Generic STOS Fixer v0.98 ======================== Contents: --------- + Introduction. + Usage instructions. - drag & drop. - command line. - GEM based. + Limitiations. + Falcon Compatibility. + Known Bugs/problems. + Legal stuff. + Credits. + Contact info. + Advertisements. Introduction: ------------- When STOS was written, it was decided that to improve the speed of some commands the addresses of certain routines in the Operating System could be stored in a table at the beginning of the program to prevent them having to be looked up each time it is run. However, as these addresses change with every new release of the Operating System STOS had to be updated. While Mandarin still supported STOS this was OK, as they simply released a new version with the updated table, along with any bug fixes. However, as Mandarin no longer support STOS there have been no official releases containing new tables for any version of TOS greater than TOS 1.62. To get around this problem, any compiled STOS program can be 'fixed' which simply means replacing the table with a suitable table for the OS version - this is essentially what Mandarin would have done. At this time, there are two STOS fixers available (with numorous versions), the latest version of each is called STOS Fix 3. However, neither of these is perfect. One, by Robert Quezada, only fixes the STOS program for the CURRENT version of TOS, thus making it necessary for the end user of the program, not the author to fix the program - this seems rather unprofessional. The other (so I am told - I don't have it), from Goodmans PDL, is only available from Goodmans, and is not available via FTP on the internet. Also, it places an advert for Goodmans PDL on any STOS program fixed with it -again, not very professional. So, the solution is the Generic STOS Fixer. This fixes a STOS program for any 10 versions of TOS (unfortunately, at this time there are 14 versions, not including MagiC). Which versions are used is determined by the DEFxxxx.DAT files in the same directory as GENFIX.PRG, where xxxx is the TOS version number, and also the settings if you have used the GEM interface. Supplied with this program are DEFxxxx.DAT files for all existing TOS versions from TOS 1.0 through to 4.92 except TOS 3.05 and 3.06 (if anyone has a TT, and has a joystick, please get in touch - I would like to obtain these versions.) Which files are ommitted is up to the person fixing the program (I recommend authors do this before releasing software..) but I would recommend leaving out TOS 1.1, as this is very rare (I didn't even know 1.1 existed!), and also TOS 2.05 and 3.05 as these versions have been superceeded by updated versions. The same goes for 4.01 (which is very buggy, and should be replaced with 4.04 imediately). TOS 4.92 is only available on disk, so this can be safely left out, as someone with this version will also have another 4.0x version. One interesting point is that if a STOS program is fixed for TOS 2.06, then it appears to work under GEMulator - the ST emulator for the PC made by BraSoft. I am currently in the process of trying to establish if STOS will run under STonX - the ST emulator for Unix machines (eg Linux, SGI's, Sun's etc.) After the success under GEMulator, I suspect that it will work. Usage instructions: ------------------- This program will work in a number of ways - 1) Drag a file to the program icon (TOS 2.06 or greater required). This will start up the fixer, which will attempt to fix the program. The DEFxxxx.DAT files will be taken from the CURRENT directory - ie. the top window if this option is set (or the applications directory, otherwise). This does NOT start a GEM based version, and may well corrupt the screen if running under MultiTOS. (Hmmm.... I'll have to check this...) 2) Enter the filename on the command line.This is very similar to the previous method. Once again, this is not a GEM based method, and is suitable for running from a command shell (eg BASH/KSH/CSH under MiNT). 3) Double click on the program icon. This will start up the program as it would any other. A GEM based shell is provided, which eases use of the program. Note that it will be difficult (if not impossible) to use this method in a resolution with < 640 pixels horizontally. Simply select 'Fix' to fix a STOS file - select the file to be fixed in the file selector, and let the fixer do its stuff. On selecting the 'OS Versions' button, the dialog will change to enable you to select which OS versions will be used when fixing programs in this session - note that this info is not stored, and so you may need to set it every time. The scrolling list on the left contains the names of all of the DEFxxxx.DAT files that were found. Those that are highlighted (ie. black) will be used when patching. The 'default' file is the one that STOS will use if the OS version found is not one of those given in the table. To set the default, simply click on the arrow pointing right. This will set the default to the version imediately next to the arrow. Limitations. ------------ This program will not necessarily fix a program which has already been fixed by either this fixer, or either of the other two fixers available - always fix straight after compilation to solve problems of this kind. Also, programs which have been packed will not be fixable - use NewDepack from Sinister Developments to decompress the program. (this program is no longer in development as SD. have left the Atari scene. However, Mike Watson of Sinister Developments is prepaired to try and answer any questions via email.) Programs which use extensions may still not work after being fixed - check the Falcon compatibility section below for more details. I cannot garauntee that all programs can be fixed. However, if after fixing it successfully works on your machine, it probably works under all OS versions that you have specified. If STOS Fix 3 by R.Quezada does not fix a program, it is highly unlikely that this program will have any more luck. Falcon Compatibility. --------------------- The Falcon has a number of major changes from the ST - this causes programs which have been writen without considering these changes likely to cause a crash. However, it is possible to write a program in STOS that will work without problems on the Falcon. The things to consider with regard to the Falcon are: 1) Dont pack your program with the 'Atomic Packer' as this crashes the Falcon. - use PACK ICE instead. (Interesting note: in Top Notch's Missing Link Extension documention they say that the Falcon is very compatible - guess which packer they used to pack the install program!) 2) Run the Falcon with a clean setup - hold down control while booting. This will start the Falcon in ST-Low resolution, with no desk accessories/auto boot programs but with the hard-drive active. Holding down 'Alternate' will also disable the hard-drive. 3) Rename your program from PRG to TOS - This will cause the graphics commands to work better. Always do this as there is no advantage to being a PRG file (unless its a GEM program, which is currently impossible for a STOS program). 4) When using extensions, try and use Falcon tested commands - some extension authors have done some nasty things which crash the Falcon. The following extensions have been tested on the Falcon, and work without problems: Maestro, Control, Extra, Ninja Tracker, Falcon (obviously), Compact, Blitter and Compiler. The Missing Link works, although a couple of commands do not - namely the music/sample playing routines. The STE Extension, and any other STE extension probably work on the Falcon, although there are slight differences in the way hardware scrolling works, and also the lowest frequency provided on the STE DMA hardware (8khz) is not valid, and will not generate any sound. The following extensions do NOT work on the Falcon, and so should be avoided. STOS Tracker (the one that uses .ABK files). If at all possible you should try and get your STOS programs tested on a Falcon before releasing it. However, if you cannot it is still worth doing the above so that you have a higher chance of it working correctly. Known bugs: ----------- Under AES 4.1 (and probably under MagiC) when the program is 'un-iconified' the window may not be the correct size, and the dialog incorectly positioned. I have noticed that sometimes under a multitasking GEM AES when a window is moved which already covers the Generic Fixer it sometimes redraws the fixer dialog over the top of the window. The entire program is loaded into memory - thus making it difficult to fix BIG programs on a 520 (or maybe even 1040). [Thats fine with me - I have 4mb, and may soon have more! :-)] Legal stuff: ------------ This program is released as FREEWARE. As such, this program may be distributed in any form (PD libaries, electronic file transfer, coverdisks etc.) so long as none of the files enclosed are modified, or omitted. Also, there is no waranty that this program will work - explicit or implied. This program directly modifies program files - thus there is a potential for programs to be damaged - you fix programs AT YOUR OWN RISK. Always run this program on a backup. Although this program is Freeware, any donations are welcome, and would be greatfully recieved. :-) Credits: -------- Original fixer code: Les Greenhalgh (in STOS) C implementation: Anthony Jacques DEFxxxx.DAT files created by: STOS Fix 3, by Robert Quezada Thanks to everyone who sent me the DEFxxxx.DAT files so that I could build up a complete collection... (excluding TT Tos). Contact info: ------------- Anthony Jacques: 70 West Avenue, Oldfield Park Bath Avon BA2 3QD England term-time 95/96: 25 Balleratt Street Levenshulme Manchester England email: jacquesa@cs.man.ac.uk WWW: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~jacquesa/ Les Greenhalgh: 24 Park Avenue Rudloe Manor Corsham Wiltshire SN13 0JT England Robert Quezada: I have no contact address for Robert - the email address in his STOS Fix 3 documentation is no longer valid. Well, thats about all you need to know.... Anthony Jacques, 11/2/96 8<- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Advertisements.... STOS Falcon Extension v1.2b - shareware (5 pounds registration) + true colour sprite routines. + DSP playback of 4-32 channel modules at 50khz 16-bit stereo. + full access to the sound system (including dsp processing). + 4 to 65536 colour graphics routines. + Playback of FLI and FLC animations in truecolour. For more information, contact: Anthony Jacques, 70 West Avenue, Oldfield Park, Bath. BA2 3QD http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~jacquesa/ or jacquesa@cs.man.ac.uk STOS Mailing list. Are you a STOS user who is online? Well, if you have internet access, then you can join the STOS mailing list and take part in STOS discussions/ask questions to some of the best STOS programmers around - Tony Greenwood of STOSSER Software, Martin Cubitt author of the Extra Extension, ()rm of Digi Tallis and Anthony Jacques author of the STOS Falcon Extension, as well as many others. For more information, email: jacquesa@cs.man.ac.uk To subscribe send a mail to: stos-request@man.ac.uk with the word subscribe in the body of the email. STOS FTP site. The biggest FTP site on the InterNET for STOS software is ftp.uni-kl.de STOS stuff can be found in the pub/Atari/programming/STOS/ directory. If you are using a WWW-browser such as Netscape, then the address is:- ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/Atari/programming/STOS/ STOSSER WWW pages. The biggest STOS related World Wide Web pages on the STOSSER homepage and can be found at http://www.airtime.co.uk/stosser/ and contain links to all other STOS related pages, and has lots of information about STOS products. Bad Mood. This is an internet project to create a Falcon (and perhaps TT/Eagle/Medusa) version of Doom. At the moment this is in its early stages, but it is already possible to wander around texture-mapped Doom, Doom 2 and Heretic levels. This is a game which ALL Falcon owners will be interested in... It has been tested on both the BlowUP-FX card, and also on the Afterburner040. for more information, visit: http://rand.thn.htu.se/~johan/bad_mood.html or to join the Bad Mood mailing list, email bad_mood@rand.thn.htu.se with the word subscribe in the subject line. 8<- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -