*---== ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---* """"""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine" _____________________________________ from STR Publishing Inc. """""""""""""""""" January 18, 1990 No.7.03 ========================================================================== 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 90:19/350.0 ** 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 __________________________________________________________________ > 01/18/91: STReport¿ #7.03 The Original 16/32 bit Online Magazine! ------------------------- - The Editor's Desk - CPU REPORT - CPU MacNews - Another Convicted! - Lattice V.5 II - BYTE Reply - The Flip Side - WPerfect & Atari - Atari Future - WINDOWS BUGGY! - DESERT STORM - STR Confidential * TORNADO FLIGHT SIM * * WINDOWS FATAL? * * ATARI LOWERS PRICES! * ========================================================================== 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¿ Once again the our issue is on the large side. I guess we don't believe in teasers and one liners. Oh well, I'll keep this short so you can get to our latest. Its packed with great stuff! You'll soon find out. Also; just in... the pricing on the TT030 has been revised somewhat. TT030/2-50 $2399.95 TT030/4-50 $2799.95 TT030/8-80 $3499.95 These prices differ from those announced at Comdex thus, their ap- pearance here. Atari is pushing forward and upward. STReport fully expects to see some rather exciting developments in the next 90 days. Also, its rumored that Sam will have some very interesting announcements at his upcoming online conferences on GEnie & Compuserve. Please, don't forget to include a word or two to the Good Lord in your prayers for all our young men involved in Desert Storm. Thanks for your strong 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! WHAT'S NEW IN THE ATARI FORUMS (Jan. 18) ATARI REGISTERED DEVELOPERS... Atari Developer Support has uploaded TTLANG.ARC to LIBRARY 7 of the Atari Productivity Forum (GO ATARIPRO) for Atari Registered Developers. This is the TT030 "Language Disk" & Advanced Hard Disk Utilities Disk that is currently shipping with the FCC Class A TT's. NEW FROM DOUBLE CLICK SOFTWARE DCDA1A.ARC, available in LIBRARY 13 of the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN). DCD Auto v1.0a corrects a couple of oversights when 1.0 was booted on a color system. Also, a Bypass option was added in the configuration process. DCD Auto lets you select which DC Desktop modules you want to run during a session. It uses a unique "graphic icon" inter- face allowing you to choose programs, presets, resolution, and CABINETs. 100% Assembly. DCMSHF.ARC, available in LIBRARY 13 of the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN). DC MOUSE SHIFT emulates any of the modifier keys (SHIFTs, CONTROL, and/or ALTERNATE) by pressing the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON. Perfect for selecting multiple files at the desktop or a MOVE operation on TOS 1.4 and up. Built-in configurator allows you to assign key(s) and whether or not emulation is turned off in programs. ST, STe, and TT compatible. DCMN1A.ARC, available in LIBRARY 13 of the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN). DC MENU V1.0a is a DC DESKTOP extension. DC MENU v1.0a fixes a small 'oversight' of 1.0: the path is now set to that of the program being launched. Programs launched will now find their resources and other associated files. DC MENU lets you launch 24 programs with a key from DC Desktop without the need for a program icon on the desktop. 100% assembly. NEW PBASIC, UTILITIES FROM B.J. GLEASON The prolific B.J. Gleason has generously provided us with some heavily requested utilities and a new version of his PBASIC interpreter. Check out these files, now available in Library 1 of the Atari Portfolio Forum (GO APORTFOLIO). NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE *********************************************************************** > CPU REPORT¿ ========== Issue # 04 ---------- Temporary Editor - Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. > CPU STATUS REPORT¿ LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS ================= - Las Vegas, Nevada ATARI LOWERS SOME PRICES ----------------- Surprising everyone, Atari announced at CES that it was lowering the prices for the Lynx handheld color video game system and the Portfolio palmtop computer. Also announced was an under $500 home computer. The basic Lynx unit price will now be $99.95 with a more complete Lynx system (including the Lynx, ComLynx cables, AC adapter and a "California Games" cartridge) priced at $149. There will be several changes in the new model Lynx which will include cosmetic and ergonomic improvements. The current library of 16 games will be expanded to 32 by June of this year. The Portfolio price was lowered to $299 from it's previous price of $399. Over 14 new software titles for the Portfolio were unveiled at CES for 3rd party developers. The new 1040STe home computer for musicians is MIDI compatible and should be available before the end of the first quarter of this year. - Tokyo, Japan MEMORY CHIP BREAKTHROUGH ------------ Fujitsu has developed a technique called "the Slender method" to draw the ultra-thin negative-resist, 0.2-micron wide patterns which was needed to design a 256 megabit dynamic random access memory (RAM) chip. This will speed up the development of the 256 megabig DRAM. Meanwhile, Yasushi Utsugi of NTT has developed an advanced technology to design much larger chips. This technology makes practical a 6.4 gigabit or 6,400 megabit DRAM. - San Francisco, California APPLE IN CONSUMER ELECTRONIC STORES ------------------------- Apple USA president, Robert Puette, said that Apple will try to add low- cost, high volume consumer electronic stores and warehouse operations to its distribution channels. These stores will still be required to provide service but only minimal support. Puette said, in the past, Apple has always sold only through consultants and store-fronts but due to the changing market and the popularity of the new Mac Classic, Apple USA will segment distribution into three pieces: the low-cost, high volume stores with minimal support, computer stores selling into small and large businesses, and highly value-added resellers providing custom integration and consulting. Puette noted that the new low-end Macintoshes have sold more in the first quarter since their introduction than the Macintosh Plus did in its best full year. - Tempe, Arizona APPLE RETAIL CHAIN BRANCHES INTO IBMS -------------- Michael D. Rather, president of MacLand Inc., a Tempe Arizona based retail chain, MacLand Inc., says his company will expanded into the IBM and compatible hardware market. While MacLand will still be strongly committed to the Macintosh, Rather said "We built our business on the Macintosh line and have no intention of abandoning that market...[but] we just believe the IBM compatible business opportunity was too compelling to pass up." He added that despite the tremendous growth of the Macintosh computer line in recent years, the IBM world remains many times larger. - Las Vegas, Nevada OVER 70,000 AT WINTER CES SHOW ----------------- This year's Winter Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held in Las Vegas over the last weekend and drew over 70,000 attendees from the US and around the world and consisted of over 1,550 exhibits that covered 837,000 square feet. One of the biggest "splashes" was the Philips DCC, a digital compact cassette. DCC technology, like DAT (digital audio tape) technology encodes cassettes with copy protection mechanisms but unlike DAT, it still can be used to playback analog as well as digital cassettes. This way the users current tape library won't become obsolete. The three largest growth areas of the show was a 50% increase in cellular products, a 22% increase in mobile electronics and a 25% increase in home/office. - Tokyo, Japan JAPAN 6TH GENERATION COMPUTER PROJECT ------------ The Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry will start a 6th generation computer project next year. The 6th generation computer project will study the technology used to process vague or incomplete data, parallel processing of huge data, speedy processing with an optical computer and the development of a neuro computer that simulates the mechanism of human brain. - Tokyo, Japan FOUR MORE TO PRODUCE 64M DRAM CHIPS ------------ Toshiba, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi and Matsushita will join Hitachi and introduce a new 64-megabit DRAM chip at the International Society for Solid Circuit Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco in February. IBM, AT&T and Samsung will not introduce a 64-megabit chip at this time. Of the 99 types of new semiconductor chips that will be introduced at the conference, almost half will have been developed by Japanese manufacturers. - Berkeley Heights, New Jersey AT7T INTRODUCES LAPTOP MODEM CHIP SET ---------------------------- AT&T has introduced the VE DSP16A-V32 Data Pump, a small, 9600 baud V.32 modem designed for laptop computers. The chipset which competes with products from Rockwell International will sell for about $70. - Waltham, Massachusetts THE PRIVATE EYE IS CATCHING ON ---------------------- Ampro Computers, Park Engineering Associates, Selectronics an PC Connection are the first of ten companies that are starting to ship their portable computing products with The Private Eye. The Private Eye is a one-inch computer display that mounts on the user's head with a headband close to the user's eye and produces an image that looks like that of a 12-inch monitor. Reflection Technology manufactures The Private Eye and also sells it directly to end users for $795. - Sydney, Australia MAN CONVICTED OF SOFTWARE PIRACY ----------------- Peter Olsen of Lugarno, New South Wales was the first person convicted of software piracy under Australia's Copyright Act 1968. Olsen was fined AUS $750 for each of six counts of piracy and AUS $5,000 for witnesses' costs. The Australian Software Distributors Association (ASDA) was responsible for taking Olsen to court. Olsen placed an ad in the newspaper selling 1,500 computer disks he had bought at a garage sale for $.10 each. Instead of reformating the disks and using them on his IBM PC, he decided to sell the disks with the pirated software on them for $1-$3 each. The ASDA watches the newspapers for such ads and sent a representative to buy some of the pirated diskettes, after which the Australian Federal Police were called. David Lewis, of the ASDA, said the conviction was a "precedent which has set the scene for other similar matters we are investigating. There are hundreds of people out there doing the same thing." *********************************************************************** :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!! <- *********************************************************************** > LATTICE C V.5 STR Review¿ "...using the newer ANSI C compilers" ======================== Lattice C Version 5 Compiler Review =================================== PART II by R. E. Covert This is the second in a series of articles describing the Lattice C compiler, Version 5.06, as distributed and developed by HiSoft Company in England. This week I will describe the LC5 Volume II Library Manual with empathsis on the unique LC5 functions. I will document several of the new ANSI functions which are missing form older compilers. Thus, if you are familiar with pre-ANSI C compilers, this week will help you in using the newer ANSI C compilers. I recommend purchasing the Kernighan & Ritchie books on C programming as a reference. Understanding the ANSI C Library is vital as one design approach is to design the main logic and algorithms of your TOS program before adding the GEM interface. A TOS program should not include any Atari ST specific features and would be easily ported to other platforms. A TOS program would use only the functions in the ANSI C Library. This is the way I develope software for the ST. Once I am convinced that my basic algorithms are done (never 100% perfect but hey who's perfect?), then I add the ST GEM interface. I will demonstrate this process in later articles when I show how I ported the public domain C Pretty Printer program "cpr" from UNIX to the Atari ST using the LC5 package. Once I had "cpr" running as a TOS TAKES PARAMETERS (TTP) program I then added the GEM interface to make it easier to use from the Atari Desktop. I will also show how the LC5 package allows a program to be run as either a Desktop Accessory or as a GEM program simply by renaming the file from ".ACC" to ".PRG". But you need to crawl before you can walk and using the ANSI C Library is your first step towards becoming a proficient C programmer! LC5 Volume II is the ANSI Standard Library with HiSoft/Lattice enhancements. C originated on the UNIX operating system and was known as the "K&R C" after Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ricthie, the authors of the C Bible "The C Programming Language" book. For many years the K&R C compiler and the C Bible were all that documented the C programming language. Eventually, the UNIX manual pages added functions to the C Libraries beyond those described in the C Bible. These additional functions became the foundation upon which the ANSI C Standard Library was built. Volume II of the LC5 manuals describes the LC5 implementation of the ANSI Standard Library. Section One of Volume II contains an Introduction which describes that the purpose of Voulme II, i.e. to document the ANSI C Library and the UNIX functions. The Introduction is only two pages but does describe how the functions are used, and what header files are. Section Two is an important section which should be read carefully as it documents the various header files from by LC5. A header file is an ASCII file which contains new data type definations (via the typedef or enum statements), and constant declarations. Header files also contain declarations of external functions contains in various C libraries. A header file should NOT contain statments which generate executable code. Header files are customarially included in your C source code files via the C preprocessor statement "#include". Header files are included outside the body of a statement in your source code, and thus are global through the remainder of the file. This is why header files shouldn't include executable code, as all executable code within a C program MUST be contained within a function. Also, header files should not declare space for variables but should only define a reference to a variable. This is because all global variables should be declared only ONCE within the scope of a program. Section Two of Volume II documents only the header files used for the ANSI C Library package. Header files for Atari ST specific functions, such as AES/VDI functions, are documented in Volume III of the LC5 manuals. The LC5 ANSI C Library header files agree with the ANSI definitions as published in the ANSI Standard. If you are not familiar with the ANSI standard, but are familiar with the older K&R C libriaries the following sections will aid you in using the LC5 package. Important ANSI Header Files There are several ANSI header files which were added or changed from the K&R C compilers. "errno.h" "errno.h" is important because it defines the various error codes returned from functions in the libraries. This error condtions can be used to inform the user of system resource failures (such as not opening a file properly, or running out of disk space) and should be used. "stdarg.h" A new feature of ANSI is the ability to process variable argument lists. The header file "stdarg.h" contains references to library funbction to handle variable argument lists. A variable argument list is when you may use the same functions with different number of arguments. A perfect example of this is the printf() function. Printf() accepts a format string as it first argument, and then a variable argument list. this allows printf() to print any number of variables or strings. Without the variable argument list capability you would need a specific printf function for printing one variable, two variables, three variables, and so forth. The "stadrg.h" header file was added to the ANSI Standard as a means of allowing portable variable argument list functions to be written. Page 25 of Volume II gives a code frgament documenting the use of the "stdarg.h" header file and of the variable arguemnt list functions. "varargs.h" UNIX has a similar variable argument list capabilty and is documented in the "varargs.h" header file. There are several good UNIX based C programming books which give examples of the variable argument list functions. Page 25 of Volume II of the LC5 manual also gives a code fragment showing the use of variable argument lists. Another header file to examine is the "signal.h" file. Since C can be run on many different machines and under many different operating systems, "signal.h" is where the signal functions for the specific compiler are documented. Since the Atari ST operating system is only a single user, single tasking system, there are few uses of signals. Signals are used under UNIX, for example, as a means for one process to interrrupt another process. But since TOS is a single process OS you can't run multiple process simultaneously. Still, "signal.h" does allows for some level of portability between UNIX and TOS programs. There are some grey areas in C programming. For example, the ANSI standard does not define how a directory is to be read. So, the K&R C used in HP-UX Version 7.0 UNIX usies the functions opendir, readdir, and closedir to read the UNIX directory. LC5 uses the Atari findfirst(), findnext() functions to read Atari directories. The header file "dos.h" declares various date types and functions used by LC5. this is one area of non-oprtability from UNIX to TOS. "Stdlib.h" defines the various standard utility functions. some of the functions defined in this header file are not part of the ANSI standard, and are documented in the LC5 manual. Section Three - Library Functions As mentioned earlier, Volume II of the LC5 manuals documents the various standard UNIX type functions. Additional, non-ANSI, functions which are commonly included in UNIX C compiler are included in this volume. Functions are given a "Category" or "Class" description which tells where the function was derived (i.e. is it an ANSI function, or a UNIX function, or a Lattice C function). Class tells where the function was derived, and category tells the type of function. I will describe various Lattice supplied functions as the remainder can be referenced through either the ANSI stanadrd or through one of the many UNIX C programming books. Argopt() and getopt() are two functions which originally appeared as public domain on various USENET networks in the mid 1980s. They have been adapted and modified for LC5 by HiSoft. Argopt() and getopt() provide a standard interface for processing command line arguments in TOS TAKES PARAMETERS programs. They are useful since they are now common in UNIX written C programs. LC5 added various functions to handle complex number mathmetics. "Cabs" returns the absolute value of a complex number. "Cadd" returns the complex sum of two complex arguments. "Cdiv" returns the complex quotient of two complex arguments. "Cmul" returns the complex product of two complex arguments. File name searching is a non-portable process heavily dependent upon the computer's operating system. As such, the Atari C programmer should become very familiar with the LC5 library. LC5 has many usefule functions to read directories. There are the dfind(), and dnext() functions in Volume II, which are close to functions used in various IBM PCDOS C compilers. Dfind() and dnext() use the GEMDOS '*' and '?' characters for pattern matching. Fsfirst() and Fsnext() are decoumented in Volume III of the LC5 manuals, and will be discussed in the next article. Another powerful LC5 function is "getfnl" or Get File Name List. Getfnl() returns a file name array containing filenames matching a user specified pattern. Once again the GEMDOS '*' and '?' characters are used for pattern matching. The file name array is NULL terminated and can be scanned through a simple loop. LC5 also has the UNIX opendir(), closedir(), readdir(), rewinddir(), seekdir(), and telldir() directory manipulation functions. These functions are useful to the ST programmer in writing code portable to and from UNIX. LC5 contains several useful functions for manipulating filenames. Strsfn() splits a complete filename into four separate strings. The file name is split into its drive component, its path components, its node component, and finally into it extension component. Stspfp() parses a file path into individual strings for each of the folders in the path. Handy to see if your file is in a specific folder. Strmfe() makes a file name with an extension. Strmfe() replaces an existing extension in the old filename with the specified extension and returns the new file name. A handy way to rename files. Strmfn() is the opposite of strsfn(), in that strmfn() builds a file name from its four components. Strmfp() builds a filename from its path and node components. LC5 has three functions which remove the various components from a filename. Stcgfe() returns only the file extension. Stcgfn() returns only the filename (the node). And stcgfp() returns the file path. Each of these three functions do part of what the strsfn() function does. These are very useful function and show be examined in your designs. LC5 also has a series of functions to manipulate NULL terminated arrays of characters (called strings in C). You can parse tokens from strings, reverse the order of strings, find break characters within a string. Strlwr() converts an string to all lowercase characters, while strupr() converts a string to all uppercase caharacters. LC5 even has a function to duplicate an existing string by allocating memory for the new string, and then copying the existing string into the new string. LC5 also has four functions to compare strings. LC5 has the standard open(), close(), fopen(), and fclose() functions to open files for non-buffered and buffered I/O respectively. But, LC5 also has a function fopene() which opens a file using the environment directory search mechanism. This allows a program to open a file contained in a folder in its PATH environment variable. In summary, Volume II of the LC5 manuals contains the header files documentation for the ANSI standard header files, as well as LC5 specific UNIX style header files. Volume II documents the UNIX/ANSI/LATTICE func- tions used to produced non-GEM TOS or TTP programs. Most of the functions in this section are portable to UNIX systems. LC5 specific functions are noted on their manual pages. In the next part I will discuss the last manual, Volume II "The Atari Library Manual". _____________________________________________________________ > BYTE & AUA STR Mail Call¿ Letters to the Editor ======================== In response to the form letter we published and circulated in STReport recently. (A joint effort of the AUA and STReport). Please note we are aware of many responses of the same letter sent to our readers who sent in the letter we supplied. Heartfelt thanks to all who participated. Your efforts were not in vain and did not go un-noticed. From: L.W.BENJAMIN Lee W. Benjamin To: DC.SIGNORINI Derek C. Signorini ST.REPORT Ralph F. Mariano cc: L.W.BENJAMIN Lee W. Benjamin Sub: Form Letter to BYTE - response I sent off the form letter from the AUA newsletter to Fred Langa of BYTE Magazine (to which I subscribe, though I did not mention this) and much to my surprise I soon received the following two-page letter (which I transcribed to electronic form). All-in-all, a very reasonable response. Lee W. Benjamin (GEnie: L.W.BENJAMIN) January 15, 1991 -<->-<->-<->-<->- January 8, 1991 Dear Mr. Benjamin: Thanks for writing! I always appreciate hearing from readers---even when they're not happy with BYTE. I can understand your frustration. The Atari is a very nice platform that pioneered several key areas the rest of the microcomputing world is only now starting to pay attention to. Believe it or not, my first "real" computer was a very early Atari 800. I still have that puppy on a shelf at home, and drag it out from time to time for the sheer fun of it. I got my start in computing with that 800. A friend and I founded "Shelter Software," a tiny company that wrote and sold various programs for Apple and Atari computers. I was the staff's Atari programmer. So please don't assume there is any anti-Atari bias here at BYTE. It just doesn't exist. In fact, a quick search through the BYTE archives shows me we've covered the Atari about every other month in 1990, about the same level of cove- rage we had in 1989, too. Now, these weren't splashy cover stories---they tended to be references inside other articles. That might not seem like much, and I fully realize that your letter was to inform me that our coverage is still inadequate. However, BYTE covers the Atari far, far more than any other non-Atari-spe- cific magazine. That ain't chopped liver. Despite the fact that less than 1% of BYTE subscribers have Ataris, we feel the Atari is innovative enough to have covered it in literally every section of the magazine. It's been a part of What's New. It's been in our columns. In reviews. Everywere. (page 2) I'm proud that we already cover the Atari as much as we do. And we'll continue covering it appropriately; I like the fact that BYTE leads all the non-Atari-specific magazines in this area, and want to see it con- tinue. But, given limited editorial space, we have to draw the line somewhere. And that "somewhere" means that occasionally we have to omit coverage of the Atai in areas where it might seem to belong. There's a market reality here that I can't ignore; less than 1% of BYTE subscribers own Ataris. Why is that? Ask Atari. If they'll get on the case and give the Atari the push it probably deserves, increasing its use among BYTE readers, then for sure we'll increase our coverage even more. But that kind of push can ethically come only from Atari---it's not Editorial's job to promote a product. We report; the companies promote. So, in sum, I'd like to reiterate my understanding of your position: I honestly do sympathize. As a former Atari fanatic, I wish it enjoyed the success of the IBM PC. But I also hope you'll understand my position, and see the "half full" nature of BYTE's coverage, rather than seeing it as "half empty." A care- ful reading of BYTE will turn up far more coverage of the Atari than you may be aware of. In any case, we'll do our best to give the Atari its due whenever and wherever appropriate. Thanks again for writing! Best, Fred Langa Editor-in-Chief Item 6319672 91/01/16 17:13 From: DC.SIGNORINI Derek C. Signorini To: L.W.BENJAMIN Lee W. Benjamin cc: ST.REPORT Ralph F. Mariano Sub: Form Letter to BYTE - response Reply: Item #3018719 from L.W.BENJAMIN on 91/01/15 at 22:56 Hello Lee, Thanks very much for uploading that to us. I really did not want to have to type in my copy that I received from Mr. Langa...it seems that he decided to form letter everyone a reply. I can understand his reasoning in his letter and respect him for taking the time to respond. The impor- tant thing here is that he DID respond. That is more than I can say for other attempts at letters that various other organizations have made. We definately made an impact! Thanks again for your support! Derek Hi Lee! I certainly appreciate your participation in our letter writing cam- paign and truly look forward to the next attampt at making the Atari is not forgotten or ignored. Glad to see you are active and doing ok. Thanks again for the help! Ralph...... ___________________________________________________ > THE FLIP SIDE STR Feature¿ ....A different viewpoint ========================= A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT ================================== by Michael Lee I'm sure that some of our readers who are also on the major on-line services might not find my column very interesting as they've already read many of the posts that I publish. But for every ST owner that is on one of the major on-line services, there are probably 50-100 that aren't so this information is new to them. I can only hope that every once in a while, I come up with something that might interest the folks who are on- line, so they don't get too bored with my column. ---------------- Do you get eyestrain when you use your computer? How about head- aches? Back aches? Tired muscles? Here's a compilation of posts from Genie that might explain the problems and what to do about it... From D.A. Edwards... One of the managers at work had a problem with eye strain and found a doctor who really keeps up on the problems relating to VDTs. This guy says that the BY FAR most common radiation problem with VDTs is improper lighting - and this directly causes eyestrain, which due to some wonderful design features in the human body can lead to headaches, general irritation, neck pain,... Suggestions: (1) reduce ambient lighting in the room. This particular manager finds that normally the light which leaks through closed blinds is appropriate, with NO room lighting during the day. Obviously, certain functions will need more light - you will probably want spot lighting, of very low wattage, in more than one location. (2) Put one of these spot lights directly on top of your monitor, shining straight down. The ENTIRE light source (the bulb) should be just behind the plane of the screen, so that the light does not actually shine on the screen at all, but does shine on the desk directly in front of the monitor (as close as seems consistent with the stability of the lamp). Of course, the fixture should be positioned in such a way that you cannot normally see the light source at all. (3) Avoid florescent lights. There are two reasons for this: (a) even the smallest common florescent desk lamps simply produce too much light; (b) fluorescent lights DO flicker, you may not be consciously aware of it but it causes eyestrain nonetheless - unless you get one of those special fixtures which convert the normal 60 Hz AC to a few hundred Hz AC. These special fixtures typically do not come in small sizes, and cost a small fortune in comparison to an ordinary desk lamp. (4) Avoid other sources of flicker. Almost any interlaced screen (typically 30 Hz net flicker) is bad, a non-interlaced screen (60 Hz) can be bad if it is slightly out of adjustment (as often happens with components which met one spec when new, but age into a slightly different spec). There may be color sensitivity as well - at work I deal with some nice, pricey Compaq VGA devices, and I find that these devices (I've looked at about 25 screens, each on a different unit, and it's true of all of them) simply CANNOT sustain a bright screen without flicker which is visible to me. Everyone else in the office likes their screen paper- white with dark features; mine is black with light features. Nobody else admits to seeing the flicker - and most of them have more symptoms of eyestrain than I do. BTW, my home machine (an Atari ST, natch) has a bright screen with dark features - that video driver can sustain it. (5) Pay attention to the audio component as well. Just for fun, figure out the frequency of your HORIZONTAL scan, and compare it to the "normal upper limit" of human hearing range. Now consider what "normal upper limit" really means: roughly 1/6 the population can hear higher frequencies. I would consider a full octave clearance over the "normal" to be reasonable. In case you don't know: "a full octave" is DOUBLE the frequency. There is precisely ONE monitor I have checked the specs on, which provides adequate clearance: the Atari ST monochrome monitor. (Guess what I have on my home machine.) A monitor which is working completely to spec, will not produce an audible whistle; but remember what I was saying about aging components. The effect - on me - of this high-pitched whistle... you know how some people react when chalk or fingernails squeal across a blackboard? Imagine that for SEVERAL HOURS. I am aware of the squeal - but I am strongly suspicious that many people who are NOT aware of it, are similarly affected and have no idea why. Not only have I swapped terminals off my desk to move these high-pitch whistles away from me - I have in extreme cases moved terminals off OTHER people's desks (with permission, of course) THREE CUBICLES AWAY to move these high-pitched whistles away from me. Oddly enough, if you find yourself stuck with a whistling monitor, you can often make the whistle - along with its unpleasant effects - appear to go away, by turning UP the volume on the monitor's internal speaker. This may have ofsetting disadvantages, though, particularly if you like to play video games on your machine at work. From Mike Valent... Combining florescent light flicker with 60hz screen flicker (and whether you can "see" the flicker, your eye and brain ARE registering it), with the usual casual CRT/keyboard placement, and poor chair/desk matching and you've got a perfect recipe for "unexplainable" fatigue. Then, if the computer operator doesn't get up and move around regularly, stiffness sets in, hastening and intensifying the effect. If you have an SM124 sitting next to your color monitor, work with the SM124 for a while, then switch to the color monitor - you'll notice the flicker. The brain tends to "mask" these things, but they still are being taken in by your eyes and "processed" by the brain. From M. Jones... When I set up my system, I needed some light on the desk - to easily see the keyboard, read manuals or copy, disk labels, etc. A table lamp atop the monitor with the shade tilted forward works real fine. I get a soft light bounce off the wall behind, with no direct light in my eyes. (If, when you close your eyes, you see an afterimage of the screen, the room's light level is too low.) One additional suggestion: at short intervals, 15 minutes, look away from the screen for a moment - at the opposite wall, out the window, etc., to stretch and relieve tension in the focussing muscles. It do help. From John Barnes... In my comment on this subject I used the term "myopia". For those who do not know what this is it translates into "nearsightedness". Older people have a problem with their eye muscles shaping the lens properly. Some people who normally use bifocals have a different prescription for those occasions when they have to spend a lot of time staring at a computer screen. I am one of these and I fend that my eyestrain is much reduced when I do not have to struggle to focus on the screen. I suspect that such vision problems and the orthopedic problems (neck strain, back strain, etc.) caused by poor posture are the dominate health effects of VTD's. Again from D.A. Edwards... Everyone: PLEASE, if you can figure a way to do it, get things at the right height. This requires some flexibility. My own computer desk is actually an arrangement of HIGHLY adjustable metal shelves, I can move any horizontal surface in units of 1.5 inches. Start with your LEAST adjustable component, whatever it may be - in my case, it's chairs. (I am also going to assume no significant physical abnormalities.) You may have seen some of those odd-looking "balance" chairs. Just in case you haven't figured it out: your knees go on the lower pad, your buns on the upper pad. They are VERY comfortable, and may actually be good for your back, provided (a) you are not excessively overweight, and (b) you don't have joint problems in the knees, hips, or tailbone. Recommended if you meet these requirements - and the cheap ones are quite adequate, you may manage to pick one up for under $40 new. Alternatively, you want a chair with a straight back, not much padding, of such a height that you can sit comfortably with your feet flat on the floor (or some sort of flat-topped footrest, if you are very short or your chair is very tall). Arm rests are nice, IF they are at the right height for your elbows to rest on them naturally - your elbows should not fall off the armrests. Keyboard height should be such that your arms can be straight from the elbow to the 2nd knuckle. Bending your wrist and typing for hours at a time every day for months, is an excellent way to get carpal tunnel syndrome, which (I am told) is QUITE painful, causes long absences from work, and occasionally requires surgery. Screen height is the one most often the worst messed up (and the effect show up the fastest - after 2-3 hours the neck strain can become obvious). If you have a 24-line screen, about the 6th to 8th line should be at eye level. Setting your monitor on top of an IBM PC-size box on your desk, probably does not cut it. Aside from that, basically arrange your commonly-reached-for stuff to avoid stooping or stretching. ---------------- About the new version of LDW Power 2.0 from Mike Squire on Genie: The new version 2.00 of LDW Power comes with a 68-page "Addendum #1" that covers all of the changes made to LDW Power in versions 1.10 and 2.00. LDW Power 2.00 has been expanded to support the extended macro command set of Lotus 1-2-3, v. 2.01, that's all. It does not claim to run all Lotus 2.2 macros. Many of the new commands involve window management or support the new Graphics Editor included now in LDW Power 2.00. LDW Power 2.00 appears to me to be bug-free. The only bug that I was aware of in the previous v. 1.10 was when your cursor rested in a column on the far right of your screen and you executed a /Range Erase. {Insert} {Down} command, the screen became confused and displayed a different section of the worksheet than the one you were working on. I am -very- pleased to report that that bug no longer exists in v.2.00. Other improvements in v. 2.00 include (scanning the new addendum): o Improved window management of imported 1-2-3 files so that their function is identical to that in 1-2-3 o Easy changes to frozen title areas by means of temporary duplication o Column width adjustment using the mouse and/or cursor keys o Identification of cells with hidden "notes" by displaying them with bold text (very handy) o Protected cells are displayed using either color or shading depending on which monitor you're using o The ability to designate that you be alerted before doing a /File Retrieve so that you can verify that you saved the worksheet you've just finished with. o A new configuration program that allows you to delete program features in order to increase free RAM for worksheets o Up to 4 graph windows can be open at once (maximum of 5 total windows) o An additional 2 data ranges are permitted in the /Data commands for a new total of 8 (A-H) o A draw option allows you to add text, boxes, and lines to your graphs o A new /Graph Save Dump Screen command has been added for users with printers that lacked a GDOS driver and whose only alternative in the past was to do an Alt-Help screen dump that gave them the GEM window as well as the graph, logarithmic scaling can now be done on graphs instead of only normal linear scaling o 3 new graph types (Manhatten, Stacked Line, and High-low) have been added o A 3-D display for graphs (nice!) has been added o Exploding pie charts can now be created with user-selectable shading o 24-pin printer support is now included o The device number for your GDOS printer is now modifiable from within the program (in case you have more than one printer/plotter attached to your system, I suppose) o Grid lines can now be printed along with the worksheet provided that the SIDEWAYS printing program is not used I think you get the general idea. ---------------- Until next week.... ------------------------------------------------- > WORD PERFECT & ATARI STR FOCUS¿ Who is the Derby Winner? ============================== WORD PERFECT IS! ================ by R.F. Mariano Who is the Derby Winner? That's easy: WORD PERFECT! Many folks have complained about WP's price, the complexity, and the overall learning curve. Surprise, surprise.. all the intimidation is ill-conceived nonsen- se. WP may be purchased through mail order houses at very competitive prices. True, the program itself has a learning curve, but its not unlike those of other high quality, powerful and efficient programs ie; Calamus, PageStream etc.. The combination of the built-in help files and the docum- ention is excellent and easily understood. For those who find themselves at an impasse, the "800" number provides fast, expert assistance. Word Perfect Corp. has provided, in Word Perfect, an outstanding word processor whose features and abilities are recognized world-wide as the industry standard. For example: A - Superb, easy to read and follow documentation. B - Outstanding (800 number) telephone user support. C - Frequent and substantial updates (most free or at cost) D - Responsive, helpful and co-operative personnel The time has come for Atari to gain real and very strong allies in the industry. Word Perfect Corp. is, without a doubt, an industry leader in every sense of the word. Imagine if you will, the CREDIBILITY Atari and its computers would gain if Word Perfect Corp. announced; the very power- ful, graphical version 5.1 was about to be released for the ST/MEGAS- TE/TT030 series of computers. My, my what a crystal ball! ssssh! Below, presented as "proof of performance" in the ongoing support for the Atari userbase is an accurate, up to date, chronological listing of the superb support efforts afforded to the Atari userbase by Word Perfect Corp. WordPerfect 4.1 for the Atari ST August 01, 1988 Modifications 1. Because of the changes implemented in this release, it will be neces- sary to delete the file; "SYS___.WP" from your WordPerfect directory. You will need to re-select your colors, defaults and printer selections. 2. The printer drivers have been completely rewritten for this release as well as the way WP handles printing. Not all of these new definitions have been tested. If the new definition for your printer does not work, please report the results to Technical Support so they can be fixed and use the definition from the previous release. If you have created a custom printer driver, you should make a back up of it before installing the update. 3. Due to limitations in the Diablo emulator for the Atari Laser SLM 804 laser printer, this printer has been classified as a Limited Support Printer. This means that WordPerfect print quality to the SLM 804 cannot be improved with the existing Diablo emulator. The public domain Epson emulator seems to work fine with WordPerfect. 4. Single key macros now support numbers as well as letters. This means you can define single key macros as alt-1, alt-2 and so on. 5. System configuration files for both color and monochrome monitors are supported. The SYS___.WPC file will be used for color monitors while SYS___.WPM is the default for monochrome monitors. WordPerfect 4.1 for the Atari ST July 31, 1989 Modifications 1. *IMPORTANT* Single drive users should not change their virtual path to A: or B:. The virtuals are defaulted to C: and should not be changed. Swapping disks with virtual files on them may cause virtual information to be corrupted. If you have created a custom printer driver, you should make a back up of it before installing the update. If you have a version of Atari WordPerfect that is older than August, 1988, you must delete the "SYS___.WP" file from your WordPerfect directory. Therefore, you will need to re-select your colors, defaults, and printer selections. If you currently have a 'SYS___.WPC' or 'SYS___.WPM',you must delete them. Otherwise your default changes will not be recognized. 2. A running Word Count has been added to the status line during spell checking. 3. A file may now be viewed, complete with headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, and page numbers before being printed. To use the preview option you must 1) Go into Printer Control and select (3) for Select Prin- ters. If a short list of printers appears (i.e. less than 14) when selec- ting printers, you will need to press CTRL-[DOWN-ARROW] and choose "yes" to reselect your printers from the LONG list. 2) Choose the 'Atari Screen Printer (Preview)' and press return. 3) Choose 'other' for destination, and type in the path and filename where you want the file to be saved (we suggest the filename "preview"). 4) Select continuous for Form Type, 1 for Number of Copies, 0 for Binding Width and 'yes' to Save the Definition. With this selection available, you may preview your document by first going into Printer Control, selecting item (1) for Change Print Options, then (1) for Printer Letter. Select the 'Atari Screen Printer (Preview)' definition and exit from Printer Control. Now you can print your document to disk by selecting Full Text from the Print Menu. The file can be viewed by going into List Files, highlighting the file to be viewed, and selecting the 'Look' option (or pressing [return]). The file will appear with all text inits proper position. 4. Available disk space can be seen in list files by clicking on Disk Info or by pressing ?. 5. It is now possible to search for all three types of hyphens: soft hyphens, hyphens, and hard hyphens. 6. The WP Defaults are now stored in memory, reducing the number of times needed to swap disks. 7. You are now able to use the Atari File Selector or any other third party file selector system. If you have not installed a file selector system, WordPerfect will default to the Atari File Selector. You may choose to use the WordPerfect file selector system found in previous versions. To do so, go into WP START.PRG and click on Run WordPerfect. Select the Gem File Selector option and then click on 'NO' when asked to use Gem File Selector. 8. Improved Postscript printer support for extended characters has been added. Also Ultrascript is now supported. (Note: Be sure to copy PSCRIP- T.PS or USCRIPT.PS to the current default directory when printing to a Postscript printer or with Ultrascript.Note: When using the Ultrascript driver, your output should be directed to a file and then printed later with the Ultrascript program.) 9. A non-proportional spacing driver has been added for the Atari SLM804 Laser printer. It uses the ATTP10LS font only. You install the font using the SETUP630.PRG with the following styles: 1)Normal 5)Outline 2)Bold 6)Bold Outline 3)Italics 7)Italic Outline 4)Italics & Bold 8)Light If your printer is not supported, please check with our customer support. We have some additional printer drivers that were not included with this release due to limited disk space. WordPerfect Corporation is continuing to add features and enhancements to WordPerfect 4.1 for the Atari ST. If you have features or enhancements that you would like to see in future releases, please write to: WordPerfect Corporation Atari Development 1555 N. Technology Way Orem, UT 84057 If you are experiencing difficulty with your WordPerfect software, please take advantage of WordPerfect's toll-free, technical support lines. You will be asked for your WP Registration number. WordPerfect 4.1 for the Atari ST Nov 01, 1990 Modifications 1. Support for the large screen monitors has been added. It has been tested on a Moniterm 1280x960 monochrome monitor and an Image Systems (ISAC Board) 1024x768 16 Color Board with a multisync color monitor. Any incompatibilities should be reported to our customer support dept. 2. Some RamDisk Software and other Desk Accessories would cause only the Directories to be seen in "List Files". This incompatibility has been remedied. 3. Better FSEL support has been added to correct display problems caused by using the System File Selector option. 4. The complete document path and name is now display in the window title bar. 5. The window positions and sizes are automatically saved when you exit WordPerfect. If this option is not desired then leave the window the full size and no change will be noticed. It is advised to reduce your window size on a large screen monitor to reduce the time it takes to update the screen. 6. If you are using a single floppy system and you should not use the drive B: option, due to a flaw in the System File Selector (FSEL), switc- hing to disk B will confuse the system and possibly garbage your disk. Most third party file selectors don't seem to have this problem. 7. The LOOK option in List Files has been changed to use a window to be compatible to the large screen monitors. 8. Options that use a dialog at the bottom of the screen with the window resized now behave better when using the mouse. 9. Support for retrieving and saving IBM WordPerfect 4.2 files and IBM text files has been added to the menubar as "Import/Export" under "File" and the "Text In/Out" option (C-F5). Print/Font Disks Instead of just a Print disk and a Font disk, there are now 4 Print/Font disks with the printer definitions and font definitions on the same disk. This should make printing a little easier with not as much disk swapping for single drive users. We have broken them down as follows: Print/Font Disk 1 Dot Matrix, Daisy Wheel, Ink Jet Printers Print/Font Disk 2 Laser Printers Print/Font Disk 3 Postscript Printers Print/Font Disk 4 Limited Support Printers All of the utility programs (PRINTER.PRG, SPELLER.PRG, etc.) now work with the large screen monitors. WordPerfect 4.1 for the Atari ST Dec 06, 1990 Modifications 1. Changes have been made in the WordPerfect Program to now be compat- ible to the Atari TT030 systems. 2. Printing from List Files has been corrected. 3. Scrolling with the window off the screen will no longer cause the display to leave residual marks. 4. The default colors will now be your systems default colors and the colors can be modified by using Control Panel or some other desk acces- sory. The changes will automatically be saved upon exiting WordPerfect and your desktop's original colors will be restored. 5. Reveal Codes better utilizes it's window space. In summation WordPerfect, worldwide, offers terrific support, enth- usiastic promotion and of course, much greater user participation and awareness thus, assuring users of many years of ongoing support. In many cases, the difference between a good job and a great career position is whether or not the applicant is skillful in the use of WordPerfect. _______________________________________________________ > The Future of the ST STR Feature¿ "....one man's opinion" ================================ LIFE AFTER THE ATARI ST ======================= Part 4 by Darek Mihocka, President, Branch Always Software After the last few articles on Windows, I certainly got an earful of comments from Atari ST users. But just as any discussion of the Atari ST would naturally lead to a discussion on GEM, so then does a discussion of the PC lead to a discussion on Windows. My articles here cover may topics: PC hardware, software, and operating systems. This is not just a "Windows vs. the TT" debate as some people seem to believe. This week I'll talk a little bit about applications for Windows and DOS. Due to the sheer volume of software available for PCs, what I'm going to talk about here is simply the tip of the iceberg of what's out there. And, contrary to popular belief, PC software is not that much more expen- sive than ST software and some is even less expensive. I'm going to focus on two main areas: software for the user, and software for the developer. This week I'll cover user software, and next week I'll do developer tools. First, let's clear up a few things about a comment I made last time and replies I received about it. I mentioned that with Windows, users don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on utilities to make the computer more usable. What I was refering to are the dozens of AUTO folder programs and desk accessories that ST users use every day to improve TOS or GEM, such as custom desktops, desk accessory loaders, command line interpret- ers, corner clocks, mouse accelerators, screen accelerators, load acceler- ators, custom file selectors, RAMdisks, disk caches, print spoolers, TOS bug fixers, macro recorders, GDOS, and the list goes on. Some of these programs are in the public domain, but most of them cost from about $20 to $70. And from my observations, most ST users I've met tend to load up ther machines to the max with these utilities. Not only does this eat up a lot of RAM, but the cost of all these programs easily goes into the hundreds of dollars. When running Windows, many of these features are either built-in to the Windows control panel, or are available with programs that come bun- dled with Windows. So the $99 or so you shell out for Windows gets you more than just a pretty set of icons. The standard Windows setup includes the typical contol panel for adjusting parameters like mouse acceleration, desktop backgrounds, multitasking priorities, screen colors, fonts, set- ting time and date, etc. Also included are a set of utilities which inc- lude the Write word processor, a terminal program, a RAMdisk, a disk cache, a print spooler, a text editor, a desktop clock, a graphics editor, a macro recorder, and some video games to boot. So if all you install on your machine is Windows (in addition to DOS of course) you're ready to do productive work. Boot up an ST and you get a desktop and nothing else without spending hundreds of dollars on software such as the above. Last week, someone made a comment about some utility package available for Windows that includes such things as a screen saver. Well, that person should check his facts out. The package in question is the Windows Entertainment Pack, a package of about a half dozen Windows video games and a screen saver which includes, among other things, the real Tetris. For $39, it certainly isn't expensive in relation to what you would nor- mally spend on a single video game, and by including a screen saver it doesn't qualify it as a utility package. Let's get into real utility packages. The most popular one is probably Norton Utilities from Symantec. I picked up version 5.0 for $139. The Norton utilities are probably famous for two things: the SI benchmarking program and the vast array of disk and file recovery utilities. It also includes a hard disk defragmeneter to speed up hard disk I/O, and several other utilities to optimize the performance of a hard disk. I've found that these utilities work great with PC Ditto when used on an ST hard disk, because most of these utilities simply don't exist on the ST. Until the end of the month you can also get a free copy of the Norton Backup when you purchase the Norton Utilities. There are other similar packages such as PC Tools and they all sell for roughly $100 or $150. Another popular area in PC software are the so called "integrated packages". These are programs that include a word processorg, spell check- er, thesaurus, spreadsheet, database, charting, and terminal emulation in one easy-to-use package. The origin of these packages, called Works by several different software companies, goes back to pre-Windows days when it was not easy to switch from one program to another without exiting one to run the other. A trip to Egghead showed both Microsoft Works and Lotus Works selling for $109, although list is $149. So what do you get for this price? For one thing, these programs will run on any PC, because text modes are supported. So even if you have a floppy disk based 512K PC or XT, you can easily run these packages. Another feature of these packages is that it is easy to move information between the various modules. If I type some numbers in the spreadsheet and graph them, I can now paste that graph into a word processor document. Then I can take that document and transmit it by modem using the terminal module to another Works user. Integrated packages are a great starting point for any home user. With them one can write letters, make mailing labels, call bulletin boards, keep track of names and addresses, and of course, do what computers were REALLY designed to do all along: balance the checkbook. And compared to a typical package of word processor, spreadsheet, database, and terminal software on the ST, the integrated packages on the PC are even cheaper! Microsoft Works contains a complete tutorial showing how to use any fea- ture of the program without ever having to open the printed manual. For the power user, there are of course the heavyweights: Lotus 1-2-3, Dbase, Word, Excel, Word Perfect, Quattro, etc. All of these packages tend to cost about $495 EACH, although discount software dealers like Egghead will typically discount the price to about $249. In the word processing ring, in this corner we have Word Perfect, the best selling word processor available on pretty well any machine out there. It's popular but not easy to learn, due to the keyboard based interface. But, by popular demand, Word Perfect should be available for Windows soon. In this corner we have Microsoft Word, which currently comes in two flavors: Word 5.5 which is text based and runs on any PC, and Word For Windows, which of course, requires Windows. Both versions have almost identical drop-down menu interfaces and file compatibility with most word processors. The heavyweight word processors are the way to go if you do a lot of writing of large documents, and need the almost desktop publishing-like features. Lotus recently spent about $60 million to purchase another company that makes a Windows based word processor, so it very probable that Lotus will enter the Windows arena with its own word processor. Now we move to the spreadsheet warzone. The long time king, Lotus 1-2-3, is slowly but surely losing ground to several other competitors. Spreasheets have traditionally been used to add up lists of numbers, balance books, and solve equations. But many of today's spreadsheets exploit the graphics capabilities of the machine to generate amazing graphs. Wingz and Excel (version 3.0 was just released this week for Windows) both take this to the extreme. You want to draw 3-D stacked bar graph and view it from above and behind? You can. Want to draw a 3-D pie chart with thousands of slices? You can. By combining the spreadsheet and graphs on the same screen, you can do things like have your monthly totals on one line, and a graph of that data right below it. With database capab- ilities and macros, it is possible to customize a spreadsheet to look like almost anything: a tax form, a calendar, a database, you name it. You can even build dialog boxes right into spreadsheets so anyone can use it. Spreadsheets are powerful things if you know how to use them, and go far beyond the simple number crunching and graphing capabilities of ST spreadsheets. With Lotus announcing a Windows based version of 1-2-3, and companies like Borland putting their hats in the ring with products like Quattro and Quattro Pro, this area will have a lot of competition for years to come. It will be interesting to see if Lotus, who just shut down Paperback software for "look and feel" issues, will be able to come out with Windows based word processors and spreadsheets that actually offer something unique instead of simply copying the others. In the database area, there is Dbase by Ashton-Tate. They are the folks who followed Lotus's lead and sued their competitor, Foxbase, on look and feel issues. Unfortunately for them, last month the judge decided to not only throw out Ashton-Tate's lawsuit but to also invalidate the copyrights on Dbase II and Dbase III! I hope this will send a message out to the other sourpusses of the industry that suing your competition is not a way to maintain market share. As a side note, the trials concerning Apple suing Microsoft over look and feel issues of graphical interfaces and Xerox suing Apple for the exact same reason, are still pending. Anyway, back to what's left of Dbase. Some people like Dbase III, claiming that Dbase IV is full of bugs, while others claim that Dbase IV is great! Whichever you choose, keep in mind that Dbase III is not copyrighted, so feel free to modify the code as you wish. I'm kidding! Foxbase is a competing database that apparently took the Dbase idea and improved it. Frankly, I'm not a power database user, so I can't go into detail about either program. For my own uses, I use the database capabili- tes of spreadsheets and use a word processor to generate the output. Now that we've covered the big titles that are constantly on the top 10 bestseller list, what else is available? Certainly there is no shortage of video games. What is available on the ST is most likely available on the PC. Most video games require only a CGA or EGA graphics card, which will provide graphics similar to that of an ST, but certain video games can take advantage of a VGA card. There are also desktop publishing programs. Yes, really! The package I use is Timeworks Publish-It. It is almost identical to Timeworks Publi- sher ST, and even includes GEM 3 for use on the PC. At $149, it offers a few less features than Pagestream, such as color and color separation, but in other areas is similar to Pagestream. I used Publish-It to generate the BraSoft News a few weeks ago, and I was actually quite impressed by the speed of GEM 3 and also the font quality. This is partly due to the speed of the 386 and the higher screen resolution I was using (640x480 on the PC compared to 640x400 on the ST). But even taking into account dif- ferences in CPU speed, the screen redraws were very quick. I assume that since GEM has been refined more on the PC that its graphics routines have also been optimized. The screen fonts and fonts on the printed output were of much higher quality than what I get with Pagestream, so I went with it. Publish-It is not the only thing available. There is $39 "lite" ver- sion, which has less features than regular Publish-It. And for only $599 you can move up to Ventura Publisher, the granddaddy of them all. I have never used Ventura and don't care to spend $599 to find out. Hey Nathan! How about Calamus for Windows? Then there is Print Shop, and a number of other packages selling from as low as $30 and into the hundreds. Not to be forgotten, there is always the large library of public domain, freeware, and shareware titles available on online services and bulletin boards. Two "must have" utilities are ARC and LHARC. These are almost identical to the ST versions, which are ports of the PC versions. One thing I noticed again is the huge speed differences between the PC and ST versions. On a 386, UnARCing a typical issue of ST Report takes about 2 seconds. LHARC takes about 4 seconds. Once you have these tools you can then download thousands of other files. I hope this brief journey through the PC software world opens some eyes. PC software does not have to be expensive. Some is, but the expen- sive software usually includes hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of documentation. Many Windows applications, and some non-Windows applica- tions now include online tutorials and help screens that go far beyond the few dialog boxes of help information some ST programs have. With software discount stores such as Egghead (which sells Apple II, Apple IIGS, Macintosh, and PC software) you can get up to 50% off list price. So look around. Don't just take my word for it. Go to a PC dealer or software store. Look at the software and the prices of PC and Mac softw- are. If ST software is so great and cheap, then there is nothing to be afraid of. Next week: what you need to develop software on the PC. _____________________________________________ > WINDOWS BUGGY? STR FOCUS¿ REPORTS OF SERIOUS BUGS WITH Ver 3.0 ======================== IS WINDOWS 3.0 A THREAT TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM? ================================================ The new Windows 3.0 environment, with its greatly improved in- terface, memory management and developer and user capabilities, gained near-universal acclaim when it was released by Microsoft on May 22. But now, thousands of users around the country are asking the ques- tion: What is the REAL price of using Windows 3.0? In addition to the more mundane problems affecting any major new software release, many users are reporting serious difficulties with Windows 3.0. And some have had disk failures and file losses because of severe in- compatibilities between Windows and certain large hard disk drives and disk formatting programs. As users buy new, more powerful systems and upgrade existing ones to tap the power of Windows 3.0, a wave of disk problems and data loss is starting to sweep the MS-DOS world. In July 1989, Microsoft released a limited-circulation memo which stated, in part: Many non-standard (i.e. non-FDISK) disk partitioning schemes will cause problems when used with Windows and/or the SMARTDRV.SYS disk caching utility. This information applies to Windows/286, Windows/386, and Excel. Specific partitioning methods that will ALWAYS cause problems include the following: - Disk Manager by Ontrack & Seagate (DMDRVR.BIN) - Priam disk partitioning (supplied with Priam hard disks) - Golden Bow V-Feature Deluxe - Partitioning used by CORE hard disks (cannot be changed; contact Core) - Any system with a XENIX or UNIX partition on the hard disk Windows will NOT work properly on ANY system using one of the above methods for disk partitioning. Other brands of utilities may or may not cause problems . . . Because of the large number of partitioning-utility versions and methods of partitioning the hard drive with them, it is impossible to say whether a given utility will definitely cause a problem in a particular configuration. The underlying reason for these problems is that some routines in Windows, for performance reasons, bypass DOS disk services (and as- sociated disk utilities like Disk Manager and SWBIOS which change the way disk writes occur in normal operation) and write directly to disk through BIOS. Symptoms of the resulting discrepancy range from mild to severe, with file systems damaged and data lost. Yet, in its general publicity and documentation for Windows, Microsoft has utterly failed to warn hundreds of thousands of affected users that their programs and data are vulnerable to these problems. Nowhere in the Windows 3.0 manual or in associated literature (such as the Hardware Compatibility List) are these limitations mentioned. For example, the Windows 3.0 manual (pp. 513-514) strongly encourages op- timizing hard disk interleave, which "can drastically improve your system's speed." But there is no warning about the dangers of using Disk Manager or other such programs which provide low-level formatting and interleave selection! The purpose of this message, therefore, is to alert current and potential Windows users to these problems, and to provide impetus for Microsoft to address this situation in a timely and effective manner. A. INCOMPATIBILITY WITH DISK MANAGER AND OTHER DISK FORMATTERS PROBLEM: The first type of difficulty occurs with 80386-based sys- tems using: (1) a "permanent swap file" under Windows 3.0 in 386 en- hanced mode; and (2) using a non-Microsoft disk formatter such as Disk Manager, SpeedStor or Vfeature. Many users have noted the inability to load and run certain programs, and non-destructive system lockups. With the exception of very large hard disks, as noted below, no problems occur as long as Windows is not running in 386 enhanced mode, or a permanent swap file is not in use. WORKAROUND: Microsoft has published a workaround on CompuServe to address this problem. Briefly, two things must be done to avoid problems while using third-party disk formatters: (1) switch the per- manent swap file to a temporary swap file (see the Windows 3.0 manual, pp. 525529); and (2) add the line: virtualhdirq=off to the SYSTEM.INI file in the [386ENH] section. Note: The temporary swap file is much slower than the permanent one, because the latter creates a block of contiguous disk space which is written to directly by Windows. B. DESTRUCTION OF HARD DISK SYSTEMS WITH MORE THAN 1,024 CYLINDERS PROBLEM: Windows (all versions), like DOS, only recognizes the first 1,024 cylinders of a hard disk. But unlike most software, it can write directly to disk through BIOS. This is a major risk for larger hard drives, which may be using SWBIOS or similar software-based ex- tenders to address cylinders beyond the 1,024th. A mismatch between the DOS-level situation provided by SWBIOS and the BIOS-level situa- tion encountered in a direct disk write can be fatal. One Windows 3.0 beta tester in Portland, Oregon recently had a Conner 150 MB drive trashed by Windows 3.0. Many other incidents of similar disasters with large hard disks have been reported. WORKAROUND: At present, there is no reliable workaround. Some RLL and ESDI drive controllers support "sector translation" at the hardware level, making the drives they support appear to have no more than 1,024 cylinders. Use of or conversion to these controllers may avoid the problem. However, not all large MFM drives are RLL-compliant. In any event, reformatting hard disks is costly, tedious and error-prone. ************************************************************************ If you are unsure about the safety of your system: STOP USING WINDOWS IMMEDIATELY IF YOU HAVE A DRIVE WITH MORE THAN 1,024 CYLINDERS!! ************************************************************************ The following is a partial list of commonly available drives with more than 1,024 cylinders (number of cylinders in parentheses): Conner Hopi CP-30104 (1,522), CP-3204F (1,366), Stubby CP-4044 (1,104) Control Data 94186-383 (1,412), 94186-383H (1,224), 94186-442H (1,412) Fujitsu M2247E (1,243), M2248E (1,243), M2249E (1,243) Imprimis 94186-383 (1,412), 94186-383H (1,224), 94186-442H (1,412), 94196-766 (1,632), 94246-383 (1,747) Maxtor XT2085 (1,224), XT2190 (1,224), XT4380 (1,224), XT8760 (1,632) Micropolis 1551 (1,224), 1554 (1,224), 1555 (1,224), 1556 (1,224), 1557 (1,224), 1558 (1,224), 1653 (1,249), 1654 (1,249), 1663 (1,780), 1664 (1,780) Microscience HH-1090 (1,314), HH-1120 (1,314), HH-2160 (1,276) Miniscribe 3085 (1,170), 3130 (1,250), 3180 (1,250), 9230E (1,224), 9380E (1,224), 9780E (1,661), 9000E (1,224) NEC D5655 (1,224), D5662 (1,224), D5682 (1,633) Priam 630 (1,224), V185 (1,166) Rodime RO5040 (1,224), RO5065 (1,224), RO5090 (1,224) Seagate Swift 94354-230 (1,272), Wren 94244-383 (1,747), Wren 94246-180 (1,453), Wren 94186 (1,412), Wren 94186H (1,224), Wren 94286-380 (1,747), FURTHER INFORMATION The two main sources of information for this message have been the Microsoft Windows forum on CompuServe and the Ontrack Systems BBS (612/937-0860). Ontrack is now intensively testing Disk Manager and Windows 3.0 and promises daily bulletins on their findings. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 June 1990 Fred Heutte Sunlight Data Systems PO Box 40260 Portland, Oregon 97240 503/241-0858 CompuServe: 72461,2224 Usenet: phred@well.sf.ca.us This file is a capture of bulletin 12 on the Ontrack systems BBS ex- plaining the exact nature of possible incompatibilities between Microsoft Windows 3.0 and the Ontrack Computer Systems Disk Manager program. June 12, 1990 To : Windows 3.0 and Disk Manager users From : Ontrack Computer Systems Re : Windows 3.0 and Disk Manager Ontrack Computer Systems is very concerned about reports of data cor- ruption on systems which are using MicroSoft Windows 3.0. We are devoting a great deal of time and effort to track down this reported problem, but are unable to produce even one byte of corrupted data on any of our computers running Windows 3.0. We have determined the fol- lowing to be true and verifiable: 1. If Windows 3.0 is used on a 386 computer which has a hard drive with more than 1024 cylinders and our DMDRVR.BIN is being used to al- low DOS (and of course Windows) to access that portion of the disk, then the "[386enh]" section of the SYSTEM.INI file in Windows must contain the following line: VIRTUALHDIRQ=OFF See pages 528-9 in the index of the Windows Users Guide for ex- amples on how to modify SYSTEM.INI. NOTE: Many ESDI drives exceed the 1024 cylinder barrier but due to a translating controller card, appear to the operating system to have fewer than 1024 cylinders. Such a drive is not considered to have more than 1024 cylinders and does not fall into the category described above. This is because our SWBIOS.COM utility is not required to set up the drive and the DMDRVR.BIN will also not utilize that portion of the driver. 2. The Swapfile program, which is used to set up a permanent swap file on the disk, checks for ANY partitioning device driver including the DMDRVR.BIN in the CONFIG.SYS file and will not run if it exists. The swap files are hardcoded to use a 512 byte sector and in DOS versions earlier than 4.0, Disk Manager increased the logical sector size to allow access to partitions greater than 32 megabytes. Since this is the case, a permanent swap file cannot be used on a disk using the DMDRVR.BIN device driver though temporary swap files will work just fine. Using a temporary swap file instead of a permanent one should not degrade performance on a disk that has an optimization utility run on a regular basis. Running such a utility is a good idea anyway for general system performance as well as increasing the possibility of recovering data should your system encounter some sort of problem. 3. Finally, on page 53 of the Windows User's Guide, users are cau- tioned against running CHKDSK /F as well as any utility that will modify the file allocation tables (FAT). The utilities mentioned in this section of the Windows User's Guide are designed to operate in a single-tasking environment and include such things as undelete or op- timization utilities. In the multi-tasking environment created by Windows, there may be many programs creating, manipulating and deleting files. While these operations are in process, the FATs will not be accurate. When the operation is complete, the FAT will accurately reflect that operation. Since there are (or at least could be) multiple programs running simultaneously, another application could be in the middle of an operation at any given point in time. Since the file structure is constantly in a state of flux, any utility that assumes the structure to be static (unchanging) could cause problems if run in this multi-tasking environment. Be safe, run your applications from within Windows and your utilities before enter- ing or after exiting Windows. NOTE: These utilities can be run successfully after exiting Windows or before running Windows; the caution only applies while Windows is run- ning. Going to the DOS prompt from within Windows is not the same as exiting Windows and the caution will still apply. Windows has brought to the PC environment power that has previously only been available in mainframe and mini computer environments. Even though Windows makes it look like computing just got simpler, with this increased power comes increased complexity. As users we need to be aware of this and take precautions such as backing up our data before we get on with 'business as usual'. In as much as data integrity is the cornerstone of our software family, we will continue to verify the compatibility of Disk Manager and Windows 3.0 (not to mention many other software packages). In the event that you or someone you know has actually experienced data corruption, we ask that you help us by calling our BBS at 612-937-0860 and filling out our Windows Survey form. ___________________________________________________________ > STR Portfolio News & Information¿ Keeping up to date... ================================ THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM ========================= On CompuServe by Walter Daniel 75066,164 A interesting and exciting thread got started when someone noted that WordPerfect 5.1 has been released on ROM card for the Poqet PC. Someone else mentioned that he was running WordPerfect Jr. without the spelling checker (would not fit on a RAM card) on his Portfolio. Unfortunately, WordPerfect Jr. has been discontinued, so it will only be available from existing stocks on store shelves or through used software dealers. A person from WordPerfect Corp. pointed out that WordPerfect Executive is still on the market and its word processor is essentially the same as WordPerfect Jr. The Executive package also includes some small programs such as a calculator, calendar, and PlanPerfect 3.0. Atari can now produce 512k ROM cards for the Portfolio, so sysop Ron Luks suggested that WordPerfect Corp. market a Portfolio version of their word processor. An advantage of running software from cards is that .RUN files are executed as if they were in memory, so it might be possible to work around the 128k internal memory limitation. If you are interested in WordPerfect for the Atari Portfolio, send a message to 73760,2460 that includes the number of copies you think you or your organization would buy if it were available. This is only a survey, not a product announcement. A private message area has been opened in the forum for PowerBASIC beta testers (no, you can't read the messages). This impressive compiler is nearly finished, so look for it at your Atari dealer in the very near future. Don Messerli continues to add software tools to support his PGC Portf- olio graphics standard. PGEdit 1.10 (PGED11.ZIP) is an update of the desktop PC graphics file creator/editor that now supports both EGA and VGA. PGLIB.ZIP is a library of Portfolio-specific graphics routines in the C language. Both Microsoft and Borland versions are included. PGComp 1.10 (PGCMP1.ZIP) is an update of the utility to compress PGF files into PGC format. PGCHEK.ZIP is a tool for checking format and compression of PGC files to aid programmers in debugging. BJ Gleason uploaded a version of PBASIC 3.1 to fix a couple of small bugs. Download PB31A.EXE if you just want the executable file; otherwise, PBAS31.ZIP now contains the full package. ACOM 1.10 is a new version of a terminal program/PC file transfer utility from Charles Cook. As a ter- minal program, ACOM features a 100-line scrollback buffer and XMODEM file transfers. As always, these files can be found in Library 1 (New Uploads) of the forum. ________________________________________________ > DESERT STORM USN STR InfoFile¿ U.S. NAVY SHIPS DEPLOYED ============================= A listing of most of the U.S. NAVY SHIPS deployed to: OPERATION DESERT STORM The following information was provided by the Public Affairs Officer, Commanding Officer Naval Surface Forces Atlantic U.S. NAVY --------- Note All addresses are in the following format: Commanding Officer Example: Commanding Officer USS ship name (XXX-XX) USS Missouri (BB-63) FPO city, state zip-xxxx FPO San Francisco 96698-1120 **adding the additional 4-digits in the ZIP code will save 1-3 days **of mailing time! You can also address it to: Any Service member c/o Vice Commanding Officer SHIPS STATIONED IN THE PERSIAN GULF: USS BLUE RIDGE (LCC-19) FPO SAN FRANCISCO 96628-3300 (Flagship, Commander 7th Fleet and Commander, U.S. Naval Forces, Central Command) USS LASALLE (AG-3) FPO NY 09577-3320 (Flagship Commander Middle East Force) USS MISSOURI (BB-63) FPO SF 96698-1120 USS NASSAU (LHA-4) FPO NY 09557-1615 USS IWO JIMA (LPH-9) FPO NY 09561-1625 USS TRENTON (LPD-14) FPO NY 09588-1716 USS PORTLAND (LSD-37) FPO NY 09582-1725 USS PENSACOLA (LSD-38) FPO NY 09582-1726 USS GUNSTON HALL (LSD-44) FPO NY 09573-1732 USS MANITOWOC (LST-1180) FPO NY 09578-1801 USS SAGINAW (LST-1188) FPO NY 09587-1809 USS SPARTANBURG COUNTY (LST-1192) FPO NY 09587-1813 USS WISCONSIN (BB-64) FPO NY 09522-1130 USS WORDEN (CG-18) FPO SF 06683-1142 USS MACDONOUGH (DDG-39) FPO MIAMI 34092-1257 USS DAVD R. RAY (DD-971) FPO SF 96677-1209 USS O'BRIEN (DD-975) FPO SF 96674-1411 USS REID (FFG-30) FPO SF 96677-1148 USS RENTZ (FFG-46) FPO SF 96677-1500 USS NICHOLAS (FFG-47) FPO MI 34092-1501 USS VANDEGRIFT (FFG-48) FPO SF 96682-1706 USS TAYLOR (FFG-50) FPO MI 34093-1504 USS FORD (FFG-54) FPO SF 96665-1508 USS BARBEY (FF-1088) FPO SF 96661-1448 USS AVENGER (MCM-1) FPO MI 34090-1921 USS LEADER (MSO-490) FPO MI 34091-1917 USS ADROIT (MSO-509) FPO NY 09564-1919 USS IMPERVIOUS (MSO-449) FPO MI 34091-1911 SHIPS STATIONED IN THE ARABIAN SEA: USS SARATOGA (CV-60) (With Air Wing 17 Embarked) FPO MI 34078-2740 USS BELKNAP (CG-26) (Flagship, 6th Fleet) FPO NY 09565-1149 USS BIDDLE (CG-34) FPO NY 09565-1157 USS THOMAS S. GATES (CG-51) FPO NY 09570-1171 USS SAN JACINTO (CG-56) FPO NY 09587-1176 USS PHILIPPINE SEA (CG-58) FPO MI 34093-1178 USS SAMPSON (DDG-10) FPO MI 34093-1240 USS SPRUANCE (DDG-963) FPO MI 34093-1201 USS ELMER MONTGOMERY (FF-1082) FPO MI 34092-1442 USS THOMAS C. HART (FF-1092) FPO NY 09573-1452 USS DETROIT (AOE-4) FPO NY 09567-3015 USS YELLOWSTONE (AD-41) FPO NY 09512-2525 GULF OF OMAN AND INDIAN OCEAN: USS MIDWAY (CV-41) (With Air Wing 5 Embarked) FPO SF 96631-2710 USS BUNKER HILL (CG-52) FPO SF 96661-1172 USS STERRETT (CG-31) FPO SF 96678-1154 USS OLDENDORF (DD-977) FPO SF 96674-1210 USS FIFE (DD-977) FPO SF 96665-1229 USS CURTS (FFG-38) FPO SF 96662-1493 USS KISKA (AE-35) FPO SF 96670-3001 USS SACRAMENTO (AOE-1) FPO SF 98799-3012 USS RANGER (CV-61) FPO SF 96633-2750 USS PRINCETON (CG-59) FPO SF 96675-1179 AMPHIBIOUS READ GROUP ALPHA 13'TH MARINE EXPEDITIONARY UNIT - SPECIAL OPERATIONS CAPABLE: USS OKINAWA (LPH-3) FPO SF 96625-1630 USS FORT MCHENRY (LSD-43) FPO SF 96665-1731 USS DURHAM (LKA-114) FPO SF 96663-1701 USS OGDEN (LPD-5) FPO SF 96674-1708 USS CAYUGA (LST-1186) FPO SF 96662-1807 EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN/RED SEA: USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CVN-67) (Air Wing 3 embarked) FPO NY 09538-2800 USS MISSISSIPPI (CGN-40) FPO NY 09578-1167 USS MOOSEBRUGER (DD-980) FPO MI 34092-1218 USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS (FFG-58) FPO MI 09586-1512 USS SEATTLE (AOE-3) FPO NY 09587-3014 USS SYLVANIA (AFS-2) FPO NY 09587-3031 USS T. ROOSEVELT (CVN-71) (Air Wing 8 embarked) FPO NY 09599-2871 USS CARON (DD-970) FPO NY 09566-1208 USS PLATTE (AO-186) FPO NY 09582-3022 USS SAN DIEGO (AFS-6) FPO NY 09587-3035 USS LEYTE GULF (CG-55) FPO MI 34091-1175 USS VREELAND (FF-1068) FPO MI 34093-1428 USS NITRO (AE-23) FPO NY 09579-3002 USS RICHMOND K. TURNER (CG-20) FPO MI 34093-1144 USS HAWES (FFG-53) FPO MI 34093-1507 USS AMERICA (CVN-66) (Air Wing 1 embarked) FPO NY 09531-2790 USS VIRGINIA (CGN-38) FPO NY 09590-1165 USS PREBLE (DDG-46) FPO NY 09582-1264 USS KALAMAZOO (AOR-6) FPO NY 09576-3028 USS NORMANDY (CG-40) FPO NY USS WILLIAM V PRATT (DDG-44) FPO MI 34092-1262 USS HALYBURTON (FFG-40) FPO MI 34091-1495 USS SANTA BARBARA (AE-28) FPO MI 34093-3006 AMPHIBIOUS READY GROUP 3-90 26TH MARINE EXPEDITIONARY UNIT - SPECIAL OPERATIONS CAPABLE USS INCHON (LPH-12) FPO MI 09529-1655 USS NASHVILLE (LPD-13) FPO NY 09579-1715 USS NEWPORT (LST-1179) FPO NY 09579-1800 USS FAIRFAX COUNTY (LST-1193) FPO NY 09569-1814 USS BARNSTABLE COUNTY (LST-1198) FPO NY 09565-1818 AMPHIBIOUS READY GROUP 3 5TH MARINE EXPEDITIONARY BRIGADE (MEB) USS TARWA (LHA-1) FPO SF 96622-1600 USS TRIPLOI (LPH-10) FPO SF 96626-1645 USS NEW ORLEANS (LPH-11) FPO SF 96627-1650 USS MOBILE (LKA-115) FPO SF 96672-1702 USS VANCOUVER (LPD-2) FPO SF 96682-1706 USS DENVER (LPD-9) FPO SF 96663-1712 USS JUNEAU (LPD-10) FPO SF 96669-1713 USS ANCHORAGE (LSD-36) FPO SF 96660-1724 USS MOUNT VERNON (LSD-39) FPO SF 96672-1727 USS GERMANTOWN (LSD-42) FPO SF 96666-1730 USS PEORIA (LST-1183) FPO SF 96675-1804 USS TUSCALOOSA (LST-1187) FPO SF 96679-1808 USS BARBOUR COUNTY (LST-1195) FPO SF 96661-1816 ========= U.S. MARINE CORPS: ------------------ ASHORE IN SAUDI ARABIA AND OTHER LOCATIONS: 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (1 MEF) 1st Marine Divisions (Comprised largely of the ground units that deployed with the 1st nad 7th Marine Expeditionary Brigade) 3rd marine Aircraft Wing (composed largely of the air units that deployed with the 1st and 7th Brigades) 1st Force Service Support Group (composed largely of the supporting units - supply, maintenance, medical that deployed with the brigades) BRITISH 1ST ARMORED DIVISION Note: Two additional marine Expeditionary Brigades - the 4th and 5th - plus two marine Expeditionary Units - the 13 and the 26th - are afloat with amphibious task forces (see below). Additional brigades will deploy with the 2 MEF. ____________________________________________________ > PROFLIGHT STR Review¿ The Tornado Flight Simulator ==================== "PROFLIGHT - THE TORNADO FLIGHT SIMULATOR" ========================================== FROM: Hisoft The Old School, Greenfield, Bedford MK45 5DE UK What makes a GOOD flight simulator program? Is it the ultimate in private aviation realism, a quick shoot'em up arcade style contest, or the heart pounding - "beads o'sweat" tension of realistic aerial combat? For myself it's the "beads o' sweat" version! But look, if suddenly in the heat of battle I find myself flying THROUGH my adversary without become part of the landscape I get a little annoyed at the simulation program. (Not to mention myself!) All of the neat graphics in the world won't help if the aircraft doesn't "feel right". Enter "PROFLIGHT - The Tornado Flight Simulator" from HiSoft. The aircraft in this simulation is the Panavia Tornado. A swing-wing, twin engine fighter/bomber built by a european consortium. The package con- tains one single-sided disk and a two ring binder for the 146 page manual. The program is not copy protected in any way. No code wheels or page flipping required! Just double-click and go. Proflight runs in either low or high resolution and can be copied to your hard drive and run without the need for a keydisk. Control is by mouse or joystick. The README.TXT file on the disk suggests the mouse as the prefered controller and I have to concur. Even with adjustable sensitivity and auto-level on, joystick control is tough. Don't fret, after your first snap roll using the mouse you'll forget all about the joystick option! Once you start the program you find yourself immediately in the cockpit looking down the runway. No title screens or other delays. After a few seconds of inactivity a very nice demo will start. Be patient here as the sim sets up the way points from the map and flight options because the demo is worth at least one run through. (Be sure to watch for com- ments in the lower right of the screen as the demo runs!) You can interrupt the demo at anytime and take control of the Tornado in flight. This is great for a little hands-on before digging into the manual. A Crash Inhibit mode is available as well as all manner of "auto-" options for the beginner pilots. Depending on the "mode" setting at take-off (In combat mode you can't select crash inhibit!) most of these options can be set while in flight. Drop down menus are called with function keys and selections can be made without stopping the simul- ator. The graphics in Proflight are distinctly reminiscent of SubLogics Flight Simulator II. The smooth coloring techniques used in Spectrum Holobytes Falcon are missing here. The FS II analogy holds true in that you can select daylight, dusk and night conditions as well as wind ef- fects and turbulence. In the night mission settings you can actually display a star map! Speaking of maps, waypoints for the autopilot system are set by the user on a mission planning map. Any combination targets maybe selected in the 200 square nautical mile operating area. REALISTIC "FEEL" IS THIS PROGRAM'S STRONG POINT. Some examples: Low level flight produces "ground effect". Not just turbulence or "boun- cing" but a noticeable increase in lift and control sensitivity. "Knife edge" flight causes loss of altitude due to loss of lift that can be corrected with rudder input. Flying through debris from an aerial "kill" causes the aircraft to buffet and can damage the aircraft. Also you can't fly through an aerial target! Ejecting from the aircraft is not 100% safe and results in an eerie sort of disconnection from the airplane which can be seen to fly off into the distance on its own! While the graphics may not be quite state of the art, the flight animation is as smooth and glitch free as any I've encountered. Even on my non-blitter, TOS 1.0 1040 ST! I've run Proflight on my Mega ST4 with TOS 1.4, a friends Mega ST2 with TOS 1.2 and the above mentioned 1040 STf with no problems at all. My only complaint is that Proflight doesn't have a means of exiting to the Desktop without rebooting the machine. So if you're not booting up that favorite flight simulator quite as often these days, you really should look into Proflight. As an ac- curate simulation of flight with a complete set of "novice" options Proflight would also make a nice first package for those who would like to add a little combat while learning the basics. Good hunting and don't forget - "Check Six!" J.DUNCAN15 a.k.a. - Bitstream Warrior _______________________________________________________________ > STReport CONFIDENTIAL¿ "ATARI NEWS & EVENTS!" ===================== - Sunnyvale, CA STUMPH STAY TO BE TEMPORARY ------------- The word is he, A. Stumph, is here to serve in an advisory capacity, a valued and much needed service. But for a temporary period of time only. Atari Corp. is actively persuing the importation of the "cream of the crop in European Software for the US market. Shortly, the new wave of software will begin to make its debut. - Girard, OH OH BOY! ANOTHER BBS TO CALL! ---------- COMMAND HEADQUARTERS II 216-793-9765 24 hours - 1200/2400 baud Home of Chet Walters and Dr. Bob (WizWorks!), each has their own message base they use to answer any questions you might have, plus their own file directories where you'll find lots of utilities, graphics/printer stuff, etc., that they have programmed for us over the past few years. CHQ has 100 meg of storage plus some of the finest public domain/shareware down- loads available anywhere. CALL NOW!!! - Erie, PA ATARI COMPUTER CONFERENCE -------- We are planning an Atari Computer Conference in Erie, PA in June of 1991. We are looking for developers, programmers, and users interested in giving technical presentations or seminars related to the Atari ST/Mega/TT line of computers. If you are interested, please contact me, Dennis McGuire. Call voice at 814-833-4724 or leave a message to the Sysop at the SAGE BBS (FNET Node 478 814-833-4073). - Rockville, MD GENIE ATARI RT TO HOST S. TRAMIEL ------------- The Atari ST Roundtable is happy to welcome Sam Tramiel, President of Atari Corporation, as our special guest for the Realtime Conference on Wednesday, January 30, 1991. Please make plans to attend and participate. Mr. Tramiel will welcome your questions and comments. That's Wednesday, January 30th at 10:00pm Eastern. ________________________________________________________ > Hard Disks STR InfoFile¿ Affordable Mass Storage.... ======================= NEW LOW PRICES! & MORE MODELS!! =============================== ALL SPECIALS ** EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY! ** 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 ADSCSI+ HOST ADAPTERS * FULL SCSI COMMAND SET SUPPORTED * * SCSI EMBEDDED CONTROLLER MECHANISMS * Conventional Shoe Box Model Description Autopark Price ================================================== SGN3038 31Mb 28ms 3.5" Y 419.00 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 @ 16 - 33ms) CALL FOR SUPER SAVINGS ON ALL OUR OTHER CUSTOM UNITS FROM 30mb 28MS @ $419.00! Ask about our "REBATE SPECIALS" --==*==-- ** SHIPPING AND INSURANCE INCLUDED IN COMPLETE UNIT PRICES! ** ============================================ * SYQUEST 44MB (#555)>> ABCO "44" << REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE * - SYQUEST 44 MB DRIVE - ICD ST ADVANTAGE PLUS H/A - ICD Utility Software - 3' DMA Cable - Fan & Clock - Multi-Unit Power Supply (1) 44 MB Syquest Cart. COMPLETELY ASSEMBLED AND READY TO RUN! --->> SPECIAL NOW ONLY __$ 719.00__ <<--- EXTRA CARTS: $ 79.50 DRIVE MECH ONLY: $ 439.95 *** SPECIAL SYQUEST OFFER!! BUY WITH A FRIEND! *** ORDER YOUR CUSTOM SYQUEST UNIT NOW AND GET A SECOND COMPLETE UNIT! ***** for $75.00 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 $ 939.00 30mb SQG38 $ 819.00 65mb SQG09 $ 969.00 85mb SQG96 $1059.00 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 - 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 $42.95 * 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"¿ ================= "WE WILL RELEASE ALL NEW PRODUCTS..... ....IN THE USA FIRST" S. Tramiel """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport Online Magazine¿ Available through more than 10,000 Private BBS systems WorldWide! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport¿ "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" January 18, 1991 16/32bit Magazine copyright ½ 1990 No.7.03 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 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. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""