Info-Atari16 Digest Wed, 18 Dec 91 Volume 91 : Issue 667 Today's Topics: Atari 1040st for sale Blackjack/Poker game? Dungeon Master: <<---not a bug! ESDI drives on the ST General stuff... Gulam Redirection Bug HDX 5 Availability PYM Demo on Terminator (2 msgs) Quick ST support TOS 2.06 Available in USA! Why ASV Is A Dead No Future Product (4 msgs) 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: 18 Dec 91 19:51:40 GMT From: vuse.vanderbilt.edu!feather@uunet.uu.net (David V. Feather) Subject: Atari 1040st for sale To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu For Sale: Atari 1040st - standard 1 meg/ DS disk drive Atari SC1224 Monitor External IB Drive 5.25" Joysticks, Mouse, Software I I have all the original cartons and papers/books. Price: $400 -- ------------------------------------------------------------ David V. Feather Email: feather@vuse.vanderbilt.edu ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 20:30:14 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiu c.edu!news.iastate.edu!pv0320.vincent.iastate.edu!sourada@arizona.edu (Steven D Ourada) Subject: Blackjack/Poker game? To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu I know it's kind of trivial, but I would like to find a PD blackjack and/or poker game for the ST... I have scoured the ftp sites of the world and have come up with nothing. Pointers or files appreciated. Thanks, Steven Ourada ----------------- Ask me how my university is censoring my Usenet access! sourada@iastate.edu ----------------- ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 19:23:29 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mp s.ohio-state.edu!ohstpy!miavx1!cpbuehrer@arizona.edu Subject: Dungeon Master: <<---not a bug! To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Dec17.123636.599@wkuvx1.bitnet>, easteee@wkuvx1.bitnet writes: >> I think the final version was 1.2. I have no idea of FTL's upgrade >> policy. But you didn't miss much. >> Also there was a bug which kept you trapped in the lowest level. >> How did you get around that? >> > > To tell you the truth, I don't know... Once you got the gem thingy and made your firestaff, you sealed off your exits to the upper levels...but there should be like two or three lower levels you could move around in still... --Dennis also known as... | HELLO, I'm a signature virus! krambdej@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu | Join in the fun Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum. | and copy me into yours! ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 15:17:07 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!wupost!spool.mu.edu!munnari.oz.au!darwin.ntu.e du.au!topfm@arizona.edu Subject: ESDI drives on the ST To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <839@olymp.informatik.uni-bonn.de>, volker@sfb256.iam.uni-bonn.de ( Volker A. Brandt ) writes: > In article <10058@cactus.org> covert@cactus.org (Richard Covert) writes: >>[...] For example, I have a Sony SMO >>650 Megabyte magneto-optical disk drive on my ST right now. But >>can I use the standard Atari HDX? No. > > Come on Richard. You should just go out and get the newest version of HDX > (such as the one that is sold with Atar's own removable Syqest drive) instead > of complaining ever on. > > For your information: the current HDX version is 5.00 and supports ACSI, SCSI > and the new ST Book IDE drives. > > No, I don't know when it will be available in your 3rd world country. > (No insult to *real* 3rd world countries intended :-) > > > -- > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Bitnet: UNM409@DBNRHRZ1 Volker A. Brandt > UUCP: ...!unido!DBNRHRZ1.bitnet!unm409 Angewandte Mathematik > Internet: volker@sfb256.iam.uni-bonn.de (Bonn, Germany) Does this mean that i can _finally_ use esdi drives on my STfm Exactly what is HDX ( in laymans terms ) Rob. (just another radio jock) -- +--------------------------+-------------------------------+------------------+ | 8 TOP-FM | Unless otherwise indicated | Office Phone | | 104.1 MHz | this message does not | +61-89-466-266 | |Darwin, v | reflect the views of the | | |Northern ---->_*-_|\ | station, staff or the | Studio Phone | |Territory, / \ | Northern Territory University.| +61-89-466-414 | |Australia \_.--._/ | (in other words, I said not | | | v | any-one else). | Fax | | topfm@darwin.ntu.edu.AU | | +61-89-451-788 | +--------------------------+-------------------------------+------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Dec 91 08:44:17 CST From: Mike Dorman Subject: General stuff... To: Atari List Many things: 1) Many thanks to Scott for his excellent port of Emacs 18.57. I have been using his first 18.57 port for the last few weeks, and I had noticed some problems (which was a shame since I had gotten quite addicted to Emacs), and they all seem to be gone this time around. There's still some problems with dired.el and the shell-escapes, but I think that the latter, at least, is a problem with my setup, not with the excellent program. 2) Many, many thanks to Eric Smith for MiNT. I have toyed with MiNT off and on since 0.60, back when I had only 1MB of ram and didn't want a command line. Now I have MiNT 0.92 and 4MB--a much happier combination. I especially like the new fasttext feature, though it seems to occasionally "die"--printing (as someone else mentioned) white-on-white. 3) Many thanks to, I believe, Dave Gymer, for his port of BASH 1.10 for MiNT. I have tcsh sitting on my HD, waiting to be used, but I can't quite make the transition, BASH is so well done. First some explanation, then some questions: I am attempting to write a "login" program for MiNT. I'll flat out admit it, I know nothing about "real" Unix, so this program is going to look/feel however it occurs to me--I don't have a basis for comparison. Regardless, it's designed with the intent of it being the MiNT boot prog, it'll accept a name and password, and if you make it, it'll set your home directory (currently, it just concatenates /usr/ and your login name) so your shell can find it's profile, and call the value set in LOGINSHELL in the mint.cnf file. All well and good, it does this just fine, BUT: I want it to be set up such that if you "exit" from your shell, login will resume where it left off, and query you for the info again. As I understand it, if I Pexec(0,,,) to execute the shell, when that subordinate process exits, login should resume execution at the point immediately after the Pexec(0,,,) call. Am I assuming wrong? Any ideas/suggestions/code fragments. The thing is, if I can get help on this, my next project is a remote login facility--I've already got the guts of it incorporated into login. The way I see it, I'd just have to create a process that monitors the serial port for "RING", and as soon as it gets that, it does an fdup() call to redirect stdin and stdout and stderr to the serial port. Then it calls a version of login that is designed to disappear after the Pexec to the shell (using the MiNT extension Pexec(200,,,)), and once the shell exits, it'll reset the serial port and continue lurking. So, anyone got any suggestions? This all seemed so brutally simple, last night (I did get login working (except for the Pexec(0,,,)) last night in one marathon session--it compiles with no warnings with -Wall enabled under GCC), and now there's little bits of the OS that I don't quite know the behavior of. I checked the PEXEC Cookbook last night, but it didn't have anything new to help me understand what's happening. All help would be much appreciated. Mike. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 12:30:24 GMT From: mcsun!unido!laura!mouton!schwab@uunet.uu.net (Andreas Schwab) Subject: Gulam Redirection Bug To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Hi Gulam users! After installing the GNU textutils i was biten by the Gulam Redirection Bug: sort a > b sort: >: file not found :-( :-( :-( As i have some experience in patching buggy programs i asked myself if it is possible to patch this bug away. And after some hours of debugging i found it, the Patch for the Gulam Redirection Bug! It is a rather wierd bug. Looking closer at it, i discoverd that there are two groups of commands which suffer from it: all three character commands which are lexicographically between `cat' and `gem', and all four character commands between `popd' and `time' (like `sort', but not `c:\bin\sort.ttp' ). It has to do with the way builtin commands are recognized, and `gem' and `time' are special, since they are command prefixes. But here is the patch: The following table shows the offset within the program file, the offset from the program start (after stripping the header, i.e., file offset - $1c), the old value and the new value. All figures are in hex. The old and new values are given in 16bit words, the offsets are however byte offsets. file prg old new offset offset value value -------------------------------------------------------- 1a0e 19f2 6722 6726 (the following words are consecutive) 1a2e 1a12 4a46 6eea 6ee8 6706 4240 4245 102d 6000 0005 0092 3a00 4240 3005 102d 0240 0005 0001 3a00 3e00 0240 0245 0001 00fe 3e00 4a46 0245 1a48 1a2c 667e 00fe Now take your favorite binary editor (i'm using GNU emacs), patch gulam, run it and enjoy :-) #include #include -- Andreas Schwab schwab@ls5.informatik.uni-dortmund.de --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Es besteht kein Grund zur Beruhigung -- Dieter Hildebrandt ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 23:53:03 GMT From: noao!ncar!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!milano!cactus.org!covert@arizona.edu (Richard Covert) Subject: HDX 5 Availability To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <839@olymp.informatik.uni-bonn.de> volker@sfb256.iam.uni-bonn.de ( Volker A. Brandt ) writes: >In article <10058@cactus.org> covert@cactus.org (Richard Covert) writes: >>[...] For example, I have a Sony SMO >>650 Megabyte magneto-optical disk drive on my ST right now. But >>can I use the standard Atari HDX? No. > >Come on Richard. You should just go out and get the newest version of HDX >(such as the one that is sold with Atar's own removable Syqest drive) instead >of complaining ever on. > >For your information: the current HDX version is 5.00 and supports ACSI, SCSI >and the new ST Book IDE drives. > >No, I don't know when it will be available in your 3rd world country. >(No insult to *real* 3rd world countries intended :-) > > >-- >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Bitnet: UNM409@DBNRHRZ1 Volker A. Brandt Volker, is HDX 5.00 available over there in Germany? For your information, it is NOT available here. Is this another example of Atari Corp playing games with the ST market here in America?? Is this another indication that America is a "third world country" to Atari Corp? What is in HDX 5.00? Not that it makes much difference to me. I use ICD's host adapter in my two hard drives. And ICD does update thier drivers!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -- Richard E. Covert covert@cactus.org CACTUS ..!cs.utexas.edu!cactus.org!covert ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 17:57:12 GMT From: noao!ncar!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!d oug.cae.wisc.edu!carter@arizona.edu (Gregory Carter) Subject: PYM Demo on Terminator To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Dec18.050845.13667@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> al885@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Gerard Pinzone) writes: > >In a previous article, selick@bucsf.bu.edu (Steven Selick) says: > >> >>After reading a message earlier about a 1.8 meg demo called PYM.ARC, I >>decided to get it and take a look. It is the "Punish Your Machine" demos >>that were shown last August in Germany. There were 4 lzh files that >>turned into 4 msa files and finally turned into 2 disks. It is very >>nicely dono. I wish some of these fantastic programmers would write some >>really good graphics applications or games that would be STE compatible! >> >How much memory do you need to run it? BTW, how the hell is a person >with one disk drive and no HD supposed to unarc that 1100+ file?! >Also, how am I gonna transfer it from a HD IBM disk to a 720k ATARI >format disk?! Can you say: "TIME FOR AN UPGRADE". If you can afford to buy a computer you MUST be able to afford a hard disk. Its sort of like the mentality, WHY support 7E1 serial communications... If your computer can't do 8N1, just get another computer. Some configurations are not useful to be supported anymore. A computer without a hard disk.... I didn't even know there WAS such a thing. Do they really make them that way? :) If your REALLY good maybe I will write Santa and he will send you a nice ICD removable cartridge system. > >I'd really perfer msa's of a reasonable length like the LOST BOYS Finalle. >-- Mmm, REASONABLE length? Thats an opinion. My current storage capacity is 45 megs, so any demo larger than that would be a pain I suppose...:) > _______ ________ ________ "Small nose, loose girls, no nipples, (.|.) > / ___/ / _____/ / __ / Iczer curls!" -=- Gerard Pinzone ).( > / ___/ / /____ / __ / gpinzone@george.poly.edu ( v ) >/______/ /_______/ /__/ /__/ Join the ECA Wehrmacht! Kill CM! \|/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Greg Carter - Undergraduate - United States Amatuer Wrestler (149.5) ONLY 8 months to go for State tournee - Kick Butt Time! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Employed: Computer Aided Engineering Center - University Wisconsin - Madison Major: Computer Science - Emphasis: System Design Tools, User Interfaces Phone Home: (608) 264-3622 - Work: (608) 262-5349 Employed: Atari Corporation Third Party Licensed Developer - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 20:28:55 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!wupost!m.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxa.cso. uiuc.edu!jppg9764@arizona.edu (John Paul Pietrzak) Subject: PYM Demo on Terminator To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Dec18.115712.26292@doug.cae.wisc.edu> carter@cae.wisc.edu (Gregory Carter) writes: >In article <1991Dec18.050845.13667@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> al885@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Gerard Pinzone) writes: >> >>How much memory do you need to run it? BTW, how the hell is a person >>with one disk drive and no HD supposed to unarc that 1100+ file?! >>Also, how am I gonna transfer it from a HD IBM disk to a 720k ATARI >>format disk?! > > Can you say: "TIME FOR AN UPGRADE". If you can afford to buy a computer >you MUST be able to afford a hard disk. Similarly, if you can afford to buy a hard disk, you MUST be able to afford a better computer than an Atari. :) John "Don't make assumptions about my pocketbook, and I won't make assumptions about yours" Pietrzak ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 23:54:41 GMT From: haven.umd.edu!wam.umd.edu!cmedley@ames.arpa ("Flip" Medley) Subject: Quick ST support To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <1991Dec18.114557.26141@doug.cae.wisc.edu> carter@cae.wisc.edu (Gregory Carter) writes: >In article <1991Dec18.054216.22304@wam.umd.edu> cmedley@wam.umd.edu ("Flip" Medley) writes: >> >>Just out of curiosity, does anyone on the 'net think they would pay for >>Darek's GEMulator even if they jump to the PC considering his atttiude? > >Oh PLEASE. What does attitude have to do with buying software? I could >see if he was SOMEHOW threatening the market, like Apple and thier army >of lawyers or Lotus with its legions of lawyers... I really don't care about whether Darek threatens the market. What I was asking was whether anyone would consider buying a product from someone who has such an attitude about the people who, in his own words, helped him pay for his condo. Personally, I pick my software (and hardware) almost as much by the people behind the product as I do by the quality of the product. I've finally learned that lesson > >Its a free country, he can have any attitude he wants. that's true, but so can the typical consumer. > >If you think Tramiel has the right attitude "attitude" about manufacturing >ST's/TT's...WHY in the hell are you stuck with an ST??? You're reading a lot into my post. That's where you're making a fool of yourself. I said absolutely nothing about Atari Corp. As it stands now, I'd love to jump ship to a NeXT or some kind of clone, but for lack of $$$ I'd have already done it. > >In my opinion, why should we buy ST's with the incredibly BAD management >track record has set, and continues to set in the past present and >more than likely near future!! Is this good attitude? > Calm down. >What you should ask, is whether or not the upgrade price is worth the features >you get, in comparison to the original price of the product. > >PLEASE RE-PHRASE YOUR POST. PLEASE READ MY POST BEFORE YOU BLOW YOUR TOP. > >And, by the way, Happy Holidays. And of course to all who read this, >Happy New Years! > >-Greg > >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Employed: Computer Aided Engineering Center - University Wisconsin - Madison > Major: Computer Science - Emphasis: System Design Tools, User Interfaces > Phone Home: (608) 264-3622 - Work: (608) 262-5349 >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >"I can't believe how easy final exams are after you do it for a few semesters > its just more of the same thing. I wish instructors would get more orginal. > At least my CS302 instructor came dressed up as Santa, with individually > wrapped final exams with a Candy Cane on the outside." - My freshman Year. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 17:58:24 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!uokmax!un x3.ucc.okstate.edu!unx3184@arizona.edu (unx3184) Subject: TOS 2.06 Available in USA! To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <5440174@hplsla.hp.com> andyc@hplsla.hp.com (Andy Cassino) writes: >>Ok, thats all real peachy-keen if you're an ST owner, but what if you happen >>to own a 1040STe - how do I go about getting the new TOS and docs?? > >$69.95 sticks in my mind, but don't quote me on it! > Think it was $139.00 Was a bit higher than tos 1.4 at $90.00 jc ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 11:45:46 GMT From: mcsun!uknet!pyrltd!root44!khh@uunet.uu.net (Keith Holder) Subject: Why ASV Is A Dead No Future Product To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In <1991Dec17.114832.9010@link-1.ts.bcc.ac.uk> ucacmsu@ucl.ac.uk (Mr Stephen R Usher) writes: >Aaaargh! >ASV IS AT&T SYSVr4/68K! This means that a driver written for ANY SYSVr4 will >compile and work. ANY SYSVr4/68K driver object file WILL link into the >kernel and work! This wis what the SYSVr4 object/source standards were >devised for. >This means that ANY SYSVr4/68K driver from any manufacturer CAN BE USED WITH >ASV, whether it comes from SUN Microsystems for Solaris, or from Commodore >for the Amiga version of SYSVr4 or any other 680x0 based SYSVr4 computer. I >hope this is now clear. Unfortunately, this is not true. Due to the fact that not all 68ks will have the same SCSI chip. Each and every SVR4 68k port will have different ways of driving the SCSI bus plus different SCSI peripheral driver interfaces. Only the Intel SVR4 ports published an interface standard, SDDI (SCSI Device Driver Interface), so they at least have some chance of being software/binary compatible. For the 68k there was no such standard for SCSI devices. On the Atari, there is a driver for driving the SCSI bus, plus there are separate drivers for the disk and tape which interface to the SCSI bus driver. I don't know if Atari supply the documentation for the ASV SCSI interface, since the author most probably hasn't updated them since the start of the millennium B-). Atari, Motorola, Commodore, etc. have different driver interfaces for their SCSI devices, so your statement is partially incorrect. The driver may compile and link, but I doubt if it will work. However, all is not as bad as it may seem. If you have a device at a distinct I/O address that works on any of the above machines, then you will only need one device driver for all SVR4 68k platforms. In fact with possibly a few #ifdef's it should work on other SVR4 platforms. keith. -- -- Keith Holder, UniSoft Ltd., Spa House, 9 Chapel Place, Rivington St. London EC2A 3DQ Phone: +44 71 729 3773 ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 18:02:59 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!apple!uokmax!unx3.ucc. okstate.edu!unx3184@arizona.edu (unx3184) Subject: Why ASV Is A Dead No Future Product To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article <10066@cactus.org> covert@cactus.org (Richard Covert) writes: > >Why should ANYONE market ANYHTING for the TT/ASV? > >Richard E. Covert covert@cactus.org >CACTUS ..!cs.utexas.edu!cactus.org!covert Why would someone with TT/ASV wait for a TT/ASV version? Wouldn't YOU just buy the System V version and go?!?!?! jc ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 19:20:56 GMT From: noao!ncar!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!apple!portal!cup.portal.com!Henry_Burdett_Mess enger@arizona.edu Subject: Why ASV Is A Dead No Future Product To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu Some folks are just "Thick as a brick." Richard Covert keeps making the erroneous assumption that support _specific_ to the TT/ASV will be required to add new devices to the SCSI bus. The SysVr4 specification _demands_ that device drivers compile and run properly within the same processor architecture. This means that Sun-2, Sun-3 and Solbourne SCSI peripherals will work perfectly well on the TT/ASV. And there are _many_ of those machines in the world. And there are _many_ third-party companies in that market. Covert's position is analogous to saying: "Don't buy that brand X PC clone! IBM AT bus peripherals will only work on genuine IBM PC ATs!" Let's wait and *see* what the problems are, shall we? - hbm ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 91 22:27:14 GMT From: noao!asuvax!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!doug.c ae.wisc.edu!carter@arizona.edu (Gregory Carter) Subject: Why ASV Is A Dead No Future Product To: Info-Atari16@naucse.cse.nau.edu In article darling@cellar.org (Thomas Darling) writes: >covert@cactus.org (Richard Covert) writes: > >> The problem with buying a TT/ASV now [...whine whine whine...] Atari >> delaying products [...whine whine whine...] Atari computers. >> >> As an example, [...whine whine whine...] Atari Corp [...whine whine >> whine...] Atari promising products [...whine whine whine.] >> >> Atari said once [...whine whine whine...] Now Atari says [...whine whine >> whine...] Atari's Spin Team [...whine whine whine...] Atari's [...whine!] >> >> [more whining deleted] > >A limerick for Rich Covert, comp.sys.atari.st weenie >==================================================== > >There once was a Covert named Rich, >A snivelling son of a bitch, >Who would whine all day long >How Atari'd done him wrong >'Cause he couldn't figure out the power switch. HARSH. Creative, but HARSH. > >...enjoy. > >~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~\\\~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~% >darling@cellar.org \\\ Thomas Darling * record production * dance re-mixing >uunet!cellar!darling \\\ Fact HQ Studio * The Cellar BBS:215/336-9503 * FACT >v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%\\\%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v%v% -Greg ------------------------------ End of Info-Atari16 Digest ******************************