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INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Sun,  3 Dec 89       Volume 89 : Issue 742
 
Today's Topics:
                     INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 #727
                       Is Spectre going MIDI>?
                                Line F
                         Placement of TOS 1.4
                         question SPECTRE GCR
                   Spectre and other Mac emulators
                     Trash, Disks, etc. (2 msgs)
                       TT and MAC-,PC-emulators
                     Uniterm Fonts/Help Please!!!
            Want a fast Atari ST...how about a '030 chip?
                                Zmodem
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Dec 89 10:22:26 GMT
From: well!dsmall@apple.com  (David Small)
Subject: INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 #727
Message-ID: <14806@well.UUCP>
 
The referenced note asks why it's so difficult to make the Atari ST talk
Appletalk (now called Localtalk).
 
        Basically, the Atari doesn't have the needed chips built in. Apple
uses the SCC high-speed serial communications chip to drive Appletalk;
it's interrupt driven also. Atari's MFP tops out at 19,200 baud, if I
recall correctly. Also, the VIA timer chip in the Mac appears to be in the
mix somewhere.
 
        So, it's a matter of adding several chips to the ST, a machine that
was not designed to have chips added to it (to be charitable). Then, it's
a matter of hooking up software wiring to th pseudo SCC, interrupts,
and so forth.
 
        That's the basic problem. Let me know if I need to explain further.
 
        - thanks, Dave / Gadgets
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Dec 89 09:59:22 GMT
From: well!dsmall@apple.com  (David Small)
Subject: Is Spectre going MIDI>?
Message-ID: <14805@well.UUCP>
 
The referenced post asks if sources close to Dave Small can confirm whether
or not he's working to bring up Mac MIDI.
 
        Sources close to Dave Small report that he dosn't have many good ideas
on how to do this, short of rewriting some low-level I/O routines in some
Mac programs.
 
        The basic I/O isn't the problem; I can do that. The *timing* is the
problem. The typical MIDI output needs to be interrupt driven, and uses the
VIA timer chip for the interrupts. There's no such chip on the ST. It also
uses
the SCC chip for serial communications at MIDI speed.
 
        Now, of course, if someone mounted a VIA and SCC chip on the Atari
bus ... (no comment).
 
        -- thanks, Dave Small / Gadgets by Small
 
        !hplabs!well!dsmall
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Dec 89 04:25:22 GMT
From: att!chinet!saj@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Stephen Jacobs)
Subject: Line F
Message-ID: <1989Dec3.042522.21365@chinet.chi.il.us>
 
In article <1841@atari.UUCP> kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher) writes:
>rehrauer@apollo.HP.COM (Steve Rehrauer) writes:
>| I know what you mean by "Line F", but what's the "compression" refer to re:
>| ST ROMs?  (Usually I'm only this dense on Mondays & national holidays...)
>
>The line F compression I refer to is a method we used in ST ROM which
>basically replaces common operations with line F instructions.  The
>line F handler is able, by decoding the $Fxxx instruction, to determine
>what operation to perform.  The handler then dispatches the exception
>to the appropriate OS routine.
 
This brings up the question of what the ROM code does instead.  Have all the
little line F routines been made into subroutines, with more-or-less ordinary
subroutine linkages (I don't know the exact count, but there are A LOT of
line F routines)?  Are the routines invoked by subroutine calls to a
dispatcher (a la GEMDOS)?  Has the code been brought inline?
 
Of COURSE this is just idle curiosity, but if the answer is 'brought inline',
I'll expect a noticeable speedup in STE performance.
                                        Steve J.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Sat, 2 Dec 89 20:53:07 MST
From: ASQB-SEP-A HQ USAISEC <asqb-sep-a@huachuca-emh2.army.mil>
Subject: Placement of TOS 1.4
 
I picked up TOS 4.1 today -- had to drive to Phoenix (I live in Tucson
and we have no ATARI dealer) to get it.
 
I was wondering if anyone can help me with the correct placement of
the TOS 1.4 chips?
 
I tried two different iterations:
 
      A.    L0
            L1
            L2
            H0
            H1
            H2
 
      B.    L0
            H0
            L1
            H1
            L2
            H2
 
These configurations are in a 520 ST that's been upgraded to 1M via
piggyback.
 
My TOS 1.0 was in the following configuration:
 
            --------0
            --------1
            --------2
            --------3
            --------4
            --------5
 
 
Can't remember the numbers in front, but you get the idea.
 
In either configuration the screen (mono) stays dark and nothing
happens.  Was just going to try a few more configs but thought I
would ask first and save the wear and tear on the pins ;-).
 
Thanks for the help.
 
Mark R
 
USAISEC -- the guys who have to move to the People's Republic of
            Massachusetts
 
Computer Systems Engineering
 
# All opinions are strictly mine and in no way reflect the opinions or
# policies of the US Army.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Dec 89 09:18:13 GMT
From: well!dsmall@apple.com  (David Small)
Subject: question SPECTRE GCR
Message-ID: <14801@well.UUCP>
 
The referenced question asks compatibility between Spectre GCR/1040 ST and
a Mac II.
 
        We have had no problems in our lab moving a considerable number of
disks back and forth between them. My only suggestion, on the 2.0/2.3 release
(they are the same, BTW) is to format on the Spectre. Spectre formats to 1:2
interleave, which makes for fast Spectre GCR writes, and Mac II formats to
1:1 interleave, which makes for slow Spectre GCR writes. (We expect to fix
this in the 2.5 release).
 
        Try replying to "hplabs!boulder!tcr!gadgets!dsmall" and see what
happens.
 
        -- thanks, Dave Small / Gadgets
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Dec 89 09:39:42 GMT
From: well!dsmall@apple.com  (David Small)
Subject: Spectre and other Mac emulators
Message-ID: <14802@well.UUCP>
 
The referenced note contains several suggestions to Spectre GCR.
 
 
1. On Multifinder reliability, we have just recently (since releasing 2.0/)
discovered that Multifinder is reading from location 0. This causes havoc with
its memory mangler; it means a dangling pointer (address = 0 ). Once we
fixed that, Multifinder grew rock-solid; we ran it at Comdex for five days
straight, and could only crash it with a specifically non-MF friendly DA.
 
        This is the same bug that crashed Microsoft Word 3.02, which now
does "Page Preview" properly and doesn't run out of memory. I've chased it
for a year and half now; it's good to win at last.
 
2. Shutdown should work; if not, we broke it between beta and release.
Restart can't work, as it executes a RESET instruction which clobbers the ST
hardware. However, a fix for that is in the works for the 2.5 release (along
with the multifinder/word 3.02 fix).
 
3. I agree, we should let you format Spectre disks from inside Spectre. We
didn't only because of space reasons; getting 832K mode up, which is the
tightest memory squeeze, with GCR inside was very very hard. For instance, we
had to delete all Translator One support code, and that didn't help enough.
We hope to do this, however.
 
4. Macintosh true SCSI support is very tricky. While we're researching it,
no promises there. There are timing and emulation issues that resemble
Vietnam.
 
5. Sound improvements. We're already working on true 60 hz sound, so the pitch
is correct. We're also working on ST-E DMA sound, which will give sound with
little to no slowdown (!). System 6.02 and above changed the ground rules for
sound, but we hope to have that working soon; it's a matter of figuring out
why sound works on a real Plus, and not on a Spectre -- a comparison of
traces, really.
 
6. The GTS-100 drive we bought just for this is currently in with a major
drive guru being prodded; we hope he can come up with a fix. We'll let you
know
wehwhen we know something.
 
The current 2.5 version, unreleased, also has an online configuration page
(press HELP and it pops up; press function keys, and various options toggle),
and many other goodiesgoing into it. Doug Wheeler is doing an outstanding
job hacking on it, and is even (*shudder*) cleaning up my code.
 
        Basically, it sounds like we're in agreement about where Spectre
should go in the next few months. Hope you like 2.5, when we release it.
 
        -- thanks, Dave Small / Gadgets
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 89 17:02:47 PST
From: EESD11O%CALSTATE.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU  (Ed Krimen)
Subject: Trash, Disks, etc.
 
Roman Baker writes:
 
> Does anyone out there have or know where I can get a program to change
> the Trash and file cabinet icons on the desktop?  The old desktop is getting
> pretty boring and I am due for a change.  Thanks.
 
I recommend NeoDesk.  You can draw your own desktop and program icons.
But those are minor enhancements.  It's other features for file
manipulation are simply superior to the normal desktop.  I don't use the
normal desktop anymore.  NeoDesk is much more fun.  It's one of my most
used and favorite programs for the ST (competing with UIS II).
 
If you have a hard drive or more than one meg in your machine, you should
consider getting NeoDesk very much.  If you have one meg and no
hard drive, then you should take a look at NeoDesk and see whether its
features outweigh its disadvantages.  It takes up 150K when it's installed
and running.  You can either keep it in memory when you load a program from
it (it's a shell), or have it erase itself from memory, in which it only
keeps 20K of itself in memory.  When you exit the program you loaded, it
loads itself back into memory.
 
BTW, does TOS 1.4 copy the same way that NeoDesk does, loading all the
files to be copied into memory and then dumping them to the destination?
Or does it copy them one by one?
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Dec 89 09:04:27 GMT
From: unmvax!ariel!hydra.unm.edu!seattle@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (David G. Adams)
Subject: Trash, Disks, etc.
Message-ID: <1044@ariel.unm.edu>
 
In article <9911@saturn.ucsc.edu> dstr012@ucscg.UCSC.EDU () writes:
>Does anyone out there have or know where I can get a program to change
>the Trash and file cabinet icons on the desktop?  The old desktop is getting
>pretty boring and I am due for a change.  Thanks.
>
>         Roman Baker
 
Roman,
 
Besides NEOdesk (which i don't have, nor have need for), there's Mark
Williams Resource Editor, which cost me about $30.00 when I bought
my upgrade to version 3.0.  I haven't had too much time to use it, but
one of the major things it helps with, is changing Icons.
 
Dave
 
 
|  seattle@hydra.unm.edu  /----------------------------------------------------\
| Dadams10@GEnie /--------|     Kirk - Mr. Spock, Eliminate his heartbeat.     |
| David G. Adams |  LotE  | "Modern love is automatic"  - A Flock of Seagulls  |
\----------------/Live it!\ Don't bug the University  'bout nuthin' I've said. /
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Dec 89 09:52:28 GMT
From: well!dsmall@apple.com  (David Small)
Subject: TT and MAC-,PC-emulators
Message-ID: <14804@well.UUCP>
 
The referenced question asks if the Spectre 128/GCR works with the STE or TT.
 
It does work with the STE, with no apparent problems.
 
        (It also works with Stacy, with one minor configuration/setup
hack; just disable logical device "1" on SCSI drive 0, then SAVE SETTINGs.)
 
It does not presently work on TT. While the cartridge physically fits,
and the basic Spectre menus work okay, we've been unable to get a TT nor
specifications, and thus can't guarentee it will work. In addition,
GCR support, Hyperweb (tm) and writing make it difficult for me to find time
to work on a TT version; fortunately, we have Doug here to help out; maybe
he'll have time.
 
        Note that some advertising currently says Spectre 128/GCR works with
TT, including some Atari ads. Whups.
 
        -- thanks, Dave Small / Gadgets by Small, Inc.
 
        !hplabs!well!dsmall
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Dec 89 04:22:39 GMT
From: agate!saturn!ucscg.UCSC.EDU!dstr012@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (10003012)
Subject: Uniterm Fonts/Help Please!!!
Message-ID: <9932@saturn.ucsc.edu>
 
Does ANYONE out there know how to change the 80-column display font
in Uniterm 2.0e?  I've posted messages before but nobody seems to know!
Thank you in advance for your help.
 
                        - Kevin Kahl
                          dstr012@UCSCG.UCSC.EDU
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Dec 89 09:43:44 GMT
From: well!dsmall@apple.com  (David Small)
Subject: Want a fast Atari ST...how about a '030 chip?
Message-ID: <14803@well.UUCP>
 
The referecned article states that since the proposed Gadgets 68030 board
runs at 16 mhz, and the Mac IIci runs at 25 mhz, the Mac will be faster.
 
        One option I am very much pulling for is a 32 Mhz clockrate on the
68030 board. It's available and it keeps the bus synchronous.
 
        We hope to see first prototype boards around Christmas. Remember,
this project is primarily for us, for inhouse development; the decision to
market it to the general public has not been made. I'd like to turn loose
a 32 Mhz 68030 on some of my assembly projects -- and none of this waiting
for 8 mhz ST hardware, either.
 
        -- thanks, Dave / Gadgets by Small
 
        hplabs!wel dsmall
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 89 01:22:50 MST
From: ehsnsr@jupiter.nmt.edu (Eric Hobbs)
Subject: Zmodem
Message-ID: <8912030822.AA01374@jupiter.nmt.edu>
 
Hi Folks!
 
     I have the panarthea ZMDM.PRG. I also have the UNIX end of zmodem
that is posted in the panarthea/sources listing. I believe I have compiled
all the UNIX C programs right, but I still can't get it to transfer binary
files. I and my friends, some of whom have a good amount of experience with
zmodem, could get text files to transfer, but we had no luck with binaries.
I also tried transferring binaries using the included UNIX Xmodem and Ymodem
programs, but they didn't work either. I used Uniterm 2.0e with the X and Y
transfers, and I used ZMDM with the Zmodem transfers. I was wondering if
anyone had the same problem. If so, I need some help. Until then, I guess I
will just have to settle for Kermit (too slow) or by doing a file capture
as a file is being uuencoded on the SUN (Not elegant :-)).
 
Thanxs.
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric Hobbs
ehsnsr@jupiter.nmt.edu
 
"Lad. Put away thy gum. Thou knowest not that I come in the service of yams."
                                             -Clay C. Smith
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
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End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #742
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