=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Thu, 21 Dec 89       Volume 89 : Issue  842
 
Today's Topics:
                           ATW and Stacy 4
                  Blood Money and floppy drive speed
                     Commandline length? (2 msgs)
                       Functionality of TOS 1.4
 Last Chance Laptop Vote (Was Xerox, GUI, 80vs68, Idiots, etc, etc.)
                    Loneliness in the Atari World?
                     New Atari Developers Package
                             Res Changing
                        ROMmable C: compilers
                          Unexpandable megas
                  USENET -> GEnie uplink now working
                  Usenet uplinks, Chaos Strikes Back
                      Where did the binaries go?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 20 Dec 89 10:38:20 GMT
From: eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!grahamt@bloom-beacon.mit.edu  (Graham
 Thomas)
Subject: ATW and Stacy 4
Message-ID: <1927@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
 
From article <111500079@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>, by glk01126@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu:
>
>
>       Oh jesus, how many people are going to take their (is it STACY
>       or STACEY) out on a picnic to do some page layout under the
>
>       Gregory M. L-K.
 
STACY.  At least, that's what it says on the machines I've seen at a
computer show and in the reviews in the computer press here.
 
Maybe Atari are saving the 'E' for the 'enhanced' version.   :-)
 
Graham
 
--
Graham Thomas, SPRU, Mantell Building, U of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9RF, UK
 JANET: grahamt@uk.ac.sussex.syma  EARN/BITNET: grahamt@syma.sussex.ac.uk
 ARPA:  grahamt%syma.sussex.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk
 UUCP:  grahamt@syma.uucp          Phone: +44 273 686758
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 13:20:41 GMT
From: maytag!water!ljdickey@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu  (L.J.Dickey)
Subject: Blood Money and floppy drive speed
Message-ID: <2871@water.waterloo.edu>
 
In a recent article, Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET ( Larry Rymal )
 writes about his experiments with his disk drive.
 
 |       I took the drive apart and tried to lower the rpm with
 | the potentiometer inside of the drive but Blood Money seemed to not
 | notice anything.  I checked the drive's speed qith QuickIndex15 again.
 | Drive rpm still hovered at 301.
 
 |     ... I glued the dime to one side of the flywheel's center.
and asks:
 |    ... , can the dime's weight cause undue wear on the flywheel?
 
It would be a big surprise to find any wear on the flywheel itself. (smile).
 
I would worry about wear on the bearings if the weight is off center.
If it is off center, I would try to balance the it on the flywheel,
with say, a second weight glued at a diametrically opposite point.
 
--
    L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
        ljdickey@water.UWaterloo.ca     ljdickey@water.BITNET
        ljdickey@water.UUCP             ..!uunet!watmath!water!ljdickey
        ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 20 Dec 89 08:52:55 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!tub!fauern!tumuc!guug!pcsbst!cochise!roland@uunet.uu.net
Subject: Commandline length?
Message-ID: <1176@pcsbst.UUCP>
 
joep@tnosoes.UUCP (Joep Mathijssen) writes:
 
>Using Gulam and make, I want to link a program using TURBO-C.
>But there are so much .O-files that must be linked, that my list of
>files is not processed correctly. I think the commandline is limited to
>only 80 characters. It this a ST- or Gulam-limit?
 
Don't know about possible Gulam limits, but there IS a TOS-limit of
about 125 characters. There is an official work-around, but I wouldn't
expect any program to support it (yet).
 
>And how can I solve it?
 
Build a library! ( Even with unix, the cc has a limit of several hundred
o-files, and for greater programs you have to build libraries first )
 
 
             I know that You believe You understand what You think I said, but
             I'm not sure You realize that what You heard is not what I meant.
 
Roland Rambau
 
  rra@cochise.pcs.com,   ?unido|pyramid?!pcsbst!rra,   2:507/414.2.fidonet
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 13:02:48 GMT
From: maytag!water!ljdickey@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu  (L.J.Dickey)
Subject: Commandline length?
Message-ID: <2870@water.waterloo.edu>
 
In article <510@tnosoes.UUCP> joep@tnosoes.UUCP (Joep Mathijssen) writes:
>Using Gulam and make, I want to link a program using TURBO-C.
>But there are so much .O-files that must be linked, that my list of
>files is not processed correctly. I think the commandline is limited to
>only 80 characters. It this a ST- or Gulam-limit?
>And how can I solve it?
 
It is clear that there is a limit, but it is bigger than 80 characters.
I did a simple experiment...   I created 10 small files with long names,
names of the form "abcdefgh.00x", where x ranged from 0 to 9.  Then,
from Gulam, I gave the command
        vi abcdefgh.00*
The result was that I could edit some of the files, but the last one
had a truncated name.
 
However, when I say "echo abcd*", all of the names appear.  I did
some more experiments, creating more files with names of the form
"abcdefgh.0yx" where y ranged from 0 to 2.  It seems that Gulam
can expand much longer strings.  For instance the commands
"echo abcd*" and "rm abcd*1? abcd*2?" worked correctly.
 
I interpret this to mean that whatever the internal limit for Gulam
may be, it is not the as short as the limit imposed by the interface
to the operating system.
 
--
    L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
        ljdickey@water.UWaterloo.ca     ljdickey@water.BITNET
        ljdickey@water.UUCP             ..!uunet!watmath!water!ljdickey
        ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 00:26:21 GMT
From: eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!hwcs!neil@bloom-beacon.mit.edu  (Neil
 Forsyth)
Subject: Functionality of TOS 1.4
Message-ID: <3994@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>
 
In article <8912131513.aa06231@peter.Cs.Bham.AC.UK>
 RiddCJ@computer-science.birmingham.ac.UK (Chris Ridd) writes:
>Does any kind soul on the net know exactly what new calls were added to 1.4,
>and what bugs were fixed?  Some calls I got from the docs to the Sozobon
>GEM libs, like fsel_exinput(), wind_new().  At the moment this is academic
>since Atari UK STILL haven't released it.  Turn on flamethrower...
>
>    Chris
 
Remember Jarrow anyone? Spring 1990 we march on Atari UK at Slough.
Opressed ST owners of the UK unite! I see the TOS 1.6 STE's are out.
 
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone (ok. even them:-)
 
>* Snail mail address:
>* Chris Ridd,                   "Wave after wave, each mightier than the last
>* School of Computer Science,  'Til last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
>* Birmingham University,         And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
>* UK                              Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame"
 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
! DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise stated, the above comments are entirely my own !
!                                                                             !
! Neil Forsyth                       JANET:  neil@uk.ac.hw.cs                 !
! Dept. of Computer Science          ARPA:   neil@cs.hw.ac.uk                 !
! Heriot-Watt University             UUCP:   ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!neil          !
! Edinburgh, Scotland, UK            "Release Brian!" - "That's a good one!"  !
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 15:50:33 GMT
From: giza.cis.ohio-state.edu!pollack@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Jordan B Pollack)
Subject: Last Chance Laptop Vote (Was Xerox, GUI, 80vs68, Idiots, etc, etc.)
Message-ID: <POLLACK.89Dec21105033@giza.cis.ohio-state.edu>
 
The multi-newsgroup discussion about yet another window lawsuit which
degenerated into a computer.religion flamefest is yet more reason I
want to stop wading through 100's of irrelevant messages a day.
 
Free mass acknowledgements to anyone who votes, either way, on the creation
of comp.sys.laptops. Mail (by 1/5/90) to either of:
 
laptop-yes@cis.ohio-state.edu
laptop-no@cis.ohio-state.edu
 
Oh, yeah, and I heard that Apple introduced a MacTop with a animation
speed TFT display, and Atari had something pretty small too.  The
alleged newsgroup shall NOT discriminate on the basis of processor,
screen size, operating system or interface.
 
 
--
Jordan Pollack                          Laboratory for AI Research
CIS Dept/OSU
2036 Neil Ave                           email: pollack@cis.ohio-state.edu
Columbus, OH 43210                      Fax/Phone: (614) 292-4890
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1989 10:07 EST
From: Greg Csullog <01659%AECLCR.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Loneliness in the Atari World?
 
One netter referred to the loneliness in the Atari community. Dear U.S.
netters, the U.S. is one country, not the world! There are lots of places
in the world where ST users are not lonely.
 
Just because the ST is not big in the U.S. does not mean you should assume
that life is miserable for ST users everywhere. Some of us do quite well,
thank you very much.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 02:45:06 GMT
From: portal!cup.portal.com!buggs@uunet.uu.net  (William Edward JuneJr)
Subject: New Atari Developers Package
Message-ID: <25236@cup.portal.com>
 
>I'd recommend calling Charles Cherry at Atari Corp and seeing what he can
>do for you...
>Call him at (408) 745-2000  and see what he says... it should be worth
>the call...
 
THANKS! I will! I've been patiently waitin' on the guy I bought it from to
send a notarized letter back, no luck. This will probably be a major road
block too, bummer, I wanted to be registered and to get upgraded.
I WILL definately call though, thanks!
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 01:19:32 GMT
From: eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!hwcs!neil@bloom-beacon.mit.edu  (Neil
 Forsyth)
Subject: Res Changing
Message-ID: <3995@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>
 
The other day Dave Baggett asked about legal resolution changes without the
use of system calls like XBIOS #5. Derek Mui (Atari) said basically
'Naw can't be done'. I know GEM can't cope with rez changes.
 
Let us say that I write an application that if run in medium rez changes to
low and set's the negative Line-A variables appropriatly (as does Neochrome).
Just before exiting I restore things the way they were.
(Note: I don't use GEM while in the new rez)
BUT if my applictaion bombs out before normal termination we get dumped
back to the desktop in low rez. Real bummer!
So we put in a terminate handler at vector 0x102 that restores the original
resolution and Line-A variables. The question is: Can we call the XBIOS
safely from here? If not then we will have to access the hardware ourselves
and set all the variables normally affected by Setscreen. So where are these
variables? Are they, as I suspect, more negative Line-A variables documented
in S.A.L.A.D (Still Another Line A Document)?
 
Would someone at Atari like to let the cat out of the bag about negative
Line-A variables? Please. It is Christmas.
 
BTW: Atari UK have yet to send me S.A.L.A.D (Bash, bash, bash ...:-)
 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
! DISCLAIMER: Unless otherwise stated, the above comments are entirely my own !
!                                                                             !
! Neil Forsyth                       JANET:  neil@uk.ac.hw.cs                 !
! Dept. of Computer Science          ARPA:   neil@cs.hw.ac.uk                 !
! Heriot-Watt University             UUCP:   ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!neil          !
! Edinburgh, Scotland, UK            "spam spaM spAM sPAM SPAM, lovely SPAM"  !
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 03:02:20 GMT
From: portal!cup.portal.com!buggs@uunet.uu.net  (William Edward JuneJr)
Subject: ROMmable C: compilers
Message-ID: <25238@cup.portal.com>
 
>-Brett
>I am surprised more people with ST machines don't run it. OS9
 
Gee, I'm suprised many people have $600.00 to get it *8~)
Seriously though, the more I hear of it the Better it sounds.
Maybe when the tax refunds come in???? But then there's the TT.......
Or do I want a STacey 4?????
Hmm, I want 'em both!!!!
 
Ed June
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 03:12:27 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!execu!sequoia!rpp386!mark@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Mark
 Lehmann)
Subject: Unexpandable megas
Message-ID: <17472@rpp386.cactus.org>
 
>Why do people assume that PCs are DOS-ONLY-FOR-EVER-AND-EVER systems?
>One can run UNIX and X11 any time of the day.
> (and call DOS in a window, if necessary).
>Ever heard of DOS Extenders?
>
>A 386SX motherboard (20Mhz) that costs $311 comes with sockets for 8Mb.
> (and 6 expantion slots :-)
 
Thank you.  Now I know that every one in this world does not assume that
DOS is the only operating system for an Intel xxx86 machine.
 
In fact from my experience, I have seen AT&T's UNIX, SCO's Xenix, IBM's AIX,
Microsoft OS/2, IBM's OS/2, CP/M, and I think PICK's operating system on an
IBM family Intel machine.
 
Now, what about for Atari.  I hardly see people refer to much other than TOS.
But, at least we don't have the TOS only stereo type.
 
I have seen TOS, DOS, MINIX, OS/9, C-SH, Apple MAC OS, and CP/M run on the
ST, and do it well.
 
Kind of interesting trivia.  Does anyone have any other operating systems to
add to the list?
 
Mark Lehmann
--
+------------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Mark Lehmann                       |                                   |
| mark@rpp386.cactus.org             |                                   |
| ?bigtex|texbell?!rpp386!mark       |                                   |
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 03:25:45 GMT
From: portal!cup.portal.com!buggs@uunet.uu.net  (William Edward JuneJr)
Subject: USENET -> GEnie uplink now working
Message-ID: <25240@cup.portal.com>
 
>I'm such a net neophyte
 
Me too *8~(
 
>Heck, I don't know what FTP *is* or how to do it --
 
Me either, how I've always wanted to send/recieve NetNews and UUCP on MY ST.
Maybe with the TT and Unix, eh?
 
Ed June
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 89 09:53:31 EST
From: Stephen Harold Goldstein <steveg@SAIC.COM>
Subject: Usenet uplinks, Chaos Strikes Back
Message-ID: <8912211453.AA01434@SAIC.COM>
 
Add my name to the list against a one way link to GEnie.
While it might benefit the ST users there, I don't see a
benefit for Usenet, and further, why should GE profit off of
others' generosity?  "Two way or no way".
 
On the subject of the new Dungeon Master game, I've just started, and
it's great to be back with 'my old friends' hacking and slashing
again.  However, as I read INFO-ATARI16 digests, I can't simply skip
over messages with DM or Chaos in the subject line.  Occaisionally my
eye catches key words or phrases before I can page down.  As such, I
would appreciate minimizing info that might spoil the game for me and
others - for example, new beasties, puzzles etc.  It's much more fun
to find them on your own (and then die quickly).  Perhaps a
comp.sys.atari.st.chaos?  Or maybe 'stuck' adventurers could post a
request for help, and then send specifics via e-mail to responding
helpers.  My party and I thank you.
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 89 14:12
From: "Thomas Koenig"
 <UI0T%DKAUNI2.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Where did the binaries go?
Message-ID: <"89-12-21-14:12:57.31*UI0T"@DKAUNI2.BITNET>
 
I receive the binaries fine here; they come from Panarthea via
LISTSERV@UOGUELPH.BITNET (the PROG-A16 list).
 
Thomas  Koenig                   UI0T@DKAUNI2.BITNET
                                 UI0T%DKAUNI2.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
(soon: new address, old machine) UI0T@IBM3090.RZ.UNI-KARLSRUHE.DBP.DE
'Ich dachte nicht, ich untersuchte.'            Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #842
*****************************************
