Info-Atari16 Digest Fri, 25 Oct 91 Volume 91 : Issue 551 Today's Topics: 520 ST system for sale Atari Abaq Atari ST stuff to buy (2 msgs) Can a TTP Program Pexec a GEM Program? GENIE email (2 msgs) gnuucp Is B & C ComputerVisions still around? mercury and gulam More TeX/LaTeX Need help unsplitting files PD C compilers (2 msgs) Quantum HD Railroad Tycoon STuff for sale.... 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: 25 Oct 91 02:36:36 GMT From: arizona.edu!cerritos.edu!nic.csu.net!usc!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gatech!utkcs2!du ncan.cs.utk.edu!gathings@arizona.edu (Golando Gathings) Subject: 520 ST system for sale To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I have the following system for sale : Atari 520 ST with, external drive(ssdd), mono monitor, system disks, and various software ( tell me what you are looking for ). Software that might be of interest to some : - Uniterm vt100 term program w/ xmodem/kermit protocols and tektronic graphics emulation - Hippo C compiler external 1200 baud modem with cable and manual asking $275 , or best offer (price includes shipping ). As a last resort , I will split up the system . I used it as a general purpose machine in college and it served me well. I am now selling it because I have a 386 system. Thanks Golando. ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 18:41:23 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!spool.mu.edu!munnari.oz.au!comp.vuw.ac.nz!actr ix!Roger.Sheppard@arizona.edu (Roger Sheppard) Subject: Atari Abaq To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article jhenders@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca writes: > In <20179@hydra.Helsinki.FI>, Markku Luoto writes: > >is this abaq the same thing as something called "ATW" -transputer > >station made by atari in 80'ies too ? > > > >and is this "parallel supporting OC" same thing as "helios" used in ATW > > Yes, and yes. Abaq turned out to be a name used by someone somewhere > else, so the name was changed to ATW. Helios was a Uni*-like os with > parallelism designed into it. It sounded like it might be a hapeening > system, but reveiws I read of the implementation, and conversations > with someone developing for Helios suggest it was (is) a bit of a kludge. > Also, the hacking in of a Mega as a front end i/o system appearantly > is a major bottleneck. > ST User, or ST World did a 4 or 5 page article on a visit to > Perihelion, the developers of the hardware. Interesting reading, but > someone borrowed my issue, and I never got it back. :-( But they went bust.. > John Henders jhenders@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca > MIND over MIDI Productions or ubc.cs!van-bc!jonh!jhenders > Vancouver,B.C I thought I read that Paramont uses them, also did you see the Great video tape that was done on a ATW, posibly by Inmos but was only 5 mins long and had stereo sound, also had some great TV commercials, Mobil and Commercial Union was some that I can remember, we used the tape at a computer show here in Wellington, did create a bit of a croud when we put it on.. -- *** Roger W. Sheppard * Roger.Sheppard@bbs.actrix.gen.nz *** *** 85 Donovan Rd * * GEnie. R.SHEPPARD5 *** *** Kapiti At least I don't Flicker, *** *** New Zealand.. * not like a dying light globe *** ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 22:19:28 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!gatech!hubcap!citron!jscox@arizona .edu (Stan Cox) Subject: Atari ST stuff to buy To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Atarians, With all the "ST stuff for sale" posts, maybe someone is willing to get rid of some things I would like to have: Here is a list of things I would love to have. If you have the item, it is in good condition, and are willing to sale for a reasonable price, please e-mail me at jscox@cs.clemson.edu Items: Mark Williams C source debugger. Any of the Abacus ST books except Internals, Disk Drives and BASIC. 2 Atari joysticks. If you have other stuff let me know what it is and a price. I may be interested. Thanks. (jscox@cs.clemson.edu) FULLNAME, Clemson University Computer Science Dept. ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 22:23:58 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gatech!hubcap!citron!jscox@arizona.edu (Stan Cox) Subject: Atari ST stuff to buy To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Atarians, With all the "ST stuff for sale" posts, maybe someone is willing to get rid of some things I would like to have: Here is a list of things I would love to have. If you have the item, it is in good condition, and are willing to sale for a reasonable price, please e-mail me at jscox@cs.clemson.edu Items: Mark Williams C source debugger. Any of the Abacus ST books except Internals, Disk Drives and BASIC. 2 Atari joysticks. If you have other stuff let me know what it is and a price. I may be interested. Thanks. (jscox@cs.clemson.edu) FULLNAME, Clemson University Computer Science Dept. ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 20:03:32 GMT From: mcsun!uknet!ukc!harrier.ukc.ac.uk!hobby.ukc.ac.uk!wabe@uunet.uu.net (W.A.B.Evans) Subject: Can a TTP Program Pexec a GEM Program? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I have recently been developing a tiny "mini-shell" program that searches a "built-in" PATH environment variable for a named program - which it then executes using the standard Gemdos Pexec(...) command. Of course, in order to input the name of the desired program from the Desktop the "mini-shell" has to be a .TTP (TOS-TAKES-PARAMETERS) application. This already works fine with all programs that DO NOT use the GEM environment (i.e. mouse active etc. etc.) - but I CANNOT get it to properly execute any program that uses GEM. I should explain I have done all the "obvious" things i.e. used VDI to open a Virtual Workstation, left cursor mode & entered graphics mode ( v_exit_cur ) and "activated" the mouse with graf_mouse(257,&dummy) BEFORE attempting the Pexec(...) command but NOTHING seems to work. The PATH is searched OK and the program found - but when it begins to execute and, say, presents a fileselector (with a visible mouse) I then find that "clicking" the mouse produces NO effect AT ALL! - the mouse, though visible, does not function. Of course, if I compiled my "mini-shell" as a .PRG program, which immediately asks for the program name (and any command line arguments there may be) then ALL WORKS WELL - but I would have to write my own code to "parse" the input command line (as I could not use argv[] and argc if I invoked the program by double-clicking from the Desktop). Though not a BIG job - this seems a nuisance & a hassle to do something which "ought" intuitively to be possible. Am I missing out on something? - or, conceivably, I "might" be attempting something which is impossible with current TOS operating systems. I say this because I cannot remember seeing ANY .TTP program for the ST that takes command line arguments and then proceeds to do "GEM-like" things using the mouse etc. Further, as an experiment, I renamed a program that used GEM e.g. the "excellent" GULAM.PRG (as a typical example) so that it ended in .TTP i.e. GULAM.TTP in this case. Double clicking on it and, (of course) entering NO arguments into its .TTP dialogue box, gets me in to GULAM and allows me to do most things that don't require the mouse. However when I tried to execute a GEM Program from GULAM - the normal command being: gem GEMPROG.PRG it failed to work just like my small "mini-shell" failed (Mouse Clicking fails to Fileselect etc. etc). I'm sure there are experts out there that can enlighten me - either by informing me where I'm missing out or confirming my suspicion that it may be impossible (in the which case I will not "waste" any more time "attempting the impossible") Replies Please to: W. Alan B. Evans [ wabe@ukc.ac.uk ] ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 15:16:36 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-sta te.edu!paperboy.micro.umn.edu!cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve@arizona.edu (Steve Yelvington) Subject: GENIE email To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu [In article <1991Oct24.110443.20506@rodan.acs.syr.edu>, ggreenbe@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Gerald Greenberg) writes ... ] > Thanks for reminding us of all this Bob. I dropped my > subscription to these pay-services when they imposed the > flat-rate system. I thought it was, and still think it is, a > rip-off. I do sort of miss access to the Gadgets forum on > Genie, but it is not worth paying for other people to read the > other non-computer forums. Anyway, I was just wondering if > anyone knew how these services were doing financially, as a > result of their change in philosophy about charging > subscribers? It might serve as a lesson in the future. > --Gerry In GEnie's case, the result was rapid growth. I don't know about CompuServe. I quit CompuServe when they slapped on a monthly charge, for reasons similar to yours: I was interested only in the services with hourly surcharges, and I didn't want to pay a monthly minimum plus an hourly rate. On GEnie, I spend most of my time in the free forums (mostly Writers RT, Automotive, Aladdin) and my (automated) excursions into the ST RT rarely cost more than 25 cents a visit, so I come out ahead. In the long run, I think you're going to see more services moving toward flat fees for messages and surcharges for file transfers. Competition from Prodigy exerts a lot of pressure, and the expenses for hardware and communications are going down. GEnie has expanded its ``Basic Services'' and recently added an interactive chess game to the free list. Air Warrior remains $6 an hour, though. :-( -- Steve Yelvington, Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota steve@thelake.mn.org (In winter we walk on water) ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 11:45:05 GMT From: noao!ncar!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!lapis.labmed.umn. edu!davidli@arizona.edu Subject: GENIE email To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Oct24.110443.20506@rodan.acs.syr.edu>, ggreenbe@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Gerald Greenberg) writes: > I dropped my subscription to these pay-services when they imposed the > flat-rate system. I thought it was, and still think it is, a > rip-off. ... Anyway, I was just wondering if > anyone knew how these services were doing financially, as a > result of their change in philosophy about charging > subscribers? It might serve as a lesson in the future. From my own observations, the services are doing quite nicely, thank you very much. What one has to realize, of course, is that EVERYONE isn't interested only in the computer-related areas. Also, although you have access to a wide variety of newsgroups at relatively little cost (hint: it's called USENET NEWS...), the majority of computer owners don't have such access. For them, $4.95 per month is quite cheap to access Roundtables such as the Science Fiction Roundtable, or the Religion Roundtable, or the Small Business Roundtable. Someone could log on every single evening, from 6 pm to 6 am, and =still= not capture every new message from all of the Roundtables available at that $4.95 flat fee. As for access to software libraries, et al. ... well, I was paying $6.00 an hour before the fee was instituted, and I'm still paying $6.00 an hour after the fee was instituted. So? The point is that I'm NOT paying $6.00 an hour to read the non-computer-related Roundtables ... and that is, I believe, the primary 'good' which comes from that small monthly charge. Sure, you get to read the rec, soc and talk groups via USENET NEWS. But you're being subsidized by at LEAST $4.95 a month in order to do so. For those who don't have that option, the GEnie flat rate is a bargain. -- David Paschall-Zimbel davidli@simvax.labmed.umn.edu ------------------------------ Date: 23 Oct 91 21:35:34 GMT From: mcsun!unido!mcshh!janhh!jan@uunet.uu.net (Jan Willamowius) Subject: gnuucp To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu From article <0531.10.91@jelal.north.de>, by nox@jelal.north.de (Juergen Lock): >>I still have to use the UUCICO by Jan Willamowius, which is written >>under GFA and bombs if it's started under MinT. > > yes, GFA bugsic should be banned. :-( i guess i'll have to look > at this bauble uucp thing one day... (btw, is there a newer version > than that posted in june?) Don't blame me I just inherited it. :-) Version 3.2 is to be posted RSN, I just want to make sure it runs with all the different UUCP implementations. Be patient... - Jan -- Jan Willamowius, Nienredder 6, 2000 Hamburg 54, Germany E-Mail: jan@janhh.hanse.de ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 22:00:03 GMT From: arizona.edu!cerritos.edu!nic.csu.net!usc!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio- state.edu!ub!acsu.buffalo.edu!chu@arizona.edu (john c chu) Subject: Is B & C ComputerVisions still around? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Title line is my question. Are they still in business? (the last catalog I've seen from them is Winter 1990) If so, can someone give me their phone numbers (ordering, and information)? Thanks! Please reply via e-mail. john chu@acsu.buffalo.edu ------------------------------ Date: 23 Oct 91 20:14:30 GMT From: mcsun!unido!mcshh!malihh!pfunk.hanse.de!blackbox@uunet.uu.net (Michael Kistenmacher) Subject: mercury and gulam To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In <6855205@mns.UUCP>, Mathias Herberts writes: > > I am using mercury to exchange mail and news with my host site and I am >having a slight problem with the uux utility. Have I told anything about HERMES, a kind of upgrade to mercury? With its new rmail, rnews and the phenomenal GEM-Shell including a news- and mailreader, it replaces all parts of mercury. > >First of all Gulam uses the exclamation mark to recall the top command in the >history buffer , therefore I cannot ( or just don't know how to ???? ) use >this character in the command line. > Why don't you set your commands in qoutes. For example: uucp 'myfile malihh!mcshh!unido!uunet!yourfile' this will completely hand over the whole string in the qoutes to 'uucp'. >My second problem is that I would like to use uux to order my host to >execute this command : > > uuto file mns!madmat > >which would send file on my system to user madmat ( me ! ) > For this work, I would really recommend the HERMES package. Since now, all doc's are written in german, but perhaps I could get the Author to translate them to english. Then we could mail that stuff to Jeff Weiner for putting it on atari.archive. The archive now has about 640kB and installation is as hard as mercury, but that work will definitely be payed by more comfort. Bye......Michael -- /------------------------------------\ | Michael Kistenmacher / blackbox | | 2000 Hamburg 61 / Schippelsweg 64 | | West Germany / ++ 49 40 552 37 66 | \------------------------------------/ ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 14:18:10 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gatech!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!ugle.un it.no!solan1.solan.unit.no!fvlarsen@arizona.edu (Finn Vidar Larsen) Subject: More TeX/LaTeX To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu |> Why don't you simply use CS-TeX, available from several atari servers via ftp. Name one, PLEASE!!!! -- /---------------------------------------------------------------------------\ | FINN VIDAR LARSEN |Snailmail: | | Division of Computer Systems and Telematics | Arne Bergsgaardsvei 18/23 | | The Norwegian Institute of Technology | 7033 Trondheim | | The University of Trondheim, Norway | Norway | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| |email: fvlarsen@solan.unit.no, fvlarsen@lise.unit.no, fvlarsen@siri.unit.no| |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| |"Great Wakering (participial vb.): | | Panic which sets in when you badly need to go to the lavatory and | | cannot make up your mind about what book or magazine to take with you."| \--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 17:15:48 GMT From: noao!asuvax!ukma!wupost!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!cs. yale.edu!fischer-michael@arizona.edu (Michael Fischer) Subject: Need help unsplitting files To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article odonnj@rs6217.ecs.rpi.edu (James Robert O'Donnell Jr.) writes: >What is the best way to get a large binary file (greater than the size of one >floppy) from the IBM RS6000 workstation (that I ftp from) to my ST? I have >Mtools on the IBM so I can get stuff on to a disk, but how do I split up the >files so that I can get them onto more than one disk and then how do I rejoin >them on my ST? > >The file I am specifically trying to get right now is 'bin.zoo' (containing >the gcc binaries) from atari.archive. I can use the AIX command (or maybe it's >a 'bash' command, I don't know) 'split' to split the file up into smaller >chunks (which when rejoined via 'cat' on the IBM are identical to the >original), but how do I do rejoin them on the ST? I've tried the 'cat' from >gulam and from Micro C-Tools and neither worked. I could un-zoo the archive >and re-zoo it in smaller pieces, but we don't have Zoo v2.1 on the computer, >and I am not up to building it. > >Any help would be appreciated... >-- >%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% > Jim O'Donnell, RPI ECSE Department, Troy, NY 12180 jod@rpi.edu >%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Somebody posted a replacement "cat" awhile ago for gulam users. (I forget what it was called.) But a better solution might be to bring up Zoo v2.1 on your workstation as you suggest. I found it very easy to bring up on my Sun Sparcstation. -- ================================================== | Michael Fischer | ================================================== ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 14:06:38 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!cs.umn.edu!thelake!steve@a rizona.edu (Steve Yelvington) Subject: PD C compilers To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu [In article <1991Oct22.151235.11163@cl.cam.ac.uk>, qs101@cl.cam.ac.uk (Quentin Stafford-Fraser) writes ... ] > What are the relative merits of the different PD C compilers for the ST? > By instinct I would go for gcc, because I use it at work on my unix > machine, but several people seem to use Sozobon. > > I have 1Meg & 2 floppies, of that makes a difference. It makes a big difference. GNU C really needs a 2MB machine to compile anything non-trivial, and if you look at the binary archives at a.a you'll quickly see that GCC loves hard disk space. Sozobon C runs well on a 520ST with two floppies. A good disk cache will make it much more pleasant. The big difference between the compilers is that GCC supports the ANSI C standard, and Sozobon is a tradional (K&R C, Classic C) compiler. It has some ANSI features and a fairly complete library, but it does not support function prototypes. I have enough RAM and disk space for GCC, and I own a commercial compiler (Mark Williams), but the one I use is Sozobon. -- Steve Yelvington, Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota steve@thelake.mn.org (In winter we walk on water) ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 10:56:36 GMT From: europa.asd.contel.com!@uunet.uu.net (Ulric Eriksson) Subject: PD C compilers To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu qs101@cl.cam.ac.uk (Quentin Stafford-Fraser) writes: >What are the relative merits of the different PD C compilers for the ST? >By instinct I would go for gcc, because I use it at work on my unix >machine, but several people seem to use Sozobon. >I have 1Meg & 2 floppies, of that makes a difference. With that little memory, gcc is out of the question. I have 1 Meg and use Sozobon without any problems. It has a few bugs though, but nothing you can't live with. -- Ulric Eriksson ulrer@ida.liu.se "Det ser ut som rappakalja. Bara idioter kan h}lla p} med s}'nt d{r." ------------------------------ Date: 25 Oct 91 05:35:37 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!chaph.usc.edu!aludra.usc.edu!baffoni@arizona.e du (Juxtaposer) Subject: Quantum HD To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <3024@wet.UUCP> ekrimen@wet.UUCP (Ed Krimen) writes: >In article <1991Oct9.084621.5549@newcastle.ac.uk> njdc@tuda.newcastle.ac.uk (J.D.Coleman) writes: >>I have recently bought a Quantum LPS105S ( 105 meg, 20msec, 1130kb/sec ) >>and daisychained it to my existing ICD host adapter and Seagate ST177N. >> >>The drive is really nice, but so far I've been unable to get it working >>properly. I managed to format it but after it had warmed up, I would get >>continuous write errors until I couldn't write to it any more. I've talked >>to ICD and they initially said that the drive was faulty, but I've had it >>tested by the dealer I bought it off, and they say there are no problems >>with it. >> >>Last week I tested it with a Sun SLC and it worked fine, but now I can't >>even recognise it with my ST. > >I have a Quantum LPS105 working with an (old) ICD host adapter. > >I vaguely remember someone on GEnie (perhaps Tom Harker) saying that the >old ICD host adapter (not the new Advantage series) had problems daisy- >chaining some drives, either just Seagate SCSI with any other SCSI or all >SCSI drives. Perhaps you might want to call ICD (talk to Howard, or maybe >even Tom and mention what I said) and see what they say. That is, if >you have the old host adapter. If you have the new ones, try rearranging >the position of the drives on the SCSI chain. What kind of ST do you have, >BTW? > I also have a QuantumLPS105. I know that it works fine with other SCSI drives - I had to transfer all of my old data to the new drive - I had a Quantum80S and both were being run off the same old (not Advantage) ICD host adapter. You just have to make sure that you have removed the jumper that enables parity (EP) which I believe SUNs use, and you need to make sure that the drive in the middle of the SCSI chain has it's terminating resistors removed. It SHOULD work then. > >-- > ||| Ed Krimen > ||| ekrimen@wet.uucp > / | \ E.KRIMEN (GEnie) -Mike baffoni@aludra.usc.edu mbaffoni@skat.usc.edu ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 21:29:44 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!daroloso@arizona.edu (Dani A. Roloson) Subject: Railroad Tycoon To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1929@mwca.UUCP> bill@mwca.UUCP (Bill Sheppard) writes: >Has anyone seen bugs during game play? On my Mega4 and the Mega4STE at the local store, it bombs if the mouse pointer goes too close to the bottom of the screen. It does not have that problem on my 1040ST. One time, the keyboard keys were no longer properly recognized. (When I did a Find City, every key put a 0 in the field.) Yesterday, I was showing off my old English railway and loaded in my current Western U.S. one ... I ended up with breweries, glassworks, pounds, etc. all over the place. It's an addictive game but it's also annoying. Has anyone heard a response from MicroProse about the problems? Dani Roloson KWEST Kitchener-Waterloo Eight Sixteen Thirty-two Atari User Group ------------------------------ Date: 24 Oct 91 20:27:52 GMT From: psinntp!ultb!ultb!drp9500@uunet.uu.net (D.R. Paradis ) Subject: STuff for sale.... To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I have the following forsale.... Digisound - Audio Digitizer by Alpha Systems $50 Hippo/Navarone - Video Digitizer (used in video productions for artistic reasons) $25 Don't like the price, email me an offer! :) thanks Bob -- ************************************************************************ * Just because I'm a film major | < Net-address > * * doesn't mean I'm a Spielber-wanna-be....| * * I'm a Lynch-wanna-be! | drp9500@ultb.isc.rit.edu * ------------------------------ End of Info-Atari16 Digest ******************************