Info-Atari16 Digest Wed, 19 Jun 91 Volume 91 : Issue 341 Today's Topics: 1040ST for $350? 1200 bd hayes compat. make offer! 24bit -> spectrum (my solution) Atari.archive gnustuff -- status update Double click software Erie PA show cancelled GFA Assembler wanted. handling serial io in turbo-c How is Atari doing in Europe? How to install Multi-sync monitor onto Atari STe? ICD Multi I/o (???) In search of "MindLink" International Character sets (was Re: man w/ pipe) lharc woes (AGAIN, was Is musedt.lzh corrupted?) Llamatron Mac in Europe(was: How is Atari...) midi sys-ex RE: DMJ_GIF 2.0 Re: GNU Make troubles: 2 bombs! RTS/CTS (was Re: set-up for Practical Peripherals 9600 modem?) Signum on the TT What to do with antique STs? 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: 19 Jun 91 07:03:24 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!dali.cs.montana .edu!milton!mrc@arizona.edu (Mark Crispin) Subject: 1040ST for $350? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I have the opportunity to get a used Atari 1040ST for $350 -- monitor, computer, mouse, single floppy drive. I'm trying to decide if this is a worthwhile purchase or not. Part of the trouble is whether or not it can be put to use as a useful computing engine or, if it is is just a toy, is it at least viable as a toy. [Note: I have a NeXT, so where I draw the line between "toy" and "engine" may be different from you.] Specific questions (reflecting several possible uses): Is Atari still in business and making the 1040ST? Is it a 68000 or does it have something better (e.g. 68020)? Clock speed? Is there an Ethernet interface (preferably thinwire) and TCP/IP software for it? What software is bundled with it? What software is generally available? Is anyone doing software development for it any more? Is the available software real, or is it a just glorified game machine the way the 8-bit Atari was? What's the scoop on the Macintosh emulator, in particular how would a $450 1040ST plus the emulator compare to a Mac Classic for $800? What sort of educational software for it exists to teach children programming, e.g. is there a reasonable Logo? Has anyone had any experience using it as an educational tool for their children? Finally: Is $350 a reasonable price for a floppy-based 1040ST? Email please to the above address, since I don't read this newsgroup. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 19:37:57 GMT From: fernwood!portal!cup.portal.com!Bryan_Jones_Woodworth@uunet.uu.net Subject: 1200 bd hayes compat. make offer! To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu BRANDNAME: Atari MODEL : SX212 SPECS : 300/1200 baud, auto answer, hayes compat., speaker, etc. etc.! CONDITION: LESS THAN ONE MONTH OLD Y SELLING: GOT a 2400 baud w/mnp5, no longer need 1200 baud. COMESWITH: Original packing materials (instruction manual, box, power supply ...) PRICE : Make me an offer! I just want to get SOMETHING outta this. MISC : This is an external modem which will work with *any computer* which sports an RS-232 port. Can also be hooked up to a serial port if you are into kinky connections. :) CONTACT : Bryan_Jones_Woodworth@cup.portal.com Thanks, Bryan_Jones_Woodworth@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 17:42:23 GMT From: dkoski@arizona.edu (David A. Koski) Subject: 24bit -> spectrum (my solution) To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Thanks to everyone who replied to my query about converting to spectrum format. The route I ended up taking was converting my 24 bit image to an 8 bit gif file and then converting that using bgif. The down side of this is the time required. I am doing raytracing on my Next and this usually takes 20 seconds to 2 minutes (for a 320x200 fractal landscape image). I can convert the resulting 24 bit image to gif in under a second, but it takes bgif quite a while (I didn't time it, but I would guess 2 minutes or more) to convert to spectrum. I then use dslide to view the pictures. I have gotten really excellent looking results. I can view the pictures on my Next, but only in shades of gray, it is nice to see them in color too. Oh yeah, the raytracer on the Next is Rayshade 4.0, and I use the Utah Raster Tooolkit to do the image conversions for the ST. David Koski ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 17:22:54 GMT From: otter.hpl.hp.com!hpltoad!ghiggins!gjh@hplabs.hp.com (Graham Higgins) Subject: Atari.archive gnustuff -- status update To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Thanks to loads of people chipping in with advice and email uploads ... Currently available on A.A. in These are (as far as I know), the latest patchlevels. gemlib/src/gemsrc17.zoo gemlib/bin/gemolb17.zoo include/includ68.zoo lib/src/libsrc68.zoo lib/bin/libolb68.zoo pml/src/pmlsrc11.zoo pml/bin/pmlolb11.zoo util/src/utlsrc18.zoo util/bin/utlbin18.zoo gas/bin/gasbin00.zoo gas/bin/gasbin01.zoo gas/src/gassrc1.zoo (expect to see this as gas/src/gassrc01.zoo) If all goes well, GCC 1.40 binaries will be available by this weekend. Graham ====== ------------------------------------------------------------------ Graham Higgins | gjh%ghiggins@hpl.hp.co.uk Hewlett-Packard Labs | gjh%ghiggins@hplb.hpl.hp.com Filton Road, Stoke Gifford | gjh%hplb.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa Bristol, U.K. | ...!mcvax!ukc!hplb!gjh Tel: +44 272 799910 x24014 Fax: +44 272 790554 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Disclaimer: My opinions above are exactly that, mine and opinions. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 18:18:33 GMT From: tardis.cs.ed.ac.uk!dh@ucbvax.berkeley.edu Subject: Double click software To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I've just heard about DC softwares commitment to produce one program per week for this year to show their commitmet to the ST. As a journalist abuot to write an article on DC, I'd like to hear from someone at Double Click to tell me more about this. I reckon we must be nearly halfway through the year now, so have 26 programs been released? A list of the programs so far released would also bee useful. Thanks in advance Richard M Imlach ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jun 91 21:34:12 GMT From: rlgvax!ccicpg!dorjam!paulm@mimsy.umd.edu (Owner and User) Subject: Erie PA show cancelled To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Jun15.163340.8733@kodak.kodak.com>, nelson@cygnus.Kodak.COM (Bruce D. Nelson) writes: > The Spectrum Group of Erie just informed me that their Atari show > scheduled for June 29-30 in Erie, PA has been cancelled due to lack > of interest on the part of vendors, developers, and Atari. Yep, I can imagin. I used to live in Erie PA. :~) Now if was only cheaper to live in Orange County California...... -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- \ Paul Moreau Orange, California UUCP: ..!ccicpg!dorjam!paulm \ --------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 22:13:35 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!mips!atha!aunro!ersys!ggranger@arizona.edu (Greg Granger) Subject: GFA Assembler wanted. To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu cfhat@ux1.cts.eiu.edu (Henry Taitt) writes: > I am looking for GFA Assembler that was advertised about a year ago before > michtron (I think) lost the GFA's contract. Dose anyone know of a place > I could order this from? > > Taitt You might try GFA Software Technologies in Salem, MA. Here is their address and phone number (BTW, ask for Maurice Giguere): GFA Software Technologies Inc. 27 Congress Street Salem, MA 01970 / Fax: (508) 744-8041 Greg Granger < Internet: ggranger@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca > "Just say 'No' < FoReMNet: Greg Granger @ 532 or Dark Knight @ 595 > to drugs." < Mail Adr: 5906-188 St. Edmonton, AB Canada T6M-2A9 > < Phone : +1 403 481-0803 or +1 403 481-5110 > - Wm. Sessions ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 22:37:00 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!caen!news@arizona.edu (Mustafa Soysal) Subject: handling serial io in turbo-c To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Hi, I have a problem accesing the serial port with the fgets and fscanf functions. If I use "aux:" for filename and "r+" option for permissions, I read garbled characters into the buffer, and sometimes it sits there and probably waits for input from serial port, while the data is pouring in. If I use the predefined stream stdaux, I get a bus error with one of the tries to get something with fgets. Has anyone done any work with the serial work using Turbo-C ? Please help Mustafa ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jun 91 08:13:52 GMT From: mcsun!unido!mcshh!malihh!pfunk!blackbox@uunet.uu.net (Michael Kistenmacher) Subject: How is Atari doing in Europe? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In <1991Jun14.010821.9903@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>, James D Yegerlehner writes: > >say how the new machines are being received there? Is Atari >maintaining the significant market share that it once had? Hi, here in germany ATARI has it's best place on earth, I think. The Mega STE is going good, since the Mega isn't sold anymore. It's design has been accepted by the customers and we now have quite a few megabytes of software, supporting the new features of these machines. The TT, I think, is going quite well too. If you have a homecomputer and want to upgrade, but you hate IBM-clones and don't have as much money to buy a SUN, the TT is a good alternative. Many students from our University's buy a TT. Bye.....Michael -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | listen to the coolest ! | Michael Kistenmacher / blackbox | | Music from the Galaxy ! | 2000 Hamburg 61 / Schippelsweg 64 | | !!! P-Funk !!! | West Germany / ++ 49 40 552 37 66 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jun 91 01:12:01 GMT From: noao!coyote!bbs@arizona.edu (allen yee) Subject: How to install Multi-sync monitor onto Atari STe? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I want to know how to put an multi-sync monitor onto an Atari STe? I need to know what the horizontal Hz and vertical Hz in color and monochrome mode. I need to know what is the best multi-sync available for this type of job. Thanks in advance. A.Y. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 14:55:58 GMT From: pa.dec.com!hollie.rdg.dec.com!ryn.mro4.dec.com!aidev.enet.dec.com!miskinis@decw rl.dec.com (John Miskinis) Subject: ICD Multi I/o (???) To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Hello, A friend of a friend has a ICD Multi I/O for sale. It seems to take input from a 50 pin connector (output from a host adapter maybe?), and offers several I/O ports, including one labeled video! ANYWAY, he thinks it was used on a ST, but someone else that I described this to, says it's used with the 8 bit systems. He want to sell it, but I don't know if I can use it or not... Does anyone out there have any information on this beast? ANY/ALL help/info is mucho appreciado! _John_ ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 17:22:22 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!wciu!abode!scale@arizona.edu (Luis Outumuro) Subject: In search of "MindLink" To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Hi Sean, I have a friend in Seattle who has an Atari MindLink, it does exist (although (to my knowledge) it never actually shipped). Unfortunately he has no intention of selling it (or his working 1450XLD!); besides..... I have first dibs! =~) Ha! Bye.................. Luis ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jun 91 00:22:55 GMT From: munnari.oz.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!brolga!uqcspe!cs.uq.oz.au!warwick@uunet.uu.net (Warwick Allison) Subject: International Character sets (was Re: man w/ pipe) To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu >| >Darnded right! Atari really screwed up. Why didn't they use the IBM character >| >| The real question is why IBM doesn't have Bob in its character set. >Well, actually why doesn't *everyone* use ISO-Latin-1 ? I heard Atari was trying to capture the Arab market (so that's what all those squiggles are!) Warwick. -- _-_|\ warwick@cs.uq.oz.au / * <-- Computer Science Department, \_.-._/ University of Queensland, v Brisbane, AUSTRALIA. ------------------------------ Date: 19 Jun 91 01:26:53 GMT From: convex!rosenkra@uunet.uu.net (William Rosencranz) Subject: lharc woes (AGAIN, was Is musedt.lzh corrupted?) To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu here he goes again... as an (outspoken?) opponent of lharc (until it gets it sh*t together), i read with interest a previous post about testing at least a dozen (!!!!!!!) versions of lharc on a particularly nasty file. since at least one of them (2, i think) worked, the file COULD be considered "good" (not by ME or any other sane, rational user, however). then i came across this gem: In article <1991Jun18.151348.795@ccu.umanitoba.ca> bright@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Bob Bright) writes: >(To all the progenitors of lharc and .lzh files: I hope you die a >thousand miserable deaths, choking forever on the few megs of disk >space you've managed to save the world at the expense of countless >hours of frustration and wasted time and net bandwidth.) i LOVE this guy. he hits the point home! "a pox on you [lharc-ers] and all your ancesters" as ed norton would say :-). and NO, as much as i would REALLY like to, i will NOT eat my words (yet :-) so you STILL think i am nuts? (rhetorical: don't answer that... :-) -bill rosenkra@convex.com (incidently, i will try to ftp mgif v3.5 to terminator tonite if i can. it takes steve tons of time to post. i will post to c.{s,b}.a.st as well.) -- Bill Rosenkranz |UUCP: {uunet,texsun}!convex!c1yankee!rosenkra Convex Computer Corp. |ARPA: rosenkra%c1yankee@convex.com ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 19:53:12 GMT From: fernwood!portal!cup.portal.com!Bryan_Jones_Woodworth@uunet.uu.net Subject: Llamatron To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu >>6) LLAMATRON is great, esp the samfox sample, I just wish it were >>longer >Out of curiousity, which is the samantha fox sample? What does one >have to shoot to invoke it? Knowing how hot and horny Samfox is, I think it has to do with the "I love you" digitized effect. What you do is grab the heart; then the sample is played and every camel/llama onscreen runs toward you! Llamatron is a GREAT game. Bryan_Jones_Woodworth@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ Date: 17 Jun 91 08:22:00 GMT From: mcsun!unido!mcshh!malihh!pfunk!blackbox@uunet.uu.net (Michael Kistenmacher) Subject: Mac in Europe(was: How is Atari...) To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In <1544@grit.cs.utexas.edu>, Troy Carpenter writes: >In short, Atari is doing very well in Europe, as far as I could tell. >(The only Mac store I saw in my 3 week stay was in Copenhagen!) That's no wonder. Apple Europe is a very strict company. You can only buy a Mac at an Apple Center, which is a Company only selling Apple products, having full support and offering courses for they're customers. In Hamburg we have, I think, 4 Apple Center and they all are quite big, but are making fat commercials. This is all done by Apple Europe. Bye......Michael -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | listen to the coolest ! | Michael Kistenmacher / blackbox | | Music from the Galaxy ! | 2000 Hamburg 61 / Schippelsweg 64 | | !!! P-Funk !!! | West Germany / ++ 49 40 552 37 66 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 23:25:24 GMT From: bu.edu!bucsf.bu.edu!selick@uunet.uu.net (Steven Selick) Subject: midi sys-ex To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I am looking for a simple pd midi sys-ex handling program. All it has to do is send a sys-ex file to the synth, and store a synth's sys-ex file to disk. Please refer me to an ftp site, or by all means, e-mail directly to a uuencoded, arc'ed (or lharc or zoo) file. later, Steve ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 19:48:23 GMT From: fernwood!portal!cup.portal.com!Bryan_Jones_Woodworth@uunet.uu.net Subject: RE: DMJ_GIF 2.0 To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I will post DMJ Gif 2.0 within the next week.. I just got my 2400 baud mnp5 and want to test it, heh.. Bryan_Jones_Woodworth@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 15:48:37 GMT From: otter.hpl.hp.com!hpltoad!ghiggins!gjh@hplabs.hp.com (Graham Higgins) Subject: Re: GNU Make troubles: 2 bombs! To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I wouldn't bother to upload the uni-sb stuff to A.A. There has been some divergence of philosophy between a.a. and uni-db.de (UNIXMODE mainly). I had most of this code (cat as well) and eventually deleted it in favour of currently-supported GNU s/w. The code at uni-sb.de is mostly binaries with very little sources, due the porter's lack of immediate access to the uni-sb machine. This is one of the reasons I wanted to put together a complete and up-to-date GNU suite on A.A. Yes, uni-sb.de Make will probably want UNIXMODE setting. It is also possible that you might have to remove the file extensions from your executables, Edgar Roeder pursued bash for a while and it stems from this. Why don't you try jrb's pdmake? One day real soon now I'll post the make 3.58 which I have been using without problems under Mint v7 (anyone else found Mint v8 to be somewhat flaky?) to compile the GCC 1.40 libraries and utilities on my 4080STFM. Graham ====== ------------------------------------------------------------------ Graham Higgins | gjh%ghiggins@hpl.hp.co.uk Hewlett-Packard Labs | gjh%ghiggins@hplb.hpl.hp.com Filton Road, Stoke Gifford | gjh%hplb.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa Bristol, U.K. | ...!mcvax!ukc!hplb!gjh Tel: +44 272 799910 x24014 Fax: +44 272 790554 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Disclaimer: My opinions above are exactly that, mine and opinions. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 17:10:08 GMT From: noao!asuvax!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com !snorkelwacker.mit.edu!mintaka!ogicse!ucsd!mvb.saic.com!steveg@arizona.edu (Stephen Harold Goldstein) Subject: RTS/CTS (was Re: set-up for Practical Peripherals 9600 modem?) To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu TOS14FIX.PRG fixes the RTS/CTS problem with TOS 1.4 I don't believe earlier versions of TOS had this problem. Quote from TOS14FIX.PRG docs follows: "1) A change was made to the BIOS call that sets the RS-232 port configuration. Specifically, it did not allow RTS/CTS flow control to be enabled. This is a problem for people with serial printers and high speed modems, since those devices use RTS/CTS flow control to start and stop data transmission so that the device can keep up with the computer. If you have Rainbow TOS, and you use a high-speed serial device which requires RTS/CTS flow control, you need this program in your auto folder." -- --- Stephen Goldstein steveg@cseic.saic.com My first Atari system? A 24K Atari 800, Rev. A ROMS, C(not G)TIA graphics Disclaimer: That's not what I said. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Jun 91 08:39:19 MEZ From: Michael Burschik Subject: Signum on the TT To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Help !!! How do I get Signum to run on the TT ??? Thanks for your generous help. Cheers. Mike. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Jun 91 15:53:48 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!dcl-cs!gdt!exspes@uunet.uu.net (P E Smee) Subject: What to do with antique STs? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Well, no one seems to have any hi-tech project ideas for my ancient ST520, but I got a (hopeful) lateral-thinking piece of mail from someone in Virginia, as follows: > From: lch3e@edu.Virginia.acc.holmes (Lauren C. Howard) > > Hi! You can always donate the poor thing to our school! > The Einstein School is a small private school where I teach > computers to children with dyslexia and other learning problems. > > We use lots of Atari's, tho we have only 1 ST to date (needless > to say, it's the most popular machine!). We can always use more! > For our purposes, they work pretty well with a TV set. As I told Lauren, I don't think my ST would meet their needs, not least because it uses 50Hz 240v electricity, and outputs 25 frame/sec 625-line RGB, and contains neither modulator nor disk drive, but the overall concept is sound. If you've got an old ST (or other home computer) lying around, you probably could find some such (semi-)charitable organization near you who could make very good use of it. Might be worth thinking about. (If you're in the US, you should even be able to claim a tax deduction for it.) -- Paul Smee, Computing Service, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UD, UK P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk - ..!uunet!ukc!bsmail!p.smee - Tel +44 272 303132 ------------------------------ End of Info-Atari16 Digest ******************************