Your Letters & Email:


In AP#4 we published an article on replacement desktops. Dan Wilga of Gribnif sent this email to Martyn Tidd, who passed it on to us...

by email...
Hello,

I just wanted to make a few comments about the recent Desktop article. I know you didn't write it, but I thought perhaps you could forward these things on to Kev and Joe for me, as I do not have their email addresses, and I could not find them on the Web page.

The following pluses are listed for Thing:
"Accessories can be loaded and unloaded on the fly under MagiC."
Under Geneva, this is true for NeoDesk. Actually, it's part of Geneva in general, not specific to NeoDesk.

"Parent icon and hot closer window navigation."
While NeoDesk 4 does not have a hot closer feature, it does have a parent icon that appears in the lower left of a window's border when you are dragging.

"Full AV-Server"
NeoDesk 4, release 005 is, as well. In fact, you may even find that it supports some modes that others do not.

"ST-Guide context sensitive on-line help."
While NeoDesk does not use ST Guide, it does use its own help file viewer to provide almost the entire printed manual in context-sensitive help.

"Real-time scrolling."
NeoDesk has this as well. Just click, with the left mouse button, on the scroll gadget and drag.

One very nit-picky comment about the multitasking article:
Geneva now comes on two double-sided disks :-). This was so that we could include MiNT and extra programming info.

Now, if that's all I can find in your article, you know I must have liked it ;-). It was well-balanced and factual.

One comment on the general look of the magazine, that perhaps you can pass on to whoever designed it: Personally, reading it in Netscape 3, I find the blue text to be very difficult to look at for long periods of time. IMHO, if you're going to use the grey background, black is the best choice for text color.

Dan Wilga
Gribnif Software
PO Box 779
Northampton, MA 01061-0779
email: gribnif@pair.com


Thanks for your valuable comments, Dan. It's nice to know you read out little magazine. We try very hard to get things right, however, if we do err, we are happy to publish letters from programmes and distributors.

Regarding the blue text on grey background, I think you will see we have gone for a mixed bag of colours in this issue... Feedback is most welcome.



We have received a few requests from readers asking about running an Iomega ZIP drive on an ST.

As well as requiring a SCSI interface, like the ICD Link 2, and a 25-way to 50-way adapter, ST owners need a way of powering the termination of the ZIP drive. I contacted HiSoft and they supply a pack, that includes the Atari ZIP Tools, that will be of interest to ST owners who may have bought their drives elsewhere.

by email...
Yes, we do supply the joystick power lead with every Zip drive. Also we can sell a pack of joystick lead, 25-way to 50-way adapter and Atari Zip Tools for £29.95.
David Link

HiSoft Systems,
The Old School,
Greenfield,
Bedford MK45 5DE UK

www.hisoft.co.uk
Tel: +44 1525 718181
Fax: +44 1525 713716



Dear AtariPhile
I am writing to ask if you can be of help to me. Since I bought an HP Deskjet Portable printer, I've been forced to rely on Word-Plus, because I don't have a suitable driver for Word-Up.

I got a few disks full of drivers from Floppyshop, which all appear to set to the American PC-8. The merest comparable driver is the HP DJ500, but this isn't entirely suitable because some of the text functions do not tally. In fact, I have to press the space bar when I require a œ sign and write one in with a ball point pen, later.

I hope you can assist me, L. Pickering-Crookes


We do not know the answer but if any reader knows of a driver that will work with Word-Up and the HP Deskjet Portable, please drop us a line.



Dear AtariPhile
Right, just a few interesting tips for you, well they are for any one really, but I thought you'd like too see them first. The following one I thought you'd like to include in your mag as it affects the usability for readers.

If you install GDOS or any variants such as NVDI, the 'Print' option in CAB becomes enabled. When it is if you choose 'Print' you will be able to print (Surprise, Surprise) the article that you are reading. I have found that graphics can be of a so-so quality on some images, but on others they are fine. Well it was just a passing hint. try and enjoy - as the cooking programmes usually say.

A John Thynne from Bornmouth asked in issue 1 of your rather excellent magazine [That's a good way to get your letter published - Ed] if any one knew of a 'cheap' score printing program. Well, funny enough, I do. If you'd care to tell him to look in Goodman's catalogue he will find a program called Final score. This clever piece of code is a full D.T.P. system for music printing. This program does not, repeat does not, import MIDI (But I'll stand corrected). It is a musical D.T.P. program and needs to be run in Hi-rez, you won't persuade it to run with an emulator I'm afraid. Still I hope that he finds this useful !

Owen Philp - Hampshire


This letter arrived with your first MIDI-Phile copy and should have been in AP#4, but it got misplaced, sorry. Thanks for the tips and kind words.


by email...

Hi,
I've Just read issue 4 of your AtariPhile On-line Magazine. The standard you set is very high and all the articles are well written!

I found the article on Multitasking on Atari by Martyn Tidd very complete and useful because it covers all the pros/cons of the two MTask OS for Atari (MagiC/Geneva) from an user point of view.

Talking about MagiC Compatibility Martyn Tidd says that he was not able to play sounds using Falcon SAM utility. I would like to add that other sound programs have the same problem (i.e. the Paula MOD Player).

There is a solution. It is available a Auto program called SINI_xxy.PRG, where XX stands for volume (range 00-40) and y is used for setting on/off the internal loudspeaker. This program reset/initialize the Falcon Sound System and allow using (under MagiC) SAM, Paula and other sound programs. I found it inserted in a Falcon Screen Saver Package called M_SAVER (probably on CNAM ?). You get the same result using the Audio Fun Machine (AFM) program.

Please pass this info to Martyn.

Best regards,

Lodovico Zanier
ROME (ITALY)


Thanks for the praise, Lodovica, I am sure Martyn will be delighted to read your words. Having just searched the filebase on our BBS I can confirm that SINI_xxy.PRG is part of M_SAVER.ZIP [164,168 bytes] and it's available on 42BBS [01256-895106]. Thanks for the tip