=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Tue,  6 Feb 90       Volume 90 : Issue  166
 
Today's Topics:
                        16 meg partition limit
           Atari's Quarterly Results ($5.4 Million Lost) :)
               Is there a (reliable) CHKDSK for the ST?
                 Need addresses for ZRAM and ramchips
                             PC-DITTO II
                             PC Ditto II
                     Scrolling Horizontally HELP!
                         TURBO C/MAS problem
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Feb 90 01:00:32 GMT
From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!orca.wv.tek.com!pogo!bluneski@beaver.cs.washington.edu
 (Bob Luneski)
Subject: 16 meg partition limit
Message-ID: <8503@pogo.WV.TEK.COM>
 
apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) writes in response:
 
>Also right.  Here's the bottom line: when you have a partition larger
>than 16MB, the driver creates the partition with 1KB sectors (or more!)
>rather than 512-byte sectors, which is the old value.  Cluster size is
>still two sectors, whatever size that is.  The disk itself is formatted
>with 512-byte sectors, and Rwabs does blocking and deblocking, turning
>requests for "one logical sector" into as many physical sectors as
>necessary.
 
<stuff deleted>
 
>The moral is, utilities should always use Getbpb to find out how big
>sectors are, how many sectors per cluster, etc., and base all your
>other calculations and "constants" on the answers.  If you're adding
>GEMDOS buffers or other permanent objects, get the release notes and do
>it right.
 
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  WARNING  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
Under TOS 1.0,1.2, and 1.4 repeated use of Getbpb or Dfree will bring your
system crashing to a halt! The number of calls until failure depends on your
system memory utilization but averages in the 35-65 call range.  This
little bug(feature) was discovered at great loss of time, sleep, and hair
(with a number of forehead bruises also).  The real moral of the story is
never let someone else do what you can do yourself.  Read in the boot sector
and pull the sector size off there!
 
I strongly agree with Alan that it is the developers responsibility to query
the system and never to take anything for granted.
 
****************************************************************************
*  Bob Luneski                                                             *
*  Diamond Back Support Hotline:  bluneski@pogo.WV.TEK.COM                 *
*                                                                          *
*  The opinions expressed herein are my own and in no way reflect the      *
*  opinions of Tektronix, Inc.                                             *
****************************************************************************
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Feb 90 19:32:38 GMT
From: mcdchg!chinet!saj@rutgers.edu  (Stephen Jacobs)
Subject: Atari's Quarterly Results ($5.4 Million Lost) :)
Message-ID: <1990Feb6.193238.4209@chinet.chi.il.us>
 
In article <1581@cs.rit.edu> ajy2208%ritcv@cs.rit.edu (Albert Yarusso) writes:
>
>Ahh, I wish that were the case.  Sigh..  I live just south of
>Canada (Rochester, NY) and on a recent excursion to Toronto I
>was surprised to see all the Atari support available!!!  I also
>got to play with some of Atari's new hardware, like the Stacy.
>
>>Computer Science Major                  | Support the poor...buy fur! |
> Albert Yarusso, Rochester     ajy2208@ritvax.bitnet,ajy2208@ultb.isc.rit.edu
 
This is the first report I've seen of a STacy being offered for retail
sale.  Would you please tell more?  What model (RAM size, was there a hard
disk, power supply, that kind of thing)?  Was any software bundled with it?
 
                                         Steve J.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 6 Feb 90 17:40:06 GMT
From: rochester!rit!cci632!ccicpg!paulm@pt.cs.cmu.edu  (tmp Paul Moreau usenet
 acct)
Subject: Is there a (reliable) CHKDSK for the ST?
Message-ID: <56875@ccicpg.UUCP>
 
In article <1255@lzsc.ATT.COM>, hcj@lzsc.ATT.COM (HC Johnson) writes:
> In article <1990Jan31.032956.28008@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>,
 romwa@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Royal Ontario Museum) writes:
> > Sorry if this has come up before, but I am really in need of info
> > regarding a reliable way to verify the integrity of the FAT.
> > Hopefully, the program should also go ahead and fix lost clusters,
> > etc. as automatically as possible.
> >
> fsck.prg was previously posted.  It works well up the 16 meg partitions.
>
> Since TOS 1.4 supports up to 32 Meg partitions, I have modified fsck.prg.
> I will send it to anyone who writes.
>
> Howard C. Johnson
> ATT Bell Labs
> =====NEW address====
> att!lzsc!hcj
> hcj@lzsc.att.com
 
  Last night while attempting to extract files using unlzh12.prg the system
  sat for a while blinking the drive light then crashed with 2 bombs.
  After rebooting the system I attempted to extract the files again using
  unlzh11.prg.   It then came up with an error saying that there was
  insufficient space on Drive E to extract the files!   Using the desktop
  show info it said that drive E had around 4 megs used with 0 bytes free.
  My E partition is a 16 meg partition!   I then used fsck which quickly
  exited saying that all was fine!   Around 1 year ago I wrote a program
  called dskana which bypassed all DOS calls, read the boot and  partition
  blocks and with a built in driver read the FATs , directories and checked
  the blocks used by each file to make sure  that they didn't use any more
  or less sectors than they should and also check to make sure they didn't
  use any blocks previously used while building a memory image of the FAT
  while tracing.  At the end it compared it's FAT with the one on the DISK
  and showed a whole Sh*t load of blocks that were marked in use but not
  assigned to any particular file!  Fortunatly I had the partition backed
  up so I had to use a SUPRA utility to 'clear' the partition which also
  cleared the directories and FAT entries.  Just deleting all the files
  still left all those entries in the FAT since they weren't assigned to
  any files for directories.
  My point is that FSCK didn't do the job for a standard 16 meg partition!
  Now I'm working on dskana to not only find errors but to correct them.
  I'll also make it more general purpose and if I get it working I'll post
  it to whomever may want it.
---
  .==========================================================.
  | ### ####### ###     |    N O R T H    | /==============\ |
  | ### ###     ###     |  A M E R I C A  |< An STC Company >|
  | ### ####### ####### |    (was CCI)    | \==============/ |
  |----------------------------------------------------------|
  | UUCP:  ...ccicpg!dl2!paulm   |      Paul L. Moreau       |
  |   or   ...ccicpg!dl1!paulm   | Diagnostics Software Eng. |
  |   or   ...ccicpg!paulm       |    Irvine, California     |
  `=========================================================='
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Feb 90 01:20:57 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!ubvms!v067majp@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Need addresses for ZRAM and ramchips
Message-ID: <702.25cf31a9@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>
 
Does anyone know the address of the company that makes ZRAM. I'd like to write
to them for more info about it.
 
Also, does anyone know of a good place to get 1Mbit Ram chips (also what
"speed" I should get).
 
                                                John
                                        v067majp@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Feb 90 02:31:58 GMT
From: rochester!rit!ultb!clf3678@pt.cs.cmu.edu  (C.L. Freemesser)
Subject: PC-DITTO II
Message-ID: <2125@ultb.isc.rit.edu>
 
In article <34908@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> stowe@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (stowe)
 writes:
>In article <56432@ccicpg.UUCP> paulm@ccicpg.UUCP (tmp Paul Moreau usenet acct)
 writes:
>>
>>  Has anybody in this whole wide world got PC-DITTO II working ???
>
>No one I know...
>
 A person in our user's group has successfully installed a PC Ditto II.
According to him, it has a Norton SI of 4.2.  He has a 1040ST.  However,
he noted that he has to use DOS 2.1 for it to work.  Anything above that
does not work because of the timing problem.  He recently received it,
so maybe AG finally got some working.
 
 
Chris Freemesser, Rochester Institute of Technology :BITNET:%clf3678@RITVAX
    |||        ____________                         :GEnie: C.FREEMESSER
    |||       /___    /          (and 8-bit too!)   :USENET: clf3678@rit.isc
   / | \   ______/   /                              :        .edu
Call the A.C.O.R.N BBS (716)436-3078, 300/1200 baud :<-or my BBS
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Feb 90 01:18:29 GMT
From:
 pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!psur
 ge@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (Troy Carpenter)
Subject: PC Ditto II
Message-ID: <7812@cs.utexas.edu>
 
I have heard that with the switch of board designs that AG has pumped the
PC Ditto II up to Norton SI of 4.0, has anyone else heard that?
 
And has anyone actually gotten theirs yet (that works).
 
                              Troy Carpenter
                            Computer  Sciences
                      THE University of Texas, Austin
                           psurge@cs.utexas.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 7 Feb 90 01:30:33 GMT
From: rochester!kodak!elmgate!jdg@rutgers.edu  (Jeff Gortatowsky CUST)
Subject: Scrolling Horizontally HELP!
Message-ID: <1196@elmgate.UUCP>
 
Hiya!
 
Anyone out there able to explain/provide code/algorythm fo fine scrolling
the ST vertically (both left & right)... I am trying to write a game and
cant for the life of me find the "right way" documented anywheres!
Thanx...
 
 
 
 
--
Jeff Gortatowsky-Eastman Kodak Company  .....rochester!kodak!elmgate!jdg
(use uuhosts or such to find path to rochester)
Eastman Kodak makes film not comments.  Therefore these comments are mine
not theirs.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 5 Feb 90 15:37:48 GMT
From:
 eru!luth!sunic!mcsun!ukc!tcdcs!swift.cs.tcd.ie!ccvax.ucd.ie!h236_014@bloom-beac
 on.mit.edu
Subject: TURBO C/MAS problem
Message-ID: <523.25cd9dcc@ccvax.ucd.ie>
 
In article <2010@atari.UUCP>, kbad@atari.UUCP (Ken Badertscher) writes:
> gilliam@lowlif.dec.com writes:
>
> | Is the documentation in English? Does it have a GEM interface? If so, are
> | the dialogues in English? I was under the impression that an English
> | language version of Turbo C for the ST is not available.
>
> The version I use has German documentation and help files, but English
> text in the menus, dialogs and compiler error messages.  Version 1.1,
> the one currently available from Borland in Germany, comes with a GEM
> based shell which includes the compiler and linker and a decent editor.
> It also includes .TTP versions of the compiler, linker and librarian.
> An assembler and debugger are available seperately.
>
> The online help is eminently useful, even though I don't read German
> very well (about one semester worth of study, many years ago).  The
> reason it is so useful is that it gives you function prototypes and
> associated information in a "hypertext" style format, where you can
> click on highlighted cross references in the help window for further
> information.
>
> People who are interested in an English language version of the package
> should definitely contact Borland and let their voices be heard.  As
> I've mentioned in previous posts, this is a fine development system.
> Despite some quirks, it's really fast and generates excellent code.
> It deserves to be seen in English speaking markets, but that won't
> happen unless and until Borland perceives a market for it.
>
> --
>    |||   Ken Badertscher  (ames!atari!kbad)
>    |||   Atari R&D System Software Engine
>   / | \  #include <disclaimer>
 
    Does anybody know how similar the ST and PC versions of the compiler
are ? The reason I ask is that I have Turbo C v1.5 for the PC and if the
two versions were similar I might be able to make do with the PC manual
for all the UN*X-like stuff and only be forced onto the German manual for
the GEM/ST specific stuff.
 
   I would naturally prefer an English version on Turbo C but might be
left waiting for a long time.
 
  Any information would be appreciated,
 
      Padraig.
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #166
*****************************************