world
of the Atari ST and TT computers. The built-in desktop is part of
TOS ("The Operating System"), and is easy to use and reasonably
flexible, especially in its latest versions. But Atari's own
desktop is often the first item to be replaced when ST and TT
owners look for software to enliven their computing.

The most popular alternative desktop among users in North America is
NeoDesk, from Gribnif Software. NeoDesk is an ambitious program that
enhances all the operations that are normally carried out at the
desktop -- the computer's interface with the user -- and it also
provides functions that are not available in any form from the
standard Atari desktops.  (For a detailed view of NeoDesk, read my
"Secrets of NeoDesk," available from GEnie and other online
services.)

NeoDesk is a commercial program, as are some of the other desktop
replacements, such as HotWire (a desktop program launcher and
application integrator from CodeHead Software) and the DC Desktop
(from the now-defunct Double-Click Software). But among the
non-commercial replacement desktops is an intriguing program from
The Netherlands called TeraDesk. It was written by Wout Klaren and
is distributed as copyrighted freeware -- software that you can use
and share with others without paying anything for it, but which you
cannot legally alter and distribute as your own creation. You also
cannot sell TeraDesk without express permission from the author.

TeraDesk is available in two versions, one for the ST, STe and Mega
STe, and one for the TT. It is not known at this time whether
TeraDesk will run on the Atari Falcon030, but beta testers for
Atari's new multitasking operating system, MultiTOS, have reported
that it runs fine under MultiTOS.

Because TeraDesk offers many enhancements over the latest Atari
desktops, every ST and TT user interested in a more powerful
operating environment should consider TeraDesk. It is easy to
install, and Klaren's user manual is clearly written and
translated. TeraDesk also has at least one serious drawback in the
way it handles desktop icon deletions, and this documentation will
explain the problem thoroughly. In all, TeraDesk is a worthy
replacement for the software built into each Atari. What I hope to
add through this additional documentation is the perspective of an
expert ST and TT user. This supplements Klaren's manual, but does
not in any way replace it.


 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Author's note:

This may be freely distributed in any form, but only if it remains
intact. You do not have permission to edit this or use it
commercially in any way.

If you have comments or questions, and especially if you find errors
in this work, you can reach me at these addresses:

 Al Fasoldt
 Syracuse Newspapers
 Box 4915
 Syracuse, NY 13221

 GEnie: a.fasoldt
 America Online: Al Fasoldt
 Internet: [e-mail]

This is Version 1.0.1, written in April 1993 at the computer center
at Countless Pines, Baldwinsville, New York.


 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



P A R T   1 :   D O I N G    I T    R I G H T
---------------------------------------------


Let them eat windows
--------------------

Some Atari users who are familiar with some of the other windowing
systems -- the Open Software Foundation's Motif, for example,
or IBM's power-hungry but elegant OS/2 -- may be disappointed
with some of the ways the typical Atari desktop makes use of
windows. This is most evident in the failure of all single-tasking
versions of TOS to handle multiple windows properly in one important
way -- the display of data. Even NeoDesk has this failing. But
TeraDesk, which has its own weaknesses in a few other areas, is
superb in this regard; it does windows right.

What do I mean by "right"? And what is this reference to "data"?
Windows on an Atari desktop show files and folders, and this is
what they are supposed to do, yes?

No, this is only part of what they are supposed to do. A window on
an ST or TT desktop -- any desktop, from Atari or someone else --
does an acceptable job of showing files and folders. Double-click
on a folder in a window, and the window display changes to show the
folder's contents; in later versions of TOS and in many alternative
desktops, a different kind of double-click on a folder opens a new
window into that folder, while keeping the previous window open.

These desktops also work well as file launchers, of course.
Double-clicking on an executable file -- one with a filename that
ends in "PRG" or "TOS," for example -- runs the application. In
all alternative desktops and in TOS desktops from the the very
beginning, double-clicking on a file that has a filename extender
associated with an application runs the application and loads that
file into the application. And in all newer desktops, dragging a
data file to the filename or icon of an application runs the program
and loads the file automatically.

This is neat, but it should be only the beginning. In the TOS
single-tasking desktops and in NeoDesk up to version 3.03,
unfortunately, it is the end. If the file that you select by
double-clicking is a text that you want to read, only one thing can
happen: Either the desktop itself shows you the text in a full-sized
window, hiding everything else on the desktop until you close that
window, or the desktop runs a text displayer (or text editor) that
you've selected in the desktop setup menu, and that text-display
application takes over the screen to show the text.

In other words, both NeoDesk and the single-tasking TOS desktops,
by themselves, will not let you view a text file in a resizeable
window while the desktop is still accessible. (With the aid of a
desk accessory such as STeno, you can open a small window on a text
file and keep much of the desktop visible, but this merely takes
advantage of GEM, and is not a desktop-window function. The point
here is that such a simple action as displaying a text file should
be a desktop-window function, not a kludge made possible by a desk
accessory. To its credit, NeoDesk will let you drag a text-file
icon to an icon for the STeno desk accessory, which will then pop
up the STeno window and display the text, but this, too, is a waste
of a desk accessory -- and, of course, is not feasible if STeno is
not loaded.)

The way TeraDesk handles this is ideal. When you double-click on
any file that is not an executable file and is not assigned to an
application, Tera pops open a dialog box that offers a choice
between Show, Edit, Print and Cancel. If you click on Show (or
press Alt-S, using Tera's built-in hotkey system), a window opens
onto the contents of the file. If the file contains ASCII text --
words without formatting of any kind -- the text is displayed, in a
choice of character sizes (three sizes in ST high resolution and
seven in TT medium resolution). If the file contains anything other
than ASCII text, it is displayed in typical hex-code-viewing
fashion, with the hexadecimal byte codes listed in a table about
three-quarters of the width of the window and the ASCII equivalent
characters listed at the right.

While any TeraDesk display window is open, the word "Viewer"
appears on its GEM menu bar. Clicking on "Viewer" opens a menu that
has two options: "Tabsize" and "Hexmode." "Tabsize" lets you type
in the width, in blank characters, for all tabs in the text, and
"Hexmode" toggles the display from hex-code to ASCII and back.

As with file and folder windows, TeraDesk's file-display windows
are standard GEM windows that can be resized. On the TT in medium
resolution, windows can be made as small as 1/15th of the total
screen size. And, just as with file and folder windows, the size
and position of Tera's file-display windows is saved in TeraDesk's
setup file (the equivalent of the TOS "DESKTOP.INF" and
"NEWDESK.INF" files). But there is more: When you load a text file
into a window and save Tera's configuration, the next time you run
TeraDesk it will redisplay the same text file in the same window --
and it will even display that text in the same relative position in
the window.

In other words, if you had scrolled a text to the third paragraph,
resized the window so that only six lines were showing, and saved
the TeraDesk setup configuration, the next time you run TeraDesk
that text window will be reopened to that same text, at the same
position.

This is an invaluable feature. One immediate use you might find for
it is to open Klaren's documentation (or this text) on the Tera
desktop and scroll the window to the section that you want to refer
to often, and then save the desktop; the documentation will then be
available at all times, visible on the desktop, in an instantly
resizeable window. If you make the window as small as possible and
move it out of the way, you can get back to the full text at any
time by topping the window (making it the active one) and clicking
on the full-size gadget at the upper right.

This technique is more powerful than it may seem. If you configure
TeraDesk to display a text in a permanent window, it will always
boot up with the latest version of that text -- meaning that you
could use a text window to display daily messages from a BBS or
online service, as long as they were saved each day to the filename
assigned to that window. (I use just that feature to display each
day's incoming e-mail on the desktop. I do not need to call up a
text reader or editor to check the mail each morning; it's there on
my desktop, in a scrollable window.)

Another use for a permanent desktop window is the display of a
short help file. My TeraDesk configuration includes a small window
open to a list of function-key assignments for TeraDesk.

In essence, Tera extends the desktop window metaphor beyond the
category of file and folder lists, providing a more powerful and
much more flexible desktop. MultiTOS, the official Atari
multitasking operating system, also does this, but adds too much
overhead to allow non-68030 Ataris to work with it at normal speed.
In its method of handling file displays within windows, Tera
achieves one of the goals of MultiTOS without the penalties of
slower operation.


Give them icons on the desktop
------------------------------

Anyone has taken advantage of the iconic nature of Atari's TOS
desktops knows that the operating system cannot handle more than a
small number of icons on the desktop. This limit varies according
to how many of the desktop's other features are being utilized, but
it is always relatively few. Each desktop icon is represented by a
text notation in the TOS desktop's information file, usually named
NEWDESK.INF. This file cannot be larger than about 4,168 bytes
without causing TOS to report a "system out of memory" error when
you try to save the desktop. (TOS will also report an error when you
try other operations at the desktop if the as-yet-unsaved
information file is too large.)

TeraDesk lets you fill an ST color or monochrome desktop with
icons, and will place up to 64 icons on a large-screen desktop on
an ST or on the TT's color or monochrome desktops. Tera uses a
DESKTOP.CFG file instead of a NEWDESK.INF file, and stores its data
in a non-ASCII format. This file can be at least 5,354 bytes long.


No pane, no gain
----------------

Tera also allows a greater selection of icons for file types than
the TOS desktop does. Using the "Install window icon" submenu under
the "Options" drop-down menu, you can add filenames, using
wildcards if you wish, and match them with icons that TeraDesk
maintains in its ICONS.RSC file. The icons appear in a scrollable
window.

One drawback is that the icons in this window always appear in black
and white even if they are in color otherwise. This causes a
particular problem if you create folder icons of various colors to
represent important subdirectories, since they will all look the
same in Tera's icon-selection window. In other words, if you assign
the AUTO folder icon one color and a TELECOMM folder another color,
you'll have to remember where those folder icons are placed in the
list when you scroll through them. If you assign the wrong color,
reassign it before saving the configuration file; Tera won't save
any intermediate selections that way.

If you wish, you can create different color icons for the desktop
than the colors you assign to the same icons within windows. First,
create colored icons using an icon editor -- the one from SDS that
operates as an XCONTROL CPX works fine -- and place those icons on
the desktop. Save the desktop configuration, and then go back to the
icon editor and change the colors. If you then assign these new
versions as window icons, your desktop will show the icon in one
color and your desktop windows will show them in the other color.

Here's an example of a good use for such a color scheme: On the
desktop, you may want to place icons for your AUTO folder and for a
folder that contains important system files (or backup copies of
those files), called SYSTEM. You could color those two folder icons
red or orange on the desktop. Within a window, however, you may not
want those color schemes to stand out, and so you could color them
yellow or light brown (the color of actual manila folders, for
example).

Here's another example: In my primary system, which contains thousands
of folders, I have many AUTO folders nested within the folders that
belong to their associated applications (AUTO folders that came
with the distribution disks, in other words), and I don't want them
to look the same as the AUTO folder that I keep in the root
directory of my C: partition. By coloring an AUTO folder icon
orange, placing it on the desktop (and saving the configuration), I
can then change the icon's color for use in all the desktop
windows, where it will show up yellow like all other folders.



Let them have it both ways
--------------------------

TT owners who have the TT color monitor or a VGA color monitor as a
substitute may already know of a pitfall of colored icons. If an
icon's background is set to any color, it appears black on a
monochrome display. This means that icons that have colored
foregrounds and backgrounds show up as solid shapes on any
monochrome desktop, whether it belongs to TOS or TeraDesk. TT users
suffer from this difficulty more than other Atarians because of the
ease with which the TT can be switched from color to monochrome.
(The ST needs separate monitors to do this, but the TT can show a
perfect ST monochrome desktop on the TT color screen.)

If you are willing to create two sets of icons -- one that is
strictly black and white and one that is colored -- you could set
up two ICONS.RSC files. Name the monochrome version MONO.RSC and
the color version COLOR.RSC and place them in a folder within the
TeraDesk folder named ICONRSC. Using Super Boot or another
full-featured boot-configuration utility, you can have the boot
utility copy the correct icon resource file from the ICONSRSC
folder to the TeraDesk folder, naming it ICONS.RSC; TeraDesk will
use it automatically when it starts up. (Depending on your boot
utility, you may have to set this up a little differently. One
alternative is to create two folders inside the TeraDesk folder,
named MONO and COLOR, with each one containing an ICONS.RSC file.
The boot utility then merely copies the correct ICONS.RSC file to
the TeraDesk folder.)

Yet another alternative takes advantage of Tera's ability to run
any program when it starts up. This is set up through a short text
file named DESKTOP.BAT. The first line of DESKTOP.BAT should
establish the location of the program you want Tera to run, using
the CD (change directory) command. The second line contains the
name of the program and any parameters that should be passed to
that program. The rest of the DESKTOP.BAT should contain a list of
alternate desktop configuration files that TeraDesk will
automatically load, depending on the resolution it is running in.

Here is an example of a DESKTOP.BAT in TeraDesk:

 cd c:\shells
 tomshell terahigh
 #640,200 medres.cfg
 #640,400 highres.cfg
 #640,480 ttmed.cfg

This DESKTOP.BAT file looks for TOMSHELL.TOS in the c:\shells
folder, then runs TOMSHELL with an instruction to TOMSHELL to
execute the batch file named TERAHIGH.BAT. After TOMSHELL exits,
TeraDesk loads the appropriate desktop configuration file, based on
the current resolution.

The ability of Tera to run any program on startup can be very handy
in other ways. If you are normally tight on disk space, Tera could
even extract its own support files before it finishes loading,
using ARC.TTP:

 cd c:\arc
 arc x c:\teradesk\tera.arc
 #640,200 medres.cfg
 #640,400 highres.cfg
 #640,480 ttmed.cfg

Or Tera could automatically do a backup of its vital configuration
files each time it loads, in this fashion:

 cd c:\arc
 arc a c:\teradesk\*.cfg *.rsc
 #640,200 medres.cfg
 #640,400 highres.cfg
 #640,480 ttmed.cfg

If you own STeno or EdHack, two excellent text editors, Tera could
automatically run the editor and load a text file into it:

 cd c:\wordproc
 steno myfile.txt
 #640,200 medres.cfg
 #640,400 highres.cfg
 #640,480 ttmed.cfg

Tera could also automatically run Aladdin, the telecomm software
that automates all operations on GEnie. The possibilities are
endless.




P A R T   2 :   S M A R  T   I C O N S
--------------------------------------


They're not just little pictures
--------------------------------

There are two basic ways that desktop software treats icons -- as
aliases for actual files and as actual files themselves. Icons that
are treated as aliases can be deleted or renamed without an effect
on the real file. Icons that act like real files are another matter
altogether.

Very few desktop systems treat icons in the second manner. But
TeraDesk comes very close to that ideal -- if you can call it an
ideal, since it has at least one serious drawback -- by its use of
smart icons. A little explanation is needed.

If you drag an icon (or even a filename) from a desktop window to
the desktop in later versions of Atari's TOS, you are actually
creating an alias for that file. The operating system creates a
link within the NEWDESK.INF file that connects that icon with the
file it represents. Double-clicking on the desktop alias icon is
interpreted as an instruction to the operating system to perform
the same actions that would have resulted from double-clicking on
the file icon (or filename), no matter where it is located on the
storage disk.

TOS knows that the desktop icon is not the actual file, of course.
If you drag the desktop alias icon to the trash can, the default
action initiated by TOS is to remove the alias from the desktop.
(TOS provides a choice of removing the alias icon or deleting the
file, but its default is always to remove the alias without
touching the file.)

As far as this goes, it is satisfactory. But that's just the
problem; it doesn't go far enough. The link between the desktop
alias icon and the actual file is static, and reaches in only one
direction, from the alias to the file. This means the desktop is not
made aware of any changes to the file. If you place the icon for
ARC602.TTP on the desktop and save the desktop configuration, TOS
keeps that alias icon on the desktop even if you rename the actual
file to ARC.TTP, and even if you erase the file from the disk. When
you double-click on the alias icon for a file that has been renamed
or deleted, all TOS can do is show you a dialog box telling you the
file can't be found, and asking if you want to locate it.

But TeraDesk maintains an active, two-way link between an alias and
its associated file. Once you drag the icon of a file into the
desktop, TeraDesk tracks the original file at all times. If you
rename the file, Tera renames the alias icon also (with one
exception, explained below), and if you delete the file, Tera pulls
the icon off the desktop.

The advantages of such two-way, active links are many. The obvious
ease with which you can set up your desktop and have it continually
reflect changes that you make within your files and folders makes
Tera's method a refreshing change from the standard one-way link
used by TOS. The fact that you will never have aliases on the
desktop that point to nonexistent files is a big plus, and the
knowledge that Tera is maintaining your desktop's icon assignments
automatically while you are cleaning out files is reassuring.

But you must beware of the risks of this two-way linkage. Just as
Tera removes an alias icon from the desktop when you delete the
file the icon represents, it also deletes the file itself when you
drag the desktop icon to the trash can. If the icon is the alias
for a folder, TeraDesk will delete the entire folder. If the icon
is the alias for a partition, Tera will delete the whole partition.
If, like many other users, you have set up your desktop so that no
warning is given before deletions, Tera will erase these files,
folders or partitions instantly.

My advice is to become proficient at a two-finger substitute for
the habit of dragging desktop icons to the trash can, unless you
are certain that you do, in fact, want to delete both the alias
icon and the file. That two-finger substitute is Control-R, which
removes desktop icons while unlinking the file from the alias. You
can also use the "Remove icons" submenu in the "Options" drop-down
menu to do the same thing.

That one exception to the automatic renaming of desktop icons
happens when you choose to attach a different name to the icon after
dragging it to the desktop. Many experienced TOS desktop users do
this, to good effect. Rather than being stuck with a desktop that
sports icons with such cryptic labels as "WP.PRG" and "GOOD.TOS,"
you can rename all your desktop icons -- in normal,
upper-and-lower-case text -- so that you have labels such as
"WordPerfect" and "Backup." Even though Tera will no longer track
any renaming of the actual file by renaming the desktop icon when
you do this, TeraDesk will still link the two for file deletion. Be
cautious; representing ALAD.PRG with an icon innocently labeled
"Call GEnie" on the desktop won't stop TeraDesk from erasing the
ALAD.PRG file if you drag the "Call GEnie" icon to the trash can.




P A R T   4 :   T H E   N A M E   G A M E
-----------------------------------------


Why not FUN instead of PRG?
---------------------------

In the world of the ST, TT and Falcon, executable programs -- files
that can be run when you double-click on them or call them from a
shell -- must be named according to a standard filename convention.
These filenames can have any primary name, but must have a filename
extension (the characters that follow the period at the end of the
first part of the name) that matches three characters that the
operating system expects to find. These filename extensions are PRG,
TOS, TTP, APP and GTP.

These extensions stand for:

 - PRoGram

 - The Operating System (a program that more or less acts like an
 MS-DOS executable file)

 - TOS-Takes-Parameters (also like an MS-DOS program)

 - APPlication (the same as PRG)

 - GEM-Takes-Parameters (a PRG that has features of a TTP file)

But from the day the first ST was designed, the Atari operating
system has been flexible enough to allow any filename extension to
be used for an executable file. This was difficult for the average
user to change, however, since it required editing of the
DESKTOP.INF file (the predecessor of the NEWDESK.INF file). Current
versions of TOS have lessened this difficulty, but TeraDesk makes
the roll-your-own extension technique very easy.

Use the "Program options" submenu under the "Options" drop-down
menu to enter either a full filename or a filename extension. If
you type in an extension, be sure to use the asterisk wildcard (the
"*" character) in place of the first part of the filename. You can
choose any name or extension; neither TeraDesk nor the Atari
operating system will complain if you pick "FUN" as the executable
file type extension for game programs and "UGH" as the extension
for a financial database program. Of course, this won't have any
effect unless you rename your game programs from the "PRG"
extension to "FUN" and your financial software to "UGH."

What's the point of doing such a thing? It can be cute, and it can
confuse the heck out of someone who sits down at your Atari and
tries to find executable files, but using different extensions for
executable files can also help organize your storage. Filenames
themselves can have no more than eight characters in the primary
field, which limits how much those characters can convey. But if
the filename extension were used to indicate a specific type of
program -- a disk utility, for example -- then the first part of
the filename can be more expressive. If you choose something like
"HDU" for hard-disk utilities, you can rename your collection of
hard-disk software so that every file in that category has the same
extension. That means a listing in a directory that was sorted by
type would show all "HDU" files together.

Keep in mind that this kind of alteration could cause problems for
software that expects your files to follow the official rules. Some
utilities, for example, look only for PRG, TOS, TTP, APP and GTP
files when they are changing such settings as the TOS fast-load
bit. Check to see if that happens whenever you change file
extensions, and ALWAYS save a backup copy of the file under the
original name. You'd be smart to save a log listing the original
name and the new name, too.




P A R T   5 :   F O N T O L O G Y
---------------------------------


GDOS ain't so bad after all
---------------------------

The worst thing Atari ever did was to create GDOS -- the Graphical
Device Operating System, a buggy, machine-hobbling method of
getting fonts of various sizes and shapes to appear on your screen
and on the paper that comes out of your printer. The original GDOS
was quickly replaced by a bugless version, but that one was just as
slow. Even when your computer was not showing any fancy fonts,
Atari's GDOS made it crawl instead of fly.

In the eight years since GDOS was introduced, Atari and others have
tried to fix the original mistake. Atari almost released a vastly
improved system called FSM GDOS (for Font Scaling Module), but FSM was
available from only one software manufacturer as a part of its word
processor. A junior version named Font GDOS came next, and it was
serviceable. Codehead Software had the best version, however, in
G+Plus, a completely rewritten replacement for the original GDOS.

Now, at last, Atari is releasing a superb version of GDOS called
Speedo GDOS. It uses fonts created by Bitstream, a major font
technology company. Bitstream fonts are easily scaled from 1 point
(too small to see) to 144 points (two inches high), and they print
out beautifully on both the screen and any printer.

So what does this have to do with TeraDesk? Tera automatically
supports any version of GDOS, letting you choose any monospaced
font for the text within its two types of window -- the text-viewer
window and the desktop file-and-folder window. Even if you don't
have any version of GDOS installed, Tera allows a selection of any
size of the system fonts. This means, also, that users with Warp 9,
CodeHead's nearly essential screen-display accelerator, can also
select any of the dozens of Warp 9 fonts for Tera's windows.

All Warp 9 fonts are monospaced, meaning that all letters and other
characters are the same width, even if they don't look that way.
(Clever monospaced fonts such as Todd Cherry's CHERRYHI.FNT for
Warp 9 can fool the eye easily.) But most GDOS fonts are not
monospaced; M and W, for example, are much wider than I and L. This
creates a more professional look on the screen and on the page.
Unfortunately, TeraDesk cannot make sense out of non-monospaced
fonts in its windows. (For one thing, it would not know where the
margins lie if characters had different widths.) So you must choose
from the few "typewriter"-style fonts among the GDOS families if
you want to use GDOS with TeraDesk.

If you stick with the system fonts and are using a TT, TeraDesk
actually offers seven font sizes instead of three. The ST has
only three system fonts and the TT four, but Tera uses the three
basic sizes to create double-size fonts on the TT. The choices in
points are 8, 9, 10, 16, 18, 20 and 40.




P A R T I N G   S H O T S
-------------------------


Let your voice be heard, and all that stuff
-------------------------------------------

This document is another in a series called "Secrets of ..."
written for Atari users world-wide. It includes Secrets of Flash,
Secrets of NeoDesk, and Secrets of WordPerfect, in addition to the
Secrets of TeraDesk that you have just read. Still to come are
Secrets of the TT, Secrets of the ST, and Secrets of the TOS
Desktop, among others. All these lengthy tips 'n' tricks documents
are free for the downloading on telecommunications services and
computer bulletin boards, but they do not write themselves. If you
like what you read, send me a letter by regular mail or e-mail and
let me know. If you feel generous, I'll happily accept a Gift of
Time in any small amount on GEnie, and I'll just as happily listen
to your comments and complaints, and especially your suggestions,
accompanied by no payment at all. This is written to help you get
more out of your Atari, and if I succeed even in some small way, I
am doing something worthwhile.

 Al Fasoldt