INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Wed,  1 Nov 89       Volume 89 : Issue 590
 
Today's Topics:
 
                                (None)
                     3D-Reconstruction on the ST.
                      OPUS,GDOS,NEED AESQ,VDIQ.A
                   PD Midi-dump filer for the Atari
                     Problematic internal drives.
                   questions, questions, questions
                      redirect printout to disk
      STe Incompatibilities (Was: TOS 1.4 Incompatibility List)
                          TOS 1.6 && TOS 1.4
                            TT's VME-slots
                          UNIX -- ATW Speed
                               VME bus
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 89 22:03 CDT
From: <JOHNMAR%IITVAX.BITNET@UICVM.uic.edu>
Subject:
 
I've been trying to get binaries off of terminator.cc.umich.edu using ftp.  I'm
using a vax and downloading from it.  Is the code getting scrambled or some-
thing?  Is what I'm trying possible?  Do I need another kind of unarchiver?
I couldn't even use the arc.ttp from there.  What am I doing wrong?
Mark J
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 30 Oct 89 12:35:00 GMT
From: iconsys!caeco!jose!the-land!the_land!Bill_Miracle@uunet.uu.net  (Bill
 Miracle)
Subject: (None)
 
 
hi all. Can someone explain, in detail, the function and various uses of the
install application feature??? I know how to use this for loading a file for
like Word Writer or DTP but is there other more advanced uses for this
feature. Thanks!! Bill
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 89 11:28:23 GMT
From: n-waters%NIMR.MRC.AC.UK@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU (Nick Waterson)
Subject: 3D-Reconstruction on the ST.
 
Hi there,
        I am trying to find out if there are any 3D-reconstruction packages available
 either commercially or in the PD. These packages are primarily used to
 reconstruct a series of 2D outlines into a 3D image eg. the reconstruction of a
 series of sections cut
 through a cell or leg! to give an overall image of the   object before it was
 sectioned. Other capabilites usually include the ability tomeasure cross
 sectional areas, volumes and other morphometric measurements.
        I would also like to know if there are any other ST'rs out there who usethese
 machines in a scientific environment, if so, what do you use them for?
 
 
 
                                                 Thanks,
____________________________________________________________________________
  Nick Waterson                  JANET:            n-waterson@uk.ac.mrc.nimr
  Limb Development group          UUCP:
  Nat. Inst. Medical Research     DARPA:n-waterson%mrc.nimr@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk
  The Ridgeway
  Mill Hill
  LONDON NW7 1AA                   Tel:                        01-959 3666
  U.K.                                                           ext. 2366
____________________________________________________________________________
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 1 Nov 89 10:40:28 GMT
From:
 cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso.uiuc.edu!uxf.cs
o.uiuc.edu!glk3593@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: OPUS,GDOS,NEED AESQ,VDIQ.A
 
Could someone please e-mail me an encoded GEMQ (AESQ & VDIQ) library
implementation or information on a BBS that has it, I was sent a copy,
but it would not uudecode.
        Very much appreciated,
        -Spieu!
P.S. Has anyone else experienced the following problems with OPUS2.2
        1) Right justified numbers hang into the following column,
                even the row numbers.
        2) When installing my WORDUP2.0 GDOS with it, it would say
                printer fonts do not match screen fonts even after
                assigner and fontwid, so I edited them and found that
                the NECP7 printer fonts contained half of their listed
                point size in the fourth byte and set it to their corrected
                size.  Now opus boots, but when it prints, the fonts are
                currupted.
        3) Spline doesn't produce a smooth curve on my KXP-1124 even
                at 360 resolution and 1 step.
 
        Any help very much welcome...
        -Spieu!
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 89 10:22:40 GMT
From: Tony Jewell <tonyj%UNIXA.CLP.AC.UK@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: PD Midi-dump filer for the Atari
 
Does any one know of, or has anyone written, a simple program for filing
MIDI bulk dump information for the 520ST ?
 
I have an Oberheim Prommer sampler, which has no real storage facilities.
However it can be persuaded to dump all its data (about 64k) over MIDI.
What I need is a program to store this information to disk, and to read it
off disk and send it out again at a later point.
 
I'm sure that if I knew more about 68000 m/c and the ST, it would be a very
easy program to write. I'm not worried about being able to edit, split up or
move the data around, I just need to write it to memory or disk as it comes
in, so I don't need one the flashy generic dump editors that are on the
market. However, I'm sure some one must have written a program like this ...
 
I have a 520ST with Med-res screen ONLY.
 
Thanks
 
------------------------------------------------------------------
 
  Tony J Jewell
  Systems Officer               City Of London Polytechnic
 
  JANET:          tonyj@uk.ac.clp.unixa
  EARN/BitNet:    tonyj@unixa.clp.ac.uk
  EAN:            tonyj%clp.unixa@ean-relay.ac.uk
 
  "But what we need to know is, do people want nasally-insertable
   computers?"
 
------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 31 Oct 89 13:17:11 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!gould!zmacu06@uunet.uu.net  (F S Taylor)
Subject: Problematic internal drives.
 
Hi,
 
I have had my 520ST for about 2 years now (it has a single sided
internal drive) and recently it has started to play up. The symptoms
are mainly :-
 
  1  strange noises during some disk accesses.
  2  inability to format disks - very strange noises!
  3  a lot of Drive Not Responding errors.
 
What really confused me was that these errors were sporadic. Some
days everything was fine and others it would just NOT work. I
initially thought that the head was dirty so I used a head cleaner on
it. This seemed to make no difference.
 
At present I just try to get by on the bad days - oh well....
 
Does anybody know what could be wrong? I will consider using this as
an opportunity to upgrade to a 2 sided internal drive (if the cost of
correcting this one is too high).
 
Thanx for any possible replies.....(mail is preferable for the rest
of Net-Land)
 
Frank.
--
|    Frank Taylor    | Engineers often ponder upon the problem...             |
|       DoC 2        | Why do the girls with the most streamlined shape offer |
|  Imperial College  | the most resistance?             anon.                 |
|--------------------+--------+-----------------------------------------------|
| JANET: zmacu06@doc.ic.ac.uk |  All rights unreserved.                       |
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 1 Nov 89 12:29:43 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!marque!carroll1!dnewton@tut.cis.ohio-state.ed
u  (Dave 'Post No Nicknames' Newton)
Subject: questions, questions, questions
 
Ahh...  Atari ST GEM programming.  I unfortunately chose to do my senior
comp. sci. project on an ST without knowing anything about the programming.
This was a boo boo.
 
In article <30200009@inmet> hedger@inmet.inmet.com writes:
>3) I have been trying to learn about programming GEM applications.
>   I have the MWC documentation and the Balma Fittler book on GEM.
>   I have a little experience with C (I'm learning) and I've never
>   written any software using any windowing system.
 
   C experience is a definate plus.  Some of the things can get a little
hairy.  Like grabbing text out of an editable text field in a dialog box.
That one was weird.
 
>   I'm confused.....I have a program that hopefully will display
>   a window on the screen. I have been able to get the window to
>   appear and look for me to hit the 'close' box. I notice that
>   I have to apparently trap the cursor movement to the sliders,
>   bar at the top(to move the window), or the shrinkbox thingy.
>   I have my program setup using evnt_mesag() to wait for these
>   but I don't know what to do when I get one of them.
 
   basically, you set up an event loop.  looks like this.
 
   while (TRUE) ?  /* i.e. forever */
      event = evnt_multi (parameters up the wazzoo);
 
      if (event & MU_MESAG)
         handle_message ();
      else if (event & MU_KEYBD)
         handle_keyboard ();
 
         etc...
 
   ? /* end event loop */
 
   Then, say, for most window stuff, you drop into the handle_message
function.  In there you have a switch statement for message types, defined by
Laser C as things like WM_REDRAW, WM_CLOSE, WM_FULL, etc.  Each of those
message types will have a function related with it. i.e. a WM_REDRAW message
would be handled by a function that went through the window's rectangle list,
set some clipping rectangles, and redrew the contents of the window.
If anyone has specific questions they can't find in a book, feel free to ask.
This is a real brief overview.  Obviously.
 
>   Is there a book that will tell me step by step what needs to
>   be done to write a very simple GEM application?
 
   I'll tell ya', I sure as heck haven't seen one.  I looked.  I looked a
lot.  I begged, pleaded, cajoled.  I lost.  What I did find was that PROGEM
series available by ftp from terminator.cc.umich.edu.  Some were helpful, some
weren't.
 
>4) What is the relationship between a window and a workstation in
>   GEM ?
 
   a workstation is a physical device, whereas a window is a data structure
placed _on_ that device, assuming the device is a screen.  Us mortals (that
don't feel like some serious OS hacking) cannot use physical workstations,
we must use a virtual workstation.  Then once we have that opened, we can draw
on it, spit out text on it, etc.  I haven't worked with any other device type
than screen, so don't know much about anything else.
 
>5) How do you make a GEM program display data in one (or more) of
>   the windows/workstations you've created ?
 
   God, that sounds familiar.  Text-to-GEM-windows?  Asked the same thing
myself a few months ago.  Two people repsonded,  I think, and pointed me in
somewhat the right direction.  ya' gotta do a v_gtext, but the tricky part
is to actually get it into the window.  i wrote some routines that would
put text to a window anywhere on the screen (if on top at least, suited my
application okay) by setting the clip to the window, finding the window's
current location, getting current character width and height, and giving it a
_character_ x and y location.  it then translates this into actual pixel
locations and spits it out.
 
>(see I told you I was confused....! :-)    )
 
probably more confused now.  i know i am, it's really quite a bit too early
for this. (6:30am |-)
 
--
David L. Newton       | uunet!marque!carroll1!dnewton  | The Raging Apostle--
(414) 524-7343 (work) |    dnewton@carroll1.cc.edu     | for the future--
(414) 524-6809 (home) | 100 NE Ave, Waukesha WI 53186  | for the world.
"Isn't it fun to take two unrelated sentences and mix the batter lightly?" -me
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 1 Nov 89 15:14:37 GMT
From: cs.dal.ca!silvert@uunet.uu.net  (Bill Silvert)
Subject: redirect printout to disk
 
In article <480030@hpdml93.HP.COM> rona@hpdml93.HP.COM (Ron Abramson) writes:
>  I once tried a program called "barrel" which would capture printouts
>  and save them in RAM, print them in background OR save them in a file
>  (I believe).
 
I have barrel.tos on my BBS, if there is demand I can post it or mail
it.  It was one of Moshe Braner's gems.
 
--
Bill Silvert, Habitat Ecology Division.
Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, NS, Canada B2Y 4A2
        UUCP: ...!?uunet,watmath?!dalcs!biomel!bill
        Internet: biomel@cs.dal.CA      BITNET: bs%dalcs@dalac.BITNET
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 31 Oct 89 22:41:01 GMT
From: imagen!atari!apratt@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Allan Pratt)
Subject: STe Incompatibilities (Was: TOS 1.4 Incompatibility List)
 
colas@trinidad.inria.fr (Colas Nahaboo) writes:
>I have brought a lot of confusion with my message...
 
Boy, you can say that again.
 
You blamed TOS 1.4 for something which may or may not work on STe. STe
doesn't run TOS 1.4, it runs TOS 1.6, but there are other differences
which can make a program break.  There aren't many, and they're minor,
but they still exist.
 
One BIG one is the new base address of the ROMs. You'd be surprised how
many programs assume the ROM starts at a certain address, and go
straight to that address to get some information (like the ROM version
number).  You can learn the OS header address by looking at the system
variable _sysbase; the OS header contains, among other things, the base
address of the OS.  It's not always in ROM (witness RAM TOS 1.4) and it
certainly isn't always in the same place.
 
If you go to $FC0000 for the ROM header, you will lose on STe.  You will
get a bus error and die horribly.
 
Let me take this opportunity to say that the correct date for TOS 1.4
ROMs, as seen at offset $18 in the OS Header (OK, OK, at $FC0018)
is 04 06 19 89; that's 4/6/1989.
 
============================================
Opinions expressed above do not necessarily     -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp.
reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else.      ...ames!atari!apratt
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 31 Oct 89 22:41:47 GMT
From: imagen!atari!apratt@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Allan Pratt)
Subject: TOS 1.6 && TOS 1.4
 
alex@hpgnd.HP.COM (Alexis MERMET-GRANDFILLES) writes:
>       In fact , Is TOS 1.6 an enhancement of TOS 1.4  ?
 
Bing! Yes! You win the prize!  This is exactly the case.  Congratulations.
 
============================================
Opinions expressed above do not necessarily     -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp.
reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else.      ...ames!atari!apratt
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 1 Nov 89 11:34:39 GMT
From: mcsun!hp4nl!nikhefh!n62@uunet.uu.net  (Klamer Schutte)
Subject: TT's VME-slots
 
In article <468ef7cd.14a1f@force.UUCP> covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert)
 writes:
        >> a discussion about how many VME slots one need <<
>My main point is that having ONLY one slot guarantees that no vendor will
>design hardware for that slot. This is because a vendor is competing against
        But for a VME slot nothing have to be developed: for VME already very
        much boards do exist.
 
Klamer.
--
_____________________Yes, mail address changed again :-(________________________
Klamer Schutte        mcvax!nikhefh!?n62,Schutte?        ?Schutte,n62?@nikhef.nl
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 1 Nov 89 12:09:00 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!marque!carroll1!dnewton@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
 (Dave 'Post No Nicknames' Newton)
Subject: UNIX -- ATW Speed
 
In article <5188@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> wolf@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (thomas.wolf,ho,) writes:
>a 13-transputer based ATW, I doubt whether you will see significant increases
>in performance, since that application will be run on a single T800 (unless
>it was specifically written with parallelism in mind -
>using OCCAM(I guess that
>is the T800 assembly language?) - I don't think there are compilers smart
>enough to take conventional C programs and parallelize them.)
 
   OCCAM is a high-level language designed specifically for writing parallel
applications.  There are many (relatively speaking) C compilers that will
produce parallel code, f.i., in the IBM world, MicroWay sells a number of
co-processor/T800 boards.  Available for these boards is a parallel C and
FORTRAN.
 
 
--
David L. Newton       | uunet!marque!carroll1!dnewton  | The Raging Apostle--
(414) 524-7343 (work) |    dnewton@carroll1.cc.edu     | for the future--
(414) 524-6809 (home) | 100 NE Ave, Waukesha WI 53186  | for the world.
"Isn't it fun to take two unrelated sentences and mix the batter lightly?" -me
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 1 Nov 89 12:38:33 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uwm.edu!marque!carroll1!dnewton@tut.cis.ohio-stat
e.edu  (Dave 'Post No Nicknames' Newton)
Subject: VME bus
 
Question:  I know absolutely nothing about the VME bus except that it exists.
Are the slots individually addressed?  Or would it be possible to build a
bus extender that would give you more slots with little cost save for some
drivers?  Hence making the as-yet mythical TT a multi-bus (oops, getting the
ol' busses mixed up) machine?
 
Just wondering.
 
--
David L. Newton       | uunet!marque!carroll1!dnewton  | The Raging Apostle--
(414) 524-7343 (work) |    dnewton@carroll1.cc.edu     | for the future--
(414) 524-6809 (home) | 100 NE Ave, Waukesha WI 53186  | for the world.
"Isn't it fun to take two unrelated sentences and mix the batter lightly?" -me
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #590
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