Info-Atari16 Digest Thu, 5 Sep 91 Volume 91 : Issue 468 Today's Topics: 4SALE ARC.TTP (was Re: Atari <--> IBM) Fnordadel v1.32 uploaded to atari.archive Gemini/Fonts gnu emacs keybindings and 50 line mode Little Computer People Little Computer People booboo Lotus 123R3 compatible spreadsheet? message to *DOUG WHITE* nesting traps RAM disks for Mega4/ste??? Yes! Re: ST memory allocation Stacey Advice, please ST magazines ST memory allocation Super Charger 286? Tos 2.0x coming to an STf(m) near you... TOS problem in STE? TT Unix / TT TOS Uniter Version, is there a newer on than 2.0e 011 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 Sep 91 04:27:04 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!spool.mu.edu!agate!boulder!horton.Colora do.EDU!chuj@arizona.edu (CHU JEFFREY) Subject: 4SALE To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu ATARI 520 STfm with 1 Meg RAM, DS/DD drive, Battery backed clock, external mount cooling fan. Excellent condition. Comes with 400 DD disks with at least $500.00 software invested. Let say $.40 a disk. Also a 2400 Baud Packard BELL modem. With BEST mouse and pad, RF, also includes one extra spare internal drive. Includes BOOKS, mags, manuals, original boxes. ALL for $425.00. ICD FAST with Adaptec 4070A and a NEC 68 Meg HD incase in a Digital 40 Watt P/S, two cables to hook to ST or STE etc... ICD host manuals and all, Seats perfect under the monitors. Need $400.00. All Hardware are in excellent condition, only the 520 is older than a year old, everything else is about 7 months old. Email me: chuj@horton.colorado.edu chuj@spot.colorado.edu Thanks, Jeff ------------------------------ Date: 5 Sep 91 09:59:53 GMT From: mcsun!corton!laas!ralph@uunet.uu.net (Ralph P. Sobek) Subject: ARC.TTP (was Re: Atari <--> IBM) To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Are you using ARC 6.02? This one requires more memory to run than the older ARC 5.21. [ Bravo for your Followup-To: defrain@ecn.purdue.edu !! Makes things difficult!! So let's try again. ] Cheers, -- Ralph P. Sobek Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own. ralph@laas.fr Addresses are ordered by importance. ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!laas!ralph If all else fails, try: sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU Phone: (+33-)61-33-62-66 FAX-1: (+33-)61-33-64-55 FAX-2: (+33-)61-55-35-77 =============================================================================== Got a Mega 4 ST. Wishing it was a Mega STe! :-| Do I *really* want a TT? ; ------------------------------ Date: 4 Sep 91 22:31:56 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!mips!atha!aunro!alberta!adrian@arizona. edu (Adrian Ashley) Subject: Fnordadel v1.32 uploaded to atari.archive To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I have placed the binaries, documentation and source code for version 1.32 of an ST BBS package called "Fnordadel" on atari.archive.umich.edu. This somewhat whimsically-named system is a derivative of Citadel; specifically, it's a much-improved system based upon David Parsons' "STadel". It is currently being run at a number of sites across North America. The following is a brief excerpt from the binaries README: -----snip snip----- This, then, is Fnordadel. It's for running bulletin board systems. It is of the Citadel flavour; in fact, it's linearly descended from the original Citadel. It's for the Atari ST/TT series of computers; minimum setup is a 512K ST with one disk drive, but more of both RAM and disk space always helps. Like all Citadels, it excels at running conversation BBSes, though there is also substantial support for file transfers. It networks (using standard Citadel networking). It's easy to run (self-maintaining). And, best of all, it's FREE. Fnordadel comes in two archives. The one you got this README from is the main binaries archive, which contains everything you need to run Fnordadel. It is named `fnXXXbin.zoo', where XXX represents the version number such as `132' for version 1.32. The other archive is `fnXXXman.zoo', which contains the ASCII version of the Reference Manual. It is quite large, which is why it is packaged separately, but in our humble opinion it is quite worth getting. There is a third archive called `fnXXXsrc.zoo', which is a huge thing containing the full C source code to all Fnordadel programs and the associated sources for the documentation, including the nroff source for the man pages and the Texinfo source for the Reference Manual. -----snip snip----- The specific files are named "fn132bin.zoo" (441k), "fn132man.zoo" (183k), and "fn132src.zoo" (519k). The archives are packed with Zoo 2.1, so you'll need that to extract them. I have also put "fn132-README" with the archives, in case you want more info before grabbing the admittedly large archives. Mail me if you have comments or questions. --adrian -- Adrian Ashley internet: adrian@cs.ualberta.ca OR adrian@secret.uucp (home) Edmonton, Canada citadel: elim@secret.alta (..!C-86 Test System!secret!elim) "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from." -- Andrew S. Tanenbaum ------------------------------ Date: 5 Sep 91 05:58:03 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!r jast1@arizona.edu (Robert J Anisko) Subject: Gemini/Fonts To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Got a problem maybe someone can help me with: I wish to add some other fonts to be used with Gemini (other than the SYSTEM and 2 Gemini fonts), but for whatever reason cannot figure out how to do so properly. Here's what I tried: - copy all the new fonts to the same directory as the Gemini fonts (C:\GEMSYS\FONTS\) - edit the ASSIGN.SYS file, adding the name of the fonts to each section (i.e. ST Low, etc) -and reboot But when I load up Gemini, it seems that only the original 3 fonts are there. Am I doing something blatantly wrong? BTW am using the AMCLIGHT file found with Gemini)... Any help would be appreciated... Robert Anisko rjast1@unix.cis.pitt.edu ------------------------------ Date: 5 Sep 91 10:11:11 GMT From: mcsun!corton!laas!ralph@uunet.uu.net (Ralph P. Sobek) Subject: gnu emacs keybindings and 50 line mode To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu You normally need a termcap entry for your ST. Just modify it to allow 50 lines: :li#50: or some such (I'm doing this from memory). Cheers, -- Ralph P. Sobek Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own. ralph@laas.fr Addresses are ordered by importance. ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!laas!ralph If all else fails, try: sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU Phone: (+33-)61-33-62-66 FAX-1: (+33-)61-33-64-55 FAX-2: (+33-)61-55-35-77 =============================================================================== Got a Mega 4 ST. Wishing it was a Mega STe! :-| Do I *really* want a TT? ; ------------------------------ Date: 5 Sep 91 10:25:08 GMT From: mcsun!corton!laas!ralph@uunet.uu.net (Ralph P. Sobek) Subject: Little Computer People To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Yeah! My kid would also be interested? Does it run on monochrome? -- Ralph P. Sobek Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own. ralph@laas.fr Addresses are ordered by importance. ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!laas!ralph If all else fails, try: sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU Phone: (+33-)61-33-62-66 FAX-1: (+33-)61-33-64-55 FAX-2: (+33-)61-55-35-77 =============================================================================== Got a Mega 4 ST. Wishing it was a Mega STe! :-| Do I *really* want a TT? ; ------------------------------ Date: 5 Sep 91 04:36:46 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!tulane!uflorida!mailer.cc.fsu.edu!nu.cs.fsu.ed u!boyd@arizona.edu (Mickey Boyd) Subject: Little Computer People booboo To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Sorry to waste bandwidth, but this is to the kind person who is now waiting for me to send him something via snail mail. Kind person, could you please resend your last email to me? It did not survive a system crash, and it contained my only copy of your address. I do not even retain your email address to ask you directly!! Thanks in advance. -- ---------------------------------+------------------------------------- Mickey R. Boyd | "Kirk to Enterprise. All clear FSU Computer Science | down here. Beam down Technical Support Group | yeoman Rand and a six-pack . ." email: boyd@nu.cs.fsu.edu | ---------------------------------+------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1991 22:23 EST From: aluminum foil ball Subject: Lotus 123R3 compatible spreadsheet? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Does anyone know of a 123R3 compatible spreadsheet for the ST? Is LDWPower still being updated? And what is LDWPower compatible with? Many thanx, Scott Kolodzieski scott@sparc1.stevens-tech.edu ------------------------------ Date: 4 Sep 91 20:24:11 GMT From: noao!ncar!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!hp-pcd!hpcvca.cv.hp.com!hpcvca!vovut@ arizona.edu (Trung Vo-Vu) Subject: message to *DOUG WHITE* To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Doug White, I've lost your email address. Please email me. Thanks vovut@prism.cs.orst.edu vovut@hpcvcbf.cv.hp.com ------------------------------ Date: 4 Sep 91 22:47:49 GMT From: lll-winken!aunro!alberta!brazeau.ucs.ualberta.ca!kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca!unixg.ub c.ca!ubc-cs!fornax!wolfgang@uunet.uu.net (Wolfgang Jung) Subject: nesting traps To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Sep3.215714.7147@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> wwhy@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes: >I know you can't nest trap calls, but is this because of TOS or because >of the 68000? If it is because of TOS is there any way to get around it? >Any help would be much apprecaited... This is due to TOS it is not written for nesting TRAP calls, but the 68K is capable of doing that, why not it just pushs the Programcounter, Systemregister and something else onte the Supervisor-Stack, and this can happen as long as you have stackspace available and are not overrunning other Data.I read once something about nesting BIOS and XBIOS (calling therm to out of IRQ) Calls several times should bes possible, though i never checked that. Wolfgang ------------------------------ Date: 5 Sep 91 01:48:34 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!news.cs.indian a.edu!nstn.ns.ca!ac.dal.ca!cordes@arizona.edu Subject: RAM disks for Mega4/ste??? Yes! To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article , gaudreau@juggler.East.Sun.COM (Joe Gaudreau {Dances with PostScript}) writes: > > Are there any RAM disks that *work* on a Mega4/Ste? I've tried a > couple, and they lock the machine up quite nicely! > > I remember something about the Mark Williams version being fixed to > run properly but can't find the reference. > > Pointers to atari.archive would be welcome. > > Thanx. > > Joe > -=- The only ones (of the reset-resistant variety) I've found are the Codehead Ram Disk (on the Codehead Utilities Disk) and Keith Ledbetter's L-Ram, part of his LUTILS, in utilities/lutils.arc on Terminator. The Codehead one is terrific, in that you can set it up at *and remove it* at any time without re-setting. John Cordes Dept. of Physics Dalhousie University Halifax, N.S., Canada B3H 3J5 email: cordes@ac.dal.ca ------------------------------ Date: 5 Sep 91 02:40:57 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!rpi!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!generic.physi cs.utoronto.ca!julian!ria.ccs.uwo.ca!ersmith@arizona.edu (Eric Smith) Subject: Re: ST memory allocation To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Sep3.132149.7142@vax5.cit.cornell.edu> wwhy@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes: >The reason I need to call malloc and mfree inside an interrupt (trap #13 to >be exact) is because I am writing a variable size ramdisk. i.e. grows when >you need it and shrinks when you need it. So without being able to allocate >memory on the fly the whole program is pretty usesless. Perhaps you're thinking about this the wrong way. The reason you can't call Malloc from inside trap #13 is that GEMDOS isn't re-entrant, i.e. if someone does Fwrite() to your ramdisk, and GEMDOS calls the BIOS to do your i/o, and your BIOS ramdisk routine calls Malloc, there's a crash. So perhaps what you should do instead (and it's a *much* cleaner solution than fiddling with GEMDOS' allocated memory buffers) is to catch the ramdisk calls at a higher level, i.e. at the trap #1 level instead of trap #13. If the Fwrite/Fread/Fopen/whatever call is for your ramdisk, you deal with it (and you can at this stage call Malloc, since GEMDOS hasn't been entered yet; just be sure you set the GEMDOS _run variable (which is documented) to the basepage of your ramdisk program before calling it, and reset it to the old value after returning). If the GEMDOS call isn't for disk i/o, or isn't for your ramdisk, you pass it along. --Eric ------------------------------ Date: 4 Sep 91 12:49:07 GMT From: mcsun!ukc!ox-prg!oxuniv!ameij@uunet.uu.net Subject: Stacey Advice, please To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Hi chums, My new employers have offered to buy me a computer. It's to use in work and at home, so I would like a (trans)portable, and as I have used and liked ST's at work and home for the last few years, my thoughts have turned to a Stacey. There are just a few questions I have - I need to put my bid in to the equipment committee in ten days, so it's fairly urgent... 1) I will almost certainly have to run DOS programs occasionally. Can any of the internal DOS emulators (PC-Speed, AT-Once) be used in a Stacey? Does anyone have any experience of doing so? 2) Same question, re internal modems 3) Same question, re Atari 68881 coprocessor Any other first hand views on the Stacey (particularly cf the Mac portable, which is probably the alternative) would be greatly appreciated. Ian Johnston ameij @ uk.ac.oxford.vax ------------------------------ Date: 5 Sep 91 04:09:14 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!netcomsv!seitz@arizona.edu (Matthew Seitz) Subject: ST magazines To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <2226@babcock.cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu> ms@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu (Mark Starvaggi) writes: >Are there any good ST magazines still being published in the U.S., and if so >does anyone have an address or phone number for them? My current favorite is ST INFORMER. 12 Monthly issues cost $19.95. This is primarily a news and reviews newspaper, with some tutorials. They are usually the first magazine to carry news about new products. Their address: SUBSCRIPTIONS 909 NW Starlite Place Grants Pass, OR 97526 Another good one I subscribe to is CURRENT NOTES. This includes more columns and tutorials than ST INFORMER. The columns range from very good to very boring. It costs $27 for 1 year (10 issues, no issues in January or August). Their address: CN Subscriptions 122 N Johnson Rd. Sterling, VA 22170 -- Matthew Seitz seitz@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: 4 Sep 91 20:43:25 GMT From: imagen!atari!apratt@sun.com (Allan Pratt) Subject: ST memory allocation To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu A variable-size RAMdisk basically Can't Be Done under TOS from outside GEMDOS, for exactly the reasons you've discovered: you can't go around allocating and freeing memory from inside a BIOS call or interrupt. There's another problem: just allocating memory to your RAMdisk when somebody copies a file there and deleting memory when they remove it won't do the job, because this will fragment your RAM hopelessly and nothing will be able to run. You can ameliorate this by reshuffling memory to compact your RAMdisk when you can, but that is a lot of work. And you STILL can't do Malloc's from inside BIOS, so this complication is academic. Writing your own Malloc and Mfree is not the answer, because GEMDOS calls its versions directly, not via trap #1, when it allocates memory for Pexec. You'd have to replace Pexec, too. If it sounds like you're going to have to replace bloody great chunks of OS to do what you want to do, it's time to think that maybe you should scrap the project and start another one. ============================================ Opinions expressed above do not necessarily -- Allan Pratt, Atari Corp. reflect those of Atari Corp. or anyone else. ...ames!atari!apratt ------------------------------ Date: 5 Sep 91 15:04:16 GMT From: munnari.oz.au!murtoa.cs.mu.oz.au!csv.viccol.edu.au!gjocc@uunet.uu.net Subject: Super Charger 286? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <172536@unix.cis.pitt.edu>, rjast1@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Robert J Anisko) writes: > > I'm not very familiar with the "Supercharger 286", though I used to > have a Supercharger (i.e. I sold it because of the $$$ it would take > for the 286and AT slots expansion). Before you buy one, you might > wish to see how much actual IBM systems can be got for (check > mail order or used - you could find some killer prices). From what > I understand though, the 286/expansion upgrade WILL letyou use any > AT (or XT) card, thus including VGA, etc. However, unless > what I've heard is wrong (someone join in!) you could be paying > like $600-$800 for this in all (you can pick up a 16mhz 286 with > a harddrive for this much). I don't want another full size computer cluttering up the place, I am prepared to pay a premium for the ability to make my ST PC compatible. Even if the ST is only acting as a glorified keyboard and floppy drive, it will save me space, because I need to keep the ST anyway. > > Justsome fair warning - I originally went with the SC because of > the expansion possibilities, but when I finally got a whiff of the > price, I said "no thanks." > > I'm personally waiting for a AT-Speed16 (16mhz 286 emulator with > 287 slot, does Color CGA and Tandy1000, and MONO Hercules, EGA > and VGA). It's twice as fast as the standard SC (not the 286), > and costs ina similar price range to the standard SC... I don't want an internal mod, the ability to use a SVGA card and other PC cards is important to me. > > Robert Anisko > rjast1@unix.cis.pitt.edu Greg o'Sullivan (gjocc@viccol.edu.au) ------------------------------ Date: 4 Sep 91 16:44:08 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!utgpu!utzoo!censor!isgtec!ken@arizona.edu (Ken Newman) Subject: Tos 2.0x coming to an STf(m) near you... To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Aug29.153541.1519@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys) writes: > And will the upgrade board for the TOS only or will it allow you to > get STereo sound, hardware scrolling, more colors, and a blitter? Good grief, if you really want all that, buy a nice, integrated, CHEAP, 1040STe. You're talking about half the STe motherboard. (You forgot memory upgradable with SIMMs, analog joystick ports). - kn ------------------------------ Date: 4 Sep 91 20:55:26 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!mips!atha!aunro!alberta!ubc-cs!news.UVic.C A!rwilson@arizona.edu (Rich) Subject: TOS problem in STE? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I'm posting this for a friend without net access. Please respond via email to: mhorie@ra.uvic.ca Your followups won't be seen by either of us, since he doen't have access, and I don't have the time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I have an interesting problem on my ATARI 1040STE. When I try to run a certain program, TOS tells me that it can only be read (even though the program has a .PRG extension). When I cancel this message, and try to run the program again, everything works fine. This always happens, regardless what disk I am using. However, if I change the name of the file or folder that it is in, this will not happen. This did not happen on my 1040STF. Is this just my computer, or is there a bug in TOS? Michael Horie ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rich (rwilson@ra.uvic.ca) ------------------------------ Date: 5 Sep 91 04:20:32 GMT From: noao!ncar!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!apple!netcomsv!seitz@arizona.edu (Matthew Seitz) Subject: TT Unix / TT TOS To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Sep3.174012.8275@umbc3.umbc.edu> chuck@umbc5.umbc.edu (Chuck Rickard; ACS (UGRAD)) writes: >Most likely, the IBM emulator is in a same file with the card >box, PromiseLAN, the Multitasking TOS, and the Tower TT/X. Actually, PromiseLAN was released for the IBM PC, and then superseded by ChosenLAN. The ST version of PromiseLAN never moved beyond the drawing board. -- Matthew Seitz seitz@netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: 4 Sep 91 22:59:14 GMT From: lll-winken!aunro!alberta!brazeau.ucs.ualberta.ca!kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca!unixg.ub c.ca!ubc-cs!fornax!wolfgang@uunet.uu.net (Wolfgang Jung) Subject: Uniter Version, is there a newer on than 2.0e 011 To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Hi. Is Uniterm version 2.0e 011 still the lates or is there a newer one, which I want to have then. please mail me the answer too Wolfgang PS: mails to be sent after 25th of September shoulb be direkted to: woju@mist.sub.org ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 4 Sep 91 18:49 EDT From: SYUROFF%ALBION.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Subscribe SYUROFF ------------------------------ End of Info-Atari16 Digest ******************************