=========================================================================
 
INFO-ATARI16 Digest         Fri, 12 Jan 90       Volume 90 : Issue   30
 
Today's Topics:
                                Ani-ST
                 Atari's Quarterly Results ($5.4 Mil
                    Costums charges for computers.
                      FrankenSTein and Revolver
                        GDOS font file formats
                   How do I add a window to a form?
                        lharc/arc/zoo/compress
                           Printer problems
                   Silencing your SLM Laser Printer
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 90 10:02 EST
From: EDGINGTC%Wabash.Bitnet@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU
Subject: Ani-ST
 
Someone recently requested that Ani-ST (The publicly released version of Aegis
Animator).  I have that program from Start Magazine & if enough interest is
here, I will post to binaries.  If not, whoever requested it should send me his
bitnet address & I will get it to you as soon as possible.
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  ______                        |  ATARI IS NO. 1  |        Chris Edgington |
| /      \  / \                  |      * * *       |     Wabash College '92 |
| |         | |          .       |      * * *       |    (Purdue next year.) |
| |         | |              __  |      * * *       | Computer Science Major |
| |         |/--\  |--   |  |__  |     ** * **      |             Math Minor |
| \______/  /    \ /  \ / \  __| |   ***  *  ***    |                        |
|                                | ***    *    ***  | edgingtc@wabash.bitnet |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 10 Jan 90 18:03:44 GMT
From: zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekig5!waynekn@uunet.uu.net  (Wayne Knapp)
Subject: Atari's Quarterly Results ($5.4 Mil
Message-ID: <5352@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM>
 
In article <30200039@inmet>, hedger@inmet.inmet.com writes:
- Are they serious ????
- They sold 98 million dollars worth of stuff and only made
- a 900,000 dollar profit ????
-
- Sounds fishy to me.
 
That's nothing!  My company has even manage to sell 1.4 BILLION
and LOSE 16 million!!!  Atari looks good from where I'm sitting.
(The above happen in the year that ended June of 1988)
 
                                          Wayne Knapp
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 90 10:08:21 EST
From: Martin Stein <ATT3B%UCONNVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: Costums charges for computers.
 
I am planning to buy a computer in the US, use it there for studying,
and then take it with me home to germany, half a year later.
 
Does anybody know, how much this will be, regarding costum or toll charges
in the US and in West Germany? Do you have to pay the same as with mail
orders from different countries?
 
Thanx a lot
                    Martin Stein
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1990 09:19 EST
From: Greg Csullog <01659%AECLCR.BITNET@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: FrankenSTein and Revolver
 
I installed a 4 meg FrankenSTein memory board in an old 1040STf (revision
number D on the mother board) and everything I have, including Spectre GCR
running with 4 megs, is OK except Revolver. It will boot up and give me
two 1973K partitions but when I try to switch between the partitions the
system crashes. In addition, I cannot access the Revolver menu via SHFT-ALT
because everytime I use this key combo the system bombs.
 
Anyone out there in netland have any answers?
 
As an aside, when I did a system info request in EXCEL under GCR, the
code crashed. If Dave Small is out there, have you seen the same crash?
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 90 01:55:29 EST
From: SCHMIDTM%CMR001.bitnet@ugw.utcs.utoronto.ca
Subject: GDOS font file formats
Message-ID: <900110.01574829.061234@CMR.CP6>
 
Does anyone have detailed descriptions of GDOS font file
formats? and the metafile format? Is this information
somehow secret/priviledged/etc?
 
If possible, could someone post this to the net or send
it to me directly?
 
Thanks!
 
*******************************************************************
 
Mike Schmidt      bitnet: schmidtm@cmr001
Bull HN Ltd     internet: schmidtm%cmr001.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu
 
*******************************************************************
 
        All my opinions are entirely fictional; any
     resemblance to those held by real persons, corporate or
     otherwise, is purely coincidental. (or just dumb luck!)
 
*******************************************************************
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 90 10:11:23 GMT
From: Chris Ridd <RiddCJ%computer-science.birmingham.ac.uk@NSFnet-Relay.AC.UK>
Subject: How do I add a window to a form?
Message-ID: <9001101011.aa01318@benjamin.Cs.Bham.AC.UK>
 
Paul Close asked (paraphrased):
1) how do I put a scrollbar in a form (dialog) like the file selector?
2) how do I write inside a window?
 
1) Well, you CAN'T put a window inside a dialog box.  What you can do though,
is simulate a window's scrollbars and features by drawing little buttons (hint
- use G_BOXCHARs for the scroll arrows) and boxes (the scrollbar background
should be a G_BOX with a fill pattern, the little moveable box (thumb) should
be a child of this object, and should also be a G_BOX, filled in white).  Play
around with a good resource editor (K-Resource or WERCS spring to mind).
 
All the objects should have the TOUCHEXIT flag turned on, so that a mouse click
will 'repeat'.  You'll need a little bit of code to handle all the different
click positions - on the thumb (drag the box), on the background (page the
thumb up or down), or just scrolling line by line up or down.  You don't
need to use G_PROGDEF types.
 
2) You can write inside a window just by writing on the screen at the proper
coordinates.  To ensure that you don't destroy the screen outside the window,
clip the VDI output to inside the window's work area.  There is no other way.
There are alas, no extra window functions inside the AES that will help you
do clever things.  You need to work hard!  After a bit, you get to admire the
work that's gone into packages like NeoDesk (custom windows) et al.
 
>Paul Close     paul@cacilj.CTS.COM     ...!?uunet, ucsd, crash?!cacilj!paul
>
>    The Obi-wan Kenobi method:  "Use the Source, Luke" -Jim Fulton
 
   Chris
 
/*
 * Snail mail address:
 * Chris Ridd,                   "Wave after wave, each mightier than the last
 * School of Computer Science,  'Til last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
 * Birmingham University,         And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
 * UK                              Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame"
 *
 */
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 10 Jan 90 00:31:45 GMT
From:
 cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!dover!digital!chen%digital.sps.MOT.COM@tut.cis.ohio-state
 .edu  (Jinfu Chen)
Subject: lharc/arc/zoo/compress
Message-ID: <47f0d326.81da@digital.sps.mot.com>
 
I did a quick and dirty comparision on four compression programs in an UNIX
box.And here is the result:
 
 
 Program  Size  Cmp Size Ratio Comp. Time Decmp. Time Comp. Speed Decomp. Speed
          byte    byte     %     second     second    byte/second  byte/second
 
(Text)
 
   lharc 961244 253799   73.6    353.8       63.8        2717         15067
compress 961244 302096   68.6     29.4       22.6       32695         42533
     zoo 961244 368158   61.7     85.9       48.2       11190         19943
     arc 961244 425193   55.8    163.4      111.0        5883          8660
 
(Binary)
 
   lharc 293489 130670   55.5    101.7       32.3        2886          9086
compress 293489 167001   43.1     13.5        9.2       21740         31901
     zoo 293489 170255   42.0     33.8       17.2        8683         17063
     arc 293489 180114   38.6     55.7       37.8        5269          7764
 
Text file: xlib document (nroff output)
Binary file: mush (apollo m68k coff)
 
Program versions:
 
compress 5.1
lharc V0.03 (Beta)
arc 5.21
zoo 2.01
 
Observations:
 
o       In terms of compresion size, lharc ranks on top, with 5-12% better than
        compress,  12-13% better than zoo, and 17-18% better than arc(5.21).
 
o       In terms of speed in compression mode, compress rates much higher than the
        rest, in the order of 2.5-3 times faster than zoo, 4-6 times faster than
        arc (5.21), and 8-12 times faster than lharc.
 
o       In decompression mode, the speed differences are less than the ones in
        compression mode. Compress still rates the fastest, with 2 times faster than
        zoo, 2.5-3 times faster than lharc (not bad), and 4-5 times faster than
        arc (5.21).
 
There's no doubt people who use online services love `lharc', in which
transfer time is their main concern, giving the fact that `lharc' provides
over 10% better compression ratio than other methods. While other situation
when storage space and process time are to be balanced, `compress' probably is
the choice.
 
I read from the README file in arc 6.0 (ST version) that 6.0's speed is quite
fast comparing to 5.21. However, the compression ratio changes very little.
I doubt even arc 6.0 can beat other three programs in both speed and
compression.
 
Of course there are other issues involved when comparing these programs, such
as feature of including comments, capability of including multiple files
and/or directories. For now I just simply ignore them.
 
In case anyone interested, the tests were run on an Apollo workstation DN3000
(12 Mhz 68020/68881) with 8M memory (OS SR10.2), which is approximately a 1.9
mips machine (comparing to the 0.8-0.9 mips 8Mhz 68000 ST). Run times are
reported in user's time.
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 10 Jan 90 17:46:50 GMT
From: clyde.concordia.ca!mcgill-vision!quiche!calvin!depeche@uunet.uu.net  (Sam
 Alan EZUST)
Subject: Printer problems
Message-ID: <1945@calvin.cs.mcgill.ca>
 
In article <900109.20154976.014763@CU.CP6>
 "FRAJKOR/ATARISTUFF"%CARLETON.CA@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU writes:
>
[weird printer problems]
 
my mail to you bounced so here it is in public...
   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
Connected to musocs:
>>> DATA
<<< 550 <%CARLETON.CA@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>... User unknown
554 %CARLETON.CA@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU... Remote protocol error
 
   ----- Unsent message follows -----
 
To: "FRAJKOR/ATARISTUFF"%CARLETON.CA@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU
Subject: Re: Printer problems
 
When you bring your computer into the shop, do you also bring your
printer CABLE?!?!?!?
 
If they use their own at the store and it works fine, and you are using
yours and it doesn't, you can BET that is the problem.
 
Printer cables sometimes get broken connections after long time of use.
 
 
--
S. Alan Ezust                                   depeche@calvin.cs.mcgill.ca
McGill University School of Computer Science -  Montreal, Quebec, Canada
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 9 Jan 90 16:24:03 GMT
From: mcsun!unido!infbs!tubsibr!hafer@uunet.uu.net  (Udo Hafermann)
Subject: Silencing your SLM Laser Printer
Message-ID: <1990Jan9.162403.16482@tubsibr.uucp>
 
This is a late followup to the nearly-forgotten discussion about having
to keep the SLM laser printer running because the interface needs the
power supply...  a neat, low-tech solution was suggested to me
recently: Just open the back cover.  (The printer will be offline, of
course, and you'll have to wait a moment before printing after closing
the cover.)  Haven't seen this mentioned here.  I don't think it voids
your warranty...
 
------------------------------
 
Date: Wed, 10 JAN 90 10:44:33
From: WOODALLP%VAX1.COMPUTER-CENTRE.BIRMINGHAM.AC.UK@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
 
Subject: Printers (Laser)
 
Is it possible to drive a laserjet from an ST when the printer has only 512k
of ram, I require full page 300 dpi, I would have thought that this was not
possible with only this much ram. I require/will require to use with
Calam
Calamus(maybe anyway), GDOS, and Ultrascript, I cannot afford the extra ram or
an Atari laser (I only have a mega 2 anyway) so I was looking at the LJ IIP.
Otherwise I will just have to buy the DJ+ instead.
 
Thanks
 
 
Phil Woodall
 
WOODALLP@UK.AC.BHAM.VAX1
 
 
------------------------------
 
Date: 90-01-10 14:30 MEZ
From: Thomas Neser <so01%dmarum8.bitnet@Forsythe.Stanford.EDU>
 
Hello netters,
in article 5970 Mr. X wrote:
> For little more than 400$, you can get a complete XT with monitor.
> So why spend money on these emulators, anyway?
a) You have no good monitor
b) You have only a 360KB Drive, really boring
c) Mostly you have only 512K RAM, in the best way 640K, the emulators
   offer minimal 704K
d) You have difficulties to transfer data from one to the other machine
e) You have no mouse on this XT
If you have a good AtariST, lets say with HD and up to 3MB a good
solution can be the new Emulator named Delta Module here in germany with
1MB RAM, which can be used under TOS as well and 16MHZ 80386SX for ca
1000$. For 200$ more you can plug in a 80387SX, of course clever kinds
can use it as co-processor under TOS two and this processor has 16bit
out and 32bit in as well as Atari. XT's are no good with no HD and good
screen etc. but the PC-Speed with NECV20 is okay on a atari. It runs
comparable to a XT with 10MHZ and makes CGA and Hercules. A Atari co-
processor can be used like a 8087. In the Supercharger you can plug
in a 8087, but it makes only cga, no good for your eyes. In the Delta
Module you can have 32KB Cache for 50$. PC-Speed uses the Atari-Ram with
704KB direct under DOS and the rest, up to ca 3MB in a Mega ST4 as Ram-
disk. In Supercharger 512KB are standard, but 1MB can be plugged in.
When you built PC-Speed in your machine garantie goes lost, Supercharger
uses the DMA-Port, but this can be weak at some computers. If you only
use fast DOS-Programs frequently you can use the software PC-Ditto, it's
price should go down when PC-Ditto II is on market.
Okay enough of that. Greetings
Thomas Neser <so01@dmarum8.bitnet>
 
------------------------------
 
End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V90 Issue #30
****************************************