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INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Sun,  3 Dec 89       Volume 89 : Issue 743
 
Today's Topics:
                    Again: AC-Fortran and Erlgraph
               BLOOD MONEY JUST WON'T LOAD... (2 msgs)
                       Degas > PS and DVI > PS
                       LaserPrinters and the ST
                                 Mac
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Date: Sun, 3 Dec 89 21:11+0100
From: Ritzert%DMZRZU71.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU
Subject: Again: AC-Fortran and Erlgraph
Message-ID: <891203201104.964118@DMZRZU71-UNI-MAINZ--GERMANY>
 
JOHNBARNES@ENH.NIST.GOV writes:
 
   A collegue of mine has persuaded me to try Prospero Fortran because
   it supports libraries from mixed languages.  Prospero C and Prospero...
 
It is not too difficult to do mixed language programming with Absoft
Fortran. Since both the dynamic and the static linker can use files in
ST executable format You only have to run the foreign object files
through the corresponding linker to transfer their format to that of an
ST executable. Then You can use it with the Absoft linker or link it
dynamically. I've don this with some routines written for the Turbo (C)
Assembler which produces objects in DRI format. I am not quite sure but
I remember having succeeded also with GNU objects. My question toward
mixed language programming aimed more toward using someting else
together with GNU C.
 
   I don't know whether you have invesigated Prospero Fortran or not. If
   anyone has had contrary experience I would hope that they would speak
   up.
 
I've heared that Prospero also has difficulties with that huge amount of
routines. Anyway, the job is possible with both compilers. I've seen
ports of early versions of the package for both.
 
   Could you please describe Erlgraph?  I am keenly interested in a good
   FORTRAN graphics package and I might be willing to help with
   development and/or testing.
 
Erlgraph is a set of graphics routines written in Fortran. It is
intended for people writing their own graphical applications on batch
oriented mainframes. It has been developed at the University of
Erlangen, West Germany, on a Cyber running NOS. It is quite comfortable
to use but there are more powerful (and more expensive) products on the
market. It is distributed as a commercial product. Should be not cheap.
As a consequence, I can't give away the thing although I really would
like to do so. Sorry.
We have got a sublicence of our computer center's licence free of
charge and port it to our machines since the computer center has only
the VAX, Multics, and PC versions. A version for the ST is available,
written for Prospero (side question: is Absoft still alive? Even the
german distributor has no information). But we don't want to buy a
second Fortran compiler for the ST especially since the Absoft produces
better code and the 68881 library of Prospero is completely overpriced
--- 200,- DM for a few simple routines doing mainly cpu/coprocessor
communication. I have written my own library for Absoft.
 
Michael Ritzert
mjr@dmzrzu71.bitnet
 
Leute, die behaupten, ihre Programme seien fehlerfrei, l"ugen auch bei
anderen Gelegenheiten.
 
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Date: 3 Dec 89 15:32:02 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!harrier.ukc.ac.uk!gos.ukc.ac.uk!anw1@uunet.uu.net
 (A.N.Walkeden)
Subject: BLOOD MONEY JUST WON'T LOAD...
Message-ID: <2659@gos.ukc.ac.uk>
 
Yeah I had this problem with my copy too, in fact I had it twice.
 
Initially the game worked fine then after trying to examine the disk contents
by opening the Floppy Disk Icon A and then trying to boot the disk I got exactly
the same result as you. Nothing I could do would recover the disk so I sent of
to the manufacturer and got a free replacement.
 
Sorry I can't be of any assistance, but I suggest you do the same.
 
Adrian
 
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Date: 3 Dec 89 18:58:31 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!rochester!rit!ritcv!aj
 y2208@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: BLOOD MONEY JUST WON'T LOAD...
Message-ID: <1421@cs.rit.edu>
 
In article <2659@gos.ukc.ac.uk> anw1@ukc.ac.uk (A.N.Walkeden) writes:
>
>Yeah I had this problem with my copy too, in fact I had it twice.
[...]
>Adrian
 
I also could not boot Blood Money on my 1040ST (with TOS 1.4).  I am
absolutely fed up with the copy protection on some games, most
notably Psygnosis/Psyclapse.  When I try to boot the game up, I get
a black screen, and eventually the disk stops.
 
I should have been skeptical when I asked for a demo at the dealer I
bought the game at and HE couldn't get it to run on the store's
machine!!!!
 
To date I know of no one who has been able to get it to run on their
ST..  I've only seen the ST Demo (which does work with TOS 1.4), and
the Amiga version (which is FANTASTIC).
 
Well, I returned the game and should have new disks for it later
today.  If they don't work either, well I'll just have to spend
the $30 on DMII instead.  (not that I wasn't planning on buying
it anyway..  :-)
 
Oh yea, the dealer I bought the game from told me that there was a
bug in the protection in one of Psygnosis games. This bug would cause
the drive to attempt to seek all the way up to track 700 (!!!!!!!).
Apparently many drives were ruined and Psygnosis had to replace them.
 
_____________________________________________________________________________
 Albert Yarusso, Rochester     ajy2208@ritvax.bitnet,ajy2208@ultb.isc.rit.edu
 Institute of Tech. _________________________________________________________
 Computer Science  /___   /    ?rutgers, ames?!rochester!ritcv!ajy2208
______________________/  /     ajy2208@ritcv.cs.rit.edu     GEnie:  A.Yarusso
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Dec 89 17:43:59 GMT
From: xanth!xanth.cs.odu.edu!scott@ames.arc.nasa.gov  (Scott Yelich)
Subject: Degas > PS and DVI > PS
Message-ID: <SCOTT.89Dec3124359@oswald.cs.odu.edu>
 
> While we are on this subject I would like to respond to Dylan Yolles
> on the matter of TeX DVI  to Postscript conversion.  With my imperfect
> knowledge of the subject it appeasr that such a conversion would not
> make sense.  The font files used to generate the DVI document in TeX
> do not correspond in any sense to those used in Postscript.  It is
> therefore unreasonable to expect that the layout of the document would be
> preserved in such a conversion.
 
Hmmm... Of course, I am talking about a sun system... but we use dvi2ps
constantly....
 
--
 
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Scott D. Yelich                                 scott@cs.odu.edu [128.82.8.1]
 After he pushed me off the cliff, he asked me, as I fell, ``Why'd you jump?''
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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Date: 3 Dec 89 01:39:46 GMT
From: portal!cup.portal.com!buggs@uunet.uu.net  (William Edward JuneJr)
Subject: LaserPrinters and the ST
Message-ID: <24675@cup.portal.com>
 
 As far as I know, the major cost of _any_ PostScript-compatible device
> or software is the royalty paid to Adobe for developing PS.
> Thus, UltraScript is not likely to drop in price.
> Can anyone confirm this?
>        ___             Stephen F. White, esq.     standard_disclaimer()
 
I thought PostScript was or is becoming PD?
 
Ed June
 
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Date: Sun, 3 Dec 89 20:38+0100
From: Ritzert%DMZRZU71.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU
Subject: Mac
Message-ID: <891203193809.656961@DMZRZU71-UNI-MAINZ--GERMANY>
 
Dear Mr. Rymal!
 
I think in Your contribution for/against the shareware mac project You
missed something very important: the Aladin (the projected program) has
been on the German market quite a few years as a commercial product. Its
price is comparable (slightly lower) than Spectre 128. Recently, Aladin
and Spectre 128 (1.7, the more recent ones are not available here) have
been compared. Aladin has been judged to be the more stable, slightly
faster and less buggy program. And there is supporting hardware to copy
disks if I remember correctly. So, Aladin seems to be the second best of
the Mac-Emulators around --- after Spectre GCR which is totally
overpriced in my opinion.
 
Concluding, with this (quite expencive compared to other shareware, of
course) shareware You get a *really* professional 64 k mac. Definitely a
better one as with the magic sac.
 
I am not connected in any kind to the author of aladin, nor do I plan to
use a Mac-Emulator at all. I only refer to a newspaper article and some
prices I have seen in ads.
And I think we should not discourage such a plan by Atarinet-typical bashing.
 
Regards
 
Michael Ritzert
mjr@dmzrzu71.bitnet
 
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End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #743
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