No Fragments Archive 12: Textmags & Docs/nf_archive_12.iso/MAGS/TEXTMAGS/ATARI16/INFO91.ZIP/INFO91/533.TXT

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Info-Atari16 Digest         Thu, 17 Oct 91       Volume 91 : Issue 533

Today's Topics:
                             ATARI ON TV
       Message Router VMSmail Gateway nondelivery notification
                        Microware OS/9 Catalog
                        Questions on PC-Speed
                   Technical information on ST(e)?

Welcome to the Info-Atari16 Digest.  The configuration for the automatic
cross-posting to/from Usenet is getting closer, but still getting thrashed
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 7 Oct 91 13:05:09 GMT
From: mcsun!uknet!ukc!bcc.ac.uk![e-mail] (Mr Stephen R Usher)
Subject: ATARI ON TV
To: [e-mail]

On the subject of Atari computers on Telly..


A few weeks ago I saw an episode of the American TV program "Dream On". In it
the main character was writing a play (or was it a novel) on what looked
like a Mac Plus with an IBM PC/AT extended keyboard with the screen showing
what looked like 1st Word Plus with an Atari logo in the top left, in the
menu bar.

Did anyone else see this, or was I halucinating (is that how it's spelt?)?

Steve

Addresses:-

Janet           [e-mail]       or      [e-mail]@uk.ac.uknet
Internet        [e-mail]       or      [e-mail]@uknet.ac.uk

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


Info-Atari16 Digest         Thu, 17 Oct 91       Volume 91 : Issue 530

Today's Topics:
                              appl_yield
                                 ARJ?
                             ATARI ON TV
                                 C++
                            Delirious demo
            Good places to anon-ftp atari-pd-software from
                      INSTALL AN APP FOR TWO DIF
Install an app for two diff filetypes, term with IBM graphics option?
                LHARC 2.01E VS ZOO 2.1: SOME (3 msgs)
             lharc 2.01e vs zoo 2.1: some tests (2 msgs)
                             Mercury Help
                     TV Sports Football Problems
                     Wanted: dealer for CYBER VCR
                     Weekly Posting of New Stuff

Welcome to the Info-Atari16 Digest.  The configuration for the automatic
cross-posting to/from Usenet is getting closer, but still getting thrashed
out.  Please send notifications about broken digests or bogus messages
to [e-mail].

Please send requests for un/subscription and other administrivia to
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If you want to unsubscribe, and you're receiving the digest indirectly
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contact the redistributor, not us.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 2 Oct 91 17:37:00 GMT
From:
 mcsun!unido!ira.uka.de!smurf.sub.org!artcom0!hb.maus.de!ms.maus.de!Patrick_Dubb
 [e-mail] (Patrick Dubbrow)
Subject: appl_yield
To: [e-mail]

l>Does anybody know whether appl_yield AES fn 17 (DRI GEM 3 ref manual)
l>exists in ATARI AES, this would be a much better solution to the regular
l>yield problem inherent in co-operative multitasking than evnt_timer(0).

No, it has not been implemented yet in Atari GEM. There is an undocumented
method to cause Atari-GEM to execute an in-fact appl_yield(). But nobody
guarantees that it won't disappear in future TOS-Versions.

Patrick

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

Date: 3 Oct 91 06:22:00 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit
 .edu!ira.uka.de!smurf.sub.org!artcom0!hb.maus.de!hh.maus.de!Thomas_Quester@ariz
 ona.edu (Thomas Quester)
Subject: ARJ?
To: [e-mail]

ro>>There is a PC version of lh5 that I have seen, may be some one could
ro>>port that,?.

It contains about 200 pages of undocumentated intel assembler (the
compression and decompression routines).

ro>>May be Thomas is not into hands off programing, ala C Lang'uage, I am
ro>>a bit that way myself being of a Engineering background.

I have a version of LHarc in C. It need only a few modifications in the
makefile. The reason I did'nt post it, is
  a) I fear many different incompatible versions will appear if sources
     are availabe.
  b) There will be a unix-version soon.

----------------------------------------------------
Thomas Quester  *  Lampenland 9  *  2050 Hamburg 80

MauTau V 2.2c - Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.
(Net)

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

Date: 4 Oct 91 05:05:25 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!midway!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sam
 sung!munnari.oz.au!bruce!monu0.cc.monash.edu.au!monu6!minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au!s882
 [e-mail] (Tehn Chin)
Subject: ATARI ON TV
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] (Neil Forsyth) writes:

>In article <[e-mail]>
>[e-mail] (Eric Glover) writes:
>>Why is it that Atari U.S. is so sad compared to the rest of the world.
>>Eric .R. Glover

>Would you rather have Atari UK? You may have a raw deal but you 'aint hit
>rock bottom yet!

Isn't sad when Atari users are comparing how bad the Atari companies are in
various countries. Atari's operation in Australia is also deep in trouble.
Would you believe that the recent advertisement of the ST computers has a
teenager telling his friends how good the games are on the ST!!

Tehn Yit Chin
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

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

Date: Thu, 17 Oct 91 01:54:58 PDT
From: [e-mail] (David Boyce)
Subject: C++
To: [e-mail]

Soeren Michelsen writes:
>Anyone know where to find a C++ compiler for the ST? I've been working
>with C++ on PC's for a while and badly want to be able to use the ST
>with a C++ compiler. Has GCC++ been ported yet, if so where do I find it?

G++ 1.39.1 is on atari.archive.umich.edu, in the atari/gnustuff/tos/g++
directory. You need a 4Mb machine to use it properly. LIBG++ 1.39 is
also in the same dirctory.

>Also, if it has been ported, does it run under MiNT? (And where do I find
>MiNT!)

It doesn't seem to have any problems under MiNT.

MiNT is also on atari.archive, in atari/mint.

        - Dave

-----
David Boyce, Schlumberger Instruments,           | [e-mail]
Farnborough, Hants, UK, ([phone] x5543   | abaddon@cix
Pithy slogan: This universe is shipped by weight, not by volume.
Some expansion of its contents may have occurred in transit.

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

Date: 5 Oct 91 15:52:18 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!ukma!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cleveland.Freenet.Edu![e-mail]
 (Jonathan Roy)
Subject: Delirious demo
To: [e-mail]

 - Could someone break up the MSA to the two Care Bear demos?! I can't handle

 - such a big MSA. (Life's a Bitch demo and Whatta Heck Demo)


A better solution is for someone to upload a Ultra Packer version. The ULTfiles
for demos that aren't pre-compressed are usually less than HALF the size of the
MSA files. I've found, for most demos, if you MSA it, then LZH that MSA
file, it's STILL LARGER than a ULT file. Ultra Packer is a little slower,
but the extra compression is really worth it. Some 700K MSA files can be
down to 300K on Ultra Packer... (Even pre-compressed files are smaller,
say 800K MSA to 720K ULT)

--
  |||  Jonathan Roy (The Ninja) Internet: [e-mail]
  |||  -- BBS: Darkest Realm - (Down for now) - Public UUCP/Usenet --
 / | \ "...make him want to change his name,take him to the cleaners,
 devastate him, wipe him out, humiliate him." -CHESS   GEnie: J.ROY18

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

Date: 4 Oct 91 21:25:43 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!hsdndev!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!n8emr!bluemoon!ncrawler@a
 rizona.edu (Steve Goldfein)
Subject: Good places to anon-ftp atari-pd-software from
To: [e-mail]

Could someone tell me how to go about getting a list of the ST and Atari
8-bit software on these systems?  Also, how to get a listing of the files
in the Atari 8-bit archives at the University of Michigan.  I am new to
this, and need explicit instructions.


 This is from
     [e-mail]
     [e-mail]
who doesn't have their own obnoxious signature yet

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

Date: 4 Oct 91 07:52:15 GMT
From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!execu!sequoia!uudell!fquest![e-mail]
 (Philip Durgin)
Subject: INSTALL AN APP FOR TWO DIF
To: [e-mail]

My desktop.inf has this for ARCshell:

#G 03 04   F:\arc\arcshell.prg@ *.lzh@
#G 03 04   F:\arc\arcshell.prg@ *.arc@

This is how I am able to double click on a .LZH or .ARC to call up Arcshell for
either

 * Origin: Future Quest - USENET<=>Fidonet Gateway 512-451-0891 (1:19/23)

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

Date: 5 Oct 91 15:45:21 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs
 .ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!cleveland.Freenet.Edu![e-mail]
 (Jonathan Roy)
Subject: Install an app for two diff filetypes, term with IBM graphics option?
To: [e-mail]

-----
1. Is there anyway to install an application for more than one filetype?
I was wanting to install ARCGSHL 3.5 for both ZOO and ARC, and under TOS
1.0 I could just go up to install on the menu twice, once for each
filetype. Well, it won't let you do that under 1.4 :*(  So I tried to
edit the desktop.inf file adding the required lines to install the
application for two filetypes. Well, my ST just crashed on boot up
then!! Any suggestions?
---

I suggest you try again...Here's the part of my DESKTOP.INF file that
relates to your problem. I did this with a text editor...

#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\STENO.PRG@ *.SYS@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\STENO.PRG@ *.ASC@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\STENO.PRG@ *.MNU@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\STENO.PRG@ *.HLP@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\STENO.PRG@ *.BLB@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\STENO.PRG@ *.TXT@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\STENO.PRG@ *.DOC@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\STENO.PRG@ *.DIR@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\STENO.PRG@ *.BTS@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\STENO.PRG@ *.MAP@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\ARCSHELL.PRG@ *.ARC@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\ARCSHELL.PRG@ *.LZH@
#P 03 04   C:\DL\SOUND\STEPLAY.TTP@ *.MOD@
#P 03 04   C:\UTILITY\GIFCOLOR.TTP@ *.GIF@
#G 03 04   C:\UTILITY\TX2_VIEW.PRG@ *.TX2@

It works great....


--
  |||  Jonathan Roy (The Ninja) Internet: [e-mail]
  |||  -- BBS: Darkest Realm - (Down for now) - Public UUCP/Usenet --
 / | \ "...make him want to change his name,take him to the cleaners,
 devastate him, wipe him out, humiliate him." -CHESS   GEnie: J.ROY18

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

Date: 4 Oct 91 07:43:14 GMT
From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!execu!sequoia!uudell!fquest![e-mail]
 (Philip Durgin)
Subject: LHARC 2.01E VS ZOO 2.1: SOME
To: [e-mail]

I did my own research between ZOO 2.1 and LHarc 2.01E and found the following.

1) Hacker.txt    10232
2) hacker.prg   124698

This is an on-line game for my BBS was compress with both ZOO and LHARC

LHarc: 64089 bytes in size after compression taking 55 seconds to do so.
ZOO  : 88312 bytes in size after compression taking 47 seconds to do so.

both took 15 secs to extract the files.

Compressing a .GIF picture named ARMY1.gif 168010

164078 after LHarc compression
220107 after ZOO   compression

If being able to compress files 73% smaller than ZOO is not a significant
difference then you must have HD space to burn.... And not being to Compress a
.GIF picture at all is unthinkable. I guess I am going to stay with LHARC until
ZOO can show a much better track record than the one available.

 * Origin: Future Quest - USENET<=>Fidonet Gateway 512-451-0891 (1:19/23)

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

Date: 5 Oct 91 17:19:32 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve@ar
 izona.edu (Steve Yelvington)
Subject: LHARC 2.01E VS ZOO 2.1: SOME
To: [e-mail]

[In article <[e-mail]>,
     [e-mail] (Philip Durgin) writes ... ]

 > LHarc: 64089 bytes in size after compression taking 55 seconds to do so.
 > ZOO  : 88312 bytes in size after compression taking 47 seconds to do so.
..

 > If being able to compress files 73% smaller than ZOO is not a significant

Eh? The difference between 88 and 64 is 73%?

If you're going to compare LHARC vs ZOO 2.1, be sure to use the equivalent
compression -- add 'h' for high compression to the ZOO command line, or
use the -add novice command. These figures look like what you would get
with ZOO 2.0 compression routines, which are slightly less efficient than
the old ARC program (probably due to larger headers).

Bill's test results were not cooked. I've run several tests of ZOO 2.1
here and in every case, the compression differences between ZOO and LZH
are not significant. The reliability and portability issues speak for
themselves.

 --
 Steve Yelvington, Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota
 [e-mail] (In winter we walk on water)

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

Date: 5 Oct 91 20:47:01 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!linac!convex!rosenkra@ar
 izona.edu (William Rosenkranz)
Subject: LHARC 2.01E VS ZOO 2.1: SOME
To: [e-mail]

for those planning more "lharc is smaller than zoo 2.1" tests, note the
following (i.e. RTFM):

        the default compression algorithm with zoo 2.1 is compatible with
        older zoo 2.01. in order to pack with the newer (and slower) high
        compression option (which should be about equal with lharc), you
        MUST ASK FOR IT. e.g.

                zoo ah archive.zoo file ...

        note the "h". we can argue over whether it should be the default
        to produce the best packing ratio or to be compatible with older
        zoo versions. the latter gets my vote (the current situation).

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Philip
 Durgin) writes:
>I did my own research between ZOO 2.1 and LHarc 2.01E and found the following.
>
>1) Hacker.txt    10232
>2) hacker.prg   124698
>
>This is an on-line game for my BBS was compress with both ZOO and LHARC
>
>LHarc: 64089 bytes in size after compression taking 55 seconds to do so.
>ZOO  : 88312 bytes in size after compression taking 47 seconds to do so.
>
>both took 15 secs to extract the files.

after reading what i wrote above, are we really comparing the same thing???
how did you do this? what commands did you type???

i think if you go back and use zoo 2.1 with its high compression mode, you
will find it packs about the same size as lharc 2.01e, and probably takes
10-15% longer (5 seconds maybe).

until you mention the method, we can't make any rational deductions from
your data. your research is inconclusive and not precise...

-bill
[e-mail]

--
Bill Rosenkranz            |UUCP: {uunet,texsun}!convex!rosenkra
Convex Computer Corp.      |ARPA: [e-mail]

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

Date: 4 Oct 91 20:36:02 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!mcshh!malihh!pfunk![e-mail] (Michael
 Kistenmacher)
Subject: lharc 2.01e vs zoo 2.1: some tests
To: [e-mail]

In <[e-mail]>, William Rosenkranz writes:

>no desire to change at the moment. i don't think TOS 1.4 has that much to
>offer me personally. i don't use the desktop.

Looks like you don't know much about TOS 1.4. I don't know about anything
different between the DESKTOP on both TOS versions. But I do know about some
very interesting speed increases of disk access, especially on a hard
drive. Also I know of some new function call, that are quite nice. Some
other routines inside of the memory manager are fixed. I think that these
are very good reasens for a change.

Bye.....Michael

--
/------------------------------------\
| Michael Kistenmacher /  blackbox   |
| 2000 Hamburg 61  / Schippelsweg 64 |
| West Germany / ++ 49 40 552 37 66  |
\------------------------------------/

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

Date: 5 Oct 91 20:59:38 GMT
From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!convex![e-mail] (William Rosenkranz)
Subject: lharc 2.01e vs zoo 2.1: some tests
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>In <[e-mail]>, William Rosenkranz writes:
>>no desire to change at the moment. i don't think TOS 1.4 has that much to
>>offer me personally. i don't use the desktop.
>Looks like you don't know much about TOS 1.4. I don't know about anything
>different between the DESKTOP on both TOS versions. But I do know about some
>very interesting speed increases of disk access, especially on a hard
>drive. Also I know of some new function call, that are quite nice. Some
>other routines inside of the memory manager are fixed. I think that these
>are very good reasens for a change.

as an official developer, i got the Rainbow TOS feature list long ago. at
the time, i read the document and evaluated its impact on my use. at the
time i did not figure it to be that big a deal for how i then (and now) use
my ST. also, i was unsure whether i needed the 2-chip or the 6-chip set
(still am unsure). at the time, i needed to maintain both 1.0 and 1.2
compatibility anyway for an existing project. if i read the 1.4 specs
correctly, 1.0 and 1.2 applications should run under 1.4. the reverse was
not necessarily the case. using the new function calls, either consciously
or by accident would have possibly made the application useless for older
TOS systems (there were FAR more of these a couple of years ago). i realize
that fixes in memory are desirable. i use GEMBOOT or FOLDRxxx and have
had few problems in this area anyway. performance is nice, but if i want
real performance, i have access to numerous supercomputers. again, for me,
not an issue...

and again, the best TOS program is one which works with all TOS versions,
not just the then-current level of the OS. if you don't believe me, just
ask atari for the "official" position on this. apratt will (rightly so)
cut you to ribbons for an infraction here :-)...

-bill
[e-mail]
--
Bill Rosenkranz            |UUCP: {uunet,texsun}!convex!rosenkra
Convex Computer Corp.      |ARPA: [e-mail]

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

Date: 5 Oct 91 21:27:06 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!horga!agsc![e-mail] (Friedhelm Poschadel)
Subject: Mercury Help
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] (John Henders) writes:


>       Does anyone know how to get the Mercury UUCP package to handle
>long group names? Mail to Rodney goes unanswered, but doesn't bounce,
>so I don't know if he's still around. I've tried to get the group
>alt.society.cu-digest, and it just doesn't show up. I tried truncating
>the name in my sys file, but that doesn't work. Any ideas.--

Have you edited your /usr/lib/news/active file? In that file you have
to insert the names of the groups you want to have on your system.

But you have not to writee each group, you can write comp.* (for example).


        Friedhelm
--
        Friedhelm Poschadel                     Tel.:   [phone]
        UseNet: [e-mail]               BTX:    0511561141-0002
        SubNet: [e-mail]          UUCP:   [e-mail]

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

Date: 6 Oct 91 06:23:43 GMT
From: math.fu-berlin.de!tmpmbx!lime.in-berlin.de![e-mail] (Techno)
Subject: TV Sports Football Problems
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] (Pat Fitzgibbons) writes:

>Does anyone out there have trouble with TV Sports
>football by Cinemaware?
>It won't let me finish the season. It refuses to
>progress past last set or playoff games. Does
>anyone have an address or phone to contact Cinemaware ?

I'm sorry, but I have heard that Cinemaware has folded.

                            Techno


--
| [e-mail] ||| Please do not e-mail from outside Germany ! |
| [e-mail]   / | \ Hardcore ST user !  ====================== |
| Nothing that's real is ever for free, you just have to pay for it sometime. |
|                                        (Al Stewart)                         |

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

Date: 5 Oct 91 17:38:31 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!mikros!mwtech![e-mail] (Walter Mecky)
Subject: Wanted: dealer for CYBER VCR
To: [e-mail]

A friend of mine has a MEGA-ST and is looking for a new dealer for
the CYBER VCR products. Until now a firm called Antic did this but
they gave up.

Anybody knows where he can get these products?

I would prefer email because I don't read this newsgroup.

Thanks.

-


Info-Atari16 Digest         Thu, 17 Oct 91       Volume 91 : Issue 534

Today's Topics:
              Atari confirms TT CD-I project; gets RAVES
                       Korn Shell for ATARI ST?
       Message Router VMSmail Gateway nondelivery notification
                             New products

Welcome to the Info-Atari16 Digest.  The configuration for the automatic
cross-posting to/from Usenet is getting closer, but still getting thrashed
out.  Please send notifications about broken digests or bogus messages
to [e-mail].

Please send requests for un/subscription and other administrivia to
Info-Atari16-Request, *NOT* Info-Atari16.  Requests that go to the list
instead of the moderators are likely to be lost or ignored.

If you want to unsubscribe, and you're receiving the digest indirectly
from someplace (usually a BITNET host) that redistributes it, please
contact the redistributor, not us.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 7 Oct 91 09:57:00 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!mips!spool.mu.edu!munnari.oz.au!news.hawaii.e
 du!uhccux![e-mail] (Jack W. Wine)
Subject: Atari confirms TT CD-I project; gets RAVES
To: [e-mail]

Atari's Director of Developer Services, Bill Rehbock, confirmed at the
The Glendale Show that the TT would become a development platform for
CD-I (Compact Disk Interactive) players.  The CD-I players are based
on 68000 family processors and are controlled by CD-RTOS (CD Real-Time
Operating System), which is a specialized version of OS-9/68K developed
by Microware.

The following information is a product overview of some of the software
"building blocks" that Microware has available in order for someone to
create a CD-I application.

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

RAVE (Real-Time Audio Video Environment) is an object-oriented multimedia
environment for CD-I players.  Unlike traditional graphics interfaces, RAVE
is based on the use of natural images and high-quality digital audio sound.
RAVE is designed to emulated real-life actions and sound in a contained en-
vironment intuitive to the beginning user.

CD-RTOS/RAVE consists of a C Presentation Support Library (PSL) and a
compact runtime module.  The runtime module extends the functionality
of the User Communication Manager (UCM).  The PSL give the application
access to many common data structures and managers for those data struct-
ures.

                          ----------------
                          |     RAVE     |
                          |  Application |
                          ----------------
                                 |
                                 |
                          ----------------
                          |              |
                          |     PSL      |
                          ----------------
                                 |
                                 |
                          ----------------
                          |    CD-RTOS   |
                          |    Kernel    |
                          ----------------
                                 |
                                 |
                          ----------------       ----------------
                          |              |       |     RAVE     |
                          |     UCM      |-------|    Runtime   |
                          ----------------       ----------------
                                 |
                                 |
        --------------------------------------------------
        |                        |                       |
        |                        |                       |
  --------------          ---------------          --------------
  |  Keyboard  |          |    Video    |          |   Pointer  |
  |   Driver   |          |    Driver   |          |   Driver   |
  --------------          ---------------          --------------

The RAVE Runtime Module handles message management between the system and
RAVE applications as well as between various RAVE applications.  Each pro-
cess is allocated a single mailbox, although a process may have several
mailboxes.  These mailboxes may be dedicated to a certain type of message
or for communication with a specific process.

The RAVE Runtime Module also provides the following functions:

        o Multi-tasking executions of graphics applications which
          allow multiple applications to run concurrently

        o Full-featured message sending and receiving for inter-
          process communication

        o Automatic tracking and journaling of user actions

        o Complete graphics cursor management based on locations
          within the display

        o Support for premastered advanced local special effects

The Presentation Support library is a collection of high-level functions
for simplifying application development for CD-I systems.  It includes
eight primary managers and some miscellaneous support functions, which
are comprised of:

        o Controls to allow an application to obtain input from the
          user using visual objects

        o Requests to allow an application to ask the user multiple
          choice questions and obtain a reply

        o Visual effects to generate mattes, wipes, fades, dissolves
          and cuts

        o Resource modules to separate country-dependent data for
          program efficiency

        o Memory management support

The Special Effects Manager includes over 25 advanced special video effects.
Sample source code is also included to help you customize effects and allow
applications to consistently create their own effects.

To obtain more information about CD-RTOS/RAVE, the CD-I C Library, CD-I
ProPak and CD-I Studio Services (with authoring, video pre-production,
audio encoding, tape mastering and consulting) contact:

Microware Systems Corporation
1900 N.W. 114th St.
Des Moines, Iowa 50325-7077
Phone: [phone]
Fax  : [phone]

Microware Regional Offices:
  Western      - [phone]
  Southeastern - [phone]
  Northeastern - [phone]

Microware France - (33) 42 58 63 00
Microware U.K.   - (44) 703 601990
Microware Japan  - (81) 3-3257-9000

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

It seems to me that Atari made a good choice by tieing their TT with CD-I
because it will allow OS/9 to become a popular alternative OS.  The real-time
features that allows it to control devices in the industrial environment
makes it a natural for the homes of the future which will be networked
with the world and which contain smart appliances and fixtures linked with
a common bus.

The first CD-I player is expected to be introduced October 16 in the major
cities of the U.S.; it will have a list price of $1000 (discounted to $700-
$800?).  It will be interesting to read a post from anyone who gets a
chance to try it out!

Jack



Date: Wed, 09 Oct 91 17:03:32 CDT
From: Mike Dorman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Lots of things...
To: Atari List <[e-mail]>

I've got a list of questions for people who are familiar with GNU C and
Emacs, and the MiNT-aware port of BASH:

First--Is there any way I can actually set the environment variable
GCC-EXEC-PREFIX under BASH?  I have tried a zillion different ways of
quoting the variable, but it just can't seem to be convinced that that is
a valid variable, and as a result, I can't seem to use GCC.  Is there any
workaround for this?

Next--Is there any documentation for Emacs' elisp?  Using the version found
in the file ++jrbemacs.zoo on atari.archive, I consistently get a report that
there's a problem with one of the init files.  Since I have no idea what I'm
looking for, I have no way to find it.

Also--is there any easy way to rebind keys for Emacs?  Switching around the
backspace and delete keys and such is starting to annoy.

And more--is there any particular reason that the binaries have to be built
with the lib sources included with the program?  That seems wierd to me, since
we're trying to move to one standard library (witness the gradual mergeing of
the MiNT and GNU libraries).

Has anyone done a port of 18.5.7?  Is it, by chance, a bit more TOS friendly?

Is the port of GNU make 3.60 any sort of official release?  It states in the
FSF documentation that it's a beta--what is the status of make 3.6?

Is there any easy way to go from .texinfo files to a line printer?  I don't
need all the neat stuff that a full-up TeX station would give me, and I don't
have a laser printer, so I don't think it's a good idea to try, but I would
like to use .texinfo stuff, and get that output to a line printer.

Thanks.

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

Date: Wed, 9 Oct 91 15:52:25 BST
From: "D." Summerbell
 <[e-mail]>
Subject: Mac v Atari WP
To: [e-mail]

David Butler replies to David Halliday:

DH
>>I am thinking of buying a new ST Wordprocessor (I  currently use First
>>Word) what do you recommend bearing in mind that I would like it to be
>>MS Word compatible.

DB
> As far as I know there is no ST wordprocessor that is compatible with and Mac
>word processor except through text files. Why get an ST wordprocessor if you
>have the GCR? Wordprocessing is one area in which the Mac really shines, beats
>the ST software hands-down. Try Write Now or Nisus, Write Now is faster and
>less complex, but Nisus has features to blow your mind (far better than MSWord,
>and it does write MSWord files). Really, these are as far above ST word
>processors as an ST is above a calculator (a cheap one anyway).

I might have agreed with David up until a few weeeks ago.  I have Spectre but
still tended to use First Word Plus in ST mode because of the superior perfor-
mance of TOS (using Neodesk as a user interface).  Nevertheless I still coveted
the multiple fonts and proportional spacing of the Mac.  I bought several "se-
cond generation" WP packages as they became available but was always disappoin-
ted.  Recently a colleague bought Write-On (Compo Software).  I borrowed it and
liked it and have just bought its big brother That's Write.  I much prefer it to
the Mac software that I have tried. (My wife is a Mac User). I haven't encoun-
tered Nisus so I can't fairly compare it with TW.  However I strongly recommend
the latter.  Write-On competes happily with the simpler Mac packages and That's
Write has the bells and whistles.

WO retails at about 45.00 Sterling
TW retails at about 80.00 Sterling
Write-Now retails at about 120.00 Sterling
Nisus I couldn't find an ad.

Anyone interested I have a (growing) summary list of ST WP software.


  Dr.D.Summerbell              INTERNET: [e-mail]
  Limb Development Group       or:       d-summer%nimr.mrc.ac.uk@earn-relay
  Nat. Inst. Medical Research  DARPA:[e-mail]
  The Ridgeway, Mill Hill      JANET:  [e-mail]
  LONDON NW7 1AA               Tel:  [phone] ext2366
  U.K.

  The short Internet address does not always work from the US
  Indirection via earn-relay is more reliable
  nimr is an unofficial alibi, some nodes do not have it in their YP.
  Real address is: @national-institute-for-medical-research.mrc.ac.uk


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

Date: Tue, 8 Oct 91 08:28:47 -0400
From: [e-mail] (David Marks)
Subject: NTSC->RGB?
To: [e-mail]

[Note: I am not [yet] an INFO-ATARI16 reader, so apologies if this just came up.
 Also, of course, please respond directly to me e-mail address. ]

Has anyone seen/used an NTSC->RGB converter that works with the Atari
1224 Color Monitor?  I don't need a genlock capability to position the
video image on the screen in conjunction with a computer generated RGB image,
I just want to be able to use the Atari Color Monitor with a VCR to watch
some class videotapes and let my wife & son watch the household TV.

Dave Marks
Rome Laboratory
[e-mail]

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

Date: 3 Oct 91 23:24:59 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!ukma!widener!iggy.GW.Vitalink.COM!pacbell.com!att!linac!uwm.edu!cs.
 utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!think.com!spool.mu.edu!munnari.oz.au!bunyi
 p.cc.uq.oz.au!uqcspe! (Warwick Allison)
Subject: People dumping machines (was.. Atari Mega 2 system.. for sale)
To: [e-mail]

In <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
 (Frans Meulenbroeks) writes:

>TT ram is faster than the (regular) ST ram. This is due to the
>fact that the processor is slowed down by the video hardware when
>accessing ST ram. The video can only live in ST ram, and every 250 ns
>or so the video accesses the ST ram.

This is true?  Then if a program Mallocs memory for use as a displayable
screen, it will have to malloc from ST ram, right?  How does one ensure
this?

Worried,
Warwick.
--
  _-_|\       [e-mail]
 /     *  <-- Computer Science Department,
 \_.-._/      University of Queensland,
      v       Brisbane, AUSTRALIA.

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

Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1991 04:57:39 PDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Problem with user-defined objects and the AES
To: [e-mail]

This is a question for all you GEM experts out there...

I'm having a problem with user-defined objects in GEM.  I have written
a small utility, that when given an IBOX's ID, will patch the object,
so that it 'turns' it into a user-defined object.  It does this simply
by patching the ob_spec of the object to the address of my USERBLK,
containing my object handler and changing the object type to G_USERDEF
(or whatever your gem headers call it).

Logically it seems fine, but when I come to display the 'fixed' tree
with objc_draw, the AES appears to run out of stack space (my object
handler isn't even called!).  I am missing something?  - Code available
on request.

                                Thanks,
                                                -Steve Goldthorpe
P.S. Sorry if this appears twice, but the original post seems to have
bounced (so this is a resend to a different address).
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
INET:[e-mail] | Rank Xerox Ltd,
  [e-mail] | Workstation Software Group,
XEROX CIN:  SGoldthorpe:wgc-e:rx | European Software Development Centre,
TEL:              [phone] | Welwyn Hall, Bessemer Rd,
XEROX INTELNET:       8*668-2350 | Welwyn Garden City, HERTS.
MESG TOOL:   15556.25220325363.0 | AL7 1BL   ENGLAND
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

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

Date: Mon, 7 Oct 91 01:49:34 PDT
From: [e-mail] (David Boyce)
Subject: Railroad Tycoon experiences
To: [e-mail]

Yup, I've had problems too....

First thing is that the installation to hard disk doesn't work properly.
I had to manually copy the files over to a \railroad directory, overwriting
files as necessary.

Second problem is the mouse. The game can't be played with it, since it
crashes if the mouse touches the bottom of the screen! (Heavy bummer...)
I've tried all sorts of things, like leaving the mouse alone till I've
got past the protection, but nothing helps. I'm having to use the program
with keyboard only which isn't too bad, but it makes moving around
pretty tedious.....

I haven't seen any other real problems with the game.

I've got a 4Mb STFM, with UK Rainbow TOS.

        - Dave

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

Date: Mon, 07 Oct 91 15:50:37 ADT
From: Alyre CHIASSON <[e-mail]>
Subject: Ship program that works with NEODESK
To: N <[e-mail]>

I have just installed NEODESK-really great. However, the
ship program I have to park my MEGAFILE 30 results in NEODESK
trying to reload. Is there a program that will park the heads
and halt excution of all other program and operate under
NEODESK.
Thanks
[e-mail]
.

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

Date: Wed, 09 Oct 91 10:53:39 ADT
From: Alyre CHIASSON <[e-mail]>
Subject: SPECTRE GCR and mac.archive-getting started
To: N <[e-mail]>

Having just obtained Spectre GCR I though I would have a look
at the mac.archive at umich. A help command got me all
the index files but it is not evident how to obtain the
initial file to uuencode the files(BinHEX 4.0). Everthing in
the index file already seems to be in hdx form. Secondly,
what is the compression used "stuffit"?
Thanks
[e-mail]
.

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

Date: Thu, 10 Oct 91 13:37
From: "Thomas Koenig"
 <[e-mail]>
Subject: STacy specific information
To: Info-Atari16 Discussion       <[e-mail]>

A friend of mine owns a STacy, and he would dearly like to
have some information about it.

What he'd like to do, ultimately, is to write an accessory
to

1) dim, switch on and off the background lighting for the screen

2) switch the hard disk drive off (reversible) when he wants to

For this, he also needs to know how to

3) establish wether or not this program is running on a STacy

How can this be done?

Any help appreciated.
--
Thomas Koenig
EARN/BITNET :      [e-mail]
INTERNET    :      [e-mail]
X.400       :      S=UI0T;OU=IBM3090;OU=RZ;P=UNI-KARLSRUHE;A=DBP;C=DE

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

End of Info-Atari16 Digest
******************************