 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Sun, 15 Apr 90       Volume 90 : Issue  447
 
Today's Topics:
                       EPROM programmer wanted.
                 GEMINI & GDOS = Garbage in Console?
                     GEMINI > Console redirection
                      Gimme my Hard Drive back!
                           MFP and xbtimer
                          Molecular graphics
                      One world, One CPU, One OS
              OS/2 (Was: Re: Atari Financial condition)
                         Request for software
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Apr 90 14:21:10 GMT
From: cunixf.cc.columbia.edu!cunixa.cc.columbia.edu!cmm1@columbia.edu
 (Christopher M Mauritz)
Subject: EPROM programmer wanted.
Message-ID: <1990Apr14.142110.11652@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
 
While we're on the subject of EEPROMS.  Has anyone ever thought of putting
together the ultimate TOS patch (or group of patches), writing it to an EEPROM
and hacking it into the motherboard so that it would load itself into memory
after TOS?  I once thought about this when I was still a f-t student and used
my ST a lot more.  I wonder if it would be worth the hassle?
 
Chris
------------------------------+---------------------------
Chris Mauritz                 |Where there's a BEER,
cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu   |there's a plan.
(c)All rights reserved.       |
Send flames to /dev/null      |Air Warrior is king!
------------------------------+---------------------------
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Apr 90 09:38:55 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!cs325ec@tut
 .cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: GEMINI & GDOS = Garbage in Console?
Message-ID: <16000054@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
 
        If you get macfonts.arc from somewhere (I got it at the Netherlands
        FTP), you can use monaco 9pt and a few others (courier now works)
        from that file with gemini.  Then you don't need the Gemini fonts
        etc.
 
        -- Greg
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Apr 90 09:39:02 GMT
From:
 wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!c
 s325ec@decwrl.dec.com
Subject: GEMINI > Console redirection
Message-ID: <16000053@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
 
        Sorry, I figured this out from the docs... Quick ST II has not
        cured the incompatibility problem with Gemini...  One of them
        has to go...
 
        -- Greg
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Apr 90 12:31:31 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!edcastle!aimd@uunet.uu.net  (M Davidson)
Subject: Gimme my Hard Drive back!
Message-ID: <3281@castle.ed.ac.uk>
 
I've just bought an STE. When I connected my hard drive to it all seemed
to be going well for a while, then I realised my drive was being trashed
as I was working! It was hopeless, the more I did, the more it trashed.
 
I re-connected the thing to my old ST (not a trivial task - it takes
power from a leaad which must be connected to the ST's motherboard) but
sure enough it really was trashed!
 
I put it back on my STE. I was a bit peeved at this point but I thought
it'd at least give me a chance to re-format it with nice big partitions
(TOS 1.4/6 can take bigger partitions that 16meg can't it?). Anyway I
loaded up the format software (by GE-SOFT) and re-formatted, then
re-partitioned. However no matter what I did it just wouldn't write any
size of partition to the drive!
 
Back on to my STFM. Re-formatted, re-partitioned OK. My drive was up and
running again!
 
Once again on to my STE. The drive autobooted, all partitions were
there! So I saved a DESKTOP.INF file on the disk but to my horror it
appeared as two rather random files taking up 11megs!
 
Can *anyone*, *anywhere* send me with a HD formatter that'll format a
Seagate 157N drive, that works with the new TOS? I think it must be the
format software that doesn't work, but I suppose it could be the driver
software too (however, the drive is advertised as being STe compatible).
 
Eternal thanx,
-Mark.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Apr 90 12:36:03 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!edcastle!aimd@uunet.uu.net  (M Davidson)
Subject: MFP and xbtimer
Message-ID: <3282@castle.ed.ac.uk>
 
Hi, before my HD trashed I had written a program to re-vector the Timer
B interrupt using XBTIMER. It worked OK but at the end of the interrupt
routine I had to clear the service bit by simply clearing the correct
bit in the MFP register.
 
Is that how it's meant to be done? I'm just looking for a cleaner way of
doing it - isn't it possible that the address of the MFP chip may change
at some time in the future. Is there a way of finding out these
addresses without taking them out of a book? Or are all the IO registers
high in memory guaranteed never to change?
 
Thanx again,
Mark.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Apr 90 04:43:22 GMT
From: psuvm!sml108@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu  (Scott the Great)
Subject: Molecular graphics
Message-ID: <90104.004322SML108@psuvm.psu.edu>
 
Genesis allows one to create and graphically edit molecules in 3-d either
with Stereotek glasses or with Anaglyph glasses.  It also allows one to
look at crystallographic data and modify it.  It is currently available
from Antic software and a new Atari program is in the works which is far
more up to date and creates 512 color CPK drawings with a much better
interface...
 
Scott
Feel free to bug me about my program in e-mail...
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Apr 90 15:51:06 GMT
From:
 snorkelwacker!usc!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!wat
 dragon!tiger!swklassen@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Steven W. Klassen)
Subject: One world, One CPU, One OS
Message-ID: <1990Apr14.155106.2692@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
 
In article <93.26244db9@desire.wright.edu> demon@desire.wright.edu writes:
>
>       Reading the articles that say how alike Amiga, Atari, and Mac users
>are:
>
>       It would be nice if these users could all have one unified operating
>system.  (Yes, there is UNIX but not everyone has 4-8 meg of ram and 80+meg
>hard disks.)  What does Apple have to lose by liscensing the Mac OS to
>Commodore and Atari?
 
What makes you think the rest of the world wants the Mac OS?  If you
want a unified operating system it would be much better to stick
with UNIX.  Contrary to popular belief UNIX does NOT require 4-8 meg of
ram and 80+meg hard disks.  (Especially if you leave out the on-line
help.)  I have seen very useable UNIX look-alikes (namely Minix) operate
quite well on 1 meg machines (Atari 1040ST) with only 20 meg of the
hard drive dedicated for it.
 
Even if you must reject UNIX, why should the unified OS be the Mac one?
There are a number of reasons why people buy Amigas and Ataris instead
of Macs.  Here of some of them:
 
1.  The Amiga or the Atari suits their given purpose better.  Changing
    operating systems likely wouldn't affect this, so long as the
    hardware didn't change.
 
2.  The Mac is expensive.  If Mac liscenced their OS to Commodore and
    Atari, the Amigas and the STs would also become more expensive.
 
3.  They don't like the Mac, hence they certainly don't want their
    Amiga or ST becoming more like it.
 
4.  They don't like Apple Corp., hence they certainly won't want
    their purchase of an Amiga or ST to put money in the pockets
    of Apple.
 
(I won't tell you which one(s) of these were my reason(s)).
 
Of course some people would like the change - namely those who use
their Atari or Amiga to emulate a Mac, but my opinion is that most
people who want Macs purchase Macs, while those who want a computer
to fill a given purpose(s) look more carefully and choose the
computer which best fulfills their purpose(s).
 
 
Steven W. Klassen                       +-----------------------------+
Computer Science Major                  | Support the poor...buy fur! |
University of Waterloo                  +-----------------------------+
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 13 Apr 90 22:16:23 GMT
From: bu.edu!polygen!jerry@husc6.harvard.edu  (Jerry Shekhel)
Subject: OS/2 (Was: Re: Atari Financial condition)
Message-ID: <696@redford.UUCP>
 
In article <90032523232155@masnet.uucp> (DAVID MEGGINSON) writes:
>
>I don't know why we're all so worried about the future of Atari. Right
>now, my ST lets me do some decent DTP, read e-mail, word process, and
>(using MT-CShell) gives me an incredibly cheap platform for developing
>Unix-like software at home instead of spending too much time sitting
>in front of an orange monitor under florescent lights. Sure, it's out of
>date -- so are the Mac, Amiga, and anything which runs MS DOS (I include
>Windows and MSDOS's messy follower, OS2).
             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
I agree with your comments about the ST -- I used to have one myself,
but have you ever really seen OS/2?  I wouldn't call it out of date,
considering it has features not present even in the latest UNIXes, like
advanced interprocess communication, shared dynamic-link libraries,
multi-threaded applications, and a windowing/GUI subsystem.  It is a
real OS that has nothing in common with MSDOS except the similar
shell syntax.  Really, don't comment on it if you haven't used it!
 
>
>There's a new generation on
>the horizon, which will be so much larger and faster than any home
>computers that we won't know how we ever got along with only a few lousy
>megabytes and speeds under 50mhz. We'll have multi-gigabyte HDs and
>machines running really nice graphic interfaces on top of a (usually
>invisible) Unix, all for a little more than the price of an ST today.
>
 
Gosh, I can't wait!
 
>
>But it is still today. I've used (and programmed for) MSDOS, and it's a
>real pain. I like Unix, but I miss GEM, which is very easy to program.
>
 
If you get a chance, do check out OS/2.  I used to program GEM when I
had my ST, and loved it -- at the time.  Now I program for OS/2 PM.
You don't even have to look closely to find that the object-oriented
OS/2 Win and Gpi libraries blow away the ST's AES and VDI, respectively.
An example is that Win and Gpi know about each other, while AES and VDI
don't.  Because of this, if you want to draw a line in OS/2 PM, you don't
have to go querying the window manager for the visible parts of your window;
All output is clipped to it automatically.  Those of you who've programmed GEM
know what I'm talking about.  I do have to admit, though, that programming
the ST is cheaper and there is less to learn.  But honestly, it's a less
powerful system than a PC running OS/2.
 
>
>I'm ready to dump my mega 2 as soon as I can afford something better,
>but I'm not ready to whine about it in the mean time. Sure it's cheap.
>Sure Atari has no future, but neither do car manufacturers. Let's worry
>about these things tomorrow.
>
 
Agreed.
 
>
>David Megginson, Centre for Medieval Studies
>BITNET: meggin@vm.epas.utoronto.ca
---
+--------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------------+
|                    |  Polygen Corporation  |           UUCP:               |
|  Jerry J. Shekhel  |   Waltham, MA 02254   |  ?princeton, mit-eddie,       |
|                    |    (617) 890-2888     |  bu, sunne?!polygen!jerry     |
+--------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------------+
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Apr 90 14:00:22 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!edcastle!aimd@uunet.uu.net  (M Davidson)
Subject: Request for software
Message-ID: <3285@castle.ed.ac.uk>
 
Could someone possibly send me the STe control panel. I'd quite like the
UK one but a European one would do in the mean time.
 
Alos, could someone possibly send me Pinhead 1.6?
 
Thanks in advance,
Mark.
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #447
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