No Fragments Archive 12: Textmags & Docs/nf_archive_12.iso/MAGS/TEXTMAGS/ATARI16/INFO91.ZIP/INFO91/583.TXT

Text File | 1992-05-11 | 24.4 KB | 627 lines

Info-Atari16 Digest         Fri,  8 Nov 91       Volume 91 : Issue 583

Today's Topics:
                     8mhz ST = 16mhz 386 (2 msgs)
                              ARC 5.21d
                           AUX-status in ST
                           Captive hints...
                             GENIE email
                           GENIE emailexit
                   Gnumake under Hisoft Craft shell
                              HP 2392 A
                           Railroad Tycoon
                 Smooth graphics in GFA Basic - HELP!
                 Someone from HiSoft please email me
                    Source-level debuggers for C?
                               SPACOLA?
                         Top for Mint crashes
                           TOS 2.06 upgrade
  Upgrading the ST:  How far should I go, and is it worth it to me?
             using less.ttp as the Neodesk pager (2 msgs)

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 08:46:41 GMT
From: mcsun!hp4nl!alchemy!prisma![e-mail] (Anton H.J. Koning)
Subject: 8mhz ST = 16mhz 386
To: [e-mail]

Hallo all,

> > Using the most widely-accepted benchmark of non-floating-point
> > performance, the dhrystone test, a 1040 ST gets about 700
> > dhrystones/sec ...
>
>What compiler did you use? I get 1250 dhrystones/sec (registers
>enabled) with a standard 8mHz ST and Sozobon C 1.32i beta.

These two previous claims are easily bettered by Turbo C (now Pure C), which
gets around 1700 dhrystones/sec with registers enabled.

                                                      +{| SIRE |}+
********************************************************************************
*   ____  . __   ___ *             The mist crawls from the canal              *
*  (__   / /__) /__  *        Like some primordial phantom of romance.         *
* ____) / /  \ /__   *        To curl, under a cascade of neon pollen,         *
*--------------------* While I sit tied to the phone like an expectant father  *
* A.H.J. Koning      *           Your carnation will rot in a vase.            *
* [e-mail]    *                                    % Marillion %        *
********************************************************************************

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 15:50:51 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakar
 i.primate.wisc.edu!zazen!doug.cae.wisc.edu![e-mail] (Gregory Carter)
Subject: 8mhz ST = 16mhz 386
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Chris Mauritz) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>
 [e-mail] (Lauren C. Howard) writes:
>>For all you folks contemplating jumping ship:
>>
>>An article in the October Current Notes magazine reviews up-to-date
>>benchmarks comparing the ST and TT  vs. 286/386sx/386/486
>>
>>Our little ol' 8mhz ST's come out equal to or slightly better than
>>the 386sx in ALL benchmarks, including running identical programs.
>>
>>The 386 is only slightly better (20mhz), and conjecture is that the
>>Mega STE would blow any 386 away.
>>
>>The TT was mucho better than the 486, though unclear by how much.
>>
>>Chew on that awhile.
>
>This is absolute bullsh*t.  I can only think of one reason that a
>386 or 386sx machine would LOOK slower than an 8 or 16mhz 68000,
>and that would stem from the use of Windows on the Pc side.  I
>find it terribly amusing that there are still a few Atari cheerleaders
>around who have had their head in the sand long enough to believe that
>a 68000-based dinosaur is remotely comparable to a 32-bit open
>architecture system.  This may have been true when PC's were using
>8088 and 80286-8mhz chips and using Hercules monochrome graphics,
>but the fact is that you can get better graphics at a lower price
>on any PC clone these days.  You can get cheaper hard disks, cheaper
>RAM and most importantly you can get thousands of well written
>SOFTWARE off the shelf.  This includes many different operating
>systems written by professional developers so you don't have to
>depend on the manufacturer's shoddy ROM chips or some usenet hacker.
>I can think of three different versions of System V unix for the
>PC that you can go out and buy now and if you must have GEM, you
>can even have that too.
>
>BTW, you can now buy a 486-50mhz clone decked out with a large (200mb+)
>hard disk, 8mb RAM, and 1024X768 color graphics for about $3000+change.
>This machine will crank out about 20 million instructions per second
>and you have a virtually unlimited supply of 3rd party companies that
>will supply any hardware need you can imagine which will pop neatly
>into one of the many open slots you have available.
>
>Ultimately, the market will decide if the Atari machines deserve
>to live.  Take one look at how investor confidence in Atari stock
>and you should get a prelude of what is to come.
>
>Keep dreaming...
>
>Cheers,
>
>Chris
>--
>------------------------------------+------------------------------------------
>Chris Mauritz                       |Meetpoint Station BBS - Public Access Unix
>[e-mail]                        |[phone]   v.32/v.32bis/v.42bis 9600b
>Copyright (C) 1991                  |Join us...We're friendly dammit! :-)

After looking at this thread long enough, I don't think anyone has put it
more forcefully than Chris has.

The PC's 386/486 machines are actually vastly under rated machines simply
because they are stuck running DOS applications.

Thats all.  If anybody tells you any different, they more than likely have
the Atari LOGO stuck up where the sun don't shine.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Employed: Computer Aided Engineering Center - University Wisconsin - Madison
 Major: Computer Science - Emphasis: System Design Tools, User Interfaces
           Phone Home: [phone]  -  Work: [phone]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"If anyone is going to the Chicago show, or know if Mr. Small is going to be

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 17:12:10 GMT
From: mcsun!corton!laas![e-mail] (Ralph P. Sobek)
Subject: ARC 5.21d
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Steve Yelvington)
 writes:
| |ARC-ST - Archive utility, Version 6.02ST, created in November of 1989
| |Copyright 1985-89 by System Enhancement Associates, Inc.; ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
| |
| |Please refer all inquiries to:
| |
| |       Darin Wayrynen
| |       10851 N 43rd Ave #211
| |       Phoenix, AZ 85029
|
| It compresses better and faster than ARC 5.xx and it supports subdirectories.
| The only thing I don't like about it is that Darin has rigged arc p to send
| data to the prn: port instead of stdout.

This has been bugging me for some time now!!  Can someone contact
Darin to see if there's an update?  Is source available?

I remember, from a posting, that Howard said that he's gotten his
version faster than either Zoo 2.01 or LHarc!

Cheers to all,
--
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]
Phone: [phone]  FAX-1: ([phone]  FAX-2: ([phone]
===============================================================================
Got a Mega 4 ST.  Wishing it was a Mega STe!  :-| Do I *really* want a TT? ;%#

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 16:03:30 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve@a
 rizona.edu (Steve Yelvington)
Subject: AUX-status in ST
To: [e-mail]

[In article <[e-mail]>,
     [e-mail] (Ari Parkkila) writes ... ]

 >  If there is some easy way to check the status of AUX-port in ST,
 > would you inform me too, please?
 >
 >  PS. Do NOT try to suggest Bcostat function..:)

Bcostat checks to see whether the device is ready to accept data for
output. Bconstat checks to see whether the device has received
data that is waiting for you in the buffer.

There are other ways to check the aux port status, but the proper
place to discuss them is comp.sys.atari.st.tech.
                                           ~~~~

 --
 Steve Yelvington, Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota      <[e-mail]>

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 20:03:41 GMT
From:
 bonnie.concordia.ca!cerberus.ulaval.ca!fourier.phy.ulaval.ca![e-mail].n
 et (Guy "Bart" Premont)
Subject: Captive hints...
To: [e-mail]

We are playing Captive, by Mindscape, on an atari ST and we are now doing the
40th level. When does this game end? Does it go on and on endlessly?
Maybe we should do something in a space station, but what ????????

Please mail answers,
Thanks

Guy         [e-mail]

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 20:08:07 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!
 pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!ohstpy!miavx1![e-mail] (Ryan 'Gozar'
 Collins)
Subject: GENIE email
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Chris Mauritz) writes:
> In article <[e-mail]>
 [e-mail] (Ryan 'Gozar' Collins) writes:
>>But, Multiplayer gammes are now part of the Basic service!!
>
> Are you SURE about this?  Does this include Air Warrior?  If so, I
> may just sign up again. :-)
>
> Skoal,
>
> Chris

Well, I heard wrong, its only the multiplayer roundtables that are part
of Genie*Basic, not the game itself.  :*(

Later.......

------======={{{{{{{{((((((Ryan 'Gozar' Collins))))))))}}}}}}}}=======--------
Atari Computers:         "The Game is never over"      [e-mail]
Power Without The Price                                    R.COLLINS1 on GEnie
------======={{{{{{{{(((((( My 1040STF Rocks!! ))))))))}}}}}}}}=======--------

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 16:24:36 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve@ar
 izona.edu (Steve Yelvington)
Subject: GENIE emailexit
To: [e-mail]

[In article <[e-mail]>,
     [e-mail] (Chris Mauritz) writes ... ]

 >>But, Multiplayer gammes are now part of the Basic service!!
 >
 > Are you SURE about this?  Does this include Air Warrior?  If so, I
 > may just sign up again. :-)

Sorry, nope. Air Warrior still costs $6 per blood-curdling hour.
There's a multiplayer chess game in the Basic services, but that
doesn't quite have the same visceral appeal.

If AW were free, I'd be up all night every night.

 --
 Steve Yelvington, Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota      <[e-mail]>

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 16:06:19 GMT
From: haven.umd.edu!uflorida!travis![e-mail] (Jeff Jackson)
Subject: Gnumake under Hisoft Craft shell
To: [e-mail]

> Is there anyone with inside knowledge about the Gnumake program which knows
>   if it is possible to execute commands via the standard system() interface
>   which CRAFT supports (which would then give me the

You might try putting the line

SHELL=path_to_your_shell

in your makefiles.  If your shell has special hooks for other programs to
ask a already running shell to execute commands for them, you would
half to hack the Gnumake sources and rebuild make.

As a side note, bash 1.10 is available on atari archive now and next
week, the gnu utilities (such as touch) will be made available.  If you
want a truely unix-like environment (like long filenames and symbolic
links), I strongly recommend this setup.
--
============================================================================
Jeffrey Glen Jackson  _|_Satan jeered, "You're dead meat Jesus, I'm gonna
[e-mail] |     bust you up tonight."
x5120                  | Jesus said, "Go ahead, make my day."
                   %%%%%%%%% -- Carman, "The Champion"

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 17:47:11 GMT
From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!hp-col!col![e-mail] (Don
 Allison)
Subject: HP 2392 A
To: [e-mail]

Check the atari.archive terminal emulator section...back when I first bought
my ST in 1985, someone from HP in Fort Collins wrote an HP terminal emulator.
I never checked it out closely to see how good it was, but it is at least
worth a look...I think it is called something like "hpterm.arc" (?) in the
archive.

Don Allison
[e-mail]

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 15:57:40 GMT
From:
 noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!micro-hea
 rt-of-gold.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!chalmers.se!dtek.chalmers.se!
 [e-mail] (Per Anders Olausson)
Subject: Railroad Tycoon
To: [e-mail]

  For those that don't know I can now tell that it is possible to cheat in
  this game on the ST as well. Just type $ when in the world view window.

  It makes the game somewhat easier...!

  pao

--
.............................Andrew Olausson................................
............................Systems Architect...............................
[e-mail]............................
[e-mail].................................

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 16:21:46 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve@arizona.
 edu (Steve Yelvington)
Subject: Smooth graphics in GFA Basic - HELP!
To: [e-mail]

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

 > I am currently writing a 3D graphical rotation program in GFA Basic and
 > I am having difficulty in creating flicker-free graphics. Does anyone
 > know how to direct graphics commands to a memory location while the
 > screen is displaying something else, and then copy the memory contents
 > to screen and over-write the previous one. Or, is there a way of doing
 > it through the TOS system commands available in GFA? Or am I looking in
 > the wrong place all together?

Look up Physbase(), Logbase() and Setscreen() in your GFA manual. If
they are not supported, Physbase() is xbios(2), Logbase() is xbios(3),
and Setscreen(l, p, r) is xbios(5, l, p, r).

The logical screen (l) is where output will be written. The physical
screen (p) is the one that is being displayed.

The technique is to obtain a screen's worth of memory, aligned on a
256-byte page. This memory must stay put -- you can't just declare
it in GFA, because GFA shuffles variables around to conserve memory.
So you need to understand GFA's Reserve keyword and how to call the
system Malloc function. You need to know how to adjust the address so
that it is evenly divisible by 256. And you need to know how much
memory to reserve, which is a minimum of 32000 bytes.

Malloc 32*1024, save that pointer for Mfree, and create a pointer to
the new screen by adding the saved pointer with the remainder of a
division by 256. The result will point to sufficient memory that is
properly aligned.

You then call Physbase to get the address of the physical screen,
which you save for later use. Logbase gets the address of the current
logical screen, which can be useful.

Setscreen lets you redirect the logical screen at your allocated
memory. Pass -1 as the resolution argument (r) so that the system
resolution is unchanged.

Now you can write to the background screen. Another Setscreen call
can make it the physical screen in an instant. No data need be copied.

Remember to restore the original physical and logical screen pointers
before your program terminates.

Further discussion of this should go to comp.sys.atari.st.tech.

 --
 Steve Yelvington, Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota      <[e-mail]>

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 16:57:05 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!menudo.uh.edu!uace0
 @arizona.edu (Michael B. Vederman)
Subject: Someone from HiSoft please email me
To: [e-mail]

Can someone from HiSoft please email me on the internet?

Thank you,

Michael B. Vederman
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Double Click Software | P.O. Box 741206 | Houston, Tx, 77274
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Voice: [phone] (weekdays noon-6pm) | Data Diet | DC Utilities 2.0 | More

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 15:58:43 GMT
From: haven.umd.edu!uflorida!travis![e-mail] (Jeff Jackson)
Subject: Source-level debuggers for C?
To: [e-mail]

> What C compilers that are still supported have source-level debuggers
> available?  Do any of them also work at executable level?  Anyone have
> strong feelings about their quality?

Gnu C with gdb is probably you're best bet.

--
============================================================================
Jeffrey Glen Jackson  _|_Satan jeered, "You're dead meat Jesus, I'm gonna
[e-mail] |     bust you up tonight."
x5120                  | Jesus said, "Go ahead, make my day."
                   %%%%%%%%% -- Carman, "The Champion"

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 18:06:50 GMT
From:
 noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!h
 agbard!sunic!dkuug!imada![e-mail] (Klaus Pedersen)
Subject: SPACOLA?
To: [e-mail]

[e-mail] (Patrick Seemann) writes:

>I heard about OXYD/SPACOLA not running with foreign TOSes before so
>this really seams to be a problem. Unfortunately Meinolf (the author)
>doesn't have net access.

OXYD and SPACOLA works fine on my Mega2 with danish TOS. *NOT german*
There is some differences between Scandinavian/German TOS and US-TOS,
(like <ALT>+key for national char's) But I doubt that is the problem.

To get SPACOLA to start the game, you have to read the 'about dongleware'
when the main menu gets up. (or was it in OXYD2?)

-Klaus

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 11:01:56 GMT
From: mcsun!hp4nl!htsa!maestro![e-mail] (Andre v.d. Vlies)
Subject: Top for Mint crashes
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Peter
 Mutsaers) writes:
>Actually I should have mailed this to Andy Pratt, who is the author,
>but I couldn't find his email address. Sorry.
>
>On Mint09, using bash or gulam as shell, the older TOP worked well,
>but the Top adapted to version 0.9 (from pstops.zoo on atari.archive)
>crashed with a 'segment violation'. Does everyone experience this?
>--

No TOP works fine with me. On the other hand I have trouble using MW. It
can't find the SHELL (which I have set to INIT.PRG in INIT.RC) and my
mouse dissapears when I start it like MW.TTP INIT.PRG. I have TOS 1.0 and
haven't tried it at home yet (where I have TOS 1.4).


                    Andre v.d. Vlies
                    Algemene Hogeschool Amsterdam, The Netherlands
                    [e-mail] or ...{backbones}!htsa!andre
                    Voice: ([phone]            Fax: [phone]

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 15:59:01 GMT
From: mcsun!cernvax!chx400!bernina!neptune![e-mail] (Patrick
 Seemann)
Subject: TOS 2.06 upgrade
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail]
 (Greg Granger) writes:
>
>TOS 2.06 Upgrades - November 1, 1991
>
>---> For MEGA STe, ST/STe*
>
>TOS 3.06 for the TT
>-------------------
 [list of improvements deleted]

Sounds great!

Are there any information about further bug fixes (SERPTCH etc.)? Allan?
Will the upgrade kit include a 1.44 floppy?

--
gruss, Patrick
--
"The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow
 sharper."  -- Eden Phillpots

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 15:11:36 GMT
From:
 pa.dec.com!hollie.rdg.dec.com!ryn.mro4.dec.com!rgb.dec.com![e-mail]
 (My name is Brian Rost)
Subject: Upgrading the ST:  How far should I go, and is it worth it to me?
To: [e-mail]

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]
 (Michel Forget) writes...
>Hello, again.
>
>I'm planning on upgrading my computer system withing the next month or
>two, and I have several options:
>
>1.  1040STe w/4 MB RAM & AdSpeed STe
>    $1276.51 (Including INSTALLATION!)
>
>2.  Mega STe w/ 4 MB RAM
>    $1480.00 (Including INSTALLATION!)
>
>If anyone could tell me the differences between the options #1 and #2 in
>terms of performance and worth, I would appreciate it.

The Mega STE has a 50 Mb hard drive built-in, you didn't mention if your 1040
price includes a hard drive of some sort.  $200 for 50 Mb is a good deal the
way I see it.  BTW, installation of RAMs on a Mega STE consists of flipping
open the hard drive cover and plugging them in, not exactly a tough job.  My
local dealer only buys 2 Mb Megas, then adds SIMMs for buyers who want 4 Mb.

>Does the STe and the Mega STe allow the use of
>the SM124 monitor?

Yes, they use the same monitors that the STs do.

                                        Brian Rost @rgb.dec.com

                                        508-568-6115

        ****************************************************
        *                                                  *
        *  The above does not reflect the opinions of      *
        *  my employer.                                    *
        *                                                  *
        *  If music is outlawed, only outlaws will be      *
        *  musicians.                                      *
        *                                                  *
        ****************************************************

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 16:01:30 GMT
From: haven.umd.edu!uflorida!travis![e-mail] (Jeff Jackson)
Subject: using less.ttp as the Neodesk pager
To: [e-mail]

>I still want the source to this guy

Unless I am confused, "less" is port of GNU.  GNU stuff is available
on pre.ai.mit.edu.

--
============================================================================
Jeffrey Glen Jackson  _|_Satan jeered, "You're dead meat Jesus, I'm gonna
[e-mail] |     bust you up tonight."
x5120                  | Jesus said, "Go ahead, make my day."
                   %%%%%%%%% -- Carman, "The Champion"

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

Date: 8 Nov 91 16:01:56 GMT
From: haven.umd.edu!uflorida!travis![e-mail] (Jeff Jackson)
Subject: using less.ttp as the Neodesk pager
To: [e-mail]

Oops., that prep.ai.mit.edu
--
============================================================================
Jeffrey Glen Jackson  _|_Satan jeered, "You're dead meat Jesus, I'm gonna
[e-mail] |     bust you up tonight."
x5120                  | Jesus said, "Go ahead, make my day."
                   %%%%%%%%% -- Carman, "The Champion"

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

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