No Fragments Archive 12: Textmags & Docs/nf_archive_12.iso/MAGS/TEXTMAGS/ATARI16/INFO91.ZIP/INFO91/201.TXT

Text File | 1997-04-16 | 26.0 KB | 696 lines

Info-Atari16 Digest         Tue,  9 Apr 91       Volume 91 : Issue 201

Today's Topics:
                               2 things
                               AMC GDOS
     atari.archive: uploaded Mercury UUCP by Rodney Volz (2 msgs)
                            Atari auction
                         Background graphics.
                  BackupST: Looking for beta testers
                             CAD programs
                  FSM GDOS: when will it be real???
                           GEM source code
                         GhostScript ported?
                                 lynx
                Mega Ste and Clab's notator? (2 msgs)
                  New Atari Explorer, 1.44 Mb drives
                             Okami shell
                    RUFUS problem - it won't run!
                          Terminator Request
                        TT questions (2 msgs)
                Two New Computer Announcements - CeBIT
                       ZEST .. it's beautiful!

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 12:32:53 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu
 !ira.uka.de!fauern!faui43.informatik.uni-erlangen.de![e-mail]
 (Konstantinos Agouros)
Subject: 2 things
To: [e-mail]

Hi there, i have two questions:

First: Could somebody please tell me the ip# of atari.archive cause I can't get
through by the name.

Second:
I read once that there should be such thing like a csh for the ST. Could anybody
tell me, if that is true and if where to get it?

Greetings,

Konstantin

---

[e-mail]
Konstantinos Agouros, Erlanger Str. 11 8521 Spardorf GERMANY
[phone]

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

Date: Tue, 9 Apr 91 16:37:04 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: AMC GDOS
To: [e-mail]

 I am (trying) to use GEMINI and it seems to work quite well appart from
 the fact that AMCGDOS seems to kill several of my favourite and usefull
 programs (FASTCOPYII for example) with the illegal handle message. Has any
 one managed to nobble AMCGDOS so it dosn't do this?

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 12:31:56 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard
 !sunic!mcsun!corton!laas![e-mail] (Ralph P. Sobek)
Subject: atari.archive: uploaded Mercury UUCP by Rodney Volz
To: [e-mail]

I have just uploaded mercbin.lzh to atari.archive.  I picked it up on
some Finnish ftp site.  It seems to be a very recent version (1.18),
since the readme is dated Sat Jan 12 15:45:16 1991.  If someone has
the corresponding source, maybe they could upload it, too.

Here's the release.src file:

Stuttgart, Sat Jan 12 15:10:42 1991


Hello dear friends!

This will be the last time that I'll have to care about Mercury UUCP -
at least I hope so. Like I said to or three months ago, I've decided to
release the sourcecode of Mercury UUCP. Now, here come some words about
its status.

Mercury UUCP is Shareware. That means, you are free to copy the stuff,
pass it to friends, distribute it via any kind of network and install
it on as many machines as you like. Otherwise it means, you are *not*
allowed to sell it, or to gain money by distributing it. Also, you are
allowed to install the package on your machine, but you are expected to
send a shareware-fee to me, if you use it steadily. The amount of this
fee depends upon the way you use Mercury UUCP, and who you are. See the
file "README" for further informations.

If you compile and/or change the source of Mercury UUCP, please alter
the version description (defined in "defs.h") before. DO NOT just
change the version number!

Version "1.18" should become "1.18.sf.2" if it's the second
                                   ~~-----+
                                   |      |
release of a hacked up version by  Steven Falken. Okay? Thanks.

Mercury UUCP is the first program I wrote in C, and you can see that
when looking at the code. When I started writing it (with megamax C), I
didn't even have a C-library, so I had to write everything on my own. I
learned very much by doing so, but I wonder whether anyone other than
me will manage to compile the source. :-) Some newer parts of Mercury
UUCP are to be compiled with Mark Williams C. They should be quite
okay.

Thanks to all those who helped me while developping the stuff!

Have Fun,
-Rod

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 14:07:01 GMT
From: bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!corton!laas![e-mail]
 (Ralph P. Sobek)
Subject: atari.archive: uploaded Mercury UUCP by Rodney Volz
To: [e-mail]

Oops!  Left out my signature.
--
Ralph P. Sobek                    Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own.
[e-mail]                              Addresses are ordered by importance.
[e-mail], or ...!uunet!laas!ralph
If all else fails, try:                               [e-mail]
===============================================================================
Proud new owner of a Mega 4 ST.  What should I do with my *small* SH204 drive?

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

Date: Tue, 9 Apr 91 09:37 EST
From: <[e-mail]>
Subject: Atari auction
To: [e-mail]

 To Mike Ogrinz:
 You neglected to put in an address to which one might send the bids.
 The Bang-Path was quite long.  Do you have a shorter address?

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 13:08:04 GMT
From: math.fu-berlin.de!uniol!unido!rwthinf!ikki![e-mail] (Wolfram
 Roesler)
Subject: Background graphics.
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] (KEATES M G) writes:


>Has anyone 'extracted' graphics from commerical games that they
>could send me?

Quite some time ago I have written a program for the 8bit to do
right that, extract picture data from program disks. I did it by
copying sector after sector into the screen memory. This should
work on the ST as well if the picture data ist stored in bitmap
format. Wont work of course with compressed pictures. In this case
your program could scan the disk for magic numbers used by the
various picture formats and extract the following data to a seperate
file, then use guck or a similar multi-format browser to see if you
actually caught a picture.

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 11:22:19 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard
 !sunic!mcsun!hp4nl!alchemy!prisma![e-mail] (Fred Appelman)
Subject: BackupST: Looking for beta testers
To: [e-mail]

Hi,

I am looking for users of the program BackupST. I have collected the
bug reports and wish lists for a while and BackupST 1.22 is the result
of it. If you are a current user of BackupST I invite you to become a
beta tester of the new program. The documentation is not updated yet,
so if you are a new user, you better not become a beta tester.
The following is a brief list of the news features/bug fixes in the
new release.

1. Single program instead of 2 programs. Bfront is disapeared. The oply
   program left is BackupST.prg. The 'ttp' interface is gone too.
2. Bug fix: files which were located on a disk boundary had a high chance
   of being damaged.
3. Bug fix: The number of files/directories reported at the end was double the
   actual amount.
4. Screen flipping: Is improved. It should work now on all monitors.
5. Archive bit is set after the backup is done. This means that if you abort
   the backup process half way for some reason, the archive bit is not
   effected.
6. 'q' works in more. This means that you can stop a listing when you have
   found what you are looking for.
7. List outputs to screen, disk or printer.
8. The welcome scene is changed somewhat.
9. Sound can be enabled/disabled. Some people found the bell annoying.
10. '$' in filename bug fixed. Not a lot of people acutually reported this
    bug. If a special character (~$.*[]) was present in the filename, it
    caused enless loops in some cases.
11. You can specify files/dirs to be skipped. Also wildcard are supported.
    (e.g. *.bak *.o d:/tc d:/tex etc.)

If you want to become a beta tester, please mail me. If will send you
the program by mail. Between 5 and 10 testers would be great.

---
Fred J.R. Appelman, 3D Computer Vision, Utrecht University
AZU, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Telephone: [phone] Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail] or [e-mail]

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

Date: Tue, 9 Apr 91  11:29 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: CAD programs
To: [e-mail]

Hello Netters

Greetings from Northern Ireland

I'm looking for information on CAD software with a special interest in planning
gardens.

Is there a CAD package which allows both 3-D and/or plan views with a library
of symbols of trees, plants etc. I know that software such as Easy Draw, Degas,
Cyber Paint etc all allow plan type views and are easy to use. But for 3-D view
points CAD 3D2 is far too complex to use, and I have no experience of MASTER
CAD's capability.

Alternativily I would consider purchasing DRAFIX-1 from someone, second hand,
of course at a reasonable price, even from USA.

Thanks in advance

Graeme Craig
92 Mount Merrion Park
Belfast
BT6 0GB
N. Ireland

or

[e-mail]

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 17:48:50 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!mips!apple!agate![e-mail]
 (John Kawakami)
Subject: FSM GDOS: when will it be real???
To: [e-mail]

Question: When will FSM GDOS be out, and how will I be able to get it to
print with a DeskJet 500?

Why: Because I need to know if I should shell out the money for the Migraph
GDOS printer driver.

BTW, FSM GDOS exists in some form.  I got a letter from Goldleaf (of WordFlair
fame) that was printed on a SLM605 with FSM GDOS. It looked VEERY nice.  I
sense two possible bugs: 1) the spacing of the letters is not perfect, 2)
the capital letters are blacker than the lowercase letters.  These might
just be bugs in the fonts.  The 605's output is very nice; FSM's rasterization
appears to be very good as well.

Another BTW, they used a Palatino or Palatino-like font.

Review: Wordflair II is very nice.  Problems: as usual, it's slowed down
by Atari's GDOS and VDI and AES; still not enough drawing tools; the screen
bitmap is not buffered, so updates are unnecessarily slow; only one edit
window; no word processor file conversion utilities.  Assets: this is the
only word processor of its kind on the ST (the object oriented model is
perfect for modern document management; the only other program I have used
like this is framemaker); it's faster than most other ST word processors which
have half the features; comes with a graphics file conversion .ACC; has
dictionary, thesaurus, and hypenation dictionary (all are based on digital
Webster, so Goldleaf went outside for those modules); FSM GDOS compatible;
pretty good database management which works better for mailmerge than the
usual db-program-or-textfiledatabase + wordprocessor combination.

WF is geared mostly toward writing dynamic documents, that is, documents
that will change over time, or change depending on who is supposed to read
it.  This is the opposite of most word processors, which are geared toward
static documents like research papers and books (well, some can be used to
write books).  I will continue to use WordPerfect for some things, but
anything with a table, graphics, or mailmerge will definitely end up on
Wordflair.

Is it worth $125?  Yes.


John Kawakami                  [e-mail]
Amateur Crank!                 ucbvax!ocf.berkeley.edu!kawakami

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 12:36:34 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!ncar!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att
 !cbnewse![e-mail] (james.r.hofmann)
Subject: GEM source code
To: [e-mail]

Awhile back a request was made for people on the net to release
examples of working GEM code for use as a tutorial to those trying
to learn how such code works. A good idea, but I have one question.
Aren't the include files that come with a compiler proprietary?
That being so, I can post the source (set to compile with Prospero C)
but not the include files. That would not be all that helpful.

Jim Hofmann
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Naperville, ILL
[e-mail]

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

Date: 8 Apr 91 13:34:58 GMT
From:
 math.fu-berlin.de!uniol!unido!rzsun2.informatik.uni-hamburg.de!rospc1!hess@uune
 t.uu.net (Hauke Hess)
Subject: GhostScript ported?
To: [e-mail]

Hello,

I just got the GNU GhostScript sources, but I`m not so good at porting large
software (about 1,5MB c source). Was anyone successfull with this? Could
you then send me the complete Interpreter (without fonts, they aren`t to be
ported I guess) or just the right Projectfile with the needed changments to
the source?

Thank you

Hauke Hess / University Hamburg / Germany

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

Date: 7 Apr 91 03:10:16 GMT
From:
 news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!lethe!comspec!telly!moore!eastern!egsgate!
 [e-mail] (Shervin Shahrebani Of 250/744)
Subject: lynx
To: [e-mail]

You are wrong.  Atari has been continuously advertising the LYNX.  They have
 about 18 games now with 16 more to come by summer and another batch by the end
 of the year.  I think that Atari will do really well with its LYNX.  Also, the
 Portfolio is selling really well, and now that it sells for $299 U.S. instead
 of $399...

S.S.

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

Date: 5 Apr 91 03:39:12 GMT
From:
 news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!lethe!comspec!telly!moore!eastern!egsgate!
 [e-mail] (Shervin Shahrebani Of 250/744)
Subject: Mega Ste and Clab's notator?
To: [e-mail]

I can tell you this much, Notator 3.0 works great with the new Mega STE.

S.S.

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 17:01:56 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ogicse!milton!alexd@
 arizona.edu (Alex Danilchik)
Subject: Mega Ste and Clab's notator?
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>
 Shervin.Shahrebani.Of.250/[e-mail] (Shervin Shahrebani Of
 250/744) writes:
>I can tell you this much, Notator 3.0 works great with the new Mega STE.
>
>S.S.

I don't have a Mega STe... but, i have been told
by someone using the Mega STe with NOTATOR that because you must
disable the cache to run NOTATOR.. you really only see
about a 20% overall speed improvement over an 8 mhz ST..

Is this what you find to be about right?

cheers!
gunnar
[e-mail]

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

Date: 5 Apr 91 03:47:16 GMT
From:
 news-server.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!lethe!comspec!telly!moore!eastern!egsgate!
 [e-mail] (Shervin Shahrebani Of 250/744)
Subject: New Atari Explorer, 1.44 Mb drives
To: [e-mail]

I just bought the March/April issue of Atari Explorer and it is great.  Some
 refreshing news!  I would highly recommend this issue.  There is a review of
 the newest Quartet sampler/sequencer program, Portfolio Management, Lynx Games,
 DTP using Pagestream, A guide to fonts, review of FSM/GDOS (new GDOS from
 Atari!), Font Designer, coverage of Atari at Comdex and CES shows, a hands on
 review of the Mega STE and a great interview with Greg Pratt, Atari U.S.'s
 General Manager!

In the interview, he mentions that "one third-party developer is expected to
 announce an Ethernet card that will fit in the VME slot on the machines".  He
 also said: "Besides Unix, we're also developing significant enhancements of our
 existing technologies to keep abreast of current developments in competing
 markets.  For example, we've received good reports on the design chips that
 will control our new high-density 1.44 MB floppy drives, and expect shortly to
 announce a range of upgrade products and optio











ns based on this technology.  We're also moving swiftly towards being able to
 supply state-of-the-art 14" and 19" monitors for use with DTP, CAD, and other
 graphics-based applications."

I just thought this was an interesting bit of info I would pass along.

S.S.

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 09:53:50 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard
 !sunic!mcsun!hp4nl!philapd!ssp18![e-mail] (J. van Loenen)
Subject: Okami shell
To: [e-mail]

Hi,

I have uploaded the okami shell (okami12.lzh) to atari.archive today.

As for the enormous amount of email, I guess a lot of people want to
have this shell.
Thanks to everyone who replied to my previous posting.

Please stop mailing me about the okami shell now, otherwise my mbox
will explode :-)

###############################################################################
#  Jan van Loenen                         Internet   [e-mail]  #
#  Philips Information Systems            UUCP       ....!mcvax!philapd!jvl   #
###############################################################################

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 12:55:55 GMT
From: math.fu-berlin.de!uniol!unido!rwthinf!ikki![e-mail] (Wolfram
 Roesler)
Subject: RUFUS problem - it won't run!
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] (MiG - Miguel Borges) writes:

>I ran RUFUS.PRG, but all I got was an alert box, saying something like
>"GDOS falhure - Ungultiges Handle"  I assume it's german.

It is, it means 'invalid handle'. Rufus works fine with me, but I use
it without GDOS. Try to boot without GDOS. Rufus should work then,
although you will not be able to use fonts.
I dont know if there are English instructions, yet I dont even have
the German ones... Try sending an email directly to the author, the
adress should be in the docs.
So long
Wolfram

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 14:45:12 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!caen!math.lsa.umich.edu!math.lsa
 .umich.edu![e-mail] (Jon Brode)
Subject: Terminator Request
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Sean Sterling Foiles)
 writes:
>I'm not certain, but ... I assume thoriginal Tos1.0 on floppy is
>considered pd.  If so, could some one please post this to Terminator?

Please don't. If you do upload it, we won't put it up for download unless
we get explicit approval from Atari to do so.  We already got it trouble
with them for having TOS 1.4 up for download, we don't need any more
problems.

The tos-up-for-download incident prompted us to stop allowing people to
download things directly from the "new" directory. Now we have to review
everything before it gets made available for retrieval.

Finally, we're atari.archive.umich.edu first and foremost. The fact that
you can reach us via terminator is just a coincidence.

Jon

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 12:24:41 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!cs.utexas.edu!know![e-mail]
Subject: TT questions
To: [e-mail]

As a TT user, life is pretty lonely right now. I keep posting questions
on the net about TT compatible software but I do not get any responses.

If anyone has an answer to any of the following, please post a reply:

1. Is there a terminal emulation package (VT100/240,etc) that works on
   the TT in TT screen modes (Flash and Uniterm have to be in ST
   screen mode).

2. Do any of the PC emulators work on the TT (ATOnce, ATSpeed, Delta-
   Modul, SuperCharger). I want minimum AT emulation but would prefer
   386 performance.

3. When will Pagestream be fixed to work on a TT (Calamus works in
   ST screen modes and sort of works in TT screen mode).

4. Has Signum been updated for the TT? (Tex works well but I hate
   the command interface).

5. NeoDesk 3 requires a warm reboot to change rez on the TT, thus
   making it unusable because I have to change rez often. Will this
   be worked around in the future.

6. I spoke with the developer of Revolver and there is no plan for an
   upgrade to the TT (ST versions did not sell very well). Pity,
   the ST/TT without Revolver is a drag. Anyone else working on a TT
   task switcher (I could retire before UNIX is ready).

7. MVG works only in ST high rez; any plans for a TT screen mode fix?

8. Turtle and Megamin will not work on the TT; any plans for an upgrade?

9. Will EasyDraw be recompiled for the 68030/68882; it would scream!

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 13:51:17 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.colum
 bia.edu!ira.uka.de!fauern!faui43.informatik.uni-erlangen.de![e-mail]
 (Claus Brod)
Subject: TT questions
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] writes:

>1. Is there a terminal emulation package (VT100/240,etc) that works on
>   the TT in TT screen modes (Flash and Uniterm have to be in ST
>   screen mode).

Try Rufus.

>2. Do any of the PC emulators work on the TT (ATOnce, ATSpeed, Delta-
>   Modul, SuperCharger). I want minimum AT emulation but would prefer
>   386 performance.

The SuperCharger works.

>4. Has Signum been updated for the TT? (Tex works well but I hate
>   the command interface).

Yes, there is a TT update. (ST-High only!)

>6. I spoke with the developer of Revolver and there is no plan for an
>   upgrade to the TT (ST versions did not sell very well). Pity,
>   the ST/TT without Revolver is a drag. Anyone else working on a TT
>   task switcher (I could retire before UNIX is ready).

Try MultiGEM from Maxon in Germany. It's a MultiFinder-clone for the
ST which will soon be released for the TT, too.

>9. Will EasyDraw be recompiled for the 68030/68882; it would scream!

Why do you think so? I don't think they're using many floating point
ops in Easydraw, do they? Better get some TT RAM and let it run there;
this gives you 20 to 40 % more performance. You might also move TOS
into fast RAM which makes for another noticeable speed boost.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Claus Brod, Am Felsenkeller 2,                  Things. Take. Time.
D-8772 Marktheidenfeld, West Germany            (Piet Hein)
[e-mail]
Claus [e-mail]
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: 8 Apr 91 17:17:13 GMT
From:
 news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!IRO.UMontreal.CA!matrox!uvm-ge
 n!kira![e-mail] (Robert B. Pegram)
Subject: Two New Computer Announcements - CeBIT
To: [e-mail]

From article <[e-mail]>, by
 [e-mail]:
> In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (T R Hall) writes:
>>      As far as data transfer, both the Notebook and Pad versions of the
>>      machines will include file-transfer software in the ROMS, transfering
>>      over parallel-ports to other ST's, and serial ports to non-ATARI
>>      machines (hopefuly with an existing protocol, so Atari won't have to
>>      write [shudder!!] MS-DOS software).

> I thought the ST's parallel port is output only. Surely one would
> transfer data from the notebook/pad into a regular ST as well.

        Nope, it's bidrectional - but not exactly the way IBM ports
are (which is partly why Portfolio code to transfer to PCs doesn't
work on STs).  I should know, my dear departed 520 got me my BS, as it
ran my Armatron for Senior (EE) project.  The ST sent the arm
commands, and the arm sent back signals when it hit its limits of
motion - all through the parallel port.

> Alex Valdez

Bob Pegram

[e-mail]
        or
!uvm-gen!pegram

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

Date: 9 Apr 91 00:09:07 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-
 state.edu!csn!boulder!tramp.Colorado.EDU![e-mail] (MILLER TODD C)
Subject: ZEST .. it's beautiful!
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>
 [e-mail] (Alex Danilchik) writes:
>Ah!  So nice!
>More.. more.. please... how about an entirely new desktop
>"ZeSTop"... love it...
>
>Demo is in atari-archives newitems.

Includes the gfa sources too, if anyone wants to write any ZeST compliant apps..

 - todd
--
Todd C. Miller                    | "But all the politiCIAns now
[e-mail]        |  They have no excuse
[e-mail]       |  They just hide behind their power
University of Colorado @ Boulder  |  And keep us from the truth" - Roger McGuinn

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

End of Info-Atari16 Digest
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