=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Sun, 18 Feb 90       Volume 90 : Issue  226
 
Today's Topics:
                       All Black Screen Savers
                     Autostart program for TOS16
                           Help?  Unsusibe?
                  Matthew Lodge's message (ST World)
                OK, so they sell the STe in Europe...
                               overscan
                 Screen Saver and Alternate Desktop.
                             Starstrk.acc
                         The 'PHANTOM TYPIST'
                        Tiff to Img convertion
                               XEP80's
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 16 Feb 90 03:15:15 GMT
From: att!oucsace!bwhite@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Bill White)
Subject: All Black Screen Savers
Message-ID: <1118@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU>
 
In article <1990Feb10.153630.29627@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>, mark@ccvr1.ncsu.edu (Mark
 Boyd) writes:
> Moshe Braner's Idle 1.2 does not blank the screen by removing signals
> from the monitor. It displays a black screen using the memory below the
> default video memory. If that area is in use, it just does reverse video
> on the screen. It will NOT hurt your monitor. I've used it for years and
> I've examined the code in detail. Moshe writes good code!
>
 
        Out of curiosity, wouldn't it be simpler just to set all the colors
to zero?  Sure, you'd need a whole 32 bytes to store the original colors in,
but I'm sure you could find that much somewhere.  It seems to me that just
reversing the screen video would keep a particular PATTERN from burning in,
but wouldn't stop contribution to overall monitor dimming.  By the same
token, switching to a blank area won't help if you're background color is
white (or bright color) for the same reason.
        I haven't found any screen saver that I've liked yet.  The Fuji
one sounds interesting but sort of defeats the whole purpose of a screen
saver (ie prevent a pattern from burning into the monitor, and prevent the
monitor from losing brightness).  I have a PD one which kicks into effect
after no input for so long, but it tends to cause programs to crash (or
stop, more often, including file transfer programs!)
        If anyone would be willing to send me the basic code for one (I
don't have the time these days to write daemons), and your list of complaints
about existing ones, I'd try my hand at writing one, but no doubt it'd be
bug-filled as well.
        Mind you, I'm not knocking anyone's code; I'm just mentioning my
own views about this subject.  As for killing the V-sync, I've got a NEC
MultiSync 3D, and if the Vsync drops, the monitor screeches like it's being
tortured!
 
                                Bill White
                                bwhite@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu
                                ...!att!oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu!bwhite
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Feb 90 02:52:14 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!hyc@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
 (Howard Chu)
Subject: Autostart program for TOS16
Message-ID: <11016@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu>
 
In article <15.Feb.90.11:14:32.A10004@UK.AC.SALF.D> D.Wade@sysd.salford.ac.UK
 writes:
> Can any one tell me where I can find an AUTOSTART program that works with
> the TOS16 in my 520STE. Neither of the ones I have will work. Thanks
 
If you mean, a program that lets you start GEM programs at boot-time, why
can't you just use the AUTO-boot feature in TOS 1.6? (In the Install-Application
menu. Select "AUTO" for Boot Status.) I know that the HEADSTART docs mention
some incompatibilities that might make you want to use HEADSTRT over the
TOS 14/16 auto-booter, but I've never encountered any problems myself.
 
--
  -- Howard Chu @ University of Michigan
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 16 Feb 90 15:03:50 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!grahamt@uunet.uu.net  (Graham Thomas)
Subject: Help?  Unsusibe?
Message-ID: <2205@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
 
From article <16000013@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>, by cs325ec@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu:
>
>
>       Is it just me or does anyone else feel like mailing the
>       words 'Piss off!' to the people that post 'help' or
>       'unsuscribe' to the news group.
>
>       Of course maybe I'm stupid and there's a valid reason
>       for it.
>
>
>       -Greg
 
My guess is that this mostly happens because people send a message
direct to a mailing list rather than to the administrator of the list.
Not everyone, especially people who are new to networking, knows the
sometimes subtle differences in the addresses.
 
I think we should all show a little patience with such messages.  I
remember how confused I was when first introduced to Usenet, and I would
not have appreciated lots of messages telling me to piss off after
making an obviously unintentional error.  If you mail the authors, try
to be helpful.  We can all use a little help now and then.
 
Anyway, these messages are all very short.  They don't cost much time or
money to read.
 
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: 18 Feb 90 19:47:29 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!edcastle!aimd@uunet.uu.net  (M Davidson)
Subject: Matthew Lodge's message (ST World)
Message-ID: <2343@castle.ed.ac.uk>
 
In article <9002170524.AA19485@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> SOCS18@vaxb.york.ac.UK
 (Vision Newspapers) writes:
>I have good Atari technical documentation for the STE. I cannot see any reason
>for not posting it to this group, if anyone is interested.
 
Please do. If you have good documentation, I guess that means that
software houses do too, and so can't complain that they didn't know
their programs wouldn't run???
 
>As of 3/2/90, Gollner Publishing (which produces ST World) has been merged
>with the Database group of magazines, forming a new company, Interactive
>Publishing. This now means that Interactive Publishing owns ST World, ST
 Action,
>Atari ST User, Amiga Action and Amiga Computing. I do not think the new company
>will continue to run five magazines when it can get away with two.
>
>Therefore, I do not think that ST World will survive for long (the owners of
>the Database group, Europress, own Interactive Publishing).
 
Bl**dy hell! That's sounds just like what happened when two publishers
exchanged computer mags - one publisher consolidated his coverage of
Amstrad computers by gaining another Amstrad magazine and the other eliminated
a competing ST mag - ST Update which, admittedly wasn't brilliant but it
wasn't full of games and covered programming topics. I could do without
ST Action which is just full of games reviews anyway and I can do
without ST User since it no longer contains much of any interest but ST
World is in a class of it's own as far a British Computer magazines go.
I hope it doesn't turn into some ST User/ST World hybrid, I'd probably
ask for my subscription money back if it did....
 
>* Mathew Lodge, University Of York, UK ?A black hole in the universe of *
>*                                 *     electronic mail?                *
 
Mark Davidson. ?Just gimme what I want for my ST and I'll be happy?
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 18 Feb 90 18:55:05 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!edcastle!aimd@uunet.uu.net  (M Davidson)
Subject: OK, so they sell the STe in Europe...
Message-ID: <2342@castle.ed.ac.uk>
 
In article <1990Feb13.115340.5645@bath.ac.uk> exspes@bath.ac.uk (P E Smee)
 writes:
>There is ONE good reason for selling to Europe first.  In general, FCC type
>approval is harder to get than the corresponding approvals in Europe.  So,
>Atari can begin selling the machines over here before they have been
>tightened down to FCC specs.  Or, in other words, it may be that Europe is
>being used to 'bug-chase' the machines before they are released in the
>States, rather than being favored.  Certainly, if problems DO occur with the
>early versions of a machine, it is better to have them surface in the market
>which is potentially smaller, rather than in the one which is potentially
>large.
 
Personally, I believe Atari UK were forced into distributing the STE
before Christmas simply because they'd run out of STFMs. This can be
seen if you read the trashy ST Format this month when they again slag
off the STE as a 'Christmas turkey' and tell us that 'What went wrong?' was
that the wonderful British games companies were not given enough time to test
out their games on the new STE to see if they still worked.
 
I can see their point - the software houses might have had enough time to
correct their illegal coding and hopefully old game stocks would have
been sold out by the time the STE was launched, leaving a new stack of
'STE friendly' games on the shelves - if the STE was launched, say,
now...
 
ST Format, in their article 'The STE - what went wrong?' claim in their
opening paragraph that except for 'one or two' programmers who were
disappointed with the machine everyone was eagerly awaiting the STE's
launch. This is quite a turn-around when you consider it was them who, a
few months ago, published the article in which a large group of
programmers slagged off the machine.  Instead of their 'Lets
slag-the-STE' attitude, they've now taken on an 'What-a-damn-shame-we-
were-really-hoping-the-STE-would-be-great-what-a-shame-for-all-those-
readers-who-bought-one-and-now-can't-get-Kick Off-to-work'
 
At least when the STE finally makes it to the US there shouldn't be any
of this nonsense since all the problems with the STE will have been
discovered by the Europeans (guess that includes the Brits!). Hopefully
Atari's image will be inhanced by a squeaky clean launch with no ensuing
problems rather than damaged as it undoubtably has been in the UK. Of
course we wouldn't have these problems if programmers didn't feel that
accessing the hardware is justifiable, ah well...
 
Mark.
 
PS. Would Atari consider quietly releasing TOS 1.61 which fixed the
simple bugs in TOS 1.6? People can live with bugs that they never see,
but having to install an AUTO folder on EVERY disk they use is a bit of
a bugger.
(I hope this letter isn't screwed up - my terminal certainly is..)
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Feb 90 02:15:22 GMT
From:
 pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!sybil.cs.Buffalo.E
 DU@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Bernard Bediako)
Subject: overscan
Message-ID: <17972@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
 
Can someone please mail me the complete instructions for
building the overscan modification for the ST monitors?
thanks
bernie
                bediako@sybil.cs.buffalo.edu
 
Bernard Bediako  --------=-=-=-=-=->    DOMAIN: bediako@cs.buffalo.edu
"You CAN have your cake and eat it!"
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Feb 90 02:43:26 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!ubvms!v077l5lx@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Screen Saver and Alternate Desktop.
Message-ID: <1057.25df16fe@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>
 
Hello,
        I just caught up on reading the net messages, and noticed that quite
a few people are looking for a good screen saver.  If there is interest, and
a few good suggestions, we ( B&G Software ...yes, we are a new company) would
be glad to create one and release it as shareware.  If enough people want it,
we will make it... just send me Email with your opinion.
        We would also like opinions and suggestions as to what features you
would like in an alternate desktop... and any other utilities you feel you
might want.
        Please do not interpret this as an add; We don't even have anything
to sell yet.  We are just trying to find out what you need and want.  It
will be a while before we get finished with the four projects we are working
on (and modify and improve them according to your suggestions).  However, the
screen saver can be completed relatively quickly once we tally the replies we
receive over the next week or so.
        Thanks for your suggestions.
 
        V077L5LX@UBVMSD                         Guy DiPietro
              or                          President of B&G Software
  V077L5LX@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 16 Feb 90 17:52:07 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!grahamt@uunet.uu.net  (Graham Thomas)
Subject: Starstrk.acc
Message-ID: <2210@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
 
From article <1990Feb15.002854.21047@lth.se>, by qralph@dna.lth.se (Ralph
 Haglund):
> I recently picked starstrk.acc from the net. Looks marvellous, but once I
> took it off the list I could use my TurboC again. What a pity.
>
I quite like starstrk, and I don't think it's interfering with anything
I use (I haven't tried it with a GDOS boot disk yet), but I find it
variable.  Sometimes it starts up automatically after about 3 minutes of
idle time, as it's supposed to.  Other times it doesn't start up
automatically at all.  It looks like it works OK for the first period of
idle time after a startup/reboot, but not for subsequent times -
however, I've not made systematic notes of this, so I could be wrong.
Anyone else found this?  Does PYRO work any better?
 
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: 19 Feb 90 02:25:44 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!hyc@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
 (Howard Chu)
Subject: The 'PHANTOM TYPIST'
Message-ID: <11014@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu>
 
In article <1305@lzsc.ATT.COM> hcj@lzsc.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) writes:
>Lets try to catch and fix this.
>
>Does anyone having the problem also have a memory switcher?
>If so, when the problem hits, if you can talk to the switcher, SAVE the
>memory image.  Perhaps we can pass the image around and many more people can
>look at the problem, and if its constant with the image, maybe even
>get Atari interested.
 
Sounds like a good idea. I'd give it a shot, and have a decent switcher,
but I haven't ever had this happen to me yet. So folks, keep on posting
(or mail me) descriptions of your configuration & such. If the software
is cheaply available, I'll try to duplicate the setup.
--
  -- Howard Chu @ University of Michigan
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Feb 90 04:05:57 GMT
From: seas.gwu.edu!zincke@uunet.uu.net  (Chris Zincke)
Subject: Tiff to Img convertion
Message-ID: <1613@sparko.gwu.edu>
 
Does anyone know where I could get a Tiff to Img converter?    thanks
                                                          Chris Zincke
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Feb 90 02:17:52 GMT
From: pallas!lbert359@uunet.uu.net  (Lee Bertagnolli)
Subject: XEP80's
Message-ID: <297@pallas.athenanet.com>
 
I have in my posessions FIVE (count 'em five) Atari XEP80's.  They
are brand new and have never been out off the box.  The XEP80 is, or course,
the 80-column option for the Atari 8-bit computers.  The XEP80 also has
a standard parallel port.
 
I would love to dump these things, but will part with them one at a time.
Any reasonable offer will be accepted, but you must pay the shipping.
 
Replies to:
?uunet?!pallas!lbert359
 --or--
lbert359@athenanet.com
--
+ Lee Bertagnolli                +                      Voice: (217) 544-0270 +
+ Athenanet, Inc.                +                      Data:  (217) 525-9019 +
+ 630 South Pasfield             +             UUCP:  ?uunet?!pallas!lbert359 +
+ Springfield, Illinois  62701   +   Internet:  lbert359@pallas.athenanet.com +
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #226
*****************************************
