=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Mon,  7 May 90       Volume 90 : Issue  521
 
Today's Topics:
                      2ND DRIVE FOR MEGAFILE 44
                         Anonymous FTP sites
                             Atari 1040ST
                         Atari documentation.
                                break
                        Mixing C and Assembly
                         Re-using a Megafile
             STE investigation/ docs discussion [large!]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 7 May 90 15:06:40 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!fauern!fauern!csbrod@uunet.uu.net  (Claus Brod )
Subject: 2ND DRIVE FOR MEGAFILE 44
Message-ID: <2705@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
 
AKISUJAR@NUSVM.BITNET ("S. Sujarittanonta") writes:
 
>2. Another problem is: The Mega file 44 has an extra 50 pin connector probably
>   for another SCSI drive on the host adapter board, extra power supply plug as
>   well as a bracket which pre drilled holes which perfectly match teh mounting
>   holes on my Conner hard disk. However, when I connect additional hard disk
>   I can't set the SCSI ID of the new drive. Apparently the SCSI ID is to be
>    set by the dip switch on host adapter card.The syquest is set at SCSI 0
>    from factory and when I try changing Syquest HD to SCSI 1 the hard disk is
>    no longer recognise by the computer.
 
Both SCSI drives in a Megafile 44 have to be selected as SCSI drives 0. The
Conner drive must plug into the first SCSI connector (J2, as far as I remember)
and the Syquest drive into the second one. Moreover, you'll have to flip
DIP switch 1 so that the ATARI hostadapter knows that you're trying to
install a second drive.
 
Hope this helps,
 
Claus Brod
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 90/04/20 14:15 MESZ
From: Thomas Neser <So01%Dmarum8.BITNET@forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Anonymous FTP sites
Message-ID: <9005071620.AA01582@Sunburn.Stanford.EDU>
 
Dear netters,
these are all sites in germany i know, which accept anonymous ftp.
If anyone knows more please send me a e-mail.
Sincerly
Thomas Neser <so01@dmarum8.bitnet>
----------------------------------
Uni Stuttgart      129.69.1.12
129.69.1.9      rusmv8.rus.uni-stuttgart.de
129.217.64.60   unido.informatik.uni-dortmund.de
129.13.10.90    iraun1.ira.uka.de
131.188.1.45    faui45.informatik.uni-erlangen.de
131.246.9.116   minnehaha.rhrk.uni-kl.de
132.230.1.1     sun1.ruf.uni-freiburg.de
134.34.1.2      attis.rz.uni-konstanz.de
134.95.128.208  sier.rrz.uni-koeln.de
134.95.130.211  uvax.rrz.uni-koeln.de
Uni Koeln          134.95.128.215
----------------------------------
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 May 90 16:36:37 GMT
From: blackfoot.cis.ohio-state.edu!mcwilli@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (shane a
 mcwilliams)
Subject: Atari 1040ST
Message-ID: <80159@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
 
  A friend of mine wants to sell his Atari 1040 ST with color and
 mono monitors. He asked me what the going rate is for this
 equipment being 2 1/2 yrs old.
 
  Can anyone help out. I was not sure but said I would post it
 on this newsgroup to see.
 
  I ask why he wants to sell it and he said that he needed the money
 for other things.
 
 
                           -Shane
 
-=-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-  Shane A McWilliams          |   Have                                       -
-  The Ohio State University   |       not decided                            -
-  mcwilli@cis.ohio-state.edu  |                what to put here              -
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 May 90 15:19:16 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!fauern!fauern!csbrod@uunet.uu.net  (Claus Brod )
Subject: Atari documentation.
Message-ID: <2706@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
 
n-waters@NIMR.MRC.AC.UK (Nick Waterson) writes:
 
>       So as to Atari, Why cant they produce a set of definative manuals for
>the ST at an affordable price. This would stop mal-programming, would
>encourage more and better quality programmes to be written etc etc. To take
>two examples wouldn't current software be much better if everyone used .IMG
>format for graphics instead of having to fight through 7 or so other specs;
>also wouldn't it be great if we all used GDOS properly, again not having to
>cope with several in house product fonts, the latter by now would surely
>resulted in more GDOS fonts being available (a la Mac), and also more drivers.
 
ATARI Germany supports a book called "Vom Anfaenger zum GEM-Profi" published
here in Germany. This book tells you lots about current GEM and GDOS standards,
though it's not a complete GEM reference. Other standards (GEMDOS networking
standards et cetera) have been talked about and settled in developper
conferences at ATARI Germany. So things seem to improve gradually.
 
>       So back to Atari. You guys youve got the data, youve got the ability,
>why not do it. Just think of the money.......yes money......
 
I don't think money is the problem. They have problems in getting the TT out
of the door, and so they don't have any TIME to do much doc by themselves.
At least, this is the way it seems to be.
 
Claus Brod
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 May 90 15:10:59 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!sbsvax!roeder@uunet.uu.net  (Edgar Roeder)
Subject: break
Message-ID: <4252@sbsvax.cs.uni-sb.de>
 
In article <3060@ultb.isc.rit.edu>, jdb9608@ultb.isc.rit.edu (J.D. Beutel)
 writes:
>
> Does anybody know how break (i.e., ~C) works on the ST?
> Is it something in TOS?  (I wouldn't think so since I don't
> remember hearing about it, and I know some programs don't break.)
 
Yes it is done by TOS. But only the GEMDOS functions Cconin/Cconrs/Cconout and
Cconws use it. If a program uses BIOS for terminal-i/o, it has to do the ~C
trapping itself.
 
> and I miss multi-tasking and job control.  So, thinking about
> device drivers, SIGSTOP, and the like, I really should understand ~C.
 
Have you seen the demo of Master? This shell has job-control (but no multi-
tasking). Jobs are created by system("-i") from C-Code, by 'if exec "-i"' in
a batchfile or you can start your program as 'program args |' and then input
'!-i<Return>' at the prompt after any full screen of output. Stopped jobs may
be restarted by '%<job-id>' in any order.
 
> I suppose I could just have the cli slip in an isr to monitor
> whatever tty-type input devices, and grap any ~Z that comes along,
> but there'll probably be complications if I don't understand
> what else is going on.
 
The catch-program posted to comp.binaries.atari.st does it just this way. You
can install it in your auto-folder (catch.mmx has to be renamed to catch.prg)
and let it catch any ~C/~Z/~\-keypress at any time (even if your program is in
an endless loop). If ~C is pressed, you are asked wether you want to break or
continue. If ~Z is pressed, an eventually installed shell (at _shell_p) is
called interactively. See catch.doc for more uses of this program.
If you want to know more about ~C-trapping, you can also look up the
documentation for etv_term (the terminate-vector of GEMDOS).
 
> J. David Beutel  11011011  jdb9608@cs.rit.edu      "I am, therefore I am."
 
Hope this helps!
 
        - Edgar
--
 
Mail:  Edgar R\"oder                    E-Mail: roeder@cs.uni-sb.de
       Liesbet-Dill-Stra\ss e 3
D-6602 Dudweiler                               -o-   -o-
       W-Germany                                   ~
Phone: 06897/74643                               '---'
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 May 90 15:14:31 GMT
From: persoft!dag@speedy.wisc.edu  (Daniel A. Glasser)
Subject: Mixing C and Assembly
Message-ID: <1990May7.151431.15956@persoft.com>
 
The assembler shipped with the Mark Williams C package uses a Unix V7 style
syntax.  The object file format is also modeled after the Unix V7 object file
format, allowing for long symbol names (the object format supports flexnames,
the compiler doesn't generate them) and the symbol table is case sensitive.
 
MADMAC was produced by Atari long after MWC shipped its compiler package
and the object file format was pretty much determined.
 
When the MWC object file format was determined there was no acceptable
standard available.  As a result they ported their Coherent object format
and tools to the 68000 and the Atari ST.  (Coherent is a ground-up/clean-room
implementation of Unix V7.)
 
The compiler can be made to generate Motorolla style assembly with an
undocumented switch (which I cannot recall at this moment, try -VMOTO or
something like that), and there are converters available for MWC->DRI and
DRI->MWC object files.  Note that the Alcyon/DRI compiler uses the leading
"_" on symbol names, whereas the MWC compiler uses a trailing "_".  The
converters handle this.
 
                                                Daniel A. Glasser
--
  Daniel A. Glasser  |  Persoft, Inc.  |  dag@persoft.com (if it works yet)
  "Their brains were small, and they died."
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 May 90 15:39:15 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!fauern!fauern!csbrod@uunet.uu.net  (Claus Brod )
Subject: Re-using a Megafile
Message-ID: <2707@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
 
MALCOLM@tower-vax.city-poly.ac.UK writes:
 
>1.  RLL is a means of formatting a disk to obtain more space at a slight
>    time penalty, isn't it?  Is it a modulation technique (like MFM)?
>    Can it be used with any drive?
 
RLL is a modulation technique, that's right. Drive manufacturers tell you
not to use RLL controllers with drives that aren't RLL-certified. You can,
however, use many MFM drives with an RLL controller, but nobody guarantees
you it will work.
 
>2.  My understanding is that a hard drive for the Atari ST needs three
>    things:  a host adaptor (which converts the ST DMA interface to SCSI),
>    a disk controller card (various Omti and Adaptec part numbers are bandied
>    about), and the drive itself.  The controller card can be omitted when
>    the drive has embedded SCSI.  If I've got this right, it seems that the
>    'controller' board in the Megafile combines the first two functions.
>    I'll need to bypass the host adaptor part.  Any tips?
 
You've got it quite well. Nevertheless, I don't know any way to bypass
the host adaptor part of the Megafile's controller board since both
parts have been combined. You might try to get a stand-alone Adaptec
RLL controller from Adaptec or from an old SH204, but I guess it'll
be cheaper and easier for you to get a real SCSI drive and sell your
Megafile.
 
Claus Brod
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 May 90 15:50:19 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!fauern!fauern!csbrod@uunet.uu.net  (Claus Brod )
Subject: STE investigation/ docs discussion [large!]
Message-ID: <2708@medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de>
 
J.Derrick@newcastle.ac.uk (J. Derrick) writes:
 
>The BIOS and XBIOS trap handlers appear much the same as before, but there
 seems
>to be an extra XBIOS call $40. This seems to look at $FF8A00, and check for a
>bus error. Its purpose is unknown.
 
XBIOS(64) has been there since TOS 1.2 and is used to detect the blitter status
 and turn it on or off. It has been documented officially. Looking at $FF8A00
in a non-blitter ST causes a bus error, while a ST with the blitter installed
doesn't mind. This way, you can detect the blitter chip.
 
>Going through the initialsation stuff, the code is also mostly as before.
>Memory clearence is now faster, with a few extra writes in the loop. To support
>the new hardware, code has been added, notably around $E002C4. The DMA sound is
>initialised [$FF8900] and the tone control acessed via the microwire bus
>[$FF8922,4]. There seem to be a number of new system variables, for instanve
>look at $980 onwards. These locations come complete with text names: _VDO,
>_MCH, SND, _SWI. _SND is set up according to $FF9200, which after a bit of
>experimentation turned out to be the new joystick ports. Again this is for
>information only- their pupose is unknown.
 
The things you found at $980 onwards aren't new system variables. ATARI
calls it the 'cookie jar', and it is used by TOS and programs to notify
other programs that they were there and they have done something to the
system. All cookies starting with _ are reserved for ATARI, and they
use them to publish machine data to other programs (CPU type, shifter
type etc.).
 
Claus Brod
 
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End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #521
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