 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Mon, 19 Feb 90       Volume 90 : Issue  231
 
Today's Topics:
               Discontinuation of Info-Atari16 digests
             Foreign exchange (was Re: Shareware Policy.)
                  GDOS Fonts, printing a sample page
                                 GEM
                    Portfolio info needed urgently
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 90 18:08:50 MEZ
From: UNM409%DBNRHRZ1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Discontinuation of Info-Atari16 digests
 
Hello all,
 
I can't believe that so far there has not been a single reply to the recent
announcement that the Info-Atari16 digests will be discontinued.
 
This will mean that the BITNET/EARN Atari users will lose their link to the
rest of the Atari world.  (And you others will lose their participation in
ST discussions).
 
But no, that blasted piracy discussion (runner-up is the Phantom typist one)
happily continues, people are posting huge signatures with two-line messages,
others post in triplicate, and the digests are discontinued due to TOO MUCH
NET TRAFFIC!!!
 
Why is it that the real work is always left to a few people like Ravi et al?
Yes, I'd volunteer, but I'm only on a BITNET end node, so I can't do anything.
 
Or am I missing something??  Flame away.
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bitnet:  VBRANDT@DBNUAMA1 (will go away some day ...)  Volker A. Brandt
          UNM409@DBNRHRZ1 (alternative)                Angewandte Mathematik
UUCP:    ...!unido!DBNUAMA1.bitnet!vbrandt             (Bonn, West Germany)
ARPAnet: VBRANDT%DBNUAMA1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Feb 90 16:12:22 GMT
From: cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve@ub.d.umn.edu  (Steve Yelvington)
Subject: Foreign exchange (was Re: Shareware Policy.)
Message-ID: <A1368069203@thelake.mn.org>
 
[In article <2008@laura.UUCP>,
     klute@heike.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Rainer Klute) writes ... ]
 
> This raises the question how much fee I had to pay if I would
> receive a cheque or money order from a foreign country (here:
> anything outside Germany). Recently I got an Euro-Cheque from
> Austria made out in DM (Deutsche Mark) and I had no additional
> costs with it. Probably it is different with cheques from, say,
> Canada or the United States. I shall try to find out and post
> the results here.
 
The expense comes on the sender's end.
 
A couple of years ago, on Rainer's recommendation, I bought the DRI
Resource Editor from Merlin Computer GMBH, Eschborn, FRG. The price was
22.50 DM, which converted to about a third of the U.S. retail price of the
Kuma resource editor, the only one available here at the time.
 
Merlin asked for a Eurocheque in Deutsche Marks. It cost me 12 dollars or
so in service charges just to get a bank here to issue the check! And I
had to wait almost an hour for this "service."
 
Since then I've found that you can buy International Reply Coupons, which
can be converted into local stamps, at any post office. They're the
optimum solution for most small exchanges.
 
(Actually, my wife and her mother routinely buy perfumes, tulip bulbs,
etc., from companies in France and Holland that accept personal checks
made out in U.S. currency. Those firms apparently have no trouble cashing
the U.S. checks.)
 
> Oh, and there is still the very cheap possibility to put some
> banknotes into an envelope and hand it over to the snail mail
> for delivery. Obviously this is not the most secure procedure
> but for $15 (the Arcgsh Shareware fee I ask for) the risk may
> be bearable.
 
Absolutely right -- although I think $15 is a rather steep tax on being
too lazy to type the commands to ARC. :-)
 
--
   Steve Yelvington at the (thin ice today*) lake in Minnesota
   UUCP path: ... umn-cs.cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve
 
   *16 cars through the ice so far this year! Yes, you, too, can
    have that sinking feeling....
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Feb 90 16:06:35 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!mcdphx!hrc!force!covertr@tut
 .cis.ohio-state.edu  (Richard E. Covert)
Subject: GDOS Fonts, printing a sample page
Message-ID: <48bd414d.14a1f@force.UUCP>
 
Roman@Tellabs discussed the issue of loading and printing GDOS fonts in
a previous message. I would like to write a small GEM based program to
print out a sample of each GDOS font loaded in memory. I want to print as
many samples as can fit on a printed page, with the complete ASCII character
set in each of the GDOS font sizes.
 
Does anyonealready have aprogram that does this?? I don't want to reinvent
the wheel. If so please post here. Otherwise, I will post whatever code I
develope myself. I am open to suggestions from any interested programmer.
 
 
--
 Richard E. Covert, Lead Engineer of Software Tools Group
 AG Communications Systems, Phoenix AZ   (602) - 581-4652
 TCP/IP: covertr@gtephx
 UUCP: ?ncar!noao!asuvax | uunet!zardoz!hrc | att?!gtephx!covertr
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 19 Feb 90 20:08:14 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ogicse!blake!ramsiri@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
 (Enartloc Nhoj)
Subject: GEM
Message-ID: <5838@blake.acs.washington.edu>
 
What is the status of GEM?
 
It would be nice if we had a clipboard a la mac and
some standards in data format that would facilitate
easy importing and exporting of data between programs.
I think this is one of the virtues of the mac OS/Finder.
THe above allows for a much more integrated environment
that tends to foster greater productivity.
 
Another very nice data structure a la mac is the
data fork/creator fork concept.  The GEM "install application"
is gross in comparison.  For those who don't know
what i am talking about:  when an application produces
a document under the mac os, that document has a
"creator" attached to it.  Now, whenever you click
on that document no matter where it is in any folder
or in any partition, the application loads and
loads the document with it.  System 7 purportedly
takes this further.  Let's say you cut a part of
your Excel spreadsheet and paste it into your word
processor document.  At some date later, you go back
into Excel and update your data.  The pasted part that
has been sitting in your word processor document gets
updated automatically.
 
Also..  most mac programs will load foreign documents.
Translate them into their own format etc...
 
I much prefer the ST hardware over the mac's with the same processor.
The ST with TurboST and NeoDesk has a much faster redraw...
also... the ST's I/O speed is considerably noticeable.
I even prefer most of the ST programs over their comparable mac
applications.  But the general environment of the ST is
clunky.  How difficult would it be to change TOS/GEM to
provide us with some of the features listed above?
 
Since i don't log onto Genie, i don't know if these issues
are being discussed at the Roundtables.  If so, anybody
care to elaborate HERE?
 
Considering the TT (the what?) is based on a much more
powerful processor, will GEM be rewritten to take advantage
of it?  I don't want just a "faster" ST...
 
-kevin
ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu
 
BTW:  I hope people don't take this as a flame... or say
      "go buy a mac ", for one: these are suggestions
      (that i am sure are not novel), and two: i use
      GCR, so i get a feel for the differences between
      the environments rather immediately.
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 90 18:55:00 EST
From: Greg Csullog <01659%AECLCR.bitnet@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Portfolio info needed urgently
Message-ID: <90Feb19.185728est.58293@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca>
 
A local entrepeneur is in the midst of preparing a commercial proposal
and he is looking at the Portfolio (because of its size) as the smart
controller for the system. The developer wants to do some bi-
directional I/O and to display data graphically (line plots).
 
What he needs to know is:
 
1. Are any languages available for the Portfolio? Would some off-
   the-shelf PC BASIC work, for example.
 
2. Are the ROM routines documented anywhere (such as pixel on/off,
   line primitives, RS config, etc.)
 
If he can get a language that access ROM routines to do the I/O and
graphics, he can use the Portfolio as a small instrument controller.
 
He has to prepare an interim proposal within the next few days.
If anyone on the net has info, please E-mail to me and I will pass
it along.
 
PS. what about alternatives to the Portfolio (remember, compactness
is essential).
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Mon, 19 FEB 90 11:48:38
From: WOODALLP%VAX1.COMPUTER-CENTRE.BIRMINGHAM.AC.UK@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
 
Dear all,
 
        Two queries regarding Tex/Latex:
 
1) Is there a version of Slitex for the ST, if so can someone point me to
one or send me one (I can only access panarthea).
 
2) Is there another viewer other than DVIST, one which will allow horizontal
scrolling when viewing at higher mags (or can DVIST do this).
 
Yours in anticipation
 
Phil Woodall
 
Woodallp@UK.AC.BHAM
 
P.S. Thanks to all for putting Tex/Latex on the ST/Deskjet
 
 
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End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #231
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