=========================================================================

INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Wed, 11 Apr 90       Volume 90 : Issue  438
 
Today's Topics:
                        Atari Explorer hub-bub
                     Atari Swap Fest in Illinois
            Detecting whether GEM has finished loading yet
                     Help with SH204 Host-adapter
                   My experiences with PC-Ditto II
               Nasty letter from Atari backer! (2 msgs)
                 Need Help with ST520 Memory Problem
                     Quick ST II, GEMINI, Cursor?
             Splitting comp.sys.atari.st into subgroup(s)
                               Uniterm
            Univ. of Edinburgh public domain ST software?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 11 Apr 90 16:15:41 GMT
From: haven!aplcen!jhunix!ins_bac@purdue.edu  (Ajay Choudhri)
Subject: Atari Explorer hub-bub
Message-ID: <4740@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
 
Can anyone post a clarification of what is going on with the magazine and
Atari itself.  CPUrept has something about an Atari Employee doing
some stuff, but it wasn't all that clear, what happened, and who they
were trying to 'power play' etc.
 
And to anybody who went to WOA, did Atari demo Gauntlet III for the Lynx??
 
If there's any other news about WOA, please share it with us here on the
net.
 
Thanks
 -Ajay
no sig file.
no sig file.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 11 Apr 90 19:07:15 GMT
From: att!cbnewsc!kimes@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Kit Kimes)
Subject: Atari Swap Fest in Illinois
Message-ID: <15038@cbnewsc.ATT.COM>
 
Sorry for a wider distribution than I wanted, but there is no way
to distribute it on a State by State basis.  I wanted Atari owners
in states neighboring on Illinois to know that we are having an
all Atari Swap Fest on Sunday, April 22.  This is not a full blown
Atarifest, just a local swap fest, but there will be some developers
there and several dealers.  Bob Brodie is even tentatively scheduled
to be there.  The full announcement follows.
 
Kit Kimes
AT&T Bell Labs
Naperville, IL
...!att!iwtsa!kimes
 
=====================================================================
 
 
     Lake County Atari Computer Enthusiasts and MilAtari LTD. have
finalized plans for Midwest Atari SwapFest '90 to be held Sunday,
April 22, 1990 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The event will be held at The
Diplomat, 5572 Grand Avenue (IL 132), 1/4 mile east of I-94. The
Diplomat is part of the new Gurnee Days Inn complex near the main
entrance to the Great America theme park. The location is approximately
40 mins from both Milwaukee and Chicago via Interstate 94.
 
     Expected in attendance will be at least 10 area vendors offering
Atari-related Import and Domestic software, Hardware, and accessories.
Representatives of the local Atari User Groups; GRACE (Chicago), RACC,
(Rockford), SCAT (West Suburban Chicago), and the hosts, MilAtari LTD
(Milwaukee) and LCACE (Chicago Northern Suburbs) will be on hand. The
groups will have Public Domain software, and used hardware and software
for sale.
 
     An invitation has been extended to Mr. Bob Brodie, Atari Corp.
Coordinator of User Group Activities. Bob plans to give a presentation,
and will show "whatever he can get his hands on" in the way of new
products from Atari.
 
     General admission to Midwest Atari SwapFest '90 will be $2.00 if
purchased in advance through one of the above mentioned user groups.
Admission the day of the event will be $3.00. The admission includes
entrance to all seminars and a chance at door prizes. The latest Fest
'90 information will be posted on the LCACE Club BBS (708-680-5105)
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 11 Apr 90 18:46:31 GMT
From:
 usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!haven!wam!dmb@ap
 ple.com  (David M. Baggett)
Subject: Detecting whether GEM has finished loading yet
Message-ID: <1990Apr11.184631.487@wam.umd.edu>
 
   Is there any reliable, documented way to tell whether or not GEM is
fully loaded?  I want to run a program from an AUTO folder that replaces
the GEM process termination vector at $408.  If I set the vector in the
AUTO folder, GEM just clobbers it when it comes up.
 
   Currently, I install a VBI which waits for a fixed amount of time,
and then sets the vector.   This works, but is (obviously) not guaranteed
to work in the future.
 
   Is there an Atari-sanctioned way to pull this off?  I notice from the
Headstart documentation that Johnson & Eidsvoog do something involving the
line F trap.  I don't see why one has to resort to such tactics.
 
Ideas?
 
Dave Baggett
dmb@cscwam.umd.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 11 Apr 90 12:54:13 GMT
From: att!dptg!lzsc!hcj@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (HC Johnson)
Subject: Help with SH204 Host-adapter
Message-ID: <1585@lzsc.ATT.COM>
 
In article <4862@BODEIS.CINECA.IT>, FALDELLA%BODEIS.CINECA.IT@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
 writes:
> More on my defective SH204. It turned out that the 16L8 PAL placed in the Host
> Adapter is gone. Would someone be kind enough to tell me either a source for a
 
You can buy a replacement for $25 (my memory) from:
 Berkeley Microsystems
 
PO Box 20119, Oakland, CA  94620, USA
Phone: (415) 547-2191
 
The advantage is they fixed the bug that prevents the SH204 from reporting
errors.
 
Howard C. Johnson
ATT Bell Labs
att!lzsc!hcj
hcj@lzsc.att.com
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 11 Apr 90 12:49:32 GMT
From: att!dptg!lzsc!hcj@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (HC Johnson)
Subject: My experiences with PC-Ditto II
Message-ID: <1584@lzsc.ATT.COM>
 
In article <2823@isc-br.ISC-BR.COM>, lawrence@isc-br.ISC-BR.COM (Lawrence
 Kelley) writes:
> In article <1990Apr9.125813.635@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
 romwa@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Royal Ontario Museum)
> writes:
>
>
> >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 have had similar experiences that seems to go away or diminish after the
> system's been on for 15 to 30 minutes.  By any chance, do you also experience
> distortion and jitter on the video.  I have experienced severe problems that
 
When things are failing, you cannot define the failure mode.
The PC-Ditto II m68000 connector is so flackey by design that any and all
screwey results are possible.
 
A row of ribbon connector pins is not stable enough to make a reliable pressure
joint.  And the shoulders of a M68000 are absolutely not designed to be a
conatact point.
 
SOLDER the SOB on and your problems will go away.
 
I did this, and two things happened:
1. PC-Ditto II now works great.
2. Half of my memory is now bad.
 
Howard C. Johnson       Two things happen when you touch a soldering iron
ATT Bell Labs           to a ST.  One of them is bad!
att!lzsc!hcj
hcj@lzsc.att.com
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 11 Apr 90 21:05:52 GMT
From: dinghy.cis.ohio-state.edu!david_r_watters@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Nasty letter from Atari backer!
Message-ID: <79126@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
 
Trying to have a fact filled discussion with a hot head is impossible but I
will try to clear up some errors.
 
>> Date: Wed,  4 Apr 90 20:47:25 -0400 (EDT)
>> From: John Knight <jk44+@andrew.cmu.edu>
>> To: fh007@zeus.unomaha.edu
>> Subject: Re: Amiga/Atari help
>>
>> 1 It'll be a cold day in hell before C= gets a real '030 box w/ UNIX out the
>> door. At least Atari has announced a UNIX '030 box. C= is too embarrased
>> about their latest "creation" to even show it to the outside world.
 
This is a "foot in mouth" waiting to happen if I ever saw one.  CBM has Unix
up and going in Europe, and isn't released yet here for a few good reasons
including the need to have dealers that are able to support it.  From
the people that have gotten their hands on it, they have said it is one of
the nicest implimentations out there. Certainly better than Apple's. Since
the few places I know you can get ST stuff are mail order, do you think any
company or College is going to buy a Un*x workstation, which needs constant
support, from a Crazy Fredy's mail order house.
 
>> 2. The Amiga chipset is nothing to brag about. When in use, they just bog
 down
>> the CPU with bus contention. In addition, they are *much* slower than the
>> equivalent ST chips. The ST blitter, for example, is about 2 times faster
>> doing equivalent operations. The ST DMA chip does floppy and HD access from
>> 2 to 10 times faster than anything C= an put out. Also, Atari has seperate
>> chips, so accessing the HD won't slow down the blitter.
 
 
This is totally incorrect.   My 68030 hums along at 25MHz without any
knowledge that there are coprossesors, while they are performing advanced
system/graphics/IO processes.  This paragraph is nothing but lies.  The
CPU in an Amiga has NOTHING to do with what the co-processors do. I have
heard from CBM and Atari developers that the Amiga Blitter is much more
powerful then the Atari, however since I am not 100% learned on them BOTH I
will leave that discussion to people who know what they are talking about.
 
 
>> One last thing, the ST double sided drive can hold 900K, not the lesser 880K
>> that Amiga holds. At least get your facts and figures right. Also, you might
>> get a more responsive audience on comp.sys.amiga than on comp.sys.atari.st.
 
 
Sure you can use a hack that dumps raw data onto a floppy and get's 900K on
your ST.  You can also use the FastFileSystem and others on an Amiga floppy
that get almost 1Meg with about a 200% increase in speed. This is not
important.  What IS important is that all the Original 520ST's had Single
Sided drives, so unless developers what to exclude those, they have to release
all their software in the SSDD ?360K format.  The original Amiga where equipted
with the same drives that they are using now.
 
>> Jack Knight
 
>> flames -> /dev/null
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stupid users get flamed no matter what, so you can get rid of this if you
want.. and I would strongly suggest you do.
 
I would hope that when The Amiga UN*X Workstations start selling, and you
sell all you ST stuff for the most you get get for it in order to pay for
part of a $100 internal Floppy drive for YOUR new Amiga, that you would post
a note saying how foolish you had been all this time.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 11 Apr 90 19:50:13 GMT
From: cbmvax!daveh@uunet.uu.net  (Dave Haynie)
Subject: Nasty letter from Atari backer!
Message-ID: <10804@cbmvax.commodore.com>
 
In article <5641.261f5612@uwovax.uwo.ca> 4223_5266@uwovax.uwo.ca writes:
 
>> 1. It'll be a cold day in hell ....
 
On the offchance that anyone really believes any of that drivel, I've got some
swampland in Florida I've been trying unload.  Most of that was so silly I
won't even bother correcting it, only to point to the author's own words and
repeat:
 
>> At least get your facts and figures right.
 
There's nothing wrong with liking whatever computer you use, especially if it
does everything you're after.  That even applies to PClones if they make you
happy.  But bashing anything that you clearly don't have a clue about is only
going to make you look like a fool.
 
>> Jack Knight
 
--
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Systems Engineering) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   ?uunet|pyramid|rutgers?!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
                    Too much of everything is just enough
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 11 Apr 90 12:42:52 GMT
From: att!dptg!lzsc!hcj@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (HC Johnson)
Subject: Need Help with ST520 Memory Problem
Message-ID: <1583@lzsc.ATT.COM>
 
I have a ST520 expanded to 1 MEG with piggy back chips.
 
When I soldered in the PC-Ditto II, one of the piggy's died.
 
Does anyone know the association between 16 chips and 16 bits.
The bad bit is 0x0008
The chips number Left to Right 16-25,28-34,38,42-45.
 
Thanks
 
Howard C. Johnson
ATT Bell Labs
att!lzsc!hcj
hcj@lzsc.att.com
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 11 Apr 90 16:31:36 GMT
From: dino!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!cs325ec@uunet.uu.net
Subject: Quick ST II, GEMINI, Cursor?
Message-ID: <16000048@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
 
        Has anyone tried QuickST II?  I tried the demo and found that
        the cursor finally works in some of the programs where TurboST
        and QuickST had failed before...  Is this true for most?
 
        Also:  Gemini mentions an incompatibility with <<all>> software
        blitters, is this because it was written without knowledge of
        QST II or is it still true?
 
        Thanks...
 
        -- Greg
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 11 Apr 90 18:59:39 GMT
From: usc!samsung!rex!uflorida!haven!wam!dmb@apple.com  (David M. Baggett)
Subject: Splitting comp.sys.atari.st into subgroup(s)
Message-ID: <1990Apr11.185939.656@wam.umd.edu>
 
Well, so far there are three votes for and two votes against the idea
of splitting this newsgroup.  The votes in favor seemed to be along
the lines of "I'm really sick of reading these flame wars and
financial statements" and the votes against were "there's not enough
traffic".
 
Obviously, if only five people care either way, it's unlikely we'll
get 100 votes in favor of each new group.
 
Would anyone be in favor of at least separating the technical stuff
from the general stuff?  Before, I was undecided about the whole thing,
but now (having taken a peek into comp.sys.amiga.tech) I think a
comp.sys.atari.tech group might be a good thing.  I think there's
enough traffic for it, and it would (I belieive) generate more
technical discussion from those people who will read just that
group and not comp.sys.atari.st (general).  Just my opinion.
 
Dave Baggett
dmb@cscwam.umd.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed 11 Apr 90 12:45:27-PST
From: BODOH%EROSA.SPAN@STAR.STANFORD.EDU
Subject: Uniterm
 
Help
 
Hello,
        The help is in case this a server... I didn't know for sure.  I recently
saw an Info-vax message regarding an Atari package called Uniterm.  Could
somebody send me a copy of the newest version (2.0e 011?) or tell me where I
can find it?  Thank you in advance for any HELP you can give me.
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Thomas A Bodoh - EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD, USA       57198          +
+ (605) 594-6830        FTS 784-7830                                           +
+ SPAN; EROSA::BODOH    Internet; BODOH@VAXA.NMD.USGS.GOV (192.41.204.12)      +
+       "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends!" EL&P            +
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 11 Apr 90 16:02:02 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!rodan!rodan.acs.syr.edu!jfbruno@think.com
 (John F. Bruno)
Subject: Univ. of Edinburgh public domain ST software?
Message-ID: <2903@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
 
In the March 1990 ST World (the U.K. mag) on page 42 is a letter from
Tom Jones, Dept. of Meteorology, Univ. of Edinburgh. The letter states that
Edinburgh is maintaining an on-line library of public domain ST software.
The addresses given are:
 
PSS:
pdsoft@234223519191.JANET.00001040
300096.FTP.MAIN
 
BITNET:
pdsoft%uk.ac.lancs.pdsoft@ukacr
 
These addresses are meaningless to me. Our site is on BITNET, but I can't
seem to get mail to the above addresses. Is this site reachable via FTP?
If so, HOW? Is there a trafficking problem during business hours?
Does this site have stuff I can't find at terminator.cc.umich.edu?
 
---jb
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #438
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