ST REPORT WEEKLY ONLINE MAGAZINE Monday, July 25, 1988 Vol II No. 45 =========== APEInc., P.O. BOX 74, Middlesex, N.J. 08846-0074 PUBLISHER MANAGING EDITOR Ron Kovacs R.F.Mariano ======================================================= ST REPORT EDITOR: Thomas Rex Reade PO Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida. 32236 Headquarters Bulletin Boards ST Report North ST Report Central ST Report South 201-968-8148 216-784-0574 904-786-4176 ------------------------------------ CONTENTS ======== > From the Editor's Desk..............> ST REPORT ART CONTEST RULES....... > FOREM VER. 2.2 (B) INFO.............> Leaning Toward the Future......... > Nostalgia - Remember When?..........> GFA BASICS [A].................... > A Dirty Word........................> GFA BASICS [B].................... > ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL..............> Courting Financial Chaos.......... ========================================================================= EXCLUSIVELY ON: COMP-U-SERVE ~ GENIE ~ DELPHI ========================================================================= From the Editor's Desk: Sometimes it is very difficult to keep things in their proper proportion and believe me I try. In the past few weeks a new and very interesting story has slowly been unfolding that really will peel your eyes open. Without fail it concerns our favorite computer company and all that will be said now is it has to do with the increasing difficulties that the dealer network is experiencing in doing business with Atari and will contain quite a bit of provocative material from the dealer base. Hopefully, it will serve to point out the cracks in the "system" Atari has in place and perhaps help to mend the broken lines of trust and maybe rebuild faith Atari Corp. Many of our readers ask, do you really feel Atari reads ST Report?, I can only say it has prompted several calls to this reporter from "real people" at Atari Corp. ...yes they are genuinely concerned, but in my opinion NOT concerned enough yet to really stop the short fall and do a turn-around. It would appear that a few more management changes are desperately needed. (No, NOT Neil! He has nothing to do with this). To start with, they could sure use a REAL Sales Manager, the "T. Turner" type..taught by the school of EXPERIENCE, not by what some professor said it was supposed to be...Fact is, most of the super marketing people started by " KNOCKING on DOORS! To pluck a graduate straight from school because he is less expensive or carries "prestige" is a sorry mistake afforded only by those companies having enough experienced people in the same departments as the "schoolies" to foresee the errors and avoid them. Atari you don't have that luxury, you are too busy forcing too few people to perform the jobs of many....Ahhhh, but that's another story. The folks at Atari never cease to amaze me, instead of catering to the marketplace, (dealers and potential dealers), they are busy coming up with bigger and better ways to anger them and chase them away! How very progressive and imaginative. The expose beginning next week will detail the dealer problems and suggested solutions. Rex...... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- *:NOTICE TO ALL ATARI DEALERS:* --------------------------- Have a compliment or a gripe with Atari??? Send it in writing to: ST Report PO BOX - 6672 Jax., Florida, 32236 ALL correspondence kept CONFIDENTIAL unless otherwise noted. --- ------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** IMPORTANT NOTICE *** ================ RE: ATARI DEVELOPER'S KIT Cost: 300.00 Value: 100.00 ------------------------- I just received a developer's kit from Atari, PAID IN FULL, and must say I am really sadly disappointed. Items Received: --------------- * 1000 sheets of photocopied material mainly about the 520ST, 90% OLD & OUTDATED. (no binders of any kind, they were rubber banded!) * C Programming, by Mark Williams Co. An OLD VERSION! I already own a much newer version! * 5 disks of utilities from Atari that I could D/L from either GEnie or CompuServe. ALL THIS FOR A MERE 300.00! --------------------------- I certainly feel I have been taken advantage of and fervently warn other potential purchasers of this "EXCEPTIONAL DEAL" to wait until Atari either brings this thing up to date, or comes forward with a new format for the developers...... Atari, you OWE it to yourself and to folks who have paid the $300.00 to provide: Up-to-date info about the 520, 520 STF, 1040, The Mega 2/4 ST SLM804 and the rest of the 16 bit product line or, at least, let all the owners of the Developer's Kit know that updates are on the way...including the sealed C programming you are providing that's OLD. (Newer versions of MWC are readily available). I am sure you would NEVER want anybody to feel they have been had. Hmmm.. I most certainly can see where a "NEW" Developer could easily begin a hostle relationship with Atari right from the GETGO! This sort of thing is disgraceful! R.F.Mariano ------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE JUDGES LIST =============== Service Name ------- ------------ CIS Ron Luks CIS Dan Rhea CIS Mike Schoenbach GEnie Darlah Hudson GEnie Fred Beckman GEnie Sandy Wilson -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ST-Report Official Contest Rules ================================ No purchase necessary. Deadline for consideration in this contest is midnight August 31, 1988. Winners will be announced in ST-Report on September 12, 1988. We guarantee to award all prizes. The prize list will be announced during the contest. All readers are eligible to enter except employees of APEInc. Publishing, CompuServe, GEnie, Delphi and their immediate families. This contest void where prohibited or restricted by law. We are not responsible for lost, mis-marked, or delayed art/work. All submissions must be drawn with any Atari ST drawing program. All submissions must be drawn by the original artist. Copyrighted art work will not be accepted. All submissions become the property of APEInc. All submissions must be uploaded to specified BBS systems by the deadline date. All systems have time and date stamping capability. Any entry dated after 8/31/88 will be void from the contest. Art Work Requirements --------------------- All art work considered for this contest must be drawn with any Atari ST drawing program. Any person submitting art work must leave an address, telephone number, and drawing program used. Artwork must contain the following: ST-REPORT The winning entry will be used at a later date for a newsletter or magazine cover. Where to Send ------------- All art work may be uploaded to the following systems. Syndicate BBS (201) 968-8148 Bounty ST BBS (904) 786-4176 Entries by mail are also permitted. Be sure to use a 3.5 floppy S/S! You may send to: ST-Report Logo Contest Post Office Box 74 Middlesex, New Jersey 08846-0074 (Please include your name, address and telephone number) Updates ------- This contest will update uploading areas every two weeks. Contest rules will not be changed, but judges may be added during the run of the contest. Current judge listing will be published next week. This contest commences May 2, 1988 and will end Midnight August 31, 1988. If you have any questions, Please leave email on the services at the following addresses: CompuServe: 71777,2140 GEnie : ST-REPORT : R.KOVACS DELPHI : RONKOVACS The Source: BDG793 Rules and Regulations: 1). Use any full color program written exclusively for the ST to draw your own personal design of an ST-Report logo. 2). Art work ported over from any other computer is void. 3). No X-rated art work will be accepted. 4). Winners will be announced by mail, email, phone call or equivalent on or before September 12, 1988. 5). Judges decisions are final. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Additional Changes/Enhancements =============================== FoReM PC/ST ver. 2.2 Release B =============================== 7/16 Update Release: The following functions have been sped up: ------------------------------------------ Reading Files directories Password search Copy File Entering/Exiting message system Less delay between messages Copying a file into ARCDL Mail check at logon Zmodem download New Features: ------------- When replying to a message, you can now include a copy of the original message in your reply. FoReM will prompt to see if you want to do this. A new privilege (31) has been added to allow SYSOP'S to use mailing lists. When entering email, at the "To:" prompt, enter "LIST". This is as it was previously, with the exception that the limit has been raise to 50 from 10. When FoReM comes back and asks for "To or =no more:", enter "FILE". FoReM will then ask for the name of a file containing the names to send the message to. Fnet mailing lists work similarly... ------------------------------------ When FoReM asks for "To:", enter FNET. When it asks for the node number, enter "LIST", when it asks for the first node in the list, enter "FILE". FoReM will ask for the name of the file containing a list of nodes. Note: The fnet list is meant for send a message to the SYSOP of many nodes. The FoReM NET mailer will translate the name "SYSOP" to the local sysop's name when the message is sent. This Feature should only be used on messages addressed to "SYSOP". Other privileges not yet documented: ------------------------------------ Priv 30 (CRASH_MAIL_P), is a FoReM PC / Fido interface function which allows a user to send Fidonet Crash Mail. It is only for those systems using BinkleyTerm as a front end to FoReM PC. Priv 29 (RM_FILE_P) allows a user to delete any file in the file area from the directory list command. 7/9 update release: ------------------- The following functions have been sped up: ------------------------------------------ Reading Files directories Password search Copy File If M/A is used an there are no new messages, a notice is sent. A timeout has been added to the "getline" function. A line of text must be input within 2 times the timeout value for a character. (Usually 4 minutes). If a full line is not entered in that time, FoReM will prompt for a random letter. If this letter is not typed, the user is logged off. Two new data files have been added: ----------------------------------- MSGDESC.DAT adds text descriptions to the list of message bases. Its format is: Message base # Lines of Text ; Message base # Lines of Text ; Example: 1 General Messages on any subject ; 2 Discussion of the current implementation of FoReM and suggestions for future versions/ ; The / on the end of the last line tells FoReM to NOT add a blank line between the message base titles. CROSSBBS.DAT is text file which tells FoReM what message bases are being used for CROSSNET (by Ben Roth). If a message base is used with Crossnet then FoReM will force all messages to be saved locally. EXample: 3 4 5 ! The ! is an end of list marker. A bug in CHECKSUM xmodem has been fixed. A version 2.2 bug that required a message based ism file to be rebuilt after the first message was entered has been fixed. A "feature" where if an Fnet message was deleted before it was sent caused the wrong messge to be sent has been fixed. A couple of minor bugs have also been fixed which I haven't kept a list of. Additional Changes/Enhancement to FoReM PC/ST version 2.2 Message Editor ------- ------ FoReM will automatically select the storage requirements for a message based on its length. A message less than 21 lines is stored in the message data file, other wise it is stored as a file. The user no longer has to select between "standard" and "extended" messges. US ROBOTICS HST modem usage FoReM now supports the fixed link mode of the HST modem. This will allow the bbs to always talk to the modem at 19200 bps. This works with all PC compatibles and Atari ST machines running with the new "Mega ST" tos roms. To use this mode, use any terminal program to write the following settings into the HST modem's nram. AT &H1 &I0 &B1 &R2 &W You should be talking to the modem at 19200 when doing this. Then, edit the FoReM.OPT file and change the default baud rate number to the word HST. NEW MESSAGE SEARCH OPTION Message may now be searched by date. Using the message [L]ocate command, you may now select to read messages entered after a given date. NEW OPTIONAL TEXT FILES Upon entering a file area, the file "SUBDIR".TXT is displayed where SUBDIR is the name of the file area. Example: if the directory is \forem\games, the file \forem\games.txt (\forem\txt\games.txt) will be displayed. DATNOTE.TXT is a DATED NOTICE file. If the file time stamp is later than the callers last logon date, this then this file is displayed after notice.txt and before the general bulletins. MESAGEX.TXT (ie: mesage1.txt, mesage2.txt) is an optional text file displayed upon entering a message base. SYSPAS.TXT may be sent before the system password. GETPHONE.TXT may be sent before the request for phone number. FILE SYSTEM CHANGES The file FTYPES.LST is now optional. If not there, the file application in a verbose list will be blank. (And no application will be asked for on an upload) Listing of NEW files is now done by the last time any file area was accessed instead of the last call date. UPLOAD CHANGES The prompt about upload size is only displayed when there is less than 500K bytes free. The prompt about Ascii or Binary uploads is only displayed if the file extender is not recognized. BATCH TRANSFER CHANGES Command R from the FILES CMD> prompt may be used to remove a file from the BATCH ARCDL CHANGES FoReM may now add a non ARC'ed file to ARCDL. This requires that ARC.TTP (ST) or ARC.EXE (PC) be "findable" by the system and that you have enough ram to run ARC. A option has been added to the ARCDL tools to remove a file from the ARCDL archive. NEW FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOLS Zmodem protocol. The new standard for fast error free file transfers. I tested it at 2400bps and it sent 224 chars a second; which is 93% efficient. Ymodem G. This is yet another X/Y modem variant meant for error correcting modems. Ymodem G does no ACK/NAK. UPLOAD/DOWNLOAD RATIO The upload download ratio is now set for each individual user via the # command from the password editor. UPLOAD/DOWNLOAD COUNTERS You may now edit a users count of uploaded and download files using the < and > commands from the password editor. FNET CHANGES Entries in FNETNODE.DAT may have an access level for the node at column 75 (starting at 0). The user has an associated fnet access level (0-255) set with command I at the pw> prompt. Privilege 27 has be added to restrict sending of FMAIL through FNET. SYSTEM LOGON REQUEST F8 when hit while a user is online will toggle reserving the bbs for a console logon when the current caller logs off. The BBS will bring the modem offhook for 15 minutes. USER LOGON REQUEST From the sysop prompt, the R command will ask for a users name. Only this user will be allowed to log on, until it is cancelled by entering R again or pressing the F8 key. MULTIPLE DOORS MENUS For multiple doors files: Edit a file DOORMENU.TXT. This is just like dbsel.txt as in: 1) Games 2) Quizes 3) Music Then for each type, generate a "fdoorsX.dat file" So all games would be in FDOORS1.DAT DOORINFO.DEF FoReM 2.2 supports the new standard for passing information to Doors programs. A new line has been added to FOREM.OPT just after the via message base line. On this line, should be the full path name to where doors programs reside. In this directory, FoReM will write DORINFO1.DEF . This file is defined as: 1 BBS NAME 2 SYSOP'S FIRST NAME 3 SYSOP'S LAST NAME 4 COMPORT COM1 COM2 NO COLON 5 1200,PAR,DATABIT,STOPBIT 1200,E,8,1 6 NETWORKING 0 7 USER'S FIRST NAME 8 USER'S LAST NAME 9 CITY STATE 10 GRAPHICS ON OFF FOR ANSI ONLY 0 or 1 11 SECURITY LEVEL OF USER 12 TIME LEFT IN MINTUES BAUD RATE LOCKOUT FoReM 2.0 allowed you not allow 300 baud users to log on. In 2.1, this has been expanded to all baud rates. In FOREM.OPT, where previously an "ON or OFF" value was entered to turn on the 300 baud lockout, now you may enter the minimum baud rate to allow on your system. LOGOFF BATCH FILE LOGOFF.BAT is a command file which works just like the documented FMAINT.BAT file except that it is executed after each user logs off. MONTHLY BATCH FILE MONTHLY.BAT is a command file just like LOGOFF.BAT which is executed at MIDNIGHT on the first of each month JUST BEFORE accounting is done. This might be used, for example, to run program to read the password file and print bills. DAILY BATCH FILE DAILY.BAT is a command file just like LOGOFF.BAT which is executed at MIDNIGHT. PASSWORD APPLICATION CHANGES The password application has been rewritten. The user is no longer asked to verify each input, but will be given the chance to edit his input before it is saved. NUMBER OF DRIVES ALLOWED FoReM will now support up to 16 partitions/drives. Sysgen will still only allow 8. DATA BASE CHANGES FoReM 2.1 allows user to use file transfer protocols for the sending of data base files. USR bit # 11 controls if this is on or off for each user. The user may change this with command T from within any data base. If you have more than 1 data base, FoReM will display a menu of them when entering the database area via the D command from the main menu. Other misc changes: Existing extended messages up to 200 lines long may now be edited. The lock/unlock status of a message may be changed by using the I command at the end of reading the message. This requires privilege # 28. The date of an FMAIL message may be updated by the U command after reading the message. This is useful if an fmail message you send is about to expire and you want to give the user more days in which to log on and get his file. The use of doors may now be restricted by time. The file CONTIME.DAT which for version 2.1 had two entries per line, now has 3 entries per line. Each line of this file now contains: time_percentage access level door access level Ex: 50 6 10 If this were the first line in CONTIME.DAT, then between 12 midnight and 12:30 am, only those users with access level 6 and above would be allowed on the system. Of those users, only those with level 10 and above would be able to run doors. Additionally, anyone let on the system would only be granted 50% of their normal access time. TEXT PAGING The paging option has been improved. When a user first logs on or via the * command from the main FoReM> prompt, he may elect to turn on text paging and set the number of lines at which to page. Paging will only occur for text files and for messages. On a console logon, the number of lines will always be 17 unless the no local window option is used. Running FoReM PC under QUARTERDECK'S DESQview: --------------------------------------------- FoReM PC version 2.2 dated 4/7/88 or later can take advantage of DESQview 2.01 or later using EEMS or LIM version 4.0 memory to 1) Run FoReM PC in the background 2) Give full memory space to "Doors" programs You must "install" under DESQview both FOREMPC.EXE and RUN_DOOR.EXE. When running DESQview, FOREM will execute RUN_DOOR.EXE telling it what door to run. FoReM will then suspend and wait for RUN_DOOR to notify it that it is done. What to do: Install FOREMPC.EXE under DESQVIEW, setting the following parameters Memory size: At least 384K Does not write directly to the screen Does not display graphics Can be swapped: If not using expanded ram, enter Y, otherwise it is better to enter no. Does not require floppy disk Install RUN_DOOR.EXE into DESQview. SET THE "KEYS TO USE TO OPEN MENU" to RD. Memory size at least big enough to run your largest DOOR plus 50K. CANNOT be swapped. Make sure the path default directory are correct. RUN_DOOR should reside in the default directory FoReM is run from. Exit DESQview. The DESQview directory, there is a file named rd-pif.dvp. Copy this file to the directory FoReM is run from. That's all there is to it! ************************************************************************ :HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT: --------------------------------- To sign up for GEnie service: Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt. Type XJM11877,GEnie and hit RETURN. The system will prompt you for your information. THE GENIE ATARI ST ROUNDTABLE - AN OVERVIEW ------------------------------------------- The Roundtable is an area of GEnie specifically set aside for owners and users of Atari ST computers, although all are welcome to participate. There are three main sections to the Roundtable: the Bulletin Board, the Software Library and the Real Time Conference area. The Bulletin Board contains messages from Roundtable members on a variety of Topics, organized under several Categories. These messages are all open and available for all to read (GEnie Mail should be used for private messages). If you have a question, comment, hot rumor or an answer to someone else's question, the Bulletin Board is the place to share it. The Software Library is where we keep the Public Domain software files that are available to all Roundtable members. You can 'download' any of these files into your own computer by using a Terminal Program which uses the 'XMODEM' file-transfer method. You can also share your favorite Public Domain programs and files with other Roundtable members by 'uploading' them to the Software Library. Uploading on GEnie is FREE, so you are encouraged to participate and help your Roundtable grow. The Real Time Conference is an area where two or more Roundtable members may get together and 'talk' in 'real-time'. You can participate in organized conferences with special guests, drop in on our weekly Open COnference, or simply join in on an impromptu chat session. Unlike posting messages or Mail for other members to read at some later time, everyone in the Conference area can see what you type immediately, and can respond to you right away, in an 'electronic conversation'. Below is the Main Roundtable Menu, with these areas indicated: GEnie ST Page 475 Atari ST RoundTable Library: ALL Libraries 1. Atari ST Bulletin Board <-- Messages 2. Atari ST Real-Time Conference <-- Electronic Conversations 3. Atari ST RT Libraries <-- Software Library (Programs) 4. About the Roundtable 5. Roundtable News 880719 Enter #,

revious, or elp? GEnie uses 'Page Numbers' to indicate the menus for the different Roundtables on the system. In this case, the Atari ST Roundtable is Page 475. Menu selection #4, 'About the Roundtable' will contain information about the purpose of the Roundtable, and the system operators, or SysOps. Choices #5 will contain bulletins and information. You may want to Capture these and print them out for reference. At the menu prompt, you can type P to return to the previous Menu (in this case, the GEnie Atari Roundtables Menu), or H for more Help, or simply type the number of your choice from the menu. ************************************************************************* LEANING TOWARD THE FUTURE ========================= Do you think a time will come when we will see Atari show the rest of the computer market place how to do it right? Instead of the usual "You can't do it that way"! perhaps Atari will show the way. For Instance: [A] Centralized Regional Master Service Centers [B] Centralized Regional Master Distribution Centers These central plants would of course be under the direct control of Atari, thereby limiting the incidence of communication problems being seen at this time between dep't. heads at the Sunnyvale complex. * Putting in place an executive committee designed to keep the information flow at the highest rate possible between the national centers. Not permitting any junior executive to put in place any "official procedure" on behalf of Atari without the approval of the executive committee. * The day arrive when Atari believes that it's userbase has matured and looks for more powerful and diversified computers and also has a large and youthful upcoming userbase with which to perpetuate development of quality equipment. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOSTALGIA....REMEMBER WHEN? =========================== Has it all been said before? Does it seem to sound the same? ATARI NEWS ** ATARI PC: MYTH OR FICTION? ----------------------------------------- January 6, 1988 -- ------------------ "I'm sure that I will never see" "Atari's duplicate PC..." That song's been sung for months. There's been little evidence of the IBM clone Atari started showing a year ago. But according to a classified advertisement in the San Jose Mercury News, Atari is seeking a "Production Development/Sustaining Engineer for our growing line of PS2/PCAT/PCXT systems." ________________________________________ Atari News Update ________________________________________ ATARI TO UNVEIL UNIX-LIKE SYSTEM (February. 22) Look for Atari Corp. to use the stage of next month's Hanover Computer Fair in West Germany for the coming-out party of its new low-cost Unix-like, 68030-based workstations. The workstation is based on Whitesmiths' Idris system which Atari licensed last year. In addition, the newsletter reports it hears that Atari also will introduce a desktop publishing system for under $5,000, "getting close to the price of a good laser printer alone." The publication says the system will be composed of the Mega computer, the SLM804 laser printer and Atari Deskset software. "The software is claimed to put true WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) on the screen," CI says, "and page formatting will be handled inside the computer rather than on the printer, 1 meg of memory being dedicated to laser printer commands." TOS ROMS -- BLITTER VERSION 8-29-87 ------------------------------------ The 1987 revision of TOS is scheduled for release in conjunction with the new "blitter" chip. The new TOS has been upgraded to include support for the hardware blit as well as retaining the software blit functions for full compatibility with older software which relies on hardware timing (a definite no-no). Changes in the new ROMs are: RS232: The RS232 handler has been completely rewritten. RTS/CTS handshaking now works. Baud rates 50 and 75 now work. ============================== CLOCK: Support is now included for the Mega ST's built-in, battery-backer-up realtime clock. The realtime clock is automatically used by the XBIOS gettime and settime functions for the IKBD. The GEMDOS clock is reset from the realtime clock at the termination of every program. STARTUP: Memory clear at system startup is much faster, improving performance on multi-megabyte systems. DESKTOP: The desktop now includes a control for deactivating/activating the blitter chip. Also, the Save Desktop and Print Screen selections will request confirmation. Spurious characters are no longer written to the DESKTOP.INF file. Doing a PRINT or SHOW from the desktop will now display characters with ASCII codes above 127. SHOW and PRINT use a larger buffer now. Single drive copies now require fewer disk swaps. CART: Cartridge handling has been revides, eliminating the need for "CARTSTART" code and allowing .TOS and .TTP programs. Lower case letters will now be accepted and passed to an application from the "Open Application ... Parameter" box. AES: The AES will now send repeat clicks if the mouse button is held down on the arrow or page controls of a window, which lets a window smooth scroll. The AES underscore bug is now fixed. APPL_TPLAY and APPL_TRECORD now work. The limit of 30 characters on a line in an alert box is now rigidly enforced. MOUSE: The mouse redraw can now be set to XOR mode. The system will return after a single click if this is what was requested. DMA: The DMA bus can now have more than one device attached at powerup time, without any special software. FLOPPY: The floppy read/write code checks for more errors now. In prior versions, the system would not report a CRC error under certain circumstances; now it will. This hurts some copy protection schemes. The format of the floppy disk has been skewed from track to track to improve disk speed; the XBIOS supports this by using-1 for the skew value and placing a pointer to a one word per sector skew table in the previously unused longword. VDI: The VDI will now draw arcs with small angles. BIOS: Character out routines are much faster. BLITTER: Automatic blitter chip support is included in line-A and VDI calls. The extended inquire will report a larger performance factor than before, allowing applications to check for the presence of the blitter. A new XBIOS call has been added to check for the blitter and to activate or deactivate it. The blit is not reentrant --line-A and VDI should not be called from within an interrupt. REGISTER: The registers D0, D1, D2, A0, A1, A2 have always been forfeit when a trap call was made. Now the demise of these occurs under more conditions than before. MEMORY: Slightly more RAM is used by the system. Programs that were close to the edge on a 520ST may no longer fit. VARIABLE: Most undocumented system variables have been moved. You were warned! NOTES AND WARNINGS: 1. Some programs depend on the OS always being at $FC0000. This is *not* cast in stone and will probably change soon. To find the OS header, use the pointer "sysbase" as documented. 2. The 4 megabyte ST puts the screen near the end of accessible RAM. Sloppy programs that have been writing past the end of the screen will give bus errors if they do so on the 4 meg ST. Ah yes, this version was to end all the problems...and NOW we feverishly await an even newer version....HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- GFA Basics A ============= by Rick Taylor Do you believe that 'C' stands for 'confused', that 68000 Assembler if for numerologists, and that ST Basic is for the gullible (not to mention patient) crowd? Don't despair. There is a language for your ST that operates at near 'C' speed, allows 'C' and ML subroutines, handles GEM calls with ease, and best of all is simple to learn. Very simple. Even if you've never programmed before, you'll quickly be up and running with GFA Basic. Those who've programmed in Pascal will appreciate the programming structure possible in GFA Basic; structure is something not usually associated with any Basic dialect. Those who've already developed 'spaghetti-code' habits won't have a problem adapting to GFA. It's very forgiving. GFA Basic was developed in Germany by GFA Systemtechnik, a company that specializes in writing mainframe computer languages. The programmer responsible for this remarkable product also wrote the public-domain Turbo Basic for the 8-bit Atari's, one of the fastest Basics for any 6502-based computer. The only shortcoming with Turbo Basic was the lack of comprehensive documentation, a fault shared by it's 16-bit offspring. This limitation has been addressed, as pointed out below. The manual that comes with GFA Basic is a revision of the original, which was far below acceptable. This newer edition does correctly and completely cover all of the available commands and functions of the language, however, that's all it does. To my way of thinking, with a language so far from any other Basic on the market, it should have a tutorial section to show the user how to start programming in it. Veteran Basic programmers shouldn't have any difficulty adapting from their former Basics though. If you are stuck, or just want to more thoroughly learn GFA Basic, Michtron (the distributor of GFA Basic) and GFA Systemtechnik have introduced a guidebook and disk for their product. It isn't cheap at $39.95, but may be a good investment if you're serious about progressing with GFA. If you've experimented with ST Basic at all, you'll really be glad to know that GFA's editor is of the full-screen variety (editing an ST Basic program is something I wouldn't wish on an enemy). GFA's editor almost qualifies as a full-blown word-processor, having many cut & paste functions (search and replace, copy, move and delete blocks, etc.). You can type either in 'insert' or 'overwrite' mode, upper or lower case, and abbreviate many keywords. If, for example, you were to type: ?"Press a key inp key$ The interpreter would instantaneously (upon a carriage return) alter it to read: Print "Press a key" Input Key$ The extra quotes, spacing and full command words are added automatically and without a bothersome error message. Our example above raises a question to those unfamiliar with GFA though: Where are the line numbers? Answer: There are none! This throws you the first time you write a GFA program, but once used to it, you'll never want your code interrupted by pesky line numbers again. Trust me. "But how do I jump from one area of a program to another?", you might ask? Simple. GFA uses 'labels' instead of numbers, and I'll show you below how that works. First lets use an example in traditional Basic: 1577 GOSUB 10000: PRINT "All Done!" Now the GFA version: Gosub Calculate Print "All Done!" You can put your "Calculate" subroutine anywhere in the program, and GFA will find it, as long as the first line of the routine says: "Procedure Calculate" and of course the last line must say "Return". If you were using a "Goto", then your label would be simply "Calculate:". These labels also offer a convenient way of looking through your program listing. Simply type the name of the label as search criteria, and the editor will take you right there. Neat, huh? Although I've only touched on a few of the features of GFA Basic, I hope it will be enough to encourage you to purchase this unique software. The retail price is $79.95, but many dealers sell it for far less. I bought a copy from Michtron at last years Glendale Atari Faire, and saved quite a bit. If you don't already have GFA Basic, go out and buy a copy! Then in future columns we can explore together the fun of programming in this amazing language. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WORD PROCESSING CAN BE A DIRTY WORD! ==================================== By Rick Taylor From The AA-AUG Memo Pad What has that to do with GFA Basic? Be patient - I'll get to that, but first of all let me rant a bit! Most of us have at least one program that requires an ".INF" file (a short text file which has INFormation that the program uses). Perhaps it's one of those RAMdisks that needs to know what size to make itself? Or maybe you use STARTGEM to autorun your GEM files; it requires a STARTGEM.INF file in order to know which program you wish it to load automatically. In any case, ".INF" files are usually nothing more than a line or two of ASCII text - no problem for most any word-processor, right? Right. The only problem is, who wants to wait for a mighty word-processor to load when all we want to do is write a few measly bytes of straight ASCII text to the disk? Remember the good 'ole 8-bit computers? From DOS 2.5 you could easily accomplish the task of writing a small file to the disk by choosing [C]opy, and telling DOS you were copying from "E:" (the screen editor) to "D:FILENAME.EXT". After you typed in your text, you just pressed CONTROL-3 to alert DOS you were finished, and "bleep*bleep*bleep" the file was written to disk. Oh well, enough reminiscing - let's write a short file in GFA Basic that will do the same thing, and load in a snap. WHY DIRTY WORD? The accompanying listing is named 'Dirty Word' simply because it is a quick 'n dirty word-processor! Actually, it doesn't really qualify as a word-processor at all, since it has no advanced editing features. You don't have word-wrap (we covered that in a previous column), or search and replace, or even the ability to load files. What does it have? Well, you may type in some text, save it to disk, and, er, I guess that about covers it! I should mention that most of your editing keys are valid, thus you may use BACKSPACE and DELETE for normal corrections, and the right and left arrow keys to reach any part of your text. The beginning and end of text can reached by using the up and down arrow keys respectively. SO WHY USE IT? If you want to write little ".INF" files to disk, and hate waiting for those big word-processors to load, this may be your ticket. If you have the GFA Basic Compiler, you can compile this little program, and it will load in just a few seconds from the GEM desktop. The following listing is short and easy to follow. I've commented it so that just about anybody can understand what's going on. Hope you get some use from this "quick 'n dirty" program named Dirty Word! Alert 1,"DirtyWord!|Version .001|By Rick Taylor",1,"Uh huh",Dummy Dim Line$(24) ! Set the maximum amount of lines. Cls ! Clear the screen. Print Print "Press [RETURN] on a blank line to end input." Print ' Main: ' Do Inc Line_num ! Increment the line number, Print Line_num;"] "; ! and show it on each line. Form Input 75,Line$(Line_num) ! 75-char input per line. Exit If Line$(Line_num)="" ! Look for a blank line. Loop ! Do it again... ' Alert 2," |What will you do?",1,"Save|Quit|Cancel",Answer ' If Answer=1 ! Save it. Fileselect "A:\*.*","TEMP.DAT",F$ ! Get a filename. If F$="" ! Oops - no filename given, Goto Main ! so go back to the editor. Endif Open "O",#1,F$ ! Create the file. If Line_num=1 ! How do we save just a C/R? Inc Line_num ! By adding a fake line! Endif For Count=1 To Line_num-1 ! Delete the blank line. Print #1;Line$(Count) ! Write it. Next Count Close #1 ! Close the file, Run ! and rerun the program. Endif ' If Answer=2 ! Quit. End Endif ' Goto Main ! Continue after CANCEL. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ GFA Basics B ============ by Rick Taylor If you're joining us for the first time, welcome to the column! Last month we featured a tutorial on creating a word-wrapping routine with GFA Basic; this routine was actually a subroutine from a word-processor I wrote. Who would have thought you could have a speedy word-processor in Basic? With GFA Basic (and especially the GFA Compiler), anything is possible. This month, we'll look at some hints and tips for using GFA. Some are very simple, others more advanced-hopefully there will be something for everyone. If you're new to structured languages, you might gain some insight by reading up on Pascal. While GFA Basic is not as structured as Pascal is, I find it to be similar in may ways (thus you could dub it BASCAL!). A rule of thumb with any structured language is to comment your code as much as possible. Programs that you write today will not be as fresh in our mind a year from now, so good commenting will help you remember what you were doing when you look back on old program listings. Here's the three ways you can add comments to your code: Rem (this means REMark, and is common to most BASIC's) ' (this works the same as Rem, but is shorter) ! (use the exclamation mark if you want to add a comment on the same line as the code itself) In addition to comments, the use of descriptive variable names is vital. Using a variable name such as 'X1' makes your code look arcane. It's much better to use descriptive names, such as 'Player1_total', 'Count', or 'Users_age'. This of course applies to all types of variables; descriptive string variable names might be 'Answer$', or 'Filename$', or even 'File_to_delete$'. The point is to make your code readable so that if you need help, another programmer can easily see what your program is doing. And now for some various GFA tips: First off, since the ST can run in three resolutions, we need to know what resolution the user is in, so that we can adjust the text and graphics displays. The following lines do just that. Rez=Xbios(4) ! Determines the resolution. If Rez=0 Then ? "Low Resolution" Endif If Rez=1 Then ? "Medium Resolution" Endif If Rez=2 Then ? "High Resolution" Endif Some notes about the above code: Notice we used a descriptive variable name (Rez); although it's a short name, it's obvious to the reader (especially after reading the remark after the '!' symbol) that Rez holds the Resolution. Notice too that in the IF-THEN-ENDIF construction, we used the optional 'THEN'. You could omit it, but it makes the code seem more readable. Another point on variable names is the type of variable we used. If we needed faster execution, we could use 'integer variables'. These are recognized by the interpreter as having a '%' suffix. Thus, the variable Rez could also be the integer variable Rez%, since we know it will not hold a floating point number. Another quick tip: Some users have wondered how to incorporate GEM Fileselect boxes in their own programs. It's easy! Here's the format: Fileselect "\*.*","",File$ If you type in that one line of code and run it, you'll see the familiar GEM Fileselect box appear. The "\*.*" is the search path, it appears on the line 'Directory' in the Fileselect box. The empty string "" is the default file which will appear under 'Selection'. File$ is the string variable that will hold the name of the file that the user actually chooses. If you wanted to get fancy, and use variables to store the path and filenames, you could do something like this: Fileselect Path$+"*.*",Old_file_name$,Filename$ Simple, huh? Try doing it in a 'lower-level' language, and see how simple it is! The latest version is 2.02, if you have an older version, send your disk and $5.00 to Michtron for an upgrade. Well that's it for this month. With all the new tutorials and books coming out for GFA Basic, we should have plenty to talk about in the months ahead. If you need a quick answer to a programming question, just logon to the AA-AUG BBS, I check in daily. Rick Taylor, Editor Atari Anonymous Memo Pad P.O. Box 1433 Upland, CALIFORNIA. 91786 I look forward to hearing from you. See you next time... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- GFA BASIC: String Matching by Confidence Factor =============================================== by Brian Biggs I ran across an article in the July '88 issue of Dr. Dobbs Journal that deals with pattern matching based on the Ratcliff/Obershelp algorithm, and thought it may be of interest to someone. The algorithm compares matching sequences of letters between two strings and returns a confidence factor that may be used in a nondeterministic program. This allows the computer to ask a question and evaluate the users answer from text strings, rather than the multiple guess format traditionally used. To demonstrate this algorithm, enter and run the program at the end of this article (the best part: Spelling does NOT count!). The program is divided into roughly 3 components, the game data, the game procedure, and the pattern matching routines (SIMIL and MYINSTR). These may be ported for use in your own programs with little or no modification needed. Some ideas presented in the Dr. Dobbs article include use in DOS shell programs, adventure games and compilers. For a full description of the idea of pattern matching, you'll need to get a copy of the magazine and read the article. It is very good, and easy to understand. The only limitation to the algorithm in this application is it's inability to determine if a numeric response is reasonably close, and for that reason the final confidence/answer pair begins with a numeric choice, and confidence factor of 100%. This program should be easy to modify to run from files of text Q&A's, allowing you to create and enter your own questions. No score keeping is performed here, but that too should be easy to add. The resulting program could be used to quiz students or play text oriented games. Enjoy! Trivia ST A module to computerize a trivia game. ' ' Data format starts with a question (multiple lines are fine), use a single "A" to delimit answers. The answer field may be up to 10 pairs of confidence factor, answer; with a trailing value of 0. A single "Q" delimits the next ' question, and the token "*END" is used to flag the end of data. Note the ' last question in the game requires a 100% confidence factor for a numeric ' answer. (the algorithm won't accept 39 as even close, and 41-49 are equally ' compared at 50% confidence) ' Gamedata: Data What 19th-century English scientist traveled to Data the Galapagos Islands and studied their strange Data forms? Data A Data 70, Charles Darwin,80,Darwin,0 Data Q Data What's the rolling home of a wandering gypsies Data called? Data A Data 75,A caravan,0 Data Q Data What country was Golda Meir once prime Data minister of? Data A Data 80, Israel,0 Data Q Data What kind of sports event has riders on horses Data racing over hedges fences and water? Data A Data 75,A steeplechase,0 Data Q Data How fast can a full-grown white-tailed jack Data rabbit hop -- 20 40 or 60 miles per hour? Data A Data 100,40,90,Forty,60,Forty miles per hour,0 Data *END ' ' Begin the game procedure ' Dim Ans$(10), Confidence(10) Dim Stack$(10,2) Restore Gamedata ' Question: ' ' check for end of game data ' Print If A$="*END" Print "Thanks for playing!" Pause 150 Stop Endif ' ' Read and display the question data ' Read A$ Repeat Print A$ Read A$ Until A$="A" ' ' Read and store the confidence value and answer pairs ' Read C,A$ Ans=0 ' Repeat Inc Ans Confidence(Ans)=C Ans$(Ans)=Upper$(A$) Read C,A$ Until A$="Q" Or A$="*END" ' ' Get a response from the player and compare the result against the answers ' looking for an answer in the confidence range specified. ' Try=0 Answer: Input Response$ Response$=Upper$(Response$) ' For X=1 To Ans @Simil(RespCo 301162nse$,Ans$(X),*Value) ' Print "Compare ";Ans$(X);" confidence = ";Value;"%" Exit If Value>=ConfidenceID BDG793(X) Next X ' ' Tell player the result of this response pass ' If Value>=Confidence(X) Print "Answer: ";Ans$(X);" -- you score!" Goto Question Endif ' Inc Try ' ' Permit the player 3 tries to get a reasonable answer. ' If Try=3 Print "Sorry... the answer was: ";Ans$(1) Goto Question Else Print "Nope... try again" Goto Answer Endif ' ' Sub-procedures for the string comparison begin here. ' Procedure Simil(Stra$,Strb$,P.pcnt%) ' Local Pos,Len,Stknum,Totchr,Common,P2 ' ' Initialize comparison values for this run ' Stknum=0 ! Stack pointer Totchr=Len(Stra$)+Len(Strb$) ! Total score possible Common=0 ! Score by common strings ' Sloop: ' @Myinstr(Stra$,Strb$,*Pos,*Len) ' If Len=0 Goto Slen0 Endif ' ' We need to know where in strb$ the match lives ' P2=Instr(Strb$,Mid$(Stra$,Pos,Len)) ' ' Save the left string (if any) for later compare ' If Pos>1 Then Inc Stknum Stack$(Stknum,1)=Mid$(Stra$,1,Pos-1) Stack$(Stknum,2)=Mid$(Strb$,1,P2-1) Endif ' ' Save the right string (if any) for later compare ' If Pos+Len0 Stra$=Stack$(Stknum,1) Strb$=Stack$(Stknum,2) Dec Stknum Goto Sloop Endif ' ' Return the calculated score for this pair of strings ' *P.pcnt%=Int((Common*100/Totchr)+0.5) ' Return ' Procedure Myinstr(Stra$,Strb$,P.pos%,P.len%) ' Local X,Y,N,M,M0,Z ' ' find the largest matching substring between stra$ and strb$ ' X=1 Y=0 For N=1 To Len(Stra$) M=Len(Stra$)-N+1 For M0=M Downto Y Z=Instr(Strb$,Mid$(Stra$,N,M0)) If Z>0 And M0>Y Y=M0 X=N Endif Next M0 Next N ' *P.pos%=X *P.len%=Y Return -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL ====================== CALIFORNIA Atari should get rid of those horrid sounding speaker phones ------------ they are using, they make the people at Atari sound like 'droids..... NEVADA Seems some "big wigs" at Tahoe are miffed at each other about ------ certain plans over an exotic piece of hardware...tsk tsk! NEW YORK Seems the Advertising we all are waiting to see is going to -------- be mediocre at best for the ST. The ratio of bux for ads is sort of lop-sided in favor of the game machines.... CALIFORNIA When the cat's away, the mice play,....there may be some ---------- feathers flying when the wigs get back from Tahoe, a few little people have flexed their muscles and will definately cause serious ripples by having done so...... FLORIDA The LAND SALES deals using Atari's name and calling a 26.00 ------- printing calculator "A DESK TOP COMPUTER" is about to hit the news, another FIRST for ATARI! (Hey Buddy, wanna buy some nice waterfronted property?) FLORIDA The President of a Usergroup was asked, Where is the new ------- G-Dos Atari talked about a while back, you know, the auto scaling version? Well Atari???..... NEW YORK GEM 2.2, A version of Gem is in circulation in Europe, not -------- by Atari Overseas ...but private and reported to be excellent. Handles bigger H/D partitions and many other small problems are corrected. NEW YORK Unix now has a mouse driven, icon-based, graphics interface. -------- It's name is "OPEN LOOK". It features pop-up dialog boxes, pull down menus, overlapping windows and push buttons. CALIFORNIA Seems the 68000 game machine is a happening after all.... STG ---------- VIRGINIA OSI, Open Systems Interconnection, an International Computer -------- Communications Standard, adopted by COS, Corporation for Open Systems, a neighbor of the CIA, has joined forces with no less than 12 other MAJOR computer technology companies. AT&T, IBM, SUN are few involved. The goal is to allow ALL computers to be able to exchange info via a common GLOBAL networking system where there are no compatibility problems hardware or software. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- COURTING FINANCIAL CHAOS ======================== by T."Rex" Reade Every once in a while an executive will make a judgement call that will never be forgotten. In my humble opinion, the decision to release a certain Desk Top Publishing program prematurely will be remembered as one of those blunders. Comes now a clammering group of faithful owners begging, scratching and generally make a full pain in the a** of themselves wanting the newest version of this program. Not a soul has stopped to think of the reason(s) why this particular program has been suffering delays, they just want it now. To pre-release or beta test is one thing, to send an unfinished program to every person who has paid the fee to step "up" to this program is, in my opinion, bordering on the threshold of insanity. One very major point to think about is how many of those "early copies" are actually in release? Can they be traced? If so..they should be. You ask why?....That's easy, this "beta or pre-release or what ever it's called is all over the country already and....most of the neophytes being exposed to it are experiencing GREAT DIFFICULTY trying to use it. With that in mind, no reasonable person will dispute the fact this will depress the overall sales of this product unless a massive campaign is launched to tell everyone the "final" version is much improved over this "DEMO" release. There is an idea, call this pre-release a "DEMO"! Hopefully, when the final version is ready for the market place, the marketplace will accept it as a perfected release and not just another unhatched egg. The bottom line is: IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN CIRCULATED BEFORE BEING FINISHED, DEBUGGED AND MADE FULLY MARKET READY. Another whiz kid sales and marketing blunder. A very wise and heavily experience gentleman "quiped" to me, "Rex, Sometimes the users advice can and will kill you, other times it can be a Godsend". This may very well sum up the entire picture, where a fine software company has allowed itself to be stampeded by a "Loyal Following" of users who just couldn't wait for "the real thing" and wanted a teaser or sampler or as mentioned before a... *** DEMO *** .... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- =:OF SPECIAL INTEREST:= ------------------- by Scott Swain In this document I once again outline my intention to create a catalog of Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) in the U.S. and Canada. The concept is essentially the same but, as before, I have added more function codes. For those of you not familiar with the previous versions of this document, I'm simply trying to solicit Sysops and users alike for any information they can supply on the various BBSes in the U.S. and Canada. This info will be put into a catalog of BBSes which will be made available as a door on my BBS, as BBS lists probably broken up by area code and distributed through Public Domain channels and also (maybe) published, in it's entirety, as a printed guide to BBSes in North America. On this last option, I would appreciate your input so that I can get an idea of what kind of market there would be for it. Simply leave me Email on CompuServe or on my BBS (see below). I have given up the idea of distributing the list as one file. The reason being that, even as an archive, it would be too big. The database alone with 4500+ listings in it is well over a megabyte! The output list would be several times that! So it will have to be broken up somehow depending on the situation. As usual (you were expecting this, right?) here is a list of the information that I'm asking for: The BBS name The city & state its in The BBS phone number (including area code) The baud rate settings UART params. (data bits, parity & stop bits, ie. 8N1, 7E1, etc. It's hours of operation The Sysop's name The BBS software in use (ie. PCBoard, RBBS, etc.) The Network name & Net/Node ID for this system (if any) The hard disk size (ie. 20M for 20 Megabytes, etc.) The system's "specialty" or "specialties" The access method (dial-up, PC Pursuit, 800-number, etc.) The function(s) of the BBS As you can see, I have also added a new field. There seems to be a growing system of 'Networks' of BBSes, I think it's becoming necessary to include the network name and net/node ID for each system on these networks. For example, if a BBS is node 010 on network 001 of the FidoNet network. The entry for the 'Network' field would be as follows: FidoNet: 001/010 This is assuming that this system IS on a network. If not, leave this entry blank. Usually Fidos and OPUSes (and maybe some others) are on the FidoNet network and GT POWER systems are on the GT Network. There are probably other networks out there but these are the only ones that I know of at the moment. In my next issue, I may list known networks to put in this field and 'standard' entries. You will see that what used to be the 'Computers' entry is now called 'Specialty'. I did this so that more than just computers can be listed here (ie. operating systems, hobbies, etc. and some special interests). In the beginning of this document, I mentioned that I have added more function codes. Function codes make it easy to describe the individual features of the BBS in question. These codes are used in the 'function' field of the entry listing. They may be in any order and in either upper or lower case. Some systems are oriented towards specific interests or themes. Others may provide services or information in certain areas. The list of current codes is: System capabilities BBS interests/theme msg - Messages or Email med - Medical dwn - Public Domain files avail. rel - Religious gam - Online game(s) adu - Adult cnf - Conferencing inv - Investments drs - Doors com - Commercial mlt - Multi-user system nws - News reports add - Private adds edu - Education law - Law/legal sci - Science Other items org - Original BBS system pay - Access fees charged pvt - Private system gov - Government system usg - Users Group val - Validation required reg - Register by mail If none are specified then the functions 'msg' and 'dwn' are assumed. The 'law' code means that the system provides legal aid or is used mainly by lawyers. The 'sci' code means that the system is oriented towards science and provides scientific information. The particular field of science is up to you to find out. This code can also represent a system that deals in science fiction. For those of you who have read previous versions of this document before, this part will be familiar. But for those of you who have NOT, well here goes. Since I have to put each BBS listing through a conversion program to convert it into a format that can be merged into my database, each entry must be in a certain format. The following table shows the entry listing format with examples: Entry Name Example (using my system) Maximum Length ---------- ------------------------- -------------- BBS name Console Command Headquarters 35 City Goleta 20 State CA 2 Phone number 805-968-5094 12 Baud rate(s) 300/1200/2400/9600 20 UART parameters 8-N-1 5 Hours 24 32 Sysop Scott Swaine 30 BBS software GT Power 20 Network GT Network: 054/000 20 Disk size 286M 10 Specialty(ies) IBM and compats. 25 Access dial-up 15 Function msg dwn gam drs add val none You may notice that I put dashes between each character in the UART parameters. You may or may not do this, my program doesn't care. It fixes it so that they are there regardless. Also notice that the phone number follows the format ###-###-####. Please use this format. There is no limit on how many function codes you may define but since I am currently using Turbo Pascal, I can only read a line of up to 255 characters (which is more than enough). If an entry in the listing is blank then leave the line for it blank but there should be 14 lines in each listing. If you have any more ideas about what kind of important information should be included in the BBS listings, please tell me. And, of course, how could I go without listing the Canadian province codes that I'm using in my list. Here they are: AB - Alberta BC - British Columbia ON - Ontario QB - Quebec MB - Manitoba SS - Saskatchewan LB - Labrador NS - Nova Scotia NF - Newfoundland NT - Notre Dame NB - New Brunswick PE - Prince Edward Is. NW - Northwest Territories YK - Yukon And the abbreviations for the only two US territories I ever hear about or see: PR - Puerto Rico VI - Virgin Islands Although I'm still using File Express to manage my database, I am planning to: 1) Either make my own special-purpose database program, or 2) Get someone else to do it. Number two doesn't imply that I'm looking for help, it just means that I'm lazy. I already know who I want to do it for me. But in the mean time, if any of you have a list of BBSes in File Express (ver. 4.11) format (or one that can be imported into it) then you can send that if you like. As soon as I get the custom database made, it will serve as a door on my BBS. The caller will be able to use it to search through the list and find BBSes in their area or around the country and in Canada. With all the BBSes in operation, it would be nice to have a master catalog of them so if you can help out, it would really be appreciated! I'm still looking for volunteers to keep me informed on the status of BBSes on a monthly basis. Since I have so many, it's going to cost $$$ to call them myself. All those who are interested can contact me via the information below. Keep a lookout for updates to this info. Thank you and happy BBSing! Scott Swaine, Sysop Console Command Headquarters (805) 968-5094, 24 hours/day 300/1200/2400/9600 baud, 8-N-1 GT Network net/node 054/000 CompuServe ID: 72057,1542 = * = ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ST-REPORT Issue #45 July 25, 1988 (c)'88 APEInc. All Rights Reserved. Reprint permission granted except where noted in the article. Any reprint must include ST-Report and the author in the credits. Views Presented herein are not necessarily those of ST-Report or of the Staff. -------------------------------------------------------------------------