=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Thu,  7 Dec 89       Volume 89 : Issue 772
 
Today's Topics:
                      Atracting new Club members
                  Comments on STE -- (un)known facts
                        Help >> COUNTRY.ARC!!!
                         NeXT compared to TT
                            Spectre Sound
                                STacey
            TeX and professional documentation for the ST
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Date: 7 Dec 89 20:17:29 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!hrc!force!covertr@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Richard E.
 Covert)
Subject: Atracting new Club members
Message-ID: <4749f99b.14a1f@force.UUCP>
 
In article <2242@cuphub.cup.edu>, kar7481@cuphub.cup.edu (Dan
 Karbowsky;AtariEliteOfPghPa bbs412-384-5609) writes:
> In article <473f18ee.14a1f@force.UUCP>, covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert)
 writes:
>
> Rich,
>
>       Our Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based group is able to rent a room
> at a Marriot Hotel near Pittsburgh (8 minutes) for only $75.00 for 4 hours!!!
>
> Why not check into renting a conference room at a Holiday-Inn or other
 reputable
> hotel?????  I'm sure the cost wouldn't be that bad....
>
> Our group--The Atari Elite ST Organization--has filed for and is classified
> and registered in the state of Pennsylvania as a NON-PROFIT-ORGANIZATION.
>
> Membership dues are $25.00/year and include a bi-monthly "newsdisk"(810k)
>
> A $2.00 "donation" is made at the door by each member at each meeting
 (monthly)
> to help defray the cost of the room...with 60-70 people, it's quite easy!!!!
>
> I think the KEY TO AVOIDING HIGH RATES is to file for Non-Prof-Org. status
>
> To my knowledge--many hotels have special rates for NPO's and if you can work
> a contract (annual), you SHOULD be able to get a HEALTHY discount!!!
>
> Lemme know after you do some checking!
 
Dan, we are in the process of getting a Non-Profit status for our club also.
In fact, the previous officers left that for me to do in Jan (thanks :-) ).
I have found that Phoenix has a great deal for the use of Library Conference
rooms. We can reserve a room that seats 60 with full AC power and air
 conditioning
for only five bucks for the morning!!! Quite a deal. If our club grows to your
size I might look into renting space at a Hotel. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
 
Our membership dues are $20 per year and include our monthly newsletter and
of course our meetings!! :-)
 
Good luck with your club. I will send out a copy of our PHAST newsletter to you!
 
.
.
.
.
.
.
 
.
.
.
.
 
--
 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: 7 Dec 89 21:25:55 GMT
From: per2!dag@speedy.wisc.edu  (Daniel A. Glasser)
Subject: Comments on STE -- (un)known facts
Message-ID: <881@per2.UUCP>
 
In article <1842@atari.UUCP>, kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher) writes:
> Yes, there is a new OS service offered in the ROM, beginning with
> STE TOS, called the Cookie Jar.  The startup code in the new ROM versions
> set up an area of memory with "cookies" which describe various system
> configuration options, and with values for the cookies that describe
> what's actually there.
 
The "Cookie Jar" sounds to be similar to the "WIMP" directive that
was (is?) in P/OS running on the DEC Professional series (325, 350, 380).
WIMP stood for "What's In My Professional?".  I'm glad that you folks
have finally caught up with 1982 in that area, though you're still back
in the mid-to-late 70's with most of TOS, and the early to mid 80's with GEM.
 
Will the "Cookie Jar" ever appear in a revision to TOS for the older machines?
Is there a reasonable way to detect that there is no cookie jar on a machine
which a program can use?  If it is a new XBIOS style function, the return
value from the call to the system service would be a value indicating that
an illegal function was called, which is enough to tell the program that
there are no cookies.  If calling this function on an older OS causes a
buss error or similar unpredictable or unacceptable behavior, I'll be VERY
dissapointed.
--
 _____________________________________________________________________________
    Daniel A. Glasser                           One of those things that goes
    uwvax!per2!dag                              "BUMP!!!(ouch)" in the night.
 ---Persoft, Inc.---------465 Science Drive-------Madison, WI 53711-----------
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Dec 89 20:07:36 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!hrc!force!covertr@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Richard E.
 Covert)
Subject: Help >> COUNTRY.ARC!!!
Message-ID: <4749f0c5.14a1f@force.UUCP>
 
In article <8912070233.AA26917@jupiter.nmt.edu>, ehsnsr@JUPITER.NMT.EDU (Eric
 Hobbs) writes:
> Hi.
>     I recently downloaded COUNTRY.ARC. It de-arced just fine, but when I run
> COUNTRY.PRG, A Dialog box pops up that says:  Error #008  PC>$000000.
> What Happened? I ran it on a .5 Meg 520 STfm with NO accessories or  AUTO
> progs loaded.
>
>     If it turns out that COUNTRY.ARC is messed up, Is there another archive
> site that has samples and a player?
> Eric Hobbs
 
Eric, I d/led COUNTRY.ARC some time ago to my Mega ST at home and it
worked fine. If you need another copy let me know and I will be happy
to send it out to you.
 
It is a really nice country/western song.
 
I haven't tried it on a 1/2 meg system.
.
.
.
.
.
 
 
 
--
 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: 7 Dec 89 19:18:00 GMT
From: apollo!rehrauer@eddie.mit.edu  (Steve Rehrauer)
Subject: NeXT compared to TT
Message-ID: <4749c4bb.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>
 
In article <2401@hudson.acc.virginia.edu> gl8f@bessel.acc.Virginia.EDU (Greg
 Lindahl) writes:
>Actually, it seems kind of silly to me. MOST ST's don't have the memory
>or disk needed to run GCC, and MOST ST buyers don't know C. NeXT puts
>GCC with their machine because it's a workstation.
 
I don't suppose the TT is aimed at the workstation market, but on the
other hand, what IS it aimed at?  It seems likely that a TT system will
cost $3K or more.  In the U.S. at least, I guess beyond us hackers who
have money to spend I don't see who the buyer is.  The ST doesn't have
the software base (or at least, it doesn't have the marketing presense)
or "pedigree" here to attract many business buyers.  $3K is far more
than Joe Average Consumer is willing to spend on a computer.  And if
it isn't bundled with a decent & attractive set of goodies, it might
not attract the wealthy hackers either.  So who buys it?  I'm curious.
--
>>"Aaiiyeeee!  Death from above!"<< | Steve Rehrauer, rehrauer@apollo.hp.com
   "Flee, lest we be trod upon!"    | The Apollo System Division of H.P.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 89 17:36 EST
From: FRACHEL@umiami.Miami.EDU
Subject: Spectre Sound
 
Can the Spectre GCR handle mac sound? SUch as Digitized sounds from
SoundCap or SoundEdit?
 
Frank Rachel
Bitnet:FRACHEL@UMIAMI
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Dec 89 20:23:28 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!hrc!force!covertr@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Richard E.
 Covert)
Subject: STacey
Message-ID: <4749fef3.14a1f@force.UUCP>
 
In article <24791@cup.portal.com>, Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com writes:
> Good news....!
>
> The STacey has passed its FCC type acceptance testing as of today...
> according to Atari, it should be in the stores in 30 days or less.
>
> BobR
 
That's great news!!
 
I was at my local Atari store last weekend when a lady came in that
wanted to buy the STacy with a Spectre-GCR.
 
I hope that CW gets some of the STacy Spectre-GCRs in soon. Lord Only
Knows that he needs more products!! Henry@CW does OK but I would like
to see him stay in business (so he'll support my Mega :-) ). And it
looks like the STacy could be another winner for Atari!!
 
Hurray!!
 
P.S. Now if only we could get some more Spectre-GCRs from GBS!!
 
 
--
 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: Thu, 7 Dec 89 16:55 EST
From: JOHNBARNES@ENH.NIST.GOV
Subject: TeX and professional documentation for the ST
 
    The recent ruckus about the docs for FORM program has brought to
light a lot of misconceptions about TeX.  I personally view *.TeX
files as a preferred form of documentations for the following
reasons:
 
 
 
1). They can be read with any ASCII text editor.
 
 
 
2). They are the ONLY method that an Atari ST user has available to
typseset mathematics.
 
 
 
3). The structure of a TeX document as described by the relationships
of its parts with one another is rigorously defined.
 
 
 
4). The output on an SLM804 laser printer is simply beautiful.
 
 
 
4). It is the only package on the ST that is capable of printing
documents of any significant length without stopping for anything but
reloading paper.
 
 
 
5). They can be output on a wide variety of other engines if the user
does not have the requisite tools at his/her Atari workstation
 
 
 
No other combination of desktop publishing and word processing
software for the ST can make a similar claim.
 
 
 
I must, however, agree with those who feel that Jos. Vermasern should
have distributed the .TEX file rather than the .DVI file.  Mr
Vermasern's comment on this matter indicates that he somehow allowed
himself to get dragged into some situations that represent poor
publishing practice, whether done with TeX, Publisher ST, or Calamus.
 
 
 
I think it would be desirable to encourage further publication of
documentation in TeX form.  Simon Poole's Uniterm manual was an
excellent example of what can be achieved this way.  In doing so,
however, the authors should think of the following guidelines:
 
 
 
a). Keep it simple.  Don't use any more special constructs than you
have to.  If you need to modify the basic LaTeX constructs do so
sparingly.
 
 
 
b). Always provide the TeX source so that users can, when necessary,
adapt the manuscript to the limitations of their environments.  Paper
size is one trivial example.  Type fonts are another.
 
 
 
I have printed out several documents that I obtained from local
mathematicians to test the TeX implementation being distributed by
Current Notes.  I have found that sticking to the above prescriptions
results in something that is really no more difficult to use than ARC
or ZOO.  With this implementation of TeX the Atari ST can hold its
head high in some very sophisticated company.
 
 
 
People who squawk about the amount of disk space required by TeX
should realize that it is not really any worse than that tied up by
Ultrascript and it is not too much worse than what you have to go
through to bring up Publisher ST.
 
 
 
 
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End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #772
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