=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Thu, 21 Dec 89       Volume 89 : Issue  841
 
Today's Topics:
                      Amiga Software by Atari!!!
                       Cartridge port (2 msgs)
                    Commercial Networks and Usenet
                        CPM-Emulator (2 msgs)
                      Dungeon Master and TOS 1.4
                 Merry Christmas to Atari!!! (2 msgs)
                       Problem with menu_text()
                     Rainbow TOS Addendum (text)
                                Tetris
                           TT availability
                            Usenet-->GEnie
                  USENET -> GEnie uplink now working
                   wind_update (Was: Re: AES bug?)
                                 xxed
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 20 Dec 89 21:37:26 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!prls!pyramid!infmx!robert@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
  (Robert Coleman)
Subject: Amiga Software by Atari!!!
Message-ID: <2893@infmx.UUCP>
 
In article <5791@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> cs161fca@sdcc10.ucsd.edu ( ) writes:
>Well, back in 1984 Atari had a company called Atarisoft which sold
>software for commodore 64 and other computers...Perhaps things have
>got so bad for Atari (i.e., ST in the market defeated by the Amiga)
>that Atari wants to try the old trick again.  However, last time the
>trick did not work...  (Atarisoft was a failure.)
 
        Hmmm. I worked for Atari at that time QAing the Atarisoft line. We
were told internally that Atarisoft was was one the main things keeping
Atari afloat.
 
        This was when Warner still owned Atari, but had performed it's major
layoffs (I was laid off from the computer division and picked up by the
Atarisoft group). The company was struggling to barely survive during that
period.
 
        Actually, the Atarisoft products were one of the things that Atari
really did right. We found some of the best Arcade game players in the country,
and hired them to tell us all the tricks, tips, etc of the arcade games we
were converting. Whereas old conversions of Pacman did not "feel" like the
arcade version, Ms. Pacman behaved in exactly the same way as the arcade (at
least as far as our experts could determine).
 
        Given the environment at the time, I was reluctant to take internal
info at face value, so Atarisoft may really have been a commercial failure.
However, as Atari was bought out shortly after I left the company, the
cancelling of Atarisoft may have had less to do with the commercial
success/failure of the products than with Tramiel's corporate vision.
 
        Do you have real info about the success/failure of Atarisoft or are
you just looking at the fact that it's not around anymore?
 
Robert C.
--
"Helen's the only one who knows what scruples are, and she won't tell us"
John said. "Have we got scruples about it, Helen?"
"Not a trace," Helen affirmed.          -The Reefs of Earth, R.A.Lafferty
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 08:07:19 GMT
From: mephisto!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!rs0@rutgers.edu  (Bob Slaughter)
Subject: Cartridge port
Message-ID: <21556@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
 
I am looking for info on using the cartridge port as an I/O port.  I
need D0-D8, A0-A15, and how the port does read vs. write (MEMR* and
MEMW* lines line an InTel, or R/W* with clock strobe ala 6502).  The
docs that come with the ST have the pinouts for most of these, but the
port direction control is not clear at all from their diagram.  If you
have to know, this is related to C/MRI project from Model Railroader
(Computer/Model Railroad Interface), as now reprinted in Bruce Chubb's
"How to Build a Universal Computer Interface".  I know the port can be
written to, otherwise how do you set all those nice clock carts? :)  I
may not use the info right away, but it will be easier to ask now than
in 10 years or so, which is proabably get around to this.
 
--
*     Bob Slaughter                           *  This space for rent       *
*     InterNet#1:  rs0@beach.cis.ufl.edu      *    Call 1-800-FOR-RENT     *
*     InterNet#2:  Haldane@Pine.Circa.Ufl.Edu *   Model Railroading        *
*     Bitnet:      Haldane@UFPine             *          is Fun!!          *
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 08:07:19 GMT
From: mephisto!uflorida!beach.cis.ufl.edu!rs0@rutgers.edu  (Bob Slaughter)
Subject: Cartridge port
Message-ID: <21556@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
 
I am looking for info on using the cartridge port as an I/O port.  I
need D0-D8, A0-A15, and how the port does read vs. write (MEMR* and
MEMW* lines line an InTel, or R/W* with clock strobe ala 6502).  The
docs that come with the ST have the pinouts for most of these, but the
port direction control is not clear at all from their diagram.  If you
have to know, this is related to C/MRI project from Model Railroader
(Computer/Model Railroad Interface), as now reprinted in Bruce Chubb's
"How to Build a Universal Computer Interface".  I know the port can be
written to, otherwise how do you set all those nice clock carts? :)  I
may not use the info right away, but it will be easier to ask now than
in 10 years or so, which is proabably get around to this.
 
--
*     Bob Slaughter                           *  This space for rent       *
*     InterNet#1:  rs0@beach.cis.ufl.edu      *    Call 1-800-FOR-RENT     *
*     InterNet#2:  Haldane@Pine.Circa.Ufl.Edu *   Model Railroading        *
*     Bitnet:      Haldane@UFPine             *          is Fun!!          *
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 04:14:39 GMT
From: uvaarpa!murdoch!bessel.acc.Virginia.EDU!gl8f@mcnc.org  (Greg Lindahl)
Subject: Commercial Networks and Usenet
Message-ID: <1989Dec21.041439.24056@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
 
I'm not sure why people are so upset about the announcement of a feed
to GEnie. To start with, we have many commercial services which offer
Usenet, including uunet, Portal, the Well, and local-access Unix boxes
which sometimes charge. This topic has been hashed over before when
rec.humor.funny began to be offered on Compu$erve. It's here, you
can't stop it altogether, and it's not necessarily a bad thing.
 
One thing I did ask Dave Small to clarify, though, was GEnie's
compilation copyright. Obviously they cannot claim a compilation
copyright on the compilation of comp.sys.atari.st articles, so they
will be unable to stop GEnie subscribers from downloading all the
c.s.a.st articles and putting them up on BBSes and whatnot.
 
If you don't want YOUR articles going to GEnie, you can place a
copyright notice at the bottom with distribution restrictions.
In any case, can we fight about this on a news newsgroup instead
of here?
 
------
Greg Lindahl
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 89/12/21 10:15 MEZ
From: Thomas Neser <so01%dmarum8.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: CPM-Emulator
 
Hello netters,
is it possible to run C64 or Amiga Software on a  Atari ST?
Please email me to <so01@dmarum8.bitnet>
Thanks in advance
Thomas Neser, SFB3, Universitaet Mannheim
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 89/12/21 10:15 MEZ
From: Thomas Neser <so01%dmarum8.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: CPM-Emulator
 
Hello netters,
excuse me for the space i use, but this message is for Frits Dumortier,
to whom i have no direct net-connection. I will look up the questions
about Memory upgrade and laser in a few days. Here in the office i have
not the publishings with relevant information. When i forget it over
X-mas please email me to <so01@dmarum8.bitnet>.
Thomas Neser, SFB3, Universitaet Mannheim
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 00:28:06 GMT
From: imagen!atari!danscott@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Dan Scott)
Subject: Dungeon Master and TOS 1.4
Message-ID: <1908@atari.UUCP>
 
in article <89354.001528SML108@PSUVM.BITNET>, SML108@PSUVM.BITNET says:
>
> Has anyone successfully run Dungeon Master in TOS 1.4?  I want to buy it but
> I need to know this..... FAST... Send your replies via email...
>
> Scott Le Grand aka SML108@PSUVM.PSU.EDU
 
Dungeon Master runs fine in the final release of TOS 1.4
 
I play it off and on myself.
 
 
Dan Scott/Atari Corp.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 07:47:18 GMT
From: ubc-cs!alberta!atha!rwa@beaver.cs.washington.edu  (Ross Alexander)
Subject: Merry Christmas to Atari!!!
Message-ID: <1343@atha.AthabascaU.CA>
 
What Chris said.  Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to the hard working
people at Atari R&D.  Good luck with the product intro's :-) :-) !!
 
        Ross
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 20 Dec 89 17:20:24 GMT
From: imagen!atari!kbad@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Ken Badertscher)
Subject: Merry Christmas to Atari!!!
Message-ID: <1905@atari.UUCP>
 
Thanks for the holiday cheer!
 
  And a Happy New Year to all our faithful (and even the not-so-faithful!)
Atarians in netland..
 
  See you all next year!
 
 
--
   |||   Ken Badertscher  (ames!atari!kbad)
   |||   Atari R&D System Software Engine
  / | \  #include <disclaimer>
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 01:42:49 GMT
From: imagen!atari!mui@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Derek Mui)
Subject: Problem with menu_text()
Message-ID: <1909@atari.UUCP>
 
in article <1616@bnr-rsc.UUCP>, oldfield@bnr-rsc.UUCP (John Oldfield) says:
>
>
> Every time I try to update the text in a menu item,
> my program crashes.  The call I am using to change
> the text is
>
> menu_text(menu_ptr, ITEM_CONST, new_text);
>
 
        I just wrote a test program to do the same thing but I didn't
have any problem. Could it be your menu_ptr or ITEM_CONST got screwed
up?
 
 
==================================================================
Derek Mui, Atari Corp, 1196 Borregas Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
 
UUCP: ?..ames!atari!mui?
 FAX: 408-745-5179
 
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are my own and they may be
            hazardous to your mind.
==================================================================
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 20 Dec 89 17:24:08 GMT
From: imagen!atari!kbad@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Ken Badertscher)
Subject: Rainbow TOS Addendum (text)
Message-ID: <1906@atari.UUCP>
 
CORRECTION!
 
It was GEnie SysOp Jeff WILLIAMS (not Jeff Wilson, whoever he is ;) who
typed in the Rainbow TOS Addendum for the edification of all...
 
I guess I must have been thinking of Jeff's SisOp Sandy Wilson when
I typed that header to the last message!
 
 
 
--
   |||   Ken Badertscher  (ames!atari!kbad)
   |||   Atari R&D System Software Engine
  / | \  #include <disclaimer>
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 05:25:53 GMT
From: att!cbnewsk!ronw@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (ronald.g.wolenty)
Subject: Tetris
Message-ID: <1695@cbnewsk.ATT.COM>
 
Was a Tetris lookalike posted to the net in the not-too-distant
past?  If so, could some kind soul mail a copy to me?
Thanks.
 
Ron Wolenty
AT&T Consumer Products
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 09:14:27 GMT
From: mcsun!hp4nl!nikhefh!t68@uunet.uu.net  (Jos Vermaseren)
Subject: TT availability
Message-ID: <674@nikhefh.nikhef.nl>
 
Well: Atari did it again.
When asking Atari about the availability of the TT in september
they said `november', then it became december. Yesterday I asked
my dealer and guess what: now it is februari. The machine is being
redesigned. Also TOS 1.4 won't come out officially in the Netherlands,
(as far as I was told). They'll rather wait for the next version.
 
If I were a mathematician I would have a nearly complete proof
by induction by now that the TT will never appear.
 
Jos Vermaseren
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 07:00:47 GMT
From: attctc!ltf@eddie.mit.edu  (Lance Franklin)
Subject: Usenet-->GEnie
Message-ID: <10690@attctc.Dallas.TX.US>
 
In article <CMM.0.88.630161342.cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu>
 cmm1@CUNIXA.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Christopher M Mauritz) writes:
>While I think this is a good idea, I am somewhat annoyed that this
>arrangement only helps GEnie (a profiteering company) and does naught
>for the users of this net.  So, even though you personally may get no
>benefit from the arrangement, GEnie does and I am therefore against the
>practice.  I'm sure that the powers that be in Usenet will not be
>pleased either.  Just my $.02....
 
Powers that be?  In Usenet???   :-)
 
At any rate, I fail to see how this should trouble anybody...I assume they're
paying whoever they're getting the feed from for their trouble, and since it's
a one-way connection (UseNet-->GEnie), it won't effect the bandwidth usage in
the slightest...They are providing a service for their subscribers, who can
use or not use the service at their own choice...If they don't use it, they
don't pay for it.  Who's being harmed in this transaction?  Not the users
of GEnie...those who don't use the service are not harmed, those who do
apparently are willing to pay the price...UseNet as a whole is not harmed,
since it's not adding to the bandwidth usage, and the system providing the
feed to GEnie is not harmed, indeed they are probably benifiting from the
additional income.
 
So...what's the problem?
 
Lance
 
 
--
+-------------------------+ +------------------------------------------+
| Lance T Franklin        | | "And all who heard should see them there,
| ltf@attctc.DALLAS.TX.US | |  And all should cry, Beware!  Beware!
+-------------------------+ +  His flashing eyes, his floating hair!"
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 20 Dec 89 18:53:43 GMT
From: att!hriso!attdso!ssc!fyl@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Phil Hughes)
Subject: USENET -> GEnie uplink now working
Message-ID: <330@ssc.UUCP>
 
In article <935@crash.cts.com>, canada@crash.cts.com (Diane Barlow Close)
 writes:
 
> What I object to the most is the fact that the link is one way (and will
> stay that way due to GEnie's commercial nature).  I don't like Usenet being
> ``raped'' to supply GEnie's commercial pockets.  If GEnie is that ``tapped
> out'' for knowledge that they are desperate enough to plunder Usenet, then
> perhaps GEnie should be disbanded.
 
I disagree.  There are sources of information and there are distributors
of information.  We, the users of Usenet are the source.  We have decided
to share that information with others.  And GEnie is not providing access
to that information - for a price.  Usenet offers the same but the price
is different.  In my case, a company that I own part of foots the bill for
providing Usenet services to employees as well as feeds to other
companies.  Other companies provide Usenet access for money.
 
Now, anyone who is on GEnie and reads this can decide they would rather
pay a different provider of service.  For example, in Seattle there are at
least three companies that will provide Usenet access for a price.
 
--
Phil Hughes, SSC, Inc. P.O. Box 55549, Seattle, WA 98155  (206)FOR-UNIX
     uunet!pilchuck!ssc!fyl or attmail!ssc!fyl            (206)527-3385
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 20 Dec 89 18:35:52 GMT
From: imagen!atari!mui@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Derek Mui)
Subject: wind_update (Was: Re: AES bug?)
Message-ID: <1907@atari.UUCP>
 
> What exactly happens when an application makes multiple calls to
> wind_update()?  Are these calls stacked (as with hide_mouse())?  Is
> there a way to find out how many calls have been made, or to force an
> undo of all stacked calls?
 
 
        Wind_update() must be called in ON and OFF sequence. It doesn't
matter how many times you call it as long as they are called in that
sequence. Sorry, there isn't any way to find out how many times you have
made that call.
 
        Wind_update() should be called when you are going to do a lot
of screen update and you don't want to be interrupted in the middle of
the operation. The best place to call wind_update( 1 ) is right after
the event_multi(). Make sure to call wind_update( 0 ) before you entering
back to the event loop.
 
 
 
==================================================================
Derek Mui, Atari Corp, 1196 Borregas Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 94086
 
UUCP: ?..ames!atari!mui?
 FAX: 408-745-5179
 
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are my own and they may be
            hazardous to your mind.
==================================================================
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 03:22:44 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!ubc-cs!alberta!ccu!charltn@tut.cis.ohio-state.
 edu  (Jim Charlton)
Subject: xxed
Message-ID: <1989Dec21.032244.13405@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
 
I've come across a bug in xxed which was recently posted to
comp.sys.binaries.st.  When a file is saved (using 'save' or
'save as'), the dummy null byte at the end of the file is stripped
off before saving and not put back on.  If you continue to edit
the copy in memory, it is possible that problems could occur when
editing near the end of the file.  To be safe, close the file after
saving and then reopen it if you want to continue editing.  I have
rewritten the code to fix the problem but prefer to wait a decent period
for reports of any other bugs before posting a second version with bugs
fixed.            jim...
 
Jim Charlton         charltn@ccu.umanitoba.ca
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #841
*****************************************
