=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Wed, 24 Jan 90       Volume 90 : Issue   93
 
Today's Topics:
                 Elite!  (Escape Capsule & missions)
              help: trying to mount ch3 modulator in 520
                  Mark Williams C (another vote for)
                             PC Ditto II
                              UU-Decoder
                        VDI commands recording
                   ZMDM 1.63 Failure Explained More
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Date: 24 Jan 90 21:09:47 GMT
From: zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!uhnix1!uhnix2!uace0@think.com
 (Michael B. Vederman)
Subject: Elite!  (Escape Capsule & missions)
Message-ID: <955@uhnix2.uh.edu>
 
Someone writes:
:>    I haven't actually tried it.  However, the following is from my Elite
:>manual, page 35, under "Escape Capsule" (grammatical errors are theirs, too):
:>
 
And gets a reply:
:>I have tried it.  I have tried escaping in the same system.  I have tried
:>hyper jumping to a new system (that I have never been too) and escaping.
:>I have done this with offender status and with fugitive status.
:>
:>Nothing has worked.  I can't get my status to clean.  I have now logged in
:>15 hours with my current game and haven't been approached for the missions.
:>I assume this is because of my legal status.
 
I didn't have a problem turning my status back to clean.  I just kept playing,
and avoiding the space cops (gotta use that docking computer in FAST mode).
I also quit picking up cargo cannisters, since these sometimes contained
contraband.
 
As for the missions, I personally never saw them, but the discussion some time
ago seemed to indicate that you had to do a Galaxy-Jump to some other galaxy
(#5 or #6, I think) before you would be approached for missions.
 
cheers,
Neal
--
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Double Click Me | Double Click Software | P.O. Box 741206 | Houston, Tx, 77274
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Support BBS: (713)944-0108 | SHADOW | DC FORMATTER | DC UTILITIES | and others
 
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Date: 24 Jan 90 21:48:35 GMT
From: jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!mwtilden@rutgers.edu
 (M.W.Tilden, Hardware)
Subject: help: trying to mount ch3 modulator in 520
Message-ID: <33568@watmath.waterloo.edu>
 
I recently got two channel 3 modulators for my upgraded 520 st
from Atari.  I was annoyed to find out that one of them had a
74ls86 (quad XOR) whereas the other did not.  Both units also
had a two-cable wire coming out of it which gave no indication
as to where they were supposed to connect.
 
The questions are: which of these is the REAL 520 modulator, and
where the hell do those funny wires go?  Mounting one at random produced
zero results and my Sams Computerfacts on the 520 are no help.  Would
anyone who's had experience mounting these things please tell me the
obvious thing I'm missing.
 
Thanx.
 
 
--
Mark Tilden: _-_-_-__--__--_      /(glitch!)  M.F.C.F Hardware Design Lab.
-_-___       |              \  /\/            U of Waterloo. Ont. Can, N2L-3G1
     |__-_-_-|               \/               (519) - 885 - 1211 ext.2454,
"MY OPINIONS, YOU HEAR!? MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! AH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 24 Jan 90 18:24:54 GMT
From:
 zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!rochester!rit!ritcv!aj
 y2208@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Mark Williams C (another vote for)
Message-ID: <1556@cs.rit.edu>
 
First, thanks to everyone who replied to my request for information
about Malloc() and malloc().  The net is a very valuable resource,
and I challenge those who say there is no useful information to be
found in this newsgroup!
 
In article <893@per2.UUCP> dag@per2.UUCP (Daniel A. Glasser) writes:
>Being the person who wrote most of the MWC examples (other than most of the
>GEM examples, which were mostly written by a non-programmer), I would like
>to defend the MWC manual/examples a little here.
 
After using the manual for 2 weeks now, I very much appreciate the
many examples it offers.  Especially after seeing Laser C's manual.
I also like the Lexicon format of the manual, as opposed to having
related functions grouped together (although that would be nice
in ADDITION to the Lexicon, but that's what other books are for.. :-).
 
>Sorry about that...  The decision to not put the restriction into the
>main part of the documentation was made because it was unclear what
>future products might offer.  There was supposed to be a note that stated
>that the current 520 and 1040ST machines had this restriction, but this
>got left out by accident, and nobody seems to have noticed.  The examples
>had most of their comments stripped out so they could fit into the manual.
 
No flame intended..  It just gets frustrating sometimes when something
very simple keeps you held up all night when programming..
 
>[...]
>In my honest opinion, biased as it may be, the MWC manual is the single
>best volume for programming the ST published to date.  It needs revision,
>bugfixing, and maybe some other tweeking (new GEM examples, etc.) and
>the compiler should be updated, but it is still a very good package at a
>good price.
 
Agreed.  I am very satisfied with Mark Williams C.  I have also
used Laser C (at a friend's place), and am not all that impressed
with it.  It DOES compile significantly faster than MWC, but that
is in part due to the fact that he is running everything from a
ramdisk, while I am running everything straight from the hard drive.
I need a memory upgrade, one megabyte doesn't seem to cut it anymore!
 
I had problems compiling a program on Laser C, and after I did get
it to compile it bombed quite frequently.  Well, I took the code
over to my house, changed a thing or two (mainly some #include
statements), and compiled it with MWC.  To my surprise, the program ran
flawlessly the first time.  Hmmmmmm....
 
I also like MWC because it is more Unix-like than Laser, however the
Laser Source Debugger is quite nice, and a bit easier to use than the
MWC Source Debugger.
 
>                                               Daniel A. Glasser
_____________________________________________________________________________
 Albert Yarusso, Rochester     ajy2208@ritvax.bitnet,ajy2208@ultb.isc.rit.edu
 Institute of Tech. _________________________________________________________
 Computer Science  /___   /    ?rutgers, ames?!rochester!ritcv!ajy2208
______________________/  /     ajy2208@ritcv.cs.rit.edu     GEnie:  A.Yarusso
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 24 Jan 90 22:09:18 GMT
From: usenet.ins.cwru.edu!mango!pietrzak@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu  (John Pietrzak)
Subject: PC Ditto II
Message-ID: <1990Jan24.220918.13490@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>
 
Last week or so, several messages were made concerning the reception of
PC Ditto II boards.  Was this just a fluke?  Would anyone with access to
the net happen to have gotten one in the mail?  A friend and I have been
losing hope about ever seeing this product.
 
Also, the rumors about the TT are so thick I get dizzy trying to follow
them.  Would someone be kind enough to tell me whether or not it is
currently shipping in Europe (i.e., Germany)?
 
Thanks Bunches
J P
 
pietrzak@mango.ces.cwru.edu or pietrzak@scl.cwru.edu
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 90 13:25 EST
From: FRACHEL@umiami.Miami.EDU
Subject: UU-Decoder
 
I can't seem to access the panarthea archive site from my school,
so I need to know where I can get the St-Basic version of the
UU-Decoder that is in volume 1 of the Sources..
 
It is not up on Terminator, only volume 2 is.
 
Can someone send me the file?
 
Thanks
 
Frank Rachel
 
Bitnet:FRACHEL@UMIAMI
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 24 Jan 90 17:25:38 GMT
From: sjsca4!greg@uunet.uu.net  (Greg Wageman)
Subject: VDI commands recording
Message-ID: <1990Jan24.172538.13937@sj.ate.slb.com>
 
Opinions expressed are the responsibility of the author.
 
In article <6351@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> 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.  Afterwards a record can be
>replayed, saved to disk, loaded from disk, or whatever.  This is
>kind of like the "picture" of the Mac OS quickdraw.  Is this
>possible?  Also, does anyone know  the format of GEM metafiles
>(i.e, the format Easy Draw uses to store its drawings.)
 
It ought to be possible, but by no means easy.  Since the VDI is
entered via a "trap" instruction, you can write your own trap handler
and insert it ahead of Atari's by saving the address of theirs and
replacing it with the address of yours.  (Alternatively, you could
replace your compiler's binding with your own which intercepts these
calls.)
 
Your handler needs to save all the pertinant data each time a VDI trap
is taken; this would include the relevant array data (control, ptsin,
etc.) and the contents of certain registers (I'd have to look up which
one(s)).  The specific locations used are documented in the Atari
developer's docs.  (You could save all of the arrays every time, but
this is massive overkill, though it would simplify the code.  However
you only have to write the code once.)
 
In many cases you will need to intercept the *return* data, since
you're interested in mouse events; you can arrange to return to your
handler first (instead of directly to the application) in order to do
this.
 
I think I'd put some kind of header on each "record" which the
playback code would use to identify which call was trapped, and how
much data was saved.  Where to put it is determined by the function
call in a similar manner to how it was saved.
 
Some potential problems I can see are arranging for sufficient buffer
space to copy all of the data on open-ended calls like "v_pline()",
where the number of points can be large.  Of course, if you are just
interested in mouse and keyboard events, then your task is simplified
somewhat since you can simply pass-through a large number of graphics
calls.
 
Still, I can see problems with event "playback".  You'll probably need
to create a desk accessory which would get the file name from the
user, and arrange to install your "driver".  Your playback driver
would have to trap certain VDI calls, just like the record driver, but
instead of actually calling the VDI afterwards, it would load the
saved data from the file into the appropriate places, and return to
the application.  I can see a lot of potential headaches here.
 
A much simpler way to do this would be to write a mouse and
keyboard-event handler, which would record and playback these packets
at a much lower level.  However, this would not allow you to actually
capture graphics calls.  Not knowing your application, I'm not sure
which is more appropriate for you.
 
This is an intriguing concept, and I welcome comments from other
programmers on the feasability/infeasability of doing this.
 
Copyright 1990 Greg Wageman     DOMAIN: greg@sj.ate.slb.com
Schlumberger Technologies       UUCP:   ?uunet,decwrl,amdahl?!sjsca4!greg
San Jose, CA 95110-1397         BIX: gwage  CIS: 74016,352  GEnie: G.WAGEMAN
 Permission is granted for reproduction provided this notice is maintained.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 24 Jan 90 20:35:10 GMT
From: samsung!umich!wsu-cs!egrunix!nucleus!wa8tzg@think.com  (Bill Meahan)
Subject: ZMDM 1.63 Failure Explained More
Message-ID: <5520@nucleus.mi.org>
 
In article <2313@ruuinf.cs.ruu.nl>, piet@cs.ruu.nl (Piet van Oostrum) writes:
> In article <480eb0b0.14a1f@force.UUCP>, covertr@force (Richard E. Covert)
 writes:
>  `
>  `and it continues like this until the SENDER gets tired and hangs up.
>  `So, ZMDM163 definitely fails, and is reproducible. ZMDM163 does not
>  `fail on EVERY FOREM ST board, but on the boards that it does fail,
>  `it fails everytime.
>  `
> I experience failures with ZMDM (sorry, I don't know which version, I have
> to find out.). At work we have Ataris connected to a Unix system at 9600 or
> 19200 bd, and there zmdm works fine in both directions. At home however I
> use the same zmdm at 2400 bd (modem connection) and there only downloads
> work. Uploads get aborted with an error (I don't believe it ever comes
> further than the first block, if at all).
> --
 
 
You  might check your modem's "command wakeup" character.  I had trouble
with an old SmartCat 1200 that used a single '%' as the switch to command
mode flag.  Of course, every time the binary transfer contained something
that the modem interpreted as a '%', the modem would dutifully switch over
into command mode and do nothing more.  The connection would then time out
and abort the transfer.  Since I never used the % key in interactive mode,
I had not seen the problem before.  Switching over to a Hayes clone that
required a much more complex "wakeup" sequence eliminated the problem.
 
Bill Meahan
 
wa8tzg@nucleus.mi.org
?uunet?!sharkey!nucleus!wa8tzg
 
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End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #93
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