=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Tue,  1 May 90       Volume 90 : Issue  501
 
Today's Topics:
                 Amiga 3000 on BYTE cover May 1990 :
           FOR SALE: Mega 4, Supra internal HD, HP DeskJet
                     More on The Vault / The Key
                   My experiences with PC-Ditto II
                Opening Modem in C/Related ?? (2 msgs)
                       Publisher ST and Tos 1.4
                       Uploading to terminator
                             Zoo help...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 1 May 90 14:30:00 GMT
From:
 cs.utexas.edu!samsung!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!u
 x1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!jhc00614@tut.cis.ohio-state.e
 du
Subject: Amiga 3000 on BYTE cover May 1990 :
Message-ID: <46300092@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
 
     Take a picture of your ST and paste it on the cover of Byte.
Easy question....easy solution.............GRIN
                                 Jason
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 2 May 90 01:20:52 GMT
From:
 deimos.cis.ksu.edu!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!eer36
 024@rutgers.edu  (Erik E. Reuter)
Subject: FOR SALE: Mega 4, Supra internal HD, HP DeskJet
Message-ID: <1990May2.012052.29784@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
 
I have the following left to sell:
 
Mega "4" ST (mega 2 upgraded to 4 megs) ----------  $1075
Supradrive 30 meg internal Mega hard disk --------  $375 (or $325 w/Mega)
HP DeskJet printer (w/ 2 $15 ink cartridges) -----  $335
 
(The Supradrive could easily go in a external case if you wanted to use
it in a HD system.  It is a Seagate ST138N SCSI with a Supra host adapter)
 
You pay shipping for any way you want it shipped.  I can send it C.O.D. or
you can send me a check.
 
Erik Reuter
eer36024@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
(217)328-8833
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 30 Apr 90 17:32:07 GMT
From:
 helios.ee.lbl.gov!hellgate.utah.edu!uplherc!esunix!bambam!mcallist@ucsd.edu
 (Steve McAllister)
Subject: More on The Vault / The Key
Message-ID: <1124@bambam.UUCP>
 
The Vault and The Key are both great.  I lost my hard drive, complete with
nearly 40 meg of files, a mere three days after having backed everything up
with The Vault.  Restoring all to its former pristine perfection was just a
matter of running The Key, inserting the floppies one after the other, and
I *would* have been up--except for one small problem:
 
Because I am a clumsy typist, and careless on top of that, I habitually set
each file I have to read-only status.  (Can't be too careful...)  Vault/Key,
of course, faithfully copies these attributes, along with the files; and
restores them when rebuilding the disk.
 
UNFORTUNATELY, if The Vault has split a large file over two floppies, when the
first half is restored, so is its read-only attribute.  That means that the
second half cannot be appended, because THE FILE IS NOW LOCKED!  I had to go
through all my precious backups, with no hard drive to fall back on, and
write-enable every file in every folder on every floppy...and then re-disable
them on the hard drive when the restore was done.  Because of my above-
mentioned clumsiness, I even inadvertently deleted a file off a floppy (not
a very important one, but I wish I still had it).
 
Vault/Key, because of its ultra-fast handling of files, efficient use
of floppy space, incremental backup capability, history file, and general-
purpose fast copy features, is a terrific utility; but it will be even better
if this small but annoying bug is fixed.  And thanks for letting us use it.
 
--
                --Steve McAllister (I'm all for self-expression.  'Course,
that's just my opinion...)
UUCP Address:  decwrl!esunix!mcallist or utah-cs!esunix!mcallist
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 30 Apr 90 17:23:19 GMT
From:
 helios.ee.lbl.gov!hellgate.utah.edu!uplherc!esunix!bambam!mcallist@ucsd.edu
 (Steve McAllister)
Subject: My experiences with PC-Ditto II
Message-ID: <1123@bambam.UUCP>
 
From article <1990Apr9.125813.635@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>, by
 romwa@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Royal Ontario Museum):
> After some fanangling I have PC-DITTO working.  There is still the odd
> glitch, but overall I am pleased with it.
 
Same here.  I waited five months, but all in all, it seems to have been
well worth the wait.
 
> When I first installed PC-DITTO it complained a lot about things not
> being setup up correctly.  This turned out to be the now infamous
> connector which clips onto the CPU.  You have to bend in all the pins
> to give it a snug fit.  I also ran into the PAL problem which
> Avant-Garde fixed quickly with a couple of new PAL's.
 
My 1040STf has the same problem, and required me to return the clip-on 68k
connector for one that has the cable pins pointing the other way.  Turnaround
was about three weeks, during which time an envelope with replacement PALs
magically appeared; so I just put them in rather than worrying about the older
ones.  They seem to work fine.
 
> This weekend I happened to notice a new phenomenon:  During the first 15
> minutes of use I can sometimes hang PC-DITTO.  I suspect that this has to
> do with the connector/cpu heating up and expanding.  I am not thrilled
 
The pin-bending trick for the piggyback connector IS NECESSARY...but not
necessarily sufficient.  Mine will fail after a warmup cycle which varies from
about 6 hours for the first failure, down to a few minutes eventually (even
after sitting overnight).  Then I have to take the 1040 apart and re-seat
ALL the connectors.  Avant-Garde told me over the phone (best time to get
them, by the way, seems to be first thing in the morning...) that the cable
wires attach to the connectors via pressure prongs, and may need soldering.
However, I would check with them personally about that, to avoid warrantee
problems.
 
Also, the stick-on sponge-rubber pad they supply to protect the bottom of
the board doesn't prevent protruding chip pins from sticking through the
pad and shorting against the 3" x 4" metal RF cage on the motherboard.
I found that a strategically-placed piece of cardboard (e.g. from a disk box
lid) offers the final protection.
 
> Oh and another thing I would advise you not to try to stuff everything
> back into your case.  I did (minus the RF shield) and ended up putting
> a crack in my keyboard PC board.  Thanks to Peter Hiscocks for fixing
 
The cracked keyboard comes from the fact that, if their board is installed
a la Avant-Garde's instructions between the power supply and the floppy
drive, a chip on the PCDII board presses against a crystal case on the
underside of the keyboard, causing that board to bend when the 1040 is
bolted back together.  I found that I could alleviate the problem by:
 
a) re-attaching the rear support post (behind and to the left of the floppy
drive) to the bottom of the case by its screw, and cutting it off 1/4" below
the top of the lower 1040 case for support of the PCDII; then
 
b) turning the PCDII board END-FOR-END [I know it disagrees with their
instructions, but this works!  The cables are folded as follows:  Plug the
large cable into the piggyback connecter; bend it to run 90 degrees to the
LEFT about an inch; bend it so it doubles back on itself until it is
over the PCDII board; then bend it away from you so it runs to the connector
on that board.  Then repeat for the small cable--works great!  CAREFULLY
adjust your bends so there's NO strain on the piggyback connector, then
crease the cable bends]; and finally
 
c) adding support to the keyboard by gluing a couple of struts to the
underside of the board--one near where the front strut was broken off,
and one near the right front corner of the power supply.  For the
supports I used Popsicle sticks (really!) cut to size.  They're strong
enough to support the keyboard when you lean on it; yet not hard enough
to scratch or dent your circuit boards.
 
Other notes:
 
The jumper wire which comes with the kit, for bypassing the math co-
processor, is too thick for the job it is supposed to do, and bends the
8087 connector pins when installed.  Using a thinner wire is advisable.
 
Avant-Garde supplies a file to set the PC clock from the ST keyboard clock.
This used to work with PC-Ditto I, but does not with PCDII.  They say they
are working on it.
 
I can't get MS-DOS to boot off my Megafile 60 hard drive (have to have the
system files on a floppy); but it boots fine from an SH204 hard drive.
Avant-Garde says I probably need to install some patches which came with
the earlier PC-Ditto; they said if I didn't have them to send them a
formatted floppy and they would send same to me.  All in all they've been
very cooperative.
 
> Cheers!
>
> Pavneet Arora
 
--
                --Steve McAllister (I'm all for self-expression.  'Course,
that's just my opinion...)
UUCP Address:  decwrl!esunix!mcallist or utah-cs!esunix!mcallist
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 1 May 90 14:54:00 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!
 uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!gwg33762@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Opening Modem in C/Related ??
Message-ID: <46300093@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
 
Could someone explain:
(1) How to open an AUX: port to the modem
(2) Set the baud rate, etc.
(3) Check the status (ie is a character ready to be gotten)
 
I'm using the standard AES/VDI/BIOS/etc. routines in Mark Johnson's C but
have only the vaguest documentation.  What is the best, inexpensive source
for information on these routines?  I have heard of the ABACUS books.
Which one (if there is one volume) contains brief but adequate coverage of all
of the ST OS routines?
 
On a related note, has anyone compared the power/speed of MJC with Sozobon,
set up the GEMFAST libraries with either, and or know what the file OSBIND.H
on terminator is??
 
- Full of Questions,
  Garret Gengler
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 2 May 90 01:07:41 GMT
From: usc!jarthur!dcrevier@ucsd.edu  (Dan Crevier)
Subject: Opening Modem in C/Related ??
Message-ID: <6840@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
 
In article <46300093@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> gwg33762@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>Could someone explain:
>(1) How to open an AUX: port to the modem
>(2) Set the baud rate, etc.
>(3) Check the status (ie is a character ready to be gotten)
>
>I'm using the standard AES/VDI/BIOS/etc. routines in Mark Johnson's C but
>have only the vaguest documentation.  What is the best, inexpensive source
>for information on these routines?  I have heard of the ABACUS books.
>Which one (if there is one volume) contains brief but adequate coverage of all
>of the ST OS routines?
>
>On a related note, has anyone compared the power/speed of MJC with Sozobon,
>set up the GEMFAST libraries with either, and or know what the file OSBIND.H
>on terminator is??
>
>- Full of Questions,
>  Garret Gengler
 
 
        You don't need to do anything to open the AUX: port, it is already
open.  Use Rsconf() to set the baud rate, etc.  I use Laser C, so I am not
sure, but I would guess that the Mark William's C manual would have the
parameters listed.  If not, send me mail, and I'll tell you what they are.
 
To see if there is a character ready to be gotten, use Cauxis().
 
To check for carrier, I use the following routine that I wrote in Laser C:
 
/***********************************************\
* Carrier Detect routine                        *
* 1 = carrier present   0 = no carrier          *
\***********************************************/
 
carrier()

 char    *rstat;
 int     car;
 long    stack;
 stack = Super(0x0L);
 rstat = (char *)(0x0fffa01L);
 car = 1-(*rstat & 0x02)/2;
 Super(stack);
 return(car);

 
To control DTR I use:
 
/***********************************************\
* Turns DTR on or off                           *
\***********************************************/
 
dtr(st)
char    st;

long    p;
 if (st == ON)
  Offgibit(0xffef);
 else
  Ongibit(0x10);
 for(p = 1;p<80000;p++);

 
where you can define ON to be whatever you want.
 
I hope this is what you were looking for.
 
Dan
 
dcrevier@jarthur.claremont.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 1 May 90 21:13:15 GMT
From: xanth!austin@mcnc.org  (Jason C Austin)
Subject: Publisher ST and Tos 1.4
Message-ID: <12389@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
 
In article <2381@wpg.com> frank@wpg.com (Frank Sloan) writes:
>I'm having problems getting Publisher ST from Timeworks to work
>on a Mega ST with Tos 1.4.  A friend of mine tells me that the
>problem lies with Tos 1.4 and that I should seek out 1.3 roms.
>Is this true?
>
>If so, could someone please provide some suggestions on locating
>an older version of Tos?  Thanks.
 
        You would probably be better off getting hold of Timeworks to
see if there is a fix or new version available rather than replacing
your ROM chips.
 
--
Jason C. Austin
austin@cs.odu.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 2 May 90 01:22:31 GMT
From: usc!samsung!umich!terminator!terminator.cc.umich.edu!weiner@ucsd.edu
 (Jeff Weiner)
Subject: Uploading to terminator
Message-ID: <1990May2.012231.3516@terminator.cc.umich.edu>
 
Howdy folks,
Recently there has been an attempt to create an index of the files at
terminator. In order to aide the indexing process in the future, please
mail me whenever you upload anything, and let me know what the archive is,
what it is supposed to do, who the author is, whether it is shareware or
pd, any known bugs, if you like it or not, etc. This should help a lot.
Thanks and have a swell day,
Jmw
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 1 May 90 21:19:42 GMT
From: xanth!austin@mcnc.org  (Jason C Austin)
Subject: Zoo help...
Message-ID: <12390@xanth.cs.odu.edu>
 
In article <00935F86.6D0B9B40@eagle.oscs.montana.edu>
 ieeug292@Eagle.oscs.montana.edu writes:
>I'm fairly new onto the ftp scene, and all the zoo'd and zoo/unzoo binaries
>I've downloaded in my entire life are from Terminator.  The basic problem
>I have is in such an instance as with Nethack 3.0.  A zoo file 400+ K long,
>extracting into the neighborhood of 750 K, unless someone bothered to install
>a 1.44 meg 3.5" or has 2meg+ Ram (neither of which I have with a 1040st), then
>it is quite literally impossible to exract all the files.
 
        How about store the zoo file in a large ramdisk and send the
extracted files to a empty floppy disk.  With a 1040st, you should
have plenty of RAM to set up a 400K ramdisk, and if the extracted
files won't fit on a regular disk, there are programs that will use an
extended format and pack more data onto a single disk.
--
Jason C. Austin
austin@cs.odu.edu
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #501
*****************************************
