=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Sun, 28 Jan 90       Volume 90 : Issue  111
 
Today's Topics:
                    appl_tplay() & appl_trecord()
           Atari's Quarterly Results ($5.4 Million Lost) :)
                              DUCK31.PRG
                      Facts, not only talking a
                     How to inquire GDOS status ?
                          Keyboard Question
           POOLFIX3.ARC - fix program for TOS 1.4, TOS 1.6
                        Specter GCR questions
ST Format, TOS 1.4 moans directed at Atari UK (was: HAPPY NEW YEAR, ALL!)
                       ST S/ware Rental Places
                          TURBO-C Question!
                         TURBO C/MAS problem
                           Unix Windows ...
                        VDI commands recording
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 26 Jan 90 23:51:11 GMT
From: imagen!atari!kbad@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Ken Badertscher)
Subject: appl_tplay() & appl_trecord()
Message-ID: <2003@atari.UUCP>
 
There was an auto folder program distributed once upon a time which
fixed the specific bugs with appl_tplay() and appl_trecord().  It
was distributed with an ST demo program that went out to many dealers.
It is possible that the Atari customer support people in your country
have a copy of this program.  Check with customer support at your
subsidiary.
 
Better yet, get Rainbow TOS (1.4)!
--
   |||   Ken Badertscher  (ames!atari!kbad)
   |||   Atari R&D System Software Engine
  / | \  #include <disclaimer>
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 27 Jan 90 08:50:51 GMT
From: cunixc!cunixa.cc.columbia.edu!cmm1@columbia.edu  (Christopher M Mauritz)
Subject: Atari's Quarterly Results ($5.4 Million Lost) :)
Message-ID: <2723@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu>
 
re:  Atari being debt free???
 
Hahaha!  Not by a longshot.  I have a nice fat, juicy Dunn&Bradstreet
report (just downloaded it from the D&B database this morning) that
pretty much rips Atari's finances apart.  Just for openers, they rate
Atari as #8 in riskiness (out of a 1-10 scale...10 being the highest risk).
They also have trouble paying their bills on time.  I'll try to summarize
the report here in a few days.  I'm a bit too busy to type it in now.
 
Chris
 
------------------------------+---------------------------
Chris Mauritz                 |Where there's a BEER,
cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu   |there's a plan.
(c)All rights reserved.       |
Send flames to /dev/null      |Need I say more?
------------------------------+---------------------------
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 27 Jan 90 17:09:26 GMT
From: maytag!water!ljdickey@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu  (L.J.Dickey)
Subject: DUCK31.PRG
Message-ID: <2931@water.waterloo.edu>
 
In article <900125.16412988.013314@SFA.CP6> Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252)
 writes:
>    A few weeks back, I wrote a simple program called DUCK31.PRG ...
...
>    I have received reports that it is not working with some STs and for
>the life of me, I can't figure out why.  ...
 
I have just installed A:\AUTO\DUCK31.PRG on my Mega ST2.
It is the only program on the floppy.  When I turn my system on,
I flip all the necessary switches.  The program DUCK31 starts up,
and after about 15 seconds it seems to do a warm boot.  In the
meantime my FA*ST 30 hard drive has finished going through its
startup routine, and has stopped its twitching and humming.
 
The system then goes through all the steps that it used to do
before I installed DUCK31.  The advantage is that now I can turn
on all the switches at once.  I used to turn on the hard drive
and then wait 15 seconds or so before turning on the Mega ST2.
 
--
    L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
        ljdickey@water.UWaterloo.ca     ljdickey@water.BITNET
        ljdickey@water.UUCP             ..!uunet!watmath!water!ljdickey
        ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 25 Jan 90 15:30:41 GMT
From: imagen!atari!kbad@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Ken Badertscher)
Subject: Facts, not only talking a
Message-ID: <1989@atari.UUCP>
 
ron.sharp@canremote.uucp (RON SHARP) writes:
 
| Phoowie!  The only way I can get simple information on memory locations
| is to become a developer, because anyone else who has the info isn't
| allowed to tell me.
 
There are several good books on programming the ST (including the MWC
manual recently mentioned by Mr. Glasser - and it comes with a decent
compiler, too).
 
| So I can spend $300 U.S. on a giant stack of poorly organized ... stuff.
 
You can purchase developer documentation by itself for a significantly
reduced price.  The latest release of the developer documentation is
professionally printed, indexed, and includes several new addenda.
 
I think you should ask some professional developers what kind of support
they have been getting recently for their hard earned bucks.  There
have been a lot of changes in the past few months, and there is more
coming.  I'm not talking words, either, I am talking _action_.  I
am thoroughly impressed with the steps Antonio Salerno and crew have
taken towards making the U.S. developer's job an easy one, and Antonio
has promised that the stuff developers have already received in the mail
is only the tip of the iceberg.
 
For information on developing for the Atari ST/Mega/STE/TT, please
contact Gail Johnson at Atari U.S. Corp.  Her address is:
 
Atari Corporation
Attn: Gail Johnson
1196 Borregas Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086-3427
 
Phone: (408) 745-2568
 
I think you'll be surprised at what you discover.  Atari U.S. isn't
leaving its developers out in the cold any more.
 
--
   |||   Ken Badertscher  (ames!atari!kbad)
   |||   Atari R&D System Software Engine
  / | \  #include <disclaimer>
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 27 Jan 90 11:37:58 GMT
From: stephen@cs.ucla.edu  (Steve Whitney)
Subject: How to inquire GDOS status ?
Message-ID: <31307@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
 
In article <6:kruel@vax.rz.uni-wuerzburg.dbp.de>
 kruel@vax.rz.uni-wuerzburg.dbp.DE (Thomas-Martin Kruel) writes:
>Hallo all,
>
>   does anybody know how to inquire if GDOS is loaded or not ? Oh yes, I know
>that Turbo C comes along with this nice function vq_gdos(), but this appears
>not to be a genuine VDI-function.
>   Furthermore, I need it for inclusion into Prospero Pascal, which uses GST
>object format, not GST format.
>   Are there any assembler codings available ? Any undocumented VDI Escapes ?
>
 
The following is what I use in Mark Williams C to see if GDOS is installed:
 
        .shri
 
        .globl gdos_installed_
gdos_installed_:
        link    a6, $0
        move.w  $-2,d0          / set d0 = -2
        trap    $2              / call system
        cmp.w   $-2,d0
        bne.s   L2
        clr     d0
        bra.s   L1
L2:
        moveq   $1, d0
L1:
        unlk    a6
        rts
 
What it does, basically, is sets D0 to -2, calls GEM (trap #2), and sees
if the -2 in D0 was changed by GEM or not.  If it _was_ changed, GDOS is
installed, otherwise, GDOS is not installed.  This assembler routine returns
a 1 if GDOS is, in fact, installed.
 
>Thanks.
>
>
>   Thomas-Martin Kruel
>   Inst.f.Physikal.Chemie d.Univ.Wuerzburg
>   Marcusstr. 9-11, D-8700 Wuerzburg
 
 
 
Steve Whitney   "It's never _really_ the last minute"       (())_-_(())
UCLA Comp. Sci. Grad. Student                                | (* *) |
Internet: stephen@cs.ucla.edu              UCLA Bruin-->    ?  \_@_/  ?
GEnie:    S.WHITNEY                                           `-----'
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 27 Jan 90 17:55:43 GMT
From: umigw!mthvax.cs.miami.edu!dnelson@handies.ucar.edu  (Dru Nelson)
Subject: Keyboard Question
Message-ID: <1552@umigw.MIAMI.EDU>
 
   Hello,
 
      I found on an FTP site a good text file on connecting DEC keyboards
      to the ST through the MIDI port.  It does require a slight hardware
      modification (changing the MIDI port baud rate).  It is on
      comp.sources.atari.st.
 
 
--
%% Dru Nelson %% Miami, FL %% Internet:  dnelson@mthvax.cs.miami.edu  %%
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 25 Jan 90 21:29:21 GMT
From: imagen!atari!apratt@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Allan Pratt)
Subject: POOLFIX3.ARC - fix program for TOS 1.4, TOS 1.6
Message-ID: <2000@atari.UUCP>
 
klute@heike.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Rainer Klute) writes:
>POOLFIX3 was not complete when it arrived at our site. Only the
>following lines of uuencoded stuff came through:
 
>|begin 644 poolfix3.arc
>[Stuff deleted]
 
If you got a truncated version of POOLFIX3.PRG, please send me MAIL.
If you got a good version, don't send anything.  I will mail it
to people who got the bad copy, unless it's a LOT of people.
 
============================================
Opinions expressed above do not necessarily     -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp.
reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else.      ...ames!atari!apratt
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 27 Jan 90 07:25:29 GMT
From: well!dsmall@apple.com  (David Small)
Subject: Specter GCR questions
Message-ID: <15756@well.UUCP>
 
The basenote asks some Spectre GCR questions. (Hmmm..
comp.sys.atari.st.spectre
would sure save non-interested readers some time .. *grin*)
 
        On a 1 meg ST, you end up with an 832K Mac. This will run Hypercard
pretty well, as well as nearly all software but extreme memory hogs
(say, FullWrite Professional).
 
        Retail is $299. Discounters discount, but make *sure* they have
stock before sending money, *especially* since the big distributor CSS
folded up -- that's still making waves!
 
        The ROMs that are required with it go for around $125, I've been told
many times.
 
        Address: Gadgets by Small / 40 W Littleton Blvd #210-220
                Littleton, COLO 80120. Tele: (303) 791-6098 MWF.
                FAX: (303)791-0253.
 
        I don't feel comfortable "advertising" on USENET, but these *are*
the exact answers he asked for...
 
        -- thanks, Dave / Gadgets / I wrote the darn thing.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 25 Jan 90 15:56:32 GMT
From: imagen!atari!kbad@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Ken Badertscher)
Subject: ST Format, TOS 1.4 moans directed at Atari UK (was: HAPPY NEW YEAR,
 ALL!)
Message-ID: <1990@atari.UUCP>
 
aimd@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Davidson) writes:
| why am I talking to myself when I know no
| one from Atari UK ever reads this newsgroup. Fourthly, why does no one
| from Atari UK ever read this newsgroup?
 
I don't know why Atari UK doesn't read netnews, but your comments
(and Neil's, and all the other reasonable gripes that I've seen
from U.K. users) are being forwarded to the Tramiels.
 
 
--
   |||   Ken Badertscher  (ames!atari!kbad)
   |||   Atari R&D System Software Engine
  / | \  #include <disclaimer>
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 27 Jan 90 06:43:40 GMT
From: cunixc!cunixd.cc.columbia.edu!ia4@columbia.edu  (Imran Anwar)
Subject: ST S/ware Rental Places
Message-ID: <2720@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu>
 
In article <26747@brunix.UUCP> rjd@cs.brown.edu (Rob Demillo) writes:
>In article <2713@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu> ia4@cunixd.cc.columbia.edu (Imran
 Anwar) writes:
>>In article <26640@brunix.UUCP> rjd@cs.brown.edu (Rob Demillo) writes:
 
LOTS of stuff deleted
>
>Movie theft continues, but not to the same degree. A video pirate cannot
>easily mass produce or copy films without a great deal of equipment or
>time. A software pirate can literally mass produce 100's of copies
>of software an hour.
 
1- The video pirates, say in a 3rd country. CAN easily produce many copies and
DO so.... unfortunately for the movie industry
 
2- If a s/ware pirate wanted to "mass produce 100s of copies" he (or she :-)
must be doing it for financial benefit....and in that case would STILL do it
by buying an original and copying that......such a person could then even sell
the original......
 
So should we also ban the resale of s/ware under the assumption made above?
 
Please note that I do not necessarily disagree with the points made against
s/ware rentals but just feel these points should clear some of the analogies
that do not really fit .
 
Regards
 
Imran
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 25 Jan 90 16:18:33 GMT
From: imagen!atari!kbad@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Ken Badertscher)
Subject: TURBO-C Question!
Message-ID: <1992@atari.UUCP>
 
The switch you're looking for to avoid PC relative overflow errors in
the link phase is "-P".  BTW, if you're interested, I have a commented
template TCC.CFG file (ascii, unlike the TC.CFG) that I'd be willing to
put up on the net.  It's relatively short, and includes a list of all
the warning switches and their levels.
 
--
   |||   Ken Badertscher  (ames!atari!kbad)
   |||   Atari R&D System Software Engine
  / | \  #include <disclaimer>
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 25 Jan 90 16:25:59 GMT
From: imagen!atari!kbad@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Ken Badertscher)
Subject: TURBO C/MAS problem
Message-ID: <1993@atari.UUCP>
 
The original posting asks "Is the ST version of Turbo C for real?"
 
Yes, it's for real; it's from Borland.  It's not sold by Borland in the
US, however, for reasons I can't fathom.  The package is a solid one,
and its code generation beats any 68000 compiler available for the ST,
with the possible exception of GCC (maybe a slight advantage there). It
has some drawbacks:  it is _very_ strict - ANSI compliant to a fault.
Because of some implementation details, it is difficult to get some
kinds of "older" style C code to compile without modification.  The
libraries are complete, and the online help facility is wonderfully
hypertextish. (is that a word? :)
 
The assembler that comes with the package, although it has some minor
problems in 68030 code generation, is also very good.  Supports
motorola syntax, with macros, include files, and other goodies.
And, like the compiler, it's incredibly fast.
 
A new TC version with a source level debugger is being worked on too...
I have no idea when they'll have it ready, tho.
--
   |||   Ken Badertscher  (ames!atari!kbad)
   |||   Atari R&D System Software Engine
  / | \  #include <disclaimer>
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 27 Jan 90 16:55:28 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!r
 omwa@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Royal Ontario Museum)
Subject: Unix Windows ...
Message-ID: <1990Jan27.165528.2696@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
 
I just ftp'd to get uw from him1.  It looks as if this is for the Mac.
Does something like this exist for the ST?  If so, are there special
Unix requirements (sockets?).
 
advThANKSance
 
Pavneet Arora
...!utgpu!rom!pavneet
 
Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen's Park
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 2C6
(416) 586-5626
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 25 Jan 90 16:40:56 GMT
From: imagen!atari!kbad@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU  (Ken Badertscher)
Subject: VDI commands recording
Message-ID: <1994@atari.UUCP>
 
cs163wed@sdcc10.ucsd.edu ( ) writes:
 
| Hello.  I wonder if it is possible to add an overhead to the VDI
| such that calls to any VDI functions can be recorded automatically
| somewhere in memory in some sutiable format.
 
What you are describing is a GEM metafile.  Using metafiles requires
GDOS and the meta.sys driver.  The metafile format is documented
in the VDI manual in appendix C; the Mark Williams C manual also
has a good description in the "metafile" entry.
--
   |||   Ken Badertscher  (ames!atari!kbad)
   |||   Atari R&D System Software Engine
  / | \  #include <disclaimer>
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #111
*****************************************
