=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Mon, 18 Dec 89       Volume 89 : Issue  828
 
Today's Topics:
                            CSB questions
               Deskjet, Pub Partner, Degas, Superbase 2
                  Futher Adventures of ATM & Spectre
                           GCR vs. Mac Plus
                Help, please, with sound on the ST...
                THINK C's source debugger and Spectre
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Dec 89 05:19:43 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!dyer@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
 (Jon Brode)
Subject: CSB questions
Message-ID: <10375@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu>
 
2 questions:
 
1. There is a room full of flying lobsters on the "no fireballs" level.
   How do you get into it? I get see it with X-ray vision, but no luck
   in getting there.
 
2. What key is needed to get into the "dragon den" and where is it to
   be found?
 
Jon
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Dec 89 05:34:45 GMT
From: uc!nic.MR.NET!thor.acc.stolaf.edu!pritchaj@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (John
 Pritchard)
Subject: Deskjet, Pub Partner, Degas, Superbase 2
Message-ID: <10062@thor.acc.stolaf.edu>
 
Sorry if these had been asked, but I am new to the net...
 
        1) I just got Degas Elite, does anyone know where there is
           an HP Deskjet print driver for it?
        2) I have an old version of Publising Partner, does anyone
           know where there is an HP Deskjet print driver for it?
        3) Are there PD fonts for GDOS out there? where?
           If not, where is a good place to buy some?
        4) Anyone heard of an upgrade policy for Superbase 2 owners?
        5) Anyone had good/bad experiences with Computer Eyes or any
           other digitizing via CamCorder?
 
I have access to the internet (ftp, etc.)
I will post results if people are interested.
 
------------------------------------------------------------
John Pritchard
Mgr. Software Services            Proud to have paid for
Carleton College                   my software.
Northfield, MN 55057
jpritcha@carleton.edu (internet)
------------------------------------------------------------
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Dec 89 04:43:58 GMT
From: well!dsmall@apple.com  (David Small)
Subject: Futher Adventures of ATM & Spectre
Message-ID: <15095@well.UUCP>
 
My thanks for the very kind comments concerning Adobe Type Manger and Spectre
GCR!
 
        We have also had many positive responses on other systems. Frankly,
I'm glad I wrote the software the way I did -- no patch files -- so new
products could run after the software was cast in concrete.
 
        I did notice two things I might help with. First, we have seen
*some* (not all!!) problems with internal Mega disk drives and GCR. Typically,
the innermost tracks, 64-79, do not read properly. This appears to be due to
horrific electrical noise inside the Mega. Mark Booth (STACE on GENIE) has
extensively commented on how to produce a shield; it takes some thick
aluminum,
like cookie-baking stuff, and a few minutes of time. In 100% of cases, he has
been able
to fix internal drive problems, and he's up to 20 or so drives now.
 
        Next, MultiFinder is *not* stable, alas, under 2.3K. We have finally
discovered why. As you know, there's a big problem with Mac software storing
into location 0, a program fault. The stores cause a bus error, a crash I
usually recover from. Well, on a hunch, we set the incircuit emulator to
check for *reads* from locations 0 and 4, which do not cause a crash. (See,
on a Mac, 0-7 are read/write RAM except on powerup; on the ST, they are ROM).
Well whoops! Multifinder, through ROM calls, is *reading* location 0, and
getting 602e1e00 (if I remember right), then plugging it into various critical
memory tables. The result is a crash is not far off.
 
        The solution is to forbid the ROMs from doing that by simple entry
checks for location=0 on these calls. Three were involved if I remember right.
 
        This greatly, greatly stabilized Multifinder, and to our complete
surprise, MicrosoftWord 3.02. That was the bug in Word (out of memory) that
I had been chasing over a year and failed on. Well, it works now.
 
        Anyway, I want to caution you on Multifinder. It is not yet stable
on 2.3K. (Note: The "about Spectre" on 2.3K says 2.0 -- our fault.)
 
        We have fixed this in 2.5a, and ran it extensively at Comdex for
a week with zero crashes, except for one known-multifinder killer D/A.
We would commonly have 5-8 applications going at once.
 
        If you have a strong need for it, we could probably arrange a
quick-release of 2.5A. It also features on-line configuration (press HELP
and a config page pops up; use F1-F10 to toggle features) and some other
goodies. Doug is also rewriting the launcher for some pretty stunning stuff.
 
        -- hope this helps,
 
        -- thanks, Dave / Gadgets
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Dec 89 04:25:42 GMT
From: well!dsmall@apple.com  (David Small)
Subject: GCR vs. Mac Plus
Message-ID: <15094@well.UUCP>
 
This must be my night for notes.. *grin*
 
The basenote discusses speed differences between the Mac Plus and GCR.
 
        One problem with marketing an "emulator" is people think it's
slow. They see the CP/M emulator, PC-Ditto, and whatnot. The difference
is running native 68000 machine code vs. interpreting 8080 or 8088 code.
 
        The ST runs at basically 8 mhz; the Mac basically also at 8.
(plus or minus just a hair). Problem with the Mac is that video contention
chops a good 20% off the processor. As I understand it, when the SE was
designed, the PAL's that handle video contention were cleaned up; that's
why the SEis 20% faster -- it got to where it should be. ApplePeople feel free
to correct me; this is second hand.
 
        I do know in benchmarks at a certain techie MacMagazine, we were 21%
ahead of the Plus in CPU, 4% ahead of the SE, and way behind the Mac II;
however, the II is 68020/30 and 16 mhz, so that's unfair. Amazingly, the
ST's hard disk kept even with the Mac II; the ST's Megafile 30 is no slouch
at all in raw data transfer rate. The ST also uses DMA, the Mac II a
loop-store scheme, so it's an unfair comparison.
 
        The thing that screws up most benchmarks is we run on a 70 hz
vertical blank, corresponding to the Atari mono monitor. The benchmarks on
the Mac run at 60 hz. Since most timer-tick programs dervice time-elapsed
from this vertical blank, they're off on the Spectre. We are planning a 60 hz
VBL "option", if you're willing to put up with desynced screen/animation,
which will bring sound back to normal pitch and make benchmarks accurate
once again, but that's in the future.
 
        Any timings right now should be on a stopwatch, and again,hard disk
access just isn't fair; looping can't keep up with a DMA scheme that plugs in
16 words at a whock. I could make a case that DMA could outrun a RAMDISK.
 
        -- thanks, Dave / Gadgets
 
p.s. The T-16 accelerator board takes the Spectre up to a "true" 12 mhz.
This makes an amazing difference! Even with the moniterms, with their huge
display memory, screens snap open and shut very fast. Recommended highly!
 
        .
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Dec 89 06:05:12 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!mailrus!shadooby!wsu-cs!pandora.cs.wayne.ed
 u!pbh@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Patrick B. Haggood)
Subject: Help, please, with sound on the ST...
Message-ID: <1018@wsu-cs.uucp>
 
>In article <8912150807.AA16779@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, AMEIJ@vax.oxford.ac.UK
 (Jan Ameij) writes:
>>  Can some kind person out there send me a command string
>> for the xbios Dosound command which produces, say, middle C for 1 second.
>> A guide as to how to change a) pitch and b) duration would be much
 appreciated.
>
>
>Find someone with MWC.  Page 171-172 gives you a full working example.
>
>hcj@lzaz.att.com
 
Ah, no.  Perhaps the old MWC (pre version 3).  Current version mentions
dosound on pp301-303, but mentions nothing abuot producing a specific
sound, just a demo on making sounds and noises of any type.  You
(J. Ameij) may want to try the Abacus book, Sound and Graphics on the
St, it may mention how to create specific notes with Dosound (however,
the examples there may be in either BASIC or assembler)
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Dec 89 05:19:28 GMT
From: well!dsmall@apple.com  (David Small)
Subject: THINK C's source debugger and Spectre
Message-ID: <15096@well.UUCP>
 
 (Sorry about all the net bandwidth -- there have been many Spectre
questions.)
 
        T       The basenote asks about Think C's source debugger.
 
        While I am not certain, I am under the impression that this setup
requires Multifinder. The debugger runs as one task, and the main task as
another. Multifinder under 2.3k is fatally flawed due to zeroreads (a
previous post tonight dealt with that at length). When 2.5 comes out, with
the zeroread patch, please retest; I think you'll have better luck.
 
        While it's true we grab interrupt vectors, the situation isn't that
bad. We have to grab hblank, at IPL 4, and serial/keyboard/mouse at IPL 6.
The Mac doesn't really use those; it uses 1 for VIA and 2 for SCC. (2 on the
ST is hbank, which everyone shuts off). I see it as entirely possible to
implement many of the Apple's original vectors through their vector dispatch
scheme and bring up stuff like TMON; heck, the Amiga AMAX emulator runs
TMON ...
 
        Hence, don't give up hope.
 
        -- thanks, Dave / Gadgets
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #828
*****************************************
