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INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Fri,  6 Apr 90       Volume 90 : Issue  416
 
Today's Topics:
                      floppy disk-change (again)
                         GDOS Printer Drivers
               Help on choosing a DTP Software Package
                 How to create a senseless flame war
    Lynx Easter Egg (Lynx does Mandelbrot and Julia Explorations)
         MIDI at 500KHz ... IT WORKS!!!   (Holy Grail found?)
                 The reasons for my position on demos
                            To Tim Devine
                                WordUp
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Date: 6 Apr 90 10:44:25 GMT
From: sun-barr!newstop!texsun!letni!dms3b1!dave@lll-winken.llnl.gov  (Dave
 Hanna)
Subject: floppy disk-change (again)
Message-ID: <221@dms3b1.UUCP>
 
In article <2580@ultb.isc.rit.edu> clf3678@ultb.isc.rit.edu (C.L. Freemesser)
 writes:
>There are a number of things you can do to solve the disk change
>problem....
 
>More elegant solutions to this are:
 
>1) Get TOS 1.4:  it fixes all the problems be re-reading the disk on
>   every access.
     Are you sure about that?  We have several Mega ST4's at work
with TOS1.4, and they definitely appear to have problems distinguishing
when a diskette has been changed.  If we change a diskette and
don't explicitly open a window with the A drive and then hit
'ESC' to force it to re-read the disk, we get garbage on file transfers.
It acts like it's reading the first cluster correctly, then goes
off in the weeds, which is exactly what would be expected if the
FAT was wrong.
     This is true EVEN though it has re-read the directory!  In other
words, you can change diskettes, do a directory and get a correct listing,
but if you try to access one of those files without the above procedure,
you will get garbage.
>
>Chris Freemesser, Rochester Institute of Technology (  THE ACORN BBS
 
 
--
Dave Hanna,  Infotouch Systems, Inc. |  "Do or do not -- There is no try"
P.O. Box 584, Bedford, TX 76095      |                        - Yoda
(214) 358-4534   (817) 540-1524      |
UUCP:  ...!texbell!letni!dms3b1!dave |
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Apr 90 13:49:19 GMT
From:
 usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!rodan!rodan.acs.syr.
 edu!jfbruno@ucsd.edu  (John F. Bruno)
Subject: GDOS Printer Drivers
Message-ID: <2820@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
 
I recently picked up a program that includes GDOS, but unfortunately,
my printer driver wasn't included (only the SMM204 was, I think). Does
anyone know where I can get other GDOS printer drivers? I didn't notice
them on terminator, is there anywhere else?
 
---jb
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Apr 90 13:51:37 GMT
From: ogicse!zephyr.ens.tek.com!vice!keithr@uunet.uu.net  (U.D.M.)
Subject: Help on choosing a DTP Software Package
Message-ID: <4918@vice.ICO.TEK.COM>
 
I currently have Timeworks Publisher ST and want to upgrade to
either Calamus or PageStream.  I was wondering it users of such
packages could offer pros and cons of each, such as printing speed,
ease of use, other features.
 
Any help and/or comments would be greatly appreciated.
 
Happy Trails,
Keith
keithr@icogem3.ICO.TEK.COM
 
P.S. -- Has anyone got PC Ditto II fixed and running yet?  A few
weeks ago all we heard were screams of it not working and now all is
silent.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Apr 90 02:35:23 GMT
From: imagen!atari!portal!cup.portal.com!Doug_B_Erdely@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: How to create a senseless flame war
Message-ID: <28624@cup.portal.com>
 
Valentin, I loved your article!! :)
 
        - Doug -
 
Doug_B_Erdely@Cup.Portal.Com
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Fri, 6 Apr 90 11:55:56 EDT
From: U009%CCIW.bitnet@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca
Subject: Lynx Easter Egg (Lynx does Mandelbrot and Julia Explorations)
Message-ID: <5A04060A29370275-MTACY830*U009@CCIW>
 
As revealed recently on GEnie, the Lynx game "Chip's Challenge" has a
secret mode. If the password "MAND" is entered, the game changes into
a Mandelbrot and Julia set explorer. While the performance is poor by
mainframe standards, the opening screen giving the largest representation
of the whole region takes about 5 minutes to compute. The joypad posi
positions a 1/4 screen rectangle for zooming in and out by powers of 2.
There is a screen available with the middle option button giving the
current coordinates and zoom factor. The zoom factor seems to have
40 bits of significance, but all the parameters are given in hex inxx
the form XX.XXXXXXXXXXXXX to 48 bits.
Arround the boundaries of the zone at high magnifications, the compute
speed is quite acceptable for a kid (like me!). The Option 2 button
will cycle the color look up table CW or CCW for a neat animation.
(Computing ceases while the animation is on.)
I regret that I deleted the original message without noting the name
of the person who found this and therefore can't thank them publicly
here. (It might have been the programmer who wrote it too.)
 
 
 Regards, Stu Beal, VE3MWM, (U009@CCIW.BITNET),
 National Water Research Institute,
 Burlington, Ontario, Canada.
 
 The future lies ahead. And behind us lies, lies... lies.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Apr 90 12:16:33 GMT
From: haven!wam!dmb@purdue.edu  (David M. Baggett)
Subject: MIDI at 500KHz ... IT WORKS!!!   (Holy Grail found?)
Message-ID: <1990Apr6.121633.15639@wam.umd.edu>
 
In article <9004051235.AA00350@Argus.Stanford.EDU> SA44@liverpool.ac.UK (Kevin
 Maguire) writes:
>   SO, I changed the code to do away with interrupt routines altogther
>and wrote a very tight polling routine. THIS DID WORK and sent across
>a screen correctly.
 
Wow, I'm really impressed!  It sure didn't look promising at all to me.
How about posting your code to comp.sources.atari.st?
 
>    Of course, this can only be done synchronously and is at the bounds
>of the 68000's speed, so nothing else AT ALL can be done at the same time
>as reading the MIDI port. A keyboard interrupt/VBL interrupt will cause
>the polling loop to drop bytes. 500000 bits per second = 50000 bytes
>(1 start bit/8 data bits/1 stop bit) which means only 160 clock cycles
>for the 68000 to get the byte, any delay will be disasterous.
 
Dropping bytes could be corrected by transmitting in packets of some fixed
length.  (I.e., rewriting the interrupt handler to run as a "block device"
instead of a "character device".)  Also, you don't _have_ to send as
fast as the bandwidth allows.  You could use timer A to ensure that you
spaced the bytes you sent out to give you 250K baud or 125K baud.
 
My only fear is that this is machine-dependent.  It may be that I
couldn't get this to work because I screwed something up; it may also
be that my rusty old Atari has different hardware than yours...  I'm
hoping it's the former.  What sort of hardware base did you do this on?
 
>  I hope this encourages someone.
 
Well, it does, I'm sure.  (Me, at least!)
 
Dave Baggett
dmb@cscwam.umd.edu
 
PS> How long are the cables you used?
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 4 Apr 90 17:38:19 GMT
From: hpfcso!hpldola!jg@hplabs.hp.com  (Joe Gilray)
Subject: The reasons for my position on demos
Message-ID: <11830076@hpldola.HP.COM>
 
Steve,
 
Thanks for posting your position on Demos.  I happen to agree with you and
to feel that you are doing a terrific job and service for all of us, thanks!
 
As you pointed out the net is NOT FREE.  I feel that any posting asking for
money should not be allowed, but your interpretation is consistent and works
in a positive manner.  Disallowing "Shareware" would certainly be a strict
interpretation but also consistent.
 
Yours,
Joe Gilray
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Apr 90 06:02:10 GMT
From: isc-br!lawrence@uunet.uu.net  (Lawrence Kelley)
Subject: To Tim Devine
Message-ID: <2821@isc-br.ISC-BR.COM>
 
Sorry to post this on the net.
 
Tim, I got a failed mail message when I attempted to respond to you message.
Please email me at the address shown above.
 
lawrence
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Apr 90 13:04:39 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!rodan!ggreenbe@think.com  (Gerald
 Greenberg)
Subject: WordUp
Message-ID: <2819@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
 
I've seen a couple of notes asking about the differences
between WordUp 2.0 and 3.0 recently.  I have v2.0 and called
Neocept about a month or so ago, asking about the new version.
The person I talked to said they'd be sending out notices to
registered owners soon.  I never received anything, so I'm
just wondering if others have, or if people are writing
becuase they've seen ads or heard aobut the new version
through some other means.
Thanks.
--Gerry
 
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End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #416
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