=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Mon, 12 Mar 90       Volume 90 : Issue  317
 
Today's Topics:
              About the Laserwriter driver for Timeworks
                      Atari and the Everyday Pe
                       Data Structures Toolkit
                          Hard disk problems
                        linear algebra package
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 90 17:03 N
From: Anne-Mie Vandermeeren - RUG <AVM%BGERUG51.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: About the Laserwriter driver for Timeworks
 
Hi,
 
I'm not a subscriber to the list, but I do have a question.
 
It looks like the Apple Laserwriter driver from Timeworks is communicating
with the Laserwriter. In the first place it asks for the status of the
Laserwriter, and second it asks for the kind of interface the Laserwriter
is initialized on (one of the option numbers of the Laserwriter).
If no answer comes on that question the first time, it asks it several times,
but with a timeout. If no answer came at all, it starts sending the Postscript
commands with the Xon/Xoff handshaking.
 
This is where my problem comes. I want the Atari to send the Postscript to
a VAX machine and from there on print to the Laserwriter. I don't want to
answer the question of the option number ( the handshaking), but I want to
change the default of the printer driver in Timeworks to the DTR/DSR (
option 68).
 
Is it possible to do that, or am I asking a hell of a question ?
 
Please answer to me directly, since I'm not a subscriber to this list.
 
Anne-Mie Vandermeeren (avm@bgerug51.bitnet)
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 12 Mar 90 16:43:56 GMT
From: cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve@ub.d.umn.edu  (Steve Yelvington)
Subject: Atari and the Everyday Pe
Message-ID: <A1434195052@thelake.mn.org>
 
[In article <90031201022042@masnet.uucp>,
     david.schreiber@canremote.uucp (DAVID SCHREIBER) writes ... ]
 
> It is IMPOSSIBLE for Nintendo to be sing "monopolistic" practices
> against Atari. Check your dictionary.
 
Oh, really? It says:
 
mo*nop*o*ly 1. exclusive control of a commodity or service in a given
market, or control that makes possible the fixing of prices and the
virtual elimination of free competition.
 
According to the Associated Press, Rep. Dennis Eckart of Ohio, chairman of
the House small business subcommittee on antitrust, asked the U.S. Justice
Department's antitrust division last December to investigate Nintendo.
 
Nintendo controls 80 percent or more of the videogames market. That in
itself is not monopolistic, but:
 
* He accused Nintendo of intimidating retailers to keep competitors off
toy store shelves.
 
* He said Nintendo has used exclusive software arrangements and physical
computer-chip barriers to control the market. Nintendo installs a
"lock-out chip" in each cartridge, and only licensed game cartridges
including that chip can be used on Nintendo players.
 
*  He said Nintendo had created artificial shortages of some games sold by
licensed software producers.
 
* He said the result of Nintendo's marketing practices is that only games
licensed or sold by Nintendo can be played on the Nintendo players,
blocking independent software publishers and inflating the costs of games
to consumers by an estimated 20 percent to 30 percent.
 
I don't think anyone is close to filing any criminal charges, but similar
allegations are contained in the Atari Games (Tengen) civil suit. (Atari
Games is not affiliated with Atari Corp.)
 
--
   Steve Yelvington at the lake in Minnesota
   UUCP path: ... umn-cs.cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 12 Mar 90 17:38:02 GMT
From:
 cs.utexas.edu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!tiger!swklassen@
 tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Steven W. Klassen)
Subject: Data Structures Toolkit
Message-ID: <21875@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
 
Many months ago I asked the net if anyone was interested in a
toolkit (collection of C routines) I was putting together to
work with various data structures.  I only got a few responses
but decided to go ahead with the project anyway since it would
be useful to me.
 
I have finally completed version 1.0 of my toolkit and it is
ready to go to the net.  If you are interested in receiving
it please e-mail me.  If there are enough responses I will
post to the net, otherwise I will just e-mail it to those
who want it.
 
This initial version contains routines for various types of
sorts as well as for working with different types of lists.
It contains three libraries, described briefly below:
 
sorts - This library includes routines for sorting an array
        of character pointers.  (Which are, of course, pointing
        to the data you really want to sort.)  It includes
        a simple linear insertion sort (inefficient but easy
        to understand), Hoare's quicksort (efficient for
        'average' arrays but inefficient if the array is
        already in increasing order), and the heapsort algorithm
        (efficient in all cases but slightly more overhead
        than the quicksort.
 
lists - This library defines a data type called list.  Two
        implementations are included, a singly linked list and
        a doubly linked list.  Routines are included to create
        lists, insert and delete stuff, move around in the
        list, retrieve stuff, and catenate and split lists.
        The lists are created in such a way that they can
        contain any type of data.  (In fact you can put a
        different data type in each node if you want to.)
 
clist - This library defines a data type called a circular
        list.  These lists are similar to the above lists
        except that they go in a circle (i.e. the 'last'
        element will point back to the 'first' element).
        Both singly linked and doubly linked implementations
        are included.  All the same routines are included
        as in lists with the exception of catenate and split.
 
The toolkit is broken into three directories.
doc\ contains the documentation for each of the libraries as well
as copywrite restrictions (see below) and a list of error messages
the toolkit may produce on occasion.
 
include\ contains all the header files required to defined the
data types.
 
src\ contains arc'ed files containing the source code for the toolkit.
 
The entire toolkit is available in source form only.  To use it
you can either #include the source files into your programs or
compile them into libraries (which is what I did) in a form
acceptable to your C compiler.
 
All the code has been written in Mark Williams C but should work
with any K & R C compiler with little or no modification.
 
If you have any problems with the toolkit (errors or ideas for
improvement) let me know and I may change them in a future
upgrade.
 
Copywrite information:
For complete copywrite information see the copywrit file in the
doc/ directory.  Basically you can use my sources without
restriction in any non-profit application provided that you
also provide source code.  If you want to use them in a for-
profit application (including shareware) you need to contact
me first.  (I will rarely require money, usually I will just
ask that you put in a credit with my name on it if I think
your program is well written, or require that you remove all
mention of me if I think your program sucks.)
 
Once again, if you are interested in this toolkit, e-mail me
and I will either e-mail you a copy or post to the net.
 
Steven W. Klassen                       +-----------------------------+
Computer Science Major                  | Support the poor...buy fur! |
University of Waterloo                  +-----------------------------+
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 12 Mar 90 09:58:38 GMT
From: mcsun!inria!loria!cartan.crin.fr!domen@uunet.uu.net  (Eric Domenjoud)
Subject: Hard disk problems
Message-ID: <1814@loria.crin.fr>
 
Some days ago, my hard disk got completely corrupted: I first noticed
that some files were mixed on the disk and looking at the FATS and the root
directory, I saw that a file was partly written in the root directory and
some clusters were allocated to more than one file. It's actually the fourth
time it happens but I never exactly identified the problem before.
 
I noticed that the first data cluster on the disk corresponds to the third
entry in the FATS, that's to say, is numbered 2 since the first one is
numbered 0. This means that the data clusters 0 and 1 are actually never
used and thus marked as free in the FATS (at least on my disk which is not
an ATARI disk) and that they are actually located in the root directory,
exactly where a part of my files were written.
 
My questions are then:
 
1) Did anybody already experience this problem?
 
2) Are the data clusters 0 and 1 marked as free ($0000) on the ATARI disks?
 
2) Is it posible that a poorly behaved program allocates these two non
   existing data clusters, thinking that they are free?
 
 
This problem occured first while copying a file with the Universal Item
Selector and then almost systematicaly with Turbo C.
 
My disk is a 30MB with OMTI controler bought at
FSE in Kaiserslautern (W. Germany).
 
 
Eric Domenjoud
e-mail: domen@loria.crin.fr
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 12 Mar 90 17:49:10 GMT
From:
 clyde.concordia.ca!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!tiger!swkla
 ssen@uunet.uu.net  (Steven W. Klassen)
Subject: linear algebra package
Message-ID: <21877@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
 
Now that ver. 1.0 of my toolkit has been completed, it is time
to start working on ver. 2.0.
 
Currently I am planning on ver. 2.0 to included a library for
working with various implementations of binary trees, as well
as a library which I am currently just calling a linear algebra
package.
 
My initial proposal for the linear algebra package would include
a number of routines for finding the roots of polynomials and
for working with matrices.  The matrices routines would include
finding determinants, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, norms (maybe),
row reduction (solving systems of equations), inversion, and
multiplying matrices.  This is a rather incomplete list and I
am hoping that some of you out there can help add to this list.
Please e-mail me and tell me what you would look for in a linear
algebra package.  What sort of routines (if you could provide
the location of algorithms, i.e. names of textbooks, that
would also be useful) would you like to see, and what sort
of calling format would you like to see.  I won't guarantee
that I will use all your ideas or even that I will respond to
your mail, but I will consider all ideas.
 
ver. 2.0 of the toolkit (including all updates and corrections
from ver. 1.0, a library for working with binary trees, and
the linear algebra package) should be ready by Christmas but
I can make no guarantees to that effect.  (Depends on how much
overtime I get at my new job.)
 
(P.S. If anyone wants to help write any of it, or if you already
have some routines which you have written but don't want to go
to the trouble of supporting, feel free to e-mail me and we can
probably work something out.)
 
 
 
Steven W. Klassen                       +-----------------------------+
Computer Science Major                  | Support the poor...buy fur! |
University of Waterloo                  +-----------------------------+
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #317
*****************************************
