INFO-ATARI16 Digest Fri, 3 Nov 89 Volume 89 : Issue 603 Today's Topics: Atrocious Atari dealer (LONG) Memory upgrade affects performance? perl beta release Re~2: questions, questions, questions Self-Modifying Code ST in USSR TT's VME-slots unix on the TT Wanted: sampler software ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 3 Nov 89 20:17:35 GMT From: agate!garnet.berkeley.edu!c60b2-cc@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Axel K. Olmos) Subject: Atrocious Atari dealer (LONG) Jonathan, I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad time at Microworld! Unfortunately, before people grab their hair and run screaming crooks! I would like to add my experiences with Microworld. I have NEVER had any such experience with Microworld, or even heard of others having such experiences! Microworld has only offered me the highest service at the most reasonable prices. Here are a few examples: GFA Basic at mail order price, purchased in store same week it came out. ST Keyboard taken out of SELLABLE ST and sold to me for a ridiculously low price so I could replace my broken keyboard. Monochrome monitor cable pulled out of working SM124 so I could replace my broken one at home. Double sided replacement disk drive, first tested to work at 82+ tracks, and then sold to me at COST to replace my single sided STFM drive. Supra modem 2400 sold to me for 125, mail order cost, in person, with a cable that was thrown in for 10. As you can see, Microworld has shown me only the highest degrees of respect and service. Even when I come in to just say Hi, and get the latest Micro- times, they still treat me with the respect a customer deserves. Now do you want to hear the great part? I have bought neither of my systems from Microworld, but still I am treated this way! (Got first ST before they opened, got Mega direct from Atari) The ONLY complaints I have heard about Microworld: The dogs are pests, and unbecoming of a computer store. The carpet smells as a result of the dogs. Since neither of these two complaints have anything to do with ST service, (Still, I find them valid!) I can see no reasons to avoid Microworld. Most stores (W.C., HCC, ...) are carrying the ST's just to make a buck. Microworld carries the ST first to provide support, and push the ST, second to make a profit. Once again, I am sorry you were treated as you were. Perhaps Bill was having a bad day, or perhaps there was a misunderstanding. I neither work for, or am paid by Microworld. I simply have enjoyed their treatment, and services over the years as a customer, and don't want to see their business affected as a result from ONE incident. I think T.S. deserves more flaming, I have heard there are dozens of messages on GENIE from people who were simply ripped off by them. Thank you for your time, I hope your future ST dealings are much happier ones Axel K. Olmos Axel K. Olmos EECS/C UC Berkeley "But who can do more?" ------------------------------ Date: 3 Nov 89 18:15:57 GMT From: shlump.nac.dec.com!engage.enet.dec.com!oldtmr!wallace@decuac.dec.com (Ray Wallace) Subject: Memory upgrade affects performance? In article <1184@cbnewsi.ATT.COM>, dmk@cbnewsi.ATT.COM (daniel.m.kuster..jr) writes... >I just upgraded my 1985 vintage 520ST to 2.5 Meg of ... >4 times as long to boot (possibly longer). Is TOS running some >kind of memory test, or is it just zeroing out RAM? Even worse, >once that system is up and running, it takes a lot longer for >applications to load and run. Is the system slowed down by the ... Every time you run a program the ST writes zeros to all unused memory (and does it slowly at that). So when you go from 512kb to 2.5kb starting up a program becomes signifantly longer. The reason booting takes longer is probably because you have programs in your auto folder which get run when you boot and the same memory zeroing happens with these programs as well (I'm not sure if this applies for desk accessories). The solution is to get one of the programs which work around (fix?) this problem. The one I use which seems to work very well is called PINHEAD. I have a 1040ST with only 1 meg of ram and pinhead still makes a very noticeable difference in booting (all those auto programs to enhance the ST starting up you know) and the normal running of programs. --- Ray Wallace (INTERNET,UUCP) wallace@oldtmr.enet.dec.com (UUCP) ...!decwrl!oldtmr.enet!wallace (INTERNET) wallace%oldtmr.enet@decwrl.dec.com --- ------------------------------ Date: 1 Nov 89 15:44:09 GMT From: mcsun!hp4nl!ruuinf!piet@uunet.uu.net (Piet van Oostrum) Subject: perl beta release I have ported Larray Wall's perl program to the Atari. It will be ready for a beta release next week. If you want it, send me a mail. THE REQUIREMENT IS THAT YOU WILL USE IT AND SEND ME BUG REPORTS. This version is based on Larry Wall's gamma release and I am going to switch over to the official version after the beta release. Here is a small description: Perl is a interpreted language optimized for scanning arbi- trary text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing reports based on that information. It's also a good language for many system management tasks. The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, effi- cient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). It combines (in the author's opinion, anyway) some of the best features of C, sed, awk, and sh, so people familiar with those languages should have little difficulty with it. (Language historians will also note some vestiges of csh, Pascal, and even BASIC-PLUS.) Expression syntax corresponds quite closely to C expression syntax. Unlike most Unix utilities, perl does not arbitrarily limit the size of your data--if you've got the memory, perl can slurp in your whole file as a single string. And the hash tables used by associative arrays grow as necessary to prevent degraded performance. Perl uses sophisticated pattern matching techniques to scan large amounts of data very quickly. Although optimized for scanning text, perl can also deal with binary data, and can make dbm files look like associative arrays (where dbm is available). If you have a problem that would ordinarily use sed or awk or sh, but it exceeds their capabilities or must run a little fas- ter, and you don't want to write the silly thing in C, then perl may be for you. -- Piet van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, University of Utrecht Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands. Telephone: +31-30-531806 Internet: piet@cs.ruu.nl Telefax: +31-30-513791 Uucp: uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!ruuinf!piet ------------------------------ Date: 2 Nov 89 11:16:20 GMT From: mcsun!hp4nl!tnosoes!joep@uunet.uu.net (Joep Mathijssen) Subject: Re~2: questions, questions, questions Just a quick note for a very small comment... David L. Newton writes: > if (event & MU_MESAG) > handle_message (); > else if (event & MU_KEYBD) > handle_keyboard (); > etc... > > ? /* end event loop */ > Then, say, for most window stuff, you drop into the handle_message >function. In there you have a SWITCH STATEMENT for message types, defined by >Laser C as things like WM_REDRAW, WM_CLOSE, WM_FULL, etc. Each of those >message types will have a function related with it. Watch out for using a 'switch'- or 'if-else'-statement for checking out your events, because it's possible that GEM gives you more than one event at a time (?!)k. I don't know exactly when this will happen, so I'll have to check one of my GEM-programs to see when and where this problem may occur. The only thing I can remember at this moment is that I noticed an incomplete update and that it was solved by using something like: if (event & X) ... if (event & Y) ... etc... With X and Y being MU_* or WM_*. Joep Mathijssen, TNO Soesterberg, The Netherlands joep@tnosoes.uucp mcvax.cwi.ml!tnosoes!joep ------------------------------ Date: 1 Nov 89 17:48:13 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!reading!cf-cm!csisles!mackeown@uunet.uu.net (W. Mackeown) Subject: Self-Modifying Code Another obvious reason for not writing self-modifying code is it won't work when programmed in ROM, PROM, EPROM/EEPROM etc. It could copy itself beforehand into another more writeable part of virtual memory (e.g. on-line magnetic storage media) but then the expensive, non- volatile electronic memory would be wasted. ------------------------------ Date: 31 Oct 89 10:48:38 GMT From: mcsun!cernvax!cui!ugun2b!ugobs!bartho@uunet.uu.net (PAUL BARTHOLDI) Subject: ST in USSR In article <758@utacs.UTA.FI>, jackin@utacs.UTA.FI (Markku M?enp??) writes: > ... I have thought of USSR being > a very attractive marketing place for Atari ST. The writer (don't remember > his name) told that ATARI (the company) missed a big chance to make ST > de facto in Soviet schools... > > Just a thought. Any comments any one ? > living in Switzerland, I had to sign a 'No Export' licence for my ST, on the ground that the atari 1040ST contains 'sensitive' material ... This may not be true any more, but was still the case last may. This would have made it very difficult for Atari to sell to soviet schools! Paul Bartholdi, Geneva, Switzerland. ------------------------------ Date: 3 Nov 89 17:59:47 GMT From: atha!rwa@decwrl.dec.com (Ross Alexander) Subject: TT's VME-slots I think the obvious product here is a buss-repeater card and an external vme cage. Should be doable - apart from the usual FCC problems - and cheap enough to be viable for people who need more than 1 extra card. Personally, I would have thought two slots to be a better design than just one, but perhaps this is a form factor problem (also pronounced 'styling' or 'marketing' :~P )? Ross ------------------------------ Date: 3 Nov 89 20:18:25 GMT From: brunix!rjd@uunet.uu.net (Rob Demillo) Subject: unix on the TT In article <1656@calvin.cs.mcgill.ca> depeche@calvin.cs.mcgill.ca (Sam Alan EZUST) writes: > >I hear that there will be two versions of the tt: >one "tower" model very much reminicent of the model 80 and another >"desktop" model.... >Apparently, the tower comes with more memory than the desktop, and maybe >a larger hard disk.... that's nice. > >but my father read me aloud an ST-World article about this infamous computer >where I thought i heard this: >THE DESKTOP MODEL WILL NEVER WORK WITH UNIX >only the TOWER will.... > >if this is true, WHY????? > >In what other ways will the two versions be non software compatible?? Well, I'm not sure where you got this information. I just came back from Switzerland and Germany. The TT is shipping there in only *one* form - the desktop model. It is pretty much everything that has been discussed on this newsgroup. The UNIX (tm) it supports *is* Berkley Unix...it also supports X-Windows. In addition, a special "TOS" window can be opened up to run the now familiar TOS desktop. (I am not sure, however, that this TOS window supports color ST programs...I saw no indication that it did.) It comes with an ethernet port, a *high* rez screen, etc etc etc... If anyone wants, I'll translate the product review in the November issue of 'St Magazin' (a german publication) and post it. Also, just to dispell any rumors: the ST is *huge* in Germany and Switzerland. A head-to-head contender with the IBM and IBM clones. As to the Mac? I only found it in one computer store as a "speciality" order...and, this was amusing, the Mac had custom paint jobs! (You could order orange with a racing stripe, for instance.) In other words, there is a reason why the Atari ST is still around: europe. - Rob DeMillo | UUCP: ...ima!brunix!rjd Brown University | BITnet: DEMILLO%BRNPSG.SPAN@STAR.STANFORD.EDU Planetary Science Group | Reality: 401-863-3769 "I say you *are* the Messiah, Lord! And I ought to know, I've followed a few!" ------------------------------ Date: 3 Nov 89 19:10:17 GMT From: mcsun!hp4nl!phigate!prle!prles2!nvpna1!ebeam@uunet.uu.net (Otto Meijer 44005) Subject: Wanted: sampler software Is there someone out there who has an sampler program for me. I made an sampler wich connects to the printerport but i don't think i can write all that timing software. So if someone would send me a copy of his sources please do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >___< ### # # ##### ##### 0 | 0 # # # # # # \---/ # # # # # ### \\ # # # # # # /\\@ # ### # ##### ##### \___/ \\@ // # # ##### ##### ### # # ##### ##### ##### _____//____ # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # \-----------/ ##### ##### ##### # # # # ##### ##### ### |OO OO OO OO| # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # ### ##### # # # # ##### ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ End of INFO-ATARI16 Digest V89 Issue #603 ***************************************** =========================================================================