*---== ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---* """"""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine" _____________________________________ from STR Publishing Inc. """""""""""""""""" November 30, 1990 No.6.48 ========================================================================== STReport Online Magazine¿ Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205 ~ 6672 R.F. Mariano Publisher - Editor _________________________________________ Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EST BBS: 904-786-4176 USR/HST DUAL STANDARD FAX: 904-783-3319 12 AM - 6 AM EST _________________________________________ ** Fnet Node 350 * FidoNet Node 1:112/35 * NeST Node 90:03/0 ** STR'S privately owned & operated support BBS carries ALL issues of STReport Online Magazine and AN INTERNATIONAL LIST OF PRIVATE BBS SYSTEMS carrying STReport Online Magazine for their user's enjoyment __________________________________________________________________ > 11/30/90: STReport¿ #6.48 The Original 16/32 bit Online Magazine! ------------------------- - The Editor's Desk - CPU REPORT - CPU MacNews - MEDUSA! - 16mb DRAM CHIP! - Atari & DTP - Atari's Year? - Portfolio News - Bundle Mania - Back to Basics - Mail Call - STR Confidential * ATARI HAS STRONG INVENTORY! * * EXPOSE' DEMO RELEASED!! * * WORDFLAIR II SPECIAL OFFER! * ========================================================================== ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE¿ The _Number One_ Online Magazine -* FEATURING *- "Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information" Current Events, Original Articles, Hot Tips, and Information Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports ========================================================================== STReport's support BBS, NODE # 350 invites systems using Forem ST and Turbo Board BBS to participate in the Fido/F-Net Mail Network. Or, call Node 350 direct at 904-786-4176, and enjoy the excitement of exchanging information relative to the Atari ST computer arena through an excellent International ST Mail Network. All registered F-NET - Crossnet SysOps are welcome to join the STReport Crossnet Conference. The Crossnet Conference Code is #34813, and the "Lead Node" is # 350. All systems are most welcome to actively participate. Support Atari Computers; Join Today! ========================================================================== AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON: GENIE ~ CIS ~ DELPHI ~ BIX ~ FIDO ~ F-NET ========================================================================== > The Editor's Podium¿ How many shopping days left before Christmas? According to all in- dications this will be a decent Christmas for Atari and its dealers after all. That's right, product is arriving at the warehouse and Atari is filling orders. In fact, they are quite busy. Comdex is behind us and some of the sparks are still glowing. As most folks now know, there have been mixed impressions emanating from Comdex. For most of us the bottom line is where we will be next year. Atari will be at Comdex and most likely in the same location. The word has leaked that there was at least 1800 new leads obtained at Comdex of folks wanting to be Atari dealers. Also, the newer products are fully anticipated to be available during the first quarter of 1991. Looks like the dealers and developers will have good things to look forward to. Seems the TT030 units are in the warehouse just waiting for the FCC ticket.... Now that's what's called being "Ready Freddy"! 1991 may just be the year to pay attention to Atari after all. The Portfolio and its third party goodies continue to dominate the scene and rightfully so, remember the Portfolio is the "bridge" to other computer platforms. This is great since it shows folks, who would have never heard of Atari, that Atari Computer is a serious player. Thanks for your support! Ralph...... *********************************************************************** NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME to the Readers of; STREPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE¿ """""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine" NEW USERS; SIGN UP TODAY! CALL: 1-800-848-8199 .. Ask for operator 198 You will receive your complimentary time and be online in no time at all! NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE *********************************************************************** > CPU REPORT¿ ========== Issue # 93 ---------- by Michael Arthur CPU INSIGHTS¿ ============ MEDUSA, AMIGA1, AND ATARI ST EMULATION FOR THE AMIGA ---------------------------------------------------- Ever since their introductions, the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga have competed against each other in the low/middle end of the computer market. When a consumer decides between the two, the main issue is the quality of software available for a particular computer. With the advent of Macintosh and PC Emulators for both computers, such a consumer doesn't have to give up the use of Mac/PC software if they buy an ST or Amiga. As such, a choice between the ST and Amiga has invariably been a choice between the software arenas that each computer excels in. One may have chosen the Amiga for its graphics and Desktop Video capabilities, but doing so would keep one from enjoying the superlative MIDI and DTP software available for the ST. Recently, a string of ST Emulators have appeared for the Amiga that have the potential to change this situation. One of the first to appear on the scene was AMIGA1. Unlike most computer emulators, this was a Public Domain utility that promised to emulate the Atari ST without the need for TOS ROMs. In order to do this,- the unknown programmer of AMIGA1 decided to pirate a version of TOS and simply "hack" it into the emulator itself. Obviously, this made AMIGA1 an illegal product that caused people using it to pirate Atari's operating system software. This, in addition to the facts that AMIGA1 was extremely buggy and would not multitask with other Amiga programs, made AMIGA1 the worst possible solution for ST Emulation. Next to enter the ST Emulation Arena was a commercial product cal- led Chameleon. Like AMIGA1, Chameleon was an all-software solution for ST Emulation that didn't require one to install additional hardware to use TOS ROMs. It supports the ST's Low/Medium/High Resolution displays, and allows one to easily switch between resolutions. It can read/write to Atari ST disks, and recognizes the ST's MIDI port to allow the use of ST MIDI software. In addition, it can use Microway's FlickerFixer board (or the Amiga 3000's flickerfixer chip) to provide an interlace-free display in High Resolution. Cost: 90 DM (Deutsche marks). However, Chameleon isn't very compatible with ST software, and it is slow enough that although one can multitask Chameleon with other Amiga programs, the resulting slowdown in performance would be intolerable. Fur- ther more, the method that Chameleon goes through to avoid using a cartr- idge slot or board (like Spectre GCR and Amax) to hold TOS ROMs makes it illegal to use in the US. To use it in Germany, one has to use special hardware to copy the TOS ROMs onto a floppy or hard disk. When Chameleon is first started, it loads this "hacked disk version" of TOS 1.6 into the Amiga's 16 or 32-bit RAM for use. However, this use of ROM software is apparently illegal in the US, and Atari seems able to stop attempts at selling the Chameleon in the US. With few viable options for emulating the ST, an Amiga user (or a person choosing between the ST and Amiga) would have been in the same situation as before. However, another German company has introduced an ST Emulator that may actually be legal to sell in the US. Called Medusa, this emulator requires the TOS ROMs to be installed in sockets found on a small Amiga 2000 expansion board that comes with the package. When it first starts up, it loads TOS directly into Amiga 16-bit or 32-bit RAM, and uses the Amiga's Enhanced Chip Set to support the ST's standard resolutions. It can read/write to ST floppy disks, and is compatible with ST SCSI Hard Disk drivers. Running as a single task, Medusa can perform at 85 - 95 percent of the 1040 ST's speed. However, one can also multitask Medusa with other AmigaDOS applications. Another benefit of Medusa is its comparatively high compatibility rate (approximately 90 - 95%) with non-copy protected ST Software. Like the other ST emulators, Medusa requires TOS 1.6 to run on 68020/68030 Amiga accelerators. Since Medusa uses the TOS ROMs in a manner similar to that which Spectre GCR and Amax use Mac ROMs to emulate the Macintosh, a US company may start marketing it in the US by early 1991. Cost: 550 DM, or 300 dollars. CPU MacNews¿ =========== APPLE FORMS COMPANY TO DEVELOP RISC-BASED NOTEBOOK COMPUTER ----------------------------------------------------------- Apple Computer has teamed up with VLSI Technology and Britain-based- Acorn Computer to form Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) Ltd., a joint chip research and development company. Apple and VLSI will be investing a sum of approximately 1.75 million pounds into the venture, which will also be obtaining Acorn Computer's 32-bit RISC (reduced instruction set chip) architecture. ARM Limited intends to use Acorn's RISC Chip, which has very low power consumption requirements, to focus on areas like portable computing and embedded control systems for automotive and aeronautical electronics. However, Apple appears to have invested in ARM Ltd. as part of an effort to develop a RISC-based "notebook computer" to replace the Macintosh computer line. For years, Apple has said that this was one of its long-term plans, and Larry Tesler (head of Apple's Advanced R&D Group) has praised "ARM's advantages (in its RISC-based chip architecture) of high-performance, low-power consumption, and low cost for a variety of applications". Apple is also funding General Magic Inc. (a company formed by Andy Hertzfield and Hypercard creator Bill Atkinson) in its efforts to develop sound/graphics data compression techniques suitable for future "handheld" computers. However, any results from ARM Ltd's efforts (like a RISC-based Notebook Computer marketed by Apple) are not expected to be available until after 1992.... > CPU STATUS REPORT¿ >>>> LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS <<<< ================= - Osaka, Japan MATSUSHITA PLANS TO SHIP 16MEG DRAM CHIP SAMPLES ------------ Matsushita Electronics Corp. has announced that it will begin shipping prototype samples of its 16 Megabit DRAM memory chips during the Spring of 1991. With this move, Matsushita is following several other semiconductor manufacturers (including Toshiba, Texas Instruments, and NEC) in announcing plans to begin sampling 16 Megabit DRAM chips during 1991. Like NEC, Matsushita has said that it will begin mass producing its new memory chips during 1992. - Washington, DC US SOFTWARE INDUSTRY MAKES UP 1.2 PERCENT OF US GNP -------------- According to a study recently released by ADAPSO (the Association of Data Processing Service Organizations), the US Software Industry is now worth over $60 billion dollars a year, or 1.2 percent of the US's total Gross National Product (GNP). This study also revealed that the US Software industry employs approximately 750,000 people, and that it generated $12.1 billion in overseas sales for the Fiscal year of 1989. - Atlanta, GA CONVICTED CRACKER APPEALS PROHIBITION ON COMPUTER USE ----------- Robert Riggs, who recently pled guilty to illegally entering BellSouth's computers and stealing computer source code, is now appealing a part of his jail sentence that forbids him from using computers while in jail. Attorneys for Riggs believe that this segment of the sentence violates his First Amendment rights, stating that there are "less restrictive alternatives" for punishing Riggs. In addition to the computer prohibition, Riggs is also serving 14 months in jail, and many analysts feel that the Judge's sentencing was clearly meant to send a strong signal to other "Computer Crackers".... Riggs is one of the three members of the "Legion of Doom" cracker group who were convicted of breaking into a Bell South computer network within a 3 year period. Interestingly, this group now has to pay $700,000 to compensate BellSouth for the cost of repairing the network, even though they didn't actually damage any data on the network. But while BellSouth says that it cost $4.5 million to investigate, repair, and increase the security measures in its network, the Defense Attorneys for the "Legion of Doom" didn't have the resources to verify BellSouth's findings. CPU Errata: The last issue of CPU Report mentioned that the Atari TT =========== didn't come with a Motorola 68882 Floating Point Math Chip, However, all models of the Atari TT come with a 68882 math chip running at 33 MHZ. Also, the Macintosh LC does not have a 32K CPU Cache, as previously mentioned. *********************************************************************** :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: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN. **** SIGN UP FEE WAIVED **** The system will now prompt you for your information. -> NOW! GENIE STAR SERVICE IS IN EFFECT!! <- *********************************************************************** > ATARI DTP STR Feature¿ "Atari? For DeskTop Publishing?" ===================== THE OVERLOOKED ALTERNATIVE ========================== To the high cost of Mac and PC DTP: Atari ST or Mega hardware running Calamus or PageStream. By Stephen Frye With contributions from: Nathan Potechin, Fred Murray, and Nevin Shalit. "Atari? For desktop publishing? Give me a break! Do yourself a favor, and go out and get a real computer!" Someone actually said those exact words to me not more than a month ago, and for those of us who have used the ST/Mega platform during the last five years -- for everyday tasks like word processing, spreadsheet and database calculations, telecommunic- ations, CAD and Desktop publishing (DTP) -- them's fightin' words! Many people are not aware that Atari's ST and Mega computers have the horsepower under the hood to handle top-notch DTP applications, and that these applications do exist. There are numerous reports of people running service bureaus who, after being impressed with the quality of a document, are astounded when they find out it was created on an Atari system. The two top packages, ISD's Calamus and SoftLogik's PageStream, have no problem holding their own in comparisons with the best packages for the Mac and PC. The cost-effectiveness of the Atari platform? Many Atari retailers will be happy to sell you a complete DTP system -- 4MB RAM, monitor, hard drive, either Calamus or PageStream, and 8PPM laser printer -- for substantially less than $4,000.00. When the October 1990 issue of BYTE Magazine featured a comparison of DTP packages for their lead article, they neglected to include Atari packages in their comparison. Well, if BYTE won't do it, we'll take care of it for them. This article is the result, and it outlines how Calamus and PageStream handle the tasks covered in BYTE. There is also a com- panion comparison table of Atari, Mac, and PC packages. In order to make room for PageStream and Calamus in the tables, I used only three of the seven packages from BYTE -- PageMaker 4.0 (Mac), Quark XPress 2.12 (Mac), and Ventura Publisher 3.0 (DOS). While it's clear that PageStream and Calamus do not have every feature in the list, keep in mind that the Mac and DOS packages also fall short by about the same degree. Also note that major upgrades to both Calamus and PageStream are in the pipeline, and should be available sometime within the next six months. Installation and Hardware Requirements -------------------------------------- Both Calamus and PageStream require a minimum of 1MB of RAM to run, and are happiest with 4MB. Calamus requires a monochrome monitor, while PageStream uses either monochrome or color. Both packages also support the Moniterm Viking 19" monitor available for the Atari system. Both packages are installed similarly -- copy the program files to the hard disk, and edit the system paths so the program can find fonts, prin- ter drivers, documents, etc. Neither program is copy-protected in any way, nor do they require write-enabled master disks. Preliminary Layout ------------------ Like most of the other page-layout packages, Calamus uses the frame method for placing items on the page. PageStream, on the other hand, is similar to PageMaker, where both graphics and text "objects" such as headlines can be placed anywhere on the page. PageStream also uses frames called "columns" for the body text of a document. Once a column has been placed, it can be manipulated in a similar manner to other objects on the page. PageStream and Calamus both use clipboards to store design elements. PageStream has the normal cut/copy/paste clipboard for text and graphic elements, plus a special clipboard for cropping bit-image pictures before they are pasted into the document. Somewhat more convenient is the ap- proach used by Calamus, which has five different clipboards for frames, each of which is large enough to provide a preview of the clipboard's contents. Master Pages ------------ PageStream uses the same method as PageMaker and Quark XPress, with one right and one left master page available per document. Calamus' approach is more like Ventura Publisher. Any frame in the document can be grouped and treated as a header/footer for the document, and thus be repeated on every page of the document. The contents of headers and footers can be changed in the middle of the document, and the changes will only affect those pages after the change was made. Separate headers and footers can be defined for right- and left-hand pages. Once these header- /footer frames have been created, the page can be stored in a disk file, allowing a collection of "master pages" to be built. Neither PageStream nor Calamus support on-screen thumbnail views, although these can be printed to paper if desired. Rulers and Guides ----------------- PageStream and Calamus both allow use of rulers and guidelines, and multiple measuring systems. Elements can be snapped to guides, grids, or guides and grids at the same time. Typography Capabilities ----------------------- The only limit on the number of fonts in either ST program is the amount of memory in the machine. More memory allows more fonts to be loaded and used. Point-size increments are 0.1 point for Calamus, and 0.01 point for PageStream. Leading, Tracking and Kerning ----------------------------- PageStream has defaults built in for leading and tracking. If the default values don't work right, they can be changed, either for the entire document or selected blocks of text. Leading can either be fixed or variable, depending on the size of the letters in each line. Kerning is handled by editable kerning tables, as well as manual overrides. Calamus also uses the default with override method for leading and tracking, and also supports fixed or variable leading. Kerning in Calamus is a function of the font itself, and the only kerning control within Calamus is a manual override. Full control of kerning requires the com- panion Calamus Font Editor, which installs as a desk accessory and allows the user to modify the "outline" around each character, and thus change the kerning value. If the font designer has done their work well, this is seldom required. Leading and tracking values in both Calamus and PageStr- eam can be included as part of a style tag or macro, allowing as many levels of tracking as are deemed necessary Style Sheets ------------ Ventura Publisher they're not, but each package does allow paragraph tagging and the creation of the equivalent of style sheets. The current version of PageStream does not allow collections of tags to be loaded and saved from disk, but this promised for the next version, due out by the end of the year. Calamus' "style sheets" are actually two separate items: page-layout information, and tags created as macro lists that define any combination of typography, paragraph style, and text strings. Layout files and macro lists can be stored in disk files, and either one retrieved as needed. Hyphenation & Justification --------------------------- H&J is one area where the current versions of Calamus and PageStream do not measure up to the other packages. Neither Calamus nor PageStream allow alteration of the default H&J algorithms. PageStream does offer three justification options that allow some fine-tuning in the document. Text Editing ------------ As with most DTP packages, Calamus and PageStream can't hold a candle to specialized text editors and word processors for power and ease of use. They're not entirely helpless either. Both have approximately the same level of capability as the Macintosh products, with cut, copy, paste, search, and replace of both text and style attributes. Calamus adds a separate text editor similar to Pagemaker's Story Editor. Graphics -------- Different hardware platforms tend to generate different file formats, and the ST is no exception. Calamus and PageStream support a wide variety of formats for graphic importation that are generated by ST-specific graphics software. "Foreign" file formats are generally limited to GEM metafiles and .IMG bitmaps, although PageStream also imports PostScript and EPS images. For internally-generated graphics, Calamus has the basics -- lines, boxes, circles, and other pre-defined shapes -- with border and fill control. PageStream truly goes above and beyond most other packages, providing object-oriented drawing tools that may negate the need for a separate object-graphics program. Both packages allow grouping of elem- ents on a page. As far as text flow around graphics, Calamus does not automatically flow around irregular objects, but PageStream does. Bells & Whistles ---------------- Drop caps are done manually in both packages. PageStream handles "step and repeat" with a "duplicate" feature that defines the number of times an object is duplicated, as well as the x and y offsets. Calamus supports rotation of selected text to any angle in tenths of a degree. PageStream allows the rotation of ANY object (text column or graphic image) to any angle in whole degrees. Long Documents and Books ------------------------ With its automatic footnote and index generation, Calamus is more suited to handling long documents than PageStream. Calamus allows the text in a document to be exported with its style and formatting informa- tion embedded in the file, allowing relatively easy updates, and has the ability to name graphic frames, allowing them to remain empty until the final graphic image has been supplied, or reserving the space for a photo- graph. Printing and Typesetting ------------------------ There's a big difference in Calamus' and PageStream's printing capabi- lities: PageStream can output in PostScript, and supports 4-color separat- ions. Calamus does not, although both PostScript and color capabilities are on their way in the next upgrade. For everyday 300DPI output, this is not an issue, but the need for high resolution typesetting means that Calamus users will need to find a service bureau that has an ST with Calamus hooked up directly to an image- setter, bypassing the PostScript RIP. PageStream users can create a PostScript disk file and either modem or carry the file to the nearest PostScript service bureau. Do They Measure Up? ------------------- Whether or not Calamus and PageStream will serve your needs as DTP packages is something that only you can determine. The point of all this is that there is a third option in DTP hardware and software that can provide a competitive, cost-effective alternative to Mac and DOS solutions. Even if initial purchase cost is not an issue, find a local Atari dealer or user group and explore Calamus and PageStream before you make a final decision. You'll probably be pleasantly surprised at the abilities of these packages, and amazed at their cost! Aldus Corp. ISD Marketing, Inc. (PageMaker 4.0) (Calamus 1.09N) 411 First Avenue South P.O. Box 3070 Seattle, WA 98104 Markham Industrial Park (206)622-5500 Markham, Ontario Canada L3R 6G4 (416)479-1880 Quark, Inc. SoftLogik Publishing Corp. (Quark XPress 2.12) (PageStream 1.82) 300 South Jackson Street P.O. Box 290071 Suite 100 St. Louis, MO 63219 Denver, CO 80209 (314)894-0431 (303)934-2211 Ventura Publishing Co. (Ventura Publisher 3.0) 15175 Innovation Dr. San Diego, CA 92128 ATARI DESKTOP PUBLISHING COMPARISON =================================== Calamus Page Page Quark Ventura 1.09N Stream Maker XPress Publisher (Atari) 1.82 4.0 2.12 3.0 (Atari) (Mac) (Mac) (PC) + = yes - = no M = manual Price $299 $199 $795 $795 $795 Font Editor $99 Configuration 1MB 1MB 1MB 2MB 640K RAM RAM RAM RAM RAM Mono Monitor DOS 2.1 Page layout ------------------------ Configurable ruler lines + + + + + Show cursor position on ruler + + + + + Report cursor coordinates + - - + - Guidelines + + + + - Grid overlay + + - - + Configurable grid + + - - + Master pages - + + + - Multiple master pages - - - - - Turn master page on/off - + + - - Pasteboard - - + - - Tool palette + + + + + Style catalog on screen + - + - + File catalog on screen - - - - + Typography ------------------------ Max. font size 999.9 1310 650 500 254 Smallest increment (points) 0.1 0.01 0.1 0.25 0.5 Kerning precision (ems) 0.1pt 0.1 0.01 0.1 0.01 Edit kerning tables - + - + - Tracking control (levels) M M 5 Unlim. 2 Edit tracking graphs - - - + - Leading increment (points) 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.001 0.01 Subscripts + + + + + Superscripts + + + + + Shift baseline 0.1pt 0.1pt + 0.01pt 0.01pt Column balancing - - - - + Vertical justification - - - - + Widow/orphan control M M + + + Text editing ------------------------ Search & replace text + + + + - Search & replace fonts + + + - - Spelling checker - + + + - ASCII markup language - - - - - Automatic text flow + + + + + Views ------------------------ 50% + + + + + 200% + + + + + 400% + - + - - 800% - - - - - User specified + + - - - Edit facing pages - + + + + Thumbnails - - - - - Printing ------------------------ Scale + + + + - Tiling M + + + - Print crop marks - + + + + Spot color overlays + + + + + Print to PS/EPS file - PS + + + Precise control ------------------------ Manually enter coordinates of frames/objects - + - + + Move objects incrementally with cursor keys - - - + - Numeric entry for tab stops - - + + + Align objects - M M - - Document control ------------------------ Two-way link to text file - - - + + Revision tracking - - - - - Change bars - - - - - Multiple files open - + - - - Document specifications ------------------------ Maximum pages 9999 254 999 100 Unlimited Max. page size 27.5x27.5 18x18 17x22 48x48 18x24 Double-sided + + + + - Mix portrait and landscape pages - - - - - Reorder pages + + - + - Long documents ------------------------ Automatic index generation + - + - + Automatic TOC generation - - + - + Cross-references automatically updated + - - - + Index of figures - - - - + Network support ------------------------ Simultaneous users - - + - + Lock files - - + - + Read only - - + - + Lock elements + + - - - Tabling - - + - + ------------------------ Equation editing - - - - + ------------------------ File Formats ------------------------ Microsoft Word - - + + + XyWrite - - + - + WordPerfect + + + + + MacWrite - - + + - Write Now - - + + - EPS - + + + + TIFF - - + + + PICT - - + + + Sun Raster - - + + + HPGL - - - - + WMF - - - - + PCX - - - - + GEM + + + - + MacDraw - - + + - MacPaint - - + + + RTF - - + - - DCA - - - - + DBF - - - - - SYLK - - - - - Graphics manipulation ------------------------ Flow text around graphics + + + + + Run around irregular shape - + + + - Text repel + + - + + Anchor graphics to text - - + - + Anchor graphics to position on page + + + + + Suppress display of graphics + - + - + Automatically scale graphic to fit frame + + + - + Manually scale graphic + + + + + Cropping + + + + + Contrast control - - + + - Halftone screening + + + + + Custom screening + + + + + Customized screening angle - + + + + Dithering controls - - - + - Negative + + + + - Drawing ------------------------ Rectangles + + + - + Circles + + + - + Polygons + + - - - Constrained lines + + + + + Other shapes + + - - - Free-form drawing - + - - - Special effects ------------------------ Rotate text (Degree increments)0.1 1 90 - 90 Rotate graphics (Degree increments)- 1 - - - Flip graphics - - - - - Pour text into shapes - - M - - Shapes for graphical frames - - + + - Step and repeat - - + + - Repeat frame across pages + - - - + Gravity - - + - - Condense/expand text - + + - - Color ------------------------ Spot colors + + + + + Process - + + + - Pantone - - + + - Charting functions - - - - - ------------------------ ________________________________________________________ > Stock Market ~ STReport¿ ATARI STOCK AT $2 A SHARE! ======================= THE TICKERTAPE ============== by Michael Arthur The price of Atari stock stayed the same on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday its price was down by 1/8 of a point. No stock was traded on Thursday, due to the Thanksgiving holiday. On Friday the price of Atari stock went down 1/8 of a point, ending the week at $2.00 a share. On November 23, the price of Atari stock was down 1/4 of a point from the price on November 16. Apple Stock was up 1 1/4 points from Friday, November 16, 1990. Commodore Stock was up 1 1/8 points from 11/16/90. IBM Stock was down 1 point from 11/16/90. Stock Report for Week of 11/19/90 to 11/23/90 _________________________________________________________________________ STock| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thanks | Friday | Reprt|Last Chg.|Last Chg.|Last Chg.| Giving |Last Chg.| -----|--------------|-------------|-------------|---------|--------------| Atari|2 1/4 ----|2 1/4 ----|2 1/8 - 1/8| ----- | 2 - 1/8| | | | | | 22,200 Sls | -----|--------------+-------------+-------------+---------+--------------| CBM |8 3/8 - 3/8| 9 + 5/8| 10 + 1| ----- |9 7/8 - 1/8| | | | 499,200 Sls | | 222,400 Sls | -----|--------------+-------------+-------------+---------+--------------| Apple|36 3/8 +1 1/4|35 1/2 - 7/8|36 1/8 +5/8| ----- |36 3/8 + 1/4| |1,999,200 Sls | | | | 475,000 Sls | -----|--------------+-------------+-------------+---------+--------------| IBM |114 3/4 +1 1/8|113 3/8 |114 1/8 +3/4| ----- |112 5/8 -1 1/2| | | -1 3/8| | | 465,500 Sls | -----'-------------------------------------------------------------------' '#' and 'Sls' refer to the # of stock shares that were bought that day. 'CBM' refers to Commodore Corporation. _______________________________________________________ > ATARI! STR FOCUS¿ "Keep the faith..... its on the way!" ================ "THE YEAR OF ATARI" =================== by Brad Martin I must say that I am not happy writing this article. I have been a long time supporter of Atari Computer and video games. I have owned Atari machines since they released Atari Pong, and when they released their new computers, the 400 and the 800, I knew that these were the computers for me. Since that time I, and a lot of other Atari enthusiasts, have had a love hate relation with the company. We all love the computers, but hate the companies lack of ingenuity in selling them. Atari, under the manage- ment of Warner Communications, had no idea what to do with their computer company. They placed the 400/800 in toy stores, and sold them as game machines with a keyboard attached. Even through this giant mismanagement a select group of computer purchasers saw through all the competitors rhetoric, and purchased the most powerful computer on the market at that time. Unfortunately the game market died, and Atari could not figure out how to overcome the game machine image and market their computers effec- tively, so they lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Along came Jack Tramiel and bailed out Atari. Jack had recently left Commodore Business Machines, which he founded, after losing an internal power struggle and was looking for something he could use his talents in, and something that he could leave his sons. As soon as he purchased Atari and took control from Warner Engineering he consolidated Atari, firing hundreds of workers. He brought over many of his design team from Com- modore and they instantly started working on the next generation of com- puters. And thus the Atari ST was born. Introduced at the 1985 Consumer Electronic Show, the ST was a instant hit with the press. Dubbed the 'Jackintosh', due to the similarities it had with the Apple Macintosh, the press predicted big things for this upstart computer. And in the first year of it's life it looked like the predictions might come true. Well, things did not work out the way everyone planned. The European market took off, sales were much higher then in the States, and with the dollar exchange rate Atari was making more money over there then they were in the United States. Then came the straw that broke the camel's back, the DRAM market dried up. Atari had to cut back heavily on production, and most units that were produced were shipped to Europe. Since there was a lack of units for sale in the United States Atari felt that advertising was a useless waste of money. Well, since that time nothing much has changed. Increased sales in Europe, and lack of increase of production has, for the last three years, meant lack of product here in the United States. That, mixed with the steady decline of dealers, who have moved to other platforms, or gone out of business entirely, and lack of advertising has led to an absence of consumer interest in Atari's computers. This has led to a lack of support for third-party supporters. Almost all ST related magazines have fallen by the wayside, and third-party software support is at the lowest it has every been. It has been many months since the last major software release, and the bulk of the software that has been released has come from Europe. Major Atari supporters such as Michtron and Antic have stopped supporting Atari, or gone out of business. Things are bleak in the Atari community. The past two years, so claimed "The Year of Atari" by Atari's upper management have not turned out to be. Promises that all new hardware would be released in the United States at the same time as in Europe have turned out to be not true. Cries from developers and owners for Atari to do something to promote this computer in the U.S. have fallen on deaf ears. The Atari community is in chaos. Long time supporters of Atari are at each other's throats. This is not surprising as people seemingly have no outlet for their frustrations. This years fall Comdex was to be (again) the turning point. Atari's new high end Computer, the TT/030 (which had been shown one year before at the last fall Comdex), was to be released to dealers at the same time is was being shown. They were going to introduce their new software bundles, that had proven so successful in Europe. This, and other exciting new announcements were to signal Atari's reemergence into the U.S. computer marketplace. Unfortunately I don't believe that Atari is going to make good on their objectives. First off, contrary to MANY statements made by Atari officials to dealers and developers the TT/030 did not ship immediately after Comdex. One long time Atari dealer when asked his feeling after finding out that Atari's promises were false, and that the TT/030 had not yet been approved by the FCC, and might not ship until next year expressed disappointment but at the same time saw the Portfolio holding its own through all the "wait states." Therein lies the secret. Atari has been actively advertising the Portfolio, and selling them very well. You might think that this would send a message to their upper management. You advertise a product and it sells, you don't advertise a product, and nobody wants nor buys that product. But besides an adequate co-op program Atari has no advertising for the ST or TT/030, nor is any planned. When pressed on the subject at Comdex an Atari official admitted that their advertising for the ST and TT/030 would probably not change from what it is now. Atari's major effort now seems to be a variety of software bundles. Atari has used this plan with great success in Europe. The bundles usual- ly include fifteen or more of the latest, hottest software at an unbeat- able price. This should be a great plan for Atari U.S. Software Bundles open an instant window to the new user and this is exactly what's needed to get the Atari platform's juices running once again. ________________________________________________________________ > STR Portfolio News & Information¿ Keeping up to date... ================================ THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM ON COMPUSERVE ======================================= by Walter Daniel 75066,164. This column marks the beginning of regular coverage of the Atari Portfolio Forum (GO APORTFOLIO) here in ST-Report. The forum is a thriv- ing community where you can find answers to your Portfolio questions and the latest freeware uploads. Next time you're logged on CompuServe, give us a visit! The message areas are Forum Business, Communications, Utilities, Entertainment, Editors/Word Processors, Database Functions, Applications, Programming, Mac-to- Portfolio, and New Products. Comments about terminal programs will be in the Communications area, talk about games will be in Entertainment, and so forth. The file libraries have similar topics: New Uploads, Communications, Utilities, Entertainment, Editors/Word Processors, Database Functions, Applications, Programming, New Products, and Misc. Files. New files should be uploaded to Library 1 (New Uploads); they will remain there for about a month, then be distributed to the appropriate library. ---===--- There are a few files of interest to just about all Portfolio users. UPDATE.COM from Atari fixes several bugs in the operating system (UP- DATE.ARC in library 3). XTERM2 from Jim Straus is a terminal program that uses the optional serial interface for file transfer and telecommunications. See XTERM2- .COM and XTERM2.DOC in library 2. SLAVE from Atari Australia uses the serial interface for file transfer to a desktop machine (SLAVE.ARC in library 2). PBASIC from BJ Gleason is a free Portfolio-specific BASIC interpreter that has floating-point variables, arrays, and more. The current version is 2.1 (PBAS21.ZIP in library 8), but version 3 with an improved manual is on the way. You might wish to download CATALO.ZIP in library 1 for a compressed text file that lists all the files in all the libraries as of November 12, 1990. ---===--- In future columns, I'll cover what's being discussed in the forum mes- sages, mention new uploads to the libraries, and cover a topic in depth. Topics I plan on examining include connectivity with various desktop computers, types of programs (utilities, games, etc.), and new products. I would appreciate any feedback and suggestions you have, so please post messages in the forum to me: Walter Daniel 75066,164. _____________________________________________________ > BUNDLE MANIA! STR FOCUS¿ "...psst, Hey Buddie..." ======================= BARGAIN BUNDLES =============== by Larry Karowski Just before I began writing this article, I took a few moments to read Neven Shalit's new column in St Informer. He said something in this month's column about Atari that is just so vividly true it bears repeating here. But, first, I would like to mention one very important thing.. Neven and Ralph both write a great deal of articles that could be taken as being Anti Atari.. But both of them Love Atari... They hate to see the company in its present state of affairs and maybe, just maybe... That's why they write these "attention getting" columns, in hopes that perhaps someone in Sunnyvale will read these columns and change their ways. Nice thought huh? Rumor City Fantasy: "At this point the only fantasy worth having is survival. Hey, I am not being negative here. With the new MacIntoshes selling at $779 Atari has got to do something to get more dealers, to create and execute an advertising campaign, to attract new developers, to differentiate their product by either price or performance, and to manufa- cture and deliver machines in a consistent and timely manner. They have failed for 2 years at every single one of these tasks, and there is only so much failure you can have before the entire company just collapses. This is not "gloom and Doom" this is reality. There is no room for fantasy when you are bleeding from 5 major places." Well lets get into the topic at hand, The new Atari bundles.. Talked about for 2 years they are finally here. And what a disappointment. The idea started in England where Ataris were not selling all that well.. Atari UK entered into negotiations with some of the English Software developers. They came up with some really nice bundles of software that they sold with the computer at very attractive prices. Sales skyrocketed. Why not? You could purchase an Atari ST with 10 games cheaper then you could buy a Nintendo with 5 games! Yeppers that's right! A real live computer with a disk drive and 10 games cheaper then a Nintendo with 5 games. It sold really well in the UK. The end result of 2 years of hard work with detailed market studies by many people in Sunnyvale and of course, the UK, are the following bundles which are planned to be offered to the US Market. * 520STFM HOME ENTERTAINMENT PACK: 520STFM, Missile Command, Star Raiders, Crack'd, Moon Patrol, NEOChrome, Joust. Retail: $579.65 For entertainment this is a nice package for the new user. The 520 ST and 5 games and very successful coloring program. The games may be fami- liar to us, but they are indeed "new" to a brand spanking new computer user. The pricing on this bundle may be somewhat steep but in the end, hopefully the results sought, an enlarged userbase, will prevail. * 520STFM COMMUNICATIONS PACK: Computer, SX212 modem, STALKER and STENO telecommunications software. Retail: $529.85 This is a decent telecommunications package for the Novice user. One comment though, a 2400 baud modem is more up to date and is recommended. Stalker and Steno are very good programs. A Supra 2400 modem is around $100.00 so, for a few dollars more, a 2400 modem could make this bundle very attractive. Interesting story about the SX212 modem. When this was first announced many, many years ago most 1200 baud modems were $150-300. Atari announced the SX212 at $99.00 at Comdex and had 3 or 4 there, set up and working. However, it was not ready for sale, (would you believe it was not FCC approved!), by the time Atari started selling it, over a year later, there were 3 or 4 companies selling 1200 baud modems for $99. But even worse Supra was selling a 2400 baud modem for only $129. * 1040STE HOME PRINT SHOP BUNDLE: Computer, MIGRAPH HAND SCANNER, Touch-Up, Easy Draw 3.0. Retail: $1,398.90 With the Scanner included, this is an excellent offering. Not a big savings over retail, but a good deal for the new user at entry level. In the end, most people who would want a scanner, Easy Draw and Touch-Up would ultimately want/need more memory or a higher end computer. An excellent way to intro the new TT030. * 1040STE DELUXE PAINT PACK: Computer, ELECTRONIC ARTS DELUXE PAINT ANIMATOR. Retail: $799.90 Out of all the companies writing software for the ST, to pick EA to have a program in the bundle is a surprise. Wonder what those companies who have supported the ST from day one have to say. In reality, Deluxe Paint is quite the program and should ensure this bundle's being very successful. * DTP PACKAGE #1: Mega 2 computer, SM124 Mono Monitor, Megafile 30 hard drive, SLM605 Laser Printer, CALAMUS. Retail: $2,199.00 Now comes the "Big Gun" in the DTP arena on the Atari platform. ISD's Calamus is the "creme de la creme" when it comes to powerhouse DTP progra- ms. This bundle is a sure fire seller. All the products in this bundle are very capable of delivering more than satisfying results. * DTP PACKAGE #2: Mega 2 Computer, SM124 Mono Monitor, Megafile 30 hard drive, SLM605 Laser Printer, DESKSET II. Retail: $2,099.00 This area reserved for comments from the sole reviewer of Desk Set II. As for my opinion, the hardware is great. Next week lets talk about the little bundle that could....... ___________________________________________________________________ > THe Flip Side STR Feature¿ "...a different viewpoint" ========================= A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT ================================== by Michael Lee Hello out there? Is anyone there? Is anyone reading this column? Am I publishing stuff that you folks are interested in or am I boring you? The only way that I will know is if you let me know (via ST Report). Also, one other thing I feel I need to remind our readers about. When I put a post in my column that contains hardware fixes or modifications to your system, neither I nor ST Report are advocating these fixes/mods. I am just passing along information that might, nor might not, be of interest to you. ---------------- From Larry Rymal on The Gadgets by Small RT on Genie: If you can, save up about $230 and get a NEC MultiSync GS 2A multisync. It is a paper white like the Atari monitor, and when the video plug is adapted to fit the ST, will give you a superior image over that of the Atari monochrome monitor. Your image can be easily sized and the monitor is a great crossover monitor in that it can be used with either an IBM, ST, or real Macintosh. ---------------- Are you a little confused about the new GDOS (FSMGDOS) that Atari is coming out with? Here's a couple of posts that might help to clear up some of that confusion... From John Towns (Atari Corp.) on Genie: ...FSMGDOS has a font cache option which makes the fonts get MUCH faster as they are used. I am talking about on the screen. ...As for point sizes it works like this: ...There is a file called EXTEND.SYS that contains all of the information about your scalable fonts. You specify specific point sizes in this file that will be recognized in your GDOS applications. ...In addition to this method there is a new GDOS call that will allow you to get an arbitrary point size. If the GDOS application is aware of this call (most of the popular application should be by the time FSMGDOS ships!) then you can select any point size you want from 1 to 999 points. ...The method described above allows for the additional flexibility while maintaining the maximum compatibility with existing applications. From Ken Badertscher (Atari Software Engineer) from Genie: ...To summarize, to a user's point of view, what's been discussed here, with a few points of my own: - FSM (Font Scaling Module) GDOS supports characters of any size, rotated at any angle, with any aspect ratio, skewed at any slant. - FSM GDOS is compatible with GDOS Release 1.1. It works just fine with Microsoft Write, Word Flair, Easy Draw, and other existing applications which use GDOS. - Because FSM GDOS can scale characters to any size, outline fonts don't require separate font files for different sizes of screen and printer fonts. Each font style requires an average of roughly 50K of on- disk data in 2 files for all devices in all point sizes. - Not only can you still use your bitmapped fonts with FSM GDOS, those fonts work even better with it. It uses a font cache so that you can install as many fonts as you like in your ASSIGN.SYS, as long as there's enough room in the cache for the largest font. FSM GDOS will move fonts in and out of the cache as they are needed. - There is one important thing that FSM GDOS does NOT do. It does NOT slow down your system! The way that GDOS does its stuff has been streamlined. The CodeHead "Zoombox" benchmark shows that FSM is now only slightly slower than G+PLUS, and considerably faster than GDOS Release 1.1. So not only does FSM GDOS give you more, it gives it to you faster. - Speaking of speed, character generation from outline fonts is also fast. It can pretty much keep up with my typing on an ST, and I clock in at around 80 wpm. On a TT, FSM GDOS can generate characters considerably faster than I can type. I can't say the same for ATM under Spectre... - FSM GDOS will come with a couple of utilities: an accessory/ program/CPX which allows you to specify various operating parameters, and an application program that will take full advantage of FSM's font power, letting you create and print simple single page posters/flyers with rotated, arbitrarily sized text and imported graphics. ...Availability? Best answer I can give is RSN. What with the vagaries of distribution and productization (geez, I love marketing-ese), I haven't a clue how long before it will get into users' hands. As I mentioned, we're just now getting feedback from developers on technical issues. They may come up with something we left out, which will require revising and testing. ...I must say that FSM GDOS is solid and bug-free as far as I can tell. The last major bug I can remember was squashed a couple of weeks ago. I use it daily--I'm working on that single-page creator FSM show-off program I mentioned above. ---------------- From Jim Tittsler (Atari) on Genie: The TT030 does not include a BLiTTER or other graphics coprocessor. Much of the VDI was rewritten to exploit the 68030 instruction set and cache... so it is faster even without one. ---------------- Mike Valent on Genie: ...Sheaffer's Scrip jet black works fine with the new-ink cartridges. It *may* (the new ink) mix better with the Scrip refill ink - I'm on my third or fourth refill of my first new-ink cartridge and am getting the exact same print quality that I got when the cartridge was new. ...Anyway, refilling the new cartridges works at least as well as refilling the old ones, and may turn out to work better. From Dave Heine on Genie: ...I just recently started refilling the new ink cartridge (non- smearable type) with my usual Sheaffer Skrip ink and have found that it works great. The ink is no longer non-smearable, but at least I can continue to extend the life of the cartridge. ---------------- Until next week.... __________________________________________________________ > PUBLIC RELATIONS STR FOCUS¿ CUSTOMER RELATIONS, "BACK TO BASICS" ========================== CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT? ========================= by R. F. Mariano Ever since I was able to plunk down 10 cents for a soda pop at the corner candy store, I have been aware of one basic fact of doing business and that is; "The Customer is ALWAYS right". That principle has served many business concerns, both large and small, extremely well. Ask any PR executive at any successful corporation or, the proprietors of a small mom and pop grocery or deli how they feel about that basic premise. You will most certainly hear them exclaim; The customer, no matter how aggravating or satisfying, is: (a) the life blood of ANY business... (b) they pay the bills... (c) they give direction to R&D... (d) they must be satisfied... (e) without them... there is NO business! Therefore, THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT! Of course, there are those who will immediately say, "If you do everything the customer wants... you can give the business away." An attitude such as this can cause real problems for any company because it immediately leans towards the premise that the customer is the enemy, not to be trusted, not to catered to and most of all, to be given only what the company "thinks" or "perceives" exactly what is due the customer. In all honesty, it is difficult to not say, "Atari, more often than not, acts like the customer is the ENEMY!" After all, stop for a moment and examine some of the more memorable events of the past two years. But first, let's look at another premise that seems to go continually un- noticed, "We all learn from our mistakes." One would think, after over three years of hit and miss decisions, they would learn a little about solid marketing and good customer relations. One can go on and on concerning certain decisions coming from the "hallowed halls" of Atari that have had a negative influence time after time. What do they do when the userbase criticizes these decisions? They do hear the commotions but it is very doubtful that they listen. Its a good bet that Atari is really beginning to pay closer attention to the plight of the users, developers and dealers. This may not have been the real "year of Atari" but that does not by any stretch of the imagina- tion mean that the show is over... it really has yet to begin, all we have been seeing so far are the coming attractions. Hang in there folks, its going to get better.... _______________________________________________________ > EXPOSE' STR InfoFile¿ "View graphic files from a GEM window!" ==================== Demonstration Version --------------------- EXPOSE' (VERSION 1.0) ===================== Produced by Maxwell C.P.U. Developer Randy Angove Copyright 1990 Suggested Retail Price- $39.95 Thank you for reviewing our new product Expos . Expos is a desk accessory designed with desktop publishers in mind. View graphic files from a GEM window, create, save and load a notepad which will send text directly to your main application - right from Expos and without having to exit your application. And there is more! The desk accessory Expos offers the ST user the ability to load graphic files, view them from a GEM window and save a clip area as an IMG file. With the notepad function the user can save ascii text, save and reload as needed and send the text from the Expos notepad directly into a main program without having to load or import the text. Expos also comes with an editable date/time and also a GEM based function for quickly viewing diskette/partition free memory. Free RAM is also always shown on the Expos main window. Expos also offers a diskette formatting function and a screen snap- shot function which saves in IMG or DEGAS formats. The extended ASCII character set is available and one can create a string of these charac- ters and send them into the notepad or directly into the main applicat- ion. To quickly access any of the Expos features one need only select Expos with a control-shift-alternate combination depressed. ============== EXPOSE' QUICK REFERENCE MANUAL =============== Note: Key functions have been disabled in the demo in order to protect our product. Expos requires an ST system operating under medium or high ST reso- lution. Program memory requirements are 150 kbytes (due to window memory demands); systems with 1 or more megabytes should maintain enough free RAM for major applications. Use EXPOSEM.ACC for monochrome monitors - high rez. Use EXPOSEC.ACC for color monitors - medium rez. Resource files (*.RSC) have been compiled into the desk accessory program. MAIN DIALOGUE BOX: Functions I. Disk/partition free memory space. Click on any of the active partitions and the free memory available will show up immediately. II. Digital time/date. Edit the time or date by clicking on the black box which says 'set time/date'. Time travel not included in demo version. III. The Expos Title. Click on the title and the file selector box will be brought up. IV. View/Load Functions. First load a graphics file. Loading the file will bring up a GEM window for viewing the file. Repeated viewing of the same file is done by clicking on the View function. V. Pad Function. Bring up the notepad feature of Expos . VI. Format Function. Format a diskette with this function. VII. Snap Function. Take a snapshot of the screen and save in either DEGAS or IMG format. VIII. Exit Function. E.T. phone home! THE NOTEPAD DIALOGUE BOX: Access directly by depressing the Control key before selecting Expos . I. Creating text. Type in the 6 line page moving from one line to the next by using the up/down arrow keys. There are up a 99 lines to a notepad file. II. Save Function. Save the complete notepad as a file. It defaults to *.EXP. Notepad files can alternatively be created in a text editor. III. Load Function. Reload notepad files. IV. Send Page. Send the present 6 lines of text from the notepad directly into your main application, e.g. word processor or desktop publisher. Alternatively one can send one line at a time by clicking on the numbered button adjacent to the line of text. The text is loaded into the document beginning at where the cursor presently resides. V. Clear Function. Clear the notepad to start a new list. VI. Extended Ascii Function. Access the dialogue box with the extended ascii character set. VII. Adding a Return. One can switch off the addition of a RETURN command between lines of notepad text. This causes lines of text to run together allowing the main application to word wrap properly. VIII. Exit Function. Sends you back to the main box if you entered from that direction. Otherwise it returns you directly back to the main application ... you had entered by depressing the Control key. EXTENDED ASCII DIALOGUE BOX: Access the Extended ascii box by depressing the Alternate key before selecting Expos . I. Extended Ascii Character Set. Click on any of the characters and this will load them into the character string below. II. The character string. One can type normal characters into the string as well as click on the extended ascii set. III. Send Function. This function will send the string of characters directly into your main application. IV. Send to Pad. Alternatively, one can send the string into the notepad for safe keeping. V. Ascii Code Function. Click on the underline area to send the cursor to it. Type a ascii code number and then click on the function's text. The ascii character corresponding to the code number will be sent to the character string. LOADING GRAPHIC FILES: When the user selects the LOAD function from the main Expos dialogue box, he/she will be presented a choice of file formats that can be loaded (presently disabled in the demo except for DEGAS format). Select one. Load the file from the file selector. A gem window will pop up and the graphics will be shown. Now one can clip an area of the image and save it as either a IMG or DEGAS file. The Function keys are used for this purpose and more. F1- Load a new image. F3- Clip a picture. You can press the right mouse button at any time to abort the clipping. Click on the upper-left portion of the area of interest and then move the mouse to the lower right. When ready click once more. IMG or DEGAS formats will be offered as a choice. F5- Save first 32k of picture as IMG file. OTHER QUICK ACCESS KEY COMBINATIONS: To quickly access parts of the desk accessory Expos , depress one of the following combinations before clicking on Expos on the Desk dropdown menu: Shift Key View a loaded graphic file. Control Key Enter the Notepad. Alternate Enter the Extended Ascii Set. Control-Alt Format a disk. Shift-Alt Open the File Selector. Control-Alt Take a screen Snapshot. Expos will be available in December 1990. Presently the manual is going to press. You will be able to purchase Expos from your local dea- ler, through the E.A. Brown Catalogue or directly from Maxwell C.P.U. If you have any comments regarding this product please direct them to T.REYES on Genie or present a message to the message area of MAXWELL CPU vendorship in the Atari Vendorship Forum on CIS. Maxwell C.P.U. 2124 W. Centennial Dr. Louisville, CO. 80027 (303) 666-7754 Sincerely, Tim Reyes dba Maxwell Computer Products Unlimited ___________________________________________________________ > STR Mail Call¿ Letters concerning STR articles... ============= In response to last week's issue; Letter 1 Ralph - You solicited responses to the two post-Comdex articles you published. Here you go: - - - I think it's necessary to inject a "user's viewpoint" into the topic generated by two articles in the 11/23/90 ST Report. I am not a commercial developer, and don't have the financial interests and needs that a developer has. I think that makes a difference. I can understand the plight of the ST developer. Anybody whose business depends to some extent on the success of another business is in constant jeopardy. The developer gambles that the "lead" company is growth oriented and will be successful, thus pulling the developer's business along with it. The problem with this method, in our case, is that Atari shows no indication that it wants to play this game. It apparently is not at all interested in growth, and gives every appearance of trying to limit, or even reduce, its unit output. This breaks the rules. And this is what is so devastating to ST developers. But, how does this affect the rest of us? Long term, of course, we end up losing developers to other platforms. A nicely assembled list of alumni was printed in one of the previous articles. Many of those who have not yet left are already producing products for other machines, alongside their ST products. On the other hand, we can expect new people to fill some of those gaps. The gap left by Tom Hudson (Degas, CAD-3D) will soon be filled by Lexicor Software. Lexicor will expand the graphics capabilities of the ST line well beyond Tom's efforts. Alan Page and Joe Chiazzese have left Flash! behind, but we have Strata Software's STalker and STeno expanding that envelope. Matt Singer has walked away from his Forem BBS for the ST, but T2 Ltd. has given the BBS world a steroid injection with the new BBS Express. This is a progression that will continue for some time, even if Atari goes completely away. As users, we have to keep our situation in perspective. Long term, we have to expect that the ST is never going to be the Holy Grail. We will always have friends wondering why we own this machine, instead of a PC or a Mac (none of our friends own filthy Amigas, of course). But does the machine do what we need it to do? Can it handle our text processing/DTP/spreadsheet needs? Can it entertain us, flashing and bleeping and blooping all day? Of course it can. Only a very very few people need 10 MIPS performance, or 256,000 colors onscreen, or 1.44 meg of storage on a floppy, or even 8 megs of RAM. The rest of us can survive very nicely on a mundane 1040ST. The point of all this? We can and should sympathize with the plight of the ST developer, but our ST machines will remain useful and usable for many years to come, regardless of who remains in our group of leading developers. And regardless of what dopey business decisions are made in Sunnyvale. Jim Ness ---===--- Letter 2 RE: COMDEX From: BIBLINSKI _After_ I spent hours driving the 1900 miles back to my home, thinking about what Atari's dismal (to those of us who have a clue what's going on) appearance at Comdex meant. _After_ I had hit bottom in my attitude tow- ards Atari Corp. No, I am well aware what a disaster Comdex was, from the viewpoint of a US Atari owner. I can't depend of them for anything, and nothing I do seems to affect that. But I can depend on some of the devel- opers, and I can do something to affect that. The developers will leave when they can't make money. Granted that Atari's selling a few million machines would significantly help the de- velopers make money, but I can't effect that, so I have to do what I can to help them make money. That means getting out my checkbook, and buying something I can use, or paying a shareware fee for something I do use. Call it grassroots support, if you will. If 4000 ST owners (less than 10% of the US market) spent $30 on a piece of Codehead software, that $120,000 would affect whether or not they would continue to develop for the ST. I don't expect everybody to throw a couple hundred More? dollars out on software or hardware, but some of us who have been putting off those purchases, waiting for who-knows-what, certainly could. Screw Atari, let's support the developers! Gordie ---===--- Letter 3 From: DOUBLE-CLICK Michael B. Vederman To: ST-REPORT -> ST.REPORT R.F. Mariano Sub: Your inaccuracies Dear Ralph - We at Double Click Software deeply protest your statement of fact in the last issue of ST Report that Double Click Software was moving on to ano- ther computer. This is completely inaccurate and has no basis of fact. The fact is that we have never publically stated that we are leaving the Atari market or are expanding in any way. Your issuance of information as a statement of fact, without consulting us is extremely disconcerting. Your statement has already had an influence on our users and business. Users are calling and writing e-mail wondering if they are going to be left our in the cold when we 'move on'. The fact is this: We have absolutely no plans to abandon the Atari market. We are diligently working on updates to our existing software, as well as developing new software for both the ST and TT. We have _absolutely_ no programs in development on any other computer system. Our primary focus and attention is completely on the Atari mar- ket. Now, it is not unreasonable to say that all of the Double Click Software programmers have experience in other machines and operating systems, and that some even currently program in those environments in their full-time jobs. However, to blatantly state that we are moving out of the Atari computer arena is a complete, unadulterated non-fact. You would have been well served to consult us before publishing such unsupported claims. We therefore request that you place a complete and undisputable retraction of your comments in the next issue of ST Report. We also request that you include this letter so our exact thoughts may be accurately represented. Double Click Software Note: STReport does apologize to the folks at Double Click Software, there indeed was an honest mistake in last week's issue that may have led some readers to think that Double Click was leaving the Atari US market. That is NOT the case, Micheal Vederman of Double Click has assured us that their support for the ST market will remain in place. ---==--- Letter 4 RE:The Comdex Mystery?! From: DPJ I've read all of the reports that came out of Comdex while the show was going on. I've read the Comdex reports in ST Report and Z-Net Online magazines. I've seen various messages here and on GEnie. I just finished reading this week's installment of ST Report. My reasoning behind the message header I used is "what is going on?" What the bejeezus is Atari doing - anything? Is the information I've been reading for real? The "Doll House" analogy in ST Report was beautiful, albeit disheartening. I can actually visualize these things happening! al! The plight of the dealers is real! The plight of the userbase is real! Is Atari real anymore? Was Comdex a failure this year? I'd like to hear some firsthand accounts from any of the developers here that attended Comdex. What is your reaction? I've always considered myself an optimist, but I'm having more than a few doubts at the moment. I have no intention of abandoning my STs - I really enjoy them TOO much to do that. I have no interest in other platforms - Atari is what I want. -Dana ____________________________________________________________ > STReport CONFIDENTIAL¿ "BLOCKBUSTER ATARI NEWS FIRST!" ===================== - Livermore, CA GoGo->ST GOES SHAREWARE!! ------------- GoGo->ST is a file executor and work session log utility that replaces the ST desktop for 90% of the average users time. GoGo->ST was designed from the ground up to be user friendly, and it has become an inexpendible part of the ST for those who use it. Macrosoft Shareware is owned by Mark Cawthon. Mark also wrote GoGo>ST, and has continued to develop the product over the past two years. Origina- lly sold commercially by MaxWell CPU, MaxWell has relinquished all rights to GoGo for reasons unrelated to the product and Macrosoft Shareware was created to continue distribution of the product now as shareware. Currently the suggested contribution is just $5.00, and about 300 downloads have taken place on GEnie alone in the past month since the first release was made to the public. At present, 11/24/90, the most recent version of GoGo->ST is V.21. - Sunnyvale, CA THOSE PESKY TOS ERRORS REVEALED ------------- ======================================================================== EVERYTHING YOU NEVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT TOS ERROR NUMBERS ======================================================================== The GEM function which displays "TOS Error #..." does not display in the alert box the actual error value returned by GEMDOS or BIOS. Those return values are negative numbers (e.g. GEMDOS error -66 is "Invalid program load format"). Negative GEMDOS error returns are translated to MS-DOS error numbers for the form_error() alert box you see. BIOS errors result in a "Critical Error" alert, which gives you a chance to retry the disk access that caused the error. GEMDOS MS-DOS Error description error error Alert text (TOS 1.4 and later) ------------------------- ------ ------ ------------------------------ Invalid function # -32 1 TOS Error #1. File not found -33 2 This application cannot Path not found -34 3 find the folder or file No more files -49 18 you just tried to access. Too many open files -35 4 This application does not have room to open another document. To make room, close any document that you do not need. Access denied -36 5 An item with this name already exists in the directory, or this item is set to Read Only status. Invalid handle -37 6 TOS Error #6. Insufficient memory -39 8 There is not enough memory Invalid memory block addr. -40 9 in your computer for the application you just tried to run. Invalid drive -46 15 The drive you specified does not exist. Not same drive (on rename) -48 17 TOS Error #17. Seek out of range -64 n/a TOS Error #33. Internal error -65 n/a TOS Error #34. Invalid prg load format -66 n/a (the infamous) TOS Error #35. Setblock failed -67 n/a TOS Error #36. Note that some MS-DOS error codes do not have equivalent GEMDOS errors, and some GEMDOS error codes do not exist in MS-DOS. TOS Error #35, probably the most common error alert that is not self explanatory, happens when a program you are trying to run has somehow been corrupted. What it means is that TOS can not find some magic numbers it expects to find either at the beginning or at the end of the program file. This error is usually attributable to operator error (as in trying to execute an archive or text file as a program), or to bit rot. Here are the BIOS "Critical" errors, and the alert text you see when they happen: Error description TOS error Alert text (TOS 1.4 and later) -------------------------- --------- ------------------------------ Basic, fundamental error -1 Your output device is not No paper -9 receiving data. Unknown device -15 Drive not ready -2 Drive X: is not responding Unknown command -3 Please check the disk drive, Bad request (invalid length) -5 or insert a disk. Seek error -6 CRC error -4 Data on the disk in drive Unknown medium -7 X: may be damaged. Sector not found -8 Write fault -10 Read fault -11 General failure -12 Bad sectors on format -16 Write protect -13 The disk in drive X: is physically write-protected. Media change -14 The application cannot read data on the disk in drive X:. Insert other disk -17 Please insert disk X into drive A:. "To err is human, but to really screw things up, you need a computer." - anon. - Larkspur, CA WORDFLAIR II SPECIAL OFFER!! ------------ Goldleaf Publishing, Inc. cordially invites users of the following word processing programs to switch to Wordflair II to attain a new level of document processing power: 1st Word Plus (GST) - Microsoft Write Word-Up (Neocept) - Word Writer St (TimeWorks) Now through February 15, 1991 only, users of any of these programs may order Wordflair II direct from Goldleaf Publishing, Inc. for half price. In order to qualify for this special offer, users must send their original disk(s) and a check or money order in the amount of $75 to Goldleaf Publishing, Inc. at 700 Larkspur Landing Circle, Larkspur, CA 94939. For more details, contact us at 415/461-4552. Wordflair II will ship on or before January 2, 1991. - Sunnyvale, CA ATARI HAS STRONG INVENTORY! ------------- According to our sources, Atari added the following to their Christmas (shippable) inventory: Stacy (4mb) ~ Mega 2 Computers ~ SC1435 Color Stereo Monitors 1040STe Computers ~ SM124 Mono Monitors These have been LARGE quantity additions to the existing goods in the Atari warehouse, also, according to our source, sales have been "brisk" and are expected to become even more so as we get closer to the holidays. This all adds up to a positive first quarter for Atari. ______________________________________________________________ > Hard Disks STR InfoFile Affordable Mass Storage.... ======================= NEW LOW PRICES! & MORE MODELS!! =============================== HOLIDAY SPECIALS! ** EFFECTIVE -> 11/19/90 ** ABCO COMPUTER ELECTRONICS INC. P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32236-6672 Est. 1985 _________________________________________ Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EDT BBS: 904-786-4176 12-24-96 HST FAX: 904-783-3319 12 PM - 6 AM EDT _________________________________________ HARD DISK SYSTEMS TO FIT EVERY BUDGET _____________________________________ All systems are complete and ready to use, included at NO EXTRA COST are clock/calendar and cooling blower(s). -ALL ABCO HARD DISK SYSTEMS ARE FULLY EXPANDABLE- (you are NOT limited to two drives ONLY!) (all cables and connectors installed) * ICD HOST ADAPTERS USED EXCLUSIVELY * OMTI HIGH SPEED CONTROLLERS * * ICD ADVANTAGE+ HOST ADAPTERS * FULL SCSI COMMAND SET SUPPORTED * * SCSI EMBEDDED CONTROLLER MECHANISMS * Conventional Shoe Box Model Description Autopark Price ================================================== SGN4951 51Mb 28ms 3.5" Y 519.00 SGN6177 62Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 619.00 SGN1096 85Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 649.00 SGN6277 120Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 889.00 SGN1296 168Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 1069.00 SGN4077 230Mb 24ms 3.5" Y 1669.00 ================================================== WE HAVE A COMPLETE LINE OF 3.5 LOW PROFILE HARD DRIVES for USE IN MEGA ST COMPUTERS AND RELATED CONFIGURATIONS. 20mb #AI020SC 379.95 30mb #AIO3OSC 419.95 50mb #AI050SC 449.95 65mb #AI065SC 499.95 85mb #AI085SC $559.95 MEGA ST Internal Hard Drives CONNOR HIGH PERFORMANCE MECHANISMS >>> ALL ABCO DRIVES ARE HIGH SPEED UNITS <<< (500 - 600k per sec @ 23 -33ms) CALL FOR SUPER SAVINGS ON ALL OUR OTHER CUSTOM UNITS FROM 30mb 28MS @ $419.00! Ask about our "REBATE SPECIALS" --==*==-- SHIPPING AND INSURANCE INCLUDED IN COMPLETE UNIT PRICE! ============================================ * SYQUEST 44MB (#555)>> ABCO "44" << REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE * - SYQUEST 44 MB DRIVE - ICD ST ADVANTAGE PLUS H/A - ICD Utility Software - 3' DMA Cable - Fan & Clock - Multi-Unit Power Supply (1) 44 MB Syquest Cart. COMPLETELY ASSEMBLED AND READY TO RUN! --->> SPECIAL NOW ONLY __$719.00__ <<--- *** SPECIAL SYQUEST OFFER!! *** ORDER YOUR CUSTOM SYQUEST UNIT NOW AND GET A SECOND COMPLETE UNIT! ***** for $50.00 LESS! ***** * TWIN SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES ... PROGRAMMER'S DELIGHT * SPECIALLY PRICED ** $1329.00 ** * SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE AND HARD DRIVE COMBINATIONS * - Syquest 44 Model [555] and the following hard drives - 50mb SQG51 $1039.00 30mb SQG38 $1019.00 65mb SQG09 $1109.00 85mb SQG96 $1119.00 LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS CUSTOM CONFIGURATIONS AVAILABLE Listed above are a sampling of the systems available. Prices also reflect various cabinet/power supply configurations (over sixty configurations are available, flexibility is unlimited) *** ALL Units: Average Access Time: 24ms - 34ms *** ALL UNITS COMPATIBLE WITH --> SUPERCHARGER - AT/PC SPEED - SPECTRE/GCR LARGER units are available - (special order only) *>> NO REPACKS OR REFURBS USED! <<* - Custom Walnut WOODEN Cabinets - TOWER - AT - XT Cabinets - * SLM 804 Replacement Toner Cartridge Kits $46.95 * Replacement Drums; CALL Keyboard Custom Cables Call for Info ALL POWER SUPPLIES UL APPROVED -* 12 month FULL Guarantee *- (A FULL YEAR of COVERAGE) QUANTITY & USERGROUP DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE! _________________________________________ DEALERS and DISTRIBUTORS WANTED! please, call for details Personal and Company Checks are accepted. ORDER YOUR NEW UNIT TODAY! CALL: 1-800-562-4037 -=**=- CALL: 1-904-783-3319 Customer Orders ONLY Customer Service 9am - 8pm EDT Tues thru Sat ____________________________________________________________ > A "Quotable Quote"¿ ================= "GOOD THINGS ALWAYS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT" ..anonymous """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport Online Magazine Available through more than 10,000 Private BBS systems WorldWide! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport¿ "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" November 30, 1990 16/32bit Magazine copyright ½ 1990 No.6.48 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors, staff, STReport¿ CPU/STR¿ or ST Report¿. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Each reprint must include the name of the publication, date, issue # and the author's name. The entire publication and/or portions therein may not be edited in any way without prior written permission. The contents, at the time of publication, are believed to be reasonably accurate. The editors, contributors and/or staff are not responsible for either the use/misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained therefrom. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""