=========================================================================

INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Tue,  8 May 90       Volume 90 : Issue  525
 
Today's Topics:
                        Floppy drive for sale.
                               Phantom
                            Phantom Typist
               poolfix3, poolfix4; naming conventions.
                               prtblk?
                             Smalltalk ??
                    Wanted - Mod for 1.44MB Drives
                Where is GUI_DEMO.LZH (from ZNET #518)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 8 May 90 19:53:30 GMT
From: brunix!pgs@uunet.uu.net  (Peter Sarrett)
Subject: Floppy drive for sale.
Message-ID: <39156@brunix.UUCP>
 
For sale: 1 Atari SF354 single-sided double-density disk drive.
Comes complete with power cables and connectors.  VERY reliable-- this
drive has never given me an instant's problem.
 
Asking: $75.00 or best offer
 
Please mail me if interested.
 
===============================================================================
 
  Peter Sarrett      |  PO Box 439            | "So much time and so little to
  pgs@cs.brown.edu   |  Brown University      |  do.  Stop.  Strike that.
  uunet!brunix!pgs   |  Providence, RI  02912 |  Reverse it."
  pgs@browncs.bitnet |  (401)863-6977         |               - W. Wonka
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 8 May 90 21:16:59 GMT
From: van-bc!ubc-cs!alberta!ccu!bright@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Bob Bright)
Subject: Phantom
Message-ID: <1990May8.211659.19468@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
 
In article <9005081510.AA06370@fsucs.cs.fsu.edu> boyd@nu.cs.fsu.edu (Mickey
 Boyd) writes:
>>We hear about the Phantom all the time, at first I didn`t believe in
>>`it`... (for a year or so) and then it stroke me in Tempus.
 
>  Does this ever happen in Tempus II?  Is this bug fixable?
 
Yes, as least one user has reported being struck by the phantom in
Tempus II.
 
Fixable?  Well, first we gotta find it before somebody can figure out
a fix.
 
BBB
--
Bob Bright <bright@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Dept. of Philosophy
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Man  R3T 2N2  (204) 474-9680
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 8 May 90 15:53:32 GMT
From: uvm-gen!pegram@uunet.uu.net  (pegram r)
Subject: Phantom Typist
Message-ID: <1506@uvm-gen.UUCP>
 
I coulda been a contenda, but....  everybody else has posted
interesting info on the Phantom first.  My 2 cents is this dump from
after my machine crashed when I experienced the phantom typist.  I was
using Tempus II, under Neodesk 2.03 with Turbo ST enabled.  I was
typing quickly and goofed (read pressed 2 keys at once) when I
deleted.  The last two characters typed started to repeat, and when
the characters reached Tempus' maximum line length, the machine
crashed.  Moving the mouse made the characters speed up.  Oh yeah, I
have Tos 1.0.
 
A Bus error has occurred (2 bombs)
 
        d0: 00200069    a0: 00000000
        d1: 000006DC    a1: 00000005
        d2: 00002300    a2: 0011A712
        d3: 0000004C    a3: 0011A732
        d4: 00000000    a4: 0011A746
        d5: 00000000    a5: 0011A74E
        d6: 00000005    a6: 0000799E
        d7: 00200000    a7: 00007972
 
        ssp: 00007972
        usp: 0012756A
        instr.: 1083
        sr: 2300 = 
        pc: 00FE65EA
 
Good luck, those of you who can figure out what's going on here.
 
Bob Pegram (Internet: pegram@griffin.uvm.edu)
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 8 May 90 11:22:30 GMT
From: eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!ukc!icdoc!syma!grahamt@bloom-beacon.mit.edu  (Graham
 Thomas)
Subject: poolfix3, poolfix4; naming conventions.
Message-ID: <2586@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
 
From article <2709@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>, by
 csbrod@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Claus Brod ):
>
> to verify that it works properly. I've sent POOLF_CB to ATARI Germany
> hoping that it might find it's way to you. I didn't wait for your
> approval, true, and I regret this, but I had my reasons
 
I think that one lesson we should all learn from this and from stories
people have told about variations in Developers Kit policy, TOS 1.4
distribution, etc. is: NEVER assume that one bit of Atari will tell any
other bit anything at all.  Atari just isn't that organised.  I
sometimes wonder how the company keeps going at all.
 
> Some of those hackers mentioned above saved so much code that it became
> possible to include a new Macish DESKTOP, new window features, a complete
> hard disk driver, and, last but not least, GDOS. Needless to say that
> they also squeezed TOS 1.6 into 192 KB ROMs. Don't panic, since ATARI
> doesn't seem to want outside improvements for TOS, they won't spread
> it. Some of them, however, have written long and detailled letters to
> ATARI about ways of optimizing TOS, and apparently there has been no
> reaction. (The bug patched by POOLFIX, for example, has been known
> here since the 8-8-88 beta version of TOS 1.4, and it has been
> reported to ATARI before the end of the beta test phase.)
 
Again, if you're not writing directly to the people who maintain TOS,
forget it.  Descriptions like these, though, serve as a reminder of just
how much of the ST's potential has been wasted.  Getting the original ST
out so fast in 1985 was a terrific achievement, but the follow-through
has been a real disppointment.
 
Claus Brod has made some good points in a very reasonable way.  If his
pool fixing program does what he says it does, and doesn't hurt anything
else, then I can see no reason why it should not be distributed.  Why
not let Allan Pratt add his comments (and maybe even POOLFIX3) and let
users decide which version they want to use?
 
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    Fax: +44 273 685865
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 8 May 90 14:44:22 GMT
From: hpl-opus!hpnmdla!hpsad!randyh@hplabs.hp.com  (Randy Hosler)
Subject: prtblk?
Message-ID: <750061@hpsad.HP.COM>
 
Could someone post or email me the parameter definitions for
the xbios call "prtblk"?  Does this call dump a portion of the
screen to the printer or what?  Is there a textfile somewhere
that might contain this info?
 
Thanks in advance,
Randy
 

   |\   | |     _ |                        Randy Hosler
   |/   |-| /\ <  | [] /\                  randyh@hpsadpk
   |\ . | | \/ _> | \_ |                   (707) 974-3677
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 8 May 90 06:56:43 GMT
From: hpcc01!hpbbn!hpbbi4!stefan@hplabs.hp.com  (#Stefan Bachert)
Subject: Smalltalk ??
Message-ID: <510004@hpbbi4.HP.COM>
 
> The normal distribution is about DM 400,-.
 
      ~~~~~~
 
A friend of mine bought smalltalk a year ago. And if things didnot
change the above statement isn't quite correct.
This is NOT the normal distribution. This is a special price
for students. The NORMAL price is about DM 2400.
 
 
Stefan
 
 
PS:
        Add DM 200 for books, the manual is not valuable for
        learning smalltalk
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 9 May 90 10:33:58 GMT
From: mcsun!ukc!axion!tharr!chris@uunet.uu.net  (Chris Allen)
Subject: Wanted - Mod for 1.44MB Drives
Message-ID: <695@tharr.UUCP>
 
I remember someone on the net mentioning a hardware fix that
would let you use 1.44MB drives on the ST. If anyone has the
details on this I'd be very grateful if they could mail it
to me.
 
Thanks in advance,
 
chris allen.
 
 
--
         chris@tharr.uucp  ..!ukc!axion!tharr!chris
  Disclaimer: The views expressed above are those of my employer..
 
    <-- tharr public access to Usenet in the UK 0234 261804 -->
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 8 May 90 20:48:48 GMT
From:
 swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!rodan!rodan.acs.syr.edu!jfbruno@ucs
 d.edu  (John F. Bruno)
Subject: Where is GUI_DEMO.LZH (from ZNET #518)
Message-ID: <3226@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
 
Can someone point me towards an FTP site that has the above demo (guitarist
program) as described in ZNET #518 (most recent issue)??
 
---jb
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #525
*****************************************