Info-Atari16 Digest Wed, 5 Jun 91 Volume 91 : Issue 316 Today's Topics: Atari HD hostadapters/drivers. Color monitor replacement? (2 msgs) Hard-drive on a 520ST? Looking for only_ste demo on floppy More than 4 Meg ?? My stupidity Reading IBM and ST disks. (2 msgs) Umich atari USENET Mail Order v15INF3: Unpacking binaries (and retrieving old ones) Wanted: Hard Disk or DS Floppy Welcome to the Info-Atari16 Digest. The configuration for the automatic cross-posting to/from Usenet is getting closer, but still getting thrashed out. Please send notifications about broken digests or bogus messages to Info-Atari16-Request@NAUCSE.CSE.NAU.EDU. Please send requests for un/subscription and other administrivia to Info-Atari16-Request, *NOT* Info-Atari16. Requests that go to the list instead of the moderators are likely to be lost or ignored. If you want to unsubscribe, and you're receiving the digest indirectly from someplace (usually a BITNET host) that redistributes it, please contact the redistributor, not us. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 5 Jun 91 12:52:54 GMT From: noao!asuvax!ukma!rex!spool.mu.edu!munnari.oz.au!yoyo.aarnet.edu.au!sirius.ucs.a delaide.edu.au!mbaker@arizona.edu (Matthew Baker) Subject: Atari HD hostadapters/drivers. To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu From article , by meulenbr@cst.prl.philips.nl (Frans Meulenbroeks): > Ok. Since Claus is too polite to promote his own software. A true net.gentleman! > If you can read German, be sure to get the book and the software. > It is definitely worth every pfennig. If you want a good > set of disk utilities, and you do know something about disks, > you might also get the book, just for the software. This sounds great - Here in Oz I have nowhere to get it (I can read German like a martian can kiss, not well, but I grok it.) - any o/seas addresses I can write to? (Claus?) > I think the software is very, very good. You won't really need > the book to use the software, but it explains several things > in some more detail. A good buy for around $ 50,-- (if you > can find it of course). Dare I ask, does he use english in his s/w?? :) > Frans Meulenbroeks (meulenbr@prl.philips.nl) > Centre for Software Technology Frans, I notice (gasp) that you work for Philips... I have this thing called a PTS-6000. If the name rings a bell, can you email me?? tnx. Matthew ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 91 17:21:59 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!samsung!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!paperb oy!osf.org!dbrooks@arizona.edu (David Brooks) Subject: Color monitor replacement? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Well, my venerable 1986 Goldstar ST color monitor just became terminally tired. My dealer wants $230 for a new one. Of course, I haven't been paying attention: is this a fair price? Any pointers to mail order? -- David Brooks dbrooks@osf.org Systems Engineering, OSF uunet!osf.org!dbrooks ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 91 18:34:33 GMT From: haven.umd.edu!uvaarpa!murdoch!holmes.acc.Virginia.EDU!lch3e@purdue.edu (Lauren C. Howard) Subject: Color monitor replacement? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Definitely by all means and most assuredly buy the Magnavox 1CM135 monitor instead of the SC1224. It has 97% as good a picture; but can also work with IBM clones (CGA), AND has a VCR input jack, so can double as a TV (thru the vcr); a very very GOOD tv (very high resolution). It also has the sound running off a separate RCA jack. This can be routed to the stereo instead of the TV, greatly increasing the ST's sound quality. Costs about $300 (your dealer friend may be less) + a custom cable (cable available from Redmond Cable, Redmond, WA.) Good luck! ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 91 18:17:58 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.w isc.edu!aplcen!boingo.med.jhu.edu!haven.umd.edu!uvaarpa!murdoch!holmes.acc.Virg inia.EDU!lch3e@arizona.edu (Lauren C. Howard) Subject: Hard-drive on a 520ST? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Can a hard-drive (spec. Megafile 30) be used with a stock 520ST? Will there be enough memory left to run WordPerfect? Timeworks DTP? Why are the Megafile 30's being sold off so cheap right now? I know they're discontinued; but is there anything wrong with them? Are they upgradeable? lch3e@holmes.acc.virginia.edu ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 91 01:52:42 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!west!grapevine!water.fit.qut.edu.au@ arizona.edu (Steve Amor) Subject: Looking for only_ste demo on floppy To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I can't unpack the only_ste demo because I only have a floppy drive. Can someone mail me a floppy with the demo already installed? Reply to i1661471@water.fit.qut.edu.au. ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 91 13:16:19 GMT From: mcsun!inesc!unl!unl!spa@uunet.uu.net (Salvador Pinto Abreu) Subject: More than 4 Meg ?? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu dpg@cs.nott.ac.uk (Dave Gymer) writes: [...] Question is, what would you do with more than 4 meg on an ST running TOS (or MiNT). I've yet to exhaust 4 meg (even with GCC, MGR, and BASH. Emacs coming soon... :-) Aha! Once you start using Emacs you'll know what to do with more than 4M. Besides, it would come in handy for use with Minix. -- -- Salvador Pinto Abreu spa@fct.unl.pt Universidade Nova de Lisboa, PORTUGAL ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 91 17:47:28 GMT From: ucla-se!turing!plinio@locus.ucla.edu (Plinio Barbeito) Subject: My stupidity To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <16582@helios.TAMU.EDU> n160ao@tamuts.tamu.edu (Mark Lehmann) writes: >I have a problem though. The sozobon files have directory names that >I want to keep. If I use the novice "zoo -extract" command, all of the >files are retrieved without pathname. I looked at the man pages and >tried the followin command: > > zoo {x}[//] d:\term\download\sozobon1.zoo I think the equivalent novice command for extracting full pathnames is zoo -restore yourzoofile.zoo By now, of course, you have probably figured out how to use x//... plin -- ----- ---- --- -- ------ ---- --- -- - - - plinio@seas.ucla.edu PAra-NOia will DEStroy-YAAaaa... ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 91 14:32:47 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!slxsys!ibmpcug!mantis!mathew@uunet.uu.net (Giving C News a *HUG*) Subject: Reading IBM and ST disks. To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu johnsonc@topaz.ucq.edu.au writes: > I remember hearing that START magazine had published information on how > to make disks formatted on the ST (?) so that they can be read on IBM > compatibles as well as the ST. This was supposed to be done by altering > three bytes somewhere on the disk. Do any of the readers know of this > information? The best solution is to get TOS 1.4 or later, or a copy of Neodesk, or a copy of DC Format. All three will format IBM-readable disks with no problem. There are also countless other PD utilities to make pre-1.4 ST disks PC-readable. Alternatively, just format the disks on the PC. mathew ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 91 01:53:02 GMT From: munnari.oz.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!topaz.ucq.edu.au!johnsonc@uunet.uu.net Subject: Reading IBM and ST disks. To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I remember hearing that START magazine had published information on how to make disks formatted on the ST (?) so that they can be read on IBM compatibles as well as the ST. This was supposed to be done by altering three bytes somewhere on the disk. Do any of the readers know of this information? I tried looking back through what issues I have of START but couldn't find the info and am afraid that it is in an issue I have not bought. What sectors/bytes have to be changed? =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Chris Johnson : "I have made this letter long than usual Final Year B.App.Sc (Computing) : as I lack the time to make it short." "Just another student" : - Blaise Pascal =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 91 18:07:51 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!nstar!sy scon!miked@arizona.edu (Mike DeMetz) Subject: Umich atari To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Anyone know what happened to atari@atari.archive.umich.edu server? I have gotten no reponse to requests in about 2 months. ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 91 19:38:41 GMT From: fs7.ece.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!mc4c+@sei.cmu.edu (Mark Choi) Subject: USENET Mail Order To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Well: It is finished... . Reprinted below is the opening letter from my catalogue. So as not to rankle anyone, the actual catalogue will not be posted here, at least not by me. I hope that this letter is acceptable. I don't see any reason for it not being so. I apologize to anyone who gets upset though. I post it here, as I have not yet finished compiling my mailing list yet. I have all your names, but I need to get them into a format with which I can do a group mailing, so I do not have to send each one out by hand. ASAP, though. If anyone else wants on, send me e-mail, and I will sort you out from the flood and put you one the list. Man, this is getting time consuming for a hobby! :( Anyway, so here it is: O.K.: Hi out there. I just finished the damn news brief, and unlike my original intent, it did turn out to be a catalogue. I am not one to call a spade anything other than what it is, so, this is the Damn Catalogue. Why that title. It took me hours (days) of boring tedious work, strained my eyes, and almost drove me nuts. I compared prices with the ratail, and with "real" mail order houses, to try to get you folks the best deals I could muster. I spent eons staring at increadibly small type, went through vials of eye drops, and I learned some things. #1. ComputAbility has really good prices. #2. Damn, the mail order folks have low margins! Sometimes I was not able to go lower, othertimes, I even have to pay more than them! I do think that in general you will find that this is a good service for you, with the lowest prices you can get. Why else would I do it? Well, here are the specifics. Everyone seems to want me to start this as a real business, do it full time or something, hire staff, etc. There have been lots of calls for accepting credit cards, shipping overseas, doing periferal stuff, like music equipment, and other big time requests. Remember the spirit of this, though! I am a socialist! :) I have no intention of going into the retail business, as I find it immensly boring. This is not my job, but a favour. I saw how dealers were dropping like flies, how there were no more big glossy magazines in which the mailorder houses could advertise, and generally a complete inability for many of you to get Atari stuff, and I saw a chance to help out, with some connections I had made back when I WAS concidering being an Atari dealer. But this is just a hobby. I can not make the promises of the big folks, I can not provide as timely of a response. But I WILL TRY to do my BEST. So... I am looking into the possibility of accepting credit cards, but at the moment, it will have to be money order, cash or personal check (I am not responsible if you send cash of course :( ). I will see about overseas shipping, but I will have to talk to my bank about how it would be arranged, all that stuff about checks drawn on US funds and such, but I think I can work it out by the end of next week, if I get the time. Now, shipping will cost $3.00 for most software orders, regardless of quantity. So if you buy 15 things, it's still $3.00. I would prefer it if you did buy in groups, as the prices of many things, especially of the games are such that I may take a loss on many single purchases with small orders. I can do this sometimes, if there are a lot of multiple orders. This is because I have to order a minimum amount not to be charged an additional fee. So, if one person orders a lot, or several folks order less, I'll be O.K.. Here's keeping my fingers crossed. On hardware, it will depend on the weight, as I refuse to do some sorta percentage thing, and make money on the shipping too. The only one who will make out from the shipping is UPS, or Fed Ex (yes, I will next day air, for a bit more!). What is this handling charge BS anyway? Shouldn't that be included in your prices? Why profit twice, except to make your prices seem lower? This has always irked me. Anyway, I'll have to see about overseas shipping rates. If there is something that you want that is not here, I can probably get it. This is by no means a comprehensive list (what, you think I'm nuts?) and so just e-mail me if you want something else. My real time number is (412) 422-3983 if you need to have it. What you want me to get an 800 number too. Man you DO think I'm crazy! (But it would be sorta cool to have my own 800 number though. Hmmm... .) O.K., lastly, I have not gotten the new edition of my pricelist, never mind typos, so some of these prices could be wrong. I doubt anything will go up. If anything, they will go down. I think just about all of it is right, though. But if something seems just too crazy, like DEGAS Elite for 15,000.00, then drop me a line, and I'll fix it, and give you the real price. And if someone is selling it for less, tell me, and I'll look into it. So, with no further ado, here it is: love ya all -mark- ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jun 91 19:43:00 GMT From: exodus!panarthea.ebay.sun.com@sun.com (Steven Grimm) Subject: v15INF3: Unpacking binaries (and retrieving old ones) To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Submitted-by: koreth@panarthea.ebay.sun.com (Steven Grimm) Posting-number: Volume 15, Info 3 Archive-name: unpack.cooked HOW TO USE COMP.BINARIES.ATARI.ST by Steven Grimm Last update: June 4, 1991 _1. _W_h_a_t _a_r_e _b_i_n_a_r_i_e_s? Binaries are files that contain information other than normal text. Usually, a binary that is posted to the net will contain executable (program) files. Binaries are dis- tinct from _s_o_u_r_c_e_s, which are the human-readable text files that are interpreted by a computer and used to produce binaries. Sources can be modified with relatively little effort, and are usually pretty easy to read. Binaries are not intended to be viewed by a human. _1._1. _U_u_e_n_c_o_d_i_n_g The programs which transfer network news messages (and electronic mail) are not always capable of handling a pure binary file. They are designed to handle textual messages, and the odd symbols and characters in a binary cause them to become confused, and often to mangle the binaries. To avoid this problem, a method called _u_u_e_n_c_o_d_i_n_g is used. Uuencod- ing translates a binary file into text characters, so that the news and mail transport programs won't mess up. The disadvantages are that uuencoded files are about 30% bigger than the raw binary files they represent, and that you have to go through one extra step to get the binaries to work on your computer. _1._2. _A_r_c_h_i_v_e_s _o_r "_a_r_c _f_i_l_e_s" Usually, a program will need more than one file to work properly. The extra files might be data files, help files, or maybe some instructions for the user. In order to easily package multiple files together in one binary file, a pro- gram called "arc" (short for "archiver") is used. Arc also compresses all the files as it packages them, so that the arcfile take up less disk space (and takes less time to download!) than it would if its contents were just thrown together. To confuse matters even more, two new archive programs called "zoo" and "lharc" can also be used to achieve the same effect. Zoo is superior to arc in some respects, slightly inferior in others, as is lharc. Unfortunately, you can't unpack a zoo archive with arc or lharc, or vice versa (arc and lharc are similarly incompatible with each Using Binaries -2- other.) _1._3. _U_S_E_N_E_T _a_r_t_i_c_l_e_s The USENET has groups designed especially for transmis- sion of binary files. They are usually called something like "comp.binaries.x," where x is the type of machine that the programs will run on. For Atari ST owners, the group to watch is comp.binaries.atari.st. Most of the binaries groups (including the Atari binaries group) are _m_o_d_e_r_a_t_e_d, which means that you can't send a program directly to every- one on the network. Instead, you send it to someone in charge of the group (the _m_o_d_e_r_a_t_o_r), who makes sure that your program works and contains the proper documentation (or that the lack of documentation is announced), and that it's in the correct format to be sent out to the rest of the USENET. One of the restrictions of the USENET is that articles can only be a certain length. If a binary is longer than that, it must be split up into several parts, each no longer than 45000 bytes or so. This introduces yet another obsta- cle to people who want to transform the articles into a use- ful form, but it can't really be helped until the USENET starts running much more advanced news transmission software. Also, some particularly long programs may be posted over the course of several days; otherwise the net would be overloaded with lots of huge messages, and people would complain. USENET binaries are grouped into _v_o_l_u_m_e_s, each contain- ing about 100 articles. This is to make life easier for people who are trying to keep track of which articles have been posted. When a new volume is started, the moderator will usually post introductory articles, including a list of previously published articles. _2. _H_o_w _d_o _I _g_e_t _b_i_n_a_r_i_e_s? There are two ways to get binaries: first, by reading the USENET newsgroup comp.binaries.atari.st; you will see new articles within a week (usually much less) of the time they were sent out by the moderator. If, for some reason, your site doesn't receive comp.binaries.atari.st, or if you want to look through previously posted articles, site twitterpater.eng.sun.com has all the binaries stored in its archives. The other way to get binaries is to request them from twitterpater's archive server. The archive server is a pro- gram that intercepts incoming mail messages and looks for commands inside them. You can tell it to list the available binaries, give you help, or send whichever files you're interested in. The requested files will be mailed to you. Using Binaries -3- One thing to be careful of is that multi-part postings aren't placed in the archives until all their parts have been sent out to the USENET at large. This is to prevent people from requesting all 99 parts of a program the first day it appears, thus overloading the net and defeating the purpose of piece-by-piece posting. To find out more about the archive server, send a mail message containing the word "help" to archive- server@twitterpater.eng.sun.com. Talk to an administrator at your site if that mail address doesn't work. If you don't get any response from the archive server within a few days, something may be wrong; mail archive- manager@twitterpater.eng.sun.com to report the problem. There are other archive sites, too, such as terminator.cc.umich.edu; they contain most of the comp.binaries.atari.st software as well as some additional programs that have not appeared on the newsgroup. Some sites, such as terminator, also offer something called "anonymous ftp" if you're on the Internet. Say "ftp terminator.cc.umich.edu", and if you connect, use "anonymous" for a username, and your username for a pass- word. See the ftp documentation at your site for more information. A recent, but possibly incorrect, list of alternate archive sites appears at the end of this article. Please send me mail if you know of any that aren't mentioned here, or if my list is incorrect. Note that twitterpater does not offer anonymous ftp, as it's on a network that's segregated from the Internet. Twitterpater also offers an "auto-index" service, for people who don't have access to the USENET groups. If you request autoindex service, you will receive copies of the archive-server's index files for the binaries and sources groups whenever new files are added. Note that if your site gets comp.binaries.atari.st, requesting autoindex is point- less and a waste of net bandwidth. Send mail to autoindex- request@twitterpater.eng.sun.com if you'd like to sign up. _3. _H_o_w _d_o _I _d_e_c_o_d_e _t_h_e _b_i_n_a_r_i_e_s? As stated above, turning binaries from USENET articles into a more useful form can be a multi-step process. At the least, you will need the uudecode program; it is standard software on most UNIX|- systems and is available in a couple of forms on the Atari. Versions for other operating systems do exist, and can certainly be written with little effort. Arc is available for UNIX and other operating systems, but is not standard software. In any case, you will want at least arc on your Atari. _________________________ |- UNIX is a trademark of Bell Laboratories. Using Binaries -4- A version of uudecode written in ST BASIC is available in twitterpater's archives (see above). It is in volume 1 of the comp.sources.atari.st directory (note that that's _s_o_u_r_c_e_s and not binaries). Once you have that, you should get the files "arc," "arcdoc," and "uucode" from volume 1 of the binaries directory. They contain the arc program men- tioned earlier, its documentation, and a much better, faster version of the uudecode program. Use the BASIC program to uudecode the two encoded files; then use arc to unpack the better version of uudecode. (Arc is documented in "arcdoc.") Note that if you're reading news/receiving mail on a computer (such as a UNIX system) that already has uudecode, you can skip most of this; you will probably just want to uudecode arc there, then download it (using kermit, xmodem, or your favorite transfer protocol - consult your site's administrator and your Atari communication package's documentation for more information. Remember to use binary mode when downloading arc files!) So far, everything has been small enough to fit in one piece, but you will almost certainly want to try something larger eventually. The Atari "uud" program (whose source code, also suitable for compilation on UNIX systems, is available in the sources archive) is capable of easily decoding multi-part uuencoded files. Near the top of each part (except the first) will be a line like begin part c foobar.uac Rename each file (except part 1, which can be named "part01" or just about anything else) to the name at the end of this "begin" line, in this case "foobar.uac". Then run uud on the file containing part 1; it contains instructions to cause uud to look for the other parts. If you have a text editor or a UNIX style cat program, you can just stick all the parts together in order and run uud on the resulting (big) file; it will try to go on in the first file if it can't find the next part in a separate file. Note that uud won't warn you if it's overwriting an existing file, so don't give any of the parts the same name as the file that's being extracted from them! On UNIX systems, you can also say (for instance) "cat part* | uud -" without renaming anything. If you don't have uud or would prefer to decode your binaries on your larger news computer, the procedure is somewhat more complex. Plain vanilla uudecode doesn't know about multi-part uuencoded files, so you have to fool it into thinking that everything is in one part. First, stick all the parts together (using cat on UNIX). Edit the Using Binaries -5- resulting file. Now remove all the extraneous lines of text in between the parts -- this includes mail headers, any text, lines of the form "include foobar.uad," "table" lines and the lists of characters following them, and "begin" lines other than the one at the beginning of part 1. Once you have converted all the parts into a big uuencoded mass (with no blank lines!), the regular uudecode program will work. Obviously, this is something of a hassle, and the recommended procedure is to try to install uud on your large computer. You'll usually want to minimize the amount of data you have to send to your Atari, since you'll most likely be downloading it at a relatively low speed, and the uudecoded .arc file is the smallest thing you can download. Zoo is available from the archives. It is simple to use; refer to the documentation included in zoobin.arc (yes, you need to use arc to extract zoo!) for more information. The uudecoding process is the same for zoo and arc files. Lharc is also available. Most archives contain documentation; refer to the instructions in a specific program for usage information and the like. If you have problems with a particular program, send mail to the submitter (listed near the top of each part.) The moderator doesn't have time to become very fami- liar with all the programs that are posted, so the submitter will probably be much more helpful. _4. _L_i_s_t _o_f _a_r_c_h_i_v_e _s_i_t_e_s Note: I have not verified these, so this list may be wrong. Mail servers usually respond to the word "help" alone in a mail message. Some of the sites listed below may not contain full archives of comp.binaries.atari.st, and some may have other files. Address Type Comments D'l |1752u 0' wuarchive.wustl.edu ftp,nfs ux.acss.umn.edu ftp TeX, GNU atari.archive.umich.edu ftp Mail server may also exist him1.cc.umich.edu ftp cd to pc7: directory dsrgsun.ces.cwru.edu ftp GNU and Minix archives also xanth.cs.odu.edu ftp slug.pws.bull.com ftp comp.sources.atari.st only archive-server@ twitterpater.eng.sun.com mail Official archives archive@softvax.radc.af.mil mail unido!archive-server mail European archives st_requests@ n6vbg.hamavnet.com mail Dialup access at (714) 989-4276 marks%mgse@rex.cs.tulane.edu uucp Ask your site administrator ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 91 17:41:21 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!spool.mu.edu !news.cs.indiana.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!usenet@arizona.edu (Christian Kurrer) Subject: Wanted: Hard Disk or DS Floppy To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I would like to buy a -Hard disk drive or an -external DS Floppy disk drive for the Atari ST. Any offers, also for other peripherals and software (no games), would be welcome. Christian Kurrer 217-244-6914 (w) 217-332-2788 (h) kurrer@lisboa.ks.uiuc.edu ------------------------------ End of Info-Atari16 Digest ******************************