=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Wed, 14 Feb 90       Volume 90 : Issue  205
 
Today's Topics:
                       ATARI ST 520FM for sale
                          Documentation Only
                             GEEZ, ALAN!
                             MEI Floppies
                     Some Atari dealers in Canada
                      Wordperfect newer release
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Feb 90 22:36:23 GMT
From: max!rosalia@sbcs.sunysb.edu  (Mark Galassi)
Subject: ATARI ST 520FM for sale
Message-ID: <1990Feb14.223623.20544@max.sunysb.edu>
 
In article <1990Feb14.195255.18204@max.sunysb.edu> rosalia@max.sunysb.edu (Mark
 Galassi) writes:
>So here is the scoop:  I sell
>-- Atari 520 ST FM
>.... other stuff
>You pay exactly $400 or best offer for the whole thing, including UPS COD
>charges.
 
Terribly sorry about that:  I forgot to include my phone number:
it is 516-751-4468.
--
    ?These opinions are mine, and should be everybody else's :-)?
        Mark Galassi            rosalia@dirac.sunysb.edu
        rosalia@mozart.UUCP     rosalia@sunysbnp.BITNET
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Feb 90 19:46:46 GMT
From:
 elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!bridge2!mips!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.ut
 exas.edu!asuvax!hrc!force!covertr@decwrl.dec.com  (Richard E. Covert)
Subject: Documentation Only
Message-ID: <48a4e0dc.14a1f@force.UUCP>
 
In article <8532@pogo.WV.TEK.COM>, bluneski@pogo.WV.TEK.COM (Bob Luneski)
 writes:
> >"The only documentation from my dept. is sold as part of the developer's
> >kit.  Mr. Badertscher was in error - unless this was an old message"
>
> The "documentation only" only version IS the developers kit without MWC,
> extended support, and TOS 1.4 Roms. It is available at a reduced price.
 
I just spoke to Charles Cherry about becoming a Developer and was told
that Atari is changing the Developer program. Currently, there is only one
level, that of Commerical Developer, which costs $250. This is down from
$300 in 1989. this includes the Atari Docs and the Alycon C compiler. The
old package, which cost $50 more , included the Mark Williams Corp C compiler.
The MWC compiler was dropped since most developers already owned a compiler,
and didn't need it. Charles told me that the MWC compiler can still be purchased
thru Atari (as a developer) for $100. sounds fair to me.
 
Charles did say that Atari is trying to make a Non_Commerical Developer class,
but that it is not announced yet.
 
So, there is NO "documentation only" developer package, but the Full Commerical
Dev Package has benn dropped to $250.00.
 
As always contact Gail Johnson at Atari Corp for more info.
 
 
--
 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: Wed, 14 Feb 90 18:35:00 EST
From: Greg Csullog <01659%AECLCR.bitnet@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Subject: GEEZ, ALAN!
Message-ID: <90Feb14.191953est.58481@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca>
 
Alan Pratt wrote that he was irritated at my request for info on the
STE and multysyncs. Alan, the request was general, not aimed at you
explicitly so there's no reason to take offense.
 
When I had problems with an STE and Word Perfect I called WP Corp. WP
(specifically a tech rep named Mike) called Atari to find out why. Atari USA
told him it was because the STEs support large screen monitors and WP
does not. Now Alan Pratt says the STE does not support large screen monitors;
what gives at Atari?
 
I was asked to do a review of the STE for Current Notes and I passed along
the info about large screen monitor support (assuming Atari knew what it
was talking about). I guess I'll have to notify CN and have to issue an
erratum.
 
This all stems from the fact that Atari is marketing a product that no one
can get specs on. It's so frustrating supporting a computer like the ST when
one has to contend with Atari!
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Feb 90 20:15:27 GMT
From: cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!hrc!force!covertr@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Richard E.
 Covert)
Subject: MEI Floppies
Message-ID: <48a4fa85.14a1f@force.UUCP>
 
> In article <2013@moscom.UUCP>, tmb@moscom.UUCP (Tom Bellucco) writes...
> "Help!!  For the past couple years, I've been buying bulk 3.5" DSDD disks from
> "MEI/MicroCenter.  I've bought THOUSANDS of disks from them, starting when
 they
> "were $1 per disk.  Now they are $.45 per disk and they are shit.  Out of each
> "200 I buy, at least 50-75 of them won't format DS.  I figure they are just
> "using SS disks (because the SS disks are the same price).  Back when the
> "disks were from $.70 - $1 each, they were great disks and it was a great
 deal.
> "Now it sucks having to return disks only to get more bad ones.  Some of these
> "disks have "marks" (look like scratches) across the media that I just wonder
> "is doing to my drive.
 
We buy hundreds of the MEI floppies each year to seel at our PHAST Club
meetings. We have had very low (less than 1%) failures with these floppies.
These floppies are used on all sorts of STs, with all kinds of floppy drives.
 
If you are having that large a failure rate I would suggest that you have your
floppy drive checked out. I t may need alignment, or have a bad head, or
something.
 
I have never seen scratch marks on our floppies. I just bought 200 for our PHAST
club last week and we used about 40 of them for pd disks. They all formatted
 fine
on my STs at home.
 
Good luck!!
 
 
--
 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: 14 Feb 90 23:59:41 GMT
From: ogicse!plains!blee@decwrl.dec.com  (blee)
Subject: Some Atari dealers in Canada
Message-ID: <3436@plains.UUCP>
 
In article <20919@watdragon.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@poppy.waterloo.edu (Lee
 Dickey) writes:
>In article <917@uvicctr.UVic.CA.UUCP> rwilson@uvicctr.UVic.CA.UUCP (Richard
 Wilson) writes:
>
>>According to my local Atari dealer, he can lose his dealership if he send's
>>machines to the U.S.  Since Canadien Atari computers are not FCC approved,
 they
>>cannot be sold to the U.S.  Please ask your dealer before posting his address,
>
>Who is asking the dealer to "send" anything.  I think we are talking
>about walk-ins here.  My dealer did not ask if I intend to take
>my machine to the US.  I know of another who may have contributed
>None of these activities are illegal, nor should they endanger the
>status of a dealership.
>    L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
>       ljdickey@water.UWaterloo.ca     ljdickey@water.BITNET
 
I must say I agree with Richard on this, in fact if the FCC caught wind of
this I would place my money on them.  IF in fact there is a internal difference
in the US STe (or other models) and someone complains(TV, radio, aircraft...etc
reception) --> I think the FCC will be a knocking on your door real soon.
Also I would guess that the FCC would talk to the border patrol about this
for those occasional random checks.
 
Just remember it IS illegal and if you are caught expect to loose your
computer.  I would compare it to importing a car from another country
that does not have the same emmisions controls.  Radio wave polution
is on the same order as air, noise, and other polutions; even if we
can't see it, it probably will affect somebody!
 
I hope in the future Canadian dealers will not sell to Americans,
I believe it IS risky for them.
 
PS: I may have posted before with a name '(finger me!)', it was put
there to encorage the UNIX command finger(1) not as a insult to anyone.
 
Blaine Lee
blee @ plains.nodak.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 14 Feb 90 19:36:32 GMT
From: ubc-cs!alberta!ccu!bright@beaver.cs.washington.edu  (Bob Bright)
Subject: Wordperfect newer release
Message-ID: <1990Feb14.193632.23724@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
 
In article <90021206214250@masnet.uucp> derek.linfield@canremote.uucp (DEREK
 LINFIELD) writes:
>BTW, have you checked for crosslinked files while using Wordperfect. We
>used Wordperfect on IBM where I use to work and we always had problems
>with cross linked files. Now these problems are appearing on my HD. I've
>had duplicte directories appear within the directory that I keep my  Text
>files; I've also had directories corrupted so that I could return to the
>parent directory from the desktop but not within a disk utility program
>like DLII.
 
     Word Perfect maintains it's own virtual directory information in
temporary files (at least, the ST version does).  Why it does this I'm
not sure (ask the programmers :-), but if at some point it can't find
its temporary files, it gets real upset and starts cross-linking
_your_ files, messing up directories, etc.  This is a common problem
on floppy-only systems, particularly systems where memory is at a
premium and the user is tempted to set WP's virtual directory to the
floppy.
     If no virtual directory is specified by the user in WP_START.PRG,
then WP automatically sets up a ramdisk of 30K or so and saves its
temporary files there.  If you're short on memory, you can save the
30K by setting the virtual directory to A:, say, in WP_START.PRG.
(Setting the virtual directory to A: also allows you to edit large
files that won't fit into memory all at once; 30K isn't enough room
for WP to spool the virtual file into, but there's usually plenty of
room on the floppy.)
     God help you, though, if you have the virtual directory set to A:
and you swap out the disk that has WP's temporary files on it.  You're
virtually guaranteed to have problems with cross-linked files, etc.,
and the problems are virtually guaranteed not to show up until later.
I.e., the files you're editing will appear to save OK, you can
continue to edit them, save them again, exit WP, whatever; but the
next time you load them into WP, they're trashed, along with probably
80% of whatever else you had on the disk.  (Believe me, I learned all
of this the hard way.)
     I keep WP's virtual directory set to D: (a 200K ramdisk) on my
1040ST, and have _never_ had a problem with cross-linked files or
anything similar.  If you have a hard drive, set the virtual directory
to one of its partitions and you shouldn't have any problems either.
     If you absolutely MUST set the virtual directory to a floppy (I
sometimes do this on my wife's 520ST floppy-only system at home, when
I need to edit large files), proceed with extreme caution.  DO NOT
under any circumstances simply swap out the floppy and put in another
one in order to save a backup copy of the file or anything like that.
If you only have a single drive and you desperately need to access a
different floppy, make sure that you refer to the other floppy as B:
(assuming that the virtual directory is set to A:) -- e.g.: Shift-F10
will give the the "Retrieve File" dialogue; input "B:\yourfile.ext"
and the system will prompt you to insert the other disk.  Just to be
on the safe side, hit F5 ("List Files") as soon as you're done
retrieving the file from the B: disk, and the system will prompt you
to re-insert the A: disk so that WP gets its temporary files back.
     Hope this helps, BBB
 
--
Bob Bright <bright@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Dept. of Philosophy
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Man  R3T 2N2  (204) 474-9680
 
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End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #205
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