Info-Atari16 Digest   Saturday, August 26, 1989   Volume 89 : Issue 419
 
This weeks Editor: Bill Westfield
 
Today's Topics:
 
                            Re: Faster ST
                          RAM upgrade cost?
    Re: PD applications on GENIE / EMPIRE Version 3.0 for the ST.
            Re: Buying an ST in Europe for US  - should I?
                           Undelivered mail
                      Turbo ST Demo went *poof*
                         Re: Program Speedup
      Failed malloc.c of gcclib2/part07 in comp.sources.atari.st
            Re: Buying an ST in Europe for US  - should I?
                  Re: EMPIRE Version 3.0 for the ST.
    Re: PD applications on GENIE / EMPIRE Version 3.0 for the ST.
                     Re: New Atari 68030 Machines
                          Re: UUCP packages
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date:         Wed, 23 Aug 89 12:13:43 BST
From:         Mark Powell <SQ79%liverpool.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK>
Subject:      Re: Faster ST
To:           Atari mailing list <INFO-ATARI16@score.stanford.edu>
 
   Maybe you should have a good look at your code. If you're program is
really _meant_ to take weeks/months to run then optimisation of the code
would probably be a better idea that buying yourself one of the many turbo
boards around. Even a simple change would reduce running time considerably,
if, say, you halved the clock time of a major routine that may be executed
millions (maybe billions) of times in a month, you'd be doing yourself a big
favour, time wise. Maybe, if you've got a lot of money, you could get a turbo
board as well. Try to get one that has a data cache as the _can_ be
considerably faster than those that don't. (I say "alot" but a 16Mhz board
with an 8K data cache can be bought for around 130 pounds... you want dollars
... well I don't know about that, but alot of info. about various turbo
boards was posted
   If you do get a turbo board then, optimise your code _for_ the board.
i.e. try to keep values in registers rather than memory... if you have to use
memory then try to keep it small so it'll be cached every time you need to
use it etc.
   If you desperatly need it faster then you could mail me the source, and I'll
have a look at optomising it for you. (don't tell me it's about 200K of
68000). You could mail it to the net, but that's not too nice on the pockets
of all those people getting news, at home, via modems.
 
Mark Powell
 
ARPAnet : sq79%liv.ac.uk@
USENET  : ...!mcvax!ukc!liv.ac.uk!sq79
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 23 Aug 89 02:19:22 GMT
From: microsoft!camilleg@uunet.uu.net  (Camille Goudeseune)
Subject: RAM upgrade cost?
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
 
[ The line-eater is dead!  Long live the line-ea
 
I just moved to the Seattle area from Toronto, and am unfamiliar with U.S.
prices.  My 1040 is cramping my style, but I can't justify buying a Mega.
A local store (Xanth Computers) is offering an upgrade to 2.5M for "around
$500..$600 depending on market price of RAM."  Should I snap it up, or am
I being hosed?  What's the cost of upgrades (up to, say, 4M) in the rest
of Netland?
 
        Thanks!
                Camille
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
     "Screw the Prime Directive.  Let's kill something." -- Jean-Luc Picard
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 23 Aug 89 14:23:39 GMT
From: dptg!lzaz!hcj@rutgers.edu  (HC Johnson)
Subject: Re: PD applications on GENIE / EMPIRE Version 3.0 for the ST.
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
 
> servers/archives from which I can extract goodies. Unfortunately, the
> vast majority of the reviewed and recommended PD goodies never see the
> light of day outside the "for-pay" services.
>
> If some gracious GENIE user had it in their heart to do the ATARI
> community at large a great service then they might take it upon
> themselves to periodically suck up the best from GENIE and input these
> applications to the more worldly available servers/archives often
> mentioned in this digest. The two servers I use personally are:
> TERMINATOR and PANARTHEA. These are both excellent sources for a
> non-IP user like me with EMAIL access and no anon-FTP abilities.
>
> Thanks for the help!!!
>
 
I think the GENIE agreement procludes this, as the Collection of pd on
GENIE is copyright by GENIE.
 
I would think that a GENIE customer could download a file and mail it to
you, put posting to the net would be poor form, and maybe illegal.
 
 
 
Howard C. Johnson
ATT Bell Labs
att!lzaz!hcj
hcj@lzaz.att.com
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 23 Aug 89 15:24:55 GMT
From: root@CS.YALE.EDU  (Root Of All Evil)
Subject: Re: Buying an ST in Europe for US  - should I?
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
 
In article <11490@yendor.phx.mcd.mot.com> stefan@yendor.UUCP (0000-Admin)
 writes:
>In article <959@pedsga.UUCP> mikes@pedsga.UUCP (Mike Shulman,SPCSYS,7586)
 writes:
>>I've heard that ST's are MUCH cheaper in Germany then in US. Is that
>
>Don't know about that, maybe.
>
>>true? If it is, would it take much to get a German-made ST to work in US?
>>Would it simply involve moving some jumper on the mother board from 50
>>to 60 Hz? What about the monitor (color and mono)? I presume all the docs
>>will be in German, but I guess I could photocopy them from somebody here
>>in US. What about OS prompts, error messages, etc. Will they all be in
>>German as well? Can that be changed?
>
>Don't worry about hertz -> they don't count. Docu, system prompts and so
>on will be (partially as far as I remember) in German, but it shouldn't
>be to difficult to understand them. You always can ask somebody on the
>net (me, for example, I'm German ).
>
>>  Is there anything else I am missing? Does anybody know what's the
 
You should also be aware that the German TOS and keyboards are
different.  The German keyboard has an extra key at the left end of
the bottom row that is not present on U.S. machines, the letters "y"
and "z" are interchanged, and many of the special characters are in
different positions.  Also, the desktop's menus, error messages, etc.
are in German.  It is possible (with appropriate software) to redefine
the keyboard translation tables so that the keyboard works more or
less like the US keyboard, but then the keycaps will be wrong.
Alternatively, you can replace the ROMs with US ROMs and then it
should work exactly like the US machine (ignoring the extra key), but
the keycaps will still be wrong.
 
Another possible hitch is the FCC regulations on RF emissions.  I
don't know if the German ST's have the same shielding as the US
machines and whether they meet the FCC requirements.  If not, it's
conceivable you could have trouble bringing it into this country.
 
==================================================
| Michael Fischer                                |
|    Arpanet:    <fischer-michael@cs.yale.edu>   |
|    Bitnet:     <fischer-michael@yalecs.bitnet> |
|    UUCP:       <fischer-michael@yale.UUCP>     |
 
------------------------------
 
Resent-Date:  Wed, 23 Aug 89 18:24:31 GMT
Resent-From:  Sean Hickey <OHICEH89%IRLEARN.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Resent-To:    Atari Digest <info-atari16@score.stanford.edu>
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 89 18:23:04 GMT
From: Network Mailer <MAILER%IRLEARN.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Undelivered mail
To: OHICEH89@IRLEARN
 
< The first time I sent this I think it bounced so I'm resending it now >
 
    There is a PD version of Smalltalk ( Little Smalltalk ) available for
the ST. The differences from Smalltalk - 80 are well documented. It's
available from the mail server at Bradford. It should be fine if you just
want to experiment with object oriented languages. XLISP ( also PD ) has
object oriented extensions so you might try this also.
 
    Pat Hickey.
Acknowledge-To: <OHICEH89@IRLEARN>
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 23 Aug 89 16:19:35 GMT
From: sdcc6!sdcc10!zz1jm@ucsd.edu  (Jon McCarty)
Subject: Turbo ST Demo went *poof*
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
 
Gads!  I downloaded the Turbo ST 1.6 demo, and promptly deleted it
off my unix account, then found that the disk was damaged!?!?
(downloaded it off a different machine than mine at home)
 
So the moral of the story is could some kind netlander mail me
the uuencoded file on internet?   Thanks!
 
        Jon -- zz1jm@sdcc10.ucsd.edu
 
        -I'm off duty, get off my back!-
        -Wow!  TOS 1.4 is NEET-O!!!!!!!!
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 22 Aug 89 15:33:21 GMT
From: att!mtuxo!mtgzz!drutx!druhi!terrell@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (TerrellE)
Subject: Re: Program Speedup
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
 
In article <Aug.20.23.18.49.1989.19322@topaz.rutgers.edu>,
 clong@topaz.rutgers.edu (Chris Long) writes:
>
> I am currently working on an assembly-language program that takes
> quite a while to run (*weeks* to *months*).  Does anyone have any
> good ideas or pointers to books and/or articles which would help me
> to speed it up?  Are there speed upgrades for the Atari ST available?
> No floating point operations are involved.
>
> Chris Long, 272 Hamilton St. Apt. 1, New Brunswick NJ  08901  (201) 846-5569
 
What is the problem that you're solving???  There are a host of machine-
independent programming techniques that you should investigate before/
in addition to any hardware mods to your computer...
 
So tell us about your program!  Inquiring Minds Want To Know!
 
 
 
Terrell (att!druhi!terrell)
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 23 Aug 89 16:30:26 GMT
From: mcsun!inria!laas!nastassia!ralph@uunet.uu.net  (Ralph P. Sobek)
Subject: Failed malloc.c of gcclib2/part07 in comp.sources.atari.st
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
 
Concerning the recently posted gcclib, I had a problem unsharing
gcclib2/part07 in Volume 2, Issue 78.  It seems only to contain
malloc.c which unshared as 13296 characters rather than the 21197
requested by the shar file.  The shar file was not truncated but its
length was only 15328 characters.  Was my copy squashed somewhere
enroute to here, or was everything okay?  Just cursorly glancing at
malloc.c, it seems reasonable (but then what do I know).
 
Could someone resend it to me (if necessary), etc.??
 
Thanks to all,
 
Ralph P. Sobek                    Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own.
ralph@laas.laas.fr                         Addresses are ordered by importance.
ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!mcvax!laas!ralph          If all else fails, try:
SOBEK@FRMOP11.BITNET                                  sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU
===============================================================================
Upon the instruments of death the sunlight brightly gleams.   --   King Crimson
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 23 Aug 89 06:27:05 GMT
From: mcsun!mcvax!unido!tub!tmpmbx!netmbx!hase@uunet.uu.net  (Hartmut Semken)
Subject: Re: Buying an ST in Europe for US  - should I?
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
 
In article <959@pedsga.UUCP> mikes@pedsga.UUCP (Mike Shulman,SPCSYS,7586)
 writes:
>  I've been considering getting a mega ST for a while now. Well, next week
>I will be going to Germany for 2 weeks and I was wondering....
>I've heard that ST's are MUCH cheaper in Germany then in US. Is that
>true?
Dunno. The 1040 is about DM 1000 ($ 500) without monitor.
 
>If it is, would it take much to get a German-made ST to work in US?
 
Its easy: just change the power supply. So do not buy a 1040, get an
520.
The 512K-memory upgrade boards are about DM 70 ($35) (no RAM), RAM chips are
cheaper in USA... 2-Meg-boards are DM 250 (empty).
 
The german TOS is german :-).
You could get an american TOS in he states (put it in 6 EPROMS).
 
Well, adding the ST, the power supply and the TOS EPROMS it will
probably not be worth the effort...
 
hase
--
Hartmut Semken, Lupsteiner Weg 67, 1000 Berlin 37 hase@netmbx.UUCP
Dennis had stepped up into the top seat whet its founder had died of a
lethal overdose of brick wall, taken while under the influence of a
Ferrari and a bottle of tequila. (Douglas Adams; the long dark teatime...)
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 23 Aug 89 13:01:47 GMT
From:
 mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watmath!watdragon!tiger!achowe@tut.cis.oh
io-state.edu  (CrackerJack)
Subject: Re: EMPIRE Version 3.0 for the ST.
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
 
>Has anybody seen or heard a recent update on the availibilty of
>EMPIRE 3.0 for the ST.
>
>     Note: EMPIRE is a commerical product and not PD or shareware!
>     ====  Buy it, don't steal it!!! Contact INTERSTEL.
>
>The last this reader heard was an appetizing summary of what was to
>be made availble in this new release. This was dated some time in
>November 1988. As you can see this info is comming up on its one year
>anniversary which really makes me wonder. I could call INTERSTEL but
>then that issue of LONG distance phone calls presents itself (only to
>reach some order-taker who doesn't know anything and takes ten minutes
>of prime time long distance charges to tell you that they don't know
>anything)!
 
I called Interstel about two weeks ago to ask. I got the receptionist
whom I directed the question at. She only took about 1 minute 45 secs to
find out from a higher up that << Empire v3.0 >> and << EMPIRE II >>
are in a holding pattern around Mars. I thought I remembered her saying
something about a third title being created or out the door already
(currently Interstel makes << Star Fleet I >> and << Empire v2.05c >>).
She could not give me a date for the next release or any more
useful info so I said bye-bye.
 
Could someone at Interstel tell us more please.
 
 
- Ant
   achowe@tiger.waterloo.edu      |  "Murdered by pirates is good."
 __                    _          |    - The Princess Bride (movie)
/   _  _  _ |/ _  _    | _  _ |/  |
\__| `<_\<_ |\|= | ` \_/<_\<_ |\  |                        disclaimer...
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 23 Aug 89 17:05:02 GMT
From: haven!uvaarpa!hudson!astsun7.astro.Virginia.EDU!gl8f@purdue.edu  (Greg
 Lindahl)
Subject: Re: PD applications on GENIE / EMPIRE Version 3.0 for the ST.
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
 
In article <752@lzaz.ATT.COM> hcj@lzaz.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) writes:
 
>> [ about someone getting good files from Genie and sending them to
     Usenet... ]
 
>I think the GENIE agreement procludes this, as the Collection of pd on
>GENIE is copyright by GENIE.
 
A compilation copyright doesn't change copyrights on the files. So it
is entirely legal to post *individual* files from Genie to the net, because
those files are covered by whatever copyright their author put on them.
 
What is illegal is making an archive only containing *exactly* what
Genie has, by downloading from Genie. That would be a *compilation* of
programs identical to Genie's compilation, and hence you would be
using their intellectual effort of compiling their collection to
compile yours.
 
I'm not a lawyer, so I could be totally wrong. But this issue has been
argued about several times before, here and elsewhere.
 
-- greg
------
Greg Lindahl
gl8f@virginia.edu                                             I'm not the NRA.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 23 Aug 89 15:55:52 GMT
From: mcsun!cernvax!ethz!visinfo@uunet.uu.net  (VISINFO Moderators)
Subject: Re: New Atari 68030 Machines
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
 
Does anyone know something about the price of these new
machines??
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 23 Aug 89 16:01:04 GMT
From: ncrlnk!ncr-sd!crash!fgbrooks@uunet.uu.net  (Fred Brooks)
Subject: Re: UUCP packages
To: info-atari16@score.stanford.edu
 
In article <3847@m2-net.UUCP> moses@m2-net.UUCP (Eric Doggett) writes:
>Does anyone know of a PD UUCP package that would work on the IBM emulator
>or the Atari ST itself, I would like one that can handle news as well..
>I would like to know of one that can be gotten through ftp...
>             cardiology.ummc.umich.edu!m-net!moses
>             cardiology.ummc.umich.edu!sharkey.cc.umich.edu!spirit!wybbs!moses
 
I use the Stadel BBS package that comes with a uucp system that will handle news
and also mail. Think it's version 3. It's a solid package.
 
------------------------------
 
End of Info-Atari16 Digest
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