=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Fri,  8 Dec 89       Volume 89 : Issue 779
 
Today's Topics:
                        Current Notes Magazine
              Day One with my new KXP4450 laser printer
                     INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 #735
            Let's bash something else now (not me, though)
                           Mono Games??????
                       ST version of Mac Flow??
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Date: 9 Dec 89 02:30:43 GMT
From: matthews@umd5.umd.edu  (Mike Matthews)
Subject: Current Notes Magazine
Message-ID: <5758@umd5.umd.edu>
 
[pre-note:  I am not the author of the following message; I'm just passing it
on... I'm also not sure how to post an original message on the net, so I'm just
posting a follow-up with a new subject.  -Mike Matthews]
 
Note to Internet Users: This information is derived from that posted
on the General Electric Information Exchange (GENie) Atari ST
Roundtable.  For further information contact the magazine at
the address given below.  Category 15 of the GENie ST Roundtable is
devoted to things by and about Current Notes.
 
                      Current Notes Magazine
                Your Monitor on the World of Atari
 
     In 1981 several Atari User groups in the Washington DC
Metropolitan area banded together to produce a joint newsletter in the
hope of realizing economies of scale in postage and production.
Software reviews and other news of the Atari community soon became such
an attractive feature of the magazine that it outgrew this original
purpose.  Readers all over the nation asked for copies and Atari
dealers began to stock it in their stores.
     Today over 60 user groups in 29 states and Canada offer Current
Notes to their members at special subscription rates and approximately
120 retail outlets from Alaska to Florida offer it to their Atari
customers.
     The feature of the magazine that has made it so widely accepted is
its orientation toward the consumer.  Current Notes has a reputation
for telling it like it is in software reviews.  CN's reporters ferret
out solid news to help Atari computer users understand events at home
and around the world.  Current Notes' regular stable of columnists like
Dave Small and Andrzej Wrotniak bring readers the human side as well as
the technical side of Atari computing.  There are also special features
for beginning users.
      Current Notes' disk library is one of the most comprehensive
sources available for basic and advanced software titles.  Special
effort is put into making these programs usable by everyone.
      For the Current Notes contributor the magazine is a labor of love.
It is our way of sharing the joy and the agony of Atari computing with
everyone.
      GENie and Current Notes have now joined together to provide this
Category in the ST Roundtable as a forum for letting others in the
community contribute to our work.  Letters to the editor are especially
welcome.  Give us your thoughts for issues that need to be addressed.
Use GEMail to submit articles that you think might be worth publishing.
Ask us questions.
 
     If you like what you see here and you want to see more of it you
can become a subscriber.  Check this message thread for the latest
subscription information.
     Current Notes has always provided special support for user groups,
particularly by providing discount subscription rates.  Check with your
user group to see if a discount is available for you. User group
leaders whose clubs are not already registered with Current Notes may
wish to explore this option.
     All correspondence regarding individual subscriptions,
dealerships, or club registrations can be sent to our GEMail address,
"JOE.WATERS"  or through the US Postal Service to
 
Current Notes Magazine
122 N. Johnson Rd
Sterling, VA 22170.   703-450-4761
 
     Upcoming features in our message threads and libraries will
include lists of registered clubs, cumulative annual indexes, lists of
Atari dealers, and other special publications. Look for announcements.
                      Current Notes Subscription Rates
                           as of 12 December 1989
                                1 yr        2 yr
 
WAACE Club Member - Check with your club treasurer
CN Registered Club Member        $20         $38
Individual Subscriber            $24         $42
Canada, 2nd Class Post.         add $8 per year to above
Foreign Surface Mail             $39
Air Mail
   Canada/Mexico                 $42
   Cent Am, Carib.               $51
   S. Am, N. Africa, Europe      $61
   Mid East, Africa, Australia   $71
 
All orders prepaid, foreign orders by bank draft in $US payable on
US bank.
 
 
                 Current Notes Registered Clubs
 
   Atari User groups can become CN registered clubs by submitting
subscription requests for six members or 10 percent of their
membership whichever is less.  Additional members subscribing
can do so at the discounted rate given above.
 
 
               Submitting articles for Publication
                   in Current Notes Magazine.
 
   Current Notes Magazine is published using Word Perfect text imported into
Timeworks' Publisher ST.  We use preselected style sheets for a  uniform
appearance throughout the magazine.  Artwork can be accepted as .NEO, P??,
IMG, or GEM files.  If you wish to submit something that you have laid out
yourself you must also submit the individual components.
 
   ARC your .WP files, the .DTP file, and any auxiliary files together into
one module and use the XMODEM send option in GEMail to transmit the material.
(InterNet users may be able to make other arrangements).
   Any decision regarding acceptance or rejection of such unsolicited material
rests solely with the editors and publisher of the magazine. You will be
notified when we receive your material and again when we make a final
decision on acceptance or rejection.
   Note that no author in Current Notes receives payment for material that is
published.
   There are occasional publication delays due to a backlog of material or
because there are unresolved technical issues.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 8 Dec 89 17:48:00 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!hrc!force!covertr@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
 (Richard E. Covert)
Subject: Day One with my new KXP4450 laser printer
Message-ID: <474e7b5f.14a1f@force.UUCP>
 
TO  GREG LINDAHL: PRESS 'n' NOW AND SAVE YOURSELF SOME GRIEF AS I AM GOING TO
TALK MORE ABOUT MY NEW PANASONIC KXP445 LASER PRINTER, AND I KNOW THAT YOU
DON'T WANT TO READ THIS MESSAGE. REC.
 
 
                Before Day One Or the Day of the Panasonic KX-P4450
 
I checked around and found a mail order company in San Jose CA that had
both the Panasonic KX-P4450 laser printer and the 1 meg memory board for it
in stock at a lower price than I could buy locally in Phoenix. So, on Monday
Before Day One I ordered the KXP4450. I ordered it COD and had it routed to a
friendly local Mail Boxes Etc USA store. I than eagerly awaited my new laser
printer.
 
Thursday, Day One
Imagine my excitement when at 11:15 am on Thursday I got a call from Mail Boexes
Etc. that my KXP4450 ad arrived. I rush over to pick it up during lunch. It came
 in
two boxes, with the printer in one big box, and the paper trays and supplies in
a smaller box. I open the small box and retrieve the Operating Instructions
Manual, which I took back to work.
 
Day One 5 P.M.
I get off work and go home to play with the laser printer. The manual indicates
that I have to install the Developer Drum, the Optical Drum ,and some
toner. The manual is very clear, and the internal mechnical layout of
the XKP4450 leaves no doubt as how to install the two drums. They simply
slide in; very nice. The toner is poured from a bottle, with a nice little
spout, into a reservoir on the top of the printer. The memory board is installed
inside the top of the printer and requires a Phillips type screwdriver. The
 memory
board uses the 256K SIMM DRAM chips. After fifteen minutes, I have the KXP4450
buttoned up and powered on.
 
Before attaching the KXP4450 to my Mega I do a Status SelfCheck, which confirms
that everything is operational. I than attach the printer thru a parallel port
cable to the Mega ST. I set the printer to Epson emulation, and do a screen
dump. Imagine my shock when nothing prints out. I wonder, is the parallel cable
bad, is the parallel interface in the printer bad? So, I locate a text file,
and PRINT it from the Desktop. I notice activity on the printer indicator,
so I know that the printer is getting data. After about 30 seconds the mouse
is active again and I start getting paper printed. And was it FAST. I printed
20 pages amost as quick as they could be layed down. Now, when I printed text
with my SLM804, I could count between pages. With this printer, once the data
reaches the printer and starts printing the pages are dumped noticably quicker
than the SLM804.
 
Other things I noticed once I got the KXP4450 is that it is slightly larger
than my SLM804 so I need to rearrange my computer room. I may buy a different
printer stand for it. But as the KXP4450 interfaces to my STs via a parallel
port, I can use a Centronics A-B Switch box to allow both of my STs to print
to the 4450. That is something that I couldn't do with my SLM. So, I shop for
a new printer stand this weekend.
 
Word Perfect is supposed to have a printer driver for the KXP4450, and has
downloadable soft fonts for it. I am still investigating this. I may switch
from MS WRITE to WP now that I have a printer that is supported by WP. The
downloadable soft fonts would allow me to make text printouts from the desktop
in various fonts as well. That is something I could only do with GDOS with
the SLM804 laser printer. Hey, you can't download fonts to a laser printer
which doesn't have a cpu and memory, right?
 
So, what elese is there for me to learn about the 4450? Well, I used a program
called FRONT&BACK to print out double sided text, and the 4450's builtin font
isn't 66 line per page. Or soemthing, because we I tried to use F&B to print
out a text file, the page breaks didn't agree with the printer. I need to check
this.
 
I also need to see about a good GDOS printer driver for the 4450. I need either
a Panasonic KXP4450 driver or a LaserjetPlus driver. A 4450 driver that knows
about the dual paper trays would be nice. Anyway, once I get a LJ+ GDOS
printer driver I can use Manual Maker (by Craig Daymon on GEnie) and
IMG CAT again.
 
I need to reinstall Calamus and PageStream because would I last installed them
I deleted all of the unnecessary (such as LJ+) printer drivers, and left only
the SLM804 drivers on my hard disk. So, time to reinstall and then try them
out.
 
I also want to try out the 4450 in my Mac Spectre. I need to buy a LJ+
printer driver for my Spectre. Once I do that I can print at 300 dpi under
Spectre. I am looking for a place to buy a program called Mac Flow. Mac Flow
is a flow charting program which my friends tell me is great. With my new
printer I can finally use some of these mac programs and still get great
printouts. I am very excited about Spectre 128/Spectre GCR now that I can
finally get decent printouts.
 
And finally I need to see if pc ditto II ever comes out. I know that most
MSDOS programs support the LJ+ printer, so I am in business with my 4450!
 
All in all, my first evening, with all of the hints of the power and flexibility
of my new printer, was very exciting. The fact that I can emulate both macs and
pcs, and that now I can finally print in full laser quality, on both systems
is very exciting. makes me want to keep my ST around for awhile longer!
 
Now, if the TT were to come out, and Dave Small could emulate the Mac IIci
on it with the new Mac IIci QuickDraw ROMs and the new Mac System 7 operating
system and MultiFinder, maybe the TT could have a slight future. Imagine, the
TT as a Mac IIci clone!! WOW! And if Jim Allen were to provide an accelerator
for the TT, maybe bumping it up to 32 MHZ, we could have a killer Mac clone!!
 
 
--
 Richard E. Covert, Lead Engineer of Software Tools Group
 AG Communications Systems, Phoenix AZ   (602) - 581-4652
 TCP/IP: covertr@gtephx
 UUCP: ?ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!zardoz!hrc | att?!gtephx!covertr
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Dec 89 08:59:46 PST (Wednesday)
From: "chaz_heritage.WGC1RX"@Xerox.COM
Subject: INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 #735
Message-ID: <891208-195210-8734@Xerox>
 
In his 01 Dec 89 04:38 PST Ralf Werner writes:
 
>No disclaimer or cookie (they're often bigger than the message itself)<
 
And he's right (I'm not sure what a cookie means in this context, though).
 
I say this in the nicest way possible - could certain people please
reconsider the relevance of their signature lines? Is it really necessary
to post a Smart Ass One Liner followed by about 1K of signature,
disclaimers, little drawings in ASCII, quotations from the unspeakable
Douglas Adams (spit), and readings from the Articles of War?
 
Ploughing through it all - particularly the same one several times in one
INFO-ATARI16 Digest - can become a distinct pain in the exhaust port,
besides the waste of bandwidth; in some cases the actual message (all
hundred or so characters of it) is very hard to spot in amongst the
embroidery, chromework and go-faster stripes.
 
Younger Members will probably consider me somewhat old-fashioned in that I
still (even after ten years of Thatcher) consider content to be more
important than presentation. They are right. I am. It is.
 
Thank you all.
 
Regards,
 
Chaz
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 8 Dec 89 15:18:26 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!hrc!force!covertr@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
 (Richard E. Covert)
Subject: Let's bash something else now (not me, though)
Message-ID: <474df5a7.14a1f@force.UUCP>
 
In article <1441@blackbird.afit.af.mil>, news@blackbird.afit.af.mil (News System
 Account) writes:
> Let's lighten up on Rich Covert.  It seems we seem to spend a lot of BW on
> bashing him.  I'm sure he has gotten whatever messages we have tried to send.
> And even if you still think he deserves it, it's getting old.
>
> So, let's pick another target ... let's see we've done Atari, Rich, an
> occasional Amiga user, IBM (let's keep up this one up), Ken B. (poor taste
> on this one; bitting the hand that feeds you and all that, you know),
> can't do Commies right now ... gee, I'm dry right now.
>
> Hey!  Why don't we do something constructive.
>
> Naaaaah!
>
> :-)
>
>
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Bill Hodges                    |  Me?  People who speak for the Air Force get
>  bhodges@blackbird.afit.af.mil  |  paid a lot more than I do! I just work
 here.
>
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Thanks Bill, but I have been trying to change things. First, since I was so
unhappy with my SLM804 I sold it and bought a laser printer that I am happy
with. This eliminates a lot of aggrevations in my life, with Spectre 128 (which
I have ALWAYS loved, I just hated not having a printer for it!), and other
stuff.
 
I have also been elected Prez of the Phoenix Atari ST club, in which I hope to
encourage other STers in Phoenix to join. A good friend is now Vice President.
We are planning to have an Atari Rep
visit soon, either this month or in January. We are planning to move (well I
am anyway :-) ), and than start a membership drive. We are planning to
 incorporate
as a non-profit organization in January.
 
I will be having more fun using Spectre 128 now, and may even buy pc ditto II
when it comes out. Jim Allen is waiting to see if pc ditto II works with his
Turbo16 accelerator. I hope that pc ditto II works with the T16.
 
I am returning my WERCs disk + $5 to Michtron for an update. WERCS is an
 excellent
Resource Editor, but I bought an old version last year, which has since been
updated by HiSoft (and distributed by Michtron). Thanks Michtron.
 
I am returning my Calamus for the update to version 1.10, which should be out
 soon.
I am still waiting for my PageStream 1.8, and need to write Softlogik a letter
 about
that. My update check cleared my bank over a month ago, but I still haven't
received my PgS 1.8.
 
And I am writing a couple of new programs, one of which I hope to sell
 commerically.
It is a utility similar to a Mac program that I saw.
 
So, while I am still not happy with the specs of the TT, I am much more
 satisfied
with my ST now that I changed laser printers.
 
so, have fun out there and have a good holiday.
 
 
--
 Richard E. Covert, Lead Engineer of Software Tools Group
 AG Communications Systems, Phoenix AZ   (602) - 581-4652
 TCP/IP: covertr@gtephx
 UUCP: ?ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!zardoz!hrc | att?!gtephx!covertr
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 8 Dec 89 01:51:11 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!xanth!xanth.cs.odu.edu!scott@
 tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Scott Yelich)
Subject: Mono Games??????
Message-ID: <SCOTT.89Dec7205111@oswine.cs.odu.edu>
 
>       Can anyone out there in net land give me a list of good PD games
>that can run in monochrome? Oh, BTW, tell me where I can get them.
 
Yes! and I am looking for a REAL old game... it is called ``Omega Race''
I really loved that game and I was wondering if there was anything like
it for the Atari ST (mono preferred!)
 
--
 
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Scott D. Yelich                                 scott@cs.odu.edu [128.82.8.1]
 After he pushed me off the cliff, he asked me, as I fell, ``Why'd you jump?''
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 8 Dec 89 20:32:40 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!hrc!force!covertr@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
 (Richard E. Covert)
Subject: ST version of Mac Flow??
Message-ID: <474f0e9f.14a1f@force.UUCP>
 
One program that I haven't seen for the ST that is available for the
Mac is a good software flowcharting program. I have talked to a Mac
friend who described Mac Flow to me. It is a true flowchart drawing
program. You can bundle objects together, such as a decision diamond
and its input and answer arrows, so that if you move the decision diamond,
all of its arrows move with it.
 
It would be nice if the flowcharting program could draw flowcharts from
my C code as well. I know that there are MSDOS programs to do this.
 
So, does anyone in Europe (Germany) know of a good ST flowcharting
program?
 
 
--
 Richard E. Covert, Lead Engineer of Software Tools Group
 AG Communications Systems, Phoenix AZ   (602) - 581-4652
 TCP/IP: covertr@gtephx
 UUCP: ?ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!zardoz!hrc | att?!gtephx!covertr
 
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End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #779
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