=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Wed, 18 Apr 90       Volume 90 : Issue  459
 
Today's Topics:
                     Bug in CSD, no help from MWC
                 PC Ditto 3.0, ICD Adapter, DOS BOOT
                 Severe Dcreate() bug in GEMDOS 0.23
                         Sozobon C and GEM...
      SUMMARY:  STE compatibility and Hard Disk recommendations
                             TOS 1.4 info
        Zoo output to file (Was: Re: EPROM programmer wanted.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 18 Apr 90 15:59:32 GMT
From: chinet!saj@gargoyle.uchicago.edu  (Stephen Jacobs)
Subject: Bug in CSD, no help from MWC
Message-ID: <1990Apr18.155932.4173@chinet.chi.il.us>
 
I've been talking to the ST support guy at Mark Williams Co a lot lately
(found 2 MAJOR new bugs in the C compiler while working on the umoria port--
if you use bitfields, be careful and check the generated code; the other
one is too obscure to worry about).  Anyway, as stated, they aren't presently
doing upgrades or new products for the ST.  They are, however, still providing
help and advice.  They are still doing the record keeping needed to get
back into ST development fast, should the demand appear.  If the expected
520ST blitz sells lots of machines (that could go either way), it might
make the difference.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 18 Apr 90 18:39:08 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!deimos.cis.ksu.ed
 u!uafhp!uafhcx!cjy@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Calvin Yockey)
Subject: PC Ditto 3.0, ICD Adapter, DOS BOOT
Message-ID: <4085@uafhp.uark.edu>
 
In article <1578@lzsc.ATT.COM>, hcj@lzsc.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) writes:
>>[previous article describes problems using ICD Adapter and PCD2]
>
> The DOCs with PC_Ditto (II) describe the problem and a fix.
 
I can't find any reference to it in the doc's I recently received with my
PCD2.  Can you point me in the right direction?
 
>
> The problem:
>
>[Detailed explanation of the reasons for the problem omitted]
>
> Avant-Garde now supplies a fixup program with PC-ditto II, but its
> needed for I also.
 
What's the name of the fixup program?  I have a program to fix Atari drives,
but that's it.  Tried it and it didn't work.
>
>
> Howard C. Johnson
> ATT Bell Labs
> att!lzsc!hcj
> hcj@lzsc.att.com
 
 
Thanks for any pointers Howard or anyone else can give me.
 
Calvin Yockey
cjy@uafhcx.uark.edu
Univesity of Arkansas
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 18 Apr 90 17:30:41 GMT
From: fernwood!portal!atari!apratt@uunet.uu.net  (Allan Pratt)
Subject: Severe Dcreate() bug in GEMDOS 0.23
Message-ID: <2154@atari.UUCP>
 
alderaan@tubopal.UUCP (Thomas Cervera) writes:
 
>apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) writes:
>>      #include <osbind.h>
>>      main()
>>      ?
>>              int fd;
>>              long err;
>>
>>              fd = Fcreate("silly",0);
>>              Fclose(fd);
>>              err = Dcreate("silly");
>>              printf("err is %ld\n",err);
>>              exit(0);
>>      ?
>>prints "err is -36" (EACCDN, access denied).  I'm using TOS 1.4's GEMDOS.
 
>  Uhm. Maybe your C library does the Fsfirst ?
 
Uhm.  The capitalized "function calls" are actually direct OS calls,
with no library intervention.  What you see is what GEMDOS saw, with no
interference from anything.
 
What do you take me for?
 
============================================
Opinions expressed above do not necessarily     -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp.
reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else.      ...ames!atari!apratt
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 18 Apr 90 19:32:58 GMT
From: netnews.upenn.edu!msuinfo!news@rutgers.edu  (David Schultz)
Subject: Sozobon C and GEM...
Message-ID: <1990Apr18.193258.5015@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
 
I was reading about needing dastart.o and some other libraries in
order to run Sozobon from GEM.  I currently run from Gulam, BUT
on a 520ST with only one DS drive, it would be nice to compile
from GEM.  That would give me an extra 200K to work with.
 
I've got some big projects coming up, so if someone can help me out,
please do.
 
 
#define         DISCLAIMER      "It's NOT my fault...!"
_____________________________________________________________________________
David W. Schultz        |                               |
312 N. Case Hall        | schultzd@cpsin.cps.msu.edu    |   M
Michigan State Univ.    | schultzd@frith.egr.msu.edu    |     S
E. Lansing, MI  48825   | Last Chance: 517 355-7033     |       G
________________________|_______________________________|____________________
                                                      # # #
        _______________________________________       # # #
       /            ________________                  # # #
      /________            /                          # # #
              /           /                          #  #  #
_____________/           /                          #   #   #
__________________________________________________#_____#_____#______________
 
 
 
--
 
#define         DISCLAIMER      "It's NOT my fault...!"
_____________________________________________________________________________
David W. Schultz        |                               |
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 18 Apr 90 16:51:21 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!edcastle!eric@uunet.uu.net  (E S Fraga)
Subject: SUMMARY:  STE compatibility and Hard Disk recommendations
Message-ID: <3371@castle.ed.ac.uk>
 
First of all, thanks to everybody that answered my posting.
 
This is the promised summary in response to my posting a couple
of weeks ago.  Essentially, the answers to my two questions are:
 
1. the STe's are compatible with everything I would want one for (mostly
editors, compilers, shells, and terminal emulators).
 
2. all kinds of different answers although Third Coast Technologies got
the most votes (not that the number is statistically valid :-).
 
I have included all useful (i.e. > 0 information content :-) responses
at the end of this posting.
 
Again, thanks to everybody that answered!
 
eric
 
---------------------------------------//------------------------------------
---------------------------------------//------------------------------------
From: Herbert Sauro <eang62@ed.castle>
 
I saw your mail on comp.sys.atari.st concerning STE compatibility. Four
things I run regularly are:
 
       Mark Williams C  -  no problems so far
       TeX from Tools of W. Germany  -  no problems so far
       Gulam  - if you ask for free mamory it bombs out, otherwise seems ok
       Prospero Pascal  -  no problems so far.
 
I think you'll find that the majority of serious software runs without
problems. Its probably mainly games which are having problems with
compatibility. Basically don't believe what you read in the mags,
expecially ST Format and those weeklies.
 
Herbert Sauro
Genetics, KB, Edinburgh
 
PS I have a 2MB STE (SM124 of course) + home-made hard disk and I am
quite happy with it (especially the price, 450 pounds for 2MB STE).
 
 
------------------------------------//------------------------------------
From: olorin@ed.cs.tardis
 
        I've just got an STE myself (4 meg 600 quid from best prices).
The following stuff I have checked and it appears OK.
 
GCC , Minix , Gulam , TeX ... I'll check Uniterm.
 
Mind you there's a rumour going round of an imminent price increase ...
 
------------------------------------//------------------------------------
From: "Jwahar R. Bammi" <bammi@edu.cwru.ces.curie>
 
eric,
        i have second hand report from people who use some of the stuff
that i wrote/ported that it all works on the STE (and TT, some of the
stuff was shown at Ceebit), this list includes:
gulam, gcc, TeX (StTeX, undump, BiBTeX), zmdm (terminal emulator with
x/y/z modem).
 
gulam: dont use the 'mem' builtin command, and you'll be ok.
no one have reported any other incompatibility.
--
bang:   ?any internet host?!dsrgsun.CES.CWRU.Edu!bammi  jwahar r. bammi
domain: bammi@dsrgsun.ces.CWRU.edu
GEnie:  J.Bammi
 
 
------------------------------------//------------------------------------
From: Graham Thomas <grahamt@susx.syma>
 
Eric,
 
I'd appreciate it if you'd pass on whatever answers you get.  I'm
thinking of getting an expanded STE myself.
 
The hard disk question is tricky, isn't it?  We've had reasonably good
reliability from our Atari SH205s and Megafile 20s, but they lose out a
bit on price/performance.  Supra disks have been a bit flaky (I know of
three which have been ordered.  Each has had to be sent back to be
replaced.  Frontier have been very good with support, and two of the
three replacements have been reliable.)  The Power Computing disks look
tempting in terms of price, but I don't trust the company (not from
personal experience - just things I've read about them from other
users).  The Vortex drives are heavily advertised in German mags, and
are probably wery well made, but they're a bit more expensive than
others.  Third Coast drives might be the best compromise.  I've not used
any, and the company, I've heard, is a bit small and chaotic, but I've
not heard of serious problems or dishonesty.
 
Cheers,
 
Graham
 
 
------------------------------------//------------------------------------
From: CSTMCS@stafpol.cr83
Sender: "JANET CSTMCS@UK.AC.STAFPOL.CR83" <CSTMCS@stafpol.cr83>
 
I think the best on the market at the moment is the THird Coast Technologies
65Mb or 85Mb drives. These are reasonably large, and relatively cheap.
(65MB = #599, 85MB = #699) Both will take a second internal hard drive, which
if it's SCSI embedded, can simply be plugged in. TCT offer a 4.5% educational
discount, which you'd probably be able to use if you work at Edinburgh Uni.
 
As an alternative, since the TCT drives are so easily upgradable, you might
like to buy a smaller unit, and add an additional drive. In Micro Computer Mart
there are regular advertisements for 40Mb Scsi drives for about #100. In the
last issue, there was even a 85Mb Nec drive for #150.
 
Finally, the TCT drives are some of the fastest available (typically 25ms) and
have favourable reviews in various magazines (ST World, Jun 89 (?), ST User,
Aug 89/May 89 etc. THe 85MB has a removable drive mechanism for security.
 
I'll be buying a 65Mb drive next month, so if you get good reviews of other
drives, could you forward the details to me, (though I have checked the
competition very thouroughly:-)
 
Good luck,
 
Mark
   ( Computing Services, Staffordshire Polytechnic )
 
 
------------------------------------//------------------------------------
From: SCOFFIN@ox.vax
 
>From :
Rob Scoffin
Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory
Oxford
SCOFFIN@uk.ac.oxford.vax
 
 I have just read your plea in info-atari16 for largish Atari HD's. We have
two 65Mb drives bought from Third Coast Technologies in Bradford (look in any
copy of ST User for details). The drives come in pretty "basic" cases but they
seem well made and have enough space (and power supply potential) to add a
second drive or a tape streamer (TCT sell their disks redy fitted with 40Mb
streamers if you like). The disk driver software and utilities provided seem
much better than the stuff that comes with the "Real" atari drives.... The last
time I looked at their ad's I think they were offering 105Mb (all the way from
20Mb upwards) at quite a reasonable price... So far we have had no problems at
all with either drive....
 
Hope this helps....
 
  Robbie Scoff
================
p.s. Atari's financial health ???? Who does care ????
 
------------------------------------//------------------------------------
From: Ralph Haglund <qralph@se.lth.dna>
 
Hi,
I am not in England, but I can always say what I would do...
Obviously buy a STE520 and put in SIMMs myself.
Get a 105Mbyte hard disk from Germany for DM1999. Fast, SCSI. I got an
85Mb in August from that same company that now sells that beast. My disk
slowly died with more and more errors (after all it is a Seagate, the 105Mb
one isn't... ), returned the whole a few weeks ago to Germany, and a few days
back I got paper from the customs here that it was back, they just wanted a few
additional papers to show it was a return so I wouldn't have to pay customs
twice.
Dunno what you plan to do - I occassionally do service on Ataris so I am not
afraid of opening them up...
 
|-------------------------------------------------------------|
|  Want to talk to me? Try:                                   |
|  QRALPH@SELDC51  ||  QRALPH@SELDC52  ||  qralph@dna.lth.se  |
|  My name? In official Sweden it is: 4.901.185.654 (secret)  |
|  Anywhere else: Ralph Haglund                               |
|  Disclaimer: If it works, it's out of date.                 |
|_____________________________________________________________|
 
---------------------------------------//------------------------------------
---------------------------------------//------------------------------------
--
  +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |Eric S Fraga, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Edinburgh |
  |phone: +44 31 667 1081 x2955,  e.s.fraga@uk.ac.ed  or  e.s.fraga@ed.ac.uk |
  +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 18 Apr 90 17:37:03 GMT
From: fernwood!portal!atari!apratt@uunet.uu.net  (Allan Pratt)
Subject: TOS 1.4 info
Message-ID: <2155@atari.UUCP>
 
hcj@lzsc.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) writes:
 
>I think Atari did it correctly.
>For moves between logical disks, copy && remove is required.
>For the degenerate case of rename, there is still the problem of a failure
>during the operation with the file being lost.  So copy && remove is
>still the safest course.
 
No, for the degenerate case the Desktop uses the Frename function,
which diddles the directory entries, rather than doing a copy+delete.
 
As of TOS 1.4, the Frename function is safer than before: there is no
reasonable failure which will lose your original.  The new directory
entry is created before the old one is removed.  This wasn't the case
before.  (Of course, extending a directory involves writing the FAT,
and that can go wrong and clobber your file.  Or you could be renaming
within one directory, and a write error there could clobber your file.
But I said reasonable failures.)
 
O ye of little faith.  Then again, any of ye who have faith in GEMDOS's
robustness or fault-tolerance are living in a fool's paradise.
 
============================================
Opinions expressed above do not necessarily     -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp.
reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else.      ...ames!atari!apratt
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 18 Apr 90 13:58:02 GMT
From: eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!unido!laura!heike!klute@bloom-beacon.mit.edu  (Rainer
 Klute)
Subject: Zoo output to file (Was: Re: EPROM programmer wanted.)
Message-ID: <2114@laura.UUCP>
 
In article <29061@cup.portal.com>, buggs@cup.portal.com (William Edward
JuneJr) writes:
|>>If your shell (or the GEM desktop) does not handle io redirection
|>>correctly (I think Gulam doesn't) use Arcgsh to get the listing. It works.
|>
|>I have MT C Shell, wonder if it'll do it.
|>Does Arcgsh allow print out of listings? I used to have that somewhere.....
 
How to instruct Arcgsh to write the output of Zoo to a file instead of
the screen: Click on "Filenames..." in the main Zoo dialog box, then
select a file as "Standard output".
 
  Dipl.-Inform. Rainer Klute      klute@heike.informatik.uni-dortmund.de
  Univ. Dortmund, IRB             klute@unido.uucp, klute@unido.bitnet
  Postfach 500500         |)|/    ...uunet!mcvax!unido!klute
D-4600 Dortmund 50        |\|\    Tel.: +49 231 755-4663
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #459
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