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INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Tue,  2 Jan 90       Volume 89 : Issue    3
 
Today's Topics:
                       AES Command - APPL_FIND?
                      Amiga Software by Atari!!
                                 ATW
         C-Kermit date bug -- Anyone else find this problem?
                   GDOS vs LaserJet vs me (2 msgs)
                  Hooking up a RS170 monitor to a ST
                               monogram
                        ROMmable C: compilers
                            Shareware MAC
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 05:05:00 GMT
From:
 nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!mailr
 us!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!tmsoft!masnet!canremote!nut%wet.uucp@tut.cis
 .ohio-state.edu  (nut@wet.UUCP)
Subject: AES Command - APPL_FIND?
Message-ID: <89122504041917@masnet.uucp>
 
From: nut@wet.UUCP (adam tilghman)
Orga: Wetware Diversions, San Francisco
 
Does anyone out there in netland know of the proper parameters to
pass for the AES function APPL_FIND? I am a starving
student/shareware programmer, and not having the funds to pay for a
full developership, have had to rely on ST Internals (an Abacus
book).  Just the parameters are needed, as I have Tom Hudson's
excellent tutorial from STart...
 
Many thanks!
 
--
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
""""" "" Adam G. Tilghman - Trendy Quote: "Beware of Greeks bearing
Trojans!" "" """ UUCP: nut@wet.UUCP  BBS: Eleusesthai, (415)871-9451
12/2400, 24Hrs """
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
"""""
---
 * Via MaSNet/HST96/HST144/V32 - UN Atari ST
 * Via Usenet Newsgroup comp.sys.atari.st
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 05:04:00 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu
 !torsqnt!tmsoft!masnet!canremote!cs161fca%sdcc10.ucsd.edu@tut.cis.ohio-state.ed
 u  (cs161fca@sdcc10.ucsd.edu)
Subject: Amiga Software by Atari!!
Message-ID: <89122504041857@masnet.uucp>
 
From: cs161fca@sdcc10.ucsd.edu ( )
Subj: Amiga Software by Atari!!!
Orga: University of California, San Diego
 
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.)
 
---
 * Via MaSNet/HST96/HST144/V32 - UN Atari ST
 * Via Usenet Newsgroup comp.sys.atari.st
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 2 Jan 90 01:35:05 GMT
From:
 cs.utexas.edu!samsung!caesar.cs.montana.edu!ogicse!blake!ramsiri@tut.cis.ohio-s
 tate.edu  (Enartloc Nhoj)
Subject: ATW
Message-ID: <5199@blake.acs.washington.edu>
 
I've been reading comp.sys.transputer and comp.sys.next.
The ATW has been mentioned with high acclaim in both
groups... as a matter of fact... there is at least one
NeXT owner who wishes he had known more about the ATW before
he bought the NeXT.. particlulary now that he has seen one.
 
This person claims that the ATW has a good chance at
becoming a serious contender in the workstation market..
Perhaps even stealing some parties hooked on the NeXT.
 
How about the front cover of Byte....  seems like it wouldn't hurt.
Every other machine that's ever been made or made "into" anything
has made it on the cover...
 
 
-kevin
ramsiri@blake.acs.washinton.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 2 Jan 90 15:00:48 GMT
From: per2!dag@speedy.wisc.edu  (Daniel A. Glasser)
Subject: C-Kermit date bug -- Anyone else find this problem?
Message-ID: <890@per2.UUCP>
 
Two years ago, someone posted a version of C-Kermit in comp.binaries.atari.st
(I think it was volume 7) in an archive (kerm_exe.arc).  I no longer have the
clear text that was in the posting and there is no pointer to the author that
I can find in the files within the arc file.
 
There is a bug in this program that causes odd to fatal results when it
is used in December, or used to transfer files in December.  The source
problem is that the month array (declared either local to the function
"ztime", or static to the module that contains the function ztime) is
declared something like
        char *months[12] = ?"","January",...,"December"?;
Note that there are 13 elements in the declaration list.  The problem is that
the C compiler used to compile this module allocated enough room in the months
array for only 12 pointers to char.  (It still stored all 13 strings.)  The
result is that when ztime is called to do something in December, it treats
the four bytes at &months[12] as a pointer, but these are the beginning
of the next bit of initialized data which happen to be a string.  The four
characters are passed in a long as a pointer to sprintf then to xprintf where
the "%s" in the format string causes an access to this bad value and BANG!
 
I was able to figure the above out without the source using the MWC symbolic
debugger since CKERMIT.TOS is not stripped and was built with the MWC compiler.
I looked at all the ST source archives I could find via FTP, and looked in the
Columbia University Kermit source archives and could not find the sources for
the ST C-Kermit.  I don't have the name of the author of this port.
 
If someone out there has these sources and can make the change, please do.
Also, I would like a copy of the sources myself if at all possible.  I would
like to add a few features to make it even more useful. (Full VT52 emulation,
vt100 emulation, etc.)
--
 _____________________________________________________________________________
    Daniel A. Glasser                 "Their brains were small and they died."
    uwvax.cs.wisc.edu!per2.uucp!dag
 ---Persoft, Inc.---------465 Science Drive-------Madison, WI 53711-----------
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 05:03:00 GMT
From:
 pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!mail
 rus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!tmsoft!masnet!canremote!hugh%dgp.toronto.ed
 u@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (hugh@dgp.toronto.edu)
Subject: GDOS vs LaserJet vs me
Message-ID: <89122504041824@masnet.uucp>
 
From: hugh@dgp.toronto.edu (D. Hugh Redelmeier)
 
*-*-*-*-* Message continued from prior message *-*-*-*-*
Remember: my experience has been as a user, not a programmer.  I
have not used it extensively (too painful :-).  So take my comments
with a grain of salt.
 
Hugh Redelmeier
?utcsri, yunexus, uunet!attcan, utzoo, hcr?!redvax!hugh
When all else fails: hugh@csri.toronto.edu
+1 416 482-8253
 
---
 * Via MaSNet/HST96/HST144/V32 - UN Atari ST
 * Via Usenet Newsgroup comp.sys.atari.st
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 05:03:00 GMT
From:
 usenet.ins.cwru.edu!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!tmsoft!masnet!canre
 mote!hugh%dgp.toronto.edu@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (hugh@dgp.toronto.edu)
Subject: GDOS vs LaserJet vs me
Message-ID: <89122504041763@masnet.uucp>
 
From: hugh@dgp.toronto.edu (D. Hugh Redelmeier)
 
I recently bought an HP LaserJet IIP for my 1040ST (and my Sun, but
that is another story).  To exploit the capabilities of the LJ, I
bought a GDOS driver for it (TurboJet from Neocept).  I am
attempting to use it with Microsoft Write and EasyDraw.
 
The whole experience has not been very pleasant.  I have encountered
innumerable problems, many of which remain a mystery.  This note
contains both cautionary tales, and pleas for help.  Perhaps I should
mention that my 1040 has TOS1.4, GDOS 1.1, and EasyDraw 2.3.  There
is only one (released) version of MS Write.
 
- Using GDOS to drive the LJ seems unnecessarily slow.  At least the
  first page of fairly plain text output takes a couple of minutes.
  In contrast, TeX drives the printer at close to its full rated
  speed, 4 pages per minute.  [The TeX output bytes were generated by
  my Sun, but they were transmitted to the printer by my ST.]  The
  key seems to be that the TeX driver downloads fonts a character at
  a time, ON DEMAND.  Often, most characters in a font never get
  downloaded.  The GDOS driver may not even use fonts, I don't know.
 
- Being an official Atari ST Developer, I thought that I might be
  able to write my own driver to solve the speed problem.  ATARI
  sent me their GDOS printer driver construction kit.
  Unfortunately, it contains no documentation of the interface
  between GDOS and printer drivers!  Neither does it contain
  documentation on the library of routines provided to do many of
  the driver tasks.  There are several sample drivers for dot-matrix
  printers, so no doubt one could easily be mutated into a driver
  for another dot-matrix printer.  This is no help in supporting the
  LJ well (i.e. figuring out how to download and then use fonts).
  Atari Canada said that what I got is all there is.  Atari US says
  that it is a Big Deal to get more (proposal in writing for Big
  People to consider).
 
- When GDOS is loaded, MS Write will crash when I use upparrow or
  downarrow keys to cross a change-of-indent.  This does not happen
  without GDOS.
 
- I tried to use GDOS with a large RAM disk.  Apparently this left
  too little memory for GDOS.  The symptoms were not at all clear
  and it took me a week to figure out the problem.  The symptoms
  were that MS Write and EasyDraw were not able to display all the
  fonts they should have, and could print even fewer.  GDOS or the
  printer driver made font substitutions with *no* diagnostic.  As
  you might imagine, I spent many fruitless hours playing with the
  assign.sys etc.
 
- MS Write seems to require all printer fonts to be loaded into RAM,
  even if they are not used.  On a 1040ST, this means that you must
  hide some fonts from Write (don't list them in assign.sys, or don't
  have them in the specified files).  Again, failure is indicated by
  printing with the wrong font.
 
- EasyDraw crashes when I try to save files.  I found that this does
  not happen if I use an obsolete version of meta.sys.  Migraph
  doesn't know why (but I only phoned them once).
 
- I sometimes use AMCGDOS (broadcast over the net from Germany) in
  place of GDOS.  I have not really noticed any difference, but I
  use either version of GDOS as little as I can manage.
 
- The only PD font that I have found that comes in the resolutions I
  need is "Camelot".  Unfortunately the 300DPI version seems to
  malformed: TurboJet won't touch it.  Are there other PD fonts in
  screen and laser resolutions?  I wonder if it would be easy to
  convert MetaFont (TeX) fonts to GDOS formats.
 
- Sometimes the 1040ST seems to think that the HPLJIIP is busy when
  it isn't.  This is independent of GDOS -- it happens for normal
  printouts too.  It only happens when the ST first tries to use the
  printer after the printer or the ST has been powered on (not every
  time; it may depend on which is powered on first).  I presume that
  this is related to problems people have reported with HP DeskJet
  printers connected to STs.  The program djreset.acc previously
  broadcast on the net seems to overcome this problem, but it is
  hard to activate it while running a non-GEM program.
 
Trying to discover the source of problems or find workarounds is
very painful.  There are just too many components and I have no
tools to audit the interfaces.
 
GDOS is a tool that adds what should be an important dimension to
the ST.  Many feel GDOS should have been built into GEM, burned into
the ROMS.  The current licensing rules just seem to be a nuisance.
Since AMCGDOS has been broadcast, all that is needed to avoid
licensing is a collection of reasonable fonts and printer drivers.
 
GDOS as it is now is cumbersome and slow.  For me, the worst problem
is that I now have very little confidence in GDOS-based software.
 
*-*-*-*-* Message continued in next message *-*-*-*-*
---
 * Via MaSNet/HST96/HST144/V32 - UN Atari ST
 * Via Usenet Newsgroup comp.sys.atari.st
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 2 Jan 90 20:36:40 GMT
From: ubc-cs!buchanan@beaver.cs.washington.edu  (John Buchanan)
Subject: Hooking up a RS170 monitor to a ST
Message-ID: <6126@ubc-cs.UUCP>
 
Has any one done it?  I tried hooking it up but as you can guess it did
not work.
 
Any pointers would be useful.
 
Thanks.
 
        john.
 
========================================================================
I used to have a good .signature but I lost it when I changed
organizations.
========================================================================
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 2 Jan 90 15:47:58 GMT
From: isc-br!techpub1!lawrence@uunet.uu.net  (Lawrence Kelley 99)
Subject: monogram
Message-ID: <2683@isc-br.ISCS.COM>
 
In article <8912280806.AA17281@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> BALTUCH@BRANDEIS.BITNET
 (Jacob Baltuch) writes:
>I'm posting this question for somebody who doesn't have access to the net.
>
>Has anybody heard about MONOGRAM. They had a program called "Dollars&Cents"
>or something like that. My friend is happy with the program but doesn't seem
>to be able to get his printer to work with it. When he tries to use the
>printer the ST hangs or something. Anybody out there has ever used this
>program and might be able to help? I'd appreciate.
>
Stay far, far away from D&S.  It's a sloppily done port from MS-DOS to Mac to
Atari ST.  I lost three months worth of data and the program then trashed
my back-up.  Star Monogram refuses to support ST users.  Their attitude is
that there is not a large enough customer base to care about.  I have
been told by Monogram that there will be no update to the bug-ridden program
that's out there.
 
I spent $80 on the package when it was new.  Printing is only part of the
problem.
 
If you want a dependable home accounting program for reasonable bucks, buy
PHASAR from Antic.  Or, if you have Spectre and can run Mac stuff, I would
recomend Quicken.
 
Dollars and Sense for the ST is junk!
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 21 Dec 89 05:04:00 GMT
From:
 usenet.ins.cwru.edu!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!tmsoft!masnet!canre
 mote!wynkoop%esquire.uucp@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (wynkoop@esquire.UUCP)
Subject: ROMmable C: compilers
Message-ID: <89122504041884@masnet.uucp>
 
From: wynkoop@esquire.UUCP (Brett Wynkoop)
Orga: DP&W, New York, NY
 
In article <72175@psuecl.bitnet> kap@psuecl.bitnet writes:
>
>
>I need a compiler for 68000 software development. Thu, the question
arises: >Does anybody know of any C: compilers that produce ROMmable
code? >
>Thanks in advance,
>
>-Keith
>
>kap@psuecl.bitnet
psuvax1!psuecl.bitnet!kap
 
Greeting-
     Contact Microware in Demoines Iowa.  They have a compiler that
will do the trick.  Runs under OS-9 which is a multi tasking multi
user reatime romabel operating system that will run on any 68k
machine.  I am surprised more people with ST machines don't run it.
I would be realy frustrated by not having OS-9.
 
    Also check out the os9 forum on CIS as well as comp.os.os9.
 
MICROWARE (os9 Des Moines Ia.)                            (515)
224-1929
 
 
 
I have no conection with Microware I just use thier products on a 6809
based system  with multiple windows and frequently two users at once.
 
 
-Brett
 
uucp.................cmcl2!esquire!wynkoop
domain...............wynkoop@esquire.dpw.com
CI$..................72057,3720
Land Line............212-266-0741
Air Wave.............WA3YRE/2 (7.075 Mhz, 7.255 Mhz, 14.313 Mhz,
14.230 Mhz)
---
 * Via MaSNet/HST96/HST144/V32 - UN Atari ST
 * Via Usenet Newsgroup comp.sys.atari.st
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 12 Dec 89 14:42:00 GMT
From:
 cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!tmsoft!masnet!canremote!greg.tric
 e@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (GREG TRICE)
Subject: Shareware MAC
Message-ID: <89122619395637@masnet.uucp>
 
Yes I have, lots of it. What you don't realize is that just because
Apple needed 128k of code, and N man-years of work doesn't necessarily
mean that the task at hand needs that. Depending on the skill - and more
important - insight - of programmers, the same task may result in
solutions that are very different in code size and time taken. I have
examples at hand of functionally identical programs, one of which is
twenty times the size of the other. And the large one probably took
fifty times as long to debug. I've never disassembled a Mac ROM, so I
can't give any views on the quality of the code therein, but knowing (a)
how slow a Mac is and (b) that some at least of the code was written in
Pascal (probably by some structured programming fetishist) I suspect
that most of the code is pretty awful.
  Of course I wasn't necessarily advocating that anybody actually try
it; knowing Apple's penchant for suing everybody, I'd have every
incentive to make any machine I designed as unlike a Mac as possible.
Anyway, is there really any genuinely indispensable program available
only on the Mac? Even if there were, it would probably be an easier task
to patch the program to run on the ST than create an (even slower) Mac
emulator.
---
 * Via ProDoor 3.2aR
 
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End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #3
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