INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Fri,  3 Nov 89       Volume 89 : Issue 603
 
Today's Topics:
                    Atrocious Atari dealer (LONG)
                 Memory upgrade affects performance?
                          perl beta release
                Re~2: questions, questions, questions
                         Self-Modifying Code
                              ST in USSR
                            TT's VME-slots
                            unix on the TT
                       Wanted: sampler software
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Nov 89 20:17:35 GMT
From: agate!garnet.berkeley.edu!c60b2-cc@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Axel K. Olmos)
Subject: Atrocious Atari dealer (LONG)
 
Jonathan, I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad time at Microworld!
 
Unfortunately, before people grab their hair and run screaming crooks! I
would like to add my experiences with Microworld.
 
I have NEVER had any such experience with Microworld, or even heard of others
having such experiences!  Microworld has only offered me the highest service
at the most reasonable prices.  Here are a few examples:
 
GFA Basic at mail order price, purchased in store same week it came out.
ST Keyboard taken out of SELLABLE ST and sold to me for a ridiculously low
price so I could replace my broken keyboard.
 
Monochrome monitor cable pulled out of working SM124 so I could replace my
broken one at home.
 
Double sided replacement disk drive, first tested to work at 82+ tracks,
and then sold to me at COST to replace my single sided STFM drive.
 
Supra modem 2400 sold to me for 125, mail order cost, in person, with
a cable that was thrown in for 10.
 
As you can see, Microworld has shown me only the highest degrees of respect
and service.  Even when I come in to just say Hi, and get the latest Micro-
times, they still treat me with the respect a customer deserves.
 
Now do you want to hear the great part?  I have bought neither of my systems
from Microworld, but still I am treated this way!  (Got first ST before
they opened, got Mega direct from Atari)
 
The ONLY complaints I have heard about Microworld:
The dogs are pests, and unbecoming of a computer store.
The carpet smells as a result of the dogs.
 
Since neither of these two complaints have anything to do with ST service,
(Still, I find them valid!) I can see no reasons to avoid Microworld.
Most stores (W.C., HCC, ...) are carrying the ST's just to make a buck.
Microworld carries the ST first to provide support, and push the ST, second
to make a profit.
 
Once again, I am sorry you were treated as you were.  Perhaps Bill was having
a bad day, or perhaps there was a misunderstanding.
 
I neither work for, or am paid by Microworld.
I simply have enjoyed their treatment, and services over the years as a
customer, and don't want to see their business affected as a result from
ONE incident.
 
I think T.S. deserves more flaming, I have heard there are dozens of messages
on GENIE from people who were simply ripped off by them.
 
Thank you for your time, I hope your future ST dealings are much happier ones
 
Axel K. Olmos
 
Axel K. Olmos        EECS/C       UC Berkeley       "But who can do more?"
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Nov 89 18:15:57 GMT
From: shlump.nac.dec.com!engage.enet.dec.com!oldtmr!wallace@decuac.dec.com  (Ray
 Wallace)
Subject: Memory upgrade affects performance?
 
In article <1184@cbnewsi.ATT.COM>, dmk@cbnewsi.ATT.COM (daniel.m.kuster..jr)
 writes...
>I just upgraded my 1985 vintage 520ST to 2.5 Meg of
                        ...
>4 times as long to boot (possibly longer).  Is TOS running some
>kind of memory test, or is it just zeroing out RAM?  Even worse,
>once that system is up and running, it takes a lot longer for
>applications to load and run.  Is the system slowed down by the
                        ...
 
Every time you run a program the ST writes zeros to all unused memory (and
does it slowly at that). So when you go from 512kb to 2.5kb starting up a
program becomes signifantly longer. The reason booting takes longer is
probably because you have programs in your auto folder which get run when you
boot and the same memory zeroing happens with these programs as well (I'm not
sure if this applies for desk accessories).
 
The solution is to get one of the programs which work around (fix?) this
problem. The one I use which seems to work very well is called PINHEAD.
I have a 1040ST with only 1 meg of ram and pinhead still makes a very
noticeable difference in booting (all those auto programs to enhance the ST
starting up you know) and the normal running of programs.
 
---
Ray Wallace
                (INTERNET,UUCP) wallace@oldtmr.enet.dec.com
                (UUCP)          ...!decwrl!oldtmr.enet!wallace
                (INTERNET)      wallace%oldtmr.enet@decwrl.dec.com
---
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 1 Nov 89 15:44:09 GMT
From: mcsun!hp4nl!ruuinf!piet@uunet.uu.net  (Piet van Oostrum)
Subject: perl beta release
 
I have ported Larray Wall's perl program to the Atari. It will be ready for
a beta release next week. If you want it, send me a mail.
 
THE REQUIREMENT IS THAT YOU WILL USE IT AND SEND ME BUG REPORTS.
 
This version is based on Larry Wall's gamma release and I am going to
switch over to the official version after the beta release.
 
Here is a small description:
 
     Perl is a interpreted language optimized for scanning arbi-
     trary text files, extracting information from those text
     files, and printing reports based on that information.  It's
     also a good language for many system management tasks.  The
     language is intended to be practical (easy to use, effi-
     cient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant,
     minimal).  It combines (in the author's opinion, anyway)
     some of the best features of C, sed, awk, and sh, so people
     familiar with those languages should have little difficulty
     with it.  (Language historians will also note some vestiges
     of csh, Pascal, and even BASIC-PLUS.) Expression syntax
     corresponds quite closely to C expression syntax.  Unlike
     most Unix utilities, perl does not arbitrarily limit the
     size of your data--if you've got the memory, perl can slurp
     in your whole file as a single string.  And the hash tables
     used by associative arrays grow as necessary to prevent
     degraded performance.  Perl uses sophisticated pattern
     matching techniques to scan large amounts of data very
     quickly.  Although optimized for scanning text, perl can
     also deal with binary data, and can make dbm files look like
     associative arrays (where dbm is available).  If you
     have a problem that would ordinarily use sed or awk or sh,
     but it exceeds their capabilities or must run a little fas-
     ter, and you don't want to write the silly thing in C, then
     perl may be for you.
--
Piet van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, University of Utrecht
Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht,  The Netherlands.
Telephone: +31-30-531806      Internet: piet@cs.ruu.nl
Telefax:   +31-30-513791      Uucp: uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!ruuinf!piet
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 2 Nov 89 11:16:20 GMT
From: mcsun!hp4nl!tnosoes!joep@uunet.uu.net  (Joep Mathijssen)
Subject: Re~2: questions, questions, questions
 
Just a quick note for a very small comment...
 
 
David L. Newton writes:
 
>      if (event & MU_MESAG)
>         handle_message ();
>      else if (event & MU_KEYBD)
>         handle_keyboard ();
 
>         etc...
>
>   ? /* end event loop */
 
>   Then, say, for most window stuff, you drop into the handle_message
>function.  In there you have a SWITCH STATEMENT for message types, defined by
>Laser C as things like WM_REDRAW, WM_CLOSE, WM_FULL, etc.  Each of those
>message types will have a function related with it.
 
 
Watch out for using a 'switch'- or 'if-else'-statement for checking out your
events, because it's possible that GEM gives you more than one event at a time
 (?!)k.
I don't know exactly when this will happen, so I'll have to check one of my
GEM-programs to see when and where this problem may occur. The only thing I
can remember at this moment is that I noticed an incomplete update and that
it was solved by using something like:
 
   if (event & X)
      ...
   if (event & Y)
      ...
 
      etc...
 
 
With X and Y being MU_* or WM_*.
 
 
Joep Mathijssen, TNO Soesterberg, The Netherlands
 
    joep@tnosoes.uucp
    mcvax.cwi.ml!tnosoes!joep
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 1 Nov 89 17:48:13 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!reading!cf-cm!csisles!mackeown@uunet.uu.net  (W. Mackeown)
Subject: Self-Modifying Code
 
Another obvious reason for not writing self-modifying code is it won't work
when programmed in ROM, PROM, EPROM/EEPROM etc.
 
It could copy itself beforehand into another more writeable part of virtual
memory (e.g. on-line magnetic storage media) but then the expensive, non-
volatile electronic memory would be wasted.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 31 Oct 89 10:48:38 GMT
From: mcsun!cernvax!cui!ugun2b!ugobs!bartho@uunet.uu.net  (PAUL BARTHOLDI)
Subject: ST in USSR
 
In article <758@utacs.UTA.FI>, jackin@utacs.UTA.FI (Markku M?enp??) writes:
>                                           ... I have thought of USSR being
> a very attractive marketing place for Atari ST. The writer (don't remember
> his name) told that ATARI (the company) missed a big chance to make ST
> de facto in Soviet schools...
>
> Just a thought. Any comments any one ?
>
living in Switzerland, I had to sign a 'No Export' licence for my ST,
on the ground that the atari 1040ST contains 'sensitive' material ...
This may not be true any more, but was still the case last may. This would
have made it very difficult for Atari to sell to soviet schools!
 
                  Paul Bartholdi, Geneva, Switzerland.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Nov 89 17:59:47 GMT
From: atha!rwa@decwrl.dec.com  (Ross Alexander)
Subject: TT's VME-slots
 
I think the obvious product here is a buss-repeater card and an
external vme cage.  Should be doable - apart from the usual FCC
problems - and cheap enough to be viable for people who need more
than 1 extra card.  Personally, I would have thought two slots
to be a better design than just one, but perhaps this is a form
factor problem (also pronounced 'styling' or 'marketing' :~P )?
 
        Ross
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Nov 89 20:18:25 GMT
From: brunix!rjd@uunet.uu.net  (Rob Demillo)
Subject: unix on the TT
 
In article <1656@calvin.cs.mcgill.ca> depeche@calvin.cs.mcgill.ca (Sam Alan
 EZUST) writes:
>
>I hear that there will be two versions of the tt:
>one "tower" model very much reminicent of the model 80 and another
>"desktop" model....
>Apparently, the tower comes with more memory than the desktop, and maybe
>a larger hard disk.... that's nice.
>
>but my father read me aloud an ST-World article about this infamous computer
>where I thought i heard this:
>THE DESKTOP MODEL WILL NEVER WORK WITH UNIX
>only the TOWER will....
>
>if this is true, WHY?????
>
>In what other ways will the two versions be non software compatible??
 
Well, I'm not sure where you got this information. I just came
back from Switzerland and Germany. The TT is shipping there in
only *one* form - the desktop model. It is pretty much everything
that has been discussed on this newsgroup. The UNIX (tm) it
supports *is* Berkley Unix...it also supports X-Windows. In
addition, a special "TOS" window can be opened up to run
the now familiar TOS desktop. (I am not sure, however, that this TOS
window supports color ST programs...I saw no indication that it
did.)
 
It comes with an ethernet port, a *high* rez screen, etc etc etc...
 
If anyone wants, I'll translate the product review in
the November issue of 'St Magazin' (a german publication) and
post it.
 
Also, just to dispell any rumors: the ST is *huge* in Germany and
Switzerland. A head-to-head contender with the IBM and IBM clones.
As to the Mac? I only found it in one computer store as a "speciality"
order...and, this was amusing, the Mac had custom paint jobs! (You could
order orange with a racing stripe, for instance.)
 
In other words, there is a reason why the Atari ST is still around:
europe.
 
 
 - Rob DeMillo                  | UUCP:   ...ima!brunix!rjd
   Brown University             | BITnet: DEMILLO%BRNPSG.SPAN@STAR.STANFORD.EDU
   Planetary Science Group      | Reality: 401-863-3769
"I say you *are* the Messiah, Lord! And I ought to know, I've followed a few!"
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 3 Nov 89 19:10:17 GMT
From: mcsun!hp4nl!phigate!prle!prles2!nvpna1!ebeam@uunet.uu.net  (Otto Meijer
 44005)
Subject: Wanted: sampler software
 
Is there someone out there who has an sampler program for me. I made
an sampler wich connects to the printerport but i don't think i can
write all that timing software. So if someone would send me a copy
of his sources please do.
 
 
 
 
 
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      >___<              ### #  #  #####  #####
      0 | 0             # # #  #  #      #
      \---/            # # #  #  #      ###
        \\            # # #  #  #      #
        /\\@         # ###  #  #####  #####
   \___/  \\@
         //              #   #  #####  #####  ###    #   # #####  #####  #####
   _____//____          #   #  #   #  #   #  #  #   #   # #   #  #   #  #
  \-----------/        #####  #####  #####  #   #  #   # #####  #####  ###
  |OO OO OO OO|       #   #  #   #  #  #   #  #   # # # #   #  #  #   #
                     #   #  #   #  #   #  ###    ##### #   #  #   #  #####
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #603
*****************************************
=========================================================================